#hosaka favorite character???

[alien-ally]

That’s Enough It’s Not Fun Anymore.

they are milking every microsecond of having to endure The Wait by putting out a 20 min episode every teusday. the most unremarkable day of the week ever. at this rate i’m gonna end up learning some japanese. for good. from how times i rewatch. mind you Without Subs. i am deranged.

[waitmyturtles]

SOME GOOD SHOWS THAT I LIKED IN 2023! (AND SOME THAT I DIDN'T)

I watched A LOT of stuff that did not originally air in 2023 by dint of my Old GMMTV Challenge. This list is inclusive of this recognition!

THE BEST SHOW I WATCHED THIS YEAR: HE'S COMING TO ME

I have no other words: this is my favorite Thai BL of all time. Perfect length, perfect plot, perfect celebration of Thai culture, perfect acting, the greatest coming out scene of all time, the BEST of the best BL moms. Perfection.

THE OTHER BEST SHOW I WATCHED THIS YEAR: BAD BUDDY

I don't even want to think about how many words I've written on Bad Buddy this year, but they're well deserved for this REMARKABLE show. I've got a thing for shows by Aof Noppharnach that feature Ohm Pawat, what can I say!

THE MOST INFLUENTIAL SHOW(S) I WATCHED THIS YEAR: LOVE SICK AND SOTUS

The influence of Love Sick and SOTUS can be seen in SO MANY Thai BLs, even through today. Without having watched these two shows to start my OGMMTVC project, I wouldn't have the context for what later shows like Bad Buddy and Theory of Love were commenting on by way of their content and structures. Love Sick in particular was a HELL of a lift -- but I am damn glad I watched it, and I certainly feel nostalgia for it today.

Honorable mentions of influential pieces that had impacts on Thai BLs: Love of Siam and Dew the Movie

MY OTHER FAVORITE OLD SHOWS I WATCHED: UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN AND THEORY OF LOVE

BANGERS!!!

If New Siwaj ever tops Until We Meet Again, I'll fly to Bangkok and give him a gold medal. That long-ass show, 17 EPISODES, I WANTED MORE! OhmFluke's chemistry was great, the story delved SO deeply into historical homophobia and how culture and acceptance changes over time -- scrumptious. Theory of Love, man, the way this show ate up implicit compassion bias and gave it right back to us. I loved it. KHAI FOREVER!

THE BEST SHOW I WATCHED THAT ACTUALLY AIRED IN 2023: MOONLIGHT CHICKEN

Not only was Moonlight Chicken my first real live fandom experience on Tumblr, it was a hell of an amazing show, incorporating so much of what I love particularly about Thai BLs, and how many Thai BLs do not shy away from celebrating Asian cultural touchpoints. From exploring Jim's internalized homophobia by way of his rural upbringing, to juxtaposing Pattaya's spiritual symbols with growing development that upends older strains of local culture, Moonlight Chicken offered a lovely commentary on what it means to be queer in an ever-changing Thailand.

THE OTHER BEST SHOW I WATCHED THAT ACTUALLY AIRED IN 2023: WHAT DID YOU EAT YESTERDAY?/KINOU NANI TABETA? SEASON 2

BRILLIANTLY ACTED by literally the best actors in the Asian BL game: we are blessed that Nishijima Hidetoshi and Uchino Seiyou have given so much to this franchise. It's hard to write about this show because it's so perfect -- it needs no extraneous words. Plot, pacing, acting, character development, gratuitous food shots. It has it all.

THE OTHER OTHER BEST SHOW I WATCHED THAT ACTUALLY AIRED IN 2023: I CANNOT REACH YOU

Just like Bad Buddy looked at Thai BL tropes in the eye and said, "over my Nong Nao," I Cannot Reach You asked Japanese BLs about the efficacy of almost every trope we've gotten used to, and questioned them with efficiency. The biggest shocker for me? REAL COMMUNICATION, encouraged by the CIPHER, Hosaka, that allowed the two lead protagonists to confirm their love and understand each other. It was straightforward and FUCKING GOOD.

A SHOW THAT AIRED IN 2023 THAT I HAVEN'T WRITTEN ABOUT YET, THAT I NEED TO REWATCH IN CHRONOLOGY, THAT ALSO DID SOME TROPE/GENRE ASS-KICKING THAT I'M STILL THINKING ABOUT: LA PLUIE

La Pluie was FEARLESS. The show had a LOT to say about romance and soulmates not being as much of a realistic thing as content-makers... and, frankly, majority society would like us to think. La Pluie made its characters WORK for love and understanding, and had us viewers face our implicit biases about how romantic content should and could work. I watched this show out of order of the OGMMTVC watchlist to see it it was one of the best of the year, and it certainly is. I'm planning a deep rewatch for early 2024 to pen my words on it.

A SHOW THAT ALMOST TOPPED MY 2023 LIST BUT GOT DOCKED BECAUSE I ENDED UP LIKING THE NOVEL A LOT BETTER: I FEEL YOU LINGER IN THE AIR

@neuroticbookworm and @lurkingshan know that I flipped THA FUCK out over this show -- FABULOUSLY acted by Nonkul Chanon and Bright Rapheephong, FABULOUS cinematography, great story up until the end of the series. My fangirling led me to read the original novel by Violet Rain, and -- I found out that Jom was a lot more damn sassy than we got in the show! Tee Bundit's penchant for sadness won. This is not to dock the show, but the novel had more than enough material to carry the series through without repeating themes in the end. So it fell on my 2023 list, womp womp. BUT I STILL LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS SHOW, DON'T GET ME WRONG.

TWO SHOWS THAT I'M SUPER GLAD I CAUGHT UP WITH WHILE THEY WERE AIRING: THE EIGHTH SENSE AND BE MY FAVORITE

Be My Favorite looked at Krist Perawat's checkered past as a BL idol and said: we are going to examine this and make an honest BL out of inspiration from it. It wasn't a perfect show, the time travel shit didn't end up adding up in the end, BUT -- excellent acting from two GMMTV VETS made up for those tangles, and I loved the contextual philosophical references throughout the series. The Eighth Sense looked at the tug-of-war that Korean BLs have with K-dramas and their tropes and said, actually? We will have these dudes full-frontal kiss, and placed that energy against commentaries on mental health, both topics that Korea hasn't quite embraced as quickly as other countries.

HONORABLE MENTIONS OF OTHER AWESOME SHOWS THAT MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE AIRED IN 2023

Make It Right, Our Dating Sim, Dark Blue Kiss, Gay OK Bangkok, Dirty Laundry, 10 Years Ticket, I Told Sunset About You, I Promised You the Moon, 3 Will Be Free, Lovely Writer (underrated?!), Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy x A Tale of Thousand Stars (UNDERRATED!), and Manner of Death.

And the shows that are airing that I know will stay with me well into 2024: Last Twilight and Cherry Magic Thailand.

I had fun!

WHAT ELSE, WHAT ELSE: THE "NO" SHOWS: THE PROMISE AND STEP BY STEP

I'm not even hyperlinking my thoughts on these shows, nor gifting them with gifs. Insert Bugs Bunny NOOOOOO gif here! We got Man Trisanu, though.

THE SHOW I WAS THE MOST OBVIOUSLY DISAPPOINTED BY: ONLY FRIENDS

Despite my passionate disappointment for this show and how it ended: in the context of the OGMMTVC, Only Friends is still an incredibly important inclusion to the list. Some amazing Tumblr bloggers offered commentary that the bias against sex that OF contained within the show was actually importantly and culturally contextual to the still-conservative state of acceptance that Thailand is currently in (here and here for more reading).

Only Friends reminded us that despite any kind of marketing that we here on Tumblr, as a majority non-Thai audience, may receive about a Thai show -- that we are still not fully plugged into the non-verbal expectations of what a show like OF could promise to do, and to be okay when it doesn't reach those heights. In light of the seemingly pro-sex marketing blasts that previewed the series before its airing, OF ultimately seemed to want to take casual sex, chew it up, and spit it out. There might be reasons why that happened that we just don't know about as outsiders to Thailand. But as an Asian-American viewer that was hoping for neutral -- and maybe even supportive -- commentary on single folks having casual sex without judgement, OF did not deliver for me.

I'm ending the year reading Dr. Thomas Baudinette's book, Boys Love Media in Thailand, the first book-length ethnographic study on the impact of BL on queerness, media, and more in Thailand and across Asia. Baudinette comes from the world of Japanese queer media studies -- as someone who came to Thai BLs this year from Japanese BLs, I appreciate his trajectory. It's clearly a necessity for me to read this book in the context of the OGMMTVC, to understand how Thai BLs have changed over time, and to understand the incredibly larger impact of heterosexual/heteronormative media and themes on Thai media as a whole, as larger and larger swaths of Thai, Asian, and international societies welcome and watch BLs with open arms.

All of this feeds into my ever-growing body of knowledge about the impact of Thai BLs, both in Thailand and across Asia, as Baudinette writes about, and how these shows have and are developed/developing over time. It's been an AMAZING YEAR of watching old and new dramas for me, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the genre grows even more in 2024.

I also made AMAZING FRIENDS on Tumblr -- y'all know who you are! What a year of growth and discovery for me: this has been a fabulous experience, and I'm looking forward to even more growth in the new year!

[neuroticbookworm]

18, 19, 20

18. You get to pick a side character from two different qls to put in a show as a main pairing--who are you choosing and what kind of story is it?

Pai from Cherry Magic Thailand – meet Yako from Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna Season 2.

Pai, fresh off her breakup from Rock (we all know that’s not gonna last), travels to Japan to get away from it all for a while and meets Yako while waiting in line at a food truck. I want to watch a show where they travel together, eat some delicious food and drink some exquisite wine, watch movies, and swap stories about their friends and their dramatic love affairs. I want to see Pai let go of any anxieties over her identity that may have arisen after her relationship and subsequent breakup. I’ll take 10 episodes of this show, please and thank you.

19. You have the chance to switch pairings in one Asian ql so that the sides become the main pairing and the mains get reduced to crumbs--which show are you choosing?

Mm I had to think on this one, but it came down to two options: Fire and Dynamite from Cooking Crush, and Saengtien and Lomfon from La Pluie. Both of these side couples had a solid storyline that could be explored further if they got to be the mains. But ultimately, I choose Fire and Dynamite because I would like to see more of Fire’s relationship with his mom and how he learns to carve a life out for himself outside of her control, as he falls for Dy. Also I want to see more of Dynamite, my beloved sassy son.

20. We are retelling your favorite Asian ql from the POV of a side character--who is taking over the story and what do they have to say about the mains?

Hosaka from I Cannot Reach You! There’s probably a lot more of his signature snark going on in his head and I want to hear every single word of it.

Asian QL Ask Game

[my-rose-tinted-glasses]

asian ql ask game #7 & 18 please?

Hello my dear.

7. Who is your favorite friend character in Asian ql?

This is an impossible one. I mean truly. There are so many I love. But because yesterday I did a rewatch I'm gonna go with him.

Hosaka Yui from I Cannot Reach You. He worked so hard to get those two together. Where would those boys be without him?

18.You get to pick a side character from two different qls to put in a show as a main pairing--who are you choosing and what kind of story is it?

Ok. this might sound really weird but for some reason it just came to me. Party (The Promise) and Max (Be My Favourite). I don't even know what kind of show it would be but I want Party to be happy and Max is a good egg. But I'm picturing a rebound situation where Party walks into Max's cafe drunk from heartbreak and Max is not amused at first but them something something and they fall in love. That's all I got.

Thanks for the questions💜

Asian QL Ask Game

[mikuni14]

I Cannot Reach You

Today I binged I Cannot Reach You and I think this series has become my favorite Japanese BL 💖

I liked everything, especially how the series showed pinning, friends to lovers trope, suffering, uncertainty and struggling with the fact that love, confession can "endanger" a close friendship, the fear that letting go of feelings that become more and more difficult to conceal and control, can destroy a long, cherished friendship. I really like that Kakeru becomes aware of Yamato's feelings at the beginning of the series and is not stupid and clueless for the rest of series. I'm so glad we watched them struggle together 👌 I really liked the communication between them, the language they used, their kindness, the fact that they never wanted to hurt each other. I really liked how they couldn't control their feelings. I absolutely love their circle of friends, people who sincerely support and try to help Kakeru and Yamato. Especially Zen Master Hosaka and Yamato's sister. I also like the subtle (although I would like it to be more visible, but well, it's not this kind of series 😚) physical aspect of their relationship, Yamato is definitely very horny for Kakeru, it was visible, but I must admit that I would just love to see more of this 🤭

What I also liked was that the "seme type" character was shown as perfect on the outside, but at the same time he was the most dependent, the most vulnerable and the most pathetic in this relationship. Many times he couldn't cope with himself and his feelings, he relied on others (what would he do without Hosaka and Mikoto...) and that was great.

AND I ALSO LIKED (did I mention that I liked everything? 😄) the large number of emotional scenes that tugged at my heart and made me feel a deep bond with the characters. It was a wonderful experience, exactly what I look for in BL series 🥺💖

The series is wonderful, I love it, I highly recommend it, 10/10.

(their hands 😭)

I love these boys.

[avorbl]

7 and 10

For the Asian QL Ask Game

7. Who is your favorite friend character in Asian ql? Hosaka Yui from I cannot reach you. He is a nice mix of wise guardian and detached observer

10. Which Asian ql couple do you think is under appreciated? I am going to the stretch the definition of QL a bit and say Taeseob and Kyungsoo from the 2010 Korean family drama Life is Beautiful it is one of my favourite series and the fact that they are not that widely known is a crime.

[daily-hyosatsu]

Featuring one of my favorite characters today! The name 穂坂 is usually read Hosaka but can also be Hozaka.

穂 (isn't it beautiful?) means an ear of grain, head, crest, or wave. It's read ho or sui. The right-hand component 恵 on its own is also one of my favorites. It means blessing, grace, favor, etc.

坂, like we covered yesterday (streak!), means slope, incline, or hill. It's read saka or han.

[tanenigiri]

Review #26: I Cannot Reach You (Volumes 3 and 4)

Japanese title: 君には届かない。(Kimi ni wa Todokanai)

Story and art: Mika

English publisher: Yen Press

Number of volumes: 4 in English, 5 in Japanese (ongoing)

The pain of self-doubt.

(This review contains story spoilers.)

Volume 2 of I Cannot Reach You left Yamato and Kakeru with a lot of things up in the air, with Yamato letting his jealousy show and Kakeru being completely unsure of what to think of and how to feel about the whole situation. And while Volumes 3 and 4 do address most of these uncertainties to some capacity, it’s gonna take quite a while to get there, and the journey to certainty is definitely a rough one. If the first two volumes didn’t make it clear, this is definitely one of those stories that’s gonna take its time for its leads to get together.

While I don’t mind slow burns at all - and my praise for Sasaki and Miyano as well as Koimonogatari: Love Stories should prove that - I did find myself reacting a bit less optimistically to how I Cannot Reach You handles its buildup when I compare it to those two series. I don’t mean that in the sense that I was annoyed at the main leads not getting together immediately - I do like how the story takes its time to go through all of Yamato’s worries and Kakeru’s insecurities - but rather on how it was almost making sure that things were progressing as slowly as it could.

I think my biggest peeve in this regard is how the story resorted a lot on the likes of convenient interruptions and unfortunate coincidences to prevent both Yamato and Kakeru from openly talking about these issues to each other. It was understandable the first few times it happened, but the fact that it kept on being delayed by these wrong timings and whatnot made it feel like the story didn’t actually want them to have this conversation even if it knew that it needed to happen.

This even applies to the Yamato's long-awaited confession - complete with a picturesque setting and the first kiss - at the end of Volume 3. That's because Volume 4 begins with the reveal that Yamato had actually fainted after this encounter and is shown to have experienced memory loss and not remember anything about it. I remember feeling incredibly sorry for Kakeru when I first read this, since it really seemed like the story was going out of its way to make sure that he wasn’t going to get any clarity out of the whole situation. If anything, this only makes his frustration about it all the more justified, and I can’t even blame him for being hostile toward Yamato about this whole thing.

It’s no surprise, then, that my favorite character in the series so far is Hosaka, who’s introduced in Volume 3 as one of Yamato’s and Kakeru’s classmates who joins them in their group for the school trip that takes up pretty much this entire volume. Not only are his interactions with Yamato hilarious, but quite a lot of developments in the main relationship in these volumes happen because of him. I’m not sure why the story decided to anchor a lot of its plot beats on a completely new character, but I’m all for it since he’s turning out to be a really great addition to the cast.

In his conversation with Kakeru in the middle of Volume 3, he describes himself as someone who “lets everything slip straight out of [his] mouth,” which already tells us that he's pretty much the opposite of both of the main characters. He makes this contrast apparent in his advice to Kakeru, telling him that if he doesn’t do anything about his situation with Yamato (though Kakeru keeps the specifics vague), things will still change whether he wants them to or not. Part of me was wishing that Yamato was gonna be a main character and overhear this, since he needs this piece of advice as much as Kakeru does (though, to be fair, his sister has been telling him pretty similar things from the start).

What Yamato does get out of Hosaka, though (apart from constant annoyances), is a reality check. After Kakeru was forced to cancel his plans with Yamato and go with Akane due to being set up by Fujino and his girlfriend, Yamato is seen moping about it in the park where they were supposed to hang out, which just so happens to be where Hosaka and another one of their classmates, Amamiya, are spending their time. Yamato ends up telling them quite a lot about why his plans with Kakeru meant a lot to him, as well as his fear of what Kakeru would think if he tells him the truth. While Yamato is talking about the truth of why he was looking forward to their day together, you can easily tell that this also applies to the whole situation, and I have a feeling that by this point, Hosaka's also caught on to this fact.

So when Hosaka calls him out on his faulty logic - Why wouldn’t Yamato’s closest friend want to know how he’s feeling? - Yamato is understandably taken aback and even resorts to physical action to confront him. But Hosaka, being the 10/10 character that he is, doesn’t back down from this threat and continues to break apart Yamato’s thinking, saying that if Yamato thinks that Kakeru wouldn’t hear him out on his thoughts, then the bond they share wasn’t important to begin with. I don’t know where all of this wisdom came from and where Hosaka found his motivation to help the main couple out, but I’m all for it, as everything he’s saying is exactly what Yamato and Kakeru need to hear.

I mention her slightly above, but at the same time that Hosaka is making Yamato rethink how he handled the situation, Akane is also figuring out what’s going on with Kakeru and makes him rethink how he’s approaching it. Noticing that Kakeru was lost in his own world during their arranged date, Akane encourages him to go after Yamato, even if it’s revealed shortly after that she’s actually developed feelings for Kakeru after their encounters. I really feel sorry for her as she gets the short end of the stick in this whole situation, and I really hope that she comes back in a future volume just so she can get some closure. I even want her to become a confidant of sorts to Kakeru, seeing as she’s one of the few people who’s realized what’s going on between him and Yamato.

The others who figure it out are - to my delight - Hosaka and Amamiya, as Volume 4 reveals that they saw Yamato kiss Kakeru in the climactic scene of the previous volume. I found it interesting that the two of them actually agreed not to bring this up to anyone, but continuing his role as the plot’s mover, Hosaka does bring it up to someone, though that someone happens to be Yamato. It’s in this conversation where Yamato realizes why Kakeru’s been acting hostile towards him in the early parts of Volume 4 and what ultimately gives him the resolve to finally have their long overdue conversation.

Before I leave him behind to talk about the conversation, I found it hilarious that when Hosaka sees Yamato and Kakeru sneak out of class, his first instinct is to follow them. He’s only stopped by Amamiya, who points out that he’s not even close friends with both of them. Part of me wanted Hosaka to eavesdrop since him understanding the full situation might make him an even more critical foundation of the main relationship, but eh, I’m sure he’ll figure it out on his own.

The conversation does see Yamato properly confessing to Kakeru, but the thing I wanted to note about this is how Kakeru reacts to it - he sounds incredibly confident here, calling Yamato out for his assumptions before he even gets to make them. His response is also very mature - he’s not giving Yamato a yes or a no, but he promises to properly think about his feelings and “face them head-on” instead of hiding from them or denying them. This understandably makes Yamato happy, as he had been preparing himself for rejection all this time.

The chapters following this see Yamato and Kakeru adjusting to this new dynamic in their relationship, and we finally get to see all the advice that the people around the two main characters have been giving them put to good use. Yamato is becoming more honest about his feelings and is making a marked effort to express all of them to Kakeru, while Kakeru is making sure that he’s changing how he acts around Yamato, in that he’s not just being passive and absorbed in his own thoughts all the time.

I think my favorite instance of this is when Kakeru asks Yamato why he’s so calm about the entire situation when the former has been freaking out about it both internally and externally. Yamato admits that he feels just as nervous as Kakeru does, saying that he only acts calm so that Kakeru would think that he was cool. I’ve really wanted them to have this conversation for quite some time, so I’m glad they got it out of the way, and I do hope it’s the start of a more open and healthy relationship between them going forward.

It’s with this clarity where I Cannot Reach You’s fourth volume ends, and like I said at the start, it was a really long journey to get here. I may have my qualms about certain parts of this journey, but I’m happy at where the story is at now, as we’re beginning to see some solid developments in both Yamato’s and Kakeru’s characters that would really improve their relationship.

Random thoughts that I couldn’t fit elsewhere:

With these volumes leaning a lot more on its supporting cast to drive the plot, Fujino actually has a lot more to do here compared to the first two volumes. His standout scene for me is when Kakeru asks him for advice about dealing with his crush. Fujino gives pretty good advice here, and I really like how he continues to earnestly root for Kakeru and his happiness, even if he sometimes goes too far with it. (There was also a part of me that was expecting Fujino to figure out that Kakeru was talking about Yamato, and I still have a feeling that he does figure it out but chooses not to say it just yet.)

Volume 4 features another important Kakeru conversation, which is the one he has with Mikoto, Yamato’s sister. Mikoto realizes that his brother has finally told his feelings to Kakeru, and she ends up revealing quite a lot to Kakeru about what Yamato’s been bottling up all this time. Part of me wishes that this happened after Yamato’s confession on the rooftop instead of before, but I do think that Kakeru needed to hear this, as it would help him properly think about the situation.

The bonus chapters come back as humorous as ever here, and this time they’re even integrated into the main story - Volume 3’s bonus chapters all take place in the school trip, for example. My favorites are definitely the ones that feature Yamato and Hosaka’s dynamic - I find it so funny that Hosaka’s making all this effort to befriend Yamato and he’s just not having it.

Thanks for reading! You can read my review of the first two volumes of I Cannot Reach You here. Despite my complaints about certain aspects of the journey, I do like where the story’s going, especially with all the developments to Yamato and Kakeru’s relationship. I think the next English volume is releasing later this year, so I’m looking forward to reading it!

[batangtamad]

Komatta Toki Ni Wa Hoshi Ni Kike! (Manga)

Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance, School Life, Shounen Ai

Status: Completed

Author: Abe Miyuki

Favorite Character: Fujishima Takara

Favorite Chapters: Vol. 3 Chapter 3, Vol. 5 Chapter 3, Vol. 9 Chapter 1. 1, Vol. 10 Chapter 2, Vol. 23 Chapter 2, Vol. 26 Chapter 2, and Vol.26 Chapter 3.5

Plot Synopsis:

Fujishima Takara goes to high school and will start living in a dorm because he has lost all his family except for his father, who's always away for his work. Takara has to share a room with Hosaka Kiyomine. Living together isn't easy, and many rows ensue. Kiyomine is very introverted, while Takara is just the opposite. At first the two get on each other's nerves because of those differences. But things turn towards friendship and later on, towards love?

I sometimes hate how Kiyomine treats Takara. I know he has a sister complex, but I hate when he said he would not forgive Takara if something happened to Ayako despite knowing that Takara might also lose his dad. What I really hate is that Takara forgives Kiyomine for what he said and did. Kiyomine didn't even apologize. Wished Kiyomine had more character development as he kept on being an ass on Takara.

At first, it was confusing because some of the characters looked like. Still, the story is amazing and beautiful. I just wish Takara and Kiyomine had confessed or confirmed their feelings for each other rather than hinting at it to us, readers.

I also like that there are other possible side couples, but still unfortunate that it wasn't really clarified. Same as the main couple, the other side couples were just hinted.

[wannabefamous-otaku]

I finished Hunter x Hunter last night and I had to wait a day to write this because I am going through my five stages of grief now that it is over. I love this anime! So good! The ant arc was super long and I wasn’t the biggest fan of it till the end but I really enjoyed the chairman election arc. I loved that they focued on Killuia, he is probably my favorite character and he is just such a sweet kid. I though Alluka came out of nowhere but I love them, I think Killuia and Alluka are super cute and adorable and I would honestly just watch a show about them, no offense Gon.

I was nervous about Gon meeting Ging, I kind of wanted it to be dragged out longer but because I’m late to the game I knew it has been on hiatus for years so I was happy to know they met before it ended. And how they met was so cute! I loved it so much! The way the audience was heckling Ging was great and he was giving fatherly advice and he only knew his kid for two minutes.

I felt like Hosaka’s story ended really weird. I mean the whole thing is still open ended for the possible return of the series but I still felt it was super disconnected. And I kinda wish he just killed Illumi.

I found it very interesting that the last arc was only 12 episodes and there were able to move the plot at a pretty good pace but the ant arc was about 60 fucking episodes and dragged from episode to episode. I’m pretty bitter about that. I really wish it ended with Gon and Killuia exploring the world together but again I guess it’s still all open ended. The Kite plot wasn’t explained well enough for me and I’m pretty unsure what’s going on with that. Also, didn’t Gon sell his Hunter license in the Yorknew city arc, but he flashed it when he went to climb the tree?And we know nothing about his mother! Which I didn’t think we would get to know more but Ging didn’t really give any back story but I guess Gon doesn’t care that his day left him behind.

To be honest tho, I feel empty. It was a good anime with a good ending and I guess that’s probably why I’m feeling this way, I want more. I hope more is produced and animated. Gon and Killuia are just so cute! And obviously Kurapike is up to something and the spiders, like that was so random they were in the ant arc. But anyway, I’m really sad it’s over and I want more content. Well, on to the next one



[gracemyhearto]

I was tagged by @missemperor to do this com-myu-nity ask :D

1. What is your hobby?

History! I was fascinated of past times very early. When I was a child, middleages and stuff pretty much scared me but through that fear grew a deep interest and out of this interest grew an even deeper passion and here I am now studying it :D On my 2nd tumblr @renaissance-prinzessin I spam post a lot of history content :D Oh and I write. xD

 2. What is your special skill?

Special skill? Ehm maybe the way I understand animals? I am a very sensitive person. J

 3. What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Like I said, I am very good at working and interacting with animals. I also think that I am pretty good in academic writing.

 Weaknesses: as if I’d share that xP

 4. What is your favorite color?

Green!  

 5. What is your favorite animal?

Omg that is hard?  I love them all! But if I have to pick one.. horses! But ALL animals are precious babys!

 6. Which food are you into lately?

My mum’s risotto and I had really GREAT herb Schupfnudeln when I was on holidays in Bavaria this month <3

 7. What is the thing you never lose to from anyone?

My own goals.

 8. What is your most treasured item?

I can’t really think of an item, of course I love my books and my merch but there is no item or thing that matters to me as much as for example my horse Poly or my dog Pauli do :D

 9. What is your cooking specialty?

Recently I brought perfection to my beloved avocado-tomato soup xD I really do enjoy cooking (veggy of course!) and tried some vegan recipes recently too!

10. What is the thing you want the most at the moment?

Oh, I wished my bachelor’s thesis would be done already ahahaha.

 11. What is the thing you are most scared of?

Nothing I’d share in the internet but I have to admit that, beside the fact that I love all animals, ostrichs somehow really scare me xDD

 12. What is the thing you were happy about this year?

I think it’s getting back to my old university after switching to another last year. It feels home again but I am still glad that I was able to collect so many new experiences at the other uni.

 13. What is the thing you were sad about this year?

The retirement of Mirio and Miyacchi! I mean on the other hand they are/will be free to be themselves now without hiding behind the Otokoyaku mask but it’s still sad because I really adored both of them

 14. What is the thing you regretted this year?

 Regret? Actually there is nothing that I really do regret atm

 15. What is the thing you were angry about this year?

Unistuff, yep yep yep

 16. What is the job that gave you a sense of fulfillment this year?

Does my studies count? xD

 17. What has changed about you since you entered com-myu-nity?

 Mostly that I don’t care anymore if other people dislike me or my opinion

 18. Which character would you play in Sera myu?

 Aw! I would want to be Venus! Venus! Venus! But I think as for playing I’d be predestined for a bitchy badass Neptune or Mars xD

 19. If you were to form a collab now, who would it be with?

 Do ya mean a song collab like the stuff we do like everyday in the com-my-nity? Actually I am doing a lot of stuff with @missemperor and it’s always a pleasure! But I also want to do something again with my first besties @sailorzakuro and @MyuToni sooooo I am open to do collabs with everyone xD

 20. What do you love about Sera Myu nowadays?

That it made me be part of something and feel welcome among my friends <3

 21. Which cast member catches your attention the most at the moment?

Hmm, at the moment it might be Kana Nakada because I really liked her performance in NogiMyu. But tbh I am more into the BaniMyu actors/actresses.

 22. Which cast member would you want as your significant other?

EDO HIDEMASA <33333

 23. If you were to marry a cast member, who would it be?

EDO HIDEMASA <333333333

 24. If you would go to a deserted island, which cast member would you like to go with you?

Probably Yuuko Hosaka? She is such a mum, I’m sure she would get us back to civilisation easily xD

 25. If you would be born again, which cast member would you want to be?

Ehm… Nao Inada? I could play Venus in two very good productions then xD

 26. Which Sera Myu production would you want to be a part of?

The Dracul Arc!

 27. If you would create your own kingdom, what kind of country would you want it to be?

Don’t expect a pinky, plushy kingdom with worldpeace and same rights for everyone :P. Probably something like Middle-earth. I think there can’t be light without darkness.

 28. What is an interesting book or manga you read recently?

Thanks to @vampiruchan I am totally into the Black Dagger Brotherhood books atm xD

 29. What is an interesting movie you watched recently?

I rewatched The Hobbit and I realized again how much I love Bilbo and how much of an Elve I am xD

 30. What is your favorite Sera Myu song at the moment?

Always and forever FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! *starts dancing*

 31. What is your favorite Sera Myu song choreography at the moment?

Probably Fumi’s LINK from 1999?

 32. What is your favorite Sera Myu costume at the moment?

LOL totally Lamia’s breast pad I mean sexy cape outfit xD

 33. What is your favorite Myu at the moment?

Always and forever.. Kessen or Last Dracul. Can’t decide, it really depends on my mood. As for this moment it’s LD

 34. What is your favorite Myu cast?

I go with Last Dracul, I still love KSDK too and I really wished Yuuko was part of Myu in LD already

 35. Is there something you say a lot recently?

At least I use „!s” way too often xD That’s a typical german thing I guess

 36. What would you do if you could plan a Fan Kansha?

I wouldn’t change anything from the Bandai era. Just record it, PUT IT ON DVD and and add  official subs xD

 37. What do you hope to see Sera Myu doing in the future?

Not to relate too much on the manga…

 38. What kind of person do you want to be in 5 years?

I want to be done with studying and gain ground in working life

 39. What has been a memorable concert or event this year?

I saw the ballet “Swan Lake” by the russian nationalballet and omg it was awesome!

 40. What do you want to do in your private life this year?

Private life? Does that even exist? lol

 41. What kind of job would you like to do in the future?

I want to gain ground in historical research

 42. Do you have a hairstyle you would like to try in the future?

Let’s see: Last year I dyed my hair tips blue (it stayed like 3 weeks) that was fun. And recently I managed to get my hair back into it’s original colour (medium blonde) and I am really happy with that. Wished it would still be a bit more even but hey xD

 43. What Sera Myu merchandise would you love to have?

The Death Vulcan VHS as well everything available of Miyuki-Moon!

44. Where would you want Sera Myu to come to?

It would be nice if the other country’s themselves would organize Myus. Like, Germany was one of the countrys in which Sailor Moon was just so fkn popular that we even had an own Sailor Moon band, okay? xD So Myus based on the Bandai era here in Germany would be nice (even though I had no chance I’d so apply there xDDD)

 45. If you could have a holiday with any cast member, what do you want to do?

Probably talk about their life at Sera My and ask them things especially about backstage things.

 46. Please say something to your favourite cast member.

Well, Miyuki is in heaven but I’ll still dedicate this to her: You were wonderful. You didn’t made Sailor Moon just come to life, you put love in every single performance and transmitted all feelings to the audience with such a warm energy that it is always a pleasure and honour to watch your performances. I get never tired of watching them again and again. I hope you are happy where you are now but let me tell you that you can be really proud of what you did. You were not only an enrichment for the whole Sailor Moon franchise but also for my life and I just can not thank you enough for that.

[myucornerorg]

Sera Myu Week Day 4: Queens of Myu

So I ended up skipping Day 3 of @sera-myu-week​ cause I was over on my personal blog all day due to the big Pokémon Direct (and also cause it was NogiMyu Day and I don’t know enough about NogiMyu to really post anything...I’m still figuring out how to even watch them!). But now I’m back.

So...Queens of Sera Myu.

First off, my fave Mercury, Chieco-chan!!

I actually found Kawabe Chieco initially through her role as Naru in PGSM. I ended up finding out about her SeraMyu involvement in a sort of backways fashion through her music career (mostly her song “Sakura Kiss,” which was super popular at the time). She was essentially my gateway into Myu itself, and she continues to be my favorite Mercury actress. In her era, I feel like Mercury really got to shine as a character.

Chieco is such a great singer, too; SeraMyu basically launched her idol career. Sadly, it doesn’t look like she’s released anything since 2005, and now that she’s married and has a daughter, I find it unlikely she will do any more music, given how the idol culture is in Japan. I was fortunate enough to find all her music online back in the day. My favorite song of hers is “Quiet Riot.” It’s not super well-known, being the obscure third song off the Shining!/cry baby single, but I just really relate to it.

https://youtu.be/nZISUrwWDa0

“Shining!” is probably my favorite music video of hers, though. I mean, they’re just like dancing through like Costco or somewhere, which is pretty random, but it’s fun to watch and the song is super catchy.

Ooyama Anza

So, Anza is probably my favorite Moon, though I honestly still haven’t decided on my favorite myu Moon. I did start with Miyuki (RIP), but for some reason I just got into Anza more. I thought she both sang and acted well, and she was around long enough for you to really see her develop and improve over the five years she played Moon. I really liked her at events, both during and after her run; her personality was just really great. She’s also done quite well for herself since myu, first in her solo career and now with her band Head Phones President. I think she’s probably the only major First Stage actress who still has any sort of active career. And she hasn’t forgotten about her myu days, given the concert she did with some of her former myu costars a few years ago where they sang old SeraMyu songs. She still does musicals too (her performance as Éponine from Les Mis was pretty amazing, if this song is any indication).

I haven’t gotten to really hear her music since her Myu days, but she did do the second opening song to Cardcaptor Sakura, which I really like. Also one of my favorite performances of hers was when she came back during the SeraMyu 777th show celebration (during Marina’s era) to sing her song “Knockin’ Down Hesitation”:

Saitou Rei

Right now, as with Moon, I’m torn on who my favorite Pluto is. It’s sort of a tie between Saitou Rei, Hosaka Yuuko, and Mikako Ishii.

But since I haven’t seen all of Yuuko and Mikako’s myus, I’m going to go with Rei for this. Now, to be fair, I haven’t seen all of Rei’s myus either, since her first myu (Henshin - Super Senshi e no Michi (Kaiteiban)) was never released on video. But I’ve seen the rest.

I just really like Rei as Pluto. She nails the motherly aspects of Setsuna/Pluto, and even at events she’s treated like the cast’s mother. She also plays the mature, strong Pluto really well when needed. Most importantly, though, is how she stands on her own. Like I said, I love Yuuko, but I’ve primarily gotten into her as part of a trio with Nao and Yuuka, and I have yet to see how she does in myu without them. Rei, on the other hand, does well on her own without needing the support of the other Outers as such.

This video gives good examples of how great her singing was. She could hold her own in emotional songs like “Stay Alone” and “Sorezore no Elegy” as well as funnier songs like “Kick Out a Bloody Mystery” or her fankan version of “Mata Mata Chibiusa Desu.” She was a great live singer too, which was a big deal seeing as she came in right as Myu was transitioning to live singing.

Her best song is hands down “Onna no Ronsou” from Eien Densetsu. The song itself is what the title suggests - a “women’s dispute” - and is a duet between Pluto and Queen Beryl about their shared love for Endymion. It’s just such a great song. They even brought it back to the myus twice, in Shin Densetsu Kourin and Kakyuu-Ouhi Kourin (the latter of which was Yuuko’s final myu). I’ve listened to it many a time, but I still think it’s amazing. Rei and Beryl’s actress Nishina Yuri both do a fantastic job of it, honestly. But what makes this even more amazing is that Rei is holding her own against a 12-YEAR TAKARAZUKA VETERAN in Yuri. Even the Eien K Senshuuraku performance, when most of the cast seem to be barely avoiding crying by Act 2, is amazing.

Takagi Nao

Why yes, I have in fact jumped on the Nao train.

I’m sure it’s a running joke in the myu fandom by now about how many of us Bandai Myu fans love Takagi Nao, but seriously...she’s just SO COOL. I mean, she is pretty attractive too, I suppose (I don’t swing that way) but it was that coolness about her that made me really get into her. In that sense, Haruka is a perfect character for her, because Haruka herself kinda gives off that vibe -- the cool, mysterious, masculine racer who’s secretly a skirt-wearing girly fighter for justice. I seriously think that Nao is largely the reason why Sailor Uranus remains the least recast role in the Myus -- she was so good, they kept her around for 4 years! Recent social media pics have shown she’s been friendly with our current Uranus, Shuu, as well, which is nice to see, especially since in my opinion Shuu is the only one to even come close to rivaling Nao in the Uranus role.

Nao also just had SUCH great chemistry with Neptune actress Asami Yuuka that you could legit believe their characters were lovers. To be fair, she did well with Shimada Sara in her first couple myus as well, but Nao and Yuuka just clicked in a great way. When Yuuko came in in Transylvania no Mori, the three of them just became this power trio that all worked really great together.

Nao is also pretty funny with her commentaries on omake videos, and looks good even without the Uranus costume, as anyone who’s seen her performance of “Galaxia Gorgeous” can attest. That’s not to say they didn’t make her look super fashionable as Haruka, though. She pretty much rocked any outfit they put her in, like this leather jacket from Death Vulcan no Fuuin:

I do really like Nao’s singing. She had great solos in songs like “Harsh Saint Cry,” “Destined Couple,” and “Broken Mobius.” Sadly her songs were always with someone else, so she didn’t get any true solo songs, at least in the musicals themselves. She did get to sing “Knockin’ Down Hesitation” at one of the Kaguya fankans, but sadly only a short clip of it exists, and like I said she did do “Galaxia Gorgeous,” which she did awesome at. Her version of the Starlights’ song “See Me Boku-tachi no Jidai” is also really good.

Yuuga Yamato

Ok, to be fair, I’ve only seen one of Yuuga’s myus in full. But I like her for pretty much the same reason as Nao...she’s SO COOL. Going into La Reconquista, I wasn’t sure if I would like a woman playing Mamoru, but she actually does a really good job. Her years as a Takarazuka otokoyaku really show; she is crazy talented. She does a good job showing off Mamoru’s love for Usagi and pretty much rocks all her songs. She actually does a surprisingly good job at King Endymion as well (what I’ve seen of it anyway).

Probably the song she slays the most is “The Guardian Who Lost Hope” from Le Mouvement Final. When I first heard this song without having seen the video of it, I assumed Galaxia was singing it, which would make sense. But then I saw the video of it and realized MAMORU WAS SINGING IT. It’s from the scene where Sailor Moon encounters revived evil versions of all the senshi and Tuxedo Kamen en route to Galaxia’s palace. It’s actually scary how good Yuuga is at being evil. As if the singing wasn’t enough, her facial expressions just kill me -- she sings these dark lines like “Your future and love are disappearing” and FREAKING SMILES. She plays evil Mamoru as if she is having the time of her life and that’s just frightening to me.

This is in the SAME MUSICAL where we have that scene of her acting all goofy and being Usagi’s “special chef.” I mean, you have to be skilled to pull that off. Just saying.

***

Ok, I think this post is long enough. I better stop.

(Pics from Sera Myu Antics, except Yuuga’s, which is from Three-lights.net)

[fatehbaz]

The current fear of China’s rising tech industry closely evokes the villainous depiction of Japan in ‘70s/’80s popular magazines and cyberpunk media; the tonally consistent tradition of American xenophobia against East Asia

As a sort of hobby interest, I do a lot of reading about Shenzhen, Chongqing, and Shanghai - three mega-cities and critical economic powerhouses that the Chinese establishment has used since the ‘90s as, essentially, experiments in rapid urban development with the basic intent to create hubs for computer technology industries to rival Silicon Valley. These three cities were essentially minor cities with rural agricultural hinterlands in the ‘80s, but today rank among the Top 20 most populous cities on Earth, with truly massive GDP’s, booming tech industries, thousands of start-up operations, and sophisticated architecture and transportation infrastructure. These cities - especially Shenzhen - have succeeded in rivaling the Bay Area.

There’s a lot at play - politically and socially - in how these projects were achieved (and especially fascinating is how Chongqing’s success is closely related with the city’s adoption in recent years of retro Marxist-Leninist communitarian ideals and programs). But today, I wanted to talk instead about American xenophobia and how these rapidly-growing tech hubs terrify Americans.

This week, I was watching a short-ish small-budget documentary on YouTube, which specifically explores how Shenzhen has become the “Silicon Valley of China.” Shenzhen alone hosts over 12 million people (greater than all of Chicago-land), but the city is physically contiguous with a greater urban area of 45 million people (three times metro Los Angeles-Anaheim) surpassing Tokyo and making it the most populous urban area on Earth; Shenzhen’s GDP is higher than Hong Kong, which happens to be just across a narrow strait from Shenzhen. Anyway, this YouTube documentary focused a bit on how the low-income residents of the otherwise highly-gentrified Shenzhen have become famous in Asia for their extremely passionate entrepreneurial spirit and penchant for re-purposing used and discarded tech parts to create homemade off-brand computer tech to sell at street markets. The narration also mentions how these tech wizards - and the more wealthy tech start-up workers - are able to establish themselves partially because they are not prosecuted for (re-)appropriating American inventions. Many jealous American tech workers allege that Shenzhen start-ups are “infringing on the intellectual property rights” and patents of American corporations.

And let me tell you, these (what I assume must be) young white American guys in the comment section are livid. Just, there is a stunning amount of comments that look like “Shenzhen only has a high GDP because they’re STEALING American intellectual property” or “yea, maybe they’re good engineers, but it was GENIUS AMERICAN MEN who came-up with the code” and “Americans did the hard part, the Chinese are just good at mass-production and cheap knock-offs.”

That last accusation is important: the concession that “China is good at mass production and efficiency” but “Americans are the real innovators who made it possible.”

“It’s not fair that China gets to profit off of technology that American heroes like Mr. Zuckerberg-Bezos McPeter-Thiel came-up with first!”

And these same tropes - “East Asians are frighteningly efficient, but Americans are smarter” - should sound very routine to anyone familiar with American xenophobia in the ‘70s and ‘80s.

So, this is all to say that I was reminded of a nice passage from one of my all-time favorite pieces of cultural commentary, which is Nicola Nixon’s classic “Cyberpunk: Preparing the Ground for Revolution or Keeping the Boys Satisfied?” Nixon’s 1992 article discusses how all the hype that cyberpunk as a literary genre was receiving for being woke and “revolutionary” was not totally justified, at least for parts of the genre; a lot of cyberpunk at the time celebrated the Ayn Rand-style American, individualistic “cowboy-ism” of its male protagonists and included a lot of half-assed women characters. These shallow tropes were especially emphasized in the parts of the genre made for mainstream, popular consumption. Nixon, in the article, also clearly traces how radical feminist utopian science fiction of the 1970s paved the way for the kind of social wokefulness that cyberpunk would later claim.

Nixon’s article takes a momentary aside to address American (and Canadian) anti-Japanese xenophobia during the ‘70s and ‘80s, and how popular cyberpunk stories pitted American exceptionalism and rugged individualism against Japanese corporations. Nixon even suggests that Japanese congolmerates were subtextually conflated with “femininity” to make them even more threatening.

Here’s the fun passage:

Indeed the Yakuza is the paradigm for all the other Japanese megacorporations which appear regularly in Gibson’s texts: a collective construct which conflates the tight familial bonds of the Italian-American mafia with the equally tight employer-employee bonds of the frighteningly efficient Japanese industries. It is the latter which formed the subject of endless documentaries and business-magazine articles throughout the ’80s because their corporate practice presented the most substantial threat to American-style capitalism America had yet experienced.12

American xenophobia and isolationism, particularly with regard to the Japanese scientific and economic invasion, manifested itself in the media through such scare tactics as Andy Rooney’s piece on 60 Minutes (Feb. 5, 1989), which portentously identified various historic American monuments as Japanese owned! And 48 Hours presented a piece called "America for Sale" (Dec. 29, 1988), in which various reporters, including Dan Rather, emphasized American objections to Japanese ownership of American real estate and industry. Amorphous Japanese collectives clearly posed a threat to the land of the free entrepreneurial spirit. This is surely the fear underlying the (defensive?) mockery and ridicule attending representations of Japanese tourists, traveling in tightly-knit groups, sporting extremely expensive, high-tech photographic equipment. If Canada as a whole did not reflect precisely the same degree of anti-Japanese paranoia being played out in America, British Columbia, Gibson’s home, betrayed more conflict about Japanese investment than most parts of the country. In the early and mid-’80s, in the midst, that is, of British Columbian Premier William Bennett’s open-door policy to Pacific Rim investment, reactions to Japanese tourists and potential investors were mixed: their infusion of capital into the flagging B.C. economy was indeed welcomed, and yet their actual ownership of luxury hotels, real estate, and various natural-resource companies (the forestry industry in particular) was both attacked and feared as being, ironically, merely a reenactment of past American practice.

If we examine Gibson’s texts within the context of such conflicting interests, we see the degree to which he deliberately avoids any form of simplistic anti-Japanese paranoia or its attendant racism and ethnocentrism. And yet Gibson’s Japanese conglomerates, in their collective and familial practice, nevertheless form the implicit antagonistic counterpoint to the individualist heroes. The bad guys in Gibson are, after all, the megacorporations—Ono Sendai, Hosaka, Sanyo, Hitachi, Fuji Electric. The good guys are the anarchic, individualistic, and entrepreneurial American heroes: independent mercenaries and "corporation extraction experts" like Turner, console cowboys like Case, Bobby Newmark, Gentry, Tick, and the crew at the Gentleman Loser who jack in and out of the global computer matrix with unparalleled mastery. In Williams’ Angel Station (1989), Bossrider Ubu traverses the galaxy, roping in black holes. In Sterling’s Islands in the Net, American Jonathan Gresham, the self-styled "post-industrial tribal anarchist" (388), rides his "iron camel" through the "bad and wild" African Sahara—one of the few places free of the global Net—and eventually saves the hapless but earnest Laura Webster. The cowboys in Gibson, Williams, and Sterling are heroes who represent, as Williams suggests in Hardwired, the "last free Americans, on the last high road" (10). It seems telling that the American icon of the cowboy, realized so strongly in Reaganite cowboyism, the quintessence of the maverick reactionary, should form the central heroic iconography in cyberpunk.

Cyberpunk’s fascination with and energetic figuration of technology represents the American cowboy as simultaneously embattled and empowered. In ’80s America the Japanese megacorporations did dominate the technological market, but the cowboy’s freedom and ingenuity allow him to compete purely on the level of mastery. The terms of such a competition—Japanese pragmatism and mass production versus American innovation and ingenuity —seem precisely analogous to those of a familiar American consolatory fiction: that free enterprise and privately funded research and development in science and technology have produced in America the most important technological innovations of the 20th century, innovations which the Japanese have simply taken, pirated, and mass produced, thus undercutting the very American market which encouraged their discovery and making it financially difficult for the neophyte technological wizards to get corporate funding. In Interview’s special "Future" issue (1988), almost adjacent to Victoria Hamburg’s interview with Gibson, there appeared an article titled "Made in Japan," which confirmed for the American readership that the Japanese did not "initiat[e] new ideas" (Natsume, 32) and reassured it about the benign nature of the new products coming out of Japan: micro-thin televisions, special low-water-consumption washing machines, camcorders with RAM cards, auto-translation machines—non-essential but nice, unthreatening appliances.13 Computer and technological innovation would still come from American silicon valleys, would still be, by implication, "Made in America." In Gibson’s novels the console cowboys use expensive Hosaka and Ono Sendai cyberspace decks, but such mass-produced technology is always customized and enhanced, its performance and capabilities augmented by the cowboys’ more inventive, finer ingenuity.

In effect, the exceptionally talented, very masculine hero of cyberpunk, with specially modified (Americanized) Japanese equipment, can beat the Japanese at their own game, pitting his powerful individualism against the collective, domesticated, feminized, and therefore impenetrable and almost unassailable Japanese "family" corporations. After all, in the world of the microchip, small is potentially powerful.

From:

Nicola Nixon. “Cyberpunk: Preparing the Ground for Revolution or Keeping the Boys Satisfied?” 1992 - Science Fiction Studies. https://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/57/nixon57art.htm

This right here:

The terms of such a competition—Japanese pragmatism and mass production versus American innovation and ingenuity —seem precisely analogous to those of a familiar American consolatory fiction: that free enterprise and privately funded research and development in science and technology have produced in America the most important technological innovations of the 20th century, innovations which the Japanese have simply taken, pirated, and mass produced, thus undercutting the very American market which encouraged their discovery and making it financially difficult for the neophyte technological wizards to get corporate funding. 

In this passage, you could replace mentions of the Japan of 1992 with the China of 2018 instead, and you’d be describing exactly the comments of and contextualizing proposed by American xenophobes criticizing current Chinese tech development and mass production.

[myutoni]

30 days of Sera Myu: Day 11

Day 11. Favorite Outer Senshi Actress(es) Fair warning. Today's one is gonna get fangirly XD Uranus: Nao Takagi - What is there to say? Nao played the part perfectly and I felt like I was watching the real Uranus on that stage XD Her singing and dancing is brilliant and even in the fan events she just seems so perfect Haruka it's unbelievable. She really had both the soldier and friend sides down pat. Plus her and Yuuka had amazing chemistry making those UraNep scenes so good. (and completely heartbreaking too) Honourable Mentions: Shuu Shiotsuki, Sanae Kimura Neptune: Yuuka Asami - Who else for graceful, elegant Michiru? Yuuka not only made a great match with Nao-Uranus but her singing voice was great for Michiru and she could really act her socks off. ( I mean that scene in TNM...whoa!) I loved her introduction in the Black Lady Fankan when she is like 'I won't talk long. A woman is silent'. So Michiru XD Honourable Mention: Sayaka Fujioka Pluto: Yuuko Hosaka - Yuuko literally IS Pluto! If Setsuna was around in real life this would be her. It's easy to see lonely but motherly Pluto in her portrayal and she really has the hang of the more emotional scenes (Especially in Black lady...my feels!!). She has a soft voice but powerful when it needs to be (Chikyuu! Crisis anyone XD) and her dancing is spot on! Even off stage she was very much portrayed as the mother character of the group which lets face it is so completely Pluto XDD Honourable Mentions: Mikako Ishii, Rei Saitou, Yuki Kamiya Saturn: Mao Mita - I do wish they had put Saturn in more for the musicals Mao was in! Her voice is perfect for Hotaru and the scenes she got were acted really well. Her dancing was on point too. I very much saw her as Hotaru and Saturn. Honourable Mentions: Karin Takahashi, Ayami Kakiuchi