#i also hope they get to it in the second cour!

[avariantflaire]

i completely agree.

this entire thing that you point out, about jinshi’s beauty being the source of unwanted attention, and the sinister implications behind that—especially considering we have jinshi himself lament his deliberate positioning to catch unloyal consorts—it all seems perfectly and tragically aligned with knh’s themes.

of beauty being a cage.

of beauty having a cost.

and of beauty being judged not by you, but by the external world.

one does not choose one’s beauty beyond the cosmetics one lathers on; but where maomao can still choose to make herself look undesirable, jinshi is in no such position. it is not only his beauty that cages him, but also his position, his nobility. it explains his immediate fixation with maomao, who scoffs at him so, who sees him beyond his looks and reacts to his personality rather than his charm. but it also explains his utter despair at maomao’s reminder of the gap between them.

at this point, is jinshi any better than the high-ranking concubines? has the emperor not taken advantage of his beauty as well, by using it to catch unloyals? is his position not keeping him far, far away from someone he may perhaps love, just as fuyou was, that she had to trick the system to be together with the one she chose?

the rear palace is a cage, and jinshi is the prisoner in its ninth circle.

By reading the light novel, I've come to realize some other stuff about Jinshi's character that I think are pretty interesting.

For example, how his beauty, the one that he constantly takes advantage of, is the main source to all this unwanted attention. Be it people who fawn at him from afar or those who directly catcall him—the only think that he deems worth something from himself is the same that affects him the most.

I might be going in circles with this, I could also be explaining myself like utter shit (don't mind my melting brain, I'm dying of heat), but I just find his character to be just so... interesting. Don't think the anime has touched upon Jinshi in such a way just yet? Hopefully they'll get to it in the second cour.

[the-quiet-youve-been-longing-for]

Okay time for another small (I hope) analysis on IWTV, mainly the way it's written and its place on current television. I'll try my best to format this so it's not ramblings all over, I promise.

IWTV and plot points

I watched a good amount of television in my time, and one thing I noticed here is the fact that it doesn't hold your hand. It doesn't tell you "hey, this thing x is important, now we will tell again why x is important, now here see x being used, the important thing we talked about so far, did you remember, audience?".

Let's take as an example the "don't drink the blood of the living" thing. It's said to a young Louis (telling also to the audience in the 2nd episode how vampirism in this setting works) and then every time it's brought up it's indirectly (Lestat spitting out the sick man's blood, we see Claudia buying Laudanum and we know what it will be used for, but they don't tell us "Hey, Claudia is planning to poison someone so that Lestat drinks it, because remember audience, dead blood kills them"). Sometimes not only it doesn't hold your hand, but shoves you in a different direction, especially in S2. It contradicts himself, backtracks and then it's up to you to spot it.

For example, attentive viewers may have noticed that Sam was in 2 places at once in the trial, one episode before the actual reveal. It isn't a gotcha they came up with in the finale to give more gravitas to the revelation. When they tell us Lestat mass manipulated the audience, it makes sense for the storyline too because we already saw him do that with the soldiers, we have a previous example to refer to, Armand never used that particular power.

In a time where we see so many social media adopt the "short videos" gimmick, like reels and shorts etc, having a piece of media that references back in this way is super refreshing.

2. Character complexity

Complex characters are the backbone of this show. It's easy to place a character in a box and leave them there. You see it with the stereotype of the villain, the best friend, the hero. Some tv shows may have the character shift into a different box, but it's almost never permanent (think of the times where a hero gets corrupted by the Evil Power, but then reverts back to their hero status after Defeating the Evil Power because they remembered the Power of Friendship).

We have Louis, well meaning vampire who is capable of horrible deeds when pushed to the brink. Lestat, who feels so much to the point it hurts the people around him. Armand, whose trauma and fear bring out the need to control, but at the same time he needs to do that without actually controlling. They are all these things at the same time, and it's impossible to see them in a black and white perspective.

3. Details

A line almost always has its parallels to another line in the show, gazes always mean something, props are detailed and shown (I made a post looking at Daniel's notes in 2x05, which were shown for a second only, but you can also think about Claudia's diaries, all handwritten, or the astonishing amount of folders that were in Daniels computer from the Talamasca. That is all prop work done to be shown for a few seconds at most).

4. Analysis

This is more of a fandom thing than the show itself, but I was suprised by the amount of deep analysis that people here on Tumblr did (but also on other social media). Long essays on the meaning of a scene, or on the many many topics the show brings to light (the fallacy of memory, the impact of trauma, the meaning of free will and agency).

Similarly lots of people said that the show brought them back the urge to start creating, whether it's gifs, video essays, edits, fanart, fics, what have you. I started going back to Tumblr after years (last time I was here was during S4 of Sherlock).

And I feel like this is only possible if you give your audience something to work with, something to talk about and to dissect, rather than simple "entertainment".

5. Final thoughts

Of course, this isn't to say IWTV is error free, all perfect, without flaws. Nor is it the only one that has had this amount of labor and impact. But it's still miles ahead from most media we have available at the moment in my opinion, and I really hope its success brings other showrunners or directors to want to try and dare, to trust in their audience, to avoid shortcuts and to pour love in their creation.

If you got this far, I just want to thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings again! Have a cute Louis as a reward, and see you next time :)

[jasperhaleobsessed]

Comfort

Jasper Hale x Female Reader requested by anon.

Summary: Hi, I don’t know if this breaks your rules, but I just started my period and it’s really been beating me up! I went looking for some fanfics of Jasper Hale comforting a femreader while she’s on her period. I know Jasper has issues with blood, but seeing the reader in pain may help with him get over that to help her? I don’t know I just need some comfort/fluff because I’m in pain lol. Thank you <3

Notes: I hope I fulfilled what you wanted but if you would like me to write it in a different way or something else let me know! I tried to get it done today since you sounded like you needed it! Also anon I hope you feel better, I know it sucks I've been there and done that! Hope you enjoy! <3 May contain spelling errors sorry!

Warnings: Talks of periods, cramps, tylenol, etc, etc, etc.

Word count: 1k

Y/N’s POV

I was hunched over rubbing my stomach hoping that it would relieve some of my pain. Currently I am experiencing awful cramps due to my period and to say the least it sucks. I decided to get up and get some medicine to hopefully ease some of my pain.

I walked slowly downstairs. My joints and other parts of my body ached so my movement wasn’t as swift or steady as it normally would be. I decided not to dwell on that fact and headed for the kitchen to get some tylenol. I want to feel better as soon as possible so the sooner I can take this medicine the better. As I walked into the kitchen My mom smiled at me sympathetically, “How are you feeling honey?” She asked.

“Not great.” I mumbled. She leaned forward and kissed the top of my forehead, “I hope you feel better sweetheart. I’ll be in the living room if you need anything.”

“Thanks mom.” I gave her a weak smile.

I grabbed a cup from the cupboard, poured some water in it, and quickly grabbed the tylenol bottle and headed to my bedroom. As I was walking upstairs I swore I heard something but I looked around and there was nothing there. I peeked in the hall area and downstairs and again nothing was there. I felt like I was going crazy. Why did I hear? I felt annoyed but decided to just get back to my comfy bed and to not worry.

I positioned the tylenol in my arm so I could push my door open and it made a creeking sound as it opened wider. I saw something that made my heart leap out of my chest. Jasper. He was sitting on my bed, his back was straight and his general posture seemed rigid like he was in pain. What's wrong? I guess he was the one I thought I saw. But why'd he gotta scare me like that? Something is wrong. Definitely very wrong.

I carefully step into my room. My heart was beating rapidly. He quickly turned to meet my gaze. His eyes were coal black. I put my water and tylenol on my nightstand. “Are you okay?” He asked, his expression was full of worry. But his expression also conveyed pain.

“I'm fine Jazz.” I croaked. My voice came out a lot less smooth than I would have liked. He immediately moved to my side cupping my cheek, his face was inches away from mine. “Please don't lie to me. Something is wrong, I can feel it.” His eyes darted around, looking me over worryingly.

He spoke up again, “I can smell blood but I don't see anything physically wrong?” He sounded like he was talking to himself rather than me.

I grasped his arm, I had finally caught on. “Jasper this is kind of embarrassing but um…”

“But what?” He questioned. I stayed quiet for a minute. He sent a wave of calm emotions through me. He caressed my cheek lovingly and encouragingly.

“I'm on my period that is why you smell blood.” I felt my cheeks flush. He sighed, “I'm glad you're not injured or dying.” He rubbed my hair affectionately. “Me too.” I murmured. I hugged him tightly, wrapped my arms around his waist.

My breathing calmed after a minute. I stayed quiet for a second but then spoke up and said, “Perhaps you should go. I don't want you to overexert yourself.”

“You want me to go?” He asked, he looked hurt.

“Well no of course not. I can just tell you're hungry and-” He cut me off.

“Are you scared of me?”

“No, I'm not scared of you! I will never be scared of you. I just don't want you to feel like you have to stay when you need to feed. I don't want you to feel like you have to stay. I don't wanna be a burden. “

“You will never be a burden. Yes I should probably go but I am not leaving you all alone when you need me.”

He then continued, “Now get into the bed so I can cuddle you.” I beamed at him. I moved to my soft bed and he moved to the other side. I snuggle into his chest. I felt content, perfectly at ease as if I felt no stabbing pain in my stomach.

Silence filled the air and I couldn't help but think back to the conversation we had only minutes ago. And suddenly I thought, “Why'd you scare me?” I asked.

“What do you mean scare you? I thought you said I didn't scare you?” He questioned, he suddenly moved his shoulders away as if he would move at any moment.

“Oh not that I meant why were you sneaking around?” I mentally smacked my forehead. I should have elaborated.

“Oh that I never meant to scare ya. Sorry Darlin’ that was not my intention.” I giggled at him.

“What's so funny Missy?” He questions with a quirked eyebrow.

“You!” I say with a goofy smile.

“Really?” He questions, but then he suddenly a smirk appears on his beautiful features. He started to tickle my sides and I let out more soft giggles and squeals.

“How come you came? Did you know I was hurt or something?” I asked.

“Alice started to tell me but I didn't let her finish.” He looked at me sheepishly. I let out another giggle. “I heard something was wrong so I came as fast as I could even if I could risk hurting you I had to make sure you were alright.”

He then continued, “If anything were to happen to you I don't know what I'd do.” He lifted my chin to meet his gaze. I felt my heart skip a beat as I looked into his honey colored eyes. A smile graced his face and he slowly leaned forward and kissed my lips.

After a minute I moved away and said, “Nothing is going to happen to me. Clearly me breathing and snuggling into your chest is testament to that. You do have control, you just have to have more faith in yourself. Give yourself more credit, love.” His smile widened and he hugged me softly, I already felt much better. I felt at peace in his strong arms that wrapped around my figure. My eyes started to feel tired and I laid my head against his chest and I fell into a blissful sleep. I guess I didn't need tylenol after all, all I needed was my angel of a boyfriend.

The End

[brucebocchi]

Spring 2024 anime, Pt. 1: Ongoing/returning shows and the bench

yo! i also post this on my ko-fi! this is very much a labor of love, so if you liked what i wrote consider throwing a few bucks my way! thanks!

And we are back! This one came a little later because I'm much busier now than I was three months ago, but that's a good thing. It'll be a bit longer before I cover last season's new anime, so bear with me. I'm happy to say, though, that I didn't hate anything I watched this season! So there's that.

As always, the OP is linked in the title of each show. Check them out, there were some good ones this season!

Here we go:

Continuing & returning shows:

Delicious in Dungeon, second cour

Ahh, Dungeon Meshi. At the start of my review of its debut cour, I said that Dungeon Meshi is a difficult anime for me to talk about unprompted because it’s such a complete, self-assured work that saying anything about it besides “PLEASE WATCH THIS ANIME IT’S SO FUCKING GOOD” feels like a fait accompli. After twelve more episodes and spending the better part of a weekend binging the entire manga, I’m left with little else to say besides please watch this anime (and read the manga), it’s so fucking good.

Our adventuring party has managed to slay (and cook) the red dragon and resurrect Falin from its belly, but the victory came at a cost: They have managed to not only invoke the ire of the dungeon’s ruler, the “lunatic magician” Thistle, but Marcille’s use of forbidden resurrection magic has also raised another number of hackles. Reunions aren’t all happy ones and the dungeon is getting weirder.

This line break represents where I wanted to add so much more and just kept falling short. This continues to be an exceptional adaptation of an exceptional manga. For all the silly gags, for all the goofy potshots everyone takes at each other, Dungeon Meshi is a series with a beating heart worn permanently on its sleeve. The group dynamic remains superb, and no less so for the standoffish half-girl-half-cat Izutsumi joining the gang (my joy at seeing her added to the OP was indescribable). The ways in which everything interconnects make up only a fraction of this series’ unmatched worldbuilding; much hay has been made about how Ryoko Kui designed the dungeon as a living, breathing ecosystem, but there’s so much more of that within the human element as well, and the latter aspect looks to only improve when the show returns for the next season.

Dungeon Meshi is, without question, the best anime of 2024 so far, and I will be impressed if anything manages to overtake it in this year’s latter half. The manga became one of my favorites in record time, and I have little doubt that by the end of the second (and almost certainly final) season, one of my favorite anime of all time will indeed be Dungeon Meshi. Ahh, Dungeon Meshi.

KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World!, season 3

When I reviewed last year’s Megumin-centric spinoff, I mentioned that I’m not quite as high on KonoSuba as other anime fans. I always thought it was a perfectly serviceable comedy isekai, nothing too special, but mostly worth the watch. Even after the letdown that was An Explosion on this Wonderful World! last year, I was still looking forward to the long-overdue third season. And pretty much as expected, what we got was fine. Just fine.

That said, I was instantly delighted to see Megumin once again surrounded by Kazuma, Aqua, and Darkness. And as is frequently the case when those four are together, shit goes south fast. Kazuma, hoping to heal the mental wounds he incurred in the Legend of Crimson film, gets his groove back when he’s invited to regale the adorable Princess Iris with tales of his exploits. As a noble herself, Darkness is mortified throughout this ordeal, scrambling to ensure that Kazuma doesn’t get beheaded for being a loudmouthed freak, and also that Aqua and Megumin don’t accidentally burn the palace down in their revelry. 

KonoSuba gets a lot of comparisons to It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, in that both are ensemble comedies in which the entire main group consists of awful people who don’t entirely like or trust one another. It’s a fair enough comparison, but what makes the group dynamic work for both shows is that the moral center is never a fixed point; the “voice of reason” among either group changes along with the situation to ensure the comedy stays fresh. And the fact that Lalatina Dustiness goddamn Ford has to be the voice of reason for the majority of this season should mortify you.

Darkness losing her mind aside, I didn’t really care for this arc. There was some interesting worldbuilding happening toward the middle of the season, but Kazuma acting way too eager about having a tiny, prepubescent girl calling him “onii-chan” just made my skin crawl, and I’m otherwise pretty much immune to the bog-standard “hey, laugh at this man because he’s a pervert” anime trope at this point. Fortunately, it only lasted for half the season, but unfortunately, it still felt an episode or two too long. The second half of the season followed Darkness’ forced betrothal to a gross noble from an earlier episode, and that arc also felt an episode or two too long.

Season 3 felt like KonoSuba both at its best and worst. The character dynamics are as rich as ever, even as Aqua and Megumin largely fell to the margins in favor of the larger stories. The smaller moments with the main four just bumming around their mansion are always just as entertaining as their larger exploits. The narrative seems to want to continue pushing Kazuma and Megumin together, nurturing the seeds planted in the movie, but later episodes also make a pretty good case for Kazuma and Darkness getting together; for better and for worse, those two absolutely match one another’s freak. Some of the gags this season were pretty darn good as well: This anime’s facials are already the stuff of legend, and we got some bangers here too (see above). For as loud as it often got, there were a few gags that centered on prolonged, uncomfortable silences like a late episode of Evangelion. And for as bored as I started to grow with the last arc, the punchline at the very end of the season almost made the whole thing worth it.

On the other hand, this show somehow got noisier. Some of Explosion’s funnier moments last year came from Megumin’s shrieking outbursts, so Studio Drive (taking over the main series from Deen) seemed to think that everyone needed to yell all the time now. It felt jarring; like watching season 4 of SpongeBob for the first time. I’m also not impressed by the fact that this series still seems to think sexual assault is just the funniest when it happens to men. It was a serious lowlight of the Legend of Crimson movie, and it just seemed to double down this time for a completely unnecessary segment in which Kazuma helps Dust get back at a creep, only for it to backfire on Dust and only on Dust. That shit sucks!

At the same time, it’s still KonoSuba, so ESH. If you made it this far, you’re pretty much along for the ride until it breaks down, so you take the good with the bad. Neither particularly outweighs the other, nor are they enough to push me towards declaring this show as either essential or unwatchable. It’s KonoSuba, and KonoSuba is fine.

Laid-Back Camp, season 3

The reigning champion of Cute Girls Doing Cute Things anime returns to the present day after the 10-years-later film, and it’s in fighting shape. Though the third season of Yuru Camp (another anime I refuse to call by its official English title) is in the hands of a new studio, it’s still full to bursting with all the gorgeous countryside scenery, tantalizing food porn, and whimsical music you’ve come to expect by now.

This is one that was on my backlog for the better part of a couple years, so I figured there was no better time to catch up than to time it with a new season hitting the air. Through two seasons and an original movie, Yuru Camp was peak slice-of-life: Low on conflict, heavy on cuteness, and brimming with personality. It does what it says on the tin; it’s a show about high school girls going camping, and by God are you getting high school girls going camping. And in the meantime, you, the viewer, get to learn the ins and outs of camping while discovering all these real-life, lovely spots along the Japanese countryside with Mt. Fuji always in view, and maybe help boost the local tourism economies once you go outside and touch grass.

The previous two seasons largely followed the girls’ exploits at school and out in the open as individuals and smaller groups before building to a big destination trip with all five of them, but season 3 takes a more, uh, laid-back approach. The first half follows Rin’s bike trip along with Nadeshiko’s hometown bestie, Ayano, until they meet up with Nadeshiko after her own solo excursion. We also get a quick peek at a heavily-fictionalized retelling of Chiaki, Aoi, and Ena’s outing with Toba-sensei, as well as a cherry blossom viewing trip with Nadeshiko and her sister, before the girls all come together once more for a nighttime hanami outing. It’s more of the same, and that’s exactly what you’re here for.

That said, the character work is the glue that holds Yuru Camp together, and it’s as wonderful as ever. Rin and Nadeshiko’s friendship remains a delight, and Hazel covered it better and more succinctly than I ever could in the Yuru Camp segment in her phenomenal video on countryside scenery in anime. Watching Rin bond with Ayano one-on-one on their own trip was a real highlight; they’d hit it off quickly in the first season, and it was lovely seeing Ayano working at Rin’s go-to bike shop in the movie, so I was overjoyed to see more of these two. More than anything, though, seeing a habitual loner like Rin connect so naturally with another person (and one who isn’t Nadeshiko, no less) just warms my cold, dead heart. The looser plotting also gives us the time and space to take in how the girls individually spend their downtime. Nadeshiko’s quickly becoming as much of an expert solo traveler as Rin, and her youthful enthusiasm about everything remains as endearing as ever. We even get to watch her becoming a train nerd in real time! 

At the same time, the communal aspect of camping is a huge part of what makes this show click. Part of that, of course, has been watching Rin’s social circle expanding, but also in seeing how readily campers observe and aid one another. Nobody is “the best” at camping (except maybe Rin’s granddad), so none of the campers in this show have any reservations about going out of their way to help one another. Even an expert solo camper like Rin was a greenhorn at one point, so she’s always happy to give and receive help. The various campers the girls run into along their journeys are always ready with local information about good spots to eat, relax, and take in a good view as well. Even camping on your own, you’re never truly alone.

In that same vein, Yuru Camp is as educational as ever. Along the girls’ travels, we learn plenty about the myriad suspension bridges over the Oi River drainage basin, the various types of passenger trains connecting the countryside, torii gates along the mountains, and clever ways to build a camping menu around local crops. Yes, Yuru Camp is as much food porn as it is nature porn, and the dishes are sumptuous. On that note, my favorite thing I learned this season came from Nadeshiko’s drooling outbursts during the other OutClub girls’ camp retelling: It turns out that there’s an equivalent Japanese colloquialism to what we call food porn, specifically in the act of taunting people about delicious food they can’t have right now, and that is “meshitero,” or “food terrorism.” That is just terrific.

Yuru Camp is in the hands of a new studio for its third season, and the difference is mostly negligible. This is a show that trades largely in vibes, and the vibes remain impeccable. Almost everything still looks and sounds great, but season 3 leans a little more heavily on CG for moving bikes and cars, and they do look markedly worse. Not immersion-shattering, but definitely distracting. The scenery largely looks less hand-painted in favor of a more photorealistic style, which does make me wonder about the actual level of artistry put into it, but that could just be me splitting hairs. Otherwise, it still looks like Yuru Camp, which is all you can ask for.

This show still rules though. I don’t often get intense in my praise of slice-of-life anime, and the ones that get me acting like that are the ones that go to wild lengths for the sake of a joke, like Nichijou and Kaguya-sama. I don’t know what it is about a show as lowkey as Yuru Camp that has me wanting to scream from the rooftops that “THIS FUCKING SHOW WHIPS ASS,” but I’m not questioning it. Maybe it’s cuteness aggression.

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation, season 2, part 2

And we’re back with more of the best-made anime that I can’t recommend in good faith to just about anyone.

The latter half of season 2 surrounds Rudeus’ aims for a quiet domestic life, settling down with Sylphiette and at the request of his father, Paul, taking his little sisters Aisha and Norn into their home (along with a very welcome reunion with their escort). Aisha takes after her mother, Lilia, and is eager to please and help around the house, but Norn’s last memory of Rudeus is of his violent reunion with their father. Norn idolizes Paul, so she doesn’t trust Rudeus and refuses to open up to him. While Aisha is content with working around the house, Norn wants to keep her distance, so she decides to enroll and board at the magic academy.

Norn’s apprehension towards Rudy and the mental anguish it causes her becomes an isolating factor in her daily life, leading Rudeus to believe that she’s being bullied, much as he was in his previous life. Rudy’s attempts at sticking up for his sister fall flat and lead him to realize he’s been projecting on her this entire time rather than actually reaching out to her. It’s these moments of learning and unlearning that nearly make all of this worth it; this was easily one of the best episodes of Mushoku Tensei’s second season, and frankly one of the best episodes of anime I watched all season. Another episode near the end also earned that distinction, but it got weird afterwards. Even in its lower moments, this season traded very well in the themes of family, growth, and loss, and those aren’t always tidy subjects to handle.

Because this is Mushoku Tensei, the cozy home life can’t last forever. Paul’s attempts at saving his wife have continued to fall short, so he calls on Rudeus and Elinalise to come and help rescue Zenith. Rudeus is conflicted; though he finally has the opportunity to save his mother and face his father as a man, Sylphie is now pregnant and he doesn’t want to abandon his wife and future child. As often happens at times like this, Rudy gets some face time with the Man-God who has been seemingly invested in his journey, and for once Rudy flouts his advice to venture out. Many reunions are had, including one that had been teased all season, and a lot of things go south from there. I was spoiled on some of what would happen in later parts of the series, so it didn’t come as a massive shock to me, but it still got weird, it wasn’t really addressed all that well, and people were rightfully put off by it.

On that note, I’ve given up on the idea of this series being about Rudeus improving as a person, because he’s done just about as much “improving” as he’s going to by now. As I’ve said before, he’s not quite the drooling pervert he used to be (he was actually doing great for more than half of this cour before a succubus attack briefly got the better of him), but his moral compass, even in his best moments, still seems to be poorly calibrated. I do see a side of him now that genuinely cares for others and actively wants to help, but it doesn’t erase his questionable acts, nor do I get any sense that he deserves to get the things he wants. I particularly don’t care for what’s already looking like a formula wherein sex seems to be his cosmic reward whenever he hits a low point or achieves something great. For a series that genuinely has such excellent worldbuilding and storytelling, that part feels cheap enough to undermine everything else.

But hey, a rapist died, so it’s not all bad.

I’m not sure I’d necessarily put Mushoki Tensei on the level of Frieren or Dungeon Meshi, certainly not thematically, but with all three off the air this upcoming Summer season, it’s been a minute since we’ve had a season of anime without one of those three lovingly-made fantasy series on the air. It feels like anime has a massive fantasy void now, and I desperately hope I’m proven wrong soon.

Urusei Yatsura (2022), season 2, second cour

The final run of the remade Urusei Yatsura ended on a strong note with an honest-to-God story arc! Lum and Ataru’s tempestuous situationship is put into stark relief with the fate of the world in the balance, except not really; Lum just wants him to think that because she’s fed up with his shit and that’s just how she operates.

Even as disjointed as this run has been prior to the final arc, there were still some gems this season. The time-travel segment where the gang tries to undo Mendo’s fear of the dark was a certified banger, Asuka’s violent androphobia is as funny as ever, and the introduction of Nagisa as a means of further muddying Ryunosuke’s whole gender situation was the most quintessentially Rumiko Takahashi shit I’ve ever seen. It’s the character comedy that makes Urusei Yatsura what it is just as much as the central will-they-won’t-they, and it was just as potent as always before the series hurtled towards its finale.

The four-episode arc to close out the all-stars run, similarly to the final arc of the manga and the final movie of the original anime run, centers on a blowup between our romantic leads over a colossal misunderstanding (sasuga Takahashi-sensei) involving a unilaterally-fated marriage between Lum and the prince of a dark planet, Rupa. Though Ataru and fellow dark-planeter Karula (basically Rupa’s own equivalent Lum) foil the wedding, a carbon copy of Lum created to ensure a proper exchange of vows tells Ataru that she’s over him. Ataru’s feelings are genuinely hurt, and he tells the real Lum that they’re through, and he returns to Earth with Karula, accidentally spreading spores of the dark planet’s enormous mushrooms.

Said mushrooms rapidly grow enormous when exposed to sunlight, so Earth is already in certain danger. Lum sees an opportunity to manipulate convince Ataru to finally get serious, so she sets familiar stakes: She’ll enlist Rupa’s help in destroying the mushrooms, but only if Ataru can beat her in a ten-day game of tag by grabbing her horns, just like when they first met. More importantly, though, she’ll let it all go if he can just say out loud that he loves her. And you know damn well by now that these two are both as stubborn as they come.

As I’ve said before, this is a shorter run, so we may not have the benefit of the entirety of Urusei Yatsura up to this point to be properly salivating for the finale, but I’ll be damned if it didn’t still hit like a freight train. The emotional climax was still meaty and satisfying in ways that made all of this worth it. Half of the joke of this series is that Ataru’s never going to get serious about Lum in a way that matters, but every time the mask slips is a well-earned shot to the heart. The ending is no different, and it made the shorter run still feel worthwhile.

And with that, that’s a wrap on a modern (if truncated) retelling of a legendary comedy manga. I’ll be forever grateful to this iteration of Urusei Yatsura for finally pushing me into getting into Rumiko Takahashi’s classic works, and I’m beyond excited that there’s also a Ranma ½ remake on the way. If David Production takes that one on as well, it’ll be in great hands.

Anime I Watched Two Episodes of and Will Probably Get Back to Later

I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince So I Can Take My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability

I mean, you read the title.

This is less an isekai and more of a lateral reincarnation story; magic already very much exists in this fantasy kingdom, but this is about a guy who is very obsessed with magic but sucked at it suddenly gaining a wealth of talent and the opportunity to go absolutely sicko mode.

Lloyd’s existing knowledge of magic serves him well, and he becomes a virtuoso at a young age. He manages to subjugate a demon lurking in the palace’s library and turn him into an adorable familiar (and having the demon go from being voiced by Akio Otsuka to Fairouz Ai was a brilliant move) and just terrorize the poor little shit with his experiments and travails. The kid could basically do a Hollow Purple by the second episode. He’s kind of psychotic, and I love that for him.

This is definitely a comedy, but the comedy is kind of all over the place early on. Prince Lloyd is surrounded by beautiful young ladies-in-waiting who, uh, seem way too into him, and that kinda sucks. Lloyd himself is drawn and animated a little too lovingly for a child as well. It’s definitely uncomfortable in parts early on, but I’ve heard it lightens up on that and gets crazier in the parts that matter, so I’ll be coming back.

And it started with a menacing monologue from Takehito Koyasu himself, so of course my interest was piqued from the jump.

Oblivion Battery

It’s weird, I love both anime and sports, but sports anime was just something I never sought out too much until I picked up Blue Box recently (also please read Blue Box, it whips ass and the anime is gonna be incredible). Oblivion Battery’s debut coincided with the start of the American baseball season, so it seemed like a great time to hop in.

I can’t say I was too intrigued by the premise, though. The intentionally generically-named Taro Yamada quit baseball after middle school after getting utterly rinsed by the high-powered battery of pitcher Haruka Kiyomine and catcher Kei Kaname, so he enrolls in a high school without a baseball club, only to find that his classmates are… Haruka and Kei. Kei, as it turns out, took a bad hit to the head and has completely forgotten all about baseball, and now spends all of his time trying to be a comedy boke for unwilling participants. Taro and Haruka would like Kei to learn about baseball again, so they start up a new club, alongside other classmates who also quit baseball because of the titular battery.

Fine premise, but eh. The hook wasn’t enough of a hook for me, and even MAPPA handling the animation didn’t keep my attention for long. I’ll probably get back to it eventually, but I ended up watching plenty of other anime this season that felt like higher priorities.

Also, I’m pretty sure Oblivion Battery’s manga introduced a character named Aoi Todo before Jujutsu Kaisen did. I still prefer the latter.

YATAGARASU: The Raven Does Not Choose its Master

See, this one I probably should’ve picked up sooner, because it seems like it’s very much my jam, and I’ve seen plenty of praise for it. It’s a dense one, though, and I’d rather not cram it just to turn around and review it a few days later.

I won’t even go into the details because even two episodes in, there are darn near too many of them. This is a massive ensemble cast in and around a succession battle in a fictionalized, imperial Japan-esque kingdom created and ruled by yokai. We’ve got a battle of brides-to-be vying for the hand of an embattled prince, a cunning but resentful empress overseeing the proceedings, a possible spy or two, and a rambunctious little shit who looks like he got plucked out of Avatar: The Last Airbender getting roped into working in the palace. It’s a lot of moving parts, but I’m curious to see how they tie together.

Two episodes in and this show looks good, but probably not as great as it could. I know I’m spoiled on The Apothecary Diaries, but something like this already feels like it deserves better than some of the stiff character animation I saw early on. I’ll reserve my judgments for now.

YATAGARASU is continuing into the summer season, so I’ll take my time catching up on it. This one feels like it deserves to be sipped slowly, not chugged, and I’ll have my tasting notes in due time.

[softguarnere]

Hi, Dove!

I really love all your one-shots and headcanons! I haven’t read your OC work, but when I get the time, I’m super excited to start it.

Can I request a one-shot with Roe treating a soldier who he finds out is actually a girl disguised as a man, and her making him swear not to tell anyone? (Can be platonic or romantic). Possibly some little bits of conversation in French if it’s not too difficult? I won’t judge if you use Google translate😂French is hard.

No pressure, of course

Have a great day!

Where There is Injury

Eugene Roe x reader

A/N: (This is written for the fictional depiction from the show - no disrespect to the real veterans!) Hello friend! Thanks so much for sending in another request 🤗 I'm so glad you've enjoyed my other writing, so I hope you'll like this as well! I haven't spoken French in years, so this is most likely riddled with mistakes, but I tried haha. You have a great day as well! 💕 Warnings, PLEASE READ: this fic contains misgendering until the reader's secret is revealed, please do not read if that may be triggering for you! Also contains mentions of war, injury, and blood

“Medic!”

For what feels like the thousandth time, the word is screamed out into the woods, echoing off the charred stubs of trees as they attempt to reach the man who holds that job. One word, two syllables, yet so much responsibility tied to the title. So much pain on both the part of the person screaming and the person being screamed for.

It should be second nature by this point, with how often since arriving in Bastogne people have been wounded, been calling for help. There’s hardly ever a time when Eugene isn’t on the move, sprinting between foxholes and doing his best to dodge German artillery fire as he heads for whoever needs him – and all with little to no supplies.

Yet somehow, he finds that he has to urge and instruct himself on each next step. Vous vous levez, Eugene. Tu cours maintenant, Eugene. Tu aides les gens, Eugene.

And there he goes, boots crunching the snow underfoot as he runs toward the voice that calls for him. Pieces of the prayer that his mémère taught him as a child run through the back of his mind as he goes.

Seigneur, faites de moi un instrument de votre paix.

It’s Skinny Sisk. A piece of shrapnel has pierced his leg. Frank Perconte is trying to keep him still while he calls for a medic. Relief briefly flashes across his face when he sees Eugene appear.

“Save the morphine, Doc!” Sisk insists through gritted teeth. “I can make it.”

“You sure?”

Sisk hesitates. Then he nods, resolving himself to his fate as Eugene and Perconte raise him from the foxhole, adjusting their grip on him as they rush him towards the Jeep that’s arriving.

Là où il y a de la haine, que je mette l'amour.

Sisk screams in pain as Eugene and Perconte stumble forward. His wounded leg hits the ground first, even though they scramble to pick him up as quickly as they can.

“Aw, Jesus, Skinny, you got blood all over my trousers!” Perconte scolds.

“Gee, I’m real sorry, Frank!” Sisk hisses.

Là où il y a l'offense, que je mette le pardon.

They load Sisk onto the Jeep. Eugene starts to climb in after him. He hasn’t seen the town yet, but he needs whatever supplies they may be willing to spare, and he should make sure that Sisk gets there safely.

“Sorry,” the driver says, pressing a hand to Eugene’s chest to stop him from climbing in the vehicle.

Là où il y a la discorde, que je mette l'union.

He doesn’t argue. The company is desperate for supplies, but he’ll have to find some other way to get what they need. Instead he nods to the driver, stuffs his hands into his pockets to warm them, and starts back to his foxhole.

Là où il y a l'erreur, que je mette –

Gene stops in his tracks. In the snow at his feet there are spatters of blood staining the fresh white crystals that fell the night before. With the shellings that have happened this morning, it wouldn’t be so unusual, except that as far as he knows, no one out this way has been hit this morning. Even more curious is that when he stops walking, silencing the crunching of snow under his boots, he can hear fast breathing and the occasional groan coming from nearby.

His medic brain springs into action at once. Following the blood in the snow, Gene arrives at a foxhole that holds one person. The man sitting inside the earth is so preoccupied with trying to mop up the blood coming from his arm with a threadbare blanket that he doesn’t even notice Gene’s arrival until he drops down into the foxhole with him.

It’s (Y/L/N), one of the few Toccoa men that are left. His (Y/E/C) eyes go wide when Gene lands next to him, and he scrambles backwards, trying to get away, despite the fact that there’s nowhere for him to go.

“(Y/L/N), what happened?” Gene asks. He extends a hand. “Let me see.”

“No!” (Y/L/N) exclaims, trying in vain once again to push himself out of Gene’s reach. The word is harsh and said in a tone that Gene has never heard (Y/L/N) use before, but he ascribes all of that to the pain. (Y/L/N) must catch it too, though, because he clears his throat and says more calmly, “No, Doc, it’s nothing.”

Blood is seeping into the blanket he’s pressing to his arm. His eyes are wide and frantic. Gene supposes that he would most likely have a similar reaction if he found himself injured in this place. As much as he can empathize with (Y/L/N)’s reaction, he also needs to stand firm and help his fellow paratrooper.

“(Y/L/N), you gotta let me see,” Gene insists. He manages to remove the blanket from where it’s pressed against (Y/L/N)’s arm. Through the dark blood that stains the fabric of his sleeve, Gene can barely make out a horizontal gash along the other man’s arm. “I know it’s cold, but we need to take off your jacket so I can see your arm. Spina might – “

“No!” (Y/L/N)’s voice is low and harsh this time as he interrupts. “I don’t need Spina. I don’t need anything. It’s not that bad.”

“(Y/L/N), you’ve got blood everywhere! I can’t tell how bad it is unless you let me help you!”

“And then I’ll get sent to some aid station, and then they’ll send me home, or to jail, or worse.”

 Most of the men are willing to admit that they don’t like being sent to the aid station. (Y/L/N)’s reluctance to be sent there isn’t unusual. What is unusual are the other possibilities listed: jail or worse. Why would a wounded soldier be sent to jail? And what could be worse?

Eugene’s confusion must show on his face, because (Y/L/N) blinks, mouth falling shut, as if surprised by his own words. Whatever is happening here, it’s clearly much more than just a wounded arm.

“What do you mean by that?” Eugene ventures.

(Y/L/N) winces then, drawing a shaky breath, grip tightening on his arm. When he looks back up at Eugene, something has changed. His gaze softens, as does his voice, and his eyes are a little watery, though Eugene politely pretends not to notice the last part.

“I don’t want to come off the line,” (Y/L/N) says.

“That depends on how serious that is,” Eugene asserts, nodding to the wounded arm. “You gotta let me help you.”

They’re losing what might be precious time, yet (Y/L/N) still hesitates. Finally, he draws a deep breath and nods.

“Alright. Take off your jacket so that I can see how bad it is.”

Slowly, (Y/L/N) removes his jacket, wincing as he moves his injured arm. Jumping into action, Eugene helps him shrug out of it, not willing to lose more time or more blood because of a disagreement. They’ve just managed to remove the coat when Eugene feels (Y/L/N)’s gaze on him, heavy and challenging. What? he starts to ask when finally, he sees the reason for (Y/L/N) not wanting to remove his coat.

Or should he say, her coat.

“Oh.” He sits back on his heels, his brain rushing to connect all the information that’s just come at him in these past few minutes. (Y/L/N)’s insistence that Roe leave her alone, her assertion that something bad could happen to her, the bandages around her chest . . .

Il n'y a pas de temps pour ça, he reminds himself, once again instructing himself on what to do next. Réparer ce bras. Posez vos questions plus tard.

Luckily for the both of them, the wounds on (Y/L/N)’s arm aren’t that serious – a few gashes from shrapnel, but nothing that needs stitching up. For her sake, Eugene tries to keep the mood light when he finishes bandaging her up. “I’ll make sure you get a Purple Heart for it.”

Shrugging back into her coat, (Y/L/N) offers him a tight-lipped smile. Several times she draws a breath as if to speak, only to stop herself, allowing the foxhole to remain in its vacuum of silence.

“I won’t tell anyone, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Eugene finally assures her. This must have been what she was worried about, because relief washes over her face, although its quickly replaced with a suspicious brow raise.

“Why not?”

“Well, why would I?” Really, why would he? It’s none of his business. Not really. Besides, if (Y/L/N) has made it all the way from Toccoa to Bastogne with this secret, then she’s pretty good at keeping it. It’s been years, after all, and Eugene never would have suspected. And, he reasons, to give up her life to disguise herself as a man and become a paratrooper – well, that’s definitely taken some guts, whatever her reasons. Reasons that he doesn’t know, but that he’s starting to wonder about.

Ce ne sont pas mes affaires, Eugene reminds himself. Still, though . . .

“Well, thank you,” (Y/L/N) says with a curt nod. Then she lets out a deep sigh, burying her head in her hands. When she emerges again, she has an air of resolve about her. “Would you . . . As long as you’re not going to tell anyone, that is, could you – could you help me keep this secret safe?” She won’t quite meet his gaze when she confesses, “It can get a little lonely.”

Whatever Eugene was expecting her to say, it wasn’t that. But he can understand what she’s talking about, the loneliness of this place. Especially as a medic. “Of course.”

A small smile tugs at the corners of her mouth. Still a little bloody, she extends a hand to him. “(Y/N),” she says. “Nice to properly meet you.”

He shakes her hand in kind; she’s got a very confident handshake. “You as well.”

It really is, he must admit. Strange, how in just a few chance moments, some of the cold loneliness of Bastogne has begun to melt away.

[heartfullofleeches]

Clown reader ! What about yandere manager ?

Clown reader ! My second favourite from Jester reader ( i'm sorry )

( basically a yandere manager ;-;;)

They have their number one fan, whom will always be there at their shows and buying each and every merchandise that got released.

But what about the fan that's been with them for the longest of time ?

Their manager has always been there - since the first day of their debut. And going all the way with them until now !

So why not go grab a meal with their dear manager after the show ? After all, it's just for asking how both have been and some talking.

Nothing could go wrong..

..right ?-

( this is my first time sending an ask so :')) My apologies if it was too long! And i also apologize if I got anything wrong about the character cuz i don't have very good memory ;-;;

I hope this ask get through)

Sincerely,

🎠

You furiously scrub as your face with a wet paper towel as you exit the bathroom. If you had known they were taking you to such a fancy place after today's recording, you would've brought a change of clothes. Walking back to the table, wandering eyes follow the colorful corners peaking from your coat. You do your best to hide them. A fellow customer from a neighboring table lifts their phone to take a picture of you as you sit; camera lens blocked by a menu.

"Sweetheart, there you are! Kept me waiting, but you're lookin stunning as always. I can't tell if I like you more with or without the makeup. Get comfortable, order whatever you want.

You can't help but grin at the nickname. They've been using little pet names since the beginning of your partnership, but they feel more sincere now than the faux kindness that they showered everyone in. It makes you happy to know they see you as someone good to spend time with other than for the paycheck. Your manager hands you the menu; drilling in the notion you could have whatever your little heart decided. With a quick look at the menu, you notice there's no prices next to the entrees.

"Are you sure you don't mind paying? This place seems really high class. We can split it if you like."

Your manager raises their hand to stop you. "Y/n, please. I gotta treat my star player well, plus you deserve the finer things in life. It's my pleasure."

"If you say so... Just kinda feels like someplace you'd take someone on a date."

The thought slips out before you can realize what you've said, but it's no harm on their conscious. Quite the opposite in fact. They fold their hands together.

"Well, like I said, I wanna treat you right. Probably the only person in town who can. Not to mention, ratings for this quarter came in the other night and viewer scores are through the roof. You can think of this as a celebration."

"Really?"

"Would I ever lie to you? Got the papers right here." Your manager places a folder on the table. You don't have to look at it to believe them.

"That's great." You look at your reflection in an empty wine glass, paint smeared into the corner of your lips. "Makes saying goodbye just a little harder."

Your manager chokes on a mouthful of water. "Bye? You're not thinking about leaving us, are you?"

You raise your hands in surrender. "Course not!... Not yet anyway."

You tug on your frilly sleeves. You're happy where you are. That's something you know for sure, but you're not positive it's the life you want anymore. The word is your stage; audience far bigger than you ever could've dreamed, but it's suffocating. Your fans love you. Not just your character, but the face benath. Sometimes it feels like that love goes beyond the screen and fan letters. Sometimes - you feel like you're being followed.

"I... wanted to keep this private until I was sure, but I think I've been followed home before. Obviously I don't want to ruin everything for one person's actions, but I know it's more. On top of that I'm pretty well off financially. This was never for the money, but I just kinda miss things before I got big, you know?"

Of course they know. Your manager knows your story better than any of your little fans could ever imagine, even if they squeeze every detail of your life from everyone in it. They had been with you through it all. Your small failures, and your biggest leaps. It was an insult to think otherwise, and that they'd give up everything you built together.

"Y/n." Your manager reaches across the table to grab your trembling hands. "Everything's going to be fine. We'll get through this - together, and nobody's going to touch a hair on your head. To start off, we're moving you out of that shoebox you call an apartment and getting you a real place to live. You can stay with me until we find something."

You close your eyes, nodding along to their proposal. "Okay... that sounds like a good place to start."

Your manager draws closer, touch working up your arm. Someone taps on your shoulder before they can reach.

"Hi- I really hope I'm not interrupting, but can i take a picture with you? The kids I babysit love the show your costume is of."

You glance at your manager. They're already looking down at their phone. "Sure."

Taking photos with the stranger, your manager is left at the table alone; reliving memories of the past immortalized by old photos. Why did they ever agree to this? If you hadn't got so popular, they wouldn't have to share you with the world, but now they used the grounds of that success to remain stable in their own right. Maybe with you in their home they'd find a new start in your relationship.

Lord knows they'll never let you leave once you're inside.

[yumedoca]

Alright, my fellow UY folks!! Since the new trailer has dropped, why don't we unpack everything they've shown us so far?

Or more specifically, what all chapters are getting adapted in the third cour (only third since they won't reveal footage for the fourth one till the third is over.)!!

Also, ignore the stupid quality since I took the pictures on my phone..

First up is the Kurama - Ran - Rei two-parter!! Nice to see Kurama again since I was worried she would be a one time character since she didn't appear in the eye catches. However, I'm pretty sure this is going to be her last appearance since it's her final appearance in the manga (not counting cameos). It's one of the funnier Kurama chapters, so this will be great fun!!

Next up is the 'Fantasy bubblegum' chapter!! Another one I didn't think which would be adapted since we see Ten order the key item in this chapter in the post credits of the love-love crystal ball episode. Maybe the order was delayed? Or Ten didn't use it till now? Who knows. Anyways, this is a pretty funny chapter and I'm excited to see how it turns out (Also BenOyu yuri, Let's goo!!!)

AtaLum fans, Let's rejoice, because it looks like they're adapting "Love knows no barriers" aka the chapter where Lum gets hit with the rice cooker!!! This one is my favorite singular chapter in the series and I absolutely hated the original anime's version of this one so I hope the remake does this one justice!! I'm not sure whether the first one is from this chapter since Ataru's wearing his school uniform instead of his casuals, but maybe it's because of a few changes here and there. DavidPro, you better not disappoint me considering what the original did.

Looks like we're going to get the chapter which introduces the Ryuunosuke's mom (Masako) saga. I'm not sure whether they'll adapt everything under this saga, but the first one seems to be there. I really like this chapter because we get a wholesome relationship between Ryu and Ataru's mom.

THE BODYSWAP CHAPTER!!! This one comes a bit earlier from what I remember and not to mention, it's pretty hilarious (literally any chapter where Sakura has to deal with Ataru's BS is an A+ for me) so I'm super excited!!

ASUKA, MY CHILD!! IT'S HER!! Finally one of my UY Blorbo's gets animated!! And considering the shot of her and Ton- chan, yes guys, they're keeping the incest. I've never understood why there were some who said they wouldn't adapt it but like, it's one of Asuka's main character points and the incest is clearly portrayed as wrong and unacceptable, similar to Ataru's lecherous behavior (They might still tone it down though). Anyways, I'm so excited for Asuka, I can't wait!!!

And finally, two very beloved and very important arcs!! First, I can't believe we're getting three AtaLum stories in this cour, I mean we deserve it after being fed with only one last cour. And second, I'm pretty sure both these arcs are going to be at least a whole episode long considering how big these two are. And I have to admit, the door realm looks so pretty.. and I'm so excited for Shingo, Inaba and their arcs, can't January come already???

And that's all for it!! Other than these, there were two to three shots I couldn't exactly place which chapter they belong to, so sorry about that. And I wanted to point out that the animation looks quite fluid in some scenes as well, so it looks like DavidPro is doing great work as expected. Anyways, UY is coming back once again on January 11th and I am so ready!! THE HYPE IS REAL!!!

[akoyaxs]

BIG NEWS

Hey hunny bunnies, I'm finally getting somewhere with the rivals to lovers fic my darlings ⛄️ and 🪐 requested (your ideas were very similar so I incorporated them both 😁)

I'm just going to run a little debrief about it and include a tiny little snippet- and we have a BIG decision to make at the end. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this idea and I'm so sorry it took me so long to get onto it but I've finally started writing, I just have a lot to balance between school and tumblr so it might take the end of the week for me to publish the finished thing, I hope that's alright 🙏

Without any further ado: this is my AONUNG X FEM!METKAYINA! WARRIOR!READER TEASER

━━━━⊹⊱≼≽⊰⊹━━━━

It first happened when you were kids. The first time that stupid skxawng beat you, and it never seemed to end. You knew you were just as talented, just as ferocious, just as determined, but he was always just larger and stronger. It probably also helped that he would be Olo'eyktan.

So year after year, after every fight, every hunt, every trial, you would always be second. Silver. Sure, you could smash down every other  warrior. Sure, you could outrun and outswim and even outrank any other person in the clan, but there would always be him. Aonung.

He was, in fact, a complete and utter idiot. He was all big and perfect and beloved by the clan, despite all his flaws. Because those flaws seemed perfectly obvious to you, his competition, but everyone else just fawned over his big muscles and pretty blue eyes and you were determined to never do so.

He was cocky. He was a player. He had more muscles in his arms than braincells in his head. He was condescending and entitled and just somehow managed to get away with everything.

So you were determined to be the person to call him out. If everyone was going to baby him and feed his practically obese ego, you would try to keep him in check.

You wouldn't fawn and fall at his feet. Every word you spoke to his was twice as harsh as to others. Every blow you delivered in training was harder than the last, and certainly harder than anyone else would dare to hit the precious little prince. Every look you sent him clearly showed your distaste that he, somehow, always was above you.

And he seemed to get it. As you got older, he became less dickish towards you. By the time you finished your iknimaya, he had congratulated you. By the time the Sully's came to the reef, if you called him out on his taunting, he'd pull his head back in.

You, of course, had no idea why. Everyone else did though. The way Aonung would only do as you say was perfectly obvious to everyone else. Ronal and Tonowari had figured it out early, that their son hardly listened to them, so they managed to sneak you into it when they wanted him to do something.

And Aonung tried to get over it. That's why he spent his days training hard, trying to beat away and sweat out all his ceaseless thoughts of you. Thoughts that mortify him, thoughts that you would murder him over.

That's why he spends his nights with a new girl every time, on the beach, in the water, on the woven floor of marui's, trying to fuck his desires for you out into another girl.

He can't help it- the way he imagines it's always you. You squirming as he lays with his head nestled between your shaking thighs, holding you down and drawing desperate moans out of your mouth so usually full of quips and snarls. 

You on your knees in front of him, the same eyes that glare when you watch him filled with tears as you take him far into your throat, your soft lips brushing over his hard length.

Imagining you're the one under him, riding him, bent over in front of him, the curve of your ass and the softness of your tits on complete display for him.

Fuck.

It was bad. It was really fucking bad.

You were his second in command, you were his biggest competition. What used to be a childish crush was rapidly growing into a mature, dangerous obsession. 

What he wouldn't give to have you as his, to be yours... 

You, of course, on the other hand, are completely oblivious to his infatuation with you. For years, you've written off the way he treats you differently as simply part of the game, part of the competition the two of you have entertained for so long.

You have no idea of the blunt lust and deep affection he harbours for you, and you're certainly oblivious to his efforts to get closer to you. The first could have been anything, and it never would have occurred to you that it was courting.

In the years since your iknimaya, the rivalry between the two of you had fizzled slightly. You could accept his outranking you- he, at least, was worth the top position.

So you followed his orders with 60% obedience and managed to build a courteous, polite relationship with him. You were not quite friends, yet you both respected the other, and managed to share a good conversation every now and then.

Which is why it seemed so shocking that he was suddenly starting to compete with you again. He, of course, isn't doing anything of the sort, but you think he's falling back into the old rivalry.

It all started with the summer hunt. 

Really, it was your fault. You let yourself get overconfident, sure that the huge fish you had speared through the heart would be the largest catch of the clan, and you had been pleased with yourself and returned to the village.

There was much admiration and praise for your amazing catch, everyone congratulating you until suddenly it all stopped. You weren't an attention seeker at all, but you couldn't help feeling irritated that something was suddenly so important.

Which, of course, has to be Aonung. 

He's striding towards you, his large, muscular arms straining under the weight of the fish he's holding. It's fucking massive, completely putting your batch to shame, with shimmery scales and terrifying spikes all along it's back and fins and mouth and tail.

Almost instantly, everyone that had been congratulating you practically pounces onto him, gushing over their precious little prince and his unimaginable talents, his incredible strength, his impossible bravery yadayadayada.

You, on the other hand, just stay back, arms folded and a scowl fixed onto your face. You aren't bitter he did better than you (well maybe a little but that wasn't the point). After thinking you both got over this competition on at least surface level, here he was, bringing his haul over to you to completely undermine your efforts. To show, once again, he beat you.

But as everyone fawned all over him, he just continues to walk to you, returning a smile every now and then but staying in silence as he approaches. His bright blue eyes are fixed into yours the whole time.

He doesn't look cocky; there's a strange glint in those ocean eyes that you can't interpret. He's doing something, you can obviously tell at least that, trying to prove himself in some way. 

And of course, your competitive, fierce mind jumps straight into the past. You can't believe he's doing this now, making you look ridiculous and small and undermining you with his amazing catch.

He finally reaches your woven basket, in which your now seemingly tiny fish lies. You fold your arms and stare blankly up at him, not bothering to hide your annoyance.

"Hey," he smiles, shifting the fish in his arms so he can see you better.

"Hey," you reply slightly coldly, raising your brows slightly and watching him.

He was attractive, you can admit that. Not just in a pretty way, he was so pretty it had every girl falling at his feet, and he was always happy to offer his time to them. It was something in that white shiny smile and bright blue eyes, maybe something to do with that air of slight mischief and danger that lingered around him.

It also could be his body. That was good too. All muscular and giant and taller than anyone else in the clan, even Tonowari. He moved with confidence and slight cockiness, the curve of his broad shoulders rolling gracefully when he moved. It was something to do with the sharpness of his collarbones and jawline, or the way his lashes curled so gently. There is a slight X shape to his ribcage, his stomach toned and muscly just like the rest of him, tapering into a slim waist.

“Good catch,” Aonung says, nodding down at your basket that looks ridiculous beside his.

You squint at him, is he making fun of you?

But he looks genuinely sincere, and also nervous.

Aonung. Nervous.

Aonung, the prince of the clan, the most confident even cocky person you know, is standing slightly awkwardly in front of you, looking nervous.

You aren’t sure if it’s your face- your glare does tend to have a terrifying effect on people, but you decide you’ve glared at him and he’s never looked this nervous around you before. In fact, you’ve never even seen him be nervous ever. Not at any fight or hunt or even at his iknimaya.

That only makes you more annoyed.

“Yours is better,” you reply bluntly. It’s an obvious fact, and Aonung smiles slightly.

“Thank you,” he grins. “I went outside the reef to three brothers rock-“

“Isn’t that a bit far,” you ask sceptically. “And a little dangerous?”

You go to hunt at three brothers rock every few days, but what was this skxawng playing at, going to such extreme lengths to beat you.

“I wanted to bring something good back,” he shrugs.

You scowl a little deeper. The other clan members that had been offering their congratulations were now dispersing. Sure, your arguments with Aonung were known to be a great source of entertainment for the clan, almost as much as the actual warrior fights, but they also knew better than to overstay their welcome when it came to the two highest ranking warriors in the clan. And this is where this is heading, an argument.

Really, you had slackened in your insults and keeping Aonung in line over the last few years, the competition between the two of you dying out slowly let you let him off the hook. He had used his new freedom to fuck around with his friends and girls and you had put your efforts into training and proving yourself.

“What are you trying to do Aonung,” you sigh, sharpening your knife to carve the fish.

“What do you mean?” He asks, sounding confused.

“You’ve never gone hunting beyond the reef except when you’re trying to prove a point,” you say bluntly, not looking up from sharpening your knife. “Like when you nearly got Lo’ak killed when we were kids. So what point are you trying to prove?”

When he doesn’t say anything, just staring down at you, you put your knife down with a small snarl and glare up at him. But before you can say anything, the next wave of villagers walks past, and they bustle around aonung to marvel at his incredible hunting skills and unbelievable daring and oh my god you’re just strong!

And Aonung just doesn’t seem to care. He usually is aloof and cocky, but he enjoys praise and ass kissing. The new crowd blocks you from his view, and you shift slightly to keep it that way, while you can take another look at him. He looks like he’s trying to find you, craning his neck and ignoring all the praises and flirtings thrown at his fucking feet. His brows are furrowed and he looks torn between confusion and slight upset that you’ve suddenly disappeared.

Stupid skxawng.

You sigh, gaze flicking to the basket of your smaller fish lying ignored and abandoned beside the group clamouring over Aonung’s massive, incredible one, and sigh.

You leave it there and slip back through the crowd and into your marui.

━━━━⊹⊱≼≽⊰⊹━━━━

So yeah, that's what I have so far 😁 pls let me know how i did. ���️ and 🪐 my darlings, dont be shy to tell me any feedback for this bc this is just how I interpreted the requests, if there is a way you'd prefer it to be written, feel free to ask

ALSO, PLS COMMENT ANY NAME IDEAS FOR THE FIC, BECAUSE I CAN'T THINK OF ANY!!!!!!

Okay that's all for now, don't be shy to chat my pookie pies, I'll just leave you with this beautiful picture of our man I screenshotted 😘 I just know that's the face he'd be making if he found out about all the tawtute simping for him

[room-surprise]

Dungeon Meshi Anime Review, Season 2, Episode 14 review

This is technically the second cour of Dungeon Meshi, with a new opening and ending so we've made it to season 2, baby!

Happy Kabru day! I think Trigger did a great job with this so I don't have a lot to talk about.

Spoilers below!

The new OP is really nicely animated and very sweet, but I don't really like it. I think the song isn't as good as the first OP and the visuals just don't really excite or interest me the way the first OP did. It's cute though! I think it would have made a great ending...

The ending is wonderful like before, with more beautiful illustrations. Are these also by Kui? Will we get Kui illustrations for every ending? That would be so fantastic! I like this song better than the new OP song...

What the hell are Fleki and Lycion laughing at in the ending. Just pointing and laughing at a water fountain...

There my darling lad Kabru goes, killing again! Good for him.

Animated very nicely, conveys just how fast and lethal Kabru is against human opponents. I hope that anime onlies are now worrying about Laios and his party! That's what they should be worrying about!

Love that they managed to capture Kui's insanely wonderful fight choreography, Kabru switching targets last second after doing a fake-out, and then stealing one person's sword to use it to kill two other people... He's so slick, and Trigger captured it so well.

Sadly no improvements (extra clarity) was added to any of the talking scenes in this ep that start to explain Kabru and his party's motivations. I didn't expect them to change anything though, so it's still as good as it was in the manga, which is still pretty damn good... But would have been nice to have someone tighten up the dialog and make it flow more like human conversation.

Characters sitting around and talking about stuff that isn't monster biology or cooking is probably Kui's greatest weak points as an author, and I don't blame her at all, but it's the one blind spot she could use a liiiiiiittle extra help with. At least in the first half of the manga. Towards the end she gets way better at it. Practice does that to you!

EDIT: Trigger made Holm eat meat!!! He's a religious vegetarian!!!! Oops.

SO.... english dub issues.

The cast is still generally great and the dub script is generally superior to the Japanese subtitles, though it seems like the Japanese subs might be getting better? Or this episode was unusually bad in English so the Japanese subs seemed better.

Kabru's voice in English...

The thing about Kabru's character is that he changes how he talks and acts depending on who he's talking to. The Japanese version does this relatively well.

It's mostly about the pitch of Kabru's voice and how sweet his tone is. He's trying to make himself sound non-threatening, polite, and friendly. And then when he's not doing that, he sounds more stern and mature, talking in a deeper pitch without being so self-effacing.

The English version... is struggling a bit with this.

In the other episodes it sounded alright, but in this episode Kabru's voice actor, for whatever reason, seemed to be mumbling/slurring his words, not enunciating, and cutting off and shortening his words, shoulda, woulda, kinda, and talking in a more "relaxed" and informal manner

This isn't inherently a problem, but since nobody else in the anime so far talks like this, what does this style of speaking signify? Why is Kabru talking like this for this entire episode?

Is it because Kabru's from the West? Do all the people in the West talk that way? Will the elves talk like that?

Since they didn't match Zon and Leed's way of speaking to each other I doubt they'll follow through with this...

If it's meant to make Kabru sound "tough", why does Kabru do it the entire episode and not just with the corpse retrievers? Why does he keep talking that way while talking to his friends?

Even if sounding "tough" is what he's trying to accomplish, Kabru wasn't really being tough in those scenes, he was being tricky and conniving... And then with his friends he was being curious and solving a mystery.

It's not the worst performance I've ever heard, but it's a change/addition with no basis in the original version, so as with Leed and Zon, I'm left wondering "why are you doing this? What are you trying to tell us about the characters?"

I'll have to go back and listen to Kabru's earlier appearances to see if he sounds the same in those, but I really don't remember him talking this way before...

Kabruuuuuu

[jjs-brainrot]

Finished Girls Band Cry now that it's on crunchyroll. I don't think episodes 12 and 13 were necessarily needed since 11 was such a major payoff, it might have even benefited from the series being spit into two cours. The conflict with DiamondDust and the struggle of maintaining an audience as a growing artist would have offered very interesting developments with the band. Rupa, Tomo, and Subaru could've been the focus of this second half of the series as they don't receive enough solo focus in my opinion. Tomo's family and her relationship with Rupa also mirror NinaMomo in a similar way that would offer some good moments of conflict/development in their dynamic as friends and bandmates. I personally think all the women kiss each other because they have heavy polycule energy, but I genuinely think the chemistry that they share is better than most other band animes I have seen, I would even put it above Kessoku Band.

All in all, I think Girls Band Cry is every bit as good as people have said and TogeToge's music is definitely top tier music from a band anime. I don't know how possible a s2 is but a manga adaptation would be very nice. Lastly I think the drama I was told about Nina and Momoka is so incredibly ridiculous now that I have watched the series. The entirety of the series hinges on Nina's love for Momoka and her music. I think they should have made out on stage.

Ooh, nice!

Yeah, episode 11 definitely feels like it's more of a finale with "Emptiness and Catharsis" feeling like it's meant to be send off song. Episodes 12 and 13 were still pretty good but they definitely felt like they were the start and end of a new arc instead of the end to the season.

A second cour would have been great but even a lot of adaptations don't get more then a single cour these days. It being an untested original 3DCG anime with a cast of non-established VAs/musicians definitely wasn't going to get more then a single cour as they were basically sending it out on a wing and prayer and hoping it would be get by on its quality (it did thankfully).

They've basically said they're planning on making more stuff related to Girls Band Cry. So far that's just been the mobile game announcement and more TogeToge songs but I'd say the chances for a second season or manga are fairly high now.

Yeah, people getting angry over MomoNina is some of the most vapid pearl clutching over nothing I've seen in a while.

100% they should have made out sloppy-style on stage.

TogeToge's music is easily some of the best from any band anime and I highly recommend checking out the rest of their songs as they've released a fair amount of bangers that didn't make it into the anime (Bleeding Hearts is a personal favorite of mine)

[adracat]

G-Witch and The Pacifist Princess

It occurs to me after analyzing the first cour of G-Witch and basking in my nostalgia for Gundam Wing, that Miorine Rembran wouldn't exist without Relena Darlian/Peacecraft. I've been germinating on this idea since Mio founded GUND-ARM but now that ep12 has aired, I'm convinced. How, you might ask? That's a good question.

On the surface, they have very little in common. So much so that you could say Miorine is a deliberate subversion of the Relena we initially see. Whereas Mio is unapologetically quick-tempered, prideful, rebellious, and loathes her father/his business. Relena isn't any of this. She begins Wing as naive, spoiled, and adores her father. She's also outwardly popular and charismatic, something Miorine is decidedly not.

But what do they have in common? Quite a few things as it turns out, and I suspect a great deal more we have yet to see.

The Meet-Cute and Instant Connection

The initial meeting between Suletta/Miorine and Heero/Relena feels intentionally mirrored. Miorine is the one who's assisted in G-Witch but in Wing Relena tries to help a very non-appreciative Heero. And where Sulemio are in space, the latter are on a beach.

Flash forward to them meeting again at school. Suletta is apologetic and submissive, but Heero threatens to kill Relena after she invites him to her birthday party. Take note, all of these events happen in the first episode and establish Relena and Miorine's interest. Miorine is inspired, learning Suletta's philosophy and taking strength from it, and Relena is just a weirdo (affectionate) who's intrigued by Heero but both are drawn near instantly to their respective pilots.

Shared Prominence and Status

Both serve as the princess of their respective narrative. Relena, as a hidden survivor of the Peacecraft family/kingdom, was taken in by her adoptive father in secrecy. Miorine is a metaphorical princess but no less valid considering Delling's king-like rule over Benerit.

We see evidence of this in how their classmates treat them. Reverence in Relena's case and disdain in Moirine's, though for the latter it's clear that her prickly personality plays a major part.

Pacifism

Something that Relena infamously gets flack for is her ideals of complete pacifism. Those who watch G-Witch know that Miorine only adopts a peaceful use for the GUND format second-hand, in place of Belmeria and Dr. Cardo. But what people don't talk about is that these aren't initially Relena's ideals in the first place. She only takes up the torch after her father is murdered in a terrorist attack (sound familiar?), continuing his and her departed biological family's dream of pacifism. And even then, she isn't fully committed to pacifism until much later and attempted to murder her father's killer.

As for Miorine, her intent is noble but undeniably stems in part from her rebelling against Delling and adopting his methods. She doesn't want to follow his path of being a military profiteer. This is the inverse of Relena who adopts pacifism initially as a means of honoring her father. It's insane how much Miorine uses Relena's characterization as a platform before Okouchi places his own twist.

Conclusion

I wouldn't be surprised if the events of G-Witch episode 12 led to Miorine adopting pacifism, not just as a means of revolt, but in response to the terrorist attack upon the plant—and seeing the visceral result of violence courtesy of Suletta.

Now Gundam Wing+Endless Waltz+Frozen Teardrop vets know that Heero/Relena eventually had a happy ending, Relena girlbossing her way through in the process. I'm hoping Mio will follow in her predecessor's steps though it wouldn't be the first time Okouchi decided to throw a wrench in her archetype. Looking at you, Euphemia li Britannia Just so you know, my memory is murky on Wing details so there could be more juxtaposition/similarities and I just forgot.

Until April, I'll be in awe over the show's execution and subversion of a longtime favorite, Relena Peacecraft, and the clever significance of Miorine Rembran.

[rays-of-fire-and-ice]

It's that time for the year again!

It’s time to reflect and be thankful to all of you! I wish everyone on here a Happy New Year, and hopefully a better year for all across the world going through hardships at this time.

As a BLEACH fan, it's been another incredible year. The second cour of the anime has kept the hype going, with such amazing adaptions of some of my favourite moments. I'm looking forward to seeing third cour in the new year and hope you'll all be there to watch it with me.

Thank you again to everyone who participated in or supported the events I hosted this year, whether it was any of the Hitsuhina events or the second BLEACH Anime Celebration.

I also participated in @yearoftheotpevent's challenge, and have surprised myself by being able to get a fic done for each month. Thank you to the organisers for creating this event, it's been fun each month coming up fic ideas! That being said, I don't see myself getting the December fic ready before the end of the year ^^; I'll try my best to though!

Irl has been more busy and fatiguing than last year, as you'll have noticed from my hiatuses and breaks. This won't change in the new year unfortunately, so I will be on here a little less than in previous years. However, I will always return, you can be sure of that :)

As always, thank you so much to everyone who liked, reblogged, or commented on any of my posts, I've really appreciate your support throughout this year and you’re still part of the reason I have stuck around for this long.

Special thanks goes to these individuals for their continuous support through PMs, comments, reblogs and/or likes:

@bleachbleachbleach, @canariie, @alexiethymia, @ryusxnka, @xxhanabifireworksxx, @missrambler/@dont-look-up, @recurring-polynya, @im-ichihime-trash, @hitsuhina4ever, @moon-light-mistress, @hesitationss, @petrichorade, @summercreolefanfictioner, @jushiro-ukitake, and @troius.

Thank you again everyone! :D

[derekscorner]

The Final Form

The ‘what-if’ form post from yesterday originally had this one included but since the Hell chapter exists I broke it off.

I also thought it would be fun with the finale in Cour 3 & 4 looming to hear theories about this Ichigo:

Unlike the others this isn't a Bleach Brave Souls original or 'what-if'. This is what Ichigo looks like after the final battle. That panel is from the Hell Chapter released after the manga ended.

It is probably my greatest nitpick that I want addressed in the TYBW anime. This form bothers me because it feels empty to just leave it ambiguous after the whole 'Nothing but the Rain' flashback and 'The Blade is Me' stories.

Two full segments dedicated to explaining how Zangetsu works and originates. It just leaves way too many questions for me to not be annoyed.

Where did the second sword go?

Is this Zangetsu's sealed state?

How do Ichigo's powers work now?

I don't care who Ichigo married and I think him living in the human world is fitting to how he was written. None of the things most want changed irks me, it's this. This is what I hope gets extra time in Cour 4.

But what about you? What's your take on "dad Ichigo" and his single Zangetsu? What fun theory do you got before the TYBW anime ends?

[pochqmqri]

It is now May and we still haven't heard anything about the adult Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure! sequel that is supposed to air sometime this year. Nothing official or direct has been said about it since the initial announcement over a year ago, but despite that, there have been some bits of information we can piece together about it.

To start off, let's look at the initial announcement back in March 2023. To celebrate the Pretty Cure franchise's 20th anniversary, Toei Animation announced that they would be producing two sequel PreCure anime for adult audiences.

The first one was Kibou no Chikara ~Otona PreCure '23~/Power of Hope ~PreCure Full Bloom~, which was a sequel to the first five PreCure seasons, but primarily Yes! Pretty Cure 5 and Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GoGo! It aired on NHK-E in Fall 2023 for 12 episodes, and was streamed internationally on Crunchyroll.

The second one was tentatively titled "Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure! 2," obviously a sequel to the 13th season of the same name. It was said to air sometime in 2024 on the late night ANiMAZiNG!!!! block. And that's all we ever heard about it since.

ANiMAZiNG!!!!

Let's look at what ANiMAZiNG!!!! actually is. It's an anime programming block from 2:00-2:30AM on Sundays created by the Asahi Broadcasting Corporation with TV Asahi; these networks are the ones responsible for airing PreCure in Japan every Sunday at 8:30AM, so it's familiar territory. ANiMAZiNG!!!! started in October 2020.

Notable anime that aired on this block include: Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie, The Maid I Hired Recently Is Mysterious, The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated!, SK8 the Infinity, Iwa-Kakeru! Sport Climbing Girls, I Shall Survive Using Potions!, and Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement.

A 2:00AM slot for PreCure is quite interesting, as even OtonaPre aired on NHK-E as late as Saturday 6:30PM. Despite this, the anime that airs on this block usually isn't too "adult," i.e violent or sexual, so I don't expect MahoPre2 to be anything of the sort. Similarly, the recent Tokyo Mew Mew New aired around midnight, and it wasn't out of the ordinary in terms of content.

With the exception of the Jahy anime, the anime that airs on this block usually does for just one cour, i.e. it has about 11-12 episodes and takes up one seasonal anime slot. We can assume that MahoPre will also have 12 episodes, not just because of this, but also because that was the same amount OtonaPre had. Relatedly, since MahoPre2 is airing on a different network than OtonaPre did, I also think that MahoPre2, when it gets an official title, is probably not going to be under the "Otona" label. OtonaPre aired on NHK-E, the "E" standing for education, and thus was heavily tied in to topics such as climate change and SDGs, of which I don't see MahoPre2 focusing on as much given it will air on a different network that doesn't have such an educational slant (see the other anime that usually airs on ANiMAZiNG!!!!).

At this point in time, the Winter 2024 anime season has long since concluded, and the Spring 2024 season is currently ongoing. So, we know what anime has aired/is airing on ANiMAZiNG!!!! this year so far, but we also have information on a few anime that will air later in the year too, so let's paint a schedule:

The Strongest Tank's Labyrinth Raids — Jan 7 - Mar 24 (Winter 2024)

Tonari no Yokai-san — Apr 7 - TBA (Spring 2024)

??? (Summer 2024)

The Healer Who was Banished From His Party is Actually the Strongest — Starts Oct (Fall 2024)

All of the seasonal slots for ANiMAZiNG!!! this year, except for Summer, have been filled up, and none of them include MahoPre2. On the official site, the poster for the upcoming Summer season is just a blank "Coming Soon." I find it surprising in the case of the Fall slot, because I was expecting MahoPre2 to air there, as OtonaPre also aired in the Fall last year. Based on this information and lack thereof so far, one can assume that MahoPre2 will be airing in the Summer, but doesn't that seem a little strange?

The Summer anime season usually starts in July, and that's two months away now, so why have we gotten basically no official information on the anime yet, not even a proper title or a few visuals? Despite the fact that OtonaPre aired in October last year, we got a peek at the first visual about a week after the initial announcement in March, followed by a moderately paced reel of information throughout the year. Looking at the other non-PreCure anime on ANiMAZiNG!!!!, Strongest Tank was officially announced back in October 2023 (three months prior to airing), Yokai-san was officially announced back in November 2023 (five months prior to airing), [insert overtly long isekai title] was announced earlier this year in January (9 months prior to airing), so MahoPre2 definitely stands out in its lack of information at this late of a stage. Even so, I can't think of any other anime that would be taking the Summer slot at this point in time. There's also the possibility that Yokai-san runs for a second cour, but usually anime that airs on ANiMAZiNG!!! only run for one season, and Yokai-san's original manga concluded with 4 volumes and one side story, which is generally enough content to fit one cour.

So, what can we expect in the coming weeks/months? The first thing is, like most PreCure anime, a logo/title drop in the Japanese trademark office. Just a day before the initial announcement of OtonaPre, the logo was recorded in the office, so it's likely that whenever the MahoPre2 title drops, an official reveal will follow shortly.

What Rie Takahashi said

Another bit of information comes from Rie Takahashi, the voice actress for MahoPre's Mirai /Cure Miracle, on her radio show with fellow voice actress and friend, Reina Ueda (who coincidentally voices Mayu/Cure Lillian in the current Wonderful Pretty Cure!). For the episode uploaded on February 19 earlier this year, she talks a bit about MahoPre2, how it's airing sometime in 2024, and that they're excited for it, that this year is going to be a great one, no new information really, but it's probably the most recent information we've gotten from an official source, albeit a reconfirmation of what we already know.

Somewhat relatedly, the Kamikita twins, who draw the seasonal PreCure manga adaptations every year, posted a tweet earlier this year in January asking if there was anymore news on MahoPre2, which seems to indicate that, even to them at that point, they weren't briefed on anything behind the scenes.

Speculation: The "Wonderful PreCure!" movie

For the sections labeled speculation, I ask that you please do not take anything I write here as pure fact.

While browsing the Japanese side of Twitter, I came across a few opinions of PreCure fans on why Toei is being hush on MahoPre2. One idea is linked to the WonPre movie coming out later in September. In the film's initial trailer, there's a line said towards the end:

さらに素敵なお友達の出番です!っていいました？！ "Sara ni sutekina otomodachi no deban desu! tte iimashita?!" "Did you just say, 'It's time for even more wonderful friends'?!"

What's the significance of the Japanese characters I highlighted in bold? In the context of PreCure, they are the catchphrases of Sora from last year's HiroPre, and Mirai from MahoPre. The 出番, deban, comes from Sora's catchphrase, ヒーローの出番です!, Hero no deban desu!, or officially translated as "It's hero time!" The っていいました？！, tte iimashita?!, or "Did you just say [x]?!" is a quoting particle frequently used by Mirai. Tumblr only allows one video upload per post, so I'll have to link to a separate post I made with the video comparison.

With this in mind, a fair amount of fans believe that the WonPre film will be another crossover one, like the HealPre and TroPre ones were, only this time, that team will be crossing over with the HiroPre and MahoPre teams. It's likely that MahoPre is added in to promote the upcoming sequel, which could be airing around the time the film hits theaters. For that reason, it's probable that Toei wants to combine the marketing for both MahoPre2 and the WonPre film, neither of which has started yet.

Speculation: MahoPre2 Delayed?

The idea of MahoPre2 being delayed isn't really based on any evidence, but pure speculation. Some fans believe that internal politics at Toei have made them shelve the sequel for the time being. Sailor Moon fans are familiar with how Sailor Moon Eternal and Sailor Moon Cosmos were mishandled and delayed multiple times.

Ojamajo Doremi, PreCure's older sister franchise, is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary with a potential animation plan adapting the sequel light novels with the girls grown up. Funnily enough, that's similar to the concept of MahoPre2, so maybe Toei somewhere down the line turned MahoPre2 into Doremi1620? Hahaha...

Another common theory is that MahoPre2 will actually air in early 2025. That sounds a bit weird, doesn't it? They explicitly said 2024, even Rie Takahashi said so, right? Technically, that wouldn't be a lie, if Toei was looking at Fiscal Year 2024, which in Japan, lasts from April 2024 to March 2025 for governments and corporations. That would give MahoPre2 time to air in the Winter 2025 season, and thus the promotion hasn't started yet because it's still too early.

So, with that all said, there are at least two time periods I believe MahoPre2 could air in, the Summer 2024 season, or the Winter 2025 season. As of now, we can only wait for more information, but I do not have reason to believe that Toei cancelled this project.

[brucebocchi]

Ranking every new anime I watched in 2023, Pt. 2: #20-11

hey, i just started a ko-fi for my writing and possible other creative outlets. this post will also be available there, so please check it out and consider tipping/donating as i'm currently between jobs. the tumblr version of part 1 can be found here.

Let's get right into it.

20. Helck

I watched Helck’s first season for its entire half-year run, and I'm honestly still not sure how I feel about it. I’d heard amazing things from people who’d read the manga, and it had a hot start, but the pacing slowed to such a crawl after a while that it kind of felt like they stretched out the story just so they could make another season.

Helck, an enormous and impossibly jolly human warrior, enters a tournament to decide the successor to the throne of the recently-slain Demon King. Demons and humans had been at war for some time, so Vermilio, an adorably fiery elite lord of the castle, is naturally wary of him. Helck is naturally powerful, talented, and affable, so he easily breezes his way through the tournament in hilarious fashion, despite Vermilio’s best efforts at sabotage. Before the finals can take place, though, an immortal army sent by the human forces arrive to attack the demon realm, and Helck and Vermilio are teleported to the far edge of the realm.

The season largely covers Helck and Vermilio’s trek back to the demon kingdom, as well as the demons’ struggles against the mysterious warriors as they attempt to figure out just what the hell the humans are plotting.  Vermilio remains leery of Helck, regardless of all he’s done for her, but it becomes further evident that Helck is harboring a very dark past, and eventually we get a lengthy arc where he sits down and explains it to Vermilio in flashback. There is, as you’d expect, plenty of tragedy there, and you’d like to see it resolved, but things just seem to keep getting worse.

There are powerful messages in there about toxic positivity and fighting the urge to shoulder one’s burdens alone, but they don’t become fully apparent until late in the season. Everything until then, at least after the teleportation, is… fine. I had higher hopes for this one, but it just feels like it’s missing something, and I can’t put my finger on what. It looks fine, the voice acting is good (the GOAT Katsuyuki Konishi is typically very good as Helck), the action is decent, it’s all… fine. The pacing just feels glacial at times, to the point where if I hadn’t been watching it weekly I might have bounced off of it.

Of course, the season ended with what appears to be the endgame on the horizon, so for all I know there’s still a lot more to come, but the story beats feel so familiar that I get the feeling it could be resolved with, like, a movie. I hope I’m wrong, because there are clearly some major emotional payoffs yet to come, and I’m still curious to see how it gets there. I may have to pick up the manga to find out if it’ll be worth any more of my time.

19. Urusei Yatsura (2022), second cour

Fresh off of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure’s possible series finale, David Production’s modern take on Rumiko Takahashi’s legendary comedy manga hummed along nicely into 2023. The cast continues to expand as the new version introduces characters like Ten, Ryunosuke, and Tobimaro to further raise the level of shenanigans inherent to Urusei Yatsura.

Lum Invader has been a sex symbol for pretty much as long as anime has had sex symbols, but the reboot’s second cour focuses a bit more on the side of her personality that makes her so iconic, and which I consider essential to several of my favorite female anime characters: Lum’s kind of a psychotic asshole. Her schemes to wring more attention and affection out of Ataru border on sociopathic at times, and she’s honestly so real for that. Her mortal frenemy, Ran, was introduced close to the end of the first cour, and there is still no shortage of sabotage attempts in the second, but we quickly come to learn that Ran’s undying vendetta is mostly because Lum has been a selfish, lying piece of shit since they were kids. God bless her.

Ataru continues to not be much better, serial philanderer that he is, as he continues to be surrounded by other hot crazy ladies who aren’t his not-fiancee. Mendo’s younger sister, Ryoko, is a real highlight in the 2023 run as a result of her escalating penchant for Looney Tunes-esque slapstick violence. The settings of Ataru’s and Lum’s respective worlds take more focus as well, between Ataru’s high school hijinks and Ten’s galactic mail-order mishaps, and the two often collide in hilarious fashion.

I still adore the look of this one. Character models have been cleaned up and simplified to a sort of retro-modern look while still being instantly recognizable to anyone already familiar with them. Everything is awash in an eye-popping Day-Glo color palette. Backgrounds and pop-in gags are often adorned with Ben Day dots to maintain the retro comic look. This doesn’t quite look like the manga, nor does it resemble the original 80s anime, but this is unmistakably a Rumiko Takahashi product. It almost looks like it could have come out at any point in time.

I’m only holding this back in the rankings because it’s the weaker half of a season that straddled the end of 2022 and the start of 2023, but the season as a whole is excellent. It is an essential watch for fans of comedy anime, especially considering so many tried-and-true anime gags effectively originated with Urusei Yatsura (it’s worth mentioning that Lum is largely considered the first-ever tsundere in anime and manga). Season 2 is imminent and I cannot fucking wait. Maybe I’ll even read the manga.

18. Tomo-chan is a Girl!

This is basically Monthly Girls’ No-jock-i-kun. Very simple premise: Tomboyish high schooler gets the hots for her childhood friend who is dense as fuck and forgets most of the time that she’s even a girl. Hilarity ensues and romance progresses glacially.

The voice performances are what really carry this one. Rie Takahashi is golden as the titular Tomo Aizawa, and this was the first entry in an MVP-caliber resume for her in 2023 that was so stacked that I still haven’t gotten to her best role yet. Rina Hidaka nails the conniving, misanthropic nature of Misuzu Gundo in a far cry from her turn as Emul the bunny in Shangri-La Frontier later in the year. The American-born idol Sally Amaki is a revelation as the airheaded gaijin Carol Olston, whom she also voices in the English dub. Even Carol’s mom speaks broken Japanese with a noticeable American accent, which is one of my favorite gags in the whole show.

Outside of the voice acting, nothing is particularly special about this show. Which is fine! There's nothing wrong with a solid 7/10 romcom; junk food is still food. It’s cute, it’s funny, it hits all the right beats, but nothing particularly stands out. Misuzu and eventually Carol give Tomo advice to try to woo her bestie Jun, while Misuzu is usually also playing Jun against that same advice so that it usually works and backfires at the same time. It’s all a game, and she plays both sides so she can always come out on top.

If I have a complaint about this show, it’s that it just… ends. I went back and read the manga, and unfortunately that issue is not the anime’s fault. If anything, it did a phenomenal job of fitting eight volumes of a 4-koma into a single season, and that’s always how it was supposed to go. I watched and read a ton of slice-of-life romance anime and manga this year, as it turns out, and the ones that really hit for me are usually the ones that take their time with the central relationship once it actually starts, rather than treat that big event as the climax, or worse, the finale of the story. Stuff like Kaguya-sama, Horimiya, Sweat and Soap, and even Wotakoi (though I have my own problems with that one) treat their central relationships as a step, not the goal.  At the same time, for plenty of others, the fun is in the chase, and they just run out of time, and Tomo-chan is the latter. We got what we wanted, and we had fun getting there. Sometimes that’s all you need.

Also good god, Tomo’s mom. The second those genes kicked in for Tomo, Jun was doomed.

17. The Eminence in Shadow, second cour and season 2

The Eminence in Shadow is the smartest piece of stupid media I've seen in a minute. It so perfectly skewers dime-a-dozen chuunibyo isekai trash while still cannonballing into a McDuckian swimming pool of the stuff. It nearly overwhelms you with lore; the series abounds with rich backstories, centuries-old power struggles, palace intrigue, shadowy conspiracies, the artificially accelerated march of progress, long-simmering revenge plots, looming economic catastrophe, and love dodecahedrons. And the most compelling thing about all of it is that none of it fucking matters.

Cid Kagenou spent his teenage years in modern Japan trying to become the coolest badass dark antihero who ever lived, but he quickly reaches his limits in our boring normal world so he rides the isekai truck into a world with actual, like, magic and shit. He spends his new childhood leveling up and rescuing elf girls, all the while regaling them with his “wisdom” in the form of a bunch of horseshit he made up based on all the light novels he used to read. Turns out that he’s entirely too genre savvy; this new world is apparently so contrived that every single thing he told them ended up entirely true.

So now Cid’s a teenager by day and shadowy vigilante by night (under the apt moniker “Shadow”), with an underground legion of hot deadly babes at his disinterested beck and call. All he genuinely cares about is looking and acting like the coolest motherfucker a socially inept 12 year old boy can think of, and in his downtime actively trying to be a forgettable mob character. And I do mean that that is all he cares about; when I say none of the wheels within wheels happening in the background actually matter, I mean that Cid is completely and totally unaware of any of it. 

Anything he does or says to drive the plot is either incidental or accidental. He spouts off some nonsense he heard in a video game once, and his cadre of elf baddies and beastgirls takes it as gospel en route to exposing a millennium-old conspiracy. He parrots a really cool line he heard ten minutes ago and a beautiful woman he just saved takes it as inspiration to turn her life around. It’s kind of like in Mashle, funnily enough; where Mash will go “I don’t know what’s going on, but you were being mean to my friend so I’m gonna beat the shit out of you,” Cid is more like “No clue what this is about, but that’s a really badass looking villain, so I’m gonna say some epic shit and do a big explosion.” And then he fucks off to go eat a burger or something, not knowing or caring that he just unraveled a prophesied master plot to destroy the global power balance.

The episodes that aired in 2023 largely revolve around the lovely Princess Rose, smitten with both Cid and Shadow (not knowing they’re the same guy), pledging fealty to Shadow Garden after failing to foil a coup d’etat. At the same time as her training, Cid is busy with a vampire something-or-other and then tries to make some coin for himself by teaming up with an assassin hellbent on revenge to create a credit crisis. The conspiracy later drags Rose back into the palace, where Cid sees a new opportunity. Every single one of these things has very specific reasons for happening, and everyone involved has a rich backstory and clear motivations to carry out their parts of the ever-evolving plots.

But that’s not why you’re here. You’re here to watch a bunch of hot ladies and a guy in a black cloak with one glowing red eye do some sick action stunts to bad guys with silly names, and this show delivers that in spades. This feels like a throwback in the best and worst ways. The Eminence in Shadow is stupid, and it is brilliant.

16. Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation, season 2

Mushoku Tensei is a tough anime to talk about. On one hand, it is one of the most gorgeous anime series ever put on television: Almost consistently movie-quality sakuga, lush background art, and a breathtaking score come together to form an immersive world unlike many I’ve seen in any medium. On the other, it forces some very unpleasant conversations about reincarnation in anime, particularly ones like this where a grown man is reincarnated as a child while retaining his mental age and is surrounded by potential love interests closer in age to his new body. What doesn’t help is that in his previous life in our world, the man who would reincarnate as Rudeus Greyrat was a socially isolated hentai addict, and much of his journey centers around him unlearning those proclivities in unfortunate and often damaging ways. If you can handle that, Mushoku Tensei is a rewarding watch, but if that’s beyond the pale to you, I don't blame you in the slightest.

However, even if you’ve been able to stomach all of the questionable shit in the first season, I'm sorry to say that the second season’s first cour doesn’t do much for the “bro I promise he gets better bro” crowd. The first cour covers the Quagmire and Academy arcs, which follow Rudeus’ struggle with being effectively abandoned by the only person to show him any physical affection in either life. The knock-on effect sees him retreating into an antisocial shell and developing, and I am deadly serious here, a seemingly incurable case of erectile dysfunction.

The first few episodes surround Rudeus growing into a young man, making a name for himself as a wandering adventurer in hopes that talk of his name will spread to his missing family and friends. At the urging of the god with a direct line to him (still unexplained), he enrolls in a magic university to investigate the calamity that flung his loved ones to the corners of the realm. There he finds an old friend in the figure-obsessed young prince who saved his life in the previous season, a girl from his previous world who seems to have also been transported to this one, and most crucially, his old childhood friend Sylphiette, hiding in plain sight with new hair and a sick pair of shades as a retainer to a scheming princess enrolled in the school.

Mushoku Tensei's initial season was at its best in its quieter moments, and those abound in season 2’s first cour. It's really lovely seeing him connect once again with Sylphie purely for who she is, even though for all Rudy knows he’s talking to a twinky dude named Fitz who makes him feel weird things. We get our amazing action animation early on, and things settle down quite a bit from there as Rudeus navigates all of these interpersonal relationships, old and (seemingly) new.

And while, yes, this version of Rudeus is a far cry from the drooling, grinning pervert he was in his first ten years of reincarnation, his improvement as a human being is not a straight line. He unfortunately takes more steps backwards than forward. The things he says in a drunken rage about his party member Sara (who inadvertently revealed his ED) are awful and undeserved, he literally ties up and gropes a pair of beast girls from his class (he has apparent reasons for both of those things, but come on), and he “frees” a young dwarven slave to take on as an apprentice. That last one seems admirable on its face, but uh. He went with the flow in a god damned slave market and still paid a slaver.  

I'm not excusing those things, nor absolving Rudeus as a character; I'm simply saying they happen this season. Mushoku Tensei, for better or for worse, depicts gnarly subject matter as it is while neither glorifying it nor moralizing about it. It trusts you to make your own judgments, and if your verdict is “I can’t watch this show,” that is perfectly valid. If you can stomach watching through its worst moments and compartmentalize the uncomfortable aspects of it, Mushoku Tensei remains one of the best-looking and -sounding pieces of animation out there, and the part of its second season that aired in 2023 has an exceptional emotional payoff. Otherwise, I'll be talking about Frieren much later.

15. Spy x Family, season 2

The most succinct praise I can give season 2 is also the most backhanded: Well, it’s more Spy x Family.

I want to be clear that there is no shade inherent to that comment; the first season of Spy x Family was excellent! It was a stylish, beautifully animated, appropriately hilarious adaptation of a fantastic manga that did it justice in almost every regard; the second season didn’t need to move heaven and earth to try to one-up it. It wasn’t broken, so Wit and CloverWorks didn’t fix it. It’s still the blend of domestic slice-of-life hijinks, tense cold-war intrigue, and heart-pounding action it’s always been. Even the production music is largely the same, and that’s not a complaint, because SxF’s production music fuckin' slaps.

A lot of anime-onlys rightfully complained that Yor’s plot relevance seemed to fall off a cliff in the back half of season 1, so they have been eating GOOD this time out, as season 2’s (ostensible) first cour puts her directly in the spotlight. The Yor Cour, if you will. The season opened on a hilariously spot-on adaptation of my favorite Yor-centric chapter of the manga (the “bullet in the ass” one) and quickly moved on to a nearly perfect interpretation of the cruise arc that sees her protecting a government asset from a legion of assassins. 

If you wanted to see more of Yor in her second life as the contract killer, Thorn Princess, this season was a meal and a half for you. Having her beset on all sides by an eccentric rogues’ gallery, with Anya fully aware and trying her damnedest to keep Loid from finding out what’s actually going on, is Spy x Family at its best. The tension constantly ramps up as the ship approaches its target, and Anya’s attempts at distracting Loid usually go sideways because, well, she’s Anya. Blood splatters, laughs are had, and Loid continues to struggle with both fatherhood and acting like his growing affection for his ragtag “fake” family is just “for the mission.” 

Outside of the cruise, season 2 maintains the series’ usual episodic pace, which can be a little jarring before and after the cruise arc, but that’s SxF for you. Shit can pop off at unexpected moments, and having read ahead in the manga, I’m excited to see the next time that happens. For now, though, things can feel kinda static from time to time, but the Forger family and the extended cast are always pleasant to just hang out with for a while.

And now to wait for the movie to come out in the west.

14. Undead Unluck

Up until this past Winter season, I primed myself on a lot of the more-hyped anime by reading the manga ahead of time. I knew that Undead Unluck is one of the bigger Shonen Jump manga out there, but this debut kind of crept up on me. I went in blind, got drawn in by the premise, and then got quickly overwhelmed with a wild amount of lore.

Fuuko, a young woman seemingly afflicted with a curse, is saddled with a brash, enormous man who cannot die after he foils her suicide attempt and is then himself grievously injured. Don’t worry, he got better. It turns out that he’s roughly 200 years old and has a completely cracked healing factor, while she brings terrible misfortune to anyone who touches her skin. They are both Negators, people with the ability to reverse or ignore the laws of nature: Fuuko’s ability is Unluck, causing tragedy for those close to her, while the man is Undead, exactly what it says on the tin. The man, who cannot remember his own name, believes their meeting to be kismet: If she can bring death to her loved ones, he vows to woo her so she can deliver the death he’s sought for so long. I promise this is a comedy.

Fuuko and Andy (whom she named as shorthand for the Japanese pronunciation of “undead”) foil a series of assassination attempts by other Negators, and take their spots as part of the Union eliminating threats to the universe. They team with an eclectic group, whom we’re still getting to know as of the end of the first cour, as they trot the globe to complete quests given to them by a mysterious (and seemingly nefarious) talking book lest the universe incur penalties for their failure.

The power system among Negators is one of the most inventive I've seen, with each one able to cancel out a specific element of the natural order of the world, and it’s a blast learning how each new one works. Andy in particular is wild; because he can regenerate himself so quickly, his weapon of specialty is his own body, never hesitating to use his own fingertips as bullets and his own gushing blood as a propulsion mechanism. He also has no compunction towards taking on the worst of Fuuko’s Unluck ability, often sacrificing himself to get hit by lightning or falling debris to deal damage to an enemy. Every new Negator power introduced adds a new wrinkle to the way this world works and the different shapes its action can take. Others can freeze matter into suspended animation, force people to act opposite their own intentions, or even subvert someone’s entire belief system. I cannot wait to see what else is in store.

The first cour’s pacing is a little off, and Andy's behavior towards Fuuko in the first couple episodes is nothing short of gross (I promise that eases up), but you can see the show finding its footing as it goes on. Shonen Jump series don’t last for nearly 200 chapters and counting by accident, and I'm excited to see where this goes.

13. NieR: Automata Ver. 1.1a

Those of us who played Yoko Taro’s 2017 masterpiece approached the announcement of an anime adaptation with some trepidation: So much of what made Nier Automata so outstanding and so beloved is that much of the delivery of its narrative is inherent to the fact that it’s a video game. How can a video game known for pushing against the fourth wall of the unique elements of its very medium be faithfully adapted as an anime?

The choice of studio was also concerning: Though A-1 has produced a ridiculous number of excellent series (and some aggressively mid ones that were nonetheless very successful), its track record with video game adaptations has been far less than stellar. The latter three films in the Persona 3 adaptations were solid if uneven, and the Valkyria Chronicles anime seems to have been well-received, but the same can’t be said of A-1’s takes on Ace Attorney, Persona 4 Golden, or Persona 5. Regardless, Yoko himself was heavily involved in the anime’s production, so if they could keep on budget and schedule, Nier Automata would have a fighting chance.

And while there indeed ended up being massive and likely unpredictable production delays, I'd say they’ve done almost as good of a job as they could have so far. While the first cour mainly covers Automata’s A and B routes, it does much more than just play that part of the story straight; it also takes the time to incorporate other elements of the Nier canon. A surprising amount of time is dedicated to the canon introduced in the YoRHa stage play (and by extension the Pearl Harbor Descent Record manga); Lily and the android resistance are woven directly into the narrative far beyond the vague overtures the game makes in their direction. Ver 1.1a also ties the history of the original Nier into the story at unexpected and intriguing (and in my case, tear inducing) moments. 

Unfortunately, it’s still too soon to assess this series in its entirety. While too many people who played Nier Automata stopped after route A or B, there is still much more of this story to come. There was some very sloppy CGI integration in the first episode when it aired, but far from enough to put me off the series. For now, it’s a treat for Nier fans, but I’m not sure whether I can recommend it yet to people who are unfamiliar with the source material.

Until the anime is completed, go play Nier Automata. It’s one of my favorite games of all time.

12. Kaguya-sama: Love is War -The First Kiss That Never Ends-

This was a late 2022 theatrical release, but it didn’t see western release until this year and was split into a four-episode mini-season for streaming, so I'm counting it for this year. You can deal with it.

I got completely obsessed with Kaguya-sama early this year, and in record time. I binged the anime and the manga in the span of a couple weeks and irreversibly fell in love. I say with no reservation that it is the best romantic comedy, in any medium, of the 21st century. It nails both the romance and the comedy in equal measure; the characters are perfectly realized right down to the supporting cast, the dynamics between them are carefully considered and consistent with their personalities regardless of circumstance, and every emotional and comedic beat hits exactly as it’s meant to. There is a constant momentum moving the greater plot along, even in the smaller moments, and seismic shifts take over before you’ve even noticed they’re happening.

It’s rare for romcom manga adaptations to stay on the air long enough to actually reach the romantic payoff, and Kaguya-sama fucking nailed it in season 3. Well, we’re pretty sure it did; the central conceit of the psycho-romantic warfare between Kaguya Shinomiya and Miyuki Shirogane is that they’re both chronic overthinkers and won’t accept any romantic undertones or overtures in any form but an explicit confession. So while the finish to season 3 is everything we wanted as an audience, these two dorks still sense a margin for error. Regardless, that would have been a perfectly acceptable place to end the anime.

HOWEVER, the Ice Queen Kaguya arc that follows in the manga is iconic, and A-1 was absolutely right to adapt it. Although Shirogane is ready to move forward with the relationship that (he’s pretty sure) they’ve both wanted for a long time, Kaguya has a crisis of personality and inadvertently reverts to the dead-eyed, emotionally walled-off version of herself he’d initially met, well before either of them had realized they’d fallen in love with one another. The interstitial omake preceding this arc in the manga has Aka Akasaka warning the reader that in order to counteract the massive emotional payoff that just happened, the ensuing chapters would get very, very silly.

And of course, hijinks do indeed ensue; this is Kaguya-sama, after all. But before you realize it, the story is neck deep in Jungian psychology as self-doubt begins to plague Kaguya and Miyuki and they struggle with the faces they think they need to put on for the other and whether their “real” selves even deserve to be loved by the person they idolize. It gets heavy! I cried every time I watched it! And that first time was in a damn movie theater!

I’m much more comfortable appraising First Kiss as a mini-season than as a movie, because frankly, it doesn’t work as a movie. The animation, while maintaining the series’ standard of excellence, isn’t a single degree better than what aired on television, which can be disappointing upon a visit to the theater. The pacing is also off for a feature film; the common knock upon theatrical release was that it felt like four episodes stitched together (it even has the omake-style interludes between scenes, like the show). The arc also focuses very heavily on Kaguya and Miyuki specifically, so the ensemble cast I mentioned earlier does have to take a backseat. Splitting this up for streaming and televised release was the right move here.

Season 3 would have been a very good ending for this series if it never got picked up for the movie. If it doesn’t get picked up for a proper fourth season, this is the perfect place for it to end. The manga has now been adapted up to just past the halfway point, and the next best stopping point would have to wait until a possible, like, fifth season. And that arc in question, while it does have some iconic moments, is very uneven. If this is all we’re getting, we’ve gotten plenty already, and I am satisfied.

If you've watched the first three seasons of Kaguya-sama, you owe it to yourself to watch The First Kiss That Never Ends. It is nearly everything you could ask for. Also, read the manga if you haven’t already. It’s genuinely one of my favorite things I've ever read.

11. The Apothecary Diaries

This one is basically House M.D. set in the Ming Dynasty, and it fucks.

Maomao, an apothecary raised in a pleasure district near the palace of a fictional East Asian empire, is shanghaied (pun intended) into menial work in said palace. She hears tell of a supposed curse plaguing the emperor’s newborn children and the concubines that birthed them, quickly deduces that it may be poisoning, and discreetly leaves a message for the ailing new mothers. She’s found out by an impossibly beautiful young administrator named Jinshi, who quickly deduces that she’s one of the few literate peons in the rear palace, and he puts her to work in the pavilion of the concubine that heeded her advice.

With her knowledge of, resistance to, and slightly masochistic infatuation with various poisons, Maomao slots right in as an attendant and poison tester to one of the emperor’s embattled concubines. Often at Jinshi’s urging (even though she immediately gets the ick at his habitual flirting), Maomao finds herself investigating deaths, mysterious ailments, and strange behaviors, on top of the foreign world of palace politics. Though she’s a deeply jaded person who only seems to care for her special interests, Maomao is incredibly perceptive and often able to suss out the finer details others miss.

Surprisingly, this one is a really breezy watch, and much funnier than you might expect. For all its lush environs, slowly-mounting intrigue, and often stunning cinematography, The Apothecary Diaries isn’t afraid to get a little silly with it. The dialogue is snappy, quick gags abound in a familiar single-panel chibi style you wouldn’t expect in a setting like this, and Komi-esque cat ears spontaneously pop up from Maomao's head whenever her interest is piqued. Interactions between Maomao and Jinshi are always a hoot, and you can pretty quickly figure out where it’s going, although Maomao can’t because she’s still pretty sure Jinshi is a eunuch.

As she does in virtually every role in her dozen-plus years as a seiyuu, Aoi Yuuki crushes it in the starring role. She really nails the disaffected cynicism that animates most of Maomao’s internal monologue and sarcastic dialogue, as well as her hair-trigger glee when presented with her personal interests in food and drink, medicinal herbs, and of course, poison. Yuuki is an indispensable element in ensemble casts like One Punch Man, Persona 5, Nier Automata, Wotakoi, and the aforementioned KamiKatsu (as well as others I don’t plan on watching like My Hero Academia, Rent-a-Girlfriend, and The Seven Deadly Sins), so it’s especially nice to hear her in a spotlight role outside of the odd Madoka Magica, spider isekai, or Cyberpunk Edgerunners.

There are a handful of anime on this list that will be continuing or returning in January, and second only to my #1 anime this year, this is the one I’m most excited to see more of. At time of writing, the show appears to be shifting in a new direction, and I’m hoping to see it take less of an episodic pace.

Part 3 is on the way! I'm going to split my top ten into two more posts, because I ended up writing... a lot more than I'd expected.

[platoniccereal]

Firstly if you find that Adoribull fic I hope you share and second if you have any fic recs for Bull in general I want to know 👀

Also autocorrect nearly made his name Bill. The Iron Bill, a legal juggernaut. Don't call him William.

...he's pretty well versed in fiscal affairs.

i'm going to rummage through ao3 as a treat so maybe i'll be lucky haha i'll send it to you if that's ok and if i find anything.👀

i started reading fics on ao3 not so long ago, so my collection is humble and classic, still...

these are purely gen/plot and character focused with rare nsfw scenes:

small secret spaces – i adore this absolute gut punch of a fic, it's about 2k words and is written from bull's tama perspective. absolutely heartbreaking as anything regarding bull's time on seheron.

there's also i can see us gather at the gates from the same author, a 36k words work in progress, bull x f!trevelyan. it studies them both in opposition to each other, this one got me thinking and feeling for days.

there's also a very short the sea is unchanged in the same series, i recommend lilith_morgana's works in general, because just as this one, they're always written with such love for the characters, as well as with wise, mature understanding of them.

ebasit – a different author, another character study, 12k. so far the only inquisitor!bull fic i've seen, not even on ao3, and by god it's tasty. it's adoribull and bull x josephine, but still mostly a character study. bull seems to be more serious and tough here than as a companion. there is also one thing about adoribull that'll absolutely break your heart in the best way possible.

but there's a twist is an almost 60k words modern au adoribull fic that's definitely worth checking out because i'm not overestimating when i'm saying that it's got everything. this will be painful, this will be sweet and rewarding. and the title does not lie. again, this fic seems to be just one of a kind, very glad a thing like this just exists. also, lilacsolanum is overall an amazing writer,

and vasaad proves it. i respect any fic that touches on vasaad's character because there's just so much angst potential in just a few words cole says in canon, and this one? nailed it. it's also 6k words adoribull. bull's got some baggage, bull's gotta understand that dorian's not afraid of it.

(there's also my father and his father before him from the same author, but even though it's an adoribull fic, it's more of a study of dorian. also highly recommend, gets you very invested in dorian's depressed shenanigans. also the best portrayal of halward i've seen.)

continuing with the vasaad theme, triptych is probably one of the most well-known works on this list. adoribull 41k words soulmate au. it's got such a good grasp on bull's grief. the soulmate au reality only enhances it. i was fascinated at how the system of qunari names was intertwined with the significance of names for the soulmate au. and vasaad? oh. he haunts the entire work, and frankly, it feels right.

cassandra and the chrysanthemum caper is going to be right up your alley if you enjoy older characters exploring pining and slow burning in 16k words while being rather oblivious about it. cassandra x bull, the divine and her bodyguard, and everything you can expect from these two. bonus points for bull with a disability.

stuck on the puzzle – ok, actually this one is the most well-known on this list. i don't really interact with content about cullen, and it's his pov in this cullen x bull 200k beast. but this is a very well-crafted and thoughtful work. plus, there is also an interesting exploration of characters and non-sexual bdsm. just very solid writing.

darkened room – sigh, who doesn't like good ol' ptsd-flavoured nightmares? especially when it's adoribull.

maraas kata – somehow whenever there's qunlat in the title you know it's gonna be good. i consider this to be a bull's trauma exploration. dorian and bull are visiting seheron, very bittersweet. bitter because of course, it's seheron, sweet because bull's got support, and he's not alone.

another country – and another fic from venndaai whose works are absolutely beautiful. not very long. it's adoribull, and i'm weak for time traveling. especially for meeting your loved one in the past. especially when it's this sweet and touching.

so shall it be – rather short bull x adaar, consists of a very technical approach to bondage while also being non-sexual. and it's just sweet!

also, there is some stuff i'm in the process of reading, but still enjoy and find interesting:

run home – i'm only starting reading that one, but i already know it's a high quality work that studies characters in-depth, bull x f!lavellan, bull is an adoptive father of a kid!krem, plus, it's little league au.

better angels – i'm still in the process of reading it, but so far i find it lighthearted and like writer's inquisitor and sense of humor. the plot of m!lavellan x bull losing their memory and trying to piece everything together seems interesting!

aneth ara – as it's easy to realize, i'm in the process of reading many fics. but whenever i see f!lavellan x bull exploration that's over 100k words, i just can't help myself. :) plus, i really like how it's written, it seems very well-built to me.

since it's bull, there's also a good chunk of pretty hot purely pwp stuff:

kindle and char and enflame and ignite – adoribull playing pirates. :) it's pretty lighthearted and sweet, very nice experience!

the summit shrouded in fog – this cullen x bull and x dorian will be your jam if you like more intense scenes. it explores how violent bull is and how it interacts with him being a dom among other things. that's actually not the thing i've seen discussed much before in various texts, so that's cool.

got 180 degrees (and i'm caught in between) – this is a pretty recent work on dorian x krem x bull, made me go !!! i just love krem very much.

come on, get higher – just wanted good ol' bottom!bull and i got it. this is adoribull. also, i know that justjasper created a big amount of works for adoribull in general, and afaik they all are worth checking out,

such as katoh, for example. a very touching compilation of moments between dorian and bull that are sharing the common theme of communication. i like when authors work with the watch word use, it's as important as a good scene.

rivers in the sand – i dunno how explicit it might be considered, so it goes here. adoribull, bull sees similarities between the seheron and the hissing wastes, definitely has a ptsd episode running as an app in the background. bonus points for dorian finding bull being a nerd hot because same.

anyways, thank you sooo much for asking and giving me a chance to rumble about fics i love about a character i love! sorry if i took the task way too seriously, haha. surely there can be much more even with my little experience of ao3, but i'll stop here.