#i did not expect the sub!chan community to be so strong
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euphoricsunflowers · 2 years ago
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hopefully this isn't too much to ask but what are your thoughts on what kind of sub each seventeen member is? if its too much id be happy with just seeing the performance unit!
lmao this is so unserious i’m sorry
seungcheol: babygirl like soooo babygirl, verse but bottom leaning
jeonghan: annoying and kinda evil but also loves u dearly so he gets a pass
joshua: fine with whatever, so long as he gets off (or not lmao) he’s good
hoshi: wants to ✨Experience✨ you if that makes sense also kinky and emotional
jun: here for a good time but also kinky, want to fuck and want to be fucked are equivalent
wonwoo: mine soft and quiet, not demanding but doesn’t always want to be ordered around, just trying to feel good u know?
woozi: surprisingly wild but if you ever dare to tell anyone. he will end ur career <3
dokyeom: sunshine bby but will cry if you’re mean to him (but like in a good way in this context)
mingyu: ahhh my housewife <33 thrives off of attention and really likes receiving and giving head it’s just the best part
minghao: sexy man, very polite except for when he decides not to be, bottom
seungkwan: ahaha pillow princess?? kinda but not exactly bc he’s always like “did you cum? are you satisfied? was that god enough for you?” like chill bestie
vernon: sexy sexy service top
chan: u convince a man to let you peg him ONCE and suddenly that’s all you do now
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krysphycookiez · 4 years ago
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stray kids | you as the female maknae
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synopsis: you’re the female maknae of the infamous k-pop group stray kids! let’s see how you get along with these eight chaotic boys
genre: fluff, platonic, imagines
pairing: stray kids x maknae!reader
a/n: wowza another female maknae au post- yes i have an obsession with these types of writings and i have no regrets. expect a lot of these extra member au’s for boy groups and girl groups
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you’re his smol baby child and nothing will change his mind
chan just wants you to be happy and he’s really good at showing that, whether he makes sure you’re always healthy or just doing daily check ups on you
if you don’t end up taking care of yourself he’ll get really upset and probably give you a long lecture
one time you actually cried because of his scolding because you felt really bad and he started crying too
if he feels like there’s something up with you and you don’t open up, he usually plans with the other members to do little things to cheer you up
and those plans work all the time
he knows how much you struggle with the idol life because of his own past struggles so he empathizes with you very well
if you’re an english speaking foreigner, he’d be very chaotic with you and felix
but then it eventually just turns into chan being done with you and felix’s bullshit
nags you sometimes but he just wants you to be careful- so for the most part he just lets you be
when your time of the month comes he’s usually the best at handling the situation (jisung i’m looking at you)
he also let’s you mess around with his tracks, but he makes sure you don’t do anything stupid. as you once almost deleted a whole new track
hugs you from behind a lot to remind you that you’re loved and a precious cinnamon roll
he’s a soft leader for you and it’s just downright wholesome
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ngl you had a crush on minho during trainee days, i mean- just look at him for crying out loud
that silly crush soon disappeared and now you see him as a best friend
though hyunjin knew about this past crush and obviously tattled to minho. now you’re his main target for flirting
speaking of flirting, he always tries to make you as flustered as he can cause he just loves your reactions
he also initiates a lot of skinship with you cause you’re like a small teddy bear to him, also he just likes cuddling with you in general
if you’re part of the danceracha, you and him would start a lot of weird shit with hyunjin and felix
hell even if you aren’t part of that sub-unit you still find a way to cause chaos with minho
also you ask about his cats all the time cause you love them a lot, and that just boosts his cocky attitude even more
he gets very possessive of you when it comes to your guy’s friendship
cause he’s the type to say “no one outside of stray kids is allowed to talk or even look at you”
ofc he’s joking though lmao
you two are like an old married couple. a lot of bickering goes on between the two of you and that just becomes the butt of stray kids inside jokes
and both of you are very petty with each other too. like- you know when your little sibling hits you so you hit them back? yeah that’s the two of you
overall both of you have a really strong friendship, and other people get jealous of it pretty easily, even stray kids themselves
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you took felix’s spot as changbin’s favorite member overtime
he’s your number one hype boi, he always gets pumped up whenever you do something like singing or rapping cause he’s amazed by your talent
probably let’s you toy with side soundtracks so he can see your production skills
overtime you have gotten better because of him, and you’re very grateful for that
he does a lot of aegyo with you cause he just loves you so much, and he also hugs you a lot too
you tease him about this height but he reminds you that you’re shorter and this leads to bickering
also since he’s not the shortest he probably rests his elbow on your head to tick you off or to get a reaction out of you
most of the time he gets a fist to the stomach but it’s still worth it
he also makes sure you aren’t overworking yourself, even if he’s one of the more busy members
if you’re feeling down the drain he buys you some of your favorite food and snacks to cheer you up, and it works for the most part
because of the attention he gives you, felix sometimes starts petty fights with you and the other members get easily amused by this. especially changbin himself
you also just find a lot of comfort within him cause he’s really gentle with you
and because he smells good all the time too lol
changbin is an equivalent to an emotional support dog. loving and very energetic
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the two of you are l o u d asf
hence why you and hyunjin aren’t allowed to share a room together anymore. you had a laptop in your shared room and you guys would watch horror movies that would scare the living shit out of y’all
hyunjin likes to take you on shopping dates so both of you can either eat something together or go on a shopping spree
and mini fashion shows start too lmao, he probably gives you like a million clothes to put on
if you’re one of the main dancers, he’s the reason why you are able to dance as well as you can today. cause you felt close to giving up but then he came in and encouraged you to keep going
during his trainee days, his fights with jisung would scare you. one day it got so bad you started crying cause you didn’t want them to hurt each other
they then realized what they did and hyunjin was the first to apologize, even buying you your favorite drink to make up for it
he tries to steal your attention from minho and that almost results in his deathbed
no one’s stopping this boy from doing anything to get your love and attention tho
whenever you guys aren’t together you text a lot, and you guys send each other cute memes in the process
you guys are just like north and south you can’t stand to be away from each other
he also loves to cuddle with you. whenever you get a nightmare you usually turn to him to sleep with so you can feel the comfort of his loving arms
the other members know about this and they get jealous of that sometimes
hyunjin sees you as the little sister he never knew he needed, and he just wants you to have the best possible life he can offer you
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let’s be real here, jisung probably didn’t know how to talk to you during trainee days cause he thought you were really pretty
he’s never basked in the beauty of someone so elegant before
the only time you guys really started talking to each other was in the skz survival show, and in that span of time you two grew extremely close (and if you ended up getting eliminated he’d get really sad)
he’s scared to let you into his production studio cause he’s scared that your clumsy ass would do something, but you never really do anything
if you speak english you two probably have weird conversations in english. quoting vines and inside jokes
on break days he takes you out to get boba and just chat, and usually in the morning when it’s less busy and more peaceful
he lets you take his hoodies cause he thinks you look adorable in them, and also when you give them back to him they smell like daisies
if you get hurt in any way, shape or form he gets very upset cause he really doesn’t like seeing you in pain
one time he caught you crying to yourself because of hate comments directed towards you and his heart shattered
he actually ended up tearing up himself and offered to buy you something to make you feel better
if you’re one of the main vocalists you and him probably have high note competitions, since the two of you probably had iconic high note parts
you also pinch his cheeks a lot cause you like how he just looks like a cute squirrel
which results in him pinching you back
jisung would cherish you like treasure since you’re so valuable to him, and you’re one of the reasons he’s able to keep going in his harsh idol life
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a few simple words to sum up your friendship; a cacophony of chaos and screaming
you and felix just have the weirdest but at the same time also one of the strongest friendships in stray kids
if you’re a foreigner the friendship is even stronger, cause you two can relate more easily, and ESPECIALLY if you’re an english speaking one
also if you’re australian like him, the chaos is just even worse. a bunch of australian slangs here and there as well as saying inside jokes
he definitely texts you at 3am to talk about something he thought of or just to send you stupid memes
also probably infected you with his dabbing and fortnite phase
you also probably tease him about his sexy moments on stage, like when he lifted up his shirt. which also made you want to see his abs again
to get back at you he lifted your shirt on stage in front of STAYs to show your own abs and everyone went crazy, and he ended up getting his ass kicked
you two are also like emotional support for each other
since you guys are some of the youngest and had some of the hardest times you know when somethings up, so you two just go and hug/cuddle with each other to let the other one know it’s okay
and you’ve also come up with a way to communicate with each other without the other members knowing to talk about personal things, like a secret language
and if you didn’t have supportive parents in the idol life, felix would automatically connect with you cause he went through something similar
this guy just also wants you to feel safe and loved cause he knows what it’s like to feel so alone
overall you and felix are like two peas in a pod, very alike in many ways but will turn to each other for emotional support or just to feel better
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dandy boy seungmin is such a little shit around you
he always teases you and always finds a way to tick you off to see your reactions, such as playing with your hair or stealing your clothes
so you being the petty little bitch you are, you do some things that will trigger his pet peeves, like make a room dirty or not doing chores
and that’s how you developed your evil maknae side, all because of this devil puppy
but even then the bickering isn’t always that bad, that’s just how you two show your love for each other since you guys literally don’t know how to be nice to each other
unless it’s about food or games, then there’s civil acts going on
seungmin actually likes to hug you because you’re like a smol baby chick, but it never really goes further than that
INSULT BATTLES ALL THE DAMN TIME
and it’s usually seungmin who wins them, but when you do win them it’s always a very witty victory
seungmin also knows when something’s up with you. if you suddenly stop acting like a savage around him he knows something is up
so he then investigates, comforts you and caves in to take you out to the mall to make you feel better
he doesn’t think he’s helping that much when those times come to you but he actually helps a lot, cause he gives of this comforting aura that makes you feel safe
also he smells like roses too lmao
seungmin is your pretty and bitchy best friend, but at the end of the day he will always be there for you
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the two of you are the; done with everyone’s shit duo, at least when the two of you aren’t causing chaos
you and jeongin are very close in age, so naturally all of the members baby you and while the attention is endearing, it can get out of hand sometimes
so the two of you team up to pull the ultimate pranks on all of the members to get back at them and record all of their reactions
of course this results in scoldings and getting chased by an angry hyunjin holding a broom but it’s still worth it
both of you also compete for who can get more attention if you aren’t getting tired of it
and this can also lead to petty bickering that the other members watch in amusement (and they probably fucking grabbed popcorn too)
jeongin has a good sense of judgement, so he knows when the mood is feeling down
and he usually drags you to the side to plan a way to cheer up the members or bring up a lighthearted mood, since he knows the two of you would make a good plan
he doesn’t really like skinship but he finds it cute when you hug him or hold his arm
and the other members get pressed about this cause you’re allowed to hold his arm but they can’t even touch him with their fingernails
both of you have definitely tried to cook together
and fail miserably, which resulted in MORE scoldings and a temporary banishment from the kitchen, but the way you guys cooked was very funny
you made him a smoothie to make up for the fact that you got him banned from the kitchen cause it was mainly your fault
jeongin would be a more chill and laid-back friend, but he’s still very caring for you and will protect you at all costs
a/n: waeeeee another one done! i had a lot of fun writing this and i hope you guys enjoy it as much as i had fun writing it.
also lee felix get your sexy ass off of my twitter feed i don’t feel like simping
this is @/krysphycookiez logging off... ���︎
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welcome-to-the-cafe · 3 years ago
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Shang-Chi (2021) Review Pt. 2
This one will be about the less character-relevant stuff, such as casting, props, settings, and design.
Easiest first: props and costumes.
A bit cool, a bit silly, and bit too "Chinese-themed".
The old Ten-Ring troops had normal armor for the time and age. The new Ten Ring troops looked like the Snake-Eyes fodder ninjas but with tassled helmets. Like I appreciate what they were going for, but...it look dumb dude. And what they were doing with only one hook sword? The electrified thing was cool, but y'all didn't use the bladed hand guard, the combo hook move, the spiked pommel...wasted potential smh. And then the electric arc crossbows....again I appreciate the idea, but that was silly, especially after we showed the Ten Rings sniper with a normal ass gun. Or, just go full sino-futurism and give me the chainsaw spiked club, the electrified monk's spade, taser three section staff.
The villager's clothes were too...saturated, and monochromatic. It kinda reminded me of Mulan (2020) actually, the white people's ancient Chinese clothing. In contrast, in the he TianLongBaBu wuxia series I've been watching, people dress in...normal earth tones. Oh also, too many fucking sandals, where are my black loafers and thick white socks, with rope bindings? Like the kind modern Shaolin monks wear?? The villager's weapons too. Only Xialing's was kind of interesting, the rest are vanilla staffs and sword+shield. Boooo. Where's the dragonscale fangtianhuaji? The dragonscale guandao? Ok I'm done. Just disappointed.
Wenwu's costumes were pure drip in every scene. Zero complaints.
Shang-Chi's letterman's jacket was my favorite costume to be honest. He should not have changed in the village. The final costume seemed a bit too...modern, but not quite to the level of the Black Panther suit. It just seemed like Western superhero top with a vaguely Chinese pattern on it. Or it looked kindof...southeast asian? Wish it had no sleeves.
Katy should've kept her Macau drip. The "traditional" robe just didn't look right.
Xialing looked the best in her inverse Bruce Lee colors crop top and sweats. Like damn.
Ying Li's robes' green is too saturated in my opinion, unnaturally. Same with Michelle Yeoh's character. Now that I think about it, I hardly ever see bright green in traditional Chinese clothes...or modern Chinese fashion. Her pristine white/biege wushu outfit is also meh for me.
Death Dealer's dark blue + yellow colors are quite striking, but a bit odd and out of place with the rest of the Ten Rings' getup. Perhaps it was intentional, since he's the elite trainer? I wish it was more modern, a la Snake Eyes' suit. I would also like to complain about his opera face makeup though; why only the top half? Is that even a real opera face design? It's kind of a dumb half-ass reference I think. Like, Noh masks are used all the time for creepy effect, why not Beijing Opera?
Next, CGI animals.
Morris the Hundun/Dijiang was cute, but I half expected him to suddenly go nuts and devour Slattery, since the Hundun is one of the primordial evil beasts. But Disney needs their marketable mascot. I even saw a Lego piece for him before the movie was released!
The trip through the other world was a bit too safari-like. Like wow, the Ninetails is just chilling by the road, and a herd of Qilin conveniently pass by. The execution of these creatures were fine, though the Qilin eyes were too "dead".
I don't have problems with the Lions' design, but they were completely unnecessary, and lowered the stakes for the final battle for me. Those two lions could literally tear apart all five of Wenwu's trucks in less than a minute.
I stated already, the big evil monster, the little soulsuckers, and the dragon are completely unnecessary to me. Even when I saw just the wood carving of the soulsucking bats, I felt disappointed. Xialing and Shangchi spent way too long riding the big dragon and not doing kungfu :/
Onto settings.
I just recently visited Bay Area! The hilliness of SF was nicely showed off by the bus fight.
Macao seemed well-grounded and normal for a modern Chinese metropolis. Was portrayed better than Tokyo was in Snake Eyes in my opinion. The bamboo scaffolding scene reminded me heavily of Rush Hour 2's Hong Kong fight, and I could hear Jackie Chan assuring us "don't worry, Chinese bamboo, very strong!".
The Ten Rings compound was...eh. No defining features to locate it anywhere real so whatever. But the interior was weirdly homey?
The Ta Lo village is what I really want to complain about: why they gotta throw Chinese people back to the Xia dynasty like that? Straw huts? Really? And there was a total of like 7 buildings there, across a tiny area. That is not a village, it's a medium-sized temple complex. Kung Fu Panda 3's hidden panda village was loads more impressive, with interesting geography. This was on a flat plane next to a pond. Combined with the costuming, it's like hello, it's hokey Western orientalism again.
Casting.
Tony Leung. Perfect. Outstanding. Phenomenal. Sexy as hell. I have recovered fully from Lust, Caution. I see on Tiktok that westerners are thirsting after him, and I am very satisfied. The "Killmonger-Loki" Effect is now the "Wenwu-Killmonger-Loki" Effect. I only wish he were younger, because I hate the "daddy" kink. Mr. Leung, you are a hero to Asian-American men. Thank you.
Awkwafina. Yeah she is pretty good as the unabashed ABC friend. But lately, I feel she has been over-used as the main Chinese-American actress. On some social media, I have seen Black users complain of her 'blaccent' and vow to boycott Shang-Chi in protest. I'm inclined to defend her, as it is probably what she grew up with, and the boycott feels like another attempt to draw moral hierarchical divisions between minorities. Similar sentiment is "yall didn't come out for Black Panther, why should we come out for Shang-Chi?". I don't have any data as to whether 'we' did come out for Black Panther, but I generally disapprove of POC factionalism.
Simu Liu. I'm glad that Westerners are thirsting over him too. I'm glad he's very enthusiastic and affable, and well-liked in the Asian-American community. He's us! And he got a shirtless scene! But the catch is...he doesn't fit the current Chinese standard for "hot guy actor".
From the majority angle: that's toxic af. He's hot enough, why are we being so picky with dumb Asian beauty standards? Will we ever properly support ourselves? Like damn, this is the first Asian-American lead in a goddamn Marvel movie, and this is how you treat him?? By the Heavens.
From the other angle: his eyes are small, his jaw kind of round, head kind of wide. Not the most masculine, but definitely not feminine. He's a normal Chinese-American dude. Chinese dude, Harbin, Heilongjiang born. Compare that to Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Paul Rudd, Chris Pratt, Sebastian Stan, Chadwick Boseman, Anthony Mackie, etc. These are among the finest western specimens; why did the pick the Asian hero to be played by the 'normal-looking' dude? Was Jackson Wang not available? Or Ludi Lin? I personally have a suspicion that his appearance most fits the stereotypical look of an Asian man to Western audiences, and that's why he was cast.
He's received hate for this, from Reddit r/aznidentity, the sub that I frequent, which currently is cheering Shang-Chi's box-office success. That's toxic af, and must be heartbreaking for him. Unfortunately, it's part of the larger conflict of Western and Eastern media, representation, markets, and culture. And that's a big fish to wrangle in part 3.
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thenichibro · 8 years ago
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Winter 2017 Anime First Impressions
The first season we’re really feeling the effects of more anime simulcast services. Yellow subs, torrents not being under the CR/Funi umbrella - dark times. Due to the fact I can only DDL at college, I am choosing not to watch LWA or Onihei because I wouldn’t be able to keep up with them. I’m definitely going back to LWA after the season’s over though. Regardless, this season has the usual ups and downs, but initially I’m seeing a lot of ups - Maidragon is fantastic, Demi-chan and Urara are cute as hell, and Scum’s Wish is almost emotionally draining to watch, it’s so enthralling. Here’s what I’m watching, with MAL links: Fuuka (MAL) Starting off, we have an ecchi almost-harem manga that I didn't like. Great. Fuuka has the original plot elements of a shut-in guy that popular on the internet, who also has a super-popular girl as his childhood friend and soon gets to know another cute girl. Also his three sisters never wear clothes. Cool. Fuuka wasn't really that shit until the truck-to-the-face level plot twist that occurred in the manga, which I hope they will reach in the anime just for the reactions to how bullshit it is. Other than that, Fuuka is a less-than-stellar sort of harem about a whiny, bland main character. Fuuka even falls on the MC twice in the first episode for good measure. Oh, I guess also the plot involves playing music, but that's basically just a way for more random good things to happen to an unlikable character. OP and ED are nothing special, either. If anything, Diomedia's art style is usually good. Otherwise, avoid. Masamune-kun no Revenge (MAL) A story of a fat kid who got ripped and now wants to get revenge on his former crush. It's something new, for sure. The completely worthless perfect-in-everything trope is now supplied by both the female AND male leads. What a show. At the very least, Masamune-kun tempers the trope by giving both mains embarrassing reasons to keep up airs. The girls we've met aren't half bad, and I for one support a peppy class rep rather than the standard strict, megane type. The princess-complex is so tiring every time it happens, so lets hope that the show moves more toward Makabe/Aki in their real selves rather than putting on airs. Masamune-kun's plot actually strikes me as similar to Last Game, if anyone's read that manga. While I doubt this show will carry far enough into the future to deal with marriage, the story of a guy trying to ruin/outdo a girl and falling for her is definitely there. I have no strong feelings one way or another about this show, at least not yet. That will probably depend on how much princess Aki vs. normal Aki we see. Minami Kamakura Koukou Joshi Jitensha-bu (MAL) I thought Long Riders was last season? Anyway, here we have a slice of life about a girl in a biking club. Relaxing enough premise, for sure. First impressions are that this show takes it pretty slow, judging from the fact that it takes 14 minutes before the main characters get to school at all. That is not a complaint, just an observation. Another is how different the landscape art is from the character art. The show opens with some amazing nature stills, while the character art is, for lack of a better term, "old." As in, it almost has the feel of an earlier 2000s show. I did wonder how much into biking the show would get, like Long Riders did, and the end of episode 1 answered that for me. The last two minutes or so are a live action segment where two of the seiyuu learn about getting into biking by talking to a guy running a bike shop. While the super serious stuff is what kind of made Long Riders fall flat for me, maybe it won't be as serious. We’ll see. Nyanko Days (MAL) I guess since I can't get my Teekyuu fix, I'll have to find a different two-minute show. Nyanko Days is about Tomoko, a girl who has three personified cats. For a two-minute show, that's about how far episode 1 got. She was depressed about being lonely, but cheers up upon arriving home to her three cats, Maa, Shii, and Rou. For a show this short the animation is surprisingly clean, and the 30sec ED was suitably full of "nya" and various words combined with it. It's cute, and it's two minutes long, so why not? Seiren (MAL) I came into this show knowing little more than it was a school romantic comedy, and overall I think it benefited my first impressions. The show focuses on three main girls and their relations with the male MC, and dedicates a few episodes to each of them out of the 12-episode cour. I'm immediately wary of this, only because it gives me flashbacks (read: PTSD) to Photokano, where they focused on a different girl each few episodes and then reset time the next section. I do enjoy the lack of the transfer student trope, at least for the MC. The first moments successfully give you the sense that there is already a school community, something I prefer over having to sort out relationships individually following a transfer. Overall, the MC is pretty standard and the current girl has a tiring personality. As long as this show stays far from resembling trash like Photokano, I think this show will be defined by the personality of the current girl, whether you like that or not. Chaos;Child (MAL) Because we needed more of the Chaos;Head storyline. I don't remember much about Chaos;Head, other than the incredibly shit voice of the main character and the incredibly shit everything else. I watched the first episode in a 1-hour combination with "Episode 0," which is a recap of Head. If you get the HorribleSubs release, that's what the file will be. Anyway, Child itself takes place six years after Head, in which the main character of that show causes some event or something. The recap doesn't help at all. Child follows a school's newspaper club investigating murders similar in strangeness to those during Head. Initially, Takuru seems like a person interested in the depravity and bizaare level of the murders, but that personality gets completely dropped when he tries investigating the newest murder - he completely loses all cool after seeing a body. While that otherwise may be a fairly normal reaction, it goes at odds with the Takuru that had looked at pictures of previous murders and called them "juicy" and interesting. He also regains the first personality after the event is over. Just seems way too abrupt. I will say Itou Kanako returns as she does for everything semi-colon related, and her voice is as good as ever in the OP/ED. I'm thankful for the lack of the otaku protag, but otherwise this seems just as nonsensical as Chaos;Head but with better art. Not looking forward to more. One Room (MAL) The second short show of the season, from famed artist Kantoku. That's the only reason I'm watching this, anyway. This show makes the initially strange choice of being shot in POV, with a voiceless male protagonist. The first episode sees him meet his new high-school girl neighbor, then grow close enough to her that she asks him to help her study. The show is billed as series of shorts focusing on three girls, so I would expect something like four episodes for each one. The most noticeable part of the show is the art, and damn does it look good. Closeups of the girl, fluttering cherry petals, everything is beautiful as a still and smooth when in motion. The POV part is less of a problem for me as I see it as similar to a visual novel, and with the girls being cute and the art being great, this will be an enjoyable watch each week. Kemono Friends (MAL) An all-CG mobile-game show, and a full 24 minutes at that. Why am I watching this? One of the things that stood out immediately was the grating sound of the first two characters's voices. Kemono Friends involves Japari Park, in which anthropomorphized animal girls live and have to deal with aliens called Ceruleans. While the show is clearly projecting a light-hearted tone, it was strange to hear heavy techno during a battle with a big Cerulean. This show looks like no more than a walk around the different areas to see different animal girls. I'd be satisfied with that if it wasn’t just so boring. The OP is suitably bouncy, but even if this show doesn’t get serious, 24 minutes of bad animation is a serious slog. Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon (MAL) Ah Kyoani, the true saviors of anime. Kyoto Animation's production budget meets the artstyle and writing of Danna ga Nani's creator. I'm on board. A working adult who drunkenly invites a dragon-girl to be her maid. A unique premise, to be sure. Right off the bat, the contrast between the Tohru's unfazed optimism and Kobayashi being done with her shit all the time made me laugh my ass off. The sequence with Tohru getting more scared of humans when Kobayashi and Takiya are drunk was also top-tier. Art-wise the show looks great, animation is smooth, and Tohru is cute as hell. Always a plus. In addition, I think Kobayashi is a grounded character with a few weird tastes, which is somewhat more relatable than a totally “normal” person, if I'm being honest. Regarding the OP/ED, I will do anything for more fhana, and Maidragon's OP does not disappoint. No ED in episode 1. Overall, I was surprised at how much I liked a show with such an ostensibly strange premise, but I am wholeheartedly excited for the next episode. Kuzu no Honkai (MAL) I was immediately drawn in by the brutally emotional premise of Kuzu no Honkai, or Scum's Wish. Two students dating, only using the other as a physical replacement for an impossible emotional love. Wow. I was almost shocked when the episode ended, because I had been enthralled the entire time. Even through the intimate scenes, there was a heavy air, one punctuated by wells of emotion that kept me breathless. Something has to be said for the sound design too - the crescendos of music match Hana's emotional ups and downs to a T. Flawless. Likewise, the art throughout, especially with the black watercolors clouding white paper, the choices of camera angles during the intimate scene - it brings out the regretful and simultaneously indulgent feelings that the scene evokes. The fact that sexual encounters in anime are almost always moments for comedy rather than real emotion just makes Kuzu no Honkai's scenes more unique. Just the very idea of feelings so strong that two lonely people would come together to physically try to stave them off is both depressing and greatly intriguing at the same time. Even the general atmosphere of episode 1 enriched the painful introspective Hana was going through, culminating in the titular wish. With the courage to take a darker look at high-school romance, I want to see more. Watch this show. Demi-chan wa Kataritai (MAL) I didn't think I had a thing for something as specific as "blonde vampires," but there you go. Man, does this show make me feel good. A world where racism towards demi-humans has calmed down to the point where it's a normal part of life. No serious, overbearing issues, just a fun, light-hearted look at the concept of a demi-human living a modern life. I think I find the epitome of that in Takahashi, who doesn't really want much more than to just know more about demi-humans - he has a genuine desire to get to know the subtleties of their lives. Soft-spoken and laid back, he is the perfect foil for the quirky, bubbly Hikari, the aforementioned blonde vampire. Funny exchanges with a few heartwarming moments combine to form one hell of a great first episode. The ED fits the relatively calm tone perfectly, but I'm partial to the OP by TrySail after they caught my eye doing Classroom Crisis' OP. Give it a listen. While there are some noticeably harem-esque undertones, if this show stays relatively away from Monster Musume ecchi and carves its own niche, I will enjoy it to the fullest. Urara Meirochou (MAL) [To get this out of the way first, FUCK Anime Network - who the hell thinks yellow subs, and hardsubs at that, still look fine? At least with the CR/Funi deal I would think we would have some consistency for once, damn.] I saved this for last because it looked like the most healing show this season. That, and midriffs. I'm a sucker for the traditional Japanese style (Mushishi, Katanagatari, Uchouten Kazoku), and Meirochou's art and architecture do not disappoint. Thus far, this is a heartwarming tale of four girls working to find themselves through their style of fortune-telling. The four girls are quite cute, even if Nono's voice is pitched just a bit too high. Also, midriffs. I hope that stays. I also like Chiya's wild-person-new-to-society personality, and I think it meshes interestingly with three other girls that, while adjusted to society outside of Meirochou, are otherwise just as new. Overall, this is a show that takes an interesting setting and premise and aims to tell a story through four cute girls. What's not to love?
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