#i hate how this blog has become less pokemon related and more “whatever I want to post”

[bluejay-flies]

God, life is scary right now. My family is very queer, and a close member of my family is trans, and a minor, so I’m really scared for her. We might have to move because we live in a very conservative state, so after January 20th I might have to leave my entire life behind, and all of my friends. I’d have to start my senior year in a totally different state.

It’s really fucking terrifying, and I don’t know what to do.

[akatsuki3519]

Tag time! :)

I was tagged by @helloanime247 to answer the following questions, thanks so much!! <3 Some of these were really difficult!! T.T

1. Who are your favourite male anime characters?

Killua Zoldyck (Hunter x Hunter): I’m a sucker for good character         development and Killua’s is exceptional. I loved seeing him slowly break away from the ideologies of his (quite frankly) messed up family and choosing his own path. He’s such a sweetheart I just love him... T.T <3

Lelouch Lamperouge (Code Geass): I don’t really have an explanation for this one since he’s kinda like Light from Death Note (whom I don’t like lol), he’s so cold and calculating but I loved watching him play essentially a game of chess with everyone. Also, the ending of the series... no spoilers but you know lol...

Yuuri Katsuki (Yuri on Ice!!!): I think a lot of people can relate to Yuuri as a character (myself included), which is probably why he’s so popular as a character in general. Watching him slowly overcome his anxiety and become more confident as a person was great, but I also love his stubborn and competitive side too, he’s too cute lol <3

Makoto Tachibana (Free!): An actual angel who has never done, and can never do, any wrong... that is all... T.T <3

Nicolas Brown (Gangsta.): Throwing a bit of a curveball in here since I don’t talk about Nico that often by comparison to some other characters but my God I love him so much <3 He’s such a terrifying and intimidating person on the surface but he’s actually incredibly caring and sweet, as seen mostly by his interactions with Nina (and also Alex). I pray he stops being so reckless...

Rin Okumura (Ao no Exorcist): My favourite demon child who is just the sweetest, most excellent person and who deserves all the hugs in the world! T.T 

2. Who are your favourite female characters?

Yona (Akatsuki no Yona): She is just such an incredible person and is my fave female anime character by country mile. Another one with fantastic character development too, going from a naive and slightly spoilt princess to this incredibly charismatic, kind-hearted and strong-willed individual. It was amazing and I can’t wait to see how she continues to develop in the rest of the series <3

Ochako Uraraka (Boku no Hero Academia): I love her commitment and dedication, her match against Bakugou particularly was incredible. She’s such a great and positive person, I love her a lot and I’ll be rooting for her all the way, she’s gonna be such an amazing hero...! <3

Celty Sturluson (Durarara!!): I love her so much, she’s such a fantastic and interesting character <3 Also, she’s Irish (technically) which is pretty neat, especially that one part where she speaks Irish (okay like one sentence, but it was seriously surprising for me to hear my native language in an anime lol). I love her friendship with Shizuo a lot also <3

Nico Robin (One Piece): Oh look, a One Piece character with a tragic past, what a surprise lol... Robin’s whole character arc was so good, the ‘I want to live’ moment in Enies Lobby is so iconic, if you say you didn’t get even remotely upset in that moment you lie lol. Seeing her so carefree and seemingly just happy to be alive and accepted while with the Strawhats just reminds you that life is actually pretty great when surrounded by the right people <3 (sorry that got a bit dramatic haha)

3. If you could meet an anime character who would it be?

Oh jeez em... I think I’m gonna say Luffy from One Piece because he’s a literal ray of sunshine all the time (except... well, you know...), and he’s such an open and accepting person of everyone. I think it would be pretty fun to be around him tbh!

4. What is your favourite thing about anime?

It’s just pure escapism, if you’re having a really bad day you can just come home and watch your favourite show and just forget about everything for a while. It also tends to deal with more controversial and interesting topics than other forms of media I find, which is pretty cool.

It’s also really helped me with my confidence, since going to conventions and stuff really helped me get a little bit better with my social anxiety because I find it SO much easier to talk to people when we have shared interests!

I guess it also led to me starting a few more hobbies too, like making cosplay, actually starting to write, draw and sing again, starting a Youtube channel with my bestie, starting to learn Japanese and taking it for my Leaving Cert exam (our end of high school exams over here), and actually pushing me to FINALLY buy my own pair of ice skates which I’ve been talking about doing for years (thank you Yuri on Ice lol), and also hopefully start lessons, which I’ve also been talking about doing for years lol

5. What is your least favourite thing about anime?

The fandoms... people get so defensive about everything and seem to always forget that we’re all in a fandom because we all love a certain show, usually because they’re too caught up in who’s the best character or why a certain ship is unacceptable. Also, people giving others hate about their favourite shows, and being like ‘oh *blank* is WAY better than *blank*, how could you like that show?!’, it really, REALLY bothers me... it doesn’t take much to be nice, it really doesn’t... you can have a discussion about why you personally think another show is better than another or whatever but that doesn’t give anyone the right to essentially bully someone else over it, and I 1000% won’t stand for it on my blog so you all know (sorry to get so serious, but I’m really sick of this carry-on at this stage)

6. Who are your favourite anime couple?

Viktor and Yuuri from Yuri on Ice!!!, but also a huge shout-out to Yato and Hiyori from Noragami and Makoto and Haru from Free! because I absolutely adore them too... T.T <3  

7. Who are your favourite anime animals?

Kuro (cat demon, Ao no Exorcist), Tony Tony Chopper (reindeer, One Piece), Makkachin (dog, Yuri on Ice!!!), Toboe (wolf, Wolf’s Rain, does he count??), Nigou (dog, Kuroko no Basuke), Black Hayate (dog, Fullmetal Alchemist), Ao (squirrel, Akatsuki no Yona), Gamabunta (toad, Naruto), and uhh he probably doesn’t count at all since he’s not technically an animal but Mao (cat, Darker than Black). I pretty much love all animals in anime lol.

8. What’s your favourite type of anime?

Hmmm I usually go for action/adventure or physiological thriller type shows <3 I also really like action/adventure type shows with romance as a sub-plot; Noragami or Akatsuki no Yona for example would be good examples of that!

9. What anime would make a good game?

Huh emm... I agree Hunter x Hunter would make a pretty good game! I’d also love a One Piece game that wasn’t strictly a fighting one (although I love them too), like an RPG type game would be awesome!

10. What was the first anime you ever watched?

Unknowingly Pokemon, knowingly Naruto!

11. Do you think you’ll ever stop watching anime?

I highly doubt it, although I may watch less because of time constraints... T.T I’m always going to be an anime fan because I don’t think anime has a age limit. They’re TV shows essentially, and there’s always going to be another new one that’s right up my alley! And I’m not likely to finish my backlog of old shows anytime soon either haha... ^^”

I won’t tag anyone atm, but go for it if you want!! ^^

[natsubeatsrock]

Looking Back at Fairy Tail... II

After posting my Quick Notes for chapter 529, I got this ask.

I responded to the Phantom Lord thing later on but I really struggled with how I should address this. Not because this is my first time getting “anon hate”, but because I’ve been questioning my place in this fandom.

I feel like it’s becoming way too common for people to bash Fairy Tail or Mashima as a writer. Every other week, someone is declaring that whatever chapter happened that week is the worst one in the series and/or something to be the worst thing in the series. Fans of the series are dropping it left and right. People are regretting even defending Mashima’s work from dissenters in the first place. 

It’s gotten to the point where people who have problems with the series and vocalize said problems are having a hard time deciding what to talk about in detail when it comes to the issues the series has. I can joke about one flaw, ac-fairytail will explain why something else is wrong with the chapter, fairytail-whathesays will bash something entirely different made no sense and any number of other people will find something else that made no sense in any given chapter from story to art to ships.

I’m not here to argue that any of the criticism levied towards Fairy Tail or Hiro Mashima isn’t warranted. In fact, about my only problem with the people who have dropped Fairy Tail and try to get other people not to even start it is that they’re using old information. Frankly, I think I could easily argue their points with current information and potentially even make a stronger case for not getting into this series than them. Heck, I might even be able to pick up stuff they forgot or left off.

And yet here I am. 

Still running a Fairy Tail side blog. 

Still making (usually) weekly reviews of chapters as they come up on Crunchyroll after reading each chapter multiple times. 

Still working on long posts talking about the series and its fandom. 

Still excited for the new anime and, to a lesser extent, Dragon Cry. 

Am I out of my mind?

If that’s not crazy sounding enough, I’ve given both the manga and anime for Fairy Tail a MAL Score of 7. By my own personal standards, that means that I would be willing to re-watch and/or re-read Fairy Tail. 

While that score and/or the fact that I would go through Fairy Tail more than once might not mean that much to some of you, I should probably also mention some of the popular anime that I’ve given similar or lower scores: 

Bungo Stray Dogs (both seasons)

One Punch Man

Mob Psycho 100

Neon Genesis Evangelion (both the TV series and End of Eva)

FLCL

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Nisekoi

Sound! Euphonium

K-On (both seasons)

My Neighbor Totoro

Any Ghibli film by Isao Takahata

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid

While I would argue that all of those shows are technically better than Fairy Tail on a number of individuals levels and many are probably better as complete packages, I would still watch Fairy Tail again before I revisit any of those other shows. If you haven’t read my posts about Naruto, I said had similar feelings for that manga.

Come to think of it, I saw your name. in theaters last month and I gave it the same MAL score as Fairy Tail. Let that sink in. I gave the current highest-earning anime film and top-ranked anime on MAL the same score as Fairy Tail.

By the way, those are just the shows I finished. I’ve been sitting on finishing the original Fullmetal Alchemist and I dropped Nichijou, Kill la Kill, and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. While I might end up finishing those guys, I dropped Attack on Titan and I have no intentions of getting back to that ever.

So again, am I out of my mind? 

Probably.

This January, I decided to rewatch one of the episodes from the Grand Magic Games “Sin and Sacrifice”. I’m planning on writing something Graytear-related and I wanted to refresh my memory on certain events. Not to mention, I kind of wanted to remind myself of what certain characters sounded like because it’s been months since I’ve seen real FT anime. If my reasoning wasn’t proof enough already, after I went through the entire episode I came to a really weird conclusion.

I don’t hate Fairy Tail.

I was still able to find myself laughing at the jokes, even though I’ve heard them before. I found myself actually caring about what happened to characters I knew would be fine by the end of the arc, and even the episode. I still got chills listening to the OP 16 and ED 16, which I consider to be two of the best openings and endings in the series respectively.

During February, I was introduced to some of Mashima’s other works, Monster Soul and his one-shot Starbiter Satsuki. And…

I enjoyed them.

Don’t get me wrong. Neither is in the running for “Best Manga Series Ever” or even “Best Hiro Mashima Work Ever”. Frankly, some of the same complaints I’d have with Fairy Tail are in both. However, I still had fun reading both. It’s been a while since I laughed as hard while reading manga as I did with Monster Soul and Starbiter Satsuki could have been its own series is Mashima wanted to go that way. I would easily trade all of the FT OVAs and the first movie in order to get an animated version of Monster Soul made, either as a movie or its own series.

I’ve seen a lot of amazing anime and some not so good anime. I’ve been playing video games for more than half of my life and I’ve been a musician for even longer. If it isn’t all too obvious, I could be running a blog that has little to nothing to do with Fairy Tail. However, I can really only think of three series that I could run an effective side blog for. Those three are Bleach, Rave Master, and Pokemon. 

Even then, I’m not sure I could even do those well. I’m way too late to either Bleach or Rave Master to make posts anywhere near similar to what I’m doing here. I’m not even close to being finished with Bleach right now and Rave Master’s fandom is all but dead. It’s getting some more stuff in it, but it’s not very lively. Not to mention, I have no intentions of watching the anime versions of either, unlike Fairy Tail.

As for Pokemon, my experience is limited to my own experience to some of the games. Again, I’m not caught up with any form of the anime and I have no interest in the trading card game. And even my experience with the video games is limited. I’ve only played half the generations and I’m not even playing the current generation of Pokemon.

And honestly, I don’t want to quit Fairy Tail.

Even though I know that this series probably isn’t going to get better and it probably hasn’t been good, to begin with, I still can’t pull myself away from it. While part of it is personal stubbornness and the fact that it’s ending anyway, I still do enjoy Fairy Tail. 

I still enjoy thinking about things that have happened and are happening in the series. I still enjoy seeing how the fans react to both the good and bad from each chapter. I still enjoy reading and talking about the chapters every week. I still enjoy listening to the credits songs and soundtracks from the anime.

A lot of my frustrations with Fairy Tail come from my genuine enjoyment of the series. As much as I enjoy it, I can’t even recommend that anyone actually go through with the series knowing everything that happens. I think it really set in when one of my college friends accused Fairy Tail of being porn based just off the title and I had finished the Christmas Special just minutes before. 

That was in December 2015, and I’m still here complaining about weird covers, stupid design choices, bad angles and whatever Larcade did to the guild that one time.

The phrase a lot of people would use to describe this kind of thing is “guilty pleasure”. While I get the sentiment of liking something while being fully aware of its flaws, I struggle to call Fairy Tail my guilty pleasure, because I don’t feel guilty for it. I probably should, but I don’t.

I don’t feel guilty about the fact that I enjoy reading this series. I don’t feel guilty that I could be reading literally any series other than this. I don’t feel guilty talking about Fairy Tail and I feel even less guilty over the things I say. If anything, I feel guilty that I’m associated with this fandom, but not because I enjoy the series.

That doesn’t mean that I enjoy everything in this series. If you think I have, you need to read more of my stuff. I call stupid things in the series I see stupid. I question the motives behind certain weird choices from chapter to chapter. More often than not, I concede to the people who can do it better than I can.

But I’m not planning on leaving the series. I still do enjoy Fairy Tail.