#i love that song and that scene its so fun

[kudouusagi]

Pash Utsumi Hiroko Interview

It's sure to be a heartwarming, Fan & Fun experience!

It's about the moments you weren't able to see in the main series.

--Looking back at the scenario meetings, is there anything that stands out in your memory?

Like the fact that there was a longer version where (series writer) Ookouchi Ichirou, the producers, and I all came up with ideas for what to do in the OVA and decided on it, only to realize it didn't fit into the time limit plan I came up with myself and so it was rejected (laughs). Of course Reki and Langa are the main characters so they're going to appear in the OVA but we really wanted to include them all... and that would be difficult to do in one story so we made it into an omnibus format.

--What do you want people to pay attention to in this OVA?

I'd like it if you could check which scenes were shown in the PV. For example, Reki and the others play karuta, but what kind of karuta is it? Who's playing against who? Will Langa, who is bad at reading and writing, be okay?! In the part with Sakurayashiki and Nanjo set in the past, what was their high school life like? What were their fights like back then? How developed are Nanjo's muscles?! Also, the unknown life of Kikuchi, which was kept top-secret in the main story, is revealed...!?! And more!

--Please tell us about what you remember when looking back on recording the voices for this OVA.

I was happy to see that Hatanaka Tasuku-san, who plays Reki, and Kobayashi Chiaki-san, who plays Langa, were still the same Reki and Langa even though several years had passed. I didn't feel any time had past... ∞(eternal) Friendship! It was also memorable how Koyasu Takehito-san, who plays Ainosuke, struggled with a certain scene. Look forward to finding out which scene it was! It had been a while since I last did the voice recording for SK8, and it brought back memories for me, making me feel like SK8 was back!

--What exactly is the theme for this OVA...?

Since it is an omnibus format, there is no overall theme, but they're each filling a gap that wasn't able to be seen in the main story.

--In order to get to know the characters more deeply before the OVA is released, are there any behind-the-scenes details that you haven't revealed yet (that you couldn't show in the first season of the TV series)?

The different headband Reki is wearing in the OVA PV is a souvenir present from his sister Koyomi. It's shaped like an akabeko with a tiger pattern... it's quite unique. Reki only wears it at home. Langa doesn't care about clothes, so he'll wear anything that's comfortable to move in, so he's wearing something strange this time. Please check out the OVA to find out the details☆

--For those who are rewatching the first season of the TV series, what are some of the points you would like people to pay special attention to?

Don't miss anything! The relationship between MIYA and Reki, the outcome of Hiromi's fleeting love, the current fight scenes between Sakurayashiki and Nanjo, the vibe of the master and dog relationship between Ainosuke and Kikuchi, etc. The bond between Reki and Langa through the whole series and how it develops into friendship, keeps your eyes peeled on it till the very end!! And since the theme song for this OVA was created with the TV series in mind, so I'm certain it will improve your understanding if you watch the whole series and think of it while listening to it☆

--Finally, please give a message to the fans of "SK8". 

We're sorry to have kept you waiting for so long, but thanks to everyone who has been waiting that the day we can finally deliver it to you is fast approaching...! There's only a few more sleeps till the OVA is here ♬ How about going to the cinema to watch "SK8 EXTRAPART" as the finale to your New Year's celebrations? It's sure to be a heartwarming, Fan & Fun experience! Please look forward to its release☆

[duchessonfire]

Savior Carl!AU re-read Part 1 Chapter 3

Follow-up of my re-read of Part 1 Chapter 2. If you're not interested and don't want to have your dashboard spammed, you can block the tags Duchess reads and Savior Carl AU reread.

Commentary for Part 1, Ch 3 below the cut (spoilers for part 1 ahead):

Fun fact: I used to hate the title of this chapter ("Wives and candy"). When I was writing part 1 in 2021, I wrote this title as a placeholder on my word document because I figured I'd think of something better down the line. Then, when I finished the chapter and was ready to post, I had not, in fact, thought of something better. So I just added it as the title chapter but I hated it. All the other chapter titles came to me very easily and were super evocative: "I'm Negan", "The hard way is the only way", "Don't stop until you see blood". All of them were direct quotes from either Carl or Shane so they felt very poetic to me. And then... there was "Wives and candy". Definitely the odd duck of the bunch. In fact, I remember changing it to something else soon after posting (it was 4 years ago so I don't remember what it was) and then still being dissatisfied so I just changed it back to "Wives and candy".

The thing is, this chapter really is about wives and candy. For all that I dislike the title, it works because its simplicity encapsulates what this chapter is about: rewards.

Negan sees the wives as rewards. It might sound obvious but it's something that always strikes me when I rewatch "The Cell" episode (7x03) where Negan tells Dwight he's been doing a good job with Daryl so he tells him to pick any wife he wants to spend the night with as long as she consents to it. This scene is always mindboggling to me because Negan is so deeply possessive and territorial that it feels almost OOC. He gets so angry when he and Amber talk about her cheating in the "Sing Me a Song episode" (7x07, aka my fave episode ever, aka the single greatest thing to have ever happened on tv). He talks sweetly to Amber, up until that moment when he reminds her the wives aren't allowed to cheat on him, and you can see his barely restrained rage. For a while, I had a hard time reconciling those two aspects of him, that someone so possessive could so casually offer his wives to a soldier as reward. Until I realize that Negan doesn't really see the wives as people, but as objects that are his to share as he wishes. What bothered him about Amber cheating on him wasn't that she slept with another man, but that she did so without Negan's permission. Negan doesn't really have any feelings for the wives. He can be tender with Amber, and there's definitely chemistry and maybe even understanding with Sherry, but it's all extremely shallow and superficial. He doesn't love them, doesn't care for them, doesn't do much other than provide them with luxuries. At the end of the day, the wives serve a purpose: to be warm and nice bodies for men to escape reality in. It's what Negan himself does (he tells Eugene in 7x11 Hostiles and Calamities that there's nothing better than conversation with a nice-smelling woman to make him feel like a man again) and it's what he offers Dwight. And in chapter 3, it's what he offers Carl, first by sending the wives to keep him company, and then by literally offering Carl to have sex with one of his wives as reward for saving his life.

Chapter 3 is Carl's first introduction to Negan's harem. He knew of the wives before, but he had no interest in them (he doesn't even recognize that Tanya is a wife at first, because the wives stay in their apartments and rarely mingle with the other people of the factory).

even before getting shot he never paid too much attention to the wives. He’d learned what he could about them, just as he had with everyone else in the Sanctuary, but he’d never pushed it past names and previous occupations. The role they play for Negan makes him uncomfortable, like something deeply private that should be kept secret instead of being paraded around for everyone to see. Carl isn’t stupid, and he isn’t ignorant. He knows what sex and love are. He’s seen it with his mom and Shane in the beginning, and he’s spent half of his adolescent life with Glenn and Maggie, and not so long ago, he saw Shane trying to put on his best face for Jessie, back in Alexandria. But Negan doesn’t act with his wives the way Glenn or Shane looked at women like his mom, or Maggie or Jessie. It isn’t love, it’s possessiveness, and probably something more physical that Carl just avoids thinking about.

This whole chapter is about Carl's relationship to women and to heterosexual relations, the weight that they carry and how they affect the people around him. It's why this part of the chapter is so focused on female characters and, more specifically, their influence on the male characters. The flashbacks are about Jessie and Shane. Carl dreams of Beth. He interacts for the first time with Sherry, Tanya, Frankie and Beth. Sherry, especially, makes an impression on Carl.

Carl at this point of the story is so sexually repressed he's bordering on asexual. It's something that I explore more in part 2, but having to grow up in the apocalypse, being isolated from anyone his age, and being constantly focused on survival has emotionally and sexually stunted Carl. He's 18 but has never had more than puppy love for Beth (and it's no coincidence that this happened when his mom was still alive and he still felt reasonably safe to act like a kid). And yet, in spite of this, Carl notices how sexual feelings affect Shane when he meets Jessie. He sees it again in the infirmary, when literally every man around him is sexually attracted to Sherry (Negan, Shane, Carson and Joey the Savior). He's both highly aware of people's sexual desires and completely unaware of his own.

Which leads to one my favorite things about this chapter, and something that still haunts Carl even though he never allows himself to think about it: how Negan views women.

One night, after spending the whole day with nothing to do but watch Amber cover every single one of her finger and toe with nail polish, Carl dreams of Beth, Jessie, Enid, Rosita, Sasha and Maggie, all watching over him in black dresses and heels.

This one short passage encapsulates so much about Carl's feelings in this chapter. It shows how aware Carl is of Negan's predatory instincts toward women (but also toward everything and everyone else) as well as his (very founded and justified) fear that Negan's hunger for power and conquest is endless, that he will marry every single woman Carl has ever met, dead or alive, that they will all join his harem and don the wife uniform. It's a scary vision and it's one that becomes likely the more he knows about Negan's far-reaching empire.

During the whole chapter, Carl is haunted by the wives' smell and their flowery perfume. So far, Carl has mainly been in contact with Saviors and workers, but his convalescence is his first time being in contact with the wives' lifestyle: how clean they are, how impractical their clothes are for the apocalypse, how their days are spent in leisure doing nothing but read and paint their nails. It shocks him, and while Negan sees the wives as a distraction for Carl in the infirmary, something to make his stay there more pleasant, like the soda cans and candy bars he sends to Carl's bedside, to Carl they are a burden and an uncomfortable reminder of his own disabled state. In fact, getting away from them as quickly as possible is a big incentive to him speeding up his recovery. None of the women Carl has been around before were like the wives. Maggie, Sasha and Rosita are all fighters, trained for survival like him. In a way, they are similar to female Saviors like Arat or Laura. But the wives are presenting Carl with another path to survival that he never considered, one where their skills are applied in the bedroom rather than in the wild. This harsh reminder of the sexual world of Sanctuary - Negan's sexual world especially - is not a pleasant one for someone as sexually repressed as Carl. And yet, it's a world that will change him irremediably.

I was so excited to write about Carl and Sherry's first meeting. While Carl has never thought about Sherry other than in passing when he heard about her escape with Dwight, Sherry has obviously been thinking about him:

“He likes you,” she says as she reshuffles the card.  “Carson?” The corner of her mouth lifts up, like they just shared a secret joke. “Negan,” she corrects. Carl frowns at her, and she elaborates: “I heard what happened before you got shot, at the market and then in the Saviors’ mess hall. He likes you.” Carl snorts. “He keeps threatening to kill me whenever I piss him off.” “And yet, he hasn’t.” “Not so far.” Sherry places her cards in neat row on the covers. “He’ll hurt you, you know?” Her voice doesn’t waver, still perfectly even, like they’re just talking about the weather. “That’s what he does to the people he likes. He hurts us to see how much we can take. It’s his idea of fun.” She’s right, he knows that. He has seen it first-hand, the way Negan keeps taunting him, humiliating him, pressing Lucille on top of his shoulder, knowing exactly that every time he does, Carl keeps seeing Glenn and Abraham’s bloody faces. And yet, it irks him to have Sherry say it out loud, as if someone else acknowledging it makes it worse. “He hasn’t done anything to me,” he points out, because it’s technically true. “Not so far,” she replies, her eyes never leaving the cards, a dam of paper delicately erected between them.

Sorry for quoting this entire dialogue, but it means so much to me. Sherry is the first person in Sanctuary to see Negan's interest in Carl for what it is: dangerous. Sherry knows Negan more intimately than most, is probably closer to him than anyone else, as was made abudantly clear in 7x07, and she knows better than anyone that Negan's interest in Carl can lead only to disaster (while people like Carson see it as an honor). It's the first time anyone has talked to Carl about something that he has noticed himself - how interested Negan is in him, how the close interactions between them deviate from the norm - but that he never wanted to dwell on. She recognizes the cat and mouse game that Negan is playing with Carl and tries to warn Carl, but at this point in the story, Carl is not ready to hear it. If anything, he's upset that Sherry would remark on it, which is something that reflects the downward slide that Carl is on. He knows that Negan is "bullying" him (that's how Carl views Negan's interest in him) but he feels protective and possessive of that bullying. This Carl is starved for attention, the attention that Shane gave him unconditionally when he was a child, the attention that changed and became abusive when Shane was training him after his mother's death, the attention that started to shift away from him when they got to Alexandria, only to be given sparingly when Jessie wasn't around, and that finally vanished completely once they joined Sanctuary. Shane has done nothing but isolate Carl from the people around him, making Carl dependent on him for any kind of attention. Unbeknownst to Shane, however, Negan has been watering Carl's withered garden (little Queen Charlotte reference for any Bridgerton fan).

I could go on and on about this chapter and all it means to me despite the really bad title, but this post is far too long already so I'll wrap it up with this:

“I’m sorry, does this look like a fucking resort to you? Do you see me sipping Mai Tais on the beach? Yes, work. I’ve invested a whole lotta time and resources in you, kid. I expect it to pay off. So from now on, every day from noon to sundown, you’re gonna be my assistant. You’re gonna follow me around, watch, listen, learn, and generally do whatever the fuck I need you to do. And don’t expect to sleep in in the mornings. I want you working on your aim every second you’re not with me. First with those darts I generously provided for you, then with a gun aimed at dead ones in the courtyard, until I feel confident that you can leave the Sanctuary without shooting someone in the ass. Anything you wanna add to that?” Negan’s tone doesn’t suffer any objection and to hear him have so much faith in Carl’s ability to get his aim back is entirely unexpected. “I… No, I – it’s just I thought you were gonna send me away.” “Send you away? Kid, I don’t know what kind of crack-head-level, bullshit-inducing drugs Carson’s been feeding you, but you ain’t going anywhere. What makes you think otherwise?” Carl looks away, suddenly self-conscious. “It’s – I mean… I just thought – with the eye, you know.” Negan’s surveys him with his piercing gaze for a moment, before his expression turns softer. His tone when he speaks is understanding: “Carl, I’m not sending you away. Like I said, I’ve invested in you and I plan on having you around here for a long time. So you’re stuck with me, kid.”

On top of having one of the greatest lines Savior!AU Negan has ever said (I've never had a Mai Tai, but boy do I want one now), this scene lays the groundwork for everything that will happen after. The eye changed everything for Carl. It made Shane abandon him but it made Negan more interested in him than ever and, in turn, it made Carl's allegiance shift from Shane to Negan.

Conclusion; tldr: Chapter 3 is Carl's introduction to the world of the harem. He's sexually repressed so he doesn't realize that his discomfort of the wives is already rooted in jealousy. The wives, and especially Sherry, represent a world that seems wondrous to Carl: one filled with leisure and luxury and comfort and, most importantly, Negan's attention. By taking a bullet for him, Carl bought himself Negan's gratitute, a very rare thing that Negan tries - and fails - to reward with material objects (candy, sodas, sex with the wives, comic books). Negan is desperate to repay Carl for what he did, not knowing that the one thing Carl needs most of all is what Negan is already giving: his attention.

[yourwagonisaflame]

best of you being an in universe song is so cute to me. idk why i love that so much

[absurdfish77]

“Sora? Funny… Just hearing that name kinda makes me wanna smile”

“Yeah, That’s how he is”

“Whaddaya know… Riku and Sora, The Sound Ideas you two set free joined together. And when they did, they made a great and powerful harmony”

“Sora can find the brightest part of anything, and pull off miracles like there’s nothing to it. It’s pretty hard to not smile around him”

“Wow! No wonder the music sounded like so much fun”

[midnightdemonhunter]

SO EAT YOUR FRIENDS THEY'D UNDERSTAND CAUSE THEY WOULD TOO

[art--harridan]

[Image description: A digital drawing based on the film Girl Shy. It depicts Harold Lloyd's character Harold Meadows sat at his typewriter, paused in thought as his fingers hover above it. His eyes are looking up and his mouth is slightly open, like he's dreaming awake. A thought bubble floats around him like smoke, with the faces of two women in the middle of it. The two have annotations next to them that denote the twenties era stereotypes that they are styled as. The one noted as "the flapper" is smiling and has curly, slightly unkempt hair, with a headband around it. She has lighter makeup than the woman next to her, who has dark lips and eyeshadow and is labelled "the vamp". She has large circular statement earrings and an ornate headpiece atop her smooth updo. Her eyes are downturned, and her expression less approachable. Harold is coloured in greyscale, and so are the ladies, although they have a warmer brown tone, as does the smoke. There's a pinker line of light surrounding them and the writing. The background is a dark brown.]

Inktober - Day 15 (Guidebook)

Film - Girl Shy (Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor, 1924)

[imflyingfish]

working in an art gallery and talking to a lot of full time artists has given me CRAZY imposter syndrome btw lmao

[unproduciblesmackdown]

speaking of bsol through speaking of xmas xtrav that like i'm so augh god hand over heart falling over (just like the bloodsong b/c it's the like conclusion of being Overwhelmed By Artistic Effect that then in the ideal version you may as well die) at the thought of the finale where you have the main plot conclude as that Story w/those Themes like ah but even then, the influence, the other the musicians now, that this whole time like yeah you have to do it even if you just keep building or die or were thwarted even prior to that b/c you didn't know you wouldn't be....but that then just like in the opening song Outlaw or sort of distillation of the theme abt being someone making art Last On Land or that at other points other characters have emerged as not really their characters not really a greek chorus but elements of the story helping to Tell It, here's Everyone again for the friendship song altogether & each with an instrument & like not even able to see it but pics & imagining & the enthusiasm & the Thematic Resonance like this is when you are pursuing these pursuits together like _o__ (splayed out facedown emoji) aaauuughhh ;;mm;; bsol finale with everyone showing up playing & singing & dancing the song celebratory finale it's all the Theme when the full cast of Characters had only ever all been together for the one standoff scene at the end & yet obviously We've known them all & everyone is outlaws which is a song like i'm already going sicko mode & this is just the intro, so yknow, The Conclusion, good lord find an iconis musical finale without that place for the celebratory outpouring of enthusiasm right amidst other feelings & situations but Good Lord Here's This in a story that'll always have been all about people's depths & heights & widths & breadths & variations & tumult & all the dimensions, people will have Brought It all over the place & it's like yes leap around together playing & singing this song together which isn't The Story but is such an extension of it b/c bsol has its show within the show quality still infused all in it & if this flurry of Actors Celebrating Outpouring We Put On This Show but still within the show you are seeing as an audience in this venue wouldn't have been part of the original plan with a whole [outside the show within the show] plotline like. embraces bsol holding it so hard my becherished

[fabdante]

For the Spotify wrapped 1-100 ask: 2, 8, 39, 44, 99! :D

spotify wrapped is HERE! send me a number 1-100 and I’ll tell you the song it corresponds with on my top 100 playlist

2) Sleep Patterns by Merchant Ships! Congratulations you won!

8) Earth Death by Baths (this is an EXCELLENT vergil song)

39) Flashlight by the Front Bottoms

44) Maps by the Front Bottoms

99) The Ex by Billy Talent (sasha and august type of song)

[lagaans]

I could live inside the Meryton assembly scenes of p&p forever and ever and ever. The dance tunes they chose are so lively and fun and the scene goes on for a while to where you feel like it exists in a timeless moment and you get to sink into the setting and the characters (which is also such a perfect way to introduce a lot of them and their dynamics with each other only a few minutes into the movie) and feel the music and the joy with them!! Everytime I watch I truly feel like it just will never end in the best way and just sit there with a huge smile on my face 😊

[gilfrespecter]

Listening to coinstar by the growlers and thinking about mel so hard I get nauseous

Ridiculous stream of conscious in the tags apologies but not really

[astro-inthestars]

YOOOOOOO WE FUCKIN DID IT!!!! YEAHHH!! We slayed SOOO well!! EVERYONE DID!! The other sections were SO FUCKING GOOD i LOVED it!!! And like, we won first place or whatever i didnt care about that really BUT WE ALL DID GREAT!

Anyways, just got home from my pal's birthday party (more like Hang Out at the mall, we ate out) it was AWESOME! First time inside a Starbucks, and first order ALL ON MY OWN! (HELL YEAH RELIGIOUS REBELLION!!)

[margle]

My top ten and lowest ten episodes, according to @dennisboobs episode ranker. No. 10 is Charlie Work, narrowly beating The Gang Chokes. It took 929 rounds and by the end I was going purely on my first instinct, so there are probably a few episodes that deserve to be in my top ten that are lesser known. The ONLY episodes I couldn't chose between were the first 2. Looking at the last 10, I'm pretty happy with that, though maybe I was a little harsh on A Cricket's Tale and the Gang Does A Clip Show and The Gang Turns Black.

[captainshyguy]

i get the last wish is all the rage and i get why, its a very good movie, but i gotta say, just catching the tail end of shrek 2 today reminded me quite firmly it was easily the one in the franchise i enjoy the most 

[art--harridan]

[Image description: A digital drawing based on the film Treasure of the Four Crowns. J.T. Striker is the central element of the piece, wearing his expedition suit and with a harness attached. He crosses his arms with a glowing gemstone in each hand, green and bright yellow respectively. Bright flames shoot out of each stone in long pillars. He looks upwards, mouth set and half of his face melting downwards. That section of his face is losing colour and there's blood running down it. His eye on that side is bloodshot. Behind him there's a stone goat head, which has two crowns placed on top. Red ropes, like the ones on his harness, hang down from the ceiling. The background is a warm, olive green. The colour palette is warm and red-toned.]

Inktober - Day 24 (Expedition)

Film - Treasure of the Four Crowns (Ferdinando Baldi, 1983)

[thesnailtail]

;; am i being so normal about we will rock you (musical) right now? yeah, seeing 8+ times in 6 days does something. i love it

;; would i recommend people actually watch it? wellllll... it's good there are just problems. so maybe?

;; anyway i rambled in the tags, spoilers for the actual musical if you wish to read them