#i love you peach momoko

[wbmwrites]

[ghost-bard]

Saw a tweet about aging up childhood characters with yourself and now i need to make the wedding peach characters 20 years old and learning how to navigate being an adult while also still protecting the world from (evil/malicious) demons even if queen reinedevilia has been exorcised

[toomanysubcultures]

the fact that the new ultimate x-men is centered around armor makes me so happy yall dont even understand

[hotwaterandmilk]

The Wedding Peach PC-98VX game was released in 1996 and features an original story played out using card battling mechanics. The game draws its visuals from the animated series thanks to designs by Watanabe Mayumi and features 11 different seiyuu (including all the anime leads reprising their roles).

I haven't talked about this game in any detail before, but today I was re-scanning all its packaging in 1200 dpi and thought why not give it a bit of a summary and a ramble?

Dark Angels

The two original characters on the cover of the game (above) are the Kuroba siblings, Valzov and Neana, who have been charged by Reine Devila to defeat the loves angels on Earth. The Kuroba are from a much maligned devil clan, treated differently because they have similar wings to angels, albeit in a dual white/black colouring.

Because the Kuroba clan have never been truly accepted by other devils, they rely only on one another and have an extremely deep familial bond. Despite the mission posing a significant personal risk, Valzov (as the head of the family) takes it on, believing that defeating the love angels will allow his clan to finally be seen as true devils.

Neana, valuing her brother with a possessiveness that goes beyond that of a sibling, heads to Earth with him to find the love angels. Following a lead they find early on in the game, Valzov and Neana begin attending Saint Hanazono as transfer students (Tooru and Nina) in the hopes of finding and destroying the love angels once and for all.

Of course the love angels aren't just going to accept being challenged by a whole clan of devils (including Kuroba compatriotes Miligal, Entran, Julad and Swyswi). Through the eyes of Momoko, Yuri and Hinagiku the player has to figure out what these "Dark Angels" are up to and challenge them via card battles (which allow you to unleash familiar attacks as you gain the upper hand).

Why talk about this game?

The Wedding Peach PC-98VX game is the only Wedding Peach video game with narrative emphasis, playing out like an extra anime arc complete with music, voices and visuals that could have been lifted straight from the television series. It is also the only Wedding Peach game that gives us something genuinely unique with the Kuroba clan.

The Kuroba have struggled in the devil world because of how they look. Their devil peers see them as not being true devils because they have wings that look almost angelic. The love angels also notice this, hence the moniker of "Dark Angels" (straight up "Yami Tenshi").

We discover by the end of the game that the unique wings all Kuroba clan members have in some capacity are likely angelic in origin. Limone speculates that the Kuroba clan are descended from angels who fell into the devil world long ago.

However, Neana has the capacity to project a powerful love wave in the battle's climax which devils can't do. This leads Limone to clarify that Neana has primarily angel DNA (literally "tenshi no DNA"). He believes she was an angel who lost her life in battle before being reincarnated in the devil world (that isn't how DNA works but OK). Neana was reborn as a devil to be alongside Valzov, essentially, as an angel can only reincarnate "where there is love".

It isn't explained how Limone concludes any of this, except that he "checked their DNA" though we don't see or hear him doing that so it really seems to be based on vibes and perhaps angel eugenics who knows. While everyone was kind of weirded out by how close the siblings were earlier in the game, in the end everyone just kind of shrugs about it so I'm not sure where incest falls on the "love" scale here.

Regardless, Neana's existence shows us that at least in this version of the franchise, it is possible for individuals to reincarnate into the devil world. This is not shown anywhere else in the media mix and it underscores just how similar all the worlds really are.

It's also interesting that the Kuroba (angels who fell and assimilated into the devil world) must follow Devila's orders to try to shed their poor reputation, when in the anime (which the game draws from) Devila herself is secretly an angel who was consumed by her own darkness and found herself suited to life in the devil world.

Anyway, it's not a life-changing game by any means but it is the one Wedding Peach game that tries something different and that's worth noting if nothing else. I'll be honest I haven't played it in yeaaaaaaaaaars so I might not be entirely on the mark with all my recollections, but I did flip through the manual again and it was a real trip down memory lane.

Unrelated to any of the above, my favourite part in the character book bundled with the game? Salvia's profile stating "She is a reticent and nihilistic girl."

👑 Yes queen, life is meaningless! All values are baseless and nothing can be known or communicated! Give 'em nothing! 👑

[farsight-the-char]

Dear John senpai, wish I had met you and talked about Armor (Hisako). I hope you approve my Armor and I hope to make sure to carry Armor and be loved.

RIP John Cassaday. From Hisako Ichiki and Peach Momoko

[theelectronicstranger]

Ultimate X-Men #3 Discussion

          If you have not read this issue, then please look away now! I’ve been really loving this title so far. I think this issue is worth your time and money, so don’t spoil yourself and maybe come back to this when you’ve read this issue.

          I really enjoyed learning more about Mei Igarashi/MayStorm this issue and seeing how her powers manifested. We saw a bit of her connection to Storm/Ororo; in the issue, we saw a glimpse of her looking up “Storm” on social media and reading all about her escapades as a freedom fighter in West Africa:

I already talked about this in my Ultimate Black Panther #1-3 Discussion, but I really appreciated that we get some confirmation on who Storm is and how she is related to Mei in this universe. I also like how this is kind of the first time these books have connected with one another. Unless you count the Tony Stark appearance in Ultimate Spider-Man #1, there hasn’t really been that much crossover in the first 3 Ultimate Universe titles. My only problem with them showing Mei and Storm’s connection is that I wish it was longer. I would love to know more about the extent of Mei’s interest in Storm. I’m hoping we see more of her connection with Storm and maybe see her work with Storm in the future as the stories of this universe progress. Although this little panel suffices, I just wish there was more.

          We also get to see Mei’s family life in this issue, and it is not good. Her parents seem to be fighting all the time because her father seems to be cheating on her mother with another woman. Also, her dad seems pretty checked out with the whole relationship and his family in general because anytime we see him, his expression doesn’t really change. He’s just looking at his paper or looking somewhere else. It feels like he has straight up disdain for the family he has, and Mei has learned to dislike her father because of his actions and inaction within their family. He is also pretty abusive in this issue. When Mei talks back to her in this issue, Mei’s father hits her without any remorse:

What really gets to me about these pages is the fact that he just did it so nonchalantly. Like he knew this was just something Mei deserved or something he needed to do to punish her daughter. He did it so matter-of-factly that it was really scary and effective in making me hate this guy, which makes what happens next so satisfying:

This is my favorite panel of the issue. Mei, after being struck by her father, unleashes and awakens her mutant powers. It’s like all this pent-up anger and repressed emotions she feels inside just explodes and makes themselves feel known. I absolutely love Peach Momoko’s art here. I think she drew Mei’s awakening so well, which makes what follows after so heartbreaking:

Her father doesn’t even flinch, and he doesn’t change his demeanor. He just wants her out of his house. When I first read this, I was speechless because her father was just so cruel. He didn’t even try to understand what happened or understand his daughter at all. All he knew was that her daughter was now a liability and someone he couldn’t control anymore, so he told her to go. This scene just completely deflates that big burst of energy from when Mei awakens her power. It’s as if there’s nothing that she could do to change how her father feels and acts about her. Even her powers manifesting wasn’t enough to get a better reaction from him.

          I’m going to talk a little bit about the Shadow King (This is still not confirmed by the way, but we still don’t have a name for him so I’m just sticking with “the Shadow King” for now). We saw a bit of him this issue. I still maintain my belief that it was too early to reveal that the Shadow King’s identity was an actual physical person and not some spirit or entity because I felt like all of the mystique surrounding his identity and what he is went away when we found out what he looked like. I really would have preferred it more if his identity was kept a secret for at least a year. Yes, there’s still some questions regarding his identity and his motivations that are left to be answered. However, I felt like we could have kept more of the horror aspect of the book if his identity was kept a secret for a little longer. I’m not saying that it’s not there still, but with this issue specifically, it felt like that aspect has been diminished. I understand that Momoko probably wanted to temper people’s expectations of who this person is, so I’m trusting that she knows what she’s doing and I’m just going to enjoy what she has in store for us in the future. I am a little excited to find out more about who this person actually is and what his motivations are, so I hope we get those answers soon.

          This issue also introduces us a bit to Nico Minoru, which was a nice surprise. As far as I know, Nico Minoru was never a mutant unless I’m missing something. If I am, then please let me know. I’m pretty sure she’s a sorceress/witch in the main 616 universe and was never a mutant. I wonder how this version of Nico Minoru’s powers work because is seems to hint that she’s a psychic in this issue; but also, at the end of the issue we see her holding a magnifying glass that oddly looks like the Staff of One:

I like her design in this issue and I’m wondering if the magnifying glass helps her use her powers at all. Maybe that’s how she knows that Mei and Hisako are mutants. Sidenote: This is the first time in this series that anybody has mentioned the word ‘Mutant”. If that magnifying glass is the Staff of One, then that makes me wonder if certain mutants in this universe need “trinkets” to activate their powers because Hisako in this issue talks about how her Omamori is always with her even when she forgets it:

When Hisako activated her armor power back in Issue 1, we see her holding her Omamori in her hand:

The Omamori looks exactly like her armor too. My theory is that maybe certain mutants in this universe are connected to certain items that helps them manifest their powers? We know that this universe has a very interesting history with artifacts and stolen destinies/powers. The Maker took certain items/artifacts that would have turned certain people into superheroes. What if this universe holds value to those artifacts/objects and that is how some mutants use their power in this universe? What do you guys think?

Anyways, I want to go back to the picture of Nico Minoru’s introduction and focus on the little girl on Nico’s right:

The little girl is wearing bunny ears, and my immediate thought is that it was Molly Hayes of the Runaways. Maybe even the girl with the eyepatch is Gert Yorkes? I don’t really know if that’s Molly or if that’s Gert but I’m excited to find out. Also, I want to point out that Mei Igarashi is technically a runaway right now. She’s not with her parents anymore. It seems that she’s alone right now, so maybe we will see a version of the Runaways in this series? What do you guys think? I personally really like the Runaways team, so seeing them in this book in some form or another will be nice.

          That’s all I have for this issue of Ultimate X-Men. Thank you for reading this! I’d love to know what you guys think of the issue. I didn’t talk much about Hisako this issue because this issue was more about Mei, but there were some panel in the beginning of this book that I want to see where it goes for a bit before I talk about it. Thank you for reading and have a great day.

[librarycomic]

Until I came across a stack of recent collections at my local library, I hadn't read any Usagi Yojimbo for a few years -- I knew I'd missed all of the recent full-color collections, but not that I'd also missed a few from the end of the series at Dark Horse, back when it was still published in black-and-white. If you haven't read any for a while, either, the series is as good as ever, and as much as I liked the old uncolored books the newer collections are fabulous, too. These are the three I liked best.

Usagi Yojimbo: Mysteries (Volume 32) by Stan Sakai. Introduction by Yuki Matsuzaki. Dark Horse, 2018. 9781506705842. 180pp plus a cover/pinup gallery. Contains #159-165 of UY Volume 3.

Usagi comes across a dead, high-ranking samurai in the woods, and finds a little girl hiding nearby. On his way to take her to Inspector Ishida, they're accosted by some samurai who want the girl and even go so far as to attack Usagi when he's buying her a meal. It's a huge mistake and only the beginning of a larger mystery that starts with finding the girl's father's confession. Thieves Kiyoko and Kitsune make an appearance, and of course my favorite scenes are the "The Body in the Library" chapters.

Usagi Yojimbo: Homecoming (Volume 35) by Stan Sakai, colors by Tom Luth. Introduction by Peach Momoko. IDW, 2021. 9781684058020. Contains #8-14 of UY Volume 4.

This volume starts with a graphic lesson on how tatami mats are made, which plays into the plot. Usagi heads to the north province where he grew up. He crosses paths with samurai transporting new tatami mats for Lord Gifu, who will use them as part of a tea ceremony for an emissary of the shogun. When the samurai are attacked, Usagi helps defend the tatami from the ninja. Later Usagi is pursued because he continues to wear the mon of Lord Mifune, which begins a journey to his home village, Mariko (the woman he loved), and Kenichi, his childhood friend and rival. Katsuichi-sensei (Usagi's teacher) and Jotaro, who is secretly now Usagi's son, also make appearances. The best part of the color version: seeing the blue Usagi wears during the fight scenes.

Usagi Yojimbo: Tengu War! (Volume 36) by Stan Sakai, art assist by Randy Clute, colors by Hi-Fi Design. Introduction by Kevin Eastman. IDW, 2022. 9781684058754. Contains #15-21 of UY Volume 4.

Usagi seeks his other master, a one-handed tengu named Sojobo. There's a flashback to how Usagi earned the right to be trained by him, and, in the present day, as you might guess from the title, Usagi finds himself in the midst of a war between supernatural creatures. Toward the end of the story he meets someone from his past, from just as he fled the battlefield with Lord Mifune's head. And then Usagi meets Yukichi, who remembers when their paths crossed years ago.

[gothiic-piink]

BABYMETAL REQUEST!! Momo gets hurt before a practice, and Moa is there to the rescue to help her girlfriend while she is hurtin <3

(ugh yesyes the bbgs ♡)

momoko okazaki x moa kikuchi (BABYMETAL)

☆ moa hummed softly as she walked down the hallway to the rehearsal room, a slight skip in her step. her movements stilled as she heard a faint thud and then a yelp. the dancer quickly made her way to the sounds source, opening the sliding door a bit too fast causing her to stumble slightly.

there was momo, sitting on the hardwood floor and holding her ankle. she winced softly as she attempted to stand on her hurt foot, moa catching her just in time before she stumbled back to the floor. "peach, are you okay? what happened?.." she asked softly, cupping the other's face as her other hand rested on momo's waist.

momo let out a soft groan as her head leaned against moa's shoulder, "I was trying to practice a bit before rehearsals, but I lost my footing during kagerou and twisted my ankle.." she mumbled, her foot throbbed in pain as moa supported her body weight. moa kissed her forehead, and cupped her face. "let's get you home and that sprain patched up," she whispered, gently hoisting up the taller girl into her arms (much to momo's protest). "hush, my starlight. it won't hurt to miss one rehearsal."

once they were back in their shared home, moa gently placed her lover on the couch in the living room. "I'll go get the foot brace from the bathroom," she smiled at the other before walking to the bathroom to retrieve them. a few seconds later moa came back with the brace, before kneeling down to gently cup her partner's injury, her shoes already taken off. moa went to work on getting the brace on without causing momo any pain, after a few seconds she was done and drew her hands back.

"try not to walk on it too much, peach. I'll be there to help you," moa said gently, patting momo's knee before standing again. momo smiled sleepily at her lover, "thank you, dear." she mumbled. moa smiled warmly, "anytime sweetie." she said softly, sitting beside the other after taking her shoes off.

moa grabbed a panda printed blanket from the comforter and draped it over the two of them. they stayed like that for the rest of the afternoon, cuddling in eachothers embrace while watching love live. ☆

[thebettybook]

Inspired by @hotwaterandmilk’s scan of Momoko’s Love Angel Profile from their copy of the Wedding Peach “This is Animation” book

🌸 Cosplay isn’t something I post often here on Tumblr (or at all, I think?) but I didn’t want IG to screw up the size or quality of my post so I’m posting this here :)

🌸 So I highkey forgot I cosplayed Momoko Hanasaki from the animanga Wedding Peach in March until I looked up “Wedding Peach cosplay” in Instagram tags to see if there was anyone selling her OG battle outfit and then I found my Momoko cosplay posts in the top tags LOL (tbf there’s not many posts under that tag)

🌸 That sent me into Wedding Peach hyperfixation mode and I began looking up Wedding Peach posts on Tumblr (like to find fan art and stuff). I saw one of @hotwaterandmilk ‘s (I hope you don’t mind the double tag, and thank you for your amazing work in the Wedding Peach fandom :D🫶) Wedding Peach scans and got inspired to use my Momoko cosplay pictures to make this graphic

🌸 Wedding Peach is my fav magical girl anime of all time and personality-wise I can relate to Momoko so much lol

[scarlet--wiccan]

Do you know of any good examples of Pietro being coloured with darker skin? There’s the new SW solo and No Surrender but is there any other that you know of?

I hope the positive change we’ve seen with colouring Wanda correctly will extend to him as well

Depends on your definition of "darker." A lot of what passes for brown or tan in comic books is shockingly light to me.

There are plenty of comics, particularly in the 90s, where Pietro and Wanda are somewhat tan, but that's usually just because the artists were working in a warmer color palette. It's not an intentional choice-- they're usually in the same shade range as other white characters.

Things really started to change with Quicksilver: No Surrender. The color artist, Rico Renzi, intentionally gave the twins deeper skin tones, and I've heard that this is something the writer, Saladin Ahmed, specifically requested from him. Unfortunately, you can't really tell in most issues, since Pietro is mostly alone in a grayscale setting, and the flashback sequences were colored by a different artist. Still, it really stands out in the final issue, and it was the start of a slow but steady change for the entire Maximoff family.

Over the past four years, many artists have begun changing the way they draw Wanda, Pietro, Billy and Tommy. Here's a quick timeline:

Rico Renzi went on to color Wanda and Pietro with brown skin an issue of Squirrel Girl Beats Up The Marvel Universe

Marcelo Maiolo gave Billy a deep tan on the cover of Empyre: Aftermath Avengers and in a splash page of Marvel's Voices: Pride.

Jesus Aburtov gave Wanda noticeably tan skin tone in Darkhold.

Rye Hickman and Brittany Peer drew both Wanda and Pietro with defined noses, curly hair, and brown skin in Who Is the Scarlet Witch?

Russel Dauterman debuted his new design for Wanda ahead of the 2022 Hellfire Gala-- in all of his illustrations and design sheets, she has light brown skin, dark curly hair, and a defined nose.

Peach Momoko began drawing Wanda with brown skin in official cover art and personal pieces during the Judgement Day event, which has been mimicked to varying degrees by several other artists.

Scarlet Witch (2023) is announced, featuring Dauterman's Gala design as Wanda's new definitive look. Dauterman is on covers, with Pichelli and Wilson on interiors. In the most recent previews, Wanda and Pietro both have rich, warm brown skin.

The Maximoff family appears together in Love Unlimited: Hulkling & Wiccan. They are initially shown with fair skin, but by the end of the series, color artist Matt Milla has noticeably adjusted Billy's skin to a light brown.

I had a brief conversation with Dauterman on Instagram last month and he acknowledged that Wanda's new look was an intentional choice and was glad to hear that it's making people happy. I'm delighted that so many artists are starting to take cues from his choice, and Renzi's, to show Wanda and Pietro this way.

Here's Pietro in Squirrel Girl:

And here's the twins in Scarlet Witch again BECAUSE LOOK AT THEM!

[ihugmomo]

1 sid/mike (or one of our sid au's 👀) OR 4 with momo, moa, and su. double cheek kiss (or just sumoa)

oooh okay (I'll do the first in a separate post later w/ sid/mike <33)

sumomoa double cheek kiss!!

♡ suzuka hummed quietly as she watched her lovers decorate the Christmas tree from the doorframe. the two of them working together to get the red and green lights up, now were hanging up ornaments. she watched them as her heart swelled, moa turned to grab her drink from the kitchenette when she met the vocalist's gaze.

"do you know what you're standing under there, peach?" she questioned, a soft smile on her lips as she walked to her partner. suzuka raised a brow, before moa pointed a finger overhead. when she looked up, she spotted what moa was talking about.

"ohh. i didn't notice the mistletoe before," she mumbled, before she saw moa walk closer and cup her face. suzuka's face heats up when moa's lips quickly peck her left cheek, a cheeky smile on her face when she pulled away a second later. moa giggled at the singer's silence. their loving gaze was broken when momoko ran behind su and quickly pecked her right cheek.

momoko snickered at her flustered face, she immediately grabbed suzuka's hand. "c'mon, let's finish putting the ornaments on. you'll probably have to put the star on, moa wanted to do it but she's too short." she whispered the last bit as the pair walked to the tree, making su laugh. "hey! i heard that, momo!" moa huffed, her voice muffled from the kitchen. ♡

(i hope this is what you were expecting, ik it wasn't a double cheek kiss but it counts okay- ☠)

[bigskydreaming]

What are some other comic book writers you like a lot besides Ram V?

Just in general? Oh jeez, hmm. Well, from the Big Two at least, and with the caveat that lately these are far more geared towards the Marvel side of things than DC, because most of my fave DC characters are either Batfamily, Titans, Kyle Rayner or woefully obscure so none of them have really been being used or written by writers I like or trust for a couple years now....

In no particular order: Al Ewing, Eve Ewing (no relation), Vita Ayala, Alyssa Wong, Victor LaValle, Jed MacKay (for the most part, I didn't really like his first issue of X-Men so far but his magic/supernatural stuff tends to be awesome IMO), Deniz Camp, Anthony Oliveira, L. L. McKinney, G. Willow Wilson, just started reading Murewa Ayodele's stuff after he got put on the Storm solo but he's excellent, Greg Pak, Ryan Hill, Peach Momoko. Steve Orlando and Steve Foxe are both pretty hit or miss for me, I either love their stuff or hate it lol, I think Sina Grace is under-rated, aaaaaaand those are who's coming to mind, off the top of my head though I'm sure there are others I'm just blanking on at the moment.

[jewishcissiekj]

Hey look I finished Tempest Runner so jusst read Trail of Shadows #2 and The High Republic (2021) #9-10 so here's a readthrough post (also feat. me simping for Keeve Lourna and Avar)

Get tinified Eemrick Stellan Ghirra Lina and the other people here

Big fan of this pnael Stellan looks so disturbed and Ghirra is unbothered. Wonderful really

Ahhhhh Eemrick and sian are so cool! Love them!!

Banger THR #9 covers I lobve womebn

Ooooh look at Keeve she has piercings nad she cut her hair she's so evil and edgy Nihil I need to kiss her what the hell

Love collecting these kinds of panels but two things 1) Who's the Wookie here? He isn't colored like Burry so it might be Arkoff but I checked Wookiepedia and I couldn't find anything so? another Wookie Jedi? Very cool either way and 2) Ngl I kinda hate how inconsistent the coloring of Keeve's skin is. And it's not lighting because she's at Starlight several times throughout the comic in modst probably the same lighting and her skin is much lighter, and I don't get the inconsistency

Damn she's kinda hotter now who said that

Avar looks so tired now:( Area blonde white woman get some rest pls

Dude I kinda need her to do this to me my neck feels like shit right now maybe that'll help

yeah

hey it's the fucking Yuri magnet go kiss some girls I think it wouldn't fix her but she should give it a try

Well you see in this moment I lost all memory of Keeve having canonically left the order and of her being in Phase 3 because for a second there she had to stay with me and not die now

What a nice couple do they need a third

Damn she should kill me

She stayed with me but at what cost:(

runnin

Went to the Yuri factory (The High Republic content with Lourna Dee) and it's toxic can I still eat it

Ending with a Peach Momoko cover because I need to read three books not all THR) and a few stories before moving on to issue #12

[roguestorm]

in case no one's answered your tags about the new ultimate universe (6160) yet: yes, it's different from old ults (1610)! it's been going on since late last year, i'm personally loving everything so far, and i think you'd specially enjoy the x-men title!

the connection between the two universes is that 1610!reed (the maker) escaped from prison and travelled to a different dimension where he manipulated everything so that most heroes never got their powers or decided to fight crime. things happen, and the heroes that would become the ultimates start giving out powers and guidance to the would-be superheroes, in hopes they would decide to join their cause and "fix" their world (all of this is from ultimate invasion 1-4 and ultimate universe 1, both by hickman). the ongoings so far are:

ultimate spider-man (by hickman), where peter is married to mj, has two kids, and works at the bugle where he's basically family, but he feels like something is missing from his life. then he gets a mysterious orb and a message about how he was destined for something greater and had this stolen from him. inside the orb, there's a spider.

ultimate black panther (by bryan edward hill), where wakanda is basically the only place where the maker's forces haven't managed to conquer, despite the efforts of africa's overseers (a duo that calls themselves moon knight). this isolation is disrupted when a suicide bomber kills t'challa's father, and he leaves the country to investigate what is going on outside the border. there, he meets and partners with two rebels fighting against moon knight's men: killmonger and storm.

ultimate x-men (by peach momoko), which is set entirely in japan (here known as hi no kuni) and stars a young hisako ichiki dealing with the recent suicide of a close friend. it's quite different in tone from what you'd expect, very self-contained and skewing more towards horror than action as a genre. we haven't gotten there yet but apparently the x-men in this universe are going to be a teenage japanese girl gang.

and the ultimates (by deniz camp), which only had its first issue released this month, so there's not much to say yet, but some character choices seem very interesting.

Yes, someone had answered my question, but thank you for all this information! A very helpful breakdown :)

I have to say that as a marketing move I think it is an astonishingly bad idea to call your second smaller interconnected universe the same thing as your first. Especially if they’re trying to appeal to new fans? Although, to be fair, I don’t know if that is the pitch.

It being Hickman might explain why I haven’t paid attention — I tend to tune out when they announce a new large Hickman project.

I definitely will check out Momoko’s X-Men series, and I might read the Black Panther as well. I’ve liked enough of Hill’s work in the past to give it a chance.

[hotwaterandmilk]

I started writing this last week, then my tonsillitis floored me so @bunnymajo beat me with her own post on the topic (it's v. good, check it out!!), but I still wanted to share a few of my thoughts about why y'all should consider picking up the Discotek release of the Kaitou Saint Tail anime series on blu-ray.

I'll be honest, Kaitou Saint Tail wasn't my favourite magical girl series growing up in the mid-90s, I found myself far more drawn to Sailor Moon, Wedding Peach, and Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne (in that order). However, as I've grown older and re-watched the anime series a couple of times, I've grown to appreciate a lot about it that perhaps I didn't so much when I was young and had a million anime series vying for my attention.

The anime

If you've never seen the Kaitou Saint Tail anime, Haneoka Meimi is regular teenage student by day who rights wrongs by night as the thief Saint Tail. How does she know about what bad things have gone down in the local community? Why her BFF (Mimori Seira) is a nun-in-training, of course! So when Seira hears about things being stolen etc. she relays this information to Meimi so she can set things right.

Complicating the situation is Asuka Daiki, the son of a local detective who notably failed to catch a previous phantom thief (hmm!). Asuka Jr. wants to stop Saint Tail no matter what and luckily the local mayor is cool with giving him the status required to do so. Meimi slowly finds herself torn between how she feels about Asuka Jr. (whom she bickers with but ultimately cares about) and how Asuka Jr. feels about the thief Saint Tail.

So obviously if you like magical girl-type series and you're keen on a cute lil tween romance with some wacky kids' show thieving then you're going to be keen to watch (or read, the manga is adorable) the series no matter what. If you're on the fence, here are a couple of things I found to be stand-outs in Kaitou Saint Tail that you might like about it too.

Saint Tail = Seira & Meimi

Saint Tail the thief is really a team of two people. You've got Seira who gathers all the intel & helps plan, then you've got Meimi who acts as the muscle and executes the scheme. If you removed either of them you wouldn't have the legendary phantom thief everyone talks about in the series. Seira is never magical herself, she goes between God/Meimi/the community to help save "lost lambs" but her role is vital and Meimi's feats as Saint Tail are truly part of a team effort.

I've honestly always loved this about the series, that Seira isn't some friend kept in the dark nor is she another magical thief to team up with, she's got her own unique role to play that utilises her skills just as much as Meimi's role relies on her talents too. Together they are a phantom bigger than any one tween girl could ever be.

Meimi is physically adept

There's room for all types of magical girls in the genre imho and these days we've seen lots of magical girls who can land a solid punch as well as those better suited to intellectual challenges. However, in the mid-90s at a time when Tsukino Usagi and Hanasaki Momoko said it was OK to be clumsy and not great at athletics, Meimi said it was just as OK to be athletic and have excellent fine motor skills.

One thing I didn't note in my above summary of the series is that while Meimi does a whole lot of VISUALLY magical girl things like transform in the anime, she doesn't actually have any supernatural abilities. Meimi is instead adept at stage magic thanks to her father's profession and she plays a lot of tricks to get the job done (while following in her mother's footsteps as well). Meimi can't punch a bad guy through a wall like a Precure, but her strength allows her to frequently save other characters or pull herself out of tricky situations.

Asuka Jr. provides a great contrast

While Asuka Jr. can ride a bike pretty fast he's not that physically strong, which is a contrast to a lot of love interests in the genre who are tough enough to give the heroine enough time to finish the job (Tuxedo Kamen and Limone, for example). Asuka Jr. is more of an intellectual who despite managing to figure out a lot of what's going on with Saint Tail's capers, can never seem to get pin her down (and yeah yeah we know Meimi looks like Saint Tail but this is a cartoon for kids, being in on that while Asuka Jr. goes mad trying to find Saint Tail is part of the overall charm of the thing imho).

I think a decent chunk of what I like about Asuka Jr. as a male lead in Kaitou Saint Tail is that he's not some older, mysterious guy who helps solve problems; Asuka Jr. is a brat who causes most of Meimi's problems and because of his clueless youth he's also quite oblivious to her burgeoning romantic feelings for him. But I love that? They both feel like they're young kids challenging each other on an equal playing field.

While Asuka. Jr doesn't necessarily disagree with Saint Tail's objectives (to right wrongs), he doesn't support her methods (stealing is baaaaaad) and he's following his own moral code which is perhaps a little more conventional than hers. Meimi and Asuka jr. certainly bicker, but they have a lot in common that becomes apparent over time and their differences do indeed prove to be complementary to each other's in the long run.

The stakes are fairly low

Wait, isn't this a bad thing? Shouldn't the stakes be super high in order for us to care about the series? No, I don't think every magical girl series needs to have high stakes to leave an impact or be meaningful. I love that Kaitou Saint Tail isn't about a potentially world-ending event or magical abilities that could change reality as we know it. Heck, there's an episode where the entire goal of Saint Tail's elaborate scheme is to get back a notebook that a classmate gave to her crush accidentally before he can read it.

In that sense, it harkens back to a lot of older majokko shows that, while having some supernatural gifts for the heroine that Meimi doesn't technically have, still chose to focus on the lead solving personal problems or issues in the local community rather than fighting to save the planet.

This isn't to say there are no stakes at all or anything. Meimi's greatest problem lies in her diverging identities and the fact that, as ostensibly a criminal to those not helped by her talents, Saint Tail being unmasked would ruin her life. I know they're not huge stakes compared to galactic evils, but Saint Tail being an outlaw and the way the persona is both a blessing & curse to Meimi certainly is present throughout the series.

Kaitou Saint Tail's stakes might not be as high as those in Nurse Angel Ririka SOS, Tokyo Mew Mew, or any number of Precure seasons, but there's definitely a place for that in the genre and if you'd like something a little more laid back (that's still plenty of fun & with twists and turns a plenty, mind you) then this series might be worth checking out.

The anime doesn't overstay its welcome

The Kaitou Saint Tail anime is a fairly tight production that deftly balances fun filler (remember when we were allowed to have filler eps???) with more emotional story touch points and doesn't feel at all drawn out, which was certainly an issue even for some of my favourite series of the period. While I wouldn't say the anime is perfect or anything, it really doesn't have any majorly weak arcs or huge dips in quality overall.

Kaitou Saint Tail has lovely music (I'm partial to the first OP/ED combo myself), some great 90s animators at work (Abe Junko, Ishino Satoshi, Kadonosono Megumi & Gotou Keiji, Watanabe Nobuhiro, Ochi Kazuhiro, Motohashi Hideyuki, etc.), and a cast of talented seiyuu (Sakurai Tomo as Meimi and Inoue Kikuko as Seira being the stand outs).

While there are some changes to the source material and a lot of the cute, whispy beauty of Tachikawa Megumi's original artwork is lost on screen, the animated version of Kaitou Saint Tail is worth picking up not just to support the release of magical girl titles in the US market, but because it is a solid little series that I know I always appreciate spending some time with.

Anyway those are my rambling thoughts on the series. It won't be for everyone, but if you're interested in magical girl classics then you might want to check out the upcoming US release from Discotek on blu-ray.

[smokeybrandreviews]

I Missed You

I've been frustrated with US comics for a few years now. Sh*t has been a barren wasteland of content for some time. Well, i can't say that for the entire industry, mostly the Big Two, but they weight the industry down so much, it's hard not to focus in on them. If the two gods bleed, what does that mean for the lowly mortals, you know? IDW puts out pretty solid Licensed fair, though. Their Power Rangers and Sonic stuff is pretty good. I really loved the Transformers comics they produced until Hasbro wanted a bigger piece of the pie and pulled their rights. Still, Image is doing a pretty great f*cking job with my darling Cybertronians now, so I'm not too mad about it, but i digress. This is more about DC and Marvel and how they've finally decided to get their sh*t together. Even if it's not anything in the main continuity.

Fall of X

Before i delve in to the return of the Ultimate universe, i need to give a nod to the Krakoan Era of X-Men comics. That sh*t was brilliant. It's been a long time since I've given a sh*t about an X-Men comic so, to see how well that sh*t came together, i was stunned. Credit where credit is due, that man John Hickman has a vision! His world building is insane. I've been a pretty big fan of his since his work on Fantastic Four but what he did with the X-Men eclipsed that near completely. The groundwork he laid for others to move forward with, was strong enough to weather editorial nonsense and, eventually, Hickman's premature departure. It'd always the creatives who suffer but, as one of the greatest comic runs come to an end, i mourn it's loss. There seems to have been a bit of X-resurgence lately but it feels like it all started with those House of and Powers of X comics five years ago. That said, i think i am even more in love with what he's doing in the new Ultimate universe.

Return to Glory

I love the Ultimate universe. Mostly. It is a time capsule of tropes and cliches of the day but the idea of it always appealed to me. Apparently, it appealed to Hollywood, too, because the MCU is based HEAVILY on the modern take Ultimate brought to the comics. When they killed it off, i understood why. Ultimate comics had basically ran it's course. There were a lot of mismatched tone and terribly stories at the time. Some were great, Ultimate Spider-Man maintained a decent quality until it's demise (probably why Miles was allowed to survive Secret Wars) but that thing needed to go. Throw out the entire universe, which they did. Well, several years later, Hickman, apparently, sold the Marvel higher ups on a proper reboot with a limited series title Ultimate Invasion. Another 1610 refugee, The Maker, decided to reboot his home universe and, being a Reed Richards not shackled by morality, did just that. Marvel gave Hickman the keys to an entire branch universe, with branding enough to lured in suckers like, and he has not disappointed. yes, it does feel a little "Heroes Reborn" but that can be forgiven because, so far, it's pretty f*cking good.

Along Came a Spider

The initial offering of Ultimate comics consisted of Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate Black Panther, and Ultimate X-Men. Obviously, Ultimate Spider-Man is my sh*t. I finally got my Endgame with Pete and MJ plus their two kids. I love this book just because of that but there is so much more to it than JUST that. It's written very well. This one is, more than the others, a character driven drama with occasions spurts of super powered action. It's f*cking brilliant, easily the strongest of the three individual books. Did i mention the art is gorgeous? It has that in common with peach Momoko's take on X-Men.

Turning Japanese

I'm a sucker for manga and anime. A cursory search of this blog will tell you that. My personal style is heavily influenced by Kubo Tite and Toriyama. I stumbled across Peach Momoko LONG ago on an image board somewhere and have been haunting her career ever since. It's f*cking dope seeing Marvel give her a shot like this and, so far, it's paying off. Her take on X-Men seems to be focusing on Armor but with a Coming-of-age twist. It's very unique and i am enjoying where she's taking the character. Hisako is basically Wolverine's fourth or fifth adopted daughter. That's it. That's as far as she gets in the main universe. Giving her the spotlight was an interesting choice, one that allows Peach to kind of juxtapose her mutation with the oft stifling expectations of conservative Japanese society. Plus, Storm is Japanese maybe? Or not because...

Wakanda Forever

Storm is an integral part of Ultimate Black Panther and is basically classic Ororo but, like, a teenager? Who has teamed up with Erik Killmonger? To save Wakanda from Konshu and Ra? I'm going to be honest, i don't like this book so far. I can't connect with it. It's definitely a slow burn, feels like a covert/espionage, spy thriller type narrative, which is fine, but it's taking WAY too long to get going. There is a ton of groundwork which needs to be laid so we're four issues in and just not getting the principal team together. It's a frustration, for sure, but i get it. Another thing taking me out of this is the Panther suit design. Sh*t is gross. You can tell everything in this Ultimate version of the world is heavily inspired by the MCU films but it's not hitting like it should. Ultimate Black Panther has potential but right now, I'm reading it just to keep up with events.

Ultimates

This one just dropped and, i must say, i like it more than any other Ultimates book to date. It's basically the origin of the team and it hits so much harder that any of the other comics to date. Lots of world building in the margins here and i mean that. Read all of the preamble and afterword because it gives you a very clear of what is going on with the current state of world affairs. The comic, itself, is pretty good. Legit shows the efforts to save the fledgling universe from The Maker and the failures. We get to see this take on Ant-Man and Wasp, plus a few licks of what is on the horizon. As a comic, it's underwhelming. As a preview of what's next, it's dope.

I know i said the big two but this one got away from me. I'll have to get to the DC stuff later and, obviously, it's about to be real Bat-Heavy. He seems to get just SO much love over there at Detective Comics Comics. That said, Marvel needs to keep betting on Hickman because this dude is delivering some fresh, fun, and brilliant takes on established characters. We need more of this unfettered creativity. That's what comics are supposed to be about in the first place.