#i mean no disrespect to the manga because it is a lot of fun and it does get serious when it needs to. the cheerful vibe is such a breath of

[boyrobott]

the most recent astro boy adaptation: what is it that makes a person a person??? and where do we draw the line between true humanity and artificial intelligence capable of mimicking that humanity so effectively it can fool even itself??? and how are we ever going to achieve genuine peace between all peoples and all nations when hatred is such a vicious, unending cycle??? are we doomed to be our own destruction, an ouroboros devouring itself, an eternal loop of war and violence??? where is our empathy for our fellow man??? have we fallen so far in our quest for vengeance and our commitment to detachment that we have lost the humanity we once treasured so deeply???

the original manga, where a cute robot kiddo goes on fun little adventures and punches bad guys:

[whathorselegs]

All the names Chuuya and Dazai call each other in the Fifteen light novel

Note: This is not every time they insult/make fun of each other. For example Dazai tends to say things like he'll put a curse on Chuuya to remain short whilst he grows tall, more than name calling. However this list is only name calling.

Dazai about Chuuya:

Kid

Pip-squeak (Uses more than once)

Little fairy

A child

Schoolboy (Uses more than once)

Little man

Filthy dog

Chuuya - He calls Chuuya by his name for the first time in the arcade, Chuuya then tells him not to use his name. After this Dazai repeatedly says his name over using nicknames.

Chuuya about Dazai:

Kid

Surprisingly gutsy kid

Little shit

Little punk

Dumbass

Lil twig

Mummy boy (Uses more than once)

Little wimp

Bandages

Idiot

Twisted freak

Little suicide-obsessed- (he's cut off before he finishes this one)

Sly dirtbag

Slimeball (Uses more than once)

Crafty son of a bitch

Sly bastard

Demon

Weasel

Dazai - He calls Dazai by his name for the first time during their fight with Rimbaud when they agree to work together to defeat him. However, he still mixes in name calling along with using Dazai's name.

BONUS - Names Chuuya uses for other people:

Old man - Hirotsu

Old fart - Hirotsu and the Old Boss

Doc - Mori

Bastard - Mori

Piece of shit - Mori

Damn octopus - Mori

Gramps - Random GSS member

Dumbass - Shirase

Ma'am (Ane-san) - Kouyou. (She also calls Chuuya 'Young man' just before this. They both disapprove of being called these.)

Boss - Mori

Randou - Rimbaud (as far as I could see Chuuya mostly used his name, though I may have missed a nickname)

A thing I noticed with Dazai is that he generally calls people by their names. He calls Hirotsu, Mori and Kouyou all by name. With Mori it sometimes feels like that's the insult, he knows he can get away with disrespecting him this way, so he doesn't call Mori his Boss. Similarly he only starts calling Chuuya by name after he's told not to. He also prefers coming up with imaginative insults/scenarios rather than name calling, though he's not above it, so his list is a lot shorter than Chuuya's.

Chuuya however, uses nicknames for practically everyone, they just get more polite the more he respects them. Mori goes from 'Bastard' and 'Octopus' to 'Boss', once he gains Chuuya's respect. Rimbaud felt like the exception because Chuuya kept calling him Randou during their fight.

I also think it's interesting that Chuuya calls most adults something to do with being old/older. I don't know whether it was intentional or not, but to me, this emphasizes how Chuuya is used to being solely around other children. Even Kouyou who is only nineteen, is labeled as older to Chuuya, probably because there were no Sheep her age. In both the anime and the manga they are all depicted as younger teens around the same age as Chuuya.

Ane-san is also a mafia title, so it could just be that, but I do think Chuuya is genuinely not used to being around adults and that not meaning danger.

[brown-little-robin]

HI so sorry to barge in here unannounced like this but u seem to have a lot more knowledge about japanese language/culture/social etiquette than i do and i've seen u mention dimple's mannerisms in canon once or twice and like . i'd love to hear more abt that if ur willing to ramble for a bit. i've been Very curious just how far dimple's Rudeness goes, but i know very little about the culture. i'm sure some things he does or says seem fairly normal to me but is considered very rude or disrespectful to the characters. no pressure tho ofc :]

hi Rika!! literally drop in anytime! I,, I appreciate this ask so much and will answer as best as I can, but I'm a very new student of Japanese and Japanese culture, so take what I say with a grain of salt! also I personally am going to tag @russenoire to respectfully invite them to partake in this conversation if they think it would be fun (no pressure of course!). they have been studying this much longer than I have :}

putting my thoughts under a cut because !!! I love to ramble!!! note: all of this is based on Dimple's Japanese voice & mannerisms from the anime. I don't have the manga in Japanese yet 🙏

As a preface: Ekubo's direct/rude/familiar speech style is typical in anime and not unheard-of in real life, but it's definitely worth noticing! Mob Psycho 100, particularly, gets a lot of its unique interest out of taking unrealistic anime expectations and saying "HEY pay attention to this, WHY is this happening, this is immature behavior, why are adults in this universe letting this happen", and making it funny and/or serious. So!!! let's dive in.

So, okay, Dimple's mannerisms. The first thing to know is very general. he usually speaks in the casual register (which has a whole distinct vocabulary from the more polite registers: for instance, he tends to end his sentences with "da" rather than "desu", which are both "is" verbs with the exact same meaning, just a different connotation). the casual register is comparatively... direct. Dimple using casual implies that he thinks of himself as on familiar terms with and/or higher in the social hierarchy than whoever he's speaking to. casual Japanese is par for the course in anime in general, especially for people expressing arrogance, like Ekubo does all the time. But still, that's A Choice. it expresses simultaneous superiority (I am allowed to speak to you in informal terms because I'm above you) and also, possibly, desire for closeness (Ekubo speaks to Shigeo in familiar terms like they're brothers).

(Politeness, respect, and distance are linked in Japanese. Casual language isn't always rude, but in the wrong situation, it can be jarring and disrespectful. Using casual Japanese is a sign of confidence and personal closeness in your relationship with someone—new friends will switch from formal to casual language at some point and typically never go back; siblings use casual language with each other as a matter of course. It's very situational.)

The second thing to know is, there are choices of first person pronouns in Japanese!!! And Ekubo's choice is spectacular. He refers to himself as "ore-sama". "ore" (roughly pronounced "o-ray") is one of two typical Japanese casual male pronouns, ore and boku. (the formal first-person pronoun for men is watashi). To my knowledge, "ore" was originally the only casual male pronoun, and then "boku" entered popular use as a more humble option and changed the meaning of the formerly more neutral-sounding "ore" by competing with it, which is fascinating. but I'm getting distracted. "ore" is the more aggressively masculine pronoun; it's considered rough/direct to the point of being rude in many contexts. And Ekubo doesn't just use "ore" (ore is a widely-used choice!), he adds the honorific -sama to the end. This is extremely macho. SUPER arrogant. It tracks with his desire to become a god: -sama is the honorific for kami as well as the honorific for people who are way higher ranked than you. giving someone the honorific -sama expresses a greater gap between you and them than -san does. this is hilarious to me. Dimple is over here referring to himself as 🔥 ME 👑 every time he uses first-person pronouns. (Mob uses boku, btw.) ore-sama isn't not used irl, but it's, uh. highly highly unusual, from what I can tell. sounds like a biker gang boss kind of thing to me—something someone on the fringes of society would use. no shade to those outside "polite society" from me, btw, I'm just stating the general connotation from a majority cultural perspective.

OH AND SPEAKING OF HONORIFICS. I'm guessing you've seen analysis of this before and/or just Get It from cultural osmosis, but Dimple calls Shigeo "Shige-chan" the second time they meet. -chan is a usually-affectionate diminutive usually given to girls younger than yourself or celebrities people find cute; I think they translate it as "li'l Shige" in the English dub? -chan has cutesy connotations and can be infantilizing if it's not used with permission and/or some kind of... y'know... familiarity and understanding between the person giving the honorific and the person being referred to with -chan. it is super disrespectful of Dimple to call Shigeo Shige-chan having just met him, and having gotten off on a terrible foot with Shigeo, no less. what the heck, Ekubo!!

And then Dimple proceeds to call him just Shigeo with no honorific at all, which is ALSO disrespectful?? given that Dimple doesn't know him, really?? too familiar, too abrupt! As a strange adult, he should be calling him Shigeo-kun! But he's treating Mob like a little brother. (For instance, as the older brother, Shigeo has the right to call Ritsu by the first name and only the first name, whereas Ritsu usually calls Shigeo "Nii-san". To my knowledge, that's not unnatural in Japanese the way it would be in English; it's not Ritsu reiterating their bond every five seconds, it's just the Expected Thing for the younger brother to refer to the older brother as "Nii-san" out of respect. you'll see the Shiratori brothers, Daichi and Kaito, doing the same thing if you pay attention. to each other, they are "Kaito" and "Nii-san". BUT ANYWAY)

Another Dimple regularly does that reads as arrogant/direct to me is sometimes speaking in a Really Low Voice. This is where my knowledge gets hazy—it's more about pronunciation and accent than "behavior" as such, so bear with me, but the general pitch of one's voice is important in Japanese. Girls and women tend to pitch their voices higher than their natural range in Japanese, especially when doing "polite" or "customer service voice". Japanese speaking men often raise their pitches for politeness/to express humility or a conciliatory attitude too, even though it's not as extreme as with women. And men who are performing aggression will often lower their pitch on purpose, creating a growling kind of effect. Dimple does this a lot. Let me see if I can embed a video of him doing it here

YES. OKAY. Listen to the difference between his mental voice and his spoken voice here!! Dimple uses a higher pitch when talking to Mob because he's trying to ingratiate himself with Mob, but then when he's muttering to himself, he reverts back to his evil-spirit, gang-boss, stereotypically-yakuza-sounding kind of... deep growl.

Relatedly, Ekubo rolls his r's. he rolls them hard. That's a really rough way of speaking, definitely not typical in "polite" Japanese. people learning Japanese are told not to roll their r's unless they want to sound like they're yakuza wannabes. (He also, to my ear, tends to kind of roll his vowels?? he puts his voice backwards in his mouth, pronouncing things either near his nose or deep in his throat, and kind of crushes them with his mouth as they emerge. I don't know if there's a word for this, but to my synesthesia it looks like his voice goes spiky. it's a COMPLETELY different sound than the smooth pronunciation of polite Tokyo-style Japanese. I don't actually have a point this is just interesting to me)

That's about all I have for now! I'm fascinated by Dimple's speaking style and what it says about him. Sorry this was more about accent than behavior—as far as behavior goes, I mean, he's weird. he's weird! as a ghost, he's not really a part of society and he just wanders around making fun of people, which would be rude in any culture. I have a whole Other rant about how Dimple improved as a person after Reigen started treating him as an employee and how that adds to MP100's theme of society and connection, but now is not the time. I hope this has been interesting to you!! Thank you for the ask!

[yuurei20]

Hi hi! I have a weird question/thought after seeing the talk about Idia's use of language. There are a lot of things that are just unable to translate from Japanese to English, and some things that get changed as short hand. The whole nerdy implications of Idia using "-Shi" are basically absent from EN, instead he seems to use "Mr." (If I recall correctly) which really doesn't give the same impression? In your personal opinion - is there anyway you'd personally localize it? Stick with the same? Remove it completely? Use "M'lady/M'lord" instead? (haha)

Hello hello!! I love your "M'lady/M'lord" solution more than I can say ♡ It is associated with the past while still being used by some people in present-day just for fun, which is just like how Idia speaks! That would have been so great for the English-language adaptation!

As you say, Idia's honorific for others has (kind of) been translated as "Mr." on EN, but only in a select few places.

For the most part it has just been removed, but the curious continuity makes it seem like he thinks that only Malleus, Azul, Grim and Riddle are (sometimes) worthy of "Mr." (the Riddle screenshots below are even both from the same vignette).

And then there is the Harveston sub-plot between Sebek and Marja, where Sebek refuses to refer to Marja with an honorific until she proves herself worthy of respect (by fixing his plushie).

At that point he awards her with an extremely respectful honorific (equivalent to "-sama," and the same word Silver uses with Lilia).

Marja, however, immediately gives him permission to refer to her in the same way he has been throughout the entire trip.

Idia is a psuedo-narrator for this sub-plot, commenting on Sebek's disrespectful way of speaking in both languages.

But on EN he then proceeds to refer to Marja in the same way as Sebek (and everyone else) does.

This has the unfortunate result of making Idia look odd for mentioning it in the first place, when the odd person is actually Sebek, as everyone else is using a respectful honorific with Marja.

Idia using "M'lady" and everyone else (except Sebek) using "Ms." probably would have been a lot more successful in getting the situation across to people who may not be familiar with such Japanese-language nuances!

As for what I personally would go with...this conundrum reminded me of this amazing joke by @anottercoffee on Twitter:

And I would be very tempted to go for the "fansubber" solution of translating everything literally, but just having the words doesn't mean that the players are going to understand the nuances, and might cause even more confusion.

If "-san" and "-senpai" are just mouth-sounds to someone, they're not going to understand the significance behind Riddle and Azul dropping it from Leona and Riddle's names in important moments, for example.

But maybe that's okay! Because at the moment, the alternative that we have is everything getting removed from everywhere, and no one has the chance to understand anything at all.

The best comparison I have come across is Lord of the Rings and Star Trek, where authors incorporated languages that are completely invented, giving no one any chance of understanding them.

Japanese is a language that already exists, so it seems like it would actually be less of a challenge to introduce world-specific terms like "-sama" and "-chan" for people to either glaze over as a world-building aspect that doesn't interest them, or to gradually adapt to through sheer repetition, so by the end of Book 6 they might have a greater-than-zero understanding of the nuances of a foreign language (much like another magic-school series did with Latin).

The manga is actually approaching the honorifics in a different way than the game and giving “Mr.” to everybody, so Azul’s “Riddle-san," Crowley’s “Trappola-kun” and Deuce’s “Diamond-senpai” are all now Mr. Rosehearts, Mr. Trappola and Mr. Diamond (more here).

So it seems that VIZ Media did not agree with Aniplex USA's localization?

What is going to be the most interesting is the novel! Slated for an August, 2024 official English-language release, the novel is also being overseen by VIZ Media.

This means that we might see "Mr." being used everywhere (to uphold continuity with the manga), but the novel goes much deeper into character relationships than the game, and relationships are what honorifics are all about.

Cater, for example, uses them with everyone:

“Usually, Cater does not ever yobisute anyone. When he calls to Trey, he always adds ‘kun’ to his name...When Cater uses Trey’s name like this, it is only when he is really serious. Only when it is important.” -Twisted Wonderland the first novel

Is Cater going to be calling Trey "Mr. Clover"? And how are they even going to localize these sections describing a feature of a language that is not being spoken? It gives us a lot to look forward to!

In the end, writing out Japanese-specific honorifics into English might actually cause more confusion than it's worth, which is why Twst (and so many other foreign-language-adapting-to-an-English-speaking-audience properties) has gone in the direction that it has.

I like to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they know more than we do about what is going on, and that there are important reasons behind the choices they have made.

But I also think that the sheer popularity of the "fansubber" approach to this situation is a good sign that maybe people are sometimes okay with not understanding things, as properties like Lord of the Rings and Star Trek have shown us!

While too late for Twst, it will be interesting to see how this situation continues to evolve in the years to come. Maybe, one day, we will even get an official localization that introduces honorifics directly!

If such an experiment fails it will be most expensive for the localizer, and money is likely a large factor behind why companies might be reluctant to take such a gamble and would rather play it safe and just have everyone say "Mr."

[spidermanifested]

@canirim clapping my hands okay Mei Paninya Scar. Lets Go

MEI

sexuality headcanon: Baby Bi. i think that she does not yet know that girls are also a viable romantic option but if she realized she would be over the moon about it. transfem al is a fun concept and i think if that happened she would go all in on the new fantasy of BEING SWEPT OFF HER FEET BY A BEAUTIFUL LADY KNIGHT

gender headcanon: once again i dont have anything too spectacular. shes gods specialest princess and shes never going to die

a ship i have with said character: her and al are pretty cute i guess although im not hyper invested in them

a brotp i have with said character: her and scar are literally everything. she shoupd have been allowed to kill people for disrespecting him on screen

a notp i have with said character: have not seen any mei ships aside from al/mei honestly? Which i mean is. for the best given this fandoms track record

a random headcanon: i envision that part of the reason shes so comfortable adopting random middle aged men is that she was largely raised by her mothers extended family after said mother died in childbirth. her clan is very tight-knit anyway and she's never had a reason Not to trust the adults around her, they all treat her like their own daughter which both gives her a very optimistic view of people in general and also leaves her feeling that deep sense of obligation to return the favor somehow. she knows all their lives are resting on her shoulders and THEY know its fucked up to be relying on a child for something like that but also they dont have much of an alternative. theyre all just trying to do the best they can. I Thinnk About This A Lot

general opinion over said character: mei chang i would kill the sun for you

PANINYA

sexuality headcanon: Romantically Inexperienced Awkward Teenage Lesbian

gender headcanon: i think when she grows up she should get butcher. not the profession. theres too many of thosr in fma already

a ship i have with said character: winry/paninya is really cute....... and honestly i liked their interactions in 03 better than the manga or brotherhood, they should get to be partners in crime and do stupid shit together. wish we got to see more of them hanging out in rush valley

a brotp i have with said character: i like that her and garfiel are buddies

a notp i have with said character: ???

a random headcanon: i fully believe the only reason she had the guns put in her legs was because she thougjt it would be cool. she convinced dominic on grounds of self defense but she absolutely was just thinking wouldnt it be sick if my knees had guns in them

General Opinion over said character: she has such a fun personality and design and i wish, so hard her storyline was different. its agonizing to watch her episode seeing her go yeah so i lost my whole family and home and also my legs in an incredibly traumatizing childhood accident and then an adult man kidnapped me off the street and forced me to undergo painful invasive surgical procedures against my will. But like i can walk again so it was pretty great of him actually and i can only hope to repay his generosity someday. Girl you do not need a random stranger chastising you for stealing from rich tourists. you need therapy to come to terms with the fact that uour right to bodily autonomy was infringed upon,

SCAR

sexuality headcanon: could be gay could be bi i dont really have him pinned down as anything but "very repressed". i dont think hes ever been in a relationship, hes always seemed to have way bigger priorities, but with him i dont feel like that translates to "UNINTERESTED in relationships" because of how much of his character revolves around denying himself comfort and identity. i think if somebody kissed him he would cry

gender headcanon: i dont think hed describe himself as anything besides a man if you asked him, but i also think his experience of gender is also one of those things that got a little foggy and disconnected along with the other identity related baggage. Gender: A Necessary Violence and the Only Means to Achieve It. whatever pride flag goes with that one

a ship i have with said character: still championing my scar/greed agenda

a brotp i have with said character: aside from him and mei, his relationship with his brother is very interesting to me and i like to stir around all the complicated feelings he has to have about that guy in the soup of my mind

a notp i have with said character: ive seen him get shipped with olivier sometimes. Dont really like that one i must say

a random headcanon: when he was a teenager he used to privately write poetry and then got really embarrassed about its perceived amateurish shortcomings and stopped forever

general opinion over said character: the single most interesting and layered character in the whole series honestly and once again i wish we didnt take That Direction with him towards the end. all his thoughts and feelings are so tangled up, i love the way he cant seem to help but attract community and compassion despite how hard he tries to shake it off, whatever he thinks of himself hes still at his core an incredibly kind person clinging to a reason to survive. Save me mr xbox logo

[lai-mar]

You know, I really appreciate that you’re out here defending this widely hated relationship. Maybe it’s because the anime-only fans are a very vocal majority right now, but I’ve seen people who ‘watched the anime then read the manga’ *still* shit on Laios and Marcille’s friendship. Like you don’t have to ship it but if you deny that they care about each other or deny that they have chemistry, did you even read the comic?? ‘Oh they’re just siblings/siblings-in-law!’ have you ever had a sibling. have you ever had a sibling-in-law. they do not act like siblings they act like *intimate* best friends. ‘Ridiculously comfortable around each other’ best friends. They have a relationship outside of Falin, that is what develops over the entire damn story. 90 chapters. What comic were you reading where you think Marcille can barely stand him.

Thanks for the ask! Very cathartic to see this. About to go on another rant again lol (will be repeating some of my old points but yeah I need to get it out of my system)

"Defending widely hated relationship" + "anime-only fans are a very vocal majority"

Okay, let me play devil's advocate for a second here. Let's say I despise L/M as a ship and it squicks me out greatly and I think it's a boring ship of pairing the male lead and the female lead. What should I do? Obviously go into L/M posts and argue about it instead of blocking the tag and stating my stance my calmly when someone asks me like your average fan who knows how to curate their fandom experience.

Okay, more devil's advocating. I despise L/M as a ship but I have read the manga and engaged with it critically and understood its themes. Which means I like L+M as a friendship in the same way I like the themes of eating and life cycle and the friendship between the party and the worldbuilding. Because all of these are core parts of the story told. So what I do is to block all shippers and ship tag and look for platonic fics and fanart like Your Average Fan Who Curates Their Experience.

Like I'm sorry. I genuinely feel some people are so caught up in the intense fanonisation of DM that they start forgetting about canon. And I KNOW I am not the only one feeling this way because I read the notes on my posts and other people's posts and there's a lot of good thoughts on this. Plenty of people appreciate them. But to some people in the wider fandom, are we reading the same manga? Our male lead and female lead are friends who save each other. They are not together canonically. So canonically, they don't even get into the way of shipping?????? People can have important intimate friendships outside of romance??? And it's a canon well established friendship? I would say it's one of the most well developed dynamics in the series that we see? We get shown and not told? We see images and words and interpret them in our brains?

Devil's advocate level 3. Let's say mainstream fanonisation of DM is real. F/M is a canon ship and they get together and they get married in the end and L+M become sibling in laws. Maybe L/K is a thing. This still does not erase the entire journey L+M and co went on to save Falin. This still does not erase their friendship and chemistry.

"‘Oh they’re just siblings/siblings-in-law!’ have you ever had a sibling. have you ever had a sibling-in-law."

Okay. I do have a sibling. At this point I've long accepted this much be some sort of cultural difference and some weird American / Western thing I am not used to. And the hilarious thing about DM is that we do get canon siblings!!! It's the fucking premise! Falin and Laios!! And they're fun!

I'm sorry but this must be some cultural difference. Like no younger sibling is calling their older sibling by their GIVEN NAME. The sheer disrespect. I'll be scandalised. As a person with a sibling I don't understand the fandomisation of making non related people siblings in fanon? I'm calling my friends my friends, not siblings. My sibling is like a sibling to me. My friends are like friends to me. Idk. I've written the word sibling so many times that it doesn't seem like a word anymore.

Obviously these are just my personal thoughts but I feel like objectively, there has been a fandomwide trend of grabbing a canon friendship between a man and a woman and going "THEY ARE SO SIBLINGS CORE XD" (not siblings in canon) (not related) (don't even look similar) (they're friends). A lot of times this is valid and even fun but sometimes I get the feeling people sometimes push the fanon sibling thing to show they're squicky about them romantically. To which I can only say: a man and a woman can genuinely only be friends. If you need to magically make them related so you / other people won't see their friendship romantically... it feels like a step back. Why are we doing heteronormativity.

I think I'm the type of person who enjoys and mains man + woman friendships in fandoms (which are, unsurprisingly, unpopular as ships and even as friendships until I start spreading propaganda and pumping fics on Ao3), and I think one of the things that get me is. A man who could be attracted to women + a woman who could be attracted to men having great chemistry but staying friends. I want to stress this is different from a man who is not interested in women / romance + a woman who is not interested in men / romance because there is almost zero chance of a reciprocal romantic relationship going on. But for the first case, which I feel like many people dumb down to "straight people shipping", it's even more precious for them to stay friends and not give into the heternormative expectations despite one or both of them possibly (but not necessarily) being heterosexual. Like, here are two people who could date each other but they're like "nah we work better as friends, so we stay friends". To me, this is one fantastic argument for friendship. Not everything has to be romantic. Even better if they considered and thought about the logistics, but decide their relationship is more special non romantically. Having a taste of how their relationship could go and going "thanks, but no thanks". Is this not a great display of sincere and stable friendship compared to people going "lol they can't work as a ship because they simply physically cannot tolerate the thought of each other romantically". I'm rambling here but I feel like this is what I feel across various dynamics and fandoms. At this point, I think somehow non romantic relationships genuinely fascinate me more than ships. Save me QPR save me.

"They have a relationship outside of Falin"

I feel like some manga readers have missed the point so badly when it comes to this. It's hilarious. They have a relationship outside of Falin it's the whole fucking point about coming to terms with grief and death! You know, one of the core themes of this story that you finished!

And of course this doesn't erase the love they have for Falin. Falin is clearly beloved and their main motivation, but hilariously enough (for the L+M deniers), the manga shows Laios and Marcille's "true" innermost desires being granted and it's not about reviving Falin even though they both clearly want her back and it's at the forefront of their minds. Laios turns into a monster. His curse isn't about Falin not coming back (even though that was his immediate thought), it's about him not being able to interact with monsters ever again. Marcille was traumatised by what happened to Falin (nightmare chapter) but when she turns into a dungeon lord, she goes about trying to fix the lifespans, showing her fear of loneliness and all her loved ones (NOT just a single person!!!!!!!!) dying before her. You can argue they didn't revive Falin with magic lord powers because they don't trust the lion / trust their own plan of eating her, but I think the manga focuses enough on their desires for the interpretation of "the lion fulfills their innermost desires that define their existence" to work. Marcille is the one who finds Laios first after he turned back and Laios broke Marcille free from the lion's influence etc etc we know they play a part in each other's arcs. Laios says they wouldn't be on this journey if Falin hadn't been digested. Marcille says in the end she was okay with Falin not being brought back this time. Laios invites Marcille to stay with him. It's in the text.

"Boring straight ship" or whatever

This comes from what a friend said about my main duo of another fandom but it's like "why isn't [ship] more popular" "because it's easy to fall into the boring trope of pairing a man and a woman together".

And this is a thing that does happen! But not to pairings with strong canon foundation and chemistry sorry. Don't look at me, look at canon. A male/female ship with good canon support is a good ship. Why are you surprised. People like shipping characters who spend lots of time together saving each other and all that. Dare I say: sometimes (sometimes) shipping "straight people" is more respectful to their canon friendship than shoehorning them as siblings. Which I believe is true in the case of L+M.

Anyways. Well that was a nice angry rant. Sorry I had to get it out of my system. I've spend too much time writing this so I won't be doing much proofreading lol. If you've reached this point, thanks for reading <3

[haleigh-sloth]

I'm sorry for the vent but I had to get this off my chest.

One of the many things that are annoying me about the people complaining about "so-called critics" is that they're either hero stans, dudebros, shippers (esp B*D* shippers) or Bakugo stans. And the latter genuinely annoy me the most. Like yeah so sorry that your fav was saved through the efforts of pro heroes TWICE and even got an awe-inspiring comeback and got to Save his childhood hero™. Yeah you ofc don't care about the story and think we're just being bitter over nothing because AT LEAST YOUR FAV DID NOT MEET A TRAGIC AND MISERABLE END!!! The hero who we thought would die saving you was instead revealed to be doing fine! See he's even growing his limbs back! Ofc you think your fav did not murder a villain (who mind you was pleading for Afo to give back Tomura) because *gasp* my boi can do no wrong!! And even if he were killed so what? Kurogiri's dead anyway! No point in saving a corpse! Instead let's focus on how Deku never ever acknowledges Bakugo for dying twice for him (OH HOW DARE HE!!!)

I do think deku and bakugo might have a talk about this next chapter. Hopefully maybe.

It's insulting how they seem to think we're viewing this story from the perspective of "Western lens" which is utterly baffling and stupid?? Because not everyone is western and our criticism is from a story telling perspective (hello?? themes? narratives? they do exist ya know). We're not someone to disrespect Japanese culture because I guarantee you we're not like that. Like honestly if this story wasn't so insistent on the whole "saving the villains" then we wouldn't be upset. If the manga didn't have Deku say "OFA is a power meant for saving" then we wouldn't have been so hopeful for months (like at least I would've known not to expect anything happy).

Oof....nail on the head.

Also. Let's be clear. When people try to divide the fandom by saying "western" and "eastern", what they usually, typically mean is AMERICAN. Maybe Europeans are lumped in with "western" also (because most of them they're not eastern culture), but honestly the commentary I see is mostly catered toward Americans.

Which I'm not gonna tell people to not make fun of Americans because lmao. Fair.

But acting like Japan is this enigma of a country for having conservative-like values regarding family units and societal expectations and that nobody outside of it, especially on the western half of the hemisphere, can possibly relate to it is just stupid. Would like to remind that other cultures that are vastly different from the US and share a lot of similarities with eastern culture are on the western half of the globe, idiots.

Not gonna dwell on the details of east and west. This isn't a "east" vs "west" issue. Yes there are people who do not take cultural contexts into consideration, either through simply not being aware or not bothering to research/hear what the contexts might mean. I personally do try to do my best to read what might be normal for Japanese people in the situations portrayed in the manga so I'm not wondering wtf is going on or why.

Disliking this ending has nothing to do with disrespecting Japanese culture. Todorokis for example: sorry but abuse is abuse. Hating the ending the Todoroki siblings were portrayed having is completely fair. Doesn't matter where you're from. Where I feel people need to start understanding why Hori might do something differently, or just shut the fuck up otherwise, is how he handled Rei in regards to her relationship with Endeavor. And the kids toward Endeavor. But saying "damn, that finale is fucking depressing, none of them look happy, there was no emotional release or anything, just damn" is not saying "fuck Japanese culture!" Like lmao.

There were plenty of people explaining that MHA is commenting on aspects of Japanese culture. Explaining how. Also, MHA is not the only manga that does shit like that. I also don't think saying "Wow these character arcs that were strongly hinted at going one way falling flat on their faces and going straight to hell is really shitty writing choices" is saying anything in regards to Japanese culture.

Also insisting that anyone who wanted the villains to be saved is disrespecting Japanese culture or opinions or whatever....I would like to ask where the fuck they think these tropes come from. Naruto says hi. Among others. We're not pulling these ideas out of thin air. They exist, WITHIN THIS MEDIUM, already. And MHA heavily resembles Naruto as is. So yeah. Idk, I'm not really reading anybody's bitch fits about the critics because I don't care. If they're happy then good for them. I'm not, and I'm not gonna pretend to be. I'm not trying to convince anybody to be mad with me. I'm really trying to make my peace with the manga and tell myself it's fiction, I can draw an ending I want later when I have the energy and motivation. I'll learn to live with it. If anybody has an issue with that then, well, they can argue with a wall.

[niinnyu]

A little rant about leaks because I'm lowkey dreading them. And I'd appreciate it if you'd read it (and if not... 👁👁).

I find the jjk fandom's (though it's true for others too) reliance on leaks very off-putting. I know people want to look forward to something in the middle of the week and talk about it, but this just feels disrespectful, while also being at the cost of other people getting to enjoy it as they want to whether you care about getting spoiled or not.

So many people just don't tag leaks and spoilers properly (forget places where tagging doesn't even make a difference). Seeing things trending with the context of previous chapters explains everything. Not to mention people mis-tagging spoilers and leaks interchangeably (you can remove leak tags after the chapter is officially published but not spoiler tags!!) And no, you're not subtle with your 'out of context spoilers' to someone who has all previous context.

But what boggles my mind is why would you want someone to shout the punchline of a joke in your face before any of the setup has been done. You'll have a bunch of deepfried 2 pixel screenshot of screenshot quality manga panels of crucial moments with none of the build up and pacing. Paired with the most lacklustre explainations of what's happening (the phrasing of which can be biased to the leaker's opinions). Translating isn't easy. To convey what exactly something means from one language to another in an effective and in the intended way isn't easy (shoutout to fan translators tho y'all are amazing thank you for your time and effort)

And whether you care about the story or not, heck even if you think the mangaka themself doesn't care about it, it is just so disrespectful to the content that you're consuming. Making comics and manga isn't easy (churning them weakly is insane imo esp when a lot of mangaka aren't even full time artists) so why wouldn't you allow yourself to consume their story the way they've themself laid it out. Where one panel comes after the other. Where one expression has context in the next page. Where a dialogue has weight only when placed with another dialogue. Give the creator(s) this little grace too, because whether you like a story or not, there is still a huge amount of effort and skill, by multiple people, going into it.

And I personally love interacting with the fandoms I'm in, literally sometimes the only source of joy I have (yes ik leave me alone) is interacting with other fans and having my mind blown over their art and writing and theories. And I'd rather not be spoiled unless I'm myself seeking them out or just reading the actual chapter. So this involves me either spoiling it for myself before someone else does it, or spoiler dodging for 5 OUT OF 7 DAYS A WEEK EVERY WEEK.

I'm not even saying you should only look for official sources or whatever because I know not everyone has access to legal places to read (tho the shounen jump app is there for those interested, but yeah i get it for other publications), but there are better ways to read/hate-readyour fav/least fav manga out there without ruining it for someone else. The wait is juuust a couple of days more. There is absolutely no dearth of fan made content that can't help you last another few days, maybe your new fav fan creator is right around a little wait (ahem check my bs out if you'd like ahem ahem).

I just want to be able to interact with the fandom for more than just 2 days a week, and I don't like my accounts dying because i dissapear 5 days either, and is that a such a bad thing? I come online to have fun, not run an obstacle race y'know?

[firstdivisiongirl]

Hii! I wanted to ask for a Matchup with the Tokyo Revengers male characters?

I identify as a female

my zodiac sign is Taurus ♉ and my MBTI is INFP

Personality wise I'm mostly shy and quiet with strangers and with ppl idk when in big groups. I get social with my friend group and I like being loud and “wild”. I'm extremely sweet, clumsy and loyal, I'm kind, understanding, and very weird (according to myself and all the people who know me). I'm impulsive, emotional, empathetic, moody and super self conscious/insecure which makes me needy of reassurance. I'm easily forgetful but I can remember conversations made years back with precision.

My love languages are Physical touch and words of affirmations!!

Likes: I have a sweet tooth, I like music and arts, specifically goth and metal genres, occultism and witchcraft, flowers, manga and videogames, the moon and nature.

Dislikes: mean and disrespectful people, creaking and loud sounds. Stinky smells,insects.

Some of my habits are putting a lot of perfume on, often grooming my hair, daydreaming while listening to music and walking in circles(😭 I hope I'm not the only one who does this). I also love singing, dancing and writing!

Thank you! I hope you have a great day!!<3

Hello @haitanisspouse89! You can totally have a matchup! Thank you for turning one in. I have a feeling you may really like this one (if you know what I mean *wink*)! Let’s go!

You Got…

Ran Haitani!!!!!

If you think this is because of your name, think again!!!!! I have evidence to back this!!!!!!!!

When he has friends, he holds them with high regard, you would be no different.

He would let you know that you are great.

He would help you with your hair too. If you help with his. He’d love if you brushed it.

He’s not very emotional so he would let you be the emotional one in the relationship but he’d let you show those emotions without making fun of you or anything.

Seems like the type of guy who would ask if you could cast spells to make his enemies weaker.

If you tripped, he’d never let you fall.

He is (shockingly) the nice brother.

Would like to cuddle while listening to music. He would probably fall asleep but it’s okay

He’d love how you remember everything he’s said to you, especially when he tells you “he loves you to the moon and back.” (He’s smooth like that)

I hope you like it!

[marichild]

4, 9, and 17 for the fic asks >:3 🧡

*walks in* *puts on tetsu no ori* LET'S GO

be warned i am a chronic yapper I do not shut up about anything ever

4. Tell me about one of your abandoned WIPs. Why did you abandon it?

hoo boy. so, there was a sort of ambitious au I tried to write once—have you heard of twin star exorcists? I'm an anime enthusiast of it since I got pretty frustrated with where the manga was going what with the constant delays and derailing from the main point and the author not staying consistent with details, etc. that being said the anime doesn't fill a lot of gaps that should have been filled.

so while I was still pretty active in the kpop circles—which I probably will go back to soon lol when I feel less icky about the people I was beefing with—I tried to write a TSE au. while it wasn't my brightest idea to transpose a bunch of Koreans onto a Japanese setting, I also underestimated how difficult it'd be to handle all those canon details.

plus, exorcism is very heavily based on Buddhism, specifically in Japan, so I was just like. well am I prepared to potentially insult an entire faith. (research goes a long way kids! don't listen to younger mari) and I just sort of...let it falter and it doesn't even exist in my wip folder anymore </3

(it also involves a forced arranged marriage and the topic of being forced to have a kid, essentially, and I didn't want to genderbend anyone for it, so my solution was a trans man who was at least somewhat interested in having kids biologically one day, like me. once again, I didn't feel I did a very good job of it, and it was a little daunting to write it knowing that i did want at least a semi explicit scene that, once again, reflected me as a person. being a minor at the time, I let the idea go. and I was also much less confrontational at the time so I didn't think I could handle it if anyone was being weird about it lmao—which I fully can and will at this point.

that being said, I did write a fic about a trans man having a kid for a different fandom earlier this year, so I'm linking it if you're interested! very fluffy and family fun. and not explicit. though be warned, it is rpf lol)

HOWEVER!! I've actually considered picking it up again and rebranding as a soukoku au? once again, enemies to lovers, my transchuu agenda, my dazai can be any gender agenda, EXORCIST PRODIGIES, one of the characters has no idea where they came from and has a whole Bit about questioning their humanity. i.e. arahabaki parallels. there are a few gaps I'm trying to work out but it's definitely an idea haha)

ok enough yapping about that moving on

9. Are there any fics you'd love to see but don't want to write yourself? What are they?

!!! okay I really want to see. more fics about fyodor and disability. specifically related to anemia and blood. I generally don't read fyodor fics until endorsed by someone whose opinion I trust [for example, check out tell me we do not live in vain by valleykey, the Best fyozai fic Ever, or any of their fics!] because genuinely I don't trust this fandom to characterize fyodor, or any of decay of angels trio, very well half the time.

the reason I want to see more is because canonically, we know he is anemic and suffers from low blood pressure. however, I'm reluctant to write that for him because it's one thing to write like, transfems as a transmasc, there are similarities to be drawn from it, but things like anemia and chronic disability are a whole new ball game. I do not ever want to misrepresent any of that, and writing an ablebodied fyodor is just a. bit. disrespectful.

I mean I will write in his pov, of course. but I'd place him in higher stakes situations where his discomfort and pain isn't rhe sole focus so I don't have to write it in too much detail and write it all wrong. a bit of a cowardly approach maybe but until I really read a lot more that's all that's happening. unless it's like a menstrual disorder which. yeah. grimaces. but even that's inextricably tied to all his other issues, so.

17. What has been the proudest moment for you so far since you started writing?

oh boy. aside from all the times I've had authors I really admire acknowledge me and my writing, which is just. wow. its not that I think they are higher beings, but more like. if people who I admire think I am also worthy of admiration and think my fics are good. that my characters are well done....I remember the time a well-known author in the ZEROBASEONE rpf circles literally revived from her hiatus to comment on my fic!! to tell me how much she loved it. a fic that I genuinely wrote in like two hours for a member's birthday. (it continues to be my most popular fic for the fandom lmao) it was . wild. especially because I deeply admire her writing for being so introspective and critically challenging. augh.

but aside from all that,

probably the time I finished writing we were lost, looking for an answer. my last ever assassination classroom fic. I was largely out of touch with the fandom and the only reason I went through with this fic was that I promised my readers I would give it to them, and a lovely reader had left a comment about QPRs, and even a thing or two about Japanese law regarding it. writing that series, a silly series that I wrote out of frustration that my aroace-spec peers in the LGBTQIA+ community went through so much for just not adhering to the norm...well. guess who realized he's demiromantic demisexual through writing it 🤡

okay I derailed. the point of it is that by the time i done writing it I was kind of struck by how raw and real it felt, to me, and how I was proud of it. mainly because karma characterization is a tricky thing to do, in my opinion, and I'd done a pretty decent job. it also felt like an accurate representation of wanting someone who doesn't want you back like that, but wanting them close all the same. in general, it felt like a good representation of how scary and hopeless a queer teenager's life can be, especially at fifteen years old.

do I think I could have done better? yes, of course. I still think I have the drive to write it again, make an updated version. but I won't, because it was the first time in a long time that I wrote something that genuinely made me think differently about myself. I also think that it's a nice milestone marker. :)

fic ask game

[tteokdoroki]

🌸 - I just want to establish the following isn’t an attack on all shippers of this ship because not all of you are toxic it’s just that some of y’all scare me;

So I have been having a few mental health issues this week and I have the bkdk tag blocked but I can’t figure out how to block tags on yt and instagram so I literally started crying when I was exposed to it. I experienced a lot of toxicity from them on twt so I can’t even look at the ship but kiribaku has been my comfort ship. Unfortunately because the canon material has been focused on deku and bakugo, which makes me deeply uncomfortable. I don’t have the context but the sheer idea of bakugo having feelings for the nerd, even in subtext makes me physically sick. It’s not that I don’t like deku, it’s just that the ship feels like pseudo incest because in my interpretation they act like brothers. Also the fact that kirishima isn’t really relevant as much anymore bothers me. He’s a good character on his own and I’ve accepted the fact that it won’t be canon because it’s shonen. But after kamijiro (which I also have blocked in tags but don’t mind at the moment) had that out of pocket scene that caused me a literal mental breakdown (long story), my mental health can’t handle the fact that bakugo literally sacrificed himself for deku without even a reference to his CANON BEST FRIEND kirishima. I deeply hope that we get a blatant confirmation that bakugo and deku have a BROTHERLY relationship even if we don’t get any on screen kiribaku crumbs. I want reassurance that bkdk would never happen and for the toxic shippers to stop posting bkdk content under the krbk tags and stop trying to force your ship onto others. I already had a crisis about accidentally falling in love with a fictional character (Denki) and feeling heartbroken but now I have to deal with possible subtextual evidence for bkdks and a lack of krbk content in canon. Please tell me I’m just the subtext wrong and that in context I don’t have to worry. I’m freaking out because I’ve seen krbk solos literally get doxxed on twitter and harassed by toxic bkdks.

listen, im only going to answer this ask/topic once im pretty sure i’ve addressed this with you personally already. this is not the first time I’ve warned you about trauma dumping here but im going to set some boundaries. please don’t do this in my inbox — i don’t know you personally and I’m literally just a girl on tumblr writing porn. i am not your best friend, you cannot dump issues on me like this out of the blue, especially without considering how they make me feel myself. you do not know me.

secondly as a person who regularly engages with both bkdk and krbk content i think this is extremely selfish and ridiculous for you to send this to me 😭 just because YOU had a bad experience with bkdk doesnt mean i should have this projected onto me. i am just a person on tumblr, im not a therapist — i can help with day to day issues but this just seems like something you need to figure out for yourself.

im sorry about the issues you have surrounding it and perhaps the toxic people on Twitter but it seems to me that you need to make the conscious decision to leave bnha Twitter or Twitter in general?? like idk what to tell you but the manga is literally about deku 😭 he’s the protagonist. you’re going to see him and bakugou interact. pseudo incest is literally ridiculous as well. they’re childhood friends ??? like what

im not going to reassure you about krbk this or bkdk that because quite frankly i don’t care. they’re lines on a page to me and its literally never that deep. shipping is meant to be for fun and not to be taken that seriously. i severely suggest that you take a break ?? from all thing bnha related because as you’ve stated it’s not been very good for you and im sorry for that.

i literally cannot even fathom how disrespectful this is 😭 coming to my inbox with no warning and venting like this. genuinely don’t mean to be rude but i have no idea what you expected me to respond with. it’s deeply concerning and literally never do this again. please.

[rantahead]

Why I Ship BoruSumi

No hate

In Naruto, it was all about shipping. People love watching Naruto or other characters having romantic relationships with others and ship baits and it was exciting to see what would be end game. It was all about the fun. But a part of the fandom took that fun and made it a nightmare (NaruSaku/Sakura) fandom. They sent death threats to Masashi Kishimoto and the team to make NaruSaku canon and loved hating on any other character that interacted with Naruto, mostly Hinata Hyuga. But after the ending of Naruto, some of the fandom can’t seem to accept that. They moved onto the kids, hoping to live out their delusions through them (Boruto and Sarada). After Boruto the movie came out, most people speculated that they would be canon, and because the next gen wasn’t planned yet, they had no one else to pair Boruto up with, so that’s why there are a lot of blushing scenes.  

Now, BoruSumi is one of Boruto’s most popular ships, along with BoruSara. Here's why I ship BoruSumi:

Opposites:

Ever heard of the saying, “opposites attract”. Yeah, well, that’s true in this case. Most Naruto/Boruto couples are yin and yang. Yin being quiet, emotionless, and shy. Whereas yang is loud, obnoxious, and easily angered. Boruto was quickly ruled out as yang, whereas Sumire was ruled as yin. Boruto often pulled pranks and would shout and have random outbursts. Sumire was shown to be quiet and shy and scared whenever her class was having fall outs, which was easily shown in one episode where the class was having a girl VS boy battle. Even after her arc, she was still shown to be scared about other people and what they think of her and a shy and caring person:

Now, every Naruto/Boruto character get their personality from either their mother or father and Naruto and Sasuke got theirs from their mothers and married someone like their fathers (Hinata/Minato and Sakura/Fugaku). Even Itachi got Mikoto's personality and Izumi had Fugaku's (it was confirmed that Itachi loved her). It's only fair since Boruto inherited his father's personality that he marries someone like his mother, that being Sumire. Sarada, in contrast to what people think, actually inherited her mother's personality.

2. Treat each other differently:

Sumire is kind so she treats everyone equally, but she has confirmed her feelings towards Boruto twice, but this one's mostly pointed towards Boruto.

Chocho: Shouted at her, angry at her, called her a liar, etc:

Namida: He's barely had any interaction with her but she is a friend of his. But in this scene, he didn't have a direct conversation with her, but still wanted to help. But judging from his calmness, her wanting to not be a ninja didn't bug him much. He has also seen to tease her and Wasabi:

Sarada: He didn't see her as a normal girl and hated her guts, vice versa. But as the anime/manga went on, he became comfortable around her and saw her as only a teammate:

But with Sumire, he listens to her like she's his mom, which Sumire is technically the mom or big sister of the group:

3. He doesn't call her by her name:

People may think this is a con to the ship, but it's actually a pro. In Japan, calling someone by their title has shown to be respectful and calling people like how Boruto calls Kakashi, Konohamaru and Hanabi is shown to be disrespectful. Now, he probably thinks he's not close or not good enough to call her by her name. But he always respected her, more than I can say for Sarada and his own sensei. He only called her by her name once and that was when he had saved her from darkness, but it was also life-changing for him, meaning her name meant something to him. That was when Sumire started having feelings, too. 4. Jealousy: Sumire has shown jealous (the scene where Boruto was chasing Sarada on the boat in the Kiri arc), but it was barely displayed. Boruto, however was shown jealousy over her two times (probably even more but I haven't watched the whole show, just up to episode 232, but these are the scenes I can remember):

5. Boruto was worried for Sumire when she was in trouble:

In the last scene, Boruto was upset (and in the novel, he even cried for her) and blamed himself for her getting hurt.

6. Boruto blames himself for Sumire getting hurt:

In the novel (as mentioned earlier), Boruto cried for Sumire in the novel, but in the anime, it showed him as worried. It got so bad that Sarada had to drag him out. He then vowed to stop the guy who hurt her.

7. Those around Boruto seem to know he gets a bit overprotective of Sumire:

Shikadai:

He was worried about Boruto's reaction when Inojin said that Sumire might be transferring.

After Inojin opened his big mouth, Boruto instantly became angry and tried getting her back.

Mitsuki:

Mitsuki is a bit different because he doesn't know but he does, if that makes sense. It's obvious that Mitsuki likes Boruto (I'm pretty sure it's confirmed), so that technically makes Sumire his rival. But Mitsuki still seemed to know that whenever Sumire was involved, Boruto would act differently and rush over to her. He knew he acted differently around her. He even went as far to ask her about Boruto when she was in the hospital, all because he took Inojin's words out of context and assumed she liked him.

Naruto:

Boruto's own father seemed to know how much Boruto cared for her. Naruto probably realized this when Boruto asked him to use his Hokage title. You could see the realization on his face and the smile he gave him was a "I will, trust me" one (there is a pic, but I can't find it).

Hinata:

A mother knows her child best, right? Hinata had been in love with Naruto since childhood, so she knew about young love. She didn't know Sumire in person, but she knew that she was important to Boruto since he rarely ever asks anything from his father.

7. Boruto trusts Sumire:

Now, Boruto trusts all his comrades, but he trusted Sumire even after everything that she did and his trust in her was unbelievable. He put his life in her hands even though she tried to destroy his home and family. He even put faith in her and wanted to protect her and couldn't chose between her and the village.

8. Parallels:

KawaSumi is parallel with SasuHina (purple being mc's rival and lover, but Kawaki's and Sasuke's are leaning towards black, but at one point was purple) and BoruSara is parallel with SasuKari/NaruSaku.

10. Confessions:

Sumire has confessed her feelings like Hinata has.

11. Data book:

In Sumire's data book, it was confirmed that she loved Boruto, just like Hinata's and Sakura's confirmed their love to their respective partners.

But this is all my opinion and why I ship them. But if you ship BoruSara then that's fine. But these are my reasons for shipping this ship and I'm pretty sure it's canon because of the last point. I don't think that Ino or Karin's have confirmed their feelings for Sasuke when the series was going on. And I know Sarada's definitely hasn't. But ship your own ship.

Only time will tell, I guess. and the decisions for Kishi to decide and some rabid fans sending death threats to him to make their ship canon won't change his mind.

[hopeswriting]

ok so i was just reading your tags on a post talking about skull/reborn and i kinda wanna know how you think their relationship would work or the kinda writing you trust for them? (i kinda wanna write my own skull/reborn fic lol but wanna keep them in character while doing so)

hi, thank you for the ask!

okay so, i’ve only written this ship substantially like twice myself lol (tho i’m not unfamiliar with writing their dynamic as i’ve written my fair share of poly!arco fics), so i wouldn’t call myself a specialist of them, but i do like to think i have a good grasp on both their characters. and my issue is that fanon doesn’t often get them right in and of themselves to begin with, and so of course when writing them together/about their dynamic, it inevitably gets them wrong. (imo anyway, and here’s the disclaimer that this is all of course only my personal opinion, which everyone is welcome to discuss!)

i don’t think it’s on the fans tho! the way i see it they’re canonically kinda tricky to pin down to begin with, both individually and together. reborn is because even if he’s the co-protagonist, he’s all about being the one in control, the one remaining steady and unfazed no matter what, and the anchor and guiding force of tsuna’s, and by proxy of most of everything that happens in the manga too. which means it’s easy to reduce him to that know-it-all, perfect-at everything, better-than-everyone-else god-like figure, and to overlook the other facets of his personality that nuance that side of him (because i do think that god-like writing he’s often given is definitely in character for him to some extent, don’t get me wrong), because in comparison they appear a lot less often throughout the manga. and even if you do take them into account, it’s hard to pin down when and how and how much reborn allows those other aspects of himself to come out.

skull’s tricky simply because we got very little about him, making him almost a blank canvas, so it’s easier to just make that canvas into whatever we need it to be, while overlooking or disregarding the little we did get about him. and when you do try to take it into account, we got so little about him it’s hard to extrapolate on it to a substantial extent, or draw a pattern between them to get an idea of what being “in character” would even mean for him.

meanwhile when you write them together, i think their dynamic is actually less tricky and just plainly misunderstood. like we can all agree they’re canonically on bad terms, or that there’s beef between them at the very least, canon makes it pretty clear. it’s also pretty easy to guess why that is, but where most people lose me is on the how it all comes together to them having the dynamic they have in canon. and basically, not only there's no actual hate or animosity between them, i think more importantly there’s no disrespect between them or any intention to hurt.

now the last two ones were mostly about reborn, because no matter how he may (purposefully) act or what he may say, if you look closely it’s clear he actually doesn’t question skull’s place among the arco, nor does he question the fact he has the skills to back it up, even if, yes, he’s simultaneously aware skull is the weakest of them, and uses that fact to make fun of him and shape the way he acts with him. he does only make fun of him tho, because reborn’s intention is never to actually hurt him or be cruel with him or look down on him, etc, etc. he only ever means to tease.

which doesn’t mean skull still isn’t hurt by the way he acts with him or doesn’t resent him for it, because he very much is and does. but i don’t think it’s the kind of hurt depicted in most fics that’d make him leave the arco or other such extreme reactions or show of rejection. because yes there’s no actual hate or animosity between them, but also more importantly there’s comradeship between them, just as there is between the other arco, whatever you think comradeship means here. reborn and skull do care about each other.

so like, it’s all about boundaries, instead of them taking an issue with each other’s personality the way it’s often made to be in fics. because being both aware of the other’s background (reborn being mafia to his core and skull being a former civilian), they both get and understand and respect where the other comes from being the way they are, that’s not the issue between them. but then reborn thinks he was able to infer all on his own where skull’s boundaries are, and thinks they both tacitly met each other in the middle, but meanwhile instead of skull assuming he just doesn’t know better and correcting him about it, he assumes reborn does it on purpose because he doesn’t acknowledge him. and this is where it gets super funny because they apparently never got the opportunity to clear that one misunderstanding between them for, like, decades lmao. like, by the time the manga ends they’re still misunderstanding each other, and still aren’t even aware of it to be able to do anything about it. 😭😂😂

not sure if that was all very clear? but if it wasn’t, i actually already got the opportunity to talk about this in this reblog chain about fanon!reborn where we also got to talk about his dynamic with skull! here’s another one about his dynamic with skull, and this one adds onto why i think fanon!reborn isn’t, in fact, in character for canon!reborn. and because this is also relevant and helps to get the full picture of where i’m coming from with this post, here’s my thoughts on skull and how to write him in character.

so to answer your question, i personally think that for their relationship to work, they both need to first realize they started on the wrong foot and have yet to do anything about it, while in the meantime still making them care about each other. that is, only in the cases where you want them to be on better terms with each other of course. as far as just writing their dynamic as it is in canon, you just need to write the strains in their relationship not because they don’t like each other or anything of the sort, but because they’re wrongly assuming the wrong things about each other.

and likewise for the type of writing i trust with them. for me it has to be one that takes care to keep the balance between all those different aspects of their dynamic, and how their respective personality affects it too one way or another. it has to keep the balance between “hey, i do care about you and i’ve literally no intention to hurt you, never had” and “hey, you’re still very much hurting me, and i’m hurt even more because you don’t seem to care about it even when i’m repeatedly telling you you are hurting me??” and “i hear you but also not because this is one of those times my high self-esteem is backfiring against me, and so i’m not even considering the thought i might be wrong about how i’m definitely not crossing your boundaries” and “yeah, this sure is one of those times you being among the best of the best backfires against you, because i’m not even considering the thought you’re not purposefully going out of your way to hurt me, and aren’t well aware you are hurting me”.

and when i say their personalities also affect their dynamic, it’s how you also need to keep the balance between “you’re a former civilian, so of course you react and are affected more strongly to the way i am, but that doesn’t mean you’re still not aware i mean no harm like everyone else” and “you’re mafia to your core, so of course you don’t care to treat me any less roughly/violently than you usually treat people, even knowing i’m a former civilian because you’re likely looking down on me for it” and “from my mafia’s pov i’m definitely meeting you in the middle here, what do you mean you want me to try harder??” and “from my former civilian’s pov this doesn’t look like the middle at all, and wow, you really don’t care about how hard i’m already trying to be up to your standards, huh?”.

and this is where i think it’s tricky to get their dynamic right, because the thing is those assumptions they make about each other are all based on true facts they know for a fact about each other. reborn is mafia to his core and presumably has been all his life, while skull is a former civilian and became mafia only later in his life when he was chosen to be an arco. but instead of them putting both these facts together and going “okay well, there’s no way meeting each other in the middle would mean the same thing for the both of us, and there’s no way we can just accurately guess what it means for the other without explicitly talking about it, so let’s do that first things first”, we got all of the above instead.

also one last thing tho you might not need it, but even in what i call the good timeline arco fics where they start on the right foot right away, this is still worth keeping in mind. not all of it of course, but reborn being mafia while having the personality he has, and skull being a former civilian while having the personality he has will always shape their dynamic no matter what. the same way it’d shape skull’s dynamic with any other character that wasn’t a former civilian too of course, the other arco namely come to mind, but we’re talking about reborn here, you know lol. and not only that, but i think reborn in particular is really the perfect example of this.

hope this helped, and good luck with your fic!

[yuri-ray]

No-Spoilers Review #9: If That's Love, Break it. (Zenbu Kowashite Jigoku de Aishite)

Content Warnings: SELF-HARM!!! I AM NOT KIDDING!!!, sexual themes, severe parental abuse (thus far psychological), violence and bullying, general dark themes

(And after a series I like that I'd recommend to everybody, here's a series I like that I'd recommend to nearly no one...)

If That's Love, Break it. (or Destroy it All and Love Me in Hell) by Kuwabara Tamotsu is a manga with only one full volume out currently at the time of writing. It's extremely new, and it's yuri so toxic it could poison the groundwater for a hundred years 2ND VOLUME UPDATE: actually not THAT toxic . It's about a "perfect" honor student who is, mentally, at her absolute breaking point due to the sheer pressure. She wants to escape, but she just can't do it--Until a truant with a nasty personality starts to mess with her.

Is it good? W-Well... First of all it's new, so there could be some bad things on the horizon. Second of all it's dark as hell, and let me just point out that big content warning list I wrote up there. I'm weirdly obsessed with it and I like it a lot, but this is absolutely and completely not a work for everybody, or even most people. I also would NOT recommend that minors read this.

Kurumi Yoshizawa (brown hair) is top of the school and the student council president. Unbeknownst to the other students and the teachers, Kurumi is under horrific amounts of pressure mostly from her mother to be literally perfect, and she can't say no to the expectations of teachers either. She resents her circumstances bitterly. After she's asked to check on the truant student Naoi (black hair), she mutters to herself that she "doesn't give a shit" about "some girl who doesn't come to school." Naoi hears this directly passing her on the stairs, and immediately she takes an interest in her.

When Kurumi nearly shoplifts a single eraser thinking it might let her escape ("nearly" because she just pays for it anyway), it turns out Naoi took a recording of it. She starts blackmailing her.

Naoi is a REAL NASTY PIECE OF WORK. She's an evil little shitling, and she punches Kurumi in the solar plexus in Chapter 1. To me, this makes her a fun character to follow and read about, but easily to others she would just be a horrible person, end of story. Because she is. She is a corruptor, who becomes interested in Kurumi just for the sake of tormenting her. However, to Kurumi, Naoi is both her tormentor and her only possible escape, her only rebellion against her life circumstances. She despises her but she also doesn't know what she really wants. To Naoi, she realizes that Kurumi might be the only person who understands her (Naoi's home life isn't good either, and she has a suspicious large scar like a burn mark on one of her arms). This complicated, messy, strange relationship is what really appeals to me. Kurumi has one close friend who genuinely cares deeply about her and is a good, normal person, but Kurumi's just not willing to open up to her even though she wants to help.

Final Thoughts:

As you can imagine from a title that could be translated overly-literally as "DESTROY EVERYTHING, LOVE IN HELL", the writing is pretty over-the-top dark, so some would definitely call this "totally ridiculous" or, possibly, "disrespectful" -- Another reason why I don't think most people would like this series. Again, just because I love freak girls with dogshit personalities in my manga doesn't mean I think everyone is gonna have a good time with it!

And, seriously, check those content warnings.

If you do like it, talk about it with me! I literally can't in good conscience recommend this to any of my usual friends... There's no official English translation, but I'll pick up the first volume if it gets released overseas, assuming nothing crazier than my limits shows up before then.

(For yuris that would kill you on sight like the Elephant's Foot, Murciélago and Cruddy are just WAY too much even for me. I won't be reviewing those.)

UPDATE: We are now 11 chapters in! Instead of like... 3. Suffice to say, basically none of my fears came to fruition, so honestly speaking it's just plain good as long as you mind the content warnings. Good luck Naoi. Good luck Kurumi. And Kokoro.

[beardedmrbean]

https://x.com/thor_odinson/status/1767492789145629046?s=46

Can Rad explain why it was BLACK MEN, being sad over the lost of DBZ creator like this guy defending him

https://x.com/daquandsg/status/1766176795471048971?s=46

Also the idea that black boys need rep to feel validated…I mean I good when it executed well

But when most modern black male characters are BORING AF. It not fun

Also the idea of having a strong moral system from your environment is white culture

Not to mention most good black characters are like that because the writers don’t want to see racist

It no wonder why a lot of black boys are into manga

I have a rule that keeps stonetoss off my page, made a promise to someone, but that's going to be one of the ones of his that's pretty solid.

This on the other hand, that's quality stuff right there when the picture changed.

Just wow.

Can Rad explain why it was BLACK MEN, being sad over the lost of DBZ creator like this guy defending him

Probably not, rad probably was sad too but wanted to get some outrage points in on the internet.

DBZ is a cultural phenomenon, which culture you may ask, and the answer is all of them.

Mr. Miguel Angel Riquelme Solis, governor of Coahuila

The Japanese government knows that the episodes #130 and #131, whose copyright belongs to Toei Animation a Japanese company, will be exhibited in public spaces without the proper authorization of the author. Toei company has expressed their concern in their official statement attached to this letter.

The Japanese government expresses our interest on this matter being treated opportunely according to the copyright law and the established regulations on Mexico. In case that the screening is showed in a illegal way, the government of Japan wishes it to be suspended.

Accordingly, we expect a quick answer from the authorities that are planning this exhibition, so we can know the final decision. Sincerely Yasushi Takase _____________________________

Mexico really doesn't care about copyright law, and I love the dedication.

Everyone seems to love Dragonball, I've still never watched it but I know what it means to people same with ATLA.

No need to disrespect the creator especially over something that old that everyone is already aware of.

[trashexplorer]

BLCD Review: Unmei no Tsugai ga Omae da Nante

Title: Unmei no Tsugai ga Omae da Nante (運命の番がお前だなんて)

Author/Artist: Haruta

Release Date: 2021/06/25

Cast: 

Okitsu Kazuyuki x Masuda Toshiki

Taito Ban

Tsuchida Reiou

Kobayashi Kousuke

Matsuura Yoshiyuki

Tanaka Tomomi

Watanabe Yoshimi

Synopsis: Free-spirited omega Shishikura and straight-laced alpha Kotani have disliked each other since middle school, so neither are pleased to learn they will both be working at the same company. Shishikura is even less thrilled when he discovers that he and Kotani are a fated pair! The two men take verbal swipes at each other every chance they get, yet still wind up in bed together again and again. Both chalk it up to biology and refuse to admit that deeper feelings might be involved, and Shishikura begins looking into other potential marriage partners. Will this tsundere couple ever get their act together, or will destiny be derailed by their own stubbornness?

Review Proper

Finally, the thing I mistook for Yukyuu Omega is here. *exhale*

If y’all know me, you’ll know that I absolutely abhor omegaverse (you can thank Kurui Naku Ban Beta, Sayonara Alpha, and Erito for that). Literally everything you could do in an abo has already been done. I don’t see a point in making more of these. Mangakas: Okay, let’s do domsub instead But hey, am I not a Okitsu whore? No. Anyway, even though I was excited about listening to this, I knew I was going to hate Kotani because he was an asshole. 

There’s only one thing worse than an abo.

AN ABO WITH AN ASSHOLE CHARACTER.

But, in spite of myself, I actually enjoyed this. 

I’m having a moral crisis, help.

JK. Unmei no Tsugai doesn’t sell itself as a serious plot, so it shouldn’t be taken seriously either. Unlike our deep try-hards. I mean, it’s your pretty run-of-the-mill dumbass gets an excuse to fuck the asshole, falls in love with him, the asshole becomes more of an asshole, the dumbass drags a third party to make him jealous, the asshole becomes more of an asshole, poor third party gets led on and dumped, and the dumbass and asshole finally gets together without the asshole even apologizing, medetashi, medetashi. But the way that Haruta wrote and movic set it all up was fantastic. 

Now this is how you do comedy. I initially had some doubts ‘cause the narration in the first track was kind of strange lmao. It went from medieval style to traditional Japanese and it was narrated by someone who sounded like a news broadcaster wth. Is this a densetsu??? The CD later turned out to be a whole vocal flex for Massuu and Okitsu ‘cause goddamn. 

Massuu, for starters, used a tone slightly above his Hirokuni but slightly smoother. I haven’t read the manga before, so I wasn’t sure how things were going to go, so I was very surprised that he pulled his shounen (aka his Kirishima) voice later! I loved it. His changes were dynamic, chaotic, and very fitting for Shishikura. AND! AND! JESUS CHRIST HIS SEXAY MONOLOGUES!!! HELLO??? WAS HE PAID EXTRA??? Y’ALL GOTTA HEAR ALL THE BEDROOM SUBJUGATIONS!!! I didn’t know he had that in him tbh. I was just blown away. He has never bottomed this chaotically before, if I recall correctly. It’s evident that he had a lot of fun recording this (as did Okitsu as per the cast talk) and I love that! It makes me wish this had a second volume so we could hear more of this kind of Massuu.

Onto Okitsu,

Y’all already know what I’m gonna say. 

Is my bias over Okitsu making me like this? Who knows? But it’s undeniable that my man has, once again, slayed this role. I won’t talk about his perfect performance much ‘cause I’ve already run out of praises years ago, so just know that if you’re not an Okitsu bitch by now, you’re really missing out lmao.

ALSO

I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT WE’VE WITNESSED OKITSU PLAY TWO BETAS, A PRETEND OMEGA, AND NOW FINALLY AN ALPHA!!! We don’t count the disrespect that was Shounen no Kyoukai

-Chesk, 25, hates abos but will listen if Okitsu’s in it

Anywho, these two also had great chemistry with each other. They’re more or less in sync during their mattress mambos, so I really wasn’t spazzing out during Smoky Nectar. I was thinking maybe I was asking for too much. 😂 Idk what to feel, knowing that this is Fatgum x Kirishima

In conclusion, get this. Get this if you’re a fan of the series and abo in general. And if you dislike abo like me, this still is worth getting if you’re an Okitsu/Massuu stan. If you want to see just what makes voice actors good, you’ll be in the right place. As for those who want to read the manga along with the BLCD, it is doable, but bear in mind that there is added and cut dialogue. I only have the magazine releases, and I’ve noticed that the narrations are rearranged, so do try buying the tank if you can (reading the Chrima release with it is doable too tho). Gosh, I really wish this wasn’t an abo lmao. Anyway, I’m afraid there aren’t a lot of gag abos like this out there, so I wouldn’t be able to recommend anything similar. Go Kashikomarimashita: Destiny and Re:birth for more Okitsu tho