#i remake them like every 4 months

[coyotesim]

behr sisters

[brucebocchi]

Ranking 2024 anime, Pt. 5: #10-1

hey, this post is also available on my ko-fi, so please check it out and consider tipping/donating as i do this for free and am currently between jobs. you can find part 1 of the list here, part 2 here, part 3 here, and part 4 here. all of my seasonal reviews are on my ko-fi and under my anime reviews tag, mixed in with my occasional musings. thanks!

And we are in the home stretch! I didn't want to split up my top 10 like last year, so it took a couple days to get it all together. Thanks for your patience.

​As you may have noticed, some of these reviews are longer than others. I've reviewed most of these shows before, so I didn't want to be too redundant while talking about shows I've already reviewed. You can, of course, go back and read my initial reviews in my previous seasonal roundups.

Also, I just wanted to quickly shout out a few shows that I haven't watched much or any of, but would likely have placed well in these rankings, namely Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction, YATAGARASU, the Spice and Wolf remake, Orb: On the Movements of Earth, Sound! Euphonium's third season, and the late Akira Toriyama's SAND LAND and Dragon Ball DAIMA. I only have so much time in a day, week, month, and year, but those series have been on my radar and I do intend to pick them up sooner or later.

But for now, let's focus on what I did watch. Off we go:

10. Blue Box

This is a slightly biased placement on my end because I picked up the manga this year and quickly fell in love with it, and I’m just happy that it got a faithful, well-made anime adaptation. If you have an issue with that, I’m gonna let you in on a little secret: This whole list is biased. It’s MY list, after all.

After an uneven summer output between My Dear Friend Nokotan and Suicide Squad Isekai, WIT Studio is in full form adapting Kouji Miura’s gorgeous high school sports romance. Rising first-year badminton player Taiki has a huge crush on his basketball star senpai Chinatsu, who practices in the same high school gym he does. He’s happy enough to keep a friendly distance as they improve at their respective sports, but that distance is closed significantly when her parents go abroad for work and she ends up moving in under the same roof as him. The spirit of competition is in the air, and is that a whiff of romance I smell as well?

The reason I felt the need to call out my own bias at the start is because Blue Box’s debut cour is, on balance, probably just “pretty good,” but I was just so overjoyed that this anime even exists that I was willing to overlook the early story’s growing pains. Taiki, of course, is the POV character for most of the first cour, and most of the romantic tension we see so far is entirely from his end as he swoons and huffs and goes into cardiac arrest over any and every gesture Chinatsu throws his way. You know, teenage boy stuff. There have been criticisms that Chinatsu doesn’t get much interiority for a bit and that she’s a bit of an enigma in terms of her role in the central “romance,” such that it is so far, which is a valid criticism of a lot of shonen romance stories. I’m generally of the mind that these things are more potent when the object of the protagonist’s affection is treated as more than a puzzle for him to solve, but I think Blue Box does a fine job of establishing what Chinatsu means to Taiki before we do indeed begin to get a feel for how she operates and what she might think of him. If you found that part a little maddening early on, trust me when I say it’s worth sticking it out.

Regardless, the character writing is what made Blue Box such a hit in Weekly Shonen Jump. Taiki is a flat-out good kid, if a little naive, and his boundless determination to achieve and exceed his goals in both badminton and romance makes him easy to root for. Chinatsu is fairly taciturn, as mentioned, but that’s by design; she’s a notoriously difficult person to read, as even her friends and teammates note that they can rarely decipher what she’s thinking. She’s still an effortlessly charming character, and it’s not hard to figure out why Taiki’s got it so bad for her. The real highlight of the series, though, is Taiki’s classmate and longtime friend, Hina, a rhythmic gymnast and an absolute troll. She is an absolute delight in every scene she’s in, whether she’s knocking Taiki’s knees out from under him, focusing on rehearsing her next routine, or prying into Taiki’s love life and realizing that, oops, she really cares about him too. Hina is wonderful and I just want the best for her.

Characters this likable will need the voices to match, and I am over the moon about this show’s casting. Shouya Chiba is tremendous as Taiki, in a far cry from his Epic Based Stoic Chad role as Ayanokoji in Classroom of the Elite. Every line read for Taiki sounds exactly as gung-ho about sports and devastatingly down bad for his crush as you’d expect of a hormonal 15 year old. Reina Ueda is terrific as the soft-spoken Chinatsu, but I’m looking forward to hearing the always-delightful Xanthe Huynh (Haru in Persona 5, Marianne in Fire Emblem Three Houses) take on the role in the dub just as much. Akari Kitou channels much of the same gremlin energy she did for KamiKatsu to portray Hina’s mischief, and I look forward to hearing her nail Hina’s excellent upcoming character moments. And although it’s a secondary role, the casting I was most excited to hear was Chiaki Kobayashi (Mash in Mashle, Stark in Frieren) as Taiki’s teammate Kyo. Kobayashi’s languid tsukkomi affect was exactly what I had in mind whenever Kyo would put Taiki’s lovelorn antics into stark relief in the manga. It’s like he was born for the part.

This show looks tremendous, perfectly adapting both the angular, doe-eyed character designs from the manga as well as the lower-detail gags. The pastel color palette and gorgeous lighting effects are exactly what I was hoping for while reading the manga.  If I have any complaint, though, it’s mostly that I want to see more of the sports action. The granular details of the badminton matches and basketball games are hardly the focus of the story, but the action panels are usually the best part of Miura’s art in the manga. Shot-for-shot, it certainly does hew close to the manga presentation, but it’s mostly a racquet swing or close-up jump shot followed by an onlooker’s reaction. I’d have liked a bit more follow through. The CGI used for background competitors can get a little distracting after a while, too, but it’s easy to forget about.

Blue Box is continuing into 2025, and I’m waiting for every new episode with bated breath. If you liked the first cour enough but still have doubts, trust me when I say it just keeps getting better. I look forward to coming back to the second half of this season in another year for my victory lap.

9. Girls Band Cry

This is one of the most inventive girls-band anime out there, certainly the most so since that one from 2022 that I swore I wouldn’t bring up by name. Gorgeous 3D-CG animation, stirring original music, and a compelling cast of characters combine to make Girls Band Cry even more than the sum of its parts.

More than anything, I think what makes Girls Band Cry a terrific showbiz series is that it depicts the uncomfortable reality that a lot of artists are just flat-out unpleasant people and often don’t mesh well with one another. Protagonist Nina is messy, stubborn, and angry at the world and her parents and will not hesitate to make it your problem. She butts heads with her friends and bandmates at any provocation, but stubbornness is a major driving factor in the plot: Each of the five members of Togenashi Togeari has something they’re trying to move on from with their music, and while they each have an opinion on how to get there, they do come to realize, after a lot of silly yelling matches, that they want to do so together.

As a vehicle to push Girls Band Cry and Togenashi Togeari as a real-world multimedia experience, this show is a success. It’s a terrific-looking show in ways we rarely see outside of Studio Orange productions (and allegedly Love Live! Sunshine!!, which director Kazuo Sakai also had a hand in); the 3D computer-generated character models and animations are terrifically expressive and lively, and creative visual effects add a compelling sense of synaesthesia to Nina's emotional highs and lows. The voice cast, all pseudonymous contest winners, are also the real-life band members, and they fully nail both elements of their roles. TogeToge’s music in the show is terrific, and as an already-existing Gorillaz-esque virtual band, I’m excited to dig into their back catalog.

Girls Band Cry finally got an official English translation, so there’s no longer any excuse to sleep on this one. It’s funny, it’s heartfelt, and above all else, it fucking rocks. Don’t let this one fade away just because you might’ve missed it when it aired.

8. Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, second cour

When I ranked the first cour of Frieren as the best anime of 2023, I wrote:

The debut season of Frieren will continue into 2024, and if the quality remains a constant, it could very well be one of the best anime of next year too. It has remained as MyAnimeList’s top-rated anime ever for its entire run, warding off the legion of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood fans. Frieren deserves it.

A year later, it is still MAL’s top-rated anime, and by a healthy margin. Another 12 episodes aired to kick off 2024, and it was indeed one of the best anime of this year as well. I stand firm in my convictions that not only is it one of the best anime of the decade so far, it’s one of the best anime I’ve ever seen.

I really shot my wad by praising Frieren so profusely midway through its run, to the point where I still don’t really feel the need to add much more here. The second cour mostly focuses on the First Class Mage exam arc, allowing us to learn more about the present state of magic in the modern day and adding some much-needed depth to the cast. It continues to strike a lovely balance between the quieter moments and bonkers action sequences, as well as the more serious moments with laugh-out-loud goofiness. It may be a lesser arc in this story, but it would be a standout in so many others.

If I haven’t been clear enough, I remain over the moon about Frieren. The second cour looks and sounds just as incredible as the first, and this show’s success should serve as a reminder to the industry that investment in quality pays off. Madhouse knows they have a banger on their hands, and if the next season can maintain this level of production value for the major arc that is still to come, Frieren may very well earn GOAT status. Even if another season somehow never materializes, I’ll still be talking about this season in five years when it comes time to talk about the best of the decade. Watch this goddamn show.

7. A Sign of Affection

For all the romance anime and manga I consume, I’ve shamefully been lacking on the shoujo/josei front. I really gotta fix that. If reading more shoujo was what spurred Yukinobu Tatsu to make DanDaDan, then who knows what it might do for me? A Sign of Affection isn’t my first shoujo, strictly speaking, but it does feel like one of the first I’ve seen of the good old-fashioned flowery romance type.

What a gorgeous show. A Sign of Affection looks terrific, sounds terrific, and above all feels terrific. This is just a lovely, fluffy romance with low stakes and easy payoff; just two pretty people getting to know each other and learning to overcome their differences. It’s low on gimmicks and plot contrivances, and for as much as I like romcoms and romance stories with a unique bent, I love a good straightforward romance just as much sometimes. Everyone looks beautiful and likes each other and Jesus Christ look at the lips on these boys. There’s even a double-date to Costco, and what better depiction of marital bliss could there be?

I’m still pleasantly surprised at how this show handles the main character’s disability. Protagonist Yuki’s congenital deafness isn’t a single-note character quirk or a plot device to make her seem helpless; it simply is. It’s a part of her life that serves as the lens through which all of the people in her life see and treat her, and it leads to the only thing that resembles a major conflict in the show. Itsuomi, the main romantic interest, doesn’t baby her or walk all over her; he instead gently tests her boundaries while learning to accommodate her in a way to ensure her comfort. Her childhood friend Oushi, on the other hand, is very jealous of this development because he seems to feel entitled to her just because he did the bare minimum to accommodate her. The circumstances aren’t common, of course, but it’s a good lesson for a shoujo to have: Don’t settle.

My praise for A Sign of Affection mostly boils down to “it’s just really nice,” but it does “just really nice” so goddamn well. It’s fluffy, it’s comfy, it’s cozy, all of those adjectives that would set off my fight-or-flight response if I heard them from someone else, but I was enthralled by this show week in and week out. I can’t believe I neglected to start reading the manga, and I’m gonna have to get on that ASAP because I can’t wait for another season.

6. The Apothecary Diaries, second cour

I found myself more intrigued at The Apothecary Diaries at the end of 2023 than most other shows I’d watched that year. I grew more and more invested in the idiosyncratic Maomao as she investigated mysterious ailments and navigated imperial palace politics, all the while being a lovable little shit. 

Before I’d realized it, though, the 2024 half of its run knew it had its hooks in me and took me for a ride. What looked at first like a series of one-off puzzles quickly began entangling into a much larger mystery, rapidly gaining momentum until exploding into a massive emotional payoff. So many of the small details in what you assume are episodic mystery-of-the-week mini-stories become relevant in unexpected ways and draw you in ever further. I adore this kind of lowkey long-term storytelling, and for it to be part of such an appealing package is basically catnip for me.

For as gorgeous as The Apothecary Diaries can be visually, sonically, and sometimes even emotionally, it’s worth mentioning that this show is also hilarious a lot of the time. Maomao is on permanent goblin mode whenever she isn’t carrying out official business, and any time the palace officials have to rein her in is a delight. The push-and-pull between her and Jinshi is endlessly entertaining to the point where I can wait forever for that payoff if I have to.

I neglected to read the Apothecary Diaries manga after the first season went off the air (though I nearly bought all of it sight unseen), and with the second about to drop, I guess I’m holding off for another six months. Can’t say I mind, though. I’m along for the ride and I want this show to keep surprising me for as long as it can. This is easily one of the best anime of the 2020s so far and I’m gonna be there front row center for every new episode.

5. Bang Brave Bang Bravern

People say “peak fiction” too goddamn often these days. Not that it was a meaningful term to begin with, but it’s been memed to hell and back and is mostly just thrown out ironically to mock garbage writing. To be honest, I’m not above it myself, but I prefer to ascribe it, even jokingly, to stuff that can only truly come from a brilliant and/or deranged mind. Preferably both. Peak fiction, to me, is the intersection where talent meets insanity, no matter the degree of either.

Bang Brave Bang Bravern is peak fiction.

I gushed about this show after the winter season, and I almost don’t want to say anything further about it, mostly for two reasons: Firstly, because I don’t really want to give the game away any more than I already did back in April, and secondly, because I think it may have permanently burrowed into a specific part of my brain and then melted it. All I’m left with is “this show fucking rocks, dudes rock, you need to see it, it’s peak, don't ask questions, just watch it.”

Indeed, Bravern is the Dudes Rock anime of the year, and an essential piece of Dudes Rock media. It’s Top Gun with aliens and a giant talking robot. And the robot wants to fuck his pilot. This show is loud, horny, stupid, and self-aware, combined just so into a cocktail of legitimate brilliance that is, for better or worse, unlike anything I’ve seen before or since. Nearly every single episode had me clawing at my hair and shrieking “WHAT THE FUCK AM I WATCHING,” and that is the highest praise I can give just about anything.

I might be overselling it just a touch, but Bravern is just as earnest as it is utterly wild. It’s an intentionally hilarious show, but it means everything it does and says. It’s a love letter to mecha anime and tokusatsu, and with its top staff sporting Gundam and Macross bona fides, that love oozes into every aspect. The mechs, both manmade and alien, all look tremendous, the music is a throwback to the goofy bombast you’d find in series like this as far back as the Showa era, and the ensemble cast outside of our silly leads are just as gung-ho and serious about Saving The World as you’d find in just about any other mech show. Anything that can be this goofy with a completely straight face is going to hook me in.

All in all, Bang Brave Bang Bravern is hypercompetent lunacy with heart. Call it weaponized genre awareness if you must, but it knows exactly what it’s about, grabs you by the collar, and takes you for a ride, all while doing badass tokusatsu poses and calling out special moves with silly names. This is legitimately what fiction is all about. 

Also, if you don’t like Lulu just because she screeches a lot, you’re a weakling. Gaga-pi, motherfucker.

4. The Dangers in My Heart, season 2

This was a series whose first season was conspicuously absent from my 2023 rankings, but I caught up shortly after finishing that list in order to catch up to the second season. I’d watched a glut of slice-of-life romances in 2023 and figured I could afford to miss this one. I’m overjoyed at how wrong I was.

To paraphrase the second season’s exceptional OP, The Dangers in My Heart is indescribably beautiful. As I said with A Sign of Affection, I love me a straightforward anime romance, and this middle school slice-of-life is just that: Underdeveloped edgelord boy ends up making unlikely friends with, and falling for, the cheery popular girl in his class. This is easy wish-fulfillment on paper, but that’s hiding the trick: Kyotaro isn’t gonna get anything he wants by keeping his quills out for anyone who comes near, and he has some growing up to do if he’s ever gonna get what he wants.

Season 2 picks up right where the first left off, with Kyotaro’s arm still broken from his family trip and Anna feeling guilty because she thinks her distraction was what led to the injury. Right out of the gate, we see the care these two have developed for one another: Anna wants to help while he can’t do his own schoolwork, while Kyo is quick to try to cheer her up when she no longer feels like she’s able to. Already we’re seeing Kyotaro’s character development coming to light: The Dangers in My Heart isn’t a story about a Nice Guy getting the girl just by being there; it’s a story of self-improvement, of trying to become the type of person whom your crush would want to fall in love with. For a story about and ostensibly marketed to early teenagers, that’s a good lesson to have, and I absolutely devour stories like that.

As can be the case with plenty of adolescents, most of the conflict here is internal. Kyotaro spent the early part of his middle school education keeping a safe distance from everyone in order to avoid getting hurt, and as you can imagine, that did a number on his self esteem. Though he’s mostly kicked the chuunibyo mindset, Kyo still prefers to keep his distance, less because he doesn’t want to get hurt, but now because he doesn’t want to hurt anyone else. Specifically Anna. So much of this story is about him learning to be okay with letting people in and not just falling in love, but making friends and becoming somebody whom people just want to be around. It’s a chuuni rehabilitation story. You love to see it.

With all due respect to mangaka Norio Sakurai, the biggest surprise that came from reading the manga was how much better the anime looks than its source material. The anime looks tremendous in its own right, but compared to Sakurai’s doodly, occasionally messy style, the love put into the show stands in stark relief. Characters, backgrounds, and lighting are all soft, squishy, and warm, almost like the entire thing was run through the filter through which only a 13-year-old in love can see the world, even as a little edgelord. Little flourishes in the environment and music highlight the minute but consequential motes of progression in Kyo and Anna’s relationship. The OP ended up shaking out as my favorite of the year, even with 2024 being bookended by Creepy Nuts bangers. It’s that special to me.

And just like that, The Dangers in My Heart went from “eh probably not for me” to “yeah this is one of the best anime of the decade so far.” It’s a simple slice-of-life romance on paper, almost literally so in the manga, but this is a transformative adaptation. There’s much more of the story to tell, and I wouldn’t complain about more, but as it stands after two seasons, The Dangers in My Heart is damn near perfect as it is.

3. Oshi no Ko, season 2

Another year, another season, another top-four finish for one of the best manga adaptations I’ve ever seen. 

The anime adaptation of Aka Akasaka and Mengo Yokoyari’s showbiz-revenge manga made shockwaves last year following its thunderous feature-length premiere, and its source material made even more waves due to some questionable plot developments that fortunately went nowhere. Doga Kobo was undeterred by any negative attention brought to the brand, though, and pressed forward into the next arc with a level of swagger you rarely see brought into an anime’s sequel season.

The 2.5D stage play arc in Oshi no Ko’s manga wasn’t my favorite, but it was one that you could tell just from reading it would translate well to the screen. Even then, I wasn’t prepared for just how hard Doga Kobo would go in adapting it. Character animation is sumptuously fluid, color used to amazing effect, and personal expression bursts forth into impressionistic abstraction to such a degree that it made manga artist Yokoyari cry. Everyone looks and sounds incredible beyond any way I could’ve imagined from reading the manga, which, at the risk of sounding defensive, is still very good as a whole.

This being a story largely about the music industry, the music remains as on-point as ever. It’s too soon to tell if the second season’s OP/ED pairing tops the instantly-iconic “Idol” and “Mephisto” from the first, but these are no slouches. This season’s OP, “Fatale,” is a whiplash-inducing banger by Tatsuya Kitani and idol Kento Nakajima, performing under the collaborative name of GEMN (itself a relevant name to the show; twins without the i/Ai, DO YOU GET IT???) with visuals that might actually top those of "Idol." The new ED, “Burning,” is Hitsujibungaku at their fuzzy, 90s-style alt-rock best, and it takes on a brand new meaning by the end of the season. Of course, there’s also the story-relevant music; while the bulk of the season focuses on the stage play, the last few episodes give us a glimpse into the pop music process, with the season capping off with an in-universe music video that, while not sonically my exact cup of tea, features 90 seconds of some of the best-looking dance animation I’ve ever seen in my life. That’s a flex if I’ve ever seen one.

And just like the first season, the second capped off with an announcement that Oshi no Ko will indeed be returning for another season. At this rate, and with the anime’s success, they will adapt the entire work, which will raise some eyebrows. I’m not going to litigate the manga’s later controversial developments nor its widely-panned ending, but if Doga Koba was able to handle everything that came before those things with such aplomb, I have faith that it will at least be done well.

2. DanDaDan

I want to preface this by saying that I agonized over whether this or the final entry is my anime of the year. I’m comfortable with what I chose, but if I’m being realistic, DanDaDan is basically 1b. This is a masterpiece already.

Although the source material was a bit of a cult hit until this year, DanDaDan came with a considerable amount of hype. If you were even peripherally familiar, it wasn’t hard to see why: Yukinobu Tatsu’s art is absurdly detailed in almost every panel, character designs are easily recognizable (one of the leads dressing similarly to a Persona 3 character was fortuitous for the anime to drop in the same year as Reload), and so many bizarre things happen in the plot that relaying them to anybody who wasn’t already familiar would make their brain briefly touch the void. Above all, though, Science SARU was tabbed to animate it, and any project by them is immediately worth your attention.

Sure enough, DanDaDan made an instantaneous splash, its first episode adapting the manga’s bombastic, twisty 63-page opening chapter nearly beat for beat. I’m not gonna “don’t look it up, just go in blind” this one, but almost too much happens for me to properly detail it all without just writing a complete synopsis. It boils down to “lonely nerd boy believes in aliens, angry kogal believes in yokai, it turns out both are real and now they have to deal with it.” It’s silly, it’s wild, it’s action packed, and if you can stomach the sexually-compromising alien abduction of the girl, you’re along for the ride.

I’m not gonna harp too much on that last point. It does stink that the female lead, Momo, is stripped to her underwear for the sake of alien sexual “research,” but said aliens get their comeuppance before anything happens to her. It’s still not great, and it’s not the last time female characters are portrayed in their underwear, but I do promise it’s for story reasons, it takes a backseat to the onscreen action and is pretty clearly not done for the sake of fanservice. I know such things can be beyond the pale for some people, but if you think you can compartmentalize that, I recommend you watch the first episode with that caveat in mind and decide from there. You may be pleasantly surprised.

DanDaDan is effectively two stories at once; on one side, we have Momo and the boy, Okarun (a nickname Momo devised for him to preserve her own sanity), gaining wacky supernatural powers in order to fight back these occult threats and regain what was stolen from Okarun from his first encounter with the unexpected (IYKYK). Because these threats can come out of nowhere, their daily high school lives can completely pop off without warning. On the other side, we have quieter slice-of-life tension as Momo and Okarun get to know (and frequently misunderstand) each other and realize they are completely and hopelessly head-over-heels for one another.

Surprise, motherfucker: DanDaDan is a romcom.

Yukinobu Tatsu, formerly an assistant on the first saga of Chainsaw Man, long struggled to get his own work serialized. At his editor’s urging, he read something like a hundred manga for inspiration, including several shoujo romance series. That research shows through in DanDaDan; although the bonkers action sequences and off-the-wall monster designs are what draw in readers and viewers alike, what’s kept this many people along for the ride is the beating heart just barely under the surface in the form of the romantic tension between Momo and Okarun. It’s easy to write this off as some “lonely nerd gets the cute gyaru just by being a Nice Guy” wish fulfillment, but that’s not really the case here; Okarun was a weird little twerp right from the jump. Similarly to Kyotaro in the aforementioned Dangers in My Heart, Okarun believes early on that he’s nowhere near Momo’s league, completely unaware that she quickly grows to actually like having him around, so he puts in the effort to become a more well-rounded person so that he can be confident enough to be seen next to her. He also just wants Momo to think he’s cool, and she thinks that’s adorable. And she’s right! These two are cute as fuck together.

So you come for the wild action and stay for the tremendous character dynamics. It should go without saying that Science SARU nailed all of the above, but I’m gonna say it anyway. Reading the Manga+ comments on each chapter as I read through the manga, readers were begging a top-flight battle shonen studio like MAPPA or WIT to pick up the series, and I think these fans got more than they bargained for. Masaaki Yuasa hasn’t been in charge of a series at the studio since Eizouken, or anything they’ve put out since Inu-Oh, but his influence is all over their recent works, including last year’s fellow top-three series, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. It’s beyond impressive how, much like Scott Pilgrim, this series manages to maintain the source material’s art style while still looking very much like a Science SARU anime. Everyone is bouncy and malleable as their moods dictate, line weights are wildly varied, and action animation is kinetic and unpredictable. Each fight with an alien or cryptid is awash in eye-searing color or eerie greyscale. The music is a boatload of fun as well; even putting aside the Creepy Nuts OP (banger after banger after banger from those dudes) and Zutomayo ED, regular proceedings are punctuated by a wildly varied score, from funk to folk to an insane chase scene set to an electronic mashup of the “William Tell Overture” and the can-can. Everything about DanDaDan keeps you guessing.

I was looking forward to DanDaDan enough that I went to the theatrical premiere of the first three episodes and was sufficiently blown away. If you’ve seen the show, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that it looks and sounds incredible in a cinema setting. I left the theater positively buzzing, telling anyone who’d listen that they had no idea what was coming, but even knowing the entire story, I wasn’t prepared for more of what was to come. The literal next episode after what I’d already seen in the theater had one of the most bonkers action setpieces I’ve seen since Gurren Lagann, and just three episodes later an unbelievable emotional gut punch, prior knowledge of the manga be damned. Every single aspect of DanDaDan as an anime was given the same level of love and care that Tatsu put into his own work. It’s one thing for an anime adaptation to be faithful to its source material, and another entirely for it to elevate and transform it. DanDaDan somehow does both.

If there’s anything that held this back from being the anime of the year, it’s that this season kind of just… ends. With the 12-episode runtime that was given to the debut season, DanDaDan ends its first run right after the beginning of the manga’s next arc, which feels bizarre. There’s no resolution, but there’s no real cliffhanger here either. Which I kind of get, the story is driven by a constant forward momentum, but a little warning that the season was ending would’ve been nice. It’s only a six month break until the show comes back, but judged on its own, the way this season ended left me feeling a bit cold and the season itself feeling incomplete. Even shows that have year-long breaks between cours rather than seasons tend to put some kind of cap on each individual run, but DanDaDan just kinda left the toilet unflushed, and next to it a Post-It note promising to come back later. For something this lovingly crafted, that seems like a bizarre oversight.

That was hardly enough to temper my enjoyment though. Anything this well-made is deserving of the attention and success it’s attained, but to have this story, with these characters and this level of bonkers action made this well, is just an embarrassment of riches. And God help me, I’m shamelessly greedy. July can’t come fast enough. I need all of it.

1. Delicious in Dungeon

At the end of its run midway through the year, I declared Dungeon Meshi the best anime of the year up to that point and that I’d be impressed if anything would manage to overtake it. Though the other two entries in my top three made extremely strong cases, nothing else quite hit the spot and nourished the soul quite like Dungeon Meshi.

Barely a year removed from one of 2022’s best anime, Cyberpunk Edgerunners, Studio Trigger kicked off 2024 with another Netflix original, this time with its first proper manga adaptation since the studio split from Gainax a decade prior. It seemed an odd fit at first to have a studio known for wacky, hyperkinetic action productions like Kill la Kill and Promare to adapt this quirky fantasy dungeon manga, but hey, they also did Little Witch Academia. It turned out to be an odd fit, but in the best way: Dungeon Meshi is pretty offbeat as it is, so for it to get picked up by one of the more oddball prestige studios ended up making a tasty stew.

I struggled to elaborate on what makes this show so good after each of its cours, and six months later I remain a little lost for words. It’s an exceptional story adapted exceptionally well. Between the characters, the story, the setting, the emotional stakes, the comedy, the highs and lows, they nailed it all. Trigger just gets it. Even when characters go off-model for the sake of an intentional animation quirk, it still has that inimitable Trigger charm to it. It sounds just as good as it looks, too: The orchestral score highlights the quieter, sillier moments just as well as the tenser action setpieces, the foley work behind the dungeon’s bizarre and varied flora and fauna is immaculate, and the cast is perfect in both Japanese and English (I rarely ever say so but seriously, shout out to the dub).

I’m just as sick of saying “this show speaks for itself” when I have trouble finding the words as you probably are of reading it, but I have little else to add here. I’ve written plenty already. Just go watch it. This is already one of my favorite manga ever, and by the time the series wraps up at the end of its second season, it will easily end up as one of my favorite anime ever.

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - Well... at lease we have Wandee & Stand-in?

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

May 2024 Wk 4

Ongoing Series - Thai

Wandee Godday (Sat YT) ep 4 of 12 - The geept is strong with this one AKA Yak CAN flirt. Wandee now knows he isn’t the only one with a crush on someone else. AND YET they are SO DAMN CUTE together. I do wonder sometime if Yak is running a counter con with Dee pretending to have a crush on Taem. Meanwhile, mad props on the HPV vax public service! Good for them!!! Now that's my kind of product placement. I do have a feeling the sad bit with these two is gonna be VERY sad and last longer than we like. 

My Stand-In (Thai Fri iQIYI) ep 5 of 12 eps - It’s a riveting show. Pleasant? No. Riveting? Yes. Tiny crumbs for Ming’s assistant. Joe is best boy. That is all. I LOVE this show.

We Are (Weds iQIYI) ep 8 of 16 - TOO MANY SOUND EFFECTS. Omg get your fingers off those buttons you computer wanking sound dude (you know it’s a dude) what tf do you think this is? Lovely Writer? Also, they left ALL their drinks! Can you not walk and drink at the same time in a BL? Meanwhile not much happened that hadn’t already happened AKA bit of a filler ep. That said, the friendship group stuff is glorious!!! Also this brand of super gentle flirting suits PondPhuwin better than any of their prior rolls. It reminds me of how much I think they suit a historical. There is a gentle dignity to these two. 

Only Boo! (Sun YouTube) ep 7 of 12 - I love how kindly the turn down was. But most of the dancing stuff was dull. I don’t know I just find the actor playing Kang pretty vacant of appeal I guess. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

At 25:00 in Akasaka AKA 25 Ji Akasaka de (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 6 of 10 - As is not uncommon with JBL I’m being to get frustrated with Yuki the Uke. Sigh. I’m probably gonna stay that way for several episodes given the pacing of this show. 

Living With Him AKA Kare no Iru Seikatsu (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 7 of 10 - Also frustrating. Willful misunderstanding. We got us some running of the gays but boy is this drawn out. 

Blossom Campus (Korea Thurs Gaga & iQIYI) ep 3-4 of 6 - The puppy is a bit too much sunshine innocent for me. And the professor is a bit creepy. I don't know, I'm not loving this one like I want to.

It's airing but...

You Made My Day (Thai YT) ep 1 of 5 - mini series staring the I Will Knock You couple Tar & Bom, started but I couldn't find it. I also didn't try very hard.

The Time of Fever AKA Unintentional Love Story 2 (Korea movie) trailer released to Korean theaters 5/25. HoTae & DongHee, side couple from Unintentional Love Story are back! Same actors, same character names. I love them. I NEED TO SEE THIS. How?

OMG Vampire (Thai Sun ????) ep 2 of 10 - yeah I can't find it.

In case you missed it

Crossing my fandoms moment, major Kpop blog ran the following: OMEGA X Hangyeom Talks Jazz For Two, Brotherhood, And More With KpopStarz

Tis the season of remakes? Both Addicted Heroin (August, my love!) and My Love Mix-Up (G4!) are coming from Thailand. I am very excited to see both. I love a Thai remake, often more than the original.

Next Week Looks Like This:

Upcoming BLs for 2024 are listed here. This list is not kept updated, so please leave a comment if you know something new or RP with additions.

May Releases

VBL (Taiwan) is releasing 4 'Special Episode' epilogues to their 4 2023 shows every Friday this month on Gagaoolala, Viki & Viu. Not sure on search terms or how to find these. (Or, frankly, if we need them.)

5/10 – You Are Mine

5/17 – VIP Only

5/24 – Stay By My Side

5/31 – Anti Reset

5/28 My Biker 2 (Thai movie YT?) - trailer

5/30 Knock Knock Boys (Thai Thurs WeTV & Gaga) - I do love Best and I'm interested in seeing him in a new pairing. That said, I'm not wild about Seng. Still, this looks like a chaotic pulpy mess, I'm looking forward to wallowing in it one way or another.

5/31 The Time of Huannan (Taiwan movie) - May not be BL

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

All Wandee Gooday.

Icky no longer allows screen shots or there would have been a bunch from Stand-in.

(Last week)

Streaming services are listed by how I (usually) watch, which is with a USA based IP, and often offset by a day because time zones are a pain.

The tag BLigade: @doorajar @solitaryandwandering @my-rose-tinted-glasses @babymbbatinygirl @babymbbatinygirl @isisanna-blog @mmastertheone @pickletrip @aliceisathome @urikawa-miyuki @tokillamonger @sunflower-positiiivity

@rocketturtle4 @blglplus @anythinggoesintheshire @everlightly @renafire @mestizashinrin @bl-bam-beyond @small-dark-and-delicious @saezurumurmurs

Sigh, Tumblr in it's infinate wisdom doesn't like too many tags.

There's these tricks, remember:

[fizziepopangel]

“I’ll shelter and adore you more than anything…”

Touch and words of affirmation are his top love languages. He’s been through a lot that’s really shaken his confidence and his beliefs. Hearing someone actively reassure or compliment him is a huge boost for him, as is feeling something solid and consistent in the form of touch (especially when these come from someone he cares for).

Lucifer absolutely blasts show tunes and sings at the top of his lungs while he’s in the shower.

Flirting goes straight over his head sometimes since people often use the “did it hurt when you fell from heaven” bit on him and it usually results in him trauma dumping and showing them the actual physical scars he has from literally falling from  heaven…. He never understands why people seem to drop out of the conversations after since they did ask him.

He frequently uses the phrase “I knew him personally, so I know that God only lets things grow until they’re perfect. Some people get there sooner than others.” when someone makes fun of his height.

He sleeps in duck footie pajamas that Vaggie gifted him on his first father’s day since he and Charlie began talking again. Though she was embarrassed to give him a gift, he was absolutely over the moon excited since this means that his daughter’s girlfriend likes him.

Unbeknownst to the rest of the inhabitants of the hotel, Lucifer has a rubber duck that resembles them all. He often has to remake Alastors because when he’s upset with him, he tends to take his anger out on the Alastor-themed duck. At least one radio demon duck gets destroyed a week.

Eats candied apples religiously

He only wears the hat to look taller. Alastor knows this and frequently steals his hat and then pokes fun at his height as the king of hell wanders around looking for the accessory.

Lucifer loves animals so once a month he gathers all the pets (this included Razzle and Dazzle prior to Dazzle’s death) of the hotel for a little playdates. He buys them cute little outfits, takes them to pet parks to play, buys them each a new toy, and gets them hell’s version of a pup cup.

Yes, he did try to take Husk once because he does in fact view the man as a giant kitty that he really wants to win over…. And yes, Husk does go once, he regrets it immediately.

Despite them not exactly seeing eye to eye (partially because of the height difference), Lucifer and Alastor both enjoy cooking and get together with snacks to watch their favorite cooking show once a week. It started by accident, but since it became a weekly occurrence, they put aside their differences for the one night to enjoy the show together.

Lucifer bakes muffins and banana bread every weekend. He even teaches Niffty how to do it, she’s a flour covered mess by the end of it and her bread usually comes out rock hard and her muffins rarely rise, but Lucifer actually really enjoys the company and he finds the tiny woman rather amusing to spend time with.

After reconnecting with Charlie, Lucifer made it a point to have father/daughter dates once a month in an attempt to get to know her again. After realizing how big a role Vaggie plays in her life, he would start inviting her out with them too and referring to her as his future daughter in law.

He absolutely hates geese.

Lucifer keeps his wings tucked away for most of the time when they aren’t needed, but he usually sleeps with them unfurled and spread across the bed when it’s warm out, or with them wrapped around himself when he’s cold.

While most people would think that the big boss of hell would be the all business type that drinks his coffee black, he actually prefers a soothing warm tea to coffee when given the option…. But if he has to have coffee, he usually has a cup that tends to be more creamer than coffee and it has to be tooth rottingly sweet.

There’s a cabinet in the Hazbin Hotel kitchen full of mugs. Lucifer has 4 duck themed mugs in that cabinet… there were 6 but Alastor “accidentally” broke two.

Lucifer keeps one of Charlie’s baby photos in the pocket of his jacket, but as their relationship improves, he keeps a newer photo of the two of them together in his pocket with it too.

There’s a cabinet in the Hazbin Hotel kitchen full of mugs. Lucifer has 4 duck themed mugs in that cabinet… there were 6 but Alastor “accidentally” broke two.

Lucifer keeps one of Charlie’s baby photos in the pocket of his jacket, but as their relationship improves, he keeps a newer photo of the two of them together in his pocket with it too.

[perfectlysanexd]

how do you manipulate the in-game camera to get screenshots from different angles in FF7? I got Rebirth for my computer and some of the things you've pointed out in your shots are really amazing (Sephiroth's look of affection at the Edge of Creation is a personal standout). I'd love to be able to do that too

I'm happy to share with you! 🥰 The trick is that it's a mod, so after Rebirth comes out, you may have to wait just a little while for it to become compatible, but I'll tell you my setup for Remake. Rebirth will be a tidbit different, since it runs on Unreal Engine 5 instead of 4, like Remake. Still, the process should be about the same. 🤔The beauty of having the game on PC is being able to use lovely mods, and I get 99% of them on Nexus.

On this page here, you will find all the information you could need about the Universal Unreal Engine Unlocker, or UUU for short(the link is for Unreal 5, so this should be the one you need). The download link at the top will take you to his Patreon, and I did pay $6 at the time for a one-month subscription to him in order to download it. I was able to keep using it all this time without any updates, it's a very solid program. But you may want to wait just a couple months to make sure it's a solid version with FF7R compatibility before you pledge on Patreon and download it. Then you won't have to worry about bugs and such. If you have the means, you can continue to pledge to him and receive updates, I just don't have the means to do that every month. I know that the instructions look extremely long and daunting, and a lot of it is very technical, talking about all the things it can do. So I'll just give you the simple guide, with the easy things you need to know.

...I have a feeling that I'm going to exceed the character limit, so I'll just put this in Word and screenshot it for you to make it easier on everyone, haha...

In my case, my computer is meant for 1920x1080 resolution. So I use a program called Flawless Widescreen, which looks like this:

Next, the camera...

The other part of the camera that's important is the lighting ability. It won't work in every part of every scene(for some reason), but it's quite useful most of the time.

Once I have my light in place, time to use Flawless Widescreen. I just alt+tab to bring it up, then increase the resolution as high as it will go. Once in a while, it will seem to blur the camera a bit and I may have to readjust it.

After that, the character's hair(and everything else) will look smooth and beautiful~...there are other things to consider, such as if you'll need a hook in order to have an ini file, but that's more in the fine details, which varies from game to game. It depends on how the settings are in Rebirth, which may be just fine if they did it right, and how your computer runs those settings, which may be also fine if you have a beast of a machine. You may think that the colors seem washed out from what I'd usually post, and you're right. The rest is what you might call post-processing, which are the things I do with GIMP(GNU Image Manipulation Program). That would be a different tutorial, but I wouldn't mind doing it if you're interested.

[humorisstoredinthetits]

Poly Heathers & Veronica and Love

This is a remake of one of my older posts, "Headcannons part 69420", updated with more stuff and more elaboration

Heather Chandler:

Chandler's love language (giving) is acts of service

She is always doing something for her wives, wether that be making them a little extra treat when she goes to make dinner or taking them to their favorite places on a whim or even preparing a nice bath for them when she knows they've had a hard day at work

By her own admission she isn't the best with words

She's brash and often rude and has a hard time vocalizing her thoughts, the inability to do so causing her much frustration

Why can't she just tell them how much she cares for them, how much she needs them, why is it so hard?

It actually caused her to start to fear that they would think she was ungrateful or even that she hated them, but after opening up to them about it she was reassured that of course they didn't think she hated them, they all had different ways of showing love and that it was ok that she didn't outwardly show it

Despite this, Chandler still feels the need to put in more effort into showing her affections but also that what she does is never enough

As a stay-at-home wife she has plenty of free time on her hands, and with that time she will try and think of something nice she could do for her wives

Sometimes its just as simple as her spotting something one of them would like at the store and picking it up for them

Other times she goes more out

For example, for a whole week Duke had been dreading a meeting with some agency which would determine what happened to one of her kids, stressing about it to the point of tears

So that day when she came home, Chandler had prepared her favorite dish (with a huge chocolate cake, Chandler knows her green-clad wife is a monster for that shit), went out to get some high end bath bombs, and even got Mac and Veronica to come home early to help comfort her incase things went poorly

Thankfully they didn't, but Duke spent the whole night teasing Chandler about how soft she's gotten

She tried to refute it but it was of no use, she was blushing heavily

The only thing she won't do for her wives is intentionally lose at a game

Despite her ego deflating since high school ended, the pride still remains, and Chandler physically cannot force herself to lose even if it would make one of her wives feel better

Her love language (receiving) is words of affirmation

Its amazing how a few words from her wives can soothe all of her worries

Maybe its because of how bad she is with words, but just hearing an "its ok" or "I love you" sets her mind at ease

It lets her know that her efforts appreciated, but also does so in a direct way

Despite being the HBIC for years and dealing with all the interactions that entailed Chandler is hilariously bad at gauging how someone is feeling

She's used to just intimidating people into doing her bidding, but she obviously can't do that with the people she loves

By having it told straight to her that she is loved and needed and that she's done a good job she can understands how they are feeling without any doubt

She also has a massive praise kink

Veronica once called her a "good girl" and Chandler's face was as red as her blazer for the rest of the day

Now when one of them wants to mess with her they'll whisper "good girl" into her ear and watch her blush furiously

Every Saturday the four of them will have date night

They don't always go out as a whole polycule, what they do is follow a schedule

For the first 3 weekends of the month they will have two 1 on 1 dates, and on the fourth week the 4 of them will go out

For example, Week 1 is Chansaw and McDuke

Week 2 is Chandlamara and Dukesaw

Week 3 is Chanduke and Mcnamaywer

Week 4 is the whole polycule

This way they can all have a day to spend quality time with each of their wives

They also follow a schedule within it for who sets up the date

For example in Week 1, one month Chandler and Mac will choose what they do for their date, the next month Veronica and Duke, and so on

The same applies to their group date as well

When it's Chandler's turn to choose, she prefers classic date ideas

Call her old-fashioned, but she loves the cheesey romance

Of course she loves getting dolled up and nice and pretty, plus she also gets to help her wives pick out something that'll match

If she's not with Mac she'll go to a fancy restaurant and order some wine and just talk and enjoy being with her wife

And she pulls out all the stops for this, getting the best table, candles, expensive wine, nothing is too good for her wives

Plus its nice not to have to cook for a change, even though she does enjoy doing it

With Mac things are a little different

The fancy restaurants she enjoys going to don't have things that Mac would eat on their menu and she would hate to see her just sit there while she ate, so instead they do another date night classic, going to the movies

They don't get as dressed up, presenting a fun challenge to Chandler as she tries to find something that looks nice but also low-key enough to justify wearing to the movie theater

Her and Mac get a huge tub of popcorn to share that they never eat more than a third of

Thankfully they both like their popcorn the same way, smothered in butter

The first time Veronica went with the Heathers to a movie and saw the sheer amount of butter they were putting on their popcorn she became very concerned for their cholesterol levels

Duke gets her own little kiddy popcorn bc she cannot stand having that much butter

Chandler will get a Diet Coke, Mac a Sprite, plus they share some candy

As for the movie, they'll usually go see a comedy or some kind of animated movie

Neither of them are a fan of action, most romance movies are too heteronormative, historical films are too boring, and horror is a big no-go, so comedy is an easy choice

They usually sit at the very back of the theater and cuddle

Heather Duke:

Duke's love language (giving and receving) is quality time

Its a win-win situation, she loves spending time with her wives and they love spending time with her

Out of the four of them she spends the least amount of time at home

Her job can have long hours, and she's often the first to leave in the morning and the last to come home in the evening

As such, when she comes home she is antsy to see her wives

Often as soon as she comes through the door she'll make a beeline to wherever they are (usually the couch) and just collapse into a cuddle pile

And don't get her wrong she loves her job, it can just be stressful sometimes and the long hours get to her sometimes

Its nice to come home and just exist with people who care about her

She's also the one who came up with their weekly game night

Duke thought it would be fun to do something outside their normal routine, but also something the four of them could do together

She loves just being around them, but she also wants to actively do things with them

That culminated when one day when going through Mac's things she found her old Wii, the discovery of which saw Mac launch into story after story about her and Chandler playing on it when they were kids, and all of the times she was a sore loser when she managed to beat her

Chandler: "I AM NOT A SORE LOSER HEATHER"

Mac: "Sorry honey, but you are the biggest sore loser there is"

Chandler: "AM NOT"

Mac: "You got so angry when I beat you at Wii Bowling that you broke my Princess Peach remote"

Chandler: "We were kids, you know how kids are when they don't get what they want"

Duke: (To Veronica) "She was 17, I was there, Mac started crying and I had to comfort her"

That gave Duke the idea of them all playing it together

Surprisingly they all played, so they plugged in the Wii and started playing

Chandler's sore loserness became readily apparent when Veronica began dominating at Mario Party

She may have targeted Chandler at every oppurtunity, but that still didn't justify her throwing the remote into the wall

They don't only play video games, sometimes they'll do board games

One time they tried to play Monopoly

That somehow ended with Chandler setting the fucking board on fire

They stay away from extremely competitive games after that

Really, Duke just likes to hear the others laugh

Hearing them cheer or giggle whenever they come ahead in a game fills her with happiness

That's part of why she pulls so many pranks, not only is it funny in the moment but it also creates a hilarious memory to look back on and laugh about

As for her choices on date night, Duke prefers to go shopping

A weird choice for a date, but its what she wants to do

She takes each of her wives to a different place to accommodate for their tastes

With Chandler, they'll usually go to a boutique

They'll go in, browse the new selection, and maybe pick up a few new things

Really its just an opportunity to see the other dressed up all fancy and sexy

With Mac, they'll go a bit farther outside Sherwood to some speciality shops that have a bit more variety than what they can get in their small town

These shops get Japanese imports of Pokemon merch, something Mac goes crazy over

She's become very friendly with the owners, and they've even helped her place orders for some of the more limited and hard to find collectibles

With Veronica, they'll go everywhere

The girl loves to shop

They often spend an hour or more in the LEGO store with Veronica debating which stupidly expensive piece of plastic to get today

They'll go looking for the newly released funko pops, to the bookstore, to Gamestop so she can fuel her addiction I mean get more Pokemon Cards

They don't come back without the Jeep being full of random crap

But the dates aren't about the shopping, its just something to do while they talk

While driving or browsing or waiting to check out, Duke will take the time to just talk to her wives about whatever really

Its a nice opportunity to just catch up or geek out about a show they were watching or a book they've been reading or anything and everything in between

With her job she can't spend as much time with her wives as she would like, especially not one-on-one time, and this is a nice way for her to keep up with what's going on in their lives

Heather McNamara:

Her love language (giving and receiving) is physical touch

Mac fucking loves physical contact with her wives

She is pretty much touching at least one of them 24/7

Wether that be holding hands, cuddling on the couch, or even just touching legs under the table

Whenever the are sitting she'll scoot her chair or herself over to where her and one of the others are touching

Its really calming for her, whenever they touch she feels a lot more grounded and in the moment

This is important for when she has a meltdown, she needs that feeling to help bring her down from the hysteria and back to reality

Her wives know this, so when they see a meltdown coming or one in progress they know to give her a big hug and hold her tight

This doesn't means she likes to touch everyone however

Mac is really only ok with physical contact with her wives and her dad, if anyone else tries to she starts to freak out

One time JD gave her a pat on the back and she started to have a meltdown, she wasn't expecting to get touched at that moment and she was getting touched by someone who wasn't on her list of ok people

She also will avoid touching other people

She refuses to shake hands or give hi-fives or anything of the sort

Whenever a store clerk hands her a bag she makes sure their hands do not touch during the exchange

This does not apply to animals, if there is a creature she will pet it and she doesn't mind dogs jumping up on her or cats coming sit in her lap

Her favorite thing in the world is being in the middle when they go to bed

They bough a 4-person Alaskan King bed when they first moved in together and it took them a while to figure out the best way to sleep comfortably

Eventually they settled on having Chandler on one end, then Mac, then Duke, then Veronica

Mac absolutely insisted on being in the middle, because it would mean that she gets cuddled by two people every night

She sleep the best whenever she's held tight by her wives

Surprisingly she's not always the little spoon, most nights she is big spooning Duke while Chandler is her big spoon

She's also big on hand holding

If they go anywhere she's holding hands with at least one of them, preferably two

She laments that she doesn't have 3 hands so she can't hold hands with all of them at the same time

If she's having a bad day she'll hold onto someone's arm and rest her head on their shoulder, usually Chandler's

Its a habit she picked up from when she was young, whenever bullies would harass her she would do that to Chandler in hopes that it would help protect her

And you already know she gives out plenty of kisses

Its constant with her

Whoever is sitting next to her on the couch usually ends up getting peppered with kisses

Some would call her clingy, and to be honest she kind of is, but its not a "if I'm not touching my wives i'm going to have a panic attack", its a "I like to be touching at least one of my wives if able to do so"

For her dates, Mac likes to have fun

She can tolerate the occasional traditional date at a fancy restaurant, but most of the time she finds it to be too stuffy and uncomfortable

She instead likes to be out doing something where she can just enjoy herself and not worry about having to be fancy or follow some unspoken rules of etiquette

She'll take her wives out bowling (if not with Chandler, she wants to enjoy her date and not get kicked out after Chandler breaks something bc she got another gutter ball), or to the carnival if that's in town, or even to the zoo or aquarium

Admittedly the last two are more for her than her wives, but she justifies it saying that it's the zoo, everyone likes the zoo

Whenever the Renaissance Festival comes to Ohio she'll take Duke and Veronica on their weeks

Chandler complained about it being in the woods and bugs and snakes and mud and the others knew that she wouldn't have a good time

They'll dress up as witches and go around the fair, watching shows and throwing tomatoes at the guy who insults you

If she's looking for something a bit more low-energy, she might go see a movie or go take a walk in the park or even stay at home and play some games

When they go to the park she likes to feed the ducks

Problem is that the ducks now recognize her and swarm whenever they see her entering the park, looking for food

Duke, who she was with at the time, took a picture of Mac surrounded by about 20 ducks all looking expectantly at her and send it to the other two with the caption "Duck Lord"

The point is that she wants to be out and doing things

Dates are supposed to be fun and exciting and a chance to enjoy life with the people you love, and she embodies that with her choices

Veronica Sawyer:

Veronica's love language (giving) is words of affection

Unlike her wives she is very good with her words, something which she uses to her advantage

Veronica felt like there wasn't much she can do for them to show them how much she loved them

I mean, what can she do for the girls who have everything

She thought about just telling them, but that didn't feel good enough

After some internal deliberation, trying and failing to come up with some grand extravagant way to show her thankfulness, she settled on using her strengths and just saying thank you and that she loved them

To her shock, the Heathers were very receptive to this

She was worried that it wouldn't be enough, that they would think she was being cheap or unthoughtful or even unthankful, but they were really touched by what she had to say

She later found out that the Heathers, especially Duke and Chandler, had very rarely been told "I love you" making it mean more to them

After learning that, she makes sure that she tells each of them that she loves them at least once a day

Usually its closer to about 20 times a day but its at least 1 so it counts

She still feels like its not enough, buts its less of an omnipresent dread like it was

Whenever one of them has a bad day and wants to talk about it she's the one they turn to, because she's the best at listening and being able to reassure them that everything is going to be alright

Her love language (receiving) is receiving gifts

You should've seen this one coming

Veronica loves shopping, so its only natural that she loves it when her wives buy things for her

Besides the whole "I got thing I wanted", it makes her feel loved to know that her wives went out of their way to find something she would like, or saw something and thought about her and bought it, or even made something for her

Veronica wasn't very wealthy growing up, so getting a gift was an extra special treat for her, and even now that she's at a point where money will never be a concern for her she's never dropped the feeling of gifts being a special thing

The Heathers are more than willing to spoil her tho

She often comes home to a new book from Duke or some kind of collectible from Mac or a treat from Chandler, and the smile she gets is infectious

For her dates Veronica prefers something a little more relaxed

She agrees with Mac on the principle that dates shouldn't be about getting all fancy and that kind of stuff, but she also doesn't think they need to be about doing things

She really just wants to spend time with her wives

Thats why for her dates, she tries to introduce them to things she enjoys

The big one is anime

With Chandler, Veronica deduced that she would like mystery anime, for example Death Note, or something that managed to infiltrate her walls and hit her right in the feels, like Violet Evergarden

On the day they watched the later they cried so much that when Duke and Mac got home they thought somebody had died and became really concerned

With Duke, Veronica thought she would enjoy action anime, so they watched things like Demon Slayer and My Hero Academia

After watching the former Duke tried to get them to go as the Hashira for Comic Con but Chandler refused

With Mac, she knew that she would like cute fluffy yuri romance, such as I'm In love with the Villainess

Out of all of them Mac got the most into what Veronica showed her, and they even started finding new series to watch together

Chandler pretended to try and hate it but Veronica walked in on her reading yaoi Light/L fanfiction one day and she could no longer deny that she enjoyed it

She also tried to introduce them into her LEGO hobby (addiction) but none of them really got the appeal, Chandler complaining that she could step on the tiny pieces or one of their pets could eat them

And they all absolutely refused to get sucked into her Pokemon card addiction, even Mac who loves Pokemon wouldn't touch it after seeing how Veronica is with them

And Just a little bonus

Kids:

The Kid talk was something that the Heathers thought they didn't need to have

The three of them all agreed a long time ago that they didn't want kids, and they thought that they had had that talk with Veronica or mentioned it sometime and knew their opinion

But one day after their wedding Veronica brought up the subject, causing the three of them to get really confused

It turned out that Veronica wanted kids, and what followed was a deeply uncomfortable conversation for everyone

The Heathers quickly explained that they thought, no, they knew they would be terrible parents and had mountains of issues that they had a hard time dealing with and it wouldn't be right to bring a child into this world knowing that they would have parents who could barely take care of themselves, much less a child

Plus look at them, they were four women all married to each other in the middle of a very conservative part of Ohio, their hypothetical child would be harassed because of something they couldn't even control

And how would they even have the kid? They're all cis women so they can't have one in the normal way, they don't know any cis men who they would trust to do this, and even if they did IVF which one of them would carry the child?

Veronica tried to interject saying they could adopt, but Duke quickly replied, asking what agency would give a child to any of them

In the eyes of the law they are all single women with documented mental illnesses, someone would get fired for even suggesting to adopt to them

That realization hit Veronica like a truck and she told them that she was going for a walk, ignoring the calls for her to stay and how they could talk this out

She quickly found herself at 7/11, JD's habit of freezing your brain had really stuck with her

And who else should be there but the slush king himself, greeting Veronica with the usual 'Greetings and Salutations' before noticing the blank look on her face

JD paid for her slushie and took her outside to their usual talking spot

Veronica muttered, asking him if he just lived here or something

JD responded that he actually kinda did, he got a loan from Chandler to buy out this franchise meaning that he owns and manages this 7/11

She gives a small chuckle but hearing the name of one of her wives cuts it short

JD tells her that he knows something is up and that she has to talk about it, keeping shit in only makes it worse

She responded in a curt tone that the Heathers don't want kids

JD quickly picked up what was going on but could only say oh before taking another sip of his slushie

A few minutes pass by before JD speaks up again, asking her what she was going to do about this

Veronica gave a small I don't know before JD told her that she has two options here

One, she divorces the Heathers and tries to find someone who does want kids and she's compatible with

Veronica is quickly taken aback by this suggestion, saying that she doesn't want to do that

He then gives her the second option, learn to live with it

He says that there's no compromise that can be made here, and it doesn't look like they're gonna budge on it

She needs to choose which is more important to her, them or kids

If she chooses kids then she'll always be unhappy with the Heathers and at that point it would be better just to get a divorce

But if she chooses them she's gonna have to deal with the knowledge that she won't be able to have kids, and if she chooses that she can't have the idea that she could convince their minds, because he knows the Heathers and he knows that once they've set their mind on something its near impossible to change it

He goes on to say that its a hard decision and not one to take lightly and it sucks that she's in this situation, the four of them probably should've talked about this before getting married, but she's in it now and there's nothing anyone can do about it

Veronica then sighs and starts to think about it, but the choice is clear

She loves the Heathers more than anything or anyone, and thinking about it she knew they were right, there was no ethical way for them to have a child in their lives, not with the kind of lifestyle they had and in the area they lived in

Kids are just not on the cards for her

The realization hurts, and she sits on that curb and cries, mourning the child that she knows she will never have

Once she finishes crying, she actually feels better about the situation

It occurs to her that she never really thought about kids until the wedding, mostly because most people she knew had kids after their wedding, so was there ever any real desire to have kids or was she just conforming to societal norms about life?

Thinking about it she knew she did want kids, but it wasn't an end-all be-all and she realized that she could live a life without a kid, but she couldn't live one without the Heathers

Plus getting pregnant sounded like it sucked, and she would probably be the one who had to carry the child, Chandler keeps the house running and it would fall apart without her supervision and Duke and Mac both have jobs, while she could work from bed if she had to

Maybe she's just coping with a sucky situation, but above all else she knew that she would choose the Heathers over a kid 100% of the time, she would just have to live with that choice

And in all honesty, she knew she would be all right, she just needed some time

I would like to thank y'all for reading and liking/reblogging/whatevering my stuff, I've noticed an uptick in those things recently and I wanted to let y'all know I appreciate every single one of you. I write these things with the hope that someone out there will enjoy it, so whenever I see a like or whatever I know that I've done what I set out to do

[ralibo14]

Why you ship Ray & Emma? (I'm also a rayemma shiper btw :3 )

There are numerous reasons why I ship them, some of those reason will might foolish / selfish but here we go. (Sorry this answer might be a little long😅)

First things first:

I would like to establish that this post isn't a hate crime against other TPN ships.

You like NorEmma? Wonderful! NorRay? Good! REN (aka: NorRayEmma)? Great! Or any other (reasonable) ship? Yay! Good for you!

Hop on buddies, this is an ocean cruiser with multiple floors and lots of spaces. Dear tpn community, y'all are welcome on board🥰.

Also... I only ship them under these terms:

-In canon: I age them up, because using their canon ages would be weird.

-Story set in Post-canon, in the Human World is okay.

-No 18+ scenes. Under no circumstances I'm willing to write/draw/read a scene like that. Kissing is fine though 🥰.

Now with that settled, I continue with...

Reasons why I ship RayEmma:

1) Their overall dynamic:

Ray sassing over every decision Emma made (for the sole purpose to improve her plan) in season 1 was so funny to me. I natural fond of sassy, book-smart characters so yeah. Emma bubbly, hopeful and naive (in season 1) personality completing Ray's so perfectly.

Then in the manga, they're like the ultimate power couple for me. Goldy Pond was Emma's time to shine as an individual and Ray was 100000% supportive and didn't get jealous of her successes.

In the King of Paradise Arc. Yes Ray kinda agrees with Norman to kill all demons but I think he just tried to act as the moderator between his two friends so their friendship doesn't receive a lethal blow. After the argument he seeks out where is Emma and reassures her that whatever she decides he will support her decision. (What is intimate if not that?)

Seven Walls is the RayEmma Arc of tpn and you can't change my mind about it 🤣. Was my favourite Arc when I first read it and it always will be. Surviving a bored Demon God mind plays and stepping into its realm together (while holding hand I might ad)

2) Day and Night allegations:

Even Shirai and Demizu brings up this allegation. They usually using it around either Mujika and Sonju or Emma and Ray. Which speaks volumes for me.

Search for Kvathidala Arc proves this when they go to the demon temples and stand under the painted ceiling.

3) They remind me of my favourite couple of my childhood Anne and Gilbert.

Anne from Green Gables was the book I read over and over in my childhood then I watched all the adaptations on either on my mom's (old) CDs or in the internet and they were a really big part of my early teens. Netflix's remake is good too but the book is the best.

Favourite scenes which screams RayEmma to me.

Where do I even start. The PARALLELS🤩

🖤🧡

Gilbert called Anne 'Carrot' so she hit him with a clay board (in book she brakes it on his head)

Then a few months later day are casually talking and dancing (denying their feelings if you ask me🤣)

Also I'm a sucker for couples where one of them has red/light hair and the other has black/dark hair.

4) Easy to relate. Easy to write:

When writing my tpn fanfic their interactions almost writes itself. Somehow it feels natural to me how they interact. Maybe it's just my overthinking, but I got pretty good in analysing how their scenes should go. No matter if it's a fight scene, trauma bonding, late night quarrelling over a book or just a casual heart-to-heart.

5) Silly reason:

My username's colour palette kinda matches their colours.

[gunsatthaphan]

~ Monthly BL Breakdown: May 2024 ~ 

🏳️‍🌈 Happy Pride Month!!! 🏳️‍🌈

Disclaimer: ALL shows can be streamed here or here, as well as on Youtube and other platforms. For more info on where to watch what, check out this post! 

New breakdowns are coming at the end of every month - feel free to add stuff! -> previous breakdowns

What came out this month? (green = seen/currently watching)

🌟 You Made My Day (starring Tar A. and Bom T. from I Will Knock You) - May 3rd (Thailand)

🌟 Inverse Identity / Upside Down - Mary 3rd (China)

🌟 Wandee Goodday - May 4th (Thailand) ✅

🌟 Dear Miss Becky - May 6th (Philippines)

🌟 Deep Night Special Episode - May 9th (Thailand)

🌟 A Balloon's Landing - May 10th (Taiwan)

🌟 City of Stars: Special Episode - May 10th (Thailand, cinema release)

🌟 The Time of Fever (Unintentional Love Story spinoff) - May 15th (South Korea)

🌟 Blossom Campus - May 16th (South Korea)

🌟 OMG! Vampire - May 19th (Thailand)

🌟 Pray in Love - May 20th (Taiwan)

🌟 Manji Reverse - May 24th (Japan)

🌟 My Biker 2 - May 28th (Thailand)

🌟 Knock Knock Boys - May 30th (Thailand) ✅

🌟 Anti Reset Special - May 31st (Thailand)

Monthly Likes / Dislikes

❣️ My Stand-In - I've been liking this a lot and it's probably my favorite bl from this year so far. I was mostly skeptical of the reincarnation trope as I usually don't like that but I like where it's going. The storytelling is excellent, it's comprehensible and sends such good messages, it's subtle, not as in-your-face as other shows, they're not rehashing the same things and every character is believable and well-shaped, down to the smallest side role. The characters are flawed but so well-written that it's just a joy to witness them develop. That being said I wanna give a big shoutout to whoever was in charge of casting because the lineup is really top-tier lol. Every character is on-point thanks to their respective actor; Up is doing so well and also Poom is a very pleasant surprise. I love how expressive he is and him and Up work extremely well as a team imo. Also Mek as Tong is a good choice. Almost forgot what a truly good production looked like lmao. I'm in awe.

New series & movie announcements

🎥 Some Secrets in High School (mini series) - Date TBA (Thailand)

🎥 Street Fight (movie) - Date TBA (Thailand)

🎥 See Your Love - Date TBA (Taiwan)

🎥 Century of Love - Date TBA (Thailand)

🎥 Allure of the Siren - Date TBA (Thailand)

🎥 Takara's Treasure - Coming July 1st (Japan)

🎥 Air Moment (starring Earth T. & others) - Date TBA (Thailand)

🎥 The Paradise of Thorns - Coming August 2024 (Thailand)

🎥 Your Sky (starring Thomas & Kong, winners of the DMD reality program Friendship the Reality) - Date TBA (Thailand)

🎥 I Hear the Sunspot (remake) - Date TBA (Japan)

🎥 My Idol - Coming August 2024 (South Korea)

🎥 Khemjira - Date TBA (Thailand)

Other news from the BL world

❗️ In a week-to-week-release, Be On Cloud announced the cast of the upcoming BL 4 Minutes: Bible Wichapas, Jes Pipat, Bas Asavapatr, Job Yosatorn, Fuaiz Thanawat, Mio Athens, Jet Jetsadakorn & Jjay Patiphan. A release date, as well as further information has not been disclosed.

❗️After the announcement of OhmFluke being the lead actors in the upcoming Korean BL Surfing, their respective managements released a statement saying the news were false and that there was never any contact between the companies nor a request for permission to issue the news.

❗️The annual KAZZ awards were held on May 14th. The following BL actors/productions won:

Net Siraphop - Actor of the Year

Bed Friend - Series of the Year

Pit Babe - Kazz Magazine Favorite Award

❗️ The 20th Komchadluek Awards were held on May 28th. The following BL actors/productions won:

Zee P. - Most Popular Actor

Nunew C. - Best International Singer

Fourth N. - Best Rising Star

JimmySea - Best Couple

❗️ Actor JJ Radchapon has been announced as Net's new partner in the upcoming BL Love Upon a Time. His original partner James S. previously dropped out of the project to focus on his music career. Shooting will begin soon.

❗️ Actors Kaownah Kittipat and Max Nattapol have been announced as the BL side couple in the upcoming period GL drama Mom Pet Sawan.

❗️ Actor Tang Chinadis has announced his departure from the upcoming BL Jack & Joker. He withdrew from the project following accusations of physical abuse from his ex-girlfriend Prigkhing S. (formerly with GMMTV)

❗️ After accusations of domestic violence against his ex-girlfriend, the charges against GMMTV actor Pawin Thanik have been dropped. The company released a statement saying both parties requested a mediation, after which they came to a settlement where both cases were dismissed. Pawin had previously been placed on work probation and withdrew from the BL We Are amongst other projects.

Upcoming series & movies for June

👉🏻 My Love Mix-Up - June 6th (Thailand)

👉🏻 Love Sea - June 9th (Thailand)

👉🏻 SunsetxVibes - June 15th (Thailand)

👉🏻 The Rebound - June 26th (Thailand)

👉🏻 Blue Boys Part 2 - June TBA (South Korea)

[s-ephiroth]

i often thought, through all these years, like

"i'll leave this fandom someday"

i've seen people come and go, i've seen people completely delete and vanish and i've tried to mourn the hole they left behind when they went

(tried to, because i'm not good at mourning, i feel... i'm better at coping, at entering survival mode and just pushing through, and hiding the tears for when nobody is looking; i mourn extremely messy and never ending... i mourn any time i title a fic in full lowercase and think of the things icy said back then;

(i mourn when i see pages that will never update again and records of things from years ago — seeing how friends and i were so different back then, less paranoid, perhaps more carefree, less pained by the weight of world; seeing once busy chat rooms fall quiet even though people are still there, seeing people change fandoms... i mourn now even though i'm making a silly pun on a friend's stream chat)

i thought that one day i would be the next one to go, too

because somewhere in this world there are people who can't simply let others enjoy stuff on their corner or people who can't just give you a rejection email like a normal person and have to dodge a block to mock you, there are people out there who can't just say "i dislike this thing" and move on, instead coming up with convoluted excuses for why the thing is bad, while basking in equally messy stuff to what they bash

there are stalkers, there are people who go on your ao3 fic to ask why you blocked them, there are cowards who send people anon hate for months, people who crap comment on bookmarks, bullies who persist for years

there's a lot of bad and i often thought "maybe i'll be the next one to go... but... will someone miss me, when i go?"

the pessimist in me says people would miss me for a while, then forget

maybe eventually someone would be like "where are the prompts for sc/seph weeks?" and i would've been missed for a moment, then forgotten again

surely someone would come up with replacement events, maybe not

it would be okay... perhaps

the world keeps spinning and i'm but a little rock rolling along the river of time, as they say; ultimately, on my own i'm near powerless

i can't fully protect people i admire from their bullies, i can't stop drama bs from happening, i can barely bring myself to be creative quite often because my energy is limited

i can't rewind time and prevent one of my friends from being traumatized for life

surely one day i would be the next one to go; my self-esteem isn't very high, i don't really think of myself as too important

hell i almost died twice before, due to things outside of my control, i think of my own mortality and how fleeting stuff is a lot more than i'm willing to admit

probably someone like me would be the next to go, from fandom i mean, is what i think when i see people stop doing things they loved because others were evil to them

"surely, this time i'll not come back to public with art, it's not like some silly chibis are desired, it's not like my computer is robust enough, i was never given an excuse for why exactly i was rejected from that zine, maybe it was personal bias but maybe just maybe i really should fail, maybe what i do is not enough anyway... maybe if i come back those kinds of people will hunt me down like prey... but hey it's valentine's day, what if i force myself to do something"

it's not like anyone would've cared much, anyway

i could be the next one to go; the remake brought in too many ill intended people and icy was right in leaving, remake changed the climate

but for every single discourse bs that happens, for every no life person who manipulates others, even though there are too many people who have to touch grass

sometimes... sometimes you appreciate a piece of good fan art for 4 years, often going back from time to time to share it with others, looking at it when things feel too hard and the artist comes back to it, redraws it

and you just think "fuck... i need to do something too!!! i've thought of the original so much, i watched from afar for too long, it watered my dying crops over and over and over"

and i do... and i befriend the artist somehow? and there's official material related to the subject matter, and i befriend other people too and fuck, fuck, fuck—

turns out there way more people than i thought into the subject matter too!!! and even more official material coming out after years of just having this one shortish game to go by, the one thing to bring me into the fandom in the first place

and i just think

"i can't leave... i like it here, i hope no one takes this from me, i'll gladly shield people if i have to, i'll throw hands if i have to"

and suddenly, i can't be the next one to go and this post is turning much longer than i expected it to, while i'm bawling my eyes out from being too emotional while watching a stream

and you, reading this, as long as you're an innocent bystander who contributes in some way, even if you just mostly lurk and don't get involved much? you shouldn't go either

the world is a fuck on fire right now, but maybe you make it less so, for someone

maybe you're someone's favorite artist or writer or cosplayer; maybe someone is still waiting on that fic you haven't updated in like 3 years or maybe someone's seeing you go on hiatus and worrying, "will... will i see you again?"

you never know

maybe you'll indeed, move fandoms some day, find another place to lurk in with people you can affectionately call your "favorite losers" or maybe life will get too busy, maybe you need a short break to detox

but while that doesn't happen, please don't go?

please don't go

[airasora]

A remake of my now 12 year old manip of Eris and Ariel (that you can check out on my deviantArt... if you can handle it lol) I can see I called them my lesbian heroine x villainess OTP, which is... not technically true anymore, since Holli IS a villainess so Hollina would be my current lesbian heroine x villainess OTP... but in terms of a more typical villainess... this still works xD

I check my deviantArt every now and then and when someone likes some old stuff of mine, I sometimes just sit there and am like: "Man... I could make that look so much better now." And this time I decided to just do it xD

Took me roughly 3 hours cause I kept wanting to tweak things and then I wanted to have Eris' hair holding Ariel's hand and yadda-yadda-yadda, typical Aira stuff.

I also want to take this opportunity to say that I have been burnt out from editing for a few months now - hence why I never posted my round 4 for MxDisney. It's not due to lack of interest as such, but I have legitimately not opened any of my editing programs for a couple of months until tonight.

I think I just needed a break and focus on some other stuff for a while. I'm not quitting editing or anything like that, no way. I have just been focused on the same project for so long that I think I just started circling around myself lol.

Anyway enough yapping! I'm calling Ariel and Eris Aries for their ship name cause why the fuck not. Lemme know if there's a more official ship name for them that I just don't know about it lol.

[the-au-collector]

So I can’t get enough of Link headcanons based off of your first time playing each of their respective games. So let me give you some of my own based off BOTW and the Link’s Awakening remake. Some of these are already popular headcanons, I know, so the games are just Like That I guess.

Wild: Didn’t figure out how to properly use a sword for months. Gets lost without a map. Will get lost even with a map (I spent hours lost on the Great Plateau okay?). Disappears for 7 months then comes back with a ton of jewels to sell to this one particular lady in Gerudo Town, disappears again for 7 months to do the same thing but in Hateno next time. Legitimately fears death, dies a ton anyways. Never uses the road (there’s Yiga and ooh—look a mountain! Maybe there’s a Korok or a shrine or a…). Always distracted. Defeated Clamity Ganon with like half an inventory of weapons/shields/bows because he was guardian hunting by Hyrule Castle and figured he’d do it while he was already over there.

Legend: So I’ve only gotten through 4 dungeons in the Link’s Awakening remake, but I can tell you with 100% certainty that Legend is an absolute klutz. The amount of times he has fallen in a hole simply because he didn’t see it is astounding. On that note, he probably needs glasses because he does not see things that are right in front of him (like holes). Will figure out the most obscure puzzles, but the easy ones trick him every time unless he’s seen them a lot before. Does not fear death. Very good at fighting. Very focused on what he’s doing. Will walk right up to a boss and challenge it even if he’s on his last legs. Completes each task without getting distracted. Doesn’t usually take the scenic route, prefers to get the job done.

[angelmalocaris]

Emeryfession

Hello NEN Tumblr! Tumblr NEN fans! NENblr! Whatever you are!

There are like 5 of you at most, even when rounded up, but I have a confession to post.

This shrine, you see this “shrine” right here? From the NEN website? (CONT. under cut)

That is MY shrine. I made that. Those objects are in my possession.

This image is sort of old. I haven’t cleaned my bedroom in awhile so I will hold off on taking new ones for the time being, but here are my Emery related trinkets I have and projects I have worked on. This is not a complete list by any means, mostly just my biggest or most well known ones.

Lets get the big stuffy fluff-filled elephant out of the room, the pillow. Yes that is an Emery body pillow! (Or dakimakura I suppose.)

YES it is hand made! YES I do sleep with it every night! and YES my mom did help me make it! While it has become SIGNIFICANTLY more faded over time, it is well loved. That is my wifey! Of course I take care of her!

It's almost completely homemade, my mom prints t-shirt so we just printed on some fabric. There is a heart-shaped button and a few feathers in the stuffing, think like a BaB plushie.

Enough of that, time for a walk. Here’s the Emery engraved collar!

Real metal! After saving a bit of money and walking and hour or so, I purchased this at a store to be made by an engraving machine. Why? Because I can! And have you seen Emery? That’s definitely a critter.

I'm hungry... so hungry I could eat... an Emery!!!

Here are three separate Emery cakes I made! Left to right in order. They're all box mix but I baked them and frosted them on my own.

My grandma made this one. Goo Goo Gah Gah...

By now, all the cakes are long gone.

First Cake Death

Second Cake Death (My favorite!)*

Third Cake Death

*(also a remake of the first.)

Quick time event!!! Here's some Emeries I made in video games.

Note, while I did not make the Emery Mii (Hal did) I am including it here because I think it's notable that I got to marry Emery in the game.

I have lost my membership in this time so the full outfit is not possible for me anymore, but feel free to recreate it. Its simple and the items shouldn't be too hard to acquire.

It's just 1, the Square Glasses (members only) from Jam Mart Clothing in green for 350 gems 2, the tie from Jam Mart Clothing in red for 100 gems, and the Rare Crimson Topcoat (members only). While the topcoat is marked "Rare" its quite common for a rare item and IIRC I may(?) even have more than one.

I want to update the Petz 4 Emery. I could probably make it better now and I want him to be a dog when I decide to remake it.

I have lost my old save for tomodachi life but someday I will get married to him again... just you wait!!!

You know what games are made of? Code. So are webbed sites... Usually not the same code, but you get the idea.

This is my Emery web shrine! I will not link to it because its very old and not very good by my current standards. You can see its age by Emery being called "Telly" and some of the older artwork ( being by Hal of course.) Someday it will be made better and strong...

and yes. I did help with some (a lot) of the code on the NEN site. I'm blaming any of the messy stuff in there on Hal though because she's the one doing most updates. Sorry Hal! Maybe learn more than some HTML and I won't throw you under the bus. I need to log on and fix up some of that in a bit. I am sure it looks like a tornado hit it from the inside.

I have been at this for months, even years now. Longer than the NEN official site even existed. A lot of this is hand made and if not that, completely out of my own pockets. I plan to continue being crazy even if my pockets are reduced to nothing but lint and moths (they have, more than once.) I love Emery Phone.

Peace and Love (except for the french, that being Emery. I will get you Emery.)

Tschüss! Buh-Bye! Until next time! Au revoir! (Eww... French...)

[achoshistor]

final fantasy 7

spoilers for everything idk (ff7, remake&dlc, crisis core but only till like chapter four because thats how far i made it)

bro ive been tweaking out for like three months now. i bought the ff7 remake bc it was 50% off a few months ago and I was like I'm never gonna find a deal like this ever again (only for it to go on 50% again lmfao) but ok whatever it was literally 35 for the game and the dlc which is one million times cheaper than what splatoon 2 and octo expansion were and its ok because i can never own it physical anyways but bro I didn't even want to buy this game in the first place i was gonna buy ffxv cause i saw a clip of notcis or whatever that guys name is putting his lettuce on a nother guy's plate and i was like "wtf is final fantasy even about" SPOILER ALERT: TERRORISM like ????

i feel like i can never every play another game after finishing the remake and the intermission i bought crisis core reunion and theres literally LESS fighting in that game so far but it was also cheaper and i got it physical (after scouring ebay for two months to find a us edition because i dont want to even risk seeing things spelled in the british way because last time when that happened when I played great ace attorney 1&2 i couldn't stop spelling things in british every time i'd write an essay and then i couldnt tell what was wrong "its just an extra letter" no bro its messing up my diction) but anyways please just let me beat things up with a sword i wish people still used swords to fight then the fights would be more fair and the world would be a better place. but man sephiroth is lowkey a nice guy and the crashout was 100% valid not the killing people part but i would also crash out if i found out my mom was actually some 2000 year thingy they found in the ground. today i saw some snowflakes fall (they were the big ones) and freaked out for a second because i thought they were white feathers (I NEED TO GO OUTSIDE)

i also "finished" (AKA gave up right before the final boss) the original ff7 because i didnt want to deal with spoilers cause the main plot points should be the same anyways but i don't have enough patience to play retro games (the last one i finished was kirby super star three years ago) and they are like ten times harder than modern games too like i think i only got 10 game overs max in the remake but like one hundred million in the original and i was like at this point i dont even care anymore like we just need to beat sephiroth right? speaking of i really did think we just had to beat sephiroth and that he was just evil for the love of the game because all i knew was from that smash bros trailer but really everything is hojos and lowkey lucrecia's fault bc theyre bums like are you jealous of vincent or something how do you get a girl who's literally just broken up with this guy pregnant like no time bro literal bum activity im glad vincent was able to beat up hojo at the end. he was also my strongest party member (and had the hardest spell post out of all of them).

i was lowkey tweaking when i saw genesis cause i thought something seemed awfully familiar lo and behold hes just evil gackt. i saw a picture of some genshin character's sword and i was like holy sigma is that genesis rhaspodos but nope it was some genshin twink this is off topic but i HATE how like half of the characters in genshin look like children/teenagers and the other half are either whitewashed (brighter than printer paper) or have the most awful color scheme like unpleasant gradient just showed up to your door. i kept thinking angeal was named angelo because ive only ever met people named angelo and not angeal but so far his story seems too similar to sonons. zack = onika angeal = burgers OH his name is angeal like angel LMFAo

I barely edit my tumblr posts for coherence sorry if youre not one of my like 4 followers but anyways episode intermission gave me a genuine crash out. I was like "who is yuffie" but then i found out. yuffie is my goat. i hate fort condor and i still hate fort condor but i didnt know there was a literal fort with a condor on it. i was out of it bro i have nobody here that may hear this and i will be ashamed i genuinely couldnt pay attention to the game cuz of sonon hes so fine bro too bad he DIED bro i even felt bad for nero cause they forcefully made him shut up with that muzzle thing but as per usual he was a bum but theres no second part to the dlc (yet) 40 dollar 32 gb ram stick please find me (my computer will blow up) before rebirth comes out (my computer will blow up regardless) like watch the requirements be some esoteric classified government only processor like the ryzen 56 or intel i5412 like u gotta play it on one of those government super computers so the game doesnt lag the minute you start walking.

ok im done ive exhausted myself thank u for coming to my ted talk see u later my little minions

[enrosadiraanisaaa]

Within Session .Part Four.

Hey there cuties, glad to finally post another part of Within Session! This fanfic consist of Yandere!Leon Kennedy. I intend for this fic to progressively become disturbing and fucked up with each chapter. While the first few chapters will be tamed, expect the following in this series:

~Stalking, Kidnapping, Forced Breeding, Degradation, NonCon, Gang Banging, Forced Pregnancy, Somnophilia, Blackmail, Manipulation, Abuse, Pet Names, Obsessive Behavior (Duh), Torture, Constraints, Mentions of Blood & Gore, Mental Degradation, Toxic Relationship, Sexual Abuse, Masturbation, Drugged & Drunk Sex, Loss of Virginity, Forced Penetration…

Also you will be retconned (Too bad 😏): Female Reader, 24 Years old and from Texas 💝

This story was purely written with RE 4 (Remake) Leon in mind. So no puppy dog Leon from RE2 or DILF Leon from later games & movies. The story takes place several months after the events of RE4. Yay, you’re in 2004!

I plan to make this series long and fleshed out, but I promise what you want will hit you like a train~🚂

This chapter does not contain any 🔞 material. This story will contain +18 content (NSFW) in the near future 🔞 If you’re a minor, please go read a real book or something, don’t cry to me when your mom finds your shit.  This story will eventually hit that point so don’t set yourself up.

Summary

As an on sight therapist for STRATCOM in Nebraska, you’re tasked with providing quality therapy for US military personnel and government agents. After working at the headquarters for 6 months, Hunnigan recommends you to a notable government agent, Leon Kennedy, who is in need of therapy. After a number of sessions with you, Leon notices a substantial stability in his sanity yet is threatened when you are offered a position back home, closer to your family and friends. Your choice doesn’t sit well with one particular client, who can’t fathom you out of your role as his therapist. Leon has found a means of keeping his precious therapist and realizes you are the key to his permanent solace. You were obviously destined to be his in some form. Why dream of him letting you go?

A\N: I was heavily inspired by Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue 💙, ExploreVenus’s Something Permanent and Guardian Angel by NexysWorld. We're getting closer to the nitty gritty of the story. Hope y'all like this bit slice of life before shit gets fucked up. Expect the next part to be out around in two weeks.

Hope y'all enjoy the forth part! More to come 💝~ Anisssa أنيسة

Here is Part One , Part Two, and Part Three of Within Session

Cherish These Moments

Silence soon settled into the office when Leon departed out of the room after the conclusion of his session. Typically, the end of the day consists of reflecting on each session into notes. These notes along with legal documentations and insurance sheets are submitted to your supervisor every day. Now alone in the office, you were seated at your desk, hastily typing on the keyboard while staring at the computer screen to complete these synopsis to turn in so you can leave for home. It was tedious work after consulting a number of clients throughout the day, which compelled you to finish these tasks immediately following the last client. As much as you loved your job, required work tasks such as these were mundane and annoying.  

       At this time, you were well aware the sky was already night outside due to it being the middle of winter. The drive home was always more extensive than you would like to admit due to the snow that has accumulated over the roads, and as a Texan, you were not well versed in driving in these conditions. People back home would swear up and down hell froze over if an inch of snow touched Texas soil, but snow was an ordinary occurrence in the Midwest, especially in Omaha, Nebraska. 

Eventually, you complete all the necessary notes after 40 minutes and send them through an encrypted email to your supervisor. A groan escapes your lips as you stretch up from your desk chair, standing after being seated for most of the day. With the documents and signature sheets in one hand, you turn to your chair to pull off your oversized coat from the back of your chair.

      “Fucking finally, I’m out this bitch,”You mutter in a whisper to yourself, stepping out the office and turning to lock the door. In tip-toed steps to quiet the clacks of your heels in the hallway, you reach a few doors down to slide in the documents and signature sheets in a plastic wall file holder. Now, walking in the opposite direction, you head towards the entrance of the building. While the steps of your heels echoed, you swung the oversized wool trench coat around the back of your body to stuff your arms in the sleeves. At the sight of your own red blazer and form fitting skirt, an involuntary huff resonates from within as you recall Leon’s stare upon your outfit, his sly remark and odd begrudging attitude when he first notices your attire.

     “Dude’s weird…”

          You simply shrug, tightening the sash to keep your oversize coat wrapped around your body as you brace to trudge cautiously in this godforsaken weather. Upon opening the entrance door of the building, the penetrating cold immediately stings your skin. Among the rows of cars in the parking lot of the building, you instantly locate your car that was slightly covered in flurries. Your baby- a cherry colored 1986 Nissan 300zx with turbo and T-tops that was bestowed to you as a parting gift from your father. This car was a part of your life since childhood, the memories of riding in the passenger seat while the t-tops were off impeded as staple moments you cherished. 

         Around the parked cars of the parking lot, you scurry towards your car, nearly slipping the process. Once inside your car, you turn the ignition on with the turn of your key, allowing the car to warm up. Thoughts of Leon invade your mind once more as you rest back on the driver's seat. During the session, you notice his attempted subtle glances and him anatomizing your figure. While Leon was fairly attractive, you hope this was not a recurring thing in future sessions, or he might have to be referred to another therapist. Violating boundaries and etiquette as a therapist could cost your career, and all the endeavors you endured in the past would be in vain for a man. ‘Not fucking worth it.’

      With that last thought, you shift the gear into drive, steering the car cautiously out the parking lot of the USSTRATCOM headquarters to proceed home. Through desolate roads, you navigate in ceaseless fall of sleet during nighttime, ultimately arriving an hour later in front of an old Victorian house. Once your car is parked on the side of the street, you venture towards the entrance of the house from your car. 

     The Victorian house was renovated into two apartments, the upstairs and downstairs into their own sections. Along with a roommate, you rented the upstairs section of the house that consisted of two bedrooms, one bathroom, a small living room and kitchen. 

      With your belongings in hand, you unlock the door to your upstairs apartment, making your entrance known to your roommate. 

       “Daddy’s home!”You holler upon opening the front door in amusement. 

     From the kitchen, a head peeped out to reveal your roommate, a 19 year old Mexican kid from California, Mateo. At this point of living six months with him, he became like a little brother to you, although you never understood why a profound kid like him lived in this city. 

      His caramel colored eyes peered from behind the wall, narrowing at you across the room before he visibly rolled his eyes. Mateo steps from the kitchen, clearly shaking his head at you as he glances disappointedly at your attire,”Ay pendeja, there you again, wearing a skirt in the middle of winter…” he exhales, walking towards you at the entrance. 

      In response to him, you shut the front door with a sly grin, loosening the sash of your wool trench coat to further reveal your attire. “Hey! I already had a new client today ogle at my outfit today! I don’t need you to say something…” You protest, walking past Mateo to set your belongings down on the couch in the living room. 

     A snicker can be heard from Mateo as he strides by your side,”Oh, they assigned you a new client today? And they were looking at your outfit?”He questions, crossing his arms.

     You nod, sighing in the process,”Yeah, they assigned a new client today on short notice, but I don't mind having new cases. Just this new client… he kept glancing at me during the session with this certain gaze. I don’t want to already form an impression based on the first intake session of a client, but I don’t know. And my friend who is a colleague of his recommended me…”

       While Mateo was intrigued by this revelation, he raised his eyebrows at you,”Oh, well is he cute?”He asks with a grin on his face, obviously to fuck with you.

       There was a momentary pause from you as you huff in annoyance,”Well yes, he is extremely cute…but I don’t want to think about a client in that way,” You continue, providing a playful glare to the brunet beside you. 

        “What’s his name?” Mateo inquires again, resulting in your eyes to narrow at him in suspicion. 

         “Leon,”You simply answer, unsure where he was going with this conversation. 

         “Oh shit, his name sounds hot. What does he look like?” He chuckles with a cunning smile. 

           A perplexed expression forms on your face, shaking your head to his inquiry about your attractive client. At this moment, you kick off your heels before you plunge onto the couch despite wearing your work attire, allowing the cushions of the couch to engulf your body into a state of ease. “Mateo… I was trying to describe my day at work to you, not for you to devise a plan to fuck my client. I know you, Mateo. The dude seems broken enough,”You relent, peering at Mateo from the couch. 

      From Mateo, an audible gasp escapes his mouth followed by a guilty grin,”Me? I would never… Anyways… I have something you might like but you wanna come home all snarky.”

      You instantly prop yourself on your elbows while laying back on the couch,”Aww, you got me something? Show me!” You demand, watching Mateo briefly leave the side of the couch before returning by your side to gently smack your face with a plastic cover. As stunned as you were, your eyesight instantly unblurs to reveal the hard case cover for Halo 2, directly in your face.

       With a drop of your mouth, you direct your attention up to Mateo as he stands beside you while you lay the couch,”No fucking way, you bought me the new Halo?”

     Mateo retracts the game case from your face while he smiles proudly at your reaction,”Yes! I was thinking we would invite the guys over after work on Friday for a little party… Do you have anything planned for Friday night?” He asks curiously. 

      A seething sound emits from your mouth as you recall plans for Friday night,”Damn, I promised Hunnigan I’d join her for some late night bingo,” You inform Mateo, forming a pout on your lips.

To your answer, Mateo merely shrugs while waving the game case with his hand as if he was enticing you,”It’s your call, or you can get your little bingo dauber and bet money you will no doubt lose,” He expresses with smugness. 

       You pout, contemplating how you will spend your Friday night,”But I want to spend time with my girl, Hunnigan… Fine, I will reschedule with her for a dinner date or something…Only because I want to beat ass in that game!”You huff, raising yourself from the cushions of the couch to sit up.

        By leaning over the other side of the couch, your hand reaches inside your purse to pull out a pink Motorola flip phone. Upon flipping the phone open, you immediately press buttons to dial the phone number of Hunnigan. Several rings pass until you hear a familiar feminine voice,”Hey, are you okay?” Her voice responds. A guilty sensation blooms in your chest, you were timid to cancel plans with her. Seconds pass by, you seem to have paused longer than you should.

       “Are you calling about Leon? Did the session go okay with him?” Hunnigan then asks on her end, her voice consisting of a slight concern.

        “Ah no, it’s not about that. Something actually came up on Friday… I was wondering if I can join you for bingo another time…” You finally answer in a nervous tone.

       A light giggle can be heard through the phone,”It’s fine, we can schedule another bingo date some other time.”

        You sigh in relief, clutching the cell phone to your ear,”Sweet, maybe a dinner date in the city? It’ll be my treat…”

      “Definitely…Well, I have to be at the headquarters building early in the morning. Let’s speak later about it another time,” Hunnigan then gently remarks.

       “Sounds good! Goodnight, Hunnigan!” You beamed before ending the call, clamping the flip phone shut. With a cheesy grin, you whirl your torso to Mateo, who is leaning against the couch,”She was okay with it…so party on Friday? Maybe we can make it a recurring thing on the weekends with the guys…” You suggest while nodding. 

      Mateo chuckled at your proposal,”Maybe…” he simply states.

A smile formed on your lips now that there was something to look forward to on the weekends. However, you would have to persevere through the remaining days of the week, especially with the last client on Friday.

[dennydraws]

Busy, busy...!!

All FanFyria books claimed!! Thank you so much!! And... 10 out of 20 comic books shipped! :D;; I'm so sorry I'm taking some time with the bonus watercolor pieces. I can only work on them on weekends when I get proper daylight... I will miss summer! T^T;; I think I got better with those.. and I can't wait for folks to start receiving the packages! It always sparks so much joy! But bear with me for they take some time! Shipping to the US tends to take around 3 weeks too ;u; so it may take a while!

Work has been...the usual landslide of events once October starts xD;; It always gets so busy I'm like a ghost once I get home who just wants to dissociate while staring at the ceiling. I've been been listening to spooky games while at work. Silent Hill 2 remake was SO good and I'm lowkey dying I can't find the energy and time to draw something. Is this new Denny Lore? :D;; I very much love the Silent Hill games (1 to 4, the rest don't exist to me) and I'm so happy Konami did so well with this remake! They really made James have such a conflicted confused sad puppy look... which is very, so very fitting! And Maria? -chef kiss- the VA of everyone is way too good! I've inhaled every scene!!

The Suikoden remasters are looking great too and I can't wait to get it next year!! Are we entering the Konami redemption arc timeline!? If they announce Suikoden 3-5 remasters and Suiko 6 I may just have to pinch myself cause what a time to be alive...!!

Romancing SaGa 2 Remake is almost here!! Aaaaa! It ought to heal my aching soul from RS announcing EoS earlier this month :") .... I wanted to try Metaphor too but it's too close to RS2R so it has to wait a bit. Which reminds me, when RS2R is in my hands I may vanish off earth for a bit! It's not that I expect to find spoilers on a remake of a game which I've played, watched The Stage play of and absorbed all lore available of it in RS...but still xD; (I do hope I'm done with the FanFyria book ships by then aaaa) I may not be able to update my comic "The Snake, The Firebrand and The King of All" this month, cause as much as I'd love to, I promised my friends not to strain myself with work (else they will manifest into my walls and scold me!) and the workload and FanFyria book ship has taken a tow on me so far and my hands had started to give in ;n; ... I wish I was stronger ! But comic work is a journey, not a race! At least next chapter is sketched so the actual hard part is done. The line art/shading just takes time and many podcasts! (and free weekends xD)

Okay enough with life update~ Thank you for stopping by!! I hope your day goes wonderfully, dear Web Traveller!

[tendou-satori-chocolatier]

please give me your iwaoi fanfic recs 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

Help I'm so dead. I just freaking deleted my iwaoi recs list and now I have to make it again 🥲🥲🥲 freaking Tumblr. You guys better eat this up cause im remaking this all over again. Okay anyways, ver 2: my iwaoi fanfic recs list:

(Not in any particular order, most have smut, all can be found on ao3)

1.) Coffee king- oiivkawa- the starting point for my love of cafe au's, best coffee au fanfic ever period, so so so fluffy, oikawa is the cutest cafe server and he falls HARD for the cafe's new kind-of-regular, Iwaizumi

https://archiveofourown.org/works/10721739/chapters/23756658

2.) Wedding ring- crazychipmunk- angst, heart-rending, surprisingly made me cry, happy ending tho, super good angsty iwaoi fanfic, I promise its not ALL angst tho😭, it's super fluffy too

https://archiveofourown.org/works/25393174/chapters/61577038

3.) The courtship ritual of the Hercules beetle- kittebasu- bugs? Oikawa is still a nerd its just for bugs now, I'm just gonna copy and paste the summary cause I love it and it sums it up perfectly: "Tooru is pretty sure he could manage the mating habits of a mosquito. It’s the mating habits of people he can’t seem to get right." I love fics like this that preserve the characteristics of the characters even though it has nothing to do with volleyball

https://archiveofourown.org/works/6422014/chapters/14701168

4.) That's your husband?!- a_very_smolfrog- just😌🤌, iwaoi being simps, oikawa is a physics professor and iwa is a volleyball coach au, makki is iconic as always, iwaoi being the iconic: childhood friends to lovers and we adore eachother but we will definitely expose eachother if need be trope, I'm so sad this is so short (2000 words), it should've been longer😔, I adore them all

https://archiveofourown.org/works/29412615

5.) Conquering the great king- suggestivescribe- this fic is actually so iconic, just perfection at its max tbh, just iwaoi being iwaoi but make it smutty and make it at the office, iwa is an editor and tbh I don't remember or know what kawa is, it's some office job, not kuroo being a slay as always, honestly has to be one of the best iwaoi fanfics of all time

https://archiveofourown.org/works/3301085?view_full_work=true

6.) Until the sky opens up- iwaoidk- the summary lowkey did them dirty, not really tho cause I still read it😋🙄 but this was way better than I thought it was going to be, like iwaoi accidentally gets kissed by every member in his team, I'm still convinced that they did all that to make oikawa GET A MOVE ON, oikawa confesses and he's a little dense but so is iwa so whatever, they're perfect for eachother like that😻

https://archiveofourown.org/works/5008225

7.) Looks like it- ivyfics- iwaoi have been dating for a while now, they just didn't know it, iwa is very competitive in his knowledge on tooru, cute and short, recommend if you want something to speed read for some lighthearted fluff

https://archiveofourown.org/works/11729118

8.) Six month lover- afuzzyowl- I'm gonna be completely honest, I haven't finished this fic yet BUT I PROMISE ITS NOT CAUSE IT WAS BORING, IT WAS SO GOOD, I just never got to finishing it cause I was busy but thinking about this fic makes me actually want to finish it, oikawa makes iwaizumi a PowerPoint presentation on why they should date, oikawa is absolutely utterly in love with iwaizumi (same, like who isn't?), oikawa is trying to convince his best friend to fall for him, I adored this and now I need to go finish it, edit: HELP IM BASICALLY FINISHED AND ITS SO GOOD BEHESKJSA ITS SO SO SO GOOD I CANNOT EVEN FIND THR WORDS

https://archiveofourown.org/works/14100501/chapters/32488506

9.) Kilometer zero- internetpistol (orphan_account)- a classic iwaoi fic, childhood friends to lovers, slowburn, it's just them in a class well done iwaoi fic, there's nothing else to say, it was really good, "just gay yearning"- the author's ao3 tag

https://archiveofourown.org/works/28732224/chapters/70448769

10.) The Pda jar- orphan_account- iwaoi is obliviously in love, everyone knows it but them and they're all tired of their pda so they make a pda jar, it's really the only way to make them see their idiocy😌, this is why I love aoba johsai folks, live love laugh seijoh, highkey hilarious

https://archiveofourown.org/works/4230951