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rewordthis · 1 month ago

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Let me tell you why…

I am a) fucking upset about wikipedia the past 4 years and b) RAGING MAD right now!💥🌪️💥

a) First of all, I don’t know what most people use wikipedia nowadays but before 2020 I personally used it for verified information on mostly anime as well as other various topics. Let me explain the anime aspect a bit more though...

Back in my noob years, I would download to watch anime on my pc because connection was shit to load on an online site, which unfortunately sometimes led to watching things that left me baffled at best and horrified at worst. I had nightmares.

After the 3rd time this occurred, I resulted in checking wikipedia for genres and a general overlook of the main story of whatever I wanted to watch. Helped greatly— even helped me make watching lists depending on release dates etc. Everything peachy!

But after 2020… bloody fuck! What happened??? Every plot section always ends with the story’s conclusion stated flat out there for everyone to read — like an ass hanging out from a ripped pantsu!!! — and get the spoilers spit in their face… I mean, WHAT?! I never encountered this thing before! Why are the contributors feeling the need to fuck up your enjoyment? Is it revenge for being shut-ins during covid? Are authors replaced by the malign trolls that we had in the fandom since times immemorial? Was I too lucky to never encounter this (which I highly doubt considering all the anime researches I have done on the site!)? Which is it? This sucks majorly and I’m absolutely seething with how this particular side (anime media/entertainment) of the internet has become. I. HATE. IT..— 😤

b) And second of all, this is a recurring problem INSIDE fandom! I am 97% sure it’s the covid that let dicks sorry I meant people who normally wouldn’t bother with anime and fandom to take a swing at it and then invade platforms with tons of reposts of ‘sophisticated’ verbatim recounts of every chapter and every episode of every goddamn manga and anime that exists! What meta and shit? Make an actual observation first! Add something! Define something! IN YOUR WORDS! IN YOUR ART! And THEN call it meta!!! Also, here more specifically, I’m sick of seeing the same manga panel 278 times with just thirst captions being changed… Ya’ll are horny! We get it! Just put that one stupid panel up with as many deranged tags you like and let everybody else reblog it with their own! Jeez~ It’s so hard to find an art or an actual original post about something in all that mess! >:E

And the YouTube! Oh the goddamned YouTube! Who the heck wants to waste 27’ of their time to watch “The Smarts of Gojo Satoru you didn’t realise” or “How Trigun’s Vash is an incredible character” blah blah blah??? Get over yourselves! I have my own answers and observations and besides— who told you you are ‘right’ in the first place to educate me?! I want AMVs, dammit! I want slash ships and fics and ARTS!!! Not useless regurgitations of the same ONE CANON thing! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!! GRAHHH!!!👿

BTW, the actual analyses that do provide info and insights — yes, those still exist — are just SO buried under all of the debris of trash and misinformation that finding anything is a miracle. _(:3 」∠)_

And a bonus for those that read this far… this has to be the most freaking braindead shit I have read my whole life…

Tell me you’re missing the point without telling me you’re missing the point…

Well. duh! The creator MADE him that way! Bruh…

Also, yeah. You guessed it. I got spoiler-ed for the Trigun ending, too! No matter what, JJK continues being an unavoidable pest also. Grrr… Anime onlys just can’t get a break— not even outside fandom anymore and thus THIS IS SO ANNOYING! (● ˃̶͈̀ロ˂̶͈́)੭ꠥ⁾⁾

I SUPORT KNIVES ON HIS ENDEAVOURS! WIPE THE DAMN UNIVERSE, MY BOY!!!

#fandom talk #wikipedia #anime #manga #internet #i am biting today!#>:E #grrr

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snkpolls · 4 years ago

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SnK Episode 69 Poll Results (for Manga Readers)

The poll closed with 200 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Please note that these are the results for the Manga Readers’ poll. If you wish to see the results for the Anime Only Watchers’ poll, click here.

RATE THE EPISODE 193 responses

The anime continues on with it’s hot streak, with episode 69 receiving only 1 vote in the negative direction. The vast majority were very pleased with this episode.

this time the pacing felt quite weird, specially with how they managed the flashbacks. sorry mappa, but for the first time i feel like this was a 7/10 episode

nice i guess.

Beautifully done

It was great especially the confession part hahah

I love MAPPA's takes on the series so far!

Overall, very good episode. MAPPA is doing a great job.

i liked it!

A little iffy but still solid.

WHICH MOMENT FROM THE PRESENT TIME WAS YOUR FAVORITE? 194 responses

There were many significant moments in this episode, so we opted to divvy up the options. For favorite moments during the present time, Eren’s harsh tone with Hange garnered the highest amount of votes at 34.5%. Not far behind, 26.3% most enjoyed watching the 104th talk about Eren and what happened in Marley. Behind those two scenes were Hange asking Eren why he was talking to himself in the mirror (12.4%), and getting the small zevi crumbs at the end of the episode (8.2%).

WHICH MOMENT FROM THE KIYOMI FLASHBACK WAS YOUR FAVORITE? 192 responses

For the flashback where the Survey Corps meets Kiyomi, nearly half of the fandom (43.2%) were ecstatic to finally see the scene between Historia and Mikasa animated. 24% most enjoyed Eren’s rejection of Zeke’s plan in Historia’s defense. 14.6% were immersed in Hange’s dismay at considering making Historia continue the cycle of children eating their parents, and 12.5% were thrilled to finally see Mikasa reveal her tattoo to Kiyomi.

Tfw you think MAPPA cut Kiyomi’s drooling scene due to tv lag and later you find out the scene was changed to something equivalent: O__O

5head pixis made me laugh

WHICH MOMENT FROM THE RAILROAD FLASHBACK WAS YOUR FAVORITE? 193 responses

Eren’s confession at the end of the railroad flashback took the most attention from fans, with 41.5% enjoying that portion the most. 20.2% enjoyed the 104th all discussing who is most suited to inherit Eren’s titan. 19.2% got a kick out of seeing smol Armin chasing around smol Sasha, and 13% were happy to see Levi (and his annoyance that everyone is taller than him).

Armin's :o face was just adorable! Had forgotten it from the manga

MIKASA REVEALS THE AZUMABITO CLAN SYMBOL AS A TATTOO ON THE TOP OF HER WRIST. THIS IS A RETCON FROM SEASON 1 WHEN WIT REPLACED THE BRANDING WITH EMBROIDERY INSTEAD. THOUGH THE TATTOO IS WHAT’S FAITHFUL TO THE MANGA (MIKASA’S MANGA COUNTERPART HAS ALWAYS HAD THIS), WAS THIS A GOOD DECISION ON MAPPA’S PART? 192 responses

When it comes to the tattoo retcon, opinions seem to be relatively mixed. 22.9% of respondents felt that the retcon was a good move, because they feel that faithfulness to the source material is the most important thing in an adaptation. 21.9% felt it was a mixed situation, because they appreciate faithfulness to the manga, but also prefer for things to have proper continuity. 20.8% agreed that it was a good move, but mainly because the embroidery was “lame and forgettable” anyway. At smaller percentages, 16.1% felt that it wasn’t really a big deal either way since the family symbol was acknowledged regardless, and 9.4% didn’t care at all.

Mix of 3 and last point

Yes because faithfulness to the source material is important and I don't think the existence of the embroidery means that the branding didn't also exist.

No: continuity issues in the anime, but Yes: the embroidery thing was stupid.

1) we never saw the embroidery being kept by mikasa 2) kiyomi could have thought they just found it and stole it from the shogun's descendants' tombs or something. we as manga readers know mikasa is truly a descendant of the shogun, but anime onlies would have thought it could be possible for kiyomi not to trust them. so a tattoo is the best choice

Yes, MAPPA made a good decision. The anime onlies probably don't even remember the embroidery thing anyway.

Bruh, if I hadn't read the manga, I would've forgotten the Mikasa mom scene.

Options one and two.

HYPOTHETICALLY, IF ONE OF THE 104TH WERE TO INHERIT EREN’S TITAN POWER, WHO DO YOU THINK WOULD BE THE BEST OPTION? 191 responses

The notable majority of respondents feel that Jean would have been the best candidate to inherit Eren’s titan. At a distant second, people would opt for Armin to inherit Eren’s titans (perhaps because he is already a titan anyway). The rest of the characters were relatively evenly chosen.

WHICH “SHIPPY” MOMENT FROM THE EPISODE WAS YOUR FAVORITE? 193 responses

This piechart turned out to be very colorful. Nearly a quarter of respondents couldn’t choose just one moment, so they voted for “all of them.” Behind that, 14.5% most enjoyed the scene where Eren showed determination to ensure Historia wouldn’t have to be sacrificed, 13.5% swooned over Eren and Mikasa’s blushy glances at each other, and 11.9% most enjoyed Connie and Sasha’s increasingly awkward conversation about who’s the bigger idiot.

I loved the Erehisu moments

sasha and connie <3<3<3

Erehisu canon

MAPPA DIDN’T INCLUDE THE PART OF THE CONVERSATION BETWEEN ZEKE AND KIYOMI WHERE ZEKE EXPLAINS HIS PARENTAGE, WHY HE SOLD THEM OUT, AND CLAIMS THAT HE’S THE “TRUE ELDIAN RESTORATIONIST.” THOUGHTS? 192 responses

The conversation between Zeke and Kiyomi got shaved down quite a bit, losing the claim of Zeke being “the true Eldian restorationist.” 30.7% aren’t sweating about it and feel it’s something that will be included in a later episode. 27.6% feel that it’s removal isn’t a big deal. 18.7%, on the other hand, feel that losing that moment watered down Zeke’s characterization and would have preferred its inclusion. 8.9% don’t care.

I feel it will be brought up next episode

I think leaving it out makes the moment with ksaver telling him to sacrifice his parents more impactful to the anime onlies.

they may have prepared an anime original scene where this is explained, probably at some point. this chapter was loaded with tons of info

I think everything zeke is going to be saved for his big flashback after losing to levi

Maybe they'll include it at the part where Zeke has his flashbacks when he was injured by Levi.

MAPPA ALSO LEFT OUT THE PART OF THE 104TH’S CONVERSATION WHERE ARMIN THEORIZES THAT EREN WOULD BE IN CONTROL OF THE COORDINATE ONCE HE AND ZEKE MAKE CONTACT. THOUGHTS ABOUT THAT? 185 responses

Another dialogue that was axed this episode was Armin brainstorming about who would be in control of the Founding Titan if Eren and Zeke make contact with each other. 35.7% (a small jump from the previous question) feel that this, again, will be included in a later episode. 28.1% feel that its inclusion wasn’t wholly necessary. 18.4% feel that this fact was already obvious anyway, so it doesn’t matter. 10.4% feel that the anime will get to that point so quickly that the exposition isn’t necessary to begin with.

Armin's motives don't necessarily change either way so I'm fine with the cut. I do hope it's mentioned later on though.

Every episode is only 25 minutes long, so some parts of dialogues need to be removed.

I honestly think they're going to retcon this so zeke's reverse uno in chap 120 doesn't seem so wild

I do understand that they need to make cuts (and there's still to many manga chapters to fit in the rest of the season) but that one was really important bc they might not explain it fully later on

If they animate Zeke's backstory, it will be there. It would've been nice to show Armin still using his brain though.

DO YOU THINK EREN SEEMED MORE INTIMIDATING IN THE MANGA OR THE ANIME? 191 responses

Manbun Eren was introduced as being intimidating, cold, and generally mean. His outburst at Hange was the first of many examples of this behavior as he lashed out at them for having no good ideas. 65.4% of respondents felt that MAPPA did a much better job at portraying Eren as a much more intimidating figure than Isayama did.

IN RETROSPECT, DO YOU FEEL THAT EREN WAS TOO HARSH ON HANGE? 190 responses

Almost a total opposite from the previous pie graph, 66.3% of respondents felt that Eren was much too harsh on Hange, given the circumstances and their dwindling options.

DO YOU THINK THAT, EVEN AFTER READING CHAPTER 123, PARADIS COULD HAVE FOUND ANOTHER WAY TO RESOLVE THEIR ISSUES THAN THE PATH THAT EREN TOOK? 191 responses

One of the constant questions in the manga since the timeskip is “could there been another way?” 59.7% think it’s just a solid maybe, and that there’s no longer any way to know that now that Eren has stripped Paradis of all their options. 23.6% feel that the rumbling was the inevitable outcome against a world that would never give them a chance. 14.1% feel the opposite, however, and believe there was always another way, and that Eren didn’t give them enough time to figure it out.

I wonder what would happen if eren talked about his future memories

There is always another way than violence. The problem is that no one on Paradis was able to find it.

Maybe we will find out in the last 2 chapters, this might be correlated to a possible "the mist" ending that Isayama originally planned

Who even knows? All I know is that there was too much distrust, secrecy and mystery for anyone to get anything done before shit hit the fan and now here we are. I also think it was a huge mistake to keep Eren so isolated.

There's no good way and never only on path but eren choose one who solve the problem

WE’RE GONNA ASK THIS… WHO IS THE FATHER? 196 responses

The never ending debate of who the father of Historia’s child hasn’t slowed down since the introduction of her pregnancy, though the question has ultimately boiled down to whether the child is Eren’s or not. Only 33.2% of respondents seem to think so. 28.1% presumably feel that it’s not Eren, but are overall tired of this debate in general. 21.4% are firm in their stance that it’s the farmer. 13.8% just wish it had anything to do with Ymir and nothing to do with the other options.

I’m tired of this whole damn debate... but it's the farmer

LEVI SEEMED MORE VISIBLY IRRITATED ABOUT HOW TALL THE 104TH HAVE GOTTEN IN THE ANIME. THOUGHTS? 192 responses

MAPPA animated this scene with their own take and made Levi more irritable in the anime adaptation than he appeared to be in the manga. Generally, half of respondents felt that both ways were effective and funny. 25.5% seem to enjoy MAPPA’s rendition of it more, while 18.2% prefer the original manga portrayal of Levi’s grievances.

THE TRAIN SCENE WHERE EREN CONFESSES TO HIS FRIENDS IS TREASURED BY MUCH OF THE FANDOM. DID MAPPA DO IT JUSTICE? 193 responses

For fans of the 104th in particular, this scene has felt like it’s taken 84 years to finally be animated. And very few were disappointed, with 56.5% stating that the scene was cute and they are content with it, and another 36.8% showing a little more enthusiasm, feeling that it was more beautifully done than they ever could have imagined. A handful felt it could have been better, but was still good, or just didn’t care. No one agreed that the scene was ruined.

DARK!CONNIE RETURNS! WHO DID HIM BETTER? 190 responses

Another highly anticipated moment… the return of Dark!Connie! MAPPA didn’t quite hit the mark on this one, with Connie’s aura in the manga still being much more preferable to manga readers than the way MAPPA portrayed him in the anime.

WHEN CHAPTER 108 WAS PUBLISHED, READERS WERE ASKED IF EREN STILL PRIORITIZED HIS FRIENDS. AT THAT TIME, THE MAJORITY BELIEVED THAT HE DID, ALTHOUGH THE LARGER HALF OF THAT MAJORITY FELT IT WAS TO A LESSER DEGREE THAN BEFORE THE TIMESKIP. WE’D LIKE TO ASK AGAIN, DO YOU THINK THAT EREN ULTIMATELY TOOK THIS PATH OF DESTRUCTION BECAUSE HE PRIORITIZES HIS FRIENDS? 190 responses

Overall, the majority of the fanbase believe that Eren’s actions are generally in the interest of his friends and their lifespan, though to varying degrees (38.4% feel he prioritizes them wholly above all else, while 34.7% feel that he prioritizes them, but to a lesser degree than he used to). 21.1% still think that Eren’s contradictory actions make it hard to come to a solid conclusion on this front. A handful feel that Eren has abandoned them completely and only cares about himself and his own freedom at this point.

I want to believe that hes prioritizing his friends, but too many of his actions contradict that, like forcing them into the battle in liberio and sending titans after the alliance

Eren wasn't able to save his mother and this fact still torments him. I think that his friends matter to him a lot, but there is something darker in him what causes all the mess he is doing.

He’s selfish and doing whatever he wants.

DO YOU THINK IT’S POSSIBLE THAT EREN PUSHED HIS FRIENDS TO THE FRONT LINES BECAUSE HE ALREADY SAW IN HIS FUTURE MEMORIES THAT THEY WOULD STOP HIM, THUS KNOWING THEY WOULD NOT DIE? 188 responses

When chapter 108 was published, we hadn’t yet learned that Eren saw memories of the future and so we couldn’t speculate on such a thing. Now that we can, we thought we would ask. 42.6% believe that regardless of whether Eren saw his friends in those memories or not, Mikasa is correct in her belief that Eren simply trusted them to survive. 33% feel that he already knew that they would survive, which is the only reason why he dragged them to Liberio in the first place. 18.6% don’t want to say either way, and a small percentage believe Eren had no way of knowing about the fate of his friends.

He said "I HOPE they will have happy long lives". It means he didn't see much.

WILL WE SEE THE WARRIORS + MAGATH AND COLT NEXT EPISODE? 187 responses

With things shuffled around, we still have yet to see the Warriors recuperating and planning their next move. Half of the fandom feel that MAPPA was waiting to put the focus back on Gabi and Falco before giving us this moment. 32.1% aren’t sure if we will get it in episode 70 or not. 14.4% think it’s something that will come later, and a tiny fraction think it will be cut entirely.

Need my warriors back

WHICH SCENE FROM THE PREVIEW ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO? 193 responses

The largest percentage (48.2%) went to the scene with Hange confronting Floch and the Yeagerists, though it is edged out by both of Gabi and Falco’s preview scenes combined (42% for the visit to the Blouse’s, and 9.8% for their scuffle at the river).

Can't care less about to gabi and falco, it's the final season cut the filler please.

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE?

I miss Sasha

No thoughts, anxiety only.

Hope to see the cut scenes in the next episode

Maybe I'm the only one, but I'm not so hyped for this season anymore. Sure, I'll still watch all the episodes no matter what, and I don't think Mappa is doing a bad job. But it's just a good adaptation. For the anime-onlys, I'm sure it's great because they're discovering the story we already know, but for me, this season doesn't add much to the manga. I probably had too high expectations for this season... (I'm also watching/reading Jujustsu Kaisen from Mappa and I don't have that feeling at all, so I'm pretty conflicted)

The episode was fine but I had a feeling that it was going a little too fast. However, I'm not complaining because I overally liked it. I could finally see adult Historia. She looks different than her manga counterpart. In the manga she was more mysterious and mature, while in the anime she still has cute baby face. I think that the moment between her and Mikasa was sweet. I feel kinda tired of the whole "who is the father" theories. I think that people waste their energy on fights and debates. If I wasn't part of the fandom, I wouldn't even think of Eren having a child with Historia. They never had romantic relationship and their last conversation was far away from being loving. Eren is an amotional mess. He has never mentioned the child in his POV, he says that his friends and Paradis are the most important, so I will be surprised if all of sudden he turns to be a father.

The lightning around eren when angry at hange was amazing addition (I think it's new) and historias situation feels more real in the anime. (ps: hail ponytail mikasa is bea)

Did a great job imo, but I don't think it's possible to make it anywhere near 122 at this point

Scenes were great as usual. The pacing was a little bit jarring though. I don't know how anime-onlys will take it since we do have different perspectives given our forehand knowledge of the events.

Where's shirtless Reiner??

Good episode, can’t wait for Gabi and Falco’s realization next episode

I wish everything from the manga could fit into the episode or that the episodes were longer.

There's really no where else I could've put this so I'll just put it here......lol. I feel like it's not as obvious in the anime how much longer Jean's hair has gotten sometimes (specifically during the railroad scene here) and I wish that wasn't the case.

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES? 180 responses

Thank you to everyone who participated!

#snk poll #snk polls #shingeki no kyojin #attack on titan #snk #aot #snk s4 #snk spoilers

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medea10 · 5 years ago

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My Review of Magical Girl Site

How did I get into this anime? I…huh…Good question! I don’t recall. Probably some other anime reviewers mentioned it and I put it on the Amazon/Netflix list hoping I won’t have to watch it any time soon. Two years later and here we are!

Aya Asagiri’s life is a living hell. She is constantly bullied at school and no one does a thing to stop it. Her teachers don’t care about her well-being. Her father barely notices she exists. And to top it off, her brother beats the crap out of her just for him to relieve stress! Is it any wonder that she wants to commit suicide? One night, her computer mysteriously turns on to a website, promoting Aya to become a magical girl. She brushed it off and thought nothing of it…

That is until the next morning when she finds a note and a gun in her shoe locker. After being tortured by her bullies and almost raped, she finds herself at the end of her ropes and pulls out the mysterious gun. When she pulled the trigger, her bullies disappeared. Turns out, the targets are transported to another place. In the case of some of her bullies, they were transported to in front of a moving train.

Karma, bitches!

It’s unknown why Aya was specifically chosen to become a magical girl, but fellow magical girl Yatsumura feels she could use Aya’s magic to combat a looming threat to other magical girls. But they must not overuse their magic, otherwise they will die.

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: As of this moment, this anime seems to be in the capable hands of Amazon Prime. And we all know how well they treat animes, right?! Hahaha! Funny! Anyways, don’t expect a dub! The cast seems to be comprised of many female seiyuus I’m not particularly familiar with. I mean with the exception of Aina Suzuki, I hear her sounds every day thanks to the Love Live game apps! Add to that the creepy, raspy voice of Frieza playing the site administrator! One voice actor however I heard the second he let out a creepy, hygena-like laugh, I knew exactly who this crazy bastard was! Nobuhiko Okamoto plays a great psychopath. Here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

*Aya is played by Yuuko Oono

*Yatsumura is played by Himika Akaneya

*Sarina is played by Haruka Yamazaki (known for Ruka on Hayate the Combat Butler, Mero on Monster Musume, Aika on High School DxD, and Natsumi on Danganronpa 3)

*Nijimi is played by Yuu Serizawa (known for Shera on How Not to Summon a Demon Lord)

*Shioi is played by Aina Suzuki (known for Mari on Love Live Sunshine)

AUTOMATICLY THROWN ON DISLIKED LIST: Okay children, who automatically ends up on my hate list for life?

Fuckers who commit rape and fuckers who kill animals for fun!

Damn right! Give this anime some credit for not showing Aya’s bullies throwing a cat in front of a moving train. If this were 10 years ago, they probably would have animated it and I would have been puking afterward. I’m not sure which of Aya’s bullies threw a cat in front of a moving train, but for the time being, I’m throwing them all on the list.

And while I’m here, Sarina! She was like the ring-leader in the bullying of Aya. I’m almost certain she’s the bitch that killed the stray cat but I have no proof of that. With my history with horrible people like that, I have no sympathy for bullies in the slightest and feel she got what was coming to her. Bitch, you got that big, ugly scar on your neck for a reason. You got what was coming!

DEFINITELY BELONGS IN DISLIKE HISTORY: Now that I got the usual gripe off my chest, gotta add Aya’s onii-chan, Kaname! Sweet merciful crap, do I love hearing Nobuhiko Okamoto play a psychopath, but this is going way too far. And Kaname is just irredeemable! He has this complex that makes him think he’s on God-tier and everyone else is beneth him. Now I do have to hate Kaname and Aya’s father for placing this kind of pressure on Kaname and beating the shit out of him if he gets bad grades. But good fuck, this guy just pushes past the line of no return when he tries to manipulate little girls, steal their power, and lose control. And this wasn’t like he had no control over his own body and wants to stop this from happening! Kaname meant every thing he did to his sister and her friends. OH…and that one guy he forced to off himself! I just can’t even with this guy!

SHIPPING: I know a lot of people ship the hell out of Aya and Yatsumura and yeah, I can see that and I would ship them too. But for reals, I just want these two girls to live a life of peace together for as long as they’re around. For fuck’s sake, did you see the shit they put up with in their lives? Aya was bullied relentlessly at home and school. Yatsumura watched her whole family be slaughtered by a creep. These girls deserve some sort of peace! I know this is the shipping category, but I felt the need to say this.

STICKS: Okay anime, what are you doing? Aya uses a magical gun! Sarina uses a magical yo-yo! Nijimi uses magical panties (insert immature laugh here)! Yatsumura uses a magical remote! How hard is it to have them say that! And I probably shouldn’t put blame on the anime and holler at the manga! But calling magical items “Sticks”, that feels…I don’t want to say stupid, but I can’t think of any other word to go along with that. I just feel like the manga was on some deadline and they were frantically finishing what to call their magical items and just went “FUCK IT, IT’S STICKS”.

COULD HAVE FOOLED ME: In the “Could have fooled me” category we have a boy who identifies as a girl magical girl! Man, 2018 definitely was the progressive AF year! I mean, we had Lily from Zombieland Saga, we had the girls who transformed into magical buff men in Magical Girl Ore, and now THIS! So we have Kiyo! An openly transgendered magical girl that’s not a token joke! Okay, well done guys! Pearl points all around!

ENDING: Early in the series, we learned about a moment called “The Tempest”. A catastrophic even set to take place once enough negative energy is caught. There are a lot of Magical Girl Site administrators that take advantage of “POOR UNFORTUNATE SOULS”. They pick the most unfortunate girls as pawns in their game. And once “The Tempest” hits, everyone will die and the world will start over anew. Aya and Yatsumura end up meeting new magical girl allies and even a few that were coersed by different administrators. Not to mention one of Aya’s bullies is a magical girl too with a score to settle! What could be worse?

How about we add Aya’s disgusting brother to this mix?! As I’ve mentioned before, Aya’s brother Kaname would use Aya as a personal punching bag in order to get rid of stress. When Aya became a magical girl, she would spend more time with Yatsumura or the other girls, leaving Kaname to go without slugging his sister. So fuckface over here manipulates another magical girl, Nijimi to do what he says. This leads to him stealing Nijimi’s underwear and gaining her magical power of mind control. I never thought I would have to say a sentence like that, but here we are.

Kaname went out of control with this power as he managed to injure all of the girls and give a fatal blow to Nijimi. But another possible enemy dropped a bomb on us when they kidnapped Kaname. THEN, these girls are targeted at Nijimi’s funeral and they almost died. Add another plot-twist, a police officer that’s been seen from time to time in a lot of the tragedies in the show is in cahoots with one of the magical girl site administrators. This keeps getting fuckier by the minute! Well, the girls felt it was time to take action and try to take out the administrators that screwed them with this doomed fate. But once they took out one of the administrators, they came across an ugly truth.

Sight administrators are magical girls who died previously!

Yeah, not that big of a shock! Madoka Magica gave us magical girls who end up so corrupt that they become witches they’re supposed to fight. While some of the administrators ended up falling to these girls, Nana (the creepy one we’ve been watching since ep 1) is the hardest one to take out. She ends up killing Yatsumura (because she used up too much of her power), but then manipulates her to become an administrator.

Once she manipulated Yatsumura, she ends up going after Aya. And after a lot of back-and-forth between the two girls, Yatsumura was able to snap out of Nana’s control and they managed to take out Nana. And we end the series with a brighter future for Aya and Yatsumura as their lives become a little less unfortunate.

Yeah, few issues here!

1.) There are still a butt-load of site administrators. Isn’t there still a “Tempest” going to happen? 2.) Aya and Yatsumura’s lives aren’t in danger anymore after using fuck-tons of their power? WTF?! 3.) What was the point of Aya shooting herself to get Yatsumura back? I am not following you. Is this some sort of Insception shit?! 4.) That detective! Misumi was his name? Why was he just casually talking to Nana a few episodes back? 5.) Why don’t we see him until the final few moments in the finale? 6.) WHY DID HE RAPE KANAME?! 7.) WHY WAS THIS SCENE A THING? 8.) I don’t want to say Kaname deserved it, buuuuuut… Uuuggghhh…Mumble, mumble. I can’t finish that thought. 9.) These site administrators are probably pissed and are going to want revenge on these magical girls. What’s going on here?

…Let me guess, I need to read the manga to get all my questions answered…

FUCKING FIGURES!

Seriously...what Misumi did. That scene is forever etched in my brain forever. Next to that scene of Kaname wiggling his junk in front of a guy.

This anime was pretty bad. No wait...

This anime was way too edgy for me! Episode 1 was just absolute torture porn involving Aya. The first episode managed to combine the bully scene in Vivid Strike, the puppy killing scene in Elfen Lied, and every bullying episode of Hell Girl all into one single episode. As for the rest of this series, they go above and beyond to grab some of the worst aspects of other animes and implement them here. Aya’s older brother almost has a God-complex that rivals that of Light Yagami of Death Note. Nijimi has a devoted fan that’s almost crossing over from the movie Perfect Blue. Body mutilation scenes on levels not seen since Higurashi! And fill this world up with the worst kinds of humans imaginable like in Elfen Lied! This was just too much hatred! Too much!

Add to that, there’s absolutely no resolution to this story. Yes, Aya and Yatsumura are alive and together. But guys, there are still some other-worldly strong site administrators looming! Tempest is still happening. KANAME IS STILL FUCKING ALIVE…literally and figuratively speaking! And with how much this anime has been panned by anime fans across the board, I doubt if this anime will ever receive a sequel. Guys, if you want a really good 12-episode anime about magical girls with an edge, just watch Madoka Magica. But if you’re a curious idiot like me, whatever, you do you!

As this anime is an Amazon Prime exclusive, I’m afraid that’s the only legal outlet for this.

Now that this is over, my next Amazon/Netflix/Crunchyroll anime is…

Grand Blue!

Oh, it’s set in a cute ocean town. Am I going to enjoy some cute absurdity like I did with Tsuritama?

Sort of!

OH GOOD FUCK, WHAT FRAT HOUSE WAS THIS BIRTHED FROM?!

#anime review #magical girl site #mahou shoujo site #aya asagiri #tsuyuno yatsumura #kaname asagiri #sarina shizukume

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hidewari · 7 years ago

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ROBAE!! How was the movie?

It wasn’t bad but I’m not sure if it was as good as I was expecting either. I’d probably give it like a 5.5 or 6 out of 10 but I did enjoy it just because it was Tokyo Ghoul.

I’ll go into more detail but there are spoilers past here, though the movie is pretty much the same as the manga so if you’ve read that, there isn’t much to spoil.

It was more faithful to the manga than the anime was but I’m not sure that’s objectively a good thing? The thing is, I think it was a little too faithful; the story telling works fine in the manga because the manga has a fuck ton of time to tell its story, but using very similar pacing like that in a movie just feels weird? I just felt like the pacing was quite odd especially at the beginning; it took quite a lot of time for things to start happening and some scenes felt too brief, particularly the opening with Hide and Kaneki in Anteiku (though Hide was cute asf lmao)

Some of the shots were also pretty weird, like there were so many instances where the characters would just sit in awkward silence for a while or the camera would focus on a closeup of Kaneki’s face for like thirty seconds for no particular reason.

The fight scenes were also a little oddly done because they didn’t flow very well. They’d flow nicely for a bit and then it would cut away to something else at what felt like an odd time and then cut back to the fight scene where the two characters who were just fighting are now standing opposite from eachother in silence for another few seconds before fighting again ?? The fight between Amon and Kaneki was probably the best one and that one had some awkward pauses but the fight between Touka and Mado had so many stops in it that it just felt weird and didn’t flow at all.

But yeah, the movie had a lot of characters just standing around awkwardly which felt a bit weird to me.

The soundtrack was alright but a lot of scenes didn’t have any music at all where I think they could have benefited from adding some music to set an atmosphere and the soundtrack wasn’t really memorable. Like, I normally don’t realise when there isn’t any music playing because silence is used well to established atmosphere, but in this movie, it sort of felt like the silence was more awkward than atmospheric.

It also felt like the cast was extremely small which kind of made the movie feel very limited. Like it focused on Kaneki, Hinami, Ryouko and Touka at times and ONLY them and it felt kind of empty in a way. They could have easily fixed this too; having Nishiki hang around or, instead of throwing Hide in the hospital for the entire movie, have him come to Anteiku randomly to liven the scenes up a bit like they did in the anime. Hide pretty much showed up a couple times, then Nishiki knocked him out and that was it. He was out of the movie completely for the rest of the whole thing up until the very end where we get a scene of him sitting in the hospital for a few seconds out of nowhere.

Speaking of Hide, the scene with Nishiki disappointed me somewhat. Nishiki was really well done and the actor who played him was good. The scene took place within Kamii itself and it played out well and everything, but it really didn’t do a good job of portraying how important Hide was to Kaneki at all. That scene always felt, to me, like it was supposed to elevate Hide and Kaneki’s relationship from a simple friendship in the reader’s eyes, since we get an explanation of how Hide supported Kaneki for most of his life and how he was the only person he really had, but the movie didn’t really do any of that. The most it did to show Hide’s importance was have Kaneki say “he’s my only friend” and then cry over his body a bit before licking all over his face.

Additionally, we didn’t get any sort of nod to Hide’s perceptiveness whatsoever. Like, in the manga we at least get him noticing that Kaneki isn’t eating well and Nishiki says that Hide’s dangerous because he just plays dumb etc. etc. but in the movie, Nishiki just says some super dodgy shit to Kaneki right in front of Hide (something about Kaneki deciding to cut off his friendship with Hide now) and Hide kind of just completely ignores it and isn’t even in frame before he gets up and suggests going out to eat. The most we got to allude to Hide not really being what he seems was Nishiki pointing at him and saying “this guy gives me the creeps,” without elaborating on that at all.

Having said that, Hide was still fantastic. I think Hide’s actor probably delivered my favourite performance alongside Mado, Koma and Kusaba’s actors who did a good job. Hide’s actor was lively and his performance felt genuine and I think he did a fantastic job at capturing Hide’s joviality. Koma seemed almost like a different character but he was a fantastic character; I actually liked movie Koma more than canon Koma lmao (Also, Yomo was hot.)

Speaking of characters, I feel like they neglected Rize’s role quite a bit. They sort of tried to convey that Kaneki saw her separately from himself as his ghoul side, but they only did this by having him hallucinate her in his apartment once and then see her reflection before he was about to eat Hide and then she fucked off for the rest of the movie which made her feel very forgotten.

There was also some random scene between the beam incident and Kaneki waking up in the hospital where they decided to explain that Kaneki’s mother died of overwork for some reason when it had absolutely no baring on the rest of the movie whatsoever and was never mentioned again ??? Like that would have been a good thing to establish if you were going to try to use that to develop Kaneki and Hide’s relationship during the Nishiki scene but you didn’t ??? It just felt very randomly thrown in there.

I know there was a bunch of debate about the kagune CGI and I get why now. I thought the kagune looked pretty good closeup, but when they had to actually animate them fighting or releasing their kagune, it looked pretty bad honestly. Nishiki’s kagune was probably the worst culprit; the movement didn’t seem natural and I don’t remember all that well but I feel like they might have overdone it on the motion blur.

My last criticism is mostly just a personal preference but I didn’t like Kaneki’s actor, to be honest. I think his acting was kind of bad at some points, particularly in scenes where he had to act scared. I know loads of people liked him but I just didn’t feel like he captured the character as well as I would have liked, and I REALLY like the stage play actors for Kaneki; they did a fantastic job. This guy just felt like he was kind of low energy and a lot of his acting felt too fake to me, personally.

Having thrown out all that criticism, I do have some good things to say. I really liked the Easter eggs they threw in there, particularly the literature references. The scene in Kaneki’s apartment where he’s stuffing his face with food and starts throwing up everywhere has a part where he hallucinates Rize and she kind of crawls on top of him before the camera pans up to the ceiling and there’s the shadow of a giant insect on the ceiling. My friend thought that alluded to the whole centipede thing but it didn’t look as much like a centipede to me; I thought it was supposed to be a reference to Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” and I like that they threw that in there since literature references are something I really appreciate in Tokyo Ghoul.

They also included Herman Hesse since they had Kaneki read the quote about the world being an egg to Hinami, but they tried to explain the metaphor afterwards and I think they kind of sucked the grandeur out of it with a simplistic explanation lmao

But yeah, over all it wasn’t too bad, but I feel like it’s something only fans of the series will enjoy and I’m not so sure it works well as a movie just by itself without the context of the manga or anime. I’m still not too sure if I prefer the anime or the movie, but I think the pacing of the anime was at least less off putting ? I still recommend watching it if you like TG since there are aspects you’ll be able to appreciate for sure and it’s always fun seeing a new take on the story.

#Anonymous #answered #tokyo ghoul #tg live action

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hopeymchope · 8 years ago

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Yuno? No, you don’t know: Part 1

(Yes, puns. Sorry?)

“My bad!”

It’s weird to me how so much of the artwork/cosplay/text posts I see of Yuno Gasai on Tumblr seem to portray/discuss a character that is at odds with the one I know from reading the manga and watching the anime so many times. Maybe I’m just getting a different interpretation somehow, but... I think I actually have a lot of evidence to back up the version I know and love.

So: HELLO, YOU! Welcome to the first in an informal series of character-study essays where I try to explain to the rest of the world and fandom why I think they’re getting Yuno Gasai totally wrong.

The first one is probably the most common mistake. It’s bolded below, and it’s the central thesis of this first post.

Yuno is the so-called “Yandere Queen,” but note that the Yandere label largely applies to any time anyone threatens Yuki’s life or safety. THIS is the primary trigger that sets her off, with the secondary trigger being “if you repeatedly and overtly try to tear her apart from Yuki by making her seem evil or dishonorable, she will eventually raise your death flag.” The first trigger can easily earn you instant death, but the second trigger takes quite a while to launch. You have to repeatedly attempt to ruin her life before she’ll decide “Well shit, guess I have to kill him/her.”

I could back the above statements up, but that’s not what this post is about. Instead, it’s about answering this question: What about the jealousy that the Yandere trope often exemplifies? Does Yuno threaten everyone who flirts with/shows interest in Yuki or vice versa?

Weirdly, a simple google search of her name would tell you “Yes, of course! Yuno tries to murder/actively murders anyone who even looks at her Yuki!”

Aaahhh. no. That’s the point of my post today.

Yuno does not attack or kill anyone who is attracted to Yuki or whom Yuki is attracted to. It’s just not true.

This is entirely false, and I can prove it using every available example of anyone hitting on Yuki or vice-versa throughout the show/manga.

More character analysis and plenty of animated gifs past the cut.

1) The first character in-panel/on-screen to fit this mold is Tsusbaki, a.k.a. Sixth. Yuno is a startled and displeased to see Tsubaki hit on Yuki in episode four, “Hand-Written,” but it isn’t until she realizes that Tsubaki is actively trying to tell Yuki that Yuno should be ditched that she starts threatening Tsubaki’s life... from a distance. And even then, when Yuno starts making threats, Yuki is like “Jesus Yuno, chill out” and her response is basically to shrug and be like “Fine, okay. But I’m watching you, Sixth.” It barely takes any effort from Yuki to make her just kind of shrug her own concerns off!

In fact, when does Yuno finally flip out on and attack Tsubaki? After Tsubaki reveals her entire plan like a damn Bond villain in episode five, “Voice Memo,” wherein Tsubaki exposes that she only asked them to help her and only tried to be sweet with Yuki so she could ingratiate herself and then kill them both. This naturally trips Yuno’s primary trigger (never threaten Yuki’s life), and she promptly goes medieval on Tsubaki’s ass.

Yuno SMAAAAASH!

2) The first character in continuity (though we don’t learn this story until episode 18, “Crossed Lines”) to fit this mold is Moe Wakaba. This takes place prior to Yuki and Yuno really having much of a relationship, but after the infamous “promise” that made Yuno view him as her only hope of escape from a miserable life. In the flashback ep, we learn about how, when Yuki wants to tell Moe Wakaba how much he likes her, Yuno dresses up in the (iconic!) ridiculous pink bunny suit. Then, while disguised as this unnerving mascot, does her best to block all attempts for Yuki to give over his love letter or for the pair to hold hands.

“Denied!”

In the end, however, Yuki prevails and delivers his admission of feelings to Moe. Despite this, Yuno leaves Wakaba unharmed and even lets her keep the love letter! Yuno just goes home and acts dejected about the experience but ultimately relieved that Wakaba appeared uninterested in return from what she could see.

3) Aru Akise is a big one for many fans. The slash addicts love this guy. He is, of course, the smooth gay detective boy who thinks Yuki is a hottie. The way he initially hits on Yuki in front of everyone doesn’t even earn a reaction from Yuno at all (although later on, she does call Aru a “perv” for immediately caressing Yuki’s face upon their first meeting).

Things move fast in the two-parter where Akise is introduced (episodes 8 and 9). Akise tries to rescue Yuki by bluffing and doing a 50/50 gamble; when Yuno realizes that he’s lyiing, she tackles him and tries to stab him for... what? Is it because of his interest in Yuki? No, she specifically tells him it’s because he was gambling with Yuki’s life. However, when he deflects her attack, she backs down. And when he tries to convince Yuno that he’s there to help by information her that he genuinely cares about protecting Yuki because his feelings for Yuki, are, in fact, lovey-dovey; and Yuno’s only reaction is a befuddled “What? Hold on a minute!” And that’s it.

In fact, it gets better! A couple of days later we see her greet this smooth gay sleuth politely and with open arms when he breaks into her goddamn house in episode 10, “Family Plan.” After all, Yuki vouches for him and he did set her and Yuki up on a pretty sweet date, so she is totally cool with him now in spite of his feelings for Yuki AND his B&E crime! THAT’S HOW LITTLE SHE CARES ABOUT HIS FEELINGS FOR YUKI. (Sadly, this would be the pinnacle of their friendship for other reasons; please refer to the second trigger for more information.)

And oh yeah, I’ve got more.

In the infamous episode 22, when Yuno and Yuki go to talk to Aru and Yuno is fully anticipating a betrayal from the guy after her unfortunate run-in with him in the prior episode... she doesn’t even try to kill him! She actively tries to keep him alive, which is pretty damn shocking in the situation. First she goes after him by stabbing him in the appendix region (the same area that she will later stab herself in this very same episode, noting that she purposefully aimed for a non-serious wound). The second time she attacks, she uses a stungun.

“High-speed stunneeerrr-aw crap.”

Non-lethal attacks only for the entire first round of someone that’s been trying to ruin her relationship with Yuki for the past eight or nine episodes, holy shit. I just realized this one, myself! Of course, when Aru lays out his entire plan to turn Yuki against her and then see her dead, ALL BETS ARE OFF.

4) Should I even mention Ai, who openly speaks of Yuki’s cuteness and how she likes flirting with him when she pops up in episode 15, “Dual Cell Phones”? No reaction from Yuno to any of that.

My point is that... despite all the artwork and photo collages of cosplay that portray Yuno as someone who will kill any man or woman that goes after her man, there’s shockingly little evidence to back this up.

I mean, come on. Yuno herself doesn’t even understand this widespread belief.

“Huh... yeah... no, I don’t get it.”

What evidence IS there to support the idea that Yuno would attack anyone who threatens her relationship with Yuki? Is there any?

Not a ton, but let’s look at the flip side.

1) She does, in fact, look pretty pissed whenever someone else is either interested in Yuki or vice-versa. She looks particularly cheesed off whenever it’s Yuki showing the interest rather than the other way around. I mean... she doesn’t necessarily act on this rage of hers, but her facial expressions sure seem serious even if she makes no effort to back them up.

"Her name is Moe?! How unbelievably trite!”

2) Yuno is shown to get a rage-induced adrenaline rush whenever someone else kisses Yuki. The thing is, on the only two times that this ever happens, Yuno has already decided to kill the person who enrages her because they previously tripped one of the two triggers I noted at the start; the kiss is beside the point, because she wanted to kill those people regardless of any lip-locks.

3) The biggest moment to support this notion comes when she puts her knife to Hinata’s throat towards the end of “Blocking Calls” (episode 9).

“Lemme borrow your neck for a second.”

Yuno and Yuki argue earlier in the episode about Yuki’s insistence that he can still be friends with Hinata, and Yuno’s counterpoint that, well, she did try to kill you almost all night. Yuno does threaten Hinata with her knife and even openly says that “If you start to like this girl, where does that leave me? So I’ve gotta kill her.” However, this is the only time she ever acts like this, and I think Yuki’s willingness to forgive Hinata’s attempt to kill him is probably a big reason she freaks out. To say nothing of the fact that Hinata tripped trigger #1.

Okay, that’s enough of this. My point is pretty obvious: With the exception of her speech about having to kill Hinata, there’s really nothing that actively supports the idea that Yuno will kill or maim anyone who looks at the object of her affection. That’s just not in the character, even though loads and loads of photo collages, cosplay pieces, and fan art seem to think otherwise for some reason.

I kind of suspect that many of these folks are fans of the “Yandere” concept more than Yuno Gasai herself, who doesn’t actually adhere to every single tenet of the trope.

#yuno gasai #future diary #the future diary #mirai nikki #character analysis #yuno gasai character analysis

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anamchohan · 7 years ago

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The Japan Adventure

Hey everybody, upon some of your requests, I decided to do a basic write-up of our trip to Japan which may help you get excited and eventually packing for your own holiday there! I’m keeping this simple and more informative, and a more topical blog of the things I fell in love with there might be in the pipeline for a little later. I’ve organized this blog into: ‘Getting there’, ‘Accommodation’, ‘Food’, and the juicy ‘Itinerary’. I’ve given links right at the bottom.

My husband, my almost 3 year old daughter, and I visited Japan for 12 days and spent them ALL in TOKYO. Our flights were direct, from Dubai to Haneda airport and took about 9.5 hours. A 40 minute high speed train ride got us into the city. The flight back to Dubai was longer at 11.5 hours from Narita airport with a 1.5 hour train ride. So it’s unfeasible to pop in there for a weekend holiday. But anything longer than 5 days, and you should definitely put Japan on your list. Commuting inside Tokyo is a breeze which looks like a storm from the outside. Everything is accessible by trains, which are ever frequent and ever punctual, signed in English and closed from midnight till 5am, so stay out too late and you might be left stranded with nothing to do except kill time at 24 hour gaming arcades, karaoke parlors, tax-free shopping centers, bathing facilities and so on. EL O EL. Two Important commuting tips: Buy a little plastic passcard (named Suica or Pasmo) from one of the train stations, load it up with at least 1500 yen and you can swipe in and out of station gates like a baws like everyone around you. No buying a paper ticket for every journey. The cards can be used for up to 10 years, so save them for your next trip. *Wink* Also, once you’re off the train, keep your google maps handy and use the walking routes on the map app and make sure your gyroscope or the thing in your phone that pinpoints your phone’s exact location on the phone map is not broken by repeatedly being dropped on the floor. Husband’s well protected Android sensed even the turn on the spot he did, while my sleek Apple wasn’t sure if we had to go forward or backward. I blame the broken gyroscope.

Accommodation

Differently from our last trip to Japan which was before daughter was born, this time we decided to book our stay through Airbnb. We needed a studio, as opposed to a hotel room, for basic laundry/washing machine, I mean we were going for 12 days with a kid, and an attached kitchen, because I mean 12 days with a kid! Even if you’re not traveling with a bacha and are going for a longer trip, then there is something homey about waking up whisking up some eggs and tea yourself, and then starting the day’s processions without worrying about what to eat right away. You can simply do the hotel stay too. We booked two different locations for the two weeks there, to mix things up. Each location offered a different street life as we stepped down for the day.

Our first 6 days were in Akihabara, and the next 6 were in Shinjuku, both pretty happening places. When finding a place, look for the distance to the nearest train station. A 5-8 minute walk from station to home is ideal, or even up to 10 minutes, as there is much to take in as you walk down. The list of places to stay in, in order of priority based on my preferences of what truly captures the essence of Tokyo:

Akihabara

Shibuya

Omotesando

Shinjuku

Ueno

Ginza

All the above districts are on the main Yamanote Line, and this green line stops at all the major sights and sounds.

Every street and lane has either a 7/11 or Lawson’s or Family Mart that are open 24 hrs for anything you might need. Even prepacked sushi, which btw was pretty delish. A moment of appreciation for the high-quality milk there, so creamy and rich! Our late nights saw lots of milk and cookies with some anime or weird stage show on TV. Oh yea! Be sure to tune in to some interestingly weird stuff on the local Japanese channels!

A word of caution: Make sure you read Airbnb reviews by other travelers for your particular place and ask the host any questions and read up their terms and conditions before paying. In Japan, Airbnb is big business, and rooms are well maintained and serviced but you may still come across some unsavory surprises since it’s not a hotel stay, but an apartment building. However the great thing about how Airbnb works is that they keep your payment until you as the guest checks out on the last day and confirm everything was as advertised. Similarly, the host is guaranteed payment and won’t risk guests bailing out on them. They charge a small service fees for their troubles.

Food

So after the day’s processions would be coming to a close, the second part of our day would begin: the food hunting! The food joints in Tokyo are predominantly non-halal, which actually means more pork-in-everything worry, rather than more non-halal-chicken worry. Your options are asking for vegetarian food, but for them it just means yes it ALSO has vegetables. You could go to more hippy places and ask for vegan food, but harder on the pocket to do daily. You could also go to purely seafood places, and they’d be pretty much safe but they could include alcohol based soya sauce (aka ‘mirin’ a word they recognize). Your ultimate solution however, is to download the Halal Gourmet and Halal Navi apps on your phone. The apps have a list of values the restaurant could have such as ‘Halal Certified’, Muslim Chef’, ‘Halal Meat’, ‘Vegetarian Meal’, ‘Alcohol Free’, etc. Not all restaurants check all the boxes, for example, the place could simply be a buddhist vegetarian place and hence halal by extension.

Sadly, most of the results that showed up halal were Shawarma hole in the wall/ take-away kind of places, or Indian Pakistani cuisine. Finding LEGIT halal Japanese cuisine like Ramen and Sushi and Shabu Shabu was hard to locate, far and few in between, and strangely quite over priced. I wish we could have had loads more accessible street food type of halal experience, but hey things were way better this time than three years ago and they’re only getting better. I think I am off Shawarmas and Butter Chicken thalis for a while. In their defense, some of the best Afghani Nans I have had were in Tokyo!!! So don’t worry about being left desi khana-less in Japan. In fact, that’ll be the least of your worries!

The 24 hour convenience stores store a variety of rice cakes wrapped in nori (seaweed paper, so good for health), sushi rolls, tuna cakes, some seriously yummy chocolate crepe wraps, and tons of other snacks. HOWEVER. If you are absolutely particular about avoiding non-halal food (as we tried our best to do), then stay away from any and all cup noodles, instant noodles etc. They will most definitely contain pork or other meat broth, even if the flavor is vegetarian. Take some Maggi noodles with you from UAE/Pakistan, it’ll be a familiar lifesaver in the face of a late night grumbly tummy. Also take Snicker bars, because that’s a meal in itself in case you didn’t know. Also some of your favorite chocolate chip cookies, and umm, I took rainbow milk and Lipton tea bags. I was set.

Itinerary

Here comes the fun part! The places to visit and what not to miss. Do tons of research before you leave, and make a list of places to visit FOR SURE. Below are all the places we visited.

Akihabara

This is called the Electric town and has loads to see in terms of anime, manga electronics, video games, arcades, karaoke, etc. Even if you’re not a fan, walking about these blocks is like seeing Time Square on drugs and way more sprawling. In Akihabara, what you must not miss, especially for your shopping needs and even without them, is Yodobashi-Akhiba Camera, a 7 story department store that carries SO MANY PRODUCTS. And a 100 of one kind of that product. It’s a fun place to spend indoors in case of rainy weather, and must visit for buying tax-free cosmetics, skin care, souvenirs, Japanese made knives/blades, Zojirushi (the ultimate must have thermos or mug or lunch box. It will keep shit hot/cold for up to 3 days, tried and tested), camera and photography equipment, Japanese high tech watches, Kimonos, famous character merchandise like Hello Kitty, Pokemon, Star Wars, Disney, Marvel, Minecraft, Mario, like anything you can imagine, would most likely be here and it will be cool. Yodobashi Akhiba also has a floor full of restaurants, here you’ll find Cobara Hetta, a cozy Indian place that serves Halal chicken dishes and vegetarian thalis with proper roti or Afghani nans or cheese or chocolate nans!

Interestingly for us, Halloween was around the corner so we got to see loads of activities around town leading up to 31st October. This part of our trip was easily the highlight of our trip and I highly recommend a Japan visit during this time! I got waking nightmares seeing the horrifying oozing mutated costumes walk right up to me, constructed so professionally and thoroughly. Everything crazy and scary to see in Japan was out on the streets walking alongside us! It was the best time to be in Tokyo! (Take it from someone who has also visited at the tail-end of Cherry Blossom season and then it is just a different kind of country altogether, full of romance and beauty and exquisite Cherry Blossom flowers surrounding you and filling your vision). Similarly, if you’re planning a trip and can afford to be flexible with your days, then Halloween, Christmas, New Year, Cherry Blossom (March-April) and specific summer festivals are the times you’ll see the city in it’s dressed up charming full blown lights and sights form, and it’s just WAY more value added to your regular travels.

Another thing you have to do in Akihabara is visit one of those mega 7 story Sega gaming arcades. Even if you’re not into games, there guaranteed WILL be something quirky and awesome game that you’ll find. You will go in unsuspecting and come out pockets empty of all 100 yen coins and a big smile on your face! Or you’ll find high school kids making world records on the latest arcade games just casually everywhere, and it’s a TREAT to watch them doing that! Must visit.

And just generally go inside the various shops and up the lifts, you’ll find hidden gems EVERYWHERE. There are these crazy well-stocked adult toy shops as well, from where you’ll come out giggling, flushed red, and slightly happy-confused ? :D ? Finally, at the corners of these blocks you’ll find cutesy girls in English maid costumes inviting you to their maid cafes which is a whole bizarre sub-culture you’ll find plenty of literature on!

Harajuku

The must visit district, and within it the Takeshita Street. If there’s nothing else you visit in Tokyo, visit this street for a wild ride and a slice of Tokyo’s crazy! It’s the mecca for cosplayers, and you’re bound to run into whacky, cute, sexy, gothic or royal cosplayers, bringing their A game every weekend. They’re mostly school kids, so catch them before the zombie furries and the emo princes head back home and retire for bed. Pick up some blue hair color and purple eye contacts while here.

Shibuya

Here you’ll find the very very famous Shibuya crossing. It’s a 4-way junction with a 5-way pedestrian crossing and an infinite fun thing to do in the evening when you’re as packed as jam and important questions like why did the chicken not cross the Shibuya Crossing come to your mind! All those 4 lanes have tons of strange and fascinating sights.

We visited KiddyLand to show our daughter, it’s a store filled to the brim with toys stationery bags lunch boxes magnets keychains everything to do with….Hello Kitty! That’s just one floor though, there are 7 floors of goodies and I guarantee it’s not just for kids. Classy Minnie Mouse eyeglasses box anyone? You will for sure buy some beautiful looking junk you won’t really need but you’ll thank me later.

While we’re talking stores, just like Yodobashi-Akhiba mentioned earlier, Tokyu Hands is another awesome store filled with stories and sub-stories of organized Made in Japan products that will fascinate you. I ended up buying a VG-10 blade kitchen knife upon the husband’s fascination and insistence, and I am really looking forward to some serious onion chopping ladies and gentlemen.

One of my most favorite areas to walk around was in Omotesando, another area in Shibuya. Look for the back streets and the hidden inner fashion boulevard, it’s a small tree covered winding lane and makes for such a lovely stroll in the late afternoon with some really chic cafes and stores to just look at. It’s the hub of trends, much more local and homegrown than some of the more upscale parts of town like Ginza.

Hidden Gem: If you’re a fan of Ghibli Studio and Miyazaki films like Spirited Away or Howl’s Moving Castle, or if you just love the idea of a quirky mechanical clock that comes to life, you’ll love the Giant Ghibli Clock in Shiodome (pictured below with some vital travel beanie babies!). It’s a bit of a hunt, but reach 4-5 minutes before the clock strikes especially on the weekends with a little extra show. The whole show only lasts for 3-4 minutes so be on time! Check the website for the schedule.

Ueno

We visited the Ueno Park and within in the Ueno Zoo. So one park, any ONE for sure must be on your travel list, they’re BEAUTIFUL. When in Ueno Park, keep the evening slot free for walking about Ameyoko Shopping Street, where you’ll experience the vibe of the street markets and find fun things to eat like chocolate covered fresh bananas with sprinkles. Yummy! Visit the Yoyogi Park on Saturdays and Sundays to see the city’s artsy teens do impromptu skill practice. We caught some fascinating cultural shows while there. Look up other parks online for more charming foliage and flowers, there are many many gardens around Tokyo. If you’re into animals, you’ll find a great variety at the Ueno Zoo: Panda, tigers, gorillas, elephants, giraffes, zebras, penguins, flamingos, hippopotamus, bats, polar bears. Yea, pretty much everything. The star of the show is the Panda, except when he went he was sleeping with his butt to us :D

If you’re into the coolest science museums, then you cannot BE in a better country. Ueno Science Museum and the Odaiba Science Museum with its planetarium are going to satiate those geeky hungers.

Odaiba

This is a good 30 minute train ride away from central parts of Tokyo, it’s a man-made island with a mix of things to do. For us there were two highlights of the place. First, the Palette Town Ferris Wheel ride, especially in the see-through box so you’re suspended at the top of the wheel with nothing but glass under you! It’s perfect for viewing the city’s famous and outright mesmerizing skyline. Only thing is it’s a little short at 16 minutes.

For more views, the Odaiba observation point gives the best view of the sunset and night lights that follow, across the Tokyo Bay and Rainbow Bridge overlooking the entire skyline of Tokyo. It’s extra windy and chilly here. Second cool thing about the trip out to Odaiba is seeing the towering life size Gundam robot, which puts up a lazer fighting show periodically. Check the schedule.

I think I am done with this not-so-basic-anymore blog! Ask me any questions you may have, I know I know, I have left out a few vital aspects like budget and traveling with a child!

Remember kids! Japan is not your run of the mill holiday destination like the picturesque South Asian countries like Thailand or the historical architecturally rich European countries. And you will still find incredible Edo history and surprisingly beautiful excursions in Japan. Rather, Japan is a place to experience a really well-preserved exotic culture with people who are simply fascinating with their sophistication and politeness, a country that is eons ahead of others in technology and innovation, with food which is exciting, and the whole city is alive with passion of a spectrum of interests.

All them Links:

Must Dos

Gaming arcades like Sega. Linking one of them:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g1066443-d10094610-Reviews-Club_Sega_Akihabara_1gokan-Chiyoda_Tokyo_Tokyo_Prefecture_Kanto.html

Takeshita Street, the cosplayers’ street in Harajuku

https://taiken.co/single/things-to-do-on-takeshita-street-harajuku/

Tokyo Government Observatory Buildings. Yes I didn’t talk about them but they’re free observation sites and must visit.

http://www.gotokyo.org/en/tourists/info/observatory.html

Places We Ate

Traditional Japanese Rice and Curry from Coco Ichibanya - Halal green color branch

https://www.halalgourmet.jp/restaurant/202472

Cobara Hetta, Indian joint with thalis in Yodobashi

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g1066443-d1678589-Reviews-Cobara_Hetta_Yodobashi_Akibaten-Chiyoda_Tokyo_Tokyo_Prefecture_Kanto.html

Shinjuku Gyoen Ramen Ouka - Such a gem of a find! Run by cute Malay girls in scarves. Serious traditional ramen with a side chicken dumpling to die for! They have long waiting queues!

https://www.halalgourmet.jp/restaurant/344742

Genki Sushi, Shibuya. Conveyor belt sushi, you get 45 minutes to be in and out of the place, it is always packed!

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g1066456-d4234509-Reviews-Genki_Sushi_Shibuya-Shibuya_Tokyo_Tokyo_Prefecture_Kanto.html

Some cool stores

Yodobashi Akhiba

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g1066457-d3460595-Reviews-or30-Yodobashi_Camera_Shinjuku_Nishiguchi-Shinjuku_Tokyo_Tokyo_Prefecture_Kanto.html

Tokyu Hands, bigger branches at Shibuya

https://www.tokyu-hands.co.jp/en/list/

https://matcha-jp.com/en/328

KiddyLand, visit the bigger branches

http://japanlover.me/kawaii/kawaii-travel-guide/kiddyland-toy-paradise-in-harajuku-tokyo/

Uniqlo. All the essential basic wear in great prices and even better quality! We stocked up.

https://tokyocheapo.com/shopping-2/fashion/uniqlo-the-best-things-in-life-are-cheap/

Visit DAISO! Everything is 100 yen :D Find other 100 yen stores too, like Can Do.

Other interesting stores are Loft, Muji and Don Quijote.

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