#i want the young pope plotline to happen in real life too but not if it's going to be with a pope from fucking new england

[attila-werther]

in other news, the philippines got a new cardinal, so we're one step closer to achieving the plot of conclave (r. harris)

[akatokuro]

The Inevitable Saint Seiya Rewatch, Episodes 16-19

i am legitimately unsure how to respond to seiya fucking murdering a lady

- Hyouga, why the fuck would you leave your invincible rosary at Ikki's grave. TAKE THAT SHIT TO MU AND HAVE HIM RESEARCH IT HADES WILL NOT STAND A CHANCE

- ah yes, time for delicious toei filler

- In all seriousness, this filler is goofy and ridiculous as fuck, (OH NO THE BUGS ARE STEALING MY COSMO!!!) but I actually do like some of the character moments a lot, and I like the idea of the core group + Saori having time to bond and really become a team before shit starts really going down, and before Saori realizes she's a goddess.

- I have to wonder, though, if you're going to make filler to try to buy time while Kurumada smokes weed and makes shit up, why would you go with a really obvious "evil Pope" plotline? Seriously, it should be super obvious that eventually the manga is going to have its own plans for the Pope and Sanctuary, since he was a big figure in the first chapter/episode. Like, if the anime went to do completely its own thing, that'd be fine, but the halfway measure where it tries to weave weirdly back into the manga is just, uh, strange.

- Not that projecting Saga onto Toei's Evil Pope (complete with Evil Harem!) isn't the funniest fucking thing, don't get me wrong. Wait until they find out how much he loves being an owl!

- I mean, yeah, the montage of trainees dying horrifically by the hundreds is brutal and disturbing, but... is it really that much harsher than the picture we get of regular Saint training, considering LOL NINETY DEAD KIDS WHOOPS? I dunno...

- Marin and Shaina are both legitimately really cool characters. Saint Seiya ladies in general are cool as hell, you just wish that they got more focus, Saori included.

- The way Toei tries to inject RACISM!!! as another reason why Sanctuary evil feels a little weird, considering that, like, half of their Gold Saints aren't from Greece either...

- A wild Aiolia appears! The early stealth appearances of the Golds are a lot of fun. (Imagine how much more fun they could be if they were actually seeded in with, like, intent!) At this stage if you're watching blind you probably have no idea to make of this guy, who is also the narrator for the episodes...? It doesn't feel like he's obviously been set up as a "future opponent", but he's also not going out of his way to oppose the bad guys, either... but he does seem to be Marin's friend, so hmm...

-  It just seems like the kind of thing that'd be fun to play with, expectations-wise, if you're going to revise the series with hindsight in mind. In a way that, you know, gender-swapping Shun is not. What? Did I say something?

- Man, though, a Silver Saint like Shaina who is willing to shit-talk a Gold like Lia to his face... yikes. That's sort of nuts. You really do get no respect around here, do you, Aiolia...?

- have i mentioned lately that i'm in love with saori

- "Why are they after the Gold Cloth?" UH, BECAUSE IT'S A GOLD CLOTH, GUYS? HYOUGA, SHIRYUU, YOU TWO WERE TRAINED BY FUCKING GOLDS. SEIYA YOU'VE LIVED HALF YOUR LIFE IN SANCTUARY. YOU SHOULD UNDERSTAND THIS IS KIND OF A BIG DEAL?

- "Our magic warriors were secretly behind every major historical event ever" was cringe in Madoka Magica and, uh, it's cringe here too, sorry!

- I'd loooove to see a more elaborate process of Saori slowly realizing and coming to terms with being Athena. More Saori content in general, pls.

- AH YES, THE SHUN SHOWER SCENE

- AH YES, THE SHIRYUU WAKING UP WITH KIKI SCENE

- I really like seeing the Bronzies do stuff like run around town doing "normal" activities, like Shun jogging, though! Shun is cute! CUTE! I even like seeing Seiya hanging around with the orphanage kids and setting up Miho for extreme disappointment.

- SAORI STANDING UP TO AND SASSING A SAINT WHO JUST BLEW HER HOUSE UP BY HERSELF I CAN'T IMAGINE BEING THIS BADASS GOD

- her expression change when seiya shows up though hnnnnng

- The setup is dumb filler, but I like the underscoring that Saori is HARDCORE (ignore me, protect the Cloth!), the Bronzies meeting up to discuss what they should do, and Seiya's not-super-personal rationale at this point for going to rescue Saori. I actually do think their relationship has nice progression, the fact that ideally there would have been more focus on Saori realizing her Foundation is pretty fucking evil aside.

- wait, you guys are going with hyouga's plan? seriously? oh shit..........

- AND THE CRYSTAL SAINT APPEARS. MY NEMESIS

- oh my god i want to see camus demonstrating this hilarious ass leg freezing technique. 'donk' sound effect and all. why would you deprive me of this

- i like how even the crystal saint, someone who is obviously defined as very much a 'nice/good saint', will cheerfully watch his student get mauled by a polar bear as part of his training though

- I'm not sure if it's more plausible that CRYSTAL SAINT failed to warn Hyouga that "hey, even if you freeze their legs, they can still punch you" or if Hyouga heard and just forgot...

- Shiryuu and Kiki are too late to reach the cave, watching them fly away in a helicopter because this is a filler arc. Wait, Sanctuary uses helicopters? Is there a helipad in Saga's house? Is it equipped with a personal bath? I need to know these things, dammit!

- I would seriously watch an entire fucking episode of just the Bronzies and Saori sitting in a room together discussing battle plans and other serious business, punctuated by Seiya and Saori occasionally flirting, and Hyouga occasionally invading Shun's personal space. A+++ quality episode right there.

- GHOOOOOOST SAAAAAAAAAAAAINTS

- poor shaina, getting filler villain-ized. but on the other hand, i kind of like her more in the role of 'ruthless and threatening villain/supporting character' as opposed to having a crush on seiya, ngl.

- Saori shitting on Tatsumi is always the greatest thing. But even that aside, even with the GHOOOST SAAAAINTS, I... like the idea of more elements of the Graude Foundation and their interactions with the actual world getting involved in this conflict?

- ghost saints tho...........

- I also really like Saori already showing she's growing up and changing the way she thinks. She has this perpetually troubled air about her even in the Ikki arc, so even though there's not as much focus on what's going on in her head as there SHOULD be, it's plausible she's really mulling things over, re-evaluating them, and internally struggling so she can be up to this task she doesn't fully understand. Rather than being smug about Graude's capabilities like Tatsumi and like she was in the early episodes, she's already thinking about the impact of their actions on the world at large. Because she rules.

- Really wish we had some aspect of her more directly confronting the fact that her grandfather was an evil fuck, but it's one of those things I feel like I can probably headcanon too, I suppose.

- shun and the nebula chains mvp all day every day

- i like how seiya is sitting there playing sad guitar and hyouga and shiryuu huddle together and are just like "man seiya's guitar sucks" “i know right”

- Saori's growth is great because she really feels like an actual character to me? There's an awkwardness about how she's trying to approach the Bronzies and bond with them that feels really organic and endearing, but she's trying very hard. I really like touches like Saori trying to say the reason she came was because she was worried about them, and Hyouga and Shiryuu sort of exchanging this skeptical glance. It's what makes things on Saori's end sort of easy to 'headcanon', so to speak.

- I love this whole idea of Saori randomly chucking her jewelry into the ocean to 'show her appreciation'. Because it's so fucking weird and awkward. This is a gesture that doesn't actually mean anything to the Bronzies - they're totally like "huh? uh, okay" - and objectively it's a dumb useless thing to do, but you can tell she, as a young girl, has really been wracking her brain over how to SHOW that she's growing to care about them, and... and came up with this? Uh, it seemed like a good idea maybe? And her self-consciousness continues to come through, the way she can't even look at the Bronzies as she explains what she's trying to say is that their lives are more important than any Cloth.

- In growing this way, Saori is already vastly different from her grandfather and even Sanctuary, who obviously didn't value life at all - but Saori is trying to figure out and navigate this new way of thinking and caring on her own. Of course it'll be clumsy as hell, but there's also a real earnestness to it. Saori is so great...

- THE HYOSHUN IS VERY REAL. even in the midst of dumb filler, i love the way hyouga is so consistently attentive to shun. why is hyouga the only one who reacts to shun getting pulled underwater and then tries to save him? shiryuu was right there too... i mean...

- (the answer: hyouga is crushing on him hard, but)

- shun catching hyouga on the cliff against THE EVIL BUGS too ffffffffff

- NEBULA CHAIN! PULL IT UP!

- "Shiryuu, what happened!?" "I DON'T KNOW." and then we never speak of this again. sounds legit tbh

- holy shit did seiya just fucking murder a lady

- seiya just totally cold-bloodedly murdered a lady

- AIOLOS DID YOU JUST FUCKING WINK AT SEIYA AFTER HE MURDERED A LADY THROUGH YOUR HELMET I..................

- no, but seriously, she's fucking lying helpless face down on the ground and seiya fucking punches her to death what the fuck. even the way the shot is framed. and then you get to hear her scream in pain as she's being fucking punched to death. like seiya could have seen an opening and punched her as she was falling from aiolos's sucker punch, but while she's literally lying on the ground is really... uh...

- WELL, UM, MOVING ON I GUESS... SAINT SEIYA!

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Nanbaka 17 | ACCA 3 | ReLIFE 7 - 13 (FINAL) | D Gray Man Hallow 2 - 6

(Nanbaka 17)

I bet the fandom makes, “Something is breaking. It’s my heart,” jokes from now on. Or something similar to that. Fandom is corny like that.

I only just realised, but the green numbers that appear at the start of the OP are cell 13’s prisoner numbers. D’oh.

Couldn’t you just grab the shackles, Rock?

Chibi Hajime? Never seen that one before.

It just occurred to me that Qi may have done this.

There seems to be a patch of purple on Jyugo’s torso…for some reason.

Upa did it…?

Hey, that Bruce Lee quote came back…! There also seems to be a Bungou Stray Dogs vibe going on, not really being helped by the fact Yuto Uemura is Atsushi and Jyugo. Tsukumo is Yuri from Yuri on Ice, which is kinda funny.

I…accept your man candy! LOL.

Kiji and Uno are crazily on the same wavelength…

Oh wow, Uno just pulled out the Dazai stops.

“10 minutes later…”

CGI doors…what a pain in the butt.

The eye style on Uno makes me LOL too hard.

(ACCA 3)

Oh, so the OP’s red bird is an acca. Okay.

Potato gratin on toast. Never tried it, but I like potato gratin on cheese and cheese on potato gratin.

Bar Tattler. Perfect name for a place to spill secrets.

Wow. Formal dress isn’t that different to ACCA wear but it makes people look completely different.

There were huggggggggggggggge strawberries last time, remember?

Ooh. Things are getting interesting thanks to Mauve and the 5 General guys.

(ReLIFE ep 7)

Isn’t that Windows 7 Yoake has?

I never asked this, but what happens to failed subjects?

Hmph. They say in Japan that a guy and a girl sharing an umbrella is romantic.

ReLIFE really addresses the difference between personal involvement and work involvement.

Yoake really does remind me of Dazai sometimes.

LOL, Onoya, Yoake. Meanwhile, is that a pink computer? Don’t think I’ve ever seen a monitor that’s pink, although I have seen a pink brick phone and a pink laptop.

Arata’s senpai’s tale matches Yoake’s relationship with subject 001, now that I think of it.

I wanna know more about Amagase-san.

Love bubbles and sparkles, LOL. You are one strange character, Yoake.

You can easily tell Arata’s saying sumimasen , even if there are no subs.

Why did “I don’t have a car!” make me laugh so much?

I think there was an excess “and” in the subs somewhere when Yoake was reporting near the end of the ep.

(ep 8)

The animation on Oga’s hand was unnatural (as in, his second and third fingers were too far apart) when he waved.

“In the pink of health”? Never heard that one before.

“Appetite” is probably the wrong word for it, Amatsu-sensei.

He didn’t react by laughing at Tamarai’s, but I guess that would’ve been misinterpreted and/or impolite.

The final year of high school is all about going all out…

Is the pill in the eyecatch always blue? I saw it was orange last ep.

There appear to be English dictionaries on Inukai’s shelf.

You can see the bags under Tamarai’s eyes.

Revenge of the CGI balls, LOL.

You can see how much Asaji wants to help when he reaches out but then he takes it back. Huh.

Update: I was familiar up to about this part in the manga.

(ep 9)

Omurice. I like that word. Omurice. Omurice. Probably because “omelet rice” sounds weird…Omurice.

Do you think ReLIFE would benefit if its fandom had more memes? Because bees. The Bee Movie seems to be pretty popular as a meme subject these days.

Is this why people always want younger people to enjoy their youth? So they don’t have their dreams crushed later?

The three line eyebrows are distinctive, but they look a bit weird.

Oga, you innocent butt. Blinking ever so innocently at Kariu.

How ironic of you to say, “The last thing you need is a fall”, Oga.

Hishiron can’t be a soccer nerd. “Gooooal” doesn’t suit her.

Doesn’t Kaizaki have any better clothes than black and grey shirts?

Hishiron has her school bag.

Bullying is a Big Deal in Japan, where you’re not meant to pick on people at all. Western cultures wish for outgoing people, so for someone like me who sits more on the introvert side, life kinda sucks.

Seriously, An and Yoake, get together.

*facepalms* What a dork, Kaizaki. Hitting your head in you panic like that won’t get you anywhere.

That’s a weird way of putting that, Hishiron. “[G]et revenge with someone,” that is.

About the entire plotline: It’s easier to “regress” when it comes to writing stories but harder to “regress” when it comes to real life. It must be because of how used to living and growing up people feel.

(ep 10)

At the top of the staircase, Hishiron looked so confused (after she said that she’d watch the tournament).

“Of course I know.” – (Chorus: Of course Yoake knows.)

You’re too darned strong (regarding the door), Kaizaki.

I heard there was an English dub of ReLIFE. Hopefully they can sell the Hishiron voice well enough.

The first time, I was wondering what came after this.

(ep 11)

Why do people say stuff like “I’ll come with”? I’ve said it before, but never questioned it until now.

I actually think Onoya’ll be really grumpy when she wakes up.

I guess it’s the hairstyle, but I look at Yoake and I’m seeing Dazai…again.

I bet Arata will be sad once it ends, LOL.

Black companies – corrupt businesses filled with salesmen and women who can’t escape. That’s basically what I’ve picked up from Osomatsu-san, anyway.

Notice the pill is normally white/blue. This time it was black/blue.

There’s a very Western feeling to this. No wonder the West likes this more than Japan itself. It’s also quite the sociological study. It helps that this was one of the only two shows I watched in summer 2016 the first time around (the other being Boueibu s2) – I can see “One Wish They Never Wanted” reflected in this, and knowing me and the hard times I went through at the end of the year, it was most likely deliberate. After all, they do carry similar themes.

(ep 12)

I think there was a central institution uni applications go through in Japan. In my country, they have something similar.

I shipped Kariu and Oga so hard during these last two eps. It helps that I almost never take the shows with the ships.

Ow. That burnt so much, Arata.

Such a convenient hole in the wall.

Kamioka’s hair looks a little puffy.

You jerk, Arata. You didn’t think “the same thing”. You thought nothing of the sort!

Why is Arata a fish? Probably because Kaizaki means “ocean peak” (or something like it).

What’s up with that statue?

August 10th, 6:30 pm onwards.That’s when the fireworks festival is.

Arata’s got his own harem~! (Neener neener…and so on.)

(ep 13)

Why are only the girls in kimono?! (Update: Or is that yukata?)

You suave, suave player, Yoake.

The white figures really aren’t helping their case…

The blue and yellow sign tells you there’s a traffic obstruction due to the fireworks.

They’ve got some heavy focus on the earrings in a certain shot. It’s such good news for the ship.

Holding hands is a much bigger deal in Japan than it is in the West.

Of course Tama is such a target for mozzies. She’s so big in that region.

The fireworks look so lifelike in this anime!!! I said that for Showa Genroku too, though.

Like an ephermeal flower, a fireworks exists…or some other weird Yoda stuff like that.

Arata’s seems to be blue, while Chizuru’s seems to be green for the sake of colour coding.

Onoya’s fan says “festival” on it.

The pill background looks kinda like footsteps. It must’ve been deliberate they used such a pattern.

Off model at its worst (when the duo sat on the bench).

Dangitfalsekissscene!

LOL, lookit Hishiron’s creepy face.

Nothing is better than a properly-pulled-off bookend.

Welp, that’s the end of that. Hopefully we can meet again sometime, for some other show.

(D Gray Man Hallow ep 2)

Every time I see this ep, I think of a song. It’s this one, to be precise about it. Never mind about the music video, the lyrics and title suit it too well.

Poor Tim.

Ooh, macaron cake!

I forgot who Phantom Thief G was the first time. Then I checked him up and I remembered.

Wrong “throw”, subbers.

This scene where Link is crying is…very odd. There’s a lot of logic that really should be obvious that gets bandied about here.

Really? Fanservice?

If he has Innocence, Timothy’s guilty (in a sense). How ironic.

How do people even evaluate the Akuma’s level on sight?

(ep 3)

“Soul mate” is probably overreacting a little too much.

What a weird butt Galmar is. I can understand his reasoning for what he thinks though.

(ep 4)

People can never seem to agree on how to spell Tyki’s name.

Renny? Seriously, I laugh too much. “Lenny” would’ve been a proper name, but that’s a guy’s name. Then again, this is anime we’re talking about...

Tim’s so cute with the ZZZs.

That burn, Allen. So deep.

“This is the order of the Pope.”

“Hunting Exorcists, huh?”

(ep 5)

Everyone spells Alma’s name as Alma Karma, but the book cover says Alma Carma (sic). Huh.

Sometimes I question the need for a science section in the middle of an Akuma vs Exorcist war.

What the freak, Earl? Don’t scare me like that!

Improper poses? That’s so threatening. (sarcastic)

Unnecessary fanservice, number 2…? (Specifically the “you perv” bit.)

(ep 6)

A-hey. Young!Kanda animated in such a way that it invokes humour…it looks like Yurio. Lots of things remind me of Yurio these days.

How do they know exactly how many seconds it’ll take until the Seconds regenerate?

It’s bunny!Hoshino!

Such gallows humour. That’s why the novelty wore off on this show.

I think the word they mean is youkai instead of sprite.

The jackets come off…kinda sorta.

Is it “dreamed” or “dreamt”?

Can people even hear using stethescopes? I’ve never tried it myself, but I want to know.

Sometimes you forget Allen’s there.

How’d blonde guy (Edgar) get that blood around him?