#i watched all of mob psycho 100 over the last week or two and !!!!

[marcelineuntitled]

reigen page!

[truly-morgan]

[Reigen wears a chastity cage, cue video call sex (18+)]

MobRei | Mob Psycho 100 13-05-2023

[#mobrei, chastity, 2539]

Mob has to go away on a business trip for work, it should take a whole week at the longest. This means he won't be able to be with Reigen for at the very least a couple of days, a week at worse.

So he decides to leave him something that will make Reigen think of him while he's away.

"Arataka, please show me," Mob says to his phone, watching the way Reigen squirm on his end of the video call.

"Why do you always have to be like this" Reigen mumbles, moving around despite it all.

"Because I love you and like watching you" Mob smiles, watching as Reigen props his phone on their bedside table.

Then Reigen is starting to take off his sweatpants, seemingly hesitating when it comes to his boxers. When he finally pulls them down Mob can see the pretty pink cage still locking Reigen's cock away.

"What a good boy, I'll never get over how cute this is on you," Mob says, which only makes Reigen blush in embarrassment at his lover smooth-talking him like this. When had Mob grown this smoothly? Where had his shy and cute little Mob gone, who would blush because he wasn't sure what to do?

Now he would dirty talk to him and make him wear chastity cages.

"Did it make you think about me?" Mob then asked. "Ah, don't hide behind your hand" he warned.

Reigen couldn't do anything with his hand other than hold onto the hem of his shirt, looking away in embarrassment. "... Yes it did, all day".

It had already been two days that he was wearing it and he couldn't stop feeling it, couldn't stop noticing it anytime he needed to use bathroom, shower or change clothes.

He had been scared that people could notice it somehow under his clothes. He would die of embarrassment if anyone knew that he was locked away like this.

It was also frustrating since he couldn't touch himself properly.

it was a bit hard to do with the cage on and all he could do was try to finger himself although it wasn't really as satisfying as having sex with Mob (and he was way too embarrassed to go and try to buy some adult toy).

So yeah, this had made him think of Mob in more than one way and it had only been about two days.

"I'm happy to hear Arataka has been thinking about me so much" Mob commented, "I've been thinking about you a lot too" he then added with a soft smile.

Reigen couldn't win over that smile, all the love and warmth in the young man's eyes. All directed at him and only for him.

he couldn't be mad about being stuck in a cage until he comes back (not that Mob had forced him into it anyway, he wouldn't say it aloud, but he didn't hate it either).

"Has Arataka been touching himself while thinking of me?" Mob then asked, his smile growing more teasing once again.

This had Reigen flustered again, which was an answer of its own. "N-no" he said, thighs closing a bit more tightly.

"Is my usually good boy being bad right now and lying to me?" Mob asked, arching a brow. This had Reigen stubbornly say nothing for a while, thinking it over. Would he receive punishment from Mob if he kept lying to him? He wasn't ready for another edging session like the last one that had been done as a punishment.

"I... I might have tried to use my fingers... the same way you do" Reigen finally admitted. This had Mob humming, leaning back more on the hotel's armchair.

"Why don't you show me how you did it? I'll tell you if you are doing it properly" Mob offered.

Reigen looked back at his phone, looking a bit uncertain. They had done phone sex in the past, but never on a video chat.

Mob doesn't push for more, only offering him a small smile. In everything they've tried over the years, even when it's out of his comfort zone, never has Mob forced him into something. If he really doesn't want to push it farther he won't do it.

But Reigen is already starting to feel aroused from their little talk and he doesn't want to only have Mob's voice, he wants his eyes on him. Plus, it's not like anyone else could see it, nor is Mob recording any of this (he trusts that he wouldn't without his knowledge).

So Reigen moves around in bed, a bit closer to the camera, but also bringing what he needs to be settled comfortably. 

Often while of just teasing himself a bit to relax his nerves, he starts, even though he feels a bit shy about it somehow.

He tells himself that it's not different to when Mob is here with him, he's already done that before, put on a little show for his lover. It's just like when he's here with him.

It helps him think so when Mob starts talking to him again, sounding so close because of the earphone stuck in his ears. He listens as his lover gives him instructions, closing his eyes as he follows them, trying to reproduce the kind of touch and caress Mob would normally do. He tries to keep his voice in a little bit, but stops doing so when Mob says he wants to hear him.

After a while he opens his eyes, hearing how heavy Mob is breathing. There's a slight trembling to the camera, Mob looking flushed too, pupil dilated. He can't help but feel aroused at the idea that Mob is masturbating at the sight of the little show he's giving him.

They do this for a while, taking their time, not quite rushing it and enjoying the pleasure of doing this together despite not being with each other. Plus, Reigen does manage to cum properly this time.

He has to leave Mob for a little moment to clean up properly, only to fall back into bed once he's back into his pyjamas, now feeling tired. He holds the phone not too far from him, watching as Mob is also finishing changing for sleep too (he's still not over how muscular Mob has grown over the years, he truly has grown).

When Mob is back Reigen offers him a little smile, "I wish you were here" he finally says after a while, "The bed is empty without my dear boyfriend next to me" he points out.

Mob huff softly at this, "I also miss you," he replies "We are working hard so we can finish more quickly" Mob then adds, "I can't wait for this business travel and project to be over, I want to hold you".

"Don't mess up or it will take longer" Reigen teased him with a laugh.

"Of course, I won't" Mob pouts a little, before yawning.

"You should go to sleep, so you can be a good worker tomorrow" Reigen offers him.

"I still want to be with you for now" Mob replies.

"Then why don't we just chat until one of us falls asleep first, then the other can just end the call" Reigen offers.

This seems good enough for Mob who settles properly into bed. They talk about their day lazily now, up until Mob fall asleep. Reigen can't help but chuckle at the sight of his lover's sleeping face, he had looked pretty tired, and he was clearly working really hard so he could be coming back as soon as possible.

"Good night Mob" Reigen said after simply watching him sleep peacefully for a while, "I love you" he added, ending the call soon after to try and fall asleep too.

Original - AO3

[jestertizm]

Hello invisible youtube audience >:) Welcome to the first edition of me yapping to myself about the media i’ve consumed over the past week. I thought it’d be fun to do a little report every week about what i’ve watched and read and all that and just yap about what i’ve been doing. I’ve had a decent monday, knees and feet hurt like hell but i’m doing alright. we went to the pet store earlier to get crickets for my leopard gecko and they had kittens from the shelter there. and one of them was so friendly and came running at me when they opened the door aND HE WAS SO SWEET AND PLAYFUL AND WAS SUCH A PRETTY TAN-ISH GRAY COLOR HE WAS JUST LIKE MY CAT WHEN I FIRST GOT HIM BUT I COULDNT TAKE THIS ONE HOME AND I AM STILL DEVASTATED AUGH. But anyways-

I rewatched a lot of anime this week because my little sister wanted to watch them, including my all time favorite anime Kekkai Sensen. I could sit here and yap about how much i fucking love Kekkai Sensen but the amount of text i’ve already written is straining my eyes so it’ll try to keep it brief. I FUCKING LOVE THIS ANIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I found it scrolling through hulu when i was about 12 trying to find something to watch since my mom had only recently let me start watching anime, i thought it looked neat and was absolutely hooked by the first episode. It was so funny watching the same thing happen to my sister, up until that point she had only really watched kids and magical girl anime, she used to watch one punch man and death note when she was little, but she preferred magical girls like cardcaptor sakura. when we finished the last episode, the was silent for a second then she slowly turned to me and yelled “THAT WAS THE GREATEST FUCKING ANIME EVER”. That day she figured out why i had been so fuckin stupid about this anime for almost 6 years now. I fuckin love this anime. P.s. Klaus is my wife 🤭

My sister also DEMANDED i rewatch Scott Pilgrim Takes Off with her and oh my god i think i regret it. Now she wants to be EXACTLY like Ramona Flowers to the point where she finally wants to cut her hair after refusing to cut it for almost 12 years. Personally, I really enjoyed the anime a lot (if it wasn’t obvious 💀) though i wanna watch the movie soon. Also she won’t stop fucking sending me this stupid ass photo of Gideon Graves

Last thing i watched with my sister was Mob Psycho 100. I had started it by myself a while ago but told her we could watch it together, so we watched the first two episodes last night. I wasn’t really paying attention both times i’ve watched it, but i really like it so far, def a lotta jokes that caught me off and made me laugh. Not really much else to say, I love Mob though.

I’ve been watching My Deer Friend Nokotan since it started airing. I’m not someone that keeps tabs about what’s airing during what season and watches everything that’s currently airing, i usually just wait til it’s finished and then completely forget about it. if anything, this is this first anime i’ve watched that i’ve been watching as it’s released. It’s already half way through and my opinions so far: it’s goofy as hell. in a good way. the jokes are all so stupid but tbh i love it. some episodes aren’t as good as others, but i thought the last one (the 7th) was pretty good. idk why but the thought of Japan’s Next Top Deer Model made me laugh, kind upset i didn’t get to see Nokotan actually at the deer show 😔 also now whenever some goes wrong that one song that plays in every episode when something bad happens, that “shikaaa shikaaaaa shikaaaaaaaa” song, plays in my head. My only real gripe with the show so far is that the relationship Anko has with her sister Koshi is WEIRD AS FUCK. Like???? That’s one of the things i hate about anime and manga is why there is so much borderline incest in them??? eugh. On a more positive note, Nokotan is very silly and i love her. I bet Nara Deer Park in Japan has seen an increase in visitors lmao.

Second brand new anime i’ve started watching is Delico’s Nursery. I’m already an episode behind but oh well, i’ll probably watch that later. It’s pretty promising so far, the art style is very pretty and the opening goes hard. I know nothing about the stage play it’s supposed to be a prequel(? i think?) to, but if i’m being completely honest the pretty vampire men already have me ensnared lmao. Idk how to describe it, but you know that trope where the older, more serious guy comes across a traumatized kid and he essentially adopts them and is all like soft only towards them? There’s probably a better way to describe that trope but i am a sucker for it. This anime looks to be pretty much that trope except they are their biological children instead. Although one small issue i have is I think (i’m not 100% sure i didn’t quite grasp the plot yet) they are looking for this “true of vamp” guy but they shorten it to TRUMP and i cannot take it seriously every time they say something like “we gotta find Trump!” 😭 A BIG issue i take, however, is that the children are ALWAYS SCREAMING, LIKE MAKE THEM STOP. I hope to god the screaming and crying chills the fuck out in the next episodes but other than that it’s still wayyy to early in the series to cast any kind of serious judgement but i really like it so far just from the first episode.

I’m not really sure what I’m gonna watch next but I’ve got a few anime I’ve started that I should probably finish, like Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, and Serial Experiments Lain. Tbh I’m having a hard time finishing Serial Experiments Lain. Like, I do like it, I find it very aesthetically interesting, but story wise I don’t get it. I know you’re not supposed to get it, but I feel like there’s things that I am supposed to get that I don’t. Imo I feel like there’s too much going on but also not much at all. I can’t keep up with the amount of ideas being introduced at once that are discussed for a few minutes and then they don’t come back up until 2 episodes later, and by then I don’t remember what it is. Despite that, it’s also very slow, my little peanut adhd brain is struggling. I could be watching the episodes far too spaced out from each other since im kinda wanting to not watch it anymore, idk I might restart it and try binging it so I won’t forget as much. I really wanna like it, cuz Lain is literally me, I love her sm.

Also the reason why I still haven’t finished cowboy bebop and trigun is cuz my sister won’t let me watch them without her and she’s gone every other weekend at our dad’s house, which is usually when I wanna watch them 😔

I’ll probably wind up watching Ponyo soon. I’ve been meaning to watch the whimsical fish movie. that is all.

I think the next series I’ll watch is FLCL since it’s short. There’s nothing else coming out soon (except one i’ll mention later lmao) that interests me so it’s back to watching the backlog of 90’s/2000’s anime .

Spoilers for Goodnight Punpun (and by extension Blood On The Tracks) -

Ok, so i have started reading goodnight punpun a little over a week ago and oh my god. I’m currently half way through volume 4 and i really like it so far, but holy shit why can’t this family have a funky good time. you literally cannot have a character you like just even a little bit because then they go out and set a pet shelter on fire or something. I’m honestly so glad Punpun’s mom died but the poor boy is NOT gonna make it out there by himself 😭 and i’m conflicted about his dad because like? i dunno if he really is just an abusive piece of shit, or if he was just trying to protect his son from his batshit insane wife. ok it’s definitely both, but still, he probably genuinely cares about Punpun more, but it’s still such a conflicting situation because he seems really mentally absent. and i’d wish his uncle would just get hit by a train already, I wanted to like him but holy shit dude, whatever therapist you’re seeing they’re not doing a good enough job. i know what i’m about to say is gonna offend a bunch of people, but i’m sorry, Aiko is shady as fuck. Since i’m only half way through she might get better, but she seems like she’ll only continue to make life worse for Punpun, and he’d probably make hers worse too. I do have more sympathy for her though, don’t get me wrong, since she grew up in a cult and clearly has trauma, I don’t hate her, but Aiko and Punpun are only gonna fuck each other up. I do really like how Punpun changes appearance depending on how he views himself, though i have yet to figure out how to translates into a floating triangle. So far i’m enjoying the story, as fucked up as it is, it’s a pretty grim yet realistic look at how abuse, neglect, and trauma affects a kid’s development and the mindset they have as they grow up. a lot of the plot points remind me of Blood On The Tracks, another coming of age manga about a boy who grew up with a possessive, manipulative, and mentally + emotionally abusive mother. The way Punpun and Seiichi from Blood On The Tracks grow up with the effects of their trauma are very similar, as well as how every character is a horrible person, but they are also very nuanced. Anyways I’ll probably have this finished by next monday and i will provide my thoughts then too 👍

Ok, so i came across this manhua just completely randomly and looked it up because the art on the cover looked nice and holy shit I am so glad i did. I was not expecting the absolutely GORGEOUS art in it. It is easily the prettiest eastern comic i’ve ever seen, the colors are beautiful and looks incredible with the painterly artsyle. The story its self is pretty simplistic in my opinion. The whole story is only a little over 100 pages long and was a pretty quick read. Spoilers from this point on if you want to read it: It’s about Orange, a teenage girl who is suicidal and is about to jump off the roof of a building til she notices this drunk older man, Dashu, hanging out on the roof and then decides not to jump off that day. The story then goes over Orange’s life, her sneaking out of the house, getting boyfriends who wind up being pieces of shit, getting into trouble, and running into Dashu again. She ends up falling in love with Dashu, but she also has complex thoughts with her feelings about him. On one hand she is in love and is fascinated with him, and on the other she’s disgusted by him. Imma leave the summary off here because if you wanna read this it’ll just ruin the ending. The story itself can be pretty upsetting since it deals with suicide, isolation, and a minor in love with an adult, but i think it does a pretty alright job telling it with the limited time it has. I would recommend it if you like stories that explore the grittier aspects of being an older teenager and the topic of feeling isolated from society and because the art is gorgeous.

Im gonna take a lil break from Goodnight Punpun (since i usually only read one manga at a time) to read Dandadan. The anime is coming out in October and i’m thinking about watching it so i’m gonna read the manga first. It sounds really neat, with it being about aliens, yokai, and cryptid-like creatures (and i’m a sucker for cryptids). That’s pretty much all, I’ll talk about it more next monday. Also, I wanna know what this panel is about 💀

ough, i haven’t played any games lately 💔 AND I MISSED THE SPLATFEST AGAIN. I have no joke, literally missed every single splatfest since splatoon 3 came out. I AM NOT MISSING THE VERY LAST ONE NUH UH

Here’s the section where i recommend a random anime and manga from my list 👍

Ever thought, “Cowboy Bebop is good but i really wish they were girls instead”? Probably not, but if you like pulp crime and western style action, I recommend Gunsmith Cats. It’s only 3 episodes long and can be easily watched in a day. It’s about two girls, Rally and May, who run an illegal gun shop and get blackmailed by an ATF agent to solve a gun running case for them. There’s plenty of high action scenes of gunfights, car chases, and explosions, and i found Rally and May to be very likable characters in my opinion. The only small issue is there is a bit of fan service if you don’t like that, but I don’t remember it being very obstructive like some other shows with fan service, a lot of it is subtle. Overall it was a very fun watch for me and i def recommend it if you like stuff like Cowboy Bebop or 90’s western style action.

Blood On The Tracks is a very good psychological manga, and i would recommend it to anybody who also likes Goodnight Punpun, but similar to Goodnight Punpun, you should read it in a good headspace. I’m fortunate enough to not have an abusive mother but it still really messed with me with how realistic the portrayal of mental and emotional abuse was. I already gave a brief explanation of what it’s about when I was talking about Goodnight Punpun, but i feel like explaining far too much will take away from the impact of where the manga ends up. Massive trigger warnings for death, mental, emotional, and physical abuse, gaslighting and manipulation, murder and attempted murder, sex scenes (i think), and so much childhood trauma if you decide to read it.

And that was the first Media Yapfest, see you next monday >:3

[honeycomb-fics]

#Ghosted

Fandom: Mob Psycho 100

Pairing: Dimple x Reader (gender neutral) ft Dimple!Serizawa

Word Count: 2.4K too many

Fluff, Humor, Rom-Com (I will most likely make this a series)

Summary: What happens when you catch feelings but you’re already dead? Your series of misfortunes catches Dimple’s eye and he has to wrestle with the implications of romance in the afterlife.

AO3 link

Dimple was planning on spending his day accompanying Shigeo as he went with Teruki to look at the new Hagemon collection. He figured he would at least get some entertainment from his day dropping some snide remarks at how tragic he found their shared sense of fashion, but he couldn’t help but notice he was feeling a bit restless and bored. Even in the face of being able to toss some insults at Teruki, it was becoming less exciting as his hair grew back and he stopped switching wigs every two weeks, material wasn’t as readily available.

Something caught Dimple’s eye as he leisurely floated behind the two adolescent boys who were chatting away about god knows what, he zoned out a while ago. You had just rounded the busy corner, carrying an armful of coffee orders for your coworkers from Mobucks ready to make the trek back to the office when you tripped over a piece of uneven pavement, effectively dropping every last beverage.

“Oh fucking hell,” You sighed out, throwing your hands in the air in resignation, “The nightmare never ends..”

You rifled through your bag for some spare napkins and fruitlessly attempted to dry your pants before picking up the cups off the sidewalk. You stomped your feet as you made your way over to the nearest trash bin, chucking the coffee cups in with a vigor. A deep grimace lined your face as you wiped your hands clean, preparing to make a 180 back to the coffee repeat the entire errand.

Dimple watched the whole mess unfold with a sense of fascination at your expressions and exhaustion. Something about your deep sense of annoyance resonated with him.

He glanced at Shigeo before starting to float across the street in your direction, “Catch up with you losers later!”

You were already halfway down the block by the time Dimple floated in your direction. He opted to just linger slightly behind you as you entered Mobucks, he was a little put off by the fact that he felt inclined to follow you in the first place.

“Welcom- wait weren’t you just here?” The barista asked, “Was there something wrong with your order?”

You stared deadpan back pointed with one hand to your soaked pants that were clearly covered in coffee, “No, just dropped them. Give me a sec and I’ll retell you the entire order.”

Dimple thought to himself ‘this shit is hilarious’ watching you fish through your disorganized bag for a list while customers in this queue piled up behind you. Some impatient middle aged man let out an annoyed huff and you were growing visibly more distressed.

“I can.. probably look your order up in the system actually,” the barista chimed in after five minutes of your desperate searching.

‘Well damn why didn’t you say that sooner’ Dimple retorted to no one. Feeling himself starting to get annoyed on your behalf.

“Oh thank god,” you breathed out a sigh of relief, “I was never going to find it in this quagmire.”

You paid with your company card; which Dimple, much to his dismay, took note of where you worked, and you patiently waited for all ten drinks to be re-made. Throughout your entire journey back to the office, he trailed behind you feeling a small pit of anxiety hoping that this batch of drinks didn’t meet the same destiny as the last. Every time they started to teeter in your arms, he would subconsciously rush forward with concern.

“What the hell is wrong with me?” Dimple mused aloud.

He floated in front of you briefly and allowed himself to get a good look at your face, seeing if that was what drew him to you. He noted that, sure, objectively he considered you attractive but that wasn’t quite hitting the nail on the head completely. After all, he’s dead, what business does he have going around being attracted to the living anyway? Once you had safely made it to your office building he decided he had done his part and went his separate way.

-  -  -

Unfortunately for Dimple, he found himself increasingly curious about you since your Mobucks incident and since he just happened to know where you worked it was quite convenient for him to check in at his leisure. He had made several general observations about you, most of them frustrating. One, you were very ordinary, you worked an office job, had no ESP powers to speak of, you probably had hobbies but he didn’t dare follow you home. That was a line that even Dimple was not about to cross. ‘Well at least not yet you pathetic creep,’ he thought to himself. Two, despite having no detectable curse, you were one of the most unfortunate and unlucky people he had ever laid eyes on. This was both very entertaining and distressing for him. He watched you almost fall down a stairwell only to catch yourself at the last second, but subsequently drop the entire box of documents for the board meeting, which you had a complete meltdown cleaning up. There was something about the unbridled rage you exuded in private moments only to instantly put on a mask of cheerfulness in a public setting was- cute. Wait, cute? No.

That brought Dimple to his third point and possibly the most intolerable of them all, he had enough self awareness that he could admit he did find you attractive. He needed to stop this.

-  -  -

Dimple decided to visit Spirits and Such to clear his mind and reset for a bit. He figured watching Reigen flail around would provide him some much needed distraction from his current duress. He was thinking too much, and he was quite frankly over it. However, as soon as he phased through the wall he saw Shigeo sitting on the couch, he knew his plans had just gone to hell. ‘Shit,’ Dimple cursed in his head, ‘If anyone is going to see right through me, it’s him.’ He briefly thought about just retreating but he didn’t want to deal with the aftermath next time he decided to show his face.

“Oh, look who decided to grace us with his presence,” Reigen acknowledged Dimple with a teasing sneer, “I thought you finally moved on, it’s been so long.”

“Heh, don’t get excited. I’ve just been busy.”

“Busy? What do you even do?” Reigen rolled his eyes, glancing over to the spirit curiously.

Dimple mumbled just within Reigen’s earshot, “Not run a fake business..”

“Do you just come here to start—,” Reigen shot up from his desk, visibly perturbed. One of the things Dimple enjoyed about his friend, a term he loosely used for Reigen, not that he would ever openly call him that to his face, was that he was so easy to rile up.

“Oh I thought I heard Dimple’s voice,” Serizawa happily greeted the spirit, as he entered the room from the office kitchen, presumably finishing some small chore, “It’s been awhile!”

“Dimple?” Shigeo finally spoke up, “You disappeared on Teru and I the other day”

“I had something to do,” He attempted to divert as he settled on the other end of the couch Shigeo was on, “Did you get anything especially hideous from that store?”

“You seem different,” Shigeo’s eyes bore into him. Dimple knew that he was going to be persistent. The kid was growing more and more confident by the day and Dimple couldn’t be more proud but by god this was not the time.

“I am not different.”

Serizawa chimed in from his comically small desk, “I think that if you should talk about it if you’re struggling”

Dimple cast Serizawa an exasperated look, “FINE. I met this person, well I didn’t meet them. But I find them interesting. And I just have been checking in with them periodically. I don’t know why I am drawn to them, I would like it to stop. Immediately.”

“Maybe you’re sick,” Reigen offered, not even looking up from his laptop as he answered emails.

“I appreciate the concern for once. But I’m dead, you idiot,” Dimple replied, his tone laced with sarcasm, “I can’t get sick.”

Somewhat excitedly and curious, Shigeo asked, “Do you think you have a crush?”

‘That’s it’ Dimple thought to himself as he phased through the wall, fleeing the situation, ‘I’m done with this shit. They can mock me all they want.”

Out of a stroke or luck, you happened to be walking down the same street Dimple was aimlessly floating down. Heading to a Mobucks to work on a project in peace. Dimple mentally remarked on how you must be their most loyal customer; however, he just didn’t realize that it was pumpkin spice latte season and one of the few things that kept you going was a seasonal flavor.

Against his better judgment, he watched you for a few moments quietly as you got your order and situated your temporary work station in the coffee shop. His mind wandered on how it was nice to see you actually have a peaceful moment for once and how he enjoyed the serene expression on your face when you took the first sip of your drink. When horror struck through his body when Mob’s words ran through his head ‘do you think you have a crush?’

For once, Dimple didn’t allow himself to flee the situation. He forced himself to stay and ruminate on the emotions he was experiencing regarding his curiosity towards you. He couldn’t say for sure if it was a romantic inclination because you have never been able to communicate with him, but what if you could? How would that even work? Would he even want it to?

“What kind of fucked up beauty and the beast shit is this?” Dimple laughed to himself, thankful that no one could hear his self deprecating comments. He had almost wished he never came to this conclusion because now he was reeling at the frustration of it all. As much as he didn’t want to confide in anyone regarding his situation, Shigeo was the person closest to him and had figured it out. There was a chance he would spout something optimistic but he was usually realistic and straightforward when it came to Dimple. Dimple was really holding onto that one strand of hope that someone could talk some sense into him and make this disappear.

-  -  -

Dimple arrives back at the Spirits and Such office looking even more visually distressed than he did when he left. He looked around the room for Shigeo hoping to find the young boy for some kind of comfort, only to be greeted by Serizawa and Reigen. Reigen seemed to be taking in his frantic energy with amusement, leaning back in his office chair, spinning his pen in his fingers.

“Wait. Are you actually in love?” Reigen said half laughing, a look of shock on his face that he didn’t even bother to hide, “I didn’t even know that was possible?”

“Reigen, sir,” Serizawa admonished his boss, “Maybe we should be more gentle with Dimple… he seems stressed.”

Reigen flapped his hand in Serizawa’s direction, waving off his concerns, “If you’re so hung up, why don’t you just possess someone and, you know, actually talk to them. Instead of doing whatever you’re doing. It would be a hell of a lot less creepy.”

Suddenly, Dimple rushed forward, getting directly in Reigen’s face, causing the strawberry-blonde man to scramble back in his chair, “Wow, an excellent idea for once!” He exclaimed, snapping his small green fingers, “Let me borrow yours.”

“Absolutely. Not.” Reigen adamantly refused with a look of abject horror and disgust on his face.

Dimple quickly retreated, already forming another plan, not without shooting Reigen a quick look, “Whatever, you’re too ugly anyway.”

He was too determined with his next course of action to bask in the sounds of Reigen’s offended sputtering, focused on floating nonchalantly over to Serizawa’s desk. Feeling kind of like an idiot for not coming up with this idea himself, he could have been interacting with you this whole time. It’s not like possessing someone is necessarily hard, he’s wasted a lot of time.

“Heey, pal,” Dimple greeted, toying with one of his pens.

Serizawa eyed him warily for one moment before sighing and hanging his head. He calmly raised one hand when Dimple opened his mouth to voice his request.

“I will agree to help you on one condition,” Serizawa said, lifting his head up, sounding oddly stern, “That you do not do anything inappropriate while you are using my body.”

“I really would not trust him,” Reigen advised from across the room.

“Let the big guy make his own calls. I will treat your body with the utmost respect,” Dimple assured, trying his best to look convincing. He honestly didn’t have anything nefarious planned. The idea of just you being able to hear him speak for once was enticing and he was willing to be on his best behavior. The threat of Serizawa being able to vaporize him into nothing was always there, and there was something that Dimple couldn’t pinpoint but.. when Serizawa was annoyed with Dimple it did seem like he was considering it in earnest.

“If you two are going to do this just.. get out of here and do it. I don’t think I can take listening to it anymore,” Reigen said with his head in his hands, looking completely exasperated, “I don’t have any clients this afternoon that require you, Serizawa. Please, just.. handle,” He waved his hand around in a circle in Dimple’s direction, “This.”

“Alright let’s go”

-  -  -

Dimple spots you sitting at the same table at Mobucks, with your brow furrowed, seemingly concentrating very hard on something on your laptop. He hesitates for one moment before making his way over to you, not wanting to interrupt your work, but when has he really ever cared about being polite. Why would he start now? He finally had a corporeal body to borrow and a chance to interact with you, like hell was he going to waste this opportunity. Serizawa was nice but Dimple had his doubts that he would lend his body out habitually.

-  -  -

The empty chair at your table scraped against the floor loudly, diverting your attention from your work. Your eyes shot up from your laptop to the man in front of you. He was tall, quite handsome, with deep brown eyes, but he was wearing a shit-eating grin and he looked over your table.

“Oh, is this seat taken?” He inquired, as he slid himself into the chair.

[kin-n-n]

Look who's crawling out of their blanket cave of misery! Thanks for the tag @busymagpie, let it be stated that I rarely do any of these because I rarely get any and if I do I start but don't finish them and they end up rotting away in my drafts...so congrats, I guess?

3 Ships:

Oh man this is so hard for a multifandom enjoyer of any kind of ships there are too many, how dare you make me try and cram the multitude of joy bringing character dynamics I have into just three single ships!? What I can say is I'm in my gen ship era so predominantly batfam (especially Dick and Jason, Tim and Jason and just Bruce being a good Dad) Then there's the qpr of the core4 teen titan members because they make me melt into a happy puddle of warmth.

I also got dragged into the Hell that is the Call Of Duty fandom because my brain decided that was a good idea?! And I have an especially soft spot for Rudy/Alejandro

First Ship:

Okay, so this is going to be a very obscure one that no one knows and I'm not sure if I was actually actively shipping them because this was the first Anime I watched way back when and I just thought they were neat but it's the big brother character and his roommate I believe(it's been so long even I can't really remember) from Cheeky Vampire.

Last Song:

Waltz No. 1, Collapse – Hikaru Shirosu

I'm sick and alone at home so I needed something soothing to accompany this dreary winter day.

Last Movie:

I met up with a friend I hadn't seen in a while some time ago and we spontaneously decided to go watch Black Adam because I had been really hyped for it and it was airing and she couldn't resist my puppy dog eyes ehehe It was a real fun watch

Currently Reading:

Err...Technically...The Silmarilion but I somehow just can't find my way into it no matter how much I want to. Probably should've started with LotR instead...but aside from that the Jason Todd Zine I ordered came in the mail and I've been enjoying all the wonderful fanfic, if that counts?

Currently Watching:

Hmmm, nothing really. I started a re watch of Mob Psycho 100 recently but didn’t finish it. There is a Anime I'm waiting on that's going to air in late January I wanna watch it's about two detective/assassin type characters that find a child and have to take care of her and the found family feels is exactly my vibes ><

Also, I am determined to watch The Untamed for real this time, as soon as I'm better and not so swamped with uni work!

Currently Consuming:

Leftover crepes from yesterday's breakfast

Currently Craving:

Health, because I've almost chocked/suffocated to death way too much over the last week and maybe after I'm better a bit more motivation so I can finish important uni projects that are overdue and also start doodling a bit on the side again

No pressure tagging @swanfloatieknight and @ed-teach

[kabuwu]

Thank you to both @thelocalmuffin and @angomay for tagging me ! I meant to do this a bit earlier but -_- .. here we are now . Assuming that we are all answering the same questions so :

Favorite colors :

Red (like uh . Blood) and also Magenta. I think paint wise it would be something like a quinacridone (?) Rose

Currently reading :

Nothing ! I've been meaning to read alot tho -_- ..

Last song I listened to :

Toss up between World's Smallest Violin and the Misery × Reeses Puffs × [insert whatever song it is I forgor here] remix (doooont judge me)

Last series I watched :

Mob Psycho 100 season 1 (rewatch bc my friend was watching it while I was staying over)

Last Movie I watched :

Probably the new Doctor Strange movie ? It was .. a movie . They tried to do a weird phantom of the opera parallel bc the girl's name is Christine . Did not land (personally . I could not care less abt anyone rly disagreeing. The scene with the music notes in the air was cool tho + could def tell Raimi was directing)

Cravings :

Pizza >_> . . I usually have that about every two weeks tho . What can I say ? Dough + cheese + tomato sauce = very nice and very good

What I'm working on :

Art piece for an event coming up ! I'm in the planning stages, just need to start drawing it out. I'm also technically "working" on my dgs fic WIPs (aka thinking abt them and not touching them)

Ok now for tagging . Supposed to be 9 people ? Dont feel a need to actually do it ofc if its not someth you want to do :

@b1gsh0t1997 @jellophoid @soumastix @wolf-three-fifty-nine @0wldn0 @your-favorite-cowboy @tigerhart @jzixuans

And literally anyone who sees this just say I tagged you and do it if you'd like :D!

[doorbloggr]

Friday 21/5/21 - Media Recommendations #3

Its Friday again, so its time for me to tell my readers about media that I enjoyed and recommend others engage with. But this week, since the things I want to talk about share common themes, I want to theme this week around Belonging.

Finding your physical, social, or emotional place in the universe is an overarching theme in lots of storytelling. It is a universal human experience to want to belong. This week, I'm gonna skip out on recommending music and instead give you two anime and one manga that share the theme of belonging.

Contents for those who want to skip ahead:

Anime: Mob Psycho 100

Anime: Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid

Manga: Chainsaw Man

Fair warning, this is going to be a long post

Anime: Mob Psycho 100

Belonging stories are often described as tough, difficult, distressing, but rarely are they... wholesome. Mob Psycho 100, despite the name, is a very welcome change to the formula of a beaten-down person fighting the world. Sure, the world has hardships and adversaries, but it also has support networks and allies.

Mob Psycho 100 is a story about a very rattled, timid boy named Mob who has been stricken with psychic powers, but the good people in his life help push Mob to become the best version of himself. The show has a lot of subversive themes, and much like Mob himself, sends a message that we should never judge a book by its cover.

Mob's powers are strengthened by his own inner traumas and stress, and the anime will periodically update viewers on this mental state with a percentage out of 100. The higher the number, the closer Mob is to his breaking point, and when it reaches 100, Mob loses conciousness and a savage mindless version of himself fighting at full psychic force takes over. In most Shonen type anime, refining this form and pushing it to its full potential would be the end goal, but Mob is taught by his master to avoid using it. He can become a stronger person without losing control.

Reigen, the main supporting character is many people's favourite part of the series. We're introduced to him as a self righteous con artist who recruits Mob to benefit from having an actual Esper working for his exorcism business. But Reigen has a heart of gold and every action he makes is to grow Mob into an emotionally stronger person. Mob meets many other Psychics throughout the series that see the potential in Mob's power, asking him stop being nice and just go apeshit. But the first thing Reigen teaches Mob is to never use his powers against people. And he puts himself in the line of fire to uphold that value.

Mob Psycho 100 is an story about believing in yourself, and that if you look for help, it will be there, and you will grow stronger from it.

Anime: Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid

On the other end of the spectrum, what if you were a perfectly stable person, had a perfect grip on life and were always in control. But you lack company. That is the story of Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid. This anime sends a message from two different angles about how you can grow from a person with few/no flaws into a stronger form you never knew could exist if only you let others into your heart.

Kobayashi's Dragon Maid essentially has two main characters. Kobayashi was a business woman in her early 20s living alone and just generally enjoyed the solitary life. Tohru was a Dragon from another world who lived most of her life as an independent powerhouse, and mostly flew solo. When the two meet each other, they form a lasting bond that improves the both of them.

Although this anime seems mostly like a slice of life fanservice, and it is, the deeper story is about finding your place in the community, finding a home. Much of the anime focuses on Tohru, who has settled (mostly) into a human form adjusting to her voluntary role as a housemaid for Kobayashi. She comes from a world of magic and much of the way our world works is a learning process for her. Although she is a powerful magic user herself, Kobayashi tries to teach Tohru to be more humble and human. After all it is not the magic side of Tohru that Kobayashi enjoys, it is the social side, the emotional side, that endears the people around her. Tohru is brought down to Earth to become a more emotional, grounded person.

Kobayashi on the other hand, becomes more of an outgoing person as a result of caring for what eventually becomes two dragon girls. In showing the dragons how the world works, Kobayashi grows more socially confident and allows herself to express more of her quirkier side to her friends, and the dragons. The other dragon girl that moves in with her, Kanna, wishes to go to school, so Kobayashi is moved to become more motherly and socially involved in order to help Kanna achieve this.

Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid is a cute little story about finding where you belong, and who you belong with. You just have to put yourself out there and be nice.

Manga: Chainsaw Man

This is not a cute little story. Chainsaw Man is a very harsh, gruesome story about finding meaning in life. Main character Denji works in squalor as a devil hunter to make up the insurmountable debt his father left him. But when conditions force him into a situation where he is left in an even worse state, fate hands him a lifeline. After he becomes part devil himself, he is discovered by Makima, a high ranking devil hunter who works for the Public Safety Devil Hunters, and is offered a much cushier life in the big city. All it will cost him is his unwavering loyalty to Makima.

Given how rough Denji had it for most of his life, just being able to live a life of 3 meals a day, with a home and money is the ultimate dream. His allies tell him that he needs a dream, a goal, motivation, to give his life direction, but Denji believes that being allowed to live in relative freedom is the relative end goal. I say relative freedom because Makima is a cruel mistress, and her demands for allowing Denji to exist is that he become her dog.

Chainsaw Man is not all doom and gloom however. The tone manages a unique balance of absurd, deadpan humour and senseless, non-nonsense violence. The action is a spectacle, but very straightforward, no pomp and circumstance, just chainsaw goes in, blood comes out. What sets this manga apart from other gory demon hunting stories I've read/watched is the growth of characters.

Where similar themed stories would start with a character who has a goal and they grow stronger to accomplish that goal, Chainsaw Man is about finding a goal to start with. Many of the characters, not just Denji, but Power and Aki too; their arc is finding a meaning in life. Yes they fight because they have been told to, but what if they found something to fight for?

Chainsaw Man is about finding a reason to live. Instead of living in the moment because of who or what you belong to, decide what makes you want to keep living and live for that meaning.

[alitaimagines]

character: reigen arataka - mob psycho 100

song recommendation: wepa by gloria estefan 

note: russia imagine next?? idk. i tried to make this imagine as un-memey as possible. it was HARD. as the song is in Spanish, the reader is implied to be Latinx.

mob admittedly knew that his master wasn’t the most sociable person the planet. no matter how much he told mob he had friends outside of him and Serizawa, he knew that was a lie. 

Salt Middle School was going to have a cultural week to show off any exchange students or faculty they had on campus. the week was going to include various foods, games, and shows preformed by the exchange student. Mob knew that this would be the perfect time to have Reigen come by and enjoy the scene with Serizawa. 

after not much persuasion, both of them were on board with the idea to come to a few of events. Reigen liked to think that he liked various foods and he never turned down the idea to get free food or samples. 

when the two of them arrived to Salt Middle School, they noticed all the students in different stands. a lot of them were shoving down food, playing games, or doing both. 

“master! Serizawa!” they heard Mob say. the two of them waved at him as they noticed food in his hands, “the body improvement club has a stand here so I have to work but all the stands our open for everyone to try out,” he explained. 

they both started out at the beginning of the stands tasting French, Italian, and other ethnic food. all Reigen was missing was a nice beer in his hand however he knew that wouldn’t happen at a middle school event. 

Reigen couldn’t lie to himself, with all the supernatural work he had and taking care of Shou, he hardly had anytime to actually go out and do something fun that didn’t have work intertwined with it. 

once they came to a stop at another booth, he was ready to start scarfing down food before he came to look at the teacher passing it out. 

Reigen came to a complete stop as soon as she passed him the small piece of bread. “hola!” she said giving him a smile, “me llamo Senora ( your name ), what you’re tasting is a Mexican bread called a concha!” Reigen slowly took another piece of it but didn’t say anything back. “we also have quesadilla Salvadorena if you’d like a taste!” 

this time Reigen gave her a flustered smile before taking it, “thank you,” he muttered before taking Serizawa’s hand and running to the body improvement stand. he knew that if anyone knew who the beautiful girl he had just encountered, it would be Mob. 

“MOB!” he yelled as he got to the table. everyone from the body improvement club gave Reigen a bewildered look, “come here!” he yelled. Mob felt himself getting jerked to the back of the stand. 

“who is the woman in that stand with Spanish music!” he asked exasperated. Mob turned his head to see who he was talking about, “oh, that’s Senora ( your name)! she teaches Spanish for all the third years. I have her for my first class of the day,” he explained. 

Reigen’s eyes sparkled from the idea of knowing that Mob knew you kind of personally, “is she married?” Serizawa and Mob gave Reigen another bewildered look, “I don’t know,” Mob responded kind of annoyed, “she doesn’t have a ring so I guess not.” 

he looked to the stand again to see you still passing out a bunch of bread and candy to parents, other teachers, and students. from the looks of it, he could’ve imagined that you were probably one of the favorites in the entire middle school. 

“I’m going to talk to her again!” Reigen exclaimed making Serizawa and Mob’s mouth drop in surprise. they knew their boss was confident but not THIS confident. “are you sure about that, master?” Mob asked. 

Reigen shrugged, “what’s the worst that could happen?” he replied. Reigen heard Ritsu instantly start laughing, “her denying you for starts.” Reigen rolled his eyes before wiping his already nervous hands on his suit pants. 

he nervously made his way to your stand again. he watched as you were dancing with a few students who had the nerve to come up with you to dance. Reigen watched as you spun a few students in circles before grabbing one of the girls hand, spinning her, and finishing off the dancing by putting her in a salsa-esque pose. 

the parents and faculty who watched clapped as the students asked to continue to dance. “Master!” Reigen heard Mob say as you immediately turned your head to see Mob coming towards you. 

“ah, Kageyama!” you said waving him over. Reigen stood behind Mob as the two of them walked up to the stand, “I thought you were working with your club?” you asked as you gave the familiar man another smile, “oh Kageyama, do you know him?” 

Mob nodded his head rapidly, “he’s my mentor,” he told you as you shook his hand, “that’s awesome for you to bring him here! have you enjoyed the stands so far?” you asked him. 

Reigen gulped down the nervous lump in his throat, “uh yeah, yours was the best though,” you let out a flustered laugh, “thank you! there’s more treats if you’d like some more!” you offered. 

Mob slowly walked away from his master and his teacher as the awkward formalities were finally out of the way. “here, let me put some in a baggie! you wouldn’t mind waiting just a tiny bit, would you?” you asked him. Reigen shook his head no. 

you started off with small talk with Reigen as you tried not to get the conversation awkward. you were able to tell that Reigen was more awkward than you realized but once you took out the bread from the fresh pan, his nervousness washed away as you put some on a small paper plate. 

 “try it! the bread is really good when it’s fresh!” you inquired before taking a piece out for yourself. both of you moaned from the deliciousness before laughing, “did you make this yourself?” he asked. 

you nodded, “worked all night for tonight and tomorrows batch and I have to do it all again from scratch for wednesday and thursdays batch,” you explained. 

Reigen fiddled with his fingers as he figured that this was his chance to hang out with you. the nervousness built up in the pit of his stomach as he wiped his sweaty hands on his pants again. 

“I can help if you want...only if you want me too!” Reigen exclaimed as he immediately wanted to retract on his offer, “of course! tomorrow I’m only here for two hours before I get the chance to head home! you can meet me here and we can ride back to my house!” 

Reigen was surprised that you took his offer but nevertheless gave you a smile, “great, I’ll meet you here tomorrow!” he replied before taking his baggie of bread and leaving. 

you immediately turned around and let out a nervous breath. Reigen on the other hand walked back to Serizawa and Ritsu before giving him a smirk. “I have a date with her tomorrow!” he exclaimed making all of their mouths drop in surprise. 

-

Reigen felt like the day took forever by the time he was due to go to Salt Middle School. he put on another suit but with a different colored tie and actually tried to smell decent unlike yesterday where he smelled like cigarettes and beer. 

once he said hello to Mob and everyone at the body improvement club, he slowly made his way to your stand again. you were putting a few things away as your assistants made their way to your classroom to put back other things. 

“ah, Reigen!” you exclaimed with a smile, “I’ll be done in just a few minutes, you can sit on a chair until we can head out!” he nodded as he watched you put stuff into boxes and sending them away with the assistants. 

you grabbed your keys from your purse and gave Reigen a look, “ready?” you asked. Reigen nodded as he got up from the chair. 

the two of you walked to your car and during the walk to your car, Reigen took the leap of faith to hold your hand. his face was completely red as your face went completely warm from nervousness. 

it had been years since the last time the two of you were in the dating scene but you had to be honest with yourself, you thought Mob’s mentor was really cute. a bit dorky on the edges but regardless, his eyes were the thing that made you drawn in for him. 

for Reigen, he had never gone on a real date with someone before and although he was nervous, something told him that he could see himself with you for the long haul.

ALITA 

[megaboy335]

Mega’s Top 2020 Anime

The year 2020 is finally coming to an end. It’s been an unusual year to say the least. Coronavirus more or less almost cancelled the entire spring anime season, which lead to a strange anime schedule for the rest of the year since delays have trickle down effects to what was in the pipeline. To be completely honest, this was not a good year for anime. I watched only a handful of very good shows, and the rest were mediocre at best. The top 5 shows I talk about here are definitely worth watching at least.

So with the introduction out of the way, lets get into this. As usual this list is just my opinions. Don’t take it too seriously.

1) Kaguya-sama Love is War? (Season 2)

The second season of Kaguya-sama took everything from season 1 and brought it up a level. The visual gags became more impressive, the voice acting was just as good, and the show is delivering sharper writing as we get deeper into the manga. 

Season 2 added two new notable aspects to the show. First, a new member to the main cast by the name of Iino. She adds a new angle to exploit for the skits as someone who adheres strictly to the rules. This often means Iino and Kaguya frequently bump heads. In fact how they interpret a situation can be entirely different, which creates numerous misunderstandings between them. Second, Kaguya-sama began expanding the skits into long form stories. There were a series of skits that form an arc spanning an entire episode, or in some cases multiple episodes. Episode 11 was the highlight of the season where Ishigami confronted his past to overcome the bad stigma surrounding his character. Additionally, the story added depth to his connection with Shirogane while making us realize there was more to Ishigami than meets the eye. Kaguya and Shirogane also both became a little closer as the tangled web of their schemes yielded unexpected results at times.

Kaguya-Sama has an ova and season 3 planned. I eagerly look forward to seeing what new crazy situations the characters find themselves in. 

2) A Certain Scientific Railgun T (Season 3)

After waiting 6 years since the conclusion of season 2, the Railgun anime finally returned to adapt two more arcs from the manga. 

The first half was a Railgun version of the Daissheisai Festival arc. This version focuses on a completely different event in the arc with a story involving Misaki, Misaka, and Dolly. It pulls us deeper into the story threads established in the Level Upper and Sisters arc of what the scientists were doing out of the public eye. We meet the original Misaka clone and how Misaki came to meet her which adds a new layer to the current Misaka and Misaki relationship that we never knew. We see how Misaki is also a victim of the dark experiments occurring behind the scenes in Academy City. The experiment to turn Misaka into a level 6 was a very hype moment. Railgun’s Daissheisai Festival arc definiely hit all the right notes.

The second half of Railgun season 3 was the Dream Ranker arc. Like in previous seasons, I found the 2nd cour arc to be weaker than the first half. Indian Poker is a fun concept, but didn’t cleanly tie into the overall story. I also found it weird how special cards that can exchange dreams suddenly exist out of nowhere. Additionally, this arc brought it characters from the Accelerator spin-off which I wasn’t familiar with. It had a few cool and funny moments scattered throughout. The final fight at least brought the conflict to a satisfying conclusion. The only thing holding back Railgun for me like always is my lack of knowledge of the greater Raildex universe. Hopefully this won’t be the last we see of Railgun in animated form because I picked up the manga and the next arc is pretty neat.

3) The Journey of Elaina

The Journey of Elania is an anthology-centric anime where we follow Elania on her adventures. The first episode is a prologue to how she became a witch and the origins of her ambitions. Episode 2-onwards follow a fairly straightforward template of Elania arriving at a new location. She notices something isn’t quite right or learns about something from a local. As the story unfolds, Elania often takes a backseat role and opts to watch things playout. An anime of this style always brings a mixed bag to the table with the kind of stories that are told within the universe. Each episode/adventure is only loosely connected through the main character Elania traveling to a new location, but otherwise they are mostly independent besides a handful of recurring characters. 

Naturally this format means there are both great and not so good episodes. There are bitter sweet tales, comedic, and even a few darker entries mixed within this show. In particular, there were a few standout episodes that cemented this show as something worth watching. Episode 7 was a comedy episode split into two halves. One half showed how two towns divided by a wall were ironically doing the same thing to the wall on each side. The second half recalled how Elania accidentally started a grape stomping tradition in a tiny village. Then there was episode 9, the darkest entry of the show so far, when Elania went back in time to help someone save their childhood friend. However, this person came to realize she hardly knew what her childhood friend was really like. Lastly, the last episode was unexpectedly deep where Elania met various alternate versions of herself and had to confront a dark version spawn from the events in episode 8. It showed how her journey can take all sorts of directions if events had transpired even a little differently.  

A high part of the appeal to me was never knowing what kind of story we would get each week. Was it going to be light-hearted? Serious? Would it focus on Elania or not? Her adventures were certainly full of unexpected happenings. The light novels are 17 volumes in and still going. I wouldn’t mind seeing more if they ever wanted to make another season.

4) Tonikaku Kawaii

From the prolific author Kenjiro Hata comes an anime adaptation of his newest work under the “Crunchyroll Originals” label. The story is simply about a guy who is head over heels for his new wife and can’t get over how awesome it is living with her. Tonikaku Kawaii is a simple show that chooses to highlight the little moments between our main couple Nasa and Tsukasa. We go through all sorts of everyday events with them such as the act of buying a ring, a new television, bedding, and meeting each other’s family. All the characters are so earnest you can’t help but enjoy their silly banter. There is little to no drama here to drive the story forward. You just get to enjoy a newlywed couple discovering new things about each other as they go through everyday life.

However, at the end of the day Tonikaku Kawaii is far from complete and is honestly the type of show that likely wouldn’t make my list most years. It hardly scratched its overarching story during the 1 cour run. The thing that put it over the top for me was simply how likable each of its characters were. They all present their emotions like an open book and you come to enjoy the little quirks of each one. I was slightly confused at how this show became a “Crunchyroll Original” when anything by Hata would have probably gotten an anime sooner or later. There are plenty of other Weekly Shonen Sunday series that could really use an outside force to help them get animated. I can only hope it did well enough for Crunchyroll to consider investing into more from the magazine .

 5) Ahiru no Sora

As usual, my list usually contains at least 1 show that began in the previous year. Ahiru no Sora is an anime that not a lot of people watched, but became one of my favorites each week. This is a 4 cour basketball series about a main character named Sora who is too short for basketball. Despite this set-back, he has a deep passion for the game imparted from his mother and wishes to someday find the same success as she did at the sport. The story begins when he enrolls in a new school and has to build the basketball club from scratch. However, the catch is the basketball team is basically non-existent. He ends up creating a team from a group of unlikely people: the ones who were bullying him. Ahiru no Sora presents a down to earth human side to the sport. There are no fantasy or supernatural elements found in this story. It follows a group of rough around the edges guys whose lives gets back in order through playing basketball together.

All of the main characters go through a decent amount of growth as their personal stories are explored, and Sora especially is taken through a series of events that allow his character to grow more than anyone. I was pleasantly surprised at how emotional it got at times. There was some real heart put into this series. In the middle of the show it genuinely felt the team had hit rock bottom. They lost a major game, the club room was lit on fire, and Sora lost his mother all right in a row. It was the recovery from that period and how each member matured from their experiences that solidified Ahiru no Sora as one of the top shows this year. The only thing holding back the show is that it's left incomplete since the manga is on-going (and actually on hiatus at the moment). I hope there will be an opportunity down the road to have more episodes.

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Disappointments of 2020

1) Deca Dence

I enjoyed Death Parade, Mob Psycho 100, and Detective Conan: Zero the Enforcer was pretty good too. So I figured another original anime from Tachikawa Yuzuru would be something I would like, and yet Deca Dence barely resonated with me. I could never wrap my mind around the setting of the show where robots would enter an alternate world called “Deca Dence” for sport or how these robots had a human persona in the game. The humans were effectively NPCs in the game to the eyes of the robots. The show no doubt had a story it wanted to tell, and it certainly went through the plot beats it wanted to hit, yet I could never get invested in the show. I’m still looking forward to whatever Tachikawa Yuzuru does next. I’ll just consider this as something was not for me.

2) The Day I Became God

This show marks Jun Meada’s 3rd anime original project with P.A. Works. I understand that Angel Beats and Charlotte are flawed shows, but that did not stop them from being enjoyable for me. This unfortunately did not apply to The Day I Became God. At a base level it has many of the usual troupes you would expect from a Jun Meada title: the humor, baseball, an emotionally driven story. The place where this shows failed hard was having no backbone to back up the story it was trying to present. I enjoyed the comedy in the early episodes quite a bit and was somewhat intrigued by a subplot in the background that was slowly creeping up on the main plot. Ending each episode on a countdown to the end of the world helped to keep a looming sense of unease during the early part of the show.

Then in typical Jun Meada fashion, the plot of the show hit all at once. Episode 9 was the big climax where the subplot and main plot collided to send the show into its “true” storyline. The hacker kid who uncovered everything about Hina in the early part was poorly utilized and underdeveloped. So when he joins our main group in episode 10 for a short period of time, his presence makes very little sense. I can only describe that part as a 10 hour VN plot condensed into 10 minutes. The male lead Narukami has almost no personal stake in the story. Hina is hilarious in the comedy episodes, but lacks any sufficient character arc built up to carry her into the final section. Jun Meada is trying to sell this as a love story between Narukami and Hina, but I just don’t see it. Narukami spent at least half the summer trying to wow his childhood friend only to suddenly change at the last minute. It felt so haphazardly put together.

The Day I Became God is an extremely bare bones Jun Meada story. It goes through the motions of similar elements to his previous works, but comes out feeling emotionally hollow. While Angel Beats and Charlotte also felt rushed in the grand scheme, I can at least say he got the emotional aspect right. This will be remembered as one of, if not Jun Meada’s weakest title.

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Top OPs/EDs of the Year

1) Jujutsu Kaisen Opening 1 - The song is great, but it’s the visuals that really sell this opening. Each shot is brilliantly connected to showcase how everything in the world of Jujutsu Kaisen is layered. There is far more than what meets in the eye in our surroundings. Curses and humans co-mingle more than you might think.

2) A Certain Scientific Railgun T Opening 1 - There still hasn’t been a bad Railgun opening yet. Flipside once again delivers a song that once again never failed gets me in the mood for the episode each week. The visuals highlight some of the best action moments in the arc too.

3) Black Clover Opening 10 - Unlike the other songs on the list this year, this a slower somber song. It always makes me think of Nero’s backstory and how the story was leading up to the fight versus the devil. The black and white aesthetic with rain conveys how everything is laid bare for this major story climax.

4) Kaguya-Sama Love is War? Opening - Just like how this season is more character focused, the opening animation is basically a 90 second skit. It never fails to get to get me in the mindset for the hijinks that are ahead in the episode. The song itself is also a great follow up to the previous opening.

5) Rent-a-Girlfriend Opening - It’s a colorful opening that highlights the best aspects of each character. It completely conveys what the show is about with some nice music. I love how fun and upbeat this opening is. It definitely helped to set the tone for the episodes each week.

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....and so, that brings 2020 to a close. The North American anime scene is shifting once again with Sony buying out Crunchyroll. Hopefully the result of the merger keeps Crunchyroll as an entity alive. I’ll be curious to see how everything shakes out. In the coming year I am most looking forward to Chainsaw Man’s anime. The manga is quite an experience and anime viewers will be spinning their heads over learning how such a series was published in Weekly Shonen Jump. I think it has a good chance of being one of the most talked about shows in the new year.

Lets hope 2021 is a good one.

[cosmicolorfuture]

Another week down, another Toonami is finished! After last week’s Adult Swim Con edition, we go back to our regularly scheduled programing. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind finally makes its return to the block after its hiatus! Meanwhile, Mob Psycho 100 finishes its rerun with the Season 1 finale. Next week, Season 1 of Fire Force returns to the block at 1:00 am, replacing Mob Psycho 100. The show will be starting from Episode 15. Tonight’s goodie was a music video for “Top Down” by EarthGang. Now, time to recap!

Dragon Ball Super starts the night with Gohan and Lavender against each other in the second exhibition match! Despite Gohan not knowing anything about his opponent, he learns along the way as Lavender has some tricks up his sleeve. Though he does get poisoned and eventually his match is a draw, Gohan can still hold his own in battle. We also learn a bit more about the rules of the tournament and the consequences if the teams do not win. Final exhibition match: Goku vs. Bergamo! JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind has its episode focuses on the group getting in contact with a person who knows about their mission and how to stop the boss; his name now known as Diavolo. But to do so, they must meet him in Rome. All the while, two new assassins plan to impede their progress: Cioccolata and Secco. Mob Psycho 100 has Reigen facing against the remaining higher-level Claw members. It turns out that Mob had transferred his powers into Reigen. After knocking them down a peg or two with a mix of reality, common sense and just talking it out, Claw is disbanded for now. Things eventually go back to normal with Mob continuing to better himself, Ritsu having a better relationship with Mob and going with the student council president to apologize, the academy kids working with Teru to harness their skills to defend themselves and  Reigen now being able to sense spirts himself (and sense Dimple as well). Black Clover goes into learning about Gordon’s backstory and getting to meet his family. He askes for his Dad’s help on learning about curse magic and why his family does it, as well as trying to find a cure for Asta’s curse. Meanwhile, Noelle learns something new about her mother’s death and goes to Dorothy to find out more about the situation. Ballmastrz 9009’s two episodes focused on Flip and Leto. Flip’s episode is focused on him learning to be less of an ass and learn some empathy after meeting a fan through a “Make-A-Wish” type program. While his rudeness ended up turning his fan against him, they were able to stop him, but not in the way they expected. Leto’s episode focused on him being forced to be on a cooking competition show, even though he only really cooks for his friends as a hobby. In the end, he gathers the courage to step up and make his sandwiches and eventually wins the contest. Naruto Shippuden has a Neji and Hinata centric episode. It flashbacked to a time where Neji had watched over Hinata as she damaged her eyesight during training. Despite his cold nature, Neji (along with Naruto and Sakura) goes to find a plant to heal her. Samurai Jack finishes off the night with Jack recuperating after a previous battle. Despite his conscious taunting him, he decides to face off against the Daughters of Aku.

A rather great night over all! As always, I enjoy hanging out with everyone and look forward to doing it again next week! Have a good night/good morning, get some rest, have a great rest of the week, and please stay safe, happy, and healthy! See you next time!

Later

[supernoondles]

2019

The last day of 2019 was also the day I fainted for the first time--a fitting metaphor for the year.

2019 was overall very emotionally taxing. This year was emotionally defined by falling intensely, deeply in love with someone (who is a very private person so I will try to be vague to respect that) and being in a lot of pain because of situations mostly outside of our control. There were a lot of intensely joyous moments, and a lot of intensely sad ones. Throughout it all I wish I had communicated better. I also made some bad decisions with another person I really loved and cared about that resulted in us growing apart. Do I think I grew from the experiences? For sure. Do I wish I could have come upon these realizations through a different course of action? Also yes. Am I fully healed from the experiences? Not really, but I've been getting better.

2019 was also very bad in terms of research. It was the 2nd year of my PhD. After I submitted my rotation project I basically felt stuck in the swamp of my advisors rejecting new project ideas for like literally half a year. This, combined with my high emotional volatility (partially due to starting birth control), made me really sad, unmotivated, and susceptible to self-blame. I definitely had high expectations for myself and became frustrated at my lack of progress and felt a lot of pressure from myself to get my shit together. I also felt incredibly bad after most advisor meetings and not supported by one of them to the point where I had to have a conversation with him about the lack of support (which was very scary)! Things started picking up, though, near the end of the year. I published a paper in collaboration with a former post-doc/now professor elsewhere whom I learned a lot from, and started finally building out another system. I also started mentoring an undergrad who at some point told me I helped him feel like he had something important to say and belong at Stanford for the first time and those words meant a lot to me. I think I'm continuing to refine what I value as research contributions and increasingly think about what it means to build systems that aren't used outside of the lab to satisfy the annual conference publishing cycle. I'm also starting to feel the pressure of doing work that follows a narrative rather than random projects that interest me.

Oh, I guess in terms of "program requirements," I did finish taking required classes, passed qualifying exams, and got a master's degree. But honestly those weren't hard at all nor do I think are externally valued in the larger research community, so I don't really celebrate them as accomplishments beyond surface level.

In 2019 I saw two different therapists. The first one was awful, I think directly influenced some of my bad decisions, and also didn't respect my gender identity??? The second one is a lot better and I'm grateful to see her, even if 90% of our sessions are just talking about my relationship (romantic/advisor) issues, which is something I want to move away from in the future. But I also feel incredibly privileged when relationship issues are the primary stressors in my life--I am grateful I feel equipped to handle other crap, like deadlines, and don't have to worry about my own health.

Those were the main things that have colored this year. We'll now move into the section of this post where I go through my photos to jog my memory of other events.

New years started a tradition of getting dim sum with Jasper, Matthew, and Michelle dear to my heart. My high school friend was also visiting and we all attended a really awesome new year's eve party. I was also going on a lot of dates and having a lot of good sex, which made me really happy, and at the same time crying all the time at work. In February I received probably the best gift anyone has ever given me and saw Panic! at the Disco, which I said in an end of the year group meeting was a good memory of my year (it was, to relive my scene days!). In March I roadtripped both to Marin (which I had never to been before, despite all my years in the bay) and LA for Wondercon; it was nice to both see high school friends and go on a trip with the boo. In April I went on a hike with my office which was probably the start of us all becoming closer (we are the social office in the wing now, which I take pride in! Also we draw a lot of Pokemon which warms my heart). In May I went to CHI in Glasgow and then to Paris afterward, and the entire experience was very weird and bad and also too many flights were canceled and/or missed and I vowed to not return to Europe for a while, but man do I love the noodles at Trois Fois plus de Piment. In June we hosted a double apartment party with my downstairs neighbors (side note: I am really appreciative of the place I live in, for the community, convenience, and large-ass space and will be really sad to be kicked out fall 2020) and I started a friendship important to me. I cat-sat for my advisor (the one who doesn't make me feel bad) twice. I went to Redwood State Park with my family and hosted a summer solstice celebration. Over the summer a friend I met in Paris back in 2017 moved in with me. I had a much needed escape from the bay to Seattle where I was reminded how abundant the world can be. I also went to Tahoe to celebrate my parents' anniversary, and really liked stumbling upon a smaller lake with a cheap boat rental. Then I became FOMO about the highly competitive Bay Area camping and did a last minute walk-in at Redwood Basin in Santa Cruz, which made me realize that I don't actually love camping (but was nice nonetheless). I ate an expensive meal at Commonwealth before they closed. For my birthday we made a friendship quilt and I served my favorite dish of cumin lamb but it was also 90 degrees in my apartment (I felt really bad and bought two fans afterwards). I started buying many cartoon frog plush after being gifted a $3.99 on sale Safeway frog (called Baby!). I went on Tinder dates (one of which was at a quaker yard sale marketed as Harvest Festival where I got a 1970s Kermit puppet for like $2) that largely went nowhere. My high school friend visited and we were both sad about break ups. I did Inktober before I went to New Orleans for a conference on Bourbon St where everything felt like it was coated in a sticky film of alcohol. I almost missed my flight home because I fell asleep in a sculpture garden but I had the most amazing Uber driver who snaked his way through traffic (oh and the flight was delayed by like 3 hours). I went to kind of embarrassing haunted houses and pumpkin patches over Halloween, but also had the most incredible bowl of ramen at Mensho. My whole office dressed up as Zootopia characters which warmed my furry heart. I spent like $120 on a Pokemon shirt. I started playing Arkham Horror and rekindled another friendship important to me. In November went on a road trip to Big Sur because again, I had to escape it all. For Christmas Eve dinner I roasted a duck for the first time (which was delicious). Shortly after I waited in line for 2 hours for a rollercoaster at Great America, which taught me the value of buying a fast pass because at this point in my life that money is worth it, and then waited 2 hours in line at the DMV to get a RealID (I had made an appointment, which was the fast pass).

Okay, now we move to the hobby section!

I got really into sewing in 2019, having received a sewing machine last Christmas. I made a Judy Hopps (which I wore to CrunchyRoll Expo) and Korok cosplay (Fanime), several unsuccessful garments, a crab bean bag, a dice bag, a fanny pack, and put hearts nipples on a jumpsuit.

Shows! I think I went to way fewer shows this year. The ones I can remember are Elephant Gym, Thom Yorke the night before I had an 8am flight, Carly Rae Jepsen over pride weekend (also, she is my #1 artist of the year, which makes a lot of sense given my emotional space), Mitski at Stern Grove, Capitol Hill Bloc Party (which was super lame, except for Lizzo, where I cried), and the National (which was a fucking surreal experience as they played on Stanford's campus, I was the only one within earshot of myself who knew the words to Crybaby Geeks, and then the white catalog moms came up to me after to thank me for singing the song).

I also started playing my own music! I started playing viola again for the first time in 7 years (lol) in both pop-up concerts with the Awesome Orchestra (one in Golden Gate Park, one at the Exploratorium) and a string quartet through my school. Sometimes I am filled with joy and delight. Other times interpersonal tensions run high and also I am very bad at being in tune. It's life.

Media! I really liked Mob Psycho 100 Season 2 and Beastars. I feel like those were the only notable anime I watched this year? I saw the Farewell three times--first in Seattle where I sobbed for like 1 hour after the movie, the second time with my parents, and the third where Awkwafina was present for a Q&A. I thought Parasite was incredible and Promare was OK. I have spent an unfortunately large amount of my time playing Pokemon Masters. I finally beat BOTW and completed my Pokedex in Shield like 2 weeks after getting the game.

Resolutions! In my draft of my 2018 end of year post (which I never polished and posted, sorry), I said my resolutions were 1. come out to my parents 2. draw enough to table at an anime con 3. be disciplined about paper reading and have a doc. I did none of these things!!! However, for 1, I feel like I am well equipped to have this conversation but am waiting for my sibling to do it first out of respect. 2 was just bad. I barely drew this year except for gifts. 3 was okay--I did have a large doc in the beginning of the year when I was looking for ideas, but as time went on I abandoned it (I also stopped reading papers, which I don't think you're supposed to do as a grad student...)

My resolutions this year are phrased as intentions (-(c) Matthew). They span several categories. Relationships: I want to open myself to and actively seek experiences of love, because I miss that. That being said, I will only date someone if 1. they have their life together 2. they love themselves and 3. they challenge me to grow. (I do think you can experience love without dating; the thing I'm after is love in an expansive sense.) Work: I want to do enough work so I don't feel guilty about not doing enough work, and also not berate myself for taking a long time to do things. Hobbies: I want to sew at least one thing a month. Chinese: I want to improve my Chinese, especially pronunciation.

Having written this 20 days into 2020, it's not been so bad so far. But I was also really happy in the beginning of 2019. Here's to no global maxima, a monotonically increasing year!

[dragon-zena]

all your troubles in my hair

Fandom: Mob Psycho 100

Relationship: Serizawa Katsuya/Reigen Arataka

Characters: Serizawa Katsuya, Reigen Arataka, Kageyama “Mob” Shigeo, Kageyama Ritsu, Kageyama Siblings’ Parents, Dimple

Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, reigen has horrible coping mechanisms: the fic, Spoilers for Chapter 100, OVA spoilers, Anxiety, Depression, Therapy

Summary: Neither of them are naïve enough to believe that love is meant to solve all of their internalized issues.

Read it on AO3!

Neither of them are naïve enough to believe that love is meant to solve all of their internalized issues.

They both have bad days; it's not something that really comes to a surprise to Katsuya, especially after months of being together.

Katsuya has days where he feels like he's been in a loop, a dream that he'll wake up from, still stuck in his childhood bedroom. Sometimes, he smells the trash, the dirty laundry. He sits up in bed, and there's nothing but white noise under his skin, roaring in his ears. Days where he wants to lock himself in the bathroom, hands shaking.

As time goes on, he has less and less of these days, but even still, sometimes he'll be riding the train with Arataka, towards an apartment that they share more often than not, and he'll look out of the window, admiring just how bright the moon is. And then he'll look at Arataka, leaning into his side with an old newspaper, and he'll watch those long eyelashes flutter as he skims each page, right to left, and there is a small flicker of fear within him—the thought that he might lose experiences like these, again, someday.

And while he's honest about his feelings, sometimes—ironically enough—he just wants to lock them up in a room and throw away the key. When the nights are harder to sleep through, nightmares chasing him into wakefulness, Katsuya almost feels frustrated, angry.

Arataka notices (he always notices), and Katsuya can't ever decide if he wants his boyfriend to ask about whether he wants to talk, or if he would rather be left alone. Whatever he chooses always feels like the wrong answer. He doesn't know if there is a right answer, not after days where he lies in bed feeling awful about a comment made with more snark than usual, or days where he can't make himself speak, at all, days where only the wrong things come out of his mouth. Arataka never takes it personally, but it fills Katsuya with inexplicable vitriol.

He's been working on all of it, having found a therapist that actually understands him after years of having to interact with therapists that he felt never gave a shit about him. He's started to categorize his days, coping by journaling his moods and triggers, what makes him feel this way. What makes him feel better, what feels safe for him. It helps.

Arataka doesn’t have a therapist, doesn’t think that he needs one. It’s something that used to bother Katsuya, the thought that maybe Arataka thought that only certain people needed a therapist—that maybe he thought he was too good for one. But the longer that he experiences loving him, the more he realizes that the man is doing his damnedest to just internalize his issues and move on as though they don't exist. Katsuya thinks that maybe Arataka feels as though if he ignores his problems, he’ll be more credible to the people that need his help. If he ignores his problems, he won’t take up space and resources from people that “deserve it” more than he does.

If he ignores his problems, he’ll still be useful to someone, his accomplishments won’t be stripped away by whatever makes him wake up in cold sweats, whatever makes his face twitch minutely out of its normal placid expression, gone so fast that a stranger might think that they imagined it.

Katsuya is no stranger.

He can see it whenever Arataka gets too caught up in his newspaper on the train home, the way that he tenses up when Katsuya stands to get off, expecting him to follow. The way that Arataka suddenly jumps at the movement, quickly snatching one of Katsuya’s sleeves with wide, faraway eyes. The way that he can’t seem to settle when he’s without something to read, nothing to keep his mind off of the rattling of the train, the screech of the vehicle coming to a stop, the train cabin being thrown into darkness as they pass through a tunnel or under a bridge. The way that he’s always the last person to board the train and the first person off. The way he refuses to fall asleep, even when Katsuya offers him his shoulder.

He sees it in the aftermath of Shigeo’s last explosion. The two of them had waited with Shigeo and Dimple until his parents came to get him. Ritsu had reached them first, of course, and was promptly pulled into a hug by his older brother. The two of them let themselves feel for a few minutes, and Dimple hadn’t been too keen on leaving the two of them alone for a while, settling himself on top of Shigeo’s head like a languid cat. He was looking a little worse for wear, himself, small and a paler green than what he was before he disappeared.

Once the Kageyama parents arrived, Arataka had pushed himself up from his haphazard crouch, using Katsuya as a crutch and biting the inside of his cheek to stifle any pained sounds he made. He smiled genuinely, eyes glassy, and conversed quietly and respectfully with Shigeo’s parents, holding their children so closely. Returned their gratitude for the opportunity to know Shigeo when they had thanked him for looking after their son. Dimple had given Katsuya a significant look over Shigeo’s head when Arataka’s voice cracked, and he had nodded, eyebrows knitting together. When Shigeo had pulled Arataka into a hug before leaving, the man looked prepared to cry, again, and when Katsuya had lifted his young friend into a bear hug, telling him that he was so glad that he was safe, that he had come to a conclusion that made him feel at peace with himself, Shigeo had nodded, clutching him tighter, but he, too, had subtly asked Katsuya to look over his shishou. And Katsuya had nodded again, ruffling his hair and watching as he walked away with his parents.

It left Katsuya and Arataka alone. Not that it mattered, because the moment that the Kageyama car disappeared, Arataka had collapsed to his knees, wheezing in pain. Eyes bleary, he managed a raspy “I can’t afford any hospital bills, right now” before passing out, eyes rolling back into his head. Katsuya only panicked a little, hurriedly bundling him up in his arms and beginning to make his way back from whence the two of them came. With Arataka unconscious, buried in Katsuya’s arms, he had been able to start digesting what happened once he had let the other man walk into Shigeo’s tornado. He thought about how dangerous (and brave, but mainly dangerous) the choice Arataka made was, how quickly he had lost sight of him in the cycle of dusty wind and debris. He thought about what Arataka had planned to leave behind.

The suit jacket. The dress shoes.

They never discuss it fully, not for lack of trying. It’s just, well.

Arataka throws himself into his work, deflecting “personal problems” when they’re working, invested strictly into his mask of professionalism, even when there are no clients. The first time Katsuya tried to push him into talking about his emotions, the man began to talk circles around him, so quickly and with so much anxious fervor that Katsuya ended up at a loss of words, mind swimming. It only occurred to him later that Arataka had told him practically nothing, and he tried not to get frustrated about it. Katsuya subtly asks him about getting help and acknowledging his feelings multiple times, but the only other time that he pressed Arataka led to an argument that lasted for at least a week before they apologized to each other, and by then, it seemed as though the man had developed at least five more different coping mechanisms, none of them even remotely helpful. His sleep schedule has become absolutely ridiculous, and sometimes Katsuya sees his hands twitch for the emergency cigarettes that he keeps in the bottom drawer of his desk. He never goes for it, but he lately seems stressed enough to cave more sooner than later.

Sometimes, Arataka just parks himself next to Katsuya, back straight. He’s not close enough to comfortably reach for, but he’s there.

Tonight is one of those nights. It's Friday, and Katsuya can count on his hands the number of hours of sleep that Arataka has gotten throughout the entire week. Not only that, but something must have been happening to make almost every client that entered Spirits & Such unnecessarily hostile. At some point earlier, his boyfriend had attempted to call Shigeo, ask him if he wanted to come with them for "ramen or something, it’s up to you, really, Mob," but Shigeo had already made other plans. Arataka said that he hadn’t minded, and he probably didn’t, committed to the concept of “not distorting” anyone else with his presence. Even still, his smile seemed a little tighter after hanging up, informing Katsuya that it would just be them, tonight.

Arataka sits stiffly on the other side of the couch, and Katsuya acts like he’s not watching him through his peripheral while working on his math homework. He doesn’t know when he’s going to use this. Remembering Arataka’s frequent complaints about math, he opens his mouth to tell this to him, hoping to make the silence a little less unbearable. But the sight before him makes him pause, words caught in his throat.

His boyfriend is crying silent tears, lips pursed, eyebrows furrowed, nose crinkled. He makes no move to wipe his face, and Katsuya doesn’t think that he notices that he’s been caught until he moves a little closer, making him jump, head swiveling to stare at Katsuya. They both grimace at each other, an understanding passing between them, despite Arataka’s clear embarrassment at being caught crying.

“Arataka,” Katsuya breathes out, scooting a little closer to his boyfriend and cupping his face into his hands, thumbs doing their best to wipe away tears that don’t appear to be stopping anytime soon. “What do you need?”

Arataka curls in on himself, averting his eyes away from Katsuya’s worried face. He sniffs as though trying to suck the tears and snot back up, and Katsuya tries not to wince, heart clenching.

Arms wrapped around himself, Arataka admits, voice quavering, “I think I need help.”

It’s quiet, small and brittle, but it’s there. Katsuya pulls his lover into his arms, presses his head gently into the junction of his shoulder and neck, kisses his temple sweetly. “I’ll help you,” he says. “We can help each other.”

Arataka says nothing, but he presses a little harder into Katsuya. It's not long before the man falls asleep, exhausted. Katsuya kisses the crown of his head, buries his nose into coarse brown strands.

Neither of them are naïve enough to believe that love will solve all of their internalized issues, but Katsuya watches Arataka sleep, and he thinks, warmth blooming in his chest, "Thank god we have each other." It doesn’t take long for him to follow Arataka’s lead.

[yasuda-yoshiya]

Sorry I haven’t been around here much lately! The last few weeks (/months, really) have been rough for me, but I’m feeling a bit better at least for now. For now I’ll just drop some overdue thoughts here on some of the things I’ve been watching since I finished Utena:

Princess Tutu

I found Tutu to be a really sweet and charming show with a ton of heart, but I'm also sad to say that I don't think watching it straight after Utena did it any favours for me. Utena portrayed the same kinds of themes around breaking out of predefined narratives in a way that personally hit home for me a lot harder, so Tutu ended up feeling a bit like a watered down version of the same ideas to me... Which is a shame because I do still think it's a really cool show with a lot to like about it! It's visually and aesthetically gorgeous, I adore its whole cosy meta-fairytale atmosphere and the ballet theme and the whole general feel of the show a lot - it just didn't end up leaving that much of a lasting impression on me in the end. I may well come back and revisit it some day, because I feel like I'd probably get more out of it coming in with a clearer idea of what to expect and without Utena's shadow unfairly hanging over it.

For the characters, I loved Ahiru and Fakir! They were both so endearingly earnest and I really liked the respective directions they ended up taking both of their character arcs and their relationship (Fakir passionately rewriting the story to be about Ahiru's bravery and courage at the end made me cry so hard! That's like, the exact kind of individual heartfelt expression of love that hits straight to my heart when it comes to fictional couples, waaaah...)

Mytho and Rue were a bit harder to connect with for me; I felt like I couldn't really get invested in Rue's feelings for Mytho for the most of the show since the backstory around them wasn't revealed until the very end. (I did like Ahiru and Rue's relationship quite a bit, though! That sort of feeling of the narrative artificially pushing them into being enemies when they really could have helped each other as friends was well done.) On Mytho's end I just never clicked at all with the whole raven blood subplot that seemed to dominate his character in the second season, unfortunately. I couldn't make it meaningfully connect for me, even though I had quite liked him as a character in the first half of the series (even in just my generic "hnng cute boys struggling with the idea of having feelings" way). I'd be interested to see on a rewatch whether those two would work better for me having a better idea of where their trajectory was going from the start, since I felt like I didn't really "get" what they were going for with their relationship or how I was supposed to be reading them until the very end (I'm slow okay).

Steven Universe

What an absolutely lovely series! I've been wanting to check this out for a long time, and I'm glad I finally got the chance because it really is excellent. I totally fell in love with the whole Crystal Gem family, and the balance between them all having their own personal issues to deal with while still being able to draw love and support from each other was done really well. I really loved the handling of Steven's PoV in the first couple of the series especially for how they handled his growth around coming to understand that his parental figures are really flawed people who have a lot of baggage to deal with, but also without framing their personal problems or their relationships with each other as being at all within either his power or responsibility to "fix". Instead, his moments of growth are more about more consciously registering the burdens they're under and making those little gestures to ease them wherever he can, like consciously showing appreciation for their parenting efforts with the test, or giving Amethyst more time to vent things out with her friend when she's stressed out instead of asking her to take him home right away. Likewise, on the gems' end, we really get the sense that e.g. Pearl's love for Steven is real and valuable and "saves" her in a very real sense, but also that it's not going to ever fully erase her depression or her grief over losing the life she had with Rose before and that that's okay.

I would say as the show went on, it felt like it lost some of the grounded and occasionally harsh nature that originally drew me to it - the first couple of seasons felt like they had a sort of constant legitimate tension in the background with the gems trying hard to keep things together in a hard situation in a way that still obviously had its cracks in it, and a sort of acknowledgment that "maybe not everything will be okay, but there's still a lot of good in the world and in our relationships that's worth living for", which I appreciated. Whereas I felt like they moved a bit more towards unambiguously positive resolutions as the show went on, with a bit less of that willingness to leave things "unresolved". (Of course the show still has a lot of those moments, like the reveal of Rose's past in particular, but even then I wished that the fallout from the reveal and its lasting impact on the gems was given more time and weight than it was.) That feeling culminated for me in the finale of series 5 and the way the plot with the diamonds was resolved, where it felt like the show pretty much parted ways with reality entirely and fully embraced a kind of ideal fantasy positivity.

But I don't think that's necessarily a totally bad thing, either - it's still a very genuine and heartfelt kind of positivity that can be hard to find in narratives as unapologetically queer as SU is (especially in media targeted at young kids!) and I'm sure a lot of people really need that gap filled in their lives, so I can't really bring myself to resent it overall. The characters remain as endearing and lovable as ever, the show still made me smile from beginning to end, and all in all I have nothing but great appreciation for all the important ground it's willing to tread as a kids' show touching on a lot of extremely relevant contemporary issues in a positive and responsible way. It honestly makes me feel really happy and hopeful to think of kids getting to grow up with a show like this! So while I might personally have ended up resonating more with the show if they'd taken a different direction, I feel like I still have a lot of respect and understanding for the route they did end up taking, too, and I'm glad to have experienced it.

Mob Psycho 100

I thought this was a very cool and interesting show! As "deconstructing shounen tropes" series go, I feel like this one successfully hits a unique sort of sweetspot for me in the way that, rather than brutally tearing apart shounen conventions out from the roots (which is also something I can enjoy a lot when it's done well!), it's instead focusing on taking a lot of the genuinely positive ideas that draw people to shounen - the ability to overcome adversity through personal growth and "the power of bonds/friendship", positivity in the face of despair, and so on - and re-examining them through a more grounded context that asks "Okay, but what does that actually look like in the real world?" Because, you know, it definitely DOESN'T look like people with magical god-given superpowers blasting through everything that challenges them with the sheer force of their specialness and their pre-assigned role as the "main character", right?

So I was really impressed by Mob as a series for not only being so thorough about deconstructing that (to the point that the voice encouraging Mob to use his powers more and be a super special hero is an outright "devil on the hero's shoulder" kind of character!), but also for going that extra step to examining what real positive growth actually DOES look like. I felt like the series did a remarkably insightful job overall (especially in the second series) of sort of gently but firmly differentiating "real growth" from "shounen growth" in that sense. I really loved those little touches like the Emi episode, where the viewer is effectively led to expect a moral about how "people will like you more if you act more genuine and be yourself!" - but then the show very deliberately switches gears to the idea that trying to be more genuine is already worthwhile in and of itself, just because you're living in the world with a more conscious awareness of what's important to you and standing up for the things you care about, and how that authentic way of living can inspire other people and have a positive impact on them too.

And similarly, I absolutely love Mob and Reigen's weird, messy, problematic relationship being the emotional centrepiece of the series, because it's the exact opposite of the kind of friendship you'd expect to be centred in a "POWER OF BONDS!!" themed show, but that's also why it just... really really works! It's such a humble and near-accidental and flawed and limited connection, and I love that Reigen is also allowed to impact Mob in negative ways and have selfish motivations and be unambiguously portrayed as a genuinely pathetic and terrible person and a bad influence on him too, and that the show doesn't remotely shy away from that - and yet somehow it still absolutely shines through that both of them would be worse off without each other, that the "power of their bond" really has changed them both for the better as people. Not through any incredible magic connection, but just through those little moments where they save each other through things like Reigen telling Mob "It's okay to run away", or Mob telling Reigen "You're a good guy".

Because the show is so upfront about the limitations of their "bond", it really does make the emphasis on its positive impact and how fortunate the two of them are to have been influenced by each other really work and have value, I think - because it comes across as that kind of approachable, recognisable "miracle" that really can and does happen in people's daily lives. It doesn’t claim to be a perfect friendship, or to have the capability to fix all their individual problems just by existing, but it does still come across loud and clear that they’ve been a genuinely positive force in each other’s lives. I definitely came away from it with a greater appreciation for those little chance encounters and humble relationships that have helped me and shaped me as a person! On the whole, I'm sure the show isn't for everyone, but I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys shounen as a genre at all, because I feel that it really works as a remarkably critical and self-aware yet loving celebration of the spirit behind those kinds of stories.

[paperficwriter]

Friendly Competition

This is a fic I wrote for @linesporadic, who requested a crossover between the two best animes of our time Mob Psycho 100 and One Punch Man. What results is this AU of rival espers, trying to be the best in Seasoning City! Well...sort of. One of them just has a very enthusiastic ‘assistant’...

Cut is for length, not for content!

Reigen and Saitama had never met, but they were at least aware of one another. After all, two renowned espers in the same city - even one as large as the Greater Seasoning Metropolitan, where Saitama lived in the east and Reigen in the west - meant that there was some overlap from time to time.

Especially when it came to rates.

“I’m not sure,” one woman said to Reigen as she looked over his menu of specials, like it was a variety of noodle dishes and not a guarantee of freedom from supernatural entities. “If I go across town, I know that the other office will give me a lower cost, since this is just affecting my apartment and not a whole building…”

Reigen’s jaw twitched, but he refused to let it affect his winning smile. “We have a money-back guarantee if you are at all dissatisfied with our service, ma’am. Would you like to see my ledger of refunds?” She nodded, and Reigen made a show of opening his desk and pulling out a blank piece of paper. “This is to show you how confident I am that we can handle your specific needs. Please, leave it to me.”

And Mob, he didn’t add, glancing at the boy sitting at the small desk by the door. His school was on break, and yet he was still wearing his uniform, sipping a mini glass bottle of milk. “I do not own any more professional clothes,” he had solemnly explained, and Reigen promised before he went back that they would go clothes shopping as a bonus for his hard work during what should have been his free time.

When she still looked uncertain, Reigen reached over the desk to touch her hand. Sometimes clients needed that little extra charm to seal the deal (something that he had heard rumors was not the strong suit of Saitama, who possessed a tendency to come off awkward and distant despite his good results). The client blushed and bowed in her chair, cheeks red. “Of course! You’re right, let me just get my credit card.” As she dug around in her purse, she glanced up, batting her eyelashes at Reigen. “Does your office have any policy on what you do in your off hours, Reigen-san?”

Without even breaking stride, Reigen pulled out a contract and pushed it across the desk with a pen. “Off hours?! I don’t even know the meaning of the thing! If you could just sign here, here and…”

---

“Sensei! I have the tea, and I picked up some of the onigiri from the corner shop! I also replenished your supply of soap and toilet paper and paper towels, since I noticed that you were running low! I hope you do not mind!”

Saitama jumped at the sudden reappearance of his new ‘assistant,’ who came in the door and was juggling several bags while taking off his shoes. It would be a lie to say he wasn’t a little grateful, given that his ‘office’ was an extra room on his apartment, and the lack of those things was not simply a problem for his business but for his personal life as well.

At least he had an assistant to do these tasks for him...of course, he hadn’t planned on having an assistant at all...or a business (which seemed to come with the assistant), for that matter.

Although Genos wouldn’t call himself an assistant..or an employee...no, he called himself his disciple.

“Oh, thanks, Genos.” He smirked as he took the tea and the bag with the snacks. “If I knew you were going to the shop, I would have given you a list…”

“I can go back out!” The exuberant young man’s dark eyes were wide with enthusiasm. His knuckles popped as he made fists, and his dark shaggy hair fell in his face. He should tell the kid to get a haircut. Wait, second thought, if anything happened and he went bald like him, Saitama would never forgive himself. “Tell me what you need, Sensei!”

Sensei. He sighed. “I need you to stop calling me ‘Sensei.’ Especially around clients. But here, you can just...put these away, okay?” He gestured at the bags he was still holding, dutifully, like he would have held them forever if he asked (or even if he didn’t ask, frankly).

“Yes!” Genos ran off towards the bathroom, leaving Saitama a moment to sit at his desk and get a reprieve.

Saitama watched him go, taking the opportunity to slide the crossword puzzle that had been occupying his attention under the stack of bills he actually should have been paying attention to. He couldn’t exactly turn him away at this point, knowing what he did about his circumstances. If he had just been some teenager, sure, but Genos was nineteen, out of school, and he didn’t ask to be paid at all. If anything, he had given him a stack of money for rent…

Yeah, most assistants don’t really move in, do they?  

When he first arrived just a few weeks before, Genos made Saitama listen to his tragic backstory, all about how he had lost his parents in a mysterious fire that claimed their apartment building several years before. Evidently there was also an evil spirit involved? And some doctor who thought that the evil spirit was perhaps hosting some serial arsonist’s soul? And Genos had been living wih this doctor before Saitama, learning about and enhancing his psychic abilities? Genos had talked about this a lot...even when Saitama didn’t ask.

When Genos returned, he was holding a stack of envelopes, which he gave respectfully with both hands. “Sensei! The mail is here as well!”

Saitama thanked him, not nearly as enthusiastic since usually all he got was bills and ads (and most of the time it wasn’t for his favorite stores anyway). He picked through them until he got to one envelope that was handwritten. “Ah? What’s this…” Tearing it open, he unfolded the paper inside.

It was...well, the best way to describe it was a screed of angry letters and scratched marks. Whoever had written it was in quite a mood… so angry that there were some parts Saitama couldn’t even read, but he got the gist.

Fraud. Asshole. Loser. Give up.

Saitama jumped when Genos appeared at his shoulder. “Sensei, please allow me to pay a visit to the hurtful individual who sent you this and explain the error of their ways.”

“Don’t worry about it, Genos,” he said, waving him off. He did turn the letter over, and there was something else: a little note about how he would never be as successful as Reigen Arataka, and how anyone would be a fool to go to him when the best spiritual master in the world was right here in the city. “Ah, looks like he’s a fan of that Spirits and Stuff guy…”

“He is wrong, Sensei!” Genos sat down beside him on his knees, so intense that Saitama could swear he could feel the anxiety vibrating around him, bright lines visible in his aura.

“Genos, please stand up, we’ve talked about this…”

“The person in that letter has no idea how amazing you are! Reigen Arataka is not even half the esper that you are! The fact that he even holds himself in comparison with you is...absurd! Has he ever said anything about this to you?”

“No...ah, wait.” Saitama tapped his chin. “Come to think of it, we did run into each other at the supermarket one time. He was ahead of me in the line to choose watermelons, and he got the last one, and he said...something, I don’t remember. ‘Tough beans’? ‘Get here sooner next time’? I don’t recall exactly…hey, what’s that look?”

“He will pay for thinking that he is better than you, Sensei! I will not let this slight go unpunished!” Before he could stop him, Genos was stomping to the door, putting his shoes back on and running out.

“Hey! Genos! Pick up some soy sauce and eggs while you’re -- damn, he’s gone…” Well, that was all right. It would give Saitama a chance to play with the video game console he “borrowed” from his friend King. After all, it wasn’t like he was in a rush for more work.

---

Mob was finishing up lunch when he heard a knock at the door. Actually, it was harder than a knock...more like a pounding. “Better leave it, Shigeo,” Dimple mentioned, the spirit floating close like a green balloon. “It’s probably Reigen’s landlord.”

Reigen had gone out to handle the spirit that the woman wanted exorcised, leaving them alone. “I don’t know...the last time we left someone outside, they were here when he got home and it was even worse. Shishou was really mad…”

Mob stood up and opened the door, blinking up at a man who seemed younger than Reigen, with dark hair and severe eyes. He didn’t look like one of Reigen’s usual clients. No, he was unique, with his torn sleeves and jeans, the set line of his mouth. “My name is Genos. I am here for Reigen Arataka. He needs to be punished.”

“Oh,” Dimple said quietly, drifting off to the desk, “it’s that kind of caller, eh…you shouldn’t let him linger, Shigeo.”

Mob didn’t know what he meant, and he bowed at the stranger. “I’m sorry, Reigen-shishou is not here at the moment. He’s out on a job, but he should be returning shortly. Would you like some tea while you wait?”

“...very well.” Genos stepped inside and took off his shoes. For someone who was here to “punish” Reigen, he certainly seemed mild-mannered enough. He even sat down at the desk and folded his arms in front of him. Mob would have thought he would at least knock over the stack of papers in front of him… “Are you this fool’s disciple?”

Mob blushed a little at that. “Well, I work for him…”

“You should work for someone who does not lie and say he is the world's greatest psychic. Saitama is much more powerful.” Gens accepted the tea from Mob regardless. “Thank you.”

As he went to unplug the electric kettle, Mob struck his palm with his fist. “Oh, Saitama! I’ve heard of him. He lives in the city, doesn’t he? Is that who you work for?”

“I would never allow money to pass from Sensei's hand to mine. Also, do not get any ideas. I am Sensei’s disciple.”

“Of course not!” Mob pulled his chair over and sat down. “Is he kind? He looks nice in the pictures I’ve seen of him online.”

(Sensei certainly didn’t think so, Genos thought to himself as he sipped the tea. All he could talk about was the glaring sunspot that caught his head in every shot…still, he was glad at least someone in this office was mindful of Saitama’s prowess.)

“He is very respectful,” Genos said, “and quite humble, which is more than it seems can be said of this man.” He gestured flippantly at the picture on the wall.

“That’s true enough,” Dimple mumbled.

“Shishou isn’t humble, no, but he is a good man. He has done a lot to help me over the years with my own powers.”

Although Mob ignored Dimple - he had gotten used to doing so, since the clients could not see him - Genos glanced around when he spoke. “I sense something here…”

Mob was about to respond when Reigen came through the door.

---

By the time Reigen returned to the office, he was a wreck of sweat and grime collecting in his dress shirt. The “evil spirit” that had been shrieking in the night had been nothing more than a loose gasket on a hot water heater. Good thing he kept a few spare tools in his briefcase after the last home visit with the ‘water spirit that was actually a leaky toilet.’

When he opened the door to find the young man sitting beside Mob, it didn’t take more than a glance to know that he was angry about something. Judging from how that expression spiked when Reigen entered - hands around the tea cup he held tightening, jaw clenching, brows narrowing even more than they already were - that something quickly narrowed down to ‘him.’

Why?

Refusing to look ruffled, he closed his eyes, took a breath and said, “I had a feeling you’d be here. You’re still so troubled.”

“Shishou! Welcome back! This is Genos. He’s here to speak with you about Saitama-san.” Mob rose and returned to the kettle to prepare tea for him as well.

Mob...you couldn’t have done better if I had asked you to!

“Yes. Genos. I sensed the weight on your shoulders.”

Genos pressed his lips together tightly. “Do not pretend you know my tragic story. I can see right through you, Reigen Arataka.”

A tragic story. Okay. He could work with that. He smiled and gestured in the air with his hand before smoothing his hair back, touching Genos’s shoulder as he walked behind his desk. Wow, he actually was super tense… “You carry so much with you, Genos. I only want to help you. Has Saitama been unable to ease the burden you’ve had with you since that day?”

Was it too melodramatic? That line had backfired on him before…

Genos jumped to his feet, hands slapping the wooden desktop. “Do you know something about the spirit that started the fire?!”

Phew. Reigen reached out and rubbed his arms, eyes sharp and focused. “I know that it’s still with you. It’s trying to wear you down. It’s still trying to burn you down, Genos.” He turned and snapped his fingers. “Mob! We need the exorcism oils!”

“Yes, sir!” That had taken a while to bring Mob on board with (“I never use salt or oil, Shishou…”) but after watching the happy satisfaction of Reigen’s clients - most of whom were regulars - he no longer hesitated in helping.

Genos seemed to go along with it, and in only a short time, he was sitting across from him, noticeably less tense. The scent of lavender wafted in the air, and it had given Reigen a chance to change out of his nasty shirt. Win, win, win. Genos rolled his shoulders. “Well, I do feel more relaxed --”

“Consider it on the house!”

“--but this skill does not make you stronger than Saitama-sensei!” His loyalty restored, he straightened in the chair, resolute. “It is still shameful that you call yourself the most powerful psychic in the world!”

Reigen took a breath, swallowed down his pride (and defenses) and said gently, “Genos. If you set out to do something, and you are met only with success time and time again, what should you do? Reject your blessings?”

The young man stared at him, gaze only just wavering.

“And if you see someone else, who is not as successful as you, is it fair to say that they are better, just because they try to be? That’s not realistic.”

“But you still are not the best in the world! And Saitama is strong!”

“I’m sure he is, but...I am the best in my world. I can’t deny that.”

Dimple had been mostly ignoring the conversation, but now he returned to Reigen’s shoulder. “Don’t talk this boy in circles so he doesn’t realize you’re a fraud.”

Reigen twitched.

“You’re just trying to question him over and over until he leaves, and when he figures it out, you won’t have to deal with it. That isn’t even clever.”

“Quiet, you!” Admittedly, Reigen had not gotten as good as Mob in ignoring Dimple, especially when he was undermining him.

“Do you feel that spirit as well?!” Genos was on his feet again, pulling out an assortment of charms and trinkets from his pockets, scattering them on the table. He drew a circle (“Hey! Don’t chalk on my desk! That’s mahogany!”) and then chanted.

Dimple made a face, and Reigen peered up at him. Is it working?

The small green spirit scratched his head. “He’s making me all itchy, but does he really think those things work on something as powerful as me? Poor kid. I almost feel sorry for him.” Reigen let Genos continue trying, until he finally slumped down in defeat. “If only Sensei were here...he would know what to do! He can banish any demon!”

“Does he use all this...stuff?” Reigen pinched a bit of salt in his finger. It was larger grain than what he used… Maybe he should get some...

“Well, it’s different! He has strength and power! He creates energy directly from his fist and blows them away!”

Reigen smiled. Jackpot. “I don't need anything quite that intense. Behold!” he suddenly roared. “Ultimate Spirit Cast-off!”

(This was actually a technique that Reigen normally just yelled at Dimple, waving his hands to annoy and shoo him off when he was being particularly distracting.)

“Stop that!” Dimple glowered. “I'm more powerful than you will ever be! I won't be--”

“Shoo! Shoo! Scat!”

“Fine! I didn’t want to be here anyway! I can see you crash and burn any day!” With a red-faced huff, he disappeared through the wall and floated toward Mob’s home.

Genos blinked...and then immediately began to clap. “Reigen-san, I have been wrong about you! You exorced a particularly powerful spirit without the use of any supernatural tools!”

“Yes, yes, I know,” Reigen said, sighing in relief and straightening his tie.

“I am certain now that you would perhaps be a formidable opponent for Sensei in a battle of auras!”

A small shiver of discomfort passed through Reigen, although his face did not change. What the hell was a battle of auras?! “I would be happy to face him! Time permitting, of course...surely you can see why I am such a busy man.”

Genos nodded and bowed, first at him and then at Mob. “I thank you both for your time and hospitality. I apologize for taking your time, but please do rest assured that I am convinced that you are quite adept at the psychic arts.”

As he departed, Reigen sat down with a heavy sigh. “Shishou...shouldn’t we have just explained that Dimple was a spirit normally residing here? Did you have to kick him out?”

“Isn’t that what we are always doing, Mob? Kicking spirits out? Dimple may be one we know, but he is still a powerful entity. My tactics remain the same.”

Mob considered this, then smiled. “You are very right and wise, Shishou!”

“Yes, Mob, I know. Now, let’s take a break and see about those clothes I promised you!”

“Yes, sir!”

...an outing that certainly did not have anything to do with the possibility that Saitama might come take him up on his challenge...

[nyxravessnow]

2.5D Stage Ranking (Personal Opinion) pt.2

This is the part two, the ranking of enjoyment

Top 10 in Enjoyment

This will simply be how much I enjoyed the stage. Mostly I prefer comedy so for me quite a lot of these will have a lot of funny moments but not all of them do. 

This will be extremely opinionated but I will try to be positive. Weirdly even though these are the ten shows I most enjoyed, I don’t think three of them would be in my top ten favourite. Some explanations will be more emotional than others.

I will also not explain about the plot to the shows and will try to spoil as little as possible.

1. Prince of Tennis

This should come as no surprise and I won’t go into this two much but Prince of Tennis is the show that really kickstarted 2.5D in my opinion and is the show that made me absolutely fall in love with the industry. I can sing over 100 of the songs and know most of the actors names and is my absolute addiction. I just think Prince of Tennis is so fun, diverse and it’s so exciting to see all these actors who start in Prince of Tennis grow so much and appear in so many other things

2. Mankai A3

I was so surprised by A3. I didn’t really enjoy the game at first and was so confused as to why it suddenly became so popular. I must admit its popularity was one of the things that held me up watching it until I found I cheap version of Spring and Summer then gave in. I thing watched it every day for a week.This show completely pulled me in with fun songs, a compelling cast of characters and a surprising amount of emotion. (For me who did not play the game, if you did play the game, this would not have been surprising)

The company of actors is split into four groups and I was surprised how individual each group was. My favourite, summer, are the youngest of the company and I absolutely loved their play. 

For anyone trying to get into 2.5d plays, this is probably where I would point them first. It is such a fun play with a perfect blend of comedy, emotion, drama and action

3. Yowamushi pedal

Disclaimer: I have only seen up until the end of Ogoe Yuuki’s run as Onoda.

While I didn’t put Yowamushi Pedal on my top 10 for quality, I don’t think it was ever trying to be a high quality show. The showrunners knew there was no way they could show people cycling on stage in a wholly serious manor if they couldn’t use actual bikes. So, they decided to change the tone of the show, which I think wouldn’t have worked in the anime but works perfectly on stage.

If I ever need cheering up Yowamushi Pedal stage is definitely something I would turn to. Every single show has me crying with laughter and it is amazing to see actors having so much fun on stage.

There are so many hilarious moments but the top two for me is when Izumida’s peck Frank, yes his pecks are anthropomorphised on stage, starts touching the other members of Hakogaku and when they are at Toudou’s inn and their cleaner is Harry Potter and he cocks his broom as fires it like a gun at two actors who are pretending to be ducks. Both make absolutely no sense but are amazing to watch and I don’t think I will ever not laugh while even thinking of them.  

4. Touken Ranbu Musical

It is strange that I cry in every single musical and yet I still have an image of the musicals not being sad. I think they get the perfect blend of emotion and comedy for what they are trying to achieve. The actors, on the whole, portray their characters so well and the live segments may just be pandering to the fangirls, but I am a fangirl/fanboy and I love it. The songs fit so perfectly and I don’t think I’ve ever loved reasonably minor characters as much as I do the humans in Touken Ranbu. I think all their actors are excellent and I am slightly in love with Minamoto no Yoshitsune’s eye makeup.

The thing that sold me the most on this musical however, was none of that. I am studying Japanese and it amazes me how much actual history and Japanese culture I have learnt from these musicals. To the extent of me being able to have a conversation in Japanese about the Minamoto clan with an actual Japanese History Teacher whose favourite period of Japanese history is that period and him complimenting me on my knowledge. 

Touken Ranbu also celebrates Japanese culture so much. The taiko drumming in the live, the actual drinking song included in the show and the time where they put on a festival during a live. I feel like this show is a must see for anyone who likes Japanese culture and Japan would seem to agree with me as it far outranks any other show in the industry for popularity. 

While it doesn’t appeal to me in ways that the three above do I love this musical so much I can’t wait until I can see the next one. 

5. Bakumatsu Rock

I keep on forgetting I’ve seen this show live as I saw it in 2015 which was a while ago and was only the third show I ever saw and I was also sick before it so I was a little delirious. But I still remember the feeling of utter joy I had leaving the theatre with Crash My Head stuck in my...head. The acting is so good, the songs are amazing and the actors look like they’re having such a good time. 

I won’t go into the recast as I already mentioned that in the previous ranking but they didn’t stop me from still enjoying the final two stages. I think it was very sad that the show was so short but I don’t really want to see them bring it back.

I think what we have of the show is perfect and I love it with all m heart.

6. Aoharu Tetsudou

This is a musical I think very few people will have watched. A lot of people like it for the fact it combines a lot of Prince of Tennis actors who haven’t acted with each other in a while but while that is what originally got me into the show it is not at all why I stayed. 

This somewhat factual history of different Japanese train lines is utterly insane with the strangest characters, songs and moments. And has led to some of the strangest conversations with Japanese people who know the train lines well

‘So the Rinkai line is a bit ecchi and stalks the Saikyo line’

‘Oh yeah, that makes perfect sense’

‘??? How can a train line be ecchi?’

Also, this show is unabashedly gay. There is a character who continually asks another character to marry him, three different love songs between three different couples and actual other characters saying that they are gay. While it works in a similar way to Hetalia, if countries get married they are uniting, if trains get married they become one train it is still very gay. There are also multiple instances of characters stripping and cosplaying as women. 

I love this show to bits but if you are not used to Japanese acting or you want to show a musical to someone who is not used to Japanese acting, absolutely do not watch/show this musical. I love the overacting and find it hilarious but this is the most overacting I think I have ever seen in a show ever and while I think it really works for this show it will be pretty jarring if you are not used to it.

7. Hiragana Danshi

This show in my opinion is the most underrated musical in the 2.5d industry, along with Aoharu Tetsudou but even more so. The show is about letters of the Hiragana alphabet but they are more the sounds than the actual hiragana so they represent the katakana and kanji as well. Everything they like has to start with their hiragana and there are so many puns. The cast is hugely popular and talented and each one portrays their character so well. The show is so funny and you absolutely will leave with a favourite character. 

The songs are very clever and, almost, all the actors have very good voices and the songs compliment them well. It’s sad that the show seemed to be such a passion project and was truly beloved by the staff and actors but there were not enough fans to ensure that there could be a second stage. 

8. Bungou Stray Dogs

I don’t have very much to add from my previous comments on this show. It is exceptional as I loved the original anime I was so happy to see such a well done adaptation, that slightly made me realise that I am very attracted to Chuuya. I think this show would also be a very good introduction to 2.5d as it shows off the best aspects of the industry. 

9. Mob Psycho 100

I didn’t originally enjoy the Mob Psycho anime but after I loved the stage I went back and watched the anime again and I loved it. I thought the stage was so funny and I could not think of someone more perfect than Baba Ryoma to play Reigen and I’m so happy that recently Baba Ryoma has been given more chances to play comedic characters which I really think suits him. 

I don’t have very much to say about this play except I loved it and fully recommend it

10. Cells at Work

I have seen both stages as I actually managed to go see the second live last week.

While I do think I preferred the first one overall I did love the second one and I personally think that Kitamura Ryo fits with the image of White blood cell from the anime better. 

The shows manage to be so funny but evoke so much emotion with Yamada James Takeshi’s performance of the cancer cell. I think it is the best acting he has ever done and really wish they had a 2.5d version of the tony’s so he could get an award for his role. 

There is something about them that feels distinctly different from most other 2.5d productions in my opinion and I love it.

[entamewitchlulu]

Homura’s Flash Reviews [Winter 2019]

What’s up nerds I finished watching all of the anime I was following through winter 2019 and I am READY to TALK ABOUT THEM

The Price of Smiles

On a faraway planet, two nations are engaged in a long running war.  Princess Yuki of the Kingdom of Soleil, however, has been kept in the dark about the ongoing conflict, until her best friend is killed during a skirmish.  Meanwhile, in the Empire of Grandiga, a foot soldier named Stella tries her best to stay smiling through the horrors of war.  Presenting the war through their eyes on both sides of the conflict, both girls will affect the flow of the planet’s future and the outcome of the war.

Whew okay, this one was absolutely a hit or miss show. It started off really strong, with some actually decently designed and built characters, some good dynamics shown off between characters within just a few moments, and some not too shabby animation.  Plus, the OP is a jam.  Unfortunately, by around episode 5, the animation had taken a steep dive, and the theme of the show seemed to have turned into WAR IS BAD WAR IS BAD WAR IS BAD as slammed into you repeatedly with a baseball bat, by killing off one or two named characters per episode, and making you absolutely feel like hope was completely dashed.  IMO, the ending was a relief and a joy, though I can absolutely imagine many people feeling sort of cheated, because

[SPOILERS] after all of that pain, death, and sadness, it sort of just...wraps up with a neat little bow.And dammit, I feel like I EARNED that happy ending, as stupid and unrealistic it might have been.  I feel like it was worth watching just for a few of those shots in the last episode. [END SPOILERS]

Unrealistic, to be sure, and definitely emotionally exhausting, this isn’t one that I would actively recommend, but perhaps it’s easier to swallow when you’re not waiting weeks between episodes.  Honestly I would rather have had these characters in a totally different series.

overall: 5/10

The Promised Neverland

Emma, Ray, and Norman, three incredibly smart eleven-year-olds, live together with the rest of their family at the Gracefield House, an idyllic refuge for orphans where there is always enough to eat, they get to spend all day in play, their ever-caring mama is always there for them, and every orphan is adopted by the age of twelve. But when they learn a horrifying secret about the House, the children must begin a battle of minds to outwit their caretakers and escape into the unknown world beyond the House.

God wow okay so that was a fucking RIDE.  I had not read the manga or heard anything about this one until everyone started going apeshit over the upcoming anime, so I had NO SPOILERS.  And HOLY S H I T.  This was incredible.  The animation and music direction are spot on, the designs are so nice and clean and still capture the essence of the manga’s art.  And the twists!! holy shit the TWISTS.  I don’t want to spoil a damn thing so people can watch this and experience it on their own!  I’d be so shook after an episode that i would LITERALLY be shaking!  The cast is so endearing and amazing, and I can’t talk about the plot twists enough.  Excellent excellent excellent!

Though, unfortunately, there is one thing that does drag this show down quiteee a bit...and that’s the racist caricature of Sister Krone. She is almost lifted straight out of an old racist cartoon about Black people and it’s absolutely discomforting. Definitely do recommend that if that’s something that will discomfort you, that you either skip this show, or at least you have the knowledge that it’s coming.

overall: 9/10

Mysteria Friends

Two princesses, Anne and Grea, become friends at a magic academy, each episode following their daily lives from shopping outings to performing in a school play as the leads.  Based on the Granblue Fantasy mobage.

Ohhhh my gosh okay this one was SO CUTE....not really anything happened in any episode, it was very much a magical slice of life show, but GOD IT WAS SO CUTE!!  Anne and Grea are very much in lesbians with each other, and while it’s definitely queerbaiting as they never actually do anything with it to confirm their relationship, I didn’t care that much because they were just so adorable.  And with each episode only being 15 minutes, it was an easy and relaxing show to watch at the end of watching those last two shows. 

overall: 8/10

Mob Psycho 100 II

Following the first season, this time our powerful psychic Mob meets new friends and new enemies, all while learning how to accept and allow himself to feel the emotions he’s kept under wraps for so long.

Just as good as the first!! This is definitely one of the best shows to tackle the concept of pacifism that I’ve ever seen, doing it in a way that’s sensitive without being naive. Once again, Reigen steals the show by being the world’s first reasonable adult in a shonen anime, and the rest of the new cast of characters are also each fun and lovable in their own way, even the villains!  Animation is on point to wild effect, and the atmosphere of this show honestly blows me away every time.

overall: 9/10

Ace Attorney s2

Continuing the courtroom shenanigans of Phoenix Wright, Maya Fey, and friends, this seaon focuses on a series of cases, most of which all lead back to the same unfinished case once prosecuted by Mia Fey.

Well that was fun!  It was pretty much the same as season one in terms of writing/plot/etc.  Fun, comical, a little sad at times, and full of fun characters who can point hard enough to cause wind gusts that knock other people over.  Is this a courtroom or is this Dragon Ball Z??

overall: 8/10