#i’ll definitely be updating this when the spinoff comes out next year !!

[bonnvivre]

takasugi anime appearances list

—

hey takasugi likers and probably gintama editors

a few years back when i was into gintama, i absolutely fell in love with takasugi and i was so fixated on this man that i kept track of his anime appearances during my watch-through just so i could go back and rewatch them . and i also could not, for the life of me, find the fake joui4 trailer, so it made it easier to find stuff

if anyone also shares the same sentiment or needs clips, here’s the list

[legendarymasterwolf]

My Top Games of 2021

Another year in the books, another great selection of games to choose from. For this list, I’ll be counting down my top games from this year. I’ll only include releases I played from this year, so no Yakuza 7, Hades, or Miles Morales, as fantastic as both those games were. Last gen games with a PS5 port don’t count unless it’s a revamped version like Death Stranding. Enjoy!

20: Returnal

Sorry to everyone who really enjoyed this game, I just didn’t gel with it. Sure, the roguelike gameplay was awesome and the story intrigued me, but still, it just wasn’t fun to try and beat. Getting through runs seemed to be a matter of luck, with no upgrades to give your character between runs, unlike with Hades or Deathloop. I eventually returned this one since it was becoming a bore and just took up space on my system. Will I reattempt it in the future? Maybe, but that’s not likely at the moment.

19: Lost Judgement

I played Judgement earlier this year and I loved it. I enjoyed the gritty and personal detective story with the usual Yakuza insanity. As for the sequel, it seemed to vary. The School Stories missions were some of my favorite parts of the game (Amasawa is my apprentice, you cannot convince me otherwise) and I loved the new Snake fighting style. The parkour mechanics could have been implemented better, but the improved stealth was definitely welcome. As for the story, well, I’m mixed. While the game tackles heavy themes like suicide, bullying, and Japan’s justice system perfectly, it horribly fucks up when it comes to sexual assault. I won’t spoil how, but it’s not given nearly the same level of attention as the other themes it addresses, settling for bringing it up and tossing it aside by the final act. That aside, I enjoyed everything else about the game, even if the story wasn’t as personal to Yagami.

18: Persona 5: Strikers

I finally finished Persona 5 Royal earlier this year, my first game I played since my PS4 got bricked. I got the sequel right after I beat Royal and I loved it. I loved getting another chance to hang with the Phantom Thieves, have a ferris wheel date with Makoto, and imagine inventive scenarios for fanfics. Plus the new characters Sophie and Zenkichi are a blast to hang and play with, especially with the hack-and-slash gamepley that permeates the spinoff. It was one hell of a summer vacation. 

17: Death Stranding: Director’s Cut

Okay, I’ve only done the prologue and started the first chapter, but this looks spectacular so far. Can’t wait to play the rest of it, because it looks gorgeous on the PS5. And if the quality of life updates are anything to go by, I may enjoy this a lot more than I did the first time around.

16: The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes

I finally relented and picked up a copy of the latest entry in this choice driven horror series. It’s a pretty solid game, a horror story set during the Iraq War in 2003. Sure, the dialogue isn’t perfect and some characters annoyed the hell out of me (looking at you, Eric), but I still enjoyed the tense atmosphere and pressure to keep everyone alive till the end of the game. There are some solid performances in this game as well as some great character arcs, especially for Jason. I can’t wait for that next entry in the series.

15: Scarlett Nexus

I’ll be honest, I’ve only finished half of this game, still need to play and finish Kasane’s storyline, but I still dug the story even if it got pretty nuts at certain points. The characters are endearing, the action is a blast to play, the voice acting was on point, and I was so invested for all of it. Now I need to finish Kasane's arc to get the full experience.

14: Deathloop

I got into rogue-like games this year with Hades and this gem of a game. I enjoyed the Dishonored games, but damn, did they stress me out when it came to going nonlethal. Enter Deathloop, and all my problems are gone. This game is fast-paced, entertaining as hell when it comes to dialogue, and incredibly replayable. Still need to finish it, but it’s freaking great so far.

13: Tales of Arise

Still need to finish this, but what a great introduction to the Tales franchise all the same. With gorgeous looking graphics, an incredibly likeable group of main characters, amazing voice acting, exciting combat, and heavy themes like prejudice and self-hate, this has been an amazing JRPG to play. Just need to finish it to get the full experience.

12: Alan Wake: Remastered

Hello, old friend. I’m glad I was able to revisit this gem of a game, even if some mechanics hadn’t aged as well as other parts of the game. Also glad we’re getting a sequel in a couple years, and an M-rated survival horror game at that.

11: Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles

This was basically the Naruto games with a better story, not that I’m complaining. Definitely keeping this one for a while, especially as a Demon Slayer fan.

10: Kena: Bridge of Spirits

Only started playing this one recently, but I’m glad I did all the same. It feels like the old PS2 games I played as a kid, simple linear games with cute protagonists and sidekicks and an evil monster to defeat. Granted, I’m not that far into it and my experience may change later, but for now, it’s in my top 10.

9: Resident Evil: Village

This one has gone up on the list as the months since it came out have gone by. It’s an excellent horror game that will scare you shitless as well as entertain. With some fantastic sequences, like House Beneviento, it cements itself as one of Resident Evil’s best entries. Can’t wait for what comes next!

8: Mass Effect: Legendary Edition

This was one of the worst kept secrets of last year, and I loved every minute of it. From revisiting old planets like Tuchanka and Illium to participating in events like the Genophage Cure and the Fall of Thessia to romances and friendships, it was a blast to return to this series and I sobbed when it was over. And it looked gorgeous as well. I need that new Mass Effect game.

7: The Medium

A simple, yet incredibly effective horror game that shook me with its morally grey story, this stayed on my mind throughout the year. Top it off with one hell of a cliffhanger ending and a masterful performance by Troy Baker as The Maw, I couldn’t put this game down. Definitely pre-ordering a copy of a sequel if anything is announced.

6: Hitman 3

I can’t believe it took me this long to get into the series. It was just so enjoyable to kill my targets, especially when the method was creative as hell. Add to that an impressive story, careful preplanning, and the ability to play the missions from the past two games on PS5, and you’ve got a winning combination when it comes to a stealth game.

5: Far Cry 6

My expectations for this game were high and it did not disappoint. Not only was Giancarlo Esposito’s performance of Anton Castillo a masterclass in playing a villain, it was also Ubisoft’s first actually political game. While not all of it seemed to hit perfectly, the game’s message of fighting fascism hit home, especially in the wake of all that has happened these past two years. Also, the game’s protagonist, Dani Rojas, is definitely the best Far Cry protagonist I’ve seen in a while. And some post credit audio may have confirmed that a certain villain is still alive in the Far Cry universe.

4: Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy

I beat this game quickly because I was addicted from the first scene aboard the Milano. Everything about this game is amazing, from the story to the combat to the banter between the Guardians to the lore. It was a wild ride that made me tear up several times. Plus, it was set to an amazing score and soundtrack, and that’s a win for any Guardians game.

3: Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart

The first showcase of what the PS5 could really do with its games did not fall short at all. From the incredibly short load times to the stellar graphics to the engaging action sequences, I loved this adventure from start to finish. Plus, the legendary Jennifer Hale voices new protagonist Rivet and she is amazing at her job. For anyone on the fence about getting a PS5, here is your reason for buying one, provided you’re able to.

2: Psychonauts 2

I played and finished the first game years ago and was incredibly impressed by the sequel. Not only has it been the best looking Double Fine game I’ve ever played, it’s been one of the best action-adventure games, especially when it comes to dealing with mental health issues. The Bob Zanotto sequence that dealt with alcoholism was especially poignant for me, since I seem to have increased my alcohol intake since a dear friend of mine died this past April. Also, Jack Black was spectacular as the Brain in a Jar, I need more of Jack Black in video games.

1: Life is Strange: True Colors

It was a tough choice, but in the end, I had to pick that game that had me sobbing from start to finish. It was my first time playing a Life is Strange game from start to finish and I adored it. With the romance and the empathetic abilities, plus an incredibly likeable protagonist in Alex Chen thanks to a fantastic performance from Erika Mori, this game easily cemented itself as my personal pick for game of the year.

What were your picks for game of the year for 2021? Leave your answer in the comments!

[masterhandss]

‘My Next Life as A Villainess’ Anime is over...

SO WHAT NOW???

A lot of us are disappointed that Katarina’s adventures are finally over, and a lot of us are gonna miss watching the wacky hi-jinks of our dense villainess. I’ve seen a lot of people say that they will stop posting or paying attention to hamefura after the anime ends, and while I might be the same to some extent, I just want to say that there are still a lot of hamefura things to look forward to after the anime ends!

These are actually some very obvious things to look forward to, but you know I’d still like to share them so you can use them to fill the hole in your heart that the anime left behind.

-------

Edit: (9/30/20) I added stuff, as well as a cut for all yall who says my posts are too long qwq

The Manga

Hamefura still has an on-going manga that is currently in Chapter 3 of the Light Novels! A lot of you already read it, and understand that it can get frustrating when there’s a lack of updates on the english side of things, but if you’re really curious, you can go over and check out the JP releases every month so you can have an idea of whats to come for the manga :DD (The fan translation of ENG Chapter 26 came out a few days ago so you know it’s not dead!!)

I’d recommend reading the english translation on Mangadex, since most translation groups officially upload their translation on there. 

The Spin-off (Hametsuo/Bakarina Alter)

It deserves it’s own category for just how unique it is in terms of its reception in the western crowd. I know a lot of people probably read it, but I guess people barely talk about because it’s not really that far into it’s premise yet. 

I just can’t stop recommending this manga to people (despite not going where I thought it’d be) because of how good the art-style is and how much promise it has. It updates monthly, which I know is a long wait, but it does pay off when you see the quality of everything. Plus it’s just fun to imagine how hamefura would go if it followed the typical “villainess otome isekai” format.

I actually love talking about hametsuo, so maybe my posts are woth the look ;; w ;;

The Light Novels

credits to @sparckle-art​ for the scans!

I’m happy to read that a lot of people are gonna go switch and buy the light novels after the anime ends! By the time the anime ends, the Vol. 6 of the LN would release a week later, acting kind of like a replacement of what is supposed to be a new episode for that week.

The fan-translated version of the web novel is available online, up until half of Vol. 4, but I still recommend buying the books on bookwalker (i don’t know if the sale is still there, but I’d recommend picking up the book regardless!). If reading the fan translation piqued your interest, then playing for the books would definitely worth your money if you ask me! 

An increase of sales might show them that there’s interest for this light novel, and might make them translate the JP novels even faster! (or maybe i’m just too impatient to wait 2-3 months for Volume 7 dshfjsfgs who knows?)

My only warning is that the tone really does shift post-arc 1 (Fortune Lover I) so if you’re looking for harem hijinks, from spoilers I’ve seen I think there would less of that and more of world building. (ps. please stop asking me where to read it ;;-;;)

Edit: Volume 8 is coming out in a few months, with Volume 9 probably being released at either Jan or Feb next year, then after that it’ll be a yearly update

StoryMe Otome Game

credit to the hamefura reddit discord for the screenshots!

I’m surprised a lot of people doesn’t know about the StoryMe game, despite it updating every week alongside the anime. Just kidding I didn’t either lol, I actually found about this thanks to the hamefura reddit discord server! StoryMe is a choose-your-own-adventure otome game, kind of like those “Episodes” or “Chapters” game that gets recommended on Youtube a lot. 

It’s still in japanese, which is probably why not a lot of people knows of it yet, but it seems like you can play as Katarina and romance anyone from the entire harem (yes, the girls too), so keep you eyes peeled for if ever it gets an english translation!

It’s basically the bluray Fortune Lover game with the DVDs, but instead of Maria, you actually get to play as Katarina!

(I’ll make a separate post for this later, maybe)

Edit: The game just came out in English in September 16, and just spat out a 11-episode update at September 30

tldr: go play it, it has 19 episodes out right now

Katarina’s Farm

It’s a newly announced mobile game with a web trial version that centers around playing as Katarina, trying to earn money and points for expanding your farm land, planting more expensive plants and getting the other members of the harem to join you! It’s a 2D pixel game that seems like it wouldnt take too much time to play (you can get the first 4 characters within 30 minutes of gameplay, but that might be adjusted in the mobile version) so I understand if it might not interest some people, but that’s still something to look forward to!

I made another post about it so check out the link to the web version here!

The Bluray Otome Game

While I can’t say this for certain, but maybe if there was ever an official english bluray release, it might include the Fortune Lover Male Capture Target Routes that are included in the game. Maybe someone will play it and translate it even! It would interesting to see how different the boys are, and give us further appreciation for Katarina’s influence and changes!

There’s a preview for a CG in Keith’s Route, which comes with the second bluray (no pv for Geordo ;; w ;;)

Edit: All the boy’s routes are out in Japanese

We don’t know if they’ll ever be released in English though, so hopefully someone translates them at least ;;w;;

The Manga and Yuri Anthology

Missing the hilarious and heartwarming antics of Katarina and her harem? Then you should check out the Manga Anthology (that has just been been translated in its entirety). It’s 14 chapters of absolute hilarity!

There’s also a Yuri Anthology, featuring the 4 girls of the harem! If you’re looking for more of that then, it’s an absolute recommendation!

Spin-off Visual Novel

Edit: They recently just announced a spinoff visual novel! It takes place after the Fortune Lover 1 Arc and features sexy pirates hgsjhgsdf

It’s just recently announced so there’s not a lot of info besides the company making it (it’s Otomate) and the fact that it’s gonna be an all new Bakarina adventure uwu

Bakarina Radio

I heard there’s a Bakarina Radio too, featurning the VAs of the anime cast. 

I don’t know if its a regular thing or a one time thing, but its still worth checkin out!

https//twitter.com/hamehura/status/1309831738525278209

The Second Season of the Anime

I seriously wasn’t expecting another season, considering how different the next arc is, but I’m happy nonetheless for more Bakarina! I hope this motivates the fans to continue supporting the series, as a bigger reaction will definitely lead to more content for us to enjoy! I have a theory about S2, which I think is worth the read :3c

Other Otome Isekais

There’s a lot of other Villainess Otome Isekai’s that are worth the read, and a lot of them as just as interesting as hamefura, despite the lack of a harem (from deep rooted revenge to hilarious and crazy villainess, there’s a lot!) The quickest recommendation I can give is just looking up “Akuyaku” and “Villainess” on Mangadex (do both btw they dont have the same results), but theres a lot that doesn’t get recommended so do your research! I swear it’s worth your time!

Anyways, I hope any of these fill the hole that the hamefura anime will leave in our hearts as we wait for season 2! (sorry for repeating the same line again hdsfgdjhsfg) Feel free to add anything like fanfic recommendations and artists, as I can’t cover everything on my own, as those really help provide hamefura fans with content :DD

[atinytokki]

Distant Daylight

iv. Apprenticeship

Yunho tried not to flinch at the slap delivered across his face. It stung, but the image of that bloody body, unmoving in the dirt, stung worse.

He knew he deserved it for what he did to the scar face boy, but the contempt in the headmaster’s eyes was solid proof that he had lost the only potential ally in this orphanage. Probably forever. His earlier mercy on that first day was forgotten.

It was several moments before steam stopped coming out of his ears and the man finally spoke.

“I’m moving you to the delinquents room in the south wing.”

Yunho looked up at him in shock.

“But you said we wouldn’t be separated—“

“I said you would not be separated if you didn’t cause trouble,” the headmaster was quick to cut him off. “You’ve only been here a month and already you’re starting fights.”

Yunho shook his head and began to plead. The composure he had maintained thus far was thrown out the window when it came to Gunho.

“But I didn’t start it, the boy attacked Gunho first! And he threatened him before, I tried to tell you!”

“Silence! Speak without permission again and I’ll hand you over to the jailhouse instead. They won’t be so forgiving there.”

Yunho’s mouth clicked shut. He was completely helpless again. With his bare hands, he had destroyed everything he had built in the past month. Everything he had done to try to feel normal again.

And worse, he didn’t even know if the scar face boy was alive.

Yunho was roughly escorted back to the east wing to pack up his things.

Gunho sat on his bed and sobbed, begging him not to go. It rent his heart in two because he wanted more than anything to stay, but there was nothing that could be done. The headmaster’s word was final.

That first night in the delinquents room, he pulled the blankets over his head and tried not to cry.

Gunho was sleeping alone without him, and the scar face boy’s friends were probably waiting to finish what he started.

No one would listen to a word out of Yunho’s mouth.

“No one’s going to adopt you now.”

Yunho looked up from where he had been staring across the great hall at Gunho and met eyes with the boy that was looking at him.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re in the delinquents room,” the boy said matter of factly. “Adopters don’t even glance in our direction.”

Yunho sighed and swallowed a tasteless bite of breakfast. He had figured as much, and it didn’t bother him as much as it ought to. He hadn’t wanted to be considered for adoption anyway.

“There is hope for your brother, though,” the boy went on, mouth full of food and paying no mind to it. “He seems nice and if he masters the pitiful orphan act, he has a chance.”

It was a passing remark from a stranger but it made Yunho’s heart skip a beat, because he was right.

There was a chance that Gunho might be adopted.

He had expressed interest, however briefly, and he was younger, cuter, quieter... not to mention that he didn’t have a delinquency record.

He could very easily be adopted and leave Yunho behind.

As Gunho gazed back at him longingly from the other side of the room, Yunho knew there was no way Gunho would let himself be permanently separated from his older brother.

But perhaps he wouldn’t have a choice.

“My name’s Sangwoo by the way.”

Again Yunho was drawn from the depths of his thoughts to rest his attention on the boy who was talking to him.

“Yunho,” he responded simply. It was hard to tell if this boy was actually being friendly or if he was just pretentious and couldn’t keep his nose out of other people’s business.

He wasn’t willing to toe the line more than he already had with this character. He looked older and bigger and the older boys were intimidating.

“I know,” Sangwoo said cheerfully. “All the others are talking about you.”

Yunho’s eyebrows shot up at this and he peeked at the rest of the delinquents table. “Really?”

“Of course! You’ve only been here a month and you beat another orphan within an inch of his life.”

The fact that Sangwoo and the other teenagers were impressed by this flew over Yunho’s head. “...He’s alive?”

Sangwoo shrugged and returned to his meal. “No one knows. He was moved to a hospital, though, so that means he wasn’t already dead when you finished with him at least.”

Yunho sighed with relief and sat back. It wasn’t a definitive answer but it was better than the bloody image ingrained in his mind alone.

“Your technique could use some work,” Sangwoo was saying. “But then again, you’re, what? Nine?”

“Eight, actually,” Yunho corrected him, ears burning red with embarrassment. He wasn’t hungry for breakfast anymore.

“And that boy was at least two years older than you, not to mention bigger, so well done for a first fight,” Sangwoo smiled at him. Something in that smile loosened Yunho and he decided to keep talking to him.

“How old are you, exactly?”

“Twelve. My voice hasn’t dropped yet but when it does, I’m going to read scary stories to the little kids,” he winked at him and Yunho frowned back.

“I’m not a little kid.”

“No, you’re not,” Sangwoo agreed, reaching over and ruffling Yunho’s crazy mop of hair. “You wouldn’t be scared, would you?”

Yunho shook his head resolutely.

“I was, at your age,” Sangwoo hummed, more serious now. Like he was remembering something Yunho didn’t know about.

“Did...something scary happen to you at my age?” Yunho’s voice was barely above a whisper, but Sangwoo’s nod indicated that he had heard it.

“My whole life has been a scary story,” came the quiet whisper.

Yunho didn’t get to ask him about it until that night as soon as the caretakers left. He wrapped his blanket around himself and padded over to Sangwoo’s bed.

The two sat there picking at stray threads while Sangwoo told him his life story.

Abandoned as an infant, in and out of orphanages and workhouses— even jail at one point.

“That’s because I stole a matchbox,” Sangwoo chuckled. “I didn’t use it for anything other than a light to read by, but they thought I was going to burn the orphanage down.”

His expression tightened into a grave mask as he entered his preteen years. “A family adopted me. Except it wasn’t because they liked me, they just wanted me to work for them.”

Sangwoo sighed and picked harder at the blanket. “They were downright abusive. And then they had the gall to return me and adopt someone else. I swore never to be adopted again after that.”

Yunho swallowed. So that was what awaited Gunho should he be chosen.

“What are you planning to do, then?” He asked when there was a pause in the hushed conversation. “What choice is there, apart from adoption?”

“As soon as you’re of age, they release you. Then you go out into the world and... try to make a living, I guess.”

“Without an apprenticeship? Or any inheritance whatsoever?” Yunho remembered from his lessons at the Academy how important these things were.

Sangwoo simply smirked at him. “There are other ways to become someone. As long as you can fend for yourself, you’ll be fine.”

As long as you can fend for yourself.

Yunho had what it took. He had the blind anger at the world that could be concentrated into pure power. He had the cleverness to survive from each meal to the next. But what skills he possessed had yet to be honed. There was something he still needed.

“Sangwoo, will you teach me?”

Through the low light of the lantern sitting between them, Yunho saw Sangwoo smile and nod.

“You’ll become even better than me.”

...

A/N: No, I didn’t forget this one ;) So begins the cycle of spinoff updates. If you want to vote for which member gets a spinoff next, send an ask or a message to let me know <3 Thanks for reading!

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[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S4 Ep7: Mai Gets a Day Job (Killing People For Sport)

So, I looked at the calendar and realized, if  I don’t get this post up this week then you’ll only have one update from me for the whole of November since I’m leaving for over a week again. :/ So I’m just gonna get right to the good stuff because it has taken just a crazy amount of time to get to episode 7.  How great would it be if I also got to episode 8. Real great, right?

So lets do this, I can do this, I can write a recap without getting insanely distracted, watch me do it: This episode starts with Tristan sticking to the fatal flaw of his character sheet and seeing listed at the very top “low key toilet obsession.”

Ah Tristan.

And when you think “well, OK, they’re stuck by some historic Mesas, this is fine,” suddenly they are beset by the world’s most random biker gang of like 20 full grown adults/biker assassins.

And it’s not super clear if their driver died out there in the Arizona desert, or if he just put on a different outfit and joined this gang, but it won’t matter because like...it’s a filler arc in Yugioh so there’s gonna be some deaths.

This season seems to change genre like every 10 minutes, and so for right now we are in a Mad Max post-apocalyptic territory and PS every one of these bikers uses a lead pipe?

I feel like this is way more violent than a gun???

(read more under the cut)

And so, out the horizon comes another biker, like a masked cowboy on horseback, except she shoots these things instead of bullets.

These are trained assassins, by the way, just completely incapacitated by paper.

I just love the marketing team working alongside of this show that’s like “and what else can Yugioh cards do? destroy biker gangs. That’s right, one single card will absolutely destroy a biker!” and the writing staff was like “yeah, we can work that in. That totally works in universe, you don't even know.”

It’s Mai! Back from murdering the hell out of Pegasus, I guess she decided to ninja these 20 bikers, and did it so devastatingly, that they somehow blew up a motorcycle next to a live fuel tank? Like we’re talking Oliver Queen precision throwing here and like...

...Mai’s only been gone like a year right???

And so, seeing that this card is a harpy, which I dunno...doesn’t seem like it’s all that rare in comparison to a Blue Eyes or a God Card or I dunno any of the other signature cards we’ve heard about, Joey immediately recognizes Mai. Despite the fact that everything she is doing right now is completely out of character, and despite the fact that they are in freakin California.

RIP to all 20 of the people in that gang of bikers, because no one followed this limo away from the scene--everyone was, I assume, hella dead.

Youknow, I never expected Mai to kill more people than Bakura. I would have predicted Joey before Mai. I would have predicted Rebecca before Mai. Literally anyone else on this show before Mai.

Seto, crawling out of this oversized castle that I guess...is back on the real estate market now...decides that the irresistible pull of dragons printed on paper cards is stronger than listening to his brother’s needs to put down the damn cards and make a contractually obligated theme park.

I mean Mokuba kept him off the cards for nearly a whole year. What a healthy year that was for Seto.

Back in Arizona, apparently they didn’t make it more than a mile before Tristan busted the car. Not really clear why or how this happened, but they’ve decided to argue with eachother about it despite the fact one of them is clearly magical and does not really need to eat or drink or even maybe sleep?

Like we’ve seen Bakura basically survive off of one plate of tacos and 2 pints of blood, so just make Pharaoh push the car all the way back to California. Or just make Pharaoh use his millennium AIM to call up His tomb keepers and be like “Marik, we need a lift.” or maybe summon a very real monster because that’s a thing now?

Course this would rely on Pharaoh remembering that he has superpowers, which, somehow after 4 seasons, he always forgets how to use the moment he uses them. It’s like reverse Sailor Moon--Usagi tends to level up her Super powers, Pharaoh kind of tosses them out of the window and goes “oops” and becomes more and more mortal every single season.

So instead of magic they will just use Tea.

Amazing how none of them are really willing to date Tea seriously but they will acknowledge, out of the four of them, Tea is the best looking. So their strategy, bear with me, wasn’t to use the fact they’re children to get help from adults driving by, instead, the boys hid behind a rock so they could really make sure they were getting a hella pervy truck driver that would only stop for a single teenage girl stuck in the desert.

Only this group of kids would be like “Hey lets make sure the guy who picks us up is statistically most likely to be a serial killer” and then, weirdly enough, this horndog pedo truck driver ended up being the only person who didn’t try to kill them this entire episode.

So, lets go back to SF but coming from the north side...which makes no sense...but then again, they put Mesas in Napa County.

So last episode I assumed Rex and Weevil were dropped off in Oakland, but Rex informs us this episode that they are in “the worst part of town”

Where they get robbed twice, only to be saved by Duke Devlin, who I guess just lives here now because maybe it’s the only place he can afford in this expensive as hell city? Maybe he isn’t bothered by the crime-rate after that week he spent on Kaiba’s blimp/Seaquest mmo adventure?

Anyway, for some reason Duke--who is a game shop owner/developer by day--is wandering around the Tenderloin as a vigilante and saving people by throwing dice at them as some sort of side hustle and this is never discussed at all.

I would watch that spinoff series. Religiously.

Fun fact, there is definitely sketchy and bad parts of the Tenderloin you will know not to go to (you can smell it actually), but like a third of it is part of the best shopping district in the city and we used to just shop there unsupervised when I was a kid. It has an Anthropologie.

Not saying the parts that are bad aren’t bad. Whenever I drive through the non-shopping parts, I see at least one super sketch thing making me thankful I’m in the car. But I just don't know how Rex and Weevil managed to get robbed twice in one day. Just go five blocks in literally any direction.

Bro and I were like...HOW did this shot happened from this angle on the freeway...and then I only just now realized it. Something I forgot about because it’s from my parent’s generation...maybe the animators weren’t aware that the Embarcadero fell down after Loma Prieta?

So this was the SF landscape before the quake of 89′ (Which I have no memory of since I was a baby when this happened)

and after 89.

Like maybe the animators they had on this team remembered an SF from their youth that had a huge iconic raised street wrapping all the way around one part of it and just...never got the memo that an Earthquake made the entire thing fall down?

Either way, Duke is either driving these two directly out of SF, or he is driving them into 1988 and is taking a lovely drive on the Old Embarcadero, an experience which does not exist anymore, and which makes a lot more sense since Duke has to be somewhat near downtown, going by the skyscrapers and the vicinity to the Tenderloin.

Man. In the Yugioh Universe, Loma Preita just never actually happened. How is that factoid alone not the weirdest part of this episode?

(I am so glad Serenity is not here now that Duke’s back)

Welcome back to the show Duke, glad you’re bringing...Rex and Weevil...

To be fair, Duke has absolutely no idea who is and isn’t Yugi’s friends. Duke just kind of shows up and pretends like he’s part of the gang, and the gang has lost so much brain matter from all the cards and all the dark magic, they just assume he’s been here the whole time.

So at first I was like “this has to be a pun on Industrial Light and Magic” since there’s virtually no other film studios in the city--but ILM moved to SF 3-4 years after this season came out. So it’s just a weird coincidence, I guess. Or maybe it’s just a really uninspired name?

And so Mai, who I guess has been just waiting on this ledge for 8 hours decides to drop in.

Mai has evolved a lot since S1.

But, although Mai is just...straight up evil now, at least we get to see it taken out on Pegasus who, as far as this show is concerned, is a pretty evil bastard.

A pretty evil bastard who took like 3-4 episodes to beat in S1 but Mai could just do it off-screen.

It’s just funny that the entire time on the island Pegasus was probably pretty sure everyone there was trying to kill him EXCEPT for Mai and then the moment his back is turned he’s like “oh whaaaat?”

Like Bandit Keith is already in America. But rather than use Bandit Keith for this, lets use Mai to give Joey something to angst about. We can’t put her in a coma again--so lets instead get her vaguely possessed. Although seriously, if someone I liked did this to me I think I’d be over that crush really fast.

And then, speaking of Bandit Keith, we get to have a Greek Chorus this duel from the minibosses. Valon and the other guy with the handlebar-muttonchops.

I looked up “where does Valon’s accent come from” and literally there is no consensus, as far as I know.

And that’s where this episode ends.

Now I’m gonna go out of town for a week and then will need another week to make more of these so I’ll be on another hiatus. Holding out if I’ll maybe bring a laptop or something to where I’m going so I can type out recaps when I’m bored.

The problem is having the uhhhhh photoshop to do the caps. I can’t bear to do this in MS Paint because hell will freeze over before I lose all of my actions and hotkeys I made specifically to reduce the time it takes to make these. But we shall see.

anyway, if you want to see these from the beginning, click here.

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Double Decker 12 - 13 (FINAL) | Golden Kamuy 23 - 24 (FINAL) | Merc Storia 11 - 12 (FINAL) | Zombieland Saga 12 (FINAL) | Gridman 12 (FINAL) | Cells at Work! 14 (OVA) | Shield Hero 1 | Boogiepop 1 - 2 | Egao no Daika 1

Trigger warnings for rape and slavery in the Shield Hero commentary.

Double Decker 12

Deana’s actually kinda tsundere…that’s kinda amazing to see, really.

I noticed Doug’s phone says “Dr. Apple”. Haha.

Kirill’s special. But why? You never answered that, people! Update: It’s because his antibodies are an antidote for Anthem.

There appears to be a Shell logo on one wall of Derick’s bar…LOL. Shell exists in real life. Why do we want it in an anime, now…?

I laughed so hard when I saw the landlady with what remained of Seven-O, hahaha.

Travis and Sophie, huh? Is it a ship or a working relationship? Who knows?

Oh! This didn’t make sense until Derick declared the bus was a bar. Rigggggggggght.

Kirill, believe in the Doug that believes in you…or something like that…

Kirill’s holding two guns, so when Cooper says, “Put down the gun,” which one does he mean???

“And Then There Weren’t None!” – Parodying (Agatha) Christie again, I see? (Referring to Hyouka’s Why Didn’t They Ask Evans parody, Why Didn’t She Ask Eba?.)

Golden Kamuy 23

How did ���pig food” in a sentence become so terrifying???

Why is Tsurumi’s head leaking???

*Sugimoto bashes the earless twin with his prosthetic foot* - Well, that’s one way to get a leg up on someone…okay, I’ll see myself out.

Merc Storia 11

If Orthos is complaining about rain, why is he a water-element unit in the game???

This show is gorgeous. Not to mention the backgrounds look like they’ve been ripped out of the game…

Aw, Orthos is kinda cute. Kinda tsundere. I wonder if he wanted to hear “happy birthday” from Raviol…?

Every time I watch through the ED, I think Raviol’s going “Geddof me!” to Yuu.

Zombieland Saga 12 (FINAL)

The Yuugiri slap returns!

The 21st of December seems to have been the original airdate of this episode…

Karatsu-jou is Karatsu Castle, quite obviously.

Wait…does this mean Kotaro Tatsumi’s real (last) name is Inui? Or was this a “I changed my name bcause my mother/I (re)married” thing?

There’s an end of episode segment…keep watching.

That was…such a non-ending! This definitely needs a season 2 if it wants to finish its storyline! Plus, Yuugiri, Tatsumi and Tae never got their focus episodes!

Gridman 12 (FINAL)

What the heck was up with that smoke cloud? It looked so real, and yet so out of place!

Ooh, I see Anti now has the ability to transform by himself…although I should’ve figured that out last episode, since I think that happened then as well.

*Anti gets stabbed with Alexis’s sword* - What the hck just happened to my garbage son??? (refer to This Week in Anime for how that nickname came about for Anti)

Eyy. So you’re saying Gridman was a magical girl robot all along? Haha…hahahaha.

So basically, it’s Boueibu LOVE! but with less meta. With lessons of mortality instead of the Kabuki Rule. Akane’s basically female!Kinshiro, right down to the hairdo…

Wow…someone really ran out of budget. It’s literally just a slideshow, but with black and white over it.

Oh, there’s actually a nice piano song in the background. So maybe I was wrong about the budget…? I don’t really want to go and watch the slideshow again, y’know.

There’s a random live-action segment at the end of this show??? Wuh??? What do I need to expect next, a talking meteorite??? (referring to Dimension High School)

Okay, seriously??? What was up with live-action Rikka???? I don’t get it… Update: Okay, so the live-action girl was Akane, not Rikka. That’s why it was so confusing…

Double Decker 13 (FINAL)

I laughed really hard at the explosions. Probably because I Photoshopped someone into a picture of an explosion and the scene with Kirill being shoved forward by an explosion reminded me of it…

I wanted Max to slap Travis, as weird as that might be for a show like this (but not for a show like Zombieland Saga). A punch in the gut’s good too, though.

“To be continued?” – Oh. Ohh. Ooh…Heh. I already knew there were some extra episodes, but at this point, there’s no ruling out a season 2, either…hmmm. I really wouldn’t mind a season 2, y’know.

Golden Kamuy 24 (FINAL)

For some reason, I’ve ben referring to Hijikata as “old fart” for the length of this episode (meaning “not long”). He’s an impressive old fart, to be sure, and he was hella nice-looking in his heyday, but in the age of Golden Kamuy, he’s still an old fart.

I thought “Say hello to my little friend” was from Scarface, not…whatever Tsurumi’s pulling here. (commnt made in jest with straight face)

Seriously, what happened to ruin Nopperabo/Wilk’s face, anyway?

Someone make me a Civil War poster with Golden Kamuy characters, stat!

Wait, so Kiroranke, Asirpa and co. are headed north to meet up with Kiroranke’s allies, which could cause a civil/national war. Hijikata and Blockhead Dick-sensei (forgot his name) are headed south due to the info they got from Inudou’s hut (the chapel). I’m pretty sure that’s what just happened, but…I could have missed a bit and then I’d be wrong.

“Send the beloved child on a journey” is a Japanese saying, by the way. That’s (probably?) what Sugimoto’s referring to when he talks with the boat captain (the elder Koito). Oddly, the elder Koito seems to drop the last O from “-dono”, which seems to be a Satsuma thing…?

Cells at Work Special Ep (Ep 14)

Oh, you can see the effector cell amongst the other T Cells! Hello there!

I remember studying stuff about how a cell divides…man, that was at least 2 years ago! You’re making me feel old…

*Helper T Cell appears* - Gaddangit, Kazuma! (from Noragami)

Merc Storia 12 (FINAL)

There’s just something too awfully cute about a brother leaving the “nest”.

Even birds need to learn to fly. I wonder why Orthos didn’t…?

Ah! It’s one of those low-level hooting monsters! I’ve seen them in the game but I don’t know what they’re called…Update: They’re called Goldories. Spoke too soon…

Well…that’s a bit frustrating. That’s the second non-ending this season…hey! I’ve seen that elephant in the game! Plus that slime! (LOL, I’m so easily distracted…)

Ooh, that non-ending. I’ll give it a piece of its mind by giving it an average rating on my AniList!!! Rah!!! Anyways, see ya later…for 2019 anime.

Shield Hero 1

First anime of 2019 and it’s this one. Hoo boy – I’ve read one chapter of the manga, courtesy of CR. It’s gonna get nasty down in here, judging by the buzz that seems set to replicate Goblin Slayer’s…

Oh…that’s not a very favourable opening, the “It was all a dream” opening. Sure, it was gripping and showd Raphtalia (saw her name in promo material from ANN), but f*** if it weren’t overused at this point in time…

I always thought Shield Hero started out like Fushigi Yuugi…speaking of which, is that no longer on Crunchyroll?

Motoyasu’s got his own spinoff, so I’m hoping I’ll get to know him well over the next 12 weeks or so.

I find it interesting that they put the heroes together to reveal they’re from different versions of Japan so quickly. I’m pretty sure that didn’t happen in the manga.

Honestly, that “NOOOOOOOOOOOo!” could be an awesome reaction GIF. Just sayin’.

Sigh…Myne, Myne, Myne…you and your ways with Naofumi…

(Trigger warning: rape discussion) See? As I said, I knew this was going to happen. The thing is that it played out a lot more clearly in the anime than it did in the manga. As much as I don’t like the trope of “rape as accusation” enough (enough to have never encountered it before), it would be hypocritical of me to say I haven’t used it before – it appears in Half-Paid Heroes. However, one year out from having written it (due to the #MeToo movement), I can only say “rape is so not on”. I do not condone rape, but from a storytelling perspective it’s the perfect trope to make a character look like a monster and it makes a clearly false accusation have more oomph behind it, so…let’s just say Shield Hero’s doing its job here, making me despise Myne and the system in this world. Besides, I only stand on the side that does the better story.

For some reason, Naofumi’s “You can shove it all up your a***!” demand reminds me of when I’m angry and doing unreasonable demands…which means it’s won me over now.

I just realised…there hasn’t been much music until now…

(Trigger warning: slavery discussion) Oof. Now they’ve gotten to a new low of depravity in this show. Naofumi’s probably gonna buy a slave…again, I don’t condone this, but I assume Raphtalia is here.

Yep, even without knowing past ch 1, I was right on the money. That’s Raphtalia!

Poppies, huh? The symbol of bloodshed. What a perfect flower for this show, which demonstrates Naofumi’s blood, sweat and tears…

As much as I don’t condone some of the acts done in this show, I see some huge potential. Even if it’s got controversy flying around it like flies, I’ll stand with it. Are you with me?

Boogiepop 1 – 2

Double length premiere…oof, this’ll be tough on my spare time. Lately, I’ve been told to clean up the house a bunch and doing all manner of other things, so it’s just eating up time on all sides.

OP start is…for some reason, never a good start. For some reason, I just don’t like it. Maybe that might be the fact I was taught to start with a compelling opening scene when I was a fiction writer, though.

The subber got so bored they even subbed the Dengeki Bunko logo in the corner…wow. (sarcastic)

For some reason, the art style reminds me of Banana Fish (or Parasyte). Must be the chara designs.

This seems to be coated in a fine film of 90s edge. Or maybe the early 2000s, because that’s when this really comes from. C’mon, Takeda doesn’t even seem surprised when his mouth hangs open!

Notably, Boogiepop uses boku.

Wait, I don’t get why Boogiepop is called that. They pop the boogie(men)? That right?

I started zoning out and fiddling with my wrist in the middle of this episode. That’s another bad sign…

Wow, that ending’s really minimalist.

Currently, this episode raises more questions than it answers. Its overall impression level is trending slightly towards the negative. There must be a double premiere for a reason, though…let’s move on.

Wait - Kirima Seiichi? Is he Nagi’s father??? How did I not notice that earlier?

That manticore business seems to be correct…according to Wikipedia.

This doesn’t add up. Taniguchi. Kirima. Maybe Taniguchi is the name of the mother/father and Kirima is the name of the other parent? Update: Spoke too soon on this point and a previous one.

Kirima’s OS appears to be Windows 10 with a few adjustments.

Wait, but isn’t Suema meant to be the girl’s surname? Or is it Kinoshita? Update: It’s Suema. Kinoshita is another girl.

This white-haired man is the one from last episode, right? I didn’t really recognise him since there’s always terrible lighting plus he was wearing orange then, but yeah. Can’t believe I didn’t connect the dots there either.

White-haired man seems to be like Anti from Gridman. I presume he’s Echoes…? Update: Yup, Echoes it is.

Egao no Daika 1

This sounds like it’s outside my field of expertise, but I’ve been proven wrong before with Planet With, not to mention Toshiki Masuda is a character called Huey Malthis. It seems to be pretty standard Princess and the Pauper fare though…

There’s just a bunch of tablets with fancy-looking English on them…the heck?

Is it just me, or did the mecha game have the solitaire success sound effect…?

Ooh, I sense animosity regarding Japan’s emperor abdicating within this show (in a metaphorical sense)! I could analyse this show to bits, maybe…

The CGI in this actually ain’t that bad. Then again, we are talking about mechs here…

Oh, end of episode segment. Keep watching…

Well, I noticed the characters go off model if you’re paying attention to something you shouldn’t be, but otherwise, it’s a respectable first episode…respectable, but fairly average.

[prettylittleliarsxxxx]

So long, Rosewood -- and hello, Beacon Heights!

Now that Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists is officially heading to Freeform for a 10-episode first season, we've been dying to know how this next PLL chapter starring Mona (Janel Parrish) and Ali (Sasha Pieterse) is going to unfold.

To get the inside scoop, ET recently sat down with creator Marlene King at the ATX Television Festival in Austin, Texas, and now we have absolutely everything fans need to know before tuning into PLL: The Perfectionists. From checking in on Emily and Alison's rumored relationship woes to asking about Mona's Parisian dollhouse and discovering what Spencer and Toby are up to  -- (Spoiler alert: They're happy!)  -- only ET is spilling the exclusive spinoff secrets.

ET: Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists is officially happening! How are you feeling right now knowing that the Pretty Little Liars story will continue on?

Marlene King: I'm so excited! The challenge for me was coming up with a story that paid homage to PLL, that really honored the brand, but yet felt really new. [It’s] a brand-new show with brand-new stories and I think we did a pretty good job of pulling that off.

Talk to us about Beacon Heights -- how is this town different from Rosewood?

Well, Beacon Heights is very different from Rosewood. PLL was shot almost entirely as a Warner Bros. backlot show, which most fans already know, but this pilot and the show is going to be shot in and outside of Portland, Oregon. We're being true to [The Perfectionists] books. They take place in the Pacific Northwest in Beacon Heights, so that's our new world.

This book is inspired by another book series from Pretty Little Liars author Sara Shepard called The Perfectionists -- how much are you drawing upon this source material and then infusing it into this new show?

Well, I don’t want it to be a spoiler for people who haven’t read the books yet, but the books have a twist in them that would be kind of impossible to pull off on a TV show. So I think it was great inspiration for the show, but we kind of go off [book] a little bit sooner rather than later -- unlike with PLL, which I think we were really true to the first four books.

In the 30-second teaser for PLL: The Perfectionists, we discover that Ali is moving to a new town, and it looks like she’s starting a new chapter in her life. Can you explain a little bit about why she’s moving?

Well, again, I don’t want it to be a spoiler because we do address that in the pilot, but she and Mona have a conversation about that and we understand why she's making this journey. It's a personal journey for her and there's something that she has to accomplish, I think, for her own sense of self. You'll hear about that right away in the pilot story.

A lot of fans out there are very worried that Ali is going off on this journey and that Emily is not seen in this promo. Should Emison fans be worried about their relationship?

Well, you know, the challenge of this [is that] the starting point [of the show] was who wants to do it? Who wants to really be a part of this new show? And the original four Pretty Little Liars were all ready to go do new things -- that’s just sort of the way the world works. So my challenge then, as the creator of this new show, was to honor Emison's relationship and continue to honor it as we launch this new story. It was a challenge, and I hope we've done the best job possible of honoring what we know is their truth.

You're still close with the original PLL cast — have you talked to Shay Mitchell? Is it still a possibility that we could see Emily on this show?

MK: I think everything is possible. I think our OG PLLs are really supportive of this show and they're really supportive of Sasha and Janel and me and our new cast, and I think everything is possible.

Will we see Alison and Emily’s twin babies in The Perfectionists?

You will see the twins, yeah. They’re a little older now. I think they're toddlers now. They’re, like, maybe 3 [years old].

So does that mean we’re getting a little bit of a time jump at the beginning of this show?

I think it's almost a real-time time jump. From the time that we ended PLL, which was a year ago, to the time this show will premiere, it's sort of real-time.

Let's talk about Ali and Mona -- two of my favorite characters are going to get to interact a lot more. How would you describe their dynamic at the beginning of this new series?

Well, Alison is surprised to see Mona -- you can see that from the sizzle reel when she stops by for pie. Mona is Mona. You never really know whether you can trust her or not, and that continues to be her truth in this new story.

When we last saw Mona in the Pretty Little Liars series finale, she was playing with her living dolls, Alex and Mary Drake, and keeping them captive. Will we get the answer of whether or not those women are still stuck in Mona’s Parisian dollhouse?

You definitely will get that answer in a very cheeky Mona way.

I loved Mona because she was so fierce and she never needed a man -- or a woman -- to define her, but are we see going to see her be in a relationship in this new show?

Yes, I think it's her turn, as an actress and as a character, for us to have a lot more time to spend with her and really get to know Mona better than we already do.

So that sounds like we could definitely get a love interest for Mona. Can you tease anything about this person that Mona will be interacting with?

I cannot, [but] give me a couple more weeks in the writers' room and then I can give you some more information.

We also have Sofia Carson coming into the show playing Ava, who I know has a lot of secrets. What type of secrets could she be hiding? What should fans know about her?

Sofia's character Ava has, in my opinion, one of my favorite [secrets]. Everybody has a secret going into this new show, and her secret is really one of my favorites. I don’t want to give up what it is, but it's pretty awesome and it's pretty cool and she's kind of a fierce badass -- in her own Sofia way because Sofia is so adorable.

I love the fact that we have the most badass girls all coming together in Beacon Heights. How would you describe their dynamic together?

Well, we find out in the pilot [that Ali] is coming to Beacon Heights because she got a job at Beacon Heights University. She’s a role model in some ways for these younger kids, and [Ava] is a student at Beacon Heights. I don’t want to give up too much, [but] it’s all good, you'll see.

We recently caught up with Troian Bellisario and she expressed that you two have already had conversations about her possibly directing a future episode of The Perfectionists. Is that something that could happen?

We would love it. Yes, I talked to Troian about that, and actually Ashley Benson is really interested in directing an episode too, so that would be great if we could figure out all that stuff. She's a baller. [All of the OG PLLs] are smart -- they all could direct if they want.

Lucy Hale also told us that she's so excited for the show and would be interested in having Aria making an appearance in Beacon Heights. Could any of the OG PLLs make a cameo in the show?

Always. They’re always welcome. We would always want to find a place for them. I think there's just such a seamless sort of transition to this new show that it's always possible for people to just come in and sort of drop in and visit us.

Looking back at the series finale of Pretty Little Liars, a few fans were upset that Spencer and Toby’s ending was left a bit more open-ended than the other couples. You’ve expressed on Twitter that you’d like to write more scenes for the fans for Spencer and Toby’s future. Do you have any Spoby updates for us?

Do I have any Spoby updates? I kind of know where they are in my mind, and honestly I just haven’t had the time to sit down and write that chapter, but I still will. I'll do it.

Can you give us just a little peek into your mind?

They’re happy, I know that. They’re happy. They're living in Philadelphia; they're not living in Rosewood. Toby is helping to build housing for the homeless and Spencer is getting her law degree.

For the Pretty Little Liars fans out there who are going to tune into PLL: The Perfectionists next year, what do you want them to know before they watch this first episode?

MK: Well, they can go back and binge Pretty Little Liars, which I think a lot of people are doing right now. I just noticed on social media because of the “A” birthday or anniversary of the original airing of the show yesterday, and a lot of people seem to be going back to the show to binge. You don’t have to have watched Pretty Little Liars to enjoy The Perfectionists, but you'll find a lot of Easter eggs in the new show if you do. Just prepare for a fun new ride.

Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists will premiere in 2019 on Freeform.

[vgperson]

What Did I Translate in 2017?

[justpeachyicedtea]

遠回りでも君が選んだ道は前を向いているから

Anonymous said: Hello^^ I was just wondering if you’ll continue “Pinup Boy” from Michinoku Atami. No rushing or anything. I just really like it and I wanted to confirm that it didn’t get dropped. I love your work~ 😊😊

Hello! Pinup Boy was only 2 chapters so it’s been completed! I feel like I get this ask a lot lmao. But no worries, that couple shows up in other chapters in the Midnight Love Alliance universe!

(taken from a chapter I’m currently working on)

Anonymous said: I know that some people’s pet peeve is scanlating using ebooks found wherever, but please keep in mind some of us solo scanlators buy the books and use found ebook raws simply to save time.

I… wasn’t talking about you then?😭😭 That reblog was about scanlators who don’t buy what they work on but still tell others to buy them. You said you buy them, so that’s awesome! Keep doing you, let us support the mangakas any way we can 💕

Anonymous said: I understand that you won’t translate the manga of your future list of projects. Did you find any groups that took them?

No one has contacted me to use my raws, but I’m sure there are groups that will pick them up! 

Anonymous said: Hi! This is completely unrelated to translations and you don’t need to answer but did you know there’s this makeup brand called TooFaced and they came out with this peach line and their new palette is called just peachy? I thought i’d mention it because of your cute name!!

GIRL. (or boy or however you self-identify) DON’T START THIS HERE YOU DON’T WANT TO START MY MAKEUP RANTS HERE. OF COURSE I KNOW ABOUT IT!!!!!! The moment they announced it I was ON IT. I’m sad because I bought their previous Sweet Peach palette for Nitsu but I should’ve waited for this JustPeachy one 😩 I haven’t bought it and idk if I will bc I don’t wear eyeshadow, and I’m more skincare > makeup so I’m saving up for some new essences and creams instead 😭 Thank you for this message though I got so excited!!!! 

reikicchi said: Nothing related to scanlation, I just wanted to say that I like your kakao icon XDD ♥

Thank you!!! Though I feel bad, I only chose apeach because he fits my justpeachy vibe, my favorite character is actually muzi!!!

HE’S A PICKLED RADISH IN A BUNNY COSTUME. Try and tell me that’s not cute I dare you. I’m going back to Korea next year so u kno I’ll be stopping by the kakao friends store and stocking up on some muzi merch 😭😭

Anonymous said: Hi Tea-San, 1. Did Crackster get finished translating I didn’t know if it was dropped or still ongoing either way I understand I just recently discovered this title? So good! 2. Isn’t really a question, but how did you come up with the adorable name? Love your translation keep up the good work! じゃあね

1) The translations for Crack Star has been completed, the releases are up to the anon and they will be private releases on her site! I DEFF get a lot of asks about this lmao. Oh man did you guys read the spinoff series with the idol brother?? I’m so psyched for the next chapter  👀 2) Story time! My online username has been icedtea since the beginning of time like since the og club penguin days lmao. It’s from Sugar Honey Iced Tea… My best friend was sugar honey and I was iced tea. If you know what it means I’m sorry ok if it makes you feel better it was my friend’s idea and not mine. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t worry about it. And for the justpeachy part, I think this was when I was doing my internship and also worked part time? Yall og followers know when I’m talking about. It was like 10pm on a tuesday after my part time job and I’m giving my best friend a ride back and- here, let me just copy paste my response from another ask: My friends came to visit at my part time job (I worked at a Korean/Japanese restaurant and could sneak them some free food) and one of them lives close to me so I’m giving her a ride back, she says she’s craving a snapple iced tea so we stop by a store and this dumbass buys the diet lemon iced tea which who tf gets, come on step your game up. Well, on our drive back, she takes a sip and says, “this is disgusting, do you want it? I should’ve gotten the peach”. And bam. What a great and touching story, right? Aren’t you glad I told you? Though honestly… diet lemon iced tea? get out of my house… My go to iced tea flavor will always and forever be peach. Though guess who’s allergic to peaches 😂😂😂 OH! SPEAKING OF!!! LOOK AT WHAT I SAW THE OTHER DAY

Anonymous said: May I ask why you are closing down? Thanks for all the hard work you have done! Anonymous said: Hey I was just wondering why you were closing down by the end of the year?? Anonymous said: “Code: will be the last justpeachy scanlation, it’ll be released as a volume once I’m done with all my other projects” What do you mean??? You’re closing down??? NOOOOOO T_T I LOVE YOU I DON’T WANT YOU TO GOOOOO Anonymous said: Hi !! Thanks so much as usual for translating Batsu Game <3 . As i saw from your ‘About’ , you will be closing down by end of the year. Can i know the reasons for it and will u drop those project that were on hiatus ?? Appreciate if you can reply me thankss <3

Yes, I’ll be finishing up the projects I currently have listed (Batsu Game, Koiyume Lover, Ai ni Dekinai Koi wa Iya, Code) before I close down so no worries. If Family Affair comes back, I’m not sure if I’ll be down to work on it, I’ll have to see what my rl situation is like. The main reason I’m closing down is that I’m over this whole thing 😅 I barely read yaoi anymore, I’ve watched the groups I was in and grew up with disappear, there’s a lot more readers now which is good! But that brings more of the toxic stuff and even though I don’t read the comments on reader sites anymore, it’s a little depressing seeing that side of things 😂 This ‘scanlation group’ was just me doing my thing, but because I’m lazy and have no skill, I asked friends/strangers for help. So it’s not like I have group members to worry about. And they’re in other groups or have their own groups anyway. I guess scanlating just isn’t fun for me anymore so 

🍑 Peachy Updates 🍑 

Koiyume Lover ch 5 is completed, just waiting to be released (I’m wondering if I should do what I originally planned and wait to release the rest of the chapters all at once? Or release one by one…)

Rift extras currently being typesetted

Finished translating chapter 2 and 3 of No Color Baby for Sentimientoyaoi (shit’s wild 👀)

The new Michinoku Atami has been cleaned, waiting for me to finish translating, then will be sent off for some font magic

Lmao I haven’t touched Ai ni Dekinai Koi wa Iya and I prob won’t for a while 

Code: has been cleaned, I’ll eventually start translating it

Is this it? I feel like I’ve been a lot more productive…

Oh, it’s bc I’m helping kr proof this one series and proofing takes a lot more work than translating…

And also bc I did half of what I listed today lmaooo

I have a friend coming to visit this weekend so no work will be done bc we’re about to hit up all you can eat sushi and study for exams

Homecoming is next weekend so no work will be done bc I’ll be out of commission. Hopefully not puking.

The weekend after that I’m spending in the city for a friend’s birthday so I definitely will be out of commission and will definitely be puking.

Some angst is coming your way

♬ Floria - Tomohisa Sako (Natsume Yuujinchou Roku OP) ♬

[coffeeandcalligraphy]

4, 11, 14, 20, 22 ❤❤❤

4. Do you have any writing habits/rituals?

I guess I only have one writing ritual, and that would be to make a cup of green tea before I start writing (and continue to fill that cup up for the next three or so hours lol).

11. What are you planning to work on next?

This is actually an excellent question because I’m genuinely not sure… I’m currently *trying* to wrap up the final book in the FOSTERED series (if you’ve been here since 2015 *how many times have I said those exact words*), so I’ll probably finish that mid 2018… After that, though, I’m not quite sure. I could work on the FOSTERED spinoff series (IT NEVER ENDS), but I think I’ll probably be FOSTERED out because at that point, I’ll have written three books in this series nonstop, and I’m thinking I’ll probably need a break. Though, ALANNIS follows a different main character, the entiiiire original cast is very much present, and I dunno if I’ll be able to dive in after so long of being in the same world. So I was thinking, take a break for a bit from any and all things that relate to FOSTERED, and then work on maybe a contemporary. The only other book I’m on a go with at the moment is SIXTEEN CENTS, and it’s been two years, and I’ve hardly planned any of it, lol. Sigh. So I’m not totally sure. Maybe I’ll work on a short story or something… (or I also had an idea for a fostered novella that would pair with book four but I need to stahhhppppp)

14. What does it take for you to be ready to write a book? (i.e. do you research? outline? make a playlist or pinterest board? wing it?)

If I’m outlining the book (which is probably the case if it isn’t a fostered book ha), I’ll make sure that is 100% complete, my notes are in good shape, and then I’ll start.

20. Any advice for young writers/advice you wish someone would have given you early on?

Yes! Definitely that writing doesn’t have to equal publishing. You don’t have to publish everything you write, nor do you have to share it, and while I knew this starting out, I really don’t think I understood how important this lesson was. You don’t have to rush. Take your time, write the story you want to write, and not what you think will sell, and enjoy the writing process.

22. Tell us about the books on your “to write” list

So this meshes perfectly with question 11! The books on my ‘to write’ list currently consist of:

– ALANNIS

– BIRD STRIKE (ALANNIS #2)

– SIXTEEN CENTS

So that’s three books, one of which I’m *hoping* to complete along with REWIRED in the new year! (or at least start lol)

The ALANNIS series like I mentioned before, is the spinoff to FOSTERED, and I’ve been planning it for around two years at this point. (I too, don’t understand why I needed a two book spinoff to a six book series, lol.) This is going to remain a personal project, so no, both ALANNIS and BIRD STRIKE aren’t going to be up for publishing, which I’m very okay with, as I really enjoy having personal projects to work on (and would like to plan another one at one point that has absolutely nothing to do with FOSTERED). The duology (as I’m determined it stays) is set 6 years in the future, and follows Chris, who is Reeve, Fostered’s MC’s younger sister. It’s basically a wrap up of how the conclusion of FOSTERED impacts the nearish future, and is sorta this mashup of revenge plot x adventure x friendshipz. At this point in time, the world *should* be at a fairly contemporary state (which is where I’m pretty much at in Fostered), so, while it follows in the dystopianish vein of things, the setting is weird and not dystopian, so it’s sort of lowkey dystopian, ha. Unlike FOSTERED which has sort of branched out into not-YA territory, these books are pretty coming-of-age, as our protagonist is 16 and going through some normal teen shtuff. In a sense, I’ve headed back to the story roots I really enjoyed in FOSTERED, so this whole thing is straight nostalgia. ALANNIS centres on Chris’ growth within her ‘obligatory’ gang (so the original gang in Fostered), and BIRD STRIKE is her finding her own gang (which you’ll get to meet in this month’s writing update!).

SIXTEEN CENTS is a little easier to explain since we don’t require much context, lol. This novel follows seventeen-year-old Andy the summer after his mom passes away. Andy doesn't cope with his grief all that well (as in, he doesn't cope, he just gets quiet), so when the opportunity arises to get away from all the reminders of his mother, and travel to a town/island/this isn’t finalized yet because I haven't figured out logistics as of yet) with his best friends, oh boy, does he take that opportunity. This book is all about the friendship between our three MCs, Andy, Jay and Colton:

and I’m just very stoked about all of this lol. I’ve been planning this book for as long as I’ve planned I’M DISAPPOINTED, so it’s been in my pocket for a while... I haven’t worked on it nearly as much as I should, but I hope to change that at some point in the future.

So that’s that! Thank you for the questions! :)

--Rachel

[shadowsong26fic]

Coming Attractions!

No, I did not forget to do this! ...exactly...

I am super late again this month—buuuut I wanted to wait until I’d posted the delayed Precipice chapter, so.

Fanfic:

Precipice:

Sorry, sorry, sorry for all the delays in the last couple of updates—the last two weekends were super-busy, and then last week ended up being slammed at work and my brain just went pfft. Anyway, there will be another update this week/weekend (probably Rex and Leia), and I’ll hopefully meander back on schedule after that.

And I finally finished Commander! \o/ It was a fun arc. I’m very fond of that arc. But…yeah, it’s a long one, particularly given that very little in-story time passes. (Seventeen chapters to cover one very eventful week…)

So, yeah. Lessons is going to be a much quieter arc, something along the lines of Homecoming in terms of content/pacing. Resetting ourselves, establishing our new patterns, etc. Leia starts getting trained, Luke starts helping Mamma at work more, and bonding with Lavinia/actively being the human ray of sunshine he is. Probably Winter will turn up, too. I’m going to try and focus more on the Coruscant/Imperial Center thread this arc, particularly since Commander was so heavily about our Jedi friends…anyway, I’m guessing this will be a relatively short arc (8 or 9 chapters), and not much Drama/not very Plot-heavy. Other than Infernalis introducing himself. (He’s a lot of fun—there’s a bit I have half written where he’s all “yeah, I know Sidious is using me, but a) that’s what sentients do; we use each other and b) I’m using him too and c) I get to do ALL THIS AWESOME SHIT. So I kinda feel like it’s worth it.” Like…I don’t write unapologetic/Always Chaotic Evil/for the LULZ villains very often, but Infernalis is in that mold.)

Also! As of this Thursday, I will have officially been posting this behemoth for a whole entire year. I’m going to do a bonus fic (I’ll probably put up a prompt call post later tonight or tomorrow), and I’m hoping to commission art as well, either a full cover or one or more arc covers (for completed arc(s)). [Eventually, I probably will want ALL of the covers (i.e., main title/all planned arcs); but that’s a long range project because lol budget.]

ANYWAY if you have any specific requests for bonus fic and/or are interested in getting paid to draw pretty things/know someone who does this kind of thing and is open for commissions (since I do not know how to draw pretty things), let me know!

Distaff:

I FINALLY CONQUERED THE OPERA HOUSE \o/ ::throws confetti::

...heh.

Anyway, yeah. So, that’s moving again! Next chapter should not take nearly five months to come out, as it’s a lot less…mmmm…I’m trying to figure out how to word it. The Opera House was hard, because—look, it’s kind of dumb; Anakin is being really really dumb, we make fun of that scene for a reason, but it’s also one of if not the most important scenes in this entire arc? In terms of what Palpatine’s trying to do, I would argue that it’s even more of a key moment than the final revelation in his office some indeterminate time later, after Grievous is killed. Or, at least, it’s a bigger risk—once he gets Anakin past this point, the next one will come much easier.

Plus, you know, having to figure out an alternative Sith Legend™ to throw at her, since Plagueis doesn’t really apply. And Palps’s hand, so to speak, isn’t quite as strong as it is in canon (but, I mean, we’re talking if canon was, like, a straight flush, in Distaff he’s playing four of a kind or a full house; so still almost certainly a win). So there’s all of those factors to consider, too. (Also, it was his POV, which is…a fun headspace to get in, let me tell you, internet. Although whining about that at my ever-patient roommates did lead to me nicknaming him Skeev Palpatine which honestly I’m surprised I hadn’t thought of sooner.)

Buuuuuuut anyway. I make no promises for exactly when the next chapter will be out, but it definitely won’t take quite so long. Should be sometime this month. Fingers crossed, anyhow.

Masks:

…blaaaaaaaaaaaah. I don’t want it to die. I really don’t. On the other hand, I’ve got a whole lot of other projects ongoing, plus RL and all, plus I’m still having trouble getting into ANH!Vader’s head, so…ehhh, IDK. Essentially, I’ve decided that this is really super back-burner for the time being. Possibly I’ll do it in AU Outline form at some point, if I don’t manage a proper update, but for now, it’s on a vaguely-defined “if my brain cooperates” hiatus. I am (probably) locking canon for it as of TFA (meaning it won’t be as much of an In Spite of a Nail AU past that; and more just an…AU AU, if that makes sense?), though, because I like the plot I have. Though I reserve the right to change my mind on that after TLJ. Anyway, I’ll probably stop talking about this one (unless I use one of the spinoff versions of it as an AU Outline or something) until I actually write/post more.

Auxiliaries:

Update will be up very soon! Not a direct continuation of the last bit I posted, because I’m still working on that, but still something! (Ahsoka is involved because I love her.)

AU Outline:

…yeah, I dropped the ball on this one again. It was going to be the Mask of Zorro/California Gold Rush AU No One One Person Asked For, but I need to sit down and watch Zorro again to put that together, and I haven’t gotten around to that. Also, Ventress and her Tiny Time-Travelling Conscience were speaking to me. …well, less them and another thread of that same AU, plus a couple unrelated AUs... Anyway, I’m going to try and put something up sometime in the next couple days. It’ll probably be the continuation of the Ventress and Luke one but we shall see.

Original fic:

…yeah, I didn’t actually write any this month, lol. I’ll do better in October.

Miscellaneous Other Things:

[In a generic list format because why not]

- Epic Crossover RP OF DOOM! I’ll keep posting snippets from time to time, because it entertains me. And my RP partner and I think we’re funny/clever.

- NaNo is coming up next month! I’m probably going to do the same thing I did last year—set myself an ambitious Total Word Count goal for the month, rather than focusing on a single project. Possibly give myself a list of projects to choose from; probably set a minimum amount that must be on original work/not fanfic. More on that when we actually get close, probably.

- I’ll probably do another Open Question Night sometime halfway through the month, because those are always fun.

- …should I do something Special for Halloween? (Like I did holiday bonus fics for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day?) If I did, what would y’all want to see?

Goal Lists:

September Recap:

1. Keep up with Precipice updates.--not so much

2. Opera House.--FINALLY \o/

3. Another Auxiliaries snippet--missed

4. Work on Masks--missed

5. Another crack outline--missed

6. Update Lux and Farglass Cycle archives--someday I will actually do this

7. At least 5k on projects that are not Precipice--not quite, but I think between half-finished snippets and 3k worth of Distaff text I churned out, I got to like 4k or so?

8. At least 15k total on any/all projects--Not quite, no.

9. At least two pieces to Rainbowfic.--Nope.

10. Put some text down on something publishable.--Nope.

October Goals:

1. Keep up with Precipice updates.

2. Update Distaff.

3. Update <i>Auxiliaries.</i>

4. AU Outline--Mask of Zorro fusion and/or continuation of the Ventress one unless something New and Exciting comes up.

5. At least two pieces to RF.

6. Update the Lux and Feredar archives.

8. Write at least 15k total, at least 5k must not be Precipice

9. Write at least 10k on Precipice (bonus fic counts, meta/answered asks do not)

10. Put some text down on something publishable

[helloworlddemo1122-yahoopar-blog]

'Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists' Boss Talks Emison, Mona's Dollhouse & More Spinoff Answers!

So long, Rosewood -- and hello, Beacon Heights!

Now that Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists is officially heading to Freeform for a 10-episode first season, we've been dying to know how this next PLL chapter starring Mona (Janel Parrish) and Ali (Sasha Pieterse) is going to unfold.

To get the inside scoop, ET recently sat down with creator Marlene King at the ATX Television Festival in Austin, Texas, and now we have absolutely everything fans need to know before tuning into PLL: The Perfectionists. From checking in on Emily and Alison's rumored relationship woes to asking about Mona's Parisian dollhouse and discovering what Spencer and Toby are up to  -- (Spoiler alert: They're happy!)  -- only ET is spilling the exclusive spinoff secrets.

ET: Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists is officially happening! How are you feeling right now knowing that the Pretty Little Liars story will continue on?

Marlene King: I'm so excited! The challenge for me was coming up with a story that paid homage to PLL, that really honored the brand, but yet felt really new. [It’s] a brand-new show with brand-new stories and I think we did a pretty good job of pulling that off.

Talk to us about Beacon Heights -- how is this town different from Rosewood?

Well, Beacon Heights is very different from Rosewood. PLL was shot almost entirely as a Warner Bros. backlot show, which most fans already know, but this pilot and the show is going to be shot in and outside of Portland, Oregon. We're being true to [The Perfectionists] books. They take place in the Pacific Northwest in Beacon Heights, so that's our new world.

This book is inspired by another book series from Pretty Little Liars author Sara Shepard called The Perfectionists -- how much are you drawing upon this source material and then infusing it into this new show?

Well, I don’t want it to be a spoiler for people who haven’t read the books yet, but the books have a twist in them that would be kind of impossible to pull off on a TV show. So I think it was great inspiration for the show, but we kind of go off [book] a little bit sooner rather than later -- unlike with PLL, which I think we were really true to the first four books.

Freeform

In the 30-second teaser for PLL: The Perfectionists, we discover that Ali is moving to a new town, and it looks like she’s starting a new chapter in her life. Can you explain a little bit about why she’s moving?

Well, again, I don’t want it to be a spoiler because we do address that in the pilot, but she and Mona have a conversation about that and we understand why she's making this journey. It's a personal journey for her and there's something that she has to accomplish, I think, for her own sense of self. You'll hear about that right away in the pilot story.

A lot of fans out there are very worried that Ali is going off on this journey and that Emily is not seen in this promo. Should Emison fans be worried about their relationship?

Well, you know, the challenge of this [is that] the starting point [of the show] was who wants to do it? Who wants to really be a part of this new show? And the original four Pretty Little Liars were all ready to go do new things -- that’s just sort of the way the world works. So my challenge then, as the creator of this new show, was to honor Emison's relationship and continue to honor it as we launch this new story. It was a challenge, and I hope we've done the best job possible of honoring what we know is their truth.

You're still close with the original PLL cast — have you talked to Shay Mitchell? Is it still a possibility that we could see Emily on this show?

MK: I think everything is possible. I think our OG PLLs are really supportive of this show and they're really supportive of Sasha and Janel and me and our new cast, and I think everything is possible.

Will we see Alison and Emily’s twin babies in The Perfectionists?

You will see the twins, yeah. They’re a little older now. I think they're toddlers now. They’re, like, maybe 3 [years old].

So does that mean we’re getting a little bit of a time jump at the beginning of this show?

I think it's almost a real-time time jump. From the time that we ended PLL, which was a year ago, to the time this show will premiere, it's sort of real-time.

Let's talk about Ali and Mona -- two of my favorite characters are going to get to interact a lot more. How would you describe their dynamic at the beginning of this new series?

Well, Alison is surprised to see Mona -- you can see that from the sizzle reel when she stops by for pie. Mona is Mona. You never really know whether you can trust her or not, and that continues to be her truth in this new story.

When we last saw Mona in the Pretty Little Liars series finale, she was playing with her living dolls, Alex and Mary Drake, and keeping them captive. Will we get the answer of whether or not those women are still stuck in Mona’s Parisian dollhouse?

You definitely will get that answer in a very cheeky Mona way.

I loved Mona because she was so fierce and she never needed a man -- or a woman -- to define her, but are we see going to see her be in a relationship in this new show?

Yes, I think it's her turn, as an actress and as a character, for us to have a lot more time to spend with her and really get to know Mona better than we already do.

So that sounds like we could definitely get a love interest for Mona. Can you tease anything about this person that Mona will be interacting with?

I cannot, [but] give me a couple more weeks in the writers' room and then I can give you some more information.

Freeform

We also have Sofia Carson coming into the show playing Ava, who I know has a lot of secrets. What type of secrets could she be hiding? What should fans know about her?

Sofia's character Ava has, in my opinion, one of my favorite [secrets]. Everybody has a secret going into this new show, and her secret is really one of my favorites. I don’t want to give up what it is, but it's pretty awesome and it's pretty cool and she's kind of a fierce badass -- in her own Sofia way because Sofia is so adorable.

I love the fact that we have the most badass girls all coming together in Beacon Heights. How would you describe their dynamic together?

Well, we find out in the pilot [that Ali] is coming to Beacon Heights because she got a job at Beacon Heights University. She’s a role model in some ways for these younger kids, and [Ava] is a student at Beacon Heights. I don’t want to give up too much, [but] it’s all good, you'll see.

We recently caught up with Troian Bellisario and she expressed that you two have already had conversations about her possibly directing a future episode of The Perfectionists. Is that something that could happen?

We would love it. Yes, I talked to Troian about that, and actually Ashley Benson is really interested in directing an episode too, so that would be great if we could figure out all that stuff. She's a baller. [All of the OG PLLs] are smart -- they all could direct if they want.

Lucy Hale also told us that she's so excited for the show and would be interested in having Aria making an appearance in Beacon Heights. Could any of the OG PLLs make a cameo in the show?

Always. They’re always welcome. We would always want to find a place for them. I think there's just such a seamless sort of transition to this new show that it's always possible for people to just come in and sort of drop in and visit us.

Looking back at the series finale of Pretty Little Liars, a few fans were upset that Spencer and Toby’s ending was left a bit more open-ended than the other couples. You’ve expressed on Twitter that you’d like to write more scenes for the fans for Spencer and Toby’s future. Do you have any Spoby updates for us?

Do I have any Spoby updates? I kind of know where they are in my mind, and honestly I just haven’t had the time to sit down and write that chapter, but I still will. I'll do it.

Can you give us just a little peek into your mind?

They’re happy, I know that. They’re happy. They're living in Philadelphia; they're not living in Rosewood. Toby is helping to build housing for the homeless and Spencer is getting her law degree.

For the Pretty Little Liars fans out there who are going to tune into PLL: The Perfectionists next year, what do you want them to know before they watch this first episode?

MK: Well, they can go back and binge Pretty Little Liars, which I think a lot of people are doing right now. I just noticed on social media because of the “A” birthday or anniversary of the original airing of the show yesterday, and a lot of people seem to be going back to the show to binge. You don’t have to have watched Pretty Little Liars to enjoy The Perfectionists, but you'll find a lot of Easter eggs in the new show if you do. Just prepare for a fun new ride.

Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists will premiere in 2019 on Freeform.

RELATED CONTENT:

'Pretty Little Liars' Star Sasha Pieterse Is Married!

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'Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists': How Alison and Mona Come Together in 'Darker' Spinoff (Exclusive)

[briangroth27]

Sleepy Hollow Season 4 Review

Full series spoilers…

I loved Sleepy Hollow in Seasons 1 and 2: the chemistry between Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison), Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie), Jenny Mills (Lyndie Greenwood), and Captain Irving (Orlando Jones) was infectious, the twists on American history and Washington Irving’s original story were ingenious, and the supernatural plotlines were often fearlessly bonkers in the best way. They boasted some great villains, like the iconic and terrifying Headless Horseman (Neil Jackson, Jeremy Owens, Richard Centrone, Craig Branham), the architect of the apocalypse, Moloch (DJ Mifflin, Marti Matulis, Grant Spingdale, Austin Filson), Ichabod’s lost son Jeremy/Henry (John Noble), and Crane’s wife Katrina (Katia Winter). I enjoyed most of Season 3, even if the villains were ultimately underwhelming and Abbie’s death was really poorly done; the magic was still there. Season 4 opened with an uphill battle following Abbie’s death and a complete change of scenery as the series left Sleepy Hollow. I didn’t think the show could—or should—go on. Though the series definitely wasn’t the same, Season 4 largely proved me wrong: there was still life here.

Tom Mison still seemed game to play the time-lost Ichabod as he moved to Washington DC and continued trying to acclimate to the 21st century (while maintaining his Revolutionary style, of course). His reactions to the present were as good as always and I’ll miss him now that the show has been cancelled. I thought it was smart to put him in the capital of the nation he helped found and I loved that he finally got his American citizenship in the finale. That felt truly fitting; the perfect way to end his onscreen arc (though the adventure always continues!). Yes, it also ended with his soul bartered away to the Devil, but I loved the confidence Mison exuded in that closing scene: it was just another problem they’d solve, like the kraken. Carrying on in the face of impossible odds has always been a hallmark of the Witnesses (and the best heroes), and Crane exemplified that perfectly. Ichabod as a guardian/pseudo-stepfather to Molly created some fun moments (like his soccer “battle” speech!) and brought a new side to his character, which was a clever contrast to the tragedy of being robbed of the chance to raise Jeremy. It was great to see Mison and Noble play the next evolution of their father/son relationship, even if we only got to see initial baby steps of that this year. I would’ve liked to see that develop in a potential fifth season. Mison definitely lost an incredible scene partner with Berhie leaving, but Ichabod and Jenny had great chemistry too and their friendship carried the show for me this year.

If there had to be a new Witness, I wish Jenny were the chosen one; I remember the new Witness being said to be someone from Abbie’s bloodline anyway (though I missed it if that connection was ever explained this season). Having her sister’s destiny forced onto Jenny would’ve been a strong arc, particularly as this year found her bristling under the responsibility of staying in one place for so long; she’s always been a treasure hunter and clearly wanted to get back into the field. A Witness who didn’t accept the title, even though she was already in the fight, would be an interesting wrinkle (as would Jenny living up to Abbie’s legacy, if she went all-in with the mantle). Still, I liked her investment in making sure her sister’s legacy was carried on and I love that even with Agency 355’s introduction she still held her position as the show’s occult object expert (a weak point in Season 2 for me was that Matt Barr’s Hawley seemed to largely do Jenny’s job for her). While she didn’t have a sweeping arc of her own this year, Jenny worked well as a stabilizing influence for Crane in his new surroundings, Molly in her role as Witness, and for me as a viewer; she was a steady dose of classic Sleepy Hollow as it transitioned into something new. Greenwood was one of my favorite parts of the cast and always a delight onscreen. If FOX were interested, I’d definitely be down for a Jenny Mills: Supernatural Treasure Hunter spinoff starring Greenwood!

Maybe it’s because the show nailed the character chemistry right out of the gate, but I’ve consistently had trouble accepting new cast members on this show, particularly if they’re playing roles the core four characters already held (though there were exceptions, like Zack Appelman’s Joe Corbin). I liked Agency 355’s Jake Mills (Jerry MacKinnon) and Alex Norwood (Rachel Melvin) best of the new additions; Mills as an Ichabod fanboy was fun and Alex’s “OK, the supernatural is real; makes sense” non-reaction to monsters made sense this far into the series (also given their job, even if they hadn’t encountered real proof yet). Plus, Alex’s aptitude for building arcane devices wasn’t a skill we’d seen before on the show, so it really felt like she offered something unique. They had good chemistry and their slow-burn romance was sweet, if a little well-trod. There was a problem were a few times—even if Alex discovered a map or an artifact—Wells would explain how it was used or what it led to. Why not just let her do it? I also couldn’t help feeling like we didn’t need another semi-skeptic/believer pair, especially with Ichabod/Diana (Janina Gavankar) replaying dynamics we’d already seen repeated last year to various extents with Sophie Foster (Jessica Camacho) and Daniel Reynolds (Lance Gross), and of course Abbie in the first season. This far in, did we really need three new set of eyes (four if you count Molly) on the supernatural, especially when Ichabod and Jenny could’ve served as the audience surrogates into the government’s Agency 355 and their way of doing things? Why not put Diana in 355 as well and make her, Wells, and Alex already knowledgeable about what’s really going on, and at least somewhat experienced at fighting it? Flip the setup so Crane and Jenny still bring new skills to the team, but they don’t have to retrain everyone and they’re the newbies to how the Agency deals with monsters. It already seemed like this scenario was set up in Season 3’s cliffhanger and I wonder if something changed in the development process. I also wondered why Crane had never come looking for 355 with Abbie; he clearly knew it existed in his time, so why didn’t he ever bother to see if it still did? I feel like looking for fellow soldiers in Washington’s secret army would’ve been one of the first things he did upon waking up. In any case, Agency 355 made me really wish we’d gotten an X-Files/Sleepy Hollow crossover instead of (or in addition to) the Bones one from last season.

I wasn’t a fan of how Season 3 rewrote Abbie’s Witness role to be something handed down over the centuries instead of it just being her and Crane as originally presented, mostly because it seemed to make Abbie’s look less essential/important than Crane instead of them being equals. Losing Abbie should’ve had much more of an impact beyond Crane having to protect a secret identity from the new characters early on: it should’ve weighed on him and hampered his fight against evil. A friend pointed out they also skipped over Ichabod dealing with killing Katrina (to move past an unpopular storyline?), and it felt like a similar thing happened here. I did, however, love the scene of Crane visiting Abbie’s grave and updating her on the world; I just wish we’d gotten more about what Abbie brought to the role that Molly maybe wasn’t or couldn’t yet. If I were running things, I wouldn’t have introduced a new Witness at all. Make losing a Witness a major win for the forces of evil; something they were never supposed to be able to pull off. Instead of making Abbie the latest in a long line of replaceable Witnesses, make her loss matter. Make a significant hole in the team that can't be filled by slotting in some other character as the (latest) Chosen One; not only do you honor Abbie’s sacrifice by crystalizing what made her special and important (both in terms of Abbie as a person and as a Witness), but you raise the stakes for everyone still standing.

However, this is the story they went with. As it played out, I thought making a kid the new Witness yielded a good, fresh dynamic between Crane and Molly (Oona Yaffe)—Mison and Yaffe had an easy, fun rapport—but her age and Diana’s protectiveness ultimately hampered how much she could contribute to the point where it seemed like we didn’t need a second Witness for most episodes. While Diana’s function on the team as the official law enforcement officer felt very similar to Abbie and Sophie’s (making it feel a little stale, as if they were keeping the character dynamic status quo), I liked the added wrinkle of giving her a kid to worry about, particularly as Molly was drawn further and further into the supernatural. I think Molly could’ve been special for some other reason without having to be a new Witness, but I have to admit scenes like her pulling Crane back to the real world from the Sicarius Spei were powerful. Gavankar and Yaffe felt like a real mother/daughter family unit and it felt like the writers were (successfully) going for a Sarah Connor Chronicles “I’ll fight the monsters so my kid won’t have to” thing, particularly given how the season played out. Introducing “Lara” (Seychelle Gabriel) as adult Molly was a surprising way to invert the Rip Van Winkle premise of the show with a Days of Future Past twist (and a fine full-circle connection to Ichabod’s initial time travel). I liked that Lara was so skilled at magic, but I wish her skills had paid off Ichabod and Jenny training her as a kid more directly, because having Lara eventually take the Witness mantle from Molly made all the attention paid to her feel a little pointless. I definitely wish they’d met.

I liked Benjamin Banneker (Edwin Hodge) recurring in the flashbacks and J Street was a neat idea. Banneker’s concern for everyone’s standing in the new country, not just white people’s, made for a smart reminder that as idealistic as the American values are, we were never perfect. He and Ichabod also had a well-developed friendship and I liked that Banneker’s concerns challenged Crane’s adoration of what the Revolution was building. Banneker’s presence was also a cool use of a Revolutionary figure I’d never heard of; I loved that—supernatural twists notwithstanding—you could learn new things about real history on this show. Uncle Sam (Rick Espaillat), Sacajawea (Dayana Rincon), Davey Crockett (Daniel Parvis), and Paul Jennings (Zae Jordan) were a cool Revolutionary-era Government team. I wasn’t expecting something like that at all, but it fit perfectly in with the tone of Sleepy Hollow: that they were some sort of early American supernatural Fantastic Four was exactly the kind of crazy idea the show excelled at. I would’ve liked to see more of their exploits.

Jeremy Davies’ business mogul Malcolm Dreyfuss was the season’s weakest link. He never came off as threatening or imposing in any way to me; he just seemed eccentric rather than evil. I’ve been increasingly bored with businessmen villains in superhero fare (there are other evils out there!), but more pressingly, the execution of Dreyfuss’ goals seemed so small-scale. He gains immortality, gathers his Horsemen, kidnaps the President…and then waits for the army to attack him, so he can display his power on TV? Why not attack them first? Waiting—seemingly so Team Witness could organize and mount a defense—felt contrived. It would’ve been much more dramatic if Ichabod and Co. were scrambling to catch up. I didn’t see the need to connect Malcolm’s immortality to Ichabod and Death’s first fight by adding the Philosopher’s Stone ritual either. However, it was clever that the Philosopher’s Stone made Headless weaker, allowing Crane to behead him and Headless’ part of the ritual required his return, so that’s cool. I just thought the tie to Ichabod’s death was unnecessary and a little confusing: until I read reviews of that episode, it seemed like another retcon had occurred and the Stone was what made Ichabod immortal for his sleep, not Katrina and her coven.

I initially thought Malcolm’s bodyguard Jobe was a little bland, but I liked the deeper implications that he was involuntarily tethered to this guy who’d cheated the Devil out of their bargain. I would’ve liked to see what Jobe was like when not stuck as an enforcer for Lucifer’s contracts or Malcolm’s errand boy. Is there something he could’ve done to undermine Malcolm and ensure the contract was fulfilled beyond assisting Team Witness? Did he want to? Did he have goals and aspirations of his own (perhaps ambitions to displace the Devil himself?)? I don’t think we saw enough of the Devil (Terrence Mann) to judge whether I liked this portrayal or not, but he didn’t really leave a menacing impact after villains like Moloch. I enjoyed the depiction of the entrance to the gates of Hell, but I was underwhelmed by the business office appearance of Hell itself once Ichabod and Lara got to the Devil. That’s probably intended as a connection to Malcolm, but it just came off as a metaphor that I’ve seen as far back as Angel at least; I would’ve liked a more distinctive feel to the Underworld that matched the show’s historical side. Perhaps depicting Hell as a distorted Continental Congress would’ve been more in line with the show’s roots; maybe Ichabod signing his soul away could be framed as him signing a twisted Declaration of Independence or something.

Whether it was designed to get back to the glory days of the show or not, Dreyfuss’ plan to start the Christian apocalypse Moloch failed to accomplish certainly felt like they were trying to play their greatest hits instead of striking out into new territory. I understand the impulse to go back to what worked, but playing it safe was never what made this show great. Sure, we finally got to meet the Horsemen of Pestilence (Robbie A. Kay) and Famine (Kathleen Hogan), but they didn’t do anything of note beyond their introductory episodes. I liked Season 3’s apparent idea that each season could feature a different culture’s apocalypse as the Witnesses worked through their seven years of trials; as inhibited as the Hidden One was and underutilized and rushed as Pandora was last year, at least they were something new. That shows like Supernatural and Constantine lean so heavily into the Judeo-Christian religions for their adversaries and allies also served to make returning to those standards stand out less. And hey, the US was blatantly founded without a national religion, so continuing to explore what else the world has to offer would’ve tied in nicely with the American roots at the core of the show. Since it felt like we’d been through all this before, it didn’t spark my imagination like the show had done in the past.

The callbacks to the show’s glory days that did work, however, were the returns of Headless, the series’ best, most iconic villain, and Henry Parrish. Henry being something of a better man thanks to being reconstituted from Crane’s memories was a clever way to bring him back from the abyss, both literally and morally. I wish there’d been more time to explore his new status: his resurrection is wholly original and could’ve yielded the ultimate “I’m not what my father wants me to be/thinks I am” arc. I liked that their relationship took on new levels when Ichabod sacrificed himself and briefly became the Horseman of War; I hadn’t seen that coming at all! I do wish it had lasted for more than an episode to fully explore both Crane as War and any new understanding of Henry he gleamed from the experience (that they both ended up as the Horseman of War had a nice poetic flair to it, though). I also would’ve preferred Henry become War again in a ploy to save Ichabod instead of an attempt to get his power back; he seemed to go evil again a bit too easily, and becoming consumed by the evil of War in a bid to save his father would've been tragic. I’m glad Ichabod was able to convince Henry to withdraw from the final fight, so he’s still out there somewhere.

Most of the new monsters of the week worked well. The demon John Wilkes Booth (Alexander Ward, Adrian Bond) possessed himself with and used to kill Lincoln was a nice chance to explore America's secret occult history beyond the Revolution. The Sicarius Spei (Ward), with its dream torment, was possibly the best new monster of the season, combining a creepy monster with a unique problem with personal stakes for Ichabod and resulting in the eventual resurrection of Henry. Malcolm’s former partner Ansel (Bjorn Dupaty) gaining power through the demonic sigils burned into his body was intriguing. He seemed to do more with his power than Malcolm ever did and bending the supernatural torment inflicted on him to gain the power to fight back made for an interesting, desperate anti-hero. The Barghest (Ward again; the monster was from Little Red Riding Hood) was a good demon, even if it was predictable that it had taken the place of Molly’s dad Mitch Talbot (Bill Heck). Still, it allowed for a good, well-executed opportunity to explore Molly’s family life. Similarly, Mr. Stitch (Derek Mears) was a great villain who personally affected Molly. That episode was probably the best use of a kid as the Witness, with Molly having to save Ichabod and deactivate the Vault’s lockdown protocols by herself. I liked the Hunger Demon (Ward) and its connection to the Donner party; another nice look outside the Revolution. 

Less impressive villains included the Sphinx (Marti Matulis), which seemed largely limited to being an arrow-shooting deterrent rather than its own force. I was disappointed they didn’t show the Sphinx’s riddle and just had it solved offscreen; this was a chance to test the heroes' intellects rather than their physical skills in a way few villains on the show could. I'm imagining a monstrous Riddler here, with Team Witness racing to solve its brain teasers before people die (or to access the piece of the Philosopher's Stone before they die, as the case may be). The Dyer sisters (Sara Sanderson, Courtney Lakin, Kelley Missal) and their infernal machine were cool, particularly as Washington allies who’d gone bad, but ultimately I wish they’d gotten to do more. Even if they weren’t going to have the presence of Katrina and her coven, I wish the show had explored the parallel between them and Ichabod as time-lost Washington agents. The Djinn (Fedor Steer) and his Pictagram pestilence was a neat way to update the supernatural via social media stars, but he was ultimately underwhelming when it came time for the final showdown. I did like the explanation for spontaneous combustion and the tie to history, though.

Thanks to the show’s new setting, when they did go back to Sleepy Hollow, it truly felt like an event (as did the focus on the memory of Abbie in that episode). At the same time, the new DC location worked well and felt appropriate given the Revolutionary history of the show. I enjoyed the added historical facts, such as the meaning of “Colombia” in D.C. However, while writing this it occurred to me that there could’ve been a much more effective use of the DC setting: why not set Ichabod against a government perverting what George Washington set in place or at least using methods to fight the supernatural that Crane would find unacceptable? What if a demon-involved government were using the supernatural to further their own goals? Instead of a single businessman aiming for immortality and world domination, what if it was a significant portion of the government? What if after all his fighting in the Revolution and in Sleepy Hollow, Crane found out the government had teamed up with different demons a long time ago? I’m reminded by Wikipedia that Ezra Mills hinted the government division he was connected to became split in its goals and the mystery men who kidnapped Ichabod at the end of Season 3 certainly seemed to be working for the government, so the seeds were already there. A corrupt government plot would’ve paid off Banneker’s fears about how idealistic the new American government really was too. More pressingly, it would’ve truly tested Ichabod’s desire to be an American and what that means nowadays compared to the ideals of his time. Has he outlived the American Dream? They could’ve taken a page from Captain America to ask if Ichabod is still fighting for the country he thought he was, whether “his” America could be improved upon at all, and where he and the country could go from here. This line of questioning would’ve been especially timely and important now, as Ichabod is an immigrant, not an American citizen. The other characters could all be tied in easily too. How would Jenny react to knowing the system that locked her up for speaking the truth about demons was deeply involved with the paranormal all along? What happens to her black market connections if she’s tied to a government agency that wants to control the supernatural? Diana, Wells, and Alex could’ve become the Black Widow/Sharon Carter/Sam Wilson to Ichabod’s Steve Rogers as they realized how corrupt their bosses were and joined him in rebelling against their leaders. Molly could’ve been earmarked by someone in the government to be used in one of their nefarious plots, putting her in much the same danger Malcolm did. What if the show were totally bold and had Ichabod instigate a new revolution to reestablish American values (and demon-free living)? Even without a full-on revolution, Ichabod vs. America would’ve been thematically perfect and the biggest hurtle the show could’ve thrown at him after losing Abbie. Perhaps this was the plan for Season 5, since this year ended with Ichabod working for the government and threads hinting at its corruption were still dangling. Signing up with a compromised government would parallel Ichabod literally selling his soul too. If that’s the case, I wish they hadn’t waited and it’s a shame we won’t get to see it.

Despite some plot choices I didn’t agree with over the years, I still loved Sleepy Hollow and I'm sorry to lose it. It was a fun, inventive show that never feared going totally crazy with supernatural twists on historical events. That's one of the lessons I'll take from it as a writer: absolutely nothing is too outlandish if you ground it in your characters and fully commit to it. The characters, particularly those core four originals, were great and the actors were perfectly cast. Importantly, the show also featured a diverse cast of actors. Like Captain America and the National Treasure movies, Sleepy Hollow’s use of American history—and Ichabod’s reverence for the founding American ideals—made me proud of what this country was founded to be. Irving’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow is one of my all-time favorite stories, and this show was a great (if very lose) adaptation. I would’ve come back for a fifth season and wish we could’ve gotten more.

So long, Sleepy Hollow. It lost a step or two along the way, but when it was good, it was great.

[prettylittleliarsxxxx]

Shay Mitchell may be done with her Pretty Little Liars days (for now…), but she's still reeling over that series finale. In an exclusive interview with Elite Daily, Mitchell talks about life post-PLL, her typical workout/morning routine, and yes, clues about A.D. on Pretty Little Liars that she and the rest of the cast missed.

Warning: This post contains spoilers for the series finale of Pretty Little Liars. If you haven't watched it yet, but still want to, turn back now.

The final episode of PLL finally revealed to fans that the mysterious A.D. was Spencer's twin, Alex Drake (played by the same actress, Troian Bellisario). After an intense, dramatic episode, Drake ends up in prison and we flash forward a couple of years to get an update on the liars' lives. Everyone got a happily ever after, basically. Some people loved the PLL ending, and some didn't. Mitchell is of the former, obviously. When asked about the feedback the PLL finale has gotten, Mitchell tells Elite Daily,

I think it's great! Everybody was really shocked. Troian obviously killed it, she was so amazing and incredible playing Spencer and twin and all that. But I think, for the most part, I read only good things, so that's really awesome to hear.

During the final season, fans developed a “Twincer” theory that said Spencer had an identical twin, and that's who A.D. was. They ended up being right. Mitchell says the show's creators threw in clues to A.D.'s identity throughout the entire final season of PLL, but they're so small, even members of the main cast missed them. She tells Elite Daily,

I think if you would definitely go back and re-watch the season from start to finish, you'd pick up on a lot of different things. You know, what I was told with Spencer was with one character, she had bangs, in another character, she didn't. So when she was coming back, there was a scene with her and Hanna, she didn't have her bangs in. You can kind of pick up on little things like that. Even I, myself, will go back and pick up things that I wasn't even aware of. Marlene [PLL’s showrunner] said that, she was like, ‘I suggest you guys all look and see the clues that we put in there that even you guys didn't realize.' She was right.

The next time you'll see Mitchell on-screen is in the upcoming horror film Cadaver, which sounds completely horrifying just based off of the name. (Cadavers are dead bodies, in case you didn't know. So that's nice.) Mitchell tells Elite Daily her fans can expect to see an entirely new side of her in Cadaver. She also suggests that you don't see the film by yourself; you'll want someone to hold onto. Good to know.

She says her character, Megan, is “just somebody that's completely different from who [fans have] known and grown with, Emily.” She continues,

It's a completely different role. This movie is terrifying. I saw a little teaser of it and I was super scared. I was even scared somewhat during the filming of it. But it's a really, really fun movie to go and watch. I suggest seeing it with friends, and maybe seeing it in full, complete daylight.

She's definitely older than Emily. She's been through a lot more crazier experiences, even though that's kind of nuts to say because Emily went through her share of it. But those are different kinds of experiences. I think it's just a different sort of mentality that Megan has.

In the film, Mitchell plays a disgraced cop/former addict who takes a graveyard shift at the hospital that helped her get clean. Then something happens involving dead bodies, so you know, good family fun.

Mitchell's life post-PLL is all about focusing on work and exercise. Later this month, Mitchell will participate in the first-ever Propel Co:Labs Fitness Festival. The Co:Labs event is a two-day fitness festival hosted by Propel featuring celebrity trainers Harley Pasternak and Gunnar Peterson, whom Mitchell has trained with in the past and adores for their unique exercise routines.

She tells Elite Daily her typical workout consists of whatever she feels like doing when she wakes up. (For me, it's none of them.) Some days she wakes up and works out first thing, and other days she waits to workout until later in the day to avoid the LA heat. Mitchell's favorite workout at the moment, however, is running the stairs of the football stadium at UCLA. (Bless her for this bravery.) She says,

Recently, I've been running the stairs at the stadium steps at UCLA. I would want to do that usually earlier in the day or later, otherwise I'll have heatstroke. I think you've got to pick and choose your times depending on whether it's outside or inside.

And just like any fitness fanatic will tell you, Mitchell says the most important part of any workout routine is hydrating before and after the workout. She says,

I like to start the day with a large bottle of water and lemon. I like to finish workouts with — honestly, one of my favorite drinks — Propel Electrolyte Water. [It's] really great after [a workout] because you're sweating out so many different sweat and toxins that the electrolytes put back in, so that's what I like to do after a workout. I think it's all about hydrating, especially before and after a workout. So those are things I like to try and do.

Mitchell doesn't subscribe to any specific diet or nutrition plan, however. She says she just makes sure she's eating clean and is currently trying to focus on a plant-based diet. She says, “I think it's everything in moderation, but I don't necessarily work out to burn off anything that I've eaten. And I don't necessarily eat something just because I've had a great workout.” Bless.

Let's be real, making a habit of working out every day takes a sh*t ton of willpower and time. If you're struggling to reach your fitness goals, Mitchell has some advice for you. She says,

Get a friend, make a commitment to either meeting them at a class, or meeting them for a workout because then you owe it to somebody else too. Sometimes I wake up and I'm just like, ‘Ugh, I don't feel like it. I'll just cancel this class.' But if you know you're meeting somebody there, you don't want to cancel. So I think having a workout buddy is something that's really great.

She says she's excited for the Propel Co:Labs festival because it will give her an opportunity to connect with fans and hopefully inspire some people to stay motivated about their fitness goals. The Propel Co:Labs Fitness Festival will take place August 12 and 13 in LA and will feature a bunch of different classes with celebrity trainers Pasternak and Peterson.

And if you're wondering if I picked Mitchell's brain about those Pretty Little Liars spinoff rumors, don't worry. I did. The PLL finale hinted there is a possibility for a spinoff series in the future, and the entire cast agrees that if it does happen, it should be about Alison.

Alison's character has a really dark past, but as the finale showed us, she gets her happy ending when she marries Emily Fields, Mitchell's character. So if the spinoff does center around Alison, is there a possibility that Mitchell's Emily Fields will be involved?

Mitchell thinks it's a definite possibility. She tells Elite Daily,

You never know! You never know what could happen. Anything can happen in Rosewood, as I say. But yeah, I think that would be really fun.

Did you get that, liars?! Shay Mitchell is down for a Pretty Little Liars spinoff. Ohhhhh, man. I can already smell the drama.