#ill try answering asks in chronological order to the best of my ability

[ask-ashandfriends]

Hi ash! What do you think about surge?

[inazumafocus]

Fudou Akio analysis

Hello dearies! This is my first post on this new blog and I’ve decided that it will be a character analysis of Fudou Akio, hope you’ll enjoy!

Since I love studying characters I am often baffled by the lack of understanding when it comes to the ones that are a tad more complex than your regular everyday do-gooders. And when it comes to Fudou Akio I see a LOT of misunderstanding: he’s either an ass or a tsun tsun. Excuse me while I try not to barf. So, for the love of everything that I hold dear and my sanity, lets dive into a step-by-step analysis of the amazing character that is Fudou Akio.

We will start from the Inazuma Japan arch, hence him not being his true self in the Aliea Stone’s arch (everyone seems to forget how he too was wearing the stone and thus having his negative side taking advantage of him). Let’s go chronologically so we can all see how his true character unravels before our eyes and gradually morphs.

The first important scene they gave us and that we should pin point is during Ep71 “Raise the curtain! A challenge to the world!”. The coach gives precise instruction not to leave the building and for everyone to stay in their rooms, to which the general response is unhappiness and concern. Then we have Fudou, completely calm and slightly annoyed at the other’s antics “if you’re going to lose confidence just ‘cause you can’t practice for two days, then give up being a national!” as if he was full of confidence in his own abilities and while yes, he knows he’s good, we are showed a short sequence of him laying on his messy bed, with the wall next to it covered in ball’s marks and dirty clothes on the floor. It’s obvious that he was training until few moments ago, sweating like there was no tomorrow (and he probably was at it far before anybody else, since when the others are training, he’s already trying to rest).

Conclusion? He cares a lot but doesn’t trust anyone enough to show it. But why is that? Well the answer is very clear in Ep82 “The perfect strategy! Perfect zone press!”, his first official game against the Fire Dragon, and it’s given to us through a flashback. His father was a weak, inept man that left him and his mother struggling against debt collectors and his mother, although not with ill intentions, told him the one thing that would shape his way to see things and people: “grow into a powerful man so you can get back at people”. Saying this to a six years old child, whose father just abandoned and that basically lived on the streets, would obviously bring him to believe that “the strong feed on the weak in order to survive” as he will state during the match. It’s a twisted conclusion and surely not what his mother was trying to say, but his past, the things he had seen and the habitat in which he had to struggle not only to survive but to get to the top, surely didn’t help him grow into a trusting, happy pre-teen. And we have a confirmation of his untrusting nature in Ep83 “Get up captain!”, where Fuyuka states “I don’t think that person believes in anyone. That’s why no one tries to believe in him”. And here’s the interesting thing. It’s true that Fudou doesn’t trust others and it’s also true that he doesn’t care weather or not others trust him on a normal basis, but after seeing that his passes are not working because his teammates don’t trust him and his judgment on the field, then that’s a thing that really annoys him. He even looks kind of hurt.

And this is a situation we will see in several occasion (like during the match against Team K, when the Italy’s representative was having difficulties to follow his directions).

But back to ep83, we have the BIGGEST step forward for his character development! While he’s using some unorthodox methods to test and understand the rival team, getting a hand of what he’s after, Kidou decides to do the one thing he has to, in order to re-establish balance: being the first to trust Fudou. “His plays are trying to bring out the best of YOUR abilities too!” says a very clever Endou and his theory is proven by the first pass to Kidou going smoothly. ��Maybe Fudou’s been working hard while we weren’t watching” that sure as hell is correct! Ever asked yourself what was he doing all the time you practiced together? Studying you, of course! So that he could lend the perfect passes and help the team wins. In the end he is still pretty detached from the others but they’re starting to slowly catching on: “what’s with that attitude?” “That’s Fudou Akio”.

So now Inazuma Japan is more prone to trust him during a match, but do they trust him as a person? Not yet. In Ep91 “Teikoku’s curse part2!” he is accused of betraying them and working with Kageyama, but what is his reaction? He laughs, without denying anything and that’s because, again, you can think whatever you want of him, it’s not his business and he seems pretty used to people not trusting him. That’s probably because to him the world works like this: no one should ever trust anyone in order to survive. He’s so used to it that when Endou says “I trust Fudou” he’s the most surprised by far.

Have you noticed anything suspicious tho? Like, for example, how easy it is to understand his true emotions just by looking at his face? It’s all written there: anger, disappointment, surprise, concern. He doesn’t hide behind a mask of indifference, he constantly shows genuine emotions through his eyes and here’s a piece of the article dedicated to him in the Animage September 2017: “He says more with his eyes. Fudou is a very blunt person but in actual fact he makes a variety of expressions. From a suspicious face, to a face full of contempt, to a shocked face – his expressions are more honest than you might think!” Is he aware of it? Does he not care? Are people always so blinded by prejudice that he thinks no one will ever notice?

Surely enough, after understanding how he wears (consciously or not) his heart on his sleeve, we can start to actually see how much he’s beginning to care for his teammates. The first indicator is the deep shock we can read on his face after Kidou “almost gets hit” by a bunch of wooden boards.

Later, on Ep92 “Terrifying! Another Kidou!” he tries to wake Kidou from his fear induced trance “stop being buried in the past already!”

(Here I would like to add how this phrase is probably referred to himself too, hence the following “you’ll be the one landing me a hand” muttered in response to Kidou’s help request “lend me a hand. Fudou, Sakuma!”. And related to this whisper of his, there’s an interesting thing his VA, Yuuki Kaji, stated in an interview on the Animage October 2010: “I had to record that line about ten times. This line in particular needs to be said gently, without any harshness”. And why should Fudou gently whisper something like this, hoping not to be heard, if he wasn’t talking about how he too was struggling to leave the past behind him and with it the old core of his existence: the hunger for power?)

Back to us! After stealing the ball from Kidou, thus helping him to weak up, he is again accused of betrayal. But this time… this time he answers. “And here I was trying to put an end to his plan by myself”. This phrase right here is another big step forward, he’s admitting that he was trying to work alone to destroy Kageyama and you could say “yes, because of personal revenge!” and the answer is: at 50%, yes. He really does want to beat him in order to move on with his past, but he is also furious with him for trying to destroy his team: “if Kageyama says he’s going to destroy Japan’s team, then I’ll bring him down with soccer!”

See? No one ever asked him to, no one expect for him to care that much, maybe not even you that are watching the show, but did you notice how he started to work with Kidou? Against Fire Drason first, then the private practice just the two of them, plus his constant watch over the other teammates, everything in order to bring the team to victory, not only himself. He is exactly what the creator intended him to be when they gave him his name. The name Fudou Akio (不動 明王), in fact, originate from Fudō Myōō (不動明王) which is the Japanese name of the deity Acala. Acalanātha means "immovable protector" and in Japan is also known with the name "Wisdom King Acala", he is invoked in Buddhist rituals to "frighten gods, titans, men and destroy the strength of demons", and he slays all ghosts and evil spirits. He is also oftentimes drawn with intense facial expression and demeanor. So, a fierce god with intense expressions, that protect others and is particularly used against demons, mmhhh does this ring any bell to you? Like, I don’t know, a certain someone always there to fight against anything and anyone ill willed? Someone with a brilliant mind? That helps others escape from the control of an evil spirit? And that will be very mad during a specific game against an army of so called demons? No?

Let’s move on.

Back to ep92 he is also very pleased when Kidou actually comes back to his senses, he even smiles and for the first time accept that working on his own just won’t do.

After that, in Ep93 "Strongest Confrontation! Penguin vs. Penguin!!" we are showed again how he looks down on his past self when Demonio goes “Commander has given us the power to fight against the world. If this is the price I have to pay for power then I can endure this level of suffering” and Fudou comments, almost as if the thought slipped through his lips, “Power, eh…” Demonio reminds him of how power hungry he was and it’s clear at this point that Fudou has bidden farewell to the words his mother said and it’s ready to close that chapter of his life once and for all after the match against Team K.  

Now we can really say that his character has reached at a turning point.

From the seemingly indifferent lone wolf that decided to come alive only during matches to a silent guy who’s able to smile with contempt alongside his teammates even off the field, like at the end of Ep95 "Desperate! Inazuma Japan Defeated!?" He doesn’t even care about victory as much as he wanted us to believe in the first episodes.

Then we got another insight on Ep96 "Fuyuppe's Secret" where he states, “looks like his leg injury wasn’t light anyway”, thus showing his close attention to the well-being of all the others and another fundamental thing! Why didn’t he tell anything to the coach if he knew Kurimatsu was injured? Well, because he respects him, his guts and his pride and in Ep107, "Grandpa's Last Note!", we have the confirmation of this theory when he is shown to have the “Heart #11: the heart to persist even if one hits rock-bottom, Warrior’s Pride”. So, being a proud warrior himself, he couldn’t, wouldn’t ever have outed Kurimatsu on something like that.

He is also making new friends aside from Kidou and Sakuma. In Ep105 "Decisive! Endō vs. Fidio!!" he high fived Someoka when switching during the match (and he also showed again just how much he trusts Kidou)

and during Ep110 "Demon Army Z!" he’s pretty pleased to have the helping hands of both Tsunami and Tobitaka while being the driving force against the hated “demons”. He is just so mad at them (*cough*ThinkOfHisName*cough*) he even takes one for the team, literally, by blocking a fierce shot with his body despite being hurt and full of bruises.

And if you’re still having doubts about him caring for the others, just watch at how he sneaks into Gouenji and Toramaru’s training to simply lend a hand and even quotes Sakuma! Also, Sakuma’s words may imply how Fudou is trying to hide his real feelings of affection for the team.

He’s gradually toning down, losing completely that poisoned tooth (even if he keeps his sassiness, thank god), when he’s around those that we can now call his friends. Because yes, they are, they know that he has that certain attitude and, as Hiroto states in Ep111 "The Devil's Decent! Dark Angel!!", “He shows what he means through actions. That’s Fudou Akio”, and this is fine by them, they accept him, even if he’s still so surprised when someone apologizes and is nice to him (but he’ll get used to it, he’ll eventually understand that he is worthy enough of affection).

It’s also important to state that when Coach Kudo calls their names during Ep122 "Inazuma Japan's Final Battle!", and everyone’s having a flashback of their first crucial step as better players, for Fudou it’s the moment when he decided to trust and cooperate for the first time, generating his first hissatsu with Kidou.

We can also see his changes by the enthusiasm he expresses after a victory. At first, he was distant, unaffected, then he started to smile a bit but while still keeping a bit of a distance, now, at the end of Ep125 “Final Truth! Number One in the World!!", he just run smiling with the others, happy as he should be and with no problem in showing it to the others.

He also shows up to the Raimon final match at the end of the graduation’s ceremony in Ep127 "Kick-off to Tomorrow!".

And finally, his speech to Tsurugi during “Inazuma Eleven GO Movie, The Ultimate Bonds Gryphon”: “Tsurugi, listen up! Friends are those you can depend on, and those who can depend on you!” This shows just how much he was able to change and mature over the years thanks to his friends!

And with this, my dearies, I salute you, hoping it was somewhat useful to you for a deeper, better understanding of an amazing character with a wonderful development!

[realpaperclipsmagazine-blog]

Top 10 Books to Read Before You Die

If you have only six hours left before you die, can you say you have fully lived that life yours? You must be looking for a really good book suggestion or just contemplating on life – maybe looking for something to read to make you brood even more. Whatever your reasons are, I am here to share about books to brood over life. Kidding. These books were a great source of inspiration instead of depression. Personally, reading novels is like living another life from the perspective of the characters. Why live a single life if I can experience hundreds more, right? So, if you want to feel a rush to flip through pages, heartaches, adrenaline, and inspiration plus visit different lives all over the world, I invite you to read these beautiful literary masterpieces that I treasure so much. 10. Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom What a way to start the list with a book about a dying man.

Tuesdays with Morrie This beautiful novel is about an 83-year old man named Eddie working at Ruby Pier, an amusement park. He was living his normal routinely life as a maintenance personnel when an equipment called Freddy’s Free Fall malfunctioned resulting in his death. He was trying to save a little girl from getting crushed and got in the accident instead. After his death, he found himself in heaven where he gets to revisit his whole life, from his happiest to his most regretted decisions. This book will give a "feels" trip about friends, family, love, regret, and forgiveness. 9. Animal Farm by George Orwell This is one of those stories that the more you research, the more you understand the meaning and depth of the literature. The story started with a meeting called by the prize pig, Major, after having a strange dream. Major sensed that his death was near. In that meeting, he shared his wisdom that no animal is truly free and that their life and meaning revolved around slavery. Major urges everyone to rebel against the owner of the Manor Farm, Mr. Jones and have a life of abundance that they deserve. Three days later, Major died but the wisdom, the spirit of Animalism, lived on through the animals as they start planning for their secret rebellion. Initially, the rebellion was a success. For a while, the animals had their utopia and renamed the Manor Farm to Animal Farm. However, Mr. Jones refused to give up and gathered other humans to take the farm back. More problems arise when one of the supervisors, Napoleon, was filled with greed and made himself to be the sole leader. This novel is an allegory to describe the early years of the Soviet Union. Animal Farm contains George Orwell’s thoughts about the Russian revolution of 1917, totalitarianism and socialism. To further understand the novel, analysis and summary are available online. An essay called “Why I Write” also explains what prompted the author to write this novel. 8. Fireflies in December by Jennifer Erin Valent Racism is still a sensitive issue nowadays despite the progress we’ve made through the years. This book will remind you how extreme it was in the 1930s from the perspective of a 13-year-old girl, Jessilyn Lassiter. Initially, I thought this was just about her experiences as a tomboy slowly turning into a woman. However, that summer when she thought she killed a man and was deserted by everyone for living together with her colored best friend Gemma, I realized that the story is more than just that. 7. Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Time Traveler's Wife This is definitely one very unique story of falling in love and getting married. Henry is a time traveler that cannot control his traveling ‘disorder’. Clare, his beautiful wife, met the 36-year-old Henry when she was still six years old. She often helps him with food and clothes whenever he stumbles around her family's property naked because of his 'condition'. The two then formed a strong connection through the years of ‘visiting’ until it was Henry’s turn to meet his wife for the first time. They met in a library when Clare was a 20-year-old art student and Henry was a 28-year-old librarian. Clare tried to explain that she met him when she was still a little girl. Despite being surprised that Clare knew about his illness and of the circumstances, Henry still agreed to go to dinner with her as he finds himself extremely attracted to Clare. Their love story immediately starts up a storm after that first meeting. Happiness, struggles, heartbreaks, and loneliness followed as they try to make their marriage work. The uncertainty of Henry’s whereabouts and safety cause so much strain in their relationship. (Strain is quite an understatement.) I have conflicting emotions for this story of love and family. However, it made me appreciate that experiencing time in a chronological order is something to be grateful for. 6. Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho Well, it is exactly what the title reads. The story is about Veronika who lived a perfectly normal life. She had a good job, a nice-looking face, and great parents. But one day, she decided to die through an overdose of sleeping pills. As she waited for her death, she read an article that jokingly asked, “Where is Slovenia?” Having not much to do but wait for her death, she found it humorous to write a reply to the magazine and imagine the controversy that may arise as that will serve as her suicide note. Instead of discovering afterlife, she woke up in a mental hospital called Villete. She then learned that she was in a coma and will die after a few days because of an extremely damaged heart resulting from the overdose. Counting her days, she then experiences life more fully in the institution as she has no expectations to meet and can freely express herself. She felt the changes in her as she loses her indifference and started to feel fear of dying. The book discusses the concept of insanity and questions our perception of reality. The literature was created partially based on the author’s personal experiences in mental institutions. 5. The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott The thing is, I’m a huge fan of the idea of Alchemy and Immortality.

The Alchemyst: The Secrets of The Immortal Nicholas Flamel The story started right off with a battle in a bookstore where Josh Newman smelled peppermint and rotten eggs. Yeah, talk about a weird day at work, right? Read on and the story gets interesting as Josh got caught up with his boss’, Mr. Nick Fleming's, magical battle with Mr. John Dee over an important book. His twin sister, Sophie, and Mr. Nick’s wife, Mrs. Perry run to the chaos and tried to help. However, Mr. Dee ended up taking that precious book and captured Mrs. Perry as well. Turns out, that stolen book was what kept Mr. Nick or Nicholas Flamel and his wife, Perenelle, immortal. Nicholas Flamel was actually the greatest "alchemyst" there is and can use magic to make the elixir of life in the stolen book called Codex. The twins and Nicholas needed to get the Codex and Perenelle back before the end of the month or the couple will age and die. To make the matters worse, with the use of the Codex, Dee plans to summon the Dark Elders, the beings that ruled the planet before the era of the human beings, to destroy the world. If you are looking for an adventure and magic, you may fall in love with this series. 4. Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold I’ve read this book when I was exactly the age of the main character, Susie. So, imagine how my skin crawled as a fourteen-year-old girl reading very descriptively how she was raped and murdered. This story was narrated by Susie herself as she was wandering in her imperfect heaven. She watched over her family and observed how her case was slowly being investigated by a detective named Len Fenerman. I could still remember the disgust, fear, anger, and despair that I felt especially when her parents slowly discovered their daughter’s death through an elbow. Yes, a piece of elbow found by a dog and lots of blood that was identified to be their daughter’s. 3. Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl A Psychiatrist’s job is to take care of their patients’ mental health and sanity but what if the psychiatrist himself was subjected to torture? This is a true story written by Viktor E. Frankl about his personal experiences being a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp. Mr. Frankl had the ability to flee Austria and pursue his child brain logotheraphy in Vienna during the Second World War. However, he chose to stay and do whatever he could to protect his parents. A remarkable line that I’ve read from this book was: “He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how”. This book was filled with heartbreaking experiences of injustice, suffering, and survival. He asked, “When you absolutely have nothing to lose except for your naked life, what could make you keep going?” If you struggle with depression or just someone that has always questioned life, maybe you could get some inspiration as he tries to answer that latter question in this book. 2. Every Day by David Levithan

Every Day This story is literally living hundreds of lives in a single lifetime gone out of control. A is a unique individual as he lives through life transferring from one body to another every day. This might sound cool but it’s a condition A cannot control and as far as “he” knew, “he” was the only one born with it. (A doesn’t have a gender as it depends on the body he was borrowing so let’s just call A a "he" in this paragraph.) “He” was fed up to change and for years, "he" just conformed to act however the person was borrowing acted. That is until “he” fell in love with Rhiannon. A tried to defy this unique hindrance and struggled to win Rhiannon’s affection. Along with the messed up circumstances and romance, I also enjoyed every life A had experienced. "His" insights as someone who never actually belonged to any skin color, gender, body type, religion or culture felt so refreshing. I'm quite excited to watch the movie adaptation of Every Day too! 1. Tuesdays with Morrie By Mitch Albom “Do I wither up and disappear or do I make the best of my time left?” That was the question presented early on in this novel worth reading. This is about Mitch and his favorite professor, Morrie. The old professor had a terminal illness called Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or also known as ALS. This is a type of illness that slowly gives the patient a slow yet certain death. It slowly melts your nerves and robs your ability to move. Despite the illness, the professor decided to spend his last days teaching. The subject was called the meaning of life and was taught through life experiences. Each class would take place once a week at the professor’s house. No exams were given although a paper that contained all that was learned is expected. This paper was presented in this book. For the professor’s last class, he had only one student and that was Mitch. BONUS: The Giver by Lois Lowry This book takes a systematic and control freak society to a whole new level. The novel is one of the shortest that I’ve read but it’s definitely one of those that left so much impact. Boy, I was staring at nothingness for a long time after I’ve read the book. It made me love and appreciate my ability to perceive colors more than anything while feeling so dead inside. Okay, I should tell a little bit about the story. It was told through the point of view of Jonas, an eleven-year-old that’s living in this futuristic dystopian community that has no pain, suffering, hate or strong emotions. Everyone is so kind and polite. Every citizen has a place and job that’s rightly decided by the council of elders for them. It is basically because the society has chosen ‘sameness’ to save everyone from making wrong decisions. Everything is the same from the age on when you are allowed get a bicycle to the method on how to apply for a ‘family unit’ and being ‘assigned’ with a child. Heck, to have a spouse, you need to apply for it and after thorough studying and consideration of personalities, intelligence, and compatibility, you might be assigned to one. Children are born out of birthmothers who themselves cannot ever see. Babies will then be cared for by the nurturers and will be assigned a name from a previously selected list - that is, if they are found to be ‘unfaulty’. They then are assigned to a family which has applied to get one. When the citizens grow old, they will be sent to the House of The Old and be ‘released’ after living their time. Not only the old can be ‘released’ from this community – faulty new children, two-time violators of the law; a citizen may even apply for one and be granted right away. This novel is just simply disturbing. Collecting my emotions after finishing the book was as hard as writing my thesis. I am clearly exaggerating but this book definitely left me broken. I presented a great selection, right? If not, then it’s okay. Different people have different tastes and thought processes. Plus, I cannot say as well that I’ve read every book there is. There are so many books out there in different languages. Heck, some great books might not be even published yet and just lying in some people’s computer right now. How I wish I can live my life reading even half of the available literature. Nonetheless, those listed are my favorites. Even though I read to experience another life with different circumstances, I could say that through reading them, it made me think about my own. I realize my privileges of living in this country during this progressive century. Reading started as an enjoyment and escape from reality but when properly reflected upon, it surely guided me to make better realizations on how to deal with life and other people. Everybody has a story we may never know about. Each has conflicting opinions and judgment. However, at the end of the day, we are all just humans trying to get through life. If you enjoyed my list, please comment down below and let’s discuss our favorites. However, if you disagree, please suggest to me your top ten books so that I can read and have a little chat about them with you guys. Also, if you have noticed, there were 11 books instead of ten. Consider it as a random bonus you got on a random day. You're welcome. Want more book related articles? Suggest them down below and we'll try to make it for you. Read the full article