#in a yuri vs yaoi world

[shinyduo]

VOTE GEMPEARL AND SEND PROOF THROUGH ASKS AND ILL DRAW A SILLY 5 MINUTE DOODLE OF WHATEVER YOU DESIRE!!!

look at them look at them. VOTE GEMPEARL A VOTE FOR YURI IS A VOTE FOR WORLD PEACE!!!

[hiphopcherrrypop]

uhm guys i don't think they're running lines in there...!!!

this wasss. first version im sorry scollace nation for defacing semi-win or whatever but i just couldnt bear 2 draw todd in scott outfit with scott hair.

[captainpluto13]

2 for the price of 1

This is for my yaoi and yuri scollace enthusiasts

(I’m gonna admit I drew the yuri first)

[cherriko-art]

I just finished my nth rewatch of Legend of Korra (due to the live action bringing me back to my atla/lok roots), and was violently thrown back 9 years ago while rereading the original reaction subreddits when everyone was arguing whether korrasami was canon, all bc Nick wouldn't have ever allowed the creators to show an in-show kiss between two women.

It really shows how far we've made it in today's society and media. Korrasami shocked us 9 years ago (gay marriage wasn't even federally legalized in the USA till a year after), but if it came out today none of us would've blinked at the queer rep on a kids show (by kids I mean Nickelodeon). It just makes me so happy that it's now (mostly) normalized to have safe and good queer rep in media, esp kids media.

I can't imagine what it would've felt like to have shows/movies like Nimona, Steven Universe, She-ra, etc growing up. Or just media normalizing that queer people exist and are like everyone else (instead of the butt of a joke or a "token gay character").

[abnormalluna]

toxic doomed yaoi and yuri in one show?? Sign me up!!!!

[ichiharas-familiar]

'Feminism is watching a show made by and for women where every woman onscreen is impotent or abused' vs. 'Feminism is watching a show made by and for men where almost no men exist because they would get in the way of the audience imagining that they could date Best Girl' FIGHT.

[1moreff-creator]

If Min had lived past CH1, where do you think her character could potentially go?

What do you mean if? /j

That depends a lot on the context of her survival, frankly. Does she still see Xander's attempt to murder Teruko and just... survive somehow? Does something else save Teruko and Xander dies without Min being the blackened? Does Xander die before the attempt? Or are the CH1 victim and killers completely swapped? If so, who are the new ones? All of these lead to pretty different possibilities for Min's character. But there's still a couple of things that could have been interesting to see.

Yay an excuse to ramble about Min! :,D

For starters, my guess is that she'd be decent enough in trials; at the very least, she'd act as third brain cell alongside Teruko and Charles. She'd definitely have joined Charles and Levi in talking about how strong jockeys are, for example. Also my heart says she'd have been in the Teruko Teaher CG in some way, such as an teacher's assistant.

Her secret would have also been a hell of a time. Assuming the two CH1 deaths still had each others' secrets, someone must have had Min's, which would have certainly been... honestly indescribable. It just depends too much on who exactly gets it.

However, "You always treated the competition with ruthlessness, but poisoning them to win was a bit far, wasn't it?" would have certainly been an excuse to bring the XF-Ture backstory to light, and combined with MonoTV's own XF-Ture comment, I'm pretty sure hell would have followed. Just complete pandemonium; the poisoner has ties to the same company that seems to be connected to the killing game, yeah everyone's gonna start calling mastermind and shit's gonna hit the fan.

I could see a world where the cast in CH3 becomes completely divided over the Extremely Suspicious Min, with Eden for example being one of the ones to stick up for her (baking squad I will always miss you). I could also see Rose doing it (baking squad I will always miss you), because they could bond over the companies ruling over their respective lives, so Rose would trust that Min had nothing to do with the other shit XF-Ture had going on. Hell, since I'm talking about it, Min would have probably also tried to cheer Rose up about the tape thing, because of her whole "mistakes are to be corrected" thing (BAKING SQUAD-)

And all that means Min would have quite an interesting reaction to Eden or Rose dying, and vice versa. No ship shall remain undoomed in DRDT, after all!

On the other hand, holy shit the beef between her and David. The guy that's always defending the son of a bitch who tried to kill Teruko? Xander, the one Min always disliked anyways? It would be basically on the same level as Teruko's beef with David, which would be a sight to see. Throw in Xander surviving too, and you have the ultimate Yaoi vs Yuri throw down on your hands.

But a lot of this is character interactions, what about Min herself? Well, I imagine she'd grow into reaching similar conclusions to Bonus Episode 1, about what she'd like to do in the future and being a teacher, especially since I imagine the trials would be made in a way that her talent would help so she'd gain more confidence in her abilities. Obviously all of this development would happen right before she dies, or right before the final trial if she's a survivor.

Yes, even though I'm immensely biased when I say this, I think Min could have worked as a survivor. In a very similar way I think Rose could be a survivor now; experience horrors beyond imagination, and slowly get better until the point they're willing to fight their fates (aka company contracts) by the time they leave the killing game, paralleling Teruko's own growth. For Min, those horrors wouldn't be photographic memory, getting betrayed and (presumably at some point) watching close friends like Eden die. Rather, they would be losing everyone's trust between the poison secret and the XF-Ture thing, having some breakdown over mistakes in trials (again similar to Rose), worrying that she'd die before her life really began, and... watching Eden die. In case it isn't obvious, I really miss the damn baking squad T_T

Also, the poison secret (god this post's structure is a mess). I haven't been talking much about it because we're actually missing quite a few details. I've talked before about how I imagine she likely non-lethally poisoned people after the Ultimate Contest for Eminent Students (or asked someone from XF-Ture to do it for her), but obviously that's speculation. That's important because, for example, I don't know how much the actual lethality of the situation would affect the way Miss Anti-Murder Preacher J would react to it, even though I imagine she'd be pretty pissed no matter what. Veronika would be all over Min for the details though.

Her reaction to Levi and Arturo's secrets would have been cool to see. Arturo doing anything for a better life would probably get her to feel sympathy for him, at least, and again depending the lethality of her poisoning, she probably wouldn't be able to really hold it against him without hypocrisy.

Speaking of Arturo, do we think Min would make a good doctor's assistant? She was reading an anatomy textbook in her introduction. Maybe helping Arturo take care of Levi after Trial 2 would be the start of her becoming more confident in her abilities.

Also she'd be real good friends with Charles. No elaboration on this, I just know it in my heart to be true.

One dynamic I'd like to see is with Hu. If Hu learns about Min's past, and Min's desire to leave it all behind (as per the pinned comment in Bonus Episode 1, Min is "Someone who wants to move on from the past"), I could see her reaching out as someone who also has a past she'd rather pretend doesn't exist. There would certainly be a good deal of character development for both of them, just in time for one of them to die of course. Incidentally, the whole "moving on from the past" thing could rope in Veronika as well..

And I could probably ramble about this forever. To be extremely fair, all DRDT characters have so much depth and there's so many interconnected themes all over the place that I could do this for any of them; go on ad infinitum about all the possibilities for growth and exploration that their interactions with the cast and the motives could provide. So I'll cut myself off there.

(I will also add as an observation that (because I'm predictable) I have considered writing a "Min survives CH1" canon divergence fanfic before. Don't count on it happening, just know it can)

Thanks for the ask! Always happy to have an excuse to ramble about my girl :,)

[homoeroticbetrayal]

Iconic Homoerotic Betrayal: Round 1

Round 1 Directory

Context:

Homura/Madoka

"(Spoilers) Homura has fallen in love with Madoka, and made a wish to be able to protect her earlier in the series. This gave her time travel powers and made a groundhog day scenario. Later in the series, Madoka attains godhood by wishing to save all magical girls, and this is her as a goddess coming to bring homura to girl heaven. As she grabs Homura’s hands, Homura instead uses magic to split Madoka, into her as a human, and as the Law Of Cycles. (other name for god) She takes the power of the Law of Cycles and makes a new world were she can be with Madoka forever. (Please watch the show for better context, its so good and I’m very bad at explaining.)"

"It's been a long time since I've seen it, but IIRC, Homura betrays Madoka at the end of the film out of love ("love") for her and basically undoes the ending of the original series and becomes a demon in order to save ("save") Madoka from her original fate. It's unique because it's a betrayal that's done "selflessly" (at least from Homura's POV) for the sake of the person being betrayed"

Ryo/Akira

after an entire manga of trying to defeat demons to save humanity together, including having akira fuse with a demon to be strong enough to defeat them, ryo regains memories he didn't know he lost and is revealed to have been on the side of the demons all along, and everything has been part of his plan to eradicate humanity. and ryo had akira become the titular Devilman in order for him to be able to live on in that world of demons he wanted to create, because he loves him (yes, canonically). naturally akira won't stand for that, and they fight to the death and it's all very tragic.

but i suppose a specific betrayal scene in this context is that ryo broadcasts akira's part-demon nature on tv to use him to make humans all kill each other out of fear that anyone could be a demon?

anyways it's very iconic, if there's a morally dubious/secretly on the opposing side gay guy in love with the protag in a piece of jp media since 1974, there's like an 90% chance it was directly or indirectly inspired by devilman. lelouch from code geass? ryo. kaworu from nge? ryo. komaeda from danganronpa? ryo.

also pretty pretty please use the original manga iteration, im so sick of seeing crybaby everywhere. (Mod: In case these two wins can someone send me a good image from the og manga for next round? I haven't read it and google is giving me more fanarts than og.)

[drdtfuitgumies]

season 1 summary: may 2024

i've hit 30 situations! this summary is mainly for my personal documentation (i like documenting stuff), but i thought i'd post this in the blog too just in case anyone else was interested!

STATISTICS

to the surprise of absolutely no one, whit got first place, appearing eight times throughout may 2024! however, his first place is because of a technicality, since i counted the pinned post for this season. otherwise he'd tie with second place and our recently crowned "invasive species", arei, who appeared seven times. i know i encouraged you people to let her commit crimes, but it appears i have underestimated the fandom because there's STILL people telling her to steal even MORE stuff in the inbox. third place is charles, appearing five times, three of which happened in the span of five days. bullying him (and making arei and whit bully him) is really fun though!

also, i think now is a good time to talk about how i "plan" out the situations. i try to draw at least one situation a day as a "warmup" before i draw... Other Stuff, and i try to stock up at least a week's worth of doodles, just in case i become unavailable for whatever reason. i also try my Absolute Best to ensure that everyone* appears at least twice a month, whether by picking requests wildly out of order or taking matters to my own hands through the original situations, though a bias for whit really can't be avoided...

*mai and monotv are excluded from this "rule", though i bring out monotv often when i need a casualty. take arei and whit stacking things and arei and j playing mario kart, for example!

PERSONAL FAVORITES (in chronological order)

1) Motivational words from Min

I still consider this one of my greatest creations in my mortal life. maybe i should reblog this on main everytime i procrastinate on something. i'm sure there will be always someone who needs the encouragement

2) Charles holds Eden's yuri manga hostage

this headcanon sucker punched me on what was a normal afternoon, but i'm glad i realized it to this world... even though i barely read new stuff in the first place, let alone yuri. maybe one day i'll find something that caters to my oddly specific tastes, but for now i'll enjoy the yaoi vs yuri memes from afar and let those more qualified than me to verify how true himejoshi eden and himedanshi charles are

3) A regular "PMD Club" meeting

i am an autotroph and need to create one oddly specific self-indulgent situation per month to sustain myself and the joy i have for drawing. i promise this Will happen again. i might even outright sneak in some of my aus, out of context...!

4) Arei steals Charles' goggles

it really says a lot about me as a person that my personal favorites are mostly unserious shitposts, but i've been meaning to draw arei bullying charles with the nerd emoji since... a few months ago, i think? some of the situations are prompts i've always wanted to draw, but am too lazy to do in my "proper" style

THE POWER OF HINDSIGHT

sometimes i think of adding punchlines in the situations, or fix errors after i've put them in the queue, but forget to actually. do them.

after arei stole david's hairclips, emovid's debut would've been something along the lines of arei freeing him from his stage persona by taking away his hairclips. but i forgor.

monotv's body had the wrong colors this one time, but i have since decided that arei got paid by the real monotv to murder a bootleg / defect monotv

as i've mentioned in the tags, teruko on a llama at the machu picchu was supposed to be posted in ace yaps and levi listens' place, but i did an Oopsie and forgot to adjust the queue properly. out of the ~10 posts i had queued up that time, i got insanely lucky that the teruko doodle was the one that got delayed, since i forgot to draw her bandage. ultimate lucky student moment

also as i've mentioned in the tags, if my wii was still working i would've attempted to recreate an actual screenshot of j and arei playing mario kart wii

arei would've have had more time to steal even more things before i put her in jail, but i decided to give her a break this month. i assure you, she will return with a Vengeance.

OTHER REMARKS

i've gotten so, so used to drawing whit and arei. i haven't quite gotten the hang of everyone else yet, though i can draw xander, eden, and charles pretty consistently. hardest to draw is hu, but that's mainly because i can't draw straight hair

i kinda wanna add a subtle pattern to the background…? even just a grid would be fine. also thinking of changing the background color every now and then

i'd like to make an animation one day. it's definitely going to be a shitpost and a very unserious situation, but i'd like to make an animation one day

i expected struggling to catch up with requests, but i genuinely didn't expect about two new requests a day?? i really thought i had to pad out the days with more of my original situations, but i'm actually glad i have such a big selection of requests with a decent variety. Aside from arei's many, many crimes.

if you're still here... thank you so, so much! for reading until the end and entertaining my side project! i've never been a particularly "active" artist and tend to lurk more often than not, but seeing the same people regularly come and leave little comments in their reblogs does something to my heart that i didn't think could ever happen. even seeing new people excites me, because i think this is the smallest fandom i've ever been in? i hope i can keep this blog going…!

[dmmdconfessions]

[Image text: I’ll be honest here, I was so hyperfixated on the idea of an Aoba/Madoka crossover (Madoka Kaname from Puella Magi Madoka Magica), being both like siblings.]

[Full text: I’ll be honest here, I was so hyperfixated on the idea of an Aoba/Madoka Kaname (from Puella Magi Madoka Magica) crossover being both like siblings (like the entire whole older brother shtick where he has like a clumsy, insecure younger sister who’s secretly a girlboss deep down, who literally turned into a god in the Rebellion film).

Plus, their colour palettes/designs, schemes and all are adjacent to the Gumball/Anais (from The Amazing World of Gumball) colour palette scheme, meaning they would resemble them a bit. Their interactions would be really sweet together as I know Aoba would have this small, pink-haired fluffball of hope consistently follow him everywhere Aoba goes, and would try to get him to as he goes to Junk Shop Heibon to complete his daily working shift while Madoka just goes to school like an ordinary schoolgirl just the way she is.

Aoba sometimes comes home and buys Madoka a lesbian flag she can hang up on her wall, and makes dinner for her a lot. She introduces her girlfriend Homura to Aoba and he’s like “aww, that’s sweet.” I feel like he’d grow accustomed and fond to her, and I feel like he’d grow an ever-loving desire to protect her from falling into despair so much so that she turns into a witch.

One of the funniest things I can imagine Aoba doing is having one of his alters (Sly Blue for example), fronting and then she gets a call from him and he takes her on a little ride while Madoka brings Homura, her beloved, with her to the retail park that is extremely far away from both of their locations. He then lets them play on one of those Beatmania arcades, and he goes to the cigarette bar to get a quick smoke and to accompany his younger sister and his girlfriend, and they both win so much on the Pop'n Music arcades while they start to finish off and get ready for the bowling venues.

Sly sits on one of these chairs and watches his younger sister Madoka and her girlfriend go off at these bowls, and claps and cheers when Madoka manages to succeed at taking one of these bowling pins all in one go. And after that, Sly fronts back to Aoba, the main host of the system, and then he calls back for them to come back so they can go in there to explore the garden, town pebble streets and more amusement parks for their own excitement, so they can have pretty picture taking time.

I can imagine Aoba loving Madoka like he’s his own daughter and doing Madoka’s hairstyles every morning like crazy while on the phone trying to listen some deals that Haga-san made to him, putting small ribbon hair clips in Madoka’s hair, and making her breakfast and making sure she’s at least well fed and happy.

I want her to be happy after the shit she has gone through. My precious baby daughter. My daughter, she didn’t deserve all of this, she deserves to be all happy and to be all pain and trauma free. It’s not a matter of comparing “yaoi vs yuri” of which series is pure or fucked up or whatever. I’m not simply here to compare them. I’m here to illustrate my point cohesively that Madoka would view this mentally ill skinny 23 year old gay boy who has had a never had a good day ever in his life, and she would go “I’m going to view that man as my older brother. He seems nice.” and tries to hang around with him to try to get more information from this gay boy who has a shit ton of unresolved BPD that would end up with him being sent to a mental asylum. It’s about the potential, it’s about the silly sibling shenanigans of Madoka trying to wake her older brother up so he can take her to school. It’s him seeing that she is going down a dark path full of magical girls. Whatever. I am so mentally ill about them. Madoka Magica changed my brain fundamentally and mentally and I needed to thus propose this like crossover even further because I want to say it out loud.]

[blankerthought]

Planning vs Reacting: A Yuri-Yaoi Take On Two Superhero Relationships

By blank

[a/n: putting this essay on here too for convenience and for @aelyris who wanted to see it, you're a gem. also partially going under a cut because i did write like 1.2k on this]

Though many people are aware of western superhero comics- Spiderman, Batman, Superman, to name a few- generally it’s the characters alone who are known. Their relationships to one another are understood through reading the source material, despite them changing from many different interpretations across the decades and writers that have taken it upon themselves to put their own flavor on the text. Of these relationships, this essay shall focus on two specific ones, both of which share the same character of Bruce Wayne (also known as Batman). The oldest relationship has been known for decades since their first meeting in 1939, as it is with another juggernaut of the genre, Superman. The youngest, however, has only been around since 2020, with Ghostmaker’s appearance in Batman #100. This essay looks to expand on these relationships through the lense of yuri and yaoi.

According to what tama (2023) writes in Yaoi is for people who bit their peers in childhood, Yaoi Magazine, Volume 2, our average view of what makes something yuri has been misconstrued and made anew into something more palatable to the general public through online jokes. "And this too is yuri" is a common phrase, repeated many times throughout several online spaces, and most often referring to a simple definition of yuri in which any relationship, as long as it didn't involve two women, could be yuri.

In their essay, tama states that this concept is held primarily by non-yuri fans, because this belief invalidates the basic idea of yuri; that is, passion. Yuri is characterized by intense emotion, thought out, scrutinized and sometimes, though not always, acted upon, between two women. Yuri is, however, not limited to women; yuri is an overwhelming presence of what could be called obsession in a relationship. This is a contrast to yaoi, which is not defined by a lack of passion, but by a lack of thought. Yaoi contrasts so sharply with yuri, the yang to its ying, because it most often presents itself through action. Rushing to, as tama elegantly states, "gripping a cute boy by the back of his neck and shaking him until he whimpers", and not thinking of the consequences of the action.

In the context of superbat (the relationship name for Superman and Batman) and ghostbat (relationship name for Ghostmaker and Batman), it’s clear to see where these characteristics shine through the most. Superman is a smart man, sure, but what matters most is that he is first and foremost kind. Superman is a man of action and reaction, the man who swoops in front of a train to avoid letting it hit a child, not thinking of alternate paths. He’s the light to Batman’s darkness, the action to his planning, the charming country boy to the local orphan billionaire. There are few writers out in the world who have avoided the alluring call of opposite and complementary aesthetics, and superbat as a whole are not among those few examples. 

From Action Comics #1000 (Early June 2018) with art by Jim Lee (pencils), Scott Williams (inks), and Hi-Fi Design (colors)

On the other hand, Ghostmaker is a master planner on par with Batman; his rival, his parallel. Many aspects of his life as a vigilante are a direct callback to Batman’s, including The Haunt, a.k.a Batcave 2.0, in which he even stores a Spinosaurus to compare to Batman’s T-Rex (and his is bigger). Every aspect of him is in one way or another intertwined with Batman’s. As is revealed in Batman #100 and elaborated upon in the Batman: The Knight, Ghostmaker and Batman have known each other since they were teenagers, and spent much time learning side-by-side from the greatest masters known from several disciplines. Despite their select differences- namely Ghostmaker’s lack of a moral code and many emotions, in contrast with Batman’s famed rules and his endless emotionality, be that grief, rage, or love- the two are evenly matched and consider each other their equal and rival. 

Batman is, himself, an almost immutable center of yuri. He is passion, grief, love, and a thirst for justice that is only fueled more and more by those same emotions. His crusade is born out of an avoidable tragedy that he refuses to let others suffer through, if he can, and his way of accomplishing that relies primarily on his skill and intellect. Batman is known for his million contingencies. He plans ahead, for everything that he possibly can, and that razor-sharp focus lives at the core of who he is, as well as making him a great example of everything yuri is. 

An understanding of yaoi is essential to superbat, as is an understanding of yuri to ghostbat. There is little space for rationality in superbat’s actions together, despite Batman’s attempts to direct them; Superman’s emotions and recklessness are rewarded in kind with Batman showing himself in a more vulnerable way towards him, allowing them to circle closer to one another and stand together in the same ground. Despite the many differences between them, their shared emotion, the need to reach out and touch, connecting themselves to one another, is what defines their relationship and marks them as unequivocally yaoi. 

Contrastingly, ghostbat is a relationship that balances on a razor wire edge between passion and logic. They’re similar and knowledgeable about each other enough to calculate almost every action and reaction that the other would take, but that almost is what gives them enough space to challenge one another. They’re both planners, people who constantly contemplate what the next step should be. Despite that, many of their interactions are bursting with passion, with their need to have each other’s acknowledgement, the desire to touch but the refusal to do so unless it’s all carefully thought out beforehand. They are obsessed with one another in a way that yuri portrays perfectly.

The use of a primarily eastern concept such as the dichotomy of yuri and yaoi may seem odd in explaining two non-canonical gay relationships in a western comic, but it is ever more prevalent in our present times. Yaoi and yuri are everywhere, after all- even when there is nothing. Perhaps especially where there is nothing. This essay hopes to help explain why this concept is helpful towards the analysis of any relationship, but especially in this, where we are present with drastically different foils that both oppose the same character in different ways. And despite their differences, both pairs reach a state of equilibrium just the same.

Sources:

tama, (2023) Yaoi is for people who bit their peers in childhood, Yaoi Magazine, Vol.2 (tshirt et. al).

Comic Volumes Batman: The Knight (1-10), Batman #100, Batman #109, Superman Action Comics #1000.

A special thanks to the people I spent about twenty minutes explaining yaoi-yuri to, the discord server that got a no context snippet and helped me figure out What Am I Even Saying, and the people I was definitely supposed to be paying attention to today instead of spending that time writing this. I have no regrets. 

[knightochan-official]

Regarding 'knights are yuri', I have been told by a correspondant who knows jack shit about anything (myself) that 'wait I thought knights were textbook yaoi and they're yuri now????' Any response on the differences between knights as yaoi vs knights as yuri, or perhaps an explanation as to the gentrification of knights?

Mythic Knights can be both yuri and yaoi depending on the depiction. Furthermore, yaoi can also be yuri, and vice-versa. There is a world beyond the traditional limitations of gender

[apollos-olives]

Hello yuri vs yaoi anon here <3 im so glad that my wording made you laugh. As for my dreams I know these are rather small birds compared to the dream of a free and better world but I wish nothing more than to honestly just record and publish music. Put my art out there. Go on stage. My first musical draft was made when I was 4 and in kindergarten. I love theatre, I really hope that one day I can make use of this passion. And then I will make sure you can see the plays in a free and beautiful Palestine

LMAO HI YURI VS YAOI ANON 👋👋

your dream is beautiful!! i hope you can achieve your dream of making music one day :)) i'll be your first fan 🫡♥️

[enarei]

I think aside from cultural assimilation and migration, which probably always are much bigger factors, at some point it was most likely true to say the majority of people study foreign languages so they can consume media in that language, even if they don't necessarily interact with people from where it is produced, and I mean foreign in the sense of like, genuinely foreign, not studying German as a Dutch because you can cross the border in half an hour, that doesn't count. Today what counts as "foreign" is much harder to pinpoint due to globalization, knowledge of English is universally framed as a necessary skill for high-income employment – another consequence is that virtually everything that is judged to be commercially successful gets translated to English fairly quickly, so anglophones don't need to learn a language if they enjoy the art of another culture.

I think it's self evident most people aren't studying Spanish or Portuguese because they really like the literature or cinema of Latin America (or their euro counterparts), and it ought to be framed more as a practical skill due to how interconnected the world is, even if it has the additional benefit of allowing them to experience culture in those languages, it's less something that is initially approached purely to fulfill that intellectual curiosity or for the sake of entertainment, than only being engaged with after already having contact with other speakers, be at work, or with online relationships.

There *is* a kinda frail line between approaching a culture because of its art vs contact with people of that culture, one usually leads to the other, being engaged with an author's works usually implies becoming engaged with the author as well, so I don't think there's any point to making a hierarchy off of this, but I do think it's kinda interesting to think in terms of how people approach Japanese. Because while yeah, there are a fuckton of weeabos, particularly anglophones, that really do wanna move to Japan and interact with Japanese people locally, in my experience there's also this really large group that just wants to be able to read doujins without needing a scanlator to pick it up, and don't actually care much about Japan outside of that topic, which seems to contribute to this phenomenon of many Japanese students not giving a damn about practicing pronunciation. You could say the gaijin that are completely obsessed with the yuri/yaoi doujin scene have a lot in common with people that learn Latin solely to have to have a better grasp of erudite philosophy.

[blueclearcloud]

I'm not the 1st or last person to say this, but it makes me so uncomfortable when yaoi and yuri are labeled lgbtq+ rep in Western publishing.

Like yes, it is gay but not... Yknow, representative of real gay people or reality or logic. In broad strokes. There is great work like from Nagata Kabi, Mieri Hanishi, or Ryousuke Nanasaki that gets published here and it makes sense. But then you have extremely, ill call it self indulgent, works like If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan, I Would Die that feel so off.

Gatekeepy, probably. Im just trying to put into words how grounded in real world logic works feel better for the label vs works that refuse to utter the words gay. Yknow like if it has "im not into men, im into you" kind of weirdness.

[seven-pillows]

i just finished Fionna and Cake and i have some disorganised thoughts. TL;DR i didn't really like it for a multitude of reasons. this is not me saying it's bad it's just my personal opinion of it

the whole thing was just a bit morose, tonally? like there wasn't very much humour it was just plot and backstory. i only laughed a couple of times, once was when Prismo said "shit" and the rest was practically all Choose Goose/Bruce and Pawn Swan lmao

and i will never forgive them for killing BMO on-screen for no reason. that was just mean and sad :(

the music didn't have the same quirky vibe as the original series's had. this felt a lot more musical theatre (derogatory). it was still good but yeah

and OMG i am so over multiverses!!! i know this was already an established thing in AT but i don't care what original spin you put on the idea. at this point, i just roll my eyes when a multiverse is involved

parts i did like: Finn, bubbline yaoi AND forbidden yuri, farmworld Finn and his family, the tree gang showing up again, Winter King, all the slice of life stuff in normal world

parts i did not like: the Fionna vs Cake squabble (HATE it when protagonists get mad at each other and stay mad for no reason), the maguffin quest, the extensive Betty and Simon backstory (i do not care for romance), the way they brought back Shermy only for him to get possessed, the Casper and Nova stuff (visually it was cool but also it was such an obvious metaphor that it's like. was that really the best way to have that character development?)

i'm curious to see what Season 2 will bring because that was a very conclusive ending. hopefully less Simon and less multiverse.