#in the manga it's more of an informed character element than a shown element

[laoih]

ONE PIECE | THE MAN IN THE STRAW HAT

[room-surprise]

what part of SA does kabru seem like he's from? i thought maybe nepal or India but idk

(To clarify for readers I think by SA they mean "South Asia." Also this post is an excerpt/remix of the information in my essay about the real world linguistic and cultural references that exist in Dungeon Meshi. You can read Kabru's section of that essay here. You can also read a tumblr version of Kabru's section here.) Kabru is the name of a mountain on the border between Nepal and India, so I agree with you, and I think he's from somewhere similar to both of those places! I don't believe any location in Dungeon Meshi is an exact copy of a place in the real world (Except Wa being Japan) so there's probably some other cultural elements mixed in there too.

I talk about this in detail in the Kabru section of my essay, in the chapter on Miscellaneous tall-men. I'll give an abridged version here, with some pictures, since this is tumblr, and I love nothing more than talking about Kabru lmao

Utaya (ウタヤ) is the name of the village that Kabru lived in until his mother’s death. It’s located in the southeastern part of the Western Continent, in an area that seems to be made up of arid mountains and cliffs, based on images in the manga, anime, and world guide.

(Utaya circled in red. As you can see it's around a mountain chain.)

Obviously the terrain information is anime-only, as Kui's map doesn't include this information... HOWEVER, Kui does give us POPULATION maps.

This is the combined population map my spouse made in 2023 to help us understand where the different races live. How does this help us?

In the real world, geographic barriers like rivers and mountains are usually what create the boundaries between different cultural groups. The person who made the anime map obviously knows this (or Kui told them) and they placed mountains and rivers based on where there are divisions between the races on Kui's map.

There's an ethnic enclave of gnomes and dwarves in the bottom east corner of the Western continent. There is most likely a serious mountain range between that population and the rest of the continent, since the World Guide says the Western Continent is dominated by elves, not dwarves or gnomes.

So, there probably ARE mountains around Utaya, in the manga, even though Kui hasn't explicitly told us so. So it's probably a region like the Himalayas, like Nepal, since those are some of the tallest mountains on earth.

These red cliffs Kabru is standing around in the first anime opening are likely meant to represent Utaya, since there is no place on the island or in the dungeon that looks like this. It's where Kabru comes from and what happened there is both vitally important to his character, and the Dungeon Meshi story as a whole, so it makes sense to foreshadow its existance in the OP.

Utaya (pronounced “uthaaya”) could be Hindi (उठाया) or Urdu (اٹھایا), but it’s also the name of a Yakut/Sakha village in Siberia (Утайа). So the village's name is either Hindi or Urdu (both Indian languages which are mutually intelligible) or Turkic. I think it's most likely the former.

The appearance of Utaya, especially the red cliffs that the anime has shown us, looks a lot like a remote part of Nepal called the Mustang District.

Mustang (मुस्ताङ) District straddles the Himalayas and extends northward onto the Tibetan Plateau. The district is one of the remotest areas in Nepal and is second in terms of the sparsity of population.

Geographically, Mustang is a cold, high-altitude steppe that is a part of the Tibetan highlands.

Upper Mustang (the northern part of the district) was once part of the Kingdom of Lo-Manthang, isolated from the rest of the world by some of the tallest peaks on earth. From the 15th to the 17th century, its strategic location granted the Kingdom of Lo-Manthang control over trade between the Himalayas and India.

We know that dungeons only grow large and dangerous if a lot of humans visit them, and dungeons that don’t have a lot of traffic tend to wither away. If Utaya was a trade hub that saw a lot of people and goods moving through it (lots of desire) like Lo-Manthang, it would make sense for a man-made dungeon to grow out of control there.

Being major trade hubs might even be something that Utaya and Merini have in common, since Merini was once the major port of entry to the Eastern Continent from the West. That may be part of why both of them grew such catastrophically dangerous dungeons.

Now obviously these houses are drawn REALLY roughly and without a lot of detail... But Kui generally doesn't seem to enjoy drawing houses so I'm not surprised. Nepal has both steepled and flat-roofed houses though, and villages that are built on the side of a steep incline aren't uncommon.

Additional reasoning:

In the Daydream Hour book, there is a comic about various characters presenting sweets from their home regions. Kabru attempts to share a dessert from Utaya that looks like white oblong balls on a plate.

These are probably an Indian sweet called rasgulla (literally "syrup filled ball"). Rasgulla are a dessert popular in the eastern part of South Asia (an area that includes the Himalayas), made from ball-shaped dumplings of chhena dough, cooked in light sugar syrup. Rasgulla are also popular in Nepal, where they are called rasbari.

The Nepal sky caves have a passing resemblance to parts of the Ancient cities that Kui shows us towards the end of the manga, where there are homes that look like they are built directly into cliff walls. Since Utaya had a man-made dungeon beneath it, there was probably an Ancient city located there... Just like these ancient ruins in Nepal.

The Ancient cities even more closely resemble Phuktal Monastery, a Buddhist monastery located in the Lungnak Valley in the Himalayan region of Ladakh, in Northern India. Phuktal is in a region very similar to Upper Mustang, on the border between North India and Tibet.

And finally, I think there's story significance to Kabru coming from a place like Nepal.

The way Kui describes dungeons and the villages that grow up around them are similar to real world gold-rush or boom towns. The ability for people to make a lot of money in a hurry, with very little initial investment, attracts poor and desperate people who use the dungeon as a way to lift themselves out of poverty. This transforms the local areas from whatever their normal lifestyle was into a service economy that is completely dependent on the unstable dungeon.

In the real world, a huge amount of Nepal’s economy depends on tourism in the Himalayan mountain range. Nepal is a very poor country, and working as a porter at Mt. Everest, a Nepali can make nearly double the nation's average wage.

The Himalayas are an extremely popular tourist destination, and the amount of people who want to visit and attempt to climb the mountains far outpaces the local ability to support it. This makes me think of the dungeon of Utaya, and the dungeon of Merini, and how people have overcrowded it in their desire to conquer and exploit it for economic gain and glory.

Dungeons as an unsustainable way for locals to make a living, that leads to the destruction of their homes when the dungeon inevitably collapses, is a major plot point in Dungeon Meshi, so I think the parallel is likely intentional. Characters often talk about someone “conquering” the dungeon, and “conquer” is also the terminology commonly used for climbing a mountain.

This phrasing obviously has a hostile, imperialist subtext in the real world, since it’s most commonly used by outsiders talking about proving their strength by climbing a mountain in some exotic, foreign place. I think it has the same subtext in Dungeon Meshi. People want to assert themselves by proving they are stronger than the dungeon.

[humdinky]

hey all! i just wanted to take a minute to stand on my little soap box and tell you about a manga i picked up last december. it has gotten much more attention since then, but i'd still like to throw my thoughts into the mix.

on the surface, the summer hikaru died explores a pretty common horror trope: what if a person you loved changed into something unrecognizable? do you reject them, or try to connect to the person that they have become? of course, this fear is twisted into something more threatening in a supernatural horror format. what if they literally died and came back as something else that could potentially harm you and your family?

we follow two teenage boys: yoshiki and his best friend (and one sided crush) hikaru, who goes missing in the mountains for a week and miraculously reappears unscathed. he looks the same as ever, but yoshiki can tell that what came back is no longer the hikaru that he once knew. now, yoshiki must come to grips with the fact that something sinister has taken over his friend’s body - and that it has a strong attachment to him.

that's the basic premise, but this manga is still ongoing and there are plenty of different directions it could take. if you haven't read it yet, it's worth experiencing firsthand. beyond the body horror are themes of grief and repressed homosexuality, as well as subtext to read into. i'm not going to be spoiling any explicit plot details, but i'd encourage you to stop reading this and go check it out if a bl manga with gorgeous art, toxic but engaging romance, and body horror sounds appealing to you.

the first thing you'll notice about this manga is that *chef's kiss* gorgeous art! it is uncanny, as you would expect, but it is drawn with so much care. the heavily detailed background art and visual horror create a rather oppressive atmosphere. the author also really excels at conveying character emotions through facial expressions, and there's a lot of very subtle bits of information that you can pick up from them.

being a body horror manga, this aspect is of course given extra care. when it gets supernatural, it takes on an oddly surreal quality. i'd even say that the transformations of hikaru take on an air of eroticism. that sounds out of place, but the author understands that the line between fear and attraction is thin. there is one scene in particular that would be very sexual if not for the absolute nightmare scenario unfolding before my eyes.

one of my favorite things about this manga is the confidence the author has in the reader. yoshiki having had feelings towards' the previous hikaru is never outright stated, it's just assumed that the reader will pick up on it. the village yoshiki lives in views homosexuality as some kind of curse, and the insecurity this creates in him is shown very subtly. the camera's gaze and the little things he says all convey this, like his apparent guilt over staring at hikaru shown through the shadow on his face. his fear of and attraction to hikaru's transformations also conveys this idea. he's also coping with grief in an unhealthy manner, and this is shown through the almost experimental way he's sometimes drawn. but yoshiki is not the only important character, and hikaru also has some depth. his character is harder to parse, but there's more to him lurking below the surface. he's more delicate than his outgoing demeanor would suggest. hell, it's understandable - being a literal monster means his position in yoshiki's life is extremely tenuous. our two main characters form a codependent relationship based on a fear of being alone, something very human and compelling in a messy sort of way.

something that i do not see being brought up quite as much is how tshd uses horror elements to discuss the fears around coming out and dealing with same-sex attraction. so much of hikaru’s internal struggle is such a wonderful metaphor. many of the moments between him and yoshiki serve as a dual narrative - the surface-level narrative but also this very delicate story about two boys from a rural village who realize they have feelings for one another. the whole story in fact is one giant metaphor for dealing with the anxiety losing who you thought you were and embracing concrete truths about sexuality and love.

overall it left me with some very strong first impressions. it is both an excellent horror manga and a nuanced exploration of loss and sexuality. i also find it very refreshing that their relationship isn’t built on any sort of deception or lies, and that yoshiki is aware that he’s an imposter, just not the extent of what exactly he is or what is happening in the town.

[atdwarriorsau]

if you had to change anything like. big big abt plot in canon what would you change

Dawn of the Clans next question.

Man like... so much. I think most warrior cats fans can agree the writing isn't that... good.

I could say so much. The fact that racism, xenophobia, colonialism, sexism, ableism, fatphobia, abuse apologia, are not only all present, but normalized and are explicitly shown as the moral and righteous viewpoint/status quo/thing to do. Now portraying these topics, even in children's book (which wc is), is fine, as long as it's clear these things are wrong. It's important for this information to be accessible to kids, if they read about abuse they can understand that their own situation is bad; hence why Kosa bill and book banning are real bad. I want to say the writing in this regard isn't deliberate, but not to get controversial but I don't exactly trust white middle aged British women (sowwy)

A post about my dotc feelings, see @bonefall for more or the moonkitti Bumble video

ANYWAYS

I think it's fine to have these kinds of elements in warrior cats, but you HAVE to show that they are bad things. Which is a believe you should have anyway but...

For overarching stufff, I would really love to do something about that ableism. Part of the reason it's so weird that wc society treats disabled cats like... that... is because if you look at real cats that are blind, or have a missing leg or whatever, they are almost always perfectly mobile, and most of them could hunt. Cats rely on their other senses far more than humans do. You could find plenty of videos of 'disabled' cats doing just as much as 'abled' cats.

You could argue that the cats in wc are basically human, which is true (moonkitti's 'the cats are just people' video). HOWEVER, you know who else can still be mobile and do things with disabilities? That's right, humans!

It doesn't make sense from either the 'wc cats are cats' OR the 'wc cats are humans' angles.

And the thing is, Jayfeather was the perfect opertunity to tackle this! Everycat and their mothers have made a Jay as a warrior au, and even without that we could have had a great discussion through the books about the society's ableism. Don't even get me started on Briarlight's death. Absolutely insulting.

As for smaller plot things, ima do stuff for all the arcs!

The Prophecies Begin

(I have not read every book but have absorbed the plot through Tumblr osmosis)

- This is the best arc writing wise so I don't have much but...

- the last book. not great

- It's such a weird sudden heelturn from the previous books. Like Firestar adopting the xenophobia when it doesn't make that much sense from a character standpoint? If anything, he should at least have to struggle with his duty to the clans vs his feelings about Scourge. It would make sense for Firestar to sympathize with him

- Speaking of....

- Listen ima say it. While I love the aesthetic and potential, as it is, Scourge is overrated. Send the fire and pitchforks and stuff, ima say it like it is. Be honest without the Scourge Manga would he be as popular. Be so fr

- It's so so so weird for Scourge and Bloodclan to have similar if at least conflated ideologies with Tigerstar. Why would they be weird about half clan kits and such.

- Also.... sigh... the evil atheist thing gets me. I'm a certified Starclan hater and it is so boring for every villain to be the evil atheist (unless you're going to actually explore that) Implying someone is evil or doomed or whatever because they lack (your) religion is bad and dumb

- and this is the arc I have the least to say about

The New Prophecy

- We do NOT need to know every step of the journey

- Biggest problems here are pacing and POV

- This arc is about clan solidarity. That's had to pull of with only Thunderclan POV. We NEEDED at least Wind and River POV and thos arc would be perfect

- Tribe racism is bad.

Power Of Three

- If you thought TNP pacing was bad...

- huh I wonder if that has anything to do with the arc being created for the fire scene. I don't know though

- Listen I love the idea of slice of life but you have to stick to that. PO3 can not decide on high stakes magic stuff or slice of life. Pick a lane.

- Dark Forest plan makes no sense. At all. I ain't gonna explain it here but yeah it's bad

- Also the prophecy. What's up with that. How did their powers affect the battle except maybe Lion? What's up with them not knowing where it came from?

- This arc has just... so may dangling plot threads. You just keeping throwing them at the wall and giving no answers.

- The cave. The time travelling. Random tribe visit. Rock. Midnight. The spirit world. SOL. THE ECLIPSE

- Most of the things I mentioned have... wait for it... NO EFFECT ON THE MAIN PLOT WHATSOEVER. OR ANY PLOT

- The ending feels like a middle. Like I love the Holly stuff but that's for the middle idk

- Also I would love for Lionblaze to have a paw in killing Ashfur

- I don't like the weird 'adoption bad' thing they have going on

- Oh and Tribe racism is bad again

Omen Of The Stars

- OK I need to talk about the prophecy.

- First literally any other candidate would be better than Firestar. Raise you hand if you cared. Oh alright.

- Hollyleaf, Ivypool, Breezepelt, Flametail, idk Whitewing?

- Speaking of give Flametail something to do or cut him. Why is this like our only main series Shadowclan POV? (this arc in general has too many POVs, pleaseeee we do not need Lionblaze POV)

- 'Hollyleaf didn't have a power because we couldn't think of one.' Gives Dovewing a power

- Just throwing in a quick 'Dovewing deserved better' in here...

- For spending thirteen books setting up the Dark Forest battle, man was that disappointing and a lil boring. Good for them for killing Firestar tho. Shoulda killed more guys off.

- Starclan acting like complete idiots for no reason. Cool I'm sure this will never happen again.

- One tiny thing to make the plot better. Make it so Starclan can't come to the living world (or won't hehe) while DF spirits can. Makes the battle actually plausible (for DF) and adds more stakes and tension. (Maybe the prophecy came from the DF... hm...)

- Oh and Tribe racism bad again

A Vision Of Shadows

- Okay if this is the Skyclan return arc why do they have such small a role?

- Darktail's backstory sucks I'll say it. Cowards

- The Tigerheartstar book and the Hawkwing book should've been inside the main arc. Whyd you give me required reading. At least the Hawkwing book anyways. Skyclan's journey to the lake 100% needed to be IN this arc

- Here begins the reoccurring theme of the ending destroying the arc. This is probably the least bad of those. But still not great chief. If you can't fill the six books with enough plot maybe you need more plot... (or yanno replace b6 with Hawkwing's Journey and shuffle it around? Who said that?)

- Alderheart's character growth being offscreen and him just not having anxiety anymore irks me

- First time the sister would have been a more interesting protag. This will happen again..

- Also the mediator stuff flopped. Skyclan should have invented it earlier. Skyclan NEEDED to be so much more weirder. Now we have copy-paste clan number five, old people edition

The Broken Code

- Sisters being more interesting part two

- First time two of the protags have a relationship while the other protag has the entire plot. This will happen again.

- What did you do to Mothwing.

- The ghosts thing, while interesting, yet again requires required reading from a super edition. Okay. Leafpool's death not being in a main arc book is insulting

- Alright this arc was pretty alright I'll admit it

- If Bristlefrost somehow returns I'm deducting points I stg

A Starless Clan

- (the Southpark kid voice) KILL NIGHTHEART!

- Ugghhh can I get a misogyny number two combo?

- Everything else with Sunbeam except Nightheart is SO interesting and the arc needed more of that.

- Oh we have evil atheists again. Okay.

- At least Curlfeather had a bit of interest. Splashtail flopped hard in, you guessed it, the last book! Yet again they ran out of plot for the last book, sad!

- Starclan should stay away more often tbh

Changing Skies

- I could just say Moonpaw's parentage but that would be lazy

- ughhhhhh I bet we're getting loads of ablesim against Leafstar. Sounds fun. Also Leafstar is one million years old but I doubt they'd have the balls to kill her off. Modern Skyclan will never have another leader.

- Also ableism against Moonpaw cause I'd bet a dollar they'd imply DID with her and they will NOT do any research and it will ableist as hell. If the voice is evil istg

- The absorbed twin thing isn't great either. Don't get me started on the chimeraism thing. None of it works that way

- Also we might be leaving the territories again. I bet the next place will have even less to do in it than the lake

- They will find a way to get Stormclan stuff in here and it will be bad and I will be mad about it

- The arc ain't even come out yet and I'm mad lol

Ughhhhh yeahh that went long... ugh picture of my cat fo your troubles..

[albertonykus]

Doraemon Movie Review: Nobita's Sky Utopia (2023)

What is Doraemon? The title character of the Doraemon manga and anime is a blue robotic cat from the 22nd Century who keeps an array of high-tech gadgets in a portable pocket dimension on his belly, and has traveled from the future to improve the fortunes of a hapless schoolboy named Nobita. Although relatively obscure in the English-speaking world, Doraemon is a Mickey-Mouse-level cultural icon in East Asia (and some other regions, too). The Doraemon franchise was a big part of my childhood, and there are still elements of it that I enjoy now.

Doraemon has released theatrical films almost annually since 1980, most of which involve Nobita and his friends (kind Shizuka, brash Gian, and crafty Suneo) getting swept into adventures thanks to Doraemon's gadgets. Despite being of potentially broad appeal to fans of science fiction and animated films, there are very few English reviews of the Doraemon movies, so I've embarked on a project to write about all the films, for as long as I continue watching them, at least.

For links to all of my Doraemon movie reviews, see here.

Movie premise: Nobita thinks life would be much better if he lived in a utopia, and asks Doraemon to help him find one.

My spoiler-free take: Although it could perhaps benefit from minor adjustments to the pacing and writing, this is an emotionally charged movie that is a solid addition to the Doraemon cinematic lineup.

POTENTIAL SPOILERS AFTER THIS POINT

Review: There are quite a few things I enjoyed about this film. The story is well crafted for most part, making effective use of foreshadowing. It's certainly one of the most emotionally driven Doraemon movies, with several heartfelt moments among the characters, especially between Nobita and Doraemon and between Doraemon and the "perfect" robot cat Sonya. Speaking of which, Doraemon being the main protagonist to forge a connection with one of the movie characters is a rare occurrence! Additionally, Sonya himself probably qualifies as one of the more memorable and developed movie-exclusive characters in the franchise.

If I were to criticize anything about this movie, one would be that it's very exposition heavy. I have to wonder whether some of the scenes dedicated to explaining background information and character backstories through dialogue could have been trimmed down just a bit, especially given that there were other elements of the story that could have used the extra runtime. For example, Shizuka, Gian, and Suneo don't get a whole lot of focus this time around.

I do appreciate though that the movie actually highlights one of Shizuka's flaws other than "she plays violin badly"—she can be stubborn, which is true... even if the way it is shown here makes her come across as studious more than anything. The scene where the protagonists come around to embracing their shortcomings is also a well done character moment.

That being said, there are ways in which the central theme of the story (essentially "it's okay not to be perfect") could have been handled with more nuance. After all, Gian and Suneo's misbehavior is regularly shown to cause real harm to others throughout the franchise. I know, there are limits to how deeply one can explore a moral conundrum in a children's film, but I don't believe this would have been too challenging to achieve. Perhaps more emphasis could have been placed on learning to control one's flaws and redirecting them into exacting positive change, contrasting with the villain's plan to forcibly erase all individuality. Glimmers of this are already present in the aforementioned scene, but I think it could have been made more explicit still, which isn't helped by the fact that the main villain only appears in person briefly and barely interacts with the heroes.

On the whole, however, these weaknesses didn't detract much from my viewing experience, and I'd consider this a worthwhile entry in the Doraemon film series.

Star rating: ★★★★☆

[room-surprise]

Thank you for making this post!

Ever since the translation of the winged lion page dropped, I've been seeing people say "this is proof that Mithrun's family physically abused him, or that Mithrun was afraid of being physically harmed by someone." But I don't think this is in any way indicated by the manga, world guide or daydream hour, and seeing the exact Japanese words used on this page and hearing what they mean just strengthens my opinion.

Emotional neglect and abuse can be just as damaging as physical abuse, sometimes even moreso because the abuse being intangible can make it harder for the victim to even identify what is happening as abuse. Especially if the specific type of abuse is societal and widespread... Then it just becomes a normalized part of life.

Kui has shown us characters who have been physically harmed in the past (Laios by other boys, Kabru by Milsiril, Mickbell and Kuro by various people), but she shows us nothing like that with Mithrun. If she wanted us to know that he was physically abused in the past, she would have told us somehow.

I very much doubt that a random sentence in a part of the world guide that isn't even about Mithrun would contain "secret information" that reveals something completely new, and hugely important to Mithrun's character like physical abuse.

I think the lion page is just repeating the information we already know about Mithrun... That he was emotionally afraid of other people, insecure, had a huge inferiority complex, and desperately wanted to be liked by everyone.

All it would take is a single drawing of a raised hand, or a bruise, or Mithrun flinching away from a family member to make it clear that there is a physical harm element to his backstory, but there isn't anything like that in the manga, or any of the extra materials.

Meanwhile, we got a whole comic about Kabru's blue eyes and how they caused him and his mother to be ostracized, which is hugely important to giving context to Kabru's personality.

What Kui did show us is that Mithrun's brother is neglected and ignored because he's imperfect (disabled, ugly, not very smart, doesn't have silver hair and eyes), and Mithrun is treated better because he was "superior."

Why is Mithrun "superior"? Because he's the opposite of all those things that made his family abandon his brother.

This means Mithrun knows, deep down, that if he wasn't "superior" to his brother, he would also be thrown away by his family. So he has to be perfect. His greatest fear is becoming like his brother: unwanted, unneeded, left-over.

So when he's sent to the Canaries... he wonders what he did wrong. Wasn't he perfect enough? Was his family always able to see through the mask, and know that he wasn't actually superior? Did they finally decide that they loved his brother more, despite Mithrun trying so hard to be perfect at all times?

That's why Mithrun's desire is a world where "no one will emotionally harm/betray him." He wants a world where everyone loves him unconditionally. A world where he can trust the people around him... Because he's never experienced that in his life (except from his brother, who he resents for it. Why is his brother, the failure, the only one who loves him? It's insulting to Mithrun's ego.) Mithrun may in fact believe it to be impossible. In the dungeon he is play-acting with shadows and illusions, fake people who will only say what he wants to hear.

That's why the demon refusing to finish eating him is both such a huge insult, and a point of trauma. Mithrun believes the demon could see through to his true nature, and saw what traits and qualities Mithrun thought made him better than his brother, and took those things away from him: his good looks, his able body, his silver eyes, his beautiful sharp ears.

All of Mithrun's self esteem and ego depended on him having those things, and so of course Mithrun desired to preserve those qualities more than anything else... So the demon eating Mithrun's desire to protect and keep those traits was probably the most delicious thing the demon could eat. The only thing Mithrun truly cared about was being better than his brother... Because being better than him was the only safety he's ever known.

It is of course possible that Kabru omitted information about Mithrun being physically abused in his attempt to make the story easier to understand... However I think if that was true, Kui would have mentioned it in Mithrun's biography in the World Guide... IE: "Kabru left this out, but actually..."

(As an aside, I do think it's very possible that Mithrun may have already been self-harming before he went into the dungeon, and it just got worse afterwards. Self harm is common for people who live high-stress lives.)

i think some people get confused about mithrun's wish "for a world where he would have no enemies and no one would harm him" and assume that this means physical harm mostly. i'm not an expert in japanese, unfortunately, but i think the translation is pretty good, because it clarifies the meaning by using both words "harm" and "enemies". original meaning seems to be rather broad.

that part of the sentence in the original says [ミスルンは自分に仇なす者がひとり もいない世界を]. here it uses the verb [仇なす], which means: "to do (someone) a wrong, to do (someone) an ill turn, to take revenge, to resent, to bear a grudge". it's used in conjunction with the word [者] which means "a person" or "people". so, this combination of words basically describes any type of person who has ill intentions toward mithrun, who wants to do mithrun wrong. it might not include hurting him physically. it's also interesting that sometimes this combination literally means "a person who inflicts vengence", which could be used to describe post-dungeon mithrun...

[harbingerofsoup]

Trauma

Mairimashita! Iruma-kun is somewhat of a very realistic unrealistic manga. First of all, it’s an isekai, which is a thought that gives me whiplash because wow my favorite manga is really an isekai guess I’ll just walk into the ocean. I should move on. It takes place in the Underworld (so Hell, it’s filled with demons, it’s Hell), there’s magic, and every character starts out with some unbelievable trait, personality, backstory, etc. Even Iruma, with his position as the regular human, has a ludicrously exaggerated origin. And yet, despite its fantastical elements, this series is so unbelievably human. We go through the story along with Iruma, peeking behind the layers of all these over-the-top demons and finding very human emotions underneath. One such feeling, is trauma, so much trauma. None of the characters have had all their information dropped at once; rather, elements of who they are have been hinted at as they come up organically, and in this arc, most of what’s either revealed or expanded on is trauma. There’s no swings with more screen time than some major characters here. In this series, characters are consistently shown to exhibit behaviors and habits that make sense with what they’ve gone through, even retroactively when their past isn’t revealed until later. This is definitely one of the more serious arcs though, with a heavier focus on these themes, but that’s also what makes it one of the most engaging ones.

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[doubleca5t]

i know you’re not a fan of the citrus anime, but is the manga any good?

short answer: no

long answer:

if you spend any amount of time in the yuri fandom, you will eventually have to contend with Citrus. It’s one of the most popular manga in the genre, so it’s kind of unavoidable. And whenever Citrus comes up, you’ll usually hear from a lot of people telling you not to read it because the core premise of Citrus is two girls, Mei and Yuzu, falling in love shortly after becoming STEP-SISTERS, and the first few chapters involve Mei repeatedly sexually assaulting Yuzu (this actually goes the other way around at one point as well, though that doesn’t exactly make things any better). I am here to tell you that those people are wrong.

Let me explain.

Citrus is an infuriating 10 volume cocktease of a manga. What I mean by this is that reading Citrus, it gives you the impression that it could get really good like any chapter now, and then it just never does. The art is good, the main character, Yuzu, is super compelling and entertaining (and imo I think she���s the reason this manga has such a massive fanbase because she can be a Mood And A Half sometimes), it’s got some pretty strong emotional moments and a lot of good comedy here and there. But this is a situation where the whole is very much less than the sum of its parts. This manga has a lot of elements that are individually satisfying, but they don’t come together into a compelling narrative. I think there are two big overarching reasons why.

1) Citrus does not create and resolve conflicts in a satisfying way

A romance manga like Citrus is very much about the journey, not the destination. You know Mei and Yuzu are going to get together, it’s just a matter of how they get together and what sort of obstacles keep that from happening until the very end. This is why so many romance manga rely on tsundere/enemies-to-lovers scenarios. The harder it is for the characters to admit their true feelings for each other, the more you can stretch out the narrative and the more chapters of manga you can get out of it. A good example of this in the yuri world is Bloom into You, where the main characters have done so many mental gymnastics to convince themselves they either can’t love or can’t be loved that as the audience you’re like “shit, I know these two are gonna get together eventually but how the fuck are they gonna get out from this nonsense?”

Citrus has no goddamn idea how to do this.

A huge chunk of the first four volumes is spent introducing side characters who appear to be potential romantic rivals for either Mei or Yuzu. These characters  can be pretty entertaining in their own right, but all the dramatic tension around them falls consistently flat. The solution to every problem presented by these rivals is just talking to whichever girl they were interested in, because said girl (either Mei or Yuzu) was never interested in the rival to begin with. These arcs feel unsatisfying because the way the problem is resolved would suggest, on some level, that these were never problems in the first place. All of this could have been avoided if the characters had just talked to each other.

And this same problem rears its head near the end of the series as well, the worst example being the ending. Mei separates from Yuzu suddenly and in dramatic fashion because her grandfather is forcing her into what is essentially an arranged marriage. The chapter where we learn about this is legitimately emotionally affecting, with the slow build-up to Yuzu learning that Mei never wants to see her again. It gets you in a way that nothing else in this series really does. But then the solution to all of this is just Yuzu proposing to Mei? And the whole family just goes along with this?? Despite them being step sisters???? Like you’d think the problem here is that Mei’s grandfather is very traditional and conservative. Like he doesn’t just want her to get married before she took over the academy, he wants her to marry a specific person from a rich family that he chose. But no, apparently the step sister marriage is a-ok! which means the only real problem here is that Mei didn’t tell Yuzu about any of this shit until it was already in motion, which brings us to the second core issue:

2) Mei does not change or improve

Mei causes a huge percentage of the conflict in this series. And not only does she cause it, she causes it in exactly the same way over and over again. Mei’s big, defining character flaw is that she’s emotionally distant and bad at communicating. Because of this, Mei repeatedly conceals information from Yuzu for, at least as far as the audience can tell, no discernible reason, creating conflict that never needed to be there. This takes the form of the previously mentioned final chapters, the first volume or so where Mei forces herself onto Yuzu rather than just telling her how she feels, that whole nonsense with Sara, and so, so much more. Citrus runs on the logic of a corny 90s sitcom. Every problem is based on a misunderstanding or a miscommunication, so everything can be resolved if the characters just fucking talked to each other. This sort of storytelling can work if you’re writing a farce (like every other Shakespeare comedy was based on a case of mistaken identity) but in a drama it’s fucking infuriating.

It would be one thing if there was an arc where the core problem was that Mei doesn’t know how to communicate, and at the end of that arc, she realizes what the problem is and spends the rest of the series actively trying to improve. That would be fine. But instead, no matter how many times Mei is shown that failing to talk to her step-sister/gf causes nothing but trouble, she just... keeps doing it, either because Saburouta thinks that’s such an important element of her character that it’s not possible to change it, or because it’s a cheap and easy way to add conflict to a relationship where none would exist otherwise.

I think the final straw for me was when I tried reading Citrus+, which takes place after Yuzu’s proposal in the final chapter of Citrus. Within the first volume, Mei goes right back to her old tricks of being moody and evasive and leaving Yuzu to guess at what might be wrong. THESE TWO ARE FUCKING ENGAGED TO BE MARRIED, BUT THEIR RELATIONSHIP HAS BEEN STUCK IN THE SAME PLACE SINCE VOLUME 5 BECAUSE MEI CAN’T IMPROVE! At some point, it starts to feel like that line about the definition of insanity from Far Cry 3. You’re just doing the same shit over and over again expecting different results.

So to put it bluntly, it would be inaccurate to say that you shouldn’t read Citrus because it’s about a pair of step-sisters taking turns sexually assaulting each other.

You shouldn’t read Citrus because it sucks.

[chibimyumi]

what do you think of BOC ep1?

Doesn't it feel like the repetition of the many failures of the trio idiots, and the perfection of Sebastian, the butler? More or like the 1st chapter of BB manga or 1st episode of S1?

Dear Anon,

💖 I like BOC episode 1 a lot. It was admittedly not an impressive episode, but unlike 1st episodes of most anime, BOC's didn't need to draw in a new audience and impress everyone enough to stay. With BOC (being aired in the middle of the night), the target audience is one that already knew Kuro to be worth their time. Therefore episode 1 only needed to be an introduction to the axis of the show; the kidnapping case. Since it fulfilled that purpose excellently, it's an excellent episode 1 in my opinion.

Let’s unpack this episode. (*´▽｀*)ノ

"Just a repetition of the trio idiots"?

Ah, I partially agree with you. I do think the first episode is a showcasing of the trio idiots' failures in juxtaposition of Sebastian's perfection. However, I also think the first episode has more legitimacy than just going: "OMG Sebas, kyun💗", because for the Circus Arc this display of the trio's incompetence is functional. This is in stark contrast with most other adaptations of Kuro and in the beginning of the manga, which were little more than glorifications of Sebas.

The trio's incompetence display plays a key role for the series, because this image given to the audience is the same image the Circus Member would have had of the only remaining staff guarding the Phantomhive estate. I believe that this element of surprise is part of the Phantomhive strategy; intruders can't prepare themselves for 3 human war machines if they don't know of them. This is also reflected in what I read to be Sebas' main M.O. as described here, and now in retrospect it makes sense that it had been Sebas who recruited Bard and Meyrin.

This surprise that the Phantomhive servants are actually talented private soldiers is also not just there to "outsmart the audience, jokes on you!!" It showcases how well-organised the Phantomhive household is under Ciel and Sebas, under the same main strategy: "play with everyone's non-suspicion."

Indeed, with the first episode having shown how Sebas alone can handle any mundane housekeeping task, one is invited to question "why hire such fools in the first place for these jobs?" And the answer is clear now: "there was no need, and they were not hired for 'these jobs'." They were hired for the jobs of private soldiers, just put under guise of maid, chef and gardener, respectively. Of course they wouldn't be good at their not-jobs!

Potent introduction to the protagonists

Another reason I think episode 1 of BOC works well is because it introduces its two protagonists very effectively. The surface checklists of Sebas and Ciel are of course ticked, but it also does more than just that: episode 1 exhibits the mutual bickering between master and servant, Ciel's testing personality, and Sebas' passive-aggression.

When master and servant were walking down the corridor for example, Ciel told Sebas he "was not looking forward to it". Sebas however, interpreted it as his master was talking about the meeting with Brandel. That is quite telling for the way Sebas' brain works, because the demon consistently works only with very clear, transparent messages. If someone does not convey clearly what they mean, Sebas will have no choice but to guess.

It then turned out Ciel was actually talking about the dancing lesson, and Sebas then says: "I see. Do you mean to say that you wish to demonstrate your 'staggering waltz' to the Lady Elizabeth?" Defeated, Ciel only replies: "you snide bastard."

This conversation is likewise very characteristic of these two. Here again Sebas is interpreting, because it is unclear to him what exactly his master wants him to do with this information. Was he simply complaining? Or was he hinting for Sebas to cancel class? (Just pay attention to how much people "communicate" only implicitly through hints. For Sebas this "code of communication" must be as consistent as guesswork.) In Ciel's dismayed reply "you snide bastard", we get a hint that Sebas might not have been too wrong in his interpretation either, because it clearly touched a nerve. Had he been wrong, then Ciel would undoubtedly not have given Sebas the satisfaction of letting him know his comment hit something, and instead simply corrected his butler like he did about Brandel. This back-and-forthing is in my opinion an innocent but excellent taster of their toxic dynamic.

Potent introduction to the series nature

Another thing this episode does well is how it represented what this series is in its core; a comical dark fantasy. When Brandel was convinced that his assassination attempt had succeeded, he boldly hid himself under the table laughing, and when he emerged from underneath it was just total peace. I really giggled at the anti-climax and secondhand embarrassment, it was SO GOOD.

Then when Sebas congratulated Brandel for winning La fève, it was just so casually macabre, I loved it!! I really loved the skin-crawling feeling of Sebas having done a mass-murder, and just casually breaking it to Brandel like the most trivial thing. Because it WAS the most trivial thing to Sebas.

Once again we see just how terrifying the Phantomhive household is, what the "Phantomhive Hospitality" means, and what "Phantomhive" means.

When Sebas crowned Brandel I really loved his mirth at the man's terror. And when Ciel revealed his contract eye saying: "do you have any idea why nobody has spoken of how the Watchdog inflicts punishment? It is because dead men tell no tales." it was so bone-chilling, it was amazing. In my opinion it was a very effective way to impart "old information" to viewers, without it feeling like: "exposition, exposition, exposition".

Conclusion

So yes, though the first episode of BOC is not really impressive on first glance, it gives the audience a lot to unpack and understand what this series will be about.

The first episode effectively disclosed the universe's law: The Queen's Watchdog is relentless with "Phantomhive hospitality", made possible through his strategy and the demon butler's powers

It constructively introduced the character dynamic of the two protagonists: an unconventional master-servant relationship with back-and-forthing.

It practically sets up an image about the idiot servants, which is not a lie, but does paint a different picture of the full truth.

And finally, it faithfully shows the audience the atmosphere of the universe: a comical and macabre world where atrocious crimes are trivial to our protagonists from Hell.

In short; as an introductory episode for BOC, it's more than successful in my opinion. The episode was written by Yana herself, so naturally it understands the source material well. Yes, it's indeed not a very flashy or impressive opening, but for those who are interested, I do recommend giving this episode another investigatory watch rather than a passive watch.

I hope it had been an interesting read ^v^

[frobin]

Random consideration: there is an online legend about Oda can change story events if someone on the web/fans guess the thing. So... what do you think about this topic? It can be really valid? If yes, even for whatever eventual not-canon ships? I don't know, because ships are just a very side element in the story, and not like main events of the storyline. (And for my opinion, for Jin:be father topic, I could agree with who said is for the age, maybe. Anyway, I will ship FroBin forever).

Hey anon! Thank you for your question!

Maybe Oda really made Jinbe the dad because of age. right now Oda and Jinbe have the same age (46). He has two children who are (if the internet and my math are correct) 15 and 12 years old. So may it’s not unlikely? If he connects with Jinbe he would rather see him as a dad than a grandparent or a weird uncle. 

-

Now, to the rest... I have to say sorry for answering so late but as of right now I’m writing parts of my answer and I literally pulling my hair because I really try to make sense of the whole situation and trying to understand the intention of a 46 year old japanese man. And this is long again so sorry about that. Anyway... 

I have heard about that. I remembered something about Oda not reading Fan Theories and now I googled once more. Apparently this is the newest Information:

"Oda once said he will change OP story if it coincides with fan theories. But according to TV show today, Oda will never change his plan about "final chapter" even if a fan theory hits the nail on the head. Oda said in 1999 that he had already decided final panel and chapter."

https://twitter.com/sandman_AP/status/1352851201478418432?s=20

I don’t think Oda is actively browsing the web for OP content ( how would he have time to) but he gets fanmail with questions and suggestions. And considering that over 4 million people are One Piece fans... one of them has to get it correct eventually. Trying to avoid any similarity with any fan-theory is IMPOSSIBLE. 

And I do believe that Oda knows how he wants One Piece to end and won’t change that, no matter what. 

As for the details in-between........ I wouldn’t say Oda is not prone to be a Troll and sometimes downright an ass towards his fans. XD Never out of malice but because he thinks it’s funny. 

I’m also sure he will never focus on romance in the manga, but since love is an important part of life it will come into play now and then. Classic romance (?) more with side-characters  (Roger/Rouge, Sai/Baby5, Bege/Chiffon) than with main (Strawhats) but still possible.

He may very well edit less-important plot lines if they don't change the ending. 

That also includes, that I absolutely think it’s possible that the Strawhats will have romantic involvement at the end of the story. At the moment it is never in the focus, except for plot reason (Whole Cake Island for example, though that is an entirely different topic) but absolutely possible. 

Because the Strawhats boning each other or maybe someone outside of the crew will not change the story. It has no influence to anything, except if it’s on a higher scale, like if Luffy really suddenly married Boa Hancock. That would influence the political outline of the world.

Meanwhile Pauli/Iceburg or Noland/Cagara or Bartolomeo/Cavendish have literally no influence to the story (anymore). And I don’t think I have to start on things like other rare pairs or even OC-ships. 

That being said, and having more stuff in mind, I wouldn’t put it past Oda to actually focus more on Jin/Bin. 

Why? Well... 

we had so many interactions between Robin and Franky after the time skip that it was almost ridiculous. In every single arc we see them fight alongside each other. We had strong romantic tropes portrayed with them: 

Their meeting after the timeskip (Sabaody Archipelago)

Franky having his head in Robins lap (Punk Hazard) 

Wearing the same shirt (Dressrosa) 

Finishing each others sentence (Zou)

Franky offering Robin a ride and her answering with a heart (Wano)  

And the moment the internet exploded when Robin was holding Frankys face. Which yeah, only a Colorspread and not canon yadda yadda

For now let’s gloss over all the other moments that showed that they cared for each other. 

... so many.

Anyway what I want to say is that Oda had declared “All the Strawhats are in love with adventure.” and “I won’t focus on romance.”  but is seemingly showing a connection between Franky and Robin, that made one think that he might actually be aboard the ship even if the fandom itself is rather silent and small. 

Meanwhile when Jinbe appeared (in the timeskip) he was instantly a hit. His popularity then rose thanks to Fishmen Island Arc. And again I can’t blame anyone. On the other hand Franky always had a hard stance. This was recently shown again because is the lowest ranked Strawhat in the popularity poll. 

One (Oda) might come to a conclusion here:

Maybe people don’t like Franky and so would dislike FRobin. But since Oda also seems to enjoy grown up relationships (?) maybe he thinks Jinbe is the only reasonable replacement?  -> It could be a tactial decision. 

Maybe he really changed his opinion and personally likes one more than the other. He was a FRobin supporter but now likes JinBin more? It wouldn't change anything for the story and there wouldn't be any harm -> It could be a personal decision. 

Maybe he fears that he put too many hints in the manga and now has to paddle back? Because let’s be honest, until the colourspread with Robin putting her hand on Frankys face... the FRobin fandom was on the backburner. And so he wants to throw out some Red Herrings.  -> Again a tactial decision

Maybe he never inteded to make it  romantic and it is actually all just friendship. Subtext is something many authors use without being aware of it. (Just ask anyone who is a lesbian!Nami fan. They have good points.) -> A mistake from the very beginning. 

And you can use these same thoughts for every other non-canon ship. 

Please take everything of this with a grain of salt because I try to understand the intention of a man who is more than 10 years my senior and from a culture I can’t even start to try to comprehend (sometimes I don’t even get my own culture), who is the head figure of a money-making machine. So it’s hard to tell what else influences his decisions. 

My interpretations are influenced by my own experiences and knowledge which is big and vast but also stretched very thin. 

Last but not least I want to make clear that any speculation is really the same as asking a crystal ball. In the western fandom we have only few people who can even slightly try to give an insight to the whole thing and they (smart enough) keep out of any shipping discourse. 

tl;dr: I don’t think Oda will change the ending. But I do think that he is willing to change minor plotlines  and so yes I think Oda might change couples for any possible reason, as long as it does not change the ending, and he does not even has to choose a good reason because in the end they are his characters and he is free to do whatever he wants with them.

[fromrere]

Shuntaro Chishiya character analysis

“Whether it’s on the other side of the planet, or right in front of one’s eyes, as long as one is safe, it doesn’t matter how many others die. Isn’t that humanity?”

“I sure as hell wouldn’t want to be your enemy.-Yes I get that a lot.”

i. personality:

Chishiya is calm, enigmatic and very manipulative. He has high intellect, which makes him a very good diamond game player. He is mysterious, brooding, always scheming behind the scenes.

He is very confident and aware of his own  strengths and weaknesses. He may be quiet but he is not shy in any way. He didn’t falter even with a machete (katana? whatever Last Boss was pointing at him with) in his face.

He is also highly apathetic. It's like nothing affects him. Bodies could literally drop around him like flies and he still wouldn't bat an eye. He doesn't murder for fun like Niragi, but if a murder or sacrificing an ally gets him closer to his goal, he is indifferent to it.

He is an extremely good judge of character. He sees through others and their motivations. He is also able to see others' potential, for example he rightly predicted that Arisu will find the base of the game masters.

He prefers to act alone, and often places himself away from the others. He also has his reasons for this, for example in the Ten of Hearts and Five of Spades games he sought out places where he could observe everything that was going on, appearing only towards the end.

ii.  his role in the story, antagonist or protagonist?

With most other characters it is easy to identify if they are on our side or not, these lines become much more blurred with Chishiya. In one moment he makes you believe that he will help Arisu escape the Borderland but in the other you find out that he is just using him like he does with everyone else.

He is an executive member of the beach and is let into a lot of information about the game. He doesn't harbour a good relationship with the executive members, and isn't afraid to get into altercations with them. He is not loyal to any of the heads of the beach either, he is just there to get as much information as possible.

He is the representative of Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. Cheshire Cat's true nature is also questionable in AIW, but he mostly plays a neutral role. He often conducts pranks on others, is very mischievous, appearing and disappearing whenever he wishes. Cheshire Cat is also helpful to Alice on a few occasions, directing her toward the right path.

iii. his motivations:

Chishiya's motivations are straight forward: getting out of the Borderland, no matter what it takes. In this game the only thing granted is death. The smallest hesitation can easily be a fatal mistake. Getting close to someone in this situation is dangerous. There's a good chance that that person will die in front of you sooner or later. The shock would cause you to drop your guard, your thinking would become distorted, which could lead you to make a mistake that is fatal. It's just too much of a risk for him.

Every other somewhat important character's background was shown in the series other than Chishiya. This also adds one more element to his mysterious persona. The viewer isn't allowed to see what has made him the way he is today, just like how the characters are unable to read Chishiya.This may very well change in the future, as the manga has shown Chishiya's backstory.

vi. his relationships with others:

Like I mentioned above, he is highly manipulative and very deceitful towards others. He made Arisu believe that he is on his side, but then threw him under the bus to get the cards himself.

This is what is important. To get the cards for himself. He doesn't have anything against Arisu, he is just using him for his benefit. He saw the potential in him and kept an eye on him. It's about his motivations. He is willing to do whatever it takes to get out of Borderland.

Now his relationship with Kuina is tougher to tackle. He doesn't outright dislike her or is deceitful towards her like his is with others, but he isn't particularly caring either. I it's just that he saw that she is useful to keep around so he did. ( It's similar with Arisu as well, but Kuina seems to be more like a follower than a pioneer)

v. his background:

The live action has changed some elements from the manga, with the most notable being Niragi’s fate ( as of now, at least ) and the changing of couple of the games. For this reason, I’m including the information below as a sub-section, as it may be rebutted when the second season comes out.

v.i. chishiya’s background in the manga:

Alice in Borderland manga spoilers! If you don't want to be spoiled skip the rest of the background section.

In the manga he was the son of an unavailable dad working in the medical industry, choosing to spend time on his computer and among his medical books instead of his son. It was implied that his parents' marriage was for business reasons rather than love. All of this has caused to grow up in a loveless household, lacking any parental affection.

He later choose to pursue medicine and became a surgical intern. He wanted to find out if he cares about human life, but his decision just made it clear that he doesn't.

His family background sheds a light on his behaviour later in his life. Growing up in a household like that definitely could’ve affected his perception of affection and just human relationships in general.

His lack of care for human life, even in the real word also speaks volumes.

Niragi, for example was very different in the real world. He is canonically a nerd ( a game developer-that was very shocking to me ) and he was also severely bullied in his high school days. He went through a huge transformation while in the borderland.

Other characters, like Arisu or Usagi are not so different from their real world selves either but their intentions and morals stayed mostly the same. They want to do good and save as many people as possible. They value human life and react intensely when one of their allies is in danger or dies.

vi. postlude/ my thoughts on Chishiya as a character:

He is actually my favorite character in the whole show, he is a very interesting character for sure. I'm interested to see if they keep his backstory as it was in the manga or if they change things up.

Slight manga spoilers!

I also love the fact that in the manga, he went from a very apathetic character to one that is a little more considerate of others. Like, I was so shocked when he took that shot for Usagi, like I never expected him to do something like that. ( he already was shot at that time but still)

[blutunesninja]

Explanations below (I spent sooooo long on them holy hell)

Just thought this was a fun thing to put together, I’m definitely missing a few things but I got as much in as I can, and I tried to explain most of these as best as possible.

Above iceberg/sky:

Kai is the green ninja: Rumors in the season 1 era, it was very built up.

S1-2 voice errors: Many ninja talk with the wrong voices in season 1 and 2.

Zane in the fridge vs. a note: In Season 1 Episode 2, Home, Zane is shown sitting in the fridge in the UK version. In the U.S version, there is just a note.

S1Ep1 video game: On the television release in the U.S for the first ever episode, the ninja are seen playing a custom made video game which is foreshadowing them in the fight for the golden scythe. In the Netflix version, they are playing the Ninjago DS game.

Wu is Lloyd's dad: Wu and Lloyd both have blonde hair, and Wu used to have a thing for Misako.

Jay using wind powers: In the episode The Green Ninja, Jay uses wind powers in the volcano to blow away fire.

Seliel: An original character in the Ninjago Comics, Phantom Ninja

Animejago: Anime style Ninjago in Season 11 “The Absolute Worst”

Zane = Ice Emperor: Before the reveal many people theorized that Zane would be the Ice Emperor.

Iceberg: 

Echo Zane is Mr. E: A scrapped idea by the writers which shows Harumi finding the old lighthouse and rebuilding Echo Zane into Mr. E. Still plausible.

Cole had depression as a ghost: In a canon Ninjago book, The Book of Spinjitzu, it’s confirmed that Cole went through a depressive episode during his time a ghost because of his failure to contribute to the team in the same way he used to.

Sorla is Garmadon and Wu's mother: Sorla has lots of knowlegde about elemental masters, but it’s unknown where she got this information as she lives in the Never-Realm. Also this

Jay has ADHD/Anxiety: He talks quickly, has bad reactions to loud sounds, understands social cues, scared in tense situations, and many other things (this is very plausible)

Lar the water ninja: A self proclaimed “water ninja” named Lar

Merjitzu: An odd rumor back then about mermaid spinjitzu...?

Zane's visions: Zane has many visions throughout the show, and they all seem to come true/seem accurate

Cole's mother: Many theories spawned around the identity of Cole’s mother before season 13, mainly because she was rarely mentioned and never seen until then.

Below iceberg:

Zane and Nya are murderers: they have the highest kill count in the show by far

The SoG massacred tons of people: Self explanatory, while the SoG were taking over Ninjago and running the streets in Season 9, of course they harrassed people.

Cole is colorblind: Cole frequently refers to things as the wrong color in the show, leading to this theory/headcanon

EM age slower than regular people: A prime example of this is Ray and Maya. They don’t appear old at all even after many years. The same can be said about Wu’s whole family.

Ninjago manga: More information on it here, but it’s basically a gag manga series with only 8 pages.

Original S7 ending: The original ending was written to be a finale of Ninjago. It would end with Acronix and Krux locked up in Kryptarium Prison 2.0, forty years in the future, while Lloyd and Kai reminisced about the adventures they had in the past decades and no sign of Cole. [SCRIPT]

Ronin has a wife and kids: Tommy Andreasen stated that in his head, he imagines Ronin has three children and a demanding wife. [tweet]

Nelson and the mailman are related: ???? I don’t even know...

Deeper iceberg:

Zane is a transmale: Stemming from this wiki page because of their visual similarities.

Vex killing prisoners: There are many prison cells in the Ice Emperors palace, but all are empty, leading many to believe they’ve been killed/frozen.

Cole is an oni: Cole survived the fall into the darkness that only oni can survive, like Garmadon and Lloyd. There is no explanation for this, and with little origin story to Cole’s family, one can only assume.

Mistaké is still alive: Many believe Mistaké is still alive, as she’s seen here in season 10.

Harumi playing with a green ninja doll during Great Devourer attack: This doesn't make any sense since Lloyd was not known to be the green ninja around this time, and some could say his first debut as a ninja was in the Great Devourer attack. Harumi seemed to be obsessed with the green ninja around this time, however.

Cole and Jay are related: A probably-debunked theory since not much is known about either of their families. Jay is adopted and Cole only has his father. Some believe their families are connected, as half brothers or even cousins..

the mailman is an Oni: I’m.. not sure about this one either..

Skylor’s original design: [Shown here]

Bottom of iceberg:

Nadakhan is shapeshifting as Clutch Powers/Nadakhan killed Clutch inside the lamp:

Cole is gay coded: The Royal Blacksmiths. Enough said.

The Formlings are a murdering cult: In their animal forms, do they kill animals and or other people?

The ultradragon was hunted and killed: The remains of their bones were used for Iron Barons throne, shown here.

How did Lloyd take his father’s robe from him?: Garmadon was chained up, but Lloyd later returns to the realm of Ninjago wearing his father’s robes.

Fetish art: Many pieces of fetish art have been created for this show, including inflation, feet, vore, tickling, macro, blueberry inflation, and more

Deep waters:

Omega is Clutch's dad: N/A

Jay kills Cliff Gordon in S6: When Jay wishes to Nadakhan for wealth and fortune, and quickly a letter conveniently comes to him about the passing of his father Cliff Gordon, and how he now owns all of his property.

Onceler Morro: tumblr meme

Skylor is genetically engineered: With no mention of her mother, it’s all up to the imagination.

Garmadon x Lloyd: The absolute worst side of the fandom, and yes it does exist/has existed.

incest/r//pe fics: The most disgusting things ever created.

[everything-laito]

the FBI agent looking at my computer must be so incredibly concerned. Here’s Laito and Cordelia analysis, Part II

Hiya, Corn here! This is Part II of this analysis series! Part one’s here! 

Not getting into the trauma part of it yet. Just explaining abusive power dynamics and how incestuous relationships work. As well as Stockholm syndrome. Lovely! Lovely combo! Fuck!!!

Same trigger warnings as last time still apply!

As always, rant under the cuuuuut!

Ok, from last time, we’ve established the elements that were set in place for Cordelia to do this to Laito, when Laito’s trauma began, and the possible fact that he was groomed as a child for sexual exploitation. Wow. Yay. Amazing. This is so gross!!! Thanks, I hate it!!!! I know I usually cary these topics with just an informational tone but I just can’t with this ;lskfjklsajf But I’m here typing this, you’re here reading this, so let’s just get on with the grossness!

Section 3: Legal Definitions of Incest and Power Dynamics 

Now we’re gonna get into the flesh of the problem, and what we know happened. From last time, and common DL knowledge, Laito was coerced into having sex with Cordelia. I say coerced, rather than forced, because it’s not like Laito seemed to resist it. He seems to “willingly” give Cordelia that. Is dubious consent, consent? Oh fuck no, and dubious or coerced consent shouldn’t even count in here considering it’s straight up incest. Any type of incest, most especially between a parent and a child, is not considered consensual, even if it “technically is.” That’s how it’s handled in a court of law, at least in America (where I’m from and reside in), and I do agree with that morally as well. A “romantic” and sexual relationship between a parent (or adult family member; aunt, grandfather, etc) and a child (is just gross) preys upon the power dynamic between them. This isn’t any consensual BDSM power dynamic (obviously), or a constructive power dynamic in the workplace; it’s just a power dynamic already instilled into the relationship where it is taken advantage of. That’s not just fucked up incest, that’s an example of a toxic relationship from the get go. Also, there’s a power dynamic usually between a parent and child, but that doesn’t mean it’s always toxic. It just needs to be done responsibly, which good parents (or any adult in power) know how to maneuver around it and not take advantage of it for manipulation etc. 

In healthy relationships, you both start on equal ground. It usually never works out if you don’t see the other as an equal, whether you have a predisposed power dynamic at the beginning or not. I’m talking any relationship; family relationships, friendships, romantic, sexual, etc. Although you older folks might know about BDSM and how there’s a “power dynamic” instilled in the relationship, a chosen and consensual “power dynamic” still involves both parties seeing the other one as an equal––intrinsically. It’s just very different than a predisposed power dynamic. That even goes with friendship too! Or any kind of healthy, nontoxic social interaction! Taken directly from Psychology Today, “Shared power creates happy individuals and satisfying interactions.” People need to be on equal ground in order to have a healthy relationship. Which,,,, we know does not happen with Cordelia and Laito (and Laito and Yui for that matter, but that’s during another part of this series). An article I saw during the research of this explains further about how power dynamics can be constructive. This focuses more on the workplace, but it applies to this because it’s looking at the other person as another person (an equal) but uses that predisposed power for encouragement, empowerment, and constructiveness (like a good parent or adult role model would do). I hope this makes sense!

Basically Cordelia is abusing her power in order to do all this to Laito. That’s why grooming would make a lot of sense in this as well, because we know it’s definitely not the first time Cordelia has taken advantage of a power imbalance to her own selfish benefit. That’s why incest isn’t really explained with the same science as pedophilia. I forget if I’ve mentioned it before, but one way pedophilia can occur in a person if their brain was originally biologically wired in a way that sees children as sexual objects. With incest, it could also work like that as well, but it is mainly power abuse, like most sexual exploitation, harassment, assault, etc is. 

Section 4: Incest (I’d make a sweet home Alabama joke but that’s low hanging fruit)

Ok so now that we’ve gone over the legality of incest, and how power dynamics can be taken advantage of, we’re gonna look into the type of incest (yes apparently there are types) that Cordelia and Laito fits into. Also if this already wasn’t clear or anything, hi incest and pedophilia etc are forms of abuse, there is no justifying it at all. It’s abuse, no matter what’s said. I know these are fictional characters but I sometimes see Ayato x Cordelia and Laito x Cordelia etc posts and I kinda just wanna commit heinous crimes whenever I see that. Just the idea of that absolutely sickens me (on top of the abuse shown in DL already). Anyways, after all of that out of the way, let’s go into this. 

Since Laito is biologically 17, I’d say that he’s considered as a child (teenager) by demon world standards. We don’t know his age when Cordelia first physically exploited him, but we do know that his same “teenage” sprite is used during the flashbacks. Since his trauma fits so well with the aftermath definition of parent/child incest, I’m just gonna give y’all information on that. This is also called “child incestuous abuse,” which is also a form of child sexual abuse. 

I learned an interesting factoid researching this, and that is in Japan, the most commonly believed incestuous relationship was between mothers and sons. In the West, we think of fathers/daughters. In Japan, the media covers more on mother/son incestuous acts; while statistically, more father/daughter incestuous acts are taken place. Just something interesting(?) I found, and probably why DL chose that for storytelling too. 

In this Wikipedia article, taken from a scientific paper (I’d take it directly from the source but you need an account to get in and I think you need to pay for it), it says this:

A study of victims of father–daughter incest in the 1970s showed that there were "common features" within families before the occurrence of incest: estrangement between the mother and the daughter, extreme paternal dominance, and reassignment of some of the mother's traditional major family responsibility to the daughter.

Sure, this talks about father/daughter incestuous relationships, but if we take this and reverse most of the roles, it shows Laito’s situation to a T:

Estrangement between Karlheinz and Laito 

Extreme maternal dominance (aka Cordelia being very abusive/manipulative)

Reassignment of some of the parental responsibility to Laito (there’s many examples of “big bro Laito,” and Ayato and Kanato considers that they used Laito as a “sacrifice”––as a “shield” for the both of them. Sure this isn’t explicit parental responsibility shown through Laito but I’d say he acts more like a family member to Ayato and Kanato too)

Section 5: Stockholm syndrome? With parental figures? 

Laito had some interesting situations occur during this whole thing with Cordelia. One of the most infamous scenes from the game (that’s also illustrated in the HDB manga) is a flashback Laito has where he’s locked up, forced to see Cordelia and Richter have sex. He’s appalled by the fact at first, but then attempts to convince himself that he’s into it. However, I won’t get into the effects until the next part. 

I didn’t find much about Stockholm syndrome being in this specific case with incest and kidnapping a child etc. When you look up Stockholm syndrome related to parents you get quite the sexist “article” that definitely mocks the whole Stockholm syndrome thing and makes fun of guys being into Glee and such,,,, so that wasn’t a very helpful article. However, I’m just gonna mish mash and put a lot of concepts that we’ve learned together. But first, a look into Stockholm syndrome.

Stockholm syndrome occurs when an abuse victim develops empathy or even intimate feelings for their abuser or captor. This happens because any bit of kindness the abuser enacts towards their victim is taken so positively, that the victim “forgets” all the negative actions, and focuses on the positive ones. This isn’t some sort of “oh ya gotta think positive!” kind of thing, it’s how abusers get away with their bullshit and how someone can be so trapped in a relationship with them. It’s also called traumatic bonding or victim brainwashing (source). This doesn’t always happen with people who are held hostage, like in Stockholm syndrome’s name origin.

A parent’s influence can be a strong one. Doesn’t even have to be related to by blood. But a figure that is supposed to be nurturing—whether they are or not—still has power over the “child.” He definitely went through Stockholm Syndrome himself with Cordelia, considering the grooming and the “love”/hate relationship he has with Cordelia. I did some more digging, and apparently Stockholm Syndrome can still occur more commonly with sexually abused victims. Which we all know he is. With the possible grooming, on top of the power abuse and sexual abuse, creates an incredibly toxic concoction. Here we go. The (rotten) cherry on top. Directly from my HDB notes, here’s a snippet from his Maniac Prologue: 

Cordelia: Nnn…Hey, Laito. You are a good boy. Laito: …!! Cordelia: Right, Laito? Laito: Yeah, that’s right. I’m…I’m a good boy after all.  ーー Besides, I’m the type of person who only get more aroused from this kind of thing.

(from my notes:) Basically Laito convinces himself to be a “cuckhold.” It’s definitely implied how he just wants approval from Cordelia; this is how this abuse prolongs. 

(Also, if I ever said that Laito was locked up by Cordelia, my bad; it was Karlheinz who gave that order. I’m unsure where I ever said this, but I feel like I said it before, so I’m gonna clarify that right now too, oops! My memory hath failed me.)

Cordelia’s praise effects Laito in such a visceral way that he tries so hard to cope with the trauma in her favor. It’s incredibly messed up. But that’s the defining factor in this. From this, I do believe Laito has Stockholm syndrome on top of all of his issues. 

I think I’m gonna end it here for now. Didn’t expect to be this long, oops. Stay tuned for next time, where I’m gonna go over Laito’s trauma and how he’s been effected by it. Thanks for reading, FBI agent! And oh, you as well, dear reader! 

If you’ve read this far holy fuck I commend you -Corn

[katyatalks]

Mob Psycho 100 Interview Translation - Character Designer Kameda Yoshimichi - Otome Visual 2017

Summary-style translation for Character Designer Yoshimichi Kameda’s 4 page interview from Otome Visual 2017, regarding elements in the creation of Mob Psycho 100 such as: what inspired this cover art, the influence of fan art in the anime’s creation, Tsubomi’s design, the process behind the package art for the DVDs, and more. Includes some genga. Under read more;

[TN: The reason why I elected to summarise this interview rather than do a full write up is because a lot of the information given gets covered in December 2016′s Animestyle010, in “The Making of Mob Psycho 100.” I typed that one out in full over on twitter but that’s a long interview, and I don’t have the time or energy to reformat it for Tumblr, but if you’re interested in a very in-depth look into how Mob Psycho 100′s anime came to be I’d really recommend checking it out. Direct quotes are given in “” here. Enjoy!]

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*~The genga illustration for Otome Visual’s cover~*

“With the recent popularity that Skating Anime has had, what’s this - a Shouwa idol collab?! It’s all in the little details in their clothing - their wrinkled shirts, white trousers, black belts - both around their waists and arms.”

*~Kameda’s comments~*

“Can you heaaaar me!! I am currently speaking directly into your braaaain!!! What I’m grateful for with this commission is I was able to design the cover in any way I’d like!! A cover is a reflection of current times, so, of course, I went for ice skating! You wouldn’t be able to find this kind of amazing content in any time period other than now! That’s what I first thought! Like, Mob Psycho 100!! If there’s not a certain Mob Psycho 100-ness present in the art then what’d be the point, so, the characters are being very serious but they’re also pretty laughable. I tried to create a piece of art from which you could hear their voices!!! What’s with it being Shouwa-esque?? Being lame is incredibly cool!!! Huh? Does that describe Mob Psycho 100?? Can’t answer that if you ask!!!! Please feel the amazing Paradise Ginga x Mob Psycho 100-ness here!!!!!!”

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Kameda describes how he wasn’t sure how best to adapt the manga into an anime format at first, since from the art he was shown he immediately knew it to be very unique - the idea of using Flash to animate the show was raised but quickly shot down

Originally, upon being asked about the show, he based his thoughts on what a web image search for Mob Psycho 100 gave him rather than having the actual manga in hand. “For the most part, the results that came back would be fanart (laughs). It’s a bit strange -  at that time, it was difficult to find art uploaded from the manga. If you could find anything, it’d just be art from the covers. So for the most part, an image search of Mob Psycho 100 would just bring you back fanart. A lot of that fanart would be… a shounen in a cool pose wearing a school uniform with smooth bobbed hair & sharp cat-like eyes, sort of like Hiei’s eyes (from Yu Yu Hakusho). Very different from the manga’s art. But when I looked at that art, I thought; this could work. Fanart is, fundamentally, ‘fans drawing what they like’, so I thought, ‘the anime having this kind of art would make the fans happy.’ Well, it didn’t work out that way, obviously. I was told the anime’s art should resemble that of the manga. (Laughs)”

He hadn’t read the manga so all he had for reference was art from volume 1 and the fanart he found online. “But I like things like spirits and urban legends, so seeing Dimple - a floating supernatural fiery ball - and being told the manga touches on the occult caused my interest to soar.”

Says that Teru is the easiest character for him to draw. “He’s overflowing with confidence, so it’s easy to put him into some cool poses. Mob and Ritsu in comparison, not so much. [...] With Reigen, he has a lot of poses that are like, he’s trying to look good. He takes a solid stance. I suppose Spirits & Such has such a shady air to it, and you have to hide that somehow, right? So, Reigen injects confidence into how he presents himself. A model-like stance.”

“The anime is faithful to the manga… ah, actually, Tsubomi-chan was changed with a ‘let’s make her more like a heroine’ conversation. So, I did so, but reading recent events in the manga I can’t picture her in her anime form (laughs). The manga’s Tsubomi isn’t much like a heroine, so I’ve found myself wondering, if we animate up until this part… just how will we approach it? The anime’s Tsubomi is so bright and sparkly, so she wouldn’t have snot hanging from her nose (vol.13 of manga), would she…? (Laughs). Perhaps we went a little too far with making her a heroine. Maybe, if we do season 2, we’ll turn her back into a normal girl (laughs). Well, Tachikawa-san is clever; I think he’ll find a way to make do with her current design.”

---

Picture text: "This is Mezato's first appearance, so I decided to make her cute!! Thank you in advance!!"

Picture text: "That girl was telling me such a stupid story this morning... aidzuchi* isn't easy, you know... I'll just ignore her tomorrow..." [* sounds made to indicate that you're listening to someone speak]

---

Asked about his favourite characters; “I love Mezato Ichi from the Newspaper Club. When I drew her in her character sheet in that pose where she’s holding her camera, I came to see her as being quite cute. So now I focus on her a lot; in fact, when I draw genga I sneakily choose the cuts that have her in them (laughs).”

“I also love Mob. Reigen stands out the most so your eyes naturally jump to him, but I love the balance that Mob has. His heads tall ratio... or rather, his face, and the way his body is proportioned? It makes him lovely. Ritsu is around the same height as Mob, but, how can I put this - the cuteness that Mob has, is lacking in Ritsu… due to the latter being quite standoffish, I suppose (laughs).”

Ritsu’s hair changing through the first season is discussed, and how it is purposefully shortened during the latter half. “I paid attention to making sure his hair was long especially while he was being possessed by Dimple. So it’d resemble thorns.”

“I feel Teru-kun is the most ‘yang’ of all the characters. The rest are more ‘yin’ in nature. Because of this, it’s easy to play around with his expressions - he’s fun to draw. Speaking in terms of Dragonball, he’s kind of like Mob Psycho 100’s Vegeta (laughs).”

“In episode 9, Dimple possesses one of Claw’s security guards, right? I don’t really understand why that security guard is so popular.” Q: What do you mean? “Because he’s just some middle-aged dude (laughs). He doesn’t even appear for long…”

After discussing the huge amount of SG!Dimple commissions received: “Unlike SG!Dimple, I don’t really get asked to draw Shou-kun. With this commission I thought to myself, I /have/ to include him here, and so I added him in. The initial brief excluded him.”

Asked about moments that stuck with him; “When Teru chokes Mob in episode 5. [...] Mob’s pained expression as he’s being choked is good, but Teru-kun’s face shows us… envy, jealousy, distress, anxiety.”

“Also, the ‘super real Reigen’ sequence from episode 12. The tension between Reigen and Sakurai is funny, but the art itself has had me laughing since production. It’s funny no matter how many times I look at it!”

Kameda’s idea to have the characters make number shapes for the volume art came from him watching ‘Tonneruzu no Minasan no Okage deshita’, specifically the ‘Mojimoji-kun’ segment of the show (where they try to make numbers from their bodies)

Volume 6’s cover art was first planned to have a whole ensemble of characters, but Kameda changed his mind on this - “if we do a second season, we can leave that for volume 12 (laughs).”

Volume 4's cover was originally planned to feature only Onigawara and Gouda, but Kameda found himself wanting to include the rest of the body improvement club

Regarding the pose we see on vol 6’s package art, “My original thoughts for that cover were to have Reigen and Mob in a ‘hell wheel’ pose, like, Mob pulling Reigen’s legs and arms… but that wouldn’t be very fitting for the final volume.”

His message to the readers; “Thank you for your support! With sales, the ‘this is popular!’ message gets conveyed, and the more support you give us, then there’s no doubt we’ll be able to produce season 2 and season 3!! Season 2 relies on your support. It’s in your hands - thank you!!”

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Crossposted on twitter here.

[royriza]

Royai Horoscope

A Roy and Riza Character and Relationship Analysis based on their Zodiac signs

Image Source: Fullmetal Alchemist Playing Cards

Disclaimer: I am not suggesting horoscopes are scientific means of analyzing personality nor that it is accurate. This is just for fun!

Roy Mustang

Birthday: 06/01/1885 (on basis of Roy’s Day and his actual birthyear)

Zodiac Sign: Gemini - the Twins

Element Sign: Air

We may think he’s more suited in being a Fire sign, but if you take a closer look with how Roy creates fire, it all makes sense. Hiromu Arakawa shares in one omake that Roy creates fire by controlling the amount of oxygen in the air. I believe Flame Alchemy is based on the concept of control. We only notice the times Roy has lost control, but we fail to appreciate all the times he maintainted it. He’s not what he seems from the surface, and this is why we think he’s always not what he appears on the surface. Which leads us too conclude that he may appear two-faced.

Traits:

two-faced - like most Geminis, Roy tends to have a reputation of being two-faced. His personality depends on how others treat him, and how he views them. He loves to stir rumors and gossips, creating an impression that is completely different from who he actually is (E14, FMAB) (I’m making a more in-depth character analysis about this, but one that is based on psychology)

(this is a long post, so if you want to keep reading, be my guest!)

social chameleon - being the life of the party, Roy knows how to socialize with different types of people. He can easily read the room and know exactly what other people want to hear from him, as with most Geminis. This makes him extremely popular among townsfolk and political leaders.

social chameleon - being the life of the party, Roy knows how to socialize with different types of people. He can easily read the room and know exactly what other people want to hear from him, as with most Geminis. This makes him extremely popular among townsfolk and political leaders.

flirtatious - and of course, Roy is popular with women, as stated by Team Mustang (FMA 03, E37). He’s naturally flirtatious, whether he does it on purpose or not. Like most Geminis, Roy jumps from one date to another. But we see him go to dates to collect information before tackling a conflict, another trait of Geminis. He asks Olivier for dinner as a disguise to relay information and planning (FMAB, E42-46 im not sure which one). Again, every action he does isn’t what it appears on the surface. And of course, he deliberately makes people believe he’s a womanizer. He shares his reason for being Führer was to let female officers wear miniskirts (FMA 03, E13), but later on we see it’s because he wanted to protect people (FMAB, E10). This leads us too concluding that he’s...

intelligent - most Geminis don’t appear to be smart at first, but when taken a closer look, they’re rather cunning and have remarkable wit. As seen with how he strategizes plans, Roy’s intellect is unquestionable. He even competes with Maes Hughes during their military academy days (FMAB Special E04). Aside from that, he is also emotionally intelligent, as in most Geminis. In another iconic scene, Roy immediately knows something is wrong upon talking to Riza on the phone (FMAB, E38)

optimistic - in general, Geminis are the kind of people who look forward to the future rather than attempting to change the past. Roy is actually optimistic. We never see him falter or mope around, he’s always the one who says “we can do better next time.” He tells Ed to stand up and have a chance on getting their bodies back rather than sulk about what had happened (FMAB, E2).

impulsive - due to Gemini’s adaptability and versatility, they never stay in one place. We see Roy move from one date to another and procrastinate on paperwork (FMA 03, E37). Riza frequently tells him not to be reckless, (FMAB E01, E05 - encounter with Scar, E19 - coming to the scene). When Roy had offered her flowers, he reasoned that he got “too drunk” and ended up buying a carload of flowers (FMAB, E38). Another one of his two-facedness. Although it was an excuse, Riza paid no attention to it. Maybe because she was that used to his impulsiveness lololololol. But we see this trait heighten when he was consumed with anger and vengeance on Envy (E53-54).

Riza Hawkeye

Birthday: 09/01/ 1887-1889 (based on Riza’s day and age range)

Zodiac Sign: Virgo - The Virgin

Element Sign: Earth

Earth signs are always grounded. We see how Riza always keeps her calm in situations (except when she thought Roy died lol). It’s no wonder how she holds Team Mustang together and keeps their sanity. Sometimes I wonder how she puts up with them lol.

Traits:

perfectionist - like in most Virgos, we see Riza always striving for the best. This is most evident in her specialty: accurate gunshots. When a military officer complimented her for striking the bull’s eye in the firing range, she told him “I still have a long way to go.” (FMA manga, Volume 6). Kimblee even taunts her, “Doesn’t it make you feel satisfied when you hit the target on one shot?”, whose words hit Riza like her own on-point bullets (FMAB, E30). In FMA 03, we see her blame herself for not being there on time. Roy replies by saying the world isn’t perfect, but that makes it beautiful (FMA 03, E51).

hardworking and organized - she gets things done stat. She does Roy’s paperwork and always reminds him to do them. Aside from that, she is very dedicated on work, she even delivers paperwork to the Führer’s residence late at night (FMAB, E37). Her dedication for work is most evident when she stood up all night while Roy was in a meeting in Central HQ (FMAB, E25). Other than that, she is obedient, she never fails to comply any order as long as it is within her morale. Even on the verge of death, she told the gold-toothed doctor she won’t die since she is “under strict orders not to die.” (FMAB, E58)

stubborn and uptight - in line with the previous trait, most Virgos are stubborn and uptight. Once they set their mind on a plan, they want it followed pronto! Roy even comments that Riza is stubborn (FMAB, E24) when she insists she will wait until Roy’s meeting is finished. Because of this, Riza may appear uptight. She bosses around Team Mustang, basically. For this reason, co-workers regard her as Roy’s babysitter (FMAB, E17). She tends to follow an everyday routine, as seen on how she and Black Hayate spends their mornings (FMA 03, E37).

reserved and untrusting - for some reason, we see Riza as reserved. I can’t pinpoint an exact moment where she’s shy, but I guess we assume she is because she rarely speaks. Riza isn’t an open book, and Virgos tend to have trouble trusting other people. This is evident since Riza holds the secrets of Flame Alchemy on her back. As an independent person, she may find it hard to rely on someone. It might have been hard for Riza to choose to trust Roy, and doing so might have caused a whole lot of consideration. That is, until she finally asks Roy, “Can I entrust you my father’s research?” Well, we see how much trust she gives to him since we never once saw her complain about anything— except with Roy.

honest - Riza is known to have a dry humor, and she never holds back on any comment she has. It’s seen on how she makes jokes with Rebecca Catalina (FMAB, E46). She’s blunt with her words— even calling Roy, her superior, an idiot or is useless (FMA 03 E15; FMAB E01, E05, E19, E53). She even asks Fuhrer Bradley a personal question, “Is that even called a family?” (FMAB, E42). Riza also declined Pride’s offer to join their forces, even in the face of threat (FMAB, E37).

patient and observant - aside from dealing with Team Mustang on a daily basis, her patience is very apparent on her character. In order to take a shot, she waits for the perfect timing. She’s also very observant, especially on the things Roy fail to communicate verbally. Whenever they visited Hughes’ grave, it was shown that Riza can sense Roy’s grief, and knows something is up (FMAB E10, E50)

intelligent - other than all the aforementioned reasons, we see Riza’s intelligence as she was able to count and remember the steps from Laboratory 5 to the door. And they figured out it was between the Fuhrer’s residence and Central HQ. (FMAB, E21). A more iconic scene was when she was able to figure out who Pride is (FMAB, E37).

kind - We see Riza as empathetic, especially to the young. She is in good terms with Winry (FMAB, E02; FMA Star of Milos) and Ed and Al (FMAB, E30). We see her voluntarily adopt Black Hayate (FMA 03, E13). Roy even admits it, “She may appear like that, but the Lieutenant is really kind.” (FMA manga, somewhere sksjskdjsks idk what volume)

Roy and Riza Compatibility

(based on their signs)

Both of them are polar opposites, like Roy is outgoing and Riza is shy. These might create conflict or it might also complement their flaws. Roy’s spontaneity helps with Riza’s rigidity. Just as Riza helps him stay on track with his work, Roy lets her lossen up a bit (FMAB E17-E19, where Riza is disguised as Elizabeth).

Riza’s critical untrusting judgement and Roy’s two-facedness may create conflict between them. Plus, Roy being easily bored might not work well with what Riza wants, which is routine and constancy. There might also be a problem with Roy’s flirtiness, which might ignite Riza’s doubtfulness.

Fortunately, they have both lessened these problems since they have laid their relationship on trust. Riza has entrused her back to Roy, along with the secrets of Flame Alchemy. Roy, on the other hand, has also entrusted his back to her (and his life, as she is free to take it if he will stray away from the right path). We see this on FMAB E54, when Riza stopped Roy from being consumed by revenge. In that scene, we also saw how Roy’s impulsiveness was balanced out by Riza’s strict compliance to rules and routine.

Aside from their differences, they also share many similarities. With their high emotional and intellectual compatibility, they entertain themselves in witty banters (well we often observe that). They share the same realistic attitude, and goals towards life (creating a better world even through a muddy path, FMAB E30).

They also share a negative trait of not being able to express their feelings easily. They may have trouble putting their feelings into words. Good thing they both learned to communicate nonverbally— and this is seen on another iconic moment when Riza’s glance saved them both from threat (FMAB, E54). After all, they’ve “known each other for quite some time.”

Again, this is all for fun! It’s fun to read horoscopes and get writing prompts from there wahaha here are some of my references: Gemini, Virgo, Gemini and Virgo compatibility

I’ll be making a proper character analysis soon right on my fma analysis blog @fullmetalanalyst !

[nervouslywaitingforlife]

Detective Conan has a shot ton of Dubs - a post. This is a long post going over a lot of details of Detective Conan (which is why theres a read more as this is long)

This is full of lost media and the many odd dubs that Detective conan has, I hope you enjoy.

Fox Kids dub

This is the earliest dubbing of Detective Conan being done in 2000 and the one with the least amount of any infomation.

All we know is that it was going to be called Conan's Capers, there is a pilot which is a mash up of the first episode and the third episode which was cut down to 7 minutes with episode one being cut down to 5 minutes. All elements of murder and violence were cut or censored.

For example, in episode 1 and the scene in which Gin hits Shinichi and gives him the aptx, in this dub Gin scares shinichi by saying "boo" and Shinichi falls to the ground, the aptx is supposed to give Shinichi amnesia not kill him.

Also all of the names were changed as well:

• Shinuchi Kudo to Peter Gray

• Conan Edogawa to Conan Issac

• Ran Mouri to Rebecca Lacey

• Kogoro Mouri to Slick Lacey

The pilot 7 minute pilot is lost though was rumoured to be shown on tv once and we only know infomation due to a leak in 2000 and this article from a magazine.

The reason it didn't air was due to the cuts needed to the anime as it would cost more than just dubbing over the animation.

The Miramax / ABC Family dub

In 2002 another dub of Detective Conan was made by Miramax Television hired by Fox Family. It was made in 1997 and aired in 2002 / 2003, it aired 110 episodes or 5 seasons the name was changed slightly to Detective conan: Case Closed.

It was edited a fair bit but not as heavy as the 2000s dub. It follows the initial script though there have been alterations to make it understandable. There is some swearing though only mild. The violence, murder and threats were toned down or deleted. It was made to be more funnier though it wasn't a ghost stories dub or anything. Alcohol, smoking, drugs and nudity were given the 4kids treatment and got recoloured or removed into something tamer. The most interesting thing is that the episodes were shortened to 10 minutes , making two edited episodes fit one run time.

Names were changed again:

• Shinichi Kudo to Jimmy Kudo

• Conan Edogawa stayed the same

• Ran Mouri to Cherry

• Kogoro Mouri to Richard

• Ayumi Yoshida to Amy

• Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya to Maxwell

• Genta Kojima to George

• Ai Haibara to Anita

Most don't have a last name.

To my knowledge this is also lost media, I cant find any of the episodes for this dub. Theres a lot of trivia about the series and it seems that the voice actors had a lot of fun.

Singapore dub

In 2003 a dub was produced for the Singapore under the origional name of Detective Conan. 52 episodes were dubbed by Voiceovers Unlimited. And were dubbed by some well known Singapore dubbers like Chuck Powers who did 50% of the voices in the Singapore dub of Yu-Gi-Oh!.

Though over the years this dub has become lost, as it was only released on VCD and for a while we only had the opening and ending for this dub. Though in 2020, 22 episodes of this dub were found and restored. This can be good for people who have grown up with this dub and want to watch it again.

Funimation dub

This is the most well known dub of Detective Conan, if you've seen any dub of Detective Conan its probably this one. This dub was aired in 2004 and called Case Closed, it aired 130 episodes though they were actually 123 japanese episodes though some episodes were cut into multiple smaller episodes. They did the first six movies and did the voice acting for the only english released Detective Conan game The Mirapolis Investigation.

The names used for this dub are the same as the Case Closed manga:

• Shinichi Kudo to Jimmy Kudo

• Conan Edogawa stayed the same

• Ran Mouri to Rachel Moore

• Kogoro Mouri to Richard Moore

• Heiji Hattori to Harley Hartwell

It was aired on Adult Swim but had low ratings as well as low DVD sales, which is why there hasn't been more from this dub. Even though it was Dubbed up to season 5, though 11 episodes were missing from the dvd, these missing episodes include the introduction of Ai Haibara.

The Animax / Philippines dub

This one I nearly missed due to the lack of information on this one. There are two dubs for the philippines one in english and one in Filipino. I'm only talking about the English Dub as if I get into other language dubs then I'll be here all day.

This dub was done by Animax Asia in 2006 and only 52 episodes were shown. This dub uses the character's origional names and the original title Detective Conan. I can't find much infonation on this dub, I just find infomation on the Filipino dub.

Bang Zoom! Dub

This is the most recent dub of detective conan, currently they have dubbed the 22nd movie Zero the Enforcer and the special Episode "one" so far. To my knowledge they are only dubbing the movies, with the Episode "One" Special being the most recent being released in 2020. The names are the same as the origional japanese one, though the title is Case Closed: One Truth Prevails.