#is getting another western release

[finalgirlsamwinchester]

David Simmons, “There’s a ton of lore on unicorns too”: Postmodernist Micro-Narratives and Supernatural in TV Goes to Hell: an Unofficial Roadmap of Supernatural

started writing this mostly as a reflection on the above chapter from TV Goes to Hell. the show from its initial outset is based around a particular formula. the brothers often rely on a postmodern patchwork of stories to 'solve' their monster-of-the-week. on this show, everything can be real all together, all at once: from alternate myths and histories, to movie monsters, to urban legends, cultural gods, and folk tales. this cultural melange gets 'tamed' through the frame of the show's monster-of-the-week format itself, where everything gets solved to fit a singular narrative: identify the monster, find a way to defeat it, and successfully eliminate it (there are rare exceptions to this formula: bugs is the standout)

there's a tension between the characters' research, drawing from unofficial sources, local legends and civilian accounts versus the show's format demanding, in a sense, that fear of the unknown (really a fear of difference) be conquered through the simplified logic of its formula. unofficial sources and beliefs become incorporated into an official narrative, so to speak. they gain legitimacy and authority through our heroes use of them, not the other way around. magic is evil when a witch uses it, but somehow the rituals and spellwork our heroes use to defeat them don't count. you feel me. and that same logic applies to what monsters count as real and what doesn't. on this show, everything becomes real when our protagonists are able to see it and kill it.

(1.01, 'Pilot')

so a common show critique i see tends to separate the more episodic plots of the early seasons (1-3) from the more serialised grand epic narratives of 4-5 onwards. well my argument is this - nah, that impulse was there from the start! the mystery of the show was always going to dissipate, because explaining away the mystery was always a part of its initial premise. the concept that - 'the monster under your bed is no longer scary when you can name what it is and learn how to kill it' - turns into -> a fear of death? heaven and hell and everything else in between are now real, tangible places! fear over external, powerful forces meddling in your lives? demons, angels, leviathans, god himself! now all real and tangible beings! the air of horror and mystery shrouding s1-2 was never gonna last. the murky horror was always a means to a defeatable end.

(5.19, 'Hammer of the Gods')

anyways. there's an obvious mythological hierarchy in this series and it's very funny to me. all gods and spirits and monsters, even the ones predating christian mythology, fall under its ruling (white, judeo-christian) narrative authority. the postmodern embrace of multiple narratives is a ruse. all incompatible things lead to a universal truth. the show doesn't dispell the existence of differences; rather everything is to be combined, united under a totalising front, despite the contradictory nature of that impulse. this narrative then, down to its bare bones formula, is a civilising mission. civilisation barreling in, banishing fear and uncertainty from the light. and in order to stay in that light, one must submit to its complete authority. by this show's logic, uniformity ultimately requires the subjugation of difference.

[baalzebufo]

finally some of my accoutrements for my Uni are arriving... ive got a handful of stuff to customize it with in the mail right now including some different buttons and a faceplate, but! my case and dust plug arrived :) i bought two of those shykutchi plugs, one for my phone too, because he is so cutes to me (also this photo does NOT do justice to how glittery that case is. its much sparklier irl)

its nice to get into the customizing aspect of vpet stuff. i have a bunch of cute little sparkly tamagotchi stickers i got alongside this order which i wanna put on some of my other shells... also i still need to get one of the new connections sometime.

im holding out a little to see if they release more shells/the japanese ones become any more accessible in the uk because i want those glittery ones dangit

[superdorkcat]

Upcoming Magical Girl Projects

Magical girl fans are finally eating good after years of starvation. So good, in fact, that I decided to make a list of magical girl projects in development. This is a continually updating list - all series that have since been released can be found here.

Cute High Earth Defense Club Haikara! - Hot on the heels of the franchise's 10th anniversary movie, Cute High Earth Defense Club is getting a new anime. The series is set during the Taisho era and focuses on Mayunan High School's Earth Defense Club, who are recruited to prevent a future calamity by Nuru, a talking cat from the far-flung future. Premieres July 7.

New Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt - Panty & Stocking is getting a second season after over a decade that's premiering July 10. The official synopsis is vague on details, but the original Japanese cast have been confirmed to be returning.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie - Walpurgisnacht Rising - The fourth PMMM movie, which will pick up where Rebellion's massive cliffhanger left off. While originally slated for late 2024, it has since been delayed to 2025.

Winx Club - The western magical girl classic is getting a CGI reboot. While comments by Iginio Straffi imply that certain characters who were introduced later in the original series (such as Roxy and Nabu) will appear earlier, no specific plot details have been revealed so far. The series is coming to Netflix late 2025.

Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. season two - Magilumiere is getting a second season, which was announced after the broadcast of season one's finale. No other details have been revealed.

Sugar Sugar Rune reboot - At Paris's Japan Expo, Studio Khara premiered Sugar Sugar Rune: Les deux sorcierès, a CG short film that serves as a prequel to the manga. After it finished, the studio went on to reveal that a full series was in production. Both the short film and series are meant to celebrate the original manga's 20th anniversary.

Hua Xianzi: Zhi Mofa Xiang Dui Lun - A co-production between Tencent Video and Toei Animation's Shanghai branch, this anime is being billed as a "remake" of Lunlun the Flower Fairy. The heroine is Rumi, an apprentice at a homemade perfume studio who awakens as a Flower Child due to the power of a family heirloom. She's tasked with collecting and purifying the Rainbow Flower's scattered petals, only to clash with another Flower Child along the way and discover the surprising past of her feline mentor/sidekick.

Maho no Shimai Lulutto Lily - Studio Pierrot, which has made a variety of magical girl anime from TV originals like Creamy Mami to adaptations such as Tokyo Mew Mew, has announced that they're creating a new TV original magical girl anime. No specific plot details have been disclosed, but the caption for the teaser image ("I want you to sing once more...") implies that it'll be a magical idol anime. In March, the title was revealed, with the rough (and unofficial) romanization being Magical Sisters Lulutto Lily. The only revealed characters are a duo of cat mascots, Uguisu and Azuki.

Lolirock season three - After Lolirock's second season ended with a cliffhanger all the way back in 2017, it seemed like the story would never get a proper conclusion. However, the series's creator and director, Jean-Louis Vandestoc, announced on his Instagram in 2023 that creative meetings for a third season have begun.

Magic Knight Rayearth revival - TMS Entertainment is making a new Magic Knight Rayearth anime in honor of the franchise's 30th anniversary. Unfortunately, it's currently unknown what the format will be.

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha EXCEEDS Gun Blaze Vengeance - A new installment in the seminal Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha franchise, this will be a new TV anime to celebrate the series's 20th anniversary. A manga version of the series began circulation on Suiyōbi no Sirius manga service on April 16, 2025.

Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card season two - The sequel to the magical girl classic is getting a second season that will adapt the rest of the manga.

New Ojamajo Doremi thing - As part of the celebrations for the franchise's 25th anniversary, Toei Animation released two new music videos for the series' 1st OP and 4th ED with the promise that a new project will be made if the videos reach a combined 5 million views. This goal has since been met. Due to the girls being adults in the videos, the new project will presumably be an adaptation of the Ojamajo Doremi 16-20's sequel series of light novels.

[lockeswoodss]

A Guiding Hand

!!!!!!!!!!MDNI!!!!!!!!!

A/N: Dr. Robby teaches reader how to masturbate. That's it, that's the whole fic. This is a little long for a drabble, but too short to be a full-fledged one-shot. I'm probably gonna write a continuation of this later this week. I usually write smut for animes, hopefully, this is okay 😅 This is my first attempt at writing fanfic for western media. I just wanted to post something before school starts up again tomorrow.

CW: Guided Masturbation, Daddy Kink, Fingering, (I can't think of anything else, LMK if I missed something I'm tired lol.)

“Fuck,” you panted after another failed attempt at making yourself cum. You were so close, before the inevitable moment where you get too in your head and the pleasure slips through your fingers. You glare at your image reflecting back at you.

“That was better,” Robby husked in your ear encouragingly. You groaned in response, throwing your head back. At this point, you’d lost the number of attempts. You could feel the shake of his chest against your back as he let out a laugh. The scratch of his beard against your right shoulder, where he hooked his chin, and his arm wrapped around your middle kept you grounded. Your legs were hooked around the outside of his parted thighs, spreading you open to give you a clear view of your slick pussy. Still panting, you let yourself relax back onto his bare chest. Only the thin material of his boxer briefs kept you from what you wanted most. Every twitch of his cock against the small of your back was like a taunt of what you craved but was just out of reach. As subtly as your hazy mind allowed you, you tried to grind back against him under the guise of shifting your weight. In an instant, the arm wrapped around you tightened along with his other hand, stilling your hips. Why did he have to be so goddamn perceptive?

“Baby,” he lightly scolded, “You agreed that you’d only get my cock after you make yourself cum,”

“But, Daddy,” you whined, “I can’t do it, it’s impossible,”

“It’s not impossible, I’ve done it every time we’ve been together,” he gently reminds you, “Sometimes more than once,” he tacked on.

“Brag,” you huffed in response, making eye contact with him through the reflection of your mirror. He let out another soft chuckle at the sight of your pout.

“Okay, how about you try one more time and if you still can’t I’ll make you cum, deal?” he asked.

You nodded, quickly, trying to contain your relief that your release was finally within arm’s reach.

“Words, love,” he reminded you softly.

“Okay,” you nodded, beginning to again reach between your legs to get to your clit.

“This has to be a real attempt, I want you to follow my directions to a T,” he said as he cuffed his hand around your wrist, stilling your movement, “Got that, baby?”

“Yes, Daddy,” you answered with a nod. Up until this point, he had only been making suggestions, but now he was gonna take the reins.

“Alright,” he said against your right ear, “I know you’re already wet,” he could feel your wetness bleeding into his underwear, “But I want to start at the beginning. I want you to run your fingers down your throat slowly, tracing your way down to your chest. Be a good girl and play with your nipples for me.” He prompted.

“’ Kay,” you answer breathlessly, your hands slowly migrating down to your nipples. You tweaked and tugged at your already hardened nipples. Stiff from the faint draft of your room.

“Fuck, good. Can you feel it yet, can you feel that spark in your core?” he asked, his deep voice shooting through you.

“Yes, Daddy,” you whined, continuing to play with your chest until he directed you otherwise.

“I want you to focus on that feeling, forget about cumming, just focus on experiencing that warm feeling.” He directed, “I want you to suck two fingers in your mouth and get them wet like they’re mine.”

In lieu of answering you licked the pointer and middle finger of your dominate hand before sucking them into your mouth. You began to lave at them like you would Robby’s before he’d finger you. You locked eyes with him as you slipped them out of your mouth, now soaked in saliva.

“Good,” he nodded, “I want you to slowly trace up your lower lips from your hole up to your clit, you can give it a few light pets before tracing down back to your core,”

Your breath reverted back to a pant as your fingers lightly swipe at your clit. Your instinct was to press down harder and focus all your attention there, but you begrudgingly follow his directions. If anyone was going to teach you how to cum it’d be him; he had the most experience.

“Fuck, good girl,” he groans, cock pulsing against your lower back, “Now your pussy’s special, you need both clitoral and vaginal stimulation to cum. I want you to slip your fingers into your pussy and curl them against your inner frontal wall. Once you get that down you’re going to start to play with your clit.”

You moan unabashedly at the sensation, eyes fluttering shut as you focus in on the feeling, enjoying the experience more than the end.

“There’s my girl.” He praises, kissing at your throat, nipping here and there to keep his own composure. He wanted nothing more than to flip you over and start fucking you from behind, but it wasn’t the time for that; at least not yet.

“Fuck, Daddy,” you moaned as your hips raised to meet your hands, you shamelessly grinded against your fingers. You were so focused on your pleasure, you missed Robby’s hooded eyes watching you fall apart under his careful instruction. His fingers dug into his thighs as he struggled to hold back from grinding against your ass. He was enraptured by the sight of you fully immersed in pleasure.

“Daddy, fuck, fuck Daddy, Daddy please. Can I cum?” you asked desperately, unfocused eyes meeting his reflection.

“Go ahead, love. You’ve been such a good girl.” He encouraged you, kissing the side of your head. Your thighs shake above his as you moan loudly, working yourself through your orgasm. None of your past attempts compared to the high you felt after your inadvertent edging. Robby pulled you in for a soft kiss as you fell limp against him.

“Color?” he asked softly, after giving you a moment to come down.

“Yellow,” you answered after coming back into your body.

“You want to stop for tonight?” he asked, gently rubbing circles into your hips.

“I never said that,” you said, your eyes meeting his. He knew you were far from done when he clocked the mischievous look in your eyes, “I just need a second.”

“Take all the time you need love,” he replied, cherishing the feeling of your weight against him. 

[we-keep-odd-hours]

Book recs for anyone else upset that Near Dark is one 1.5 hour long movie with an almost unwatchable last ten minutes.

Below the cut, I've listed each title with an author and synopsis.

Please consider buying from your local independent bookseller. If you're not sure about any near you, or if you would like to support independent booksellers (and therefore authors!) by ordering online instead, you can search your area at https://www.indiebound.org/

I am not affiliated with IndieBound and don't get any money from sharing this link.

See more notes at the end of the list.

I Travel By Night by Robert McCammon. This is technically the sub-genre of "Weird Western" rather than horror; a Civil War soldier turned vampire wanders a strange west. Mysteries, ghosts, etc. Despite being from a major voice in speculative fiction, this is only available in digital.

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones. A First Nations vampire revenge story. If you don't know the historical event it was based off of, I'd suggest going in blind but following up your read with non-fiction: this one is heavy.

In the Valley of the Sun by Andy Davidson. Pitch-black neo-noir Texas vampire novel. Takes place almost exactly in the same locales as Near Dark, only set a few years earlier. A killer is turned into a vampire, and hides out on property belonging to a young widow and her son. Gnarly and mean, the prose is rich without being flowery.

The Coffin Moon by Keith Rosson. RELEASE DATE: 9/9/25. Family tragedy, vampires, serial killers, and western vengeance set against a backdrop of the PNW and the Badlands in the 1970s.

Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite. Rice is the biggest name in late 20th century vampire literature, but Brite is right behind (note: he has gone by Billy Martin since the 00's, however still prefers the books to be under this name). These guys make the Lost Boys look like The Little Vampire. A punk and shock-goth classic, this southern gothic road trip is well worth the read.

Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones. Yes, he's on here twice. A young boy travels from town to town with his aunt and uncle; they are werewolves, some of the last of their kind, trying to keep themselves safe and sane by any means necessary.

Blood Like Mine by Stuart Neville. A single mother on the run with her teenage daughter becomes a serial murder suspect as she tries to dodge cops, FBI agents, creeps, and keep her strange daughter fed. The word ''vampire'' is never mentioned, but if you're into vampires to be reading this list, this is not a spoiler.

You're Always Welcome at the Bloodridge Motel by J. Hunter Richardson. A small motel off of the highway plays host over decades to a strange family comprised of people who look like they're from different eras, don't seem to age.

The Bloody Red Barron by Kim Newman. This is #2 in the "Anno Dracula" series, and does heavily rely on knowledge of the first book. An alternate history where Dracula's arrival in England and attempt to take over Europe gets farther than he did in the novel, this one makes the list because Severen actually has a very small cameo on it.

Midwestern Gothic by Scott Thomas. Four midwestern horror novels; there's one specifically that I could see taking place in the same universe as Near Dark.

American Vampire by Scott Snyder. The first volume is told in two timelines: the closing days of the American West that Never Was, and the early days of Hollywood in the 1920s. Skinner Sweet, extremely un-glamorous outlaw, becomes the first American vampire after trying to rob the wrong train. He goes on a killing spree

The Orange Eats Creeps by Grace Krilonovich. Part Outsiders, part Clockwork Orange, and part Near Dark. Teenage ''vampires'' wreak havoc in the Pacific Northwest as they wander in their respective packs. The writing for this is unique and wild and the novel is worth it for that alone.

The Lesser Dead by Chris Buehlman. Another novel where the author went out of his way to make his vampires into monsters, crooks, killers, without the frills and melodrama of the more gothic-leaning stories. Set in NYC in the 1980s.

BONUS NON FICTION: Near Dark by Stacey Abbot. A revisit of the making of, structure, and final story of the film from a pop-culture film and television critic and historian. Part of the BFI Great Films series. Yes, it's more or less a 100 page essay about the film, but if you made it this far in the list, you'd probably enjoy it. The writing wavers between that of a nostalgia review and an actual academic dive into the film.

BONUS NON FICTION: Our Vampires, Ourselves by Nina Auerbach. VITAL reading for vampire fans, tracing the development of the vampire from the early 1800s through Near Dark (a WHOLE academic chapter on the latter!) as a mirror to our own cultural and social turmoils.

Honorable mention to The Morganville Vampires series by the late and great Rachel Caine: she managed to include an evil vampire patriarch, his significantly younger blonde girlfriend, and their leather-clad attack dog/body guard/friend. They're YA novels from the 00s and the writing reflects this, the books didn't age very well, and I'm not sure I'd really suggest them, but damn did she ever pull that off and in the process get an excuse shoved in there to refer to the head vampire as "daddy."

.......if you think I'm reaching on why I'm 99% sure the trio was meant to be the gang from Near Dark, the leader's name was Bishop, and Ms. Caine was a noted Aliens fan--her short story "Broken" actually managed to get a reference in Alien: Romulus.

ADDITIONAL DISCLAIMERS AND DISCLOSURES:

-Why these titles? Because I found a couple of them and realized that there's a hyper-specific genre of vampire novels of (mostly male) authors trying to avoid the cliches of the ''gothic'' vampire novel (at least aesthetically, if we're talking gothic as a mode of literature then nearly all of these are gothic or heavily feature gothic elements).

-I have NOT read all of these, however I DO own them all, so I cannot personally vouch for most of them. Some that I read I loved despite any flaws, others I didn't care for despite them being ''good'' and three I'm still in the middle of. Unless someone specifically asks for books that I have enjoyed, I try not to let personal opinion influence recs.

-These are all adult horror novels, please check trigger warnings first.

[redvelvetwishtree]

I have not been following western media at all for the past couple of days but I want to know how they have reported about the freed Israel hostage who said that she was treated well with her needs met and literally even turned back to shake hands and say Shalom to those who were releasing her. Was this shown and hyped up on TV channels and news websites? Was her release video played everywhere?

I only saw a clip of Sky News (Australia I think) where they started showing her speaking to the media and immediately cut it off when she started speaking positively...

Oh and what about another Israeli who was talking about how it was their own military who had actually attacked its own people?

I always ask and look for news and updates directly from Israel like we get it from Gaza. If you search for the Tel Aviv geotag on Instagram, it's mostly people chilling in Israel or some pro-Palestine accounts. Is there a possibility that Israel stops their own people from speaking up?

I know western media loves to cherry pick things to show to curate the image that Israel and the US wants them to curate but surely they cannot omit these things.

Here's a random post I just found, adding it here for now

[voidsuites]

MULTI BOT RELEASE !!! (1/31/25) ⌢ ✨ .ᐟ

art donaldson ・゜゜・．noid. tennis has given art everything anyone could ever want— a fulfilling career, you and lily, and countless influential titles and wins— and with him getting closer to becoming a household name, art’s more than aware of his luck. he’s beyond grateful. however, fame’s a double-edged sword and it’s getting harder to both play into the paparazzi and their mind-games and also protect his family, so it’s not a surprise that art loses his temper when those lines finally get crossed. (based off “noid” by tyler the creator!)

bruce wayne・゜゜・．billie bossa nova. underneath all the sneaking around hotel rooms and charity galas, both you and bruce long to be understood for more than just your family names and your money. whatever’s going on between the two of you is merely putting a band-aid on another issue, you’re aware, but there’s something about bruce that helps you rationalize the less-than-ideal circumstances. a lot can change in twenty seconds… a lot can happen in the dark. (based off “billie bossa nova” by billie eilish!)

jim hopper ・゜゜・．you’re a fighter. in one moment, all hop had to worry about was you slowly growing more independent and mike wheeler’s insufferable attitude, but now the mind flayer’s set its sights on you and you’ve seemingly lost your powers. setting the mess with the russians beneath starcourt mall aside, hopper’s main priority is making sure you’re safe and away from any more danger. you may be a fighter, but you’re his kid first. (based off “you’re a fighter” by kyle dixon and michael stein!)

joel miller ・゜゜・．western nights. joel knows you’re not supportive of the violent ways he provides for you, but in a post-apocalyptic world morals are put on the back burner while he concerns himself with keeping you both fed, housed, and taken care of. you’re stubborn, he’s stubborn, but you’d never think of taking off and leaving him behind. this time’s no different. (based off “western nights” by ethel cain!)

patrick zweig ・゜゜・．part of your world. mermaids were nothing but a mere children's bedtime story— they weren't real. that’s what patrick’s father had told him since he'd been a boy; that the wondrous creatures he believed in with all his heart were nothing but tall tales meant to put the children of new rochelle to bed with little fight. that’s proven to be false when you rescue him from swimming with the fishes for eternity, and now that he knows your kind is real, patrick just has to learn more. he’ll bring you as many human trinkets for your collection as you’d like if you’d let him be part of your world for a moment. (based off “part of your world” by jodi benson and disney!)

tashi duncan ・゜゜・．bodyguard. wlw. tashi’s always been protective of you since you started seeing each other, but it’s always amusing to see just how worked-up she gets when you’re the center of attention. stanford’s hosting a concert in the park, art and patrick are nowhere to be found, and tashi’s left to keep herself in control lest she “accidentally” scare people off because they’ve looked at you too long. she’ll protect you in the mosh pit, no doubt— but she’s still working on keeping that territorial nature of hers in check. (based off “bodyguard” by beyoncé!)

got a request? go ahead and leave em here :) THANK YOU GUYS SO SO MUCH FOR FOR 10.4K! so excited to get started on my celebration requests— you guys once again are the BEST!!!! i hope all of these are to your liking… but do forgive me if joel is a little too ooc lol i’ve only seen bits of tlou but i tried to capture him right. hehe. i also made a tumblr community for all things voidsuites-oriented 🤭 join yap city if you dare (i’m still figuring out what i’ll post on there but think of it as a communal close friends story on ig haha) anyways i love these characters and i love these songs and i love you all!!!! thank you for making this so much fun for me i’m so grateful <3

[buckysgrace]

Sugar and Spice

Steve Harrington x pregnant!reader

You and Steve try and bake one of your cravings when he burns himself.

"It sounds so good," you whined as you stretched out over him, hand pressed across your stomach to keep the fluttering inside you at bay, "don't you think?" Your gaze snapped towards Steve, whose legs were tangled with yours. He cocked his eyebrows, brown eyes drifting back towards your features and away from the western that was playing.

"Do you know how to make it?" He asked as he continued to dig his fingers into your feet, making you sigh softly at how relaxing it felt. They had swollen up like balloons, now matching the rest of you.

"It's just cake," you reasoned with a little grin, "except we bake it backwards." You told him with a firm nod of your head, sure that was what it consisted of. Your sweet tooth had grown within the last month of your pregnancy, making anything sugary sound incredible to you. Currently, you were desperate for a taste of some pineapple upside down cake.

"What does that mean?" He asked as his features contorted into pleasure. You huffed dramatically, trying to think of how to explain it correctly.

"Like you put the pineapples and cherry at the bottom of the pan," you explained as you used your free hand to speak, "and on top of that you put the cake stuff." You smiled as you settled it all together, watching the way his eyebrows raised as he nodded his head slowly.

"The cake stuff." He repeated as he squeezed at your ankles, releasing as you slowly began to swing your legs off of him. You struggled from a moment, still forgetting how heavy the bump attached to you could be.

"Precisely," you said with a nod of your head, "and don't make fun of my wandering words. That's your fault." You pointed towards him playfully, taking a deep breath as you gripped the back of the couch and the arm rest, slowly beginning to push yourself up.

"M'sorry," he said sweetly, like curling into a soft smile, "so we're having cake for dinner?" He asked as he sat up far faster than you, placing a hand against your back and your waist to push you the rest of the way up.

"Maybe ice cream too," you stated as you gave yourself a second to catch your breath, shaking your head before you wobbled towards the kitchen, "I haven't thought that far ahead yet."

"Sounds delicious," he teased as he followed behind you, his hands brushing against your sides as you began to search for what you needed, "I'll get the pans." He suggested, glancing at you before he stepped forward. You were sure it had to do with the pants being so low to the ground, and how last time you nearly got stuck in a squatting position.

You worked on getting the cans of fruit out of the pantry, proud of yourself for getting that earlier in the week. You used the can opener as Steve spread some shortening across the bottom of the pan. You watched him work as you pressed the can of pineapples up to your lips, taking a large sip.

"At least it's not pepperoncini's this time," he grinned as he turned towards you, making your features turn into a scowl, "even though that was pretty funny."

"It hurt my tummy," you mumbled as you set the pineapples down, watching as he scooped them out and set them neatly across the pan, "or his tummy." You replied a second later as you placed your hand across your tummy, hoping this meant that your baby wouldn't be a picky eater.

You opened the jar of cherries as he continued to spread them out, draining the pineapples a few seconds before he tossed it down. You hadn't suffered much with morning sickness or nausea, but you had been facing severe heartburn this whole time. And you were huge. It only made you slightly nervous to think about how big the baby would be.

"You know the cherries are supposed to go in the pan." He teased as he glanced towards you, holding his hand out as he waited for you to pass them along.

"I'm well aware." You told him as you took another handful, unable to help yourself. This baby had certainly turned you into a pig, but you could blame that on Steve too.

"Can I see them then?" He asked as he wiggled his fingers at you, making you pretend to think before you slowly handed it towards him.

"Oh, alright," you grinned as you stood at his side, wrapping your arm around his waist as you watched the way he dropped a mess of cherries across the pan, "you can use all of them." You admitted as you pressed your lips together, biting back your own laughter.

"At least we know he'll like fruit." He reasoned as he did what you said, dropping the cherries all across the pan. You thought about it for a moment.

"With lots of sugar," you responded as you crinkled your nose up, smiling as you met his amused eyes. You could see the green poking out as the sunlight drifted across his pretty features, "sweet, just like you." You teased as you brushed your finger across the curve of his nose, making him snort as his cheeks grew pink.

"How do we make the cake part?" He asked instead, brushing your compliment off. You shrugged your shoulders as you walked away, knowing that you'd bother him about it later. You thought it was cute that he grew almost bashful at times.

"From the box," you replied as you dragged the yellow cake mix out from the back of the pantry, "Quicker and easier." You reasoned as you nodded your head, watching as he squinted to look at it. You had been bothering him about getting glasses for a while, but he was adamant that he didn't need them.

"Works with me," he responded as he took it from you, reading the instructions as he opened the top of the box, "can you get some eggs?" He asked as you waddled your way back to the fridge.

"How many?" You asked as you popped the door open, pausing to rub at your lower stomach as the fluttering inside of you grew. You were surprised that you weren't bruised from how much you were kicked.

"Two of them." He mumbled from across the way, distracted as he measured the oil out. You slowly bent over to grab the eggs, carefully holding them in your hands as you walked back to him.

He quietly thanked you as he began to mix everything together in a bowl, his free hand reaching forward to set the time on the oven. You stretched out, careful to avoid hitting your bump against the counter as you pulled the brown sugar down.

"What's that for?" He asked as he looked at you, then squinted back at the words on the box as if he had forgotten something. You giggled at how cute he looked, biting own on your bottom lip gently.

"We put it over the fruit," you responded, "I think so anyway." You shrugged as you tried to recall what the syrupy sweetness in the cake was, predicting what it could be.

"Alright," he shrugged his shoulders, leaning over your shoulder to watch you dump it on top, "should we spread it out?" He laughed as he slowly began to do just that.

"Probably." You grinned as you dug your hands in with him, getting sugar all over your hands. He smiled as he pulled away, dragging his large hands across your cheeks as you gaped at him.

"You did not just do that." You froze as you felt the sugar dripping off of your cheeks, eyes wide as you turned towards him in disbelief. He was wearing a cheeky grin, eyes twinkling with amusement.

"I did," he apologized as he leaned forward, sticking his tongue out to lick part of it away, "my bad." He grinned as you gasped once again, shaking your head as you waddled over to the sink.

"That's a very rude way to treat the mother of your baby," you teased as you scrubbed your face and hands clean, glancing back at him as he handed you a towel, "ok, you're forgiven." You added a second later, easily swayed with him.

And it was hard not to be. He was the sweetest, even though your face still felt sticky with sugar. As the timer for the cake ticked down, he fussed over you. Like usual. Before you used to protest, reminding him that you weren't fragile just because you were pregnant. But now you didn't mind, you enjoyed it quite a bit actually. It made you feel special.

"Three more weeks," he added as he placed his head on your lap, allowing you to gently play with his messy strands, "are you excited?" He asked as he turned towards you, leaving you to gently trace the moles on his face.

"I am," you hummed softly as you traced your thumb across his lip, heart hammering at the way he looked at you, "I hope he looks just like you too." You told him truthfully, pressing your thumb against the corner of his lips as his smile grew. He didn't get time to respond before you both jumped, startled by the sound of the timer in the kitchen going off.

"I'll get it," he told you quickly as you tried to get back up again, feeling like you sunk further into the cushions instead as the timer went off, "don't worry about it." He laughed as he kissed the top of your head, making you giggle.

You traced your fingers over your stomach once again as you thought about your words, truly hoping that your little boy would resemble him. At least if he had his eyes, you'd be happy then.

"Shit!" You jumped up this time, eyes widening as you rushed towards the kitchen. You had just enough time to see him accidentally bump his hand against the hot stove racks, face contorted into pain as he quickly tossed the pan onto the top of the oven.

"Oh!" you shouted back, taken aback as he waved his hand back and forth in the air, "cold water! Run water over it." You said quickly as you turned the water towards the cool side, gripping his wrist softly as he placed his hand under the stream.

"Damn it," he sighed as he closed his eyes, shaking his head, "I don't know why I did that." He shook his head, looking frustrated with himself.

"It happens," you cooed softly as you brushed your fingers across his wrist gently, "don't worry about it. Does it hurt?" You asked him softly, feeling like it was a dumb question. It looked like it was painful.

"A little." He mumbled softly, glancing at his hand before he looked back towards you. You pouted your lips out, feeling bad for him.

"I'll get a band-aid and some cream," you said quickly, slowly releasing your grip from his hand but ensuring that he kept it under the water, "don't move." You demanded as you wagged a finger at him again, watching as he nodded his head in agreement.

"I won't." He promised as he glanced back towards you. You waddled your way through the house, stopping at the first bathroom to search for the little first aid kit you had slowly created.

You quickly gathered up the items that you needed, taking a few different sized band-aids with you as you weren't sure just how big his wound would be. You only hoped it wouldn't blister, as that always made it worse in your opinion.

"Here," you hummed gently as you gently patted his hand dry, frowning as you looked at the gash along the side of his palm. It was about half the size of your thumb length wise, but it didn't appear to be too thick, "poor baby." You cooed as you began to dab cream along his wound.

"It was dumb." He replied as he stood close to you, resting his cheek against your head. You inspected his hand for a moment, letting the cream soak into his skin before you bandaged him up.

"Happens to the best of us," you responded, pausing for a second to hold up your hand. There was a little scar along two of your knuckles, one that you showed off proudly, "I grabbed a curling iron the wrong way when I was little. I learned that day."

"Awe," he smiled as he held your hand delicately with his long fingers, squeezing your skin softly before he brought your hand up to your lips, "I bet that hurt." He hummed as he kissed your hand gently, eyes softening as you scoffed playfully.

"It did, lover boy," you teased as you pulled your hand away gently, working on getting him bandaged up, "it didn't look as bad as this though." You admitted, glancing towards him to make sure that you weren't accidentally hurting him. He didn't whine nor complain, nor did his features tense up like it was bothering him.

"Not my worst injury." He said a second later, giving his shoulders a little shrug as you slowly nodded along. You'd seen many of his marks and had spent much more time kissing them. They were apart of him, lovely.

"I guess so," you smiled as you gently kissed the bandage, not wanting to hurt him, "thank you for making me cake." You praised him as you brushed your cheek against the healed part of his hand, making his grin grow on his lips.

"You're welcome," he replied as he dipped down to kiss your nose, "I'm happy to help."

[brucebocchi]

Spring 2025 anime, Pt. 2: Just the Gems

hey, this post is also available on my ko-fi, so please check it out and consider tipping/donating as this is a labor of love. part 1 is here, and all of my seasonal reviews and end-of-year rankings are on my ko-fi and under my anime reviews tag, mixed in with my occasional musings. thanks!

Man. Good season for anime. I've got a lot to cover (and some new stuff to start watching for the summer season already), so let's not waste any time getting right into:

The Gems

Anne Shirley

Anne of Green Gables is a big deal in Japan. L.M. Montgomery’s seminal 1908 novel was a hugely influential piece of western literature in postwar Japan, even being added to the national school curriculum in the ‘50s. Prince Edward Island remains a popular tourist destination for Japanese fans of the book series and its adaptations. And most relevant to what we’re discussing today, a massively successful anime adaptation in 1979, directed by Isao Takahata and laid out by Hayao Miyazaki, would cause ripples throughout the industry as it became a foundational piece in the founding of Studio Ghibli. It’s Kaguya Shinomiya’s favorite anime! 

Another anime retelling of Anne of Green Gables probably wasn’t necessary, but in the age of animated pastoral escapism, Anne Shirley is welcome all the same. Slated for a two-cour run spanning the first three novels in the series, we’re rushed through the first book in just a fraction of the time the ‘79 anime took. We largely hit the same major beats: Unmarried siblings adopt a child, only to find out it’s a precocious redheaded girl instead of the boy they asked for, but she charms her way into their hearts, makes lifelong friends, and gets into a whole lot of wacky antics on her own whims. It’s fun, it’s heartfelt, it’s Anne of Green Gables. It’s considered a classic over a century later for a good reason.

Anne herself is beyond delightful. She’s an absolute force of personality and earnest to a fault; speaking like a literary heroine but meaning every single overwrought word. She’s bright and expressive, and she feels everything very deeply to the point of stubbornness. She falls in love at the drop of a hat and holds grudges for years. Her youthful misadventures are a blast, even when she gets herself in trouble and acts like it’s the end of the world every single time. Honoka Inoue put in tremendous work making such an iconic character her own.

I can appreciate that in an era where major anime releases can make splashes by aping older animation styles (and I’ll get to a couple of those shortly), Anne Shirley doesn’t let itself linger in Takahata’s shadow and insists on being its own thing. Even as a period piece (with perfect localization to boot; the subtitles are rife with rustic Victorian English) and as a remake of classic literature and anime alike, this show still slots in perfectly as a piece of modern iyashikei. The setting is lush and gorgeous (and as some quick research showed me, plenty faithful to the real-life setting in Cavendish), the color palette vibrant and saturated, and the character animation expressive and often intricate. 

So, uh, I haven’t read Anne of Green Gables nor watched the original series, so I’m in no position to comment on the heavily-abridged retelling of the books, but at no point did I feel like I missed anything. The book series depicts the entirety of Anne’s life beginning at the Cuthberts taking her in, and because the entirety of the first book is adapted into a scant ten episodes, months can pass in the blink of an eye. Watching her grow is immensely satisfying, just as I’m sure it felt for Matthew and Marilla, and watching them grow along with her (ESPECIALLY Marilla) has been my weekly salve every Saturday. The emotional core is extremely strong here.

This series is continuing into the summer season, and if it keeps pace without breezing too hard through the next two books, it has the chops to contend for anime of the year. There’s nothing wrong with returning to the classics, and Anne Shirley lives up to its namesake with similar aplomb.

Apocalypse Hotel

I had next to no interest in this show until I found out that CygamesPictures was animating it. If the studio that gave us Bang Brave Bang Bravern last year and secured the rights to adapting contemporary manga hits like Kagurabachi and The Summer Hikaru Died was investing its parent company’s gacha money into another original anime, I had to see what was up. 

Holy shit.

Over a century after humanity evacuated Earth to escape an airborne virus that threatened to eradicate all primate life, the Gingarou Hotel in Tokyo’s ritzy Ginza district is humming along. Overseeing the hotel’s day-to-day is Yachiyo, a humanoid concierge robot taking over as the acting-acting manager in the stead of the proprietor who fled to space 130 years ago. The massive hotel’s robotic staff has dwindled down to single digits, but Yachiyo is more than up to the task of overseeing the most minute details, from amenities to upkeep to offsite duties, in hopes of greeting the first guest in over a century. And she’s absolutely sure it’s gonna happen. Tomorrow does eventually arrive, though, in the form of a bizarre intergalactic traveler, who opens the door to a new possibility: If humans won’t be patronizing the hotel anytime soon, might as well open it up to the extraterrestrial. A family of tanuki dickheads soon make the Gingarou their (literally) shitty den, and after Yachiyo loses it on a guest for the first time, they make amends by helping make it the best hotel in the galaxy.

As silly as it is from the outset, the first episode of Apocalypse Hotel beat my ass on an emotional level. Watching Yachiyo carry out the same menial routine, day after day, in the hopes of seeing someone that may never arrive filled me with a profound existential sadness. There's a sort of hollow melancholy to it all, struggling to maintain normalcy on an abandoned earth, just going through the motions, and for nothing. It felt like watching a time-lapse of Hachiko waiting at Shibuya Station for an owner that would never return. I was reminded, as I often am, of NieR: Automata; seeing synthetic life carrying on on a ruined Earth in the image of humans that have all but abandoned it. A neverending proxy war is one thing, but seeing Yachiyo remove an untouched tablecloth and re-tuck the sheets on a bed that’s gone unoccupied for over a century just tore my heart out. As the series goes on, she continues to try to actualize the owner’s vision for the Gingarou, countless years after his all-too-certain death, even trying to carry out impossible tasks like singlehandedly building an onsen in an area that may not even have a natural spring. And for what?

There is both joy and melancholy to be found in this, though. What begins as an exercise in futile patience grows over an unknowable timeline into a rumination on the virtues of said patience and the beautiful things that can come from it (namely whiskey). Because the cast is composed of robots and barely-aging intergalactic beings, decades and even centuries can pass in the blink of an eye. Across this span, though, the only constant is change, and amidst an infinite universe and a seemingly infinite (and occasionally inconsistent) timeline, there is no end to what this show can bring; not just a galaxy or two’s worth of undiscovered life, but unexpected kinds of happiness and grief as well. Loss is inevitable, but so is new life, even when humans are long gone. As she gets further outside of her comfort zone beyond what she was programmed to handle, Yachiyo finds herself acting much more human; she can lose her temper, resort to violence, and even experience an existential crisis, as we all do. As it turns out, though, these were all Easter eggs embedded in her programming, and each time she finds herself doing something a service worker frequently does (like drinking the aforementioned whiskey) or wishes they could do (like punching a customer), it unlocks a cute little extra program in her system, like spraying confetti or turning her into a hot babe.

This juxtaposition of the wistful and the absurd makes Apocalypse Hotel one of the most unpredictable shows I’ve ever seen. I was a fool to think Cygames had run out of “are you fucking kidding me” moments after Bravern, because this show threw curveballs at me week in and week out. It’s almost obnoxiously creative, and there’s little I love more than when you can tell that everyone involved went “oh, right, we can do whatever the fuck we want here.” One week could bring a completely left-field action setpiece, a bizarre romantic tease in the next, maybe then a tense cat-and-mouse thriller, and then you’re reminded at the worst possible time that the emotional blows weren’t relegated to the premiere episode. Hell, the ending of the show had me simultaneously laughing and crying, the latter mostly because I was genuinely sad to see it end. 

With a limited permanent cast, Yachiyo and the tanuki daughter Ponko absolutely own this show. As an apology for her family being a pack of shitbirds, Ponko offers to help out Yachiyo in her management duties around the property, and she quickly becomes an indispensable part of the Gingarou and the show itself. For as much of a genki goober as she is, Ponko is there for Yachiyo in her best and worst moments, and Yachiyo is there for Ponko in kind. They bounce off of each other perfectly, and I would gladly watch six more seasons of just those two if that were ever possible. I would have never guessed a friendship between a service gynoid and a Bkub-faced tanuki child would move me as much as it did. Their respective voice actors are on point as well; Saho Shirasu is a revelation as the even-keeled but unpredictable Yachiyo, while Sumire Morohoshi (Emma in The Promised Neverland, Misaki in Maid Sama) perfectly embodies Ponko’s chipper but chaotic temperament. And with the settings, stakes, and subject matter constantly changing, they are always game to adapt to literally any situation.

And on a similar note, this show sounds terrific. Yoshiaki Fujisawa, composer for series like Mushoku Tensei, Land of the Lustrous, and A Place Further Than the Universe put in serious work highlighting the beauty and absurdity of Apocalypse Hotel in equal measure. One recurring track, usually used as the backdrop for exploration of the ruined landscape, called to mind old Pogo tracks from YouTube (remember Pogo?). The OP, Aiko’s “skirt,” is painfully fitting for the show; a beautiful but dissonant solo dance in the dark, for an audience of none, giving way to joy and community. The real masterstroke was a late episode, mostly devoid of context, in which Ponko forces Yachiyo to take a day off (labor laws still apply, after all) and take in the city for herself, in a long, ponderous stretch without a single line of dialogue. This whole show is a feast for the senses.

I haven’t even talked about how fucking great this show looks either! This is a really special one.

I could talk about this show for ages. I went in with no expectations and ended up loving my stay. Apocalypse Hotel is a serious contender for anime of the year, and I really hope more people catch word of it. Five stars.

Kowloon Generic Romance

Nostalgia is a hell of a drug. It’s tempting to want to go back to the time when you were younger, when better things seemed possible, when you were happier. It’s a defining characteristic of our present time, for better and for much, much worse. You can call it escapism, you can call it arrested development, you can call it commodifying something that may have never actually been there, and you’d be right more often than you’d be wrong. If all you have is what you used to have, are you truly living in reality?

Kowloon Generic Romance ruminates on nostalgia in the most effective way possible by evoking a bygone style of anime that oldheads on Twitter continue to gush over. It fully looks like an early 90s production, from its angular, dare I say outdated character models, pastel and gem-tone color palette, and its luscious hand-painted backdrops. Its entire aesthetic, right down to the bubble-era Chinese fashion and the very fact that it’s set in Kowloon Walled City, makes you yearn for the days of that classic handmade quality. If not for the occasional use of CGI or the sudden prevalence of smartphones in its second episode, I might’ve actually been convinced for a minute that it was a 30-plus-year-old show. It’s incredibly on the nose that nostalgia, deja vu, and romance are key themes in this series, because the way this show looks and sounds elicited those exact same feelings in me.

Based on the nearly-completed manga by After the Rain creator Jun Mayuzuki, Kowloon Generic Romance centers around Reiko Kujirai and Hajime Kudo, a pair of Japanese real estate agents working together in Hong Kong’s Kowloon Walled City. Though the city is decrepit and overpopulated, Reiko and Kudo live a cozy, almost idyllic life, eating the same lunches, playing mahjong, and bickering like schoolchildren. While Kudo seems perfectly content with this life, Reiko wants to branch out a bit more: She’s made a new friend who recently moved into the city, she’s trying new restaurants, and above all, she’s fallen hard for the beefy idiot who works right behind her. Those feelings get a lot more complicated, though, when she finds a Polaroid of the two of them together with a written caption celebrating their engagement.

Reality is a tenuous thing in this twisting narrative, and at the center of it is Kowloon itself, which was famously torn down in 1994 and converted into a public park. How is such a relic of its time still standing in the era of smartphones? What past actually lies within its walls, and how is it impacting the present? What–and who–is actually real in here? Who was Reiko before now, and what was her relationship to this city? Kowloon Generic Romance’s story is constantly turning on a dime, its mysteries always multiplying and deepening. A bizarre pharmaceutical company with a strange snake-like man at its helm, the sudden disappearance of a waiter at Kudo’s favorite haunt, and the giant floating tesseract in the sky only complicate matters. What starts out as a romantic period piece seamlessly morphs into a sci-fi thriller where everything is in question.

The very concept of the “self” is examined quite a bit in Kowloon Generic Romance. Reiko is faced constantly with the question of who she is, who she was, and whom she could be; whether it’s at all possible to become her “absolute self,” as is often repeated throughout. Her new bestie Yaomay (voiced pitch-perfectly by Aoi Koga, who put in serious work this season) is the perfect partner for her in all this, as she has a past she would prefer to bury in order to become what she always wanted to be. She changed her name and every last detail of her appearance in order to reach her own self-actualization, and she’s exactly whom Reiko needed to meet: Whereas Reiko sees herself as a walking facade, Yaomay sees the art in artifice and believes herself to be a literally self-made woman. It raises terrific questions about identity; at what point does acting aspirationally become your true self? Does outgrowing your aspirations strip you of your “self?” Can you truly have a “self” if you’re living for someone else, or worse, someone else’s downfall?

Not for nothing, but this show is fucking sexy. It’s not just that the characters themselves are plenty good-looking (and I must note that Yaomay and especially Reiko are two of the most attractive anime women I’ve ever seen in my life; they just don’t make ‘em like that anymore), the way they dress and carry themselves is just mesmerizing. Hell, just the first episode exemplified this: The opening scene is just Reiko smoking on her patio in her pajama shirt, and a later scene of her splayed out, sweating, exhausted from painting a hot room had me fanning myself. The onscreen romances and attempts thereof are magnetic. Mayuzuki just gets it. There’s also a good amount of time dedicated to a frankly-depicted gay relationship, a major character who is intersex, and another with a complicated relationship to gender expression. Sexy AND sexually progressive. Great way to cap off Pride Month.

Kowloon Generic Romance, as a television series, is very propulsive and can move from scene to scene rapidly, in no small part because it is an 11-plus-volume manga crammed into a complete 13-episode season. The story is told from beginning to what we can only assume is its canon ending, as Mayuzuki is likely still several months away from finishing the manga as of the anime’s finale. I read as much of the manga as has been translated into English after the halfway point of the season, and while the pacing is far more brisk in the anime, I’m happy to report that very little is actually lost in translation to the screen. Kowloon Generic Romance’s manga moves at a leisurely, almost sleepy pace, and while the anime doesn’t have quite as much time to luxuriate in its established vibes, they’re still very much there. Some scenes and flashbacks are told in different order, we see less of Reiko’s friend Xiaohei seemingly working every odd job around the city, and some of Kudo’s hobbies like mahjong and patronizing a porno theater are either downplayed or cut out entirely (the scene I used as a header took place in said theater in the manga, for instance). For efficiency’s sake, I can’t say I mind too much. I struggle to think of how we could’ve gotten a better adaptation than this.

I’m stuck between this and Apocalypse Hotel as the anime of the season, but I’m leaning towards this one ever so slightly. And at the halfway point of 2025, I’m comfortable calling Kowloon Generic Romance the anime of the year so far. The summer season is insanely stacked, so it could quickly and easily be dethroned, but my memories of this show will always be fond ones.

mono

I knew nothing about this one going in other than that it was an adaptation of another manga by Yuru Camp creator Afro. What I didn’t expect was just how much Yuru Camp is still in this: Though plenty of the hit series’ DNA is evident in mono, I wasn’t expecting to see its fingerprints all over it as well. If you’ve been dying for more Yuru Camp since the end of season 3 a year ago, you can do a hell of a lot worse than this.

mono follows Satsuki, an amateur photographer who mostly just joined her high school’s photography club to take pictures of her senpai, and An, who joined the same club just to take pictures of Satsuki taking pictures of their senpai. When said senpai graduates, though, Satsuki is left in a bit of a rut. An suggests they carry on her legacy, and they agree to get cameras of their own: Satsuki gets a 360-degree camera for landscapes, and An orders an action cam off of eBay, which… never shows up. The girls manage to track down the seller, whose address turns out to be a dagashiya housing Haruno, a mangaka, whose editor is asking her to write a new manga about high school girls (and also a free-roaming cat named Taishou, who rules). Seeing a perfect opportunity, she offers to help the girls out with their club in exchange for letting her base the series on their escapades. In order to stave off being folded due to a lack of membership, the photography club merges with the similarly tiny cinema club, helmed by the sleepy-eyed, enigmatic Sakurako, and the Cinephoto Club is born.

It’s pretty easy to write mono off as a little too meta and self-referential for its own good, especially as far as Haruno is concerned, but Afro’s work is so characteristically charming that I didn’t really mind. It’s much more of an outright comedy than Yuru Camp; it exhibits the snappy timing of a gag series from the outset, but it soon falls into a more familiar iyashikei rhythm once Haruno-sensei starts chauffeuring the girls around Yamanashi (seriously, whatever their tourism board is paying Afro, they’re getting their money’s worth). Yuru Camp’s shadow looms large over this series, but its success is so intrinsic to what mono is that I can’t help but do the Leo point when we see the odd Rin Shima cameo or pinecone saying “konnichiwa.” It also has just enough in common with other iyashikei-flecked slice-of-life series like Dagashi Kashi and Insomniacs After School that it feels like its own thing; Afro likes diving into the little things they cover, so we get to learn bits and pieces about photography, architecture, local history, and even booze. It’s like going on an educational trip every Saturday.

While they’re no OutClub, mono’s cast definitely carries the show. Sakurako is a likable enough protagonist, but the rest of the club really shines here. An, voiced by Aoi Koga (at this point one of my favorite VAs), is delightfully genki and far too silly for her own good, and the mush-mouthed Sakurako, voiced by Hikaru Tono (Anna in last year’s Makeine), is full of surprises, whether it’s a bottomless stomach or seriously impressive bug impressions. Haruno (the always wonderful Reina Ueda) and her gal pal videographer Kako are a great time as well, and much like in Yuru Camp, it’s fun watching different permutations of these ladies get together and trek for local eats. But we all know Taishou is the real protagonist here.

This is the debut production from studio Soigne, and they absolutely crushed it. Though the studio had no hand in Yuru Camp, they did a bang-up job of imitating a lot of the same look and feel while still setting mono apart as its own thing. Hell, one look at Satsuki and An’s triangular brows and you immediately know it’s an Afro production. It’s definitely riding on Yuru Camp’s cache a bit in some places, especially the OP, but the animation style is much looser overall, especially in the episode where Haruno gets shitfaced at a wine tasting (with an obligatory Toba-sensei cameo to boot). The studio also has plenty of fun playing around with stylistic switch-ups, from an Initial D-esque downhill race to occasional forays into horror thanks to one of Haruno’s mangaka buddies. If anything, mono feels like Yuru Camp without the guardrails, and it’s been a blast to see what direction it might take next.

Watching Yuru Camp isn’t a prerequisite to your enjoyment of mono, but it certainly helps, and if you’re already a fan, it’s a lovely companion piece with a ton of Easter eggs for your enjoyment. On its own, it’s a plenty enjoyable iyashikei slice-of-life and an easy recommendation for a cozy weekend. I want some shaved ice now.

A Ninja and an Assassin Under One Roof

Here’s a curious production by Shaft: The same studio known for high-value anime productions like Madoka Magica, Nisekoi, and the Monogatari franchise took up the mantle for this oddball yuri dark comedy about, well, [gestures at the title]. You’d probably never know it if you didn’t look it up for yourself, but some fun wrinkles are thrown into this happy gay murderfest as the blood flies and the bodies fall.

NinKoro, which I’ll be calling it for short from here on out, follows the misadventures of Satoko, a doofy kunoichi who managed to escape from her ninja village to the city, and Konoha, a high-school-aged assassin-for-hire who saves her from a ninja pursuer. Satoko thanks her by cleaning up the crime scene using her unique ninjutsu that can turn any object into a pile of leaves, and Konoha sees an opportunity for partnership. In exchange for taking Satoko in, Konoha enlists her help cleaning up her murder scenes for a cut of her earnings as she climbs the assassin rankings. Satoko also cooks. And cleans. And shops. And sleeps in the kitchen. But she’s such a happy-go-lucky dingdong that she doesn’t seem to mind, even as she puts everyone in their orbit in certain danger as more ninjas track her down, but Konoha’s always there to put them down. See, it’s a symbiotic relationship!

The character growth in this was the part that really compounded my increasing enjoyment as the show went on, because not for nothing, Konoha straight up SUCKS for like the first half of this show. She largely ignores the eager-to-please Satoko and just sits around on her bed staring at her phone all day when they’re not working (unfortunately, same). She understandably has her walls up as an assassin, but sometimes I just feel bad for Satoko, even as it’s played for jokes. There’s an early tease of vulnerability in the terrific episode where she gets along better with a robot stand-in for Satoko than she ever had with the genuine article, which feels even crueler when the real one comes back, but patience is plenty rewarded in the back half of the season. We get some good old-fashioned Yuri Yearning as the show goes on, too. I’m particularly impressed with the fact that although this is nominally a gag series, NinKoro is surprisingly committed to its own progression and isn’t afraid to build on itself, with even minor joke details coming into play in unexpected ways later on. This is a much smarter show than it lets on.

The cast, and more specifically the casting, carry NinKoro a long way. Haruna Mikawa (Satsuki in the aforementioned mono and Sung Jinah in Solo Leveling) is an absolute blast as both Satoko and her robot analogue Roboko, and the living legend Kana Hanazawa, who also performs the OP, nails Konoha’s cold, sardonic demeanor. The will-they-won’t-they between them is largely played for laughs for a while, but their chemistry genuinely builds as the series goes on. The pair’s rival-turned friend, the mad inventor assassin Marin (perfectly voiced by I’m in Love With the Villainess’ Yu Serizawa), is a blast every single time she’s on screen, if for no other reason than the fact that she continues to put up with Satoko despite being completely fed up with her shit. Satoko’s butch ex-ninja friend and her girlfriend are also great and usually willing to help, even though they’re constantly being put in harm’s way because Satoko's opsec is dogshit.

As enjoyable as NinKoro largely is, I did occasionally find it at odds with itself. Though its sense of humor is plenty dark, and I do enjoy dark humor, its subject matter seems needlessly cruel sometimes. On occasion it’ll bookend an episode with a flashback to the newly-dead ninjas planning out their futures together or lingering shots of their now-empty homes. I can appreciate that the series reminds us that Konoha’s wacky, silly executions do indeed have a human cost, but for a while it seems like it’s just taunting us for laughing, and to what end, I’m still not entirely sure. It never seems to go anywhere except for occasional scenes in an afterlife where all of the slaughtered ninjas get to see each other again, and though it does partially give us a (very silly) plot point, I really don’t know what the point of those early “hey these people are DEAD” scenes were other than to make the viewer feel bad. There’s such a gulf between the comedy and the darker elements that it inflicts some serious tonal whiplash.

What really compounds my bafflement with this being a Shaft production is that Madoka director Yukihiro Miyamoto was also tapped to direct this. While the whip-fast gag pacing is tremendous in NinKoro, it doesn’t feel like anything particularly special about 80% of the time; it comes across like a pretty straightforward, decently-animated slice of life. That remaining 20% is where it shines, with wildly well-animated sequences of new ninja introductions right before Konoha swiftly and mercilessly cuts down yet another one. Satoko’s introduction at the start of the show is brilliant; it looks like it was perfectly ripped from an 80s animation. There are also some very intricately-animated shots of girls’ hands touching and caressing each other. I mean, obviously, this is a yuri series. Don’t think I didn’t notice.

I was mixed on NinKoro for a while, but it really found its footing eventually and became a genuinely enjoyable watch. It’s likely that this show is done after just one season, which is the sad truth for most yuri series out there. It’s a shame, but I ended up surprisingly satisfied with what we got. As gay dark comedies go, you can do a lot worse.

Rock is a Lady’s Modesty

Yuri bait is a time-honored tradition in girls’-band anime. You get a bunch of young women together in one place in a pressure-cooker environment like making music and you’re bound to see a lot of emotions flying and hormones pumping. There are so many lingering looks and fawning comments to pore over, so many definitely-not-romantic confessions to debate endlessly, and so many lyrics to decode through a lesbian codex. It’s an art, just as much as the series themselves and the music that comes from them, to pick up and devour any possible crumbs of girls’ love within these fictional bands.

Rock is a Lady’s Modesty, meanwhile, does away with all that coward shit and gets mega gay with it.

Lilisa Suzunomiya’s mother married into an extremely rich family, which granted her access to a similarly prestigious all-girls’ private high school. Though she comes from a more modest upbringing, she’s fitting in pretty darn well! She is the absolute picture of ladyhood, carrying herself elegantly and performing well in class, and most importantly, the other girls adore her. Lilisa is sure to mind her P’s and Q’s at all times so she can attain the school’s top honor of Noble Maiden, proving she’s the paragon of ladyhood, and beat all these rich bitches at their own game by showing that she and her mother belong in high society. 

Problem is, acting prim and proper like this has Lilisa feeling a little pent up: Her father, who is no longer in the picture, taught her how to play guitar, and she’s gone without that outlet for some time now. One day, she stumbles upon the school’s old building, and in its music room she stumbles across a classmate, the beautiful Otoha, going apeshit on a double kick drum. Otoha immediately sees through Lilisa’s facade and encourages her to grab a guitar and play with her, only to completely overpower Lilisa’s playing with her loud, propulsive drumming. Lilisa gets frustrated, but she relishes a challenge, so she starts shredding to keep up, and Otoha responds in kind. By the time they’re done, they’re both so sweaty and adrenaline-high that they can only start screaming at each other, hurling vulgar abuse back and forth until they’re both satisfied. And so begins a beautiful friendship.

Lilisa’s caught between two worlds, and she’s able to channel her frustrations through music. There’s plenty to be said in Rock Lady about finding your identity through music, and the class struggle she’s found herself in plays a massive role. Spite is one hell of a motivator, especially when it comes to making music, and when rocking the fuck out isn’t enough, sometimes you gotta just scream at someone like a delinquent. The two bandmates they gain, school “prince” Tina and icy ronin guitarist Tamaki, are dealing with struggles of their own, and need a lot of time and practice before they feel comfortable with their roles in the band. They have their own issues to sort through, but dedicating their time to the music, finding their own niches, and just feeling it out go a long way towards their self-actualization.

Though I haven’t seen it explicitly tagged as such just about anywhere, Rock is a Lady’s Modesty is 100% a girls’ love series, arguably more so than NinKoro. The dialogue between Lilisa and Otoha is Bravern-esque in its excessive innuendo to the point where both entendres might as well be the same thing, and the musical interplay between them is straight up depicted as TV-safe BDSM at times when they’re at odds. And this show is SO fucking sweaty. Even putting the sexually-charged language (and occasional imagery) aside, it’s kind of impossible not to look at Rock Lady through a queer lens; the girls’ relationships to each other, their music, and their social obligations can be read as pretty clear allegories just beneath the surface. So many of their character arcs are about living as one’s true self, bucking conformity, and defying traditional expectations of being ladylike in order to do what they love. The band’s commitment to performing fully-instrumental music when everyone else, bands and audiences alike, put vocals on a pedestal, can be read as an obvious metaphor as well. Everyone’s internal conflict is about repressing the irrepressible for the sake of fitting in, to the point where you can replace “rock” with “WLW” in like half the dialogue and you’ll basically get the same meaning. I mean, come on, Lilisa’s stage name is Lily, which is, of course, English for “yuri.” And this yuri, too, is rock.

The music, it should go without saying, fucking rips. I was already made an all-too-late fan of BAND-MAID by the OP to last season’s excellent Zenshu, but the band is inextricable from what makes Rock Lady a hit: Not only did they crank out another screamer for this show’s terrific opening, but they contributed both the music and the motion capture for the girls’ performances. The terrific ED, by pop vocal group Little Glee Monster, probably would make me roll my eyes if an English analogue played at the grocery store, but it works really well here. The actual diegetic music dies out a bit in the middle episodes of the show (and frankly the plot sags along with it), but that drought is ended as the band gets together in earnest and the story ramps up towards its explosive, dare I say climactic, finale. I did think it was funny that the western bands Lilisa cited as her influences were Led Zeppelin, Linkin Park, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers (yeah, me too, when I was 12) when the actual music sounds nothing like any them, but that’s just me being a snob. What counts is what we got, and I’m sure the mangaka is plenty happy.

The CG motion capture for the girls’ performances is… fine. It’s kind of like in Medalist where it’s cordoned off just enough from the rest of the show that it registers as its own thing, but also like in Medalist, it’s just good enough that I’d have been happy if the whole show looked like that, or like a cel-shaded Girls Band Cry. The regular animation is plenty great and rife with visual gags and metaphors that really play up the GL “sub”text, but the real treat is when Lilisa and Otoha get whipped up in their post-music fervor and their character models turn all snarly and sketchy, like they got plucked out of a Trigger animation. If the whole show looked like that it might be closer to perfect, but the switch-up is so much fun I found myself looking forward to it just as much as the music that always precedes it.

While the band’s growing pains in the middle of the season dragged the narrative down for a couple episodes, I’d still say Rock Lady is a winner and one of the better anime I’ve seen so far this year. Rocking out with your cock out isn’t limited to sex nor gender, and these ladies have fully whipped ‘em out. Get your lighters and middle fingers up.

Witch Watch

This is a series I constantly see on the Manga+ app and had heard next to nothing about, but I was interested when the anime was announced. An enthusiastic recommendation from a friend put it on my must-watch list, and it’s been a pleasant surprise all season. A funny, cute slice-of-life is like catnip for me, so I’d happily pass that recommendation along.

Nico Wakatsuki, a high-school-aged witch, moves back to her hometown to reunite with her childhood friend, Morihito Otogi, an oni, in order to take him on as a familiar and a bodyguard. Morihito (whom Nico very cutely calls Moi-chan, because his name was hard for her to pronounce as a kid) takes her into his home right as his dad conveniently leaves for an indefinitely-long work trip, which makes things very interesting because Nico is secretly head-over-heels in love with him. Along with her other familiar, the Kansai tengu Kanshi, Moi is determined to prevent a prophecy delivered to him in secret by Nico’s mother to ensure disaster doesn’t come her way. Hilarity ensues, and perhaps romance as well.

A gag series surrounding a dim, clumsy witch-in-training is an endless fount of comedy, and it helps that the cast surrounding her is just as charming. Morihito makes a great tsukkomi to the constant insanity surrounding him, but it’s just as entertaining when he drops the act to reveal that in plenty of ways he’s just as much of a goober as his friends are. Kanshi is a total riot, never taking just about anything seriously, and the chaotic energy between him and Nico is irresistable. Keigo’s kind of a drip, but he’s been a rewarding character to get to know. I’m hoping for more of Nico’s friends in class, Kara and Kukumi, if only because they’re voiced by Rie Takahashi and Konomi Kohara, and their closet-otaku homeroom teacher is dropping HxH and Demon Slayer references left and right. I could keep going.

And although this is a gag series at its core, Witch Watch does have some serious heart. The central romance plot, slow-burning though it is, is just compelling enough to string me along, even if this ends up being on some Nozaki-kun shit and going nowhere forever. Nico and Moi are cute as hell together, and I love that despite him being an outwardly serious, stoic guy, Morihito very clearly cares a lot about Nico. I’m rooting for those crazy kids. It’s also sweet seeing Nico employ her magic powers to help people with very real problems, and her willingness to genuinely help improve their lives makes her an easy protagonist to root for, even if she’s equally prone to causing disasters.

Bibury has done a fine job with this show. It looks solid just about all of the time, but the production’s strength is in how well it matches the manic pacing of adapting a gag manga (I like to think 100 Girlfriends’ success is what got the studio the rights to this one). The manzai pacing of the dialogue is great, and the production team is always game to go in different directions for the sake of a joke, like Kanshi stuck operating at 10x speed or Nico helping a lovelorn classmate who looks and acts like he came from an English textbook. I can see why the source material has been running for over 200 chapters, and like with 100 Girlfriends, I can just as easily see the studio being in this for the long haul.

I gotta speak my truth here: This show has one of the best OPs I’ve ever seen. YOASOBI’s “Watch Me!” is an earworm, to be sure, but even above that, it looks fucking stellar. The muted linework, soft color palette, and freakishly fluid movement reminded me immediately of recent One Piece OPs as well as Fan Letter, and wouldn’t you know it, it was directed by the very same Megumi Ishitani that was behind exactly those. It’s mesmerizing to look at. Even if I wasn’t already enjoying the show, I’d have kept up with it week in and week out just to catch the OP every time. There was even a surprise flex in just the third episode that was presented as Nico accidentally breaking the whole thing down to its key animations, which not only still looks insane but is apparently also hiding some Easter eggs from the mangaka's previous work, Sket Dance. I have no hesitation in saying that “Watch Me!” belongs in the same conversation as contemporary instant-classic OPs like “99.9,” “Daddy! Daddy! Do!,” and “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born.” YOASOBI can’t keep getting away with it.

I was surprised to learn that Witch Watch is continuing into the summer season, and although I suddenly have a ton on my plate with nearly a dozen prominent anime continuing and coming back in July, this show’s going to continue to be a great palate cleanser. I’m not totally enchanted yet, but I’m looking forward to seeing it continue to work its magic.

[bethanythebogwitch]

Wet Beast Wednesday: bearded fireworm

Welcome to another wriggly, writhing, worm Wednesday. Today's crawling critter is a common sight in Atlantic coral reefs, where its ecological role is a matter of debate. There's still a lot we don't know about the bearded fireworm, but we know enough to say that if you see one, don't touch it. Now if you see a bearded firewyrm it means you're in an RPG and you might as well go for it. It probably drops good loot.

(Image: a bearded fireworm on a rock covered in red algae. It is a long, thick, and somewhat flattened worm with brownish body segments divided by green lines. Along its sides are red bristles and gills, as well as tufts of very fine white bristles that almost look like fur. End ID)

The bearded fireworm (Hermodice carunculata) is a polychaete worm, the largest group of segmented worms. Polychaetes are known for the bristles called chaetes that grow on lobes on their body segments called parapodia. Different polychaetes have modified their chaetes to perform different functions, such as paddles for swimming, pseudo-limbs for walking, or defensive structures. When asked what it wanted to use its chaetes for, the bearded fireworm said "yes". They can use their for both crawling and swimming, but have also modified tufts of bristles along the sides of the body that are used for defense. These bristles are very skinny and sharp and filled with neurotoixic venom. When touched, the bristles will break off and embed themselves in the flesh on an attacker, allowing them to continue pumping venom into whatever animal touched the worm. In humans, the venom can cause pain, burning, dizziness, and nausea, but is rarely medically significant. In polychaetes, only the head and rear segments are distinct from the others. The head of a fireworm contains the mouth, simple eyes, and a structure called a caruncle used for smelling. The rear portion contains the anus. Fireworms get to be about 18-25 cm long (8-10 in) and come in a variety of colors, from dull brown to red.

(Image: a bearded fireworm crawling over a rock, seen from the front. Its head is mostly red, but no real distinct features are visible. End ID)

Bearded fireworms are found in tropical seas throughout the Atlantic ocean, from the southern USA to Guyana in the west, Ascension Island in the middle, and the Mediterranean sea and the northern and western coasts of Africa in the east. While most famously coral reef dwellers they can also be found in a wide range of habitats, including rocky, sandy, and muddy bottoms, seagrass beds, driftwood, and harbors. They are typically found within the top 40 m (130 ft) of the ocean and prefer coastal environments. Fireworms are nocturnal primarily-carnivorous omnivores that target cnidarians, particularly coral and anemones. They are also opportunistic scavengers that will target almost any form of dead animal. Fireworms largely target corals for feeding, especially staghorn corals. The worm will climb on a staghorn coral antler and engulf the tip with its pharynx. It then consumes the polyps and tissue of the coral, a process that can take several minutes. After a fireworm finishes feeding, the coral skeleton will be exposed. They supplement their diets with algae and seagrass. Fireworms hide underneath rocks during the day. When threatened, they flare their bristles outward and may attempt to escape by swimming.

(Image: a fireworm feeding on a stalk of coral. It has climbed onto the stalk, which is skinnier than it. The lower body is wrapped round the stalk. Its head is engulfing the tip of the stalk. End ID)

Bearded fireworms can reproduce both sexually and asexually. Sexual reproduction typically occurs 2-5 days after the full moon. Females will swim to the surface of the water or move to a hight point on a rock and signal to males that she is fertile by releasing pheromones and bioluminescing. Males swim up after her, forming a swarm as they try to get as close as possible. The female will release her eggs into the water and males follow up by releasing sperm. These swarms often attract predators looking to eat the worms and filter feeders looking to eat the eggs. Fertilized eggs will hatch into larvae that live amongst the plankton. As they age, they will grow larger and eventually sink to the seafloor. When reproducing asexually, the fireworm will split itself into two or more pieces, they then grow new heads and/or tails and become independent clones of each other. This regenerative ability also helps them survive predation. A worm bitten in half by a predator can regenerate and survive. Fireworms live for up to five years.

(Video: a group of fireworms mating. There are multiple worms of different sized crawling and swimming around each other, forming a tight and shifting cluster on top of a rock. As they crawl together, gametes are released on the form white specks and streams. End ID)

Fireworms have often been seen as threats to coral reef health as the damage they do to corals can negatively impact their health and exposes them to disease and algae competition. They are also known to act as carrier for bacteria that infect corals. These bacteria seem to use the worms as homes for the winter and migrate back to the corals in spring. Overpopulation of fireworms does pose a threat to reef health, but more recent studies indicate that in a healthy reef, the worms are beneficial by increasing competition. It is only when the reef is in poor health that the worms start damaging it. Unfortunately, climate change, pollution, and overfishing of the worm's main predators means that most reefs are in poor health. As the oceans warm, the fireworms are expanding their range forth and south, possibly allowing them to enter ecosystems that aren't adapted to their presence.

(Image: a bioluminescing fireworm. It is glowing green. End ID)

The conservation status of fireworms has not been evaluated, but they appear to be abundant in their range. They are not commercially important to humans aside from their impact on reefs. As mentioned above, the burning sensation their venom causes is painful, but rarely dangerous. Tape can be used to help get the bristles out of your skin if you do touch one. Despite their striking appearance, fireworms are rarely kept in aquariums due to their aggressive nature to other tank inhabitants and the likelihood of getting stung.

(Image: a fireworm raising its head into the water. End ID)

[rebeccathenaturalist]

Today is apparently ANGRY STABBY BIRB DAY.

I was taking a walk on the boardwalk out near Bolstadt in Long Beach, when I came across this western grebe (Aechmophorus occidentalis) stranded on the path ahead of me. It looked alert and uninjured, so chances were just that it couldn't take flight off of the hard surface, but I called Peninsula Wild Care anyway to see if they wanted to bring it in for a checkup.

They quickly coordinated a couple of volunteers to meet me nearby, and I needed to get the grebe out of the way since a lot of people walk their dogs there and not all of them are on leashes. I figured okay, this is a relatively small bird, not as big as the muscovies I've carted around on the farm, and it seems calm, right?

NOPE. As I tried to gently reach for the grebe it turned from a calm, if confused pile of feathers on the decking to Stabby McStabberson, and I very nearly got jabbed and nipped a few times by a long, pointy beak attached to a surprisingly agile and very much NOT happy bird. I ended up having to take my hoodie off and dropping it over the entire grebe, and only when the lights were out could I bundle it up and carry it over to the meeting place.

Since it was pretty energetic, not obviously sick or injured, and its body condition felt decent (at least through the hoodie) I'm hoping it's going to get released soon enough after a checkup and a nice meal of fish. Many waterbirds have a lot of trouble taking off from hard surfaces because their feet are so far back on their bodies--which is great for swimming and water takeoffs, but not so helpful on land. If the bird had stayed stranded there they could have been injured or killed by another animal, or ended up dehydrated.

So let's hear it for Stabby the Angry Grebe, and wish them a good release back into the wild!

[crk-kr-to-en]

I don't know if this is necessarily a translation ask but I was curious if you knew any more of the actual genders of the characters. There's a huge majority of the cookies who use they them or smth else in eng but I've heard a lot of them are mistranlated.

Yeah, the characters have already had an assigned gender before they're released but the Korean text doesn't use any pronouns and heavily infers their gender through voice or the context. An example would be Pure Vanilla who could've been mistaken as a female because his Korean VA is a woman, but the in-game dialogues, he refers to himself as a king confirming his gender is male.

And the cookies who use they/them do have an assigned gender in Korean, which makes the English version headcanons. (I already made a post about that here)

Another is Choco Werehound Brute, with he/she/it pronouns in English, who is also male. (I literally forgot to add the diva of all time.) I've seen that people(Western fans on twt especially)(There's always something wrong with them. It's Twitter.) get offended when other people "dead name" Schwarzwälder because he's "trans", which was never mentioned in the game.(They're heavily projecting and protecting absolutely nothing.) He is also one of the crk characters who are effeminate men. He loves wearing dresses while embracing his masculinity. His name in Korean is Charles which is his REAL name and he hates it when people call him that. The reason why he wanted to be reffered as Choco Cream Wolf Hammerman was because he wanted to sound intimidating and scary. In the episode where he was dresses as a princess, he was simply too deep in the princess act to break character.

This is Charles' Korean description.

새빨간 눈동자, 거친 갈기, 날카로운 이빨! 커다란 망치를 한 손으로 휘둘러가며 쿠키 왕국을 벌벌 떨게 만드는, 이름하여 초코크림 늑대 망치맨! 등장할 때마다 발을 쿵쿵 구르고 자신의 이름을 우렁차게 외치며 화를 내는 바람에, 유난히 가녀린 쿠키들은 반죽색이 하얗게 질려버린다. 지금은 감초맛 쿠키 밑에서 쿠키들을 겁주고 울리고 있지만 진짜 꿈은 케이크 괴물 중에서도 제일 센 악당이 되는 것. 언젠가는 망치맨이라는 이름처럼 오직 망치 하나 들고 세상을 지배하겠다는 꿈을 꾸면서, 오늘도 노을지는 지평선 너머를 아련하게 바라보며 우수에 젖는다. 이것이 악당의 진정한 로망...?! 사실, 귀족 집안에서 곱게 자라 찰스라는 본명을 가지고 있지만 이미지 관리를 위해 최대한 비밀로 하고 있다.

Bright red eyes, rough mane, sharp teeth! The so-called Choco Cream Wolf Hammerman, who swings a huge hammer with one hand and makes the Cookie Kingdom tremble! Every time he appears, he stomps his feet, shouts his name, and becomes angry, so the exceptionally thin cookies turn white in color. Now he scares and cries cookies under Licorice Cookie, but his real dream is to become the strongest villain among the cake monsters. One day, as he dreams of dominating the world with only one hammer, just like the name "Hammerman," he glances dimly over the sunset horizon and is soaked in glory. This is the villain's true romance...? In fact, he grows up in an aristocratic family and has his real name, Charles, but he keeps it as secret as possible to maintain his image.

I've already seen people (twt ppl again) use the excuse that "Cookies don't have gender," which is wrong because Korean text just doesn't use pronouns for them, but that doesn't stop you from headcanoning them in any way you want them characters to be.

[unintentionalseductress]

Ok another small vent...

I'm lowkey a little sad that the Asian countries all got the 'gege' version of Caleb's myth and we had to get a more watered down version of him, and I get it, I'm aware of the whole "older brother" controversy etc etc...

BUT

Let me speak my piece. Because I read this whole post on Reddit about how the version of Caleb's myth released in China, the entire myth revolves around Caleb being referred to specifically as gege and it made me feel a little bittersweet and his myth became more impactful when looking at it from that perspective.

So, in that version (paraphrasing from the post), when Caleb is trying to explain why he's doing all these things to make her happy, he actually says, "because I'm your gege." He chose this term for himself because in that culture, the term transcends familial definition. It's literally an older male who's been privy to your life for so long that there's almost a sense of duty to looking after this younger person's well-being.

He's implying that even though they're not related, they have common roots so him loving her is so ingrained into him that there's no way he can express it beyond that term. He's her caretaker, her shield, her mirror, her shelter. And it hits so much more deeply than the watered down EN version of "I'm your friend."

And when the gege controversy sparked, I admit I didn't really understand it because in my native tongue (also an Asian language), we have a similar term for an older male we're familiar with. We say unna, or ಅಣ್ಣ for those who can read the language. So I didn't immediately see an issue because lots of girls develop crushes on these older boys but still call them unna, myself included, because my mom's friends all had older sons and I grew up calling them that.

My mom was also in a similar situation as MC when she was a kid because her dad's friend, who lived in a more rural part of the country, asked if he was willing to take in his son so that he could get a proper education in the city. He lived under the same roof as my mom, and she called him unna for years before, ultimately, they realized they have feelings for each other. Because growing up under the same roof does not automatically make you relational siblings. Sound familiar?

So to think that the western world needed this massive translational change to avoid MC and Caleb sounding like siblings was a little...saddening.

As usual, my disclaimer is that these are my opinions; if you don't like it, scroll on by, there will be no hate on my blog.

[laviaceae]

your art has spiked my interest haha what’s tower of hanoi and how/where do i play it?

OKAY.

TOWER OF HANOI IS THE BEST GAME YOU ABSOLUTELY, 110% GUARANTEE NO REFUNDS, HAVE NEVER HEARD OF.

LET ME EXPLAIN.

(also known as: i win at all times ever and im glad my tawahano propaganda pays off, HAH!)

----------

Have you ever heard of... END ROLL? Walking On A Star Unknown? Farethere City? These are all relatively niche RPGMaker 2000 games made by a Japanese game creator known as Segawa (せがわ), with END ROLL being the most popular among Western Fans (you might see the main character, Russell, in some fanart with OMORI or Yume Nikki characters for example)!

In fact, for followers of mine who are In Stars and Time fans, END ROLL was credited as one of the inspirations for that game!

TOWER of HANOI is another game made by Segawa, one released in November of 2020, and one of the final games they've made in RPG2K (so they've got an absolute mastery of the engine).

I'll be in part directing this post towards ISAT fans since that makes up the majority of my followerbase on Tumblr, so there may be ISAT spoilers (including Two Hats/Act 6 Secret spoilers) up ahead! There will also be mild TOWER of HANOI spoilers required to explain the game's premise. Proceed at your own risk.

Section One: So, what is TOWER of HANOI all about?

TOWER of HANOI is a narrative-driven RPG with multiple endings (2 'true endings', 3 'bad endings') set in a futuristic, post-post-World-War-Five society. The game mostly takes place within the TOWER, a hyper-realistic virtual reality simulation currently undergoing playtests that was built to be able to rehabilitate HANOI (androids that look and sound and feel emotions like humans do) who have dangerous levels of mental instability.

The stability of a HANOI is measured through their Stress Level, a numerical representation of that HANOI's mental state. HANOI are generally considered by society to be more of technology or property than people (like your computer or your phone would be), and as such have no rights and are often mistreated by humans. More than 50% of HANOI hate their human employers.

In order to combat the dangerous upward trend of HANOI Stress Levels (caused by their mistreatment), the TOWER was created. In it, HANOI are expected to fight and defeat virtual enemies that approximate humans in order to destress through violence. Upon a successful completion, HANOI are to be returned to their human employers.

Because the TOWER is currently undergoing testing, groups of HANOI are accompanied through the TOWER by a human "Inspector" who is expected to report any bugs or issues they encounter during their playtest.

You play as one of those human Inspectors; Inspector No.102, Coral Brown.

(this is my art! you may have seen him in my ISAT au as taking the place of Siffrin).

He's 33 years old, kind, calm, and soft as a marshmallow. He's also a human being who believes in the rights and wellbeing of HANOI, and sympathises with their suffering. As a child, he was raised by a HANOI instead of his parents, which may have contributed to his feelings towards them.

Over the course of the game and as you progress through the TOWER you'll get to meet and intimately know the ten HANOI under Coral's care with Fire Emblem-esque Support events depending on how many times you bring each of them to battle. These can be between Coral and the HANOI, or the HANOI between eachother. (There are more than 100 of these such events to collect in total!)

TOWER of HANOI's characters are both charming and tragic. They each have incredibly well-realised personalities, backstories, and relationships both with the Inspector taking care of them and eachother. It's easy to imagine day-to-day interactions in Headquarters (your hub area) between them all.

You have Adams, a HANOI built for missionary work and who's Stress Level is the lowest out of all ten (and actually below the 'dangerous' stress threshold)! He's silly and mischevious and adores spicy food. Despite this, he's here at the TOWER because he doesn't believe in God, despite that being an important part of his 'role' in the world. When did he stop believing in God, and why? What is his relationship with the people at the Church that took care of him?

Or Mira, a Childcare HANOI that reminds Coral of the HANOI that looked after him as a child. She loves children, but has to constantly grapple with the fact that she can't have any and that any children she takes care of will eventually, inevitably leave her. How will she and Coral resolve the fact that they both remind eachother of someone they knew in the past? How will she interact with the other HANOI?

There's also Nanashi, a cheaply-made HANOI for miscellaneous chores who's trust and care for humanity has been completely shattered due to his ties with the mafia. He wasn't even important enough to be given a name until Coral gives him one upon their first meeting in the TOWER. He hates humans, hates Coral, and refuses to trust him, instead convincing himself that Coral is merely faking his kindness to get him to let his guard down just to use him like all humans he's ever known have done. Will Coral eventually be given Nanashi's trust? What will he do once he leaves the TOWER, and has to be sent back to the mafia where he came from?

Finally there's Kimon Noroi, a HANOI who resembles a child that fulfils a very special purpose. Noroi is what's known as a Yorimashi (憑坐), and uses her body to allow spirits to occupy it and commune with the living. She's seen how terrible humans can be because of the spirits she's seen and can come across as a bit standoffish (though she's really just as much of a menace as Adams is), and definitely, definitely, definitely doesn't miss the Priest at the shrine she lived in before coming to the TOWER at all! How will she interact with Adams, both having people they miss back at home? How will she interact with Mira, who's like a mother figure to her in this place?

As you progress, you can find the answers to all of these questions, as well as the identities of the six other HANOI I've not even mentioned here- all as well-written and interesting as these four.

However, the HANOI aren't the only faction in the game to worry about.

The very NPCs and enemies you'll be fighting along the way are coming to life, gaining sentience, and realising they want something more in their existence than eternally repeating dialogue chains and fetch quests and death in battle.

The head of this 'rebellion' of 0s and 1s, a computer virus named Shunya, acts as the main antagonist for the majority of the game, but even she isn't... 'evil'. She has her own found family, a group of bugged enemies she's befriended along her journey, all of whom want her to realise her dream of "melting" down the TOWER and returning all of the 0s and 1s inside to their base state of not thinking, not feeling, and not being in eternal pain.

Should you fight these people, if their emotions really are real, and defeat them without caring about their plight? Is it right to, to disregard the thoughts and feelings of 0s and 1s for the sake of the wellbeing of the HANOI Coral's grown so attached to? Should you follow the 'role' you've been given, or disregard it and create your own?

TOWER of HANOI excellently tackles the dichotomy of themes between 'roles' in societies and the 'dreams' people have, and nowhere is this more apparent than Coral Brown himself. Throughout the game, there will be multiple events and opportunities in order to control Coral's own Stress Level, and how he feels towards both the side of HANOI and the side of 0s and 1s he's stuck between. Lower his stress and he'll side with the HANOI and enjoy his job, and at higher stresses he'll begin to hate it, being unable to eat or sleep as he starts feeling awful for the 0s and 1s he spends his time killing in the TOWER....

These branch into the two main 'True Routes' of the game, depending on your Stress Level... but I shall leave the specific nature of those to discover in your own playthroughs. :)

If you've enjoyed ISAT, there's a good chance you'll enjoy TOWER of HANOI. Not only is one of the creator's previous games an inspiration for ISAT, they share a lot of similarities in their characters. Coral and Siffrin are very similar as protagonists, and as for others...

(Loop artwork credit to Insertdisc5 from In Stars and Time)

I could write a whole essay on how these two are so painfully similar and would kill eachother on sight. Maybe I will one day. Who knows. Me when I have a guide character lacking half of a face that has Fucking Issues TM stemming from intense jealousy and shares some visual similarity with our main character. Just look at them. This is the sole reason for the twohats warning. Just look at them.

Section Two: Wow, that's so cool and awesome Mx Lav! How do I play TOWER of HANOI?

You can check out the official website here, and the official downloads page here! I'd recommend following the instructions on this website to get the game working faster (because RPG2K is a pain in the ass on modern systems).

...

...Oh? It's all in Japanese? ...Well-

Section Three: --WAIT WHY IS IT ALL IN JAPANESE??

Yes, that's TOWER of HANOI's One (Big) Thing. The one thing you have to look past in order to actually play the game; it's all in Japanese, and an English translation will never be made (unless Segawa-san lifts the translation ban).

However, you don't actually need to know Japanese to play the game. I sure don't! And all of the other English-speaking fans I know that have played this game don't either.

There are three main ways to accomplish this, but I'll only discuss two here:

Sugoi Translator or similar translators. Sugoi Translator (or Sugoi Toolkit) is a machine translation tool that automatically grabs and translates the text in game you're looking at. The translations themselves make a good amount of sense, too! It's a little difficult to set up, but once you've calibrated it once you never have to worry about it again. This is definitely easiest if you want to read all of the dialogue in the game, including flavourtext (as yes, all 10 HANOI and Coral have unique flavourtext for every item in the game...), but is only available for free on the 15th and 16th each month and is otherwise only available to download on the creator's Patreon.

Google Lens. The easier, plug-and-translate method of the two. Simply download the Google Lens app and point it at the text on the screen, it'll read and translate it for you. The translations here are a little goofier (and sometimes, depending on your phone camera quality or lighting conditions, can be difficult for the app to pick up), but it's easy to complete a playthrough with just this tool alone.

If you can't get past this game's One Big Thing, I get it. It's a hard game to sell to people precisely for this reason. I'm at least glad you've read this far down into the post to get to this point and have showed interest in the game. And now you now about a game you didn't before, and you also have an itty bitty bit of context for all the non-ISAT stuff I post here. But this game has had me in a chokehold for the past two years and I promise that, if you can get through it, it's extremely worth it.

If you have the time and you're willing to try, please do! I love this game with all my heart and it's such a shame that most Western fans will never have easy access to it. I shill this game with all my heart, for realsies.

Section Four: Trigger/Content Warnings

If you've played a Segawa game before, you knew this section was coming. Segawa-san's games often tackle heavy or dark themes, and TOWER of HANOI isn't an exception. I'll add a list of content warnings here just so you aren't surprised by anything.

Suicide, both on and off screen

Self-harm, on-screen through dialogue

Themes of terminal illness, on screen

Hospitals (on screen, a majority of one of the game's dungeons takes place in one)

Death (on-screen)

Abuse (off-screen, but portrayed through dialogue)

Child harm/death (mentioned)

Kidnapping/Child kidnapping (mentioned)

Horror elements (no chase sequences, one jumpscare through an optional and hard-to-find sidequest)

Sexual Assault/Abuse (Not on-screen but talked about extensively, can avoided if you avoid Melitica/Merrytika's dialogue)

Mishandling of discussions surrounding gender identity (this character's identity is shown generally throughout the game to be a positive/supported thing, but some dialogue and design choices are quite ignorant/transphobic- though not maliciously. This can be avoided if you avoid Kathy/Cameron's dialogue)

There is also a substantial amount of screenshake employed near the end of the game. This list is from memory and limited from the amount of dialogue I've personally seen/translated, so it's probably not fully comprehensive. But it is thorough.

Section Five: Conclusion

oof... You've made it to the end! This took me the better part of a day to write, and I'm glad I finally got to advertise my favourite game on main. I hope... any of this makes sense, and that you enjoy! Even if you decide TOWER of HANOI isn't right for you, you at least know a little more about something you didn't before. Thank you so much for getting to the end, and I wish you the best!

[clustxr]

hi y'all. i know i don't make a lot of original posts here. however, on may 31st, i watched as my friends and peers were brutalized at the hands of cops from departments across california.

edit 6/12/24: students for justice in palestine at uc santa cruz has published a press release. it is easily the best way to understand what happened that night. please take a few minutes to read it.

uc santa cruz police made a statewide call for mutual aid in order to disband the gaza solidarity encampment located at the main entrance of the campus - initially established at the quarry in the center of campus on may 1, it moved to the entrance on may 20 in solidarity with the UAW strike. on tuesday, may 28, protesters barricaded the main entrance, cutting off the primary way of getting on campus; though the western entrance to UCSC was left unblocked (except for a few hours on tuesday), the main entrance remained obstructed until the raid began late on thursday night. this road blockage is what admin cited as the reason for the raid, along with "campus safety" and "academic freedom".

it's important to note that prior to blocking the road, students had been encamped for 28 days, and had been holding peaceful, law-abiding rallies since october. nothing worked. months of following the guidelines that admin had set, and of course student voices were dismissed and ignored by chancellor cynthia larive and cpevc lori kletzer (the latter of whom, by the way, showed up at 6 am "walking her dog" and smiled while watching her students get suffocated and beaten). the escalation would never have happened if student demands had been met at the very beginning.

hundreds of cops in riot gear from as far out as uc davis showed up to abuse students. over 115 arrests were made, including 3 ucsc professors, transported off by buses that were fifteen years past their intended end-of-use date and had also been servicing the campus prior. is this "campus safety"? is this "academic freedom"?

from just before midnight until approximately 9am on friday, cops kettled, suffocated, shoved, yanked, beat, and bruised students. one got a battery charge for writhing and bumping a cop after another slammed him in the head with a baton. another had a bag placed over their head, leading to suffocation, vomiting, and loss of consciousness. at least two protesters were confirmed to go to the ER that morning; many more have had to seek medical attention for lasting injuries.

arrestees were given a 14-day campus ban, including those who live on-campus (functionally evicting them & preventing access to their belongings), not to mention subjected to horrifyingly inhumane conditions:

you can find more information on various instagram accounts such as ucscsjp, ucscdivest, fjpucsc, ucsc_encampment, & jawsucsc. there's plenty of other organizations and people posting about this, too. please, don't let ucsc brush this under the rug. demand amnesty for the arrestees and protesters. contact any ucsc admin you can find. the uc has been utilizing police brutality to repress student voices across their institution, with ucla and uc irvine also being victims of this violence. do not let them get away with it.

free palestine, from the river to the sea. if seeing this violence sickens you, remember that this is not even a fraction of what the people of palestine have been enduring for decades. we will not let the university silence us, no matter what.

[firstkanaphans]

Bet if another company did 17+ BL/GLs they would sing their praises?

but since it is GMMTV thats bad and thats taking advantages of branded pairs and not letting actors improve

meanwhile some of their stagnant pairs got new and interesting plots that will show range from them, and toom them off the uni or let them try characters that are different from who they played before giving new dynamics

but sure the new lineup is bad cuz branded pairs are evil and force actores together and don't let them act

I am all for stirring shit up with the pairs, and maybe let actors try solo roles but they honestly at this point complain just cuz it is GMMTV and they are corporate evil

as if other companies don't do the same side eye

anyway this people are so boring, watch what you want and don't bother us

as we say here non cagarci il cazzo(don't google that)

I think the thing that bothers me most about this whole "The actors are never going to get better if they're only acting with the same people" argument is that this is not a problem specific to GMMTV—or even BLs. This is literally just how the entertainment industry works. How many years did Ellen Pompeo and Patrick Dempsey work together on Grey's Anatomy? What about Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz on Bones? And yet no one has ever accused them of being bad actors because they were hired to work with the same partner over and over again. And Western actors don't even get a chance to change characters! Sometimes for decades. At least Thai artists are able to branch out and play different characters in different settings with different directors every year.

This idea that the people in charge of Thai media don't actually know what they're doing is incredibly racist. Just because they do things differently than you might be used to, doesn't mean it's wrong. And if you don't like it, you certainly aren't obligated to watch.

Would I like more mixing and matching of pairs? Sure. But that's not going to make GMMTV any money and they know this. The actors also know this, which is why they are fighting to stay together. They make more money and get more sponsorships with their partner. Perth Nakhun just released a whole YouTube video about this. If CPs are a deal breaker, Thai BL is probably not for you. And good riddance, honestly. I'm sick and tired of this argument.