#it was sooo interesting! even though i've never watched an anime and never read manga

[moontyuns]

btw have any of you watched one piece on Netflix??? bc i did yesterday and i literally watched it within a day while i was working lmaoo

[lawlietscaramels]

I think you and 🍰 have mentioned it before, but I’d love to hear your thoughts about the way the musical portrays L. The concept album was my introduction to Death Note as well, but I feel like the L in the songs is a much more dramatic take on L? Which, y’know, makes sense, since it’s ✨musical theatre✨ and all. Like, “The Game Begins” is SO fun, but we’d never get a monologue like it from L in the manga or anime. Idk, the musical paints a bit of a different image of L to me. Not a bad one at all, just a different one.

-🎲

holy space cows 🎲 anon okay let's go! again answering this before my other asks because it's more me rambling than an actual story

GOOOOOD musical L when I first watched the musical I wanted to pick him up take him out of the screen and squeeze him like a stress ball. honestly I loved (love?) him maybe even more than anime L dhdhhdh

I'll put a break in here because I think I'm gonna say a lot

like. he did so many things like anime L (I've never read the manga so I see that L as "base" L) but also I feel had his own quirks. like how he hopped onto chairs (Teen Angst L did this too but because it was screen not stage it felt different. I've done stage acting before so maybe it's just me but screen doesn't feel as close, I just loooove stage acting, UGH. This was also why it was more dramatic in some places, you have to act for the whole audience but, I'm assuming you didn't see it live, WAIT have you even watched the recorded version?? It's on YouTube it's sooo good the subtitles are great too, you can sing along to the songs. it's in Japanese tho. Anyway my point was going to be, because you're acting for people really far away, your movements will be big and dramatic and you'll notice this if it's recorded up close).

HIS VOICE WAS SO NICE TOO like damn this is a fine ass man. His songs, I agree looking back at them they aren't all things anime L would say, especially not unprompted. But I don't think that it was so far out of character that it was unbelievable, you know? I actually think that though yes, the Game Begins was dramatic, that was just the song and not the tone of it, if that makes sense. I'd say songs like Playing His Game and (I can't remember the name but the one LawLight duet they sing at the college? not the tennis one. UGH I know the Japanese...) Anyway, I'd say those songs are more ooc. Cause I think L sees all of his cases as a game, his job as a game. Like yes he cares about human life but he also only takes on interesting cases. I've heard this is more like his manga version, which is kinda cool that this "headcanon" of mine is "canon."

AHAHA anyway the point I was actually going to make with that paragraph was: in the final song (a little ooc but in some lines very in character) L holds this one "O" note that makes me go WEAK IN THE KNEES and of course Light is singing over it at the same time, sobs. This is in the Japanese version. I prefer that version overall, but I like some of the English songs too, like Playing His Game and Requiem. So if you haven't listened to it YOU SHOULD!! It's on YouTube music, you can search up english song name + death note musical. A lot of them are by "LyricNear" I think. and you can ofc watch the full musical. but aaaa the final song breaks my heart but I have to listen to that goddamn note... you guys... you don't understand.

Uh, the musical did of course take some creative liberties. There was no Matsuda which I will always bring up because it is a crime, MUSICAL REMISA WAS THE BEST, the limited runtime cut plots and explanations (I kind of appreciated the ending, though I cried because I was hoping it would end differently), and I don't think they had a Watari. Actually thinking about that, that's probably the most ooc L thing in the whole movie: being able to take care of himself. (well presumably to some degree considering he's still alive at the start)

But yeah... I love musical L... I don't mind when he's ooc because it only disrupts soft headcanons of mine, not hard ones. I also haven't watched it for a while so I may be misremembering some things, but still. Gosh I really want to hug him... his clothes look so soft.... maybe I'll just steal his voice box/j

[sleepy-vix]

oooh tysm for tagging me. i think your response was perfect, but i'll add to it just because i want to talk abt bsd :}

sooo hmm a big reason why i love it is that it's very literaturey. on that note, i think @pessimisticgh0st, you'd find it cool

like the main characters are based on japanese dead classical authors- japanese because it is set in japan. but then, they battle the white classical authors like louisa may alcott and fitzgerald in a giant flying ship called MOBY DICK, and then they proceed to fight with a small little cluster of russian authors ( fyodor and nikolai)

it's just so silly and lovable but also it's very insightful and dark with representations of many kinds of trauma and war and war trauma

i've had many people tell me that they didn't really care about the start because it seemed like nothing was happening but i swear when you get attached to the characters (which you surely will be to atleast 25% of the cast because they're just all so well written and -like chronic said- fleshed out) you will love the story

like pleaseee i am begging on my knees please watch it. i'm not gonna really go into what the story gives you because i think chronic already covered the generalities of it very well, but what i WILL say is that kafka asagiri (creator) is a genius and the world of bungou stray dogs is like a second home to me.

if you don't believe that asagiri is a genius, let me tell you a tiny bit about how he connected the characters to their irl authors:

1. the anime version of edgar allan poe is lowkey obsessed with the anime version of ranpo edogawa, which is so ironic and funny because irl ranpo idolizes irl poe. also edogawa ranpo is the japanese pronounciation of edgar allan poe. AHZBDJ i will never get over them

oh yeah quick note: the relationships between the characters are all so beautiful and bittersweet and interesting and every single one of them is so loaded with analysing potential it's *dies*

*restarts back up*oh also- i agree that the anime is a good way to get into it, especially if you're not familiar with watching anime, but if you ARE familiar with watching anime and reading manga then i would say that reading the manga gives you a better understanding of the characters, which makes it easier to analyse them. i would still recommend anime first though.

now back to my asagiri-kafka-is-a-genius list:

2) anime version of osamu dazai and anime version of fyodor dostoyevsky are rivals !?!? isnt that so cool!! even cooler is that in IRL author osamu dazai's book "no longer human" (forgive me, i dont remember if you're read it or not) he briefly mentions fyodor dostoyevsky ! like !?!?!

3) similar to the above point, anime fyodor and anime nikolai are on the same villain team, and in irl fyodor's book "crime and punishment", he briefly mentioned nikolai. like what!?!?! asagiri you are insane.

ok that's all i have to say. sorry if i confused u T-T

i've also watched moriarty the patriot and i also really loved it!

ah also i just read bsd on mangadex.com- there's no ads and it's good with updates :) i havent gotten any viruses at all so far... though there was a commotion abt it stealing ur email years ago so maybe use a spare email? idk.

wait, ghost, (i'm just going to call you that if thats okay bc u dont have a name 😭) do u often watch anime/ read manga?

sorry my reply was messy agsvsjs i did this in a rush. cant wait to see ur response

Hey, I've seen you reblogging various things about bsd and I was wondering if you recommend reading it? If so, I was wondering where I could read the manga (preferably online but if I can't do it there, then that's fine).

Hm. I’m not the best person for this because I watched the anime some time ago and haven’t picked it back up since, so I’m going to tag @sleepy-vix in case she can help you out.

That being said, I’ll still give you my input. This will be long.

I don’t read manga that often, and I haven’t read the BSD manga. So in my opinion, I think you should watch around 2-3 episodes of the anime before deciding on reading the manga, since an anime is normally made to promote the manga. Most people end up catching up with the anime before deciding to read the manga because they feel so connected to the story, but I don’t know how you feel about revisiting the same story twice (albeit in a different way). That’s the way I’d do it too, but since you’re most interested in reading the manga, you could look into my first suggestion of watching a few episodes and see what you want to do from there.

That’s how I would recommend doing it. Would I recommend it at all? Yes? I’m not that connected to the story now, but I loved it back then and I think it’s a story you can get obsessed over. It has a plethora of characters, all of which are fleshed-out and worth rooting for despite what side they are on, so you are guaranteed to find an absolute favourite. The world is immersive and the plot is very interesting.

Now for some of my more negative opinions. This probably shouldn’t mean much as someone who hasn’t read the manga, but from what I’ve seen… the story just keeps dragging on? Fake character death after fake character death, random plots that appear from seemingly nowhere (<- again, haven’t read the manga so I could be wrong about this). It is still worth keeping up with, though, because the characters are just so interesting, and I think that’s why the fan base has stuck to it regardless. I also mentioned this to you some time ago, but I’ve moved away from male centric stories because I’ve gotten so tired of having to imagine myself in male spaces. BSD is one of those medias. It has a handful of well-written female characters, but the sheer volume of male characters overshadows them. And, from what I remember, there’s maybe 2 or 3 interactions between two women in the entire series (this definitely could have changed since then). But all of this comes down to personal taste.

BSD is the dark academia anime. Not because of the plot, but because of the general mood and the character design. This makes it even more enticing. However, if you are looking for something that’s more dark academia adjacent, I’d recommend Moriarty the Patriot. Haven’t read the manga for this one either, but the anime is great and is also seen as a dark academia anime.

This one also has a lack of female characters, but as with BSD, it has a lot to offer. It’s a Sherlock retelling from Moriarty’s perspective, but it makes him an anti-hero instead of a villain. It’s almost a love story between Moriarty and Sherlock, except the bucketloads of flirting and chasing after each other aren’t enough to make it canon. Unbelievably queer without actually being queer (and the same could be said for BSD, but this one also contains a basically canon trans character). It contains great murder mysteries and an overarching plot that captivates you. I also don’t think anyone could get over the anime ending. It’s a story about a detective chasing after a villain, but he ends up befriending said villain but isn’t aware of it (the villain, Moriarty, is). Cat and mouse chase ensues.

I’m recommending it because it’s less of a commitment than BSD, and because you seem like you’re finally getting into anime so I thought I’d very politely push my interests onto you. There’s also many other recommendations I’d love to give but this is getting too long.

To sum this up: I am not a hardcore fan anymore, but yes I would recommend the anime, but I can’t say much about the manga because I haven’t read it (in most cases, the manga ends up being better than the anime).

Here is a website I use to read manga, hasn’t given me any viruses yet. Not the best, given that there are ads every second page, so be warned. It’s hard to find good sites for manga, so this is the best I could do. (Vix? Do you have any sites?). For anime, here is my absolute favourite site because it has almost any anime and doesn’t contain many ads. Here is a backup site, but you should definitely use an adblocker for it.

Okay okay, that’s it. I’m finally done.

[mrskurono]

I feel lile Fire Force isn't as popular as other because 1) there's so many actual adult characters in it, 2) it isn't a highschool setting nor are any of the characters we see actually in school, 3) even though it's fantasy it leans more towards the surreal, Lovecraftian side (like the author's other work Soul Eater), and 4) there's like no romance or very minimal romance that isn't even plot relevent.

I'm also a big Soul Eater fan and I read a lot of fanfics for it and I've noticed that so many good fics get ignored because they feature stuff like the above while the generic romance stuff, especially for the Soul/Maka ship, gets sooo many responses. Like! There's an author who does a lot of Lovecraftian type stuff and another who writes really good AU fics specifically featuring Asura and they're both amazing authors with incredible characterization, awesome settings and descriptions, unique stories, and some insanely creepy ideas and yet! There's not much attention.

Soul Eater itself got moderately popular but it didn't entirely hit that and I feel like it was the lack of a major romance arc and the vague, Lovecraftian lore that had a hand in that. Cause those are often the complaints I hear about the canon material.

As someone whose poured literal months if not years into fics that are huge on lore and intricate storylines that play on each other even 100k words later in one fic. Just for it to get ignored but 500 words about a penis blows up. This is so painfully true.

All the time I've spent watching anime and reading manga all of these are true of any unknown series. And it's so sad bc the authors that I love even now and follow their works decades after they started, never had the big hype that a lot of series get. Be it lack of romance (which sucks bc some of don't like romance genres and avidly avoid them) or being "too involved" for people to follow.

Fire Force is so wonderful bc that mans work is built on so much real world lore and I just salivate for nerdiness that relies on real world themes (be it church related or gods/goddesses or supernatural and so on) And it's such a shame people throw that kinda hard work away from ships or something 😩

As a hole I've never understood the obsession with setting things in high school (even when I was in high school) I always found the older backstories to older characters so much more interesting to act storylines and it sucks 😩 I want a show I can nerd out on and hypothesize on and shit.

[glitchnovax]

okokok sooo a lot of people think Atsushi is annoying and too insecure. At first I didn't like him either,but then I realized overcoming his insecurities(which he kinda still has) is part of his character development and I've come to the conclusion that I love him very much. So I was just curious, what do you think about him?

I am so sorry this is so long, I always get caught up on topics like this-

I hope this answers your question tho :3

Atsushi is one of the only protagonists I have genuinely had respect for and overall actually like the character of, compared to other animes/shows. At first I was the same, just sort of assuming he’d be another do-gooder protagonist the whole “I’m gonna be strong, defeat the true enemy” yada yada, but there actually is truly depths to his character that there isn’t with most other protagonists.

The difference with Atsushi is that he genuinely does not this he deserves to be where he is, he doesn’t even believe that he deserves to life, he thinks he has to earn the right. With other protags they tend to be doubtful at first but then very very quickly switch to the most positive characters ever to the point of their optimism being annoying af.

The reason Atsushi is so interesting to me is that mindset of needing to earn the right to live. Obviously it’s a very unhealthy way of viewing life but it’s what gives him depth as a character. The way he fights not necessarily because “iT’s ThE RiGhT tHiNg tO dO” (although it does factor in) but because he sees it as an opportunity at redemption, a way to validate his life. If you think about it, it’s quite similar to Dazai, they both feel as though they need to redeem themselves and joining the ada was a clean start for them, they both try to not so much bury the past, but put it behind them.

This is where the trauma comes in. In response the idea that he is just a whiny, overly insecure kid who needs to quit complaining and face the world, yes ofc I can see why people think that, he is definitely the most hesitant character in terms of facing his problems, he spends a lot of time trying to escape them or hide from them. Here’s the thing though, he was literally taught to hide from his problems all his life. At the orphanage we never see him stand up the headmaster, only him crying. Why? Because he’s a literal child. All he knows is fear, and escaping the abuse and torment of his previous “family”. He was never taught how to face his problems and while other protags tend to face them head on, he generally spends a lot of time hiding from them and cowering, the tiger is incredible symbolic of this.

Not only this but he’s literally followed around by his past. I said earlier that what he’s trying to do is put it behind him and move on, but he literally can’t do this because he’s haunted by ptsd (which is very visible in dead apple). This is also why he constantly reiterates the fact that he needs to prove his right to live. This boy literally hates himself so much all because that’s all he’s ever known. The headmaster says in a flashback “when you leave this place, hate me. Never hate yourself.” But this backfired on him because now all he can do is hate himself because it’s all he’s ever known.

One of my favourite quotes from Atsushi is in that fight with Akutagawa in season 1 when he says “people need to be told they matter or else they can’t go on” which is so damn iconic. It reflects on Atsushi, it reflects Akutagawa, it reflects on Kyouka (and I’d love to go through all of them but I’ll just stick to Atsushi for this post). That quote explains it all, it immediately states why Atsushi is as insecure as he is - because he’s always been told that he’s worthless and would be better off dead - it explains why he feels the need to earn his right to life - because again, he’s been told no one would miss him if he died (and I can’t stress hi enough:) all his life!! He needs to prove to the headmaster and most of all to himself that he isn’t worthless - and overall it just shows how self aware he is.

Anyone who has struggled with intrusive thoughs, insecurity and just overall self hatred knows that it’s like to have a voice in the back of their head telling them how shitty they are, and it’s awful. The voice in his head is a constant, it’s loud and it’s clearly hurting him. Whenever he’s “annoying and insecure” it’s because that voice is beating him to a pulp and he’s struggling to fight back. His character developement is visible (I mean you can can see the clear difference when he’s with his friends from the ada because he can tell they care about him a lot which is obviously a massive difference to the orphanage) however the developement will take time, if he’s written right, it’ll take more than just friend that care about him to improve his self esteem so to speak, he needs to help himself out of his own darkness. This is very very obviously contrasted to Akutagawa’s character in that Aku has essentially given up on himself, he’s worked so hard and in the end he’s given up on finding a way out. That is until Atsushi came along. Atsushi is different because he is clearly working towards getting out of that darkness, and he is succeeding. As we know, Aku’s jealousy stems from Dazai’s appreciation of Atsushi, but I would also argue that it’s from seeing how much Atsushi is improving and actually having a warped view of that.

I know this is slightly off topic but just let me explain: when Aku talks to Kyouka in the canibalism arc, he says that she’s lucky to have found her way to the light, the general meaning of this is taken as hat she got out of the Port Mafia and joined the “good” side. However there’s quite obviously a double meaning in that Aku can see how happy Kyouka is and believes that he’ll never reach that (Aku’s story is one I’d rather discuss in another post but for the purpose of understanding Atsushi’s growth, you should understand it from Aku’s point of view as well).

He says how happy he is for Kyouka, but remains angry at Atsushi, because he feels like Atsushi has everything (this comes from their fight on the Moby Dick) Atsushi is really quick to point out that he absolutely doesn’t have everything and that he suffers just as Aku does and I think that scene really explains Atsushi’s character incredibly well. Just to tie this all up, I think Aku agreeing to not kill anyone until he and Atsushi battle it out, is a massive first step in him attempting to improve himself (even if it is in the essence of competition).

Overall, Atsushi is so much more than just an “annoying and insecure” character, like all of the characters in bsd, he’s quite complex and I really enjoy breaking down all the aspects of his character to explain this.

Atsushi isn’t one of my favourite characters, but he’s one I’ve come to respect him more and more as I’ve watched and rewatched bsd (and now as I finally read the manga!!). I love discussing all the complexities of bsd especially since there’s so much to break down and delve into (and believe me my favourite characters aren’t my favourites for no reason).

To everyone reading this, feel free to reply/reblog with your opinions, I love hearing what other people think about stuff like this skdjskd

I’ll gladly give my opinion on whatever character, scene, story arc, fandom based thing or just anything in bsd in general so feel free to send in more asks :)