#jet wolf loves rei hino

[keyofjetwolf]

Midge: *pointing to desktop wallpaper* Who's that? Me: Rei Hino! Midge: Rei Hino! The best character in the whole world! Me: *eyes welling* That's right, babygirl, that's right.

[keyofjetwolf]

LOOK WHAT DOCDOC GOT FOR ME I LOVE IT SO MUCH IT IS SO GLITTERY AND REI-Y

[keyofjetwolf]

Finally, I can make the most important poll of our lifetime.

[keyofjetwolf]

LAST COUPLE DAYS BEEN ROUGH AM NOW ACCEPTING QUALITY REI HINO MOMENTS TO CREATE FEELINGS PLEASE RESPOND

[keyofjetwolf]

Hit baseline goal on my project and started on my stretch goals, the class was given an extension until Monday to get it finished, and I just found an adapter to get my third monitor up and running.

All told, not a bad Jet Wolf day.

[keyofjetwolf]

babe wake up new meme format just dropped

Oh my god, Tsa. Tsa. Oh my god. THIS IS IT THIS IS THE MOST WONDERFUL GIFT I HAVE EVER RECEIVED WHAT A BEAUTIFUL USE OF MIDGE’S FACIAL JOURNEY YOU MAD BASTARD

[keyofjetwolf]

@alevolpe GUESS WHO GOT THAT RIGHT IT'S YOU

This is too cute to be legal, and yet, here it is, and you're presumably not imprisoned, so what do I know?

Thank you for tagging me in this, thank you for making this, thank you.

Happy 45th birthday to wonderful Auntie Rei Hino!!

[keyofjetwolf]

AWWW YEAH WE LOVE REI HINO DON'T WE SQUIDGE

Thank you for the outfit @sailormiyoung89 I ADORE it!

[keyofjetwolf]

Oh boo-hoo, darkness, get over yourself, or, Rei Hino: Comfort Lesbian

We’ve been building to this for the past several episodes now, this moment where we finally get confirmation of all the turmoil Ami is feeling, about Usagi and about Naru and, especially, about herself. All of which is delicious and complex and everything I wanted but could hardly believe they’d give us. It’s not a good look for Ami! It’s angry and lonely and uncertain!

Ami especially, I think moreso than any other character across Sailor Moon iterations (character who actually gets screen/page time, anyway) is boiled until she’s lost most of her flavour. I think the anime tries hardest, but often replaces “the smart one” stereotypes for “the nice one” and calls it a day. For whatever reason, it’s like Ami’s an action figure they’re afraid to take out of the box because they might get her dirty and diminish her value.

Not PGSM, though. PGSM is just “AW YEAH LET’S PLAY” and pitched everyone in a mud puddle.

I AM ALIVE

I’ve talked about this again and again, how much SENSE this makes for Ami. Completely ostracized for her entire life, she’s got her first taste of what it means to not be alone, and she’s hooked. Usagi is like a drug for Ami, she’s the entire focal point for everything positive Ami’s feeling, and she’s terrified that without Usagi, she’ll go back to the way things used to be, and she CAN’T, she just can’t.

And she needn’t be! PGSM has gone out of its way throughout the series so far in showing us how much Ami has already grown and changed for the better. Fuck, look at just this scene! There’s something wonderful and precious about the bond between Ami and Rei. They’re each other’s first friend that they made THEMSELVES, using the things that they learned through their friendship with Usagi. Ami has reached out to Rei more than once, able to see through her stoicism and bluster and navigate through it (versus, say, Usagi just flat out ignoring it). She allows Rei to keep those defenses while still reaching for her, making Rei that much more willing to reach back.

Rei also sees Ami. She’s never been smitten a day in her life, and Rei isn’t inclined to throw every little questionable thing into the spin cycle until it comes out gleaming and perfect. Ami’s weird and awkward, but so what? She’s a good person, and she tries. Every single time Rei would rather deal with someone who tries too hard rather than not enough.

They can do this. AMI can do this. She HAS. Even in this scene, where she’s confessing to Rei, it’s abundantly clear how much stock she puts in Rei’s opinion. Particularly BECAUSE it’s Rei (really, it had to be Rei), who wouldn’t even know where to start trying to give someone an insincere platitude, Ami trusts what she says, and at no point in any of this, even at her lowest and most intense self-hating, does Ami think Rei isn’t her friend. The problem is that Ami has pinned so much on Usagi, and so little on herself. Usagi is the keystone; pull her out, and it all collapses.

Again, all of my love to PGSM for going here. For looking at Ami, really thinking about how broken her life would have made her, and being willing to follow that thread. She confirmed -- directly, in the text, by her own words -- everything I hoped we were building to.

INCLUDING THIS SORRY BRB HAVE TO RUN AROUND THE OFFICE SCREAMING AGAIN

There’s so much going on, Ami is having a fuck of a day, but this is perhaps the thing she’s most upset about: the realization that she might just be kind of a shitty person. There’s been nothing in Ami’s life that would have even hinted she could be like this. Hell, there’s basically BEEN nothing in Ami’s life before now. But here it is, she finally gets something worthwhile, and this is how she acts? No wonder she went without friends this long, if this is who she is. Usagi was just wonderful enough to try and see past it, that’s all, which only makes Ami feel even worse for “deceiving her”. God, what a beautiful inescapable spiral Ami’s built for herself, I’m almost impressed.

REI HINO IS NOT IMPRESSED

HHHHRNRNNNRRNGGGHHHGNNNNGHHHRR

SHE’S SO NOT HERE FOR ANY OF AMI’S BULLSHIT. Not the deep dark confession, not Ami eating herself up over it all. Ami’s barely started, and Rei’s already had enough.

Sidebar to say how much I fucking LOVE how they shoot all this. Rei’s angry stomp slicing across the camera, interrupting Ami’s efforts to drown herself in all this. Her angry clenched fist (A REI HINO FAVOURITE), the way the camera rises as it follow’s Rei’s towering presence. She carries so much authority in this scene, you can FEEL her and how little she is going to put up with all this. The way Ami gazes up at her, too, once again giving Rei all the power between them. It remains to be seen how much of this will stick, but what’s clear is that Ami will listen to Rei, and believe her, even if just for this moment.

The way Rei completely brushes all of Ami’s angst away though, AAAAAHHHHH I DIDN’T KNOW I COULD LOVE HER MORE BUT SHE ALWAYS MANAGES TO FIND A WAY TO MAKE ME. Ami’s completely undone by this, and Rei’s just “Psshh, whatever, this is entry level ‘dark’, get over yourself.”

But she also makes it an invitation. “Congrats! You’re human.” Ami’s sin here, if she could be said to have one, is in not dealing with it all very well, and she’s basically an emotional newborn, so even there, it’s understandable.

One of the best things about this, though, is how Rei is meeting Ami on much the same level Ami connected with Rei. Not ignoring how they feel, nor dismissing it, just accepting it and moving forward. We STILL don’t know why Rei was so bothered about going to that guy’s house to protect his not-the-ginzuishou, but Ami didn’t chase down the why or convince Rei it wasn’t a problem, she simply offered to go in her stead. Here, Rei doesn’t insist Ami is the purest pure snowflake gumdrop who would never think a bad thought in her life, she just says “Bitch, you ain’t special.” Usagi’s all-inclusive love is wonderful, and I don’t doubt the power of its constant dopamine hit, but it’s also in so many ways unrealistic and impractical (much like Usagi herself), and once again, I tip my hat to PGSM for being the ONLY Sailor Moon incarnation willing to go there for its main character, too.

(I don’t know if PGSM had a mission statement, but you could tell me it was “Each and every one of these girls is fascinating and wonderful AND DEEPLY FLAWED” and I would just nod in emphatic agreement.)

What about Rei’s darkness? I don’t know! THANK YOU FOR ADDING IN A BARELY RELATED MYSTERY. The specifics aren’t important right now, and maybe never will be. It’s Rei, she’s a constant bubbling cauldron of stewing rage, even here in PGSM where she’s able to keep it to a low simmer. It could be about her mother’s death, all the gossipy assholes, her father’s everything. It could be Usagi bumping into her this morning, IT COULD BE ALL OF THESE.

The point is, Rei knows all about thinking and feeling some negative shit at someone, but she also knows there’s a difference between what you feel and what you DO. You can’t truly be part of life and never fuck up, it’s just not possible.

AND NOW HERE’S WHERE REI SHOWS HOW MUCH SHE’S CHANGING TOO. Her point made, her lecture done, Rei peers down at Ami and sees that it’s just not working the way she wants. Rather than lose her temper, or double down, or wash her hands and walk away, she instead CHANGES TACTICS.

She doesn’t demand Ami immediately bounce to her feet, instead she drops down to Ami. She stops lecturing and tries comforting. NONE of this is natural for Rei, all of it goes against the kind of person she is and always strives to be. Slowly but surely though, Rei’s learning that her way is not the only way, and to temper her impulses.

WHO KNEW WE WOULD GET SUCH JUICY DEVELOPMENT FOR REI IN THE MIDDLE OF ALL THIS AMI GOODNESS WHO AMONG US COULD HAVE PREPARED FOR THE BOUNTY

Still though, Rei is Rei is my beautiful ridiculous marmoset Rei.

Blessed, friends. I am blessed this day.

[keyofjetwolf]

Speaking of me and my shitty memory, I keep forgetting to do another thank-you post for shit you guys have sent me! I’LL PUT THAT ON MY CALENDAR TOO. But I do have this little Rei sitting next to me on the desk which I can mention now!

THANK YOU KATRANI. Her intense creepy stare and uncomfortably thin Takeuchi legs coupled with the deeply unsettling freeform poetry on the postcard addressed to me on hell’s carousel was and continues to be a delight.

[keyofjetwolf]

Mouse, this is FANTASTIC. HER INTENSITY THIS IS EXCEPTIONAL REI HINO SHIT RIGHT HERE. I thought you could do amazing things with that palette, but you did even better than I expected. I LOVE HER AND YOU BUT MOSTLY HER

My terrible day and I would love some Rei in #24 to soothe our spirits.

@keyofjetwolf HERE SHE IS I HOPE YOUR DAY ENDS WELL AT LEAST

[keyofjetwolf]

LET’S TAKE A SECOND SHALL WE

I’m loving this little moment of pause for Rei, where the monster easily (AND TWIRL-ILY) evades her attack, and it throws her. It’s underplayed wonderfully, just a little moment for reaction, no dramatic zooms, no music stings. Just this instinctive “Oh, shit.”, then she’s back in the fight.

We need things to go poorly for Rei, of course, because Minako's gotta get pulled in. (Not that I remember that detail, but I’ve experienced a story once or twice ever.) That narrative requirement doesn’t have to stand alone, though. Instead, we have it feed a character moment, where we know Rei is beginning to get a sense she’s in trouble, but takes that information in stride. The only thing standing between innocent people and this monster is her, so she’ll be enough.

She’ll have to be.

[keyofjetwolf]

Jewlet: Rei hino is the worst character in Sailor moon. You: (gently taking their hands in yours) you are wrong, but I love you.

SEE ALSO:

[keyofjetwolf]

Rei: Am I so out of touch? No it's the audience that's wrong

[keyofjetwolf]

These are, I assume, what the girls are looking forward to in the new year!

We begin with Usagi, who is looking forward to the first sunrise. This is actually really poetic of Usagi, and I feel I may have done her a disservice by my surprise at that. What a wonderful way to communicate Usagi’s optimism, though. Not just a new year, but a new day in the new year! The possibilities are endless, and Usagi’s excited for all the things she’ll get to see and do and hug and be. Also, thank you for making her writing literally the most basic possible WITH HEARTS. PGSM, we may not deserve you, but I am so very happy we have you.

Next is Ami, who is hilariously precise and to the point, particularly next to Usagi. She’s just looking forward to friends! Having them, hanging out with them, learning about them, maybe even making more of them! PGSM has turned the loneliness dial all the way up for Ami, and it’s one of my favourite examples of what it’s doing and how it’s doing it. This resonates so much better for me, so much more true, for the level of sadness and isolation we’re told was part of Ami’s life for so long. We haven’t visited this for a while, but I don’t believe we’re done with it as a character point for Ami yet, and I can’t WAIT for us to come back to it.

Mako is our next stop, looking forward to fortitude and vigor, to continue to be strong and resolute. BUT WAIT HOLD ON CONSIDER: would a pre-Senshi Mako have wanted that? Given what we saw of Mako, would these be things she’d look forward to? These elements of herself that made her targets for the bullies she’d then fight? These facets that made her feel no one could really love her, for all versions of love? Would they be things to look forward to, or things to want to hide away? Because I’m thinking more the latter, which makes this even more touching. Mako not only finding peace with these parts of herself, but welcoming them! Looking forward to them! Mako’s come so far and accepted so much of herself since learning she was a Senshi, and it just makes my heart smile to see her embrace how wonderful we always knew she was.

Then last we have Rei. Oh Rei. REI. Rei and her anticipation for “Youma, Be Gone”. Rei, and her certainty that they’ll win, and tell the monsters to fuck right off. Rei, and her QUOTING HERSELF ON HER OWN BANNER. Rei Hino, basically making a giant ofuda and slapping it on her wall. Rei, being Rei, always, at all times, at 1000% and I. Love her. SO. MUCH.

[keyofjetwolf]

Rei

HI YES HELLO YOU HAVE MY ATTENTION