#just 2 shelves on the manga side this time

[maddiesbookshelves]

[acaribeau]

Levi’s dolls

A little creepy shortfic based in a chat. A little crack-horror fic but it's mostly a hc.

gn!reader-platonic or romantic, SFW, 1.3k words

I went to Levi’s room when he called me. He had asked me to help him move the real size figurine that he had ordered from Akuzon by accident without Lucifer noticing. I knocked his door.

“Password”

“It’s me Levi”

“Are you alone?”

“Yeah”

He opened the door and quickly pulled me inside.

“Did someone see you?”

“I don’t think… Woah! that is huge. It’s over 2 meters.”

“I know! I didn’t see the measurements! My Seraphina looks so beautiful in that hunting pose that I just bought it in an instant”

“It is really detailed… and with so little clothes… So, how are we supposed to move this to the entry without being noticed?”

“We won’t. Barbatos will open a portal in my door in… 5 min.”

“Won’t he tell Lucifer?”

“No, I bribed him… but it cost me extra…”

“Is that possible? How much did it cost you? “ He looked really gloomy. It would have cost him a fortune.

“It wasn’t money… I’ll show you later, it’s time.” He opened the door to show a turquoise portal ”Help me with that side, I’ll guide”

This was heavier than I thought.

“So… *pant* Where are we moving it? *pant* Purgatory Hall?”

“No, Lucifer would know. I’m putting it in my castle.”

“In your WHAT?”

I felt the floor disappear under my feet and the sensation of losing a step in a stair made me jump a little. I put the statue on the floor and looked at Levi.

“Did you say castle? Do you have a castle?”

I looked around. This was like staying in a well illuminated cave, a little chill and the floor was polished directly from the same rock that the roof and walls were made of.

“Yeah, each of us have a castle in their ring. They don’t come often to mine because it’s underwater, who would want to come to this humid and stinky place, right?”

Moments like this remind me that my demons are lords and how filthy rich they are. The room was even bigger than the dining room in the house of lamentation, 5 rows of glass shelves filled with all types of collectibles that I could imagine.

“Your collection is incredible Levi… And this place is so beautiful”

“Do you think?” He was flushed and avoiding my gaze “C-Come on, he-help me put it in its place, the portal will close in an hour and I have to go for Barbatos’ bribe”

We moved the figure to the row closer to the wall, close to another one even bigger than this.

“Wait here, ok? You know my rules, you can see whatever you want, but don’t touch anything”

“I know, I know, don’t worry” I was already looking at all the interesting things. He had 5 katanas!

He jogged to the back of the room, and then he turned quickly.

“Ah! almost forgot. Whatever happens, don’t touch the water!” and then left the room, as if he didn’t just tell me something so ominous…

I continued my exploration. Levi really had one of everything, three of some. Posters, mangas, figurines, he even had a center of entertainment with a gigantic tv and all the consoles I knew in existence in Devildom and earth and some I didn’t even know.

This place was awesome, I couldn’t figure where the lights were, and I felt observed in each step. I supposed it was the little fishes that were swimming in a section of the wall that appeared to be an aquarium without glass.

A little sound distracted me from the colorful 4-eyed fishes

“Hello?” I could just hear my echo… This place was really quiet, even the water didn’t make a sound. Just when I was about to return my atencion to the fishes, I heard it again.

To my left, a little more back in the room, was a heavy orange curtain. Maybe the sound came from there.

When I pulled aside the curtain, I found a couple more statues. An old man with a big white beard that looked from an epic fantasy and a magical girl smiling and posing with her wand. Wow, and I thought the Seraphina was detailed. I could almost see each pore in her skin, her eyes so realistic I felt like she was watching me. The sound began again really close, it sounded… as someone with a gag trying to speak. This thing was definitely moving its eyes!! 

It was looking between me and… something behind me. I turned back…

.

.

.

“Oh! you found my dolls” pfff it was just Levi in demon form “Do you like them?” 

“They are so realistic… Are they enchanted to move?” I could feel a little of magic coming from them.

“No no, the contrary! I have to paralyze them each time I’m out or they cause trouble. I designed her dress myself based on the dress of Yuriko in Magi Magi Police Sun first season. She was the best VA the original series had, her remplacement never got the high notes… Her death was really a tragedy, she got hit by a soup truck. A really ironic death if you consider the mock in chapter 138 season 3… Tho, it was a good luck struck that she decided to kill her best friend for assuring her stellar just a couple of days before the accident… She came directly to my arms as if she were destined to be mine. She is the most valuable anime merchandise I have”

“So… this is the real voice actress?” A chill ran through my body while kept staring at me with her frozen smile. 

“Yeah! If you want to play with her, she could even sing you a private concert! She knows all the routines, even the ones that came after her death, I made sure of that!” 

I saw the curtain that extended through all the wall as far as I could see, a bunch of other “dolls” all in display behind it.

“Are they humans?”

“No no, the correct term is damned. Almost all of them are from my ring, but I traded some. Like this one! He was the author of “The epic of the red goblins”, a classic from the 30’s. I had to fight with Satan for him, but it was worth it! Oh, I could tell you the story of each one of them!... only if you want of course… you don’t find them creepy, right? Mammon says they are scary… as if a normie could understand the passion of an otaku!”

“What is that!?” I was so focused in the dolls that I hadn’t seen before the bright orange thing moving in his hands. It appeared as little tentacles covered in blossoms, its movements were erratic and… a little hypnotic.

“Ah! its Glory coral snake, Barbatos wants to make them tea… It was painful to cut them up, it takes more than 500 hundred years to grow a centimeter… Right! we have to go, the portal will close soon.”

He closed the curtain with his tail and we went to the door.

“All of them are so jealous of you...but… well… who wouldn't? I mean… you are… you”

My sweet snake demon was all flustered all over again. I brushed her cheek with the back of my hand and saw him in the eyes, smiling.

“Come on, you can tell me all about them later, ok?”

He beamed his smile and his eyes sparkled.

“We can begin the anime tonight! You know? Magi Magi Police Sun was the anime's first deconstruction of magical girls and the legendary inspiration for Hana Ruri…”

Bonus:

That afternoon watching Magi Magi Police Sun.

“And what would have happened if I had touched the water?”

“Oh, that would have woken up Lotan”

“Noooo, I wanted to pet Lotan!!!!”

“I already told you, Lotan isn’t a pet. He doesn't want to be petted!”

“Everyone wants to be petted” 😡

I finished a thing!! See guys? and you told me to sleep in the poll... I work better after 20h awake

If you liked my work, please like, reblog and comment. Don't repost please. I'm not native speaker, if you see any typo let me know. My asks and messages are always open for anything!

[arwainian]

Reading This Week 2024 #34

Hello! a professor I worked with last semester on his fantasy genre class asked for a recommendation for a queer book recommendation because apparently he admires my knowledge of contemporary fantasy publishing. I gave him a novella that seemed like it's fit the themes he was looking at (Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh), and took the compliment instead of telling him that there are so many queer fantasy books my beloved tumblr mutuals are obsessed with but I haven't gotten to yet

Finished:

Invisible Kingdom, Vol. 1: Walking the Path and Vol. 2: Edge of Everything written by G. Willow WIlson, art by Christian Ward this was pitched to me as cool scifi with lesbian leads, but to be perfectly honest i am not getting the chemistry between them at all..... the first volume was cool but the second felt like a major let down. I'm interested to see where the final volume goes tho so I'll still give it a shot

Bloom Into You, Vol. 2-3 by Nakatani Nio, translated by Jenny McKeon on the other hand, the girls in lesbians in this manga are coming for my fucking throat. they are kind and caring but the Teenage Desire in this is strong and extremely messy (what is love? what does it mean to fall in love? what if you fall for each other at different speeds? is what you're doing with her right if you dont think you feel the same way?) reading it is like poking me in a bruise fucking WHAT

The Sprite and the Gardener by Rii Abrego and Joe Whitt gorgeous art, bland story

Are You Listening? by Tillie Walden inter-generational lesbian friendship roadtrip in rural texas. the way the world gets progressively stranger is very well done. this is a comparison i haven't seen made yet, but maybe check it out if you like Alice Isn't Dead?

long day by kathkin on ao3

Maigret Bides His Time by Georges Simenon, translated by Alastair Hamilton just a short old mystery novel. fun time but in an outdated style

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, narrated by Michael Page Locke Lamora is... as you might say a Character Type that works for me very very often, to the point that I gender flipped it for a dnd character of mine. This was a great book with basically no misplaced or extraneous world building elements: it feels rich and lived in but everything snaps together perfectly. The book could maybe use more women, which maybe feels a bit greedy since there are a number of named interesting women characters, but none of them are leads and so those side characters just made me crave more. I just am also extremely OC-pilled and was kicking my feet imagining my girl Letha running around Camorr causing trouble.

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Vol. 1 written by Kanehito Yamada, art by Tsukara Abe, translated by Misa "Japanese Ammo" fun and sweet, pretty straight forward in what it's doing so far

Female Husbands: A Trans History by Jen Manion, narrated by Kate Harper a thorough history of many assigned-female-at-birth people in the UK and the US who passed as men, often legally marrying women for desire or for gender passing reasons (though not all of the people discussed in this book did so). leaves open both lesbian/same-sex desire and transmasculine interpretations, while also being as specific as possible to the lives, circumstances, and testimonies of its subjects (including the ways we know about them, and that very few of them after being discovered as "women" were allowed to continue in male dress)

Sensor by Junji Ito, translated by Jocelyne Allen hm. well, interested to hear the Shelved by Genre opinion on this.

Started/Ongoing:

The River of Silver: Tales from the Daevabad Trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty, narrated by Soneela Nankani finishing out the short vignette collection from this series

Witches, Princesses, and Women at Arms edited by Sacchi Green a collection of semi erotic lesbian fairytales that I'm reading through. first one has an exiled princess cross dressing as a man and seducing a witch during her quest to slay a dragon

Homie by Danez Smith poetry book i picked up because my black queer lit prof from last year talked about the second poem in here, which i think lives up to his interpretation of it

Reading Plans:

tbh, my brain is coughing up dust right now. finish the stuff in the prior section. get ready for actually writing my thesis in the coming months.

OH I'm going to read A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood for my queer lit book club, and I guess check out whatever Shelved by Genre is reading next? gotta take a look at my Libby loans, and pull something from my book shelf

[peofun1]

Expensive Anime Plastic part 2: Two years later

now with 80% less cardboard as risers!

so I've had this as my pinned post for two years now, but it's pretty outdated at this point. my collection has grown a lot in the last two years, and I wanted to show it off! this is my blog and I'll make you look at my plastic toys if I want to >:D

this post is a full tour of my anime figure collection as of June 2024, which basically spans across my whole apartment these days. this is my 11th year in the hobby, so everything you see here was accumulated slowly over that time.

buckle up because this is REALLY long and picture-heavy. (also other collectors can find me on myfigurecollection(dot)net as peofun1, if you'd like~)

Alright, first up, the detolfs in the living room:

Some thoughts: the BNHA shelf will likely get rotated out pretty soon. I fell off the manga pretty hard a while ago, but I do still enjoy these figures... but when my Haikyuu Kotobukiya scales get here (all four of them 😩) I'll probably try to turn that into a Haikyuu shelf. Jirou, Shouto and maybe one Dabi can take the place of the Haikyuu Nendos on the left side

the Katamari Dipp figure is a custom by sixsculpts on instagram! (topshelf on MFC) they reached out to me when I mentioned I'll probably never get my hands on the F4F Dipp figure, and made the Dipp of my dreams for me 🥰 definitely check out their work if you like customs!

last thing -- I know the bottom left shelf is kind of a disaster. Ike and Alphen just REFUSE to play nice together, with the way they both have big capes and swords that stick out and bump things -_- if it helps, we're usually viewing these shelves at an angle from our couch, and Claude in the back is much more visible from there

as a little bonus, here's what one of these shelves USED to look like before I rotated out these figures:

I decided to pack away most of my League of Legends figures after they laid off my wife 😐 (and several good friends 😐) I may bring them back out once I have more room, but they currently live in the closet. and that's fine, for now.

Next up, my desk in the office:

I put away all my random stacks of MTG cards to take these pictures.

most of the figures here are blind box/prize figures that I won't be too sad about if they get dusty or attacked by the cats (though I do use some boxes to block them from the cats when I'm not in the room). the exceptions are the goth angel, who doesn't fit anywhere else, the light-up Futaba figure and the Cintiq girlie, who simply have to live with my computer and Cintiq tablet. themeing!

some of the pins/keychains/prints here are official, but a lot of them are fan-made merch! some of them are bonuses that came with zines I preordered (including the infamous showtime akeshu zine)

also, since you can see a few of them in the top pic, here's those plushies. I have way more plush than this, but these are the ones that currently live on my desk:

Moving on to the bedroom: ❗❗ Warning: this section contains figures that are NSFW ❗❗ I've censored one of them (because her bits are just OUT and I don't wanna to get smited) but there are a few that are ~spicy~ proceed with caution

(I promise we have books that aren't manga, they're just all on a different bookshelf in the living room!) this doubles as our manga shelf, obviously. we got back into collecting physical manga after moving to LA, since it's easy to make a trip to Kinokuniya and pick up new stuff! mixed in are some older volumes I recently rescued from my parents' house. I'm slooooowly trying to complete TRC, but it's hard to find it these days...

anyway this shelf is kind of a mess theme-wise, since they're mostly just figures I don't have room for anywhere else. especially that top shelf, yeesh. 10th anniversary Miku trying to bridge the gap between horny 1/4 scales and live-service game hell.

long-time followers might also spot the sonic screwdriver, which is the same one I'm holding in the very first post I ever made on this website. please don't go looking for that.

I'm hoping to pick up a third display case (probably second hand, since ikea discontinued the detolf >.> ) but in the meantime they're here getting in the way of my manga.

aside from the LoL figures, I have three others not currently on display: one is Magical Mirai Miku 2017, which is in her box because she's broken 😬 her neck peg got messed up one of the times I packed her to move, so I need to fix that sometime. the second is the 1/4 Yakuwa Nazumi designed by WOOMA, which I desperately want to display but she's ENORMOUS so she'll probably have to wait until I get another display case. and the last is another Miku prize figure, because I clearly don't have enough of those lmao

so that's my whole figure collection! it's a constant work-in-progress, because they keep making cool new figures and I am never satisfied :)

if you actually took the time to read all this, thanks for indulging me!!

[animehouse-moe]

Manga Collection Update #2 (End Of) March 2023 - The 1000 Volume Milestone

"Hey, this isn't your collection, this is a haul!" - people reading this. And those people would be correct, I just thought it'd be cool to save this haul here because it's what got me to 1000 volumes in my collection. Yeah, 1000 volumes of manga, LN, and art books. Really insane stuff when you stop and think about it (I beg you do not think about the retail value of 1000 volumes of manga).

Anyways, the point of me making a collection update post about is to sort of ramble aloud about some questions and preconceptions I had about what a 1000 volume collection would be.

Does It Seem Like A Lot?

When I tried to quantify what 1000 volumes would be, even just last year I wouldn't have thought it would be what I have. A thousand of something seems like an incredible amount that you wouldn't be able to visualize easily. Like shelves going on and on forever almost, but it's not. In total, it's only about three of Ikea's full size Billy shelves (due to space constraints I don't have full sized ones for every shelf). But when you think about that, "Only 3 shelves", 1000 volumes seems almost comical. Even more than that, when you think of listing 1000 volumes (or the series that comprise that number), it makes you think that it's a lot, so much that you wouldn't be able to name them. But when I stop and think about it, I'm pretty comfortable that I'd be able to name 90% or even a bit more of the manga in my collection.

I guess at the end of it, it really feels a lot smaller than the number "1000" makes it seem like it would be. It's all stuff I've read (or am reading), and it's all stories that I can remember to a somewhat decent degree. It's a ridiculous accumulation of money, but at the end of the day it's a hobby, I'd find something else to spend the money on.

Does My Collection Meet My Expectations?

A weird question to phrase, but it's all about whether or not my collection is like what I thought it'd look like at 1000 volumes. And I'd say, yes and no. There's things I figured would be here, but at the same time loads of things that end up missing. I would have swore up and down I'd have Love Is War in my collection by now, but I don't! I would have thought I'd have That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime or Overlord in here as well, or even something like Death Note or maybe Naruto. But they're just not here.

In terms of what is in the collection that I'd never have expected: older shojosei. I didn't think I'd ever have something like Wallflower or Kare Kano in there. Not that I'm not a fan of either, but that they're incredibly rare and typically exist outside of what I pursue. But when they're offered at 5 dollars a volume I'm not gonna say no. Further outside of that is stuff like Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei or all the NGE side stories. Some of these things cost an arm and a leg so they were pipe dreams for me, but stars have aligned for more than a few moments in my time collecting, and allowed me to have a shot at them.

It's hard to say what's in my collection that I would have thought odd, because I don't have any sort of hindsight on that and I think they're all perfectly normal and interesting now. Like Heterogenia Linguistico, a series about a linguist wandering a world full of different types of species with different forms of communication. Or Himouto Umaru-Chan, a peculiar slice of life about the unseen side of the class princess as she nerds out at home with her older brother. There's a lot of things that I probably didn't expect when I was beginning, but now they feel perfectly normal.

What's My Favorite Thing Out Of All 1000 Volumes?

Wow, what a loaded question me! Well, a bit of a boring but also somewhat uncomfortable answer is my Berserk Deluxe Volume 1 (which I'm still yet to continue collecting). I bought it slightly after my birthday, the day that Kentaro Miura died, which coincided with my great-grandmother's death. As many people receive from grandparents, I was given a card with some crisp bills inside, and was told to "spend it on whatever I liked, don't listen to your parents". I was undecided for a few days on just what I should get with it, a full set of Hunter x Hunter that I found used online, or a Berserk Deluxe edition? As it happened, Fate ended up choosing the latter for me. It's also part of why I've been apprehensive/slow about continuing to collect those deluxe editions. Right now it's 1 of 1 in my collection, something that stands out, but if I put it beside a bunch of other volumes that look almost the same I feel like it'd lose the value and sentiment it holds for me.

Where To Next?

I'm someone that always chases goals, I never really revel in my achievements or milestones. When I completed my degree and got it in the mail, I just sorta smiled before tucking it away neatly. There's never been anything that I've basked in. With my collection though, I feel slightly different. I want to show it off a little, I want to excitedly share it with my friends and swap notes and compare collections. It's not that I didn't choose most if not all of what I've done in my life, but this is something else. It's a part of my adult life, something that I'll carry forward with me, rather than it being done. You can only go so far with other aspects, only climb a corporate ladder so high, only go so far with post-secondary education. So maybe more than the elation of reaching so high, it's the excitement at the fact that I have so much more left to go.

[skiniibuniii]

my dream room

the rest of the house wouldnt matter, i wouldnt leave my room.

the walls would be painted black. pink shelves sit, cluttered and haphazardly nailed apon them. manga of all colors cover the many of shelves, while the rest hold sakura hatsune miku and my melody and kuromi figures. the door is too close to it's second wall to hold a shelf. on the other side of the door, theres a metal coat hanger covered in black hoodies and coats and my white plush bunny backpack.

following the wall to the right-hand corner is a big stuffed animal pile. soft plushies of sanrio characters and my little ponies and gloomy bears and gloomy bunnies (my favorites). against both the right wall and the wall parallel to the door sits my bed. my cute pastel-rainbow comforter is kicked off the end of the bed, showing the black sheets underneath. white you cant see the blood stains very well, suspiciously places white smears shine throughout the sea of black. my big unicorn lays on top, against the wall with one of his arms out reaching as if he is saying "itll be okay, come give me a hug." his head rests apon my vintage carebears pillowcases, ive had thouse since i was a little kid. my favorite gloomy bunny, the pink one with rainbow ears and feet, sit on my pillows. even with the cum and blood and crumbs in the bed, it seems so welcoming and comforting. as if nothing more in the world would feel safer than snuggling up in that dirty bed.

the wall next to the bed has a nightstand. small and wood, shittily painted white. atop it sits a bottle of vodka, a boxcutter, and 2 razor blades. one of them is new, i guess the other one is getting dull. My computer's here too, kinda surprised i didnt just leave it on the bed again.

next to that, a window with both blackout curtains and sheer pink curtains. you dont need to see the sun if you cant bare it, but if you can, you can at least see it cute and sweet like candy.

most of the shelves sit on this wall. between two of them sits a collage of both Kurt Cobain and photos of my mother when she was my age. Kurt and Courtney's love sweetly contrast my mother's red hair blue cardigan vodka holding teen photos. Theres some photos of her at Rocky, too. my grandpa used to tell me never to become my mother, before he got cancer. i didnt become her, pop-pop, i became worse.

the final corner of the room, basically in front of the door, sits a dresser overflowing with black and white and red and pink clothing. most of my clothes are stolen from clothing donation boxes outside the grocery store. i tear them up and dye them with arylic paint and scribble on them with sharpies in and pathetic attempt to feel unique and express myself. as if i change my clothes enough to need all of them.

on top of the dresser if another old photo of my mom. black and white, wearing my favorite sweater. next to it sits Shadow's ashes and leash. i can never bring myself to get rid of it. next to that, a spider corpse i preserved when i was 13. somehow it still hasnt decomposed, ive never changed the alcohol in it. next to that, the skull of a deer. i watched that deer decompose over a year or so when i was 14. ill never know how it died, but ill cherish its beautiful life forever as it sits on my dresser.

you can watch me walk back into my room now. i act like youre not standing oddly at my dresser as i stumble back into my bed. im wearing a black tank top and pastel purple velvety shorts. god knows how long ive been ana, yet somehow my fatass is still 140lbs. my left arm is covered in cuts, to the point it looks like there isnt even skin there anymore. my right arm just has a few deep ones, same with my left thigh. my right thigh has a huge heart carving within it, right above the knee. i hope you think its as pretty as i do, ive been working on it since i was 12. i curl up into the arms on my unicorn, wrapping them around me. i reach for my laptop and turn it slightly so it doesnt hurt my eyes to look at.

i think its time for you to go.

thank you for stepping into my mind.

[anotherwvba]

Challenge Accepted pt. 9

The living room of Mika and Skye's Campus Lodge apartment was a harmonious blend of two distinct worlds. On one side, the walls were adorned with posters of anime posters for "Sailor Moon" and "Pretty Cure," shelves upon shelves of manga and blurays, a display of meticulously arranged anime figures, model kits, and statues, and a few autographs from her favorite seiyuu.

On the other side, Chicago sports memorabilia took center stage. The walls had a pair of jerseys, a Bulls and a Blackhawks, hanging side-by-side, along with a Cubs World Series pennant. A small bookshelf held two autographed balls, a football by the Bears and a basketball by the Sky, and a small Chicago flag nestled between them.

The furniture was comfortable. The WVBA supplied a pair of recliners, a cozy couch, and a coffee table that currently held an array of Filipino snacks. Mika had just finished preparing turon, a sweet banana roll, and kwek-kwek, quail eggs coated in seasoned orange batter.

Just as Mika was setting down a bowl of shrimp chips on the coffee table, there was a knock at the door. "Ah, perfect timing! Come in, come in!" Mika exclaimed as she opened the door to find Cutie and Niki standing there.

Cutie walked in holding a six-pack of Fanta Melon Soda. "My parents sent these from home to celebrate my win. Thought I'd share the love!"

Niki feigned a wounded expression. "Are you ever going to let me live down our match, Cutie?"

Cutie chuckled, "Oh, of course I will, Niki. Right after I knock someone else out!"

Niki playfully shook her fist at Cutie, "Oh, you're just asking for it today, aren't you?" The room erupted in laughter.

Mika, still beaming, turned to her guests. "Salamat for coming, you guys! I really appreciate your help with this anime party."

Niki shrugged, "Hey, I'm no expert like you two. I mean, I've only watched stuff I grab at Walmart like 'Naruto' or 'My Hero Academia.' But I'm happy to help!"

Cutie's eyes sparkled. "I'm so thrilled you asked us, Mika! But I've got a quick question. Um, have you considered... cosplay?"

Mika's eyes widened, her face lighting up like a Christmas tree. "Cosplay? Bakit hindi ko naisip 'yun? We have so much to do!"

After a few hours had passed, the atmosphere in the apartment was buzzing with excitement. Mika sat in the floor, her tablet sitting in her lap, while Niki and Cutie were lounging on the couch. Now, they had a plan… and full stomachs.

"Those snacks were amazing, Mika! I've never had Filipino food before, but I'm a fan now," Niki exclaimed.

Cutie chimed in, "Hai, those quail eggs were something else. So good!"

Mika beamed. "I'm glad you both enjoyed them! Now, let's recap. For the anime party, we've got four hours in the gym. We’ll start with 'Cowboy Bebop,' then  'Ranma 1/2' and ‘Attack on Titan.’ From there we move on to 'Pretty Cure,' 'Death Note,' 'One Piece,' 'Bubblegum Crisis,' and 'Gundam Wing,’ in that order."

Niki's eyes widened. "Wow, that's an eclectic mix! Something for everyone, huh?"

Cutie was equally impressed. "It’s got classics and modern hits. I love it! Now, here’s what I’ve got for the guest list. There’s the three of us, obviously, Skye, Joe, my brother, and Disco. I say we invite Hippo and Bull, too.”

“I knew King Hippo was an anime fan,” Niki says matter of factly, drawing an odd look from Mika. “Look, IT sent me to help him get Crunchyroll to work on his TV.”

“Ah. Makes sense,” Mika nodded. “But, Bald Bull?”

“Oh yeah!” Cutie smiles, “He gives me a shopping list of model kits to bring back every time I visit family. He loves, and I mean loves, Gundam.”

Mika clapped her hands together. "Alright, then! The more, the merrier!"

Niki leaned forward, her eyes twinkling. "On the technical side, I can handle sending out digital invites and I’ll make sure to add that cosplay is allowed. And for the screening, the gym already has a massive projector screen that lowers from the ceiling. I'm thinking of… borrowing… the 4K Ultra HD projector from the arena and bringing the Dolby Atmos speakers we use for outdoor shows. The specs are just… ah, so good!"

Cutie and Mika exchanged glances before bursting into laughter. "You really geek out over this stuff, don't you?" Mika said.

Niki shrugged, "Hey, if you're going to do it, do it right."

Mika then clapped her hands together again, "So, what's everyone wearing for cosplay? I’m breaking out my Sailor Moon."

Niki shook her head, "I'm going to sit this one out. Never cosplayed before and don't have the time to put something together."

“Don’t worry, Niki,” Mika chimed in. “I love sewing. We’ll get you ready for the next cosplay opportunity.”

Cutie pulled out her phone and started swiping. "I'm torn between my Spike Spiegel and my Kamen Rider Kivala." She showed pictures of both costumes to Mika and Niki.

"Wow, both look amazing!" Niki exclaimed.

Mika was intrigued, "Kivala? What anime is that from?"

Cutie chuckled, "Actually, Kivala isn't from an anime. She's from a live-action show called 'Kamen Rider Decade.'"

Both Mika and Niki leaned in, suddenly curious. "Live-action? Tell us more!" Mika urged.

Cutie grinned, "Well, it's a tokusatsu show, a Japanese genre featuring superheroes, special effects, and lots of action. Maybe we should consider a tokusatsu party down the road?"

Mika's eyes sparkled at the idea, "That sounds like another epic gathering waiting to happen!"

Niki nodded, "I'm in, as long as there are snacks like today."

“Oh no,” Cutie shakes her head. “I can’t cook. You know that, Niki. I can burn water.”

“You’ll never go hungry as long as I’ve got a kitchen.” Mika stood up, her eyes shining with gratitude and excitement. "I can't thank you both enough for helping me plan this. It's going to be an anime party for the ages!"

Cutie and Niki joined in the excitement, their faces glowing with anticipation. "We wouldn't miss it for the world," Cutie said.

And so, the trio sat there, their hearts full and their minds racing with ideas, each one contributing a piece to what promised to be an unforgettable night.

[dropintomanga]

How to Find Great Manga to Read

We’re in an awesome time for manga reading in the West. Physical manga volumes are flying off the shelves in a time when digital reading is becoming more prevalent. TikTok videos featuring manga collections have become a thing.  Anime’s now-uber mainstream popularity in geek culture has helped usher in this new golden age. Yet at the same time, a lot of mainstream manga attention is usually on shonen titles with hit anime adaptations - i.e. My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer, Chainsaw Man, Spy x Family, Jujutsu Kaisen, etc. There are outliners like Junji Ito material, but it can sometimes feel like the manga getting recognized by the Western media and comics critics are being highlighted a bit too much over titles full of wonderful stories that aren’t exactly “popular” in the public geek eye.

The manga world’s more than just action series that gets hearts pumping and horror gone viral. There’s many manga titles that not only provide escapism, but provide various perspectives that will make you feel you all kinds of emotions in ways that can make someone a better person. Plus, over time, your tastes and interests may expand and you might look for other manga titles that aren’t mainstream.

I recently read a guide on Psyche called “How to find great films to watch” and in the spirit of that guide (which was really good), I want to do something similar right here.

I will use the tips that the Psyche guide gives for finding great films and apply them for finding great manga. So here we go!

Tip #1 - Start with an open mind.

This sounds like the biggest deal-breaker because there are people who see manga and have many assumptions about it. Some will argue about reading it in a right-to-left format, some may argue about the sexual content that’s sometimes found in it and some will say that manga is only for teens (the biggest market in the West). 

I will argue that manga is influenced from Western culture and comics and that some of the best comics in the entire world, past and present, are manga. Speaking of the past, there’s some older manga (titles like Banana Fish, Lone Wolf and Cub, Rose of Versailles, and Osamu Tezuka’s works come to mind) that hold up well today. The point is - don’t let preconceived notions get in the way of finding a manga that one day, might touch your heart in many ways.

Also, don’t be afraid of trying out other stuff that’s for teenagers (especially on the older teen side) because there are themes and topics that adults can relate to. Beastars is a great example of such a title as it explore societal hierarchies and divisions using anthropomorphic animals to represent human beings. 

Tip #2 - Give manga a chance.

When you’re able to get a 1st volume of a manga, read it in a comfortable spot with good lighting. If it’s digital, definitely read on a tablet. Next, be sure to be patient with it. The first chapter of a series can be a bit rough. Hell, the 1st volume might suck and the story might turn out to be amazing a few volumes later. There will be cases where you will not be hooked right away. The best thing you can do is give a manga series maybe 2-3 volumes to see if this is the right thing for you to read. Every manga series of a decent length has some kind of introduction arc, so you can use this as a litmus test.

Tip #3 - Get some advice.

If you have friends who are bona-fide manga lovers, do not hesitate to talk to them. If you’re lucky to have a bookstore near you that sells manga, definitely ask them for advice on what to read. Manga librarians are also a great source of community on figuring out what manga to check out for those who want to check out libraries. The point is just be around manga connoisseurs as much as possible to get the most out of finding what’s great. 

Also, manga publishers who show up at anime/comic book conventions are willing to help provide recommendations to fans who stop by their booths on what titles to check out. You will also get to meet other manga enthusiasts at conventions as well.

Tip #4 - Play to your strengths and interests.

If you have a favorite genre like shonen action manga, you can explore the history of shonen action manga titles out there. Viz’s Shonen Jump service has a wide category of older shonen action manga titles for fans who want to go beyond just the hit titles of today. If you’re interested in LGBTQ+ culture, you can explore titles like Boys Run the Riot, Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare, and My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness that cover that perspective. Have a fascination with works from independent creators? Check out manga from publishers like Denpa Books, Star Fruit Books and Glacier Bay Books. Let’s say you’re into world history - titles like Vinland Saga and Golden Kamuy are right up your alley.

It is safe to say that whatever it is you’re into, there’s definitely a manga for it.

Tip #5 - Follow your likes.

Once you manage to find a particular favorite manga, you can decide to learn more about the title itself and the thought process of the mangaka. You can discover what influences drove the mangaka to create what they created. This may lead you to find out similar titles just like your favorite one. Here’s an example I can give - let’s say you’re a fan of Inio Asano’s works and notice that they’re influenced by societal problems regarding youth in Japanese culture. You can do no wrong by checking out works from the likes of authors such as Shuzo Oshimi and Kengo Hanazawa, who have written stories about Japanese youth trying to find themselves in modern society.

Tip #6 - Reflect on how manga is made.

When you read enough manga, you start to pick up on how things are done. There’s so many elements that come into the manga-making process as the manga Bakuman will tell you. There’s the draft process, the number of assistants helping out, the long hours spent drawing, the isolation, the editors checking in to make sure the mangaka doesn’t go wild, etc. You can also think about the story of the title you’re reading and its narrative structure. If there was a huge plot twist that happens, there’s sometimes foreshadowing hints found in earlier volumes. You can think about what the mangaka did in making sure their narrative went according to their liking and read up on fan discussions that point these details out.

The more you read manga, the more you start to appreciate the process of how it happens.

-------------------

I think that’s all I can say about how to find great manga for now. Unfortunately, what I covered here is only just a bit of the whole manga reading picture. If you want to expand your manga horizons further, here’s some books I recommend. These books are available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

The Art of Osamu Tezuka: The God of Manga by Helen McCarthy

Manga: The Complete Guide by Jason Thompson

Manga in Theory and Practice: The Craft of Creating Manga by Hirohiko Araki

The Citi Exhibition: Manga by Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere and Matsuba Ryoko

The History of Hentai Manga: An Expressionist Examination of EroManga by Kimi Rito

By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri Anime and Manga by Erica Friedman

1000 Years of Manga by Bridgitte Koyama-Richard

Reframing Disability in Manga by Yoshiko Okuyama

Comics and the Origins of Manga: A Revisionist History by Eike Exner

The Shonen Jump Guide to Making Manga by the Weekly Shonen Jump Editorial Department

You can check out the "Other Sites to Check Out” link on the side for more manga-related websites (I will be updating this with more manga-related links). I hope you enjoyed this guide and happy reading!

[princesslocket]

WHILE IM FIGURING OUT MY ANSWERS ATM...gimmie some BAKED BEANS vignettes with Locket!! or any ya know any story/groovy ideas you may have

Did you just say BAKED BEANS!!! Because you're in for a treat >:3c

I've got two-ish ideas for a vignette/groovy card but only one of them has an actual story behind it. The other one is more of a vague card idea so... Guess we'll start with that one first!

The groovy card idea:

Would showcase Locket's first visit to Sam's shop on a slow weekend. She'd be some casual wear (and not like her normal clothing either. She'd be in some spin off version, probably similar to her toilet bound kanako-kun art) looking for her favorite manga on the shelves. Sam would be offering her a different manga in the background, thinking it's the one she's looking for, but poor guy doesn't even realize the manga he's holding is an entirely different genre than the one she descirbed to him jksghjshnvoue

Vignette/Story Idea: Running to break Free

Part 1: Starts off with Locket being assigned to the monster team with Azul, Jack, and everyone else.

At this point and time, Locket would be on pretty good terms with Ruggie and split off with him for a little while.

They'd stick together up until the first crate, where they acquire several magic items. Ruggie would let Locket get first pick (a magic cameo jacket and racquet) while he takes whatever's leftover (a communicator).

From here the two would go their separate ways- Locket raring to go on the offensive now that she's got an item, kind of runs off, leaving Ruggie behind because in her head, the communication device should be able to find her at any time, right?!

Part 2: Starts right after lunch!

Locket, who hasn't eaten since breakfast, is following the smell of fresh meat in the air up until she reaches the botanical garden. She doesn't enter though, having caught a glimpse of all the farmers inside through one of the side windows.

Instead she heads back into the safety of the woods and barely manages to escape being captured by a farmer who had followed her from the gardens.

She ends up stumbling into the clearing Malleus and Lilia are in soon after her escape and ends up getting used as a human shield to protect Lilia ;w;///

Let's just say Malleus is not happy about it afterwards (even though Locket willingly gave herself up) jkshgvkesoguh

[dmcoffee]

Packing progress update break because my cat is on my lap, so break is mandatory.

At the point I get to every time I pack where I look around in abject irritation and wonder "Why?" or "What if I just didn't move this stuff?"

I'm trying to condense down to one trunk, two plastic crates, one set of plastic drawers, five cardboar boxes, and a large laundry basket worth of stuff. The DvD's live in leather 100 pack case, but I'll probably have to invest in another one soon...(In fairness, I've been filling it up since late highschool. Plus the physical copies don't vanish when I'm too broke to afford streaming.) The TV is basically perfect for this rig. (So glad I didn't cave and invest in a larger one just because this place is so damned big.) May look into getting it mounted eventually, but that's a low level priority. The manga is gonna be a time packing up. (like I collect it or something...) Still under serious thought process on how to store those in the RV. Sadly not a lot of RV's show off book collections, so I've only seen limited shelving options. There's a few I think might work, such as the single shelves that have a bar or string that can be secured horizontally across the middle to keep them from falling out during a drive. I've picked some brains on ideas, and was suggest a pull out shelf (A drawer/cabinet with a clear plastic or glass door.) Which would still give me the "oooh, fancy manga..." feeling. Also with the space being how it is, my manga is basically pulling double duty as itself and I guess an aesthetic part of my space? Idk, maybe if I decide to share pictures I can get the idea across. (I'm estimating it's about...

All furniture that aren't my mattress, the cat tree, or the shelves I think I can repurpose and nail into my rig are going to be curb alert/buy nothings. I don't have the time to try and sell, and it can be one pay it forward to the local college students/someone who can use them. Economy's getting weird our here, I think I can donate some stuff to help out a little.

The stuff I am still trying to decide on...All the knit material I magpied out of luck. There is so much of it. I know I can use them--hell, probably a good place to start with Curtains until I get more geothermal solutions. May only take a very small portion. I took at least 2 trashcan's worth of them. (Think Oscar the Grouch trashcan.)

I want to take my sewing machine. And I think putting it in the passenger side will be fine for starters. I just dunno if I can actually justify it taking up space long term. (My desire to, and fear of cosplaying are warring on this one.)

Anything else that don't fit goes to curb. I didn't even over acquire stuff this time, it's just so much stuff in a life. So I'm Marie Kondo'ing this all and getting ready for the crazy leap. (With enthusiasm and paranoia from my people lol.)

[clarktooncrossing]

Giraffe's Eye View | Princess Mononoke (1997) REVIEW

Wondering why the sudden case of Deja Vu? It's because this was posted as one long review called 'BINGE WEEK', but I've decided to shorten it for the sake of your sanity and mine. If you're interested in my previous review, click here for my thoughts on Rankin and Bass's take on The Hobbit! For now though, onwards to a grand adventure!

Let it be known throughout the land that I am not a weeb. Yes folks, surprisingly there are people out there who's lives don't revolve around anime. Nothing against the artform as a whole, it's just never been my cup of jade tea. You'd think me being born in the 90s would mean I'm totally obsessed with the medium, considering all the shows that mate it Stateside. You'd also think Pokémon would've been taken off the air by now, yet here we are. That show never kept my interest despite Nintendo's marketing making it appear everywhere, DragonBall seemed far too gratuitous both in terms of its action and sex appeal, and Sailor Moon came out at a time when the difference between boys and girls were distinguished by toy commercials. Ninja Turtles and Spider-Man were for dudes, Barbie and Sailor Moon were for not. Obviously now I know that's a load of bull, especially given my love of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, but little Clark was a lot dumber back then. Still, even now I'm reluctant to try out any new animes, not that this stops my pals from trying. The recommendations they gave me were a mixed bag to say the least. Tokyo Godfathers was as beautiful as it was bittersweet, One Punch Man that used the tropes of three separate generes to its advantage, and Nagatoro was cute despite how awful its titular character could be at times. On the other hand the finale to Cowboy Bebop pissed me of and my first exposure to Cardcaptor Sakura was during the middle of its second season, my anger rising due to how confused I was. With all that said, my taste in anime outside of Avatar or RWBY has expanded, now including films produced by Studio Ghibli. Last year I watched Kiki's Delivery Service for the first time and thought it was pretty decent, so what did I end up thinking of Princess Mononoke (1977)?

For starters, I was wondering why it's called that when she's not actually the protagonist. Not to say she isn't a pivotable part of the plot, but most of our time is spent on Prince Ashitaka, voiced here by Billy Crudup. For anybody about to complain how I'm a filthy dub-lover, two things: 1) I am just learning how to speak Japanese and I am a painfully slow learner. 2) This is an animated movie, not a manga. If I wanted to read, I'll bust out one of the Komi books lining up my shelves. All I wanna do is watch the movie without having to pay attention to whatever it says on the bottom. Nothing against anybody who prefers the dub, this is just my preference. Besides, the American cast for most Ghibli films are incredible, this picture being no exception. We have Billy Bob Thorton from Bad Santa, John DiMaggio taking a break from trying to defeat Kim Possible, and Minnie freak'n Driver as Iron Town's leading lady Lady Eboshi. As someone who thinks Tarzan is one of Disney's best movies, it was a pleasure hearing Jane in this movie.

Wait, wasn't I talking about the plot? Like I was saying, Ashitaka is cursed by a demonic boar, said curse being a demonic manifestation of vengeance and hatred. Think if all the nastiness of Twitter became a collective of demon worms that oddly resembled Venom. It's a pretty fitting description too, considering the symbiote's whole ordeal is enhancing the darker side of ourselves. It's why I still like Spider-Man 3, the symbiote in that movie bringing out the worst of Peter Parker just as much as this demonic curse brings the worst out in everybody. Aunt May was right when she said revenge is like a poison, no better example of this being this picture.

The curse is slowly killing Ashitaka as he comes across two factions also consumed by these darker emotions. On one side is the aforementioned Iron Town, a civilization made of metal that sits on some of the remains of the forest. While the populous seems pleasant enough, Lady Eboshi is obsessed with expansion, making the very sound point that cities have to grow or folks will die. On the other hand we have those living in the forest, such as the apes, boars, wolves, and the titular princess San (Claire Danes), all of whom hate the humans for destroying their home. Basically this movie is the anime answer to The Lorax, a story I have always loved. Much like Dr. Seuss's tale of Truffula Trees, progress and environmentalism are never depicted as purely right or wrong. Both bring up good points while also showing the flaw of each position. Any story that depicts one side as purely in the right or wrong is pure garbage!

ESPECIALLY THAT ONE!

Unlike Illumination's idiotic butchering of a beloved classic, I always respect pro-nature stories that find this balance. After all, people gotta live somewhere and so do animals, right?

If the brilliant writing wasn't already a win, the movie has amazing animation, though really that's to be expecting from Studio Ghibli. Granted, they achieve this level of perfection from the director working his animators like dogs, but let's not open up that can of demonic worms. Regardless of how the sausage was made, it's so spam good sausage. Heck, this movie marked the first example of CGI being implemented into anime and you can hardly tell! If I had any complaints about this movie, it'd be the surprising amount of gore in this movie. Granted it never gets to RoboCop or Predator levels of exteme, but boy did I begin to question this film's PG-13 rating when Ashitaka managed to decapitate a person with an arrow! Green Arrow wishes he could be that lethal! Also, the fact that our two protagonists don't end up as a couple as the end was kinduv' a bummer to a hopeless romantic like that, but really that's small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. When all's said and done, one can easily see why this is considered one of Ghibli's finest features. Do yourself a favor and check this out if you haven't already, preferably before you're cursed by demons.

Then again, maybe what they needed was a goddess to banish all the demons. Oh! I can think of one...

GIF by redarmyscreaming

CURIOUS WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? CLICK HERE TO SEE MY THOUGHTS ON MOTHRA (1962)! MAY THE GLASSES BE WITH YOU!

[sanzusbestie]

May I request for part 2 pickups line and poetry with baji, chifuyu and kazutora

(Chifuyu is a shower manga reader so I'm not surprised if he backfires us lol)

♡ TR boys reacting to a pickup line/love poem ♡

Part 1/Part 2/Part 3

Pairings : Keisuke Baji x gn!reader, Hanemiya Kazutora x gn!reader, Matsuno Chifuyu x gn!reader

Genre : Crack/Fluff

Warnings : None except for some second hand embarrassment lmao

A/n : Aaaah thanks for asking for a part 2 ! These are fun to write ! Thank you for requesting and have a nice day ♡

Now let's sit down and have a serious talk

Why would do even try to embarrass this shameless mf

And in a library for that matter

Chifuyu had asked him to borrow a manga from the library for him so he could bring Peke J to the vet

Keisuke wanted you to go with him and you agreed

"Hey, Kei ?" you whispered between the shelves

"Mhm ?"

"It's a good thing I have my library card because I'm totally checking you out."

Why ? Just why ? Why did you say that in such a quiet place ?

He started to smile and you knew it'd end up badly

Yk in cartoons when they laugh like real "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA" extremely loudly ?

That's how he was currently laughing

And you saw the librarian almost running to you

She didn't even give you any warning

She straight up threatened you to kick you out if you didn't stop your noise

"Hey babe ?"

"What ?" you were scared of his following words

"Did you fart ?" he had a hard time controlling his laugh

Wtf ?

"'Cause you just blew me away !" he """whispered"""

You got kicked out without Chifuyu's manga

That was the first and last time you ever told him a pickup line

But he absolutely wasn't done with it, and you were the one to blame

"Babe," he said as you were walking to his place, he had invited you to dinner with him and his mom. "Did it hurt when you fell-"

"When I fell from heaven ? Haha Keisuke."

"I was going to say from the whore three but have it your way."

You were left speechless

"I'll tell your mom tonight."

"NO ! Please no ! I'll do anything ! I'll write you a love poem !"

Now this was interesting

"You have 'til dinner to finish it and it better be perfect," you warned him

It turned out awful : very short, very lame and full of mistakes

Spoiler : you told his mom 💀.

Kazutora was actually the first one to have said a pickup line

You were dating for a few days only yet and he fell in front of you

Poor boy was so embarrassed that he wanted to humour it by saying "I just fell for you."

He felt ten times worse

But you just softly laughed at his pickup line and helped him getting up

Since this very moment, you two often throw pickup lines to each other out of nowhere

It would happen quite often : you waking up to your lover crying because of a nightlare

But this one night was particularly bad

So much that you told him multiple times not to go to work and just rest at home, Chifuyu would understand

But he insisted on going and you understood : he didn't want to stay home alone because you had to go to work too

You promised to meet in a small cafe you were used to go to together at lunch

You've had this idea for a few days, writing him a love poem and you did

But even if you knew he'd never make fun of you for this, it was still embarrassing

But if it could make him feel better than so be it

Before going to work, you made a small side trip to the petshop and put your envelope in the mailbox texting Chifuyu to "pls let Kazutora get the mail this morning"

When he saw your writing on it, he said to Chifuyu that he'd be in the back shop if he needed him and opened it

A love poem was the last thing he expected and no matter how much he tried not to, he cried

When you two met up at lunch, you couldn't have said a word that he was already hugging you

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. I love you so much."

He gently took you face between his hands and pressed his lips against yours.

He swore to never talk to you ever again

Or at least for two days

He felt betrayed and hurt

You two were roasting each other like you often did

And this time Chifuyu had a really snarky comeback

And you didn't know what to answer to it but you didn't want to lose

There was no way in hell you'd let him beat you at this game

So you said :

"And you're cat is ugly."

How dare you insult Peke J ?

Humiliate him as you please but NEVER go for Peke J 🗿

You didn't even mean it you just wanted to win

But at what cost 😔🤙

You tried absolutely everything to make him talk to you but nothing would do

He wouldn't react even when you kissed him

You were lucky you two were sitting next to each other in class so you could bug him until he'd talk to you

You almost gave up but when you imitated Peppa pig you knew he smiled a little

You saw it, you were sure you did even if it was very faint

And it encouraged you to do more

So you whispered :

"Well somebody better call God, because he's missing angel !"

He choked on the water he was drinking

It even came out from his nose, this shit hurt af you're lucky if he doesn't break up with you

It wasn't because he was shy or anything

You simply surprised him

So when he calmed down he answered :

"But I don't want to give you back to him yet."

You blushed so hard and tried to hide it

"Ha ! You talked to me Chi."

"Fuck."

♡

Taglist : @eriskaitto

[requiem626k]

it only took me watching bsd once all the way through in like five days to know that kunikida is super crazy about organizing to make up for the fact that he feels like his life is out of control :3c

Little Analysis on Kunikida Doppo: What Do His Ideals and Desire to Organise Serve For?

I agree with what you said, only to a certain extent.

Kunikida is always seen with an emerald green notebook on which we see the word “Ideal”. His façade is a ruthless, organised, neat, professional, control-freak, party-pooper, superficial side character who’s only there for comedic purposes next to “complex” characters who have a “proper” and “interesting” past such as Dazai and Atsushi.

Is that really all there is to his personality?

I’ve been experimenting with this man in my mind for months now. Not just out of love, but also out of curiosity.

This man is by no means an insensitive person as he seems. We all saw that in Season 2’s OVA and Season 3’s incident with that girl. In both examples, his cold walls break vis-à-vis a little child and we witness a tender, soft Kunikida who chooses his words so gently and conveys them with the softest smile.

I’m good at magic tricks. Would you like to see some magic?

If he’s someone who understands that a child’s mentality needs to hear these gentle words and someone who’s able to tell her that when no one’s around, why does he insist on keeping his mask?

Even though the manga/anime keeps talking about Kunikida’s ideals, we never get a full list or even a little glimpse until very later. It’s only at the end of the Season 2, during the OVA that we finally explicitly learn one.

My ideal world is not one where people die before my eyes.

It just seems impossible and extremely unrealistic. Funny, even. How could one ensure such a thing? This Kunikida guy must’ve lost his marbles or something. Is he really that blind?

No, he isn’t.

He’s more intelligent than he’s giving away.

When we’re introduced to him for the first time, he uses two words to define himself: “idealist” and “pragmatist”. The first one is pretty understandable, yet what about the second part? That’s where a very sharp contradiction comes in.

Pragmatism [taken from Cambridge Dictionary] : the quality of dealing with a problem in a sensible way that suits the conditions that really exist, rather than following fixed theories, ideas, or rules.

This combination means to me that he always has his ideals touch the ground. He’s perfectly able to recognize the limits of the “reality”, contrary to how unrealistic and exaggerated he’s portrayed as sometimes.

He even painfully acknowledges this during the OVA.

He’s right. That’s just how the world works, and he knows that perfectly.

Which brings us to the original question: Then, why? Why does he insist on organising his view on life through his pragmatistic ideals, if they bring him pain and misery in the long run?

If you’ve read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, you certainly remember the man whose only dream is to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca. It’s one of the Five Pillars of Islam. He saves money since it’s an expensive thing to do, he works and works, and one day, he finally has enough money.

What do you think happens later?

"Well, why don't you go to Mecca now?" asked the boy.

"Because it's the thought of Mecca that keeps me alive. That's what helps me face these days that are all the same, these mute crystals on the shelves, and lunch and dinner at that same horrible café. I'm afraid that if my dream is realized, I'll have no reason to go on living.”

I’ve been thinking of this ever since. Could it be that Kunikida’s reason to go on living thrives off of the very fact that some principal ideals of his are, in fact, unattainable?

These principal ideals I’m talking about are the “selfless” ones which depend solely on the world around him and not on Kunikida himself. His ideal woman, his ideal world- I truly think that the unattainableness of these is presenting a motivating inner force to him. As I said before, he knows perfectly what’s realistic and what isn’t, even though he never admits this vocally, he knows.

He’s a very lonely and sensitive being inside. His walls and cold façade are protecting his soft, vulnerable inner world which is hurt by every single death he’s witnessed and his ideals are constantly there to create a balloon of comfort around him. He defines “reality” as a “cruel, merciless shadow” which has apparently hurt him so much in the past even though we don’t know anything about it yet. His ideals are all part of him, it’s the gasoline to his car, food and water to his body, air to his lungs, comfort to his hurt, defense mechanism to his traumas.

He’s aware of many things. Aware of what his ideals and lifestyle could lead to, both utopia and dystopia.

Yet, there’s a difference that merits being mentioned.

“Winning” has never been his goal, unlike the Azure King.

Even if the path I seek is a parched desert of thirst and suffering, I will continue to seek my ideals!

It’s not whether I can win, it’s about whether I’m willing to fight. Prevailing against myself, that’s what I’ve always done.

He never talks about “fulfilling” his ideals, he always “seeks” them, which again supports what I said in the previous paragraphs. He doesn’t necessarily think that his life is out of control, I think, but he’s using this as something to look forward to everyday, to wake up for everyday. As he chases after them and fights himself for a better version of both himself and the world, he feels home and has a reason to go on until the bitter end.

Such are my thoughts on the matter of Kunikida, his ideals and his desire to keep everything under control.

[get-shiggy-with-it]

Ch. 2

Shigaraki Birthday Celebration! 18+ MINORS DNI

Pairing: Tomura Shigaraki x fem!reader 

Word Count: 3k

Warnings: reader is marked fem cause Tomura is a little sexist and hates you cause you’re a woman, no pronouns, incel!shiggy, collage au/no quirks, tomura is an asshole, gratuitous swearing, like so much, shiggy has a dirty mouth, mentions of shigs being anxious, brief male masturbation, tags will be added for smut in the next two parts

Ch. 1 | Ch. 2 | Ch. 3 | Ch. 4 | Ch. 5 | Ch. 6

Summary: In which studying is done, unwilling connections are made, and Tomura thinks about the way you smell a totally normal amount. 

AO3 mirror

Taglist: @dillybuggg​ (just shoot me an ask if you want to be tagged!

Tomura hadn’t stopped staring at his phone since he left the apartment. It was second nature by now—head down at a nearly ninety degree angle, hoodie pulled up to hide hair he hadn’t bothered to comb in weeks, and phone out, held just far enough away that he could see the pavement behind the screen. 

He’d found that people tended to naturally avoid him this way and he didn’t have to risk accidentally making eye contact. It was still a bit nerve wracking to venture into buildings he didn’t expressly have to for classes, so he was still hesitant to make the voyage from his apartment to the library.  But he’d made the mistake of mentioning plans to his roommate and the bastard wouldn’t leave him alone about it afterwards until he was practically shoved out with the door locked behind him. 

He was half tempted to make up some excuse last minute and go hide out at the only cafe on campus he could tolerate, but Tomura knew he was just delaying the inevitable. Biting the bullet now would help to not prolong his suffering. 

Your text thread glared up at him in stark white on blue as he pushed past a crowd of students by the library entrance and flashed his ID to the attendant. 

Group Project Bitch:

— hey I got us a room on the third floor, all the way in the back

—text me when you’re here I’ll wave you in, it’s kinda hard to find T-T

                                                                                                     sounds good— 

He shot off a quick text to you that he was hoping on the elevator. The other two guys in the lift may have given him a dirty look for only going up to the third floor, but Tomura sure as hell wasn’t going to risk the physical exertion of stares when just the thought being stuck in a small room alone with you for god knows how long already had him sweating. 

When he stepped out, you were leaned against one of the 90s-green shelves, scrolling aimlessly through your phone. He panicked momentarily, thinking he’d have to get your attention cause just walking up without saying anything would be weird right? 

He wasn’t sure. 

He didn’t do shit like this. 

Thankfully, you looked up at the chime of the lift and waved him over. His red sneakers squeaked as they scuffed the linoleum floors and he already regretted choosing his tighter fitting pair of sweats. The tapered legs that hugged his ankles and thin calves rubbed against his skin and stung the raw patches. 

“Hey, thanks for coming,” you said softly and he nodded, following as you began to weave through the stacks. “Sorry it was short notice, graduation’s coming up so I'm swamped with meetings.”

“It’s fine, I didn’t have anything going on.” 

He cringed internally at the way his voice cracked, trying to keep the usual rasp to a minimum. His roommate said it was from the innumerable hours he spent shouting at his monitor or on discord, which was probably true but to you he was sure he just sounded like a fucking teenager. 

“Cool, I’ve been set up for awhile so feel free to move some stuff,” you talked a bit louder now that you’d both stepped into the study room and shut the door. 

Tomura looked around. You’d snagged one of the nicer ones at least, with the big monitors he could cast his screen onto and those comfy chairs he liked but could never beat anyone too on the lower floors. 

You were right, there was shit all over the big table at the center of the room. Notes and printed out readings with highlights galore and sticky notes littering the pages were scattered all over. What a show off. You probably tossed all this stuff out so he’d think you were actually intelligent or some shit. 

Kicking a pile off of the nearest plush armchair, Tomura took a seat and pulled his laptop out. There was a jack in the middle of the table and you plugged yours in to cast onto the big monitor. 

You made a fucking power point for him. 

This couldn’t be real. 

“So I know I ran some stuff by you in class but essentially I was thinking we make like a simple Twine type thing using the rhetorical argument Swift is making…” 

You started rambling again and Tomura almost immediately tuned you out. His eyes drifted between the rough outline you were flicking through on the board and the laptop you had your nose buried in. 

It was covered in stickers, pretty obviously stereotypical for someone as obsessed with being ‘cool’ as you clearly were. But as he scanned through the various old meme phrases and aesthetic shit, he caught a couple of game references he recognized and a panel cutout from one of his favorite manga. 

He almost fell into your trap for a moment, feeling a rush at the prospect of someone—much less a chick—being into his main hyperfixations. 

But it was quickly crushed under everything his years trolling subreddits had taught him. People like you didn’t actually have interests beyond the attention and dick it got them. Plus that manga was pretty popular anyway, you probably didn’t even read it, just thought the line was funny or made you sound quirky. That had to be why you felt the need to drop it in your first texts. 

“What do you think?” you asked, making good on your new habit of startling the hell out of him. 

Tomura blinked, gaze instinctively turning to you but the blatant way you stared made his mouth turn to sand paper, so he looked resolutely back at the color-coded bullet points on the screen. 

“Look’s fine,” he mumbled. 

The more he glanced over it, the more it actually did look fine. A bit more than fine, really, which pissed him off even more. The little choose-your-own debate style story was not a terrible way to make fucking Whatever Swift interesting and it kinda looked like you’d bothered to google some simple coding which gave him a better idea of what you were looking for. 

It was...good. 

And that so fucking annoying. 

Well, he wasn’t sure if annoying was the right word for it, but the proposal coupled with your apparent lack of disgust at working with him made his face hot and that only ever happened otherwise when his roommate left the dishes out for weeks or when some newb on his server fucked up their raids. 

Then, you had the audacity to plop down in the chair next to him and— 

“You can tell me to fuck off if you want,” you began, shuffling in the chair to cross your legs on the cushion, “but I was hoping you’d be willing to show me how you do some of the coding stuff? I tried on my own, but I have literally no clue what I’m doing.” 

He could smell you again, like the whole fucking health and beauty aisle at the grocery store. When he turned his head a bit to look at you around the curtain of his hair, you were crooked—back against the armrest and facing him. 

“Why do you want to know?” he asked, sounding a bit less rude than he would have liked to. 

You just fucking stared right at him though, didn’t wrinkle your nose at how greasy his roots were or how he was wearing the same hoodies as yesterday. 

“I’ve always been interested in it, but my program is kinda stressful and I don’t have much free time so I never learned,” you offered and for once Tomura found he didn’t feel his skin crawl under your unwavering gaze. 

The dry, cracked area around his eyes burned though as sweat beaded on his forehead and he quickly wiped at his face with a loose sweatshirt sleeve. The garment hung off his shoulders, bought a size too big that he never ended up growing into. 

“What’s your major?” 

He found the words slipped easily from him. It was the quintessential question you asked of anyone in college when you met, but he’d never been interested in the answer before. 

You babbled a bit about your specific area of study and your voice was surprisingly not as infuriating as he remembered it being before. It was softer, he thought, than when you were soapboxing in class about the sexist implications of old as fuck poetry—it had a less grating quality and was almost pleasing to the ear. 

Or Tomura would have said that if he thought you deserved the compliment. 

But, obviously you didn’t. 

So he didn’t. 

He just pretended to care about what you were saying and didn’t hang onto every word at all. Actually he was more enraptured in the way your lips moved when you talked. You used your hands a lot too, but his eyes were ensnared on the way your mouth quirked and dipped, at the occasional flash of your tongue between strong teeth. When he leaned in a bit, he could smell your breath too: fruity gum and the remnants of whatever you were always drinking in that loud as fuck cup. He wondered now what exactly it was, so he could buy it and get a better idea of what you mouth might taste—

Nope. 

No, see this was exactly what he wasn’t supposed to be thinking about. How were you doing this to him? What a fucking slut. 

Tomura steeled his nerves as you started explaining the extracurriculars you did on the side. 

“My roommate freshman year actually started a gaming club and so I’ve gotten more into that over the years,” you explained, pointing at the stickers on your laptop case. 

“Are you talking about The League?” 

“Yeah, I didn’t know if you’d heard of it,” you shrugged.  

He knew of the gaming club on campus. He’d thought about joining when he enrolled but the allure of anonymity online gaming provided was too strong. Plus his discord server didn’t have annoying weekly meetings. 

The thought of you, up late and illuminated by the blue light of a tv screen, tucked away in one of the basement rooms in the media building was...strange. It also prompted an array of new images—you in those fucking cat ear headsets, seated in his lap as he trashed you in Mario Kart which was even stranger. 

Tomura had to physically shake his head to dislodge the thought. 

“Uh, we should probably work on this right?” he cringed at the way his voice cracked compared to your own, smooth tone. 

You should narrate those fucking sleepy time mediation things. His roommate used to hide wireless speakers in his room and blast those when Tomura stayed up too late. It was annoying as shit then, but if it was you talking, he probably wouldn’t have minded so much. 

Or no, no he would definitely mind. 

Yes. It would have been worse if anything. 

“Oh shit, you right. It’s been like two hours.” 

He glanced down at his laptop and saw that it had, indeed, been two hours since he got there. He’d willingly spoken to you for two goddamn hours. It felt like no time had passed at all, but the sun was definitely setting, the overhead fluorescent bulbs taking over as the main light source in the room. 

Weird. 

So you settled back in your chair, typing away like you always did, but the sound wasn’t nearly as frustrating as before. Occasionally, you’d glance over his shoulder and ask questions about what he was working on, but mostly the two of you settled into a comfortable silence. 

This pattern continued for the next few weeks. As the weather warmed, you began to show a bit more skin. He never worked up the nerve to comment on the thick expanse of bare thigh that tapered off nicely into your calf, or the curve of your arms not hidden behind knit sweaters—hell even your fucking shoulders were hard not to look at. 

Maybe all those high school dress codes weren’t actually so full of shit after all. Cause he was definitely distracted by the way your neck swooped into the exposed skin of your shoulder and down your back on more than one occasion.

Did all girls know that? Was it some kind of massive conspiracy to crumble the patriarchy or some crap to go flashing bare shoulders everywhere? 

Regardless if you really were trying to hypnotize him into liking you, Tomura stayed resolutely in his monochrome, long sleeved attire, and if you noticed the behavior you never said a word. 

Never said a word about his allergy ridden skin, peeling lips or scarred throat. Never commented on his terrible posture or said his eyes were creepy. Even when he’d occasionally toss a negative remark your way, you never retaliated maliciously. Just brushed him off with a jovial ‘don’t be a dick’ and a playful, but hard slap to his chest or the back of his head. 

The two of you always met in the same, secluded room on the third floor. You’d talk with him in class sometimes or shoot him texts about random bits of inspiration or a late night game memes, but for the most part, your conversations were confined to that room. He found he preferred the study room ‘you’ best. You weren’t as stiff. There was more of a solidity to you, like he’d seen when you told off that Kai bastard. 

It...grew on him. 

He was irrationally anxious that there would be a time when you couldn’t secure this particular room—with it’s big monitor and comfy chairs and less annoying ‘you’—but he’d been reassured after your third work session. 

Someone had knocked softly at the thick, wooden door and a head of wild, bright pink hair peaked around the crack. 

“Sup bro,” the intruder quipped, as they stepped fully into the room. 

“Hey, Spinner,” you mumbled back, looking up momentarily from the essay portion of your presentation before going back to typing. 

Spinner had seemed to notice him at that point and offered a small wave in his direction. “Oh hey, sorry, thought you were alone,” he said quickly. 

“Nah, this is Tomura,” you said, glancing up again and jerking your thumb in his direction. 

Tomura nodded and tugged at his hoodie strings to stop from scratching under the newcomer’s gaze. He’d gotten used to you, but other people still made him a bit nervous. 

“Nice to meet you,” Spinner had a nice smile, bright and flashy when he spoke. He leaned against the door and crossed his arms, looking around the room. “You got the nice one, huh. How’d you manage that?” he asked. 

“Yeah,” you half closed your laptop and stretched a bit. “Jin was working the front desk, so I’ve just been bribing him with vending machine snacks.” 

“He hasn’t gotten himself fired yet?” Spinner laughed incredulously, but not unkindly. 

“Surprisingly not, but he’s completely corrupt now,” you were picking at the cuticle of your thumb and Tomura fixated on the way the skin split off at the nail. Just like his. “A couple packs of chips and a Monster and I get the most bitchin study room whenever I want.” 

“Damn,” Spinner chuckled again and Tomura really wished that he’d leave already. He was beginning to feel himself fading into the upholstery as the conversation left him in the dust. The divergence of your attention away from him or the project was even more annoying that you were. “Well, are you coming to The League meeting tonight? We’re busting out a Smash tournament.” 

“That’s tonight?” you asked, eyes perking up but sliding subtly in Tomura’s direction. “Sorry, I think Tomura and I are gonna be working on this project for a while longer and I’m kinda burnt out. But next time, yeah?”

Spinner rolled his eyes but nodded and kicked off the wall. “That’s not very sexy of you,” he chided and waved a hand in parting. “Gonna work yourself directly into the fucking grave.” 

“Jokes on you, I welcome death.” 

You buried yourself in the screen again and Tomura actually felt a bit grateful for you ending the conversation before he got too painfully awkward. 

But Spinner stopped before he left, looking Tomura up and down from the frayed strings of his black hoodie to the tips of his worn red sneakers. 

“Nice to meet you, man,” he said with a wide grin. “Feel free to tag along next time if you want, we always need more players.” 

The door clicked softly shut behind him and Tomura relaxed back into the silence.

He did end up tagging along—though he spent most of the time hanging off your heels like a lost puppy—to the next meeting of your gaming club and the one after that. Frustratingly enough, he learned that your interests did also extend into skills as you almost bested him in a few rounds Smash. Your profile, lit only by the flashing screen lights, was even more striking outside of his imagined imitations. 

So much so that it found its way into his head late at night when he was too tired to log onto his server. So much so that it had his cock growing firm and tenting his grey sweats without even the visual aid of his go to porn clips. So much so that sometimes, he felt inclined to do something about the throbbing between his legs. So much so that he thought about the way you picked the skin by your fingers. How it looked like his. How your hand might feel like his but softer. Smoother around the edges. With your sweet voice whispering in his ear, making him whine and pant and spill white ropes of release onto his stomach. 

But it was only because you were hot. 

And you were practically begging for him to jack off to the thought of you with those outfits and liking all the shit he liked and noticing when he shrunk away from conversations or including him in them when he started to feel that awful sense of fading into the background. 

Yeah. 

Everybody jerks it sometimes to their group project partners if their ass is nice enough. 

Right?

[animehouse-moe]

Manga Collection Update March 2023

Documenting the development and growth of my collection is something I really enjoy. The majority of pictures in my camera roll are haul or collection pictures from over the recent years, and I really enjoy it for whatever reason. So I thought, hey, why not share that process and journey with other people? It doesn't take long, and others might find it cool, so here I am. At the most it'll be a monthly thing, but it's more likely to be longer and just be influenced by large changes to the collection. Anyways, let's get started.

Re-organizing

I'm posting this now because I just went through a big re-organization, that afforded me 2 whole shelves with my current bookshelves. That's room for probably about 45 volumes of manga, so just shy of "new" space for 100 volumes. Of course, I've still got other space so in total I have about 4 or so free shelves which is real nice.

What brought it about though? Mostly, being full up on space for art books. I had taken up a whole half-height shelf with art books and I felt like I was being inefficient with their storage, so at midnight on a weeknight I decided I would start re-organizing my collection. The first decision was to move all of my art books to my half-width (but full height) white bookshelf.

And it ended up being a really good decision. I managed to fit all my art books onto the shelf (with some on display) plus all my non-English manga. Of course, it's basically at absolute capacity, so I'll be looking into getting another narrow bookshelf to pair it with down the road.

Next, was changing out the half-height black bookshelf. Before, it only had 3 shelves on it total (due to the height of art books) so it was pretty cramped for sure. Switching to two shelves for Viz Sig sized manga, and 2 for regular/Seven Seas sized manga I've gained a lot of extra space.

Of course, I've not really properly organized it which needs to happen haha. My favorite bit on this shelf (though it's impossible to really see because of lighting) is the Neon Genesis Evangelion Side Story collection I have. It's not Ikari Project singles yeah, but I've also got all but one side story in my collection now, and I'm super excited about it. Stuff like Angelic Days is from 15 years ago now which is crazy to think about. Moving forward with the shelf though I want to try and clear out the hardcovers on the bottom shelf to make room for more LNs, but we'll see what I can manage first.

The last shelf that lives in my room is this full size black bookshelf (which is Ikea, all of them are). It's not really changed in recent times, but is pretty full up on manga, so with some of my orders coming in soon I'll definitely be re-organizing it and shifting volumes over to half-height black shelf.

And last but not least we have the pair of half-height white bookshelves in the basement. These are housing most of my "big" regular sized series, and has the majority of my complete manga titles. Because of that it's a little haphazard, but it was a great investment for overflow and space. For those curious the two jerseys you can just see in the image are Todd Gurley on the left and Keenan Allen on the right.

So that's where I'm at right now, just around 940 volumes. If you're curious about what all's in my collection (since some is hard to see/make out) you can check out my libib here. Getting close to 1000 certainly is pretty wild, so maybe I'll do another collection post once I hit that milestone!

[marvelingjules]

Y’all should be proud I sent out an email about a mistake I made and how to best fix it (to be fair to me, I’m not the only person or branch that had done it, and it wasn’t an issue until a recent change in how we fine materials kind of created it as an issue lol), and I emailed asking for help on another thing!

I am once again going to start up a weeding project - focusing more on spaces that are getting impacted than due for weeding per se. Easy Readers, picturebooks, and our Spanish books are all up for weeding. We’ve been getting a lot of new Spanish books which is great but we don’t have a ton of room so time to weed out what hasn’t gone out for over 2 years. Same with picturebooks. I weeded the easy readers a year or so ago and they could do with it again already lol.

While that’s going on, I gotta find/get shelving for the graphic novels/manga, and to move “family” DVDs into their own spot separate from childrens (where I had put them) and adults (where they technically are cataloged). I think I’m gonna put them in this little lobby/hall thing that’s between the adult and children’s sides of the library - kind of representative of how those movies are that way.

(The cataloging of it will remain weird to me. Any movie released in theaters is “adult” and anything not is “kids”, which means movies like The Princess and the Frog, rated G, are supposed to be shelved in adult. 🙄 An odd logic to my mind, but I don’t make the rules, I just have to make things work for my branch within them.)