#kizuna interviews

[turtleations]

Interview with Kanno Hideo (Cameraman / CAPS)

Published in the hide BIBLE (by Akemi Oshima) 2008

Q1: When did you meet hide for the first time?

A: Around ‘90, no?

Q2: Please tell us what kind of impression you had at the time.

A: I think it must have been during the shooting for the SHOXX special issue on X. At that time, I frankly didn’t know much about X, nor about hide-kun. On that day, hide-kun was the first to arrive for the shooting. During that shooting, I thought he was someone who expressed himself in excentric ways. My impression at that time, the impression I remember was that he would watch over PATA-chan’s session with a smile and a glass of bourbon in one hand rather than being photographed himself.

Q3: Please tell us of an episode with hide that left an impression on you.

Q4: What kind of person was hide to you?

A: There is no limit to the memories I have. The first time we met was for a shooting at SHOXX. Also “Mugongeki”, and after that I kept photographing him in at lot of settings, kept photographing him until the final photos that I took of him were the last photos of him ever taken. Even after that, with the hide memorial photo exhibition, “DIVE to 2000”, and the photos for the hide museum and so on, the memorials every year, I am still publishing photos of hide today. I have taken pictures of many a fantastic artist, but there are few that I made as many memories with as hide, more than I could write down here. To me, it was an important connection.

He always continued to imagine and express his own existence through radical visuals, it was delightful. Consequently, I think he was a pioneer of the music scene of that time. I think when we worked together, hide-kun entrusted me with the role of capturing his imaginary world in photographs and preserving his memories and records. Now I can think, maybe ours was a relationship of such unity. The artist called hide created the visuals that are a symbol of that era, a rare talent that pulled the scene forward. It probably didn’t matter to him, but from the point of view of a photographer, hide was a reflection of that era, the photos and music overflowing with so many thrills, the concerts he left us – without exaggeration, I think he became the bible of visual-kei. I am grateful that I was so lucky as to be able to create works with him!

My relationship with him has been longest after his departure, but I am sure that my relationship to the photos hide-kun left behind will be just as long, and I must continue to protect these photos. It has been ten years since I took those photographs, and being acutely aware of the responsibility I took on by taking them, I will continue to face this responsibility in the future.

Those always around him keep their promises, so I guess this is just a gathering of the awesome people who respect hide-kun. I watched this hide memorial summit feeling deeply that it was the place where the love of those guys came to bear fruit.

Q6: Out of hide’s songs, which is your favorite and why?

A: I love them all.

[atopfourthwall]

Hi Linkara.

I don’t know if you saw my response to you on BlueSky, but I thought I’d just post it here in case you didn’t. If that’s alright with you. 

You said that it was weird that Digimon Adventure Tri was incorporating King-Drasil who originated from the 2005 movie Digimon X-Evolution, and has shown up in the tv series Digimon Savers/Digimon Data Squad, the manga Digimon Next and the videogame Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, despite the fact that the Digimon Adventure series is a completely separate continuity from those entries and has it’s own Digital World different from those so it shouldn’t be dropping Digital World lore from completely separate series.

That last part is not exactly true.

According to recent supplementary material, despite there being multiple human worlds in the Digimon multiverse, there is only meant to be one Digital World throughout the entire multiverse. Meaning that all the Digital Worlds you see in the various Anime, Manga and Video Games are all meant to be the same Digital World. 

With the official explanation being as to why the Digital World looks and functions differently every time it's seen in a new continuity, is because the various human worlds it links to interpret it differently (which is apparently supposed to be a metaphor for how the fans interpret and interact with the Digimon series differently depending on what media they were introduced to the series with).

Meaning that the King-Drasil you see in Tri, is likely meant to be the same one as in the other continuities, which does make its seemingly random vendetta against humans in Tri make a bit more sense. 

The irony of all this lore being focused on in Tri, is that Tri actually contradicts a lot of established Adventure lore and continuity, to the point someone made a 6 part document listing all of said contradictions, and even Hiromi Seki who produced the first four Digimon series and came back for Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna and Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning commented on it when clarifying that Tri is still meant to be seen as canon. 

And even the lore in Tri regarding King-Drasil doesn’t quite match up, since Tri borrows the conflict between Homeostasis and King-Drasil from the Digimon Xros Wars manga, but completely changes the nature of said conflict and motivations.

The reason for this is due to the fact that the head-writer of Digimon Adventure Tri has apparently shown in interviews that he was not all that familiar with Adventure and Adventure 02. 

And according to interviews with other people who worked on Tri he would actually reject advice from other staff members who were familiar with Adventure when they offered suggestions or critiques regarding sticking to/contradicting pre-established continuity and lore, in favour of just telling the other staff members to make the series feel more darker and more mature without actually clarifying what that meant.

Yeah, I saw what you replied there. No need to send it to me over more than one social media site. And the only point I will tilt my head at is this: "According to recent supplementary material, despite there being multiple human worlds in the Digimon multiverse, there is only meant to be one Digital World throughout the entire multiverse. Meaning that all the Digital Worlds you see in the various Anime, Manga and Video Games are all meant to be the same Digital World. 

With the official explanation being as to why the Digital World looks and functions differently every time it's seen in a new continuity, is because the various human worlds it links to interpret it differently (which is apparently supposed to be a metaphor for how the fans interpret and interact with the Digimon series differently depending on what media they were introduced to the series with)." Yeah, no, that's bullshit. Not in the sense of what you're saying, but what THEY'RE saying. The Digital World from Adventure is incompatible with the one from Tamers and the one from Frontier. Even putting aside that it's a tortured metaphor to say "different universes just interpret it differently like the fans do from their different mediums," just fundamentally the power players, how evolutions/eggs work, locations, the lore related to Digidestined, their histories and how they were created in conjunction with each different universe, and of course as pointed out - the inconsistent continuity via recurring figures like Drasil just really speak to how this cannot be the same place across ALL the media. Let's not even get into how that means with each series and more human protagonists entering the digital world or encountering it, then they should be running into each other more frequently with the Digital World as a great big multiversal hub - in turn how the digital world spreads out into the various human worlds and why they will enter one and not another... or, of course, if they ARE all the same Digital World, that means that in Tri when they did the big Reboot, IT AFFECTED EVERY SINGLE OTHER DIGIMON SERIES AND RESET ALL THEIR PARTNERS AND FRIENDS/ALLIES. But even if we put aside ALL that... narratively is just dumb. I don't know who the fuck King Drasil is because the only media - THE ONLY MEDIA - that I have consumed in regards to Digimon are seasons 1 to 4. And I'm willing to bet there are plenty who jumped ship at Tamers and even more at Frontier, or who only jumped on AT Tamers, Frontier, Savers, Appmon, or whatever. I only remember so much of Frontier because I only watched through it once, same for Tamers (both good series, as I recall, but still - I wasn't as invested as I still am with Adventure and 02). It is a massive narrative fail to tell your audience who is interested in this nostalgic anniversary series commemorating a SPECIFIC part of Digimon "Oh, by the way, to understand who these people are and what's going on, you need to have watched ALL THESE SERIES, read this expanded universe novel, played this expanded universe video game," etc., etc. Because I guarantee you that that audience hasn't done so and if you're hell-bent on including that stuff, you need to have more proper exposition about, maybe even some flashbacks TO that other media. There's trusting your audience to remember certain things... and then there's assuming your audience remembers EVERYTHING. Now, like you said, apparently the head writer of Tri failed massively here already by not being familiar with the show HE WAS WRITING A NOSTALGIC SEQUEL SERIES TO (WTF, why not WATCH it all then, or why was he assigned to write this at all, then?!) and not taking the advice of those who did, but it feels like at a certain point steps should have been taken to correct this issue, especially when they're doing it for SIX GODDAMN MOVIES.

[shihalyfie]

It's a loaded topic that I generally try not to bring up much because of the various controversies surrounding it, and a few years ago, I was hesitant to mention this in public because there was no way to frame it in a way that didn't sound like a hate post. (That, and admittedly, I probably was not in the right mental frame to handle it well back then; a lot of things have changed in the last few years.) But now this has been on record and even alluded to via official sources, and I don't see a point in being touchy about it anymore, so here's something I really wish more people would understand when they talk about tri., Kizuna, and 02TB:

Between tri. and Kizuna/02TB, almost the entire production system was overhauled, and there are almost no key staff members in common.

I know it's tempting to treat "Toei" like it's some kind of monolith, but it's very important to remember that any stylistic differences in approach or concept between tri. and Kizuna/02TB aren't just because of answering critical reception, but also because almost the entire production system was scooped out and redone from scratch. The one key member they have in common is Kizuna/02TB producer Kinoshita, who was brought onto tri. as late as part 5 and has explicitly stated that he wasn't involved on its story.

The reason this overhaul happened also wasn't just because of something like "people didn't like tri. (in terms of story content)". For one, tri. was subject to a lot of troubled production behind the scenes -- and I'm not making this up, it's on record that they ran out of budget halfway through and had to rewrite the rest of the plot. But another important thing that may not be as clear to people who only learned about it after the fact is that tri. was a downright PR disaster at the time it was going on, such as:

The infamous "nade-nade" incident (ask anyone who was present during the tri. announcement and they'll probably be able to tell you the details)

The director openly saying things like the fact he deliberately does not look at the source material when making adaptations because he sees it as too limiting, accompanied by a number of other inflammatory statements in magazines, etc. suggesting that he probably had never seen the original Adventure to begin with and saw it as a series he needed to make as more "mature", even to the point of rejecting character-accurate scripts for it (that said, it is very important to remember that a series is far more than just one staff member, and there are other staff members who did say they watched it and clearly did their research, so the point I'm making is that the director's attitude naturally made a lot of people in the audience very angry and is a big reason he started currying a bad industry reputation during and even after tri.'s run)

Magazine interviews with staff members and other Q&As generally being so vague and unwilling to answer questions clearly that it got people upset (for example, when a social media campaign soliciting questions for a Q&A session was held for a screening of part 6, it was said to be "suspiciously" too dark to actually answer the questions)

So when you see discussion about tri. being controversial because of "contradictions in the setting" or whatnot, it's not people getting petty about characterization, it's because the production system for tri. managed to make a ton of public relations decisions that unilaterally pissed a ton of people off, so having contradictions in the lore and characterization came off as being due to carelessness and negligence more than anything.

Right now, the series has been over for more than five years, so I'm not bringing all of this up because I want to start an angry mob against the series or anything (I myself have a lot of favorite things that had clearly troubled production issues and controversial statements from staff members, so I'm not saying this alone should be grounds to evaluate a series). The point I'm making is that I see way too many people talking like tri. and Kizuna/02TB were made under the same mentality by a vaguely-defined concept of "Toei" and that any differences in approach are from some bizarre hypocrisy where they keep contradicting themselves. What happened here was that they saw the public relations fallout, realized it wasn't a good idea to continue getting people mad, and completely overhauled everything with entirely different people and an entirely different approach -- and the fact they did not do a similar complete overhaul between Kizuna and 02TB is conversely why they share more in common.

[seventeenlovesthree]

ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT, I HAVE THOUGHTS ON THIS. They're still rather scrambled, so bear with me while I'm trying to get them in order. So, what do we have? Let's summarize first:

In late March of 2025, we will get another PV (Promotional Video), more specifically, another music video. In contrast to the "Butterfly" PV we got on August 1st 2024, featuring newly animated/interpreted scenes from the OG Adventure anime, this one will play to "Brave Heart" and will show what'll happen between "now" (presumably after the events of Kizuna/The Beginning) and the infamous epilogue of 2028. It'll be produced by Hiroyuki Kakudou (!), who also drew the poster depicted above. It'll be animated by Yumeta Company, which was already responsible for Kizuna, The Beginning and the previous PV - and the character designs of Taichi and Yamato we've been shown were made by Rie Nishimura, chief animation director of The Beginning.

It will depict all the characters as adults, and "you will see Agumon (!!!) and their team working together a little differently than before. I think it will be especially pleasing to all of you who have always believed that you have a partner Digimon as well".

OH BOY, WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN??? Beware of some rambles under the cut:

Seeing how Kakudou had just recently commented on Taiorato in a somewhat official interview, you can say that I am genuinely surprised to see him return to such a project. A project that, dare I say it, feels like it could potentially be the final chapter, the definite closure to the Adventure timeline...? It is meant to finally summarize what'll happen until we get to the epilogue. Which is interesting if you consider that Tri and the previous two movies all told somewhat separate stories revolving around "outside characters" (Meiko, Menoa and Rui) without really breaking through the status quo. Granted, we had a few very... Mixed messages in between, questioning the reasoning behind, the foundation of partnerships, dealing with separation, isolation and sacrifices for various side and main characters alike. There was a lot of heartbreak, but Digimon wouldn't be Digimon if there wasn't also always room left for a hopeful note.

And seeing how Kakudou, who had been mostly absent from the previous projects, seems to tackle this "in between" period is very interesting to say the least. There are so many loose threads to tie up that one probably cannot fit all of them in one music video. Nevertheless, this may be his final say in how he wants to see the timeline "end" for his characters. We can already assume that the fighting scene depicted above implies the FINAL return of Agumon and Gabumon, giving closure to Kizuna's ending... But there are still so many other questions unsolved (including Sora's and Piyomon's return to the group as well).

Granted it's always possible that they might use this as a stepping stone to a new series and, really... I wouldn't be opposed to that at all, because these character designs are probably among the best we have gotten in years. You may know that I have my love/dislike relationship with the Kizuna designs and The Beginning had improved on it slightly (Hikari was still the biggest win of the century in my book), but still felt like there was room for growth...

But this? This looks promising as heck and it absolutely has evolved/changed from what we've gotten before. And it's also pretty curious, leaving room for speculation.

Remember how Kizuna basically framed Yamato to be mostly prim and proper with his neatly cut "old" haircut, the hipster glasses, stylish biker jacket, green shirt, white pants and his motorcycle? He was obviously still very distinctly Yamato, especially when you put him next to Taichi and Takeru, but he was very... Well, neat, prim and proper. We know both him and Taichi have been on their way of reconnecting with their true selves, passions and goals post Kizuna, so... Having Kakudou decide on giving Yamato his 02!haircut back is HUGE. And has two potential implications:

02's intention had always been to show a side of Yamato that was more chill. Granted, he still had his emotional outbursts and strong opinions, but he was allowed to be goofy, silly and live for his music. He may never be a 100% people-y person (and never really fancied the fan attention either) and that is perfectly fine, because... Then he wouldn't be Yamato. But he still enjoyed playing his harmonica, playing bass, singing in his band. Personally, I always found that change a bit drastic, but boy needed to figure himself out, grow his hair out and give his emotions an outlet. Having him return to such a state visually is simply... Interesting. Especially because most recent fandom depictions (mostly on the Jyoumato side) have depicted him in his "rockstar aesthetic" as well, INCLUDING the piercing (!). It may just be a temporary state, but it still implies that something in him has changed, bringing him back on track, slowly but steadily.

What does this mean from a production point of view? My personal guess would be - and I could be completely wrong here, so take this with a grain of salt -, that Kakudou wants to put his foot down. Yamato was among those characters who lived through various hairstyle changes in recent years (to the point of returning to his signature hair in Kizuna, probably for nostalgia/promotion reasons if Koushirou's hairstyle change back to his Adventure hair gives you any clue). 02!Yamato is Kakudou's Yamato. This is going to be HIS vision and thus, we're likely to see a LOT of things he would have liked to portray in the previous iterations as well. Whether or not that means he will adjust the FINAL outcome of the epilogue, changing singular aspects about it or not, remains to be seen... Because we know that Yamato's final hair did not look like it does in the concept art, so he may go through more changes after reuniting with Gabumon. We'll see.

When it comes to Taichi, I do not have a lot to add here. If you've read all my analysis posts before, you know how much I hope for my boy to find happiness again, to finally find his path, reunite with his partner... Seeing him wear wide clothes as he does in the poster feels very reminiscent of his "young" self again, so I am curious to see where we're headed with him. Until then... Excuse me while I keep swooning over his concept art (and get absolutely giddy just thinking about how the others may look like!!!), I am absolutely in AWE of how gorgeous he looks there. I cannot wait to see his signature smile again in this art style...

I know, no matter what we'll get, not all answers will be answered. There will still be controversies, there will still be fandom wars (probably). Kakudou wants us to get that final note, that future where everyone will end up with a Digimon partner (despite all the hardships - and everything we went through with the previous three bigger projects in this timeline). Not everybody will be happy with what we'll get.

But I'm still looking forward to it.

Edit: It's also possible that Kakudou will just completely ignore everything that happened post 02 and just go straight from there. We will have to see.

[maoam]

"Kishimoto make sasuke and naruto gay intentionally and not on accident" Okay then so why did he go on multiple interviews insisting that naruto and sasuke's relationship is brotherly and is inspired from his twin brother and that people shouldn't interpret their bond as romantic but platonic?? Source : https://twitter* com/uchihassasusaku/status/1419104011265974275?

If a writer writes homoerotic subtext in his material and expects people to read the material as romantic, he doesnt go around calling the characters "siblings" and asking people to not interpret their dynamic as romantic because then people wont read into his queer subtext like he wanted to

Ship what you want to ship. But stop acting like everyone should buy into your delusions. Kishimoto never said or implied that he wanted naruto and sasuke to be seen as gay but he did say many times that their relationship is brotherly

Ah, another shipper who ships a ship where creator implied twice they never kissed. And whose couple never had a meaningful conversation in a 700 chapter manga. And linking me to some SS stan who gave Elon Musk money for bluecheck mark. 🤣 A good ground to stand on. Okay, I will guide you by the hand since you don't seem to understand. It's okay, illiteracy is a common problem these days. I will put this in easy sections for you, with added links.

Also you and your "queer" nonsense... we are talking about gay, homosexuality. Not slurs.

About the interviews:

The Kizuna thing isn't even written by him, it's an article by another person. These books aren't written by the mangakas ever, they do not have the time nor is the article written from Kishi's pov. Shocker, people write a lot of things in anime merchandise that the creator isn't even involved in. [link] If it were written by Kishi, then an interviewer wouldn't have had to ask Kishi years later whether brotherly relationship was what he was going for with Naruto and Sasuke's bond, and Kishi wouldn't have had given such a cryptic answer where he mulls over it. Because he would have given the answers years back already. Also the fact that he's asked to define their relationship shows how weird it is to the readers. He NEVER told people to not interpret their relationship as romantic. And personally, I have seen movies and a comic where two characters referred to each other as brothers, and their creator referred to them as "soul brothers" but later revealed them to also have romantic feelings.

But I don't expect your mind to be able to comprehend things like this, it does require a little bit of 1+1=2 math. The interview about Seishi is about the feeling of empathy, not that they are literally Naruto and Sasuke's characters. It is one aspect. Kishi has joked about how Naruto and Sasuke are him and his editor too, because he will try to impress his editor. So? And he has said Kushina is based on his wife. So Naruto is him and Kushina is his wife? Why aren't you freaking about this freudian stuff? I know why. I also remember someone saying if Kishi REALLY saw his relationship with his brother as the exact same as Naruto and Sasuke, his brother would need a restraining order against him. It was funny and accurate.

I have wrote about the inconsistencies in his interviews and what shows that he definitely didn't write their dynamic as the same as with his brother despite having one aspect of it [link] and here is another post talking about it more deeply (they also linked my post I just mentioned) [link]. This post also explains how Kishimoto wrote Naruto constantly to do what Sakura can't for Sasuke, and she also included many links to my other posts where I talk about how Kishi wrote Sakura and Sasuke's dynamic, which you can also read if you feel like it. Unless you are scared of being proved wrong, you will read those right, or at least the linked post itself?

About how the audience perceives their dynamic:

The thing is, you and SS fandom don't understand how stories are written. Authors don't do stuff randomly. They use narrative and literary devices to tell their story. Kishi himself has remarked on it many times how careful he is about writing characters, how much he does research, how careful he is about angles etc. [link] If Naruto and Sasuke's relationship was written as brotherly in the text, in the manga, it wouldn't make a bunch of people uncomfortable. There wouldn't have been meltdowns after specific chapters nor would we have people saying when the manga was going on that they are annoyed by the "gay stuff". [link] [link] [link] (there are many more, but here's some collections for an example). Here's one more talking about the Japanese fandom. [link]

When Luffy was saving Ace in Impel Town/Marineford arc, no one in the dudebro community was uncomfortable nor saying it was gay. Eventhough it was a touching and dramatic storyline that showed us how much the two cared about each other. When Alibaba and Cassim were having their past and relationship unravelled in Magi, no one was uncomfortable. Eventhough it was tragic and dramatic and touching yet again. Because despite neither of these pairs being blood-brothers, they were WRITTEN to have a brotherly dynamic/development/relationship in the text, in their behavior. Which is why this also translated to the audience successfully.

If Naruto and Sasuke were written to be brotherly, they would refer to each other as such, including in Boruto, and would tell other people such as well. Hell, they would be proud to tell other people that this person they respect and admire the most is like a brother to them. But they don't. Naruto even told Hagoromo they aren't siblings, but friends. Sasuke said he has only one brother and that is Itachi. If they were brotherly, Kishi wouldn't make Naruto kiss Sasuke, even if accidentally, and have that to be their first interaction. He wouldn't say he wants to be the first one to have rivals kiss in shounen. Not a single brotherly relationship in media is written like this. You know, tropes matter. He wouldn't have Sasuke think fondly about the kiss as one of his most precious memories when he is dying, while years later implying more than once Sasuke never kissed Sakura lol. He wouldn't say Sakura had her first kiss stolen by her rival Naruto. He wouldn't make Sakura be jealous of Naruto's importance to Sasuke, while also giving her zero importance in saving Sasuke. He would not constantly make fun of Sakura by having her be thirsty/desperate for Sasuke's attention, any little crumb from him, while Sasuke ignores her and focuses on Naruto. Kishi knows how his writing comes off. Plenty of people, both men and women who weren't shippers, made jokes about Sasuke going "where's Naruto? hey Naruto" whenever Sakura speaks. Because Kishi made it such a constant dynamic with the three of them. People who have the basic amount of media literacy will get it, and thus all those jokes and memes were born. [link] [link] [link]

If they were brotherly, the anime studio wouldn't have them make eyes at each other while lyrics "please kiss me all night" play in the background, aside from all the other gay ops/ends with romantic lyrics to them. And since Kishi watches the anime, he would have probably point out it's weird. That's what I would do if I wrote about my relationship with my brother and people did that. Magi anime didn't have Alibaba and Cassim in romantic endings...

Kishi wouldn't put this in the movie he made if he wanted them to appear as brothers. Everyone was saying this looked gay/homoerotic when the movie dropped. I saw men on forums say "lol this looks so homoerotic, why did he have to catch Sasuke like that" and even in Chinese theaters people were giggling during this scene. Because it's so in your face fanservice. And Kishi said he cares about angles a lot in his story and that he redraws them if they aren't good enough to drive the message home. So what exactly does that tell you?

People usually aren't sexual about their brother

He wouldn't sexualize and put so much homoeroticism surrounding Sasuke's character, if Sasuke was solely inspired by his brother. You know, unless he had a questionable obsession with his brother. [link]

He wouldn't make Naruto literally get sexually excited when about to fight Sasuke lol [link] [link] that's so obvious Japanese men got amused, uncomfortable and even angry about it, if Sasuke and Naruto were him and his brother.

Romantic tropes/brotherly tropes are not the same

The fact Kishimoto's het couples parallel Naruto and Sasuke's dynamic is very evident. If "brotherly" relationship resembles romantic couples by the same author instead of the other brother dynamics he has written, guess what, it's not written as a brother dynamic lol. Again, proof that he didn't write their dynamic as brotherly. Both Mario/Saori [link] [link] and Minato/Kushina [link] [link] parallel Naruto/Sasuke and have the same tropes as them.

Raikage/Killer B is written as a normal brother relationship. Itachi/Sasuke is written as a complicated brother relationship with a lot of tragedy. Shikamaru/Choji is written as a normal friendship. Kakashi/Obito is written as a complicated friendship with a lot of tragedy. Naruto/Sasuke resembles the romantic relationships Kishimoto wrote, instead of these ones I mentioned. Even in their world, Naruto's actions are seen as irrational and obsession, and the weirdness of it all is constantly pointed out, by Sai, Kabuto, Sakura, Raikage, Itachi. This is a choice Kishi made when he wrote them. [link]

He also made a homage to Devilman and Akira/Ryo relationship that even people in the Japanese fandom noticed. [link] He specifically picked the chapter where Ryo admits having romantic feelings for Akira, and the fight (which parallels Vote2) ending with Ryo realizing how deep his feelings for Akira lie. Kishimoto would not do that if Naruto and Sasuke were based on him and his brother. Why would he pick a character famous for being gay for his best friend/enemy in a chapter where we finally get to see inside Sasuke's head?

Aside from paralleling Hinata's feelings towards Naruto in the Pain arc with Naruto's feelings towards Sasuke in the very next arc, he also foreshadowed a romantic double-suicide with Naruto and Sasuke during said arc. ROMANTIC. [link]

Sasuke on the other hand, was never satisfied with Naruto calling him brother or friend. If their relationship was strictly brotherly, they wouldn't need to ponder about the nature of their relationship, because that's not how any brotherly relationship is written in media. [link]

Kishimoto dislikes SS and talks about Sakura's "love" negatively more than once. [link] Sakura's love is selfish, toxic... yet this doesn't mean anything. Sakura wanted to save Sasuke, yet the one Sasuke said saved him was Naruto.

Now think hard. Use the modest intellect you possess. So aside from Kishimoto having Naruto show sexual attraction towards Sasuke to the point it made Japanese men uncomfortable, he also used romantic tropes (one of them being double-suicide which a writer Kishimoto admires is famous for because he mostly wrote romantic plays ending in that) and romantic parallels to show Naruto's feelings towards Sasuke multiple times, which he did not use for other male friendships in the manga. To the point many Japanese men wondered why Kishimoto "has to push homosexual agenda with Naruto's character", despite the fact he's supposed to be " a normal/good guy". All of these things somehow do not mean anything, nor do the multiple other things I have pointed out on my blog.

I'm not asking you to "buy" into anything, because understanding Naruto is a love story between Naruto and Sasuke and that Kishimoto does not even like Sakura let alone SS would require a little bit of reading comprehension and common sense. Which you and the person you linked sacrificed at the pink altar of Sakura worship, because to you not having anything in common with your partner nor having anything meaningful to talk about nor knowing anything about each other is somehow love. To you having someone else help and understand the person you love because you can't somehow makes an ideal relationship. You mistake Sakura's onesided melodrama for love. She has never said anything meaningful about Sasuke's character, neither has Sasuke said anything meaningful about her. Yet you believe Kishi wrote some deep relationship between them. How am I supposed to reason with someone like that? But your gaslighting doesn't phase me, I have seen all this before many times, it's old news by now. You can call me delusional all you want, but I trust my own understanding thank you very much. It's not like that much is even required, as proven by how many people, even the ones that don't have any need to (casual viewers, straight men, etc.) see it, still see it. Because it is that obvious that only desperate need to not see it blinds someone like you from seeing it.

I'm actually working on another post about Narusasu and Kishi's writing tools regarding it, so stay tuned 🩷

[saorikuhara39]

Feb 2025 issue of B'sLOG translation Creator’s Interview 2024 & Kanji of the Year - Feat. Obey Me Team

Feb 2025 issue of B'sLOG translation Creator’s Interview 2024 & Kanji of the Year - Feat. Obey Me Team (on sale Dec 2024)

For the final month of the year, we bring you our annual interview with the creators of the year! As a way to wrap up the year of 2023, we have conducted a survey of the development staff who work on each of its titles. Be sure to check out the “Kanji character for this year” and their aspirations for the year 2024, as they share their thoughts about their work ♪

- Looking back on the year 2024, what do you remember the most? Being able to hold the long-awaited virtual concert at the Anime Expo. There were so many entrancing songs, and many people had been asking for a concert for a long time, so we couldn't have asked for a better setting to fulfil it. The smiles on the faces of the local audience were unforgettable. In autumn, we were also able to hold a cheer screening in Japan, which brought the brothers' appeal to even more people. Thanks to all of you who love and support them all!

- What do you want your fans to look forward to in 2025? Thank you very much for supporting the "Obey Me!" series! Currently, we are looking into how to celebrate their 5th round of birthdays through trial and error. We are also considering measures to commemorate the 5th anniversary, so we hope you will check out our various official socials. Our love for “Obey Me!” and our appreciation for those who support them will never fade away. We hope you will continue to support them with their own personalities!

KANJI OF THE YEAR 「絆」

[kizuna] ties/bonds, fetters

We feel that they have become even more loved after many other challenges and collaboration, such as Time Chronicles, Birthday Bash, Fraternal Festivity, Date Invitation Function, Concert, various Accessories, ASMR... etc. From here on forward, the [bond] with them will never be broken. From the bottom of our hearts.

[digitalgate02]

(Rough) Fact Checking on Rui & Ukkomon's statements in 02TB

Tbh I'm kinda concerned about people taking Rui's statements for granted and not realizing the movie is unclear what is legit and whatnot.

This is not Kizuna-like levels of screwed up, but this is still bugging me as i've been discussing about this movie with friends who managed to watch it before me, and once i watched it by myself i completely understood their thoughts and theories regarding the movie and the Rui & Ukkomon lore.

We still got no actual news of digital releases or EN subs (tho i believe fansubs might appear once the JP Blu-Ray/DVD is released in May) or any other country digital release (or Blu-Ray/DVD ones) so i can’t completely make a detailed lore busting post about Rui’s statements and what we know or were presented in the original Adventure’99, 02 and their extra materials like Drama CD and movies.

But i do remember tiny bits of the movie… And stuff said in the pre-release stream.

I’ll do my best here.

[WARNING FOR SPOILERS AHEAD]

The movie staff released a timeline for this movie, which indicates Rui met Ukkomon in February 29 1996 → I don’t think this is a contradiction, because if the Korean interview with SekiP is reliable (i mean, we can’t check what she said in JP, and the telephone game from JP to KR and to EN means something might have been lost in the process!), she said they changed a bit of the lore for this movie. Btw, the OG lore of Digimon Partnership count starts in 1995 and then it doubles year by year is still present in the movie, as there’s a scene where the current number of partnerships in the year of 2012, but the number stated is not exact since the movie takes place in February only. So of course the count wouldn’t be the full year number, which is 131,072 partnerships in total.

Rui and Ukkomon form a bond, and Ukkomon grants Rui the wish of having many friends, which he tells the 02 group that partnerships with digimon were the result of this wish → This is completely uncertain, and it is also doubted by the 02 kids in the movie. In Adv’99 and 02 we learn that there’s multiple sources for becoming a Chosen Child: Homeostasis (Adv Eight, possibly their predecessors); Holy Beasts (Daisuke, Miyako & Iori); unknown sources (Menoa, Meiko, Ken, Wallace, Worldwide Chosen, Dark Seed Children perhaps?)

Rui claims he’s the first person who was partnered with a digimon → Well, this is not wrong! Now, if he were claiming to be the first to have met or interacted with a digimon… He would’ve been wrong: The first human to get in touch with the Digital World and the digimon were actually two – Oikawa Yukio and Hida Hiroki (yes, Iori’s late dad), in the 1980s. Despite that, they never had digivices at all. Then in 1995 we possibly had a double digimon encounter happening: Wallace meeting Gummymon and Chocomon briefly ¹, and the Yagami siblings meeting a Koromon. This could mean Rui and Ukkomon were actually the fourth digimon encounter in the timeline. But what is correct is that he became Ukkomon’s partner first because he got the very first digivice in the world. Taichi and Hikari weren’t partnered with that same Koromon ², but they got their own partner digimon + digivices in 1999. And Wallace probably became Terriermon’s partner years after, possibly in 1996 and after Chocomon’s disappearance ³, or post-1996.

Rui claims Ukkomon is a special digimon because he can grant wishes → Okay, but i definitely remember the 02 Kids going like “sounds cool bro but we doubt it” when he said that. And the movie itself quite shows the opposite later: Ukkomon did not cure Rui’s father, and he was possibly manipulating everyone else like puppets (besides Rui’s parents i meant) – so what kind of digimon who can grant wishes is this?! He has no magical god-like powers at all! And his null lore (Bandai’s) profile points out that part of granting wishes are just rumors. But you know what said profile mentions too? That Ukkomon is able to hijack the opponents’ minds. It’s his species’ special move – Liar Dream – besides spinning like a beyblade to attack (Whirlpool Spin).

Rui claims he killed Ukkomon a long time ago → Also not totally true. Rui tried killing Ukkomon, but he couldn’t commit to it. He tried to destroy the digivice, which resulted in his injury in the right eye. Ukkomon did not… “die” apparently. Yes, he was melting, but one detail you might not know is that when a digimon dies, everything from their body, or their weapon is also erased too. Check Adv’99 death for Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon. The eye Ukkomon slapped into Rui’s face was still there after his “death” so this was the biggest hint for the audience. It was also implied in the Audio Drama #3 (released in the Japanese theaters, and soon in the BD/DVD deluxe box as bonus with the other two theater ones) – But it’s okay, he possibly never had a contact with another digimon or even a Chosen Child before meeting Daisuke & co, so we can’t blame him for believing he had killed Ukkomon.

In a flashback, Ukkomon tells Rui that he’s connected to something bigger → This might be the only legitimate truth he had told Rui, besides that Rui was the first person partnered with a digimon. Somehow, Ukkomon is connected to some god-tier entity because once BigUkkomon is destroyed, the digivices are not needed anymore. This part might be completely confusing for everyone else, but it’s not confirming Rui’s claims that the digimon partnerships were caused by Ukkomon, and yes the part of Ukkomon’s claims to be related to some higher up god-like entity.

The notes within the text:

To my biggest surprise… Wallace never mentions when his mother found the egg. But he definitely mentions when Chocomon disappears – 7 years before, which means 1995. I’ve seen many people think this movie goes against the canon in different ways… But now i’ve reached the conclusion that what Wallace meant is that he met Gummymon and Chocomon in the same year Chocomon disappeared in the flower field. Plus, Wallace is shown in those flashbacks as a 4 years old kid (stated in the Memorial Chronicle) and we know via a CD bonus card that Wallace’s age is 11 years old in 2002 (same as Daisuke, Takeru, Hikari and Ken) – so i guess if he had gotten the egg before 1995 he would’ve been too young to remember it (unless you opt for 1994, but i think this wouldn’t be possible…)

The Koromon who met Taichi and Hikari is implied to not be the same who was partnered with Taichi 4 years later in Adventure'99: the TV series Agumon knew Taichi’s name because of the data inserted on his egg by the Agents, which were also manufacturing the Crests and Digivices, according to Homeostasis’ analysis on the children from the Greymon vs Parrotmon fight.

Since Chocomon went missing, i suppose Wallace became partnered with Gummymon only, but if we go with Adv’99 and 02, the Chosen Children can evolve non-partnered digimon as well: Leomon mentions he only managed to evolve into SaberLeomon because of the Chosen Children’s digivices being used on him previously in the series, and in 02 we witnessed the Digimon Kaiser using his digivice to dark evolve Agumon into both SkullGreymon and MetalGreymon virus (the latter only when he created the Evil Spiral, of course).

[reliablejoukido]

my feelings on The Beginning. I welcome discourse and dissenting opinions, but I do NOT welcome hate. Also I'm going to bed literally right after publishing this, so I will talk to y'all tomorrow.

I loved Fullmetal Alchemist: Digimon The Beginning a lot. Seeing the English dub was a wonderful experience and it brought me back to the reason why 02 was my favorite season in the first place. I also appreciated seeing the subbed version tonight, as it helped solidify the plot in my head.

I adored Daisuke especially. I loved Daisuke's emotions and his dialogue and his ability to strike friendship into the heart of anyone. I loved his adorable interactions with Ken, his chaotic interactions with Miyako, and his extremely ship-worthy interactions with Lui. And that scene where Ken pointed out how calm he was? Extremely powerful. Also Daisuke's queer energy was off the charts in this film, just saying. That alone means so much to me.

Also Takeru was SO in character when he was like "I know there is the possibility of Digimon partner-induced nuclear war, but hello??? Patamon might die????" I realize that's an oversimplification of his point, but it felt so right for him.

So like... I don't want to get into arguments about this, because I always feel like I'm wrong about lore and people yell at me just for thinking things they think are "wrong". So these are just my personal opinions which are obviously in no way accurate.

But in my opinion, Lui wasn't the first person to partner with a Digimon. I felt that Ukkomon was unreliable and untrustworthy and unstable, so I don't trust anything he claimed was true. I don't trust Ukkomon's concept of being the reason for Digimon and human partnerships to be accurate. I mean, I could bring Hiroki Hida and Oikawa into the mix. Or Maki and Daigo (if you try to tell me tri isn't canon just because of some interview, I'm going to block you just fyi).

I also don't entirely buy Ukkomon to be the reason the Chosen Children were even Chosen. Wouldn't Lui have been part of their adventure if that was the case? There are so many reasons the Digital World needed the Chosen Children that had absolutely nothing to do with Lui and Ukkomon. The whole Digital World's existence wasn't even mentioned regarding Ukkomon.

I really just don't trust anything Ukkomon did or said. He litterally brainwashed, manipulated, and eventually killed Lui's parents, so forgive me if I find what he says hard to believe. But I seriously loved that Ukkomon was chaotic and untrustworthy. It made for a fascinating "villain". I loved that we were lead to believe some new lore that may or may not be true, depending on how much you believe Ukkomon and Lui.

I also want to believe that now that the digivices are gone (which already happened to Sora, Taichi, Yamato, and implied Mimi, Jou, and Koushiro), that they will receive Digi-eggs soon, perhaps after they go through more important situations in their adult lives. If you know me, then you know I'm not the biggest fan of the ending of Kizuna, because I felt like it was a personal attack on my adulthood. I want more than anything for there to be a reason for Taichi and the others to see their Digimon again. I believe the ending of The Beginning gave us hope that Taichi's bond with Agumon transcends his own broken digivice.

So that's it, mostly. You can all stay tuned for when the movie is available on streaming/blu-ray, because you KNOW I'll be photoshopping ponytails onto Ken again. Also I'm planning a Daisuke/Lui fic at some point.

[love-for-yamato-and-sora]

This is an official interview from the radio drama of The Last Evolution Kizuna. Many people probably don’t know that this interview exists. Yamato’s original best friend was actually a woman, but the director said that this was inappropriate and something would happen if she didn’t change her, so she became a man. Why should it be changed? Because the official knew that in the ending of digimon adventure 02, Yamato married Sora and had two children. But Taichi's best friend in school is also a woman, but the official didn't say anything, which means that The Last Evolution Kizuna has actually admitted that yamato and Sora are a couple. Otherwise, Yamato would know Sora’s whereabouts best in the plot, not Taichi.

[kazarinn]

Future subbing plans

When I first put Hurricane Touchdown out three years ago (goodness, has it really been that long already?!), I wasn't really planning to make fansubbing a regular thing, but after having worked on the Saint Tail project enough, I've started getting a little more used to it, so I decided to put a little more proper thought on what I want to do with it. This post will only be here, so my Tumblr followers can consider this to be an exclusive scoop ☺️

Regarding Hurricane Touchdown: As probably many of you know, Discotek Media recently announced an upcoming release of the first three Digimon movies, which, naturally, will include the Japanese version of Hurricane Touchdown. As is etiquette for fansubbers, I will be removing the download links for the Hudie release once that drops. However, I will be leaving the translation script file accessible to preserve the hard work done on it, and to leave it accessible for anyone who can't use the Discotek version for any reason (importation issues, region locks, etc.).

Raw script files can still be used with videos by putting them in the same folder as the video and giving them the same name, and the transcript is very easy to open with any standard text editor, so I think this will be a good compromise to keep the translation accessible and easy to reference. This is a workflow I started using with Saint Tail due to the unusual nature of its localization situation, but it's something I think I want to consider making use of going forward as well.

Regarding Saint Tail: Nothing really special to report here; I'll be releasing and revising sub scripts as usual until I've finished the series (I'm hoping to get it done by the end of the year). I haven't made a firm decision as to what will happen after that, but since it is a fact that the official release still has serious translation problems, I do think I want to do something to address that a little more aggressively once it's done.

Regarding Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning: Based on the US screenings of the movie, it seems that the official English subtitles for the Japanese version are actually a transcript of the English dub, but with Japanese names swapped in. Surprisingly, this isn't as much as a detriment to the translation as you'd think it might be (the English dub script seems to be surprisingly close to the Japanese script, rather unusually for Digimon standards), but nevertheless, this is extremely bad translation practice and offends me on a personal level. As such, if future releases turn out to still be using this translation, I am considering making my own subtitled script for it.

For the record, because of how close the English dub script is to the Japanese script, I don't think this is actually that much of a detriment to understanding the movie; in fact, I would argue that LAST EVOLUTION Kizuna's official English subtitles are far worse and mistranslated in a more dangerous way. A theoretical The Beginning fansub would be, at most, something that would be done to satisfy a personal pet peeve and to address some minor loss in nuance that isn't reflected in the dub script, especially in regards to the Chosen Child partnership lore it presents (something that I know can be quite a serious issue to a lot of Digimon fans). So I'm not going to make guarantees about whether I'm going to do it in the end, and I wouldn't get your hopes up if I were you, but I do at least want people to know that this is an issue and that I currently have this idea on the table. As with Hurricane Touchdown, if I do put this out, it probably would be in script-only form.

As a side note, I do plan on translating The Beginning-related material (interviews, etc.), but I would rather put them up at a time when a sufficiently large percentage of fans has actually seen the movie. If you're from a non-American country and your country will be having a screening in the near future, please reply to this post with the date so I can get a good idea of when people will be watching it ☺️

[sneezemonster15]

"Narusasu is not accidental kishimoto intentionally made them gay" and how can you prove that outside of your own delusional headcanons? Kishimoto said in many many interviews that naruto and sasuke's relationship is that of brothers and even asked readers to stop interpreting sasuke and naruto's relationship as romantic in "Kizuna ties that bind" databook Sure you can say that these aren't canon but what matters is that kishimoto DID say that and any author who writes two characters as gay hoping that the fans would pick up on the homosexual subtext wouldnt do that bc it would just prevent most fans from picking up on what he intended. It doesnt matter if kishimoto's interviews are canon or not what matters is that kishimoto hasnt done anything to hint that he intentionally wrote sasuke and naruto as romantic In conclusio You are free to ship them but stop acting like your delusions are canon or shading other people for saying/joking that sasunaru was accidental bc all evidence points to the fact that it is accidental

😮‍💨 Define delusion for me. Fans like you are just sad..

Whatever. You are emphatically wrong. There. Come back when you actually have something sensible to say. And now you can fuck off. Bye bye.

[hayannoran]

DA02:TB WAS AMAZING!! Personally, I enjoyed it WAY more than Last Evo Kizuna, and that's really saying something since I think about DA:LEK a lot. I'll be talking about spoilers and my thoughts down under the readmore line!

Okay, so I'll start off with the one thing I somewhat dislike first before getting to positives and just gushing about details: I didn't really like the fact that the digivices dissolved. That's it, really. This is mostly because I'm a bit worried about how travel between the human world and the digital world would work, now. (Also, maybe this is just my Miyakari brainrot, but I was thinking about how this would make it harder for Hikari to visit Miyako... it's ok, my lore brain comes before any kind of shipping brain, but I'm a little bit sad.) Personally, I'm just headcanoning for fun that they eventually can just. Go into digital screens persona-4-style since I think that would be goofy, but that's probably not going to happen lol.

On Rui: I was really pleasantly surprised at how he's written!! Honestly, I felt his frusturation; honestly, I was a bit peeved at what Hikari said to him when he first told the 02 team about the time he broke his digivice due to what Ukkomon did, because even though I agreed with her on what she was saying, I felt like she was ignoring his point of view and his understandable grief. (People aren't perfect when responding to other people's trauma all the time though, so I don't mind from a story perspective.)

I really liked Ukkomon's weird eldritch tentacle form. The tree branches make me think that it's probably Yggsdrasil that Ukkomon has contact with? Since they didn't specify what Ukkomon's connection is, I really hope they explore it more in the future with more episodes, or maybe even another animated series. (Though, maybe a movie would be better for the sake of a more polished end result? Idk, more digimon content is always welcome to me.)

The one scene of Daiken baiting was kinda funny but a little sad since yknow it's queerbait and we know it won't happen canonically due to the epilogue 😭 and the directors doubled down on the epilogue in interviews so we know its not happening... I remember clearly seeing Daisuke blush, but I think Ken was largely unaffected, which, if that blush is anything other than embarrassment, has some slightly sad one-sided connotations. (I'm a Bi Daisuke truther. Maybe I'm delusional. Who cares it's for fun)

This is just a small detail, but I noticed that Silphymon's voice (in the dub at least) (I watch sub usually but the only viewings near my area for both today and tomorrow were dub viewings) was just Tailmon's voice and had none of Hawkmon's voice, which was kinda interesting? It doesn't matter much, it just stuck out to me. I thought it was kinda funny.

I do wish the 02 cast interacted with each other a bit more, but I'm not nearly as bitter about that as I thought I would be, since Rui was a main character I enjoyed. If there's more digimon media in the future that riffs off of this movie, I *would* like it if the 02 cast got more focus, but Rui is a welcome addition to me. (I hope they all get to meet Wallace again at some point... that would be really fun [said by a person who has Hurricane Touchdown as their favorite movie])

Overall, I thought the movie was really good. It had a few other issues, and as someone who's used to the sub I found that the dub voices weren't *entirely* my favorite (except Rui, Rui's performance was excellent), but they didn't bother me as much as I thought they would, making for an amazing experience imo. Review sites I've looked at put it at a B, but for my personal opinion, it's one of the best pieces of digimon media in a LONG time. I'd recommend that you watch it yourself to form your own opinions though (if you haven't watched it and are still reading this for some reason hah) since that's what really matters.

[firstagent]

Digimon Con Part 2 (Frontier/Ghost Game Interview)

Interview is with the voices of Takuya and Hiro.

Quite a lot of talk about what we’re all here for: reminiscing on the time Takeuchi showed up to an event sick. (Takeuchi also plays Gomamon; Tamura is also the voice of Koshiro in tri./Kizuna)

Theme is “The Digimon World According to Two of Its Protagonists” which is rather rich since one of them has never been to the Digital World.

This jazzy remix of With the Will over the Frontier recap is hot stuff!

Takeuchi wanted to emulate the energy of Taichi’s voice actress while playing Takuya.

Tamura says she wanted to create a welcoming atmosphere for everyone, but often spoke so much she got nervous herself.

Takeuchi had interesting challenges to work out as Takuya evolves to different forms as far as figuring out how to adjust her voice and character’s personality while retaining Takuya’s main traits.

She doesn’t particularly identify with any of the characters, but admired Neemon the most.

Tamura asked Takeuchi what role she’d like to play in a new Digimon series as she’s already been a Digimon and a human boy. She doens’t want to “cheat” on her established characters, so she wants to be either Gomamon again or a female Takuya.

Ghost Game recap. Gammamon is baby.

Tamura finds something both sad and cool in seeing Gammamon grow up.

Tamura considers Hiro’s growth the way he relies on his friends more rather than shouldering all the burden himself. He’s not as hot-blooded as Takuya, but his friendships shine through.

One of Tamura’s favorite moments is how sad the Betsumon episode was for Gammamon.

Tamura’s scared of everything, so she’s impressed Hiro isn’t.

She was surprised people actually got eaten in the Arukenimon episode. Takuechi was surprised to hear about it.

She appreciates that the Digimon aren’t necessarily bad, but living in a way that makes them comfortable, but just causes problems for humans.

Unvealed a cool poster of Hiro/Siriusmon and Takuya/Susanoomon. It will be for sale in Japan along with assorted goods.

[uzuchih]

Naruto Kizuna: The Words That Bind—Scroll of Heaven

Interviewer: What do you think international fans like the most in Naruto? Kishimoto: The hero is far from being the most clever fella on earth. He's not a genius. He starts from 0 and starts climbing his way. Everyone can relate to this kind of story, Japanese or not. K: Other important fact: Everyone in the world likes ninjas.

x.

[damnfandomproblems]

In response to 3288 with the digimon saban dub. Yes, the same dub where the main writer added tai x sora content which wasn't in the Japanese version that got my favourite digimon, who is yamato/matt got a lot of hate for. Would not be surprised if that's the reason he wasn't allowed to write the newer digimon adventure series because he admitted in an interview he wanted to add more tai x sora hints in tri and kizuna. When he brought up that one of producers wanted to him to voice matt back in the day I was genuinely freaked out. He would probably have matt sound as unlikeable as possible because he got in the way of his ship. I'm glad it went to an actor that appreciates matt. Keep in mind I don't even care about sora x matt and do genuinely feel sorry for the tai x sora shippers for getting baited by the guy.

[nildrohain9]

Thinking

During the interview (regarding the movie Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna), Yosuke stated, "As we go through life, I believe that it is not only success and joy that makes you grow as a person but also overcoming failure. Hard and sad realities are what keeps us alive. I'm sure there will be a lot of obstacles in the future, but let's go live our lives forward strongly! This is the message that we are trying to convey."