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tsuki-sennin · 1 year

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Hello there, Geats fans! I realize this is a bit unusual, but I'd like to begin today's episode of a tokusatsu program about a reality show that exploits the masses and its own employees for the entertainment of a bunch of futuristic yuppies to talk about something I feel is important.

I'll keep this as brief as I can, but lately you may have heard about the Writer's Guild of America going on strike over the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (made up of production studios under such companies as Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros., and Sony) cutting the income of writers by means of decreasing residuals given from streaming and other conditions such as employment security. This strike, let me be entirely clear, is right. Not only do these writers deserve far more money and job security than Hollywood is willing to give them, but multi-billion dollar corporations like Netflix, Warner Bros., and Disney can and should be made to pay employees more money, and this could set a precedent for other underpaid people involved with all your favorite productions to have their livelihoods enhanced too. From my limited perspective at least, the WGA's requests could only be good for everyone involved. And if other unions get involved like the Director's Guild of America and

I'd also like to mention that you could see a massive increase of reality TV, as that previously occurred due to various AMPTP studios basically punishing the WGA back in the late oughts by rendering them unnecessary, especially with the rise of AI these companies seek to use far more extensively. And I don't know if you remember, but 2000s reality TV is some of the most exploitative shit I've ever seen, so the idea of it returning backed up by internet techbros makes me wretch.

I'm unfamiliar with Japanese screenwriting standards, but I do realize that Toei is hardly spotless when it comes to treating writers poorly (*cough* Hibiki *cough*), but hopefully this opens up some eyes in Japan as well. All over the world, even, because this is not nor has it ever been an American exclusive issue.

Right, so, I apologize this was so rambling, but TL;DR: The WGA are entirely justified in their efforts in getting the writers of your favorite shows paid more, and you definitely should not be supporting the exploitative reality shows that'll come out in the wake of writers just wanting a decent income.

Anyways, back to that (fictional) exploitative reality show I talk about every week~! I hear this episode leaked last week, so I've been burying my head in the sand to avoid it.

Spoilers, I guess...

-Buffa's Victory Lap has hit some screeching brakes.

-Ace, you're a movie star, right? I know for a fact you'd stand with the WGA.

-Oh man, we're fucking cooking with Geats. I see you, I see you~!

-Mmm, that's a tasty shot.

-Boosted in the dirt.

-Hot damn, Ace!

-Goodbye, Game Master Chirami. You were funny... and that's all the nice things I can say about you.

-Whoaaaaa, invisible arms?

-Oooooh, that's cool

-I realize it's a simple chroma key effect on the costume, but it looks really good.

-Ace has hit his mad arc.

-I... don't think a Berserker Form is in the cards, but expect to be more terrified an orange and white fox than I think you can.

-Welcome back to the Desire Royale.

-Still wanna know what the deal is with Tsumuri and the 40X Magnum Shooter.

-Suel! Our final boss.

-Let the game begin.

-An ultimate Rider Battle.

-Oh fuck, Daichi!

-Desire Royale.

-Oh shit, Ace remembered the movie. Therefore he remembers Ikki and Vice too.

-I actually watched Movie Battle Royale a few days ago.

-It was okay. The action was pretty good, getting to meet up with the Igarashi Fam was nice, Sakura chasing Neon was cute and funny, Kagero getting so terrified of Keiwa's demon was super cool, that's the kind of thematic carry over I like to see.

-I liked Seeker, he was cool, but the whole movie would've been way cooler if it was just all these characters I like interacting with each other in a way more dangerous version of the typical DGP games from that point in the season. They also really should've built on the idea of Ikki and Vice using the Desire Drivers for everybody to pick them up, I think Asakura would've loved the Water Buckle.

-Also, seeing Knight's suit in such crappy condition kinda made me sad, and they really fucked with Ren's character by making him this generic brute. Didn't like that at all. Asakura's writing wasn't that much better, but I did like him terrifying Vice, that was epic of him. Ryuga... also could've been done way better.

-Also, what was the point of Balidero and Izangi? Like, as villains.

-Big, big losers. Beroba seems to like this direction, at least.

-Hello, Kekera!

-"Bring back my boy. I'll stir up trouble for you."

-Don't do that, man.

-Nooooo, Keiwaaaaaa

-Sara-neesan... :(

-Excuse me, sweetheart- "Geeeeeh!"

-"I'm a frog! Obviously! Sakurai Keiwa, you want him back?"

-Oooooh, you dirty motherfucker.

-Holy shit

-He came right back.

-"Uhhhh, don't worry~!"

-She bought Kekera! At an... antique shop. In an... abandoned strip mall. In Okinawa.

-...this reminds me, I once saw a piece of fanart that depicted Kekera in the style of frogs in Amphibia. If I find it again, I'll reblog it.

-Traaaaaash!

-Sara-neesan's a magical girl, and Kekera's her fairy.

-What's your gameplan her, frog man?

-Well, at least Kyuun's trying.

-Miss Neon...

-A world that forgot about Kurama Neon.

-That hurts me a little.

-You do exist :(

-Hello, Tsumuri-neesan.

-"Is it the goddess? Or the executives? Or my cool big sister? :>"

-She didn't deny it. Let's go, found family.

-You may have been a tremendous accomplice, but you do have a chance to make things better.

-Too late, you didn't deny it the first time!

-Set her free.

-That's his ultimate wish.

-Hoooo boy.

-A nice little river.

-Sara-san!

-Neon-chan!

-"Hah! I knew it~!"

-What he doesn't know won't hurt him, huh Nee-san?

-Daichi-kun~!

-Gotta gamble.

-KEKERA JUMPSCARE

Daichi: Keiwa Sakurai, Kamen Rider Tycoon. You're his big sister, hmmm~?

Sara: Ding ding ding! :D

-I guess as a big sister herself, Nene Shida would kinda channel her own little sister's incredible looks of shock.

-Time to kick his ass.

-Oh that's cute

-Okay, that's not an otter, that's not a cat, that's a civet! What looks to be a masked palm civet. They're apparently everywhere on the Indian subcontinent and throughout Southeast Asia.

-They're in the same suborder as cats and otters at least, so that's a neat way of tying her Rider form to Neon and Keiwa's. There's also an endangered species known as the otter civet, which exists in Malaysia and Indonesia.

-Ooooh, down she goes.

-"There she goes~!"

-"Go play the game, boy. You'll save her."

-Daichi's about to commit a revenge.

-Oooooh!

-In comes Tycoon!

-Otter boy strikes!

-Beroba's a squatter.

-Boom!

-In comes Buffa.

-Geats with the save!

-Straight to Mark II.

-"Tanuki soba tastes nice, Buffa. You should try it sometime."

-"Thanks. I guess."

-Ooooooh...

-There it is. The divide.

-"You leave my mom out of this!"

-Who is writing these damn rules?

-Ah, yep! The Nadge-Sparrow trap.

-The action continues into next week.

#kamen rider #geats #kr geats #geats spoilers #kamen rider geats

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firebirdsdaughter · 3 years

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actually other then the helmet ark scorpion is entirely made out of parts from ichigata, a figure they already made (and are already also reusing for lone wolf.) whereas izu 02 is entirely parts they havent made yet, and depending on how they do it, may be parts they largely couldn't reuse for an aruto 02 release because they may be for a smaller frame. izu being first i think has more to do with them prioritizing movie and v-cin figures for zero one right now

Gonna add a note at the start: I'm sorry for getting so defensive if you were just trying to weigh in. I feel very strongly about this character and this form. Also I'm super tired and super stressed out, so my emotions are running very high right now.

Ark Scorpion is made out of parts from Horobi's Sting Scorpion form that they'd have to alter (and would have to significantly alter the helmet at least, if they even still have it). Ichigata or whatever got nothing on that.

I could have sworn 02 already happened? They usually do the major forms of the protag. I don't pay much attention to Aruto stuff these days, but from what I could see 'Izu' 02 looks pretty much the same as any Aruto version, just the 'foldable' hands and maybe a thinner waist? But it didn't look that thin. Not that I'm able to get a measuring tape and check, but I just don't see them going so far as to make the parts extra small (for ex. Naki's release had standard proportions despite them being shorter than the rest of mbjr, and I can tell you first hand that Sting Scorpion and Shooting Wolf are the same height when they shouldn't be if they cared about that stuff). As I also mentioned, also not convinced that's gonna be something they release for retail, seems very showcase-only-y. LoneWolf stands a good chance though (pls, I beg).

I don't doubt the primary motivation is billing. That's why Justice Serval got a release, which I have no choice but to support bc that's a unique model solely used by a female Rider, however I feel about the person who used it and the context it was used in (although the only plausible explanation I can give for [redacted] is that they could just recolour Assault Wolf, bc they were cowards, so they could shove it out fast). I don't think it was clear in my post, but my thinking was that part of the reasoning is that it would take too long to make new parts that they can't reuse (assuming they haven't done a 02 release, I highly doubt they'd make ones they couldn't adjust/pretty sure that version is a one off), so they don't feel like, by that point, it'd generate enough revenue to justify it and are preferring to focus on new/current releases.

They do do other form releases later on, so we might get them later, but that doesn't stop me being personally miffed that a form that makes me uncomfortable and did next to nothing and had very little meaning got shelled out bc it was 'easy' and a form that was incredibly important to the end game and is very important and meaningful to me got sidelined for later release as a special or something. Esp considering how the character it belongs to was treated in the show and has been treated in general. I'm allowed to be sad and disappointed about something and regard it as 'terrible news' that they couldn't be bothered to try to make it. People are disappointed by toy releases all the time.

I'm sorry for getting ruffled, Horobi and Sting Scorpion are very important and personal to me after the past year(s), so I get very protective of them. I also shouldn't have answered this while super tired and stressed out, bc that makes me extra anxious and defensive. I'm just complaining about obnoxious, unfair choices that go into capitalism and toy sales.

#Asks #Anonymous #Firebird Opinions #not putting this in the show tag #bc I got a bit salty/personal/upset #the only reason I put the other post was to commiserate w/ other people who wanted those Figuarts #not trying to state any facts or anything #bc ultimately yeah I don't know #I just have feelings #and maybe I'm being defensive #I just… have a lot of Feelings #also have they really not already done 02?#I remember seeing it #they usually do the protagonist's big forms #(for ex I highly doubt we'll ever get freezing bear or anything)#also ruffled since Horobi was popular enough to get a transparent version #but nooooooo no Ark Scorpion DX #let me give you my money Toei!

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izzyizumi · 4 years

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TAISHIRO FRIENDS ………………………,,,,,,,,,,,, B E S T

@god-fucking-dammit-mizutani

#god fucking dammit mizutani #izzyizumi chatting #izzyizumi replies #izzyizumi friends #izzyizumi mutuals #izzyizumi humor #taishiro humor #taishiro #otp: shall we go together #otp: youre amazing #(I'M)#(L A U G H I N G)#(;A;/ tHIS PERSON GETS ME)#(OK BUT TOEI SERIOUSLY I'D GIVE YOU ALL MY MONEY FOR MORE TAISHIROS RELEVANT MERCH AT THE VERY VERY LEAST)#(YOU KNOW. YOU KNOW. A FIGURE SLASH STATUE. SPECIFICALLY FOR TAISHIROS . WOULD BE AMAZING)#(IT'D NEVER HAPPEN BUT WE CAN DREAM)#(OK BUT I'D SERIOUSLY BUY SUCH A THING)#(OR LIKE. TOEI. TOEI WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL THOSE MAGAZINE ARTS. TOEI PLS. TOEI. TAISHIROS MAGAZINE ARTS)#(ok ok i'm SERIOUSLY joking with these tags I KNOW I KNOW but LET US YELL)#(IDK WHAT ELSE I CAN PREDICT TBH UMMMM MAYBE A DIGISTAGEPLAY PART THE 2ND WITH MORE TAISHIROS INTERACTIONS TOO)#(A SEQUENCE AS STRONG AS MUGENDRAMON ARC TAISHIROS IN THE LATER HALF EXCEPT BETTER AND MORE RESOLVED P L S)#(ADOPTION REVEAL SCENE WITH TAISHIRO would literally END ME FOR GOOD but Toei would nEVER DO IT rIIIIIIIGHT ............. HHHHHHA)#(ok. OK. the ONE FINAL THING. LITERALLY. ONE. HUG. TOEI. GENUINE HUG. NOT TAICHI CATCHING KOUSHIRO HUG I MEAN A REAL HUG)#(MY KOUSHIRO PREDICTION SLASH WISH IS KOUSHIRO GETTING TO EVOLVE HERCULESKABUTERIMON EARLY AND THEM BEING AWESOME BUT)#(THAT'S NOT TAISHIRO)#(UMMMMM TAICHI MEETING IZUMI FAMILY IDEK !!!1!)#(OK OK WAIT I GOT IT KOUSHIRO CALLING TAICHI HIS ' MOST PRECIOUS PERSON ' SLASH 'TREASURE' TROPE. WOULD THAT DO IT. WOULD THAT)#( ' TAISETSU NA --------- ')#(OK OK I'M SORRY JUST I HAVE TO . ALLCAPS YELL ABOUT THE OTP SOMETIMES)#('SELF JUST BECAUSE ONE SHOUNEN ANIME OTP OF YOURS HAD A LITERAL 'DAISUKI DA' SCENE DOESNT MEAN TAISHIRO WILL R i g h T')

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giuliafc · 3 years

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Never Give up!

Written by: JuliaFC

Beta: @rose-beagle-bagel (I beg your pardon, got the names confused!)

Summary: After Gabriel lowers his bar by locking Adrien up in his room unless he relinquishes his ring (because apparently, 'it interferes with his work'), Chat Noir can see only one solution. But Ladybug doesn't agree.

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by (c) Thomas Astruc, TS1 Bouygues, Disney Channel, Zagtoon, Toei Animation. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Written for the "Snippet July" challenge of the Miraculous Fanworks Discord server @miraculousfanworks AND for LadyNoir July @ladynoirjuly Day 8 — Tyranny/Admiration. Let me know what you think!

oOoOoOoOoOo

Adrien knocked at the door of his father's atélier and waited for him to tell him to come in.

"Adrien," commanded Gabriel. Adrien gulped and stood there.

"You wanted to speak with me, father?" he asked, his heart drumming in his ears.

Gabriel gave him a cold stare. "It has come to my attention that you wear items of clothing that haven't been agreed in the exclusivity contract of the Agreste brand."

"What?" Adrien had to check that he'd heard correctly. "Father, I only wear the clothes you provide for me."

Gabriel's gaze hardened. "Show me your hands."

Adrien gasped. "Is it about my ring?"

"François complained after yesterday's photoshoot. He told you to take the ring off because it was interfering with the outfit, and you refused. Is this true?"

"I-it is." Adrien gulped. Gabriel’s gaze punctured his soul and the boy put his left hand on top of his right one, as if to protect his Miraculous from his father's attention.

"Hand over the ring."

Adrien's face paled "No! No, father, why? You can't—"

"I can and I will, Adrien. Your attachment to that junk has affected your work. It's stated clearly in your contract that all you wear must be pre-approved. I won't give you my approval for something that can damage your image."

"Father!" retorted Adrien, his body tense. "It's only a ring!"

"Go back to your chamber. I'll cancel your enrollment at school; from tomorrow you shall resume your homeschooling lessons with Nathalie." Gabriel sneered when Adrien gasped. "You won't be allowed to see any of your friends nor to set foot out of this house until you relinquish that ring."

Adrien's eyes widened in shock and his mouth hung open. "You can't be serious, father? Containing me in my room, for a ring?"

"If it was only that, you would've relinquished it here and now. Evidently, it's not 'only a ring' to you. You're refusing a direct order. I won't repeat myself, go to your chamber."

Adrien balled both hands into fists, his arms shaking, his eyes looking down. "I can't believe this," he muttered. He got up and, glaring at his father with tears in his eyes, dragged himself out of his office.

oOoOoOoOoOo

Chat heard the soft thump behind him and saw Ladybug sitting graciously next to him. His gaze scanned gloomily the city of Love beneath them. A view that until now, had been for him and his Lady, only. A look that he would never see again. His heart sank when his gaze met bluebells. It was the only way.

"You said that it was important, Chaton?" said Ladybug, but she immediately noticed his heavy gloom. "What's wrong?"

"I… need to give my Miraculous back." Ladybug sucked her breath in. "I'm sorry."

She put a hand on his shoulder. " W-what's going on?"

He lowered his gaze as his hand played with the Miraculous on his ring finger. "My life at home isn't easy, Buginette. I have a lot of restrictions and up to now, I have been able to pencil time for our patrols and escape timely enough to help you in the akuma fights." He sighed. "But things have changed today. My fath-uh-family is very controlling. I can’t do anything that isn't 'pre-approved'." He paused. "Today, I've been asked to relinquish my ring. I've been literally locked up in my own house with no possibility of getting out until I do it."

He found his eyes looking at Ladybug; all he saw was disbelief in her face.

"I never knew that your civilian life was so difficult, Chaton. I can't believe that someone you call 'family' would forbid you from wearing a ring. Can you not just put it on a chain to your neck?"

Chat Noir sighed. "No, M’lady. They would see the chain and ask me to remove it. By contract I'm not allowed to wear anything that is not branded Ag—uh, family brand. Until today, the rule never bothered me; now… it bit me in the back."

"I cannot believe that a family member could be such a tyrant!" Ladybug's voice was high and cracking and Chat Noir's green eyes were on the brink of tears. He explained to Ladybug the truth of his situation, trying to avoid any detail that would give his identity away. He explained how his mother died a year ago, how his father hardened since her death, how he sometimes didn't even have time to breathe with all the commitments his family was pushing on him.

"Woah," muttered Ladybug absent-mindedly. "You're always so cheerful, Minou. I would never have thought you were going through such-such hell." Her eyes were burning with anger. "I don't know how you do it. Honestly, I admire you, Chaton. It sounds as if you had your hands full, but you were never late for a patrol and you always arrived as soon as possible during akuma attacks. You must have the best organisational skills in the world."

Chat Noir smiled. "Thank you, Buginette. Your admiration means the world to me." His smile faltered. "How do you want to do it? Should I take you to my room and detransform?"

She grabbed his hands and looked up at him with a frown of pure determination. "No way, Chaton. You're not giving up on the only freedom you have. I'm not doing this without you either." Her voice cracked. "It's you and me against the world, remember? Ladybug and Chat Noir. If you're giving up yours, I'll be giving up mine. Together or nothing." She smiled softly as she said that and he smiled shyly back. "We will find a way," she continued. "But first, c'me here." She opened her arms wide and Chat Noir's eyes filled with tears as he let her wrap him into a hug.

Yes, she was right. They would find a way. They were an unstoppable team and there was nothing on this planet that they couldn't overcome together.

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Author's Note

Hi there! Here we are with day 8. I know… but with a prompt like 'tyranny' all I could think of was angst. Hope I managed to save it at the end with a little fluff. I hope you like it and will leave me a comment. You know that comments are my bread and butter!

Until (hopefully) tomorrow, bug out!

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous #miraculous les aventures de ladybug et chat noir #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng #adrienette #chat noir #adrinette #ladybug #ladynoir july #ladynoir #miraculous fanworks #ladynoirjuly2021

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silvermoon424 · 3 years

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"Toei dropped the ball in promoting Crystal". If this ain't the truth and it makes me so mad. Sailor Moon is internationally known due mostly to the anime and it feels like they did diddly squat to promote it to new fans. The only PR it ever got was from fans excited it was returning. Toei WTH!?

And I'm also sad all we get for the dream arc is two movies both cause of the wait for it to come to the states and cut content. It's the most different from the 90s and the 1 I prefer and I hope they adapted it nice.

I'm also worried for Stars as well because we don't even know how they plan to adapt it. With KNY at least the train arc wasn't that long and they adapted it nice but so much happens in the final arc I want it to get a tv season but then that would throw off the flow of things. Tv series, then movies then tv series? Ugh. Did we ever get a reason why the dream arc was a movie and not a tv season.

TBH I didn't really like Crystal. I just liked the humor and art style from the 90s better but I wish Crystal was treated better. I feel it shoulda had more poured into it then an average seasonal show. Fans expectations were let down and it really drove a wedge in the fandom which was the saddest to me. Just wanted to give my 2 cents. Thanx for listening.

Preach, anon. That's something that's always really bothered me too: Crystal's seeming disinterest in creating new fans. This is Sailor Moon, a beloved worldwide phenomenon. I get that it'd be harder to capture that magic again because the 2010s/2020s are so different from the 90s, but I firmly believe that Sailor Moon is timeless and younger generations (or hell, even older people who missed out on the phenomenon in the 90s/early 2000s) can and will enjoy it.

Like, I'm living proof of that. I got into Sailor Moon in 2008 at 13 years old- in a really stagnant period where nothing new was being made and nothing was promoted. I literally only found Sailor Moon because someone's signature on a random site had a picture of Rei in it and I thought she was pretty. Yet I still fell in love with Sailor Moon, I felt its magic. Crystal could have easily been something that created scores of new fans, especially in its native country of Japan (where the Precure series is still going strong).

Yet Toei was more interested in capitalizing on older fans and nostalgia. They did very little to promote the series or engage with people who were unfamiliar with Sailor Moon. Everyone should have been talking about Crystal, like they did for FMA Brotherhood. But the hype for Crystal was mostly contained to the preexisting Sailor Moon fandom itself, which is really sad. It really can't be said enough: Toei fucking dropped the ball.

It's also really frustrating to see the differences between magical girl properties Toei actually cares about and Sailor Moon. Precure gets awesome animation every season, 2 movies per season, tons of advertisements and merch, beautiful and unique transformation sequences for every Cure... the list goes on and on. Sailor Moon Crystal gets merch and remakes of the 90s anime transformations and that's pretty much it. I love Precure, but it wouldn't even exist without Sailor Moon. Like I said in that previous post, Sailor Moon has made Toei untold amounts of money and they've been so disrespectful to it ever since it stopped being one of their primary cash cows.

Also, I'm worried about Stars too. It really needs to be a season but like you said it would be super weird if the format got messed up like that so it will probably be a couple of movies again (if it ever gets adapted at all). And I'm pretty sure no official explanation has been given as to why Eternal was a 2-part movie instead of a season, but fans speculate it's because season 3 of Crystal was unprofitable (thanks to Toei dropping the ball on seasons 1-2 and killing off most people's interest) so they went the cheaper route of shorter runtime.

Also yeah, speaking of someone who has been active in the fandom for over a decade, Crystal really drove a wedge between fans. A lot of people (including myself) felt the need to defend it because we'd been waiting for it for so long and some people felt the need to voice their (understandable) frustrations and anger. Everyone seems to unanimously agree that season 3 was good (and reception for Eternal is warm based on what we've seen of it) but the first two seasons were brutally controversial.

#Sailor Moon #Sailor Moon Crystal #long post

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nanachingu · 3 years

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Drama Review: In Family We Trust (2018) (Thai Drama)

My first Thai drama review is coming from In Family We Trust (2018). First, let me tell you how I found this drama and decided to binge-watching it. I often see this title when I scroll Netflix but never trying to watch it till someone attach me. My whole reason to start this drama is Thanapob Lee or we can called him Tor. He’s one of the main actor in this drama and I love him in his next drama Hua Jai Sila (2019). I think his acting in that drama is really good, he’s perfect potraying his character so I want to find out his another project. To be honest, before this drama I already see him in several movie like Ghost Lab and May Who? and shockingly he’s cameo in the end of The Stranded (Netflix series) but I don’t have any idea that it’s him all this time. Really Hua Jai Sila make me open my eyes and make me found this worth-watching drama.

So here I am ready to review this family drama with a touch of mystery and plot twist story that you can find it in Netflix. When I see the title, I already familiar with that name like I think I see this a lot when I scroll Netflix and just need like 3 days to finish this!!! This is one of my favorite genre, I’m weak with family drama and really love with plot twist story. Because this is a family drama, of course there are so many character in this drama. They’re of course a big family, Jiraanan family. Grandpa or called A-goong and Grandma we called A-ma have 5 children (but we only see 4 children in this drama) and of course their children have their family too.

So in the beginning of the story, we’ll be seen that each of Jiranaan family are get along with each other well and prepared to celebrate their A-goong birthday. A-goong and A-ma eldest son is Prasoet, followed by another son called Mate, and they have a daughter called Phatson, and the youngest son is Konkan. I think they have another child that already passed away because we can see one grandson that live together with A-goong and A-ma. Of course their sons and daughter have child too, so the family become much bigger. Let’s see the family tree first so we didn’t confused.

From the left, the son is Prasoet (Songsit Rungnopakunsi) and right beside him are his wifes. The one in the right is Cris (Sopitnapa Chumpanee) and their son is Pete (JAYLERR). This is the family that he brought into Jiraanan family.

Little does his family know, he had another son with another women who claimed to be his girlfriend in college. His another wife is Nipha (Apasiri Nitiphon) and his son Chi (Ice Paris). From the picture below, we can see Prasoet really love his second family eventhough they’re not officially Jiraanan’s family. This drama will revolve around Prasoet so finally in the end all know that Prasoet has another family beside his family with Cris and Pete.

Next, is Mate( Saksit Tangthong) and his daughter Meimei (Sawanya Paisarnpayak). Mate always pick up Meimei at school. This is quite a little family, but Mate really love his daughter and vice versa. The only daughter left in Jiraanan family is Phatson (Kathaleeya McIntosh). Phatson married with a police and automatically her last name changed into Suriyapairoj. They have 4 sons, the eldest is Yi (Thanapob Lee), 2nd is Ern (Captain Chonlathorn), 3rd is Tao (Third Lapat) , and youngest is Toei (Jackie Jackrin) who in the same age with Meimei. To be honest I love this family the most. So lucky that Phatson has 4 son that love and protect her. Next, they didn’t introduce the parents but A-goong and A-ma has grandson that live together with them called Kuaitiao (Porsche). Last, youngest son is Konkan (Lift Supoj). If we can choose which one is the most chill family, we could say that Konkan family is very chill~ They have 2 son, Vegas (JamyJames) and Macao (Ryu Vachirawich). (The parents like casino very much🤣).

So enough with the introduction, and I will tell a little bit of the story before doing an overall review.

This suspense drama revolves around the Jiraanans, a wealthy Thai-Chinese family that operates its own hotels in Bangkok and Pattaya. The drama follows the members of the family, which seem to enjoy a strong and unbreakable bond. But things are not what they seem. One day, the eldest member from the second generation mysteriously turns up dead in the family estate. His nephew Yi, the oldest son of the victim’s sister and the prime suspect in the case, desperately tries to find out the truth. Source: MyDramaList

Before an incident happen in Jiraanan’s family, all of them just celebrate A-goong birthday together. It is so warm to see a big family gather together, it must be a happy day for A-goong and A-ma that they live till now to see their son and daughter with their little family and have a handsome and beautiful grandchilds. We also can see that the grandchilds really love their A-goong and A-ma. It’s like their family are in happiest moment. Even they took a family picture together.

But who knows, that it’ll be A-goong last birthday. A few days after they gather together, A-goong passed away. This is the real beginning of the story about dark secret that Jiraanan’s family have but no one knows anything about it even the family itself. After A-goong death, it just going worse because of the tradition and old generation believe about differences between son and daughter in the family and honestly A-goong make it worse with his last will that shocking all the family because only his daughter that didn’t accept anything related to their business eventhough she work hard build their family business from scratch. All she got only his father savings; money. Instead, the eldest grandson from eldest son got 1/4 share of the family business. All of it, ended up we’ll see Prasoet the eldest son lying still on the floor.

Yes, the eldest son of Jiraanan family was shot dead. He was found first by his sister Phatson who came over to his house talking about their father’s will and end up screaming when saw his brother was dead. Another family at that time in their house hear someone screaming and rush to get out to see Phatson panicked and said that Prasoet was shot in his home so they ran and as we can see in the picture A-ma, Kuaitiao, and Meimei saw that Prasoet lying still on the floor in his bedroom. After that this murder case became the talk of the town, get into the news, so police tried to find the motive why the murderer killed him. Honestly, this event create a most damage for Phatson family. As people know, Prasoet rarely confront someone and had enemy but the last thing he argue with someone, it’s Phatson. But I said in this drama, it’s not over till it’s over. We can’t be sure that the killer is his sister itself because as we go through this we could see that Prasoet had a few secret that we didn’t knew before and it could be a motive to someone done a murder. We just need to see it clearly and evaluate it carefully. I’m not gonna give a spoiler in this review, but I think you guys will guess it right like I am.

My first thought about this drama is I like how the story always give us a new plot twist in almost every near-end episode and make us wanna watch the next episode as soon as possible. This is one way to make us never bored by the story and they can wrap it successfully. Although honestly I can guess the biggest plot twist of this story but still it’s interesting because this drama get some details that we can’t get pass and that’s also give us some plot twist. You can’t guess it throughly, like you can guess this overall plot but still you’ll miss the little part of plot twist that make this story much better. Because it’s a story related to family, it’s really deep even when we already know the real murderer and all we need to see is just see the person in trial, in another drama we usually feel relieved and happy finally the killer is captured. But I think this drama makes me feel more sad and broken?? When we all see the truth, I think the circumstances are not getting better. The story really revolves only between Jiraanan family and the story behind it give us more pain than the murder itself. It’s not easy left by people who we loved especially it is a family, but it is more painful when we know that the one who doing it also our family. But I can say that all of this happens because of karma from their all bad action that happened in the past. When we know literally all the truth we finally realized why all of this happen to them, because every each of them are deserved it. But it’s all in the past, so eventually we must move on. In the end, life goes on. They’re still our family. We just need to let go of the past, and open a new chapter because only family is the place that we can lean on again. I can really feel it how every character in this drama just doing everything that they could to save their family. They’re not bad people, they’re just doing everything to protect their family. Lesson learned from this drama;

Family is the most important thing in our life because in the end it’s only family that we can go back into, and only family that will stay on our side and tried the best to support, protect, and defend if we get into problems. They’ll do anything. But without us knowing, the closest person that standing with us that can hurt us the most, is family too. But in the end, because the name of ‘family’ that will lead us back together and family is the only place that we can still lean on. Mistake happens all the time.

For each family, if I have to choose whose family I love and attached the most, I would say that I really like Phatson family. I can feel their warm family and all of their sons are really get along well. They always root for each other, trying to protect the only woman in the house, their mother Phatson, and the eldest son Yi will do anything to protect and support his family.

One of my favorite scene is when Tao the 3rd son is a celebrity and when he feel he can’t hold back anymore he burst out to his brothers because only them that can give him comfort and feel protected. It’s also my best scene when they give us this brother scene gather together in one room and talking about anything and end up sleeping together on the floor. I can see from that scene, how they think that family is everything and they’ll never let them down because they have each other.

For the character, I have a few character that I like and attached my attention:

My favorite character; I got 2 character that I love, but first the character that I love the most is (of course) Yi. Despite in this drama his character more leaning to the bold action, like doing anything in a rush, bluntly, and doing a few illegal action but I think he did his best for his family. I don’t understand why he must critized by society in the drama because of his action? I think what he did was right because he already doing everything right and ask everyone that connected but no one helping him instead they just block him away. We can see that he never intented to hurt anyone else too so I’m pro to Yi side. I love his scene with his youngest brother, Toei. If I’m Toei, I’ll cherish Yi all of my life till I die. Because when everything is too hard for him, only Yi that confidently always stand on his side. (okay enough it’s a little spoiler). From this drama, I think I know why Thanapob Lee finally got casted in Hua Jai Sila. I noticed him because his acting in that drama was really really good, I can feel all his emotions there. It turned out here we could see him potray Yi perfectly, and it’ll really help him to get his next drama. He’s not only smart and catch the little detail in his family, but his action is always on point eventhough not all of that is always a right thing. But sometimes to get what you want, you need to do a little more dramatic so the thing you want will show up.

My favorite character; The next character that I like is Pete. Unexpectedly, for sure. To be honest I don’t think that his personality is thaaat nice. It’s about his first impression. When I his first scene with his mother, my first impression of him is he’s a boy who like to spent their parents money for fun and study abroad so he can get away from his parents to have fun🤣🤣 in my opinion; he loves money. TURNS OUT I’m 100% wrong. Pete is the most responsible person in this drama. His responsibility and his fair judgement is the best. He didn’t judge people by his relationship, if he know that this person is wrong then it’s wrong. I love how his attitude to his father’s another family. I just thought he’ll upset and didn’t accept them, turns out he accept them, and he cares them just like his father would do if he’s alive. You deserve happiness, Pete!

Ice Pariss as Chi. He doesn’t have much screentime but still his character ini this drama really shocked me. Kinda same with Pete. Look the picture above. Both of them looks like they have a personality that have anger issue but actually not. I watched his drama and movie like Bad Genius The Series and Ghost Lab, and I didn’t like his character but I admit that his face suited the most for that kind of personality. Being a jerk, brave action without thinking, not a literally bad person but not really a good personality too. So I thought he’ll become a jerk too since his dad didn’t bring their family to Jiraanan family and only went to their house 1 time/week. So what did he expect? But he has good attitude even to his step brother, he’s really polite and when he know that his family didn’t get single penny from his father’s will he accept it. He didn’t get mad eventhough in the end of his dad ‘s life, his mother was the legal wife. HE ACCEPT IT WHOLEHEARTEDLY. Okay, respect Chi!

From Pete and Chi, I learned that Prasoet maybe not the best brother, best son, best husband, and best father. But he did really well raising both of his sons to the point that his sons really have a good attitude and personality. I adore their personality so much!

(This is one of the difference between this drama and another drama. It is usually the first son didn’t accept that father has another family and another son demand his part from father’s will and clashed BAM!)

My appreciate for Jackie Jackrin for his acting as Toei. I just know him from this drama ( I think) and he’s potraying Toei really good. I can’t tell too much since it’ll become a spoiler but he can pour his soul and heart so well in this drama. I can see how much he adore his brother Yi so much and wanna say that you did it, you made it to survive with your consistency. You didn’t loose yourself just to make you free when your mother told you to do something. I think Yi had a big part that made Toei become a better person and learn from his mistakes.

The most disappointing character of this drama is *give an applause to* Vegas!!! This is the opposite of Pete. I put a lot of hope for him in this drama that he’ll become one of the rightest people but turns out a big nope. At the very beginning he shows us that he’s honest, fair, doesn’t like act wrong and even brave to tell his father lies. He’s the right person. But as the drama continues, we reach a point that Vegas just an ordinary boy who still has heart. His love is bigger than his principle. The only thing that I hope will be released in this drama, turns out it’ll hidden forever till end because of him. It’s the only proof that clearly helping this case but he choose to hide it forever. Another lesson learned I took from Vegas;

Sometimes we just know that human is not perfect. A person who always doing the right thing, eventually will become a bad person if someone we really love and cherish got a problem. They can ruin their life principle as long they can save their loved one. And often happens that the loved ones is Family.

In this family drama we learned that culture and tradition are taking a big part in our family. When a son and a daughter have a big gap in it, when a daughter didn’t considered as part of family just because she married a man and took his last name. Like having a daughter didn’t as good as if having a son. But actually if I think about it, the one who give birth to is a woman????? Why then a son is more valuable descent. They also differentiate their grandson status into a primary grandchild (son and daughter of the son’s family) and secondary grandchild (son and daughter from daughter’s family). But still we couldn’t get rid of the culture and tradition entirely. We just need to adapt well to the good culture and sort the not-so-good culture better.

Overall, I’m really happy that I found this Thai drama. I watch several dramas from Thailand but never found this kind of genre. A family drama that really warms heart but with a touch of mystery and dark secrets in it. But not like another drama that compete for power and will doing everything evil things between family and make things chaos and ruin their relationship as a family because their greedy and selfish will. In this drama we’ll have a dark secret but it’s not always about money, and I still feel their deep kinship, how this problems solved legally but a touch of their kinship because of their dark past. They need to let it go and open the new chapter because life still goes on for the living one.

Since I really love this drama, I’ll give 4.5/5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨. Thank you Tor for making me found this drama!

“Family is not always about getting along well everytime, but for sure Family is the place that we can always go back in the end no matter what happen.”

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legitimateluffy · 4 years

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One Piece Animation Thesis: East Blue

If you would prefer to follow via the master Google Doc, [HERE] is the link! This will be updated as we go through the arcs and is currently planned to be updated weekly!

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Whew hey everyone!

So this is the beginning of a project that I have had in the back of my mind for quite some time and finally decided to start working on. A quick rundown of what this actually is, it’s a somewhat showcase of the animation found within the main One Piece anime (so, no movies/specials/filler arcs between canon arcs etc. although that may be something I will attempt to tackle one day if this does well). This will also include some insight into the anime industry and essentially give some insight on behind the scenes and why certain decisions are made as well as giving names of the hard working animators to their respective scenes. Hopefully this whole thing will continue to give a bit of insight into the One Piece anime as I believe that it is greatly under appreciated and while criticisms of it are valid, there definitely needs to be more of an understanding as to why the anime is the way it is. This will be a long journey ahead so please bear with me! Let’s get started!

The One Piece anime, including movies and specials, is animated by Toei Animation, and they are responsible for many other famous animated properties and adaptations, including Digimon, Dragon Ball/Z/GT/Super, Sailor Moon, Toriko, Gegege no Kitaro among many others. They animate many different series and have a big load to take on. This is something that will be touched on later, because it greatly affects the anime in later years. But for now, I’ll be going through the arcs, starting with the East Blue saga. The East Blue saga is made up of episodes 1-53 (including some filler) and consists of quite actually not that many noteworthy animated scenes, even though it covers many arcs (Shells Town, Orange Town, Syrup Village, Baratie, Arlong Park, LogueTown). Animation throughout this portion of the anime was quite limited, using minimal movement and taking appropriate shortcuts where necessary. Scenes are also quite hard to tell exactly who animated what due to the style consistency. There are a few noteworthy scenes though, but first I would like to introduce the rough structure of how the anime is made. An important part in animation is someone who is the character designer, someone who essentially designs the characters and in this case, attempts to replicate Oda’s style for it to be easily animated. During this part of the anime, the character designer is Noboru Kizumi who would continue to be the character designer for the anime for the next 10 or so years. These are the some of the sheets he made for the main characters:

This is something I’ll continue to showcase as we continue to go through each of the arcs, showcasing the strawhats as they pop up in the story. When the time comes, we will also compare the changes of style and why things have changed. But for now, I’ll just present the first designs.

One Piece at this stage was very cartoony and had quite a different style, especially compared to a lot of the current anime/manga at the time and it still continues to have a distinctive style to this day. Following these sheets allows for a good sense of continuity, which is very important with anime. If anyone out there attempts to draw something without looking at a reference, it’s not going to look quite as well as we want it to. So in using a reference, we can have a better grasp as to how the character looks from certain angles, heights compared to other characters, facial expressions and more.

In order to keep these characters looking somewhat similar so as to not disrupt the viewer’s experience by seeing jarring styles, someone works as a Chief Animation Director. They aim to ensure that characters remain consistent throughout the episode, and that they are on model. So, how is this achieved? Well, we’ll have a look at the process on how something is conceptualised and then put to screen.

Initially, a script is conducted. Going through the manga, people take what is deemed necessary material and put it into script format. It is important to note that as the anime and manga continue to go on for years, the gap between the anime and manga release shortened significantly, resulting in pacing issues. Keep this in mind for later as this is something I plan to touch on. Then a storyboard is created, having very rough lines in order to convey what is to be created. Here is an example:

A good storyboard can make or break an episode, as it dictates angles, how long scenes linger on screen, etc. Once the storyboard has been decided on, the animating can begin. Scenes are appointed to animators, where they create something called Genga. This is done on paper, similar to how it’s done in other parts of the world. Here are some examples of older Genga:

Even though times have changed and anime has become digital, with some animators now exclusively animating digitally, the anime industry still uses Genga, using paper and pencil to create their scenes. Here are some examples of newer Genga:

Once the Genga has been created, the Chief Animation Director will go in and correct what is necessary to ensure that the style remains consistent. Others may also help participate in this process, such as an Animation Supervisor. Here is an example of a Genga being corrected to ensure that it remains consistent in style:

In doing something like this, some animators can animate great action and keep their lines rough to save time, and an Animation Supervisor can clean it up and make it look good. After this has been completed, the Genga is then made into what is called Animation Cels. This is not exclusive to Japan, as for decades this is a process that has been used. This is a transparent sheet that had the lines and colours painted on, and is then photographed over painted backgrounds. Yeah...A long and dubious process indeed. This is not common place anymore due to how time consuming it is, and with the rise of digital, creating colours, effects, filters and backgrounds are much faster and easier to accomplish. Here are some examples of One Piece animation cels:

I would have much preferred to share cels directly from the anime itself and not the movies but they are quite difficult to come across and have more than likely been sold off from Toei long ago. But they will suffice, as it gives a good idea as to what they look like.

But voila! Animation has been created! All that’s left is music, sound effects and voice over and you’ve got yourself an anime. Wonderful. Easy right? Yeah, not exactly. All of this takes time and patience. And this is something that needs to be remembered. Time. A very important keyword in the animation industry and a lot more important than the word budget that likes to get thrown around. Due to One Piece being a long running weekly series, the animators have a lot less time than, say, My Hero Academia or Demon Slayer, two very prominent seasonal anime. These series do not have more money shoved into them, more budget, than One Piece that results in higher quality and consistent animation, a problem the One Piece anime definitely faces further down the road. Here’s an example:

Michelangelo is one of the most famous artists of all time, due to his remarkable attention to detail in his works present in the High Renaissance period. One of his most famous works is the Statue of David, an incredible piece of work that was worked on for 3 years. However, if you were to tell him to replicate it but say, give him a month, he’s not going to get anywhere near the same results as the piece where he spent 3 years on. It would be quite rough around the edges, and quite rushed. No matter how much money you throw his way, he still won’t be able to get anywhere close to those results. And this is the same with any artist, including animation. This is a big misconception in the anime community, and that is that as long as you throw money at people, they’re going to end up creating incredible works, regardless of the poor time management. That is just not how it works.

This does seem like quite a ramble, and it’s already quite long prior to even reaching the main aspect of this whole project, in which I showcase animators, but this is important background information that needs to be understood prior to delving in. With that very long introduction, let’s now get to showcasing animators!

Some of the animators that were present on many early One Piece episodes include:

Kazuya Hisada, Masahiro Shimanuki, Naoki Tate, Jin Inaba, Tadayoshi Yamamuro. Please note, there are many others involved animating wise, but these are some key names, and ones that will develop and evolve as the years go on.

Kazuya Hisada is someone who will pop up later and fulfil a more important role in the series, but in the early days he created some great scenes with some snappy timing, while using lines to help convey impact. He is found throughout early One Piece, however due to the limited animation and consistent style thanks to Noboru Kizumi, he can be difficult like most during this era to spot.

Hideaki Maniwa is more prominent in his animation, being more pronounced due to his camera movement on his characters. He uses subtle smears usually on impact to further enhance the idea that whoever is being hit, is being hit HARD. He also created the most animated piece of early One Piece in episode 23 where he creates seemingly natural movement of the background of the ship and water, making the sea feel powerful and heavy.

So what have we learnt so far.

Well, there is a lot of hard work that goes into the production of an anime series, and that is no different with One Piece. Early episodes for the most part had not too many interesting scenes animation wise, and the animators essentially got the work done in order to produce and release the series week to week. It will continue to be a bit of a slow start, with arcs like Alabasta and SkyPiea being similar in the regard of not many noteworthy scenes however, we can begin to see the cracks of emerging stars and evolving styles that will later become staples within the series.

This is it to the first of what is hopefully a long and engaging project! So far it has been quite a read and very lengthy and I apologise for that. Hopefully from here on out we should be able to successfully get through more animators and styles become more distinct and animation continues to evolve. Next up I intend to cover Alabasta.

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A massive thank you to everyone who has participated and uploaded at Sakugabooru! Without it, I would not have been able to make nearly as much as I have without all the hard work in identifying and tagging animators’ work! Most of the footage used to showcase these animators has come from there! I simply just turned the videos into gifs for an easier showcase.

I would also like to issue a big thank you to Animators Corner! The staff listing really helped me in determining who worked on what episode to identify animators and their works!

#one piece #anime #opgraphics #gif #if you could please share this!#would love for this to be spread thank you!#op animation thesis

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jippy-kandi · 4 years

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Digimon Adventure: 2020 – Episode 1: Tokyo: Digital Crisis! (Review)

Thoughts on the first episode of the Digimon Adventure reboot series.

Disclaimer: I just want to make it clear that I’m watching and reviewing Digimon Adventure: 2020 in the context of it being a children’s anime -- because that’s what it is. By design, it’s obviously going to be “dumb” to the mind of the average adult. But that’s OK, because it’s for kids. And for a first episode aimed at children? It was pretty good.

The opening credits were 99% Taichi and I don’t like it if it’s permanently going to be this way. But I’m hoping that it will change to perhaps be character-centric to the person being “highlighted” in a particular episode, going through all eight kids, until there’s a permanent one where all eight are equally in it. I also hope the same for the ending credits.

I noticed that Angemon and Angewomon were missing from the opening credits, whereas the other digimon evolutions are shown. So I assume they’re following in OG Adventure’s footsteps and doing the whole “special angel” evolution reveal? I’m OK with that. It seems really interesting how they’re setting up Takeru and Hikari to be included this time (as they were both missing in the ending credits with the other five standing opposite Yamato . . .).

Both the opening and ending songs are fine, but I prefer the original songs, especially Butter-Fly. You are missed, Kouji Wada. <3

The art and animation of this series is really good. Toei Animation are really putting money into this series. I’m impressed.

I have mixed feelings about how they chose to introduce the characters. On the one hand, I think utilising just two characters is great to really highlight them to the audience and not overwhelm them with too much information. But on the other hand . . . I think introducing all eight characters in the first episode would make it appeal to more kids, because they can easily identify with one kid and keep watching the series. But a kid might watch this first episode, not like Taichi or Koushirou, and just switch off from the series completely. But I think what they went for is probably best for how they plan to introduce the characters (particularly regarding what they have in store for Yamato being a lone wolf who joins them later).

Taichi was a bit too generic to me. But, it’s only the first episode, so this isn’t a real criticism -- I’m sure he’ll be fleshed out as the series progresses. He also seems more responsible than OG Taichi. And while I do like his new voice, I think Toshiko Fujita was a lot better; she managed to convey more personality in her voice.

Koushirou was actually quite “cute”. But I’m not sure I totally like that he’s being portrayed as shy . . . he never seemed shy to me in the original series, but just a kid who was super absorbed in his own tech world. But his shyness did make him more endearing? I’m just not used to it so I find it a bit unsettling. But it does “humanise” him more and thus makes him more relatable, rather than just a distant tech nerd, so I guess it’s a positive? I also really like his voice.

I am liking the Taichi/Koushirou friendship a lot. You can tell Koushirou is going to completely idolise Taichi for making him feel included and “useful”. And let’s be real: Koushirou has always been the most underrated character when it comes to popularity, relative to actual impact on the plot, because he’s actually the one who solves almost everything and he doesn’t get nearly as much credit for it as he deserves in the fandom. It’s nice that they’ve spotlighted him with Taichi in this episode.

So apparently Mimi’s family owns a conglomerate because they made both Koushirou’s tablet computer and Takeru’s hat? I always thought the weird “TK” scrawled on his hat was for his name (TaKeru or T.K.), but apparently it’s for TachiKawa! Wow, Mimi is insanely rich this time around (moreso than the first). Princess indeed!

Takeru’s design is so freaking adorable. I still think his clothes are a bit off, but his face is so adorable! And I didn’t really think that of OG Takeru. I mean . . . I guess he was kind of adorable, but not overwhelmingly so like this one! He hasn’t said one line but, OMG, the cuteness. *SQUISH*

Did anyone notice that in Takeru’s room, there is a poster of an ASTRONAUT? OMG I loved that! What a nice throwback to Yamato’s future career in OG Adventure (and thus to the 02 epilogue!). I can imagine reboot Yamato idolising astronauts and influencing Takeru into liking them, too. Awesome Easter egg there!

So the Crests are showing up right from the start. No rehash of finding the Tags and Crests, then! (Or will they find the physical forms later?) I really like how different from OG Adventure it already is, while keeping touches of the old as well. Toei have done a good job with mixing the old and new so far. Keep it up!

I thought Taichi’s meeting with Agumon was super cute and quite “realistic” with Taichi reaching his hand out to “pet” Agumon! Though Taichi is obviously more courageous than the average person, because uh, I would be afraid that dino would bite my hand off, lol.

I thought Agumon’s evolution “sequence” to Greymon was really cool, but at the same time, I did miss an actual evolution sequence like the OG one. It’s probably just nostalgia making me feel that way. I can accept this new version though! It feels very “updated”.

It was very fast-paced compared to OG Adventure. I’m not sure I entirely like that Agumon evolved so easily and so quickly to Greymon in the very first episode, but it also didn’t seem to hinder the episode. But where do they go from here? What do they have planned to pad out this series if things happen so quickly? I’m intrigued to find out!

Oh, remember how I said less than 24 hours ago that I might not even like reboot Yamato? Yeah, well . . . throw that idea out the window, because the dude had two seconds at the end of this episode and HE ALREADY WON ME OVER lmao. He had NO LINES and was still the highlight of the episode for me. My attachment to him is insane. (Of course, I’m hoping he doesn’t turn out to be a super douche, lol.) I like that he was “chosen” before Taichi and was in the Network before him. What have you been up to in there, Yamato?

While I LOVED the ending credits, as I said before, I hope it changes to be central for each specific character (going through all eight kids), before there is a permanent main ending that includes all the characters equally. I really don’t like how Toei Animation seems to forget that there are EIGHT CHARACTERS and not just two. Come on, Toei, do the right thing!

But . . . let’s talk about the ending credits. IT WAS AMAZING. It characterised Yamato so much without him saying a word. I love that he’s still a lone wolf, that music is still a big part of his life (a bass at 11!), and that his love for Takeru is still so genuine. There was also a pivotal scene where it shows Jou, Mimi, Taichi, Sora and Koushirou standing together, and Taichi smiles at Yamato, who hesitantly steps forward to join them. I loved that! It made me think about the discarded plot where “Yamato might’ve separated from the group entirely” -- it seems like this is a reverse version and I can’t wait to see it play out. The scene that inspired that discarded plot idea was when Yamato decides to fight Taichi, and Sora yells at him to stop -- and I just loved her reactions to him throughout that arc. Especially because, if Taichi had turned on the group, I think Sora’s first instinct would be to conk him over the head -- but she gives Yamato a massive pass and then supports him to separate from the group to find himself. My Sorato thoughts are already swirling about how Sora will react to Yamato in this reboot! Will she hate him at first? Will she ask him to join? Oh my, they haven’t even interacted in this reboot and I’m already shipping them, lmao. I hope Sorato still have a connection in this reboot!

Overall, I liked it for a children’s anime. And I never would have watched it if it wasn’t a reboot with the original Adventure cast, as I have only seen a few episodes of Tamers, Frontier and Savers . . . and a few seconds where Yamato shows up in Xros Wars, lol. I’m not interested in Digimon, I’m interested in the Adventure cast. So I’m really glad this reboot exists! I’ll happily watch all episodes of this series because it’s more of my kids goddamnit. XD

Oh, and I just want to apologise that even though the episode was focussed on Taichi and Koushirou, I used screenshots of Yamato and Sora for the episode post . . . I’m sorry, I’m a Sorato blog! XD;

I think I will do a weekly Digimon Adventure: 2020 “review”, because the episodes are only 20-ish minutes long and it’s easy enough to consume and write about. And even if I might not have a lot to say about a particular episode, I can still spam Sorato screenshots, lol. :P

I can’t wait for the next episode! Because: YAMATO. <3

#digimon #digimon adventure #digimon adventure:#digimon adventure 2020 #sorato #yamato ishida #sora takenouchi #chosen children #taichi yagami #koushirou izumi #mimi tachikawa #jou kido #takeru takaishi #hikari yagami #review #screenshots #spoilers #is this tag really needed?#just go watch it!

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earlgreymon · 3 years

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post da:2020 ep 50

1. i just laughed when the episode started with taichi and agumon all over again.

2. like... wasn't yamato and the others who were supposed to save him instead???? why was it become the other way around????

3. sora the queen of taichi optimism.

4. ot4s ot4s ot4s ot4s.

5. REPEAT.

6. SEE POINT FOUR AGAIN. I'M NOT GONNA STOP.

7. I LITERALLY LOST MY MIND WHEN HIKARI AND SORA WERE THE LAST TWO WHO SCREAMED TAICHI'S NAME RESPECTIVELY. THIS IS THE YEAR 2021, NO ONE'S GONNA RUIN THE TAIORA AGENDA.

8. tachikawa's industry needs to sell their tablet/laptop to us because macbook who???? this shit survives any hardcore digimon battles.

9. THE MUSIC SCORES!!!!!! when the organ hit, i immediately thought about that one scene in frontier where takuya almost died. it still gives me chills, and so did this episode. i think this episode managed to build the tension through the music.

10. who needs taichi and yamato. we need a digimon series with takeru and hikari being the main protagonists instead.

11. not me remembering this video everytime takeru called goddramon. i hate youtube for recommending troll videos lately. (and takeru, i love you my smolbean. i really love you. you're gonna grow up to be a fuckboi fine man.)

12. ok why don't we just name this episode as "the light of hope". it's the 50th episode, toei, don't be a chicken.

13. we need to talk about metalgarurumon's scale. like... what on earth, why did lilimon look so tiny in front of him.

14. animation. why. it's the two holy digimon goddammit. i guess they really invested most of their money on agumon and gabumon's evolution line.

15. the power from digital world's ground, according to lopmon, turned into gaia (earth) force. ohh i see what you did there.

16. leomon is alive and healthy. congratulations on the amazing achievement!

17. taichi screamed gaia force and the final explosion were great. no complain. and also, i love him when he blushed.

tbvh i'm more excited for next week's episode because CRESTS!!!!!!!!!! I'VE BEEN WAITING SO LONG FOR THIS!!!!!!!!!! let's hope this is a nice beginning for... a new arc? will this even be a new arc?

#da:spoiler

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tenshindon · 4 years

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*waves* Hi, I'm Silver. I want to write Yamcha more accurately (he seems really nice?), but I haven't the time or money to buy the manga or episodes, so... any tips, I guess? Can you help me? Thank you 🌻💜

hiya !! i’m always happy to talk about yamcha and The Character Of yamcha :) gonna put my thoughts under a read more cause this Might be long:

I havent watched Z or Super in a while but I do watch and read through the original Dragon Ball often so accuracy May Vary due to my trash memory. I’m also going to try to keep the games’ depictions of him out of this since accuracy varies among those.

The first thing I wanna touch on is Yamcha’s ego- especially how it evolves over the series. The main thing to keep in mind is that while he is generally cocky about his fighting abilities (which is a major weakness of his as he underestimates his opponents often and gets in trouble because of that), he’s never overly confidant with himself as a person; he seldom tries to paint himself as a better person in comparison to others and rather keeps realistic skepticism about himself. It’s also worth noting that, depending on how old Yamcha is in your depiction, his awareness for his fighting inadequacy compared to his friends varies (the older he is obviously the more conscious he is).

Next thing I’ma talk bout is something that i see kind of treated inconsistently; Yamcha’s relationship with women and his love life. I feel like a lot of people forget that Yamcha’s defining character trait in Dragon Ball was his gynophobia- he chased Goku and his friends so long for the dragon balls so he could remedy his fear of women. Of course, he eventually does date Bulma as they realize dating each other would resolve their mutual wishes for Shenron (Bulma’s being getting a boyfriend and as mentioned before Yamcha’s fear of women). As we’re all aware though, nearly a decade later Yamcha and Bulma mysteriously separate, and the reason for doing so is never explicitly made clear in canon (I could honestly make a whole separate post on Bulma and Yamcha’s break up- there’s a lot to discuss with it so if anyone wants that let me know lmao). The majority believe that Yamcha was unfaithful which, in review of his whole character, makes literally no sense- even just subtracting his fear of women (though I’ll elaborate on that later). But back on track and in regards to his fear of women, it never fully goes away. It just so happens that he’s most comfortable around Bulma, and since Bulma’s the most prominent female character of the series we tend to forget his fear in the first place. When around other female characters, he’s subtlety more anxious- or at the very least he isn’t so much of a playboy as fanon interprets him to be. One final thing to note is- unless I remember the series wrong (and anyone’s free to correct me on this)- Yamcha’s never implied to have gotten another girlfriend or even a lover at any point. Of course it’s hard to track the intricacies of Yamcha’s life- this is a shonen anime where slice-of-life episodes are limited, and even then Yamcha is far from being a prominent character anymore (post Dragon Ball).

Up next is his loyalty/friendships, methods of handling conflict, and overall courage because in my rat brain these all go hand in hand. Nevertheless, Yamcha’s a devoted friend- he’s shown time and time again to be supportive of his pals and, even in spite of his shortcomings, always does his best to help the gang out. Like i touched on before, as Yamcha gets older, he’s more and more aware just how far behind in training he is in compared to his peers. But that doesn’t stop him from trying to fight off whatever threat’s present. So with that we can infer that even if Yamcha can’t be the absolute best, that’s not going to stop him from at least trying if it means helping his friends or making them feel better. Additionally, he’s quick to stand up for others, even if he doesn’t know them too well or even at all and he’s shown not to hold onto grudges. One thing to remember is that, presumably for 16 years, Yamcha’s only companion was Puar (that’s not even considering his life before meeting her) and most interactions he has with people involve robbing them. His social skills might not be the best (though that doesn’t mean he can’t act socially capable- he clearly has no issue trying to make Beerus feel comfortable and like a friend at Bulma’s party) but again, his social skills varies with age and the situation. But again, referring back to his readiness to defend others, he isn’t afraid of getting into conflict if it means helping someone else.

Last few topics I’m going to talk about are his relationships with property, finances, and goals- they seem like a small topics but I still want to talk about it. Now hopefully we’re all familiar with Yamcha’s beginnings of being a desert bandit- and seeing his methods of obtaining items, he didn’t try to charm his victims into giving him their stuff. He just took it if he could if he couldn’t intimidate them and retreated if he couldn’t get what he wanted (which is also noteworthy of Yamcha’s awareness of his limits- a bit contradictory to his fighting ego but it seems that if Yamcha’s certain he isn’t able to win something, then he’ll save himself if it means delaying a goal or staying alive). He doesn’t seem to mind playing the long game either, as he’s willing to tail Goku and co. for months as he waits for them to gather the dragon balls without ever letting his true intentions slip. When it comes to finances, Yamcha doesn’t seem to care to heavily about them: back in the desert, Puar mentions to Yamcha that he should wish for money to which Yamcha dismisses it quickly, stating he could just steal money if he really needed it. It’s also worth noting that despite being a successful baseball player by Super, Yamcha chooses to live in a modest apartment. Either he’s very paranoid with money and, despite having enough to buy a full house, chooses to live in a cheaper apartment building or he’s more comfortable with smaller living spaces- which makes sense since he’d lived nearly two decades in a desert cave and had to scavenge for supplies (plus he seems to still think fondly of the desert as he has a painting of such in his apartment).

For the TL;DR version of this post, here’s essentially what you should keep in mind when portraying yamcha:

He’s generally a very lax, simple, and sociable person when he wants to be- though a bit socially awkward when he isn’t prepared

He’s not egotistical, but he has a bad habit of underestimating his enemies at times. this changes over time of course.

While he’s not itching for conflict, he is loyal and quick to stand up for friends and strangers alike

He acknowledges he isn’t the best, but that doesn’t stop him from trying

He’s ambitious and seldom gives up on his goals

He cares little for huge amounts of wealth or property and generally is just trying to get by in life comfortably

While not cripplingly petrified of women post DB, he still maintains a mild anxiety around women he doesn’t know- even around women he does know pardon Bulma he’s still a bit on edge

I’m done with my character study using the anime and manga, but I like talking about Yamcha so below this little buffer I’m going to get into how the games portray him. I might’ve forgot something or got some things wrong so feel free to talk to me about that if you want to. Anyways, you can stop reading if the above is all you’re concerned with- regardless if you keep reading or not, I wish you the best of luck in writing Yamcha ! :)

If you’re still reading, join me in my continuous ramble of the Rubix cube of Yamcha’s character because Toei and Toriyama can’t be consistent.

Something that seems to be portrayed a significant amount is that Yamcha’s aware of his charm and that he uses this to advantage to smooth talk his way out of situations- not that he just so happens to be good looking and endearing and his panicked socialization just happens to work out for him. In regards to his way of talking out of situations, that’s honestly something I could see if Yamcha acknowledges he’s against a threat much greater than his fighting abilities will allow him to handle- and it’s not like he doesn’t consider himself attractive, if we’re to take his reaction to losing his tooth as anything (in case you aren’t aware, he curses Goku for ruining his “beautiful” face). An example of this is most prominent is his interaction with Frieza in FighterZ, where Frieza remarks that Yamcha is both “handsome and sensible”, to which Yamcha attempts to keep the conversation casual so as to not have to fight (which he later points out to Goku once the latter urges that the three of them should just start fighting already). Though I’m sure his first reaction isn’t to talk his way out of something- he’ll just do it if the opportunity presents itself.

I obviously take huge issue with Yamcha’s portrayal of being a womanizer- his major goal was to settle down, get married, and live out the rest of his life with someone. So for him to be portrayed as having to juggle girlfriends is a bit strange to say the least. You could maybe argue that Yamcha hypes himself up to be a lady’s man as a way to cope with his anxiety (fake it til you make it y’know) but I have little faith in the characterization in Dragon Ball games and for them to think that complexly- plus, again, it contradicts with his humble and awkward personality.

Aside from these two notes, that’s all I have to say. so I’m done- forreal this time.

#dragon ball #dragon ball z #dragon ball super #yamcha #snap chats #sorry im late to responding #first i was asleep and second of all i had to think a lot with this- plus i kept getting distracted #there might be a little bias in this with how i see yamcha so take my words with a grain of salt #whether you're 100% accurate or not the thing to remember most is to just have fun :)#saiyanblood2 #reply

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duhragonball · 4 years

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[FIC] Luffa: The Legendary Super Saiyan (134/?)

Disclaimer: This story features characters and concepts based on Dragon Ball, which is a trademark of Bird Studio/Shueisha and Toei Animation. This is an unauthorized work, and no profit is being made on this work by me. This story is copyright of me. Download if you like, but please don’t archive it without my permission. Don’t be shy.

Continuity Note: About 1000 years before the events of Dragon Ball Z.

[14 November, 233 Before Age. Interstellar Space.]

King Rehval would die, very soon. As Luffa led her fleet of warships to his new home, there were a multitude other thoughts running through her mind, but she made sure to focus on her sole objective. Rehval. Must. Die.

Her grudge against him went back to the beginning. Her mother was an anti-monarchist who left the Saiyan Kingdom before Luffa was born. Eventually, Luffa's mother entered into a mercenary partnership with Orij, Luffa's father, and the young family roamed the stars in search of adventure. When Luffa was ten years old, Orij betrayed her mother. He was jealous of his wife's power, and planned to exploit her, until he realized that their daughter had inherited the same potential.

Orij's plan went into effect when Luffa was nineteen. By then, Luffa had taken a mate of her own, Kandai, and Orij conspired with him to betray Luffa to the alien Tikosi. Their ghastly experiments would seek to reverse-engineer the secrets of Luffa's hidden power, and then they would share their findings with Orij. When the Tikosi learned Luffa was pregnant with Kandai's child, they simply removed the fetus, as it impeded their research.

The horrors Luffa experienced during that awful nineteenth year pushed her body through a harrowing transformation. Eventually, Luffa would recognize herself as the Legendary Super Saiyan, a once-in-a-millennium warrior. At the time, she thought she had become a monster, too horrible for even herself to contemplate. The power was satisfying while she took bloody revenge against her tormentors, but it never really went away. Even when she transformed back into her "normal" self, it was still there, that ever-present thing lurking just beneath her skin, eager to shine its terrible light on the universe once again.

Super Luffa was great for slaughtering Tikosi, and for making easy money in the mercenary business, but the power wasn't very helpful for tracking down her treacherous husband, who had gone into hiding when he learned that she had survived. One of the main reasons Luffa founded the interstellar Federation was to expand her contacts through the galaxy. The Federation's member worlds were happy to have her on their side; in return, their spies gave Kandai fewer places to hide. But when she finally caught up to him, he revealed that when the Tikosi removed their unborn child from her body, they had given it over to him. He had sold the remains to King Rehval, who apparently had his own interests in the Tikosi's research.

And Super Luffa wasn't much use in unraveling that mystery either. It only made sense that the King of the Saiyans would see her as a threat to his rule. It also made sense that he might hope to find some weakness by studying Luffa's offspring. What Luffa hadn't expected was the sheer depth of Rehval's treachery. She had never respected the man. Any Saiyan who called himself "king" was a fool in her book, but even setting that aside, he was a statesman, desperate to turn their people into some nation-state with a place among the galactic powers. He wanted the Saiyans to assimilate with the rest of the universe: lop off their tails, dress in alien finery, and pass themselves off as well-behaved citizens of a wider community. The thought of it sickened Luffa, but it was even worse than that. Rehval was an alchemist too. Instead of testing his might in combat, he relied on magical drugs and secret potions to enhance his power. "Rehval" wasn't even his real name. He simply assumed the identity of his older brother, then usurped his father's throne when it suited his purposes.

Rather than face Luffa directly, Rehval tried to seduce and deceive her, leading her into a trap that would strand her on an uninhabitable planet. To keep her occupied until the trap was sprung, Rehval revealed that the fetus he had purchased from Kandai had survived. Rehval was a proponent of gestating Saiyan infants in life support machines, and somehow he had managed to bring her son to term. He then aged the boy to adolescence, and trained him to be his staunchest defender and Luffa's sworn enemy. But the gravest insult, in Luffa's eyes, was that he dared to give the boy a name-- "Xibuyas". It was sacrilige. By Saiyan custom, the right to name a child belonged to the mother alone.

But what did King Rehval care for Saiyan custom? To him, it was just another tool, to be manipulated or discarded when it no longer served his purposes. Xibuyas was uncommonly strong, though Luffa had no way to tell if he had inherited her Super Saiyan strength, or if he was given alchemical enhancements to make him a better enforcer. Rehval wasn't satisfied with merely ruling over the Saiyans, he wanted to control their destiny, their culture, even their very genome. He envisioned a world where Saiyans would be bred like livestock, mated to produce hardier offspring, and her son was simply the stud he had chosen to sire his grandchildren. The very thought of it made her blood boil.

She had escaped his trap, and so he evacuated his throneworld of Saiya, fearing (rightfully) that she would return and destroy everything he had built. Luffa expected to find him cowering in some remote hideaway, but instead he launched a new plan, the Jindan Cult. Assuming the name of Trismegistus now, Rehval recruited Saiyans from all over the galaxy, promising them a potion that would magnify their powers. All he asked in return was absolute control over every aspect of their lives. Really, it wasn't all that different from the plans he had as the ruler of Planet Saiya, only now he wasn't bothering with diplomatic niceties or expensive suits.

The only thing standing in his way was still Luffa, so he launched a series of invasions into her Federation, designed to exploit her compassion for its people and to wear her down. It might have worked, too, except she had help from the fortuneteller Dotz, who predicted his strikes before they took place, and from Rehval's own daughter, the Princess Seltiss. Disillusioned with her father's misrule, the young Princess formed her own Saiyan alliance to serve as an alternative to Rehval's government. Luffa didn't trust her, but they had a common enemy, and Xibuyas was loyal to Seltiss, so at least they had the power they needed to fend off the attacks.

Just when it seemed that there would be no end to the war, Guwar arrived at her doorstep, offering to lead her to Rehval's new base on Nagaoka. A Saiyan mathematician, Guwar had joined his cult, only to realize that Rehval's "leadership" would only get them all killed, or at best, reduce them to a slave species. His defection only proved that Rehval was truly mad, and that his plans were rotten enough that even his own henchmen couldn't accept them.

And so, very soon, Luffa would destroy him, utterly and finally, for the defense of the Federation, for the freedom of her own species, and for herself.

"Five minutes before we drop out of superluminous," she said from the captain's chair of her yacht's bridge. "No one's reported any unusual sensor activity. What about you, Katem?"

"Nothing," Xibuyas said, visibly irritated by the name she used to address him. Luffa would have preferred to have him aboard her own ship, if only to keep a closer eye on the boy, but the Saiyan Free Company had its own fleet, and her attack plan would require him to take up position on the opposite side of the planet. Spending time with her son would have to wait for another day. For now, she would have to settle for the image of his face on the viewscreen.

"Rehval raised you, boy," she said. "Any idea what this means? Guwar told us there wouldn't be much in the way of advance defenses, but I thought we'd see more than this."

"Rehval's servants raised me," he said with a sneer. "And he expects secrecy to be his greatest defense. He believes that no one knows where to find him, so he probably has no idea that we're on our way to kill him."

"Or he's got some escape route set up on the planet," Luffa said. "All right, we'll stick to the original plan. Group A takes the northern hemisphere, Group B takes the south, Group C covers our backs. Carpet bomb the whole thing, and we'll see what they can do about it."

"Pointless," Xibuyas grumbled. "Destroy the entire planet, and they all die in one stroke. I could do it easily, and so could you."

"Too easy," Luffa said. "He'll be prepared for that. I want to see what his preparations are. Let him think he's dealing with a conventional attack before we reveal our true strength."

"If you're so afraid that he'll flee--"

"He seems to be convinced that this planet he's on holds some sort of special power for him," Luffa explained. "If that's true, then he won't give it up without a fight. I want to lure him into thinking he has a chance. We might even be able to get a siege going."

He sighed and sank into his chair. "Fine, have it your way," he said. "There's no arguing with you. We'll send word once Group B is in position."

He signed off, and Luffa made a bloodthirsty smile as she switched the viewscreen to display the Nagaoka system, which was rapidly coming into view. Her son hated her, but he was alive, and soon she would repay the bastard who tried to take him from her. Her wife, Zatte, was in the engine room, making last-minute preparations for the battle. Zatte had elaborate dreams that this battle would mark the beginning of a new era for Saiyan-kind, and maybe she was right, though Luffa never cared for the idea of herself as a Saiyan messiah. It didn't matter. For once in her life, everything was going perfectly.

She gripped the armrests of her seat and leaned forward in anticipation.

*******

[14 November, 233 Before Age. Nagaoka.]

Planet Nagaoka was devoid of intelligent life, save for the Jindan compound, a mostly subterranean facility. Aside from the shipyard and a few other surrounding structures, the planet would have seemed deserted. A thick cloud cover concealed the surface completely, but Guwar had provided the coordinates of the compound. As Zatte escorted him to the bridge, he saw part of the planet on the viewscreen, and he knew the compound lay directly below.

"I thought you'd want to see this," Luffa said as the doorway closed behind him. She never took her eyes off the planet. "They're about to strafe the surface."

"You're just going to blow it up from orbit?" he asked.

"For starters," Luffa said. "If anything survives, we'll go from there. Something wrong with that?"

"I just... I thought you were going to send in ground troops on the far side," he said. "Advance on the compound from the surface, and fight them all hand-to-hand."

Luffa looked at him curiously. "I've had my fill of fighting with these clowns," she said. "There's enough of them down there that even I would have trouble, and I'm not going to send troops down there to die for no reason. If you wanted suicide missions, maybe you shouldn't have switched sides. Rehval would have sent you to your death soon enough."

"I... I had friends down there," he said. "Rehval's the only one you're after, right?"

Luffa turned and spit on the deck. At last, Guwar had her full attention, and he instantly regretted it. He had seen her transform in front of him earlier, when he was first brought aboard her ship. That had been frightening enough, watching black Saiyan hair glowing like molten iron. But she was in her normal form now, or at least as normal as she ever could be, and as she glared at him, he felt that the grim look in her eyes would haunt him for the rest of his life.

"Now you listen to me," she said. "I don't give a damn about your 'friends'. The moment they joined forces with that bastard, their fates were sealed. Don't pretend you thought this was going to turn out any other way."

Guwar's throat went dry. "You're right," he said. "Just get it over with."

Luffa returned to her work, as if he hadn't spoken at all. He looked over to Zatte, the blue-skinned woman who seemed to serve as Luffa's entire crew for this ship. It was ironic to look to an alien for empathy, but he had hoped that she, at least, might appreciate his mixed emotions about this moment. If nothing else, he expected her to be somewhat horrified at the idea of bombing an entire planet to wipe out a single installation. But instead, Zatte had a curious sort of glow in her expression, not unlike the warriors in the Jindan Cult just before they were sent off to their deaths. Guwar had no idea what sort of hold Luffa had on Zatte, but she was fully committed to this action, come what may.

Luffa pressed a button on the console mounted near her left arm. "All ships, fire at will," she said.

A moment later, they did. Gawar watched as hundreds of orange streaks emerged from the edges of the viewscreen and converged on the planet below. It looked like most of the fire was concentrated in a single spot, which he assumed was the compound. But that was only part of it. There energy blasts raining down across every part of the planet that he could see. He could only guess that there were ships positioned on the opposite side covering that hemisphere too.

"There's... there's only the one complex," he said looking back at Luffa. "You're just wasting ammunition, shooting at nothing."

"And you really think I would trust you that far?" Luffa said with a snort. "Even if you have been honest with me, Rehval could still have other bases set up that he never told you about. It all burns. Today. And don't worry your pretty little head about our ammunition, Guwar. I made sure we brought plenty."

Guwar swallowed hard and turned back to face the viewscreen. He could sense the ki energy from the planet dropping as the bombardment continued. Were the cultists unable to fight back? Had Luffa taken them completely by surprise? Or was this Rehval's endgame all along? Maybe he knew all along that it would end this way, and he had led his flock to their doom. For a moment, he wondered if Rehval had been waiting for Guwar to betray him, if perhaps he had wanted Luffa to come to this place and rain fire upon him.

And then he noticed that the ki from the planet wasn't dropping anymore, and that the planet itself didn't look any different than it had before the attack began. Glancing back at the captain's chair, he saw that Luffa had noticed too.

"Scan the planet," Luffa said to Zatte. "Something's wrong down there."

"Life sign readings haven't changed since we started attacking," Zatte said.

"I told you about that," Guwar said. "They have a device to scramble sensors so you can't tell there's any humanoid biopatterns. That way if a ship drops by, they'll think Nagaoka's uninhabited and move on."

"Yeah, I know," Zatte said. "I'm not scanning for humanoids. I'm talking about trees, grass, everything. Nothing's dying down there. It's like we haven't put a dent in it..."

"You didn't say anything about a force field," Luffa said to Guwar. The look on her face was one of accusation, but not surprise.

"As far as I know, they didn't have one," Guwar protested.

"They don't have one," Zatte said. "I don't know what's going on here, but it can't be a force field generator. To cover the entire planet, you'd need an enormous power source, way too big to hide with a cloaking device. I should be able to detect a power signature for something that big, and there's nothing like that on the surface! I don't know what this is... I...!"

She continued tapping keys on the tactical console, and Luffa rose from her seat. "I'm going to the cargo bay," she said. "Get ready to open the bay door for me."

"You're going to attack them yourself?" Zatte asked. "But what if--?"

"Hail the rest of the fleet," Luffa said. "If I'm right, I can punch a hole in... whatever this is... then maybe we can land some ships, play it the way Guwar had in mind. You'd like that, wouldn't you, Guwar?"

He didn't answer, as he really didn't know what to say. Luffa grabbed him by the arm and dragged him to the lift.

"Come on," she said, "you can watch."

*******

The cargo hold was mostly empty. Luffa and Zatte had moved most of the supplies to other parts of the ship, leaving only a small, one-person craft.

"Like it?" Luffa asked. She patted the hull of the craft with her gloved hand as they crossed the bay. "My wife captured it from some felinoid raider who tried to impersonate a Saiyan. He thought he could bluff his way to an easy plunder--" She pointed at the bridge of her nose and bared her teeth-- "but all he got was a plasma bolt between his eyes. She's a crack shot."

"Y-your wife?" Guwar asked. "You mean that blue lady on the bridge--?"

"Felinoid!" Luffa growled, ignoring his question. The brown fur on her tail was standing on end, and Guwar suddenly became very aware of his own tail being missing.

"I see that crap all the time, you know? People mistake any humanoid with a tail for one of us," she said. "So weaklings and cowards try to use that to their advantage. Trade on our reputation as a fearsome warrior race. Except we're not so fearsome, are we, Guwar?"

She went to a cabinet mounted to the wall and removed a pair of masks. "Put this on," she said as she shoved one into his hands. He strapped it to his face, letting the flexible hose attached to it dangle from his chin.

"The Saiyans are afraid," she said. "My mother was afraid of the kings, and my father was afraid of my mother, and I was afraid of my father for a while. You and your cult buddies were afraid of me, so what did you do? Run to the biggest coward you could find and beg him for some snake oil. And now he's hiding under his rock, and they're all hiding with him. Makes you wonder what they're so afraid of."

She pulled out a gas cylinder and handed it to him, then found a second and started connecting it to her own mask. As she worked on the fittings, she transformed, suddenly illuminating the bay with a preternatural golden glow. Startled, Guwar took a step back, but Luffa barely reacted at all, as if she hadn't even noticed what she had done.

"I think we're afraid of ourselves," Luffa said. "I know I am. I turned into this thing for the first time and it scared the hell out of me. It still does sometimes. But all I am is stronger. Angrier. More eager for battle. I'm just like you Guwar, only more. Why'd you cut your tail off? Was it because he told you to? So you could fit in better with polite society? Or was it because you were afraid of what the tail means? Of who you really are. Inside?"

She paused her work long enough to tap her fist against her chest, and gave him a knowing look. "Felinoids try to impersonate us Saiyans, and meanwhile we Saiyans are doing our best to disguise ourselves as anything else. We're ashamed of ourselves for being ashamed of ourselves. That's how I see it. I started hanging out with aliens, and I started to notice how crummy Saiyans can really be to people. I never gave it much thought before, but we're all pretty rotten, aren't we?"

"What are you talking about?" Guwar mumbled, but not loud enough to be heard over the steady pulse of Luffa's golden aura.

She pointed at her gleaming yellow hair. "So does this mean I've risen above all that rotten stuff?" she asked. "Or does it make me the worst of us all?"

She didn't wait for him to reply. Instead, she put the mask over her face and tapped the communicator on the nearest wall panel to call the bridge. "We're ready down here," she said, her voice muffled by the mask. After she shut off the channel, she looked back at Guwar and shrugged.

"I can't talk to my wife about this sort of thing, you know. She thinks I can save the Saiyans, but me? I think I'm just part of the problem."

Guwar could hear her voice even more clearly now than he could before they put the masks on. Then he finally realized she was speaking to him telepathically. Most Saiyans had the ability to communicate this way, but they rarely used it. They couldn't read minds-- only Luffa seemed to know how to do that, and only then by making physical contact-- but they could talk to other people with their thoughts. So why didn't Saiyans use that ability more often? Was it fear? Was Luffa right about them? Maybe every Saiyan could read minds like she could, and no one else had the courage to try.

As he pondered this, the cargo bay door opened, revealing the grey clouds of Nagaoka below. Guwar was suddenly reminded of Salziff, the Saiyan who had led him to the Jindan Cult. Salziff had been kicked out of the order, and his Jindan power had been withdrawn, leaving him weaker than he had been before he joined. In his desperate attempt to regain what he had lost, Salziff had turned to performance enhancing drugs, and ravaged what was left of his health. He begged Guwar not to search for Jindan, and said that Guwar would rue the day Salziff told him how to find it. The gloom over Nagaoka looked very much like the pallid complexion of Salziff's face. Guwar wondered if the poor wretch was still alive. Guwar wondered about his own life expectancy, now that the Jindan power had been withdrawn from him as well.

There was an invisible force field that kept the air inside the bay while the door was open. It flickered beautifully for a moment as it deactivated, and Guwar felt the air rushing out into space. Weakened as he was, he still had more than enough strength to keep his footing, but he still grabbed hold of a handrail to be safe. The temperature dropped rapidly inside the bay, but his ki was strong enough to protect him from the cold as well. The great irony of his life was that he was considered a weakling by the standards of his own species, and yet he had so much power compared to most beings in the universe. He felt completely helpless as he watched Luffa stand at the edge of the bay, raising her hands to attack an entire planet.

He could hear her screaming, in spite of the wind, the sound of her aura, even the muffling effect of her mask. Her hands glowed so brightly that it hurt to look at them, so he focused on the air tank she had slung over her shoulder. For a brief moment, he wondered if he could burst the tank and knock her out of the ship quickly enough for her to asphyxiate, but decided that this would be suicidal to attempt. Even if it worked, he would still have to contend with her wife on the bridge, and her fleet around the planet, and the cult on the planet itself. Guwar didn't know about other Saiyans, but Luffa was right about him. He was afraid, because it seemed like no matter what he did, what side he chose, he would always be under someone else's power. At least Luffa's side could save the universe from Rehval's madness, but that wouldn't improve Guwar's prospects much.

At last, she brought her hands together and launched a spectacular beam of golden energy from her hands. Guwar watched it shoot down to the planet like some impossibly straight bolt of lightning. He had never sensed such an amazing power before. It was beyond anything he had ever imagined. It was enough to destroy a dozen planets. And then, when the beam of irresistable light reached the dismal clouds of Nagaoka...

...it dispersed. The energy spread across the clouds and vanished, like so much milk spilling onto a napkin. The clouds parted, revealing a tiny section of Nagaoka's surface, but there was no explosion, no damage. Soon enough, the clouds drifted back together, and the surface was hidden once again.

Luffa stared out of the bay in disbelief, and then after a few seconds, Guwar noticed a yellow glow on the edge of Nagaoka's disk. A second later, he could sense it, too.

"What... what's happening?" he asked. He hoped that this was somehow part of her technique, but the way she moved her tail told him that she was just as confused as he was.

Finally, beams of yellow light started shooting out from the clouds from every direction. It seemed to Guwar that the planet had somehow absorbed her attack, divided it, and fired it back out into space. For a moment, he worried that this was a counterattack from the cult, except the beams didn't seem to be aimed anywhere in particular. He reached out with his ki senses and quickly determined that most of the fleet was nowhere near the paths of these beams. Even so, he did sense a few power levels that winked out of existence as the deadly energy connected with their ships.

Angrily, Luffa stormed to the bay door controls and restored the force field. Air rushed in to repressurize the hold, and she moved on to the wall panel to call the bridge. "What's going on?" she shouted over the thrum of the ventilation system.

"Six ships are reporting heavy damage!" Zatte's voice called back. "One completely destroyed! I... Luffa, that was your energy it shot back at us!"

"I know that!" Luffa snapped. "How does a force field reflect that kind of power?!"

"I told you, it's not a force field!" Zatte said. "It's too big for that, and too... It's more like when I... oh no. Oh, Providence, no."

"What's wrong?" Luffa asked. For every second that passed without a reply, she grew more agitated. Finally, she dug her fingers into the wall and ripped the comm panel out entirely.

"We're going back to the bridge!" she shouted as she tossed the torn panel to the deck. But Guwar didn't move. He was too busy looking at the planet.

"Well? What are you gawking at?" Luffa demanded as she shrugged off her air canister and mask.

"I think you need to see this," Guwar said ominously. A mathematician by trade, he preferred not to give such vague answers, but in this case, he simply couldn't find the words.

"See what?!" Luffa said impatiently as she shrugged off her mask and air cylinder. And then she finally turned to face the bay door, and saw it immediately. The clouds on Nagaoka had shifted, swirling into an unnatural pattern. They were still moving, but it was clear that they were forming an image of a face, and even before that image had come into focus, there was no mistaking whose face it was.

"Hello, Luffa," said the voice of King Rehval.

He was speaking into their minds, just as Luffa had done before. What made it even stranger, Guwar thought, was that the lips on the cloud-image moved as though it were speaking the words.

"I'm so glad that you've finally arrived," the cloud-Rehval seemed to say. "Now, at last, we can put all of this to an end."

NEXT: The Thrice Blessed Who Will Transform the Universe.

#dragon ball #fanfiction #lssjluffafic #super saiyan #luffa #guwar #zatte #trismegistus #xibuyas #nagaoka

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tsuki-sennin · 2 years

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Deliciousmile~! ...hey wait a sec, that doesn't seem right. Well, y'know, what's a festival without food, eh? And, well, this is a very special watch for us today, y'know why? Why, because today is Inoue-sensei's birthday, of course~!

I don't exactly know how best to celebrate, but I do want to congratulate him for keeping Donbrothers as a non-stop banger of a season. Perhaps not the best we've ever had, but certainly not one I'd ever forget.

Now, enough delay! As they say in that other town with a Toei superhero team unified by a common theme, food brings smiles~! And it's the dog cooking, you know this'll be great~!

-Sonoshi will be back.

-Fancy eatin'...

-Flavoooooor!

-...are you some kinda circuit board?

-Oh dear god, she vores.

-Inoue what the fuck

-Have you been spending too much time on the internet again?

-Yeah, the Juto forest is... absolutely horrific, I don't blame Tsubasa for wanting out.

-"...can I go now? I wanna wash all this forest stink off of me."

-Freedoooooooom.

-Nice weather :)

-Dog go nyoom!

-There he is.

-Inuzuka-san!

-Oh hi Kijino.

-Are... you alright?

-"Okay I know I sold you out, but like... wanna go eat at a fancy restaurant with my wife?"

-"What the fuck, no."

-Tsubasa, this man who snitched on you is married to a doll and your first instinct is to hug him?

-Oh hey Rumi-chan! Jirou-kun!

-Byeeeeeee

-"My cringefail boyfriend is too pure to be alive."

-Dinner!

-Gotta say, big missed opportunity to have a ton of Hoka-Hoka Hearts everywhere.

-"Y-you can have her man, Jesus Christ calm down."

-Oh hey, the cat came back.

-I gotta ask Tiger Jirou, are you perhaps a Juuto in some way?

-Keep things professional with your editors, folks.

-Oh yeah, Sononi did shoot you down lmao

-Sorry Shinichi, she's got a point there

-Jesus Christ, we couldn't have ONE peaceful dinner, could we!

-Shaddap!

-That chef is about to kill a man.

-Ohhhh...

-Tsubasa, jkh,hlbl

-Shef Off

-"Wow! This reminds me of my imaginary food that I eat because money burns my skin off!"

-Hello food critic lady!

-Iida-sensei, okay!

-A cooking contest!

-Damn, a hundred million yen isn't even enough for this restaurant, huh?

-No wonder Tsubasa got all uppity.

-What is he cookin'?

-Tsubasa what the fuck why is the fugitive gene a thing

-Deliciousmile~!

-Pipipi~!

-"Good, but not award winning" is the highest praise I've ever heard Tarou give any food.

-Ingredient

-Mop those floors, Tsuyoshi!

-Retrieve Egg

-The remaining

-SONOI WHAT

-"Give me those fucking eggs. Sonoshi ate all my spare like the fucking gremlin they are, and I can't send someone to the store. Sonoza scares the cashier too much, and if you ask a condor-themed woman for eggs, she gives you a very strange look."

-I love this.

-Yeah good job fellas!

-A field of flowers~!

-Damn Haruka, you really drew that background in five seconds, huh?

-Oh god here she comes

-SHE ATE MY DOG

-What the fuck, Vore Dimension?

-Oh?

-OH FUCK

-Tsubasa, you don't just eat fruit you find in a random forest dimension!

-"Murasame! Let's cut them into sashimi!"

-Fruit~!

-Back off, everybody!

-Seiya Seiya!

-Nooooo, Murasame! Pick him up, Sonoza!

-Oh, good, we're not eating Helheim fruit. Good.

-OVERFLOWING?

-OH SHIT

-Recolor!

-"YOU ASSHOLES, I HAVE AN OMELET ON THE STOVE, IT'S GONNA BURN THE KITCHEN DOOOOOOOOOOWN-!"

-Wow, Tarou really said "A gold bird does the job just fine, unlike you Kijino."

-Poor Murasame.

-"Good job buddy."

-Fooooood~!

-Blue pasta!

-Iida-sensei's imagination is a good bit more professional, huh?

-Awwwww, Sonoi... :)

-Oh?

-Have a snacc, Tarou-san

-jklhkilh;k'

-Holy shit, Tarou

-Holy shit, Rumi's cooking must cure every disease ever if it's that good!

-M

-Miho-san.

-CRANE LADY????

-WHAAAAAAT

-WHY YOU BACK

-DONKILLER JKHLHJ'

-My god.

-Does this "button" just have an "Evil" setting you can press with all the sensitivity of a space bar?

-Oh well, this episode is either going to be peak comedy or absolutely horrifying. Or both. No in-betweens allowed here.

-Alright, let's pack it up folks, episode's done! We're done talkin' for today! Happy birthday again, Inoue-sensei!

#donbrothers spoilers #avataro sentai donbrothers #donbrothers #super sentai #don! don! it's a full force peachy festival!

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alexswak · 4 years

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Studio Graviton

I have been researching Studio Graviton for a while, a small studio notable for its activities during the ‘80s, and I’ll articulate what I found in this post here. As for why this small studio is relevant, let’s say an individual with the name of Hideaki Anno was one of the founders, and it was there that he had his debut as a director.

So it all starts with Anno back in 1984, just after finishing his work on “Macross: Do You Remember Love?”. To get an idea about the nature of Studio Graviton we need to understand Anno’s situation back then, as he was still a newling in the industry, not even sure if he was going to continue in this line of work or not. It’s well-known that Anno moved to Tokyo based on an invitation from Miyazaki to work on Nausicaa, after dropping from university, but he moved with only his backpack and barely any money. It was a hard time for him, moving from one place to another, sleeping in the studio when he could, and so on. People might think the harsh working conditions of the anime industry are something recent, yet, while admittingly getting a bit worse recently, it’s always been like that, especially for newcomers.

A comic drawn by Anno detailing how he spent 1984. Translation here.

While working on Do You Remember Love he met with one young animator called Shoichi Masuo. They and two other friends, Kouji Itou and Katsuhiko Nishijima, decided to establish their own studio and called it Graviton. Exact date for establishing the studio is around June of that year, and Anno worked on Megazone 23 there.

I say studio because that is used to refer to Graviton, but let’s clarify the nature of this “studio” first. Studios in general are basically a place for creators to gather and work on the projects at hand, a place where they put their work material and tools and the like. The word “studio” might give off an impression of a place akin to a company or an organization of sorts, with representatives and management staff, yet this isn’t the case for most anime studios. The majority small studios exist mostly for the purpose of providing a place for creators to work in, with maybe one or two persons with management roles such as a producer to organize work and secure new contracts, but not always.

Graviton may be a bit special, but most small studios, which is to say most anime studios, are closer to Graviton than they are to larger studios like Bones or Toei. Graviton was just a rented apartment for the studio members to stay in whenever they pleased, with expenses shared among them. They didn’t have to work together on the same project, and they didn’t have any specific responsibilities or obligations, they could come and go whenever they wanted, really. Anno for example kept switching places between Graviton and Gainax a few times during those years. Another more recent example is Takafumi Hori, who works from Trigger on other studios’ projects, and him having his desk at Trigger is due to his good friendship with other studio members.

The benefits of having a shared working place like Graviton are obvious I believe, like sharing expenses or getting to work on other studio members’ projects if there is a vacancy, I’ll mention some examples on that in a moment. My examples are mainly related to Anno, because getting information on him and his career is much easier, but each one of the original studio members had a notable career of his own and is worth checking out.

So starting with the projects Anno worked on while being at Graviton we have the first part of Megazone-23 where he did some scenes. I guess he worked on the infamous Pop Chaser 4 while being at Graviton too, and then went back to Gainax to work on Wings of Honneamise, and then went back and forth between the two studios juggling different projects till around 1988, when he took over as the director of Gunbuster. He didn’t come back to Graviton after that, probably because his financial situation became much more stable and just settled at Gainax.

Among the things Anno worked on back then were ads, one of them was an ad for a music player from JVC, which he did at Gainax in 1987. The ad evidently has nothing to do with neither music nor electrical devices, which is what the company’s representatives said if I’m not mistaken, but it’s a good piece of animation. Another ad, the really interesting one, was a promotional video for a game on NES called “Mugen Senshi Valis”. This ad is by the way the first directorial (paid) work for Anno. He did it in the same year but this time at Graviton, and I’d have said by this point that the studio at which he worked was a mere difference in location no more, yet this ad was a rare collaboration between all of Studio Graviton members. Also, as a side note, Anno spent the money he got from this job on buying a cooler for the studio in place of the one that broke.

youtube

The promotional video was promoted in magazines and posters with focus on two points: The first is being directed by Hideaki Anno, a genius animator who played a major role in DAICON and Wings of Honneamise. The second is having Katsuhiko Nishijima, the director of Project A-Ko, as a character designer and animation director. I think that the target audience for this promotional video was obvious. The production company behind this was Sunrise, and I think they were the ones who reached out to Anno in one way or another to direct this, who in turn invited his friends from Graviton, so as a result Graviton was credited with the animation.

Director - Storyboard: Hideaki Anno

Character Designer - Animation Director: Katsuhiko Nishijima

Key Animation: Graviton

Backgrounds: Atelier Musa

Finishing: Studio Fantasia

Production: Hideoki Tomoika(Sunrise)

This is a great opportunity to talk about Nishijima, who was a key figure in the ‘80s. He wanted to become a mangaka at first, but wanting to make a living drove him to enter a university, which he left after his first year to join the anime industry. Applying for a place at Sunrise at first, after watching Gundam during his year at the university, he was referred to Studio Live because Sunrise didn’t accept new in-betweeners at the time. He passed the entry test there and had his first gig as an in-betweener on Cyborg 009 episode 27 I believe. His first key animation came shortly thereafter on episode 26 of Maeterlinck no Aoi Tori: Tyltyl Mytyl no Bōken Ryokō.

He started attracting attention due to his scenes in Urusei Yatsura, being a big fan of the manga to begin with he personally asked Toyo Ashida(Studio Live’s president) to work on the TV anime. There he started developing his own style, and although a hint of Kanadism was there, his style was pretty distinct even early on, which led to his scenes standing out from the rest. Even when Studio Live stopped working on Urusei Yatsura, Nishijima moved to Deen where he continued working on it. It can be said that the long time he spent working on Urusei Yatsura culminated in his magnum opus, Project A-Ko, but that’s a whole discussion of its own for another time. Before Nishijima left Studio Live he participated in a dozen of their shows, such as Minky Momo and Dr. Slump Arale-chan, and even after leaving he kept ties with them and worked on things like the Kyoufu no Bio Ningen Saishuu Kyoushi OVA.

There’re a lot of characteristics for his style. First there’s the way he draws bodies, as he was known for drawing girls with sexy bodies while keeping the faces simple and cute with large round eyes. No wonder such style was popular among otaku of the day, especially considering the “idol” status of Lum from Urusei Yatsura back then. His popularity only increased after Project A-Ko OVA, and the Valis PV came shortly after all of that.

Nishijima’s designs are pretty beautiful if you ask me, and this PV is one of the few works where you’ll find his designs. Aside from that his scenes are a joy to watch. I think he was capable of adding a sense of dynamism to his scenes without unnecessary or excessive movement, which not a lot of young animators could do giving his style a hint of “maturity” so to speak, all the while without losing attractiveness. He achieves this through his good use of perspective, for example, or his unique impact frames, which are a favourite of mine.

Some of his impact frames.

If we take a look at his scene in the PV we see how both characters exchange position relative to the camera, as if the camera is rotating around them as they exchange blows. It reminds of his scene in Outlanders OVA, one of his best overall. Just like a lot of other young animators of that generation, however, he sadly didn’t put out any work worthy of note after the ‘80s, especially after switching his focus to directing and participating in less projects overall.

As for people he works\worked regularly with there was Moriyama Yuuji, a friend of his since the ‘80s. I bet the person who introduced them to each other was Hideaki Anno, since Anno met Moriyama around the year 1984 while the latter was at Studio MIN, which is another small studio located not that far from Graviton. Again, the word “studio” isn’t to be taken at face value here, as MIN was akin to Graviton in being more or less an apartment for animators to work in, hinting at the fact that such studios weren’t all that rare.

MIN was founded in 1982 and dissolved in the year 1991, yet it was full of prolific creators throughout its short lifespan. Other than the aforementioned Moriyama we have Hiroyuki Kitakubo, Hideki Tamura and Yoshiharu Fukushima as the studio’s founders, while Nobuteru Yuuki joined them later on. You’re free to look up any of those names, no short post is enough to cover the career of any single one of them, and this short post has already been dragged beyond its original intended length. As a side note though, I now notice that most of the people behind the infamous Cream Lemon Pop Chaser were either form MIN or from Graviton, and it’s an amazing realisation that a few very young creators in their small apartments created one of the most memorable and striking episodes of the whole ‘80s.

Before I end this post I’ll add that the period in which Anno met Moriyama was when Moriyama was working on a manga by Mamoru Oshii (the acquaintance between them goes back to when Moriyama worked on Urusei Yatsura). The manga was named “In The End... “ (とどのつまり) and was published (or was to be published?) in a sub-magazine from Animage called Animage Comics (アニメージュコミックス). That caused Toshio Suzuki, who was still an editor at Animage, to visit MIN regularly and run into Anno, whom he probably knew due to his participation in Nausicaa 2 years prior.

#Graviton #MIN #Hideaki Anno #Katsuhiko Nishijima #Valis #Urusei Yatsura #Project A-Ko

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izzyizumi · 4 years

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all I’m saying is Toei is lucky as hECK that we’re getting Digimon Adventure 2020 Episode 04 this coming week

because otherwise I’d probably still be

yELLING @ THEM (#NOTINABADWAY) FOR “ACCIDENTALLY LEAKING” “KIZUNA”

#KizunaSpoilers #Kizuna Spoilers #DigimonSpoilers #Digimon Spoilers ???

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giuliafc · 3 years

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Faceless

My Miraculous Ladybug Big Bang Fanfiction is FINALLY out!

Faceless

Read on Ao3 || FFN

When Ladybug rejects Chat Noir one time too many and a little too harshly, Adrien is left heart-broken and unable to process the umpteenth blow. This leads him to be akumatised to 'Faceless', an akuma whose power is to change people into the face of their true love. Identities get revealed, Marinette confesses her feelings, and Luka... well, Luka ends up wearing a different pair of earrings, for once.

Please, if you read, leave me a comment and let me know what you think! <3

Language betas: Khanofallorcs, Agrestebug, Lady Elaine, Myimaginationflows, Lots_of_free_time

Concept betas: Genxha, Malauu-Ladynoir, Etoile-Lead-Sama, and Rosehealer02

MLBB artists who illustrated this story: Lizzie! and Imogen

Also, big thank yous to Mikauzoran for their help with Japanese!

Written for the Miraculous Big Bang event.

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

Chapter 1 - One too many...

"It’s okay to be sad. You don’t owe anyone a performance of being okay when you feel like you’re falling apart."

Daniell Koepke

"Let someone love you the way you are - as flawed as you might be, as unattractive as you sometimes feel, and as unaccomplished as you think you are. To believe that you must hide all the parts of you that are broken, out of fear that someone else is incapable of loving what is less than perfect, is to believe that sunlight is incapable of entering a broken window and illuminating a dark room."

Mark Hack

oOoOoOoOoOo

The akuma wasn't a difficult one. They had just broken for lunch after Mlle Bustier's lesson, when a worker at the local cinema had been akumatised because someone left a popcorn disaster under one of the seats. Ladybug and Chat Noir found themselves fighting against a giant popcorn machine that turned people into popcorn, and a sentimonster-hovervac that sucked them up. But the giant popcorn didn’t move very smoothly, so it wasn't very difficult for the heroes to defeat. When they landed atop Montparnasse Tower to debrief before heading back to school, they still had a couple of minutes left on their timer.

That's when Chat Noir bowed in front of Ladybug and skillfully presented her with a single red rose. "Voilà. A beautiful rose for a beautiful Lady."

"Oh, Chaton," said Ladybug as a sad smile curled her lips. She picked the rose in her hand, and looked at it with a sad frown. She tried to hand it back to him, but he wouldn't take it. "You know I can't accept it."

Chat Noir's ears drooped and his smile faded into a pout. His throat clenched over as a sour taste filled his mouth. She had told him that so many times and, from the way that she had treated him recently, there was no way her heart had changed.

He had sighed and cried into his pillow at night as he thought of how useless he had been in the last few fights, how his presence hadn't even been needed, how he was always the last hero to arrive on the battlefield. Like it had happened when they had faced Optigami and he had arrived after the akuma had been destroyed. He had discussed it with Plagg to no end. His little black friend had advised him against it, but he had to give it a shot.

She cupped a hand to his cheek. "We can't, Chat Noir. Papillombre would use it against us." She clenched her fists holding the rose in her hands more firmly. "I do love you; you know that, right? You're my partner and my best friend with the mask. But I can't love you the way you want me to. I told you so many times that you should stop flirting with me, Minou. If you keep doing what you've always done, you will always get what you've always got. Why do you continue to hurt yourself? We can't be together, you should know that by now. Instead, you keep presenting me with roses that I cannot accept!"

He mulled on it for a very long time, his gaze locked into hers. "You're still in love with the other boy?" he eventually asked, after having slouched his shoulders and sighed.

She moved towards the banister and gazed down at the city underneath them, full of movement and life. "It's not that," she admitted. But when Chat Noir's ears perked up again, she paled and her eyes opened wide. She continued quickly, "I still can't accept, Chaton. I don't feel like being in any relationship at the moment."

He gulped.

"What do you mean, LB? Have you grown out of love with your mystery boy?"

She gave him a glassy look full of tears. "It's not that either. It's complicated, Chat Noir." The pout on his face widened as she continued, "My life is very complicated."

He sighed. "I know that being the Guardian you have a lot of responsibilities, but you never talk to me about them. I've told you plenty of times that I'm here for you to share the load if you need me to, but you always push me away. Why, LB? Don't you trust me?"

"It's not that," she blurted out. She eyed him a couple of times, like a prey that has seen a hunter following its track and is trying to avoid getting caught.

"What is it, then? Lately, I always seem to get to the fight last and new holders pop out of nowhere and defeat the akuma before I even get there. When was the last time that my presence was crucial to the outcome of the battle? You say that you don't want to replace me, that I'm irreplaceable, but your actions don't match your words. I feel so...useless." He heard her holding her breath and gave her a sad look before continuing, "I hate being kept in the dark, Buguinette."

"Why does everyone want to know things?" She put her hands to her temples and closed her eyes shut. "My parents wanted to know things. My friends wanted to know things. They put me under such great pressure because they wanted to 'help me'. I was tired of lying to them, Chat Noir. I was lying to my parents, I was lying to my friends; it got to the point that I told them to get out and never come back. I felt that I wasn't allowed to have friends because of my role as a Guardian, that I wasn't allowed to have a life. I felt so alone!"

"But I was there! I wanted to help you!"

"I couldn't accept your help! Don't you understand that? I needed someone who knew me in my civilian life. I needed someone I could rely on without the mask! That's why I told her!" she shouted. But as soon as she did, she noticed Chat Noir widening his eyes and felt all blood draining from her face. Her heart stopped.

"You did...what?" asked the feline.

Ladybug wished the ground would swallow her whole. "Uh, eh…" she stuttered, looking down at her hands and starting to fidget nervously with her fingers, but Chat Noir grabbed her by the shoulders and raised her chin to force her to look at him.

"You did what, Ladybug?"

She looked down. "I told...my best friend."

"WHAT?" He was looking at her with an incredulous gaze, that kind of gaze that knows the truth but doesn't want to believe it. That kind of gaze that begs the other person to disprove the obvious conclusion and let out a new truth. "I thought you told her because you needed to leave the city without a Ladybug."

Ladybug closed her eyes shut; she cupped her empty hand on her face and started crying. "I'm sorry. I know you thought I had revealed myself out of necessity the time Hack-san akumatised Markov again, but I didn't tell you the entire truth." She looked at him briefly and must have seen how all blood had drained from his face and how wide his eyes had gone because she closed her eyes shut again as heavy sobs shook her frame.

"I was overwhelmed! So lonely...really needed a friend. Everybody wanted the truth from me. My parents, my friends, my best friend, the boy I was going out with...everyone! I had lost everything. I was lying to everyone. Me, the person who hates liars, was being the worst liar in history. I felt I wasn't going to get out of it, that I couldn't have friends, I couldn't have a relationship, I couldn't have a life while I was Ladybug!"

She cried some more into her hand. "I had to give up on pursuing the boy I love. I had started a relationship with another boy, who told me he loved me, to try and forget the boy I love, but I had to give up on him too, because he wanted the truth! And the truth was the very thing I couldn't give him. I was heartbroken, I didn't know what to do!" She glared at him, completely missing the pallor of his face and the shock in his eyes. "I couldn't talk to you about it because we're supposed to keep our identities a secret from each other. My best friend was the only person I could rely on!"

"You started a relationship with another boy? Only because he told you that he loved you?" He pursed his lips when she nodded and lowered his gaze. "I see. It's okay, you don't have to love me, I would never force you into anything. But it does hurt to find out how many things you aren’t telling me. You don't trust me at all."

"I do trust you! I trust you with my life, every day, at every battle."

He glared at her and he could clearly see how she paled under his gaze. "Then act like it!" He saw her paling further. "I'm tired," he added. "I'm tired of being lied to."

"What do you mean? I've never really lied to you, I've only hidden...things...from you!" Her brows furrowed, her gaze locked into his. He had gotten her attention, for all it was worth.

"I know about Rena and Carapace."

She gasped. "Y-you know what about them?"

"I know who they are. And I know that they know each other's identities. They're a couple. And you allowed them to know. You gave them their Miraculous at the same time." He couldn't avoid spitting the words out as if they were poisonous. He looked at her shocked expression and sighed. "Plagg told me it would be useless to talk to you about it. Forget it, it doesn't matter."

"Y-you know who they are?" she whispered, her eyes still open wide.

He nodded. "Yes."

"And you know I gave them their Miraculous at the same time," she muttered to herself. Her gaze became distant, as if she was trying to remember something very hard. "I don't think there was anybody in that room when I gave them their Miraculous, so it means one of them told you."

He nodded again. "Yes."

She pouted. "I will need to have a word with Nino," she muttered under her breath. "But, Chaton, you don't know the entire situation. Did he tell you when that happened?"

"No, he just said that you gave them their Miraculous at the same time," admitted Chat Noir, still sounding quite harsh.

"It was an accident. I didn't have the time to get to them separately and had to make a choice." She noticed that his gaze was still harsh and his hands were still clenched into fists. "They're only temporary holders, Chat Noir. And they don't hold a Miraculous as important as mine; or yours."

"It's still a Miraculous, though," he said. "And Papillombre knows their identity. It would be easy for him to use them to get at me, or at you. Why can they know each other's identities and we can't?"

She cupped a hand on his cheek. "Papillombre could hold it against u—"

"BULLSHIT!" He pushed her hand away. The hurt in her face when he looked back at her was so evident it pained him. "It's not that. Or at least, it's not ONLY that. I can sense it, Ladybug. There's something else you're not telling me. I can see it in your eyes. In the frown that you give me every time we talk about it." She furrowed her brows and he pointed at her face. "There, that frown. You don't trust me. For some reason I can't understand, you're pushing me away. You're keeping me as far as you can from you."

Tears streamed from her bluebell eyes. "You don't understand," she said as she clenched her fists to the sides of her head and closed her eyes shut. "You can't understand!"

He grabbed her by the shoulders, forcing her to look him in the eye. "THEN MAKE ME! I want to understand, Buguinette. But I can't understand unless you give me the whole picture. Instead, the more I try, the more you push me away."

She started crying. "I can't." Her eyes were full of tears and she finally managed to get out of his hold and look down.

He also looked down, slouching his shoulders. "And there I was, hoping that, at least today, things would be different. Of all times, I had to find out today how much our partnership is a farce—"

"—What about today?" she interrupted him. Her hand left his cheek and moved to her chin, starting to rub it thoughtfully.

"You don't remember? It's been a year. A year since Stone Heart. That's why I wanted to give you the rose."

He saw the gleam of comprehension that passed through her bluebell eyes and smiled sadly. She looked at him with a gaze so full of emotion that he felt a big lump in his throat and had to gulp.

"A year since…you turned my world upside down."

"I'm sorry. Everyone has to come to terms eventually to the fact that their dreams are too… impossible."

She looked away and as she did that, her gaze fell on the nearest billboard to their rooftop, obviously featuring Adrien's beautiful face.

She sighed. "I had to give up on my dreams, too, as I told you." Her eyes started burning, as tears popped out of the corners of her mask. "I still love that boy, Chaton. More than words can say." It took her all her strength to tear her gaze from the billboard and look at Chat Noir again. "That's why I can't be with you. You and I will never be together that way."

She gave him a quick peck on the cheek, like the one he had given her a long time ago, when she rejected him the first time, and gave him back his rose.

"I'm really sorry, Chat Noir." Her voice cracked and she sniffed loudly. He turned around, feeling as if the whole world was falling and the ground was unsteady under his feet. He couldn't look at her anymore.

She tried to put a hand on his shoulder, but he pushed it away and didn't turn around again. So, eventually, she twirled her yoyo and disappeared in the distance.

oOoOoOoOoOo

Plagg didn't even go to get his cheese when Adrien released his transformation. He just stared at his chosen with the saddest look in his electric green eyes. He was uncharacteristically quiet, but it was clear from the position of his ears flat on his head, and the way his tail flapped left and right that he was extremely upset. Adrien fumbled with his hand into the pocket of his shirt, taking out the slice of Camembert he knew his little friend needed to recharge. Plagg took it from his hand, but didn't start eating it. Again, uncharacteristic of him.

They were in the school boiler room—Adrien had detransformed and just ducked into it when he saw Chloé walking his way. He wasn't in the right frame of mind to face the blonde. He wasn't in the right frame of mind to face anyone. He walked the corridor aimlessly and ended up in the very place he and Marinette had consoled Juleka a few weeks back, sitting down in the exact same way, his back resting against the wall, his face buried in his knees. At least he knew that nobody would find him there. When it had happened to Juleka, he and Marinette had found her by mere accident.

"Gamin," Plagg attempted to say. Adrien's face didn't appear from behind his knees, not a sound came out of his mouth. Plagg pouted and moved his slice of cheese in just one paw, to use the other one to pat Adrien gently on his hair. "I'm sorry."

At that, Adrien's face jerked up, his green eyes full of tears, but opened wide as he shot an incredulous look to Plagg. His eyes widened even more when he noticed that the kwami hadn't still touched his cheese.

"Eat your Camembert, Plagg." He sniffed. "God forbid that Papillombre decides to send yet another akuma and we're not prepared."

But Plagg didn't touch his food and just stared.

"I said: eat your Camembert," said Adrien a little louder. Plagg started munching not very enthusiastically at the cheese in his paws, following each and every tear that fell down Adrien's cheeks with his electric green gaze, for once, void of any mockery. Adrien picked up the single rose that he'd tried to give Ladybug a few minutes ago and glared at it. He scrutinised every single corner and every single petal and then clenched the stem into his shaking fist.

"There were thorns on that stem," stated Plagg matter of factly. "I'm the God of Destruction, but you're not, Adrien. You should look after yourself."

He threw the rose angrily against the wall and looked at the palm of his hand, now bleeding from a couple of places where a thorn had cut the skin. "Why? Nobody would care," he muttered under his breath.

Plagg threw the slice of cheese in the air and ate it by catching it with his mouth and only chewing a couple of times. "I would, and you know it."

"Nah," said Adrien, closing his eyes and waving his hand dismissively. "You only want your cheese. There will be another Chat Noir who will give you Camembert."

Plagg flew to his nose and locked gaze with him. "I hate repeating myself, Adrien. I told you once already. Yes, there will be another Chat Noir that will buy me cheese. But he won't be you." When Adrien stared back blankly at him and just sighed, Plagg's ears went flat on his head, his tail flapping back and forth. "Maybe the Bug doesn't need you, but I do."

"Thank you, buddy." This time Adrien's hand reached for his little friend's head and gave him a quick, affectionate pat and a rub behind his ears. But there was no cheerfulness, no joy in his gesture. He smiled his fake model smile.

Although Plagg enjoyed the contact, he was painfully aware that his words hadn't really hit the target. "But I'm not enough, right?" he asked as Adrien sighed and hid again his face behind his knees. "We could run away from your home, run away from Ladybug and open that cheese shop I was telling you about the other day. Wouldn't it be great to live 24/7 surrounded by the smell of gorgeous gooeyness?" As he said that, his voice raised, his little body floated up in the air, with his paws up and his eyes lost in his imagination. That earned him a sad chuckle.

"Yeah. I already told you that it wouldn't work. You'd eat all the cheese and we'd be left with nothing to sell." Adrien sighed. "Thanks for trying to cheer me up, buddy. I just… can't." His face returned to hide behind his knees as he fell silent and after a couple of minutes, his frame was shaken by deep sobs. "Not even a second choice. That's how much she values me. Not even a second choice!" He sobbed some more against his knees. "She told someone else that she's Ladybug, but she won't tell me who she is."

Plagg's ears went flat again. He floated to Adrien's head and used his paws to gently pat his hair while the soothing ronron of his purr filled the silence of the room. "I'll keep watch for butterflies," muttered Plagg. "You're going to get akumatised at this rate."

"I don't care!" screamed Adrien's voice coming from behind his knees. He didn't even bother to look at Plagg and just kept sobbing.

To be continued...

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Author’s Note:

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Hello everyone and Happy New Year! I can't believe that I can finally present to you this story that I have been writing for the last 6 months for the Big Bang event. It's been hard, it's been lonely (sadly I couldn't even show snippets or anything else!), and it's been scary, especially when Ephemeral came out and I thought for a second that I would need to pick this story up and dump it in the bin. But luckily, for some miracle, it didn't happen. went close to it, and I had to adjust a few things in order to make it fit with Ephemeral, but I want to point out that I wrote the whole part up to Adrien's akumatisation before watching the episode, because I wanted to keep it mine, without interference from Canon. Luckily I managed to achieve my aim.

So here it is. 12 chapters of angst, pain, self discovery, and, especially for Marinette, learning to love Adrien for real…well I can't say no more, or I'll spoil it for you all. It's been very interesting to write it and I've loved the concept and the idea behind it so much!

Just one note, that you may have seen in the tags already: there are hints in this story about the possibility that Adrien may be a sentimonster. They're nothing more than what we have seen in canon. I've left it very vague right because we're not sure yet, so I don't want to lean towards yes or no myself, since canon isn't in any way clear. But I had to do something because a scene wouldn't have worked otherwise. I'm saying it to warn you, in case you're completely against the idea. I know the feeling. I too, as people who follow me here on Tumblr know very well, am not convinced at all. I had to work hard to actually accept the possibility and process it myself, because I was very rigidly against the theory to start with. But Ephemeral and Gabriel Agreste broke me and I had to add the hint in case it was true.

Also, I nearly forgot, if you're not a member yet, please join our discord server, @miraculousfanworks

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