#like Usagi is the ‘more obviously’ gay guy

[ohnofujo]

You guys don’t understand how much I think Misaki is Chad in I Don’t Dance from High School Musical and Usagi is Ryan

[alevolpe]

I think you mean well by this post. I really do, but your main point is not very well constructed.

I do complain sometimes of the og anime being a bit hetero normative, but I never did blame it on the people working on the show (or never saw anyone do it either), but rather instead consider and accept that times have changed.

The 90's show was VERY progressive for its time, but it did make a point multiple times to have some characters, mostly Usagi, being at BEST hetero normative and naive and at WORST outright homophobic.

Idk why you decided to include ships in your argument since the 2 examples that you gave are really carried by fanon (UsagiRei and MakotoAmi), and while both have very scant subtext (I'd argue Makoami has more subtext since Ami and Makoto aren't currently dating other people while the subtext is going on) neither of them were given anything that couldn't be easily written off as them being close friends.(*I'm the biggest Makoami shipper there is so I don't wanna hear that I'm denying subtext, I'm just saying it's not a stronge enough base to form an argument on*)

I don't have a stance on the decision to have the Starlights be men instead of women, but I never heard fans complaining calling it bigoted in any way. Obviously people have some problems with it, understandably since it's a big deviation from the manga canon, but I feel that none of those complaints were ever made from a place of bad judgment toward the OG crew. My simple stance is that it was prob more marketable to have them being male since the majority of the last season is focused on what would be a lesbian romance with the main character, when they could instead just sort of recreate the Mamoru dynamic with another guy.

I'll give my short cent of Fisheye, I don't think they ever meant any subtext for him being trans, but I might have missed it. I appreciate his presence on the show and what the crew was trying to do, but he was definitely based on very negative stereotypes of gay men and was downright offensive at times (if you want good rep for gay man Zoisite is an excellent example).

TLDR: I like to criticize media I love, but I don't focus on the people involved; rather the time period and circumstances it was made in. Overall the 90's anime tried (and succeeded most of the time) to be a very inclusive and open minded show while being based in an era were certain topics/representation were very scant and difficult to display.

Also a big element I forgot to mention is that Sailor Moon was becoming one of the biggest franchises in Japan at the time, so the crew was most likely more restricted on liberal decisions and were instead instructed to make as safe a show as possible to keep it marketable.

Long Rant Incoming!

I am honestly just exhausted with how the Sailor Moon fandom so often bashes the original anime, in particular when they do so by presuming bigotry of any kind on the part of the staff members.

Sure, show me a quote or an interview where they definitively say something and I will listen with an open mind. 

But why does this fandom presume that, for example, AnimeRei’s interest in men was obviously changed from the MangaRei’s more negative attitude because of sexism?

Or that Usagi being naked in the last episode whilst Mamoru was in his Endymion armour was again rooted in sexism?

Or that old favourite that has now become oh so trendy again thanks to Cosmos, that the Starlights were physically male in the anime (as opposed to simply dressing as men and pretending to be men) because the anime staff were being homophobic. More specifically, that this change was implemented so that the UsagixSeiya relationship was ‘less gay’.

Let’s talk a bit about that shall we?

Keep reading

[fern-thee-otter]

In honor of Pride Month, I decided to shoot my shot as well so: Alice In Borderland LGBTQ+ Headcanons

| m a s t e r l i s t | m a i n . m a s t e r l i s t |

[Disclaimer: These are (mostly) only headcanons. And yes, I use the official flag colors for the colored text. tw// mention of hōmõphøbia, tränsphøbia, sûìcíde, manga spoilers, etc.]

^ . ^ . ^ . ^ . ^ . ^ . ^ . ^ . ^ . ^ . ^ . ^ . ^ . ^ . ^ . ^ . ^ . ^

Arisu (he/him) - Bisexual disaster. Also gender nonconforming. He likes traditionally feminine stuff. Kuina taught him how to do makeup and piss off bigots by simply being in their sight. Kinda gives off transmasculine vibes as well so... yea :D. And when dysphoria kicks in, he locks himself up in a room, usually with Usagi, with them recommending him to do activities he enjoyed in the original world, like video games and other stuff.

Karube (he/him) - I said it once. I said it twice. And I'll say it once again: Karube is one of THE bicons of A.I.B. He was even Arisu's bf, and this part from the 7♡ from the manga is pretty much some damning proof.

(A bit biphøbic/hōmõphøbic of Netflix to not include this scene imo :/ I mean, they were obviously more than friends if he wanted to live together with Arisu in Australia).

Chota (he/him) - not a part of the LGBTQ+, but 100% an ally :D

Usagi (she/they) - Pansexual demigirl. Every so often they throw hands at anyone who talks shit about them and Arisu (especially when misgendering them both). Her father was supportive of her coming out. Unfortunately, that happened about a month or two before he unålïved himself.

Chishiya (he/they) - Transmasc. Started HRT when he was 12-ish or so (before starting puberty). The Mona Lisa and that one theory about her (manga readers, iykyk) was somehow his awakening. They cut their hair at 16 and went 'Yk what? I like it.' and that's how they kept it until now. Has top surgery scars and he's proud of it. Also a biromantic ace-spec. You can already bet your ass they had a black ring on the middle finger of their right hand before but they lost it once at a game and didn't bother buying/stealing another one. That's why we don't see him wearing it.

Kuina (she/her) - Canonically, she's transfem. By headcanon, she's also pansexual. She teamed up with Chishiya because t4t supremacy. She's the one who introduced Chishiya to eyeliner and do each others' make up every so often. And as I said earlier, she also taught Arisu how to do his makeup. She gets rid of bigots as a hobby (basically, everyone in here hates bigots, hōmõphøbes, tränsphøbes, and the list goes on).

Ann (she/her) - That's a lesbian right there. She's not into men at all, and all the fandom can agree on this.

Niragi (he/him) - Most likely bisexual (who had internalized hōmõphøbia before). His bullies were hōmõphøbic as well; might be another reason they kept calling him 'twisted', 'a freak', yada yada.

Last Boss | Takatora (they/them) - Mofo's got the three A's (Aroacegender). Slashes down everyone who misgenders them on purpose with their sword. On their free time, they look at the others at The Beach, judging them and talking to cats they find roaming around the place (or even with Cabot. Thanks @aceofspadegrass for coming up with Cabot a long time ago).

Tatta (he/him + neos) - Unlabeled and lowkey transmasc. Still trying to figure himself out. Experimenting with neopronouns. Kissed xyr fair share of people.

Aguni (he/him) - GAY, GAY, HOMOSEXUAL, GAY!!! Him and Hatter were husbands. I dare you to change my mind.

Hatter | Danma (he/him) - PAN AS FUCK, BABY! Discovered that he also liked guys in high school after making out with Aguni, and later on discovered that he's actually pan. He also has a love/hate relationship with the pan jokes (he either hates them or does them himself).

Mira (she/they) - Aroace, lesbian, demigirl and batshit insane (affectionate). Need I say more? Need I say fucking more?

Kuzuryuu (he/him) - Bisexual and tired. Let's just say that a certain nudist philosopher band leader was his awakening and does he regret it? Hell no. Also tired both from the bullshit from his life from the normal world and the blatant biphobia/queerphobia he came across.

[yui-kuromori]

@maliceinborderland you gave me some Ideas!

So imagine one day, there’s this game expo, where new games are launched and there are small tournaments. Niragi’s there as a game developer, and because he’s an asshole, he’s participating in a tournament for a game he himself made.

So imagine his absolute surprise when this kid comes in and wipes the floor with every participant including him.

At first he’s a bit angry, so he goes to give the kid some shit.

But then he meets Arisu, who gives him one puppy dog look and Niragi’s like “well shit, guess I would kill for him now”. So he offers Arisu a job as a game developer.

Now, keep in mind that while Niragi is not a homicidal maniac, unlike in the borderlands, he’s still his crazy, aggressive, face full of piercings self, and Arisu, while being a bit more capable of being an asshole, is still baby. They work surprisingly well together, balance each other nicely. Arisu has a lot of repertoire and makes really interesting puzzles, Niragi really knows the industry and programming, and makes sure no one takes advantage of Arisu.

Arisu’s family is pretty happy. While “game developer” is not necessarily the job they wanted for him (doctor or lawyer would have been ideal), they get really glad that he’s at least got a job, and is making pretty good money. He manages to move out to a small apartment complex, rooming with Usagi.

Now, when Niragi and Arisu start dating (this can also be read as them as just friends) they actually make an effort to meet each other’s families and friend groups.

When Arisu told his friends that he was dating someone, they expected some cute gamer girl, someone just as shy and smart as Arisu. They got the “smart” part at least. Upon meeting Niragi, Karube and Chouta are obviously startled, Shibuki just goes “damn Arisu, the sex must be good”, while Usagi goes full protective mom mode. For a few weeks they actually try talking Arisu out of the relationship. Niragi is aggressive and harsh and a bit emotionally stunted, and they’re worried Arisu is getting played. It’s not until they walk into Niragi smiling gently at a sleeping Arisu, who crashed on top of him after a brainstorming session about the new game they were launching, that they fully accept him.

(Much to Niragi’s distress, he immediately gets adopted by the friend group. He doesn’t really know how to deal with their dynamics, they talk about feelings openly and Usagi takes to mom-ing him as she does with every one. He’ll never admit how much he likes it.)

Arisu’s dad almost has a heart attack, and doesn’t speak to Arisu for like, six months. Their relationship was already strained, and his son’s gay crazy boyfriend is enough to break it. Arisu’s brother is surprisingly supportive. He doesn’t really understand his brother’s taste in men, and was honestly rooting for him and Usagi to be together, but he’s nice and polite to Niragi, and they have dinner together about once a month.

Now Niragi’s friends were a whole ‘nother situation.

When Niragi begrudgingly admited that he’s been seeing someone for a while (after Chishiya pointed out a sturdy steel ring on his ring finger) his found family is a bit concerned. They are either expecting some crazy bastard that matches Niragi, or someone who’s clearly not ready to be in a relationship with him. Imagine their surprise when they meet Arisu, who despite being sweet and shy is wickedly smart, incredibly loyal and much to their surprise, can be viciously protective. Even last boss likes him. Him and Kuina hit off pretty nicely (and if he introduces her to Usagi, well, that’s just luck) and him and Chishiya become gossipy besties. Hatter immediately adopts him and Aguni’s glares soften up a little when he sees him.

Niragi’s mom is just so happy that her son has found some love, she almost smothers poor Arisu.

Other things about them.

- Niragi keeps trying to convince Arisu to get some piercings. He’s been insisting on a tongue one for a while. Arisu’s been pretty resistant, but hip piercings sound pretty ok after a while.

- Kuina gets Arisu into makeup and he, Chishiya, Usagi and Shibuki have sleepovers at her house to do their faces and gossip.

- Karube and Niragi meet once a week at Karube’s bar. Their chemistry is surprisingly good.

- Arisu accidentally wore one of Niragi’s shirts to work one (1) time, and that’s how the whole company found out about them dating.

- They become kind of known in the gaming industry.

- Arisu carries a “stuck my tongue out” jar. Niragi pays up every time he does something weird with his tongue.

- Once a guy who had some beef with Niragi tried to jump on Arisu. Poor thing got startled and pepper sprayed him in the face (everybody say thank you Usagi).

- Chishiya (who rooms with Niragi) just had to get used to finding Arisu, hair sticking out everywhere with dark circles, sitting oddly in their couch at 3 AM.

[keyofjetwolf]

GIFTENING Bonus Rounds

For each category, I included a “bonus round” question. YOU GUYS KILLED IT. I loved all the answers, but listed below are some of my particular favourites.

Haruka Tenoh is trapped in the wrong anime! Which would you have her visit next?

I want her to earth shake Kyubey out of existence, please and thank you

My bride is a mermaid. She can relate. :P

i think she would THRIVE in bodacious space pirates. gay teenage space pirates whose job is to dress up, be Dramatic, and rob the wealthy??? that shit is RIGHT up her alley

Hamtaro

Princess Tutu - where the world is finally as dramatic as her

PGSM (and Michiru is trapped with her, for REASONS)

Pokemon because everyone deserves to be happy

Any moe-style series so hijinks can ensue at her being baffled by everyone's ages

1960's Speed Racer

is is this a captcha or something i missed oh god

Free! so she can be indifferent to all the hot men and slightly uncomfortable because she still can't swim. 

Stick Haruka in a Gundam!

Dump her in Pretear or one of the Precures! It would be hilarious! She's never in the genre she wants to be!

Revolutionary Girl Utena, so she can be offended by misuse of roses.

Initial D, she will out-drive and out-drift all those guys and steal all their girls.

Evangelion. I would feel bad to watch her suffer, but it would be so, so funny for her to be the comparatively most normal person around.

Yakitake Japan! SO SHE CAN HAVE A SNACK OF DELICIOUS RIDICULOUS BREAD BEFORE THE NEXT INTERDIMENSIONAL ANIME STORM WHISKS HER AWAY.

The Holograms or the Misfits? DISCUSS

Holograms

both? both. BOTH IS GOOD

misfits bc Evil Ladies Hot

Steven and the stevens

Misfits.  How dare you make us try to think about anything in our lives.

Both, you mad fool. Those combined songs were the best.

The Misfits, their songs are better

The Misgrams: A group of girls who form a singing telegram start up company, but constantly deliver the telegrams to the wrong people.

kimber & stormer

Neither. Limp Lizards all the way. BROKEN GLASS.

I do not know what these things are

Misfits because guitar motorcycle

The Isle of Misfit Holograms

Holograms is just arguably better

I mean, I’m told the Misfits’ songs are better, but my true answer is the band Kimber and Stormer made in that big gay episode you liveblogged (checks) almost four years ago.

I've no idea what these words mean and I hope this does not make me TOO uncool.

this is about jem, right? right?? im hip i swear

Misfits, because Jasper is a member apparently

I don't know from Jem, but I mean...I certainly prefer holographic material to Glenn Danzig? So I guess there's your answer ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The Stingers

LIMP LIZARDS FOREVER

Senshi Band

You can make me liveblog a full series of any show you want! You also hate me. What do you have me watch?

Pick a GoT rip-off, any GoT rip-off

The Bachelor?

The Bachelor :(

depends on how much i hate you, but....probably the bachelor. quantity AND lack of quality

Critical role, it would take forever

If I were a horrible person who sought only malice?  Big Bang Theory.  Entire series.

Toddlers and Tiaras

The Mandalorian - Disney would come after you and kill keyofjetwolf just as dead as keyofnik.  We would all be very sad, you would have to go through a second round of restoring things to a new tumblr account, and your organizational heart would weep over adding yet another hosting site out of chronological order.

You are liveblogging Eva, and must discuss in full detail Shinji's emotional state at all times.

Hannity & Colmes

The Kardashians. And all of their spin offs. *kisses*

The price is right

the bachelor

Probably something with lots of romance and no friendships. Soap operas are like that, right? My college roommate used to watch General Young Light Restless Hospital of Our Lives (which one had Like and Laura?) And it was torture.

One Piece, because it's over 900 episodes so you could maybe do 10% before you die, also you will hate how the women are treated most of the time.

Fushigi Yuugi. Not only do you hate it but it also comes with you squirming when you admit to watching the whole thing. ;) 

Plus belle la vie. It's an ongoing French soap opera that has been airing five days a week since 2004, they're nearing their 4000th episode and there's no end in sight. Imagine all those hours upon hours submerged in French drama, mwahahaha!!

The Bachelor.  Or the Bachelorette, maybe - more straight dudes in that.

The Young and the Restless - IT IS THE LIVEBLOG THAT NEVER ENDS. IT WOULD OUTLAST THE INTERNET.

The entirety of the Bachelor franchise.

You can only play one game for the rest of your life. Which game would it be and why?

Kingdom Hearts Complete Collection. A) I love them. B) I beat the system and get like 10 games instead of one.

Gemcraft. This game actually takes a lifetime to finish.

Hatoful Boyfriend. It is the best game ever created. Feel it in your heart.

that's a mean question and you can't make me answer it

Pathfinder, which you could play for the rest of your life and still never finish.

Civ VI , so I can rule the world without leaving my house.

I am legitimately perturbed by this question and refuse to answer it.

Pokemon Go. I would have nothing else, but I would catch them all.

The Elder Scrolls Skyrim: I'll never run out of side-quests.

Mass Effect--it's the only way I'll get full completion. 

The dinosaur game on Chrome when the internet doesn't connect because my life is monotonous and it's a welcome relief. 

Stardew Valley. Peaceful farmer life and turning my children into doves when I'm bored with them.

Crabs Adjust Humidity

Oh my! A number of things come to mind, not one of them fit for print. Just, you know...*gestures vaguely* sex shit. 

I can't even stick to the ones I play now.

This is the worst of all possible things and I refuse to answer. 

Monopoly, I hate myself :(

Probably Minecraft! I haven't gotten into it because I know if I start I will NEVER STOP. Who would do things like build a hundred foot tall statue of Mako-chan? A-THAT'D BE ME.

the game. Of LIFE! *shrug emoji*

I don't believe I'll tell you, because I AM a salty little fish and it was HARD to cut that 11th choice off my vote.

Holligay and I are going to be the leads in a new buddy film. What's the premise? How does it end?

Be gay do crimes. Thelma and Louise. Duh. :P

I have no idea but only just surviving disaster is how it ends.

You break down in a small town during a roadtrip- your stay is full of hijinks and ends with you teaching the townsfolk the true meaning of friendship.

Doctor Holligay, Esquire, PhD, renowned Jewish femme of many talents, is assigned one Operative Jet Wolf as her bodyguard on a foreign diplomatic mission/vacation/culinary tour of the world ("same difference, shut up, narrator"). One problem: Operative Wolf needs a bodyguard herself, as the good doctor discovers when in one night her toilet is destroyed ("IT WAS A SECURITY THREAT") and Operative Wolf nearly breaks a leg falling down a small set of stairs ("THEY PUT A CLIFF OUTSIDE THE DOOR"). Worldwide shenanigans ensue as Holligay and Operative Wolf learn the true meaning of friendship, and also how to take care of themselves... by taking care of each other.

I’m not sure about the premise, but DEFINITELY it ends in murder.

Someone posted a major spoiler during one of your liveblogs. The two of you track them down seeking revenge. It turns out it was the original creator of the series trying to stop you. For some reason Holligay is a CGI badger.

It's clearly a buddy cop movie, and like all good buddy cop movies, it ends with Doc almost dying, and you saving her, and slapping her wound in the hospital as the credits roll.

It ends as it began: with Holligay roasting you.

A straight detective and her lesbian partner have to solve the case of the missing cinnamon buns.  It ends with nobody getting the guy OR the girl and you drive off into the sunset together, perps behind bars sans cinnamon buns.

I don't know what it's about but I know it will be the only movie that ever existed. 

Holligay is the lesbian chief of staff to you somehow being elected President and she's basically running the country while you're the charming face of the administration

Nerd and cowgirl meet at a bar, justifyingly murder some gross dude, go on the run from the law and have a life-changing road trip, on the way Nazis are punched

carrying a delicate object through a forest after your helicopter goes down

Thelma and Louise, but instead of dying, your deaths are clearly faked and you live on a ranch in Montana with your respective spouses and animals. One time a cop comes by the restaurant/bar you joint own with Doc and says, "You look familiar." Doc, in perfect lesbian, answers, "Jet's just got that criminal look, on account of how much she'd love to steal my cheesecake recipe. More pie?"

Queer Eye with a Straight Goy. The two of you do the show but in your own special ways.

Doc Holligay is the wild-west no-nonsense sheriff. Jet Wolf is the all-fun cyberpunk cop from the future. They punch nazis and argue about food. It ends as a tv series ala B99.

Your lives are already a buddy film, don’t get greedy.

Hands and socks.  You know how it ends.

See Grumpy Old Men for details.  How does it end?  Badly.

I can't imagine the premise, but I'm pretty sure the planet explodes.

A Coen Bros film. It ends poorly.

Wait? You're not already living this now? 

REI HINO

REI HINO

Sure. Why not?

HINO REI

<3<3<3<3

REI HINO!

Rei who? ;)

REI HINOOOOOOOOO

Plush Is being hugged by Zoisite in your banner.

MINAKO AINO

MAKOTO KINO

The best

SOCKS

MICHIRU KAIOH

It's time tooo.... REI! THAT! HINO!

sponsored by Here! curry

LOVES USAGI LOVES REI LOVES USAGI LOVES REI LOVES USAGI LOVES REI LOVES USAGI LOVES REI LOVES USAGI LOVES REI LOVES USAGI LOVES REI LOVES USAGI LOVES REI LOVES USAGI LOVES REI LOVES USAGI LOVES REI LOVES USAGI LOVES REI [THIS REPEATS A LOT A LOT AND IS GLORIOUS] [...] LOVES USAGI LOVES REI LOVES JETWOLF

(THE REAL ONE)

Isn't how you spell Makoto Kino!

THE REAL ONE™

obviously

IS NOT A RHINO

In conclusion: Rei Hino

Rei Hino is giving this Giftening finger guns

BEAUTIFUL, STUNNING, SHOW-STOPPING, TALENTED, AMAZING, WONDERFUL

Hot stuff, lights my fire, blazes it regularly. I am out of fire jokes.

PASSION FLAME, SAILOR MARS

These hot feelings are C'EEEEEST LAAAAA VIIIIIIE c'mon rei-chan why aren't you singing along

IS THE BEST (I know who I'm talking to)

Ara!

DID DOCTOR HOLLIGAY PHD NOMINATE THE OPTION OF TALKING ABOUT MICHIRU KAIOH FOR 6 HOURS!!

If Hot Pocket were to plan One Last Heist, what do you think would be his objective? What would be Mina's role in his master plan?

Master Hot Pocket seeks BREAD. His friend and loyal companion, Mina-pup, acts as a distraction, as he has learned the humans are easily distracted by cute. While she does her sworn duty as Best Friend and Cutest Goodest Girl, probably with lolling tongue and glee at all the pets she receives, he picks the locks on the newly childproofed pantry, and Master Howard H. Pocket FEASTS AS NO CAT HAS BEFORE.

Every bag of flour in Montana; Mina runs distraction with her adorable puppy eyes

Open every container, leave none unmarked. Mina is the lookout who greets whoever comes and is completely ineffective at her job.

TAKE ALL THE FLOUR. Do it straight from the source: FlourCo Inc. What does a 10-pound cat do with eighty thousand tons of flour? If you can't figure that out, there's a reason he's the brains of this outfit. Mina would obviously be the bumbling lovable distraction to security or other people.

Bread.  Mina is The Face who provides distraction to the Keepers of the Bread by walking up to them and being herself.  Mina has absolutely no idea that Hot Pocket is using her in this manner because Hot Pocket is that Machiavellian, but Mina is a pocket full of sunshine in canine form and probably would just be happy to help out.

Hot Pocket knows that no mammal of the floor believes in flour anymore. It went away a long time ago. It doesn't exist. But what he also knows is that they're wrong. A lack of opposable thumbs won't hide the truth from him. He'll find the stash, and when he does, he'll stick his paw in it. Mina, with her limited climbing skills, will lick its remains from his claw and prove his discovery. As well as provide a warm place to curl up on for the aftermath of their adventure.

His goal is to sample every edible thing he can get his teeth on. Mina pulls triple duty as step stool, distraction, and scape goat

The Silver Crystal. Mina would play the role of Sailor V.

He is getting ALL THE FLOUR. Mina is a lovable distraction.

Looting all the carbs in the pantry. mina is distraction.

mina's role would be the "dopey" but talented best friend who it looks like HP is going to betray for the sake of the plan but then it all comes together when HP mounts a dramatic rescue. i dunno i'm still in film mode from that last one.

The Holy Bread Locked Within the Cupboard.  Mina would be the distraction, but she'd forget what she was supposed to be distracting from and end up leading you to him.

I am the Void. I am the Night. I am the Darkness with no hope of dawn. The Flour trembles before me in it's bleached fluffiness. It shall not escape my chaos, which will descend upon it like the Terrors of the Deep, claws and teeth and gnashing. It will howl at my claws. It will scream for my teeth, sharp and white, stars in the night of my fur. I shall tend and tear and -- Dammit, Dog-thing! How am I supposed to be terrible and terrifying with you wagging your tail and panting at me!? Oh, you found a good warm sunbeam? I guess I can stalk stuff later. I am the Void. I shall absorb the Sun's light and warmth and bring it into my Darkness where it cannot escape...

I'm new here and don't know all the complex lore of Jetwolf(fairly sure Mina is dog), so I'm going to assume that Hot Pocket is an actual hot pocket and his heist is robbing Fort Knox using Mina as his loyal stead/get away car. Then he explodes a microwave or something.

i lik the bred

Mina as the distraction while he takes one last tastes of EVERYTHING 

objective--stealing more chips; Mina--surprise betrayal 

The scene: Mama Jet's pantry The Objective: the bag of cake flour Aunt Doc made Mama Jet buy but she's never used Mina: confused but excited escape vehicle and/or scapegoat

RAIDING THE KING ARTHUR FLOUR FACTORY. Mina is of course adorable and keeps everyone's attention while Hot Pocket swan dives into the flour like Uncle Scrooge

Hot Pocket would definitely try to steal a monument, Carmen SanDiego style. Mina, of course, is the multi-talented and super cute face of the operation.

I have no idea who Hot Pocket is

HP would try to scale the tallest building in the world. Not to steal anything, just to be up there. Mina would be the adorable diversion.

It would be to get whatever food you've left on the counter. Preferably bread. He would tell Mina that he'll give her some of she acts as a distraction. She's a good dog so she does. He's a cat so she gets no food.

Truly, truly, THE GIFTENING winner is us all.

[justselfloathingthings-blog]

Me Ranting About a Bad Magical Girl Meme

So on discord an acquiatance-friend shared a magical girl meme about how “SJWs” ruined MG anime for the “West” that got me so angry that I need to rant about it here. 

Their friend (that showed to them) sadly couldn’t find an original version so here’s one with some rapid-fire responses for reference

I think that really most of the appearance ones are good and dealt with though I need to personally say “lolfuckyou” for “sexy girls and guys”. 

Let’s look at the others?

mostly apolitical beyond same ethnicity

The points in the response are accurate but we can go much further. If having one, broadly speaking (setting aside outliers like Anthy who don’t count I guess) ethnicity is perceived as a political statement (and I don’t disagree it is one essentially), what are we supposed to make of the messages like “have compassion for people even if they’re different?” that when possible, people should always strive for non-aggressive solutions and try to talk things out, even if in the end an aggressive solution is sometimes required? 

If the inclusion of a single ethnicity is a political statement, what should be made of the constant reminders by magical girl anime that gay people exist (more on this later) and that they are people with their own struggles and should be treated just as fairly as everyone else? 

Or themes and messages like that people shouldn’t be judged for superficial differences that really don’t matter, and that people should always strive for forgiveness, even for people that they have distaste for?

What about Utena’s portrayal of an unjust system that essentially perpetuates itself through the lack of desire of people at the top to tear it down and allows for people like the Student Council to have dominion over the rest of the school? Or how Utena’s story very, very frequently is used to deconstruct common shoujo tropes and expose their sexist undertrappings? Hey, remember that time in Huggto that Masato told Emiru that she shouldn’t play the guitar because it wasn’t “for girls” and Lulu is portrayed as justly taking Masato a-fucking-part? Surely no political implications there!

What should be made of episodic points like Miki utilizing Utena’s own critique of the dueling system removing Anthy’s autonomy for his own selfish ends, to the point of repeating it basically word for word? Or how about that scene in Sailor Moon that is basically devoted to softly criticizing Japanese academic culture? 

I can’t believe I’ve gone this long without noting that the blending of femininity and the masculine, in saying that one can be “girly” and still have the ability to save the day and defeat the villain (very very often without any sort of male aid), something soundblasted at the climax of Huggto that “anyone can be a Precure” is ridiculously political at its core?

(psst the SJWs are coming from inside the house) 

P.S. I love how Star Twinkle Precure managed to arguably make this out of date even at the time of its creation. 

generally leaves Yuri to the fandom

lol okay here have a couple canonical manga pages

oh and here’s an actual movie screenshot

(This is roughly an encapsulation of the entire scene btw I’m really not cherry-picking with this one)

Things the Ace Memester is also conveniently forgetting

1. That time in the manga that Chibiusa and Hotaru’s relationship is directly paralleled by Usagi herself to her and Mamoru’s?

2. How Saki and Mai, and Itsuki and Tsubomi, and Setsuna and Love, and Kanade and Hibiki and Lulu and Emiru (excusing the two examples I already gave) are so super clearly supposed to be love interests that it’s borderline text? And on the male end you have the super obvious basically transparent subtext in the Sailor Moon R movie. You also have to deal with Seiya’s super clear interest in Usagi and Usagi’s interest in... basically everyone. 

3. How about the time Regina used the nearly explicitly romantic Japanese word for love in reference to Mana in Doki Doki Precure? Or that time in the manga Rikka explicitly imagined Makoto and Mana getting married? Or that other time in the anime where Rikka talked about how life would be actually genuinely meaningless if she didn’t have Mana in it? How that’s an actual thing she really says?

4. If i’m allowed to include adult-oriented MG anime, how about how Togo from Yuki Yuna is explicitly stated in the extended materials to have a crush on Yuna (as if the show isn’t obvious enough about it)? Or how Nanoha and Fate live together and adopt a kid? Or Homura and Madoka and the subtext Kyouko and Sayaka have going on? Or the canon lesbians in Magical Girl Raising Project that get killed off to show how gritty the show is, but certainly exist? I’e gone this long without even mentioning Utena and Anthy or Shiori and Juri. 

Like “generally” is doing so much heavy-lifting that the poor soul collapses due to the weights simply being far too heavy to be held up with any sort of intellectual honesty. 

“better art and animation”

If you only watch the super-streamlined and high-budget shows, maybe?[1] But like, I am old enough and have enough residual memory to recall how Crystal got lambasted in its first season for its low-grade animation quality, ignoring the often wonky animation in the original franchise.

Like, if you don’t see the poor animation in MG anime, it’s often because of all the short-cuts animators really clearly take to disguise it, typically pouring pretty much all their budget into the important scenes that people really do need to remember. Sorry, I don’t make the rules.

“Original ideas and no parodies” 

1. Hey, remember how much inspiration Naoko got from the tokusatsu shows she loved for Sailor Moon? And how things like the team dynamics and color scheme of shows like Precure are so obviously cribbed from the team dynamic in Sailor Moon? 

2. Hey, remember how Futari wa (even though this one does die), Splash Star, Fresh, Suite, Doki Doki (arguably), Princess, and Huggto have eerily similar redemption arcs for one (or more in Splash Star’s case) of their villains? 

3. Hey, remember how basically every season of Precure has a “the Cures are going to break up!?!” episode?

4. Or how plot elements of Princess Precure (like the Haruka-Kanata dynamic) are really clearly inspired by Utena? 

5. Or do you want to talk about how Nanoha was pretty clearly inspired by Cardcaptor Sakura at points? Or how adult-oriented MG anime quite often cribbed from Madoka tonally, thematically, and even in terms of character/plot beats? (MG Raising Project is often the most blatant about this.) 

6. If we’re talking about “parody”, see above vis a vis Utena and shoujo tropes. 

Like oh my god there’s so many examples that I’ve forgotten some as I’ve tried to write this up.

In sum, can reactionaries who want to co-opt MG anime please get out of this fandom? They’re really not wanted. 

1. Though I recall all the nitpicking that Madoka’s animation got back in its time. 

[bloodmooneclipse]

CHARACTER MEME

I got tagged by @some-cookie-crumbz to do this meme so here I go!

I tag: @his-belovedprincess and @acesluckyseven @the-talking-absol

These are all characters that mean something special to me and also I'm picking characters from recent fandoms I've been the most enamored with.

Tokyo Ghoul - Uta

HUSBANDO~ Uta just absolutely entranced me when I first saw him. He is literally like a personification of my aesthetic and I can't get enough of him, as well as representing what I find attractive in the opposite sex. He's definitely masculine but he obviously has a strong sense of his feminine side and you can just tell he's comfortable in his own skin. I love guys who aren't afraid to be themselves, express themselves and be artistic and that's definitely the impression this character gives me. I just can't handle how beautiful he is! 🖤

Aside from appealing to my aesthetic and just being an inspiration, he's an incredibly compelling character and still quite mysterious. He's friendly and pleasant to talk to yet he loves to fuck with people and seems to have no regard for people's personal space. He's super weird and eccentric and seeing how tame he seems now is interesting knowing how sadistic he really is and how savage he was in the past.

Kill la Kill - Ryuko Matoi

RYUKO IS BEST GIRL FOREVER~ She's an absolute badass who doesn't let anything get in her way or harm those that matter most to her. If I could be any anime girl it would be her! She's my spirit animal and such a relatable character. I love tomboys who still rock a girlish charm! I literally can't sit and type an organized description what she means to me, it is too deep and we'll be here forever. 💙❤

Sailor Moon - Usagi Tsukino

She's literally me. A spacey dork who's only focused on video games, napping and food and gets bad grades in school because of it; she is constantly late for school and is a sensitive crybaby and a clutz. She's me. But when it comes down to it she's tough and the nicest person you'll ever meet.

HellBoy - HellBoy himself

I just love him. He defies his "destiny" and the reason he was born with a big middle finger and chooses his own fate. I adore how he's such a likeable, gruff person with much panache and witty humor in his attitude yet has a short fuse and throws the best burns at anyone who opposes him. He makes me smile and I'd love to have him as a big brother.

The Legend of Zelda: the Twilight Princess - Midna

I mean just look at her. She's gorgeous. But I love her story and how creatively it was unraveled throughout the game. She was such a revolutionary Zelda character and even more so as a companion for Link. I could go on and on about her, I really could.

BloodRayne - Rayne

I'm gay for her... she pulls off being badass and seductive all at once. Ontop of that, she makes me giggle with her cocky attitude and throwing sick burns at her enemies with a smirk on her face. I love a sexy lady who swears like a sailor lol. And she's voiced by Laura fucking Bailey! Like Ryuko, she is just another strong female role model that can overcome literary anything and goes against the odds.

Naruto Shippuden - Gaara

He is my sweet sweet baby don't you touch him!!!!

Adventure Time - Marceline the Vampire Queen

She's a radical dame who loves to play games. And a badass musician. I'm just gay for her.

I literally just ran out of juice writing all of this. I could literally talk about these characters for days.

[sparklyjojos]

the promised summary of Smoke, Soil or Sacrifices. [tw: a lot of child abuse in a dysfunctional family, mentioned suicide]

--

The narrator is Natsukawa Shirou [ 奈津川 四郎], an ER surgeon working in San Diego. You know the type: workaholic with a god complex, wearing Armani coats and having casual sex left and right, but also constantly sleep-deprived and popping anxiety pills like its candy. He has deep-seated aggression issues that even he himself is afraid of getting out of control, and to manage it he trained boxing for a while before a gang drove him out of the gym (long story). As his name implies, he's the youngest of four brothers - in order of birth: Ichirou [一郎], Jirou [二郎], Saburou [三郎] and him, Shirou [四郎] - but since he's working in the USA, he hasn't seen his family for a while.

One winter day Shirou learns that back in Japan, his mother got seriously hurt and is currently in a coma. He flies back to his Japan hometown, Nishi Akatsuki, meets with an old classmate Takaya Yoshio (who everybody calls “Rupan”, like Lupin the Third, after he once wrote that word instead of ‘renessaince’ on a test), and learns that there’s more to the attack: someone has been attacking the women of Nishi Akatsuki, hitting them in the back of the head and then partially burying them in the ground. None of the five victims died, but most were still unconscious, and no one saw the attacker. Even if his mother is alive, Shirou gets so furious about the attack that he nearly destroys Rupan’s car before he can calm himself down; he really does have violence issues. (Also Rupan is dating a high schooler Yamaguchi Usagi behind his wife’s back and Shirou has a really bad feeling about it).

We learn a little about the Natsukawa family. They’re descended from a German immigrant Hans who left them two things: first, ridiculous for Japanese standards height (the brothers are all >185cm tall); second, a mysterious warehouse with triangle-shaped floor and ceiling that he built next to the family house. Its history is grim: Hans’s son Daimaru (大丸) hanged himself inside the warehouse, and then Daimaru’s son, Maruo (丸雄, the narrator’s father) tended to close one of his kids inside a lot for misbehaving. Shirou remembers Maruo, and thinks about how as a kid he saw that his father’s body was scarred all over, which Maruo claimed was a remainder of injuries from one or another war.

Shirou has a reunion with two of his brothers, Ichirou and Saburou. Jirou, the second oldest, has mysteriously disappeared at 17 and nobody has seen him since, it seems. Ichirou is a politician, just like their father Maruo, while Saburou writes mystery novels starring detective Runbaba 12. (Shirou thinks they’re ridiculous, and remembers one that had the hero looking for his daughter and somehow ending up living with an amnesiac woman and a gay guy, or some nonsense like that.)

---

The serial attacker case is overseen by a Tokyo police officer Marikku Takahiro (真陸隆宏) and a Nagoya prosecutor Shirai Masami (白碑将美), both Shirou’s old schoolmates. Upon learning the facts about the case from them, Shirou figures out something nobody else realized: if on a map of Nishi Akatsuki you draw lines between some houses of the victims, and draw a spiral based on it, it’ll go perfectly through all the victims’ houses. [I’m not sure how to explain it in text, so here’s the map in question -- the numbers are houses:]

Shirou goes to where the origin of the spiral points to, at the shore of the river Shounokawa (not pictured on the map), and finds an empty coffin buried in the ground. He alarms the police and Saburou, who arrives at the scene with his detective friend, Banba Junjirou (番場 潤二郎). [Interestingly enough, he shares the last two kanji of his first name with Jirou, but it isn’t brought up ever -- I don’t know if this coincidence is done just for the sake of having a red herring, or will it be important in a later book]. Saburou often affectionately calls Banba ‘Runbaba’ and it seems he based the character in his books off of him. He originally hired Banba to help find Jirou, the missing brother, but they’ve been unsuccesful so far. Banba doesn’t really do anything useful at the scene, only claiming nonsense like the coffin being actually a time machine.

Shirou learns that the serial attacker always makes a photo of the crime scene and writes some nonsensical letters on it, and always puts an animal plushie in the ground next to the victim (so far: sheep, elephant, lion, sheep, koala). Through some truly inspired reasoning Shirou notices that since the victims were only partially buried, their body parts were always kinda sticking out in a grid pattern, and you can ‘read’ them like syllabary Braiile code. The resulting message is ‘MAMATASUKE’, seemingly a part of ‘mama tasukete’ = ‘help me mom’. And if you treat the letters on the photos as a Caesar cipher key, and pair it in a very complicated way with the names of the victims, you’ll get DRMN / NOBT / SZK / SNEO / GIAN... which looks like nothing, but these are abbreviations of famous kids cartoon characters, eg. the first one is Doraemon. Soon after this discovery, they learn that another victim was attacked (incidentally it’s Marikku’s mother), and the discovered pattern of plushies/words/etc. seems to continue.

Shirou goes to the hospital to visit his mother, meets Ichirou there and they start physically fighting kinda out of nowhere. Not because they hate each other for any reason; just because, it seems, there is something inside them that drives them to violence-as-bonding. After they flee the security, they talk about the case, and wonder if it wasn’t their missing brother Jirou who’s at fault. This conversation sends Shirou on a long trip down memory lane.

---

When Shirou was 9, he took three abandoned puppies home. The brothers were told they couldn’t keep them, and so the puppies eventually got entrusted to Jirou (then 12) so he’d find them a good owner somewhere else, but as he later admitted he’d just drowned them in the river instead. Jirou didn’t seem to care about the horrible thing he did. In fact, he always did horrible things, like breaking windows in other houses or killing and eating the neighbours’ chickens, and their father Maruo always locked him in the triangle warehouse for that. In primary school Jirou enacted long painful revenge on his bullies, and even called the terror he instilled his ‘Days of Creation’, as if the things he did were ‘a seal given to other by God’. But Jirou’s acts were (as present Shirou now thinks) a natural result of the violence that had been bestowed upon him finally exploding.

Jirou had been abused by Maruo ever since he'd been a tiny child; his every mistake was viciously criticized, and he was ‘jokingly’ threatened with getting abandoned in the mountains. After some time Maruo started beating him, and while Jirou pretended like he didn’t care, it was clear he was terrified and in pain. Ichirou as the oldest brother tried to stop Maruo or get outside help, for years and years, but nothing ever worked.

Eventually one day Maruo seemed to see his mistakes, crying promised to do better and embraced the kids (except Ichirou, who was skeptical and didn’t want to take a part in any display like that). Maruo really seemed to behave a little better after that, though mostly he was completely ignoring Jirou now. This caused Jirou to act out in order to get attention, which each time made Maruo close him in the triangle warehouse. Again, Jirou acted like it was nothing, and called the warehouse his ‘summer residence’, even if all of them were terrified of the dark place that was allegedly haunted by their grandfather’s ghost. Eventually Jirou’s actions escalated into committing petty crimes, and then all-out violence, though he drew a line at murder.

It was only after Maruo’s mother’s intervention that Maruo finally moved to Tokyo for some time, leaving the kids in her charge. Ichirou started tutoring Jirou and was surprised to find out that Jirou was actually incredibly smart; the boy could recite entire passages from books after flipping through them once, and draw complicated maps from memory. He still walked the path of violence, though, and once Maruo came back from Tokyo, the boy got hit and locked inside the warehouse a lot again. Because of his deeds Jirou at times seemed positively demonic to our young narrator; he even once recited Shirou a poem he wrote, which basically said ‘hey, remember those puppies? I killed them with a knife’ (actually it was deeper and more interesting than that, with a hidden promise from the poem’s narrator towards the dead puppies that ‘if I became god, you’d be the first ones I revive’, but obviously talking about that event hurt Shirou a lot all on its own). But even then, Shirou recalls he still held love for Jirou; they were brothers, after all.

Time passed. Ichirou moved toward a political career like his father. Saburou got attacked on the street and had his hand broken, which made him paranoid that somebody from the neighborhood / some organized crime group was out to kill him, but he still laughed at Shirou’s suggestion to run away from home (’and where would we run?”). He ended up ditching the piano that he had always loved playing, and instead got into fights a lot. Jirou by the time of high school was very popular among his peers, infamous among the Fukui policemen, had ‘fans’, and often smuggled girls into his bedroom, which again earned him a trip to the warehouse if Maruo caught him.

In 1986, when Jirou was 17, their grandmother (Maruo’s mother, the same who made him leave that one time) was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and stayed in the hospital in constant horrible pain. While Maruo tended to run away from the situation excusing himself with work trips, Jirou unexpectedly stayed by his grandmother’s side every night. On her death bed, she told her grandsons that “no matter how great or rich a person is, death will turn them into smoke, soil or sacrifices; the burned ones turn into smoke, the buried ones into soil, the others into sacrifices for wild beasts.” She apologized that she couldn’t protect the kids better, and that’s it’s her fault for raising Maruo badly. Then, in pain, she suddenly yelled ‘Daimaru, who killed you?!”, and then just before death demanded to see Maruo once more, to tell him that he’s still the one she loved the most in the world -- that last dying line was shocking to everyone, but hurt Jirou the most.

From then on, Jirou and Maruo’s conflict escalated even more, with Jirou for some reason starting to blame Maruo for Daimaru’s sucide. On 19 December the two started a horrible furniture-breaking physical fight while Saburou and Shirou could only helplessly watch. Suddenly their mother entered the scene with a knife in her hand, but she didn’t use it to stop the fight or otherwise help Jirou, who was looking at her with hope. Instead she screamed that it was Jirou she felt like stabbing, that it was all his fault and he should apologize to his father. Jirou didn’t intend to apologize (instead yelling that maybe it’d be better if he’d never been born), and the situation ended in Maruo brutalizing him and still bleeding throwing into the warehouse.

The next morning, Jirou couldn’t be found anywhere, as if he just vanished from the locked warehouse, and if the other brothers were honest, they were actually pretty glad about that.

--

Back in the present day, Shirou notices that the way a victim’s head is positioned always points like an arrow to the next crime scene, and tells Shirai to guard the houses the last victim points to.

Shirou then goes to the hospital once more to check on his mother, and surprises himself by crying a lot. Later he meets a nurse called Hatakida Atena that catches his eye with her red coat, but nothing comes out of it (he’s bad at / afraid of / unable to have anything more intimate than purely sexual relationships going on, it seems). Then his mother is visited by another victim of the case, Satou Ryouko, who tearfully recalls her joyful near-death experience she had after being attacked. She saw bright light, felt a warm god-like presence, then wandered through a giant forest and met the dead poet Raymond Carver that she had no prior knowledge about (she even recites his poem ‘My Death’). An unassuming student called Nozaki Hiroshi approaches them and seems to be very interested in Satou’s experience, asking for an interview, which she agrees to, as she feels the need to share her wonderful experience with the world.

And then there’s this... out-of-nowhere fragment in which Shirou and Ichirou’s wife Rihoko in the spur of the moment have sex in a random hospital closet (they apparently had an affair two years earlier), and some thugs hired by Ichirou’s political opponents snap pics and try to blackmail Shirou, but he fights them like it’s a damn martial arts movie except with more violence (like ‘biting into someone’s jugular’ kind of violence), and Shirou comes out of it alive but in pretty horrible shape, with the photos destroyed, and what the hell was that?

--

Hitching a ride back to town with Marikku, Shirou realizes that it’s possible it’s actually Marikku who’s behind the murders, as the sixth victim was his abusive mother, who it seems has still been inflicting physical abuse on him even after all these years. Maybe Marikku figured out the pattern of the attacks early on, and used it to arrange a copycat crime that’d get blamed on the original culprit? But just as Shirou confronts Marikku, they get into a car accident. Shirou gets some bones broken, while Marikku dies. Shirou isn’t sure whether it was suicide or not, but suspects the original culprit may have wanted to get rid of them -- later an investigation of the wreck proves that somebody tampered with the car.

Saburou and Rupan help Shirou make a daring escape from the hospital, and the brothers are having quite a lot of fun working together during that entire scene, even if Shirou’s injuries are so severe he has to fight his body not to faint from pain at times. Later, as they return to Nishi Akatsuki, Saburou admits that he and detective Banba believe the criminal may be Jirou, back to take revenge on the town (Banba didn’t disclose more information, as apparently he doesn’t like to tell Saburou anything until he has everything figured out). As proof, they found an old paper -- with the exact spiral pattern used in the crime drawn on it -- in the triangle warehouse, so it’s likely Jirou drew that before his disappearance. During the ride the brothers learn from Yamaguchi Usagi that the plushies found with the victims are their corresponding Doubutsu uranai animals (a sort of new hip horoscope that gives you a different animal depending on your date of birth).

Saburou tells Shirou that there’s another link between the victims: the two women that regained consciousness so far both had a Near-Death Experience (Saburou says it’s super interesting and mentions he’d like to use it in another book of his). Shirou thinks that it may not be a coincidence; maybe the attacker intends on giving the victims NDE like it’s some weird modern ritual, and the plushies serve the same purpose as ritual dolls, as empty vessels to which illness or other bad stuff would be passed? Suddenly Shirou remembers that random Nozaki Hiroshi guy who seemed very happy hearing about NDE from one of the victims, and something clicks. Shirou phones Nozaki’s mother and through some seemingly innocent questions (’Was he in Nishi Akatsuki lately? Does he act like this and this? ...Does he like Doraemon?’) realizes that the serial attacker really is Nozaki. They alert Shirai Masami and local media and rush to Nozaki’s house.

But they’re too late. In the house instead of Nozaki they find the body of detective Banba stabbed to death twenty one times, and Nozaki’s parents strangled by their own son. It seems Banba had figured out the solution before everyone else, and came to this house yesterday without telling Saburou. (”Rest in peace, Runbaba 12,” Shirou thinks reflexively.)

--

In the house they find a note from the criminal, who claims to be fulfilling orders of ‘the Great God Jawakutora-sin’ (or Jawakutora-shin), who governs over all human souls, but as those souls are ‘dirty, unaware, unseeing and ignorant’, the god wants to make them clean. The cleansing proccess has to start with mothers, so the next generation of humans would hopefully already be ‘clean’. Apparently Nozaki in his childhood had a NDE himself, saw ‘Jawakutora’s light’ and understood his guidance. The method involves hitting a precise spot at the back of a person’s head. This causes a ‘perfect opening’ in the skull to form, through which the soul can briefly fly out and have a NDE, that is, ‘be shown reality’, and also be shown Jawakutora’s great spiral structure (a spiral being its symbol) -- that’s the spiral on the map of Nishi Akatsuki. Jawakutora also told Nozaki to do all the other things: bury the victims, write the letters on the photos, and use the plushies (’animals who have never been given souls’. Or something).

While this note shows clearly that the culprit is just some religious fanatic, something bugs Shirou, and he still thinks Jirou may be involved, especially since the two dogs of the family were also killed without any reason.

--

After Banba’s death, Saburou mourns him and closes himself alone in the triangle warehouse for long periods of time. This unexpectedly allows him to discover something, and he calls Ichirou and Shirou to the warehouse. (Maruo and his wife at that time have a job-related meeting with a few other people in the house). This something is the mystery of their grandfather Daimaru’s death.

As Saburou points out, the old stains left from the corpse’s bodily fluids are spread over a significant area, in an arc, which would mean that the hanging corpse had to somehow move around in a circle. Saburou found out that the ceiling of the warehouse can be moved, independently of the walls, by pressing a hidden button. The ceiling rotates in such a way that the building seen from above eventually looks like a 6-pointed star, which was the warehouse’s purpose in the first place: apparently, their great-grandfather Hans was secretly Jewish, and while he was afraid of persecution if he showed his identity outright, he constructed this mechanism as a great big fuck you to the bigoted society who had no clue a giant Star of David was right under their noses.

When the ceiling is moved, there are large enough gaps in some places that a person can fit through; that’s how both Jirou and Daimaru’s murderer could get out. Yes, Daimaru was actually murdered -- by his own son Maruo, the son that he had abused for years and years. That abuse was what gave Maruo his scars. The violence instilled on him, which he then passed to his own sons...

While the brothers talk in the warehouse unaware of anything else, Nozaki sneaks into the main house and stabs everyone he runs into, eventually wounding every single person there. Maruo manages to dodge him and runs towards the warehouse, and in the heated moment yells, ‘Ichirou, Jirou, Saburou, Shirou! Run!”. The names of all his sons.

The brothers run out and see Nozaki stab Maruo, and as Ichirou moves to help his father he also gets injured. This makes the other two brothers’ blood boil and they fight Nozaki, with Shirou eventually using the attacker’s own knife to stab him. But Shirou’s job isn’t done yet: with help of Saburou he gets everyone moved to one spot, grabs his doctor bag, and through his sheer skills of an ER surgeon, lightning fast decisions and improvising on the spot, he manages to keep everyone including Maruo and Ichirou alive until the ambulance arrives. [And it’s fucking amazing to read.]

--

After Shirou heals physically (he did run away from the hospital earlier, after all), he goes to Rupan’s wife Takaya Mari, who’s a psychologist, and makes the first step on his way to heal emotionally. He cries like a baby throughout the entire session, finally lets so many emotions pour out chaotically out of him, and leaves with a lot of things in his head finally sorted out.

Later through his own investigation he learns that Jirou is alive and well, now working in the Ministry of Finances under the name ‘Kawaji Natsurou’, which is so obviously an anagram of ‘Natsukawa Jirou’ it’s surprising nobody noticed.

...but another romaji spelling of Jirou’s name (’Natsukawa Jiro’) is also an anagram for ‘Jawakutora-sin”, and Shirou now understands who was the mastermind behind Nozaki’s actions; who wanted to enact revenge on the mother who in a critical moment turned against him, and most likely on the entire family sooner or later. ...Although Shirou has a feeling he won’t try anything like that anymore.

During the therapy session, Shirou expresses forgiveness towards his father, and wonders whether or not this quick forgiveness isn’t just a foolish decision made in spur of the moment, under strong emotions... but after he heard Maruo yell all their names trying to save them in a similar moment of emotions, he has a feeling things will get better. Shirou’s mother hasn’t woken up yet, but he’s sure she’ll come out of that wonderful giant forest eventually. The force putting their family together is powerful like gravity -- whether this power won’t just bring another disaster, nobody can tell. Certainly, it’s best if Jirou still keeps as far away from them as it’s possible. Maybe it’d be for the best if every single one of them stayed apart, never had children, and let this cursed family be finally destroyed; maybe it’d be for the best if all that remained was smoke, soil or sacrifices. But it’s not the time to think about death. For now, what matters is that they’re all alive and have to try and keep on living.

In the end, Shirou calls Atena (the nurse from earlier) and asks her to sleep with him -- literally sleep with him, mostly -- and with the warm and safety, and another person’s heartbeat so close by, he can finally sleep calmly.

[rebornlaracroft]

On non existent "romance" and ~ the kiss ~

Okay I hate to be that person but so far I haven't seen a single post on that issue so I decided to make one myself! The way it was shown Shindo was completely unconscious, obviously dying when Saraka (autocorrect just put Satan here lol autocorrect knows!) kissed Shindo - without his consent. Don't get me wrong I'm not one of those people who go crazy about stuff like that in a series but I wanted to point out that when the same thing happened in Sailor Moon Crystal Season 1 between Usagi and Mamoru people went insane, cursing the manga and the anime and calling Mamoru a molester and so on. Didn't the same thing just happen here and no one seems to give a damn? XD more importantly I don't even mind that romance - even though it is unnecessary in this kind of show and there are two other (gay) options that make a lot more sense - however it's completely under developed and basically non existent? Let's get this straight: What we have: Shindo, Saraka, Saraka blushing literally all the time without having talked to him for more then two seconds, randomly laughing at what he says, trying to convince him of her beliefs, showing him her family, explaining to him why she wants to protect the universe at all costs, fighting Yaha-kui to protect him, saving him while he is dying, kissing him without consent, Shindo turning away out of respect because Saraka is naked, Saraka NOT manifesting a new set of clothes (girl, you can create a closed space for you and your "you-wish-he-would-be" lover but you can't create a new set of clothes? As if, tell that to your momma). What we don't have: Shindo showing any kind of interest in her except as a coworker that he is forced to work with under the circumstances, Shindo showing romantic affection towards her, Shindo expressing any kind of attraction to her that shows he cares about be more than an acquaintance, any development that would indicate that their relationship is more romantic then everything that happened between Shindo and Yaha-kui or Shindo and Hanamori or even Shindo and that glasses guy that he HUGGED in like episode 3? (Even this relationship had more development), Shindo showing any kind of interest in her bullshit life story that she forces on him in order to get rid of gay Alien-chan, Shindo saving her because he has feelings for her (he literally would have thrown himself in front of an inanimate object, he's just that kind of guy who wants to save everyone). As a conclusion: we have an Alien woman who takes interest in a man, which is perfectly fine, seemingly develops strong feelings like love (after taking to him for like 2 hours) and then goes to kiss him while he's unconscious because he was injured trying to protect her from someone who he actually cares about, perfectly healthy start to a relationship. On the other hand we have Shindo, a man who really likes his coworker, best friend and possible lover Hanamori with whom he lives together and undresses while he's asleep (explain that Saraka!!!), who also likes the outer universe alien being Yaha-kui zaShunina after having spent months with him teaching him everything he knows about humans and the universe, taking care of him, trying to teach him how to behave and possibly feel more human emotions, who also likes his coworker and friend Glasses-kun who he hugs in episode 3, and who shows no real interest whatsoever in Saraka after having to listen to her boring ass life story. So wow what we have here is a perfect example of how NOT to develop a romance if you wanna make it happen without us seeming forced or like non existent? I wouldn't write this and I wouldn't give a shit if the romance was executed in a believable way, but this?

[silvermoon424]

My thoughts on the theatrical rerelease of the Sailor Moon R Movie

General Thoughts

I know I keep saying it, but I still just can’t believe that 1) the Sailor Moon R Movie was released in US theaters over 20 years after it first premiered and 2) that it was showing at the theater right by my house. A big part of my brain kept thinking that it was all a mistake until I actually got my ticket, haha. 

The actual movie was preceded by two short specials; first was a Q&A featuring the English voice actors of Mamoru, Usagi, and Fiore, followed by the Make Up! Sailor Senshi short film that played before the R Movie in Japanese theaters. I thought the Q&A dragged out a bit too long (at one point, I left to go to the bathroom and when I came back it was still on), but I did enjoy hearing about how the new voice actors grew up as Sailor Moon fans and now have the opportunity to be a part of the franchise.

Overall, it was a wonderful experience. I went by myself, but I enjoyed seeing the groups of people who came to watch the movie. There were about 25 of us in all, and considering that my theater had SMR showings for five days, I’m assuming there are a lot of other fans I didn’t see; I didn’t think there were a lot of dedicated Sailor Moon fans in my area, haha. Two girls even came decked out in lolita clothes! I hope that they’ll rerelease the S and SuperS Movies in the future because I’d love to do this again.

The Dub

This was my first time watching the new dub in any form, and I was pleasantly surprised by it. I’ll be upfront about this, I’m really not a fan of dubs; I much prefer to watch English subtitles with the original audio. There were quite a few times throughout the movie I thought “Ugh” to myself in regards to pronunciation/voice acting/etc, but overall I think it’s a fine dub. Obviously, it’s a million times better than the DiC/Cloverway dubs.

Highlights

Like I said, there were more people at the showing than I was expecting. It was mostly girls around my age, but there were some guys there, too. Anyway, it was amazing to watch the Sailor Moon R movie as part of a group, which some of these highlights will demonstrate:

Moonlight Densetsu played at the very beginning of the movie; quite a few people in the audience (including me) quietly sang or hummed along to the music.

After that scene where Minako gets her leg grabbed by a possessed civilian, flips around and kicks him, and then lands after flipping her hair, someone yelled “Get it, girl!” 

If you recall, in the movie, Mamoru takes an attack from Fiore that was aimed at Usagi, leaving him gravely injured; Fiore then kidnaps him. Right after that happened, a girl yelled “Oh no, not again!” which made everyone in the audience laugh.

Like less than a minute after the girl said that, Usagi herself cried “Not again!” We all laughed even harder.

On a more general note, there were two girls sitting right next to me who would flip the fuck out every time Usagi and Mamoru had a romantic moment. They would squeal under their breath, whisper “Oh my God,” and shake/clutch onto each other. It was hilarious. 

At one point Fiore says to Mamoru “I'm the only one who's allowed to give you flowers.” Someone near me responded with “That's gay.”  

People cracked up at the scene where Chibiusa turns Luna-P into a gun and then shoots it at Usagi.

After Mamoru throws a rose at Fiore towards the end of the movie, Fiore says “He threw a flower at me!!!” in the most upset, depressed voice you can imagine. Literally everyone in the theater burst out laughing.

And finally, I just have to say what an amazing experience it was to see the Moon Revenge sequence on the big screen. It’s one of my favorite Sailor Moon scenes of all time, and that’s including the manga/anime/musicals/etc.

[ohnofujo]

Personally I think Usagi and Misaki had one of the violently worst but iconic gay meetings of all time cuz they instantly realized the other was gay and were like FUCK

For Misaki is was like “I’m closeted and really trying to pretend I’m not gay so coming face to face with a more openly gay man is doomsday for me” and also “wtf why does he like my straight older brother and not meee?!?!”

And then for Usagi it was like “why is this guy pretending he’s not gay when he so obviously is?” but also “oh shit I’m coming on to his brother who straight and will never love me hardcore right now whoops”