#like shoujo is fine it’s good it exist

[lesbiansanemi]

Ripping apart everyone whose response to “I want more and better women in shounen” is “just watch shoujo” biting and maiming and killing

[timemachineyeah]

Takarazuka Revue is so funny because it’s like we are a fine upstanding institution of good family values, like homophobia. Please ignore the lesbians making up the majority of people both on stage and in the audience.

Takarazuka Revue is like: we enforce only the strictest gender roles in our troupe as is right and proper, sorting them into the two genders: women who are women, and women who are men. How dare you suggest there’s anything queer about that.

Takarazuka Revue is simultaneously the queerest thing and the least queer thing to ever exist. Takarazuka bucks tradition and is tradition incarnate. Takarazuka is like

and then is like, “no homo”

and maintains itself as one of the most hierarchical artistic organizations in the world with intense control over its performers. This alternate reality where the talented (and lucky, and connected) few can gain the right to openly perform queerness in the one setting comphet capitalism has carved out for them as long as they follow a different even stricter set of rules for dress and behavior. It dissembles traditional gender by its very existence and so must reinforce it at every turn.

And yet despite being the product of a conservative capitalist railroad owner who only really sought to exploit women for entertainment aimed at men (and their hetero families) that remains loyal to those deeply normative puritanical roots, it was and is also one of the most liberating theater and media experiences of queer Japanese people for decades. You can tell from all the queer art about it, by queer people. By the fact that the audience who flocked to it were not (cis) men.

Trying to untangle the mutual influence of shoujo manga to takarazuka is even more difficult that trying to untangle something like the history of modern Broadway and Disney movies. We wouldn’t have The Little Mermaid without Little Shop of Horrors, but we wouldn’t have Wicked without the Disney renaissance, but we wouldn’t have Frozen without Wicked, and going back further to things like Cinderella and Rogers and Hammerstein and they are intertwined but listen to me. Takarazuka and shoujo manga, especially yuri, are more intertwined. And then so much western media has been inspired by shoujo anime. Rose of Versailles the manga was inspired by Takarazuka and then in turn was adapted into their most famous play which then in turn influenced so many more artworks. Uranus and Neptune are an otokoyaku and musumeyaku. Utena and Anthy (and honestly that whole ass show. The stairs?? C’mon). And all the works and creators THOSE works inspired.

We owe so much to Takarazuka but also if we tried to thank them for their role in queer history they’d be like “we’ve never been queer in our lives!!!!!!!!” and then say a slur to your face while taking your money. Incredible. Wish more people knew what the fuck it was and I could get fansubs.

[andiftheycare]

Fics Masterpost

**Disclaimer: I’m making this for my own peace of mind and because I like to think that I’m actually writing most of these and seeing them in a post makes all my draft docs more real (insert here me sobbing). I’m not a native speaker so my English is wobbly at times. Cheers!**

How To Series

JJK shoujo manga au in which nothing bad happens ever.

How Satoru and Suguru Became Boyfriends

High School AU, Getting Together, Mutual Pining, Valentine’s Day fic

Rumor goes Satoru and Suguru are dating, but are they?

OR High School au where Satoru and Suguru try to survive Valentine’s day and almost-surely-don’t-acidentally end up on a date.

How Satoru Knit A Scarf (mini long, around 14k)

High School Au, White day fic, miscommunication, established relationship

Satoru decides to knit his boyfriend a scarf for White Day. Armed with Haibara sister's knitting needles and Riko’s unwanted comments, he sets himself on a mission of knitting it in two weeks.

Except that he can be as good at everything as he wants, but knitting is painfully slow, and he has to hurry up if he wants to surprise Suguru.

Meanwhile, Suguru is trying to ask his boyfriend out for their first date – as a couple, not as friends – and wondering why Satoru is doing his best to avoid him at any given opportunity.

Or: stupid teeangers being stupid.

7/11 (one shot, 2k)

High School Au, Nanami POV, established stsg

Exams are approaching and Nanami is not spending the summer in school, thank you very much. Geto helps (or tries to.)

Or: Nanami is the only person yet unaware of Geto and Gojo’s relationship. Now he wants to burn his eyes.

Parts of your soul, Publishing AU series

They don’t die at the end

Publishing au, writer Gojo Satoru, book publicist Geto Suguru, getting together, miscommunication, burn out, non linear narrative, email fic, mixed media

Gojo Satoru is one of Japan's most celebrated literary writers. At least, that’s what his publisher tells him.

Geto Suguru is his book publicist, which is slightly inconvenient as he’s also: 1) his high school best friend who left him before graduation and 2) the love of his life.

When Suguru hands in his notice, Satoru makes it everyone’s problem.

Untitled full they don’t die at the end (multichapter, currently scared of how many words this will be)

Publishing au, angst with happy ending, getting together, slow burn, like ten years long slow burn, miscommunication, inappropriate office behaviour, burn out, publishing lingo, power dynamics, eventual smut, light dom/sub in parts, overworking, possessive Gojo Satoru, Geto needs therapy, more tags to be added

Spanning across ten years of maybes and won’t, this is the publishing au no one ever asked for.

Flat 23 (mini long, word count tbc)

Publishing au, getting together, slice of life, literally nothing bad happens in this fic, living together, editorial assistant Yuuji Itadori, Vet student Megumi Fushiguro, overall Queen Nobara Kugisaki

Nobara needs a housemate. ASAP. Because she’s on a publishing salary and can’t afford her monthly travelcard, let alone sharing the rent of a third empty room with Yuuji.

Megumi needs a flat. Possibly in the next 48 hours. His landlord is evicting him at the end of the week, and he refuses to go back living with Gojo. Let alone now that Gojo has a boyfriend basically living with him.

When he meets Nobara, Megumi thinks the place is too cheap to be true, but Kugisaki seems fine, and he can live for six months in a pet free house. Enters Yuuji Itadori, now bane of his existence.

he frog you swan one shot

Tongue Tied

Au - No powers, sort of reincarnation au, slice of life, umbrella thief, suggestive at times, office au, more tags to be added

☂️ part 1

☂️ part 2.1

☂️ part 2.2

☂️part 3

[blueskittlesart]

SORRY im going to be a hater and incredibly annoying for a second. there's this post going around rn thats like 'pink haired anime girls are a plague on society and we need to go back to Ye Good Olden Days of 90s yakuza anime to heal the earth" and it honest to god infuriates me because the image of "good" anime designs is like:

literally solely GROWN WOMEN from shounen and seinen, with the exception of fucking MAMORU SAILOR MOON, who i can only assume the op thought was a girl. meanwhile the "bad" designs are like:

modern SHOUJO and ROMANCE protagonists, the majority of whom are children or teenagers. which is like. a painfully obvious false equivalency imo. this is not a problem with the progression of style over time, guys, it's a genre thing. shoujo and romance art styles emphasize the eyes of their protagonists and often feature child or teenage characters, who obviously have to be drawn differently than grown women in the first place. shounen and seinen are more likely to feature adult characters and are often more focused on action than expression, so the art style adapts accordingly to emphasize different features.

there are plenty of modern shows with female characters who aren't stylized in the "bad" image style. these shows are just... seinen, mostly. like. if you don't like the romance-anime art style... don't watch romance?? it's not like this art style is a plague on humanity, it's just common for a certain genre of show because it serves to emphasize the features of a character that usually need emphasis in the context of that type of show.

and it's not like the "bad" art style didn't exist in Ye Olden Days either?? in the "good" art style image there was LITERALLY a sailor moon character. in which 90% of the main cast looks like THIS:

heavily stylized with emphasis on the large eyes and hair. the style is not new, it's just genre-specific. I truly don't care if you don't like this art style like. i get it. it's fine. but don't act like it's a fucking plague on society PLEASE. shoujo is hard enough to come by nowadays anyway we really don't need to demonize the entire art style. i never advocate for people to watch exclusively battle shounen but if you're going to be this annoying about it just STOP WATCHING ROMANCE PLEASEEE

[radiantresplendence]

What Even Is a Kara no Kyoukai?

Kara no Kyoukai is a series of anime movies put out by Ufotable between 2007 and 2013 based off of the light novel series of the same name written by Type-Moon founder and creative director Kinoko Nasu in the 90s.

That's it, that's the post.

But seriously, if you're familiar with Nasu's other works, you'd know that they have a reputation for being rather inaccessible, especially to those in the west and Kara no Kyoukai specifically comes with some extra content warnings that aren't as prevalent in some of his other works.

Now, this would normally be fine, however a lot of content put to the forefront as "primers" to the show by the anime community either focus too much on the metaphysics and how it relates to other Type-Moon media or is a detailed thematic analysis that gives away too much of the sauce.

I plan to do neither here.

Instead, I'll give a brief rundown of the show's traits. Then, I'll talk about the main cast of characters and I'll finish it off by giving the general premise of each episode. (And I'll lump all of the Extra Chorus OVAs together for this purpose.)

So, Kara no Kyoukai sorta paved the way for the trappings you'd expect of modern Ufotable. Even over 15 years later, the show is absolutely gorgeous and puts a lot of modern anime to shame with its production quality. The attention to detail, shot composition and immaculate backgrounds that you'd expect of a Unfotable production are all here. Except this was really the first work to bring those traits to the forefront.

Just on the merits of that, as an anime watcher its worth the curiosity. The triumphs of productions like Demon Slayer and Fate/Zero clearly trace their DNA right back to Kara no Kyoukai.

The OST for this series is... basically unmatched. Kalafina was founded to do the music for this show, and the general consensus seems to be that Yuki Kajiura did some of, if not her very best, work on this show.

Admittedly I'm a not a big music analysis person, but I will personally attest that the ambiance and immersiveness of Kara no Kyoukai's score is some of the best in any piece of media that I have consumed. Also the big theme songs for each film all absolutely rock.

Doing a little background research, it looks like a lot of those theme songs are on the Kalafina album Seventh Heaven, so if you're a fan of high-quality J-pop/rock, give that a go maybe. I mean, they're really good in a vacuum, better in the context of the episode they were written for.

Its paced a lot slower than a lot of other anime movies, leaving a lot of room for ambiance and quiet character moments. Also quite a bit of the series is just characters talking, be it about philosophy or metaphysics, but it's usually not egregious and if you're into that sort of thing (which I am) it's a good time. Also the cuts can be quite creative, especially in Paradox Spiral.

So, now that a lot of that peripheral housekeeping is done:

What the Fuck even is a Kara no Kyoukai?

It's a paranormal mystery, dark urban fantasy thriller seinen anime that explores themes of humanity, identity, sin and dichotomy. Oh and murder. Especially murder.

The general plot setup is more something you'd expect of a shoujo. Boy meets girl, the complexities and trials of their relationship etc.

The big twist is that the girl in this trope is best described as "one who murders" and the story is told out of chronological order.

It's set in a fictitious city in Japan called Mifune, mostly between '96 and '99. Supernatural phenomenon exist, but aren't common knowledge and the main focus of the subject matter is individuals with some manner of ESP or active psychic ability, though there's significant representation from elements of mysticism as well as more archetypal wizard sorts.

I strongly recommend watching the films in release order because its better thematically, however there's a lot of value on a rewatch and doing so in chronological order could shed some light on things.

As I'm about to transition into talking into some of the show's particulars, here's where I'll put the content warnings for those who would prefer going in blind and would like to know what horrible imagery they're about to be exposed to or would maybe be dissuaded by.

CW, suicide, gore, horror, sexual assault, domestic violence, cannibalism.

Who are the main characters in Kara no Kyoukai?

Shiki Ryougi is our main character. A young woman with an attraction to death and murderous impulses. She presents as stoic, but she's anything but uncaring. She's very nuanced, but as the main character a good deal of the series goes into exploring her, so I won't delve into her complexities. After an accident as a teenager that left her in a coma, she gained the ability to see death in the forms of lines that act akin to the 'seams' of living beings, objects and even concepts. By cutting on these lines, she can kill anything.

Mikiya Kokuto is our male lead. An intelligent and excessively kind young man who became hopelessly infatuated with Shiki in high school, only to suspect that she was the one perpetrating a series of serial murders. When Shiki was comatose, he wound up working as a private investigator of sorts for the Garan no Dou agency, but continued to carry a torch for Shiki.

Touko Aozaki is our mentor character of sorts. More than likely the greatest doll and puppet maker in the world, Touko is also a mage and a lauded polymath, excelling in basically any field that proves of interest to her. She runs the Garan no Dou agency and employs Mikiya for his investigative prowess and later Shiki for her combat abilities as her sole employees. She's a chainsmoking girlboss who can be overly verbose and pretentious. Despite some unscrupulous morality, she legitimately cares about her subordinates.

Azaka Kokutou is Mikiya's younger sister who vehemently opposes her brother's relations with Shiki. Certainly the "4th wheel" of the cast made worse by the adaptation greatly condensing her chapter to laser in more on the Shiki and Mikiya dynamic. She apprenticed herself to Touko as a means of inserting herself into the workings of Garan no Dou. Azaka is smart, expressive, headstrong and funny. Touko is teaching her flame manipulation, as that's what she has the most affinity for.

I'll omit the antagonists here and encourage folks to watch the show as my little blurbs here give the jist of the cast, but really doesn't do them justice. The cast for the most part is really well characterized and much in Nasu's style, even when he plays to a trope there's a lot more to it than that.

What Exactly am I in for?

So, there's (depending on your definition) 8-9 films and a few ~10 minute OVAs. Unfortunately, the light novels have never been localized and there's only an incomplete fan translation and a somewhat inaccurate machine-assisted translation.

The film series adapts every part of the series except the side-story Final Record, albeit Azaka's chapter, Oblivion Recording, was greatly altered for the film adaptation.

The main series ran from '07 to '09 and includes episodes 1-7 and the Epilogue. Future Gospel and the OVAs came out in 2013 and they're a few side stories with the main act functioning as an epilogue of sorts to the epilogue.

So, the films post their position in the timeline at the end of each instalment, but I'll post them upfront here for the purposes of making it easier for one to keep track and using this piece as a guide.

I - Overlooking View (Sept '98) A series of suicides committed by schoolgirls jumping off of the roof of an abandoned apartment building catch the interest of the members of Garan no Dou. Some supernatural effect causes Mikiya to fall into a deep sleep and when Shiki investigates the building, she sees the ghostly figures of eight girls in the sky.

II - Murder Speculation Part 1 ('95-'96 schoolyear, ending in March) Mikiya becomes classmates with Shiki, who he immediately becomes infatuated with despite her less than accommodating personality. A series of murders happen in the city and Mikiya, suspecting her to be the perpetrator, tries to prove her innocence.

III - Remaining Sense of Pain (July '98) A young woman is viscously assaulted and the perpetrators are turning up dead, their bodies horribly mangled. Garan no Dou is presented with the case, but due to Touko's monetary problems, Mikiya resorts to freelancing in the short term. Shiki intends to put the murderer down, claiming them to be similar, albeit one of them is out of control.

IV - The Hollow Shrine (June '98) Shiki awakens from her coma after the accident, feeling hollow due to what she lost and now possessing the ability to see death. Mikiya is barred from visitation, as it's restricted to the family, so Touko sneaks into the hospital to check on her and takes immediate interest in Shiki's new perceptive abilities.

V - Paradox Spiral (November '98) A young man murders his mother in self-defense and winds up being helped by Shiki. Mikiya investigates some suspicious tenants of an apartment building that Touko designed and some old associates of Touko's are in town, one of them with a bone to pick.

VI - Oblivion Recording (January '99) Garan no Dou is asked to investigate a suspicious suicide at Azaka's boarding school and some lapses in memory around the incident in question. Shiki is dispatched, much to Azaka's displeasure and the two work to uncover a mage using fairies behind the two events.

VII - Murder Speculation Part 2 (February '99) Shiki, feeling perturbed, hasn't been frequenting her apartment. Meanwhile the serial murders from '96 start back up. Mikiya, trying to prove Shiki's innocence, begins investigating a drug ring related to the incidents and the events of the unsolved '96 murder cases finally come to light.

Epilogue - The Boundary of Emptiness (a few weeks after the events of Murder Speculation 2) Two people have a fateful meeting where they discuss some particulars of the events of the series, metaphysics and philosophy. It's literally a half-hour conversation. It's classified as an OVA, but it's almost as long as The Hollow Shrine.

Future Gospel (August '98 & Summer 2010) A serial bomber with the ability to see the future winds up targeting Shiki after proving unable to kill her meanwhile Mikiya has a chance encounter with a girl with a similar ability. Later, an elderly woman who tells fortunes attracts the negative attention of a crime syndicate.

Future Gospel - Extra Chorus (After the events of the summer of '98) A series of short vignettes, about 10 minutes apiece. Shiki takes care of a cat. A girl feels guilty over the death of her best friend. Mikiya and Shiki celebrate New Years.

The Future Gospel stuff, being a side story has a very different feel than the main series (I blame most of the events happening during the day and it being notably less gore-y than the earlier parts). But it's still a very fun watch. In a lot of ways it acts as a means of tying the series up in a bow with a nice "10 years later" segment and some flashbacks to the '95 school year. If you're going to skip something, skip it, but seeing as you've presumably made it that far already, you deserve a treat because it's just fun.

But yeah... this is my favorite anime series. I just finished a rewatch last night and felt urged to type this up. Hopefully it helps people or encourages folks to give the show a try if they've otherwise felt daunted.

[animebw]

Premiere Season is upon us again! And as always, there is too much goddamn anime to watch. I’m still waiting on Oshi no Ko, Uma Musume S3, Sacrificial Princess and the Ranking of Kings OVA, and my schedule is already stuffed. This is gonna be a heck of a spring season.

Ancient Magus Bride Season 2: Is this the first studio Wit anime to get an animation upgrade after leaving for a different studio?

Birdie Wing Season 2: Friendly reminder that if you are not watching Lesbian Golf Yugioh, you need to be watching Lesbian Golf Yugioh.

The Dangers in my Heart: Probably the worst case of “horrible opening scene to an otherwise surprisingly good show” I’ve seen in a long time. Make it through the first episode of this one, trust me.

Demon Slayer Season 3: #LetNezukoOutOfTheBoxYouGoddamnCowards

Dr. Stone Season 3: I still can’t get over how all the female characters look like mutant frog Barbie dolls. What even is character design.

Gundam Witch Season 2: THIS NEW ED GIVES ME L I F E

Heavenly Delusion: Instantly one of the most absorbing worlds and mysteries in all of anime. Do not fucking miss this one.

Hell’s Paradise: Ah, so we’ve found our next Perfectly Fine Shonen Action Thing That Certain Fans Are Going To Be Unbearably Obnoxious About, haven’t we?

Insomniacs After School: The rare case where I’ve read the manga before the anime came out! And trust me, you need to read this manga, it’s so good.

Konosuba Megumin: A Konosuba spinoff about the only character good enough to stand on her own? Sounds good to me.

Magical Destroyers: Feels like a forgotten mid-2000s Hiroyuki Imaishi show. Not sure if that’s a compliment or criticism yet.

Mashle: Mob Psycho 100 without the creative animation or strong sense of humor. Big disappointment for how much it was hyped up.

My Clueless First Friend: My only drop thus far. Not a bad first episode, but thoroughly mediocre, and there are too many better rom-coms this season to justify its existence.

My Home Hero: Is this show bad, or just interesting but awkwardly executed? Jury’s still out.

My Love Story With Yamada-kun at Lv999: So the director of My Love Story is directing another shoujo rom-com called My Love Story, and if that doesn’t immediately tell you that you need to be watching this one, I don’t want to know you.

Otaku Elf: No idea what this is trying to be so far. Probably second drop if the second episode doesn’t click better.

Skip and Loafer: girl help my serotonin receptors are overloading

Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke’s Mansion: please let the production not collapse please let the production not collapse please let the

Yuri is my Job: Oh god, I’m going to spend this entire show cringing so hard, but it better be worth it.

[myr31r31]

My Review of The Great Gatsby (Tsukigumi, 2022)!

Translation:

I accidentally missed the first 30 minutes of the play like an idiot because I took an ill-timed nap, but thanks to having read the novel in high school I caught up quickly. It was rather strange to see the "great American novel" that represents the vanity and hidden misery of 1920s America as a "Zuka-fied" shoujo manga-esque tale.

In the novel, Gatsby's love for Daisy makes him a laughingstock and unfortunate hero. The fact that the "pure and kind" Daisy Buchanon he is pining for doesn't really exist is meant to be a parallel to the American man chasing the glorified "American Dream". However, in the play Gatsby's love is played straight as a tragedy. I think this became possible through the character of Daisy becoming "A passive heroine fit for Takarazuka's worldview."

In a Takarazuka play, the heroine (not always, but) often does not have the complex morality and desires like the hero, but fits a certain character type instead. In the play, Daisy says that she is "acting" the part of a pretty but empty shell after being wounded by Gatsby's love in her youth, establishing her goodness as a heroine to the audience. But in the book Daisy is truly a rather nasty person, and Gatsby's the one who plays her up as his pure, tragic heroine for his sake.

Furthermore, the narrator character of Nick became colorless in this play as he became a one-dimensional "good guy" rather than a hypocritical man who looks down on others and presents his bystander stance as moral purity. All in all, Tsukigumi's "The Great Gatsby" felt as strange to me as Soragumi's "Sherlock Holmes" did, with the similar parallel of the simplification of a complex female character (Daisy Buchanon and Irene Adler) and the adapted heroism of our anti-hero (Jay Gatsby and Sherlock Holmes).

That said, I still enjoyed the play. Tsukishiro Kanato's charm made it a fine time (In particular the waltz scene where Gatsby runs a hand down Daisy's waist- that one action had a longing and erotic feel to it that stands out boldly in my mind). And one thing I didn't expect- The miracle of the character Tom Buchanon going from a foolish rich Ivy-Leauge boy stereotype to an incredibly attractive shoujo manga-esque villain in the play! Of course, this was all possible due to Hozuki An's acting. Hozuki An's villainess roles have a strong image of a meticulous poisonous spider. But her villain roles have the attractiveness of someone who eschews subtletly and gets what he wants through cold hard power. The keyword here would be "coldness" in that her interpretation of this character makes the otherwise one dimensional play interesting through contrast with Gatsby and Daisy's warmth in love.

In conclusion, I didn't particularly enjoy the novel The Great Gatsby but because the Takarazuka play pulled any hint of irony from the story and presented it as a romantic tale, I was quite confused at first. (Particularly telling is the scene with Gatsby's library- in the novel, the books are all fake signaling Gatsby's bluff, but in the play they are all real.) But because the novel is so short and not exceptionally striking, perhaps it was a better idea after all for Takarazuka Revue to present the story as an unironic drama that emphasizes the results of events rather than emotion, for a whole 3-hour play.

[shoujomangathoughts]

Shoujo Thoughts - Banana Fish

I decided recently to rewatch Banana Fish. I have a lot of thoughts on this series (it's in my top three, if not my favorite series) so I doubt I'll be able to go over everything that I could. This will contain spoilers for the series so here's the warning for that.

I won't spend a ton of time going over Ash and Eiji's relationship because I feel that's the conversational ground that others have covered the most. What I will say though is that I don't really see BF as a BL series or even really think that Ash and Eiji necessarily love each other in a romantic way. This series certainly inspired a lot of LGBTQ+ stories but I've always liked that Ash and Eiji's relationship seems to be in some sort of gray area; it feels ambiguous enough to remain interpretable. I don't want to take away from any queer elements that people may like about the story, but I also think it's sometimes important for media to display emotional intimacy between men, as I feel a lot of stories don't let this aspect exist unless they're romantically involved (or sometimes it's the setup for gay jokes). I like that this series kind of walks the line, though I'm sure many will disagree since BF has had a reputation for being a BL especially after the anime and it's modern popularity.

Something interesting about the relationship between Ash and Eiji for me is the "selfish" reasons they seem connected and how that relates to parts of their character arcs. To Ash, Eiji has an innocence that he tries to protect, as his was trampled on at an early age. It's interesting to see this shift, things like giving Eiji a gun in the beginning to refusing him one when escaping Golzine's mansion. This aspect of Eiji also grounds Ash in a sense - conversations they have like when Ash talks about his fear of pumpkins shows a more innocent side to Ash that can't frequently be on display because of everything around him, but it reminds us of how young he actually is (Ibe notices this as well). Eiji's perspective on things and his experiences are so vastly different that it helps balance Ash out. Eiji, on the other hand, sees Ash and his role in helping him as a way to not quit something. He quit pole vaulting after an injury that also led to some psychological barriers, and in some sense he sees the events that take place as a means of not repeating what he believes to be past mistakes. In some ways, it also comes across a little bit that Eiji almost has a hero complex when it comes to Ash. I don't mean this in a negative way at all, but I think it also demonstrates some of Eiji's naivety (albeit still good-natured) by thinking that it would be so easy for Ash to start over. Their relationship obviously has other layers as well, but I've always found these aspects interesting and they're not as often brought up when it comes to the nuance of the how the characters in this story feel very "human'.

Another aspect I want to talk about is the antagonists. I feel as though characters like Dino come across well and as intended, but some of the others don't or feel as though there might be a bit of missed potential. I feel like Yut-Lung didn't quite live up to his full potential; the way he acted in the beginning versus when he was working with the mafia is a bit confusing at times as he used to use secret techniques and trained moves but then ends up in a bit of a damsel situation. His motivations however are solid and show off what his role is well in my opinion. Fox is the other antagonist that people seem to have issue with. While I think his role is fine and does a good job at reinforcing the fact that Dino really does have connections in all sorts of places (and the parallels to Ash being legally 'dead'), his shift into essentially being the "final boss" doesn't work for some and I see why. He wasn't really built up to be that significant so it doesn't feel as satisfying as it should. Most of the other "villains" in the series are more interesting and end up being more memorable characters (Dino, Arthur, Yut-Lung, Blanca).

Something else that I appreciate in this story is the plot device of banana fish itself. The mystery of the drug is far more prominent early on, but I appreciate that as the story progresses, there is no magic cure developed that makes previous characters feel like they only had a case of bad timing. They outright say there is no cure for the drug and the story sticks to that, which is an aspect I respect. People also say that the plotline with the drug ends up taking a backseat, which I partially agree with, but it's also important to recognize that its role changes. At first, it's the core of the mystery and after that's uncovered, it turns into something that is more political in nature. I feel like some didn't like the change in role it had and that's why they say it's not important after around the halfway point. Not saying that the execution is without flaw, but the drug has a role, even if more in the background, throughout the whole series. The moment when Ash tells Sing to let the briefcase go is the moment Ash decides to let the existence of the drug die with the man that was at the head of it all (not to mention all the scientists and whatnot that had already been killed). It may seem unsatisfying, but Ash would rather just let its existence be wiped than deal with anyone else trying to do something with it, not to mention that he values Sing's life enough to help him even at the expense of something he'd chased the whole series, which shows that being around Eiji probably helped him open up and shows that some of his morals are in check.

The end of the series, while being somewhat controversial for some, is something that I still find myself liking. Honestly, the first time I watched the series I expected Ash to die; from the many moments of foreshadowing and knowledge of other mafia/gang series that show many of these people never being able to truly escape the world they're in. The story on a whole is about Ash and throughout the story he found solid people to love and trust, most specifically Eiji and Max (I'd also say he found strong allies in characters like Sing and Cain as well and Shorter was around before the series began). People always say they wished Ash could go to Japan to start over but I'm not of the opinion that an ending like that would suit the series. I've seen the ending being labeled as senselessly tragic or as some sort of cry-bait but I disagree. I know the mangaka made comments at one point about how at least part of her decision to end it with his death was due to all the death he caused, therefore claiming the ending was justified in her mind because of some sort of karma. I understand why people are rubbed the wrong way by this because of how traumatized Ash is, but I do think that's an angle that makes sense as well (keep in mind not all of Ash's killings were in self defense). Ash gets stabbed in a moment where he saw an opportunity to try again and is then reminded that he still has enemies. It reminds me of the look on his face when Dino dies; he doesn't seem relieved like he probably expected he would. Part of this is probably because he doesn't know what to do with his "freedom" because he's never allowed himself to think that far, but I think another part is that even though Dino is dead, he doesn't really feel free. I know some get upset that Ash gets fatally wounded by a "nobody" character like Lao (which some are under the impression that Ash wasn't fatally wounded and merely chose to bleed out due to a missing line from Lao in the anime), but I think it suits what Yoshida was going for and also reiterates the smaller, more petty enemies that Ash made throughout his life. Dino and some of the other big shot villains being killed did not automatically free Ash of being a part of this world. Ash gets to die knowing that there are people who care for him and that's a feeling that he'd never imagined himself having. He dies a person that experienced genuine care for him after having been starved of it his whole life. It comes across that he dies satisfied. I see why the ending doesn't work for some but I've always thought it made sense.

For now I'll stop here as these were just some observations I was making on rewatching the series knowing how I and others felt about certain aspects. I may end up making another post or something someday on BF because the series really means a lot to me. Thanks for reading!

[penultimate-step]

discussion in a discord the other day has me thinking about the idea of the "deconstruction" in fiction, and how that term has been abused over the years. Whenever a work of media in a generally derided genre gets popular, you'll hear people talking about how it's a deconstruction of the genre; as if to say it's not really part of the genre, they aren't really fans of something like that. Which is really dumb. if you're just using deconstruction to mean "good" or to denigrate certain genres your use of the word is pointless. So I understand why there's been pushback, why so many people angrily talk about how tvtropes has rotted people's brains and the idea of a deconstruction is useless.

However, and maybe this is just because I'm biased from actually really liking tvtropes as a kid, but I do think the term itself is fine. It's useful to have a word to describe that storytelling approach. The issue is people who decided that was the best or only valid approach, rather than simply treating it as one amongst many, a descriptor with neutral valence. In the eyes of judgmental and ill-informed people, to deconstruct is to elevate the work; I don't see it that way.

Actually, this post got me to check tvtropes for the first time in years, to make sure I was remembering their definitions right, and I think for all that people complain about it, that site understands deconstruction's neutrality perfectly well. The example given on the trope page is a version of the children's cartoon Tom and Jerry, where instead of slapstick comedy, the events lead to Tom receiving permanent brain damage. If someone tried to claim that this deconstruction was inherently better than the original, they would be laughed out of the room. Sure, it might be interesting to tell a story with that concept, some kind of dark fic, but to claim that was the best way to tell the story, or even an inherently good one, is ridiculous.

To the people who claim that Evangelion is the only good mecha because it deconstructs the genre, or that Madoka is the only good mahou shoujo (and let's accept for the sake of argument that these actually are deconstructions, which is debatable) - having to accept the brain damaged cat story would hopefully be enough to get them to agree their philosophy is ludicrous. A deconstruction is a story like any other, no better or worse. Of course, that does kind of bring the real issue to the forefront - people who say this do not actually believe that this is the best way to tell a story. Rather, they have unexamined assumptions about the respectability of certain genres, and use the idea of the trope to stop themselves from having to question these assumptions or admit value. To say that these shows they hold up as "deconstructing the genre" are well executed and proud examples of their genre, in conversation with storytelling ideas passed around decades before they were made, goes against the narrative of the brutal deconstruction tearing down their predecessors.

Which makes my final conclusion very lackluster. The idea of deconstruction, subversion, etc, all these terms, are fine and good when used as descriptors, they have not made anything worse in and of themselves. Instead they are merely often used in very irritating ways by people who don't want to honestly engage with a genre. But this tendency existed independently of the terms, and if these descriptors didn't exist they'd invent something else, it's not the words' fault.

[twilightguardian]

Lilith wasted no time. You gotta wonder if she loves Fixing RWBY just as much as the rest of us. She's just a tsundere for Raymond! We all know that she's a lying piece of living garbage but let's see what kind of laughs she has for us this time.

"Random" PTSD. Because as we all know, PTSD isn't triggered by things that can be tangentially related to the thing that we have issues with in question. So flashes of red going into a dark tunnel reminding her of Adam's red and the dark cafeteria of Beacon. Nah. Not similar. The episode was totally out of nowhere.

Breaking news: Conman is better at gambling than teenagers. More at 11.

lmao WOW she's pressed. Over basically nothing, too. What is the issue with Blake wanting to talk about what's bothering her? What's wrong with former classmates wondering what's eating at her? Is it because they're men and you don't like those things? Is that it? Like seriously what an odd thing to have a freak out over. How dare men exist and do things.

You can tell Lilith doesn't pay attention because they don't barge in to talk about how totally better people they are. They come into the room to talk to everyone and finds only Blake there and are surprised, because they never knew she was a faunus.

Victimized. That, Lilith, is called past tense. I know you haven't noticed, but it's called character growth. Cardin and Velvet worked past their differences.

Plus, they're not love interests. Yet. Raymond is still on the fence about it because it's not important to the story. But he's blushing because it's a girly thing to have on his weapon and he's a burly manly man, so being teased about it makes him embarrassed. But no, it can only be because he's in love with Velvet. I forgot. Blushing doesn't exist as a psychological involuntary response triggered by emotional stress associated with passion, embarrassment, shyness, fear, or anger. No. It can only be from romantic stimulation. Shoujo anime taught us that.

Why is the main villain of the arc appearing in the arc?!

Stop trying to make transphobia happen, Gretchen. It's not going to happen.

I already explained why this is stupid, but I wouldn't put it past liars to deliberately ignore it or twist my words no matter what I say. So there's barely use explaining anything beyond what I already said. After all, only a moron would genuinely take me saying 'I don't believe you could use your sexuality as an excuse to not know how flirting among this sex works because you're not that dumb' and skew it as queerphobic and me calling Lilith an idiot. Then again, tumblrites were never known for their intelligence. There's a reason I also called out rwde for also having their own Liliths among them, after all.

What? You mean in a series where the main purpose is to stay as close to the original show as possible where it doesn't need to be changed doesn't change things that doesn't need to be changed... doesn't fix shit that doesn't need changing? What a fucking concept.

It's almost like this series is a reconstructive exercise to show how with only a few little tweaks, RWBY could be great and doesn't require a big overhaul to make it good for those who have issues with it or something. That Raymond thinks the show is mostly fine, it just failed in a few things in terms of execution, worldbuilding and other fundamental things and was primarily fine and not completely broken. Wow. You can tell when someone fundamentally doesn't understand something when...

You know it's really funny because we're currently arguing with a guy over the rewrite, because he also thinks it's subpar. Which is fine, but he has his head up his ass to smell his own farts trying to teach Raymond (and subsequently ALL of Hollywood) how to properly write fiction and that he's going to REVOLUTIONIZE the industry. Truly, this guy is what these people claim Raymond is: arrogant, and delusional about his own abilities. Anyway, based on what I've seen his spelling error-riddled script basically makes the girls into murderous psychopaths who will throw everyone else, even their teammates, under the bus to save their own skin and he calls that character development. Truly we live in a clown world.

He might need to be looked at, too, but as per agreement, only Raymond is allowed to look at his script so far. Because he seriously thinks his ideas are so good that people would want to steal from him.

Who are Raymond's pet characters who drove the plot forward?

Roman didn't do shit this episode except hide underneath a table, so that's not true.

Cardin got two scenes where he nudged Blake forward. It's not like he went out and did the work and repaired her relationship with Yang or anything, and then after that he and Russell mostly did the same thing Dee and Dudley did. So unless you're saying D&D were integral to canon and overshadowed the girls, I'd also say that's not true.

Adam? For once she tells the truth. The villain causes stuff to happen. Like in the majority of fiction. Villains usually drive the plot, yes, congratulations, you figured it out. Have a cookie.

Nora and Ren saved Roman. Nora goes and fights with Team RWBY on the roof. Ruby goes and retrieves the weapons. RWBYN take centre stage in the train car scene. Ruby cuts the train car.

But for as much as she loves screaming about how Raymond is misogynistic for this, that and the other, Lilith never really talks about the girls of Fixing in relation unless degrading them, calling them useless, or saying they only exist to be love interests for men. She has some major projection going on.

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Friday, August 23rd

JINX: We have found that the signs of the alignment are moving faster than expected. GLORY: (primping in mirror) Meaning? JINX: If you are to use the key, you must act quickly. GLORY: Fine. (puts mirror down) I have been cooling my heels in this crappy little town long enough. (lies down on bed) Sunnydale's got too many demons and not enough retail outlets. (Picks up a pair of shoes)

~~Checkpoint~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Inappropriate Favour by forsaken2003 (Spike/Xander, R)

Dean’s Failures by mmooch (Buffy, Supernatural crossover, T)

a habit that's happened before by explosionshark (Buffy/Faith, T)

Injured by The_Crazy_Knight (Buffy/Giles, T)

Inappropriate Favour by forsaken2003 (Spike/Xander, M)

Red Fruit Punch by Foxxzilla (Buffy/Spike, M)

Dean's Failure by mmooch (Buffy, Supernatural crossover, FR13)

[Chaptered Fiction]

A Different Path, Chapter 19 by Anaxilea (Buffy/Faith, M)

In the Company of Witches and Slayers: Chapter 140 by VladimirHarkonnen (TheLightdancer) (Willow/Tara, E)

Slayer & Rose Bride, Chapter 14 (complete!) by acpendra, Sparkle 94 (acpendra) (Buffy, Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena crossover, M)

A Slayer's Greatest Weapon- Book one- BTVS, Chapter 7 by KHandE11 (Ensemble, Wolfblood crossover, T)

Less Is Not Enough, Chapter 6 by Passionpire88 (Buffy/OC, Spike, Once Upon A Time crossover, M)

Further From Home, Chapter 7 by zombiesam (Buffy/Giles, E)

Stupid Thing, Chapter 3 by mistigrisunshine (Buffy/Spike, T)

Supply Issues, Chapter 2 by wickedrum (Buffy/Spike, T)

If You Ever, Chapter 3 by Mirrored_Illusions (Buffy, Stargate crossover, T)

Free to a Good Home, Chapter 1 by though_you_try (Buffy/Spike, M)

The Neighbor's Point of View, Chapter 124 by the_big_bad (Buffy/Spike, PG)

To All We Guard, Chapter 27 by simmony (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Along Came Two, Chapter 8 by LilithSwan (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Like A Feather, Chapter 8 (complete!) by Willow25 (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

[Images, Audio & Video]

Artwork (+meta): cordy surviving season 4 by artsying-ifer (worksafe)

Vidlet: Buffy is taking it by yeomar645

Fanvid: Spike & Buffy - You Don't Have To Love Me by Sheebz D

Fanvid: Buffy l Where did it go wrong? by Dacy Toxic

Fanvid: Buffy and Angel - Dream Away by juliaroxs241

Fanvid: Buffy and Angel - Seventeen by juliaroxs241

Fanvid: BUFFY SUMMERS || SAD EDIT BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER by ALEXEDITZ

Fanvid: Window To Your Soul - by Delerium - 04x13 - The I in Team by NessaKins91 (Buffy/Riley)

Fanvid: Buffy the Vampire Slayer but with Like A Prayer (Choir Version, Deadpool & Wolverine) by Jess Wilson

Fanvid: Buffy and Angel - Endlessly Yours (with Lyrics and Arabic subtitle) by Vision Dream Media

Vidlet: “For You” || BTVS || @makky_cc by Makkyyyy

[Reviews & Recaps]

Video: Buffy S02E20 "Go Fish" Spoiler Review by LGRN - Entertainment

Podcast: Buffering the Vampire Slayer | 8.01 The Long Way Home by Buffering: A Rewatch Adventure

Video: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 4: Episode 6 - Wild at Heart by The Cheshire Kiwi

Video: Buffy and the Inherent Flaw of Media Tie-In Novels by Another Booktube Channel

Podcast: Re-Broadcast: Buffering the Vampire Slayer's 3.19 "Enemies" by Buffering: A Rewatch Adventure

Video: Analyzing Buffy’s “Restless” by Sky James

[Recs]

Fic rec: Learning Curve by Kateykakes (Buffy/Angel, G) recced by I Will Remember You Marathon

[Fandom Discussions]

When Willow and Tara moved into the Summers house after Buffy died by lindseymcdonaldseyelashes

I wish that Angel got the attention Spike does on Tumblr by putinskremlinqueen4palestine64

I wish that Tumblr had less of Cangel and more of Bangel and Xandelia by putinskremlinqueen4palestine64

What would happen if people outside the Watcher's Council discovered the existence of the Undead? continued by AlphaFoxtrot

To the older ones!! B&A question! 😈 by NNix

Bad Girls & Dirty Girls continued by multiple posters

Rewatch thoughts and questions continued by multiple posters

Riley's outfit in As You Were continued by MoonLight SY-3

Watchers - how were they ‘chosen’? continued by Stoney

Stinky Parker by Littledittydee

Would Faith had been openly bi if Buffy had been on TV today? by jdpm1991

I'm rewatching Buffy/Angel again and Buffy season 4 has to be my favourite by Hong-Kwong

I’m watching Season 7. Just finished Episode 8 - Sleeper. When does the season get bad? by Caydenas

James as Spike is pulling a “Ben/Glory” on my brain by Federal-Beautiful427

Another reason Jonathan is better than Andrew: Jonathan has the respect of the butchers of Sunnydale & Andrew doesn't by KneeHighMischief

Let’s not talk about Ford and his shady ways by alarmedlittlefroggy

For once I feel kind of bad for Xander by nota-banana

Señor, your mustache provides you great strength and dignity [Angel Season 4] by midnightmeatloaf

Faith and Xander in The Zeppo by LightBlueSky55

Podcast: 0.42 Welcome to the HelenMouth: Linguistics in Buffy with Helen Zaltzman by by Buffering: A Rewatch Adventure

[Articles, Interviews, and Other News]

Podcast: Buffering the Vampire Slayer | Interview with Amber Benson and Christopher Golden by Buffering: A Rewatch Adventure

Podcast: 0.38: A Conversation with Amber Benson by Buffering: A Rewatch Adventure

Podcast: Buffering the Vampire Slayer | Interview with James C. Leary by by Buffering: A Rewatch Adventure

Podcast: Buffering the Vampire Slayer | Interview with Laya DeLeon Hayes [who played Indira in the Slayers audio drama] by Buffering: A Rewatch Adventure

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Finally Gets Updated Funko Pops by comicbook.com

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[yellowocaballero]

hi! i know that i'm fated to read your every work despite not knowing the media half the time. this time i would like to finally be one step ahead. so uhh. where do i read orv? do i go for the webtoon or the novel? to clarify, i did try to search, but got confused by reddit. also i am going to watch trigun. i've been eyeing animorphs too but the 54 (?) books are making me go hmm. thank you for existing you're pretty great. you're like the spiderman of writing but instead you got asbestos rat'd.

THIS ASK IS INSANE. WE'RE REFERENCING MY LORE NOW?

But thank you, you're insane. People ask why I have stupid high standards for the fics i post on AO3 and it is because there are people like you who will just read whatever regardless of whether or not it's good. I have a responsibility.

This ask also made me wonder if I have good taste. Because every time somebody says this my first reaction is "oh god and the source materials aren't even good". I read a lot of trashy stuff (but, like, define trashy), and I consume too many bad things to be able to say I have discerning taste. If I enjoy something I almost never call it bad, because things were made to be enjoyed and I enjoyed them then they had value in at least one aspect. If you were to ask me if my favorite TV show of all time the Incredible Hulk 1974 was actually, unironically, good, then I'd break into a cold sweat. Is somebody bad because it's camp? Is something bad only if it's unintentional camp?

Regardless, I never write fic for something that isn't only like 80% good - there's a sweet spot of 'good enough for me to obsess over' and 'bad enough that I'm rewriting it in my head'. It's rare I write for anything I find completely good. Which is why I feel bad when people say that they're reading this thing I'm writing fic for jalksdf there's better things out there I SWEAR.

ORV is in the sweet spot of "this isn't high literature" and "this has given me brain worms". Definitely for sure start with the webtoon - the webnovel is clunkily translated, you don't read it for the writing at all, and it is also a literal million words. Don't read the webnovel unless you're like "I'm going insane and I need more of this". It starts off kind of slow ("This is a well executed very banal isekai") and you're like a frog in the pot of it slowly going more insane until you're a ways in and you are in a tangle of ridiculously complicated gambits and convoluted storytelling. There is literally no other way to describe it than the Homestuck of webnovels. If you're completely unfamiliar with isekai that's fine, but as a warning - ORV being your first webtoon/webnovel isekai is like your first shoujo manga being Ouran High Schol Host Club, or your first magical girl show being Madoka, or your first mecha anime to be Neon Genesis Evangelion. It's one of the best works in its genre but it's supposed to be viewed in context of the genre. Or maybe it's more like if Homura starred in Evangelion, which was Ouran. I'm just saying words.

Animorphs is kind of like Mother 3 in which everybody who has ever read/played it said that it changed them as a person, it changed their relationship with media and storytelling forever, if you read/play it you will be born again from the world's egg, etc. Works that genuinely become part of your personality. I also never recommend it to people because it is incredibly hit or miss. I remember using a spreadsheet of just "what books are skippable or not" because some of them are incredibly weird and some of them are incredibly weird in the bad way. The only Animorphs fic I've ever written is from 2019 so it's also not that great. Each book only takes an hour to read and the pdfs are free online, so it's incredibly accessible in terms of the reading experience, but it's kinda the Animorphs gestalt that changes you forever and not the individual books. I try not to recommend stuff that's like 25% bad.

Watch Trigun if you like what Trigun is - it's not going to deliver on something it's not. Also watch 98 first. Watch Stampede/read Trimax if you want more Trigun. The Trigun fic is based off Stampede but refer to my "I only write fic for smth that's 80% good and not 100% good" statement.

Also I think being bit by an asbestos rat just means that I probably have mold and drywall in my lungs, which would explain a lot about this blog. Thanks for the ask I love it.

[theclearblue]

Love you blog, thanks for your posts. I'm kinda tired with "war-fandom", where each side like "Mine are better, yours are suck" (especially in twitter). Like, when I said that now I love JJK, some of my anime/manga moots like, "Why love that? One Piece & Hunter x Hunter are waayyy better?" or "CSM > JJK" And I was "Why can't I love all of them? All things have strength and weakness...." (in the end I block them). And don't get me started with shounen vs shoujo fandom, like why people love to spread hate just to say what they like are better.....

Sorry for my rant, just want to say, love your blog.... 🤩

Also, what are your opinions about shipping in fandom (especially shounen & seinen)? I don't really have a shipper heart, but even I get it (the power of bromance)....And yes, I'm so happy about Kenjaku/Takaba, I'm surprised that even in the end, Kenjaku did not blame Takaba.....

Thank you anon this message is so nice, I'm happy you enjoy my dumb ramblings here🤧 And yeah I get what you mean with this competitive nature in constantly comparing shonen, which on one hand I get and I do to a certain extent as well, these series are in the same genre and can share a lot of similarities. And I think each series can have different strengths and weaknesses while still being good (an example being if I were to compare JJK and One Piece, generally I think JJK has way better fights while I think One Piece is a little bit more consistent in fully fleshing out most/all characters we see. I still like both a lot). I think it's partly facilitated by the this culture of having a "big three" shonen series, both in the fighting of what's better between naruto one piece and bleach but also where a lot of people are trying to create a new big three with recent shonen. Which. It's fine but ultimately a little silly in my opinion lmao. Unfortunately being a fan of a lot of different shonen, at some point you kinda just have to accept the people who treat the genre as a dick measuring contest and not much more. And oof don't get me started on shonen vs. shojo (which as a big fan of both...let's just say it's not typically the shojo fans who are being terrible...).

And oh, what an interesting question about shipping, I guess I hadn't thought about it too much before but I'm quickly realizing I have Opinions on the matter the more I think on it lmao. Generally I'm pretty positive on shipping, where I don't think it's the end all be all in any series, but it is a tool one can use to put a new lens on character dynamics, and I think that's fun and interesting! Taking a pair like Takaba and Kenjaku, I think this is a really good pair to look at because it's clear they have a connection, right? They fundamentally understand each other at a level nobody has, maybe ever (and isn't that insane on Kenjaku's part?! He's been alive for a 1000 years!) And I think you can color the dynamic in different ways and get really interesting yet different results, are they like brothers? friends? lovers? soulmates? Is their connection platonic, sexual, or an actual love? It's up to you! This kind of analysis has been done since literally ancient times (Greek concepts of love with Eros, Agape, and Philia), so I guess I get a little confused when shonen fans are against shipping entirely?

A series that features Big Fight with BIG Punch can still have layered and complex characters that hold love for each other, and people interpreting it as romantic is not weird or gross or even fetishizing in my opinion (that's a whole can of worms that might warrant an entirely new post lmao). I think a good example is Satosugu. They certainly aren't explicitly romantic, but there is a lot of subtext within JJK that imply they might have romantic feelings for each other. But some JJK fans are just so weirdly disgusted by this concept of...gay people existing in their media? That they SCREAM from the rooftops that "they're like brothers! 100% straight!" And it's like...we could have a good conversation here! Interpreting them as brothers is just as valid I think as shipping them, but you gotta explain why. And I've seen some fans say "Hey their relationship reminds me of my relationship with my brother/best friend or there's Scene A and B that makes me think they're platonic and that's how i interpret it, with no romance." And as long as they aren't shitting on people who ship Satosugu, this is completely respectable to me. But I'm going to respect a shipper who just thinks they're both hot when they stand next to each other way more over someone who clearly is just uncomfortable with the idea of two fictional men or women being interpreted as having a romantic relationship lmao.

Shipping culture is certainly not perfect, but generally I think it's just a harmless fun hobby that can inspire people to make really cool art in all different forms, and, speaking as someone currently studying history, shipping has probably been going on since at least 4000 years ago when the Epic of Gilgamesh dropped in ancient Mesopotamia with Gilgamesh/Enkidu so I just think people, particularly shonen fans, are wasting their breath throwing a fit about it and acting as if shipping is this new evil gay phenomena that's poisoning their battle action series.

[luckyladylily]

Can you rant about how much nonsense Dune shields (and dune technology in general) are? I feel like explanation for shields is such bullshit and is so clumsy, that i can find better justifications for nonsense in cheap mid 2000 battle harem anime.

Unfortunately I don't actually know the technobabble science stuff behind the shields, so I cannot personally critique it. However, I am willing to take it on good faith that it sucks because most things in that book suck.

However, I can give you a bigger picture rant, for which I will use the shields as a launching off point. So the reason Dune shields exist as they do is so you can have rad slow motion knife fights. Herbert started at slow motion knife fights and built his shield science backwards. Which is fair! Making rad things to go in your book is like half the job of an author.

The problem is that this is top down world building. which, again, isn't necessarily a problem, but Dune tries *so hard* to be this serious, deep thing. It is trying to match the sci-fi tone of something like Foundation or I, Robot, regarded as highly as the grand daddies of sci-fi that took interesting, thought provoking concepts and drilled down deep to see where those concepts lead us. And you can see Herbert trying so hard to be that. He is trying so hard to establish an air of intellectual intrigue and gravitas. Except he doesn't do the thing. He doesn't take a thought provoking concept and take it apart from all sorts of angles. Instead he tries to manufacture those intellectual hooks artificially.

Which brings us back to the shields. The shields are there and operate how they do so there can be slow knife fights. Which is fine. In star wars the laser swords work so we can have cool laser sword fights, logic be damned, and we love it. But it's really hard for deep intellectual intrigue to live right beside slow knife fights or laser swords that exist just cuz. You can do it, you can make it work. But then again, with Dune it isn't just the shields and slow knife fights.

Everything in Dune is top down design. Everything exists because Herbert thought it was neat first and because it made sense second or not at all. My single favorite example is that Dune, the single most important planet in the ENTIRE UNIVERSE, is controlled by a fucking baron. If you didn't know, barons are very low ranking nobility. Certainly Herbert didn't know and looks like he didn't care to find out either. And of course this isn't the only example. Dukes are extremely high ranking. House Atreides and House Harkonnen are ancient, bitter enemies. How?? The power disparity duke vs baron would be absurd. He was building up a psudo feudal society for his sci fi novel but didn't bother to research how the nobility functions at all.

My guess? He liked the way "Duke Leto" and "Baron Harkonnen" sound. That's it.

We got Dukes and Counts and Barons and Emperors and it means fuck all, which is again ok if you are writing something where it doesn't matter, but Dune is like 50% political intrigue! People will try to tell you that this is *why* you should read the books. This is the back bone world building of this novel and yet somehow I know more about nobility purely from reading isekai shoujo manga. Though I suppose, to be fair, Frank Herbert never had the advantage of reading shoujo. Maybe Dune wouldn't suck as much if he did.

As yes, all of this seems like petty nitpicking and individually it is, but it is all of them together. There are so many things like this. The man wrote an entire book that is desperately trying to pass itself off as an intellectual exercise vis-à-vis Foundation (there have been suggestions that it was written as a direct counterpoint to Foundation!) and he didn't even try to get basic world building right. The shields don't make sense, the politics don't make sense, nothing makes sense because everything is top down design and lazy top down design at that.

[thescrapbookingscientist]

Bimonthly Media Roundup

- Kaiju No 8 (Anime) - Binged this on a whim and honestly it was a lot more wholesome and engaging than I thought it would be? I like that the majority of the characters are adults and act like it, people were pretty reasonable in how they approached issues and the team building aspect was very cute. I like the protags Kaiju form though given the weird body transformations we saw he was capable of I wish he would do something more interesting in fights than just punching really hard. Then again the fights clearly aren't the focus of the series and just serve the purpose of cooperation/character building which I guess is fine. The way the characters quip at eachother was pretty fun, I'd say the whole cast was likable though not super well developed at this point given how many we were given in just the first season. Shinomiya and Hoshina were the standouts given they had interesting designs, personalities, and fighting styles. The pacing was a little quick but it did mean that interesting things were always happening so I can't complain too much, though personally I think it's a missed opportunity that they moved away from the "Kaiju clean up job" as that some pretty interesting worldbuilding, even if they did keep Kafka's experience relevant. Honestly I'd recommend it, this was a good time - Will be watching Season 2 for sure.

- Pluto (Anime) - Pluto was an interesting little mini series about a murder mystery surrounding the deaths of the worlds most advanced AI. It was overall pretty good, it had a really solid middle chunk where tension was kept high, it never underestimated it's audience and trusted them to put pieces together, and characters felt very grounded and human. The ending was a little messy though, as certain plot beats felt pretty out of place for what was otherwise a very tightly written anti-war story. I don't really feel like talking about it beyond that as I don't have any interesting input, sometimes you just watch something and go. Yup that was good, I agree with it's themes. And that's the whole of it. Gesicht was cool, I feel bad for the little baby robot, I have no idea why sensing emotions is considered a robot ability, and the piano saga in episode One was probably my favorite single arc of the show.

- Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Dukes Mansion (Anime) - Didn't really have another entry for this week so I guess I'll mention this anime that my sister and I dropped pretty early on. I like the Villain/Villainess genre as a whole given it frequently uses one of my favorite tropes of "Using knowledge of the future to change the present for the better" as well as the "having to work your way up from the bottom" trope, but I've read enough to be a bit picky about the ones I keep up with and unfortunately Raelina didn't end up grabbing me, at least not in the first 5 episodes. I like the art style and the protagonists design overall as well as the idea of her being the first death to kick off a mystery novel rather than the standard dating sim plotline, but my main issue was just how un-interesting the plot, characters, and interactions have been thus far. The love interest especially seems very 'cookie cutter snarky pretty boy shoujo male' and I can't remember a single notable interaction or anything that stood out as being a memorable visual or interesting lore or anything, it was just kind of boring.

- Jujutsu Kaisen (Anime) - I know I said previously that this show is truly a mixed bag with a lot of glaring flaws, and I stand by that, but I'd be lying if I said that I haven't been obsessed with it for the past month. Yes the worldbuilding and combat system are wack, and the show too frequently takes a tell-don't show approach with relationships and plot beats, but there is some genuinely engaging stuff in here - The entire hidden inventory arc, the sisyphisian cycle of curses constantly reforming as long as human hatred exists, the idea of being a god being a deeply in humanizing experience, the good humored moments of levity when the characters actually get to hang out, it's not nothing. What I'm saying is I could fix it okay? Give Jujutsu Kaisen to me. Also I'm pretty sure I'm experiencing what the kids call gender envy whenever I see Suguru, I adore his design, I need to look like that. Also also, both of Season Two's OPs are straight bangers.

- To Your Eternity (Anime) - I'll talk more about this next time as we've barely scraped the surface, but for now I'll say this is a truly unique and emotional story that unfortunately has the worst auto generated subtitles ever. Like it's so bad it takes you out of the show. The OP gets translated as Pig Blood, Pig Blood, the phrases are usually incorrect, and the names get changed each time to things like Google or Pierre. Please crunchyroll why do you hate us.

- House (TV) - Ah yes my favorite anime, House MD. Decided to watch this in between anime binges, and as expected revisiting it is a mixed bag. The medical mysteries and overall format are still very well done, a lot of the clinic scenes are still pretty funny, the characters all play off eachother well, and in general it stays engaging throughout its run-time which I can't say for a lot of 45 minute TV episodes. That being said House as a character can be....a lot. It's fine to have asshole protagonists and I don't really prescribe to the idea that media has to contain only morally upright material or otherwise punish moral wrongdoing in the narrative, but as a viewer I'm uninterested in media where it feels like the writers are actively disdainful towards (usually liberal) ideas or groups of people and trying to scold them into accepting 'the correct' viewpoint and House as a show can occasionally toe that line. To be fair it's usually not too bad, the show depicts positive wlw relationships pretty early on, characters will rightfully call House out when he's being a dick, Cuddy is a fun character that gets to one up House occasionally, and while the writing can be pretentious it's not usually mean spirited. It's a good enough show in every other respect that I still find myself enjoying it, but I can see how the tired narrative of "obnoxious white guy is a rude jerk that can do whatever he wants without being fired because he's just that much smarter and better than everyone else" is a hard sell to new viewers in 2024.

- The S Classes That I Raised (Webcomic) - Been seeing some discourse around Riette and while I do get it, Must a woman always be "a good person" and "redeemed by the narrative"? Is it not enough to be a butch hottie who is also a Dragon? I support women's wrongs.

- One Piece (Manga) - 27 years of One Piece apparently. Maybe it will end on the 30th anniversary? We shall see.

- Genshin Impact (Video Game) - The origami Event world is cute, I love collecting the figures and the little dragon design. Also excited to get Kirara.

Listening To: Good Luck Babe by Chappell Roan, Two Birds by Regina Spektor, Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter, All In by 6FU, Crazy cover by Walk of the Earth, SPECIALZ by King Gnu, Ao No Sumika by Tatsuya Kitani, Princess of China by Coldplay, Lay All Your Love On Me by ABBA, Boys by Lizzo, Walking in Memphis by Marc Cohn, Jesus He Knows Me cover by Ghost, Tongues and Teeth by The Crane Wives

[arimiaromage]

finished my first manga of the year, one that I started last year called Bloody+Mary by Akaza Samamiya. I guess this'll be a mostly spoiler-free review??

It's about a red-haired vampire named Mary who wants to die but can't because he's immortal and tracks down the human main character Maria, a feared exorcist—except Maria can't actually exorcise vampires, instead faking his powers to ward off attackers. Mary vows to keep Maria safe until Maria can regain his powers and exorcise him.

Bloody+Mary is a bit of a mess with its main saving grace being that it's a bunch of pretty boys and very pretty art. At its heart it's a vampire shoujo with some comedy elements but mainly a drama with quite a few twists—I heard it was light BL but after reading it it's definitely not, it's just a shoujo with a primarily male cast. Regardless of how intimate the cover arts are, there's shounen much gayer than this, so if that's what you were interested in then look elsewhere.

The pacing is odd. Not the worst I've seen, but it definitely felt like the author was winging it in quite a few parts, especially in one part where they travel to England, get basically nothing accomplished, and head home. I've heard some mangakas don't plan the endings before they start publication but this series feels like the mangaka only had a loose concept and winged the rest. Plot lines come up, get forgotten about, come back sometimes, and ultimately don't lead to much if they're resolved at all.

The characters are alright, I found most of them okay and even pretty funny at times. However, there's not much character growth which leaves most of them the same as when they started and you're just told they've grown so much because their goals have suddenly changed. The character I liked the least was probably the red-haired vampire Mary, as he acts 12 for a majority of the series. Considering I went into this thinking it was going to be a BL between him and the MC Maria (who's 17? he's still in school), I was offput by how young Mary acted despite being a 400~ year old vampire. It's not that he acts childish at times, its that he acts like a child most of the time. The scenes where Maria looks at him fondly feel more like an older brother looking at their younger brother rather than two people who are supposed to be around the same age (Mary is supposed to look around 16).

The world building is lackluster at best and sloppy at worst. The church both exists in this world as the main defense against vampires but also feels more like a historical relic, something that isn't a main thing that exists in current day. Vampires are creatures of folklore to most humans, except if you go out at night you'll be attacked by them?? They try to say this is because Maria's blood smells so good that he's always attacked at night, but then they show other characters being attacked at night—how are vampires staying in the shadows when so many people get attacked and are almost always killed by vampire attacks? Furthermore, we never really see anyone capable of exorcism except for a priest in England who they only bring up to give a lore dump on vampires. How have vampires not taken over the world by now if basically no one can kill them and some of them have been alive for half a millennia?

It's parts like that that make the world feel very, very small, which would've been fine if they kept it an insular story, but they didn't. It has a decent sized cast, though half of the characters become irrelevant when the plot doesn't need them and come running back as soon as it does.

Again, the art is the main saving grace of the series—it really is very pretty to look at, and I love their color work for the cover arts.

I wanted to like this series as it's very pretty and has twins and other things I won't spoil that I love, but ultimately it left me more baffled than anything. I don't hate it, I don't love it, I'm just kinda bewildered.

I wouldn't recommend this unless you just really love vampire shoujo. Don't be fooled by the cover arts, it's not really gay exorcists, but there are a couple of explicitly gay female vampires so...still not worth your time considering they're very much side characters. Go find a gay vampire visual novel to read instead, there's tons.