#looking at you kawakami fans

[personafan101]

Now up to stage is our Temperamce Arcana!

They just want peace and balance in their life, and the protags definitely helps them!

You know how the voting goes, but I feel like I know who will win.

[just-antithings]

Antis needs to get out of the persona Fanbase and stop playing the game because it's clear they either aren't actually a part of the fandom and never touched anything about the Games or they are truly showing their hypocrisy. I'll even list it

Persona 3 Reload

The start of kenji's social link is about how he wants to romance a teacher in his school.

Some students (+ chairman) spies on the protagonist while he sleeps.

Persona 3 portable

if you picked the female character you can date Ken Amada, He's a romancable character even though he's supposedly around roughly 11 (at the oldest) according to online posts.

In Persona 4 golden

In Antis eyes kanji & Rise should be considered sexualised in the game!

And before any antis claim Rise had some meaning besides sexualising she's in a strip club, didn't need to be in a strip club and could have been in like a TV or stage set or something to showcase corruption of Fame while under 18 instead of like her being a pole dancer in a strip club lol. It was cool tho

Oh also you can date the Loli character if you join a club, I think the music club specifically.

Persona 5

Just look at the romance-able character.

1. Futaba Sakura, The 'sister' vibe character who depends on you at the start a lot.

2. chihaya Mifune who's an adult

3. Sadayo Kawakami is Teacher and maid, (double power dynamics)

4. Tae Takemi, the shady doctor

5. Ichiko Ohya, Journalist who takes you to a bar and gets drunk a lot.

Sorry for the rant, I'm just sick of antis having issues with Persona fanworks while this is the game they claim to be fans of!

[oaktaro]

平安京エイリアン | Heiankyo Alien

Heiankyo Alien: Pitfall Trap Game – 1979 Sep? (uncommercialized proof of concept) – Apple ][

Space Invaders was big, and Weekly Asahi magazine would run a story searching for the next big game, soliciting college computer clubs around the nation for new ideas. After visiting 2 at the University of Tokyo, Itaru Kawakami of the Theoretical Science Group (TGS) led an emergency meeting to come up with an idea before the article would be published. He put forth the idea of a game where the player is in their home attempting to trap cockroaches. Another member, Mitsutoshi Tabata, has implied that the idea would’ve played like a Snake type of game, and I’ve seen it cited that you would use glue traps, so perhaps the Snake element was the danger of getting stuck by your own traps as you lay more and more down. A fan creation of this game has since been made called Vermin Wars. TGS, however, were cautious about giving the player too much freedom of movement in an open space, so the playing field would be reimagined to resemble a Go board where you place pieces at the intersections of squares instead of within them, almost as if the lines are the streets and the spaces are buildings in a city grid. This changed their setting from a home interior to a city! With everyone talking about this new horror movie, Alien, they decided that could be the new monster that you trap. In brainstorming a city to take place in, they landed on the nation’s former capitol, once called Heiankyo, which had an impressively strict grid, making it an easy leap for them to then have you play as law enforcement of the time, attempting to dig pitfall traps for the invading aliens. Asashi would publish the idea, resulting in them being contacted by electronics company Denki Onkyo, who were interested. The group looked to Tabata to program it, as he owned the legendary Apple II, but the one thing he couldn’t do was optimize it. Apparently the game took 10 minutes to even boot, so Kawakami stepped up to optimize it and met Tabata at the train station to take the entire Apple II, which is humorous to imagine them lugging around. He would ultimately decide to switch to the Apple II’s low-resolution mode, effectively quartering the resolution and changing the available approach to visuals, resulting in humans, aliens, and holes being different colored blocks. This build of Heiankyo Alien: Pitfall Trap Game was taken to Denki Onkyo as a sort of proof of concept. According to an article instructing readers on how to make their own TK-80 version of the game in the February 1980 issue of I/O magazine, there were already PC-8001 and MZ-80K versions as of writing the article, with some version of the game being shown at a school festival the previous year, presumably the Apple II version.

Heiankyo Alien – 1979 Nov – cabinet

They were set up on the first floor of the Oda district office. Kawakami and Keiichiro Shimada would become the project managers, with the team fleshing out what should and shouldn’t be done. They changed the street layout to be less uniform. A timer was added to end the game in the event that the player closed themselves off from danger, and, inspired by the idea of using candy to distract the slit-mouthed woman of legend, they wanted to include a hard candy that can be used to temporarily stop all the aliens from moving, but midway through development scrapped the idea as they found it overcomplicated the controls. With a sole keyboard to type out what they wrote and burn it to ROMs, every time they wanted to test if what they came up with worked, multiplayer modes would be added, having you either take turns or co-op with both of you on screen together. One thing Denki Onkyo pressed them for was to give the player an animation for when they met their end, resulting in the last-minute addition of an angel sprite to float away. The game would be demoed at the Amusement Machine Show in October, where it was discovered that adding too many coins would cause the coin counter to spill into VRAM, removing one of the city walls, allowing one of the aliens to wander off, scrambling the game’s data, but when all was said, patched, and done, it would hit arcades (as Digger in the U.S.) to great success, being among the highest-grossing arcade games in Japan. Game Center Arashi was a book series about its protagonist conquering arcade games with its story about him attempting to score 10 million points in Heiankyo Alien in 20 minutes, spotlighting not only the game but its strategies and terminology, making them even more accessible. These were also detailed in I/O magazine, who, in their April 1980 issue, announced TK-80BS, MZ-80K/C, and PC-8001 versions for sale. Desktop versions of the game from the time are usually distinguishable by their use of green instead of blue, outside of the handheld version. I also notice the cover of Game Center Arashi has more square-shaped, pink aliens and green buildings while the city walls remain the blue that I’m used to seeing the arcade version be. The handheld version uses condensed, repeating stages and greatly simplified visuals to keep the core gameplay intact while maintaining portability and affordability. It would inspire many future games like its side-view counterpart, Space Panic.

Heiankyo Alien – 1990 Jan 14th – Gameboy

“Denki Onkyo was bought by Murata Manufacturing, and the rights were left hanging, but when the Game Boy version was released, they were transferred to a company called Hyperware, which was run by Takeshige Arimasa, who was a colleague of my brother-in-law at TSG.” -Norio Nakagata (alongside Takane Ohkubo are the Game Boy remake’s uncredited music artists)

As the 1980s rolled around, Denki Onkyo would not survive with the rights to Heiankyo Alien going up in the air. Hyperware was able to grab the rights and get to work on a remake. It features raising and lowering lanterns blocking the roads to keep the environment ever-shifting on the player and the monsters! A new boat mechanic allows you to traverse a river faster than taking the streets. Cinematics, including an ending, were added. While there would be a classic mode, the remake was rocking a faster pace to keep up with a new breed of alien sporting more erratic movement, and that’s not the only rocking being brought. The remake’s Multi Matrix Sound System (MMSS) is that when it’s multiplayer mode is linked to another Game Boy, it’ll combine both Game Boy’s sound systems into one, allowing for audio, twice as complex! The co-op of the original would return in classic mode, and the remake mode allows for competitive multiplayer where you each get your own screen and can affect each other’s game, sending aliens you’ve buried into their game as if you’re on opposite sides of the Earth, and those monsters evolve when they come up on the other side! The rebounded aliens can be taken out for good, and I have to mention how good the game’s overall branding is! The clean red, while only displaying the outlines of the monsters, is so classy yet harsh and vintage. Unfortunately for all involved, the remake did not seem well received in its time. Seemingly being dismissed as an overpriced repackaging of an antiquated 70’s game, even retrospective reviews years later were looking back on it negatively.

Nichibutsu Arcade Classics 2: Heiankyo Alien – 1995 Dec 15th – SFC

A new game for the SFC would attempt to try again with more screen real estate and modern graphics in the original game’s gameplay with multiple stages of dynamically dropping factors to deal with, from power-ups to power-downs to juke. This version would also not be a turning point for the series popularity. This also includes the ability to play “original” Heiankyo Alien, which plays like the arcade game but visually has an indigo background with green walls and buildings, which is not a color scheme of the official version of the ‘79 arcade game that I’m familiar with.

Heiankyo DX – 2003 Nov 17th – mova505i

After 2001 mobile versions, sporting both original and new graphics, a 2003 game titled Heiankyo DX would have you face 15 stages of alien tapping across night and day stages with further upgraded graphics. I’ve always wondered about the attitude toward mobile games from their regular players at this time. Perhaps the 2001 did alright to lead to Heiankyo DX, but the series overall 14-year absence following this gives me the impression it didn’t look like something with a lot of potential to commercially capitalize on, and I’d assume that simpler 1970s game design would have the best chance on phones at the time.

The 2017 Heiankyo Revival

Every time a new Heiankyo Alien came out, it would mention how popular the original game was, as, much like Space Invaders that inspired it, its original entry was something it never recaptured, but, just like Space Invaders, that’s not to say that not just the legacy but the idea of new games was not appreciated by players like the fan game that added guns, Heiankyo Crisis. By the 2017 revival, I note a general change in tone of people voicing their opinions of Heiankyo Alien from suspicious of its value as a commercial product to liking a new little game being offered, and I think the two factors that play into that are the lower relative price after inflation and in comparison to competition alongside Nintendo leading a shift in online and print discussions of home games away from almost only being the pushing forward of the bleeding edge of hardcore to also enjoying smaller, simpler games. By the early 2010s, Minecraft seemed to cement this rapidly growing market and general tone change in video game discussions, leading to opinions of not just new Heiankyo Alien games but older ones by first-time players seeming more open-minded to simpler than Triple-A games, though I do note Tetris on the Game Boy as an anomaly in this thinking. It again helped that people of the 21st century didn’t have to pay triple A price for Heiankyo games. Even outside of retro game prices in a pre-WataGames world, I remember people commenting in the 2010s how initial video game releases are cheaper than they ever have been due to the variance in prices on top of the great price reset PlayStation popularized. As of the publishing of this article, Triple A games are still less expensive than they were during the SNES generation. At least, that’s my suspicion for why the change in tone between the 90’s and 2010’s seemed to happen for Heiankyo Alien, but let’s get into what they actually offered!

NEO Heiankyo Alien – 2017 Sep 7th – FC

NEO Heiankyo Alien is a Family Computer entry taking place in 299X where you can trap multiple types of aliens in a vibrant nightscape or play a version of the original that has a similar color scheme of the “original” mode in the 1995 game but neon blue and green, perhaps reusing the neon blue and green of Neo Kyoto in the new game mode. You could also just listen to the soundtrack featuring a nice list of composers in "Heiankyo Music" mode. Over the years, the soundtrack of the 1990 remake, since credited to Nakagata and Ohkubo, seemed to become the series identity, and Nakagata, who's credited as NEO Heiankyo’s producer, made a new song in that style for this game’s soundtrack too. There was a remixed version of the game’s soundtrack released though, unlike the Game Boy game, they never seemed to release the in-game version of the soundtrack.

Heiankyo Alien – 2017 Oct 13th – Windows 7-10

While Nakagata was working on NEO Heiankyo Alien, he was approached by Mikito Ichikawa, who heard Bug Fire was inspired by Heiankyo Alien and wanted to do his own remake of it for a series of remaking retro games that he was doing, resulting in another new Heiankyo game releasing! Now, technically there was a version of the original Heiankyo Alien officially released as shareware for Windows in 1999, but the 2017 game referred to as “Heiankyo Alien 3671” goes for a very colorful and enemy-filled rendition of the game as well as the ability to play a version of the arcade game that seems to be the more arcade-accurate (taller) aspect ratio with mock-ups of the cocktail table instructions used as borders, though it uses the same color scheme of blue roads and green buildings that NEO Heiankyo used, and I'm not sure if there was a version of the '79 arcade game in this color scheme. 3671, of course, also has quite the spotlight on music, even announcing an “Idol Version” in collaboration with a group called GUILDOLL. This never seemed to come to fruition, with people asking why the “idol mode” is grayed out in the menu years after the game seemed to stop being updated in 2021, despite advertising for it never being removed from the Steam store page. Even with that, the game is still generally praised by the minority that are aware of the Heiankyo Alien series.

[stunie]

hi zevie!!! If u don’t mind I’m here to participate in ur matchup….if it isn’t too late haha. about meee I’m majoring in industrial engineering. I’m also a huge slacker and bedtime lover. my favorite authors are Silvia Plath and Mieko Kawakami (rly into j-lit these days). im a huge horror / thriller reader. I love matcha lattes andddddd im more of a quality time person. INTP I think. idk I just want to be surprised with whatever character ur genius brain picks out for me! <3

HIHI nonnie !!!! eeeeeeee i love !!! i love that you’re a horror fan > < one of these days please rec me something bahaha i want to read more n i love thrillers too!! BUT THATS OFF TOPIC. IM THINKING SAKO !!

you know what i believe would be so cute ?! so he’s got his sweet treat and you’ve got your matcha. now. cuddled up together to watch / read something beside each other. like how cute is that ); just thinking of you sipping your drink and he’s beside you glancing over like “did they make it good this time?” (it’s a very casual question but he hopes they did. he’s got your order memorized and sometimes worries he may have forgotten to mention something. just wants u to enjoy ur drink) // i also think his love for cafes and your interest in reading pair up perfectly. he wants to try the sweets and he’s always picking out a cafe that looks nice to read in ..

[bambiesfics]

𝜗𝜚 Don’t be stranger

wanna know my name?

it’s Bambie. My mutuals (I love you sm) nicknamed me BamBam, Bambs and Bamberella. I’m a black fem writer <3

age?

I’m in my early twenties, just started!

blood type?

type o negative (jk, that’s a band I listen to).

where I live?

Ooh’ Canada our home & Native land. True patriot love in all thy sons command! 🇨🇦

what I look like?

gonna get my hair done and show you soon

hobbies

going to underground raves, crocheting cute items, curating new Pinterest boards, re-inventing my style monthly, falling asleep on mdma, getting distracted despite having a lot of work to do (live, laugh love adhd), responding to anons, reading slightly boring fiction (🤍 Hi Mieko Kawakami, ily), making my crushes in the sims 4, people-watching on my college campus (so many artsy/alt hotties), making up scenarios to songs, reading manga.

fandoms I love?

aside from The last of us (my baby), I like Yellowjackets (sapphic fandom too), Voltron, The Walking Dead (zombies yum), Castlevania, Adventure time (I’m a bubbline WARRIOR, and I want to sit on marceline’s face), My little pony (Do. Not. Laugh), and too many anime’s to list (send me an ask abt them if ur ever curious ) + a few more

music?

Just to give you a range: crystal castles (Alice glass only), ken Carson, Tool, Hole, Kittie, Traitrs, Destroy lonely, iggy pop, lancey foux, Boy Harsher, Alex g, Team Sleep, Arca, Bring me the Horizon, Blood Orange, vocaloid, City girls, Yves tumour, Elliot smith, Mitski, Yeat + more

shows?

the fandoms I mentioned + Interview with the vampire (it’s entertaining, strongly recommend), The boys, The Bear, Game of thrones, Shameless, The white lotus, Rick and Morty

aesthetic?

I jump back and forth a lot on it. But right now I’m leaning towards bimbo-core. Pink lipgloss, pink clothes, cleavage spilling, tight clothes, camel-toe facing the world, high pleaser heels, long acrylic nails to hold the strap.

say no to?

Drugs

say yes to?

Sucking the strap

quick game of this or that ?

Mascs or fems? Both, just want a wife

Hot weather or cold weather? Hot weather

Pancakes or waffles? Waffles

Pineapple on pizza or no? Pineapples on pizza

Ability to turn invisible or ability to read minds? Turn invisible

Shopping in-store or online? Online (Covid changed me)

Shower or bath? Shower (that one icarly episode changed me)

Avocado toast or waffles with Maple syrup? I’m Canadian, it’s waffles n’ syrup for me.

While sleeping: Fan or No Fan? Fan on, even in winter

Live on a farm or live in a forest cabin? Forest cabin

Tumblr or Twitter? Twitter, even though it’s bad for my mental health.

Kids or no kids? Kids, wanna give my wife a small family

Ass or tits? Tits. But it’s ironic for me considering I have a huge fucking butt.

Ellie or Abby? Love you Abbydoll but it’s gone have to be Ellie.

Hope you’ve warmed up to me a bit, see you bae.

Me af if u even care ^ 🦌

[kunikame]

ACE OF DIAMOND

NATSUME TSUKIYOMEI

seidou high school, 3rd year

club : volleyball club dominant hand : right best subject : literature hobbies : reading pet peeves : miyuki kazuya's laugh favorite food : kebab least favorite food : anything spicy talent : decent artist friends : seto takuma, haruichi kominato, eijun sawamura, shinji kanemaru, tojo hideaki, kazuya miyuki, kenjiro shirasu, ryosuke kominato neutral : koshu okumura, masashi yuki, satoru furuya, norifumi kawakami

as a baseball fan, she used to drop by the clubs matches or practices in her free time, which is how she met the club members

dresses really nerdy despite being a dumbass (if the topic isn't interesting enough she physically cannot memorize it)

fingerless gloves with EVERYTHING.

the girl volleyball team's one and only libero!

got scouted into seidou and was accepted on a sport scholarship despite her knee injury

BALLFOUR !! youichi kuramochi x natsume tsukiyomei

it took them 4 meetings to actually greet each other and talk like normal human beings, despite literally being in the same class. ironic isn’t it

eventually became friends through miyuki (who, though will not be caught admitting to it, was happy his 2 close friends got along well). #THIRDYEARTRIO !!

a little too well, it seems, cause suddenly they were blushing and giggling around each other like schoolgirls with crushes and miyuki felt like throwing up cause are you serious? right in front of his salad??

suddenly, a friendship many looked at with envy became something more

they both support the other's sport careers to no end, always there at matches they can make it to. they drag their teammates along to cheer, too (and though i would like to say kuramochi is the loudest at natsume’s games, it’s actually isashiki. his decibel range is unmatched throughout west tokyo)

post each other to love songs and the baseball team teases kuramochi for it (they’re happy for him they swear)

she has somehow mastered youichis "KYAHAHA" and now whenever it's heard, people are not sure which one of them let it out.

BACKSTORY

natsume started playing volleyball as a mere child, shortly after hearing her mother recall her high schools days, most of which she spent playing said sport and winning trophies with her team.

she thought if she were to follow in her footsteps, she’d surely make the woman proud.

and as life had it, so it was. natsume and her elementary school amateur volleyball team went on to win several games and championships– she’s found a close knit group of friends within the players, as well as a deep rooted love for the game that went past wishing to make her mother proud.

as she went on with her passion, growing better and better at the game, so did her teams and competition levels change. she was aiming for a sport scholarship at a great high school

she’s had her eye on seidou high school specifically, so she went on to play every game as if a scout from the school was watching her (little did she know, it was the truth).

during one of her games, however, there was a slight miscalculation. a slight slip of judgement and suddenly she was screaming and being carried to the infirmary

she suffered a small knee injury– or, small it would’ve been, had it not already been holding on by a thread. this fateful day, though, the thread finally ripped and it sent her falling down the edge of a cliff she was desperately trying to climb

she was forced to do rehab, where she coincidentally met chris, and eventually, the knee got better than it seemingly was ever before

despite the injury still only beginning to heal, she was scouted to seidou and got the scholarship she dreamt of.

[confinedmadness]

A Case of Withdrawal Symptoms: Ace of Diamond

I’ve followed the Ace of Diamond series (both anime and manga) regularly for years and to this day. Ace of Diamond remains one of my all time favorite stories. Act II, in particular, I feel was even better than the already amazing Act I.

I avoided reading the last 30 or so chapters for a while but the other day I finally read everything and now I feel so in need of something to fill the DnA shaped hole in my heart. So today, I decided to just write about a few of my favorite characters in the manga. Along the way, I’ll also slightly touch upon story points and character relationships/interactions.

～★～☆ ～★～☆ ～★～☆ ～★～☆ ～★～☆ ～★～☆ ～★～☆ ～★～

Kawakami Norifumi

Nori is my favorite character in the whole Ace of Diamond series, hands down. There is no contest, not even close. Nori is not only a character who we see from the very beginning of Act I and continue to see until the end of Act II, Nori is a very well-written character. He develops gradually in a believable way and at a realistic pace. He is someone whose growth we get to witness.

The best part? Nori is one of, if not the most relatable character among the main cast because he is not a genius, he is not particularly attractive or strong or smart. He has above-average baseball skills at best, with a relatively quiet personality that does not stand out, but a whole lot of resolve and mental fortitude.

I’ve said this before in a post I wrote way back, and I will say it again: Nori is the kind of person I strive to be. Good at what he does even if he’s not out-of-this-world amazing. Dependable and trustworthy, someone the people around him rely upon. Hardworking and resilient in the face of being looked down upon. Most of all, does not give up on improving himself despite being around people who are naturally better than him.

It’s so easy to lose motivation to learn something when someone else younger and newer comes along and has the abilities you don’t. But Nori reminds me that there is value in improving yourself for your self, that consistency is gained through hard work not “natural talent”, and that center stage cannot shine without the backstage hands.

At the end, when Furuya told Nori directly how much his presence makes him feel at ease, I just cried. Because yes, I did say that everything Nori represents is a good thing to work towards, but it’s also true you may not receive as much recognition as the geniuses. And being acknowledged like that? Hits you right in the feels and the tears of joy just won’t stop.

Miyuki Kazuya

I think most people who know me in real life or who’ve read my blog think Miyuki is my favorite character because I fangirl about him a lot. Miyuki has a lot of traits I love about a person: talented but hardworking, serious but knows how to have fun. In fact, no matter how much I love fanfiction and fanarts, I tend to be really picky about the ones featuring Miyuki because I find that they often forget or ignore the facets of Miyuki’s personality that I love. 

Fan creations tend to depict Miyuki as quiet, cold, and aloof. But for me, the best parts about Miyuki is his fun-loving, goofy attitude and his whole-hearted love and passion for baseball. He likes annoying enemies, poking fun at friends, laughing at other people. He’s not stuffy about hierarchy and judges people based on merit not seniority. He loves new challenges and finds excitement in playing with or against strong baseball players.

And yet, no matter how much I love Miyuki on his own, I feel that his relationships with other characters are some of the best in the series. A lot of his character growth is spurred by a relationship with another character instead of a more individual progress like Nori’s.

In terms of baseball and as an athlete, his rivalry/friendship with characters like Mima and Narumiya are some of my favorites. I love the wholesomeness of their rivalries. There is never malice or spite when they go against each other in games. Narumiya is probably the person in the series who has known Miyuki the longest. I’ve said this before but I love that Narumiya and Miyuki call each other by their first names. It emphasizes the fact that they’ve known each other since childhood. And now here they are, the stars of their respective teams.

In terms of leadership and as a person, his growth was shown a lot through his partnership with Sawamura and Furuya, his relationship with the Seidou coaching team, Chris, Yuuki, and Maezono, among others. He changes from being relatively self-centered, to thinking more about his teammates and the team as a whole. He learned to be more mindful and sensitive about others, as well as knowing that he can rely on his team as much as he is relied upon.

Finally, his friendship with Kuramochi is one of the most stable, most frequently depicted, and also often overlooked relationships. Though never explicitly stated in the series, Kuramochi is probably the closest thing Miyuki has to a best friend. They don’t have many really emotional moments together, but they understand each other and have each other’s backs. Kuramochi is the person Miyuki confides in when he has problems. And they’re both the first to notice something good or bad about the other. I don’t know about you, but that constancy is amazing. Regardless of whether they remain close in the future or not, I think a friendship like theirs is something to treasure for life. 

Sawamura Eijun

DnA is one of the few series whose main character I love. I think it was in one of my first ever posts about DnA that I mentioned how Sawamura is someone you really want to cheer for. A lot of anime/manga, especially in the sports genre, tell the viewers/readers that *insert main character name* makes you want to support them and help them succeed. But, Sawamura is one of the very few who actually makes you feel that way.

Personally, I believe this is due to the effective way the author shows that Sawamura is a multidimensional character. He has a very clear base personality that defines him as a person, but like every human in history, he is not just that. Different situations and even the shortest moments can bring out anger or frustration or even silence.

Sawamura is loud, optimistic, hardworking. But he can also get annoyed at his teammates, can feel jealous of his rivals, is susceptible to judging people without getting to know them, or can put far too much pressure on himself unnecessarily. I love that the series shows all of this unapologetically. He is not good with certain types of people, but even if he never becomes their best friend, he learns to get along with them. These types of character building make him human, and make you appreciate his usual noisy, laughing self even better.

My favorite part about Sawamura is how open he is to both learning new things and being corrected when he’s wrong. Not only is he willing to be taught, he does not ignore people that point out his mistakes. Of course, he gets embarrassed but he apologizes if he hurts someone, and trains when his skill or knowledge is lacking or wrong.

If not for this attitude, Chris would not have taught him all the baseball basics he clearly lacked, he would not be close enough to Miyuki to experiment with his pitches together or hangout in his room, Kataoka would not have given him the chance to be on the roster, Okumura would have stayed disappointed in him. He would never have been good enough to be the ace of the team.

And what’s even more amazing is that it’s not just the readers who go through a getting-to-know phase with Sawamura. His own teammates go from getting annoyed at his yelling to actually looking forward to hearing it, from wanting to support him to being supported by him as well, from cheering him on to relying on him as their ace.

～★～☆ ～★～☆ ～★～☆ ～★～☆ ～★～☆ ～★～☆ ～★～☆ ～★～

I don’t know if I’ll do something like this again, but I definitely want more DnA content coming my way because I am missing it so much. Tereading the series right now only makes me even sadder, but what can I say, I love making myself happy-sad.

[iamyourmagician]

currently translating meiji tokyo renka’s first game into english via youtube subtitles !!

meiji tokyo renka (or “meikoi”) is a japanese otome game about a normal, food-loving girl named mei who travels back in time to the meiji era and loses all of her memories. she sneaks into a party where she meets many famous historical figures! but when she’s about to be arrested, who will save her? and will it lead to something more—?!

it received an anime in 2019, if this looks familiar to you! i’m translating the game that it was based off of!!

CAST:

- Mori Ougai: Namikawa Daisuke

- Hishida Shunsou: KENN

- Izumi Kyouka: Okamoto Nobuhiko

- Kawakami Otojirou: Toriumi Kousuke

- Koizumi Yakumo: Tachibana Shinnosuke

- Fujita Gorou: Fukuyama Jun

- Iwasaki Tousuke: Yoshimasa Hosoya

- Charlie: Morikawa Toshiyuki

all of these boys have full routes, and i’ll be translating them in this order! i’m currently finished with the first route (ougai), though it isn’t subtitled. if you’d like to help with subtitles, please DM me! the translation is going very smoothly. <3

to any old fans, welcome back! and if this is your first time seeing meikoi, i hope you can give it a shot, whether that be the game or the anime! thank you so much!

[mncxbe]

I saw you love Mieko Kawakami and I was like,”Ahhhh, finally someone who has the same taste as mine!!” My fav girl is having same taste as me!? It’s a great happiness

All the lovers in the night is my fav and I am on my way of reading Miss Ice Cream Sandwich.

I wanna recommend another author too. If you have time, please please do try Hiromi Kawakami too. They are not relatives but Hiromi has really great novel about May-December relationship and heartwarming novels 💕

aww i'm really happy to find another Kawakami fan here🩷 i haven't read Miss Ice sandwitch yet cause i couldn't find it in any stores in my town rip but i'll get it this summer when i go abroad. and as for Hiromi's novels i just bought strange weather in Tokyo the other day and i looking forward to reading it. it seems so vibey

[corpulentcarbs]

@nevermindtheweights

Kawakami, my gassy slobby beloved <3

“Old habits tend to never die.”

One of the many reasons why she’s people’s favorite teacher.

@gainprincess

Sumire is a HUGE fan of both

“It’s a given I suppose, and Sumire’s seems to get bigger each appointment.”

@fatgirlsdotcom

Kawakami being well versed in teaching gas giants, considering she's belching up a storm each and every class

“That’s very untrue.”

No matter how much she denies it it’s very true.

@readyplayerziggy

Her desk is crammed to bursting with greasy takeout bags before second bell. And Tae’s labcoat doesn’t go past her with how wide her hips are.

Kawakami looking at the pile of fast food bags she has to get through, and tends to extend into night time.

It’s hard not to hear the doctor huff while wobbling around the room and when she’s giving you recommendations for a diet when she desperately needs one herself.

[emeyuko]

i have been playing persona 5 royal

the game itself is great but the writting is definitely not my thing and in a lot of cases it's poorly done overall so imma put my complains:

-Ann's sexualization is weird but if they all wanted to go with her wanting to feel "sexy" then make the joke fanservice scenes stuff where she's actually giving consent, making jokes of putting her in embarrasing situations she DOESNT want to be in is extremely awful since she's an SA victim

-Joker taking the advantange of older women and then procced to getting groomed for the sake of waifubaiting is very meh considering they literally were critizing Komoshida's creppy ass at the beggining (even if he was indeed 10 times worse, It would never be Kawakami's entire social link okay, Kawakami's herself constanly says how this is NOT okay)

-Kasumi/Sumire was extremely dissapointing, her character conclusion doesn't make sense and the plot could perfectly happends whitout her, she just pretty much exists to be Joker's"ultimate" girlfriend and honestly, she should have been a femc, made royal had a femc instead, an elegante sporty woman that takes very seriously her role as the pt leader, remplace the anime cutscenes with 3d specially bc they look less old now, give what a lot of fans were waiting for in the trailer when it came out, her persona and pt outfit could still be the same and it wouldn't feel out of place c'mon!

-Treat👏Ryuji👏 decently

-Makoto should have been a confidant instead of a phantom thief

-Maruki's arc had potential specially if you interpret it as "the struggles and the thing you were fighting for at the first place is what makes you a person" but it turned out pretty dissapointing imo, the "bad" ending doesn't have any important consequences and the only fully interesting thing for me were Akechi and Joker's interactions

-Haru should have been Okomura's employee, not his daughter, why the actual fuck are you critizing a capitalism fuck and the main character from the arc is a perfect rich girl with daddy issues that fits just fine in society and could take the advantange of capitalism as well

-the game started with Komoshida, one of the villians that had made me feel one of the biggest disgust i got towards a fictional character's actions in all of fiction, to characters i am unable to take seriously, the most decent is probably Shido and even so, it was a big letdown

-i don't like most of the female social links

[legion1227]

Persona 5: Review

I need to get my hands on Royal ASAP. 

Like with Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2, Persona 5, along with many other games in the past, and still to this day, was something I borrowed from my cousins and sat on for a long time before finally getting around to playing and beating. The copy of Persona 5 I borrowed was bought before the release of Persona 5 Royal. Not until recently, after putting 110+ hours into the game, did I finally have the privilege to finish it. As I plan on returning to the game soon enough, I realize I must obtain my own copy of Persona someday soon. As someone who is an avid fan of owning physical copies of media I really like or love, Persona 5 is something I want to display on my shelf someday. 

If you're unaware of this classic, allow me to enlighten you. The game follows a high school student who, after being falsely accused of assault and put on probation, transfers to a new high school. You may name your character whatever you like, but they will also go by the pseudonym Joker. For one school year, Joker and other students awaken special powers lying dormant within them, leading them to become a secret group of vigilantes called the Phantom Thieves. The Phantom Thieves explore a supernatural realm created from humanity's subconscious desires called the Metaverse. Upon entering the Metaverse, Joker and his team meet various monsters they battle as they try and change the personality and hearts of many. 

For the most part, the supporting characters and crew you assemble are quirky and incredibly likable. There's the delinquent Ryuji, warm-hearted Haru, introverted Futaba, and a handful of others to build a rapport with throughout the game. The only character we could play as that annoyed me was Morgana. Morgana is one of the first members you meet that joins the Phantom Thieves. Morgana, also nicknamed Mona, is a cat who insists he is not a cat for most of the game and also will prevent you from performing any actions and tell you to go to bed. His banter with the Phantom Thieves and frequent reluctance to let Joker perform tasks during the evening are irksome. I am endeared to the rest of the Phantom Thieves but not him. 

There are other characters you can bond with at school, in shops, and otherwise. If you interact with characters like teacher Ms. Kawakami or gun shop owner Iwai frequently enough, you will develop a budding relationship with the character. The further you deepen a relationship with characters, the more benefits you receive in combat or while living life. The gameplay while exploring and fighting or living a life as a teenager is equally fun at times.  

The turn-based JRPG has a simple battle system. You engage in battle by ambushing the enemy or vice versa. From there, turns are taken as you attack the enemy either physically with weapons, shoot with guns, or utilize your personas. The personas in the game use a wide variety of spells, including elements like ice or lightning and spells that buff party members or debuff enemies. Some spells will successfully harm enemies, others won't, and some will even heal enemies or reflect the damage onto your character. Figuring out the best option to take down the enemy, seeing the turn order, and switching out party members to compensate requires critical thinking during battle. It reminds me of Final Fantasy X, and I like that a lot. 

While not traversing around a unique level design in palaces modeled after pyramids, museums, or space, you will be running around Tokyo, looking for ways to build your statistics or build bonds with characters. The numerous ways to increase stats and side storylines with confidants or supporting characters is a fun side story that I regret not being able to complete everything I wanted even after 100+ hours. 

There's a lot I liked about this game. The way it tackles turn-based combat with style is charming. The soundtrack is godly, as my favorite pieces are the ones that play during combat and while at the cafe. The English voice actors all do a stellar job for each individual. And there's no lack of things to do in-between fights as you build relationships, statistics, find ways to earn money, and much more. 

My problem with the vanilla Persona 5 is that there's no way to track how close you are to level up your statistics of kindness, guts, and otherwise. You perform actions and gain somewhere from 1 to 3 points, but it doesn't tell you how close or far you are from leveling up that part of you. Besides my problems with that and Morgana, I really liked this game. I heard that Persona 5 Royal adds more content as well as touches up some parts of the game. Someday, I'd like to get my hands on it, but as far as vanilla Persona 5 goes, it's just great. 4/5. 

[evaxoxoblog]

21/3/24

happy late birthday hyunjin <3. i love him so much oh my god. not in that I'm in love with him; that's a very significant phrase that I don't think even I could throw around too easily, it's just that he is very important in my life in a way he could never know. he has taught me many things since I have known about skz, one being an appreciation for the things around us in this world. that's why I haven't written in a while; I've been appreciating the small things, and the big to be honest. just everything I love.

life feels perfect. i feel so content. school is going well; not perfect but not bad. i got my chem test back- grade 7. that's good. i moved up 4 grades since last year, so I'm headed for a high pass which I'm pleased about. 7 as my grade for art as well. that means a lot to me, though I'm not a big fan of my own art. at GCSE level I'm finding that what we are learning about is more to do with theory, so I am just copying other artists work at the moment, and studying shading and that stuff. i don't mind; it's important, but I want to figure out my own style too; I've never really had a distinct style. i want to make art when I am older; and my dream is for people to see it after I am gone and know that it is mine. i want to be known after I am dead; I don't even care if people know what I look like; that doesn't matter. i just want my name to be something.

my best friend is closer to me more than ever. i love her. if there is one person I truly love with my whole heart, it is her. she makes me smile so much, and we don't judge each other. i would do anything for her, I really would. anything to see her smile. i think she is my soulmate, not romantically obviously, but it is romantic in a way. we had a conversation about what would happen after we left the world, and she said that she didn't really think anything would change, if she passed. that made me really sad, and I told her that right away. i said, "I don't know what i'd do without you, really." I didn't go much more in depth because I don't know what else I could say to express how I love her so much. it is true. i don't know what I would do without her.

that was kind of sad, but happy in other ways. change of subject, I watched saltburn today. lmao. it was really fking weird. i loved the style; I could watch films like that for days, and the soundtrack was pretty good too. the plot was intense, actually I liked the plot, but I felt they could have moved it slower. they rushed to oliver being obsessed with felix too quickly; I think I would have liked to see it slower; that would have made it more believable. same with the ending, it wasn't believable. i liked the rest though (aside from the weird scenes obvs like wtf????).

anyway, like i said, life is good. i am reading the meiko kawakami book, about 1/4 through, and I capture the castle (I love this book sm) which I am close to finishing, which I don't like. i don't want it to end.

i have 30 minutes left of business proposal too. its alr. i think I prefer other stuff. i really want to watch the bear. I've probably said that already.

only 20 pages left of my journal...! i don't know whether I want to drag it out and take it with me on holiday in the easter holidays to visit my family, or start a new one before. we'll see.

x eva.

[apricusnights]

Olympus Tournament: Leader's Choice Battle Royale!

"Well howdy world! For those of ya'll that might not know me, I'm Morely The Taco! Mascot of Tacos 'N More, and one of the stars of Morely & Friends! I hope everyone has been having a grand old time watching the Olympus Tournament! We're about to have a super special event that I know you've been waiting for!"

"This is the Leader's Choice Battle Royale! Faction leaders, and World leaders have all picked a representative, everyone is gonna battle it out against everyone! We've got a Tacorific arena ready to go! You lose if you get knocked out of bounds! Last one standing is declared the winner!"

"First we'll take a look at who all is competing, and who they represent!"

Kei Kawakami - Apricus Navy Typhon - Cherry Hills Roland Marigold - PWSB Jacqueline Edana - Ciar Industries Ajax - Potentialism Castor Lucan - Consecration Lionel Myte - Resource Workers United Janus - Paradise Entertainment Hari Lackey - Bounty Hunters Guild Charlotte Montague - Cheshire Financial Kara - Crepusculum Skuld Kraka - Völsung Khepri - Calere Dmitri Morozov - Nivis Tendo Sato - Kwailai Henri Duquesne - Rèunion Mousse Tarseed - Fae

"Now your old pal Morely more than likely isn't gonna be able to keep up with the pure chaos that is about to unfold but you can bet your bottom credit that I'm gonna give it my all! I'll try to call out some of the Tacorific action, and let you know when an elimination happens! Is everybody ready? Here we go!"

"Just like I thought, everyone is fighting everyone! I haven't seen this big of a rumble since we had those limited edition Morely & Friends Taco Buckets! I think I see Kawakami battling it out against Typhon, over there is Duquesne against Tarseed, Sato is sword fighting with Ajax, Kraka is trying her best to defend against Kara...this action is hard to describe!"

"I sure am glad those trees are fake or we'd have splinters flying everywhere! We got buildings crumbling left and right as folks get thrown through em, it's like a kaiju movie down there. The audience seems to be just cheering on the action in general but there might be a few clear favorites!"

"We got Marigold against Morozov in the battle of the biggest men on the field, we got Khepri, Lackey, and Edana fighting through a building, there is Lucan and Janus fighting but they get interrupted by Montague who throws Janus and starts fighting Lucan, Myte is showing some explosive moves as he makes his way through the crowd to fight Janus!"

"Not gonna lie folks I am having a hard time keeping up even with all the different camera angles we got goin on. Ya'll can see for yourselves! We got folks flying through the air, we got fireballs, we got projectiles, we got more blades than the Steaks 'N More chophouse! First time I think I've ever seen a bladed fan....wait no..second time..I forgot that one time with the Taco Felon..he does come prepared for everything ya know."

"I'm pretty sure Marigold just ripped a tree out of the ground and swung it around knocking anyone over who didn't slide under it! That is one impressive game of limbo! Meanwhile with everything going on, Kawakami and Typhon are STILL fighting and haven't taken eyes off each other!"

"We've had a few close calls but nobody has been eliminated yet! Welp there goes the arena alarm which means the boundaries are shrinking a little. Kinda like that one video game that the fine folks at Ciar Industries put out! Anyway everyone is moving closer so they don't fall victim to the shrinking arena size!"

"Looks like we got out first two eliminations as Kawakami and Typhon completely ignore everything going on and are eliminated by being out of bounds..and the two are not stopping even outside the arena! Security is rushing over to pull them apart, Typhon seems to be having the time of his life down there!"

"Janus is almost eliminated by Khepri but Khepri gets kicks out of bounds from behind by Montague! Ajax and Edana team up briefly to catapult Lucan out but then start fighting each other! Marigold and Morozov are grappling once again but both are clotheslined out by Kara in an incredibly show of power! Holy moly!"

"The alarm sounds again as the arena gets even smaller! No more obstacles, no more trees, no more buildings, just chaos! The defensive fighters are starting to have a harder time as they can be attacked from all sides thanks to the smaller arena! Kraka is almost pushed out by Edana but Lackey gives her a hand by distracted Edana and allowing Kraka to lift her up with her shield and toss her out!"

"Janus and Montague are fighting, Janus looks to be on the verge of throwing her out but both are kicked by Henri! Henri goes to attack Janus which causes Montague to shift her attention to Henri but Henri pulls a fast one, changing his target and catching Montague off guard! Henri lands a huge uppercut that sends Montague out of bounds!"

"Just as Janus looks to take advantage he's suddenly blasted by Lackey who boots the masked man our of bounds! Tarseed narrowly avoids being knocked out ad uses her agility to trip up Sato but Sato manages to escape elimination as well! Tarseed finds herself face to face with Myte who gets the better of her and nearly tosses her but she survives again!"

"Lackey is locked up with Kara, Kraka attempts to strike Kara from behind but Kara avoids it, spins and sends Kraka into Lackey, the force of it knocks Lackey out of bounds, Kraka uses her spear to stop herself but is dangerously close to the edge!"

"Sato finds himself once again battling Ajax! Both clash blades but both are almost struck by a sneak attack from Tarseed, unfortunately for her both warriors sense it coming and turn, both landing a strong punch to Tarseed which sends her flying out of bounds!"

"Kara clashes against Kraka's shield, the blows look to be weakening it and it might be any second now before Kraka loses her defense! In a lucky break Myte runs over, springs off of Kraka's shield, flies through the air and lands a huge punch that nearly sends Kara out of bounds!"

"Just as she goes to recover she finds herself stuck in a brawl between Sato and Ajax! She barely manages to escape and out of frustration grabs Ajax's spear, lifting him up and using HIM as a weapon as she slams him into Sato, Sato is send out of bounds and Kara tosses Ajax to the side. Ajax shakes it off and heads right back into things!"

"Ajax catches up with Kara and spins her around to face him. He barely dodges a hit and strikes her in the gut! Ajax lands a series of strong attacks before Kara catches his fist! Kara goes to attack but she's hit from behind by Myte! Myte and Ajax land alternating attacks, finally eliminating Kara with a double dropkick!"

"We got four left folks! It's Kraka, Ajax, Myte, and Duquesne! The arena has shrank once more and is now at the smallest size it can achieve! Our final four are squaring off with each other, everyone looks exhausted..I'm exhausted just from watching this thing. Kraka goes on the offense against Ajax while Myte rushes to attack Duquesne!"

"Myte attempting to use his unpredictability against Henri but Henri still seems calm and collected even as he attempts to avoid Myte's unique style! Kraka braces herself against Ajax, Ajax repeatedly hits her shield which is now showing even more cracks but her sheer willpower seems to be making up for it!"

"Myte gets stuck several times by precision hits that seem to throw him off balance. Henri grabs his arm and throws him, sending him crashing into Ajax who falls into Kraka! The entire pile nearly rolls out of bounds but barely hangs on. Just as they go to recover, Henri lands a kick to Ajax which causes him to lose his remaining balance but just before he falls out he manages to dive to the side, barely saving himself."

"Kraka just barely rolls away as Henri turns and tries to land a knee drop on her. As he recovers he's attacked by Myte! This time it's Myte with a series of boxing style punches, knocking Henri for a loop! Just as he's staggered he's hit by Kraka's shield! She uses it to push him back towards the boundaries! Henri manages to gain enough composure to drop, slam a dagger into the ground, hold on to it and use it to spin around behind Kraka, using his momentum to kick Myte! Myte stumbles back and catches his balance to avoid being eliminated!"

"Myte is wobbly as Ajax is finally back up and running toward Myte! They grapple and Ajax is slowly pushing Myte towards the edge! Kraka is trying to fend off Henri's precise strikes but is forced to put her shield away rather than allow it to break! She defends with her own arms and takes a beating but powers through it and starts landing some brutal strikes against Henri! She headbutts him and sends him falling into Ajax and Myte!"

"Kraka grabs her spear and gets a running start, lodging it into the ground and using it to fling herself through the air! She hopes to land a flying kick to Henri but he just barely shifts out of the way! Kraka flies into Ajax and Myte, all three almost falling out! Henri tries to take advantage and picks up one of Ajax's discard weapons, swinging it at his three opponents! Ajax grabs it and pulls it in, bringing Henri to him!"

"Myte breaks off for a moment but turns and runs full speed, flying through the air like a spinning rocket! ne of his Hecaball techniques! He slams into everyone! Kraka, Ajax, and Henri stumble towards the edge but at the last second Henri manages to grab Myte's leg! All four of them fall out of bounds and the buzzer goes off!"

"Well the officials are discussing what to do...please wait a few moments."

Tacos 'N More advertising plays.

"Ok folks! It seems we have a four way tie! However all four remaining fighters have agreed to face each other in a special four way challenge brawl later in the event! For now though, give it up for the winners!"

Ajax Lionel Myte Skuld Kraka Henri Duquesne

"Thanks for joinin your best pal Morely for this tacorific fight! I hope ya'll enjoy the rest of the Olympus Tournament! Make sure to get yourself some delicious Taocs 'N More during downtimes! Have a great night!"

[tsukai22]

Stuff

I got the Teal Mask DLC for Pokemon Scarlet a few days ago, and have since beaten it and completed the Kitakami Dex. It's very fun, like the base game. Ogerpon is cute as heck. For fun, whenever I couldn't remember the Kitakami region's name I'd call it things like the Kitagawa region, the Kawakami region or the Izanagi-no-Okami region.

I do often have Persona on the brain, why do you ask?

...which segues into Persona 5 Strikers being my next playthrough now that the Teal Mask is done.

In FEH, a Fates unit getting both an alt and a resplendent before Soleil gets anything despite Soleil outscoring them in every CYL event is a recurring theme this year - Shigure's the newest addition to that club. Being a Soleil fan is quite despressing, which is ironic given Soleil is all about positivity.

On a better FEH-related note, they announced the upcoming refines a lot earlier than usual. For me in particular I'm looking forward to Spring Fir's refine - I got her from a Hall of Forms event semi-recently and her damage output felt slightly underwhelming. I always liked the fact that she has armor-effectiveness, so I'm looking forward to her refine as I said. She won't be on my main team but she's a contender for Arena Assault, Limited battles for FE6 characters and Resonant battles with a bonus for FE6 characters.

[hdtalent]

ARTICLES        September 12, 2023                        BY: HALLYU Staff

Netizens are raving about IAEM for 'Harper's Baazar'

For the pages of 'Harper's Bazaar' magazine, IAEM stuns as elegant models.

The moment the photos were revealed, their refined and sophisticated appearance with new IAEM members captured the attention of many. Each member displayed their unique and appealing charms.

After their initial preview, fans were thrilled to witness their official appearance as ambassadors of the renowned New York Fashion Week (NYFW). This marks the first time that a K-pop group was chosen to represent the fashion event. IAEM made quite the impression with their trendsetting style and innovative model concept. They sparked a renewed interest in the world of K-pop and fashion.

Onlookers gushed about the members' model-esque visuals in modern inspired outfits.

[ + / - ] the OG full visual girl group, i can't wait to see OT8 together! [ + / - ] just wanted to compliment you all on how great the girls look. molan looks so like a lead in a drama, and ahri was born to be in pictorials/a model, so happy to see the two back! gigi can play tomie kawakami or kugisaki nobara any day, zoe WTFFFF shes definitely the girl crush of the group hhhhhh!!! and chaeyeon? new face? looks like a cheerleader from a 90's movie, I LOVE IAEM SM! [ + / - ] i love thow the girls are keeping their natural hair colors and style, it's just an effortless look you don't see often [ + / - ] IAEM the best. wheres the cb [ + / - ] hyde would introduce a new member with no intro but 😍 where are they finding these gorgeous trainees??? IG model casting???

#IAEM #HDLABELS #HDGIRLS #HYDRALABELS #HYDEGG