#mannnn some parts of this are probably going to be really confusing to those who haven't seen the revial show yet

[tfw-no-tennis]

animorphs!!!

ok I read animorphs when I was 10 or 11 I think? and I only read it once, along w/the spinoffs and stuff, and I've always meant to revisit it...SO HERE I AM....

and oh MAN I forgot how good this series is. like I knew it was good but some things from your childhood don't hold up yknow? especially books aimed at younger audiences

but oh boy does animorphs hold up. they're easy to read and perfectly balance the line between dark/adult topics and more kid-friendly lessons. excellent 

so yeah I'm loving it so far. I forgot how fast some stuff happens lmao, like I forgot that tobias gets trapped as a bird in the FIRST BOOK 

also I just adore how realistically disorganized/confused the animorphs are. like, they got the elevator pitch version of the conflict from elfangor before my mans got eaten, and also they're middle schoolers. of course they’re always just like ‘wtf do we even do’ 

so like...their plans mostly don't work. and even when planning they run into tons of logistical issues w/morphing, traveling, communicating etc. 

and I love how they clearly need to maintain their normal lives as well in order not to raise any suspicion 

and I like the little details like them not spending all their time together at school because they didn’t before so that would be suspicious

oh man and I love the different family dynamics in the series. you have jake, whose family seems pretty normal until we find out that tom is a controller, and rachel, whose parents are divorced, and who has to deal w/the complications of that. and then cassie, who is an only child (I like that we have a mix, with rachel and jake having siblings), and of course marco...

iirc marco was one of my favs (if not my fav, but its hard to choose) back in the day, and I forgot how reluctant he was to participate in the animorphs thing...and the fact that he was about to quit the team and then runs into visser 1.....

another fucked up little moment I liked - when they morphed dolphin and marco had to morph back to human bc he gets injured and he was like ‘I cant swim, and my mom drowned, I don't want to die like she did’ I was like oooof

also on that topic I adore how little the animorphs know about how anything works. like they once wondered if there's a limit to how many morphs they can acquire and they were basically like ‘idk guess we’ll find out’ 

and then when marco got injured as a dolphin and they were like ‘morph back I guess and hopefully you'll be okay?’ like damn luckily that worked 

basically these books do The Most Excellent Job showing that these are just kids. like they're literally in jr high which is 90s speak for middle school....they're like 13???? at most???

and the narrative reflects that perfectly!! all of them, even rachel who is pretty much the most gung-ho about fighting and stuff, have nightmares and all these terrible experiences bc they don't have basically any guidance 

and even with ax, it’s immediately obvious that he’s also just a kid, even though he’s this deadly alien....

also oh mannnn I love so much how we’re introduced to the andalites as this heroic race and how that slowly changes over the course of the story 

like, when elfangor introduces himself as ‘prince’ you assume he’s part of the andalite monarchy - but later we find out that ‘prince’ is a military rank, and the andalites are a lot more militaristic than we would assume at the beginning 

its so fantastic how it starts off as a fairly black and white conflict of andalites = good guy aliens and yeerks = bad guy aliens

and you even have some background stuff going on w/the taxxons being controllers by choice, and the hork-bajir being enslaved 

but as the story goes on, all of those lines get blurred in different ways...

also ooof the poor hork-bajir. I always felt so bad for them. it’s crazy that even in the first book, the animorphs are killing their enemies - at least I inferred that in book 1, but it becomes way more overt later on...the tough situation of them knowing that the hork-bajir are unwilling hosts but that they’re so dangerous that not killing them could be fatal to the good guys

and ngl this time around I have a lot more sympathy for the yeerks, even tho they don't really deserve it (at least in the early parts of the story where I am rn)

like...they're just these blind helpless slug creatures, but they're also fully sentient and intelligent? like, that's so fucked up. imagine yourself as you are now, but you're just a sensory deprived slug swimming in a pool. that's pretty fucked. and then the fact that the yeerks are biologically made to be parasites...its kinda no wonder that they ended up the way they are (and it also makes stuff like the yeerk peace movement really compelling)

also wow I kinda forgot about all the body horror w/the morphing. like ik that's one of the things that animorphs is known for but like. I forgot how much it happens and how creative the horrifying descriptions are. I love it

and omfg so when I first read this series the ellimist stuff confused me a lot bc I didn't read the books That closely (I mostly wanted to see what would happen next) but I loooove time travel bullshit so I’m really enjoying it so far

even tho tbh I think even if I had paid more attention as a 10 yr old I still would've been confused bc the ellimist stuff is kinda just inherently confusing lmao 

ok and I just love the characters,,,I love that the books switch perspectives, and KAA did such a masterful job of portraying differing and realistic reactions to their situation....like, all the animorphs react so differently to their circumstances, but their reactions are all so grounded in realism and also their personalities 

like man I love rachel. she was one of my favs as a kid too bc I always loved female characters and she was just so cool. and she still is, and so excellently written too 

liiiike the fact that even though she’s so tough and brave, she’s still a kid and has plenty of moments when she’s scared or uncertain...

and I just really like the fact that she out of all of them is the one who’s tough and loves to fight...and the fact that she also unapologetically loves shopping and stuff like that...its about the multifaced characters

just like how marco is the ‘funny guy’ but they make it very clear from the beginning that this is his way of coping w/shit like his family falling apart, and then alien BS 

and also marco is really smart? I kinda forgot abt that (sorry marco) but I like that bc that's uncommon to see with ‘funny’ characters

oh mannnn and ax. I love ax. I forgot a whole bunch about the early stuff w/him and how conflicted he was w/keeping secrets from the other animorphs

KAA did such a fantastic job w/ax - he really comes across as the perfect mix of ‘fish out of water alien’ and ‘young teen/tween’ and ‘alien from a strict militaristic society who is in training to become a soldier like his famous older brother’ 

n that was so sad n fucked up when he called the andalite home world and had to tell everyone (including his parents) that elfangor died, and then the elders or w/e forced ax to take blame for elfangor breaking their laws in order to preserve elfangor’s postmortem reputation, even at the cost of ax’s career/life :( 

and man I loved the part where ax is like ‘well, we didn't help the hork-bajir even tho we could have and now they're all enslaved. I'm not letting that happen to the humans’ and the council or w/e is like ‘well you should let it happen, don't interfere’ and ax basically realizes oh shit sometimes adults are wrong 

basically I love the conflict there, where the andalites are the ones who gave the yeerks the technology that led to them spreading across the galaxy like a disease, and now fight to stop them due to their guilt, but also refuse to directly help the less advanced species who are being invaded by the yeerks for fear of making a similar mistake like w/the yeerks....

ooooof and the part where ax is like ‘guess I have to go fight visser 3 and die’ :( he’s just a babyyyy

and augh when alloran asks them to kill him....geeeez there’s so much fucked up stuff already and I'm not even in the double digits yet 

oh my god and the brutally awful fact that any freed controller will just get tracked down by the yeerks and murdered so the secret invasion stays secret...and the animorphs think that by destroying the kandrona they've freed a bunch of controllers but really they just signed their death warrants - what a catch 22

oh and I love how even early on the yeerks aren't a completely unified force - we have the obvious rivalry w/visser 1 and visser 3, with visser 1 even arranging the animorphs release from visser 3′s prison bc of this, and that yeerk who told ax where to find visser 3 because he was pissed that his yeerk gf got killed by visser 3 - even though the reason she was killed was due to kandrona rationing, which was caused by the animorphs...i love the layers 

ok what else. oh yeah I love tobias sm, he was one of my favs as a kid too, his whole story is so deeply tragic but also interesting and we haven't even gotten into all the stuff w/his parents yet

the part where he’s freaking out as a hawk and he’s gonna fly into the windows even tho he knows it’ll probably kill him...christttt

also tobias and rachel are so romance aughhhh

ok also jake - he was never my favorite when I was younger bc I felt like he had Basic Protag Man Syndrome but now I can appreciate his character a lot more. like, he basically got elected the leader and he’s kinda like ‘guess I have to do this now.’ and that of course ends up fucking him up majorly in the long run bc even tho he’s more serious and responsible, he’s still just a kid too

and I loooove the horror of finding out that tom is a controller, and jake having to contend w/the fact that it’s very likely that he’ll have to fight and/or kill his brother someday 

also the book where jake gets infested w/a yeerk was one of my favs and still is. so fucked up and interesting. the fact that that yeerk was previously tom’s made it even more fucked, w/the yeerk taunting jake the whole time

and then the yeerk dying in jakes head...so messed up

omg and cassie too. I love cassie. I didn't appreciate her as much when I was younger bc I was a straightforward kid who liked action, and cassie is all about pacifism when possible and compassion, which I love a lot now that I Get it more. 

cassie being such a gentle person but still fighting in this fucked up war bc doing nothing would be worse is super compelling. plus the conflicts with her having to figure out where she and humanity fit in the circle of life and whatnot is great

I loved the contrast of her being very aware of how nature works bc of working w/her parents and all these injured animals, but also being so compassionate that it still bothers her to see death and especially participate in it 

like her feeling awful about killing the termite queen even tho its ‘just a bug’ and stuff

basically what makes the series great isn't that it’s got all these fucked up moments and horror elements and is overall quite dark - it’s that all of it comes together to make the point that war is hell, and child soldiers are gonna end up traumatized pretty much no matter what happens

it’s a very strong message, and the story never feels like it’s being dark just for the sake of being dark, but rather never letting the reader forget how awful things are

TL;DR: anirmorphs is to the YA genre what hunter x hunter is to the shounen genre

in animorphs, the heroes of the story are kids who get cool powers and get to fight aliens - in any other YA story they would have a bunch of fun adventures and come out on top most/all the time - things might get darker towards the end, but good would prevail. the evil yeerks would be stopped, and the main couples would get married and have kids and live happily ever after. 

however, war isn't like that, especially when the soldiers are kids. so instead we get animorphs, and it’s brutally realistic. they barely ever get to enjoy their powers - on the rare occasion that they get to, something usually goes horribly wrong

compare to hxh - it seems like a regular shounen story about kids participating in a fantastical mostly-adult world and being able to match the adults bc they're Special - but as the story wears on it becomes clear that the kids are just very traumatized. this all leads to gon’s berserker collapse in the chimera ant arc, which is led up to masterfully w/a bunch of adults treating gon as an adult even though he’s a child.

essentially the same thing happens in animorphs - with jake being shoved into the leader role and becoming a military general as a kid, which leads to him committing horrific war crimes because he’s been put in a position no child should ever have to be in

similarly, kurapika has what would be a very straightforward revenge plotline in any other story - but this is hxh, so the bad guys aren't just 2-dimensional evil caricatures, and the road to revenge just leads kurapika to ruin. we root for kurapika to win bc they’re a character we like, but it becomes clearer and clearer as the story goes on that getting revenge is not the path kurapika should be taking

nothing is ever as straightforward as we want it to be, basically. and the same applies to animorphs. so many times they're faced with conflicts that seem to have an obvious answer, only for it to be revealed later that the choices they made led to other unforeseen awful consequences

ok i need to stop rambling this is already super long. basically: animorphs good. I’ll probably do another post like this semi-soon as I continue reading (I'm partway thru book 10 now)

[roachwrites]

Drunk Y/N x  Nemoto

Nemoto needs more love PERIOD. Also I’m sorry if this seems too ooc it’s a self indulgent fic I wrote for myself a while back but with encouragement it’s now gonna be on this platform! I hope you enjoy!!

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

A louding ringing awakens Nemoto from a dead sleep. Letting out an annoyed grunt he turns on his side and reaches for his cellphone which laid on his bedside table. Taking a quick look at his alarm clock he sees the time. 2:45 am. He feels his eye twitching in anger as he accepts the call.

“Hello?” He says calmly despite his boiling anger. It certainly didn’t help his anger that the caller wasn’t the young master. 

“Oh god, oh fuck, Nemoto is that you?” A slurred voice asks him. Nemoto recognizes the voice from anywhere. It was Y/N, a strange individual who was shamelessly honest and unbelievably kind at times, and by the sound of their voice was incredibly drunk. Nemoto quickly snaps wide awake as he pushes himself up and leans against his headboard. 

“Yes, it’s me. Are you okay?” He questions as he grabs his glasses and places them on his face. He hears them take a deep breath. 

“I’m fucking turnt. Like I’m fucked up you have no damn idea.” They start to ramble on and on about how ‘turnt’ they are. He takes this time to rub his eyes as he tries his best to not get angry at them. There were two people he could never be angry at. The young master and them. He would never allow himself to be. 

“Y/N. Did you need something from me?” He can’t help but feel where this conversation is going. While he didn’t hate the idea he also didn’t like it. 

“I-Yea. I like. My friends left while I was in the bathroom fucking ungrateful ass hoesssss.” They draw out the s in hoes for an unimaginable time. Ah, so he was right. By no means can he bring them back to the main base. Someone like them, someone who was unclean in the eyes of the young master, would be dead as soon as they set foot inside the base. He couldn’t trust the other precepts to keep their mouths shut. He has no choice but to bring them to his alternate base. That apartment he brought them to the first time they met. 

“Where are you? I’m coming to pick you up.” He gets up from his bed and walks over to his closet. Picking out a fresh pair of pants he places his cellphone between his shoulder and ear so he can change out of his sweatpants while also listening to Y/N. 

“Oh fuck really? God you’re the fucking best remind me to suck you off later to say thanks.” Once the second part of their sentence leaves their lips Nemoto nearly dropped his phone as he fell forward while trying to put his right leg through the correct pant side. He catches himself on his desk with one hand as he snatches his phone from the air and brings it back to his ear in a frantic panic. 

“What did you just say?!” He chokes out as quietly as he can trying his best not to wake up the whole base. In his franticness his glasses became crooked.

“That you’re the best? Or that I’d suck you off as thanks?” He fixes his glasses as he takes deep calming breaths. They were drunk. They wouldn’t remember any of this tomorrow. He had to remember that. 

“Is there anyone around you? Where are you!?” Repeating his process he hurriedly puts on his pants and throws on a coat as he starts heading towards his door.

“No it’s just me! I told you already my hoes left me are you even listening to me! And i’mm, uhhhhhhhhh, in front of this bar called,” He hears them lean away from the phone. He starts tapping his foot in anticipation. “A bar called Foxtrot.”

Pulling up the directions on his phone he sees that it’s only a 10 minute walk but with the amount of urgency this has it’ll only take him 5.

“I’ll be there in 5 minutes, stay where you are, understand?” Y/N lets out a squeal of glee. 

“We gonna get turnt together! That’s great! Ugh, you’re the only bitch in this city that can handle me.” Cries start to come out of their mouth and they sniffle. Try as he might Nemoto can’t help but smile. The only one that can handle them? That’s probably true. Their honesty could be and probably was too much for anyone except him. Even in their drunken state their lips spilled truth.

He hangs up the phone as he quietly leaves his room and rushes towards the front doors of the base hoping no one would be up. Luck was not on his side however as Kurono was up and about. 

“Where are you off to in such a hurry and at this time of the night?” He questions as he stands there papers in his hand. Nemoto puts his hand on the handle of the door and opens it, before leaving he turns towards Kurono,

“I have urgent personal business to take care of and I won’t be back tonight or tomorrow please tell the young master when you’re able.” With that he walks out closing the door behind him.

Soon enough he makes it to the bar where Y/N is. Taking quick glances around he sees them sitting on the edge of the curb swaying from side to side as they happily hummed a tune unknown to him. Walking up to them he grabs their shoulder. Their head snaps up, looking up at him they beam before jumping up on him. Wrapping their legs around his waist and their arms around his neck they had him trapped with nowhere to go. As they started to slide off of his frame he reached outwards to prevent them from falling the only way he could. He grabs their ass tightly as he brings them towards him. They let out a small cry of pain.

“If you like it rough you should have given me a warning.” They groan in his ear. Nemoto feels heat start to form in his lower region. He shakes any impure thoughts he’s having. All he’s here to do is take them to his place so they can sleep this off. That’s all. 

“Y/N, please work with me here. I need to take you someplace where you can sleep this off.” He struggles to keep his voice steady. They’re constantly squirming around their core rubbing up against his perfectly. They let out a ‘tch’ sound as they unwrapped themselves limbs from him. He helps set them down gently.

“Mannnn I don’t wanna sleep. Fuck sleep. Sleep’s a bitch that slapped me in middle school.” Nemoto can’t understand a word they’re saying but he can appreciate the tone of it. He outstretches his hand towards Y/N and looks at them expectantly. He lets out a sigh when they meets his gaze with a look of confusion.

“Take my hand Y/N I’m going to walk you to my place so you can get some sleep.” They don't miss a beat.

“Oh shit we fuckin? Hell yea.” He brings his other hand to his forehead and rubs it trying to get rid of the early onset headache. 

“We are not going to have sex Y/N.” Seeing their face go from happy to sad at his words almost instantly makes him regret it. He wants nothing more than to tear away what little clothing they have on. 

“You don’t want to have sex with me?” They ask seriously, tears threatening to spill over their eyes. He starts to panic. The last thing he wants to do is make them cry. 

“Of course I want to have sex with you. Just... not right now.” Just as quickly as they turn from happy to sad they turn back to happy. They launch forward and latch themselves onto his arm.

“Lead the way sexy!” Their skin is absolutely glowing as joy seeps out of them. He scratches the back of his neck and lets out another sigh. Y/N would be the death of him. Taking them back to his apartment took longer than he would have wanted but there was nothing he could do with them leaning all of their weight on him but at the same time if they didn’t they would no doubt have trouble walking. 

Finally they make it back to his apartment. Unlocking the door and entering Y/N stumbled about and looked around. Closing the door behind them Nemoto turned and locked it. Turning back around he found them gone. Confusion quickly sets in as he looks around the small living room and kitchen for them. He makes his way to the bedroom where he finds them laying on their back.

“Y/N, you need to change out of those clothes. They reek of alcohol.” Nemoto makes his way to the closet and grabs a plain black shirt. He debates on giving them sweatpants but decides against it considering they would probably just fall off their hips. Grabbing his own shirt and bringing it up to his nose he takes a sniff. He grabs another shirt and sweatpants for himself since Y/N’s little death grip earlier had rubbed their alcohol scent on him. Walking back towards Y/N he sees them struggling to stay awake. He sits on the bed next to them. 

“Y/N, here, you need to change. Trust me you’ll feel better.” He gently shakes their shoulder but he’s only met with in-cohesive gurgles. 

“Do it for meeeeee I’m too tired.” They whine looking up at him with half lidded eyes. Looking over at the time he sees it’s 3:23 am. Feeling incredibly tired himself he doesn’t feel the need to argue. 

“At least sit up so it’s easier for me.” He waits for them to sit up. Which they do after some gentle nudging. He makes quick work of their top carefully unbuttoning it and pulling it off and past their shoulders. He feels their intense stare as he tries to avoid staring at their chest. 

“I thought you looked hot with your hair styled but you’re even hotter now that it’s messed up.”

Their airy breath hits his neck and he shudders. He snatches one of the shirts and slips it over their head. The shirt is far too large for them that much is clear as it hangs loosely on their shoulders, one of their shoulders completely bare. Standing up he grabs what’s left of his clothes and heads towards the bathroom to change. 

After doing so he comes out of the bathroom to see Y/N taking off their shorts and throwing them off to the side. His boxers feel tighter as he witnesses this and his heart beats faster as he sees her take his body pillow and snuggles into it bringing their leg up to trap it between their legs. Oh how he wishes he could be that body pillow. He shakes his head and he starts towards the living room.

“Where are you going? Come lay down with mee.” They whine out. Nemoto stops in his tracks and looks back at them. They’re still in the same position as before but now they had their head towards him. He notices the way his shirt now clings to their frame and outlines their curves. How the shirt has ridden up considerably to show pastel green undergarments. He gulps down a thick wad of saliva that had built up in his throat. 

“I think it would be best if I slept on the couch.” Y/N takes a spare pillow and throws it at him. He easily dodges it and even catches it. Their cheeks are puffed out as they pout. 

“Stop being weird fucker! People in love sleep in the same bed all of the time, what’s the big deal.” Love? They was in love with him? He knows he shouldn’t do this but he has to know for sure. He activates his quirk.

“How much do you love me?” Like earlier in the night they didn’t miss a single beat.

“I’m hopelessly in love with you. That day I saw you standing there in the rain, I knew I was in love with you. You occupy my thoughts whenever they’re free. I love the way you style your hair, the way you carry yourself, how wary you are of others because I know I can never be like that. You are my opposite and I love you for that because I appreciate how different we are. I love you, all of you.”

He deactivated his quirk as he sauntered over to the other side of the bed. Lifting up the blanket Y/N shifted so he could cover both of them. They move the body pillow out of the way and throw a leg over his waist and bring themselves closer resting their head on his chest. 

“One of my fantasies has been you using your quirk on me to make me confess about my secret dirty kinks.”

Just as Nemoto got comfortable his eyes snapped him wide awake again by what Y/N said. How did they know what his quirk was? When did you find out? There were so many questions that came into his mind.

“I found out the first day we met. I don’t blame you for not telling me and don’t worry I still love you.” They mumbled quietly as they snuggled into him more. He wrapped an arm around them and began to rub their lower back. As Nemoto laid there all he could think about were the things that led to this moment and how strange of a person Y/N truly was. He didn’t mind though. He closed his eyes as sleep slowly drifted him away, his last thought? No matter how strange they were, they were his strange partner and he couldn’t imagine it any other way.                                                

[engekihaikyuu]

Engeki Haikyuu feature in Sparkle Magazine!

The scans can be found in these 2 posts: (x) (x) 

Highlights from their special interview include:

Kenta notes that for the past two years, he and Tatsunari have been together nearly constantly (with barely two weeks being the longest time they go without seeing each other).  

Tatsunari reveals that when they go for their very first dress rehearsal in the theaters for any show, he recommends skin-ship with your co-stars to heighten your senses regarding one another.  He says it helps everyone go into the performance with a fresh feeling as you take in everyone’s determination and passion as well as their physical conditions.

Hiroki tells us that with the length of time they’ve all spent together, everyone in the company has become very perceptive and aware of each other’s personalities and tendencies.  For example, when one member is feeling down, there will always be at least one or two people to notice that and someone who knows how best to talk to that person and where to best take them.  In particular, Kenta keeps particular note of everyone this way, like the amazing cast leader that he is.  

Kousuke tells us that what he loves about this cast is how well they can communicate with one another.  As they all work together to make a singular production, yes, rivalries develop among them, certain obvious senpai-kouhai relationships take form, but he never feels like he can’t ask for help, and he never feels like he can’t say what’s on his mind if he has a suggestion to give.  

Allen thinks of the staff for Engeki Haikyuu as parental figures for the entire production and that they’re always very warm and easy to talk to.  For example, when the actors need to know better the exact details of the projection mapping and how it’ll look all put together, they’re always as helpful as they can be.  Even though he’s only been around since the re-run, he doesn’t feel distant from the rest of the cast or the staff and he’s very grateful to everyone.  

When asked what each of them would like to improve: Kenta said that he wants to get better at laundry and at cooking; cooking especially.  He thinks it’s super cool when a man can have friends over and be like, “Just wait a bit,” and then go to the kitchen to make them a meal like pasta.  

Tatsunari wants to stop overthinking things, which he has a tendency to do.  For example, he worries about babies knocking over glasses in restaurants.  He wants to be able to maybe just take action (like grabbing that cup and moving it out of their reach) instead of worrying too much.  

Hiroki sometimes feels like he gets carried away with his emotions and is easily influenced by the moods of people around him.  So he wants to be able to just relax, keep things in perspective, and be a little calmer overall.

Kousuke used to just eat whenever he got hungry, even in the middle of the night.  This sometimes resulted in him eating 4 or 5 meals a day, which he knows isn’t great for his body, especially eating super late at night.  But after working on his first leading role at the start of this year, he suddenly started eating 3 regular meals due to his schedule with that play, so he’s thankful that theater can help organize his life.

Allen has a bit of a sweet tooth and loves pastries, so he’s trying to cut back on always eating them.  He normally tries to avoid eating them all the time, but a lot of times when he goes to the convenience store, he can’t help himself.  At the very least, on days when he does that, he makes sure to go for a run to make up for it.  He thinks it’d be too sad to give up sweets completely, but he’s trying to avoid over-eating them.

In the group stage of the interview… 

When asked about the Revival production in fall of 2016, Kenta tells us that although the physicality of the show can be quite taxing, the Revival was easier on him in a lot of ways because he wasn’t alone on stage as much.  When he’s on stage with even at least one other person like Tatsunari, it takes the pressure off.

Tatsunari loved Asahi’s spotlight scene during the Datekou match where he makes his breakthrough as Karasuno’s ace.  He gets goosebumps from it.  

Hiroki thought it’d be rough for them to have as long a run as they did in Tokyo, but in the end, he thinks that was mostly a personal battle and not one everyone else felt.  

With 29 total cast members, there were so many elements that could change from show to show.  For Allen and Kousuke, who served as observers and commentators for the second half of the show, they could directly see all of the little changes and adjustments that occurred in each show.  Kousuke enjoyed seeing people run around backstage in their respective team colors.  For both Allen and Kousuke, they thought carrying around the railing was super tough.  LOL

Sometimes, the director’s notes are impossible to understand until they start working on it.  Like when he wrote, “that ball goes up higher and higher and then becomes the world.”  Kenta was definitely confused when he first read that in the script.  

As actors, because the entire cast of Karasuno has been present for every show and have worked all together, their volleyball skills and their teamwork has improved steadily.  For Aoba Johsai, who did not feature in the Revival production, excepting Allen and Kousuke (who also didn’t play any volleyball), they think it will take some work to show on-stage that Seijoh is meant to be the more powerful team when they haven’t been given as many chances to play together as a unit.  But even so, Allen’s looking forward to it.  

As Allen made these comments, Hiroki realized that joining that Karasuno teamwork will be a challenge for him personally as his character Suga hasn’t appeared in nearly as many matches as everyone else.  Tatsunari ‘reassured’ him by saying that the matches are super tough.  To which Hiroki responded, “Oh no, what do I do.”

Tatsunari describes rehearsals like being at the zoo.  It’s as lively and as exciting as the zoo, and they never really know what’ll happen on any given day.

Tatsunari is very excited about the move to a bigger venue in Tokyo Dome City Hall, which will give many more people the chance to see the show.

Hiroki will do his best to not lose to everyone.

Kenta then noted that during the Revival production, Shouhei and Justin often used to say that the matches were fun and that it was fun putting that choreography together.  Hopefully, Hiroki can latch onto their enthusiasm and not get too discouraged.  To which Hiroki replied that he would do exactly that and work hard without complaints.  Kenta quickly followed that they needed to get that in writing.  Or that if Hiroki does start to complain, he’ll have to bring this Sparkle magazine to rehearsals to show everyone.

Allen thinks it’ll be interesting to finally have Kousuke (Oikawa) in the match from the very beginning to the end, and he feels the pressure to display their relationship as one that says, “He’ll know what to do even if I don’t say anything.”  But he feels their off-stage relationship is starting to get to that point anyway.   

Kousuke more than anyone else wants to play through a match from beginning to end in its entirety.  

Kenta’s closing comments for the interview came from the Director, Kinoshita Worry.  During a meal with Kenta, Tatsunari, and the Director, he said, “I’m gonna tell you something good and you can’t tell anyone else.”  So of course Kenta tells us exactly what it is.  But the keyword for the next play is: “entrust.”  Pay special attention to how the setters Sugawara, Kageyama, and Oikawa entrust the ball to the others to make the play.   

[tfw-no-tennis]

huntoxhunto

we watched 2 whole more eps but we’re abt to vacay so i better recap this biz now before i forget

ok so we finished the zoldyck arc and uhhhh gotta say we werent expecting like any of that to happen lol 

ok ill back up so we start w/killuas mom (i dont think we ever heard her name) confronting gon & co....and canary (i lov her) is not dead which i assumed but thank goodness. 

zoldyck mom was totally using nen. also she is off her rocker gotta say. tho that visor is super cool, albeit confusing - is it connected to a bunch of security cameras or something? how does she see all that shit? 

granpa is wild. his tunic thing that says ‘one kill a day’ or w/e is kinda hilarious, it reminds me of the ‘apple a day keeps the dr away’ saying...a murder a day keeps the....idk away????

i love that killua makes it abundantly clear that he couldve like escaped at any time lol. also tho why didnt he just escape....baby boy just leave 

killua getting all serious and threatening milluki if he messes with gon....my boys got it BAD 

this family has so many communication issues hvbjadkfbjaskdfj nobody is on the same page at all 

the butler guy continued to remind me of kuro one piece this whole time...i was waiting for him to bust out the ridiculous cat claws

oh my GOD wait the flashbacks of EVEN BABIER KILLUA were so precious ;_; he was soooo tiny and cute oh my god. so precious. and canary was also so tiny and cute 

baby killua really just wanted a friend :(((( and canary wanted to be friends w/him but knew that mom zoldyck would kill her if she overstepped like that :( thats so tragic mannnn

also canary is so cool man. her beating up all those guys was epic

ok that whole scene with killua and his dad was like, such a rollercoaster lmao

like....it was all over the place for me...first of all the ambiance was wack, the room lighting was weird and im p sure killuas seat was an electric chair??? and the dad was in a coffin thing..???? like....interesting aesthetic choices all over the place here 

also i see now where killua got his hair and also his catboy tendencies. the zoldyck catboy genes seem to trace back to zoldyck dad, who has kinda scary cat eyes 

also im guessing that the dad is the blood zoldyck and the mom is the one who married in. they sure seem to put a lot of emphasis on like, family legacy or w/e, but the two parents certainty go abt it in different ways 

the whole convo b/w killua and his dad was wild, it totally didnt go where i was expecting it to. his dad was weirdly chill while also being super intense? 

killua happily telling stories abt gon was so sweet....baby boy baby 

and his dad telling him ‘never betray your friends’ was rlly interesting...i wonder what his reasons were for saying that 

cause then he tells killua he can leave, and killua does, but then dad zoldyck tells mom zoldyck (i rlly need to find out their names) that he thinks killua will come back on his own time....inch resting 

i wonder if dad zoldyck made killua promise that bc he was trying to set killua up for failure - as in, he tells killua to never betray his friends, thinking that killua inevitably will & be distraught abt it, and then turn back to the zoldyck family when this happens. idk

also its interesting to me that zoldyck dad wants killua to lead the family someday. like, illumi is right there, hes the oldest and clearly dedicated to being an evil assassin, and he seems p good at it...i wonder why killua is the favorite....the grandpa (i think) did say that killua is Special(tm) which...yes he is a special baby boy i love him. i wanna see more zoldyck family flashbacks/interactions so we can see what led them to this point 

oh lord that reminds me of illumi briefly appearing in the killua flashback and hes just like, suddenly there, wearing some gay ass sweater....like ok dude did you just come back from the Evil Assassin Library or st?????

that reminds me too, ruth tells me that apparently in the manga illumi and hisoka got married or something???? to which i say, thats fucking wild, but also it makes sense, those two are both horrible and disgusting and they absolutely deserve each other hbvajvhsdfjbak peak evil nasty gay rep, i love it. i cant wait to see whatever the fuck the context to that is bc, thats fucking wild

ok back to the plot so like its so wild to me how smoothly everything went hvubsjduhfbjsh like....killuas dad was rlly like ok u can leave and killua just went to the butler house and then canary woke up and was like ok gon & crew lets go to the butler house to see killua, fuck the rules, (and she didnt even get killed for ‘disobedience’ or w/e, or more likely - in most big shounen, she wouldve been attacked by the other evil butlers and gon wouldve had to fight them)

killua Rlly was like fuck this place im leaving my boyfriend and his parents are here to pick me up [puts on gayest outfit he owns and skateboards away] hvbhsjdfbjdkf

i love killuas weird gay preteen fashion so far and i cant wait to see more 

killua telling the butler guy to let him know as SOON as gon gets there cause he wants to see him AS SOON AS HE CAN ;_; bro they r....in love 

of course the butler is trickey tho lmao, any other shounen this wouldve turned into an 8 ep long fight scene sequence where gon has to fight the butlers in order to see killua 

and the of course gon is the same way, gon is like i need to see killua RIGHT NOW take me to him!!! ohhh my god babies

the whole coin game was wild, it was funny when the other butlers got involved too lmao 

when gon was like ‘hey leorio can i see your knife’ i was like OH NO I DONT LIKE WHERE THIS IS GOING. and i was right bc OWWWWW baby boy oh my god!!!! but that seems to have solved it even tho thats NOT how swelling works at ALL- 

anyways gon is a cute smart good boy and i also find it funny how killua eventually gets impatient and just busts in on this whole dramatic situation (and the tension immediately deescalates as a result lmao) 

tangent but god its so funny seeing all these butler guys deferring to killua, an actual 12 yr old....i wanna see the hilarious and hijink-filled results of killua being raised as a rich spoiled assassin prince. thats a lethal combo thats gotta result in some wildly skewed perceptions on how things work, especially paired with gon ‘probably eats dirt for fun and sleeps in trees’ freecess 

godddd gon and killuas lil reunion is SOOO cute they were so happy to see each other ;_; bro they are SO cuteeeee augh. two tiny babies

killua being like oh hi also uh kurapika andddd [looks at smudged writing on hand] lorpo 

hvhhbajfbs dont do my man leorio like that killua hes a hardworking father 

the fact that they just like. LEAVE...thats so wild. i cant believe how little fighting this arc had. this all wrapped up SO much faster than i could have ever anticipated lmao 

where the heck was alluka!? i assumed she’d show up here but uhhhh guess not......in the silhouette shot of all the zoldycks she and killua were holding hands ;_; my fucking uwus bro 

we also didnt see the grandma or great grandpa so im guessing theyll appear later 

gon being like fuck it im not using my hunters license til i punch hisoka in the fucking face hvbhahsfbjsk thats hilarious 

also a convenient way to let him have his hunters license but not utilize it til later in the story...its so early for him to have achieved that big chunk of his goal, which just shows that hxh is Not your typical shounen and isnt gonna just be centered around gons quest to become a hunter 

so we finally found out what hisoka said to kurapika....just as i thought, it was st to do w/the phantom troupe. so theres a handy setup for the yorknew city arc later. bam 

hisoka just being like ‘hey meet me in this (presumably) very large city on this date. no i will not tell you where in the city to meet me. bye seeya there’ 

tbf hisoka is very hard to miss 

god when they arrive and kurapika is just like ok well we got killua so im out lol bye everyone....bro hvbjkhgbfjhdksfhjk that felt so abrupt 

and then leorio was like oh yeah same i gotta go study time to take the fantasy MCAT or w/e

AND THEY BOTH LEFT....now gon and killua r chilling but im like oh my god no leorio kurapika come back, we need some (questionable) adult supervision over here 

and like immediately killua is like ok gon do you have money. and of Course gon doesnt have money. so killua is like well you need money and you need to train so you can deck hisoka, so lets go to a fantasy version of an underground fighting ring! this is why kurapika and leorio needed to stay 

tho they probably wouldve just gone along with it 

they did all promise to meet in yorknew city, but thats apparently like 6 months away. are gon and killua rlly gonna spend 6 months at heavens arena

the part where killua draws the diagram demonstrating how much of a n00b gon is....hvbajdkhfbhajskf

AND THEN when he drew himself into the diagram and was like :3c wow im so modest HBJHSKHDFHBJS that was so funny

it was like that post thats like ‘you can tell when a cats pupils change and they just shift into Silly Mode’ thats what killua looked like...catboy

so thats basically it i think, gon and killua are heading to heavens arena to join fight club or whatever. tournament arc time! 

PREDICTION CORNER: 

i doubt this is the last weve seen of the zoldyck family. i mean we havent even met 3 of them, and we barely saw the ones we did meet...idk when theyll come back but i suspect theyll be making some big money moves later on and fucking shit up somehow 

i think maybe illumi or someone will like, spy on killua sometimes to keep track of him. or theyll track him by other means

ill use the prediction corner to reflect on incorrect predictions so heres a few. i rlly thot killua was gonna be more edgy than he is but hes rlly just a good boy huh. like hes a gay baby assassin catboy but hes so cute and good too. he just wants to live his life and hang out with his tiny bf like... omg :’) 

also i thot hisoka held a totally different narrative role lbvahkfjhjjaksfl i thot he was like main villain guy....hes more like an annoying creepy clown dude who (probably) shows up a lot to bother the main cast. we’ll see, but thats what i think of him now

like i thought hisoka would be like p1 dio, where hed be/quickly become a powerful antagonist who would amass a bunch of followers/minions (when actually the only person he seems to hang out w/is illumi, and theyre more like equals than an evil guy/minion dynamic)...or like i thought hisoka would be very well known as a scary evil guy but nope he was just another participant in the hunter exam, albeit a weird freaky one whose rancid vibes everyone seemed to pick up on 

anyways actual predictions, i think hisoka is gonna be at heavens arena, which would be super funny. gon is like im gonna train to beat hisoka and he shows up to do that and hisokas just there like >;) hey

i think if i had to guess, the zoldycks will show up again (in a plot important way) at the end of the yorknew arc/before the greed island arc. i know basically nothing abt any of the arcs but i do know the order they go in so theres that

i do think illumi will show up earlier than the other zoldycks tho, since he seems to be out doing his own thing more than the rest. also we still really havent resolved the whole mind control thing that im still convinced of 

i think nen will finally be introduced/alluded to heavily in this arc...or like, characters will use nen and gon will be like whoa whats that 

i think killua knows what nen is...maybe? it would make sense since im sure all the zoldycks can use it (at least, we saw mom zoldyck use it, probably)

can killua use nen already? that would be pretty funny. i dont think so tho. maybe u learn nen at a certain age. i have no idea what nen is 

also isnt gons nen power the power to like, turn into a really buff version of himself or something. how the fuck does that work 

ok enough nonsense its bedtime zzzzz