#meow mitake

[crayaks]

ciconiaaaaaaaaaaaa

[teratomatica]

[elsaspants]

recent cico dump! 🪽

[foafster]

ciconia art dump

[incorrecttowerofgodquotes]

The game specifically mentioning that Miyao's mind blanked out convinces me his perspective was compromised in this time. That, plus the suddenly fast passing time has me believe Meow took control, shut Miyao out, and talked with her dad.

What they talked about, I don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me if she was working with dear old dad on something.

[wildmike48]

I unfortunately have not read Ciconia yet but apparently the protagonist, Miyao, has an alter (due to some sci-fi stuff I think), a trans girl with the chosen name Meow who wears makeup and frilly dresses.

Ryukishi I beg of you please keep writing trans rep I dunno how you do it but Beatrice/[REDACTED for mutuals who haven’t read Umi] and Meow are my beloved.

[incorrecttowerofgodquotes]

The most gendered character of all time

You know a character has really hit their gender out of the park when they're popularly hced as transmasc AND transfemme

[chuunijianghuyuri]

One of the wonderful things about When They Cry is not only how Ryukishi07 noticably improves as an author and builds upon his themes and ideas from his previous works, but also how each successive work gets more blatantly queer than the last.

Higurashi has quite a bit of plausable deniability on whether its characters are lgbtq. The most obvious ones are Furude Rika and Houjou Satoko for each other, but this can plausibly be denied by someone who doesn't see it without too much of a strech in the original eight episodes. Personally I'd argue that literally the entire main cast of girls are lgbtq of some kind except maybe Hanyuu, but each of those arguments do require interpretation. This is Higurashi from 2002.

Umineko gets more blatant with explicitly queer characters, more often on the magic side but there are some on the human side as well. It's a coinflip on whether Zepar or Furfur is trans (though some clowns will use real life voice actors to try to give a definitive answer). Bernkastel and Lambdadelta are notorious toxic witch lesbians. Furudo Erika and Dlanor are in a less explicit relationship that's a bit dicey at times and coming after Furudo Erika's unpleasant breakup with her boyfriend. Williard seems to be in a relationship with Ushiromiya Lion by the end even as Ushiromiya Lion explicitly states they're unsure of their gender and or don't want to say on the matter and Williard accepts that without hesitation and explicitly states that the audience should too. Ushiromiya Ange has a relationship with Mammon that can be interpreted as romantic as well, and with the open ended ending of her future, one can imagine Ushiromiya Ange as all sorts of sexuality and potentially still in that relationship with Mammon if not closer. And then of course there's Yasuda Sayo or as I'd like to call the queerest and most gender and sexuality character of all time. If I tried to count their potential queer identities, I'd probably miss at least one or two, but they ain't straight and they ain't cis even if their individual personalities might be. There's even more that you could say about the themes of Umineko overall that also tend to involve Yasuda Sayo to some extent, but I'll leave it there. By the latter half of Umineko or the answer arcs, some people reading at the time were wondering basically "Where'd all this gay shit come from?" among other things. Some people couldn't handle it at the time and many still can't, and some are somehow still in denial of Umineko's queerness to this day more than likely. This is Umineko from 2007.

Ciconia even with only one episode out and presumably an eighth of the way done by traditional When They Cry standards manages to be EVEN MORE explicitly queer within said one episode. This time, with no interpretation or any serious level of reading and understanding the text and characters needed, the main protagonists Mitake Miyao and Mitake Meow who share a body are either transgender one way or the other with Mitake Miyao being a boy and Mitake Meow being a girl. To this they're like Yasuda Sayo except they definitely know their sex, and like Ushiromiya Lion they'd rather not say at least yet. Mitake Meow's boyfriend Jayden respects this and that his girlfriend might be trans and that she can tell him and they can work whatever out when she's comfortable about it. There's a whole ass scene or so about this and is impossible to deny. Ciconia also mentions explicitly there being surgery to acquire a penis in the futuristic setting as well, and possibly even artificial wombs if I'm not mistaken too, things that are at the moment still medical hopes and dreams for so many trans people. There's also discussions about the struggles of lgbtq people as well as gay moments mostly among girls but even with a guy as well (not listing them partially because my memory of some of their names is fuzzy, lol). There's a pro yuri nun idol squad even who states that love has no bounds and yuri is the best thing ever essentially, you literally can't get more explicit and in the text than this unless your measure of gayness deems sex to be the epitemy and ideal of gayness at all times. I'm not even sure how you could be a queerphobic When They Cry fan without blatantly ignoring at least one work or malding about it constantly. This is Ciconia from 2019.

This post doesn't say much about Higurashi GouSotsu from 2020 because I haven't watched it myself, but that's pretty explicitly gay too and much more explicit than the original and makes the queer content in the original as well more blunt and obvious. Not necessarily recontexualization so much as a potential fragment that builds upon what was already previously alluded to for nearly two decades by that point.

To people who genuinely think any When They Cry work is definitively and undeniably straight...I really don't know what to tell you lol. Like there's room for intepretation for quite a bit of this including towards a cis or heterosexual explanation at times, but at some point you're just not reading the text very well to think that it's all just cis and straight and that the gays are just delusional somehow, lol.

[plural-swag-competition]

We have our bracket! This was seeded by number of submissions. Some were given nicknames in the picture for space reasons. Apologies if we entered anything weird, this took a real long time to put together, and we're feeling a bit cross-eyed.

The top left is the top tier, top right is mid tier, bottom left is low tier, and bottom right is the one submission wonders! We'll be starting today with the bottom and working our way up for four days of round one before tackling everything all at once after the numbers are a bit reduced. Maybe two days of round two, depending on energy levels.

The Top Tier:

Shallan Davar/Veil/Radiant - The Stormlight Archive vs Yellow Guy - Don't Hug Me I'm Scared

Harrier Du Bois - Disco Elysium vs Frisk/Chara - Undertale

Epsilon - Red vs Blue vs Sora/Xion/Roxas/Ventus/Vanitas - Kingdom Hearts

Marc Spector/Steven Grant/Jake Lochley) - Moon Knight Marvel Comics vs ENA - ENA

Yugi Mutou/Atem - Yu-Gi-Oh! vs Arthur Lester/John Doe - Malevolent Podcast

Raphael Hamato - Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles vs Uendo Toneido/Patches/Kisegawa/Owen - Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice

Greed/Ling - Fullmetal Alchemist vs Link (Green, Red, Blue, Vio, and Shadow) - The Legend of Zelda: Four Sword Adventures

Shigeo “Mob” Kageyama - Mob Psycho 100 vs Sunny/Omori - OMORI

The Mid Tier:

Dr Alto Clef - SCP wiki vs Ford Cruller - Psychonauts

Madeline & Mirrorline - Celeste vs Darcy Wu - Amphibia

Hojo Emu, Tensai Gamer M, Parado (Kamen Rider Ex-Aid) - Kamen Rider Ex-Aid vs The Wildcards - Persona

Link/Deku Butler’s Son/Darmani III/Mikau/Fierce Deity - LoZ Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask vs The Sunken - Oxenfree

Bruce Banner/Hulk/Joe Fixit/Devil Hulk - Marvel comics vs Goldia die Heilige/Fleta/Harpae/Lisette - Pocket Mirror

The Warrior of Light - Final Fantasy XIV vs Mike/Chester /Vito/Svetlana/Manitoba/Mal - Total Drama

Blitzwing - Transformers: Animated vs Patrick and Rey Sprigs - Megaman Starforce

Cassie O'Pia - Psychonauts 2 vs Peter Nureyev - The Penumbra Podcast

The Low Tier:

Edward Teach - Our Flag Means Death vs BMO - Adventure Time

Diavolo and Dopplio - Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure vs the Legion system (David Haller and headmates) - Marvel/X-Men Comics

One-One - Infinity Train vs Raiden Ei/Raiden Shogun - Genshin Impact

Jaden Yuki/Haou Jaden/Yubel - Yu-Gi-Oh! GX vs Sylvie Ashling and Dr. Beefton - Epithet Erased

Mikoto Kayano - Milgram vs Kris and the SOUL - Deltarune

Triad/Luornu Durgo - LoS Legion of Superheroes Post-Zero Hour run/1993-2003 run vs Gray Reverse - Helios: Rising Heroes

Vyncent “Virion” Sol - Just Roll With It: Prime Defenders vs Alluka and Nanika Zoldyck - Hunter x Hunter

Jackson Jekyll and Holt Hyde - Monster High vs Hajime Hinata/Izuru Kamukura - Super Dangan Ronpa 2

The One Submission Wonders:

Izuku Midoriya - Boko No Hero Academia vs Mollymauk/Kingsley Tealeaf/Lucien Tavelle - Critical Role

Roronoa Zoro - One Piece vs Sho and Minazuki - Persona 4 Arena Ultimax

Miyao/Meow Mitake - Ciconia When They Cry vs Webber - Don't Starve

Eda Clawthorne - The Owl House vs Jesse Faden - Control

Aubrey Little - The Adventure Zone: Amnesty vs Pyra/Mythra/Spoilers - Xenoblade Chronicles 2

Dirk Strider - Homestuck vs Sawada Tsunayoshi - Katekyo Hitman Reborn

Killer B & Gyuki - Naruto vs Jace - Magic the Gathering

Red - Twitch Plays Pokemon vs Elliot Alderson - Mr Robot

[tetsuhaato]

meow mitake would do numbers on here

[whentheycrypositivity]

will there ever be a mod for miyao or meow mitake?

...well there is one mitake here but i dunno how satisfied you'll be

[teratomatica]

[elsaspants]

POV: you show up to the apocalyptic self-identity tournament and your opponent is this guy

[protofiend]

Something something Christmas something something Drinking the blood of billions

[incorrecttowerofgodquotes]

I feel like this scene confirms that Miyao's biological sex is female. Meow herself knows this so while she isn't scared of being rejected by Jayden, she also can't reveal it as that would hurt Miyao. Since the two share a brain, Meow most likely knows about Miyao's crush on Jayden and hatred of Jayden treating him like a girl, so she doesn't want to say anything as to not change the relationship between those two.

[mylittlemiyaomeow]

You know what since my one shitpost blew up here I might as well post some of my Ciconia sketches too.