#my opinion about rui

[blessingera]

my reasons why i love rui

hello!

before that, i would like to say that rui is the most unique characters in project sekai in terms of his design and lore.

look at his passionate in robots. so cute and sweet.

okay, first of all, i wanna say that his hair designs is something pretty. the combination of purple and cyan in his hair depicts diversity, as if clpl describes rui as a character who accepts diversity no matter what. if we can take this with semiotics, purple means wisdom, and cyan means calm. it means rui sees the diversity by wisdom and peaceful.

you know, i also love to spell his name. since rui's name in kanji means "variety" and his hair colors mean "diversity" if i say this with semiotics study, i think there is an implied relationship between the meaning of his hair colors and his name in kanji.

remember about his bloomfes story? i can say his character development is something realistic. we can see his 5 stages of grief there. i remember when elementary school rui was in denial-anger situation because of his loneliness and slowly in middle school (also high school) he began to accept his situation, while going through bargaining and depression.

here is the denial side of elementary school rui. (translate from japanese: "in other words, i wanna deny the lonely me-")

and here is the way rui accepted his situation and being patient. (translate from japanese: "because we know pain, we can be kind to others, and because we know sadness, we understand the importance of smiling.")

he is the gentle person and has a sincere heart. the way he treats his friends is very appreciated. he also really treasures every moment with his friends, especially to tsukasa, his positive influence. he knows how to empathize and return the favor to someone. even though he was considered as a weird, crazy, freak, or something out of the box, he is a genius and has 1001 ways to explore something interesting in his own way!

bonus: rui has a history being tsundere when he was in elementary school and it makes me adore him so much, hahaha.

don't forget that the way he speaks english fluently was something sexy, i admit it. you should know his sexy aura increased by 12000% during he speaks english!

i also love the way he bonds his good relationship with his mom. remember about his "revival my dream" event? he trusted his mom when she said that it's okay to be a weird and indirectly said "just be yourself". his mom understood his feelings, and rui did too. he is such a kind boy, isn't he?

okay, that's all about kamishiro rui in my opinion! here is my favorite costume from his card "tasogare no kagayaki" (yeah, i love tactician rui so much i could die without him).

thank you!

[yeyayeya]

I am legit sobbing over this images I AM NOT OKAY

When a ship takes over my life that even just seeing the actors together makes me feel so many things

Context: This are the live actions actors for Quan Yizhen and Yin Yu. The one with the hat in the first pic and glasses in the second one is Yin Yu’s actor (Wang Jia Yu), while the one being carried in the first and the one taking the pic in the second one is Quan Yizhen’s (Liu Zi Rui/Ray Liu)

The second pic is from Liu Zi Rui’s weibo while the first one is (from what I am assuming) a fan account for Liu Zi Rui.

Tbh, at this point I just want Eternal Faith to release just for the QuanYin crumbs. I am starving over here and just need some QuanYin content in my life.

I would also love it if any fan artists decide to draw these as QuanYin. Especially the first pic

[memories-of-starz]

Some underrated Project Sekai Ships and friendships I would give my life for

Romantic

-Class 1A (Kohane, Shiho, and Minori)

-Mizuan (Mizuki and An)

-Mizuhane (Mizuki and Kohane)

-Shizurui (Shizuku and Rui)

-Mizurui (Mizuki and Rui)

-Nenetoya (Nene and Toya)

-Nenerui (Nene and Rui)

-Haruan (Haruka and An)

Platonic

-Kohane and Toya

-Kohane and Rui (much to vbs's horror)

-Shiho and Toya

-Airi and Akito

-Airi and Shiho

-Nene and Toya

-Ichika and Kohane

-Mizuki and Tsukasa

-Mizuki and Toya

-Saki and Emu

-Emu, Nene, Akito, and Toya

[ssruis]

On one hand I dislike the implication that people treating pandemonium as Thee Ruikasa event is a bad thing because it’s really kind of a nonissue and just like with whip the wimp girl I feel like the people complaining about it are embodying this gif

However on the other hand unlike with wtwg where everyone going crazy over anhane undoubtably cared a lot about both anhane and what the event meant for their individual characters, I know that there *is* a decent amount of people who care less about what the event said about rui (& tsukasa) as characters and only focus on the ruikasa aspect. & that’s probably frustrating for people who don’t care abt ruikasa.

Not really a fixable issue though. idk what to tell you. That’s kinda just part and parcel of participating in a fanbase. By virtue of ruikasa being super popular you’re going to have a higher number of super annoying people and you kinda need to just block people who get on your nerves and seek out people you agree with more. Make the content you want to see in the world. Etc.

[eyezofstatic]

im going to be so respectful when i type this but i have to get it off of my chest before i think about it again. if rui and tsukasa and probably even akito and toya were all girls... originally planned out + executed in the final release of project sekai, I and so many others agree that the game wouldn't have gotten as popular as it had. honest to god i haven't seen this much hype around a rhythm game in years, primarily because of the mostly young female audience feasting over the four male playable characters, and, im not trying to make any assumptions, but obviously they are appealing because they are male.

opposed to the 16 other playable girls that they shove for the side like "extra content" for the gay love implications, it feels terrible to call myself a fan of this game because of this god awful fanbase full of actual children who love the yaoi and despise the girls. the queens. the mothers. the ones who run the show itself.

and no hate to my fujo or fudan siblings, but with the way pjsk is strategized as an articulated rhythm game and have the ratio of Character roster 4>16.. the amount of A03 works featuring ruikasa completely overshadows the most popular f/f ship on the site. look at the ratio for gods sake:

like oh my god what are we doing here you guys.

conclusion of my thoughts: this is why bandori didn't get so popular. this is why love live didn't get so popular.

so now comes the question. why do other rhythm games ( I'd even go to say media not in this genre) featuring female characters get so overshadowed by the inclusion of male characters even if they are the minority group in this case?

the answer isn't surprising.

its misogyny.

it's always misogyny.

because no matter if you're a girl, guy, or both, or none,

nobody likes engaging with female fictional characters in video games.

and unfortunately in the modern gaming industry, it's just a fact.

because the men are viewed as someone that you can relate to in every aspect, and the woman are viewed as a someone that you can treat like a dogs chew toy...;

... expendable.

[psych0ruinz]

me having to remind people i'm dd:dne:

[someweirdoreblogger]

I'm ready to be blocked over this.

But I don't really like KNY all that much, don't get me wrong, I totally understand the appeal; its all put wonderfully together, looks like a fucking Van Gogh painting. And I won't lie and say I didn't watch it all, I binged the shit. The animation is well done, and the vocals are top-notch. The story absolutely has potential. Lots of it.

I just don't like how the KNY story executed the line overall. I think it's very underwhelming and unrealistic in its character interactions.

[demonslayerunhinged]

Unhinged analysis - Sanemi

Why's Sanemi so aggro? (Part 1)

Sanemi is one of the most controversial characters in Demon Slayer and the most misunderstood, along with Obanai. People in the fandom just take him at face value, and it is a disservice to his character. You don't have to love him, but at least try to understand him, his background and how it all contributes to his behavior. So this is a character analysis on, in my opinion, the coolest motherfucker in Demon Slayer. Lesssgoooo!

His introduction

Sanemi's Hashira intro remains one of my favorite in the series. This is because we're fed so much information about him in such a short time.

The first thing we see are the W7s, the uniform belts around his shins, instead of the standard kyahan that other characters wear.

Then we see his back, his white haori which tells us nothing about his breathing style. At least with the others we can make an estimated guess at theirs. The only decoration is the kanji 殺(kill). Which is interesting because it's in the same position as the 滅(destroy) that we see on the backs of other slayer's uniforms.

Then we hear his voice for the first time. His speech is similar to that of a Yakuza member. I'll explain more later.

We then get the first glimpse of our man.

We notice a bunch of things. One is the fact that he's holding Nezuko's box with one hand, which tells us yea, this dude is strong as fuck. Then we see that his uniform is open at the chest, indicating a lack of care for his safety. We see the scars which lets us know that this guy has been through some shit, and he still keeps his chest open??? Nah.

Then we finally see his face and woah! The scary jagged scars, wild hair and bloodshot eyes combined with his rude way of speaking. We come to the conclusion: Oh my God! This guy's a crackhead!

Only kidding! But we can tell that this guy is not to be messed with and from the Jaws music that plays in the background and his signature Hashira theme, we also know that he's going to be trouble for our protagonist.

So let's break it down further with the first aspect of his introduction.

His haori, the kanjis, and their significance

Destruction has a certain impersonal feeling to it, like you destroy bad things not because you want to, but because you have to. Within the context of Demon Slayer, it's no different, the slayers have to destroy the demons because they are a blight on the world and there are no personal feelings about it. We can see it from the way Giyuu almost killed Nezuko, the way he killed Rui, the way Shinobu and Kanao almost killed Nezuko, and the way Zenitsu and Inosuke also killed demons.

Even in this episode where the Hashiras are introduced, their plans to execute Tanjiro and Nezuko show no personal feelings towards the situation, no maliciousness, and no hate. Nezuko is a demon she has to be killed. Tanjiro was harboring a demon so he has to be killed too and something tells me this isn't the first time they had to deal with a situation like this.

Kill, on the other hand, is very much personal and malicious in its intent. It doesn't matter if the target is bad for the world or not. What matters is that the killer thinks they're bad, and that alone is a justification to eliminate them. It's not about duty, it's a want spurred on by hatred, and Sanemi is full of hatred. We can see it from the sadistic way he stabs Nezuko, and the way he laughs at Tanjiro’s pain. Even when he wanted to test Nezuko with his blood, he gives her more unnecessary stabs instead of just simply opening the box.

Honestly, just by the kanji alone, I would’ve been surprised if he didn’t stab Nezuko. A demon can save baby orphans and kittens and sweet little old ladies from a burning building, and Sanemi will still gut the motherfucker.

Then there’s the color of his haori. The haoris, or absence of haoris, of the other characters (excluding Muichiro and Mitsuri) reveal information about their heritage, past, beliefs, and other aspects of their identity that extend beyond their role as Demon Slayers.

Sanemi has no heritage like Rengoku. We’re not given anything that tells us about his past like Giyuu. The kanji for Kill on his haori is in the same position as the Destroy on the standard uniform because, for Sanemi, being a Demon Slayer or more specifically a killer of demons IS his identity. It’s all he cares about, his entire life and the core of his existence. He has a one-track mind, and Kill Demons is the only song playing on a loop.

He doesn’t have time for anything he deems ‘frivolous’, has no special variation to his uniform aside from the fact that he keeps the chest open, and the uniform belts he wears around his legs are probably faster to put on than the standard kyahan.

So from his haori and kyahan alone we can tell that this guy is very strong, very wild and very dangerous.

Extra note: While doing research for this post, I also noticed that Sanemi’s haori is similar to the shirt he wore as a child, which could indicate how much his childhood affected him and how it led to his hatred of demons. Instead of the sleeve stripes, there is now the Kill kanji on the back.

Now let's move onto the other aspect of his introduction

His way of speaking

This part is based on my little understanding of the Japanese language and the research I did. So please don't attack me!

Sanemi kinda speaks like a thug or a Yakuza member. It isn't really noticeable in the English subtitles, but he uses particles and sentence endings that are typically used by men and can come across as rude, unrefined, and uneducated.

He doesn't use honorifics (unless speaking to the Master) when talking to people, even his fellow Hashiras.

He uses sentence endings such as ぜ (ze), ぞ (-zo), な (-na), か (-ka), かよ (-kayo) and だな (-da na) that make his questions and statements sound commanding, rough and forceful.

Not only that, but he often uses words such as:

"Urusee!" - a rough and rude way of saying "Urusai"

"Temee" - a rude way of saying you.

"Ore" - a very informal pronoun for "I"

Sanemi's way of speaking bears a teeny tiny resemblance to the Kansai dialect, which is like the Southern accent in the US. Kansai people are stereotyped as being uneducated, stupid, loud and aggressive.

That's why Tanjiro(bestest boy ❤) was shocked when Sanemi switched up real quick as he was speaking to the Master.

His default manner of speaking, even when it's to those who he likes or is okay with, is rough, forceful, aggressive and sometimes confrontational. It tells us about his personality and most importantly his upbringing or lack thereof.

I'll be going into his background in the Part 2 of this post, I'll also talk about how all these aspects makes our boy act the way he does.

In Conclusion, to be continued?

[shiongenkai]

Taiga, Romeo, and Gluttony

NOTE: This post contains spoilers for the entirety of the recently released Auction chapter. Read at your own risk.

So the recent chapter was everything to me. It was the shortest, but in my opinion it showed us a lot about Taiga and Romeo and their relationship to one another, and it also helped me refine a specific thought I had about Taiga and his whole deal he has going on.

To put it shortly; I think Taiga has a gluttony curse, and I think it functions as a mirror to that of Romeo's stigma, and is part of why they had a falling out, and why they can't seem to get away from each other.

To put it horrifically, horribly long....

So what do I mean when I say Taiga is cursed? Well, exactly that. I believe he's cursed in a similar way Rui or the MC are; he has an insatiable need to eat anomalies. I believe that this grants certain side effects like the MC and Rui's curse, and that one of them is a sixth sense for anomalies and anomalous circumstances.

I want to explain this before the Romeo part, because it's the basis for my analysis and thoughts on the two of them.

To start from the very beginning; I think Taiga, during one of his missions, was cursed by something like a jikininki as punishment for his 'gluttony' — the rapid rate at which he completed missions in his first year. This left him with his insatiable need to eat anomalies, but more specifically, is the reason he doesn't seem to want to eat them.

While I'm not certain the anomaly is for certain a jikininki, especially because there's certainly other similar folk legends out there, I chose that one specifically because they are noted for their sharp teeth and for not liking the insatiable need to eat corpses.

Now, what does this mean for Taiga? I think he's stuck between being a ghoul and being a jikininki, or whatever anomaly it ends up being, and I think this has given him a sixth sense that messes with his perception of time, self, and memory. But why would it do that?

Jikininki are immortal creatures, and wish to be freed from the torment they're in for the most part. If one was cursed to be part Jikininki, it would make sense for their existence to be similarly excruciating, with a difference being a lack of full immortality.

Remember the Mortkranken chapter, with the failed mermaid flesh? How their bodies continued even as their minds didn't? Taiga has multiple lines detailing how his 'body' remembers, even if his mind doesn't. Yuri and Jiro also explain that part of the side effects of the reaction are rapid mental deterioration. If Taiga had gone through a similar deterioration, it would explain his seemingly sporadic memory loss (not total blackouts like Jiro, nor specific category based amnesia either, just like. Random shit) and the fact that he doesn't have a concrete sense of identity (showcased through his constantly shifting first-person pronoun choice in Japanese). His cells of his body are reverting to their pre-aged self, and his mind is attempting to do that too, but it's imperfect and messy.

The key to the idea of the sixth sense comes from the fact that he's specifically cursed for anomalous gluttony. I think that he can sense anomalous material or anomalies themselves, and as demonstrated from Ed, this includes some sort of future sense. While we don't know the full specifics of what a sixth sense grants, we can see him utilise it in multiple different places. It's also, in my opinion, why he was sent on the Prologue mission.

Some examples of his supposed sixth sense are how he intuitively understood the anomalous dealer's entire thing, the scenes where he knows the Like Dove will appear before it does, when he senses Romeo approaching (Romeo is carrying an anomaly: his artifact), how he understands the auction is an anomaly, when he gets the mask under unknown circumstances, when he directly knows there's no anomalies... the list honestly could go on forever.

There's one other fact that I personally believe sealed this theory for me; his association with Haku.

In the recent chapter, when the MC is thinking about who to talk to about curses, Taiga instantly knows who we're thinking of, and rejects it on the basis that '[He] can't get rid of curses unless the anomaly that did the deed's right in front of him.' and that he's a 'Simp for the rules anyway.'

... Which is interesting, since it seems like Taiga has tried to ask him about this before. But if you think of this as Haku's stigma, and imagine Taiga trying to get his curse cleansed before, it makes sense! It would also be a good reason to put Haku and Taiga together in the prologue; Taiga can track the anomaly with his sense, and Haku can cleanse whatever curse it gives so long as Taiga manages to capture it or subdue it for long enough.

(Which, side note, is so tragic for the MC...)

Okay, now that the basis of 'Taiga is cursed' is out of the way, how on earth does this relate to Romeo?

Simple. I think Taiga's curse directly mirror's Romeo's stigma, and it's what caused their rift.

Romeo's stigma, as we learn in the new chapter as well, is dependent on his attachment to the items he throws. This, thematically, works with Romeo, who is known to be greedy. Everything he does is motivated by a profit of some kind, whether that profit is social or monetary or whatever. He wants special privileges so he does special missions. He wants money so he raises fees and coerces people to gamble. He wants popularity so he dresses nicely and pampers himself. It doesn't always mean he is money grubbing and stingy (because we see he's willing to spend lavishly on grooming and decor!) but it means that he's attached to what he has. His stigma requires him to give up that attachment. It is a punishment, a sacrifice, as a result of the pact. Similar to how Luca lost his brother (and gained a protective stigma), Romeo has to lose what he feels is worth something in order to fully utilise his ability. Call it a sort of pride.

I think, on the other hand, Taiga's curse is one of envy. He has a desire to eat anomalies, yes, but the desire becomes stronger the more attached someone else is to the anomaly. He doesn't need any interest in it, really. If someone else likes it he will need to eat it.

Taiga covets Haru's Peekaboo to eat instead of the wild one that we also know is in Jabberwock. He's composed about the Like Dove (barely, but he restrains himself!) until Romeo wants it. He steals the plants from Rui's BAR, not the ones in the garden outside (both are Rui's, but his bar is arguably the more loved thing of his since it was fully his choice). He covets Mortkranken's anomalies, and becomes mildly obsessed with the immortal one as soon as it becomes a major research subject. He's also completely fine holding and handling the mask, presumably for a long time, up until Romeo sees it as valuable and worthy.

Now, this doesn't necessarily make them instantly incompatible. But when you take one of Romeo's core traits being 'Greed towards anomalies' (He wants to collect them and frequently complains that other houses are 'stealing' them from under him; he sells them; he gets missions from Hyde to get them; etc), it becomes evidently clear that Taiga's curse is directly oppositional to it.

I think it's pretty obvious by now that Taiga and Romeo have a pretty turbulent relationship now, but were extremely close in the past. Multiple characters state that it would be nice to see them on good terms again, and it's certainly worth mentioning that Romeo is one of the few people Taiga consistently remembers. They both know each other exceptionally well, too. Taiga knows how to get under Romeo's skin and Romeo knows Taiga's habits.

Going back to the idea of this curse causing their rift, if Romeo was constantly on the verge of an important capture, or even if there was just one mission that was important, and Taiga ruined it by eating the anomaly, I doubt Romeo would easily forgive and forget. I think it could very easily cause a massive rift that just kept growing with each new snack Taiga picked up.

I think a moment that gets its nuance overlooked a lot is the scene just before Taiga eats the dove. The Japanese line emphasises that Taiga is referring to HIS heart, that Romeo could shoot through HIS heart, not just a general appraisal of sharpshooting. He even points directly to his heart as he says this, and it makes Romeo hesitate. They're BOTH in pain in this scene. They're both conflicted; this is their ex-partner (which I don't mean in the romantic sense, just in the general sense) who they were very, very close with, and who is now literally at arms length with a loaded gun. Romeo could just shoot him. Romeo could put an end to all of this supposed pain. And Taiga might even let him. And wouldn't that be karma for all he's done? But he can't. He hesitates.

And you know what appears after that? The dove.

This dove that symbolises both general desire (flies over peoples' heads when they're thought about) and Romeo's desire. His desire to escape probation. His desire to make money. His desire to capture, not kill. His desire to reconcile instead of fight. His desire to shoot.

And Taiga kills it. Eats it.

I think this is the most tragic scene between the two of them. This is the crux of it; they both want to reconcile. They want to be friends, to be close, to stop the war raging between the two of them that has done nothing but hurt them both AND hurt the wellbeing of Sinostra, but they can't, because Romeo will ALWAYS desire, and Taiga will ALWAYS take that from him.

It's a cycle they can't escape. The auction chapter shows it too. Taiga is almost disappointed at Romeo's greed. He seems jaded by it, and seems proud and happy when Romeo gives it up for once. Romeo is happy too; MC goes out of her way to say that Taiga handing him the mask makes him look more peaceful than he ever has before. It is quite literally a perfect ending for the two of them and a perfect way to reconcile.

And then Taiga eats it! Again! But I think the most horrifying part of it is that he tries to warn Romeo.

The comic doesn't translate or even transcribe it, so it's so, so easy to miss, especially if you don't speak Japanese, but Taiga grunts out the words 'I', 'Eat', and 'Next' as he approaches Romeo and the mask, and it's the direct reason why Romeo is able to realise that Taiga is about to eat it before it actually happens. He basically just grunts out 'I'm gonna eat that next' as he's fighting against it! But inevitably, neither of them can stop it. The cycle continues.

As long as Romeo is greedy, and as long as Taiga is gluttonous, they will never be able to fully reconcile, no matter how much they both want it. Both of them have to change, but I want to point out that at this moment Romeo is the bigger active obstacle between the two of them. Romeo can't let things go, he holds onto everything and lets it build until it explodes in one way or another. Tiris, his stigma, is symbolic in that sense, that he has to learn to let things go, because if he lets it build too much it will explode spectacularly.

(All of the ghouls have this sort of symbolism with their stigma, so it's not just a Romeo thing, but it's definitely important to his character.)

But Romeo can't get over it yet. He can't get over his greed, he can't let go of things he can't achieve (like getting Kaito's necklace), he can't get over past betrayals (Taiga, what happened with his family, etc)... He's too stuck and stubborn, and his refusal to budge has therefore lead to Taiga's refusal to push. Taiga has stopped caring about getting on good terms because he knows it won't turn out well. He's given up and become cynical, which in turn means that IF Romeo were to change, Taiga... still probably wouldn't. They're cyclical again. Always, always missing each other. So close and yet so far.

I hope the MC can be the catalyst for this cycle to end. Or Ritsu, who is a good equalizer to the two of them. But until she learns to see her own worth in the Academy, and until Ritsu accepts that sometimes he's wrong / he doesn't always know the most out of everyone in the room, I'm afraid Romeo and Taiga will remain stuck in this loop forever...

[attention-k-mart-shoppers]

Rui's bad luck

It's On! Wonder Halloween! - This event's song, potato ni Natte iku, was created by the producer Neru, who ended up being problematic. This didn't affect anything in-game, though, and only peoples' possible opinions on the song and its producer were affected.

Revival my dream - This event had cards for Emu and Nene and a story that many people considered misrepresentation of indigenous cultures, so the event, cards, gacha, outfits, and story never saw the light of day in the Global Server, though the song, Showtime Ruler, stayed in the game due to the only thing "bad" about it being the Japanese YouTube channel's 3DMV and 2DMV upload. And though the 2DMV's release time hasn't passed for the Global Server yet, I'm sure it won't be added.

A Sad Farewell at the Curtain Call - This event's song was created by the producer Pusu, who was later arrested for really bad things. Both the event song, named Donna Ketsumatsu ga Onozomi dai?, and his other song in the game, Asagao no Chiru Koro ni ended up being removed from all servers.

Backlight Lens Flare - This event's song, CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY, has the Manji symbol in its 2DMV, which could be mistaken for another symbol with horrible associations. The developers attempted to edit the 2DMV, like Warera Stain Busters!' was to correct a typo, but due to heavy effect editing, it was unable to be changed and the 2DMV will not be added.

[so-bitya]

Whitewashing in Anime - Agni ft. Cithis

Browns of the Same Shade

Hello again! I decided to revisit this topic again now that we have Agni's official appearance in the anime. I also wanted to go over some aspects that I did not get to include in my first post.

In the end, Agni also got lightened! His skin tone was always somewhat darker than Soma's in both the anime and manga appearances. Yana does describe his appearance as a "dark-skinned woman" in her genderbend sketches. So, for the anime to lighten him this much to such an degree is disappointing.

The skin diversity in the anime has been pretty lacking so far. Once again, A1 studios was not perfect, but they did manage to give all three Indian characters different dark skin tones, while this anime has every Indian generally the same lightened shade.

(every indian character in the anime are the same skin tone... cloverworks stand up, you can't let a-1 studios beat you like this)

Personal opinion of mine, I feel like animation studios aren't willing to play with skin color values as much anymore. I remember even seeing white characters being various shades of brown, especially under certain lighting and environments. Unlike now, when every character looks bleached the second they hit the sun.

I also wanted to review what I think of Soma's appearance. Soma's skin tone isn't any darker than it was in the teaser shot sadly, so we can't blame the lighting. I already was expecting it, but it's still a shame.

One positive feature I'll give to the anime is that Soma's nose isn't pronounced all the time. In certain scenes, his nose isn't as sharp as it would be for other characters. I believe that's just the style for the anime and its dependent on the shot.

Anyway, I felt this image was pretty on topic with Soma and Agni's situation and just anime remakes/reboots in general lately:

Brown ≠ Grey

Something I'm embarrassed I forgot in my last post is saturation! I mentioned often how darker skin tones tend to be neglected, but not only that, but the color! The vibrancy in the skin, the life!

A common feature I noticed, especially in East Asian media, is how they avoid the "brown" in dark-skinned characters, by constantly making their skin tone duller, ending up with more grey-toned skin.

I often see art advice for digital artists that they should pick desaturated colors or colors in the "grey zone" as to not overwhelm the art piece. Which is fine most of the time! But when you apply that advice for brown skin, what you get are mostly grey tones, and end up having your character look like a zombie.

Here are some colors I randomly picked. The colors on the left are those sandy, dull grey tones I was talking about. If you want to get those richer, deeper-toned browns, you need to pick colors with more saturation like the ones on the right.

Now of course, color is relative and you can't just color pick your way around without considering how it fits in with the rest of the piece. You can even end up washing out your brown character despite choosing a strong brown color. You have to consider the background, lighting, undertones, the environment, and how they'll affect your character. There may even be times desaturated colors work better, but you have to at least consider why it works "better".

Let's take a look at everyone's favorite manga artist right now, Ryoko Rui! Ryoko Rui is praised often for her diverse character roster and creature design, however I always found her darker skin tones rather... lacking, as such for the elf Cithis.

(I color picked her skin tone and it matched my light grey shades above lol)

Her skin tone is very washed out and grey. She not nearly as dark as she appears in the manga. Once again, there's that dissonance between skin tones. Now take a look at the manga's grey tones.

When you see this, what skin tone do you imagine for her? Do you imagine the greyish, washed out tones from above or do you imagine something more akin to these black fae models I found?

(credit: @jaharajayde on twitter and @glassmarigolds on pinterest)

I'll give Rui credit that her color illustrations of Cithis improved and she's gotten better giving Cithis stronger undertones. I really like how the fandom has been illustrating her too, there's been some amazing fanart of Cithis such as these (the lighting in the last one is lovely).

Just adding saturation helps so much with skin tone. I even found an fan edit of Soma that added more color back into his skin, and he looks so much better for it.

One might say, "Oh what's wrong with having grey skin tones in a fantasy story!" Well... nothing really! You can have green or purple or blue characters if you like. But when there's already a startlingly lack of brown characters in a fantasy story, it can get awfully uncomfortable seeing the story portray different fantasy "races" with obviously non white racial features... but don't want to include any black/brown skin tones.

(fantasy artists would sooner give an orc dreads than a human, forget a "noble" creature like an elf... such decisions only reveals the artists' viewpoints)

It all just comes back down to avoiding that dreaded "brown". When it comes to these "reasons", we have to question whether they aren't just more excuses to not include black and brown people in stories, which makes me come to my next point:

Essence of Brown

There's some severe misinformation I want to address about Soma. I saw a fan a while ago say that Soma has a white mother which explains why he has light skin.

Firstly, that information is false. It was a concept Yana had for Soma, but quickly decided to drop it. Soma is not half white.

In the early drafts of the series, Soma had a white mother and, thus, white skin. However, this was later omitted in final revisions.

(quoted from the official kuroshitsuji wiki as an excerpt from the character guide)

Yes, you can have mixed parents and any kind of skin tone really! But it feels... dishonest to create "reasons" why the manga's first major Indian character, joining a cast of white people in a European country, should have white skin as well. Especially considering Yana's artstyle, without Soma's skin tone and Indian wardrobe, is his physical characteristics like his face even distinguishable enough for him not to be mistaken as white?

Imagine I wrote a story set in France, and teased an appearance of an African character in story that only had white characters until now, only for him to be completely white in appearance, and identical to every other white man, except for the occasionally exotic dress and other drab stereotypes.

What would you think? That his race is only a dressing to fulfill an exotic need at times? That he's a supposed homage to another culture, but it's wrong to have him actually look like the majority of people who made said culture? Why is he even this way?

Did he have a white parent? A white upbringing? Lived in a white culture, lived a white life? Maybe he was separated from birth! From his hometown, his country, his people, anything to justify why my "brown" character is so divorced from that part of his identity, from that side of the family whose skin tone runs a little too dark.

And I think that's why Yana decided to drop the concept of giving him a white mother. Why go through all those loopholes and explanations? Why all that justification for him to have white skin?

It's just another way to avoid the "browness" again for a character, what makes them brown in the first place and related to black/brown cultures. It's what we should consider in the future when we find ourselves coming up with "reasons" why black/brown characters should be anything but themselves.

Whitewashing in Anime - Soma ft. Usopp

[zomboivex]

Small morning ramble about Rui.

These are all basically opinions so feel free to disagree but tbh I don’t really wanna hear it

This dude is never breaking his curse.

Nothing in the game hints to that even being an option for him. He, himself, doesn’t really talk about breaking his curse. He seems to have accepted that this will always be his life (and if my thoughts are correct, boy will it be a long life).

The reason Rui is such a fascinating character to me is because he’s coping with the fact that he will always be this way. He’s always going to have this curse and he’s trying to accept and live with that.

In the recent chapter where we actually see his curse go into effect - his reaction isn’t like Lyca’s (who was devastated at the seemingly betrayal of acceptance) but he was very much defeated and numb. He’s seen this reaction before. He’s been treated as a monster before. He wasn’t shocked by the reaction he got for draining a life. He was numb to it. He stood there, seemingly unable to let go as he was called a monster.

But see what I love about Rui is that

He has so carefully crafted himself to be reliable to others. Listening? No problem, he’ll let you talk about all your problems and don’t worry for one second about any of his (serious) issues. Of course, he’ll complain about his captain or Moby. But- that’s normal stuff to complain about. He tries soooo hard to make himself seem like a normal guy by flirting, joking, complaining about normal things. Then he listens to others, will do endless tasks (like gardening, cleaning up the house, running a bar, trying to run a bed and breakfast type situation, taking care of the duties Ed doesn’t or straight up refuses to do), and generally he keeps his own emotions locked deep down.

Hell his fucking stigma is a benefit to others! Even if ‘temporary’. He can still take away your pain and exhaustion??? That’s- pretty fucking helpful. And it sums him up so well as a character.

He does everything for the comfort of others. Even if temporary. Because he knows anything he does will immediately be disregarded the moment someone sees his curse in action.

Despite this, Rui pretends to always be cheerful and positive. Even if deep down he’s hurting so bad. And there’s nothing anyone can really do about it. He wears the mask of someone who’s cheerful and reliable and steady. Because what else is he supposed to do in his situation?

God I seriously love him so much as a character. I’d write a more cohesive thing for him but I want a few more Rui crumbs before I fully commit to writing a character study on this tragic fuck.

Tbh I wish I still had access to my old tumblr but I forgot the email and password I used to set it up lol so I can’t pull my character study of Narancia from over there onto here but shhhh

Anyways!!!

I struggle with writing Rui as intimate with others not on account of his curse (because there are no-touch ways around that and I wish more people would focus on that aspect ahem me- I’m more people ) but because this guy would never allow himself the chance to be intimate with others on account for what he is. It’s not from fear of touching them (though that poses a problem for fucking sure) but because he doesn’t feel he deserves this.

Okay I’m gonna stop rambling because I have so much to say but also I’m feeling very unwell today LMFAO

[the-fandom-is-now-my-life]

Sugar kisses

People's memories can be linked to places, smells or textures, today you attempt to awaken Jiro's memories with sweets!

Wc: 1,1k

Note: wrote this kind of quickly to see if he would come home after getting a fic like Leo

Update: he didn't.

When you found out Jiro was able to eat normal food when you fed him, Nicolás would have guessed that he would show some sliver of emotion and be interested in tasting different things without his body rejecting it but it seems like you found it more fun than him.

“So you are saying the inspector asked you to bring more candy? Why is it weird? Halloween is approaching”

Bentai downed his whiskey before swiping the glass towards Rui and looking at him “but you had to see how funny they looked dragging one of your ghouls around ugh… the tall one with scars? What was his name…” his words slurring together after his third drink.

“Jiro? Mhh… they must want to make him try new flavors”

“How cute! Another couple on campus that will buy things for valentine's and white day! Let's cheer for that, Rui two on the rocks in my tab” and the blond just smiles and serves the drinks.

.✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦. .✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦.

“You seem to be really interested in this” Jiro says absentmindedly before chewing on the candy corn you were pushing against his lips, his tongue is soon drowned in sickly strong sugar caramel-like taste he quickly swallows.

“You just told me you never ate sweets, I-”

“I said I don't remember eating them since I woke up, it's likely I have eaten when I was younger but can't remember”

“Then maybe you could remember something if we try enough” he nods at your logic, there could be a probability he remembers something before his comma, even if it's unlikely. Twisting around to grab your notebook your eyes watch expectantly “so? Anything?” it's endearing how you got a whole new notebook just to record his reaction to the various sweets, writing earnestly his opinion even if it wasn't more than a word.

“It's too sweet for me” is all he says before returning to the microscope, examining tissue from an anomaly. It isn't until you whine in disappointment that he looks to the side and sees you pout “it's originated from America, I doubt I would have tasted it before. Maybe a more traditional sweet would be more likely” even if he had a pessimistic forecast for this, Yuri already attempted to at the time with no results, seeing your determined smile made a nice feeling of lightness settle between his ribs.

If candy corn was too sweet and he disliked how fudge stuck to his teeth, something about cavities and it being annoying to clean, then what could he like… After some thinking, Zenji’s voice booms in your head ‘and when Jiro was a baby his cheeks were as pink and full as strawberry dango!’ He even took his time following after you when you were buying candy, telling you all kinds of stories he remembers about Jiro that could be useful (even if he didn't remember him having a favorite food). Haku even seemed sad when you returned him his ghost.

“Let's try dango” luckily a Hotarubi student agreed to make you a batch of hanami dango even if he thought it was weird as it wasn't anywhere near Sakura watching season “open wide~”

And Jiro, ever so agreeable, turns around from his almost finished investigation and does as asked biting into the soft rice cake while gently holding your wrist between his thumb, pointer and middle finger. At first it was weird how he never had his full hand around you or refused to play wrestle ‘I don't want to hurt you accidentally’ he would say and you would smile, he couldn't possibly be strong to hurt you just having his hand around you, or so you though before seeing him snap an IV drip in half because he held it too tightly.

“Do you like it?” The question slips a few seconds after he starts chewing hoping he would have an opinion other than ‘too sweet’ or ‘fine’ but his expression -or lack of- tells you that he doesn't love it or even feel strongly about it, just like all the other candies you bought for the mini picnic date.

Still, hope is the last thing that gets lost, so you get him to try the other flavors he might possibly like more. Second flavor, no reaction “well, even if we don't find one you like I can see your cute face! Your cheeks are as round as mochi~!”

At the comment he stops chewing. Everyone would have guessed he caught his partner's compliment, but of course Jiro didn't and thought they wanted to eat “If you are hungry you can eat it, I don't mind”

“Eh? If you don't like it just tell me, I also got other types and-”

“My stomach won't really agree with it”

“Is it rejecting food again?? I will call Yuri”

“No… I'm just not used to eating so much yet” ah, it makes sense, he hasn't really eaten anything solid for a year without puking it out.

Defeated, you sit on the table beside Jiro, feet kicking the air while you pour the sweet soy sauce over the mitarashi dango. Having failed at both targets, making him remember Zenji and finding a food he likes, ruined your mood for the day

Without much hunger but not wishing to waste food you start eating until a deep voice breaks the silence.

“Why are you so insistent on this?”

“What do you mean?”

“insistent on getting my memories back”

“I just think it's sad” teeth dig into the rice cake drenched in syrup and tear it into small pieces that are easier to eat without much care for the string of liquid sliding down the corner of your mouth “If I were to forget my family and friends and all my experiences… It would be depressing”

Jiro mumbles something that is quite hard to make into a sentence because of the volume and how close the words are together “did you say something?”

getting your face closer to his in an attempt to understand his scarred hand grabs your chin and plants a kiss just where the candy was.

His eyes light up with impish joy and a boyish laugh escapes from his lips just like when he scares you or Yuri “you are really jumpy, how cute” his tongue collects the remnant sauce from his lips to the inside of his mouth.

Without a care about your warm cheeks he gets up from the chair and walks off to the door to deliver the paper but teases with a light smile “I don't truly mind not remembering anything before waking up, but if you care so much we can make new memories together”

[cloudcountry]

the ultimate neige smackdown

SUMMARY: So it follows the storyline of book four, only when the reader sees Neige's commercial for the first time, they say the first thing that comes to mind about him...and it's that Vil is obviously the best of the two.

CHARACTER: Vil Schoenheit.

WARNINGS: None!!

COMMENTS: this request is so funny because neige weirded me out when i first played. its like what jamil & azul said, nobody is THAT NICE??? HES SO CONFUSING but anyway mon pote means my close friend I looked it up on Google (I was too lazy to ask my friend who studies French about pet names again.) This is just you inflating Vil's ego (WHICH HE DESERVES!! TELL HIM HES BEAUTIFUL.)

~~~~~

“Do you see that radiance, mon pote?”

Vil stopped outside the door as your uninterested hum sounded from inside the room. The mandrakes in his hand wouldn’t have waited for Rook, but knowing you were inside that room made him want to enter.

Before he could, you spoke again.

“I mean, he’s okay I guess.”

“What do you mean?! He is picturesque! The perfect example of delicate beauty!” Rook cried out, causing you to sigh.

“Vil is more beautiful in my opinion. This Neige guy kinda creeps me out. I mean, doesn’t his beauty seem…fake? I know he’s a celebrity so a part of him is going to be artificial, but Vil is so blunt and truthful with his admirers. Neige is just…too sweet. It’s weird.”

Vil felt a light fluttering in his chest at your admission. Right, of course it wasn’t just him that thought Neige was…creepy, as you put it. But still.

You thought he was more beautiful than Neige.

“Oh, mon pote…” Rook sighed, and Vil could tell he was shaking his head dramatically, “I suppose we all have our own ideas of beauty.”

“Rook, you cannot sit here and tell me Vil isn’t more beautiful than Neige. I will fight you on this.” you huffed, “I mean, come on! Vil is so confident, and he expects the best out of everyone, and he pushes himself and the people around him to do better and better! Neige is just a pretty face as far as I’m concerned. Vil holds himself with sophistication that sends chills down my spine. That’s beautiful.”

“Oui, I do not disagree, but you must admit that Rui de Neige has his own charms as well!”

“Mmm…I don’t see the appeal. Sorry.”

Vil chuckled. You didn’t sound sorry at all.

“Flattery will get you nowhere, my dear.” he deadpanned, finally opening the door and stepping into the room. 

Rook had the gall to smile shamelessly up at him, rattling off some speech about his entrance. However, all Vil could focus on was the slightly embarrassed expression you had on your face, and the fact that his beauty was enough for you.

Deep down, he knew the jealousy he felt towards Neige was only temporarily satisfied, but he had to be content with that for now.

“Vil.” you blurted, as if forcing yourself to speak, “Uh, hey.”

He laughed airly, tucking two fingers under your chin and tilting it up.

“Hello yourself.” he smirked.

[aayakashii]

If requests are open may I ask for some yandere Towa 🥺👉🏻👈🏻

The way I cackled when I received these asks KDHDSKDJJDHDJSKJS

Okay let's think of SOME YANDERE HEDCANONS 🫵🫵 (and I'm so sorry for taking so long to answer btw 😭😭)

Yandere!Towa

Oh, I genuinely love to think about Towa as a yandere because, to be honest, I already see him as one.

In my opinion, he's the most dangerous character in the game, so I'm pretty sure he'd be extremely hard to deal with.

Not because he's a danger to you, but because he's a danger to everyone around you

Yan!Towa isn't able to share your company with anyone because he genuinely thinks he's the only one who can be by your side.

His bad habit of seeing you as weak and fragile like a poor little dandelion cranks up immensely.

Keeping you safe under his watchful eyes and hands and legs and body becomes one of his main priorities.

He still trusts Haru, obviously, but there's no need for you to hang around anyone else that isn't him, right? Okay?

He clings to you, glaring at anyone and everyone that dares come closer than they should. You can do no harm you're so weak, after all, but he can't say the same thing for all those people.

Dark grey clouds immediately gather over your heads, and you panic, trying to calm him down, to assure him that no one will try to steal you from him.

He's not very sure of that.

Yan!Towa is extremely obsessed with the image of you and himself as the perfect pair. It's everything he has ever needed to fulfill his wild romantic fantasies.

He is your prince, like in all those old fairytales he has read before, and you'll be damned if you don't properly fulfill your role as his one true love.

Yandere!Lyca

Oh the baby 😔

Poor Lyca. I don't think he'd ever try to threaten you or emotionally blackmail you as a yandere.

Yan!Lyca just genuinely wants to stay right beside you no matter where you are.

No matter where you are.

He develops the habit of stalking you. Except his idea of stalking is basically just following you closely wherever you go.

If he sees any threat, he immediately jumps in front of you, growling, ears and tail popping out as he stays in high alert.

He actually doesn't see everyone as a threat. He does trust Rui or Subaru and maybe a few other people he might respect. Ed is a NO-NO.

But if anyone tries to flirt with you? Oh, you better be quick if you want to prevent him from jumping on someone's neck.

He's a jealous little thing. He constantly needs to be your best everything – your best friend, your best werewolf (even if he's the only one), the best ghoul, the best student, the best boy...

He is very quick to feel insecure, and in order to compensate, he clings even closer to you.

And whenever you're out on a mission with someone else (he tried to go, believe me), the only way he's able to calm down is by barging into your dorm and sleeping on your bed.

You better be ready to have him all over you once you're back because he WILL try to check if there's any difference on your scent. And if there is? There will be no end to his sulking.

Just pay attention to him instead of anyone else (it doesn't matter if you can't help it!), and maybe he'll stop pouting and huffing and puffing right on your neck.

[justsomeoneintoomanyfandoms]

Witches and Ghouls - Obscuary Edition

This was originally requested by Anon who asked: "How would to Tokyo Debunker characters find out about and react to a Witch! Reader?"

I had to split it up into a few sections, separating the boys by their houses so here's the next part. The links to all the others are below. I hope you like the headcanons!

Fandom: Tokyo Debunker

Characters: Edward Hart, Rui Mizuki, Lyca Colt x gn! Reader

Frostheim | Vagastrom | Jabberwock | Sinostra | Hotarubi | Obscuary | Mortkranken

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You're a witch! And even though the characters have made deals with demons themselves, they might have some surprising reactions.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ed’s been around for a very long time. He’s going to have met quite a few witches in his time. He knows straight away what you are.

No sense of secrecy, he’ll come out and tell you he knows straight away. He won’t tell anyone else though. His vampirism might be clearly known but your witchiness isn’t the same.

He’s had some rough encounters with witches in the past but he’s also had some good relations with them so he’s going to keep treating you the same way.

He does really like being in a relationship with someone who’s got supernatural abilities outside of being a ghoul as well. It sort of levels the playing field a bit.

I don’t think Rui would find out on his own. Sure, he’s observant but more so through being a good listener.

When he does find out, he’s going to be surprised but not scared or standoffish. Everyone’s entitled to their secrets and he’ll do what he can to keep yours now that he knows.

He lives with a vampire and a werewolf. A witch is nothing strange to him. But he does like listening to you talk about your latest witch project.

If your powers allow you to minimise the damage of his curse (or shut it off temporarily), he will be over the moon. He’s so glad you’re in his life for so many reasons.

Much like Ed, Lyca’s going to be able to figure it out on his own. He’s got a good sense of smell and when he’s smelling matches up with what he’s heard of witches.

He’ll be pretty standoffish at first. You’ve been keeping a secret from him and in his life, that’s only ever led to bad things.

He’s also never come across a witch before so he’s not sure if you’re going to hurt him or not. Eventually, he figures out that you’re the same person as before.

Once he moves past that, things won’t be that different going forward. He will be a bit more defensive of you though, especially around people who don’t hold good opinions of witches.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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