#none of the characters are likable or well rounded

[babygirlracing]

Bro house of the dragon is the most boring show ever created why was it so hyped 💀

[best-underrated-anime]

Best Underrated Anime Group H Round 2: #H1 vs #H2

#H1: Pro baseball player cares about money

#H2: Girl is sent to family hotel in the country

Details and poll under the cut!

#H1: Gurazeni

Summary:

This is the story of Natsunosuke Honda, a pro baseball player—a relief pitcher who has been playing pro in a team called Spiders for 8 years. The team operates as a highly-stratified society, where the player's performance determines his annual salary. Natsunosuke is one of the highest paid players in the game. He measures how good players are by how much money they make, and he intends to be on top and stay there, and as such is always looking for players to challenge and does everything to insure that he is better than they are.

Propaganda:

Gurazeni appeals to me as a show where all the characters are adults and are written as such. I would not say that Gurazeni's art is particularly good, but the writing has a charm to it. It gets into the little details of baseball stats and how they affect salaries, as well as which position pays more. The characters are fun and likable and the story goes some interesting places. I only saw season 1, but it did get a season 2.

Also, Gurazeni's music is pretty good, with a great OP and ED.

Trigger Warnings: None.

#H2: Hanasaku Iroha: Blossoms for Tomorrow

Summary:

Ohana Matsumae is an energetic and wild teenager residing in Tokyo with her carefree single mother. Abruptly, her mother decides to run away with her new boyfriend from debt collectors, forcing the young girl to fend for herself—as per her mother's "rely only on yourself" philosophy—in rural Japan, where her cold grandmother runs a small inn. Driven to adapt to the tranquil lifestyle of the countryside, Ohana experiences and deals with the challenges of working as a maid, as well as meeting and making friends with enthralling people at her new school and the inn.

Propaganda:

It’s a really great one season show about a teen girl figuring out who she is and what she wants out of life. She makes friends and creates a home for herself despite having no dad and a lackluster Mother. She grows and blossoms into a better, kinder person who enjoys life. It’s a genuinely sweet anime, and everyone in it is trying their best. It’s a feel good show, and if you need a smile, give it a shot. Frankly, it’s very much character-centric, and you can’t help but root for them and feel for them when they suffer.

Trigger Warnings: Mild Emotional Abuse in the past. The Mom isn’t abusive physically, but she does suck and neglects her kid emotionally, so maybe Child Abuse?

When reblogging and adding your own propaganda, please tag me @best-underrated-anime so that I’ll be sure to see it.

If you want to criticize one of the shows above to give the one you’re rooting for an advantage, then do so constructively. I do not tolerate groundless hate or slander on this blog. If I catch you doing such a thing in the notes, be it in the tags or reblogs, I will block you.

Know one of the shows above and not satisfied with how it’s presented in this tournament? Just fill up this form, where you can submit revisions for taglines, propaganda, trigger warnings, and/or video.

[sanityandsonder]

Just finished Devil Venerable Also Wants To Know

It's about

A sullen and loyal (to one (1) person) horror movie boss (he's not actually in one. But he sure brings the psychotic mass-murderer vibes)

And a righteous AND imorral vanquisher of armies who lives for fighting. He likes saving people, and enabling awful people. It's a weird mix that somehow works. (His line between what's okay and what isn't makes sense, and he's clear about it.)

The main plot is trying to make a girl stop being brainwashed by love for the biggest scum of all boyfriends.

It's... It's kinda funny really, because the main pair are... not good people xD but they Are good lovers. Eventually.

While the bitchass boy the girl is in love with, is kinda other than being a piece of shit, actually a good person. Ish.

There is like. Two people in this who are genuinely someone I would give a good person card. And one of them is presumably going to eventually go back to causing giant natural disasters. While the other teaches a bunch of villains how to villain better. so its. It's a very fun book!

(i mean none of the villain MCs are bad enough to stop rooting for them. The comedy vibes also helps. And once the reasons come out... Well personally it doesn't exuse the... Blatant day to day villainy xD But they Are very likable. So)

Recommended for sure if you like svsss. If you're fine with that then nothing here should be unreadable. It's also similar in theme? I might make a separate post with more spoilers about the similarities between PIDW and... Well. You'll see.

Oh, it also has much higher screen-time for female characters, and they are awesome and well-rounded. (although, named bacround characters are usually men. Still, overall this aspect is better than most novels I've read)

Read it if you haven't!

[provincial-girl]

So, when I get really into a new show, I like to go ahead and look up the meaning of character’s names. Often there’s not much of interest there, or the name doesn’t say a whole lot. Then, every once in a while, I come across some neat stuff, which is what happens when you look into the meaning of names for A League of Their Own characters, particularly Greta and Meg's names. 

The first very first thing I found when I started down this specific rabbit hole is that Greta means “pearl,” which honestly makes so much sense for her. A pearl is this pretty, shiny object,  but it's created when a grain of sand or food particle gets stuck inside the shell of the oyster. To protect itself from the irritant, the oyster secretes a substance that will harden around the grain of sand and eventually become the pearl. Greta is exactly like the pearl in a lot of ways, because she’s shiny and charming, but her outward appearance is very much a product of all the things she does to protect herself from getting hurt. She has this secret that she knows is dangerous, and she constantly cloaks herself in this protective layer, putting on a performance to keep herself and those around her safe. The product is pretty to look at, made to be looked at even, but it is a hard outer shell meant to protect Greta from suffering any more pain than she already has.   

In an interesting twist, Meg means “pearl” as well, because both names appear to have roots that can be linked back to the name Margaret. We know so little about Meg, Carson’s sister,  that any attempt to draw parallels requires a certain amount of speculation. If the parallel is meant to be intentional though, it would suggest that there’s something similar about Carson’s sister and Greta that we don’t explicitly see.

 One possibility is that perhaps Meg’s fixation on behaving acceptably in the eyes of those around her comes from the fact that she thinks it will offer a layer of protection from censure. That’s why she marries and has kids right away, and bakes the pie that Carson promises the woman at the train station to save face (Greta’s end of the phone conversation with Meg suggests as much). That behavior and her insistence that Carson conform is a defense mechanism, a hurtful, damaging, deeply misguided attempt to protect herself and her family from the same sort of pain that comes from their mother failing to conform when she leaves them behind. She might actually be more concerned about protecting the family than herself, as she specifically mentions their father having to answer questions, as he probably had to when their mother left. She even says she wishes their mother was around so Carson wasn’t her problem, which suggests that Meg wouldn’t be reacting in this way if their mother had never left. Is Meg simply suggesting that their mother might’ve made this call instead? Maybe, but the fact remains that Meg behaves in the way she does, calls and yells at Carson for running away because their mother isn’t around, and she feels it’s her duty to do it to maintain an acceptable image of their family. It's a misguided attempt to protect them from censure and the same pain that comes from their mother leaving. 

The natural reaction may be to say, well, Greta and Meg are nothing alike, because there are a lot of ways in which they’re not alike at all. To start, the repercussions of not performing properly are so much higher for Greta than Meg. Meg doesn’t face the threat of physical harm that Greta does, and the censure she faces is much less intense than what Greta faces if she’s discovered. The fact, however, remains that a lot of their behavior is a reaction to societal pressures to conform and an instinct to avoid pain. None of this is to say that Meg’s behavior is remotely acceptable, or that Meg could ever be as compelling and well-rounded as Greta. What we know of Meg isn’t even a little bit flattering, but I don’t think Meg has to be likable to be understood. This potential parallel  simply gives a bit more depth to Meg, makes the story as a whole a bit more interesting. It suggests that every female character, even the ones as minor and unlikeable as Meg, face some kind of societal pressure to perform in a certain way or face repercussions, and their behavior and treatment of others is often shaped by that pressure.

Again, this all involves a certain amount of conjecture, and may very well be a coincidence, but ALOTO is such a thoughtful show that I just can’t help thinking there’s a real possibility this was an entirely intentional choice. Greta’s name meaning and the Meg parallel were the most compelling ones I found, but there’s also a whole bunch of other name meanings that I’ve found that are actually perfect for the characters, which suggests to me that at least some of these character names are very intentionally chosen for their meaning, and I could definitely see more meta potential in that list. Whether the name choices are fully intentional or not, I enjoy thinking about the way that small details contribute to a story’s larger, overarching themes, and love that this show continues to offer up opportunities to do just that. 

[mesmerium]

Dont mind me just dumping my 2.5/5 star review of s1x of cr0w5 here because i need to get this off my chest 😭

I consider myself a very average person in the sense that i, more often than not, like what’s popular. Usually i agree with the majority and even when i don’t, i still see the appeal and just go, “ok, not for me.” But this book was terrible. I fail to see what people actually like about it…… and it’s not like i picked it up because of the rave reviews, my sister let me borrow it because she liked it. I didn’t check other ratings or reviews at all, so when i finally finished it (a feat in and of itself) and went to log it onto my goodreads, i was shocked by how much love it received lol. Yes i am 27 but i still do like YA, so that wasn’t the issue here

Starting with the good: i think b4rdug0 did decently with her prose and worldbuilding, settings and people were described well enough that i wasn’t TOO confused. That and w¥lan and j3sp3r’s banter were the only things i liked.

Getting it out of the way that although i would’ve preferred them to be aged up, it’s not really something i cared about much. A lot of the people who didn’t like the book complained about this, but other than them having too much experience for the years they have lived on this planet, i just shrugged it off because eh, it’s YA. Ofc there will be some sort of power fantasy involving teens.

For the plot, i was so excited for it because heists are fun and it’s amazing when the tension is set up right!!! Alas, everything was too conveniently resolved. Just as you think the tension can finally be built, the scene is over. Or something is happening omg, and then you’re hit with a flashback that completely takes you out of it. Don’t even know what the stakes were for this operation. It sucks how predictable a lot of the conflicts were :’) the appeal of a heist is when you don’t know what will happen, when you’re a hair’s breadth from getting caught but you don’t.. didn’t feel that at all here. It almost felt like they just waltzed in and out

The characters felt SO flat to me. Some of them felt like caricatures while the others were simply trying too hard to be edgy, and some felt like an afterthought (ahem, w¥lan). None of them are likable, which is fine i don’t need to like characters honestly, but unlikable to the point of me not being invested in them at all. I didn’t care what happened to any of them. Their relationships with each other don’t feel important enough, and then they’re all paired up… huh? I don’t care enough about nin4 x matth14s, the author didn’t care enough about j3sper x w¥lan. In3j and k4z would’ve been ok if the author set it up well enough. It would’ve been nicer if it were a bit more of a slow burn, perhaps their relationship picking up in the second book. WHY did she have to force it to happen in the first?????? It felt so out of character honestly, like you set up k4z that way and then you tell me he acts like this…… if there were moments prior wherein k4z would act contrary to how people thought he was then it would’ve been believable. But legitimately his behavior blindsided me lol.

Nin4 being plus sized could’ve been handled better too. Oh i like eating, i’m indecently round (LIKE WHAT IS THIS), my jugs are big. What in the world

The use of foreign language feels… kinda forced and clunky? I’m all for worldbuilding, and it’s great that there’s diversity in this fictional world, but the foreign languages aren’t used in any way that furthers the narrative. It’s jarring, like when someone is speaking in an american english accent and then says croissant as cwahsahn. D

Anyway i’m surprised i finished it. Had to skim the last 50 pages because i just wanted to see how it would end. Kinda expected the “twist” unfortunately. Also i cannot take anyone named p3kk4 r0llin5 seriously as a villain lmao

[my-mt-heart]

Season 11 reads like AK was strapped to the front fender of the car rather than driving the thing. I have been wondering about who's actually responsible for this season's mess ever since the beginning of B block since you don't go from resurrecting a show way past its prime (I can't emphasize enough how great a feat that is!) to not being able to construct a cohesive season arc. Sadly, AK has probably known since she changed her instagram that there would be no spinoff for her.

The little moments: Connie wanting to go w/ Carol, the lingering Caryl looks, Carol tending to Maggie's cheek—those feel like someone's desperately trying to add the actual story in the cracks of a crowded script. I don't want to make you all go TLDR; by giving a point-by-point as to why I think Gimple's providing the notes, but his John Hancock is all over this season. There's definitely studio intervention and it goes far back, to the start of the season.

S11 is very male-driven: it's about Daryl, Eugene, Hornsby, Aaron, Gabriel... We even have more Tomi than Yumiko. Even though there's Maggie (and Leah), we don't get any emotional depth to them, just like we didn't get enough of a red thread to Carol's emotional arc in S6 beyond MMB's nonverbal cues. We have more insight into Hornsby than Maggie. Alpha was well-rounded and Leah could have topped her for scariest villain, because her trajectory would have started out as 'likable' girlfriend.

It feels like there's no point to Pamela Milton; she's wallpaper and a waste of a good actress. There's none of that intricate emotional interplay between Milton and Hornsby that we got with Alpha and Beta. They were foils for Carol and Daryl, but we have no such parallel with Milton and Hornsby, which beggars the question, why? The setup is perfect but squandered, and we know this is something AK can do beautifully.

[I may have worked out how to submit a wall of text! :P – secret friend]

All really great observations. The weird framing of the story was definitely something I caught onto, though I attributed a lot of it to scrambling to tie up loose ends for supporting characters whose stories would be coming to an official close by the end of the season and having way too many supporting characters to do that for. Now that you mention it, I absolutely see how a lot of it is centered around men while there is no emotional realism for the women.  Maggie being forced to trust Negan, Carol and Connie not checking in with each other, Carol and Leah not having a confrontation despite the big roles they’ve both played in Daryl’s life. Kang spoiled us in S10 and imagining what she could’ve delivered in S11 if she was really in the drivers seat is...sigh. 

[chameshida]

Dragons: The nine realms season 3 review/thought

At first I'm considering formating this review as "The good, the bad and the ugly" But after having watching it I feels that there's too little for me to consider bad or ugly so instead this is going to be in the usual mix opinion bullet form. and my general opinion is that----

Season 3 is easily the best of the 3 season! and the closest it feels to the old series with how dragons focus it is. It's like an improve season 2 without dubious dragon designs like Bubblehorn or Spiderwing or a horrible Buzzsaw introduction episode. Of course there’re still problems and I wouldn’t say the improvement is drastic or series changing that would convinve people to like the show if they’ve already decide via first two season that the show is not their cup of tea. The plot and written is still bare-bone and only servicable but all in all It’s still the same turn your brain off dragons of the episode show I can enjoy with the open-minded. Now for the indepth points;

- There are 3 new named dragons introduced in this season and I'm very glad to say that for once, all three dragons hit and none has miss! I really love these new additions whole heartedly. Flamethrowers although I would place somewhere in the middle tier comfortably with something like Sandbuster, Grim gnasher or Shadow wing, you know, late rtte dragons (and has lame name) as like not having much to standout, I do think is one of the most, how should I say this, completed well rounded design from nine realms if I say so myself.

Deadly Spinner is weird but in the good endearing weird, my favourite kind of weird.  I like my dragon weird and eff up. They are Therizinosaurus sort of weird animal. also Bias but they reminds me of my fan dragons. I also like the face and the spine. This is kind of thing I'm talk about with Spiderwing. Spiderwing basically just a spider with wings slapping on top of it but this guy is a properly spider inspired dragons the way I like. Still sad we dont get to see animated silkspanner though. Dreamworks come on!!!

and lastly the Sky torcher is a thing of beauty! I was very surprise when the thing appear and looking this good thanks to the lack of appearance in the trailer or marketing, nice!

oh and also there are these nameless guys.

- All the returning species are a darling and was done justice and got a lot of screentime for their whole episode they appear. There're monsterous nightmare, Gronckle (fire gronckle but basically the same thing),Fireworm, Quaken and Hobgobbler who make a debut in any series ever. as well as Terrible terror and Razorwhip who are still here to stay. Fireworm is my one of my top favourite and seeing them get the episode dedicate to it make me happy.

Although why is nightmare walk like the nadder? When is fireworm having pupils?

- I have mentioned this before but I like that they avoid mentioning the old dragon species name because it would make no sense for the kid to come up with the exact same species of dragons, with the closest mention of it being "These little terrors" or "this fire breathing Nightmare". Monsterous Nightmare is more or less being dub as "Fire breather" in this era. (kids and their creative naming smh, it fits the kids character but hahaha)

- Feather and Alex are continue to cary the show. Not just for their likability but also their in-universe compitent like omg Feather make Thunder look so incompitent with all the heavy lifting she pull this season, Night fury who? she basically naping the MVP status none stop. Big bad dragon? disorientrd with her scream. Human discovering dragons? invisibility. Needing distraction or prep talk? Alex got your back. I think at this point Feather is now my third favourite dragon character after Thornado and Cloudjumper

-There're clear progression of the human discovering dragons plot, something I normally dread on the previous first two season for being the bad part of the show but this season they actually handle it pretty well because like i said, clear progression (instead of keep dancing around it). Eugene now knows. Alex moms now sorta know. Buzzsaw now knows...

- Speaking of Buzzsaw, he's still the negative spot of the show and is a very incompetent villain but looking at him as a Diet Dagur and it made sense and somewhat passable. Still pretty weak and annoying and yeah.."Diet"

- As for the scient site stuff, they're actually mostly on the side line this season and not much of a bother.

- Eugene! I like his inclusion in this season and the team!

- Jun's character is actually improving, a welcoming improvement

- There's a lot of good human-dragon interaction in this season. Particulary on the first episode between Tom and the Monsterous Nightmare, The quaken episode and the last episode with Tom and the Fault ripper arc being resolve. The quaken episdoe while i still has some issues on the ending think handle an interesting set up of D'angelo just---just---feeding Quaken's eggs to the gronckles and deal with the grieving mother. The ending is kind of a cop-out but it's still the episode I enjoy

-Majority of the jokes actually land and I found myself chuckling on various point in every episode. I plan on putting it in the review but found there's so much so I just going to bring up one of my favourite being when Buzzsaw discovered Thunder and Eugene just yoink him in the heas and put a leaf on him.

-Thunder takes a back seat????? which might consider be a problem/issue to thunder continuing to be the boring one (tm) of the show but because I have that issue with thunder the fact that this season barely focus on him actually kind of feel nice. Like he's still around but kinda being just as Tom's riden dragon. Almost similar to how Toothless in the old series doesn't have much character outside of Hiccup riden dragon either *gunshot*

- The invasive species plot in this arc make me think back about the ethnicity of Toothless' decision in Hidden world and reminds me of my own plot------pro-segregation Toothless/hj

- Sad theres nothing to come out more of the Alpha gem yet. It's one of the plot thread I'm very interesting on (again because it reminds me of my own plot)

- The musics while over-dramatic at time, do slap

- better texture and lighting? I think composition and animation still the main issue that is work against it but season 3 look much better on the eye or I might just already getting use to it.

- The ending. I'm never that BIGGGG on rtte either but I gasped and getting a little giddy.

- I 90% predict snow wraith is going to show up next season (because we know they're going to be in the game) also finger cross for desert realm desert realm desert realm

Over all pretty happy/content with this season and actually very excited for the next one. again, if you are not on board in the first place this probably still wont do it. but I'm happy. I will also be looking forward to the video game that is going to be release later this year.

Lastly, the regular new dragons rank. I will do both what I think is the best design and what dragon I feel emotionally attach to this time. There're some old dragons that move up and down on rank though to my opinion changing on them due to exposure, like Misttwister who is growing on me quite a bit. Magma breather is straight up just a good dragon with good design I took back my lukewarm opinion from the last season. Fault ripper I still have problem with how it looks generic and out of place and like melificent dragon stumbling into the wrong show but I can begin to acknowledge the merit of some of its design and I don't turn my nose when I saw it again this season. I actually like it fine. Flood fang unfortunately droping down due to lesser exposure and me begin to think it's too simple.

Best design <> Fav dragons

1. Gembreaker, Featherhide

2. Featherhide , Gembreaker

3. Flamethrower, Deadly Spinner

4. Sky torcher, Sky torcher

5. Magma breather, Magma breather

6.  Flood fang, Flood fang

7. Deadly Spinner, Flamethrower

8. Misttwister, Misttwister

9. Faultripper, Faultripper

10. Thunder, Thunder

11. Spiderwing, Spiderwing

12. Bubblehorn, Bubblehorn

[hopeymchope]

Persona Lite with Fire Emblem sprinkles on top

I’ve been addicted to Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore on my Switch for the past few weeks, and I’m getting close to wrapping it up. I figured it’s high time I talked about it a bit.

The game that would become Tokyo Mirage Sessions (TMS) was first announced as “Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem,” which is absolutely not a good way to describe what this became. 

This title led so many people astray.

What comes to mind when you think of (mainline) Shin Megami Tensei games? An apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic setting. First-person-perspective battles. Negotiating with demons. Battles against deities. TMS contains a little bit of the third thing on that list, and none of the others. 

What comes to mind when you think of Fire Emblem? Medieval-era settings. Permadeath (either optional or mandatory). RTS-style combat. The famed “weapon triangle.” Support conversations. TMS contains the fourth thing on that list, and none of the others. 

But let’s be honest here: For most people (especially Westerners), the first thing you think of when you think about Shin Megami Tensei isn’t even the games with “Shin Megami Tensei” in the title. It’s the Persona series! They’ve grown far more popular than their parent franchise at this point.

So I suppose it was natural that TMS is, at its core, a “Persona Lite” game. The darker edges of Persona titles are removed in favor of something more T-friendly, but the basics are all there: A group of teenagers in modern-day Japan discover a strange alternate dimension that they can access which also gives them the ability to summon supernatural powers/entities. When people start to go missing in this other dimension, it falls to this group of teens to unite and save the day, ultimately leading to them discovering the reason why this alternate world has been bleeding into modern Japan in the first place and, in the end, saving humanity from annihilation. That’s totally how Persona works, and it’s also totally how Tokyo Mirage Sessions works!

However, instead of summoning Shin Megami Tensei demons as “Personas,” the heroes of TMS summon Fire Emblem characters that are “Mirages.” Each character is permanently linked to a single Mirage, so there are no “Wild Card” characters here. However, you can level the characters’ mirages up to make them take on new forms and new abilities. FE fans will notice that all of the characters here are from the Falchion/Tiki/Shadow Dragon stories - the two Marth adventures (Shadow Dragon/Mystery of the Emblem) and the semi-recent 3DS hit Awakening.

For some weird reason, all of the Fire Emblem “mirages” wear helmets, masks, or other face coverings 100% of the time. The only exception is Tiki.

The lack of the darker themes in many Persona games and the fact that there’s no “Wild Card” to manage is what makes this, in my opinion, more like PERSONA LITE. And then you get your Fire Emblem backup characters to serve as extra flavoring. The characters we meet from Fire Emblem are rarely the focus — you spend most of your time with the teen heroes — but they still manage to show off their unique personalities and carry in a load of FE fanservice. (The good kind of fanservice where it’s full of references and nods to the continuity of the series, I mean. Not the other kind where it’s softcore porn.)

Fire Emblem fanservice was one of the biggest delights for me here. If you’re looking for any SMT/Persona characters to pop up and link the continuity together, you can stop looking because they aren’t here. But if you want to see specific characters from the three source FE games pop up here, a metric ton manage to do so. For example: Tharja (from Awakening) creates two golems for training purposes, which she names Bord and Cord after the pair of heroes from Marth’s era. And then the actual spirits of Bord and Cord possess those golems. So naturally, they start bickering and fighting. It’s delightful. 

So yeah, there’s plenty of nods for FE fans to appreciate even if your favorite characters are taking a back seat to a bunch of teenagers. Fire Emblem fans will recognize the heroic mirages, the enemy boss mirages, the weapon triangle weakness/strength system and lots of musical cues. On the flip side, Persona fans will recognize the story structure, the magic spells the characters wield (things like “Mazio” and “Diarama” and “Rakukaja”), the common enemies you encounter and cameos from a few of the more famous demons found on signage around Tokyo. Sadly, there are no familiar sounds or music pieces borrowed from SMT/Persona that I noticed.

In addition to the main story, there are also “Side Stories” for your party and side quests from various NPCs. The whole game lasts around 50 hours even if you aren’t trying to 100% it.

And while the music here is mostly pretty good — especially the Fire Emblem themes — I really wish we’d gotten some Persona-style tunes in here. Persona soundtracks are absolutely killer and everybody knows it. I wanted to hear some Shihoko Hirata, some Lotus Juice, some Yumi Kawamura, some Lyn Inaizumi. Alas, that never happens. Sad face.

In fact, as far as vocal tracks go, you’ll only be hearing the performances of the main characters. See, the story this time revolves around a group of teens who are hired by a talent agency to become young starlets of the stage and screen. You meet plenty of pop idols, a cooking show host, aspiring actors, and those who do combinations of the above. There’s a lot of focus on the Japanese entertainment industry, and it’s mostly a very positive portrayal about how hard teen stars work to reach their dreams and how fulfilling it can be when they express themselves through their artistic pursuits. Speaking as someone who legitimately does not care one iota about the idol industry in Japan or Asia as a whole, I’m very happy that these characters managed to remain likable and their pursuits stayed enjoyable throughout. No one here is an ultra-deep character, but no one here is a total cipher, either. I’m additionally thankful that the vocal songs are another highlight of the soundtrack alongside the FE tunes. 

The last thing I’ll bring up is the “Sessions” mentioned in the title. It’s a battle mechanic wherein striking an enemy with a weapon or element they’re weak to will enable other characters to start jumping in with follow-up attacks. At first, it’s just one or two follow-ups, but by the game’s end, you might be sitting there for 15 or more consecutive strikes on an enemy after you initiate a “Session” of follow-ups. The greatest quality-of-life improvement built into this Switch port is that you can turn on “Quick Session” to make these attack animations much shorter and more rapid than they ever were in the Wii U original. I never had to play that one, but I can’t imagine I’d have much patience for constantly triggering 15 attack animations with every round. SO glad I don’t have to sit through that.

This is just a two-strike Sessions, so it won’t last long enough for you to take a beverage break.

So yeah, there’s a lot for RPG fans, Persona fans, and most of all, Fire Emblem fans to dig in “Tokyo Mirage Sessions.” And since we already covered that Danganronpa fans are apparently predisposed to enjoying Persona and Fire Emblem, that probably means that YOU, dear reader, are likely to dig this game as well. 

[thetrashywritingwitch]

what made you like Bakugo so much? for me, when i started the series I felt extremely sorry for Izuku (still kinda do?) and it looked to me like Hori overdid the bully part, especially in first season. the suicide suggestion hit me the hardest and whenever I read fiction that somewhat follows cannon, it hits me hard each time Bakugo says this roof dive line, yuck. i still wonder how it happened that i actually started to genuinely like his character, sometimes i wonder if im a bad person o.o

hmm so i really do resonate with this because i did not like bakugou at all at the beginning of the series. note that i didn't start watching until after S1 was already finished, so i kinda binged it like most of us do

i used to be bullied as a kid as well, so at the time i resonated with midoriya dealing with childhood isolation, lack of friends, dealing with cruel words at the hands of others, though it wasn't quite to bakugou's assholeish level. because yeah, he absolutely was a terrible kid back in middle school and throughout the first half of his year at UA

(note on this: i want to recognize that i do think bakugou has an abusive and neglectful home life. i've shared my thoughts on mitsuki before, but if you read my Before You Follow, you'll see that i think she's verbally and physically abusive towards him, he has gifted child syndrome, has an inferiority complex, anxiety, and probably a few other things. but also note that even though a lot of these issues show up in his character and personality, none of it is an excuse to bully midoriya or say what he did at the time)

i think midoriya's ability to forgive is part of his downfall as a character and why i honestly don't like him much anymore. obviously, at the beginning, he was terrified of bakugou and very nervous around him for valid reasons. but as time progressed and character development happened, just like all might said, they have more of a proper rivalry going on now because they each have what the other lacks

i dont think you or anyone else is a bad person for liking bakugou, so long as you recognize that what he did and who he was as a 14/15 year old kid was incredibly cruel and beyond inappropriate. if you gloss over these things and who he was, then you miss the entirety of his developmental arc which is like, HALF the plot of the manga because its massive. we can enjoy characters who have proper growth and see the potential for them to be great, multi-faceted characters so long as we recognize the harm they've done (note this doesn't apply to endeavor i still hate him ;)

anyway, i didn't like him as a character in the beginning and i latched onto Kirishima instead because he was such a beacon of sunshine and very likable. this blog started out as a kirishima-only blog lol and he was mainly who i was concerned writing for. then, i read more of the manga, saw the sports festival arc, and appreciated bakugou more as a character because i saw him as a flawed and neglected kid who didn't have the right guidance growing up, so he lashed out in the only way he knew how: violence

we've seen bakugou cry multiple times in the story and break down in incredibly vulnerable ways, and that humanized him for me. and his crying is always just... angry, when he's at his peak of "i dont know what else to do and my frustrations have boiled over". when he cries in the schoolyard in S1, when he's on the verge of an anxiety attack when he realizes he's lost to midoriya during that 2 vs 2 battle, when he's scared when Dabi captures him (the emotion of that still gets to me), when he screams about his own weakness in deku vs bakugou 2... and how he continually loses and fails despite having a strong quirk. the story isn't nice to him, and i honestly loved to see this really in-depth look at a character who is far more than an angry tsundere trope that a lot of people boil him down to

anyway, you're not a bad person and i'm not either. he's one of the most interesting and well rounded characters in the series imo and even if i care less and less for the story and fandom, i still want to see how things will be wrapped up for him in the end

[thecaffeinebookwarrior]

The Dos and Don’ts of Writing Smart Characters

Since I started this blog, one of the most common questions I’ve received has to do with the portrayal of intelligent characters.  This is also one of the most difficult to answer -- excluding questions about characters with specialized knowledge sets, which are fairly easy to answer with source compilations.  Most of the questions have to do with:  how do you portray a smart character believably?  How do you make the audience relate to them?  Can I still make them likable?  How do I avoid the pitfalls of popular media?

Well, I’m finally here to answer, utilizing examples from some of my favorite (and occasionally, not-so-favorite) media.  Let’s jump in to the dos and don’ts of smart characters!

1.  Do let the audience follow the character’s thought process.  

As demonstrated by:  Tommy Shelby from Peaky Blinders

Albert Einstein allegedly once said, “If you can’t explain it to a five-year-old, you don’t truly understand it.”  And the sentiment rings true:  true genius doesn’t need to dazzle with big words and technobabble.  Instead, it makes the complex appear simple.

The same rings true for brilliant characters.  BBC’s Sherlock (more on that later) ceased to satisfy in its later seasons because it began to rely too heavily on visual glitz to avoid actually explaining its mysteries and how they were solved.  Similarly, the biggest complaints with block buster franchises -- Star Wars, The Avengers, Game of Thrones -- is that they became obsessed with “subverting expectations” cleverly instead of leading the audiences to their most logical and satisfying conclusions.

Meanwhile, the smartest and most satisfying media dazzles not by staying over the audience’s head, but by illustrating how simplistic the solutions can be.

Let’s start with my boy Tommy Shelby, the charismatic, swaggering protagonist of the charismatic, swaggering crime drama Peaky Blinders.  Using only his intelligence (and complete disregard for his own life/suicidal tendencies, but that’s not the point here), Tommy claws his way up from the near-bottom of the social ladder (an impoverished Romani in early 20th century Birmingham) to being a decorated war hero, to being the leader of a feared razor gang, to dominating the race track business, to becoming a business mogul, to becoming a member of parliament and trying to assassinate the leader of the fascist party. He’s also one of the paramount reasons why I’m bisexual.

So how can such a drastic social climb be conveyed believably?  Because Tommy -- as the viewpoint character -- is placed in seemingly inescapable situations, and then proceeds to demonstrate that the solutions to those situations have been there the whole time.  I recently watched a brilliant video on how this is done, which can be viewed here.

Early in season one, for example, he responds to aggressive new methods by the police by organizing a mass-burning of paintings of the king, and uses the press this garners to publicly shame the methods of the chief inspector who’s been antagonizing him.  In the next season, he talks his way into a deal by bluffing that he planted a grenade in his rival’s distillery.  My personal favorite is in season four, when he responds to being outgunned by a larger, American gang by contacting their rival -- none other than an Alphonse Capone.

All of Tommy’s victories are satisfying, because they don’t come out of nowhere -- we have access to the same information he does, each victory is carefully foreshadowed, and we are reminded at every turn that failure is a very real possibility (more on that later.)  So when he wins, we’re cheering with him.

Other examples:  Mark Watney from The Martian, who explains science in its most simplistic terms and with infectious enthusiasm.  He would make every character on The Big Bang Theory cry.  

Also, Miss Fisher from the AMAZING Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries.  The dazzling, 1920s, female Sherlock Holmes of your dreams.  I cannot recommend it enough.

To apply this to your own writing:  Remember you won’t dazzle anyone if you smack them in the face with a “brilliant” plot twist.  They want to take a journey with your character, not be left in the dust.  

Also, for everyone in my askbox concerned that they’re not smart enough to write intelligent characters, just remember how simple the problems confronting smart characters can be.  Put them in a difficult situation, and provide them with a means of getting out.  Then, just let them find it. 

2.  Don’t assume the audience is too stupid to keep up (or try to make them feel too stupid to keep up.)

As demonstrated by:  Sherlock Holmes from BBC’s Sherlock.

Say what you will:  there were reasons why everyone was so captivated by this show during its first two seasons.  It felt fresh.  People had yet to become frustrated with the inescapable thirst for Benedict Cumberbatch.  The writing was sharp, and the editing clever.  And it wove a tantalizing web of mysteries that demanded solution.  The problem was, there weren’t any.

The most frustrating for many was how Sherlock faked his death at the end of season two, after which devoted fans spent two years creating intricate theories on how he might have pulled this off.  The creators responded by mocking this dedication in the opening episode of season three, by showing a fan club spinning outlandish theories (one of which included Sherlock and Moriarty kissing.)  This might have been laughed off -- at the time, many seemed to consider it quite funny -- if the creators had bothered to offer their own explanation of how Sherlock survived.  They didn’t.  And so began a seemingly endless loop of huge cliffhangers that promised -- and consistently failed to deliver -- satisfying answers.

The most egregious examples occur in season four, which provided answers to questions no one asked, and withheld answers for things everyone wanted to know.  For example, did you know that the real reason Moriarty engaged Sherlock is because he was hypnotized by Sherlock’s secret evil sister?  The same one who killed Sherlock’s best friend, whom Sherlock convinced himself was a dog?  Yes, that was a real plot point, in the climax of the series.  It’s an effort to befuddle the audience with brilliant and unexpected writing, but instead pulled them out of a story they were already invested in and made them far more critical of its pre-existing faults. 

It’s pointed out in the brilliant (if bluntly named) Sherlock Is Garbage, And Here’s Why that Moffat can be a great writer, but is a consistently terrible show runner, because he’s more interested in dazzling the audience with cleverness than actually telling a satisfying story.  The video also points out that the show often implied Sherlock’s brilliance, without ever letting the audience follow along with his actions or thought-process in a way that DEMONSTRATED his brilliance.  

I highly recommend giving the aforementioned video a watch, because it is not only a great explanation of how Sherlock Holmes can be best utilized, but about how writing itself can be best utilized.

Other examples:  The Big Bang Theory.  As Wisecrack points out in their wonderful video on the subject, the punchline of every joke is “oh look, these characters are smart nerds!” which is repetitious at best and downright insulting at worst.

How to avoid this in your writing:  Treat the audience as your equal.  You’re not trying to bedazzle them, you’re trying to take them on a journey with you.  Let them be delighted when you are.  Don’t constantly try to mislead them or hold intelligence over their head, and they will love you for it.  Also, cheap tricks do not yield a satisfying story:  readers will know when you went into a narrative without a plan, and they won’t appreciate it.

3.  Do remember that smart people can be kind and optimistic!

As demonstrated by:  Shuri from Black Panther.

Yes, brilliant people can be unhappy and isolated by their intelligence, or rejected by society.  But remember that intelligence isn’t synonymous with a cantankerous attitude, or an excuse to be a pugnacious ass to those around you!  

Part of the reason why Shuri of 2018′s Black Panther was such a breath of fresh air was the fact that she subverted almost all preconceptions about how a genius looks, acts, and regards the world.  And it’s not just the fact that she isn’t a sullen, middle-aged white man that makes her stand out:  Shuri has an effervescent attitude, and genuinely loves contributing to her country and family.  She referred to sound-proof boots as “sneakers” (and then explained the pun when her brother didn’t get it.)  She’s fashionable.  She teases her older brother, and cries when he is apparently killed.  She’s up on meme culture.  This makes her unlike pretty much every other genius portrayed in the MCU.

Except maybe the Hulk.  He can dab now.

Shuri is also allowed to take pride in her genius, and can be a bit insufferable about it, which makes her more enjoyable and rounded.  But she is an excellent example of how genius can be explored and portrayed in fiction, and I will forever be embittered that she was underutilized in Infinity War and Endgame.

Why, for example, are all geniuses portrayed as arrogant misanthropes?  Albert Einstein battled depression, but he is also said to have enjoyed blowing bubbles and watching puppet shows.  He was kind to those who knew him.  Similarly, Alan Turing behaved little like his fictional counterpart, described as “shy but outgoing,” with a love of being outdoors.  Nikola Tesla fell in love with a pigeon.  Why do we have to portray these people so damn gravely?

Other examples:  Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds.  Also an excellent portrayal of an intelligent person on the autism spectrum, as he struggles to interface socially but cares profusely for his fellow human beings.  He is brilliant, and completely precious.

Also, Sherlock Holmes -- the original version, and all faithful adaptations thereof.  Anyone who thinks Sherlock is an austere, antisocial jerk isn’t familiar with the original canon.  He blushed when Watson complimented his intelligence, for God’s sake. 

Then there’s Elle Woods from Legally Blonde and Marge from Fargo.  Brilliant, upbeat, optimistic geniuses.

To apply this to your own writing:  If you have a smart character who hates everyone around them for no identifiable reason, ask yourself why this is necessary and what this adds to the plot.  Are they angry about injustice, towards themselves or others?  Are they frustrated with an inability to relate to people?  Do they want to protect themselves or their family at all costs, including politeness?  If not, question why your brilliant character can’t also be kind to those around them.

4.  Don’t make your character perfect at everything they do.

As demonstrated by:  Wesley Crusher from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Ah, Wesley.  Some call him the original Mary Sue, and it’s one of the only times I’ve seen the term applied with some accuracy.  He is somehow the most gifted and least qualified person on The Enterprise.  He’s Hermione Granger without the charm, jumping in to answer questions before any of the trained officers in the room have the chance to, always in the right.  His only obstacle?  Why, the boorish adults he’s surrounded with simply don’t understand his brilliance!

As early as the series’ very second episode, Wesley -- inebriated by an alien illness -- forcibly takes over the ship from Captain Picard, only to later save it from a threat with a reverse tractor beam of his own design.  

Wesley was obviously inserted as a means of attracting younger viewers, but failed egregiously, because he was too annoyingly perfect for kids to relate too, and not cool enough for them to be invested in.  I binge-watched the various Star Trek series in my youth for Spock, Data, and my wife Seven of Nine, not to watch seasoned military and scientific officers get lectured by an adolescent.  Even Wil Wheaton, who had the misfortune of portraying this character, expressed a dislike for him.  

Precocious children are great, if you get them right.  But get them wrong, and they can easily become your most annoying character, marring the face of otherwise great media.  The most important thing you can do for a brilliant character is endow them with weaknesses and flaws -- even something as small as Shuri’s fondness for teasing her older brother made her enjoyable, as anyone with siblings could relate to their dynamic.  

But, what if you want a supernaturally talented character who not only fails to be a ray of sunshine, but is something of an arrogant, antisocial jerk?  Can they still work, especially if they also happen to be a child? 

Yes, under one extremely important condition:

5.  Do keep your characters out of their depth!

As demonstrated by:  Number Five from Umbrella Academy.

Okay, he’s not exactly a child.  He’s a fifty-eight-year-old trapped in a child’s body, who’s traveled back in time from a post-apocalyptic future to warn his siblings of an incoming Armageddon.  In other news, Umbrella Academy is a weird show.  Unlike the comics, however, the apes don’t engage in prostitution. 

 The effect, however, remains the same:  a preternaturally talented child who talks down to everyone around him, including his (apparently) older siblings.  So why does he work while Wesley fails so egregiously?

For one thing, it’s demonstrated early on that Five has the skills to back up his sanctimonious attitude, with the delightfully ultraviolent Istanbul (Not Constantinople) sequence.  It also helps that he lacks Wesley’s squeaky-clean moral code, to the point at which he can get drunk in public or kill without remorse.  

But:  the element most vital to his success as a character is the fact that he’s kept completely, and consistently, out of his depth.  He knows the world will end in eight days, but he doesn’t know how this will transpire or how to stop it.  Ultimately, he fails again to stop the apocalypse, and must travel back in time with his siblings for another chance.  

Most authors have the impulse to demonstrate a character’s brilliance by allowing them to succeed against insurmountable odds, but the Umbrella Academy writers show tremendous wisdom in allowing Five to fail.  This allows the audience to empathize with him, and countermands the effects of his arrogant attitude.

This advice isn’t just true for pint-sized prodigies.  Look back over this list, and take notes of how often the most successful characters are allowed to fail, to have flaws, and to ascend past their comfort zone.  

Other examples:  Virtually every successful example on this list.

Tommy Shelby, a character of limitless ambition, conducts a new, perilous climb outside of his social rank each season, which almost always puts him in positions of mortal danger.  He faces threats both external (rival gangs, evil priests, and rising fascists) and internal (hello PTSD, suicidal tendencies, and crippling addiction) but either way, we understand that his fast-paced climb is not for the weak-willed or faint-hearted.  

Mark Watney is a brilliant scientist who has been stranded in an utterly impossible situation for which absolutely no one could be adequately prepared (spoilers:  it’s on Mars.)  We are drawn in by his plight, and how he could possibly escape from it, and there we come to admire him for his courage, optimism, and humor.

Shuri, though not the main character of Black Panther, is allowed to show off both tremendous gifts and vulnerability, as she is powerless to stop the apparent death of her beloved older brother.  She watches Wakanda’s takeover both as an innovator and a young woman, and a large reason for her success is that she is allowed to be both.  

How to apply this to your writing:  When portraying intelligent characters, take stock of how often they fail, their level of control over their surroundings, their vulnerability, and their flaws.  We don’t want to read about flawless deities.  We want to read about characters who embody and personify our humanity.  So remember they need to fall down in order to pull themselves up.

Happy writing, everybody! 

[best-underrated-anime]

Best Underrated Anime Group H Round 1: #H8 vs #H1

#H8: Zombies make really good music

Sakura Minamoto is a girl who wants to follow her dreams and join her favorite idol group, Iron Frill, but suddenly a wrench gets thrown into her plans. She becomes an idol—but in a different group. A very different group. And between a bout of amnesia and a really weird manager, it’s certainly not easy. Will Sakura have a second chance to live her dream? Or is her dream already dead?

#H1: Pro baseball player cares about money

This is the story of Natsunosuke Honda, a pro baseball player—a relief pitcher who has been playing pro in a team called Spiders for 8 years. The team operates as a highly-stratified society, where the player’s performance determines his annual salary. Natsunosuke is one of the highest paid players in the game. He measures how good players are by how much money they make, and he intends to be on top and stay there, and as such is always looking for players to challenge and does everything to ensure that he is better than they are.

Titles, propagandas, trailers, and poll under the cut!

#H8: Zombieland Saga

Propaganda:

ITS SO GOOD OHMYGOD. First of all, the music? Amazing. The 3D animation they use for the dancing isn’t the best, but the songs are all bangers. The story is also amazing—it’s just the right blend of silly and serious to really get you to love and care about the characters. And it WILL make you cry. It’s a really cool take on zombies and really uses the full potential of its premise really well. Its dub is also actually good. The acting is great, and the jokes are translated perfectly.

Trigger Warnings: Animal Cruelty or Death, Child Abuse, Gender Identity/Sexuality Discrimination, Graphic Depictions of Cruelty/Violence/Gore

#H1: Gurazeni

Propaganda:

Gurazeni appeals to me as a show where all the characters are adults and are written as such. I would not say that Gurazeni's art is particularly good, but the writing has a charm to it. It gets into the little details of baseball stats and how they affect salaries, as well as which position pays more. The characters are fun and likable and the story goes some interesting places. I only saw season 1, but it did get a season 2.

Also, Gurazeni's music is pretty good, with a great OP and ED.

Trigger Warnings: None.

If you’re reblogging and adding your own propaganda, please tag me @best-underrated-anime so that I’ll be sure to see it.

[panharmonium]

next round of in-progress naruto thoughts under the cut

[i actually haven’t progressed that far from where i was last time, honestly, but i could feel myself getting to a stage where i had some things i needed to write up.]

fyi, this one is a little more gripe-y than usual - still enjoying myself, but there are some things in the current arc that are bugging me.

[spoiler policy disclaimer first, as always: I am watching naruto for the first time and have only gotten to the point where naruto and bee break out of the island barrier and leave to join the war.  i am trying to avoid spoilers, so please don’t interact with this (tags included, because the notifications now show them to me automatically) with any spoilery commentary, including even general things like “oh i love this show but it gets less good after X point” or “X season is better than Y season” or any general assessments of quality/likability/etc re: future seasons.  Thank you! <3 ]

anyway, to go ahead with my grousing -

there are a couple things about this current arc that have me feeling "ehhh.”

1) too many dead people

i’ve personally always been lukewarm on the “revive/reanimate dead characters for the Confrontation Value” trope, which is probably due to me having been a comics fan for so long (i was pretty deep into DC-land during Blackest Night, and that’s not even the first/last time this sort of thing has been done there, so).  i’m not saying it CAN’T be done in an interesting way, but most of the time my experience with it has been that it’s kind of cheap/redundant storytelling.  it usually doesn’t add much to an emotional arc, for me, and when it retreads an emotional arc that did have a strong conclusion, i feel like all it does is weaken the original story.  

so like - places where i feel like shippuden does this well are with minato and kushina.  i found both of those scenes with naruto to be powerful moments that added something new to the story/to naruto’s development.  (but they’re not even part of the whole reanimation jutsu plotline, which is what i’m mostly feeling “eh” on, so it’s not even the greatest example.)

a place where i’m kind of in the middle is with asuma.  on the one hand, i really don’t think that this needed to happen, because the original story arc with him was SO strong.  however, they did kind of redeem themselves in a way by focusing the redux on choji instead of shikamaru, so at least they were still saying/exploring something something new.

places where i’m still pretty dubious are pretty much...everyone else.  i’m just not sure...well, i don’t know.  i can’t really say definitively how i feel about it until i get to the end of the arc and see how it ends, but at the current moment, i’m just not sure what we get out of seeing people like zabuza+haku, lady chio, itachi, nagato, etc....ALL of those stories had such powerful endings; it just makes me leery of these “resurrections” invalidating everything we saw previously/weakening the impact of what came before.

2) mixed messaging

this is my bigger gripe, and it’s something i’ve kind of had floating on the edges of my mind for a long time, but this season especially is highlighting it.

the one thing that is guaranteed to make me frustrated about this show (besides its obvious disinterest in female characters) is when it starts to lean super hard into the “Naruto Is The Only One Who Can Do It!” for every single task that needs to be completed.  and i know this is a stupid thing to complain about when the show is literally titled “Naruto,” but the reason it gets frustrating is because the initial message of this show was never “one super special person must do everything on their own and save everyone else.”  the original message of this show was teamwork.  

the very first lesson kakashi teaches the kids (and the foundation upon which the rest of the story has been built) is “you are stronger together.”  if you had all come at me together, you might have been able to take [the bells]!  he specifically criticizes naruto for working alone: “naruto - you do EVERYTHING on your own.  EVERYTHING.”  and that’s understood to be the Wrong Thing; it’s the reason naruto ends up tied to the stump.  but in the last few seasons especially (though there have definitely been previous moments where this has shown up before) the ONLY thing we keep hearing is how naruto has to accomplish everything by himself.  

it didn’t bother me in the Pain arc; i actually thought that confrontation was appropriate and necessary for naruto’s development.  but ever since then, it’s escalated to a point where now it’s like - “naruto is the only one who can fight sasuke!  naruto is the only one who can defeat madara!  naruto is the only one who can stop the war!  naruto is the only one who can erase everybody’s hatred!”  

and that’s the point at which i start to get frustrated, because my mind is like “okay, and the other characters are going to be doing...what, exactly?”

again, maybe it’s stupid to complain about that when the show is literally titled “Naruto.”  but i don’t think so.  title notwithstanding, this story at its heart was, in the beginning, an ensemble show with four main characters, whereas nowadays, the messaging is that only one of those characters can actually accomplish anything.  so i get kind of resentful, when i’m told that the other members of the team can’t do anything but step back and hold naruto up, because the essential message of this story has ALWAYS been “teamwork is more important than anything.  you are NEVER stronger by yourself.  we ALL have something to contribute.”

right now, the other characters feel like they’ve just been shunted off to do busywork.  none of them have grown or changed at all since the end of season 10 (and even the end of season 10 was starting to slide into the “only naruto can do anything about sasuke in the end blah blah” - yes it’s a huge pet peeve of mine but it is what it is; whatever; moving on).  we haven’t even SEEN sasuke since the end of season 10.  there’s been no consideration given to how kakashi is handling being drafted into a second war and being put in charge of 20,000 lives (and his clash with zabuza was just a vehicle for all the characters to reflect once again on how great naruto is).  there’s been virtually ZERO attention given to how sakura is handling things, minus that one scene where she’s looking at gory pictures from the previous great ninja war.  everybody is just marking time, punching a bunch of identical white zetsus until naruto can come solve the problem and wow everyone with his new abilities.

part of my annoyance might just be due to the fact that the timeline is so wonky due to filler arcs - it feels like ages have passed for me, but in-universe it really hasn’t been all that long.  but i also think there are legitimate reasons for me to be frustrated, when the show introduces things and then just unceremoniously drops them without any indicator of when they might be picked up again.  like - the uchiha genocide reveal was (i thought) a Huge Fucking Deal that should have Major Repercussions - but it’s just kind of.....disappeared as an issue???  and yamato - he’s been CAPTURED!!!!!!  but the show has not shown a single character reacting to this, or even being informed that it happened, and i think that’s shitty, actually.  yamato isn’t a minor character.  he’s been naruto’s personal guardian since season 2.  he has done SO MUCH for the kids, and he is kakashi’s friend, and i think it is shitty to have him get captured by the same people who experimented on him as a child and then not spend a second or two making it clear that other characters CARE about this.  

anyway.  this is just something that’s been creeping up on me as time goes on, and the last few episodes of “Naruto is the Savior of the Entire World” talk just made it feel more immediate, i guess.  plus the new intro (which i know may not be reliable; sometimes they show things that never happen) had a shot of naruto fighting itachi, and i think that tipped me over the edge, lmao, because you know what?  enough!!!!!  naruto can’t be the one who gets to do EVERYTHING!  some stories are not about him!  there are other characters who have relationships that are not about naruto.  there are places where other characters should be able to accomplish things naruto can’t do.  the other main characters should be allowed to complete their personal arcs, separate from (not just secondary to) naruto’s journey.

like - just - this is how i feel: this show started out as a story about a group of four people, and the root theme was “teamwork is everything.”  i don’t like how the show has slowly started to mutate into a story about naruto’s “solitary” quest to save sasuke, when we have seen MANY TIMES that: 

a) sakura was the first of the kids who even knew that something was wrong with sasuke, while naruto remained utterly oblivious all the way through shonen jump (and partway into shippuden, tbh)

b) kakashi in the past has connected with sasuke in ways that NEITHER of the two kids have been able to achieve

i just don’t like it.  i don’t like how S10 had sakura say the line “naruto...you were the first one to ever see the darkness in sasuke...” when she’s reflecting on their fight on top of the hospital, because that is a LIE.  it’s a blatant retcon.  of the kids, sakura was the one who knew from the very beginning that something was wrong with sasuke.  she was the one who was with him when he had that semi-dissociative episode during the bells test.  she was the one who was with him during all the curse mark stuff in the forest of death.  she was the one who knew something was off when he challenged naruto to a fight - naruto was just psyched that sasuke wanted to “spar” with him!  and SHE was the one who suspected that sasuke might do something as drastic as leave the village - naruto explicitly told her not to worry; that sasuke was totally fine; he would never ever do something like that!

like - the show already barely gives sakura anything for herself; now they try to take this away from her, too?  and give it to naruto?  to hammer in a kind of connection between naruto and sasuke that demonstrably did not exist??  (i’m not saying that naruto and sasuke don’t have their own important relationship!  but it is just provably untrue that naruto was the person who understood sasuke best.  shonen jump goes out of its way to demonstrate how clueless naruto is about what sasuke is really like and what he’s going through.  naruto is SHOCKED that sasuke would go to orochimaru.  he doesn’t realize that their fight on top of the hospital is anything more than their usual rivalry business.  when sasuke pops out of the coffin behind kimimaro, naruto waves and starts laughing, because he thinks sasuke is still on their side and is going to run right home!  and even in shippuden, when naruto hears that orochimaru is dead, he gets all excited and goes “so sasuke must be on his way back to the leaf village!!! :D”  like.  he just doesn’t get it.)

and i won’t really get into kakashi’s side of things here, because i would end up writing too much, but suffice to say that i am just...wary of the way it feels like recent parts of the show are trying to minimize or...push aside the real, textually-documented connections that kakashi and sakura had with sasuke in favor of “Only Naruto Can Help!”  it frustrates me.  kakashi made inroads with sasuke that neither of the kids ever achieved.  sasuke talks to kakashi in a more honest way than he ever does with either of his peers, even when he’s out of his head with rage.  and i would prefer to see this show taking the angle that all three of sasuke’s team members are going to be indispensable for saving him.  

you know.  like teamwork.

[princesssarisa]

Assorted thoughts on “Little Women”

 In no particular order.

*I’m glad I waited this long to read the original, unabridged novel. If I had read it as a teen or a preteen, I just might have followed countless girl readers’ example of having a crush on Laurie and being angry that Jo doesn’t marry him. Reading it now, I’m able to see him as the well-rounded, likable yet flawed character he is, not just as a girl’s prize, and realize that while he and Jo have a beautiful friendship, they wouldn’t have worked as a couple. The canon pairings of Jo/Friedrich and Amy/Laurie are the right ones.

*About the controversial issue of the characters’ ambitions... None of the young leads achieve their childhood dreams in the end; Alcott’s intended message was clearly  “We don’t always achieve our dreams, but life can still be happy in ways we never expected.” That’s all well and good. But apart from Meg’s gender-neutral dream of being rich, the characters’ “castles in the air” are all in defiance of their expected gender roles: Jo wants to be a famous author and Amy a famous artist, two fields normally reserved for men, while Laurie wants to be a composer instead of going into his grandfather’s business. And all three of their endings are distinctly more gender-conforming: Jo becomes a schoolmistress, Amy becomes a society lady, both become wives and mothers, and Laurie goes into business “like a man.” I think it’s fair for modern readers to be disappointed by that conformity, even while appreciating the realistic message about childhood dreams. Those feelings aren’t mutually exclusive. For modern audiences, I think the standard adaptational change of Jo publishing her own version of Little Women at the end (instead of 20 years later in the last sequel) is a good change.

*About Jo needing to control her temper... I understand why this annoys some feminists. So often women are expected to suppress all anger and never stand up for themselves. Maybe it is problematic that role model Marmee explicitly never shows her anger, but only purses her lips and leaves the room. But personally, I think it’s presented in a healthy, gender-neutral way. Jo’s anger isn’t a problem because it’s “unseemly” or “unfeminine,” but because it can lead her to do cruel things to others. The mistake that teaches her the lesson in “Jo Meets Appolyon,” letting Amy skate on the thin ice, isn’t a loud, aggressive act of rage, but a cold, silent act (or rather inaction) of spite. Besides “control your temper” doesn’t mean “never stand up for yourself.” The book has several examples of women calmly yet firmly calling out other people’s bad behavior (most often Laurie’s ^–^) and it’s portrayed as entirely right. And though it’s tempting to be annoyed by Mr. March putting his finger to his lips when he sees his wife starting to get angry, it’s also a nice subversion of gender stereotypes to see a marriage where the husband is gentler by nature than his wife and is a calming influence on her. Stereotypical couples are the other way around.

*As a person on the autism spectrum, I relate strongly to Beth. I fully embrace the headcanon that Beth herself is autistic and that Lizzie Alcott might have been diagnosed as such if she had lived today. So it hurts a little to see other readers call Beth “boring,” “annoying,” a “doormat” and “the worst of the sisters.” Although she is idealized because she was Alcott’s tribute to her dead little sister, she’s not the cardboard cutout of bland feminine virtue she’s so often been stereotyped as being. It’s clear from the start that Beth isn’t “normal,” either by our standards or by past ones. Her crippling shyness isn’t just “sweet Victorian modesty,” but portrayed as a real flaw that she struggles to overcome. She’s been homeschooled because as a child her social anxiety made regular school unbearable for her. She still plays with dolls, believes in Santa Claus and has imaginary friends at age 13. She has no desire to get married, or to have any kind of career, or ever to leave her parents’ house. And because of all this, she clearly has a low opinion of herself: hence she tells Jo that she was never meant to live long, because she would never have been anything but “stupid little Beth, trotting about at home.” But the narrative belies her words. In both of her illnesses, so many people rally around her and reveal how much they love her and how valuable her quiet kindness has been in their lives. Ultimately she dies in peace because she realizes her life hasn’t been worthless after all. With my own social struggles, my tendency to be “younger than my years,” and my own desire to have a quiet life close to my family instead of going out into the big, overwhelming world and doing big, overwhelming things, I find her storyline beautiful, because it gives me hope that my life is just as valuable as anyone else’s.

*I also relate to Jo, as so many readers do. The result is that I’m of two minds of the chapters “Calls” and “Consequences.” On the one hand, there’s no doubt that Jo is at fault in those chapters and does more-or-less deserves to lose the trip to Europe. She’s genuinely, purposefully rude to her aunts and to the other people they visit and she humiliates Amy and harms her social life – at the subsequent fair, the Chesters ban Amy from the art table because Jo insulted them. Plus the only reason why she has to join Amy in the calls in the first place is because she promised she would, so it’s hypocritical of her to whine about it. But on the other hand, I do empathize with Jo. With my own my social difficulties, I relate to her hating formal occasions where she has to dress up, mind her manners, make small talk about topics that don’t interest her with people she dislikes, and always be “agreeable” and “docile.” For Jo and for so many of us, it’s so hard to be that way, yet it’s the mold that all women were expected to stuff themselves into in the 19th century and to an extent still are today. Amy is lucky that she enjoys playing that social game and that it comes naturally to her. So it’s easy to sympathize with Jo’s envy when Amy is chosen to go to Europe, to feel as if Amy is rewarded for her social conformity while Jo is punished for failing to conform, and to feel as if the message is that all girls should conform like Amy. Fortunately, the book as a whole doesn’t send that message: even Amy achieves her ultimate happiness by letting herself be a bit more like Jo and call Laurie out on his laziness and apathy, when back in “Calls” she had argued that a lady should never show disapproval to a man.

*I don’t understand why some commentators think the chapter “On the Shelf” is so horribly sexist. Well, actually, I do. It’s tempting to find fault with John for being “jealous” that Meg is focusing more on their babies than on him and for “neglecting” Meg and spending carefree evenings out while she slaves away with the twins. And for Meg to be told by her mother that this is her own fault for “neglecting her duty to her husband” understandably rankles some feminists. But I honestly don’t think there’s any real problem. Meg genuinely neglects John and overtaxes herself by devoting every waking minute to the twins and letting neither John nor anyone else help her, because she’s afraid that otherwise she’ll be a bad mother. John isn’t jealous of the babies, he understandably feels ignored and useless. Nor (despite what some critics think) does he cheat on Meg, or want to. He just goes to a friend’s house rather than sit alone at home; Meg’s fear that his eye is roving to Mrs. Scott is just a product of her own stress. The resolution is arguably just the opposite of sexist: Meg finally lets John take an equal share of child-rearing duties, lets Hannah babysit often so they can both have time for themselves too, and steps out of her domestic sphere to share talks with John about politics, literature, etc. By the end of the chapter, their marriage is more egalitarian than ever.

*I’d like to read a fanfic where Jo meets Rodolfo from La Bohéme. I wouldn’t ship them, since they’re even more “too much alike” than Jo and Laurie are, but I’d like to see them meet. They’re both lively, passionate, temperamental ENFP writers, whose minds are full of “castles in the air” (they both use that exact phrase), yet whose lives both turn out differently than they had hoped, although Jo’s outcome is much happier. Both also adore a sweet, gentle, sickly young girl (Jo’s sister Beth/Rodolfo’s love interest Mimí) whose death they both regard as the end of their own youth. Furthermore, both of their authors modeled them after themselves. Jo is more down-to-earth than Rodolfo, though, and I’m not sure if they’d be friends or hate each other – Jo would definitely be indignant to learn how Rodolfo emotionally abused and broke up with Mimí because he couldn’t bear to watch her die, when she herself nursed Beth day and night through both of her illnesses and never left her side. But it would be an interesting meeting.

@fairychamber, @thatvermilionflycatcher

[goatpaste]

More Honorclan characters!

info and facts about them under the cut!

Steelthroat, once apart of a gang of ally cats who were known to be territorial and mean. After standing up to their leader Al she was attacked by him and had her throat terribly ripped. for most it woulda been their end. However for steelthroat it became her names story. she got back up and drove Al out.

she was named Steelthroat by the gang.

she is strong and tough, she knows she is hot shit and it shows. 

she has had a few kits herself, some know her and either hate her for leaving their gang or will see her and quietly give her a nod. she also has some kids who have no idea she is even their mother as it just was how it was in the gang.

Steelthroats sister, Wheelfire previously named Wheels. while having  a big giant gruff look to her is a big softy. she has wanted nothing more than to find a wife and have a family.

Wheelfire was the reason Steelthroat left the gang. she wanted her sister to have a comfortable life and to have a chance to life her dreams safely. Steelthroat would do anything for her sister.

Brickpelt is a tiny young warrior. they are snappy and often feel they should be in charge. Then often get left on patrol duty with apprentices. They feel they deserve to be deputy and are waiting to be noticed. 

Bottlespill is a sweet and clumsy cat. He is liked by everyone but unwanted for patrols. often slipping off walls or missing prey. 

none the less their mate Clamyawn adores them. 

stainspot is another silly billy cat, they love to play around and can be flirty with others at times. their well rounded and likable and are a good scrounger and hunter. 

Cluesplash is a big grump. He used to be a kittypet named Clue, had a house to himself. until his owner moved some other twolegs in and a basket of kittens. knowing Honorclan lived in the area, anything seemed better than a moment more in that house full of children. so he took off.

Little to Cluesplash’s knowledge he had been followed. Trailing behind was one of the kittens decker who took an instant shine to the unfriendly Cluesplash.

despite everyone thinking cluesplash is mean and even at times lazy Deckerpaw seems to see him as his hero. Deckerpaw looks up to Cluesplash and wants to show him that he can be great.

Cluesplash does not deserve Deckerpaws affection and often feels guilty for being mean to the kid and trys to be nicer to him.

Zincpaw is a curious girl who often gets herself into mischief, much to her mentor Looptails dismay who has a track record for raising good apprentices but is struggling to rain in Zincpaw.  Zincpaw loves her life with her family but has found herself drawn to the marshes of Gloryclan

[yurimother]

LGBTQ Manga Review - Our Wonderful Days Vol. 1

After several weeks reviewing works containing whirlwind romances, ambitious science fiction, and bubbly fantasy, I was almost drowning in an ocean of sapphic plots. Kei Hamuro’s Our Wonderful Days is the perfect breath of fresh air to refresh me and allow for a brief respite before plunging back into the waters of angst, heartache, drama. I will admit, I was skeptical of Our Wonderful Days. When I first reported on it a few months ago, I expressed my doubts that it would sate the crazed beast in my heart, which feeds on quality expressions of romantic and sexual attraction between women. In a way, I was right, but I walked away from this manga with a different, gentler form of satisfaction.

Our Wonderful Days is a slice of life story, following a group of friends living their everyday lives. The story begins as protagonist Koharu Hanamura begins her first day of high school. She is excited to discover that her friends, Nanaya Asuka and Minori Kazami, are in the same class as her. Soon Koharu spots an unfamiliar but beautiful girl and is shocked to discover that it is her old childhood friend Mafuyu Shirotsuki, who moved away to Tokyo when they were young. From there, the series follows these four doing mundane activities, like checking out clubs or eating lunch. Occasionally the girls will split into pairs for a few chapters. One may follow Nanaya and Minori, who live together, as they do chores, and another sees Mafuyu and Koharu waiting for a train.

To say the plot is mundane would be an understatement. If I were not referencing the manga as I wrote this review, it would be impossible to recall the majority of the story I just described. Nothing happens in it; there are no stakes, no drama, it exists and continues. Interestingly, except for the volume’s final chapter, there does not appear to even be any build-up to a romance between the two girls, the archetypical Yuri plot. Slice of life series thrives on humor and charm. While Our Wonderful Days is by no means a comedy, there is an appeal to its accessible and aimless design.

There is something to be said in support of stories with a plot centered on nothingness (not in the philosophical sense). They are easy and relaxing. The reader is never forced to confront themselves or the conflicts of the characters but can find a moment of peace with the mundane yet enjoyable reading. I would almost describe Our Wonderful Days as gentle or tranquil, but I think “quiet” better describes the manga. The good kind of quiet, the variety encountered when one enters into their abandoned residence and throws themselves onto the couch after a stressful day and taking a moment of serenity before continuing to obey the summons of their stress or need for stimulation. As one can only enjoy such moments on occasion, I cannot definitively declare that I, a person who craves emotional investment and destruction in my fiction, am completely sold. But I was still able to appreciate the manga.

The personalities and traits of characters are often forged in the harsh fires of strife and conflict. Because of this, slice of life characters is often caricatures or tropes. There is usually the straight man, the zany-bouncy one, and maybe a tsundere. Our Wonderful Days thankfully exceeds expectations here. The characters are believable and realistic. While none of them are incredibly well defined, their interactions and dialogue make everyone feel more rounded and relatable. For example, Nanaya is easily excitable, does not contribute much around the house (and feels guilty for it), and is gay. Mafuyu feels distinctly different. She often makes direct and cutting observations, agrees with Koharu on all things, even to the point of self-contradiction, and is clearly gay. However, there were times when the good-natured ribbing felt more cruel than friendly, particularly from Mafuyu. My favorite character, however, is Minori, who is sweet, good at cooking, and obviously gay (get on that Nanaya).

The main objective of the art here was too not be too distracting from the mundane story and dialogue. It thankfully accomplishes this and more. The characters are distinct and well designed, with expressive faces, minimalist styling when appropriate, and different appearances. However, the characters all take second place to the backgrounds. These are detailed, often filling the pages, resulting in only a few occasions of floating characters. Hamuro also put the time and effort in to put varied background characters in, which makes the world feel full. The only complaint I can make is that in a few panels, while zoomed out, the characters’ heads appear oversized. Also, the first few colored pages in the volume show Nanaya with brown hair while she has green hair in the Japanese covers of volumes two and three. However, as the manga is in black and white, this makes absolutely no difference in anything, and no reasonable person would ever even mention it.

Our Wonderful Days is not a romance. But, there is a decent amount of Yuri content to be enjoyed. The relationships between the girls are front and center. Just observing the domestic life of Nanaya and Minori or seeing Mafuyu struggle to share her umbrella with Koharu is a unique form of service. There are hints at feeling stronger than that of friends, as Mafuyu is devoted and adoring of Koharu, a replicated feeling as it turns out. Also, Nanaya has a crush on the assistant coach of the basketball club and gets adorably flustered over it.

Our Wonderful Days is a soothing and simple manga. There are no risks or stakes involved, just a sweet and gentle feel-good series about girls being friends and living life together. The ambling and unfocused nature of the plot will likely bore some readers, but the characters are likable and the art fantastic. If you want a nice pleasant read to relax to, pick up a copy of Our Wonderful Days. If you would rather skip it, you will not miss much.

Ratings: Story – 6 Characters – 8 Art – 7 LGBTQ – 3 Sexual Content – 0 Final – 6

You can preorder the manga digitally and in print today: Our Wonderful Days Vol. 1 - https://amzn.to/2NyHZrw

Review copy provided by Seven Seas Entertainment ( @sevenseasentertainment​ )

[sirloozelite]

Kanera/Kaesoka Prank War: Attack of the ‘Akul’!

Scene: Inside the Ghost. Kanan and Hera have a guest round to discuss a secret plan.

?????: You want me to do what?!?!?

Hera: It’s a simple as it sounds. Put the costume on, and terrorize that Togruta and her girlfriend.

?????: ... but if Tano thinks I’m an actual Akul I could get killed!!!!

Hera: Eh, I have faith in you being able to handle Ahsoka if the situation calls for it.

Kanan: I’ve got a bad feeling about this.

Hera: Shut up Kanan, no one cares what you think!

Kanan: :(

?????: Say I do this.... what are you willing to give me in return?

Hera: XD

One day later, at Kaesoka’s apartment. Kaeden and Ahsoka are relaxing on the couch together watching holovision.

Kaeden: Well... that was a terrible movie

Ahsoka: Certainly was. None of the main characters were likable. Is it wrong that I was rooting for the villain?

Kaeden: Usually I’d say yes, but in this case I’m with you. So... what do we do now?

Ahsoka: ... how about we...

Suddenly, a large orange beast smashes through the patio glass doors, making Ahsoka and Kaeden jump in surprise.

Kaeden: HOLY KRIFF!

Ahsoka: WHAT THE HELL?!

Akul: Raaagggghhhhhhhhhh!

Kaeden: 0_0

Ahsoka: OH CRAP! WHAT’S AN AKUL DOING HERE?!

Akul: Raaagggghhhhhhhhhh! 

Ahsoka: Kaeden! Run!

Akul: Raaagggghhhhhhhhhh! 

The Akul pounces across the room, tackling Kaeden to the ground, it’s mouth wide open and poised to bite her neck.

Kaeden: (Screams in terror) AHSOKA! HELP!

Ahsoka: KAEDEN! NOOOOOO!

Ahsoka uses the force to push the Akul off of Kaeden, before summoning her lightsabers to her, igniting the white blades in the process. By now the akul has regaining it’s footing and has spotted the lightsabers.

Akul: 0_0

Ahsoka: (Roars a battle cry and charges the akul, knocking it to the floor and sitting atop it, lightsabers ready to kill)

Akul: OK OK ENOUGH TANO, STOP PLEASE! IT’S JUST A DAMN JOKE!

Ahsoka: 0_0

Kaeden: 0_0

Akul: PLEASE DON’T KILL ME!

Ahsoka, confused, puts one lightsaber away and uses her now free hand to touch the akul’s face, discovering it to be part of a costume. Gripping hold of the mask, she removes it to reveal...

Ahsoka: MASANA? WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING????

Ninth Sister: Heh heh... surprise I guess. Sorry about the glass.

Kaeden: What possessed you to do such a thing?! Ahsoka could have killed you.

Ninth Sister: What possessed me? Ten thousand credits from General Syndulla and her husband is what possessed me.

Kaeden: 0_0

Ahsoka: >:(

Ninth Sister: No can you please stop straddling my thighs Tano? Save it for your girlfriend!