#norm nakamura

[tokyolens]

“Life is the sum of its side quests”

Norm Nakamura - Tokyo Lens [2024]

[skeepy-deepy34]

GO FOR IT NORM!!

I love the old men.. 😔💖

[canmom]

Animation Night 173: Takashi Nakamura

Hi everyone! It's that time of the week again~

The day that puppets bite their gloves off.

Tonight on Animation Night we'll be taking a look at the works of Takashi Nakamura (中村 たかし).

Nakamura is a director who flies under the radar a bit over here, but for those who know him, he's a unique director - one who we've actually encountered a couple of times before, actually! He directed one of my favourite shorts in Robot Carnival [Animation Night 158] Chicken Man and Red Neck, in which the machinery of a city comes alive to have a violently strange Bosch-like party led by a strange red-robed robot, witnessed only by one salaryman on a moped...

...and if you remember when we looked into the three adaptations of Project Itoh's novels [Animation Night 127], he co-directed Harmony with Michael Arias, a powerfully understated film about a high tech biopower future and people who reject its utopia through a suicide pact. We also saw him in the Japan Animator Expo, with the charming Bubu & Bubulina...

But let's give a fuller story...

As an animator, Nakamura entered the industry very young, signing on as a colourist and inbetweener at Tatsunoko in 1974 - at which point he was only 16, an aspiring mangaka newly arrived in Tokyo. Working in Tatsunoko's distinctive 'industry within an industry', he was introduced to Hirokazu Ishino's 'Anidō' association, in which he was introduced to not just many important animators but also had the chance to see animation from around the world, from Norm McLaren to Japanese independent animators like Kenzō Masaoka. The two films that got him most excited were Takahata's Horus, Prince of the Sun [AN41] and Disney's Fantasia [AN15], both of which contained incredible flexes of effects animation.

(Incidentally, it makes me happy that a lot of the films Watzky mentions showing at Anidō showed up on here! Following in the footsteps of giants and all that.)

Once Nakamura got the animation bug he put aside his manga aspirations and became a key animator, going freelance a couple years later. In 1979 he saw Galaxy Express 999, and got to witness the insane 'liquid fire' effects of Kanada, and he instantly became a devotee - soon enough getting a chance to work with Kanada directly.

And by the early 80s Nakamura was definitely making a name, already working in animation direction and solo-animating entire episodes of Gold Lightan for Tatsunoko. The next couple of years he'd end up working on Nausicaa, Macross DYRL and the with Rintaro [AN53, 134] on Genma Taisen. By now he was specialising hard in effects (not unlike Anno!), and his work had become terrifyingly elaborate, look at this building collapsing into every single element or the clothes coming to the life under the power of a psychic. His work also inspired another incredibly significant animator to enter the industry - Kōji Morimoto, future cofounder of Studio 4°C - and they ended up working together on Genma Taisen.

Meanwhile on Nausicaa, Morimoto handled some of its most memorable scenes like the opening sequence where Nausicaa is pursued by the giant Ohmu. Once again you see his fascination with effects and debris, like the shot where the Ohmu explodes out of the forest, sending stalks flying in every directions. In Macross DYRL he animated the scenes of the gravity flipping sideways and a street's worth of stuff tumbling down all at once, elaborating on a scene by Itano from the TV show.

In short, if there's lots of bits of stuff flying around in a mid-80s movie, there's a good chance that Nakamura was involved somehow.

Such a focus made him a perfect fit for the 'realist school' developing in the late 80s - whyat you might loosely call the Otomo circle. You see his work on both Manie-Manie/Neo Tokyo and Robot Carnival, and naturally enough he ended up part of the team for Akira. Given what he'd already accomplished, could he somehow step it up another notch? You bet.

Going by sakugabooru comments, Nakamura's role in Akira was mainly related to two things: explosions, and animation direction. Considering how iconic the explosions in Akira are, and how challenging it was to animate Otomo's very solid and 3D designs... the success of the film depended a lot on Nakamura's insane drawing skills. Further, he was a kind of 'teacher' to the rest of the staff, such as Morimoto. But this was apparently the 'limit' for Nakamura, and after Akira he turned from creating animation for others.

And this point marks a major stylistic turn in Nakamura's work. Starting with the World Masterpiece Theatre adaptation of Peter Pan, on which he worked as character designer, he adopted a highly stripped-down, simplified style. With all the Akira goodwill, he was able to pull in many of the new stars of the 'realist' school, from Okiura to Ohira. But his work became a lot less flashy, focusing more on a Disney-like approach where it's about creating a consistent sense of life rather than individual flashy sequences.

The Hakkenden [AN 122] was one of his first chances to experiment with the new style as a director, with Episode 4 really kicking off the series' trend of completely redesigning the characters according to the sensibilities of each director. He also worked on the kinda obscure but gorgeous realist-school film Junkers Come Here [AN 118] as his own film debut, Catnapped!, progressed.

So Catnapped! This is a weird movie. Many people see a Disney influence in its style, and it definitely broke the 90s trend with a younger target audience - but Disney could never make a movie filled with as much imaginative strange shit as this one. Watzky points out how much Otomo influence there is in the direction - dense environments and elaborate multiplane shots, in contrast to simple character designs which afford a lot of movement. These designs allow great animators like Okiura [AN139] (who animated most of the finale) to really go to town. There's a great para in Watzky's article on the different directions taken by the 'realist' animators.

Catnapped is a pretty short film at less that 80 minutes, a revel of visual imagination; Nakamura's next film A Tree of Palme is just as distinctive but in a different direction. It's another take on the Pinocchio story [c.f. AN138], but a very 'dark, metaphysical' one, with its biggest inspirations apparently being French - Moebius and René Laloux [AN71, 93], with Mutsuo Koseki coming up with art direction capable of comparing to Laloux. The three year megaproject pulled in animator legends from across the board - Inoue, Ohashi, Ando, Masuo, Matsutake, Umetsu! (Count how many directed part of Robot Carnival).

The character designs of Palme look simple in stills, but once you see them in motion, they're anything but - incredibly volumetric and full of life and movement.

In the 2000s and 2010s, Nakamura ended up working with Colorido and 4C a lot (naturally enough given the connection with Morimoto!), increasingly making effective use of CG in his projects. This led up to The Portrait Studio (写真館 Shashinkan) (c.f. AniObsessive) in 2015 - an almost solo short film, with Nakamura writing, storyboarding, designing characters and doing all the key animation, which is a kind of slice through Japanese history through the lens of a photographer who just wants to figure out a way to get his client to smile.

Much like Palme, The Portrait Studio combines simple character designs (in a stylised picture-book look) with very precise, realist animation on 2s and 1s to lend them a sense of density and 'existence'. Moreover, unlike most anime, it uses the raw pencils as finished lines instead of redrawing them clean on a computer. The style might call to mind Otomo's Cannon Fodder, and in fact the two films share a colour designer. 3D is integrated with an unusual degree of skill and subtlety. It makes for a fascinating combination, a very memorable and impactful film for all its apparent simplicity.

So, that's our focus for tonight! We'll be watching Catnapped!, A Tree of Palme and The Portrait Studio, and getting to find out what the deal is with Nakamura - one of the Very Important Guys in the history of anime, influential on so many of my faves... but all too often overlooked by people who aren't like, huge animation nerds.

If that sounds fun, come join me at twitch.tv/canmom - going live in just a minute! I've been wanting to do Nakamura for ages, and today I finally found energy for a writeup. See you there~

[ultfreakme]

Jay, Jon, and Anger: Meta on emotional expression and how it's defined by who you are.

Had a really fun discussion on the Supertruth server about JayJon, Superfam, and their relationship with anger. So kind of summarizing it all here.

If you've noticed during SOKE(and pretty much every Jon appearance during/after the SOKE era), Jon is rarely afraid to show his vulnerabilities. He cries, he seeks comfort, and he is kind of bad at hiding his fear and sadness. Meanwhile, Jay is rarely emotional. You can count on one hand how many times Jay has shown emotional vulnerability.

But what Jon has refused to show, and what Jay often shows with an amount of honesty, is anger. As my friend @bonitacita said; they're two side of the same coin, hiding the things the other shows.

Jon Kent: Anger is inhumanity

Jon rarely lets himself feel anger. He gets impulsive, he gets close to it, but he never lets it linger. He doesn't even allow himself to be fully angry with his internal thoughts, always attaching caveats and forcing himself to slow down.

This is because Jon, first and foremost, is afraid of his powers and what he is. This has existed during his childhood and follows him till now, his fear and confusion about what he is and his place in the universe is what prompted him to take the trip with Jor-El. You can see the panic he feels when he's out of control in SOKE, and the tight leash he has on his powers. Jon's specialty isn't just lightning, it's precision. It's always been the strength he earned and honed for himself.

Jon's fear of himself stems from former experience, where he has been seen as a threat, a weapon, or just an abomination by others (Damian, Savior Tim, Manchester Black, Eradicator). Kryptonians are powerful, they can flip the world if they want to, but Jon is emphasized as a worse threat than the others because of his half-human and half-kryptonian biology. Even among the Kryptonians, he's a bit of a freak. His powers are potentially greater than Clark's and he has been constantly told he is going to blow one day, or he will be used by others like a weapon if he isn't careful enough(Manchester Black, and now Waller).

Jon inspires fear by merely existing. It was a thing he had to tackle with constantly in SOKE, framed as dangerous and a rogue agent. This perception only gets worse with things like the Blue Earth movement. It's been hammered into him over and over again that he is 1) extremely powerful 2) dangerous 3)capable of inspiring great fear.

Hell he's even seen a future where he loses control and just blows up Metropolis.

Jon has also witnessed first-hand, painfully, what an angry 'Superman' can make people feel because most of his formative years was ruled by this guy:

He also saw injustice!Clark, who let his personal emotions guide the way he did his superman-work and it led to INJUSTICE.

Anger= BAD. He suppresses his anger so much, it manifests as another freaking power. Right after these panels, Jon says "I feel it raging inside me, feel it taking hold, something I've been holding back"- And THIS is when the lightning comes out and he shouts out against Ultraman. This is Jon's biggest show of his rage (so far).

But in most instances, he pushes it down, that's his norm. He lets himself show his vulnerabilities because there is no danger attached to sadness or fear the way it is for anger. Tears are allowed because it's not going to make anyone fear him and he is given freedom to express there. But anger? Anger, he must control as tightly as his powers, no matter the cost because he cannot, and will not be the monster people keep wanting for him to be.

Jay Nakamura: Anger is power

Jay has never shown his emotions in a completely open manner. He always wears a mask to hide his vulnerabilities, using witty quips and sarcasm to get by. But most of all, he is angry. It's this silent, persistent anger he wields through the aforementioned sarcasm and dry humor.

He's jaded. Gamorra is a country that's been colonized for a large part of its history and he is one teenager against an international dictator and now, the US government. He comes off as a little callous, rude. His reporting on Bendix is often very pointed and sharp. He didn't really find a need to hope, the Superman brand of it, until Jon.

Jay is angry, but unlike Jon, his anger means nothing to others.

He doesn't have the power to take on his oppressors on his own, and he is very aware of this. Jay's plights, and the plights of his people, are simply not taken seriously on their own because without the power to back it up, Jay's rage cannot impact them.

This also becomes important because Jay's powers are honestly nothing to scoff at. He IS powerful in a way, he can stand his grounds against a kryptonian if he tried. But he is also a Gamorran, a guy from a country that's been exploited and controlled. Due to his identity as a Gamorran citizen, he will be looked down upon, questioned, labelled 'terrorist'. The world is primed to look down on him because of colonization, so the lack of acknowledgement of his struggles, his emotions and the power his anger can hold against people like Bendix and Waller, makes people dismiss Jay as a threat.

Jay does not have the inhibitions Jon does wrt power.

He's willing to get his hands a little dirty(he never admitted to exactly what he did with The Revolutionaries, but it was 100% shady, and he does not plan on apologizing for it). His anger is seen most prominently in SOKE when he's talking to Jon here:

This is one of the few times we see Jay's cool smirk change into genuine emotion, into anger. Unlike Jon, he lets it be and uses it as a tool in creating The Truth. He uses it to convince Jon and also point out that Jon's overstepping Gamorrans by taking charge on a struggle that wasn't his to take control on.

Additionally, Jay has NEVER shed a single goddamn tear on-page. Jon has cried like 5 times but Jay? Nope. This is because while anger isn't even acknowledged when it comes from the oppressed speaking out against their mistreatment and discrimination, sadness and tears and showcase of vulnerability is an immediate weakness. It's something to exploit.

Jay's already the underdog, he cannot afford to be weak. He can't have vulnerabilities because if he dares show them, it will be used against him. Bendix did this by using Sara, now Waller is doing it again by killing Sara and threatening Jon to get Jay(and vice versa tbh). Anything other than cool stoicism and control is an opening for others to attack.

He'll allow for people to think of him as a threat, an asshole perhaps, a snarky bastard, because at least there is power in being seen as dangerous. The funniest part is people like Bendix or Luthor dismiss Jay's anger- Bendix didn't even realize his regime was being toppled by Jay until the final few issues. His anger IS powerful all on its own, but unacknowledged until a person with privilege like Jon comes in(he's white, he's Superman's son, he's considered an American citizen). Jay set up all the dominoes, Jon just gave a push.

The meaning of anger

Anger means different things for different people. For Jon it is decidedly bad, for Jay it is helpful, and the meaning of it is defined, in the end, by who you are and what you choose to do with it.

We can see why Jon and Jay use it in the ways they do over here, kinda succinctly summarized by Clark and Lobo:

Clark has been raised to see anger as an ineffective form of expressing anything. He doesn't manage it, or deal with it. He pushes it down the way Jon does. It simmers on the surface for Clark, but he does not feel anything positive about experiencing it. Meanwhile Lobo, a Czarnian who lbr, has been treated poorly because he is Czarnian, says anger is something you should face. It's two people, without their worlds, discussing what anger means to them. One who has belonging, who fits into the perfect model of human privilege and currently has a proper support system and community. The other, a solo rider in space who looks and acts in ways considered crass, who does not have the support that Clark does.

It's considered irrational if you express anything with screaming and anger. Any argument you put forth is dismissed because anger from the marginalized like POC, the queer community, etc., is seen as 'tantrums'. These emotions are not considered valid. But when anger comes from a place of power and privilege, it is taken seriously. Which is why people like Clark and Jon think of anger as a bad thing, while it comes from a need to control their power, it is also a matter of privilege. Their distress is taken seriously.

Meanwhile Jay was raging and shouting to the world for YEARS, but Bendix took notice only when Jon angrily barged into his office. Jay's genuine distress was not taken seriously because he isn't privileged enough, He has to present Gamorra's situation with an objective calm. Hell even he does so, even if he does everything to climb into some level of power, he gets dismissed the second his identity is seen

To conclude:

For Jon, anger is what's going to make people see him as a monster. The world watches him with anticipation, always a little scared he's gonna lose control. He will suppress it, come what may.

For Jay, anger is one of the few things keeping him going. It means nothing to the people who look down on him, so who the fuck cares if he feels it? He'll use it.

[fishfingersandjellybabies]

angst idea: in a world of soulmates where your soulmate's mark appears when your soulmate touches you, few actually have the chance to find their soulmate, as Jon got older first his mark never appeared so he decides to move on to another and starts dating Jay Nakamura, unfortunately years later his soulmate mark appears precisely after Damian touches him

Gawd and imagine it’s like, the eve of Jon and Jay’s wedding or something when it happens. And all of Jon’s old thoughts and crushes and feelings for Damian resurface and he realizes that his soulmate was right there all ALONG and his gut always told him but he was following society norms and now he’s settling for another and Damian is ALONE and will probably stay so out of misplaced loyalty to JON and uuuuugh everything is beautifully awful.

[fallensxvior]

This blog honestly is such an insult to a real world religion currently practiced by real living people. If you wouldn't make a Prophit Mohammed RP blog then why is a Jesus Christ rp blog ok?

Let me get this straight, Me portraying Yeshua Bin Yosep, or 'Jesus Christ' as the Romans called him, as a selfless, caring humanitarian revolutionary who believes in trying to help people before he ever raises a hand in condemnation..

is an insult?

Hikaru Nakamura, Neil Gaiman, Anne Rice, Johnny Cash, Naiomi Alderman. J.M. Coetzee, Colm Toibin, Nikos Kazantzakis, Norm Mailer- all writers who wrote fictionalized depictions of Christ and were heralded for their creativity and fresh takes on modern religion. What I am doing is no different from them. I have watched Christians write stories about MY Gods all my life, and those depictions have always either been bastardizations or straight up lies. At least I portray Jesus as a decent person.

Don't get me wrong. If people are actually made uncomfortable and upset my by works here on this blog, I take no offense to you blocking me, or unfollowing. But I am not going to stop telling my story just because you don't like it. As an ex-christian trying to heal myself, this muse is important to me.

If an ex-muslim decided to write an rp blog based on Mohammed as a way to experiment with writing and work through religious trauma, I would encourage it. That's their story to tell, and this is mine.

Have a nice day.

[june-way]

Silver The Hedgehog

Silver the Hedgehog is a fictional character in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. He is an anthropomorphic hedgehog hailing from two hundred years into the future where his role is to protect his time by changing the catastrophes of the past, thus preventing the ruining of his era. For his mission, Silver makes use of his psychokinesis, an ability from his time that is considered the norm which allows him to move objects with the power of his mind.

Silver is a kindhearted and well-meaning individual, driven by a strong sense of justice to right the wrongs of the past to uphold peace, though he is somewhat naive and immature. Despite the monumental tasks he may have on hand, he is an optimist and will do whatever is required to protect the world.

Silver's creation was inspired by Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) early development stages, where the development team was making huge levels with multiple paths through them. With a new physics engine giving a lot of depth to the game experience, they decided they wanted to include a new character with unique abilities for an alternate way to play through the levels. This lead to Silver being given his psychokinetic powers. Early drafts describe Silver as having "special powers" of unknown origin drawn from the Chaos Emeralds, but this was rejected in the final game. Shiro Maekawa based Silver's character on Future Trunks from the Dragon Ball series.

According to the Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection interview with Sega developer Shun Nakamura, Silver's abilities were originally designed for a different action game with the character not meant to make an appearance. During the development of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) in 2005, another action game Sonic Team developed, yet later canceled, named Fifth Phantom Saga featured core gameplay mechanics that focuses on the use of abilities similar to Silver's. Wanting to incorporate features emphasizing Silver's abilities, the team sought to give the character new attributes that no other Sonic characters had. The design team developed over fifty different concepts for the character before reaching his final look, where early sketches included a hedgehog-like animal wearing a futuristic headset and markings on its hair. When the team first started and had no idea what direction to follow, someone came up with the idea of a character with Sonic's scarf-like hair, but in more volume. From this idea, the team pursued the idea for a mink named "Venice" named after Venice in Italy, the place Soleanna is based on. However, the developers ultimately decided against this, fearing a mink would not blend in with the rest of the characters. After much discussion, the team finalized Silver as a hedgehog.

The next thing to do was choosing the color of the character. Orange was originally used for his fur for exploration, but they soon moved away from that in favor of a white-gray fur. While developing the character models and textures, they focused on using the hardware to develop the textures rather than just using simple white-gray, which led to Silver's color and name.

Silver is a very light gray (almost white) anthropomorphic hedgehog with white fur on his chest surrounding his neck with gold eyes and tan skin. He has two large spines at the back of his head, while at the front of his forehead there are five distinct spines flared up and back, the two final ones covering up most of his ears.

For attire, he wears white gloves with cyan circles with lines sticking out of the bottom leading to his golden bracelets accented in cyan. The tops of his boots are of a similar fashion with a red gem set in gold. The rest of his boots are navy blue, white and cyan.

Silver is best described as having "a strong sense of justice" and it is this personality trait that motivates him to head back into the past to correct the future. He believes in standing up for those who can't stand up for themselves. This led him to accept Blaze when everybody else was teasing her for her pyrokinetic abilities. When he pursues an enemy, he does so with a relentless determination. He makes alliances and rivalries very easily and takes people's word without question; this makes him easily tricked by others. According to his character profile in Sonic Generations, he is an optimist (though as stated by himself in Sonic Forces, while an optimist, he is also a realist).

Although seemingly serious on the outside, an interview states that Silver is young and somewhat immature. Blaze comments on this several times and describes him as naïve and insecure when he is alone. Owing to his naivety, Silver also has no idea of how to engage in more informal conversations with others; when Sonic tried trash talking with Silver during Dodon Pa's Grand Prix, the latter took many of Sonic's statements so literally that Sonic noted that he took all the fun out of such banter. Silver is also a regular sweetheart, always ready to protect those in need and lend a helping hand. He generally keeps a positive attitude and never gives up hope, no matter how objectively hopeless the situation.

Silver wears his heart on his sleeve. He feels anger and joy intensely and loudly, but his sadness is silent and hardly, if ever, marked by tears. He lets his rage control him and cheerfully remarks on the things that make him happy, but hardly says a word in his sadness, though it is visible to everyone. However, though he may feel sad, he never gives in to despair, always looking for a solution the right way. His determination and little regard for pain can make him a very frightening opponent.

Silver is very courageous and brave, willing to fearlessly sacrifice himself for another in a heartbeat. Utterly unflinching in the face of danger, he is courageous almost to the point of foolishness and is the focus on snuffing out evil with little regard for his own safety.

Despite Silver's naivete and general lack of critical thinking, he is not outright slow-witted. Even Eggman Nega called him perceptive, and Silver was the first to see through his otherwise perfect disguise. With little information to draw upon, he lets his intuition guide him, but as a relatively isolated person, he has little understanding of interpersonal relations or the subtle tools of manipulators.

He apparently has a competitive streak and gets a little snotty and a prickly attitude in the heat of the moment, as seen in Sonic Rivals 2; when you play as him and pass your rival, he'll say, "I'm better." or if you win a race or battle, he says, "Who's the best?" In Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, when you win a race he says, "I am not to be trifled with!" and in Sonic Free Riders he sneers "'LATER!'" upon cruising past a fellow competitor. In Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), he generally refers to the Iblis monsters and Eggman's robots as "trash," and typically congratulates himself with a smug tone upon dispatching a roomful of them.

When meeting anyone that gets in his way, particularly in Sonic Rivals and Sonic Rivals 2, Silver can be very short-tempered and bossy towards anyone that's not explicitly helping him in his mission, sometimes even becoming directly hostile and start a fight on a bad choice of words.

When Silver is not focused on his current mission or does not have a task at hand, however, he is very friendly, helpful, and a good companion to have around.

Silver's main power is his psychokinesis, the ability to manipulate the environment around him with the power of his mind. Silver is a definite master of this skill, being able to telekinetically grab and move up to several objects many times his own size and weight as both a single- or collective mass, his most impressive feat being his Meteor Smash attack where he forms a compressed ball of objects over twenty times his own size and could potentially weigh a net total of several tons. However, it is unknown how much he can grab at once. Silver can also use his psychokinesis on himself to enable him to not only hover but also fly at speeds rivaling Sonic's. Also, his psychokinesis doubles as a force field, as seen in Sonic Forces when he used this ability to fight a powerful being like Infinite to a brief standstill. Granted, Silver did get overpowered by Infinite, but he still hit him with enough force to make him drop a Phantom Ruby prototype.

Silver's psychokinesis is a powerful force of its own. With it, he can exert enough pressure to bend half a meter thick steel bars, crush robots with a single grab, and immobilize others' movements completely. When repelling objects with his psychokinesis, Silver can throw them with enough force and speed to crush metal, fly tremendous distances, and even stun enormous monsters such as Iblis. Additionally, Silver can also use his psychokinesis to grab onto certain non-solid objects, such as fireballs and certain types of energy blasts.

Silver can also use his psychokinesis to project pure psychic energies that he can manipulate into energy-based attacks, such as sharp blades, pulses to strike his targets at all ranges, and an even burst of energy that can paralyze his targets.

Besides the offense, Silver can apply his psychokinesis for his other abilities. He can use it for the ability of ESP, giving him extra-sensory perception that allows him limited telepathy, but so far only enough to induce limited vertigo in others. He can also use it to teleport himself over short distances instantaneously by warping space.

While not shown during his introduction, Silver is capable of moving at super speeds which are an innate talent that members of the hedgehog species possess. As seen in Sonic Rivals and Sonic Rivals 2, Silver is capable running at speeds comparable to Sonic and Shadow's, without wearing down. Also, as another example, he is also seen on the loops within Crisis City from Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), able to maintain his running speed without falling, like Shadow was seen if done in a similar manner when finishing the first stage of Crisis City.

Silver has incredible physical durability and endurance as seen in the console/PC version of Sonic Generations, where he withstood several hits from Sonic's Homing Attack, slid along the ground for long distances without harm, and even managed to survive being buried under what could be worth several tons of debris.

Silver has proven himself to be very acrobatic and agile, being able to jump and move gracefully through midair, both with and without the aid of his psychokinesis, and can grind on rails at high speed to match up to various character's, such as Sonic and Shadow while wearing combat boots, of an exception to stay in a single pose, which his skills are nigh-incomplete, as a testament to his balance and agility. He also has lightning-fast reflexes and senses, being able to mimic and cope with approximately even Sonic and Shadow's movements. Additionally, he can do amazing feats as well, such as picking up objects while moving through midair at high velocity, catch bullets with his psychokinesis, or causing any monster he comes into, to be suspended, in anyway combining his impressive accuracy with his psychokinesis, he is able to throw enemies and heavy objects at the same speed as the projectiles, without his arms getting tired. Silver also possesses above average physical strength, capable of pushing things several times bigger and heavier than himself.

Silver has demonstrated the ability to harness the power of the Chaos Emeralds to empower himself or even perform Chaos Powers. So far, the only Chaos Power he has been able to perform is Chaos Control, which lets him warp time and space, sealing anybody along with him into another dimension that he can choose. However, this was mentioned by Blaze the Cat, at the end of Silver's Story from Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), and he can empower himself by enhancing his own abilities, or to an additional extent, give him unlimited Psychic Energies for his psychic attacks.

Silver is one of the most powerful and profound fighters in the series, as he can fight on par with the most battle-experiences individuals in the series. He has been hinted to hold about the same power as Shadow the Hedgehog, and in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) he was able to fight Shadow to a stalemate and almost brought Sonic to the brink of death, though Sonic was being careless during their fight in the latter case.

In combat, Silver relies heavily on his psychokinesis and using the environment to his advantage. Unlike most other characters who utilize close combat, Silver focuses on long-range attacks. When fighting, Silver constantly keeps his distance from the enemy, as he needs a moment to concentrate for an attack, which will leave him vulnerable. If an opponent does get too close, however, he can grab them with his psychokinesis and throw them away.

Silver's main method of attack is picking up objects around him with his psychokinesis and hurtle them at his opponents. Occasionally, he can also rearrange these objects into colossal conglomerated shapes as more effective means of attacking, such as giant balls to bowl over opponents and train-sized battering rams. If projectiles are shot at him, Silver can grab them in his psychokinesis and throw them back at the opponent, effectively allowing him to turn his opponents' power against them.

When times call for it, Silver is capable of going on the offensive with hand-to-hand combat, as seen in his battle with Shadow in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), and in Sonic Rivals and Sonic Rivals 2 where he would attack enemies with physical strikes. However, his proficiency with this type of combat is unclear, as he has only demonstrated a limited range of punches and Spin Attack maneuvers. He seems unskilled, given his reckless, telegraphed, and easily blocked charges at Shadow during their fight, and it may be that Silver will only use physical combat as a desperate last resort.

Most of Silver's signature techniques and moves revolve around the use of his psychokinesis, which has a broad range of applications. His most of his offensive attacks involving using the objects around him as projectiles and discharging psychokinetic energies.

Silver's most used technique is his Psychokinesis, which lets him pick up objects around him for him to manipulate, and bend and move objects. His Levitate technique, which he uses to make himself airborne, increases his speed and movement abilities to levels matching those of the fastest and most agile characters in the series. Also, his Teleport Dash allows him to dash small distances at light speed.

With his Grab All technique, Silver can grab and manipulate everything around him or objects that come too close to him, and send them flying at his enemies. To throw objects with greater force while they are in his psychokinetic grab, Silver can use his Hold Smash and Psycho Smash to charge up his psychic energies and use them to throw objects at high velocities. Also, in Sonic Generations, Silver can perform a powerful attack called Meteor Smash,where he gathers a large ball of surrounding objects and launches it, after which it rolls along the ground, crushing anything in its path.

By channeling and manipulating his psychic energies, Silver can perform unique energy-based attacks, like his Psycho Shock and Psycho Smash that let him charge pulses of energy that can paralyze opponents and machinery, and with his Psychic Knife,Silver can form and throw a sharp and deadly blade of energy at the enemy. He can also perform his ESP move, which sends out a wave that attacks the minds of others, leaving them disorientated and confused.

In Sonic Rivals and Sonic Rivals 2, Silver is shown to utilize the Spin Attack where he curls tightly into a concussive ball while in locomotion to damage, mow down, or burrow through obstacles and foes. With the Spin Jump he attacks foes by landing on them, with the Spin Dash he curls up and shoots forward at high speed to break barriers or mow down enemies, and with the Homing Attack he homes in on an enemy to attack.

As seen during Dodon Pa's Grand Prix, Silver has excellent skills when it comes to driving and racing in racecars like the Lightron.

By using all seven Chaos Emeralds, Silver can enter a Super State, transforming him into Super Silver. In this state, all of Silver's abilities far surpasses his normal ones, including his psychokinesis which has been greatly amplified. He is as well able to fly without his psychokinesis and is nearly invulnerable. However, this transformation consumes a lot of energy and requires Rings to be maintained.

By harnessing different variants of Hyper-go-on from Wisps, Silver can use specific Color Powers to transform into a certain form, such as a drill, a laser or even a planet, each one possessing its own unique abilities. So far, Silver has been able to transform into the Cyan Laser, Yellow Drill and Indigo Asteroid. However, these transformations require a steady supply of Hyper-go-on to be maintained.

Silver will lose his focus when using psychokinesis if he is caught off guard or hit by a surprise attack.

If he overuses his psychokinesis, Silver can become extremely fatigued, and will need Rings to regain his energy.

Silver's relationships are Blaze the Cat, Sonic the Hedgehog, Espio the Chameleon, Charmy Bee, Vector the Crocodile, Knuckles the Echidna, Marine the Raccoon, Cream the Rabbit, Shadow the Hedgehog, E-123 Omega, Rouge the Bat, Amy Rose and Miles "Tails" Prower.

Silver's Enemies are Eggman, Iblis, Solaris, Mephiles the Dark, Eggman Nega, Ifrit, Zavok, Chaos,Metal Sonic and Infinite the Jackal.

[stevenakamura]

HP OMEN x T1 Creative Direction - Steve Nakamura

In the game world, you’re not defined by how you look. You’re defined by how you play.

TROUBLEMAKER (Gumayusi)

One who often gets into risky situations. 

One who creates difficulty for others. 

One who expresses a view that differs from the norm.

[psablog]

PSA: You should try and discover yourself!

By: Ana Milojevic

Comic by Peter Steiner, 1993, The New Yorker

In 1993, Peter Steiner would famously coin the adage, “On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog!” It might seem reminiscent of the old warning parents would give their children about how anyone can pretend to be anyone on the internet (mostly, of course, too young vulnerable girls about male predators).

However, the adage was never meant to be a warning about stranger danger, and in fact, early audiences took it in a wonderfully optimistic way. In response to the comic, Lisa Nakamura writes that the internet offers, “… unprecedented possibilities for communicating with each other in real-time, and for controlling the conditions of their own self-representations…”. what she called a form of “computer cross-dressing”. The idea of using the internet as a way to escape the confines of our bodies – or rather, the societal norms enforced on our bodies – seems a wondrous ideal.

Legacy Russel’s ‘Glitch Feminism’, as both an essay and a concept, take this ideal and interprets it through the lens of gender. Russel speaks of the binary-gender system as ‘a set of rules and requirements that her body is forced to play out, and that to refuse this performance – this compliance – she inhabits a sort of glitch in the system. By using the internet and its anonymity, she is capable of embodying this non-performance and discovering herself beyond the enforced boundaries of her body.

Does this mean we’re running away?

This should sound like a familiar tune to many people who grew up alongside the internet, using it as a platform to become someone else during times when being you was too difficult. I too, felt the need to craft a different persona so I would not have to confront myself. However, Russel does not speak of ‘escape’ – and this might be confusing. After all, are we not escaping our ‘real’ life when on the internet?

To suggest that what occurs on the internet is not ‘real’ is a fallacy – half our world runs on streams of data that most of us will never see, hear, taste, smell, or feel. The internet is not full of empty voices and faceless algorithms, but rather a living breathing thing comprised of millions of people just being people. Russel’s relationship with the internet is acknowledging it as a place of connection, a place of being, and recognizing how one can change who they are and be who one wants to be in the digital world. Our world is more than the physical bodies we inhabit.

What is good about this?

The important lesson to learn from Glitch Feminism is recognizing the power of an in-between space – because the internet does not bind a person to their physical body, a person can explore many avenues of existence, being something that is in between the binary spectrum of the physical world. This is not about creating a great leveling field, where a person can pass as belonging to more privileged groups. Glitch Feminism has no interest in passing or equalizing, and instead works on finding new ideas, new ways of ‘becoming’ one’s self. It knows that the gendered binary is ‘imaginary, manufactured, and commodified’, and rejects it in its totality. 

What do you do with it?

To young readers discovering themselves, the ideals of Glitch Feminism offer you the digital space as a way to discover yourself and amplify your identity. By this act of self-definition, we create a stepping stone, an internal realization that we can move forward to a world free from the gender binary. We inject ‘positive irregularities’ into a world filled with carefully tailored ways of being, and create malfunctions within the system that make spaces for new forms of gender experience. Ultimately, we become this Glitch, throwing the current system absolutely off, and continue to play, experiment, and try, all through the internet.

---

(PSA – The internet awaits, but always be responsible)

[tokyolens]

Summer Nights in Tokyo…

[bihlasfan]

NORM NAKAMURA 'TOKYO LENS' GIVES A GLIMPSE INTO HIS COOL LIFE IN JAPAN!

[ownproperties]

6 Little-Known Stories from the FIDE World Cup 2023

What an event we just had!

Magnus Carlsen won the FIDE World Cup 2023 in Baku, Azerbaijan, adding a major missing trophy to his cabinet.

Now he has it all – World Champion in Classical, Blitz and Rapid format. World no.1 spot. And now the World Cup! 

And we have Praggnanandhaa, who finished as the runner-up and secured a spot to the Candidates. He won our hearts with his excellent performance.

 But behind the FIDE World Cup 2023, there are a lot of stories that need to be heard too – from epic comebacks, underdogs braving the odds to excellent sportsmanship and even love.

 Each of these stories are packed with valuable chess and life lessons. Let’s see them, one by one.

Prag shines, just like Mission Chandrayaan

Praggnanandhaa took down World no.3 Fabiano Caruana and also World No.2 Hikaru Nakamura, two of the best players in the world.

With these victories, it has become evidently clear that Pragg is definitely the player to watch out for in the future. He has the game, preparation and most importantly the mindset to beat the best.

The boy who won our hearts and a Candidate spot | Credits: Maria Emelianova

Even Magnus couldn���t beat him in the Classical section of the finals.

At the same time, India achieved another major milestone.

On 23 August 2023, our nation’s dream of landing on moon with Mission Chandrayaan 3 also came true. What a moment!

Did you get goosebumps when Chaandrayan 3 and Prag appeared on the 1st page of all the major newspapers in the country?

Even Magnus couldn’t beat him in the Classical section of the finals.

At the same time, India achieved another major milestone.

On 23 August 2023, our nation’s dream of landing on moon with Mission Chandrayaan 3 also came true. What a moment!

Did you get goosebumps when Chaandrayan 3 and Prag appeared on the 1st page of all the major newspapers in the country?

The local hero Nijat Abasov

The host nation, Azerbaijan, is a strong chess country. They have some of the world’s top players in Mamedyarov and Radjabov who were participating in the event.

However nobody would’ve imagined at the start what was about to happen. Mamedyarov was knocked out in the 1st round. Radjabov bowed out soon too.

All hopes were on the only remaining Azeri player – Nijat Abasov. And he rose up to the occasion.

Nijat Abasov(white shirt, speaking in the mic) and happy locals! | Credits: FIDE

With his exceptional performance, he beat some of the top chess players like Anish Giri, Vidit Gujrathi and almost qualifying for the Candidates before being stopped by none other than Magnus Carlsen in semi-finals.

 In fact, Nijat even had a winning chance against Magnus though he failed to capitalize it.

 Nevertheless, he gave the crowd what they desperately wanted – a hero to root for!

Salimova Nurgyul: So close, yet so far

Being seeded No.29, far from the top 10, nobody would’ve given IM Nurgyul Salimova a chance to reach the final.

Yet she proved everyone wrong with her phenomenal performace and booked a berth in the finals against her favorite women’s player of the current time – GM Goryachkina.

In the final, Salimova had a clear winning position in 3 games (not 1,2 but 3!). That victory would mean she would not only win the Women’s Chess World Cup 2023 but also directly get the Grandmaster title without having to do all the norms..

Alas, history wasn’t going to be written that way. She came close, yet was a little far from putting her hands on the World Cup.

Nevertheless, her story shows that a low starting rank doesn’t mean you can’t win a tournament. With grit and determination, the impossible becomes possible!

Goryachkina: The cold-blooded fighter

GM Aleksandra Goryachkina was hopelessly lost in 3 positions in the final vs Salimova. Once in the Classical format. Twice in the Rapid tiebreak.

And yet, she survived all those 3 times. Some may call it luck. However she deserves full credit for fighting out in those 3 positions without losing heart.

Goryachkina (left) after winning the decisive game

Then in the final game, she got a slight chance to win. Sensing her opportunity, Goryachkina patiently tested her opponent who had to defend a tough position in very little time.

Goryachkina won the game, and with that the Woman’s Chess World Cup 2023!

There’s a lot to learn from the way Goryachkina handled the pressure and saved all those games. Just look at her celebration after she won the final game and had become the champion. No emotions on her face. Stone-cold.

Rivals on the board, friends off the board

In the quarters, you’ll notice there were 2 Indians facing off against each other – Praggnanandhaa vs Arjun Erigaisi.

On the board, they both did their best to defeat the other. But the astonishing part happened off the chessboard. It’s a life lesson for all players, especially the youngsters.

A day before their World Cup matchup, Irene Sukander, the commentator at the event, shared this picture on Twitter.

Irene Sukander with Prag and Arjun a day before their match

Then on day 1, game 1 – Arjun won. Yet, they still continued their evening walk that day!

Still continuing with the evening walk…

On day 2, game 2 – Prag won. And they still went out for their evening walk!

After both games had ended in a draw

It shows that you can play hard and do your best to defeat your opponent on the chessboard. At the same time, you can continue to be great friends off the board – true champion stuff!

A Mother’s love

Praggnanandhaa’s mom was with him at every game in the World Cup. And her support played an important role.

And after GM Praggnanandhaa used to win, you could see the joy in his mother’s smile. There was a sparkle in her eyes, a glow on her face.

It’s a moment every mom dreams of – to see their child winning, to see them doing big things, to feel proud. And no better stage than the World Cup of chess to experience it all.

The smile says it all | Credits: Maria Emelianova

This World Cup offered so much to learn and experience. 

 What was your favorite story of the World Cup? Were there any others you felt should’ve been on this list? Share with us in our community group. We’re looking forward to them!

[whatevergreen]

Some of the Youtubers I watch when I need a distraction:

Takasu Tile: his quiet life in rural Japan

Katherine's Journey to the East: an American living and working long-term in China, at an environmental organization in Hangzhou

Tokyo Lens (+ Tokyo Lens Explore): the life and travels of Norm Nakamura, a Canadian living in Japan. I wish I had his energy.

[hannahboydwest]

Exploring the Dark Side of Social Media: Marginalised Creators and Gendered Images

Through social media sites like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, the "new" creative economy is said to offer a variety of job prospects (Jenkins, 2006). The drawbacks of platform-dependent creative work, such as exploitation, instability, and overwork, have been noted by critics (Ross & Rivers, 2017). The unpredictability of these platforms' socio-technical systems, in particular the algorithms that decide their appearance, affects social media artists as well (Gillespie, 2018).

This week's readings include in-depth interviews with 30 artists to study the experiences of historically marginalised social media creators and stigmatised content genres (Nakamura et al., 2021). According to the results of these interviews, platforms are perceived by creators as enforcing governance inequitably, either formally (through human and/or automatic content moderation) or informally (via "shadowbans" and biased algorithmic boosts). Because of this, artists have evolved techniques like self-censorship and attempts to avoid algorithmic interference (Nakamura et al., 2021). The article's conclusion emphasises how marginalised producers and cultural expressions that are viewed as non-normative are harmed by the social media economy's disciplinary and punitive systems. The need for a more just and equitable system for creators is highlighted by this study's overall illumination of the intricate processes at work in the social media world (Nakamura et al., 2021).

Gendered photos are displayed on social media platforms, particularly mobile and algorithmic ones (Banet-Weiser et al., 2018). The authors examined data gathered from participants who shared photographs between their social media accounts and a nightlife locale while doing study on the interaction between social media, nightlife culture, and promotion. The authors introduce the idea of "body heat" on social media, which entails creating and digitally curating a body that complies with conventional visual heterosexuality codes and using a "hot" body to persuade others through movements, touch, and binge-eating (Banet-Weiser et al., 2018). The article emphasises how users' ability to deliberately select and present "hot" body images is what gives social media platforms their growing ability to control attention flows. The paper highlights how social media users connect more with pictures of attractive female bodies, and over time, algorithms learn to make these images more prominent, ultimately converting this data into money for the company (Banet-Weiser et al., 2018).

References:

Banet-Weiser, S., Garcia, A., & Shaw, A. (2018). Algorithmic intimacies: Repetition and difference in apps like Tinder. Feminist Media Studies, 18(4), 711-725.

Gillespie, T. (2018). Custodians of the Internet: Platforms, content moderation, and the hidden decisions that shape social media. Yale University Press.

Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide. NYU Press.

Nakamura, L., Chow-White, P. A., Lee, S., & Park, S. (2021). Governing creative labor on social media: Platform governance, algorithmic visibility, and practices of resistance. New Media & Society, 23(5), 1135-1153.

[meli-r]

Colorful World, Ch. 21

Locations: Wattpad | AO3  

“The lawyer’s badge stands for equality and fairness. Every life, including yours, is of equal value. Is that what you’ve been saying all these years? Nakamura Ichika, Abe Asuka and her husband, this woman. All of them had families before they died. Is that the equality you're after? How do they fit into your standard of justice? What makes one life worth saving and one worthless? I think now I understand what you’re trying to measure. It’s the value of life, isn’t it?”

Makishima Shougo's voice echoed as he looked at the tall, black-haired man with locks falling to the nape of his neck, who stood with his head tilted slightly to one side and his pale blue eyes narrowed, totally relaxed, wearing a white shirt under a black vest and tie, and both dark pants and shoes. Some of his hair was behind his right ear, while the rest fell over the other side of his face. The bright light of a memory made him squint for a couple of seconds. Opposite the Public Safety Bureau headquarters, officially 70 stories high and with a huge radio tower on its roof, stood the NONA tower, owned by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

“The complaint filed by the prosecutor before the Justice is almost 200 pages long, in it he accuses and requests the indictment and a preventive seizure of assets for a large sum of money to a former Prime Minister, a former Chancellor, a former federal prosecutor, a former judge, personnel of the current Public Safety Bureau and this Ministry for being the authors and accomplices of the aggravated cover-up of the accused for the Chiyoda bombing, in which 74 people died and more than two hundred were wounded. The indictment includes other related crimes, such as hindering the performance of a functional act and breach of the duties of a public official.”

Standing in the center of the large, clean office, wearing a formal black suit that sported a badge, shorter black hair and locks combed to one side of his face, Agawa Hajime watched as one of the ministry's senior staff turned off a screen in the corner of the room, where an interview from the previous day about the federal prosecutor with reporters was playing.

“What proof is there that some of our personnel are involved?” the older man scoffed, approaching the huge glass window and putting his hands in his pants pockets.

With perfectly coiffed half-gray hair and dressed in a dark, expensive suit, he gazed down at the busy city dozens of floors below. Agawa smiled, turning his head to the side for a second.

“Sir, there are precisely complete wiretap dialogues that the prosecutor managed to collect, and that he intends to read in secret session next Monday. We are living history. If the full report is released, not only the ideological authors of the attack will be questioned, but also the very foundation of the Sibyl System."

“You are an extremely talented lawyer, but it seems you do not understand the law. We are taught that laws are legal norms that establish duties and rights to all citizens equally so that social coexistence is possible, and whose non-compliance entails a sanction, but this is a theory of law that is not fully applied in our modern society. Laws don’t protect us from the powerful.”

“Everyone is equal before the law, sir,” Agawa blinked and frowned.

“That is naive,” he raised his voice, turning around to see him. “Principles don’t alter facts and reality. The law may delimit man's free will in society, but non-compliance doesn’t always lead to punishment, and can be circumvented with money and influence. Does a scanner bother you? Bribe the staff of the company that maintains it. Your ideals are not enough to change an irrational world so full of contradictions. You have two choices then: either you go crazy and end up in a cell, or you adapt to it. Let me ask you. What do you think we should do to maintain a prosperous and modern society?”

The man took a few steps around the room behind some black armchairs they used for corporate meetings, hands in his pants pockets, gazing at the skyscrapers in front of them, until he came up to him.

“We need a fair justice system with objective laws that define what constitutes a crime and outline the penalty to be imposed on the person responsible for such illegal action.”

“Fairness and justice have no place in this world. Your duty as a lawyer is to make an unfair argument sound fair and just. When a jurist tells me that I’m making a legal mistake, that what I’m doing is illegal, I tell him to legalize it himself, because that’s what he’s studied for.”

“He has studied to defend truth and not lies, justice and not injustice,” Agawa raised an eyebrow.

“In this society, Justice doesn’t care about objectivity and truthfulness of facts. Truth is an expendable variable in matters of crime and justice. Sounds illogical and totally opposite of what you learned in college, doesn't it? However, this is the world we live in. Thanks to technology, everyone's thoughts, desires and hopes are read and analyzed, and based on that assessment, crime and punishment are defined. Your theory is meaningless and impotent against it."

Agawa raised his eyebrows for a few seconds, as if awakening from a deep sleep, “I don’t really know what’s going to happen to me, to you, and anyone else. All I know is… no one can avoid death. In the end, such is the only equality of men.”

With one leg over the other and a heavy book resting on his thigh, Makishima narrowed his eyes and his lips twitched slightly into a smile. The cover read The Spirit of Law. He was sitting in an armchair wearing a white shirt, light purple pants and white loafers, his head turned towards the man standing in front of the huge glass window, hands in the pockets of his black pants, gazing at the NONA tower surrounded by luxurious buildings and skyscrapers.

“Oh… I see. How interesting. Power is granted only to the one who bends down to take it,” Makishima raised an eyebrow, reproducing Yashiro's words aloud. “You weren’t born with that power—you chose to take it. The power to decide who lives and who dies, to determine whether a life is respectable or worthless. No matter how honest a man is, in the end the one who can choose is the one who wields power. Anyone with enough power and influence is able to choose the value of a life. I bet you've seen it, haven't you? In a world where we’ve managed to read people's minds... many crimes that are difficult to prove such as corruption remain in impunity, since the Sibyl System doesn’t have the search for truth as its essential purpose, which serves as a criterion of legitimization in the State in the exercise of the right to punish. I dare say it’s impossible to do so because of the multiple constraints of the system itself.”

“Will mankind never learn that policy is not morality—that it never secures any moral right, but considers merely what is expedient?”

“Thoreau,” Makishima closed his eyes for a moment and lowered his head in a deep nod, white locks of hair lying across his chest. “Maybe I was drawn here to have this conversation. You too have peered behind the curtains, seen the contradictions of this world. But unlike you, I’m not interested in justice or in judging the value of human life. Each man must recognize his own. You’ve mentioned that death is the only equality among men. I think all our flaws are exposed when we look death in the eye, when we face human nature and reality. I don't want to decide about anyone's life. I want them to expose their hearts for themselves... and judge whether their lives are worth living.”

Agawa let out a short, low chuckle, and turned around with his hands in his pants pockets, utterly relaxed. Makishima blinked and eyed him warily.

“You haven’t changed,” Agawa shook his head gently, squinting his eyes. “If a runaway trolley were headed straight for five people tied up on the railroad tracks, and you had a chance to divert it by killing only one person on the opposite track, you probably wouldn’t save any of them. You’d be the one cutting the trolley’s brakes, just to see which choice the driver would make. Sure, there are grays, but behind any choice, at its core, you either do something, or you don’t. You're the most egotistical and self-aware man I've ever met, yet you never come to realize how much you crave for someone to recognize your actions.

“You pride yourself on not deciding for others, but you were quick to determine the value of her life and choose it over everyone else’s. What is it with you two, anyways? That’s what everybody wants to know. Some say it’s a brother-sister thing, others call it platonic. I prefer to believe it’s a little of both. The inspector. Takahashi Yashiro. I want to know who she is. You came out of the dark for her, more than once. Risked your life for hers. Makishima Shougo placing somebody else’s life ahead of his own? What makes her so special?”

Makishima’s golden eyes hardened as he stared at him for several seconds, brows furrowed and jaw clenched, until he closed his heavy book on his thigh and rose from the armchair in one quiet movement. He was turning to leave when Agawa's voice resounded again, “Have you ever heard of the Chiyoda bombing?”

Makishima stopped in front of the small table between the armchairs, and looked at him out of the corner of his eye.

“I’ve heard it happened a few years before the Sibyl System was implemented, and that it largely represented its moral justification under the slogans of order, security and justice. It’s said to have been a terrorist attack perpetrated by a group opposed to the ruling party of the time, which consisted of the detonation of a bomb while a union rally was being held. As a result, dozens of people were killed and hundreds were injured. Following the massacre, groups sympathetic to the ruling party looted and set fire to premises identified with the opposition. Decades later, this attack was again named by a prosecutor who denounced important political figures, but then committed suicide.”

“Hours before the day he was due to report, his body turned up dead from an overdose of suppressants in the apartment where he lived in Ginza. Well, I'd buy it if he was a stranger. But I knew him. He was my friend.”

“What happened to the people he denounced?” Makishima turned to him again.

“Justice acquitted both the former prime minister and the rest of the accused. Since their crime coefficients were normal, the case was closed and no one ever mentioned it again,” Agawa clicked his tongue. “The Ministry of Health and Welfare turned a blind eye, but continued to monitor this case for months, flagging any curious employee who sought the truth or asked too many questions.”

“There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice,” Makishima closed his golden eyes, then looked at him again, frowning. “Normally, it wouldn’t be accessible to the public with censorship and removal of historical events. How do you know all this?”

Agawa’s eyes blinked softly, and he smiled.

“Because I worked there.”

[boingolungs]

I READ GO FOR IT AGAIN NAKUAMURA BECAUSE BARNES AND NOBLES HAS SOME GAY SHIT THAT I LIKE!!

Anyway here's a quick review of it. Like quick because I like to think about it to get my feelings towards something right. Like at first I loved Godzilla 2014 and THEN I just kinda liked it weeks later and I want to reread the first volume.

Anyway back to the quick review. It was good and I liked it. Syundei is an amazing artist and Iove the old artstyle the mangaka has which is seen in their other works. Also before you get curious and look into their other work here's a trigger warning.

TW SHIT GETS FUCKED UP

But not in Nakamura not a concerning amount at least. Its just nice, simple and to be honest I completely forget about Hirose since Nakamura is an entertaining character to read and see. Also I guess he is kinda relatable in a lot of ways. A gay student in a practically hetero normative environment is relatable to me or a younger me at least. With a notable moment being where he tries to come to terms with his crush being in a relationship with a girl in the school. (also I'm pretty sure Nakamura gets a bisexual panic attack in the first book which makes me love the guy more)

My man Nakamura looking all serious while practically being in a state of panic internally makes me really root for the guy. What else, what else. Oh! I guess I should mention the concerning amount thing from earlier. Hirose has a crush on his teacher and generally I don't like it when a series does something like that but it would also be hypocritical of me as a certified milf enjoyer. But in retrospect I think its handled a lot better in this series compared to others with Hirose having a one sided crush on a teacher. Hopefully it's one sided again the teacher isn't helping but again if it's a one sided crush cool and if its more I'll probably buy the next volume just to see what would happen.

A small part I do like though is when Nakamura gets a haircut that makes him look completely different to everyone. It's only page BUT for some reason it sticks out.

It's honestly hard to review BL (my name get it) because I don't read a lot of it that doesn't end with fucking at the end if it. And romance is something I try not to touch but I do hope that at some point Syundei does have Nakamura and Hirose actually being a couple and not just ending it after they get together. Which I assume is normal for most romance manga to end when the relationship finally starts. If the first volume is the start of their friendship than it feels like the second is more so exploring Nakamura. I wonder if he's actually gonna go for it next volume so like in a year, and if he does I hope we see the relationship.

This will likely change when I reread volume 1 and 2.