#now also I’m remembering all the characters from Kuni no Alice and I just loved them all

[the-devildom-is-my-home-now]

Tag ramblings #1

[juli-bahama-official]

i have my manga list open let’s a fucking go! 10 worst manga in random order, for bonus points i limit myself to one manga by the same author. also i didn’t include oneshots. part of it is that i can’t remember what most of them was about, part of it is that oneshots can be fucked up in a way series do not.

zettai kareshi aka absolute boyfriend. fucking absolute boyfriend. the story is about a girl who is so desperate for a boyfriend she, get this, orders one online. she gets a glorified sex robot. the whole manga is highkey horny on main but it never really goes there, so we just have a bunch of blushing virgins and gags based around a robot wanting to bang.

anastasia club. i was torn between this one and basilis no musume, but anastasia club wins by having a lead bishounen who’s the grandson of anastasia romanov, as well as including the author’s fanfic about tchaikovsky where he’s no longer gay but instead has a kid with his sister. and also there was a ghost of rasputin. i think there was also a truck running into an antique shop? and something about jumping into sea from ships?

mizu ni sumu hana. some girl sees flowers on her body, yadda yadda, gonna be a priestess or something, yadda yadda, her predecessor’s trying to kill her, her cousin slash crush is actually a dragon god, he has to sleep with her to unlock his powers which would kill her in the process. the evil guy causes an apocalypse bc he wants to fight the cousin so badly, the girl really wants to fuck even if she’s gonna die, the cousin for some reason doesn’t want to do that. finally they bang but he doesn’t consume all of her vital powers, just 99%, so she gets revived. happy end!

zetsuai. somehow even more dramatic and overblown than the anime. mind you, i only read zetsuai 1989. and apparently the sequel is even worse. anyway i think that scene were bishounen a crashes a window (was it a window???) over bishounen b’s head to hurt him but then suddenly changes his mind and shields him with his body instead, thus protecting him from danger he himself caused in the first place, is really the epitome of the series. i also think bishounen a should learn to solve problems without stabbing anyone or threatening them or anything like that.

hitomi: the vision of escaflowne. the anime was so good, how can you screw up that badly? there are new characters, most of the original cast is missing, the story makes no sense, there are almost no robots AND no romance. it’s like you took escaflowne and threw away all the essential parts.

dengeki daisy. now it probably wasn’t so bad in itself, but it was way too long, it dragged on, it was too preachy, the heroine wasn’t very likeable to me, it was ugly, if it was shorter i would forget about it but reading it was such a chore i won’t forget it anytime soon (why did i keep reading, you ask? a friend borrowed it to me)

elfen lied. it currently holds second place on my list of manga with worst art. if you were into anime in 2010 or earlier you’ve heard about it, as it was THE edgy series everyone knew. it was rightfully known for being dumb and gorey. the manga was made by someone who clearly had no idea how a human body works, but still wanted to show it being torn apart. for bonus points we have a mc who is amnesiac and on the development stage of a very young child half the time, so we get such great scenes as her pissing herself in public. fun! there’s also some philosophy and missing memories. and relationship drama, cause that’s what we were missing.

fushigi no kuni no shounen arisu. it’s about a guy accidentally becoming alice in wonderland and getting the attention of some other guy who won’t take “but i’m a guy, too” for an answer. maybe. you see, the plot kept changing every chapter. and just when the author got decided on something, it got axed. so basically, a fanservice comedy that was unfunny and unsexy.

tsutsunuke love letter, about a girl who can read minds and an asshole boyfriend. forgettable, but it gets an honorable mention for being the first manga that frustrated me so much i deleted it immediately after reading.

random walk, aka terrible teen relationships galore. everyone is fucked up and everyone believes it to be totally normal. i think my favorite was the mc's ex, who cheated on her with his tutor (she was "giving him a reward"), got with her again, and broke up with her even though he loved her because a girl had a crush on him and was soooo sad he was with someone else, she got sick and ended up in a hospital, so he started dating her because of guilt. but he actually started liking her in the end! don't you love happy endings?

[suudonym]

Every anime/manga rec so far have been great! I'm hooked on Made in Abyss rn. If its possible what are some of your other anime/manga recs?

I’m glad you’re enjoying it!! I for one am all but literally bouncing in my seat because tomorrow is friday and friday is made in abyss and I am looking forward to it

other recommendations, hmmmmm let’s see what I can come up wiiith

(genres are gonna be all over the place, sorry about that)

among anime that I eagerly looked forward to new episodes of, I’d recommend re: zero first and foremost. it’s a “normal guy ends up in an alternate fantasy world” story but it does the trope SO MUCH BETTER than the trope usually gets done. there were already like five episodes out by the time I finally gave it a try and boooyy am I glad I did because it’s just a phenomenal story, very painful, top marks from the pain-loving me

if it’s anime that I looked forward to, then I can’t not mention natsume yuujinchou. the sixth season aired last season with new episodes on tuesdays and as early as thursday I’d be like “TUESDAY IS COMING IT’S ALMOST TIME FOR NATSUME.” natsume is what I call a warm and soft anime - it just feels good to watch it. that said it is six seasons long and it’s episodic with pretty much no overarching plot (though there is some subtle and natural character development that’s just HEARTWARMING) so a lot of people find it too boring but if you don’t mind the episodic nature then it’s so… so good

speaking of warm I also greatly enjoyed amaama to inazuma and udon no kuni no kiniro kemari / poco’s udon world. I say them in the same breath because they have a LOT of similarities: yuuichi nakamura (voice of karamatsu) plays a mild-mannered guy awkwardly bumbling his way through single fatherhood to a young child. the thing that makes them very clearly different stories is that in the former the child is the main character’s four-ish-year-old daughter, his wife recently deceased, and in the latter the child is a three-ish-year-old magical shapeshifting tanuki. for amaama to inazuma there’s also an ongoing manga which I would almost be inclined to recommend over the anime (the art works a lot better imo) if not for the fact that the little girl in the anime is voiced by an actual little girl and it’s so endearing

if you like osomatsu san (and if you’re engaging with my blog it feels safe to assume that that’s the case) then I recommend handa-kun for it’s extremely relatable protagonist and general hilarity. if misunderstandings as a tool for humor is up your alley then handa-kun is the alley itself. hardly anybody watched that show and to this day I cannot understand why. (actually it’s probably because it was a prequel to the similarly underrated barakamon which I also wholeheartedly endorse. there are a few references to it in handa-kun so on one hand if you’re interested in watching barakamon it may be better to watch it first for the sake of those references but on the other hand handa-kun has a very different tone from barakamon so it may feel a bit weird watching it after barakamon unless you leave a gap in between)

another criminally underrated one is alice to zouroku. my god did I enjoy that one, it’s a found-family story featuring a young girl with extremely limited worldly experience and a grouchy old man with a heart of gold (ngl I based the explosive engineer in tata on this guy after the first episode because I was so deeply intrigued by the unusual character archetype). it goes through a few shifts in genre and leaves a looot of loose ends but imo it is SO WORTH IT for the really wonderful themes along the way

so that’s what I can come up with for recent anime, and for older/less recent anime the first thing that comes to mind is definitely steins;gate, which is pretty highly acclaimed so I’d be surprised if you’re not already familiar with it. BUT, what gets talked about much less is robotics;notes, which I also very much enjoyed. as you can tell from the semi-colon it’s by the same author as steins;gate (and I THINK, I might be wrong but I THINK it’s also the author of re: zero?) and there are parts that stick out very vividly in my mind, so vividly that I also distinctly remember sitting in the school cafe talking about these parts to a friend because holy shit

I also will never miss an opportunity to scream to the sky about hyouka because MY GOD I loved hyouka and it was so beautiful and so interesting and yes it’s kind of slow and quiet but it’s a highschool slice-of-life pseudo-mystery with a focus on characters and character development so of course it’s gonna be a bit slow and quiet. also the main character is voiced by yuuichi nakamura so, y’know, lil bonus there for those who are as deeply attached to karamatsu as I am

and! tales of the abyss. play the game if you can (it’s for ps2 and has a 3ds port) but if you can’t then the anime, while not necessarily what you might call pretty or well-animated, is an admirably faithful adaptation for being limited to two cours. the protagonist is one of the most deeply human characters with some of the most realistic and thoughtful character development I’ve seen out of anything ever and I will never stop recommending it, but do play the game first if it’s within your ability because it is, naturally, much more thorough in its storytelling and also is very rewarding by nature of being a game

back to anime that’s just anime (and boy is it anime), I’ll always enthusiastically endorse shirobako, the quintessential anime about anime, specially about anime production. I’ve heard that it was supposed to have four cours but due to scheduling conflicts it was cut down to just two and I will never know peace knowing that I could have had twice as much shirobako as what I got

and now that I’ve been through aaaaaall that how about some MANGA

there’s three right off the bat that I very very VERY highly recommend but I’ll do em one at a time for the same of organization. first, I’ve said it before and I’m still waving my arms in the general direction of the promised neverland if you’re not already reading it. if you’re more of an anime watcher than a manga reader you just wait a while and I have no doubt in my mind that an anime announcement will spring up

next, I’ve actually been wanting to recommend this one for a really long time: dungeon meshi. it’s sorta like d&d meets shokugeki no souma - a party of penniless dungeon crawlers crawl through a dungeon trying to save the main character’s sister, and because they’re penniless they cook and eat monsters. it’s CRIMINALLY funny and extremely well-illustrated and the plot has been seriously heating up lately and there aren’t nearly enough people reading this manga

and third is to you the immortal / to your eternity / fumetsu no anata he (not sure which is the more accurate translation of the title). a strange immortal rock has the power to take on the form of things that have a big impact on it, and by experiencing bigger and bigger impacts the entity gains a sense of identity and purpose, plus a whole bunch of forms that he can shift between at will. it’s by the same author who did koe no katachi (which I also highly recommend, both the movie and the manga are really really great - though the manga covers much more than the movie)

I would also recommend yotsuba& / yotsuba to but I don’t want people to think I have a type (I do have a type, it’s family themes. lay them sweet sweet family themes on me). I’m honestly really surprised that this one’s still never gotten an anime. a soft and fluffy story about a single dad raising his extremely energetic small daughter

there’s probably a loooot more, especially manga, but I have completely run out of energy and that’s a pretty extensive-feeling list as it is so I’m gonna leave it as it is for now. hope something in here piques your interest!

[beyondalicerp]

Congratulations, Mickey, You’ve been accepted for The Librarian! Please look over our Acceptance Guide and submit your character blog within the next 24 hours.

(Except not really because this is the sample application. We will not be posting the full applications for regular acceptances.) 

Trigger Warnings: Family Death, Anxiety.

OUT OF CHARACTER:

Name: Mickey Age: 20 Pronouns: She/Her Timezone: PST Additional Info: I’m currently in school full time Tuesdays through Saturdays and I work on Mondays but I can guarantee I’ll be on almost every night and all day most Sundays!

IN CHARACTER:

Desired Skeleton: The Librarian Full Name: Bluebelle Everett Age: 24 Date of Birth: October 2nd Gender: Cis Female Sexuality: Heterosexual Residence: Fairtown Occupation: Librarian Species: Auraus Affiliation: Crimson Faceclaim: Mila Kunis

Biography: 

The Everetts were always the perfect little family when Bluebelle was growing up. Being an only child, she was very close with both her parents, who loved her and cared for her in every way they could. In her earliest years, Belle recalls their family not having a lot of wealth. Her father worked as a blacksmith’s apprentice while her mother stayed home to care for her. After the Crimson King was crowned, Atticus Everett took a chance and became a Crimson knight, believing it would give him the opportunity to provide a better life for his family.

 Atticus served as knight, loyal to the Crimson King, for almost a decade. Bluebelle remembers the job keeping him away from home longer than she liked, but that just made her value the time she did spend with him even more. No matter how long or difficult his day had been, she always saw a smile on his face when she greeted him at the front door of their home, until one day Atticus never showed up. Bluebelle’s mother, Eden, told her not to worry; reassured her that some jobs that knights do require them to be gone all night, her father would return home in the morning. Eden wouldn’t let Bluebelle answer the door when they heard a knock the next morning.

Wonderland remembers day one of the biggest windstorm in history as it shook the land, but Bluebelle remembers that day for being the only time she’s seen her mother in hysterics. Thirteen-year-old Belle watched as her mother collapsed on the floor at the presence of two unfamiliar Crimson Knights at the door. The woman who was always so poised, so in control, now a disheveled mess on the floor, screaming and crying at the loss of her love. It took a few minutes for Bluebelle to begin crying, her shock overtaking her at first: shock at both the death of her father and the sight of her mother in a state she had never seen before. 

A few weeks after her father’s death, Bluebelle noticed a large group of Crimson Knights heading towards the direction of their home, a group large enough to accompany royalty, she assumed the king was stopping by to pay his respects. It wasn’t until a few days after his visit that Eden told her daughter the king tried to ask for her hand in marriage, to which she respectfully declined. Her mother explained to her that it was because she wanted to live a simpler life after the loss of her husband, and that they weren’t to ever speak on the subject again. 

After a few months of mourning, Eden was able to develop an income working as a seamstress out of their own home, having learned the skill from her parents. By the time Bluebelle was eighteen, her mother had her own shop at which she helped run. She loved working with her mother, but she dreamed of finding her own purpose, her own way of helping Wonderland be better. Right around that time a new public library was built not too far from their home, and Bluebelle, always a fan of books and reading, jumped at the chance to help run it. She worked closely with the palace librarian for about a year, learning how to keep the library running and how to help people find books they would enjoy, and soon after that the public library was hers. 

Bluebelle has loved running the library this whole time, and her mother loves that it has kept her daughter busy these past few years, as it’s bought her more time to keep her secret hidden. While it is a big secret that the king once proposed to Eden all those years ago, there’s an even bigger secret between the mother and daughter that Eden’s been able to keep for Belle’s whole life.

Unbeknownst to Belle, Eden has been hiding the fact that they are in fact Aurai, rare creatures most people in Wonderland believe to be extinct. As most Aurai were executed during the reign of Hearts, Eden believed it was safer for her daughter to not be aware of what she was, and has been feeding her a substance to suppress her abilities since shortly after she was born. She meant to tell her when she was older, but it never seemed like it would be the right time to have that kind of conversation. Now that Bluebelle is an adult, her abilities are most likely fully developed and she has no idea she even has them, let alone how to use them. When she first started suppressing her daughter’s abilities, it was because she feared the outside world would be a danger to her, but now she fears Bluebelle may end up being the danger.

Headcanons: 

Bluebelle only goes by her full name or Belle, never Blue. When she was a child her father called her his Little Blue and ever since he passed away, she’s reserved the nickname of Blue for him and only him. She doesn’t get upset when someone accidentally calls her Blue, but she always makes a point to correct them.

Belle is terrified of losing her mother. Losing her father when she was young was hard but with time and seeing her mother’s strength through it all, they were able to live with the grief. If she were to lose her mother, though, she wouldn’t know how to go on. She wouldn’t know where to turn to, who to look to. While she is an adult she does still rely on her mother for a lot of things, mostly for a sense of security, which is why she still lives with her, even though she’s well of age to live on her own.

Ever since she was a little girl, Bluebelle has had an inexplicable fear of tight spaces. She can’t recall a time she ever had a traumatic experience regarding small spaces, but every time she’s found herself in one she finds herself struggling to breathe. She tends to avoid small rooms, cramped spaces, and large crowds when she can because of this. She asked her mother about it once to try and figure out why she had this fear, her mother responded saying she had the same fear, so she must have gotten it from her.

After her father’s passing, Bluebelle developed what physicians in Alice’s world would diagnose as an anxiety disorder. She’s learned to keep it under control most of the time as an adult but through her teens she was met with several panic attacks and frequent restlessness. While her panic attacks are less frequent now, Belle is often still troubled by excessive worrying and racing thoughts whenever she feels uneasy.

Plots: 

The biggest one would definitely be Bluebelle discovering who- or what, really- she really is. She’s lived her entire life not knowing her full identity and I’d love to find some way to bring that out in the future. It’d definitely throw her personality and her sense of self for a spin for a little while. I’d also like to see how her relationships develop, whether they’re with the set connections already put in her bio (wink wink, nudge nudge), or new connections she makes through interactions on the dash.

Questions: Please pick at least two of the following questions to answer IN CHARACTER,  3rd person narrative. Minimum two sentences per question, please.

The Crimson King: fair and just ruler, or evil tyrant? What is your opinion of him, or even your opinion of the monarchy in general? She sat there thinking for a long moment, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear as she cautiously thought over her words, “I am... aware of the notoriety the Crimson King has developed throughout Wonderland. While I don’t always agree with the choices he makes as king, I can’t really see him as the monster other people seem to make him out as.” She spoke slowly and carefully. She was more than aware of the things he did that she didn’t exactly see as fair and just, but she felt evil tyrant wasn’t the right fit to describe him either. “I’ve had very few interactions with him myself, so I can’t say for certain what kind of person he is... but from my experience he’s been very kind and generous to my family and the ones I care about. I can’t just go off and label someone who’s been so good to my family as “evil”. There’s something more to him, I’m sure of it.”

What changes would you like to see happen to Wonderland within the next five years or so? A spark of excitement lit up the young woman’s face, “Oh so many things,” she began. “I’d love to see more development with some of the buildings and programs Wonderland has started these last few years. You know the library has been so wonderful to this community, I’ve really been trying to keep it quite busy as of late,” she rambled, she always loved talking about the library. “In fact, I believe it’s been generating enough business that it should be due for an expansion some time soon, but I’m trying to not get my hopes up.” She beamed with enthusiasm, before graciously adding, “Of course I’d also love to see developments within the Schoolhouse and the Orphanage too, as I believe they serve even more important purposes in our community.”

Extras: I made these the first time I played Belle but they’re still applicable.