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rosie-zia · 1 year ago

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Luxiem Drabbles

Scenario: Luxiem's significant other turned into Luxiem’s own fan mascots. Word Count: 3.3k+ all in all Genre: Fluff, comedy, & comfort. Note: I apologize in advance if the Luxiem boys are a bit OOC. I tried my best, and I hope you enjoy!

Vox Akuma:

Around the palace of the voice demon, you wandered the great long corridors, admiring every single detail and structure of the castle. As you walked in the halls, you would check each of the rooms to see if everything was in order before Vox Akuma returns home.

By the end of the hall was a door that you have never seen before. Curiosity has drawn you into the room. When you opened the door, it was an isolated room. You only saw some things that might have belonged to Vox. An album, a samurai sword, and other trinkets that you could possibly find. You felt like you were crossing Vox's privacy, so you tried to leave the room quickly.

However, you heard a small voice enter your mind. You turned around and no one was there. You looked around again just to make sure no one is in the same room as you, but you noticed red mist surrounding you. You looked for the source of this mysterious smoke, and the mist comes from the shiny Oni mask displayed on the left side of the room. Inhaling the smoke made you draw closer to the mask. There was no holding back anymore as you touched the mask before you fell unconscious.

A few moments later, you wake up in a random room and see Vox's trusted assistant, Oni Giri, trying to wake you up. Oni Giri explained about what happened to you, and how you passed out all of the sudden from the curse of the mask. Now, you turned into a biblically accurate fallen angel with eight dark wings, a huge eye, a pair of black horns with horizontal golden lines, white hair, and extra two white wings. Your new transformation made you look like one of his Kindreds. At first, you weren't able to process it properly, but when it did, it hit like a truck and made you panic. You worry about Vox's reaction.

It didn't take long before Vox arrived hurriedly in the scene, as it was right for you to worry because he tries to hold you like a plushie and examines you for any wounds.

"Darling, who did this to you? I swore if I ever find this person, I would absolutely hunt them down!"

Before things could even get dirty, Oni Giri explained the whole situation which calmed him down, but still wary about how you are feeling at the moment. Once you two are alone, Vox holds you in the most gentle way possible.

"It's alright now, my beloved, I'm here now. Let me take care of you like how I take care of my other Kindreds."

Soon enough, he leads you to a room filled with lots of friendly Kindreds and also locks the cursed room to keep you safe from the curse hitting you again.

Kindreds take one of the unique form as they appear like biblically accurate fallen angels. Their form can spook or scare someone, but Kindreds are sweet creatures. Kindreds are known as one of the most loyal species to their owner as they were drawn to the demon's sophisticated and alluring voice. At first, Kindred thinks very highly of their owner due to his elegance and his royal-like demeanor. Now, they still look up to him but in a different way that they got to see his true self free from expectations. Also, Kindred would work hard in helping whatever they can to do to show their gratitude to Vox. Whether someone is a Kindred or not, no one can resist the demon's charms and wit, so they will always fly back into his arms.

Luca Kaneshiro:

In the four corners of the manor, you waited for your boyfriend and mafia boss to come home from an important mission. It was getting too lonely whenever he had an errand to take care of in the mafia, so you had to find new ways to entertain yourself for the time being when he's gone.

This time, you were drinking some tea in your bedroom with Luca's lion cub, Augustus, idling away and enjoying the peace you have to yourself. The tea you were drinking was a gift from Shu since you want to try and explore different tea blends. Halfway through drinking the tea, you were getting a bit dizzy, and Augustus noticed it. He kept nudging you, but you assured him that you were fine. You don't know if it's from the tea or just from the times you spent with so much passion with Luca on the bed, but you can't keep your eyes anymore that you ended up passing out on the bed.

You woke up feeling normal but still groggy, trying to recall what happened before you passed out. You looked at the time and it's five in the evening. You feel like it's still too early for Luca to come home, so you will be expecting him sooner or later. Augustus saw you were awake and kept licking your face.

"mmm... Augustus, you know I'm sleeping. You can wait for Luca to come home and play with you."

Usually, you would get up from the bathroom and wash up after your nap, but something doesn't feel right when everything in your vision looks a bit bigger. You didn't feel like going to the bathroom this time, so you reached out to your pocket mirror by your nightstand and saw you turned into a small lion cub like Augustus.

"Wait- Augustus, what happened?! Why am I small and I look like you?"

You examined your features before reaching out to your phone and contacting your boyfriend. Although you know he's on the mission, it won't hurt to call him in the middle of his work, right? Surprisingly, he picked it up immediately.

"Oh, hey, babe. What's up?"

"Sorry for bothering you, Luca, but can you come home a bit earlier?”

“Oh yeah, I’m already on my way home, Y/N. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

“Alright, see you soon.”

You hung up as you slouched on the bed. While waiting for Luca, you played with Augustus. After exactly ten minutes, Luca barged into your room feeling a bit upbeat.

“Baby, I’m home! You sounded like you were panicking through our phone call. Are you alright?”

He expected to meet his partner on the bed, but he was surprised to see that his lover, you, turned into a Lucub. The young mafia boss may look amused about your transformation, but don’t let his expressions fool you because he’s clenching his fist.

“Alright, who did this to you? I just want to talk-”

“NONONO, it’s alright, maybe it’s temporary.”

Before you could explain yourself, Luca was already calling his friend, Shu, to ask him what to do in this situation you are in. He eventually hung up after talking to the sorcerer.

“Shu said you’ll be back in your own physical form tomorrow. Don’t worry too much, okay? It’s not good for you.”

As much as you were worried about how you will turn back to your normal self, you can’t help but listen to Luca. All your thoughts disappeared as you felt your man’s hand petting you.

“You look so adorable, and you really are fit to be a Lucub.”

You laughed at what Luca said and his bright smile made your worries fade away.

“Well… I’m your biggest fan.”

“Haha, Pog!”

From there, you and Luca played games and talked all day together along with Augustus by your side. It’s always nice to be with your number one himbo.

Lucubs are similar to lion cubs and the spitting image of Augustus. Additionally, Lucubs took an oath to work as bodyguards under the Kaneshiro mafia. They tend to be very huggable and lovable towards their owner as they really cherish him to the point they would kill everyone in the room and then themselves. Their owner may describe himself as the “mean and evil” mafia boss, but they try to prove him wrong and call him a “himbo.” Whether one is a Lucub or not, one will always ask if they are now facing the sun due to how bright his smile and personality is.

Ike Eveland:

It was an ordinary day as you cleaned out your boyfriend’s streaming room. Ike was out for the day to buy some groceries for the two of you, so you wanted to return the favor by cleaning his room. You were simply dusting his novels when suddenly a book fell off the shelf. It was an odd-looking book with an ancient design. You decided to open it, and the book glowed which then blinded your sight of vision.

After a while, you opened your eyes, and everything around you turned big from your perspective. You looked into your reflection on the marble floor and suddenly, you turned into a huge white ball of fluff with a blue feather on top. You were panicking, but you even panicked more when you heard yourself only saying small squeals and soft noises. After a small breakdown, you decided to wait for Ike to return home.

A few moments later, Ike returned a bit frustrated from driving to your shared home; however, his road rage somehow disappeared when he saw a huge white ball of fluff with a huge blue feather sticking out on top of it. The novelist pauses on his tracks and tries to have a double take if he is seeing things correctly and not just being delusional. Knowing that you cannot explain things by words, you picked up a pen and a paper to describe what happened.

“So you’re saying that you turned like this by a book from my shelf?”

You nodded apologetically while Ike picked up the same ancient book that turned you into a Quilldren. He scanned the book and then placeed it back on the shelf.

“Ah, this must belong to Shu. It says here the spell will just last for the whole day. Tomorrow, you’ll return to your own self in no time. Don’t worry too much, okay?”

As much as you wanted to speak with words, you let out sad noises and looked down on the ground. Ike sensed how you felt bad for troubling him, but it’s no trouble for him at all. He wanted you to at least cheer up, so he sat on his gaming chair and patted his lap, inviting you.

“I’ll be having my Zatsu stream today. Would you like to sit on my lap, älskling?”

Hearing those words from him made you so happy that your feather perked up in excitement. You made your way to his lap, and it felt like heaven. Ike started streaming and talked with chat about his usual day and some random topics to throw at. From time to time, your boyfriend will give you head pats and head rubs to assure you he’s there to hold you secure and safe.

The highlight of Ike’s chatting stream was when chat starting to ask for “lap rights” and he gave in after some persuasion from you and other Quilldrens. When his stream ended, Ike laughed and patted you once more.

“You and the Quilldren are a feisty bunch aren’t you? Hehe, never change, my älskling"

Quilldren come in various sizes, but they appear like fluffy cotton balls with a blue feather on top. Mostly, Quilldren can convey their feelings through their feathers similarly to a dog’s tail. These cotton balls may be endearing and sweet but won’t hesitate to bite back to their owner. Despite their different behaviors, they will unite as one to demand “lap rights” from their owner until they get what they want.

Shu Yamino:

You and Shu live together in the comfort of your shared home just chilling in each other’s presence, and you two will always help out each other. One day, he asked for your help. You were planning to do something else, but you were persuaded by your boyfriend and had to bribe you with extra food which led you in helping him with his chores.

Currently, you two are sorting out his spell books that he keeps in the basement. Most of them are collecting dust for being there for too long, so you tried your best to clean them.

"Is it really safe to keep them here? How about you just keep these books in your room?"

"I think it's safe enough as long as I don't chant or activate any spells from the books, and I can't put my spell books in my room because it doesn't fit anymore in there."

Shu smiles while you roll your eyes at the sly sorcerer. You both then get back to work, and you've finished cleaning Shu's bookshelf of spells.

"Alright! We're finally done. Now, where's the food that you promised?"

"Yeah yeah, I'll order the food you want. Just tell me what you want, and I'll order it for you."

As you two left the basement, your foot hit something from the ground and it's a thick book.

"Hmm? I think we might have missed this one. Hold on, I'll just put this back on the shelf."

"WAIT, Y/N, DON'T-"

Before you could even react, there was a glowing and blinding light inside of the basement like your whole life was flashing in your very eyes. You close your eyes for a moment, and then open it. Everything was blurry at first, but it was all clear when you looked in the mirror and you became... a banana?

"AHHHH SHU, WHY DID I BECOME A BANANA?!"

Shu also opened his eyes and saw your sudden transformation. He was silent at first, trying to process the current events unfolding before laughing so hard.

"Eyyyyy, you're a Yaminion now!"

"SHUUU!"

"Don't worry, don't worry! The effects are just temporary, you'll be just fine."

Throughout the whole day, Shu tried to compensate for what happened with a lot of your favorite comfort foods and lots of pampering. Your boyfriend does tease you from time to time though, but you don't mind as long as he keeps paying you back with food.

Yaminions take the form of bananas with stick-like arms and legs, occasionally wearing sunglasses to represent their swag. Unlike Quilldren, Yaminions are on the cooler side of things like their owner. Though they are chill, they don't experience much "fanservice." They go through means in order for their owner to give them some crumbs of affection to go throughout their day. If ever their owner would give a once in a lifetime pick-up lines, who knows what would happen to the hearts of the Yaminions.

Mysta Rias

At present, you are in Mysta’s apartment because he called you to come over. When you arrived, you saw a small note and it was written by your boyfriend, saying he had to leave urgently because of a serious investigation. At the back of his note, he added something and asked a favor to you to look out for his pets “Mystakes.” You sighed, concerned how hard he’s working, but that’s one of the reasons why you fell for him. You opened the door to Mysta’s apartment with one of his spare keys that he gave you.

Once you entered in, all of his Mystakes pounced on you. You almost tripped, but you were able to balance yourself.

“Hey, guys! Hehe, it’s nice to see you all again! Did you miss me?”

The foxes nodded happily as they helped clean Mysta’s room. Looking around at his apartment, there were boxes and some luggage lying around. You were wondering why they were packing Mysta's stuff until you remembered he was moving out to another city. As you watch them pack his things, you can't help but notice how sad they look, so you try your best to cheer them up.

"Awww, don't be sad. It's going to be alright, guys. I know you will miss him, but he says how much he loves you all. Wherever he goes, he'll always carry his Mystakes in his heart."

Some of his foxes are crying while the others are happy for him, but they just want the best for him at the end of the day. You let them process their emotions first before speaking up to give your idea.

"There are still a few days left before Mysta moves out, so better make the most of it with him and just have a blast!"

The small foxes looked at each other before looking back at you mischievously, certainly planning something in mind. This made you a bit nervous when you saw how the Mystakes kept approaching you until they threw themselves and piled on top of you.

"h-huh? w-what are you doing, guys? HEY WAIT-"

Those were the last words you uttered before chaos struck because somehow, you are now in the same physical form as them.

"I'm a Mystake?! How is this possible? Please change me back!"

Mysta's sly pets looked at you feeling proud of their work. It seems that they don't have any plans in changing you back to your original form, so you texted Mysta to just come home ASAP without telling him any details.

This led your boyfriend to get frantic when he read your message. After a while, Mysta finally returns home with a concerned expression on his face. He thought something serious had happened to you, so he ran home as fast as he could. The detective barged in the room and kept screaming your name.

"*huff* *pant* *pant* BABE?! Where are you? I tried to come home as fast as I could after receiving your text. Answer me!"

Looking now at the events before him, his face turned into a blank expression as soon as he understood the situation.

"Ah! Mysta! Thank goodness you are here. I became one of your foxes. Help me change back!"

"Ayo, they changed you into a Mystake, huh? Not surprising though since they can really pull tricks out of their sleeves."

"Will I be like this for a long time?"

"Nah, It will just last for a day. You'll be fine, trust me. I was turned into one of them, and it's not that bad."

You give him a suspicious look before trusting him and letting your boyfriend take care of you. You two, along with the Mystakes, ended up playing some games, chilling, and enjoying each other's company. It was just a usual day for Mysta streaming, but the smallest and simplest things count as precious memories.

After a day of gaming, Mysta ended the livestream and helped you prepare for bed. Even being in a form of a fox right now, Mysta didn't mind snuggling into you for the night. You two then eventually fell asleep in each other's arms.

In the morning, Mysta opened his eyes as he felt the morning light hit his eyes. When his eyes were fully opened, he saw now how you finally turned into your original human form. As much as Mysta wants to wake you up to tell you that, he held himself back to look at your peaceful figure.

Your boyfriend brushed away any strands blocking your face while whispering the words he has been keeping to himself for a long time.

"You may be one of my Mystakes, but I never made a big mistake in loving you."

Mystakes are sly and mischievous foxes who tease and joke around their detective, but their behavior represents as a sign of affection towards their beloved owner. Foxes are known to form strong bonds with their owner or to their loved ones, and Mystakes show how loyal they can be to their owner. They don't hesitate to tell their owner how comfortable they are around him until his final moments. From the start until the beginning of the end, Mystakes stood up as strong ones, wanting for their owner to be happy and live his life to the fullest.

Fin.

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A/N: Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for reading my work and for your support >_< Sorry I took so long. This is dedicated to the boys of Luxiem, especially to our beloved detective Mysta Rias. He taught me to stay strong and keep smiling in times of hardships and difficulties. He became a part of my life that I will never forget. Mysta, wherever you are, I hope you are living the best life. I will always pray for you and your safety as you solve the next case. Good luck on your work, detective! Spread the love!

#luxiem fluff #luxiem x reader #nijisanji en #ike eveland x reader #shu yamino x reader #mysta rias x reader #vox akuma x reader #nijisanji x reader #luca kaneshiro x reader #luxiem headcanons #luxiem #ike eveland #shu yamino #luca kaneshiro #vox akuma #mysta rias

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cloud0818 · 2 years ago

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Reading KHR in Japanese (1)

I have previously posted about that in Japanese, the speaking shows characters's personality.

Very happily, I was asked to know about the other characters, so here! I'm going to split this into two posts because it's going to be long. Thanks for the request!!( @misteriosasaky )

Tsuna

First person : "Ore"

Second person : thier name (sometimes "Omae"/"Kimi")

On the whole : middle school student-like,mild,childlike

Overall, his speaking is typical of middle school students but also a bit childlike. His speaking is mild style and honest. He is a straight-man in comedy scenes. Including that, sometimes his tone can be rough. He comes on especially strong with Reborn and kids. But most of the time it is like an big brother scolding little brothers.

His *unconscious* choice of words says a lot about his personality. He uses soft words, especially with his friends. When he is angry, he is not intimidating as if he is scaring them. If anything, he appeals to them to understand. We can know he isn't get used to being angry seriously.

He uses the first person most often used by middle school students("Ore"). He doesn't use second/third person pronouns very often and often calls them by name. If he uses them, it is "Kimi" or "Omae". He uses "Kimi" for new acquaintances and close friends. "Omae" is used for kids or his enemies. However, when he is in hyper mode, he uses "Omae" for everyone but Kyoko.

And he uses honorifics and honorific title for older. Like, Ryohei, Hibari or Dino. But it isn't overly formal. When speaking with them, Tsuna's junior disposition is often evident.

However, he doesn't use honorifics or honorific titles for those who were his enemies, regardless of their age. Even to Xanxus. He wary or fearful of those who are no longer his enemies, but he relatively casual speaking although. But, this tendency seems to be limited to those whom he had confronted. When he met Varia at the Arcobaleno arc, he used honorifics toward Belle. I really like the moment that he was confused about whether he should use honorific titles for Squalo when they finished last fight and stay in hospital. He seems to have trouble of distance between many people.

Of course, there are points where it depends on the relationship with the one. Or rarely, as towards Lal, he uses honorific at first but later it can lose.

Especially in the early arc, his speaking shows that he feels inferior to those around him. He feels little nervous and always haven't confident in what he says. He gives up on himself and often makes statement sexpression that deny any possibility from the start like;"I'm nothing anyway","I can't do this anyway" And he tends to keep in mind his confusion about what the other person said or did, or how he felt. Also, whenever he makes a decision, he always asks for someone's help. There is a nuance there that he isn't asking for opinions, but for the right answers. He don't ask "What do YOU think?",but "What should I do?"

His original genuine personality makes his words is always very sincere. His words come straight from his heart. So he is not able to say sophisticated things in important situations. He doesn't have the skill to tell everything in a few word, like the protagonists of other works. He searches clumsily for the right words even while speaking, wondering over how to convey something he wants to say, there is falter in his words.

But therefore, we can feel his words are always natural and real mind. That is why he move people's hearts. No matter what trials he went through, he never lost sight of his virtue.

His speaking style is not very unique. He has the roughness or informality typical of middle school students. It shows his innocent like little brother, sometimes caring like big brother. And maybe nervous or at a loss for words. He is not the type of person who is good at conversation. However, it can tell that he is a kind person. We know he feels or what the other person is to him in the way of speaking, directly. That is another good thing about him.

Thank you for reading!!! If you want keep reading of same theme post about another character ; :D

#katekyo hitman reborn #khr #sawada tsunayoshi #Reading KHR in Japanese

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merakiui · 1 year ago

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bro that last ask thing u reblogged.. 😈😈

1- SEAGLASS im a little asshole and love to read fics where the reader is shared ✌️✌️ SUE ME seaglass was the first fic i ever read from u too so its like omg the perfect pick....

8- ur writing style is so goddamn sophisticated 😭😭 every word feels very purposeful if that makes sense? my writing (and most yan x reader fics i find on tumblr for the characters im into) is very simple and verb-focused for comedy's sake so whenever i find an author who uses descriptive, specific adjectives and themes im like 🗣📢 SAY IT LOUDER!!! WE LOVE WELL-CRAFTED, ARTIST FANFICTION!!!! u literally eat up every fic and even just ramblings abt ideas bc u go ham with descriptive words and imagery [dreamy sigh] lovely!

9- seaglass 2 BAHAHAHAHA im sitting on the sidelines reading ur jade sk posts and shit like "sooo good... well back to my merakiui roots" and re-read seaglass again BAHAHAHA anytime u post anything with floyd in it tho im like 🤤🤤 like theres no question as to whether or not im gonna drop everything and read it every time when u post new floyd stuff ykwim they go crazy

13- kinda BAHAHAHA i have a friend who found my old yan writing blog bc i ACCIDENTALLY REBLOGGED ONE OF UR FICS FROM MY REBLOG ON THE YAN ACCOUNT 💀💀 so not technically but in my heart yes....

ANYWAY i think ur fr one of the best writers on yan tumblr if not just in general bro 😭😭😭 continue eating it up SLAYY! ❤️

(ask game)

CHIPPPPPPP AAAAAAAAAA SENDING YOU A DOZEN HUGS AND KISSES WAAAAAAAA >w< you're too kind.... T_T <3

SEA GLASS YES.... >:) my first ever twst fic and the beginning of my spiral into Octavinelle hell. 😌 I'm so happy you like that fic so much!! I'm also weak for fics where the reader is shared and Octavinelle is such a fun group to write for with that dynamic!!!!!

ALSO ALSO!!!! My writing... Sophisticated?!?!?!?! Σ(°ロ°) I'm so flattered omg,,,, thank you for saying so!!!! I always do my best to eat up every prompt and concept, so I'm pleased it shows in my writing and overall style!! >0< if I don't describe even the smallest of details in a story or rambling, I will go crazy. orz I love love love writing descriptions so much.

The merakiui roots... PLEASE LOL I LOVE THAT!!! Thank you for looking forward to Sea Glass's sequel hehe!! I'm certain it will be a banger!!! >:D and thank you for liking my Floyd stuff!!!! He's so fun to write for. I go so feral for him,,,, he's on my mind all the time. I just love how Floyd he is. OTL so unhinged and silly and true to himself at all times. I'm honored you would be willing to read the Floyd posts right away aaaaaa!!! ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و ♡

OMG BEING FOUND FROM THE REBLOG??? T_T in my heart I will count it. ;;;; if it was an Octavinelle fic, I hope your friend enjoyed the fish LOLLLL. >:) everyone deserves to feast upon a delicious seafood buffet. (˘ ˘ ˘)

Truly, thank you so so so so SO SO SO MUCH for your sweet words and praise!!!!!! 💖💖💖 I'm happy you can consider me a good writer and that you can enjoy my work! I will continue to slay and devour!!! No crumbs will be left!!!! (`･ω･´)ゞ this is a merakiui promise!!!!!!!

#sweet messages #gxmblinqueen #ily chip!!!! :D your energy is so wonderful <3

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mylucayathoughts · 6 months ago

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if you could choose a director you'd like to cast tzp in a project, who would you choose ? like not in the "most famous director" sense but in more of a "this" director's style would suit tzp a lot..who would you choose?

Hello dear ❤️

*nervous laughter*

I am not so sure I'm the right person to be asked this but I will try to answer honestly. I don't usually pick up on a directors style that easily, maybe because I mindlessly consume media and don't go in depth into the way a movie is made, who the directors are, if they made several other movies, whether all those movies have the same style. I don't know that many directors either.

I only notice a style when it is unprecedented (in a good way) for me. Like if the story, cinematography, music, story progression have profound effect on me. Even though there are different people who work on all of these, the directors play a significant part.

Over the years I did find some works that I liked. Even my mostly lazy brain took notice because their styles were so different from the rest. Such as Guillermo Del Toros work in Pacific Rim, Christopher Nolans (both as writer and as director, so amazingly sophisticated) work in The Prestige, George Millers work in Mad Max: Fury road. These are all brilliant films. And only in Nolans case can I say that I have watched more than one film.

I don't really have a specific Director in mind that I would want TZP to work with. Of course I would love it if he got to work with these people I mentioned. But there are so many other great filmmakers. Hopefully he gets to work with talented directors who are respectful towards actors and who he admires. Cord Jeffersons (directed American Fiction) name comes to mind as TZP mentioned him. Even though I'm not familiar with his work, I'd love it if TZP got to work with him. TZP mentioned liking the Bourne series several times too. And a new film in the franchise is set to be made with Edward Bergers name being mentioned as the director (he directed All quiet on the western front that won several oscars). If TZP were to be the next bourne (please lord) I'd be so so so happy. First off, I would love if TZP could do an action film (he'd rock it), second, he'd be working in a franchise that is loved by so many, thirdly, he would be living his dream.

I have only seen TZP do comedies - Red white and royal blue (which is kind of a dramedy but my point stands), KB2 and KB3, Embeds. So I definitely want him to work in project with different genre. And I'm sorry, I can't pick a Director to suit TZP, he is the actor here. He needs to suit the character/ script / directors style. All good actors are versatile and go out of their comfort zone to create a very realistic or authentic character. I would love it if he could play different types of roles. I hope this answers your question ❤️🙏

#I'm so sorry it turned in to an essay 😭#Taylor Zakhar Perez #Tzp #Asks #Anonymous #Also it's almost 2 am here and my brain is only half functioning #Answered

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disappointingyet · 1 year ago

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The Decline Of Western Civilisation

Director Penelope Spheeris Stars Claude Bessy, Exene, Darby Crash, Ron Reyes, Nicole USA 1981 Language English 1hr 40mins Colour/Black & white

The classic LA punk doc

I feel it’s rare to have a (theatrically released) documentary that is much less well-known than its sequel. But The Decline Of Western Civilisation II: The Metal Years had famous people in it, some much-quoted funny moments and set up director Penelope Spheeris up to make the massive hit comedy Wayne’s World. The first Decline, on the other hand, is bleaker, occasionally funny in a very dark way and put Spheeris on the way to directing the grim (and fairly obscure) squatland drama Suburbia. And at the time none of these people were celebrities and even subsequently, the only person here who has nudged fame is Pat Smear, the guitar player from Germs, who was a touring member of Nirvana in their last days and is currently a Foo Fighter.

But make no mistake, The Decline Of Western Civilisation is an extraordinary music documentary. Filmed in late 1979 and early 1980, it drops us right into the middle of punk in Los Angeles. There’s no voiceover – although we do occasionally hear Spheeris asking questions – so the description and analysis comes from bands, fans, managers, club owners, bouncers and the staff of Slash magazine.*

In what I think was an accident of timing, Spheeris caught a pivotal moment. The early punk scene in Los Angeles had been open-minded and stylistically diverse. Here we see the codifying of hardcore punk and the amped-up aggression of bands like Black Flag, Circle Jerks and Fear and their audiences. Fear, in particular, incite their gobbing crowd with a steady stream of homophobic derision.

The contrast is with Catholic Discipline, led by Slash editor Claude Bessy (aka Kickboy Face), whose guitar player Phranc was a trilby-sporting lesbian. (And Catholic Discipline are shown playing at venue we learn had banned the hardcore bands by this point.) Their crowd looks like a relatively sophisticated bunch who have put a lot of time into their outfits. But they also, it should be said, seem a lot less into the occasion than the kids at the Circle Jerks show.

There wasn’t (it seems) even the language to describe what was going on those crowds. Everyone refers to pogoing, but these kids aren’t jumping up and down on the spot, they are smashing into each other and creating a vortex of bodies, and clambering up onto stage and getting shoved off. It seems the terms slam dancing (moshing was an even later coinage as I remember it) and stage diving were not yet in common use.

So how does Spheeris put us in this world? We get a lot of footage of the bands on stage, which might be hard work for some viewers. But because Spheeris and her camera crew are interested in the scene as a whole, there’s always something anthropologically interesting to note**, even if you can’t tell where one Fear song begins and the next one ends.

And then there are the interviews. This the opposite of the uniform talking-head approach, although the great access Spheeris had helps. Interviews with kids from the scene are face-on in a stark room with a bare light bulb hanging down, shot in black & white and tinted blue. Venue owner Brendan Mullen is filmed on a cliff high above Los Angeles. Nicole, the long-suffering manager of Germs, talks in close-up with her clothes merging into the black background.

Germs lead singer Darby Crash, by contrast, is filmed cooking eggs and bacon in a grubby kitchen – this is probably the film’s most notorious segment, as his mate blithely recounts stumbling across the body of a workman at her parents’ house. Spheeris [unseen]: “Didn’t you feel bad that the guy was dead?” Michelle: “No, not at all. Because I hate painters." During the X interview, singer John Doe is tattooing LA music scene character Top Jimmy's arm while the band’s other singer, Exene, talks through her collection of fundamentalist Christian pamphlets that she’s collected on the streets of LA.

All of which is to say that faced with my key question about movie docs – is this actually a movie? (rather than TV or – these days – YouTube content) – the answer is about as emphatic a ‘yes’ as is possible. This is a visually fascinating bit of film-making, regardless of what’s being said. But the what’s being said is interesting, too. Both the letters from readers to Slash magazine and some of the things the kids filmed under the light bulb say are (to a 2023 viewer) evidence that it wasn’t the internet that created all manner of unpleasantness – it was always there, and (in the case of the readers’ letters), people used to bother to actually write and post trolling nonsense (I was going to say and pay for postage, but I’m guessing a lot of these were kids using stamps from their mom’s desk.)

This is one of those movies I’ve known about for decades, but only finally now got a chance to see. And yet somehow it went way past my expectations – this is one of the great rock documentaries.

(In the UK, all three TDOWC movies are currently available to stream for free – legally! – on Plex.)

*OK, so maybe worth saying I know a certain amount about this stuff – for instance, I’ve read We’ve Got The Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story Of LA Punk so I had a lot of context that the more casual viewer wouldn’t. But I still think it would be an absorbing watch if you don’t know anything (you don’t have to have read a book to realise that Darby Crash was very bad news).

**For instance, at this point at least, both in terms of the bands and their audience, this was less all-white than you might imagine/despite the bile spewed by a couple of the interviewees. (Not as far as I know shown in this film, but definitely already a key figure was Spot, RIP.) This is part of my 'Every girl should be given an electric guitar on her 16th birthday' series of reviews

#punk movies #the decline of western civilisation

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grigori77 · 2 years ago

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2022 in Movies, My Autumn/Winter Top Ten Runners-Up Rundown

Basically because I just got sick of all the movies the past few years that I haven’t praised in the Autumn Winter period, especially during the Pandemic years, because they didn’t make the Top Ten and so didn’t qualify for the Top 30, I decided to start doing these, so ... hope you enjoy, these are all great, and the Top 30 itself is on the way by the weekend, I promise!

20. THE MENU – A true underdog curiosity which emerged to a surprising amount of interest due to its sheer quality and hot-button genius, this deeply odd jet black social satire genuinely came out of left-field. Director Mark Mylod’s previous form (mainly directing TV such as Succession and Shameless) certainly didn’t indicate he had THIS in him – a razor-sharp psychological horror comedy about a ultra-exclusive avant-garde restaurant run by a legendary chef (Ralph Fiennes) serving mind-boggling symbolic food to unappreciative snobbish clientele that include Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult and John Leguizamo.

19. BLACK ADAM – Amidst all the sheer chaos of cancelations, shake-ups and post-COVID delays, a DCEU movie DID manage to sneak out from Warner Bros. … although given the lack of fanfare, underwhelming box office and lacklustre reviews have to wonder why they bothered. Thing is, taken on face value as an actual MOVIE, Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson’s star vehicle franchise break-in is actually pretty good, an enjoyably bombastic and visually impressive action adventure with some surprisingly well-thought-out characters and a cheeky sense of humour. It falls down somewhat in the final act and is frustratingly lacking in an actual proper VILLAIN … although given the titular character’s unapologetic antihero status that might ultimately have been the point …

18. THE AMAZING MAURICE – in the final days of the year, something really special came out VERY MUCH under the radar that I was damn lucky to stumble across – a bona fide Terry Pratchett Discworld adaptation the actually WORKED. After 2021’s ABYSSMAL attempt to bring the Ankh Morpork City Watch to the small screen imploded horrifically, it’s a relief to see somebody finally get the late great Pterry’s voice RIGHT in film form … the end result, wisely adapted from his lovable novel about a talking cat who has a complex “pied piper” scam going with a bunch of equally impressive supersmart rats, is pure gold, the animation likeably cartoonish but still beautifully capturing the mastery of Paul Kidby’s winning artistic takes on Discworld’s characters. It’s a must-watch for the kids, but as you’d expect it’s also sophisticated enough to please the grown-ups too. Somebody get the geniuses who put this together to do more Pratchett, this is DEFINITELY the way to go.

17. STRANGE WORLD – Disney’s other big 2022 animated release was a somewhat unwieldy beast coming out of the gate, but surprisingly it’s turned out to be a charmingly offbeat and original piece of work which clearly had a lot of fun breaking fresh ground for the studio in the fine tradition of the explorers the story showcases. From a visual standpoint alone this is one of the most impressive movies I’ve seen from the studio in some time, brilliantly inventive and vibrantly colourful, while the characters are rewardingly multi-dimensional. It’s a perfect film for those of us who loved the underrated likes of Treasure Planet and Atlantis: the Lost Empire, which almost makes you wonder why they were so bafflingly quiet about it when it came time for the marketing …

16. DON’T WORRY DARLING – following on from her impressive feature debut as a director, Booksmart, Olivia Wilde set her sights on something a whole lot more ambitious with this deeply unsettling Lynchian cinematic fever dream. Florence Pugh is ON FIRE as the seemingly perfect housewife in the not-quite-right idyllic 1950s town of Victory, California, who discovers that something is DEEPLY WRONG with her charming little domestic utopia. Wilde crafts a perfect oppressive sense of impending doom throughout, while Chris Pine gives us GENUINE CHILLS as the company head/puppet-master at the centre of this disturbing small town nightmare.

15. GUILLERMO DEL TORO’S PINOCCHIO – My favourite filmmaking geek of all time scored a triple hitter this past year, and his final offering is a gleefully odd little joy of stop-motion animation which uses the bare bones of the original children’s story, del Toro letting his freak-flag fly with enthusiasm as he viewed the nightmare of Fascist Italy under the control of Mussolini through the prism of Pinocchio’s pure free spirited chaos gremlin of a living wooden puppet. As a result it’s a wonderfully weird film, welcoming in younger audiences by somewhat softening the edges of some of the director’s similarly-themed previous woks like The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth, but not sacrificing any of his distinctive creative voice.

14. VIOENT NIGHT – the festive season got a cinematic boost in fine style as Dead Snow and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters creator Tommy Wirkola brought more of his enjoyably idiosyncratic black comedy action movie style to bear on Christmas itself with this unapologetically BRUTAL story of a deeply disillusioned Santa Claus (a thoroughly on-point David Harbour) who’s forced to resurrect his old self (namely a badass Viking warrior) in order to save a genuinely good little girl from a gang of dastardly Grinch-like thugs who’ve taken her rich family hostage on Christmas Eve. This is totally one of my new fave Xmas movies …

13. DIO: DREAMERS NEVER DIE – it’s always nice when I can squeeze a documentary or two into these, and this is a very welcome addition, a beautifully engrossing and deeply inspiring recounting of the larger-than-life tale of the truest gentleman in the history of heavy metal, Ronny James Dio. A fascinating array of friends, colleagues and fans come together to tell the tale of just what an incredibly huge shadow this surprisingly diminutive man cast, and the incredible legacy he left behind when he died in 2010. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you will DEFINITELY want to rock …

12. FALL – After serving his time making clunky but fun low budget action fare like The Tournament and Final Score, writer-direct Scott Mann looks to have finally come of age with this stunning white knuckle survival thriller about two young free climbers who scale a defunct 2,000 foot TV tower in the middle of the Mojave desert, only for a horrifying accident to leave them both stranded at the top with no means of getting down again safely. I swear I spent THE ENTIRE RUNNING TIME of this movie on the edge of my seat, gripping the armrests of the seat for dear life, this is one of the most magnificently terrifying movies I have EVER SEEN …

11. SEE HOW THEY RUN – Deceptively small and seemingly quaint, this gentle mystery comedy from debuting director Tom George and writer Mark Chappell (My Life In Film, Cold Feet) is actually completely fiendish and MASSIVELY entertaining. A louche drunkard detective (Sam Rockwell) and a plucky rookie WPC (Saoirse Ronan) in early 50s London investigate the murder of a universally disliked loudmouth American producer looking to turn Agatha Christie’s long-running whodunnit stage play The Mousetrap into a potentially godawful American style melodramatic movie. Thoroughly ingenious chaos ensues …

#2022 in movies #the menu #black adam #the amazing maurice #strange world #don't worry darling #violent night #DIO dreamers never die #guillermo del toro's pinocchio #fall #fall movie 2022 #see how they run

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artspace11275201418 · 11 months ago

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How Home Decor enhance our confidence and peace level: lets find this phenomenon

Of course! The fascinating trend of enhancing confidence and peace of mind through home décor is a fascinating relationship between psychological well-being, creativity, and personal expression.

Now, let's explore the fascinating world of home décor and how much it affects our inner peace and self-assurance.

Imagine this: Entering the room, you find that it's more than simply four walls—it's a blank canvas ready for your unique touch. Comfort, style, and confidence come together in your house, which is an extension of who you are. It seems sense that the hues, patterns, and layouts we are surrounded by have a big impact on our well-being, productivity, and mood.

Let's start by solving the puzzle of how home décor might boost our self-esteem.

Have you ever noticed how entering a space with thoughtful design gives you the impression that everything is under control?

It's similar to how wearing your best dress makes you feel unstoppable, except, in this instance, the empowering thing is happening in your environment.

Picture bright colors covering your walls, expressing your courage and joie de vivre. Or maybe sleek, contemporary furniture that radiates success and sophistication.

Your house turns into a stage, and every item of furniture serves as a supporting cast member to help you feel more confident.

It's like having that inspirational quote beautifully displayed on the wall or your comfortable recliner acting as your very own personal cheerleader, pushing you to reach your greatest potential.

Being confident involves more than simply swagger; it also involves inner peace. And this is when home décor's true enchantment comes to life.

Your home can become a peaceful haven thanks to the furniture placement, the plush carpets underfoot, and the mood lighting.

Consider this: a location devoid of clutter, where everything has a place, can also help you clear your thoughts.

A well-designed home fosters an unsaid harmony that frees your mind from the constraints of disorder.

It serves as a focused diversion from the craziness of the outside world, similar to yoga for the soul.

Furthermore, customization is essential to creating this peaceful sanctuary.

Your individual interests and life experiences are reflected in your home design, which is more than just the latest fashions.

Every wall photo and memento you've collected throughout the years whispers a cozy, comforting story.

It's a carefully chosen archive of dreams and recollections that uplifts your soul and gives comfort when life throws you a curveball.

Not to be overlooked are the peculiar accents that give your décor a dash of comedy.

A clever doormat or a comical work of art might make you feel better right away.

Laughter, after all, is the best medicine—even if it takes the shape of an amusing wall painting or a funny throw pillow.

Moreover, the mutually beneficial connection between self-assurance and tranquility in our living spaces goes beyond simple design.

Research indicates that a neatly arranged and furnished area helps lower tension and anxiety levels, enabling one to project a more assured and collected image of oneself.

Essentially, the phenomenon of how our sense of calm and confidence is influenced by home decor is a complex dance of emotions and aesthetics.

It's about accepting our uniqueness, surrounding ourselves with things that speak to our souls, and designing an environment that not only reflects who we are but also gives us the confidence to become who we want to be.

Thus, keep in mind that you're creating a sanctuary that embraces your individuality and strengthens your inner power the next time you rearrange your furniture or paint a wall a bright hue.

Let's toast to the wonders of home décor—the subtle but effective trigger that lifts our spirits and gives us confidence!

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qu-film-history-to-1968 · 1 year ago

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By: Alex Grinacoff

I would like to start this post discussing the cinematic aesthetics of the film Sabrina (1954), directed by Billy Wilder. Upon watching this film, I was interested in seeing how it differed from films we have previously viewed from prior decades. This film is a romantic comedy and follows the journey of Sabrina, played by Audrey Hepburn, who falls in love with two wealthy brothers known as the Larrabee brothers. One of the main turning points in this film that I feel plays a lot into the storyline is when Sabrina is sent to Paris. Prior to traveling there, she was rather shy and even awkward. Although, during her time in the culinary school she transforms into a much more sophisticated as well as elegant woman. It was funny to see how before all this happened, the younger brother David did not really pay much mind to Sabrina whereas after the fact he quickly decides to break off his engagement with Elizabeth. The difficulty that is posed in this film is the fact that David pursuing Sabrina actually jeopardizes a business deal that the older brother, Linus, had spent much time working on with the Tyson family. The solution that Linus believes to be the answer is to intervene and attempt at winning over Sabrina himself, with the ultimate goal being to distract her from David and send her back to Paris. I found this storyline to be intriguing as it shows not only the world of love at this time, but also the trying and treacherous world of business. I like how love ultimately ends up overcoming the whole business deal as I think it really shows the power of true love.

I would now like to discuss the soundtrack of this film. WIth a variety of different songs, I feel that the person behind composing the soundtrack did a great job at capturing not only Sabrina’s personality but also her relationships with the two brothers. I think that music can be extremely useful in the creation of films as it really adds to the overall feel of certain scenes and can help express certain moods and emotions that are particularly meant to be conveyed to the audience.

Another piece of this film that I find to be extremely important is the types of lighting used in this film. Lighting can be a very valuable tool in terms of creating ambience or amplifying the aura of a particular scene, which helps the audience to feel more immersed and in touch with what is going on in the film. One example I would like to use is the use of backlighting in the scene where Sabrina poses for a photograph in Paris. This particular lighting helps to enhance not only the beauty but also the elegance of Sabrina in that moment.

The other film I viewed this week is That Touch of Mink (1962), directed by Delbert Mann. This is yet another romantic comedy film, although one of the biggest differences from Sabrina is that it is in color. This film follows the characters of Cathy, who is eagerly looking for a job, and Philip, who is a wealthy businessman simply looking for an affair. At first, you might be thinking how could these two possibly work for each other. Throughout the film, Cathay holds out for marriage while Philip continuously attempts to seduce her with luxurious gifts and trips. Although, the film has a rather happy ending as the two of them end up getting married and having a kid.

I would like to talk about the significance of this film being in color. It was shot in Eastmancolor, which was a process that was widely used throughout the 1950s and 60s and essentially revolutionized the industry, especially due to its compatibility with standard black-and-white cameras and printing machines. In this film in particular, vibrant colors are utilized and I think that this helps to draw contrast between the luxurious lifestyle of Philip and the more modest lifestyle of Cathy. I also think that the color in this film helped to not only bring a sense of romance and comedy to the film but also helps to accentuate the costumes and sets. One scene I would like to use as an example for this is the scene where Cathy can be seen wearing a pink mink coat that matches the Rolls-Royce belonging to Philip.

When comparing these two films, I definitely think that That Touch of Mink has much more of a visual appeal to it than Sabrina, considering Sabrina was filmed in black and white. Although, I do still think there is that sense of elegance and beauty in Sabrina, especially with the fancy attire that the actors and actresses can be seen wearing. I would also like to compare these films to ones before the year 1948, an example being Frankenstein. In that film, the sets were way different as well as the costume designs and techniques used. I know it was a different genre of film, but you can tell that the stories the filmmakers were trying to tell were just different. The films for this week have more captivating and comedic stories that can please a wide variety of an audience. I feel like there was also more focus on the visual aspects of these films whether it be what the actors and actresses were wearing, or the different types of lighting and other techniques used to portray certain scenes in particular ways.

In terms of being made at an earlier time, one way that Sabrina could not have been made at an earlier time is because of the timing and talent of its cast. What I mean by this is two-fold. The famed Audrey Hepburn did not have her breakthrough until 1953, so it would have been impossible to have someone play the role in the way that she did before that. The availability and popularity of its cast played a big role in the timing of the release of this film. Another way is that it was dependent on the culture of the post-war world. For instance, after the war there was a rise in different cultural commodities such as consumerism as well as European fashion and food. When it comes to That Touch of Mink, despite the fact that the film could have been filmed at an earlier time, it could not have been made with the same quality and effect that it had on the audience. The emergence of Eastmancolor made a huge difference in the film industry and it most definitely greatly added to the overall feel of this film by helping to accentuate the different characters and overall themes and messages of the movie.

#submission

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theromanticrationalist · 6 months ago

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Aww, thank you @fort-cozy-mcblanket for the inquiry! 😊 Yeah! So, from Amy's stories about her life, it sounded very difficult and very lonely - even worse, socially speaking, than Sheldon's as Sheldon didn't try to ingratiate himself towards his peers, whereas Amy clearly wanted to be a part of social conventions and enjoy the traditional Americana coming-of-age rituals. Yet, like Sheldon, she was smarter than most people and had many idiosyncrasies and a singular way of thinking (like her performing surgery on the webbing of her toes, her pretending to have lice by putting sugar in her hair, pretending to be a boy to get into the scouts, taking a mop to the school prom, etc etc...)

I think ASOUE's style of highlighting diverse, learned, and unique individuals who are well-read and self-sufficient in a melancholic, cynical world would fit right into Amy's universe. I imagine she would live in her imaginary world for the most part, and the show would give her friends that she imagines, but they represent ideas, e.g. feelings/concepts that Amy is struggling with as she grows up. It isn't escapism, but metaphorically Amy coping with her reality and processing the struggles she has at home, particularly her relationship with mother (which TBBT showed us was pretty problematic).

The thematic through-line of the show would be that despite life's hardships and the terrible ostracization/persecution that Amy experiences, her spirit is fashioned through suffering into something immutable and beautiful. It is that power within herself to be true to herself (remaining kind-hearted and humble) regardless of adversity is what makes her strong and resilient. I think there would also be a lot of intersection with Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre in regards to themes for sure! (One of my most treasured books! And also about a weird, homely girl who falls for a volatile, arrogant fellow weirdo who she has to eventually leave in order to humble him a bit...hehe)

Not that loneliness is glorified in any way - I think there could be ways to show that Amy isn't truly alone, e.g. her parents did still love her, and maybe teachers could be shown to have influenced her pursuit in neurobiology and nurtured her gifts. At any rate, what would be celebrated would be Amy's beautiful spirit.

I imagine it would be told in a 4th wall breaking, narrative style. I know this is something that is overdone right now, but I think it would actually fit perfectly for the tone of Amy Farrah Fowler's show, as she has a perceptive and razor-sharp mind. I also think it would fun - and I got this idea from one of your posts @fort-cozy-mcblanket - if throughout the show Amy would *just* narrowly miss meeting Sheldon Cooper. Like they would almost cross paths at certain points, but something will always get in the way to prevent it. I think that would be funny and sweet too! 😊

So yeah, that is my idea! It would have a lot of clever comedy/satire throughout, but also be heartfelt and meaningful. It would have artistic and lavish fantasy set pieces (especially of Little House on the Prairie stuff!) - maybe even song/dance numbers! (I imagine there would be a sad dance number with her mop at the prom! 😢) It will often be terribly sad and devastating, like rip your heart out, but there would be room for moments of hope and the warm fuzzies too. It would be complex and sophisticated, ironic but not overly cynical. It would have just the right balance of romance and realism!

Thanks again for asking about it! I don't trust anyone currently working in the industry to make something worthy of Amy Farrah Fowler, but I can still dream!

Just found out that a super secret third “Big Bang Theory” spin-off show could be in the works. If it isn’t a Sheldon and Amy domestic dramady, then I don’t want it! I seriously could watch Sheldon Cooper’s entire life Truman Show style. 😭

#amy farrah fowler #my amy farrah fowler show #my thoughts #sheldon cooper #shamy #the big bang theory #young sheldon

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twistedtummies2 · 2 years ago

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The Devils I Know - Number 11

Welcome to “The Devils I Know!” For this spooky time of year, from now till Halloween, I’ll be counting down My Top 31 Depictions of the Devil, from movies, television, video games, and more! Today’s Devil is an Eggs-asperatingly Evil Fellow. Number 11 is…Vincent Price, from The Story of Mankind.

Yeah, given the actor and how ridiculous this movie is, I could not resist an Egghead reference. XD “The Story of Mankind” is probably one of the more “oddball” entries on the countdown. The film was directed and produced by Irwin Allen, a filmmaker known for his campy, colorful style of storytelling, making movies that were as inexpensive as they were absurd and bright. I know Allen best for his 1985 miniseries version of “Alice in Wonderland,” along with his work on TV shows such as “Lost in Space.” Long before those, however, Allen worked on this 1957 feature, which has become something of a cult classic, mostly due to its star-studded cast. The film takes place in an alternate future where mankind has developed an incredible weapon of war, which has the potential to lead to the destruction of the entire world. A high tribunal of celestial beings is called, as they freeze time and try to determine if they should intervene in some fashion, or potentially allow humanity to destroy itself. To this end, the defense and prosecution alike show the jury moments in humanity’s history to each of their respective ends. The defense focuses on the heroes of humanity, people who did grand and admirable things that everyone will remember forever with fondness, such as Abraham Lincoln and Moses. In contrast, the prosecution presents the villains of humanity: people like the Emperor Nero and Adolf Hitler, who forever despoiled humanity with acts of cruelty and horror unfathomable to this day.

The main issue I have with the film – and keep in mind it has SEVERAL issues – is that it suffers from two particular things: one is a very bonkers sort of tone, and two – which sort of ties into this – is its utterly haphazard casting. I’m sorry, but a movie with Agnes Moorehead throwing everything into playing a dramatic and serious Queen Elizabeth I just does not jive with scenes of the Marx Brothers as Peter Minuit, Sir Isaac Newton, and a Monk. Similarly, Peter Lorre as a particularly schlubby Nero doesn’t really mesh with Dennis Hopper as the world’s most American-sounding Napoleon. The movie can’t decide if it wants to be a comedy or a drama, and the actors largely just seem thrown into the piece with little to no regard as to whether they work in their respective roles or not. One piece of casting works perfectly, however, and that is Vincent Price as the Devil. Here referred to as “Mr. Scratch,” Price’s Devil is the head of the Prosecution, and the main antagonist of the picture. His rival, the defense attorney – known simply as “The Spirit of Man,” and played by Ronald Colman – is our central protagonist, forced to try and prove his case against the Devil’s quick rebuttals. Price plays one of the classiest, smoothest Devils in all of cinema. Dapper in appearance, refined in his manners, and eloquent in his speech, he mixes his sophistication with a roguish charm and fittingly devilish wit. Even though he’s seeking to destroy the planet and gain all of mankind for himself, he clearly has so much fun with what he’s doing, and does it with such style, you are never able to fear nor hate him. Honestly, he’s so entertaining to watch and to listen to, that the Spirit of Man’s examples of goodness and honesty become drab in comparison: a classic case where evil just seems like so much more fun than good, which, come to think of it, may or may not have been the intention. It’s a personal favorite of Vincent’s performances for me, and while the rest of the movie is a total and complete mess, this is the one element where everything truly clicks. If I was told Vincent Price in a fancy suit was the tempter of all sinners, I would have no trouble believing that, and frankly, I’d probably be okay with it.

Tomorrow, we move into the Top 10 of the countdown! HINT: A Uniquely Animated Evil.

#the devils i know #top 31 devils #october special #halloween advent calendar #films #movies #actors #acting #fiction #best #favorites #list #countdown #number 11 #the story of mankind #mr. scratch #vincent price

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d-criss-news · 3 years ago

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The Glee star and Emmy winner for The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, Darren Criss, 34, will be releasing his first album of Christmas songs, titled A Very Darren Crissmas (October 8). It includes duets with Adam Lambert, Evan Rachel Wood and an original song, “Drunk on Christmas,” featuring Lainey Wilson.

What was your goal with this Christmas album?

To reintroduce familiar songs in a new way. But I also wanted to take lesser-known songs and make those feel more familiar. And, most importantly, I wanted to take songs that people don’t associate with Christmas but I do—like Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”—and try to make them feel like Christmas songs.

What inspired you to write “Drunk on Christmas”?

It’s about the end of Christmas when everything’s been done. There’s wrapping on the floor, you’ve cleaned things, the in-laws have left and there’s nothing else to do. It’s two people having a sit-on-the couch moment, sipping a glass of cocoa with some SoCo [Southern Comfort] in it.

What is it about Christmas music? Why did you want to do the Christmas album?

Christmas or the holiday season is something that, whether we like it or not, we experience every year, and that comes with a litany of wonderful songs and music that again, whether you have been proactive about listening to it or not, it’s pretty hard to avoid. It’s permeated our cultural consciousness for our entire lives. So if you happen to be someone like me who consumes music at a hyperactive level, I’ve always adored Christmas music.

People say this because of the way that it makes them feel and the things that it reminds them of. There are so many layers to why people enjoy Christmas music. It’s nostalgic, it is very romantic, at least in the true dictionary meaning of the word romantic. And to me, I’ve always loved it for a much more anthropological reason, which is for one month or several weeks out of the year we suddenly subscribe to a certain sentiment that the other 11 we don’t really dial into. We want it all, then we want it to just go away.

What makes Christmas songs different?

As a musician I’ve always loved that Christmas music can employ certain musical elements that otherwise aren’t very popular. To me, it’s incredible that without a doubt the estates of many artists are guaranteed placement on the radio even though many of them have been deceased for many years. The pop charts are dominated by whatever contemporary, awesome artists there are nowadays, but in December you can guarantee that Burl Ives and Dean Martin will be on the radio with the best of them. I find that so charming. It’s because people really, really love this music.

And those songs don’t sound like the sounds that we’re hearing on the radio, sonically, harmonically, rhythmically. They employ a lot of “classic” sounds that evoke the feeling of Christmas. I’m a self-proclaimed genrephile—this is a term I use for myself throughout all the stuff that I do. I can’t help but be so enchanted by this idea that artists have license, and by license I mean an excuse to do things that you ordinarily wouldn’t be encouraged to do, or that audiences wouldn’t necessarily be as quick to absorb.

So, when you’re talking about classic Christmas writing, for lack of a better word, you use clichéd Christmas terminology, you use certain chords, and harmonies, and instrumentations that you just wouldn’t do throughout the year. It leans on the slightly more sophisticated, slightly more musical, and that is really exciting for someone like me.

How much does the fact that your last name is Criss play into this?

If you play music and your last name is Criss, every year someone says, “You know what you should do?” as if they’re the first person who’s ever thought of this idea. So I’ve always wanted to do this; it was just a matter of time. And I also didn’t want it to be phoned in, I didn’t want it to seem like, “Oh, here’s some songs that you know already.”

I wrote this in my liner notes that my favorite thing to do with art, but particularly music, is curate, interpolate, create and personalize. That’s my main thing. I’m an OK singer, I’m an OK musician, but what I really think I have a yen for is trying to interpolate something new that people didn’t know before.

If you think about a song like “Jingle Bells,” it was not written for Christmas. It was a song from 200-something years ago that bears no mention of Christmas whatsoever, but we associate it so heavily with Christmas. Lately I hear Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” come up on Christmas playlists. I think it must have something to do with the Christian angle of the song and the reverence of the word “hallelujah,” but there’s no mention of Christmas.

So there’s a lot of different things that can make people feel like Christmas if you arrange it a certain way, and that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted this cocktail of songs that people didn’t know and I might be able to introduce to them in a really new, interesting way.

You duet with Adam Lambert, Evan Rachel Wood and Lainey Wilson. These people couldn’t be more different. How did you select your song partners for this?

Honestly, people are busy, so I leaned on friends of mine. The album is called A Very Darren Crissmas, and I wanted to make it just that. Songs that are very, very me, doing things that are very me, and using the talents of people who are legitimately in my life. Adam has been a pal for a long time. We’ve known each other from just adventures in Hollywood, but he, of course, was on Glee with me. Evan Rachel is a dear pal of mine; we’ve done some things together. She’s played my festival, and I’ve done comedy sketches with her and stuff. These are all extraordinarily talented singers. As I told them when I asked them to be a part of it, “I’d be very lucky to have you on this record.”

I had not met Lainey Wilson before I started this. But when you’re in Nashville, you are in the Olympic tent of USDA certified prime country singers. And that’s a bit of a blind spot for me as far as who’s on the up and up, who’s somebody that can really give a level of authenticity, legitimacy to a more classic ’50s Nashville sound, which is the song that I wrote called “Drunk on Christmas.” My producer Ron Fair, who has been living in Nashville for a while, suggested Lainey and we got on like a house on fire. She’s an extraordinary talent and I was happy to have her. These were all people that were part of this grassroots friend to friend thing. That’s how I got them and I’m very lucky that they’re on the record.

There are hundreds of Christmas songs. How did you choose what to include?

Choosing was extremely hard. I had a list of about 100 songs. I’m not done; this record is only phase one in my mind. There are so many songs that it will make your head spin. If you go, “Did you think about this song?” The answer is yes, and I absolutely had to deliberate which ones I had to triage out of the sequence.

I even said no to “The Christmas Song,” which is on the album. I didn’t want to do it because I was like, “Everybody knows it; it’s perfect by Nat King Cole,” and Mel Tormé [who wrote it] is one of my favorite artists of all time, much less songwriters and musicians. So I was like, “I don’t want to have to do that.” And on the day when we were there, we just had a guitar and said, “Let’s just do it for fun,” because I love singing that song. But I was like, “It’s been done perfectly too many times, I really don’t want to have to put myself up against that.” But we had a nice take, it’s live in the room. And hey, come on, it’s Christmas. So I left it on there.

If we were to come to your house during the holidays, what would you be listening to?

I’d probably sit you down and play you my favorite songs that you’ve never heard that I think are great Christmas songs. But what’s nice is I’ve now put those songs on this album, hopefully, in a perhaps delusional effort to standardize these songs in the Christmas pantheon. There has to be an air of delusion to being an artist in the first place. If one of these songs that no one’s ever heard before catches on with a family or a person and becomes part of their Christmas playlist every year, then I will have succeeded in my efforts.

What did the Emmy you won for The Assassination of Gianni Versace do for your career?

Although the Emmy has just my name on it, the number one thing that I’m most proud of is it’s more symbolic and representative of the work of the whole team. It is a validation and celebration of the really hard work of people that I spent a lot of time and energy with creating this role.

You have a couple voice roles coming up—in Trese and Yasuke—but what are we going to see you in next, not just hear you?

I don’t know. Let me know if there’s any opportunities. A huge reason for why this album was made was because I had the time. Making records takes a lot of time, and I’m envious of people who are just singers. I don’t know how people do that, that’s just not who I am. I’m a producer, I’m a writer, I’m a musician. It takes so much out of me to make a body of music because someone doesn’t say, “OK, here are the songs, show up on a Tuesday, you sing it and then you leave.” Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Some of my favorite artists can do that and are blessed enough to be able to just do that. I can’t.

It takes so much time for me to really get in the weeds, arrange, edit vocals, edit instrumentation, mix tracks, really getting in the jungle of music production. I can’t function any other way and that takes an extraordinary amount of time. Even when there was a global pandemic, I still had deadlines that we could barely make to finish this album because that’s just how my brain works.

So I haven’t been able to act. I haven’t had an acting job in almost two years. That’s not entirely true. I’ve had little bit things during the pandemic, but no big series or films or anything like that. It’s just been mostly working from home and being as proactive as I can be. I started a weekly podcast with a friend of mine, I put out an EP. I’ve been extremely busy with high output and low visibility. I’m waiting for the next thing, but I’m not one to sit still. If you give me time, I’m going to fill all the spaces out. So I did that with music this past two years.

Are you going to go back to Broadway now that it’s opening again?

I don’t want to say anything that is not perhaps confirmed 100 percent, but I will say with full confidence that I have always had the intention of going back exactly where we started. I’ll let them announce what’s happening because every show is in its own unique holding pattern. But, yes, right before the shutdown I was doing American Buffalo in New York, and talk about the actor’s dream, that is right up there. Doing a great American play that I’ve always wanted to do. I’ve had a long history with that show, and I finally get to do it for real with two of my favorite actors—Sam Rockwell and Laurence Fishburne. They are two acting heroes of mine.

So I was in rehearsals for that. We were about to go into tech, and things got shut down. But we’re in a very fortunate position where you’ve got two huge movie stars, you have a very well-known play and you have a fixed set and just three guys. There are musicals that have orchestras, big choruses and huge set pieces, and the overhead and upkeep of these productions is quite complicated. And a lot of them, for that reason, fell by the wayside during the pandemic, and it’s an awful tragedy. But our set and our billboard and our posters are exactly where we left them. It’s kind of a trip. If you go to Circle in the Square, I keep telling people it’s the longest I’ve ever been on Broadway because it’s just sitting there dormant, waiting to be resurrected.

I think all of us are planning on going back. I think the show is scheduled to reopen almost to the day that it was supposed to open in 2020. We’ll see how the schedule ends up, but you have three guys whose heart and soul is the theater. I don’t want to speak for the other two guys, but I’m almost positive that all three of us would rather be doing that play on Broadway than anything else. So when I say I haven’t had an acting gig in two years, it’s been a comfort to know that that was waiting for me on the other end. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we’ll be able to do it. We’ll have to make sure that everything is hunky-dory with theater audiences, et cetera, et cetera, but that’s the idea.

How did Ryan Murphy casting you in Glee change your life?

I said during my Emmy speech that actors are only as good as the moments they get. I used to say actors are only as good as the parts they get. Take that with a huge grain of salt, obviously, it’s not entirely true. But in context of that moment, certainly you can understand what I meant. Acting is a proactive craft, but in many respects it’s a passive career, where you have to hope and wait for a benefactor, a patron, a supporter to say, “OK, all right, kid, you’re up. I think you can do it.”

I think any artist’s life is a constant compromise between knowing what you can do and what you want to do, and having other people, audiences and creative authorities alike, have an idea of what you can do. You have to have that balance of somewhere in the middle, where hopefully you can rise to an occasion that you know you can do, that somebody’s going to give you the opportunity to do. But you’re not in control of that relationship, and so you have to sit and hope and pray that someone is going to give you that moment and that opportunity. That was something that I’m fully indebted to with Ryan.

Because he did say, “All right, kid, you’re up,” and gave me that shot. We talked about the The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story series for years before we did it. I didn’t think he was ever going to do it. By the time we started shooting, he probably mentioned it to me three or four years prior. And I kept asking about it like, “Hey, you still want to do this thing?” I think he was just always obsessed with the fact that I was half Filipino and that I bore a certain resemblance to the guy. Age and everything, it seems pretty spot-on. But he was a man of his word, and he really did end up making it. So I’m incredibly indebted to him and I’ve always been very effusive about that.

Now that you have this modicum of fame, what would you like to use it to accomplish?

For me, there are so many things that I love in this world that I don’t think other people are familiar with. One of the things about having a modicum of a platform is hopefully embracing that to use it as a gateway drug for stuff that people might not be familiar with. I don’t know if they’re going to like it as much as I do, but I’m looking at this track list and there are songs that I guarantee that you don’t know.

These are all things where I go, “OK, I have this moment of people’s attention, hopefully, this is a fun way to have them have eyes on something that I think is deserving of eyes, and not because of me, but because of other people who have made something amazing.” And, hopefully, they have the same proactive curiosity that I had growing up where I look at the liner notes and see who wrote the songs and where they came from. But we’ll see. We’ll see if people have that reaction.

You’ve accomplished so much. What’s the dream going forward?

The dream is to keep doing me, really. I think all you can do is be as true to yourself and try and do as accessible and as valuable work as you can. And, hopefully, in so doing, represent people, giving them visibility and encouragement towards their own place in the cultural conversation.

#darren criss #parade magazine #a very darren crissmas #press #oct 2021

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organabanana · 4 years ago

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What spring does to cherry trees || Supercorp

Chapters: 1/1

Fandom: Supergirl (TV 2015)

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: None

Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor

Characters: Kara Danvers, Lena Luthor

Additional Tags: mostly fluff, with some porn for flair, pre-canon, but also, post-canon, tooth-rotting fluff.

Summary: I want to do with you what spring does to cherry trees. What does that even mean? It's taking a simple I love you and putting lead-lined glasses on it to keep its power contained. No offense, Mr. Neruda, but that's just weak. Kara doesn't like poetry. Until she does.

Notes: Written for a very patient anon who prompted me with “Seeing the cherry blossoms in Washington DC” but I got sidetracked by Neruda and my favorite of his poems and it turned into This. It's poem number fourteen, found in "Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada" (Twenty love poems and a song of despair) by Pablo Neruda, which you can read here (Spanish) or here (English). I mostly translated the lines I needed myself, so I can't guarantee they'll match the official translation (I'm also not sure there is such a thing as an official translation, so there's that). With special thanks to the most patient anon in history for the prompt, to @lavenderrry for praising my vibes, and to @emiltons for the gorgeous graphic.

[ao3 link]

The first time Kara encounters Neruda's poetry she's nineteen and bored. In her defense, she thought taking a poetry class would make her feel sophisticated and cultured, but all she feels is annoyed at the insistence of using language to obscure your message rather than share it.

And yes, yes, she gets it. It all sounds very pretty and evocative. It's just Kara has been hiding her true self in plain sight for the last six years, and she can't understand why anyone would willingly and needlessly do that to themselves. To their feelings. She may never have been in love, but Kara is pretty sure if she ever is -- if her heart ever feels full to the brim with the kind of big feelings her professor keeps making them read in metaphors and symbolism -- she'll want to make them clear as day.

I want to do with you what spring does to cherry trees.

What does that even mean?

It's taking a simple I love you and putting lead-lined glasses on it to keep its power contained.

No offense, Mr. Neruda, but that's just weak.

***

Kara doesn't take any more poetry classes, and she doesn't think of Neruda (or any other poet, for that matter) for years. She has so many other things to think about. She moves to National City and starts working for Ms. Grant. She grows into herself, she thinks. She becomes Supergirl and feels more like herself than she has since her pod left Krypton. She dates, a little bit. Dips her toe in the dating pool, if you will. She meets Lena Luthor.

And that's the second time she runs into Neruda. Right there on a shelf in Lena's living room, on a book that looks well loved and well read, spine full of small cracks and lines from being opened over and over again. Kara has always thought you can tell a lot about a person by looking at their shelves.

"Pablo Neruda," Kara says, one finger tracing a line down the spine of the book like she's trying to read something in the pattern of the cracks, "I didn't know you liked poetry."

"I don't dislike it." Lena's heels click-clack on the hardwood floor before she sets the bottle of wine and two glasses on the coffee table and sits on the couch. "Have you made up your mind on what we're going to watch?"

Kara can hear the faint electrical hum of the TV being turned on, but she's a bit too distracted by the book to focus on deciding whether tonight is a night for a romantic comedy or an epic drama. She couldn't say exactly why this book feels important. It just does. Maybe it's because Lena keeps so much of herself hidden somewhere not even Kara's X-Ray vision can reach, and finding little clues about her thoughts and feelings feels a lot like she's struck gold.

Yeah. Maybe that's why.

Her fascination with the book only grows when she pulls it out of the shelf only to find the title written in Spanish. "Veinte poemas de amor--"

"And a song of despair," Lena finishes in English. "Atonement? I've heard good things about it."

"No way. I said I could be persuaded to watch a tear jerker, but I did not sign up for actual depression." Kara brings the book along when she walks over to sit down next to Lena. She's so focused on the book, still, that she miscalculates her landing just by an inch or so and her thigh bumps against Lena's as she settles on the couch. But Lena doesn't move away, and Kara figures there's no reason why she should. They're friends, after all. Close friends. Figuratively and now very, very literally close.

"I didn't know you spoke Spanish." Kara speaks again, breaking the silence before it solidifies into something potentially awkward.

"I don't. It's a bilingual edition. Can we please pick a movie?"

Kara would love to do exactly what Lena wants. In fact, giving Lena everything she wants has become sort of a constant in this fledgling friendship between them. It just feels nice, you know? Giving her what she wants and making her smile. But this book. It's all so very distracting.

"So. Do you prefer the twenty love poems, or the song of despair?"

Lena rolls her eyes, but she can't quite hide the amused smirk behind the glass when she sips her wine, so Kara knows she's not nearly as annoyed as she's trying to appear.

"What is it with you and Neruda? I didn't know you were a poetry fan."

Kara scoffs. "I'm not." She still remembers the feeling of relief washing over her when she saw her passing grade on that stupid course and realized she'd never have to read another line of poetry in her life. "I don't even like poetry. I'm just curious, that's all."

Lena cocks one eyebrow at her. Studies her, in a way that makes color rise to Kara's cheeks and has her wondering if Lena can see through people, too.

"Anyway!" Kara shakes her head like she's hoping that'll make the blush fade. "The love poems, or the song of despair?"

"The poems," Lena finally concedes, "and I'm very surprised you don't like poetry. You seem the type."

"What?" Kara is already thumbing through the edge of the book, trying to find the place where it'll open naturally and hopefully show her which of the twenty love poems Lena happens to like the most. "What does that even mean?"

"Well, you have a big heart. Big feelings." Lena looks into Kara's eyes like she's trying to read all those feelings right there in shades of blue, and Kara finds herself looking down at the book just in case. Just in case all those big feelings she can't even name herself are there for Lena to read. "Seems like a recipe for liking poetry."

Kara shakes her head and pushes her glasses up, just in case. Just in case the lead in them can shield more than just her powers. And just as she's about to argue -- just as she's about to tell Lena precisely why she doesn't like poetry -- she opens her book and her gaze lands on a familiar phrase.

"Quiero hacer contigo," she reads out loud from the page on the left, and her fingertip is already finding the next verse on the right when Lena finishes for her.

"What spring does to cherry trees."

If Kara was just Kara Danvers, she'd have missed it all. She'd have just heard her best friend speak a line from a poem that -- much like most poems -- means very little to her. But she's not just Kara Danvers. So Kara hears the way Lena's heart beats just a little bit faster. The way her breath catches just so. The exact fraction of a tone her voice drops when she speaks. The faintest hint of a sigh.

"See? This is why I don't like poetry." Kara chances a look into green eyes, and she's so very grateful Lena has no superhearing to tip her off to the way Kara's heart seems to trip all over itself. "'I want to do with you what spring does to cherry trees'. What does that mean?"

Kara swears -- she swears -- she catches Lena's pupils dilating just enough to make her think she knows exactly what the poem means.

"It's not about what it means, Kara. It's about what it makes you feel." Lena lets out a soft chuckle, something light and airy like this is just a silly little conversation with no weight to it at all. Like she can't feel the way the air itself seems to have changed into something new.

"Is it your favorite line?" Kara pretends she can't hear the way her own voice has changed, too.

Lena shakes her head. "No. My favorite is actually--"

Kara hears the DEO alarm before Lena's fingertip can make contact with the paper, and she almost considers ignoring it. She almost considers letting whatever danger is looming over this whole city have at it because finding out what's Lena's favorite line in her favorite poem seems far more important right now.

But of course, that would be crazy. Crazy! Kara would never.

"I'm so sorry, Lena, I--" Kara stands up, already hearing Alex's voice telling her where she's needed as she pulls her phone out of her pocket and pretends to read a text, "I have to go. I forgot I had this thing with--"

"Go." Lena's smile is just small enough to make Kara's heart twist in an uncomfortable way that's become familiar since she started lying to her friend. "Sounds important. I understand."

Kara nods, just once. "Tomorrow?"

Lena's smile doesn't grow, but it suddenly reaches her eyes, and something settles in Kara's chest. "Of course. Tomorrow."

Five hours later, foe defeated and safely locked away at the DEO, Supergirl touches down on Lena's balcony. There isn't a single light on inside the apartment, and Kara hesitates for a second by the sliding glass door. She shouldn't sneak into Lena's apartment in the middle of the night. That's a little creepy, right? Even if she knows Lena's said over and over again Kara's welcome any time.

It's just.

That book.

Lena's favorite line.

Kara may never be able to sleep again if she doesn't find out what it is.

So with a non-zero amount of shame at her own choice, Kara ends up sliding the door open and slipping into Lena's living space. She listens for Lena's breathing to make sure she's asleep, and once she's satisfied that's the case she makes a beeline for the shelf and the now-familiar book. It doesn't take her long to find the page she'd been reading before, and soon enough she's reading the lines Lena had been pointing to.

How you must have hurt getting used to me, to my savage, solitary soul, to my name that sends everyone running.

The words wrap around Kara's heart like a vice. If she could do it without blowing her cover and putting Lena in danger, she'd go in her room right now just to wake her up and tell her what Kara thinks about her soul. About her name, too, while she's at it. She'd tell her everyone else is free to run if they want, but Kara isn't going anywhere.

But she can't do any of those things.

***

The two lines stay with Kara, sort of swirling under the surface of her thoughts. She never actively thinks about them -- about poetry in general, for that matter -- but they're there.

She remembers them sometimes. When their friendship grows and strengthens and one day Kara realizes Lena may be the person she loves the most in the world (tied with Alex). When the secrets and lies catch up with her and she thinks she may have lost Lena for good. When she finally gets Lena back.

It's been five years since she snuck into Lena's apartment that one night to find out about her favorite line in her favorite poem. Five years since she's actively thought about Neruda and the book and the words inside it. But for some reason, when Kara wakes up a couple hours earlier than she needs to and finds herself unable to sleep, she feels like that's precisely what she needs to read to soothe her brain. Maybe poetry will have the same sedative effect it used to have in college.

Wearing only an old t-shirt, Kara walks out of the bedroom and into the living area, scanning the shelves where she thinks she last saw that book. It's hard to keep track when your book collection has multiplied and turned into more of a home library situation than anything else, but she eventually finds it -- spine still cracked and pages still well-loved and well-read -- and settles down on the couch.

Kara flips from poem to poem, not really paying attention to any of them. A line from the third and then two from the eighteenth and a word or two from the seventh, eyes flicking between the Spanish lines and their English counterparts on the other side of the page. It's soothing, in a strange way. Like white noise, she figures. Nonsensical but calming. Until she lands on the fourteenth.

"Oh, those cherry trees," Kara half-groans in a whisper. The cherry trees and the spring and the convoluted way to say I love you. And Lena's favorite lines.

Kara feels it all over again. The pang of pain at the sight of that line.

My name that sends everyone running.

It lands different this time, five years into a friendship that turned out to be so much more and nearly went up in flames at one point. Because of names and lies and... well. Everything else. Lena was right after all, wasn't she? It's not about what the poem means. It's about what it makes you feel. And right now Kara feels a lot more than she'd be able to put in words if she had to.

Maybe Mr. Neruda was on to something after all.

"Hey," Lena's voice is laced with sleep, and Kara smiles as she listens to her footsteps bringing her closer, "what are you doing? It's the middle of the night."

Kara wouldn't call it the middle of the night -- more like a very early morning, really -- but she's not about to argue. "Reading. I couldn't sleep."

"Everything all right?" Lena reaches the back of the couch and makes the most of the rare height advantage over her girlfriend to press a kiss to the top of blond hair. "Why couldn't you sleep?"

Kara opens her arms before Lena can even think about sitting next to her instead, and smiles at the familiar weight of Lena sliding onto her lap. Even as she shrugs off Lena's question, Kara is already burying her face against the soft skin of her girlfriend's neck, breathing her in and letting the familiar scent filling her lungs soothe her like no amount of poetry ever could.

"Kara," Lena's fingers slide into blond hair, blunt fingernails scratching at Kara's scalp and making her hum in delight, "that's not an answer."

"No reason. I'm just not tired anymore I guess." A deep, content sigh. "Baby, you're so good at that."

There's still a slight crease between Lena's eyebrows, but that doesn't stop the smile Kara's praise brings to her face. "You'd tell me if I had to worry?"

Reluctantly, Kara pulls away from the warmth of Lena's neck. Her arms wrap around Lena's waist as she looks into green eyes. "You know I would."

And Kara watches Lena let the words sink in. They've had this conversation before, and Kara knows they'll have it again. They both have sore spots that need special care from time to time. And just to keep Lena's mind from going down any sort of rabbit hole, Kara decides it's time to continue a conversation they left unfinished five years ago.

"It didn't hurt at all, you know. Getting used to you." Kara shows Lena the book she's been holding, and grins when Lena smirks as the reference clicks.

"I thought you didn't like poetry," Lena chides, taking the book and flipping through the pages until she lands -- unsurprisingly, if you ask Kara -- back on poem fourteen.

"I don't. It's like... giving feelings a secret identity."

Lena arches one eyebrow, looking somewhere between amused and curious. "Care to explain?"

"Well, you know," Kara leans in to steal a quick, soft kiss, "say I want to kiss you. I can just say it. That's better than hiding it behind some kind of... flowery metaphor that'll make you wonder if I'm even saying that in the first place. Right?"

There's this look on Lena's face. Kara knows it well. It's like a challenge. Like she's playing chess and she's already thinking six moves ahead and knows you're toast whatever you do from that point on. Kara finds it nothing short of delicious.

"So you're saying," Lena says, and there's victory right there simmering under the surface of her words because she knows -- she knows -- she's won, "you'd rather I say 'this is a lovely sunrise we get to see together'," Lena's gaze drops to the open book in her hand to refresh her memory on the line she's about to quote, but she makes sure she's looking into blue eyes once again when she speaks, "than 'so many times we've watched the morning star burn, kissing our eyes, and over our heads the grey light unwind in turning fans', right?"

Kara swallows, hard. Her cheeks burn with a blush that will simply not be contained, no matter how hard she tries to keep some semblance of dignity. Her mouth feels dry all of a sudden, heart beating just fast enough -- hard enough -- that she's sure even Lena's plain human hearing can pick it up. And the look on her girlfriend's face lets Kara know she knows exactly what's currently happening to her.

"W-- well." Kara blinks, shaking her head like she's trying to physically clear the fog inside. To her credit, she thinks she manages to sound more indignant than turned on. "I mean that's unfair. You made it hot."

Lena lets out a delighted chuckle that hits Kara right in her heart, like a little pinball ball making it ding with the knowledge that Lena Luthor is happy enough to laugh. Really, truly laugh.

"What?" Lena asks, still grinning, fingertips teasing the soft hairs at the back of Kara's neck like it's nothing -- like she doesn't know what she's doing to her. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Ohh no, ma'am," Kara grins, cheeks still burning with the feeling simmering down low in her belly but too charmed by her girlfriend's teasing smile to stop, "you don't get to pretend you didn't do that on purpose."

"Kara," Lena says, in that way, because she knows, she knows, she knows Kara's weaknesses so perfectly well, and Kara wouldn't have it any other way, "I was just quoting Neruda, I didn't do anything."

"You did the voice thing!"

"What voice th-- Kara, if you can't just admit plain language and poetic language are simply not on the same level I--"

"You purred the words! How is that fair!?"

Kara presses her lips together like she can retroactively keep the words from exiting her mouth. Too late, though. Lena looks positively delighted.

"I purred the words?" Lena echoes, barely able to keep a straight face. Actually, you know what? Scratch that. She's openly pleased with herself. Smug, even.

"I mean. I mean," Kara says, and she touches the bridge of her nose with one fingertip because for a moment she's forgotten there are no glasses to push up at all, "obviously it's not the same. Poetry and prose, they're inherently--"

"Different, right," Lena finishes Kara's thought, "so you see how you'd use one or the other depending on how emotionally charged--"

Kara shakes her head. "But you don't need flowery metaphors to convey emotion! You can just say what you mean and mean what you say."

"But you just said it yourself. It felt different when I just said it's a sunset, and when I quoted--"

"You purred poetry at me, Lena, of course I'm going to feel a certain kind of way!"

And there it is. Kara feels it in her bones. The checkmate Lena had seen coming a mile away. She sees it right there in the smirk on her girlfriend's face. In the way Lena's pupils dilate just so. The way her tongue peeks out to lick her lips as she looks at Kara like she's lunch.

Or, you know. Breakfast, as the case may be.

"You feel a certain kind of way?" Lena shifts on Kara's lap and they've been together for long enough that Kara absolutely knows there's nothing innocent or coincidental in the way Lena's night shirt (Kara's high school gym t-shirt, mind you) rides up to expose Lena's lace-covered ass. "What kind of way is that, Supergirl?"

Kara perks up at the sound of her name. Her other name. Because maybe it wasn't checkmate after all. Maybe it was just check. Because the thing is, it's not just Lena knowing all of Kara's weaknesses. That knowledge very much goes both ways. And Lena calling her Supergirl?

Oh, Kara is absolutely not the only one who's feeling a certain way.

"You know." Kara shrugs slightly, pretending to still be the mouse in this little game. She rests one hand on Lena's knee and lets her palm slide up her thigh, slowly, listening to Lena's heartbeat speeding up with each inch of skin Kara explores. "You know the way I mean."

Lena's breath hitches just so when Kara's hand slides further up, and Kara savors the sound of Lena's heart tripping over itself when her fingertips drag along damp lace.

"You're listening, aren't you?" Lena cocks her eyebrow, but her lips stay parted and her breathing comes in short, warm puffs so the whole thing really doesn't come off as stern as Kara is sure Lena would like.

"Hmm?" Kara knows she's probably pushing her luck, but she bats her eyelashes anyway, her face the very picture of innocence as if her fingertips weren't tracing the very edge of Lena's panties, hinting at what they could (will) do if she just happened to push that fabric aside. "Listening to what, baby?"

Lena tries not to -- Kara can see the struggle right there in her eyes -- but she whimpers anyway, quiet and just barely audible to the human ear.

"Kara." It tries to sound like a warning, but it falls just this side of pleading instead. Lena blushes so very pretty when she's feeling a certain kind of way.

"Yes, Lena?"

"You're listening," a breath, slow and measured like she wishes she could take in a deep one but her lungs can't quite cope with that right now, "to me."

"Well, I mean," Kara shrugs slightly, like she can't feel the warmth of Lena's pussy against her fingertips, "I try to. I feel like it's good girlfriend etiquette."

Lena is trying so hard to look at least moderately annoyed. It's not working at all, but Kara can see that's her intent. She also knows exactly what Lena means, too. She means Kara is listening to her. To the beat of her heart and the air in her lungs and all the tiny, inaudible (for everyone else) sounds that tell her exactly how much Lena wants her.

"You're listening to what you're doing to me." Lena drops the book on the floor to wrap both hands around Kara's neck, hips shifting forward just enough to get more contact with Kara's hand between her legs. Kara knows Lena doesn't need superhearing to notice the way Kara's breath catches in her throat.

"And what am I doing to you, baby?" Kara won't cross the barrier of Lena's panties just yet, but her fingers becomes more purposeful, less teasing as two fingertips press against Lena's clit through damp lace. Lena's eyes flutter closed and she takes in a sharp breath that sounds almost like a gasp, and Kara rewards such a gorgeous sound with a kiss to Lena's jaw. "What Spring does to cherry trees?"

Lena must feel Kara's teasing grin even if she can't see it, because she lets out a breathless chuckle even as her hips start rocking to meet the movements of Kara's fingers. "Just admit poetry can express richer emotions than prose ever cou--"

Kara's mouth is on Lena's before she can finish her thought, and Kara would maybe feel a bit guilty for interrupting, but Lena's fingers fist in blond hair and pull her close and there's no way someone who's offended would kiss her like that. And Kara isn't even listening anymore, because Lena's tongue is in her mouth and all she can hear is her own heart thumping along anyway.

When she breaks the kiss, Lena keeps Kara close. She's panting slightly, breath hot and wet against Kara's lips and pupils so dilated Kara wonders if she can see her at all. A quiet, hitched moan escapes parted lips, and Kara swears there's nothing in the world -- in the universe, really -- more beautiful than Lena when she's like this. Like putty in her hands. And Kara just can't resist.

"Admit you purred," she whispers against kiss-swollen lips, knowing if there's one chance for her to win an argument with her girlfriend this must be it. When she has Lena rocking against her fingers, wet and wanting and just the right amount of needy to get her to give in, for once.

"Kara." It's practically a whine, and Kara swears it sounds like victory. Until she sees the glint in her girlfriend's eyes, and Lena gets her checkmate move after all. "Shut up and fuck me."

Kara feels the words rather than hears them. They hit right between her legs and spread all over her body, and you know what? Kara really is okay with losing under these particular circumstances.

Two fingers hook under the crotch of Lena's panties and Kara tugs lightly, almost like she's testing the strength of the lacy fabric. "Do you really like the..." Kara's voice trails off as Lena pulls the t-shirt up and over her head, blue eyes staring unabashedly at her girlfriends breasts as she struggles to finish her thought, "...these?"

It's just polite to ask before tearing someone's panties to shreds, if you ask her, even if you're currently transfixed at the sight of her breasts.

"I don't care." Lena's voice is doing that thing again, except this time Kara is pretty sure she's not doing it on purpose at all, it's just that's what Lena sounds like when she needs Kara now and isn't that just the best thing ever? "Baby, please, I don't care."

Kara doesn't know if she rips the panties off first and then leans in to catch Lena's left nipple with her mouth or if it happens the other way around, but she honestly doesn't care either, as it turns out. All she knows is two fingers slip inside Lena in one smooth, firm thrust, and her free hand grabs Lena's right breast, and then--

"More," Lena moans, breathy and greedy, but when Kara starts thrusting harder into her Lena shakes her head, "no, no-- more fingers," and Kara lets out a quiet whimper around the stiff nipple between her teeth.

Kara pulls her fingers out of Lena and stretches her ring finger to join the first two before sliding them back inside. Her movements are slow and careful, all of her senses focused on detecting even the slightest hint of discomfort in her girlfriend until her three fingers are fully inside Lena.

"Go on, Supergirl."

Lena's tone is just the right amount of teasing to make Kara chuckle lightly, mouth leaving Lena's breast to trail kisses up her sternum and to the freckles on her neck as her arm starts pumping once again. She's so very close, Kara can tell, and even more so when she turns her wrist just so to press the pad of her thumb against Lena's clit.

Lena's fingers dig into Kara's scalp, into the strong muscle at her shoulder as Lena holds on and rides Kara's hand, hips rocking hard and fast in time with Kara's thrusts. Kara couldn't listen to any one thing if she tried. It's a symphony of sighs and moans, whimpers and ragged breaths and stuttering heartbeats that nearly overwhelms her senses until she feels Lena clench around her fingers, hips losing their rhythm as Lena comes with Kara's name on her lips.

Kara pulls her face away from Lena's neck just so she can look at her. Watch her come around her fingers and then relax, chest heaving with the effort of trying to catch her breath. Kara swears there can't be a more beautiful sight in the universe, especially not now, with the sun rising and bathing Lena's damp skin in early morning light. And as much as Kara tries to suppress it, there's a thought running through her head. A line from that stupid poem with its stupid cherry trees.

A long time I have loved the sunned mother-of-pearl of your body...

"You're thinking very loudly," Lena whispers, already resting her head on Kara's shoulder as her fingertips play with the hem of Kara's shirt, "what are you thinking?"

For a second, Kara considers telling her, but Neruda's words aren't what comes out when she opens her mouth. "Just how beautiful you look," she says, which is in fact the truth. Kind of. She can't let Lena win every single time, right?

***

"Apparently the first cherry trees got here in 1910, but they had to burn them all because of a bunch of insects." Kara holds the little guide book in her hand as she reads, her other hand safely in Lena's as they walk along the Tidal Basin. "These ones are newer, from 1912."

"Oh, like the Titanic!" Lena looks delighted with the coincidence, and the bright smile on her face makes Kara lean in to steal a kiss from her lips. Her fiancée is super cute when she lets her inner dork show, if you ask Kara.

"See? I told you buying an actual guide book would be worth it!" Kara holds the small book in her hand with the pride of someone who's just won an argument (for once). "Where else are you going to get that kind of high quality trivia?"

"You do know the prototype L-Corp keychain I gave you last week can access Google, yes?"

"Not the same."

"Not to mention the actual supercomputers we all carry around in our pockets. Or the high-tech communicator in your wat--"

"Lena!" Kara groans. "Look around! The cherry blossoms! The quaintness of springtime! A romantic stroll along the river! Where's your sense of romance?"

Lena chuckles lightly, her free hand sliding up Kara's arm to wrap around her bicep. And Kara would complain about the obvious use of one of her many Lena-related weaknesses, but you know what? It works.

"Kara Danvers," Lena says, voice low and teasing, "that's all very poetic."

Kara rolls her eyes, but she can't quite stop the bright smile that's already appearing on her face. "Don't you start with me," she warns, not very convincingly.

Lena presses a kiss to Kara's shoulder, and it makes color rise to Kara's cheeks even through the soft fabric of her cardigan. Even after all these years. But she figures if there's one day to be particularly enamored with one's fiancée, that's the day she's scheduled to receive a Presidential Award for her contributions to science and the betterment of humanity.

Not to brag. But Kara is proud.

"I love you," Kara says, because she can't not, "and I'm just so proud, I--"

Lena presses a finger to Kara's lips, stopping what was potentially about to turn into a whole speech about the many ways in which Lena Luthor could not possibly be any more perfect if she tried.

"Kara," Lena warns, all cocked eyebrow and slightly pursed lips, "you promised. You promised you wouldn't cry before the actual ceremony."

And Kara would argue. She'd argue that she's perfectly capable of going on about Lena's many virtues without actually crying, but you know what? Her eyes are feeling just a tiny bit misty already so she's just gonna go ahead and trust Lena on this one.

"You know what I also love?" Kara presses a kiss to the pad of Lena's finger and obediently changes subjects. "Sushi. Let's go get some." Kara starts walking away from the beautiful soft pink trees and in the general direction of the street festival, tugging Lena along. She's all for the romance of blossom-watching, but she'd be lying if she said hearing about the culinary side of this whole festival hadn't excited her a bit more than that.

It's only when she hears a sigh coming from Lena that Kara's focus shifts from food to the woman next to her. That wasn't a happy sigh.

"Are you okay, baby?"

Lena smiles. It's not a fake smile, but there's a hint of something in it that isn't fully happy, either. "Yes. Yes, I'm fine. It's just... between the cherry blossoms and all this talk of sushi, I guess it made me a bit nostalgic for Sendai."

"Sendai?" Kara looks at Lena with curiosity written all over her face. "What's Sendai?"

"Oh, it's a city in Japan. I lived there for a few months for an exchange when I was in college. Did I never tell you?" Kara shakes her head, her face the picture of delight at getting to learn something new about Lena. "There was this little restaurant near Tohokudai, I swear they had the best sushi in the world." Lena hums, letting her eyes flutter closed for a second like she's trying to imagine the taste. "I'd do anything for some negitoro maki from that place right about now."

Kara listens intently to her fiancée's words. She knows it's just a silly little comment. She knows Lena will be perfectly happy eating the undoubtedly delicious sushi currently being sold at the street festival. And yet.

She can't resist a chance to make Lena just that little bit happier, can she?

So Kara looks around to make sure they're not being watched, and lets go of Lena's hand. "Be right back."

"Where are you--?"

But all Lena gets is a quick kiss and a gust of wind on her face before Kara disappears.

She's only gone for a couple of minutes -- just enough for Lena to wander back towards the cherry trees -- and when she comes back she's holding a small box which she immediately presents to Lena.

"Sushi for my... sushi," Kara lets out a chuckle, her now-free hand coming up to scratch at the back of her head like she's aware she may have gone just a little bit overboard but she's hoping it won't be too much, "Sendai's beautiful, by the way."

Lena's smile is soft, and Kara has a feeling -- not to toot her own horn -- if she'd been listening she would've heard Lena's heart skip a beat.

"Kara Danvers," Lena sighs, shaking her head like that'll do anything to hide just how charmed she is right now, "you're something el-- what's that?"

"Nothing," Kara shifts slightly and puts her hand -- and the little carton box it's holding -- behind her back, fully intending on letting the focus of this moment be on her romantic gesture, but Lena raises one eyebrow and Kara loses her resolve. "Potstickers." Kara's voice is quiet as she shows Lena the box. "What? I was in the neighborhood!"

"In the neighborhood of," Lena squints slightly as she reads the words on the box, "Shanghai?"

"Well, China is next door to Japan, if you think about it."

Lena chuckles, clearly too charmed by this whole thing to even continue teasing Kara about it. "Thank you. For this. You didn't actually have to fly all the way to Japan to get my favorite sushi, but I appreciate it."

Kara shrugs, chopsticks already grabbing the first potsticker in the box. "I'd go way farther than Japan to make you happy. You know that."

"I do know," Lena nods, looking just a little thoughtful, like she's just now realizing she fully believes Kara would stop at nothing to make her happy, "you even promised when you proposed."

Lena wiggles her finger, flashing the kryptium ring that's been there for a few weeks now along with a teasing smile, and Kara can only shrug. "Well, I meant it," she says, popping the potsticker in her mouth and leaning against the trunk of a nearby cherry tree.

"I know," Lena says again, but this time she's smiling, amusement shining in her eyes, "if only Lex had figured out the one true way to have the world in the palm of your hand is to make a Kryptonian fall in love with you."

"To be fair, I really don't think your brother is Kal's type."

***

Eight hours later, they're seeing the Tidal Basin from above, the cherry blossoms looking nearly white in the moonlight. They could be in National City already, but Kara figures there's no reason why she can't take the scenic route with Lena in her arms and enjoy the view without the crowds and the bustle they experienced earlier today. Perks of being your own private jet.

"Go a bit lower, baby," Lena's voice is soft against Kara's ear, like she's afraid if she speaks too loud she'll break the spell and they won't feel like the only two people in the world anymore, "I want to see the flowers."

Kara doesn't make her wait. Lena's just been awarded an actual medal by the President, and spoiling her a little is the least Kara can do. So she dips until they're hovering just above the soft pink blossoms and then a little lower still, close enough that Lena can smell the sweet, fresh scent of Spring.

The night is clear and quiet, just cool enough for Lena to reach for Kara's cape and pull it forward to wrap it around herself. Kara holds her a little closer, just enough to hopefully provide a bit of extra warmth, and she figures it was the right move when Lena slips one arm from under Kara's cape to reach for the tree and pick a particularly pretty blossom from one of the branches that's closer to them.

Lena looks at it for a moment, twirling the little stem between her fingers like she's pondering what to do with it. And then she turns and tucks Kara's hair behind her ear, sliding the small flower between soft blond strands and smiling when she's satisfied it'll stay exactly where she wants it.

"Happy?" Kara chuckles, something soft and quiet and a little teasing because there's something equal parts amusing and endearing about Lena's perfectionism when it comes to silly little things like putting a flower in Kara's hair.

"Very."

And there's something about the way Lena smiles, more with her eyes than with her mouth, that makes Kara see, clear as day, just how serious Lena is. How sincere, when she says she's very happy.

Maybe that's why Kara gets a little transfixed just looking at her, suddenly aware of just how different this Lena -- the Lena wrapped in her arms and her cape, wearing her ring and smiling with a smile that's just Kara's -- is from the Lena she first met all those years ago.

"Kara Zor-El," Lena's voice is soft just like the sound of Kara's true name on her lips, "what are you thinking about?"

And Kara wishes she had the words to tell her. But how does she even begin to explain what she's feeling right now? How she's still the same Lena that made Kara's heart trip all over itself the first time she saw her, but she's so very different all the same time. Brighter. Lighter. Loved. God, she's so loved, and Lena knows it, finally, and that's what's different, maybe. Not just Kara's love, because Lena's had that from the very first day, probably, but the fact that Lena can feel it now.

How do you put that in words? I love you just doesn't feel like enough.

And then it hits her.

"I'm thinking," Kara smiles, cheeks pink with the knowledge that she's just been proven wrong, "about what Spring does to cherry trees."

#fic #fanfiction #supercorp fanfic #supercorp fanfiction #supercorp

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retroyousei · 4 years ago

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Female characters in retro shojo [70s edition, part 1]

Ah, the 1970s (and early 80s), where a majority of the shojo manga stories took place in a distant European country or in America, surrounding either orphan girls from the 19th or early 20th century, who remain cheerful and have adventures, trying to find out who they are, making friends and falling in love, or epic historical stories filled with war, scandals and larger than life characters. If the manga was taking place in Japan, the plot was somehow more down to earth -though most of the time it restrained the same amount of unrealism- and it was either about following the journey of a girl who pursues the career of her dreams and evolves into a notable person, or a high school story filled either with melodrama and angst or a more heartwarming romantic comedy. But in this two-part article I won’t talk about plot tropes of the shojo manga of that era -as this topic deserves an exclusive article-, but about the female characters (I will dedicate an article on male characters some other time). Those characters are very important, as they set the standards of today’s manga and anime. But it should be noted that back then the formula of their design and characteristics are different from today’s. Those are the categories that I’ve noticed, regarding the appearance and personality.

The “average” protagonists

They are the most common category. Usually, they come from middle class and they are presented either as cheerful and a little dense schoolgirls, or plain looking and unrefined, as oppose to their antagonists or rivals who are well educated, beautiful and more talented, but this may serve as a determination for them to improve. Other times they are presented as headstrong heroines, ahead of their time, who refuse to compromise and for this they are a pain to their old-fashion society. Either way, they are kind, good, well-intentioned and want to help the others, that’s why they make friends easily. The thing that really works with these characters and makes them much more interesting than they may seem, is that they are independent and built their future on their own and they never give up, no matter what happens and what someone might say about them. Even when they are not sure of themselves, they always keep trying, until they reach to their dream. They use their obstacles as strength and determination to go on, proving that they are not average at all.

Maya, the protagonist of “Glass Mask” is a great example of this. She starts as a good-for-nothing daughter of a poor family, who isn’t particularly accomplished, but has a hidden passion for acting which she hadn’t realise it herself at that point. But when she is discovered by Tsukigake, a former legendary actress, she realises how much she wants to be an actress to a point that she lied saying that her mother allowed her to study to sensei’s acting school and ran away from home. Not even when her mother told her that she doesn’t consider her as her daughter anymore, she didn’t gave up, in spite of being very hurt by this. Her path towards acting wasn’t easy. Many times she has to face many who say that she doesn’t belong to that industry, or who are jealous of her talent and means her harm, but with her faith in herself, she always overcomes those obstacles. An admirable thing about her is that she dislikes fame, being shy, as she just wants to act and that she does not gives up, no matter what and even when she does, she quickly stands up. The most interesting dynamic of the story is her worthy rivalry with Ayumi, that is clearly a case of the trope “technician vs performer”, with Maya as the performer, as her standard method to learn how to play a character is to become that character. As the story progresses, Maya evolves from a girl with a hidden talent, to a young actress who portraits an original take to classic characters, but who still had much to learn, to one of the greatest actresses of her generation.

In “Yokohama Monogatari”, Uno starts as a plain, poor, orphan girl, who is ignorant about the world, as she hasn’t even seen the sea before and she believed that westerners were vampires who could drink people’s blood, that’s why they had blonde hair and blue eyes. She starts to work as a companion in a rich family to their daughter Mariko, who is the same age as her. Besides their differences, they become quickly best friends. While Mariko is a little spoiled, Uno, despite of her ignorance of world, can be more considerate and responsible in some matters. She also has a lust for learning and soon her and Mariko pursuade her family to go to school. There, she meets many people, among them there are a few foreigners too, she makes a lot of friends, and she excels at all of her studies, being hardworking. As the years passed by, Japan changes and allows exchange of ideas from many cultures -it’s Meiji era we are taking about, that means the last quarter of the 19th century- and Uno evolves from a poor, -many would say- hopeless for her situation, clueless of the world girl, to an open minded, educated and refined woman, surrounded by many people she loves.

In “Tokimeki Tonight”, Ranze -well except of being the daughter of Dracula and warewolf and having her own vampire powers as well- is an average girl who is friendly, sweet and little quirky girl who goes to school and falls in love with Shuun. Some may say that she is pretty basic, but in fact, she knows her self worth well, so even when her parents were disappointed with her not having any power yet, at the beginning of the story, she wasn’t particularly bothered by it. Also she is very headstrong that she falls in love with a human boy, while she knows well that a creature from the demon world and a human cannot be together. But in spite of all of that, she decides to stay true to her own feelings and even though she’s not so sure about Shuun’s feelings for her either, she doesn’t give up and waits for him, because she hopes and deep down knows that he likes her too and she is right. And even when her parents want her to marry prince Aaron of the demon world and even the king- learn that she likes a human, in spite of that being against the rules, she isn’t afraid to stand up for her beliefs. Later though, we learn that Shuun is the lost prince of the demon world, so he is not a human after all, but that’s another story.

In “Aim For The Ace”, Hiromi is a typical schoolgirl who struggles to get better in tennis, when she gets selected as one of the club’s main players in school by the new coach, as he saw potential in her. Some of her seniors are jealous of her because of that and at first she thinks that she is not worth such a discrimination, but soon she improves and realises how much she loves tennis. There’s also a very similar rivalry dynamic with “glass mask” between Hiromi and Reika who grow to be worthy opponents.

In “Haikara San Ga Toru”, Benio is a headstrong young woman who studies Kendo, drinks sake and prefers reading literature and feminist ideas, rather than being interested in housework. She also likes to dress in western clothes, rather than the traditional kimono and strongly believes that women should have the right to decide for their future on their own and they should marry for love. But her world turns upside down when her father announces that he has arranged a marriage for her. The one that he indends for her is someone she knew before, very briefly and accidentally, a lieutenant named Shinobu. Of course, she refuses, being loyal to her ideals and she goes out of her way to avoid him, just to satisfy her pride, in spite of actually starting developing feelings for him. When she moves to his grandparents’ house to get prepared as his wife, she purposely fails in all of her duties as a housewife and constantly argues with his grandparents, but all of that only makes Shinobu fall for her even more. It’s only when he leaves to go to the war, when she realises her feelings for him and during at that time when everyone thought that he was dead, she matured and became even stronger, remaining loyal to him and determined to work as a journalist to support his family, but also tracking him down, hoping that he’s still alive. Of course, at the very end, they live happily ever after together. Benio’s character development is admirable; starting as a clever, but headstrong girl, to an independent and wise woman, proving that you don’t have to disagree with everyone in order to prove that you are the one who chooses how to live your own life.

The villains

Their extreme pride and vain is their common nature. Most of the times they come from a wealthy family, so they are either oujo-sans who are always dressed elegantly, are seemingly refined and they tend to have curly, blonde hair -as blonde hair seem to be associated with wealth and sophistication in Japan-, or they are just spoiled brats that demand that everyone will do as they say. They are the main antagonist of the story for different reasons. The most common one is that they are jealous of the heroine, either because they are their love rivals and they are jealous of the heroine’s relationship with the love interest of the story, or because they are just pathologically jealous of the heroine because of her looks, her happiness, her luck and her loving nature. Another reason they act the way they do is because they want power and success, or they just want to secure all of that. The worse and least complex reason of all is that they are just mean for no particular reason.

Eliza, from “Candy Candy” is the typical alpha b*tch who is pathologically jealous of Candy. At first, she along with her brother, makes her life miserable, by blaming her for the bad things they do, such as hurting the horses in the stables, provoking her and then telling to their mother that she’s wild and leaving her alone in a town she doesn’t know and locking her in dark rooms. After that, during their time in London, Eliza says to everyone that Candy is an orphan who made her life miserable, even blaming her for Antony’s death. Later, having the habit of falling in love with the one that Candy likes too, school, she falls for Terry and constantly tries to turn him against her, failing miserably. She also writes a fake letter to her that it was supposedly from Terry and to Terry too, to meet each other in the stables at night and with this, she blabs them to the teachers and Candy, having no choice, leaves school. Later, when Candy was pursuing a career as a nurse, she continues her cruel ways and her mother also threats the director of the hospital where she was working, that if they won’t fire her, the Leagan family will withdraw their funds for the hospital and she also made sure that no hospital from Chicago will hire her, leaving Candy in a difficult situation. Those are only of few of the things that Leagan family did to Candy. The worst part is that they don’t pay for what they did at the end.

Fukiko from “Oniisama e” fits well this image; She is a refined lady from a rich family, the president of the sorority and very educated, that’s why she is admired by everyone. However, in reality she is manipulative, proud and very possessive. She wants to control everyone and she’s even willing to go out of her way to achieve what she wants. For instanse, she’s jealous of Nanako because she is close to Henmi Takehito, the one that she (Fukiko) is in love with, so to control her, she chooses her to be a member of the sorority and demands that she will stay away from him, even by pulling her into the lake and attempt to drown her . She also makes Rei’s life miserable, by stepping into her weakness, refuse to accept her as a member of their family and constantly manipulating her with the cruelest of ways. Also, it’s revealed that her friends from the sorority are feeling pressured because of her. Later, with the death of Rei, along with her realisation that Henmi and Kaoru No Kimi are truly in love, surprisingly, she regrets, gives up on her cruel ways and matures, growing even more beautiful for all of that.

Yoko from “Tokimeki Tonight” is a different case. She is the love rival of the story and the have loved Shuun ever since they were little. Being the only daughter of a rich businessman, she is spoiled and when something doesn’t go as she wants, she is is angry and demands that everything will go the way she wants. She envies Ranze for her close relationship with Makabe and ever since she accidentally saw her transforming, she tried desperately to prove others that she (Ranze) is a vampire. Her character is less dramatic and more comedic, as she is often grumpy and clumsy. But she isn’t really a bad person and she doesn’t really cause an awful lot of trouble.

In “The Rose of Versailles”, Madam Du Barry, the king’s mistress, wants to sustain her place in the court and demands that Marie Antoinette, who was at that time the dauphine, will speak to her. She also have tried to poison one of the court ladies. Countess De polignag becomes the queen’s best friend, for her own benefits and manipulates her without her (Marie Antoinette) knowing, like telling her to lie about being pregnant and also persuade her to start gambling in the court, which was illegal. She’s also Rosalie’s biological mother and accidentally kills the woman which raised her daughter and she’s the reason that her other daughter suicides, because she cannot handle the marriage the she arranged for her. Besides of her daughter’s death, she doesn’t seem to regret for any of her actions as she tries to make Rosalie merry the same man. Luckily Rosalie escapes. Also, she tried to sabotage Oscar many times and all this was just for the sake of power and money.

In “Glass Mask”, Norie Otobe, befriends Maya and she is supposedly her assistant, but in reality she just waits for the right moment to strike and steal Maya’s role and career. Unfortunately, she succeeds and it costs a lot for Maya, for a while. Luckily Ayumi discovers this and punishes her with the best way ever.

The tomboys

They are either mysterious, or lively, but one thing is for sure; they are dressed in clothes that are considered to be “manly”, they are handsome and they are constantly mistaken for a boy. They are also very elegant and educated and their image is that of a prince. That’s why they are admired by both women and men. Some may say that even though they are trying to be like a man, they are still weak, but they point out that just because they dress more “tomboyish”, doesn’t mean that it makes them less of a woman. After all, when they want to, they can transform into the most feminine girl of all. They also prove that their sexuality is not associated with their looks, as a “masculine” girl has the same possibilities of being heterosexual or homosexual, with a more “feminine” one. So, they break all the stereotypes regarding women. Many times, they are portrayed as headstrong heroines who stand up for their beliefs and their friends.

The most famous character that supports this image is Oscar from “the Rose of Versailles”. Oscar is one of the daughters of the Jerjeyes household. Not having any son, her father decided to raise her as a boy so that one day she will succeed him. Oscar dresses in boys’ clothes and learns activities like fencing and archery. When she was fourteen, she was tasked to serve as Marie Antoinette’s bodyguard. The manga often pointed out how different those two were regarding appearance and character, even if they were in the same age. Oscar has a strong sense of justice and she always protects the weak and is not afraid to challenge someone that she believes that isn’t right. Of course, she is admired by men and women alike and she is also a great and loyal friend. At one point she falls in love with Fersen, who loves Marie Antoinette. But because of her respect for the queen and her love of Fersen, she helps them, despite being heartbroken. At the end, she realises that she loves her childhood friend, Andre. She loves medieval combat, drinking heavy drinks, talking about politics and playing violin. Many pointed out that being a woman she was weaker but she always proved them wrong, pointing out that women can do anything and that it doesn’t matter if you are a man or a woman, only how skilful you are. She was hiding her femininity not because she wanted to be a man, but because that if she acted like a woman, the society might think that she was weak and she wouldn’t be able to have the access and the freedom to do what women normally wouldn’t do back then, because women were alowed to limited things. In the early 1970s, by the time this manga was ongoing, the second wave of feminism had already started and women started fighting for equal legal and social rights, so Oscar’s character was influenced by all this.

Rei from “Oniisama e”, is admired by her fellow classmates and is also called “saint Juste”, named after one of the leaders from French Revolution, due to her physical resemblance to him. She is very charismatic, excelling to sports, piano, guitar and theatre, she is very elegant and dresses often in a black suit. Unfortunately she is drug-addict, she smokes and can be suicidal, carrying always pills and a sharp object with her. She is also obsessed with Fukiko, the sorority’s president, for many reasons, causing her to be controlled and abused by her. She also lives alone in a depressing house filled with mirrors and this also causes to be depressed. Her best friend is Kaoru no Kimi, who’s also a tomboy, but they are entirely different and she befriends Nanako and her friends. In the end she suicides, taking too many sleeping pills, having everyone, especially Nanako, left devastated.

Also from “Oniisama e”, Kaoru, is a tomboy who is strong and energetic. She is athletic and excels at basketball, but she is also very cool and doesn’t seem to care that she is the best at something that she’s doing, that’s why she is admired by her fellow classmates who gave her the nickname “Kaoru no Kimi”, from a Japanese classical novel; “the tale of Genji”. She also has a great sense of justice, as when she sees classmates being bullied, she defends them and put the bullies on their place. She is also very loyal and supportive and cares deeply about her friends, helping them when they are in need, especially her best friend, Rei, for whom she is very concerned. But in spite of her energetic appearance, she suffers from breast cancer and tries to keep it a secret, pretending that she is healthy and that everything is under control. But in fact, she pushes away her beloved, Henmi Takehito, concealing her true feelings, in order for him to be happy without her and not suffer anymore, showing how selfless she is and how much she loves him to a point of sacrificing her own feelings. At the end, it pays off and they end up together, living happily.

Another honourable mention is Rei, from “Glass Mask”. Rei is the older student of Tsukikage sensei’s company and one of Maya’s best friends. She is a tomboy who wears those characteristic 70s jeans and for some reason is mistaken by a boy -much to her dislike-, despite of being obvious that she is a girl. Being an actress, she can transform into a beautiful princess in no time, but she also portraits very well a prince. In the first volumes, she portrayed Jo, from “little women” which was a role very suited for her. As a sister figure for Maya, she is loyal, friendly and the responsible one who helps the theatre company stay organised and is a very strict teacher to Maya, helping her because she knows her potential. Also from “Glass Mask”, Keiko from the “Ikkakuju group” is also mistaken as boy, but she can transform into a pretty princess in no time.

Note: At the first half of the 20th century “Little Women” were very popular in Japan, particularly Jo, who was tomboyish and outspoken and her character had inspired the first female mangakas of the 60s for their stories and characters.

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