#oshi no ko is already strange | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

aihoshiino · 1 year ago

Text

chapter 141 thoughts!

The usual reminder: because of the content of this arc, I will unavoidably have to discuss CSA and topics related to it in this & future chapter reviews. I do not discuss them in great detail, but if you very understandably just aren't in the headspace for that, no hard feelings - look after yourself and I'll see you next time.

This chapter starts us off on the note of answering something I've been wondering for a while and confirming that Ai did, in fact, know that Hikaru was being abused by Airi. On the one hand, this feels like it should go without saying, since it answers the question of where Aqua would have gotten some of this info, but it feels strange to have this dropped on us in such a matter of fact way.

In general, I continue to be both baffled and impressed by Oshi no Ko's dedication to never showing characters learning or reacting to huge, status-quo altering pieces of information on screen lol. I think this is more a case of the movie's framing than the manga's - hard cutting from the HKAI exchange at the end of last chapter to the Ai & Airi confrontation is very cinematically appropriate - but it does bother me regardless. In isolation, I think it's fine and we get more than enough information about Ai's thoughts and feelings on the situation in the confrontation but it's nevertheless part of a pattern that's been going on for a long while now of important reveals and reactions to really huge pieces of information are happening entirely offscreen and are only told to the viewer in retrospect, or are backfilled into the story once Akasaka wants to make use of it. It's not a world-ending flaw or anything but I'm noticing it more and more and I think it's been harming the series more than it's helping.

That said, I do really like this confrontation Ai has with Airi. It definitely feels more like Ai speaking for Aqua than it does Ai herself speaking - the cold, straightforward way she addresses Airi pretty clearly mirrors the way Aqua spoke to the director on Akane's behalf back in LoveNow. Whether this is a case of Aqua using Ai as a mouthpiece or their similarities as mother and son coming out in a moment like this, I think it's interesting either way. Given what we learned about Ai's own abuse and her own history with narrowly avoided CSA, it makes total sense that upon learning someone she cares about was being similarly exploited by an adult that she would have some very strong feelings about it.

Airi's meltdown in response is also something I have mixed feelings on. As a piece of characterization in isolation, it's fascinating and I think it provides some important insight into how and why Airi was able to rationalize and justify her abuse of Hikaru to herself, even though she clearly knows it was objectively wrong. I honestly can't help but see parallels in the way she centers her own feelings and pain and uses that as justification for her actions with Ayumi, Ai's mother, who had a more subdued but emotionally similar breakdown when talking about her history with her daughter.

Ultimately, I do feel it adds more than it takes away - I would much rather see the story continue to humanize characters who could otherwise have just been left as uncomplicatedly black and white Evil People Doing Bad Things. People very rarely begin acting in cruel, exploitative or antisocial ways out of nowhere and I think the manga's story is better for highlighting that this is the case.

H O W E V E R. . . where my feelings become more negative is the talk that follows, but I have like a million things to say about that so I'll put a pin in it for now to not derail too badly.

Given how Airi responds here, I'm also suddenly very curious as to if this direct confrontation was what put an end to her abuse of Hikaru. It's hard for me to imagine her going back to it after being so directly called out and if that's the case, I can't help but wonder if this was the trigger for the HKAI romance. I already talked last chapter that there's some imagery already implying Hikaru views Ai as his light, which OnK thematically associates with the role of a savior in someone's life. If Ai really did manage to intervene and protect Hikaru from Airi's abuse, then that would have intensified those feelings one hundredfold.

holy shit akane AND miyako are back! wow, isn't it totally crazy that across the arcs where they could have contributed to and potentially resolved the conflicts at play they were just totally absent but now they're just reappearing without comment or reaction to any of that other shit!

As I mentioned before, I have really mixed feelings on this scene with Miyako and the others. In isolation, I do like it and I think it kind of brings into explicit text something that had been just floating around as vibes before, which is how absolutely symbiotic with misogyny and sexual exploitation the entertainment industry is. The way misogyny played into Ai's exploration was always a really fascinating part of her arc to me, but given that Akasaka at least publicly presents as a person without that sort of lived experience, I was curious as to how much was intentional and how much was accidental, just because of how surprising it was to see a man centering this sort of thing so thoroughly in his writing. This scene with Miyako makes it clear that it's something Akasaka absolutely wants to highlight and discuss in Oshi no Ko, to the point of him being willing to call out even likable and sympathetic characters like Taiki for casually taking part in and perpetuating it.

THAT SAID… I really don't like that this scene, accidentally or otherwise, ends up centering and discussing Airi's victimhood over Hikaru's. His story has always been an indictment of the way children, specifically, are at risk in the entertainment industry not just in terms of being exploited as workers, but in the ways that adults in power can and will use their positions of authority to do exactly what Airi has done. That is what needed to be discussed here; the way that Hikaru's abuse is in no way an isolated incident and how people like Airi will continue to get away with hurting children so long as the industry - and society at large - treats children like second-class citizens at best and commodities at worst. I do think this scene is trying to use Airi and Miyako's experiences as a jumping off point to talk about exploitation in general and the way a person's ability to say 'no' can be compromised by outside pressures but it talks so much and so exclusively about the experiences of young girls and adult women specifically that it's hard not to read it as the story placing more value - at least for now - in exploring Airi's perspective over Hikaru's and that just feels kind of grody to me.

The timeline of this chapter is also just… really weird? Given Frill's, uh, appearance at the end of the chapter I have to assume it's taking place right after she films her scene with Aqua last chapter but that makes no sense given where the Ai and Airi confrontation is placed…? My best guess is that the scene we get at the start is some kind of visualization of the script by the characters who are reading it but it's all still very needlessly confusing lol

frill just barging in with her tits out when she knew rbkn were waiting for her was so fucking funny though i gotta admit. weird ass lizard woman.

Her mentioning it was her own decision to do the scene like that is also shrimptresting because it seems to implicitly confirm that there is, thank god, SOME kind of intimacy coordinator on set that the cast are talking about these scenes with. I actually also think the level of trust and comfort between Aqua and Frill this implies is also really interesting…? In general, I've always really like the idea of AQFR friendship, so this is kind of making me daydream a bit about seeing more of one…

As for the ending… man, it's such transparent reaction bait that I can't really summon the energy to get annoyed LOL. At least we won't have to wait a whole extra week to see what it amounts to.

Weary as I am with the reaction bait cliffhangers, I am at least glad to see the story coming around to finally addressing the elephant in the room here. As the chapter end text points out in the Japanese versions of this chapter, a scene like this was an inevitability of playing Ai and Hikaru and it's been where I've expected to see the underlying tension that's been floating around AQRB's relationship since the past life reveal finally get drawn out and addressed. Given its placement in the story (ch 142 is only the second chapter of its corresponding volume) and the framing of that last page as more of a gag/punchline than a serious dramatic beat, I don't things are quite going to play out like Ruby seems to want, but I'm nevertheless curious as to wtf is even going to happen

Honestly, at this point, I kind of just want Akasaka to shit or get off the pot. If he's going to bring a topic like incest to the table, then I want him to actually have something to say about it that isn't just Ruby going 'kyaa oniichan' and acting like a fanservice imouto character from a harem anime. If we're going to have something like 'Ruby falls in love with her brother' actually happen in story, then I want to see how she feels about this, how she rationalizes it, how she expects this to play out when she and Aqua live in a society that by and large condemns incest and treats it as taboo. At the very least, give me something to dig into and examine and chew on that wouldn't have already felt dated during the mid 2010s little sister boom.

#oshi no ko #oshi no posting #chapter reviews #onk spoilers #csa mention

63 notes · View notes

the-next-miss-american-trash · 2 months ago

Text

Okay I've had some initial thoughts about Oshi No Ko's manga ending that I wanna babble about really quick. There's not really any backing evidence and stuff, just off the top of my head thoughts. Maybe I'll go back to this after some evaluation of other's opinions and rereading the series, but for now

Spoilers for Oshi No Ko. Tw for suicide talk

I feel like the way Aqua's death was handled actually so accurate and real. It was messy, and unfair, shortsighted and selfish, and full of regrets. Very akin to real life and real attempts. I've given a ton of thought to the process of suicide, and I'm basing some connections to things I've previously thought of in the past, but i think it's very accurate and in character for Aqua's character to take the path he did. That's not to say it's justified as a character choice, but it's handled brilliantly because since the beginning, maybe even before his life as Aqua, he held a deep seeded belief that he does not belong. Not where he was in life as Gorou, and definitely not as a reincarnation. We were shown his immense guilt in not being able to save Ai with his prior doctor knowledge, telling himself that it should have been him in her place instead. He never truly got past the trauma of his mothers' deaths (plural), and as Aqua, had to lie so that Ruby wouldn't have to be held back by him. We see hints that he believes himself a burden, pushes help away, does not believe in his potential and therefore does not believe in his future. Aqua is a through and through depressed and suicidal character.

Even though he's depressed and suicidal, we see in his final moments how much he regrets. And I don't know what other people have thought about when reaching that low point in their lives, but I know myself that I too recognize how much there's still left to do. Even at our lowest, we have hopes and dreams and things we'd want to have happened. But it feels so unattainable, that it's better to leave them as regrets. That's the tragic part of suicide. There's no proper closure in taking one's own life, and that's why it hurts and it's messy and unfair to an outside view. I don't really see that in media much when a character takes their own life. (Tangentially, Life is Strange comes to mind, where the tragedy of Kate?'s suicide has lost its meaning because there's guides to save her. It's devastating because if you go in without knowing and she jumps, the consequence feels very real. But with the guides, we can guarantee her safety and la dee da all's well that ends well. We don't often get that irl). That being said, had Aqua trusted someone with his plans, he most definitely would have been saved/ stopped. He intentionally lies to the others to put them at ease of mind, so that he could take out his true revenge and die with it, so no one could be entangled any further with the consequences. Shortsighted and dumb, but he's doing what he thinks is the best path.

That's why I think his end is tragically perfect.

However, I can recognize how out of place this ending is for the rest of the story.

Like when Akane attempted, Aqua was there to save the day. That shows that he as a character knew that she must've already been at the point of ending it all, to then go out to find and save her. But he doesn't apply that logic to himself (which, like real life, people don't exactly take their own advice). If the story wanted to be in line with the same type of tragedy as the ending, we wouldn't have Akane. We shouldn't have her. Her story was based on real life events and people, and devastatingly enough we lose people like that all the time without a hint of a savior type character. In saving her character's life, we rightfully hold the expectation that the story wants to show hope and the value of life.

We also don't get a proper set up for the story to turn back to the dark tragedy. We lose that omnipresent pov that lets the audience know what Aqua is thinking and planning.

Actually, I think what happened was that we went from an omnipresent pov on Aqua's thoughts, to an omnipresent pov of Ruby's thoughts. We get to see her struggle through the making of the 15 Year Lie. We believe both twins to accept "forgiving" their father, taking their revenge by tormenting him with the fact that Ai loved him, and he killed her because he thought wrong. There's all these hopeful tones that everything will be okay, to then be blindsided by Aqua's death like his character meant to do to the characters.

And I think that's where the storytelling went wrong, because we immediately hop into Akane's pov for the telling of what happened afterwards. It would be better to have been told it from Ruby's perspective. We didn't get the importance of her being a light for everyone else. Her being able to stand back up was a huge miss at the end. We didn't get a proper and complete transition to Ruby's story from Aqua's.

Hell, Aqua's suicide then would hit more tragically if we had been properly settled in Ruby's perspective in the aftermath. The scene of Aqua confronting their dad, and then his dying thoughts is so gut wrenchingly good, but the pieces and all don't fit quite properly in line.

Losing my train of thought now, but basically Aqua's end and the rest of the story didn't mesh well, but separately, they're really good.

#oshi no ko #oshi no ko spoilers #tw suicide

9 notes · View notes

tenebriskukris · 5 months ago

Text

Oshi No Ko Chapter 160 - My Thoughts/Analysis

This was simultaneously a very satisfying and unsatisfying chapter at the same time. I feel like that’s a large issue with the series at large, in fact. High highs and low lows. As always, spoilers for Oshi No Ko Ch160 below.

We’re back with Hikaru and Aqua’s conversation—and a small flashback to Akane grilling Nino on her own relationship with Hikaru. Hikaru mentions that pushing someone off in this panel—then immediately backtracking to say he didn’t do any of that. Really bro? I’m not sure if Yura’s corpse has been found yet or if Nino spilled the information that Hikaru had a hand in her death there but I find that strange.

All he did was talk about Ai. He wouldn’t let us forget about her. He thought that was enough for us to break. It’s incredible how bad this makes Nino and Ryosuke look. The two of them weren’t contractually obligated to be around Hikaru for any period of time—and because of his manipulations the two of them got their hands dirty.

Perhaps I should be a bit more sympathetic to them considering that Hikaru already had a pension for manipulation even at a young age and I’m well aware that cutting toxic friends out of your circle is a chore and a half but considering that Nino was still being manipulated by Hikaru and was an almost thirty year old woman when she was aware of that sort of manipulation from him in the first place—and don’t even get me started on the fact that she was working with him during the movie arc.

Hikaru asked Ryosuke to deliver a bouquet and then leaked Ai’s address? There is absolutely no way that could’ve backfired on him in the slightest. Please note the sarcasm there. If Ryosuke had been caught by the police instead of hanging himself and he spilled that info to them then Hikaru would be in some real deep trouble. Did he not think that would backfire at all??? There was absolutely no way for him to be sure that Ryosuke would hang himself or get caught by the police or that he or Nino wouldn’t be connected to Ai’s murder. It’s just—absolutely stupid. Ruins the suspension of disbelief.

I do have a small nitpick on this mess though. Aqua says that Hikaru tried to kill Ruby—using Nino as a proxy—but how is he sure about that exactly? Nino might have squealed everything she knows about Hikaru to Akane and that information was delivered to Aqua after the fact since Nino’s capture likely happens chronologically before this encounter but that bit is not communicated properly to the viewer in an easy to digest manner so it feels like we’re just taking Aqua at his word here. It’s such a small thing but honestly there’s bigger fish to fry with this chapter.

These few pages of Hikaru explaining himself are, to me, a load of shite. We’ve already been clued in to the fact that this man is a grade-A liar so I’m not sure how inclined I am to believe him here. I make it a point to never take what any character says at face value unless there’s sufficient reason to prove otherwise—but from both how Nino’s telling the story and the logical inconsistency that Hikaru gave Ryosuke, a stalker with an obsession for Ai, her address—well. There’s more than enough evidence to call bull on this entire spiel—and Aqua does that too.

Ah yes, Nino wanting to kill Ruby and Hikaru not doing anything to prevent it. That is also a bit of a red flag there. Hikaru definitely was aware of Nino wanting to kill Ruby—and he didn’t even report Nino to the police or contacted Aqua or anything. He just let it happen, and in doing so helped kill Ruby by inaction. It does nag at me slightly considering that Hikaru told Nino that they should turn themselves in to the police, but I’m not sure whether to brush that off as bad fucking writing, which would be par for the course with the manga, or more of Hikaru’s manipulations.

Actually now that I think about it, Hikaru calling Nino during that one scene a few chapters back is a massive error on Hikaru’s part. It’s an easily accessible link to the police to link Nino and Hikaru if Nino was ever taken in. If Nino suspected that Hikaru was manipulating Ryosuke and her into trying to kill Ai and or Ruby, and the only reason she didn’t go to the police herself to tell them that both of them were also responsible was that she herself would be implicated in that same murder, if she got caught by anyone after stabbing Ruby it would be game over with Hikaru. Nino could squeal that she had a hand in Ai’s death as well as Hikaru’s part in all of these murders—since they were working together somewhat—and then that’d be game over for Hikaru. The Japanese conviction rate of close to a hundred percent strikes again.

And then there’s the full page panel of Hikaru with black star eyes and grinning like a horror monster. Cute and all, but it’s all style with little substance. I’d prefer a well written antagonist rather than one with a brilliant design but falls flat. There’s a reason I don’t dabble in criticizing the art in the manga, and it’s not because I’m no artist—any concept can perform well as long as its foundations are steady. As much as I love some of the art in this manga, it’s extraneous in terms of the story at large. While, sure, the manga’s art is notable at times, no amount of pretty art can make a pile of shit stop smelling like a pile of shit.

You tortured the hearts of others on purpose and stoked the flames of madness of those who were weak. Considering that Nino had already been captured and also assuming that Akane had conveyed all of this to Aqua beforehand it’s not much of a wonder that Aqua is coming to these conclusions. Unfortunately the manga just fucking refuses to show us how Aqua came to this conclusion and instead tells it to us as though the readers were children.

The question of whether or not Nino is slandering Hikaru like this did cross my mind—but she really isn’t smart enough for something like that in my opinion—otherwise she would’ve found a way to dispose of Ruby without putting herself at risk or made sure that it actually was Ruby who she was trying to stab. Nino fully intended to go down with the ship when she attempted to stab Ruby in broad daylight like this. Not to mention my previous assessment that Hikaru stood by and let Nino try and kill Ruby in the first place still holds weight, so I don’t think what she’s saying is false—at least not without any other evidence.

I see, you’re the same. You have the same eyes as me. And that shot with both of them with black star eyes…Quite impressive ambience. I mentioned before about how I don’t criticize the art of the manga, but this is one of those moments where there’s plenty of style to highlight the substance of the panel. Well done.

Oh, we’re getting a bit of explanation about the eyes. I don’t have the exact interview on me at the moment but I recall the authors saying that the stars in people’s eyes just aren’t visible and are instead just a metaphor or something along those lines—point is, Hikaru and Aqua can’t see the black stars in each other’s eyes. But with his pension for manipulation I don’t think it’s a stretch for Hikaru to shoot in the dark in order to get under Aqua’s skin here.

Is Hikaru really going on this “we’re not so different” bit? That’s cool and all but usually the villain follows up on this by tempting the hero or trying to break them by talking but this just falls oh so very flat when you think about it for more than two seconds. What is the point that he’s trying to make here? That Aqua and him are the same? Okay, cool. But that’s not right at all. Everything Aqua’s done for revenge has been morally dubious at times as he’d been playing the industry game, but that’s egregious compared to, y’know, the actual literal murder that Hikaru has enabled through his manipulations. It’s not a competition.

It’s true that we’re ugly beings that manipulate people’s hearts, deceive them, and make us obey them for our own sake. That’s more than a bit of hatred towards yourself and Hikaru in your words there, Aqua. I’d even argue that that sort of shine is exactly what a performer needs to evoke emotions in their fans—it’s merely a matter of using that kind of pull responsibly.

Ruby is different. Even now, she’s singing of love. That’s certainly some bias that he has for her, gotta say. Ruby’s black star arc comes to mind as a time when Ruby was manipulating people to avenge Goro but saying that Ruby’s an exception is a bit of a stretch. Though—considering how much Aqua cares for Ruby I’m more than sure that his feelings are coloring his words right here—it’s very in character.

And another few panels detailing how Aqua sees the star eyes and about how these eyes are supposed to convey love…it’s interesting. I’m quite sure we already know for a fact that the eyes are supposed to represent talent or something of the sort from an official interview, but it’s nice to see that the star eyes are used here as a vehicle to display how Aqua views that kind of pull and influence in respects to all the Hoshinos. And that one panel of Ai holding baby Aqua and Ruby…damn. Never forget what we lost.

AQUA WITH DOUBLE STAR EYES??? AFTER HE TALKS ABOUT RUBY LIKE THAT??????? Welp, that’s game. GG WP.

Well that was certainly A Chapter. With some of the Aqua-Hikaru confrontation out of the way I think it’s time to rip out this chapter’s guts.

As a single chapter—I think this chapter did well enough to stand on its own merits. As a part of a greater whole? It misses the mark quite badly in terms of pacing. The aftermath of the Nino confrontation and just what exactly she said and the question of how that was relayed to Aqua are questions that aren’t really necessary for the manga to flow together coherently, but when the manga tries to answer them so opaquely and in the middle of the Aqua-Hikaru confrontation it messes with the atmosphere and the pacing of what should be the main event.

What’s annoying is that this is an issue that could be easily solved by restructuring the order of events. Just focus on the Nino aftermath and squeeze all the info out of her for a chapter and end it off with Akane telling Aqua all of this over the phone before meeting Hikaru. Simple, efficient, and it doesn’t break too much with the timeline.

One question that I still have to pose is why. Why the hell did Hikaru try to kill Ruby using Nino as a proxy? Obviously doing nothing is easier than doing something since he mainly kills through via proxy and if he didn’t do anything to stop Nino he knew she would make a move on Ruby, but the question of why is still hidden. While I’m now relatively confident that his prior reasons for killing Ai that he’d explained in his previous confrontations with Aqua are bullshit, that still leaves his reasoning for orchestrating their deaths unknown. Perhaps we’ll get a peek in his head before the end?

In regards to the Nino-Hikaru antagonist fake out—I’m still on the fence on it. I’d been meaning to give my own take on it as soon as this confrontation was dealt with, but I need to see how Hikaru is dealt with before I give my honest opinion on the matter, but I’m not liking what the authors are giving us so far.

Now then—the final panel. This is the nail in the coffin for everyone that isn’t Ruby for the Aquabowl. The last chapter showing that Aqua wasn’t even at Kana’s graduation concert for Kana herself is telling enough, but this final scene showing him with both star eyes about to kill his father for Ruby’s sake is—well. If it was Akane or Kana that Aqua mentioned in this scene then you’d be sure that it’d be a downright slam dunk confirmation towards who would be the winning girl by the fandom but because Ruby’s entire admission in the Aquabowl is controversial as all hell it’s less interpreted in the manner. Bit of a double standard there in my opinion, but I’m sure we’ll be getting more content for us Ruby fans to chomp on.

In any case, I suspect the manga will be wrapping up soon. With Aqua’s revenge against Hikaru almost certainly coming to pass within the next chapter or so I don’t expect there’s any other plot points that the manga will go out of its way to detail going forward. A quick look at the current chapters in each volume of the manga tells me that the end of this current volume is on the horizon. Perhaps one more volume and another ten-ish chapters to wrap everything up, but truthfully I wouldn’t be surprised if the manga ended with this volume. It wouldn’t be the first time this manga has neglected good writing to finish the story faster.

#oshi no ko #onk #onk analysis #oshi no ko analysis #onk spoilers #oshi no ko spoilers #onk 160 #oshi no ko 160

9 notes · View notes

lintheotaku · 7 months ago

Text

Anime Watch

Season: Summer 2024

Anime: [Oshi No Ko] Season 2 Plot: "Aqua's desire for revenge takes center stage as he navigates the dark underbelly of the entertainment world alongside his twin sister, Ruby. While Ruby follows in their slain mother's footsteps to become an idol, Aqua joins a famous theater troupe in hopes of uncovering clues to the identity of his father—the man who arranged their mother's untimely death, and the man who once starred in the same troupe Aqua hopes to infiltrate" Overall Thoughts: Where to Watch: Hidive Rate: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♡ ♡ [??/5]

Anime: Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian Plot: "Unable to be fully honest, Alisa is frequently harsh on Masachika and only expresses her affection in Russian. Unbeknownst to her, however, Masachika actually understands the language yet simply pretends otherwise for his own amusement." Overall Thoughts: Rate: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♡ ♡ [??/5]

Anime: Suicide Squad Isekai Plot: "Amanda Waller, the head of A.R.G.U.S., has assembled a group of notorious criminals for a mission: Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Peacemaker, Clayface, and King Shark. These DC Super-Villains are sent into an otherworldly realm that's connected to this world through a gate. It's a world of swords and magic where orcs rampage and dragons rule the skies—an "ISEKAI!"" Overall Thoughts: Where to Watch: Hulu Rate: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♡ ♡ [??/5]

Anime: No Longer Allowed In Another World Plot: "...Video games haven't even been invented yet when melancholic author, Osamu Dazai, gets yanked into another world in 1948. Really, all the fantastical adventure he keeps running into is just getting in the way of his poetic dream of finding the perfect place to die. But no matter how much he risks his hide, everything seems to keep turning out okay..." Overall Thoughts: Rate: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♡ ♡ [??/5]

Anime: My Deer Friend Nokotan Plot: "No one knows Torako used to be a delinquent. All of her classmates only know her as the perfect student. But everything changes when Nokotan, a transfer student with antlers, enters her life. Antlers aren't the only thing strange about Nokotan. Her deer nose can sniff out Torako's secret past! Whether it's at school or the zoo, chaos follows this doe-eyed girl's every step. Torako has so many questions! Is Nokotan a deer, a girl, or something in-between?" Overall Thoughts: (as amusing as this anime seems, I'm already sick and tired of the opening/meme looping in my head) Rate: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♡ ♡ [??/5]

Anime: Wistoria: Wand and Sword Plot: "Will Serfort dreams of keeping his promise to a childhood friend by becoming a Magia Vander, one of the mighty magicians who sit atop the Wizard's Tower. However, he is unable to cast even the simplest of spells, leaving him to fight dungeon monsters to earn credits at Regarden Magical Academy. As if that weren't enough, he finds himself putting his sword skills to the test against a bullying professor!" Overall Thoughts: Rate: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♡ ♡ [??/5]

Anime: Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells Plot: "Abruptly catapulted into a fantasy world, Mimori Touka and his classmates have been summoned by the world’s resident goddess to serve as heroes. Luckily, most of the students display amazing skills upon arrival—except for Mimori, whose abilities bottom out at a measly E-rank. With no further use for him, the goddess banishes Mimori to a dungeon from which no one has ever returned alive. Yet, as it turns out, Mimori’s skills aren’t so much worthless as they are abnormal. Abnormally powerful, even. If Mimori can only claw his way back to the surface, nothing will stand in his way from getting revenge." Overall Thoughts: Rate: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♡ ♡ [??/5]

Anime: The Strongest Magician in the Demon Lord's Army Was a Human Plot: ""Maou Army’s strongest magician" I'm called. Ike, a demon capable of capturing a fort alone. Clearing away enemies with immense magic, he is without a doubt a monster awed by friend and foe. However he has a secret he can’t tell other demons. "I, actually I'm human you know." Using modern knowledge to keep his secret, he became treated as a great commander and the driving force of the Maou's army." Overall Thoughts: Rate: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♡ ♡ [??/5]

Anime: The Ossan Newbie Adventurer, Trained to Death by the Most Powerful Party, Became Invincible Plot: "It is common knowledge that it is best to become an adventurer when you are as young as possible because the magical power that is the basis of an adventurer's strength will hardly grow if you don't train it while you are young. But this man, Rick Gladiator, who became an adventurer when he was over thirty years old, had the combat power of an S-rank adventurer, the highest rank in the world." Overall Thoughts: Rate: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♡ ♡ [??/5]

Anime: Why Does Nobody Remember Me in This World? Plot: "In a time when the great war between five rival races for supremacy on Earth ended with humanity's victory led by the hero Sid, the world suddenly gets "overwritten" right before the eyes of a boy named Kai. In this rewritten world, Kai witnesses humanity's defeat in the war as a result of Sid's absence—where dragons and demons now rule the land, and Kai himself has become a forgotten existence to all humans. However, after encountering the mysterious girl Rinne, Kai resolves to break free from this rewritten fate." Overall Thoughts: Rate: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♡ ♡ [??/5]

Anime: The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies Plot: "The story of Mira, who leads an evil organization trying to take over and destroy everything. Earth is under attack, but a magical girl named Byakuya Mimori stands up to Mira's group. As they face off, something unexpected happens—Mira falls in love with Mimori." Overall Thoughts: Rate: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♡ ♡ [??/5]

Anime: A Journey Through Another World: Raising Kids While Adventuring Plot: "A god was suddenly prostrating in front of Kayano Takumi. He was apparently killed by a mistake. Moreover, he can't be reborn again. However, according to god, he would be able to live in a different world, but he made a mistake again and transferred him into a dangerous forest… where he finds a pair of children and decides to take care of them." Overall Thoughts: Rate: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♡ ♡ [??/5]

Anime: Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start with Magical Tools Plot: "Dahlia is reborn into a world filled with magic. Raised by a master of magical toolmaking, she develops a passion for the craft and becomes engaged to her father's apprentice. Before her father can see her wed, however, he suddenly passes away. As if this weren't enough, on the day before their wedding, her fiancé announces that he's in love—but not with her!..." Overall Thoughts: Rate: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♡ ♡ [??/5]

Anime: Delico's Nursery Plot: "... A tale of noblesse oblige childcare struggles by vampire aristocrats. Will it be possible to balance the splendid Gothic world with the careless child-rearing that takes pride in?" Overall Thoughts: Rate: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♡ ♡ [??/5]

3 notes · View notes

tsukiyadori · 1 year ago

Text

Reading Log 2023.12-2024.01 - December-January

Previous: Reading (+Watching) Log 2023.09-11 - September to November

Reading languages: German, English, Japanese, not listing which was what

Titles are as I’ve read them either first or most and thus remember it for that title mostly

Not going to bother putting in the original titles of translated reads

Cursive titles have been completed

——————————————————————————

DECEMBER

Managed zero anime again...

Hovered before Jeweler Richard and bolted out from reading again for health reasons and upholding certain deadlines...

Novels:

The Old Man in the Corner

Light Novel:

86: Eighty-Six v12 Anime Supremacy v1 Bottom Tier Character Tomozaki v7-V8

Manga:

100-nengo ni Tenseishita Watashi ch14.1-2 A Couple of Cockoos V7 A Side Character's Love Story Ch15-25 After God Ch40-39 Ano Ko no Kodomo v1-v2ch8 Ano Natsu ga Houwa suru. ch13-14 BL Game no Shujinkou no Otouto de aru Koto ni Ki ga Tsukimashita ch18 Boku no Diamond Star ch14 Brutal Ch8.2-14 Buta no Liver wa Kanetsushiro ch32.1-2 Daijuukou to Unicornis no Otome ch12-13.2 Dein Verlangen gehört mir v2-4ch33 Dein böser Blick v1-2ch7 Delinquent Daddy & Tender Teacher v2 Der Duft der Apfelblüte v1-v2 Dienerin des verfluchten Kindes Ch39.1-46.1 Fall in the Night with You Ch46-45 Fuck Buddy Girl Crush ch58-59 Harebare Biyori ch22 Hari to Hitsuji no Fune bangaihen Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Meguri ch17.2-18.4 I don't want to work anymore Ch12-19.51 Inked: Unter deiner Haut Isekai de Ane ni Namae wo Ubawaremashita ch15 Kakan no Oukoku no Hanagirai Hime ch8.4-9.4 Kakegurui Ch104-105.2 Kemono to Waltz ch19 Killer in Love Ch31-39 Knitter's High bangaihen1-2 Koisuru (Otome) no Tsukurikata ch75-76 Kono Koi wo Hoshi ni wa Negawanai ch10 Loop 7-kaime no Akuyaku Reijou wa ch28 Love you till you die v1-5ch24 Mehr als Tausend Worte Meine Wiedergeburt als Schleim in einer anderen Welt V12 Midnight Secret Sex Minikui Yuukaku no Ko ch1-13 Miryou no Otome to Katabutsu Hittou Majutsushi no Hatsukoi Kiroku ch3.1-16.3 Okazari Ouhi ni Nattanode ch22.3-23.2 Oshi no Ko ch133-135 Phantom Seer V4 Requiem of the Rose King V9.half Sakura Saku v1 Scroll of the White Silk Cloud ch24-58 Shangri-La Frontier v1-v3ch25 She is also cute today Ch48-51 Shinde Miro to Iwareta no de Shinimashita. ch6-8 Shuumatsu Touring ch33-34.2 Sonna Kazoku nara Sutechaeba? ch59preview, ch60-63 Sweet & Tart Boyfriend Ch6-9 Taberare Usa ch80-83 Tales of Reincarnation in Maydare: This World's Worst Witch Ch1-2.2 Taste of Desire The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten Ch1-11.3 The Mermaid Wears a Dress Ch26-37 The Saint's Magic Power is Omipotent bangaihen5, ch38.1-2 To be Winner Ch49.1-71 To the Abadoned Sacred Beasts v10ch52 Together Forever Ch17-28 Und jeden Tag liebe ich dich mehr Unnamed Memory ch33 Watashi wo Tabetai kaimaku1-2 Yomei Ichinen to Senkokusareta Boku ga ch9.1-2 Yuna aus dem Reich Ryukyu V7-8

Webtoons:

A Royal Princess with Black Hair Ch50-59 AoT no Requiem ch1-3 Beauty as the Beast Ch16-35 Breed my Dear Enemy Ch44-76 Can the Grand Duke and the Marquis be Friends? Ch1-12 Corridor of Mirs Ch20-55 Marry my Enemy Ch1-7 Spirit of Peach Blossom Ch28-47 The Giantess wants Love Ch61-72

Notes:

86: Eighty-Six 12: It feels a bit like a sort of extra quest, but it weaves itself very nicely into the world building.

Anime Supremacy: 2/3 in, I'm already liking it ten times more than I ever did Shirobako. There is less pathos, more just passion and sincerity. .... And a strange view that not even takes the working conditions cynically, but rather as a matter of a fact.

Bottom Tier Character Tomozaki: V7 has been an excellent read. At beginning, I was once more crying hell, that I did not want to see a Tomozaki-Aoi ship sailing as an endgame, because really Aoi is everything anti-cheese there is so far. But everything is littered up for this to happen, but if it manages to either make a twist with that or make it organically happen, I suppose that'll be fine, too. Anyway, as for this book's main plot, it was quite beautiful with all its allegories that transported across all the characters. What I found most mesmerizing was how this certain mid-term ship sailed. I say mid-term, because I can't really see it as anything else. Fuka even says as much, while both the female characters in the play loved the guy, he was the only one the one who wins her love in the play, which was Hinami not herself. Tomozaki breaks that, but he's also bringing up how they started at opposite ends and are now meeting halfway. They are definitely a good match, they vibed from the start, but somehow there is also a sort of time-limited beauty to it, and it's not entirely normatively (and me tooth-crunchingly thinking Aoi so much looks like the set-up endgame). It's like they will live their lives and in the future will diverge again, simply because their lives will move away from each other. But just now it matches, and it doesn't make the time any less precious, and certainly it will be a valuable experience to build on for anything that comes after and a treasure memory to look back into. This somehow reminds me a lot of the charm the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button postulates with the "meeting in the middle of their lives" notion, but didn't really pull off even half as beautifully for me. But the other motifs are very high up there, too. The allegory of firelings and the outlook of 'finding your own', the internet as one chance for that and just this whole pointing to a sense of 'the world is vast, much bigger than this one little place (school)' is quite a nice and healthy one. Actually, the biggest plot contrivance may not that Tomozaki gets to have an Aoi in his life. It's everyone else getting to have an improved Tomozaki in their life. If Aoi is a sort of catalyst trigger, Tomozaki is in many ways a sort of enabler. Characters like these are rather exceedingly rare in both fiction and reality, imo.

A Royal Princess with Black Hair - I caught up ._. But the titular princess is a kinda cool. The hazardous-sort of cool and the two definitely have a nice chemestry of bantering. (Also Tsundere-in-denials features.)

After God - The plot is a bit… ok, I guess, and the characters bar maybe one across the board awful (even the bunny-moonface one), but then after some 40+ pages some strings come together and they make a few of the characters into far more complex creatures. There is also the whole absurdity of things (gummy bears, really?). The art has always been the thing that drew in with its mixture of macabre, morbid contrasted with and just really astonishing amounts of details. The chapters in Vollof's moon castle however, definitely had art that was positive stunning to look at. The sheer amount of surrealism, from classic paintings and contemporary things of civilization or nature, even just mundane little things just mixed in like that, it's pretty great….. It's just kinda missing actually interesting characters for me. But at least the plot finally started to have a real air of mystique about it that made me want to read more. And then that is when it's caught up on the latest chapters on Comikey. The Irony.

Ano Ko no Kodomo - Very educative and treats the emotions pretty sensibly. Although of course also obviously very Japanese, so now I kinda know more about getting a child in Japan than I do elsewhere...

Delinquent Daddy & Tender Teacher v2 - So v2 is actually a spin off bonus, while being a sequel in the timeline and I think you can really see that fanservice-y air about it. It doesn't have too much of a plot, the spice levels have gone up and otherwise it's mostly compf and cute. Looks like from the next volume on it was greenlit to be an ongoing series, so probably may get more cohesive after that. The series quite stands out for having an ongoing relationship as a couple after coming together (and a child at that), which is very rare. Other than that "gentle" is probably what fits its air best.

Dienerin des verfluchten Kindes Ch39.1-46.1 - How to read v1-6 in German print vols, go up to the penultimate chapter on comikey and going "oh I'll just skip to the last volume", you get the latest of those German print volumes and that one (v8) turns out to be the penultimate one, too. The stupidity… Anyway. Kinda nice drawings, but just so, so, so much pathos. Anyway, think i'll just consider it closed now even with half a chapter missing.

Girl Crush ch58-59 - Aftermath of the last climax in a new little climax, and it's just so good.

Isekai de Ane ni Namae wo Ubawaremashita ch15 - yes of course. OF COURSE. Oh, but that twist is for the better, because now we're not in a problem of a triangle after all. Also, somebody license this already. :<

Killer in Love - Finished. Uh. Well. Erm. Last time I thought it was kinda like Azure and Claude that author (Sugaru)'s style of they are gonna be doomed, totally gonna be doomed, just in edgy. But Sugaru's style has a penchant is more like 'everything is gloom, but we desperately try to hold onto something to keep going, and maybe in the eyes of the world we failed, but we've found at least a little measure of happiness for ourselves'. So it's like very predictable gloom, but with a silver lining. This one is just them failing, and they had absolutely nothing. The end doesn't really leave much open, but I prefer to guess it was axed or some such. The message it tries to phone otherwise is kinda hard to swallow otherwise.

Koisuru (Otome) no Tsukurikata ch75-76 - We have moved on from the sorta Aishiteru Game-arc to a competition arc? And next it's school theater arc? It sure moved on quick, but it does so quite neatly without any of these bits getting too long and old.

Oshi no Ko ch133-135 Arimaaaaaaaaaaaa

Shangri-La Frontier v1-v3 - I think the gaming aspect actually works against its adventuring aspect for me. Now ok, fine, it's cool, that it's not yet another Isekai'ed-into-game plot, but also, with it just being a game the stakes also are… just a game. There are no real stakes in there beyond a sense of pride in what they themselves call "bizarre taste" and a stubbornness of conquest. If that was an actual fantasy world defeating the monsters would be meaningful for the safety of the residents in it, but with the gaming aspect it's literally just a game. And as somebody who doesn't game at all, it kinda stopped being interesting. Despite an actual bunny MC there…

Shinde Miro to Iwareta no de Shinimashita - Good heavens, it took its sweet time with the explanation arc and finally turning the asshole romance interest into not so assy-just-misguided poor fellow.

Taberare Usa - I do not know what this is anymore, but it still has buns. Some at least, right now.

(break because of tumblr complaining about max character limits per block)

The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten Ch1-11.3 - Oh my gosh, oh my gosh!!! This is fluff paradise. At least for now. The series clearly is romance, and it's gonna go there, but the way it is right now in the beginning, that doesn't really have exactly something to do with just romance. They are drawn to each other, but it's expressly not because of the romance factor, they are attraction factors all over the place from every other realm and while there are romance sparks there, it's almost never just romantic/sexual attraction at play alone (and much less is it the driving factor). And even those, they are still very far and in between, but everyone else is already going grinny-grinny that they surely are dating. This is such a mood and if we remove a few of the more spefici sparks, it's almost a bit like my teenage dream incarnate, as in this is how I assumed a friendship looked like, if it was one that has any right to call itself an actual friendship. (Yes, my idea of that concept was a bit nuts at the time…) Now I am wanting both more, while I half dread that once it moves on to be just any classic romance and it is gonna move on for sure, but this is already perfect endgame mood for me. T_T

Original ramblings for the record: The two kinda vibe quite nicely, it didn't start with the sparks and feels, but really just how they complement each their needs. She in terms of all the practical things of cooking, cleaning and he at being introvert-style observant and emphatically being able to guess her needs without having to even think about it. All framed into how it expressly defies gender stereotypes (he doesn't expect much less asks for her cooking and she does it because she likes cooking and enjoys trying some out and serving it to someone happily chomping it down who is neither a glutton that is happy about anything or unable to do a culinary evaluation as to how things taste good) and just at its core it's about a safe space of just being free to be. There's already titbits of the bog standard cheese, but all those blushes of surges of happiness also overlap with something else at the same time, just simple embarrassment over unusual situations (she stumbling) or suddenly close distance (the back carrying), which just doesn't entirely scream cheese for the sake of narrative, but just also being unused to it, because they're introverts. His letting his chopsticks fall at her being happy after seeing him so happy about her food may be a breathtaking thing, but it may also be simply being awed by the sheer prettiness of happiness itself. It also goes an extra mile at how to distinguish that not any other girl/guy would do - the other guys just swoon over her, and he's too overwhelmed by the too extrovert girls - while it's also not it has to be her/him because of crush. It's also just funny how the prospect of a girlfriend gives him headaches thinking about how to explain a certain neighbour angel's presence rather then to go for the most "obvious solution" of just making her his girlfriend herself. Which isn't rooted in just denseness, it's rooted in respect for her boundaries. (And she gives the same air for him, altho obviously if badly made this can turn into a misunderstanding trope.) Some which he often questions just to be sure they are on the same page. (And then there's some delish soft tsundere.) And it's just, neither are going in there with any romantic ambition whatsoever, it just organically develops. and slow burn as it it is and with overlaps to it's also some other thing, this also just reminds me extremely of what was originally my idea of just friendship. (Just remove some of those physiological blushes.) Now I do have an urge to bury my head in my hands, because the idea was so wildly extremely off, but just right now, at this slow burn that probably is (obviously has to be) cheese, this is perfectly an amount that is… fluff. But I surmise it won't stay that way, eventually it'll have to move or any other average reader will just get mad at no development. This atm however to me almost feels like near-perfect endgame vibes. It… doesn't need much of anything more.

Und jeden Tag liebe ich dich mehr (a.k.a. Everyday, Love Me More in English) - What I expected: Dumpster Cheese. What I got when I read some preview of chapter 1 or parts of it a long while ago: Cheese train departing at full speed ahead What it was:

still cheese, but the cheese is, while entirely predictable, actually also surprisingly buyable.

MC has a friend who is touchy-intimate, and it's just a friendship like that with absolute no airs about it

has a fairly weird misunderstanding trope, but they were children nicely placed back into the plot to denote a change development manages to have some comedic situation comedy even in serious moments

the climax/penultimate chapter already feels like what would have been the ending of any other bog standard BL volume. (I totally was expecting the cursed spice extra chapter for checking of the genre checklist.)

turns out after that there is an actual last chapter, with a time skip, which is a a whole arc in at out itself, in any other bog standard volume this would have been an entire sequel volume. has some pretty sensible and mature approach to getting the spice woven into the actual relationship. (Just the mentions of of course you'd want to do such things can die already, at least as a justification of having such desires at all.)

there even is even an cursed extra chapter of spice, with yet some more time skip, which is to say, the reader gets to see them at three stages of their ongoing relationship (plus their childhood precursor one) IN ONE VOLUME. huh. How did this manage to be so compact. There's even plenty of side elements. Some homo jokes getting trashed in a badass-hilarious way, morphing from some childhood scar healing nostalgia to something else, some family drama, entrance exams, slight doubts about one's orientation or how to categorize it, but also it never becoming a focal point or identify crisis drama. Also nice, it has a whole self expression-honesty drama subplot but nothing about it has anything to do with the queer aspect of it all. Just why does this have to have such a damnable cover (that really only makes sense after reading and then is still just… not very eye-caching) and cheese ass title.

——————————————————————————

JANUARY

Managed zero anime again... Bar some zapping

Jeweler Richard v6 came out in English, I went to some favorite places and the translation of those places is a little bit errrr? And then it got stalled (next to having to put it aside for deadlines and I'm still not reading v13 for health reasons, despite the deadline now over...)

Anime:

Sailor Moon Cosmos (quick tapping and watching 1/3-half)

Light Novels:

Anime Supremacy v1 Bottom Tier Character Tomozaki V8, v8.5, v9

Manga:

100-nengo ni Tenseishita Watashi, Zense no Juukishi ni Kyuukonsaremashita: Heika wa Watashi ga Moto Oujo da to Okizukidenai you desu ch14.3-4 A Side Character's Love Story Ch26-35.1 After God Ch51-52 Blank Canvas v3-5 Boruto: Two Blue Vortex ch4-5 Bottom Tier Character Tomozaki Manga Ch1-7 Dance Dance Danseur v1-2 Girl Crush Ch61, ch79 Isekai de Ane ni Namae wo Ubawaremashita ch16-17.1 Kakegurui Ch105.5 Koisuru (Otome) no Tsukurikata ch78 Liebe in Zeiten der Taisho-Ära v2 Loop 7-kaime no Akuyaku Reijou wa, Moto Tekikoku de Jiyuu Kimama na Hanayome Seikatsu wo Mankitsusuru ch29 Love you till you die ch34 Mine est Asexuel v1 Miryou no Otome to Katabutsu Hittou Majutsushi no Hatsukoi Kiroku ch16.4-17.4 Mr. Mallow Blue ch28 My Summer of You v3 My Ultramarine Sky v1 Noragami ch109 Okazari Ouhi ni Nattanode, Kossori Hataraki ni deru koto ni Shimashita ~Usagi ga Iru node Hitorine mo Sabishiku Arimasen!~ ch23.2-24.1 Oshi no Ko ch136-138 Parasyte v7-8 Queen's Quality v18ch81 Reincarnated as the Daughter of the Legendary Hero and the Queen of Spirits Ch1-19.3 Sakura Saku v2 Sweet & Tart Boyfriend Ch10-30 Taberare Usa ch84-88 The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten Ch11-13.2 The Giantess wants Love Ch73-97 The Ice Guy and the Cool Girl Ch1-11 The Moon On a Rainy Night ch1 The Witch and the Beast v2-3 Together Forever Ch29-36.1 Und jeden Tag liebe ich dich mehr v1

Webtoons:

Breed my Dear Enemy Ch76-91 Fall in the Night with You Ch65-68 Ice Lamp: The Chronicles of Kira Ch1-7 To be Winner Ch72-76 Westwood Vibrato v4

Notes:

Sailor Moon Cosmos - Galaxia is bdass cool to look at, and Cosmos is also cool and just like most of everyone is darn cool, but as a fairly faithful adaption (that actually looks good) it just has the same issues as the manga as in, it's very, very Usagi-centric and everyone else is downgraded to almost just being cameos (although that moment with Rei and Minako still rocks). There's minimally more Galaxia flesh outs in her flashback, and it's a welcome addition to imply, she originally probably had died, that's how ultimately she wasn't so different to all her underlings who were at the mercy of needing the bracelets to survice. And so she gets killed the moment she's purified. Misguided, probably manupulated and cruel as she is, I still think she is a really great villain. She comes from a place of despair seeking nothing more than a home, but nowhere in the whole universe can she find it, so she sets out to just create it. But also knows how powerless she actually is, despite the vast amounts of it she does have in comparison in face of a true enemy. So then you have somebody who really just wants a glimmer of actual hope struggling hard (and in a few wrong ways), but also while at it, uses not just vast overwhelming powers but also psychological tactics. The old anime always had her sit on her throne, while the underlings did their monster of the week, but this incarnation, she's on the frontline right from the beginning. And she doesn't reply on those underlings, they are just an optional nice to have extra she doesn't care about and remains true to them. They fail and they don't deserve anything but disgust. Also she she is just so darn badass, like whoever other villain literally walks up in her (technically) negligle dress to the battlefield and then she just rocks the place so hard. ..... Sailor Moon the manga is flawed in so many ways, but like, how come we've never seen any other so badass female characters that transcend frills of justice, since? And I'm not even asking for an assembly like this franchise has but like just one would be could that comes even close the the epitome of elegant badassness. (The closest is probably dark Homura in Madoka Magica Rebellion and upcoming Walpurgis Night.)

Bottom Tier Character Tomozaki V8 - If v7 was beautiful, this was more of a low point for me. But also has probably the nicest Tomozaki-Hinami moment in there. It's back to focusing on games, which I accept is part of this serie's DNA and not neglecting it is fine, but it's just also the least interesting bit of it. Rena otherwise can go screw herself. As for Fuka and Tomozaki I'm kind of surprised just how quick it moves on to start having things fall apart again. But yeah, it's distastefully teenage-romance-waffling, that just doesn't do anything for me....

Bottom Tier Character Tomozaki Manga - i was a bit turned off about the artwork, turns out the insides look better than the key illustrations in color. I think it is worth mentioning how much effort it tries to make it visually entertaining for a series that is just really lots and lots more of talking. It just sometimes feels like it's overdoing it a bit...

Dance Dance Danseur - This is a very good series. But also like every single ingredient in there is one that impulsively makes me want to run. Ouf.

Girl Crush - I found out there's some other place than geolocked line where the JP chapters show up, so can read those now. It's gooood. But chapters are always so short. ;_;

Mine est Asexuel - I bought this in Japanese a good while ago and then dragged my feet around reading it forever. Which is funny, because I have read reviews etc about it, so I perfectly knew what it was about and how it ended and it's basically the manifestation of one of my worst nightwares. (That IRL I never allowed to happen at least.) Now the JP doujin book kinda just went MIA in my piles and Irodori's French translation was on sale, so, duh, let's just get over it. And like. It's just really really exactly that: A personal nightmare.

Original Ramblings for the record: He starts with suggesting, that she may be better off with somebody else, but at the same time she is kinda deperate, so if yourefuse you are causing heartbreak. If you don't you know fully well that she'd surely have certain expectations that you aren't going to be able to fullfill like that. He then proceed to explain what he is like, what consequences that is to inform her of what she'd be getting into. She says she gets it, but she actually doesn't (like hell that scene where she worries about her underwear....) although she respects it. Which is already very grand, but ultimately just inevitably raises false hopes. But as she says to her friend which he accidentially eavesdrop (which he probably didn't even need to, you'd pick that up anyway), it is to her just so very lonely. And there's nothing he can do to alleviate that. Like even if he engaged in all those acts, it would come from a different place of motivation, which isn't what she wants, as long as she knows it and if she didn't he'd be lying which is also nothing he'd like. And they got along with everything else, it mostly failed on this one bit, but it was crucial. It's a try as you may do, it was bound to go wrong and there was no way to prevent that beyond not letting himself into a relationship to begin with, but that still would mean causing heartbreak and on top it's not like he's not liking her either - the JP title says nonsexual, so for a change this meaning asexual actually a correct translation and he's ace not aro - so no matter what he would have done, it would have always being a pain.

"I don't think I can give you a day as you wish for". That whole admission of hoping for something that just was impossible and also why?. Nobody's fault but tragic all the same. Those are the worst cases, because there is nothing you can do to fix it. And yeah that whole thing about her condition to breaking up. While she thinks hell refuse and she'd still get stay at his side. And the whole air about that. How that that even sound to him? It's just looks like from all the things to connect one another to her this was the most paramount important thing, something he can't and everything else she shared (which was a good amount), has the weight of less than smoke. And to her it's just like how serious he really was all along with what he said and probably that is the first time it actually sunk into her what this even means. That he'd be so desperate to get out of her expectations that he'd do what he hates so much just once. And also the final line, this experience lingers, and while it isn't exactly a trauma given how they moved on and apparently found what they needed and not all of it was bad, but at least to her it's established that it has left a mark on her heart forever. Over something like that. This is not a way I want to be remembered at all. (Especially not, as I probably am anyway over some other traits of mine already.) And well, some other to-be-expected comments, like what that friend of her says or the author depicts in the afterword. All a can of worms.

Which is to say

The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten GIVE ME MORE FLUFF. This manga runs at a snail's pace. I wanna more like it, in this exactly bracket why this is fluff perfection, but I just can't find any. ;_; Just one chapter a month is cruel, but I am suckering up like nothing. I mean. Just look at this FLUUUUUUUFFFFF!!!!

My Summer of You - I had to chuckle how there was a scene, that's basically the same as in I hear the Sunspot Limit v1, except here they go for it whereas Sunspot went "it's not wrestling", lol. I still marvel at how the character templates look so incredibly similar in both series. Overall I think Sunpot has more to offer, but that includes a lot of thorns that make it into a heavy read at places. This one's more softer in that regard.

My Ultramarine Sky - Good heavens, this is I became an Omega today levels of there would be absolutely no plot, if they actually talked. Except it coems around to have a very grounded, buyable and sensible depiction of why now that is anchored in teenage confusion x internalised homophobia. As in the internalised taboo sort, rather than actual external pressures happening. Those friends of them they actually see like pretty good, supportive guys, and the whole BL joke makes for a nice contrast that not everything is active oppression. It's also jokes like these that may hurt that have no malicious intent behind it at all. They just don't know and nobody's told them. Original ramblings for the record: It's like The Two Lions, but each with way less personality and character, absolutely no side plots and the characters aged down. In terms of cheese it's kinda structured almost the same way, except that since it has really nothing else going on there's a lot of sentimental cheese waffling filling in. While a case could be made that it's just teenage confusion and anguish and just lotsa cheese angst, to me that just felt super like Today I became an Omega since you already know the obligatory ending anyway so is rather patience wrecking. In terms of actual cheese dosing it's not all that heavy tho so no cheese deaths happened It attempts some allegories with the ultramarine sky, but I think that one failed pretty much. It shows up fairly at the end, suddenly out of nowhere (or if it was there previously, it was so irrelevant it dried up from memory immediately.) There's some more attempts at allegories with shogi, but I think that didn't work out all that great either, as the shogi never is never really firmly part of the setting (more like a btw. happenstance) and much less does it establish what shogi lingo there is, so that last page so feels kinda errrrrr. …. sounds probably more negative than it should be… Think that bit about "It's not funny at all" was well hit, and the whole air of internalised or passive homophobia despite no active external pressure feels well grounded and kinda also comtemporary with the BL tropes jokes. And the cheese waffling is probably decent, if you have anything to resonate with it, but as we previously already established, puberty probably just flew over my head at the time together with the cheese instincts. Feel like it does hide a lot behind that confusing age era thingy. Conversely it just reminded me of the Lions even more by contrast, because that one didn't have any of that ready as an excuse and didn't even allow it and like it entirely doesn't help that this pair and that pair look rather very similar, both in visual setup and character (minus Leo's angry face, outspokenness and fighting skills). But well, I guess, it is an earlier work, so probably a sorta prototype Think also at this point the following Nagisa Furuya Bingo can be made: Blond hair vs. dark haired, bad with booze, drunk mumblings, one has a few self-control dilemmas, one of them has a need to run away, the other one comes chasing, talking is important!!!! but they have to learn that the hard way-patience wreck, low cheese calories, innocent Zzzs, sleeve/hem tugs, wrist grabs My summer of you also still feels a whole lotsa lot like a I hear the Sunpot, but without the disability plot and Taichi having a need to be obnoxiously loud (which he has in that plot, because that's why Kouhei always hears him) and extra denseness (where one may or may argue ace-vibes) to combat Kouhei's everlasting gloom-tendency. A deal more toothless, but also a deal more even in exchange.

2 notes · View notes

lolo-l0ved · 9 months ago

Text

Sources

Bold fave, italicised selective, strike closed/not doing atm || Please ask for outside sources. Books are not included because that’s way to many lol and this post is already really long.

Movies || Back to the Future franchise, Dead Poet Society, Donnie Darko, Fear Street Trilogy, Five Nights At Freddys, Harry Potter franchise, Indiana Jones franchise, Now You See Me 1&2, Scott Pilgrim Vs the World, Sin City 1&2, Swiss Army Man, Train To Busan, Wes Anderson Films (No spoilers for some !) (this list could go in forever, so please just ask)

Manga || Ajin: Demi Human, Alice in Borderland, Beastars, Chainsaw Man, Dorohedoro, Junji Ito Works, Komi Can’t Communicate, Toilet Bound Hanako Kun, Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead

Older Cartoons || Adventure Time, Carmen Sandiego, Ducktales 2017, Gravity Falls, Helluva Boss, Inside Job, Jurrasic World Camp Cretaceous, Scooby Doo (all Movies + Shows), Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, Strange Hill High, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Any series), The Amazing Digital Circus, The Cuphead Show, The Looney Tunes show (Any series), Tom & Jerry (all Movies + Shows), Total Drama (S1/S2/S3/S4/Reboot)

Younger Cartoons || ABC Me/3 cartoons (ask beforehand just in case !), Bluey, Ben & Holly's Little Kingdom, Bubble Guppies, Charlie & Lola, Disney shorts/shows, Disney Junior cartoons (ask beforehand just in case !), In the Night Garden, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, NickToons cartoons (ask beforehand just in case !), Little Einsteins, Octonauts, Team Umizoomi

Games || Ace Attorney, Cuphead, Danganronpa (all games + ask about fangans), Doki Doki Literature Club, Five Nights At Freddys (all games), Fran Bow, Kindergarten 1&2, Little Misfortune, Sally Face (all chapters), Telltale: The Walking Dead (S1/S2/S3)

Animes || Ajin: Demi Human, Beastars, BNA, Bungo Stray Dogs (I’ve only seen, maybe 2 seasons, so please no spoilers), Demon Slayer s1, Dorohedoro, Great Pretender, Kakegururi, Mob Psycho 100, Mr Osomatsu, Number 24, Oddtaxi, Oshi No Ko, Paranoia Agent, Summer Wars, The Disastrous Life of Saiki K, Toilet Bound Hanako Kun, Undead Unluck, Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead

Animated Movies || Big Hero Six, Coraline (+ most stop motion movies/shorts), Disney Movies (asked beforehand just in case !), Inside Out, ParaNorman, Pixar Movies (asked beforehand just in case !), Scooby Doo (all), Spider-Man into the Spider Verse, Spider-Man Across the Spider Verse, Spirited Away, Turning Red, Wish Dragon, Wreck It Ralph

Tv Shows || Alice In Borderland, Bones, Brooklyn Nine Nine, BBC Ghosts, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, Dollhouse, Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared, From, Gen V, I am Not Okay with This, The IT Crowd, Midnight Mass, Misfits, Mythic Quest, Sweet Home, Stranger Things, Sitcoms in general, The Boys, The Haunting of Bly Manor, The Haunting of Hill House, The Inbetweeners, The Unlisted (Netflix), Umbrella Academy, WandaVision, Wednesday, Yellowjackets

Misc/Youtube/Webcomics || Batman: Wayne Family Adventures, Clinic of Horrors, The Crafting Dead, DC stuff, Jackson’s Dairy, Marble Hornets, Markiplier Characters/Series, MCYT & Minecraft series (Dream SMP is selective & less likely done), Minecraft Empire’s, Musicals, Salad Fingers, Sanrio, School Bus Graveyard, Starkid Musicals, Woodlands National Park, VIVINOS content (ie Pink Bitch Club & others)

#↳important

0 notes

starlight-time-machine · 1 year ago

Text

Week in Review

01/28/2024 – 02/03/2024

Sunday

Manga Sunday yayyyy Girl Meets Rock is getting interesting, I was totally expecting the guy from the guitar shop to walk in, but it was Rin instead. Rin herself is pretty intriguing, as it seems like she’s keeping some cards close to her chest in regards to the band…

Undead Unluck is good as usual, it’s fun to see an older and more surly Top. Another sick mom to add to the tally, though. Maybe in this loop we’ll see more details about Top and Haruka’s potential romance.

Oshi no Ko fun, the deadpan humor really got to me.

Dandadan okay, I’m a little tired of the non-stop action sequences.

Magilumiere good, obviously there’d be some drawback to Midorikawa getting the chip implanted, but I’m sure they’ll find a way to circumvent it.

One Piece good.

CIPHER ACADEMYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY GODDDDDD IF THIS IS THE END I’LL BE SO SADDDDDDDD I really hope it’s not…I’m holding onto Nisioisin copium so so so hard… The chapter itself was also amazing, with a look at everyone’s true backstories, Kogoe laying out her philosophy but Iroha turning it on its head, THE HANDSHAKE SPREAD WHERE IT LOOKS LIKE IROHA HAS HIS HANDS AROUND THE WORLD, EVERYONE ELSE SHAKING HANDS BUT YOU DON’T KNOW HOW SINCERE THEY ARE, MORE YOSAIMURA/ANON, TAYUTAN… The timeskip is so scary…I can’t tell if it’s the beginning of something new and everything else has just been the prelude, or if it’s a hasty jump to land some sort of epilogue… I’ll keep holding out hope but please…

Live Roulette gave me Siegfeld Junior High’s 1st Live today, so I watched/listened to it as I read a book (more on that later). I’m impressed by how far they’ve come in such a short time, especially Mtzw, whose rendition of Rebellion here was a lot stronger than in the stage play months earlier. Hinapiyo is still the reigning vocalist, though, and I’m so glad they gave her Mimorin’s descant in Watashitachi wa Mou Butai no Ue. I wish they did the arm choreography in Onikurenai… Overall it was a fun show, they’re all so cute and energetic and I appreciate all the harmonies they’re doing.

As for the book I’m reading, it’s Ring of Fire by P. D. Baccalario. It’s the first book of a series that I really liked as a child, so I’m reading it again to see if it holds up. So far, I’ve been a little disappointed…the cutaways to the random adult characters pulling the strings and talking cryptically feel like such momentum killers, and the usual “kids exploring a city on an adventure and solving puzzles” thing isn’t really grabbing me here. I do love that one scene in the beginning, when the kids are first meeting and the lights go out…I can imagine the scene so perfectly in my mind – the silence of the snowy night, the nervous excitement of meeting new people and coming across a strange situation together…it’s all so thrilling, and it’s the one scene that stuck with me after all these years. I’ve just gotten to the part where the apartment building collapses, and it’s genuinely harrowing – I can’t believe they actually killed that guy (but I don’t like how it basically amounted to a fat joke). Finally, it feels like we have some actual stakes (halfway through the book cough). I’m also seeing the bits of Harvey/Elettra and Mistral/Sheng shipping going on, I think it’s cute and I’m curious to see how they develop. (Speaking of Sheng lmao c’mon man 好 doesn’t actually mean cool, it just means good, so it’s weird to have that be his catchphrase.)

Afterwards I finally watched Day 1 of Ijigen Fes, the IDOLM@STER x Love Live! concert, and it was okay. I’m probably biased, but literally none of the IM@S songs interested me except for Tulip, which I already knew that I liked. (Thank you for having Rikako sing Tulip…they did that for me…) The Love Live girls had a decent showing, but the highlight for me was definitely KALEIDOSCORE… Liyuu’s singing is just so amazing.

Monday

Day 2 of Ijigen Fes today, and oh my GODDDDDD SHU’S PERFORMANCE WAS SO GOOD just so much fun and energy, it was like watching Avril Lavigne for real… THE NEW VERSES FOR RYOURAN VICTORY ROAD WERE SO HYPE OH MY GOD AQOURS NO LEADER TAKAMI CHIKA!!!!!!!!!! OSHIMAI NANTE NAINAINAI!!!!!!!!!! It’s so surreal seeing the Cotton Candy Ei-Ei-Oh MV playing on the huge screen in Tokyo Dome… Also Snow Halation makes me cry literally every time I see those UO’s go up ahh

Afterwards the Live Roulette dealt me AZUNA’s unit live, and it was just okay. I’m not the biggest AZUNA fan anyway, but I do like some of their songs like Maze Town and Kakushiaji. Shizuku’s solos were both great as well, and the bit with the plushies was cute, but the most memorable thing about this concert would definitely have to be Tomoriru’s goodbye…it’s so unfortunate that things turned out the way that they did, but I’m glad she gave us some great performances as Setsuna before she graduated. But man, when they all started tearing up at the end of Tokimeki Runners… (I cried again…very emotional set of lives today.)

I finished reading Ring of Fire while watching the concert, and there’s no way on god’s green earth Mr. Baccalario seriously expects me to believe there are PALANQUINS in fucking SHANGHAI in 2006??????? Or rather, I can’t believe that he believed that while writing this book LMAO for how globe-trotting and international this series sets out to be, it falls a little short with non-Western cultures. Now that I’ve finished it, there’s this feeling of…lingering disappointment. I love kids going on adventures, and I love the setting and the feeling of fate converging on these four kids, but the adventure itself was so lackluster… Most of it is just poking around Rome until they happen upon something that leads them to the next step, and by the end they’ve got a “mystical all-knowing” Romani woman straight up telling them what to do… I know the author is trying to do a “it’s all fate leading the way” thing but it just comes off as unsatisfying and being cryptic for cryptic’s sake. And for that matter, the book tries hard to give each kid their screentime, but it’s a little silly when Elettra gets all the action while Mistral’s kidnapped and subsequently rescued because the female villain “went soft” and Harvey and Sheng go into a house, get scared, leave, and contribute nothing else to the climax. The ending even points out how so many things have been left unanswered (as if it’s not confident in its own plotting), and I don’t know if they’ll be answered in the later books, but it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Like is anyone ever gonna explain the in-universe reason why the professor guy had a trunk full of teeth with letters carved onto them? Because it’s so blatantly just “cool Italian history trivia” + “oh right we need a puzzle for them to solve” shenanigans with no logical throughline. Also the villains were cheesy as all hell, oooo it’s the DEVIL and his number is SIX SIX SIX WOAHHH I know it’s a kid’s book, but come on…

Tuesday

Not gonna lie, the news that Cipher Academy is ending sent me into such a depression spiral that I just laid in bed all day playing Animal Crossing and moping and cursing Shounen Jump as a whole. I’ve never held the magazine in very high regard, as I feel like most of its big “hits” are just boring derivative battle manga (and I feel that especially with some of the newer series they’re heavily promoting…), so Cipher Academy caught me by surprise with its amazing character designs and writing and heartfelt emotion… I’ll talk more about it later in a different post, but Cipher Academy is genuinely the best manga I read in 2023 and now one of my favourite manga of all time, and I really wish it could’ve lived longer (and that I could collect it physically in English…). Excluding One Piece and Undead Unluck, I hope all of Jump’s series [COMPLIANCE VIOLATION]

Wednesday

Chainsaw Man good. Nayuta’s really in it now.

I’m continuing my anime concert and book reading duets today with AZALEA’s 1st Live and The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey. It felt a little weird to be watching the big Love Lives out of order when I’m literally three years behind so I chose Azalea’s live, and I was itching for a good “four kids go on an adventure” after being disappointed with Ring of Fire so I picked Perilous Journey back up. The live is fine so far – AZALEA isn’t one of my favourite subunits, but the new songs from their full album were such bangers that I had to check this live out. The light choreography in SKY JOURNEY was actually kind of amazing, I wish Love Live did more stuff like that.

Perilous Journey is fun so far, just some good ol’ adventuring with a dash of mortal peril.

Thursday

The new Dungeon Meshi was really fun. I’m trying to keep up a tradition of making/eating good food to go with the episode (so far it’s been fenzhenrou, meatballs, and soup), so today was homemade hash browns…not necessarily the healthiest thing, but I had to make something in a jiffy and it was either that or not eat anything so I think Senshi would let me slide. Lots of great comedy moments, but also I love how the ghost chapter really has a whole self-contained thematic arc that’s even topped off with a sitcom-esque punchline at the end. I love Laios being a weird guy and having fun with his sword parasite buddy.

I read a big chunk of Perilous Journey today, and what a perilous journey indeed. But it’s so satisfying to see the kids use their wits and abilities to solve each clue and thwart their pursuers, as well as eerie to see the “ghost” of Mr. Benedict and Number Two along the way. What I’m noticing is how much care Trenton Lee Stewart gives to each of the kids’ emotional states – in contrast to Ring of Fire where each kid basically had one defining personality trait to set them apart and nothing else, Reynie, Kate, Sticky, and Constance all feel really fleshed out and real, each with their own worries and perspectives and ways of thinking. (Sorry to compare you, Baccalario, but I can’t deny that it was on my mind since I read this right after Ring of Fire.) I especially love Reynie as a protagonist and a leader for the other kids, his keen emotional intelligence and observation skills means that he’s usually careful about what he says and is constantly keeping an eye out for the others’ wellbeing. There’s a lot of subtle character writing going on here, and each pair within the quartet have a distinct and believable dynamic. Story-wise, I think I prefer the set-up of the first book a little more – at least when they were in that institute, they had some room to breathe and regroup and feel safe in each other’s presence. Here it’s just non-stop action and pursuit, which has me anxious the whole time.

Friday

Drag Race time: I really don’t care for Plane Jane and all the drama she’s causing, it’s just annoying at this point. I hope they don’t try to solve a redemption arc down our throats but it’s looking likely. The girl groups were fun, I hate to say it but I actually do like the style that recent RuPaul songs are going for. I’m just glad that Nymphia is holding her own through all these different types of challenges. Runway-wise, I really liked Q’s look as it all looked well put together and considered, BUT OH MY GODDDDD NYMPHIA JUST STEALS THE SHOW EVERY TIMEEEEEE. I’m sad to see Amanda go…

I don’t usually talk about music on here (because cataloguing every new song I listen to would be insane, even for me), but Louie Zong released a new album called RAT TAXI and I think I’m going to induct it into the STM Awards…which I think is a first for Week in Review? I just love the beats and the instruments he used on this one, and there’s not a single song I don’t like, which is my only criteria for albums to make it in. So yayyyy

Saturday

Touched grass today and went home and immediately fell asleep

#week in review #2024

0 notes

aihoshiino · 1 year ago

Text

chapter 138 thoughts

ruby's honkshoosnorkmimimi pajamas are back fuck 137 this is REAL cinema

All joking aside, there's a lot less to talk about in (MOST) of this chapter, though that's obviously by design. This is a cool down chapter (FOR THE MOST PART) to give us (SOME) breathing room in the aftermath of the RBKN fight and while it's not totally devoid of substance, it is for the most part just a good time spent with some members of the cast who haven't gotten as much focus lately and it does what it sets out to do pretty well, aside from some minor gripes here and there. I won't lie, I smiled a ton while reading this one even if I don't have so much as half as much to say about it as I did 137.

That said, my first gripe off the bat is the biggest one which is, once again, the total lack of reaction from Aqua to… literally anything that just happened. 135 didn't really go that deep into his feelings and despite 136 very deliberately highlighting Aqua's presence during the filming of that pivotal scene and even focusing on his stunned reaction to Ruby's adlib, he is jarringly absent from 137 and the return to Aqua focus here (even if we are still being excluded from his POV) feels all the more sudden and strange for not patching that back up. I've already said a ton about what I think of Aqua being written this way recently so I'll just reiterate that if this is an intentional choice, I still really don't like it.

Moving onto things I did enjoy about this chapter: basically everything else! For some reason that panel of Taiki outside Aqua's place in his car absolutely fucking killed me, if nobody makes an edit of him saying GET IN LOSER WE'RE GOING SHOPPING i'm gonna have to do it myself. frill's lil sippy drink too. god bless.

Taiki and Frill are honestly kind of he MVPs of this chapter. Their banter is fun and Frill is, as usual, an unparalleled delight. Her inviting Memcho along and casually admitting it's because Mem is her oshi……. Frill is the most powerful Oshi no Ko character because she can effortlessly flirt with girls AND boys. Bisexual women truly are stronger than God.

himekawa crashing his car is like the funniest thing that's ever happened in this manga imagine being the wettest funniest most pathetic little failboy in a manga where aqua hoshino is the lead character

mem continuing to be the last person to realize she's in the manga she's in was also really good. the psychological toll of being the only normal person in oshi no ko

The talk that the gang has when Mem finally starts putting two and two together is basically my other only gripe about this chapter, though I do really like it in a lot of other ways. Mem's expression when she finally puts together just how young Kamiki would have been when Himekawa was conceived and what that means for both Kamiki and Airi was more excellent expression work from Mengo -- tbh she has been killing it on the character work in general these last few chapters.

This does, however, imply something very interesting about the movie which is that Kamiki's victimization at the hands of Airi may not be part of it. If it was in the script, this would not be new information to Mem the same way Himekawa and Aqua's relationship is but she seems genuinely sincerely aghast when she puts it together. This (AMONG OTHER THINGS) raises some really interesting questions as to exactly how Kamiki (or 'Boy A', as it seems) is being incorporated into the movie's story and how his relationship with Ai is going to be portrayed.

From here, this potentially recontexualizes Himekawa's lack of reaction to the script. He didn't learn this information through those means and in fact seems to have taken the role specifically because he already knew and because he feels some sense of responsibility or even just a desire to take on and purify the weight of the sins his parents committed. This does resolve my issue with how quickly Himekawa seems to adjust to this new information, because it turns out to not be new info… but it does end up just sort of coming back around to my original issue of Himekawa not being given the time or focus to process this.

Honestly… now that I think about it, it's kind of a lot worse?! Given what he shared of their (presumed) family history with Aqua in chapter 68, it's pretty clear he had no idea what Airi had actually done. Aqua himself only finds out the truth in chapter 98 so we can presume he shared this info with Himekawa at some point… just, you know, entirely offscreen with no indication this had happened or that they were still in regular contact and, once again, with no time or focus spent on Himekawa finding out and coming to terms with the idea of his mother being a child rapist. We've had almost 40 entire chapters since that point… are you really gonna tell me we had no time for that??

It's frustrating for a lot of reasons but mostly because it makes this conversation fall a little flatter than I think it COULD have if we had more time following Himekawa as he processed his feelings about it. Just one of those things I wish OnK would take more time to breathe with.

rip himecarwa we'll never forget you

ANYWAY. LET'S TALK ABOUT THE REAL STAR OF THIS CHAPTER. BARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARK

i'm only mostly kidding here the explosion of kamiki thirstposting in the wake of this chapter was so funny we are all hoshino ai

Anyway, all joking aside, this was a really interesting conversation in terms of the implications it has for Kamiki's involvement in the movie. Off the bat, it addresses the issue that's been kind of the elephant in the room which is that you can't just… make movies about real people without their permission! This chapter explicitly clarifies that everyone involved in the movie gave their permission for it to happen (which explains some of the in-universe fictionalized elements; without permission to do certain things, the story has to be changed to accommodate it) but that the movie equivalent of Kamiki doesn't even have a name. Given that this is a movie intended to 'kill' Kamiki as revenge, it raises some shrimptresting question as to wtf the final product will even be

This also confirms Kamiki to be at least a step or two ahead of Aqua here; some folks were speculating that he had Nino as his spy on the production but given Kaburagi's presence here - and the fact that he most certainly seems to know more about Kamiki than he's letting on - it looks to me like my man already has people at the top feeding him information. Not only that but he's sponsoring the very movie supposedly set to destroy him? Very shrimptresting… I don't know that we'll find out what Kamiki's up to anytime soon but hearing more about his involvement was exciting anyway.

also just one final shout out for that final page of Kamiki. It feels like Mengo changed his design a bit so he's not so much of a flat out Aqua Clone and I do like said changes. my man hasn't slept a DAY since ai died.

#oshi no ko #oshi no posting #onk spoilers #csa mention

52 notes · View notes

tenebriskukris · 11 months ago

Text

Oshi No Ko Chapter 142 – My Thoughts/Analysis

We start off the chapter by dealing with the reactions of the peanut gallery to the coming kiss scene. This is strange to me: Normally when the manga frames side characters reacting or infodumping it’s in the middle or later parts of the chapter. Just a thought.

Miyako having mixed feelings makes sense given she’s basically their surrogate mother. I’m reminded of that scene that happened in the earlier stages of the manga where Ruby pretended to be the embodiment of Amaterasu springs to mind again. If she put two and two together and assumed that Aqua and Ruby were incarnations of Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu respectively, then it makes sense that she’d feel conflicted since she might still be under the impression that her kids are actually gods. And considering what Crow Girl said to Aqua in ch127, there might be some merit to that.

Kana’s faces as she continually takes L’s is so on brand for her, I hope we get more of them during the inevitable kiss scene. Ditto if we also see Akane react to some of these Kanafaces.

Memcho being based as always. We stan. I would talk a bit here about how Memcho and Kana are two sides of the fandom, but I think that was made obvious after ch124.

And now we have Ruby with a star in one eye and a whole host of stars in the other eye. The power scaling fans are going to have a field day with this one. It’s a set of eyes that would easily surpass Kana’s fake galaxy eyes!

Poking fun at that aside, it’s also curious to hear that Kaburagi namedrop. Now, this could just be a white lie from Ruby, but if it is true, then that leaves the door open to some interesting implications since we see him dining with Hikaru in a previous chapter. Now what would Hikaru have to gain by having Ruby kiss Aqua like this…

It’s also good to see confirmation that much of the movie’s scenes between Ai and Hikaru was a fabrication. It’s a question that was plaguing people for a right bit—it’s good to see that we’ve got solid evidence there one way or another. Though…the fact that we’re getting hints through Kana that Hikaru and Ai were influenced by Aqua and Ruby themselves is a bit of a strange addition, especially since Ruby wasn’t casted as Ai when the script was being made—assuming that the script hasn’t changed since then. Not quite sure how to parse this, especially since it’s coming from Kana’s perspective—there’s already some confirmation bias involved now that we know who’s attached to these roles.

The scene shifts to Aqua visiting Abiko and Yoriko.

I am quite curious as to whether or not this scene and the next one happen in sequential order. While on the surface it appears to happen chronologically, there’s enough wiggle room and doubt throughout this scene that makes me question where it takes place in the timeline.

Why is it relevant where this scene takes place in the overall sequence of events? Mostly because in a previous chapter we hear from Aqua that he’s asked Yoriko and Abiko for advice for writing the script and I’m wondering if this is that meeting. There’s the typical flashback transition that shows up in between both scenes, so we already know it’s happened in the past. The question therefore, is when, because the timing of said scene has implications on Aqua and Ruby’s relationship and the movie going forward, especially when one takes ch123 into account.

Moving back onto the scene itself, since Aqua doesn’t know the specifics about Ai and Hikaru’s relationship, he’s been forced to improvise by asking the mangakas on how to write a suitable romance.

This part where Aqua asks the mangakas if he can have the kiss on the cheek instead of the lips is quite hilarious when one considers the context—as well as the timing of this entire scene in particular. If it happened before the script was finalized, then Ruby hadn’t been casted as Ai just yet. If it happened chronologically as it was shown in the manga, then he’s hesitant to kiss his sister.

And because this manga can be so very anal with its timeline, both interpretations hold true unless Aka goes out of his way to confirm or deny when this scene happened in the first place. It wouldn’t be the first time that we’ve seen this manga slot in a scene that happened in the past without telling us when exactly this flashback occurred in the first place.

The scene where both authors decry Aqua’s lack of responsibility for the script is also very important to the story in general.

I’ve seen some people online say that this scene is pretty tone-deaf considering Ai and Hikaru’s backstory and how the industry took advantage of them. On principle I’d agree with that conclusion, if it wasn’t for the fact that Aqua’s role in creating this movie is the farthest thing from Ai and Hikaru’s situation when they first entered the industry.

Yoriko says it best just before she gives the line that many people hyperfocus on and take so heavily out of context. “As a writer, you’re trying to uncover people’s secrets and make money off of it.” And of course to get his revenge, but we as the reader should already know that.

Without Aqua, this movie wouldn’t have been made in the first place. He isn’t a passive observer here, he is making a conscious effort to attempt to dredge up memories long buried and fictionalize them in an attempt to twist the knife against Hikaru. It’s not much better than Kaburagi taking advantage of Kana during her acting dry spell or the LoveNow producer throwing Akane to the dogs for entertainment.

It’s a brutal and public attempt to attain vengeance for Ai. You have to wonder how much of this is actually going to help Aqua. If he wanted Hikaru to merely die, he would’ve shanked him or let Akane do the deed herself. It’s likely that even after his revenge scheme is finished, he’ll have to deal with his own psyche considering how he acted after he thought his father was originally dead. Even without revenge guiding him, the man still has issues galore. I wouldn’t want to be his therapist, lemme tell you.

The next few sentences from Abiko and Yoriko are just as thought provoking. Every scene where the mangakas get their time to shine is always a treat, especially when the words they’re saying and the words they really mean differ beyond the surface.

“Stories are things that can kill even people. That’s why those who make stories are required to take responsibility for each and every letter. We must always be aware of those who could get hurt by our stories. And we, who continue to write regardless, must not forget our responsibilities.”

It’s interesting how these lines make one consider just who is being hurt by these stories. My first answer to who is being hurt by this story is Hikaru, of course, but that feels much too easy. Ai, perhaps? Those DVDs still haunt me. Aqua himself? Also possible, but the manga’s been hiding his thoughts from us for ages, so it’s only speculation.

Not to mention what other kinds of responsibilities that the mangakas are referring to that Aqua shares. The DVDs once again loom over so much that is unwritten, and so does Hikaru. Whatever the case, I’m sure that we’ll be getting some sort of callback or answer to this question posed by the mangakas later down the line.

And now we get to the main crux of the chapter. A short conversation between our protagonists.

There’s no sugarcoating it—there’s a lot happening in this scene.

We start with Aqua on a balcony, mumbling to himself about “his responsibility”. The way the scene is framed pushes the Reader to the idea that Aqua is remembering the previous scene with the two mangaka artists. Let’s shelve the question of timeline for now and get back to the scene itself.

Ruby sucking on a popsicle while talking to Aqua. I’ve seen enough doujins and artworks to know where this is going.

A mention of the kissing scene tomorrow in-universe, with Aqua sweating at the thought of it. He mentions that the kissing scene is also his responsibility—which makes sense considering he’d had a part in the script in the first place. This entire movie wouldn’t be possible without him, so he has to commit to it.

This next sequence of dialogue is so very loaded with things hanging between them. Aqua saying that he sees Ruby as his sister—notable for the fact that he’s already mentioned in the earlier chapters that the line between Goro and Aqua is blurring. Oh, and if there’s still anyone that still huffs up that Goro=/=Aqua cope, then I suggest you take a course on reading comprehension if you can even read this in the first place.

It’s interesting that Ruby is the one who proposes that they see each other as they were in their past lives. Whether or not she sees Aqua as Aqua or as Goro is an open question at the moment, but it’s clear that she definitely wants him on some level. This girl was more than fine with more than a 30 year age gap so a little incest doesn’t faze her in the slightest. Considering that Aqua/Goro’s been her main motivation for living and becoming an idol, I’m more than surprised that people hadn’t seen this route as a potential avenue and endgame. Bad reading comprehension strikes again, I suppose.

Again Aqua brushes off what might be a very intimate moment with Ruby, but this time, our FMC isn’t going to let it slide, going directly for Aqua with a question hanging between the lines.

And it ends with a shot of Ruby without her signature star eyes. There’s a lot of things I could say about that, but it gets into star eyes analysis territory, and this isn’t the time or place for that.

It’s make or break time for them. We’re going to get A Response next chapter, that's for sure. The hammer’s going to fall, and with it, half of the fandom’s going to be crushed underfoot.

I will say though that I don’t think we’re going to get an easy response. It just doesn’t fit with how the manga has been framing this arc. We still haven’t gotten a good look into Aqua’s headspace since 123 happened, and there are an absurd number of fans taking bets on what his response is going to be in the next chapter. Considering the next chapter’s coming out on White Day, well. I shan’t say more. Place your bets on how many people threaten to leave after the next chapter drops.

Moving back to speculation, I would not be surprised if, for the majority of the next chapter, we’ll cut away and see someone—maybe Hikaru, or Crow Girl, or Akane—else and see what he’s up to, only to cut back to Aqua and Ruby at the end of the chapter for Aqua’s response.

I would also not be surprised if the chapter ended with an implication that they had intercourse. I would love to see the kind of copium people would snort if we got something like that.

All in all, this was a brilliant chapter to start off a two week break. Really cooking the fandom alive before pulling the trigger.

#oshi no ko #oshi no ko analysis #my analysis #mine #not sure if i want to make this A Thing that i now do #onk analysis i mean #considering like 10 people were yelling at me to vomit my thoughts on tumblr #so we'll play it by ear

7 notes · View notes