#perhaps even toradora

[4byun]

Tagged by @tuisong! Thank you 💌

8 shows to get to know me:

Castlevania

The Legend of Vox Machina

Given

Skam

Reply 1988

Young Justice

Death Note

Blue Period

I had a lot in mind but these are my comfort shows!

Tagging: @stabbyfoxandrew + @nocedal + @insomnikat-mused + @kaeyadyke + @mx-sinisters + @aroace-genderfluid-sheep 🤍!

(only if you want! :3 )

[appledotcodotuk]

vertigo: an aminori drabble

yet another little drabble courtesy of the yuri shipping olympics! the prompt this time was 'I can't believe you talked me into this'. I'm bringing back an old favourite to appease my 16 year old self, and basically nobody else. aminori enjoyers if you are out there...

summary: minori is certain that she can finally see a crack in ami's cool facade; and all it'll take is a ride on whimsiville's supersonic rollercoaster: Vertigo! a flawless scheme which will certainly not backfire. not at all...

banner: screencap from Toradora ep. 6 "True Self"

pairing: minori kushieda / ami kawashima

no warnings required!

1,423 words!

'I cannot believe you talked me into this' Ami Kawashima, model student, model model, and model melodramaist huffs.

It does not surprise Minori - at least not a great deal - that the way in which her face scrunches with distaste is still beautiful; the sort of righteous disdain you'd see in a fancy book of fancy artpieces that cost an arm and a leg and weighed about as much too, and all without running the risk of a lasting wrinkle.

There's a hint of the unimpeachable to her which promised any attempt to test this stoic unrufflability would yield nothing but frustration.

Perhaps, were she one of those rational types, Minori would recognise this as the omen of futility that it was. It would be better, really, for everyone if she did.

But Minori was dedicated, and all she could see in those finely crafted features was a provocation. Ami was a challenge, or she was issuing a challenge, and Minori didn't stop to mull over the distinctions between the two. She was a bit more preoccupied with attempting to pry loose an expression which hadn't been made for TV from Ami's habitual smirk.

'What's wrong Amin? Scared of a bit of height?' She asks, opting to accentuate the extent to which she too, was entirely cool-headed and unbothered by the other's presence by slinging an arm over her shoulder.

Ami had opted for a breezy summer dress that day, with thin straps, and thus no fabric to shield her from Minori's totally casual arm-slinging. There was nothing to prevent her from feeling the way her exposed shoulder hardened into a taut tension under the skin.

Woah. Had she developed inadvertant powers of petrification in the last minute? Before she could inspect Ami's shoulder for any stray pieces of stone, however, her arm was smacking limply into her side; a consequence of its unceremonious dislodgement from its resting place. 'Ow!' She says, as if it had hurt, 'What gives?'

'I am not Taiga, I don't need to be encumbered with any extra limbs.' She says, and there's a familiar flash in her eyes and ah geez, she's totally about to- 'Whilst I'm sure that little terror could benefit from the additional weapon when she inevitably has another tantrum, I prefer words to brute force.' There it was.

Why did she always turn to Taiga? More importantly, how come she knew, with a precision that frankly unsettled Minori, just what to say to send an indignant blush a-blazing in her cheeks, and as an adendum to that, what malicious God had perfected her in the art of setting Minori's heart pumping anyway?

On second thought, perhaps a God was too pure a boon-granter for someone like her. A deal with the devil for quick wit, unshakeable smarminess, and perfect hair was decidedly not off the table. She wouldn't put anything past Ami.

Instead of responding with something that would have been, no doubt, utterly devastating, Minori opts to take the moral high ground and pictures the way that smug self-assurance would melt away soon - in approximately 3-5 minutes time, if the sign posted outside the start of the queue was anything to go by.

Ooh, maybe she'd even scream! Perfect, beautiful Ami Kawashima, shrieking as she hurtled across the track at world-record-creating speeds.

'What's the stupid smile for?'

'Hmm...?'

'Hey, snap out of it fluff-for-brains, we're nearly at the front.'

Curses! She'd been so caught up in envisioning her victory over Ami's snide professionalism that she'd almost forgotten to be present for the main event! Get your head in the game Kushieda - you're playing for keeps here!

'Aw, oopsie! I must've gotten distracted.'

They were nearly at the front now, which meant a first-class view of terrified fairgoers being lowered into Vertigo, screaming as they were whipped past at speeds that made Minori dizzy, just from looking, and sickly aftermaths: the victims of Whimisiville's finest, fastest rollercoaster.

Taiga had flatly refused. Takasu had muttered something about 'winning Inko-chan' from a stall that contained a bunch of slightly squashed looking bird plushies and disappeared. Kitamura was long-lost. It was just the two of them. Minori, Ami, and the terrifying rollercoaster. She had to make the most of it.

Especially when it had been so easy to convince Ami to come along with her for the ride. Who knew when this sudden fit of good-will would strike Her Imperious Majesty next? All it had taken was a few insinuations of cowardice here, a sprinkle of guilt tripping there…!

She was almost disappointed that she hadn’t been called upon to deploy her patented ‘Please-I-Have-Never-Wanted-Something-More-in-My-Life-and-if-You-Say-No-I-Will-Hold-You-Personally-Responsible-for-the-Lack-of-Fulfillment-that-Will-Plague-My-Every-Waking-Hour’ eyes! Although, perhaps that was for the best. She didn’t know if her heart could take her special-est of special moves quailing under Ami’s cold disapproval.

Better to just be thankful for the chance to absolutely squander whatever warm feeling had prompted this agreement as quickly as possible, right? She almost felt bad, meeting what could well be an olive branch with this. Almost.

‘Heeeey Ami.’ She turns to her victim, attempting to stifle a giggle. Really, it was all her fault: she should never have let slip to Minori that this was her first time in Whimsiville when they’d run into her by the shooting gallery.

Taiga had been less than pleased by the chance encounter but Minori was nothing if not optimistic. Or was that opportunistic? The possibility of getting a reaction out of a brick wall in the body of a high school student was just too tempting! ‘Did I mention that this thing can go 200 km/h and has three loop-de-loops?’

‘You did not.’ Ami says, glaring. Having made it past the barrier now, they're scoping out a free cart in tandem with the portion of the crowd who have finally escaped the drudge of the queue. They settle unanimously for a carriage towards the back. It’s neon yellow, with flaking flames painted on the side and there isn’t enough space for them to sit entirely apart from each other.

Instead, their knees keep grazing each other, and Minori jumps each time it happens, sending their legs flying away from each other like two magnets stuck facing identical poles. ‘But don’t worry, I’m used to compensating for your particularly severe case of scatterbrain.’

‘Hey!’ Minori leaps to her own defense, and it seems her knee also has something to say because it leaps too - settling firmly next to Ami’s who continues on, apparently unaffected.

‘For instance, I do know that you tend to get motion-sick.’

Huh? Since when had Ami been keeping such close tabs on her? That was confidential information, which required a Taiga-level clearance, and she referenced it as easily as if she had been there on that lazy afternoon when she’d been regailing Taiga with the misadventures of her family trip to Kyoto! Well, she supposed that technically she had been there, it had taken place in the classroom, but that was even more shocking!

Had she, Ami Kawashima, been eavesdropping? Surely not! The only eaves that were supposed to be dropped around here were by Minori, the super-sleuth!

Really, was there no integrity to be found in the subtle art of getting one over on someone? At least Minori, in her schemes, was willing to put her own body on the line - she was sacrificing her stomach so she could see Ami’s smug expression get turned inside out by this high-speed death trap!

‘And,’ Ami whispers - whispers! - as she draws closer to Minori, her breath warming the outside of her ear - what was that bit called again, the shell? Minori finds in that moment that she doesn’t really like the comparison. Shells were so hollow, a pale imitation of the setting which formed them, a memory of something distant, and displaced. Ears were much less nostalgic, surely. They didn’t hear only what they wanted to hear, right? - Ami was being very quiet all of a sudden. Minori bites down the urge to yell at her. What, what?!

‘Did you know that before we’d met, I had ridden Vertigo five times over? I’m a big fan of the part with the 50 meter drop!’

Click.

The bar that would keep their bodies from slamming into the ground below as they were shot along at really, very high speeds (and Minori, in all her arch genius knew that this speed was 200km/h precisely) snapped into place with the finality of a death sentence.

Oh.

She was totally screwed.

[theowlhousefanboy]

Notable And Underrated Anime That Have Excellent English Dubs, In My Opinion - A List (With Some Extra Banter or Whatever)

The works of Shinichirō Watanabe, ranging from Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Space Dandy, and Carole & Tuesday (so much so that they're better off disqualified from lists likes this, due to being way too obvious choices... moving on)

FLCL (heck, would even say the same to the otherwise derivative Progressive and Alternative)

The Read or Die OVA, alongside its sequel series R.O.D the TV (so good, that even the likes of Yomiko "The Paper" Readman changing accents actually doesn't feel as jarring as I thought it would be)

Azumanga Daioh (on a side note, Ayumu "Osaka" Kasuga sounds a bit like Steven Universe's Amethyst and The Owl House's Vee Noceda; can't really say why)

Lucky Star (so, which part of the Choco cornets should we eat first?)

Nichijou ('nuff said)

K-On!/K-On!! (might sound a bit jarring if one also watched Puella Magi Madoka Magica on the English dub (a bit good, but nothing compared to the Rebellion movie and maybe the compilation films; case in point, Mio Akiyama, Ritsu Tainaka, Tsumugi Kotobuki, and Azusa Nakano are Homura Akemi, Kyubey, -bloody- Hitomi Shizuki, and Madoka Kaname respectively)

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagaan (kinda sucks that the two compilation movies don't have dubs; would have loved seeing the extra hamminess of the characters' English voices in those)

Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water - ADV (even if the occasional accents are inaccurate, the emotional delivery of the VAs is hard to deny, especially the vile Gargoyle's)

Kill la Kill (if one has witnessed it, then you know that they sure had a lot of fun playing the characters in this extremely fun gainaxy romp)

Toradora! (...basically the closest we get to seeing Madoka verbally beat down Kyubey in romance and stuff)

Ghost in the Shell, both the movie duology (1 and 2: Innocence) and Stand Alone Complex, including the Tachikomatic Days extras and the Solid State Society movie (so much so that the latter's DVDs are mostly set with the English dub on default, reportedly even in Japan)

REDLINE (can't speak enough for it so to describe its epicness)

Dead Leaves (you can actually watch it on YouTube... it might overwhelm you)

Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt (telling that it's way more raunchy than even the original Japanese)

Golden Boy (you know, at least the show didn't continue on, lest it might have gotten way too weirder like the manga it's adapted from)

Black Lagoon (so good, that it resulted with the Roberta's Blood Trail OVAs having the cast reprise their roles due to fan demand)

Excel Saga and Puni Puni Poemy (so madcap, the former's titular character's VA broke her voice halfway through the show)

Honorable mentions:

Neon Genesis Evangelion - particularly the ADV dub, with Manga Entertainment's efforts on The End of Evangelion and the Director's Cut versions of Episodes 21-24 (it might be correctly deemed as flawed, but nowadays, it sure has proven its worth, albeit at the cost of the Netflix dub being derided as lacking in emotion and perhaps also nuance)

The Manga Entertainment dubs for the Patlabor movie duology (a shame the OVA series preceding it doesn't share the same cast, while the Patlabor TV series dub... eludes me)

GaoGaiGar (flaw: it's unfinished, and thus never even reached the FINAL parts)

In the meantime, hopeful readers, feel free to put on personal recommendations, in case there'll be a second part, if not a commenter's edition.

[bubblingbeebles]

gundam IBO aka my problems with mari okada

i finished gundam IBO, tried to figure out why it felt so wrong, and only afterwards found out it was written by mari okada and honestly that explains so much.

if she somehow reads this post i’m sorry but here is my thesis about mari okada: all of her works have the same two problems:

1 - they set up a situation that will pull on your heartstrings, but then pull so much harder than was narratively justified that it breaks immersion and ruins the impact

2 - they have weirdly-romanticized ideas about romance, basically where a character falls for some idea that a person represents rather than the person themself, while also usually either (a) being heteronormative and/or steeped in tropey gender roles (b) ignoring perfectly good (less idolizing) chemistry between a different pairing

spoiler zone under the cut.

first of all, disclaimer: the other okada works i’ve seen that i’m comparing to are anohana, nakitai neko, maquia, and toradora. i found the first two to be insufferable, textbook examples of both problems. i liked maquia because i think it got the heartstring pull right, perhaps as a fluke, and avoided problem 2 by being about motherhood instead of romance. i tolerate toradora because, despite the annoying harem, it at least subverted problem 2 in the end by ending with the pairing that has actual chemistry.

IBO, i also find to be textbook examples of both problems, and both problems boil down to the fact that the show never really graduates from the toxic orga-mika-flashback ideology (”keep fighting until we reach the promised land“)

problem 1 basically comes down to how dark the ending is, how much they all lose in the end. the show presents an oppressive system - not just evil individuals - and so many ways our protags could have beat that system, but ultimately makes each one fail either through chance or through character flaw, and like, that’s not just crushing as a story beat, that’s crushing on the meta level of what makes a good story. the show could have been about cashing out with a peaceful life (i.e. not pursue the “king of mars” dream), but no. the show could have been about refusing to let the ends justify the means (i.e. refuse to partner with char chocolate mcgillis), but no. the show could have been about political reform and postwar quality of life (i.e. give any screentime to kudelia’s s2 business exploits), but no. in each case the orga-mika ideology blinded them to everything but to fight. the show set up from the very beginning to have them outgrow that ideology, and then spectacularly failed to deliver.

back on the object level, a more obvious example of problem 1 is just the string of named character killings. in season 1, biscuit’s death had meaningful narrative consequences. in season 2, i predicted naze would die after being politically maneuvered into some corner, which would have been narratively satisfying... if they payoff had been anything other than “now more characters will die with increasingly little justification”. we get the same exact story beat with takaki/aston, with akihiro/lafter, with yamagi/shino, and ultimately with orga. i’m not saying “war produces senseless deaths en masse” is a bad moral, i’m saying that repeating the same exact setup four times robs that moral of its emotional impact.

anyways, on to problem 2: atra and kudelia.

i should be happy about our girls getting a happy end where they’re literally married! i really should! the thing is..! the whole framing around it is stained with authorial intent so deeply that even this literal gay marriage is somehow heteronormative.

in short: the on-screen pretense of their relationship dramatically fails the bechdel test. (whatever happens off screen, the camera lens matters.)

in long: atra and kudelia explicitly talk about their respective relationships to mikazuki in that exact mari-okada-weirdly-romanticized way (”when a girl is crying, a boy should console her”), whereas their relationship to each other is, while obvious, unstated so explicitly as that, and i think that - because of okada’s track record - you need to do some heavy death-of-the-author-ing if you want to claim that they, in character, realize they have romantic chemistry on their own. moreover, as i wrote before i saw s2:

when she was jealous of kudelia about mikazuki, and then all it took was 1 poly adult role model to instantly break her out of that, was such a moment. i hope she meets a gay person and has the same moment again and then (becomes an adult and then) they date

...this of course never happens(*), and so, literally married as they are, occam’s razor says that in character, the only role model they have remains naze’s harem, where women can only be connected romantically indirectly via a guy -- in their case, the memory of a deceased emotional blank slate of a guy, as newly embodied in akatsuki -- and thus they are together because that indirection makes them platonic family (which is a powerful theme of the show in its own right, so it naturally completes the logic here).

(*worse yet: the only on-screen-text-canon gay character, yamagi, is heavily tokenized and brutally bury-your-gays-ed, and i find this actively harms the case, because it sets the precedent that if it was gay, they could have been explicit about it.)

if okada sensei had just spent 5 seconds of screen time for one of them to say “you know, what we have with each other is also romantic, isn’t it”, it would have been an amazing subversion of her own trope, but no. i can’t ignore the author here even if, underneath the metatext, their chemistry and their happy end are undeniable.

and that, i suppose, is why i am so eager about witch from mercury, even if its politics are even more incoherent than ever. it at least gives us - not just the queerness - but the queer-normativity we deserve in storytelling.

[fzzr]

The Interloper

So, expanding on something from Toradora! is Perfect, Actually. In a romantic comedy, there needs to be some sort of pressure pushing the principal characters together. If the premise or protagonists themselves don't fulfill this need, the work can make use of a character I call the "Interloper". This is the one who usually shows up last and whose role it is to keep the plot from being stable. In general, a character who shows up at the start of a later season is not the Interloper, even if their shenanigans have the effect of pushing the plot forward. Rather, the introduction of the Interloper is the point where the story has all the pieces in place. When it comes to making things happen the Interloper is the finger that pushes over the first domino.

To be an Interloper, the character's actions need to be both deliberate and effective. By this I mean they have to be causing trouble or progress on purpose, and the results need to be at least partially an intended result of that effort. For example, if a character is trying to sneak a truth potion into someone's food and it ends up in the wrong one, that's just shenanigans, not actual Interloper activity. However, if someone sneaks truth potion into someone's food and it results in the target voicing something they kept hidden (perhaps even from themselves), that's an Interloper at work. Some Interlopers start more on the shenanigans side of things and move toward actively shaping the plot later. Regardless of where they start, pretty much every Interloper ends a series making active direct effort to put the characters in place for the resolution.

Ami Kawashima of Toradora! is one of my two original examples for the type. She is the last of the five main characters to be introduced, and is initially presented as a certified Mean Girl. She starts her Interloping from her very introduction, treating Ryuuji like a toy in order to mess with Taiga. She goes through a lot of changes over the course of the series, but she never stops being the Interloper - the way she acts just changes. At first her trolling is more about her own satisfaction, but her actions are already pointed at stirring up the status quo of relationships. As the show goes along, her actions come to be motivated by the good of others, and she changes from merely stirring things up to openly pushing toward the conclusion everyone wants. At each phase her actions shape the plot, defining more than a third of the story arcs. Ami may not be the star, but there is no Toradora! without her.

Rika Shiguma of Haganai is my other original example. Haganai is a much more shenanigans-focused show than Toradora! and Rika is all about shenanigans. She's the designated sex maniac in the cast, taking everything in the most lewd way possible. In her introduction episode she shows up to the club room and propositions Kodaka right in front of everyone. This might seem like just a joke, but it's very clear that by saying that out loud, she forced everyone else in the room to reassess their own relationship with Kodaka in those terms. This is the end of the beginning of Haganai, the point where the plot starts to move incrementally forward. Most of the time Rika plays the shenanigans part of the Interloper more than the progress-pushing kind. However, at the end of the season one special episode, she is once again the one who prompts everyone to think about what kind of relationship they want with Kodaka. By the end of season two she pulls out all the shenanigans she has and uses them to beat some progress out of Kodaka whether he likes it or not.

Ai Hayasaka of Kaguya-sama: Love is War fills both sides of the role with aplomb. As the deadpan servant character, it is her duty to say the quiet part out loud. This alone has an Interloper effect by forcing the target (usually Kaguya) to at least react to something she's trying not to know. As things go along Ai starts to actively intervene in the core relationship of the story by challenging Miyuki's love for Kaguya directly. She does this by secretly acting as an alternate love interest. This is done with love for Kayuga, but also more than a few ounces of jealousy. Obviously shenanigans ensue, but the real result is Miyuki affirming, both to himself and to Ai, that Kaguya is truly the one he loves and not just the closest target of potential affection. By the end she's providing massive pushes toward resolution.

Working!! is another shenanigans-heavy show, and it has multiple characters who could be described as Interlopers. Yamada Aoi is the late-arriving character and primarily a shenanigans-type Interloper, but Souma Hiroomi is there from the start and makes the most active efforts of anyone in the show to move the plot in some direction or another. One of his tricks is slowing down the Yamada family arc in order to squeeze more shenanigans (and progress) out of Kirio's interaction with the Inami-Souta relationship. On the Jun-Yachiyo relationship he takes on a more classic Interloper role by pushing shenanigans with the overt intent of putting them in proximity as much as possible and pressuring Satou to make progress through his own actions.

It's possible in general for multiple characters to do Interloper things. The supporting cast of The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten is so frustrated with the lack of romantic progress that it turns into Oops All Interlopers. The closest to the usual archetype are Amane's mother, who designates Mahiru as her future daughter-in-law from the moment they meet, and Chitose Shirakawa with her elaborate and decisive progress-pushing.

There are also plenty of romcoms out there without an Interloper. In some none is necessary because the structure of the show provides constant forward pressure directly. In Fuukoi, for example, the central conceit of the "marriage practical" does this by providing both a motive to make changes and a deadline for action to be taken. In some cases, like Wotakoi and many shoujo shows, no Interloper is necessary because one or more characters (often the male love interest) are sufficiently driven by their own desire to need no encouragement at all. Romcoms that are all shenanigans tend not to have a designated Interloper (just think how many characters regularly cause problems for no reason in Urusei Yatsura but lead to only more shenanigans) and actually need to avoid progress-forcing most of the time.

Given that an Interloper is disruptive by their very nature and often a little antagonistic, you might think they're generally considered annoying. In at least the cases I've listed, that's far from the case - some of them are as popular as the protagonists, if not more. In a world of endless, directionless drivel, there is real appreciation for the character who makes stuff happen.

[stayndays]

𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙢𝙚!𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙮 𝙠𝙞𝙙𝙨 𝙩𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙨

series starts in 2021, i probably won’t go in order of each member

you do not have to watch anime to follow this! this series simply places one member of skz into an anime universe, characters from the anime will most likely not be mentioned

will contain major spoilers for each anime’s plot line/universe, though

if you are not familiar with a particular anime and would like to learn more about it and/or where to watch it, send me an ask

i’m doing a taglist for this series! please send me an inbox message or comment on this post if you’d like to be a part of it

𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙜 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙣 

haikyuu!! 

team manager!reader & volleyball captain!chan

in the five years you’ve known him, you’ve never seen him cry until now. baffled at the fact that the team he leads lost the tournament to your rival school, a sudden fire is lit in your eyes. even if you’re always on the sidelines of the gym, you’re determined to find a way to lead to your best friend’s team to victory.

𝙡𝙚𝙚 𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙝𝙤 

kakegurui 

gambler!reader & rival!minho

your biggest strength when it comes to gambling is your flirtatious nature, making your opponents yearn for you so much that they’ll give away the deck in their hands. however, this one opponent of yours might just turn your tricks right back at you in a game of cards.

𝙨𝙚𝙤 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙗𝙞𝙣 

assassination classroom 

delinquent!reader & delinquent!changbin

you want that reward for killing your teacher, no doubt about it. you don’t care about teamwork, or splitting the money between your behaved classmates who adore the teacher you had to kill by the end of the school year. the only problem is: all of your solo attempts go haywire, so it’s time to bring in the other delinquent in your class.

𝙝𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙜 𝙝𝙮𝙪𝙣𝙟𝙞𝙣 

demon slayer 

demon!reader & demon slayer!hyunjin

the night you turned into a demon, he only knew one thing: it was his fault. determined to turn you back into a human once again, he sets off his quest to become a demon slayer, training under a retired love hashira’s wing, to revive his soulmate.

𝙝𝙖𝙣 𝙟𝙞𝙨𝙪𝙣𝙜 

your lie in april 

violinist!reader & pianist!jisung

he’s never met anybody like you. somebody so adventurous and lively, it’s almost as if the rain cloud on his head vanishes and gets replaced by your beaming sun. your violin sends a light shining down on him, an inspiration, a hope to finally pick up sheet music and play it once again. that is, until he starts realizing how pale you become and how often your hospital visits are.

𝙡𝙚𝙚 𝙛𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙭 

violet evergarden 

client!reader & auto memory doll!felix

you scratch your head, leaning against the door. to say you were suprised to see a male doll would be an understatement, or perhaps it’s just because of how out of it you’ve been lately. nonetheless, you let him in and prepare him some tea for him to drink while you explain who you’re writing a letter to and why.

𝙠𝙞𝙢 𝙨𝙚𝙪𝙣𝙜𝙢𝙞𝙣 

the promised neverland

orphan!reader & orphan!seungmin

a happy family of orphans, and their caretaker, living in a lovely house, and taking tests to determine their intelligence. once they turn 6, they will start being taken to their forever homes, at least that’s what you thought at first. after learning the truth about the house you live in and your loving caretaker, the two of you set out to escape your faith that has been placed on you ever since you were born.

𝙮𝙖𝙣𝙜 𝙟𝙚𝙤𝙣𝙜𝙞𝙣 

toradora! 

misunderstood!reader & prideful!jeongin

no wonder he’s called the roaring fennec fox, you think, watching him prance around the classroom with his large group of friends. meanwhile, you hardly have any friends because your first impression always makes people run away. there’s no way you two could ever interact with each other peacefully, right? oh, you’ll be sitting next to him this year in class.

@skzwriternet pls reblog

[animepopheart]

Got any anime recommendations? I'm quite new to this whole otaku thing and I'm kinda interested in seeing some new anime.

GeOh ho! Why yes, I’d love to recommend some anime!

I’ve seen a wide variety of series across different genres. The popular, long-running shounen remain the shows that are most-watched and talked about. For instance, Tumblr posted that My Hero Academia was the most popular anything on this site this year, and it’s a really solid series. Demon Slayer is my favorite in this category right now and wildly popular, too, for good reason. I’d also recommend Haikyuu, Noragami (especially season two), and The Promised Neverland.

But shounen (”boys” series) doesn’t have to just be these long-running shows with similar themes. There are other shounen series that kind of defy or cross boundaries, like Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (possibly the most beloved anime series of all) and Silver Spoon, a very different series from the mind of the same mangaka (and a show I like even better than FMAB). Toradora and Oregairu are perhaps my two favorite shows of all, and they feature romance, as The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, which also sci-fi, like Trigun. (My favorite sci-fi is Cowboy Bebop, though, a series which is getting a Netflix adaptation.)

The counterpart to shounen is shoujo (”girls” series), where my favorites include Kimi ni Todoke and Skip Beat. Josei series, which are kind of like more grown-up shoujo, is a genre featuring so many shows I love like Honey and Clover (about relationships and growing up for college students), Usagi Drop (single fatherhood and adoption), Chihayafuru (romance and “sports”), and Kids on the Slope (jazz, friendship, racism).

Other series in that more mature framework that I love include Genshiken (also a comedy), Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken (about three girls working to become animators), March Comes in Like a Lion, Shirobako, Made in Abyss, and Laid-back Camp. These shows are as different as can be and are worth kind of browsing through to see what clicks with you.

“Older” anime include Maison Ikkoku and Cowboy Bebop, as well as many of the Studio Ghibli classics. If you haven’t watched those, they are absolute treasures. I ranked my favorites recently.

Speaking of Ghibli, which mostly does features, other movies I like are A Silent Voice, In This Corner of the World, I Want to Eat Your Pancreas, The Boy and the Beast, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Tokyo Godfathers, and Your Name. Some of these movies are potentially life-changing.

And though I could go on and on, just to conclude, I’ll finish with lighter fare: comedies! I honestly don’t watch too many straight-up comedy anime these days, but a few series that I adore are Working!, Azumanga Daioh, and Mob Psycho, the last of which is many things in addition to being very funny.

I hope you enjoy, and that some of these end up being what hits you just right!

[sugarcomatosed]

i love your stories so much!! and was wondering if you can give some writing tips perhaps? 🥺👉🏻👈🏻

Breaking this up into sections for you + putting it under a cut cause I went overboard. 😅

General Writing Tips

These work for both academic and creative writing.

Make an outline.

It doesn't have to be a formal one, but having at least a general idea of the scenes you want to include is helpful. If I know my fic is going to be a longer one (like Don't Hesitate was and my current WIP is), I break down the larger story beats i want to hit on a piece of paper or my iPad.

It's good to know what you're planning to do, in a any piece I usually have a single specific scene I want to do and depending on what it is, I might either just do the scene I want to or turn into something longer.

Draft, draft, draft.

I cannot stress the importance of going through and reviewing your work. This is a big part of any sort of writing.

Your first idea isn't always your best idea. As you work on a piece you might find your original idea is holding you back, focus shifts! Don't be afraid to let your work change as you go. It's not always easy to let go of your original idea but if you find it's not working, you have to let it change. Sections will need to be rewritten, things have to be readjusted to fit with later sections. Reread for clarity while you're drafting and look to see if this makes sense to you, or reads well to you. If you can't follow it and you wrote it, chances are your reader can't either. Did you use the same phrase again and again? Find and search it on your doc to double check.

Sometimes you have to cut things you really like because they just don't contribute to the fic anymore. Save those bits and use them somewhere else!In a lot of my longer pieces I will write a paragraph, realize that's not where it should go and cut/paste it into another part of the doc because the pacing/scene doesn't make sense where I had it originally, but it works somewhere else.

If you're stuck, skip around, come back and then stitch the bits you have written together.

Don't Focus on a Word Count

This might be controversial, but I'm of the opinion just because something is longer does not make it better. Some works are short, and that's okay! I very rarely try to aim for a specific count of words unless it's for a prompt exchange or a personal challenge. I write till I feel the piece is done. Some stories require more words, some require less.

Don't Hesitate is a great example of this again, because all I wanted to do was a bittersweet first kiss fic, but jumping write into the kiss wouldn't get the full effect I wanted. Meanwhile, with Old Habits all I wanted to do was write dumb comedic kisses, we didn't need a 2k preamble.

Get Someone You Trust to Edit

My go to editor for the past six years or so is one of my good friends. She has edited everything from college papers to my fics for me before I post them to read for clarity, find any funky phrases or misspelled words I missed, and I do the same for her when she asks! A fresh set of eyes makes a world of a difference. Find someone to trade fics with or ask a friend! They might have good suggestions you never thought of, or be able to tell what you were going for when you don't even know yourself.

I also rely on my friends a lot to brainstorm and talk my ideas out before I start because it helps me think and figure out what I need. It's super common for me to text someone and say "im gonna spitball at you, that okay?" and then spend twenty minutes chatting through my ideas.

Have Reference Material

For my 13sar fics, I regularly go back and review/screenshot videos of the dialogue to make sure I am staying consistent with story events, character nuance and small details. You don't have to go crazy, but it is really helpful to have your source material to go back to and check yourself against. In non creative writing I always had a pile of papers highlighted with my own notes on the margins.

Take Breaks/Pace Yourself

Know your own limits, and if you are working and working on something and it's not coming out leave it alone and come back to it. I'm really bad at this personally because when I get an idea in my head I want to see it through but sometimes you gotta step back! It's not healthy to keep working on things and overwork yourself. Stretch, get up go for a walk.

Write What You Want to Write

Don't focus on what people want to read. Focus on what you like. Find a topic, a scene, anything that you are passionate about and the rest will follow. The only time I write fic for other people is when I am writing for a friend. Even prompt requests I only take open ended ones, if I am not interested in writing it it's not gonna happen. I know it's super hard and I get really anxious sometimes about letting people down now, or worrying people won't like something but then I step back and remind myself this is a hobby and I'm doing it for fun.

Play to Your Strengths

You shouldn't try to write like me, you should try to write like yourself. Find what skills you have and use them to your advantage!

I can't give you a step by step list to write like me, because nobody in the world has my background! We're all unique. Everything I've listed so far I know because I'm not a beginner anymore! I'm in my twenties and have come from a strong academic writing background.

I took on an intensive course load in high school, and then went onto college for a sociology degree. I very rarely had test based finals and at the end of each semester would have five 10-15 page papers to submit. Straight up some of my skills come from having read and studied the works of anthropologist Clifford Geertz. I am not saying you should read anthropology/sociology texts. Unless you like that sort of thing lol

I also have 6+ years of theater experience (acting & directing), I use this all the time for my writing. When I think about a scene, I think about how I would work through it as an actor, how the character would move, and how would things read to an audience. The GOTE ("Goal, Obstacle, Tactics, and Expectation") method of acting by Robert Cohen is really useful hear if you want a more technical breakdown of what I mean by that.

This leads to a lot of what we called "business" in acting, doing small tiny things while you talk or move around on stage to give the sense you're a real human. I don't have to think or try on these sort of things because they're in my skill set already!

Things I do Personally

As in, these are not transferable skills this is just the stuff I do while working on projects.

Find a Vibe™️

I come into any fic with usually a goal I want to hit, a line of dialogue or something I want to capture. Just like, the general idea of a feeling a song even if the lyrics don't match up. Make a mood-board, a playlist, just find something you wanna do. It's less about the actual words on the page and what you're aiming to do.

Look to things that inspire you

Don't Hesitate got written because I wanted to write a fic that captured the same vibe as a scene in Macross Frontier, where two characters have a bittersweet kiss before the final battle and that scene still has me fucked up six years after watching it.

My current WIP is doing the same thing but with the song All I've Ever Known from Hadestown. Two characters working through loneliness, the sudden feeling of falling in love and the frustration that feeling can bring on sometime.

I don't plagiarize them word for word, but these are scenes that inspire me! I also patchwork quilt ideas together. Using Don't Hesitate again, I also ended up pulling from a bunch of shoujo anime, Toradora, Sailor Moon, Yona of the Dawn, Princess Tutu...specific scenes I enjoy to blend and create something new.

Goof Off While You Write

I name my documents stupid things, I write dumb placeholder dialogue or vague sentiments like "insert better word here", I make memes when I'm struggling and roast myself and my predictable tastes.

I spent twenty minutes texting a friend Juro's name with different letters spelt out and then the "fuck your chickenstrips" vine saying it was Juro during destruction. Just have fun with it!

Listen to J-POP On Loop for Hours at a Time

i am not kidding I do this all the time. Perfume, AKB48, anime idol osts, Sailor Moon's OPs/ED, vocaloid songs. I like technopop and Japanese is good because it usually doesn't distract my brain since I only know random phrases, but still know what the meaning og the song is.

I love music, it helps me vibe out.

Thank you so much for enjoying my work ;o;

I hope this is useful to you in some way! I'm so sorry it's so long winded but I am overly thorough and love to teach people ;w;

[recentanimenews]

FEATURE: The Anime Stars of Genshin Impact

Image via miHoYo

  Genshin Impact has lived up to its name in that it has indeed made an impact upon the gaming world. Launched on September 26, the free-to-play open-world game has amassed $245 million in only its first month, and that's from Android and iOS alone. I'm not ashamed to say that I have sunk an unholy number of hours into this game. Why do I like this game so much? Perhaps the biggest reason Genshin Impact is so appealing to me is that I am an anime fan.

  Voices from all over the world of anime can be heard in Genshin Impact, from Naruto to My Hero Academia to currently airing seasonal anime. Being able to "hear" your favorite anime character in-game is part of what makes this game so great. Let's take a look at some of the talented people from the anime industry whose voices bring the characters of Genshin Impact to life.

  Paimon (Aoi Koga)

    Paimon is the face of Genshin Impact. No, literally, her face is on the launcher icon. Imagine my shock when I found out she is voiced by Aoi Koga, the voice of Kaguya Shinomiya from Kaguya-sama: Love is War. The intimidatingly smart rich girl Kaguya and the squeaky and energetic (and kinda stupid) Paimon couldn't be more different. Props to Koga for making both work. Koga has also voiced Elulu from Cautious Hero, Yuri Miyata from TWOCAR, and Sora Kaneshiro from Angel's 3Piece.

Male Traveler (Shun Horie) 

  One of the first actions you take in the game (in most games, for that matter) is to choose your character. In Genshin Impact, you choose between two world-traveling twins, who the other characters simply refer to as "Traveler." The male Traveler (whose official name is Aether) is voiced by Shun Horie. I personally recognize him as Enta from Sarazanmai, but most would know him as Kazuya ("Kazuya-kuuuuun!") from Rent-a-Girlfriend. Some of his other roles include Ichiro Suzuki aka Satou Pendragon from Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Rat from Juni Taisen: Zodiac War, and Hacker from this season's Akudama Drive.

Female Traveler (Aoi Yuuki)

    What about the female Traveler (whose official name is Lumine)? Turns out she's voiced by Aoi Yuuki, who voices ... Mami from the same show. The irony of this coincidence is not lost on me. Yuuki is probably best known for voicing Madoka Kaname, the protagonist of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. To me, however, her most memorable role was as the titular Boogiepop in 2019's Boogiepop and Others; an unforgettable performance. She's voiced a number of other notable roles, including Tamaki from Fire Force, Tsuyu Asui (Froppy) from My Hero Academia, Tanya from Saga of Tanya the Evil, Tornado from One-Punch Man, Kayo from ERASED, Yuuki Konno from Sword Art Online II, and Hachiman's sister Komachi from My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU. 

Amber (Manaka Iwami)

  Image via Madman Entertainment

  Amber is one of the game's most popular characters, owing to her cheerful and optimistic personality. She is voiced by Manaka Iwami, the voice of Teresa Wagner in Tada Never Falls in Love, Lykos in Children of the Whales, Mizuho in Wave, Listen to Me!, and Maquia in Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms.

Kaeya (Kohsuke Toriumi)

    The cool and charismatic Kaeya is, surprisingly enough, voiced by Kohsuke Toriumi, known as the voice of the hotheaded Kiba from Naruto. He has also voiced Shunsuke Imaizumi from Yowamushi Pedal, Mista from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind, and Cecil from the Uta no Prince-sama franchise.

Lisa (Rie Tanaka)

    A lazy and flirtatious scholar with electrical powers, Lisa is voiced by the experienced Rie Tanaka, who one might easily recognize as Lacus Clyne from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED. The gentle, "sisterly" voice of Lacus suits Lisa's personality to a T. Tanaka has also voiced Yomi from Azumanga Daioh, Chii from Chobits, Sammy from Time of Eve, Maria from Hayate the Combat Butler, Chizuru from Squid Girl, and Suiginto from Rozen Maiden.

Barbara (Akari Kito)

    The first Akari Kito role that catches the eye is her performance as Kotoko Iwanaga in In/Spectre; both she and Barbara have a near-identical dressing sense, with their frilly white frock and cap. Kito has also voiced Nezuko in Demon Slayer, Nene Yashiro in Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun, Kaho Hinata in BLEND-S, and Suzune Horikita in Classroom of the Elite. You can also look forward to hearing her as Tsukasa in TONIKAWA and Adachi in Adachi and Shimamura this season.

Beidou (Ami Koshimizu)

    Beidou is voiced by Ami Koshimizu, voice of Ryuko from Kill la Kill and Kallen from Code Geass — two popular characters from two of the biggest shows of our times. Some of her other roles include Holo from Spice and Wolf, Tenma from School Rumble, Nodoka from Saki, and Shizuri from A Certain Scientific Railgun.

Bennett (Ryota Osaka)

    Bennett's design coupled with his "passionate" and "righteous" personality screams "protagonist" to me. And that's exactly what his voice actor Ryota Osaka delivers, being the voice of Eijun Sawamura from Ace of the Diamond, Nariyuki Yuiga from We Never Learn: BOKUBEN, and Ryu Yamada from Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches. His other roles include Zen Wistalia in Snow White with the Red Hair, Keiji Akaashi in Haikyu!!, Yuki Sanada in Tsuritama, Nagate in Knights of Sidonia, Ikki Kurogane in Chivalry of a Failed Knight, and Sadao Mao in The Devil is a Part-Timer!.

Chongyun (Soma Saito)

    Chongyun is voiced by Soma Saito, perhaps best known as Yamaguchi from Haikyu!!. However, his breakout performance was as young Twelve in Terror in Resonance. Other notable roles include Tatsumi from Akame ga Kill, Adlet Mayer from Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers, Doppio from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind, and William James Moriarty from the currently-airing Moriarty the Patriot.

Diluc (Kensho Ono)

    Diluc is widely considered to be the best character in the game from a gameplay perspective. He is voiced by Kensho Ono, whose most famous voice performance is undoubtedly Giorno Giovanna, the protagonist of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind. Ono is also known for his performance as the titular Kuroko from Kuroko's Basketball. Other roles include Canute from Vinland Saga, Arata from ReLIFE, Mikazuki from My Roommate is a Cat, Slaine Troyard from Aldnoah.Zero, Tanaka from Tanaka-kun is Always Listless, and Akutagawa from Bungo Stray Dogs. 

Fischl (Maaya Uchida)

    In what has to be the most on-point casting in this game, Maaya Uchida — best known as the voice of delusional eyepatch-wearing chunibyo (middle-schooler) Rikka from Love, Chunibyo, and Other Delusions — voices a delusional eyepatch-wearing chunibyo in Fischl. Well done, miHoYo, well done. She also voices Hiyori from Noragami, Norman from The Promised Neverland, Catarina Claes from My Next Life as a Villainess, Yoshioka from Blue Spring Ride, and Rui from Domestic Girlfriend. 

Jean (Chiwa Saito)

    Chiwa Saito (the voice of Jean) went on to become one of my favorite voice actors after I heard her as Hitagi in Bakemonogatari, Yona in Yona of the Dawn, and Homura in Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Some of her other performances include Aika in Aria the Animation, Chloe von Einzbern in Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya 2wei, and Schierke in 2016's Berserk.

Keqing (Eri Kitamura)

    The energetic and hardworking Keqing is played by Eri Kitamura, known for voicing such energetic characters as Mina Ashido in My Hero Academia, Yui in Angel Beats, and Sayaka in Puella Magi Madoka Magica. She also voices Ami in Toradora!, "Chief" Yachiyo in Wagnaria!!, and Bea in Pokemon: Twilight Wings.

Klee (Misaki Kuno)

    Klee has quickly become a fan favorite, partly due to her short stature and childlike demeanor. She is quite appropriately voiced by Misaki Kuno, known for voicing "childlike" characters such as Hawk from The Seven Deadly Sins, Momo Kawamoto from March Comes in Like a Lion, Shio from Happy Sugar Life, Serara from Log Horizon, Niko from Kiznaiver, and Akane from Durarara!! x2.

Mona (Konomi Kohara)

    Is it a coincidence that this game has both Aoi Koga AND Konomi Kohara (who voice Kaguya and Chika in Kaguya-sama: Love is War)? I think not. Kohara's other notable roles include Akane from Tsukigakirei, Kasumi from Asobi Asobase - workshop of fun -, Mina Hibino from Karakai Jozu no Takagi-san, Shamiko from The Demon Girl Next Door, and Tsukasa's sister Chitose from TONIKAWA.

Ningguang (Sayaka Ohara)

    Sayaka Ohara is known for her deep, "mature" voice — an apt fit for Ningguang. While Ohara's best-known voice role is probably as Erza Scarlet in the Fairy Tail series, she has also delivered iconic performances as Beatrice from the Umineko When They Cry visual novels and Yuuko in xxxHolic. Other well-known roles include Irisviel from Fate/Zero, Alice from Aria the Animation, Milly Ashford from Code Geass, and Mrs. Yuigahama (Gaha-mama) in My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU.

Noelle (Kanon Takao)

    Kanon Takao has not done a whole lot of voice roles but there are still some recognizable titles on their resume, such as Hina Tsurugi from the recently-aired Diary of Our Days at the Breakwater, Latina from If It's for My Daughter, I'd Even Defeat a Demon Lord, Aku from Demon Lord, Retry!, and Linnea from The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar.  

Qiqi (Yukari Tamura)

    Qiqi is voiced by Yukari Tamura, who shot to fame as the voice of protagonist Nanoha Takamachi from the influential magical girl franchise Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. Her other significant voice roles are as Togame in Katanagatari, Tenten in Naruto, Rika Furude in When They Cry, Io Euclase in GRANBLUE FANTASY: The Animation, Mai Kawasumi in Kanon, Yamada in B Gata H Kei, and Jibril in No Game No Life. 

Razor (Kouki Uchiyama)

    Kouki Uchiyama is known for his soft-spoken roles, especially villainous ones like Meruem from Hunter x Hunter, Shigaraki from My Hero Academia, and Rui from Demon Slayer. Even his non-villainous roles have that serious, soft-spoken nature to them — Tsukishima from Haikyu!!, Smile from Ping Pong the Animation, Natsuno from Shiki, Yu Otosaka from Charlotte, and Toi from Sarazanmai. He is a perfect fit for Razor, a menacing wolf-boy of few words.

Sucrose (Akane Fujita)

    Akane Fujita (the voice actor for curious bio-alchemist Sucrose) had her breakout year in 2017 when she played Sagiri Izumi in Eromanga Sensei and Sistine Fibel in Akashic Records of Bastard Magic Instructor.

Venti (Ayumu Murase)

    Venti's naive and mischievous personality makes him the perfect fit for Ayumu Murase, best known as the voice of the cheerful and simpleminded Shoyo Hinata of Haikyu!! fame. What interests me most, however, is the fact that Murase also voiced protagonist Kazuki from Sarazanmai — between Venti, Razor, and the male Traveler, it looks like we have the entire Sarazanmai main trio assembled! Murase has also voiced Shun in From the New World, Iruma in Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun, and Ryo Asuka in Devilman Crybaby.

Xiangling (Ari Ozawa)

    I was very excited to hear that Xiangling would be voiced by Ari Ozawa, whose performance as Chiyo Sakura in Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun (her first major role) is one of the finest I have ever seen. Ozawa has also voiced Hina Hikawa in BanG Dream! S2, Kirin Todo in The Asterisk War, Mao in Hinamatsuri, Papi in Monster Musume: Everyday Life With Monster Girls, Benitoite in Land of the Lustrous, Lynn May in Plunderer, and Conny in The Promised Neverland. 

Xingqiu (Junko Minagawa)

    It is quite common in the voice acting industry for male characters, especially younger ones, to be voiced by female VAs. Such is the case with refined bookworm Xingqiu. This is not the first time Junko Minagawa has voiced a male character — her first role came as Ryoma Echizen from the long-running The Prince of Tennis. Her other roles include Oz Vessalius in PandoraHearts, Cornelia in Code Geass, Sailor Uranus in Sailor Moon Crystal, and Jeanne d'Arc in Drifters. 

  As more characters are added to the game, we can expect more talented voice work from the people behind the scenes. Further updates have teased us with the possibility of such giants as Saori Hayami and Yoshitsugu Matsuoka joining the cast. Can't wait!

Who is your favorite Genshin Impact character? Let us know in the comments below!  

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[translationandbetrayals]

Junnosuke Miyamoto and the Evil Line of Music Production

What’s the role of a producer? The answer to this question might depend on the field we’re approaching or the scope of the work itself, but for the purpose of anime analysis, as in most forms of artistic media, we could broadly say a producer is the person in charge of making the connections and agreements required to keep a project ongoing. At first glance, the job of producer might not seem like the most interesting or creative role in artistic production, but I have a counterargument in the form of a name: Junnosuke Miyamoto. Never heard of him? Let’s see what the deal is with this man.

The cute Miyamoto

Junnosuke Miyamoto’s longtime relationship with anime production started in 2007, when he was working as an employee for the now defunct Starchild. Starchild was a sub label of the music firm King Records, one of the biggest in Japan. It was specifically made to produce anime and its soundtracks, contemplating both scores and associated music (such as OPs, EDs, insert songs, and even promotional or image songs). Though merely starting as an assistant producer, Miyamoto quickly rose in importance within Starchild, becoming one of the head producers until 2014, year in which he became head of the newly founded Evil Line Records sub label, another subdivision of King Records that we’ll address later.

During that time, Miyamoto cultivated a sort of authorship or artistic character, as the work he produced shared certain characteristics and differentiated itself from most of the anime music of those years. The truth is, Junnosuke Miyamoto brought total weirdos to the anime sphere, artists who nobody would’ve thought to pair with that market, and formed partnerships that not only brought a breath of fresh air to the scene, but matched perfectly the kind of works Starchild was producing. It was an era of experimentation within the anime industry, and anime music was getting a bit behind. Miyamoto broke that comfort zone.

We might start reviewing what was the first anime Miyamoto worked on. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, in which Miyamoto was assistant producer, is one of the first (of many) Shaft masterpieces, and the first example of the prolific relationship Miyamoto would have with the studio, followed by almost every collaboration between Starchild and Shaft until their partnership was dropped (we don’t know the details, but perhaps it was due to the success of Madoka and Monogatari Series, both produced by Sony’s Aniplex).

Zetsubou Sensei is relevant to Miyamoto’s career for a number of reasons. Namely, it was one of the first contacts made in anime between artists that would later become staples of Starchild and even Miyamoto’s own Evil Line. The first OP of the series, Hito Toshite Jiku ga Bureteiru, is easily one of the most memorable OPs in anime history to this date, both in its intriguing visuals directed by Shaft’s Tatsuya Oishi and the crazy song that accompanied them. Sung by an unexpected combination, the unit was composed by the already legendary rock and metal singer Kenji Ohtsuki, best known by his classic band Kinniku Shoujo Tai or King-Show, but also famous on his own; in addition to the female seiyuu of the series.

Bure bure bure bure

But this mixture of moe vocals and metal vocals wasn’t casual, as it had a precedent in one of the players at hand. Narasaki, composer and arranger of the song, was already known in the alternative music scene through his band Coaltar of the Deepers, which mixed shoegaze, metal, punk, electronic, and pop influences, often alternating between harsh and soft vocals. They were backed by Tokusatsu, a band formed by Ohtsuki (in vocals) and Narasaki (in guitar), as well as Arimatsu as drummer and King-Show’s Satoshi Mishiba as keyboardist. Tokusatsu would later become part of the Evil Line Records repertoire, and while this is outside the anime sphere, Miyamoto also produced the film Nuigulumar Z, based on a novel written by Ohtsuki and musicalized by Tokusatsu. And the title might also be related to a fixation with the letter Z in Miyamoto that we’ll discuss later.

Miyamoto would continue to work as an assistant producer in the 2nd season of Zetsubou Sensei, and, finally, in 2009, he was assigned main production roles for the 3rd season of the series. Both featured Kenji Ohtsuki and the Zetsubou girls with the Tokusatsu backing band as well, with the theme of the last season being Ringo Mogire Beam, a now classic OP. He repeated his role as a producer in 2011 for Katte ni Kaizou, another Shaft adaptation of Koji Kumeta, the author of Zetsubou Sensei. The OP, surprising nobody, was done by Tokusatsu, but this time it also featured the legendary anison singer Ichiro Mizuki, also known as Aniki (big bro). Mizuki sang many classic anime and tokusatsu OPs, including the original Mazinger Z theme. In that way, Miyamoto brought the nerdy spirits of Tokusatsu, Mizuki, Kumeta, and Shaft together. The OP animation, just like anything from Kumeta, is full of references to anime and tokusatsu, and the song even has a choir of children that’s reminiscent of the themes from the ‘70s and ‘60s.

It’s even cooler with Aniki

Other important works by Miyamoto during that era include Toradora, in which he directly worked as music manager, and A&R director (artists and repertoire, a job which mostly contemplates scouting and guidance of the artists). Toradora is characteristic for being the first show to be scored by Yukari Hashimoto, who would go on to have an amazing and prolific career in anime, including two works produced by Miyamoto. Hashimoto was already known as a composer and arranger of anime themes, such as the EDs for Shaft’s Tsukuyomi Moon Phase and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, but this brought her career to a different level, proving she was more than capable of handling an entire score by herself.

Toradora also features what are, in my (not so) humble opinion, some of the best, most memorable, and emotional themes in all of anime history. All four of the original songs that work as OP and ED for Toradora are each a masterpiece in their own right, so much that it almost feels like cheating to put all of them in the same show. That feeling right there is something you will often get if you check any of the anime Miyamoto produced. The Toradora OPs were composed by the veterans Kaoru Okubo (in the 1st) and Miki Fujisue (in the 2nd), but it’s perhaps the EDs that carry the most power themselves. They were each composed by one of the members of the duo Funta, forerunners of the denpa style, that also had its roots in some of the King-Show music. Take note of that denpa thing because we’ll return to that later. Orange might be my favorite of the 4, and that one was specifically also arranged by Hashimoto. 

So sweet

In 2009, after Toradora ended, Miyamoto moved on to his next project, now consolidated as a lead producer in Starchild. Again in Shaft, it would be Natsu no Arashi!, an adaptation of the manga by Jin Kobayashi, also author of School Rumble. This time, he brought a band that had never been featured in anime before, and wouldn’t appear again either. As a sort of oddity within the anime song records, Omokage Lucky Hole’s Atashi Dake ni Kakete brought the funky fusion style of this alternative band to anime, in a song that while having a retro feel to it also predated the similarly styled Kaguya-sama’s themes by nearly a decade. Now part of this is lost in translation, but OLH is a band that’s characterized by their acid and sometimes vulgar lyrics, so it was quite brave of the production staff to even contact such a band for an anime tie-in, and we probably can thank Miyamoto for that. As a side note, the animation is again flexing the level of culture at Shaft by being entirely composed by references to classic Japanese cover arts. 

This is not casual

Now there’s a link that we will discuss further as we advance through Miyamoto’s work, but it’s relevant to note there was another feature in Arashi’s OP, albeit minor. It’s the voice of Mariko Goto, who sings the chorus and even screams a little at the end of the song. And this right here is a connection that blew my mind, because when I found out about the credits I already knew about Goto. I knew her very well. Starting in the band Usagi, her career took a spike when she formed Midori in 2003. A very eclectic project, Midori fused punk, jazz, and some traces of metal to form a completely unique and original sound that became a success within the alternative scene, even inspiring other female fronted groups to come out with similar styles, such as 385 and Bokutachi no Iru Tokoro. After 7 intense years of playing, Midori disbanded in 2010, not without releasing a farewell album, a bit tamer than their usual style but reaching new levels of subtlety while also being quite emotional. In a way, the style of Shinsekai (their final album) would be an anticipation of the following steps in Mariko’s career: her first solo run. And we’ll let the rest in suspense, as her way would cross with Miyamoto’s again.

The second season of Natsu no Arashi! was also released in 2009, with Miyamoto returning as producer. It was quite the landmark, as that was the first time Etsuko Yakushimaru had a part in anime, performing the OP theme in what would be her debut single as a solo artist, Oyasumi Paradox. For those who don’t know Yakushimaru’s career, she first made a name out of herself as the lead vocalist in the band Soutaiseiriron, an amazing band in its own right, but the scope of her career is much wider: aside from her solo career and her band, she has recorded poetry readings and recitation, presented art installations, and even created her own original instruments, which she sometimes uses in her music. In 2017, her song “I’m Humanity” won the international STARTS Prize for Artistic Exploration between science and technology. It was the first song to be converted to DNA and reproduced through a microorganism, in a complete innovation for recorded media and music history. And it’s a freaking great song as well. I’m nuts for Etsuko and I’m not ashamed to admit my bias here. Since the first time I heard her music I immediately fell in love with her. But while Oyasumi Paradox is a good theme, it wasn’t personally my first.

An I’m Humanity exhibit

That moment would come with a later show, whose music coincidentally (or not) was produced by Miyamoto. I would argue it’s also a turning point in Miyamoto’s career, as it’s placed in between his initial Shaft years and the subsequent Evil Line era. It was also a point of reunion between some of the actors we’ve mentioned so far.

The anime is Mawaru Penguindrum. And I will disclose, it’s my favorite anime, though regardless of any bias I might have, I think the merits of its music speak for themselves. After all, it was precisely through the music of the show that I was initially captivated and brought to the side of the director Kunihiko Ikuhara, now an idol of mine. The score was composed by Yukari Hashimoto, who we already reviewed by her work in Toradora, and it’s here where, to my view, she steps up her act, going from being a good composer to becoming one of the best in the entire anime scene. In fact, her soundtrack in Penguindrum was so fitting that Ikuhara has continued to work with her since, with the scores to the follow ups Yuri Kuma Arashi and Sarazanmai being just as good. Her work in Sangatsu no Lion, one of the Shaft adaptations in the last decade, is also worth noting, even though that title bears no relationship to Miyamoto whatsoever, nor do the rest of Ikuhara works.

This was a one time occasion, but Miyamoto exploited it to the max, helping this become a landmark in anime production. Because the charm of the music wasn’t only on Hashimoto’s. The themes of the series are just as memorable and special, and perhaps even more. The two opening themes are both by Etsuko Yakushimaru, this time under the name of Etsuko Yakushimaru Orchestra. And it’s not an exaggeration, as an actual orchestra was recorded to accompany the magnificent Etsuko vocal performances, which in both OPs, Nornir and Boys, Come Back to Me, are just some of her best. And we can be sure Miyamoto had a hand on that, as he’s even credited in the CD as A&R director for King Records. 

I get chills everytime

The ED, on the other hand, is handled by another character we’ve discussed before, Narasaki from Coaltar of the Deepers, who for the first and only time had his own band perform an anime theme. It was also special for the band, because for a long time it was the only song they released in years. Since their album Yukari Telepath in 2007, the band took a break from publishing with sporadic live shows, until returning in 2018 with their long anticipated Rabbit EP. The Penguindrum ED Dear Future, released in 2011, was the only recording of the band during that time. Just as in the OP single, Miyamoto held the role of A&R in representation of King Records, which specially published the band even though they were then signed to the independent label Music Mine (which has totally cool artists that you should check).

But that was not all of Penguindrum’s music. If you’re anywhere familiar with Ikuhara’s body of work you might be aware that Penguindrum was his first directed series in some time, more than a decade after finishing his latest, Shoujo Kakumei Utena. And one thing that characterized Utena was its music. It combined a traditional score by Shinkichi Mitsumune with fusion pieces of choral music for the duels, which featured a new theme in almost every episode. That part of the soundtrack was composed by J. A. Seazer, a renowned Japanese prog extraordinaire, who was part of the avant-garde and revolutionary counterculture of the ‘60s and ‘70s, and musicalized the films of the influential film and theatre director Shuji Terayama, a marked influence in Ikuhara himself.

So, what would replace the charge of Seazer? The shoes from Ikuhara’s latest work would prove hard to fill, but one solution was found. Perhaps not in such a revolutionary character, but adequate enough for the kind of work Penguindrum presented, and an update to modern styles of music. They resolved to provide cover versions of the rock band ARB, mostly popular during the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. The interesting part is that they would be rearranged by the composer Yukari Hashimoto, and sung by a seiyuu unit. The idea was to create a fictional group within the show, Double H (once being triple), that would sing the themes. 

Himari on her Triple H outfit

Some of them were featured as insert songs, such as the unforgettable Rock Over Japan, that played over the transformation sequences in the Crystal World. But most of the songs were used as additional ED themes, each of them being assigned to a specific episode. This structure mimicked that of the duels in Utena and gave an extra element of engagement while maintaining the EDs fresh, also creating some of the most memorable moments in the show through the juxtaposition within the music and the scenes. I think of episodes such as 10, 15, 20, and 23 with special regard, and this is partly because of the way music is used to enhance them (I know for sure I will never forget the saa omoidashite…).

It has recently been confirmed that Penguindrum will indeed return for a cinematographic project, but it’s unlikely Miyamoto or Evil Line will participate. Ikuhara has stopped working with King Records in his last few projects, and he seems pretty comfortable with the group of people he’s working with since the creation of his own studio Lapin Track. Regardless of what happens, the mark Penguindrum left for both will never be erased. That project was the representation of a perfect time and space synchronicity, and we must be grateful it happened. Of course, here’s hoping for the best for the individual projects of the two of them, who gladly haven’t stopped, and still have lots to offer.

I don’t know how many of you are familiar with the concept of denpa. I mentioned it earlier in relation to Funta, which was one of the kickstarters of denpa music. However, denpa is more than a music genre. It’s perhaps better described as a social category, such as otaku or weirdo. It refers to the idea of paranoid and schizophrenic people imagining they’re being controlled by electromagnetic waves.

This notion was massified by the precedent of a murderer, Kawamata Gunji, who in 1981 killed 4 random bystanders, injuring many others. In court he claimed he was being controlled by electromagnetic waves during the murders. Curiously, Kinniku Shoujo Tai, the Kenji Ohtsuki band, made songs about the incident, and some assert those are some of the first examples of denpa music. In general, denpa is associated with mental illness, psychosis, a psychedelic state or just plain weird or strange behavior. It’s a word that, just like otaku, might have different connotations depending on who’s using it. During the 2000s, the wave of denpa music acts such as Funta, Under17 or Mosaic.wav associated denpa with otaku subculture, sometimes even separating it from its original psychotic meaning.

Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko, a 2011 light novel adaptation by Shaft, is in the middle of both sides. On one hand, it displays the delusions of a teenage girl who claims that she’s an alien, isolating herself from the external world. On the other hand, it’s also pretty lighthearted, and in the end, the characters learn to integrate themselves to the world around them. It might be better described as a coming of age drama with romance and comedy elements.

The music, however, is pretty crazy, at the very least in its OP (The ED is by Etsuko, representing the softer side of the series and the moe in the protagonist Erio). I think it’s one of the OP songs that really broke the mold of what was supposed to play on television. And this is almost 100% due to the band behind it: Shinsei Kamattechan. Now they are popular worldwide thanks to the Youtube algorithm and their Shingeki no Kyojin themes, but back in 2011 they were still a new band that had just signed with a major label. They found unprecedented success however, and the songs from their debut EP quickly became standards of Japanese rock. It was around this time that they held a double concert with Midori, right in time before the disbandment. There was a serious craze about Kamattechan, very much so that their label, WMG, basically let them do what they wanted, putting out truly noisy and hysterical music to disc. And it worked fantastically. So it just made sense to feature them in anime. The song wasn’t performed by their main vocalist Noko, however, but it did feature the manic band that accompanied and Noko’s crazy compositions, along with his voice as chorus for the vocalist Asuka Ogame, the seiyuu that voices the main protagonist of the series. She sounds pretty crazy to be a professional seiyuu, so the loss of Noko isn’t that sad. Her high pitched voice fits the song and even adds to the feeling of it. For this recording, Miyamoto reprised the role of A&R.

It looks as good as it sounds

What follows might just be the weirdest I’ve encountered in anime music. It’s not bad at all, actually, it’s quite great, but I’m perplexed at how the producers allowed it. Perhaps, it’s due to the nature of the show itself, which ended up alienating a lot of viewers through its rather ugly style. I see it as an artistic choice, but it’s odd nonetheless. Anyway, the series is Aku no Hana, an adaptation of the manga by Shuzo Ozimi that was characterized by using rotoscoping, in a rather disturbing way (probably intentionally so). Miyamoto was again involved in music production, specifically the theme songs. Aku no Hana has four opening themes, all of them being backed by the band Uchuujin, that would become part of the Evil Line label for a brief period of time. They would dissolve in 2014, the same year the label was founded. A special thing about the OP themes is that each featured a different singer. The first one was Noko, the vocalist from Shinsei Kamattechan that we mentioned earlier. The second one was Mariko Goto, and this was significant. We already talked about her Midori career, and teased about her solo career. That career was started at Defstar, a Sony sublabel, but when Evil Line launched, she switched there. She didn’t last long, however, as she took a break from music in 2015 after her lack of success as a solo artist. She has since come back to music, but only through indie and self published imprints.

The third one is Shiho Nanba, a singer for which I honestly don’t know much about, other than the fact that she sang a Fairy Tail ED. She also performed in 18if, an anime project that didn’t have direct participation of Miyamoto, but was produced by Evil Line. The fourth OP was sung by the vocalist of Uchuujin. The Uchuujin songs are pretty original and unique for anime song standards, they might be melodic but there’s a feeling of borderline mania about to crack out, which is a pretty powerful effect. The EDs are much more overtly avant-garde. they’re seriously the most uncommon tracks I’ve heard as an OP or ED. The songs are not completely new, but rather reinterpretations of Hana, a song released in 2001 by the duo of experimental electronics Asa-Chang & Junray. It would be pointless to try to explain the experience of listening to it, it’s something you have to try for yourself. Even if you end up hating you’ll have to recognize the uniqueness of it.

Pretty haunting huh?

Dragon Crisis, released in 2010, is relevant for two reasons. First, the OP, sung by Yui Horie. Horie, a seiyuu and singer, was already a King Records star by the time Dragon Crisis came out. She had performed amazing themes such as the Love Hina Again OP, in my registered opinion even better than the first one, and the first School Rumble OP (remember the Arashi author?). In fact, Horie was one of the voices behind the already praised themes of Toradora, singing by herself the first ED and the second OP, and getting by herself pretty well. But while those songs were good, the Dragon Crisis OP was at another level, perhaps not necessarily in composition but definitely in arrangements and sophistication. It sounds experimental and artistic, even though it’s a commissioned work to tie in a voice actress with a theme song. That sort of innovation is always welcomed, and the explanation to this phenomena would be in the name of the composer: Ryuujin Kiyoshi, aided by King Record’s Go Takahashi.

I didn’t watch this

The authorship of Kiyoshi can be attributed to the fact it was his first participation in anime music, while Takahashi was a veteran and had a different, already established style. But this track was something unheard of even within King Records, which by that time was already somewhat more experimental and daring. And this would be confirmed by following participations of Kiyoshi in anime music, most of them being collaborations with Horie, who became sort of an art pop star through his help. The latest proof of this is in the recent Shaman King ED sung by Horie, and produced of course by Ryuujin. Even more than a decade after Immoralist, Kiyoshi’s style hasn’t grown stale, and he will hopefully continue exploring new territories along with Horie, as they definitely make a great duo. Another example of the pairing, a little older, and unrelated to Miyamoto whatsoever, but nonetheless outstanding, would be the 2nd Golden Time OP, one of the heaviest pop songs I’ve heard that never stops being pop, albeit a carefully crafted one. Hearing it makes me feel goosebumps to this day.

That was the OP. Now on the ED there runs a deeper relationship with Miyamoto that goes through his past and future work. On one hand, the ED, Mirai Bowl, is arranged by Miyamoto’s now longtime collaborator Narasaki, but on the other, perhaps more important side, it was performed by the idol group then known as Momoiro Clover (without the Z, we will soon get to that), which Miyamoto started producing that very year. As a part of the Momoiro Clover staff, he also participated as A&R in the recording of the Yosuga no Sora ED Pinky Jones, composed and arranged by Narasaki, though for whatever reason he wasn’t credited in the production of the anime.

Something for sure is that Momoiro Clover had weird music, more so for a group of idols, which are supposed to have a clean or safe sound. It’s also important to note this was before the success of groups such as Babymetal and BiS, so there wasn’t a clear alt-idol scene formed yet, at least within the mainstream and major labels. This was helped by the fact that they often collaborated with out there composers such as the all so mentioned Narasaki and also by Kenichi Maeyamada, also known as Hyadain and someone I hadn’t had the opportunity to address yet, as his collaboration with Miyamoto would increase in the following years. In fact, it was Hyadain who composed Mirai Bowl, alongside Tomotaka Osumi. The presence of so many people in only one song really makes itself feel, as the song constantly switches styles. But that instability isn’t an issue but rather a strength of Momoiro Clover as a group, who prove themselves gracefully managing the style changes.

Them on the Mirai Bowl times

However, with the departure of member Akari Hayami, Momoiro Clover would end. And by that, I mean the first formation of the group. It would reform with the remaining members with a different name. And this time, their name was suggested by none other than our own Junnosuke Miyamoto: Momoiro Clover Z. Perhaps in a remembrance of classic anime such as Dragon Ball Z, Gundam Z, and Mazinger Z, Miyamoto wasn’t mistaken by renaming the group. It gave Momoclo an edge that allowed them to grow even more, as they developed their distinct personality, inspired by tokusatsu and action shows. In fact, they would do a theme song for a Dragon Ball film, composed by would-you-guess-who (it starts with an N and it ends with arasaki...). This advancement of the Momoclo brand and Miyamoto’s growth in importance within the management of the group, further advanced him towards his own label and perhaps his most successful times.

In 2014, Junnosuke produced the music of the new Sailor Moon adaptation, Sailor Moon Crystal, which, of course, featured his star group Momoclo. In fact, this is technically the first Evil Line production, as the label had just been founded by the time Crystal’s 1st season was released. The OP theme, Moon Pride, was this time composed by Revo of Sound Horizon and mostly Linked Horizon fame. As a curiosity, it even featured the ex-Megadeth Marty Friedman on guitar. This was not the first collaboration between Marty and Momoclo, as he also provided guitars for the Mouretsu Pirates OP performed by them. But the flirtings between Momoclo and hard rock/metal don’t end there. They would also famously collaborate with Kiss, the union being immortalized by a great video animated by Trigger. And this is relevant to our assessment of Miyamoto’s career, as it was through him that the contact between Kiss and Momoclo was done. In fact, it was Kiss management that approached him, recognizing the similarities between Kiss’ and Momoclo’s staging.

The last work I’ll cover is where I originally thought of starting this post, as one of its themes has become insanely popular in the last months, so much that it surprises me as a longtime fan of it. And it’s from a series that I’ve teased for a while. Joshiraku, a manga written by, take note, the same Koji Kumeta of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei and Katte ni Kaizou. The art of the manga, however, is not done by Kumeta, but Yasu. And who is that Yasu?, you might be wondering. It’s the illustrator and original character designer of the Toradora novels. So it all circles back yet again. But wait, there’s more. The so popular theme I’ve mentioned before is Nippon Egao Hyakkei, a song performed by none other than the already reformed Momoiro Clover Z, though this time they’re adopting the Momokurotei Ichimon moniker. It is also the work I’ve insisted so much on being retrospectively produced by Evil Line. Joshiraku aired in 2012, 2 years before the label was officially founded, but it still can be found in the Evil Line site and it’s also credited as such in the subsequent BD releases. But let’s talk a bit about this song, shall we? While astonished at its sudden success in platforms such as TikTok, I do understand the reasons behind this. It’s a very unique and fun song, and the mixture of rap and dance music with more traditional Japanese instrumentation, as well as the style of Rakugo, create an effect of fascination, perhaps due to certain exoticism and most precisely, weirdness. Weird things tend to catch our attention, and I think this is why the career of Miyamoto is one of success. He didn’t fear to deal with weirdness but rather embraced it and saw its true potential, and I think that sort of attitude is really what makes a good producer. Someone who’s willing to take risks in order to deliver a new, interesting product. Thankfully, he now runs a full Evil Line of it.

Why is this a meme in tiktok

Salvador González Turrientes

Sources and more!:

A video connecting Narasaki and Ohtsuki with Babymetal (in Spanish) 

A blog post about Omokage Lucky Hole (in English)  

A video explaining denpa (in Spanish)

The main denpa source (in English)  

Explanation of the A&R role by a professional of the field (in Spanish) 

Junnosuke Miyamoto's credits in VGMDB 

Junnosuke Miyamoto in Discogs 

The Momoiro Clover Z own wiki (in English) 

The Wiki article for the Momoclo and Kiss collaboration song (in English)

[caffeineovercals]

Feel.

i want to fall in love, i want to feel something so intensely i’m overwhelmed by the mere thought of it. I want to have someone who seems almost too good to be true; something simple and sweet. whether i feel that deep burning sensation in my chest from being in love and getting butterflies every time i think of them or from hyperventilating on the bathroom floor sobbing perpetually, i just want to fucking feel something as deeply as that.

I work at a coffee shop and one of the shift managers has a girlfriend who is also a shift manager at the establishment, last night she was off work and still came in to see her boyfriend. she had a drawing ipad and i would occasionally peek over the counter to see what she was drawing, a very muscular bunny. At first i was a little deterred because of the total abstraction of the piece but as i thought about it, i realized she’s an artist. She is so creative and unique that she made her own art style and basically has something special to her that she is passionate about. i want that. i want LOVE not just a crush liking me back, i want to feel so deeply connected to a person that i can see how they glow when they talk about their interests and how they work so diligently while chasing something they want. how their facial expressions change depending on what they’re talking about and how they react to uncertainty. i just want simple real deep love.

Theres this guy i know, we’re just gonna say his name is C. C is 5 years older than i am and let me tell you the story of how we met... I drive a very small convertible and it is perfect for taking pictures out the side of it of moving cars, otherwise known as Rollers. C is a self proclaimed photographer and one day my friend asked him to take some pictures of his new car so without introduction, C got in my car and i drove him and we made fun of my shitty car and shitty driving and how a 6’5 guy could hardly fit in my tiny miata. Later we went to a car meet and He asked my friends for my snapchat and after that we have texted every single day. Getting to know each other, well, i was getting to know him... C likes mushrooms and photography. he has 6 dogs but 1 of them is his own his name is Rover. C loves nature that’s why every time we hang out we go on hikes or drives to scenery. C paints his nails and only shops at Goodwill, he wears those nasty keens sandals and calls them “tactical crocs” even though they are the cheugiest things i’ve ever seen haha. he has curly hair in a mullet and listens to lil peep. his favorite water brand is Deer Park even though i think it’s disgusting. his favorite food is tacos al pastor, his favorite four loko flavor is the Gold one, his favorite fruit is watermelon, he loves rap music but only listens to indie around me because for some reason he doesn’t like the sexual talk around me(reminds me of sigmond freud’s madonna whore complex theory) i want love with someone who doesn’t wanna use me for sex, from someone who just wants a simple life where we do chores on sunday and brag about how clean our lawn is and who wants to read books and have picnics and go on hikes and find mushrooms to take home and eat. i want C but C doesn’t want me and maybe C doesn’t want me because he’s 5 years older than me or because i’m chubby or have a big nose or that i don’t know how to talk to him. or maybe he has me figured out. He calls me palm top tiger like taiga from toradora so perhaps he knows i’m not the best with emotions and i just have a bad home life. Either way, whether i’m wasting my time or i’ve found the one i’m just gonna attach the song that comes to mind when i think of this. xxx❤️

[cafeleningrad]

The anon is frustrated because shoujo manga, a genre more or less equivalent to YA, tends to feature much more complex and nuanced storytelling. For every middle school romantic comedy there's something sparkling with imagination, and the very best series have outstanding artistic and intellectual value not only among manga but literature as a whole. In general, Japanese works seem much more cerebral, while American works seem to celebrate antiintellectualism.

Good morning, Anon :) Are you summarizing the reason I got into anime/manga as teen? Because during my teen times the staff at the local bookshop or librar recommeded me stale love story after stale lovestory. After reading halfway through I had to give the books back out of frustration but when reading Kodomo no Omocha, Inuyasha, or Otoyome Gatari, I noticed how good romances can actually be if the characters matter.

More or less, yes. Following the frame I set up in a previous ask of YA as marketing label directed at teen readers, Shoujo and Shounen would fit into the category right away (although it’s a more a marketing label and has no age limit for readers ;).) As I specifically talked about the romantasy formula targeting girls, Shoujo approximates it even more.

Yes, I agree on the target audience equivalency, mangas/animes having a much better track record of writing engaging stories. There may be many issues with the manga/anime community however it’s noticable how many guys in there are not ashamed even outright positive to talk about their interests in shoujo story. I mean, where else can you say “I haven’t watched [famous romcom] yet” and the next ten replies by guys are “OMG, YOU have to watch [famous romcom], it’s perfect and so cute, the main character is so adorable! You’re missing out on something great!” (yeah, it’s about Toradora ;) Or cheer on a female lead without any fanservice in the story like Yona of the Dawn? How so? Not because the stories are tailored to main audiences as well, shoujo is in it’s commonly saccharine style, heavily romantic and heavily emotion driven tone falling into a category often associated with highly feminine style. No, the stories are perhaps very feminine yet appealing in writing. The reason I personally can stand 98% of romance stories  because I think romance is the hardest genre to nail down well. In theory the concept in simple: The writer creates two characters then entering a (romantic) dynamic getting the reader intrigued to read about. But that requires at least appealing characters who work in interesting ways together. And following that thought, yes, Shoujo is genre in a medium much more capable in writing characters who’re appealing to audiences. I don’t think shoujo stories are necessarily more clever in plot (Ouran High School Host Club reaches for it’s plot, Yona of the Dawn’s only creativity in fantasy-romance story lies in having it set in medieval Korean setting which is rare in Japanese manga - don’t get me wrong, I love YoD, Ijsut want to make a point) however I don’t believe plots need to be outlandishly clever in concept BUT the writing needs to be genuine and good in craft. A competent story telling leads the reader logically through a story, stories invested to be earnest are so much more memorable than one serving as reader insert fantasy. Let me put it like this: In theory Nana could be any slice-of-life, coming-of-age-story, Violet’s motivation in Violet Evergarden seems rather simplistic yet the strenghts of these stories are a sincere approach to investigate emotions behind decisions, the characters being significant as people with wishes, insecurities, thoughts and growth rather than replacing an entire personality by a cool gimmick and a quippy oneliner every other character around them could’ve said. To branch out: Shounen could fall easily into the trap of “person with cool power who says entertaining oneliners”, however many titles care to give their characters downfalls and hurdles caused by themselves as people.

This is where the hook of shoujo writing comes in. When it comes to entertainement categories terms like “cerebral” seem a bit out of place for the specific teenage-audience entertainment niche (not that stories for a tee audience can’t be intelligent but m understanding of the word made me immediately think of Death Note xD) although I believe to understand your choice of word

Note: About the general mention about Japanese media vs. Western media in matters of anti-intellectualism, I half agree but I get the sentiment. There’re enough anime I wish I haven’t watched their first three episodes, too many releases of the 349th idol show, enough US shows, movies and books I genuinely like, the recent trend of smaller and Indie-movie US-productions are downright capable to good, and the Isekai genre in it’s current state can please fade out as soon as possible as it’s not even repetitive but as lazy as the MCU formula as well as sexist. As mentioned in another message, Anime/mange are just another form of media like books, shows, podcasts etc. although heavily marked by elements from the country in which they’re produced. STILL I still agree with you on broad terms because the current state and yet too many of big productions are... bad. Well, I was the person writing a three page essay why I passionately hated Disney’s latest animated feature... Okay, to be more clear at the current state US movie landscape (except for only very few productions) is in tired shambles. Loaded and ever only investing in well known franchise titles is as secure as it’s self cannibalistic. No innovation in the stories since none needs to invent anything as brands are enough to ensure at least lukewarm criticism and at least enough income to cover production cost. Currently the landscape is over-saturated with big brand franchise titles or linked to big movie titles from good days past, all working with the same success formula. Maybe more people begin to nag on the MCU however there’re enough fan discussions as well as revenue for every new MCU related show and movie even if they’re quality in writing and editing decreases. Help, any movie made by big corporations wouldn’t have earned half as much money or critiques if the movies were made by other studios, because the brands on the movies alone work a massive amount of good will without effort. Every show or movie not linked to franchises is something, something super hero but any kind of concept twist imaginable (In that regard Isekai is the equivalent to the superhero genre :P). The only contemporary good take I saw was the Boys because it goes into the criticism of superheroes as “Übermesch-fantasy, mass production of the US-exceptionalism-narrative, celebrity culture - all other variations of superhero story can be mildly entertaining yet fall flat as they’ve nothing to talk about but their genre and desperately trying hard to be “not like other superhero stories”. Not only superhero stories, also all those following a style of better sucessful titles on masse.These stories are like chewing gum. They may sell with new, even outlandish flavours, in the end the the taste vaporizes rapidly and you chew on something leaving a stale taste in your mouth. But now, a safe formula still sells safely and with success because it ultimately doesn’t challenge anything. Anything disrupting the peace of security is a threat - such interruptions can be named as anything controversial. It doesn’t even have to be deep. No matter if you liked the last Jedi, none can deny Rian Johnson wanted to try something new. The dsruption form Star Wars fan viewing habits was massive. Even more controversial would be choice or conflicts which are ambiguous in result or fronts - just see how GoT cannbalized itself by thinking Martin wrote a story about good vs. evil, in the end dumbing down a story about opportunism, hunger for power into “dragon lady evil because ... Leni Rifenstahl shots I guess??” (and let’s not talk about the stupid takes within the fandom about perceived villainy...). Within an industry milking the same old cashcow, none currently none would dare disrupt the landscape with bold takes or thoughts - ambiguity, challenging questions are the most risky thing to do, possibly.

[airyairyaucontraire]

a) Karen O'Leary is the cutest thing

b) the clones' motel spa pool is one of the foulest things I have seen, and you can't even see clearly what's in it because of the pixellation

c) the use of pixellation to imply "we can't let you see clearly what this is but take it from us, it's filthy" can be so entertaining, like there's an episode of Toradora where the, uh, the main boy goes to the main girl's flat (I've forgotten everyone's name except Ami, because the main girl complains that she thinks she's so great because she's got the same name as a Sailor Moon character) and everything is a terrible mess and the contents of the kitchen sink are pixellated. Like, surely there can be nothing worse in there than dirty dishes, old food containers, perhaps mould, scum, maggots even, but the pixellation implies that there is something so bad in there they cannot let us look at it and I think that's super.

d) to be fair would rather see some maggots than Minogue and Clone Minogue's junk bobbing in a dirty spa pool

e) during the big lockdown here there were a lot of educational children’s programmes that were got together hastily for kids out of school and the actress who plays Karen O’Leary, Karen O’Leary, who is also an early-childhood teacher, did a really nice one with songs and stories that she makes up.  My nephew would get ANGRY if anyone referred to Karen as “she,” despite the fact her name is Karen and everything I’ve ever read about her indicates that “she” is the appropriate pronoun as far as she is concerned.  We were all too tired and stressed out to try to explain butch lesbians to him at the time.  He’ll learn.  It’s New Zealand.

[animebw]

Binge-Watching: Inuyasha, Episodes 133-136

In which we get one hell of a chucklefest, Miroku might finally be pulling his act together, and Sesshomaru’s come a long way.

HELP MY SIDES

You know, I give this show a lot of crap for the areas where it messes up, but the further I get into Inuyasha, the more I’m convinced that the best parts of it are the parts that take place adjacent to what actually matters. Seriously, I’m consistently finding that it’s in the breaks from the “Stop Naraku, collect the shards” death march that I have the most fun with this world. It’s in the side larks, the fun diversions, the bits and pieces that don’t really contribute to the overall picture but are so much more lively than the actual core of the thing. Even the epic Band of Seven arc was basically an extended side-quest to the main story of Naraku’s revival, and only really started to fall short right at the end once the big man himself was actually back and it had to return to the status quo after purposefully bucking it for so long. Inuyasha works best when it can breathe, when it’s able to let its characters be characters without worrying too much about how they’re supposed to fit into the next big plot advancement. Perhaps that’s why I’ve been so lukewarm on the shows more central aspects; aside from Kagome and Inuyasha’s delightful romance, I’m finding much more enjoyment on the margins.

I bring this all up because it looks like Inuyasha’s in for another bout of low-key faffing about before finally getting to the next plot beat, and I will be damned if these aren’t some of the funniest freaking episodes of the entire show thus far. Like, they’re not quite Gintama or Nichijou levels of hilarity, but they have such a loose, oddball charm that I found myself giggling almost constantly throughout them. I adore how Inuyasha is slowly turning into the disgruntled den father of the group, acting as Kagome’s personal pack mule and cleaning out dust with the righteous fury of Ryuji from Toradora. Good lord, just his increasingly frantic whack-down of the dusty sheets was enough to pitch me head over heels chuckling. And the return of that old quack priestess from way back when was an unexpected treat. But nothing tops that incredible moment where everyone gets drunk off of magical sake fumes, leading to a trio of Kagome rockettes singing bad karaoke in the mist and Sango giving Miroku a taste of his own medicine by flirting with Inuyasha in front of him. Sweet buttery crumpets, I love it when this show just lets itself be stupid. Not to mention Drunk Kagome’s slurred face-planting Inuyasha over and over again with the befuddled dignity of a college kid on his last Red Bull, or Inuyasha’s resignation to his fate (”Look before you speak.”) This show really is all about the journey, and in the moments where it lets us enjoy that journey, it’s easily at its best.

Cleaning Up His Act

Even more impressive, though, is that this show is finally starting to turn me around on Miroku after so much time just being utterly exhausted by him. Listen, I reserve the right to be annoyed that their proposal in the last chunk of episodes hasn’t gone anywhere yet, but all the same, I think a chunk of the intentions there still carried over, because for once, it actually feels like Miroku’s being made to suffer for his bullshit. For someone who’s so usually in control of his reactions and poise, he feels noticeably off his game lately, more often thrown just completely out of his depth and forced to scramble some sort of recovery from his own bullshit. Again, even just Sango throwing his infidelity back in his face while drunk was enough to knock me on my goddamn ass, and that trend continues in an absolutely uproarious moment where Miroku sees Sango watching him flirt with a group of ladies and just utterly freezes. I have never loved spending time with this jackass more than when he sees imminent death baring down on him and finds himself completely unable to escape it. ”Please, go easy on me!” Dear god, that had me laughing for longer than I’d like to admit. 

See, this is how you actually make a character like Miroku work; you let him actually be the butt of the joke himself. You make the punchline about everyone rightfully dragging his less savory aspects, not about those aspects themselves. It’s the same philosophy that made Kondo’s stalker routine from Gintama such a goddamn riot: the show understood how to undercut the power of such a potentially uncomfortable character trait by making it the subject of endless scorn. It made him someone you laughed at, not with, whenever he tries to dive head-first into Otae’s arms, because the sight of seeing someone getting his ass kicked so deservingly is never not gonna be cathartic. Miroku ain’t at that level yet, but if the show’s able to keep pursuing this line of thought, it might actually manage to defang the parts of him that have made him such an object of loathing in my eyes. Hell, even everyone ribbing him for reasons not directly related for his lechery is enough to make him less aggravating; I would totally buy a mass-produced Miroku vacuum cleaner, if only for the look on his face when he found out. And his relationship with his head priest actually makes sense in establishing why he grew up into the kind of person he did. There is not no potential here to salvage this character, and if Inuyasha actually pulls it off... well, it’ll be one beautiful day.

May You Find Peace

Meanwhile, on the more dramatic side of things, Sesshomaru continues to impress me with how subtly his growth has been managed over time. There’s no one spot I can point to and say “and this is when he started to change for good,” but the arrival of a specter from his past ends up illuminating how far he’s come since the start of the show. The Sesshomaru Sara remembers, who we see in flashbacks old and new, feels almost alien to us now, an arrogant, cruel warrior who talked down to his opponents as he tore their guts out. His old desire for vengeance and dominance feels foreign to us now, looking at this almost fatherly grump who’s spent more time helping our heroes than fighting them at this point. Rin, Jaken, and everyone else have changed him in ways he’s only really starting to recognize, and as much as Genderswap Naraku (seriously, is there a rule about incarnations of roiling demonic hordes that makes them dress up like half-melted baby blue power rangers) tries to play to his anger and lust for power, her failure only ends up highlighting how completely he’s left that side of himself behind. Hell, he’s grown enough now that he’s actually able to wield the goddamn Testusaiga- the sword that used to repel him completely- even for just a moment. That’s how far he’s come; this sword only yields to those who use it to protect humanity, and just for a second, it yielded to Sesshomaru. There’s no better sign of how far he’s come than that, and I wish him luck as his journey continues.

Odds and Ends

-”Inuyasha, fetch!” askjdhasd holy SHIT Kagome

-”Master Jaken, let’s play tongue twisters!” I really like Rin, guys.

-When suddenly, the myth of Perseus and Andromeda.

-”One can’t have enough lives around you guys!” No, you’re thinking of cats.

-Holy shit, double length? That’s a new one.

-YOOO FUCKING SHIT KAGOME FUCK EVERYTHING UP YOU QUEEN

-”Go play your flute in another world.” Okay, as tragic as this is, I can’t stop thinking this pile of Sara’s ashes looks like somebody spilled a sno-cone and its straw, and I don’t know why.

-SHIT GODDAMN IT KAGURA WHY YOU FUCKING EVERYTHING UP

-”Miroku, you’re such a great guy.” “And so are you, Inuyasha, for coming along.” askdjhasd got em

-”Believe us, you’re safe!” Oh, that’s so justified.

-I was not aware the boundary to the world beyond lay in the hearts of spiritual priests. Interesting.

-”I let myself get tricked on purpose!” Sure, Jan.

-”That’s how close you are to each other.” I... you know what, sure.

-That feeling when Flat Stanley turns to a life of crime.

-”An invisible demon wouldn’t ‘appear’.” He’s not wrong.

And so we press on. See you next time!

[onionchoppingninja]

Orange Cake from Toradora! (ED2) - Requested

Merry Christmas and best tidings of the season! This is a nice sweet cake that you can make for Christmas, or any other time, really. I made it after happening across a fruit stall yesterday before a (pre) christmas party, and managed to whip it up in time. This was an anon request, so thanks, anon! It’s really easy to spice up according to your liking and the season.

Screenshots taken from video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tZfyE50Mwg

I bought 3 oranges because of the video, but I really only needed 2? (Thanks, Ryuji) And a carton of orange juice. I accidentally got one with pulp, but it didn’t affect it too much.

Recipe is under ‘Keep Reading’ for Dashboard Readers!

++++++

For more fan recipes, follow me @onionchoppingninja!

And check out my: Recipe Archive | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

And help this blog out (won’t cost you extra) by shopping through my Amazon Affiliate Link!

Ingredients - (For a 9-inch round cake pan)

For Candied Oranges

1 orange, peel on, sliced into half-moons

½ cup (125ml) sugar

½ cup (125ml) water

2 tbsp orange juice.

For Cake

2 cups (500ml) cake flour

1 cup (250ml) sugar

3 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

½ cup milk

½ cup (125ml) orange juice

½ cup (125ml) olive oil (or butter)

3 eggs

zest of 1 orange

Optional Christmas Spicing:

Cinnamon (a pinch, to taste)

Cointreau or Rum (2tbsp)

Method

1. We’ll make the candied oranges first. Dissolve the sugar in water and orange juice in a saucepan over low heat until it simmers.

2. Add in the orange slices, making sure they are submerged in the sugar water. Occasionally turn them over.

3. They are done when the skins are slightly transparent and the sugar is thick. (Not fully dry). If you’re making candied oranges just to eat on their own, continue till it’s drier.

4. Line a 9 inch cake pan with wax paper (mine was aluminum, (but if yours is a dark non stick one perhaps you can skip the wax paper,) and grease it throughly. 

5. Arrange the orange slices in a spiral pattern on the cake pan. DO NOT THROW AWAY THE LEFTOVER SYRUP IN THE SAUCEPAN.

WARNING: This looks nice, but it was upside down, as I found out later to my chagrin. Start spiralling out from the inside!

6. Next, we can move on to batter things. (bad pun intended). At this point, preheat your oven to 180 Celcius (reduce to 170 for smaller pans and dark pans)

7.Combine the eggs, milk, orange juice, oil, zest for the cake in a bowl and beat throughly. 

8. Sift the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt (and optional cinnamon) into an even bigger bowl, making sure they are mixed evenly.

9. Slowly add the wet mixture to the dry mixture as you beat the batter till smooth.

10. Slowly pour the batter into the cake pan, careful not to dislodge your orange-ment. (bad pun intended again.)

11. Bake for 35mins at 180C or as needed, until a toothpick inserted near the centre of the cake comes out clean. (Ryuji somehow makes his in a microwave, but his pan is metal?!?! And please don’t put metal in a microwave??!?!)

12. Let the cake cook on a rack for 15-20mins, before upending it onto a larger plate (the bottom with the orange slices is now the top.) But it’s not finished yet!

13. Heat the remaining syrup from the orange slices with 2 tbsp water or Cointreau, stirring till well-incorporated.

14. Brush the syrup onto the top of the cake. You might not be able to paint with all the colours of the wind, but you can paint with orange now… ahhahaaa.

14. Leave the cake to stand to allow the syrup to soak in! 

15. Have a very Merry Christmas as you enjoy it with your friends! (Mine were asking for English Tea after a bite of this. :P) Also, a sharp knife instead of a regular cake knife is needed to slice nicely through this. (Hence the lack of single-slice cake pictures)

(Anime review… I enjoyed the earlier parts of it but didn’t really like how it ended.) Also, I have a bit of Taiga’s personality but at least I can cook like Ryuuji. But I can’t do other housework well. hahaa.

[w1737087]

🫁

Dream

Wednesday 25th November 2020

Time: 18:58pm

I dreamt many dreams one after the other. Even one that scared me but I don’t think I remember that one either. The second to last out of about five is the one I remember. Counts because its close to most recent and impacted enough perhaps due to its length or endearment of the scenario.

Plot:

There was a plague. People were turning on one another. We shuffled in a group of whom ever we found ourselves to be with. Stranger to stranger. It started off with my whole family minus dad and the two youngest out of the picture, praying. It was in the prayer room of our old home. Mother performed prayer the correct way. We were all facing her direction when we should have been aligned beside her facing the direction she faced. As we prayed it was messy. I knew it in my mind the mistakes I had us all making. We broke it off and soon mother’s instructions corrected us to move our prayer mats to the right place. Though as we prayed wrongfully altogether I wondered in my head this wouldn’t be memorable for me at all. It will be remembered but it won’t be stashed in the sack of good memories bc I’ve been detached from family for a while and had been wanting my own space and life for sometime now. Somehow it started here. There are no visuals to support my statement but I feel it. That it started with us at home. There was brief interaction between me and the brother who had lately been crying in my recent dreams. I think one of the boys may have held a shard of glass in their hands. Or not. We fast forward to when I’m pushing a door against a woman about my size with a pony tail trying to push it against me as I do her from the other side. I’m holding this tiny key in my hand. It is to lock the door and then we’ll be safe for a short period and gather a moment to strategise a getaway. The other person in the room with me I think it was henna or the black woman I woke up to nursing me. Before I saw myself pushing to lock this door with struggle i remember how I came to be here. I manage to place in the tiny key and turn it wholly to lock us in successfully and barricad us from the enemy. I had been laying on a bed beside others too or empty beds to start with. A young chubby black nurse with her hair out sat beside me as I didn’t feel this but rather watched through her eyes or from a direction above of me splurging water out from my mouth as if I drowned in my coma and I was reviving. (I did watch a film were men were at sea recently, one man later on was revived like this- “In like Flynn”. anyhoo as I woke in this colossal white room my hospital gown was soon to be gone. The room was unstaimed, broad and immaculate; the ceiling was high and windows tall across from the beds. I had no time to explain to this woman except act fast when I knew we had to keep that other nurse out. I shot from my bed and I was dressed like me by the time I was pushing that door which was to the right of the bed after my mine. In this room another alternate scene erupts and the story goes that I was in here with three others now. The nurse blurred out. I was skilled and afraid too. I was with unidentified males and henna. I think we could say one of the lads was ginger and looked a lot like the bad guy from Robin Hood which I watched recently i.e the tall brother from peaky blinders. We were armed I think. But we feared as if we had nothing to protect ourselves with. We crouched together to be safe during the thinking in how to form a getaway strategy. The windows were enormous delightful and very revealing, hence the crouching. We were all scattered low across the room. On occasion I popped my head over to see green field and other clusters of people within range. We couldn’t let them see us. It was every group for themselves. I was about ten feet away from were my bed was to the far right in the corner of the room. Above me were windows too showing the hallway of the building there. Across from behind me was another white door. I think there were scenarios of going through there. Soon I lose my group and it is me henna and perhaps Chanel or someone else I can’t picture runnning around seeking asylum. I’m forgetting now.

A pictorial view from top:

I remember travelling with henna and others (haven’t thought of henna much to expect her in my dreams nor have we been chatting)

The plague didn’t change people. They just wanted to attack and kill you, or turn you somehow. We were just to be very afraid of its power over people.

I wish my other dreams were clearer

I love to remember them.

I enjoyed the one I had recollection of. It sounds boring but it wasn’t

The weapons I recall now were shards of glass to attack one another with

I do remember later on of this dream a table of family and friends sitting ready to dine. It was relatively something to do with the ginger guy I was once in a group with. He was at the table being scolded by his wife I think. Many men and women were here too. Him against her, he against her it was all disputes over this plague thing. I think this was either much after into the future or sometime before. But how could it be before? But as I watched over them I wondered when on earth was this. The table was long filled with many grownups and blurred kids whilst I wasn’t there but watching as if I were in an invisible bubble visiting an old era.

Intel for the dream-

My family I pictured in the dream were all of us in our current state of physical appearance

The boys- my brothers who are twins

Mother

Father - not present

Brother - not present

Sister

Me

Brother

Brother

Sister

Sister

Henna- friend

Chanel- friend

Rating: 4/10 I did enjoy it but i thought the scenes in our old home were odd and I didn’t like how in an unfriendly zone I am with family and they are present in the dream maybe. There is just a but and so not wholly pleased with some of the dream. The rating goes to the battle scenes, surviving amongst an apocalypse.

Around 2am:

Film: Fear

2:58am - Toradora- Anime

Wednesday 25th November