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magireco-minibang · 12 hours ago

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Here’s an ongoing list of all the fanfiction and fanart created for the Fall 2024 Magia Record Mini Bang! Check back throughout November (or follow @magireco-minibang) to see new stories and art as they’re posted!

(Our Spring Mini Bang Masterpost can be found here!)

Planning to enjoy these fanworks? Make sure you also check out our comment drive (which gives you a chance to earn Fanart Prizes for commenting!)

Title: "I'll slash my way into your heart!"

Artist: @lorogy662

Title: Cross My Heart {and Hope to Die}

Author: @abarero

Artist: @bloodyxblossom (art for story here!)

Rating: M for Mature

Major Characters: Hanna Sarasa, Mikoto Sena, Nemu Hiiragi, Touka Satomi

Pairings: Mikoto Sena/Hanna Sarasa, Hiiragi Nemu/Satomi Touka, Izumi Kanagi/Togame Momoko/Yakumo Mitama, Kisaki Emiri/Miyako Hinano, Hiroe Chiharu/Toki Sunao/Tokime Shizuka, Kira Temari/Komachi Mikura, Sawa Sudachi & Yakumo Mikage, Ayano Rika/Isuzu Ren, Kazari Jun/Miwa Mitsune, mentions of non-consensual OC male(s)/female character

Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence, Rape/Non-con, Underage, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Implied/Referenced Incest, Implied/Referenced Pedophilia, Implied/Referenced Underage Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Abortion, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Suicide Attempts, Period-Typical Sexism, Period-Typical Homophobia, Period-Typical Transphobia, Torture, Drug Use, Poisoning, Murder

Tags: Inspired by The Handmaiden (2016), Alternate Universe - Vampire, Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Taishou Era (1912-1926), Lesbian Vampires, Trans Female Character, Aged Up Character(s), Sexual Tension, Romance, Gothic Horror, Gothic Romance, Sexual Content, Revenge, Women Helping Women, Found Family, Hurt/Comfort, Earn Your Happy Ending

Summary:

In an isolated house deep in the Japanese forest, Hanna Sarasa leads a solitary life with only her overbearing uncle for company. Hoping to socialize her and prepare her for marriage, her uncle sends out a request for a lady’s maid to tend to his charge.

Enter Mikoto Sena, a beautiful girl with a dark secret, who has a plan of her own for dear Hanna.

And so begins a passionate friendship between Hanna and her mysterious, entrancing companion. Little do either of them know the secrets that lie buried beneath their smiles, but it may be that only through working together can they escape their harsh realities.

Title: Eve of the Nighthawk Star

Author: @shaymeme

Artist: @serendark (art for fic here!)

Rating: T for Teen

Major Characters: Ashley Taylor, Kuroe, Rika Ayano, Ren Isuzu

Pairings: Ashley Taylor/Kuroe

Warnings: None

Tags: Fluff, Aged-up Characters, Implied/Referenced Sex, Comfort, Cuddling, Happy Ending, Blorbos are Finally Happy

Summary: Kuroe’s twentieth birthday is rapidly approaching, and Ashley wants to plan the best birthday ever for her girlfriend! She’s got so many awesome ideas in mind… but why does Kuroe seem so distant all of a sudden? She has to know!

Title: Three Houses Record: A New Star

Author: FairReviewer

Artist: scrubilillo

Rating: T for Teen

Major Characters: My Unit | Byleth, Tamaki Iroha, Yui Tsuruno, Izumi Kanagi

Pairings: Futaba Sana/Tamaki Iroha, Flayn/My Unit | Byleth, Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Nanami Yachiyo, Mitsuki Felicia/Ignatz Victor, Izumi Kanagi/Edelgard von Hresvelg/Hubert von Vestra

Warnings: None

Tags: Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossover, Crossover Pairings, Adopted Sibling Relationship, Polyamory

Summary: Once more, we tell this story. Except, it's not exactly the one you remember. Featuring characters from the mobile game Magia Record, who'll be new students amongst the familiar faces. With them, we'll find a new route in the story of the Three Houses, and hopefully find that long-desired True Ending.

Title: Sayonara to Nirvana

Author: @mayarsh

Artist: @abarero (art for fic here!)

Rating: T for Teen

Major Characters: Sena Mikoto, Sarasa Hanna, Tamaki Iroha

Pairings: Sarasa Hanna/Sena Mikoto

Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence

Tags: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Songfic, Angst, Strangers to Friends to Lovers, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Religious Guilt, Slow Burn, Protectiveness, Devotion

Summary: As the rumour of a half beast residing the wood spreads like a disease, Iroha Tamaki, a celestial Deity of Peace ordered her trusted paladin to investigate and bring end to that potential danger. Hanna Sarasa obeys unquestionably, but find herself lost within doubt after learning that the feared half beast was no more than a lonely elf girl bounded to her curse.

Will that silver armoured knight finish her holy duty to bring salvation? Or will she turn her back from the light and let the darkness consume her?

Title: The Impossible Kiss

Author: @aurora666analyze

Artist: Neniu (art for fic here!)

Rating: M for Mature

Major Characters: Tamaki Iroha, Nanami Yachiyo, Kuroe, Azusa Mifuyu, Tamaki Ui

Pairings: Iroha/Yachiyo, Yachiyo/Mifuyu, Iroha & Kuroe

Warnings: Major Character Death

Tags: Magia Record Anime Spoilers, Sharing a Bed, Angst and Feels, Post-Canon, Alternate Universe- Canon Divergence, Idiots in Love, PTSD, Dreamscapes, Dreams and Nightmares, Love Confessions, Bog Gay Love Story, Nightmare Fuel, Depression, True Love’s Kiss, Iroha is Sleeping Beauty

Summary:

Today is a wonderful day! Iroha Tamaki's 16th birthday! Everything should be right as rain but Iroha is quite sour for MANY reasons.

BUT someone worked very hard to make this day special for her...Yachiyo Nanami and the more Iroha gazes into her the more something IMPOSSIBLE blooms from her heart.

Is Iroha even allowed to ask for a kiss on her birthday? Iroha is DYING to know the answer to this question.

Title: A Court of Snow and Mirrors

Author: @chairteeth

Artist: @kyrakyrakitty

Rating: M for Mature

Major Characters: Hiiragi Nemu, Satomi Touka, Satomi Nayuta, Himuro Rabi, Sena Mikoto, Futaba Sana, Tamaki Ui

Pairings: Touka/Nemu, Nayuta/Rabi, Sana/Ui, Hanna/Mikoto, Himuro Rabi/Shirogane (past), Nanami Yachiyo/Azusa Mifuyu (past), Azusa Mifuyu/Alina Gray/Misono Karin, Mitsuki Felicia/Tamaki Ui (one-sided)

Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence, Unethical Experimentation, Power Imbalance, Abuse of Authority, Neglect, Infant Death/Murder, Kidnapping, Mutilation, Body Horror

Tags: Alternate Universe - Farm, Alternate Universe - Fae, Aged-Up Characters, Humor (for the first half), Enemies to Lovers X (more specifically enemies to enemies with benefits to ??? to lovers), Domestic Fluff, Implied/Referenced Sex, Kink Discussions, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Angst, Riches to Rags to Riches (technically also Rags to Riches for someone else), Contracts (See Terms And Conditions), Emotional Baggage, Mental Breakdown, Child Soldiers, Slow Burn, Fluff, Alcohol, Worldbuilding

Summary:

Being sent to live in a dilapidated farm with a person they can barely stand for an indefinite amount of time felt like a cruel and unusual punishment to Nayuta and like it should be the premise of some cozy romance game to Touka, were it not Nayuta that she was stuck with.

After their fields begin to function, Nayuta insists that there are lights floating around at night and a dark figure sneaking around, and she will stab it with a pitchfork if she absolutely must. Touka thinks she should be sent to a psych ward for it.

Touka wants everyone to stop asking her to do farm work and thinks their hired help is excessively mean to her, yet feels the need to unveil whatever secrets that helper may be hiding. Nayuta thinks Touka has simply never had a crush before.

Nemu would prefer it if the Satomi cousins stopped making her blood pressure spike. Rumors of a planned regicide, the special ops officers at the inn, and the locals' increasing tendency to go into the forest without a talisman were bad enough before she encountered Touka "I Am Going To Make Bad Decisions" Satomi.

Title: Rise and Fall of a Magical Girl

Author: @magicaldogtoto

Artist: @harunakonomi (art for fic here!)

Rating: T for Teen

Major Characters: Original Characters, Yachiyo Nanami, Mifuyu Azusa

Pairings: Yachiyo Nanami/Mifuyu Azusa

Warnings: None

Tags: Urban Fantasy, Magical Girl, Prequel

Summary: Prequel to "Yachiyo Nanami and the Fashion Model."

Years before the Wings of the Magius rose up to save Magical Girls, three veterans patrol the streets of Shinsei Ward; a small team, but it's better than being at each other's throats. Then one day, they come across two newly-contracted Magical Girls: Yachiyo Nanami and Mifuyu Azusa. The discovery of two younger girls causes a chain reaction that will change the hierarchy of Magical Girls for years to come.

Title: The Scarlet Flower and the Walking Corpse

Author: RYNO Ross

Artist: @randomartsideblog (art for fic here!)

Rating: M for Mature

Major Characters: Ren Isuzu, Rika Ayano, Yachiyo Nanami

Pairings: Rika/Ren

Warnings: Violence, Depiction of Suicide

Tags: Alternate Universe, Ancient History, Aged Up Characters

Summary: It was a time of peace during a period of war. Various City-States in Japan had feuded with each other for decades, trying to conquer one another. At the center of these battles were young women who commanded spirits known as Witches. These Witch Charmers drew upon the abilities of the Witches, and gained power from them as well.

A Witch Charmer from Chuo City is invited to Shinsei City by it’s leader, Lord Nanami, to investigate a series of assaults that have recently plagued the city. This woman, Rika Ayano, was noted for her mastery of her Witch, Belladonna, and the powers it granted her, but was too young to participate in the war when she became a Charmer, and thus had no combat experience.

Nevertheless, Rika takes the mission, looking for an opportunity to put her powers to the test, as well as to see Shinsei now that there’s a peace between the City States. She arrives, ready to begin her investigation, and while none have seen the assailant responsible for the attacks, the populace does suspect someone: a mysterious woman spoken in hushed tones known as the Walking Corpse…

Title: On Flightless Wings

Author: GoggleLad

Artist: @feenixmork (art for fic here!)

Rating: G for General

Major Characters: Masara Kagami, Kokoro Awane

Pairings: Masara/Kokoro

Warnings: None

Tags: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Technically Subtext, Fluff and Drama, Introspection, Archaeologist Kokoro, Angel Wings Masara, Worldbuilding, Includes Art, magic and fantasy, Falling (in love and in skies)

Summary: In a fantasy world, Kokoro Awane is an explorer of ancient ruins. While exploring a clifftop ruined city once said to float above the clouds, she has an encounter with a beautiful winged girl, Masara Kagami, who has never once taken flight. This chance meeting, seemingly innocuous, will change the course of both of their lives. What can awaken the desire to fly in a girl that feels nothing?

Title: achilles, come down

Author: @resident-normal-person

Artist: @sicksweetcreamy (art for fic here!)

Rating: T for Teen

Major Characters: Yui Tsuruno, Nanami Yachiyo, Azusa Mifuyu, Satomi Touka, various other playable magireco characters, Yui Tsuruno’s Family

Pairings: None

Warnings: None

Tags: Character Study, Songfic, Dysfunctional Family, Minor Character Death, Mental Health Issues

Summary:

Tsuruno was strong; she was taller than her older sister and showed no signs of stopping anytime soon. She’d always been stronger and faster than most of her classmates. With magical powers, physical fights wouldn’t be a problem. As Kyubey promised, she won the 800 million yen lottery.

Is it worth it, to be the mightiest?

Check back or follow @magireco-minibang to see more fanworks as they come out!

#magia record #MagiReco #puella magia madoka magica #pmmm #magireco minibang fall 2024 #masterpost

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precuredaily · 4 years ago

Text

Precure Day 198

Episode: Yes! Precure 5 49 - “The Dreams and Hopes of Precure 5!” Date watched: 17 June 2020 Original air date: 27 January 2008 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/qlReFMY Transformation Gallery: https://imgur.com/a/6k6SzS0 Project info and master list of posts: http://tinyurl.com/PCDabout

the end is nigh

It’s been an adventure these last few episodes! The team found the 45th Pinky and filled the Dream Collet, defeated Bloody, and then had the Collet stolen from them. They went to Nightmare’s dimension and fought Kawarino, where he tossed them around and Despariah used the Collet to restore her youth. Then, despite all odds, they found hope where there was none and pulled themselves out of despair, managing to defeat Kawarino and rescue the lost citizens of the Palmier Kingdom! Then and only then did Despariah finally stand up and begin her own attack on the girls. They’ve overcome every obstacle placed in front of them up to now, but how will they fare against the literal incarnation of despair?

The Plot

The cold opening is a quick recap of the previous episode and the final scene, with Despariah finally making her stand. After the opening theme, the girls proceed to take on Despariah’s kowainas, and the action cuts quickly from girl to girl as they kick, punch, and chop their way through the ranks. Lemonade remembers that they were able to defeat them previously by separating them from the ground, but when Aqua knocks them off their feet, they land right back on the ground no worse for the wear. Despariah taunts them, but Dream insists they’ll pull through, and they proceed to kick more ass. They do dispel some of the monsters, but just as quickly as they do, more pop up. Nonetheless, Despariah grows concerned, and she confronts Dream to personally push her into despair. She restrains Dream while a group of Kowaina attack the citizens of Palmier, but Mint blocks them, so she sets the squad on the other four cures, throwing them in the air. She hypnotizes Dream as she taunts that their power came from the now-useless Dream Collet, and Dream falls into a dream.

She awakens in Coco’s arms as he tells her to give up, as he doesn’t want to see her get hurt anymore, and reaches for the Pinky Catch. The real Coco, Nuts, and Milk watch from afar but Coco isn’t worried about Dream at all, he’s sure she’ll overcome this. Sure enough, inside the illusion, Dream recognizes Coco as a fake because he would never tell her to quit. Her Pinky Catch glows with the light of hope and several Kowaina in her immediate vicinity are destroyed. Coco proclaims that Dream is always optimistic and striving for a better future. She turns to him and says that his kindness to everyone is what gives her the strength to keep going, and that’s why she loves him. Then she faces Despariah herself and declares that she will make Coco’s dream come true, no matter what, and the other girls line up with her.

Now here’s where it starts to get juicy. Despariah starts to crack under the pressure. Rather than being intimidating, she sounds afraid. She asks the girls why they aren’t afraid of aging or their power waning, and she begins to admit that her new eternal youth hasn’t helped her the way she thought it would. Cure Dream, seeing her opponent breaking down with anxiety, does what she does best: she empathizes. She bravely steps forward and cancels her transformation, facing Despariah not as Cure Dream, but as Nozomi. Nozomi kindly and gently tells Despariah she just wants to talk, because she can tell the villainess is scared, which means she has a heart. Nozomi’s sheer kindness causes the kowaina to begin to disperse as she repels even Despariah’s despair, and the other cures decide to follow her lead and detransform. Thus they stand in front of their archenemy, vulnerable and powerless but happy.

The girls reaffirm their willingness to go along with Nozomi’s reckless abandon and Despariah realizes that their friendship is what keeps them from being afraid. Nozomi invites Despariah to really talk things out, but suddenly Kawarino reappears, alive but on his last legs. He insists that Despariah doesn’t need them, and begins to attack Nozomi, but Despariah blasts him away. She confesses that her newfound immortality has still not brought her peace and she wants to hear what the girls have to say. Kawarino can’t handle this, and begins to despair at the idea that everything he’s done for her was pointless. The Darkness of Despair opens beneath his feet and suddenly a giant hand grabs him. He recognizes the deformed figure beneath the black surface as Bloody and he gets slowly dragged down into the abyss, begging Despariah for help, but all she can do is watch in fear.

Seeing what became of her subordinates shatters Despariah’s already fragile mental state, and the entire Nightmare world begins to crumble as she loses control of her power. She orders Nozomi and co to seal away the Nightmare world with their powers, trapping her in it forever, because if they don’t then her unchecked power of destruction will tear their world apart, too. Despariah and Nozomi share sad looks with each other as they both understand what must be done, and the girls transform again, using the Symphony Set to seal away the Nightmare world. Despariah approaches Coco, Nuts, and the citizens of Palmier, returning the exhausted Dream Collet and apologizing for her actions before she turns away and walks back into Nightmare HQ. Despariah genuinely smiles and thanks the girls as the building is encased in butterfly wings and implodes.

When the light fades, the girls are back in the plaza in their world, at twilight, silent and sad. Dream in particular can’t even look at the others for a while and we don’t see her face, an indirect way of showing how upset she is by the events that have just taken place. No words are exchanged in this beautiful, tragic scene.

The scene fades to night at Karen’s mansion. An idle comment about Jiiya’s absence explains why they’re free to let all the Palmier citizens wander around the facility. Everyone is trying to unwind and catch up and make plans for rebuilding the Palmier Kingdom. Papaya, Coco and Nuts’s teacher, finally asks which of them will become king, and they’re visibly uncomfortable, but Milk explains how they’ve worked so hard together to survive in this world and get to this point, they should become kings together. Everyone agrees and the two princes seem happy.

Later in the evening as festivities have wound down, Komachi and Nuts are talking. She thanks him for pushing her further with her writing and supporting her, and he thanks her for her kindness and perseverance and saving him from his own self-loathing. Both of them have inspired the other to go farther and achieve the previously unthinkable. Nuts even gives Komachi his key to the kingdom for her to remember him by.

Meanwhile, Nozomi and Coco are having a much-needed heart to heart. Nozomi says she thinks him and Nuts as dual kings is a good deal, because they can compensate for each other’s weaknesses, and then the conversation shifts to the promise he made to show Nozomi the Palmier Kingdom. He reaffirms that vow, as she says that she looks forward to seeing the restored kingdom and he wants to build a kingdom worth showing to her.

In both of these cases, the words of love go unspoken, but not unheard.

As dawn breaks, the girls and all the fairies gather on the lawn to say their final goodbyes. Karen and Milk wish each other good luck in the future, rounding off our shipping pairs, and then all the girls begin to cry. However, Nozomi reminds them all that it’s not farewell, and as long as their hearts stay connected, they’ll surely meet again.

Then Nozomi reveals to Coco that she’s finally found her dream: she wants to be a teacher like he was. He inspired her by telling her she was full of potential (a callback to episode 11) and gave her a lot of knowledge, drive, and motivation, and she wants to inspire the next generation in the same way. He responds in kind by saying he wants himself and Nuts to instill hope in his citizens the same way Nozomi instilled hope in him. With that, the girls relinquish their Pinky Catches, which turn back into the butterflies that are the Five Lights of the Palmier Kingdom. They form a ring, which absorbs all the fairies into it before transforming into a giant rainbow butterfly and flying away into the sunrise.

fly away now, fly away now, fly awaaaaaay

To wrap the episode up, we fast forward an indeterminate amount of time to check in on the girls post-Precure. In voiceover, they each express their difficulties in achieving their dreams: Nozomi still struggles academically, Urara still fails auditions sometimes, Komachi gets writer’s block, Rin has trouble coming up with designs, and Karen has doubts about working in medicine. Nonetheless, they all find comfort in turning to each other for help, and their friendship runs deeper than any obstacles. The final scene is the five of them posing together in a still frame.

The Analysis

At this point, Precure final episodes have established a pattern. The first half resolves the battle with the villain, while the second half wraps up any other loose ends in their civilian lives. Such is the case here, but it plays a bit differently from the finales of the Futari wa era. The peril never quite reaches the same depths of intensity, largely due to the immutable optimism of Nozomi and the team and Despariah’s growing uncertainty with her own cause. Comparatively, a longer time seems to be spent tying up loose ends, which I suppose, as with many elements of this series that seem more drawn out, is tied into there being five main characters instead of two. This is NOT a criticism, by any means. I think the story beats covered by the conclusion are appropriate and well-paced and properly wrap up everyone’s story arcs without rushing or overstaying the welcome. Accordingly, I’m going to subdivide this review into two halves, one for the conclusion to both the battle with Despariah and Nightmare, and the other for the girls’ duties to the Palmier Kingdom and the epilogue.

In this case, the fight with Despariah feels especially bittersweet, because for the very first time in a Precure series, the final boss was actually won over by the girls’ ideals instead of just outright blown to bits, but it was too late for her to redeem herself as her power was out of control. Compared to the Star Twinkle finale from early this year (at the time of this writing), which I found rather underwhelming with regard to Ophiuchus just walking away after enslaving half the galaxy, this episode properly redeems its villain without absolving her of the weight and consequence of her actions. Did she deserve her fate? That’s hard to say, it would be interesting to see her use her newfound immortality to walk the Earth, trying to find hope and peace and pay for her sins. On the other hand, it’s a beautiful tragedy for her to gain immortality and eternal youth only to immediately shut herself away forever because her own power has grown out of control and threatens the world she wants to be a part of. It’s similar in concept to the death of Dark Dream in the movie, although that one was much more of a gut punch than this for a few reasons. The redemption deaths are similar, however, in the catalyst for their transformations: Nozomi, the eternal optimist. She has set the bar for team leaders that will be hard to surpass (although I have a few other favorites). She constantly strives to better herself, refuses to bow to negative pressure, and has pulled herself and her friends out of the pits of despair. She turns enemies into friends with the strength of her hope and dreams, but her greatest power is her ability to know when to stop the fight and sympathize with someone in pain. She saw Despariah was losing her grip and instead of seizing an easy victory, she detransformed and approached her as a person. I can’t begin to describe how powerful of a gesture this is, but it’s the absolute best thing Nozomi could do and it perfectly embodies her best qualities.

Regardless of her poor wish, though, it was a good narrative choice to have her steal the wish, whatever she chose to do with it. Since the series was all about hope and despair, throwing all the characters into very despairing situations and then still having them defeat their demons with hope is extraordinary and perfectly encapsulates the message of the show. Coco and Nuts lose their wish and can’t use magic to rebuild the Palmier Kingdom? Fine, they’ll do it by hand! The lost citizens of Palmier Kingdom are actually Nightmare’s members? Thank goodness, they’re still alive and well after all! The Precures are all being forced into despair? But wait, we haven’t even realized our dreams yet, let’s talk about them! At every turn, the series and the climax in particular has been about hope overcoming despair, so subjecting the protagonists to the ultimate despair lets their hopes shine brighter than ever, really driving the message home, and that wouldn’t have been possible if Coco and Nuts had used the wish a little sooner.

While it’s not a particularly deep message, Despariah’s realization that eternal youth has not made her happy is still very important. Who among us hasn’t wished for some grand change in our lives? Now would that change actually make you happier, in the long run? I’m not suggesting there’s nothing you could have or do that would improve your demeanor, but it’s easy to see why Despariah wished for the wrong thing. She misattributed the cause of her depression, rather than trying to make the most of her life, and consequently she damned herself to an even worse fate. She could have wished for help, for companionship, or for the capacity to better understand people. Instead she wished for eternal youth and power, and then learned too late that this wasn’t what she needed.

The only thing that didn’t really work for me was Kawarino coming back, as that didn’t make sense. It was a catalyst to really throw Despariah into despair again after she was starting to make some headway with the girls, and cause her to lose control of her power. If they had at least hinted in the previous episode that he had an ace up his sleeve and wasn’t completely gone, it would have been more acceptable to me. However, it was good to see him react to Despariah embracing the message of hope, and see her assert herself over him. It was also very satisfying, though also horrifying, to see him get dragged down into the pits of despair by Bloody. Seeing how frightful Nightmare is from the outside was important to her development, but it also showed she was beyond salvation and it made her choice to self-isolate for eternity more tragic.

I like the symbolism behind her returning the Collet to Coco and Nuts, though. She knows it’s a hollow gesture and it doesn’t begin to make up for what she’s done, but it is about the only thing she really can do to show her remorse. You can also see that the citizens of Palmier aren’t exactly ready to forgive her for imprisoning them, but they appreciate the gesture. The whole farewell is full of bittersweetness like this.

I gotta hand it to the writers for this, making her repent but still be condemned to eternal solitude by her own hand instantly makes this finale twice as emotional as it would be if she just got beaten normally, and it’s more meaningful, speaking to the complexities of the good vs evil fight and of course the season writ large.

Now, for the cleanup. The second half of the episode is all tying up loose ends and putting the final notes on the subplots. How do they settle the issue of who gets to be king? Make both Coco and Nuts the co-kings! It’s honestly the only way they could do it, since they compensate so well for each other’s shortcomings. It’s a conflict that’s been present throughout the show, but never really dwelled upon until more recent episodes, notably 45. Coco is better with people, but Nuts is more studious and knowledgeable. Both of them bring important leadership qualities to the table. Honestly I always had Coco as the better ruler, with Nuts as his advisor, but making them equals really speaks to the theme of the franchise, that everyone brings different skills that complement each other, and it’s a callback to the first three seasons with the two-person teams.

The thanks and farewells between Komachi and Nuts, Nozomi and Coco, and Karen and Milk are all very moving. They demonstrate the growth they’ve all achieved since the start of the show. Nuts pushed Komachi to be a better writer, Coco inspired Nozomi to be a better learner, and Milk allowed Karen to be a better protector. Capping off their growth throughout the season with these heart-to-heart conversations really resonates and serves as a nice bow on top of their arcs. And as I said earlier, although they don’t say “I love you” out loud, you can tell they mean it. Some may criticize me for including Milk and Karen on that list, because their relationship isn’t as romantic as the other two, being more or a platonic friendship, but nonetheless there’s a deep compassion between them and as I’ve pointed out, they have a close bond that Milk doesn’t share with any of the others. Karen taught her to step back and smell the roses, Karen nursed her when she was sick, Karen has been instrumental in Milk adjusting to life in the human world and Milk helped Karen find her life’s passion. I’ve written a lot about NozoCoco and KomaNuts before, but Karen and Milk have a distinct closeness as well, and their farewell is important too. In fact I wish they’d gotten a true closing scene like the other couples got, but I can understand why they didn’t. They had a lot to cram into this episode. And let’s briefly recount all the other important friendships that were seen throughout the show. Urara and Komachi deepened their friendship over their mutual interest in art and storytelling. Rin and Karen bonded over their shared lack of ambition, and then found goals to strive towards. I really love that even within the circle of friends, they each found specific partnerships and reasons to bond with certain others.

So let’s talk about Nozomi. When the show started, she was presented as a bit of an airhead. She was more than happy to cheer on her friend Rin but she was introduced in the classic “late for school” sequence and we were told she didn’t have much in the way of dreams or a capacity for learning. Boy was she optimistic though.

After meeting Coco and making his wish to revive Palmier Kingdom into her dream, she really changed. Obviously her earnest perusal of that objective is what drew the other girls to her, but helping Coco allowed Coco to help her, and he gave her a genuine passion for learning. He helped her challenge her learning difficulties, and at the end of the series she has internalized that by making it her dream to pass on his teachings as a teacher herself.

This is the perfect capstone to her growth and development throughout the show. I keep coming back to her line from the movie:

“I’m better than I was yesterday! I’m better than I was an hour ago, a minute or even a second ago!” Well she sure improved, and now she’s found something she can pour herself into that will help her keep improving. From the girl with no dream to the girl whose dream is to help everyone reach their potential, surrounded by supportive friends. I just love to see it.

Finally, I really, really love the epilogue. It is perfectly staged and framed and composed. Each girl briefly talking about her struggles as she works towards her dream, the small everyday hardships they face is a reminder that they’re not perfect. They’re ordinary girls just trying to make their way in life. Their greatest strength, whether as Precure or as students, is their friendship and encouragement for each other. The way they each sit down at the table one by one, silently reaching out to their support network, is so encouraging. And the final sequence has a couple of callbacks to earlier in the show, like Urara’s unusual food choices and both Rin and Karen bringing their preferred juice (orange and grape.) It’s a small reminder of where they started to show how much they’ve changed.

vimeo

Now they could end their development here, and I’d be happy, but fortunately we get an entire season that shows where they all go after this that I get to dive into after this, the last such time we’ll have that opportunity in Precure. So look forward to that!

Also, I want to note that the art for the final still frames is gorgeous.

I wish I could say that about the whole episode but unfortunately Kawano Hiroyuki is the key animator and animation director for the finale, and his weaknesses are on full display: flat faces with wide eyes and strangely drawn noses, minimal shading, oddly placed heads, and sometimes weird body proportions as well. When he’s good, he’s good, but when he’s bad, it’s visible. I wish the finale could have had some higher quality artwork but I guess the budget was stretched a bit thin by this point, or they were focusing all their attention on the next series. I don’t have a lot of insight into how this process works behind the scenes. Here’s a few examples of the art that I found a bit lacking.

On the other hand, there are some gorgeous visuals here as well, don’t let me make it sound like it’s all bad either. There’s a few symbolic shots I really like, such as the mirroring of the girls’ feet in and out of transformation, as they face Despariah first as enemies, then as friends.

There’s also the reflection of Despariah in Dream’s eyes that gets an A+ from me for shot composition.

As well as the Kowaina mask superimposed over the fake Coco in Nozomi’s illusion.

And of course, all the fairies of the Pamier Kingdom returning home in a giant butterfly, to cap off our symbolism.

Rewatching Yes! Precure 5 has been a wonderful journey. It’s a great ride from start to finish and an all new direction for the Pretty Cure franchise. It was filled with great characters to follow and I was extremely invested in seeing them grow and develop. This finale truly stands out in the franchise for its discussion of depression and immortality, dreams and hopes, and what’s important in life. It was the perfect conclusion to a fantastic series and I couldn’t ask for a better ending. However, our journey isn’t quite over! The adventures of Nozomi, Rin, Urara, Komachi, Karen, Coco, Nuts, and Milk will continue in Yes! Precure 5 GoGo!

Next time, on Precure Daily, we catch up with everyone after a few months when Nozomi receives a mysterious message, and they get caught up in another battle for the fate of the world. Look forward to it!

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 1 kettei! (in the preview)

#Precure #Pretty Cure #Yes! Precure 5 #YPC549 #PCD198

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courtingstars · 4 years ago

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Notes for The Vanishing Prince: Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight has been posted! I don’t have nearly as many notes this time. (Which is good, because it took me a lot less time to draft this post. XD;) Still, I did want to bring up a couple of things that I thought might be worth mentioning.

And as always, I updated the inspiration board for this fic over on Pinterest, so feel free to check out the new images if you feel like it/have access to Pinterest. (The most recently added images are at the top, so when you scroll down, you’re basically going backwards through the story.) And with that, onto the notes...

(Cut for the ramblings of a writer who overthinks everything, and also some very important notes about omurice, because I LOVED writing that part…)

Akashi and His Mom, Plus Heian Poetry

This is basically just a note to say that I really loved being able to write the scene with Akashi and his mom. <3 I think it’s the first scene of them together that I’ve posted online…? (Though I’ve written lots of scenes where Akashi talks about his mother, or has a very brief memory of her.) I wrote something short about them for Mother’s Day years ago, but I never finished it, sadly. So it felt nice to finally be able to include a glimpse of how I see their interactions.

Also, the part about Japanese poetry is indeed a thing! A lot of the Heian-era poetry in Japan revolves around themes of courtly love, and because of how courting worked in that time period, they often feature various forms of pining-for-your-lover-from-a-distance. So like Akashi says, there was a folk belief that if you were missing your lover enough, you would appear in each other’s dreams, so that you could at least be together in the dream world. Like this site about the poet Ono-no-Komachi explains, “the intensity of one's feelings for one's lover could induce him to appear in one's dream or could cause one to appear in his dreams.” I always thought that was a fascinating concept. (Also the idea that Akashi would be studying those poems at six years old is just really funny to me? But anyway. //laughs)

Akashi’s Issues, Poor Guy

I don’t want to go into too much detail here, but I thought it might be worth mentioning… One of the things I really wanted to explore in this fic (and the series as a whole) is the reality that working on mental health problems can be a very difficult and often nonlinear process. While it’s not the only plot line of the story—and I definitely don’t claim to have done a great job with it by any means, though I try my best!—I felt like it was important to take the time to show how a person’s struggles with mental illness don’t just get solved overnight. Akashi has been fighting a lot of the same problems throughout the series, because these kinds of emotional hang-ups and coping mechanisms aren’t easy to change.

To be honest, it felt somewhat counterintuitive to me as a writer, because back when I was trying to publish original stories, there was this idea that you weren’t supposed to write characters “brooding” for too long or repeat the same issues/mistakes over and over. Basically, the characters needed to show growth quickly, and passages that could be seen as repetitive should probably be cut, because they weren’t “progressing the story.” While I can understand that idea in a writing sense, I tend to feel like it’s not a very fair representation of what it’s like to struggle with mental health. (Which also applies to a lot of other kinds of personal issues/growth as well, honestly. Change is just hard in general.)

So I’m definitely trying to walk a balance between not writing the same scenes over and over, while also showing Akashi’s struggles as an ongoing journey for him. The latter was really important to me, both as a writer, and as someone who’s had cycles and setbacks with my own mental health stuff.

Bokushi Is Still Kind of an Asshole, Lol

On kind of a similar note… I have no idea how Bokushi comes across as a character at this point in the story? //laughs But if anyone finds him to be kind of a jerk, I will say that’s an intentional choice, at least. Ideally, I wanted him to be likable but still flawed, and I do find him hilarious personally, but… Hopefully it’s obvious that I don’t think he’s a perfect person, by any means. XD;

I think I’ve said before that I really want to use this storyline as a chance to explore my view of his character—and the why/how of how his personality differs from Oreshi—in as much detail as possible. Hopefully it ends up coming across as nuanced in the long run… But if nothing else, I hope it’s at least fairly interesting to read! Because I do find him extremely interesting as a character.

Omurice!

So here’s my major cultural note for the chapter… I’m guessing a lot of people are already aware of the fact that Furihata’s favorite food in canon is omurice, since it tends to pop up in AkaFuri fics a lot. For anyone who’s not familiar with the dish, omurice (a borrowed compound word for “rice omelet”) is a Western-inspired Japanese dish that’s extremely popular as a comfort food. (This type of Western-inspired cuisine is generally called yoshoku. Which I think I also mentioned in Storming the Castle, but… it’s been awhile? //laughs)

So basically, omurice consists of pan-fried rice that’s usually seasoned with either ketchup (often considered the more homey/classic version) or demi-glace sauce (more often seen in restaurants). Like in a lot of fried rice recipes, vegetables and meat are added to the rice, and then the whole thing is served beneath a super-fluffy egg omelet. It typically looks like this, or this. I’ve made it before, and enjoyed it way more than I expected. So while I was writing this chapter, I couldn’t resist preparing one of my own (for research purposes of course, lol):

I’m not a good cook, to put it mildly, but I was proud that this one came out a little better than the last time I tried it. XD

To me, the coolest thing about watching someone prepare omurice is the part where they plate the omelet... This can be done a few different ways, and some take more skill than others. (I totally cheat, by making a single-layer omelet and just setting it on top of the rice as best I can. XD) The most difficult way (and the way Furihata does it in the fic!) is to layer the omelet on top of itself while you’re cooking it, so that it becomes a kind of pouch that you can slice open over the rice. There’s a great animation of this process over on my Pinterest board, and I also really recommend two videos on Youtube if you’d like to see more… This clip features an amazing chef from the most famous omurice restaurant in Kyoto, and this one is an iconic scene from Tampopo, a classic Japanese film. To learn more about the context of those clips, and about omurice in general, I also recommend this really fun article about it.

The thing I find the most interesting about omurice is that it’s such a popular comfort food, so it’s often associated with home and family life. That’s why in The Fast Train to Kyoto, I was inspired to have Furihata’s mom make him omurice when he’s having a bad day. At the same time, though, the dish can also have a bit of a “lovey dovey” connotation to it? Like how in this survey it was one of the top foods that Japanese guys said they would like their girlfriends to make for them. (Hence the trope of decorating the omelet with a ketchup heart, as Bokushi mentions, in his extremely Bokushi way. //laughs)

For all these reasons, I tend to think of omurice as the perfect favorite food for a character like Furihata. It definitely inspired how I write about him, especially when it comes to things like his family life as well as his romantic side. <3

So How About All Those Storming the Castle References Huh

This is just a quick note to say that if anyone happened to be confused by some of the references in this chapter, a lot of them were referring back to events from Part Two of Storming the Castle. (Like the first time Furihata saw Akashi’s dad, the huge portrait of Akashi and his parents in the ballroom, the butsudan altar, the secret passage with the stairs, the ghost, etc, etc… Also the character of Ginhara, since he’s the butler who runs the mansion in Tokyo.)

I tend to be pretty indecisive about exactly how much detail I should use to explain something that happened earlier in the series… Since I know some people might not have read the earlier fics, and at the same time, I don’t want to be too repetitive for those who have? In any case, if anything was confusing/unclear, it was probably a callback to that story. (Oh, and there was also a callback to The Fast Train to Kyoto, about when Akashi and Furihata talked about becoming friends!)

Well, that’s it from me this time around. Thank you so much for reading, as always. As I mentioned in more detail over on Ao3, I really hope everyone is staying safe where possible, and supporting each other in this difficult time. I will do my best to get the next chapter posted very soon. <3

#the vanishing prince #kat writes fanfic #long post #text post #akafuri #I'm so glad I was finally able to share all those omurice notes lol #and also share the omurice cooking scene!!#I never thought that Furi would end up preparing a rice omelet for Bokushi haha #and I was just really amused by his utter disdain for the ketchup lol #definitely inspired by all my friends who were like why would you fry rice with ketchup and I'm like IT'S BETTER THAN YOU'D THINK IT'D BE #anyway #this was also a tough chapter to edit because it was SO LONG #and I felt bad for Oreshi #and these boys have complicated feelings #but I hope it was enjoyable to read because I did have fun writing it <3 #kat writes about basketball dorks

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venus-says · 4 years ago

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Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GoGo Episodes 01-12

Roses are red, but roses are also blue.

Are you all ready for a precure overload for the next few weeks?

Yes, I'm back rewatching the previews precure series and reviewing them, and gotta be honest I'm so glad I'm back to doing these. Obviously, it would've been better if I had done the right thing and got back to doing these while Healin' Good was on hiatus and not now only 2 weeks before the show is back on TV (if the information we all have is correct), but I'm still suffering from the abstinence of my weekly precure dose anyway so this will fix the problem and give me an overdose for the next month or so.

Coming back to GoGo was a funny experience. Back in March I had watched about 10 episodes or so and I was HATING the show, I don't remember what was exactly that was making me feel that way but I seemed very aggressive in my notes, but for writing this post I decided to rewatch the episodes I had already seen, take new notes and everything, and in the second way around I liked this show WAAAAAY more. Like, if you compare my notes from March to the new ones I made this time around it's like two different people talking about two different shows.

Does this mean I think GoGo is perfect? Not really. I still have some problems, most of them were carried over from the first season, but after some more thought, the things I actually dislike are more or less related to a single character rather than the show as a whole. In fact, I think I liked these 12 episodes more than the first 12 of the first season and probably I like them more than the entire season as a whole? I think that because this is a sequel, I already know most of these characters, the dynamics they have, and the show doesn't need to take its time to explain those details to us leaving more space for them to work with the new characters for the season, also another thing that helps is that there are not many new characters outside the villains which gives the new additions to the cast even more space for them to shine.

I also like this season more on the thematic level. While on season 1 the themes were hopes and dreams, the theme for this season (at least from this starting point) is conveying/delivering your feelings which I feel works better for this cast than the theme of season 1 does, especially seeing how they really want us to buy in the romantic element for these two seasons. It is a bit on the nose, yes, after all, they have a delivery boy, a mailbox mascot, and a whole lot of letters going around, some of them even being sent by animals, but I like that. It's actually very charming seeing so many letters when we live in the era of e-mail where even e-mail is becoming "obsolete".

The plot of the season is, so far, pretty much the same. It's the Evil organization wants a Magical item related to Another world, that Magical item falls in the Precure hands, and the Evil organization starts to target them. The plot is so similar to the first season that they even have those useless little fairies that have no purpose at that all need to be collected on their transformation devices, this time around they at least have the excuse of looking for the monarchs, but still is a pretty bland part of the formula. But even taking this into consideration, as mentioned, I really liked these episodes by themselves, you know? The first episode was a really strong one, they have an episode focused on Urara that is also pretty good, and there's the one who's probably one of my favorite episodes ever where they're going to eat a cake but the cake goes missing and Komachi starts acting like a detective and they go on this very fun accusation game that later gets tied in with the villain of the episode and is just very absurd and also a lot of fun.

Another point I absolutely love for this season is the upgrade the girls got in terms of designs and powers. I love their new look, it's like they're wearing uniforms of different colors and it's just a new sleek design that in my mind really works well as bringing new air to the show. I also love how the new transformations look, much like what happened with Max Heart they got more vibrant and dynamic, and the new group roll call is also gorgeous, one of the most iconic of the franchise for sure. I also love the new attacks, especially Lemonade's, Mint's, and Aqua's that are very different from their season one attacks, I also like how despite not having an incantation/spell the animations aren't so long, they hit the sweet spot perfectly. And despite being more generic, I like the new phones they use as transformation items, if I wasn't so broke I would try to get one for myself because I really dig the design.

And speaking of powers, the action in this season has been SO GOOD??? After how much Yes relied on stock footage spam I wasn't expecting the jump in quality for the fight scenes would be this big. I don't know if they changed the art director or whoever is responsible for this part in the show in-between seasons but in these episodes, it has been awesome, the animation is very fluid, the fights are exciting, and even though the attack spam has been an element for some of them because the stock animations are shorter it doesn't feel as bad as in other seasons. It's sad that the show can't have everything so in a lot of cases whenever there's a fighting scene that is more detailed it means the other points in the episode will have drawings that are off-model (the most common thing I've noticed was Eyes in weird positions), but I think it's a fair trade.

The last part of this review will be to talk about the characters, and I'll start with where I have more problems just so we can end this up on a positive note.

So, it's not a secret my least favorite characters from the Yes cast are Coco and Nuts, and well that hate from season 1 comes back here but with some aggravating factors. Starting by the easy one, Nuts so far has been useless, if he had stayed in the Palmier Kingdom I wouldn't have made any major difference, at least not for these first 12 episodes. He's just there because the team needs a hub and for some reason, Karen can't use the storages of her family that aren't in use for herself, and that's it for Nuts.

Coco on the other hand... oh gosh. Do you know when during the first season I complained that Coco and Nuts human forms seemed like different characters than their fairy forms? So what happens with Coco here is something similar but is not really related to their form change and more with the character himself. Like, in the "prologue" in episode 1 fairy Coco is pretty much the Coco we left at the end of the last season then the butterflies appear and they have to go to the human world and getting there Coco assumes a sulky personality, thinking he alone is responsible for everything that is happening, and he starts to avoid the girls because he doesn't like that Nozomi is having to fight again, and yadda yadda yadda, and then Nozomi gives a speech to him and he's back to normal AND THERE WASN'T EVEN AN ENTIRE EPISODE OF HIM BEING LIKE THAT!!!!!!!! Like, I wouldn't like it if they had kept going on this line, but I think is much worse that they put in something that seems like it could be something deep, serious, that could bring interesting things in the future, and just drop that IN EPISODE FREAKING TWO. And then after this, he also loses his purpose, because Nozomi's infatuation(?) with him only comes up again in Episode 12 where they use it to make Nozomi feel jealous (which as we saw in the first season is a great plot, am I right?). All he does is be awfully dismissive to Milk and her letters, which yeah is in-character with what was shown in season 1 but it doesn't make it any less awful.

And probably the part of the plot I like the least is the royal drama that goes on with the Four Monarchs and Coco and Nuts. And the reason why I hate this is because when you stop to think the Monarchs are right to doubt from Coco and Nuts, but the show is obviously on their side so they wanna make the Monarchs seem like pricks that don't trust in CocoNuts despite they being such good guys. But like, they're two monarchs that rule over a kingdom, and they left their people unattended during a time of crises where the kingdom is rebuilding itself when it's pretty obvious that a certain brown squirrel could've been left behind and do the things people in power should do and lead their people. And the worst thing of all is that this could've been avoided if instead of making a shot of them looking at the Kingdom in the "prologue" they could just have them in whatever reunion they were having with the monarchs because then we could be in CocoNuts defense since in the first time they were absent from the kingdom was because everyone else had been taken and in the second time they would be in a much similar situation to the monarchs that also left their people without a leader to follow because they were under imminent attack. And I know this is a kids' show, I shouldn't be complaining about this since this is a thing kids would miss anyway, but well, I'm not a kid, I'll look at these things as an adult, and I could come up with a way to make them have the same results, without major alterations, but with a better justification for everything they were trying to do, and if even I, a nobody, can think of this, they most definitely could've come with something better.

Leaving the rants behind (just for a little bit), we have probably the most important addition to this cast, Mimino Kurumi, Milky Rose, also known as our favorite butt in the ass fairy, Milk. Speaking first about Milky Rose, I love her, I've always had, her design is great, her transformation item that doubles as a weapon is a lot of fun, and she's powerful as hell. I also like how we saw the process of Milk finding the Blue Rose seed and taking care of it as the episodes would go so it wasn't something that came out of nowhere, which I appreciate. My problems here come with how they portray Kurumi because while with the other girls she still acts the same, with Nozomi is like they reverted her character to the way she was back when she was first introduced and I don't like that. It's a cheap way to introduce a conflict that shouldn't even exist. And speaking of things that shouldn't exist, why is she keeping her identity secret anyway? Like there's no reason at all for that, is just to keep the secret vibes but even that doesn't work because while the show didn't tell our protagonists he information so they are in the dark and living the mystery, we as an audience already know Kurumi is Milk so it's a secret that it's not a secret thus it's not interesting.

But here's where the positives start to appear again because we also have Syrup's (and Mailpo) addition to the cast and I really like him. We don't have much info on him yet other than a few flashes of his past/thing he's looking to find in the Cure Rose Garden, but these episodes served to establish how he'll interact with these characters and the things he has learned with them that help in building the base for his development. Another aspect of him that I like is that he's very connected to the "delivering your feelings" theme of the show, and not just because he's a delivery boy. He's something that sees the emotional value of things and these are things he wants to protect, and judging by his actions I feel like the only way he feels so keen on this is because he probably lost something or someone important to him and that will connect with his backstory somehow, and I'm very excited to see more of him (and to know if my theory is correct too).

I wanted to have a paragraph for our heroines but not a lot changed for them, they had good character-focused episodes in this first batch but none of them actually was developing anything, at least not anything that was new so there's not a lot left to talk about them. And I kinda feel the same way about the villains, the Eternal is pretty much like a museum and I like their concept as villains, but Scorp wasn't very interesting as a general, and Bumbee became Team Rocket (which is not a bad thing) so there wasn't much out from the villains just yet for me to be able to give them any more elaborated opinions.

All in all, this was a very good set of episodes and I'm feeling that the journey with GoGo will be a good one.

So, that's it from me for now, what are your thoughts on GoGo? Are you also in the team that thinks this OP slays and it's one of the best of the franchise like I am? Did you also felt compelled to buy one of those rose-scented aroma diffusers after this show? Let me know what you think in the comments down below. Stay healthy, stay safe, never stop resisting, thank you so so much for reading until this far, and until the next time, see-ya~

#Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GoGo #Yes! PreCure 5 GoGo #precure

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keisuke-akm · 5 years ago

Note

So in honor of the Fruits Basket reboot who would you say are your fave Furuba characters and ships (canon) and why? Least fave Furuba characters and canon ships and why?

Ah, thanks for the question (it’s going to be long, i’m sorry)

Characters :

So, If I had to chose a character, I would say Akito without thinking.Without her, the story would be tasteless. I know she’s one of the worst character, she’s full of flaws and during the manga, she hurt everyone. But her relation with the characters makes that once you read her redemption arc, there will be at least one character that you agree with how they act during the manga or once the curse is over. (I’m mainly thinking about Isuzu, Tohru, Shigure, Hatori, Momiji, Kureno and Yuki)

Next I would say Machi and Kyoko too, maybe because both characters too is full of flaws but they learnt, like Akito, to change and to accept who they are. I already made a point in another post that Akito and Kyoko are very similar characters.I think I just love characters like that haha, it makes them humans ? That’s maybe why for a long time, I was really annoyed by Tohru because of her lack of flaws and that everybody loved her but since I reread Furuba I’m like, of course they would love her, she’s the only one who is not involved in the curse to treat them like normal people, if I were them, I would kill for Tohru if she tell me do to (but she will never, she’s a good girl uwu)

For my least fav, I would say Ren and the main Maid, but I think it’s cheating because they are written to be despicables characters. Though, I’m sure that if Natsuki Tayaka would write something with their point of views, i would probably enjoy them haha. (Anyway, It’s hard to pick a least fave characters because they are all well writtens haha).

But, I maybe have characters that leave me indifferent, like Ritsu or Mine. They are just ‘meh’ to me. I’m so sorry if there are people who really love them. No hate, i just dont really care about them haha.

For the ships, I guess judging by the unique furuba headcanon i’ve done, i’m head over heels in love with Akigure. Their relationship is so twisted, and I love how Shigure so manipulated everything so he can get Akito just for himself. And how need somebody like Shigure to makes her aware of her flaws because he is the only one who treat her like a human and not a god during the curse era. He does not fear her.Plus, the way their relationship is twisted at the start makes me wonder how they will make it work. I mean, I know that ships like Yuki/Machi or Kyo/Tohru will work perfectly , they understand each other and they licked each other wounds, they trust each other. But you really think that Akito or Shigure is ready to trust each other at 100% once they start going out again ? No, no. I think that’s why a lot of Akigure stand were unhappy with their end. They going to have a lot of struggles, but both want to be together, so they have to makes it work.

I really loved Katsuya/Kyoko (but I have to forget she married at 14-15yo, it fucking makes me uncomfortable).Yuki/Machi are goods to each other, I hope Yuki will take care oh my little girl.Kakeru/Komachi are adorables too, for the few time we saw them, Natsuki Takaya showed how much they loved each other.

My least fav ship would be Kureno/Arisa which is really forced. They saw each other 2 times before Arisa decide to leave everything to be with him. I understand it was for the story-tell so Kureno would feel the need to leave the Sohma’s estate, but it sound strange. It would have been better to start their relationship with friendship alchemy than lover alchemy.

#fruits basket #akigure #akito sohma #shigure sohma #katsuya honda #kyoko honda #yuki sohma #machi kuragi #kakeru manabe #arisa uotani #kureno Sohma #Tohru Honda #furuba

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leaveharmony · 7 years ago

Photo

In 2014, NJPW released a few short documentaries on World, before Wrestle Kingdom 9. They were all released in versions with and without english subtitles; this is my transcription of the english subtitles on part one of Shinsuke Nakamura’s. I’ve done this before with plain screencaps interspersed (nobody cared then either!) but I wanted to redo it with .gifs, ‘cos I really love these little videos, and ‘cos I can now, and also, just ‘cos. :)

This is Part 1, Part 2 is here.

(The main part of the video opens with Shinsuke walking down a crowded street in a shopping district)

Caption: In the busy Komachi street, we found Nakamura

Interviewer’s question as they walked near some bakeries: “Do you often eat sweets like this, Nakamura-san?”

Shinsuke: “Can I appear on talk shows if I do? (laughs)”

(this seems like a non-sequitur but per info from a better-versed friend of mine, I guess Makabe often shows up on TV eating stuff like that b/c compared with his gruff image, people think it’s funny, so Shin may have been making a little bit of fun of that here)

IQ: “How often do you eat them?”

SN: “Well, I used to eat them regularly. In particular rice cakes, because my parents shop.”

IQ: “Rice cake shop?”

SN: “Not rice shop, they only sold rice cakes, making sweet bean paste in a caldron.”

(**transcriber’s note: Shinsuke’s father was a banker, he was in poor health from the time Shinsuke was in middle school, and died suddenly on his first day of classes at university. According to his book they did in fact run a small sweet shop that he would stop in at on his way home from school in highschool, to snack, but I’m not sure exactly how long they ran the place or if his mother still does)

Caption: Suddenly he is drawn into one of the shops

Caption: Kamakura Ichibanya, Kamakura City

(Shinsuke buys some nuresenbei, wet rice crackers. He takes them & thanks the shop clerk, smiling hugely. He stands outside eating one, then starts laughing a bit)

SN: “It tastes great.”

IQ: “Is it ‘Nuresen’?”

SN: “Yes. It’s not a crunchy rice cracker but moist. (he’s still laughing) That’s nice.”

IQ: “Is it like you?”

SN: “This..(he’s still eating) no firmness.”

(Shinsuke moves on, grinning. He’s got seaweed blacking out a few of his front teeth from the crackers & keeps grinning to show this off b/c he is a precious bean and also a weirdo. )

(Shinsuke stops again, at a rack of christmas cards)

SN: “Let’s make it a rule to omit New Years cards if we send Christmas cards.”

IQ: “Do you send christmas cards?”

SN: “I send either of them. I receive christmas cards from abroad. From other wrestlers, and my friends.”

IQ: “Rocky Romero?”

SN, laughing: “He’s the last person who’d send me a card.”

IQ: Alex? (Koslov, presumably, who used to tag w/ Rocky in CHAOS as Forever Hooligans)

SN: “No, he’s too stupid to do it.”

IQ: “It’s time to prepare New Years cards.”

SN (laughing but with a pained look): “Yes, it is.”

IQ: “How will your card be like this year?”

SN: “I’d like to abolish New Year’s cards if possible. (he starts laughing again)”

IQ: “Do you have an image of your card?”

SN: “I haven’t thought about it at all. Just looking at Christmas cards.”

IQ: “It’s time to prepare them though.”

SN: “I’ll just buy some at the post office. (laughing again)”

IQ: “Don’t you use your creativity?”

SN: “No. If I devoted myself to it, I couldn’t finish them in time to send out.”

(he moves on down the street)

Caption: He can seldom find time for himself due to his extremely busy schedule

(as they walk, Shinsuke sees a shop and says “They are renting kimono.” They’re interrupted by one of Shinsuke’s phones ringing.)

SN (talking to someone on the phone): I don’t have time at all this week.

Caption: During the shooting, he received a call for an interview.

SN: “I’m on camera right now. Yes. Why don’t you come over to Fukushima?”

(*transcriber’s note: an upcoming show was taking place there)

SN: “The match is on Friday. Thank you for calling.”

(he hangs up, another pained expression. He turns around and says, “Here is a traffic light” as they cross the street. There’s a brief scene from a later part of the interview, obviously a reference to how busy he is here)

SN: “I lose or break my cell phone so that they can’t find me, but they force me to finish all my tasks anyway.”

(Shinsuke is walking through a tunnel)

Caption: Knowing the dark age of NJPW, how does he view its prosperity?

SN: “It was said to be a hard era but sometimes I really doubt that. I think it was harder when we started NJPW. There were various eras. I experienced the time of transition. As I’ve been in the middle of that era, I’m not sure if it has reached its peak, although it is considered successful now. I don’t think we can keep the status quo for long. We always need to make change to progress even if it is internal and invisible. I’m not satisfied with it. Not at all.”

IQ: “Do you still have many things to do?”

SN: “Yes, though I need to look for what to do.”

Caption: Lunchtime enjoy tastes in Shonan.

(We focus on the sea, and then a bowl of helpfully-labelled raw whitebait, a Shonan speciality. Shinsuke is sitting at a table in front of a tray of food.)

SN: “I’m about to have Tsukudani with rice.”

(fun fact caption popup: “fish-lover”)

IQ: “Here it is.”

SN (laughing): “This is raw whitebait, not Tsukudani. How much whitebait is fished at once? (he picks his hashi up) How many are there in this bowl?”

IQ: “Count them.”

SN (laughing): “Alright, I will. (he starts pointing with his hashi and pretending to count each one) One, two, three, four…I guess they are about a thousand. How much whitebait are landed at one time? (he starts to eat) Is it strange if I don’t eat the whitebait from this bowl? I’ll start. (he takes a bite, and makes a noise that’s hard to interpret exactly) It’s like…I can enjoy its texture, right? (he starts laughing again as he’s eating)”

IQ: “Does it have a taste?”

SN: “No, not really. Whitebait doesn’t stand out on its own, that’s why we add ginger or shiso. That’s how to really enjoy this dish. (he laughs again - I don’t think what he was eating had either in it) It tastes good.”

Caption: His daily diet

SN (talking with his mouth full, occasionally laughing about it): “These days I think a lot about balance. My diet used to be too strict so I lost that balance. So, there is no “on” and “off” for me. During a tour, I mainly eat out and most dishes are too heavy, so at home I try to avoid such heavy food. I eat lots of seaweed. On the day after a typhoon, we rush to the shore and collect the seaweed washed ashore or fallen off racks. We put them in plastic bags to share them with neighbors. On top of that, sometimes a lot of sardines wash up on shore. We run back down to the shore again and gather sardines in bags. (laughing) I think it’s familiar to the people here.”

SN: “We go to the sea after a storm. One thing that I found that surprised me most were some dentures. (laughing) They were pretty nice, too.”

Caption: Heading for a major spot of Kamakura walk. Suddenly on the way…he became curious about the signboard of Daibutsu

IQ: “Why were you checking out the Daibutsu signboard?”

SN: “We have Kami-sama (gods) and Oshaka-sama (Buddhas)…the Daibutsu is a Hotoke-sama (Buddha statue). So why don’t we use ‘-sama-? (laughing) Only Daibutsu is ‘Daibutsu.’ Even for place names, ‘-sama’ isn’t used. Buses are ‘bound for Daibutsu’ or ‘Daibutsu slope’. Why isn’t it ‘Daibutsu-sama’?”

IQ: “Did the board distract you?”

SN: “Yes, badly. Did Daibutsu do something wrong? (laughing) It’s disrespectful.”

Caption: Kotokuin, Kamakura City

(Shinsuke goes to a …I don’t know the term but it’s like a little pavilion with cleansing water in it)

Caption: Before having the honor of seeing he cleans himself

(Shinsuke takes one of the ladels, runs water over both hands and takes a drink, then says “All right.” and continues on his way)

Caption: Time to see Daibutsu

(Shinsuke arrives at the big Buddha statue, in a pretty wooded spot. It’s…really really big.)

IQ: “Is this your first time seeing Daibutsu?”

SN: “I thought you could see it sooner, but on the way here, it just suddenly appeared. (laughs)”

Caption: Kamakura Daibutsu, national treasure, height 11.312m weight 121t

SN: “I think…it has four birds on its head, and…it’s kind of cute. (he starts laughing again) It looks great.”

(transcriber’s note: one of the few things I actually understood, here he actually said “eeeeeeh, sugoi.”)

SN: “It would be quite tall standing up. Wow. I wish it would start moving.”

Caption: (I think they intended to ask him more what he thought about it, but then) Nakamura suddenly started moving to another space. Something came up in his mind.

(Shinsuke wanders off by the trees, looking at the ground. A maintenance guy is using a leaf blower in the background)

The maintenance guy: Do you like coloured leaves? (the interviewer reiterates the question, Shinsuke doesn’t appear to have heard)

SN: “I’m looking for ginkgo nuts. (everybody starts laughing)”

IQ: “Are there any?”

SN: “No. The nuts are all cleared away.”

(transcriber’s note: all but the big cute one in the hat, that is)

Caption: We take off our hat to his unpredictable behavior.

(a bit of time passes - Shinsuke is perched on one of the log benches, looking around at people, and the statue)

SN: “I like doing nothing. Well…yes. Not only on my days off but also in the time between work, practices or any other commitments, I find chances to relax. (laughing)”

IQ: “Do you see anything interesting?”

SN: “I saw two guys from Thailand. They were taking photos of each other, posing in their own favorite ways. Depending on the country it varies how people pose or frame photos. Some people put tape on the ground and take turns. (laughing) It’s impressive.”

IQ (about the tape on the ground): “What do you think this is?”

SN: “The tape marks the spot to stand. It is definitely a marker because…(he looks oddly faraway, sad) there are more over there. I’m curious.”

(we switch to dusk, and Shinsuke walking along the shore of the sea)

Caption: The sea is a familiar thing for Nakamura

IQ: “How are the waves today?”

SN, laughing: “There are no waves today. Typhoon no.22 has already gone to the west. No swell is approaching. There is no wind to make windwells.”

Caption: The life with the sea

SN: “How to I say this…when I am in the sea, I feel the energy of nature wiping away the concerns clinging to my mind. I feel the ocean wiping them away. Not only because good thing I can think of but I like the ocean, because I think I feel more at ease in the water.”

Caption: Dream

SN: “My dream? Well, I always want to be newly inspired I don’t know if pro wrestling is the means to achieve that dream, but I am trying to come closer and closer to a sort of ideal of myself. What matters to me is not what other people think. It is, at the end of the day, how much I can accept myself. It isn’t if I’m satisfied, but rather if I make sense to myself. I also have small dreams. (he starts laughing) I want to live in a southern island without any cares, or to spend my time only having fun. But I think I need various views whether good or bad, in order to do what I want.”

Caption: What pro wrestling is?

SN: “Pro wrestling? For me, it is something…although I can say it in different ways, it allows me to express my emotions that I can’t express in words, or to show that I am alive. I can unleash my various emotions through pro wrestling, including both positive and negative ones, such as stress, unsatisfaction and joy. It is also evidence of my own existence, proof that I am alive, I am here, and I am a person like this. I don’t treat it as a mere sport.”

#Shinsuke Nakamura #Pretty Soldier Nakamura #Rasslin'#Movin' pixels #Shinsuke's Good Vibrations #The Emergency Button

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mangafeeds · 4 years ago

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Sengoku Komachi Kurou Tan!.

Alternative : 戦国小町苦労譚 ; Sengoku Komachi Kuroutan ; 戦国小町苦労譚農耕戯画 ; Sengoku Komachi Kurou Tan! ; Sengoku Komachi Kuroutan - Noukou Giga ; Sengoku Komachi Kuroutan: Noukou Giga

Sengoku Komachi Kurou Tan! summary: One fateful day, a girl time slipped into the Sengoku Era. It was an abrupt enough event to be dubbed god’s whim, done to sate hellish boredom. The girl has no power to change the world. She was a very ordinary, common, and plain girl that can be found anywhere. And that girl can do no more than a single thing. Survive the Sengoku Era ——– that’s all. #MangaFeeds.com, #ReadFreeMangaOnline MangaFeeds.Com: Read manga online the latest manga comic book, updated daily: https://mangafeeds.com/post/sengoku-komachi-kurou-tan_1587888673

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unwrittenarticles · 5 years ago

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Top 50 Albums of 2019

1. Grace Ives - 2nd

Slamming, kicking, pasting, tanning, beautifying, punching you in the gut. No songs over 3 minutes, short-terse-dancy songs that fucking bang due to sheer bedroom anthemic production. So wry and glib but intelligent and sensitive and adorable.

2. Faye Webster - Atlanta Millionnaires Club

Best ever breakup album of the year! Of all time. Lovely, lovely, lovely vocals.

3. Sharon Van Etten - Remind me Tomorrow

So sweet and intelligent, each song a captivating masterpiece. I love her voice, which has a sadness and depth to it but her lyrics make you stop what you’re doing and pay attention. Stunning album.

4. Cate le Bon - Reward

Genius lyricist possibly in the way of Joni Mitchell’s wit, beauty and sarcasm!! I love her voice and her guitars.

5. Julia Jacklin - Crushing

Each song is like a novel, increasingly revelatory and suspense-filled, but also lovely vocally and totally immersive.

6. Purple Mountains - Purple Mountains

This is the hardest review of the year to write and still i am wavering.

7. Big Thief - U.F.O.F

8. Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising

Another Joni-alike in the way of Cate le Bon, but also, adding this unique, acerbic analysis on subjects like ageing, improving yourself, gaining knowledge - subjects that interest me.

9. Sneaks - Highway Hypnosis

Such good rave music, but with wit and intelligence in the lyrics. Metallic and cool synth sounds with great warmth to her post-punk-spoken word-soul-disco-r&b vocals similar to ESG. Gutted I missed her play Glasgow last Feb due to working night shift.

10. Sault - 5

Such a mystery to me how we don’t know the band members and the anonymity is so intriguing because this music is magnificent California soul, hip hop infused and beautiful vocals all mixed together. Listenable yet intricate multi-instrumentalist tracks straight out of a 70s or future-film, can I place it? No, I guess this is postmodernism and we haven’t quite hit peak saturation as I am finding such beauty in all this new music.

11. Maria Somerville - All My People

Sparse and dense, dark and light, such space on the vocals. Morbid and quiet yet warm and life-affirming. I love this new female soundscape stuff!! Power artists right now - Maria Somerville and Carla dal Forno, also Grouper as always - since 2006 who evolves completely with these new sounds.

12.

13. Ada Lea - what we say in private

Really enjoy listening to all these sassy and beautiful indie songs on this album

14. Carla dal Forno - Look Up Sharp

15. Prefab Sprout - I trawl the Megahertz

16. Aldous Harding - Designer

17. Sandy Alex G - House of Sugar

Gorgeous vocals and lyricism. I can’t stop thinking how there is some Elliott Smith intelligence and beauty in the vocals and similar depth and clarity but honestly how can anyone compare favourably with Elliott Smith?

18. Sasami - Sasami

19. Big Thief - Two Hands

Earnest, reflective, filled with narrative and observation I like.

20. American Football - American Football

Classy, delicate, self-aware. Female vocal tracks (Hayleigh Williams, Rachel Goswell and Elizabeth Powell!!!!!) are exquisite.

21. Eartheater - Trinity

Where do I start? Vocally sublime - some of the best vox I’ve heard in my life. Coupled with orchestral, trip-hop and synth sampling that add this lightness and buzzing music Lyrically - empowered and intelligent but also some grunge and cool sounding hooks. Could be cold and disorienting but it really works due to the strength of the vocals and lyrics.

22. Equip - Cursebreaker X

So trippy and East/West and future/past sounds merging, being broke apart, sewn together and played all at once. This is post-modernist, meta and self-aware. This is what I imagine people listen to in Blade Runner, or insert future society here, want to say utopian though, because people will be loving all the vaporwave.

23. Jessica Pratt - Quiet Songs

24.

25. Surfing - Emotion

26. Anemone - Beat my Distance

27. Lana del Ray - Norman Fucking Rockwell

Should be a lot higher up but honesty I’ve been playing it to death my interest might be waning. Venice Bitch was one of my favourite songs last year, so that’s how long some of the tracks have been embedding themselves.

Oh Lana, there is so much to like. Hyper-femininity, low and high notes, the old Hollywood feel to the lyrics on loving passionately and being adored, desire, jealousy etc.

28. Teen Body - Dreamo

Shout out to Negative Gemini’s brother being in this band. I like the shoe gaze guitars and drums, male/female vocal interplay (swwooooon, this is a winning combination seen in MBV, Slowdive and Jorge Elbrecht tracks I like so much). Nice lyrics, they’ve done a neat job on being intellectually interesting, but also narratively alluring, hedonistic and simplistic. (I like simplicity sometimes).

29.

30. Clairo - Infinity

31. Catnapp - Break

32. Better Oblivion Community Centre - Better Oblivion Community Centre

33. Men I trust- Oncle Jazz

Combines vapor wavy 80s sax future trippy experimental synths with beautiful catchy, lusty vocals in a completely fresh way that intrigues me.

34. Caterina Barbieri - Ecstatic Computation

35. Erika de Casier - Essentials

Bass bass bass. Yes. But then vocal perfection and introspection. I am loving feminist narratives that are so well-produced and going to influence a whole generation of women in the way TLC and Destiny’s Child did - because ultimately they make great songs that appreciate kissing while asserting the right to a respectful relationship and are completely danceable and dark and light all at the same time.

Oh lord, this description is garbled but I feel like a lot of feminists will know what I am talking about - it’s like yes looking good, feeling desire and being desired is extremely pleasant but so is being respected and valued and the two are not mutually exclusive and we should be demanding better lives for our women rather than hanging in the shadows while men take up all the space (!!!)

36. Bill Callahan - Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest

37. Ariana Grande - thank u, next

I really liked this album due to various tracks with ace production sounding like shoegaze combined with pop and r&b and some excellent samples from 60s gal groups and soul musicians. Ariana’s vocals are lovely and lift the tracks into absolutely ballin’ and relevant tracks.

38. Jenny Hval - The Practice of Love

39. Kedr Livanskiy - Your Need

40. Stef Chura - Midnight

41. Richard Dawson 20:20

42. Hand Habits - Placeholder

43. Lightning Bug - October Song

44. Heaven - Truth or Dare

45 Barrie - Happy to be Here

46. Bedouine - Bird Songs of a Killjoy

47. Unloved - Heartbreak Instrumentals

48. Meitei - Komachi

49. EDDYEVVY - EDDYEVVY

Bring back the grunge!! Lovely vocals, sludgy guitars, nice lyrics. Lets all avoid eye contact at once, stare at the floor, dance from side to side and appreciate the beautiful vocals.

50 Angel Olsen - All Mirrors

Her voice, her lyrics. Would be a lot higher up, but it’s just not clicking yet.

Lark is the standout track, her voice so quivery and clear and certain all the time. It depicts a sad song, “when we thought what we had was such a good thing”. How her voice soars out so high. I don't think anyone at the moment (maybe Lana if reaching) can do a high note as certain, uncertain and emotionally charged as Angel.

Jesca Hoop - Stonechild

Kornel Kovacs

Mega Bog - Dolphine

Hatchie - Keepsake

Nilufer Tanya - In Your Head

Cucina Povera - Zoom

Anderson. Paak - Ventura

Sarah Davachi - Pale Bloom

Anadol - Uzun Havalar

Lomelda - M for Empathy

Kelsey Lu - Blood

Felix Lee - Inna Daze

To be released

Danny Brown

Sleater Kinney

Beck

This is an abundant, exciting era we are living in where female talent (which has always existed) is being increasingly represented and appreciated.

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abluehappyface · 8 months ago

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Time for the 8th part to the Yukari Takeover! It's Strings Cover time once again! Despite this being brand new, this actually sounds like it could be from an older era of mine, around Post-Meiling maybe? It's not neary as complicated as some of my Strings Covers now, which isn't a bad thing. I knew I wanted to do Strings for Necrofantasia, and I'm happt with the result!

@motsimages @caniscreamintoanabyss @lesserbeans @k4ndi-c0spl4y3r @fembutchboygirl@semisentient-entity @siegesquirrel42 @insertusernamethatsnottaken @the-cinnamon-snail@the-kneesbees @that-bastard-with-all-the-bones @reblogging-corner @womensrightsstegosaurus @please-put-me-in-the-microwave @scarletdestiny @chengoeshonk @oneweekwitch

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ediciones-tomodomo · 7 years ago

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Tomodomo Tours: Senpai en Kamakura (Parte 1)

¡Hola a todos! Al habla Ana, la traductora (y chica para todo) de la casa.

Tal vez sepáis que últimamente se ha puesto de moda en Japón eso que llaman el 聖地巡礼 (seichi junrei), que traducido significa “peregrinaje a Tierra Santa”. Como su propio nombre indica, hacer 聖地巡礼 es algo así como hacer el Rocío pero, en vez de ver a la Virgen, visitas los escenarios reales en los que se basan los de tu anime o manga favorito. Son muy famosas, por ejemplo, las rutas organizadas en los pueblos de Chichibu (Anohana), Hida (Kimi no na wa) o Iwami (Free!... bueno, esta ruta no es tan famosa, pero es la que tengo más ganas de hacer jajaja), localidades que, gracias a haber servido de modelo para situar un anime, obtienen un buen reclamo para el turismo.

El pasado invierno tuvimos la oportunidad de viajar a Japón y, de entre todas nuestras series, nos habría gustado hacer la ruta de orange en Matsumoto. Pero la zona nos pillaba bastante a contramano y al final no pudo ser. ¡Lo que no quiere decir que no lo intentemos en otra ocasión!

Sin embargo, sí que pudimos visitar la ciudad donde se desarrolla otro de nuestros títulos preferidos. Esa ciudad es Kamakura y el manga al que nos referimos es… ¡Senpai de Bikke!

Para los que no lo conozcáis, Senpai [ficha con resumen/tienda] es un tomo único BL que lanzamos en noviembre de 2015. Se trata de una historia con un toque agridulce y nostálgico a la que tenemos un cariño especial. Cariño que también le habéis brindado los lectores, puesto que es uno de los tomos que mejor nos ha funcionado hasta ahora.

Por eso, nos gustaría que esta ruta sirviese para hacerle un pequeño homenaje en nuestro tercer aniversario (el 14 de julio se cumplen tres años desde que sacamos el primer tomo de Nieve en verano). Por supuesto, esperamos que vosotros lectores, sin quienes nuestro trabajo no sería posible, disfrutéis también mucho de ella, ya sea a través de este texto o, quién sabe, ¡reproduciéndola en Kamakura!

Kamakura es una ciudad que se puede visitar en un día partiendo desde Tokio en tren, ya que está aproximadamente a una hora de la capital. A medio camino se puede parar también en Yokohama y, una vez en Kamakura, es posible coger el famoso tren Enoden hasta Enoshima.

En Enoshima hay más escenarios de Senpai, pero esta vez no nos dio tiempo a ir. Así que nuestra ruta se centrará en Kamakura, ciudad donde estudian Saki y su senpai, Kô, los protagonistas de este manga.

Kamakura fue capital del shogunato durante casi 150 años (de 1185 a 1333), y cuenta con un rico patrimonio cultural que, sin duda, es digno de visitar. También es famosa por sus extensas playas, a pesar de que cuando fuimos, en invierno, estaban algo desiertas. ¡Hacía un frío que pelaba!

A pesar de que se pueden encontar muchas guías para hacer peregrinaje manga en Internet, Senpai no es un título muy famoso. Por eso, tuvimos hacer el trabajo de investigación sobre las localizaciones por nuestra cuenta antes que ir, y de forma algo improvisada porque no lo teníamos planeado (de ahí que el tomo que sale en las fotos sea el japonés). A pesar de ello, os aseguramos que fue muy, muy divertido. ¿A quién no le hace ilusión pasearse por los mismos sitios en los que habitan sus personajes favoritos?

Así que si tenéis oportunidad de completar esta ruta con la parta de Enoshima y las localizaciones que nos faltan, ¡os animamos a hacerlo! (¡y a que nos mandéis las fotos!)

Aquí os dejamos un mapa con las paradas de la ruta. Podéis hacerlas en el orden que queráis, pero si pensáis visitar algún templo o establecimiento, ¡cuidado con los horarios y días de cierre!

Y ahora, os dejamos con la crónica de nuestra visita:

Llegamos a la estación de Kamakura por la mañana tempranito.

Todo en la ciudad, y más en comparación con el modernísimo centro de Tokio, parece estar un poco suspendido en el tiempo. Como muestra, este ¿calendario? totalmente analógico que había en la estación, adornado con un anuncio de… ¡página online para jugar al go!, en uno de esos contrastes tan característicos de Japón.

Había hambre, así que decidimos ir, en primer lugar, a la panadería Nisshindô, donde Saki y Kô compran caracolas rellenas al salir de clase en el capítulo 2. Por supuesto, antes de encaminarnos hacia la panadería, había que sacar fotos de la estación de Kamakura, que también sale en el manga en el capítulo 4.

¿Dónde estaría la casa de Saki? Se supone que se puede ir andando desde aquí...

La panadería estaba algo retirada, así que de camino pudimos ver un poco de la parte menos turísitica de la ciudad. Y hay que decir que en Kamakura, si no falta algo, es comida. Hay tiendas de todo tipo de dulces, bollos, chucherías, etc. Nada más volver la esquina de la plaza de la estación, nos topamos con una tienda de donuts de esos tan monos con orejas y morritos de gatito. ¡Ah, la tentación! Pero resistimos.

¡Llegamos! Por fuera no parece gran cosa, pero por dentro…

Ummm… panaderías japonesas, esos trocitos de Cielo en tierra.

Había caracolas rellenas (“corone”, que dicen allí. Supongo que vendrá de “cornet”. ¡No confundir con nuestros veraniegos cornettos!) de todos los sabores imaginables: chocolate, crema pastelera, cacahuete, té verde, batata, yogur, caramelo, oreo, limón, nata, fresa, moca, caramel macchiato (!)… Nos las habríamos llevado todas, además de unos cuantos bollos y melonpanes más, pero resisimos nuestros bajos impulsos y compramos “sólo” tres, como Saki. Bueno, tal vez fueran cuatro.

Este era de manzana de Aomori. Los demás no sobrevivieron el tiempo suficiente como para poder hacerles foto (RIP).

Con el buche lleno, nos dirigimos, como los protagonsitas del manga después de merendar (desayunar, en nuestro caso), hacia el santuario de Tsurugaoka, el templo sintoísta más importante de la ciudad. Y menos mal que ya no teníamos hambre, porque la calle Komachi, que lleva hasta allí, está llena de más y más puestos de comida, repletos de visitantes y estudiantes de excursión comprando recuerdos para llevar a casa. Merece la pena recorrerla si eres como yo y te gusta seguir comiendo con los ojos cuando ya no te cabe más en la barriga.

Una vez en los terrenos del Hachimangu, antes de santuario Tsurugaoka, y yendo un poco a la derecha, de camino a un templete dedicado a la diosa Benzaiten, se encuentra el puente sobre el lago en el que Saki y Kô dan de comer a las palomas.

Pero como era invierno, no había ni nenúfares ni lotos ni nada :(

Y las palomas no eran blancas como en el manga, sino grises como las españolas…:((

En aquel momento pensé que quizá la autora las dibujó blancas por hacer que quedara más bonito, pero en el tomo 3 de Marmalade boy little, (para el que también sirve esta guía) son blancas también… ¿Estarían en latitudes más cálidas en esa época del año?

Nos dirigimos camino al santuario principal, sobre las escaleras. Aunque en realidad lo que íbamos buscando era… ¡el oráculo de las palomas! de donde Saki y Kô sacan esos amuletos tan bonitos. ¿Dónde estaría?

Subimos al templo y, a la izquierda, ¡lo encontramos!

Se echan 200 yenes por la rejilla y se coge un paquetito al azar, aunque puedes elegir el color (yo pillé de mi OTP). Son las palomas mensajeras del dios Hachiman, al que está dedicado el templo.

“Ah, pero si viene una cosa mona aquí dentro.” (Como dijo Saki).

¡Buena suerte! Que no es superbuena suerte, pero tampoco nos vamos a quejar.

Y ya que estábamos allí, dejamos una tablilla pidiendo por el futuro de la editorial. Que dure tanto como el gran ginko del templo. El mismo que se rompió en 2010 porque estaba podrido, ¡ups! (Nada de lo que preocuparse, ya está echando hojitas nuevas).

En japonés churretoso: “Que sigamos editando buen manga para siempre jamás. Y que tengamos muchas reimpresiones. Tomodomo Editorial”.

Espero que el dios Hachiman me perdone las confianzas de haber puesto “onegai shimasu” en vez de “onegai itashimasu”, pero es que fue un día de muchas emociones.

Y después de cotillear unos cuantos deseos ajenos, nos fuimos a comer.

Hasta aquí, la primera parte de la guía. En la segunda, os contaré cómo The Boss sufrió una indigestión de curry después de comerse un plato de arroz más grande que su cabeza. No ha vuelto a comer curry desde entonces. Seguramente nunca vuelva a hacerlo. En la vida.

¡Gracias por leer!

Continúa en http://ediciones-tomodomo.tumblr.com/post/162896455056/tomodomo-tours-senpai-en-kamakura-parte-2

#tomodomo #blog #senpai #kamakura #tomodomoed #tomodomo tours

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ashitomarisu · 7 years ago

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[Earlier this year...]

Me: I cannot wait to continue my fanfic!

Jovi: what do you have in mind for part 2?

Me: *pulls out a piece of paper with a bunch of notes* Let’s see....

Komachi going berserk

More mature stuff

holding Precures hostage in incubation tubes

Aquila battling a corrupted Mint in a boiler room underneath the church inside the school (Cinq Lumieres)

suicidal content

Hainoki taking Komachi’s CureMo after the green cure lost control of her powers during a fight in the Palmier Kingdom

[Now]

Me: ehhhh, on second thought, maybe turning this crossover fanfic into an adulterated gorefest will just turn heads away...

Jovi: So, does that mean....

Me: Yeah, let’s work on something more original. I have no reason to continue this project.

After much thought, it’s best to move on and start working on my fancure series. The project title will be shifted to [TRIAD Pointe]. As for the title of the fancure series, it will stray a little from the normal “________” Precure idea. Case in point, it will be called “Cures of Triad Pointe”.

The story is currently being outlined, but plans to post this will be in the Spring or Summer of 2018. Right now, I’m taking things slow to enhance the characters, and villains. Although, the theme is related more towards time and values in life. Each of the three cures have an underlying significance within their roles. The villains or one of the villains, originally, were/was gonna be called “Amnesia”, who tries to erase history and memories from the city of Triad Pointe and creating a new era filled with depression, loss, and these band of misfits are also going to rob the dead of their precious treasures and disturb their peace.

It is not official but, I’m excited to show off all my fancures in action. For now, I have tweaks to make. Til next time, hope senpai notices you!

Catch y’all later!

#personal #upcoming fancure series wip #cures of triad pointe #new project #coming soon #precure #fancures

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icedfairy · 7 years ago

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Fate / Touhou Servant Rider Post

Tei Inaba, The White Rabbit of Inaba Primary Class : Rider Strength : D Endurance : EX Agility : A Magic : D Luck : A++

Skills : Luck of the White Rabbit : A Tewi can grant good luck to anyone including herself, raising their luck stat by two ranks. She cannot decrease luck though. Con Artist : C The ability to rapidly spin up a lie. Tewi's skill at this is superhuman, making it possible to flummox even geniuses. However those on guard often resist. Battle Continuation : A She once had her skin torn off, coated with salt, then reapplied. Tewi can ignore any non fatal wounds despite the pain. Ride : D She's not actually a very good Rider, qualifying only because of her legend. This level allows her to operate most vehicles and mounts. Divinity : C She hides her full divinity but as an earthly deity and goddess of the rabbits, she has a fairly decent rank. Noble Phantasm : Crossing the Sea of Sharks : B (Anti Person) She once tricked an entire family of sharks into lining up so she could leap across the sea. In retaliation they tore off her skin. With this ability Tewi can turn the shark family's vengeance on her enemy, allowing them to tear at her foe. Her target must simply endure the rending teeth of the phantom sharks. The White Rabbit of Inaba would normally be a powerful servant, but she doesn't fit well into the grail system. Her "rider" class comes purely from her shark jumping habits. There's no real good reason to summon the con artist to a battle royal, though she'd have some dangerous tricks up her sleeve for sure.

Tewi is irreverent, lazy, and very very hard to kill. She's also very experienced, and unlike other gods, learns from her past. Masters would be good to not underestimate her, even if she is a poor choice for a war.

Mononobe no Futo, Archaic Fool Primary Class : Rider (Caster) Strength : B Endurance : C Agility : C Magic : B Luck : B

Skills : Voyage : B- Futo can sail most small craft, even through the sky. She lacks the leadership skills to sail larger boats however. Magecraft : C She knows a number of taoist spells and feng shui techniques, and has developed strong mystic codes. However she lacks the passion and skill to master the craft. Mental Pollution : C Unlike other servants, Futo does not fully acclimatize to current time period. This leads to a mental pollution caused by her age. There's a small chance of negating mental interference magecraft, and a large chance she will misunderstand the orders from mental interference magic. Only those with similar Mental Pollution or who were born and raised in the same time period can come to a true understanding with her. Noble Phantasm : Temple Burner : C (Anti Fortress) Futo channels her fear and hatred into a torrent of fire. The ultimate form of arson. As someone who has betrayed her family, her friends, and the gods, her paranoia knows no bounds. And such she does everything she can to burn away that which frightens her. A flame that consumes even stone. However the damage it does to people and servants is purely incidental. The flames are more effective against areas that are under territory creation, or that have been sanctified in some way. While Futo has been a ghost for some time, she can be summoned in her living form. Her skill as a Caster is fairly low in the current era, so anyone considering that would probably bring her forth as a Rider. In fact as a Rider she is an excellent Caster killer. Something more useful in this era.

However Futo is, as she was in life, lost in time. She will have a hard time working with youkai, is irrationally afraid of almost everything, and handles that fear with bluster and aggression. Fortunately she's quick to listen to her master, even if she complains a lot.

Kanako Yasaka, Conquering Goddess Primary Class : Rider (Saber, Caster, Archer) Strength : B Endurance : B Agility : A Magic : A Luck : B Skills: Goddess Divine Core : A A Skill that expresses one being a perfected goddess from birth. A composite Skill that comprises the Skill Divinity, preserves the absoluteness of the mind and the body, repels all mental interference, prevents the body from growth and prevents the figure from change no matter how much calories are absorbed. Ride : EX Kanako can ride anything, including divine beasts and even dragons. Such is her right as a goddess. She can also ride onbashira logs, which are not normally mobile. Charisma : A Slightly low for a goddess, her Charisma is still enough to lead armies and nations wherever she wishes. Military Tactics : A- A genius at tactics, she's actually less adept at grand strategy. However she understands her weakness and can appoint subordinates to cover her weaknesses. Magic Resistance : B No matter what kind of High-Thaumaturgy, magecraft of B Rank or below are negated. Her magic resistance has not been lowered so much as modern magecraft has improved. When compared to older servants her resistance would have been considered A+ rank. Innovation : Technomagic Revolution : A As the goddess who revolutionized technology in a fantasy world, and magic in a technical world, Kanako is known best for this skill. It allows her to suppress her divinity in situations where it would be detrimental. Noble Phantasm Renewal of the Pillars : C/A (Anti Unit / Enhancement) A representation of the renewal of the Suwa shrines, Kanako summons sixteen onbashira that fly across the land. The holy pillars deal great damage to anyone they hit, and dispel magics on the area. At the end of their flight, the pillars slam into the ground, healing and strengthening Kanako. Another spirit that's at the limits of the grail system. Kanako Yasaka has the good graces to appear only as a reasonable servant instead of using her full godly might. Of course Kanako has claimed several godly titles since the New Era. This is her in her Eastern form. The conqueror of Suwa, and ruling god of the new Japan.

As a Rider, Kanako loves tactics, and happily plans out every encounter just for fun. However she'll still happily meet her enemies on the field of battle. She stalls with her blade and tessen, until she gets the ability to use her onbashira to strike a killing blow. Masters had best match her in both cunning and bravery if they don't want to be swept up in her wake, or left behind.

Komachi Onozuka, Ferryman of the Gods Primary Class : Rider Strength : C Endurance : C Agility : C Magic : A Luck : B Skills: Voyager : A- Komachi can sail any small craft on any surface, including air or stone. She prefers two person rowboats, and can move them without rowing using her natural ferryman powers. Godslayer : B The power to destroy beings created purely by conceptual energy, or those anchored by faith. This ability transcends weapon or skill, allowing even normal attacks to kill such beings. At rank B Komachi can permanently kill any lesser god, or temporarily kill any greater god. Golden Rule : A The wealth of every human who died makes it’s way to the ferrymen. Komachi is so rich she can just throw money away as an attack. Spirit Control : B As a shinigami, Komachi can banish lesser spirits with no issue. Only strong self controlled sentient undead can avoid her power. Space Manipulation : C Komachi can manipulate distance to some degree, giving her the ability to make tight dodges and to home attacks on foes to a limited degree. At this level she can twist space up to a meter within sight range. Noble Phantasm : The Breadth of the Sanzu : A (Anti-Person) Calling upon the twisting currents of the river of death, Komachi can create an area of space that utterly negates movement in and out. Those trying to move within the zone advance at a crawl. This allows Komachi to trap her foes in place as she attacks them or flees. Komachi herself is unaffected. Strangely the effect doesn’t alter how fast they move personally, just how far they go as they move. Thus someone affected by her ability can block or even dodge to some degree. They just can’t move out of the way.

Ever since Eiki Shiki and Komachi Onozuka became legends, people wondered why Eiki Shiki kept the lazy shinigami around so long. With the information from the grail, we finally have an answer. Eiki kept Komachi as her Godslayer. A weapon to use against divine beings that usurped the order. Why she chose someone as lazy as Komachi for that post is still unknown. Godslayer candidates are admittedly hard to find though. Komachi is a carefree servant, likely treating the Grail War as something of a joke. However when fighting she’ll use her scythe, boat, and coins to her advantage. She’s also likely to be quite caring towards her Master and children. Assuming her Master is worthy of such respect.

Chen Yakumo, Black Cat of Ill Omen Primary Class : Rider Strength : C Endurance : C Agility : A+ Magic : A Luck : A

Skills: Shapeshifting : C Chen can freely shapeshift between human, cat, and nekomata forms. Magecraft : C++ Chen knows eastern magecraft and can use it to a fair degree. As a Rider she has lost some skill, but maintains her summoning and gap mimicking abilities. Animal Dialogue : A Chen can communicate to animals freely. However this doesn’t make the animals smarter, or even make them like her. And as a cat negotiations are difficult. Ride : B- Chen can possess or mind control almost any living mount, barring a few Divine Beasts and Dragons. She can also control non mounts like humans, weaker youkai, or dogs. She can’t control complex machines though. Noble Phantasm : Red Oni, Blue Oni : B (Anti Person) Chen calls up two lesser oni to serve as her weapons. Possessing their bodies, she unleashes them as puppets to her will, using their massive supernatural strength to crush her enemies. While these are low class oni, they’re still some of the most powerful youkai in existence. The Black Cat of Ill Omen is known mostly as Ran’s shikigami. Even now after the fox’s death and her own ascendancy she’s in the shadows of the other Yakumo. Still she’s a powerful figure in her own right, and her mastery of youkai control spells makes her feared among the people.

Chen seems young and brash, but she’s actually quite intelligent, and uses her spells and possession powers to good effect. She’ll rush around getting the proper setup, but then she’ll wait calmly to pounce, like a proper cat. And like a cat she doesn’t think much of “Masters.” She’ll work with people who treat her nice, but she’ll never be servile.

Rin Kaenbyou, Hell’s Traffic Accident Primary Class : Rider (Caster) Strength : C Endurance : C++ Agility : A Magic : B Luck : A Skills: Ride : B This skill comes mostly from her class. Rin’s actual riding ability was probably limited to her jumping on mounts in cat form and just following them along. It grants her above average riding ability with all natural mounts. In addition she can “ride” her cat cart, the transportation that gave her access to the class. Magecraft : D++ She has only a minor skill in Magecraft, but she is excellent with necromancy, fairy control, and hellfire attacks. She also knows both divine and black magic. This is in addition to her necromantic powers as a kassha. Shapeshifting : C She can transform freely between kassha and cat form. Disengage : B The ability to retreat and reset a battle. Bonus effect of returning battle conditions to what they were at the beginning of the match (1st turn) and restores the condition of this Skill to the initial value. Hell Battery : A Rin has the aura of old hell infused into her existence. This makes the area around her “more hell like.” This makes necromancy easier, but more importantly enhances hell and fire fairies in her aura. Fairies near her can respawn almost instantly. Noble Phantasm : Thriller Night : EX (Anti Army) Orin developed this ability by stealing a famous power of an older heroic spirit that has sadly faded into history. When activated this ability floods the area with even more necromantic and hell power, raising corpses as the living dead and sending fairies into a frenzy. In the end the area will swarm with regenerating fairy cosplayers and zombies, creating a hellish mess of battle. While each enemy is individually weak, none of them can be killed permanently barring unique powers. Researchers were curious which class Rin would be placed into, due to her odd abilities. However her corpse stealing wheelbarrow seemed to give the grail enough excuse to make her a rider. Given riders also have command skills, this lets Rin use her full power as a leader of zombie fairies.

A cheerful servant, one must always remember no matter how friendly, Rin is a cat. And as a cat she’s likely to do her own thing without asking her master. Still she offers great power with few moral hangups.

#Fate / Touhou Servant Project #Fate series #Touhou #Rider

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