#review Tokyo in April is...

[absolutebl]

This Week In BL - I’m pleased with what’s airing, but conflicted about what’s ended & getting started

Aug 2023 Wk 1

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs. Organized by which ones (in each category) I’m enjoying most.

Ongoing Series - Thai

Laws of Attraction (Sat iQIYI) 4 of 8 - Omg the way the bodyguard (handler?) looks at the rich kid. Gah. I see why @heretherebedork​ loves these 2. But I really hate him (not the handler, the kid). Fun fight scene. I love lawyer babygirl SO MUCH. HE WILL BE MY 2023 FAV CHARACTER. I’M CALLING IT. This ep, Srs? You’re killing me. Suits! Pussycat bows! And then... The Public Claiming!!!!! One of my favorite tropes! And openly flirting? Boys. I’m getting spoiled. Wait… is that…? NO SINGING. Ah well, Thai BL giveth and Thai BL taketh away. 

Hidden Agenda that isn’t hidden (Sun GMMTV YouTube) ep 4 of 10 - I like the script for this. It feels like the conversations they have are very honest to a uni experience. It’s comfortable and breezy. I did not expect the kiss. Bit early in the arc. There is either going to be a lot of backend drama, or a long domestic honeymoon period. (Bet you can guess which one I vote for.) 

Low Frequency (Sat iQIYI) ep 5 of 8 - It’s moving along in a Ghost Host kinda way (minus the killer chemistry). I’m not mad about it, I don’t think I'll remember it tho. 

Be Mine Super Star (Mon Viki) ep 5 of 12 - My ambivalent relationship with this drama continues. Cohabitation trope. Punn is basically a huge puppy trying to spoil/cuddle/fuck his pretty kitty prince. It is what it is. Meanwhile, I just want more of Big Daddy & the Hot Doc. (Also the name of my burlesque show.) Why does Kevin have more chemistry with Ashi in a 1 min long scene than Punn has had… ever? Is this nascent bad boy effect or nascent 2nd lead syndrome I’m feeling? (Meanwhile Ben! Hi! Long time no see!) 

Be My Favorite (Fri YouTube) ep 11 of 12 - Whatever. Trash(ish) watch here. 

Dinosaur Love (Sun iQIYI) ep 6 of 8 eps - Aw pretty baby is unhappy his bf got injured. But also very blushing maiden. This is profoundly NOT GOOD. 

Wedding Plan (Weds YT & iQIYI) ep 3 of 7 - I have decided that Lom’s theme song is BigBang’s Monster. Listen. You’ll see what I mean. Also BigBang = also very problematic but banging. What I’m saying is, I wanna punch Lom so bad, I went slightly bonkers. Water sports are addressed. A trash watch is happening!

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Jun & Jun (Korea Thurs Viki) 3 of 8 - How DARE they make me love this show so much? I feel personally attacked. The smell thing! Gah. The way they automatically go informal in private. The flirting. The language. The suits, the EVERYTHING. It’s embarrassing how much I rewatch the final bits of each ep. 

Stay By My Side (Taiwan Fri Gaga) 6 of 10 eps - I adore this ridiculous show. (I just realized that the actor playing Jiang Chi played Ray’s evil 2-timing bf in About Youth). Baby boy is quite clueless. Sweet dreams tho. I love them both so much. The washing his jersey scene was so fucking cute. Couple’s numbers, couple’s keychains, bridal towel, kisses. Thank you Taiwan for NOT activating blushing maiden. However, confident gay/confused bisexual is a go. And we got us some justifiable angst. Sigh. I’m so happy. 

Sing My Crush AKA Follow The Wind (Korea Weds iQIYI) 1-2 of 8 eps - supposed to have released in the first half of 2022 this is a adaption of Myung’s webtoon, from the director of My Sweet Dear, and Love Tractor’s production house, basically Korea does About Youth. It’s sweet (the singing bits are easy to skip) and very much a story of young first love but less stiff than KBL’s usual high school fare (kinda Taiwan feeling). I like it but that very imprecision in production makes me concerned for an HEA, especially with such a low MDL rating. 

Tokyo in April is... AKA Shigatsu no Tokyo wa (Japan Fri Gaga) ep 8fin  - Rough final episode, but it does end happily. Fortunately, I had some warning for my personal triggers, but this is Japan and they did go dark. Full review below. 

Minato's Laundromat Season 2 AKA Minato Shouji Coin Laundry Season 2 (Japan Thu Gaga) 5 of 12 eps - Shin is so cute and proud and boldly out. I love him. Movement in the relationship with both couples, even if it’s movement into arguments and misunderstanding. I suppose we got 12 eps they need to do... something.  

Stay Still (Hong Kong Tues YouTube) 1 of 5 eps - It’s confusing. And… not good? Some flashbacks some present day? 

It’s airing but ...

Stay With Me ... NO I WILL NOT! And you can’t make me.

Review: Tokyo in April is... AKA Shigatsu no Tokyo wa

I had to chew on this for a while but here’s where I ended up. 

Two young men with a shared tragic past reunite and fall in love all over again, but the past will not stop hunting them. Based on a manga, this office set reunion romance is GREAT… damn it. It’s Japan in full on soft focus which means it gets emo, abusive, and chewy. These two characters are giving parts of their souls away in a desperate attempt to shape themselves to the expectations they have of each other. 

Japan gave us the Bed Friends that Thailand could never even imagine. But here’s the thing: I don’t enjoy my BL this heavy and cutting. I know that for The 8th Sense crowd this is peak BL and I can’t argue with the fact that the romantic devotion, domesticity, script, and acting IS all on point. It’s just not my personal preference for that point to be so damn sharp. I appreciate that this being 2023 I have the luxury of consistent quality (especially from Japan) and thus the ability to say… 

I acknowledge that this SHOULD get a 9/10 but I can’t emotionally go higher than 8/10 

RECOMMENDED BUT KNOW WHAT KIND OF BL THIS IS AND TRIGGER WARNINGS LIKE CRAZY 

Japan = sticking to its lanes like their BL is on rails. 

Next Week Looks Like This:

Starting: 

8/11 Love Class Season 2 (Korea Fri Viki) 10 eps 

8/12 My Personal Weatherman AKA Taikan Yoho (Japan Sat Gaga) 8 eps 

Still Coming August 2023

8/19 Love in Translation (Thai Sat One31) ? eps - Two strangers start working in a cafe together.

8/19 I Feel You Linger in the Air (Thai Sat Gaga) 12 eps - The time travel historical romance many of us have been waiting for. 

8/20 My Universe series (Thai Sun iQIYI) 24 episodes - This is sampler pack BL, 12 pairs, each pair gets 2 eps, not sure on the order they’ll drop. Known couples include EarthBank from Destiny Seeker and KaownahTurbo from Love Stage!!!, mostly fresh faces otherwise. Jane to direct several.

8/22 Kisseki: Dear to Me formerly known as Miracle (Taiwan Tues ????) 13 eps - From screenwriter Lin Pei Yu (We Best Love, H3: Trapped) features a student doctor forced to take care of a gangster. I love the premise and like the writer, Viki or Gaga will get this one.  

8/24 Man Suang (Thailand movie, domestic cinema release) - historical drama about Thai burlesque with KP’s MileApo. Tong is in this one too?

8/? Why R U? (Korean remake) is supposed to be out this month, filming started in sept 22. I find everything about this hilarious. I mean if Korea remakes it, we lose all the sexy and then... would we have a story at all? No we would not. Not even for six short eps. It’d be like one of those mesh shopping bags.

Oh yeah, Only Friends is coming. 

2023 forthcoming BL master post (see comments, some are inaccurate, NOT KEPT UPDATED)

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

Hidden Agenda. I love them. 

Public claiming with the waist grab maneuver! A true hero. 

But I think we can all agree that THIS is the hero all love triangles deserve. (both Laws) 

(Last week) 

[neitherofusideal]

A year in review with Mads & Hugh

C2E2 – April 27, 2024

Fan Expo Dallas – June 9, 2024

Fan Expo Boston – June 14, 2024

New York Comic Con – October 21, 2024

Tokyo Comic Con – December 8, 2024

[afeelgoodblog]

The Best News of Last Year - 2024 Edition

Welcome to our special edition newsletter recapping the best news from the past year. I've picked one highlight from each month to give you a snapshot of 2024. No frills, just straightforward news that mattered. Let's relive the good stuff that made our year shine.

1. January - South Korea passes law banning dog meat trade

The slaughter and sale of dogs for their meat is to become illegal in South Korea after MPs backed a new law. The legislation, set to come into force by 2027, aims to end the centuries-old practice of humans eating dog meat.

2. February - Greece legalises same-sex marriage

Greece has become the first Christian Orthodox-majority country to legalise same-sex marriage. Same-sex couples will now also be legally allowed to adopt children after Thursday's 176-76 vote in parliament. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the new law would "boldly abolish a serious inequality".

3. March - Global child deaths reach historic low in 2022 – UN report

The number of children who died before their fifth birthday has reached a historic low, dropping to 4.9 million in 2022. The report reveals that more children are surviving today than ever before, with the global under-5 mortality rate declining by 51 per cent since 2000.

4. April - Restoring sight is possible now with optogenetics

Max Hodak's startup, Science, is developing gene therapy solutions to restore vision for individuals with macular degeneration and similar conditions. The Science Eye utilizes optogenetics, injecting opsins into the eye to enhance light sensitivity in retinal cells. Clinical trials and advancements in optogenetics are showing promising results, with the potential to significantly improve vision for those affected by retinal diseases.

5. May - Vaccine breakthrough means no more chasing strains

Scientists at UC Riverside have demonstrated a new, RNA-based vaccine strategy that is effective against any strain of a virus and can be used safely even by babies or the immunocompromised.

6. June - Bill Gates-backed startup creates Lego-like brick that can store air pollution for centuries

The Washington Post detailed a "deceptively simple" procedure by Graphyte to store a ton of CO2 for around $100 a ton, a number long considered a milestone for affordably removing carbon dioxide from the air. Direct air capture technologies used in the United States and Iceland cost $600 to $1,200 per ton, per the Post.

7. July - Stem cell therapy cures man with type 2 diabetes

A 59-year-old man had been suffering from diabetes for 25 years, needing more and more insulin every day to avoid slipping into a diabetic coma and was at risk of death. But then Chinese researchers cured his disease for the first time in the world. The patient received a cell transplant in 2021 and has not taken any medication since 2022.

8. August - Chinese drones will fly trash out of Everest slopes

Come autumn, Nepal will deploy heavy lifter drones to transport garbage from the 6,812-metre tall Ama Dablam, south of Everest. This will be the first commercial work an unmanned aerial vehicle does in Nepal’s high-altitude zone.

9. November - Tokyo to make day care free to boost birth rate

Tokyo plans to make day care free for all preschool children starting in September, the city governor has announced as part of efforts to boost Japan's low birth rate.

10. October - FTC Rule Banning Fake Product Reviews Takes Effect With Stiff Penalties

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan announced on Oct. 21 that the agency’s prohibition on fake online reviews was taking effect, imposing fines as high as $50,000 for violations. Khan encouraged followers to report the proscribed practices at reportfraud.ftc.gov.

11. November - Bumblebee population increases 116 times over in 'remarkable' Scotland rewilding project

The bumblebee population has made an impressive comeback in a developed area by increasing to 116 times what it was two years ago thanks to a nature restoration group.

12. December - Spain to enshrine gay marriage and abortion rights into its constitution so 'they cannot be undone in the future'

The left-wing PSOE leader made the announcement at an event marking the 46th anniversary of the Spanish Magna Carta.

“We believe that these are rights that we must protect in the Constitution so that no one can touch them in the future,” Sanchez said in a statement in parliament on Friday.

----------

That's it for last year :)

This newsletter will always be free. If you liked this post you can support me with a small kofi donation here:

Buy me a coffee ❤️

Also don’t forget to share this post with your friends.

[yurimother]

Fantasy Yuri Series 'I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day' Anime Announced

On Sunday, announced that Nachi Aono's dark fantasy manga I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day (Kimi ga Shinu made Koi wo Shitai) is being adapted into a TV anime series. Social media profiles and a page on production company Infinate for the anime were launched alongside the announcement.

The website contained a pilot teaser and key visual for the anime:

I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day follows a group of children with magical abilities, trained at a secret orphanage to be weapons of war. One morning, 14-year-old Sheena, in the midst of grief over losing her friend, is approached by a mysterious girl, covered in blood. It turns out her name is Mimi Kagari, the school's secret weapon, a girl who is unable to die. And she is Sheena's new classmate and roommate. Despite their very different dispositions and opinions on the war, a strange attraction grows between the two girls.

Takudai Kakuchi (Tokyo Autumn Session) is directing the anime at ROLL2. Infinite is producing the series, with EVOLROAR providing production support. Yasushi Tomoda is the assistant director, and Jukki Hanada (Sound! Euphonium, Love Love!) oversees and writes the script. Kyoko Yufu designs the characters, and Yakari Hashimoto is in charge of music composition.

The anime will star Rei Takahashi as Sheena Totsuki and Rina Hidaka as Mimi Kagari. They are joined Yui Ishikawa and Asami Seto. A full website for the TV anime will be launched in mid-March that may contain more details.

Manga creator Nachi Aono posted to X (formerly Twitter) to celebrate the news, writing, "I hope many people will enjoy it. Thank you very much!" She also created a special illustration to celebrate the announcement.

The manga series began publication in Comic Yuri Hime in August 2018. It moved to online serialization on Ichijin Plus and PIxiv in early 2020. The series has received mostly positive reviews from audiences, who praise its characters and heavy subject matter. The series was nominated for the 2019 Next Manga Award in the print category. However, it did not score in the top 20. It was later featured in MyAnimeList's 2024 "You Should Read This Manga" list in the Unique Art/Story category.

Ichijinsha will release the eighth collected volume of I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day in Japanese on March 17. Kodansha USA licenses The manga in English and released the first volume on February 18. The second English volume will be published on April 15.

You can check out the original manga in English paperback and digital editions ahead of the TV anime adaptation's release: https://amzn.to/4igZiK8

YuriMother makes a small affiliate commission from sales to help fund future coverage.

Source: Infinite Website

[bengiyo]

We are headed into our final Drama Shower show of the season. How do you rank the shows we got this season and how are you feeling about the direction of the project?

What is Drama Shower and Why Does It Matter?

Before we get into rating these shows, I want to do a breakdown of what this is. To give you a sense of how big a deal Drama Shower is, fans are regularly updating a Wikipedia page for it with relevant links to follow the project. Also, there is a dedicated MDL page for it.

Drama Shower is a dedicated half-hour programming block on MBS, a Japanese broadcaster that is over 70 years old, in conjunction with Kadokawa, a Japanese publisher and holding group, that plays BL content at 1:30 am on Fridays. The project's main producer is Kaoru Azuma, who is a self-described long-time BL fan. He wants to show that BL can do a variety of stories in genre, and has recently stated that he wants to produce original content through the project as well.

We originally had six shows air through year one: Mr. Unlucky Has No Choice But to Kiss!, Senpai, This Can't Be Love!, Takara-kun to Amagi-kun, Eternal Yesterday, Candy Color Paradox, and Jack o' Frost.

I originally reviewed these shows as overall a mixed bag, but showing great promise. I liked that they got more comfortable with depictions of m/m intimacy over time. I thought Mr. Unlucky was legitimately funny (9), Senpai never found its footing (6), Takara and Amagi mildly squandered their premise (8), Eternal Yesterday was extremely poignant (10), Candy Color Paradox had ambitions that exceeded its talent pool (7), and Jack o' Frost was a really strong finish (9.5).

MBS seemed to enjoy the performance of this project enough to continue it for another year.

For me, I think it's very significant to give BL itself a time slot to see how audiences are responding to BL as a concept compared to the pitch of individual shows. I'm really encouraged by MBS doing this. Even if you don't care about the name MBS, you have interacted with their content, because they are also behind Full Metal Alchemist and Haikyuu! anime adaptations.

Rating Year 2

I actually liked the way year 2 started, even if I'm a bit mixed on the end. I really loved opening with Tokyo in April is... I liked that they had BL trying to be topical. I think the show unfortunately conflates some things it shouldn't, but I loved TIAI and I loved Ren and Ryunosuke's experience being gay men. I liked the changes they made to the source material. This show was dark in a way that it owned, and I really like that. I gave it a 9.

We then moved to My Personal Weatherman, and that went over well for the people who like to see really hot people go at it with each other. I actually enjoyed how much Yoh and Segasaki actively misunderstood each other even as they were speaking to each other. I don't know that they exactly completed their story, and I suspect that there may be a future outing for this show. Despite enjoying it, I think it didn't get all of its pieces together fully and gave it an 8.5.

We then crossed over into uncertain territory with One Room Angel. Despite enjoying a lot of what was going on in this show, I don't actually think it's a romance. It's my understanding that the angel character is a lot younger in the source material, and so they may have been a little shy about how much they did with these characters on screen. I also don't think the storytelling was balanced between the leads. However, because I am susceptible to complex stories about grief, I gave this show an 8.

Now, we have Sahara-sensei to Toki-kun. I hated this show so much. I think it makes the unfortunate mistake of asking me to care about how homophobia and public perceptions impacts people through its flashback drama, but then does nothing with that in the front. It sucked so hard, and I'm really disappointed because I thought this show had some of the most potential, and I thought Toki was one of the most watchable characters Drama Shower had produced. I ended up giving it a 4.

Our next and final show (I think) for this outing is called My Strawberry Film. This one will also be in a high school, but I know little about it, other than we may have a GL plot in it.

So, overall I'd give Drama Shower an 8. I think fans of BL, and especially Japanese BL, should continue to show up and support it. The fact that we have a dedicated programming block is important. The fact that none of these shows has felt like a retread so far is super important. Drama Shower is varied. There is something in here for almost everyone. Drama Shower is the biggest commitment to BL we've had from a distributor other than GMMTV's ongoing BL slate. Taiwan has Vidol doing is four projects, but Drama Shower is the first time I know of that a Japanese distributor has focused on BL in a meaningful, ongoing way. We should stick with it.

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Kaiju Week in Review (March 24-30, 2024)

A coworker asked tonight me how Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire measured up to Godzilla Minus One, and I responded, "Almost as good, but in a completely different way." If you like monsters (and if you're following me I have to assume you do), see it, no questions asked. There's about a million of them and they're all delightful. The franchise has long struggled to recapture the specific charms of the Showa era, and I think this comes closer than any of them. (It's the climactic tag-team battle... also Mothra returning to knock some sense into Godzilla). Pure junk food, but you can't just watch Oppenheimer all the time.

Godzilla x Kong tore up the box office this weekend, performing well above expectations. Its $80 million opening Stateside was the second-best of the Monsterverse (after Godzilla). It added another $114 million internationally for the best overall opening of the (still-young) year. China was a big part of that with $44 million; giant monster movies are among the few Hollywood imports that still play well there. With a $135 million budget, lowest of the Monsterverse by a wide margin, it's a matter of when, not if, Legendary announces the next one.

The Oxford English Dictionary has added an entry for tokusatsu, defined as "A genre of Japanese film or television entertainment characterized by the use of practical special effects, usually featuring giant monsters, transforming robots, and masked and costumed superheroes." It's part of a group of 23 freshly-acknowledged Japanese loan words; unclear if the timing is coincidental. Oh, and if you're curious, they added kaiju in 2018. As someone who remembers when the only English-speakers who used either word were in fandom, it's pretty wild to see.

French company Extralucid Films will release Gappa on Blu-ray in June. The impressive-sounding bonus features are naturally all in French, but there's one that transcends language: 17 minutes of extra monster footage. The U.S. version of Gappa, Monster from a Prehistoric Planet, only has about 7 minutes worth of shots absent from the Japanese version, so I'm pretty curious about the other 10. It's also the first time this footage has been released in HD (Tokyo Shock blew it in 2020).

Season 2 of Chibi Godzilla Raids Again is indeed receiving official English subtitles, starting the same day as the Japanese premiere, April 10. Godzilla Battle Line also added a hilariously busted joint Chibi Godzilla-Chibi Mechagodzilla unit, along with a Destoroyah variant. (Maybe Godzilla x Kong units are next month?)

A new Monsterverse movie means new books to buy. The prequel comic Godzilla x Kong: The Hunted is out already (not recommended), but officially you'll have to wait until April 23 for the novelization and May 14 for the art book. Chalk that up to the late release date change, maybe. Unofficially, people are already getting the novelization from Amazon, because they're a monopoly that can afford to pay the fines from publishers for breaking street date. The audiobook version also released on the same day as the film. I don't have intel on what it adds and changes yet; adding everything from the film itself to Wikizilla is all I can handle right now.

The San Francisco Giants are offering a Godzilla VIP Experience on May 17, a long-overdue acknowledgement of the savior of their city. Tickets are almost gone, though I think it's a shame that the promotion is opt-in to begin; what happened to giving these tchotchkes out to the first thousand fans? Well, figures that they'd make getting merch of the Minus One Godzilla in the States a hassle.

[chronurgy]

Get to know you meme

tagged by @litchigaming, @pucaantaibhse, @yesistolethisurl, @wanderingbasilisk, and @threat-of-violets (I've been trying to clean up my mess of tabs and realized you tagged me in this back in April 😅 so sorry). Anyway, thank you all!

Last song - Dethrone by bad omens

Favourite color - blue. It's so versatile as a color

Last book - probably one of my exam review books but I'm not counting those, so probably the ministry of time? (I didn't like it, rip). The god of the woods was another recent read and absolutely excellent though

Last movie - Well-groomed, which is a documentary about competitive creative dog grooming

Last TV show - Tokyo vice (I'm partway through season one)

Sweet/spicy/savory - all of them! But I think savory might be winning at the moment since I've had a lot of sweet treats recently

Relationship status - married! For just over a year now

Last thing I googled - 'lolling definition' (I had to double check that I was using it correctly)

Current obsession - bg3 (to no one's surprise I'm sure)

Looking forward to - brunch at a really good restaurant. My spouse decided that all they wanted for their birthday was fancy brunch so we're getting fancy brunch! Also vacation (which is six months from now, but still)

No pressure tags: @defira85, @quinn-of-aebradore, @smallnico, @plethomacademia, and anyone else who wants to play!

[animesavior]

"Hold on, before we start: If you think you can beat me, think again. Cause I'm gonna beat the stuffing out of you, with my fists." Mash Burnedead, Mashle (Ep. 08)

This is the Toonami Trending Rundown for the month of January 2025. Toonami begins its 13th year back on Adult Swim as the block is in a “transitional period” of sorts with Invincible Fight Girl presently rerunning after completing its first season and Toonami Rewind being “merged back” into the block at the rear half of the lineup.

The first scheduled Toonami of the year, January 4-5, was a holiday marathon night of Uzumaki, so no trends were spotted during the 4-episode marathon. For the night of January 11-12, #Toonami trended in the USA on Twitter alongside Mashle, Invincible Fight Girl, and Blue Exorcist. On the night of January 18-19, only Toonami would trend. And for the night of January 25-26, #Toonami would trend alongside Mashle and Blue Exorcist.

The feature for the January 4-5 edition of Toonami featured a new Toonami ID titled “Laser TOM.” You can check it out below:

January 11-12’s feature was a game review for Squirrel with a Gun, an indie action-adventure game developed by Dee Dee Creations and published by Maximum Entertainment. It received a 7.5 out of 10 score.

The developers of Squirrel with a Gun, were quite happy about the Toonami bump on Twitter.

January 18-19 saw another new Toonami ID, titled “Strange Ritual.”

And the feature for January 25-26 was supposed to be a game review for the newest Indiana Jones video game by Bethesda, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Game. I say supposed to as the Cartoon Network broadcast control accidentally showcased a promo for Barney’s World, the newest animated series in the Barney franchise, which was probably meant to be showcased during the Cartoonito early morning hours rather than on Adult Swim/Toonami. Nonetheless, it received a score of 9/10 and you can check out that game review below.

Unfortunately, Adult Swim has decided to pull the plug on Toonami Rewind in the new year as the Friday afternoon throwback lineup was retired by the end of the year, with said timeslots being given back to Checkered Past. No official reason was given why Toonami Rewind was canceled. Alongside potential issues with Toonami bringing in additional programming for Rewind, it is likely that Adult Swim is seeing a change in strategy with the network inking a deal with Disney to bring Family Guy back to the late-night programming block for the first time since 2021. It’s not all lost, however, as the Rewind lineup would be “merged back” into the Saturday night Toonami lineup, with Naruto starting over from the beginning starting January 11th, while Sailor Moon returning on January 25th.

Mike McFarland, voice actor and ADR Director whom has lent his talents to many Toonami shows over the years including Dragon Ball, Full Metal Alchemist and Attack on Titan, was diagnosed with a massive brain tumor after originally dealing with symptoms of an ear infection. Fortunately, Mike underwent emergency surgery to successfully remove the tumor and is presently recovering. Our thoughts go out to Mike as he recovers, and if you wish to help Mike in a philanthropic way, feel free to donate to his GoFundMe set up by his colleagues.

Studio MAPPA on Friday has released new info and a key visual for Shinichiro Watanabe’s new series Lazarus. The season will be 13 episodes in length and will be airing in Japan on TV Tokyo this April 2025. Adult Swim has also announced on Instagram that Lazarus will also be airing on Toonami stateside in April with a concrete premiere date TBA. We’ll keep you posted.

Finally, The Pillows, the band best known among anime fans for creating the theme music for FLCL, has just announced that they have disbanded after 35 years following their January 31st concert in Yokohama. The band members plan on continuing their respective careers individually. All I can say is, Thank you, our twilights, and Ride on Shooting Star.

Until next time, hope you have a Happy Black History month, congratulations to the Ohio State Buckeyes for winning the National Championship, and of course, our thoughts go out to all those affected by the Southern California Wildfires. While the major fires have been fully contained after weeks of effort from first responders, at least 29 people have lost their lives; and thousands of residents, including voice actors Amanda Winn Lee and Melissa Fahn, have lost their homes. If you wish to help in a philanthropic way, make sure to donate to a reputable organization, including the Red Cross of Greater Los Angeles, the California Community Foundation, the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation, The Los Angeles Police Foundation, and gofundme (including one for Melissa Fahn. Amanda herself, in lieu of donations, has requested donators to purchase something from her Amazon Registry for her.)

Legend: The shows listed are ordered based on their appearance on the schedule. Show trends are listed in bold. The number next to the listed trend represents the highest it trended on the list (not counting the promoted trend), judging only by the images placed in the rundown. For the Twitter tweet counts, the listed number of tweets are also sorely based on the highest number shown based on the images on the rundown.

January 11-12, 2025 Trends

United States Trends:

#Toonami [#6]

#Mashle [#14]

#InvincibleFightGirl [Trended with #Toonami and #BlueExorcist]

#BlueExorcist [#13]

Tweet Counts:

#Toonami [2,505 tweets]

#Mashle [1,379 tweets]

#BlueExorcist [1,825 tweets]

January 18-19, 2025 Trends

United States Trends:

#Toonami [#27]

Tweet Counts:

#Toonami [2,224 tweets]

January 25-26, 2025 Trends

United States Trends:

#Toonami [#4]

#Mashle [Trended with #Toonami]

#BlueExorcist [Trended with #Toonami]

Tweet Counts:

#Toonami [2,445 tweets]

Tumblr Trends:

#one piece [#7]

If you wish to send me a tip for the work on the trending rundown, donations can be sent to PayPal.Me/DanielLimjoco.

It’s not the year, SARA. It’s the mileage. Only Toonami on [adult swim] on Cartoon Network.

[rifki16]

Love is Better the Second Time Around ep 4

Photo Credit : Love is Better the Second Time Around Promotional Account on Twitter | https://x.com/koi_nido/status/1772596502365356096?s=46

Gosh, this episode really made me so happy. It really compensated the massive emotional blue balls which I had because of Cherry Magic the Anime episode 11

SHORT REVIEW HERE WE GO ! SPOILERS SPOILERS!!!! DO NOT PROCEED IF YOU WANT TO BE SURPRISED BY THE PLOT

The biggest thing that popped up to me from the episode is the Sukida vs Aishiteru difference in Japanese. Before watching the episode, I had this understanding that, okay, Japanese people prefer to just use Sukida as the stand-in for "I Love You" rather than using the actual phrase of Aishiteru. Even when Hitro described how much he always loves crab cream croquette, he used the word Sukida - chuto sukidasteo -, instead of Aishiteru, granted that he was describing how he loves an inanimate object, not a person. In the cold open, Hiro used the noun form of love, which is "Koi". OH and the nighttime postdate pier confrontation. I really would love to understand which words Takashi actually used. "まずは さ僕と恋をしてみようよ" - Takashi actually used the noun form of love - koi -, the second time in the show. "のに 君が思ってる以上に僕もずいぶん君にはまってるよ" was what Takashi said before the date, here he used the word "into you" or more literally "addicted to you". But then, during the sex scene, while Hiro was riding Takashi I MUST ADD, I was so shocked that Takashi actually said "Aishiteru". The notion of Japanese people being too afraid of standing out by saying "I Love You" really just blew out of my mind immediately. Of course, the context of the scene might actually describe the intensity of their love that crosses the mass mentality of conformity and hence, the utterance of "I Love You". And also, it happened very privately. Not in some streets where other people might judge you more, ergo lowering the bar of whether to say "I Love You" or not. This case of saying I Love You or not is very interesting for me, I really want to understand more Japanese speakers preferred dictions.

The second biggest thing that I noticed from the show is their way of saying Sex. My understanding is that in BL Japanese works, they will just flat out say "Sex" rather than coding it, like what happened in Tokyo in April is..., Straight J-Dramas, on the other hand, just used the word "it". In one of the episodes of Turn to Me Mukai-Kun, the only straight J-Drama that I've watched Mukai-kun talked with one of his previous sex partners, they used the word "it" to describe their no-strings-attached sex. Of course, it's just an observation, I have not watched that many straight J-dramas. However, it turns out, in this series, they much prefer to use the word "it" as well. In episode 3, when Hiro said, before leaving the onsen, "Just because we have done it, doesn't mean we're dating". I really thought it was just due to Hiro's disbelief that he had sex with his ex-boyfriend, hence the implicit shame in admitting, and uttering that he had "sex". But now, in episode 4, during Haru masturbation scene, he says "そもそも好きだししちゃったし", again, the use of "it" Even though, I think the context has shifted, Haru was slowly admitting his love and feelings to Takashi; hence, he may not see the sex as something to be ashamed of anymore. But again, this might come from a very amateur observer of Japanese linguistic culture, I mean, the use of "it" might actually signify the idea that Haru doesn't see what he does with Takashi as "Sex" maybe they see it as "making love" lol, I know, such a corny phrase. However, maybe, Haru is just not at the point of saying that they are making love yet, but not calling it something as casual as "sex", (I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman by Britney Spears playing in the background). But that hypothesis doesn't really stand as Hiro actually said the word "sex" as they were having sex. What exactly are the connotations of the word "sex" for Japanese speakers?

I really love the consent feature of this episode. Hiro was too drunk to give consent, so Takashi just entertained him in his house, and they went out after Hiro became sober. Weird that they didn't use the trope of being too drunk and being needed to be carried by your love interest lol.

I also love that they used Uke taking care of Seme trope. it happened in My Personal Weatherman, Sasaki to Miyano [not definitive], If It's with You [not definitive], to say the least. I know it's not good in equating all of these heteronormative gender roles to a gay couple, but I think it's a nice trope to show that Ukes have dignity and play such a crucial role in gay relationships. I think it's much better for Japanese viewers to understand the out-of-the-box ness of queer couples by showing more on how Semes can also take care of Ukes - like in The End of the World with You.

ALSO. My brain itch still stands!!!! HIRO REJECTED TAKASHI. NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND. Gosh, the unequal love trope was called back in this episode. Is this a new trend amongst Japanese BL works?

FURTHERMORE. How can Takashi be that rich? Are university lecturers in Japan paid that well? the apartment, the stuff? HE HAS HIS OWN OFFICE, like what?

P.S. I really love how just mid-wild the sex scene in the end is. It's so typical of this show to be crazily in the middle.

After Takashi proposed and they all got lovey-dovey, omg they look so cute in acting like newlyweds.

Of course, they're gonna break up before reuniting in the finale, wouldn't be a bl if it didn't have one. Gosh, I'm gonna cry so hard in the next episode.

[cirphu]

2023: A Year in Review

Thank you for the tag @wanderlust-in-my-soul and @25shadesoffebruary; I'm always down for a trip down memory lane

Rules: Link your favorite and most popular post(s) of each month of the year and tag some CCs friends

January

Most popular: Payu and Rain make up, Love in the Air Special Episode (understandable lol just like with everything else, they were insane for this) Favorite: Yeo Jung becoming Dong Eun's executioner, The Glory (full black and white set, my beloved AND this monologue is just so *gestures wildly*) Honorable mention: Tinn asking Sound to help Chinzilla, My School President (had a lot fun playing the text and emoji animations; it took forever and a day but it was worth it)

February

Most popular: The Complete BL Sass™ Collection (finally gave the people what they wanted lol) Favorite: Masumi finding out the world is going to end, The End of the World With You (one word: ACTING)

March

Most popular: You're my man; don't call yourself a pebble, My Beautiful Man 2 Favorite: (same as above)

April

Most popular: Payu touching Rain's lips, Love in the Air (deleted scene) Favorite: Kiyoi just wanted Hira to feed him, My Beautiful Man 2 (shameless plug for my "don't mind me" collection)

May

Most popular: Why do you like me?, Be My Favorite Tralier Favorite: Deleted scene from Payu & Rain's first time, Love in the Air (I still maintain that it was a CRIME to cut that scene out)

June

Most popular: Bad Buddy meta; Ink and Wai are the only ones who know about Pat and Pran's relationship as shown with their outfits Favorite: Tongfah and Paper's first kiss, Second Chance (the blue in this scene speaks to me)

July

Most popular: Payu and Rain attending Sky and Prapai's wedding, Wedding Plan (I would like to know when we're getting the special episode of WP where Nuea plans Payu and Rain's wedding) Favorite: Domestic Kazuma and Ren, Tokyo in April is...

August

Most popular: Henry, the world-class insomniac, Red, White & Royal Blue Favorite: Prince Henry "You're in his DMs" tweet (this was the first time I made an edit like this and I love how it came out)

September, October & November

I went offline for a bit so nothing for these months

December

Most popular: Smol Rain next to Big Zaddy Payu, Love in the Air (first set after my three month hiatus; way to come back with a bang) Favorite: Welcome to Smirk City, Pit Babe (the first gif... need I say more?)

It's always nice to look back on the year like this because I sometimes feel like I don't contribute enough to the fandom (dw I'm actively trying to change that mindset ^-^), and something like this really helps puts things into perspective for me. Even with a three-month hiatus, I created quite a bit of content—content that I'm proud of :)

Tagging @raypakorn @musicdramalove @snimeat @forcebook @spicyvampire @aejeonghae @maxescheibechlinichacheli @dengswei; feel free to ignore~

[baekslight]

2024 In Review

rules: link your favorite and/or most popular post from each month this year <3 (it’s totally fine to skip months!)

tagged by: @baekhyunnybyun, thank you for the tag bex!!

posts under the cut, because otherwise it's too long!

January

most popular: baekhyun reacting to a fan's acrostic poem my favorite: same as above!

February

most popular: amusement park @ the snack party my favorite: madame figaro behind

March

most popular: bunny bbh in singapore, lonsdaleite my favorite: baekhyun for dftf, getting flowers from the madame figaror staff, un village in tokyo

April

most popular: that cute move during r u ridin my favorite: baekhyun @ exo fanmeeting one, un village set

May

most popular: birthday cafe stock: 0506 gifset my favorite(s): aiport set, lonsdaleite vcr behind, baekhyun looking beautiful

June

most popular: aiport set my favorite: lonsdaleite seoul behind layout

July

most popular: baekhyun for dazed my favorite: lonsdaleite in singapore

August

most popular: this chanbaek set my favorite: hello world concept film, world ver concept film

September

most popular: highlight medley set my favorite: pineapple slice fancam, hello world layout

October

most popular: perm kyoong set my favorite: baekhyun + text posts, style magazine set

November

most popular: rendez-vous live clip set my favorite: weverse membership kit, harpers bazaar behind

December

most popular: cbx in the last christmas my favorite: chaotic party layout set, myswizerlandkorea, snooze

not tagging anyone in particular this time! if you want to do it, you can say i tagged you!

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL

June 2023 Wk 3 

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs. Organized by which ones (in each category) I’m enjoying most.

Ongoing Series - Thai

Step By Step (Tues WeTV & Gaga) ep 9 of 12 - There sure is a lot of drinking in this show (who am I to talk?). Omg so awkward: The not-break-up not-confession. I have heartburn. Also I could not watch Jeng break down. Just nope. Then time jump? If that was our DOOM episode the timing is off. Or next week is the final? Or we get 3 eps of domestic bliss and sexitimes? I’m confused. 

La Pluie (Sat iQIYI) ep 9 of 10 - I like how trope-subversive this show is - first soulmates, then love triangle, now the faen fatal. NO SINGING. Oh good. They didn’t! Yay! So yeah I still love it. But I am also still a touch scared of where it might go. This one can’t be trusted. 

Be My Favorite (Fri YouTube) ep 5 of 12 - not a bad ep this week or was I too drunk to register nuance and damage? You decide. Trash watch here.

Luminous Solution (Sat Gaga) ep 5 of 6 - I always have to psyche myself up to watch this show, because I want to fast forward through most of it, but it’s on Gaga so that’s damn near impossible. At least this is the penultimate episode. I think after 3 BLs I can safely say Gun is just not a good actor. Speaking of... crying clothed in the shower? I haven’t seen that trope in years. But I LOVE the high school boys and their story so much. Love Sick level of earnest floppy goodness, I’m such a sucker for this kind of romance. I want them to be in a completely different BL. I’m so conflicted. I NEED this show to end so I can decide how I feel about it.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Love Tractor (Korea Weds iQIYI) eps 5-6 of 8 - So much is happening, evil x-boyfriend shows up. We got flashbacks to coming-out drama + nasty dad (super unusual for a KBL). But baby’s first taste of desire is hilarious. This one is full of lovely contrasts, and contrasting life experiences. It’s all about support and neglect. 

Tokyo in April AKA Shigatsu no Tokyo wa (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 2 of 8 - Very much full of hero worship and giving me My Beautiful Man vibes (only softer and office set). “Dazzling” = always an interesting word when it comes up in JBL subs. It’s clearly a Japanese word/concept like kawaii  that is more complex than the English word being used. Meanwhile, this being Japan we get lots of hints as to separation and dark past events. 

Tie The Knot (prev Under the Same Sky) (Pinoy YouTube) eps 1-2 of 8 - From OXIN Films (Rainbow Prince), based on a true story (?!), Briggs's family runs a bridal business but he has never fallen in love until he meets a groom to be in an arranged marriage. EXACTLY the same premise at Mame’s forthcoming Wedding Planner. There are so many characters and prospective couples (including a v bi girl with a female fuck buddy, not seen that in a BL before) that it is a little hard to keep straight (heh). I’m sure it will shake out. It’s intriguing so far, if a touch silly. I actually like the arranged marriage premise because the two rich kids involved in it are so weirdly kind & platonically sweet to each other, even if they’re both on the same page about it only being for show. 

Vian the series (Vietnam YouTube ) ep 7 & 8 of 12 - Apparently there is very little difference between a cat and a demanding princess of a boyfriend. That clocks. Basically this was the dating times. 

Naked Dinner AKA Zenra Meshi (Japan Fri Gaga) ep 11 of 12 - There is a lot more meat to this silly little BL then I thought there would be given the premise, but it’s Japan so that’s as it should be. But, as it’s Japan there’s also a little too much cringe for me. I do enjoy how generous Japan is with late bloomers and I would def like to host a kimchi party  but otherwise... meh. 

Stupid Genius (Vietnam Fri YouTube) ep 3 of 6 - Bi erasure still alive and well I see. This one remains fine for VBL but no more than that.

It’s airing but ...

House of Stars (Thai Mon iQIYI) 12 eps - I bounced at ep 3. Will binge if told it is worth it at end.

Stay (Pinoy YouTube) 7 eps - It’s mostly in English and set in LA so I’m not bothering but the first one did drop.

Ever After (Pinoy YouTube) - I investigated but as spies reported it's a real mess (not a hot one). Don’t bother. 

About Us but Not About Us (Pinoy Prime?) - from 2022 supposed to be finally getting inter distribution, didn’t show in my territory. A professor grieving the loss of his partner meets an ambitious literature student. I’m not fussed. 

Stay With Me ... NO! 

In case you missed it

What Did You Eat Yesterday movie, BL Express posted a review. I’ve yet to get hold of it but if you enjoy Our Dining Table this is it’s grown up parent series & movie. 

Café in Love - I finally got around to watching this. And frankly it hits all the tropes but is so damn bad. The setting is cute, the central brotherly relationship is sweet, the side cast is v queer (baby gay has all these auntie queens catting about) and some complex bisexual awakenings but… but… everything else is a chemistry void. Some fun language wordplay and exploration of cultural tropes like cheek kissing does not save it from an unnecessary amount of punching  and a but ton of sexual harassment and statutory rape. No thank you. I had to rewatch Destiny Seeker to get over this. 3/10 

I gave up 

Takumi-kun Series 6: Nagai Nagai Monogatari no Hajimari no Asa (Japan Sun ????) 10 eps - NO ONE ASKED FOR THIS and no, I have no idea where to get it, why would I? Apparently it finished. I still can’t find it but it’ll be off this list next week.

Why You (Khmer ????) - Billed as a horror romance, not sure if this is a movie or a series where it aired... nothing except that it exists.

Next Week Looks Like This:

3 BLs are finishing but nothing is starting up. We running lean these days. 

Just started today (Sunday): Dinosaur Love (Thai iQIYI) Trailer 10 eps - from Ultimate Troop about a uni student, Rak, whose partner cheats on him with Rak's best friend. This gives bad boy hazer Dino an opportunity to hit on Rak at last. From The Yearbook people so I shouldn’t watch this as it airs. After Remember Me? I swore never again with them. But there’s so little on right now, I might fall on the pulp sword. 

I’ll include it in next week’s summation. 

I’ll have the July 2023 upcoming for you next week too. 

2023 forthcoming BL master post (see comments, some are inaccurate, NOT KEPT UPDATED)

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

I love him, Your Honor. (Be My Favorite... HIM, he’s my favorite.) 

I love them, Your Honor. (Luminous Solution) 

Watch a tiny GL ship set sail across the seas of overly optimistic tumblrs... (La Pluie)

MY PRECIOUS! OMG I LOVE HER SO MUCH. (Tie the Knot) 

Incidentally, I would like a future as a dictatorial elder queer running a slightly shady business fleecing the straights via their dumb marriage traditions surrounded by nubile half-naked hotties.

And ya know what? I think this is achievable life goal for me. 

Gotta go, I have a future to plan. 

(Last week.)

[meimi-haneoka]

Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Chapter 72: Comments + JP-ENG translation differences

Hellooo everyone! The plot-train that will bring us to the finale of Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Arc is unstoppable, so here we are once again, at the beginning of another month, for another chapter of the climax of this saga!! April 1st as usual is a very busy and important day in the CLAMP world, as it is not only the so-called "CLAMP Day", but also the birthday of our Sakura Kinomoto (and many other CLAMP characters!)!! Moreover, precisely as I'm writing this post, SakuraFes is being held in Tokyo!! Fans strived hard to get a ticket (I could see the struggle on my TL on Twitter) and while some managed to get one somehow, others were left out....since there's been lots of anticipation for this event, we'll see if it was worth the struggle and if we'll get info about the thing we're all waiting the most for: a second season of the Clear Card anime!! (UPDATE: IT WAS INDEED ANNOUNCED like we all hoped for!! Congratulations to all of us!! 😂)

In the meantime, let's focus on the analysis of chapter 72 because boooooy, it might be one of the shortest chapters ever (I remember chapters this short were released in 2018) but the info that was disclosed in it!!! We're definitely, definitely at the climax and it shows. CLAMP sensei are solving all the mysteries and giving us all the answers one by one. But since this is important info that will help us understanding the story better, let's review this chapter (and its translation) carefully!

And as usual, before diving under the cut and into the chapter, the gif of the month (paying homage to Lilie, lol) !!

The Cover Page

Oooh, what a pretty Sakura we have here!! She looks as if being half-asleep, and judging by the content of the chapter, it kinda makes sense. Sakura stays in a dream for the most of it. The simple dress is very elegant with all those gemstones applied on it. It also looks as if Sakura is creating them? Also, we have once again the black background that's become so common lately in the color pages of Clear Card. With that expression, Sakura looks a little bit more mature, and I really like it. The text in the JP version reminds us again of the last words Lilie said in the previous chapter: "I crossed time and dreams to come to see you".

"I know her very well, and yet I don't know anything about her"

The chapter starts right from where we left off at the end of chapter 71, with our Sakura and Lilie meeting for the first time....or is it?? 😉 Sakura sounds a bit confused at what Lilie said, but as usual (bless her!!!) she's very perceptive and notices that Lilie resembles Akiho a lot, more than actually Sakura herself. Lilie seems delighted and answers "I'm happy to hear that!!" (and not "Thank you!" like she said in the ENG translation). I was all smily when I've read this for the first time, but what came right after threw me in a puddle of sadness, and now you'll understand why. Sakura asks her if she knows Akiho, and Lilie's answer is "I could say I know her very well, and at the same time, that I don't know anything about her. And that makes me terribly sad". That's it. I was all giddy and happy to finally hear Lilie starting to talk, and she had to throw this brick made of sadness at me like that, right in the beginning. 😭😭Because it's clear here she's referring to the fact that despite being her own daughter, she won't survive long enough to see her grow up. Not even long enough to ascertain who she will look more similar to, her mom or her dad. Because Lilie died when Akiho wasn't even 1 year old. She was just a baby. The realization tinted that "I'm so happy to hear that!" we've seen before of the same sad color. ☹️ BUT!! We're not here to get shot down by angst so early in the chapter, so we proceed with Lilie apologizing for making things so confusing for Sakura, and she informs her they're in a dream. Then she finally proceeds to give some explanations on what's she's been trying to do this whole time, at the same time solving one of the BIGGEST mysteries in the Clear Card Arc. The question everyone had ever since chapter 1 was: "who's under the cloak of the Mysterious Cloaked Figure?" And here, my dear readers, we finally get our answer, in the year of the lord 2023, 7 years after the beginning of the manga: MCF WAS LILIE ALL ALONG!!! But let's see her version of the facts. Basically, Lilie in the beginning strived hard to travel through time alone to speak directly with Sakura at the age of 13 years old (HOW F*CKING POWERFUL IS THIS CHILD??), but it wasn't successful because her voice didn't reach our girl. We see a flashback right from chapter 7 with someone dressed with the robe standing right outside Sakura's house. Do you remember that? Yeah, MCF didn't appear only in dreams, but also physically in Sakura's reality. These scenes appeared in the anime as well and in the end we found out that under the cloak there was a sleepwalking Akiho, acting completely unconsciously. As it's typical with CLAMP anime, this turned out to be different in the manga! (But there's still a chance they'll explain that scene of the anime in a different way!) I had the impression, for a long time, that MCF was a different person depending on the dream Sakura had, or depending on whether MCF appeared in a dream or not. Well! Turns out even that intuition was wrong, because MCF was ALWAYS the same person, it's just that...some big mess happened, but let's see how Lilie explained it herself. Since her voice couldn't reach Sakura, and since our girl kept seeing the future ahead in her premonitory dreams, Lilie tried to get in touch with her through the dreams she was having.

But, for a twist of fate (I know you're all laughing right now) Lilie ended up mingling with Sakura's foretelling dreams. Yessir. When we saw MCF apparently "attacking" Sakura, or riding on top of Dragon-chan, she actually didn't have anything to do with it. She just ended up being mixed in the middle of all of that. Sakura sometimes dreamt about a "force" pulling her key away, and Lilie ended up in front of it, thus suggesting that MCF was the one trying to grab it. Turns out, it was Lilie probably trying to talk or communicate with Sakura in some way. But hold on, the revelations aren't over yet, oh no. Lilie explains how that mingling with Sakura's dreams went quite wrong.

Because yes, when one of her premonitory dreams was trying to warn her about Kaito taking the appearance of Syaoran during the play, with the Cat costume...well....Lilie ended up mixing in again, and that's how we got our MCF Syaoran. Hahahahaha! Are you baffled?? 😂Well I have to say I had so many theories as to why Sakura saw Syaoran under the cloak of MCF, some even concerning the psychological side...well, damn. Sakura simply never truly doubted her boyfriend and silly of me for thinking she could 😂 Also, we know now that we can rest assured Syaoran won't turn into an evil pawn or something...it was just a huge misunderstanding. Poor Lilie, I can't really hold it against her even though she ended up making a huge mess, because she really strived hard however she could, and...fate didn't work in her favor, apparently...until the right moment, that is (remember, hitsuzen always knows when it's the right time!) Moreover, Lilie tells Sakura that she already dreamed of this very same meeting they're having now, and guess when that was? Yes, at the end of chapter 6, precisely in the scene I mentioned in my post for chapter 71!!

After the shocking revelation (that made me yell at CLAMP once again for how astutely they FOOLED all of us for 7 years - I'm pretty sure no one thought about this possibility), I started to realize something. Sakura, in her premonitory dreams, pretty much dreamt about things mainly connected to Kaito. The "You won't be able to come back anymore" voice? It was the Association + Squids threatening Kaito with what would've happened if he dared touching the artifact inside Akiho. Dragon-chan? As its shape it's basically the same of the Seal of D that engulfed Kaito right before he disappeared into the artifact book, we can safely say it's strictly connected to him as well. MCF Syaoran? He was actually Kaito himself, disguised as the Syaoran-Cat of the play. I have to admit it, I had started getting signs that one of the MCFs Sakura was talking to during her dreams might have been Kaito, at some point. I knew the height worked against my theory, but when Sakura said "You look....so lonely" in chapter 48, right when Akiho had supposedly the same dream and confessed her love to Kaito through "the moon is beautiful" phrase right after that, I knew the "lonely" one could be none other than Kaito. Maybe Sakura was supposed to see Kaito in her dream, that one time, but Lilie mixed up again. Heh. 😅 And here we get our first serious translation mistake that can easily create confusion. Lilie goes on saying that the Cards Sakura had newly created (thus the Clear Cards) have now disappeared, and her magical powers diminished by an amount corresponding to the power of those Cards. Moreover, the Cards that once were separated from her (the Sakura Cards) are now back with her and their connection to her became stronger than before (well, we have seen it, Sakura now summons Mirror even without a particular reason, just to talk). Here, the ENG translation completely skipped the distinction between the two decks of Cards (in the JP version Lilie clearly talks about "the cards you had newly created" and "the cards that were once separated from you"), making Lilie sound as if she's still talking about the Clear Cards even in the second panel.......when we can clearly see the back of the Sakura Cards there. And right in the next panel, we have yet another translation mistake. They completely made up what the Book did here. ENG: What's more, the book's forbidden magic...can only turn back time so far. It has no power over times before the caster or the target were born. He's younger than me... JP: Moreover, the "forbidden magic" (that originated) after using the Book does not reach further than the (moment in) time when the person who activated it and the target of said magic were born. And "that boy" is younger than me.

Lilie never mentions anything about the Book "turning back time". The "forbidden magic"'s work is to rewrite the memories that were recorded in the Book, it does not turn back time. I wish they made that clearer, it's been messed with even in the previous chapters!

But it's not over, as even the next sentence suggests something that in my opinion is incorrect. Lilie goes on explaining that for this reason, she decided to visit Sakura "now" that she's the same age as hers (she literally says the word 今, which for her is her present), crossing time and dreams to reach her. However, the ENG translation here says "So I've come to you from the time when I was the same age as you", suggesting that adult Lilie went back in time to reach Sakura's age and then went to visit Sakura in a dream. There's nothing that suggests that, in the JP sentence. As she will say herself later, Lilie is capable of seeing the future so much ahead, so it seems convoluted that she'd wait to become an adult, just to go back in time to when she was almost 13 (supposedly Sakura's age) and then cross time again to go see Sakura in the future. It makes more sense for her to attempt this when she was *already* 13 years old. I checked the other translations, and the Portuguese and French seem to agree with me (they translate correctly that 今 with "now that we have the same age").

Anyway. For Lilie it was important to attempt this now, while the Book's power can't reach her and mess with her goal, and while Kaito and Akiho aren't born yet. And she adds "(I've come to see) You, the cute Alice (daughter) of the girl named after a flower who became my friend", and we see a nice flashback of a little Nadeshiko, at the same age when she met Lilie. Sakura in this way understands that Lilie knows her mother. Sakura asks if Lilie came from the past and whether she came to tell her something. Lilie confirms she wants to talk about something that for her will happen in the future, but for Sakura it has already happened. Sakura is unstoppable with her questions (good!) and asks Lilie if she can see the future, to which she replies that yes, she can see the future in her dreams exactly like Sakura. "I can see what will happen just moments from now...what will happen long in the future...and even...what will happen after I've passed on". And here came the other punch in the stomach for me. Because Lilie's expression here is really, really painful. I think I'll do a separate post with all my thoughts on Lilie triggered by this chapter, so maybe check it out later if you're curious.

That's who I am

Sakura asks "Isn't it painful to know plenty of the future ahead?" and Lilie's sorrowful smile is already enough of an answer. But she goes on,

"the things I can do...and even those I can't...make me the person that I am"

I found that extremely beautiful. It is painful, yes, but that's part of herself too. And Lilie seems to be very accepting of her nature and her "gift", as well as her limits. Maybe that's why she's able to remain so positive and strong even in a very difficult situation like hers.

The moment is solemn. Lilie says (lit., JP): "Kinomoto Sakura. Your memories and records have been rewritten". Here the ENG replaced "records" with "life", probably because it doesn't make much sense to include "records" just like that. The Spanish version translated it as something like "(your memories) and the records that keep track of them", and I think that works very well. Sakura is shocked upon hearing that. Lilie here talks in future tense because this is something that for her will happen in the future: "That boy...will lie and tell the guardian of the book, who will one day be named Momo, that his goal is to exchange you with the other Alice". And why will he do that? Apparently, because in this way he won't make Momo think or have any suspicion that he will be the actual target of the exchange magic for the artifact that was inside Akiho. (JP) "Because Momo knows painfully well what will happen if that boy becomes the target, in the state he'll be in at the moment of the exchange". I'm a bit butthurt they removed that "painfully" and went for "all too well", because in the original JP text Lilie uses 痛い程 and its literal translation is "to the point of hurting". And I think that's perfect to describe Momo's feelings. Momo cares about Kaito, a whole lot. And she would've never agreed to a goal like this, endangering his life in that way and ending up carelessly triggering the Seal of D. And this is precisely the reason why Kaito lied to her. Because he knows that. He knows she's a "kind and a bit stubborn" creature. And her kindness towards him would've lead her to stop him, something he couldn't really afford.

Lilie can't help but muttering "blockhead". Yeah, in Japanese it's the same わからずや "insult" that Momo used at the end of chapter 70, precisely as he was disappearing engulfed by the artifact book. (And the ENG should've kept the translation of that term consistent between the two chapters, which was "dolt" in chapter 70 and turned into "hardheaded" in chapter 72). This made me wonder whether Lilie was the first one using that term for him, and so Momo took it after her, or if she simply saw that moment in a dream of the future, and quoted Momo's words. One thing is for sure, the JP fandom used that terms quite a lot after reading chapter 70. 😂 Lilie continues saying (still in future tense) that Momo will want Sakura to stop the forbidden magic, so she will give her a hint, but that will end up being incorrect, precisely because Kaito will lie about his real plan. So, what does this translates to, for us readers? When we were thinking that Kaito wanted to exchange the girls, we weren't completely wrong. Or, rather, we weren't lead to that theory without good foundations. It's just that Kaito lied to Momo and made things seem that way on purpose, so his real goal would've come out only at the last moment, the moment of activation of the forbidden magic. When Momo couldn't do anything about it anymore. He really mislead all of us. Because he wanted things to go this way so badly. Because he wanted to be the one to take into himself the thing he inavertedly caused Akiho to be engraved with, and which was about to kill her soul. I sense a profound, desperate sense of guilt from this. It's no wonder Momo was so mad and ended up crying, at the end of Chapter 70. She did what she could to protect "her children", but she ended up losing one anyway. Because, just like in the most common relationship between a teenager and their parental figure, he deceived her and still had it his way, stubborn and oblivious to how much suffering he would've caused to the people who loved him the most. No wonder CLAMP called him more than once "immature" in their Twitter Spaces. This is the reason why I see Momo as a strong parental figure for both Akiho, but mainly for Kaito too.

What is happiness to you?

So Momo's hint ended up being incorrect (remember the "world where no one remembered Sakura"?). But Lilie says "But even so, it's still the same. What's happiness to you?" Because, as Lilie says, the answer is the same even for the other Alice by Sakura's side. And in this very important moment, there's another difference in translation.

ENG: "Even if it makes someone else happy...imagine living in a world where the people you held most dear are gone. Could you call that happiness?"

JP: "Even if someone told you that's happiness/even if someone told you they're happy like this, can you really call it happiness if they live in a world where they lost what they didn't want to lose?"

It's painfully clear what Lilie is meaning here. Even if Akiho looks (and maybe even affirms to be) happy and cherished in this new arranged world with her memories rewritten, can she really say to be happy if the ONE thing she didn't want to lose the most....is gone? Sakura thinks hard about that. Even if Lilie doesn't mention names specifically. And just as she's thinking hard about the answer, the dream starts to crack. Sakura is about to wake up and Lilie knows it. (JP) "I come from a time where the forbidden magic can't reach. But you're right within its range. Once you wake up from this dream, I guess you will forget about meeting me. But, you have the magic that you've been preparing yourself. You just need to realize about it. I believe...in the two Alice"

And just like that, Sakura wakes up in Syaoran's arms, on the floor of the school grounds. Syaoran is visibly stressed and nervous, so much that when Sakura wakes up with a "Oh..." he goes "Don't "oh" me! You suddenly fainted!!" 😂 although this is a tense moment, I laughed at this scene because the stressful moment made some of the old, "rude" Syaoran come back 😂yes, there isn't any translation mistake this time around. The nervousness made Syaoran a bit snappy with Sakura 😆 Sakura, still in his arms (kyaaa), says that she had a dream, and she had the impression Akiho appeared in it. Syaoran helps her standing up, trying to defuse the situation joking that "that's what they call a sister complex, Sakura", and that Tomoyo told him about this term 😂😂(I've already seen some of my Japanese mutuals on Twitter saying Tomoyo teaches Syaoran stuff she shouldn't teach him 😆) Sakura doesn't really answer the joke, as she's still quite dizzy and confused by the dream. Syaoran goes back to be serious, seeing her like that, and asks if she's ok. Sakura says she is, but she holds her head almost as if she had a headache, so Syaoran asks her if she had a premonitory dream. Sakura isn't sure, you can really see she's trying hard to remember the content of the dream, but she just can't. Although, there's one thing she remembers. That this was a dream telling her something very important, both for her, and for everyone else.

And this, dear readers, is where chapter 72 leaves us, ready to advance the plot once again in the next chapter. As I said in the beginning, this chapter was short but finally explained some important things that were torturing us ever since the beginning. But not only: the just released volume 14 featured a change of script in chapter 70, when Momo is talking to Kaito after the forbidden magic was activated. Instead of asking him "what about you?", she tells him "You even lied to me, the guardian of the book, about the subject of the rewriting" which is directly connected to what Lilie said in this chapter. It was a "last minute change" (that normally happens between the Nakayoshi version and the tankobon version) probably to justify better why we were lead to believe that Kaito wanted to exchange the two girls (and thus not giving the impression CLAMP were playing us for fools completely). Moreover, it sounded strange that Momo would've let Kaito go on with his plan if she knew he would've ended up triggering the Seal of D. It looked pretty OOC for her, so maybe Ohkawa wanted to fix that. I was a bit confused by this change in the beginning, but now I completely understand why she did it.

Furthermore, there's the mention of the "magic Sakura has been preparing" that really intrigued me. Is this about the usual "zettai daijoubu da yo", or is it something more complex? Could Sakura have been preparing a spell that would activate in a certain circumstance before the play happened, in case she needed it later? Of course her memories now have been rewritten, but Lilie's words suggest that she will soon remember about preparing this magic. And I'm super excited to find out what it is. It would give Sakura a really good development, and show she can be planning things too!

At the end of the chapter, Sakura forgets about meeting Lilie. And while that might seem as once again an unnecessary stepback, I don't really think it is. If this was played in this way to give Akiho the agency she needs later, then it makes a lot of sense. Especially when many of us are hoping to see her remembering about Kaito on her own. Because it would be particularly significant. If Sakura remembered this meeting, and the fact that their memories had been rewritten, and about "Momo" and "that boy" who lied about exchanging them, logically the first thing she would do is to inform Akiho about it. But is this how things are supposed to go? Is this how Akiho is supposed to find out a truth that concerns her very closely? If Akiho is meant to remember Kaito on her own, because the void he left in her life will soon feel larger and larger, suggesting her that she's not truly happy and that something/someone is missing, then it makes sense for the narrative to hold things back for a short while. Sakura can always remember about this meeting on her own later on, thanks to her magic. While Akiho will work hard to grasp the true happiness she wants, with the help of the people who care about her. And I suspect that might happen as soon as next chapter. And then it'll be time to understand what to do to bring Kaito back, or to reach him where he is.

While here we keep praying hard for a happy ending in the manga, in the meantime I bask in the happiness of the freshly announced sequel of the Clear Card anime!!

Next release dates for what concerns chapter 73:

April 30th, on CLAMP’s Youtube channel (digital, JP and other languages) May 2nd, on Nakayoshi (paper and digital, JP)

Kodansha announced for May 10th the launch of a new simulpub platform directly managed by them (K-Manga), where it's very likely it'll be possible to read Clear Card in English digitally and simultaneously with the Japanese release. Although, that service will work only in the US (for the moment).

Alright, see you at the end of this month!! 😉

[popculturebuffet]

TMNT Month: Mutant Turtles: Superman Legend The Weird Fun Turtles OVA that Didn't Loose It's Glasses (Comission for Emma Fici)

Hello all you happy heroes in a halfshell and welcome to tmnt month, a celebration of the most radical heroes of all for their 40th. For those just joining, i'm jake I do reviews.. and I ended up having to cut part of this month off as I needed to take the rest of last week off after.. well you know. I was.. not in the best place.

So I wasn't in any shape to write.. not helping was a chaotic weekend turned into week where my sister is in the hosptial. It''s been a slow recovery, but i've gotten there: Migrating from twitter to bluesky has helped as I can just watch people say funny things and talk stuff without getting flavor blasted with a dickhead forcing his opinon on me becuase he owns the place. You can find me there here

That plus seeing Hugh Grant sing radio heads creep and Weird Al and Will Forte give a full throated performance of hot to go, not to mention a loving supportive family, have helped me move past this hard time.

And in these trying times... this is honestly the perfect thing to come back with. A truly bonkers piece of a franchise I dearly love that's fun to dunk on but still genuinely fun to watch. It's insane by TMNT standards which are pretty high. The series is usually running from a pretty batshit place even at it's most grounded. But legend of the supermutants is easily one of the weridest experiments in the franchises history.

It came about for the reasons most things did during the height of the tmnt's popularity in the late 80's and early 90s

This OVA came about because in Japan there was a line of super mutant toys, and soon after another line metal mutants so to promote them, these ovas were crafted by tv tokyo, done in a style similar to the 87 cartoon. Why they didn't make one for the bodacious birthday turtles I have no idea

I mean I want to see pennywise poppin mikey fight raph the magnificent while birthday guest leo watches. Donetello is presumibly dead in this timeline.

In Loving Memory of Shark Fistin Donetello

As for why there wasn't more that's simple: TMNT was petering out at this point , on the final season of the 87 cartoon so there probably wasn't a ton of profit to be had. Now why it hasn't been brought here SINCE is a mystery as it's the kind of curosity tmnt fans would love and a good chunk of the cast is still around to dub it, and by this point nick finally has the rights to the 87 cartoon in full. It could be issues with TV Tokyo we just don't know.

There was also a manga that wasn't offically translated here but you can find on archive.org. It's also bonkers in the conkers, featuring shrinking, creepy masks and fanservice for all

I couldn't review them in here as it was a bit much to try and cram into one review but I also felt i'd be remiss if you all didn't see splinter rocking that loin cloth. I mean come on april , he deseves to show off his toned ass as much as you do.

While you won't get butts with this ova you do get twin faries, Shredder wanting to eat krang , overused running gags, the ending of sonic adventure, the star of ninja gaiden, a fuckton of mirrors, sexy lizardman rocksteady, murder, a seemingly endless joke about glasses, trains, and krang's silky voice used as an instrument of torture. These two episodes are insane, wonderful and I can't wait to show them off under the cut.

The Great Crisis of the Super Turtles! The Turtle Saint Appears!

The Turtle Saint Appears opens with a recap for an episode that dosen't exist, explaning the new status quo for our heroes: So our heroes were summoned by Krys Mu, a magical fairy that guards the mutatstones, 4 powerful stones that can super mutate their user and allow the turtles to become buff more humanoid super charged versions of themselves and also they can fuse now. This power isn't just for good as Cris Mu's evil sister dark mu is contained in an evil mutastone of greed that Krang uses on shredder , bebop and rocksteady since he ain't got no body and he's sad and lonely. Our heroes won and now stand ready. Now you may be having some questions. Valid ones like "Why this wasn't it's own episode", "why is shredder in dope new armor"

, and "Why is rocksteady's form a sexy lizardman"

And rest assured you'll get.. one answer. Just the one. He's very lonely. Shredder's armor is explained in the manga: the turtles destroyed it during their last fight with him, and Krang made him a spiffy new set that also gives him super strength and stuff. Something the special COULD have brought up instead of cramming this all into two minutes but I digress. The rest.. is left pretty vauge and is a bit out of this neck of the franchises usual reliacne on aliens and stuff. This is straight up magic, which I've seen isn't ABSENT, btu they usually use a super science hand wave.

I"m not going to be too harsh on this insanity though for a simple reason: this special was made to sell toys. I grant the 87 cartoon and all turtles cartoons after it show you CAN make a good cartoon and still merchandise the crap out of it, but with just an episode a piece to make a backstory for these and presumibly not just wanting to have an origin story an episode, I get the episodes picking style over subtstance, going for a flashier end of the world plot instead of two origin stories in a row.

We then get our spiffy theme song. It's endearingly cute talking about how their fighting turtles, not ordinary turtles and having a nice peppy bit. it's not my faviorite japanese tmnt opening but it's a close second out of two

I mean you can't hear that and not get hype. You just can't. Fun Fact: this dub also seems to have been done by TVTOKYO.. and didn't quite do so good as the darker astetic didn't play well to fans of the original. Alas.

So onto the episode itself: the stars are going out and to no one's suprise it's that no good bastard Krang done did it. He's feeding the stars to dark mu to power her up. Shredder is less than impressed and his mood dosen't improve when he finds out krang's plan: to blow up the earth

Shredder's temper tantrum increases when he finds out Krang wants them to live in dimension x instead and we move to the next scene as he rants about Krang being an octopus and how he's going to eat them.

We transition from Shredder's poorly disguised fetish to NASA where a scientest up in space notes the stars are going out. Mission Control asks if he has his glasses on. This gag... bothers me. It bothers me on a level it shoudln't especially given what a week i've had, but it's just the same stupid "YOU WEARING YOUR GLASSES" gag repeated. The only varation is someone in his shuttle finding his glasses.. but those were his backups. They just keep hammering this stupid gag into my skull while I pray for Krang to hurry the hell up and win already so this stupid glasses guy can go with the rest of the earth.

April reports on this naturally and we cut back to the turtles, splinter.. and april as it was a pre recorded segment for a change, and they discuss what's going on trying to figure out what this means. Mikey suspects THE ALIENS... and I mean.. he gets shouted down.. but krang IS an alien. He's from another dimension, but he's a creature that can live outside his physical body as a living brain and comes from another planet. He qualifies. I mean Shredder isn't but the special weirdly refers to shredder and the foot clan like he's not the only human member of a team consisting of robot minions, two mutant dummies and a living brain he wants to vore.

Crys Mu chimes in and confirms it's her sister dark mu: she feeds on chaos, sisters am I rite?, and thus this whole business is getting her ready to emerge which would end the world.

She needs more energy though so Krang sends out the dumbass patrol to go cause a ruckuss. The Foot Soldiers aren't present as their on vacation. No really their on vacation and we see them later having a good time on a beach. It's amazing and I applaud the gag. A lot of the humor in this special dosen't quite hit, but that gag is genius. This is why you have unions, with the guild of calamitous intent even henchman get paid days off, mechanical men or not.

So with a crimewave high with muggings mysterious, the Turtles go to tussle with their foes. In a touch I love splinter.. sees this for what it is and gets involved: The turtles go to fight team chucklefuck, and splinter goes to face Krang himself, something I love as... it's not a fight I think we've ever really gotten.

This is down to Splinter's roll in the franchise: he's for the most part the tough but fair mentor. There's been deviations as always: his 2012 self is still tough on the boys a time but has a gentler touch, his rise incarnation is a hot mess content to just binge on snacks and ignore his mountain of trauma, and his mutant mayhem incarnation has all the stern yet wise mentorship you expect.. but is also an INCREDIBLY awkward dad. There's universal traits: the love for his sons, a background in martial arts, the name hamoto yoshi if he was a human. But his roll tends to stand firm: he's there to support and teach the boys and when their without him their at their most frought and vulnerable.

But being the boys dad.. it also means it's a tad less fun to include him at times, and so the boys are mostly left to their own divicies, with Splitner stepping in being a sign shit has gotten THAT bad, like how he shows up during their first fight with the shredder in the 2003 cartoon , at the climax of the live action movie or my personal faviorite in the idw comics when Casey , part of the family at this point, is beaten up by his abusive dad again. Splitner rescues the boy, threatens his dad and makes it clear he's not going anywhere near the boy or else. Incarnations that loose splinter tend to feel lost afterwords wether it's temporary like his kidnapping in the movie or seeming death in rise, or permenant like his deaths in 2012 and IDW. The turtles are pure escapism and execs and writes probably figure kids, adults and whoever don't want their dad hanging over them every step. There to support them, love them and step the fuck in when things are worst.. but giving them space to let them just caper and have fun on their own. To have their own adventures.

As a result when Krang shows up, Splinter usually either isn't there to intervene, or assumes they can handle it. The 2012 series has him mildly involved, but he's more heavily involved with the foot storyline due to Shredder's unending hatred of him. Krang is just another one of the weridos his son punches in the face. Shredder is as much his arch enemy in most continuties as he is the boys.

So it's neat to see them square off.. but sadly there isn't an actual fight. The fights in this ova are mostly just.. people shooting their special attacks at one another. It LOOKS cool and what not but you can tell they didn't have the budget for actual full on fights and use sharp cuts and what not. So the turtles grapple with the super troopers while Splinter and Krang just .. make banter. It's disapointing. I mean I can play shredders revenge again and play the second to last level but it's just not the same. I do like that when they get flooded out of the lair Krang chastises Splinter for leaving the door open and the joke of Krang being more upset SPlinter barged in unannounced with Krys Mu by his side.

Sadly that flood means: it's time. the fight between the turtles and team chucklefuck lasted just long enough for him to do a sonic adventure and flood new york. Now our heroes gotta open their hearts or else, as Dark Mu arrises and she's.. Krys mu but iwth black hair, a sexier outfit and more power. Krang naturally has her use it on shredder and this is where this up to this point entirely normal special about the turtles turning into roided up versions of themselves who look meh and fight super versoins of their enemies, inclduign shredder as a giant terrifying dragon man for some reason, goes off the rails. Krang makes his shredder grow.. and as a result shredder is a GIANT MONSTER. Wow this really is the climax to a sonic game.

So Raph says what we're all thinking "Shit". Casual swearing in Japanese Childrens Media, you love to see it. We then get the greatest moment in either episode as splinter launches a giant murder ball of energy at the turtles.. and Splinter FUCKING CATCHES IT. Keep in mind Splinter dosen't have a mutastone, is deep in middle age, and isn't hurt at all from this, while Shredder has been given DOUBLE mutastone power and made into a fucking kaiju.. and Splinter STILL fucking blocked the attack. The action here may be slowly portioned out, but dman if it isn't fluid when it happens.

THe boys and splinter escape into april's news helicopter, which shredder bats at like a kitten. So Donnie.. has a clever plan. And a really clever one. He gets down there and fucking BAITS kaiju shredder, goading him into attacking a building.. enough to SAW IT IN HALF SO IT FALLS ON TOP OF HIM. Look this special is silly as fuck but you can't say it's not amazing. Donnie dropped a building on a fucking kaiju shredder.

Dark Mu decides to just fly into space and kill everyone because she can do that. She always could. Shut up. So the turtles have to use their ultimate power. The Turtle Saint. You think they'd save this for the line blatantly riping off saint seyia but no, their going full saint now merging into a bigger turtle man. And since I have the opprotunjity I gotta say.. the deisgns for the super turtles are mid as hell

Now i will give credit where it's due. The masks are dope as fuck. Their cool, heroic, and really pop. The rest though.. is just the turtles as more humanoid. Their pretty standard super humans and ther'es no diffrence between the four. Which is normal sure, but in a toyline that also got as weird and creative as "let's make raph a birthday magician", they could do better. I"m not saying "Let's make Raph a Birthday Magician is the peak of creativity.. but it is amazing.

The saint mode is a bit bettery. I don't like how white it is and wish it's midsection was yellow or green instead of blue, as Blue is leo's color. Same iwth the max. You could've made the belt Blue to represent leo. It gives the impression he's in control instead of what the Saint is: all four of them controlling one body. I still like it more than the base form though: while the coloring is off, it looks less generic, with the superhero outfit, mighty sword, giant wings and turtle feet more visable but also armored. It gives a better impression of this being a super mode the turtles use than the regular super mutation.

I also like how the saint functions: it has a three minute time limit, explaning why they don't just use it and beat everyone up, and it's HARD to use. Simliar to waht Steven Universe would do eventually, the fusion relies on the boys working in synch mentally.. and given how their all so vastly diffrent: the dutiful son, the angry wiseass, the loveable goofus and the science boy, it's very hard to actually CONTROL saint mode. So while it's mostly played for laughs Dark Mu genuinely dominates the fight and our heroes can't land a hit. I like when a super mode has limits, that it's not just an instant win button but something that you have to master.

So to win the day Crys Mu sacrifcies herself, pulling a goku and grabbing her sibling so the turtles can kill them both. They naturally don't want to stab their friend.. but Crys insures them as a spirit she can't die.

So naturallyt hey pull off their finisher for crys and kill both fairies. The turtles are then picked up by nasa. And... in a dark time such as this.. it's so nice that i'm getting paid to write that and to have watched that.

The turtles look out and see the crystals floating in space, implying both farieis survivied but are now trapped in the void... then we end on a joke and some end credits so we're just moving on from that. Crys and Dark only get mentioned in the opening credits. While Mutastones are involved it's pretty much a complete soft reset: the turtles mutastones are inert, so they need a fresh set and kenner needs a fresh set of toys to plug soooooooooo....

The Coming of the Guardian Beasts - The Metal Turtles Appears!

So for this adventure

And so are the turtles as Splitner got a message from a hidden ninja villiage he's cool with that needs his help. The thing is the setup makes more sense than last time: Splinter and Shredder ARE from Japan, and while Splinter got framed and thrown out of the foot clan, given what Shredder turned it into it's not a shock he'd still have allies who'd want his help.

Mikey of course goofs around and then has to shove himself into the taxi in a great bit of physical comedy. Back with Team Dumpdumb, Krang has found a new mutastone and wants Shredder to go get it, who bitch cries about how the mutastones are all trouble, he dosen't get beat up and how women are in star wars now and that displeases him. Krang gets him to do his bidding the usual way... by laughing in a very annoying high pitched voice till shredder does what he says. I know the 87 shredder isn't the most compitent shredder.. but I have to belivie he can outlast a laugh and go five minutes without whining like a toddler.

So they get teleported to Japan.. on top of a bullet train. The turtles are interrupted from a riviting conversation with a passenger about what thomas the tank engine character they are to deal with this.. and also have to hang the fuck on. I love this as until archer I hadn't thought of how.. fucking hard it'd be to actually fight on top of a moving vechile let lone one this fast, and it's a great gag. The turtles don't have to fight though as NINJAS arrive, including their leader and the one who sent for splinter, Hattori Kinzo who looks distractingly like Ryu, the protaganist of Ninja Gaiden

They use some shurikens to knock shredder off a train, again love this job so much, and take the turtles to their villiage to get their help. As it turns out he needs help guarding a sacred mirror that contains a set of sacred stones, fresh new mutastones. Unfortuantely for them a ghost of a bandit or something whose not really explaind shows uand just .. laughs. Yeah why the ghost came back is never really explained, he's left vauge as to if he's helping the turtles or team shredder.

Speaking of team ran out of names, they find our heroes and the shrine grows into a castle everyone starts climbing. eventually though raph questions

So they split up: the non mutant ninjas keep climbing and the mutant ninjas take the stairs.

This ends up not mattering as Bebop, Rocksteady and shredder beat the turtles and while Team Ninja tries to throw fake mirrors everywhere it fails and Shredder grabs the mirror.

So after beating Ninja Gaiden we get ARMORED versions of the villians. And look i've only read maybe a volume of saint seia, a manga about our boys they can be heroes, and frankly even that little tells me their just using the same gimmic, replacing the animals of the western astrological zodiac with animals of the chinese zodiac. That said while the concepts a blatant knockoff.. they do a good job making it thir own. If you compare the designs

There's defintely some similarites in the head pieces, but they vary it up enoguh int he actual armor to still feel creative and they look dope. Each one fits the turtles: Leo has a samurai garb, Raphs flame motif fits him and his animal, michealngeo has warm round edges and donnie's looks mildly cybernetic. It's smallt ouches but it's clear the animators put a bunch of thought into it. The toys themselves well.

Yeah these do not look great, with the indviduality gone for the most part and the armor clunkily fitting over previously existing molds. While I get the point of this it dosent look great. The designs for the others also look sharp: SHredder gets white tiger armor a perfect contrast to Leo's dragon, Rocksteady gets errr snakes and Bebop is a pirhana for some reason.

`I esepcailly love shredders looking like a dope upgrade of his normal look.

Our heroes are at a disadvantage easily getting curb stommped until the ghost who pointed shredder to the mirror.. helps them get it. Our heroes get their forms. And no I don't quite get the spider either but it looks cool and the fight here is a bit more intenstive if still mostly calling special moves. but the moves look spiffy and the finale is excellent. Shredder tries to retreaate as he didn't know till Ninja Gaiden explained it that the suits hav ea time limit so we get a neat beam struggle between him and leo.. that ends when the time limit comes too. The bad guys are beat but still have thier stones, but our heroes have theirs, everyone celebrates and the castle collapses because why not. NOTHING WAS RESOLVED

I like the metal mutants episode more as I write about it. The first one is more batshit insane, but this feels like a more solidly put together story. I mean it's still nuts, yo uhave the random ghost, but it feels far more in line with 87 tmnt: plenty of jokes but nice stakes and action to go with them and a premise and setup that could easily slot into the show before the red sky days.

Overall theses ovas are goofy fun. Probably not among the best turtles content but fun unique toy tie ins that are just long and batshit enough to be fun, but not so long they outstayed their welcome. I would've loved a full TMNT anime and still would at some point, but this is a pretty neat piece of turtles nonsense right when I needed it most. Thanks for reading.

[kokiafans]

KOKIA updates: January 2025

Below follows a summary of KOKIA’s activities of January 2025 (including some news entries made in 2024, but promoting 2025 events). For now, this will remain the style of updates of this blog for the foreseeable future - please read this post for a further explanation, and thank you in advance for your continued patience and support.

Past performances

KOKIA's first performance of 2025 was January 18, for her by now traditional Yatsugatake Kogen Music Hall performance ‘The place where music falls vol. 7’ (ongaku no kudaru basho). Aside from the news entry of November 29, promoting general ticket sales starting the next day and the promotional Instagram image, KOKIA didn't really write a long review on her blog about the performance (aside from a mention at the start of her entry for January 20). She did, however, post a picture of the night sky on her Instagram, thanking her audience and comparing how the stars seem to fall from that sky much like the titular music.

Once-in-a-lifetime meeting tour 2025

With the new year starting, KOKIA is preparing for her upcoming Once-in-a-lifetime meeting tour 2025.

The first performances will be in the Kanagawa prefecture, at the Yokohama red brick warehouse no. 1 (3rd floor) on January 15 and 16. From her news entry of December 11, general ticket sales started December 27 via Capital Village. In her news entry of January 20 and accompanying blog entry, KOKIA reveals a guest star: Kazuhiro Matsuo will be joining on guitar during these two performances. KOKIA calls him one of her strongest 'sound rangers' who has supported her throughout the years, though it's now been a decade since they've last performed together. She's very excited to have him join! (Promotional image for these performances below via Instagram)

The next upcoming performances are Tokyo (April 13) and Kanazawa (April 19), for which pre-orders for fan club members have been opened now (news entries for January 22 and January 26 mention the MEMBERS page on her website has updated accordingly).

Furthermore, KOKIA announced in her January 31 news entry that her concert tour will be promoted via video on the Starts Vision screen at the famous Shibuya scramble crossing in Tokyo, from February 10 to 16, once per hour from 9:00 to 24:00.

Finally, she lists out all performances in her news entry for January 29:

February 15 and 16, 2025 - Kanagawa prefecture, Yokohama red brick warehouse no. 1 (general sales ongoing)

April 13, 2025 - Tokyo, Nihonbashi Mitsui Hall (fan club member pre-sale)

April 19, 2025 - Ishikawa prefecture, Kanazawa 21st century art museum theatre 21 (fan club member pre-sale)

May 17 and 18, 2025 - Osaka, Nanko Sunset Hall

June 7, 2025 - Hokkaido, Sapporo concert hall Kitara small hall

July 20, 2025 - Saga prefecture, Roman-za

July 21, 2025 - Oita prefecture, BRICK BLOCK

July 26, 2025 - Yamaguchi prefecture, Jazz Club BILLIE

July 27, 2025 - Aichi prefecture, Denkibunka hall The Concert Hall

Other upcoming performances

In her news entry of January 27, KOKIA reveals she'll make a guest appearance at Yuki Kajiura's LIVE vol.#21～60 Songs～, to be held in July and August. KOKIA will perform on August 1 in Tokyo, at Shouwa's Women University's Hitomi Memorial Hall, on August 17 in Nagoya, PORTBASE, and on August 23 in Omiya, Sonic City.

More information including the other guest artists can be found on the official website.Pre-sales for official 'FictionJunction Station' fan club members will start February 3.

Promotional events

Spread out over a week, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper Digital Magazine published an interview with KOKIA for Naoko Sakamoto's 'music spirit' segment. The first part, published on January 8, covers KOKIA talking about her new album essence -25th Anniversary All Time best- along with stories about her music. The second part, published on January 15, also talks about her daily life and her feelings about growing older.

The articles feature many new photos, taken by Hiromi Nishida from Victor Entertainment.

(Mod comment: Full disclosure: I hope to one day be able to translate the interviews KOKIA has done lately like I've done before, but I'm afraid that's not going to happen in the short term.)

In addition, KOKIA continues to make radio appearances. She featured on MUSIC HOT FLAVOR on January 4 (first picture below), on Get Up Kyoto Magunamu Ishii SHOW at KBS Kyoto radio on January 5 (December 2 news entry) and on FM Yokohama's KISS & RIDE on January 21 (second picture below).

Finally, KOKIA announced on December 28 in her news entry that starting January 6, she's teamed up with ePrint Service for Shopping Mall KOKIA. This means that in convenience stores all across Japan (7/11, Lawson, Family Mart, Mini Stop), you can use their printing service to print out exclusive KOKIA designed items. Currently, there are 2 postcard designs for ¥ 400 and one sticker design for ¥ 600. Both have a cute snake design to commemorate the 205 being the year of the Snake, and the other postcard design is a promotional shot for her album essence. More designs are planned for the future. KOKIA mentions how this way, she doesn't have to worry about high shipping costs for small items.

The current designs can be seen on the official website.

Additionally, fan club members will receive a special code in the next mail magazine, which they can use to print out the seasonal KOKIA newspaper from now on, too.

[bengiyo]

BL 2023 Review

I wasn’t sure how I wanted to write about BL for this year. I was originally going to do a The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly framework for it, but that feels meaner than I actually am about it. Instead, I think I’ll just write out some sections and unpack some things I felt along the way.

I Watched Too Much Again

Last year I engaged with about 92 productions around the world. This year it was 99 (I tracked stuff I completed here). Sure I dropped 18 of them this year, but goddamn. The problem with watching as much as I did this year is that I worked full time this year and also maintained a separate hobby. I also continued my twice-weekly watch sessions with my friend Emily, so there are an additional 100-ish watch sessions in here of rewatching, plus a few other rewatches (Theory of Love and My Ride most notably).

One of my struggles at this point is I’m far too familiar with the genre, and find myself feeling impatient and irritable with shows that aren’t to my taste the way I used to. Throughout the late summer and fall I found myself increasingly grumpier about the genre, and it didn’t get better until I had a holiday and basically slept a day to get some energy back. I also found myself growing apart from fans I’ve known and followed a long time. It’s been a difficult year for me as a long-time fan because my tastes, habits, and friendships in the genre have changed even if the amount I watch hasn’t really.

I Wrote a Lot This Year

I recently converted my watch tag away from my gaming internet persona to just my shortname, so all near-1000 of my Stray Thoughts posts can be found under #ben watches now. I’ve also been going back and adding #ben writes to some of the standalone pieces that I really liked. In reviewing them, the pieces I’m happiest about are my ode to Framboise from Kabe Koji Nekoyashiki-kun Desires to Be Recognized, my post begging everyone to watch La Pluie, my post about what it means to actually like queer men, my SBS ep 10 post that ended up being wrong, my post about the Lavender Scare and Be My Favorite, my Tokyo in April is… post about the breaking of the BL line,

However, the two posts I am most proud of is my half-joking response about why I think tagging each other back and forth across Tumblr in our writing is so important. and The Knowing: Being Queer in BL because I had so much great conversations with folks as a result of both of these posts.

Looking back at my own blog, this is probably the most active I’ve been in my entire time on this website, so thank you to everyone who interacted with me this year, because it really is people talking to me that gets me most inspired to write things down. Big shout out to @lurkingshan who will bug me repeatedly until I blog something that I said in passing.

We Started a Podcast!

After hanging out with @shortpplfedup since Bad Buddy, she got inspired and really wanted to bring something different to the BL podcasting sphere. I had time, and liked talking with her enough, so we started @the-conversation-pod. Now we’re a full year into it and planning out future stuff. It’s been so much fun being able to get things off my soul and break poor NiNi in our recording sessions.

From this year, I think my favorite episodes we did were The Moonlight Chicken Episode, the Eighth Sense episode, the ITSAY Anniversary Episodes,  The Wedding Plan episode, , and The Holiday Clip Show. Huge shout out to @ginnymoonbeam for anchoring the transcription process, and @lurkingshan for editing.

The VIIB Awards will begin airing soontm so look forward to that.

Favorite New Term: Business Gay Performance

Let’s be clear, Bump Up Business is not good. It is an obvious BL cash grab from OnlyOneOf that seeks to comment on the fake nature of BL while doing everything it can to trick the audience into believing that the BL pair is real.

Before we got deeper into this year, I was a big fan of a certain pairing, and then their fans took it too far and it affected the way I engaged with their performances and their work. I like that we have a new term for “fanservice” that communicates that you understand that this is for work. (thanks to NiNi for this comparison) I can look at the latest behind the scenes video from Last Twilight and say that I think Sea really understands the work they’re doing, and he and Jimmy have a very relaxed and mature version of BGP without feeling like I’m feeding into shipping.

Do I think they’re dating? No. Do I like the way they fake it? Absolutely!

I can look at one of @respectthepetty posts about Yin and War having personalized, color-coded mics, and we can talk about the next level BGP between the two and both communicate that we know that this is a performance.

It actually makes the extra PR work fun for me again, because now I can just shout “BGP! BGP! BGP!” and it not feel like I’m giving myself brainrot.

Thai BL Needs to Finish Stronger Next Year

Let’s get into some of the show stuff. This year was defined for me by Thai BL starting strong with good premises and then squandering them by not focusing on the details that mattered or leaning into baseless melodrama. Time for some reads. Some of these shows were generally good, but they failed at these things:

609 Bedtime Story: The world building crumpled in the back half and both endings are flat.

A Boss and a Babe: Cher is a pro gamer who worked for a gaming company and there was no plot point about this at all, or collaboration between the two groups.

Bake Me Please: Why was a show about cake so lacking in flavor?

Be Mine SuperStar: You had a real opportunity to explore a fan and idol romance and had Punn show so little growth. I hope the footage of First’s range is helpful now that Ja is out of BL.

Be My Favorite: You redid that whole amusement park date and muddled so much of what the hell happened on that day.

Between Us: You had years to make this interesting. Why are there five pairs and why is the end of this a JC Penny catalog photoshoot?

Dangerous Romance: What the fuck happened to the Sailom we had in episode 1 and 2 before that gun incident?

Hidden Agenda: Tee, what the hell was this? Twelve weeks of this?

I Feel You Linger in the Air: You may be the most beautiful show, with some of the most impressive performances of the year, but you absolutely botched this ending. Finish the goddamn season next time.

Love in Translation: I love you, but that whole kidnapping plot was so stupid at the end.

Low Frequency: I like your OST. That's about it.

My Dear Gangster Oppa: No examination about how gaming friendships become close quickly because of the combination of anonymity and teamwork (shout out to @twig-tea for this excellent summation).

My School President: Saving your gay commentary for the final episode felt like a conservative choice. I want more from you next time.

Naughty Babe: You retconned your own characters to tell a worse story. Unforgiveable.

Never Let Me Go: You didn’t know if you wanted to be a high school BL or a mafia story. It was difficult to watch.

Only Friends: I cannot believe you did Boston like that at the end. Either give Force’s character a clear personality next time, or keep him enigmatic; half measures make him and Book look worse. Sand was absolutely embarrassing. Boeing was a waste. Ending on all of them paired like that felt so unearned.

Step By Step: You forgot to ground Jeng’s external dreams at the end, so the final two episodes are just frustrating.

I’m glad I got that off my chest. We can go into the next year now.

Korea Put in the Work This Year

I really like the efforts from the various Korean studios this year. I really hope we get a Strongberry joint next year, but I want to acknowledge that we had 18 Korean BL dramas I watched this year, and at least three of them I think are must watches: Our Dating Sim, Sing My Crush, and The Eighth Sense. Beyond that, I think Love Tractor, Unintentional Love Story, and A Breeze of Love are easy recommendations.

It’s really impressive how the complaint for me this year with Korean BL is not about them using their time poorly. It’s more about normal drama concerns, where I think characterization is a little weak, or a theme doesn’t land squarely. This rapid iteration from the Korean studios is really impressive to watch, and I’m excited to see what some of the recognized players do next year.

Taiwan and The Philippines Have Been Quiet for Me

I wasn’t really able to connect with much from the Philippines this year except for The Day I Loved You. I never wrote about The Day I Loved You, but this beautiful and heart wrenching show is one of my favorites from this year. I wasn’t too keen on the Oxin Films offerings of this year, and I’m still chasing down the ones from The IdeaFirst Company.

As for Taiwan, this new BL project from the end of the year just isn’t hitting. Kiseki: Dear to Me also ended up really hurting me with the way they used Wayne Song and Huang Chun Chih. I love that angry little man with the white hair, but I’m still salty about Wayne and the general mess of that show.

Japan was Busy This Year

I watched 16 new shows, a few older ones, and a few movies this year from Japan. We haven’t gotten this much from them ever. I continue to love the Drama Shower project from MBS, and my beloved What Did You Eat Yesterday? returned this year. We had pretty stellar outings with Our Dining Table, If It’s With You, and I Cannot Reach You.

I think a third of the Japanese BL I’ve tracked on MDL actually released this year. That’s huge.

Still, I am going to side eye Minato’s Laundromat 2. You were the show that let me down the most this entire year. More than Only Friends, more than Step By Step, and even more than Kiseki. You absolutely blew it. You were telling a great story about a man with an acute case of internalized homophobia coming out of his shell and learning to love his younger partner and you blew it for stupid amnesia nonsense. I will never forgive you for this.

Where Were All the Uncles This Year?

Really, without Jim from Moonlight Chicken, and without the men from What Did You Eat Yesterday? we had an alarming dearth of older gay characters passing on knowledge and wisdom to the youngsters this year. What the hell happened?

Rare Dynamics Won: Second Chance Romance and Friends to Lovers!

We had so much second chance romance this year. It’s really my favorite version of gay romance because gays don’t always have ideal settings when they’re young. We had Our Dating Sim, Individual Circumstances, Jun & Jun, The End of the World With You, Tokyo in April is…, Be My Favorite, Love Class Season 2, and A Breeze of Love. I am satisfied.

Friends to Lovers is actually so rare in romance and we have so many to choose from this year! The best examples are I Cannot Reach You and Sing My Crush, but we also have one of the pairs in Love Class Season 2.

Gay Thoughts

I had a couple of ongoing thoughts this year about queerness in BL.

First, I want to return to my post about Sing My Crush and La Pluie, and how I assert that Men Need to Be Angry Sometimes. More than giving men grace to be righteously angry or upset about things, along with letting them express it in ugly ways, I really want to get into how we engage with these shows. I will stop engaging with moralistic reads on characters in 2024. I will no longer engage with asks, reblogs, or meta gripping the fandom where we're judging the moral fiber of the character.

The question that really only matters for me at this point is: Is this act from the character justified from their characterization, the narrative, or genre conventions; and is it interesting? Whether or not the character is good or bad reeks of the lame arguments about good and bad representation, and I am not watching BL like I’m being graded in Sunday school.

The second thing I really want to acknowledge at the end of the year is that the gay sex is finally getting better again. I watched The Novelist this year, and we have taken so long to get back to the space that show took us on the portrayal of male-male intimacy. We are in the genre about people with dicks. It should feel like it. There should be a masculine component there that feels specific to queer intimacy.

I will acknowledge 2 Cutie 2 Pie, A Boss and a Babe, Be Mine SuperStar, Bed Friend, Candy Color Paradox, For Him, I Cannot Reach You, Kiseki: Dear to Me, La Pluie, Love Class 2, Love in Translation, Love Mate, Middleman’s Love, Naughty Babe, Only Friends, The End of the World With You, Tokyo in April is…, and Wedding Plan for your contributions.

Final Thoughts

I like how broad the genre felt this year, and I enjoyed how much speculative fiction is entering into the conversation. I don’t know how I feel about there being five vampire stories in the works next year, but overall I’m glad that we’re getting more experimental concepts. I’m burnt out on the college engineering BL, and would like to see more shows about working adults.

Despite how grumpy I was for at least three months, I think this has genuinely been one of the best years we’ve ever had in the genre. I made a lot of new friends in BL this year, and I’m excited to see what comes next. Thank you all for spending some of your time with me this year and I’ll see you in the next one.