#shounen protag bullshit

[sandmeister]

TAKE HEART!

Max Power!! -- THOUSAND ARMS --

[rivalcobalt]

Okay actually yknow what, I'm just gonna do this on here cause I've been agonizing over this for too long

Firstly to prove I'm not insane, and I guess to his credit, the author has mentioned ONS as an inspiration-slash-thing-with-similar-vibes on twitter (archived):

That said, I feel like this really undersells it. Like, you can argue about how much inspiration you can take from a work, and ONS itself takes insane amounts of shit from Devilman, but even still it feels very much like a different story, and not like... the entire first half of the book being largely what you'd get if you just ported the plot of S1 of ONS over into a YA novel with and then altered who the love interest was.

This is long enough already (talking like nearly 4 pages point form on google docs) so I'm just copying it over as is. I only read the book once, so honestly this may have even missed some things. I'd put more effort into this but honestly idk how many people are gonna see this anyways.

Tl;dr no fucking way did you just "watch this while editing"

The Flood || unnamed apocalypse virus

Man-made virus

Kills most of the human population (ons' explicitly kills off 90%, the Flood has killed near 9 billion (earth's population when it was released)/appears to be a comparable rate)

Intentionally caused by Angels cult/Hyakuya Sect + JIDA (revealed in manga/LNs only)

Angels cult || vampires:

Signaturely wear white robes/uniforms + capes

Ons vampires are associated with (fallen) angels

New Nazareth/Sanguinem (city for cult/vampires that protagonist escapes from)

Don't want any more of their kind made (Angels forcing Angel parents to drown their newborns, vampires noted to be generally opposed to making more vampires for unexplained reasons; iirc only progenitors are able to sire and they're supposed to get permission from the vampire council first)

Angels cult || Hyakuya Sect

Religious cult

Doing human (S)eraph experiments

Benji & Theo/Yuu & Mika are children of cult members who use them as test subjects

Causes virus on purpose (manga/LNs only)

Responsible for creating Graces/Horsemen of John (manga/LNs only)

Benji || Yuu:

Only successful version of the (S)eraph experiments

Not fully in control of powers yet/powers emerge over the course of the story

Child of Angels/Hyakuya Sect cult members

Brought to New Nazareth/Sanguinem under the age of 12 and lives there for 4-5 years before escaping

Grow up in New Nazareth/Sanguinem with Theo/Mika during those years

Important family member dies as they try to escape together

Son of cult members

Posesses (S)eraph abilities from being experimented on by cult

Joins ALC/JIDA in their front-line forces after escaping and being found by Nick/Guren

Seraph || seraphs (humans possessing seraph gene and have ability to turn into them)

Aim to wipe out humanity (but this can be controlled by protagonist with effort)

Very powerful

Created via human experimentation on children by the religious cult that caused the virus

Picture of Yuu in complete seraph form in ons tweet from author

Theo || Mika:

Curly/wavy blond hair and blue eyes

Protagonist's childhood best friend

In love with protagonist, debatably reciprocated

Child of Angels/Hyakuya Sect cult members

Grows up in New Nazareth/Sanguinem with protagonist, but didn't escape with them

Wants to get protagonist away from ALC/JIDA and live with them

Seen in whites of the vampires/Angels for the majority of the story

Remains affiliated with the vampires/Angels (Theo sides with Angels & Mika is turned)

Soldier for the Angels/vampires

Protagonist often recalls memories of being in the cult/vampire city together as children

Protagonist thinks of them as someone they'll never see again after escaping (Theo stayed with cult, Yuu thinks Mika is dead)

Mika is revealed to be the son of the first vampire, a fallen angel, meaning he's also an angel (manga only)

Other (S)eraph besides Benji/Yuu, but not a fully functional one (Theo injects himself with a failed version of Seraph, Mika's seraph gene is dormant)

Theo's angry outbursts may be based on Mika's anger (though who they lash out at is very different)

Theo's character differences from Mika are almost all traits commonly found in other characters also influenced by Ryou Asuka (betrays protagonist, parallel to protagonist due to similarities but on opposing sides of conflict) (not sure if author knew about Mika being heavily from Ryou or just subconsciously knew the archetype via consuming other anime/manga/JRPGs/etc or just a really funny coincidence)

Upon escaping New Nazareth/Sanginem, Benji's dad/Mika is killed

Nothing can be done to save them

Bleeding out as Benji/Yuu tries to save them as a specific similar imagery (plus I guess gaping hole wounds specifically mentioned (from being shot in the head/arm thrust through stomach respectively))

Specific memories of looking at a map together to plan their escape

Yuu/Benji is forced to keep running alone to the only way out (only bridge out of Acheson/only tunnel out of Sanguinem)

Cult is using human experiments to create humans with the seraph gene/martyrs to turn into Seraph

(S)eraphs aim to wipe out the rest of humanity

The name. Are you kidding me

Protagonist is the only fully successful experiment

Main character and childhood best friend are children of parents in cult

(In the end) main character and childhood best friend are both (S)eraph experiments

The way the Flood is killing Benji has similarities to Yuu in his incomplete seraph form

Dripping blood and black fluid (Yuu: from wings and left eye, right sclera filled with blood and left eye may have burst upon transforming, Benji: from wounds from Seraph decomposing him)

Spitting up black fluid

at a later incident, Yuu's seraph form is triggered by multiple organs rupturing. Benji's organs are liquefying inside him and coming up in chunks as part of the Seraph transformation

Theo's death after injecting himself with Dominion-12 focusing on his shot-through left eye looking like a black hole is similar to Yuu's left eye blacked out by anime gore censor circle in incomplete seraph form

Same type of post-apocalyptic setting: 

Plants beginning to cover over a wrecked city (only a few years after the virus broke out, so not super heavily overgrown yet)

Skyscrapers and concrete brutalist architecture specifically shown. Downtown core type of stuff

Graces || Horsemen of John

Created by Angels/Hyakuya Sect (result of Flood virus/called by 6th trumpet (seraph) of seraph experiments)

Beasts that kill humans, just to finish killing off the population

Can be called upon/created/controlled by (S)eraphs

Described as both horselike and spiderlike

Ribs protruding out of chest, fangs, mouths in unusual places, and I think wings (not sure about Graces on that one) are common traits

Picture of a Horseman included in author's tweet about ons

ALC || JIDA

Wear all black

Surviving humans outside of New Nazareth/Sanginem

Fight against Angels/vampires

Rescue Benji/Yuu after they escape New Nazareth/Sanguinem

Secretly aim to use Benji/Yuu's (S)eraph abilities for their own gain

The Watch || Shinoa Squad

ALC/JIDA Moon Demon Company front lines squad

Comprised of teenagers

Protagonist joins them after escaping New Nazareth/Sanguinem to fight back against the Angels/vampires

Cormack is debatably based on Kimizuki (red/pink hair, asshole personality, rare bits of kindness show through exterior (when Cormack prioritizes giving Benji his jacket to block smoke while ALC is on fire, but not nearly as nice of a guy under it all as Kimizuki)

Aisha is like… maybe bastardized Mitsuba if you just take her emotional outburst parts, but I might be reaching on that

Nick || Guren 

Leader of ALC & the Watch/Moon Demon Company (strongest section of front-line soldiers in JIDA)

Black hair & eyes (Guren's eyes are dark purple, but could be interpreted as stylized black)

Finds Benji/Yuu after their escape and brings them into their group

Nick is literally just Guren in personality if you age him down a few years and add autism and make him nicer under the exterior. Like even the way he talks and him being mentioned dramatically stomping his leg up on furniture during speeches 

Heading ALC/JIDA's intentions to use Benji/Yuu for their own gain

Dehumanizes protagonist yet also having a bit of affection towards them (more debatable for Guren, but he has some rare moments of being caring towards Yuu in a more older sibling/fatherly way)

Erin || Shinoa

Another leader within the ALC/JIDA (though Erin isn't a soldier/in the Watch)

Sympathetic towards Benji/Yuu, protests against Nick/Guren directly for how they treats them

Pastel pink/purple feminine aesthetic

Wears hair at least partly in braids

Benji & Theo's reunion in Reformation Faith Evangelical Church || Yuu & Mika's reunion on the battlefield in Shinjuku

Reunite at first major battle protagonist participates in, but not their first (iirc both only have one minor fight between joining ALC/JIDA squad and this one)

One approaches other from behind, other only realizes who they are a moment after turning around

On opposite sides as ALC/JIDA vs Angels/vampires

"[Name]? Is that you?"

Benji holds a knife to Theo's throat || Yuu stabs Mika through the chest

Theo/Mika went along to fight specifically to find Benji/Yuu

"Abandon everything and run away with me" || "I came here to follow you. I couldn't let the city take you alone. If it wants you, it has to take me too."

Theo/Mika wants to separate Benji/Yuu from the ALC/JIDA (but Mika has good reason, while Theo wants Benji to come back to the cult)

Forced to separate again at end of fight

Picture of Yuu stabbing Mika from this scene is also on ons tweet from author

In general, first half follows the escape from Sanguinem/New Nazareth leaving behind a dying family member who tried to escape with the protagonist but died to let them get away -> get found by JIDA/The Watch upon escape and rescued by Guren/Nick with the intention of using Yuu/Benji as a weapon against those he escaped from due to his nature as a human experiment -> join JIDA/The Watch, meet other members and the leader Guren/Nick -> do some missions with them -> reunite with previous friend-slash-love interest they had left behind (Mika/Theo) at first major battle as soldiers for opposing sides and are forced to part again progression, which isn't super unique but still very specific, and given everything else... yeah

This is by far not the first time an English work has copied a Japanese work and was praised for originality, but "gay trans YA novel rips off mediocre gay vampire shounen" has to be conceptually the funniest and yet there still seem to be 0 google results about it

[ryozeki]

I should post more stuff about my pre-immortal Kaguya headcannon

In which Kag is like a shounen protag

Yes, a lot of it is bullshit

Thus #KaguyaBullshitAdventure from now on and because I can't come up with a better name (pls hepl)

No, I will not take this seriously

[baiheyurisolidarity]

Maybe this is different or not as bad with manga, but I genuinely don't even get the point of villainess manhwa and manhua. They never fucking commit to anyone actually being the goddamn supposed villainess of the story. It's always either some liberal feminist bullshit about how the protagonist is a villainess because they girlbossed or got a "reverse" harem or got a divorce, and then the story still fucking shames said protagonist whenever some fucking invisible censorboard nerd thinks she's being to mean and wants her or the writers to tone it down; or they don't even try to do a vague semblence of the supposed villainess of the story being evil but how they're going to be super good actually and turn their life around whether they reincarnated or transmigrated or whatever the fuck. It's never about a bitch actually being evil. Either the writers are too bitch made or some company producer is too bitch made or there's some censorship going on that literally will not allow young girls to have their evil villian protags like their shounen counterparts, and whatever the reasoning is it's lame as hell.

[best-underrated-anime]

[Test Poll] Format #3

This is to test what format would be best for the poll posts during the tournament. The media featured won’t be part of the tournament. They’re just shows I recently watched (and are not necessarily underrated), but please vote as if this were the actual tournament. (I wrote some serious propaganda just to make this test realistic, so pleeease.) I will gather some feedback later. You may also leave feedback in the replies of this post.

Best Underrated Anime – Group C Round 1: #C1 vs #C2

#C1: Good guy pulled into soccer “death game,” turns into your worst nightmare

#C2: Depressed genius detective pulled out of slump by naive police officer

Titles, summaries, propagandas, trailers, and poll under the cut!

#C1: Good guy pulled into soccer “death game,” turns into your worst nightmare

Title: Blue Lock / ブルーロック

Genres: Sports, shounen

Trigger warnings: none

Summary

After reflecting on the current state of Japanese soccer, the Japanese Football Association decides to hire the enigmatic and eccentric coach Jinpachi Ego to achieve their dream of winning the World Cup. Believing that Japan has lacked an egoistic striker hungry for goals, Ego initiates the Blue Lock—a prison-like facility where three hundred talented strikers from high schools all over Japan are isolated and pitted against each other. The sole survivor of Blue Lock will earn the right to become the national team’s striker, and those who are defeated shall be banned from joining the team forever.

Selected to join this risky project is Isagi Yoichi, a striker who failed to bring his high school soccer team to the national tournament. After choosing to pass to a teammate who missed instead of scoring on his own, he could not help but wonder if the results would have been different had he been more selfish. Using this golden opportunity given by the Blue Lock Project, Isagi aims to clear his doubts and chase his ultimate desire—to become the greatest striker in the world and lead Japan to World Cup glory.

(taken from MAL)

Propaganda

It’s different from all other sports anime I’ve watched before in that there is no “power of friendship” and “teamwork makes the dream work” bullshit. Blue Lock only cares about one thing, and that is winning. All those inspirational/comforting messages like “at least we had fun together” are dismissed to mere excuses right from the first episode.

Each episode is also full of hype, and there is no telling what will happen next. It subverts a lot of sports anime tropes, especially in the show’s second arc. I also love how it doesn’t follow typical sports anime arcs. They’re technically not in high school, so we don’t have “Nationals” or special training episodes. Just adrenaline-filled matches all the way through—not official matches, but it sure feels like it because of how high the stakes are (if you lose, your dreams are dead).

I especially enjoy seeing Isagi turn into something like a villain once the game starts. He’s so nice and polite off the field, but on the field he’s everybody’s nightmare. It’s also really refreshing to have a shounen protag revel in the act of breaking other people’s dreams.

But hype aside, it also does not lack on the emotional aspect. Characters are forced to break through their limits and let go of what’s important to them in order to move forward. That important thing could be a long-standing belief, an old dream, or even a friend. And the OST of this show really helps drive home the messages it sends. Some scenes would literally have orchestra music playing in the background, and each plot-relevant character also gets their own cool character soundtrack

Lastly, like all other shounen sports anime, expect some homoerotic stuff. You don’t even have to be a shipper to notice it. It’s really obvious in the second arc.

#C2: Depressed genius detective pulled out of slump by naive police officer

(Admin: I could not find a good trailer on youtube with english subs and none of the audio cut out, so I decided to edit the subs in myself…)

Title: Deranged Detective / Ron Kamonohashi’s Forbidden Deductions/ Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective / Kamonohashi Ron no Kindan Suiri / 鴨乃橋ロンの禁断推理

Genres: Comedy, mystery

Trigger Warnings: Just typical tw’s for a crime show… blood. murder, dead bodies, etc., but nothing extreme

Summary

Despite lacking the skills suited for his role on the Metropolitan Police Department investigative team, Isshiki Totomaru wants to solve murders and help people. Following the advice of one of his seniors, he ventures out to enlist the aid of the reclusive Kamonohashi Ron. Five years ago, Ron was the most promising detective from the illustrious Detective Training Academy Blue; yet for reasons unknown to the public, he sank into obscurity.

Totomaru expects a well-dressed, composed man; but what he gets is a messy-haired and uninhibited eccentric. After years in solitude, Ron barely resembles his former self and he refuses to even hear out the detective. However, as quickly as Ron rebuffs, he flips on a dime and dives headfirst into the current serial murder case.

The true reason Ron withdrew from the detective world was not from lack of desire, but rather from something out of his control—and Totomaru might just be the key for his return to his former calling. Together, the wide-eyed officer and deranged detective tackle each mystery that comes their way.

Propaganda

The anime is currently airing with only a few episodes out as of this moment, so my propaganda will be based more on the manga (which is by Akira Amano, the same person who made Katekyo Hitman Reborn).

The first few eps/chapters of Deranged Detective tackles some basic crimes, but later it will get more complex. Episode formulas are like that in Detective Conan, but they’re made more enjoyable with Ron’s eccentricity and the well-balanced comedy.

The plot is nothing mind-blowing, but it’s definitely solid and well-executed. We have this recluse detective who wants to get back to doing detective work, but then we find out that he’s not supposed to be playing detective. It would literally cost him his life if caught in the act. So now we have some tension as well as an overarching mystery—who wants Ron dead and why?

But Deranged Detective isn’t just about the mystery. It’s also about Ron and Toto. It’s about how Ron, who was depressed for five years, regains his life because of Toto. And it’s how Toto will always believe in him despite all doubts against him. Can’t really blame Ron for being so gay for him.

The animation is clean, and the OST is also good. The opening song is by the same band that made the iconic Kekkai Sensen ending song.

If you enjoy gay detectives, you should definitely check this out.

[fallershipping]

My catharsis fanfic is a specific kind of self-insert in the Pokemon world attempting to be a Shounen protag with the goal of getting legendaries, ultra powerful, get aura powers or some bullshit like that, and obtaining a harem-- only to fuck up miserably and gets rejected by every hot pokewoman for being a sleazy incel

[cum-villain]

it’s me. a hate anon. i’m being incredibly annoying about my take on fictional characters.

anyways who is a*am or whatever i want all the tea

lol oh buddy you have no idea. its been so many years of bullshit and, granted, its been a while since ive been in the trenches, but i have ALL the tea to spill. okay, so,

Sk8 the Infinity was a shounen sports anime that aired in early 2021, January to April. It followed the protagonist Reki Kyan, a 3rd-year in high school who was a skater. But this isn't just an anime about skateboarding. The grand majority of the skating took place at "S", an illegal skating course in an abandoned mine. The important races are "beefs", and there are no rules to beefs; you can injure your opponent in any way, and there's no consequences.

Some other relevant characters are: Langa Hasegawa, nicknamed SNOW, the deuteragonist; Ainosuke Shindo, ADAM, the antagonist; Tadashi Kikuchi, supporting character. Not sure whether to place him as an antagonist or protag, he kinda straddles the line.

The thing about ADAM is that he's the subversion of an all-too well known anime trope: Pedophile villain. See, while he does not in fact have those feelings towards minors in the show, he. Is very complicated. He has a whole thing where he thinks love is a good thing but also pain, because his aunts beat him and said it was because they love him and he believed them. He's also still grappling with the trauma of being "betrayed" by his childhood friend, Tadashi.

He's trying to find the EVE to his ADAM, because he hurts from being betrayed by the person he cares for most, but in reality, what he really wants is Tadashi back. But he's confused, and thinks that wanting to hurt someone means loving them. So he doesn't know what love feels like. If he thinks he "loves" himself, he hates himself and wants to hurt himself. Which. He kinda does try to kill himself sort of in the finale. It's a whole thing.

(Notice how I put "betrayed" in quotes. If you read scum villain, its a similar situation as with QiJiu. One party wanted to protect the other and failed, so they stay silent and do all they can for that person out of guilt. The other thinks the other really did betray them, and is hurt that that person is so much colder now, that the other person doesnt love them anymore.)

So, anyways. Adam is confused about what love is, and his arc in the first season was learning to not "love" people the way he does, and to accept care, even if he doesn't know it's love. When he reconciled with Tadashi in the final episode, he said "You'll be my dog for the rest of our lives", and I and everyone else in the Tadaai fandom understood he said that because 1. kinky fuckers lol 2. more relevantly, saying he loves Tadashi would be a red flag, because his definition of love is completely warped. Regardless of how he said it, the "be mine forever" was the important part. And Tadashi understood.

But most of what I'm referencing happened in the later episodes. Like I said, he was a subversion, which means that first he had to be slotted into the role before undoing it. Now I bring up The Langa Thing.

Langa was half-Canadian, and grew up in Canada. But when his father died, his mother took him back to Japan so she would have family around her in her grief. He ended up in Reki's class, and the two quickly became friends.

Reki taught Langa how to skate, but because Langa snowboarded since he was 2, he picked it up rather quickly, and even showed extreme talent. This extreme talent caught the eye of most of the skaters at S, and he earned the moniker "Snow". It also made the founder of S notice him. And that founder is Ainosuke Shindo, Adam.

Remember how I said he's trying to find his EVE? He thinks he wants an equal in skating, his only escape from his suffocating life, but he really wants Tadashi back. But he sees this genius in skating, and really is excited to skate with someone new. But he doesn't recognize it for just that, he thinks he found his "Eve". There's plenty of things he does, calling Langa "Langa-kun", being very excited to skate with Langa, giving him a bouquet of roses at one point (though one would argue that it's perfectly in line with his dramatics, hes essentially a drag king whose show is skateboarding).

All in all, there's a lot of suggestions he's attracted to Langa, but later episodes disprove that. There were other sketchy things (him saying to a middle schooler "I'll love you when you're older", but this was in reference to skateboarding, and by his definition of love, he means "yea you're too young for me to beat the crap out of you kid". Which is a perfectly normal sentiment, he just has an extremely weird way of saying it.) But... here's the thing.

There were weekly episodes.

Meaning: People pegged him as a "pedophile anime villain" type for months before his true nature was revealed. And when that evidence showed, people weren't inclined to believe it. People also thought he was Tadashi's abuser before the true nature of their relationship was revealed.

So, Adam isn't a pedophile. His relationship with Tadashi is rough, but Tadashi has full autonomy and chooses to be a part of it, and they're getting better. Adam is weird, sure, but he has reason to be that way. But the fandom lacks reading comprehension and hates to be proven wrong. So, people still think of him as a pedophilic abuser.

And like. I harken from ye olden days of Black Butler, okay. I'm not exactly put off by edenshippers (adam x langa). But for gods sake the show disproved it. Why are y'all acting like this.

So. Being known as an Adam fan is a one-way ticket to getting a bunch of harassment. Was back then, apparently still is now. I can't wait for season 2 to prove these assholes wrong.

sorry for the essay sprung on you bestie

[puppetmastery]

idk maybe it's just maniac introspection night but being aro is so weird. how do I even begin to explain that my ideal relationship is a bond with a depth akin to a good marriage but without all that kissing bullshit. looking for the dynamic you only see two straight high school girl besties on. that shounen anime protag duo shit. the sort of deal where allos look at us and start speculating on whether or not we're fucking. actually I think I'm getting somewhere hold on

[they-hermes]

combiners i dont talk enough about... raiden is the super cool cousin who visits twice a year (hes busy in japan) and says wise badass quotes that are either bullshit or from a fortune cookie. victorion likes to think staring into the distance and brooding makes her a cool shounen protag in an AMV: it doesn't, but she's tall enough for no one else to notice

piranacon abominus and predaking like running around in circles and barking at eachother until they get bored and go out to a lone road in the middle of nowhere to chase cars

[cigaretteparfum]

mophead rereads wakui ken's tokyo revengers: ch2

ngl now that i arrive on this part again i kinda wish we could've gotten more of the underground fighting. imagine if that's how takemitchy ended up training though??? esp since later on he literally meets people with actual, proper fighting skills that aren't just "throw a punch as hard as you can" uuuuuuggggghhhh. gimme my underground fighter mitchy au.

oh you dumb of ass.

OH HELL NAH. I FORGOT HINATA'S ALSO ONE OF THOSE TRAINED FIGHTERS.

get this gender essentialism bullshit out of here she can prolly kick his ass easy!!!

man's literally got a death wish. 😭😭😭 (context: the long haired kid takuya is supposed to be the next fighter and literally THE NEXT DAY after he got beaten up with a bat takemitchy's about to TAKE HIS PLACE.)

HE'S GOING TO DIE.

ch3

my neighbour was doing karaoke and it got too distracting so i went to bed instead, but now they're continuing the karaoke. 😭

ANYWAY i figured i wasn't too suited with the live (re)reading commentary type of thing so i read through the entire chapter 3 uninterrupted though still taking images of me favourite panels and whatnot.

on chapter 3 we continue the underground fighting saga: instead of going against takuya's original opponent, takemitchy challenged kiyomasa: the "king" of mizu middle, and the one in charge of the underground fighting ring.

THIS KID GOT BEATEN BLUE AND BLOODIED and only one day after his one-hit k.o followed by absolute beating with a bat by kiyomasa as well. 😭 takemitchy didn't even land A SINGLE BLOW against kiyomasa but this is the first instance in the whole series where we see his "not ever getting down no matter how hard you beat him" thing. which. for sure a common trope in shounen action mangas, but it always feels so much more amazing when the protag is supposedly a normie with no superpower whatsoever (aside from time leaping in this case, ig).

(i mean there's a healthy degree of suspension of disbelief in tokyorev right from the get go, like ye would see people getting beaten with a FUCKING BAT and not going to hospitals for some reason. still, seeing takemitchy specifically doing this just hit different. though, ngl, it got cheapened later on when baji could just. lift a whole wardrobe on one hand. but anyways.)

((also yea i'll be switching between "this man" and "this kid" for takemitchy but he's still mine child so whatever lol.))

and now the prez and vice-prez arrive!!! the most characters of all time. that was quite the entrance, lol.

it is p funny how takemitchy's soooooo pissing his pants terrified when mikey a.k.a manjiro first interacted with him. for good reasons, to be fair, but given how mikey's also p chill most of the time (excepting his ~dark impulses~ which. lord.) idk that was just good ol' fun. also i didn't save the screenshot but when mikey literally said "you'll be my bitch from now on, ok? <3" complete with the heart in dialogue ... fun times. good times.

lesgooo, chapter four!!

[intobarbarians]

i love that yusuke very purposefully styles his hair. i’ve been watching a lot of shounen anime lately and none of these boys--no matter how many colors or how many spikes they have!--possess a hair routine. they wake up and go to sleep without so much as a comb through.

in a lot of shoujo anime, you’ll see girls take out their hair ribbons or clips. you’ll see them brush their hair. you’ll see them choose hair accessories(even if it’s always the same ones). sometimes there will be jokes about male characters having hair routines but i can’t think of any examples where we actually see it.

not yusuke! he CHOOSES that slick back style. he’ll use beer in his hair to get it the way he wants.

[chatonnoir]

i really like how you gush over the prevalance of romance in ML. I hate how people say thats a negative in how the show focuses "too much on romance and not on the agreste plot", or that the ships are taking over the plot. like fam, its suppose to be having such a huge seat at the front

Thank you for the message honeybun and yes ML is about emotions and the platonic and romantic love between its characters and it's beautiful and we love to see it!!!!

The way self-proclaimed feminists will rag on ML being so focused on the cute shoujo romance as being "unfeminist," as if romance enjoyed by teenage girls isn't one of the things that grownass men love to ridicule more than anything else, is one of the most tragically hilarious bits of irony about ML "critics." Like yes you're sooo right girl, turn ML in to some grimdark hbo bullshit that men would take more seriously instead of a "silly teenage girls cartoon," how very feminist 😶

Nowadays I often purposefully make a point of bringing up the fact that I love the romance genre/kdramas/shoujo/etc. in conversations with men as a sort of test and guess what? 10 out of 10 times the immediate reflexive action is to scoff and be like "seriously?" and make fun of how stupid or cringe that is. Why is that? Why was the conversation totally normal and fun when we were talking about whatever stupid bloody shounen action or sports anime that they liked, but I bring up "girly" anime and suddenly its so stupid and cringe? Luckily I went in to those interactions expecting that reaction and have a talent for making men feel stupid so they backtrack real fast but I feel bad for any girl they might've subjected to the same bullshit who was made to feel stupid and ashamed of her interests. And when men DO like any of that "cringe" girly/romance stuff?? They feel the need to overexplain or be defensive or make excuses about it. This is just the widespread norm.

And ML "critics" have a bad habit of conflating their personal tastes with objective criticism. You don't care for shipping and romance? Fine, you do you. But ML is ABOUT the love story, so do yourself a favor and stop watching the show if you’re just going to keep acting like that fact is a flaw in and of itself. This is what happens when they're only used to a certain type of popular media, i.e. media that is approved by said adult men. Shoujo and similar types of Power of Love girl-oriented media were always niche and no one knew or cared about them outside of the specific target demographic because girls would gladly watch "boys' shows" but god forbid a boy ever touches a "girls show." Hell, that’s literally why Tangled had to be called “Tangled” rather than “Rapunzel” so they could get boys to watch without it being dismissed as a “girly princess movie.” Same with Miraculous technically officially being called “Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir” instead of “Miraculous Ladybug,” even though the latter name is what was on all the concept material, because boys and girls are all down to watch something like Spider-Man but boys aren’t likely to watch a superhero cartoon titled after a girl hero unless the creators put the male hero in the title as well to prevent it from being labelled as a “girl’s show.”  ML is ABOUT the main ship and people don't know how to deal with that, they're not used to romance being anything other than a C or D or Z plot in something that's not branded as a romance novel or "chick flick"

If you're so interested in the Agreste plot and care less about shipping go watch Sam Raimi's Spider-Man for Harry Osborn or whatever. Oh speaking of which, for the people who whine about caring more about the Agreste plot over the angst it introduces to Marinette & Adrien’s relationship and how Marinette is being “forced” in to a story that’s “not about her”/”girlbossing her way in to the Agreste plot” and say Adrien should be the protag and how he’s “””clearly written more like a main character than Marinette is””” etc. etc.: So this character, Harry Osborn, the “red bug hero’s best friend who has a dead mother named Emily and a rich asshole mentally unstable supervillain father whom he doesn’t know is a supervillain and whom he wishes he got love and approval of,” who Adrien’s story was very unsubtly based off of? Not only was he not the protagonist or even a love interest, he dies in every version of the story! And even this story, which was not a love story and was in a superhero action series aimed at boys, put the majority of its focus on how the identity reveal of the rich supervillain father affected and put a strain on the best friendship/platonic love between his son and the red bug hero lmao.

It's almost like relationships and platonic and romantic love are deeply human experiences and thus interesting and moving to explore in stories and that maybe focusing on love and character relationships in a story isn't a bad or shallow thing 🤪

[tumblingxelian]

I am legit bamboozled by what this FRWBY stan was even implying, like it took me a legitimately long while to even feel I could make a confident guess-timation! If I had to make a deduction, I assume they are trying to say:

"If Yang starts weak and becomes strong it makes her more like a traditional Shounen protag who usually suck at the start but grow stronger. This is good because girls apparently aren't allowed to start shows weak and are always "Girl bosses" and over powered in media... I guess?!?!?!"

Where are the OP girl boss shows this guy is watching, I wanna watch them, I could use more for my tragically small collection!

Anyway this basically seems to be a mass of logical fallacies where in they ignore Jaune's nominal arc. Nominal cos his thing is un-learning that "I gotta be the best" bullshit. Along with some kinda incoherent idea that Yang had no arc even though she's been having ongoing development across the entire series.

Compounding the stupidity is what you already covered OP, that Beacon is a university and anyone getting in there is not just starting out and it'd make zero sense not only for Yang to be bad in general but be in complete opposition to her canon character given she is literally the only normal one there!

Ruby got pushed ahead, Weiss had her super elite sister train her & is rich, Blake was a terrorist who got in on scholarship. Of her team only Yang studied and trained to graduate the normal way. She's grounded in the shows own world and setting and her given background!

I wish these people would just admit they don't want RWBY, they don't want the characters, they don't want the story, they don't want the concept, on even their more base levels. Because when presenting what they think is "better" its always some bloody inversion and perversion of every character, theme and story beat.

Its just so stupid ><

Not to dig this up but a FRWBY stan claims that Yang wasn't "empowering" but that it would be the arc of a girl who goes from zero to hero. That it'd combat the "#girlboss BS" that keeps female characters from starting weak or being strong in other ways.

Their general wording, not mine.

My answer to that is that it's completely stupid.

Everyone who attends Beacon (with the exception of Jaune) has already gone through years of education and training.

Beacon is a UNIVERSITY. You're there because you're honing your abilities. You're already expected to be good at what you do.

The reference to "girl boss" as a negative tells me all I need to know. I'm absolutely certain they wouldn't be saying this about a male character.

[justice4sasuke]

It is ridiculously fitting that Naruto makes this about how HE feels, like nothing has made more sense to me in my life, but from a writing perspective I don't understand why Kishimoto wants his main shounen protag to be this way. Kishimoto is out here like "I'm going to write a protagonist that is so self-centered..." and I don't get it. When I think of stories that I find emotionally affecting the characters aren't caring about others because it hurts them personally, they care because it's the kind and right thing to do. So I don't really care if it makes sense for Naruto to be like this because it's not framed as a problem in the story. If this story was supposed to be a tragedy on Sasuke's part I'd be for this, but the framing, the bullshit Sasuke is about to go on, and the majority of readers' reactions makes it clear that's not what this is about so why should I read it that way? Sure, I could read it that way until the cows come home, but that doesn't stop it from being a failure of storytelling.

And "when I see you take on stuff and get all messed up"?? Why is Naruto putting all the agency on Sasuke? Yeah, everything he's done is his choice but those choices aren't being made in a vacuum. He's making these choices because he was wronged, he's a genocide victim and his entire life has been a trauma train. Yeah, he's not dealing with it well, but maybe we should get to the root of the problem instead of blaming Sasuke for how he is reacting. Oh, but we can't because then we'd have to talk about systems and Kishimoto only wants to talk on an individual level.

[maxellminidisc]

A lot of people forget that what makes Josuke such a good character is that he is stupid, like all teenagers, but he is clever and smart not intelligent.

One of the most entertaining things about Diamong is Unbreakable is seeing how Josuke gets out of crap by literally bullshitting his way out. He does not get a power up or is not intelligent ala ten steps before his opponent.

Honestly this is just over all what I love about Josuke lol but I will say he is intelligent when it comes to having very out of the box uses for his stand and to me it's not always bullshiting (the bullshiting though is totes the highlights of his fights lmao). Like they're not what you mentioned as "10 steps ahead" strategies but it is absolutely on the fly brilliance that I think is what earns someone like Jotaro's respect (hence Jotaro's comment when he first encounters Josuke about how if he had any other personality so to speak his abilities would be incredibly dangerous) lol

Also love that you mentioned the lack of power ups because I looove that about Josuke's particular part of the journey too; the whole part is more so about a slow progression as a murder mystery story and how this is a GROUP coming together to figure it out, more so than a slow progression of building up Josuke as an over powered protag like most shounen manga/anime which is why the final battle between Josuke and Kira feels extra high stakes! He gets the final battle but like the way there is well paved by the ensemble and that fact is easy to appreciate and acknowledge as the audience.

I think as a whole too, the big stupid energy in the entire gang is the glue that holds them together and it's what makes DIU the most enjoyable part out of all the male Jojo's. Like they're all chugging CONFIDENT stupidity lol

[levi-is-heicho]

Wow...I didn't think the end would be something this... underwhelming. I expected a big BOOM, like big revelations, character maturity/development, gave us answers to the big questions, etc...

Yams....what?? Did you just...idk, sabotaged your 11 years of work? I'd rather have a sad ending than this BS ngl coz that would make MORE SENSE.

Please Yams, let this be your trolling scheme PLEASE. I know you could end your masterpiece better than this.

Yams, *sigh* I thought you were making a ground breaking change in the shounen world wherein the female protags main purpose is to love/obsess with the main protagonist, but actually the female protagonist ENDING the main protagonist and actually? THAT WAS AWESOME.

Then cue this bullshit. Instead of actually moving on with her life, learn from her past, NO. Yams, where is your line that said "Mikasa will get back to when her parents aren't murdered yet, the family Mikasa".

Ya know what?

NO. LET'S FORGET ALL THAT AND ALL THE DEVELOPMENTS MADE ABOUT HER AND LET HER LIVE ALONE, LEFT ALONE WHILE OTHERS GO ON AND LIVE THEIR LIVES COZ THEY DESERVE IT.

I swear Yams, PLEASE, tell us you're only trolling...I'm not that of a Mikasa Stan but I'm sure she deserves better than this, she's stronger than this but...this is just disappointing. It's so NOT ISAYAMA. Oof.