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radramblog · 3 years ago

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Album Discussion: The Suburbs

Last week I felt like I didn’t have much time to pump an album review out. Was going to be in the lab all day, had work in the night, wanted to cover something quick. Then I finished really early, and had plenty of time in the afternoon to finish things off. This week I am in the same situation as far as scheduling, but someone’s bloody using equipment I need, so I’ve got a bit of extra time now. Time to talk about a >1hr 16 track record!

Also last week, I covered an album that I felt was more interesting from a meta level than it is musically. This week I’m talking about an album that I know nothing of the meta for.

The Suburbs I was reminded of recently. Mostly because I ran into the person who bought me the CD for the first time in like a year. I understand Arcade Fire have A Reputation as far as bands go, but the thing is: I have no idea what it is. I haven’t followed them at all, I don’t know whether they’re considered good or not, I haven’t even seen any of the music videos. I have never deliberately listened to an Arcade Fire song outside of this album.

But I do like this album. So.

Okay the one thing I do know is what the album is about. It’s about growing up in the suburbs of…I think Texas somewhere. I could look this up, but I refuse. The result of this is that the whole thing is intensely nostalgic, full of reminiscence and wistfulness, childhood innocence and what growing up is like. It’s one of those, you know? That does, however, make it fairly easy to like, because I think a lot of people are nostalgic for their childhoods.

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(yeah so the only music videos for this one are at the very start and very end. this is going to be a bit of a wall of words.)

This is characterised by the opening track, which is also the album’s title track: The Suburbs. It’s opening with a very folksy acoustic guitar and piano, and longing for that childhood is its modus operandi. It is, however, tinged by the anxieties of that era- growing up in the shadow of the cold war is going to leave an impact on anyone, and that cultural climate is also going to be running through the album. I think the most poignant section of the song lyrically is the start of the third verse- wishing to become a parent, so they can live vicariously through their child, show them their childhood world before the reality and the memory are completely lost. Okay that’s kinda heavy moving on- the track is pretty much built around that piano/acoustic bit, sounding relatively upbeat but coloured by these lonesome strings running through the background. It’s very effective of conveying the feeling- which is something that comes up quite a bit over the course of the album. The Suburbs is one of my favourite tracks on this album, and having it come right at the front makes it a very solid stage-setter.

Track two is Ready to Start, a faster, rockier track with this grimy bassline running through the verses contrasting the relatively bright instrumentation of the chorus. Considering the themes of the song, about working for the man, dude, and trying to escape that sort of life, it’s fairly fitting, though it’s a very different sort of nostalgia than the previous track. The instrumentation gives the whole thing this sense urgency, which is enhanced by some of the lyrics- I mean the track is called Ready to Start, isn’t it. I feel like this song would be great to try and hype yourself up for something you don’t really want to do, and I’m not sure how many songs we have specifically for that feeling.

Our next song is called Modern Man, and it feels like tumbling through a confusing life. God, I’m really getting pensive today. I feel like this is a lot because this album resonates a lot more emotionally for me than musically. I’m someone with a very weird sense of nostalgia, seeing as my childhood is pretty effectively defined into three segments, and I tend to fixate on one of them because it’s The Weird One. I’m nostalgic for high school which is when I was nostalgic for living abroad which is when I was nostalgic for when I still lived in Perth, which I do now, but I don’t know anyone from back then, so there’s a whole sense of longing, and it’s something I’ve always had, and that’s funky. And I’m still young, this isn’t going to change, it’s going to get worse, and eghhhh I’m supposed to be talking about music. I don’t really have much to say about Modern Man, I guess. It’s aight, the previous two were better, but here I am 800 words into an album discussion, and I’ve gone through all of 3 songs on a 16 track album, so maybe expect this to be a slog.

Rococo at least makes an impact real quick, with fuckin psychotic strings right at the start that’s kind of a shock to the system, especially compared to the relatively mild instrumentation the rest of the song provides. I think that’s a fairly appropriate tone for a song about looking at #thecoolkids, bemusement tinged with utter stark bewilderment. I think I’m too young to really get this, I guess. The song’s title regards an art movement that sounds extremely pretentious and fake deep, frankly, but considering the point of the song is that you don’t bloody know what Rococo means, that’s probably also fitting. I kinda wish the strings were more present throughout the song than they were, they add this existential dread to the track that I do think the later sections are missing somewhat.

Speaking of strings, Empty Room is up next, and it’s one of my favourite tracks as well. It opens with the strings but they’re fast and energetic and they’re going to blow right past you. I thought this track was in like the second half of the album, but nope, here it is. This is also where the album’s second vocalist takes the lead for a bit (she only does for like 3 scattered tracks) and she’s genuinely great here. The songs chugs like an old train, in a way that reminds me a lot of other songs; in particular, the bit between the chorus and second verse (and chorus/outro) reminds me a lot of Teach me About Dying by Holy Holy- I can’t unhear “teach me about dying, teach me about dying-dying” over that instrumental. Despite its desolate lyricism, this song’s energy is genuinely excellent, and it carries really well through the whole thing. I can’t think of a lot of songs that start on this sort of tempo and have it run the whole way through- not to keep referencing other songs, but it’s very Go with the Flow by Queens of the Stone Age. And that’s like in the top 3 QotSA songs for me, so.

It’s only just struck me how much track 6, City With no Children, reminds me of There There by Radiohead. Its mostly the percussion, I think. That’s fucking high praise, but it’s also about as far as the comparison goes. The song is pretty okay outside of that, this theme of a town left lifeless by the commercialism and capitalism of the ultra-rich and what that does to people. Maybe that’s just my reading of it, I do have a bias for this sort of thing, but I challenge you to find another one. Looking on Genius is cheating. I do like the riff the track is built around, but it gets old eventually, since it doesn’t develop at all as the track progresses- lost potential, I suppose.

The next song is the first part of the album’s first of two two-parters, Half Light I, because apparently this one is trying to be a long-running drama show now. With that said, this ballad is kinda gorgeous, and yet also kinda extremely boring? Which is a frustrating place to be, frankly. I get the feeling this is an opinion that would get me crucified, but aside from those strings what fuck, the song just isn’t doing anything for me. Maybe it’s because it’s kinda almost the halfway point and I’m just getting tired, maybe it’s just a generational and cultural divide between America/Australia and 90s-00s/00s-10s and I don’t Get It. But I’m afraid to say this one doesn’t land.

Half Light II (No Celebration), for the record, is one I enjoy much more. The instrumentation is a lot more fun, the tone is a lot more pained (and y’all know I love me some angst), as the rose-tinted lenses of the previous half are replaced by the jade of someone growing up through the GFC (and just, in general). Despite being a two-part song, the halves are very different, a deliberate dichotomy representing two facets of that same look backwards. I feel like this isn’t like other two-part songs I’ve heard before, in that you can kinda appreciate the halves separately- or, in my case, one and not the other.

Track 9, and welcome more officially to the Second Half, with Suburban War. It’s very much about reminiscing about old friends, and I think I’m going to wax personal for a bit, because I have very little to say about the song musically. I mentioned earlier that I basically don’t know anyone from back when I was a kid, and that’s kind of a product of what my childhood looked like. It’s hard to have a “childhood friend” that you still keep up with when you spend 5 extremely crucial, defining years somewhere away from where all of them are. When you leave at 7 years old and don’t come back until you’re almost a teenager. People change so quickly at that age, and I’m no exception, and so I just didn’t have the ability to relate to those same people that long afterwards, even if I could find them. I don’t resent the experience of growing up in such a fractured manner, but it means I have a fundamentally different experience to that discussed in this album. At the same time, as I listen to the closing moments of this song, with the line repeated, “All my old friends, they don’t know me now”, I can’t help but notice the similarity. The writer’s friends don’t know them because they’ve grown up, changed fundamentally as people, whereas I don’t know my old friends in a much more literal sense.

Our next song is a bit more fun. Month of May is unequivocally a rock song, as opposed to the..indie? folk? of most of its surrounds. Much like Empty Room, it’s driven by its tempo and instrumentation, but it’s a bit less dour than that one, almost a bit oldie in its rock and roll swagger. The song isn’t so utterly different that it wouldn’t fit on the album, the traces of The Suburbs still roll through the whole thing, the same guitar and percussion tones driven up a couple notches on the ol’ Mohs scale. Quite solid, ultimately, in my opinion.

Track 11 is Wasted Hours. I think it’s a kind of appropriate title, not because it’s a waste of time, but because it just kinda feels like a nothing song as part of the album. Like, it is unquestionably Part Of The Album, sonically and thematically, but I deadass would not notice if it was missing from the record. Sorry if this one is your favourite, but this one isn’t for me.

Deep Blue, on the other hand, is the song that got me into the album. There’s really something about this track, this sense of discomfort with the passage of time, that really wormed its way into me. It’s a shockingly cold song for this acoustic instrumentation that’s usually associated with quite the opposite. The piano feels desperate, the guitars grim, and there’s actual synths hiding in here- the song relates to technology, after all. It’s concern for the future of humanity, of the youth, and for, well, the Suburbs, through the lens of watching that match between chess Grandmaster Kasparov and the A.I. Deep Blue in 1996. Go watch the Down the Rabbit Hole on that if you haven’t already (and have a few hours), by the way, it’s utterly excellent.

I can’t really describe how Deep Blue makes me feel. There’s just something about it. I feel like if I hear this song again in 10 years, it would genuinely bring me to tears- it feels like loss in a way, and not the meme.

We Used to Wait has a fun instrumentation, glittery piano and that funky guitar noodling in the background, but unfortunately the chorus kinda lets it down for me. I just do not care for it, it’s really built on a vocal line that really doesn’t track for me personally. Like, I’m just young enough that a lot of the theme of the track is utterly unrelatable to me- I hail from an era that is post- the change the track is referring to. I’m focussing a lot this time around about how the songs make me feel personally, but I think that’s kind of the appropriate tack for this album in particular- like the idea of nostalgic reminiscence is so inexorably tied to your own personal experiences that there’s no way around those experiences clouding your perception of this album, and with that, how well you end up liking it. I bet this whole thing hits way harder for someone born in the same couple years as this band.

We’re up to the second two-parter, Sprawl I (Flatland), kind of the finale for the whole thing. I mean, in I’s case, it’s certainly that emotionally. The song is so utterly down, it’s lost in the urban sprawl the title and lyrics describe, and with that comes a very quiet track. Moody strings and guitar, that eventually build during the fourth verse (there is no chorus and they’re short). It does eventually resolve on a more positive note, at least, one that’s hopefully relatable to many of us- eventually, we find our emotional home is, and it’s often not where we grew up.

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Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) is quite the different perspective. It’s got that other lead vocalist (I could look up her name but I won’t), it’s got a pulsing beat, and it has much more energy to work with. There are synths on this track that are absent from almost the entire rest of the album, but their introduction here, right at the end, is extremely cool. They’re cool, they’re clear, and they’re thematically relevant! I just really like the vibe of this track, and the way it trails off is similarly very good. Would recommend.

But of course there is one final track. Kind of. The Suburbs (continued) is basically a dark reprise of the album’s opener, shaded with more regret than that track is, more strings-y and whispered. It’s very short, but it acts as an appropriate closer for the whole thing.

And of course, that’s The Suburbs. In retrospect, I have a bit more mixed thoughts about this than I thought. There’s some really high highs, and some things that are just kind of bleh, but any album of this length is bound to have some misses. While I was browsing Genius to make sure I had the lyrics right for some tracks, I saw this record described as a Masterpiece, but I’m not sure that shoe fits- at least, not for me. The personal nature of this album, and anyone’s theoretical relationship with it, are such that I don’t think it can be given such a broad, universal title. I like the album as a whole quite a bit, but I personally wouldn’t call it a masterpiece.

It also doesn’t inspire me to go after more Arcade Fire. I’m actually perfectly content having them in my mind as this solitary piece, complete in its own way. Oh, they have like four other albums, but to me, Arcade Fire is The Suburbs. I don’t know why I’ve decided this, but it just works for me. So I’m sorry to any massive AF fans, but I did just dedicated 2.7k words to this album, so I’m sure you’re all satisfied.

God, next time I am going to have to cover something shorter, for my own sanity if nothing else.

#ramble #music #arcade fire #the suburbs #indie

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daily-mikaze-ai · 4 years ago

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since you had cecil just now, how about camus for the character ask? I also wanna add that I think your opinions on both cecil and ren are really interesting!!

I'm happy to hear that :D

### Why I like them:

Camus gets a lot of hate and I kinda understand why especially when he wasn't one of my favorites when I first watched. But over time he kinda grew on me? He's got a strong work ethic, which is admirable, with his dedication and willingness to go completely out of his way to make sure his job is done perfectly.

This crosses into headcanon territory but I also think he has a sense of responsibility - noblesse oblige if you will - and will protect those who serve him. I have no doubt that if Cecil or anyone else was truly in danger, he would bust in and save them with all the glamour and dramatics he loves.

Speaking of, him being extra af in his introduction scene was absolutely hilarious.

### Why I don't:

You can kinda automatically assume cause UtaPri is in general wholesome and all that Camus, deep inside or smth, is loyal and dedicated to Quartet Night and its future. But, especially after the Non-Fiction drama cd, I feel like I need something more than what the material has already shown for that to cement to me. Like I need something more solid in what he wants for the future and his true feelings.

### Favorite episode:

Season 3 Episode 6. Tbh I don't think Camus gets much quality screentime for me to have many options for questions like this lol. But then again it's hard to juggle a cast of 11 (turn 18) characters and give them all quality screentime.

A Day with Camus have us very nice insight in his life and routine, and I enjoyed that.

### Favorite season:

Season 2. I can't believe I didn't remember how ridiculously over the top his introduction was lol. Maybe I wiped it out of my memory the first time?

### Favorite song:

(Assuming group songs aren't allowed - Non-Fiction would've been a strong candidate - then I'd choose) Zettai Reido Emotion

### Favorite outfit:

I highly enjoy anytime he wears glasses c o u g h, but if I had to go with one, I'd pick Autumn Basic Style. It really suits him and I'm a sucker for turtlenecks.

### Headcanon:

Camus is Alexander they canonically strangely resemble each other and Camus doesn't have a last name isn't that suspicious and- I'm just joking lol.

But ok I enjoy feeding into my crack Camus-is-a-dog-spirit theory even when I know the reason behind his name et cetera.

### Unpopular opinion:

His "real" voice suits him as a character more, but without that to consider I'm more of a fan of his Butler Persona voice.

### A wish:

Can we have like, an entire song in his Butler Persona. Just,,, because it doesn't exist and that would be really fun as a concept lyrically and musically-

### An oh-god-please-don't-ever-happen:

I know this isn't what this question is asking but just don't let him find out I'm not a fan of the Silk Queen. Or if you do, give me a 24 hour warning to write my will.

### 5 words to best describe them:

Steel

Cold

Flair

Devoted

Noble

### My nickname for them:

Myu-chan. Borrowing from Reiji of course. I have great fondness for Reiji's and Ren's nicknames for the other characters.

#utapri #uta no prince sama #camus utapri #quartet night #ask game #kikiji answers #camus

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paralleljulieverse · 4 years ago

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This Day in Julie-history: Madame Lilian Stiles-Allen was born on 28 July 1890

This week marks the 130th anniversary of the birth of Lilian Stiles-Allen, the woman who taught Julie Andrews how to sing. A celebrated soprano in her own right, Stiles-Allen was a renowned interpreter of lieder and oratorio during the inter-war years with a voice that “was much admired for its sweetness, range, and dramatic power” (Bradford, 17).

Though not physically suited to the opera stage, Stiles-Allen performed widely in concert and recital in major venues with a particular emphasis on the English classical repertoire of Handel, Sargent, Beecham and Coleridge-Taylor. She was the original Nokomis in Coleridge-Taylor’s Hiawatha and a regular soloist at the Sir Henry Wood Promenade Concerts and the annual Handel Festival at the Crystal Palace. Stiles-Allen also enjoyed a solid career as a radio and recording artist, notably under contract to the Edison Bell label where she recorded both under her own name and the pseudonym of Linda Hynd (Williams, 161-63).

By the time of the Second World War, Stiles-Allen had largely retired from public performance and it was then that she turned her creative energies to teaching, a role she would embrace with gusto well into old age (Dawson, 17). Her list of students over the years included many notables of the British musical world such as Anne Ziegler, Aileen Cochrane, and Margaret Burton (Dawson, 17; Williams, 162). Without doubt, her most famous protégé, and the one she herself counted as her greatest teaching triumph, was “the phenomenal Julie Andrews” (”Teacher,” 20; Williams, 163).

Julie started studying under Stiles-Allen when she was just 9 years old at the behest of her step-father, Ted Andrews, who had himself taken lessons with the teacher soon after arriving in the UK from Canada (Andrews 2008, 48). Much has been made of the enormous influence Stiles-Allen had on the voice and singing style of "her star pupil”, not least by Julie herself who has repeatedly credited “Madame,” as she always called her, with the foundational hallmarks of her distinctive vocal technique:

“From when I was age 9 until the day she died in 1982, she was my singing teacher and taught me good diction, placement, everything. A wonderful lady and a huge mentor” (Andrews 2019: 16).

For her part, Stiles-Allen recalled:

”The range, accuracy and tone of Julie’s voice amazed me. All her life, I discovered, she possessed the rare gift of absolute pitch, which means that she cannot sing out of tune. I make it a rule as a singing teacher to get three octaves in all voices. Julie, as a little girl and right up to the age of fourteen, had a most unusual four-octave range, from two Cs above Alt. right down to two Cs below middle C. She had absolute confidence in her voice and in me” (cited in Cottrell, 34).

Right throughout her childhood and adolescence, Julie trained regularly with Madame to develop her voice and singing skills: first, at a studio in London and, then, at Stiles-Allen’s rambling country home in Headingley, just outside Leeds in Yorkshire. Due to the latter’s distance from London, Julie would typically journey up by rail and stay with Madame for the weekend and sometimes longer (Andrews 2008, 50ff). Inevitably, a deep emotional bond was forged that went beyond that of teacher and student. As Julie would later state of her relationship with Madame: “She had an enormous influence on me. She was a third mother to me” (cited in Windeler, 13).

Reading Julie’s many affectionate recollections of Madame, one senses she found in Stiles-Allen a level of grounded emotional support and domestic stability that was not always forthcoming in her own home life:

“I loved the cosy evenings after we’d finished work when, with Madame and her husband, we would all sit around a huge log fire. Such evenings were unknown to me, for that was the time when Mummie and Pop usually had to get ready for the theatre and go out. But with Madame, evenings were the time for relaxation and family talks” (Andrews 1958: 16).

Once Julie reached adulthood, the singing lessons became less frequent but the pair continued to keep in close contact. They worked together closely on vocal preparation for many of Julie’s most famous musical roles including My Fair Lady, Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music. Stiles-Allen’s son lived for several years in Southern California, so she had occasion to visit Julie quite frequently after her relocation to the US (Cottrell, 213). Meanwhile, on her own trips back to England, Julie would always make a point of paying respects to her beloved teacher who, by this stage, had “donated the Old Farm outside Leeds to the Yorkshire College of Music and Drama, and had moved south to a pretty cottage in West Kingsdown, Kent” (Andrews 2008, 188).

It was here that Madame Lilian Stiles-Allen died peacefully in her sleep on 15 July 1982, just two weeks shy of her 92nd birthday (”Obituary,” 10). It was a grand age and a fittingly serene end to an equally grand life. On the occasion of the 130th anniversary of her birth, we remember with fondness and gratitude the great Stiles-Allen. Brava, Madame!

Sources:

Andrews, Julie. “So Much to Sing About, Part 2.” Woman. 10 May, 1958: 13-16, 21-22.

_____________. Home: A Memoir of My Early Years. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2008.

_____________. “What I Know Now.” AARP, The Magazine. 62: 6. 2019: 16.

Bradford, Eveleigh. “They Lived in Leeds: Madame Lilian Stiles-Allen.” North Leeds Life. January 2017: 17.

Bricusse, Leslie. “Liner Notes.” Here I’ll Stay: The Words of Alan Jay Lerner [CD]. London: Philips, 1996.

Cottrell, John. Julie Andrews: The Story of a Star. London: Arthur Barker, 1968.

Dawson, Marie. “For Madame Lilian, 82, Life is Still Worth Singing About.” Daily Telegraph. 3 February 1973: 17.

"Obituary: Mrs Lilian Stiles-Allen." The Times, 17 July 1982: 10.

“Teacher of the Stars.” The Stage. 15 May 1958: 20.

Williams, David. “Madame Stiles-Allen at the R.V.A.S.” The Hillandale News. 67, June 1972: 161-63.

Windeler, Robert. Julie Andrews: A Life on Stage and Screen. Third ed. New York: Birch Lane Press, 1997.

#julie andrews #lilian stiles-allen #singing #opera #classical singing #oratorio #british #130th anniversary

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kanasmusings · 5 years ago

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[Translations] ALIVE Otsukimikuji Drama CD D-6: Eto Koki ver.

Thank you once again to @rubymikun for sharing with me these drama tracks to be translated~!

※ Please don’t ask her for the files as per her request, thank you! Unfortunately, since it is a lottery CD, I don’t know where you can purchase them aside from second-hand shops ^^;

I’m so in love with the way Koki speaks in this drama track that I couldn’t help but blush even though he’s only talking about the Fairy Tale Collection (￣▽￣) Once again, Kou-sama knows how to make things unnecessarily elegant~! Also, if you’ve noticed, I did change how I translated the way he speaks for this drama, but that’s because he’s being super formal since he’s talking with the audience ^^

OTHER FAIRY TALE DRAMAS: SolidS | QUELL

Full translation in PDF, enjoy~!

Track 01: “Spread those wings of imagination.”

※ Please don’t re-post these under any circumstances.

※ If you enjoyed this, please consider buying me a coffee here. It’ll really help me out a lot.(o^▽^o) Thank you!!

#tsukipro #growth #eto koki #growth translations #drama cd #my translations #Alive Series #my god i love it when Koki speaks so formal~#he sounds very fun to translate whenever he speaks so formally XD

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ridzmystique · 4 years ago

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Asur - Episode 1 Live Blog

Hello! I’ve been meaning to watch Asur because the trailer looked right up my alley (I’m really into Crime dramas, and mysteries, and this looked so intriguing), and decided why not live blog my reactions. And when I say live blog, I truly mean the thoughts I had in my head as I watched it...an info dump of sorts, so open it at your own risk. CONTAINS SPOILERS.

1. Hi Aarav! You look....dangerous. 2. Yup, knew you looked dangerous. Dang kid! 3. Now I understand the...Shraadh reference. 4. Vishesh is a really good actor, I am excited for this. 5. Also damn, that soundtrack. I might just download it to listen to if it's available somewhere. 6. IS THAT A FINGER!? 7. I am loving the aesthetic so far... 8. Is that the J Edgar Hoover building??? Barun are you an FBI agent!? I thought this was based in India! 9. Also, hi Barun! 10. Okay you are no longer mumbling which is GREAT...but why are you teaching this class like they are all a bunch of idiots? lol. Something about the stressing of words and tone... 11. Oh hiiiiii Professor Nair. 12. LOL someone asks him a question about his career choices and he's like naw, not gonna talk about that. Interesting... 13. So he's an FBI investigator instructor, cool. 14. Do NOT flirt with someone your...coworker? You stranger dude I do not know yet. 15. You cannot just declare a murder Nair...also that is terrible stereotyping. You cannot just say a Latino might have done it because the herb is south american, wtf!? 16. AH...he's being poached by the CBI. 17. Omg yikes! I did NOT expect that! (But the murder scenes are shot very creepily. 10/10) 18. The sweet scene between Nikhil and Naina was very very cute, but since this is a murder mystery I expect it to last...10 secs. Also, he clearly hates being a lecturer so the condescending tone makes a little more sense. 19. "Put your sleep aside" A bold strategy cotton, let's see if it works out for them 20. No one in criminology has good marriages? Is that the message? 21. Why is no one wearing any gloves while handling that CD!!! 22. I fully expect this car to blow up. 23. I am SO glad Nikhil's leaving his family in the US, at least I don't have to worry about them getting murdered. 24. HUG YOUR WIFE. 25. Why is "a sweet surprise" in quotes, omg what if it's the killer messaging him. 26. He's gonna find a finger in the package isn't he? 27. Oh...a USB drive...and yup. His wife's dead.

Overall thoughts: Really loving it so far. I love, love, love the background score. And all the actors look solid. Can’t wait to watch more!

#asur #live blog #barun sobti #arshad warsi #ridhi dogra

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secretgiverkitty · 4 years ago

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Having been denied love and being called un-fit for marriage by her love crush/boyfriend- Mohit, she decides to prove him wrong and agrees to marry anyone her Dad picks for her.Ishaan is a shy, warm-hearted software engineer living in old Delhi with his big joint-family. He has always failed in love and is the typical mama’s boy character who intends to marry according to his family’s choice.How they meet, fall in love and where life takes them, how Suhana having brought up in a small family adjusts to the new big family, etc.

Forms the crux of Sasural Genda Phool. It has also been known as the journey of Suhana’s character and how she finds the essence of family and its importance.

She discovers the love and care of the family and hence the name - Sasural Genda Phool.The peppy plays the spoiled brat Suhana Bajpayee Kashyup and playing the lead opposite her is the dashing as Ishaan Kashyap. Their awesome chemistry is one of the USP’s of the show. Famous ‘Tu tu main main’ bahu plays Shailaja Kashyup aka Badi Ma, Ishaan’s Aunt and his pillar of strength and opposite her is as Eshwar Kashyup, Bade Papa, Inshaan’s Uncle, who goes missing for many years, only to return back looking for acceptance from his family. And play Panna and Raunak, Shailaja and Eshwar Kashyup’s daughter and son-in-law.plays Alok Kashyap, Ishaan’s Father with essaying the character of Ranno Kashyap, Ishaan’s Mother. Other than Ishaan, they have a college going daughter Ishika Kashyup, played by the lovely.Sadiya Siddique plays the pivotal role of Radha Bua, a woman whose husband sells her to another person on their first night. She gets raped by the buyer and ends ups caring his son, Deepak, later played. Plays Kamal Kishore Bajpayee, a widower and Suhana’s Father, who loves his daughters a lot.

Plays Sanjana Bajpayee, Suhana’s Sister who later goes on to play Deepak’s love-interest and they get married after a lot of hardships and convincing by the end of the show. And play Ambarnath Kashyap and Gayatri Kashyup respectively, Ishaan’s paternal grandparents, who provide the comic relief to the show with their still budding love for each other, which has only grown with age.plays the role of Inder Kashyam, Ishaan’s Brother, and son to Shailaja and Eshwar Kashyup., plays Ragini Kashyup, Inder’s wife. They have a daughter, Meethi played by the cute 7 year old.

Sasural Genda Phool Serial Song Download

Shyam Mashalkar plays Illyesh Kashyap, Ishaan’s brother and Pooja Kanwal Mahtani plays his wife Disha Kashyup.is also seen during the start as Sid, Suhana’s Ex-love interest who had rejected her; calling her unfit to be a marriage material.The show went on to become a great hit. So much that it was remade in Bengali –‘Ogo Badhu Sundari’ and was aired on Star Jalsa.

It was also dubbed into Telugu as ‘ ’ on Maa tv and in Tamil as ‘ ’ on Star Vijay. The show has recently been relaunched on Start Utsav.Sasural Genda Phool was aired from Monday-Friday on Star Plus, at 7.30pm. It premiered on March 1st, 2010 and the last episode was aired on 20th April, 2012 with a successful run of 2 years.Other dubbed versions of the serial.

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Sher n shamsher singh’s role were the best. N bhavari devi’s too but i dont like shraddha’s acting.My favourite serial piya rangrezz l love you gaurav bajaj&kritida mistry very nice too l see you everyday piya rangrezz serial world best couple for serial l miss you too much.

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Sasural Genda Phool Star Plus

Watch Free Indian drama serial Sasural Genda Phool Star Plus Live. Watch Live All episodes and latest updates Sasural Genda Phool Star Plus drama is available online. All episodes Sasural Genda Phool Star Plus Download and watch Free Sasural Genda Phool epidode is Set in the Old Delhi, Sasural Genda Phool is a heart rendering story of two unlikely characters Suhana and Ishaan. It is a love story of two strangers who fall in love after marriage.Suhana is the lovely, spirited daughter of Kamal Kumar Bajpai. She hails from a palatial house with a plethora of servants to service her cravings. Having lost her mother at a very young age, she grows up as a very lonely person. Despite his best efforts, Kamal Kumar Bajpai is not able to give his daughter enough time. Denied a mother’s love and a father’s attention, Suhana has grown up to have a legendary temper. But equally legendary is her kindness. Everyone who has seen her grow up – her family, her servants and her friends – know her to be an honest, upright person, never shying away from calling a spade a spade. Unfortunately, Suhana loses in that most complicated game of all, love. In a flick of instinctive defiance, she agrees to marry whoever her father decides for her. But the marriage starts on a disastrous note. Suhana, who is raw from a recent break up, makes it clear to Ishaan that she is not in love with him. Epitomising the nice guy that he is, he decides to give her time for her wounds to heal. And then, something happens to Suhana. Whether it is the power of the marriage mantras or the ritual of living under the same roof, a magic happens. It starts with inconsequential things – choosing a shirt for him; packing his tiffin; or personally picking the flowers Ishaan likes best. Suhana slowly begins to discover her husband. Each new day, she discovers a new facet of her husband. Each new day makes Ishaan more endearing to Suhana. And before she knows it, she has fallen in love with him – a love which is deep and solid; a love that will truly stand the test of time. The story itself will unfold in the style of a Hrishikesh Mukherjee film – laced with warmth, kindness and humour – where the human soul comes out shining brightly as a true winner. It is in the angans and gallis of this beautiful city that Suhana will discover family, love and l

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sinful-liesel · 5 years ago

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SQ SolidS Drama Vol. 6 Dear brother

Title: SQ SolidSドラマ６巻『Dear brother』

Release Date: 2019.07.26 Type: Drama CD

Synopsis↴

Read Full Post on my Wordpress Blog 💕 (link below↴)

#Drama CD #SQ Solids Drama #takuya eguchi #Soma Saito #Natsuki Hanae #Yuuichirou Umehara #SQ Solids #SQ Series #Tsukipro #July 2019 CD

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ryuukia · 5 years ago

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[Translation] SolidS Drama Vol.5 “One faithful day, I saw you laughing under the starry sky” Track 1

Ryota passed me this CD and the following one, and since these 4 are therapeutic for me (translation-wise), I couldn’t refuse. Personally I wish I could start with drama 6, but I have to do things in order... Also many thanks to Ryota for proofing this for me.

Please don’t repost/retranslate/reuse my translations. Likes and reblogs are appreciated.

CD Cast:

Takamura Shiki (CV. Eguchi Takuya)

Okui Tsubasa (CV. Saito Souma)

Sera Rikka (CV. Hanae Natsuki)

Murase Dai (CV. Umehara Yuuichirou)

Haiduki Fumihiko (CV. Kowahara Yoshihisa)

Horimiya Eichi (CV. Nishiyama Koutarou)

Staff A (CV. Uenishi Teppei)

Staff B (CV. Hose Yuuichi)

Track 1: A different view from usual

-typing and click sounds are heard-

Shiki: Sigh. I think things will turn out well if I continue on with this.

-phone rings-

Shiki: Hm? -picks up- Haiduki. What is it? Yeah. Yeah. Ah, this one? As soon as I’m done with it, I’ll hand it to you. Wait a bit more. You know the most what exactly keeps me busy right now.

Shiki: Hmm…… You can’t make me give this up. No matter how much you ask, my answer will be the same. Let me stick with this project.

Shiki: I’m aware my other jobs are pressing me, I’ll do something about that.

Shiki: I won’t say something stupid like “Trust me” at this point, but we’re still in the same boat. Just this once, follow along with me, manager.

Shiki: Fine, if everything ends up well, I’ll send you all the alcohol you want, Fumi-chan. I’ll leave the rest to you.

-call ends-

Shiki: Alright. -goes back to work-

Staff A: Alright, this is okay for now. Let’s take a break.

-Rikka goes back to his seat and drinks some water-

Staff B: Sera-san, excuse me, I’ll be fixing your make-up. Hmm, aah, your skin’s in perfect condition as always. Do you have any secrets to share?

Rikka: Hmm, nothing in particular. If anything, I only try to sleep properly and have balanced meals. Though I can’t deny I have issues following these rules sometimes because of my jobs.

Staff B: Ooh, that really does sound difficult. Everyone seems so busy.

Rikka: This is nothing. Though it might seem easier to me right now because of my years of experience as a model. Our manager is also very attentive with us.

Staff B: If I’m not wrong, SolidS’ manager is… Haiduki-san, right? If I think about it, he’d look cool even as a talent.

Rikka: I’m sure he’d be happy to hear that.

Staff B: That person is very considerate with the staff members on the set too. I also heard that he does his work fast and properly. When it comes to Solids, the schedule is extremely packed, but when you realize it’s him who will manage it, you get some sort of sense of relief.

Rikka: I’m glad to hear that. I’ll make sure to let him know.

Staff B: Please tell him we’re under his care from now on too. Oh, isn’t that person over there Murase-san?

Rikka: Eh? Dai?

Staff B: Next to him is QUELL’s…

Rikka: Oh… It’s Eichi. Please excuse me for a bit.

Rikka: Dai! Eichi!

-both come over to Rikka-

Dai: Hello.

Eichi: Good job~! Ahh, Rikka-san! You look so pretty!

Rikka: Thank you for the compliment! But Eichi, didn’t you forget something important?

Eichi: Ah…

Rikka: I told you to drop the ‘-san’, only ‘Rikka’ is fine. I asked you that the other day. No formal speech.

Eichi: A..h…

Dai: You’re still on about that? You’ve been so concerned about that for a long time now...

Rikka: Indeed. Just like how Dai won’t drop the honorifics with Shiki, Eichi also doesn’t really seem to be able to relax around me. I don’t mind it, but I’d be happier if he was more frank with me.

Dai: The fact that I speak formally with Shiki is more of a habit. I used to be into swimming once, so something like casual talk with the seniors from the sports club was unlikely to happen. It’s not in my intention to keep a distance or to be more reserved with any of you, especially Shiki.

Rikka: I can understand that.

Dai: Right.

Rikka: But although I’m about the same age as Shiki, you started to talk to me informally right from the beginning.

Dai: That’s... because you were glued to us almost instantly.

Rikka: So that’s what won you over, huh.

Eichi: In the meanwhile, my circumstances are similar to Dai-kun… err, I’m about the same. I used to be in a sports club once, then after I became an assistant director, it was all about that hierarchy in both industry and occupation-wise. It was a given that we had to be polite to those who were older and more experienced in the industry.

Rikka: Eichi, just follow Dai’s example. Make me an exception and drop the honorifics. Once you turn 20 years old, an age difference of 2-3 years is pretty much equal to nothing. You don’t need to treat me like a senior either. I’m usually ill at ease when people address me like that, it’s not my kind of thing. Okay?

Dai: You’re going to use the same tactic on Eichi, I see.

Rikka: Fufufu. Exactly.

Eichi: Err, uhh… alright… okay, then... Once again, you’re really pretty, Rikka.

Rikka: -laughs- Thank you once again.

Rikka: So, what’s up with you two here? You surprised me.

Eichi: I told Dai-kun the other day that Isse and Icchi would be having a photoshoot here, so he invited me to come and have a look.

Dai: I simply dragged him with me under the pretext of having a look in advance. I said it could make him feel less nervous.

Rikka: Now that I think about it, Eichi’s also some sort of manager for Issei and Ichiru.

Eichi: Yes! Ah- I mean, yeah. I’m more of a substitute. They suddenly made their debut in the entertainment world through QUELL, and they know nothing about manners or rules when it comes to agreeing to things. So, in order for them not to be too nervous on set, I go and check on them to help keep their minds at peace or something like that, In my case, I may have been with them since our debut, but before that I was working as an assistant director, so I know how things work on the set.

Rikka: I see. They can count on you then.

Dai: It’s the same case as Shiki then. He has practically years of experience of working as a staff member.

Eichi: -laughs- If Icchi and Issei could think that way about me, I’d be happy. Though lately I’ve observed they started to get the gist of it. Both of them seem to have gotten used to the set and feel more in their element. I’m about 90% happy and proud of them, but also 10% a liiitle lonely.

Rikka: -laughs- You must feel like a parent whose children became independent. But indeed, both of them started to look a bit more relaxed. The other day Shu came to SolidS’ common room with a bunch of magazines only to boast about them.

Eichi: Shu was showing off his doting parent side and I didn’t know about it!

Dai: I think it took them about as much as it took me to get used to the set. I suppose it’s thanks to Eichi’s support and their own power, huh.

Eichi: If you could tell them that directly, I’m sure they’d be very happy.

Dai: If I were to tell them that, I’d end up talking about myself and that would be awkward.

Rikka: That sounds like a good idea! You can tell them about how you used to be bad with photoshoots, your dark history, your experiences, and a lot more, senpai.

Dai: Are you teasing me?

Rikka: You’re wrong, you’re wrong! I was only thinking that it would cheer both of them up.

Dai: Then when the time comes to discuss about myself with them, I’ll also add 2 or 3 things about you.

Rikka: Eh? What do you mean?

Dai: Things like how you hate to lose and how they should run out of your way if they ever catch you being angry.

Rikka: Eeeh? -laughs- How mean! You’ll scare them.

Dai: It’s only the truth.

Eichi: -laughs- Dai and Rikka are getting along really well.

Rikka: Right?

Dai: I've learned to stop holding back. And I'm only saying what I want to say.

Rikka: Eh? You were being modest before?

Dai: It’s all in the past. You know about it, too, don’t you? We’re in the same boat.

Rikka: I guess so. I remember having a tough time trying to get closer to you.

Rikka: Ah, I apologize. You were also fixing my makeup, I should have been a little more quiet.

Staff B: -laughs- You don’t need to worry about that. I told you before, Sera-san. The make-up is almost untouched.

Eichi: Ah, right. During photoshoots the light is strong and it gets rather hot, so many people need to have it fixed.

Staff B: Exactly. That’s why I was asking if he had any secrets.

Eichi: I wanna know about them, too!

Dai: Even if he said something, it probably won’t work on anyone aside from him.

Rikka: -laughs awkwardly-

Staff A: The shooting will resume in 5 minutes! Everyone, get back to your positions!

Staff B: Ah, lastly, allow me to apply some lamé powder. -taps- And… this is it.

Rikka: Thank you very much.

Dai: Then I’ll head back. What about you, Eichi?

Eichi: Err, if it’s okay with you, may I watch the photoshoot?

Rikka: I suppose it should be okay.

Staff B: I think the members on the set would be alright with it. The studio is large enough, one or two more people wouldn’t make much of a difference.

Rikka: Let’s go ask the director. It’s a rare occasion, so I’ll introduce you to him.

Eichi: Thank you.

Dai: Good for you, Eichi. Sorry to disturb you during work.

Staff B: No, not at all.

Dai: Then see you later. Rikka, good luck with the rest of your photoshoot.

Rikka: ‘Kay. See you later.

Staff B: Good job.

-Dai steps away-

Eichi: Thank you, Dai-kun!

Rikka: That’s right, Eichi! Do you have any plans for today? If you don’t, can we head back together after you watch the shooting? There’s something I want to talk to you about.

Eichi: Eh? With me?

Rikka: If you’re busy, you can just say so! I think the photoshoot will be over in about an hour or so, too.

Eichi: Ah, no! I don’t really have any plans for today, so it should be fine. I was actually wondering whether I should show up at the office or just head back.

Rikka: I’m glad to hear that. Thank you.

If you like my work and you want to support me, you can now buy me a coffee by clicking right [here]. I also started taking commissions, more details are right [here]. Thank you~

#tsukipro #solids #solids drama vol.5 #track 1 #audio translation #english translation #takamura shiki #sera rikka #murase dai #horimiya eichi #eguchi takuya #hanae natsuki #umehara yuichiro #nishiyama koutarou

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codenamesazanka · 6 years ago

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What are your top ten Shigaraki ships (and if you've got time for it: why)?

Oh man! idk if I have enough - if there even is enough - Shigaraki ships (in the traditional romantic sense) to fill ten. Plus I hadn’t ship Shigaraki much with anyone because it wasn’t until recently that he got all this screentime and developing relationships with other characters.

But going with interesting dynamics and relationships of all types, platonic or romantic or enemy or cautionary or imaginary/fanon (because I’m a sucker for my own imagined potential of a relationship) or canon(ish), and which ones intrigues/affects/impacts me the most? and then ranking them??? impossible hmm

(using the names and honorifics the characters call Shigaraki for some variation and also because I’m a weeb) (also ranking is suspect because I’m bad at making decisions)

10. Shigaraki and Bakugou

I didn’t actually like Bakugou until his Remedial Course mini-arc, and so didn’t pay attention to him much. So I was surprised when Shigaraki wanted Bakugou for his League. It wasn’t until I understood Shigaraki much better and finally took the effort to consider Bakugou’s side of things that I found myself wishing they had more interaction during his kidnapping. Because here was Shigaraki going 110% to woo Bakugou into joining him, he had honestly thought the boy would make a good Villain. And there was Bakugou who was adamant about being a Hero despite not being very Heroic. We could’ve had a great look (if Bakugou ever talked) into Heroes and Villains and motivations and more stuff about how they’re two sides of the same coin… or so I wish, making this a purely speculation about a battle of ideas and these two enemies coming to a grudging respect. But that’s all over now.

9. Shigaraki and Twice

Shigaraki took off Twice’s mask to shut him up (sorta), then put it back on for him! If that isn’t the most warmhearted mean thing to do. Twice is very much invested in the League and I wanna see Shigaraki appreciating that. Is Twice the first member to get to touch Shigaraki’s hands? To measure them for a clone? Very big deal. Not a very intense dynamic, but good fun downtime Villain Out Shopping fluff.

8. Shigaraki and Mr. Compress

Gotta say it’s @happojin’s ficlet about these two scheming over personal revenge on Overhaul that got me intrigued in this no-ideology partnership-in-pure-villainy. Mr. Compress is the exact type of chaos-loving dramatic criminal that’s right up his boss’ alley, though I can see too much of it getting onto Shigaraki’s nerves - which makes for good, mischievous conflict. These two would blow up buildings purely for fun and I wanna see that joy on their faces. But also! Not yet knowing the reason for Mr. Compress join the League makes for great speculation - like maybe he’s just enamored with Shigaraki’s spirit and youth (that makes him feel young himself???) that he’ll be okay with losing an arm and poverty and getting kicked around by a giant naked mountain man for a month. We see Mr. Compress with Shigaraki in chapter 114, calling Toga (for Shigaraki?) and I want to think it’s Mr. Compress fancying himself as Shigaraki’s (all) right hand man.

7. Doctor and Shigaraki

The Doctor is creepy and I’m iffy about him cuz, well, he’s creepy but he sure is making the plot move forward and now he’s the guy who will be giving the League zany inventions like some episodic comedic cartoon. If it wasn’t so horrifying that they’re Noumus. But mostly, this is a guy who knew Shigaraki from childhood, who preserved (and maintained???) the hands, who Shigaraki is familiar with but also knows nothing about. What stories can you tell us about Shigaraki, Doc? I wanna know. I’m scared, but I wanna know.

6. Giran and Shigaraki-san

How long have they known each other??? (Consider - middle-aged seen-his-shit-in-the-underworld-and-now-respected-broker Giran having to be polite to a sulky teenaged Shigaraki and needing to address him as ‘san’ - idk, maybe I’m getting the nuance there wrong but… hilarity) What other dealings have they done? Giran sure is a champ to lose five fingers for Shigaraki and the League - is the League his best customer? Did Shigaraki ‘inherit’ the use of the broker from AFO? Has Giran met AFO? I guess this is just me wanting to know more about Giran, and Shigaraki is the proxy for that. But I wanna know! I wanna see them interact when Shigaraki rescues Giran.

5. All Might and Shigaraki(Shimura Tenko)

I love my Shimura Tenko gets a father figure in All Might AUs! I’m writing one lol. But I acknowledge this is less about the characters themselves and more about the exploration of a legacy that ties them together. Cuz I love that shit. I love the idea of All Might being such a loyal disciple that he would do anything for the grandson of Nana - except it’s just that, he’s only chasing after a reminder of Nana. What would he do with Shigaraki/Tenko himself? And I love the idea of Shigaraki/Tenko deciding how to incorporate the tale of the sordid Shimura family into his life - if he chooses to do so at all. Lots of family/identity drama. Also completely in headcanon territory. Ah well.

4. Toga and Tomura-kun

The recent chapters have really up my interest in the friendship/siblinghood/whatever admiration Toga has for Shigaraki. She calls him Tomura-kun, which yes it’s expected of her as a cute high schooler; but no one else has ever called Shigaraki just his first name besides AFO. And Shigaraki seems to have a soft spot for her? He’s been very nice to all of the League, but for someone who immediately hated her at first sight cuz she was a ‘brat’ who didn’t make any sense, that’s the biggest attitude change. Right now, they’re confirmed to be the youngest and closest in age of the League, and I like the idea of them being able to be ‘young people these days’ together and relate to one another. Toga is very loyal to Shigaraki, but not above stabbing him should he be a jerk. Like with Twice, I wanna see Shigaraki be appreciative, or rather, I wanna see another scene where he’s really nice to her (the first one being, of course, that Overhaul arc flashback).

Also they were in an omake drama CD being silly and if that isn’t the best thing.

3. Kurogiri and Shigaraki Tomura

Hmmm I’m lazy and I already planned a whole post dedicated to analyzing their relationship, so I’m gonna skip this. I’ll edit with the link to that post later!

2. Shigaraki and Spinner! In danger of being an OTP for me, which isn’t hard cuz I don’t have any other

The only romantic relationship on this list. Spinaraki. Like I said before, though Shigaraki was really the only option after Stain, Spinner was so clearly ready to believe in Shigaraki, to follow him, because he wanted the League to change the world. That’s a lot of faith put onto someone who is Shigaraki (I mean, look at him, he’s a skinny NEET goth), so much so Spinner, implied to have not been a criminal before joining the League, is ready to kill (and does). That’s intriguing enough, and then comes his month long observation diary about his leader. Who he still stays with after knowing Shigaraki’s very-not-Stain-like-nor-revolutionary plans. And now we wait for the climax of his journey of wavering loyalty. True, a lot of it is my own hyped-up imagination but I’m enjoying it. If Spinner stays and become Shigaraki’s most loyal follower, that is so my shit I’m going to die. I’m gonna die anyways whenever they interact in the near future chapters.

1. All For One and Tomura

What is there to say about…. this? It haunts me. It’s number one on this list cuz it’s the dynamic that I think about most, has impacted me most (Chapter 222 was a lot to handle), and it’s like trying to untangle thorny vines. Gotta say, in my intepretation, it’s a very accurate portrayal - from Shigaraki’s side - of caring about someone who has hurt you a lot, and you know it. But it’s the person you knew best and depended on when there was no one else, and you’re always going to have their influence - of which includes positive things. It’s one of the very few portrayal that gets all the paradoxical messy details while being explicitly clear to the reader it’s wrong, Shigaraki doesn’t deserve this. It’s also clear that while AFO may have affection for people, that doesn’t matter. He’s a monster. Still wrong, and cruel. And I think that’s important to show, important to depict and an important message told well. Now all that’s left is to wait to see what Shigaraki will do now and how this bond will break.

This to be absolutely clear, this isn’t a ‘ship’, it’s a portrayal of an abused child solider that is now flourishing away from his guardian and I’m hopeful for the future. And it’s so poignant to me, that a story is tackling this. Gets it. Its a dynamic I’m invested in because it’s a story of survival and I will see it through.

Honorable mentions? I wanna see Shigaraki and Hawks. That should be interesting.

I used to like ShigaDabi, but mostly because it was available. I’ve got no opinions about it now. :/

Thanks for reading!

#nalslastworkingbraincell #shigaraki tomura #shigaraki #and that's all i'm tagging #way too much #and #spinaraki #cuz that tag deserves some life #my top ten character dynamics

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joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh · 6 years ago

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Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha - Series Review

The Lyrical Nanoha series has been on my plan to watch for probably over a year now, and after several occasions where I said I’d watch the entire series, I finally went and actually did it. Since before even watching the series, I had planned to do one big post that had a massive review for the entire anime, so I’ll be covering every season of the anime, duh. I know there are manga and video games and a bunch of other stuff which I believe is canon so I’ll check those out one day probably, but for now, this is all you’re getting. The way that the writing process for this worked is that I watched the season, wrote the thing, and then watched the next season, so for example I wrote the entire section on regular Nanoha before I started watching A’s. Don’t know how relevant that information actually is or if it’ll even appear that way to anyone reading but hey, I felt like sharing. All that being said, letsago.

Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha

Of every season of the Nanoha anime, this first season probably had the biggest shoes to fill. In the same way a first episode gives you an impression of a whole show, the first season gives you an impression of the rest of the product. If I didn’t like this first season, why would I check out the rest of the show? You know I did like the first season, because if I didn’t then this post wouldn’t be a series review, but I think it’s important to make it clear that my first impression of the Nanoha franchise has to come from this first season, because duh.

So yeah, big shoes to fill. But did it fill them? Yeah, I’d say so.

Nanoha gets off to somewhat of a slow start, the first 5 or 6 episodes being somewhat generic mahou shoujo stuff with breadcrumbs of something greater scattered throughout. Though that’s not to discredit these first episodes, for even if they’re not the most unique in the world and are definitely a bit on the slow side, I still enjoyed them a good amount. Nanoha is exactly the right amount of fun that a protagonist for this needs to be, and Yuuno is pretty interesting as the talking animal companion because it establishes the later-very-important-fact that other worlds exist in this show. If my initial reaction to Homura Akemi is anything to go off of, I always immediately fall in love with the mysterious other magical girl rival that mahou shoujos sometimes have, and this show is no exception – Fate was my favourite character the moment she appeared. Nanoha’s family are really sweet and I really love how her older sister dresses, she’s got casual style down to a T. I think Nanoha’s friends provide her with some important character development and make some of the series’ later moments involving Nanoha and Fate feel truly earned, so that’s a plus for them. And of course, the show’s visuals and soundtrack are super fucking good, so even though these first few episodes do end up making you wonder when something bigger will happen, they’re still quite a joy to watch, the action especially good fucking god it’s great.

But again, while the first episodes are great, they felt a bit, lacking in something. Like, Nanoha is 5 seasons and shit tons of manga and drama CDs and some video games and various other things – how did it all spawn from what’s otherwise just a standard albeit pretty solid magical girl show? Well that’s because in around episode 7 or so, the plot starts to really pick up, and fucking hell if it isn’t wonderful. Best girl Fate starts to become more and more interesting as more about her is revealed and that whole thing about Yuuno introducing other worlds to this show becomes relevant in a big way. I’m not generally fond of like, interdimensional patrols in stuff because I feel like they all kind of blend together, but while this interdimensional patrol weren’t much different on their own, the plot points they introduce as well as everything to do with Fate’s mother by extension was just a blast to watch. Fate’s mother’s a really good villain actually, and the reveal of who Fate actually is was so painful to watch because fuck Fate’s so good and deserves love from everyone but her not-mother just keeps tearing into her and like, really driving home the point to Fate that she’s a worthless imitation of her much more valued and actually loved daughter. When Fate’s mom is like “Alicia was so much kinder to me” I wanted to punch the hypocritical bastard because you don’t get to criticise Fate for not being kind when you literally actually torture her you evil bastard. God she was a great villain. One of the best abusive parent villains I’ve seen, probably. And it’s not like Nanoha takes a backseat to the plot either, because lots of that stuff about friendship and loneliness that was touched on earlier with her conflict-with-friends plot point becomes super relevant here and in the way she tries to both open up to Fate and get Fate to open up to her. And then we get Arf, Fate’s familiar, who while I initially disliked because I ain’t fond of her character design, grows into a decently strong character in her own right and has a lot of good moments with other characters, particularly Fate, obviously. And the best part? When all this brilliant and really interesting plot stuff reaches its climax at the very end, they manage to accomplish the very very difficult and not fuck up the ending – it’s so nice when that happens. By the time the show ended I was perfectly content with the conclusion we were given – there wasn’t even a single shred of “oh the show was good but the ending could’ve been better”. And the scene where Fate and Nanoha swap their hair ribbon things was so great too, fucking hell I loved Fate so fucking much she’s such best girl material (do I even have any other blonde best girls? Who knows) and I was so happy with her character development. What a brilliant character.

As already said, the visuals were great. I actually expected the direction to be a bit wilder since I know this first season was directed by Shinbo, and my only other experience with the man’s work is the very visually wild Madoka and like 5 episodes of Bakemonogatari, but the direction here is a lot more conventional than in those shows, but I still liked it all the same so you know. Don’t know why I expected this show to be 16:9, maybe I saw something from before it that was, so I was surprised when this turned out to be 4:3, but that doesn’t mean shit, so whatevs. I really liked Nanoha and Fate’s character designs, though lots of the other designs were kinda just perfectly passable, with the exception of Arf whose design I didn’t really like, and Nanoha’s sister who I already praised for her good fashion and stuff. I did find myself weirded out with some of the fanservice – there’s not a lot of it so it’s already usually pretty weird when it does appear, but I also found myself confused by how they went about it sometimes. Because like, Fate’s outfit design lends itself to being prone to ass shots, which is fine so I didn’t really care when those happened (except for this one that happened after a scene where she’s heavily abused by her mum – that timing felt inappropriate), and there’s also a hot springs episode which is fair enough like fanservice there makes sense, but then there are also a fair few unnecessary and unusually timed pantie shots on Nanoha that always felt bizarre – one of the eyecatch animations even gave us some pantsu in her mahou shoujo outfit which was weird because it’s so long and I never expected to see up it. The fanservice wasn’t a big deal and there’s not even enough of it to where I can call it a legitimate issue, but I did think it was worth mentioning.

Overall, I really enjoyed this first season. The plot was good and well-paced and the characters were great, and the solid audiovisual presentation throughout plus adorable characters kept it fun to look it. It does start a bit slow, and episode 7 is a long time to wait for the actually really good stuff to start, but those first 6 episodes are still enjoyable enough, and the constant mystery that is Fate’s character will probably keep you too intrigued to stop watching even if you are really bored by the rest of it. I think for score I’m content giving this an 8/10 – it’s definitely way too good to be a 7 but I don’t think I can give those first 6 episodes a 9 and that’s like half of the show so, yeah, 8.

Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A’s

So when I was looking up the watch order for the show, I saw A’s being described as the high point of the franchise, in fact the exact description was “nigh unanimously seen as the best part of the franchise”. So following season 1 I was really curious about what to expect from A’s – if season 1 was so great already then A’s must be really good to be the franchise’s high point.

And it was!

A’s wastes very little time compared to its predecessor in getting into the meat of the plot, the first episode actually introducing us to an entire 5 new characters who are all super important throughout the rest of the season. And I’m not gonna lie, I was initially predisposed to disliking them, because despite the fact that they’ve all got pretty strong designs, I tend to get like that when a bunch of characters are introduced all at once in a new season. Now thankfully, they’re all actually really great, and while their individual development isn’t brilliant, the development they get as a collective group and how that relates to the other characters and the central narrative is done super fucking well. And the main character that this development relates to, plus the biggest newcomer of the season, is Hayate. A girl who is totally impossible to not love. She’s kind of got a flat character arc thing going on where she’s pretty much just really nice and kind to everyone and most of the changes in her character are because of the Book of Darkness corrupting her, but she’s one of the best examples of the flat character arc I can think of and also her design when she becomes a magical girl in the second last episode is by fucking far my favourite design in the entire show and one of the best magical girl designs I can think of I love it so fucking much it’s so aesthetic oh my god. Hayate kicks a lot of ass but tbh Fate still best girl.

Speaking of Fate, all of our returning characters are great as well! Now that Fate’s kind of had her big major arc from the first season completed, she’s able to exist as kind of just a girl in the world now, and she’s exactly as wonderful and lovely as I could have hoped for. I did feel that she didn’t get too much development this season, and the same actually goes for Nanoha and some others too, but I really didn’t mind their individual character arcs taking a backseat when they still have so much weight and impact on the main plot and stuff. And it’s not like they’re entirely flat either – Fate gets to adopt Nanoha’s philosophy of trying to actually talk to her opponents, develops a cool rivalry with Signum, and to make a long story short her attachment to the Space-Time Bureau thing and specifically Lindy was really sick and made me like this specific Bureau a lot more than some other Bureaus in fiction, even if it’s arguably still just as generic. Nanoha doesn’t get as much as Fate but she does the unthinkable for a mahou shoujo show and tells her friends about the whole situation, plus her family? There’s no actual dialogue in the scene so she could’ve just been saying “yo Fate’s getting adopted” but she might have also said “yo I work for the Interdimensional Police” or whatever. Again it’s not that important – Nanoha’s still just as fun this season as she was in the last. Yuuno didn’t have much development last season and the same is true for this one, and he also has even less screentime, though he has greater presence in the scenes where he does appear, being far more useful in combat and actually pushing the narrative forward, rather than just shouting “Nanoha!” for a whole season. Chrono and the gang feel a lot more fun this season, which as already stated made the Bureau feel a bit more likeable. Not a returning character so doesn’t fit the rest of this paragraph but still related to the Bureau so it works – didn’t really care much for Graham or his two familiars the hot nekomimis who transform into attractive blue haired dudes. I feel like some of my confusion regarding the Book of Darkness (which is probably me not paying attention tbh I assume the logic is consistent) is linked to the weird motives and methods that these guys ended up having so that was weird. Plus when Lotte jumped on Chrono and later got up saying “that tasted good” I thought she gave him a good old suck of the cock really quickly somehow so that was weird.

Of course, being a second season, every aspect of the production was improved. The already great visuals are even better, with a lot more motion in the already pretty dynamic fight scenes, improved character art and animations, better backgrounds, better character designs, the like. There are a decent amount of pretty beautiful locales that we visit as Hayate’s gang are hunting for pages that I really liked, and they encounter some pretty cool looking monsters as well. I expected this season to be 16:9 but it wasn’t, but again that really doesn’t matter and I don’t care anyway – it’s not like a videogame where aspect ratio is linked to visibility which is linked to ease of play so hey. Soundtrack is good and the OP fucking slaps good god – all of the insert songs were brilliant as well. I also felt like the voice acting and sound design were better this season too, which is neat.

The show does end on a 6 year timeskip and god is it weird seeing these characters I’ve gotten so used to seeing as tiny 9 year olds being way taller – not a problem or anything the designs are still solid it’ll just take me some getting used to. The specifics of what happens to all the characters post-timeskip I was perfectly content with, so no complaints there. I don’t even have much of a sense of “how did we get here?” that timeskips usually leave me with because the actual progression that the characters make is all super reasonable and in I think every case actually hinted at throughout the series, which is just swell.

I don’t really have much negative to say about this season – I’ve already said most of my criticisms. The fanservice was toned down as well so I don’t really feel the need to talk about that any longer. Honestly with pretty much every element being improved and it not suffering from a slow first 6 episodes, yeah it really is fair to describe A’s as the best part of the series. So far??? I’ll see what I think of the other seasons. To be honest though, looking at my other 9s, I feel like A’s is still just an 8/10. It’s definitely better than it’s predecessor which was also an 8/10, though for me personally I don’t quite think I can give it that 9. Still really really good, and if you’ve not watched A’s then you really should – in fact if you’ve not watched Nanoha then you should watch it just so you have an excuse to watch A’s (jk season 1’s great too). If this is the best part of the franchise, then boy am I excited to see it go all downhill from here.

Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS

Alright, where on earth do I start with this one?

No, I mean, seriously? The first two seasons were just so good that I could just kind of easily start writing – I had a good place to start for each of them and worked from there. There wasn’t that much to say other than lots of good things. But StrikerS was so all over the place in terms of quality that I really don’t know how I should start this, and the addition of new characters into the mix as well as lots of returning ones makes that decision even harder.

I guess I’ll start with the new characters because that’ll better contextualise how I talk about the returning characters. Frankly, they’re all quite terrible, for a smorgasbord of reasons.

Subaru is in essence the main character here and she doesn’t have an arc whatsoever. Her character is that she wants to be strong like Nanoha, and beyond that she’s only defined by the fact that she’s a cyborg and has a sister that’s a cyborg and is Tia’s friend. I’m not fond of her design really and I hate how when they reveal that she’s a cyborg they also give her a generic rage powerup. She’s really the same character at the start and the end and yet she doesn’t pull of a flat character arc well either because she’s not even got much narrative impact. She only really has two pros – the first is that she’s voiced by Chiwa Saito (explains why the generic rage powerup scene was at least a great vocal performance) and another thing that I’ll touch on in a bit.

Tia fares better than Subaru in that she does actually have something of an arc and it even impacts other characters in seemingly meaningful ways, but I thought it kinda sucked, and it links to a problem that, guess what, I’ll talk about later! Tia’s arc is that compared to not just all the other forwards, but everyone else in the entire Sixth Sector, she feels completely average and like she has to put in significantly more effort than everyone else in order to keep up with them since they’re all prodigies, so she starts training late into the night and early in the mornings. Nanoha doesn’t like this, Tia goes a bit too seriously in a training battle, and then Nanoha kicks her shit in, people tell her that Nanoha once got fucked up from overworking herself, and then Nanoha herself tells Tia not to overwork herself. From there on, she’s a completely flat character without a flat character arc and she isn’t even as important to the plot as Subaru. I’ve seen this arc be done better by other shows and the fact that it only really occupies like 2 episodes of time, 3 tops, just makes it feel even more undercooked. And then even her surface level personality is just that, she’s a person I guess? She has a backstory but it’s just “my brother used gun so I must use gun” and I did not very much care for it or her.

The other two big newcomers are Erio and Caro, and I really had to think to remember their names. Caro’s cute, but beyond that their entire characters, arcs, developments, narrative impact and all that jazz can be summed up with “Fate looks after them, and since they were lonely at one point in their lives, they relate to a villain later on and try to talk to her”. I mean there’s one part of one episode where they go to town and follow a plan devised by a carer that seems to want to hook them up and neither of them even realise it? So I guess the show wants to joke about the fact that they don’t really have romantic chemistry? I’m not criticising that as a plot point or anything but it’s telling that it’s pretty much all they get. I like their designs less than the other two and they totally fucking cop out in Erio’s first transformation sequence because where all of the girls obviously get naked his entire outfit just transforms straight from business formal to mahou shounen – no nudity at all. They’re the embodiment of “just there” and that really annoyed me.

See the one appeal that the newcomers really have, particularly Subaru, is that they have a lot of cool moments in both concept and execution. Subaru rollerskates for example, and punches things, both of which are really cool, and she has a fun fight with her sister who has the same abilities. She can also conjure up magic roads to rollerskate across and those look sick – think Frozone. And then in the final or semi-final episode or something she conjures up a magic road so that she and Tia can motorbike out of a helicopter into an airship – which is one of the coolest things a person can do. And then Caro can just summon this massive god-kaiju dragon thing that she only does twice but it kicks ass so. Tia’s of the more standard magic dual pistol type but they also turn into magic lightsabre dagger things that are neat, and then Erio actually just sucks. The thing is though, all of this is just surface level cool stuff. None of it means anything. It’s just like “oh isn’t that kinda cool” and then nothing else. Maybe you’ll remember it but you’re not amazed by the brilliant character writing or dynamic relationships or anything like that. And I’m a colossal sucker for cool stuff, trust me, but I still like when cool characters are also good characters, you know?

Speaking of good and cool characters, the returning cast! I’m very mixed on them. Most of the cast do actually return, though Nanoha, Fate, Hayate, Vita, Signum and Reinforce (kinda) are the only ones that are actually important. Yuuno appears for all of 5 minutes, Chrono exists to occasionally talk in exposition scenes, Zafira and Shamal are still here but don’t get as much screentime as the other two, Arf is mysteriously a loli now that Fate is apparently raising? You know, general stuff. I don’t really mind them barely appearing to be honest – in some sense of the word this season is about passing the torch to the new generation so relying on all your old characters would feel cheap. Which uh, they do anyway, because it doesn’t commit to doing anything with the new characters and so the returning ones get the most screentime and development. Really makes you wonder what the point of the new characters even was. Anyway, I’m way off topic – we’re supposed to be talking about returning characters.

Nanoha started out kind of boring. She’s still got her kind air about her as you’d expect, but all she really gets to do at first is train the newbies, and her first actual development – when she has her reaction to Tia going overboard in the mock battle – felt oddly melodramatic to me and even if it did kinda make sense, Nanoha ended up feeling somewhat out of character for me at that moment. So I’m not really liking her, but then they give her a kid and the kid has no dimension beyond being a kid, but I thought she was cute and Nanoha worked quite well as a mother. And then in the final episodes Nanoha gets to be a mahou shoujo badass and it’s great. She does start out kind of boring (isn’t this the exact same wording I just used) but as the season goes on, she does get to be more and more fun, so thank god for that.

Fate-chan, oh my dear Fate-chan. She’s kind of just “cares about kids” for the entire show. And like I get it – the way they justify that by bringing up her own history as a child makes sense to me as well as her being adopted by Lindy and stuff, so I see why Fate would end up this way. But they just make her really boring for most of it. And I really don’t like her new outfit either. I think when she’s parenting Vivio with Nanoha she’s fun, and she has good moments here and there throughout the whole season, as well as some actually badass moments in the finale where she even dons an outfit that doesn’t look like shit, but idk I feel like best girl Fate-chan got shafted hard this season.

Hayate’s squad are actually pretty great, but everything I can say about Hayate requires me to finally address something I’ve neglected to address so far. The setting being the Administration Bureau where all the characters work was uhh, the source of a lot of problems for me. First, the shitty ugly ass brown uniforms that every fucking character wears. The lack of variety is annoying and it doesn’t help that the uniform itself is, you know, shitty and ugly. Second, it means all the characters are constantly talking formally and referring to each other by full titles all the time. Nanoha calls Fate “Fate-chan” like 2 or 3 times maybe and every other time it’s like “Fate-kaichou” and it got really annoying. None of the actual character relationships mean shit anymore because everyone talks to each other in the exact same way. “Oh it’s been a while since I last saw you” says every character to every other character every time they first meet like fuck off. The military-esque setup also means a whole lot of “requesting permission” and “sending backup” and other such vapid dialogue that completely drained everyone’s individuality constantly. Also not that they were ever that big a deal but the limiters given to Nanoha, Fate and Hayate are so fucking arbitrary and the limiters given to the forwards are also arbitrary but not as much and I don’t want people to think I was as bugged by the limiters on the forwards because I didn’t care about them anyway so. Anyway where I’m going with all of this is that Hayate is effectively just “the commander”. She commands people. She talks to important officials. She only ever gets into like 1 or 2 battles where she just sits back and does nothing herself but commanding others. Her personality is that she’s approachable, and good at commanding people. Hayate, the commander, who is good at commanding people, is the commander. Commander. Commander. Hayate the commander. I really couldn’t stand Hayate, if it weren’t clear, or the military setting that made everything feel arbitrary or contrived. God, from season 1 I was worried about the Time Space Administration Bureau and here is the culmination of my fears – an awful generic military organisation that only serves to limit the amount of fun things the narrative can actually accomplish.

So speaking of fun things the narrative can accomplish, good god this narrative was messy. For the first like entire half of the show, it’s fucking dominated by boring ass training arcs that mean fuck all because the forwards are a waste of time anyway. And the way they talk about team roles and shit during these training arcs made it feel like a really bad sports show. When it actually picks up the villains are just… just awful. Season 1 had a really good villain because of her connection to Fate and A’s had even better villains in that the moral complexity of their motives and actions was actually super interesting (and not in a “morally grey villains are inherently better” way) but the main villain in StrikerS is just… a generic evil scientist. His minions are way too fucking many numeric cunts that all suck ass and aren’t even remotely comparable to how incredible Hayate’s knights were in the last season. Also not a criticism but the villain’s reincarnation plan of putting clones of himself in all of the numbers’ wombs was fucking weird holy shit what that’s so weird dude what. There are 3 other villains that are less directly affiliated with the scientist and more so work as something of a trio – they were actually pretty good. Not quite Hayate’s knights tier (can you tell I forgot the little German group name they had by the way) but still solid and fun to watch at times.

And then the other big obstacle in the plot is, just my favourite thing to have in a magical girl show – politics. “Uwu we’re this branch of the military founded to do this but that branch doesn’t like us so they’ll be holding a conference meeting to discuss all of it” fuck off. I did not give a single shit about any of the politics in this world and they’re so fucking much of the narrative holy shit the worldbuilding here felt awful. That’s this show, folks, training arcs and politics. Just what I want from magical girls. Seriously the politicians in this, which ends up being everyone kinda, can all go fucking die oh my god.

Literally none of this is helped by how bad the exposition can get in this season. It’ll be something like the numbers literally asking the main villain what his plan is because they “don’t understand it” and then he just drops the entire thing for us. Or the time some brains in a jar that are apparently important just talk amongst themselves with no observers about how they came to be brains in a jar and founded this societal model or whatever. Or Tia pretty much fucking Googling her helicopter pilot, going up to him and being like “so you used to be a sniper”. It was hard to watch this at times because everybody’s speech prioritised exposition first, sounding military second, and being actual dialogue last.

I think the season gets kind of fun near the end when all that large scale finale stuff where everyone gets to be badass happens? But even though that’s like my favourite trope in all of fiction I don’t even think it was done that well here – they drop two arbitrary time limits for separate yet related events on us that tick down large amounts at the end of episodes, so it’ll be like episode 22 ends and says “2hrs 26 mins remaining” and then episode 3 ends and it’s now like “1hr 44 mins remaining” for example. But here’s the thing – these sorts of finales always have a lot going on simultaneously, like X character fighting Y villain in Z location, but then it cuts to A character fighting B villain in C location somewhere else, and we know the events are occurring simultaneously they’re just shown in a way where the pacing works in a storytelling medium. This is a long ass explanation but the point is that you can’t do that but also have the timer, because the way that appears when you’re presenting me this story is that it means two characters who were about to fight might literally wait around for 40 entire minutes so the plot can progress, all because of that dumb timer. That was one of my main problems with this finale, but also with like all of the forwards being engaged in different conflicts as well as the numbers being the main enemies but being so shit meant that there were way too many battles going on at once that I just did not care about for even a single second.

So yeah, despite some decent moments scattered throughout, I really did not enjoy the story or characters of this season.

Thankfully the show still looks really good and has solid animation to boot. I felt like they used the “long distance phone call” shot where the left side of the screen is one character, there’s a split in the middle, and the right side is another character a lot, and it looked kind of bad, but I guess since we’re finally 16:9 they wanted to get their use out of the additional screen space. And that’s the only directorial thing I feel like commenting on. That being said I didn’t really care for most of the transformation sequences this time around, not helping is that they happened a lot more frequently and with a lot more characters who had way worse designs. All your audio stuff’s still good, and actually the voice acting is probably at its best yet. You know, it’s still Nanoha. Even if this specific season loses lots of the appeal in terms of plot, characters, pacing (why is this even 26 episodes), various other things, it still looks and sounds good.

And that’s pretty much all I have to say about StrikerS. From start to finish it’s kinda just boring. The embodiment of mediocrity. Very few things were actually egregiously bad, instead mostly just bland or something that I specifically just hated anyway. From start to finish it still has good moments, Nanoha and Fate work decently well as parental figures for example and even though I said Fate was boring here she’s still hella best girl. It’s like peak 5/10 material, which is the score I will be giving it.

I’ve heard ViVid Strike is just lolis beating the shit out of each other so I’m really looking forward to it if that’s what it ends up being, but first of all, I have to watch ViVid. Let’s hope that one’s better than this was.

Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha ViVid

I feel like I might have come across as very dismissive of ViVid at the end of the StrikerS section, primarily because I presumed that after StrikerS, the main Nanoha content would just have gone downhill, and I just wanted to get to ViVid Strike to see lolis beating the shit out of each other. In retrospect that was not a good thought process for me to follow, because not only is ViVid significantly uphill from StrikerS, it’s also lolis beating the shit out of each other!

ViVid is very, very heavy on the moe compared to anything the Nanoha series has had up to this point. The star of the show this time around is Vivio, and while I’d like to say she’s got more going on here than she did in StrikerS, she doesn’t really? StrikerS Vivio was kind of just a kid, with her only real development being that after Nanoha wrecks her shit with the Starlight Breaker, she gets up on her own like Nanoha told her to do when she tripped. In ViVid, Vivio is still kind of just a kid, but now she’s an anime kid, and also older. She loves making friends, being alive, and fighting, and that’s actually it. Her entire character begins and ends with those three facts. She is an adorable moe loli and nothing else.

The rest of the newcomers fare largely the same way, being adorable moe lolis without much going on. Einhart hints of a plot but it doesn’t really mean anything and her entire backstory could be cut out with minimal difference to the plot. Beyond that her arc is pretty much that she learns that she can have friends to be an adorable moe loli with. Vivio’s friends Corona and Rio are here too, both being one dimensional moe blobs with surface-level appealing personalities for most of the show but Corona does actually get something of an arc towards the end where she feels way fucking weaker than all of her friends and has to push herself ridiculously far in order to stand a chance at beating Einhart – it’s actually a pretty badass fight to be honest. There are some other new characters I’ll touch upon in a bit but for now let’s turn our attention to the returning characters.

When it comes to its use of the returning characters, ViVid actually ends up making the most use out of, of course, the already covered Vivio, but also the numbers and Lutecia from StrikerS. These characters that meant very little back then are now pretty major characters here and manage to be a good amount more endearing as a result. Nanoha and especially Fate take a major backseat here, and hell even Hayate’s in it for all of 5 minutes where she’s just kind of an adorable moe blob and nothing else. Subaru and Tia are in for even less time than Fate, where they mostly serve to make episode 6 – a mock battle between new and old characters – a fun viewing experience because Subaru’s abilities are cool and Tia’s not bogging down the fight with her insecurities. I feel like the way ViVid handles its returning characters is actually really interesting. Lots of the more interesting and developed characters are simplified to keep the moe feel of this season at the highest it can possibly be, but they don’t feel like they were flanderised or anything like that. Meanwhile, the less important and/or lacking characters from previous seasons have just been given more surface level appeal by being cute and moe and positive all the time, and as a result they feel more fun to watch. Subaru for example has significantly less character this time around than she did in StrikerS, which is saying something because oof StrikerS, but at the same time she was just a lot more appealing?

That’s the thing about the characters this time, every single one of them – new or returning – is largely on the same playing field in terms of how they’re actually characterised, they all kind of feel the same in a way. The only real difference is that, unlike StrikerS, it commits to focusing on the new characters and ones that didn’t get much focus in the last season. And it can very easily be argued that that’s bad writing or a disgrace to their development in previous seasons, and if you told me you hated ViVid for these reasons I’d completely buy it, but like, it’s so extremely fun? ViVid has moe down to a fucking art and even if every character is so much the same that I literally can’t choose a favourite character from ViVid specifically, they’re all just really good fun to watch and easy to enjoy? I know it’s probably hypocritical of me to be critical of StrikerS new characters for being surface level cool and nothing else while letting ViVid pass with characters that are surface level moe and nothing else, but I think I’m just more lenient with ViVid because it’s fully committed to moe-ifying everyone whereas StrikerS had inconsistent characterisation quality all around. Everyone’s just so chill and fun to watch.

Of course, to reflect the simplification in characters, ViVid’s plot is simple to match. Or “light” might be a better word to describe it. Einhart’s introduction implies that she’ll have more plot importance and development than she actually ends up having, mostly because the major plot elements are pretty much dropped after episode 3 anyway. And it’s not like they were especially prominent either – for the first 6 episodes we’ve pretty much just got a bunch of slice of life stuff where the gimmick is that our girls are in a fight club, I suppose. And during this time, it actually likes to bait us into thinking there might be a plot. Aside from the aforementioned Einhart stuff for example, episode 5 is called “Surprise attack” which might make you think some surprise plot stuff will happen, but instead we get surprise plot stuff in the form of a hot springs episode where the plot is fanservice galore and the titular “surprise attack” refers to the swimming number from StrikerS fucking around with everyone’s plot, even groping Rio’s little loli chest. And honestly, I found this really funny? Not the hot spring sexual harassment – that’s a very tired trope – but just the fact that the show totally wanted to bait me into thinking the episode might actually have plot stuff but instead it was just more cute girls slice of life. By the way episode 6, the aforementioned mock battle episode, is a team battle between 2 teams of 6, and there’s this awesome transformation sequence where all 6 members of each team get to transform at the same time, and hell even Erio finally gets to be naked for his. It was great fun.

It’s only around episode 7 where the plot decides to do something, namely letting our girls enter a fighting tournament – the Intermiddle Championships or something, for 10-19 year olds. And I found this fucking hilarious, because now it’s actually just a sports show. And not in the StrikerS way of contrived team formation bullshit, nah it’s just straight up sports this time. As a sports show though, we gotta have some villains, so episode 7 gives us a brief introduction to some of the more important opponents we can expect to face. However, ViVid commits to being as light and easy as possible, so when lots of these “villains” are actually introduced, they’re just more goofy fun moe blobs. For example, there’s this one ominous tracksuit wearing person in the OP whose face is never revealed, covered in their hood and hair. But when they introduce them in the show, it’s a really friendly and comfy moe girl, who’s only wearing the tracksuit to hide herself since she was last year’s champion and doesn’t want the attention – even the OP changes so that she shows her face now and we can see her big ass adorable moe eyes. Or another very serious Japanese-y woman with a sword who slices a fucking bus in half during her practice (absolutely hilarious by the way) and then nearly one shots one of the lolis we’re supposed to be rooting for (because she was trained by Zafira – so happy he has dialogue in this season) but the loli just barely survives, turns the tables and wins entirely, and then the serious Japanese-y woman with a sword is a really good sport about the whole thing. Hell two of the bigger combatants we’re supposed to take note of have a match and it’s literally a student council president versus some delinquent queen and the entire match is hilarious as hell. The only fight that I was a little more mixed on is the Einhart vs Corona one because compared to literally the entire rest of the show, it drops the moe and comedy elements and is instead just a serious fight about how hard Corona had to push herself, but I still had enough fun with it to not be that bothered by that and hey it still reinforces how great and important friendship is afterwards so.

What’s really bizarre though and might require me to do some research is that after this point, ViVid just ends? There’s a recap episode (which I gave a 2/10 because what’s the point of a recap episode after a show with no plot) and then that’s like, just it. ViVid Strike apparently isn’t an immediate sequel so in essence ViVid just abruptly ended with no fanfare to speak of. It didn’t feel like a last episode that we got, there’s no sense of “oh I know I’m gonna have to wait till the next season to see the conclusion” – it just feels like any other episode and like you’re gonna wait for episode 13 to continue the story. Apparently the DVD/BD release didn’t happen until over a year and a half after the show started, so I have to assume the production just went wrong in some way. The Nanoha wiki tells me that ViVid adapted the first 30 chapters of a 100+ chapter manga, but it has no explanation as to why it just stopped. Honestly this is a shame because I was really liking what I was watching.

I’ve already said “moe” about a thousand times now, so I guess I should actually talk about the visuals now. While every other season of Nanoha beforehand and even ViVid Strike was done by Seven Arcs, ViVid has the, *ahem*, luxury of being done by the iconic A-1 Pictures. But actually, it’s the best looking show I’ve ever seen from them. The girls are absolutely adorable from start to finish, I giggled with fucking delight when Hayate appears because god damn can A-1 Pictures make that already adorable girl look even cuter. And it’s not like the animation quality suffered so that the art could be given the overwhelming sensation of moe – ViVid looks absolutely incredible in motion. In turning away from the more magical battles of seasons prior into more physical combat this time around, A-1 really gave themselves the opportunity to flex their animation muscles, and I was delighted at how consistent the visuals were all around. I don’t think the designs for the new characters are brilliant, but I like them more than those of StrikerS, Corona especially had a really cute outfit when she transformed. Soundtrack’s still super good as well, lots of electric guitar that kicks ass in some of the later fights and amazingly doesn’t clash horribly with the hyper moe art style. It definitely ups the fanservice this time around, and the large amounts of lolis with very loli proportions are not exempt from this, so if that makes you uncomfortable then just quit fucking whining, dick.

Gonna mention it now because I can’t think of anywhere else to say this – but ririkaru majikaru ganbarimas finally made its grand return – its absence in StrikerS, though I never mentioned it in that review, really upset me, so it’s nice to see it return. Plus like every character in the entire show gets the opportunity to say it rather than just Nanoha so that’s nice.

Overall, I really did enjoy ViVid. Maybe it’s not critically the best, and it has almost none of the appeal that the rest of Nanoha has so I understand why hardcore Nanoha fans might hate this season (it’s got like a 6.7 on MAL or something like what that’s lower than StrikerS), but it’s a really enjoyable time from start to finish and had me laughing the whole way through. To be honest, and I say this as a massive slice of life fan with decent enough genre knowledge, but ViVid might be the single most moe thing I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing, and is some really good proof that, despite how critical I can seem (maybe? I don’t know how I appear to any of you) I’m actually really easy to please. I can’t in good faith give ViVid an 8 – the implication that it’s on the same tier as season 1 or A’s isn’t one I’m comfortable with, but I cannot possibly ever give this a 6 – it’s way too good. And so, I’ve settled on a 7/10. Which actually makes it the highest score I’ve ever given an A-1 Pictures show!

Last, but hopefully not least, it’s time to move on to ViVid Strike. Let’s hope I enjoy it. I realise these last sections must be kinda bizarre for people to read because for you it’s like you read it and then a second later you’re on to the next season but meanwhile I have to go away for 5 hours to actually watch it and then spend however long writing its review. What fun.

ViVid Strike

Wow. Where the fuck did I hear that ViVid Strike was just lolis beating the shit out of each other? Could it be that I heard that about ViVid and misremembered it? Or perhaps I heard it about ViVid but internally convinced myself that they meant ViVid Strike because ViVid still has Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha in the title so it must be the serious one while ViVid Strike doesn’t so it’s the more chill spinoff? Who knows? Regardless, ViVid Strike is absolutely not just lolis beating the shit out of each other.

If not that, well then, what is ViVid Strike? Well, it still has lolis beating the shit out of each other, but this time there’s a lot more actual plot going on. Continuing on like 2 years or something ahead of where ViVid left us, the stars of the show this time around are newcomers Fuuka and Rinne – a pair of orphaned childhood friends who, after the latter got adopted and had a bit of an interesting time, fall out after a fight. The plot here is essentially about getting Fuuka into martial arts so she can confront Rinne, who wants to be the best martial artist due to some personal reasons I’ll explore in a bit. Alongside them come most of ViVid’s more prominent characters, so Vivio and Einhart and their loli buddies, as well as Nove, and later down the line some of the minor-major characters from ViVid’s intermiddle championships, like the student council president and delinquent queen.

To start with the returning characters since I don’t have that much to say about them, they’re all done fairly well. Nove’s just as good if not better than she was in ViVid, Vivio and Miura have a bit more actual character going on this time around rather than just being moe lolis, and Einhart is also a lot more fun. Rio and Corona alongside the inermiddle combatants are kind of just cheerleaders this time around which is a little upsetting, especially in the case of Rio since she got like no development compared to Corona in ViVid, but I found myself having enough fun with the core cast to not really mind their downplayed involvement. ViVid Strike really commits to its dropping of the “Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha” in the title, for the likes of Nanoha, Fate, Hayate and her knights, even Subaru and Tia and shit literally never appear. Hell, they’re never even mentioned. Honestly I didn’t mind this. I already didn’t mind how ViVid handled it, and ViVid Strike is kind of just the next phase of that. It would’ve been neat for Nanoha and Fate to make like a cameo in the audience for one of Vivio’s fights but eh I’m not that bothered.

And about those new characters, they’re pretty great. Fuuka as a person doesn’t get a significant amount of development, but the way she actually impacts the plot, because again there is one of those now, is really neat, and I felt that the show and its characters really thrived when Fuuka got involved. She’s the type of main character who works really well for a sports narrative, and ViVid Strike is just enough of a sports narrative for Fuuka to work really well. Rinne, who was immediately best girl because of her pretty design, has a lot more development than Fuuka, starting on a negative character arc and ending up on a positive one. When she gets adopted she immediately really likes her adoptive granddad, who even gives her a Device, but when her school bullies take their “teasing” too far and kind of end up not letting Rinne get to hear the phone call telling her that her granddad died, she uh, has a negative reaction.

Brief aside here, I hate school bullies in anime because they’re always so unbelievably extreme for no reason, and while the three bullies that bully Rinne here are probably the least extreme of the extreme bullies I’ve seen, I was still kind of annoyed by their existence. So when Rinne is actually pissed off enough to genuinely extract revenge on her bullies, I was kind of excited. I was thinking to myself “yes, get your comeuppance, break her fucking arm!” but then Rinne actually does break her arm and I realised that excessive yet realistic violence against children, even animated ones, makes me uncomfortable! And Rinne doesn’t stop there because she slams one of the other bullies face first into one locker and kicks the last bully straight in the face knocking her out on another locker and Jesus Christ that’s a lot of blood. Ohhhhh my god that’s too much blood. Holy fuck these kids are 12. Nah this scene was fucking sick though, in both ways. It’s so cool to actually see a character like fuck up their bullies for once, but I was amazed by how quickly the scene immediately terrified me. I’m interrupting talking about Rinne herself because god this scene was good. And fuckin really insane like damn. Not that the first 3 episodes didn’t have plot or anything but this is what really sealed the deal for me that this show isn’t just lolis beating the shit out of each other.

Anyway! Back to Rinne! Following her utter destruction of the school bullies, one of their older brothers sees her in the street and kidnaps her to beat the shit out of her for revenge (and at one point he appears to like rip her shirt open slightly so I thought he was gonna try rape her and that was fuckin weird) which I felt was a little extreme but hey, and she’s saved by a former martial artist who saw the kidnapping and decided to help out. Thus the two start training together because Rinne’s sick of being weak and looked down upon, but of course in her narrow-minded pursuit of strength, as well as a mind slightly warped by her teacher’s firm belief in talent above all else, she herself starts looking down upon others as weak, on top of the fact that she hated herself anyway. It’s only when she loses to Vivio does she start to really question everything she’s been fighting for, and only when Fuuka knocks some sense into her does she realise that she’s been kind of a shitty person and isn’t even working towards her own self-improvement. And thus the two reconcile.

I skipped over a lot of details here but honestly these two are great – they’ve got pretty sufficient development in their own ways and manage to hold a lot of weight in the narrative without ever feeling like they’re holding anything else back. Compared to StrikerS’ awful new characters and ViVid’s decent new characters but they’re kind of just the exact same as the returning ones, ViVid Strike does the best job with newcomers by far. They’re perhaps a little on the extreme side, Rinne especially, but I really did feel like they had good character arcs and their relationships with others in the narrative as well as amongst themselves were really good. I’m really happy to be able to say that I loved the new characters this time around. Honestly, Fuuka and Rinne’s dynamic and roles in the narrative are not entirely dissimilar to Nanoha and Fate in season 1 – Fuuka having something like a flat character arc as well as being new to the world of fighting (magic) and trying to talk down her very jaded main rival who has a lot more experience in the world of fighting (magic).

“Not entirely dissimilar to season 1” is a pretty good way of describing ViVid Strike actually. It’s really interesting how despite the fact that ViVid Strike literally drops the “Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha” part of its title entirely, it does manage to feel very reminiscent of season 1 – it’s evocative of lots of the best elements of the first season without ever feeling like some cheap imitation that can only survive on nostalgia. It’s something entirely new, but not completely unfamiliar, just different. And I really liked that.

Visuals! ViVid Strike has really nice art – it’s kind of like a more modern evolution of the StrikerS art style which was itself a somewhat more modern take on the season 1 and A’s style, rather than just being A-1 Pictures cute girls like ViVid. I liked it. And I like the new character designs as well – shoutouts to the fact that the girls actually have musculature – it’s not there in every scene, or even most, but I appreciate it when it does show up. However while the art is solid, I did feel the actual animation was somewhat lacking. Lots of the fights are full of stills of the audience reacting, or whenever the fight actually is shown, there’s a lot of either A) like a black screen with some red magic looking stuff moving around to signify a fist or B) like, a shot of one character preparing to do a move, but like it’s a shot of the fist and not actually the fight scene, and then they’ll cut to a still of the character that got hit, with speedlines everywhere of course, and it’s not really animation at that point. Both of these things are really damn common and it sucks because the show still drops regular fight scenes of two characters just hitting each other here and there, so all this cheap bullshit they sometimes pull for the animation just feels really limiting and devoid of impact by comparison. Again though it still drops some sakuga moments so like, it’s not a big deal, but I’d probably say that this season had maybe the least impressive animation so far. I also didn’t really care about the soundtrack this time around, with some of the songs feeling really out of place and kind of bad, though OP and ED were still good.

With little else to say about the show, I guess it’s time to conclude. With the weaker visuals and weaker soundtrack, ViVid Strike has probably the weakest presentation out of the whole series, though it makes up for that with a good plot carried by great characters. It bears repeating that I really enjoyed ViVid, but I’m glad the Nanoha series returned to serious plots and character writing this time around, and that it didn’t suck like StrikerS. It’s interesting that ViVid Strike dropped the Nanoha from its title – because while I can respect that they wanted to establish that this isn’t quite Nanoha - especially after ViVid was so not Nanoha - ViVid Strike has a lot of the elements that made Nanoha so good in the first place. But it doesn’t really matter that they dropped the title. At the end of the day, all that matters is that ViVid Strike did a good job distancing itself from Nanoha without losing all of the good from Nanoha – it’s not a failed attempt to distance itself nor is it a cheap imitation of the original. It’s just fuckin’ good. 8/10.

Oh, the OVAs. Episodes 5.5 and 5.75 are pretty fun, at least watchable, albeit kinda superfluous, but then I like the characters so I can stand watching this sort of thing. Episode 13 is a beach episode, and who doesn’t love lolis on the beach? 6/10.

Conclusion

Conclusion? Final thoughts? Overall opinions? Don’t really know what a good title for this part is it’s just the best I could come up with. Well, I’m done with Nanoha. Kind of. There are picture dramas for like every season that I’ll watch in my own time, though I have no intention of talking about those. There are 4 movies, though only 3 of them are on piracy sites so when the fourth one releases I will watch all 4 of them and make a follow up to this post where I talk about them. I mean I could watch the first 3 any time but whatever. But to stop talking about the future, let’s talk about the now. I did it. I finished Nanoha. Probably well over a year after I first decided I’d watch it. And I’m really pleased. Not only does it feel good to watch a massive series like this, but it’s nice to finally knock it off the plan to watch since I’ve been wanting to watch more magical girl shows ever since I watched Madoka a year and a half ago. But beyond the whole “oh I finally did this” element of it, it was great watching Nanoha because Nanoha was so great. It was a series of ups and downs to be sure, the biggest down being StrikerS of course, but I had fun throughout. While I didn’t give any of the seasons anything higher than an 8, I still really liked those that earned that 8 and when it comes to the franchise as a whole, I can say I was a huge fan of it. I feel like I can safely explore fan content now and reblog fanart and stuff, and isn’t that just the dream? Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha was really good and is now my third favourite magical girl show ever, behind Flip Flappers and Madoka Magica, though to be fair I’ve probably only seen like 10 others, most of which are ass. Still, 3’s really good.

But of course, there is only one way to end this post.

FATE-CHAN STILL BEST GIRL

#sorry but i could not find the strikers cover art in high quality #i did my best for pictures but that was surprisingly difficult to do #josh reviews #6.5.19 #nanoha #pmmm #monogatari #flip flappers

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morfinwen · 5 years ago

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Could you do the BrOTP ask for Lauren & Ian? And then I'm not sure what other sets of your characters qualifies as BrOTPs, but how about #3, 6, 13, 15, and 18 for any you want to answer for? Thank you! :)

Ian and Lauren

1. What in-jokes do they have with each other?

- Referring to ‘Frere Jacques’ as “the French National anthem”

- Calling all birds “penguins”

- Pointing to a bell or candle and yelling “CHRISTMAS!” (Ian’s the only one who does this one in public)

2. Are they the “I’ll pay this time if you pay next time”-type friends, or the “I’ll pay for my food and you’ll pay for yours”-type friends?

Usually they pay for their own food. Sometimes Ian forgets his wallet and Lauren covers for him, and there are days when Lauren is super out of sorts and Ian takes her out and insists on paying. It seems to even out.

3. Who’s more prone to pranking, or otherwise messing with, the other?

Lauren doesn’t prank or mess with Ian because that’s not the kind of person she is. Ian doesn’t prank or mess with Lauren because that’s just asking for trouble.

4. How do they text/message each other? Proper punctuation and capital letters, egregious overuse of emojis, mostly in meme format…?

Ian mostly uses correct spelling, but can’t be bothered with capitalization or most forms of punctuation (he’ll use the occasional ? or ! for clarity or emphasis, apostrophes are a toss-up). Sometimes he’ll use a single emoji as a response.

For Lauren, it’s all about speed. She abbreviates liberally, uses more acronyms than most people know exist, only uses punctuation for emphasis (!!! or ???), and hates emojis. She tolerates them from Ian because he uses them as an efficient replacement for a multiple word response, but even then it sometimes ticks her off to see one on her phone.

5. Do they exchange jokey birthday presents, or deeply thought-out and meaningful presents? Or both?

Lauren’s parents could never afford to get their children more than one or two gifts a year, and it was common for the presents to be homemade or secondhand. Ian’s parents preferred to do something for him on his birthday, like go see a movie or visit the museum, and give him one or two big presents plus a few smaller ones at Christmas. Both of them learned to manage their expectations regarding presents. Getting or giving a gift that indicates a great deal of thought and consideration from the giver would require either a change in perspective, or result in potential miscommunication.

They occasionally get each other gifts, closer to thoughtful than jokey, but putting a lot of thought into it might make things awkward. Mostly it’s gift certificates or music CDs they think the other might like.

6. They go on a road trip together. Who drives, who picks the music, who’s in charge of snacks?

Ian puts together a CD.

They both buy the kind of snacks they want.

Ian starts driving.

Lauren hears one too many songs she’s not in the mood for on his CD, and switches to the radio.

This trip, Ian promises himself, he will ration his Twinkies. One hour in, he’s eaten the whole box. It’s fine, they need to stop for directions anyway.

Lauren buys a new soda. She doesn’t want the one she has.

Ian starts driving again, but Lauren insists he’s misreading the directions they got, so she drives.

Lauren gets sick of the radio, so Ian puts his CD back on.

Ian runs out of Twinkies again. Lauren lets him have one of her snacks - one that she can’t believe she brought, she doesn’t even like that kind.

They’re lost. Lauren only admits it 45-60 minutes after she first starts wondering if she missed the right turn.

Ian tries using the GPS to figure out which way to go, but either he’s using it wrong or it’s confused about where they are.

They stop for directions. Ian has to ask, because Lauren is too angry to be civil.

It’s time for lunch, so they stop.

Lauren is still too worked up over having gotten lost to drive, so Ian starts driving. He puts on his CD for only a few minutes before Lauren switches to the radio.

Twenty minutes later, he realizes he got on the wrong highway, and they’re backtracking. He tries to get off to turn around, but instead winds up on another highway headed in a totally different direction.

They get off, and Lauren insists on driving. She gets turned around, and now they’re heading in the opposite of that totally different direction.

They pull over and argue over the map/GPS for several minutes. It’s about a half hour before Lauren calms down enough to get back in the car.

Ian drives with the radio off. Lauren sulks in the passenger seat. They finally get on the correct highway.

Forty minutes later, Ian misses his turn-off, but because they’re on a rural highway in the middle of nowhere, he doesn’t realize it.

Two hours later, they both start wondering, weren’t they supposed to reach a city by now? After arguing with the GPS again, they decide to ask for directions once they stop for dinner.

There’s nowhere to stop. Lauren thinks they should turn around, Ian insists it’s better to keep going.

Thirty to forty minutes later, still nowhere. Ian starts to think they should turn around, Lauren argues that they already know there’s nothing back there, there’s got to be something closer ahead. Ian can’t really argue with this.

The first place they see to eat is Lauren’s least favorite dining chain, so they keep going.

They have to stop for gas, and while Lauren doesn’t like any of the places she sees, she’s too hungry and tired to argue. Ian is less hungry, having eaten all of the snacks, but still ready for dinner.

It’s dark now. When they get directions, Lauren is furious when she finds out this happened because Ian missed the turn-off hours ago. Ian lets her rant – he was driving, after all.

They stop for the night in a hotel that is at least half a state away from where they were supposed to stop for the night.

The next day, they turn around and go home, because this whole road trip idea was a terrible one to begin with, and things are only going to get worse.

On the way back, they get turned around three times.

7. What do they think of each other’s family?

Ian gets along with some of Lauren’s siblings, and is civil to but avoids interaction with the others. He finds her parents intimidating, her mother moreso than her father, and is instinctively on his best behavior around them. Overall he likes them, or at least doesn’t dislike them, but frankly he finds spending time around them kind of exhausting.

Lauren sometimes wishes her parents were more like Ian’s parents.

8. Do they have any nicknames for each other?

Nope.

9. Who’d be the first to try and patch things up if they had a fight?

Ian. It’s always Ian, even when it wasn’t really a fight, just Lauren blowing up over something.

10. One of their phones goes off in the middle of the night. Who’s calling whom, and why?

The only time either of them would call the other in the middle of the night is in an emergency. Lauren is very good at having a regular, sensible bedtime that gives her a solid eight hours of sleep. Ian is less good at it, but doesn’t generally feel like making calls at midnight, and definitely knows better than to bother Lauren if he did.

11. What’s their favorite funny story about something that happened to the two of them?

Probably something Ian did in grade school to poke fun at someone who was harassing Lauren.

12. Would they do a joint cosplay? If so, who would they dress up as?

By coincidence, Ian went as Link for Halloween one year and Lauren went as Princess Zelda. They deliberately did it again in college.

13. Do they have any TV shows that they watch together? Are there any shows they have wildly different opinions on?

Lauren actually likes reality tv – ironically it’s easier to treat the drama less seriously because it’s pretending to be reality. She likes the occasional sitcom, as long as the characters are equally jerks and/or stupid. Ian can’t stand either of those. He likes dramas and speculative fiction (he grew up watching all the Star Trek shows with his dad).

I’ve never seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer myself, but it seems like the kind of show they would be able to watch together: fantasy drama for Ian, funny/tongue-in-cheek enough for Lauren, though they definitely had different opinions on the characters and plotlines.

14. Which one is the “fight me” friend and which one is the one who tries to keep the peace and prevent their friend from punching a total stranger?

This question pretty much answers itself.

15. One of them comes up with an ill-advised but mostly harmless idea. Does the other one egg them on because they think it’ll be funny, or try and talk them out of it?

Ian comes up with the occasional crazy-but-harmless idea. Lauren won’t egg him on, but if her half-hearted attempt to talk him out of it fails, she might stick around to see the outcome – as long as she’s far enough away no one mistakes her for being involved.

16. Who would win if they arm-wrestled?

Growing up in the family she did, Lauren learned a lot of dirty tricks for arm-wrestling. Ian absolutely refuses to compete with her anymore, even if she insists she won’t use any of them.

17. Who’s better at what type of video games, and how competitive are they when they play together?

Ian is good with platformers and rhythm games. Lauren doesn’t really play video games. The only one they play together is Mario Kart, and Lauren is so nightmarishly competitive Ian just stays out of her way.

18. One of them ends up in hospital for something serious but not life-threatening. What does the other bring along when they visit in order to cheer them up?

Ian would bring Lauren a soft ball or something else she could throw or otherwise express her frustration physically upon, a CD of calm, meditative music, a kaleidoscope or glitter wand, and/or a coloring book of shapes or nature.

Lauren would bring Ian a DVD set of a sci-fi show, most likely cheesy or low-quality because most sci-fi shows are and she doesn’t have the least idea how to judge them, a complete comic series, and/or a historical documentary.

19. How huggy are they?

Ian isn’t a touchy kind of guy, and Lauren does not like being touched without permission, so not very.

20. What was the moment when they first realized that they’d become friends?

Ian pretty much decided they were friends from the first day he started harass – i mean following Lauren around in kindergarten. For Lauren, it was probably when Ian invited her to his birthday party and was clearly happy when she came – up until that point, she’d kind of assumed his parents made him invite her.

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The situations in which the Quartet – Chris, Angie, Neal, and Reagan – interact are not numerous, but i’m going to answer this for them as a group anyway.

3. Who’s more prone to pranking, or otherwise messing with, the other?

Chris. He’s never intentionally mean or over-the-top, and never does anything that could hurt or get someone in trouble.

On rare occasions, Reagan might pull something small, especially if she can keep her involvement secret.

6. They go on a road trip together. Who drives, who picks the music, who’s in charge of snacks?

Chris drives. He also has the map, the bathroom and meal breaks planned (both location and time), and the address of any hotels they’ll be staying at, as well as their room numbers. He has control issues, which he is open and honest about, but he’s still driving. If for some reason they’ve been driving long enough that it’s not safe anymore for him to drive, he will reluctantly hand it over; most likely to Reagan, since she’s got the next-highest tolerance for it.

Neal and Reagan put together CDs with different music. Neal because he’s good at balancing their tastes and is the most invested in what they’ll be listening to, Reagan because she’s usually got new music to introduce, and because she’s stronger-willed than Neal when it comes to telling Chris no, they are not including the entire soundtrack to every hit Broadway musical. No, not even most of them.

Everyone is responsible for bringing their own snacks, but Angie will always have extras in her bag – weirdly enough, usually ones that others meant to bring but forgot. She also has a good balance of healthy and sweet, in case one of the others (or rather, all of the others) were not as good at balancing and just brought candy -- or in Chris’ case, possibly just jalapeño-flavored chips.

13. Do they have any TV shows that they watch together? Are there any shows they have wildly different opinions on?

In the right moods, they can all watch the same show of any type – discuss it seriously if it’s good, mock it if it’s bad. Otherwise, their tastes are way too disparate.

15. One of them comes up with an ill-advised but mostly harmless idea. Does the other one egg them on because they think it’ll be funny, or try and talk them out of it?

Chris sometimes comes up with ideas like that. He doesn’t need anyone to egg him on, but Reagan is the most likely to encourage him.

18. One of them ends up in hospital for something serious but not life-threatening. What does the other bring along when they visit in order to cheer them up?

Chris: Any length of time in bed would be so distracting as to nearly make him go mad, so even though he tries to hold himself back, he usually ends up overdoing it – an entire TV series on DVD (7+ seasons), plus some kind of handheld game, plus some kind of project (arts and crafts, mechanical, anything at all) that can be done while in bed, plus an ambient noise generator.

Reagan: Music, or an audiobook for Angie. For Chris, covers of classic or Broadway songs by new or obscure artists, with a few pop songs mixed in to keep him on his toes – if possible, she’ll find covers of those pop songs in a very different style, see how long it takes him to figure out he’s listening to a Latin choral version of “Call Me Maybe”. For Neal, long choral or classical pieces, and/or new age-style music.

Neal: …. A balloon and a card, with a stuffed animal if it’s Angie or Reagan. He’s not very good at this.

Angie: Books. For Chris, either an action story or an exciting non-fiction book that reads like fiction, plus some Sudoku books or some other kind of puzzle book – the harder the better. For Reagan, either a fully-dramatized audiobook or something with more pictures than text – maybe a graphic novel, more likely something with pretty nature vistas or interesting architecture. For Neal, a book of poetry, plus a journal for getting his thoughts down.

Thanks for asking!

#ask #answer #OCs #lauren winston #ian grayson #christopher hardie #angie mckendrick #reagan travers #neal fairchild #valiantarcher

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