#somewhat doujinshi?

[secretsofdbz]

Bardock! Tōma! Selipa! Toteppo! Banpūkin! Together we are… The Saiyan special forces! (Tokusentai Tokusentai 🎶)

(What was this thing you made me do?)

(It was fun wasn’t it?)

DBSD Bardock special from the little episode of Bardock manga by Naho Ooishi.

[i-heart-hxh]

Hey! This is purely me and my morbid curiosity asking, but you mentioned you buy in to the pregnancy stone oops baby Gon origin story more than an actual mother. Can you elaborate, even if it falls with what others may have already brought up? I'd love to get your take! (also, I sent a review of your chapter 4 hxhbb fic, but I think it might've been eaten!)

Hi!

So, I do buy into it, somewhat! I think, for the time being, it's the best theory we have on Gon's parentage. There are a few interesting details related to it.

First off, Togashi included this woman with Ging in some of his early HxH concept drawings, from November 1997:

People have speculated that the woman next to Ging might be Gon's mother, however there isn't actually conclusive evidence of this--it's just a theory. It could also be an early design concept for Mito, Menchi, or one of the other female characters from the series, as the drawing isn't labeled with a name or description like some of the others. Or, she could be a scrapped concept even if she was intended at the time to be Gon's mother, as clearly this isn't finalized in any way.

You can read about this drawing a bit more here!

However, of course within the series itself we have no info on who Gon's mother might be, and Togashi did bother to include the Pregnancy Stone card:

Now, an interesting connection with this is that Togashi is known to have read the BL manga Patalliro!, as he based Hiei's hair off one of the characters, Scunky:

(From a doujinshi Togashi released, Yoshirin de Pon!)

There is also an unconfirmed but very reasonable theory that Killua may have been based in part of the character Maraich from Patalliro!, as the basis of both characters is similar and we know for a fact from the above image Togashi has read Patalliro!.

Now, how does this connect to the Pregnancy Stone theory? Well, Patalliro! also has mpreg as part of its storyline (with biologically male Maraich getting pregnant twice through unexplained means, with one of these pregnancies leading to a son), and considering Togashi may have used other elements from Patalliro! as inspiration... You can see where I'm going with this. I do think it's interesting he put the Pregnancy Stone card in the series to begin with, and there's also the Panda Maid card ("excellent at taking care of human children"), and Ging has used a panda plush as a substitute for himself in the Election arc. Coincidence? Hmmm...

Image taken from this post, explaining more about the Pregnancy Stone theory.

My personal feelings now that I've laid all this info out are basically... I've talked a lot about how intentional Togashi's storytelling is and how much attention he pays to things, so I think he planted this knowing people would consider it a possibility, at the very least. We don't have any other theories about Gon's mom that have this much to go off of. It's possible he will reveal more info eventually and either make this more likely or explain Gon's origin in some other, totally different way, but for now I think this is compelling--there are enough pieces that it is a legitimate possibility.

I'm not someone who is interested in mpreg (or any kind of preg, for that matter, LOL), so I don't spend a lot of time thinking about this whole situation or the mechanics behind it, but I do think it would be pretty hilarious if this does canonically end up being Gon's origin story after all. Just such a wild way for Gon to come into existence. It'll be interesting to see if we ever get answers with regards to who/where Gon came from, whether it's by Pregnancy Stone or not.

It's a fun topic because it seems so goofy and farfetched initially, but the more you look at it, the more it's like, "Actually..." 🤔

(And thanks again for the review, my apologies that it took me a while to reply!)

[piosplayhouse]

Hi! I came across a post complaining about the guy yuri poll and discourse aside, I vaguely remember you made a post about what is yaoi and what is yuri? I dunno if I dreamed this post up, but I've scrolled and scrolled and I can't find it. So, I wanted to ask (if you don't mind answering >.<), what is yaoi/yuri? (beyond the basic definitions) What counts as guy yuri and girl yaoi?

Uwaa ok so I will say Im planning to actually write a paper on this but I haven't done much research yet so ask in a few months and you'll hopefully have a better answer with cited sources. But here is a bit of what I'm conceptualizing at this point (corrections and additions very welcome!)

What set me down this path really was of course the fantastic Yaoizine hosted by tshirt3000, which includes a rather poignant author's note about broadening the definition of yaoi in public to the abstraction. Indeed, the actual origin of the term "yaoi" is an acronym for "yamanashi, ochinashi, iminashi" (plotless, climaxless, meaningless) from 70s doujinshi spheres wherein it was used as a somewhat self-degrading term to define a specific type of porn-without-plot self-indulgent indie fancomic. These were of course, mostly of the male-male variety. However, as the Yaoizine makes clear, there's not really an inherent gendering within the word in any sense but genre expectation-wise. This becomes particularly salient in the case of perhaps one of the most famous wlw romances out there, Revolutionary Girl Utena. Tshirt cites an interview with the creator of the anime, Ikuhara Kunihiko, where he refers to the relationship between the two main female characters (among other things) as yaoi, recontextualizing the term from merely a mlm genre into a statement on the dynamics of power and consumption as they relate to gender-- an act of sexual passion paired with a reversal of societal norms = yaoi in this case, which is why utenanthy fits perfectly within the term.

Conversely, yuri (lily) is a bit more difficult to analyze from a gender-neutral perspective as it originated not as a counterpart to yaoi, but instead as a counterpart to bara (rose, a term used to refer to erotic gay male content) used when lesbians would write in to gay magazines trying to hook up and whatnot. However, it's pretty agreed upon that the genre grew out of Class S literature, a type of literature based on girls, often senpai and kouhai, going to an all-girls school together and experiencing a connection that straddles the thin line between romance and homosociality. Homosociality like this among women has historically been and to this day remains somewhat under the radar and perceived as a "phase" or an amateur attempt at romance before a woman eventually marries a man. This is where we see significant overlap between pre/early modern Japanese male homosexual literature and lesbian literature, where homosexuality is seen as a youthful phase that will inevitably be grown out of (as in the case with the chigo system, LUG (lesbian before graduation), etc). Essentially, it was very common for the characters of early modern queer literature (mostly written by queer authors btw) to have brief and passionate schoolyard flings before graduating onto "normal" sexuality. Of course, these narratives fell out of style and are considered dead today, but their remnants can still be seen in the subsequent shojo and modern gl manga boom. The yuri that grew from this in the beginning was usually explicitly erotic, but still somewhat held onto the predominant themes of schoolgirl innocence and youthful beauty. Over time, meanings and terminology shifted, and the "yuri" we use today is more interchangeable with "gl", meaning it's not so much of an indicator of explicit content as "yaoi" is. However, I would still argue that one of the largest indicators of a story's "yuri factor" (if you could say that) is its ties to the establishing homosociality progressed into homoromantic relationship genre expectation. Of course, there are many wlw stories that subvert this, (as there are many mlm stories that subvert the yaoi or even bl template) but to me, if you were to compare yaoi and yuri's theming, yaoi's focus tends to skew more towards the intimacy in explicit eroticism, while yuri looks more into the implicit eroticism in intimacy. If that makes sense.

Of course, when looking into "boy yuri" there's also a transfem-coding factor to consider, which I think is what the majority of people have in mind when they refer to a couple as "boy yuri". Historically, there is massive precedent for feminization between male queer couples in historical Japanese literature, as well as in early modern relatives of bl, mainly Inagaki Taruho's work, so it would be somewhat disingenuous to say feminization is a purely modern, female-created phenomenon. But anyway, those are my (somewhat messy and likely inaccurate) thoughts so far, let me know what you all think. Have a happy yaoimas and merry new yuri, as they say.

[ark3n]

Akutagawa x fem!reader: Missing you.

• listening to songs that considered to be sexy or romantic is highly recommended

• no kinks so normal sex, might be boring

• detailed

• less talk more actions

Synopsis: You are Akutagawa's wife that is used to Akutagawa's absence and behaviors. He always away from home in long periods of time.

You have been married towards Akutagawa for few years. The lack of his presence at home is starting to become normal. His lack of response as well. He is "cold-hearted" but he is nice once you get to know him deeper. Akutagawa is distant but sometimes he look for some cuddles or touches indirectly. He can be mean but can be polite sometimes. It is depends on his mood.

During midnight around twelve o'clock in the morning, Akutagawa just came back home after being away of days. His eyes are somewhat baggy empty dark grey eyes. He closed the door behind him and took off his shoes. He didn't take off his coat and just walked in.

While you were sleeping comfortably on the bed with the blanket covering you as you were wearing a nightgown that doesn't really show much skin. You felt someone slowly lying themselves behind you on the bed. The next thing you knew is that, Akutagawa was kissing you tenderly but then he shoved his tongue inside your mouth. His right leg was in between your legs, you can feel that he was getting hard. He left hand was caressing your side in the kiss before it slowly lift up your nightgown and went down to your thongs.

His two fingers caressed your folds that was still got covered in your thongs while his tongue was busy exploring your mouth. He pulled away and got on top of you, he grabbed your thighs and pulled you closer to him. Your thighs then rested on his laps, it was a bit dark in the bedroom but you can see Akutagawa's figure. You could hear a small rustle sound of Akutagawa taking off his coat and white jabot before tossing it on the floor. He then unbuttoned his dress shirt and left it on before he undo his belt and unzip his zipper. He took out his hard dick from his trousers.

He then lifted the hem of your nightgown up to your collarbone so that your breasts exposed to him. He leaned down to nibble on one of your breasts as his hand fondle your other breast. The way he move his mouth is just the way how he kissed you earlier; sucking on the nipple and lick it causing your tight entrance to wet and pulse for him. The sensation of getting nibble on the nipples was like an electric shock strike on your nipple and down to your cervix. He pulled away and began to kiss on the crook of your neck tenderly while his left hand was still fondling your breast.

You slowly wrapped your arms around his neck instinctively, you then suddenly remember an action you saw when you were reading a straight doujinshi manga while Akutagawa was away. When he was busy kissing your neck, you decided to take the same action you have seen. You bit his ear gently which made him paused and shivered. It made him aroused, he didn't know how to react to it. He pulled away and grabbed your calves before spreading your legs apart. His dick isn't that big, it is around 13 centimeters but it is thick and you knew how it gonna feel like as you had it inside you before. You find yourself gulped, craving for his dick to be inside of you. He held your thongs and slid it down until it completely off from you.

He then rubbed his fingers on your wet folds for few seconds before he bring his hard cock to it. He circled his tip around your fold before rubbing it against your fold. Afterwards, he finally enter into your tight hole very slowly due to your tightness since he has been away from home for days. He missed you a lot. He needed your warmth. He didn't want to go all in as he wanted to feel everything slowly. Once he was fully in, deep inside you. He pulled his dick out slowly pushing it inside again slowly. Each thrust, his pace increase.

He began to thrust faster. You then felt a certain sensation building up inside you causing you to moan. He hit every sweet spot of you, you can't help it but wanting him to go deeper despite knowing his size. You were too focus on the sensation, desire and his face as you didn't notice that he didn't thrust fully in. After few moments, he slammed his hips against your private part causing a certain clapping sound. His tip went through your cervix as your womb got invaded slightly causing a slight pain and made you moaned out loud by accidental. As he kept thrusting, he felt the need to release his white substance. He stopped slowly yet still inside of you. He then leaned down.

"May I?" he whispered with a light pant. You looked at him in anticipation and nodded lightly. He kissed your cheek in respond and continued to thrust inside of you. He clicked his tongue and held it in until he got really close to his climax. He groaned slightly as he released it into your womb, it made your womb felt heavy, filled up and warm. It sent a lot of sensation that it made your legs twitched once. He pulled out and fell to lay down beside you. He pulled you closer to him and wrapped his arms around you. He then pulled the blanket over the both of you. The two of you cuddling and fell asleep together.

[Pt 2?]

[aeternallis]

High-Context Culture at Play and Kim's Mode of Communicating // a rant

So, something I notice once in awhile when I go through the tags on Ao3 for KPTS fics are commentary on the lack of communication in the show—specifically, how Kim doesn't communicate. Tags such as, "Kim communicates, it's a miracle", "OOC because they actually communicate", "Kim uses his words", "Healthy Communication, so it's OOC", etc etc.

This isn't meant to call anyone out and mind you, this isn't something I've only seen in the KPTS fandom; tags like these are also used in a lot of danmei fics I see, as well as the sheer variety of anime/manga fics I've read in my time.

And ngl, when I see those tags...my gut reaction is often to feel that they sound very much tongue-in-cheek and somewhat mocking. Not just to the character himself, but to the narrative itself. It's a bit uncomfortable at times, reading those kinds of tags, even if I know to myself that there's likely no malicious intent behind it.

For what it's worth, I won't apply bad faith arguments on works of art and creativity, and I'm certainly not looking to police fic on Ao3, yknow?

Having said that though and just because I have yet to see a post talking about this topic explicitly, I also feel that it's important to some degree to understand how people communicate in Thailand, and Asia in general.

Mind you, I’m no expert in Thai culture, lemme repeat that yet again. They have unspoken social rules that I myself wouldn't understand because I'm not Thai, nor do I speak Thai. Asia at large, though sharing a unique set of many similar values, is not a homologous region; each country has a rich tapestry of history and culture and very much different from one another.

Yet, as someone who grew up in an Asian household who shares many of said values, I often feel like—when it comes to East Asian/Southeast Asian fictional characters at large—there has always been an unconscious, almost knee-jerk habit I often see in fanfiction to reshape their style of communication to a more western context, if that makes sense. As someone who used to translate doujinshi and Pixiv 小説 for fun, it was always noticeable and a bit jarring, once I moved over to read my fanfic of choice, yknow.

This isn't inherently or purposefully malicious in any way, but it can feel very dismissive, even if it's unconsciously done.

Thailand and most if not all of SE Asia operate in a high-context culture. High-context culture means that when we communicate, it’s not always so much the words themselves that matter, but the context surrounding those words: body language, tone, eye contact, a person’s social status, etc etc. The words sometimes only convey part of the intent, but it doesn’t convey everything. In some situations, the words themselves can even mean the exact opposite of what they’re trying to convey.

It's why so many misunderstandings happen between international fans on platforms like X, because the nuance is often lost in Google Translate.

On the other end of that, we can use Tumblr as the example: since this is mostly an English-speaking website, for the most part, this hellsite operates on a low-context culture, but is easily ignited with outrage based on seemingly high-context traits. LOLOL

This type of communication is not always easily translated into the subtitles, nor is it remotely perfect in any way. It can be quite complex, and hell, even in the context of its own culture, misunderstandings can and do happen all the time. And, as we've seen from the recent popularity boom of East Asian media from the past two or three decades to the American and western audience at large, some of the most compelling drama can come from these sorts of human error.

Besides that, if I’m being perfectly honest, almost always (one of) the source(s) of fandom drama when it comes to character interpretation is due to the nuances of the high-context culture the story takes place in that can have the loudest enthusiasts arguing back and forth.

This is particularly true for characters like Kim Theerapanyakul, who are meant to be portrayed as mysterious and unreadable.

(Lan Wangji and Hyakuya Mika are also a few that comes to mind in my personal experience, uh huh)

To be quite frank, it's why I personally avoid getting into any nitty gritty discussion when it comes to characters like Kim and LWJ, because they mean so much to many different people, as well as simply for the fact that I do not know everyone's emotional tolerance when it comes to disagreements. Lol What I'm saying right now can be taken to be hard-hitting fandom policing, when I'm really trying hard not for it to sound like that, nor is it even my intent. I'm not telling anyone that they're wrong or that they've misinterpreted the characters, but what I am saying, is that people in fandoms, especially for the English-Only Speakers at large, need to be more consciously aware of their cultural biases.

And before I go on, mind you, it’s perfectly okay to have cultural biases—we all have them, myself included, that's just a fact of life. No one is exempt from this, if anyone is itching to point fingers.

I don't think it's an unreasonable thing to say that if one is engaging in media that's not from their cultural context, it's good to be more aware of the surrounding cultural norms and values of that said piece of media when you apply your own interpretation to it, and especially when you may not be the intended audience.

It’s why “your headcanons are not my headcanons” is, I will always believe, a very good rule to adhere to, especially when peeps disagree with popular headcanons, so fandoms can be more respectful and tolerant of each otherrrrrrr when disagreements inevitably crop upppppp, but anywayyyyyy~

I’ve met enough expats who’ve lived abroad in my current line of work to say that trying to understand the unspoken social rules, norms, values, etc. of the foreign country they choose to live in is most often one of their biggest sources of frustration. Alas.

And, as a side-note: high-context cultures are in no way superior to low-context cultures. Both modes of communication have their pros and cons, and molds society in various different ways.

But I digress! An example of the high-context culture at play is the break-up scene in front of Kim's apartment, which I've seen a number of fic authors portray as a genuine apology from Kim:

Which—in terms of what was spoken, Kim did say he was sorry.

But let’s think about the context of the apology: he said the words as he was walking away, before pulling his arm from Chay’s grasp. He looks back at Chay coldly, and overall, his behavior is dismissive; from his body language alone, he portrays a picture of aloofness and treats Chay as an annoyance.

What he says is an apology, yes—but it's an apology with no sincerity whatsoever. It's why Chay broke down as hard as he did, because it's not just Kim's lies that had him reeling, it was the fact that in the context of how Kim dismissed Chay during that scene, it also heavily implies that nothing between them had ever been sincere. Kim completely reverses the understanding that Chay had of their friend/relation-ship and cuts it off completely.

And although what I'm saying may come across as "Duh, that's freakin' obvious," I also want to add another point: Kim would know the implications of what this non-apology is. He would understand the context in which he'd said those words. Whether he chose to regret them or not later on is up for debate, but it's interesting to see whenever fic authors use this scene as an excuse that Kim genuinely thought he apologized, just because he said the words out loud.

Do you see what I mean? In that scene, the canon's context is what matters, but I've seen enough fic where that scene is turned on its head and fic!Kim thinks and excuses himself, portraying the scene to somehow mean that it's the words that matter. The nuance is thus lost, so in turn, the emotional weight of that scene is also disregarded.

This is what I mean when I say that there is an unconscious habit some fic authors have in changing the communication style that the show is set in.

Because the reality is, Kim didn't apologize. He knew he didn't, and Chay most certainly knew he didn't. What he was communicating in that scene was entirely different from what an actual apology entails.

Be that as it may, the audience knows that the non-apology doesn't negate what he and Chay went through together in the show. He may have been lying to Chay for the majority of the story in regards to his involvement in the mafia, but it doesn't mean that the love and adoration he feels for Chay through his actions didn't come through. Kim may not have said much to Chay besides singing for him a (stolen) refurbished version of his own song, but it doesn’t mean that his intent wasn’t conveyed. It's why Chay cried the way he did, in that in some way or another, the song Kim sang is a reminder of everything that happened between them did have truth to it.

Just because they communicate in the way one may not be used to or unfamiliar with (especially in the low-context culture that countries like the US, Canada, Australia, etc. operate in), doesn't mean that they're not communicating to one another.

Healthy communication doesn’t always have to just mean “straightforward meaning in the words.”

When tags like the ones I mentioned earlier in this rant inevitably crop up, especially when it comes to characters who are non-American/British, one can't help but feel that their canon mode of communication is being mocked and made to be seen as inferior.

In which case, TL;DR, when one writes tags like these about certain characters, I sincerely hope that their cultural biases are in the forefront of their mind, and they're aware and humble enough to admit that there are some things that they may not understand in terms of the cultural context. And due to the fact that they do not understand it, hopefully not mock it in response.

[hanszoe]

"up to interpretation" is exclusively an english speaking fandom myth because of kodansha usa, not a single japanese fan uses these words. the consensus was overwhelmingly ハンジの性別はハンジ "hansi's gender is hansi" all the way back in 2012 because of the lack of commonplace terminology to describe genderqueer people and i think adopted to this day based on how hita exhibit substitutes english pronouns with their name. because of this exact lack of precedent fanwork depicting hansi as female or male sexed but genderqueer was nonexistent and also not relevant to fans' desires; doujinshi added disclaimers for if they were depicting hansi as male or female, and there were much more "male hansi" doujinshi at the time, here are such covers, even levihan BL

(by 吉田ジャン, meshi / かす)

and notice how they're actually depicted more or less canon accurately here, it's the same in any one of these doujinshi that depicted hansi as male. there is no making them shorter or equal height to levi, there is no hair lengthening or prettifying, no chest enlargement, no makeup or dresses. so hansi's sex (and gender, viewed as the same) may have been "up to interpretation" to japanese fans in the sense of that's literally how fanworks were made at the time; like isayama said it was "decided based on reading", some readers interpreted hansi as male and some as female. but if asked about canon these same fans despite making such fanwork would provide the answer 分からない "unknown", as in the canon never "confirmed it one way or the other". and we really have to critically examine the culture this emerged in, because of course hansi has their own body and gender identity!! there was much less of them in the story at the time so i can forgive it somewhat but in considering them as a character how can you look at this immense amount of "nobody can tell what gender they are" and depiction as "either" by a culture that only believes there are two possibilities decided by your biological sex and not understand that hansi is fundamentally nonconforming. yet all it took for this society to forget that was to see hansi with easily-discernable breasts, because the question is always "which one are you", indeterminate until proven, and the acceptable answer is never "neither".

[olderthannetfic]

please, send help. i (23y/o) think i am getting to a stage where I need to be a Cool Aunt TM for my niece (13y/o). She's been a bit too online since she had to move around a lot. She had a bit of antis mentality, but i'm trying to pull her away from it slowly. At the same time, she's been around the internet, reading 18+ yaois and shit. I did the same at her age, so I can’t say I don't understand her. But as an adult idk how to talk about this 18+ healthily with her? or do I even need to? should I leave her on her own devices? I didn't have an adult to talk about these things with growing up so idk how you're supposed to do this.

There is not way to say how my parents or sibling (her mom) would react if I drop this on them, could be +/- , but it's a bit of a lottery depending on the most recent online articles they read lately. lol. They're open to convos, but a bit religious.

I'm taking suggestions if anybody would like to give some.

P.S. I am also not a cool person, i'm pretty much a lame homebody so… i also don’t know how to be cool lol.

im so sorry idk who else to ask.

--

Ahaha. Well, don't try too hard to be ~cool~. Nothing could be more offensive to the sensibilities of a 13-year-old.

A well delivered "Oh, come on, no one really thinks that" and eye-roll in response to the more delusional anti stuff has a wonderful effect if you're offline and the person respects you. Humans in general and 13-year-olds in particular are hypersensitive about fitting in. A boring and serious lecture from an older person will set off every melodramatic "The old people don't understaaaand!" instinct, but a well-timed "LOL, WTF" causes internal panic that one has missed something. If she wants the serious and nuanced explanation, she can ask for it, but I wouldn't start there.

As for how you talk about raunchy art... it really depends on the person. If she realizes you like the same stuff, she may bring it up. I think recs are fine, and so is euphemistic "I liked the ship dynamic in this one". "I got off to this" is TMI on your part. (Well, it's TMI on her part too, but be prepared for TMI if you become the confidant of a 13-year-old.)

Honestly, as long as she's directing the conversation and you aren't sharing details of your masturbation habits, I think you'll be fine. 13-year-olds aren't babies. If they're old enough to read porny doujinshi, they're old enough to talk to a trusted adult about them.

My teen tastes were weird art films full of sex. 13 is pretty young, but within a couple of years, she'll be the age I was when I was trying to see shit like Crash. She could be anywhere from self-assured in her tastes and interested in discussing her favorite media to easily-influenced to paralyzed by guilt. Creepy grooming shit comes from groomers choosing to groom, not from the topic of sexuality being in the air. If she's reading something with even a shred of plot or romance, you can talk about that without the actual conversation being X-rated. My main concern would be to avoid her trying to impress you by consuming media she finds uncomfortable or talking about things she doesn't actually want to share. You can really only judge that by body language and tone of voice in the moment.

I mean... does "18+ yaois" mean actual BL series here that have a few sex scenes or doujinshi that are entirely porn? ('Yaoi' basically means 'PWP' and is not exactly complimentary, after all.) It's somewhat harder to talk about the latter. But I liked some pretty out-there shit as a teen and did talk to adults about it. They just let me do most of the talking.

Probably the easiest way to broach the topic is to catch her reading something and go "Oh, I read that one" or "I liked [name of BL]".

[ensemblesongs]

at this point i think it's rather unlikely that they'd kick ibuki from akatsuki, seeing as how they're already selling merch of the new akatsuki and such. i think a lot of people *are* asking specifically for ibuki to be removed from the unit, but do you think there's another approach we could take to try to reach a sort of compromise? like asking for specific parts of the writing to be fixed rather than undoing the whole thing? do you think they'd listen to us more that way? genuinely asking

It's definitely unlikely now, you're right. It was already too late the moment Happy Elements doubled down by posting the pre-recorded stream discussing his addition to AKATSUKI. After all, these sorts of things—cards and events themselves—are planned years in advance. Personally, I would scrap them all, but I know that isn't realistic. I just don't know how they thought it was a good idea whatsoever. But, you see, this is a flaw within Ansta itself that I've been aware of for a long time. To fix the core issue, we'd need a total reform, but that would be an insane amount of work and I'm not sure if they're willing to do that.

This ask reminds me of how they attempted to make amends in a way in regard to their somewhat unfavourable portrayal of the Amagi Village as cult-like and lesser-than (that often gets made even more egregious by ignorant fans via doujinshi and fanfiction that takes place there, which some argue to be alright—if you want to take creative liberties—as long as you aren't claiming it to be a depiction of Ainu people specifically. This is actually what HE sought by removing the traditional patterns from their assets like Live2D models and BGs, allowing even Ansta's writers themselves to pretend that it's a random, fictitious village rather than the very real indigenous group that they were actually based on down to their very designs, especially Rinne's, because being normal about the people your ancestors oppressed is too difficult, I suppose. Personally, I wouldn't do so.) by turning it into this Wakanda esque, sci-fi setting instead. Which was really stupid of them. I think they meant for it to be flattering somehow, for them to be more advanced than the majority... to get to be like, "see, they aren't cavemen after all!" In the end, most people don't like this decision or downright ignore it or tried to deny it and say Rinne was lying when that's... not how story-telling works even when it comes to unreliable narrators, and in some ways, it was detrimental when it comes to the uneducated person's perceptions of them.

Anyway, the entire event story or major chunks of it would have to be rewritten. Some AKATSUKI fans actually liked the first half, while others felt despair due to the mischaracterization I mentioned prior. Many fans have already lost all hope and quit altogether, but the remaining ones, and the protesting ones, deserve some form of acknowledgment or compensation. When it comes to the racist elements, Ansta is racist at its core, so there would have to be an overhaul of the entire plotline they had planned and partly executed for Ibuki and AKATSUKI already. From the start, it had unsavory undertones, but it could have been salvaged to the point of even being good if they hadn't done this or at least done it in a different way. Like I said, it is the reality for many Ryukyu, but I just don't trust them with a narrative like this, especially if they do not educate themselves, get sensitivity readers and receive input from real-life Ryukyuan people. Even the person writing Ibuki's solo isn't someone who can understand his struggles whatsoever. It's just some guy.

Not to mention, Ibuki seemed to be set up for this from conception, since even his name is a reference to the Meiji restoration, from a period that AKATSUKI's current direction has been referencing, as people have discovered recently. Ibuki also seems to tie into !! era's "Okinawa arc", which some have been keeping up with for a while. I think it started in Submarine, if I'm not mistaken. The Okinawa arc is littered with underlying anti-indigenous sentiments whether they meant for it to or not, ones that are hardly challenged by the cast (and, less importantly, also sort of muddied up the Shinkai cult lore. Some like it, others have mixed feelings).

!! era should have taken an entirely different direction From the Start if they didn't want this to happen, I fear. Because they couldn't do interpersonal drama with a few real-world effects (the suicides caused by the war) and a dilemma surrounding morality now that the scale of their world is larger, and it would have been repetitive regardless, they had to give characters like Eichi something bigger and eviler to do, such as his "idol colonization" affairs. A character who's meant to be a loveable albeit morally grey idol is campaigning for the destruction of the environment via the Atlantis project, silencing indigenous voices, etc... I love Eichi, and this isn't unrealistic of a continuation for his character. He's meant to parallel Godfather, after all. Nonetheless, it's painful to watch and more so to acknowledge when something like this is happening, which makes me wonder if it'll even be contested any further at this point.

Sorry for rambling about how flawed this era is at its core, I just think people should be aware of it... Back to the main topic, I think one possible alternative is that they could make Ibuki depart from AKATSUKI at some point down the line, not now, but sort of like graduating after having grown with his seniors, a dabufe-esque situation where he finally finds himself 💭 Ibuki was always meant to be kept off the path Esupuri is on, he would be solo, then.

To actually answer your question, I do think that they might listen to us if we ask that way. Even if it was an infinitely smaller change, just fixing up one line, they did that much after the revolt caused by the leoizu retcon during Sena's center event. I think a compromise could be good.

Semi-relatedly, I agree with the sentiments shared by our-ensemble:

[fishyyuzi]

2024: A retrospect

Happy new year! 2024 drew to a close in the blink of an eye, and 2025 came marching in. I hope the new year finds everyone well, and wishing all of you a good health for this year too!

I usually don't really write very long blog posts due to being shy about my own writing skills, but I decided I want to do this anyway. I wanted to look back and re-organize my thoughts about 2024, as well as write down what I hope to do and achieve in 2025. If you don't like reading long posts then please feel free to skip over! Otherwise, brace yourselves because it is going to be a LONG one indeed, haha.

Now then, where do I start...2024 has been a wild ride for me. I actually never "officially" announced it on my socials, but in April of 2024, I actually went to Japan to study and find employment there! This has been one of my biggest life-long dreams, and I am fully aware that this is a BIG priviledge that could not have been realized without the help of my parents. I'm so SO thankful for them for everything they've done for me, I definitely will not let this oppurtunity go to waste, I will do my best to get a stable job, get a stable life and then repay them back (this is my own free will) for all the financial support they have given me.

Life in Japan

Life in Japan has been good. Of course, it's not all rainbows and sunshine all the time, and I have definitely faced my fair share of obstacles as well as having identity crisis multiple times, lol. But the things I have learned and experienced here far exceeded the negativites.

I came here with the determination of first improving my language skills, especially my verbal skills, and also to improve my social skills. Through my school, I ended up joining in the local community work of picking up trash in the morning and sharing a cup of tea or coffee afterwards. Although I originally inteded to join to practice interacting with the local people, I found myself enjoying this volunteer work so much that I eventually just started joining out of my own volition instead of through school. I also joined a lot of other programmes, such as a short homestay program and a longer homestay + cultural exchange program amongst other things. All in all, I really tried my best and I think I have somewhat succeeded in my goals! I could communicate with locals now without much issues, and I can listen to radio shows or watch TV shows with minimal to no subtitles now (and also understand most of what people in real life are saying of course!). Also, not to toot my own horn, but a lot of locals have also commented about how natural my accent sounds, and it makes me very happy to hear that because I worked really, really hard, so it felt like a validation of my efforts ;w;

As you all may have realized, in exchange for me putting in the time and effort in real life, 2024 was a very very barren year for me art-wise lol. I didn't draw much (didn't had the time and energy or the willpower) this year, but I somehow still managed to make some drawings as well as making a doujinshi with a friend this year and took part in Reitaisai Autumn 2024! I have always thought of participating in Reitaisai as a dream that would never come true in my life, but I'm glad that wasn't the case… thank you to my friend Opu for inviting me as well as shouldering most of the things from planning to printing and also the booth setup T_T!

Expressing Thanks

On that note, I would also like to take some time to express my gratitude to a plethora of people, as well as the smaller things in life that brought about so much more positivity in my life.

First of all, and as mentioned earlier, I would like to thank my parents for giving my this opportunity to come abroad and believe in my one last time for me to achieve my dreams. I actually didn't really have a very good relationship with my parents prior to this, and despite that they still cared for me enough to send me abroad and only wished the best for me…physical distance with them has opened my eyes to so many more other things, not just my feelings towards them, but also things that contributed to my personal growth. I've not only grown closer to them in the past year, I've also finally become "independent". It is hard for me to put it into words, but I truly felt myself finally becoming an adult this year, and I will get deeper into that later (want to tie it together with a small announcement).

Next off, are my friends in Japan who has helped me so much with adjusting to life here, as well as hanging out with me when we have time! I'm not sure if they are ccomfortable with me naming them, but I've also witnessed their very very major growth in their pursued field this year, and it just makes me so, so proud to be able to call them my friend! To see them achieve their own dreams and goals, it motivates ME a lot to work towards my own! Also!! They always hear me out when I have troubles of my own, and also gave me so much practial advice (particularly for when I was applying to part time jobs), I am forever so grateful for them and I would honestly gladly d*e for them lmao that is how extremely grateful I am towards my friends!! I don't know if they are reading this or not but if you are YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!! いつもありがとうね！！This year is the year I will make you proud!!!!!

(ahem). Jokes aside, I would also like to thank my school, and my school teachers for making my Japanese improve so much lol. I really came here with ¼ of that bucket filled, and it is thanks to their teaching that I gradually filled it up, and now I think the bucket is probably like 70% filled…..learning is a never ending journey though, so I would like to continue improving my Japanese even after I graduate! If I continue to list more people I think this post is never going to end…but last one ok I would like to thank my co-workers at my part time job too for being some of the nicest people I've ever worked with!! And the customers who come to the shop! They always put a smile on my face!! Thank you so much!

Other things I'm grateful for!

Being able to eat what I want whenever I want!

Being able to go to Karaoke and release steam every Sunday morning!

The manga and drama "What Did You Eat Yesterday" for being my comfort media when I just came here and was filled with much anxiety! It was like having 2 more dads in my life, lol

Getting to know Hoshino Gen's works! His songs, especially "SUN", uplift me a lot! I listen to his songs almost daily now because it's a great energy booster…also, his literature works are very inspiring! I've since became obsessed with this guy to a kinda crazy level actually I'm so sorry lol but I HOPE I CAN GO TO HIS CONCERT THIS YEAR SCREAMS (prays for my ticket lottery)

Saizeriya for being cheap and delicious. I love you Saizeriya!!!

A final look back, as well as what's to come

This post has gotten way too long…sorry for that but if anyone's still sticking around, thank you for reading me yap so much!

2024 was really such a wild ride for me. I can safely say that my life has changed for the better ever since coming to Japan, and I'm excited to tackle 2025 and the challenges it has in store for me.

In regards to what would happen to my art/drawings, I have…so much I want to say, but because this post is long enough, I'll try to be brief.

Starting from 2025, I will no longer be taking personal art commissions. Commercial commissions would be heavily considered, but for the most part, I would like to take a step back from drawing for work.

It was not an easy decision to make, and reaching this point took a lot of energy on my part as well. I love drawing, I love to draw for others and see them be happy with the work I made for them. But I'm not cut out to be a freelance artist. The past 2 years was honestly, a very very lonely time for me. Sure I had more flexibility in time and scheduling, but I didn't have financial stability, and "making enough money" just ate away at me all the time to the point of destroying my mental health, and causing a rift between me and my family. Despite all this negativity though, I'm just glad I experienced it in my 20s when I'm still young and had the room to make mistakes like this. 

And of course, I am always thankful to those who have commissioned me, or bought my art at events! I will always remember your kindness and support. If it wasn't for all of you, I wouldn't be surviving till today. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart.

So where do I go from here?

I cannot 100% predict what the future holds for me, but my most important goal for now is to secure a proper job as a 正社員 in a company here, hopefully obtain a working visa and start planting my roots here in Japan!

In my free time, I would like to work on translating some of my favourite books from JP -> EN. I don't want to  bet on freelance work again a second time, especially not in a foreign country…but, it would be nice if one day I could ACTUALLY officially work to translate those favourite books of mine. And what better way to achieve that than to actually start putting in the work? I know it's going to be a tough road but I will work hard!

Art will take a backseat from now on, but that doesn't mean I will stop drawing! It's just that I will mostly be drawing for myself now.

Thank you to everyone who has looked at my drawings up until this point. For those who choose to stay and continue following me, thank you and I hope you will continue to watch over my journey.

Stay safe, and have a great 2025.

fishy魚子

[canmom]

Animation Night 164: Yaoi, Yuri

The fashion on Tumblr lately has been to divide everything in the world into yaoi and yuri, hasn't it? Well, tonight we don't need to make any abstract stretches of the imagination: it's time for anime where boys kiss boys and girls kiss girls.

So. Five minutes ago, before Tumblr deleted it, this post was off to a pretty good start! I was happily explaining about the differences of nuance between 少年愛 shōnen-ai, 耽美 tanbi, ジュネ june, やおい yaoi and ボーイズラブ bōizu rabu on the one hand, and on the other, why 薔薇 bara (rose) isn't a genre title but nevertheless the editor of 薔薇族 Barazoku ('rose tribe') magazine coined 百合 yuri as a distaff counterpart, the 'lily tribe', and that really caught on.

I was starting in on a brief sketch of some history, how Tokugawa Japan was super gay and had a defined set of social rules for gay relationships in the form of 男色 nanshoku, but this was squashed by the Meiji restoration, and thus gay manga became a subgenre cultivating its own specific otaku audience.

So then I was gonna tell you about how the early shōjo manga focusing on gay relationships, taking the old term shōnen-ai [which originally referred to pederasty], were quite nerdy and literary, but the subgenre rapidly grew in the 70s and 80s, cultivating an otaku audience of its own - primarily women termed, somewhat disparagingly, 婦女子 fujoshi but this demographic breakdown is certainly not absolute and there is a term for male fans, which is 普段し fudanshi. We coulda gone into the whole world of doujinshi, of the massive convention comiket; I coulda cracked open Kimi Rito's History of Hentai Manga for some interesting tidbits about how certain images become encoded as symbols and then reused routinely in manga.

And you know, I might have talked about how this is distinct from manga aimed at gay readers in gay magazines (like the above mentioned 薔薇族 Barazoku) which might be termed ゲイ��画 gei manga. Perhaps we might mention here the upcoming adaptation of gay manga meme sensation kuso miso technique:

I was maybe gonna talk a little about some of the older genre conventions of BL; the masc top or 攻め seme and the effeminate bottom or 浮け uke; maybe a little about how yaoi fandom got exported into anime fan culture in the West and the strange phenomenon of the 'yaoi paddle'.

...well, it looks like I managed to skim over all that anyway. Spite works wonders for typing speed, it turns out. But believe me, that's really just surface level stuff. We're working on a followup to the legend of Animation Night 69, so we'll be able to get in a lot deeper in a few weeks~

Anyway, even today, BL and yuri works rarely get adapted into anime in a particularly high profile way. But 'rarely' is not never! In Animation Nights past, well: on Animation Night 69 we watched the delightful 風と木の詩 Kaze to Ki no Uta (The Song of Wind and Trees), an OVA adapting the seminal (ha ha) shōjo manga about a French twink at boarding school. That was the direction of Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, known also for Venus Wars and definitely the subject of a future Animation Night, it was as moving and melodramatic as you could hope from 70s shōjo. Sayo Yamamoto (AN36) brought us the incredibly charming figure gay skating series Yuri on Ice; and then of course Kunihiko Ikuhara (AN155), bless his heart, made his always bold statements on yuri with Yurikuma Arashi ('Lesbian Bear Storm') and BL with Sarazanmai, which I will surely cover if we ever reach the point where we're like 'let's marathon a TV anime' again ;p

Tonight though? We'll be looking at a couple of relatively recent films on both sides of the fence.

For the BL wing, we have the film 海辺のエトランゼ Umibe no Étranger, aka L'étranger de la Plage or Stranger by the Shore. Kanna Kii, the mangaka, had previously worked as an animator at Studio Hibari, a small anime studio that dates back to the late 70s and broadly seems to specialise in shōjo. Kii returned there to design characters and supervise the film, and evidently Hibari were very excited to adapt the work of their alumnus, because they absolutely spared no effort.

The story centres on orphaned highschooler Mio and his neighbour Shun, an aspiring gay novelist on a remote island in Okinawa. The pair grew close three years before the start of the story, but Mio had to leave Okinawa; we join him now as he returns to that same shore, still holding feelings for Shun.

I'll admit, I don't know a ton about this movie - but it comes highly recommended by kvin who described it as one of an 'oasis' of strong BL works released around 2020. And the clips I've seen - well, they're the gifs used in this post, really nicely drawn scenes of affection. So I'm pretty excited!

Our yuri wing... well, there's a few good choices for yuri TV shows I could show you, but tonight it's late and we need something short and sweet, and that really narrows the field! What I have is あさがおと加瀬さん。Asagao to Kase-san [Kase-san and the Morning Glories], a one hour OVA adapting the manga 加瀬さん Kase-san by Hiromi Takashima. The OVA starts partway into the manga, when plant nerd Yui Yamada has already started dating her crush, the athletic Tomoka Kase. It follows the trials of the girls' relationship as they are coming towards the end of their time at school - relatively low-key, slice of life first relationship typea thing.

The animae was adapted by studio Zexcs under the direction of Takuya Satō, who you might remember as director of the first part of Armitage III [AN153]. Zexcs spun out of JC Staff at the end of the 90s, and they've been pretty busy since then - for me their most notable creation is Aku no Hana (The Flowers of Evil), a truly unique rotoscope anime with an incredibly engaging, tense story about teenagers and the imp of the perverse... which sadly never got the love it deserved! yes I'm still beating this drum!

Anyway, while I have not been able to find a ton of production information, I am told at least that Kase-san was a passion project for Satō - evidently a yuri fan given he also took on the adaptation of Otherside Picnic. It began first with five-minute web adaptation Kase-san and the Morning Glories in 2018 that's more of a musical montage of moments from the series, which was then able to be expanded the next year into an hour-long OVA...

A lot of romance stories focus on the characters getting together, so it's interesting that this one skips right over those chapters of the manga and gets going once the characters are already together, focusing more on the trials of an ongoing relationship between two goofy hormonal kids trying to figure out if this is just a class S thing or something that they want to last. A great deal of effort is put towards character animation, intimacy, the little flinches and reactions. You can read a little discussion about it here on ANN.

So! With apologies for the late start once more (T_T), it's time to begin! Animation Night will shortly be live at twitch.tv/canmom, and I hope you'll join me for a gay old time~

[kishigunpla]

Charma Doujinshi - A (Somewhat) Comprehensive Spreadsheet

For my fellow Charma fans, I put together a spreadsheet of every doujinshi I was able to find, all the way back from 1979 to today (or at least until the next Comiket). I say *somewhat* comprehensive because I know there are plenty of books I'm likely missing, especially anything older than the 2000s.

First tab is the list, second is graphs and data visualization, and the final is the rules I follow when adding things to the list. You can filter the columns by selecting Data -> Filter Views -> Create New Temporary Filter View.

Of course, it's very a much a work and progress so things will change over time. Enjoy!

[dirtyoldmanhole]

@/damoselcastel was kind enough to show me a bunch of the FE:Fates visual works artbook pages the other day!

and because i am continuing to be .... brain rotted (lol) ... grabbed a copy since there was more than a few relevant pages/official artworks, and wanted to have a high res/color corrected version of these pages for art refs to slap on my reference boards! if i'm looking at them every day now for the past three months they better be accurate!!!

anyway! it came TODAY!!! :D :D pakidge

IT WASN'T EVEN SUPPOSED TO COME UNTIL THE END OF THE MONTH AAAAA

god dang this thing is THICK, now this is what i call a proper artbook! a little hard to see here but you can see by both the front and the spine that it's a chonker -- the two tellius artbooks combined are thicker but they're also a bit smaller elsewhere.

rest is under the cut b/c it's me promptly going feral :P

(and seeing who's on the spine ahhh!!! honestly that's really cool and super appropriate given his subtle plot/character relevance?! super fucking cool to keep seeing nintendo nod at him in symbolically relevant places, but not too overtly )

SPEAKING OF I SHIT YOU NOT GUESS WHICH SPREAD THIS THING FELL TO FIRST

I SHIT

YOU

NOT--

stone cold, swear to you, straight up didn't intend that but this was literally me irl then:

:')))))))))

(also HE GETS A WHOLE SPREAD???? and a turnaround?!!!!!! even freaking corrin's nohr noble design gets like an EIGHTH of the page

gunter gets treated SO WELL in this artbook i'm on the floor trying not to sob like i'm sixteen again and begging for any zihark scraps

also this is so much more high res than what's on my reference board the nitpicky artist in me is literally crying for joy about FINALLY HAVING A HIGH RES REFERENCEEEEEEEEEEE

also what the fuck the architecture is so cool???????????

THE WORLDBUILDING I AM WILDING

for real tho i remember my first conquest playthrough my jaw was on the FLOOR being genuinely amazed at how cool the worldbuilding was especially on the nohrian side with the gothic vibe and y'all don't know how useful this is going to be to replicate nohrian motifs in all of my drawings/probable comics/doujinshi/etc.

[foams at mouth]

this artbook also covers EVERYTHING

like there's a healthy amount of character work , but there's also enemy designs (always thought fate's enemy designs were unusually kickass, like some of these folks could be outright characters themselves), the architecture stuff above....

my room lines....

OH MY GOD THIS MEANS I HAVE A THIRD SET OF TRANSLATIONS I CAN CROSS REFERENCE TO FUCK YES

sorry for shitty blurriness it's just me vibrating in excitement lmao i'll upload it in the high res chunk

.....

hellooooo sir~~~~

(you knew i was going to be posting that shot >:D )

his possession CGI gets a full fucking page too ajlsjsjkskjhhjshjg

HE GETS TREATED SO GOOD HERE Y'ALL, SO MANY FULL PAGES???????????? is this what it's like to be brain rotted over a major character i will never know the feeling lul

(there's actually at least two other gunter fullbody artworks in here, those have already been scanned/uploaded properly by others so i won't post 'em here unless y'all want em!

and then lastly!

to finish it off, god this cover progress is so cool, kozaki knows what he's doing.

and i'm pretty sure gunter's linework gets changed halfway through, his expression's somewhat different than on the final! and i'll be posting that along with the other high res/cleaned up scans! just need to figure out if my scanner's gonna do a better job than my phone or vice versa.

[tries to stay composed] [fails]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[untilyouremember]

Where can I read and request manga?

My mission with my tumblr is to help you find official resources to consume manga; doing it these ways will help the mangaka who work to bring you content and it encourages English publishers to bring over more series.

Check under the cut for legal websites, apps and retailers with detailed information. At the bottom you'll find surveys and ways to contact publishers with requests.

You can use regular retailers to buy digital and print: Amazon/Kindle, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Bookwalker, Google Play, Apple Books, Nook

There are apps available for buying volumes, chapters, using ticket systems to access free content, or with subscriptions.

Mangamo - $4.99/mo for 200+ titles; titles available for purchases with in-app library

Viz manga - $1.99/mo; titles available to purchase with in-app library (carries titles from Viz, but not their SJ series)

Shonen Jump - $2.99/mo; titles available to purchase with in-app library (carries specifically SJ titles, which are often popular shounen)

Comikey - uses a key system; ability to read for free with ads and patience

Kmanga - app maintained by Kodansha; chapters are often available to read for free through a ticket system and able to purchase

Kodansha - a website where you can create a free reading account. They offer 3 free chapters on all their manga, occasionally feature several free volumes, and run sales on their content somewhat regularly.

MangaPlus - $1.99 or $4.99 for a subscription; will allow a free read of their simulpub series.

MangaPlaza - 7 day free trial; $6.99/mo; [info incoming, seems to have more mature licenses]

INKR - 3 ways to access content; free, coins & 'Extra Membership'. Extra can cost $4.99/mo or $44.99/year and gives you access to content, extra savings and "free ink" that can be traded for their coin system. (Used to be Manga Rock and that was a fun read from them)

MangaPlanet - $1.99/week -> $47.99/year depending on which tier you pay for.

MangaUP - 1 month free trial, $4.99/mo; you can browse their 'vault' to see if things you like are included

Irodori Comics - hosts 18+, specializes in doujinshi, more info incoming

Renta! - point system; 1 point = 1 cent; regular bonus points for higher purchases

ComiXology - $4.99/month; a service through amazon that allows you access to comics, manga and graphic novels. Specifically boasts {2400} manga titles.

Animeplanet - has a library of completely free comics and anime through partnerships; seems to host less manga styled comics but free is free.

Manta, Comicle, Webtoon, Tappytoon, Tapas, WebComics, Bilibili will be looked into but they host mostly webtoon style comics

Seven seas has a (mostly) monthly survey that is linked on their homepage at all times. {They will pull from any publisher, including digital only simulpubs}

If you have a bookwalker account, I found a Google doc that you fill out requests and they send them to publishers.

To send suggestions to Viz, use this survey that is listed through their Contact Us page (you select the "Series Suggestion" and will be redirected) {they mostly pull from shogakukan and shueisha titles}

To send suggestions to Kodansha, go to their contact us page and there are 2 useful drop downs; suggest reprints and suggest series, suggest series is also useful to request a print of anything they've licensed digital only. {They pull almost exclusively from Kodansha Japan}

TokyoPop has a discord server where they look at your suggestions in the channel #licensesuggestion

If you are able, in any way, support official English releases. It shows it is a lucrative business decision to continue the manga. Nothing is worse than starting something and being unable to finish it because it stopped getting translated and published.

I will update this post as needed, enjoy your manga! ♡

[aoki553]

Doujinshi Mini-Review #4

"(Body) Switching Ring" (irekawa ring/いれかわりんぐ) by Kusuke (IKIOI), released on November 1st, 2015. [CLICK FOR SAMPLES]

This is a great one!

Irekawa Ring follows Kusuo, Kaidou, Riki, Kokomi and Reita as their bodies switch by accident (caused by Kusuo's antenna being taken out). During the story's events, the group tries to figure out how to change to their original bodies, while avoiding chaos caused by presenting in their classmate's bodies.

Irekawa Ring has always fascinated me and I was always curious about what direction Kusuke (author) decided to push these characters towards. Getting my hands on this work is something I couldn't be happier with... since I've missed out on this doujin the first time I tried buying it.

The body switching went as described: Saiki -> Kaidou's body, Kaidou -> Nendou's body, Nendou -> Teruhashi's body, Teruhashi -> Toritsuka's body, and lastly Toritsuka -> Saiki's body

THE ART IN THIS IS ADORABLE. I'm not joking. Have you SEEN Kusuke's art??? I'm sure you did. It's all over google images being reposted by morons online. But anyway!! Their art is so pleasant to look at and despite the comic turning 8 years old this year, I enjoy looking at the characters and the work Kusuke poured into this doujin. I'd rather avoid reposting someone's art on my blog, but all I'll show is some cute (and funny) panels.

In one scene, Nendou (as Teruhashi) gets told by Kokomi (as Toritsuka) to stay at infirmary during PE, but unexpectely, Sawakita finds Kokomi resting in bed and he freaks out about her being ill, so all the Kokomins gather and shower her with "Get Well Soon" gifts lmaoo NENDOU DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO BEHAVE SHGJDSG i love him

The way Kaidou looks while Kusuo is occupying his body is straight up hilarious. He looks so pissed constantly and I love that oh yeah and toritsuka has a fan club bc of how well teruhashi was able to adapt to presenting as toritsuka XDD

Notice how quickly my writing turned from somewhat concise and fomal to ramblings lolol I enjoy talking about those works a bit too much

To end this post - go show Kusuke some love!!! Sadly, they haven't been active on this account for quite a while (5 years already...) But they deserve every bit of support. Those artists carried the fandom in it's peak.

[shihalyfie]

Hello again! This ask is in case the one before it got eaten by Tumblr. In your opinion, what is it about the Xros Wars Hunter series that made it poorly received by the audience? Do you think the series had potential that was wasted by it's comedy driven tone? In what way would Hunters' storyline be if it was handled better? What would have been improvements to it, in your opinion? Do you think Tagiru could have been handled better, especially in the finale,and about the goggles thing? What aspect or part of the Hunters plot had a lot of wasted potential that was sadly underutilised in your opinion? What do you think the director was going for in this series? If there was a reboot with a similar premise to this one, what would you like to see from it? I like your insights. Eat more fruits and sleep earlier!

So here's one thing I need to point out that is very important to know about Hunters, and in fact is a factor in why the way the Japanese fanbase treats it is somewhat different from the way the English-speaking fanbase does: Hunters was a last-minute series made to stall a timeslot. This is not a statement I'm making to dunk on it (in fact, this is arguably why the Japanese fanbase is more forgiving of it), but a fact that has actually been on record and has been openly discussed -- unfortunately, the only material I know about it that's been actually translated is this one (which mentions the Xros Wars staff not being told that Hunters would exist until they were already making the Death Generals finale), but it is actually a well-documented and well-known fact that's properly cited in Japanese circles. (If you want to go hunt for the source yourself, it's apparently been mentioned in Otona Anime Vol. 22; I've already passed this info on to relevant parties in the hopes of seeing it translated, so maybe we'll see it on English record someday.)

But yes: Hunters wasn't originally planned to exist until the last minute. It's a series made in a hurry to hold down the timeslot until Saint Seiya Omega was ready. That's why it has no new toys, and that's also why I'm not really sure that finale crossover was made to bait the audience as much as it was the staff themselves messing around to have fun, because they weren't really trying to get ratings anyway (especially at 6:30 in the morning!). So in order to figure out why the series is Like That, instead of thinking it of as a series that was supposed to be something bigger and was truncated down to two cours, it's actually more accurate to think of it as a series that wasn't supposed to be anything at all...so if anything, the staff came up with too many good ideas for a series that was never actually supposed to be that interesting to begin with. Director Kaizawa himself said that he enjoyed the series and Tagiru being "fun", which is frankly a respectable goal when the job you're given is to literally waste time.

But most of the English-speaking fanbase doesn't know this, and on top of that, at the time, everyone was still obsessed with the idea that a Digimon series has to be something based on the Adventure formula where everyone has psychology-tier levels of character development, and they expected Hunters to be a series that was posing itself as a "full-fledged" sequel to Xros Wars vanilla and Death Generals the way 02 was to Adventure...but the truth is that it was never supposed to be that to begin with. And I also generally get the impression that "series that aren't necessarily that deep, but also make no pretense of being deep" tend to be better received in Japan; I've seen at least one doujinshi artist poke fun at the fact that the Hunters plot "escalates" abruptly at the end, yet still loves the series enough to make doujinshi of it, because she likes the characters. On the flip side, Western fans tend to like things that "at least tried" to be deep even if they completely fail in execution, whereas Japanese fans are more likely to mock that kind of thing for being unnecessarily pretentious or even insulting.

So I think the reason Hunters is so poorly received in English-language circles is, quite simply, the mismatch between expectations and reality. I don't know how many people in the Japanese fanbase are going to have Hunters as their favorite series ever, and it's not like I haven't seen criticism of its, let's say, unusual way of handling its pacing and how necessary of a series it was, but at the same time there's still a very "it is what it is" attitude towards it, and it's not like it's necessarily fashionable to make it into a target of dunkery. Personally, I've seen a lot other kids' shows that are far shallower and less interesting than Hunters ever was, so I don't really have it in me to see why it's such a huge problem, and I think a big part of this issue is that even when people don't think they're too stuck on wanting everything to be like Adventure, they're still unconsciously comparing it to the "Adventure formula" and believing that anything that doesn't live up to certain aspects of it is "bad". And I do think personal taste is very important, and I do agree that since most Digimon fans got in with the classic series, it's understandable that they'll prefer things like the classic series...but ultimately, you're only going to frustrate yourself if you don't have reasonable expectations of what you're going into.

So in the end: Hunters wasn't a series that didn't try hard enough. It's a series that tried too hard for what it was realistically able to accomplish.

[a-force-dyad-in-space]

A Fanfic Update

Hey guys, I thought I should give you an update about what's going on Ongoing-WIPs-wise just in case you've had some worries.

The short of it is that the writing juices haven't flowed well for a while now and I'm trying to get them back but it is a struggle. I've worked a bit on this fic or other but haven't made significant progress in a few months. I absolutely hope that will change soon but I unfortunately can't force it. It doesn't help that I'm going through some stuff IRL right now that I have to take care of (I am unfortunately an adult who has to do adulting and pay bills and shit 🥲). I try not to be too stressed out about it, but the more time passes the more the anxiety sets in. Wish me luck. 💪🏻

Anyway, here's a fic-by-fic overview, split up by fandom.

THE UNTAMED

The Angsty SongXue Fic — I'll be honest, I've written a little bit since I last updated you guys but I still haven't finished the buffer chapter (at this point I'm thinking about posting chapter 51 even though 52 isn't done yet), so nothing really new here. I really want to get back into a writing flow but so far it hasn't really worked. I am still working on it, though, so don't worry, I'm not going to drop it.

The It Follows AU — I'm ashamed to say I didn't even realize I posted that fic almost two years ago and I still haven't written the second half. I'm so sorry it's taking so long! I definitely still want to finish it! I might rewatch the It Follows movie before I do that, though.

The Observer Series — Oh yeah, remember that smutfic series I started a few years ago of which I've only posted part 1 so far? Yeah, I still need to work on that. I did write chapter 1 of part 2 a while ago, so it's not like it's forgotten, I just need to get my ass up and write the rest of part 2 before I can post it. 🙈

The Color Rush AU — Okay, technically I haven't posted that one yet but I did share a snippet along with a gifset a few years ago, so you guys know it exists. I haven't worked on it in a long time, though, and I don't know yet when I will find the spoons to continue writing it but I'm still intrigued by the premise and want to give it a go. Thank you for your patience!

The Somewhat Sweet, Somewhat Angsty XuanXian Fic — Again, haven't posted that one yet but I've been posting about it, so you guys know it exists. Nothing new on this front. I did want to rewrite the whole thing because I wasn't really happy with the way I wrote it thus far, so I'll probably go back to it at some point and do that, I just don't know when yet.

WORD OF HONOR

The Xie'er Deserves the World Fic — Listen, guys, I love this fic so much, I just haven't worked on it in a while. I'll probably re-read what I've written so far and go on from there, I've just been struggling with the latest chapter ever since I started writing it years ago. It's not dropped, though, I will get back to it! Pinky swear!

SAILOR MOON

I've mentioned here and there that I'm working on part 1 of an epic that is based on a doujinshi I started when I was 13 or 14. Unlike my other WIPs, this one really is 100% self-indulgent to the point where I don't even care whether people will read/like it once I post it when it's completely done. I'll just put it out there to make my teenage self happy because this story has been simmering in my head for over 20 years, and so that my IRL friends can read it if they want to. So, this one will be a long way out, but it exists. I'm only really mentioning it because I've mentioned it a couple of times before and because it's the fic that's been on my mind the most lately.

STAR WARS

You didn't think I forgot about TROBS, did you????? I did work on several beginnings of a draft during NaNoWriMo last year and I'm getting more and more of a clear picture of how I want it to go. For those unfamiliar, TROBS (or The Rise of Ben Skywalker, though I already changed the name of the fic again) is my attempt at an Episode IX fix-it fic that essentially replaces TROS. This one has been simmering in my head since early 2020 and I really want to get it out of there and onto the page for catharsis. I've even held off on reading any other TROS fix-its because of it, even though I've heard there are some really amazing ones out there (and I can't wait to read them once I've gotten my own out of my damn head). I really need to finally finish that beast. Wish me luck. 🥲

UNPOSTED WIPs

I still have so many notes for other fics (mostly for The Untamed) that I want to write at some point. Will I be able to get them all on the page? I honestly don't know, but I'll see where they take.

Anyway, that's all!