#tbh this comes from a place of wanting to love makoto again

[letsplayballet]

so uh. this post didn't get a whole lot of attention but it did get just enough for me to start trying to write some other scenes. this piece is pretty different vibe-wise, and i'm pretty sure it's not done, but i'm tired of looking at it so!!

~*~

“Have I told you that my father was a cop?”

Akira stops, losing his mental grip on the rest of the sentence he’d been writing for his literature assignment for Kawakami. Glancing up from the paper, he sees Makoto sitting tense as a coiled spring on his perpetually dusty couch, knuckles white on her pen, staring through the textbook in front of her as if she could see into the café below their feet. If it weren’t for Morgana’s perked ears from where he’d been half asleep on the table, Akira could almost believe that she hadn’t said anything at all.

It had been a little strange, when Makoto had shown up hours early for their planned infiltration of Futaba’s palace. She’s his teammate, and he trusts her implicitly, is willing to put his life in her hands- if she’d shown up that morning asking him to go backpacking across China with her, he would only have asked if it could wait until after they’d dealt with Medjed. But despite all this, they haven’t had a lot of time to spend together individually, and Akira gets the sense that there’s still a lot he doesn’t know about her as Makoto, as opposed to Queen.

And she hadn’t asked to do anything drastic. Hadn’t asked anything at all, actually. Just stood in the entrance to Leblanc silently, exactly 15 minutes after opening, until Akira (remembering all I am is a burden to her, remembering the faintest gleam of guilty relief in her eyes when telling them I haven’t seen my sister in days) finishes brewing coffee for the both of them and just as silently brings her upstairs to his room.

They’ve been working on their summer homework for nearly an hour, quiet but not uncomfortably so. This is the first either of them has broken the silence, and it’s pretty clear that whatever is on Makoto’s mind has been weighing on her for a while.

Realizing she’s still sitting there, tense and unmoving, Akira clears his throat a little. “Once, I think? You said he’d worked the beat in Shinjuku.”

Makoto lets out a long, measured breath through her nose, and her jaw unclenches ever so slightly. It’s another few moments before she speaks again.

“He was. He was actually a really instrumental part of the Shinjuku Cleanup Operation.”

She stops again. Bites her lip. Her pen shifts slightly in her grasp.

“I… Growing up, I thought of him as a hero, you know? Idolized him, even. I didn’t know much about his job, not really, but between the few things he shared and what I would always see on shows, I definitely had this golden, untouchable image of what he did. Hunting down criminals, bringing justice to the world… I wanted so badly to be just like him.”

There’s a faint, fond wistfulness to her tone that makes Akira intensely grateful for her still-distant gaze, forcing his breathing to remain calm and even as he gently sets his own pen down and hides his shaking hands in his lap. For a moment he’s overwhelmed –

that dark, ugly fury rising up in him, blinding, screaming see, you can’t trust anyone, as if anyone would give a fuck about you when you’re nothing –

the sense memories of hands too-tight grabbing pulling and concrete hard and cold against his face –

until his battle instincts kick in and he’s able to bring his mind back to his body in the (conditional, relative) safety of his attic room. This is Makoto. She’s not an idiot, and she’s not frivolous with her words, still learning she can say more than the bare minimum she absolutely needs to. If she’s saying all this, to him of all people, then there’s something important in there.

Thankfully, Makoto has lapsed into silence again, too lost in organizing her thoughts to notice his slip. He can feel Morgana’s eyes on him, though, and makes a mental note to block out his evening for that conversation just as Makoto continues.

“When he-” she pauses once more, swallows. “When he died on the job, a few years ago, I only became more motivated to follow in his footsteps. I was… so convinced that there was some nigh-unstoppable tide of evil out in the world, that the police were gallant figures holding the line, and if I joined the police I could…”

“You wanted to help people,” Akira says quietly, filling in as Makoto trails off. Like you needed to be helped, he doesn’t continue, because maybe he’s projecting, though the resonance of his bond with her makes him think he probably isn’t.

Makoto gives a little self-deprecating scoff, turning to look at him for the first time. “I’m sure I sound like some naive idiot, don’t I? I even-” she barrels forward, frustration entering her voice, before Akira can even think to say anything in response, “- I would see stories of corrupt officers, mistreatment, false convictions, and every time I would write it off, or come up with excuses. But then I met you, and none of my excuses sat right even before I tried to blackmail you about dealing with Kaneshiro, and when his men grabbed me off the street the cops at the corner just watched as they forced me into the car and -”

The pen in Makoto’s hand snaps loudly, causing all three of them to jump as shards of plastic clatter across the table.

There is a long, frozen moment where everyone stares at her still-clenched fist and the crooked end of the pen barely kept in place by her grip. It’s broken only when Makoto lets out a loud, shuddering breath and drops the ruined remains of the pen to the table. Morgana makes a quiet noise and stands, crossing the table and sliding into her lap as Makoto presses her own hands to her face in an attempt to compose herself.

Akira gives her a minute, gathering and tossing the pen in the trash and wiping up the few stray drops of splattered ink before sitting next to her on the sofa. He leaves a little space, just in case – but it’s quickly closed, Makoto pressing her shoulder against his, Morgana’s purrs loud and soothing between them.

[prismatic-cannon]

wrt the p5 vball au (!!!!!) i'm pretty sure yusuke is canonically Very Bad at the sports (see beach episode, his absolute terrible performance in beach vball) but he is so tall and lanky... so stronk... but i cannot see him being particularly "athletic" and coordinated in that way (part of that is just me projecting my lack of coordination on him lmao.) granted he does have high agility plus the "scoundrel eyes," in royal, but i just don't see him actually... having that sort of hand-eye to hit ball and not whiff. of the kosei boys though... knowing its artsy reputation, i don't know if anyone has that lmao... though also with him being that tall, maybe he gets saddled with middle? but also. 180cm is still, like, libero height for a lot of teams lol

they do make the joke that mako too stronk for the boys a lot (again, see beach episode) but i think she'd probably follow her combat abilities and be really well rounded in both offence and defence. haru is really nimble and bendy, and probably has a great swing (axe) but idk if she has the height/hops for the net. akechi and joker being the setters... makes so much sense oh dear it's almost upsetting. though imagine them on the same team.... akechi would probably also make a great opposite (lefty, good power) as would joker (literally perfect) and we know they're both fairly athletic, which makes me think... 6-2? maybe they hit... and set....? i think you made mishmash a libero which makes a lot of sense?. i hc him as being faster and better than ppl give him credit for, despite him being the lamest canonically. (ilu mishima) and ryuji thinks this vball bullshit is lame af dude

this is a wall and tl;dr i think vb au is so good !!! i want to chew on it thank you sorry for too many words ;-;

damn anon you had some thoughts 😂 (gonna put this under a cut so i don't flood anyone's dash)

Tbh I totally forgot that there was a beach volleyball scene in Hawaii until you reminded me omg. The way Makoto spikes it hard into the sand ... a murderer 😂 But yes she's easily captain-material for sure, especially since she's already student council president and everything

I think people would underestimate Haru at first, but you could definitely give her an edge up on something e.g. one of those scary killer serves. Bottom line is that Haru should have her sweet murderous moment where she's bouncing delicately on her heels all \o/ \o/ \o/ oh my I hope you're ready — because I won't hold back!! 💕 while the opposing team cowers in fear or something lol. I love my wife can you tell

Middle blocker is totally viable for Yusuke too I think!! He's a tall guy, so he could definitely do stuff if he puts the work in. If this was based on canonverse then yeah I could see him whiffing the ball from time to time. I’m sure the hand/body coordination for handling a sword vs doing da sports ball is different lol. My reason for making him ace was so that he could be a temperamental but formidable ace, and place him as one of the key players for Kosei so that the Shujin team could have rivals to go up against ya know? I just think the idea of seeing Yusuke's murder eyes as he blasts a spike through a block is just. (chef's kiss) sublime shit. It would be an honour to die by his hand (also is 180cm really normal libero height?? All my volleyball knowledge is gleaned from HQ so I’m probably missing something lmao)

Also I see your point about making Akechi and Joker on the same team, but considering that it’s these two dudes we’re talking about I feel like we have to double down on their whole rival dynamic, it would be a crime not to imo (and this is coming from someone who hates shu/ake and Akechi lol). The setter mind games they could have with each other is too good — like if you have Akechi be his superficially genial and amiable self while Joker actively goes out of his way to antagonise him just to peel back that fake veneer of charm and throw him off his game??? Delish

😭 Mishima my beloved ... I think I mentioned this already but I really like the idea of him being a libero since it's a near 1:1 parallel to his role in canon (no spike, only support!!!!) I HC that his low-to-zero presence lowkey serves him well on court, in the sense that he's a solid defense player that quietly keeps chugging along and making sure the ball stays up while everyone else focuses on offense. He's a silly little NPC that keeps his head down and stays in his lane ... 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 Ofc sometimes the opposing team is going to target him to try and break through their defense, but once he gets into his zone it's hard to shake him off his groove imo. If you're telling me Mishima can hyperfixate this hard on his dumb little website then at least some of that focus is going to bleed into his vball game headspace (wow I didn’t go off on a shu/yuu tangent. it’s a miracle, let’s keep it that way)

Anyway thank you for your volleyball thoughts!! It’s always fun to think about it even though it’s too much effort to actualise it lmao

[theabysscomeshome]

For the meme, Venti, Zhongli, Ei, and Nahida. Archon squad let's goooo

I'll do my best.

Venti

Sexuality Headcanon: Who even knows. Does wind have sex? Does he still think about sex the way a wind spirit would? Did he just adopt his bard friend's sexuality as his own and move on? We just don't know. Gender Headcanon: Pretty sure that if Venti ever thinks about gender it's only to think up ways he can make it as chaotic and unorthodox as possible, because Something Something Freedom, amirite? A ship I have with said character: Venti/Xiao is pretty cute. Just the mental image of him going out of his way to play in a place where Xiao can hear it. For no reason other than to bring some peace to his soul ;o; A BROTP I have with said character: [shrug] The previous image does work just as well as a brotp. A NOTP I have with said character: [shrug] A random headcanon: Not a headcanon exactly (I... don't have many headcanons for Venti) but I've always wondered just how much Venti knows about why Kaeya is in Mondstadt, where Kaeya is from, and/or anything about his family slash the group that sent him (if different from the Abyss Order). General Opinion over said character: I'm gonna be honest, Venti is fine and all but I have always had basically zero interest in him as a character, oops.

Zhongli

Sexuality Headcanon: I am wide open. Willing to go with absolutely anything. Heck, maybe he's switched over the millenia. Gender Headcanon: I tend to go along with the fanon that he's been other genders before and just goes with what he feels like when he mingles with the humans. A ship I have with said character: I'm very fond of Zhongli/Childe, as I think most of my friends know. Zhongli/Venti can also be very fun. Haven't given a lot of thought to anything else. A BROTP I have with said character: Zhongli and Childe is way up there as a brotp I love. I also vastly prefer Zhongli & Guizhong as a platonic lifepartner ruling pair rather than a couple. A NOTP I have with said character: Again, don't think there's any particularly hated ones I've come across. Even Zhongli/Guizhong I don't hate, it's just not my preferred configuration. A random headcanon: He's kept in contact with every (or almost every) generation of funeral directors in Hu Tao's family, and in the past (when humanity was less removed from the gods and the adepti by necessity) has even collaborated with some as either Rex Lapis or a powerful adeptus, and this is the source of some of their knowledge of the spiritual world. General Opinion over said character: I like him. I don't spend a huge amount of time thinking about him, but when I do it's generally positive it's just not 'I will now spend a month fixating' kind of positive.

Ei

Sexuality Headcanon: Lesbian, probably. Sapphic definitely, given Miko. Gender Headcanon: Funnily enough the only time I've really thought about gender-adjacent things with Ei was in an ABO au where Ei just does not realize that a large part of her discomfort in trying to model being the perfect omega leader in place of her sister, is that she isn't an omega. But she's spent so long first as her sister's double and then as her replacement, that that whole feeling is intricately woven up into all the other ways she differs from Makoto. Anyway idk exactly how I would translate that into a non-ABO verse, but I feel like I'd want to bring over at least some of it, just because it does open up fun new layers with makoto and also dissolving her body and making new ones and possibly even the way she treats those bodies afterward. A ship I have with said character: I am fully in support of Ei/Miko, they deserve each other (said both affectionately and exasperatedly), and I tbh haven't thought that much about other ships, especially since I prefer Sara/Shogun over Sara/Ei. A BROTP I have with said character: With Miko again, naturally, and I'm also very curious about her old party (and Chiyo). A NOTP I have with said character: [shrug] Ei/Shogun maybe? But even then if you wrote it right (i.e. not ignoring their canon dynamic and power difference and agency issues) I might enjoy it. A random headcanon: I wonder sometimes if she never really felt she was qualified to run Inazuma, and her clones were (partly, initially) an attempt to make someone better that she could pretend was Makoto having things under control as always. (But they were never close, because she didn't really understand why Makoto did things or what she wanted, and so how could she ever recreate something similar?) General Opinion over said character: Pretty indifferent tbh. I haven't really been hooked by her character in general.

Nahida

Sexuality Headcanon: Man, she's a 500 year old kid whose entire knowledge of the world comes through people's dreams. She's either not thought about it at all before, or she's spent a lot of time watching people's wet dreams and documenting all the fascinatingly weird things humans dream up in them, and either way I have no idea how that translates into the first time she tries out something irl. Her previous self was probably bi tho. Gender Headcanon: Radish. A ship I have with said character: The goddess of flowers in her past life, definitely. Possibly a drama-filled ot3 with the two of them and Deshret. I haven't finished the archon quest yet but I'm shipping it even if it's jossed. In present-day idk. A BROTP I have with said character: [shrug] Fandom's really running with Nahida and Scaramouche rn, but idk if I'm feeling the dynamic most people are going with. We'll see how it plays out. A NOTP I have with said character: [shrug] A random headcanon: The first chunk of questline we get regarding her had me thinking she was actually created by Rukkhadevata as part of the Akasha system, and I'm still very fond of that. It's been jossed of course and no longer works at all with Genshin's storyline but there are, I think, some very fun things you could do with the concept in, say, a sci fi au where the Akasha system is some kind of galaxy spanning AI network. General Opinion over said character: There are parts of her I like and parts I'm indifferent to. I didn't end up liking her enough to pull in the end, so there's that. She does make an extremely cute radish.

[iamhereinthebg]

Is tbhk your fav manga? If not what is it?

I do love tbhk and it is among my fav manga when I see how much I talk about it ^^ I do have a fixation on it, but I know some manga I read had better written plots than tbhk :00

hmmmm my fav mangas :00 it is a hard question. I've read a lot of manga when I was a kid (the classics, like DB or One Piece) but I honestly don't have that much which stood out for me x')) especially because I have a really hard time with fan service and how female characters are written now ahah 

And I like absurd humor as much as I like compicated plots too x’))

ANYWAYS

Mangas I adore since I am a kid

Doraemone my beloved (I have so many shirts and merch from this, it’s insane) and Keroro, which is so so stupid (there is a strange fanservice in Keroro? But honestly I didn’t see it when I was a kid ahah)

Doraemon is a really good manga for a kid, with super creative ideas and stupid interactions :D It is mostly for kids but it those two still have a special place for me dhskjds

I ADORE YOTSUBA

I’ve been reading this manga since a really long time too and it is adorable and stupid I like it so much :DDD Yotsuba is adorable and a lot of my humor is coming from this manga tbh

The only series I am purchasing rn are tbhk, witch hat atelier and Heaven’s design team :DD

Kamome Shirahama is an absolute queen dshdkjs and I adore the story, characters and the artstyle which is absolutely insane! This take on magic is everything! If I had to recommend a manga I would go for this one! I do know it is pretty popular but there is a reason dhskdhskj

Heaven’s design team is so stupid and has no right being this pretty :DD If you want a cool manga to read, where you see designers having artblocks, the strangest ideas ever and stupid characters of all ages, while learning how animals work this is perfect :DDD

Gokushufudou is the best manga if you wanna laugh a lot x’) The art has no reason being this good again and the concept is hilarous :DD

 Im great priest Imhotep have a special place in my heart :DD 

Really basic shonen plot, but the characters are funny, the art is cool and there is a lot to learn about egyptian mythology ^^ (and I adore Makoto Morishita ahah she is so funny and talented) 

 Land of the lustrous is amazing too! (I haven’t read it in a while, because of the hiatus but the art is dhskjdhsj) A really original concept with a lot of good plot twist and characters ^^ 

The anime is really cool to watch too 

I really really like Jiro Taniguchi’s works! His writing style is really chill, not that much is happening, it’s just life in its simplest ways. And his water colors and drawings are insane, he is really good at doing backgrounds.

(if you can check the animation movie ‘le sommet des dieux’ too which is one of his manga it is incredible dshjds)

I really like the manga for Nausicaa. More violent and with deeper meaning than the movie (which I absolutely adore) and you can appreciate Miyazaki’s manga art :DDD

I am a big fan of Naoki Urasawa’s works too :DDD

I am reading 20th century boys rn But I really liked Pluto and Monster :DDD (Ig there are some triggers for these mangas? idk) I used to read astroboy as kid so his darker take on it is really nice to see :DDD and the plots are really greatly written, it is even hard sometimes to follow what’s happening :’DD

And that’s all I guess for now? :00 Nothing else is coming to mind ahah

I’ve been reading some others mangas as SpyxFamily for example but those are more famous ^^

Anyways! Thanks for the question anon :’DD and sorry If I rambled again dshjds

[sonianvmd]

thh characters with a crush on you

warnings: none, maybe some swearing but otherwise nothing major

oH and mentions of murder and death but this is danganronpa so im going to assume u expected as much

a/n: so we kickin this blog off with a bang, writing for LITERALLY THE ENTIRE TRIGGER HAPPY HAVOC CAST LMFAOAOAOAO (excluding hifumi, yasuhiro, and the two despairs doe bc i’ve already made that clear)

also some character’s sections are shorter than others im sorry i just couldnt think of as many bullet points for them *tiktok cry emoji*

edit: I FORGOT CELSESTE FU K SORRY

spoilers under the cut!!

★ 彡 ★ ミ ★ 彡 ★ ミ ★

makoto naegi

when he realizes he likes you, he doesn’t necessarily panic or anything, but he does get nervous

nervous around you, that is

y’all saw how he was with sayaka

if he says anything that might sound intimate then he’ll immediately rephrase it or reassure he didn’t mean anything by it

he really only does have good intentions but his wording just kinda flops sometimes

he appreciates how you listen to him and value what he says

you don't make him feel dumb or inferior compared to a bunch of ultimates with actual talents

he’ll muster up the courage to tell you eventually

let’s hope his luck comes through 😁

byakuya togami

now when THIS man realizes he likes you, he a bitch nigga bout it 😐

he can't believe he fell for a common plebeian such as you

but it was hard not to

the way you preferred to get to the point

the way you were aware of your situation and didn't sugarcoat how you felt about it, although you certainly were nicer with it than him

he's ruthless

anyways

you knew your priorities and spent no time trying to use your resources

he noticed how much you had in common; in you, he saw himself

and we all know how this mf feels about himself 😐

he’ll be quick to defend you in class trials

he won’t realize he’s doing it but he just subconsciously protects you

but just because he doesn't notice it, don't mean the rest of the class brushes past it as well

yeah they on his ass LMFAOO

kyoko kirigiri

kyoko is very good at keeping her composure so she won’t be very obvious

she’ll probably just hang around you more

she’ll also defend you in class trials, calmly

“oh, it couldn’t have been [name]. i remember seeing them in their dorm around the time the murder took place.”

hifumi probably finna say some dumb shit like “aye what was you doin in their dorm doe” but anyways

she finds you respectable

if you have anything to contribute, she’ll let you take the floor

when she tells you, she’s very composed, but also very indirect LMFAO

she’s not too sure on how to express her interest in you but maybe she’ll go about it like “well, [name], now we’ve made it here, would you like to step back into the world with me?” or somethin else along those lines idk

take her hand

pls

toko fukawa

y’all know her whole “master togami” shtick

yeah so 😁😁😁😁

no but fr, toko ofc still has her borderline stalkerish 🧍🏾‍♀️ tendencies

she’ll often find herself staring at you, either in the library or in the morning meetings everyday at breakfast

but she isn’t as straight forward as she is with byakuya

i actually think she’d be mad shy and non confrontational

the whole thing she kept up with him ? yeah, never again

if you approach her first then she’ll be able to get a few words out but for most of the conversation, she’ll just nervously play with her braids

you’ll most likely put two and two together

unless ur a makoto kinnie bc then you’ll have to wait till someone else puts it in place for u but anyways

if you decide to approach her about it, you’ll kinda be backing her into a corner bc she’s just bad at deflecting things lmao

she’ll eventually confess (begrudgingly but hey i mean its better than nothing)

expect much stuttering and a gesture like giving you a small gift

and not to be that writer that uses japanese terms in english writing but toko seems like a tsundere but not really if that makes sense?? so she’d probably shove it in your hands and if you try to say something then she’ll just try to play it off as not a big deal lol

calls u a baka 😍😍

aoi asahina

i know y’all all see how she is with sakura

yeah.

aoi is the kind of person who’d like to spend time with their crush rather than shy away from them

she values you and your friendship very much

bring her donuts

just trust me bring her donuts

she doesn’t really realize she’s into you like that for a while but believe me, she is, the whole time

and yeah i think she’d be nervous to tell you bc that’s just natural but ultimately she’d be cool about it

uh oh looks like we goin for a swim

sakura ogami

similar to kyoko, she’s very calm

despite her big and bad appearance, she really is a sweet girl

she cares for you and your well-being very much

will indeed go on x games mode for you

the way she tells you is very sincere and well spoken

kith her

naow

im sorry this is like the shortest one i couldn’t think of much for her 😔😔

leon kuwata

flirtatious ass mf

and he’s lightskin

so this just cannot go well

y’all know that bit where it’s like the guy yawns and stretches his arms up and then wraps one around your shoulder

yeah that’s literally him LMFAOO

he’s very confident

he was fairly well known with the ladies at his old school so you know he’s rhockin wit it ‼️

but

you feel.. different than usual ??

those girls were just lil flings n dates bc he was nice enough to accept their confessions and it boosted his ego anyway so it was a win win

but you

he was genuinely interested in you since he had saw you the first time

he didn’t just acknowledge your appearance

he learnt about your personality and your hobbies and what you liked and such, and he really cared and wanted to hear you talk about it all

he felt the need to really make an effort to show you how much he respected and had affections for you

he doesn't tell you in a grand way

probably just asks you out to a movie or somethin

he's chillin

mondo owada

you know

for being the biggest, baddest, most respected biker gang leader

or just for being in a biker gang period

mondo’s a huge softie lol

yeah he gets violent but he’s a sweet guy who cares about and is loyal to his friends

so mfs need to be nice to you

or they gettin whooped

when he decides it’s time to tell you how he feels, he thinks over his words and he’s all confident there’s no way you’d reject him but then he sees you in the halls and goes 🧍🏾 LMFAOOO

he’ll push through but it’s like he’ll walk up to you and look away from you because he refuses eye contact and just go

“so y/n, would you wanna.. tch.. come to a drive-in movie with me or somethin’?... dumbass.”

real smooth mondo i think you got em good job

please tease him LMFAOO it’d be so funny

he’d probably yell but you can tell he’s not mad so you just keep going with it

but once you’re done tormenting him, you do agree to the movie, don’t worry 🙏🏾

also mondo would call his s/o doll

that is all

chihiro fujisaki

my fav dude in a dress <3

chihiro would be quite shy, but that’s just how he is tbh so no surprise there

he’s very kind so he’d check up on you often just to see how you are

he cares about you v much

the way he confesses is one that consists of a red face as he offers you a box of candy or something similar

and he’d feel honored that you reciprocate his feelings

he’d be very scared to tell you his secret but once he does, he’s delighted to hear it doesn’t make any difference to you

he doesn’t know how he got so lucky with you

not only because woooo they like me back but also because you like him despite,, well everything about him LMFAOO

sweet lil boy

i’d feel like he’d talk about you to alter ego a lot

and when u meet the program for the first time, he’s like “oh! you must be [name]! master’s told me all about you :)”

sobbing i miss him

kiyotaka ishimaru

okay here’s the thing

if taka were to like someone

i can’t tell whether he’d be more strict because he doesn’t want them to get in trouble (and also so it would hopefully divert any suspicion that he DOES like you since he treats you the same as everyone else, only more)

or if he’d hold back more because he favors them LMFAOO

so imma write a lil bit for both

in the case that he was even stricter:

he’d prefer to be around you because he believes the best way he can make sure you stay out of trouble is to make sure you don’t get into any in the first place

of course it’s impossible to monitor you every second of every day but he does his best to make sure you’re doing well

if he sees you do anything out of line, he’s shutting that shit down IMMEDIATELY

but in the case he let up:

he’d still lecture you but noticeably less than the other students

if your feet were resting on top of a desk, he’d ask you to move them and then leave you alone rather than yell at you and forcibly move them himself

if you notice his behavior towards you in comparison to the other students do not tease him about it he will go as red as his eyes /hj

either way he’s confessing to you with a polite but exaggerated bow while holding out a well thought out letter with both hands

sayaka maizono

she will tell you

idk why but i feel like she’d be straight up lol

she’d make sure she’s sincere

she is the ultimate pop idol and all so she wants to make sure you know that she really does like you and isn’t playing a sick joke on you or anything

ok bc

while i do think she’d tell you

i’d feel like she’d be a little indirect just to see how you feel

like she’d give you a free ticket to one of her upcoming concerts with a kind smile

and naturally, you're like :o

and of course you come to support her

and seeing you smile at her from the crowd and cheer her on was the encouragement she needed to push her to ask you out

for real this time

she asks if you wanna come to a concert with her and ur like “oh yeah i love ur shows!!” bc ur dumb and then she’s like “no i mean.. for another artist” and eventually it hits you that she’s asking you out and ur like “oH YEAH YEAH SURE THAT SOUNDS GREAT YEAH OK” LMFAOO

———

i really hope that this is good LMFAOO this is my first time writing for dr so 😃👍🏾

fun fact i finished toko’s section first and taka’s last 😁😁

and i’d like to thank @mius-imagination @bloodygir n the rest of the discord for helping me figure some of these characters out *simultaneously whips and nae naes*

bye ive been working on this for like weeks this took forever

———

edit: here’s a deleted section bc i kept blanking for this character 😍

[redxblueihateloveyou]

Am I the only one who doesn’t get why some (tw) are shitting on Haru and Rin separately just for the fact that they reciprocate each others feelings? Because it’s not the feelings they wanted them to reciprocate? Just curious because I'm new and recently entered the fandom. And since when miscommunication in between means that they don't deserve to be happy at the end? Because you're an idiot when it comes to love, doesn't mean you're a bad person. I came from chinese bl and it's weird to me.

Hehe welcome to the madness, perfect time to join! Yeah, tbh that's the thing in the fandom that always bugged me the most. The fact that some act like if you don't reciprocate someone's feelings, it makes you a bad person. I always found it incredibly cringy when ppl in real life for example make ppl feel guilty for not feeling the same way and make you feel like shit bc of it. I don't get why you have to apologize for that or feel bad, if you never ever gave him any hope or anything in the first place.

Nowdays it's thankfully a rare sight already in this fandom, bc most already grown and see perfectly what's truly healthy and unhealthy, it's just tbh only the same 3 accounts ppl keep sending me that are still on that, who also think that Haru is literally possessed in the last movie so I don't see the point of like arguing with ppl like this. It's just they're always getting extremely angry when Haru wants Rin as if it's his fault that he feels this way and always go about it like he is inconsiderate of Makoto's feelings. Implying that they're mad that he doesn't feel that way about Makoto, while Makoto does. I'm same as @tododeku-or-bust for example said here (idk what fandom brought this on, but just in general) also do not get what's appealing about this kind of relationships in the first place.

If they shipped it in terms of like it's mutual I'd get it, but they go on about how Rin or Haru are bad friends bc they're not in love with their best friends... like ?????? I didn't know you owe it to your friends to have romantic feelings for them.

In real life if you found out that your bestie feels that way for you while you don't reciprocate, it's a burden, that'll make you feel uncomfortable and at times guilty when you shouldn't technically feel that way. So putting on someone a burden of "I was pining for you all along", when you know they don't feel the same is giving me this feeling of cringe. So I personally do not get what's enjoyable at seeing it like that in Free. But to each their own kink lmao.

It's like... is Haru at fault for the fact that he was Ikuya's first love too? I do not get it really. Like he doesn't have to take responsibility for everyone who falls for him and he doesn't owe anyone to reciprocate their feelings. Even to Rin. Like if he didn't feel the same way for Rin, it wouldn't be his fault either. But since he does feel the same way for him, it's like... good, great, happy for them.

Like once again if someone believes that Makoto and Sousuke are unrequitedly in love with Rin and Haru, that's not rinharu fault. Haru literally never ever lead Makoto on EVER. He never ever did anything that would make Makoto believe that they're more than friends. He was always honest about everything. Like when Makoto thought that he went out to see him, but Haru just wanted to see the sunrise, he told him just that. He never encoraged anything, he refused to live with him and never wanted. I do not get why it's supposed to be his fault that he doesn't like his friend in that way. If Makoto has some unrequited feelings for him and decided to hang up on this, it's his own life choice in my opinion.

It's like saying that Onodera and Takano for example don't deserve to be together just because they unintentionally hurt each other and got separated for 10 years bc of misunderstanding. This argument is like typical Yokozawa life position aka "but I was there when he left you heartbroken for several years, that means you MUST pick me". As I've said before, that's just not how it fucking works. And just bc they couldn't explain things to each other normally, doesn't mean that they don't deserve be happy now. Being idiots is not a crime.

Or if you came from chinese bl, lets go "Guardian" for example. Zhu Hong also was on about how "why you love Shen Wei, not me, I always did everything for you and I was always there, I even wore heels bc you once said you liked those etc". Like he never asked her to do this, he never gave her any hope, he was beyond rude and open about the fact that he's not interested, he never did anything to make her think she had a chance since the beginning. Just bc she decided to dedicate her life to false hope that maybe one day something might change is not his fault. It was her choice. Why Yunlan should feel like shit bc of that I do not get personally.

I'm just buffled bc like Haru for example is the most caring about other ppl's pain person, but they call him selfish and rude bc of the way he is with Makoto at times, not even realising that it IS in fact what means being kind sometimes.. to not give someone a chance when you know you don't feel it. I was always saying this like since forever, being kind doesn't mean for example giving everyone second chances, loving everyone, wanting to be friends with anyone etc. In some situations it's not being kind, it's being stupid or even not being a good person. Once again... offering someone friendship after he openly dissed your friend and you see that he's not in any position to talk back is not kind. Or if someone cheats on you constantly, but you always forgive them it's also not you being kind. It's you being stupid. Sometimes you have to be harsh. It's for the greater good.

And like I saw several times stuff like someone under scenes where Rin has his eyes for Haru only, commenting like "oh great, look at Rin being inconsiderate of Sousuke's feelings again. Can't believe you guys find this romantic." I mean, if in their opinion Sousuke is in pain from being Rin's friend, he can end it, it's his choice. It's not Rin's fault that he thinks of him as just his friend. So thinking that Rin is an asshole bc each time he simply hangs out with Sousuke he's a selfish bitch is fucking insane. I'd feel extremely bad if my best friend was seeing it this way for example. It's like hella ugly.

This annoys me also bc of the fact that Rin, the person who at the age of 12 single-handedly saved his family from falling apart after his father's death, who's an amazing friend to Sousuke and did everything to make his happy after he found out about his trauma and always checks on him first and cries about his shoulder, who in the late evenings taught Rei to swim, when everyone else gave up already xD, who was looking after Nitori during his training, who pretends to walk the same road, just because he's scared to let Gou return alone in the evenings, the most amazing son and brother, is suddenly an asshole just because Haru is in love with him, but not with Makoto. I mean, thats just... huh? Like I dont mind you ship what you want to ship, it's like to each their own crayons for real. But like dissing them and call them selfish just bc they only see their friends as friends and don't want anything more is weird to me.

As for the fact that bc of the misunderstanding they don't deserve to be happy, that's just idiotic. I mean, lets punish Wei Wuxian and Lan Zhan too just bc Lan Zhan couldn't voice his real feelings back then and bc WWX misunderstood him. Lets ship WWX with Wen Ning instead. Nezumi is cancelled, he doesn't deserve to be with Shion. He left him. Takano should stay with Yokozawa, Onodera is trash. Wu Xie is trash for wanting to be with Zhang Qiling too. It doesn't matter why he leaves, it only matters that he always does. I can't believe he doesn't see that Pangzi is there with him all along xD. What an ungrateful trash of a human being I can't even.

And anyways btw both Rin and Haru are not ideal human beings in any way (otherwise I wouldn't love them this much tbh xD). But their flaws are definitely not what for example mh shippers usually blame them for. You can argue about their other imperfections easily. Like being stupidly stubborn for example. I won't point fingers here, Haru lolz. Or literally anything else.

My point is you can find what to trash them for logically, if you wanna. Do it smartly tho. Otherwise you make your ship look bad.

And I once again say what wise person said about his relationships and about the fact that not being able with someone he loves hurt him and 'why is he doing this to himself' he answered: "it's not on him. my happiness and my pain is for me to handle". Everyone decides for themselves. This is why for example Haru was so broken about voicing this to Rin and didn't have any intentions to tell him that in the first place. Bc it's not right, if you're not sure that it's requited. Technically he has no right to blame Rin for making him fall in love with him and then leaving in the first place. It's not Rin's fault really, that he made him feel what he feels for him, it's ultimately Haru's problem. That's why he feels has no right to blame him in the first place. I mean, he doesn't know that Rin feels the same, that means saying to him "you break my heart each time you leave" and making him feel bad about it is technically wrong. That's why Haru to himself said "no, please, don't say such things to him". Everyone for himself decides who deserves your 5, 7, 800 or 10000 years of your pain. It's your decision. It's your life. If Haru feels like Rin is worth it, then you have no say in that matter really. The only reason we call Rin an idiot or Haru an idiot is because we know they feel the same, so we can. But blame someone else for not feeling what you're feeling is not right.

So like even if you feel like Makoto and Sousuke have feelings for their friends, blaming Haru and Rin for having feelings for each other and not for them is beyond weird. And there's nothing wrong with putting someone you love first, every bro/sis gets it. You can say bros before hoes all you want, but like Lan Zhan might just drop his bro for his hoe, if he was given a choice. Would it make him a bad person? The fact that Wu Xie chose to save Xiaoge before Pangzi makes his a bad person? My point is it's not all that easy.

I just feel like many ppl in this fandom are very weird about many things. Either because they do not get what it's like to go through some things or maybe they just do not get that no matter how cheesy this sounds love is not that simple. I mean, for example not all selfish is bad, sometimes like in Haru's case for example not being selfish is also bad. Bc if he finally asks for what he wants, he will make both himself AND Rin happy.

To be angry at Rin bc of the aftermath of his father's death and s1 I never had it in me, after knowing everything and how adults handled it. If some of Sousuke's fans bc of Yakusoku and the fact that Rin found his salvation in Haru bc he helped him to move forward after getting his family out of this hell alone and that Haru was the safe haven that made him happy in this moment of his life, want to trash Rin for the fact that he "neglected" Sousuke, its like your opinion. I personally do not get it. Rin doesn't owe Sousuke anything. It's not his fault again that Haru's existence helped him to feel better.

Just like not everyone will get why Haru in 1x12 was so happy about the fact that he could help Rin. To be that special somebody for someone who can "save" you in moments of your life like this, especially if you love them is an incredible feeling. And no, your bestie isn't always the person for this job, no. I don't see why people do not get that I guess, that's all. But we all have our own opinion on everything, so...

We same as you do not get it since forever, but its like it is what it is in this fandom. I personally just have another life position on stuff, so I'm very far from that point of view they have.

[caffernnn]

I just read the post about Haru and Rin’s pain and loss and how it affects them. And I agree. I’m interested to see how the movie will wrap those themes up and how it will address how those themes also affect Makoto. Because he has experienced loss as well and it may have been buffered because he has his family that acts as his main support system, where as Haru and Rin had different experiences. Throughout the series he experiences different examples of loss with the fisherman, his goldfish, when Haru began to isolate himself. It’s also continuously brought up throughout Makoto’s stroyline. He has nightmares about being left behind by Haru and Final Stroke seems to be addressing some of these fears. So I’m curious how the second movie will tie all of these themes together and wrap them up nicely.

Makoto has such an interesting and complex relationship with grief that I’ve lowkey been obsessed with for months now. I need to make a collection of the little rants I’ve done about it (a lot of it has been just,, screaming over discord or in DMs) because a fundamental part of understanding Makoto’s character is how he grieves and goes about processing (or trying to skip processing) loss in his life. I know Fee and I talked about the timeline and impact of some of those key events you mentioned, and I really want to dig deeper into Makoto’s nightmares/visions plus the goldfish imagery again after hearing about a certain spoiler (won’t mention here but it sounds like you’ve heard about it??). I’m with you on hoping that it’s something that gets more acknowledgement by the end of both movies, because for all of the ways Rin and Haru’s actions/motivations/fears are born from notable moments of loss, so much of Makoto’s choices are as well.

Without writing out an essay about it (although I’m like… down for that tbh), one of the biggest conclusions I’ve come to about how Makoto processes loss is that it’s difficult for him to feel ownership of / justification for his personal right to grieve. When he’s going through those big losses and threats of loss as a young child (particularly with losing the fisherman and then Haru almost drowning soon after), he has such strong formative emotions that it instills some of his biggest fears in him. He’s not necessarily taught to repress those emotions, but as he feels the pressures of growing older, he looks back on those fears, those manifestations of his grief, with a sense of guilt. He looks at how the town of Iwatobi seemed to move on after the storm passed, he looks at how people like the Matsuokas dealt with losing Toraichi, and it feels hard to justify his immense sadness and fear of the ocean in comparison. He looks at how Haru was the one who experienced almost drowning, yet Haru wasn’t the one paralyzed in fear when the twins got stranded for a moment in the ocean, and that guilt eats away at him again. He has fears and gets startled, and his friends are aware of that (spooky stories, loud sounds, etc), but the fear Makoto has of the ocean is much more guarded because it’s something he’s learned to regard in his heart with guilt - he can’t justify entertaining or allowing himself to accept/process a fear that disconnects him from his community and friends. When Makoto insists on the ocean training camp and rushes in to save Rei when everything goes wrong, we aren’t just seeing Makoto’s love for his friends and desire to connect with his team overpower his fear. We’re witnessing Makoto actively trying to not address his fear/grief/experiences in the first place because he can’t (won’t) accept that part of himself.

Coming back to why any of this matters in relation to Final Stroke and how Makoto deals with the idea of losing friends in the more recent parts of the story: Makoto’s hesitancies to confront his friends or fight to stay by their side when they start to fall out of reach are born of that same guilt-ridden history with grief. Thinking back to Makoto’s race with Haru in ES or his nightmare of Haru diving out of reach from TM, part of the reason he fears watching them go down separate paths and Haru flying forward with pro-swimming is that he loves and believes in Haru enough to let him go. Makoto hates the idea of being without his best friend, of course, but he almost hates the idea of being the one to hold him back even more. This is why he avoids confrontations to a frustrating degree (among other reasons): he still struggles with processing or accepting any of his emotions if he thinks it’ll inconvenience others, so he tries to bottle them up and convince himself that they’re not there and not his because accepting them is a terrifying loss of his illusion of control. If/when Makoto continues to be reluctant to reach out or confront Haru if/when he starts to spiral (like when Haru went MIA after losing to Albert the first time in DttF), we can’t be surprised because it’s born from emotions he still hasn’t given himself the time or grace to process. I hope he finally gets to, even just a little bit, by the time this whole story ends.

This was a hodgepodge of errant Makoto thoughts but TL;DR yes yes anon I agree with you absolutely

[merry-kuroo]

Top 10 2020 Anime

Hello everyone! Its the last day of 2020, and like with every year, here is my top 10 anime list. This list covers anime that aired this year only :) Hopefully you can use this list as a recommendation for something to watch. But tbh this list is for me to remember which wonderful anime made my year a little brighter :D I apologize for any typos lol.

1.) Tower of God

AHHH! I love Tower of God so much!! So, I almost dropped it at episode 1 because I was really confused. But I stuck with it and I’m glad I did. Tower of God gave me HxH vibes, but it was still different enough where I didn’t need to compare the two. The opening and ending by Stray Kids was amazing too.

Because I loved Tower of God so much, I made a Webtoon account and ever since then I’ve been hooked on Webtoons. I’m really glad they partnered with Crunchyroll to bring us this anime!

I read the TOG Webtoon and it explained things a lot better. I highly recommend going to read it after watching the anime!

I hope there is a season 2, but I won’t get my hopes up :( I’m sure this anime was just advertisement for the comic.

So, yeah, go check out Tower of God <3

2.) Great Pretender

WIT Studio has done it again. First with Attack on Titan, then Seraph of the End. They keep bringing me my favorite animes.

I love animes that feature a found family, and cons. Great Pretender brought all of that and more. Great characters, jokes, missions, and music. The music in Great Pretender is fantastic (I mean the ending song is a Queen song!)

I still stand by my opinion that Part 1 was better. I wasn’t a huge fan of season 2 and the ending as well. I think they dropped the ball. But I still won’t let that stop me from recommending it to you! It was still fun to watch :D

I’m going to miss Team Confidence <3

3.) Weathering With You

So, I have been a fan of Makoto Shinkai’s movies for a long time (5 Centimeters Per Second will always have a special place in my heart). So, when I saw that Weathering With You was coming to the movie theater, I immediately purchased a ticket. It was such a surreal experience watching in the theaters.

This was the last movie I saw in theaters before...you know >.> I’m glad this movie was my last too. It makes it even more special.

Everyone, please go see this movie. It’s beautiful. It will make you laugh and cry. I left the theater with tears in my eyes. It was such a amazing experience. I’m patiently waiting for his next movie!

4.) Kaguya Sama: Love is War Season 2

My favorite rom-com returned with a season 2. The opening is still stuck in my head. It always will be lol.

Anyway, this season was not only hilarious, but there was development between Kaguya and Miyuki <3

Miko IIno was also a interesting character. She is so different from everyone else, so I’m excited to see how being on the student council will change her. Maybe she and Ishigami will start to get long lol.

Another thing that made this season special was Ishigami’s backstory, and how Miyuki saved him. I just really love their bromance, okay?

Please go check out Kaguya Sama: Love is War if you haven’t! It’s funny and heart warming <3

5.) Jujutsu Kaisen

I’ve been hyped for this anime for like a year! When it was announced last November, I was like AFJAIOFJAOGLJMAPOGJ

I love the manga, and the adaption is doing a fantastic job so far. I definitely ended up loving Sukuna more due to the anime adaption though lmaooo.

Not a lot to say here except, go watch Jujutsu Kaisen <3 and read the manga!

6.) Moriarty the Patriot

I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this anime or not. I only started watching it because people said Sebastian Moran was Daddy! Kuroo lmaooo

But I have to say...I do like that Albert was like “Oh yes lets bring William and Albert into our home” then William was like “Haha hey Albert do you hate the upper class and nobility too? You wanna murder your brother and parents, burn down the house, and reform society?” And Albert is like “DON’T MIND IF I DO!” (The Moriarty brothers are wild af, my God.)

I liked each individual case, and it got even more intense when Sherlock and John were introduced. Super excited for season 2!

The opening and ending songs are also fantastic. Go give them a listen!

7.) Digimon Adventure 2020/Digimon Adventure Tri/Last Evolution Kizuna

Tfw you go to buy tickets Digimon Last Evolution Kizuna, but all the movie theaters shut down :(

ANYWAY

I was super hyped when Last Evolution Kizuna was announced, and then the reboot of the 1999 anime. I finished up Digimon Adventure Tri...which could’ve been better tbh. I only liked the first three movies, so at least I got some good content out of them lol.

I like the new spin on the new Digimon anime, and I’m excited to see what they’ll do next. I kinda want a reboot of 02 Digimon...and Digimon Tamers and Frontier, but that may be pushing it lmao.

Last Evolution Kizuna was absolutely phenomenal. It was the perfect 20th anniversary movie :)

8.) Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun

Another show I started at the beginning of the year! I read the manga in 2019, and I was happy to hear it was getting a anime adaption! I enjoyed this series a lot, and I really want there to be a second season. I feel like some stuff was left out. But the anime might have been created just to promote the manga.

The opening song, the different wonders of the school, and the art style quickly made this one of my favorites!

9.) Idolish7 Second Beat

Idolish7 is vastly underrated. It’s more than just pretty guys singing and dancing. Every character in the show has gone through their own hardships, and all the characters are fleshed out well.

The second season did not disappoint. It still served me with a good dose of angst, drama, and comedy.

And season 3 was announced!!! I wasn’t expecting that, so that surprise made me really happy <3.

I was really sad when Idolish7 stopped airing back in the spring, but I’m glad they were able to finish up the season this year :D

10.) Haikyuu!! To the Top

Alright, so my excitement deflated when Part 1 aired back in January. I hated the new art style and while Part 1 did have some good character development moments, I was really bored :/

The OVAs were really good though >.> I love Nekoma and Fukrodani so those were fun to watch.

Part 2 was a 100 times better. I accepted the fact that the art style wasn’t going to change and we wouldn’t have those cute breaks where the volleyball players would serve the ball and hit the water bottle. Once I got over that, I found myself enjoying part 2.

The two Nekoma episodes,the episodes focusing on the Miya Twins and Kita were my personal favorites. But overall, Karasuno vs. Inarizaki was fantastic and I enjoyed it a lot!

I need season 5 to be announced already!!!!!!! PLEASE!!!

[shiningjoy]

so i’ve finally watched s3 of free! and i wanted to put my thoughts in about it and hopefully also get some ppl to reply (respectfully) with their own input? also sorry if my knowledge of free seems spotty or incomplete since i don’t obviously have all free lore burned into my head so pls inform or correct me on anything i’m missing!

anyways before even watching s3, i noticed it was pretty widespread that s3 was rather disappointing or at least fell short to s1&2. and not only that, but i could see that s3 was likely going to be a bit disappointing just bc of how many less ppl were interested in it or even knew about it (ofc popularity=/=good but i doubted that the loss in numbers was just bc time had passed) sadly, the season actually exceeded my expectations of the worst.

first of all, i think way too many characters were introduced without any need of them being there. ofc not all of them seemed worthless to being there, but i think at least half of them didn’t have a need of being there (or at least didn’t need to appear as much as they did) or they could’ve at least waited to introduce them. don’t get me wrong, i loved characters like isuzu and albert, but with how little they appeared or added to the plot, i don’t think they were necessary at all. they introduced so many characters and kind of tried to forcefully endear them to us but it just seemed really shallow and random. i was really uninterested in the new iwatobi hs sc tbh (i love rei and nagisa, but i just don’t feel anything for the new members tho it was funny how the new manager is interested in fat instead of muscles) i don’t think isuzu was worth introducing, but i do get why they introduced albert at least. he was supposed to serve as their first rival introduced strictly from the professional world, and to emphasize there are many people above them not just in japan but the “world stage” but i definitely think they could’ve waited on that until the free 2021 movie tbh. plus i felt that any conflict he brought to haru was resolved within 1 maybe 2 episodes so yea they definitely didn’t really need him bc he hasn’t had much impact (yet) if anything, they could’ve just had him briefly appear at that training camp haru was at to race him and beat him to remind him that he still has a long way to go to get to the top. but all other appearances of albert were so extra and unnecessarily emphasized how inhumanely talented he was (the arcade scene, the thing with the chopsticks,etc) it just felt like really weak foreshadowing

also, the main conflict in s3 was just way too prolonged and solved unsatisfactorily. first of all, i don’t know why the blame seemed to be shifted by ikuya and hiyori almost solely to haru, like yes he was the one who quit first but it wasn’t an attack specifically to ikuya and the rest of them left too, so they should’ve held more grudges on haru makoto and asahi rather than just haru (or if anything at least have more blame on asahi bc makoto at least talked to ikuya beforehand) like did he just forget asahi also made a promise to not move away? honestly from the content they gave us, i’d argue that asahi and ikuya were actually closer than how ikuya and haru were, since i feel like most of the latter relationship was based on ikuya admiring harus swimming.

second of all, hiyori was another character i found so unnecessary and just weirdly protective over ikuya. he repeatedly gets in the way between them and ikuya when ikuya never said he didn’t want to talk to them (and it’s not like talking to them is gonna give him a health relapse) and so he just seemed to be there to prolong the conflict between them which was irritating. not even natsuya, ikuya’s actual brother, was that obsessive over him so i really don’t get hiyori. even sousuke, who was actually friends with rin before haru and the others were was not that possessive over rin, and there was actually pretty good reasoning why he had a grudge against haru (he didn’t see haru taking swimming as seriously as rin and thought that would cause him to hold back rin who looked up to haru, and was jealous that haru who had the talent to swim the world stage with rin wasn’t taking advantage of it when sousuke wanted to but couldnt bc of his injury) and like what right did he have to say to haru that his swimming hurts others when it didn’t even affect ikuya negatively (instead it inspired him and led to him wanting to swim like haru) like how haru originally thought it did to rin and how it did to asahi in high speed 2?

third of all, like i said before the way they solved the conflict between ikuya and the rest made little sense. like yes harus swimming is magical but i don’t get how swimming IM with him could instantly solve all the problems between them. (ik that it was based on the promise they made to race each other but i’ll get into that part and how shallow it felt later) if anything, i think what would’ve been more impactful was something happening to ikuya that made him realize that he can/should rely on/trust others, (maybe a more serious accident?) and enjoy swimming with a team and not just alone since his personal conflict was that he thought swimming alone was better than swimming with others when actually he was lonely (at least it was in starting days). and that wouldn’t even have to be with haru and the others that he learns that lesson. it could be with his own university team and hiyori, which would give hiyori a much better purpose of being there. (or they could’ve just not had him exist) if they were so inclined to have closure between ikuya and the other boys by having them resolve ikuyas personal conflict, i feel like it should’ve been at least haru AND asahi (maybe even makoto too but idk how thatd work when he’s no longer competing) racing him in the same race (if not them doing a relay but i guess they didn’t want to make it too obvious than they already were that they were just recycling the plot of s1 (lol)) if anything i think they could’ve even waited for them to reconcile while they were on the olympic team, but ig kyoani didn’t want to wait that long to reintroduce ikuya and wanted to use s3 to warm ppl up to the idea of ikuya being on the olympic team which they didn’t do very well considering how bad the development was

also what was with ikuya saying he swims his own way while obviously taking sm inspiration fron the way haru swam? it was so contradictory and even as kids haru told ikuya to swim his own way when ikuya told him that he wanted to be like haru and he understood that obviously but didn’t apply that to his actions at all? and i’m surprised haru was ok with ikuya blatantly copying him when i vaguely rmb that he’s been shown to get annoyed with even makoto when he seemed to be doing that?

another fault in having all these characters was that haru’s actual personality seemed to be taken away for the sake of these characters.

they wanted to establish a deeper relationship between ikuya and haru, but it just seemed so off the way they went about it in free! haru promising ikuya to race him just felt so ooc to me and had little emotional impact tbh bc of the lack of reasoning i felt haru had to agree to such a thing besides him promising ikuya that just bc he asked rather than bc he actually wanted to race ikuya. (while it took rin weeks to get haru to warm up to him and then agree to the relay, and seeing the process of haru getting used to the idea then openly enjoying swimming with the others was really touching) i think they just added that to make harus quitting have more impact on ikuya but i don’t think it was necessary at all when they already made plans with the rest to swim the relay again and win. if they wanted to make it seem like ikuya and haru had more of a one on one relationship with each other they should’ve gone into more about how haru saw the same darkness in ikuya that he did in himself like in high speed 2. make them bond over their similarities since i’m pretty sure ikuyas purpose as a character is to give haru a rival that is like how sousuke is to rin is; which is being rivals while being two of the same person. (in contrast to haru and rin who are very different and are rivals that inspire each other) but the way they try to establish the relationship between ikuya and haru pales sm in comparison to sousuke and rin that it’s a bit laughable, even more so in those occasional moments where they try to act like ikuya can measure up to rin’s impact on haru

another much more obvious event where haru’s character is forced to act ooc for the sake of the establishment of another character is with albert. yes, haru has grown a lot from the beginning of the series and has gotten a lot more open, expressive, and friendly, but that’s mostly just to the friends around him, but that’s not even to all of them (he still seems to find kisumi irritating and in TYM tries to leave at the sight of him lol) so him noticing, randomly approaching a stranger he doesn’t know a single thing about to help them order food and then even going far as to have lunch with him was the most blatantly ooc thing in the season. i think he may be polite enough to help him order his food but i don’t get why he even noticed albert in the first place. they should’ve just left him noticing albert to be at the practice race. like i said that scene was just there to emphasize albert’s skill with the chopstick thing but i think saying he was the world record holder and also being way ahead of haru in the race was already enough

besides haru’s character, another character i felt they did wrong was makoto. besides the plot of s1 being recycled, s3 makoto seemed to just repeat the development he went through in s2. by the end of s2, he already establishes that he wants to coach swimmers. and at the end of s3 he comes to that same realization but acts like it’s something completely new to him introduced by nao that he never thought of before?? the only difference was that he said in s2 he wanted to help kids realize how great swimming is, which was sweet and suited his personality, but in s3 he says he wants to do it for athletes on the world stage. tbh i like either way, and the latter one would help him be able to stand with rin and haru who in s2 he was afraid of being left behind by (hence why he swam the free against haru in s2) but saying that being an olympic trainer can also help him inspire kids and show them swimming is fun makes no sense. choose a path you want for the character already and make it consistent does he want to help athletes in the world stage or does he want to help kids fall in love with swimming? bc i doubt any kids pay attention to the coach or trainers in the olympics rather than the actual athletes so that reasoning like i said didn’t make sense.

and after haru lost what i think was the 200m (?) free at the All Japan Invitational, i found it weird that they had makoto there after to talk with haru and rin about the race? idk to me it just feels like it’s tradition for it to end up just being rin and haru talking when they’re struggling with swimming (in s1 was their fight in front of the tree that looked like the one by their elementary, in s2 it was the australia trip) his presence didn’t even feel necessary either, he just randomly interrupted the moment by saying his future plans after haru had that angst yell lol. it felt like just an appeal to mh shippers which is not a good enough reason at all

the last point i can remember at the moment is that the ending was so underwhelming. i don’t understand why they couldn’t have shown the ending to rin and harus 100m free race when the movie trailer already confirms that they’re going to the olympics. why cut to albert watching them on the tv?? all this build up to not even show the results of it? I think this ending really just confirmed that s3 was so unnecessary and just there to warm ppl up to the olympic movie but not actually give us anything good or plot moving

anyways sorry for this dump. besides all these criticisms, i want to say there were parts of it that i enjoyed, i just didn’t go into it bc this post is already so long, and me bagging on ikuya was not hate; i actually like him and the only time i teared up in s3 was in his race with natsuya lol. i’m afraid that at some parts i may have not expressed my thoughts exactly so please don’t be too harsh if you engage, but i’d love to hear other ppl’s analysis of s3 and the characters as well !!

[mistresseast]

can you explain in more detail why you think the PT weren't good friends for akiren? i'm not asking out of hate or to start drama, i just never interpreted things that way and i'm genuinely curious. i don't think them being brainwashed by maruki makes them "bad friends", but i don't know if that's what you meant either. i'd love to read a proper explanation on this that isn't just people arguing in the notes of that post.

Hi! Yeah, I know the ~discourse~ climate is pretty touchy and not a good place to exchange ideas, so I’ll do my best to put my thoughts on this matter into words. 

Settle in, bc this one is long.

I’ll start off by saying I don’t dislike the PT, nor do I think they’re bad people, and honestly I think they love Joker a lot! Ryuji calling Akira after his fake death and talking about how his ideas on what makes a hero have changed because of Akira genuinely makes me emotional, along with dozens of other scenes with the thieves! They’re good kids who could be really good friends to Akira but that’s not what’s shown in the game. I don’t think it’s controversial to say Akira’s relationships with all of his friends are transactional. That’s kind of the point, all of his confidants arise out of deals, give and take, and in the metanarrative of the game, that’s how it works. You as the player help these characters solve their problems, and through ranking their confidants up, you get access to more gameplay perks. So it’s pretty even!! But like,,Akira, the character, isn’t the player. There’s no in-story mechanic by which he can cash in friendship points for being-good-at-killing-things prizes. Yes, he uses those abilities to not die in the metaverse, but there is no literal, in-universe way to explain how hanging out with someone translates to [insert gameplay perk here]. So you have to look at what is physically happening in the story. Akira hangs out with the PT, stands there while they have drama with another irrelevant character, and then one way or another their problems get solved and they swear to be Akira’s blood brother or whatever. Akira is a crutch for these characters, and they say multiple times that they wouldn’t have been able to do what they did without him. So all of their shit gets handled and Akira gets?? Like actually gets?? What? Inquiries about his well-being? Offers to help him? Questions about his life, his interests? No,,,not really,, But he gets access to a super powerful persona!! Yay!!! Bc everyone knows he’s just a little shadow-killing machine, right? And even the relationships he does get something tangible (as in separate from the mechanics of the game) out of, like Kawakami’s, are built on the notion that if Akira stops providing for whatever reason, the relationship will end. So essentially, Akira is under the pressure of filling whatever role his friends need him in for however long at any time, and he’s been led to believe that if he stops or fails, he will stop receiving any reciprocal care and acceptance.

(And I know this is all gameplay stuff, I know it has to be like this to codify the complicated process of human relationships, I know all of that, I’m just trying to find a deeper layer bc that’s what I do.)

This whole thing comes into pretty clear focus for me during the third semester when you visit everyone in the false reality. Everyone is happy to see him, of course, but they’re clearly wrapped up in their own happiness. Which is understandable, again, I’m not saying the PT need to be attached to Akira to be good friends, but it all still feels off to me.

If they know Joker, then they’d know it’s weird that he just shows up and starts asking these pointed questions while they’re in the middle of something. All of their other interactions with him have been led by them. Yeah, Joker approaches them bc the player has decided to hang out with them, but the other character always chooses the activity and leads the discussion. Akira showing up out of nowhere and asking them to “remember” and “move on” and whatnot should be raising some major red flags. And it clearly does, since their memories do start to return, but they’re all too scared of losing their happiness that they nope out of the conversation as soon as possible, without stopping to consider why Joker might be trying to reach out to them like that. They’re his friends; they should know he wouldn’t just be trying to hurt them or make them unhappy. After all, their entire relationship with him up til that point has been exclusively about Joker trying to help them. This doesn’t make the PT bad people, running away is a totally natural reaction in that situation. They’re just kids, and their minds have been manipulated to a point, but it’s not like they don’t remember Joker or the way they’ve grown since meeting him. In fact many of them mention how much they’ve matured recently, but they never actually relate that back to Akira, despite him being the primary driving force behind most of their personal arcs, even though they definitely remember him. Translation vagueness or deliberate nod to the idea that the PT don’t actually credit Akira with all the hard work he did after their initial lip service? Hmmm. Anyway, their failure to recognize that Joker is struggling just demonstrates to me what was set up all throughout their confidant links, that their relationships are transactional and that they don’t necessarily consider Joker and his individual needs outside of what he provides for them. And when they no longer need him bc that hole has been filled, he simply doesn’t occupy the same place of importance in their lives. 

Makoto’s flashback in particular stood out to me, bc it was from a moment where she was specifically talking about feeling like she finally found a place to belong with the Phantom Thieves (and by extension, with Joker), but then she desperately tries to brush it off. Obviously that sense of belonging wasn’t meaningful enough to her for her to want it back. And I’m not blaming her, of course, any teenager would choose to have their father back over being in a vigilante group lmao, I just thought it was telling that the devs decided to show us a scene that was originally meant to be heartwarming as an example of the harsh reality Makoto wants to forget. All of the flashbacks are from defining moments for the thieves, but that one specifically got me like *thinking emoji*

So his friends are hesitant, despite the fact that they must know something is wrong. It’s understandable, they all stand to lose a lot if someone messes with the status quo. I genuinely don’t think I would react any differently. But there is someone who reacts differently and against his own self-interest. It’s Goro, the one who has arguably the most to lose, who doesn’t turn away from Akira. He seeks Akira out and teams up with him to uncover what’s really going on, even though he has every reason to believe that prodding too deep will literally mean the end of his life. He forces Akira and himself to face the truth because he knows anything else would just be an insult to what they’ve suffered so far. He’s the only one who never flinches, and that, more than any of his friends’ come-to-jesusing (which Akira still has to initiate) is what Akira needs in that situation. For the first time (outside of the brief instances in the tutorial levels), we see a situation where Akira is actually the dependent one, the one who needs help, who needs support. And the only one who has ever provided that, unconditionally, without demanding anything in return, is Goro. I could go into how Goro’s confidant blows all of the others out of the water in terms of building both himself AND Akira as characters, but it’s been said already and by smarter people than me. But basically, despite competition being a core theme of their relationship, Goro is the only character who is portrayed as Akira’s equal. Their contests are all in the name of improving not just Goro, but Akira too. Goro is the only character who expresses an interest in Akira’s inner life and development, and as such he knows Akira better than anyone else. So when Maruki tries to trap them all in a gilded birdcage, Goro won’t stand for it and he knows Akira won’t stand for it either. That’s why he’s so betrayed if you choose to accept the dreamworld. You’re negating the basis of your entire relationship with him and going against your own principles. Out of every character in the game, the one who knows Akira best and refuses to abandon him even when that could mean his own death is Goro Akechi.

I want to reiterate: I do not hate or even dislike the PT!! And tbh I don’t really think they “abandoned” Akira. That post, imo, is supposed to be kind of hyperbolic. Unless it’s referring to how many of them literally sprint away when he comes to talk to them lol. I look at it more like a commentary on how thoughtlessly the PT act as soon as their wishes are granted. I know it’s set up linearly for story purposes, but isn’t it kind of sad how no one checks up on Akira in the week he’s going around talking to people? Especially after he’s been acting so comparatively weird? It’s not unusual that they might be caught up in other stuff, but while you’re going around and visiting everyone, you don’t get a single text or call from ANY of the thieves, for a whole week!! Goro even comments on it directly with his pointed little “I’m sure you’re just as close as you were before” comment. God, he’s such a bitch. Ultimately, the PT do get their acts together, and it’s partially out of the realization that Akira is struggling alone against something and needs their help, which I love and appreciate. I think they are good friends who want to support Akira, but they can’t understand him past the role they’ve placed him in, and until they do, they’ll never be able to be what he needs. Akira loves his friends and knows he can rely on them in most ways, but those relationships will always be dogged by the pervasive fear that he must constantly earn the right to have the relationship at all. What he needs MOST is someone he doesn’t have to perform for, and from what we see in the game, none of the thieves fit that bill. Except Goro. 

I know this was long and rambly and probably pretty disjointed but I wanted to be as thorough as possible and all of my thoughts just sort of gushed out. Obviously ymmv about all of this depending on how you interpret the game, but this is what I arrived at thanks to my analysis so this is what I have for you! Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk

[kotsume]

my observations as a content creator :) warning: it’s long

if you’re reading this, don’t think too deeply about what i wrote - it’s just my analysis of fan blogs and some fandoms (so it’s all from my perspective). do what you want with this information, and feel free to lmk what you think ;) 

*i tried to include as many anime-applicable blogs as i could remember*

multifandom reblog blogs (ones who track a tag):

@/allanimanga: lots of original content every day. does not reblog from tag anymore bc most members who had that job are inactive. i’m an admin and i’ve been told not to worry about reblogging from the tag, and just make content. has member privilege abuse from certain users; normally you make content for the blog and you get to reblog your stuff over in a 1:1 ratio, but they will just use the blog to promote themselves without contributing. it’s really sad but there’s nothing we can do bc most of the time it’s an admin.

@/animacia: was debating whether or not to put this one. reblogs mainstream anime (sailor moon, studio ghibli) and has a tag, but the tag itself does not seem to be actively used as the most recent post can see tagged for this blog dates back to june 2019 (more than a year ago). it’s an active blog regardless of slow tag activity. 

@/animationsource: active, but very picky? idk man they either do or don’t reblog your stuff. it’s a hit or miss with them. seems to have member privilege abuse/preference (explained up there). not too sure if they have a queue or just reblog sporadically.

@/anisource: active. seems to run on a large, backlogged queue bc their tag is full of stuff that has yet to be reblogged. edits will probably take a while to be reblogged, but they’ll eventually get there! 

@/dailyanime: new blog, but from what i’ve experienced, they will queue it, and your post will be reblogged in 1-3 days (it probably depends on how much is in their queue).

@/fyanimegifs: will reblog your stuff, but they have a very slow queue.

@/graphicsources: not really active; spontaneous at best. don’t count on them to reblog your stuff. 

@/fyeahshoujo: not really active, but not completely inactive.

@/fysportsanime & @/sportsanimedaily: active. seems to have a backlogged queue, but just wait and you’ll be reblogged! it will take some time because there are lots of posts.

@/animangascenery & @/otomokatsuhiro (#oldanimeedit - changes url from time to time? that’s why i included the tag they track): inactive unless a member looks at the tag. in that case, they will most likely reblog the tagged post. typically mass reblogs/queues from the tag every once in a while. 

@/bbelcher & @/fyeahmovies: will reblog ghibli and makoto shinkai stuff. bonus points if you have added a text description to gifs. 80% dependable.

@/filmgifs, @/filmtv, @/stream, @/movie-gifs, etc. (basically big reblog fansites that aren’t anime-oriented, but do reblog mainstream anime movies): 90% chance they will not reblog anything from you if there is no text description. add text descriptions to studio ghibli/makoto shinkai film gifs and make it pretty! use text gradients!! that will increase your chances of being reblogged by them. they don’t reblog seasonal anime.

a note: many creators use tags as a way of reaching a broader audience. it's really helpful for smaller blogs who would like to share their content to others, but do not have the means/numbers to do so. just bc some people don't utilize tags to their full potential, it doesn't mean it isn't useful, so pls don’t try to act superior to those who want more exposure. everyone deserves a chance at getting the attention they deserve for their hard work!

studio ghibli reblog blogs:

@/ghiblisdaily: great. amazing. i love them!! will reblog from you 99.9% of the time. probably the most reliable ghibli blog as of right now. uploads original content

@/fyghibli: used to be good at reblogging from tag, but has gone kind of inactive. i think they’re becoming more active again, but it’s very sporadic.

@/kikisdeliveryservices: they track a variety of studio ghibli related tags, and they do reblog a lot, but i don’t think they’re as consistent as ghiblisdaily. lots of original content.  

@/oh-totoro: not really active, but when they are (and they reblog from you), your activity skyrockets.

@/dailyghibli: not active.

@/daily-ghibli: sometimes active, a little wishy-washy. they seem to be reblogging a little bit more consistently now?

@/princessghibli: not active, but reblogs here and there.

@/ghibligif: a new blog, but decently active. will reblog post from their tracked tag within a day. lots of original content.  

main point: there are many studio ghibli blogs (wayyyy more than i’ve listed here), but only around 3-4 active ones. choose your tags with what you think will give you the best exposure bc if you have too much, tumblr will go “fuck you” and not show your post at all :)

random anime fandoms:

i’ll really only be including ones i’m in, or know a bit about.

haikyuu, bnha, kny, yoi: healthy and very active. content for these fandoms do well even if they’re not in season. has multiple active fan blogs (except for yoi tho - they’re all inactive for the most part).

noragami, ohshc, ons, snk, tg, swnku: active fandoms. edits will do moderately well bc most people have seen these. 

popular sports anime (knb, free, dna, tsurune? idk i don’t watch much sports anime): they do okay. i rarely see any new sports anime edits beside haikyuu, but people do love their sports anime. has active sports fan blogs.

pokemon & sailor moon: old but gold. lots of people love these anime bc it’s part of their childhood. still very popular amongst tumblr users.

violet evergarden: does moderately well. @/fyeahvioletevergarden will reblog your stuff if you choose to tag them (big boost)! with the new movie coming up soon, there may be a resurgence in activity, but the most recent movie did not have much content made for it, so that hope may be crushed.

tpn: not very active, but with the new season coming up soon, there will be a resurgence in activity.

ditf: kind of dead, but lots of people love zero two. edits do moderately well.

sao: dead. absolutely dead. i thought there would be some activity bc it’s in season right now, but no, it’s a dead fandom. low key sao sucks tho. idek where the plot is going; i’m just hoping for an end.

hxh, one piece, fma, code geass: i’m not in it, but i think they do okay bc they have a large following, just not as well as haikyuu or bnha (but they’re still very popular). it depends on your blog demographic tho.

mp100, opm, bsd, given: kind of medium-tier fandoms. not as prevalent as haikyuu or bnha, but there are still edits being made for these anime. they don’t really have any active fan blogs (besides given i think) bc none of them are airing rn.

makoto shinkai & studio ghibli films: they do great! everybody loves good scenery, and the films are very well known and loved by all!

some seasonal anime (spring/summer 2020)

fruits basket: well this reboot blew up and overshadowed everything in it’s path. tbh only edits posted on the first day of the new episode do well. it’s a very competitive fandom for creators. 

kaguya sama love is war: first season was good, edits did well. second season drifted off into the shadow of fruits basket. relatively obscure fandom for how popular it is amongst people (non-creators). 

tower of god: popular with creators. now that it’s not airing, no one gifs it. respective fan blog is doing its best with content from the manhwa.

fugou keiji balance unlimited: people were simping even before the first ep came out, and then the anime went on hiatus for a few months. now that it’s started to air again, everyone acts like it never existed in the first place... was a good fandom up until the hiatus and now it will probably take a while to recover.

god of high school: nonexistent even tho it’s a popular pick this season (summer 2020). in the shadow of fruits basket.

deca-dence, bna, great pretender, kakushigoto, the misfit at demon king academy, rent-a-girlfriend: *sigh* didn’t see much of it on my dash. lesser-watched seasonal anime in comparison to fruits basket and tower of god (all relative to tumblr). there are gifs being made, but you have to follow the right blogs.

main point: if there’s any seasonal anime paired up against fruits basket at the same time, fruits basket will win and the former will be left in the dust.

[normal-thoughts-official]

Makoto plot line by Lêx?

thank you for this totally 100% spontaneous ask that you sent of your own free will, anon!

okay, so here's the thing. i dont like makoto. not really. he's annoying af and basically useless. bitch does nothing but hide behind haru cuz he's scared of everything and be blushy and soft in that spineless way, you know? like he just lets everyone push him around and treats everyone in such an unfuriatingly uniform, fake-cheery, ultra helpful way that it's his whole personality

but here's the thing! it gets sad. you know? especially considering how he, like, seems to basically live to enable haru? in all the worst ways. like it's nice of course that he helps haru with his depression but there's a point when it becomes enabling and that point is when makoto is running after haru all the time trying to solve his messes, remind him of his own damn responsibilities, and basically take care of haru's whole life so he doesn't have to. again, helping is good, but by worrying about the things haru doesn't worry about and preventing him from facing the consequences of not doing anything basically lmao he enables haru to never fucking get out of his constant stupor. also, as previously said, he's spineless, which means that he never truly goes against haru's wishes. so like. enabler. bad

which is my main beef with makoharu, which is actually the most popular ship in the fandom because ppl have no taste and also dont know how to interpret shit. tho tbh even makoharu shippers are like "i ship makoharu because makoto deserves to be happy and he wants haru!" so even they acknowledge that.... haru isn't into him lmao. but anyway

point is: they pull each other back. im not gonna say it's abusive or something cuz i don't think it is, i wouldn't even call it toxic, but it's stale in the worst kind of way. makoto enables not only haruka's depression, but also his self destructive and to some extent relationships destructive behavior, setting his growth back. and makoto lives and exists to take care of haru. he has no dreams, no goals, hell, not even INTERESTS. his whole thing is just. haru. where haru goes, he follows. and. that's it basically

which is why the fact that so many makoto stans ship makoharu is also baffling to me, because if i were a makoto fan, i'd probably hate haru, lmao. i mean, makoto is going around doing all this work for him, plus emotional labor, and haru never gives him much back really. and it's obvious that haru doesn't like makoto the same way makoto likes him, but makoto is just out there taking whatever scraps he can get, and haru just sort of. probably doesn't even notice cuz that's been their dynamic since they were kids. and makoto knows that, too. so like. if i stanned makoto. id fucking hate haru for that tbh

and honestly it's bad writing because i think the writers couldn't care less about makoto lmao and also didn't know what to do with him, which i think becomes increasingly obvious as seasons go by and he's just sort of. there. they tried to give him his own plotlines and even dreams but it never stuck. he feels like a doll most of the time. even in s1, which was widely rinharu-focused and barely had any other characters have real plotlines unless you count the one (1) episode where they try to teach rei how to swim, makoto was particularly uninteresting and underexplored and developed. like, the other characters might not have had huge importance but at least they had personalities. makoto didn't, really, unless you count "mama henning haru" and "being uwu" as a personality

but my point is: what if makoto got some real writing? what if we explored his character, and his relationship with haru, in a more critical, dimensional way?

makoto is in love with haru, i think that's indisputable. haru isn't in love with makoto, which i also think is indisputable. makoto himself knows that what haru has with rin is special and beyond what makoto and haru have, he says that, he even says that he was jealous of rin. yet he stays. even when rin comes back, and haru and rin become friends again, and it's obvious they're going to be together, makoto stays. he takes care of haru, which is some pretty damn stressful work, and does all this emotional labor for him, and haru barely gives him, like, a smile every once in a while, lmao, and again it's sad. but makoto stays. and - that's an important part to me - it doesn't seem to be because he has any hopes that haru will come around. so why

i think they're stuck in a loop, and that makoto has been in love with haru, and being not only his emotional support, but basically the one thread connecting him with the outside world (while simultaneously enabling him to continue as detached from it as he can, because he's not bringing haru out to the world, he's bringing the world to accommodate haru) for so long, he doesn't really know what else to do. also, he feels guilty about leaving haru to his own devices, even if obviously there's nothing he can do if haru won't help himself. also, he's scared of losing him, because he's been defining himself for his relationship with haru for so long, he doesn't know where else to go

i think that's supported by his relationship with other characters. like i said, makoto is annoyingly kind to everyone (if im not mistaken, the name makoto actually does mean kind) and a MASSIVE pushover. he never goes against anyone's wishes. he never really throws in what he wants. he doesn't really interfere with anyone's plans and ideas, he just sorta makes it happen. he is never annoyed, never has any quirks, is never even like, tired, you know? he lives to please other people, to the point where he has no personality, interests, or wishes beyond that

so, yeah: i think makoto is scared that, if he doesn't please other people, there's nothing else left for him. and in a way, he is right, because i don't think he would know what to do with himself if he had to look into himself and figure out what he wants out of life. so it's easier to follow others and dedicate himself to them. also, fear of loneliness is very valid, even if i dont think any of his friends would actually leave him if he weren't being their damn mom all the time. but they also let it happen, especially haru, because it's convenient, and again, homeboy barely has the energy to go to school, much less help makoto unpack all of that

but if i were writing free!, id want to explore that, because it has so much potential to be a pretty damn rich story, actually. especially as the story progresses, because one effect of rin being back and haru running the whole swimming club and trying to prepare for their race is that haru needs makoto less and less as time goes by. because he has a motivation. he cares about his grades because if he doesn't keep them up he won't be allowed to keep working in the swimming club, he cares about teaching the newbie (the rei i mentioned before) how to swim because otherwise they won't be able to run against rin in the medley race, hell, he reforms the whole entire pool that was abandoned so they have a place to train (with help, but like, he couldnt be bothered with getting up to school before). he even goes back to drawing so he can make pamphlets to attract more people to the club

and then he finds his love for swimming again, especially as a team, competitively. he finds his love for people again, for human interaction, for competition and the thrill of the sport he loves. haru finds his motivation, and he starts putting his life back on track and working towards his goals, and haru is damn capable. and that means that makoto has a lot of free time in his hands now, and haru is slipping through them, and he knows he can't really keep their relationship as he was. and he shouldn't, honestly, and i think that he's, at least, smart enough to know this

and he has a crisis, because again, he's been defining himself through haru for the longest goddamn time, im talking all the way from middle to high school here. and he doesn't know who he is. he doesn't know what he wants. he barely knows what he likes

but he's not alone either, because again, makoto is haru's best friend, and haru does like him and it's not like he's all "i found my purpose with rin now. peace out". his journey was also about finding his whole support system with his friends. through relearning how to swim in a team, he also relearned human connection and friendship. that's one of the many beauties of rinharu. they inspired each other to make their lives better, including in ways that have nothing to do with each other, and they weren't even trying to

so he has haru, but in a now radically different dynamic, and also rei and nagisa (his teammates) and gou (rin's sister and also their trainer) (rin and gou don't go to the same school for some reason). and everyone is going through a similar crisis, because it's the last year of high school. rin obviously has known that he wants to be an athlete since he was a kid, but everyone else's plans are kinda sketchy. makoto just happens to have some extra flavor in that mission - he's not just trying to figure out what he wants to do, but who he is

and fuck if i know how that would develop from there, but id really love to see makoto finding himself, honestly. i want to see his issues being addressed. the only backstory we have for him is that he's afraid of the ocean because he almost drowned at some point? i dont remember. i want to know why the fuck he's been repressing his own needs and personality so hard. i want to know what had him so scared of the world that it was easier to forget about himself and basically live through haru. i want to know what he's going to do to find himself, and the very, very painful journey of looking at himself and his own needs, and, in many ways, his own emptiness, because makoto essentially carved himself hollow. i want makoto to have dimension and depth, and be relatable and not just a dumb shell of uwuness for ppl to swoon over and want to protecc, not even because i like him, but because it could be so interesting. and relatable in so many ways. like, god damn it. if you wanna make him one of the main characters, give him a real plotline!

and i want to see him finding out that his life is better when he's a little more detached from haru and not living in an endless pursuit of a relationship, but having a network of people he loves and that has mutual support. i want to see him getting over haru, not so he can have some other romance with someone else, but so he can grow. makoto basically doesn't grow at all the whole show, and it's sad to watch, especially as everyone else grows so much

[mypunkpansexualtwin]

Sumire and Ryuji from persona 5!

Hi volt! Sorry this took a while! Under a cut cause it’s gonna be a little long.

And for context for the rest of my followers, send me a character and I’ll talk about them!

Ryuji first! Because it’s the boy!

do I like them: Like him? Like him??? I adore the boy! That’s my boy! 

5 good qualities: 1) Okay I know a lot of people put it in the negative qualities, but his anger. It consistently comes from a place of compassion, of seeing people being treated less than they deserve! I love a good example of righteous fury and Ryuji has it in spades. Plus, for me at least, it’s relatable. 2) That said, even if it’s (in my humble onion) good anger, it can get ahead of him/out of hand, and he recognizes that. And when it goes too far, he apologizes! He knows, admittedly often in retrospect, when he’s gone too far and needs to make up for it. And then he does! 3) Loyal, kind of to a fault. He’s ride or die for the protag from day one to endgame, even if you take the options to be an asshole to him and throw him under the bus for the entire game. He’s still looking out for the track team even though they don’t want anything to do with him. He deserves better. 4) He loves his mama. 5) That smile. Enough said.

3 bad qualities: 1) Always putting himself down. He’s fantastic and needs his confidence back. No, honey, you do not deserve to be beat up by your ex-teammates from track. I’m gonna beat them up right back, and then the people who let you think this way, starting with Atlus. 2) Protag can’t romance him. It’s not his fault though. 3) Poor boy got slapped with the Token Perv designation. (There is a pattern here to his bad qualities that are more about Atlus than the character himself.)

favourite episode/etc: I love his awakening (granted, I love all the awakenings) but probably my favorite thing is when he just. Invites you to go fishing on his birthday? Without actually telling you that’s what day it is? He just decides that what he wants for his birthday is to spend the day with his best friend just chillin’??? But doesn’t wanna pressure you? He’s! A good! Boy!

otp: Akiryu, pegoryu, whatever you wanna call it. Skull and Joker are soulmates and that’s that on that.

brotp: Ryuji&Ann and Ryuji&Futaba are my favorites, but just in general he deserves all the friendships.

ot3 ot4: Ryuji/Akira/Makoto/Haru. I could go on at length about why I adore the potential dynamic here. But I won’t on this post. Feel free to ask me about it sometime though. Buuut it’ll probably take me a while to answer, fair warning.

notp: Honestly, as long as it isn’t something Overtly Gross (cause 16), I don’t really have a notp for him. He’s full of love that needs to be shared.

best quote: Listen, we all love the “bein’ free” and “my place is next to you” quotes, so those go without saying. Instead, consider: “My whole life I thought I was banned from watching R-rated movies because my mom told me it stands for no-Ryuji.”

head canon: Shit, normally I have a few dozen headcanons rattling around in my brain at a time, but today I got nothin’ that I can dredge up and put to paper (metaphorically) so instead, uh, this song always makes me think of him.

And Sumi!

do I like them: I really do, partly out of spite for the part of the fandom that doesn’t like her, mostly out of genuine enjoyment for the character.

5 good qualities: 1) I’ll say it flat out, I respect her saying that the Phantom Thieves aren’t a permanent solution to society’s problems and that while they’re doing good work for those with no other options, society as a whole would stagnate for relying on them and not facing their own problems head-on. Because she’s absolutely right (as seen in the 12/24 Bad Ending), regardless of the particular irony of her circumstances when she said it. 2) Her overall growth from depression and self-deprecation to unflinching determination is super admirable and tbh kinda resonated with me. 3) Again, respect for turning down the Phantom Thieves to focus on herself. I like an ally character who won’t immediately bend over backwards for a player character, it keeps things interesting. 4) Impressively sneaky. Very important for a Phantom Thief, even if she isn’t officially one until almost the end. Tailed them in Sae’s palace without tipping them off on the 18th, eavesdropped on the conversation with Lavenza and just turned up in Maruki’s palace like it was no big deal, she’s fuckin’ impressive. 5) Who doesn’t love a good cook?

3 bad qualities: 1) Not her fault, but the big gap in the story between maxing her confidant early on in the game and then not being really relevant at all until 3rd semester save for a couple of “hey remember she’s still around” cutscenes leaves her feeling really isolated from the rest of the game. It’s more an issue of the writing not making an effort to connect her to the rest of the group/story at large. (I have my issues with Persona 4 Golden, but the New Girl confidant was at least better linked to the rest of the team during her social link.) 2) Girl I get the depression aspect, but why did you think Kasumi wouldn’t have mourned your death beyond, “well now I’m gonna keep working at this goal for both of us”??? (I know, I know, she is grieving, but a lot less that we see her do as Sumire, and again, the depressive spiral that made her take off like that anyways, but still.) 3) Another complaint more at the writing team than at the character herself, but I do wish that the protag could have been a little more of a smartass to her like he can to the rest of the team. “Are you going to the park cleanup too?” “Nah, I’m wearing my school gym clothes for fun.” Y’know, harmless sass like that. She suffers from a little bit of “Here’s The New Waifu, Now Love Her” writing. 4) Atlus, please give me a Confidant item that gives me those sweet, sweet perks back in NG+.

favourite episode/etc: Her second/real awakening during the third semester. Partly because by the time we got to Makoto’s awakening, the tearing-off-the-mask moment was more of a “okay you’ve seen this part, on to The Reveal” and that was disappointing because I liked how visceral and cathartic the first three were, and boy did hers fuckin’ deliver on that. It was fantastic.

otp: I’m a sucker for Sumitaba. Although Harusumi snuck up on me recently.

brotp: Ann&Sumire and Yusuke&Sumire, but again just give her all the friends. And then a couple more just for good measure.

ot3: Sumire/Enough Food To Fuel The Growing Athlete/Writing That Doesn’t Food Shame Her

notp: Again, as long as it’s not an Overtly Nasty, You Need Jesus ship (saw one person ship her and maruki and just. Yikes.), I don’t really have a notp for her. That said, my first playthrough was more “that’s my little sister” than a character I wanted to romance, so shusumi took a little bit of a brain adjustment.

best quote: “I am myself! I’ll never forget that again!” Fuck yeah, girl, heal from that trauma!

head canon: Haru and the Yoshizawa twins were friends as very little kids in the same beginner ballet class.

[kaleidodreams]

Tag Game

Stole this because I felt like playing!

1. Why did you choose your URL?

The "kaleido" part is because my all-time favorite anime is Kaleido Star, while the "dreams" part comes from my love of the SuperS/Dream Arc of Sailor Moon (which also features the Kaleidomoon Scope as a weapon). To be honest, nowadays I kinda wish I had just gone with some version of my penname (Heavenly Pearl), but when I first started on Tumblr, I liked the idea of being mostly anonymous. I suppose I could go ahead and change it since nobody seems to be using heavenlypearl... Eh, I don't want to confuse people.

2. Any side blogs?

Yes! @talesofthemoon is where I reblog posts advertising people's Sailor Moon fanfiction, and I just started @sailormoonrarepairweek in preparation for the Sailor Moon Rare Pair Weeek I'm going to host next March.

3. How long have you been on Tumblr?

Looks like since July 2014!

4. Do you have a queue tag?

No. I typically don't tag my reblogs unless it's to note that it's nsfw, answering a question, or I'm just in a rare mood to comment on something!

5. Why did you start your blog in the first place?

Mostly it was just to keep track of a couple of Sailor Moon Tumblrs I found interesting and find pretty fanart.

6. Why did you choose your icon/pfp?

I love Sailor Moon and figure skating, so going with Makoto in her green skating outfit seemed perfect. Kinda getting bored with it, though. I think I've had the same icon and header for most of my time on Tumblr.

7. Why did you choose your header?

Again, love the figure skating episode from the first season of Sailor Moon! Might switch to a Yuri!!! on Ice theme soon... I get to indulge my love of Sailor Moon on my sideblogs, anyway.

8. What’s your post with the most notes?

This post naming my Top 10 Favorite Anime of 2019 has 183 notes for some reason. Definitely an outlier! I'm usually lucky to hit 10.

9. How many mutuals do you have?

26

10. How many followers do you have?

217, but I'm sure a lot of them are spam or pornbots. I don't bother blocking anyone.

11. How many people do you follow?

412. Lot of them are inactive, though!

12. Have you ever made a shit post?

I don't think so?

13. How often do you use tumblr?

Several times a day!

14. Did you ever have a fight/argument with another blog?

Nope

15. How do you feel about “you need to reblog” posts?

Find them annoying and guilt-trippy, TBH.

16. Do you like tag games?

Love them! Kinda disappointed when I see one of my mutuals posting one and they don't tag me. So, if you ever need someone to tag, tag me! I promise I'll never be annoyed if you do, and I’ll usually play unless I’ve already done it before.

17. Do you like ask games?

Same as above!

18. Which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

I honestly don't know.

Tagging whoever wants to play!

[fromzerotoeuphoria]

@waywardfacegarden replied to your post:

Couldn’t agree more with this. Honestly, I agree with every single word on here. I feel like most mh shippers think that us rh shippers just ship it because we hate mako or something but i actually love him so much??? and i, in no way, try to undermine mh’s relationship. i always thought it was so cute and soft and tender, since the first ep. i LOVE, absolutely LOVE their friendship. and i think haru DOES care a ton about mako. he does. and they obviously have a special bond, they’ve known each other since so long. they care about each other and their friendship is so sweet?? i love how haru gives mako the fishes in first season and a lot of other moments of them. and i said this in a post when i first watched the first season, but again, like you say, i GET why people ship them. i get it. they’re cute and their relationship is actually pretty good but it just??? i don’t know, what especially got ME to ship rh instead of mh since the very first ep is how clearly DIFFERENT rh’s dynamic was since the very start. how clearly different haru reacts to rin. he becomes ALIVE when he sees him. his eyes, his whole expression just lights up when he sees rin came back. you don’t see haru act like that towards anyone else. SURE, he cares DEEPLY about mako and, like i said, their relationship is special, he holds him dear and it’s clear, but it’s just different with rin. his reactions are always so visceral when it comes to rin, since they were kids. he pretends like he doesn’t care sometimes but it’s so obvious that he does, kid!haru had a crush and no one can tell me otherwise. it’s all over the place. sure, with haru everything is subtle, but the thing that’s so amazing about rh is that you don’t even have to LOOK for it. even when haru is all subtle about his feelings, he always REACTS visceral with rin, and that’s the thing. idk, when i knew mh was more popular than rh it just… baffled me. i was so surprised, because to me, it was always so obvious how their relationship was a LOT more strong friendship-like than rh. and ngl, it’s frustrating for me, too LOL, but i guess we have to live with that.😂😂 everyone has different opinions, and i guess a lot of people are drawn to them bc of the childhood friend trope… tho you also kinda have it on rh but okay😂🤷‍♀️ it just makes me sad how i’ve seen so much hate around from both sides. and i’ve also come across a LOT of mh shippers that keep telling rh shippers “no, you should ship sousuke and rin and mako and haru, that’s how it should be” and it makes me so sad bc ALL ships are valid???? and it just sounds like they’re always trying to invalidate our ship but oh well. [ALSO. SOUSUKE AND RIN’S RELATIONSHIP IS SO PRECIOUS, NOT TALKING ABOUT IT BC I LITERALLY WOULD NEVER SHUT UP, BUT I LOVE THEM. I LOVE THEM. i fell in love with their friendship since the very first second with their special handshake😂😂😂 i just. have a soft spot for all the samesuka relay team tbh, but maybe that’s bc i’m so in love with rin it’s insane😂😂😂] AND ALSO. FINAL POINT OF ALL MY BABBLING HERE (lol, sorry for invading your post, i just were surprised of how i literally agree with every single word on here) BUT YEAH. KID RIN IS BEST KID/BOY, I LITERALLY WOULD DIE FOR HIM. I LOVE HIM SO SO SO SO SO MUCH, IT’S RIDICULOUS. I WANT TO PROTECT HIM. I WANT HIM TO BE HAPPY. idk, man, i just. could talk about rin and kid!rin for days to no end, oof… literally him and rinharu what got me so hooked with free! tbh… like i didn’t expect to be this invested in free! bc i just watched out of boredom, and 20 minutes later after first ep, i was already hooked bc i was already head-over-heels with rin and rinharu LMAO. what did they do to me, honestly… my love just kept growing… like end of first season was SO SO SO satisfying???? it was so emotional, i cried like the 6 times i watched it in a row, and i felt SO incredibly satisfied???? i’ve rarely felt THAT much and that much satisfaction with an ending before. honestly first season of free is masterpiece. BUT ANYWAYS. SORRY FOR TALKING SO MUCH. I’M SHUTTING UP NOW. HAVE A NICE DAY, FELLOW RINHARU FAN.

The way these comments MADE MY DAY <333

Thank you so much for commenting!! That post was me just rambling out my own thoughts about the two ships, and I originally didn’t plan on sharing it publicly, but since I love reading other people’s posts like that, I figured maybe someone might enjoy mine too 😊 And I’m SO HAPPY you did!! 💜

I said a lot in my previous response to you, so for your sake and for anybody reading I’ll refrain from repeating myself (when it comes to Free! and my thoughts/opinions, I could repeat myself 10000x and not even bat an eye ...but I won’t do that to y’all haha). But YES Makoto is a precious big squish, his friendship with Haru is important, and MakoHaru do care so so much about each other. No sense in trying to undermine that.

BUT THE RINHARU RELATIONSHIP 😩💥🔥🤯😭😭. I LOVE that you used the word visceral, because that’s it EXACTLY. Haru has a visceral reaction to Rin—and vice versa, but the fact that HARU reacts this way is powerfully telling of just how much he feels about Rin. From the very first episode, Haru barely reacted to anything—he was a rather apathetic teen who really only longed to be in the water. But then enter in Rin Matsuoka, and not only does Haru viscerally react whenever Rin is mentioned, but he also has multiple flashbacks of RIn before he even knew Rin was back in the country.

Because Haru doesn’t react this way—so raw and, and you said, viscerally—with anyone else, I just cannot see him not having special feelings for anyone else aside from Rin. It just makes sense, as he never showed these kinds of feelings towards anyone else in his life since the time Rin returned to Australia after their falling out-race. For me, If there really was potential for a reciprocated ship-relationship between Haru and any other character aside from Rin (within the context of Season 1), it would’ve either happened already considering Makoto had been there the entire time and no sparks or flames, or Haru would’ve been so focused on a new character that wasn’t Rin who had newly entered his life (which, as we know, he wasn’t). But no, Haru was so fixated on Rin, it completely baffled Rei, the newcomer to the group, as to why Haruka was so obsessed with Rin. I mean, if that alone doesn’t blatantly confirm that Haru has some pretty strong feelings towards Rin, then idk what to tell folks who are in denial. 🤷🏽‍♀️

KID!RIN IS THE REASON I FELL FOR ADULT RIN. Like, I knew that this bright and dazzling shooting star of a kid was still in Rin somewhere, and since that Rin stole my heart within the first 75 seconds of the anime, by default part of me was stolen by adult Rin, too haha (though ngl, it took like 4 episodes for me to start sympathizing with him, but when I did wooooosh!! XD). AND YES THE WAY I DIED DURING EPISODE 12!!! I literally covered my mouth and was silent-screeching into my hand, waving my other hand wildly in the air, had to pause the video to collect myself multiples times and basically fell apart and lost my mind over the entirety of episode 12 😂 I have my “recap” here if you’re interested in getting a closer look at my subsequent meltdown, haha.

Ugh anyways this got WAY too long (plus by the time I’m actually posting this, we’ve been gushing out essays about this in our dms hahaha, I’m sorry it took so long to post this friggin reply! >_<) so I’ll just cut it here.

[randomidiocyncrazies]

going into more detail about the P2/P4/P5 Persona Q idea, I’m thinking of breaking the cast into the following chunks:

P2 IS: Tatsuya, Lisa, Eikichi and Jun (separated from Maya in Xibalba)

P2 EP: Maya, Ulala, Baofu and Katsuya (before Tatsuya officially joins the party but after the P1 party member leaves?)

P4: entire IT (cultural festival like in PQ, or after fighting the culprit)

P5: all PTs (before Casino heist like PQ2)

Having the P2 cast all come from the EP timeline with Lisa, Eikichi and Jun getting accidentally involved & regaining their IS memories works too, but the storyline would have to revolve around that + Tatsuya’s reaction to justify introducing that plot element imo, cause it’s A LOT to deal with. Also if the overarching plot is centered on P2 (particularly the IS party members), then why are the P4 and P5 casts involved? Also while I think it’d be interesting to re-introduce Philemon and Nyarlathotep to the Persona setting and have them play a bigger part—especially since Nyarly isn’t banished until the end of EP—their involvement might skew the plot too heavily towards P2? (although I admit the “nobody remembers this adventure” ending of PQ games would work especially well for Lisa, Jun and Eikichi here) 

tbh PQ had quite a lot of nods to P2 IS (the clock tower, school mysteries + moving statue urban legend on P4-side, and the true form of the main antagonist). I kinda like the idea of the setting being a fake school like PQ, with details of the school influenced by the persona users when they arrive, but the story might have to be tweaked a bit (different final boss probably, and maybe bring in more themes in P2/4/5). 

potential themes

I liked that PQ and PQ2 had plots that were ultimately about the new characters, since it justifies their inclusion (and i think it’s a bit unfair if the game focuses too much on the cast of a particular game). I have mixed feelings about some of the execution of PQ and PQ2, but I do appreciate the intent behind it. I do think reinforcement of the games’ themes could help make the overarching story more cohesive, so here are some potential themes with P2, P4 and P5 in mind:

rumors, gossip and the role of mass media are important in all 3 (4) persona games here: P2 antagonists manipulate various media to generate rumors, and in turn manipulate rumors to bring about the end of the world; the Midnight Channel in P4 reacts to local gossip and it’s about the casual dehumanization of individuals through media (mostly TV); in P5 people’s perception of the PT is literally a plot point, and the game reminds you of the PT approval rating almost constantly

(distorted) memories is primarily a P2 thing (”worse than death\ forgotten”, Nyarlathotep’s manipulation of Jun and Philemon’s deal to the IS kids, Tatsuya’s ‘sin’) but it could work with the mystery aspect of PQ games. Distorted memories arguably lead to distorted self-perception (P5), and uncovering the truth is P4′s jam

as mentioned in the previous post, the tension between P5′s teenage rebellion and P2 EP’s adult guidance could be really fun to explore and incorporate into the plot. Persona games are about coming of age, but with EP there’s also a secondary theme of guiding the younger generation and fully grappling with adulthood—the heroines of PQ and PQ2 are quite young, but I can potentially see the new character(s) being a little older here (maybe 17-18?)

stroll ideas

Of course the reason why this idea exists in the first place is all the potential interactions between everyone! There’s just so much potential with all the different dynamics and topics they can discuss :3 Here are a few ideas:

Stomping Grounds: P2/4/5 discuss where and how they bust Shadows. P2 “we had to sleep in dungeons sometimes!!!” is incredibly envious that demons aren’t running around the real world for the others. P2 and P4 are jealous of P5 for not having to repair/replace ruined clothes (”you just think about cool clothes and they appear on you?!” “man we should try that in Xibalba...” “it’s really not that simple! Morgana can explain it better, but basically it’s our mental image of rebellion” etc etc).

Lisa’s Brutal Makeover Corner: Teddie gets jealous when Lisa demonstrates her makeup skills on Jun and wants to get dolled up too—he won the Yasogami cross-dressing pageant after all! He has to be the prettiest!!! 

Butterfly Effect: several P4 and P2 characters try to use P5 cast’s knowledge to their advantage, but is stopped by the detective trio to prevent potential time paradoxes

Say It With Flowers: Jun and Haru (and Yukiko?) discuss flower language, share gardening tips, and swap demon/shadow intimidation tactics. Everyone around them is slightly afraid of their enthusiasm on the topic...

Fashion Gurus: Eikichi and Yusuke have a discussion about ~aesthetics~ and comment on their companions’ styles. Kanji is roped into the argument

Fashion Gurus Strike Again: Ulala, Ann and Rise discuss latest fashion trends and comment on the others’ fashion choices

The Audiophiles’ Alliance: Futaba and Yosuke chat about headphones and the greatest bops (with Futaba lamenting she can’t make him eat his words because the song she’s thinking of doesn’t exist yet in his time). Eikichi—aka the great Michel-sama—senses a prime opportunity to get some new fans... 

Strangers in a Familiar Land: Lisa and Ann get into how people tend to act... weird about them due to their foreign looks; Teddie, on the other hand, loves the attention his human form gets from the people around town (and the girls conclude that Teddie would probably get into trouble in a big city)

Everybody Loves Kung Fu Fightin’: Makoto, Ulala, Lisa and Chie show off their moves and swap training tips. Lisa and Chie talk about their favorite martial arts movies and convinces the others to check them out

Big Bro’s Worries: Katsuya and Yosuke complain about their younger brothers, while P4 and P5 protags are slightly smug that they don’t get that much trouble from their sisters, especially P4 protag 

Velvet Room attendants

Since P2/4/5 all have multiple Velvet Room attendants, they’re gonna double up on some jobs to avoid over-crowding:

P2: Demon Artist: he’s in charge of the Workshop. Unlike the other attendants he’s human, so Margaret and the twins are probably intrigued/unsettled by him and Marie might also be curious as someone else who also stays at the Velvet Room but isn’t really an attendant

P2: Nameless & Belladonna: they handle the healing service. They can sense something unusual with the P2 cast due to the split timelines, but it has no bearing on the plot. I’m on the fence whether to include a healing service at all, but if there is one I think it suits them, since their music is supposed to put guests at ease

P4: Margaret & Marie: like their PQ and PQ2 roles, Margaret manages the Persona Compendium and Fusions, and Marie handles skill cards

P5: Caroline and Justine: the twins handle the quests, since Margaret does the fusions. Caroline enjoys ordering the persona users about

[you can find more on this AU tagged under PQ Triple]