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[loveephia]

Can you do Bokuto, Tendou Suna, Iwaizumi? So that they see their girlfriend again after she was away for a long time? I love You Work!!💕💕💕💕💕

how some of the HQ boys would react to seeing their girlfriend again after a long time from a business trip. (bokuto, tendō, suna, iwaizumi.)

content: (🦷) tooth-rotting fluff, them being very sulky generally, you guys are married here, suna's is inspired by a scene in the k-drama "true beauty", kita cameo in iwaizumi's, and yes, atsumu says an among us reference.

⚠ warning/s: manga spoilers.

note: THIS REQ WAS SO CUTE WHATATAT@?(# i haven't written for tendō, BUT i love a good challenge. >:3 iwaizumi's ended up being a bit long on accident. 😭 THANK YOU ANON AND ENJOY READING!!!

BOKUTO KŌTARŌ

when you told him you'd be gone for three WHOLE months, his hair just drooped down, the gleam in his eyes are no longer there, and his childish grin is gone.

baby literally gets so sulky about it :(((

"do you really have to?"

HE HAS THE PUPPY DOG EYES AND EVERYTHING STOPPTKEPDK 😭😭😭😭

"believe me, kō. as much as i don't want to stay away for that long, i have to."

every day he wakes up (with his arms around a pillow instead of you), he tries to be optimistic

"another day closer to seeing my wife!"

can't have him messing up at practice yk

but when he finally sees you at the airport, gosh, he's just all smiley about it

he picks you up and spins you around like in the movies

"i missed you so, so, so much!" he's pecking your face all over, ignoring the looks from other people, because hIS WIFE IS BACK 😭😭😭😭

"kō.. people are staring." you giggled

"let them!"

SATORI TENDŌ

"no way—! you gotta be joking!"

HE IS IN UTTER DISBELIEF.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU'RE GOING TO BE GONE FOR THREE MONTHS???

"who's gonna be my taste tester then!?" his voice cracks

the tendō chocolatier business CANNOT FUNCTION WITHOUT IT'S OFFICIAL TASTE TESTER.

before you leave, he gives you a free box of handmade chocolates galore to snack on the plane

and, ofc, a little kiss on the cheek

when you open the box on the plane, there's a little note

"don't eat'em all on one go! love yaaa~ :3" HOW CUTEJKSJDKEJDK

when you're finally back from the trip, you stumble into tendō's arms

"oof—!" he says before patting your head, "there, there, y/n."

SUNA RINTARŌ

"what." he deadpans

"i know.. but i have to—"

"no way. i don't accept this. you're seriously leaving me?" he sounds so offended that people may think you two are fighting.

he pretends to be all mad about it, but you know he's just joking around

so when you're gone, suna has to physically hOLD HIMSELF BACK FROM CALLING YOU EVERY SECOND OF THE DAY

"she wouldn't want a clingy boyfr— husband." he corrects himself

yeah, he calls you anyway.

when you pick up, you say, "hello, my tarō! how are you?" in that sICKENINGLY KIND TONE SUNA HAS OH, SO MISSED 😭😭

you've only been gone for three days

"please come home. i miss you. please." did he just say please twice?

when you're finally home, it takes every inch of sanity left in suna so as not to drag you away for cuddles

the expression on his face tells you everything, and you giggle. "i'll just shower first, then we can cuddle." and his face LIGHTS UP

IWAIZUMI HAJIME

"even oikawa's said some terrible jokes, but this one is by far the worst."

"nope! it's not a joke, baby."

when you're gone, iwaizumi is so upset because you'd usually give him a little kiss goodbye whenever he goes off to work :((

so now he's extra grumpy while coaching the national jpn team.

"oi, hinata! you should've been able to get that one!"

"if you can't hit it right, another hundred laps for you, ushiwaka!"

"suna, stop slacking off, or i'll have that old captain of yours come back and scold you!"

suna knows iwaizumi's threat was only towards him, but that statement got even ATSUMU AND ARAN SHIVERING.

SO THE TEAM IS ALL LIKE "???" BECAUSE WHO PUSHED IWAIZUMI'S BUTTONS SO EARLY IN THE MORNING 😭

"which one of you is it. come on, fess up!" hoshiumi hisses

"i believe bokuto lost iwaizumi's pen the other day." ushijima states

"wow, are we just throwing each other under the bus now?" suna snickers

"it was an accident! i didn't know he'd get this mad about it!" bokuto tried to defend himself, "come on, tell them, atsumu!"

"i was in cafeteria with grey." atsumu lifts both hands up, metaphorically waving the white flag

"you all are insufferable." sakusa groans

you can imagine how confused the team got when after three months, iwaizumi's mood was no longer grouchy since you had finally come home

© lowercase intended | loveephia

[blue-thief]

Ok so. I really like seeing your takes on Kaiser and Isagi, so I wanted to pick your brains about this, if it's ok?? What do you think about Kaiser's current idea of redefining himself and his proof of existence, and his rivalry with Isagi?

Hope you have a good day!

I'M GLAD YOU LIKE MY TAKES 🫡🫡

but ooohhh boy, yeah. i have a lot of thoughts about kaiser and this new chapter :3

the big question right now is, will kaiser actually make a comeback in this match? it's hard to tell. if this were a regular sports animanga, i would say, "without a doubt, yes." but we have to remember that this is blue lock. this is the same manga that eliminated kira ryosuke, and it's the same one that gave us this beautiful sequence of panels

a character hitting rock bottom and unlocking a flow state is not a guarantee that they will score as we saw with rin at the end of the jpn u20 vs blue lock 11 game. the same can be said about a similar awakening bachira went through at the end of the second selection. both times, isagi picked up on their evolution and used that to his advantage.

isagi is aiming to do the exact same thing with kaiser in this current match.

in the case of both bachira and rin, their awakenings were brought about by the realization that they needed to stop being so dependent on others. bachira had to free himself from isagi and the monster while rin had to free himself from the support of the blue lock 11.

the formula for these past few chapters has followed the same beats as what bachira and rin went through (rock bottom, backstory, flow state, interruption by isagi), but kaiser's current state is more similar to another character.

kaiser and barou are both positioned as monarchs who (at least initially) viewed themselves as the protagonist until they were challenged by isagi. unlike bachira and rin, barou was able to claw back up and score a goal by redefining what it means to be a king.

it seems kaiser is trying to do the same thing. however, he isn't necessarily trying to redefine the title of "emperor". instead, he is taking the title his father gave him, "piece of shit", and reclaiming it.

the best way i can explain what's going on here is that クソ物, "piece of shit", is written to be pronounced as "michael". kaiser's father calling him a "piece of shit" and refusing him to call him "michael" was his way of refusing kaiser's humanity. with how kaiser doesn't go by his first name, "michael" is the human he was never allowed to become.

as a child, kaiser equated himself with an object - his ball.

"when you throw a ball, it flies away. and when it hits a wall, it comes back. even if i got angry and hit it, or kicked it with all i had, it wouldn't get angry or cry. always, it would be there without saying anything. it's a piece of shit like me."

this was from a time in kaiser's life when he considered himself to be "mentally weak". however, the moment he discovered his identity was when he fought against his father and the police in order to protect said ball. this moment led to him discovering his identity. however, he misinterpreted this event as him finding his identity through hurting others like his father rather him defending himself.

now, we are at a point where kaiser isn't trying to destroy others. instead, he is doing the best he can to defend his position on a team he had no intentions of sticking with in the first place. earlier on in the series, when ego explained turning zero into one, he also said that being a striker is equivalent to being a destroyer. i'm not sure if this is actually what's going to happen but imagine how crazy it would be if KAISER was one of the characters who abandoned being a striker in favour of another position. even if that turns out to not be the case, there is no doubt that kaiser is going through a major shift in identity. he is discovering a way to feel human, to feel like the boy "michael", in a way that does not involve tearing other people down.

he is returning to a point in his life when he was at one with his ball, but now, he may realize that "not getting angry" is not necessarily a sign of weakness, but instead, resilience. he has hit a wall, but he still has a chance to bounce back from it.

however, i would like to point out that while kaiser has Been Going Through It, he is not at a point i would call rock bottom just yet. kaiser initially grew attached to his ball in the first place because he identified with its "weakness", and like how many people pointed out before, this is what drew kaiser to ness as well. he still hasn't lost ness yet. at this point, he easily could with how he dismissed ness's help in the most recent chapter. the question now is, will the final step in kaiser's evolution come before or after ness deserts him? or, will kaiser's evolution lead to ness developing on his own?

[drleggman]

lexi!!!!

1. i love you and miss you whenever you’re gone <3

2. what are your main self ships? and can you give me a tiny glimpse of each of the relationship dynamics?

Kae 🥹 ilyilyilyily

My top self ships are probs me/bokuto, me/reiner, and me/tamaki (i got so excited when i saw u and aleks talking about him yesterday! he’s so underrated) !! They’re all like my og self ships too and I’ve kept our lore stored away for years atp, so I’ll talk about them!

Bokuto!! He’s like the stereotypical golden retriever boy, and that’s usually not my type but… Here we are lol. We’re very complementary, he’s the sun to my moon etc etc. We met when I was hired on to be a translator for the jpn national team, and he asked me out after the Olympics were over. He just. Approached me and said “You’re pretty :D I think it’s so cool that you speak two languages :D I wasn’t gonna ask you out bc I thought it’d be unprofessional, but then tsum-tsum called me a pussy, and I’m not a pussy, and” I have to cut him off and we agree to go on a date and hit it off immediately! We both tend to get pouty when something doesn’t go our way and we love to baby each other when it happens. He encourages me to do things I’d usually be to nervous to try, and I encourage him to rest lol. He introduces me to his friends and invites me to hang out with him and the boys on the national team and brings me out of my shell. Our friends think we’re annoying bc of how sappy and affectionate we are. Especially if we’ve been drinking! Just hanging off of each other constantly and arguing about who loves the other more. We never leave the honeymoon phase and spend our whole lives after getting together absolutely obsessed with each other.

Reiner and I, in both a canon and modern setting, kinda trauma bond and become inseparable (boys w mommy issues love me and I love men who cry and are so miserable). We both are in the middle of identity crises and struggle with our sense of self and our place in the world and how to cope with the horrors we’ve partaken in lived through, but we make each other feel so seen in a way we’ve never experienced before. The people in our lives want to tell us that maybe we shouldn’t be in a relationship while still in such vulnerable mental states, but they’ve also not seen us so happy in so long, so they keep their mouths shut. We’re a bit toxic at first in a codependent way. We can’t function without the other and we fuel each others grief and isolate ourselves from the people around us, but after years together, we slowly start to get over ourselves lmao. We grow tired of pitying ourselves and start to be better together, and we both firmly believe we’d have never snapped out of it if it weren’t for us encouraging each other. Which maybe isn’t true, but nobody would ever tell us that.

And Tamaki!! My sweet Suneater <3 This is one of the rare instances in which I initiate everything in the relationship and take on a more dominant role. I was just like him when we met, but if there’s one thing that will snap me out of my anxiety, it’s seeing someone who is just as anxious as me struggling to do things it helps that I think he’s so cute. We meet at Fatgum’s agency, and I wanna be his friend soooo bad, but I know how overwhelmed he gets, so I go slow and am very soft with him. I tell him about how I manage my anxiety, teach him my coping mechanisms, and show him my fidget toys and then buy him some of his own - all unprompted. He was kinda unresponsive at first bc he was confused about why I’d wanna talk to him, but he warms up to me pretty quickly after he realizes that I have the same struggles as him. He starts to see through the false confidence after that, catching me when I’m anxious and picking up on my ticks, and he’ll remind me of the techniques I taught him to help him get out of his head. I’m the “he asked for no pickles” partner, while he’s clutching my shirt and hiding behind me w his face pressed into my shoulder. If he sees me getting anxious, especially when talking to someone, he also gets nervous lol but his need to help me emboldens him. His favorite move is to just like physically insert himself into the situation. Like stand between me and the person and whisk me away to somewhere quiet. I’m much cockier when we’re alone, and I love to tease him and get him all flustered. He loves praise but it gets him so worked up and I looove to shower him with compliments and pet names. I’m one of the few people he lets his guard down around when he’s not in action mode, so he’s just like. Normal when we’re alone. Still soft spoken and sweet, but after being together for a while, his relationship anxiety and worries about looking dumb in front of me fade. anxiety4anxiety all the way but we make it work

[red-dyed-sarumane]

okay aru sekai team this decode doesn't seem complete right now. it seems to cut off after the first rute furute wo a, which leaves the parts like "かさき また ひらすまに/らまさり なたい つくおと/しかり さめなし ゆかみ/らまさり なは てらすまに" and "ふるかさずまの たに つづり きさにかた/なに あかり/ひらき まつをしあうみ そう/ゆらまりはた" and "あらみかた しかすばに/たばなに かがり ふすもの/きなり かてなに ゆかみ/たかるま なは せらうたに" still unsolved for now. bummer. the rest i can match up to the lyrics i think given the. incredibly long list of word meanings complied here. i'm putting the og lyrics in red in case anyone's reading the jpn here along with it.

from here btw.

current thoughts: makes sense why this girl has the main motif. she has a lot of thought & feeling going into what she's doing, & she means well. makes it hurt all the more though. worse u can tell she knows what she's doing isnt helping all that much & yet she's going through with it anyway. i will be checking back to see if anyone figures out the last 3 parts bc i NEED to know.

ゆら そたりを となも さのかのと るま そわいよ つがう かくなのさや 辺りに鈴の音を鳴り響かせ　 そのようにあのようにあって欲しいと。 そうだろう、 このようであるのだろうと約束する。 Nearby, the chime of bells rang out Wanting it to be in this and that way. That's right, Promising it'd happen this way.

しきて いあきま なはいでて かな そたひや 秋には一面に広がり(自分の)名は有名になるのだ。 In fall, it happened that the name to spread and become famous was my own.

うつかさすまの しち くくみ いさぎ あさ さい あたに ひらき まつをしあうみ そう ゆらまりはた 日が沈む中、約束を実行する保証を記し(自分自身を)納得させ 心が晴れたところで朝になってしまった。 心身の不浄を清め、恨みを失くし、待つべきであった。 しかしながら、心はまだ揺らいでいた。 As the sun was setting, I myself agreed to the written guarantee of carrying out that promise it had become morning in that sunny spot in my heart. I had to wait for the purification of an unclean body & mind and the erasure of grudges. Nevertheless, my heart was still swaying.

あこまとさを たふ さしかの なと もたせがの まを たゆたりかす なも とあのまの かぬら ゆがすらう あお すかりたう らくは ふたおと あの木の間でそのようにあって欲しいと応え、 心に抱いた思いを〜のような思いがゆらゆらと揺れ動いて定まらない あのようなお方と合わさることへの心構えを 頼りにすることは胸が苦しくなる。 There in the trees, my answer was I wish it would be like that, "May these feelings rest in your heart~" type of thoughts were shifting and swaying without settling Things relying on mental preparedness towards this way of a method and things combined with it made my chest hurt.

ああ かなて いさひら なはいでて かな そたひや しきて いあきま なはいでて ああ…。今はもう名がい出て、秋には一面に広がり名は有名になるのだ。 Ah.... My name's out there already, a name spread out over fall and become famous.

るて ふるてをあ るて ふるてをあ 古くなった名は辺りへと広がってしまった。 古くなった名は辺りへと広がってしまった。 The aged name had spread nearby. The aged name had spread nearby.

[papirouge]

akari takeuchi is so beautiful, like she has this round face and sometimes has the appearance of being a lil chubby yet she's really popular among her groupmates. I love how she looks with very short hair too.

japanese people in general seem to be pretty fixated on thinness. in remember when morning mmusume got popular and people talked about kago ai and tsuji nozomi and they refered to tsuji as "the chubby one", even though she was only slightly bigger than kago.

i dont know if you ever keep up with momusu or if you ever cared about it, but once they had this member who was actually overweight (susuki kanon), and she was constantly mocked by fans, the public, and apparently teased by management and team members. obviously she did not pass the audition when she was overweight; she mentioned later that she went through an extreme diet to appear skinny at the audtions, but that she'd been chubby all her life.

but i think koreans are even more extreme with their beauty standards. like, you can see korean idols tend to be skinnier than jpop ones, i think the girls even lose their periods or have very irregular ones. i remember when kpop started gettinf global recognition, sometimes kpoppers would post on certain j-artists youtube videos just to compare them to korean ones, and I remember checking the comments in this perfume video and kpoppers were literally saying they had fat legs. like the girls from perfume (and not, it was not when achan was a lil chubby in their early years)

Anon I do "care" about those things bc I've been a jpop head for a longer time that I will ever admit 😭

Akari has always been a favorite of my mine 🩵 And yeah her face is sooo cute!! She definitely stood out because she was chubbier but imo that's a good thing bc idol are sooo interchangeable. Unless your very pretty or very talented (dance, singing) being a bit different can be an asset if well played.

Imo I think thame difference with Kanon is that Akari seemed confident and it gave her the charisma and appeal that fan like. Kanon was maybe too young and insecure and fans caught it and it made them uninterested and disrespectful for her performance...

And yeah, Japan is obsessed with skinniness, water is wet lol

I've always be intrigued by the fetishistic way of considering beauty. For example they will hyperfixate on features that a supposed "attractive" such as a small face, high nose brige, big eyes, etc and literally dismiss every thing else to the point it's getting ridiculous at times. Someone would be pretty but because they have a very small face they'll be elevated as an absolute staple of beauty.

I lurk a lot on girlchannel and every 2-3 days there are threads dedicated to rave on beautiful people... I remember one thread dedicated to rave on Erika Toda arms skinniness when she played Misa Amane in the Death Note movie 😭

This fetishization of beauty that's also why they will get plastic surgery to get features they consider objectively pretty without considering the harmony with the rest of the face, such as a high nose brige but since the rest of their face will remain unchanged the balance of their full face is so weird. East Asian tend to have a large face so I think them ps'ing their nose to be as small as possible makes them look so weird and uncanny 🥴

Kpoppers are mentally ill so I'm not surprised they don't have any idea what a normal human being looks like.

Perfume gals have perfect legs - they literally made the whole 'VOICE' single cover out of it 💀

It's not really that Achan is "chubby" it's that she has wide hips which is considered unattractive in Japan. That's why in their outfits coding, she's the one to wear clothing who are ample/lose in that area, while Nocchi is the 'boyish' one (short hair + pants/shorts) and Kashiyuka is the one wearing the shorter & more skimpy outfit version. Here's another example for their JPN album visuals

Arguing that these women would be in any way fat is insane. That's how I know kpop fans have brainrot.

Whenever I stumble on kpop MV gif my eyes itch at the amount of filters used... Kpop idols are routinely abused and mistreated but these idiots will keep stanning. I've always found ironic how people have no problem acknowledging that what we consume has political consequences and won't shut up about H&M and Shein mistreatment of their employees + their business model damaging effects on their environment but will keep lining the pockets of Kpop artists agencies doing the same 💀

Both Japan and Korean are fucked up with their Beauty standards but Japan still has the kawaii card that allows someone to still be considered appealing despite not being conventionally attractive. I think Ai Kago and Tsuji Nozomi totally belong in that category. That being said, kawaiiness can also be artificial considering that Nozomi did plastic surgery on her eyes to make them look twice bigger + obsessive use of light color lenses (look at the pics of her marriage before she got the procedure💀). Kyary is also infamous for revamping her face (namidabukuro + eyelid lift)

And let's no forget Tsubasa Masuwaka who's jumped on the kawaii bandwagon after the end of the heisei/gyaru era and has been doctoring like mad her pics ever since...

[sunny12th]

nrt is evidently nostalgic to me because i used to watch it with my cousin when i visited jpn and also kakashi is an incredible character and i love him big in a way you love toxic mentor <3. but anyway, what’s your thought on obito 🧐

lmaoo you gotta love kakashi as the toxic mentor he is or you're really just loving the fanon version of him that's actually a good dad who adopts team 7. he's a hollow man for most of the series who spends most his life living behind a literal and metaphorical mask of disassociation and apathy. he's also so very fun and sexy!

obito is also really interesting. ostracized (like naruto) with an unyielding sense of optimism that he developed to cope with the loneliness of being an uchiha without a sharingan, (again like naruto). then it all goes to hell and he spends a lot of time being brainwashed and manipulated by beings that are infinitely more powerful and wiser than him. not trying to excuse the mass murder and terrorism but he really didn't have much of a chance at not going batshit insane. I've always liked the headcanon that his tobi and madara personas are actual split personalities that developed to cope with his trauma. I also love that he starts wearing a mask (like kakashi) even though really kakashi is probably the only person that could recognize him as an adult with half his face severely scarred as it is. ngl I remember feeling absolutely insane when it was revealed that kakashi had obito's eye and obito was tobi. that shot of their faces coming together and the sharingans spinning in sync?? iconic. the absolute Angst behind their characters.

kakashi killing rin?? killing the one person that accepted obito, his first love, the one person that took care of him? and obito being forced to watch and his mind just Splitting apart from it. obito realizing there is no home to go back to, there is no team to fight with, and he can't accept it so he decides that the world is simply wrong and he can fix it by ..... putting everyone in a mass hallucination! batshit insane but it's so fun and interesting. it's the classic "I Can't Accept This World So I'll Burn It Down And Make A New One" villain mentality.

and the time in-between too, before the actual plot starts in shippuden and he's just going around being an Absolute Menace but he's not even having fun with it because he's so depressed and him mind is just broken 😭

anyways! obito is a great character. wouldve liked to see him go even more insane after he realized he was being manipulated and controlled by madara (I almost forgot he had a literal seal on his heart) instead of just sacrificing himself. I'm cool with him dying but I would've liked to see him have a crazy fight with madara first. but, of course, at that point the only one that could damage madara was MIGHT GAI THE REAL OP AND HERO.

[autisticbokutoenthusiast]

Reacting to VNL 2025 Anouncement

(yes im a few days late i was processing irl for a bit)

im gonna go week by week and look at the pools and what im excited for! (lowkey confused by the pools cause on the one hand some teams are in the same pool several times which is normal but also poland/italy and japan/turkiye dont match once??? neither do s. korea/thailand and thats a rematch im looking forward to? but wtv we have world champs coming up in the fall so well hopefully see those matchups then)

Week 1

GABI!!!!

POOL A:

japan, netherlands, serbia, canada, dominican republic and bulgaria

Im most looking forward to:

JPN v DOM because they are such different teams its always interesting to see how they match against eachother

CAN v NED because they were pretty evenly matched this year so i think that game will be interesting and hard fought

DOM v CAN because i also feel they are evenly matched but different teams and i think they could challenge eachother in a way that brings out the best play in eachother

JPN v CAN this was a 5 setter last vnl with canada winning so lets see what goes down next year

POOL B

italy, brazil, usa, germany, czech republic, south korea

im most looking forward to:

ITA v BRA cause we all know that will be an intense match (brazil will be coming in without some of their veterans but most of their core team is the same as far as im understanding) i mean brazil won their match this last vnl but italy is the team to beat rn and brazil will be hungry to get back on top- not to mention a lot of their big players (im thinking gabi and carol rn) are playing in the italian league

USA v BRA both of these teams are strong and will play a hell of a match i can feel it, usa will want that remtch cause they went down in 4 last time, i know this has 5-set potential (same goes for USA v ITA)

im also curious about CZE v KOR because czech team got in from the challenger cup and south korea is (i say this with love and respect) the bottom of the vnl teams (to be the worst of the top 18 teams is still an accomplishment but they just havent been winning these past years) so i think they may be evenly matched and play an interesting game

POOL C

turkiye, poland, china, thailand, belgium, france

what im most looking forward to:

TUR v POL these are just two vicious teams and its always fun seeing them rile eachother up then get riled up against the refs then the crowd then the coach then the net then the ball etc both teams will also be without their captains (wołosz and erdem retired from nat team afaik) so i wonder who will be holding them down (my bets are korneluk and örgey)

TUR v CHN something about china always gets under turkeys skin and i want to see them come up with an answer or it also li ying ying v vargas should be interesting

POL v CHN two blocking powerhouses i cant wait

THAI v CHN thailand beat china once im waiting to see them do it again

THAI v FRA/BEL i think these may be evenly matched teams and yall know i love level skill matches

THAI v TUR fun fact but i was a passive vball watcher until the 5 setter between these two teams in world champs 22. it was just such a fun match i immidiately started following all the players and really getting invested in volleyball. thailand actually won if im not mistaken (this was pre vargas) so i know that a shake up can happen

WEEK 2

YUAN XIN YUE

POOL A

brazil, turkiye, canada, dominican republic, belgium, south korea

what im most looking forward to

BRA v TUR yall..... yall know when these two teams match EVERYONE ACTS UP like the fans, the teams, the commentators it gets CRAZY but in a more serious sense their matches are very fun and brazils experience vs turkiyes youngblood is always interesting

CAN v DOM i love when these two teams meet cause you never know who will win till they do ya know just fun games to watch, last time can won 3-0 but i know las reinas have it in them

CAN v TUR hear me out yall!!! i think van ryck and gray are gonna be trouble for turkiye this year idk why but i can feel it

POOL B

italy, china, japan, thailand, czech republic, bulgaria

what im most looking forward to

ITA v CHN highly competent teams with italy being on top i want to see how china approaches them especiall looking at the li ying ying/egonu and yuan xin yue/denesi matchup. china didnt take a single set off them last vnl but i know they could

JPN v CHN china is usually seen as the top asian team but japan beat them in 4 and got silver at last vnl so i think itll be interesting to see what happens

ITA v JPN listen this was the gold medal match last year but japan is now without their ace koga but still!! i think it could be interesting

THAI v everyone yall should know by now they are lowkey my ult team but listen against italy itll be a challenge but theres something about watching thailand fight till the last point thats always interesting- then we have them against japan which both teams have similar play styles (tho i would say thailand is a bit more scrappy <3) so its fun seeing them battle it out too- then for the other teams its just not something we see a lot so ill look forward to how they play out, thailand came away with a win last time they faced bulgaria but can they do it again

POOL C

poland, usa, netherlands, serbia, germany, france

what im most looking forward to

POL v USA the block battle about to go down oooo also 6'8 stysiak v 6'8 and 6'6 retke and plummer.... coaches play them against eachother im tryna see something...

POL v GER and POL v SER just becuse the polish fans wont be at home but they're gonna turn up and boo like no tomorrow.....

USA v SER if usa really is trying to swipe guidetti then should be interesting👀

WEEK 3

SKINNER

POOL A

italy, turkiye, netherlands, serbia, belgium, czech republic

what im most looking forward to

ITA v TUR italy took it 4 sets last time, can they do it again? i think this match should be really fun

SER v TUR because if we still have santerelli and guidetti then its the teams playing their coaches from 2022 so these are coaches that know the other team well and should be interesting

POOL B

usa, china, canada, dominican republic, germany, thailand

what im most looking forward to

USA v CHN china came out the winner of the 4 set battle in 24 but it was usa's non regulars. will they be able to do the same against usa at home 👀 (also need 6'8 middles yuan and retke to meet in the middle also li ying ying nd plummer)

USA v CAN these teams have very similar play styles (to my untrained eyes) and van ryck was causing lots of trouble last vnl so this match should be interest

CHN v CAN yall remember when canada won this in vnl 2024 cause i do and i cant wait for the rematch

DOM v THAI listen yall this one of my fav matches im still not over the post game interactions between martinez and achjarpon and piyannut in 2024 i need to see it again IN PERSON like im booking a flight THIS WEEK IDGAF

POOL C

japan, poland, brazil, france, bulgaria, south korea

what im most looking forward to

JPN v POL very different but both skilled teams i want to see how they match up given polands offensive power and japans strong floor defense

POL v BRA last vnl it was only a 4 setter but i think these teams are pretty evenly matched. theres a fieriness to poland thats different from brazils athleticism. i just love watching these two meet

JPN v BRA NOW YALL KNOW THIS IS GONNA BE THE REMATCH OF ALL TIMEEEEEEE like kogas gone (miss you queen) but wada and airi came outta nowhere that match and stunned so i will be tuned the fuck in

general points

italy team to beat after winning last vnl AND olympics i wonder how the other teams will handle them and if they can be beaten, especially if they play egonu/sylla/fahr from the beginning

Im really curious about this USA team, they lost their head coach and still havent anounced whose replcing kiraly, its the first time the us has its own pro league meaning we're gonna see these players play club with their nat teammates and while i doubt itll happen in only one season i wonder if well see the us develop its own playstyle

also for usa i want to see their deep bench again. while i think it may have hurt them a bit going into finals week/olympics that they didnt have an established starting squad that worked well off of eachother i loved seeing the variety of players they brought out in weeks 1 and 2 last year

the expanded format is interesting i mean i was surprised seeing france belgium and czech republic on here since they havent been part of like the core vnl teams the past few years (excl frances inclusion cause of olympics)

arlington being home of usa vball continuing to piss me off wdym the men get to play in chicago thats one of my bucket list cities ive spent ENOUGH time in dallas ENOUGH. but i will try to be there to see wipawee play in my home country <3

i noticed a lot of players growing their hair on the chinese and japanese teams last year i wonder what if shoulder length ponytails will still be the stile or we'll go back to bobs and short cuts

its gonna be sad seeing these times without a lot of the legends that played (and some cases came back) for the 24 season but theres so much young talent i dont think well have time to miss them too badly

anyway what are yalls thoughts??!?!?!?

(i know theres like 2 ppl on this webbed site that watch vball and you probably didnt scroll all the way down but if you did what are you looking forward to seeing)

[f1]

Spanish Grand Prix: F1 live

Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature Lando Norris in third on the grid the first sign of McLaren being a progressive outfit? After an impressive third in 2020, the sheen has come off their resurgence. In 2021 they finished fourth; in 2022 under the new regulations and with hope of a real step forward, they emerged with a car off the pace and ended up fifth. This year has been even worse, with Norris and his new teammate, the talented Australian Oscar Piastri, returning best finishes of sixth and eighth respectively in Melbourne. The downward slide continuing, McLaren are currently sixth in the constructors’ championship. Giles Richards is our man in Barcelona. Lewis Hamilton and his fellow Mercedes driver, George Russell, hit one another on track, the first time the pair have clashed since becoming teammates in 2022. The incident was unintentional, Wolff said, and a failing on behalf of the team. “It’s all down to miscommunication because drivers in the same team don’t want to crash into each other on their final lap in qualifying,” he said. “It was just an unfortunate situation. It looks silly.” Russell, who had aborted a flying lap and was looking to start another, did not know Hamilton was behind him and approaching at pace to begin his own hot lap when he moved over on the straight. Hamilton was forced on to the grass to avoid Russell but clipped him, taking damage to his front wing in the process. Hamilton accused his teammate of backing off, saying: “That is really dangerous.” Max Verstappen is going for three in a row, five from seven, Red Bull continue to go for a clean sweep. That’s about the size of it, though this time Verstappen does not have Sergio Perez for company on the front of the grid. The Mexican is 11th where he has George Russell for company after the Mercedes mixup/prang. Let’s see how tensions are in the Mercs while Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris in the Ferrari and McLaren respectively, look best equipped to try and stop the runaway Red Bull. It seems likely most of the fun will be in midfield with the likes of Charles Leclerc, Sainz and Russell trying to make their way up. Lights out at 2pm UK time, 3pm Catalunya time. Final Times after Qualification: 1 Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull 1min 12.272secs, 2 Carlos Sainz Jr (Spa) Ferrari 1:12.734, 3 Lando Norris (Gbr) McLaren 1:12.792, 4 Pierre Gasly (Fra) Alpine 1:12.816, 5 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1:12.818, 6 Lance Stroll (Can) Aston Martin 1:12.994, 7 Esteban Ocon (Fra) Alpine 1:13.083, 8 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Haas F1 Team 1:13.229, 9 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Aston Martin 1:13.507, 10 Oscar Piastri (Aus) McLaren 1:13.682, 11 Sergio Perez (Mex) Red Bull 1:13.334, 12 George Russell (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1:13.447, 13 Guanyu Zhou (Chn) Alfa Romeo Racing 1:13.521, 14 Nyck de Vries (Ned) Scuderia AlphaTauri 1:14.083, 15 Yuki Tsunoda (Jpn) Scuderia AlphaTauri 1:14.477, 16 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Alfa Romeo Racing 1:13.977, 17 Kevin Magnussen (Den) Haas F1 Team 1:14.042, 18 Alexander Albon (Tha) Williams 1:14.063, 19 Charles Leclerc (Mon) Ferrari 1:14.079, 20 Logan Sargeant (USA) Williams 1:14.699 via Formula One | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/sport/formulaone

[istherewifiinhell]

puppy sized baterias. MINICONS. in english. howd i forget that i only watched 51 episodes of ppl saying that word like. every 2 seconds

[no alt text, IDs in plan text] everyone say thank u tf wiki

[ID: Shot of a bunch of the micron/minicons standing in rows facing the camera. the main three (the street action team) are in front. END]

[ID: The street action team, Grindor, who has a yellow face, with big black dot eyes on a orange visor, and no mouth. Highwire in blue, BIGGER white dot eyes visor, red mask, his head makes it look like the visor is just a gap in his plating. Sureshock, orange, with big yellow optics/eyes, grey face, no mouth. END]

[ID: 5 microns just kinda standing around,3 of them watching the 2 in the middle. Grindor and Highwire knock their fists together in a very stiff way, immitating a fist bump. END]

[ID: The street action team wandering around by Optimus' feet, as if looking for something. Each of them, no taller than his "ankles", which is really all of him thats in frame. Grindor is walking in one direction, Sureshock is looking behind one of Prime's feet, a scooter'd arm to (Her?) brow indicating looking. Highwire is standing Prime's other foot, in a similar posture. END]

also yeah duh their a combiner. OBVIOUSLY. toys. cmon man keep up

[ID: The combiner form, Sureshocks orange shooter parts making up the legs. Grindor as the torso, in his yellow and blue, his usual arms acting visually as wing like things on the back, and likely his chunkier legs are the combiners arms. Highwire's the shoulders and head, his bicycle tires on each shoulder, acting visibly as rotors maybe? The combiner head is not Highwires, but a blue helmed mech, with a grey face, blue visor and both a nose and mouth! END]

confusing named in both languages as either bumble [same as bb is called in jpn] OR perceptor [whose the fucking microscope]. both WILDLY more popular characters AND consistent in like. apperence/gimmick and name in many iterations. lmao.

#now im just tryna remember every megatron/time that megatron tried to blow up the earth...

[jolting upright] ARMADA. duh. he fucking killed prime doing that. [died saving the earth from blowing up][he got better] uhhh and microns. or whatever. what are they if not puppy sized bacteria. little tiny tfs that are BORNE [wet styles.... ._.] from big evil robot god.

[tangerinefluff]

i can't believe ishikawa yuki really saw haikyuu's collaboration special of HIM and said, "it's cooler than the real thing"

[apticho]

you know, i always thought angels weren’t real…

[hungnitan]

PROJECT SEKAI EVENT STORY - TOP 10 RECOMENDATION TO READ

With Project Sekai already 1.5 year old and seems still going strong (lol) I recommend everyone to read event story below aside each group main story for best enjoyment : Additional info : Project Sekai ENG as today at Stray Bad Dogs event (so years late)

10. Legend Still Vivid (VBS Story) here

Date Release : 2/9-2/16′22 (JPN Release)

Minimum Requirement : VBS main story + VBS story here

Rating : 4.5/5 (for enjoyment)

Feature : VBS members + Len Miku Meiko VBS

This event story is the fastest way for everyone want to know what’s really happened in VBS so far. Don’t ever worry even you skipped all VBS event story before this one (aside I add above) since this event explain the biggest part in their overall story~

9. バーシャル・シンガーファンフェスタ(1.5 Year Anniversary Story) here

Date Release : 10/1-10/9′21 (JPN Release)

Minimum Requirement : A little bit of all group main story

Rating : 4.6/5 (for enjoyment and freshness with new interactions)

Feature : ALL CHARACTERS but main characters are Minori Ichika Kohane Nene Kanade

This story pretty good if you’re tired with their group only limited interactions but this better read after you read most event stories before this one for best enjoyment.

8. 純白の貴方へ、誓いの歌を! (Mixed Story) here

Date Release : 5/31-6/9′21 (JPN Release) 

Minimum Requirement : Kamikou festival story

Rating : 4.6/5 (for enjoyment)

Feature : Touya Akito An + Rui Tsukasa + Saki + Len WxS

This event story make you get a good grasp about Rui personality aside from WxS stories. Aside of that this story kind like treats to women players (lol) as most male characters get feature here~

7. 夏祭り、鳴り響く音は (Mixed Story) here

Date Release : 7/20-7/29′21 (JPN Release)

Minimum Requirement : Nigo main story or having knowledge about Shinonome siblings

Rating : 4.7/5 (for enjoyment)

Feature : VBS members + Nigo members + Shizuku Airi + Miku Nigo + Len VBS

This event story makes you understand Shinonome siblings better than their own group stories. Additionaly it tells their past and Akito reasons for choosing street music than painting

6. KAMIKOU FESTIVAL ! (Mixed Event) here

Date Release : 12/10-12/18′20 (JPN Release) 

Minimum Requirement : None

Rating : 4.8/5 (for enjoyment & comedic scenes)

Feature : An Touya Akito + Mizuki +Tsukasa Rui Nene + Kaito WxS

One of my personal recomendation to understand the reason Kamikou members are the best. So many comedic scene and new interaction between MizukiRui TsukasaTouya are reveal here

5. 満たされないペイルカラー (Nigo Story) here

Date Release : 2/18-2/26′21 (JPN Release)

Minimum Requirement : Nigo main story (additionaly Nigo previous story here)

Rating : 4.9/5 (for hurt/comfort)

Feature : Nigo members + Akito + Miku Rin Nigo

I can say this story one of two best Nigo event story so far ! The story tells about Ena breakpoint when she hit the wall, the plus point is Ena VA really came out in full force

4. STRAY BAD DOG (VBS Story) here

Date Release : 4/30-5/8′21 (JPN Release)

Minimum Requirement : VBS main story

Rating : 4.9/5 (for enjoyment and suprise element)

Feature : VBS members + Virtual Singers aside Luka as she still not appear at that time

This story makes you look at different light on Akito overall and the best VBS story so far. New NPC which maybe took big part on VBS stories later appear here and how supportive Touya as Akito’s partner

3. 怪盗紳士のハラハラ！？ホワイトデー (Mixed Event) here

Date Release : 2/28-3/9′22 (JPN Release)

Minimum Requirement : Any knowledge about Kamikou member relationships are fine but to add the enjoyment read Kamikou Festival

Rating : 4.9/5 (for enjoyment and comedic element)

Feature : Leo/Need & WxS members + WxS Virtual Singers + Haruka + Touya Akito + Mizuki

TsukasaAkitoMizuki comedic team trolling here ! I can say those three makes the best comedy team than everyone else so I really recomend to read this one

2. 白熱！神高応援団! (Mixed Event) here

Date Release : 5/10-5/18′22 (JPN Release)

Minimum Requirement : Kamikou Festival

Rating : 4.9/5 (for enjoyment and comedic element)

Feature : An Akito Touya + WxS members + Ena +WxS Virtual Singers

Second Kamikou Festival but merrier and funnier ! AkitoTsukasa and AkitoMizuki comedic scenes here really the best

1. ボクのあしあと キミのゆくさき (Nigo Story) here

Date Release : 10/31-11/9′21 (JPN Release)

Minimum Requirement : Nigo main story additionaly Kamikou Festival & Mystery Tour story

Rating : 5/5 (for curious element)

Feature : Nigo & VBS members + Nigo Virtual Singers

The best Nigo story so far, with leaving some big question at the end. As Mizuki is the most mysterious character in this game, they made us more curious to them with this story and we can see MizukiEna going strong here

Now how’s about yours ? Is there any good event story which not include here, if so kindly tell here for me to read them~ 

[yanderefairyangel]

While Engage and 3H were developped in the same period, the interview explained they were splitting the work which is why half of the IS team worked on 3H with KT and compared to (Disc)Hou(r)ses who had a team of 3 writers from KT, since in Engage they had more focus on making the gameplay the greatest thing ever, the left the story to only one writer, Nami Komuro who provided main writing for Awakening and Fates (even if she didn't planned the scenario) whereas for Engage she is credited as the scenario director and alone for the writing which means she wrote it alone or with very little help and... it's funny, how a story that is far from being perfect and had only one writer because it wasn't their main focus is more structured as a story with more foreshadowing and planning then the "morally grey masterpiece with 3 writers".

I have my own gripes with Engage's story especially in the last chapters, Engage's big character resolution is

Yeah even chapter 22 with the apotheosis thing of Alear being the Fire Emblem is still something I have problem disgesting but it does have something to do with their whole character resolution of becoming a hero, a symbol of hope and inspiration tying to their JPN name Lueur because "lueur d'espoir "and "la lumière c'est l'espoir" etc but I don't think I will ever really accept that monstruosity called chapter 24 which sucks because of AkaLulu being in it.

But it's still impressive of something deemed as "morally black and white" is actually capable of saying "No, not every person who believes and worship Sombron is bad or a child murderer there are good people or normal one among there too" or "No fell dragon aren't inheritenly evil, they are called like that because humans hates them and in reality they can be very sweet like how Lulu and Vey were always very sweet person but forced to act like this by evil yandere Papabron who himself used to be a kind and scared person but became this way because he never gave up on finding his only friend who is also the only remaining connection he had with his family and former world". It shows people who believe in the Divine dragon aren't necessarily good : Veyle's mother died tortured by the believer of the Divine dragon and Veyle herself was subjected to such and would have died if the follower of the Fell dragon didn't saved her. Fell dragon are victim of discrimination because of people hating them and thinking they are evil because of Sombron's action. Brodia, a country that believes in the Divine dragon albeit much less devoted then Firene is portrayed as the bad one in the Elusia/Brodia war, even though Elusia worship Sombron and even Elusia is shown to not be entirely clean either (see Linde and Saphir's support). Even villain like Zephia have backstory to explain her behaviour and while her whole deal is "I wanna be a mom because I am lonely uwu" it at least does a better job at showing that people who follow Sombron aren't "BaD" but they are simply making bad decisions and are rewarded with losing everything and realizing their mistakes unless they decided to amend for it. Even Divine dragon aren't portrayed as all good since they are pretty much flawed individuals that despite being revered as such are shown to not being god with the power of solving everything by a single move of the finger : Lumera had struggles and was sometimes incapable of helping her believer, that's why Mauvier's mother stopped believing in her and worshipped Sombron instead. We also have the whole bit about Sombron and Lumera both being genocide survivor and how they deal with it : Sombron, by causing pain, Lumera by trying to fight, be brave and that's what makes her link with Alear and yadi yada.

Somehow the game with good dragon vs bad dragon has more nuance... almost as if you had to define first and firemost the goodies and the baddies before adding on to the nuance that they are neither entirely evil nor good...HMMM

nowhere in the Fodlan games is it ever mentionned, by one character who has a crust, that crust is only a power and not inherently bad or good, it's what you decided to do, you as someone who has the opportunity to use this power, who ultimately choose to do the right thing, or the wrong thing.

I am not really sure about that. I do recall Dima mentioning it, but can't recall whether or not it was in Houses or Hopes at any rate you are right, IS dislike "black and white morality" since they always find a way to try to insert the idea that not everything is black nor white. Even Fates for all it's flaws, at least tried to do that with Garon and Nohr even if it got lost in translation or with the whle "Anankos isn't evil he just became mad because humans hate him" which would be more "morally grey" then anything Houses attempted to do with the biasied narrative that resulted into moral relativism.

I think, even if FE16 still sells a lot of alts in FEH and DLC and what not, the lack of side materials and goodies is, imo, telling enough about what IS wants to do with it - FE17 got a manga release on the shonen jump + (i think?) even when the sales are inferior to FE16's (granted, if we compare something that was around for 4 years including 2020 to a game released in January, that's not very fair) - Nopes's DLC was called off and bar FEH milking the Fodlan verse to sell units, imo, IS wants to drop it and move forward.

In all fairness, Engage is MUCH easier to adapt as manga then anything from Houses. Many jpn fans claim that the story is so short and simplier it feels like watching an anime to play it with some bringing up how much they would want it to become an actual anime, but the manga itself exist also to promote the game and polish some details of the game's story even if strays a looot from the canon game (like Alcryst calling Alear a pervert) since the short story format didn"t allowed some points to be developped and that Nintendo said "NOPE" to Komuro wanting to make Alear even more of a scared cat as they are supposed to be, which Kazuro Kyo as no problem giving us the most wet nya nya version of Alear with him being just a silly little guy accident prone. With Houses I don't think they could try to adapt any storyline without having to add some "morally grey uwu" stuff like they did and even most fans of 3 H in japan claims the story is a hot mess.

But seeing how IS is I am glad we are likely to never go the Fodlan direction again since KT made it clear with Hopes they simply CAN'T improve Houses. Stories like Engage can be improved because it's closer to what IS have been doing for now over 30 years. And even then the story needs little polishing seeing how the manga managed to fix very efficientely some of the weak elements of the narrative and it doesn't change much, barely some elements. And hopefully it gets rid of the time travel chapter. I feel so conflicted about this damn chapter !

I'm beginning to think there might have been discourse/debate between KT and IS regarding the Fodlan games. We'll never know of course but it would be amusing if that's the case considering how it translated to their audience.

lol

Some people already thought about it, and while Nopes was a heavily marketed/produced product by KT, at the end of the day, even for FE16, IS had to pop in and give a sign of approval.

I think the interview for Engage more or less revealed that while the two games weren't developed together, they were thought of as being wildly different experiences - both in gameplay and story, and while I have my own gripes with Engage's story especially in the last chapters, Engage's big character resolution is

Alear coming to terms with what they were born as, but deciding, nonetheless, to use their power to be and act as the divine dragon Lumera was, aka use their power to do something "good" even if they were born as Sombron's kid thus supposed to do "bad" things.

Compare this with "crust BaD" - nowhere in the Fodlan games is it ever mentionned, by one character who has a crust, that crust is only a power and not inherently bad or good, it's what you decided to do, you as someone who has the opportunity to use this power, who ultimately choose to do the right thing, or the wrong thing.

Hell, it's only when Fodlan met another game (fully developed by IS, for better and worse) that his question is raised, and quickly eluded by Supreme Leader warping away from Lissa, because hey, in an IS game, that question would have been raised, and defaulting to "crusts BaD" has never been the house's recipe to make a game - especially since this specific recipe has been overused, first in FE Jugdral (Loptyr blood isn't inherently evil, that was the teaching Blaggi tried to promote that was later ignored and then forgotten), then, sort of in FE6 (no Fa, divine dragons aren't doomed to become souless war dragon producing machins or humanity's enemies!), in FE13 with Robin and their fell blood, and finally, in FE17.

I think, even if FE16 still sells a lot of alts in FEH and DLC and what not, the lack of side materials and goodies is, imo, telling enough about what IS wants to do with it - FE17 got a manga release on the shonen jump + (i think?) even when the sales are inferior to FE16's (granted, if we compare something that was around for 4 years including 2020 to a game released in January, that's not very fair) - Nopes's DLC was called off and bar FEH milking the Fodlan verse to sell units, imo, IS wants to drop it and move forward.

And while it makes me sad because there are things I'm legit interested in (war of heroes guide like the tellius recollection guide plz), given what "Fodlan" ended up when KT was left (mostly?) alone in the form of Nopes (you effing beat up refugees to steal their gold! Like, we're the red units beating the green npcs, or the bandits burning houses??) - I am less and less sure I want to see more Fodlan content, even if I was pleasantly surprised with the Fodlan content - especially regarding Nabateans who are completely ignored by their source game - IS made up for FEH.

Sure we have some issues that are inherent to FEH's nature as a gacha selling game cajoling units who can sell a lot (Hilda's family never had slaves unfed servants! Syrup just had some adventures in Goneril!) but to the FEH team - from IS - Sothis is more pissed at Agarthans for having genocided her children and turned them into pincushions than for Billy's dad's death.

Hell, for what it's worth, Emblem!Dimitri mentions how much he likes the idea of a world/place without discriminations based on origins or races, something he cannot say in the KT Fodlan games, because it stars Ms "You are a Nabatean, you should not rule over Humans!" as the main character of the game - so it's not a lot, but imo, FEH + FE17 gives us clues as to what IS would have done with the Fodlan cast -

Even if I'm not kidding myself, Hresvelg Tea was always supposed to be the main selling point of that verse, so while I don't think we would have had less uwus, maybe we might have had some sort of "sekrit brainwash" to make Ashnard in an onesie still be marketable for FEH.

[jockcoded]

Olympic WoHo Newsletter 2/5

The 2022 Beijing games roll on, and we’re beginning to really get a feel for the field here! Also, I know this isn't anything fancy or official, but I really do appreciate everyone who’s interacted with this. I know I’m having a lot  of fun here.

NEWS

Canada’s Melodie Daoust, injured against Switzerland, is expected to return before the tournament ends. She’s currently considered day to day.

Sweden’s Johanna Fallman left the game against Czechia after a collision, did not return and I haven’t yet seen an update on her status.

Brianna Decker provided her own update on her status on twitter. She plans on staying with Team USA in Beijing.

As always, game recaps, upcoming games (with help from @sonnymilano!), and the schedule below the cut. But also, going forward, standings for this preliminary round can be found at the end.

GAME RECAPS

CAN [11], FIN [1]: Canada comes away with another blowout win, this time against Finland. Team Finland, whose 0-0-0-2 record might be the biggest shocker so far, surprised again by putting goaltender Meeri Raisainen in for her first Olympic start. She let in 8 goals before being replaced by Anni Keisala. Sarah Fillier once again led the way with 2, Nurse and Jenner both recorded hat tricks for Canada, and Natalie Spooner’s 4 assist brought her into sole possession of the Olympic scoring lead. Full game details via the IIHF here.

JPN [6], DEN [2]: Japan continues to look like the powerhouse of Group B with a win against Denmark, still winless. Scoring 3 goals in 3:04 min to pull ahead, Japan quickly made it a different game than their meeting at worlds that saw Japan win a close 1-0 game, this time Haruka Toko leading all players with 3 pts. Denmark’s Cassandra Repstock-Romme, starting her 2nd game in 2 days, was pulled after letting in 3 goals on 12 shots, replaced by Lisa Jensen. Full game details via the IIHF here. 

CZE [3], SWE [1]: in their first Olympics, team Czechia’s exciting offense continues to win games. Tereza Vanisova was the star of this one with 2 goals, leading several odd-man rushes. The Czechs also scored shorthanded off the stick of Klara Hymlarova, one of several penalties killed, but not without promising chances for Sweden. Emma Soderberg stood tall for Sweden against a relentless Czech offense, but was ultimately outmatched, while Klara Peslarova only let in one against Czechia. Johanna Fallman left the game after a collision with Vanisova. Full game details via the IIHF here.

USA [5], ROC [0]: Savannah Harmon, Grace Zumwinke, and Jesse Compher all recorded their first Olympic goals in a definitive 5-0 win over Russia. Maria Sorokina held it down for most of the game, but 5 of those 62 shots got through the netminder. None of those were against 17 year old Daria Gredzen, making her senior debut, who faced 14 shots when coach Yevgeni Bobariko made the decision to rest Sorokina. Nicole Hensley made 12 saves on 12 shots to record the shutout for USA. Full game details via the IIHF here.

UPCOMING GAMES

CHN vs JPN: Another big rivalry of these games, China will be playing to stay in that 3rd spot to qualify for the quarterfinals while Japan looks to separate themselves from Czechia and stay in first. Japan’s offensive depth could be important this game, notably Hikaru Yamashita, who had a goal and an assist with 5 SOG against Denmark. China depends a lot on their top line for offense, especially Lin Qiqi, who had 2 goals and an assist against Denmark. 

SUI vs USA: USA is looking to prove they’re on the same level as Canada after their past 2 blowout wins, the 1st against the Swiss, so this will be an important one for them. Switzerland is still looking for a win, struggling against Canada and Russia. They’ll need to rely on special teams for this one, without any even strength goals so far, and will look to capitalize on USA’s struggling PK. Phoebe Stanz will be looking to get on the board for the Swiss, none of her 6 shots going in last game. Jesse Compher will look to continue her impressive performance against Russia.

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SCHEDULE: PRELIMINARY ROUND

2/6 3:40 A.M. China vs Japan (Group B)

2/6 8:10 A.M. Switzerland vs USA (Group A)

2/6 11:10 P.M. Canada vs Russia (Group A)

2/7 3:40 A.M. Czechia vs Denmark (Group B)

2/7 8:10 A.M. Finland vs Switzerland (Group A)

2/7 8:10 A.M. Sweden vs China (Group B)

2/8 12:15 A.M. USA vs Canada (Group A)

2/8 3:40 A.M. Japan vs Czechia (Group B)

2/8 8:10 A.M. Russia vs Finland (Group A)

2/8 8:10 A.M. Sweden vs Denmark (Group B)

PRELIMINARY STANDINGS

Group A

Canada (2-0-0-0) 

USA (2-0-0-0)

Russia (3-1-0-0)

Finland (0-0-0-2)

Switzerland (0-0-0-2)

Group B

Japan (2-0-0-0)

Czechia (2-0-0-0)

China (1-0-0-1)

Sweden (0-0-0-2)

Denmark (0-0-0-2)

[17tetsuro]

hi !! i hope you’re doing well and taking care of yourself <3

if you got time may i request a hc of oikawa, atsumu and sakusa dating an argentinian female professional volleyball player ?

thank you !! also, remember to drink water and take breaks, i think you deserve some time for yourself and relax. xx

haikyuu boys with an argentinian professional volleyball player s/o

feat. oikawa, atsumu, sakusa

g/n reader, except for sakusa’s part

requests are open!

warnings: mentions of fainting and blacking out but like in a romantic way

hii!! i really hope you like this, i tried to work around the fact that atsumu and sakusa are both on the jpn team, meaning them having an s/o who's on the arg team might not be so easy, but i decided all my solutions were crap, so i just,, said they figured it out somehow lmao,, still, thank you for requesting and sorry this took this long!! i hope you’re also taking care of yourself!!<3

oikawa absolutely adores you, from the moment he saw you. you both move in the same circles, so of course you’ve heard of each other before and met in passing at events, but it wasn’t until he went to see your team play a a match that he started to pay more attention to you. he noticed how incredibly ralented you were and how you dominated the sets with your plays and he was gone for you. he approached you after you won the match to congratulate you nad to ask if you wanted to grab a coffee sometime to talk about volleyball and argentina, since he was fairly new there. you agreed, of course, suspecting he just wanted to spend time with you rather than get tourism tips. one coffee date turned into two, and soon enough every saturday morning is spent with oikawa at a local cafe, bantering over lattes. saturday morning dates progress to friday night-saturday morning dates, and next thing you know, you have a gorgeous and talented boyfriend who seems to think his sole purpose in life is to make you laugh until you're out of breath and clutching your sides and to make you blush so deep people compare you to a tomato. he's a very supportive and loving boyfriend and whenever you can, you go to each other's matches and practices. you also try to practice together, but you quickly realized the other's presence on the court is rather distracting, so you abandoned that idea. oikawa never fails to spoil you, even though you both make about the same amount of money due to your jobs. he just loves seeing you in thousand dollar clothes for formal events, sue him. he also loves to see you turn scarlet when he whispers 'i love you' in your ear sproadically. he's your number one fan and you are his.

atsumu and you met during a party hosted by oikawa, who is a mutual friend of yours. he spotted you talking to hinata and decided to shoot his shot. at first he didn't consider spending the rest of his life with you (who would, honestly), but the idea of waking up next to you even when he's fifty planted itself in his head by your sixth date. not only were you a volleyball player like him, you also shared a lot of favorites; movies, artists, books, cuddling positions. even though the majority of the first stages of your relationship was long-distance, when you both realized it wasn't a passing romance kind of thing, you managed to work out how you could live together and also maintain your jobs, and it's not easy, but neither of you would have it any other way. atsumu regularly takes you on dates; he always finds a new restaurant or there's always a fair in the city that he thinks you'd enjoy. he's a very spontaneous person and that shines through whenever he's in charge of date night. just like oikawa, atsumu also loves to spoil you and prefers to pay on date nights. he loves showing you off as his (because you're just so gorgeous he has to remind himself of this fact), so he always has an arm around your waist/shoulder or a hand in yours, though he prefers the former. his social media feeds are full of you too, maybe one or two posts are dedicated to promoting his matches and team. whenever you're apart due to matches, he always makes sure to call and text as many times as he can throughout the day and even sends you random wholesome memes he finds on pinterest ("this reminded me of you, babe"). in genera, your relationship is built on trust and love, and he loves learning about your roots almost as much as you love learning about his. 

sakusa was introduced to you by oikawa at a japan-argentina match and you two hit it off instantly. you decided to ask sakusa if he wanted to grab some food with you and the smile you sent his way when he said yes almost made him collapse on the spot. due to your busy schedules, you didn’t have much time to meet up, but you were in constant contact and became close friends quickly. the next time you met, sakusa asked you out on an actual date, and asked you to be his girlfriend and when you agreed, he did black out for a second. he genuinely doesn’t think he deserves you, no matter what you tell him. he always goes out of his way to bring you souvenirs and snacks from japan whenever you meet up, and you do the same for him, but with argentinian goods. after a while, you start working out a plan on how you could spend more together and ultimately settle on moving in together. you still have periods of time when you’re not in the same country, but it’s much more bearable when you know the other is waiting for you in your shared home. sakusa, just like atsumu, loves to show you off at every chance he gets, especially at formal events organized by a sponsor or the japan volleyball association. he always makes sure the two of you are the best dressed at these parties. he also loves matching you in your daily life; when you’re jogging in a park, when you go to a fair, even when you’re just grocery shopping, he tries to color coordinate your outfits as best as he can, it makes him feel even closer to you. he is a great cook; he makes sure that he cooks for you at least once a week, and often experiments with different meals from all around the world. he loves the way you light up when you notice he’s cooking. though balancing your professional and personal lives isn’t an easy job, you both try your best and at the end of the day, you know you have each other, and that’s more than enough.

[flyingcookierambles]

sadness over a3! eng i guess

oof just on my 700th day.....

kinda sad because of the announcement about A3! ENG server shutting down soon due to financial difficulties at LIBER/CYBIRD in the past two years (covid-19 related, etc.). according to a rather in depth reddit comment that had links to LIBER's publicly available financial reports + some financial reports from LIBER's parent company, Aeria, in english, covid-19 really hit LIBER hard since they had to cancel many money making events, from pop-up shops for the typical anime merch trinkets (keychains, plushes, pins, etc.) to the huge in-person events (voice actor meetups, the stage plays of MANKAI LIVE, etc.). due to shrinking player base on the ENG server + major loss of profits on both JPN and ENG servers, LIBER had to choose one or the other and they chose the JPN one, which i totally understand since it's way bigger there and the JPN fanbase will continue to give the franchise money more often. also, another person found a financial report/estimate from the google play store or something, and A3! ENG only made ~$20K to ~$10K in the past few months, which i guess is not enough to keep a server and localization company afloat. 

i got pretty attached to the characters and it was a great game to help get by during college. and honestly, while i am very sad about this, again, i understand why LIBER did this, looking at their financial report from 2020. I would LIBER save the entire franchise rather than shut all the servers down, making us all unable to see our favorite actors ever again, even if it means that we ENG fans will have to go thru the extra steps of finding/reading fan translations, wikis, etc., to read any further stories from where A3! ENG left off. still, A3! ENG's localization was something special. i'm saying this as a TKRB JPN player who read the wiki for all the character voice lines and then had to see the official TKRB ENG localization make Yamabushi Kunihiro a rapper for some reason? lol. it was....weird.... meanwhile, all the memes and slang in A3! ENG didn't seem out of place and all fit their personalities because 3/4 of the troupes were all high school to college age and 3 of them were ~Gamers~. Out of all the gachas i've played, i feel like the only other F2P gacha game that had this incredibly smooth, all cultural jokes/puns translated in a way that still makes sense/fits the character/doesn't require a galaxy brain and some TL note to understand, is probably dragalia lost and that's only because it has frickin Nintendo localizing/publishing it globally for CyGames. Nintendo. i'll eventually read the fan translations of A3!'s Act 3 on the wiki, but it won't be the same without Kazunari's super high-energy influencer slang of "'whoa fam! that's totes 'blammable, gotta take a pic!" or Itaru's gremlin Gamer speak of "lol get rekt noobs" or Tsuzuru's tired dying breath of "that ain't it chief." the appropriate slang and relatable meme speak of the localization really helped humanize these characters as people of their respective ages, rather than just a typical formal speak or some directly translated JPN slang -> ENG that turns out super awkward that can be found in bad localizations.

going back to the reddit comment too, the death of A3! ENG servers could have bad repercussions in the future for other joseimuke games. josei, if you for some reason have been in the anime fandom but still don't know this term, is basically the genre of stories/video games/media/etc aimed at women. it's the mature adult counterpart to seinen, media aimed at adult men. basically shoujo/shonen = elementary/middle school/high school aimed while josei/seinen = high school/college/adult aimed if that helps. Joseimuke is a part of josei that is not specifically romance. while some josei/joseimuke can overlap with otome, aka female aimed dating sims/romance media, they have many things about them that make these all separate genres. one of the official A3! ENG translators and a known fan translator of another joseimuke gacha, Mahou Yaku/Wizard’s Promise, minami, goes more in depth with this in a twitter thread. 

A3! was an actor raising game, and a big part of it was found family and relationships that were platonic. yet it got advertised as an otome, which has more connotations with dating sims and brings to mind other shoujo/otome games and anime where the cast is all high schoolers and the setting is most often in a high school. but, other than some characters making flirty jokes or implied to have crushes on Izumi/player character, many character relationships with Izumi are platonic and not romantic at all. Spring Troupe in the game also jokingly calls themself a family. the entire Mankai Company is basically found family. plus, since the game actually has time passing in story and the characters age with each year, half of the characters aren’t even in high school anymore. a large majority of them are in college or are graduated by now, with only a few still in high school. i’m not surprised if a reason that some people left the game was due to feeling bored with the slice of life/not romantic story, feeling that they were lied to about it being an otome, which was falsely advertised since it is a game meant for the older teens/adults demographic of josei/joseimuke.

i’m worried that other japanese companies will look at this shut down as a “josei/joseimuke doesn’t work well in the west” and never localize other josei/joseimuke gacha games like Mahou Yaku, EnStars, Twisted Wonderland, Helios, etc.

while i like otome and shoujo, i, as a 23/soon to be 24 year old college graduate and now tax paying adult, want more stories that have more mature themes and characters that are more my age so i don’t have to feel awkward when i’m playing some dating sim and i, a literal 23 year old adult, and trying to woo a 16 year old. it’s...a little awkward to say the least. i would gladly welcome more mature media that is categorized as josei/joseimuke.

sorry if this is all over the place, but overall im just sad that A3! ENG is shutting down. i don’t know if i’ll join the JPN server yet. i’m def going to read the Act 3 story via fan translators on the wiki, but A3! gameplay was...boring lmao. as much as i love A3!, im sure that the constant event grind/burnout and boring rng gameplay turned people off too and i dont blame them. i felt the burnout bad since i participated in basically every event since day 1. it. is. rough. i’m not joining the hellish thunderdome that is the JPN server and im not ranking anymore as a F2P player lmao. literally had to play almost every waking free moment to get into the 30%-20% bracket as a F2P person and i never got to top 20%-10%, much less top 1% lmao. i’m don’t whale enough lol. 

i feel like i should probably just. crack open my genki 2 textbook and uhhh totally legal pdf copy of tobira. so i can just. get the JPN version of games in the first place so i don’t have to worry about getting shafted since overseas fans are often considered expendable. 

i wish that, when any games that are online end, gacha or mmo or anything, anything online, companies will let fans archive things. or like. release a book that is just the story text or something. like. CYBIRD is letting us still technically play the game and have the story and all, but what if they eventually later shut everything down? why not just release a pdf/ebook that’s just the text of the eng localization for some money? i’d buy it. for nostalgia and rereads and all and also archiving purposes. i think i’ll try to help with any english localization archive projects if i can so that the hilarious and incredible localization that was a work of love from the translation team doesn’t just disappear forever.

well.

that’s it for now. as i said, guess i’ll head to the app for one of the last times to read the last unread stories and mini stories i have left, then the wiki for Act 3, and then i guess i’ll crack open genki 2 and bunpo.....

some fun random links for you to think about!

random ffxi article that came to mind (if ffxiv ever shuts down in the next 20 years or whatever i’d be cool to get a statue of my character at the end)

and death of a game playlist by NerdSlayer Studios on Youtube that has me thinking a lot about game preservation and losing MMOs and games

the lost media wiki  and blameitonjorge’s lost media iceberg

other gacha games i’ve played that have shut down that i think about sometimes because the loss of A3! ENG isn’t my first rodeo:

terra battle & terra battle 2 (1)

AFTERL!FE

(related kitsu post link for archive reasons)