#that's the whole issue we're losing something that can't be replaced at the moment..

[manasseh]

people keep posting duolingo 'alternatives' like these apps offer more than like the 5 most popular languages lol. No shit there's plenty resources for French and Korean. The issue is the smaller lamguages because no one is doing those like duolingo!!

[vro0m]

vro0m's rewatch - 169/332

2016 Bahrain GP

Okayyy so Lewis is on pole again. His time is the record for the track. Then he was reprimanded for reversing in the pitlane, he had to go to the stewards about it and we thought for a moment he might lose the pole. 

But he didn't!

The quali process is still being revised after the Australian fiasco. I have no idea what it looked like there. The proposal for the next race is absurd. Apparently they want to add up the best 2 lap times for some reason, then eliminate 7 drivers per session and the Q3 would set the top 8? Ridiculous. Bernie is being an asshole about it btw. Journalists are asking him questions like "why can't we go back to last year's system?" and his answer is "well because we've changed it haven't we?"

Ted says that the aggregate system (so what I've just described) is the only proposal on the table at that point because the hybrid system that basically would be new system for Q1 + Q2 and old system for Q3 is vetoed by Horner/RedBull. 

Johnny Herbert interviews Lewis on the drivers’ truck. He says he had to work for his pole and Lewis says he always does.

He's happy with it though. Johnny asks who he's listening to and it's Travis Scott. Johnny asks if he has some of his own music on there and Lewis says loads, but refuses to give us a listen.

Johnny asks if he's concerned about the challenge the Ferraris pose. Lewis says he doesn't get concerned. They're very conscious of their pace and that they're gonna be quick. It's gonna be tricky. It's important to first get off the line well and then take it from there. 

Well let's hope they get a better start than in the first round. 

Oh but it was very close. Nico was only 0.077 seconds off Lewis. Anyway behind them it's Seb, obvi, Raikkonen, obvi, then Daniel, Valtteri, Massa, Hulkenberg, Grosjean, and Verstappen.

Oh. Alonso is not racing today. He was not cleared to run by the FIA doctor because he fractured ribs in his crash in Australia. OH AND HE ALSO HAS A COLLAPSED LUNG. How the fuck did he seem okay in the postrace?! Lol apparently Johnny suggested it might be time for him to retire and I can't believe he's still there 7 years later. Anyway Alonso is replaced by Stoffel Vandoorne. 

Uhh Lewis arrived dressed like a Bahraini today.

Anyway, there's an interview. He's asked what he needs to drive a car fast. He says he was fearless and his dad put him in a car and he bombed it around the track. "And straight away I felt at home." He says in his first 5-10 laps he picked up the braking technique that he used his whole karting career. That's the motion that gives him the know-how of when to push and when he's going too fast or too slow towards the apex. He says it fascinates him how the mind works because they're looking so far ahead, planning like 100-200 metres ahead. He says it's not tunnel vision, he feels like he's seeing 180°, he says as he spreads his arms. "I can't see my hand right now, but somehow when I'm driving, all the sudden I can see there."

(i feel like they could've edited Johnny's sweaty armpits from it but well.)

ohhh all of a sudden the moment he said "it's like targeting with a gun" in the last build up makes sense. Idk why they chose to only broadcast that part without the sentence he said before that. So he's testing the new car and he says, as he's driving : "there are things that I'm looking for. It's just like targeting… Like with a gun. You're targeting the turn points." He says last year he was struggling and was trying to figure out what was the issue and then he raised his seat 5 millimetres and it changed the whole world. What about breathing? Yes, if you get the breathing right it helps you flow through it. But that's not something he needs to focus on in the car, it comes naturally. "To be honest I don't even know if I'm breathing during the race." He says he feels he doesn't breathe during the start. We're back in the car with him. He says braking feels like having an elephant on your back or leaning against you. You kind of lose breath. Johnny says Hunt used to say if you have an over steering car you can always drive it fast, whether understeering cars are a pain. Lewis says he generally likes a car that's gonna turn. (I mean. Yeah.) Johnny brings it back to his debuts. He says he was very impressive with that when he first arrived. Lewis says now he has to bring it back a bit and find better balance whether before he didn't have to worry about the rear tyres dropping off as much. Now you can lean on your front tyres more but the rear are very delicate. He says he thinks the problem with racing now is that you've got all these driver coaches, mind coaches, "which is all a bunch of [beeped]". He says it's because of insecure people who think they need those things. "Some people need that, weirdly," Johnny says. "They don't," Lewis says. "You don't think so?" – "Nooo, you just get lost, you don't need it." (Honestly not agreeing with this conversation at all.) Anyway he says you just gotta trust yourself. He says people start listening to a bunch of noise around which is not the important stuff. The important stuff is the more detailed things.

Ohhh you know what. I thought I saw her in the last race, her familiar blond ponytail next to Lewis' car. But she had her back turned so I wasn't sure and I ended up scrapping it from my review. But this time I can see her clear as day. It's Angela!

I did not think about when we'd be meeting her, for some reason. I'm so happy to see her though! 

Okay. It's time for the race. Formation lap. Nico struggled to get away. Ohhhh no. Seb was going slowly. Over the radio he says he might have an engine failure. And right after we hear it, there's a cloud of white smoke following him. It's already over for him. 

And here we go! The others are racing!

And Nico gets a better start, he takes the lead. OH NO CONTACT INTO TURN ONE, VALTTERI AND LEWIS CAME TOGETHER. There's damage. Oh it's a catastrophic start. Fuck. So it's Nico, Massa, Valtteri, Ricciardo, Raikkonen, Grosjean, Gutierrez, Hulkenberg, Lewis is P9!, and Sainz. No, he's still losing places, I think. "Something feels wrong with the rear," he says. Oh here he comes! Gaining again! He's sending sparkles everywhere as he goes though. Valtteri says things feel fine for him. At the end of lap 1 Lewis is P7. OH MORE CONTACT ! Sainz and Perez. Sainz has a puncture. The Saubers are racing each other, pushing one off track. On lap 5 Lewis is up to P6. Meanwhile Raikkonen overtakes Ricciardo for P4. Lewis is on him as well. The car seems drivable enough. And Ricciardo pits. Lewis is P5 as Raikkonen overtakes Valtteri for P3. Again Lewis is right there as well. Closing. Ohhh Jenson is stopping. Away from the track so no interruption. And Massa pits, so Raikkonen in P2 while Lewis overtakes Valtteri for P3! Gorgeous classic move! They were side by side into the corner but Lewis had the inside line and ended up in front. But Nico is 13 seconds in the lead. Valtteri pits. It's weird. Everyone is pitting at different times. Valtteri gets a drive through penalty for the start.

And it's lap 10. Nico, Raikkonen (+13.4), Lewis (+15.8), Grosjean, Verstappen, Vandoorne, Kvyat, Wehrlein, Nasr, Ericsson. Verstappen and Hulkenberg almost collide as the first one rejoins after his pitstop. There's loads of carbon fibre on track flying everywhere and hitting tyres. And a lot of overtaking in the midfield as well. Right now Vandoorne and Perez are battling through several corners, and Vandoorne wins. Raikkonen pits. He exits behind Ricciardo and Massa as the first overtakes the other and immediately goes for it as well! It's close racing! But he's ahead. He's now hunting Ricciardo. Mercedes mechanics readying themselves. Rosberg pits. It's quick. And Lewis pits as well, wow! 2.4 stop! Great job! I can't immediately say what the order is but Lewis is P6. Raikkonen overtook both Ricciardo and Kvyat! Damn. There's a lot happening in this race! Lewis has a lot of places to make up for now. Perez, Valtteri and Hulkenberg are battling for P10! And Ricciardo overtakes Kvyat while simultaneously, right behind them, Lewis overtakes Massa! Everything is happening so fast that the standings screen can't keep up, Crofty says. Raikkonen is setting fastest lap after fastest lap. And Massa attacks Kvyat. Ooo that was close but it stays clean. Lewis is closing on Ricciardo. And that's P3! Grosjean and Massa are battling over P5. And now Verstappen is closing on Massa. 

Lap 20! Nico, Raikkonen (+12.1), Lewis(+20.8), Ricciardo, Grosjean, Verstappen, Massa, Vandoorne, Bottas, Ericsson. It's gonna be difficult changing the order of that top 3 but we're not even halfway through. Lewis is matching Raikkonen's lap times even though he's on mediums and Raikkonen is on softs so… Grosjean overtakes Ricciardo for P4. Then Ricciardo pits and he's P11. Soon after he's back up in P8. Verstappen pits from P5, out in P10. Grosjean pits from P4, out in P8 while Ricciardo overtakes Kvyat, or rather Kvyat lets Ricciardo past for P5. Lewis pits from P3. He's still P3. Daniel is now P4 while Raikkonen pits from P2 and is still P2 and Verstappen is already up in P8. 

It's lap 30. Nico pits. 5.3 stop, not great, but he's so far ahead anyway, it doesn't matter. Lewis sets the fastest lap. Sainz DNFs, back in the garage. I'm trying to give you an overview but they're not showing the timings. Grosjean is closing on Kvyat for P5. Okay here we go so Nico is now 8.8 ahead of Raikkonen who's 3.5 ahead of Lewis. Then about 25 seconds down it's Daniel and Kvyat, followed by Grosjean, Verstappen, Bottas, Vandoorne (who's doing a good job btw) and Massa. Grosjean overtakes Kvyat now. Oooh. Big lock up for Kvyat a few minutes later that allows Verstappen to overtake him as well. Big battle for P8 between Bottas, Vandoorne and Massa. But Bottas pits as well as Kvyat. Rosberg is lapping people, while Lewis' last lap is 0.5 slower than him. 20 laps to go. Raikkonen pits, which puts him behind Lewis but Lewis will have to stop again. Then Nico pits and all the commentators think it's Lewis so they briefly marvel when he comes out ahead of Raikkonen before they realise. 

It puts us on lap 40. Lewis is currently leading then, because he has to pit. Nico is 8 seconds behind him and Raikkonen 4 seconds further down. He'll definitely be out behind him. Then it's still Daniel, Grosjean, Verstappen, Massa, Kvyat, Vandoorne and Bottas. Grosjean pits again. 8.1, terrible stop. Lewis pits. 2.5. Nico sets the fastest lap while he exits the pitlane. He's far behind. They're all on the same tyre. As it seems clear Nico is gonna win this one, Crofty says only 7 other drivers have won 5 times in a row so far and all of them have won the title the season they did. Grosjean overtakes Massa for P6. Ricciardo is closing on Verstappen for P4. There's 10 laps to go. Max pits. He's out in P7, right in front of Bottas. At the front everything is boring btw. Nothing happening. Right as I wrote that Raikkonen's engineer tells him to not give up something might still go down. Bottas and Kvyat are battling for P8 and Kvyat wins. 5 laps to go. I'm bored. Verstappen overtakes Massa for P6. (Lewis is 20 seconds behind Nico btw). 

It's the end of the race. 

Nico wins ahead of Raikkonen and Lewis. They shake hands as they salute their team. It puts Nico 17 points ahead of Lewis in the standings. 

Nico says the key was his good start. Lewis says it's painful but damage limitation was OK and he got some points. He says the damage on the car meant he couldn't do more than that. He's asked like three or four questions when Nico got the one lol. He thanks everybody for the welcome there in Bahrain. 

Unfortunately the post race analysis is not available on my usual website anymore. Onto round 3 then. 

[famouscollectortimetravel]

No because I JUST realized that you're on your own kid is Tedros' song like as if it could ever be about someone else (I mean Taylor was clearly talking about my boy).

"I play it cool with the best of them

I waited patiently

He's gonna notice me

It's okay, we're the best of friends

Anyway"

Surrounding himself with the cool kids, playing a part that he dosen't if it even fits him yet and yearning for that pearson to notice you and give you the validation you so desperately crave (his dad, agatha, even sophie at you-know-when).

"From sprinkler splashes to fireplace ashes

I waited ages to see you there

I search the party of better bodies

Just to learn that you never cared"

The loss of innocence and playfulness replaced with the quiet aftermath of reality.

how utterly alone he has been all these years in a quiet and decadent castle, waiting for ages thinking that maybe in the school he could have it better, with friends.

Or even how eager he was to fall in love unconditionally with someone who didn't seek him just because of his crown just for him to learn that his current girlfriend didn't really care if he lived or died at the Trial. Awkward.

"I gave my blood, sweat, and tears for this

I hosted parties and starved my body

Like I'd be saved by a perfect kiss"

The struggles of royal life, the epitome of rich people problems but you take away the rich cause his daddy left him nothing but debts and issues.

And still he had to make it do, this boy-king. Copping the only way he knew. wich is to say, it was questionable. Caring for what he thought Good, what his father and every single Ever around taught him Good was. So many questionable choices here.

it was never something he thought to question. He was Good. There was no other option. For what would he do or be if not what people expected him to. So he trained and groomed, gave his blood sweat and tears for that perfect image, even if a precarious one. All of it to go towards the end game: true love, a prosperous Camelot, happy ending. It was all the same in the end.

"The jokes weren't funny, I took the money

My friends from home don't know what to say

I looked around in a blood-soaked gown

And I saw something they can't take away"

To be subject to everyone's opinions on him, the reporters and headlines, the price of a fame he never had the opportunity to ask for and the inherent loneliness that comes with it.

Money and friends from home, well he can't really relate to those.

But even in the midst of a brutal fairytale, soaked on his own blood he finally saw agatha for who she really was, kind and selfless and heroic. And, just like with Yuba's challenges, even if his brain took a while to catch up, something on him already knew.

'"Cause there were pages turned with the bridges burned

Everything you lose is a step you take

So take the friendship bracelets

Take the moment and taste it

You've got no reason to be afraid

You're on your own, kid

Yeah, you can face this"

Tedros arc is honestly just so sad, he loses it all, his friends (not one of them remains if you don't count bea, reena and the other Ever girlies, agatha and sophie - I'm talking about Chad, Nicholas and the rest of the dead boys club), his crown, his family. Those bridges were literally burned down but that wasn't really a choice of his.

Also that idealized image he had of his dad that he finally let's go of is also one of these losses that take him to that lovely character growth.

There's no way of winning that entire shit show of a fairytale but moving on, step by step.

Appreciating what little he has left. Every aspect and second of it. And realizing that, yes, he was all alone that whole time, but he survived this far. So he's probably gonna be okay.

[penultimate-step]

Thank you for responding! Responses to responses:

I'll go in reverse order this time.

Haruta is...punchable. He's a competent heel, I guess.

He certainly is that, yeah.... I don't really know why he bothers me so much, it's not like I usually have anything against villains. Mahito is just as cruel but he's one of my series favorites. It's not uncommon for the villains to be some of the characters I like best, but something about him makes it so I just don't enjoy any scene he's in. Possibly because he's just pathetic enough that I can't even get hyped for the heroes to defeat him. Even seeing Nanami wreck him just made me feel bad that the closest thing jjk has to a father figure was engaging in such brutal violence. To use another series, BNHA, for comparison: he feels less like a Shigaraki and more like a Mineta. I don't want him punched I just want him to...stop that.

It would be easy for someone like Satoru Gojo to have boring non-fight scenes. But in Shibuya, Gege Akutami does a good job of finding ways to escalate the stakes even when Mr. I Win Button is around.

Yeah I was impressed by how well they've been handling Gojo. It is pretty funny to me that part of that was just, okay, we need stakes now, let's literally box him up and put him on the shelf for later. But even before that, the way his existence as a pillar for the other characters is fully relevant to way the story is going makes him much more effective than a deus ex machina. And none of his scenes in season 2 would have anywhere near the same impact if we didn't have a whole season previously of him showing the viewers that he could be the invincible support for the jujutsu society. I like how he's been written a lot.

Anyways, I think I've talked about this before on one of my own posts, but I like Real Geto a lot better than his replacement. There's a lot of stuff that pseudo-Geto can do that would be implausible for someone as young as Real Geto.

I haven't had too long with fake Geto, so I'll give him some time before I make judgments, but it does strike me as a bit of a shame to lose Real Geto. I didn't think too much of him in the movie but he was absolutely a highlight of the flashback arc, and I would hate for the climax of that character thread just to be "his body used to immobilize Gojo for a second."

(worldbuilding stuff)

Wait, there's no cursed energy outside Japan? That's...an interesting worldbuilding choice, I suppose.....but why??

Geto's movie team was intentionally international, if I'm remembering right. There was the guy from Africa that you mentioned, and another guy unspecified but with a foreign appearance and name. (His name, Larue, is I think either Italian or French?) Plus, I could have sworn there was some mention of sorcerers going overseas on missions...

That's fine, though it does somewhat reinforce my sense that jjk feels like a very artificial world. As you say, there's nothing wrong with having so many of the important figures be in Japan, that's just where the story takes place. I've read plenty of manga where every important person in the world lives in Tokyo, and there's no shortage of US series where everybody internationally relevant lives in New York, or San Francisco, or wherever. My issue is more that even if we're limiting it to just Japan, it feels like this world couldn't sustain itself if I start thinking about it for two seconds.

Like, the obvious question is, what happens when Gojo decides to retire? Heck, what happens when he takes a nap? He can't be everywhere. Specifically, the jujutsu society isn't new, its existed for over a thousand years, but the way the story has him be an end all be all makes me wonder how humanity didn't go extinct long before he was born. There's a moment in the curse user battle that kind of answers this - that everything got more dangerous when he was born, inexplicably. But then, okay, but he's still just one guy. Curses form naturally so long as there are people, we are told. If I'm taking the worldbuilding at it's word, there are threats constantly going on all over the world (or, apparently, only all over japan. strange choice from Gege but I'll roll with it.)

In some hidden-world type settings, the actions of those hidden are performing vital functions to protect the ordinary world, which would collapse without their heroism. JJK initially made me think this was the setup we had here, with curses preying on humans and sorcerers organizing to protect them. But with later revelations, it's hard for me to picture any organization here at all. It's less a hidden world, and more a hidden house or classroom. The two pillars being in Japan aren't the issue to me, it's just hard for me to believe that a world only surviving by the constant close scrapes of two pillars can even survive. Can these dozen or so guys really protect so many people? And if they can't protect everyone, and they're only stopping a small percentage of the curses, how did humanity even survive this long?

I guess this is kind of the risk you run whenever you try to portray this kind of setting. Fundamentally, the world from the perspective of an ordinary person is supposed to look identical to our own, but our own world is dependent on so many very specific moments in history that when you make too many alterations it starts to strain suspension of disbelief that a world like ours is even plausible.

I am aware that I'm being super nitpicky about this - every fictional world could be equally said to be unrealistic if you really think about it. On some level, the idea that the world depends on Gojo isn't any more unrealistic than the world of DC depending on Superman - such is any world with high stakes. JJK is only different in that it presents a world that despite having a radically different past, resulted almost identically to our own - but that is also just a common bit of worldbuilding, making a fictional world similar to reality is both convenient for writers and easy to understand for readers.

The more I write this out the more I think there isn't actually a problem, and this is all just my own personal taste being expressed. Nonetheless this is a live reaction series, not an analysis, so the lack of rigor here is possibly excusable on my part. All I can really say is that as I was watching S2 so far, my kneejerk reaction was "this world setting feels like it exists for the sake of the plot, more like a stage prop than an actual world I can imagine people living in." And yeah, every work which focuses on plot or characters and isn't just a worldbuilding bible is this to some extent or another, but in JJK I started to feel it much more strongly when compared to some of it's fellow shonen peers. Which might be a completely biased and wrong interpretation of what is going on, I fully admit I could be doing some terrible reading comprehension.

JJK S2 Livewatch: Eps 8-12

Hello, everybody! Sorry for taking so long to continue this live reaction. Since this is the part where the fights start in earnest, I had a lot less to say about the show's specifics and more general rambling thoughts I had as watching. It made me unsure about how to write this part up, and I ended up taking way longer than I should have (I watched these eps weeks ago!) Not sure if this will make the livewatch more or less entertaining to read along. But at this point I am going to post and hope for the best. Hope nobody is disappointed.

So, following up the end of the last ep, Gojo is called out to the danger zone. It's emphasized how much he's the one guy who matters and can do anything here. Which does kind of make me have thoughts about the worldbuilding.

Ok, so, what is the size of the jujutsu world, exactly?

Between Gojo and Tengen, we have multiple individuals who apparently single handedly hold the jujutsu world on their shoulders. That is so many points of failure, so many points where things could just go catastrophically wrong at any moment, presumably dooming the world. I know that this is primarily in order to place the plot focus on the important people. but it feels less like the jujutsu world is an institution or a world on its own, and more like a small club. Which could be fine, but its established that curses appear constantly, all over the world. It's hard to believe that a group small enough to need a handful of people to hold critical roles could cover the whole nation We know there are only 2 jujutsu schools in japan, and its unknown how many elsewhere but presumably an equivalent amount. We've seen most of the students at the school competition arc, and there were less than a dozen altogether. So....what's going on here? It just seems kind of arbitrary, and makes the world feel more constructed - which, of course, it is, being a fictional world, but generally we prefer when the guiding hand of the author is less obtrusive.

Some comparisons that can be made are to Naruto, the manga which I am almost certain is JJK's biggest inspiration, and to Chainsaw Man, a contemporary peer. Naruto's worldbuilding is large and sprawling, with plenty of named organizations, locations, and events offscreen. out of universe info books and spinoffs help add detail to this, but aren't necessary. There, it is believable that any given character exists in the context of the world because the world exists as background. in contrast, chainsaw man shares a much tighter focus with jjk. much less exacting detail, minor characters, etc; a greater focus on a small cast. There is no greater detail, readers know nothing about the structure of hell, the goings-on in the US or USSR, or even other divisions and areas in japan. but there is enough there to maintain an illusion that the world exists - mentions of foreign countries, occasional shots of hunters or political leaders. Sure, it's not the same as actually detailing in the world, but there's no need to go that far - enough has been sketched in that the readers can imagine the characters getting on a plane and flying to another country, even if they don't have any details about the destination, it feels like they exist in a real world with real places that the camera just doesn't turn to.

This might seem like I'm being overly harsh to the setting. it is clearly an intentional choice to have Gojo be the lynchpin of the world, there's nothing inherently wrong with it. But as someone who loves urban fantasy as a setting, it does sometimes bother me when I feel like the world exists only for the convenience of the main cast. It's a world close enough to our own that I feel like it should make sense.

Anyway, that's enough of that. Moving on to actually talking about the events of the episodes. I did warn you at the start that I had less to say about this set, though.

The fight between Yuuji and the locust curse isn't a bad fight to reintroduce us to the main protagonist. It's smoothly animated, outside some hiccups when jumping through walls, and the fact that both fighters use fully physical techniques made the whole thing seem very even and straightforward.

It's outshone completely by the Gojo vs villain gang battle at the end of 8 and through 9, though. I love when hidden world fantasy type settings use the clash between the normal world and the fantastical, setting these fights in a crowded city subway was a cool enough idea already, but the villain plan to use ordinary citizens to box gojo in, the use of trains in the battle, all hammered it in. the way the battle goes on around them while they can't even see most of it is interesting.

The almost wild, ruthless way Gojo speaks and fights in this battle make it clear he's been pushed very far. Between this and the flashback eps, S2 hasn't been shy about showing Gojo struggling and on the edge, a stark contrast to the way he was essentially the plot device "I win" button in his season 1 appearances. Where many of his memorable moments then had him floating at a distance to his opponents, untouchable as his technique, this fight is brutally physical. The moment he grabs at Hanami's branches was visceral. I was actually really surprised to see Hanami die. When he had Hanami against the wall, I started saying out loud "You know, the ruthlessly strategic thing to do here would be go for the killing blow on the weakened enemy. I just know Hanami is going to come back and cause trouble in future arcs. But it makes sense the author wouldn't want to waste a villain with so much buildup like that." And then he actually did kill him. Okay! Message received, Gege! I'll stay on my toes a bit more!

Also, as an aside (much as the show does,) I really liked the villain interludes. Seeing them messing around playing games in their free time did a lot to add to their characterization, even if it was just a way to exposit their plans to the audience.

While I'm giving praise, the sound design and music team did a great job. There's so much that wordlessly conveys the emotions going on mid-scene without having to stop and actually demonstrate them. the ominous overlay on the villains, the frenetic piano as gojo rushes to use his domain, and the most evocative of all, the soft and emotional tunes of shock when Gojo sees Geto again.

Also, this is the part where I have to embarrassedly admit that I was already spoiled on present day geto being fake. Rather, I was so spoiled that I assumed it wasn't a spoiler and was revealed in S1, until seeing the big reveal scene made me realize someone must have told me about this years ago. Whoops. Apologies if any of my followers were waiting for my reaction to that bit :(

Ep 10 is mostly a bridge and setup for the next portion, but I do have some brief thoughts on the new characters to touch on before moving on. The drinking old man is not endearing himself to me with his flippancy, the curse user with the hand sword from season 1 is back, and still kind of annoying whenever he's on screen. The unnamed white-haired girl with him seems cool though. also, this may be kind of a late moment to say this, but I really do like mahito as a character. Some of his transfiguration stunts were genuinely unsettling, and the way he alternates between that kind of cruelty and his general playful attitude makes him pretty fun to have on screen. He's far and away my favorite of the present day villains.

Skipping ahead to the fights in eps 11 and 12. The montage of murders by the curse users actually disgusted me. Which is kind of funny to contrast with the appearance and fighting style of the man who fights Yuuji and Megumi in this episode. His face and movements are different than most of the cast, reminding me more of some kind of demonic looney tunes character, jumping around and letting hits bounce off him. The fight is a cool showcase of 10 shadows, as well as giving some fun interactions between Yuuji and Megumi.

Actually, as I look back on it, I'm somewhat more impressed by this bit than I was as I was actually watching. None of the individual moments are super impressive or thought provoking, but as I come in to write down thoughts I realize that this two episode span seamlessly transitions between 4 different fights, done well enough that I didn't see it as an interruption, and only realized while writing this about it afterwards.

I don't want to dwell too much on the Nobara and Nanami vs hand guy fight, because that guys icks me out. Mei Mei's fight is mostly offscreen, but I do have a meme about it, because I cannot stop my brain from making unfortunate connections. The fight between the masked sorcerer (I don't remember if we got his name?) and the pair on the rooftop, though. It starts pretty slow - I don't think either of their powers or the way they use them are very interesting - but things tick up immediately when Toji shows up. Just like in the flashback arc, he just grabs the attention in every scene he's in, an

While I'm on the topic, one thing I noticed is how efficient the flashback arc was. Pretty much every element from there makes a direct return now, not even 10 episodes after the fact. Geto and Toji are shown off in the past right in time for them to be introduced in the main plot, not wasted elements. Not sure if this is a good or bad thing but it did feel noticeable. Possibly this ties back to the stuff I was talking about at the start of this, where JJK keeps making the tradeoff of telling a tighter and more focused story while cutting lose any elements that could be seen as extraneous, for better or for worse.

Anyway, that wraps up that watch session. It was pretty good, I didn't enjoy it as much as I liked eps 1-5, but much more than I liked 6-7. as a whole I think I can start to calibrate my expectations for how good this seasons is going to be now, very well executed but much more straightforward than that first arc would suggest. Less exploration of world and characters, more cool fights and action scenes.

I feel like I said a lot without actually saying very much, I worry that this was almost entirely recap of things any watcher knows already. I'll try and write the next section much faster, and hopefully I'll have more interesting things to say about that one.

[cirusthecitrus]

☀️ and 🌙 for either/or anilis and hec-tor ( if you want!!)

Ooooh these are gooood! Thank you~

🌞 XIX - The Sun : Enlightenment, finding the truth, a moment of glory or vitality, trusting your abilities

I'll say that this one relates Hec-Tor more. He's generally much more positive and optimistic person than his brother. He's just out there learning something new every day, enjoyng life, enjoying peoples' love and attention, chilling and doing that he knows best, not as worried about his resposibilities or daily troubles because of how self-confident he is

Well, at least he was like this, before Anillis ""got sick"". In the present day Hec-Tor feels more stressed out than ever, worried that they might never get to see the future the twins have planned together, but at the same time there are moments when he gets way too full of himself and is overoptimistic, believing that he's going to fix everything and make his brother happy again - all by himself! (basically, the present Hec-Tor would actually get the sun reversed card lol)

Enlightenment, moment of glory or vitality, trusting your abilities - i believe he felt and experienced a bit of everything while working on their big passion project with Anillis. He's very proud of himself for coming up with and creating something this ambitious and important and actually making big progress on it. And, if we remember the actual show, we know he will succeed! Well, we also know that in the end... this technology... will be used... for evil... but that's a different story! :D

Finding the truth - now we're talking about a very important moment in the story. So I'll try to describe it as vague as possible. So, in short: Anillis did something fucked up, Hec-Tor learns the truth at the worst possible time, get's so angry that he almost decides to leave home for good, but some time away from his brother and lots of thinking helped him see this whole situation in a new light, understand something about his twin what he didn't before, and realize that what Anillis did, as fucked up as it is, can actually help them both, and help a lot. The rest is spoiler :)

🌙 XVIII - The Moon : Fear, illusions, fantasies, delving into the imaginary, loss of direction

Now that's our boy Anillis for the last 3 years. With his "defect" taking a toll on him he developes a strong fear almost comparable to paranoia that one day he's going to lose control over his own life again. That he might lose everything he's been working hard for because he can't keep up with his busy lifestyle anymore. It got so bad, that Anillis begins to see any attemt to help (like giving him less work and more time to rest) as them testing him, trying to get rid of him and prove to themselves that Anillis is now too weak, useless, unrelaible, replaceable

He's quick to overthink and make assumptions, to jump to wrong conclusions. So yeah, on top of everything his trust issues got worse + now he has this desire to "prove himself" to everybody (g-get it, the parallel, ah, ah AH?)

Loss of direction - like I said, after everything that had happened to him, Anillis felt lost and just like Hec-Tor was worried about the future, at one point he wasn't even sure if he has a future, cause what if this illness will take his life too? It takes him some time, but eventually, he gets back on track ^^ Sorta

Illusions, fantasies, delving into the imaginary - one can say that Anillis has always been like this. Very imaginative kid, not living in the present moment but somewhere else in the distant future, far away from his homeplanet, exploring the known univerese together with his brother. No, being a part of this universe - it's brightest stars

As he grew older, he seemed to have forgotten about his fantasies and made new, more realistic plans for life. But not that long ago, as he's now going through difficult times, he once again found hope and solace in his childhood fantasies. He'd rather die than tell a living soul about his new dreams, but it is easier for Anillis to keep going when thinking that one day he's going to leave this place, finally leave this body and find happiness among the stars

----------------------

Speaking of illusions and fantasies-

Fun fact! The early version of Anillis' character arc was written entirely under the influence of two particular songs. And now the fun part - songs' titles. The first one is "Fantasy" by DyE and the other is "Слеза оленя считающего себя северным сиянием" by Mujuice which literally translates as "The teardrop of a deer who believed he was Aurora Borealis" 🙃

[tsuki-sennin]

Welcome to Episode 37 of Kamen Rider Revice~! Or as I call it, "Kamen Rider Live Gets His Cheeks Clapped - Episode 7". So uh... Kinoshita, when you gonna give Daiji his due? I'm waiting~!

For now though... Spoilers, I guess...

-They just gave Tamaki a headband, I'm :sob:

-Wow, they're really multiplying.

-We're really

-Oh, Akaishi's alive! Yay~!

-"Have you ever heard of our lord and savior Gifu-sama? He gave me a res and said 'Hide-chan... in times of sadness, at the lowest points in your life, where you could not see my footprints in the sand... it was because I carried you.' Anyways, we're cancelling Kamen Rider Revice and replacing it with me doing cool skateboard tricks in honor of Gifu-sama~!"

-Ah, so it's not like a weird anti-vaxxer thing, it's just like... DNA gathering.

-"We did it, Daiji-kun. We successfully scared all of humanity. :)"

-Ohhhhh, there's a maximum. Thaaaat's concerning.

-Daiji, you really need to go apeshit.

-How was your Weekend~?

-Ehhhhhhhhhhh, like, I'm trying not to read too much into something that could've just as likely been totally unintentional, but Kinoshita's on Twitter and there's an extreme excess of stupid and horrible people on there.

-Ah, yep, Akemi-san's hint.

-"Daiji, you're really jobbing right now."

-Just standing back and letting things play out isn't gonna do a damn thing, Daiji.

-Oh there he is...

-So, George thought his dad was dead his whole time.

-Ohhhhhhhhhh, that's harsh.

-Giffdemos. Our target.

-Ahhhhh, we freezin'?

-Barid Rex? Ohhhhh, we increased its freezy power~! Epic.

-Oh great, demons...

-Yeah, good luck Sakura.

-Daiji... hurts to watch, not gonna lie.

-Hello,

-Ergh... I absolutely do not want creepy-ass Akaishi as my stepbrother.

-Oh yep, there she is. Akemi-san, and the Super Giffterian or whatever it's called.

-Yeah, Sakura's got that guy.

-Ohhhh, regens.

-"Most impressive, George. All we need now is for the Igarashi children to-"

-"Shut up Daddy, it's time for backstory."

-All of George's sinister moments are traced back to his crippling daddy issues.

-...quite relatable, to be honest.

-Ohhhhhh, he's got Shroud face!

-Ohhhhhhhh, Daiji's mad!

-Oh finally, Hikaru has another character trait. It ain't much, but hey, at least his brazen overconfidence is something. Hana's definitely not amused, so at least there's room for debate.

-Ah, fnally,

-Ohhhhh, Gifu's own essence.

-"Heeeeey, Akemi-san, do you wanna come back?"

-Ahhhh, finally, more space.

-Yeah, you're worried, huh Akaishi?

-Yoooo, Ikki, it's about time to Bari-Bari~!

-Ayyyyy! ...I assume Volcano works just the same though, right?

-#NiceGeorge

-btw, I saw somebody somewhere complain about Aguilera's knifey thingies being repaints of Ichigo Arms's kunai? And like... yeah? Sure, it might be lazy, but are you really jonesing for Ichigo Arms to come back? They can just make new ones!

-Oh cool, Hikaru can Genomix. Epic.

-And he also can't count! Epic!

-Wow, he's working Daiji to death.

-Oh no, misunderstanding.

-I thought those were suspiciously light in Donbrothers so far.

-Oh shit, Sakura lost!

-"Bye bye, Akemi~!"

-Nooooo... we're losing her!

-Aaaaaand, he's here!

-Be a real man, Dai-chan!

-...please don't misinterpret this in the worst way possible.

-OHHHH!

-Hiromicchi's here!

-Hiromi-san... things are bad, man.

-I'll probably watch Dear Gaga Part 2 later, on my own time.

-Fuck, dude... I think I'm mostly just getting really sad whenever I watch Revice now lol

-I love the new suits tho, holy fuck.

-This show, i stg

-Uhhh... I guess I'll see you next week.

[thebookreader12345]

Episode 7 Review

Chicago Med: A Square Peg in a Round Hole

The opening scene between Stevie and her mom was so cute! But we all know that shit's gonna go down because Stevie towed her van.

And Ethan Choi is back! I've never really liked Ethan too much, so I was surprised at how excited I was when he appeared. I guess he's been growing on me. I would also love to see some bonding moments between Ethan, Will, and Crockett because those men have been through so much together.

This whole flirting between Crockett and Blake's daughter has to stop. He literally just got out of a relationship with Natalie. Give him a break.

I have been waiting for a Dylan and Stevie team-up, and while this isn't exactly what I pictured, it fits the bill.

Sam Abrams makes an appearance! I know everyone, including myself, has wanted him back on our screens to grace us with his cockiness.

Will in a suit.....that's all that needs to be said.

Vanessa, please slow down, and stop taking the Adderall! You don't need it! You're amazing!

Dr. Cooper taking drugs? Plot twist! How is a doctor gonna do that himself when he knows the risks of cocaine? And of course, when he loses consciousness, we see Will spring into action. I would let that man do CPR on me any day.

Stevie, why would you tell your mom about her van? That was a disaster waiting to happen.

Chicago Fire: Whom Shall I Fear?

Okay, we all know that Casey can't be replaced, but Pelham seems like a good guy, so we'll see how this goes.

*Gasp* The corned beef recipe! Gallo, you better do it justice.

Not Gallo already getting pissed off at Pelham because he ended up being right about what to do at the factory. Gallo, I get Casey's not here anymore, but don't take that out on Pelham.

Violet, girl, you're totally jealous. Just admit it.

Seager, please go away. Just go and never come back. And while you're at it, stop flirting with Kelly!

Good news though, Kelly and Seager have found that the janitor is the one setting the fires, so all they've gotta do is arrest him. Case closed.

It's always a pleasure when Kevin Atwater graces our screens. The man is amazing, plus he's fun to look at.

We all knew the arsonist was eventually gonna do something crazy, and blowing himself up is definitely in that realm.

I see you Pelham. Putting yourself in danger just to make sure Boden and that little girl was were safe was a bold move, and I liked it.

No! Sylvie's trip got cancelled. Can her and Matt just be happy for once? But at least we got that sweet moment between Sylvie and Gallo. I love the two of them, so seeing them get a few scenes together in this episode was nice.

Chicago PD: Trust Me

Who's birthday is Voight celebrating? Al's, his wife's, Justin's? We may never know.

And the fantastic duo of Atwater and Ruzek are back at it again. We love to see it! Sadly though, that moment was ruined by a crew going in and shooting up the place. At least it was good while it lasted.

Jay being sassy with Anna? Loved it! Would 10/10 want him to act that way again.

Now Anna, why would you sneak into a police sergeant's backyard? That's probably the stupidest thing you can do.

Not the truck! How could the writer's do something like that? Jay's truck is sacred. It better get fixed up or else we're rioting.

The team can 100% sense the tension between Jay and Voight cause they all just stand their awkwardly and glance at each other whenever Jay and Voight have a disagreement.

I love Hailey so much! And the moment between her and Jay in the observation room was much needed. Their relationship is slowly falling apart, and we need them to talk and resolve their issues.

Okay, but Anna has to be playing them, right? There's no way she's not.

I'm sorry, Jay and Hailey in police uniforms? Yes please. They both look so good!

Jay, don't say shit like you're gonna be leaving the unit. Don't scare us all like that. Just sort out whatever is going on between you and Voight and we'll all be good.

So it was Justin's birthday. That just brings up flashbacks we don't want or need to remember.

[pp-research]

7 habits of highly effective People summary

about the book:

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey is a self-improvement book. It is written on Covey's belief that the way we see the world is entirely based on our own perceptions. In order to change a given situation, we must change ourselves, and in order to change ourselves, we must be able to change our perceptions.

We all want to succeed. And one path to success is identifying the habits that can help us on our journey.

I recommend starting that path by reading Stephen Covey's best-selling book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Don't have time to read all 432 pages?

I get it most of us don't. That's why we summarized the entire book for you below.

7 habits of highly effective People

1. Be Proactive

2. Begin with the End in Mind

3. Put First Things First

4. Think Win-Win

5. Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood

6. Synergize

7. Sharpen the Saw

Habits 1, 2, and 3 are focused on self-mastery and moving from dependence to independence.

Habits 4, 5, and 6 are focused on developing teamwork, collaboration, and communication skills, and moving from independence to interdependence.

Habit 7 is focused on continuous growth and improvement and embodies all the other habits.

1. Be Proactive

We're in charge. We choose the scripts by which to live our lives. Use this self-awareness to be proactive and take responsibility for your choices.

The first habit that Covey discusses is being proactive. What distinguishes us as humans from all other animals is our inherent ability to examine our own character, to decide how to view ourselves and our situations, and to control our own effectiveness.

Put simply, in order to be effective one must be proactive.

Reactive people take a passive stance -- they believe the world is happening to them. They say things like:

"There's nothing I can do."

"That's just the way I am."

They think the problem is "out there" -- but that thought is the problem. Reactivity becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, and reactive people feel increasingly victimized and out of control.

Proactive people, however, recognize they have responsibility -- or "response-ability," which Covey defines as the ability to choose how you will respond to a given stimulus or situation.

Key Lessons:

Challenge yourself to test the principle of proactivity by doing the following:

1. Start replacing reactive language with proactive language.

Reactive = "He makes me so mad."

Proactive = "I control my own feelings."

2. Convert reactive tasks into proactive ones.

2. Begin with the End in Mind

Start with a clear destination in mind. Covey says we can use our imagination to develop a vision of what we want to become and use our conscience to decide what values will guide us.

Most of us find it rather easy to busy ourselves. We work hard to achieve victories -- promotions, higher income, more recognition. But we don't often stop to evaluate the meaning behind this business, behind these victories -- we don't ask ourselves if these things that we focus on so intently are what really matter to us.

Habit 2 suggests that, in everything we do, we should begin with the end in mind. Start with a clear destination. That way, we can make sure the steps we're taking are in the right direction.

Covey emphasizes that our self-awareness empowers us to shape our own lives, instead of living our lives by default or based on the standards or preferences of others.

Beginning with the end in mind is also extremely important for businesses. Being a manager is about optimizing for efficiency. But being a leader is about setting the right strategic vision for your organisation in the first place, and asking, "What are we trying to accomplish?"

Key Lessons:

Challenge yourself to test the principle of beginning with the end in mind by doing the following:

1. Visualize in rich detail your own funeral. Who is there? What are they saying about you? About how you lived your life? About the relationships you had? What do you want them to say? Think about how your priorities would change if you only had 30 more days to live. Start living by these priorities.

2. Break down different roles in your life -- whether professional, personal, or community -- and list three to five goals you want to achieve for each.

3. Define what scares you. Public speaking? Critical feedback after writing a book? Write down the worst-case scenario for your biggest fear, then visualize how you'll handle this situation. Write down exactly how you'll handle it.

3. Put First Things First

In order to manage ourselves effectively, we must put first things first. We must have the discipline to prioritize our day-to-day actions based on what is most important, not what is most urgent.

In Habit 2, we discussed the importance of determining our values and understanding what it is we are setting out to achieve. Habit 3 is about actually going after these goals, and executing on our priorities on a day-to-day, moment-to-moment basis.

In order to maintain the discipline and the focus to stay on track toward our goals, we need to have the willpower to do something when we don't want to do it. We need to act according to our values rather than our desires or impulses at any given moment.

"Think effectiveness with people and efficiency with things." -Stephen Covey

1. Create your own time management matrix to start prioritizing.

2. Estimate how much time you spend in each quadrant. Then log your time over 3 days. How accurate was your estimate? How much time did you spend in Quadrant II (the most important quadrant)?

4. Think Win-Win

Covey explains that there are six paradigms of human interaction:

1. Win-Win: Both people win. Agreements or solutions are mutually beneficial and satisfying to both parties.

2. Win-Lose: "If I win, you lose." Win-Lose people are prone to use position, power, credentials, and personality to get their way.

3. Lose-Win: "I lose, you win." Lose-Win people are quick to please and appease, and seek strength from popularity or acceptance.

4. Lose-Lose: Both people lose. When two Win-Lose people get together -- that is, when two, determined, stubborn, ego-invested individuals interact -- the result will be Lose-Lose.

5. Win: People with the Win mentality don't necessarily want someone else to lose -- that's irrelevant. What matters is that they get what they want.

6. Win-Win or No Deal: If you can't reach an agreement that is mutually beneficial, there is no deal.

The best option is to create Win-Win situations. With Win-Lose, or Lose-Win, one person appears to get what he wants for the moment, but the results will negatively impact the relationship between those two people going forward.

The Win-Win or No Deal option is important to use as a backup. When we have No Deal as an option in our mind, it liberates us from needing to manipulate people and push our own agenda. We can be open and really try to understand the underlying issues.

"To go for Win-Win, you not only have to be nice, you have to be courageous." -Stephen Covey

Key Lessons:

Get yourself to start thinking Win-Win with these challenges:

1. Think about an upcoming interaction where you'll be attempting to reach an agreement or solution. Write down a list of what the other person is looking for. Next, write a list next to that of how you can make an offer to meet those needs.

2. Identify three important relationships in your life. Think about what you feel the balance is in each of those relationships. Do you give more than you take? Take more than you give? Write down 10 ways to always give more than you take with each one.

3. Deeply consider your own interaction tendencies. Are they Win-Lose? How does that affect your interactions with others? Can you identify the source of that approach? Determine whether or not this approach serves you well in your relationships. Write all of this down.

5. Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood

Before we can offer advice, suggest solutions, or effectively interact with another person in any way, we must seek to deeply understand them and their perspective through empathic listening.

Let's say you go to an optometrist and tell him that you've been having trouble seeing clearly, and he takes off his glasses, hands them to you and says, "Here, try these -- they've been working for me for years!" You put them on, but they only make the problem worse. What are the chances you'd go back to that optometrist?

Unfortunately, we do the same thing in our everyday interactions with others. We prescribe a solution before we diagnose the problem. We don't seek to deeply understand the problem first.

Habit 5 says that we must seek first to understand, then to be understood. In order to seek to understand, we must learn to listen.

"You have to build the skills of empathic listening on a base of character that inspires openness and trust." -Stephen Covey

Key Lessons:

Here are a few ways to get yourself in the habit of seeking first to understand:

1. Next time you're watching two people communicating, cover your ears and watch. What emotions are being communicated that might not come across through words alone? Was one person or the other more interested in the conversation? Write down what you noticed.

3. Next time you give a presentation, root it in empathy. Begin by describing the audience's point of view in great detail. What problems are they facing? How is what you're about to say offering a solution to their problems?

6. Synergize

By understanding and valuing the differences in another person's perspective, we have the opportunity to create synergy, which allows us to uncover new possibilities through openness and creativity.

The combination of all the other habits prepares us for Habit 6, which is the habit of synergy or "When one plus one equals three or more and the whole is great than the sum of its parts."

For example, if you plant two plants close together, their roots will co-mingle and improve the quality of the soil, so that both plants will grow better than they would on their own.

Synergy allows us to create new alternatives and open new possibilities. It allows us as a group to collectively agree to ditch the old scripts and write new ones.

"Without doubt, you have to leave the comfort zone of base camp and confront an entirely new and unknown wilderness." -Stephen Covey

Key Lessons:

1. Make a list of people who irritate you. Now choose just one person. How are their views different? Put yourself in their shoes for one minute. Think and pretend how it feels to be them. Does this help you understand them better?

Now next time you're in a disagreement with that person, try to understand their concerns and why they disagree with you. The better you can understand them, the easier it will be to change their mind -- or change yours.

2. Make a list of people with whom you get along well. Now choose just one person. How are their views different? Now write down a situation where you had excellent teamwork and synergy. Why? What conditions were met to reach such fluidity in your interactions? How can you recreate those conditions again?

7. Sharpen the Saw

To be effective, we must devote the time to renewing ourselves physically, spiritually, mentally, and socially. Continuous renewal allows us to synergistically increase our ability to practice each habit.

Habit 7 is focused around renewal, or taking time to "sharpen the saw." It surrounds all of the other habits and makes each one possible by preserving and enhancing your greatest asset -- yourself.

There are four dimensions of our nature, and each must be exercised regularly, and in balanced ways:

Physical Dimension: The goal of continuous physical improvement is to exercise our body in a way that will enhance our capacity to work, adapt, and enjoy.

To renew ourselves physically, we must:

i. Eat well

ii. Get sufficient rest and relaxation

iii. Exercise on a regular basis to build endurance, flexibility, and strength

Focusing on the physical dimension helps develop Habit 1 muscles of proactivity. We act based on the value of well-being instead of reacting to the forces that keep us from fitness.

Spiritual Dimension: The goal of renewing our spiritual self is to provide leadership to our life and reinforce your commitment to our value system.

To renew yourself spiritually, you can:

i. Practice daily meditation

ii. Communicate with nature

iii. Immerse yourself in great literature or music

A focus on our spiritual dimension helps us practice Habit 2, as we continuously revise and commit ourselves to our values, so we can begin with the end in mind.

Mental Dimension: The goal of renewing our mental health is to continue expanding our mind.

To renew yourself mentally, you can:

i. Read good literature

ii. Keep a journal of your thoughts, experiences,

and insights

iii. Limit television watching to only those programs that enrich your life and mind

Focusing on our mental dimension helps us practice Habit 3 by managing ourselves effectively to maximize the use of our time and resources.

Social/Emotional Dimension: The goal of renewing ourselves socially is to develop meaningful relationships.

To renew yourself emotionally, you can:

i. Seek to deeply understand other people

ii. Make contributions to meaningful projects that improve the lives of others

iii. Maintain an Abundance Mentality, and seek to help others find success

Renewing our social and emotional dimension helps us practice Habits 4, 5, and 6 by recognizing that Win-Win solutions do exist, seeking to understand others, and finding mutually beneficial third alternatives through synergy.

"Not a day goes by that we can't at least serve one other human being by making deposits of unconditional love." -Stephen Covey

Key Lessons:

1. Make a list of activities that would help you renew yourself along each of the 4 dimensions. Select one activity for each dimension and list it as a goal for the coming week. At the end of the week, evaluate your performance. What led you to succeed or fail to accomplish each goal?

2. Commit to writing down a specific "sharpen the saw" activity in all four dimensions every week, to do them, and to evaluate your performance and results.

Hope you find some value from this article and don't forget it - read , learn and implement

[shoujocentral]

Symphogear S1- Now this is MY kind of anime!

Every once and awhile when I'd log onto Twitter, I'd see people saying "watch Symphogear" accompanied by images from the show. From looking at the pictures, I assumed it was just another magical girl show like Precure but with less magic and more... techno. Oh, and apparently they sing while they fight? Sounds kinda dumb...

Buuuut... I have heard that there's some yuri content? Maybe I'll give it a try. I mean, I'm always open to watching new stuff, even if it's just a silly little kid's show 😅

😳

Well........ color me hooked.

I have to say, this show is not at all what I was expecting in the best possible way. It feels a lot more like a Shounen action show along the lines of Fullmetal Alchemist or Neon Genesis Evangelion than a Magical Girl show (if that's even what it's supposed to be). Today, I'm going to be giving my first impressions of Senki Zesshou Symphogear season 1, which will be spoiler free for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.

Plot:

So what is Senki Zesshou Symphogear about?

In the not too distant future (next Sunday A.D.), Japan is under attack by monsters known as Noises, the likes of which cannot be killed by military weapons. The only thing that can kill them are girls clad in weaponized armor known as Gears, which is activated and powered by singing catchy techno-pop music.

One day, a girl named Hibiki Tachibana is caught in the middle of a battle, and one of the Gear users, Kanade Amou, sacrifices herself to save her. Two years later, Hibiki discovers that a piece of Kanade's Gear was embedded in her chest during the fight, giving her access to the Gear's powers. Hibiki is recruited by the Disaster Relief Squadron, the organization that created the Gears, to help defend Japan from the Noises.

However, Kanade's former girlfriend partner, Tsubasa Kazanari, sees Hibiki as nothing more than an obnoxious, naive girl trying to be Kanade's replacement. Will the two learn to work together, defeat the Noises, and possibly uncover a deeper plot to all the attacks?

Symphogear's plot might not be the most original thing ever; evil monsters attack, teenage girls transform into superpowered warriors to fight them, evil mastermind tries to take over the world, etc. But what makes this story stand out is it's unique approach to the fights. Having the Gears be powered by music, resulting in every fight being accompanied by a song, is either a genius way to amplify the fights, or a genius way for the producers to sell a techno soundtrack.

I was worried that the constant use of insert songs would become repetitive and annoying, but on the contrary, they heightened my enjoyment! The fights in Symphogear are easily my favorite part of the show: fast-paced, badass powers, lots of screaming, and downright brutal at times! Hibiki has officially joined the ranks of my all-time favorite battle cries, right up there with Goku from DBZ and Souma from Kannazuki no Miko.

If there was one thing I had to nitpick, it would be that most of the fights take away the credibility of the Noises. They're supposed to be this terrifying threat to Japan that can't be harmed by the military, but as soon as the Gear wielders show up, they're reduced to nothing more than cannon fodder as Hibiki and her comrades seem to waltz through them without breaking a sweat.

Thankfully, the versus matches between Gear wielders are much more balanced. My favorite has to be Hibiki vs Chris (see above), but then again, any fight with Chris is an absolute win!

Characters:

Hibiki Tachibana

Hibiki is your typical genki girl protagonist: optimistic, hyperactive, naive, and pure. What makes her a more compelling hero, however, is her slow growth into becoming a strong Gear wielder. Unlike most magical girl protagonists, who seem to master their powers after one line of "EH?! What just happened to me?!", Hibiki takes time to learn how to fight. She starts out with the mindset that she has to be Kanade's replacement and thus tries to fight just like her. However, she eventually comes to invent her own battle tactics that work much more in her favor. Mainly, punching the everloving shit out of everything in sight.

Hibiki is, in my opinion, a flat character done right. She doesn't go through any personal growth or development throughout the show (learning to fight doesn't count), but her belief that all humans can get along if they communicate and desire to protect people just because she wants to is the cause for most of the change in the people around her. The world is in a dark place, and Hibiki is the light. She doesn't need to change, because she's exactly what the world needs.

Tsubasa Kazanari

From what I've learned, Tsubasa is a favorite amongst Symphogear fans. Me personally, though, I have a few issues with her character. Now, I have nothing against brooding, damaged characters. In fact, Tsubasa's recovery from Kanade's death and learning to cherish her own life was incredibly engaging... for the most part. Sorry, but I can only take so much edge. Her constant repitition of "I am a sword, I exist only to fight" grew old after the first 10 or so times.

Also, while I love her overall development, I feel that her acceptance of Hibiki was a little rushed. For the first four episodes, she hates Hibiki for carrying Kanade's Gear to the point where she tries to fight her to the death. Then, after another fight sends her into a coma, she has a (extremely gay) hallucination of Kanade telling her to get over herself. Next episode, she's treating Hibiki as if they've been friends the whole time. Did I miss something? Did Hibiki even apologize for saying she wanted to replace Kanade? Did Tsubasa apologize for trying to shishkabob her?!

Development aside, her fighting style is awesome and unique, and leads to the best choreography in the show. Hopefully as I watch more seasons, my opinion of her will improve.

Chris Yukine

Best Girl. No questions. Anyone who disagrees is wrong. Deal with it.

Jokes aside, Chris is my favorite character of the show bar none. Maybe I just have a weakness for evil-turned-good characters, but I adored her "don't take no shit from nobody" attitude and her soft side emerging as the show progressed. And let me tell you, Tsubasa would have no right to brood if she knew what Chris went through as a child. I won't give anything away, but just a few brief images and harsh words were enough get the picture across and tug at my heartstrings.

She also had my favorite Gear and fighting style in the show. If there's one thing that always gets my blood pumping, it's gatling guns and an endless supply of missiles. Seriously, I could watch this girl fight for hours.

Kanade Amou

A moment of silence, ladies and gentlemen.

......

Kanade would be my favorite character if we had gotten more of her. But alas, she has to die in the very first episode. DAMN YOU, PLOT!!!

Even though we get very little of Kanade, she makes it her mission to leave a lasting impression. Her sacrifice at the beginning sets the tone for the rest of the show, and her flashback is the best of the bunch. I got hard chills when she transformed for the first time. Let's just say she's psychotic in all the right ways.

Kanade died for our sins. Remember that... 🙏

Finé

Our main villain of the show. That's it. There's really nothing much else to her. She's cruel, manipulative, and powerful beyond belief, as most big bosses of these kinds of shows are. She was honestly my least favorite part of the show.

Fine's motivation is incredibly confusing on first watch. I had to go back to pause and read the subtitles multiple times to understand her backstory, but maybe that's my fault for being a slow reader. On the other hand, the explanation as to who she is and why she's so powerful comes right out of nowhere and doesn't seem to connect to anything the story had been building up to that point. Also, by the time I understood her motivation and actually found it a little intriguing, she dropped the dreaded "I'm going to take over the world" line. Aaaaand.... all my interest just went out the window.

There is a twist involving her connection to a certain other character in the show that I genuinely didn't see coming, but in the end, it wasn't nearly enough to make up for her shortcomings.

Miku Kohinata

God bless this little angel. Miku is a precious cinnamon roll who must be protected at all costs. Thankfully, Hibiki's got it covered 👍

Words cannot express how much I love this girl. She may be only a supporting role for the time being, but good lord, does she support! It always broke my heart whenever she tried to spend time with Hibiki or talk to her, but the Disaster Relief Squad kept pulling them apart. I know DRS is classified, but Miku deserves better than to have secrets kept from her! Life sucks when your girlfriend best friend is a superhero...

Well, that was a mouthful. There's a lot more characters in this show, but I don't really have much to say about them. However, while we're on the subject of Miku, let's move on to the reason I checked this show out in the first place, and the reason I'm sure most of you read my stuff.

Yuri:

No sooner did I finish this show did I start looking up HibiMiku fanart 😍

I was expecting a fair dosage of yuribait going into Symphogear, but mother of all that is gay, did I get an overdose!

First and foremost, the main ship: HibiMiku. These two are dating. Nothing anyone says will change my mind. They compliment each other perfectly, with Hibiki's energy and Miku's sweetness... HHNNNGGH! IT'S TOO PRECIOUS! I sincerely hope these two get more time together in the next few seasons. Now if only they'd stop with the damn F word...... 😡

Next up, TsubaKana. This one seems more like it was one-sided feelings on Tsubasa's part, judging by how dedicated Kanade was to fighting the Noise. Regardless, you don't just lose all sense of your humanity and self-worth after your "partner" dies. And all that hardcore blushing in the flashbacks and naked cuddling dream sequences... nah, Tsubasa was hella hot for Kanade. Sadly, our lord and savior was taken from Ms. Brooding too soon.

Finally, there's Ryoko Sakurai, the DRS's head scientist. She was initially hinted to be gay, what with her being all too eager to have Hibiki undress and wanting to "pop her cherry" (yes, an adult said that to a 15 year-old). However, after a certain conversation occurred, it seemed more like she was straight or at least bisexual, if all that dirty talk wasn't just teasing.

I've heard future seasons introduce more potential couples, so I'm keeping my eyes open and my yuri goggles on tight 😋

Conclusion:

I enjoyed the first season of Senki Zesshou Symphogear through and through. As someone who enjoyed Akanesasu Shoujo and Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka, I have a soft spot for shows about badass girls kicking monster ass and unleashing their inner yuri. Overall though, I think Symphogear might be my favorite of the bunch so far. It has its fair share of flaws, sure, but I think its positives outweigh the negatives by a long shot. If I got this much enjoyment out of the first season, I cannot wait to see what the following seasons have to offer!

Symphogear delivers a fun, action-packed story with colorful characters, kickass fight scenes, head-banging music and plenty of yuri content. Anyone who loves Magical Girls or Shounen battle shows needs to check it out!

Rating: 8/10

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go binge Symphogear G. See you next time, my fellow yuri lovers!