#the 2 main characters specially are quite different once you get to know them; but on the surface the vibes are pretty strong | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

kerizaret · 9 months ago

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Hello everyone and welcome once again to my brain! Today I want to ramble a bit about

✨️ Tsukasa and Rakunosuke (Emu's grandpa) parallels ✨️

Because I feel like we don't talk about them much. Or at all actually

Now, I'm not pulling this out of nowhere. It's quite literally stated at least once, outright, in the game, that Tsukasa is really similar to Emu's grandpa (or even twice – but the other time I'm unsure 100% whether its about Tsukasa specifically, which I'll get to later). That's not to mention the other little things throughout the stories that I think similar between the two

So here's just some thoughts I've had on the topic after rewatching some events, more or less cohesive

1) Tsukasa's PXL auditon & WMS speech

Starting at the very beginning, we've known ever since the wxs main story that there's something in Tsukasa that has drawn Emu in to him already the first time she's ever saw him, at his audition for PXL, which made her hire him herself. She says "found you" at that moment, as if she's been searching for someone exactly like him. Out of all the possible candidates who applied who she might've seen, why Tsukasa specifically?

It could be just about him boasting about making fantastic shows, which of course is a part of it. But I feel like this isn't all, that there was something else that she noticed, that maybe she didn't fully realise at that moment

Then later, in Wonder Magical Showtime, after Tsukasa's motivational speech, Emu specifically thinks back to that audition and how she felt something special there. And, most importantly, she thinks it as if she's talking to her grandpa – like he's somehow tied to it, to her realisation that Tsukasa is the one

Putting aside the fact they were fighting for Rakunosuke's park, which obviously makes Emu think back to him, there's something more. Emu doesn't think anything of the sort about Rui, even though he was the one who came up with the night show, or about Nene. Nor did she mention any kind of this strong feeling/conviction about having them on the Wonder Stage in the main story

She's focused on Tsukasa, because he's the one that brought all these people together and gave them the last push they needed to fight for PXL. He's the one they listen to, he who understands what this park was all about and why they need to save it. He's standing on the stage her grandpa built, looking at all those people working here, and he's leading them, telling them this dream CAN be made a reality and it's more important than anything else

And I feel like she could have looked at that and been reminded of her grandpa a bit, with how much he loved the park he built and brought people together with the same ideals and love and made dreams come true

2) Miles

Speaking of WMS, I'm sure we all remember Miles, the sorcerer Tsukasa played in the night show in WMS, and how he was a character very clearly based on Rakunosuke. It's not very surprising it's Tsks who got this role, but it's still interesting to me. It feels like no-one else would've been able to get this character right and neither would Emu as Shao with someone else playing Miles

I won't get into what "Miles" Tsukasa says in the play, because that's just the script and not a representation of Tsukasa himself, but I do want to draw attention to the specific scene where Emu's father is watching the night show and looks at Tsukasa, then says this:

This is the first time that – i suspect – Tsukasa is outright "stated" to be like Rakunosuke. Here I say "suspected" since I'm not 100% sure of it for two reasons. One of them being that as we know, the ensekai translation is sometimes often bad. For that I looked up the original text as well as an old translation of the event on YT to check for differences

The line ends up being similar in meaning, more or less, but a bit more vague. That also ties to my second doubt though, which is that Emu's father might be referring not to Tsukasa himself, per se, but rather to the character of Miles he's playing

I feel like both can make sense, in their own way (and the event is a Tsukasa focus for a reason, too), but for here I'm throwing it more as a hint than any kind of outright proof. Food for thought

3) Tsukasa and Rakunosuke's deams

Then, as we reach Popping in my Heart! and learn more of Rakunosuke from Riley's pov, there's another interesting thing that pops up. That is, the fact that Tsukasa and Rakunosuke share the same dream

And then, that's when Emu confirms what I've talked about before – that this whole time, she's felt something about Tsukasa being so reminding of her Grandpa

So Tsukasa has all this time "carried the same spirit" as Rakunosuke – which is possibly the reason why Emu has been feeling strangely drawn to him from the beginning

4) The Wonderland SEKAI

Hey. Hey. Remember this line?

(tl by tsukasa's #3 fan on YT)

Yeah, this one. The same reason why wxs even has "Wonderlands" in their troupe name

You know what else has Wonderland in its name?

That's right! Tsukasa's SEKAI!

Tsukasa's SEKAI. A different world that's created from his feelings, that's a place born from his desire to make everyone smile with his shows. A world that just recently expanded to include plushies representing all those different shows – different worlds – wxs created as a troupe. It's a world that Tsukasa, in a way, made by himself (albeit unconsciously)

Oh did I mention the Wonderland SEKAI is also, primarily, pre-wl, a theme park? With a big ass ferris wheel and several stages and a castle and a train and a merry-go-round, a rollercoaster and more? You know, kind of just like Phoenix Wonderland? Which was built by Emu's grandpa?

Do you ever think about that? That both Tsukasa and Rakunosuke "made" their own "Wonderlands"? That the SEKAI is so similar to PXL? Because I do

Anyway. Those were the main similarities or references I noticed, but I still have some few other miscellaneous thoughts i had aside from that that I'll sum up a bit quicker

Tsukasa and Emu's grandpa both care more about the shows (& pxl) themselves and the effect they have on people to make them smile than any kind of fame or recognition

A reminder, too, that despite the movie's popularity, nobody really knew that Rakunosuke worked on "Smiley" (or that it was even a Riley Entertainment movie at all)

There's also the fact that both tsks and rknsk get stuck more on the excitement they want their audiences to feel rather than on the technical sides or worries about how it would be possible – as seen with Rakunosuke convincing Riley to include all his dreams and ideas in "Smiley" without focusing as much on the budget and all to install that wonder in the viewers, and Tsukasa doing anything to perfect his acting, and also agreeing to most of Rui's stunts and experiments and production ideas as long as it gets the audience to become more immersed

I noticed as well that they're both people who wear their hearts on their sleeves, who easily get emotional and enthusiastic, who empathise a lot with the others' emotions and struggles, becoming happy when something good happens to them

^ he cried here. And later at the fan festa seeing nene sing confidently and happily he teared up again

And also just *gestures vaguely at pandemonium event and Rui's "tsukasa's friends' happiness is his own happiness" line*. Yeah

Most importantly, Tsks and Rknsk both care so, so much about shows ending with smiles and not tears

And overall about everyone smiling and being happy. Like Tsukasa telling Emu in the main story, on the ferris wheel, that when her grandpa meant making EVERYONE smile, it included Emu, too, and he wanted to make sure she's happy as well

There's also everything with Emu, too. The way she's very clingy with Tsukasa, always throwing herself at him (not that she isn't with everyone, but she does seem to jump at him the most often)

She's also implied to open up a bit more around him – in Smile of a Dreamer, when wxs expressed their worries about emu hiding her problems, KAITO implies that its unusual she "hasn't told EVEN Tsukasa"

And it's Tsukasa who first understood that, despite how it may seem that "she always is so optimistic and says whatever's on her mind", in the end "the bigger the problem, the less likely she is to talk" (paraphrased quotes from smile of a dreamer). And also underdstood what's the most important to her and how to give her a push to voice her worries to them

It's Tsukasa who Emu first got so scared of leaving their troupe and her behind

I simply feel like Emu is aware of the similarities her grandpa and Tsukasa share and, subconsciously, trusts him a lot and gets attached to him easily

Anyway. This is just a bunch of thoughts that came to mind that I wanted to share and hear your thoughts on maybe too. I love emukasa so much they have such a great dynamic, and I feel the implied similarities between Rakunosuke and Tsukasa add a lot to that too. I'm really curious if it'll be something they'll explore more in future events. Because I feel these parallels are there for some reason

#this might make sense or not #i just want to throw it out there #keri rambles #prsk #project sekai #wxs #tenma tsukasa #ootori emu #wonderlands x showtime #someone take these characters away from me or else

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orionsangel86 · 1 year ago

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Seeing criticism of Good Omens Season 2 on here is a wild ride for me because I generally seem to agree with everything gomens critical people are saying whilst at the same time still absolutely loving gomens S2.

It's like this: Okay so you have written this super popular book revolving around this precocious kid who happens to be the antichrist whose birth kickstarts the apocalypse. The four horseman turn up as well as these other strange human characters one of which is an actual witch whose great great great grandmother wrote an accurate prophecy book which predicts armaggedon. Through a series of somewhat hilarious events, the kid, his friends, and the other weird humans manage to stop the apocalypse.

Also throughout the whole thing there are these angel and demon characters fussing about getting into arguments but not actually doing anything to forward the plot or make any difference to the main storyline. For some reason everyone reading the book finds these characters far more compelling and entertaining and seems to think they are the main characters. But they are not.

Then the book gets adapted into a show and the focus shifts onto the angel and demon characters because obviously they are the popular ones that everyone loves. So what's a writer to do when the fan favourite characters basically don't have any part in the primary plot points? Give them a more coherent side plot steeped in romantic tropes and claim that they are in love. Boom. Instant fandom catnip.

But then you are presented with a problem. The show has become super successful and everyone wants more story. You may have discussed a sequel over the years with your writing partner but it never really came to anything probably because its difficult to plot out a sequel centred around two characters who weren't the protagonist of the first book, and that story is done and dusted. Whats a writer to do?

Lean into the fans thirst for more angel on demon action and write what amounts to high budget fanfiction pulling the love story b plot of season 1 into the main focus for season 2. Of course book purists are gonna hate that!

Any legitimate sequel to Good Omens should have centered around Adam. The former antichrist now coping with everything he went through growing up a normal human whilst still having a creeping sense that its not quite over, that maybe heaven and hell still have a part for you to play in their grand plan. Sure, Crowley and Aziraphale could have been involved, continuing their b plot love story, but at least this way the sequel would have been more consistent with the plot of season 1.

The problem with continuing Adam's story is that, and I mean no disrespect here, no one cares about Adam. Adam and his friends are the weakest elements of season 1. People tune into Good Omens for the Crowley and Aziraphale show, and Neil Gaiman knows this.

The plot of Gomens S2 is weak. The mystery around Gabriel is a bit silly, and is only connected to the season 1 plot in the loosest sense. The fact that he and Beelzebub speedrun an angel/demon romance is bizarre and does come out of left field... like something out of fanfiction. It also does indeed rob some of what made Crowley/Aziraphale so special - the fact that they were unique in their love and respect for each other despite being on opposite sides. Also I wish Maggie and Nina were given more development (and less clunky dialogue).

The only criticism I really don't agree with is the criticism that Aziraphale was written out of character, because quite simply, season 1 never ever resolved the fundamental issue at the center of Crowley and Aziraphales relationship. Throughout season 1 Aziraphale constantly insults and berates Crowley, claiming he's the "bad one" and refusing to accept that they aren't on opposite sides. There have been plenty of metas stating that this was all out of fear and a need to protect Crowley, and sure, you can interpret it that way, but not once in season 1 does Aziraphale actually say "yes we are on our side. Yes we are the same. I was wrong to claim you were bad when you've clearly been showing me how good you are for millennia." Its maybe implied that he has learned, but its never truly confirmed, because season 1 wasn't about Crowley and Aziraphale and their relationship. But season 2 takes its lead from that.

It's just rather amusing to me how the discourse that has built around season 2 seems to be fundamentally forgetting these points. GOS2 isn't really a sequel to Good Omens. It's a spin off. It's a spin off about Crowley and Aziraphale and their silly relationship drama whilst they deal with a silly low stakes mystery regarding Heaven and Hell (also characters that were barely involved in the book if at all!). It doesn't really tie into the first story at all.

In my opinion, all it needed to link it more closely to season 1, was to bring back Frances McDormand as God to do the narration. If that had happened, season 2 would have been just fine. As it stands, it comes across rather like a spin off fanfiction. But I love fanfiction, and I have always only ever watched Good Omens for Aziraphale and Crowley. To me, season 2 is fantastic, its like if Supernatural had a spin off show all about Castiel in which he is the lead character, and part of the main A plot is him getting together with Dean finally - Dean being the love interest in this particular show. Amazing. 10/10 would watch another 15 seasons of just that - but general Supernatural fans who aren't fandom specific would probably HATE IT.

So yeah, I do understand the criticism its receiving, but I find it funny, because ultimately Neil Gaiman gave fans exactly what they wanted, he gave them an Ineffable Husbands fanfiction - M/M Romance, F/F OC Side Pairing, Rated: Teen and Up, #Fluff, #Dancing, #Excessive Jane Austen References, #Crack Treated Seriously, #Surprise Final Pairing (check the end notes for spoilers!), #Miscommunication, #Love Confessions, #First Kiss, #Angst #Hurt/No Comfort, #Cliffhanger Ending.

Can any of us really say we wouldn't immediately click "proceed" on this fic and then stay up til 3am reading it til our eyes bled? Me neither.

#good omens #good omens season 2 #good omens season 2 spoilers #ineffable husbands #aziraphale #crowley #aziracrow #good omens discourse #honest gos2 review

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teenage-fleabag · 6 months ago

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Some thoughts on the Life is Strange franchise

To be fair I'm not really up to date with recent Life is Strange discourse, but since the somewhat recent announcement I've had so many thoughts and I just wanted to ramble a bit.

I've been a huge Life is Strange fan for years now, falling in love with the first game when I played it at fourteen. Since then I've played every game that has been released in this franchise. But the first game has always felt special, like a little glimmer in time that no other game has been able to replicate, but that doesn't mean that the other games suck though!! I've quite enjoyed them!! I just think that Deck Nine aren't really living up to the standards set up by the games made by Don't Nod.

Even though one of the critiques of Life is Strange 1 is how the choices made throughout the game don't really matter in the end, seeing as they all can be easily erased by the last choice, it still felt as though they all had a purpose? They contributed to the sentiment of ''your choices matter'', letting the players see the butterfly effects that they themselves were responsible for. And all of this culminates with the final choice - being dictated by how you played the game and which relationships mattered the most to you, creating an incredibly heart wrenching ending.

And I was so excited to see how Don't Nod expanded on the choice mechanics in the second game!! Life is Strange 2 isn't without fault or criticism and I understand why many people didn't love it, especially if they played it while the episodes were being released, but it was so refreshing to see a new story and mostly, to see that the creators were trying to improve and make something different. Especially knowing that they probably saw the love for Max and Chloe, but stood firm that their story was over, which I think creatively was the best choice.

Before the Storm is difficult to talk about, because even if I do genuinely love it, it still suffers from the ending just not being as strong as you'd expect from a Life is Strange game. But I've always kind of written that off as something that you just have to deal with when creating a prequel. But then True Colors came out, which I was very excited about, even if the storyline seemed a bit similar to the first game (small town, mysterious death - I know it's kind of a reach, but still), but once I finished it I felt quite disappointed. I loved the characters, but I thought the ending absolutely sucked. So did the big reveal. It felt as though Deck Nine had learned nothing from the progress made by Don't Nod.

Since the release of True Colors I've had this feeling that Deck Nine ar just trying to recreate the magic of the first game without making any bold creative choices themselves, just juggling around elements of Life is Strange 1, trying to figure out which one will grant them the most success. This point being further proven by the announcement of Double Exposure.

Don't get me wrong, I love Max, but her story was over, she had her arc. And yeah, sure, maybe a part of me is saying this because I don't want to see her suffer anymore than she already has, but there's a reason why Don't Nod have been so adamant that her story is over for now. I know the new game isn't out yet, and I'm still holding out hope that it'll surprise me, but I truly cannot see how they can make a Life is Strange game with Max as the main character, while basically ignoring the events of the first game. I get that it has to be stand alone for commercial purposes, that a direct sequel probably wouldn't sell as well, but that makes this game just feel like fan service without actually serving the fans.

I truly have no clue how they plan on just explaining away Chloe if a player chose the bae ending, especially since they were still mentioned as being together in Life is Strange 2. I'm aware that they mentioned that the player will be prompted to input their ending during a conversation, but Max's story is so much more than just a simple conversation. It makes it seem as though a whole part of her is just being erased, a whole games worth of trauma just ignored for the hope of selling a game to as many people as possible.

I don't really know how to end this, but I'm not sure that Double Exposure will really hit the mark for many fans of the franchise. I'm still excited to play it, but I'm staying cautiously hopeful that I might be pleasantly surprised.

#life is strange #max caulfield #chloe price #lis double exposure #pricefield #jesus this ended up being long #is this where i add the obligatory ''english isn't my first language'' bit #can you tell that university has ended and i just miss writing essays #also i just wanted to get these thoughts out because none of my friends care about life is strange lol #rambles #mine

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marbleboa · 10 months ago

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Mukai Speculation: The Hell is Up With the Divine Wood

So. I've been thinking about potential avenues for Mukai's backstory lately. She is one of those characters that is given very little characterization-wise, however her very existence in her role as a Scar is one of those things that give a lot of people pause. Often with the question 'hey uh what's that 11 year old doing there'.

As such, I thought I'd put down some rambles about the matter here!

One common route I've seen taken is that Mukai was kidnapped by Claw, and it makes sense! Claw’s basically got child kidnapping down to a science, and apparently brainwashing to boot.

Though in regards to the later, I was thinking about Shou's comments in the 7th Division Arc immediately after Ishiguro suggests brainwashing the protags. He seems to imply the process dulls an esper's abilities, turning them into trash/mindless slaves. As such, I think it's safe to assume none of the scars are brainwashed in an unnatural sense, but rather succumbed to Claw's ideals due to personal weakness and/or vulnerability

Back to Mukai, if brainwashing wasn't in the picture I'm thinking either she was kidnapped at a young enough age where under Claw's indoctrination her cooperation never was an issue, or she entered the organization a different way. But if she wasn't kidnapped, then how did this kid end up in the role of a Scar? Well, I'm basing my speculation here primarily on this scene from the manga:

Quite the info, as it both comes out of nowhere and is never mentioned again. Not unheard of especially for the World Domination Arc in the manga, where the readers get so much thrown at them at once. On its own, there's only a bit we can glean from Mukai's reaction: 1. this was a place she had a lot of attachment to, and 2. it was important enough to be noted by Claw and later destroyed after the 7th Division's defection.

The whole 'divine wood' thing brings to mind an element of spirituality, some spot of nature that's deemed as sacred. This brings me further back to the beginning of WD arc. Prior to Toichiro’s speech, the other Division Leaders are kind enough to grant us some exposition on the extent of Claw’s influence:

So. Religious cults. It paints an interesting, unseen picture of these different organizations vying for a place at the table when Claw takes over the world. Thinking about it, I had an idea--what if Mukai came from one of these cults?

Probably a bit of a stretch, but I could imagine those special tree(s) she talked about being one of the main fixtures of the group's beliefs, something believed to aid those who paid tribute to it(you know how we love tree cults here). A place that Mukai was taught to be special ever since she was little...it's no wonder her powers would resonate with objects made from there, belief's a powerful thing. And if it was involved in Claw, they would certainly have information about all that on record to dispose of it later.

What's more, it seems pretty common for upper level cults to make things a family affair--and child with powers like that would be sure to grab attention. Money's well and good of course, but what better way to make your organization stand out than to give up an offering of power instead? What if Mukai was given to Claw willingly? And Mukai, well, she's not made privy to any of that of course. But with all the praise for her powers and the promise of freedom to use them, plus her family's pride...it's not hard to imagine how she'd be easily entangled like that.

In regards to her post-Claw life, I think this could open up some interesting possibilities for different dynamics and conflicts to say the least. It's of course a horrible thing for a child to be taken from their family, but maybe in that situation there could be a bittersweet reunion in the end. For a child to grow up realizing they were given up as a bargaining chip, one that the other side didn't even end up wanting to keep(marked as damaged goods, remember?)...that has to be a trial on its own.

Obviously I doubt this is what ONE intended to be gleaned from the whole thing--but hey, it's interesting to think about.

#finally got around to finishing this. time for bed goodbyeeee #mob psycho 100 #mp100 #mukai kirari #mp100 mukai #claw 7th division #long post #text #scarposting

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b0njourbeach · 8 months ago

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Here we go, the long awaited

Things on JP server that EN doesn't have!

I won't go on about what's spelled or named differently. I'll only talk about features that I have discovered on JP that doesn't exist on EN (yet).

I'll start with the front page: "Start Dash".

It sends you to a different map where you get several missions (10 per set) and at the end of each set, you'll receive a 10pull Key. There are three sets in total - That means: "Start Dash" will give you a total of 30 pulls (including a lot of Madol/Thaummarks, Talent Books, Gems, Jugs of Honey and a lot more).

Lessons

There isn't much difference between EN lessons and the JP lessons but I did notice a few different voice lines: JP has at least one different Ruggie voice line because during the classes with Trein, he actually meows! This doesn't happen in EN (as far as I'm aware). There are also a few differences in the items we can get: Per class you do, you can get up to 4 item drops (except during Alchemy, there it's 5). The reason is simple: JP classes have a special coin that is very similar to those in EN you can get from Sam by selling stuff (I will explain this further in the shop section). The Alchemy lessons have in general more drops because they have an item that EN doesn't have yet: Buddy/Friendship Tea! As you might know, the Alchemy lessons are supposed to raise your Buddy/Friendship level of certain characters. Said Levels can be raised on JP with the mentioned tea (image will be seen in the shop section). As far as I'm aware, it's because Rollo and Crowley can't attend classes but still have their three buddies for special boni.

Are you tired of tapping five million times to add more AP? Worry not!

We might be able to select multiple at once at some point! (Yes, it also applies to the big bottles of AP.)

Main Story

I have discovered this feature on accident: You can select certain chapters as favorite (Though I have yet to find out what it actually does).

Are battles still too slow for you and you already set it to "2x"? Well, good news: The JP server has three choices.

You can also pre-save a certain set of team for the battles:

And guess what! You can even pin your friends to the top of your support selection:

(A very handy feature if you use a friends' card quite often but you're tired of them disappearing randomly bc you have too many friends.)

Guest Room

As some might or might now know: The EN Guest Room reaches its max. Level at 30. The JP one can be leveled up to 40! And it's not the only neat feature! For one, we on EN have only one floor, right? Well, guess what!

And even farming materials for the Guest Room is made easier:

You can do 5 at the same time - Same concept like we have with the exams - But! On JP, the five fights (whether it's in the Guest Room or the exam) count as actual five and not just one, like it is on EN!

Since I can add only 10 pictures, I'll have to make a second part:

[You are here] | Part 2

#twisted wonderland #twst #shock the heart

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stemmmm · 5 months ago

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mistria thots now that im a little ways into summer

first of all, took fucking forever, but thats because i go to bed at the absolute last second nearly every single day. and on that note, i feel like every single day is a frantic rush to run around and do the dozens of different daily things there are that there's never enough time for. I dont mind not having enough time in the day to do everything. that's very reasonable. but there's a ton to do, and the map is very large and i have to run very quickly to cover it all, and if i want to fish at all or go into the mines, that's my whole day. and up till now there's always been 5 quests of varying importance going on at once. and it's all quite exhausting. i'm still playing, but frankly the pace of everything has made me quite tired of it. i have to slow down and i have slowed down, but it doesn't feel great because there's a dozen season exclusive collectables that i've missed out on and other main quests that i could be doing things to progress and- and- and-! i'm sure you get my point. it's not relaxing, at least not for me. yes, this game is meant to be played for multiple in-game years, but that doesn't quell the FOMO, especially since i have no idea how much more content this early access version still has. who knows if i see the other seasons before i run out of plot.

before the end of spring I already had 2 cows and 2 chickens and basically enough money that i won't need to farm again for a while before i imagine it'll run out, because you get a lot of cash and very little to spend it on that matters. there's a shitload of recipes and cosmetics but i'm here for gameplay, baby. i'm not touching that. the only thing worth spending money on in that sense is pre-smithed tools, but I can make them myself extremely easily. i also have no need to cook because foodstuff is given as rewards for tons of things and there's multiple spots in the world that return energy for free, and now i have 2 slots for a spell that restores my health, with a bunch of potions that restore the slots i found before i even had magic, and i still have free bath-house trips to restore health too, so even though i run out of stamina just about every day, i hardly ever feel it. the time remains the most challenging thing to deal with.

on a more positive note, the animals are really cute. kind of weird you don't have to milk the cows, but i do understand the decision because that process gets tedious and makes me not engage with cows either. im looking forward to when i get their hearts high enough that i can do the breeding mechanics, because that's pretty new to games like this afaik.

i also.... really hope the festivals that come in other seasons have more going on because the spring one was really, really bad. it's just nothing.

on characters, i still dont have super strong feelings for any of them because they are by and large, flat tropes that i don't really like. i haven't done much with them, so most are only just starting to get to single heart relationship level from just semi-regularly talking to them. paying attention to their schedules to get to know them hasnt really been a thing between the map telling me where they are and everyone usually always being inside the inn whenever i need to find them. haven't seen any events yet afaik, unless those are tied to the request board.

and speaking of the request board and events tied to it! it is nice and convenient that the special requests are the means by which you trigger events. like usually you have to walk up to whoevers quest it was to trigger the event, so events are opt-in, can be at any time, and triggered anywhere you find the person. it does lose any element of surprise though. i like wandering into an area and something triggers out of seemingly nowhere, but i understand that system has... a lot of inconvenient flaws that i myself have been burned by before. tough problem to solve. this method is fine enough.

so uhh!! that's all i can think of for now! fine game, not really set up in a way that works well for people like me who have to do every single thing immediately. fortunately, no one else has to play like this because they are my own neuroses and nothing built into the game itself. i recommend everyone else play this slowly if they play it at all, and itd probably be more fun.

#m.txt #hm posting #fields of mistria

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sonkitty · 3 months ago

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The Sideburns Scheme - LINK - Update

I've added some content back to the main Sideburns Scheme post with some minor updates.

Here is what was added:

The below is one of my favorite pieces of writing along the way of playing this game, and I have added it back into this main post for that reason and thinking it generally has value. I have updated it a few parts of it to match with my current understanding of things. During Crowley's time in Heaven, the story puts a lot of effort into teaching us something about Crowley if we haven't figured it out by now. Well, sort of. The something is more evident to anyone willing and wanting to look for this type of information frame by frame. Crowley, for the most part, does not see people with his eyes. That is likely true of most other things as well. His entire body language constantly tells us otherwise. He snakes his way about among pillars when talking to Muriel about bees. He glances back after passing Michael and Uriel. He turns his head in the direction of voices when he hears multiple angels discussing things on different screens. He taps Muriel on the shoulder directly. He knows to look downward to Saraqael's position. He even glances Saraqael's way without hearing them speak first at one point. He knows where to look toward Muriel when telling them, "You too." Everything about Crowley's movement tells us Crowley sees the angels. One thing and one thing only informs us Crowley is not seeing the angels but is sensing them with his eyes instead. Check his sunglasses. His sunglasses will reflect panels of light, sometimes blurred panels of light, but they never ever reflect an angel in this tremendously well lit space with Muriel dressed in their all white Inspector Constable attire. Most especially, check when Crowley turns to Muriel after they said, "That's pretty good, actually." He turns his head. They are literally on screen together. There is part of a more solid-looking white pane that's a light or something on the desk. We can see his eyelid. Move to the next frame, and we still see panels of light. We do not see Muriel. There are other times in the story where you can actually catch a reflection of a character in Crowley's sunglasses that threw me off. I saw it once when he was talking to Aziraphale by the car in episode 2 and again when talking to Muriel in episode 3. In episode 5, it happens during the ball with both the humans in the ball or addressing Shax. He tilts his head back a little for the reflections to appear. Later on, close to the end of season, the sunglasses have reflections of people and movement, and that movement is a contrast to the reflections shown in earlier episodes. It's a truly special case involving windows and thresholds though long sideburns are there too. Much of this Heaven visit with the lights, light reflections, and lacking other reflections, are to help us understand how special that part of the ending is. For a more in-depth explanation, please see my post on The Window Trick. That ends what has been added back into this main post for Heaven, Crowley's special sight, and reflections.

...

An idea I've referred to in a few of my more recent posts, and not specifying until just now, is that I want to maybe possibly put some of my progress through the games in video form, as a series. The idea is very uncertain. Am I doing a re-enactment? That's what I want to do, but I get rather caught up in how things are now compared to how things were then. Nothing really compares to actually playing these games, but a video seems like the closest I could get to showing how it happens. I might just end up condensing posts I already have into a series instead, more current posts I mean, instead of re-enacting some things. I'll probably do some form of both. It's something I'm still just thinking about as an idea, quite a challenging idea too.

Even so, this part about Heaven is one that I definitely want to be in however such an idea comes to fruition. So, if I value it that much, I want it back in the main post. I was vaguely tempted to just give it its own post, but for now, this placement feels best.

...

#crowley #david tennant #good omens #good omens 2 #good omens s2 #good omens season 2 #good omens meta #good omens analysis #good omens crowley

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akatsuki-shin · 1 year ago

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[REVIEW] スロウ・ダメージ Slow Damage

Just finished marathoning this game to get all the endings and that was a blast!

It's been a while since I last posted a review of anything, so here goes~ ^^

Note(s):

Long post ahead, may contain spoilers

This review is written by someone who is familiar with all of Nitro+Chiral's previously released BL Visual Novels (so I may make remarks on their comparison here and there)

This is my personal review; my opinion does not represent the entire audience and players of the game

SUMMARY:

In the Year 20XX, the nation of Japan has been rapidly declining to rock-bottom in the past decade, leading to a significant spike in poverty, unemployment, and crime rate.

Once known as a thriving Tokyo Waterfront City, the special administrative region of Shinkoumi fell into the hands of the yakuza Takasato Group, who ruled the city like a nation of their own.

Here lives Towa, an indolent, hedonistic young man with seemingly no goal or ambition in life. Day by day, he wastes himself away in smoke, alcohol, and — sometimes — violent sex with peers and strangers alike whenever he feels like it.

However, few knows of his true identity as "Euphoria," a genius artist known for his prominent paintings that perfectly captures a human's deepest, darkest desire.

STORY: 7/10

With 2 (two) default routes, 1 (one) locked route, and 1 (one) True Ending route, Slow Damage is different from the previous 4 (four) BL Visual Novels that has been released by Nitro+Chiral thus far, in which there is neither adventure or "greater plot" that needs to be resolved as the main body of the story.

In the previous games, we can say that the general plot overall does not change much regardless of which route we takes, save for a few in-depth details that can only be obtained in the True Ending route. For example, when playing DRAMAtical Murder, Toue will still be defeated and the Platinum Jail will still go down no matter which character's route you decide to take.

Slow Damage, however, is a game where you unravel a "puzzle" named Towa.

No route can stand on its own; you need to play all 4 (four) available routes in order to fully understand everything. There is no particular "grand goal." Maybe you'll solve someone's problem in one route, maybe you'll take down the yakuza in the other route.

The 2 (two) default routes will present you the Towa as "it is," according to your first impression on him, where he helps solve the respective Love Interest's problem by diving into their mind and unravel their inner "wounds." The locked route will dig halfway to Towa's past to show a little bit more about him prior to his current life.

But eventually, you will only be able to understand him, why he looks and acts like that, why he does the thing he does, after completing the True Ending route.

Depending on your expectation before playing the game, you may or may not be disappointed after discovering the full story. Personally speaking, I was a bit disappointed at first because I thought the plot is superficial and doesn't touch on any major subject regarding the universe where the story takes place. In the end, however, I think it's a quite solid and complete story, albeit taking a different spin from the previous games.

The plot is deep and detailed; it can really deliver some very heavy emotional issues, as well as presenting the fun and romantic sides. I personally feel the plot twists and revelations obtained in the True Ending is very cleverly wrapped. There are many small, miss-able things in the other routes that will only be explained in the True Ending.

Furthermore, if I have any complains about the previous games, it is that they tend to drop an "info dump" at some point in the story. Fortunately for me, Slow Damage is very good at distributing the information through dialogues, narration, and dividing them between scenes.

A few "minus" points from me, though...

There are some important things that do not have enough foreshadowing in the front, but suddenly becomes extremely significant in the latter part of the story. For example:

Towa and Fujieda's real names. There are no hint leading to this at all from the beginning and it doesn't really give any impact whatsoever to the whole story, either. But for some reason, the story-telling makes it look as if it is very important.

Although Fujieda himself as a character appear briefly in the other 3 (three) routes, there is next to no hints at all that connect him with Towa prior to the True Ending route. Sure, his little sister appeared in Towa's dream before, but the story-telling doesn't connect it with Fujieda before we unlock his route. Personally-speaking, while the True Ending route is overall very satisfying for me, I still feel some disconnection with Fujieda's background and motivation in the story.

Speaking of "disconnection," this is especially true for Madarame's route.

Before, when playing the default routes (Rei and Taku), we are already used to the indolent, lazy Towa and his occasional self-harming habits whenever he's craving stimulations. But in Madarame's route, you are suddenly being shoved in the face with stories about Towa's past with him out of the blue, forcing you to accept that Towa does not used to be like that.

While the latter part of Madarame's route until the ending is neatly put together, I cannot help but still feel that he is a stranger who suddenly barges into the main plot and forcefully diverts the direction of the story for no reason. It's like a skyscraper that looks majestic from the outside but actually has shallow foundation below.

I also feel that Taku's route has a massive plot hole because even though Taku is supposed to know Towa from when he was still a child, very little details are revealed in his route. Perhaps it's so that it won't clash with the secrets known only in the True Ending, but it makes Taku's route feel somewhat lackluster (especially since Towa isn't questioning about his past at all during this route).

And last but not least, I think this is the first time I'm playing a Visual Novel where you can't exactly call the endings as "Good" or "Bad."

Certainly, in the True Ending route, it's obvious to see whether the ending you get is "Good" or "Bad." But other than that, the term "Euphoria" and "Madness" ending just fit the theme so well because as f*cked up as the "Madness" ending is, Towa as the main character doesn't feel it's bad because he's simply that unhinged of a character.

CHARACTER: 10/10

Towa's character development until the very end is simply amazing. It is especially heartbreaking to see him crumble as he gradually draws closer and closer to the truth about his past. Likewise, it feels fulfilling to see him finally getting the true happy ending with a kindred soul who shares his pain.

Furthermore, as much as I'm glad that he finally finds the closure and salvation that he so deserves, I'm particularly happy that we are allowed to get a glimpse at how his sociopath mother truly felt back then. While it cannot, in any way, be used to condone what she had done to Towa and her other victims, it shows the ironic difference between her life and Towa:

Towa has friends that care about him, hence helping him to settle down and eventually come to terms with his issues. His mother, however, was a lonely soul with no one who could help her address her issues until the very end.

Putting aside my earlier "complains" about Madarame and Taku's routes, the dynamic between Towa and his Love Interests are interesting to follow because each has a unique and different approach to it. The way their romance blooms is like a refreshing breeze amidst the story full of heavy emotional and psychological traumas.

The side characters have very solid personalities and fit perfectly into the main plot with their respective roles. Truthfully, I can't really find anything to complain about regarding the characters.

GAMEPLAY: 10/10

Almost a decade after DRAMAtical Murder was released, Nitro+Chiral has really kicked up their game's quality by a whole notch.

The "Interrogation" and "Exploration" makes it super different from your traditional Visual Novel games where most of the time, the choices can be rather predictable.

Of course, I also love how the game's visual appearance change significantly before and after finishing the True Ending. The interface is pretty to look at and suits the story's theme perfectly.

ART/VISUAL: 9/10

This is probably the best-looking Visual Novel from Nitro+Chiral I've ever played.

Opinions on the art style may differ between each person, but I think we can all agree that they really pay attention to the details. Especially for major characters like Towa, even the location and degree of his injuries vary in his avatars following the situation currently taking place in the plot.

I also can't believe how detailed they draw the background, food, drinks, and objects that appear in the CGs.

That said, I feel like for a city that is described as "you can easily stumble on dead people on the street," the background art is way too pretty and clean, it doesn't really look like a declining city at all where people can die from cold and hunger.

MUSIC: 10/10

Likewise, I personally feel Slow Damage has the best music compared to the other 4 (four) games before.

The BGMs are not boring; it can really build up the atmosphere and makes you feel the tension presented on the screen.

I am especially fond of the music during romantic scene. If I have to put it into words, it gives the NSFW scenes a dash of fluff on top of the sexy that you can't help but melt with him.

SUMMARY: 9.2/10

As different as it is from the previous games released by Nitro+Chiral, Slow Damage certainly does not disappoint although there is quite a gap until this game was finally released. It's really worth the wait, and it can easily wrap you emotionally while you're playing through the story.

Furthermore, I think the current generation, especially the millennials, can really relate to the setting of which the game is taking place. Maybe not to that extreme, but the way the young generation in the game is described as overworked, exhausted, and depressed is truly a reflection of life nowadays for us. :')

I look forward to replaying this game again some other day, now that I already get all the secrets they have to offer. Perhaps it will give a different experience. <3

P.S. This isn't about the game but more about the translation/localization. I wish English publishers will pay more attention to the expressions and nuances in the original language when translating instead of just throwing whatever words that fit.

For example, in Rei's route, he says "抱きたい" which means "I want to embrace you," but they just translated it into "I want to f*ck you."

Sure, "embrace" and "f*ck" would lead to the same result, but that's not the way he was saying it. Those two words bear two completely different feelings, and this is just one among numerous other issues with the official translations.

#Slow Damage #SuroDame #スロウ・ダメージ #スロダメ #スロウダメージ #nitro+chiral #visual novel #Review

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linkemon · 1 year ago

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Youtuber AU headcanons 2

Friendly reminder that English is not my first language. You can check my Masterlists both in English and Polish here.

Chongyun

✧ This boy plays all (absolutely all) paranormal games. He is also no stranger to horror as the two genres often go hand in hand. For this reason he got a lot of viewers, as he sticks to the trends.

✧ He started recording thanks to you and his friend Xingqiu. He believes that this is how he can easier meet someone who spoke to ghosts before which has been his dream for a long time. He had a few reports so far but though he had thoroughly investigated them, they turned out to be false. His dream is to see at least one ghost in his life.

✧ Chongyun likes conspiracy theories. He has a couple of videos commenting on them. He believes in a lot of strange things.

✧ Fans loved him mainly for his personality. He is very open towards them and does not criticize. For this reason there were some haters very early in his career saying that he was actually faking kidness because no one can be so nice all the time. Chongyun said he didn't mind but you decided to intervene because it shouldn't be like that.

✧ One of his special signs is ice cream. He overheats very quickly and always keeps spare tube in the freezer. He ate them in front of viewers to such an extent that a brand of frozen sweets offered him cooperation. He agreed and now you can see his entire line in stores. In return, he got a huge supply, so he's happy.

Yun Jin

✧ She started her career working in the opera. Thanks to this and education devoted to singing, she dedicated herself to this field for the rest of her life.

✧ Once she started working regularly, she realized how little people know about the behind-the-scenes work in a place like this. So she started with a few videos with trivia about the opera. She was very keen on spreading culture and older traditions in a modern version. Then she moved on to covers of all sorts of songs and it stayed that way for a long time. Her timbre of voice is perfect for calmer titles but she has been persuaded several times to collaborate with Xinyan and her rock tracks.

✧ Viewers are surprised by her relationship with her father. They find it cute how he passed on his passion to her. She recorded a video with him and her mother, where they talked about her beginnings in her career and also the dance abilities, which was rarely shared.

✧ Yun Jin does not stream. Her involvement with viewers is manifested in responding to comments. She does it in her free time, which she doesn't have that much. However, many times it happened that fans of her online work came to the performances. It was often their first time at the opera, which she confided to you that she enjoyed the most.

✧ She's getting ready to put on a big opera now. For the first time as a person coordinating the whole thing. You help her gain inspiration. She can be very tired but every day she asks you to tell her exactly all the interesting things that have happened to you. She's hoping she'll get the epiphany. Her dream is to create the greatest play the country has ever seen.

Yanfei

✧ Lady lawyer whose channel is very small. Mainly because Yanfei rarely plays and quite niche titles at that. For this reason, she does not invest in equipment and has problems with it. Yanfe is a streamer because she values real-time interactions with viewers.

✧ A little more publicity brought her series called Ace Attorney. The adventures of the main character, who performs the same profession as her, meant that she could perfectly relate to the events on the screen. She explained in an accessible way what are the differences between the game and how the law works in reality.

✧ When someone leaves donations for a new piece of equipment, she sets it so they can choose a certain law and she recites it from memory. She has never been wrong. You wanted to buy Yanfei a better camera for her birthday but she said no. She wants to buy things for her hobby on her own.

✧ Yanfei considers it unethical to handle the affairs of her viewers. If someone introduces himself like this to her law firm, she will transfer the case to someone else. However, if these are general questions that appear on streams, she will answer them right away and quite extensively.

✧ Her Grandma - Ping sometimes comes into view. She usually brings tea or cookies. She waves to viewers but has not agreed to appear in public outside of these occasional meetings. You also stay away from your darling's youtuber work.

#genshin x reader #chongyun x reader #yanfei x reader #yun jin x reader #youtuber au #headcanons #x reader #genshin impact #chongyun #yun jin #yanfei #over teyvat #genshin impact x reader

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dededaio · 1 year ago

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Does Kirby's extended cast get underutilized?

This i something I heard a lot of Kirby fans bring up in recent years. That despite big cast of memorable characters, Kirby tends to shove them to the side in favor of introducing new ones and putting the older ones on the back burner never to be used again. But just how true this is?

Warning, rather big post ahead!

Let's take a look at almost all modern Kirby games (including spin-offs) and summarize how each of them treated the extended cast.

Kirby's Return to Dream Land - re-established King Dedede and Meta Knight as the part of the "main four" of the franchise, introduced Bandana Waddle Dee into the main cast after his role in Super Star Ultra. Introduced Magolor. Referenced Wham Bam Rock, Dragoon from Air Ride and Marx via stone transformations. Galacta Knight returns from Super Star Ultra as a surprise boss in the True Arena.

Kirby's Dream Collection: New Challenge Stages (yes, i'm going to count it, since Kumazaki confirmed that Magolor moved to Dream Land when he reformed and this is so far the only game to actually show it), - but, yeah, we see Magolor again in a fairly major role, the first time he appears as a good guy with a bit of a trickster streak to him, suggested that he stayed in Dream Land after he gifted Kirby and co a theme park.

Kirby Triple Deluxe - cameos of a lot of characters from sprite-based games via keychains (of note, Magolor and Yin Yarn got special keychains with exclusive 8-bit sprite artwork), animal trio from Dream Land 2 appear as stage hazards in Kirby Fighters, Shadow Kirby appears as the final boss of Kirby Fighters, Magolor cameos as a painting in the haunted mansion level of the Wild World, the dimensional mirror and Dark Meta Knight return after the long absence. Introduced people of the sky, Taranza and Queen Sectonia.

Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe - Taranza is featured as one of Dedede's friends and supporters on the trophies and on the title screen. It was confirmed that the game itself is set in a theme park Magolor created for Dedede, Magolor himself appears in the final, most difficult, stage.

Kirby and the Rainbow Curse - Bandana Dee is reinforced as Kirby's true P2 character, Drawcia is referenced and got a special collectible in a figurine, being one of the few spin-off characters to appear more than once alongside Yin-Yarn. Animal buddies are referenced in Kirby transformation sequences. Pon and Con get a cameo in Elline's diary as comedy show hosts.

Kirby Planet Robobot - Oh boy. This one. Well, we of course have a LOT of returning bosses from the past games, such as clones of Dark Matter and Queen Sectonia (giving us a glimpse as her original body before she transformed, adding a major lore revelation past her introduction), people of the sky and floralia are mentioned on numerous occasions in the pause screen descriptions, quite a few characters got brand new artwork via stickers (such as daroach, magolor and taranza). And the last but certainly not least, we have Star Dream which is one of the clockwork stars like Galactic Nova. While not exact same as Nova, it's meant to be of the same species as Nova and the reveal banks on you knowing that, so it's one of the most direct continuity nods in the franchise.

Team Kirby Clash Deluxe - this game features, although AU versions, but still, of Susie and Taranza, and, unknowingly at the time, the same Magolor we already know and love in a different role entirely. Although it's technically different versions of the characters, I still count it, because it's still new game and new story that uses familiar faces.

Kirby Star Allies - i will die if i try to list everything this game has. but let's just say pretty much every mainline kirby game (and a lot of spin-offs) were referenced in some capacity, and 90% of major characters of all mainline kirby games are accounted for and PLAYABLE in this one.

Super Kirby Clash - Magolor is once again is the shopkeeper, AU Taranza and Susie have major roles once again, au version of NIGHTMARE of all characters is the main villain, technically making him the first antagonist since Dark Matter to appear in more than one game, King D-Mind returns by the virtue of this game being a sequel to the original Team Kirby Clash Deluxe, Galacta Knight re-appears as Aeon Hero, hinting at his origins.

Kirby Fighters 2 - Magolor and Gooey are playable characters, implied to be a part of Kirby's inner friend circle on the level of Bandana Dee, Meta Knight and King Dedede. The first spin-off to include playable characters outside of the primary main cast. Several newer characters such as Flamberge were referenced via unlockable costumes, as well as appearing (alongside her sisters) as stage hazards on the Jambastion stage.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land - this is perhaps the first Kirby game on this list where I can't say they concerned themselves with referencing the past much. But that's kind of the point, Shinya Kumazaki described Star Allies and Forgotten Land as "sister games" and in this sense, you can say that SA got all the unsubtle continuity and references, while FL is definite step towards new original direction. However, it's still got a lot of subtle connections AND UNEXPECTED canonization of Morpho Knight. A character that was literally introduced a GAME AGO. It's also been heavily alluded that the civilization formerly inhabiting the New World is heavily related to the (eventually) Halcandran ancients, giving us a genuine glimpse at their culture. Even then, this game is the exception that proves the point. Lack of references and fanservice, or major character comebacks is this game's specific weird factor, not the rule.

Kirby's Dream Buffet - this is similar to Star Allies where there's a LOT of references to past games. You can pretty much dress up Kirby as almost every character in the series, including the likes of the Mage Sisters and newly introduced Elfilin from Forgotten Land.

Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe - Merry Magoland introduces masks which not only make it so all of the dream friends and helpers from Star Allies cameo in this game, as well as new characters from the Forgotten Land, they also make it so this isn't exclusive to purely playable characters. Giving us masks of Hyness, Queen Sectonia and Leongar. Magolor Epilogue is one huge mode focused on Magolor specifically, the first time such luxury been given to someone outside of the primary main cast. Said mode also references and alludes to a lot of games (including Dream Collection), as well as tying it towards Kirby Clash games in another unexpected continuity moment.

As you can see, not a lot of these roles are major, but it's not the main point I'm trying to come across. HAL remembers about these characters and definitely knows that fans love them and want more of them. It's simply the matter of building up the series from ground up after what essentially amounted to big hiatus in the 00s. Returning characters in another mainline game just right after they were introduced would be a tacky move that would be way too safe and complacent. Building up the cast was the right move and they are slowly but surely started embracing it more and more over time. Forgotten Land is distinctly only game in this list that mostly avoided direct returns and callbacks and it still got Morpho Knight.

#kirby

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trendingdrama · 1 year ago

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I most recently saw ‘Destined With You’ and ‘Doom at Your Service’ and loved both. I want to watch something that is more serious than silly and I’ve discovered that I really like the whole theme of love that exists beyond time or just love happening despite tragic circumstances. ‘While You Were Sleeping’ is probably my most favorite kdrama. If there are some kdramas you can think of that have similar vibes to those, I’d love to hear about them.

at the outset with time travel or past lives / tragic love...I just know a few ...

Mystic popup bar :

this is more of mix of part comedy , drama , romance ( sub sub plot) and action. Weol Ju (played by hwang jung eum) is a pop up restraunt owner who sets her food tent at night where both the dead and the living can grab a drink and she helps people appease their grudges / problemswith a special drink...( i am sorry this synopsis seems weird but give it a go you might like this :) )

2.Hotel del luna

i think this a mix of romcom , fantasy and horror. The story revolves aroung jang man wol ( played gorgeously by IU ) who is the owner of the hotel del luna (she is bound by curse to look after the hotel for dead and make easy passage for them to the nether world). Things start to be different for manwol once she hires goo chan sung as the assistant manager ....While this synopsis sounds boring it is far from it ... It does explore on some thematic aspects of ' resentment ' letting go and found family themes . Also since you said you liked while you were sleeping it's from the same directors that's an added bonus. Also cinematography and OSTs are my absolute favs...

3. Youth of May

this one not a fantasy but rather a sad romance melodrama.. but the directing acting the story was amazing . It revolves around old school romance of two strangers who met at the time of gwangju uprising. (And this drama made me look into south korean history ) It just gives you that nostalgia of what it is to be in love. Also because it is in the backdrop of a major event in sk history it does depicts deaths and cruel reality of the olden time. Anyway this was one of the best dramas i have watched ( please be ready with lots of tissues when watching this )

4. My dearest

Was released as a two part series with total of 21 episodes with each episodes were a art in itself , set in historical times of Qing invasion Yu Gil Chae is a pretty, bubbly, and a bit spoiled young lady who's called the 99 tailed fox of Neunggun-ri. She is also a bit of an outcast because other young ladies are jealous of her. They seem to think she's too straightforward and her behavior is inappropriate for a young lady, while young noblemen think highly of her. Gil Chae knows how to get men to fall for her but fails to capture the heart of the person she likes. Lee Jang Hyun is a mysterious man who suddenly appears in the Neunggun-ri social scene. Nobody really knows anything about him. Young nobles don't like him, but the elderly are wrapped around his finger. He's been dating around a lot, but he becomes curious about a certain 99 tailed fox, and one day, the said fox quite literally crash lands into his arms.

Once war is brewing, the pair finds themselves separated before they could even start to make sense of their feelings.

But the drama isn't just about their love it is much more than that it captivates it's viewers to empathize with emotions of ongoing war and how wthe invasion affects each and every character ( not just the main ) and the beautiful storytelling and the cinematography with added acting brilliance of nam goong min and ahn eunjin you keep yearning for more and more...

this is definitely the most serious one out of this lot.

JUST another rec of a not romance in fantasy but just a thriller fantasy drama that i am currently watching seems absolutely good

5. TOMORROW

Choi Joon Woong seeks a job, but it's hard for him to get hired. One night, he witnesses a man trying to end his life and decides to stop him. He gets acquainted with grim reapers Koo Ryeon and Im Ryoong Gu, who belong to a crisis management team. Their purpose is to prevent people from committing suicide. After Joon Woong ends up in a coma and becomes half-human and half-spirit, he is employed by a company of grim reapers as the newest member of the crisis management team.

other dramas: that fit love in tragic circumstances maybe :

queen for seven days

it's okay to not be okay ( tragic past )

extraordinary you ( not tragic but how love transcends two webtoons / two stories in fantasy based story where characters are in webtoon and one of the side character relaises THAT FACT !!)

it's okay that's love

#kdrama #recs #tolkpopfan #hope this helps #only these four popped up at the outright when u said #whole theme of love that exists beyond time or just love happening despite tragic circumstances #while first one isn't exactly a love story

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taoistyuri · 2 years ago

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I've been considering getting into touhou cuz I mean I love the music I've been listening to it since I got on the internet so I'd love to check it out....how do I start? :O

OMG OKAY so like. i honestly.

the way i got into touhou was somehow, i ended up on the wiki , and then stayed on there until i went to bed in a trance @_@ LOL!!! (though, i like to bitch about the wiki...!!! its a good source for official material and translations, but as far as the way they describe characters and stuff...!! annoys me!)

touhou is 90% made by one guy, and the same guy, ZUN! other side games and manga are collaborated with other artists or people, but everything else is all him pretty much.

the thing about touhou is, theres a lot of official material, but theres also a lot of fan content so it may be easy to get confused. basically..

the main touhou games are the bullet hell games. vertical, shoot em up dodging craziness!! each game has the same base mechanics, but there are differences in gimmicks for each one (that are elaborated on within the games instructions, of course...)

the side touhou games sometimes are bullet games, but also can include fighting games too! i do not pay attention to these ones quite honestly. they can introduce new characters sometimes, but overall i just read the translation of the story if i want to learn more. these games i would say are not really important

finally, theres official manga too! like the side games, these also can introduce new characters. id say that these are pretty good if someone prefers to read manga. i know some of the manga are more plot heavy (i havent read all of them) but others could definitely be standalone, as things are more or less explained in the writing.

"okay but, what about the games?"

in the games, theres usually at least 2 playable characters to choose from. they have differing shots depending on who you pick, so play around and see who is best for you!

THE GAMES HAVE EASY MODE!!!! if you feel like normal mode is too hard, just play on easy!! it counts as beating the game all the same!!

Z is to shoot, arrow keys are to move, and X is to use your special! pressing shift goes into focus mode! you can see your hitbox and have a more focused and powerful shot, and you move slower!

also, once you lose all your lives you dont have to give up!! you can use "continues," which let you respawn again with the default number of lives so you can keep going. the amount of continues depends on the game, theres no shame in using them AT ALL especially when you are starting!!

zun's own advice is, "just play the most recent one" and i would say this isnt bad advice at all! however the 3 most recent touhou games (16, 17, and 18) all have gimmicks that may be a little crazy to start with for the first time! otherwise i REALLY love touhou 18 and touhou 17 right now!

this is generally why people seem to recommend touhou 7, Perfect Cherry Blossom, for new players, and that's what i started with too! its an old game, so there are some slight layout differences, but other than that its a pretty basic game! you can increase your amount of lives from the options menu, the gimmick of the game is almost unnoticible unless you know what it is beforehand, and isnt all that bad to play!

it does have difficulty spikes, but its more of a practice makes perfect thing. some games are harder than others. do your best!!!!

"but what is the plot?"

the plot changes on the game! however the basic premise is that there is Something going down, and Reimu (our main character) and her friends go out to solve this incident! the characters you fight along the way range from minimally involved to the masterminds of the whole plot! there are so many characters in touhou, theres one for everybody! and yes, it is 97% girlies #feminism

most of the characters are youkai, and several are kami (translated as gods), and anything in between. theres a lot of themes of spiritualism that inherently comes with such characters.

i should probably mention: there is NO official english translation for touhou games! with the sole exception of 17.5, everything is fan translated! the touhou translations are done with "thcrap" which then, when the program is run, will allow you to select which translation and which games to run!

"but now, how about playing the games!"

you can buy the games on steam, officially.

as for myself i have the games in..not this way. teehee.

and......YEAH THE MUSIC IS FUCKING AWESOME HERE ARE SOME OF MY FAVORITE THEMES

AS FOR EVERYTHING ELSE HONESTLY JUST AAAAAAASK IM SILLY IM GOING TO LIVE FOREVER!!!!!!!!

#*#flightfantastic #asks

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joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh · 2 years ago

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time to ramble about Xenoblade a bit following wave 3 showcase and wave 4 teaser.

Don’t really like Masha’s design very much at all. I know we saw it early via leaks anyway but like yk lol. I think the problem is that, Xenoblade 3 has honestly a super consistent art direction, right? And it’s very immersive because of that. Like, all the characters in the entire game look like they come from the same world(s). It pushes a bit past realism obviously, one of the main characters is permanently on fire lol, but it’s still relatiely grounded and it’s very easy to look at 2 characters and know instantly that hey, they’re from the same game. And I think Ino was already pushing that quite a lot, but it was fairly possible to suspend my disbelief a bit even if only because her specific unique origins are justified enough for me to kind of give a pass. Now, we’re obviously still to learn what Masha’s deal is, but just at a glance like, come on dude. I don’t even want to make any specific “uhh this part looks stupid” or “vtuber lmao” comments, my problem really is just that I look at her and she doesn’t look like she belongs to 3 at all. If 2 had a character like this it’d get away with it because 2 from the outset has insane design variety thanks to the Blades - it’s the fact that that variety is a constant that would let Masha’s design be okay. Xenoblade 3 being more uniform makes Masha just stick out like a sore thumb.

Beyond her design though, we don’t actually learn anything about her class whatsoever lol. Kevesi healer is most people’s hope because fuck we need more of those, and like sure I’m happy to agree lol. Hope the class is better than Ino’s because christ but also yeah ideally not having power creep would be nice too, basically you know have balance, yeah? Though as a specific gameplay function she offers beyond her class, Masha will allow you to craft accessories with something called enigmatter. That’s actually all we learn about it here but hey sounds cool. No clue if the accessories you’ll be able to craft are gonna like, be better than the endgame accessories already on offer or not, but tbf even if they’re like early or midgame if the process to get them isn’t insane that could work well on repeat playthroughs and such. We don’t actually learn anything else about this system at present so it’s just gonna be a “wait a week until she comes out” to find out the rest I suppose lol.

I do think once all the DLC’s out I’d like to replay the game with it all on a fresh save file. Because when DLC comes out for a game I kind of always want to judge it on the basis of how much it feels like it integrates itself into the base game, right, but that’s obviously hard to judge when you consume the DLC so “separately” from said base game, I suppose. But as it stands I already don’t feel like Ino does a great job at this. Gameplay wise she’s implemented just okay - there’s precedent for classes with unique mechanics by way of Soulhacker so it doesn’t feel like they limited the special things just to DLC (good thing) but then HD Ether Cylinders+ only really exist once Ino does and in the first place you have to like, go into the DLC menu and activate the ability to unlock her first lol (bad thing). Past that she also suffers from the fact that she doesn’t really interact with the world very much? By which I mean, basically every hero has quite a long quest chain associated with them, and for the vast majority of them you’ll end up doing quests where 2 different heroes are now interacting with one another, if not even more. The world ends up feeling very alive and connected because of all these questlines crossing over in that way, and it’s dope! But Ino just doesn’t do that at all, and it kinda sucks. Kind of, expecting Masha to be the same lol. We’ll see.

you know honestly this reminds me of a thought experiment I occasionally have - can DLC make a game worse? Generally when you play a game that has DLC you want to have all the DLC because hey, that’s the complete package, that’s the version of the game with the most content. But it takes you out of the experience to finish the tutorial and then have the game magically insert like 10 quests into your journal or whatever saying “you’ve somehow heard of this new DLC thing”. Is the game actively worse because of that? Xenoblade 3′s DLC isn’t like that specifically but I really do think more could’ve been done to fit at least the new heroes into the world. This is probably a topic for another post.

But hey, the other big Wave 3 thing is the Archsage’s Gauntlet! Yeah so “new challenge battle rules” went quite a lot further than I ever would’ve expected, huh? Pick one character, work through way more stages of a battle, and get some heroes and unique buffs to go in your party along the way? That sounds fucking dope! Way more replayability than the Wave 2 challenge battles too lol. Opportunity to have multiple heroes in the party as well is badass, naturally. It doesn’t seem like this entails playing as Heroes necessarily which is a little upsetting, but I am very interested to see how this plays, because it sounds really fun lol. And hey, throwback outfits? Hell yeah. We got fanservice as in swimsuits last time and now we get fanservice as in callouts to past entries, neato. This is something I think is harmless and fun and the game makes very clear is “separate” from the main game hence it being not in the earlier discussion of DLC making game worse thing. It does specificy Throwback A on the armour btw, so would Throwback B be different modelled outfits entirely? Tbh probably not I imagine they’d still be reskins but hey I can dream. Can’t wait to play Shulk outfit Noah with Monado accessory.

Now honestly I fully expected they’d stop there, right. Last Nintendo direct they showed us wave 2 and gave wave 3 a thumbnail tease and that was it. I expected much the same here. Show us wave 3 and maybe tease wave 4′s thumbnail or something. But. No. In fact we got an admittedly extremely brief cutscene teaser of Wave 4! Featuring fucking Shulk and Rex all grown up and looking absolutely badass, Rex especially holy shit dude’s a fucking tank dual wielding Aegis swords, kid’s come such a long way I’m fucking hyped. yk it’s kinda funny lol that Rex’s redesign is so much more drastic than Shulk’s - obviously it does make sense given his age compared to Shulk but also like duh it’s because marketability and that’s just funny lmao. But yeah they’re clearly fighting Alvis. Alvis. In the presumed sequel story to a game that conspicuosly lacked a Consul A. Hmmm. And then following them is presumably an older Noah? With an interlink form Mio forming by his side? Logic but also marketability and swords in the key visual imply it probably is Noah but he makes mention of a granddad that Aionios Noah wouldn’t have but that which he would have out of Aionios though there is also the question of how the ages would add up if it’s Noah since he is a child at the start where Shulk should be a decent amount older than he looks at least so like uhhhhhhhhhh. Doesn’t necessarily sound too much like Noah but also I don’t want to underestimate Harry McEntire so who knows how much weight that has. I do hope it is Noah because getting our 3 protagonists is a lot cooler than getting 2 protagonists and basically an expy of the third protagonist, but then Torna made me care about Lora a lot in a very short amount of time so even if wave 4 protag isn’t literally Noah I’m sure I could still come to love him. I feel weirdly hung up on this point even though I imagine I might be missing something obvious? We’ll see. I’m excited. I’m glad it’s looking to be a sequel story since that was something up for debate, really just round out the trilogy and give it a more conclusive ending than the base game aimed for. Just sounds dope. Really this just looks absolutely sick as all fuck lol. Cannot fucking wait.

also pour one out for xenoblade x fr fr

#xenoblade #9.2.23 #started writing this post on the 8th but now it's the 9th lol

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regarding-stories · 2 years ago

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The Quintessential Quintuplets (Character detail and maybe symbolism)

If you don't want to be spoilered, don't read on. I'd just recommend you to give the show a chance, it's very enjoyable. I watched the anime series 2 1/2 times by now... in the same week. Tonight I'll watch the movie conclusion in the cinema - I must know how it ends!!

The Quintessential Quintuplets is a romantic show about teenage love, big feelings, small dramas, family, and friendship. It manages to win over the hearts of the viewers with its extremely likable cast of characters and how it approaches the territory of teenage crushes. Before you know you will cry and laugh with these characters as they navigate, still in a light-hearted way, the possibility of love and heart-break.

The basic premise is that there is a group of five sisters, the eponymous quintuplets, who transfer to a new high school. They also suck at studying and all have failing grades, so their stepfather decides they need a tutor, and somehow our main protagonist, Futaro Uesugi, ends up with the job - and he really, really needs it. Of course by then his brash personality already got him off to a bad start, and his lack of perceptiveness leads him to miss the fact that the reason he gets paid five times the usual fare is that he's to tutor five girls at once.

The first phase of the show is then dedicated to him winning their cooperation with him as tutor, one by one. This quickly starts to cement a friendship between them to differing degrees. In the second phase he needs to help them pass the year 2 finals to keep his job, but this is already intermixed with the girls dragging them into the social sphere he so far avoided and the first crushes to develop. In the third phase the competition between the girls for Futaro's heart escalates and leads to drama and dramatic revelations.

What makes the show special is that the characters are well-drawn in terms of personality, quirks, what their drives are and how they approach life. Futaro also manages the balance between a truly good guy with some personality flaws without the typical horndog personality of so many anime male characters.

What the show could do a bit less with is how it outwardly portrays the girls. Of course they are beautiful, but in keeping with themes I've seen in other anime shows "bigger is better" when it comes bust size. The show also likes to take some questionable camera angles which amount to up-skirt shots or entirely alien angles that showcase a butt over half the screen. While this is only done at times and quite common with anime, the show would be even better without resorting to this fetishism. On the other hand, the show benefits from a respectful and restrained protagonist and hence overall passes the test.

But let's jump into these characters and the detail with which they are presented!

Futaro

Futaro squares the circle. On the one hand he's an arrogant absolute top-grade student, disinterested in girls and not very observant. He lacks social skills and grace, and he seems to care about nothing but studying and helping his family survive financially. And yet he has it where it counts. He will help out people when he feels they could be hurt, loves his little sister, and his overall goal in life - though he goes about it in a roundabout way - is to be a person who can help those who need it. A goal he set for himself when he ended up alone in a school trip to Kyoto 5 years before the series starts. Because he secretly developed a crush on the girl (Yotsuba) that just singled him out for helping him when he needed it. Supposedly that made him the overachiever he is when we meet him.

His characterization starts with laying out the ends he goes to to get a somewhat nourishing meal out of the school cafeteria while paying the smallest amount. He then runs into new student Itsuki, an unlikely encounter for a nerdy loner like him, and immediately antagonizes her. This guarantees he starts the whole enterprise he gets dragged into on the wrong foot and has to scramble to get into everybody's good graces.

Our dear Uesugi-kun, however, soon displays the other qualities he has. He wants to make his little sister happy who doesn't have a mom. (There are only hints about how he felt when he lost his mom and went through a rebellious phase.) He is responsible, willing to work hard, and dedicated. Seeing his laid-back dad we know nobody is making Futaro behave as he does - it's his choice.

Futaro is often portrayed as cold as ice to the outside whereas inside he fumbles with how to deal with the situations he ends up in. His arc in the show is to become more observant and display more of the qualities that make the girls eventually fall for him - but initially only for sake of money and the job. It takes him a while to realize that he cares about these girls as friends, and eventually he tutors them for free.

Being what the story needs is a typical trait for him. He will be wise and observant. He will drop his awkward outward personality in one-on-one situations. He's engaged when he can make others happy or prevent them from suffering, but being a male tsundere he will often say harsh things that run counter to his genuinely kind actions.

Getting him out of his monomanic tendencies ("I need to study!", "I need this job!") is actually the first part of his character development. As he admits later on, when challenged by an outsider, is that he wouldn't have considered himself to be a real, full person before this new situation made him develop the other parts lying dormant in his personality.

Fundamentally his reserved, icy tsundere personality is needed to keep the story going. Futaro refuses to engage this part of this personality and yet he's not immune to it. His lack of response to the various hijinks around him keeps the situation unresolved and the pot boiling.

As TV Tropes puts it: "Male love interests with tsundere-like traits are more likely to have mutual Belligerent Sexual Tension with a girl equally as tsundere as he is, or act aloof and detached as more of a Kuudere type character." (See here.) Futaro to a tee! Nobody shall know how deeply likable he is. The show thrives on the face that he can't fool us (as he's not supposed to).

Beyond that, he's another example of "boys can be dense" so often hinted at in anime and manga. (The thing most often said about Sword Art Online's Kirito is that he's "dense.") Also, while Futaro can be arrogant about his own scholastic nature, all the female attention he gets never goes to his head. He barely sees them "this way" and often gets annoyed with the attention he gets or treats it as absolutely normal. He more than often calls the girls a bunch of "idiots" but somehow, as the show progresses, it is clear that they're his bunch of idiots. As I said, his main quality is that he cares.

Futaro will go to a winter camp and be social and all engaged even when he's so sick he has to be hospitalized after. He will do it for others and secretly for himself. And he will write a list of experiences to share with his kid sister. As our wooden boy turns into a real person he becomes irresistible to those who know him. But ironically most of what can be said about Futaro needs to be said when seeing him in the five-facetted mirror that the girls reflect him in.

Which means - we need to look at the girls!

Ichika

Did you ever notice it? When we see the names of the girls on phone screens as calls arrive, the symbols are the Japanese kanji for numbers 1-5. This is reflected in their names. "Ichika" has the word "ichi" in her name, marking her as the first quintuplet to be born. She remarks on herself as "Big Sis" as if she was an older sister.

Ichika projects laid-back, easy-going, and popular. She wears her hair short in a way that suggests she's uncomplicated but somehow also confident. Tight denim jeans and tops show off her curves and she turns heads wherever she goes - or as Futaro puts it, she "attracts attention" (something he dislikes when it comes to himself). Ichika's desire is to be an actress, something she does feel self-conscious about since she's unsure she can cut it.

There's a hint in the story (her scores in the year 2 finals) that she's more intelligent and capable when it comes to studies than people, including her sisters, might expect. She just didn't care before or was constantly overtired due to her work commitments. Interestingly, she's also the only one who's messy. Her room looks like it had been searched by the rudest squad of police in the history of television.

Ichika keeps a tab on the feelings of her sisters and always tries to create harmony. Nino calls her a "schemer" and that sums her up to a tee. From the moment Futaro talks to Itsuki she tries to ship them. then Miku and Futaro when she notices Miku's feelings. This culminates when she becomes interested in Futaro herself and starts to scheme because she is not truly confident and bold enough to just let him know head-on. Ichika puts on an act, and Futaro calls her on it early on.

To go with the traits she displays, she calls Futaro "Futaro-kun" practically off the bat, using the first name immediately and adding the endearing suffix. Ichika's friendly and outwardly social, so she skips the whole dance of Japanese social rules altogether.

Initially Ichika acts as Futaro's helper and "woman on the inside" when most of the quintuplets reject him, mending upsets and mediating between him and the tsundere duo, Nino and Itsuki. This changes once she wants Futaro for himself which puts her actual lack of confidence on full display.

Ichika's outer accessory is her short, pink hair.

Nino

Keeping with the pattern, "ni" being the way you count to two, the second-born quintuplet is Nino. Is Nino a tsundere? You bet she is. If she hates you, she's mean. The first thing she does upon Futaro being revealed as the tutor is that she drugs him. Nino is honest and extremely forthright, though to her "technically true" is good enough. ("I didn't poison [the cookies]." Yep. It was the water instead.) So when her dad asks her if she speaks the truth, she is believed.

Nino talks about trust a lot - "Can I trust you?" is practically her catch phrase. This speaks to her insecurity. Nino's brash personality apparently roots in the fact that she doesn't want to be hurt first. She would just not admit that. But when caught "one-on-one", Futaro notices she can be surprisingly easy to talk to. Nino is not as aloof as she would have you think though she plays it cool all the time, followed around by her two fan-girl like friends.

Her relationship with Futaro presents a side of her that we will see on display eventually - all-in or all-out. She first just calls him "Uesugi," and without a honorific that makes it sound like a "stranger you do not pay respect to." Though this can also be the name used between classmates. However, as soon as she changes her mind about him, she decided to give him a pet name (though Miku has to think it up): "Fu-kun." This is basically the most familar (and hence "dere") way of showing affection. Nino's affection isn't won easily, but once you have it, you've won.

Keeping with her traits, she's the only one that manages to outright tell Futaro that she's in love with him in two seasons of anime. She's the only one who has the guts to do so - because, once she's in, she's all in.

Nino's worries about loss and dislikes outsiders. She's also a talented cook. Her trademark accessories are little scarves she weaves into her hair - reminiscent of butterfly wings. Which hints at her soft side. Nino likes cute things - her phone has a bunny ears protector, and the first kimono we see her wear has bunny patterns. When we see her room, it shows displays of nature scenes with animals in them.

What's unconvincing about Nino is that for someone who cares about being truthful she's awfully casual about Futaro posing as Kintaro (who she had a crush on). While the whole idea of Futaro posing a bad boy (which she's hot for) is laughable to begin with, it actually is a bit of truth in fiction piercing the usual anime/manga art style conventions. Hair style and clothing of students are tightly regulated, something completely handwaved for heroines. However, with Futaro it's played straight. He seemed like a bad boy as his younger self, having both pierced his ear (which she's afraid of) and being blonde. Many Japanese schools enforce dark or black as the "natural hair color" students have to have, and hair has to be straight. People with natural curls or not-typically-Japanese hair colors can even be singled out by teachers, even after presenting a medical note proving that's their natural hair. So we're getting a hint at how actual Japanese school life might be (and that teachers probably cut Futaro some slack because his mom died).

Nino's most awesome moments are when she goes into intimidation mode - that's just outright funny. I personally would not vote her as my best girl, but she is instrumental for keeping the show going. First when she delays Futaro's acceptance, then when her confession forces all the others into action.

Miku

Miku is the middle one, and her name derives of from "mittsu", a word regarding the quantity of three. Probably because it made a better name. (Typically you would count with "san.") Miku is the shy one, constantly hiding herself. She's most likely to hide from others (like in an igloo at camp) or shut the world out (her accessory are big headphones, though you never see her wear them much on her ears after the series gets going). While Miku will wear a short skirt she will also wear black tights like a protective screen. Her style of clothing seems to deliberately tone down her bust whereas the others either do not care or dress to attract attention. Miku would wear long sleeve cardigans instead. She speaks quietly and is often called "bland" by Nino.

Miku bonds with Futaro over her passion for old, bearded Japanese warlords which she knows all about. She loses respect for him when he knows less "warlord trivia" than her, but when he studies up to be her peer, she relents. It's beautifully played: She walks into the library and verifies his claims that he checked out all the books. Once Futaro proved that he was going an extra mile to actually gain access to her world (which she so carefully hides) she accepts him as friend immediately, calling him "Futaro" - like you would a friend.

Seeing Miku with her sisters it's hard to grasp how shy she really is. She constantly leads an inner dialogue and rarely lets it escape. She seems to be especially rewarding and easy to write for for the original author, seeing how long the story arcs are that focus on her. (Or maybe that's what the animation studios chose to highlight.)

This is because it takes a long time for her to set anything into action. She tries daring herself by defining thresholds she needs to cross instead of instead doing something straightforward. Miku also compares herself a lot. One of the sad things about her is that she thinks she needs to be a certain way to be liked, whereas Futaro just naturally would care for her. So her whole attempt to get a better cook can be seen as endearing but also as a problem. She's the only one of the five that considers changing herself to be more "appealing." She also takes the list of traits Futaro looks for in a girl as is.

To me, Miku is always wonderful to watch, I root for her constantly.

One of her odd properties is that she apparently is maybe the best at imitating the others. Seeing her imitate Ichika is downright spooky - when she turns her frown "upside down."

Miku is the first to know that she's in love with Futaro, she just has the hardest time lining up her actions with it.

Go, Miku!

Yotsuba

Number 4 is our "genki girl", Yotsuba, whose name is a reference to "yon," an alternative version of "shi" which is considered unlucky because it means "death" as well. "Genki" means healthy, but also describes a lively personality, constantly positive, endless energy.

Yotsuba characterizes even herself as most child-like, she's naive and trusting, and people get in the habit of abusing her willing-to-help personality. She's the only one to never question the whole tutoring thing, and she never stops calling Futaro "Uesugi-san", which is the most formal way to do it and could be sometimes considered to be the equivalent of "Mr Uesugi." Adding "-san" shows respect, and as their tutor she gives it to him.

Yotsuba is the reason why the girls changed school because she's the only one who couldn't remedy her failing score in a second exam. She has a correspondingly low opinion of herself. While she is indeed a scatterbrain she also has a good mind for English, a subject that requires some intuition and feel for language.

In keeping with her generally cute and puppy dog personality, her accessory is a ribbon that sticks out like two bunny ears. When Yotsuba is tired or sad, it flops. When she has an idea, it perks. Yotsuba is near-incapable of saying no, and her physical prowess makes her sought after by sports clubs in school - including the basketball club and the track team.

Yotsuba can be refreshing, but she wears herself down trying to make everybody else happy. Technically she's the first one to say "I like/love you" to Kintaro, though she says it was to prove she can convincingly lie. The moment is perfect, and in fact surprises are Yotsuba's theme. She sometimes catches on surprisingly quickly only for the others to deny her intuitions (which she believes). Count on Yotsuba to do something outlandish.

Technically Yotsuba, however, has never said she has a crush on Futaro - whereas the other four have all admitted it. She's however the girl Futaro met in Kyoto five years ago where she became his big life-changing crush. She's also one of the two hottest candidates for the spring break mystery as to which girl ran up to Futaro and kissed him under the bell just because how spontaneous she is. (All girls were wearing the same to appease their grandfather, so we as viewers can't really tell who it was. But Futaro later references this moment as the start of what leads to marrying one of them - when that one started to become "special.")

Yotsuba is wonderful for comedy because she's like a broken flight recorder. She takes in everything but then combines factoids in surprising ways.

And after two seasons of this show I can't believe Yotsuba will be "it," but they keep awfully quiet about her actual feelings, dammit.

Itsuki

Does this show need another tsundere? Why yes, it does. Number 5 (named after an alternative word for five instead of the "go" used for counting) is the best tsundere by far. Brash and awkward, inside Itsuki cares. She will cry by herself over the arguments she has with Futaro or if she excludes herself because of her stubborness.

As season 2 finally establishes, Itsuki strongly takes after the mother role. But even at the start she immediately "falls" for Futaro's little sister Raiha. She also immediately fits like a mother into the Uesugi household whenever she shows up. When she doesn't know where to go she shows up on the Uesugi doorstep, being the only one who ever visited the place. We see her in a picture with Raiha making the two of them look like mom and dad, we see them sleeping in the same room with the girl between them - she just slots in, she can almost not help it.

Her mother was a teacher, and every month Itsuki goes and burns incense to honor her late mother at her grave. Itsuki wants to become a teacher, and she also wants to ensure Futaro is suitable as an authority and teacher figure, making this her motivation to check him out more.

She also tries to discipline Nino when she crosses the threshold. It's Itsuki that notices that Futaro hand-wrote all their problem sets because he's too poor to print them and he actually cares about tutoring them properly. However, she cannot handle the ensuing situation and runs away herself, knowing she put Nino into a spot that it's really hard to walk back out of after demonstrating how wrong she is in front of the others.

Itsuki calls Futaro "Uesugi-kun", a term appropriate for a classmate while also being nice. Prim and proper and a bit compulsive are her traits. She actually studies but then messes up her exams by obsessing about some answers and then not finishing. At times when the quints mislead a teacher or go against a teacher's order she's the only one that's outright mortified.

It's clear that Itsuki wants Futaro, though she is least vocal about it and supports the others in their pursuits. She tries to showcase Yotsuba as the Kyoto girl, for example. When she shops for hot underwear she also struggles with how forward that is. We learn the least about Itsuki's feelings, though, since her other trait is awkward. It's downright funny to see the same girl calling Futaro "too forward" when he leans his head on her shoulder (he actually was near passing out) but then buying a pair of underwear that makes both her and Miku blush and sweat when they actually look at it, showing her conflicting sides in lace.

While I'm personally in Team Miku, I consider from what I know now Itsuki as the hottest candidate for Futaro's heart. From their clashing personalities to being the first he runs into at school to the ease with which she slots into his life to... everything. To her Futaro says he will be a surrogate father if her own isn't up to it. And I consider her to be one of the two likely candidates for the kiss.

Why? Even in disguise, Miku is still Miku. (Though Futaro "seeing her" even in disguise is huuuuge for her.) We see Ichika, Nino's, and Miku's moves on screen - which makes you wonder where Itsuki is in all this, especially given all I said above. She's almost hidden in comparison.

Also take note of another thing she does: She wants to evaluate Futaro. This is brought to us in an exchange with Ichika which states that he's not like their dad. Which implies that her mom chose poorly for her second marriage - Mr Nakano has the charm (and eyes) of a snake and none of the daughters actually lives with him, they just visit him like he was a divorced parent. You could think she evaluates him for the sake of her sisters (she does this after discovering Ichika's crush, and everybody knows about Miku - even Futaro notices). But we might as well assume that in Itsuki's potential self-deception she also wants to make sure he's good enough for her. She never excludes herself when she says "we" need to be wiser about choosing men, after all.

Itsuki's accessories are her red hair, her cowlick, and the stars she wears in her hair. And she seems to burn calories real quick because she's always eating.

My bet

My personal favorite is Miku, partially because the show really makes us feel her plight, but I also have a foible for the "type." After making us care and empathize this much and giving her this much felt spotlight, it would almost be mean if it was anybody else.

However, I suspect it would turn out to be Itsuki for all the reasons stated in her section. She's "meta-positioned" best.

If it was anyone but these two I would be mad. Because the other three are a stretch, even though Ichika and Yotsuba are great as well. Nino... I don't know.

It shows how strong the show is that I would be sad no matter which one "wins." They all are characters we come to care about, their problems, their little dramas, their quirks. That's what makes the whole show work. It doesn't obsess about romance. Futaro and the girls meet on a human level first. While it cannot be called a "slow burner" by any means, it definitely establishes things first properly and always builds from the characters. I guess I'll know after tonight - unless there's a twist or cop-out ending. Which I might be happy with, too. (The enormous amount of white dresses seemed excessive.) Lame as that may be. Once a show convinces you that streaks of color on a screen are people you care for, it really did its job.

The only thing I know is that the underlying manga has finished. I wanted to see the conclusion on screen, though, as voices and color play such a big role in the show and are executed so well. Sadly all good things come to an end, and I hope a satisfying one.

#the quintessential quintuplets #anime #romantic anime #anime comedy

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