#the asch recordings

[oldmacnewlife]

Oldies.

[teledyn]

(via Jarama Valley - Woody Guthrie)

[odysseys-blood]

so im always the first to be annoyed by school aus bc well 1) half the time theyre just so meh

2) another half the time ppl use adult chars which easily could be in college????

anyways i think tales of the abyss should have a like spinoff school special just bc i think tear and ion should get to have lunch together and be friends snd hang out during choir practice :]

[somacruising]

The funniest thing to me is that I used to be the biggest Asch hater in the world bc I projected on Luke perhaps a bit too much and so I would get angry and annoyed at Asch for yelling at him all the time

but my most popular meta post on this blog is fucking…about Asch.

and in Rays, I have so much shit for him that he’s actually stronger than Luke. I go out of my way to pull for Luke when I can but I only ever get Asch from the gacha.

my first drabble for tales in forever started with SYNC THINKING ABOUT ASCH

I STILL DONT EVEN LIKE ASCH

[boy-pantiesss]

Ok, so here's a post I've held off on making for a while. But considering that no one is willing to engage in an actual dialogue about anything, I give up.

Late last month, my writer's group fell into a series of arguments instigated by some weird DMs that culminated in one of the mods shaming a good girlfriend of mine for coming out as pro-Marius because they saw it as pro-CSA stance. During our talks, my friend talked about their past history of CSA. Instead of this being a moment where the discord decided to pump the brakes, there was a doubling down of this stance. When it became apparent that there wouldn't be an apology, I left the server after making a post detailing how the mod's choice to put fictional characters before real people was BS.

To say I was hurt by this is an understatement. Not only did I witness a good friend of mine get humiliated like this, I also found it incredibly triggering as a fellow CSA survivor to witness it.

Around this time the blog @marius-crimes popped up. Not long after I received a heads up from a fandom friend that this post right here had my name under the blacked out portion. Because this coincided with several occurrences I was left to wonder who would send this DM and why?

The two best guesses I had were as follows. 1. It was someone from the writer's group I had just left trying to start shit. But if so, why? How was sending a random anon to a shit account going to do that? Or 2. It was @hekateinhell . I thought it might more likely be the latter because, in her private server, there was a channel dedicated to drama and gossip. The Marius Crimes blog had already been the subject of speculation. Looking at when the ask was posted, I checked the server and found that Hekate had admitted to sending some anons to the blog for fun. I asked her if she had sent any anons that had involved me, to which she denied involvement.

The following week was a rough one. Caught between one bullshit and the next, not knowing who was telling me the truth and who wasn't, I made a stupid choice to post about the server I had just left on my personal blog. I was upset that I had allowed myself to be caught up with a group that let fandom drama run into real-life trauma and treated both equally.

After I posted it, @0junemeatcleaver0 saw my post and wrongly assumed it was about Hekte's server. Looking back, it's easy to understand why, but at the time, I was so caught up in addressing a very specific subset of people that it didn't occur to me to clarify who I was addressing more directly.

Despite the fact that Hekate and her co-mod had put rules in place not to post or discuss server members directly in the drama channel, as soon as June made that post, not only was it fair game for me to be discussed out in the open, but the mods encouraged and added to it. Rather than asking June to remove the post, Hekate clapped back in front of the rest of the server and made everyone know about the private content of our DMs. By the time I was at home and able to read through the whole thread calling me a liar and a traitor, the damage was done. The server had become locked in an echo chamber where its members were in fight or flight mode, and it had already been decided that I needed to be banned.

I want to be very clear here - there was never any attempt to contact me directly before posting to a server to be publicly humiliated or j front of my friends group, there was no attempt before this to ask questions or allow me to provide receipts or explanations for my post. Just an absolute dog pile of bad intentions egged on by equally hysterical server members under the blessings of the mods. All conversations prior to this about valuing were all about “look at this nerd” and not a single one of them were “vague info is deeply hurtful to me” (I know bc I ran a search for vague-ing in the discord after this and read every single one).

Even though it was not expected of me, I decided to reach out to those who had been the most angrily critical of my post. Foolishly, I thought that if I could be given a chance to explain myself and how I had been dealing with the fallout from a group that involved one of my worst personal traumas, I would be able to smooth things over.

If I regret anything, it's extending my time and emotional energy to make a goodwill gesture to any of these people. In the DMs I sent out, not only did I disclose my past history of abuse, I also decided to take on and shoulder their emotional burned of being "triggered by a vague post". It makes me want to claw my eyes out to think about how I took the time to apologize for triggering them while I was having to process memories of my own past SA. How I put them first in that, instead of taking care of myself and allowed them the right to police the content I made on my own blog.

The response, universally across the bord was "get well soon sis!" or "I know you're dealing with the trauma of being SA'd as a child and all, but for ten whole minutes I thought you were vague posting about me, so like, um, I'm really gonna need you to acknowledge my pain about this over your own". I wish I could tell you I was kidding, but I'm not.

After getting the ole' server boot, June sent a request on discord, which I accepted. I thought she wanted to talk and burry the hatchet. Instead, this is what happened :

To say I was shocked is an understatement. Imagine disclosing something so personal to someone, making a gesture of goodwill even though this person dog-piled you, and then being hit by this? Like, what do you even say?

My assumption at the time was that it was easier for her to double down on the fantasy that I was some mastermind villain rather than admit to the fact that she fucked up by making her initial post to the server public and instigating the dog pile on me rather than admit she had been wrong. It's easier to justify it with vague accusations than actually pony up an apology, eh?

I wasn't too surprised when members of my former servers began blocking me. After all, they're all in the same friend group. That I could see. But when I started being blocked and unfriended by other people and removed from different discords again and again? That caught me by surprise. Reaching out to others, I was met repeatedly with vague statements of "someone reached out to me about some rumors", but no one could offer anything concrete. When I asked for specifics about what was said or shared, they always told me they couldn't tell me exactly what was said. Or, my favorite - that the evidence got deleted out of the chat :

Hmm, wow! It's almost like - there's nothing there to reveal! Almost like your "circumstantial evidence" is just that, and you know this proof won't actually stand up to questioning? Funny.

So here we are. I've been spit on by the same group of people eager to call themselves my friends. It's funny because when I first joined Tumblr, I saw posts calling them out for their mean girl clique and how two-faced they were, and I simply didn't believe it. Well, live and learn, as they say.

For the record, I did try to reach out to lovely June and was promptly blocked again. Apparently, it's not enough to frame me for BS and make vague statements about all this "evidence" she has. The game is only fun to her if she gets to wage it behind my back.

I'm taking back my reputation. I've done nothing wrong, I have nothing to hide, and I've offered to make amends. I have gone above and beyond to do that with a group of people who did not deserve the time or the effort to do so. June, Hekate, and all the rest are running and endorsing a gossip mill that relies on spreading rumors for entertainment. Because if there's one thing that will always be true, it's that Marius de Romanus fans need to create some sort of villain or outsider to fulfill their persecution complex.

[rwpohl]

severina, the mission, gods own medicine 1986

[morgana-lefay]

Rammstein - Asche zu Asche live @ Barcelona (11.06.2024) /📹by morgana-lefay (aka, me). Director's commentary:

I love Till's voice here, particularly at the beginning of the video (it's the "rrrrr" on the "Ich komm' wieder" and the way he says "schatten"). It sounds so dark. Love it!

Those two sharing the mic (I think it's what prompted me to start recording, because, at the first, I think I decided I was just gonna rock it all and not film a thing).

Almost didn't get Richard's back voice in the "Ich komm' wieder" part, but you can hear the last one when I zoomed out a bit. Not sure if their mic wasn't working properly at first (Paul does point to his ear) or it was just because I fucked up one of my (new) phone's speakers with all the rain.

You can hear Till screaming one of the many "Vamos" (let's go!) he did during the concert (probably the Spanish word, which we also have in Portuguese, he used the most) when he comes to my side.

Wet Richard™ rocked his ass off (and helped us rock ours) during this song.

Paul kicking his mic stand. Not sure why, but I always love seeing that.

I kinda regret not switching to Flake during his solo/little dance, but I was focused on Till doing his standing thing, which I appreciate very much.

I would have loved to watch the fiery mics, but it did not disappoint! It's one of my favourite songs live too.

In this one I might be caught singing a bit 🙊, but the committed "growler" you can hear is the lovely German behind me. And the screams are not mine. 🤭

P.S - Apologies for all the "grandma on Facetime call" sudden camera movements, but I was really excited about this song, as it's one of my favourites and it was the first time making a video with this phone. 😅

[marimayscarlett]

I always thought Paul would a better job at Richard part on DRSG! His voice is more appropriate I think? I love Richard but he can’t growl 🤣 His voice is too feminine !

Hi 👋

Now that's a lot to unpack here...

First of all, I get what you mean - from what I heard in earlier live recordings, Paul's voice is definitely capable of being quite powerful, like in the beginning of "Rein Raus" or "Weißes Fleisch":

Now regarding Richard: He himself seems to reckognize some female elements in his normal singing voice, at least he hinted at this in this interview, saying he added his voice to Till's recording of "Always on my mind" (for the Emigrate Album 'The Persistence of Memory') to give it a 'little female touch'. So yes, I can grasp the concept of Richard's voice having somewhat of a feminine allure to it sometimes - his usual singing voice isn't the deepest and can alternate between sounding soft and quite sharp.

I must admit, I am not very well-versed in the area of growling; I don't know what techniques are used for it and rarely listen to music where this vocal element appears. But I have to say that Richard's growling parts in "Du riechst so gut" and "Asche zu Asche" always sound so good and honestly nothing feminine remains in his voice, at least for my ears (not sure about your definition of feminine in this part, anon) 👀 I think he does a very great job of capturing the menacing and predatory aspects of the lyrics, and he really sounds threatening - even though, for me, it feels more attractive than intimidating, but I guess that's a personal thing (since my brain regularly melts listening to him doing that, I nearly went insane hearing this live). 😅

A little compilation:

(📽; this video calls his parts 'screamos', not sure if that's what I would call it but ok)

and some more examples:

two recordings from last year by @liebe-ist-musik: X X X

two recordings from this year's concert in Dublin by @dandysnob: X X

some more DRSG footage (it's one of my top 5 Rammstein songs so I could listen to it endlessly and so have you): X X X X X X

some Asche zu Asche footage: X X X X

[1264doghouse]

Moses Asch & Marian Distler, Folkways Records 1948.

[asktheweirdpichu]

Asche: (Shouldn’t be surprising, considering my track record with electricity...)

(Ugh...  I think I need an Oran berry... or two...)

▶ It seems the electricity stored in the stone makes Asche very sick... ▶ But they feel better now that they’re not touching it.

[ @dailyashleighraichu ]

[herrlindemann]

Sonic Seducer, December 2015

Thanks to ramjohn for the scans!

What's 32 cm high, weighs 3.5 kilos and contains 14 discs? Rammstein fans probably already know the answer: it's “XXI - The Vinyl Box Set”, a big box set that will enable the Berlin band to look back over their 20-year career in early December. Even if the band's website recently announced a meaningful "It goes on” [“Es geht weite”], the fact that all the sextet's works will soon be available in record form for your personal collection comes just at the right moment: "XXI - The Vinyl Box Set" contains all the studio albums on double vinyl, from "Herzeleid" to "Liebe Ist Für Alle Da", and adds two LPs with previously unreleased tracks and versions as well as "Raritäten". So it's interesting to review the career of Germany's most internationally popular band since Kraftwerk, from their early days as a band with a martial R roll, to their export successes filling arenas and stadiums around the world.

Of course, no one was expecting such resounding success when Rammstein was formed in Berlin at the end of 1993, from members of East German bands The Inchtabokatables and Feeling B, among others. The first album from 1995, “Herzeleid”, was a bombshell: some drew parallels with the sound and image of over-identification and pseudo-fascist totalitarianism of Slovenia's Laibach. Others suspected Rammstein were the counterpart to Die Krupps, the electro-metal band that was enjoying huge success at the time. The first sign of life from their Motor Music label was the promotional CD of the song “Du riechst so gut”, the mix of thick synthetic groove, brutal industrial metal and powerful male vocals was immediately on everyone's lips and in everyone's ears. “Herzeleid" barely cracked the top 100 album charts when it was released, but a growing audience began to take an interest in these Berliners when they opened for Project Pitchfork, among others. Even cult director David Lynch took notice and chose the songs "Rammstein" and "Heirate mich" for the soundtrack to his film "Lost Highway" — in the US too, Rammstein made an early name for themselves, soon to become a fixture on the international (industrial) metal circuit. "Herzeleid" laid an impressive cornerstone in this respect.

“Herzeleid” (1995)

The first album opens with a song that quickly became a crowd favourite: "Wollt ihr bas Bett in Flammen sehen" introduces massive guitar punches and a bubbling electronic base. What's more, Till Lindemann repeats the band's name so often that no-one can ignore who's playing. The album already shows the extent of the Berliners' palette: the opener and hits like “Du Riechst So Gut” and “Asche Zu Asche” are set against “Seemann”, a ballad that proves Rammstein can slow down the pace without losing any of their intensity. But “Herzeleid” is most legendary for its brutality — admittedly, there's nothing on the album, musically speaking, that Oomph! hasn't mastered, but the gigantic staging of itself and the overflowing pathos give Rammstein its own signature right from the start.

"I find the 'Herzeleid' cover so bad that I can't watch it anymore.” — Richard Kruspe (1999)

Rammstein made a big impression on metal, industrial and electro fans with just one record, as demonstrated by the single "Engel", which stormed the charts before the release of their second album "Sehnsucht". After “Herzeleid” frightened uninformed listeners with songs about scandalous subjects such as necrophilia, sexual violence and plane crashes, the “Engel” music video turned out to be a more or less explicit homage to “From Dusk Till Dawn”. But the controversy was over the cover of “Sehnsucht”, by Austrian extreme artist Gottfried Helnwein, who fitted the members' faces with surgical instruments — so the similarities with the artwork for Scorpions' 1982 album “Blackout”, also by Helnwein, were not coincidental. The second single, "Du Hast", also made it into the German top 10, and Rammstein took the top spot in the album chart with "Sehnsucht". Abroad, particularly in the United States, a similar success was beginning to be felt: "Sehnsucht" won a golden record there and continued to sell well, going platinum record at a later date. A year later, Rammstein were represented with their cover of Depeche Mode's "Stripped" on the tribute compilation "For The Masses" — alongside international acts such as The Smashing Pumpkins, The Cure and Deftones. The fact that the Berliners used scenes from Leni Riefenstahl films in the video not only earned them accusations of right-wing extremism, but could also be seen as a clever provocation. Rammstein denied any fascist tendencies, however, and soon after went on a "Family Values" tour across the United States with Korn, Limp Bizkit, Orgy and Ice Cube. By then they had become stars.

“Sehnsucht” (1997)

With “Engel” and “Du hast”, Rammstein had already scored hits before the release of their second album, and this one did not disappoint. So it's hardly surprising that the song “Tier” was so clearly inspired by Die Krupps' “The Dawning Of Doom” that Jürgen Engler received the copyright after the fact. In terms of content, the band also goes all the way: incest and the resulting parricide, sado-masochistic sexual practices and female genitalia craving cunnilingus are all hot topics — and with “Klavier”, we also find a legitimate successor to “Seemann”. Sales of "Sehnsucht" have long since topped the 2 million mark.

Rammstein in Mexico 1999

Needless to say, Rammstein have not given up in the face of this phenomenal success: ever since the band toured Central and South America with Kiss and Soulfy in 1999, the qualities of these men with showmanship skills have been known there too. With the first retrospective of their work "Live aus Berlin", the first phase of their creative process came to an end shortly before the turn of the millennium, and after a concert at the Fuji Rock Festival in faraway Japan, Rammstein tackled their third album. And, of course, the band didn't think to get rid of its provocative habit, even though singer Till and keyboardist Flake Lorenz had been arrested two years earlier in Massachusetts for simulating anal sex on stage and spraying themselves with artificial sperm on the song "Bück dich". Instead of being sexually explicit, the 'Mutter' album polarised attention with its cover illustration of an allegedly dead foetus. Nevertheless, Flake shakes his head about his arrest and the allegedly evil band Rammstein in an interview with Der Spiegel magazine: "What are they blaming us for? That we dare to use words like 'ficken' and 'Fotze'? That's what every hip-hopper does these days". Especially since “Mutter”, with the song “Links 2 3 4”, effectively distanced the band from the accusations of fascism that the worried media were constantly calling for. An important album for this reason too.

"Mutter" (2001)

Could this be the reason why Rammstein tribute band Die Bestien were originally called “Mama ist die Bestie”? In any case, the pleasure of listening to bestiality is once again guaranteed on "Mutter", as the opening track "Mein herz brennt" already indicates, with its thunderous orchestral guitar. The Swedish director Lukas Moodysson featured this piece prominently in his tragic drama film "Lilya 4-Ever". What's more, with the right-turn rejection of “Links 2 3 4”, the electronically infiltrated mass delirium of “Ich will”, the suggested cloning insult of the title track and “Rein raus”, which calls for abdominal activity, there's enough to cause a stir, if not outrage. Not at all revolting: “Mutter” also topped the charts — like every Rammstein album since “Sehnsucht”.

In the meantime, Rammstein had reached the centre of metal society, as evidenced by the award for "Best International Live Act" at the Kerrang! Awards 2002. While the band were working on their fourth album, the three-hour DVD “Lichtspielhaus” kept the audience on their toes: it contained all the video clips shot so far, plus a few making-of and various concert highlights, recorded at shows in Sydney and Rock am Ring among others. A deep breath before the next album, “Reise Reise”, whose cover depicts a flight recorder. If you rewind the CD before the first track, you hear the last radio messages from a Japanese airliner that crashed, killing over 500 people. Other provocations were not long in coming: the theme of the single "Mein teil" was the criminal case of Armin Meiwes, who had gained dubious notoriety as the cannibal of Rothenburg, and for some uninformed listeners, lines like "Weiche teile und auch harte / Stehen auf der Speisekarte" were already too much. Keyboardist Flake couldn't understand the excitement on this track either: "Doing a song about something that's really happened, I think that's the most normal thing in the world! Nobody complains to the presenter of the 'Tagesschau' about the alarming news he reads either!" For Rammstein, on the other hand, the attention paid to the unsavoury anthropophagy affair was anything but normal, given that at the time the war in Iraq had just been approved without the national media being overly concerned. A context in which the hateful praise of “Amerika” took on a whole new meaning.

"Reise, Reise" (2004)

This record definitely propelled Rammstein to the top of the list of most successful German bands abroad — it was ranked in the top 10 in nearly 20 countries, and number one in five of them. The “Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien” (Federal Office for the Supervision of Media Harmful to Young Persons) could do nothing better with "Mein Teil" than ban the video clip, which is not very tactful in night-time rotation — a half-hearted sanction which Rammstein accepted with a shrug of the shoulders. Surprisingly, the band not only responded with musical crudeness, but also with dark, romantic, sometimes bluesy songs like “Los” and “Ohne dich”, and also with some ferocious and bizarre visual humour: in the video for “Keine lust”, the members appear extremely overweight and take the song about lack of energy and saturation to the extreme. But the truth is, Rammstein are far from fed up.

As benefits a band that subsequently sells out four concerts in a row at the Parkbühne in Berlin's Wuhlheide. And this time, it didn't take Rammstein long to recharge : so many songs remained from the “Reise, Reise” recording session that the sextet quickly returned to the studio to finish “Reise Reise Vol. 2”. But as the band doesn't like the idea of a musical residue, the new opus is finally called “Rosenrot” and not only continues the sound of its predecessor, but also takes new directions : The relatively tender experimental ballad "Stirb nicht vor mir" ("Don't Die Before I Do") features Texas singer Sharleen Spiteri in a duet with Till Lindemann, and "Feuer und Wasser" refers to Friedrich Schiller's poem "Der Taucher". Drummer Christoph Schneider sums it up : "We knew we'd recorded too many quiet songs for “Reise Reise”. That's why we were aware, when writing "Rosenrot", that we needed to compose some slightly harder material to round it all off". "Rosenrot" was not, however, completed by a tour, and performances in the United States, Mexico and Asia fell through due to the long-term illness of keyboardist Flake.

"We had no desire at all to produce this theoretical music on the computer. In contrast to "Mutter", this album is very hand-played." — Flake Lorenz

"Rosenrot" (2005)

The direct successor to “Reise Reise” is certainly not the most surprising album in Rammstein's discography — the punchy but familiar introductory single “Benzin” proves that right from the start. "Mann gegen mann" also rocks straight ahead and is once again only genuine with a video clip that was belatedly banished to the night hours, for which "Spun" director Jonas Akerlund has staged the band naked and had equally undressed men jostling each other. But on “Rosenrot”, Rammstein can also do things differently, orchestrating the Spanish song “Te Quiero Puta” with mariachi brass and ending the album with the modest title “Ein lied” — dedicated to all Rammstein fans. It's likely that some of them felt concerned. 

"A situation that was completely new to us until then : writing songs from the nights in a very short time. There were many doubts within the band as to whether we could produce good quality songs in such a short time." — Oliver Riedel about "Rosenrot"

The breaks between albums became longer : apart from the live DVD "Völkerball", which was released in 2006, Rammstein disappeared from the scene for a while after "Rosenrot". But as usual, the band came back with a bang in 2009. But this was without taking into account the suspicions of the Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien (Federal Office for the Control of Media Harmful to Young Person), which quickly placed the fifth album, “Liebe Ist Für Alle Da”, on the blacklist. What had happened ? Well, the song “Ich tu dir weh” appealed to sadomasochistic fantasies, which is hardly surprising in the Rammstein context, but was enough to warrant a blacklisting. The band expressed their dismay at the censorship, and much of the press sided with the band and against the authorities. "Spiegel" even imagined a fictitious and absurd round table discussion on the subject between the Minister for the Family, the band members and popular music star Florian Silbereisen. But you'd have thought the problem lay elsewhere, because the single “Pussy”, which pokes fun at German sex tourists abroad, lent itself much better to controversy. In the video, shot once again by Jonas Akerlund, the members of the band appeared without hesitation as hardcore pornographic actors — the fact that they were dubbed in the end did nothing to detract from the scandalous nature of the clip. According to guitarist Richard Kruspe, the initial impetus for this sultry little film came from the director, who sent an e-mail to the band with the words "Let's make a revolution! Let's shoot a porn!" And that's just the way it is : policing morals has never had any effect on the big boys of Rammstein.

"Liebe Ist Für Alle Da" (2009)

"Das Warten hat ein Ende / Leigt euer Ohr einer Legende" — the opening words of Rammstein's sixth album, which has once again lost none of its metallic power, textual provocation or musical versatility. As well as the catchy, almost cheeky "Pussy" and the hyperactive mosher "Ich Tu Dir Weh", the band pay tribute to Edit Piaf's "Non, Je ne regrette rien" on "Frühling in Paris" and draw heavily on the "Moritat von Mackie Messer" from Bertolt Brecht's "Dreigroschenoper" for "Haifisch". Admittedly, due to the aforementioned blacklisting, the song could only be sold to major customers for a short time, but a watered-down version of the offending track followed. Needless to say, by this time “Liebe Ist Für Alle Da” had already climbed the charts and Rammstein were still the most popular German band — both at home and abroad.

Rammstein 2014 in der Volksbühne

A lot has happened since the release of "Liebe Ist Für Alle Da": Rammstein were invited to the Wacken Open Air for the first time in 2013 — and didn't miss out on performing the song "Sonne" with Heino, who had covered it on his "Mit freundlichen Grüßen" covers album. Richard Kruspe lives again in Berlin and in 2014 presented his second Emigrate album "Silent So Long" with a lot of noise and the participation of Marilyn Manson and Jonathan Davis of Korn. Till Lindemann made common cause with Swedish metalhead Peter Tägtgren under the name Lindemann on the "Skills in Pills" album. And the announcement at the beginning of the article, "It goes on !", gives us hope that album number seven won't be too long in coming. In the meantime, let's listen to Rammstein's discography in detail once again — with "XXI - The Vinyl Box Set", of course, a luxurious package of power that Santa Claus will have trouble transporting. "If we had put more emphasis on the live structure, then some things could have been a bit better, harder, more beautiful! And yet I'm simply happy that we've succeeded in making this record!" - Richard Kruspe about "Liebe Ist Für Alle Da"

[devils-voice]

Abkehr - In Asche

Vinyl: Limited Edition, Clear

Label: Sentient Ruin Laboratories, Sick Man Getting Sick Records

Released: 2017

[ecargmura]

Bucchigiri?! Episode 5 Review - Arajin Is Insufferable

I still stand by my opinion of Arajin being Hiroko Utsumi’s weakest written protagonist. If you look at her past works, you can see that they all have some sort of characteristic out of their usual schtick; well, two of Utsumi’s works are adaptations (Free! Is a loose adaptation of a light novel called High Speed and Banana Fish is a manga to anime adaptation) and SK8 is her first original work, but you get what I mean. Five episodes in and he still hasn’t done anything substantial. All he does is fall for the same tricks and tropes. Like, why is he even the MC? Matakara or Mahoro would make better MCs than him.

Like, I get that Arajin’s skirt-chasing and cowardly demeanor has to do with not being manly enough to protect a young Matakara in his childhood, but if he wants to get stronger, he has to stop falling for the same things. He couldn’t protect Matakara when he was younger, but he still can’t protect him in his current state—heck, he won’t even protect him! I can’t fault Utsumi for this because she’s not the writer for this anime. The writer is Taku Kishimoto, who wrote the screenplays for animes like Blue Lock, Ranking of Kings, The Millionaire Detective Balance, and Moriarity the Patriot. I’ve heard people rave about these anime (well, Blue Lock anime is a bit mixed) so why is this one so frustratingly written? Still, as a director, Utsumi should know when to have the MC develop and what not—next week is the halfway point as there will be 12 episodes.

Alright, enough about Arajin, let’s talk about the star of this episode, Akutaro. I think he’s very interesting. He used to be in Minato Kai, but got kicked out due to using underhanded methods. He once admired Kenichiro as he was a strong, manly guy while he was a thin, dainty and unreliable one back then. Getting kicked out changed him drastically as he became more violent and hell bent on getting revenge. I do wonder how much of his chaotic personality comes from the blue genie because I know for a fact that the mind control aspect of the NG Boys army is from magic genie powers. I think that Arajin isn’t aware that Akutaro is manipulating him. He’s being all nice to him after learning about his virginity and cozying up to him to get him in his favor. All the stuff he said about Mahoro was to rile him up purposely, as he had a hunch Arajin was possessed by Senya. Also, the casting director should get a raise because Chihiro Suzuki as Akutaro is a 10/10 casting. Suzuki really delivers on the flamboyant but also devious aspect of this character. Like, I always known him as Kisumi from Free and Luke and Asch from Tales of the Abyss, so to have him voice this character who’s completely different from his usual roles was a joy to listen to; I can tell he was having fun recording! I especially loved him speaking English when explaining the E-4 motto; the way he said Ecstasy was amazing.

I feel so bad for Matakara in a way. Like, he is deluded into believing Arajin is the same person as before, but every single time he has his hopes up, Arajin just plummets down in terms of expectation. This episode is where he is a bit more action-heavy as he tries to beat Akutaro, but loses and gets tied up. I wonder when the breaking point is for him because the opening does seem like he’s going to get possessed by Ichiya or something. The question is when and how that’s going to happen. I’m glad that Zabu is a good person who is able to sense what’s wrong and to admit his mistakes. He’s a better friend to Matakara than Arajin.

I wonder if we’ll get some Kenichiro backstory later on because out of the important gang leaders, he is the least developed so far. All I know is that he’s been held back three times and that he’s rather honorable. I also predict that Jasmine-chan is actually a cat and the place the teacher goes to every episode is a rather high end cat cafe. If it’s not a cat cafe, then it’s probably a gay brothel for bottoms as “neko” (cat) is Japanese gay slang for bottoms. I’m leaning more towards an actual cat cafe given the fancy cat sign.

What is going to happen now that the gang war is starting? What are your thoughts on this episode?

[theothersideofhim]

Secret, Mistake, Midnight

from [here]

Under the cut since it's A LOT and also a SECRET lmao

secret: What’s one secret your OC never wants anyone to know about them?

Easy enough: he's lonely. He's intensely, earth-shatteringly, irreparably lonely and it's directly because he's part of a duality where each part is designed to function alone. Me and Asche's personal lore for Stan is that he's "the other side" of God but that doesn't mean they're meant to get along. They're meant to be locked in a tidal orbit of never ending conflict, bound to each other but light years away. Stan is meant to be The Adversary and my personal lore is that he's just a little fucking sad about that.

Like he remembers helping to create the universe, hurling matter and heat in every direction, breaking down everything so Eli could pull it back together and form it into more and more complex elements, smashing atoms and meteors and whole planets into each other in a chaotic Mario Party Smash that lasted billions of eons and also just one flashbang

... so Eli could come in and create life on what was left.

And he knows that the only way to ever experience that sense of belonging and purpose again--at least on that "Mantle of the Adversary", cosmic level anyway--is to create a new universe. And he knows that in order for that to really happen the one they'd already made would have to be destroyed.

So there's that.

All this to say, I don't think Stan understands that's what he's feeling anyway. I think it translates to him as Angry and Sad. He'll show the angry part but he doesn't want people to ever know about the sad part.

Oh also he likes head touches and neck kisses shhhSHSHHHHHHH.

mistake: What’s the worst mistake your OC ever made? What led to them making it? Have they been able to fix it? How have they moved on?

Designing the platypus.

No but seriously, this one is really hard. I wanna say almost killing Lucifer, but is that really the worst? In all the millenia that Stan has been alive, his WORST MISTAKE was making Lucifer believe he was going to die at Stan's hands? Because in all honesty, the two of them will eventually find their way back into the toxic, symbiotic relationship they've had since Lucifer fell and everything will fall back into place again.

But will it??? Will it really????????? He effectively put Doubt in Lucifer's head for... basically as long as it's going to sit there. They'd gotten so close as for Stan to actually tell Lucifer "I love you", even if it was just a whisper, even if it was after just sticking a knife in the former angel's stomach, and they were both reminded that it could have been thrown away in a heartbeat over the pull of the Mantles needing to fill Roles.

Whether or not Lucifer moves on from it, Stan is always going to remember being slightly out of control... but not entirely. He was somewhere in the vicinity of the driver's seat and that is fucking chilling in its implications for Lucifer's place in his heart and Stan's capacity to have one in the first place.

So yeah I guess I'll keep it at that for now.

midnight: What keeps your OC up at night? Do they have nightmares? Fears? Anxieties? What do they do in the small hours of the morning when they should be sleeping?

He has a fear of intimacy that is in direct conflict with his aforementioned loneliness, and yeah that actually keeps him up at night sometimes lmao. If you wanted to get deeper into that it's a fear of rejection. If you wanted to go even further it's a fear of abandonment.

That's too far woah woahhhh bring it on back now.

His nightmares are always full of songs sung by angels made by Him but Not Him, sounds he can't make that spin molecules together into planets and cities and people, beautiful and terrible but muffled and far away like it was a record playing in another room.

He never speaks in his dreams. His mouth wasn't meant to make sound it was meant to devour, and he never yells or screams or throws any kinds of fits in his dreams.

[lazyrants]

Sports Day (prod 102)

Original airdate: August 17, 2004

Story by Magnus Scheving, Mani Svavarrson

Written by Rocky Garibaldi, Scott Gray, Magnus Scheving

Directed by Rufus Scott Church

Executive producers - Magnus Scheving, Ragnheidur Melsted, Raymond P. Le Gue, Mark Read, Brown Johnson, Kay Wilson Stallings

Starring Magnus Scheving, Stefan Karl Steffanson, Julianna Rose Mauriello

Puppeteers - Ronald Binion, Gudmondor Thor Karason, Jodi Eichelberger, Heather Asch, David Matthew Feldman, Julie Westwood, Sarah Burgess

Sports Day was the first LazyTown episode the crew worked on after the Lazy Dance. Not directed by Magnus Scheving, but instead Rufus Scott Church, this episode is very different from others with CGI and green screen flaws. Does the plot in fact make up for that?

The episode begins with Sportacus brushing his teeth, then noticing the date on the calendar (of course, in classic Sportacus fashion, while he's upside down) and realizing that it's LazyTown Sports Day, then he rides his airship into town to see what's going on. This cold open uses a terrible green screen of Sportacus doing the t-pose flip in the opening credits instead of just recording a new one.

Milford is trying to fix the town up to get the kids excited for Sports Day while Bessie is chit chatting on the phone. Nothing new, but it is so extravagating how Bessie does no work at all.. and why in the world does she have TWO PHONES?

Anyways, the LazyTown kids are hanging together outside and Stephanie is reading a book about the history of the town. She reaches a page about Sports Day and everyone says they won't do it this year because they're bad. Seems like everyone has forgot the lessons from the past episodes.. AGAIN. God, I hate when this happens.

Luckily for Stephanie, Sportacus has just arrived in the town and has a surprise for everyone - Ziggy guesses it's chocolate twice, but Sportacus is actually trying to say it's Sports Day. I don't know why it's so funny, but everyone just says "awwww" except Stephanie.

Anyways, nobody comes except Sportacus and Stephanie until Sportacus says that Milford is (well, trying to) fix the town up. Suddenly everyone has a change in character when Pixel says the field is ready for a race. 20 seconds ago you guys were dreading this idea!

Robbie is in his lair, deciding what to wear, declining every single outfit for the one he wears IN EVERY SINGLE EPISODE OF THE SHOW. God, I love the scripts of this show. Cherry on top? He gets a miniature version that couldn't even fit a doll, BUT IT WORKS.

Anyways, Robbie decides to peep through the hole and look at what the LazyTowners are doing. He sees Bessie.. relaxing and gasps and gags. Very confusing knowing that Robbie is all for being lazy, but then the camera pans and we realize that he is gasping at the gang playing with a ball on the field. So.. weird. Not funny (well, his face kinda is..)

Robbie has his 400th Lazy Idea of the week, which is to buy the field, which in real life would not work unless you had a mayor as bumbling as MAYOR MILFORD MEANSWELL, who unknowingly accepts to the deal, until Sportacus steps in and says that he has to beat him and the gang at sports day. Robbie says that if he does win, that he will make the sports field a pillow stuffing factory, and Sportacus has to leave town. Sportacus handshakes him. See, that's why I liked him. He was the only one who had guts to speak up. Robbie accepts the deal, and they start training.

Ziggy is put in the job of Sports Candy Supervisor, and his task is to get sportscandy for the gang to power up. Ziggy is the last person I would ever put in this role, so either Sportacus has lots of faith in his friends - or sometimes he is just plain stupid.

Anyways, the kids start exercising, running around. Pixel is doing pushups, Trixie is doing handstands, Stephanie is trying to stretch (and failing, which is totally out of character), and Ziggy is using giant lollipops at barbells. At least he's doing something. Stingy is doing sit ups, and he can't do them for his LIFE, unless you shake money or his piggy bank around his face. Robbie is being lazy in his lair, and of course, making gadgets for the race. For the man that made the deal, he really is not taking it seriously. Stingy is being the jerk he is and refusing to give anyone the baton in practice, and they (the puppets) all chase him as fast as they can, which might have been the only workout they did.

So anyways, Pixel is spouting data about how bad they were (shut up, french fry hair boy) and Ziggy brings out sportscandy (gummy people that Ziggy makes run, jump and spin into the mouth), but Sportacus says they need REAL energy. So instead of climbing up to get an apple from a tree, instead he decides to cartwheel and flip to the tree, then whacks it to make it fall down. Effective, but.. well.. it's cool, too. I ain't complainin.

Sportacus gives Stephanie an apple, then he does a spinning flip in the air. Why? He has more apples in his backpack. (It could have taken much more shorter to just.. hand everyone the apples..) Then they perform "Energy" while Robbie is watching. He scolds Sportacus for thinking he can win by eating fruits, then he yells one of the 2: "THAT'S DISGUSTING!!" or "IT'S DISGUISE TIME!". If anyone can buy the script from Mark Valenti on eBay (no, seriously, he's selling about 30 scripts from Season 1) and tell me what it says, deeply appreciated.

Pixel asks Sportacus if he's ever eaten sugar before, and Sportacus tells him the whole story - he ate too much sugar, all his energy drained and he fell to the floor. That's why he doesn't eat it anymore. TLDR - Sugar gives Sportacus diabetes. I know this show is crazy on the health aspect, but that's actually ridiculous even for Sportacus.

However, Robbie is in his classic mailbox costume, spying on them when Ziggy is told to get more apples. Ziggy tries to climb the apple tree, but he can't reach it. His solution? A sugar apple that Robbie whipped up with Rotten Candy Faker Maker 4000. Robbie puts it on a fishrod and hits Ziggy on the head with it. Ziggy believes it is magic and he HAS to take the apple. Personally, I WOULDN'T take a floating apple.. but, Nickelodeon, man.

Anyways, Sports Day starts with a race between Robbie and Sportacus (Robbie starts two seconds earlier.. and loses in the end anyways). Mid-way, Ziggy gives Sportacus the apple, and he takes a bite and flops his way to a bench. Oh, no, he's dead.

Stephanie gives Ziggy the baton and Robbie is now on the biking section of the race. Trixie is doing the scooter section, and everyone is kinda mad at Ziggy until Pixel finds out the apple came from Robbie's gadget. If you ask me, I don't think they should've been mad to begin with. Ziggy's too nice to give Sportacus a sugar apple.

They give Sportacus a bite of the real apple, he wakes up ready for the baton and biking and rides over Robbie who has been taking a power nap. Stephanie gives him the skateboard, he jumps onto it and basically flies with it. Awesome! He wins the race. Robbie doesn't see it and puts HIS ride onto power mode and crashes into an apple tree. Sportacus gets to stay in LazyTown, and they all sing the Bing Bang song. The end.

There are so many things wrong with this episode it's aggravating. Horrible green screens, montage music that sounds like it wasn't composed by Mani out of character dialogue, a mediocre song and once again, an absent Robbie ending. WHY?!

Good plot, but a very weak episode.

5/10

[gavetao-visual]

Cover for Folkway records

Folkways Records was founded in 1948. Led by Moses Asch (1905-1986), Folkways sought to document the entire world of sound. The 2,168 titles Asch released on Folkways include traditional and contemporary music from around the world, spoken word in many languages, and documentary recordings of individuals, communities, and current events. Folkways grew to be one of the largest and most influential record companies in the world. Folkways Records and the label's business papers and files were acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987. Every recording is kept in print.