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brucebocchi · 6 months ago

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Spring 2024 anime, Pt. 2: Mixed bags and the gems

hey! i also post this on my ko-fi! this is very much a labor of love, so if you liked what i wrote consider throwing a few bucks my way! also you can find part 1 right here! thanks!

Yes, hello, I'm still here. Between work and AI: The Somnium Files -nirvanA Initiative-, I was struggling to find the time to get this out, but here we are! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go actually watch some anime again.

As always, the OP for each show is linked in the title. Watch them! There were some damn good ones this season.

Let's-a go:

Mixed Bags

Astro Note

I’m going to kick off this section by first stating that on the whole, I’m much higher on the anime in this section this season than I was last time: Nothing that I watched this season disappointed me nearly as much as Metallic Rouge or The Witch and the Beast, nor bored me to tears like The Unwanted Undead Adventurer. This truly is a collection of mixed bags; anime that I found enjoyable or interesting but still left me wanting in one way or another. “Good But Could Have Been Great” is too unwieldy anyway.

Astro Note was eye-catching from the jump: This is very clearly an homage to Rumiko Takahashi’s beloved romcom Maison Ikkoku, with character designs by Carole & Tuesday’s Eisaku Kubonouchi. The colors are soft and bright, everyone looks unique and has a wide variety of hilarious facial expressions, and the OP is a fun time right out of the gate. You come for the lovely visuals and Takahashi homage, and you stay for, uh, not much else.

Takumi, a down-on-his-luck young chef, answers a job posting at a boarding house that promises its residents breakfast every day. It turns out that Mira, the odd but beautiful new landlady, is a dogshit cook and tried to attract a new one with a plagiarized job posting. Takumi doesn’t really care because she’s, like, really pretty, so he takes the job and moves in. He’s soon beset by a cast of wacky characters that includes an enigmatic unemployed salaryman and his precocious son, an indie idol who looks like a hard-drinking Futaba Sakura in her downtime, a nosy neighbor, and a rich, handsome romantic rival. We’re already approaching Maison Ikkoku territory.

Shortly after moving in, Takumi believes he overhears Mira saying that she’s a widow, which would firmly plant Astro Note’s flag right in Ikkoku’s turf, but it turns out that Mira is in fact an alien from the planet Wid, meaning she is of the Wido race (this is as good of a localization as you can ask for; in the original Japanese he heard “miboujin,” not knowing that she’s from the planet Mibou). So we’ve got some Urusei Yasura sprinkled in for good measure. Her adorable poodle, voiced by Junichi Suwabe (Sukuna himself!) is from the same planet and helping her find a MacGuffin, hidden by the previous owner, that would help her take over as queen. There’s also some blossoming romance!

The alien stuff made for an interesting wrinkle, and it went a long way toward characterizing Mira as an endearingly odd but curious woman, but it often played out in wacky hijinks caused by alien spies, which felt like a designated make-the-plot-happen button more often than not. It paid off splendidly in the last couple of episodes, and I loved how all of the flashbacks of Mira’s mother looked like grainy Showa-era space operas, but getting there took a lot of “oh no, chase that Thing!” sequences. I found myself tuning out on those until they finally became plot relevant.

The central romance was fine, if a little underbaked, but what kept me watching Astro Note was the smaller moments with the ensemble characters. There were moments with both Wakabayashi the salaryman and his son Ren that slapped the apathy right off my face, and a side plot with Takumi and a person from his past was incredibly sweet. I did also love the massive turn the plot took in the last couple episodes, to the point where I found myself almost wishing that the show up to that point was different.

And that’s Astro Note in a nutshell: A lot of good pieces mixed with some filler, weird pacing, and an overall uneven experience in a nice-looking package. A fun little distraction but nothing entirely memorable. If I can give this show one major positive, it’s that watching it finally convinced me to read Maison Ikkoku, and for that I will forever be grateful. Read Maison Ikkoku.

Go! Go! Loser Ranger

I keep running notes for everything I’m watching as the season rolls on, and sometimes I’ll indulge in other reviewers’ early takes and jot down some insights that might spark from hearing outside perspectives. During Gigguk’s opening remarks on Go! Go! Loser Ranger in his early Spring season roundup, I made a note that the easiest way to summarize this show for a western audience is “basically The Boys but with the Power Rangers instead of The Seven.” And then he said pretty much the exact same thing five seconds later. I just want the record to show that.

Indeed, this is a sentai series with some spice. 13 years ago, the invading forces of evil were soundly defeated by the Dragon Keepers, a real-life sentai squad. In the present day, the Dragon Keepers now sit atop a massive organization protecting earth, and also dominating the entertainment industry: Every week, they hold an exhibition match against the remaining rank-and-file footsoldiers, skull-faced shapeshifters known as Dusters. In order to keep their lives, the Dusters were forced to give up their freedom and serve as the farcical Putty Patrol for what is ultimately a pro wrestling show. Sick of being a jobber and effectively a slave, one of the Dusters, known simply as Fighter D, decides the best way to destroy the Dragon Keepers and free his brethren is to do so from within: He’ll morph into a human shape, join their Rangers program as a cadet, and personally slay each of the five Keepers.

Fighter D is quickly found out, though. One of the recruiters, the lovely but mercurial Yumeko, isn’t nearly as dumb as he thought, but she fortunately has the same aim and quickly puts him to work trying to steal the Keepers’ insanely powerful weapons, the Divine Artifacts. He’s also found by the Dragon Keepers and manages to escape, though badly wounded. He’s found in a cave by Yumeko’s hanger-on, the upstart Ranger cadet Hibiki, whose family was badly fragmented by an unknown monster. While he still believes in the Keepers and shares their ostensible goal of protecting humanity, he believes that there needs to be major changes and agrees to let D impersonate him to infiltrate the Rangers. He’s soon embroiled in a prolonged examination trial against higher-ranked Rangers that soon turns into a fight to the death, made only more deadly by the inclusion of a female Duster and the same monster that killed Hibiki’s parents and paralyzed his sister.

Yes, that’s a lot, and everything up until that last sentence was just in the first four episodes. I’ve said repeatedly that I’m willing to be patient with introductory seasons for action-oriented shonen series, because those do usually take a minute to start cooking, but the first season of Loser Ranger is bizarrely paced. The first four episodes were an intriguing introduction, but they might have served better as a movie to kick off the season, because the overwhelming majority of the remaining eight episodes were pretty much just a bunch of people fighting in a fucking parking garage. I was under the impression that the first season was going to be 24 or so episodes, for some reason, so I was willing to be patient with it.

Maybe I should've been patient enough to wait until the second season, because I found myself getting whiplash between fascination and utter boredom. I still don’t know if I even like this show. There are so many moving parts, and many of them are fascinating, but to get bombarded with them so early and so often, only to then keep most of them in the background in favor of way too many new characters fighting in, again, a goddamned parking garage, frustrates me in increasing measure the more I write about it. I really wanted to like this show more than I did.

The production values are seemingly all over the place too. The OP is another Tatsuya Kitani banger, the voice cast is deep and talented (especially for the English dub, holy hell), the puppet outros are a hoot, and the animation is mostly fine. I’m rarely one to complain about CGI in anime (the ED for this show is entirely 3DCG and it fucks), but a lot of it in Loser Ranger, especially as an obvious means of cheaping out on having to hand-draw and -animate the Dragon Keepers’ slightly-elaborate costumes, is baffling. You could make a generous case for it representing them as larger-than-life personalities, but in execution it’s just kind of uncanny. The show looks and sounds fine overall, but little things like that just take me out of it.

I’m going to withhold judgment until the second season, but for now I can’t say I’m too impressed by the debut. Maybe just watch the first four episodes and put a pin in it until season 2 drops.

Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night

I’m beginning to worry that Metallic Rouge’s catastrophic narrative failure may have permanently made me nervous about any original anime to follow. It’s an unfair comparison to make, especially considering it aired at the same time as the bombastically audacious Bang Brave Bang Bravern, which I consider one of the best of the year so far and even one of the better anime to air so far this decade. At the same time, though, the millisecond I start to suspect that an original anime is losing its footing, as soon as the one synapse fires that tells me that this show may not be able to stick the landing, I start to get cynical. The good news is that Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night isn’t even in the same time zone as Rouge’s disappointment. The bad news is that it still never fully lived up to what it could have been.

Right from the jump, this felt like Doga Kobo flexing in between seasons of Oshi no Ko with yet another gorgeous showbiz anime. The debut episode is one of the best I’ve seen in some time; an immaculately animated and brilliantly storyboarded mission statement showcasing the self-doubting illustrator Mahiru and the disgraced ex-idol Kano meeting and finding new inspiration in one another’s work (if you’ve been reading Beat & Motion, this may sound familiar, except they’re both high school girls). It was a masterclass in depicting powerful self-expression and the spark of a truly fateful encounter. What followed was also pretty good, but...

Mahiru and Kano band together (pun intended) to form the multimedia collective JELEE, also enlisting social-outcast musical prodigy (and Kano stan) Mei, and NEET VTuber Kiui along the way. We see a lot of the nitty-gritty of trying to get a new act off the ground, as well as the reality that any new artist or creator nowadays is, ultimately, at the mercy of the internet. It was a treat to watch these four all come together, as was seeing the emotional bonds they forge with one another while also navigating their own personal issues, but it frequently came at the expense of an actual plot. That sort of thing is fine, I do love me some good slice-of-life, but I feel like the show planned on something a bit grander. While we’re focused on so many of these really lovely moments of character growth and interpersonal drama, everything about JELEE’s ascent, y’know, the main plot, just kind of happens, and before you know it everything turns out okay and the season’s over. It really felt like the writers had a big plan but ended up just laying down the tracks while the train was already in motion.

As mentioned, I’m not nearly as down on the anime in the “Mixed Bags” section this season as I was three months ago, but just thinking about how the plot sagged around the middle and rushed towards its ending leaves me frustrated. Unlike JELEE itself, Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night feels like less than the sum of its parts. This show feels like an unfinished jigsaw puzzle; what you can make out of the image is gorgeous, yet not only was it never completed, but someone clearly put a few of the pieces together wrong as well. There are plenty of themes in the story and character writing that could have blossomed into something amazing, like impostor syndrome, finding community and identity through fandom, young sapphic love, gender identity, and so many more, and it may have been possible to resolve at least a couple of these in 12 episodes, but Jellyfish seemed either incapable of or uninterested in actually getting there beyond a few vague overtures.

I know I sound harsh here and I didn’t mean for this review to be mostly complaints; I did very much like this show, but I wanted so badly to love it. And it probably isn’t entirely fair of me to grade this show based on what it could have been instead of what it is, but so much was plainly left on the table that I’m not really left with another choice. I still recommend it much more strongly than anything else I've put in the Mixed Bags section so far this year, but be forewarned that you may be let down. This is a pretty goddamn good anime that could’ve been pretty goddamn incredible, but it just couldn’t get there.

Mysterious Disappearances

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I know what I’m about. If a new series rotates around a protagonist who looks like that, I’ll at least give it an episode or two.

Sumireko is a former child-prodigy novelist, now in her late 20s working at a bookstore with the sharp-tongued Ren, as she continues to fail at getting published again. On the eve of her 28th birthday, Sumireko accidentally takes home a book that was droplifted in the store, and shortly after reading it aloud she finds herself reverted into the body of a child. Suddenly struck by inspiration once again, she disappears from work for the next week, furiously typing away at her next novel. Ren manages to find her and tells her that she’s under a curse: The book is an otherworldly object known as a Curiosity, and its power can be deadly to those who use it. Though Sumireko is desperate to hang on to her newly-regained youth, Ren manages to smooth-talk her into changing back and handing over the book. Now aware of an extradimensional threat to daily life, Sumireko teams up with Ren and his little sister Oto to track down and neutralize more Curiosities before they cause widespread havoc.

This series is alright, if questionable in a lot of areas. I recognize that I’m not entirely the target audience; while I love a good supernatural mystery, each of these Curiosities is rooted in East Asian mythology and contemporary urban legends, very few of which I was familiar with going in. To those on that side of the world (or to Westerners with that specific special interest), I’m sure it hits different, but I got lost on a couple of occasions. Mysterious Disappearances also runs into the same pacing issues that I found with The Witch and the Beast last season, where the plot structure is effectively episodic, but each mystery can last a few episodes at a time, so if you’re not particularly invested in the subject at hand, you’re SOL for another week or two.

This show also just plain doesn’t look very good. The animation is nothing impressive and there’s something off-putting about the overall look that I can’t quite put my finger on. It looks retro in ways that probably weren’t intentional, like a 20-year-old digipaint anime that was upscaled from 480p. The audio element is great, at least; the music, sound design, and cast are all fantastic (between her turn as Sumireko in this one and her supporting roles in Reincarnated as the 7th Prince and Kaiju No. 8, Fairouz Ai has put in great work this season), and that’s a good thing because this one isn’t a looker.

If you couldn’t already tell from how the main character looks, Mysterious Disappearances is undoubtedly horny as hell, but often distractingly so. I do have to praise Sumireko’s design to an extent; for a large-chested anime lady, she at least hews closer to how a tall woman with somewhat appropriately large breasts would actually be built and how her clothes would actually fit. She looks like a more realistically-proportioned Nami. There’s no shortage of anime characters with gigantic boobs, but few that make me actually go “oh, this woman definitely has back problems.” There are a lot of slow-tilting shots up female characters’ legs towards their chests to the point where I tuned the dialogue out because I couldn’t believe they just kept on doing it. I skimmed through the manga, and though there is far more semi-gratuitous nudity as compared to the anime, I still somehow found the latter much more distracting with its attempts at fanservice. I also don’t really care for how the “camera” looks at Oto and her middle school classmates either; I found myself just getting nervous whenever a scene focused on them.

For its problems, there’s at least a series of solid emotional cores here. Similar to Sumireko’s desire to regain her youthful creativity, the wielders-slash-victims of these Curiosities are largely vulnerable individuals who are trying to make the best of their lives in spite of past traumas like bullying, neglect, and disability. All serious issues, no doubt, and the story tries to handle them as well as possible, but once you see through the pattern of “awful thing is happening, we get to know the character, then we learn their tragic backstory and there’s a tearful resolution while we move closer to advancing the overall plot,” it can feel a little cloying in the long run. Not that those resolutions can’t be potent; I really liked the endings of the stories of the missing hairdresser and the rogue VTuber, but as a plot formula it can ring hollow.

Mysterious Disappearances is a fine if unspectacular series of supernatural mysteries with an okay overarching plot, and your mileage may vary depending on your existing knowledge of East Asian occult and superstition. It’s also not that fun to actually look at, even if you happen to be into tall redheads with huge racks. Uh, not that I would know.

The Gems

Girls Band Cry

When Bocchi the Rock! made its unexpectedly earth-shattering landfall a couple years ago, it was inundated with a deluge of comparisons to the previous landmark girls-in-a-band anime, K-On!. It felt a bit trite at the time, and feels even more so in retrospect; each show is its own thing and they both stand on their own merits. And now here’s my dumb ass, reviewing a new girls-in-a-band anime, desperately trying not to compare it to Bocchi.

It’s really not a fair comparison either way; the focus being on an all-girls rock band is really the only thing they have in common. Rather than Hitori “Bocchi” Gotoh, a perpetually-anxious recluse looking to join a band so she won’t have to get a real job after high school, we have Nina Iseri, who is… difficult. Nina has just moved to Tokyo after running away from home, but her train arrived too late for her to get her apartment key, and to make matters worse, her phone’s dead. While charging at a local coffee shop, she finds out that Momoka, the now-former frontwoman of her favorite band, is playing on a nearby street. After some ups and downs, they decide to form a band together, and butt heads more than a couple times.

Along the way, they recruit more members, each with their own issues: Subaru, the drummer, is struggling with the expectations placed on her by her grandmother to become an actress, Tomo, the keyboardist, is exacting and a little too opinionated to keep a steady role in a band, and Rupa, the bassist, is a soft-spoken foreigner who remains a cheerful enigma despite losing her parents. And Nina and Momoka are both flat-out stubborn in ways that do not mesh well with one another. There are a lot of yelling matches and many angry tears shed as the band Togenashi Togeari comes together: yes, the “Cry” in the title isn’t just for style points.

I will say that it’s refreshing that Girls Band Cry does not sugarcoat what an absolute pain in the ass Nina can be when she’s dug in: She ran away from home because she’s utterly convinced of her own righteousness, and it’s your damn problem if you think otherwise. She is avoidant and oppositional-defiant, and everyone else just has to deal with it. She may not pick her hills well, but by God will she die on them. Props for having a protagonist this openly messy and unpleasant. Plenty of musicians, or really anyone working in a group for that matter, can be abrasive and stubborn, and TogeToge’s growing pains are a necessary element of their development as a band.

I know the bar isn’t very high for 3D computer-generated anime when it doesn’t come from Studio Orange, but this is easily one of the best-looking 3DCG anime I’ve ever seen. Between this and Trigun Stampede, I’m blown away at how expressive characters can be in CG, and how they react to what’s around them in real-time more consistently than you’d see in most 2D animation. Speaking of which, Girls Band Cry isn’t entirely in 3D; much of the OP as well as several flashbacks and background characters are hand-drawn, and they look so goddamn good that I’m almost left wondering what could’ve been. Not that I’m disappointed in the slightest; when the 3D animation hits, it REALLY hits in gorgeous synaesthetic waves that so perfectly depict an intersection of sound, light, and emotion. Hell, even the transition cards are huge eye catchers. Not everything looks brilliant all the time; the pets in particular are uncannily low-res and almost look like they got plucked out of KamiKatsu.

Of course, this is a band show, so the audio element has to be on point as well, and I’d say Girls Band Cry is up to snuff. The anime is part of a larger multimedia project, and the entire main cast consists of audition winners performing under mononyms, and they knock it out of the damn park; they’re pretty goddamn great for supposed newcomers. The music is a blast as well, not just in performance scenes but in the background as well. Togenashi Togeari already existed in the zeitgeist as a virtual band before this show went to air, so they already had a small discography out there before the show went to air and I’m looking forward to digging into it.

Infamously, this show isn’t particularly easy to watch. Not in the thematic sense, but literally: You cannot legally watch it in English anywhere in the West. Despite its popularity, Girls Band Cry was never picked up by any Anglosphere-based streaming platforms, for whatever reason, and the only official English subtitles out there are from an Indonesian streamer. So, much like the days of VHS trading and the early internet, we’re forced to rely on community translations. Far be it from me to encourage piracy (lol), but if you can find a good fansub, Girls Band Cry is very much worth your while. Pinkies up, motherfuckers.

Kaiju No. 8

I don’t watch Demon Slayer or My Hero Academia, so this was my designated Shonen Jump action show of the season, and it came with a ton of buzz: The way I see it, if I can pick up a volume of the manga at Target, the inevitable anime adaptation is gonna be a big deal. I’ve not read Kaiju No. 8 yet, but I’d say the anime lives up to a good amount of the hype.

Japan has had to handle a constant threat of kaiju for many decades now, and as a child the way-too-aptly-named Kafka Hibino made a promise to his best friend Mina that they would both grow up to lead the Japan Anti-Kaiju Defense Force in charge of eliminating the threat. A couple decades later, she’s a national hero as a captain in the Force, while Kafka is in the private sector at age 32, cleaning up the enormous corpses and viscera Mina and her division leave behind. He hasn’t given up on his dreams, by any stretch; Kafka has failed every single enlistment application he’s submitted since he came of age, but he just keeps on trying.

Kafka and his work kohai, the upstart JAKDF hopeful Reno, manage to survive a kaiju attack at the end of a shift with minor injuries, but when they’re in the hospital, a potato-sized flying kaiju shoves itself down Kafka’s throat, causing him to transform into a kaiju. Fortunately, he’s able to change back to his human form just in time to pass the first round of Defense Force exams, with Reno warning him not to let anyone in on his secret during practical exams.

Kafka is pathetically weak in his human form and is repeatedly shown up by the daughter of the Defense Force’s director general, the young hotshot Kikoru (Fairouz Ai once again), but he manages to save her life when a training exercise goes haywire and forces him to transform and share his secret with her. Reno and Kikoru get in, no problem, while Kafka manages to squeak in as a cadet. Of course, without exposing his little-big kaiju secret, Kafka can’t do much to help in terms of actual combat, but he does frequently act as an unofficial tactician in directing his squadmates on the battlefield and, in a very smart writing decision, applying his professional knowledge of kaiju anatomy to help them identify and target weaknesses.

And from there we get a whole lot of early military training and bonding, and not just with Kafka, Reno, Kikoru, and their division’s vice-commander, the giggly Hoshina: There’s also, uh, Man-Bun! And Muscles! And Shark Teeth! And the Token Women! You know, those guys. Yeah, this is ostensibly an ensemble cast, as any good battle shonen should be, but I really didn’t get much from anyone outside the main few characters other than identifying features. I’m sure we’ll get more out of them in subsequent seasons but I have little to work off of right now.

The main three are great, though: Kafka definitely has shonen protag brain even at his age, but he’s still necessary representation for schlubby guys in their 30s who still have hopes and dreams (we exist and our stories matter), and for as serious and focused as Reno likes to think he is, he makes a great tsukkomi whenever Kafka starts acting up. Kikoru is already an icon as well; she’s basically Asuka Langley Sohryu for the zoomer generation. I feel a little weird about the fact that she’s literally half Kafka’s age and still acts kinda tsundere around him, but this is a shonen at the end of the day.

I have some small nagging issues with the story here and there, but nothing that outright ruins the show for me. Like plenty of others, I’m far more fascinated with the ins and outs of how Japanese society adapted to living with kaiju threats outside of just military preparation and response; Kafka’s initial job in kaiju cleanup was actually really neat and I’d have loved it just as much (and possibly more) if the series had just focused on that. I want some damn world building! I also am not crazy about the focus on the Defense Force’s powerscaling in the form of “Unleashed Combat Power,” but I also just plain don’t care about powerscaling to begin with. Wasn’t the entire point of power levels in Dragon Ball Z that it’s pointless to define someone’s fighting spirit by a number? Maybe they drop it later.

This show looks pretty darn good! Production IG clearly put its A-team on this one; the character animation is cartoonishly bouncy and expressive in ways we rarely see outside of Trigger productions, and the big-ass kaiju are all mercifully in outstanding 2D (though I wouldn’t complain about CG; the OP is entirely in 3D and looks exceptional). The silliness of the animation really came through in one of the funniest scenes in any anime I watched this season. Some of the textures can look a little distractingly muddy at times, but hey, these are big ugly monsters we’re looking at. Make those bastards ugly.

On a certain level, I can appreciate the effort put into this show to try to make it a crossover success; the manga is popular and kaiju films remain one of Japan’s greatest cultural exports. Streaming new episodes on the fetid corpse of Twitter was certainly a decision. I can also appreciate wanting to load up the soundtrack with popular Western artists; my problem is that they went with acts I actively avoid like YUNGBLUD (with writing by Imagine Dragons!) and OneRepublic. Suffice to say, I don’t care for the OP and ED on a musical level, but I know that I’m coming at this with a conscious bias. I’m sure they’re hits over in Japan, and for all I know there are music fans over there with the same tastes and disposition as me who think that some Japanese acts I learned about through anime like, say, Bump of Chicken or Queen Bee, are “coworker music” or whatever. I’ll live.

Kaiju No. 8, at the end of the day, is another battle shonen with guns and big monsters, but sometimes that’s all you need. I’ll be coming back for the next season.

Train to the End of the World

Spring 2024 was a banner season for girls anime. From the veteran director/writer duo that gave us cult hits like Squid Girl, Shirobako, and Prison School (and individual credits on a laundry list of classic and cult-favorite anime across the board) comes an original anime that’s not quite Cute Girls Doing Cute Things, nor Cute Girls Doing Amazing Things, but Cute Girls Being Fucking Weirdos in a Weird World.

7G technology has arrived in Japan and immediately wreaked unknowable chaos. Geography, flora, and fauna have all warped beyond recognition, and in the town of Agano, every human above a certain age has become a talking animal. Shizuru, a still-human high school girl, has been looking for her best friend Youka ever since they got in a fight two years ago and the latter ran off, just before the 7G cataclysm. She finds out that Youka has been spotted in Ikebukuro, and with the help of a babbling train conductor who managed to briefly turn lucid, learns to operate a two-car commuter train to get the hell out of dodge. Just before Shizuru leaves, train stocked with Agano’s famous goya melons, she’s joined by her classmates: The soft-spoken Nadeko, the temperamental bookworm Akira, and the rambunctious gyaru Reimi. Youka’s dog, Pochi, also joins for morale purposes. Along the way, they see just how warped Japan has become, with locals in the various towns ranging from mushroom people to zombies to Lilliputians to characters from their favorite anime, and more.

Try as I might, a summary does not do Train to the End of the World justice; this show is as offbeat as offbeat gets. It makes no bones about how flat-out weird it wants to get and actively revels in it. It’s not really interested in making the girls into a new generation of moe icons either; they are unabashed weirdos, in the ways that really only high school girls can be, and they handle the bizarre situations foisted upon them in similar fashion. They get into arguments about dumb shit, hurl insults at strangers, and occasionally just talk about poop. The writing in this series is fascinating, and it really shouldn’t come as a surprise coming from someone who also has script-writing credits for classics like Cowboy Bebop and Ranma ½ on her resume. The dialogue is punchy and comes at a breakneck pace in ways that you really only get in original anime like ODDTAXI.

Train to the End of the World is an incredible dichotomy unto itself because it clearly comes from a very literate way of thinking but has a blast being really goddamn stupid sometimes, in the best ways. It draws on a lot of inspirations of the epics of yore, gleefully cites the western literary canon, and ponders the future of the human race, and then has the girls negotiate their release from a Gulliver’s Travels situation by threatening to flood a park with urine. It is at once Homer and Homer Simpson. This show is funny in ways that are hard to articulate; comedy is so intrinsic to the show that it only has so many laugh-out-loud moments, but much more often I found myself shaking my head and remarking “this show is fucking hilarious.”

As a complete story, Train to the End of the World isn’t exactly generation-defining, but that’s perfectly fine. It’s an experience more than anything. It has really nice character moments and some heartwarming stuff in there, but I was mostly there for the weird shit. The ending was just okay, but I didn’t feel any poorer for having seen it; I’ll dive right into the cliche and say that it wasn’t about the destination but rather the journey. I had an absolute blast for the whole ride.

Now that I’ve made you read all of this, I’m going to go ahead and admit that I haven’t seen Squid Girl, Shirobako, or Prison School, but I kind of have to now, because I was bowled over by this show. This series revels in surrealism, so your mileage may vary, but it’s at the very least worth checking out. It may not have a lasting impact outside of some similar cult favoritism, but this was still my personal favorite new anime of the season.

Wind Breaker

A few weeks into the Spring season I felt like I was missing something. I gave Wind Breaker a shot and I realized about halfway into the first episode that what I was missing was just some dope-ass fisticuffs.

Haruka is a bit of a delinquent. His hair and eyes are heterochromic, and because he’s judged so harshly for his looks, he decided to lean into it and become the nogoodnik everyone thinks he is. He’s moved to a new town to join the local high school Furin, where he hears he’ll have to fight his way to the top, but as soon as he arrives in town he sees a young woman being harassed by a group of creeps. He takes them out on his own and in return receives a free lunch from the cafe she runs despite his protestations. After she teases him more than a little (his ass is NOT used to positive attention), the creeps return with more goons in tow, and Haruka is backed up by his new classmates. To his surprise, the locals shower the Furin boys with praise, and he then learns that Furin’s gang, Bofurin, exists solely to protect the town from outside threats. And Haruka thinks that is the coolest shit ever.

From there, Haruka gets to meet more of the Bofurin boys, and because of his standoffish personality, rebuffs their praises from the fight. Again, his ass is NOT used to positive attention. We get to learn the hierarchy of Bofurin, and it’s not exactly as Haruka expected: This is not a might-makes-right dogpile at all; it is a structured organization that protects its own and puts its community first. Soon enough, though, they happen upon one of their middle schoolers being hassled by a neighboring gang, and they organize a tournament on hostile ground to resolve their differences.

I am an absolute goddamn sucker for the “delinquent with a heart of gold” archetype, and Haruka is just a big ol’ tsundere from the opening minutes, so Wind Breaker hit like fucking catnip for me. For a show about gangs of delinquents, this could actually be a good example of positive masculinity if you look at it in a certain light. It’s very heavy-handed with the message that nobody can achieve greatness on their own and that surrounding yourself with the right people can change your life for the better. It’s not a rare theme in Japanese media by any means (it’s a central theme of the Persona series as well as another ultra-popular shonen series I’ve been reading in secret), but I really appreciate it being delivered through the lens of channeling brute strength and fighting prowess specifically to protect the vulnerable.

At the end of the day, though, it’s really just about guys bein’ dudes.

The production values on this are phenomenal and I have to commend CloverWorks for turning in yet another banger. The cast is deep and plenty talented (there’s a lot of Jujutsu Kaisen in there, and it should surprise nobody that the goofy, silver-haired leader of Bofurin is voiced by Yuichi Nakamura). The animation, shot composition, fight choreography, and lighting effects are all absolutely gorgeous, and it’s clear that they see this as a potential franchise. At least, I would certainly hope so, because what we actually got from the first season left me a little hungry. The tournament arc was juicy, and it went a lot longer toward introducing the ensemble cast than the two other action shows I just talked about, but it lasted about an episode too long for a 13-episode season, and the ending came at an awkward time. I was left wanting, but what I want is a second season, so I guess it did its job.

The issues with pacing and the weirdly-timed ending meant that Wind Breaker was a bit of a fence case for me between this section and the last, but my memories of watching it are almost uniformly positive, so into The Gems it goes. This show rocks. Dudes rock.

#anime reviews

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agentnico · 2 months ago

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Agatha All Along - season 1 (2024) review

Down down, down the road, down the Witches Road…

Plot: A spell-bound Agatha Harkness regains freedom thanks to a teen's help. Intrigued by his plea, she embarks on the Witches' Road trials to reclaim her powers and discover the teen's motivations.

I’m not going to waffle about my complaints with the current state of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I’ve already rambled on a substantial amount in my previous reviews regarding this subject matter, so let’s leave it at the fact that my opinion and thoughts have not changed. That being said, WandaVision was one of the few enjoyable projects in the post-Endgame MCU era, as it had that original and unique flavour with messing with different television formats, and additionally was interesting in how that show explored the effects of trauma and grief. Naturally due to its success, Disney being Disney and Marvel being Marvel meant a sequel or a spin-off was inevitable. In this case it’s Agatha Harkness, who was played with a lot of funky energy by Kathryn Hahn in WandaVision. As enjoyable as she was, I never considered her to need her own show. I guess really anyone can get their own Disney+ series these days!

Kathryn Hahn is the primary reason to watch Agatha All Along. She’s as enjoyable as ever, cackling and wincing her way through each episode, and it was entertaining to constantly question her moral code, if she’s a villain or if she was turning to the good side. Hahn is great, and I am so glad she’s getting the recognition snd good roles now. As for other cast members, they are okay. Joe Locke as the teen came off a little pretentious, and Patti LuPone was the only witch I actually cared about. Aubrey Plaza as the mysterious Rio ends up being exactly what you expect her to be, and though Plaza nails the sarcasm, it’s nothing you haven’t seen her do before.

In regard to the series’ style, it’s really campy. The trailers in my opinion promised more horror aspects which were not present in the final product, but my main complaint is with the show’s look. It feels cheap. From the costumes to the sets, the whole thing is reminiscent of a CW or SyFy show, and you can tell Disney is probably tightening their budgets following the backlash of recent releases. But with something like Marvel you still expect to see something of visually interesting style, especially as they are sourcing a lot of narratives from comics and graphic novels, which one would assume would inspire more colourful and memorable set pieces. Unfortunately this show doesn’t offer any of that. The best you get is some rip-off witch costumes from other Disney projects, which I felt was more so for Disney to show-off how much Hollywood they own.

As for the narrative, for the most part this show is dull. It’s a very repetitive concept where in every episode our witches take on yet another trial, and though some trials do stand out more than others (episode 7 where a character time-jumps using tarot cards was particularly memorable) as a combined package it meant that catching up every week with a new episode was at times a chore. The other infuriating factor was the endless foreshadowing. This show consistently would bash you over the head with clues of what’s to come, but the clues were so predictable that when the reveals finally did pay-off they were not surprising even remotely. Reminded me a little of that Walk Hard segment where the kid says “ain’t nothing bad gonna happen today” only for him to get spliced in two 5 minutes later.

Superhero fatigue is real everyone! It’s happening! I’m kidding of course, I’m still holding out hope that Marvel and DC will get back to their former glory, but evidently there is still a long ways to go. Agatha All Along didn’t do it for me, however I do admit that Witches Road song is a banger and has been stuck in my head ever since!

Overall score: 4/10

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hajihiko · 2 years ago

Note

What did you make of DR3's explanation for how the characters became Despairs?

I dont like it. Here's a re-write i was thinking about

Ok note: this is what would have made the School Life thing more enjoyable TO ME. Not gonna fit for everyone obvi

Ok first of all. Junko loses most of her potential if you take away her being sneaky and manipulative, which we barely even got to see in the games, so I want that in ACTION.

Second of all, this takes time. More than just like a single moment of anime hypnotism. Junko was definitely working her suckers for at least a year. I dont know how that reflects on the timeline and I dont super care

Chisa's class is full of chaos, these are some of the rowdiest students you'll find. They have potential for getting along, but they're also Very Troubled, and Chisa is a kind soul who tries to help them out with various issues. Actual attention paid to these kids being, like, KIDS, but also having some major red flags in their backgrounds that could escalate out of control very fast.

Among others, she tries to get Chiaki to come out of her shell and interact with the others more. This is hard, because Chiaki is not exactly receptive to it at first, but theres a little bit of unity between all the students anyway and they slowly start becoming friends. Chiaki uses this friendship guidance to befriend a lonely boy who often stares longingly at the school, whom she's noticed by silently sticking to the background when he's around. This will come in handy later.

Until, certain students start hanging out with their junior of 1 year, who always seems to be kind of slinking around and hanging with at least one student a day. Chiaki notices this because a) shes very quiet and mostly goes unnoticed when she's in the background, and b) she only needs half her attention span to play games anyway.

The people Junko hangs around get noticeably worse, though not necessarily more divided; just sort of 10 steps backwards for every 1 step Chisa helped them take. The rude and mean ones stop trying to be kinder, the shy and meek ones retreat even more, etc. Chisa is at a complete loss with this, but Chiaki confides in her that it might be the new student making trouble. Chisa takes over, and encourages Chiaki to keep trying to make friends with the others, which Chiaki does.

(Mahiru gets scared into telling no one what happened / what she suspects happened in Natsumi's murder, and gets rid of the evidence, as advised. The evidence she throws away gets mailed to Fuyuhiko, who is encouraged to avenge his sister. Guess who orchestrated all that?)

Chiaki does not fall into Junko's claws, because she's quiet and unobtrusive and, importantly, less desperate for what Junko can give her than the rest is. Chiaki does, after all, have her teacher who took the reigns and told Chiaki to grab her own oxygen mask first, and her Lonely Boy to confide in, and whenever she starts to lose herself, he gently reminds her to stand firm. That's right, the secret weapon was the friends we made along the way, just like in the ending.

(Hajime is probably just doing things more or less like in the anime, maybe listens to Chiaki's growing worries about her semi-friends, shits getting fucked and the only conceivable way Hajime can help is by agreeing to be a lab rat obviously what else. Biggest downfall is wanting to be there for Chiaki, but not letting her be there for him in return. Because inferiority complex.)

Chisa goes to confront this troubled mystery girl; Junko catches her too and starts working her nasty magic- for example, did you know two of your students were a part of a murder? Aren't you supposed to be guiding them? Do you know what's really happening in this school? Do you wanna see the human experimentation they just started? Did you know your best friend is in love with your crush and you can't confide in either of them anymore actually? Etc.

Chiaki is all alone now. When she finally DOES confront Junko, once the whole class along with the teacher has been sort of indoctrinated and her Lonely Boy has ditched her and she's feeling a bit brave because of it all), Junko kills her horribly in front of everyone as they do nothing. Not because they were hypnotized, but because they choose to. This is what really marks the point of no return for them. Chiaki was a quiet and harmless and mostly very nice girl, and her death was pointless, and they were a part of it, and they got away with it.

Instead of being a practically perfect student council president, Chiaki has more of an NPC theme, falling into the background more but also being honest and nice and willing to work with people. Then later, obviously, she really is an NPC and repeats the process, but this time she manages to save her boy and therefore her class.

(I'm not opposed to Chiaki being JUST an AI and never a part of the class at all, but I havent thought about it as much so idk any good points)

Hajime retains the same themes, but gets to be more of a juxtaposition of Junko, sneaking into everyone's hearts by befriending them and helping them move forward instead of backwards. He wins with the power of friendship and all that jazz.

Everyone else gets way more accountability to take. No hypnotism or brain poking, just digging into the worst parts of themselves and then indulging them entirely (with the help of Ultimate Charismatic Cult Leader Junko). I think the most interesting thing about this whole narrative could be that Anyone is capable of intense cruelty, and Anyone can choose to be a better person moving forward.

anyway in my mind that's what happened differently.

#Not an art #Talky Talky Tuesday #Talky Talky #I hope I wont reread this and find it makes no sense but eh

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justali-anne · 2 months ago

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Thought Week: Undyne

Undyne. Oh, Undyne Undyne Undyne. Oh, shoot. I can't think of an intro. So I'm just gonna get into it.

(You know the drill by now, I think. If you have any thoughts about Undyne, please please PLEASE leave them in the notes.)

First Impressions

I think I first encountered Undyne during my own playthrough? I never really saw her in any comic dubs or songs, which were my first exposure to Undertale. And I don't particularly remember watching other people play the game either, besides DanTDM and Jacksepticeye, of course (my childhood YouTubers besides Stampy and Squid). I knew she was the third boss and Papyrus' friend somehow (idk when, I just did). That's all I knew about her.

My earliest memory with Undyne was struggling at her boss fight during my first playthrough because I couldn't figure out how to spare her, and I was terrible at blocking her attacks, ESPECIALLY HER YELLOW BACKWARDS ONES!!!

Excuse my language, but THIS IS BULLSHIT! It's because of HER that I ended up resetting the entire game because I didn't get good enough healing items. SCREW YOU, UNDYNE!

So, yeah. Tough boss.

My Impressions Now

When it comes to playing the actual game, Undyne is my third favourite character to be with. She is a super fun, super passionate character that makes everything more exciting! Her "date" is actually amongst one of my favourite scenes in the game just because of how fun and silly it was! I don't know if you can tell, but I love lighthearted, silly, goofy stuff, so this was right up my alley!

(Jeebus, Undyne, no need to be so aggressive, I just wanted a drink lol)

In terms of depth and issues, she doesn't exactly stand out compared to characters like Sans, Alphys and Asgore, but honestly, I still think she's a complex character in her own right! It just doesn't seem like it because there are a lot of other characters with mental health issues and angst while Undyne... doesn't really have any of that? She's a fun, confident, tough warrior who takes it upon herself to protect the hopes and dreams of every monster in the underground. Although, on the other hand, Undyne taking so much responsibility on her shoulders means that she's prone to blaming herself whenever a fellow monster gets hurt because she's unable to protect them. She cares a LOT about her fellow monsters, so while she rightfully hates you if you kill people after befriending her, she's also angry at herself too.

(I skipped over some dialogue, but here's the gist of it)

I like how loyal she is and how fun she is. She's generally a very enjoyable character. Unlike Sans and Papyrus, who I love to dissect and analyse, I just like Undyne because she's got really awesome scenes, a bunch of passion, and a really enjoyable fight (that caused me to reset, forgiven, but not forgotten). Also, her determination. HOW ON EARTH DID SHE GET DETERMINED ENOUGH TO BRING HERSELF BACK TO LIFE TEMPORARILY?!?! That is an AWESOME power!!!! She isn't just a monster. She is a BEAST. And I love her for it.

Undyne and her Complicated Relationship with Humanity

A lot of fans mentioned something about her prejudice against humans, and while that's a part of it, it doesn't seem to be the whole picture when it comes to her thoughts about humanity.

Let's start off with the prejudice side of things. She does hold a bit of prejudice towards humans, like a lot of monsters do. And it's not like she doesn't have a reason for that. When you think about it, it's a pretty understandable character flaw to have with a character like Undyne, someone who wants to make everyone's hopes and dreams come true. In her eyes, humans have denied her people their rightful freedom. She wants to claim the last soul so she can bring them that freedom. Like I stated earlier, she cares very deeply for her people. She takes her position as the Head of the Royal Guard extremely seriously, despite her otherwise "overdramatic anime protagonist" attitude.

And come to think of it, this is mostly just speculation, but she's really close to Asgore. Surely she must have heard the story of how his kids died at the hands of humans. Surely she must know how much killing humans takes a toll on Asgore. She definitely knows that he's a big softie at the end of the day. So it wouldn't be a stretch to assume that maybe she wants to take the last human soul so he wouldn't have to do it? Sure, her main motivations mostly involve herself and her people's hopes and dreams, but she could be doing it for Asgore too. I dunno, it's more of a hunch than anything. Take it with a grain of salt.

But here's where things get more complicated. Everything Undyne knows about humans comes from "human history" AKA anime. And she's clearly a huge fan of it! She's outright disappointed in the mercy route when it turns out that you're a merciful wimp, at least until you change her mind.

So she doesn't see humans as all bad. She thinks they're cool. Also, consider how fast she becomes friends with you after you deal a super wimpy punch to her. Like seriously, that's all it took? A trick from Papyrus and then a disastrous friendship date was all it took to get her to change her mind about you? People with prejudices in real life, as I've heard, are really stubborn and set in their ways, and then Undyne comes in and after a day, she's like, "Nah, we're not enemies anymore." Freaking love this woman.

The Narrative

Undyne is an amazing support for other characters, I've realised. She's close with depressed King Asgore, she's Papyrus' first friend besides you and his own brother, and of course, there's her relationship and crush on Alphys. And like Papyrus, she's a crucial stepping stone for you to get the best ending. It seems that your chances of getting everyone to the surface hinges on whether you can befriend Undyne or not. It's her love letter that allowed you to befriend Alphys, after all.

She's also pretty realistic in her reactions if you kill literally ANYONE. Imagine if someone came into your community, a community that you swore to protect with your life, and killed someone, or even multiple people. Like, why would anyone want to befriend someone like that? Seriously, killing ONE person is enough for Undyne to hate you forever. And it's even worse if you befriend her and THEN kill a guy. To her, that's the ultimate betrayal! So, yeah! Pretty realistic, I'd say! It definitely puts into light how much of a scumbag you are if you kill anyone.

And then there's the murder route! She's among the toughest monsters in the Underground, so managing to kill her Undyne the Undying form really puts into perspective how hopeless the situation is for the monsters in the underground. She was their guardian, their light. She actually had a chance of beating you, and let's be real, she probably beat you over a dozen times by the time you finally got to her. And it was her death that triggered Alphys to evacuate the survivors, too. Her Undying battle has a bigger impact than you might expect. After all, at that point, there was no one left that could possibly take you on except Asgore and Mettaton, to the monsters' knowledge. I doubt they knew about Sans' abilities, anyway. So for them, Undyne was their best shot. It's heartbreaking, really.

Conclusion

So, Undyne! Very fun character, definitely in my top three favourite characters! She's so passionate and it rubs off on me easily. I still haven't forgotten that time she made me reset because I didn't have very good healing items... HAHAHAHAHA, I will never forget. I can't wait to write her, she's a blast!

Remember to add your thoughts about Undyne in the notes! Please?

#undertale #undyne #thought week #my thoughts

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thevalleyoftriumph · 7 months ago

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actually not to keep talking abt a topic hours later but i want to build off of one of my tags on that ultrakill post i rb'd last night [and im ONLY going to expand on one of my points, i will not be bringing up any other arguments in this post]

people love love love to say stuff like "pronouns =/= gender" [correct] and that you dont NEED to have specific pronouns such as he/him or she/her to be gay or lesbian [also correct], and while these two are great points that i agree with, it seems that these peoples support for this only goes as far as they/them users.

the absolute SECOND that a characters gender expression is canonically different from a "classic nonbinary" expression, its suddenly "up in the air" and "for your interpritation." and why is that?

specifically in the case of v1 and v2 from ultrakill; two canonically genderless/genderqueer/agender/nonbinray/what have you characters. v1 is VERY commonly seen as masc, and v2 is very commonly seen as fem.

v1 and v2 are also commonly headcannoned as gay and lesbian, respectively. theyre commonly shipped with characters seen as masc and fem. do you see what connections im beginning to see?

like it or not, by disregarding the canonical gender expression [or lacktherof] for these two, in order to fit them both into simple, binary, gendered boxes to also fit your specific sexuality headcanon - is in fact, an act of erasure! it comes off as INCREDIBLY iffy to fit nonbinary characters into a "masc nonbinary" and "fem nonbinary" binary.

and the fact is, i see people less often use other pronouns than it/its for these two for headcanon purposes or for fun or for projection, and more for SHIPPING purposes. there is a MASSIVE difference between adding onto a characters canonical pronouns for your own enjoyment and preference, and COMPLETELY changing them because you want a certain ship to be more gay, or whatever. an it/its user can be gay! it can also be a lesbian! it using it/its doesnt make it any less gay or any less of a lesbian, and it definitely doesnt make it any less nonbinary/genderqueer!

idk its just like. the machines in ultrakill [and most importantly v1 as the player character] being exclusively referred to as it/its is a major part of them and who they are. it is how they all express their gender CANONICALLY in the game. there are no other refferals no other pronouns, nothing. by disregarding this fact SO quickly, along with often only being for shipping reasons, you are showing that you Do Not Care for what the canon text is trying to tell you about the machines. im sorry but thats how it reads to me.

genuinely people love nonbinary characters until theyre the "wrong kind" of nonbinary, and all of a sudden jump through as many hoops as they physically can to disregard anything to do with that.

end of posts notes because if this post gets rb'd in any way or even breaches containment i know people will say stuff at me;

1] no, hakitas tweet about using "whatever you want" for the machines doesnt count IN THIS POST. nor does the discord. not everyone who plays the game is going to SEE either of those. while you could consider it canon [and i do! trust me! hakitas word is absolutely canon!] that doesnt mean it is ABSOLUTE, or the canon that is being INTENDED to be shown. most people are only going to see the in-game text, which is what is most important to me considering this post.

2] ive seen people making the argument that making nonbinary characters inhuman is like. bad rep or something idk im not doing the argument justice bc i dont remember it. but to that i say yes, i agree! we DO need more human nonbinary rep! boiling down every nonbinary person to be inhuman is Bad and you shouldnt instantly assume everyone whos nonbinary is Not Human! because that is really awful! do not misinterprite my stance here, i know what kind of website this is regarding reading comprehension! however comma that is not the point here. the machines using it/its isnt just from them being "inhuman nonbinary characters," it is a PART of the intended gender expression youre meant to gain from them. besides personally i adore inhuman nonbinary characters bc they kick ass and also im not human either. heart emoji.

3] no i am not saying you CANT listen to hakita and use different pronouns for the machines. at the end of the day hakitas word, regardless of if its in the game or not, is canon. im not your boss i cant tell you what to do. im not a fan of using he/him or she/her for Either v1 or v2 myself, but if it makes you happy, i literally cannot stop you. i hold no power over your decisions. i am once again saying, i am NOT tell you that you CANT do it.

just please. if your kneejerk reaction to being told "do what feels comfortable" about a characters pronouns, is to immediately assign the characters with it/its pronouns arbitrary masc/fem ones instead.. if that is your immediate kneejerk reaction, then PLEASE stop for a moment and consider why you feel that way specifically.

#kitkat chitchat #no tagging bc i dont want this to clutter any tags. if it ends up in there anyways then my bad i didnt mean it dont get on my ass abt it #i just had to really expand on my point from that post bc this is something that has bugged me for YEARS.#im very passionate for stuff like this idk #yes you can reblog if you want but if i see anyone pulling any clownery youre getting blocked ok ? ^_^#im not open to arguments here <3 sorry <3

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stuffingprize · 10 months ago

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Why ship Agon & Yoichi? Finally the 3rd & final portion of my long AgoHiru meta post!! Ready to dive in full? Part 1 | Part 2

~~Part 3~~

WORLD YOUTH CUP - A smile worth 3 million

We've reached the final arc!! After the Christmas Bowl, Japan gets a chance at forming an all star high school line-up to play in America. Agon decides to join & we get to see him interact with a wider variety of characters, showing us more of his similarities to Yoichi as he's put in places where he must team up.

Violence, deceit & lack of patience over sentimental speeches #justgeniusdevilthings

Unsurprisingly, he still gives Ryokan lots of flack, refusing to acknowledge him throughout most of the arc despite everyone else agreeing that he is an essential asset to the team.

Truly unbelievable! Agon just can’t stand having Ryokan in the way of his time with Yoichi two years & one lost match later...

On Yoichi's end, however, he doesn't seem to be the type to hold on to grudges. Despite the hurt Agon put his friends through, Yoichi prefers being practical & can put it all aside if it means gaining an ally for his current goals. Ultimately, Agon is a useful player to have & we know that Yoichi is especially fond of those he finds “useful.”

Plus it's fun to see that Yoichi is practically the only person who can talk smack & laugh at Agon's face & get away with it (Mizumachi tried).

And because there are areas where he & Agon just get each other, Yoichi calls on him to do a Flying Dragon & Criss Cross together during their game against the American team, which they pull off perfectly despite never having played together before.

When Sena & Monta attempted their first Criss Cross against Teikoku, they fumbled the ball bad

Finally, Agon gets a chance to play with Yoichi, & it is absolutely of no surprise to me at all that THIS is the precise moment Agon begins to enjoy football!!!

Agon has smiled plenty on the field before, when his motivation was to “crush those without talent.” Agon has done the Flying Dragon before, with Ikkyu whose talent he praises & his twin whom he actually cares about. But here, his enjoyment is enough to make him laugh. By wordlessly being in sync with Yoichi. Teaming up with & having fun with Yoichi, perhaps like they used to before football.

In fact, Agon was so engrossed in this part of the game that he overlooks Mr. Don coming for him!

Shien (the Kid) is comparing Agon's experience in this moment to the time when he had finally admitted to something he truly wanted during the Hakushuu game!! An interesting insight

Lucky for Agon, Ryokan comes to his aid because winning this game is more important than their drama! (& because he's a sweetheart)

And after these successful series of plays where Agon finally shared the field with Yoichi & friends, we get this small development:

Is this tentatively the beginning of Agon letting go of his hurt & seeing Ryokan for what he truly is?

Although Ikkyu was usually his only exception when it came to adequate teammates, Agon would still say he was best if there were "22 players exactly like me." Here, Agon is opening up to the idea of finding value in other players. In Ryokan. In Yoichi. Even if he still sounds sore over it, it’s progress.

Yoichi influences Agon: +10 points! (Agon tempts teamwork.)

Despite this final arc's ups & downs, I enjoyed the small developments we got for Agon, as well as seeing Yoichi talk to him so casually. We begin to see how they treat each other differently now that they're teammates instead of opponents:

From weariness to fondness…

BONUS 100 POINTS: Agon & Yoichi enjoy playing football together!!

Before reaching the end, there’s still one more topic I’d like to talk about. Why has Yoichi, since so early on, piqued Agon’s interest anyway? It isn't about smarts or attraction, or deviousness. Well maybe just a little bit. Here's what I mean:

CRUSH THE UNTALENTED - Agon's Dissatisfaction

Above is Agon's officially stated no homo reasons for playing football back in vol 20 before Deimon vs Shinryuji. My interpretation being that Agon hates average try-hard players because his brother Unsui IS the average player who resigned himself, which really pisses Agon off because they’re twins & Agon feels his pain.

I personally think that if Unsui hadn't given up on himself so soon, then Agon wouldn't be twice on edge about average players who could be him. It's something that becomes evident in the World Youth Cup arc when he sees Unsui in Habashira & even taunts his brother over it.

And yet Yoichi who also fits the “average try-hard player” is someone Agon continues to be drawn to. We have this insight from Unsui himself during the Ojo vs Deimon rematch:

...Where Agon didn't follow up his usual "HUH??" with anything ridiculing Honjo's words. It's a rare moment that also happens between him & Yoichi back when they used to hang out:

These instances where Agon does not dismiss the speaker’s words as something ludicrous means that he’s in fact considering them as something valid! *gasp*

With this in mind, I think one reason Agon so carefully watches Yoichi is because he senses an answer he craves to his perpetual annoyance of average people. See, despite not being physically impressive, Yoichi continues to enthusiastically work towards his impossible goals seemingly undeterred by limitations. He “gets creative.”

Agon is a genius, they have a long history of them trying to read the other out, & yet he still says, "I've never understood this about you."

What is ambition all about? What is something worth struggling for? What good are teammates? I think Agon has always wanted to understand these differences between himself & Yoichi.

Yoichi influences Agon: +10000 points! (Agon’s attitude toward life football changes.)

AND TOUCHDOWN.. or is it? - The Undefeated Saikyodai Wizards

By now, I hope I've proven that Agon is continually drawn to & influenced by Yoichi & that it largely dictates many of his actions—whether it's to resist & oppose him or simply follow him into whatever interests him next. So it is only natural that Agon would follow Yoichi into college.

Well, it probably helped that Yoichi intentionally chose a different college from Ryokan this time around (lol).

These two devious men who had once teamed up to frame & take advantage of others, then threw each other out, are finally now fighting together for good after six years of back & forth drama..!

And thanks to the recent 21st Anniversary of the series, a Special chapter was published which revealed Saikyo College as the then Undefeated Champions. However, Sena Kobayakawa has joined the fray & the plot revolves around a chance for either Yoichi or Sena to join the NFL. The deciding factor being which team wins—Saikyo or Enma.

Back at the World Youtch Cup arc, Agon heard from Yoichi himself how badly he wanted to join the NFL. With this knowledge in mind, it’s safe to say that Agon not only is now playing because he wants to, but this game in particular because victory means Yoichi's new dream can come true!!

Similar to Gao, Agon once played football to destroy Yoichi's dreams. But now, it’s the opposite!

You see, all along, what Agon wanted was to get himself in the Devil’s sights. What he hated Ryokan for (taking Yoichi through football), what he hated Sena for (being Yoichi’s ace), was now his alone. Agon is the trump card Yoichi can count on..!

Such intense focus!! Agon as Saikyo College's Ultimate Player

Like we saw when they played against the Americans, Yoichi & Agon don’t need explicit instruction from each other. Their compatibility carries on. Wordlessly communicating~~~

Agon-speak for Of course I read you, honey.

With Agon becoming a serious athlete who trains & is now happily playing alongside Yoichi Hiruma, it’s no wonder that their team holds the title of Champions so far…!!

Yoichi influences Agon: +20 points! (Agon attends Saikyo College. Agon plays for the sake of Yoichi’s dream)

>>Yoichi influences Agon, FINAL COUNT: OVER 9 THOUSAND…!!!!!!!

AND THUS CONCLUDETH THEIR GET-TOGETHER LOVE STORY!!!

Standing together like this, they make up the titular #21!

Thank you for reading 🏈

#yoichi hiruma #agon kongo #eyeshield 21 #es21 #agohiru #yoiago #osu post

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loosescrewslefty · 2 years ago

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Hello! I want to write some fanfiction, but I want your help. How would you describe Raine's personality?

Raine strikes me as a character who knows themselves, and is comfortable in their own skin. Going through the motions of performing for others because it's demanded of them annoys and irritates them, because they don't care for attention, glory, or popularity. They aren't shy-- when something interests them, they usually are quite bold about pursuing it-- but they don't have the social spoons to play nice with people who don't interest them. They're an introvert, but not the shrinking wallflower variant that everyone assumes an introvert is and more of the person who gets begrudgingly dragged to a party by their more social friends and spends the night lurking in a dark corner with one eye on the clock counting down the seconds until this crap is over and they can go home to decompress. Their social circle is VERY small, VERY exclusive, and extremely dear to them since it's hard to find people who are tolerable for long periods of time, let alone actually LIKABLE.

I like imagine that Raine has developed two different 'faces' so to speak. The public 'face' for work, where they are a brilliant, polite, but slightly distant professional who gets things done as quickly and efficiently as possible (so they can retreat to a private space and decompress as quickly as they possibly can) and a private 'face' that only those close to them get to see, where they are goofier, cockier, and much freer with their opinions and views than they normally are. Raine also can sometimes rub people the wrong way because they don't play the Modesty Game. They know what they are good at and how to play to their strengths, and isn't afraid to be honest about that. This annoys a lot of people because rules of social engagement dictates that you have to humble yourself, because if you don’t that means you're stuck up or full of yourself and arrogance is seen as a bad trait when combined with talent. Raine isn't interested in wasting their time playing that game. They can go through the motions, to get through all the annoying parts as quickly and painlessly as possible, but they only do as much as they have to, and they are internally ROASTING everyone around them the entire time.

This is part of the reason they clicked so well with Eda so quickly. Eda is very much the same in this regard, which makes conversing with her much more enjoyable because Raine doesn't have to waste their energy trying to figure out what Eda ACTUALLY means or how she really feels, because Eda wears it all on her sleeve (until the curse came in and muddled the waters, at any rate).

Raine has a very strong sense of justice and is extremely firm on their moral compass. They don't care about the written word of Law. They judge right and wrong for themselves on a case-by-case basis, taking into account all the grey areas involved, and they do not stand by idly if something isn't fair. They are every bit as feral as Eda in this regard, but are a little better at keeping their cards close to their vest. They can actually PLAY the game, rather than immediately jumping across the table, punching their opponent in the face, then grabbing the entire pot and running out the door like someone set their hair on fire.

(They CAN do it that way. And, admittedly, it's more fun when they do get to let loose like that, but they're able to weigh the risks against the rewards and bide their time waiting for the right moment to act.)

On a personal level, I actually like considering the idea that Raine has the same type of Magical Neurodivergence we see in characters like Willow, Gus, and Alador. Magically, they are hyperfocused on a very specific field of study, excelling at that magic to the point of being considered prodigious. Socially, they are a little left of the crowd. They can be polite if the need calls for it, but for the most part they prefer to keep to a small social circle and are very choosey about who gets to be in that circle. Because of this, it wouldn't surprise me at all to find that Raine also has the ability to make their eyes glow.

A lot of this is part speculation, part projection, and part observation by watching Raine's behavior and interactions with others, which is sadly quite limited. If you are looking to write their character in a more in depth level, I fully encourage you to go back and map out their place in your story by writing out what you know to be important to them, where you can see them struggling, what their goals are, and why they are motivated to reach those goals. Having those points are usually a good place to start writing from, and once you move forward with your work, a lot of time you find yourself learning who they are as a character is while you work with them.

#the owl house #toh #raine whispers #eda clawthorne #raeda #catts #batts #meta

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bloogers-boogers · 1 year ago

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Do you have any South Park hot takes/unpopular opinions? 👀

Both for the fandom and the show itself

Hmm... well I haven't like thought of it too much cause I don't like to get involved in the fandom itself when it comes to discourses! I suppose my unpopular opinion is that I truly don't take south park seriously! I see it as it is. Completely satire with the purpose of making jokes about real world problems and getting out some laughter from it. That's how I see the episodes with no shipping goggles until after when I can actually just enjoy the content people make out of it and go crazy with theories and hcs for fun and enjoyment jhshqhsjs

I also see it meanless to pin people down when it comes to fictional ships nothing justifies a person sending d3ath threats/harassment to a REAL person over something that ISN'T real. And I dislike how people disrespect others when it comes to them actually liking the show for what it is. Technically when fans take fanon as legit from canon! fans shitting on people who don't go by their fanon/ship over them going with canon.

The other day I was reading a post about fans shitting on cryle. Dude it's fictional they're not doing any harm whatsoever! Creek is canon shipping that specific ship is not gonna take that away just like it won't take away stendy for shipping style:)

Please, I just can't. I cannot comprehend when fans take fanon too seriously.

Also— when people make Kyle ultra feminized. I'm sorry for those who do and like, idc if you do but I just personally don't like it. Same with Tweek. I just keep my distance and mind my own business. There's no need to be disrespectful for those who see/take things very differently than you and that's okay as long as you don't cause any harm or force anyone with them:"D

All the kids are assholes. Actually the whole town is! Cartman is an ass, yes. His character is intended to be an antagonist but that doesn’t take away the other shit anyone else from the show has done:)

Butters is a dick! He ain't no pure uwu boy he has his moments and IS friends with Cartman even if some say he's a victim. Like, it's shown in the show when Butters can't take Cartman's shit anymore he stops playing around! (In his own way he gets back at Cartman. Like that video tape of him dancing with a cut out of Justin timberlake, taking his hotdog business away or dragging cartmans ass back to the bus refusing to let go of his hand.) And he also finds Cartman bigoted comments funny too.

Besides, Victor was not a creation by being abused from Cartman in PC. Butters created that person for himself as a copping machine from taking ALL of the boys shit (bullied from everyone) (he literally points out all the other main boys issues in that Hawaiian ep atleast Stan and Kyle. Not just Cartman.) and IS a victim from his parents. It was a choice Butters made for going the Victor route being influenced by the environment he had to endure.

Also Liane is a bad mother she is no sweet angel. She has been shown to be more stricter in recent seasons but that doesn’t erase the fact that she has done shit to Cartman just as much as he has done to her. Maybe even more:"D

People who want Cartman d3ad is like asking for Garrison, Randy (and anyone that goes against their fanon) gone. It takes the essence of the show entirely. Cartman is literally south park.

Besides, if Cartman isn't there who do you guys think would be pin as the new asshole in town? Everyone there is shitty, the possibility is endless:)))) (main three?? Stan, Kyle, Kenny:333)

I dislike the fatphobia in this fandom. No more take on this cause this is a sensitive subject I do not want to take part of!

Main boys ARE Cartman's friends. It's as obvious as day those three care in their own way. That one percent episode they literally went to ask the kids they thought were the cause of the fire to stop harassing their friend. People who don't care wouldn't even bother to intervene.

Liking a bad character doesn't make you a bad person! I personally like Cartman, he's my favorite. I can admit he has problems and is very problematic! And I would never follow by all the shit he says, realistically I would NOT be around a person like that. However the way he's written drove me to like him and the fact that he's just a fictional character~ also PC has proven that Cartman can change:)

Just a reminder that these are just my takes! No one has to follow them or am I attempting to shove my opinions onto anyone. And they're not always consistent. My views on things change a lot.

I love reading diffrent opinions on things, hc's, ships just as much as I like to read when it comes to character analysis, lore, theories. I'm opened to listen and take diverse opinions from the show/fandom.

This is fictional it's not real! So I would never take it to heart:) <3

Sorry this is mostly about the fandom I truly have nothing against the show unless being tired of the tegrity farm gag 😭🤣

Also my bad for the long rant malu (I did not intend for this to be long) 💀

#asks♡#hopefully no one hates me after this 😭😭

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tater-tot-jr · 4 months ago

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I’m making this specifically at the request of @anonym-potato

Anyway, HSR 2.5 yapping. (Spoilers, duh.)

So, that was pretty neat. It wasn’t perfect, and had more glaringly obvious flaws than the last few patches, but it was enjoyable all around. I already know there are gonna be people calling this patch trash. It’s not. Don’t listen to them.

To get down to brass tacks, let’s talk about a few things that really stood out to me. The beginning was very very strong. Feixiao mentoring Yanqing was sweet, and it was funny to watch Danny get dragged back to prison for a third time. It was also nice to get some explanation about the situation with Hoolay’s imprisonment and learn just a tad bit more about what Dan Heng went through. Those three definitely had the side story of the patch, but they served their purpose well.

Before we go further I’d like to talk about some of the issues I had. They didn’t ruin my experience, but they were noticeable enough for me to talk about it. That Hoolay fight was super fucking hard, right? My friends (who have much better teams than I do and have actually put money into the game) also agree it was strangely difficult. I felt like he did too much damage to you and didn’t take enough damage, and that made his whole fight really clunky to play. Additionally, the pacing was a little wonky. Some sections felt like they were too early or too late in the story. The biggest example is the conclusion to the Dan Heng/Jing Yuan/Lingsha story. It felt a little forced and out of place. Although the actual content of the mission was great. Dan Heng just fucking chucking his spear at Taron after he had just spent forever talking about how they wouldn’t dare break the dragon people code was so funny.

Let’s talk characters. Yanqing finally got to complete his arc, and he got a massive W. His growth in 2.4 and 2.5 has been a highlight of both patches. I like how dedicated he is, I like how he’s really seemed to grow up. He had some really badass moments. He probably landed the single biggest blow on Hoolay we’ve ever seen, barring self inflicted wounds. I’m just happy he finally got to grow into himself a little more, if we don’t see much more of him I won’t be upset. He had a satisfying conclusion to his arc.

Okay okay listen, I know this was supposed to be Feixiao’s patch. I know. She was great! We got to learn a little bit more about her and her lore, and I think everyone loves our lacking general. But… she had her patch stolen lmao. Jiaoqiu was 2.5’s baby, he was the bitch of the hour, he was the star of the show. I’m not even mad about it either. Shit was peak.

Jiaoqiu’s arc with Hoolay was the best part of this patch. It was so hard to watch. They really didn’t pull their punches. I mean some of the things they choose to put Jiaoqiu through… Since you’ve gotten this far I don’t care about spoiling you. The way the choose to end his story in 2.5 was tragic. I was sure they were actually going to kill him, I was losing my mind. Him drinking the poison because he knew that Hoolay would want to drink his blood is so unbelievably badass. If he had actually died from that I don’t think anyone would be bashing the writing. I’ve already seen some debate about if they should’ve actually killed him, or if his survival is more interesting. Personally I like keeping him alive as a choice, specifically because they took his sight. The more I thought about that the more I realized how cruel it is. He’s a doctor, and a cook. You can’t really be a doctor while blind, and he probably couldn’t cook meals with the level of complexity he’d like. Not only that, but he’s clearly deeply traumatized by the experience. Wondering aloud if Feixiao is really speaking to him or if it’s a trick to kill him. He said he was content but honest to god I don’t believe him. I don’t think those are the words or the tone of someone who is actually at peace with their decision.

And his VA? Hello?? Brother must’ve had rent due or something because goddamn he killed it. Jiaoqiu kept getting more afraid, injured, and miserable as the story progressed and his VA managed to portray that without going over the top or sounding hammy. There was so much emotion in his voice, it was crazy. That was an all time great HSR vocal performance.

Those are most of my thoughts for now. I suppose I’ll probably be back for 2.6.

#honkai star rail #hsr 2.5

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longbobmckenzie · 4 months ago

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THTH Season 3 Thoughts

It's been awhile since I've done a thoughts post, but we're over halfway now, and I definitely have some thoughts.

Overall, I'm enjoying the season - I adore Taz, and I look forward to playing it every week. However... I also have a lot of criticisms.

The Love Interests

The love interests are carrying this season!! Taz is the only one I'm really in love with, but I think they're all really good and well-rounded, and there's something for everyone. They have a lot of depth, their loyal routes develop at a really nice pace, and I love that they can be customized! They're the best part of the season and imo they're what make it as enjoyable as it is. Unlike...

The OG "Friends"

I hate them all, and I have since the very first week. Sean is a self-centred annoying asshole (I know some people like him and think he just needs to mature, but he's a big fat no from me). Victoria is an ugly bitch who just uses others to get off. Julian has annoyed me from day 1 with his dramatics, and I didn't like Giselle either but she's only gotten worse and worse. Like girl, if you don't even like Sean that much, maybe don't have sex with him? She's being treated as a sympathetic character, but she wasn't being manipulated or emotionally abused, and she could have spoken her mind. Asshole.

I honestly have had no desire to take the options that give friendship points, so my meters are barely filled for any of them and as a result I lost money when they didn't agree with me when I wanted to forfeit $10k when Poppy and Julian were in the suite. Oops.

The FTL Routes

I really like Avi, and while Poppy was annoying at first, I know people who are doing her route are really loving it. I love the slow burn friends-to-lovers thing so I really love this element - however I would have much preferred it if they were OGs. For Avi especially, it didn't really make sense that he kissed us on the date only to immediately friendzone us. I think it would have made so much more sense if he were there from the beginning and we started out purely as friends.

The "Spy" Storyline

Not a fan of this. Bad Lana is one thing (we'll get to that) but I think this just... doesn't make that much sense? idk. I don't have a fully fleshed out opinion on this or how I'd do it differently, but I think it would've been better in a season without Bad Lana.

Bad Lana

I watched the new season of the show where Bad Lana made her appearance, and I do think it's really neat that they were given that info ahead of time to add it to the game. However, I wish they'd followed how it was done in the show, where the Bad Lana ruling period was at the beginning (they did mention that they had this as well and had lots of fun with it), and then the two people who took advantage of it the most were sent into banishment. Having another Bad Lana ruling period (and then adding the banishment which is coming up in the next episode) right in the middle of the show just doesn't work quite as well to me?

Also, what is the point of getting green lights during Bad Lana's ruling period? We could kiss without them anyway!

MC as the Bombshell

I have mixed feelings on this - I loved being the bombshell and getting the free pass, however... there's just no impact. You pick an LI, you automatically connect, and other than Carmen, none of the partners really care? I would've preferred coming into a situation where the couple was actually a couple and I had to work a bit to turn their head (or maybe even switch to the other person, that'd be fun).

Tying this into the Bad Lana point above, I think it would've made a lot more sense if MC were an OG in this season to experience the Bad Lana period at the beginning. Kiss a couple people, get sent to banishment. To me, that would've been a lot more interesting.

Branching

The branching has been fine (although there have been some continuity errors if you stick with the same LI each time), but I think it was better in S2. I remember always being blown away by how much branching there was in S2, and this season just hasn't had that. It's still good and nothing to complain about, but I'd like to see improvements each season, or at least keeping the same level, rather than taking a slight step back.

Especially now that there are some people who are being banished despite not breaking any rules? How does that make sense? At least in S2, you could be eliminated or not depending on your choices.

The Spicy Scenes

These have been great so far, and I love that they're personalized to each LI and stay consistent with their character. No criticisms here!

The Confessionals

I love, love, love that we don't have a whole episode dedicated to confessionals anymore. And no more dumb quizzes

Cliffhangers

Please, for the love of donuts, not every chapter needs to end on some dramatic soap opera cliffhanger. This week alone, the chapters end as follows:

MC is shocked to walk in on Jirayu and Carmen in the sauna

MC is shocked that someone is having sex (despite the fact she literally just had sex in my route)

Lana's announcement

It's just kinda cheesy at this point, especially the 2nd chapter ending. It's Bad Lana's ruling period, people are having sex, what is there to be surprised about? And the fact that sooo many chapters end like this? Walking in on other people, jumping to conclusions, etc. It's getting old. It's one thing if the whole episode has a cliffhanger of some sort (still not really necessary), but each chapter? c'mon. Let's stop with the dramatics.

Edited to add:

Background Characters

It's kind of disappointing that if you're not romancing one of the LIs, you just... never see them. The storyline is dominated by the "friends" and your own LI (and Carmen/Jirayu with a minor plotline), and then there's always that one other couple that breaks rules, but otherwise, they all fade into the background. It's a lot like S1 again, whereas one of the things I appreciated about S2 was that the LIs you weren't romancing were still a big part of the story. In S3, if you don't choose their scenes, you just never see them. I hardly know anything about Beatriz, Carmen, or Isla, because I don't take their scenes and barely interact with them. On my Taz route, I've barely spoken to Jirayu or Matthias.

Now that we're pretty much locked in, maybe those characters will start being included more (like in today's episode where we had the chance for a threesome with the couple we've interacted with the least), but I would have really appreciated them being included more up to this point. It's a noticeable change from S2 and since I hate the OG "friend" characters, it's a real negative.

I feel like I had more things to touch on but I've forgotten them, so I'll stop here! Would love to know if you agree, disagree, or have anything else to add!

#longbob has thoughts #thth #thth game #thth3 #thth season 3 #thth the game #too hot to handle game

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jemmo · 2 years ago

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today on everything i love and that is perfect about utsukushii kare (bc i just binged rewatched both seasons), i find it so fantastic and perfect how they, not even advertently, show how hira and kiyoi grow out of their high school personas, bc that is so a thing that happens and is something i find hardly any media really navigates as well as i see it here. high school is very much a rigid place, and in it you play your part; the popular kid, the class clown, the nerd and so on, but outside of high school, after high school, when you grow up and enter the wider role, there aren’t those roles to fulfil. you have to be you, and to do that, you have to figure out who that ‘you’ is, whether thats something you��ve always known or had inside and just kept buried or hidden, or thats something you’ve yet to discover and have to find, and then go on to actually be that, and shed all of that behaviour you learned or picked up or hid behind in high school.

idk if this is a universal thing, but it is something that especially speaks to me, being more of the hira, the loner, unpopular, shy kid. that role offers a lot of safety in high school, which is weird to say bc its not a place you aspire to be nor is it particularly enjoyable, but in a way it spares you of further ridicule. if you just fill that role and don’t do anything that acts outside of it, you can get by just fine, then high school is done and you move on. thats what utsukushii kare shows so well. the way hira is treated in high school is never really that outright bullying you stereotypically think of, which i love bc thats not really what high school is actually like. really, it is more of what you see in the show. this lower level stuff that you kind of just go along with even if it is objectively mean. the name calling is not loud insults, its those pet nicknames that follow you and remind you of the things you dont like about yourself, the things you’re embarrassed about. its the established hierarchy that you are at the bottom of that signals to you everyday that you are less important than everyone else. and hira goes along with it partly bc of kiyoi but also bc its safe and, dare i say, comfortable, bc hira has not just not known different, but doesnt wish to either, which is how he settles into his dynamic with kiyoi.

on the other hand, kiyoi’s place as the popular kid is something he is more visibly uncomfortable with, at least to me, and you see it even before you learn about what his real dreams and interests are. the way he acts with the people that surround him, he is never exactly like that. his treatment of hira especially is kinder while still hiding behind that film of treating him as the group’s lacky, but when people treat hira unkindly, he steps in, and i like to think this is from a place of him just being a good person and not just a defensiveness of hira bc of however he feels. its weird bc he does want to be admired so his place shouldn’t feel so wrong, but i think its from a place of wanting to be admired for his merit, for who he is, not out of any control or fear. he wants to be level with people when it comes to reality, and praised for the things he can do well, his abilities, not just some abject superiority others think he possesses. and i cant tell you how much i love this character for this whole ‘cool guy who’s expected to be so cool and not care about anything but actually really wants to do well at stuff and has a passion for acting and dancing and performance and just wants to be loved’. like that is one of my favourite character tropes ever and utsukushii kare does it with kiyoi to absolute damn perfection, which is only added to when you think about the queerness underlying it, kiyoi acting as this stereotypical straight popular high school boy who’s too cool for everyone but really not only is he not straight and have these complicated feelings for a boy, but he also loves performance and theatre and i love that those two things aren’t separate and it makes so much sense. there is just this young queer boy who wants to be liked hiding behind this veneer of coolness and popularity and its fabulous.

so when they do get out of high school, we get to see kiyoi embrace that side of him that he always kept hidden, not just doing what he loves, but actively pursuing it, trying hard, putting in the effort and dedication and i adore that. it lends itself so well to the mantra of ‘trying your best is the coolest thing you can do’ which i wholeheartedly believe. not caring isn’t cool. caring is cool. trying your best is cool. and not only does it make kiyoi more admirable as a character, but it feels like kiyoi is a lot more comfortable and welcoming of the admiration he gets, bc now it feels deserved, and its funny that that manifests through him being humble and playing himself down bc thats the very human thing to do when you’re praised, but it also parallels the way hira downplays and degrades himself which is actually, in a twisted way, him thinking highly of himself, which we see discussed in the last ep of season 2.

bc when hira leaves high school, he still clings to that role, even though there’s no one around him maintaining it. for him to be lowly, there has to be someone around him thats above him, but there isn’t now, which is why he clings to the dynamic he has with kiyoi above him bc it carries over and maintains his safe space. and what we see in season 2 is kiyoi removing that, asking hira to not raise him up just so he can put himself down, he wants to be level. and with kiyoi trying to take away that safety, that leaves hira having to figure out what his place actually is in the world, a world he’s always removed himself from. that’s why his discussion with noguchi is so important, bc kiyoi has struggled to be direct and put it into words with hira, either bc he struggles to say those things or doesn’t want to be so harsh with hira, but noguchi has no issue with holding back, nor feels any need to be gentle. he tells hira flat out you are selfish and ignorant to a fault and think so highly of yourself that you think you are the only person in this world. and thats what hira needs, a real challenge, someone who sees his mindset and twists it to show all the negatives of it. its never what hira intended, but its the message he sends to others; by belittling yourself, you give other people’s words and thoughts no weight or importance, thinking you know better. by removing people from your photos, by hiding behind the camera, you are not escaping the world, you are saying the world is only for you. there is only one plane to exist on, and by trying to be there alone, you deny everyone else of their existence. the option is not to not participate, its to participate alone. and what i’d hope continues in the story (idk what the movie is about at all) is a journey for hira to find how he can be involved at the same level as everyone else, to step out of the safety of self inflicted isolation and join in, feel comfortable finally taking up space and find who he is outside of high school.

#utsukushii kare #my beautiful man #i havent ranted in a while but i was rewatching so i could get a better idea of how to do my utsukare x t8s comparision #and i ended up making no notes and just having a lot of feelings #this show is literally one of the most perfect things to me and i will never get tired of talking about it #also @that one anon look I’m back on my ustukare shit I AM THE UTSUKARE GUY #anyway enough emo talk back to playing Zelda

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