#the entire Japanese YOI cast

[thegirlwhorideslikeasamurai]

Over JNats, I almost forgot to announce that Drabble #21 is up!

Looks like Santa Viktoria still never fails to surprise, even after all these years...

Christmas at the Onsen - a YOI Advent Calendar!!!

Hey guys, I've made an advent calendar that tells a silly little story of Yuuri and Viktor's Christmas adventures in 25 drabbles of 100 words.

Synopsis:

After their retirement, Yuuri and Viktor return to Hasetsu to spend their first Christmas without competitions with Yuuri’s family. While Yuuri would be happy just going on a date, his perfectionist husband wants to celebrate big time, especially since it’s also his birthday. Needless to say, Viktor has dedicated himself to making this day unforgettable for his Yuuri and himself and thus, his preparations wreak total chaos over the onsen. Follow the boys' adventures through 25 silly little drabbles and sweeten your Christmas time.

Tags: Advent Calendar Drabble, Yuri!!! On Xmas, Viktor is the most chaotic perfectionist, Toshiya makes the worst dad jokes, is this a Christmas party or a drag show?, dirty humour, Santa Viktoria is coming to down, Makkachin is still alive although realistically he wouldn't.

This graphic will give you some hints what each drabble is about. Happy guessing!

Here's the link to the story and to the first drabble - I hope you enjoy it!

Drabbles will be posted each day between 6 - 10 a.m. CET.

Thank you everyone who responded to my posts as to whether I should do some Christmas project. This is for you 💙💜 (and of course for everyone else who enjoys some unhinged Viktuuri adventures!)

[yaoiconnoisseur]

♠ Knight of Spades - Mari ♠

〈 Protector of Innocence 〉

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Ahhh I finally get to post this :D It was an honor to be able to contribute to the amazing project that is Yuri!!! On Cards from the Yuri!!! On The Web Discord server!

You can see the entire project via this masterpost! If you'd like more context for this gigantic YOI AU, head over to this blog post for an explanation of everything.

I'd like to give a massive shoutout to @arom-antix and @lines-on-ice for basically putting this all together and making this amazing idea a reality. I know Arrow credits me as one of the admins of this project, but I really only made a Google Drive and did a little research for the artists on how to format their cards haha

I had a ton of fun coming up with Mari's design as the Knight of Spades. I knew right away that I wanted Mari's design to reflect her Japanese heritage since the suit of Spades is a fully Japanese cast.

I've cut me talking about the art itself and my thought process while working on it so I don't nuke your dash, but if you'd like to read my ramblings feel free to

Making Mari a samurai was an easy choice since, one, that's basically what a knight was in Japan (albeit there was no legal binding between a daimyo and his samurai), and, two, I've always HC'd Mari as a protective older sister in the sense she'd be fairly hands off until someone made the mistake of bullying her little Yuuri.

I wanted her armor to be blue since that was the overarching color scheme for Spades, but choosing what blues to use was.. Difficult. There needed to be enough contrast between the different pieces of her armor to show that the armor is made of multiple parts while keeping the hues and brightness values close enough to still look cohesive. I also wanted to keep the blues relatively low saturated to bring our Mari's blonde highlights.

(As I was coloring her armor I realized half way through that I basically drew a Samurott ginjinka oops (￣▽￣*)ゞ)

I had originally intended for the sarashi (the belt) to be pure white, however when I put all the base colors down I realized the white was too much and pulled your eyes away from Mari's overall form. I knew having the belt be pure blue would make the belt blend in too much with the rest of the armor, so I ended up making the belt mostly blue with white accents as a compromise. I still wish the belt could have been white, but oh well.

As for the katana.. That was originally going to be pure blue, but like the belt problem, I had issues keeping the katana from looking muddied. I ended up trying five different variations of black/dark gray until I settled on what you see above lol. It was really difficult making the hilt of the katana look nice because if I went too dark with the blacks I would lose detail on the hilt, but if I went too light I would lose the contrast with the hilt's blues. As for the saya (scabbard/sheathe) I wanted it to be black, but I ended up matching it to Mari's armor instead because a black saya with a mostly black hilt somehow made the entire katana look flat.

The color palates I used for everything else was just me eyeballing her fleshtone and hair color through various screenshots I ripped directly from the show.

The background gave the the most trouble out of everything though because I'm not particularly great at making interesting, minimalistic backgrounds for my art. The card looked to plain without some sort of variation of color behind Mari, but since her armor was already so complex I needed a background that didn't take away from those complexities and didn't muddy the entire piece. I had originally planned to do a sumi-e type background, however I found that no matter what I did the sumi-e designs took away focus from Mari. Eventually I settled on a default abstract Procreate brush and drew lines until something stuck.

Overall I had a blast making this and also the borders for the rest of the cards! I learned a lot about how to format and prep digital canvases for making a card deck, too lol

[yukipri]

My current YOI acrylic standee display section, as of yesterday when I finished rearranging the stuff mum brought back from the summer yes I have a problem

From the bottom row, left to right:

2nd pic: Princess Cafe collab wet shirt podium trio, Lawson collab beach vacation version podium trio

3rd pic: Tokyu Hands collab shirtless full body full set + double Yuuri

4th pic: YOI cafe (box cafe) double Yuuri + Yurio (ordered 1 more blind pack, praying for Vic), Yuri!!! on Museum Yurio + Otabek and Victor + Yuuri

5th pic: YOI Official guidebook podium trio, Bangkok Animate exclusive Phichits

6th pic (one row up): Yuuri Eros Nendoroid, Tokyo SkyTree Village exclusive yukata standees (Yurio + Yuuri, Phichit + Yuuri, JJ + parents), 3 official YOI perfumes in the back, beginning of the Princess Cafe beach job standees in the back, and beginning of the Ooedo Onsen Monogatari collab standees in the front

7th pic: more Princess Cafe beach job, more Ooedo Onsen Monogatari

8th pic: more Princess Cafe beach job, more Ooedo Onsen Monogatari, including the newest additions of the Katsuki family and Yakov + Kolya

9th pic (top row): What I currently have of the Tokyu Hands collab shirtless chibis, Yurio + Yuuri plushies

10th pic: Animate YOI cafe spring collab GPF edition, Animate YOI cafe cafe edition, Sweets Paradise collab Phichit + Minami only

11th pic: the rest of the Animate YOI cafe set, Namjatown collab kitty sweaters set

~~

I’m still missing a few from my Princess Cafe beach jobs set and Tokyu Hands shirtless chibis set, am hunting them down now...

[jetsettermac]

yuri on ice screening

january 19, 2019

i know it’s kind of cliche to say that anime brought me to japan. i was even told not to say that in my interview for jet. but it did (and i did lol). i first became interested in japan because my bff sat me down in her dad’s basement lazyboy and made me watch digimon with her when we were 10 years old. we both fell in love with the art style and the storytelling. i remember feeling a deep connection with the characters and their struggle. i remember wanting to be involved in it somehow, and that’s how i started writing and drawing.

a lot of japanese culture makes it into anime, and i became interested in where the thing i love came from. i learned japan has a fascinating history and cultural heritage. the more i learned, the more i loved it.

one of my favorite animes of all time is yuri on ice. i could write an entire essay on how validating it is to see an anime about adults who struggle with anxiety and depression, who cast out the gender binary, who are queer. not only that, but how validating it is that the world has really embraced this little 12 episode anime. i mean, actual olympic figure skaters tweeted about it so much during the olympics that nbc’s live olympic twitter feed was just anime references lol. and johnny weir tweeted a screencap of a characters naked ass so that was a thing. there was even a pair skate to one of the songs in the olympics!! you can get yoi art on your visa credit card! like, its such a thing and i’m living for it.

i say all of this because today i woke up, went to fukuoka city with a friend, and saw the first four episodes of yuri on ice on the big screen with other adults. and i cried thru most of the first episode because i’ve come full circle lol. i’m somehow living here in japan, able to go to these events and experience the culture in a way i had only dreamed of when i was 10. and im able to do it with an anime that’s incredibly important to me for a whole lot of reasons, with strangers who adore it just as much as i do. and i get to do it two more times for episodes 5-8 and 9-12.

and that’s pretty neat.

[turbles]

Thoughts On the Beauty of Katsuki Yuuri

apparently there’s been a debate going on about whether yuuri ought to be called beautiful or not? idk, here’s my thoughts on the issue I guess, for what it’s worth.

I’m just gonna start off by saying I think yuuri is a REALLY well-designed character. there’s a lot to talk about here! his design is not only appealing and charming (because tadashi hiramatsu is a goddamn professional) but I’d even go a step further and say that the finer points of yuuri’s character design are also a vehicle that communicates the show’s themes. this is a really impressive and unfortunately rare thing in anime these days! 

When Hiramatsu has talked about his thought process for designing yuuri in the past, he’s said that yuuri is meant to look as plain as possible. this is pushed further by comparing him to the rest of the flashy-looking characters in the cast, but I’ll just use victor for now as a point of comparison.

Yuuri: he’s Japanese, obviously. He has many prototypical japanese features (black hair, brown eyes, shorter legs etc). His looks are virtually never commented on by anyone in the story, and when they are it is most often in a negative light, though it is mentioned his skating is beautiful. Victor: he’s russian. he has straight-up silver hair and really bright, somewhere-between-blue-and-turquoise eyes. uh... this is... normal for russians..? he is universally acknowledged in canon as, at the very least, distractingly good looking, causing heart attacks and fainting spells all around him with but one wink.

point is victor looks like an anime character, and yuuri looks like a real person, comparatively.

however, the MOST IMPORTANT feature of yuuri’s design is how dramatically he can change his look and still be recognizable as himself.

Like...??!?!

ok yeah this is obvious, I know it is, because I know every single one of us had A Reaction when yuuri turned on the eros for the first time. After inching closer and closer to a nervous breakdown for the first 3 episodes, we get nice and comfortable in our perception of what yuuri’s character type is; then the Onsen On Ice event comes and he suddenly does a 180 and becomes Sexy Confidence Personified for 2 minutes on the ice. I’m thinking woah, this is the fabled Gap Moe, where a character’s seemingly predominant personality traits are contradicted in certain situations. The gap moe only works because we love to be surprised, which just happens to be a recurring theme in YOI. :O 

But yoi handled characterization really well and sidestepped a number of oft-tread tropey paths for most of the characters. Especially Yuuri. The series portrays him as having a wide range of feelings, motivations, and reactions to things. He is revealed more and more to be a really complex, real-feeling person. The expressiveness of his design, and his ability to transform visually in so many different ways (there are so many different variations of his design! his body goes through physical changes as well as his changes of attitude physically changing his design. is this why he has 3 different nendoroids already...?) reinforces the wide range of his personality as well. His well-written character and carefully-designed outward appearance work together to express a really believable person, who is capable of surprising us with his depth episode after episode.

So, think of yourself as Victor, for a moment. The first time he sees yuuri, he arguably doesn’t even recognize him as a skater, from looking at him. Nothing special, probably just a fan, of which he has and has-seen zillions. Victor, like the viewer, comes to appreciate yuuri by experiencing his depths over time, learns how he works and how to exist successfully alongside him, and eventually comes to really capital-L Love him. As the viewer, speaking for myself, I found myself developing my feelings for this character at much the same trajectory as victor: over time, and in response to his gradually-revealed depths. My first impression was indeed of a shy, plain, regular-ass guy. I was like “oh looks like Hiramatsu re-used Parasyte Guy again” (which, lol, joke’s on me: Parasyte Guy is also designed with versatility of his look in mind). That’s all you get when you see a person for the first time. Just an impression based entirely on how they look. It is completely purposeful that he looks pretty regular in the beginning, to the viewer and to victor. Because it makes uncovering all the beautiful details SO much more enchanting.

it’s necessary for yuuri to come off as plain in the beginning, because how else will we feel that sweet, sweet surprise when he brings the Eros all of a sudden?

I think, as viewers, we fall in love with yuuri just as victor does. As we accumulate knowledge of his personality, little things about him start to take on beauty you probably wouldn’t have noticed as keenly at first. It’s what can take you from:

“This is a pretty cute anime-smile”

to:

*PRINCE’S I WOULD DIE 4 U BLARING AT 100000000 DECIBELS*

I’d argue it’s appropriate to call yuuri “plain-looking”. He looks like a regular person (well, caveat: he looks like a regular figure skater. that’s the only explanation for his ass) His magnetism is not in blinding, fae-like beauty like Victor’s or Yuri P’s. The effect of his confidence is never as obvious on him as it is one someone like JJ, with his near-permanent smirk and half-lidded eyes. the appeal of his eros isn’t like Chris’ overt, exaggerated sexuality with full lips, bright eyes, and prominent eyelashes. He never even really fits into the Eros costume perfectly. it’s never skin-tight on him. It is even, technically, a borrowed costume. But while not really fitting his body, it grows more becoming on him as he brings more and more of his genuine feelings into his performance.

(as an aside: one of the only times a character outright calls yuuri himself beautiful, it’s Victor, and yuuri is wearing his free skate costume, designed for a routine that expresses yuuri’s own emotions and development of himself. a.k.a.: symbolizes everything I’m talking about here lol)

Yuuri’s beauty is never JUST about how he looks, because that’s not how his character was constructed in the first place. Our impression of him is crafted carefully over the course of the series, using his character design and character writing in tandem with eachother. It is through Yuuri that the show’s recurring theme of Surprise is delivered, as yuuri continuously surprises his audience, himself, Victor, and us as viewers. Just because he is indeed “plain-looking”, doesn’t mean he isn’t also so, so beautiful. Yuuri’s beauty flows out gently from within him and manifests in response to learned facets of his personality. His smiles are so beautiful because you’ve seen him in his worst panic. His eros is so mesmerizing because you’ve seen how hard he’d struggled to access it, because you know what honest feelings he tapped into to release it; alluring, because you realize the shy, plain dude from the beginning is just the top layer. Every Yuuri we see is an honest yuuri, it’s all recognizably him, and the variety and surprise as you watch him open up to you and you begin to piece all these visions of Yuuri together into a cohesive picture of his character... is what leads you to fall in love with him, and see him as beautiful. Much like what drew victor to fall in love with him, and see him as beautiful. Much like how a real person might fall in love with a real person, and come to find their beauty as well. 

Very few of us are like Victor Nikiforov, Instantly Stunning With A Chin So Perfect It Could Fell A God. Most of us are Katsuki Yuuris, overlooked by 99.9999% of people on the street, but whose beauty waits to be seen by someone who wants to look close enough. 

so anyway I guess this is why I’M not completely sold on fics and stuff where victor is immediately all hummina-hummina over him. I just feel like that skips over the most interesting angle of Yuuri himself, and imo it’s just plain less interesting to read about a relationship where BOTH sides are smoking hot in much the same way...? There’s something really interesting to me in acknowledging something is plain but finding it absolutely beautiful in its simplicity at the same time. Somehow reminded I heard of a fic where kissing was described as, instead of sweet or fiery or melting, “tastes like mouth”. That’s just... so memorable and wonderful to me, lol.

this sort of bleeds into a thing I’ve been thinking about writing on designing sets of characters anyway, ideas about contrasting the designs against eachother and using a character design to subvert expectations later on down the line. related, but eh. it’s why I latch so hard onto the idea that yuuri can be considered genuinely plain AND beautiful AND sexy all at the same time, just cause... that’s the kind of effect I’ve been trying to achieve in my characters for a long time XD

Anyway that was a ramble, ty for reading, yuri on ice saved my soul goodnight

[irrevocably-delicious]

Tagged!!

I was tagged by @cerberosthehellguard Thanks for wanting to know about my dumb fandom self!

RULES: choose any three fandoms (in random order) and answer the questions. Then tag some friends.

I choose:

Voltron: Legendary Defender

Free!!

Yuri On Ice!

The first character you loved:

Voltron: Lance. Like look... I legit have a very dumb comic about my initial emotions towards the first episode of VLD. Like so many good boys were thrown at me all at once and I had a hard time processing everything. Every time a new boy would come on I’d just be like “that one! That’s him!” haha. So because we met Lance first... yeah he wins haha. 

Free!!: God I dunno. Probably Makoto? It’s hard to get a read on Haru in the first few episodes so it definitely wasn’t him. I think I just thought Makoto was very cute and sweet. Also I’m such a sucker for childhood friends. All the show had to do was go “Here’s the main character” “...ok” “And here’s his best friend from childhood.” “Fuck. YES. FUCK YES I AM ON BOARD.”

Yuri on ice: Listen. Yuri plisetsky had me from the moment I saw him wearing all that animal print.

The character you’d slap:

Voltron: The... writers? Yeah. Yeah the writers. 

Haha, i’m just kidding. Probably Keith actually. Not out of anger, more as a “Pull yourself together boy!” kind of thing. “Listen to your friends! Think before you charge in there!”

Oh shit, wait, also Lotor. Fuck that guy. 

Free!!: Season 1 Rin. Very specifically season 1 Rin. What a bitch baby. 

Yuri on Ice: The entire main cast haha. Yuuri! Lokve yourself dammit! *slap!* Viktor! Fucking learn empathy and tell your boyfriend everything will be ok and you’ll stay with him no matter what! *slap!* Goddamit Yurio can you stop being a little shit and maybe admit that you admire Yuuri and that’s why you’re lashing out at him! *slap!*

A character you liked at first but not so much anymore:

Voltron: God... No one. I still love everyone. If anything I love characters more. I guess I could say Shiro? Just because Shiro is my fave, but this last season was a fucking painful season to be a Shiro fan. Like yeah we got him back, but something’s not...right? like I really need specifically Black Paladin Shiro back. Like haha! Yeah this lion shakeup sure has been an adventure and we’ve seen these characters grow! ButseriouslywhenisShirogonnaleadagain

Free!!: again like... no one? Fuck it, let’s say Nagisa. 

Yuri on Ice: Yeah I got kind of tired of edge lord Yurio after a bit. Adding his relationship with Otabek was definitely an excellent move. 

A character you did not like at first, but they’ve grown on you:

Voltron: Keith actually! I just... didn’t get the Keith hype. Like for me to really connect with a character, he has to either make me laugh, have faults or something he’s working to overcome, or a killer backstory.

But keith didn’t have any of these! Like he had faults, but in the first few seasons, these were never treated like a detriment! Like he always came out of situations unscathed and unapologetic. And like... why would he! His brashness worked! I liked him, but I just wasn’t enamoured with him. Season 3 was really awesome for showing some of Keith’s vulnerability, and finally acknowledging his flaws. I’m so proud of the writers for actually having him be a shit leader for an episode or 2. I was really worried they’d be like “Hey here’s Keith as black paladin! He makes really brash decisions but OH LOOK! He was right all along! The rest of the team just needs to git gud.”. Like in the final few episodes, when Keith and Shiro were kind of clashing,.. I was actually leaning towards Keith’s side a bit. And I thought that’d never happen!

Free!!: Oh god, Sousuke. Rin as well, but I think I expected to eventually like him? The writing throughout season 1 definitely eluded to the fact that Rin was supposed to be a character you sympathised with, so I wasn’t surprised when I ended up really liking him in season 2.

Anyway! Sousuke, holy shit. Like when he first showed up I was just like “fuck this guy”. And was definitely in the part of the fandom that wanted Makoto to get in there and maybe punch him haha. But after finding out his whole deal and his perspective of things... rewatching the series after knowing Sousuke’s motivations definitely changes things. 

YOI: Viktor! Again, when he first showed up, he was really difficult to get a handle on. Like he was flirtatious, but also kind of a dick, his motivations weren’t clear... like why help this japanese skater that you’ve never met who got crushed at the last competition? Why??

Yuri on Ice is so fantastic and fascinating because it’s as much the story of Viktor’s growth as it is Yuri’s. At face value, you would easily think that Yuri is the struggling protagonist, and Viktor is the perfect boyfriend who’s going to step in and teach Yuri to love himself. ... but it’s not that at all. Throughout the series, Viktor learns how to be more empathetic and support others. He shows himself to be genuinely, emotionally invested in Yuri, which we realise is something that he’s probably never felt before. I dunno. YOI is just fucking great. 

3 OTPs:

KLANCE

MAKOHARU

VICTUURI.

classic. indisputable classics. 

Tag others:

uhhhhhhhh shit. @yaxxm and @homebeccer if you’re down. 

[three--rings]

So I had two goals for today at Afest, autographs and the YOI panel. Unfortunately the autograph situation was a disaster. They had absolutely no idea of how to get hundreds of people to actually get in a line, so I spent two hours waiting and getting yelled at by con staff and finally had to give up because my disability wouldn't let me stand any longer. Seriously, I've been to a lot of cons, very large cons, and never seen any situation handled that poorly. They were screaming and threatening the crowd who was perfectly behaved, we just wanted to be told where to go, but all they would say is to go away. So anyway, after waiting for another hour and a half in line we finally got into the panel half an hour late so it was only an hour. Most of the English cast was there and Kubo, Sayo, and Tadeshi. The idea was for the actors to ask the creators questions. A lot of the questions were pretty boring, IMO about their favorite skating program or piece of music. General impressions of the three Japanese guests: Tadeshi seems really thoughtful and has interesting things to say. Kubo is adorable and funny. Sayo seems really uncomfortable speaking in front of an audience. She took a long time to answer and spoke very softly. Probably the most interesting part was when she talked about how she had been feeling disillusioned with anime in general and her career was at a make or break it point, similar to Yuuri, prior to YOI. But honestly most of it was people talking about how yoi was awesome and the creators thanking the fans and basically everyone sharing love. One question was about anything they hadn't been able to include in the show or hadn't gotten to include yet, and the response was that they couldn't talk about that. I wish things had been a little more substantive or there'd been more time. I'm super annoyed with the con, who seemed to have no idea how popular the guests they'd booked were going to be. I'm not going back tomorrow, so that was it for me. I made it to two entire panels and spent most of the time in line. But I got some nice art and zines.

[its-veso]

Yen enjoys safe haven flows on doom and gloom, more to come?

USD/JPY dropped sharply as worries about the economy grew

A big bulk of US figures will give a clearer picture of the situation.

The technical picture remains mostly bullish for the pair. Experts see a bullish move in the short and medium terms and a drop afterward.

This was the week: Worries, worries, worries

The safe-haven yen saw quite a bit of demand in a week that was dominated by concerns.

China kicked off the week by setting a growth target of 6-6.5% for 2019, lower than 6.6% seen in 2018, which was, in turn, the lowest in 28 years. Later in the week, China’s weak trade data also weighed on the mood.

Trade talks between China and the US did not see a breakthrough, and a summit between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping is not that close. The same goes for Brexit talks, which saw the same difficulties around the Irish Backstop. While a delay in Brexit[1] is on the cards, the failure to reach a new accord is worrying.

The European Central Bank surprised with an early dovish twist that had an impact well beyond Europe, and so did the Bank of Canada. They joined the Fed that reiterated its patience on raising interest rates, with the Bank of Japan already deep in the dovish territory.

US data was mixed. The forward-looking ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI came out at a robust 59.7 points, showing the resilience of the economy. New Home Sales defied the downtrend in housing with 621K annualized in December. However, the broad trade balance may anger Trump that vowed to shrink it.

The US jobs report came out with a poor increase of only 20K in February against 180K projected and 311K in January. However, wage growth accelerated to 3.4% YoY, the unemployment rate dropped to 3.8% and the U-6 underemployment rate slipped to 7.3%. The USD eventually recovered from the initial slide and its prospects remain positive.

See:  NFP Quick Analysis: 5 reasons why the data may provide buying opportunity on the USD[2]

All in all, it was not a good week for stocks, and USD/JPY dropped with them.

US events: Consumer data

Markets will not have a lot of time to digest the Non-Farm Payrolls[3] report before another top-tier figure awaits it: Retail Sales for January. Once again, the data comes late due to the government shutdown.

The data for December was devastating: a fall of 1.2% in the headline and a plunge of 1.7% in the all-important Control Group. The figures did not match other reports, and entirely a few analysts cast doubt about them. January is already expected to show rises in all the measures, and markets will also watch revisions for December’s numbers quite closely. Consumption is critical to the US economy.

The next substantial release is on Tuesday with inflation numbers. The all-important Core CPI YoY remained steady at 2.2% in January, and a minor slide to 2.1% is on the cards. Headline inflation stood at 1.6% in the first month of the year, and no change is forecast for February. The steady levels of inflation allow the Fed[4] to remain patient.

The Producer Price Index on Wednesday will provide additional insights into inflation and jobless claims on Thursday may be of interest. The final word of the week belongs to the consumer, which gets to close the week after starting it.

The University of Michigan’s preliminary Consumer Sentiment survey for March is predicted to remain steady at the 93 handles. The numbers are upbeat but off the highs around 100. Consumer confidence is considered a leading indicator of consumption.

Here are the top US events as they appear on the forex calendar[5]:

Japan: Fewer BOJ decision stands out

Trade talks between the US and China will continue moving markets and risk sentiment. Also, the critical votes in the UK Parliament on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday will likely impact sentiment. If Parliament instructs the government to seek an extension to Article 50, a relief rally could boost USD/JPY.

And towards the end of the week, there is finally a notable event in Japan: the BOJ[6] decision. Governor Haruhiko Kuroda and his colleagues stressed the importance of loose monetary policy, especially as inflation remains far from the elusive 2% target. In their decision on Friday, central bankers are not expected to introduce any new measures. The interest rate will likely remain at -0.10% and the Tokyo-based institution is projected to pledge to keep 10-year yields close to 0%.

However, the BOJ may be tempted to join its peers in some kind of a dovish twist given the economic slowdown.

Pressure on the yen may also come from the Ministry of Finance. The Japanese authorities are not happy with the rising value of the yen which makes Japanese exports less attractive. A verbal intervention could halt the fall of USD/JPY. An outright intervention is unlikely at this point.

Here are the events lined up in Japan:

USD/JPY Technical Analysis

Dollar/yen struggled to extend its gains after hitting a high of 112.12. The pair broke above the 200-day Simple Moving Average but could not keep up. The drop back below the indicator is a bearish sign. Momentum remains upbeat, and USD/JPY is trading above the 50-day SMA, so the picture remains mostly bullish.

111.00 is a round number that is fought over. Significant support awaits at 110.25 which supported the pair twice in February and separates ranges. 109.50 provided support in early February when it traded at lower ground. 109.10 had the same role in January and 108.50 was a swing low in late January.

111.45 worked as support in early March and capped the pair around Christmas. 112.12 was the recent peak mentioned earlier. It is followed by 112.60 that provided support in late 2018 and 113.10 was a cushion in December, when USD/JPY[7] was trading on high ground.

USD/JPY Sentiment

The doom and gloom are unlikely to diminish easily, despite all the help from central banks, even from the BOJ. A big breakthrough in US-Chinese talks is needed or impressive US data. And these may come in short supply.

The FXStreet forex poll of experts[8] shows a bullish trend in the short and medium terms but a downfall afterward. The targets show a downward trajectory. The average targets are marginally lower than last week on all timeframes.

Get the 5 most predictable currency pairs[9]

References

^ Brexit (www.fxstreet.com)

^ NFP Quick Analysis: 5 reasons why the data may provide buying opportunity on the USD (www.fxstreet.com)

^ Non-Farm Payrolls (www.fxstreet.com)

^ Fed (www.fxstreet.com)

^ forex calendar (www.fxstreet.com)

^ BOJ (www.fxstreet.com)

^ USD/JPY (www.fxstreet.com)

^ FXStreet forex poll of experts (www.fxstreet.com)

^ Get the 5 most predictable currency pairs (www.forexcrunch.com)

from Forex Crunch http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ForexCrunch/~3/LtTk7Y6ok1M/

[fencer-x]

Can you explain what is going on with the Yuri on Stage event? I'm trying to learn about it, but can only do so much without understanding Japanese.

Yuri!!! on Stage is an all-cast talk event to be held at the end of this month (April 29th). There will be 2 shows, and both will be live-streamed to theaters around the country; originally you had to apply to a lottery for tickets to go, but because of overwhelming support, they opened it up to many many more potential viewers by choosing to livestream it as well.

This is the final planned YOI-associated event, however, and because it’s such a huge one, with the ENTIRE cast there PLUS Kubo-sensei, being broadcast live around Japan...it’s highly likely that, if there is a season 2 or any continuation in the works, THIS is where it will be announced.

So mark your calendars for April 29 and label all your shit because you’re about to lose it, if things go the way they’ll probably go XD

[stephenthewriter-blog]

"Yuri!!! on Ice" and "No. 6" - A Comparison

Months ago, after the first series ended I was going to write a review of it but it seemed everything that could be said about Yuri!!! on Ice, both good and bad, has been said. So after a long while I decided to go a different angle.

Though the show has gained a huge acclaim it has also gained some backlash, with one reason being that fans have been saying it’s the first none BL anime to feature a queer romance with accurate rebuttals to this claim coming from fans/people who are aware of the dystopia anime No 6 which was first aired in 2011, and unlike YOI was based on a light novel series and had a manga adaption. Then with another backlash of it receiving a number of Crunchyroll Anime Awards being awarded for best animation over the better animated Mob Psycho 100 (sorry fellow YOI fans but Mob actually deserved that award), I decided to do my own comparison of the couples in both animes, after finally getting round to watching No 6.

So in this comparison piece I will be doing the following: I give a summary for each show (despite how unnecessary that might be for Yuri!!! on Ice) and then I will compare in order: the set up to their relationships, the main pairs as individuals and as a couple which includes how their relationship progress over the series, and finally, the conclusion of each relationship by the final episode(s). I was also going to compare the setting, the plot and the entire cast, but I’m going to leave that mostly to talk about each couple.

Now before I go on, WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR BOTH SHOWS!!!

Yuri!!! on Ice (if you haven’t heard, somehow) is a sports anime which centres around Yuri Katsuki, a 23 year old Japanese figure skater who several months after being placed last place in the Grand Prix Finales he returns to his home town where he performs a routine originally done by his idol, 27 year old internationally famous Russian figure skater Viktor Nikiforov, for his friend Yuko. This routine is filmed by her triplet daughters who then post it online and it becomes a sensation overnight, which naturally gets the attention of Viktor who is so enticed (we assumed then) after seeing it, he goes straight to the hot springs resort Yuri’s family owns and declares to Yuri that he will become his couch and Yuri will win gold at the next Grand Prix Finals.

No 6 on the other hand (as I have said) is a dystopia anime set in the future where the world has been ravished by disaster and in the last six main regions remaining, six city states were formed, the title of this series referring to one of the walled utopias where 16 year old Shion lives with his mum. Everything seems perfect there but something sinister is going on, and when Shion learns that a dead dried up old man he finds in the park he works at as a supervisor was in fact 31 years old, and when the incident is complete absent in the media it causes him to seriously question how perfect the city really is. This is when a boy called Rat enters into his life again after only meeting once four years ago.

The Set Up…

As I wrote in the summary, the viewers and myself included assume that Viktor really first noticed Yuri from seeing him skate his routine in the video the triplets filmed and saw his true potential near the end of episode 1, it’s not until episode 10 when we see Viktor’s viewpoint and oh boy does it changes the perspective of the relationship (and many other aspects of series) a lot. We learn that at the previous Grand Prix Final after party, an anxious Yuri drunk A LOT of champagne and ended up having a dance off with 15 year old Russian Yurio Plisetsky, dances with Viktor and does some incredible dancing on a stripper pole with 25 year old Swiss Christophe Giacometti. This is what originally caused Viktor to be drawn to this shy, nervous wreck of a guy that could actually become a showstopper, which inspires him at a time when he feels so unfulfilled. Too bad Yuri didn’t remember that night the next day; it would have been an entirely different series then.

Shion first meets his love interest and fellow protagonist Rat when they’re both 12 in the first episode. After having a birthday party at his friend Safu and her grandmother’s house he returns home when the weather becomes too stormy. Once home, after some childish yelling on the balcony of his bedroom, Rat, a fugitive (or VC) breaks into his room. Rat is very distrusting of Shion at first, but the latter manages to gain his trust and treats his wounds,  gives him the sweater that Safu gave him (that he didn’t really like), gives him food and they end up sleeping side by side until morning when Rat leaves before he wakes up. Then in the following episode, four years later, after the incident in the park his co-worker also dies the same way as the man in the park, he is arrested on suspicion of the murder and is taken to the correctional facility, but on the way is rescued by the now also 16 year old Rat and taken into hiding beyond the wall to the slums, known as the West District.

As individuals…

Yuri is presented as being sensitive, shy and insecure of his own talents, suffering from social anxieties brought on competing in Skating even when other figure skaters outright admire him for his talents (he did make it to the finals after, even if he was in last place). However, as one person put it on Tumblr (I wish I could remember who) can actually be “a low-key asshole”, though I would also say (like many) “he’s not a cinnamon roll he’s actually a Sinnamon roll”. As the series goes on (even before episode 10) we end up seeing that more devilish and assert side to him, like in episode 2 when he realises that Yurio is jealous of his friendship/relationship with Viktor which makes him smirk and so teases him, and not forgetting the numerous moments when through his skating routine he shows to people that Viktor is all his now and he’s not giving him back.

Viktor on the other hand we initially see as being a living legend and sex bomb, someone who Yuri puts on a pedestal, seemingly pretty much the complete opposite to Yuri. Then as episodes go by we see that he’s insensitive (being too honest when critiquing Yuri as his manger), forgetful (forgetting his promise to Yurio), slightly devious (manipulating people for generally good reasons), fun loving (loves a drink to the point he will strip his clothes off), goofy (dressing up in costume to advertise Yuri and Yurio’s ice skating contest) but overall a rather generally sweet guy. We even learn in episode 10 that despite being a world class figure skater, he’s had to sacrifice a lot to be the best, causing him to lose his enthusiasm for the sport. You can’t help but feel for him

Then we have the guys of No 6…

Shion is a former child prodigy and an eternal optimist, to the point he annoys Rat, another character “Dog Keeper” and even to a point the viewers/readers, but for some (including myself) that’s actually his charm. When hiding in the west district, he is THE bright spot among the cynics there and it’s in fact an important plot point, with his kindness being what got him in trouble for helping Rat as a child in the first place, and it’s what stirs up people’s emotions and slightly changes their viewpoint. Though he isn’t entirely a bundle of sunshine, he can be remarkable cool headed in a situation, like when Rat is demonstrating with a knife that he could kill him and Shion doesn’t even flinch, or can even be rather vicious, giving the beat down on one character, Rikiga, who accidently presses his berserk button by saying Rat should become one his hookers in his prostitution ring, much to Rat’s surprise.  Not forgetting his actions in episode 10 too of course where he gets uncharacteristically brutal, but he does snaps out of it eventually.

Then we have Rat who is definitely not a cheery chappy like Shion, which is understandable considering the hard life he’s had with his family being killed along side many others as a child, and was imprisoned by scientist in No 6 until he escaped. He is cunning, ruthless, a little harsh and a huge badass with an understandable hatred for No 6 and everyone who lives there, excluding Shion of course. Though he’s more than just that, he does have a softer side (which I’ll talk more about in the next part), he’s also rather cultured with his collection of old books, tech savvy having modified rats with all sorts of senses and microphones, and is a talented actor who sings and dances and can play female roles so well he’s serving fish.  

As a Couple…

Even before the two kiss in episode 7, looking back over the series it’s clear that Yuri and Viktor have a thing for each other, whether it be Yuri’s admiration for Viktor which basically reads as a celebrity crush, or Viktor’s flirtatious behaviour and probing questions about Yuri’s love life that shows this. Then as the months go by the two evidently become much closer, with (as I’ve said) it culminating to Victor kissing Yuri in episode 7, pretty much outing how far their relationship has gone, to not only an ice ring full of thousand people but to the millions of people watching THE LIVE BROADCAST! Then in the next two episodes, along with a very sweet moment of Viktor kissing Yuri’s skate in passionate moment of appreciation, we see another turning point for them with Yuri telling Viktor to go back to Japan because Viktor’s dog Makkachin is seriously ill, which is such a caring moment since Yuri is so worried that if Makkachin died (which he thankful doesn’t) since it would affect Viktor as it did for Yuri when his own dog died over a year ago, even if it meant he could flop on the ring without Viktor there to support him. Then that all leads to the famous episode 10 where they actually get engaged, a crowning moment in anime since when was the last time you saw that between any same-sex couple in anime. Seriously, try doing that.

Now for Shion and Rat, and I’d like to make note about something I loved. In episode two we have two scenes with Shion interacting with his childhood friend Safu, who had a crush on him from when they were 12 to the present in the series. These interactions with her are friendly enough for the most part, but there is an air of slight awkwardness or uncomfortable tension, with indications from Shion that he only see’s her as a friend, even if he says he’ll sleep with her after she comes back from her two year study period in No 5.

Then compare his interactions with Rat were they get on like a house on fire. Sure Rat is slightly untrusting as I said before, but after Shion starts the ball rolling they end up chatting warmly, the laugh together, they even hold hands in bed, and that was just when they were 12 years old! You can practically tell Shion is a little gay baby. Then after his rescue by Rat in episode 2 and then being saved from dying by Rat in episode 3, we see in the following episodes that despite Rat’s irritation over Shion’s wanting to save the people of No 6 with his retorts of becoming enemies if Shion choices them over him/the people of the west district, he still cares about him (with him actually lying to him about Safu’s kidnapping not only because he would be heartbroken if Shion was killed, but because he doesn’t want to become his enemy). Then by episode 7 when Shion gives him a so called “goodnight kiss”, and after the two have a verbal AND physical argument (which surprisingly isn’t unbalanced) over the said kiss and Rat’s lying, the two have a generally sweet moment when Rat talks about how he is eternally grateful over Shion saving him that night four years ago, and two make a promise to each other to be truthful with each other and will make things work out together.

Random thought, isn’t it weird how both of the kiss moments come in the seventh episode of each anime. Is there something about the number seven, I can’t remember.

The Conclusion…

For Yuri and Viktor things become rather tense between them in the final two episodes, with Yuri realising that Viktor wants to get back on the ice, so at the end of episode 11 tells him “after the finals… lets end this” (as in their dynamic as couch and student) which Viktor takes as well as you would expect. However by the end of the final episode, after Yuri has won the silver medal, Viktor realises it would make Yuri happy to see him quit being his couch and go back to the ice, and the two make up. Then in final minutes of the episodes we see two beautiful moment, the first being the two of them performing a routine together and then a scene with Yuri running across the same bridge we saw Viktor walk across in episode 2, towards Viktor and Yurio, showing that the two are now not only living together in Russia but also training alongside each other.

Shion and Rat’s relationship resolution isn’t as happy, it’s not sad, just rather bittersweet. After two fasted paced episodes of the duo, along with the Dog Keeper and Rikiga, breaking into the No 6 correctional facility and destroying the mother computer, which results in mass destruction of No 6 and Shion and Rat getting badly shot by security (with Shion actually dying but then being brought back to life), the two find themselves on a hill overlooking the broken walls of No 6, and though they part ways it’s on a happy note (and a sweet kiss) with a certainty that the two will get back together one day.

My Final Thoughts…

Now I would be lying if I said I can’t pick which I like more, but that’s based mainly on my preference for sport animes, but as couples go it’s actually pretty hard to decide for me. Both couples for me are well written with different personalities (with positive and negative traits), goals in their lives, and overall relatable in different ways, depending on the viewpoint of the viewer, whether you’re a cynical rebel like Rat, an eternal optimist like Shion, an talented nervous wreck like Yuri or a rich goofball like Viktor. You can all make the decision which out of the two couples you think is better but when it comes down to couples in anime that aren’t heterosexual (excluding those in the yaoi and yuri genre) are few and far between, and that is something that needs to change.

I believe that these two shows, especially Yuri!!! on Ice have paved the way for non-BL animes/manga with a male lead and a male love interest, and maybe in the future we’ll even see more anime/manga with a female lead with a female love interest, or for that matter having confirmed canon transgendered leads/love interests as well. No 6 may have come first true, but YOI has become very much successful mainstream wise, was proclaimed by fans to have saved what had been a shitty year and also has a larger audience of various sexualities (including straight men). So despite some people going off YOI, hopefully like me you’ll be watching the recently announced movie when it comes out, which I believe, and I can’t help but say it, will undoubted make history!!!

[acornrising]

whats wrong with yuri on ice?

I mostly just feel bad that the dragon has art, I hate to waste someone’s honest effort.

BUT since you asked and I’ve got personal beef to fry on this topic, I can boil my issues down to two basic parts- the fandom sucks and the show doesn’t follow through. I’ll try to keep this short but I’ve been known to ramble, so, advanced apologies. And full disclosure I actually enjoy Yuri on Ice for what it is, it’s a charming, fairly well animated series with an engaging cast of characters and a killer theme song. However, I’m not going to give it credit for what it isn’t, and what a lot of people pretend it is, which is “good gay representation.”

Yuri on Ice is, unfortunately, mostly fujoshi bait. It’s made pretty specifically to cater to female fetishization of gay men and gay male relationships, which you think would be made patently obvious by the subtle dodge-arounds they make regarding the actual feelings the characters have for each other. The “kiss” scene was left ambiguous, the “wedding” or the “proposal” is deliberately denied by one part of the, I hate to call them lead couple because they very artfully nohomo around the whole thing, “lead couple”, neither of them ever refer to the other as their boyfriend or fiance, or express any affection beyond suggestive, flirtatious but unfulfilled moments and suggestive misunderstandings. 

Still, people go mad over this ‘great representation.’ It’s not. For something to be representation, it has to actually, you know, show the thing it’s representing. I set my bar low, give me one genuine ‘I love you’, kiss scene, or romantically suggestive handholding scene that is not brushed off or joked away by the characters themselves, or simple word of God, and I’m pretty confident in calling it representation- not necessarily ‘good’ representation, but representation nonetheless. My bar is drastically lower than others, to be sure, but that’s because I expect shit-all from people.

I hear people argue “That’s not how it’s done in Japan” or “Well they were censored.” Fine. That’s cool, that’s certainly a valid possibility and all, but don’t go pitching it as legitimate representation to boys desperate for it in the first place, especially when the author won’t outright confirm it either way when asked. That’s not representation, that’s sending the implicit message to gay boys that the “best” gay relationship is one that stays aggressively out of sight of everyone else, and that’s bullshit. I can accept cultural limits and censoring, but admit that’s what it is. Admit it doesn’t actually reach the bar it was (allegedly) reaching for.

I also see a lot of people arguing that anyone who discusses the problematic aspects of Victor and Yuuri’s relationship portrayal (ie, the fact that it basically didn’t fucking happen onscreen), and claims that it’s “non canon” is a straight homophobe, which is hilarious to me because most of the people I see defending it are straight and sometimes bi women who clearly fetishize gay men, and most of the detractors I’ve met are other members of the LGBT community, including my gay male friends. I haven’t actually yet met a gay man who thought Yuri on Ice was good rep, which is fairly telling imo. It’s possible I just haven’t met them, but of the ones I know. It didn’t quite hold up.

I ALSO see people arguing that making the romance more prominence would have “detracted from the plot”, which is horseshit considering the entire show was billed, sold, and advertised not on the power of it’s sportsmanship and competition, but on the alleged gayness of its protagonists. You don’t build a show with that much focus on romance and relationship-building only to say it would have ‘detracted’ from the leftover five minutes of re-used skating animation.

I also saw one argument say that Yuri on Ice was a powerful discussion about homophobia in ice skating and just about combusted on the spot because not only is it patently wrong (There’s no discussion or depiction of homophobia anywhere in the show), the writer herself confirmed that they envisioned the world as one where everyone could love freely without judgement, which ALSO boggles my mind because, if so, what stopped you from crossing that finish line??

I’ll admit there is the potential for culture context loss in all this- Japanese culture is notoriously introspective and internalizing, and in context of Japanese culture and Japanese media, this may very well be genuinely good representation for them. I’m not Japanese, I can’t speak to that, but that doesn’t mean we can’t acknowledge that, as far as western audiences go, this is not stellar, and maybe pin that disclaimer to shit so you don’t set gay boys up for disappointment when you scream about how ~oh so gay~ YOI is.

The fandom at large has soured my enjoyment of the series due to its blatant lack of critical thinking in response to a show that’s written like a fanfic, but with absolutely none of the payoff. I’m saddened by what was promised by an over-eager fanbase but never delivered by the show, for whatever it’s reasons.

For the show itself, the only thing that disappoints me is that it doesn’t hit that mark. There are many reasons it might not have. None of them are really worth defending, just mourning. 

In short: Though it doesn’t sound it, I really like the series. I genuinely enjoy all the characters, I was invested in their storylines, it was a joy to take in with the eyes, but despite not actually finishing the marathon, it got all the credit of first place, and that. Bugs me.

[bunnearii]

RULES | ANSWER THE 20 QUESTIONS AND TAG 20 AMAZING FOLLOWERS THAT YOU’D LIKE TO GET TO KNOW BETTER!

I was tagged by ruttama, scared to @ them because I'm shy af sorry Name: Arianna👌🏻 Nicknames: Anna / Annie / Anna Banana (lol) Zodiac sign: ♊️ Orientation: Pansexual Nationality: Mexican/Hispanic Native American Favorite fruit: Watermelon Favorite season: Fall and Winter Favorite book: Varies I haven't read in awhile Favorite flower: Azaleas Favorite scent: Christmas Trees Favorite color: Red Favorite animal: Doggos 🐶 Coffee, tea, or hot cocoa: Coffee and Hot Cocoa Average hours of sleep: 3-6 hours Cat or dog person: Did I mention I love dogs 🐶 Favorite fictional character[s]: Yuuri Katsuki, Victor Nikiforov, entire YOI cast, Takumi, Kaze and Niles [Fire Emblem Fates] Entire RFA Family in Mystic Messenger, Olivia and Inigo [Fire Emblem Awakening], Voltron Paladins but I'm more weak to Shiro, and Stocking Anarchy from PASWG Number of blankets you sleep with: 1 Dream trip: I'm studying Japanese so I'd like to visit one day ❤ Blog created: 4 years ago ish Number of followers: 200 and something ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I'm too scared to tag I don't wanna bother anyone

[thetwoguineabook]

(1/2) Hi, first I want to let you know that reading Blackbird has been one of the most sublime experience I've had in the fandom. I could write an essay singing you praises on how your dictions, narrations, pacing, and depiction tug all my emotional strings. I took a break a few times reading the third chapter as I was too overwhelmed with whirlwind of feelings inside of my chest. I scream into the void when it reached its end. I really want to share this with my friends, but they are wary--

–to start to read because of the fear on historical inaccuracies. They’re all history nerds; I a total fool in comparison, but the way you weave the story always makes everything so believable, I personally don’t find any faults, really. I can’t even begin to imagine the amount of research you’ve done. I just want to ask, do u have particular sources in writing Blackbird? And to what extent of writing liberty u’ve incorporated? Please know ur answer won’t make the fic any less brilliant to me!

Thank you so much! One key source that I used for the Berlin arc was Roger Moorhouse’s Berlin At War: Life and Death in Hitler’s Capital, 1939-45, which helped a lot with getting both details and an overall flavour of everyday life in wartime Berlin. I have a similar book to help with the second arc, but I’m trying to be cagey about where it’s going to be set so no spoilers ;)

Aside from the book I’ve got a lot of good stuff from the BBC History website on WW2, the People’s War project archive, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website. Wikipedia has been immensely helpful in terms of establishing broad timelines and overviews- while it is not a good source in and of itself, a well-cited Wikipedia article is a very good jumping-off point. And then there’s just plain old googling- again it’s not always going to get you accuracy, but when you know what to look for in a source it can be really helpful in getting the details right.

I’ve also drawn a lot on films, TV and literature, both of the time and set retrospectively in the period, to get my head in the right space and give me a sense of how scenes should feel. I’m planning to post a full list once the fic is done, but again some that I drew on for writing Berlin were Judth Kerr’s When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, and the films “Pimpernel” Smith (1941) which is a British anti-Nazi propaganda comedy, and Downfall (2004), which was the launcher of ye olde ranting Hitler meme but which is a truly terrific film about the last days of Nazi Berlin.

As far as taking liberties goes, it has mostly been in regards to areas where there isn’t a lot of information to be found (for example we don’t know much about the historical espionage of the Soviet Union, because Russia is still keeping it very much under wraps), areas where the information I could find was unclear or contradictory (such as what exactly happened in what sequence in the Battle for the Reichstag and the raising of the Red Banner), or in places where I needed to stretch history a little in order to get the characters in place (eg. the likelihood or otherwise that in the late 1930s MI6 would engage a middle-aged Japanese woman to operate an international spy ring). Where I’ve made stuff up, I’ve tried as best as I can to make it feel reasonable and fair to the period based on the things that I can be certain of.

I can completely understand people being very wary about inaccuracies in historical fanfic- I’ve been in a couple of (semi-)historical fandoms in my past, and I’ve seen some truly wild and obvious inaccuracies in YOI historical AUs that drive me up the wall (can I please just beat this entire fandom with a cricket bat that has ‘THE SIEGE OF LENINGRAD’ printed on it?). And I obviously can’t offer a cast-iron guarantee that everything in Blackbird is accurate- I’m not an expert on the period, and I’m not a trained historian. 

However I am very familiar with academic research (I have a Masters degree in Theology and began but had to quit a PhD programme), and I think perhaps more importantly I am very, very concerned with being as honest and truthful as possible about a very complex and politically charged period of history. It is morally incumbent on me as a writer to do justice- to the very best of my abilities- to the victims of Nazi persecution and industrialised murder, to the survivors of brutal scenes of warfare from Leningrad to Hiroshima, and to the imperative that was taken up by some and abysmally failed by others to do something about it.

I made a joke in posting the third chapter about the fic now being twice the length of my MA dissertation, but in a lot of ways writing it feels similar to the academic writing I did during that time- my MA was specifically focused on Christian ethics, and my particular research interests that fed into the dissertation were virtue ethics and the response to institutionalised violence. I could honestly waffle for hours about storytelling and the (re)creation of moral character so I’ll stop myself there.

TL;DR? I’m not an historian but I do have a pretty decent idea of how to go about what I’m doing, and a very strong sense of why I need to do it right.

[duskisnigh]

I'm very sad rn bc I totally bombed my chem exam, do you have any new angsty comics you're working on so I can have a good cry? You're art is so adorable and the angst is amazing. Plz know you're appreciated ♡

I’m working on a Katsuki siblings comic right now, but it’s more hurt/comfort than downright angsty. I don’t think I can finish it in time for you to have a good cry though, so please allow me to direct you to this hand-drawn YOI fanvid, which has breathtakingly beautiful art and made me weep. The song is in Japanese, but I assure you, you don’t need to understand the lyrics to feel the emotion conveyed. The Chinese words in the video’s title - which I can read! - simply say the video features the entire cast, is designed to make you feel pumped up, and tends to elicit tears. 

[harocat]

Speaking of Love on Ice (god), I’ve actually been thinking for a while that out of all my fave anime, I’d probably most like to see a YOI live action movie because I think it would actually work really well for the format?

Maybe it’s because of the writing itself. I know that Toyonaga-san basically went into the role being told not to play Yuuri like an anime character but like an 100% real person, and there’s a lot of talk about that in interviews and I think that makes him feel especially adaptable with very little change. 

But also the length and layout of the series makes it so I think it could be turned into a pretty sweet sports/romance movie with international flair and I think it would be so great. It’s a sweet, inspiring comeback story with fun characters and a cute romance and it’s just prime feel good movie material? Plus you’d get to see all that gorgeous skating in live action. :)

Story changes would probably be necessary. Without a sequel hook, I really do think Yuuri would need to win gold (or if not that, an epilogue showing some years down the line where he’s won more competitions) and yeah we miiight need some more romantic resolution there to make a film audience satisfied. Stuff would have to cut, for sure. Possibly even entire characters, sadly. 

HOWEVER my big caveats are that- I’d still want that multinational cast, and Japanese movies like... never do that. There’s a lot of reasons for this, many having to do with language and the size of the industry. 

OTOH Hollywood could and has done that before (despite their endless list of failures), but the protagonist is literally an anxiety ridden Japanese figure skater, and um fuck no at any changing of that. Yuuri absolutely has the makings of a traditional hero beneath that anxiety, but--- you know... Hollywhite. 

Secondly, removing the romance plot, would of course, be unforgivable. It’s so important. Unfortunately as you can tell by stuff like Love on Ice, when people think figure skating, they think the primary audience is middle-aged white women, and they’re not exactly considered the biggest movie going audience for gay romances. Remember when Stars on Ice didn’t ask Johnny Weir to be on their tour because he wasn’t considered ‘family friendly’ despite him being the most requested skater on their website? Yeah. 

Like I don’t actually think a YOI film would be very expensive to make at all, but it does feature those two very, very not considered ~Hollywood friendly~ OR Japanese film industry friendly things and I want it to exist I JUST THINK IT WOULD MAKE SUCH A GOOD FILM. I can dream, can’t I? 

[magickedteacup]

I've got this entire anime rolling out in my mind's eye in a slightly alternate universe to ours, where zero-grav dance became a thing after the Cold War's space race, it had a lull in visibility in the 2000's, but became more popular in the late 2010's with the invention of more accessible equipment and centers. So like, it was still expensive but not unmanageably so. The climax of the anime is at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where a zero-grav dance exhibition is staged, as the sport is being considered for being added to the Olympics roster of events. The two main characters are a Japanese and a Chinese female zero-grav dancers. Romance times ensue, though it's different from the YOI type narrative. Additional cast characters include a female dancer from Saudi Arabia, and a Venezuelan American hailing from the Chicago suburbs.