#the foreshadowing of this manga is nuts

[azathothweirdo]

So i was re-reading the first chapter of aoex, and noticed a incredibly cool thing. Shiro is handing this kid a now very familiar item.

The four leaf clovers! This is so cool to see at the very start, and see the pay off finally. I'm curious where she'll keep going with this since now it seems these things are very important.

[lazysublimeengineer]

Almost everyone from the fandom were surprise that he was voted as the most emotional one in the poll at the Blue Lock Egoist Bible. It's understandable because most of the time Chigiri was a tough nut to crack with an impertinent attitude and a sharp tongue.

However, if you pay close attention to him since the first season despite him being withdrawn and reserved, he has one of the most expressive facial expressions in each panel.

He wasn't saying a lot.

But his eyes did.

They say that the eyes are the windows to the soul and I couldn't agree more to that. Before his character development, his face look dull yet tragic most of the time.

He doesn't have a lot of dialogues but you know that there is a lot going on inside of him when he says something about the matter.

It takes of effort and prying to be able to know what he's feeling and thinking most of the time because he's internalizing a lot of things in the manga. Instead of talking about it, he's manifesting it through his actions and only the reader would be finally able to understand him once the POV shifts to him temporarily.

If Chigiri is the one whose crying face in that one panel, you know that his dam had been broken because of how he stifled it for so long just like what he did when he was injured in his backstory.

He definitely gives me the "feels" when the focus is on him because of how great yet tragic he is. Somehow all that foreshadowing about his injury in the Episode Nagi will be a jumpscare in the main manga because it will come to him when the least you're expecting it.

[thr0wnawayy]

Abridging the MHA Manga has been one of the most personally entertaining things I've done in a while.

I've been going absolutely nuts trying to force myself to read MHA (given that I know what a shit show it is). It's hard be consistent when you know it's going to be blatant bullshit with Hori breathing down the stories neck .

As a result, I've come to a compromise. For every chapter I complete, I throw out the script and replace it with whatever nonsense I want via the magic of editing.

If I wanna make Toshinori more rugged and sound like a noir detective, who's gonna stop me?

If I rehaul Midoriya's entire character and backstory. Making him disenchanted with heroism and MHA's society as a whole, while also sprinkling in tidbits of critiques to Japan's shame culture and how it looks down on the impoverished. It's A-OK!

Bakugo's lines stay mostly untouched, because fuck him.

And maybe I skipped ahead a bit and decided to change some plot points, perhaps foreshadow things (the MLA) properly this time.

(And perhaps I also turned them into existential anarchists for fun)

Funniest thing I've done so fat is turn Endeavor into an Extreme Fundamentalist Christian (still the same piece of shit). He's literally turned Touya's shrine into a confessional/altar. (He's taped a picture of Jesus onto the portrait over Touya)

I wonder what's up with "Rei" though. Eh, it's probably nothing.

Did I mention I made Nana a Communist?

[imustbenuts]

nuts reading trigun in japanese 6 - kaite's foreshadowing. plant synchronization's downside

remember in my part 3 and 5 i was talking about hierarchy? surprisingly, it continues past chapter 8 with kaite. and wolfwood. triangulating nyoom

(to be honest... ive been doing these read and analysis completely blind in a 1st JP read through. so its possible ill find new nuances, get things wrong as the context shifts and changes, so my stuff looks like its scattered all over the place. sorry about that.)

i think ill start explaining names and meanings. kaite's name in japanese is kaito. カイト. this can be a homonym with i think 怪盗 (kaitou) in this case, which means phantom thief. for trying to help Neon with stealing loot from the Sand Steamer.

left bubble next to neon: 道案内は的確だったかね！？ I trust your guide has been giving you clear instructions?

^the headaches with manga translations has always been to keep texts short and reasonable for flow and readability, so these simplifications can and sometimes must happen.

but, add dakutens, the " on 2 of those カイト katakanas and suddenly, kaito turns into. ガイド gaido. Guide.

so Kaite has been playing as a guide to lead vash to his death at the hands of Neon. this page is such a fucking whammy with the wordplay going on. if you just read this in japanese theres a moment of "oh shit, no way, Kaite, vash just told you to stop betraying people! what the hell!"

yet theres a level of trust going on already, so its not as bad as it seems

nightow really likes his worldplay. i really like this page.

kaite redeems himself by later charging into the boiler room and helps turn the valve to stop the sand steamer from running off cliff and killing everyone on board....

hm. a guide. and those sequences

we sure have a lot of guides here. one who appears in the manga later with a kansai dialect. and another in TriStamp, where he is younger than he appears.

when i spoke about hierarchy and the fact that vash is over 150, i was also kind of hinting that all of current humanity are akin to children in the system of JP hierarchy. that takes on extra meaning with a little change of context and language

wolfwood is filling in the shoes of kaito here in tristamp. and within trimax, kaito foreshadows him. incredible.

theres actually more going on with wolfwood and certain design/changes choices i wanna talk about with tristamp but ill save it for another day. maybe when i run into him in this read later

Plant Synchronization downside.

....so theres a bad downside to vash synchronizing with the plant that i didn't catch. which also answers what the fuck was going on in tristamp when that version of him hits the ground

nightow mentions this in an interview, link here posted and transcribed by xoxo-otome (thank you!) that he likes action flicks and has incorporated a lot of action into his work. and its true. there is so much action in the form of sound effects.

reading through the entire manga and paying attention to the sfx peppered around offers a lot more context to whats happening in half of the panels that seemingly doesnt make sense

like this one where the top panel has "DADADADADA" sfx. so they're stomping down the corridor with their guns crossed and facing each other. the "GO OH" in the bottom panel emphasizes the sudden burst into open air. unfortunately, anyone who values their life and sanity in this economy will not want to translate trigun's sfxs 100%.

i should have paid more attention when reading trigun in english. but i didn't so here i am. in the trigunbookclub tag now doing this.

why is it important? here. this. below. when vash does his plant thing with his sister:

see those heart panels? i tried searching real quick but nobody seems to have pointed this out. i havent seen this in EN fanfics. maybe i missed it. maybe im stupid:

thats Dokun, the sound effect of a heart thumping. as vash synchronizes, the heart panels with the same sound effect appear, but they gradually split apart further with ellipses "..." to signify his heart beat slowing down. and down. and down....

Dokun, do kun, do... kun....

then the wings comes out. and the panel below it:

sfx: PIIIIIIIIIII

breathes. a FLAT LINE.

aaaaaaAA?!

何かなんだかわかりません I'm not sure what's going on. とにかくプラントの動きは一切止まっています But the Plant's movement has completely stopped. 同時に男にも呼吸　心音ともに停止してます It's the same with that man. His breathing and heartbeat sounds like it's stopped with the plant too.

AAAAA?!!?! the も means vash is in the same state as the plant?

i.... um. um.,, ANYWAY-

AAAAAAAAAAAA?! HUH?! HUH??? HUH?!

is THIS why he has a metal grate over his heart? something happened and he an an operation on his heart???? by some engineer maybe? what? huh? am i reading this wrong? what? wait, hello? HEY!!!

what the fuck. okAY--?!

and then he just. pretends like nothing's happened. doesnt tell kaito anything. and he leaves the Sand Steamer.

and im going to have to sleep bc its 5 am now and pretend like i didnt just realize something this big right in front of my eyes during the first read.

[yuseirra]

(Vague..hints about what 165 would be, I heard about it, I'm...scared to see that chapter. It sounds really horrifying, I can't phrase it otherwise.)

I think I'm going to jot down my feelings. I honestly feel so, so sorry for people who like this manga..; on the bright side it's been a work that's...imbued things in me to write and draw this much about myself but I wish that'd only have happened on a positive note.

I think the author is really being too much..;; They're being so cruel. For what? Can this story get across a proper message? That's what's most important to me and I can take it if I'm convinced it is but... This current route is so far from what most audience would believe as fulfilling or.. Feel happy about seeing. Unless this is fake and the last chapter has some sort of happy closure to it all.

I started reading onk after the anime came out last year and kept up with it, ordering the volumes and reading them. After Chapter 154 and listening to the opening for Season 2, I just thought, “Ah, this is what it is… This is it.” (If you read my oldest? theory posts about this work, this July, you’d know what I mean. I think I’ve figured it all out, and so far, nothing I’ve said back then has been disproven; on the contrary, it STILL makes the most sense.)

I have myself an idea of what this could be, but unless Ruby uses Amaterasu’s power to save everyone and bring them into a happy timeline in the final chapter, this is just...;;

Haha, seriously, this is... phew...

It’s true that Ai and the person she really loved had mutual feelings, but that person went completely insane and caused some incredibly serious issues, forcing Aqua to go after him with everything he had.

From how things are unfolding, I think these points have been confirmed.

We also learned that person was originally good enough to be called noble<I feed off this info like cow eats grass... That's the thing that keeps me going lol Kamiki is nuts...oh please...I really care for him

We know Aqua had a mission assigned from the gods.

For Ruby’s future, he had to capture their father, and this task required him to put everything he built in the story so far on the line.

I kind of understood this? Even if accepting it is a different matter.

No matter how important revenge is in Aqua’s narrative... it’s like, what should I even say? Kamiki ended up devouring Aqua’s story to such an extent that the latter part of the story feels overshadowed by him, and yet Kamiki hasn’t been explored in enough depth for that.

For those following Aqua, this progression feels incredibly harsh. Even if you were rooting for Aqua, the villain he’s up against should be properly fleshed out. Kamiki is full of gaps everywhere. Maybe some parts are intentionally hidden, but what they’ve done feels too much like a Deus ex Machina.

The things he’s been said to have done aren’t even within the realm of what an ordinary human could achieve, it's beyond logic. So unless he’s literally a god, it doesn’t make sense. That’s why I kept insisting he’s divine. When you look at the clues related to his character, there’s actual foreshadowing that supports this theory. If he isn’t, then nothing makes sense. I even wrote a post as soon as Fatal dropped. I just knew THAT had to be it.

There are so many actions he took that can’t be explained unless he’s something beyond human, things that even gods would need to intervene in, assigning missions to Aqua and Ruby. That’s the development that makes the most sense.

Even so, this plot is too much for fans who have loved and followed this series.

I kind of get it, but for fans who have been deeply attached and following this work(this includes me too), the final chapter… Even if there’s something to look forward to, it doesn’t seem like it’ll be worth getting your hopes up. And I'm usually a very hopeful person. It feels like the author wanted to try writing an ending like this, but even then, this... The last 10 chapters or so feel like they consumed all the preceding content.

If Kamiki had been more prominently featured and well-developed, that might have been different (I probably analyzed him more than anyone else out there, because there wasn’t much to go on, and I tried to understand what kind of person he was, filling in the gaps to infer his behavior and motives since his perspective was never shown). But Kamiki, who isn’t as well-developed as Aqua, now holds a weight in the story that makes Aqua sacrifice everything he’s built. I really wish they did both characters justice. I really liked them both.

In that case, he needs to be an unimaginably terrible villain. From what spoilers suggest, what he’s done is indeed severe. But if Ai truly loved such a person, and that’s flipped with the limited remaining chapters, the story becomes trash... Haha. Then what’s the point? I don’t know. That, I really don't wish nor see being contradicted.

Kamiki was kind but lost his mind. (Him being kind is something I never want to give up till the end. I just see it REALLY well too.) So he did a lot of things, I get that. But can something of this scale really happen in modern society, to the point where the protagonist must sacrifice their life?

If so, shouldn’t there be some justification brought in from outside the story to make it convincing? Hence, Kamiki is essentially a god, as suggested by his very name. He was a noble god who fell. There’s enough context, hints, and foreshadowing to support that. He was exposed to malevolence from a young age and became tainted by it. He probably did love Ai, which is why he wielded his power so recklessly, driven by madness to reunite with her.

But even with this, there’s hardly any explanation. Why he went mad, what he did with his life—it’s all glossed over in a few panels. If he’s the villain that the protagonist *must* defeat, there should have been more depth and depiction to fuel that narrative, but it’s incredibly ambiguous. The story just throws a few lines at us and expects us to believe, “He could do all this, so the protagonist had to die,” and that’s it. (That's why... I'm not really sure if they make it want to seem like he's THE bad guy either. Since it's rarely explored in detail so we can't sympathize with the victims if they exist and...hate this guy even more for it. That approach I agree with, because it shouldn't be that way if this story wants a message. But who knows. Scary stuff; it just makes you baffled and dumbfounded and go, "what is this?";; Again, it'd make me question, 'What kind of guy did Ai even love?' I do have my own answers for that. He's her previous divine husband who became hopelessly flawed upon losing her, THAT'S what, so it's not on HIM that he's turned out that way. But who knows.)

Do you think that’s convincing...?💦 I’m filling in the blanks myself, but this feels too much. Whether the final chapter is 50 pages or 100 pages, it can’t wrap this up properly unless Ruby turns back time to save everyone and bring them happiness. I’ve heard there are about 50 pages for 166, but isn’t that just two chapters’ worth? It’s basically the same as a double issue, and given how little content there’s been in recent chapters, even if they combine two, I don’t think it’ll be impactful.

I genuinely feel sorry for the fans of this series. Does this development make sense to you? I’m so baffled that I can’t help but laugh when I think about the plot. It’s not even funny; it’s just painful to watch. How many people would have wanted this kind of ending? I once wrote that over 70% of fans might end up hating the conclusion, that I have a bad feeling about the writer having some kind of personal ambition to create a "twist" and experiment on it out of their artistic desires - and if it ends like this, they probably will. It's not like I didn't see it coming. I did tell all the others who came to read this work upon reading my fanworks to wait until it's complete, there are some things I really appreciate about it, but I wasn't sure it'd progress on your usual, happy and safe route. It could have been that way. The answers were all there. There were many opportunities where there were chances of this story getting an ending many would be satisfied with,

And if I’m wrong about everything I’ve said here, I’ll be just as lost. I really won’t understand any of it. But I’m confident I’m right.

The traits of Kamiki match those of the husband of Ame-no-Uzume in at least ten ways. That god even had a story that said he drowned.(but if he really died, that's ambiguous and he is worshipped pretty well along with his beloved Amenouzume)That's just too much to be brushed off as coincidence, he's at least INSPIRED from that god.

I believe he was originally very kind. I can’t let go of that idea, because it’s been evident to me, and it sticks in my mind. But if that’s true, then this is the story of someone who was kind but went mad, and a son who became a vengeful spirit after his mother’s death. The mother, worrying about the father, left what was almost like a final wish: “If your father is still straying, won’t you help him with me?” But the son kills his father, thinking there’s no hope for him, and ends up dying himself in the process. If that’s really the story, then how... how can there be any positive message to take away from this?

I think I understand what’s going on. I think I do... but the story has been so unfriendly and, as a result, feels disrespectful to fans who have loved the series.

I'm actually thinking: if Kamiki IS Sarutahiko the god of guidance who's been TWISTED due to making EVERY possibilities of a future turn horribly wrong, are we WITNESSING his powers in real time?? Is THIS an extension of what he's capable of? because, I feel like.. He's been bringing sufferings to everyone including himself. Oh in that case I'd totally understand his pain. He really would be suffering. And he's THAT dangerous. What if this comic is being really meta, huh?? I think he doesn't want this either. Losing Ai just.. Totally shattered him I bet. But seeing how things are, I think it could really have been his powers that caused her to die in the first place, unintentionally though. I won't forgive the author if HE'S the one who's killed Ai AND he's been doing all these things in order to get her back afterwards, that is just...so rude. It has no point...

There’s still one chapter left, and I know it’s not right to make a judgment prematurely, but if things go on like this, it’s truly too much...; I genuinely feel bad for those who have loved this work wholeheartedly. And for myself... if it doesn’t end as I’ve thought, then I’ve been completely mistaken, haha. But I came into this with confidence, not about Aqua’s side of things(I thought HIM out of all should get a happy ending. I still wish for that to happen), but about what the story wanted to convey through Aqua’s parents. I believed there could be a meaningful message despite how difficult it seemed, so I took the initiative and interpreted it, drew a lot. If I’m wrong, I can only blame my insight... The story itself never changed; it just stayed there. But I was confident. I’ve never been wrong when it comes to instincts or analyses related to psychology. I thought I knew what this was...

I hope this work gets resolved in a way that is respectful towards its fans whom really cared for the series...they-we-deserve that as much as the authors deserve respect. We're in this together as a fan and the writers. We should care about each other.

[penny-the-pissed-poltergeist]

RWBY volume 2 episode 1 rewatch thoughts

.Bold move starting off with two new characters, especially ones that attentive viewers would know are villains

.Something really weird is that the old shopkeep never speaks past volume 1 even though he does in the first episode

.Considering how a lot fairy tales that are mentioned in show turn out to be foreshadowing lore, I'm kinda bummed that none of the books mentioned here seem to be linked to anything

.The window darkening switch things are really cool

.And Emerald and Mercury just straight up kill a guy, how many people have they killed and why did Emerald not even get a slap on the wrist later?

.Society if the text on Blake's notepad was decipherable and you could see her thoughts on Adam at that point

.Nora shooting cherry tomatoes(?) into Yang's mouth is weird and stupid and I love it. Let them be dumb teens

.Is Ruby calling her team (minus Weiss) "Sisters" where that one quote of Monty wanting team RWBY to be a sisterhood comes from? Because that quote has no other source to my knowledge.

.Ruby why are quoting Richard fucking Nixon, and why do I think that's the funniest thing ever RN. Oh god she a gun nut who fight protesters, did you vote for Trump Ruby? Did you? (this is all a joke before someone takes that in bad faith)

.Ah yes, one of the two real puns Yang actually makes in the whole series. And every fanfic author proceeded to have her be pun machine anyway.

.Wow Didn't expect them to show Weiss getting Creampied, that's kinda inappropriate don't ya think :)

.Neptune looks like what would happen if someone tried to combine Rex Salazar (Generator Rex) and Ninja (The Fortnight guy) genes into one clone body and it turned out defective (Can you tell I don't like him?)

.Shout out to whoever yeeted Jaune

.Whichever writer said that the foodfight isn't "100% Canon" or whatever is fucking coward. I get it's ridiculous but so is lot's of other stuff in this show

.Wouldn't putting turkey's on your hands get really fucking gross with all the meat juice

.Ruby surfing with a lunch tray gets a hell yeah from me, let her do Sonic the hedgehog type bullshit. Also shout out to that one animation someone made her breakdancing with Crescent Rose. I might dig through tumblr to reblog that later

.That one joking shot of Ruby holding Weiss was edited to remove the silly stuff in this volumes trailer, which can be argued to be straight up queerbait. Whiterose being teased as a joke is oddly thing in this volume and only this volume (also the anthology manga's but those are written by fans so that's not surprising)

.The first time Ruby becomes the rose pedal sphere thing is a scene you aren't even supposed to take as fully canon, also they should have let her do the giant vortex thing as part of her "real'' moveset

.I like to think the one of the reasons Ozpin didn't get mad is that this shit is kinda normal for Hunters

.God I fucking love Roman

.Emerald please, she doesn't care about you

.Eme and Merc are blood thirsty enough for Cinder of all people to tell them to keep their hands clean

.I forgot how funny Mercury can be

.Cinder he's a committed man, that's not gonna work

[canmom]

Man, it is refreshing to find someone else who wasn't impressed by Frieren's demon arc. It is not like I disliked it, I do like this kind of shonen action bullshit, it is fun. But to me it seems like a step down to the earlier episodes, the show downplaying its own strong points to do common action. It is surprising to me so many people seemed to love it as much as they did, it is the lowest point of the show so far for me.

Mmm. 'Didn't dislike it, but a step down' is a good summary - it deemphasised what made the show stand out narratively, to try to be something else. If I was in the mood to watch Kimetsu no Yaiba or Jujutsu Kaisen I would! Fortunately, we seem to be getting back on track with ep 11 - I'll be writing that up once I've watched another 4-6 more episodes. I'm getting pretty near the end of the first cour, so I might watch up to there.

Bit of a weird cour length at 16 episodes, but honestly that's good - I'd love to see 'seasonal' anime be more able to break free from the pacing constraints of 'it must always be 12-13 episodes'. Sometimes that's not the best way to slice up a manga!

One thing I do appreciate about the simultaneous success of Frieren and Dungeon Meshi is that they're both fantasy anime which don't do the isekai thing and put some effort into establishing a setting which feels like people live there. They're both very overtly RPG-influenced, but neither is actual litRPG, which is very much to their benefit. Ryōko Kui's passion for lovingly constructing her fantasy setting goes without saying. I'm told the Frieren manga sketches its setting rather loosely, but the anime is doing a whole lot to flesh it out as a place people live, because they let Seiko Yoshioka go absolutely nuts.

I was chatting with kvin on the sakugablog server (senpai...!) and he mentioned one particular instance - there's a scene Eisen is tending to the graves of his family. In the manga it looks like this:

Nondescript piles of dirt with a rock on top that are just next to his house. (Also, oof, this colouring. I thought this was a fan colouring at first but no that's official.) When we cut forward 50 years, we see Eisen leaving flowers: they're in big wrapped bouquets like you'd buy at a supermarket. The little Minecraft hut hasn't changed at all.

In the anime, it looks like this:

Not only do we have the recurring use of fields of flowers as a symbol of remembrance, there's clearly been some thought put into the design of the grave markers - even if we're not told what the spherical stone might mean, it obviously means something, and you have the stone as a symbol of permanence. There's those little ritual plates for offerings. And, significantly, it's clear that Eisen has added to these graves over the intervening 50 year period: the graves in the later time are larger, with more stones. The area around the grave site has more flowers and another tree that's grown. It's clear he's been carefully tending to this site his whole life. It's that kind of attention to detail that really makes this anime shine.

It's clear this anime was a real labour of love, and I don't want to deny that there is a lot to praise in the demon arc. I didn't mention it in my post, but the scene where Frieren commands Aura to kill herself (after Aura's mind control attempt backfires) is impressively brutal - apparently episode director Nobuhide Kariya acted that scene out with an umbrella, complete with expressions. (The expressiveness of the acting does a lot to foreshadow the demons having more complex characterisation, too. I hope.) It's just quite a weak storyline off the bat, so the execution can only do so much to elevate it.

Honestly, skimming the manga a bit, I'm all the more impressed by this adaptation. Admittedly, some of it is down to a weak scanlation that doesn't read very well, but it really doesn't have the same impact at all on paper. It's not just the fight episode - throughout, the anime staff clearly gave themselves freedom to interpolate and expand in ways that end up making the manga feel like a rough draft.

...actually come to think of it, they did a similar thing with Bocchi. The manga is a 4koma (by all accounts a good one), and they fleshed it out into a more substantial story with a strong emotional arc and also all the wacky experimental animation gags you could hope for. So I guess that's kind of just how Keiichiro Saito rolls! But it's really impressive how adeptly this team is able to handle such a completely different register. Bocchi and Frieren could hardly look more different on the surface.

Anyway, I'll save any more comments for the next part of this impromptu liveblog.

[chidoroki]

182 Days of TPN - Day 87

Chapter 87: “Boundary”

I dunno exactly where everyone else’s positions where located in the center of town or how visible they were gonna be from Emma’s spot, but I love how she figures out the major disadvantage she has simply based on Nigel taking over Oliver’s role and one of the whistles.

Seeing her with such an intense look on her face shakes me to my core.

She’s given a fair amount of time to think of her next move, even remembers Yuugo’s warning about how “your ideals and decisions will kill your friends,” so, what does she end up doing? She speaks her hopes to the psycho demon in front of her anyway.

It’s worth a shot to find some very slight common ground between them, but regrettably, her honesty does not thrill Leuvis.

To admit your immense dislike to someone and their unforgivable acts and still try to reason with them instead of resort to violence takes a whole lotta strength and is something I really love about Emma. I know a handful of protagonists don’t typically kill others in manga (and pretty much any other kind of media in general), but it fits her character so well because of how often we see her stay true to her ideals and optimistic mindset throughout the whole story. This is the Emma we know and love and she stays true to herself even when faced against her toughest challenge yet (yes even more menacing than Isabella, I’ll admit it, if only because Leuvis is an actual demon). Despite her hopeful proposition, I’m absolutely going nuts over how she lowkey threatens Leuvis at the end, like yeah she might’ve previously stated she doesn’t wanna kill you, but if he doesn’t comply with her request, she’ll still put him in danger one way or another to achieve her own goal.

It was indeed a silly attempt at peace, but his big “NO!” is hilarious. “He’s done his waiting! Thirteen years of it! In Goldy Pond!”

Very unfortunate foreshadowing.. for her and him, actually.

Bro help, seeing my favorites in pain freakin’ hurt me too.

It might not be as dangerous to head outside with only Leuvis left standing, but a thank you is still in order for these random kids who manage to bring back Sandy, Sonya and Paula safely.

Tell me how he managed to catch almost every bullet from that barrage with his skinny as hell chopstick looking fingers?? He got away with just a couple holes in his coat. Hell, not even Palvus was hit!

Favorite panel/moment:

Emma letting loose a whole damn armory of assorted guns onto Leuvis. Such a badass move that I seriously wish ended up being more effective against him.

[bxriles]

Fuck it. If Gege pulls a deus ex machina to kill Sukuna and keeps on with the bs about how ‘he wasn’t even giving it his all’ in the fight with Gojo, we can validly say JJK has gone down the toilet. It won’t be reaching, it won’t be delusional or biased, it will be legit criticism.

Am i nuts for thinking that at this point JJK needs to end tragically for it to be a satisfactory ending? Because good stories set expectations for how they will go. Sure, there can be some good twists, but there’s still a basic understanding of what kind of story it’ll be. Like Naruto and Avatar: The Last Airbender were set up so that the audience could tell that they would end with the protagonist saving the world and having a mostly happy ending, and that didn’t take away the quality of the writing.

But JJK isn’t set up for a happy ending anymore. People who valued kindness and/or had no ill intent are dead - Nanami, Haibara, Yaga, Riko, etc. Or there was Geto, whose kindness turned into something ugly and hateful. The most powerful character who was the cornerstone of the Good Guys’ movement was killed. And even worse is that Gojo makes his grand declaration to Ijichi that he’s going to change society and make things better, but in the end he didn’t accomplish that. He ended up killing the higher-ups anyway, told Gakuganji to continue the very same system just with different people, and he doesn’t beat the strongest force of evil that he was foreshadowed to defeat. That’s not a good twist, it’s disappointing.

If there’s a ~bittersweet~ conclusion it is going to come across as poor writing. The Good Guys have been steadily losing and losing and losing, jujutsu society hasn’t been changed, and a lot of interesting/good characters are dead.

At this point let Sukuna win. Uraume can cook all the surviving humans for him and then Sukuna can save his beloved chef for last to cannibalize.

Sorry this ask was long oops you don’t have to read all that

tl,dr - Gege is on the precipice of ending JJK quite poorly and Sukuna should win

YES!!! Literally yes to ALL of this!!! This sums everything up so perfectly. You said everything that needed to be said and took the words right out of my mouth. More unhinged ranting below the cut:

You are SPOT ON with the Naruto and ATLA comparison. I am not kidding when I say I am now Team Sukuna. Why wouldn't I be? With the way the narrative is right now, I would feel so cheated if he didn't win. Does Gege really expect us to believe that the remaining Good Guys can beat Sukuna when the singular character who has been set up to defeat Sukuna since chapter 2 couldn't do it? Does he really expect us to be satisfied with Yuji (ily bby but wtf can you actually do rn?) killing Sukuna when Gojo Satoru, the strongest, could not?

I saw a post the other week that compared JJK to Naruto. The whole point of the post was that with other shonen manga (Naruto, OP, DBZ, etc.), we KNOW the protagonist is always going to win, even if it feels like a cop out. So when Kid Naruto beats tf out of a very powerful Orochimaru, we're all like "yeah okay, makes sense." But JJK has done the opposite. JJK has told us that just because someone is the protagonist does not mean they're going to automatically win. I mean, we've seen Yuji get the shit beat out of him so many times because of this. So JJK set up this pretty legit power dynamic and told us that the only person who can defeat the big baddie is Gojo Satoru and we have been given no reason to think otherwise. So when Gojo dies and Yuji somehow defeats Sukuna with an ass-pull, we're all going to be pissed because we were promised otherwise. If we saw Yuji beating special-grades left and right from the first few chapters, then it would probably be fine. But that is not what Gege wrote!! He wrote the opposite of this ffs.

And your whole point about all the people who valued kindness being gone is another thing that makes me even more frustrated. If we're going for a straight up tragedy, FAIR ENOUGH. But if Gege wants to turn this into a bittersweet ending or if he wants Yuji to beat Sukuna, it'll feel cheap.

Let Sukuna and Uraume kill everyone and everything. Any other ending will be bullshit.

[felixcloud6288]

Higurashi: Atonement Chapter 1

We open with a poem from Frederica Berkastel. She speaks of a repeating tragedy. As it repeats she goes from shock to agony to thinking its a vicious joke by the seventh time it's happened.

It is more than likely a coincidence since Beyond Midnight is a manga-only arc and not part of the core series, but this is the 7th arc. By now, we're probably becoming a bit numb to all the events that have happened and are just wondering how everything goes bad this time.

We have the return of Karin Suzuragi, who drew the art for Abducted by Demons, as well as the core cast. We haven't seen them together like this since Curse Killing. Shion's also there.

It really has been a long time since I've seen the cast just having fun, playing around, forcing each other into embarrassing cosplay, and Rena going nuts from a cuteness overload.

Ouch. Shion is not in that one group image.

This is the second answer arc and it's pretty clearly billed as the answer arc to Abducted by Demons. Just like that arc, Keiichi is our protagonist with Rena being the main girl...

Until the perspective flips half way through and Rena is the perspective character instead.

This is an answer arc. Keiichi asked himself why Rena seems sad and we get to know why.

We got to find out a little about Rena's past back in Abducted by Demons, but we can hardly say we know anything about her at this point. Now we get to see her home life with her divorced dad and his girlfriend Rina Mamiya.

Does that name sound familiar? That's the name of the woman who was killed in the beginning of Curse Killing. In chapter 7, Detective Delicious Ooishi gave a full dossier on her, including that she's involved in extortion and works for Teppei Hojo.

So we can look forward to trouble coming up in the future.

It's Kenta-kun!!

And this chapter ends with us finding out what this arc is going to be about.

Rena's behavior when it comes to Oyashiro-sama's curse has been an ongoing aspect of the story since the beginning. She's never been willing to talk about it and every moment she lets herself slip shows she's utterly traumatized by it.

But we just got a little glimpse of it at the end of this chapter when she saw maggots crawling in her blood. And this isn't the first time this has happened to her.

Last arc, we got the answer to Mion's involvement in the series of murders. This arc, we'll find out the secrets behind Oyashiro-sama's curse.

By the way, The new moon in 1983 was June 11 and the first quarter moon was June 17. So the waxing crescent means this arc is starting somewhere in that date range.

NIPA BEAM!!

back

Spoiler Discussion

Frederica's opening poem reflects a bit of the reader's feelings, but the juxtapose with Rika is a light foreshadowing of the big reveal in this arc. The poem is just as much about Rika's feelings on things. She died and came back then was killed over and over. At this point, she's used to it and has kind of given up on expecting to stop tragedy from happening.

[darkkpastels]

6, 10, 52, 57!

AAAAHHHH!! Thanks so much @good-wine-and-cheese I just finished finals! this is an awesome way to start summer break!

Answering questions for this game: https://www.tumblr.com/allsassnoclass/682696593093345280/fanfiction-writing-asks?source=share

6.What’s the last line you wrote?

" --To which the raven left out the window as quickly as it arrived, leaving a chalky mess on the window pane. The rain saturated and formed a growing whitish pool as Dudley closed the window.

“Well…I guess I have something of an answer” moving the nut crumbles to a waste bin before bed. ---" Chapter 5, Modern Galatea

10.Do you work on multiple wips or stick to one fic at a time?

I tried doing one story at a time when I started writing fanfiction again. But, I learned that, ultimately it doesn't matter how many stories you do, its if you're consistent about writing anything. I also let the gremlins in my head win because I'm not always thinking about one story, but,

52. What’s the average word count of your fics?

Stardust has an average word count of 3200 (23 chapters as of rn)

Modern Galatea is 2300 words

I'm not very worried about word count as I am about pages per chapter. Keeping to a 5-6 minimum to a near 9-10 page max. Entirely to do with preference.

57. How conscious are you about including symbolism or foreshadowing in your fics?

I am incredibly conscious, I like to think I am anyway. I re-read my stories to make sure they make sense and make sure new stuff tracks. Poor Hoshi has been on a bit of a wild ride in my head. There is plenty of foreshadowing, which is how the other brain child began.

Modern Galatea will have ALOT of foreshadowing. Its symbolism stems from that its a follow up from Metropolis Manga (goofy manga but loads of stuff to follow up) and building up to what will be the base (for what I think, is the set up for the 2001 film).

I would be lying if writing for a prequel and a current story isn't easy, but, its sometimes helpful!

[aimfor-theheart]

Hi there Cielo :) May I say the latest chapter of Godmaker was a stunning addition to the rest .. You put so much foreshadowing into the story and it's definitely paying off now - it was so suspenseful!

"He wanted to be human. Mortal. Man." I can't stress enough how much I loved this line .. Gojo's humanity (or lack thereof) is one of the most important and interesting things to explore about his character (definitely my favorite) and you've been dealing with this concept in such a meaningful and intense way :).

One thing I didn't mention in the last comment I left is how well you've portrayed all the other "side" characters, especially Nanami .. He's still so young yet he already feels so tired 😖 .. The family scenes feel so bittersweet and nostalgic, and this chapter was no exception! And Tsumiki - given the way the last three manga chapters have evolved (big sigh) the scenes that involved her and Megumi gained an extra layer of intensity.

Second to last, the desperation in reader's words when Yuta made his appearance .. Knowing his arrival is when things start to seriously unfold in JJK made the moment even more dramatic (I don't know if that made sense 😂).

And last but not least, can I just say .. the very last passage! With what I've said about Gojo's character in mind .. I think it's the best part of it! The way everything slid in place, his painful realization, and both the past and future implications of it ..

I'm as always in awe :,) Thank you so much again for spending your time to work on this and for sharing it with us .. I really mean it! I hope you have a great day :)

oh gosh im sorry im getting to this a few days late!! its been sitting in my asks and i've been rereading it 💕

first of all, thank you AGAIN for taking the time to read and then come into my inbox to share your thoughts 😩😩💕 as always, it means the world to me!!

i think gojo has a...human complex lol. i've seen it go around the dash recently but it was something i'd thought/had been the basis of godmaker for a long time which is that gojo doesn't have a god complex because he just is a god. and he wants to be human. or he wants another god. he doesn't want to be alone anymore. and i took it the next level in godmaker LMAO

god the tsumiki bomb dropped on me and i went SHIT. bc i was not planning on THAT. and then megumi...oh megumi. either way. i had to continue godmaker despite whatever akutami is putting out lol. but im glad you're enjoying the side characters! i actually love writing nanami always. even if he's a tough nut.

it makes total sense!! that's what i intended for it to be! i do feel like yuuta marks the beginning of the end, in the reader's mind. she'll get to meet him next chapter and she. kinda sees him as a bad omen in her life lol.

but gosh THANK YOU! i really really really appreciate you taking the time to send this message and share your thoughts! honestly one of my fav parts of posting on here is when i get to do this!!

thank you again and sorry this is late!! i hope you're doing well friend 💕💕

[cosmicjoke]

Hey! I saw you liked the Aot's ending, like me, and I appreciate that someone understood the core themes of this story. The ending it's not perfect, but it's coherent to the message of the manga. What do you think about the strong denial of this ending and the borderline obsession to fix what people don't like? I really can't wait to see the hopes of " Aoe confirmed we won this, that, blah,blah" being crushed by the anime. And the Yeagerist seeing their chad go "Nooo i don't want that!" Eren was always whiny, and this people praising him for genocide and an alpha male are nuts.

Hi there,

Yeah, I really don't get people's whining about the end of AoT. It was the right ending, and if you just pay attention and actually think about, as you said, those core themes and characterization and all the many, many layers of foreshadowing, it all makes perfect sense and fits. I think people just build up their own expectations of what they WANT to see happen, and then when it doesn't, they throw a hissy fit like a three year old child because they didn't get what they want. It's pathetic, honestly. Anyone who think they're going to change the ending of AoT, when they've done nothing but be generally extremely faithful to Isayama's vision up to this point, is simply deluding themselves. Like you also said, Eren was never the ice cold, hardened bad-ass he was pretending to be in the final arc. That was all an act. He remained to the very end the whiny, selfish, idiot child he always was. It's actually really ironic, that his fans that complain about the ending are emulating Eren to a tee without actually realizing it, lol. 'Whaa, whaa, this isn't what I wanted! I refuse to accept it!'. Well, too bad I guess. Doesn't matter how much you bitch and moan, it isn't going to change the outcome. It's disrespectful to Isayama besides, to shit all over his ending, or to insinuate that he changed it due to outside pressure. That's just coping on the part of fools who didn't get what they wanted, whatever that was. Eren running off with Historia to have their baby, lol, or whatever insane theories they came up with. They can't accept either that Historia just turned out to be as selfish as Eren, putting her own well being over the lives of the rest of the world. Of course, this is something we knew about Historia from the very beginning. Her "altruism" was always an act. These people just don't do too good with subtlety. If something isn't beaten over their heads with a giant stick, they don't pick up on it.

AoT is a tragedy. It was from the start, so it was always going to have a subdued ending. It's more a commentary on the hopeless tragedy of human nature than anything, really, and the tragedy of the world itself. People won't ever stop fighting and killing each other. War will never cease to exist, no matter how much we try or wish it to. There's always going to be some asshole (or assholes) who want to instigate it.

Anyway, yeah, people that don't like the ending of AoT just don't get it, it's that simple. They can go read a bunch of fan fiction if they want to console themselves, I guess. The anime isn't going to change it. And it shouldn't.

[fantasyinvader]

Tomorrow I'm going to wake up, go to work, come home, wait for my laptop to start up after updating, and read the final chapter of Dungeon Meshi. Like, wow. What a trip it's been. Think it was back in 2018 I started reading this, but due to being a monthly series it feels like some of the arcs were really recent. Like the fight against Thistle was two years ago, What!? And the chapter I took my background from was in December of 2019. Insane. I mean, sure the last five chapters have been the epilogue to flesh out the ending after Laios fulfilled his destiny and ate the final boss, so it's not like I didn't know this was coming. And even then, I made a prediction a couple of years ago about how much longer the series had left. This is going to be my last trip to the /tg/ board to see the thread for the new chapter, though admittedly those were often locked by the time I got there, because this series was so good even the guys who are all about D&D were supporting it and going nuts over the world-building of the series. I mean, people were pointing out stuff from Marcille's design to argue she was a half-elf years before she was revealed as one, or you get the moments like when the hole in Senshi's backstory (that he's been in the dungeon for 10 years when it was only discovered 6 years ago) are intentional foreshadowing.

I'm… I don't think I've ever experienced a manga ending like this. With me, so many where the manga was axed, or translators dropped the series, or the series was already or mostly complete when I started it or, in the case of Naruto, I was simply waiting for the ending after it looked like things were wrapping up only for Kishi to give us a long, boring, bullshitty, fodder for anime filler war arc that drained whatever good will I still had for the series. This has been a series I've followed for years, loving it every step of the way, and it's ending on such a high note that it all feels like it was a journey I myself was on. I don't think I'll ever experience a manga like this again.

And to think, it all started when I saw joking edits about how elves are a proud and noble race, they are not lewd.

[lost-technology]

Potential spoilers for other Trigun media ahead? Gung-Ho Guns stuff: Well, the timeline of certain events is different. However, one thing that seems to be a constant that might be at play is Knives' laziness. He's lazy and takes his time - and thus it takes some time for the Gung-Ho Guns to be gathered - and they honestly, again, in all media, seem to be a last-resort, like Knives just expected Vash to "have fun" among the humans and get his ass kicked by them and to see how worthless they were and to come crawling back to him, and when that didn't happen, he had to gather "the wickedest of men." Or, have them for him by Legato, who is around Knives for his own reasons. Maybe it's not even Knives' own idea, but Legato's. We do not KNOW! He took his sweet time just being all "Okay, I'm going to set assassins on him to try to force him to break his vows / to see the true nature of humanity" all of a sudden after years and years. Tesla's fate: She does not exist in the OG anime. It was created before she was a thing in the continuation of the manga, possibly as a different, more serious catalyst for Knives to go nuts. In the manga, she's simply dead. That "Alive" status is a Stampede-only thing. I think the Stampede show-runners said in an anime convention interview that Knives absorbed her? And that she's that stupid dorky hoodie now? It would kind of synch up with some things that happen in the manga in a different context and is likely a foreshadowing. As for invasiveness... hmmm... tentacles in places seems to be a fad in media now? Straight up reminded me of what Horde Prime did to Hordak in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, honestly. Lots of people have acknowledged it. I avoid "Plantcest" for my own reasons, but the people who enjoy that...erm..."ship"... are pretty much having fun with that. Certainly have to filter out my squicks A LOT whenever I go to the Tristam section of Ao3.

Burning questions that have haunted me since watching Trigun Stampede:

-Does no one notice the difference between the pale stabby squid man and the fluorescent red golden retriever man?

-Is….. is the body suit attached? Is it not?

-what happened to Tesla after the crash?

-why does vash not know nai’s murderous employees by the time he’s like 150

-is no one going to acknowledge the incredibly invasive nature of what occurred in the last episode????

-what did nai do to vash’s gate at jeneora rock and why did he need diff tech in the last episode?

If anyone with more context or luck with research knows, or wants to theorize, feel free lol

[isatoru]

non manga readers going into the csm anime watching episode 2 like ahaha this is gonna be so fun and silly.............. just u wait.... denji is coming for ur nuts next