#the great wave volume 1 manga

[cocogum]

Each Great Wave chapter covers and their respective small drawings.

[blacktiger666]

June 7 was released in France :

Wakfu The Great Wave ("La Grande Vague" in French) !

Quite happy to have received my order without problem, looking forward to seeing how things will go for the other volumes of this French manga 😊

[sweetbottletops]

New interview related to the recent J-Wave radio program that ran this week. She didn't speak on radio, but answered some questions via text they read.

MTL below...

Q: What made you want to draw this work?

Arai: To begin with, I'm becoming more and more aware of my own sexuality every day, and I wanted to depict the connection between women. On top of that, I like people with a gap between them, and it's simple, but I wondered what would happen if two opposites unexpectedly had something in common, and I thought it would be great if that person became a unique being. And, it's even more simple, but I like masculine women, so I was particularly particular about creating Mitsuki.

Q: One of the distinctive features of this work is that it is colored green and black. Why is that?

Arai: The yellow-green color was added about 15 minutes before the first episode was posted, and it became the trademark; it was a complete coincidence. But that yellow-green color is a color I personally like; it's dangerous and catches your eye, or rather, it's a color you can't look away from. Rock is very stimulating for me, and I love it, so once I hear it, I can't stop listening to it, so I think I imagined rock.

Q: What do you consider when choosing songs to appear in your work?

Arai: When I choose music to include in my manga, I choose it so that the character's feelings at that time can be felt through the sound, and can be understood through the lyrics and song title. Some of the big scenes in this work were ideas that came to me while I was listening to music, so the scenes were created with the songs that I felt were perfect for them. Music is amazing.

In response to the question "What is your favorite scene?", Arai answered "The scene at the after-party of the school festival in volume 1 of the manga." It's a scene where Mitsuki sings a Radiohead song on stage at the after-party because she wants to become friends with Aya. It's also important to note that you can tell which song she is singing by comparing it to the situation at that time in the manga.

Arai: I deliberately didn't mention the titles of the songs in the story, but I thought it was amazing that everyone who read it knew what they were.

Check out the rest of the program here.

[eldritchneuro]

Left eye/Right eye contrast (Volume 1)

So anyways, after a few days of screenshotting seemingly random panels of Vash, what do we come to?

First of all, not every panel I've collected is going to be valuable.

Comics have an internal sense of direction that they adhere to create a sense of flow as you read. For example, sometimes one side of Vash's face is simply obscured because the camera (for lack of a better term) is showing him facing a certain direction. In a right-left reading format, a character on the right side facing to the left is going to be interpreted as speaking before another.

In this scene, we have Vash connecting with one of his sisters. Is he facing to the right to highlight the right side of his face, or is it because we're meant to look at the Plant first and then Vash and his wings?

For the first few chapters, Vash's 'eye language' seems pretty consistent, at least to me. When one of his eyes is obscured, it's almost always the right one, with a few exceptions. The first one is when he is cornered by the local townsfolk, the perspective shifting to his right side as he draws a gun on them...

...Which is then emphasized with Vash's sudden outburst of anger towards his brother. The intentionality of such contrast is pretty clear - Vash is facing straight towards the viewer, but the entire left side of his face is negative space. It's a big shift in his persona - manga Vash isn't against using threats or minor injuries to diffuse a situation, but this is a rare instance where we see open hostility from him.

In the next panel, Vash puts on his heightened 'suave gunman' persona, and this time he covers his left eye with his own hand, as if intentionally 'hiding' half of himself.

The next notable exception is when Vash's attitude on killing is questioned. Note that Vash's left eye is not covered by the shading this time, but by someone else's speech bubble. The previous scene seems to have established emphasis on Vash's right side as his 'violent' or 'false' one, so here it's almost like that idea of the violent typhoon is being forced onto him by someone else.

It's a similar deal with this page here, where Vash is shown from his right side via the perspective of a bystander. Combined with the serious expression on Vash's face, the quiet, impactful paneling, Vash looks very intimidating here.

Not that Vash is always shot from the right when getting serious, or exempt from using his glasses to cover up his expression entirely.

But there still does seem to be a rule here - when Vash is at his most vicious (or concealed), that's when his left side tends to be covered up. Which you'll note kind of works as the 'Vash' side of Vash, since it has the mole and all.

In fact, right after this 'Typhoon' line, the tension is broken by the arrival of the girls. And what happens to Vash the moment his intense focus state is broken? We see his left eye, not his right.

Likewise, it's when he's at his most kind and selfless that Vash is shot from his left side instead, like when he stops to pull the broken building off of the townsfolk.

If we take Vash's left side to be a more 'Vash' part of him, then it also aligns with some character traits we know he has.

Vash pushing himself away from sleeping with someone, one of the first clear examples we get of his reluctance to get close with others? Right eye shaded with the left more visible.

Vash being waved off by some adoring kids? Right eye obscured, left eye visible. After all, we know he's good with kids.

"This is great!", it said to itself. "It's not just my imagination - even if there are a few exceptions, there seems to be a clear visual motif being set up here. Surely this will continue!"

And then it doesn't.

It starts off decently consistent - Vash will of course be shot from either direction if need be, typically to face another character, but there still seems to be a pattern in place.

When Vash talks to Kaite, and we get the closest we have so far to his true nature, focus is drawn to his left eye. When Vash dreams of Rem and converses with her, he's almost always shot from the left.

Then we get to the rest of the arc and suddenly I can't find any pattern here whatsoever. You could make an argument for something, like how Vash being silly or mysterious or talking about Rem are scenes all showing his left side, but there's not enough consistency here for me to not feel like this isn't cherry-picking scenes.

Honestly, I kinda suspect that this might be a case of Nightow starting out wanting this as a motif, realizing how difficult that motif would be to fit in and then just slowly dropping it. As someone who (occasionally) writes my own fiction, god knows it hasn't happened to me.

And I'll admit, I wasn't exactly marking down every instance where one side of Vash's face was obscured at this point because it's kinda hard to stay interested in a motif if you feel like it wasn't intentional or doesn't mean anything. There doesn't seem to be anything when it comes to Vash's connection with his sisters - as stated right at the start, Vash's first shown communion with a Plant is shot from his right side, but then when he muses on the presence of a geoplant, he's shown from the left. The only connection I can think of is that in the first scene, it's a point of high tension, whilst in the second, it's a point of peace, tranquillity and wonder. A bit shaky of a conclusion with only two examples.

There is one event that seems to stay consistent thus fa, though.

July.

When we first see Vash perched on top of the ruins of July, it's with heavy chiaroscuro blocking out the right side of his face. And when Vash discusses the event with Brilliant Dynamites Neon, it's the left half of his face that gets the focus.

Even with the inconsistency, I still do think that Vash's left side is a notable visual shorthand. There's a variety of different events that put focus on the side of Vash's face with the mole - kindness, intense action, goofiness and mystery. But all of these things are also very Vash, specifically the sort of Vash the Stampede I think he pictures in his head. At his core, Vash wants to be the goofy, lighthearted action hero. And yet that side of him also includes one of the most devastatingly traumatic moments of his life. As if that's something so deeply connected to Vash that he cannot separate it from the person he wants to be, no matter how painful.

[a-mellowtea]

Interview: Lindsay Jones RWBY Archives: Remnant Promenade Volume 1-8

Q.1. Tell me how you became involved as a production staff member and cast member. Also, please share any general thoughts on it.

I voice the main character of this work, Ruby Rose, the leader of Team RWBY. It’s been a very rewarding and daunting challenge to voice her as a character and grow alongside her. To put it lightly, “RWBY” has changed my life.

Q.2. What was your impression when you first saw the finished version of “RWBY”?

Being a long-time anime fan, it was literally a dream come true to be a part of something with such a classic plot and story. Ruby has so much of my own personality in her. It was a hybrid combination of my career dreams coming true and a new version of myself. She’s way cooler than me, though.

Q.3. What do you think the appeal of "RWBY" is, and what are your favorite characters and episodes?

Compared to many production companies, we had fewer people involved at first but, in exchange, we were able to work more intimately, which is what makes "RWBY" so appealing. Fans and people in the industry say that it’s a little rougher than other anime, but it’s a very straightforward one. One of my favorite characters is Nora. I’ve always liked characters who appear cheerful on the surface, but who have a true nature to reveal underneath. As for episodes, I’d say Vol. 1 Episode 8, “Players and Pieces”. It’s the first episode where we see Team RWBY and JNPR working together in a situation that seems out of control.

Q.4. Please give a look back on production from the beginning to the present, when over 100 episodes have been produced, including Vol. 8.

I can’t say that nothing has changed. We’ve been swept up in a wave of support, not only domestically but worldwide. "RWBY" is in everything. Games, comics, manga, etc. Ruby has even become a VTuber. We've added more details to everything surrounding RWBY, we've seen the characters grow, we've been able to take the girls to different worlds, we’ve been able to add new weapons. It's gone from a small world to a universe called "RWBY".

Q.5. “RWBY” has become a long-running series, with numerous spin-offs and mixed media works in addition to the main story. What do you think is the reason it has grown this way, with so many fans around the world?

“RWBY” has a universal appeal and many people can identify with every character. There is a character for everyone. I personally identify with many of the characters, especially Ruby herself. I know that people turn to media as a source of solace and inspiration, and RWBY is one of those places.

Q.6. In addition to the Japanese dubbed version, there are various media properties, such as comics and goods. What are your impressions of the development in Japan, such as the production of the original work “Ice Queendom” by Japanese staff? Also, what kind of developments do you expect in the future?

I remember when I talked to Monty, he had a strong desire to enter the Japanese market, a medium that inspired him. Many studios such as Sanzigen, who produced “Black Rock Shooter”, inspired him. Now, we've been able to work with a Japanese partner to see his dream come true, and it feels like his spirit’s come full circle. It’s also great to see "RWBY" redone in the traditional 2D format, giving us a new look at the classic characters.

Q.7. What is the appeal of your character?

The appeal of Ruby’s character is that she is innocent, yet driven. There's triumph in her simple soul, she has an almost childlike purity and innocence, but she also needs to grow up. I think a lot of viewers, especially young viewers, can relate to that. It’s a formative time in life, a time when you’re discovering who you are and who you want to be.

Q.8. Please tell us about the points of your performance and story that you want people to pay attention to. Also, what episodes, scenes, or lines have left a particularly strong impression on you in the past 10 years of acting?

Episode 8 of Vol. 1 is the first time Ruby faces serious difficulties. Expression her core and innermost feelings through the battle was a big challenge for me, but at the same time it was meaningful. In Vol. 3, after Ruby picks up Penny’s sword, she says “Leave her alone!” and I had to convey a variety of emotions with just three words. If I’m hearing the audience right, I think I did a good job. That moment opened the door to the dark scenes of “RWBY” and helped set the tone for the rest of the leads.

Q.9. Please tell us about the character’s growth from her first appearance to the end of Vol. 8. Was there any change in your acting from her first scene to the end?

Yes, there’s more uncertainty behind her. She had to find her footing in Beacon, but there were people guiding her. As she's grown, those people have become neutral figures or are gone from her life. So she has to find her own compass within herself.

Q.10. What do you think are some similarities and differences between you and Ruby?

[laughs politely] Before Monty offered me the role, he literally said to me, “You’re not very social.” Yep! Socially awkward, but endlessly optimistic. I was eager to prove myself, and I definitely had my own struggles with finding myself, believing in myself over other people, and not letting anyone else speak for me.

Q.11. Please give us your thoughts on the future development of the character and your message to them.

I want Ruby to show more leadership. With so many obstacles in front of her and hope fading, she'll have to find her inner strength and support her team as much as she can. My message to Ruby is, “Choose yourself. Never stop choosing yourself. And no capes”.

Q.12. Please leave a message for your fans around the world.

First of all, I want to sincerely thank you for all your support over the years. Without you all, this work would not have been possible. My main message is to keep moving forward. As the team leader, I think that that’s the most appropriate thing to say to everyone.

— Translation by yours truly.

[onenettvchannel]

THIS JUST IN: Wakfu Season 5 is reportedly in development, greenlighted and confirmed -- says Ankama Animations and France Televisions [#K5NewsFMExclusive]

(Written by Rhayniel Saldasal Calimpong / Freelanced News Writer, Online Media Reporter and News Presenter of OneNETnews)

ROUBAIX, FRANCE -- French entertainment company & public broadcaster 'Ankama Animations' and 'France Televisions' revealed on Wednesday night (June 12th, 2024 -- France local time) on social media that the most highly anticipated and popular animated series 'Wakfu' officially greenlighted, and is in development for Season 5, which supposedly the 4th and final season pushed back to one more season within the next several years to come.

In an exclusive visual poster photo on Instagram (part of Meta Platforms Inc. [MPi]), per first obtained by K5 News FM: Dumaguete… Mr. Yugo Sharm, who was the adult Eliatrope individual, and recently married with Princess Amalia Sheran Sharm, where portals open to seek what was happening in his next story-driven adventure, sometimes his life after a steamy married couple (YuMalia) in Sadida Kingdom.

Show creators themselves at 'Ankama Animations', citing from the American news magazine 'Variety' and 'Deadline Hollywood' that the aforementioned French entertainment company acquires a minority stake with 'INTHEBOX'. While the anime-inspired independent animation company 'Studio Unagi' eyes with larger development slate of projects ramp up its production volume.

Yet, a 'Wakfu' franchise spin-off, revealing a brand new free-to-play roleplay gaming 'Waven' of 'Ankama Games' may soon have a potential adaptation under the same name as a French animated series or a movie, if all goes into the plan. The old and familiar faces are a different account, aside from a televised French animated production of the main protagonist charter of the franchise for Mr. Yugo Sharm.

As you may remember in context, some months ago this year in 2024, at the end of Season 4 finale episode… A momentous occasion between 'Yugo' the Eliatrope and Princess Amalia Sheran Sharm, the beloved main protagonist character couples of the series are now finally united in marriage at the majestic Sadida Kingdom. The union of Mr. Yugo Sharm and Prncs. Amalia Sheran Sharm marked a significant milestone in their journey together for all these years. A beautiful sunset over the kingdom as its warm orange-like glow fell upon the newlyweds via portals. The kissing ended in cliffhanger to wrap last new episodes.

Things are in dark turn for lovemaking after marriage as a French cartoon show for mature audiences as a follow-up, per the latest manga webtoon comic sequel of 'Wakfu: The Great Wave' - Chapter 1, which is way too dark to sell for public broadcasters on a French kids and teens programming block 'Okoo' for France 4, since this webtoon manga chapter is no longer animated, and in part for the renewal development of Season 5 in production at 'Ankama Animations'.

Case in point, edited versions in most of its episodes for targeted demographic of kids and teens may be possible on national TV aside the sex scenes from the start in manga webtoon comic sequel, while the potential uncensored bits was subject for the approval to the public French broadcaster, if later fitted for the mature-rated content to 'France TV Slash'. Along the way, the Season 4 finale of Wakfu not only left fans in awe of the beautiful union between Mr. Yugo and Prncs. Amalia, but also set the stage for new adventures and challenges in the upcoming 5th Season.

Meanwhile, the news of the 5th Season of Wakfu comes as a joyful surprise to its fans worldwide, especially in the Philippines, United States of America (U.S.A.), Canada and across the globe. The show lovers among us are up for another fantastic new season from creators at 'Ankama Animations' and 'INTHEBOX'.

With the previous seasons having left traditional and online streaming viewers at suspense, this upcoming season is bound to create even more excitement, fantasy and thrillers that will be made on large screens on television and online.

You can relive the excitement of 'Wakfu', streaming now on the 'Okoo' app and on 'France TV' website, while you wait for potentially extra final 5th Season. Netflix is also available globally for you to stream at your own time.

POSTER PHOTO COURTESY: Ankama Animations via IG PHOTO BACKGROUND PROVIDED BY: Tegna

SOURCE: *https://www.instagram.com/p/C8H4_7sC1XZ/ [Referenced IG Captioned Photo via Okoo] *https://variety.com/2024/tv/global/wakfu-creator-ankama-inthebox-1236033393/ [Referenced News Article via Variety] and *https://deadline.com/2024/05/ankama-studio-unagi-launch-montreal-1235943352/ [Referenced News Article via Deadline Hollywood]

-- OneNETnews Online Publication Team

[tryslora]

What I'm Reading Wednesday...

On the Duck Prints Press reading server, it’s What I’m Reading Wednesday where we all share what we finished in the last week, what we are currently reading, and what we think of these books.

I figured hey, why not bring that to the rest of the world for myself. Because I love yelling about my current reads. And I’ve always got several things in motion at one time, between physical, audio, and ebooks, plus things I’m reading for specific reasons.

Here’s the summary from the last week in visual format (the actual discussion is behind the read-more):

Fiction

I am currently reading Many Drops Make a Stream by Adrian Harley (from Duck Prints Press). There are so many things to love in this book. The world building packs so much into such a small space. The culture clash between human and shapeshifter is wonderful (and Harley’s shapeshifters truly have a culture all their own). I thought it was going to be a quick read because it’s short, but the language and depth of information have me going slower and savoring every word. That said, I’ve also reached the point where I want to take it in faster, so I find myself spending a little extra time every time I pick it up, just to get a few more pages!

Manga & Graphic Novels

I have one manga and one graphic novel in progress.

I’ve been reading The Complete Elfquest, volume 1 by Wendy & Richard Pini for a little over two weeks now. We have several of these volumes, and my intention is to read one chapter/issue a night, so I am able to savor them slowly, but also get through them. Reading this first volume is like coming home into a fandom from childhood. The first chunk of it was also collected in the original Warp Graphics compilations, and I can’t remember how often I read those back in high school. I’m reaching the parts now where I probably only read the individual issues once or twice, so it’s familiar, but not to the point where I’m like oh yes, I remember gazing at that panel for hours. I still love these elves, and this story, and I cannot wait to get home each day and be allowed to read a chapter. I’m looking forward to when I reach new-to-me material.

I watched the 24 episode anime The Apothecary Diaries and I wasn’t ready to let it go when it was over, so I started reading the manga by Natsu Hyuuga and Nekokurage. I finished volumes 5 & 6 this past week and am currently reading volume 7. I have the remaining already published volumes waiting for when I’m done with this. I adore Maomao and Jinshi, and am incredibly excited to get to the point where canon moves past what is in the anime. That said, getting to revisit events I already watched on TV and linger over what was said and the exact expressions has been soooo good. (And yes, I know the light novels also exist and will be rolling into those in ebook form after the manga; I might be a tad bit obsessed).

Audiobook

A while ago I thought “I should read some TJ Klune” so I checked the library list I had for audiobooks, and the first of his Extraordinaries trilogy was available in audio. I listened to it. I was addicted. I’m now on the third book—Heat Wave—and I find it very very hard to put it down. I can’t listen while working, only while commuting, walking, or doing chores—things that don’t require me to actually think so I can multi-task. But hey, it’s a GREAT way to get me to do my PT since it means fifteen minutes more of audiobook listening! Nick, the POV character, has ADHD and I flail a lot over pretty much everything he thinks and does. I love every character in this series. I love how Klune is using superheroes as an allegory for the queer experience and for racial issues, but at the same time, is actually addressing those issues explicitly. I both want to listen faster to find out what happens, and linger so it doesn’t end.

Ebook

I have been reading Wayfinder by CE Murphy, which is the second in a duology. This is a romance, yes, but it’s another fun culture clash book, this time between humanity and faerie, and I am so here for that. Murphy is an author I used to read a lot from, and I’m trying to work my way through her back catalog slowly because I’ve always enjoyed her style. Accessible and fun. This series is about a woman who has always been able to hear lies (a Truthseeker), and how her talent develops, and how she works with the faerie kingdoms to try to help them (despite some of them not wanting help, and the original situation not being the one she’s actually needed for).

Non-fiction

I have been working my way through three non-fiction books.

One is A Year of Zen by Bonnie Myotai Treace. I had been looking for a journaling prompt book, and decided to give this one a try. I made the difficult decision to write directly in the book itself, then the additional decision to let myself fail if needed. So if I don’t get to answer a prompt on a day, I just answer it the next day. One prompt per day. It’ll take me more than a year to go through it, but that’s okay. The idea is to have me think and write a short paragraph every day, and not feel guilty about messing up. It’s working surprisingly well. Learning to let myself fail has been a big part of my process this year, and hopefully I am learning to let go of some of the anxiety about things needing to be matched and rigid.

The one I am stalled on right now is The Happiness Trap by Russ Harris. It was recommended as a book that therapists like to use for themselves, not merely recommend to their patients, and it reminded me of the radical acceptance I’m supposed to be practicing (and apparently am, despite myself, according to my therapist after she listened to me). The problem is, it has exercises (doesn’t everything?) and I stalled out because I didn’t have time.

Time is a theme, y’know? And that’s what happened with the last non-fiction book. I’ve been working through The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, taking it as a self-guided 12 week course. I’m currently on week 5. However, I did a week of just doing morning notes before I really got started, then I took a week off when everything went haywire in my schedule because of the power outage. So it’s been about seven weeks so far. This week, as I worked on exercises, I found myself really digging in to my emotions about this book. And in the end, I decided that while I can see the value in some things, the book itself is giving me more anxiety about everything to do with my writing, while at the same time making it impossible for me to find time TO write (while following the advice it gives). So. I am no longer doing it as a course, with exercises, but I will finish reading it. And if an exercise appeals, I’ll do it. It’ll still take time, because I’ll probably still read one chapter each weekend, but I am already feeling WAY less stressed and I only made this decision last night.

So…

That’s it for me! What are you reading?

[immortalemz]

media thread post 2023

going to attempt to port over my media thread from twitter and use reblogs to update it

Avataro Sentai Donbrothers The Movie: Shin Hatsukoi Hero i enjoyed it more then the revice summer movie, shame like pretty much all mid series sentai movies its basically just an ep with a bigger budget

2. Ultraman Decker

MUCH IMPROVED OVER TRIGGER IN LIKE EVERY AREA, INCLUDING ITS USE OF KENGO. only real complaint i have is them revealing the Spheres motivations minutes before they are destroyed but thats a fairly minor thing looking at the show as a whole

3.ultraman: mystery of ultraseven

great stuff continuing the momentum of the last mini series, i do have issues with the ultra comic verse that dont get addressed, but regardless it was a great read, interested to see ma boi ace show up in whatever is next

4.kingdom hearts dark road

one of my fav KH stories, elevating xehanort alot, giving insight into how his beliefs formed and i absolutely need this freed from its mobile prison and given the back cover treatment

5. Ork #オーク

really cool, indy Toku production, it very impressive that this was filmed on an Iphone and goes this hard, well worth a watch, right now its free on youtube i recomed checking this out https://youtube.com/watch?v=GcibuY

6. ultraman decker finale journey to beyond the movie

it was pretty good, if the main series is a 10 this is like an 8, pretty fun time.

7.Avataro Sentai Donbrothers

i was sceptical as FUCK when this was announced, and inoue and the producer were saying how they wanted to make a sentai season that was a comedy drama aimed at 20somethings, but fuck did they land it. top 3 sentai seasons for sure. taro is my boi somethings like how under written murasame is, alot of the stuff with kijino and the zenkai gears turning into avataro gears plotline that was seemingly dropped ( if the Vs movie addresses this i take back the last one) bothered me, but as a whole i really liked this season

8.Psyren (reread)

this series goes hard. i love the cast and i think more people should read this.

9. Agents of mayhem - dropped got about 8/27 missions thought this. ITS ASS the cars feel awful, esthetical it wants to be overwatch soo bad. in the 4hrs 40mins i played enemies became spongy as shit and the second gat mission bugged turning 3 waves into infante boring and bland AND THATS NOT MENTIONED THE 1 MAJOR BOSS I FOUGHT THAT WAS JUST * puts up shield and summon turret* 3 TIMES THEN THEN BALL JOKE SEGMENT WHERE YOU SHOT ENERGY BALLS. THE BORDERLANDS TEIR REDDIT WRITING IS SO MIND NUMMING FUCK

10.Dandan Tenshi Fanclub

this was pretty cool for a one shot

11.Revice Forward: Kamen Rider Live & Evil & Demons

no "which ones the real one" plot is good. i screamed when they revealed the twist.

alot of the fanservice stuff i liked, like seeing that Hana opened her own detective agency in Blue birds basement was fun

12.Dragon Ball Super: SUPER HERO

really enjoyed this,really liked all the lil toku nods what with the gammas two ultraman inspired androids thats do rider kicks. hope we can get more content thats not as goku/vegeta focused

13.Luther: the fallen sun it was ok, i feel like it peaked with the jail brake.

the last 30mins brought it down for me

14.Digimon Ghost game:

its pretty good when all is said and done, 90% of this show is very solid MOTW/horror mystery stories with all the cryptic build up they have been seeding since ep 1 being all burned thought in the last 3eps.defo feels like they were trying to set up a movie with that last second alien reveal too. since most of its stand alone mysteries, the humans done really feel like they grow much over the course of the show its still a very fun time like an 8/10 id say love gammamon, they baby

15. coming out to my parents and telling them about @toni-the-oni

twas better then expected

16. Reborn to Master the Blade: From Hero-King to Extraordinary Squire ♀ ( manga volumes 1-4 )

binged all 4 volumes in a couple hrs, this is a very fun series, interesting world building and Inglis as a MC is amazing and i love her

17.Reborn to Master the Blade: From Hero-King to Extraordinary Squire ♀ (anime: season 1)

unsurprising i loved it ! i will say i liked the way the manga handled the content it covered more but this was still good,

18. Oshi no ko (ep 1, its feature length so imma count it ) holy shit watch it. it more then earns its length. this is something you need to experience blind.

19.brooklyn 99 season 8, the final season

bout a perfect a goodbye as a series can have

20.Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always (2023) eh, it was ok, rough in some aspects but overall alright

21.Oshi no ko manga (upto the current chapter 116) one of the best things ive read in a while. its going to be hard for the anime to fumble this bag.

22.Kamen Rider Geats × Revice: Movie Battle Royale

very fun movie, seeker really is that bitch in fortnite that builds a replica tadj mahall the second a fight starts. yeah a good ass time.

23. Kamen Rider Juuga VS Kamen Rider Orteca

it was alright, pretty fun moments with one line in particular that kinda took me out, the Drive cameos and call backs were great and honestly out of all the over demons/vail retools i think i like orteca's rider form the most out them

24. netflix Ultraman season 3 the final:

kinda mixed on it if im honest, i dont think theres ever really been a great "shapeshifters turn the publics opinion on it" and i wasnt super impressed with aspects of how Rena was written that said the last 2 episodes really were peak.

25. Power Antoinette ( upto the current chapter, theres only 2) the only series brave enough to ask the question what if Marie Antoinette was built like shehulk and used a guillotine like a sword

26.The Church Play Cinematic Universe : jenny Nicholson

watched this with @toni-the-oni this was such a wild ride, of ups downs and "robin in the hood" a 10/10 experience

26. Church of the rock 2023 production Beauty and the Beaster

watched this with @toni-the-oni Gaston sings BTS

27.Avataro Sentai DonBrothers VS Zenkaiger

extremely fun film, loved seeing everyone again, just a fun time all round and HOLY SHIT HOW CAN IT END LIKE THAT ?!

28.Geats Extra: Kamen Rider Punkjack

its alright, felt kinda like one of the covid clipshow specials we got for zero one, rolling rolling punk king fucks, so glad they went that hard with the insert song

[serendictment]

October Books

1. The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima

9/10. I have a small hole in my heart that is Japanese literature shaped, and the fact that it took me this long (and a requirement for a class) to read this was a crime. I enjoyed it quite a bit, especially with how happy of an ending it was. I really needed that pick me up after September.

2. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

4/10. I wanted to love this and by no means did I hate it, I just dislike the class I had to read this for. Also, because of other people in that class not participating, we were getting quizzes each class on the book, which turned reading it into studying it which just wasn't great. It was still well written and I quite enjoyed the usage of language and how the dialog was written.

3. No Longer Human (Manga) by Junji Ito

9.5/10. No Longer Human is genuinely one of my favorite novels to date, so when I first heard of the manga version I knew I had to read it and I was by no means disappointed. Ito's art style is perfect for this novel and I love the changes that Ito made to the story (Takeichi's suidide, meeting Dazai in the mental hospital, and the ending in general). I also especially loved how at the very beginning we see Dazai and Sachi sitting on the river bank and then at the very end we see the newspaper on Yoichi's kite detailing his death. It was tragic, but it also felt like closure. I'm not sure how problematic it is to say, but I do, unfortunately, relate to Yozo due to multiple things he has said (particularly about the clown like persona, and the feeling of not being human, though that's for another time). I don't want to keep going on, but know that I definitely can.

4. Goodbye, Eri by Tatsuki Fujimoto

8/10. Loved the art and the story, especially how it's only learned near the end how Yuta's mother was actually rather abusive/harsh with him. Honestly, the ending did confuse me a bit with Eri being a vampire (I'm not sure if this is a hallucination or real?) but the explosion at the end made me oddly happy.

5. Chainsaw Man volume 13

7/10. Loved the 'Goodbye, Eri' reference after Mitaka became the war devil. Other than that, amazing art as usual. Angel, Kobeni, and Cosmo/Halloween Devil, I still miss you.

6. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

?/10. I definitely didn't. . . hate it. . . but I'm not sure if I liked it. I'm conflicted. Yeah. Ari and Dante's getting together was cute though. . . okay next book.

[alki-studio]

HxH manga rebinding! (vol. 1)

(project master post here)

Let me just start this off with that from my 7 years of experience bookbinding, a LOT went wrong with this project. Like, almost everything that could've went wrong. It is not to my usual standard of work, though I tried to make up for errors where I could.

Nonetheless, I'm doing this for practice and to document my progress, so here's how it went!

⍔ (More final pics at the end) ⍔

I absolutely adore the cover of the first volume as-is. It's really great graphically: the palette pops and gives a clear hierarchy to information in different areas, the illustration of Gon on the frog is super cute, it's overall just fun.

My first design decision was to retain the green/yellow/red color palette. I don't think I've ever done anything with these colors, I don't really gravitate towards them, so I definitely wanted to keep them in the design.

I didn't have a piece of leather large enough in any of these colors-- all the leather I use is industry scraps and remnants, so I don't really purchase full hides. So, I had to get creative with it:

I did have enough of this laurel green leather to cover a front and back board, but I'd need to hide the seam along the spine. I also have this really cool tie silk jacquard, I want to guess it's from the 80's (I got it for a dollar at a flea market). Technically I'm using the backside of this stuff, but I like it better because of how vibrant the colors are. I only need a thin strip for the spine, so I cut out a matching green, yellow, and orange section.

Here are some reject cover material contenders: different leathers, vintage kimono silk, and snakeskin!

I didn't want to just copy the cover for the board design, so I looked at the panels for some inspiration. My favorite panel from volume 1 is actually of the tunnel from the Hunter exam (left), but since this is the first volume, I really wanted to pay homage to this being the beginning of Gon's journey. So, I included this panel of Whale Island (right), along with a wave pattern.

Here's the design I sketched out, and it carved into chipboard:

Normally I'd just sketch directly onto the chipboard I'm carving, but I wanted to have a template to use for gold foiling. This is my first attempt at doing so; I don't actually have the proper tools for traditional hot stamping, so I'm using a hot foil pen (video on the tool/technique).

First mistake: Trying to brute force the original cover off the block. Lesson: Use a heat gun.

Removing the text block from the original softcover was pretty straightforward, except I originally tried to get the cover off the block by gentle tearing/cutting away at the original glue, which resulted in me just destroying the attached page anyway. This volume doesn't give you many "junk" pages to sacrifice, so it meant I'd have to glue my end paper onto the last page of the volume D:

For the other cover, I hit it with a heat gun for a few seconds, and it peeled right off.

Here's a progress shot of attaching the leather to the boards, smooth sailing there:

Second mistake: Not backing fabric with Heat n' Bond Lesson: Always make bookcloth properly

I have made my own bookcloth before (video on how to do it), and really, truly, know better than to apply liquid glue to fabric. Nonetheless, I was stupid and did it anyway. I even diluted the glue with water, thinking that would mitigate the effects of glue seepage? It didn't. My spine fabric lost all its vibrancy and was just an ugly, goopy mess.

Before I attached the board and spine to the block and endpapers, I added the foiling. At first, that came out pretty well, but then I lost patience, and started freehanding Whale Island on the back.

Third mistake: Not sticking to the template Lesson: Stick to the fucking template (and start saving for a CNC)

The drawing itself was fine, so normally this wouldn't be an issue, but because I have Whale Island sitting on top of a raised embossed silhouette, it was painfully obvious that my drawing wasn't in the position or scale it was supposed to be. My freehand lettering also leaves something to be desired, though I don't think the template would have helped a lot with this either. Honestly, for a position-sensitive blind transfer for lettering like this, using a CNC like a Cricut or Silhouette would be best. This might be my push to finally invest in one?

The endpapers are actually paper I had marbled myself, a while back, and met the green/yellow criteria. Attaching those to the block went smoothly, though I had to slightly glue over the panels at the back of the volume T^T... I used some of the spine fabric for head/endbands as well. It's... pretty ugly up close. Glue seepage, and the next mistake.

Fourth mistake: Gluing the entire fucking block upside down Lesson: Anything but that

The cosmetic mistakes on the cover this book are pretty forgivable, but the inside is a genuinely disgusting mess. I was working on getting this done before a friend came over, and was pretty happy to get the block glued in and the whole thing in the press before she arrived. I decided to take it out of the press show her when she arrived, only to realize I HAD GLUED THE BLOCK UPSIDE DOWN. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I tried to remove the block nicely, but the glue was already half dry and tacky and it was an awful awful mess, and I was already SO DONE with the project. So, I just cut the block out along the middle of the endpaper, and stepped away for the evening.

I really wanted to use the marbled paper I made, and I had no scraps to use over the seam where I had to flip the block, so I had to find a complimentary alternative. I just used some chiyogami, with, once again, green/yellow/red. Slapped that on the seam. Probably could've done a better job with it.

I had been saving the original covers, and wanted to incorporate them, so I decided to use them as sort of bookmark pages? Not sure how to call it, but like how hardcovers with a paper cover will have those folded flaps on the inside usually with an about or review section.

As for the cosmetic fixes:

First thing I did was properly make bookcloth with the sliver of extra silk in the right colorway that I had, and glued that over the lumpy fucked up original spine. It's not perfect by any means, but it's definitely a lot better.

When I started writing this, I had only done gold foil on the covers. But as I was looking back at early design process photos, I remember how much I wanted to incorporate the red into the design, which mine was absent of. So, I started to accent Gon and the frog with red paint.

It looked absolutely horrifying.

So I kept painting, and painting, and painting, trying to make it look good, and it was 4AM and I was tired, and I'm used to oil paint so I forgot you can't just leave ugly globs of paint wherever and wipe them up later, and it just kept looking worse and worse.

I got jumpscared by this monstrosity this morning:

Don't paint while tired!!

I tried to salvage my awful paint job the next day, and kept adding more colors and paint into the design until I had ended up just repainting the original cover. I didn't get the lettering perfect or anything, but I got it to a presentable point at least. I really wanted to make some semblance of a re-interpretation of the original illustration, but oh well, the painted version was a necessary fix.

It's not perfect by any means, (honestly, it's not even good either), but I did what I could, and I'm ready to move onto the next project. Here's the final pictures!

Thank you for reading this far! Please leave a comment with any thoughts or suggestions, they really encourage me to keep going :D

[cocogum]

Volume 1 cover ideas that Cathiane could've used instead of the Great Wave manga cover we got ✨️

[sasan-00]

Naruto: The Journey of a Ninja Dreamer

Naruto: The Saga of a Ninja's Dream

Introduction: "Naruto" is a legendary Japanese manga series crafted by Masashi Kishimoto. The story follows Naruto Uzumaki, a spirited young ninja with dreams of earning his village’s respect and becoming the Hokage, the leader of his home. The tale unfolds in two major arcs: Naruto’s early years (Volumes 1–27) and his teenage adventures (Volumes 28–72). Kishimoto first explored Naruto in two one-shots: "Karakuri" (1995) and "Naruto" (1997).

Serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump from September 1999 to November 2014, "Naruto" spans 72 volumes. It was adapted into an anime series by Pierrot and Aniplex, with the original "Naruto" series airing from October 2002 to February 2007, followed by "Naruto: Shippuden" from February 2007 to March 2017. The franchise also includes animated films, light novels, video games, and trading cards. The story continues in "Boruto," focusing on Naruto’s son, Boruto Uzumaki.

Impact and Popularity: "Naruto" stands as one of the highest-selling manga series of all time, with 250 million copies circulating globally in 47 countries. It has received acclaim for its intricate character development, compelling storylines, and dynamic action scenes. Its English versions have frequently appeared on bestseller lists, including USA Today and The New York Times, with the seventh volume winning a Quill Award in 2006.

Plot Overview:

Part I: The series kicks off with the Nine-Tails fox attacking the Hidden Leaf Village (Konoha). To save the village, the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, sacrifices himself to seal the beast inside his newborn son, Naruto. Growing up shunned by the villagers due to the beast within him, Naruto learns the truth about his burden when he is twelve. He defeats Mizuki, a rogue ninja, and earns the respect of his teacher, Iruka Umino.

Naruto becomes a ninja and forms Team 7 with Sasuke Uchiha, his rival, and Sakura Haruno, his crush, under the guidance of the elite ninja Kakashi Hatake. The team undertakes various missions, including a significant one in the Land of Waves. They participate in the Chunin Exams, where Orochimaru, a notorious criminal, attacks Konoha and kills the Third Hokage.

As the story progresses, Sasuke, seeking strength to avenge his family, defects to Orochimaru. Naruto, unable to bring him back, trains with Jiraiya to prepare for their next encounter, while Sakura trains under Tsunade, the newly appointed Fifth Hokage.

Part II: After a two-and-a-half-year training period with Jiraiya, Naruto returns to find that the Akatsuki organization is capturing the hosts of the Tailed Beasts. The group succeeds in capturing seven of the nine beasts, leading to intense battles and challenges for Naruto and his allies. Sasuke betrays Orochimaru and confronts his brother, Itachi, only to discover shocking truths about his family's past.

With the Akatsuki's leader, Nagato, wreaking havoc and ultimately being defeated by Naruto, the focus shifts to Tobi, who reveals himself as Obito Uchiha. Obito and Madara Uchiha aim to control all humanity through an illusion. The world plunges into the Fourth Shinobi World War as the five great ninja villages unite against this threat.

During the war, Naruto gains control of his Tailed Beast and fights alongside his friends to stop Obito and Madara. As the conflict reaches its climax, Kaguya Otsutsuki, an ancient threat, emerges, but is eventually sealed with the help of a redeemed Obito. Sasuke seizes the opportunity to reshape the ninja world, leading to a final, intense battle with Naruto. The series concludes with Naruto achieving his dream of becoming the Seventh Hokage, marrying Hinata Hyuga, and guiding the next generation

[talenlee]

Story Pile: Oshi no Ko

With 2023 over, there comes an inevitable wave of conversations for those of us who watch anime slow, to ask: Hey, what was good back then? What anime was there, now fully complete, that is worth going back and watching again now there’s a full set of episodes to engage with? And that brings with it a ranking system and a conversation about best and worsts. I tend to think of this in terms instead of favourites – of what thing was it that I liked the best, or spoke to me the most deeply. I figured I’d talk about that in April, in my month.

One of the anime that was considered in contention is the anime Oshi no Ko, which is a – it’s about – it’s –

Hm. Hang on.

If it is time for me to talk about Oshi no Ko, a manga and an anime and technically a movie and a music video clip, then it is time to set up some basic boundaries for the audience. It is an anime with a pretty pervasive and well-defended culture regarding spoilers and their importance, though, and while I think having access to information about this series is one of the best ways to keep from giving up on it, I want to make sure you know good and clear up front that I am going to be doing spoilers about what’s included in Oshi no Ko. Not a lot – but definitely stuff from its first episode onwards, where the big twist of the series – as much as it can be considered that – is explicitly and clearly spoiled. If I’m going to talk to you about this series, I need to talk to you about this series and not about what the series pretends and implies it might actually be.

Problem with that is that brings with it its cousin, the content warning. And while normally, I can kinda just smooth things over with the phrase ‘oh lords, there’s a lot of anime bullshit going on here,’ I think it’s best to be a bit more specific in the context of Oshi no Ko. That means I’m going to talk about:

Death of a parent, particularly directly experienced

Murder, but you know, this is very low key and it’s allowed, as a treat

The ongoing experience of stalking and its ramifications

Cyberbullying and suicide attempts

Uncomfortable age gaps we summarise as ‘anime bullshit’

Sibling and parent-child incest

part 1: what it is

Oshi no Ko is a manga and anime from the pen of Akasaka Aka, the author most notably otherwise of Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War. It’s an anime ‘about the idol industry,’ focusing on the story of one Ai Hoshino, but shock! Surprise! After the first volume slash episode of the story, Ai dies! It’s not about Ai at all! It’s about her son’s quest to find his father and kill him.

I’m simplifying, but I’m not lying.

Oshi no Ko is an anime about the entertainment industry of Japan, as told by the entertainment industry of Japan. It’s that particular genre that I love where there’s a vision of economics and material realities of a space. The system that makes the media that the series is about is a system that works on layers, and maybe sure, a character may be perfect for a job but what if that job doesn’t exist ten stages later in the production process?

But okay, I feel like I’m not explaining this well, which makes sense because Oshi no Ko is a staggeringly hard anime to explain. I resent a great deal the people who simply said ‘you should watch it’ like that explains everything – I did in fact watch it and took a month break between episode 1 and 2, because I was so disappointed with the direction the series was taking at that point. Let me start again.

Part of this is because the narrative of Oshi no Ko is complex but the plot is pretty simple. The difference here is that the plot is the sequence of events that make up the story, one after another, while the narrative is how that plot is revealed to the audience. Lots of stories you know tell the plot out of order – any time there’s a last minute twist, that’s because part of the story is being told after its immediate occurrence. The example I normally use is that the start of the plot of Hamlet is that first, Hamlet’s father is assassinated, then Hamlet’s mother marries the murderer, then Hamlet returns home and sees a ghost. Except we don’t see that story in the order; the narrative presents it almost in the opposite – Hamlet returns home, finds his mother has remarried, and then thanks to seeing the ghost, learns his father was murdered.

The plot of Oshi no Ko is a woman is murdered, and her twin children dive into the entertainment industry in response to this tragic loss.

The narrative starts not with the woman but with her obstretrician, who meets her in secret because she shouldn’t be having kids, because she shouldn’t be having sex, because she’s an up-and-coming idol, and idol culture is incredibly puritanical and controlling of women’s bodies and identities. When he’s murdered by her stalker, he is reborn as her baby child, and spends a few years growing up and getting to know her better, before her stalker returns and kills her. He’s left with a burning want to take vengeance on the person he sees as responsible for this idol slash his mother’s death, and that means hunting down his new biological father, comparing their DNA to prove who he is, then killing him. Also through this whole sequence, he has a twin sister who is also a reincarnation but even though it is very obvious she is the reincarnation of the Littlest Cancer Patient he took care of years ago and made him a fan of the idol in the first place, he doesn’t learn that, and the audience only gets it confirmed in the ‘second’ episode.

Oshi no Ko is an anime that starts by telling you it’s going to be about a really cool woman investigating a mystery while trying to navigate the Japanese entertainment industry that wants to chew her up and spit her out. Then, surprise! It’s actually about a cat and mouse game between her two year old son and his biological father! Then, surprise! It’s about watching him and his sister navigate the entertainment industry, for competing reasons – her want to be like their mother, and his want to murder their father! Then, surprise! It’s about all these other characters and all these economic realities of how media gets made!

Once the first episode has gone and stuffed its central character good and hard in the fridge, the story that follows jumps forwards ten whole ass years to follow Ai’s children, the reincarnations of her old fans. Named Aquamarine and Ruby because Ai is extra as hell and also the god damned best, they make friends in performing arts schools, they connect with other actors and they get involved in the creation of media while trying to build a connection with one another. Each child is holding an enormous secret, which is really funny when you think about it because both of them just think they’re the reincarnation of someone else, which in the real world, is a thing that a lot of people just think is true anyway, for everyone. The first season doesn’t actually resolve much of the murder mystery plot, and has a rough start about treating women badly, but as it progresses, Aqua demonstrates a truly fantastic grasp on alienation in acting, and Ruby shows its counterpoint: Feeling things incredibly hard in the pursuit of being able to project an authenticity.

They both do this by lying a lot!

Oshi no Ko is a lot of things, and it’s quite good at a lot of them. Part of what it is is the incredibly disappointing twist of realising what it’s not going to be, or how it might sometimes pivot to something else, something wildly different, for completely inexplicable reasons.

part 2: the things I really like about what it’s doing

If you’ve looked at the scroll bar you know you’re in for a long one here and I want to get my praise for this series out of the way up front. Oshi no Ko season 1 is an anime I really enjoyed watching, and it has a bunch of things I really like in it. Presented without much context are some of those things.

I love Aqua and Ruby as characters. Set aside the reincarnation element, you have two kids with a deeply fucked up relationship to their mother thanks to the murder, whose whole lives twist around that woman and therefore, one another. Ruby appreciates what their mother made, the image she could construct, and Aqua appreciates – he thinks – what their mother was, the person she was under the image. Of course, that’s stupid – we see Ai’s inner mind on this and we know she was creating the image because she was choosing who to be, and who she wanted to be was someone who could talk about love and be beloved. It’s great.

In a show full of great women characters I like a lot like Miyako (cool hot adopted mom), Karina (That Bitch grown up into your high school crush), MEMcho (we all love entertaining lies), I want to bring special attention to Akane. It’s pretty easy for a character like Akane to play her part in the story, then close that off and step out; you have the online bullying victim encounter, the almost loss of her character, and then – like the rest of the crew on the reality show, if you want! – she can step out. But instead Akane takes initiative and works on doing something different, and in the process we get two things I really like. First, is she makes herself a conspiracy wall, and I love a character with a conspiracy wall. Second is, she walks into the next scene and she takes an assumption about the world that the main characters have and piledrivers it to pieces.

See, the assumption about Ai – it’s even in the opening theme – is that she’s a once-in-a-lifetime talent, a star come down from the heavens to the earth. The stars in her eyes are part of this — shown to fade out when she dies. It’s not that her eyes look materially weird, it’s there’s a way she presents herself that the show symbolises with the stars as being fundamentally engaging. Aqua and Ruby both ruminate on how nobody can do what mum does. Then Akane steps into a scene and shows how they’re wrong. Being like Ai is a thing you can learn, it’s an affect, and it’s something that someone can choose to do. Being Ai was a choice, and I love when characters are shown to be the results of choices not destinies.

Aqua’s hot. I love the chameleonic ability to shift into roles, I love the dull understated affect of a boy who is thinking of murder and trying to be normal about everything else. I love the moment in the B-Komachi play where he pulls out the glowsticks and does what he can to support the group. It’s not necessarily part of his plan – he’ll have other ways to get into the idol industry, he doesn’t need B-Komachi to succeed. But he shows up and supports his sister and his friend and his other friend, and he is affected by Karina’s performance. Which again, in that moment, she chooses!

There’s a lot of idol culture experience this anime makes look really cool. In the OP there’s the sea of glowsticks, which first look like eyes peeking out of the dark and then become a roaring sea almost like fangs or thorns. The actual song performances in Oshi no Ko kick ass. We Are Star Train (god don’t know how to romanise that one properly) and the OP Idol especially. Idol really goes so very hard, I love it so much. And yeah, this means 2023 had two different banger Yaosobi songs headlining anime I liked a lot about shows with fucked up mum situations. Don’t think too much about it.

This series sure seems to be about love, and what that means. More than I would consider most things that ‘want’ to be about love, Oshi no Ko wants to dig into questions of what you love and who you love and what you express. Is love a feeling? Is love an action? Is love a choice? These are not easy questions to answer in the context of an anime trying to also make sure you pick up the next issue.

I love the breadth of what the story bothers to include. In a lot of media I know that characters are there to serve purposes, like story machinery. A set of gears turn and a piece is put in the proper spot and then they’re done, and the machinery can move on. In Oshi no Ko I don’t know who’s done and I don’t know who’s coming back. A mystery story can be very hard to do well, and part of what’s going on in Oshi no Ko is multiple competing stories which means pursuing the mystery is something being chased through these other competing needs. It’s not sitting around forcing focus on a drip feed of clues, it’s doing things in the mean time.

Really really like this show!

And I feel like if you ever talk to me about it, you wouldn’t believe me!

part 3: Guess We’re Talking About Incest

I mean I don’t have to talk about incest, but in the context of talking about Oshi No Ko I kind of do have to talk about incest. You may not want to talk about incest. In which case, you want to jump down to the next image bumper, and just ignore this whole section. After all, incest isn’t a topic some people want to talk about. The purpose of this big chunky introductory paragraph is to make sure you don’t just stumble into the next paragraph without being very, very aware that I’m about to talk about incest.

Anyway, incest is a mainstream kink that’s more commonly referenced than feet.

Now I think the reaction to this is split into three basic groups. One, ‘no, it’s not,’ two, ‘oh yeah, Game of Thrones is popular,’ and three is ‘oh yeah it is isn’t it.’

For anyone in the first group, I’m not talking about pornographic material. I’m talking about how mainstream, common, well known and prestige material regularly invokes incest and incestuous themes as a thing to titillate. I mean that ‘stepsister’ and ‘stepbrother’ tropes are extremely common. I mean that calling one’s sexual partner ‘mommy’ or ‘daddy’ is so common that evangelicals do it. What I mean is that in the context of sexual fantasies, ‘one person having sex with twins’ is so fantastically common that I found it showing up in episodes of Magnum PI. An ongoing clock throughout my childhood, which shows up any time there are celebrity twins, was people talking about the idea of sharing a pair of famous twins. In my childhood, it was the Olsen Twins, with people literally maintaining a clock on how long before they were legal.

And now you may be stopping me to go hey hey hey, hey those things are different. Stepsiblings aren’t proper incest. Sex with twins isn’t proper incest. And that impulse, that intuitive counterpoint – that these things ‘don’t count’ is stupid. Two related people having sex with a third person is, what, not showing and demonstrating a level of sexual intimacy that passes muster? Do you imagine they do not touch one another in the act? Is there a garbage bag set up to ensure nobody’s fluids get on anyone else? Because the point where you’re saying there’s incest and there’s proper incest, you realise you are just arguing about degrees, not about categories.

(And I guess this is an example, albeit a sticky one, of prototype theory.)

You need to be prepared to think about incest in this kind of sticky, dimensional zone way, because it’s not like Oshi no Ko provides a clear and unambiguous relationship to what incest means and its ramifications in the setting. After all, these children are the reincarnations of other people, which I assume happens all the time and it’s just that Ruby and Aqua are just rare examples of people who remember their previous lives. They are, legitimately, Ai Hoshino’s children, and it is entirely normal and natural for a pair of babies to nurse on their mother. It is not sexual to nurse on their mother. There is nothing sexual inherent to nursing at all, it’s literally a job of the body, and treating it like it’s inherently sexual is really messed up. But these two do treat it as if it is sexual, because to them, it is, and at that point you have infants without sex drives or the ability to act on those sex drives who are entirely, 100%, sexually interested in their mother.

If you want to argue Ruby isn’t interested because she says it would be fine for her to nurse on their mother, note that she’s only using that idea to tease someone who she is actively trying to make feel bad about her getting to do something sexual that he does not. It’s ‘but we’re both girls’ level argumentation.

Don’t worry, though, because as the story unspools (and I checked ahead in the manga for this one), there’s an eventual conversation about how Aqua and Ruby are going to kiss (it’s for a movie). Aqua is uncomfortable about it, and Ruby expresses that hey, you don’t need to feel bad about kissing me, you can just imagine it as the doctor you are kissing the child patient he had.

Who was, again, a child.

At the time these characters have this conversation they have been siblings for sixteen years. They have grown up together and been directly associated as siblings together their entire new lives, even if there’s thirty years before it for him and twelve for her.

To be as blunt as possible about it, I don’t care about the incest. Incest, as a kink in media, is not only widespread and mainstream and incredibly common, is also something I only ever see complained about when it’s a queer woman who brings it up, especially if that queer woman is talking about an entirely fictional character pairing. It’s possible some queer nonbinary people I know have talked about it too and gotten attacked, some things get complicated. It’s hard for me to see a kink referenced in Friends and then see a conspicuous trend of shitting on women for talking about it and imagine this is coming from any kind of good faith criticism from a coherent societal other position.

The incest kink is in Oshi no Ko, in much the same way that age gap kink was in Violet Evergarden, except in Oshi no Ko it’s, like, more tasteful? And the actual kink in question is handled in a way that doesn’t make me feel creeped out. Like, I can see the kink, the subversive element of the story, and how the story winds up there and think ‘oh yeah, that’s part of the complicated relationship in this story space.’ And it’s been a long time since the story brought up nursing motherhood as if it was a kink space because it very much is a kink space. To cruelly summarise, the incest doesn’t detract from the story because the story is already so aggressively weird for seemingly no purpose but to set up this kind of kink narrative. It’s a Christian Baby hypothetical, but for brotherfuckers.

Basically, if you’re here to have this kink tickled, it’ll probably do it but it didn’t stand out to me as doing a good job of it, but also didn’t do it in a way that made me ask questions about the story. This is a thing the series wants to be about and it’s having fun with it in a supernatural and fantastic way. It’d be like arguing about Loki’s sexuality in Norse Myth, or about what genders Sun Wukong was on — the parameters of your conversation are so wildly inadequate for the task.

part 4: Trust and Motivation

I try very hard to not be dogmatic about interpretations of media. I have the impulse, time to time, to tell someone ‘that’s stupid,’ about interpretation of media, because they may have missed something obvious. This can be really telling when I’m dealing with people who have recontextualised a piece of media without some very important information. There are quite a few people who struggle with interpreting the universe of the Pokemon franchise because they forget ‘this is for four year olds.’ A lot of what’s ‘wrong’ with Steven Universe is because it’s a cartoon for children. More than a few times I’ve dealt with students who don’t understand American media because American public health is so bad (and counterpoint to that, I’ve dealt with Australians who don’t know that they have public health care because they’ve ingested American media). The maxim I work by is that anyone I see talking about media is negotiating with that media, and that means their biases are coming to bear in trying to talk about the biases that are in the work.

I don’t tend to like long-running anime.

It’s not just because it’s a bigger investment of time like I’d assume is a problem for me. It’s also that anime that runs over a long time tends towards being anime with a plot that’s less focused on things that I think matter. I would rather an episodic series of series, like Slayers, where each season brings with it a new whole distinct story, than the more sprawling, deliberately processional ongoing myth-arc structure of a show like, well, Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War or Oshi no Ko. The fact that Oshi no Ko has a full season that doesn’t actually conclude any of its story arcs and merely says ‘tune in for next season’ is something I found incredibly frustrating. Mystery stories promise a resolution and if you can’t do a resolution in twelve episodes chopped up weird to include a movie, what trust can I have in there being a resolution worth waiting for?

Complicating that further is that sure, fans of Kaguya-Sama: Love is War would say that trust is important in this artist, in this writer, because look at all the work, the doujin work too, in making that work hold together across its extensive sprawl! And to that I would ask why we need to sprawl? Is the manga of Oshi no Ko concluded, does it include some brilliant twist and we’re all just waiting to get there?

No!

No, Oshi no Ko is still going and it’s not wound up its conclusion and it’s got seasons worth of anime to go to get there, and that makes me extremely suspicious. This series, this season, was worth the twelve episodes of time I spent on it. That was really good! But if the story then says that I need to give it not another season, but another pair of seasons, maybe three extra seasons, maybe an ongoing, steady sprawl of seasons, to get to the end of its story I suddenly lose a lot of interest. How am I going to trust it was worth it? How is it going to be worth it?

At that point, I have to stop thinking the resolution is the reason to care and instead the focus should be on what the show is doing moment to moment and instead of relying on the driving mystery to instead focus on what, as best I can see, the story wants to be about and what that story can be relied upon, trusted, to bring me, all while it radicalises me into thinking that maybe every entertainment industry everywhere needs to be burned to the ground and everyone with the job title CEO for a media corporation should be hung inverted in the streets with nails.

Bear that in mind here, I’m trying to not just be like ‘well, this show is doing X because it’s Y.’ There’s more to it than that. There’s my biases at work. For example, I think that Oshi no Ko is a pretty horny series. I think that the way the show depicts mouths – Ai’s in particular – wants you to pay attention to it. Characters are sweatier, and thirstier and breathier than anime normally represents. There’s a focus on eyes – sure – and how people look at things and look at one other that speaks to ideas like their inner lives, their conception of what they’re dealing with. One of the characters whose eyes you never see is treated as being breathtakingly inscrutable.

These are details I focus on. These are things I think indicate that there’s a deliberate intention in this series to look at characters as whole people with individual motivations and wants, and those wants are informed by the things they’re familiar with and the things about themselves they may not have interrogated. This level of intentionality makes it hard for me to ever treat stuff in Oshi no Ko as being accidental or just a meme or chosen at random. Not that there can’t be things like that in the work, but it just feels so thoroughly constructed to me that everything that’s in the story is there for a reason.

Couple the intentionality of the story with the horniness of the story and there’s this creeping step-step-step up to the point that yeah maybe the incest kink and the age gap kink and the hot pregnant lady in the first episode and the way girls ogle one another and the lizard eyes are all things that are in here for a reason and that reason may be because this show likes those things and wants to include them. Maybe the reason this show is the way it is isn’t part of some grand conspiracy.

part 5: is this a dril tweet?

Now this is where we do verge into a conspiracy theory, something I cannot prove and also do not want you to imagine is necessarily true. It’s more a story, a story that makes something make more sense to me. It involves talking about What Japanese Culture is doing, and I want you to remember any time someone like me, especially someone who can’t speak or read Japanese, says that, you are being told a story.

This story is about my journey trying to understand Oshi no Ko.

I couldn’t work out why Oshi no Ko worked the way it did. Specifically, I couldn’t work out why the first movie-length episode was about a character being isekai’d into reincarnation in his own world, as the child of someone who he had already met, and how that idea then failed to play meaningfully into the plot of the story afterwards for a whole season. There’s nothing in the story that benefits from the addition of this element; indeed, if you skip the first episode, it barely comes up in the series as a whole. There’s one moment where Aqua references it, and Ruby doesn’t make it focal outside of that first episode.

At the same time, it was central to the first hour of the story! It was so important that the story bent its structure around making sure that pre-Aqua Aqua met Ai and had a positive opinion of her. That doesn’t seem necessary at all, after all – if you remove the supernatural element and merely have Aqua and Ruby as the children of a talented idol performer who was tragically murdered, does anything about their motivations need to change? They can both still be precocious children following in the wake of the mystery of their mother’s murder. A story could even be built around finding the videos we know Ai made about her feelings and her history – instead of building ninety minutes of television around the importance of one character so you can feel upset and shocked when she died.

I did not understand what it was doing or why, because who comes up with ‘reincarnated as the baby of a girl I just met, and having some weird intimacy issues around that’ outside of a hentai doujinshi specifically about satisfying that, singular kink?

Turns out, at least according to Mother’s Basement, this is a common phrase used in Japanese idol culture. The idea of wanting to be reincarnated as the child of your favourite idol is a thing that��s been a meme in the culture for about ten years. Hah! Fool on me, I see! I was just not clued into the culture of idols in Japan, which is a supremely fucked up space and not because of this single idea. This single idea seems like supernatural fantasy kink, honestly imagining nonsense about people you’ll never meet is a lot better than y’know, actually inflicting that on the people in question who are in many cases real humans. It is strange, though — it’s like such a singular idea it feels like a meme, like a joking repeating of an incident everyone is vaguely aware of, or connected to.

Dot dot dot.

Ten years ago, and a few months as of the time of this writing, dril tweeted:

here’s a list of touhou girls i want to have as a Mom someday & here is a copy of that list in case you accidentally throw it in the gabarge

Dril, September 14, 2013

Now hold up hold up hold up hold up. I don’t know a line of cause or effect here. What it looks like to me, knowing a natural flow of meme structures in my language space, is that sometimes someone will make a joke, and it will spread and be shared wildly and now I can talk about walrus fairies vanilla essence goncharov and you know what I mean, and if you don’t know what I mean you have no idea what I mean.

The story for how this looks to me is that dril made this joke, and someone shared it on 2ch because it was funny (it is) and then that led to people who got the joke making reference to that joke and that became a common enough thing on 2ch that it spread to the idol niche and now it’s seen as their thing to joke about wanting a character as a Mom Someday, even if nobody cares or would want to care!

That story is pretty wild, though I want to make it clear it’s just a story. It’s nothing that I can prove, and I don’t have the skills to prove. An equally possible version of the story is this was already a meme for how people referred to their idol interests and dril made a joke about that where it being decontextualised from idol culture in Japan to American fan culture around Touhou was the bit. It’s also possible both ideas stem from another, earlier, thirdier, secreter thing. It’s also also possible they’re both unrelated and it’s just that the time was right for that kind of joke. I can’t say and you shouldn’t treat what I’m saying as ‘dril shitposted so hard that Oshi no Ko came into existence.’

The idea of being reincarnated as your favourite idol’s kid, to have her as a mom someday, is a thing that you have to already know about or you’d have no reason to reference it. Without knowing that it’s a thing people say, though, its presence in the story is completely inexplicable. When it’s in the series, it’s a Funny Bit, a Bit that’s about how important this weird kink-interest (kinktrest) is to the speaker. It’s about ‘imagine that common thing we all say, and what might flow from that.’ There’s no sense to it because part of the point is a relentless desire to have this scenario that is pre-negotiated by common conversation! Part of the joke is, after all, being so invested in the idea that you’re prepared for people to ignore or discard it!

part 6: conclusion

2023 was a year I consider weaker for anime. When I set up my blog entries to make sure that I’m not just banging on the same theme over and over, I have two slots: Anime (Good) and Anime (Cringe), where I know that if I’m going to talk about the anime I think of as unequivocally good, I want to space those out. It’s important to me to not dwell too much on good things at once to not lose perspective but also so you don’t notice I praise the same things the same way all the time. Oh, it’s about choices is it? It’s all about choices? Well who woulda noticed that! I wonder if Talen is going to like this anime about a hot boy he can project onto who also has an awful relationship with his father and some extremely damaging power fantasy like he’s looking at Unit-01 rampaging through the NERV base thinking ‘This would fix me,’ as he’s been doing in his head for twenty five years.

I think that Oshi no Ko might be my favourite anime of 2023. I also think, with all these words out there, with all this hindsight, I think that’s embarrassing. Oh, not for me, I’m great, no, but for 2023 anime. I think that as good as the best bits of Oshi no Ko are in the context of the series, there is so much stuff in Oshi no Ko that could just be improved by not including it. Hell, consider the importance of the premiere movie, and how I have a hard time not thinking this series is improved by not watching it. This is a semi-complete story with a premiere episode so bad that I stopped watching it for a month. It is an anime that can accurately be described as taking a story about an interesting woman then killing her so it can instead become a story about two men involved in her murder. This is an anime about the idol industry and related entertainment media that somehow doesn’t seem like it’s going to conclude with the main characters storming an executive meeting with abbatoir bolt-guns so how satisfying could its ending ever really be?

There are other 2023 anime I’d recommend more highly. I’d say that you should check out Apothecary Diaries first for an anime that’s more straightforward about how it’s enjoyable and what you should enjoy about it (though you know, just as much weird content warning shit). I’d say Overtake is an anime with a better and more tightly contained story that doesn’t leave you with a giant ‘we’ll get to this later’ end point. As much as I have come to despise it, I’m sure you could watch Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End and have a better time engaging with its immaculate vibes and its central character who’s a woman.

I can’t pretend, though, that I don’t care about this story and its characters. I want it to go well. I want to see Kana and Akane hate each other in ways that feel tinged with horny (because everything in this series is tinged with horny). I want Aqua to talk more about how his obviously damned soul might as well be put to some use tinged with fatalistic violence (because everything in this series is tinged with fatalistic violence). I want more of the music, oh my god, the music, that OP goes so fucking hard.

I may be literally waiting for years for it to be done and then I may need to work through the anime slow and steady as they drip it out, which seems incredibly inefficient to me. I may never get the conclusion I want out of this incomplete mess with its weird choices and its eerie haunting of sexy dead mum mouth.

Still love it though.

Maybe it’s just that Aqua is really hot.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[ttt4527]

遅ればせながら皆様今年も宜くお願い致します

大寒波到来が漫画「望郷太郎」(23日より8巻絶賛発売中です)を彷彿させますが御身体御自愛防寒でお過ごしくださいませ。コレも何かの御縁 26日より新宿京王百貨店で個展が開催されます。是非皆様よろしくお願い致します.

We hope everyone has a great year ahead of you!

The arrival of the cold wave reminds me of the manga "Mochigo Taro" (volume 8 is on sale from the 23rd), so please take care of yourselves and stay warm. This is also a good opportunity for you to see my solo exhibition at Keio Department Store in Shinjuku starting on the 26th. We look forward to seeing you there.

‥………………………………………………………………

【 小孫哲太郎 作陶展 】

2023年1月26日(木)〜2月1日(水)

京王百貨店 新宿店6階 美術・工芸サロン

午前10時〜午後8時 ＊最終日午後3時閉場〉

全日在廊予定です

#ceramic

#ceramicsart

#scratch

#paint

#collorfull

#pottery

#陶磁器

#線彫

#掻き落とし

#色絵

#bokyotaro

#bokyotarojp

#tetsutaro

[specialability]

2022 Reading

So it seems that my total is ~41 books read, although it's difficult to count. Thirty-eight different titles, although the web novels are often 3-6 volumes worth each. Manga is even harder to pin down, Naruto alone is 72 volumes and there are a lot of manga I read and don't keep track of or are ongoing. I don't remember what I was doing in June, I must have been reading something. Links are to novelupdates for webnovels and some to the publisher if they might be slightly harder to find.

January

Dune by Frank Herbert (reread)

Children of Dune

Dune Messiah

February

Hikaru no Go by Yumi Hotta & Takeshi Obata (reread)

Cried at the end, as one does. Recommended for fans of sports/trading card/proxy battle fans but also fans of dramatic men who carry hand fans.

March

Bu Tian Gang by Meng Xi Shi (web novel, DNF)

Qiang Jin Jiu by Tang Jiuqing (web novel, on hold)

Unseen Immortal of Three Hundred Years (web novel, translation stalled)

Spring Trees and Sunset Clouds by Wei Liang (web novel, Exiled Rebels translation)

post I made about these

April

Female General and Eldest Princess by 请君莫笑 (web novel, melts translation)

post about this great sweeping yuri romance

May

Otherside Picnic Omnibus Vol. 1-3 by Iori Miyazawa

I had trouble falling asleep after reading these they were so freakin scary. In a very good way. The yuri is also excellent and falls within the category of 'fucked up people finding love in a fucked up world'

Scum Villain's Self-Saving System Vol. 1 & 2 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (Seven Seas trans.) post about it

Stray by 年终 (web novel, Kinky Translations)

Interesting unusual danmei in a more western fantasy setting. Post about it.

Monster by Naoki Urasawa (reread)

July

Tai Sui by Priest (E. Danglars trans.) If I had to pick one, this would be my book of the year. Post at chapter 66 and the end although I think it would take a full year of a university level course to pick this novel apart properly.

August

Smiley's People by John LeCarré

I read a bunch of LeCarré last year and had this one laying around that I hadn't gotten to.

Bleach by Kubo Tite (reread, yes all of it)

Jujutsu Kaisen by Gege Akutami (reread, only some volumes)

Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto (reread, all of it)

September

The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson (reread)

The girl with the dragon tattoo

The girl who played with fire

The girl who kicked the hornet's nest

A Most Wanted Man by John LeCarré

October

all Pushkin Vertigo editions

Detective Kindaichi Mysteries by Seishi Yokomizo

The Honjin Murders

Death on Gokumon Island

The Village of Eight Graves

The Inugami Curse

The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji

Probably one of the best mysteries I've ever read, and I didn't even realize that the author was the same as one of my favourite horror light novels, Another. (He is also the husband of Fuyumi Ono!) I think it depends on the person whether you will enjoy the ending or not, but I very much did. This and a number of the other murder mysteries I read after it are all by members of the Honkaku Mystery Writers of Japan club who were part of a new wave of "fair play" mysteries based on golden age classics. From there I transitioned into reading more classic mysteries that were referenced in these novels.

The Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Shōji Shimada

Murder in the Crooked House Shōji Shimada

The Master Key by Masako Togawa

The Lady Killer by Masako Togawa

November

Honeymoon to Nowhere by Akimitsu Takagi

The Tattoo Murder Case by Akimitsu Takagi

Death Among the Undead by Masahiro Imamura

Another modern mystery novel that stands out for it's original premise: a locked room murder mystery with the characters all trapped in a cabin in the woods in the middle of a zombie outbreak. Personally I think the romance could have been done without, and a female narrator would have been stronger, but overall very compelling.

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett Turns out the movie is very accurate to the novel.

The 8 Mansion Murders by Takemaru Akiko

Hollow Man by John Dickson Carr

One of the golden age mysteries repeatedly referenced by some of the newer mysteries and genuinely a bit scary at points.

December

Golden age detective stories ed. by Otto Penzler

Currently working on this short story collection. The intros to each story putting it in context are very interesting.

[threnodians]

KAYLEIGH・31・SHE ⌇ THEY・ESFP-T・4W5

NEURODIVERGENT・CHRONICALLY ILL・DISABLED

AQUARIUS SUN & RISING・CAPRICORN MOON

NON-BINARY・GENDERFLUID・GENDERQUEER

ACEFLUX ⌇ AEGO-SEXUAL・DEMIROMANTIC

SELFSHIPS — ⟮there’s a lot because i have absolutely zero chill and way, way too much love in my heart⟯

MAIN — kaeya alberich ⟮genshin impact⟯・jing yuan ⟮honkai: star rail⟯・aventurine ⟮honkai: star rail⟯・atsumu miya ⟮haikyuu!!⟯・satoru gojō ⟮jujutsu kaisen⟯・jiaoqiu ⟮honkai: star rail⟯・baizhi ⟮wuthering waves⟯・xiangli yao ⟮wuthering waves⟯

POLYAMOROUS ⌇ POLYCULE SELFSHIPS — kaeya alberich﹠albedo ⟮genshin impact⟯・kaveh﹠alhaitham ⟮genshin impact⟯・navia﹠clorinde ⟮genshin impact⟯・jiaoqiu﹠moze ⟮honkai: star rail⟯

PLATONIC ⟮ARO ⌇ ACE CODED⟯ SELFSHIPS — neuvillette ⟮genshin impact⟯・baizhu ⟮genshin impact⟯・robin ⟮honkai: star rail⟯・jinhsi ⟮wuthering waves⟯

HONORABLE MENTIONS — ayato kamisato ⟮genshin impact⟯・kuki shinobu ⟮genshin impact⟯・argenti ⟮honkai: star rail⟯・sunday ⟮honkai: star rail⟯・luocha ⟮honkai: star rail⟯・topaz ⟮honkai: star rail⟯・changli ⟮wuthering waves⟯・jiyan ⟮wuthering waves⟯・kyōjurō rengoku ⟮demon slayer⟯・sephiroth ⟮final fantasy⟯・leon kennedy ⟮resident evil⟯

INTERESTS — ⟮in no particular order⟯

MOVIES — studio ghibli films・the lord of the rings・the hobbit・jurassic park films・stardust・moulin rouge・alien films・five nights at freddy’s・the last unicorn・coraline・pride and prejudice・final fantasy vii: advent children・demon slayer: mugen train・jujutsu kaisen volume 0

BOOKS﹠INTERACTIVE NOVELS — the silmarillion・the lord of the rings・the hobbit・the fall of gondolin・the hunger games series・scout・blood moon・fields of asphodel・shepherds of haven・the wayhaven chronicles・the night market

TV SHOWS — fallout・the last of us・what we do in the shadows・the x–files・midnight mass・the dragon prince・castlevania・avatar: the last airbender・the legend of korra・parks and recreation・stranger things・the witcher・the good place・a series of unfortunate events・the great british baking show・adventure time・resident evil: infinite darkness

ANIME﹠MANGA — haikyuu!!・demon slayer ⌇ kimetsu no yaiba・jujutsu kaisen・fruits basket ⟮2019⟯・tokyo revengers・sk8 the infinity・attack on titan ⌇ shingeki no kyojin・bleach・bleach: thousand year blood war・naruto shippuden・inuyasha・inuyasha: the final act・fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood

VIDEO GAMES﹠MOBILE GAMES — genshin impact・honkai: star rail・mass effect 1・mass effect 2・mass effect 3・mass effect: andromeda・dragon age: origins・dragon age ii・dragon age: inquisition・the elder scrolls online・the elder scrolls v: skyrim・baldur’s gate 3・final fantasy vii remake・final fantasy vii: crisis core reunion・final fantasy vii rebirth・kingdom hearts i・kingdom hearts ii・fallout 4・the outer worlds・cyberpunk 2077・resident evil 2 remake・resident evil 4 remake・resident evil 6・five nights at freddy’s・horizon: zero dawn・horizon: forbidden west・spyro: reignited・the sims 4・love﹠deepspace・wuthering waves・neko atsume

PETS — ⟮animal care is my passion⟯

nagini ⟮female ball python⟯・cole ⟮male blue-eyed leucistic ball python⟯・smaug ⟮male tarahumara mountain dwarf boa⟯・wilbur ⟮male albino western hognose⟯・poe ⟮male kenyan sand boa⟯・lorelei ⟮female mexican black kingsnake⟯・coraline ⟮female harlequin crested gecko⟯・jinora ⟮female harlequin crested gecko⟯・pip ⟮female aptor leopard gecko⟯・luke ⟮male albino rabbit⟯ ・luna ⟮female black long–hair cat⟯・ruby ⟮female classic tabby cat⟯・sir reginald of bookshelf ⟮male orange cat⟯・oliver ⟮male grey cat⟯・sprinkles ⟮female chaco golden knee tarantula⟯

UPDATED — september 16th, 2024