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linghxr · 1 year ago

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My 2023 in Mandopop/Chinese music (update & recs)

It’s been too long since I last shared some music recommendations/updates on what I’m listening to! Admittedly, I haven’t been discovering as many new artists because I’m busy listening to 薛之谦 on repeat. But we'll focus on the new.

You can check out my Spotify playlist featuring these songs (plus bonus ones). In addition, I’ve included YouTube links below.

五月天 / Mayday 五月天 is a legendary band, so of course I knew of them and had heard a few of their songs over the years. But I never proactively sought out their music until recently. I still haven’t had time to dive into their back catalog, but I’ve already found some songs I really love.

《我又初恋了》 I actually really didn’t like this song the first time I heard it, but it wormed its way into my brain. It’s just a lot of fun! Non-serious songs can be good too.

《转眼》 My favorite 五月天 song <3. I’m probably too young to fully appreciate the lyrics, but they make me feel so nostalgic and bittersweet, like transitioning to a new chapter of life and leaving the old behind.

《因为你所以我》 This song didn’t stand out to me at first, but it grew on me! I caught myself humming it a lot. It‘s kind of corny, but it sounds so full of hope.

陈奕迅 / Eason Chan I first started listening to 陈奕迅 a couple years ago after my Album a Day August challenge, but I’ve found that his music has grown on me over time. I believe I’ve only mentioned him once before, so I thought now was a good time to highlight my favorite of his songs.

《之外》 This is probably my favorite 陈奕迅 song. The lyrics convey a sense of hopelessness, but the overall song has a smooth, light sound.

《娱乐天空》 You know a song is good when it’s over 6 minutes long but feels like it flies by! It makes me want to get up, get moving, and be productive.

《烟味》 This song is dramatic, and I love it for that. Also has a hint of orchestral flavor.

《淘汰》 One of 陈奕迅’s most well-known songs—for a good reason. It has big Cpop ballad vibes but is definitely livelier.

白举纲 / Bai Jugang You’re going to notice several mentions of 披荆斩棘 in this post. That’s where I “met” 白举纲. I instantly liked his voice and loved seeing him with his “brother” 高瀚宇 and “dad” 张晋! You may also see his music under his English name, Pax Congo.

《被动失控》 This is the only song on the list you could headbang to.

《Shy Boy》 I love this song because it’s cute and includes a children’s rhyme that I learned as a kid: 找啊找啊找朋友找到一个好朋友.

苏诗丁 / Su Shiding At some point last year I did a one-month free trial of Apple Music. It was an interesting experience because the recommendations were very different from what Spotify tends to show me. I’m glad Apple Music led me to 苏诗丁!

《LUCIFER（傲慢宗罪）》 All I can say is that this song exudes coolness and confidence. It also has a fair bit of English, but honestly I had to look up the lyrics to tell what some of it was.

《梦幻病》 This song is from the same album. It’s dreamlike but gets more frantic as it builds. Overall, it’s just a bit…unsettling.

队长 / Young Captain I learned about 队长 from a random post on Instagram about his concert in Malaysia. I think these songs might have gone viral on 抖音 or something. I was surprised I liked them so much because they both have some rap (I’m not a rap fan), but it was love at first listen.

《11》 I love how this song builds towards the end. I spend the whole song waiting for the crescendo, and it’s great payoff.

《楼顶上的小斑鸠》 This song is like the slightly mellower sibling of the one above. But I ended up liking this one even more.

金志文 / Jin Zhiwen 金志文 was another artist who Apple Music recommended to me. I definitely need to explore his discography more but haven’t had the chance to do so yet. But he has some good stuff so far!

《自娱自乐》 Smooth and relaxing but in a fun way. Simple and no-frills but will put a smile on your face!

《远走高飞》 This one feels like enjoying the breeze on a beautiful sunny day. I also enjoy the duet with 徐佳莹 version.

163braces 163braces started out as a YouTuber posting song covers. I have watched a couple of her covers, but they didn’t leave much of an impression on me. I was pleasantly surprised by her foray into original music. I look forward to hearing what she does next!

《控制》 The song I would want as my “soundtrack” if I were a video game character. It’s energetic and loud.

《murmur》 Honestly this song is pretty similar to the first one. Sometimes I have trouble distinguishing them. But hey, if ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

小鬼 / Lil Ghost 小鬼 did what I can best describe as “pulling an MGK” by going from more rap to kinda pop-punk? That MGK album was my guilty pleasure when in came out, so I’m all for 小鬼’s new direction.

《Last Day》 This song really gave me MGK vibes. It’s about half in English, but I often don't even notice when he switches between languages.

《不良少年》 I just know I would have loved this song so much in high school. It’s an angsty teen anthem.

《为明天写封信》 I can totally imagine this song playing at the end of a 2000s teen movie! Maybe while showing a montage of the main characters graduating.

《无所求必满载而归》 by ��粒 / Chen Li This is technically cheating because I have recommended 陈粒 songs before, but it was at least a couple years ago. I heard this song covered on 披荆斩棘的哥哥 and immediately looked up the original. Honestly I should have known it was a 陈粒 song because you can totally tell it’s her style.

《轻红》 by 曹杨 / Young I keep coming back to this song! It’s from a drama soundtrack. I was super surprised the first time I listened to it because I thought it was going to be a typical ballad based on the first ~45 seconds or so—it wasn’t. There is also another version by 陈雪燃 (the king of cdrama OSTs). But I actually prefer the 曹杨 version.

《时光机》 by 吴克群 / Kenji Wu I was introduced to 吴克群 via 披荆斩棘2. He was instantly one of my favorite contestants after his team’s amazing 《新地球》 performance (check it out). This song is bouncy and a little dreamy. I kinda want to hear a remix with Harry Styles’ As It Was. I just wish it were longer than 3 minutes!

My Spotify Wrapped

I have a tradition of sharing my Spotify Wrapped, and I wanted to continue the streak in some form. So here's a quick rundown.

Top genre: 华语流行音乐 Representative city: Taipei Minutes: 21,750

Top artists

薛之谦 / Xue Zhiqian

林宥嘉 / Yoga Lin

五月天 / Mayday

李荣浩 / Li Ronghao

陈奕迅 / Eason Chan

Top songs

《木偶人》 - 薛之谦

《狐狸》 - 薛之谦

《骆驼》 - 薛之谦

《转眼》 - 五月天

《后来的我们》 - 五月天

Also, fellow Mandopop fans should check out the Mando Gap newsletter. I stumbled upon it this year, and I know it’s going to be a great resource for discovering new artists in 2024!

#chinese music recs #cpop #c-pop #c pop #mandopop #chinese music #chinese #mandarin #mandarin chinese #chinese language #studyblr #langblr #learning languages #language learning #chinese langblr #mandarin langblr #languageblr

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razorblade180 · 4 months ago

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Topaz:What am I?

Ratio:Ugh, ahead of your time I suppose.

Topaz:Louder! What am I?

March:A trend setter.

Topaz:What am I!?

Moze: *sighs* A trend setter….

Topaz:I said what am I!!?

Feixiao:A trend setter!!!!

Topaz:They didn’t want to see the vision! Now they have no choice.

Aventurine:She’s really eating this up.

Jade:Wouldn’t you?

Robin:I haven’t seen her this happy since I showed up.

Topaz:Now all we need is the option to have a follow up healer.

Lingsha:*opens door* Did someone call me?

Everyone:….

Caelus:I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again. Best. Investment. We’ve. Done.

Stelle:You brought her onboard because you thought she was hot and knew nothing else.

Caelus:And yet the payoff has been legendary.

#honkai star rail #hsr march 7th #hsr moze #hsr topaz #hsr feixiao #hsr ratio #hsr lingsha #hsr aventurine #hsr jade #hsr caelus #hsr stelle

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sepublic · 1 year ago

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Actually it's utterly hilarious to me how Hayley Wong, storyboard artist for The Owl House, posted one of the first pieces of Lumity art ever on this site during Season 1A; So before we even got the trailer for Grom and whatnot. And the whole time she had to clarify in the caption below that it was just fanart, that she didn't know anything about how the show would go due to being an artist and not a writer, she wasn't making any promises nor guarantees. And like you get it because you want to avoid accusations of queerbaiting and disappointing people, while also establishing limits and boundaries. Uh-huh. Just covering one's bases.

...And then Enchanting Grom Fright comes out later that year and it turns out Hayley boarded the whole scene with Amity's fear only to dance with Luz. And with how long production takes place and how far ahead of time it happens, that means she did and knew all this when she posted that Lumity fanart in early 2020. Meaning she could've just as easily NOT included that whole disclaimer and not suffered any consequences for the fairly quick payoff that happened afterwards. Utterly amazing. Like again professionalism and standards and whatnot, plus avoiding giving out spoilers by framing it as just a guess but. Legendary.

#the owl house #lumity #Hayley Wong

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probablyfunrpgideas · 7 months ago

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Blades In The Dark idea: The currency of your criminal underworld is abstract. A Coin is usually worth the same amount to anyone - though it may need to be converted from artwork to letters of credit, or from gold bars to a list of double agents. In this particular instance, your payoff for the latest daring score is a coupon for “buy 10 assassinations, get one free” with 9 stamps on it already. It’s worth four Coin, simply because of the legendary assassin who will honor this deal.

#idea #tabletop rpgs #blades in the dark

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lokiondisneyplus · 1 year ago

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Warning: This story contains spoilers for the Loki season 2 finale, "Glorious Purpose."

Loki ends with its titular god claiming his throne — just not the one he expected.

The Marvel Disney+ show concluded its second season this week, seemingly saying goodbye to Tom Hiddleston's Loki. In an effort to stop the universe from collapsing in on itself, Loki learns to control his "time-slipping," using it to go back further and further in time. With help from Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), Mobius (Owen Wilson), and O.B. (Ke Huy Quan), he tries again and again to fix the TVA's temporal loom and prevent a meltdown. But every time he goes back, he fails, and he spends literal centuries reliving the same events over and over.

Eventually, Loki admits defeat and chooses to sacrifice himself to save every universe. Walking toward the temporal loom, he grabs the very fabric of space-time and uses it to build a throne of his own, weaving the threads together to create a tree. (It's a nod to the legendary world tree Yggdrasil from Norse mythology.) With that, Loki essentially crowns himself master of the multiverse, watching over every timeline as a lonely god. It's the ultimate selfless act from one of Marvel's most notorious villains — a villain who once sicced an alien invasion on New York to get his dad's attention.

Here, executive producer Kevin Wright breaks down the series' emotional finale — from the throwback line that Hiddleston improvised to whether this is really the end for Loki.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: When did you decide this was how you wanted Loki's story to end?

KEVIN WRIGHT: I think we knew in season 1. Once we were going to do a season 2, we knew that Loki would end up on the throne. That was always the easy thing. The question was: How do you want that to feel for the audience? There's a version that's triumphant and super heroic. There's a version where it's an evil turn. But it was always about the emotional journey we wanted people to go on. It was about building that journey to be as cathartic as possible and to feel like a payoff for six movies and 12 episodes over 12 years with this guy. It was always about building that arc to be as fulfilling as possible.

Most of the episode is dedicated to this sort of time loop, where we see Loki trying over and over again to get things right and fix the loom, almost in a Groundhog Day kind of situation. What was fun about getting to do that endless loop?

Even in season 1, we always wanted to do a Run Lola Run thing, but there was never space for it. So once we started going into loops this season in the writing process, we thought, "Oh, let's finally do it." So much of that is total credit to Paul Zucker, the editor of the episode. That montage wasn't scripted per se. We knew Loki was going to be rerunning things, but it wasn't written exactly the way that it played.

A really fun thing, though, was that our cast — outside of Tom — had no idea what we were doing. They understood that he was rerunning time, but we shot a very different ending to episode 4 that was not the real ending. All the cast thought something very different would happen. We would send them away on lunch breaks, and Tom would take his lunch later, and he would just keep shooting with [directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead] with a skeleton crew. There were very few people that fully understood what we were building in that finale. So, for that core team, I think there was a lot of satisfaction when everybody was able to sit down and see how it came together. It just felt like this little secret.

What do you remember most about watching Tom film those final scenes?

Two moments really jump to mind. The first is a little bit of a longer story. There's the scene with He Who Remains, and that was scripted one way. We had this fear, like, "Is this going to feel like we're retreading the same ground as season 1?" Would it be fulfilling? We started shooting one day, and anybody in any creative field will understand this: There are days where the words are right, they way you're doing it is right, but it's just not adding up. Something was missing. We knew we weren't nailing it, and I had to make the call. That is really scary, when your first AD just wants to keep moving, and I said we were going to stop shooting.

Tom went and sat down with our script supervisor and basically did this insane crash course in 30 minutes of every line that had been said on the whole series. Then, he went for a run around the lot at Pinewood [Studios], and when he came back, he was like, "I know what this needs to be now." Then, he and Jonathan worked out what it was going to be, and they sat down with Justin and Aaron and me and Katie Blair, our production writer. They just quickly rewrote this new scene and shot it. It was just the pinnacle of what Tom does. He has such a finger on the pulse of this entire series and how that scene had to go. In a moment, he was able to reconfigure it with all of our collaborators.

The other thing is that final line before he steps out toward the loom, which is the Thor line, which was not scripted. Right before we were going to shoot that, Tom came and pitched it to me, like, "Should we do this?" We were like, "God, why did we not write that?" It was perfect, and it was 100 percent Tom.

I wanted to ask about that line, where Loki turns to Sylvie and Mobius and says he has to do this "for you, for all of us." It's a direct throwback to one of his lines in the original 2011 Thor. So that was a Tom Hiddleston improvisation?

It was 100 percent Tom. We had already done a few takes of the first part of that line, which was, "I know what kind of god I need to be." And on the final take, Tom said, "Hey, can I try this?" As soon as he said it, all of us were like, "This is going to be the take." It almost gave me Truman Show vibes, that final sign-off, looking straight down the camera. But that story gets to the heart of how Tom is always trying to make things better. We just had to build a series that could give him the framework to have those creative pivots. Everyone would just kind of throw their hands up and say, "Geez, this is why this guy is fantastic."

With Loki in charge of the multiverse, this could affect how (and if) we might see Jonathan Majors' Kang the Conqueror in future Marvel projects. For you, where does this finale leave Kang and his future in the MCU?

I'm going to tread probably infuriatingly lightly, but for me — and I know all the filmmakers agree — we think everything is there on screen. I think all the details are there, and there is a lot that people haven't picked up on, or haven't fully understood what is being said. The key to the future is in that conversation with Sylvie, and this doesn't necessarily undo any of those threats. In my mind, it's what Sylvie said: "At least give us a chance. Let us fight that battle for ourselves and define our own destiny."

I also wanted to ask about that final shot of Mobius in Ohio, where he's standing there silently, watching time pass. Why was that the right ending for Mobius?

In the big picture of the show, we wanted this to feel like a real ending. We wanted to give closure on a number of things, and we didn't want to do anything that felt like it was just teeing up a new story. But you could plant new seeds that could become new stories. My feeling with that scene in Ohio is that it's Mobius overcoming a personal obstacle. He just had to go and look. The show is not telling you whether he's going to stay there, or whether he's going to go back to the TVA. I think both are possibilities. But the important thing was the character growth of him going to do the thing he has been avoiding. I think it took what Loki did to cause Mobius to go, "I have this opportunity. This opportunity was given to me by Loki. The least I can do is go."

So that being said, is this the end for Loki? Is this a season finale, or is it a series finale?

I'm thinking of it kind of like a comic run, and this is the end of that comic run. I know [head writer Eric Martin] has said this a lot: These two seasons were two chapters of the same book, and we wanted to close the book. That was a challenge from Owen in between seasons: He was like, "Nobody has the courage to close the book! Let's close the book!"

Again, I speak for myself and not Marvel, but I am certainly pitching ideas of where I could see certain stories going. I think there are a lot of stories you can tell at the TVA, and we are just scratching the surface on that. I would love to see more stories with Loki, and I think Tom would continue to play this character until he is Richard E. Grant's Classic Loki [laughs]. But I don't think that means you need to have this story every year or every two years. It's about doing it when we have a good story to tell. I would love to keep working with these filmmakers.

We built a really awesome team, and if Loki is Breaking Bad, maybe there's a way for this team to keep telling stories with our version of Better Call Saul — whether that's with Sylvie, with the TVA, or with a new Loki. But we only want to do that if we have the right story and it can be just as fulfilling as this one. After all, you can't be the God of Stories if you're not going to tell more stories.

#loki s2 #kevin r. wright #interview #tom hiddleston #owen wilson

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tobiasdrake · 8 months ago

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The 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai is a master class in setup and payoff.

We all know how tournament arcs go. The final round is going to be the arc's hero versus the arc's villain. Everything before that point exists to provide character work and spectacle moments, but there's rarely any ambiguity about where the tournament is going.

Poorly done, the lead-in matches can end up feeling like filler. Like the story's just spinning its wheels. Decently done, they give characters a chance to stand in a spotlight they wouldn't normally receive by the rest of the story, and let them shine in individual moments even if they aren't going the distance.

But a well-written tournament uses those lead-in matches to lay groundwork, planting seeds that will eventually sprout into the finale.

The final match of the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai comes in hot. This tournament had previously been a sports movie arc about the rival schools of Kame-senryu or Turtle Style and Tsuru-senryu or Crane Style.

Ten thought he'd vanquished the star athlete of Kame-senryu, Yamcha, in the opening round. In fact, he rigged the ballots to ensure that he could face Yamcha right off the bat. But things took a turn when he found out that one of Yamcha's juniors, holy shit, killed his master's brother, a legendary assassin and a top-tier master of Tsuru-senryu.

It's at this point that the story stops being about the school rivalry. Instead, it becomes a mission of avenging Tsuru-senryu's lost honor by vanquishing Taopaipai's killer. Ten isn't playing by tournament rules anymore; He wants to kill Goku in the ring.

Only. He doesn't, really. Locked in the fight of his life with Goku, Ten falls in love with the competitive atmosphere itself. He loses interest in avenging Taopaipai and becomes more enthralled by the prospect of simply proving his worth in the tournament itself.

It's at this point that the fight stops being about either of those things it was before. It's no longer a contest between Kame-senryu and Tsuru-senryu. Neither is it about revenge.

It's just about these two martial artists standing on the world stage, ambitions blazing as they reach for the lofty title of Strongest Under the Heavens. The only thing that matters anymore is the pure sport of it.

And what a sport it is. This fight is an incredible summation of everything that led into it. Throughout the arc, we get to watch Goku and Ten take each others' measure. We see the special care and attention they're paying to each others' matches, and we watch them grow from their own.

In Goku's semifinal match with Krillin, we see him break out an incredible vanishing technique.

Special attention is drawn to Ten's ability to follow Goku's movements, as he explains to the reader exactly what Goku is doing.

Setup.

By introducing this move here, we're ready for its faster-paced return in the final round - and we're already primed for Ten to counter it.

Payoff.

But Ten wasn't the only one paying attention during the semifinals. When Ten fought the Muten-Roshi in his guise of Jackie Chun, Goku got to see Ten's signature move: The Taiyoken or Solar Flare.

Incidentally, he refers to this as a Shin Tsuru-senryu or "New Crane School" technique, implying this isn't part of the standard Tsuru-senryu playbook; He created it on his own.

As with Goku's semifinal, getting to see Ten's semifinal gives Goku a leg up on the competition, as this advance preview of Ten's signature move gives him a chance to glean both how it works and how to counter it. We get to see Goku and Krillin discuss the limitations of Ten's technique.

Setup.

This gives Goku the forewarning he needs to be ready for this technique when Ten breaks it out in their match.

Turning Ten's attempt to capitalize on Goku's blindness and vulnerability, into an opening for a counterattack - through a little bit of sneaky-handed filching.

Payoff.

Neither of these guys is winning this tournament with the same tricks that carried them through the semifinal, that's for damn sure. But it's not only their matches that play into this finale. Krillin's fight in the quarterfinals with Chiaotzu - the only real fight Chiaotzu's ever had in this entire series - serves to establish Chiaotzu's psychic abilities.

Setup.

Chiaotzu can telekinetically bind a person, leaving them helpless to attack. It doesn't win him the match, but it briefly allows Tsuru-sennin to rig the finals in Ten's favor.

Payoff.

This ability, set up in the quarterfinals, is what gives Ten the opportunity to realize he doesn't feel right winning like this, and to choose fair competition and sportsmanship instead.

It's easy to keep focus on how Goku and Ten are feeling about this move, because we've already been introduced to the ability itself. What is happening here doesn't need to be freshly explained, allowing the pace of the fight to be maintained.

Speaking of strange abilities we don't need explained, the preliminary rounds of the tournament, typically an easy wash, have one character introduced with surprising gravitas.

In the preliminaries, Goku faces King Chapa. One P, Viz. It's Chapa-O, named for the Italian dish chapati 'cause Toriyama likes his name puns.

Despite not happening on the world stage, this match is nonetheless treated as a serious tournament fight. Goku still wins the fight handily, but not before Chapa has a chance to show off his signature technique: The Hasshuken or 8-Armed Fist.

Hasshuken is a speed technique, built around moving your arms so quickly that it blurs visibility and creates the illusion that you have eight. Chapa hits Goku with this technique, but we see that Goku's fast enough to see through his moves and counter them anyway.

Setup.

In the finals, once he gets serious about competition, Tenshinhan unveils another esoteric ability: Shiyoken, the Four-Armed Fist.

No optical illusion this time. Tenshinhan's devised an ability to physically sprout two extra arms to enhance his fighting.

But four arms are for suckers. Hasshuken can give you eight.

Payoff.

We've already seen Goku face down and defeat Hasshuken and we know he's a quick learner. So it's no surprise when he whips out the technique on his own, much later in the tournament, to counter Ten's Shiyoken.

Nearly every move of this final match stands on the shoulders of the material that came before it - Right down to the final blow. By this point, it's been long established that Ten and Chiaotzu can fly.

It may seem odd these days when everyone who is anyone has mastered it, but the levitation technique Bukujutsu was originally a signature technique for Tsuru-senryu. Everyone else cribbed it off of Ten.

They stole his Bukujutsu/Levitation. They stole his Taiyoken/Solar Flare. Fucking thieves, the lot of Kame-senryu. Turtles be stealin', yo.

In his desperation to win the finals, this becomes Ten's final ace in the hole. By destroying the tournament stage itself so there's nowhere to stand that isn't out-of-bounds, Ten can remain suspended in levitation and force Goku into a ringout.

The best Goku can do is take a huge jump, but that will only carry him so far. He needs to know Ten down to the ground before the ticking clock of gravity ends this match. He only has one option to reach with.

But it's useless.

During Ten's quarterfinal fight with Yamcha, it's established that Ten has the ability to cancel and reflect the Kamehameha.

Setup

This was the first official fight of the tournament. It's a piece of context that has sat on the characters' shoulders for everything up to this point, and we even see Goku attempt a Kamehameha earlier in the final round before thinking better of it.

Payoff (Kinda)

He remembers that Ten can cancel his Kamehameha. It would be a waste of his energy to try for it. Instead, he saves his strength for the longer fight ahead.

This, in turn, is what makes it so suspenseful when Goku is forced to resort to it in this very last exchange. Having no other option, Goku is forced to fall back on a move that cannot work. The outcome of the tournament now depends on an attack proven to fail at the very start.

And then it hits.

Payoff (For Real). Deflect that, asshole.

Though Ten still wins the tournament by sheer dumb luck of Goku hitting the ground a second before he did, this is nonetheless a thrilling solution to a problem created by the opening match of the arc.

This is what the entire final round of the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai is: A series of payoffs fired off in rapid succession to plot points and abilities and ideas that had been sprinkled throughout the entire arc to that point. A fast-paced frenzy of a fight that rarely needs to stop to explain itself because everything was already layered out in advance.

This is top-tier tournament writing, and anyone seeking to write a tournament arc would do well to study what it has to teach.

#dragon ball #son goku #tenshinhan

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clearancecreedwatersurvival · 27 days ago

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Just read another merthur fic that made me fully insane, so time for my weekly fic rec.

Best use of Galahad in a bbc merlin fic I’ve ever read, also just best pull from arthuriana ever, I won’t spoil it but if you’re familiar with the Arthurian canon you may know of a very important piece of King Arthur’s legendary accoutrement that never made it into the show, well this fic makes the most brilliant use of that piece of the legend, I may never recover from it.

Also the characterization goes crazy, even Uther and Kilgharrah’s characterization is incredibly good and oh my GOD the merthur resolution in this is nuts. I wish it was like four times the length honestly. SO very good, the only problem is that it ends at all.

33k, E, contains side Morgwen and temporary Merlin/OMC with the endgame Merthur payoff of the century.

The Other Prince by Merlinfirstlastalways

Summary:

“Gwen, it’s terrible,” Merlin said. “He’s polite! He’s kind, even!”

“And that’s a problem?” Gwen asked, dryly.

"I’m going to have to go through an entire week serving the perfect Golden Prince, and then go back to my Prince Prat, and I think it’s going to break me, Gwen. He’s going to get me used to it, and then it’ll be back to mile-long lists, and being called stupid instead of spectacular and how am I supposed to handle that?”

Gwen said, hesitantly, “I thought you liked Arthur?”

“I do,” Merlin said, sounding even lower than before. “I have to.”

* * *

When a visiting Prince visits Camelot, and takes Merlin as his servant during his negotiations with The Crown, Merlin finds himself being seen in a way he'd always wished Arthur would see him, and doesn't know what to do with any of it.

#merlin #bbc merlin #merthur #fic rec #caitie speaks

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endversewinchester · 5 months ago

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What are chapters 39-41 of Legendary and why are they the best out of Stephanie Garber’s writing? They are the payoff to everything she’s been building up from the start of the book.

First, we properly meet Dante and we get to know him. From his tragic backstory of a bastard boy no one wanted, not even his first love, who he became magical for. What did he do? Shut down emotionally and build a fake identity who was much cooler and far more beloved than his real self ever was.

And then we have Tella and her equally large fear to love. Because she felt cursed and unwanted after being supposedly abandoned by her own mother, and being raised by a father who only loved himself. So she convinces herself love is for the poor stupid people who are willing to give their hearts to others (knowing they can be broken).

Dante wasn’t meant to fall for Tella. But he did. He let her past the mask of Legend and allowed her to truly know him, and himself to harbor feelings for her. By the end there he doesn’t care about getting the cards and the powers within them. He wants her love, and is even willing to make death pacts with powerful strangers to ensure she’s safe.

And Tella, who refused to fall even for the stories she was told of this fantastic magician, finds herself unable to match the image of the villain she made up in her mind with that of the guy she fell for. And she embraces him, and embraces that love, no longer being afraid of having her heart broken.

And then it all falls apart.

Because while Tella is not willing to give Dante up, she is still the little girl that wants her mother back. And so the love she just embraced within herself is used to sacrifice herself, and get trapped in one of the cards to save her mother.

Dante of course can’t deal with that. So he saves Tella and starts the apocalypse, but this is the second time loving so deeply had devastating results. So he shuts down again. Snaps the mask of Legend back into place and leaves Tella on those stairs because he is fucking terrified of being hurt again by someone he loves so deeply. And so fulfilling Tella’s own fear of having her own heart broken.

Literally all of their actions match the characters we saw this far to perfection. Stephanie is amazing and this series deserves to be in filmed media at some point.

#caraval series #caraval #Stephanie garber #tellalegend #dante santos #donatella dragna

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dailycass-cain · 6 months ago

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I apologize for the delay, but here are my thoughts on Detective Comics #1086 where we enter the end stage of Ram V's Tec run.

Reading the issue has left me a little 😭as we get numerous payoffs to prior areas of Ram V's run here. Namely, the stuff with Two-Face and looks to be the next stage of his story path in this and I'm terrified for both personas.

They both know the real identity of Batman now, and I want to see someone play with this idea eventually instead of stuffing it back in the box (which will happen).

It's just that this does open new ideas for Two-Face as a character, given both them and Jim know the truth.

This issue does introduce a new player to the mix. Though it may feel last minute to some, it doesn't. An ulterior message on Ram V's run here has been legacy.

It makes more sense as to why she shows up now given we've seen the Orghams. Barbatos. Batman. Etc.

That's where it hit me on the careful selection of Bat Family members in his run. Each person has a stake in the legacy of the Bat.

This wasn't about "preference" this was about the legacy of Batman. And we have all three here at last.

Jean-Paul was the picked heir of Bruce when "Knighfall" saga occurred. While I do wish we had more new antics of him in the cape/cowl. You only need to read "Knightfall" saga to grasp that.

The same goes for Nightwing as we've gotten "Prodigal" along with several years of stories during the Grant Morrison era (along with Pete Tomasi and Scott Snyder too).

Cass has some stories of her commitment (James Tynion IV's Tec run for example). But none are nowhere near as legendary or easier to access than that.

That's where the realization dawned on why she's gotten more a showing here than them. Cause new readers do need to be reminded of this.

She's got that same drive. She just had the drive before meeting Bruce as the run has pointed out.

The whole moment of Bruce laying it all out what they've all got to do to prevent this scheme by the Orghams. And the group shot of them?

Chills.

Because reading this run as a whole. Ram V has been building to this group shot and man artist Stefano Raffaele just nails it.

So yeah, we're at the end game of this run and I cannot be more hyped to see where this all goes.

Yeah, Cass is safe (along with Dick and Bruce). But I want to know where the journey truly does end. Man, what a journey this run has been.

#cassandra cain #dc comics #my thoughts

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markrosewater · 7 months ago

Note

I don't dislike outlaw, but I don't see how it makes sense as a single-set mechanic. For Limited, things would be a lot cleaner if you just added a new Outlaw creature type. For Constructed the backwards compatibility is useful, but a single set's worth of payoffs isn't enough to make it worth building around.

So I think batches like outlaw would work more effectively if you intend to use them regularly rather than as single-set mechanics which might possiblysee a return several years later.

For 4-of, 60-card formats, there are plenty of Outlaw mattering cards. You don’t need that many when using four copies.

For 1-of, singleton formats, there are four legendary creatures that care about Outlaws.

Both have 31 years of creatures of the five relevant creature types.

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h-worksrambles · 3 months ago

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I wanna talk about Sasuke Uchiha

As someone who looks back on Naruto as one of their gateway anime and manga, I have a lot of very fond, but very complicated feelings about it. I remember so well the thrill of watching the highs of the Land of Waves or Chunin Exam arcs and even once we got into the highs and lows of Shippuden/Part 2, it still had plenty of moments that spoke to me. But there is one aspect of the series which I have incredibly mixed feelings about: one who unfortunately just so happens to me integral to the entire series. That being the character and arc of Sasuke Uchiha, one of the most famous parts of the series, and one of the most frustrating bits of missed potential.

Back in Part One, Sasuke begins with a great deal of promise. He, Naruto and Sakura are all immediately set up with distinct personalities. The tree climbing chapter is a great early moment that allows Sasuke to act beyond his stoic character trope and behave like the child he still is, in turn allowing for more natural chemistry with Naruto (remember that, it’s gonna be important for later). Moments like his sacrifice to protect Naruto from Haku or his panic during the fight against Orochimaru in the Forest of Death help to humanise and develop him further. As we learn more of his backstory and the traumatic loss of his clan, you come to better understand him and you can see the dynamic starting to form between him and his teammates. Their relationship is still very much early days but at this point it’s easy to get excited to see how they’ll develop together and grow a compelling bond….

And then the next arc seperates them. And here’s where the problems begin.

From where, Naruto is separated from his teammates during the search for Tsunade. Itachi returns to the narrative, and forces Sasuke to confront the sheer gulf in power between him and the brother he intends to kill, but this also leaves him bed ridden and out of commission for the rest of the arc. And Sakura…gets nothing for this whole arc because this manga has a Women Problem but I digress.

The result is that the very next arc is the fabled Break-Up TM, where Sasuke’s lingering trauma and jealousy of Naruto’s growth lead to his heel-turn to villainy on Orochimaru’s side. His motivations make sense and this arc is full of legendary moments. But when we get to Naruto and Sasuke’s showdown at the Valley of the End, the core issue emerges.

For being the core relationship that this series revolves around, and the focus of more Yaoi fanfiction than any one mind could comprehend…Naruto and Sasuke‘s bond is surprisingly underdeveloped. The manga made the…unique decision to split the core trio up for two arcs just when it had made the first breakthroughs to start to build a dynamic between them. The Chunin Exams should have been the start of the bond they’d build, one that would tragically fall apart due to Sasuke’s need for revenge. But their relationship development stops there, and the Sasuke Retrieval arc tries to cash in on a payoff it hasn’t earned. It’s hard to care when Sakura begs Sasuke not to leave because they barely have a relationship. And Naruto and Sasuke aren’t much better. Naruto barely understands Sasuke or his reasoning, so his appeals to bring him back ring hollow. Five arcs in and Naruto still barely really knows him. It’s telling that this is where Kishimoto starts inserting in more flashbacks to reveal the two did in fact interact more often as kids. Like the story knows this moment is happening to soon, and has to frantically back fill to convince us that these two are in fact best friends.

But, earned or not, the fight concludes, Sasuke elects to spare Naruto, wanting to remain a better person than his brother even as he takes revenge on him. A nice moment that tells us Sasuke has a moral compass even as he goes rogue, and even if I feel the manga hasn’t earned the idea that Naruto is his closest friend, the significance of Sasuke not wanting to kill him, despite all that bravado, isn’t lost on me.

And so, we move into Part Two, and at this stage, I’m mostly fine with Sasuke’s plotline. His post-timeskip reintroduction and subsequent heel-turn from Orochimaru, refusing to condone the latter’s actions any longer, sets him as a rogue element, unaligned but with his own ethics. And it builds to the genuinely excellent confrontation with Itachi. Unfortunately that problem of Team 7’s underdeveloped relationship really starts to become an issue here. So much of this part of the story is filled with Naruto and Sakura insisting that there’s still good in him, that they still love and accept him, defending him to ever other character. Despite the fact that they still barely know what he’s been through, why he’s doing what he’s doing, and only ever got scraps of affection under the only the direst of circumstances when he was around to begin with. But then we get the truth of Itachi’s motivations, the formation of Taka, and Sasuke joining the Akatsuki to take revenge on Konoha.

And the thing is, I actually really like this moment (sort of) and feel Taka Sasuke gets a lot of flack for the wrong reason. His downward spiral is honestly really compelling. Watching him break his ‘No kill’ policy and commit more extreme acts to root out the corruption in Konoha is a good watch. A lot of people focus on his motives ‘not making sense’. But considering the ideas at play in Sasuke’s story, that revenge is a dark path that will never satisfy you, or how loneliness and trauma from a young age could twist someone’s way of thinking, I honestly believe, from a motivations aspect, this is fine. Sasuke got his revenge, but it proved unsatisfying, and after chasing this for years, it feels hollow. So the second he has someone new to blame, something to fill the void, he’s off on the warpath. Sasuke has lived only for revenge, he needed it to give him purpose. It sets Sasuke up to learn that no amount of revenge will ever undo what he went through. Hell, I could even see a ballsier version of Naruto that, instead of going for a simple but effective ‘revenge bad’ plot, accepted that Sasuke kind of has a point, and that Konoha as an institution is kind of vile, like all the ninja villages. Even by the time we get to the Five Kage Summit, while his actions are deplorable, you can still see how his desire to punish the world for making his life hell, his need to find someone to blame and punish for his suffering, are all driving his actions. I like how he keeps looking for someone to blame and continues to finding that revenge unsatisfying, even when facing someone who pretty clearly deserves it. Yes, it avenges the horrific genocide of the Uchiha, but it doesn’t bring back everything Sasuke lost, or bring him peace. All it ends up doing is taking a greater toll on his psyche and I think it’s very well done.

Here’s my gripe with it though. Instead of doing anything interesting with those ideas of revenge, or questioning if maybe Konoha does deserve justice for the atrocities it’s complicit in, the discussion in the text around Sasuke’s journey becomes this very trite sentimental hand-wringing. A lot of Naruto and Sakura shouting ‘there’s still good in you! You’re our friend!’ Despite the fact that, as I brought up before, Sasuke’s never really had much of a believable relationship with them. They don’t really work as his moral compass because there was never enough of a connection there for that to work. You can’t hinge so much of Sasuke’s character around his relationships, when he’s so constantly stoic and never really forms much of a dynamic with anyone because he’s so utterly devoted to his mission. It’s empty. And it takes focus away from the things that actually do make Sasuke interesting. So much of the drama of Sasuke’s character comes from the fact that he’s alone. That his struggle with trauma and single minded fixation on his mission prevents him from making any connections, in stark contrasts to Naruto, who learns and grows alongside everyone he meets. The problem is that the manga still tries to extract drama from Sasuke’s relationships without putting the time in to earn them.

The story spends a lot of time telling, rather than showing us, that Sasuke is still redeemable, even as he remains coldly committed to increasingly extreme acts of violence. A lot of Naruto and Sakura telling us he still cares, rather than Sasuke showing he still does. By the end, the story is not about Sasuke understanding the pointless cycle of revenge, and making peace with his trauma. It’s about how Naruto and Sakura loved Sasuke hard enough to redeem him. With very little internal reflection or growth on Sasuke’s own part. It turns his arc into a weak ‘I can fix him’ that robs Sasuke of the chance to grow on his own terms.

To me, this is largely an issue of characteristion. Notice how so much of my discussion has been about Sasuke’s backstory, the theoretical beats of his arc, and the ideas around him. I’ve spoken much less about his personally and character traits and therein lies the issue. He doesn’t really have much of one. From Shippuden on, Sasuke largely has two modes, cold stoic focus or violent blood rage. He just doesn’t really have much personality, and that makes it incredibly hard for him to bounce off other characters and form a rapport. And this is especially bad during his interaction with team Hebi/Taka, who are not only incredibly flat and underused characters, but who have absolutely no chemistry with Sasuke at a point where he is carrying the story for large periods of screentime. I don’t really believe his relationships with other characters, and the moral event horizon of him betraying them. The Five Kage Summit arc frames what he does to Karin in particular as a shocking betrayal that shows how low he’s sunk. But…why? When did he ever give a shit about Karin? When did they have any kind of relationship that would make this betrayal particularly shocking or tragic? Before, the manga was willing to let Sasuke be scared, petulant, expressive, in a word, a child. Now, there is an expectation that Sasuke needs to be cool. So the story is utterly scared to let him emote beyond his character trope. And this unfortunately comes at a point where we really need to be able to empathise with Sasuke. We need to understand his conflict and inner turmoil over his actions to know that there’s still good in him. We need to know that he still cares for his old teammates beyond a token ‘I didn’t kill them that one time’.

It results in an emotional core that feels painfully one sided. Naruto’s love for Sasuke comes across far more like an expression of loneliness, and a desire to hold onto one of the first people he built any attachment to, rather than this bond being uniquely deep. All for a person who barely seems to even like Naruto, because they were wrenched apart before the story could organically develop their relationship. As a gay man who has a lot of Thoughts TM, about the underlying homoeroticism of Shounen rivalries (and how it intersects with the misogyny in the genre and lack of development of female characters, including love interests) it frustrates me that one of the most famous and most widely-shipped rivalries in the genre feels so flaccid. Because one side of this duo is so routinely given the bare minimum of stoic, flat characterisation, while the main protagonist spends far more time building organic, compelling friendships and relationships with other characters than his supposed ‘best friend’. Hell, if you view their relationship through a romantic lens, I actually think it becomes even worse. To prove that, I need only look at his ‘romance’ with Sakura, where you can basically take all my points about how one sided and forced Naruto and Sasuke’s bond is, and multiply it by 10. In some ways, it’s worse with Naruto because it’s so much more important to the story. Sakura’s fixation on Sasuke just amounts to a poorly written romance. It’s bad, but it doesn’t really have much narrative impact, frankly. But Naruto’s bond with Sasuke is the emotional core of the entire manga. If that doesn’t work, (and in my opinion, it doesn’t) then the entire story collapses.

There are those who argue that the series would have committed to making these two and item if they’d been different genders, and there’s a whole other discussion about how shitty it is that many Shounen manga still shy from making queer relationships their emotional core despite revolving so much around the bonds between male characters. But I still believe that if Sasuke or Sasuke had been written as female character, Naruto would either have been seen by fans as a simp to a creepy extent or there would have been even more criticism of how weird and abusive this dynamic comes off as, and how much it feels like Naruto is expected to ‘fix’ Sasuke, in a way that hurts both their character development.

This really comes to a head in the Five Kage Summit where the drama between these three feels more painfully forced than ever. On paper, I like the idea of watching Naruto and Sakura deal with difficult internal conflict over their feelings for Sasuke and what he’s done. I just wish their relationships with Sasuke weren’t so underdeveloped so that these scenes felt earned. We’re still not given enough time in Sasuke’s head for me to ever really buy that he grew to care for them, and still does. His interactions with every other character are so incredibly sterile. I think the reason people talk about Naruto over reacting or being irrational when it comes to Sasuke is because the story didn’t do a good enough job getting folks invested in their ‘bond’. Many readers/viewers walk away thinking Sasuke’s just not worth it and that Naruto and Sakura both deserve better.

While we saw enough to understand Sasuke core motivations , we needed more insight into his headspace and his conflicted feelings across the story. That moment in chapter 699 is one of the only times we really get to go behind the stoic exterior and see clearly what he’s really thinking. It injects some much needed humanity into him, and makes him feel more like a person, rather than an archetypal shorthand to build themes around. If more of that was spread across the story, I think his redemption would be more believable. As it stands, the moment where he reveals he cared about Naruto all along, feels like a last minute plot twist. Because his headspace was constantly kept at arm’s length from the reader, and it was barely reflected in the calculated stoicism or ultra crazy face that are Sasuke’s only two emotions at this point in the manga.

This storyline could have been a deeper insight into Sasuke’s inner world. Allowing us more into his perspective and headspace to watch him accept that, ultimately, he’s just trying to fill a void that’s been there ever since he lost everything. It could, alternatively, have been more of an ethical quandary that pointed out that Sasuke, who is the last survivor of a literal genocide, actually has every reason to demand justice. Exploring how to fix a broken, bloodstained system. What we got was a direct appeal to sentimentality, hinging Sasuke’s character and sympathy on his relationships, which were always ill defined at best.

Sasuke’s story was good on paper. I think he works really well as a commentary on the unhealthy effects of holding kids up as gifted, the dangers of isolating yourself, the effects trauma can have on a young mind and the unsatisfying and bloody cycle of revenge. The beats and ideas are all there, but was let down by flat characterisation and his redemption was yet another casualty of the messy ending. I have little interest in hand-wringing fan discourse about whether Sasuke is a war criminal, or how much his trauma excuses his actions. This is an idealistic story about forgiveness, brotherhood and breaking cycles of violence. It was inevitably going to end this way, and it would have been tonally bizarre if it hadn’t. The question is whether it builds believable relationships to tell that story, and I don’t think it does. Even as a case study in queer-coded rivalries, Sasuke feels underwhelming. Not only do I think there are more believably queer rivalries in Shounen manga, I think there are better ones in Naruto itself (shout out to Madara and Hashirama who, as intentional parallels to Naruto and Sasuke, end up exploring many of the same themes better AND with more convincing homoeroticism).

Maybe this would have worked if Part One was longer and Team Seven had more time together. Maybe it would have worked if Sasuke had more consistent opportunities for an internal monologue and more opportunities to express his internal conflict. Maybe if the manga was more willing to go further with the flaws of Konoha as a system, we could have taken Sasuke’s character in a more compelling, less trite direction. But what we got was ultimately a let down. One that leaves Naruto as a series with an unfortunately weak emotional core.

#sasuke uchiha #naruto #i rant about fictional characters who i think could have been better maybe perhaps?#but yeah this character and this relationship has bugged me for a long time

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brucebocchi · 1 year ago

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Ranking every new anime I watched in 2023, Pt. 2: #20-11

hey, i just started a ko-fi for my writing and possible other creative outlets. this post will also be available there, so please check it out and consider tipping/donating as i'm currently between jobs. the tumblr version of part 1 can be found here.

Let's get right into it.

20. Helck

I watched Helck’s first season for its entire half-year run, and I'm honestly still not sure how I feel about it. I’d heard amazing things from people who’d read the manga, and it had a hot start, but the pacing slowed to such a crawl after a while that it kind of felt like they stretched out the story just so they could make another season.

Helck, an enormous and impossibly jolly human warrior, enters a tournament to decide the successor to the throne of the recently-slain Demon King. Demons and humans had been at war for some time, so Vermilio, an adorably fiery elite lord of the castle, is naturally wary of him. Helck is naturally powerful, talented, and affable, so he easily breezes his way through the tournament in hilarious fashion, despite Vermilio’s best efforts at sabotage. Before the finals can take place, though, an immortal army sent by the human forces arrive to attack the demon realm, and Helck and Vermilio are teleported to the far edge of the realm.

The season largely covers Helck and Vermilio’s trek back to the demon kingdom, as well as the demons’ struggles against the mysterious warriors as they attempt to figure out just what the hell the humans are plotting. Vermilio remains leery of Helck, regardless of all he’s done for her, but it becomes further evident that Helck is harboring a very dark past, and eventually we get a lengthy arc where he sits down and explains it to Vermilio in flashback. There is, as you’d expect, plenty of tragedy there, and you’d like to see it resolved, but things just seem to keep getting worse.

There are powerful messages in there about toxic positivity and fighting the urge to shoulder one’s burdens alone, but they don’t become fully apparent until late in the season. Everything until then, at least after the teleportation, is… fine. I had higher hopes for this one, but it just feels like it’s missing something, and I can’t put my finger on what. It looks fine, the voice acting is good (the GOAT Katsuyuki Konishi is typically very good as Helck), the action is decent, it’s all… fine. The pacing just feels glacial at times, to the point where if I hadn’t been watching it weekly I might have bounced off of it.

Of course, the season ended with what appears to be the endgame on the horizon, so for all I know there’s still a lot more to come, but the story beats feel so familiar that I get the feeling it could be resolved with, like, a movie. I hope I’m wrong, because there are clearly some major emotional payoffs yet to come, and I’m still curious to see how it gets there. I may have to pick up the manga to find out if it’ll be worth any more of my time.

19. Urusei Yatsura (2022), second cour

Fresh off of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure’s possible series finale, David Production’s modern take on Rumiko Takahashi’s legendary comedy manga hummed along nicely into 2023. The cast continues to expand as the new version introduces characters like Ten, Ryunosuke, and Tobimaro to further raise the level of shenanigans inherent to Urusei Yatsura.

Lum Invader has been a sex symbol for pretty much as long as anime has had sex symbols, but the reboot’s second cour focuses a bit more on the side of her personality that makes her so iconic, and which I consider essential to several of my favorite female anime characters: Lum’s kind of a psychotic asshole. Her schemes to wring more attention and affection out of Ataru border on sociopathic at times, and she’s honestly so real for that. Her mortal frenemy, Ran, was introduced close to the end of the first cour, and there is still no shortage of sabotage attempts in the second, but we quickly come to learn that Ran’s undying vendetta is mostly because Lum has been a selfish, lying piece of shit since they were kids. God bless her.

Ataru continues to not be much better, serial philanderer that he is, as he continues to be surrounded by other hot crazy ladies who aren’t his not-fiancee. Mendo’s younger sister, Ryoko, is a real highlight in the 2023 run as a result of her escalating penchant for Looney Tunes-esque slapstick violence. The settings of Ataru’s and Lum’s respective worlds take more focus as well, between Ataru’s high school hijinks and Ten’s galactic mail-order mishaps, and the two often collide in hilarious fashion.

I still adore the look of this one. Character models have been cleaned up and simplified to a sort of retro-modern look while still being instantly recognizable to anyone already familiar with them. Everything is awash in an eye-popping Day-Glo color palette. Backgrounds and pop-in gags are often adorned with Ben Day dots to maintain the retro comic look. This doesn’t quite look like the manga, nor does it resemble the original 80s anime, but this is unmistakably a Rumiko Takahashi product. It almost looks like it could have come out at any point in time.

I’m only holding this back in the rankings because it’s the weaker half of a season that straddled the end of 2022 and the start of 2023, but the season as a whole is excellent. It is an essential watch for fans of comedy anime, especially considering so many tried-and-true anime gags effectively originated with Urusei Yatsura (it’s worth mentioning that Lum is largely considered the first-ever tsundere in anime and manga). Season 2 is imminent and I cannot fucking wait. Maybe I’ll even read the manga.

18. Tomo-chan is a Girl!

This is basically Monthly Girls’ No-jock-i-kun. Very simple premise: Tomboyish high schooler gets the hots for her childhood friend who is dense as fuck and forgets most of the time that she’s even a girl. Hilarity ensues and romance progresses glacially.

The voice performances are what really carry this one. Rie Takahashi is golden as the titular Tomo Aizawa, and this was the first entry in an MVP-caliber resume for her in 2023 that was so stacked that I still haven’t gotten to her best role yet. Rina Hidaka nails the conniving, misanthropic nature of Misuzu Gundo in a far cry from her turn as Emul the bunny in Shangri-La Frontier later in the year. The American-born idol Sally Amaki is a revelation as the airheaded gaijin Carol Olston, whom she also voices in the English dub. Even Carol’s mom speaks broken Japanese with a noticeable American accent, which is one of my favorite gags in the whole show.

Outside of the voice acting, nothing is particularly special about this show. Which is fine! There's nothing wrong with a solid 7/10 romcom; junk food is still food. It’s cute, it’s funny, it hits all the right beats, but nothing particularly stands out. Misuzu and eventually Carol give Tomo advice to try to woo her bestie Jun, while Misuzu is usually also playing Jun against that same advice so that it usually works and backfires at the same time. It’s all a game, and she plays both sides so she can always come out on top.

If I have a complaint about this show, it’s that it just… ends. I went back and read the manga, and unfortunately that issue is not the anime’s fault. If anything, it did a phenomenal job of fitting eight volumes of a 4-koma into a single season, and that’s always how it was supposed to go. I watched and read a ton of slice-of-life romance anime and manga this year, as it turns out, and the ones that really hit for me are usually the ones that take their time with the central relationship once it actually starts, rather than treat that big event as the climax, or worse, the finale of the story. Stuff like Kaguya-sama, Horimiya, Sweat and Soap, and even Wotakoi (though I have my own problems with that one) treat their central relationships as a step, not the goal. At the same time, for plenty of others, the fun is in the chase, and they just run out of time, and Tomo-chan is the latter. We got what we wanted, and we had fun getting there. Sometimes that’s all you need.

Also good god, Tomo’s mom. The second those genes kicked in for Tomo, Jun was doomed.

17. The Eminence in Shadow, second cour and season 2

The Eminence in Shadow is the smartest piece of stupid media I've seen in a minute. It so perfectly skewers dime-a-dozen chuunibyo isekai trash while still cannonballing into a McDuckian swimming pool of the stuff. It nearly overwhelms you with lore; the series abounds with rich backstories, centuries-old power struggles, palace intrigue, shadowy conspiracies, the artificially accelerated march of progress, long-simmering revenge plots, looming economic catastrophe, and love dodecahedrons. And the most compelling thing about all of it is that none of it fucking matters.

Cid Kagenou spent his teenage years in modern Japan trying to become the coolest badass dark antihero who ever lived, but he quickly reaches his limits in our boring normal world so he rides the isekai truck into a world with actual, like, magic and shit. He spends his new childhood leveling up and rescuing elf girls, all the while regaling them with his “wisdom” in the form of a bunch of horseshit he made up based on all the light novels he used to read. Turns out that he’s entirely too genre savvy; this new world is apparently so contrived that every single thing he told them ended up entirely true.

So now Cid’s a teenager by day and shadowy vigilante by night (under the apt moniker “Shadow”), with an underground legion of hot deadly babes at his disinterested beck and call. All he genuinely cares about is looking and acting like the coolest motherfucker a socially inept 12 year old boy can think of, and in his downtime actively trying to be a forgettable mob character. And I do mean that that is all he cares about; when I say none of the wheels within wheels happening in the background actually matter, I mean that Cid is completely and totally unaware of any of it.

Anything he does or says to drive the plot is either incidental or accidental. He spouts off some nonsense he heard in a video game once, and his cadre of elf baddies and beastgirls takes it as gospel en route to exposing a millennium-old conspiracy. He parrots a really cool line he heard ten minutes ago and a beautiful woman he just saved takes it as inspiration to turn her life around. It’s kind of like in Mashle, funnily enough; where Mash will go “I don’t know what’s going on, but you were being mean to my friend so I’m gonna beat the shit out of you,” Cid is more like “No clue what this is about, but that’s a really badass looking villain, so I’m gonna say some epic shit and do a big explosion.” And then he fucks off to go eat a burger or something, not knowing or caring that he just unraveled a prophesied master plot to destroy the global power balance.

The episodes that aired in 2023 largely revolve around the lovely Princess Rose, smitten with both Cid and Shadow (not knowing they’re the same guy), pledging fealty to Shadow Garden after failing to foil a coup d’etat. At the same time as her training, Cid is busy with a vampire something-or-other and then tries to make some coin for himself by teaming up with an assassin hellbent on revenge to create a credit crisis. The conspiracy later drags Rose back into the palace, where Cid sees a new opportunity. Every single one of these things has very specific reasons for happening, and everyone involved has a rich backstory and clear motivations to carry out their parts of the ever-evolving plots.

But that’s not why you’re here. You’re here to watch a bunch of hot ladies and a guy in a black cloak with one glowing red eye do some sick action stunts to bad guys with silly names, and this show delivers that in spades. This feels like a throwback in the best and worst ways. The Eminence in Shadow is stupid, and it is brilliant.

16. Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation, season 2

Mushoku Tensei is a tough anime to talk about. On one hand, it is one of the most gorgeous anime series ever put on television: Almost consistently movie-quality sakuga, lush background art, and a breathtaking score come together to form an immersive world unlike many I’ve seen in any medium. On the other, it forces some very unpleasant conversations about reincarnation in anime, particularly ones like this where a grown man is reincarnated as a child while retaining his mental age and is surrounded by potential love interests closer in age to his new body. What doesn’t help is that in his previous life in our world, the man who would reincarnate as Rudeus Greyrat was a socially isolated hentai addict, and much of his journey centers around him unlearning those proclivities in unfortunate and often damaging ways. If you can handle that, Mushoku Tensei is a rewarding watch, but if that’s beyond the pale to you, I don't blame you in the slightest.

However, even if you’ve been able to stomach all of the questionable shit in the first season, I'm sorry to say that the second season’s first cour doesn’t do much for the “bro I promise he gets better bro” crowd. The first cour covers the Quagmire and Academy arcs, which follow Rudeus’ struggle with being effectively abandoned by the only person to show him any physical affection in either life. The knock-on effect sees him retreating into an antisocial shell and developing, and I am deadly serious here, a seemingly incurable case of erectile dysfunction.

The first few episodes surround Rudeus growing into a young man, making a name for himself as a wandering adventurer in hopes that talk of his name will spread to his missing family and friends. At the urging of the god with a direct line to him (still unexplained), he enrolls in a magic university to investigate the calamity that flung his loved ones to the corners of the realm. There he finds an old friend in the figure-obsessed young prince who saved his life in the previous season, a girl from his previous world who seems to have also been transported to this one, and most crucially, his old childhood friend Sylphiette, hiding in plain sight with new hair and a sick pair of shades as a retainer to a scheming princess enrolled in the school.

Mushoku Tensei's initial season was at its best in its quieter moments, and those abound in season 2’s first cour. It's really lovely seeing him connect once again with Sylphie purely for who she is, even though for all Rudy knows he’s talking to a twinky dude named Fitz who makes him feel weird things. We get our amazing action animation early on, and things settle down quite a bit from there as Rudeus navigates all of these interpersonal relationships, old and (seemingly) new.

And while, yes, this version of Rudeus is a far cry from the drooling, grinning pervert he was in his first ten years of reincarnation, his improvement as a human being is not a straight line. He unfortunately takes more steps backwards than forward. The things he says in a drunken rage about his party member Sara (who inadvertently revealed his ED) are awful and undeserved, he literally ties up and gropes a pair of beast girls from his class (he has apparent reasons for both of those things, but come on), and he “frees” a young dwarven slave to take on as an apprentice. That last one seems admirable on its face, but uh. He went with the flow in a god damned slave market and still paid a slaver.

I'm not excusing those things, nor absolving Rudeus as a character; I'm simply saying they happen this season. Mushoku Tensei, for better or for worse, depicts gnarly subject matter as it is while neither glorifying it nor moralizing about it. It trusts you to make your own judgments, and if your verdict is “I can’t watch this show,” that is perfectly valid. If you can stomach watching through its worst moments and compartmentalize the uncomfortable aspects of it, Mushoku Tensei remains one of the best-looking and -sounding pieces of animation out there, and the part of its second season that aired in 2023 has an exceptional emotional payoff. Otherwise, I'll be talking about Frieren much later.

15. Spy x Family, season 2

The most succinct praise I can give season 2 is also the most backhanded: Well, it’s more Spy x Family.

I want to be clear that there is no shade inherent to that comment; the first season of Spy x Family was excellent! It was a stylish, beautifully animated, appropriately hilarious adaptation of a fantastic manga that did it justice in almost every regard; the second season didn’t need to move heaven and earth to try to one-up it. It wasn’t broken, so Wit and CloverWorks didn’t fix it. It’s still the blend of domestic slice-of-life hijinks, tense cold-war intrigue, and heart-pounding action it’s always been. Even the production music is largely the same, and that’s not a complaint, because SxF’s production music fuckin' slaps.

A lot of anime-onlys rightfully complained that Yor’s plot relevance seemed to fall off a cliff in the back half of season 1, so they have been eating GOOD this time out, as season 2’s (ostensible) first cour puts her directly in the spotlight. The Yor Cour, if you will. The season opened on a hilariously spot-on adaptation of my favorite Yor-centric chapter of the manga (the “bullet in the ass” one) and quickly moved on to a nearly perfect interpretation of the cruise arc that sees her protecting a government asset from a legion of assassins.

If you wanted to see more of Yor in her second life as the contract killer, Thorn Princess, this season was a meal and a half for you. Having her beset on all sides by an eccentric rogues’ gallery, with Anya fully aware and trying her damnedest to keep Loid from finding out what’s actually going on, is Spy x Family at its best. The tension constantly ramps up as the ship approaches its target, and Anya’s attempts at distracting Loid usually go sideways because, well, she’s Anya. Blood splatters, laughs are had, and Loid continues to struggle with both fatherhood and acting like his growing affection for his ragtag “fake” family is just “for the mission.”

Outside of the cruise, season 2 maintains the series’ usual episodic pace, which can be a little jarring before and after the cruise arc, but that’s SxF for you. Shit can pop off at unexpected moments, and having read ahead in the manga, I’m excited to see the next time that happens. For now, though, things can feel kinda static from time to time, but the Forger family and the extended cast are always pleasant to just hang out with for a while.

And now to wait for the movie to come out in the west.

14. Undead Unluck

Up until this past Winter season, I primed myself on a lot of the more-hyped anime by reading the manga ahead of time. I knew that Undead Unluck is one of the bigger Shonen Jump manga out there, but this debut kind of crept up on me. I went in blind, got drawn in by the premise, and then got quickly overwhelmed with a wild amount of lore.

Fuuko, a young woman seemingly afflicted with a curse, is saddled with a brash, enormous man who cannot die after he foils her suicide attempt and is then himself grievously injured. Don’t worry, he got better. It turns out that he’s roughly 200 years old and has a completely cracked healing factor, while she brings terrible misfortune to anyone who touches her skin. They are both Negators, people with the ability to reverse or ignore the laws of nature: Fuuko’s ability is Unluck, causing tragedy for those close to her, while the man is Undead, exactly what it says on the tin. The man, who cannot remember his own name, believes their meeting to be kismet: If she can bring death to her loved ones, he vows to woo her so she can deliver the death he’s sought for so long. I promise this is a comedy.

Fuuko and Andy (whom she named as shorthand for the Japanese pronunciation of “undead”) foil a series of assassination attempts by other Negators, and take their spots as part of the Union eliminating threats to the universe. They team with an eclectic group, whom we’re still getting to know as of the end of the first cour, as they trot the globe to complete quests given to them by a mysterious (and seemingly nefarious) talking book lest the universe incur penalties for their failure.

The power system among Negators is one of the most inventive I've seen, with each one able to cancel out a specific element of the natural order of the world, and it’s a blast learning how each new one works. Andy in particular is wild; because he can regenerate himself so quickly, his weapon of specialty is his own body, never hesitating to use his own fingertips as bullets and his own gushing blood as a propulsion mechanism. He also has no compunction towards taking on the worst of Fuuko’s Unluck ability, often sacrificing himself to get hit by lightning or falling debris to deal damage to an enemy. Every new Negator power introduced adds a new wrinkle to the way this world works and the different shapes its action can take. Others can freeze matter into suspended animation, force people to act opposite their own intentions, or even subvert someone’s entire belief system. I cannot wait to see what else is in store.

The first cour’s pacing is a little off, and Andy's behavior towards Fuuko in the first couple episodes is nothing short of gross (I promise that eases up), but you can see the show finding its footing as it goes on. Shonen Jump series don’t last for nearly 200 chapters and counting by accident, and I'm excited to see where this goes.

13. NieR: Automata Ver. 1.1a

Those of us who played Yoko Taro’s 2017 masterpiece approached the announcement of an anime adaptation with some trepidation: So much of what made Nier Automata so outstanding and so beloved is that much of the delivery of its narrative is inherent to the fact that it’s a video game. How can a video game known for pushing against the fourth wall of the unique elements of its very medium be faithfully adapted as an anime?

The choice of studio was also concerning: Though A-1 has produced a ridiculous number of excellent series (and some aggressively mid ones that were nonetheless very successful), its track record with video game adaptations has been far less than stellar. The latter three films in the Persona 3 adaptations were solid if uneven, and the Valkyria Chronicles anime seems to have been well-received, but the same can’t be said of A-1’s takes on Ace Attorney, Persona 4 Golden, or Persona 5. Regardless, Yoko himself was heavily involved in the anime’s production, so if they could keep on budget and schedule, Nier Automata would have a fighting chance.

And while there indeed ended up being massive and likely unpredictable production delays, I'd say they’ve done almost as good of a job as they could have so far. While the first cour mainly covers Automata’s A and B routes, it does much more than just play that part of the story straight; it also takes the time to incorporate other elements of the Nier canon. A surprising amount of time is dedicated to the canon introduced in the YoRHa stage play (and by extension the Pearl Harbor Descent Record manga); Lily and the android resistance are woven directly into the narrative far beyond the vague overtures the game makes in their direction. Ver 1.1a also ties the history of the original Nier into the story at unexpected and intriguing (and in my case, tear inducing) moments.

Unfortunately, it’s still too soon to assess this series in its entirety. While too many people who played Nier Automata stopped after route A or B, there is still much more of this story to come. There was some very sloppy CGI integration in the first episode when it aired, but far from enough to put me off the series. For now, it’s a treat for Nier fans, but I’m not sure whether I can recommend it yet to people who are unfamiliar with the source material.

Until the anime is completed, go play Nier Automata. It’s one of my favorite games of all time.

12. Kaguya-sama: Love is War -The First Kiss That Never Ends-

This was a late 2022 theatrical release, but it didn’t see western release until this year and was split into a four-episode mini-season for streaming, so I'm counting it for this year. You can deal with it.

I got completely obsessed with Kaguya-sama early this year, and in record time. I binged the anime and the manga in the span of a couple weeks and irreversibly fell in love. I say with no reservation that it is the best romantic comedy, in any medium, of the 21st century. It nails both the romance and the comedy in equal measure; the characters are perfectly realized right down to the supporting cast, the dynamics between them are carefully considered and consistent with their personalities regardless of circumstance, and every emotional and comedic beat hits exactly as it’s meant to. There is a constant momentum moving the greater plot along, even in the smaller moments, and seismic shifts take over before you’ve even noticed they’re happening.

It’s rare for romcom manga adaptations to stay on the air long enough to actually reach the romantic payoff, and Kaguya-sama fucking nailed it in season 3. Well, we’re pretty sure it did; the central conceit of the psycho-romantic warfare between Kaguya Shinomiya and Miyuki Shirogane is that they’re both chronic overthinkers and won’t accept any romantic undertones or overtures in any form but an explicit confession. So while the finish to season 3 is everything we wanted as an audience, these two dorks still sense a margin for error. Regardless, that would have been a perfectly acceptable place to end the anime.

HOWEVER, the Ice Queen Kaguya arc that follows in the manga is iconic, and A-1 was absolutely right to adapt it. Although Shirogane is ready to move forward with the relationship that (he’s pretty sure) they’ve both wanted for a long time, Kaguya has a crisis of personality and inadvertently reverts to the dead-eyed, emotionally walled-off version of herself he’d initially met, well before either of them had realized they’d fallen in love with one another. The interstitial omake preceding this arc in the manga has Aka Akasaka warning the reader that in order to counteract the massive emotional payoff that just happened, the ensuing chapters would get very, very silly.

And of course, hijinks do indeed ensue; this is Kaguya-sama, after all. But before you realize it, the story is neck deep in Jungian psychology as self-doubt begins to plague Kaguya and Miyuki and they struggle with the faces they think they need to put on for the other and whether their “real” selves even deserve to be loved by the person they idolize. It gets heavy! I cried every time I watched it! And that first time was in a damn movie theater!

I’m much more comfortable appraising First Kiss as a mini-season than as a movie, because frankly, it doesn’t work as a movie. The animation, while maintaining the series’ standard of excellence, isn’t a single degree better than what aired on television, which can be disappointing upon a visit to the theater. The pacing is also off for a feature film; the common knock upon theatrical release was that it felt like four episodes stitched together (it even has the omake-style interludes between scenes, like the show). The arc also focuses very heavily on Kaguya and Miyuki specifically, so the ensemble cast I mentioned earlier does have to take a backseat. Splitting this up for streaming and televised release was the right move here.

Season 3 would have been a very good ending for this series if it never got picked up for the movie. If it doesn’t get picked up for a proper fourth season, this is the perfect place for it to end. The manga has now been adapted up to just past the halfway point, and the next best stopping point would have to wait until a possible, like, fifth season. And that arc in question, while it does have some iconic moments, is very uneven. If this is all we’re getting, we’ve gotten plenty already, and I am satisfied.

If you've watched the first three seasons of Kaguya-sama, you owe it to yourself to watch The First Kiss That Never Ends. It is nearly everything you could ask for. Also, read the manga if you haven’t already. It’s genuinely one of my favorite things I've ever read.

11. The Apothecary Diaries

This one is basically House M.D. set in the Ming Dynasty, and it fucks.

Maomao, an apothecary raised in a pleasure district near the palace of a fictional East Asian empire, is shanghaied (pun intended) into menial work in said palace. She hears tell of a supposed curse plaguing the emperor’s newborn children and the concubines that birthed them, quickly deduces that it may be poisoning, and discreetly leaves a message for the ailing new mothers. She’s found out by an impossibly beautiful young administrator named Jinshi, who quickly deduces that she’s one of the few literate peons in the rear palace, and he puts her to work in the pavilion of the concubine that heeded her advice.

With her knowledge of, resistance to, and slightly masochistic infatuation with various poisons, Maomao slots right in as an attendant and poison tester to one of the emperor’s embattled concubines. Often at Jinshi’s urging (even though she immediately gets the ick at his habitual flirting), Maomao finds herself investigating deaths, mysterious ailments, and strange behaviors, on top of the foreign world of palace politics. Though she’s a deeply jaded person who only seems to care for her special interests, Maomao is incredibly perceptive and often able to suss out the finer details others miss.

Surprisingly, this one is a really breezy watch, and much funnier than you might expect. For all its lush environs, slowly-mounting intrigue, and often stunning cinematography, The Apothecary Diaries isn’t afraid to get a little silly with it. The dialogue is snappy, quick gags abound in a familiar single-panel chibi style you wouldn’t expect in a setting like this, and Komi-esque cat ears spontaneously pop up from Maomao's head whenever her interest is piqued. Interactions between Maomao and Jinshi are always a hoot, and you can pretty quickly figure out where it’s going, although Maomao can’t because she’s still pretty sure Jinshi is a eunuch.

As she does in virtually every role in her dozen-plus years as a seiyuu, Aoi Yuuki crushes it in the starring role. She really nails the disaffected cynicism that animates most of Maomao’s internal monologue and sarcastic dialogue, as well as her hair-trigger glee when presented with her personal interests in food and drink, medicinal herbs, and of course, poison. Yuuki is an indispensable element in ensemble casts like One Punch Man, Persona 5, Nier Automata, Wotakoi, and the aforementioned KamiKatsu (as well as others I don’t plan on watching like My Hero Academia, Rent-a-Girlfriend, and The Seven Deadly Sins), so it’s especially nice to hear her in a spotlight role outside of the odd Madoka Magica, spider isekai, or Cyberpunk Edgerunners.

There are a handful of anime on this list that will be continuing or returning in January, and second only to my #1 anime this year, this is the one I’m most excited to see more of. At time of writing, the show appears to be shifting in a new direction, and I’m hoping to see it take less of an episodic pace.

Part 3 is on the way! I'm going to split my top ten into two more posts, because I ended up writing... a lot more than I'd expected.

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