#they were posting these on twitter when preorders were live I thought they were so cute.

[pillarmenzine]

Promo images for the Kars Nendoroid

[redgoldsparks]

December reading and reviews by Maia Kobabe

I post my reviews throughout the month on Storygraph and Goodreads, and do roundups here and on patreon.

The Savage Beard of She Dwarf by Kyle Latino

She Dwarf might be the last of her kind, but this only fuels her desire for adventure, danger, and travel. Her famous warrior mother died before she could lead She Dwarf though the final coming of age trials, so our hero is on a quest to find the lost kingdom of Dwarves to see what knowledge she can gain from the ruins. A long the way she battles and befriends a whimsical cast of misfits who end up tagging along for the journey for reasons of their own. This story is action packed, fun, beautifully drawn and extremely aesthetically queer though there are no outright discussions of anyone's gender or sexuality. I highly recommend this comic for fantasy comic fans of all ages, it was released during covid and never got the promotion or attention it deserved. Buy this book for someone for the holidays!

Under a Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire, read by Michelle Dockrey

This third book is the series is more whimsical and light than the first two, which I suppose makes sense as it takes place primarily in a nonsense world. It introduces a few new characters, as well as bringing back Christopher and Kane from book 1. A group of these teens sets out together on a quest, but not all of them return to Earth at the end of it. I'm definitely planning to continue with the audio books of this series.

Batcat by Meggie Ramm

This magical, brightly-colored tale follows Batcat, a creature of comfort, who is driven out of their cozy home by an annoyingly friendly ghost. On their quest, Batcat is forced to face some of their deepest fears (the dark, being eaten) and some of their biggest questions: are they more a bat, or more a cat? Readers of all ages who have wondered about their own place in a world keen on dividing things into categories will relate to this quandary, and delight in the playful ways that Batcat defines themself outside of the binary. I got to read an advanced copy of this adorable book because it was written by a dear friend. Yes, I am biased, but I loved this story and highly recommend people check it out when it is released in March of 2023, or preorder it now!

Funny Planet: How Comedy Ruined Everything by Ken Jennings

This is a conversational, light, easy to read nonfiction that traces the way comedy and humor have spread their roots into almost every aspect of American life. Advertisements are now expected to be funny, as are politicians, the news, the modern art world and some types of avant-garde fashion and food. Also, social media, particularly twitter, which (even in its crumbling perhaps final days) is a near constant stream of jokes and jibes at every current happening, large or small, including very horrific tragedies that probably shouldn't be made light of. And things that were already funny, like sitcoms, have nearly doubled their joke density in the past 50 years. The author explores the historical development of comedy in these different fields, and also wonders what it is doing to our brains to be fed such a constant stream of jokes. I missed a lot of the references by virtue of having seen almost none of the TV shows or comedy specials the author was referring to, yet still found this a quick and lively read.

¡Ay, Mija!: My Bilingual Summer in Mexico by Christine Suggs

Suggs' debut memoir is a complete delight. The themes of language, translation, family, queerness, fatness, and being biracial are beautifully woven together into a rich and authentic whole. Nothing is overstated, simply presented as it was lived, and illustrated in a lovely palette of warm browns, bright golds, and smoothing blues. I loved the tiny avatar of the author's internal thoughts and how it interacted with the text and images on the page. This book uses all of the visual tools of comics to tell a wonderful coming of age story and the result is as sweet as pan dulce. I had the chance to read this book ahead of it's review and I can't recommend it more! Pre-order it now or look for it on shelves in April 2023.

The Box In The Woods by Maureen Johnson read by Kate Rudd

This fourth book in the Truly Devious YA murder mystery series introduces a new cold case for anxious teen detective Stevie Bell to bang her head against. This one, a quadruple murder from 1978 which took place in the woods outside a summer camp, was mishandled from the beginning. Dubbed 'The Box in the Woods' murders, the police at the time initially thought it was a drug deal gone wrong, then thought it might be the work of a contemporary serial killer. Stevie is hired by the new owner of the summer camp, who wants to make a podcast about the crime. Stevie doesn't care about the podcast, but she does love getting to bring her friends with her to a camp and getting her hands on a difficult case. This book continues to develop Stevie's friendships and romantic relationship in satisfying ways. I remain very delighted by and impressed with this series, and I'm excited there's a fifth book coming out before the end of the year!

Buzzing by Samuel Sattin and Rye Hickman

]The power of a supportive role playing group can't fix everything, but it goes a long way. Isaac is a teen with OCD, who suffers from near constant intrusive thoughts, cleverly visualized here as bees with mean voices. Over the story he builds confidence and community by leaning into his love of fantasy and drawing; as a former fellow misfit teen artist, it was wonderful to watch him grow. This is a nuanced and diverse coming of age story, I'm so excited for all of the readers who will discover it and see themselves in it. The art is excellent, both in the real world day to day parts of the story and the D&D fantasy parts of the story. I had the pleasure of reading an advanced copy of this book because I am friends with both of the authors- pre order it now, or look for it on shelves in July 2023!

Falcon written and read by Helen Macdonald

This was my second book this year by Helen MacDonald. Shorter and more traditionally nonfiction that H is for Hawk, this book is a collection of facts and anecdotes about the relationship of falcons and humans across many centuries and cultures. Human have long anthropomorphized falcons, attributing to them traits such as nobility, cunning, and martial prowess. Humans have been training and hunting with falcons for at least 3,000 years; lately, we have driven many species to near extinction, and created involved and wide ranging programs to try and rehabilitate the dwindling populations. I listened to this entire four hour audiobook during one long car ride and was well entertained the whole time.

Mimosa by Archie Bongiovanni

Chris, Jo, Elise, and Alex bonded over being the only queer waiters at a restaurant, but their friendship long outlasted their stint at the job. Ten years on, the crew, now in their mid and late thirties, face a whole slew of new challenges: parenting, vying for promotions, balancing partying and work, being judged by baby gays at the club, and scariest of all, drifting apart. Fans of Bongiovanni's Grease Bats will enjoy the familiar flavors of a messy, horny, queer and trans friend squad but paired with a more nuanced slice-of-life narrative. These characters are trying to stay true to themselves, invest in their communities, get laid, and support each other. But it's not so easy to balance all of those conflicting needs, and they frequently fall short. I was left hoping that the characters could forgive each other's deeply human failings. I had the pleasure of reading an advanced copy of the book- it's available for pre-order now, or check it out when it's released in March 2023!

She Who Became The Sun by Shelley Parker Chan

What a wonderful book to end the year with! This one came highly recommended by many friends and did not disappoint. Epic in scale, with fantasy rooted in Chinese history, this story is set in an alternate mid-1300s with Mongols attempting to control all of mainland China, but resisted by a rebel force. The book opens with Zhu, the only daughter of a peasant family struggling to survive during a famine. A fortune teller predicted a great destiny for Zhu's one brother, and nothing for her. But when her brother dies, Zhu decides she will inhabit his destiny instead. She disguises herself as a boy to seek shelter and education in a monastery, a story trope I have always enjoyed, but especially here because this book takes the narrative in a explicitly trans/genderqueer direction by the end. Elsewhere in the story, a eunuch general in the Mongol army hides a bitter desire for revenge from his dearest friend; the rebel leaders battle each other for power, doing nearly as much damage to their cause as they do to their enemies; and a daughter of a rebel commander despairs over the constant bloodshed and death of the seemingly endless war. This is a complicated conflict, in which neither side is morally superior to the other; I was equally compelled by the personalities on each side and also certain that all of them were on a path towards destruction that they could not escape.

[struggle-but-its-all-ocean-floor]

Fans actually didn't know what it was exactly if it was track video or was a MV cause the label wasn't clear about anything at all. no one had any idea till the tim of release. fans thought like usual the album would have a MV for pre-release and title song. so it's basically label's fault. All i know is he's singing live in the video that's why it's not called a MV. The label really under promoted the song. Gave itunes preorder presave just a day before when the songs released in 2024 itself from other members had it days before. And they even did it because fans were constantly tagging them for past week so they did it a day before. Idk man what's the problem this company has with jm, that the Geffen ppl even disrespecting him in broad daylight. The official accounts from Geffen didn't promote it at all. There's nothing posted on tiktok at all. Even tae's new project is posted there but jm's pre release. The only good thing was that Instagram group chat and all that's it.

As for song then I'll say it's growing on me per each listen. The more i listen the more I'm loving it. It's a fun and joyful song and I'm really enjoying it. I love that with jm he's totally unexpected like u don't know what type of song he will release. Although many always expect dark theme songs from him but he tries different things with his music and i like that about him.

I know, but most fans suspected it was a track video, right? (due to the lack of promo, even by Hybe and Jimin standards). It's being treated as an MV by the fans, because it's all we have, but it's kind of live and pretty simple (no set or outfit changes). I don't think it was meant to be an MV. By that reasoning, any track, performance or visualization video could be called an MV. It wasn't intended to be one imo, and I think that label is a bit dangerous. Because the video is good for a track video, but underwhelming for an MV (imo).

Yes, Hybe didn't try very hard, but they failed him so bad even Billboard (always chasing the opportunity to badmouth kpop) wrote about it. Bad press is still press. And Army did well on Twitter, at least.

I still don't really like the song. It's like NLG in terms of very subpar production, but it's not a fan song and I love JK's voice - the more I listened to NLG, the more I liked it; JK, as always, added tons of layers of vocals and the song has a lot of small details to pay attention to. But I just don't like Jimin's voice in the song (Pdogg being himself with the autotune), so I'm not sure it'll grow on me.

I think Jimin does best with a darker sound, like Lie, but the level of effort put into his darker tracks is way bigger than this lighter ones (which are mostly fan songs). Think of the complexity behind Lie, LC and SMF vs. CTT and SGMB. We always have this argument when a bright song isn't well received (or gets some criticism). If you don't enjoy a fun song, you're a party pooper who hates fun, but what Army doesn't like Dope, Fire, Airplane Pt.2, Go Go, Just One Day, I Like It Pt.2, Baepsae, Spine Breaker, Anpanman, Jump, Coffee, Disease, Telepathy, Run BTS, etc.? You see where I'm going with this? Everyone loves BTS's lighter or funner songs - it's what they're known for imo - but you aren't allowed to dislike PTD without being accused of hating fun. It's like the whole fandom hating the English trilogy for being Western sounding, without somehow acknowledging that the most beloved BTS songs are extremely Western sounding (Just One Day, I Like It Pt.2, House of Cards, Coffee, Airplane Pt.2, Pied Piper, Love Maze, etc.). Maybe people didn't love BWL, but most of their hard sounding kpop songs do worse (like Idol vs. DNA).

Regardless, Serendipity, Filter and Promise are some of Jimin's most beloved songs and they aren't dark. And Christmas Love and CTT aren't dark at all. Only Lie and Face are dark, so tbh I don't understand why people associate him with dark music and think he's branching out with SGMB. It's only due to Face and the fact that all his darker songs are performance songs with lots of impact (and his best performances in BTS are in songs like Black Swan). SGMB is very close to CTT imo. It brings nothing new in terms of showing what Jimin likes or can do. It only surprises because I expected more quality from a pre-release and his album in general. But I think Muse is more of a parting gift than an exploration of his artistry. Also, I guess lyrically I was expecting something more too.

Tbh, I still don't quite know who Jimin is as a musical artist. I know who he is as a dancer and performer, but, as a musical artist, it's a big question mark. Besides Jin, he is, to me, the one with least defined musical identity and signature. His fan songs all have a certain sound, but, beyond that, I don't know... I'm not sure this album will clear things up any. I wish he worked with other producers.

I didn't mean to sound harsh, but I keep reading the same perspectives, and I just disagree with them...

Thanks for the ask!

[kellysbookblog]

ERROR

TERROR by LeAnn Ashers

EXCERPT REVEAL BLITZ

TOUR DATE: Tuesday, Nov. 28th

THIS KIT INCLUDES:

(in order of appearance)

- All the information for you to create your own posts

- Twitter Post

- Instagram Post

- Facebook Post

- HTML codes for Blogger AND WordPress

- ALL Pictures are attached to the email!

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Title: TERROR

Author: USA Today Bestselling Author LeAnn Ashers

Series: Grim Sinners Rebels, Book 5 – Standalone

Genre: MC Romance

Tropes: Suspense, Possessive OTT Hero, Biker Alpha, Safe Romance, Instalove

Release Date: DEC. 5, 2023

TBR LINK(S):

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/200184641-terror

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/terror-grim-sinners-rebels-book-5-by-leann-ashers

PURCHASE LINKS: - PREORDER!

Amazon: https://amzn.to/40qGjoX

Apple: https://bit.ly/3Qkh6rA

Nook: https://bit.ly/3QkgPF4

Kobo: https://bit.ly/3QLO8Cv

BLURB:

Meghan

I spent my whole life in foster care, moving from house to house, never feeling like I belonged.

One day, I threw caution to the wind, left New York City, and drove across the country. I slept in my car and at gross, pay-by-the-hour motels. There were times I thought I was just one moment away from getting kidnapped.

Until my car broke down in a small town in Texas.

I never imagined that I would find my home there.

But my home is not a place.

My home is him.

But someone didn’t like that Terror had claimed me as his.

Terror

My mother spoke of this beautiful waitress she had hired for months, and it’s a shame I didn’t meet her sooner.

She took my breath away.

She became mine—heart, body, and soul.

My ole lady.

I would burn the world down to make sure she was safe and hand her the ashes of our destruction without hesitation.

And that’s exactly what I had to do when a man from my past dared to touch what was mine.

He would live to regret it.

People don’t call me Terror for no reason, after all.

EXCERPT

"The very second I saw you, I knew you were meant to be mine. Soul and body, Angel.”

“Yours.” I agree with him.

I never thought that I would want to belong to someone so badly as I do with him. But it’s because I know that he will protect me, take care of me, and I don’t need to worry about anything. He has me.

He shakes his head, smiling, “You are mine. I would fucking burn down the world as long as I knew you were safe.”

SERIES: Grim Sinners Rebels - Standalone Novels

Book 1: Gage

Amazon: http://getbook.at/GageAmazon

Apple: https://apple.co/3mMgbld

Nook: https://bit.ly/GageNook

Kobo: https://bit.ly/GageKobo

Book 2: Knight

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3zdJiov

Apple: https://apple.co/3VEgoqO

Nook: https://bit.ly/3eG37gV

Kobo: https://bit.ly/3yPIUMz

Book 3: Reaper

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3YIiqXD

Apple: https://apple.co/3kVHNqW

Nook: https://bit.ly/3F48wbs

Kobo: https://bit.ly/3L3KOjJ

Book 4: Andrey

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3peoo6I

Apple: https://bit.ly/3PmNye1

Nook: https://bit.ly/42RvkEG

Kobo: https://bit.ly/448OVkJ

AUTHOR BIO:

LeAnn Ashers is a blogger-turned-author who spends her days reading and writing. She released her debut novel early 2016, and can't wait to see where this adventure continues to take her. LeAnn enjoys writing about strong-minded females and swoon-worthy, protective alpha males who love their women unconditionally.

Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/b23duf

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3DmuZxN

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leann_ashers/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeAnnashers/

Reader Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/112075286167518/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LeannAshers

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/leann-ashers

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14733196.LeAnn_Ashers

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@leannashers

TOUR HOSTED BY #HEAPR @HEAPRMore

[july13th2004]

Remaster Thoughts + Info from Live Broadcast

Archived video from the live broadcast yesterday can be found here! All screenshots in this post are from the live broadcast.

Anyway, sorry for the lateness of this post, I was at a concert on Thursday night (saw MCR if you must know, and it was so great and kinda nostalgic for me, too), so I unfortunately wasn’t even awake to watch the live broadcast when it was, well, live, yesterday morning. I will be making a separate post about the Yomiuriland amusement park collab sometime tomorrow! Just know that my thoughts about that are currently centered on Dad clothes Kratos (absolute Perfection™)...

So the broadcast started off with this lovely and delicious looking cake topped with lots of fruit and cutouts of Lloyd, Colette and Zelos (not sure if those are edible or not, but I doubt it), which you can see in the screenshot above!

And Symphonia has sold 2.7 million copies across multiple platforms, since the game’s release in Japan nearly 20 years ago!

A backdrop of the main cast was shown during the broadcast, too! It was really cool to see this and some of the other backdrops, which included screenshots of some memorable scenes in the game!

Detail differences were shown between the PS3 and PS4 versions of the game in the broadcast as well! Not sure what this means for the Switch version, especially in handheld mode, but I’m really excited to see the overall improvement in the level of detail on the main cast’s clothes and hair, and even in the architecture of cities and towns, too.

So this screen mentions the improved graphics/detail on the main characters, plus skits, cutscenes, world map, and objects, too! It also mentions some new features like an event skip function, plus a stable frame rate for some artes/techniques!

I’m excited to see what other new features will (hopefully) be revealed over the coming months and closer to the remaster’s release date, because I’m hoping it’s not just what was noted on this screen!

And these final three screenshots further show the level of graphical and detail improvement done for this remaster of the game (gameplay is from the PS4 version)! I know they only mentioned the graphical/detail improvements on the main characters, but in my opinion you can also see this in NPCs, such as Zelos’ “harem” in the screenshot above.

Anyway, I’m just so excited for this remaster, and I’m really excited to finally play it on Switch, which I mostly play in handheld mode, so it’ll be nice to play it wherever I want (I did preorder the Chosen Edition, by the way, forgot to mention that in my last post). Like I’ve seen other’s mention, I also hope they’ve fixed some of the glaring typos that were in the PS3/Steam version.

And lastly, I’ve really enjoyed seeing all the attention this remaster has received over the last few days! I have never seen Symphonia trend on Twitter, so I was super excited to see that and had to make a post about that here! It was also really cool to see everyone posting about it in the main Symphonia tag on here, as I don’t think I’ve seen so many posts in the tag in quite some time, so thank you all for that!

Okay, this post is probably too long for some of you at this point, so I’ll end it here. If you read this until the end, then thank you for reading!

[writteninsunshine]

He’s Going The Distance - Chris Redfield/Ethan Winters - SFWish

Title: He’s Going The Distance

Author: Reno

Fandom: Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

Setting: Medbay, Post-Dulvey Incident

Pairing: Chris Redfield/Ethan Winters

Characters: Chris Redfield, Ethan Winters, Random Nurse

Genre: Hurt/Comfort/Romance

Rating: M

Chapters: 1/1

Word Count: 1386

Type Of Work: One-Shot, Part of the For All These Times series, Whump Bingo Fill #2

Status: Complete

Warnings: Gay, Slash, Yaoi, MLM, Pre-Slash, Canon-Typical Violence, Dissociating, Blood, Deep Wounds, Trans Male Character, Trans!Ethan Winters, Possible OOC for Chris, Medical Equipment, Medical Treatment, Stitches, Sutures, I.V.s, Pain Meds

Disclaimer: I don’t own anything.

Summary: Was Ethan truly so used to pain that he didn't notice that?

AN: Hey guys, it’s me again! Just thought I ought to say, if you want vague updates and to talk to me more, I have a writing Tumblr, too! Twitter is Sunshinecackle, and Tumblr is Writteninsunshine! I also have a writing Discord that is currently pretty dead. xD If you want it, please contact me on Twitter!

More whump fic bingo! I’m really enjoying these, they’re too much fun to write. Oops, I like to punish Ethan even if he doesn’t deserve it. He’s so whumpable. I hope you guys are enjoying this, I know I sure am. This one is for my editor, Gryph, who is the best editor I could ever ask for. MAJOR shout out to her!

Resident Evil Fic Masterlist

Ethan Whump Bingo Fic Masterlist

He’s Going The Distance

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

There was an old thought resurfacing as Chris looked at Ethan. A man who could live through anything was what S.T.A.R.S. had wanted, Ethan would have been welcomed into the fold. The man was a machine when it came to surviving anything. Despite this, he seemed too oblivious to notice when something was wrong with him. All the healing fluid in the world couldn’t help the man with how much constant pain wracked his body. It was almost impossible to discern one pang of pain from the rest. That hand was a nasty wound, the staples not quite sanitary when they’d been secured into his skin.

But that wasn’t what he’d noticed just now.

“Ethan,” He began, his voice soft and wary as if speaking too loudly might shatter the other man. “You’re bleeding.”

“I am?” His voice sounded exhausted, hoarse, and so soft Chris barely heard him.

Tugging him closer for inspection, he unbuttoned Ethan’s shirt and pulled it away like a pair of curtains. Yanking up the undershirt he wore, Chris paused a moment to stare. Unable to help how his fingers splayed over the other’s stomach, eyes taking in the thick scars beneath his pecs. His thoughts turned away from the injury for a second, he only stopped when he reached the center of Ethan’s chest. He took in the soft peach fuzz there with a quirk of his lips he wasn’t in control of. Finally, his fingers fell over the thick gash leaking over Ethan’s pale skin, and the touch made Ethan recoil some. 

“Don’t,” Chris warned, eyes narrowing a little as he reached around, pulling Ethan close again by his waist, a hand on his middle back, “You’re hurt. I’ll fix you right up.” 

Leaving Ethan for a moment, he returned with a basin of warm water and a few washcloths. Where he’d gotten them from, Ethan didn’t know, and he couldn’t find it in himself to care. 

Dragging one wet cloth over the blood, he cleaned Ethan up despite his hisses and gasps of pain. What was the best option was going to hurt, so Chris started by applying a local anesthetic gel to the area around the wound. He must have found it when he brought the rest of his supplies, Ethan figured. He winced, flinching when Chris’s hands got too close to the weeping injury, but he sucked in a deep breath and bit the thin skin on the inside of his lip. It was all he could do to keep himself from making any more noise.

“I’m going to have to give you stitches.” Honestly, Chris was worried that Ethan was going to start leaking organs. It was deep, and he could almost touch the other’s rib bones. Ethan had really taken a beating, and it was hard to fathom how he hadn’t noticed this. Then again, he was in shock after everything that had happened, after all of the mental and physical trauma he had taken. Maybe it wasn’t such a strange occurrence. 

After all, he was a civilian. He hadn’t been meant to find these kinds of things. If he had stayed away, he would have been blissfully unaware, but there might have been a worse problem on Chris’ hands by the time they arrived at the scene.

“Okay.” Letting out the breath he’d been holding, Ethan nodded just slightly to save him from aggravating his pounding headache, “Just… Do it quickly. I don’t feel good.” Swaying, he felt his knees begin to buckle, and Chris caught him in a tight embrace. This wasn’t going to work with Ethan standing, anyway.

Hefting him up bridal style, Chris carried Ethan like he weighed nothing. Sitting him down on a nearby gurney, he removed his shirts and set them aside. They were stained, torn to hell, and bloody. He’d have to get him a change of clothes. Helping ease him to lay down so that his right side was facing out, he ran a hand over the other’s chest in a hope to help calm him. Maybe it wasn’t entirely innocent, but he was trying to stay focused here.

“This might hurt, but I promise I’ll be quick.” All Chris got in return was a soft murmur he couldn’t hear, let alone understand. If nothing else, Chris was efficient, and Ethan looked like he was going to faint. That might help him do this without Ethan bellyaching the whole time. Stepping away, Chris grabbed a first aid kit, opening it up and setting it beside Ethan on the cot. Digging out a needle, some antiseptic, and surgical thread, he worked the thread through the eye of the needle and set to work.

The laceration was likely already infected, if not by something typical, then by the mold Ethan had been exposed to. With a little sigh, Chris poured some of the liquid over it, making sure to use gauze to get it inside. The forceps he had grabbed entering it made Ethan grunt, but he was too tired to try and fight it. Chris diligently worked on cleaning him up, wiping at more blood before grabbing the sterilized needle. He wiped it down again with a clean antiseptic wipe before starting with the initial stick. Ethan didn’t seem to notice this, due to the numbing gel, and Chris was glad for it.

With the easy glide of the needle and his skillful hands, he made quick work of the stitches, hoping not to bother Ethan too much. Once they were tight, he cut the cord and cleaned up the wound once more, wiping away the gel with a few medical towelettes, before drying the area. To make sure it would stay clean, he rubbed another cloth damp with warm water on the site before running more of the wipes over it. A dry rag then worked over the glistening flesh, and he didn’t stop until he had patted him dry.

“Ethan, I need you to sit up. I have to wrap this.” Chris spoke, breaking the silence in the room they were in. Unfortunately, it seemed that Ethan had fallen asleep, or maybe passed out, so he had no choice but to gently shake him awake. “Ethan, you have to sit up.”

Ethan nodded absently, slowly pushing himself up with the other’s aid. Bracing himself on his shaking arms, he let Chris wrap him up with gauze from his stomach to his shoulders, surprised by his gentle hands. Once Ethan was bandaged up, he was allowed to lay back once more, and Chris didn’t think about his next action. Kissing Ethan’s forehead gently, he petted a hand over the skin and the other’s sweat-damp hair.

“You should be alright, now. I’ll keep an eye on this.” Voice quiet, he smiled slightly, hoping to keep him at ease. It didn’t seem like Ethan was going to panic, though, too worn down to do much but flutter his eyelashes. “Sleep, now. I’ll get you some pain killers when you wake up.” God knew he’d need them. Moving the gurney around so that he could be more comfortable and closer to the setup for the I.V., Chris sighed in relief. Already asleep, or so he hoped.

Settling in a nearby chair, Chris pulled out his phone. He’d be stuck here for a while, for sure. It wasn’t like he had anything better to do, he’d been set to guard Ethan while his tests were being done.

Ethan didn’t wake for what felt like hours, and when he did it was with a groan of pain. Chris was quick to give him water and a shot of morphine that he was instructed to administer through the I.V. that a nurse had given Ethan. At the very least, he was going to be taken care of.

“Thanks.” Ethan managed, his voice cracking halfway through. 

“You need care.” That much was obvious. Chris combed a hand through the other’s blond locks once more. “If that means I have to do it, then so be it.” There was an odd fondness he felt for Ethan in this moment, watching him nod, his eyes glassy and distant. “You’ll be okay.”

With any luck, he’d bounce back from this. He’d been through hell already, what was another ordeal to save him?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

AN: There we go! It’s not super shippy but I’ll still tag it, just in case. Also, this probably makes more pain for the start of The Village, but that’s okay. I might write something about it when I’ve seen more of the game. I got it preordered for my birthday but it’s at my friend’s house until I can see her again. I’ve been watching it, however, so I’ll get there eventually. I hope you guys enjoyed it!

Prompt: Ethan Doesn’t Realize He’s Injured

[yridenergyridenergy]

I finally got my photobook, it's so amazing ❤️ even got the acryl with the picture of him as little boy ❤️ but I thought everyone who made a pre-purchase, would get a autograph 😔 I guess not?

Shoot, yours isn't autographed? If you know that you placed your pre-order before July 1st, then I would totally contact GBS right now. Pre-order period was supposed to end on July 5th, but on Twitter they seem to have posted on July 1st that sales were closed? They always sent me the preorder bonuses when mine were missing, but I have no idea what they can do about an item that wasn't autographed...

I would love it if you could keep me updated on the situation, and also mention what country you live in, so that we have more context on these shipping delays.

[hotarutranslations]

Hina Fest! Ishida's Bread

Evening Its Ishida Ayumi

First off all please let me announce this

April 2nd (Fri) "To Masahiro Nakai's Smiles on Friday"

Morning Musume '21!

We get to appear!

its amazing...... really......

I'm happy we'll be able to perform, from all of the staff, it was day where we received a lot of power, that also made me really happy

Together with the OG seniors,

Its a 2 hour special airing at 8:57PM!

At that time by all means, please watch over us---

Hina Fest!

Thank you very much for your support for the 1st day!

How was it for those watching the live stream too~

Seems like it was ok~

BEYOOOOONDS Tsubaki Factory Juice=Juice

Each of them had their own premium performance

At the beginning of the first performance, BEYOOOOONDS pumped it up but,

Everyones spirit was super conveyed in their voices!

It was reallyyyyy cool!

BEYOOOOONDS songs, when everyone in in Beyo is singing it feels really lively, I think, as expected of them

Within the Hello Pro groups, they already have established

and everyone in these groups, are unique, funny and cute,

I can't stop watching them......

Also Tsubaki Factory!

Tsubaki Factory is, ah, also with Beyo but, Even though they had planned solo hall performances, they ended up being without audiences,

This time is the first with the live audience, they conveyed that they were havin a lot of fun

Everyones new outfits were cute

the lively Tsubaki now, I really like it!!

This time the songs we covered for the BEYOOOOONDS & Tsubaki Factory premium as Morning Musume '21,

Megane no Otoko no Ko/BEYOOOOONDS

<3

In Shimakura Rika-chan's role, as one of the two lady-like girls,

as a, role?

it was super fun

fufufu

The other of the 2 was Nonaka, it felt like the story was already overflowing at that time with Ishida and Nonaka? lol We both decided on the direction we wanted to talk, thats right, I was properly making the role lol

since there is a video posted of the two lady-like girls, On the official Morning account,

I want you to definitely watch this story

The BEYOOOOONDS songs, while thinking, since Beyo sings this!

Therefore when we can challenge it like this,

I enjoyed doing it with respect

Fluttering in the wind, with noisy fan in the photo I'm fluttering lol

Thank you very much~

Also, the Juice=Juice premium!

The last song of the Juice block, "Mirai e, Saa Hashiridase!"

Everyone was smiling while singing it!

It was really shining and impressive! to me!

In various places within the venue, the members were walking in a line, everyone had nice and gentle faces... like, I thought thats how it was through my vision--!

For the covers here, With everyone in BEYOOOOONDS and Morning,

"Va-Va-Voom"

Susume, Va-Va-Voom----

Thank you very much for today as well!

We were able to gather many people!

Tomorrow is the Angerme premium Also, the Morning Musume '21 premium

Click here for the live streams

Thank you for your support! My hearts pounding but I'll do my best towards the live stream!

Also,

Ishida's Bread

Its trending, and sold out the first day

thank you very much

I'm happy... having it be in the hands of the customers... it was sold...

It was a very early morning for the bakery! fufu

I also woke up early

the people around me got up even earlier, making the final preparations,

I am truly grateful for all the help we received

Deciding on ABC before buying

Preparing 500 yen

Thanks to your cooperation, I think the queue was going quite fast! thank you very much!

Immidiately after the sales started there was a line, settling down, then the line calmed down, and it seems like you were able to immidiately buy the remaining bread,

Even when it was crowded around 12:00 at lunchtime, the best time to go to the shop was around 12:45 when people were done eating, like that, it had that feeling, I'll whisper something it..... (that was just today's atmosphere)

When I heard Ishida's Bread was sold out, I was happy and relieved

But, it was faster than I expected......!

For myself personally, I hope it'll sell out quickly--! I wasn't in a hurry but, It'd be nice if people could buy it for the 2nd performance, I wanted there to be time, How was it,

Thats what I was thinking...!

Also it was 1 set person so,

Thank you to everyone who abided by that today Again, thank you

I hope it will reach many people tomorrow as well...

that is,

How can I tell people that don't read my blog? there are also certainly those who don't look at Instagram either right?

I'll whisper it to everyone...? lol

1300 sets are available at the venue,

and 100 sets are at the momom Aeon Mall Makuhari New City

Thank you very much for tomorrow too~

#IshidasBread If could trend tomorrow as well...I'd be happy...

Ishida's Bread card, was made with mixed paper

I really wanted to do something with the plastic bags, therefore in the future, I want to improve on them

I'll say it many times but today really, Thank you very much! for selling out Ishida's Bread!

I look forward to hearing your impressions!

if you have any opinion, with lots of voices from outside the prefecture...

Yes, i'll do my best

S Cawaii-san, There is lots of information for the release on Twitter

here

Please preorder it!

see you ayumin <3

https://ameblo.jp/morningmusume-10ki/entry-12664954119.html

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E93 (February 4, 2020)

This week’s guests are Ashley Johnson and Taliesin Jaffe!

Announcement: Thursday, February 27′s episode in Chicago will be an in-canon live episode! VIP tickets go on sale tomorrow at 10 AM Central, and regular tickets will be on sale February 6 at 10 AM Central as well. The World of Critical Role, the new nonfiction book, is available for preorder now! All Work No Play season 2 is upon us: VOD for episode one is available now, up on YouTube on Thursday!

Episode 93: Misery Loves Company (which is SUCH a good title)

Stats for this week’s episode: this is the first episode where Caduceus and Jester have both cast Spirit Guardians in the same battle. Yasha has collected six floral pieces and a scrap of the Laughing Hand’s cloak since we met her. Jester purchased the Dust of Deliciousness from Pumat 62 episodes ago, or 186 Exandrian days. (That’s 22 days longer than Jester has had Sprinkle.)

Reactions to the cupcake moment? Neither of them had any idea Jester had something up her sleeve; they both bought it right up to the end. Taliesin thought the hand offer was just another self-sacrificial one-up, and Ashley knew it was too extreme but was still worried because of Jester’s impulsiveness. Ashley mentions how cool it was that Jester used Modify Memory in such a positive way.

Taliesin was trying to think of something that would be “appropriately sad enough” to offer to appease Matt. “Clay was thinking of offering to never go home again. So still save everything, but just be like, I agree that once it’s up it’s fine.”

Ashley on making a deal to bring Zuala back to life: “I love how everyone assumes I was thinking of Zuala.” Not making the deal was a moment of growth for Yasha, “but I think bringing back--- she’s lost a lot of people, and so I think it’s constantly on her mind, of maybe life wouldn’t be so hard or so bad if I could have some of these people I love back. Where we see some of the growth in Yasha was that she was able to put some of that aside, knowing they were there for Nott.”

Taliesin is asked whether Percy’s yelling in the back of his head during scenes like this: “There was no good way out of this problem, so I didn’t have [Percy] screaming at me that there was an obvious or easy solution.”

Ashley on Yasha’s offer getting rejected because Yasha was already too miserable: “I think, weirdly, there was some comfort in that, of knowing that maybe it couldn’t get any worse. I think it was almost good for her to hear that: you’re the bottom of the barrel right now. I do think she’s slowly finding happiness with her friends and slowly getting comfortable with those relationships again.” She highlights Caleb as “a companion in misery”. She’s growing and becoming more comfortable. “It’s a really good group of people, and they all do genuinely love each other, and I think this past game kind of showed that to her.”

On Nott’s deal, Taliesin: “Ahh, we wouldn’t have let that happen.” Ashley: “I have some thoughts on that.” Taliesin: “Yeah, that’s some RP stuff that may come up later. I do understand and respect how Sam plays Nott, as hyper-volatile, as part of the goblinization of Nott is to make her inappropriately emotionally volatile towards things.” 

There’s a brief foray into the legality of ferrets as pets in the state of California, as you do. Kindergarten Cop and Bunnicula are cited.

Ashley: “I don’t know how invested Yasha is necessarily in this war. Because of how she grew up and was raised, there’s other things to her that are more important.” Taliesin: “Clay thinks Nott needs therapy.”

Cosplay of the Week: an amazing Grog! (DressedUpMegs on Instagram, photo by LMShoots)

On Clay’s reaction to the hag: “He’s not a fan” of someone dealing in the changing of fate. He would have been okay with having to kill her if it came down to it. “It’s not necromancy, but it’s next-door to it.” But he was trying to take his cues from everyone else. “She was fuckin’ scary. Too many elbows.”

Matt told Brian after the session that he would have cliffhangered the fight if it had come to that, since it was likely to be a substantial endeavor. (Matt posted a picture of the map on Twitter!)

It was tough for Yasha to resist the urge to just jump in and attack the hag while they were one-on-one. “I’m not at the point yet to make an executive decision for the whole party, but whew, me, I was ready to kill her the second I walked in. I think Yasha was ready to go, but I think also it showed growth as well that she didn’t do it and walked out the door.”

Caduceus interpreted the “less intensity” statement Matt made when he asked about his family at the menagerie was that not everyone’s there yet. Caduceus was also embarrassed that he had to ask; he saw it as a sign of cowardice and a moment of weakness.

Yasha’s thoughts on Beau’s offer: “Yasha wasn’t about to let that happen after she finally just got back with the group. I was like, yeah, you’re not about to leave once I just got back to you. I didn’t necessarily see it as one-upping each other, but I think all of us were saying, no, I’m not going to let you do that, I’ll do something.”

Marisha tries to sneak out stealthily and Henry barks at her, forcing a cameo!

Marisha: “It makes super sense in Beau’s headspace where she is, and Beau likes controlling situations. Beau’s in a bit of a fucked-up headspace. Parents, man.”

On Jester leaning into the more serious side of the Trickery domain versus the small pranks, Taliesin: “I feel like it’s all a grand scheme, personally.” Ashley: “We don’t fully know what happened in there yet. It’s so hard not to be impressed by it.” Taliesin: “So hard not to be impressed.” They’re both pretty sure there will be consequences that Matt will spring on them in forty or so episodes...

Fan Art of the Week: Jester and the hag! (CaitMayArt on Twitter)

What was it like seeing the Traveler in physical form? Ashley: “Mixed feelings about that, for sure. I think Yasha’s very-- the relationship that Jester has with the Traveler is very intriguing to Yasha because there’s an intimacy and a closeness there that she finds very strange. But also thinks the Traveler is-- something’s up.” Taliesin: “It’s a little weird, man. Little weird.”

Why did Yasha ask Caleb about who he loves? “I think she asked him because she cares about him a lot, and I think they’ve obviously both had this weird connection of recognizing they’ve both been through things that are tough. Tough is obviously putting it lightly. What I’ve noticed in playing the game, and in the RP that seems to pop up, is that-- I don’t mean this to sound, I don’t know. She definitely cares a lot for these people, and about their well-being. And I think there’s something in her that knows how suffering feels, and seeing someone else dealing with it is too hard for her. With Caleb, she really cares about him, and sees he cares about someone, at least how I’ve taken it-- whether or not we mean the same person is interesting, because Liam and I haven’t even talked about this. But I think it’s one of those things where she knows what she’d been through with Zuala. I’m trying to figure out how to dance around this. She said it because she cares about him and wants him to be happy. It came out of care and wanting something good for him.”

Does Cad feel like his plans are getting overridden by the group? “I think ‘plans’ is a bold word. No, he’s not bothered by that. He’s got no particular problem with action or inaction. Percy would dwell on something like that. Clay doesn’t really-- he’s perfectly content to be like, oh, someone else had an idea, okay. He’s perfectly fine if other people have a thing to do, then, yeah, he has no ego about it.”

[paintedrecs]

Helloo i saw a tweet you made saying you recently watched a bunch of gay animes and i was wondering if you could perhaps make a list and post them on twitter? I'm always looking for anime to watch and i know your tastes align with mine. If it isn't too much of a bother perhaps? I hope you have loveky days!!!❤❤❤❤

Hey friend! I put off answering this, sorry, because my answers tend to be unnecessarily long and I was v tired when I got the original message. But if you’re still interested, here’s a lil rundown of some of what I’ve been watching/reading. In reference to this tweet, where I was watching a show that definitely isn’t gay but is kinda gay if you just squint the tiniest bit, which I’ve gotten used to doing.

If you follow me on twitter, most of these proooobably won’t be new? But I talk about/RT things on a scattered basis, so maybe there are some you haven’t checked out yet. 

So, the canonical gay! I’m only going to list the ones I liked and/or remember most - my Quest For Gay Anime started two years ago, and I watched pretty much everything I could get my hands on, but at that point, there were only a few I loved enough to rewatch/buy/recommend. The list has gotten a little longer since then, unfortunately for my attention span and wallet.

(I’ll be honest, a lot of the really popular/older BL have too many consent issues for my tastes - I understand the context and all that, and no hate on anyone who loves stories that didn’t particularly appeal to me. But I’m including this note cause (a) if I don’t put a really well-known BL anime on this list that’s probably why (b) I’m gonna drop in a few that toe that line but I’ll try to include warnings where relevant.)

ANIME FAVES

DOUKYUSEI (Classmates)

This is kinda where it all started. I saw a tweet going around with a trailer for a very soft, lovely movie about two boys falling in love, and I thought whaaaaat an actual gay story? Where they kiss? And I don’t have to just imagine it??

Still one of my top faves. It’s beautifully animated - like filming watercolors? It always makes me feel languid and happy. The story and characters are realistic, in a very kind, hopeful way, as these two navigate starting a relationship that neither of them expected. It’s available on Amazon video - I own a digital copy there, hah, as well as the physical blu-ray, because I watch it often enough to want both.

I also recommend the manga, although I’ve only recently discovered that apparently the story did not end after the first three volumes, so I can only recommend that far. (I’ve heard it, unfortunately, gets angstier, and it’s still incomplete? The first three volumes feel complete to me, so I’m happy to leave it there if so.) 

The movie pretty much covers the first manga volume - it’s a very accurate page-to-screen translation - and there’s some really wonderful relationship building and exploration of family dynamics in the next two volumes.

HITORIJIME MY HERO (My Very Own Hero)

Another huge favorite that I have literally watched like 30 times at this point. Two gay couples, double the fun, although this pairing is by far my favorite.

I’ll direct you to my very long post on this topic for more information, but the short version is:

Warning: there is an age gap and student/teacher relationship, but it’s treated very thoughtfully and is directly addressed as part of the story. They have to navigate through how to make their relationship work (issues with friends, coworkers, society). And they didn’t meet as student/teacher - it’s a lot more complicated, with some fantastic family dynamics. There’s a lot of angst to Setagawa’s backstory that makes you really appreciate the happiness and love he finds with Kousuke & his whole family. (Many more details in my watch-this-anime post.)

The series is 12 episodes long, with a WONDERFUL (happy) ending that makes me cry LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE TIME. Gosh I love this show a lot. It packs some serious feels - I cry, I laugh, I cry again, but for happy reasons.

It’s from a manga, but I do not recommend the manga. The manga falls into a lot of the tropes that I personally don’t like; I think the anime does a much better job of tackling the complexity of their story and treating these two with the thoughtful nuance they deserve.

Can be found on Amazon; I bought the blu-ray, and it’s one of the exceedingly rare cases where I love both the sub and the dub. There are slight differences in translation that really makes it worth watching both.

GIVEN

Wow, this one. Available on Crunchyroll, 11 episodes with a movie coming soon.

It’s newer to my list, and it’s really, really good. I’ve only read the first two volumes of the manga so far (with two more on preorder), because tbh I have trouble reading scanlations online and find it a lot more enjoyable to just wait for the official translations in paperback form.

So far the anime lines up pretty closely with the manga, so I do recommend both, although at this point I enjoy the anime more - partly because of some of the choices they make in rearranging/expanding scenes, and partly because it’s a story about a band, so it makes a huge difference to be able to actually hear the music.

And Mafuyu’s song is worth it. Wow. I listened to it on repeat for like two weeks after the episode first aired.

Uenoyama (the dark-haired stern-looking heart-of-gold character, I have a type), is my favorite. He is a MASSIVE disaster gay, and a lot of his scenes are absolutely hilarious. The dynamics between the characters aren’t what you’d expect - it’s amazing to watch the seemingly quiet Mafuyu come out of his shell and display his true personality - and there’s some really gritty, emotional material, too.

What’s fascinating about this one is that there are parallel stories going on about past loves and heartbreak, and how truly loving (and losing) someone doesn’t mean you can’t find happiness again.

(Warning and a spoiler: there is a suicide that happens before this story starts - Mafuyu’s ex-boyfriend - and while nothing about it is graphic, that event is central to Mafuyu’s story, so there are some weighty episodes. It ultimately leads to him meeting Uenoyama and joining the band. And finding himself again.) 

The movie’s gonna focus more on the secondary couple, but I’m still excited to see more of them! And...more angst, I imagine, but hopefully a lot more happiness as well.

SARAZANMAI

Okay, fair warning: this show is weird.

I think if you’re familiar with Japanese folklore, particularly kappas, you might have a much better intro than I did, but considering the creator laughed about how much they got away with by hiding the weirder parts of the story during the initial pitch, I...am not sure about that.

It’s weird but I liked it a lot. I’m not even going to attempt to explain it in the space available here, but the wiki page has a decent summary if you’re curious before diving in.

The very, very condensed version is that the main characters are three middle school boys who get turned into kappas by the kappa prince, who sends them on missions to retrieve “dishes of hope” every episode. In the process, they learn more about themselves and each other, since each time they complete one of these missions, it results in one of their big secrets being spilled to the others.

I like the main trio (and there’s a gay subplot there, too, where one of the boys is in love with his best friend but doesn’t know how to tell him), but I started watching the show because of the “villains,” Reo and Mabu. They have a deeply angsty backstory that you don’t get to until the last couple episodes. Up until then, they have a transformation sequence every episode that ... yes, gets repetitive, Miraculous Ladybug-style, but I still sat and watched, entranced, every time.

One of the things I like about this anime is that while it is very, very gay, it’s not about being gay. It’s a fantasy story where several characters just happen to be gay. As much as I love romance (which the rest of these recs definitely have been), I like being able to see gay people (or kappas...) in different genres, just existing.

And if you can’t get into the show (11 episodes, available on Crunchyroll), there’s a spinoff manga about Reo and Mabu being disaster dads to a baby girl they find on a dish in the middle of the street. I think it’s a human AU (kinda?), but it’s super sweet and funny and I liked it a lot.

THE BETRAYAL KNOWS MY NAME

Okay, so this was an early favorite, and I rewatched it recently and laughed a lot about how massively dramatic it is, but I don’t care, I’m still into it.

We’re skirting the edge of “canon gay” here, because you never get an on-screen kiss, and it’s technically a shoujo manga. But...it was at the top of a lot of BL lists when I was first hunting for good stuff to watch, and the relationship between Yuki and Luka is deeply romantic (and achingly piningly good) and central to the story.

The title’s linked to one of Luka’s frequent lines: “I will never betray you,” which he earnestly tells Yuki at every opportunity he gets. Luka is an extremely powerful demon, and Yuki is part of an immortal (via reincarnation) clan that hunts demons. But in Yuki’s past life, they fell in love.

Yuki was, at that point and in previous lives, a woman, but something changed this time around: he was reborn as a man, and without any of his memories.

Luka, who waited for Yuki to be reincarnated so they could be together again, still remembers and still loves him. But he keeps his devotion on Yuki’s terms, refusing to force the memory of a relationship that Yuki might have wanted to forget.

There’s one particularly great scene where the leader of Yuki’s clan asks Luka if anything has changed - if they can still rely on Luka to stay by Yuki’s side and be his protector. “They have the same soul,” Luka says. Gender doesn’t matter. He loves Yuki. He’ll always love Yuki. 

And Yuki, though he doesn’t remember loving Luka, begins to slowly, inevitably, fall in love again.

The anime is 24 episodes - while it doesn’t fully close out the story, it does have some closure, or at least a solid sense of an upcoming happy ending. (I own the DVD; I don’t think the show is currently available to watch online.)

There’s also a manga, which is beautifully illustrated, wow, the sheer level of detail in this blows me away. Which, unfortunately, was way too much work to maintain at that level and ultimately destroyed the author’s health, so the last few volumes get shorter and shorter and the story trickles to an unsatisfying conclusion.

I still love it a lot, though, and it’s another example of establishing a great relationship within the context of a much larger story - a sweeping, complicated fantasy epic.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Those are my primary favorites, unless I’m forgetting anything (and for the purposes of this post, I’m leaving out things like Tiger & Bunny and Promare, which are very gay and embraced as such by the creators but also not something I’m comfortable including in a Definitely Canonically Gay, You Won’t Ever Be Disappointed By Future Reveals list). If I have the energy, I might make another post like this for those kinds of stories.

But there are a few others that I enjoyed, if not enough to buy copies of or collect merch for. These include:

No. 6

Dystopian, so definitely very dark and kind of visually disturbing in places (for instance, people rotting from mystery infections). There’s a central m/m romance and one kiss, but the ending is kind of an open one without a super happy conclusion. It doesn’t have high rewatch value for me - I’ve only ever watched it once and don’t really feel inclined to go back - but it's got good storytelling and is worth viewing. 

Kizuna Koi No Kara Sawagi (Much Ado About Nothing OVA)

That last bit of the title is important to get you to the correct OVA, since there are different variations of this story. It’s been a long time since I tried the main anime, but I did not like it - I had major issues with its story, particularly with the sexual assault plotline. I did, however, love the OVA and have recommended it to people as something that can be watched independently.

There's still a little dodgy content in it (as with a lot of things in the BL genre), but it's mostly a lovely established relationship story with a lot of bittersweet feels, with flashbacks to how the couple got together. 

It’s necessarily a "happy" story either, though, because they're in a loving, committed relationship in a society where they can't be open about that, and it takes a toll. They're doing their best to work through the difficulties together.

Ai no Kusabi 

SERIOUS WARNINGS FOR THIS ONE.

It's about a society with "Blondies" as the elite ruling class and dark-haired "Mongrels" from the slums. There's slavery, plus some serious sexual consent issues...which I found extra prevalent in the newer version (prettier animation but much more cringey on the content).

The 90s version has rougher animation but a more interesting story. The relationship is still not necessarily healthy, but it reads as a lot more of a forbidden love BDSM relationship.

Even so, the ending is SUPER unhappy. I cannot emphasize that enough. I was watching all these things on my own without any warnings, so this one hit me really hard, and I couldn't stop thinking about it for days after. I’m not sure if I'd watch it again, but I've had interesting conversations with others who did.

I guess what I liked about it is that it’s a very different kind of story - and like I said earlier, it’s nice to have variety in genres. As long as every story isn’t dark and tragic, it’s worthwhile to sometimes experience ones that are told well. And weirdly (since this is not something I would watch with my family) it reminded me to some extent of the movies I grew up with - the 80s and early 90s had a lot of dark sci-fi, and my family really loved watching them, so there’s something...nostalgic about how disturbing it is? Thanks parents. At least this one’s gay.

Gakuen Heaven

To pull us back from the darker content, here’s one that I guess was adapted from a dating computer game. As far as I can remember, it was pretty free of cw; fun but not as emotionally engaging as some of the others. It’s pretty much just a fluffy story about a boys’ school on an island with a mystery plot and a romance.

MANGA RECS

I sprinkled some manga recs alongside the relevant anime, but here are a few others that I’ve only experienced in book form. (I’ve got one on my nightstand right now that I need to read, but if it’s good I’ll just update this post I guess, I’ve put this reply off for long enough.)

OUR DINING TABLE

Unlike a lot of the other manga I’ve read, this is a single volume, which means it has a nice, solid conclusion that wraps everything up wonderfully and doesn’t leave you any room to worry that the author will insert unnecessary drama down the line. (That’s an issue, ok? It happens a lot.)

A very soft, sweet romance that’s actually a lot more about building family - which is something that hugely appeals to me. Highly recommend. Loved it, bought it, will definitely reread it. I’d love to see it eventually made into a movie, like Doukyusei.

MY BROTHER’S HUSBAND

This is a hefty book - I ordered it after seeing a joke-tweet about the live action adaptation (which I haven’t been able to find to watch online). I was surprised by the size of the book but even more (pleasantly!) surprised by its contents. I’m not familiar with the author’s other works, although I’ve heard this is the uh....softest and sweetest of his writing. It’s honestly way more uplifting and healing than I was expecting.

Again, it’s largely about family: a quiet, very private Japanese dad dealing with a visit from his deceased (estranged) twin’s extroverted and cheery Canadian husband. This could go down some very dark paths, but it really doesn’t...there are some smatterings of homophobia mixed in, since that’s sort of the point, but there’s a lot of wonderful self-discovery and building new family bonds.

OUR DREAMS AT DUSK

Oh man. This series. Irene Koh (Legend of Korra comics illustrator) recommended it on twitter, and I picked up the first volume from my library and then could not stop. All four volumes are now out in official translations, and they’re so, so good.

These are definitely on the more realistic side - less of an idealized, prejudice-free view of the world, with more of an accurate picture of what it’s like to be not-straight in Japan.

And I phrase it that way because there’s a lot of variety in the characters in these books. The main character is gay - just coming to terms with the fact that he is, because life would be so much easier if he didn’t have a crush on the hot guy at school.

Content warning: it gets so bad at school, in fact, that he starts out the book planning to commit suicide. It’s dark. But it gets much better, and by the final volume he’s grown so much in his confidence and sense of self-worth - because he becomes a part of a community of other people who teach him that it’s okay to be himself.

And all the other storylines are wonderful. Some of the other characters you get to know include a trans guy, an ace woman, two girls who (spoilers!) get married in the fourth volume, and a much older gay guy who’s been with his partner for several decades.

It’s not a fluffy story - there’s some really tough material throughout, and people aren’t always nice, even the ones you really, really want to be - but they also learn and work hard at communicating with each other. I think these are pretty extraordinary books. Beautiful and heartbreaking but also deeply affirming.

[sheeping-around]

Sheeping Around Retrospective: By The Numbers

tl;dr: Scroll all the way down for the numbers.

Sheeping Around has been live on the App Store for a little over ten days now. I think it is about time I look back at the development cycle, the good parts, the bad parts and also share some sales figures while I’m at it. I’m following the trend of transparency to help other indie game developers know and understand the market of premium games, for which I gained inspiration from Eric @ Slothwerks and Arnold @ Tiny Touch Tales. I’m also inspired by the way they work: solo devs working with talented people across the world on a contract basis, and I follow the same pattern.

While I’ve worked on games in the past, this is my first official release on the App Store, and I’m really glad to have been able to reach that goal. My previous games got stuck in infinite iteration loops and never got to see the light of the day. 

Inception

I have written in one of my previous posts how the idea of Sheeping Around was born. The idea began as a turn based (asymmetric) strategy game, and eventually turned into a card game that it is today. You can read more about it in the below two posts:

Sheeping Around Inception

Inspired by Card Thief and More

Inspirations of Sheeping Around and its inception as a physical card game

Development

I have around 8 years of experience as a Javascript developer. While I am familiar with other languages like Java and Objective-C/C++, my core expertise and speed of development is still in Javascript. Also, I had begun using TypeScript at work since mid 2017 and had loved it. Reminded me of the good ol’ Flash and Actionscript days.

When the physical version of Sheeping Around card game was proven to be fun enough, I began working on a web-based prototype version of it using Angular.js on the front-end and Node.js on the backend in the first week of November 2017. I deployed the system on Heroku on its free plan, and used Heroku Postgres as database of choice. (It was free upto 9000 rows, more than sufficient for a prototype.)

Initial prototype version of Sheeping Around

For the native mobile version of the game, I used cocos2d-x JS with TypeScript.

I pushed the code to GitHub as private repositories. I maintained separate repos for client and the server.

Multiplayer

Initially I had planned on Sheeping Around to be a solitaire card game, but it ended up being too similar to Card Thief. It wasn’t much fun anyway either. I decided to prototype a two player dueling game on paper, and it proved to be a lot of fun. I figured it would be much more challenging to handle a multiplayer game, but given my full-stack experience, I was confident I’d be able to do it anyway.

Architecture of Sheeping Around

Sketch, GraphicRiver and GUI

Around March 2018, I began working on the GUI of the game. I had recently switched my role to Product Design at my company Sumo Logic and had begun learning Sketch and loved it. I bought some assets off GraphicRiver and heavily modified a lot of them and put them together in Sketch.

All screen designs in Sketch

I wasn’t very happy with the initial designs, but towards the end of April things had started looking much better and professional.

Initial designs

Final designs

Google Indie Games Accelerator

The progress in the initial few months was somewhat slow. I spent time refining the balance of the game and tweaking the progression. Meanwhile I was also designing some UI for the native mobile version of the game.

By the end of June 2018, Google announced the first ever Indie Games Accelerator for games made in South East Asia. The submission deadline was July, so I started rapidly working on the mobile version for Android and iterating it really fast. By mid of July, I had the gameplay fully functional. By the end of it, I had the entire progression system and marketplace fully set up. 

Some charts from the progression and reward system of the game inspired mainly by Pokemon

While I was not selected for the accelerator program, it did help me accelerate the game development process anyway and I am thankful to the accelerator program for that.

Art and Animation

I discuss a lot about art style with Rashi, and we had finalized that the characters would be anthro. Check out some concept art and final artwork for some of the characters below:

I really loved the idea of in-card animations in Card Thief, and wanted to have something similar in my game as well. I was fortunate enough to run into Robinson Millaguin in the Indie Game Developers Facebook group. He began his work on animating some of the initial cards in Spine and my mind was blown already. Check out the video below:

You can see more of the animation GIFs on the official website for Sheeping Around.

Tragicomic Theme and Music

I had contracted someone for music, but it did not sound so fitting. It was very difficult to decide what kind of music would fit this game because it was such a unique premise. I started scouting out for tracks on AudioJungle. Farms are usually associated with country music, but I had ruled it out completely. Western style music with gut guitars and ukuleles are a close second choice associated with farm themes. Somehow that style didn’t fit either, and sounded rather cowboy-ish. 

I explored all kinds of genres of music and tried to see if they fit in the game. Finally, I found that the music in Comedy genre seemed to be the most fitting. I stumbled upon the profile of AudioAgent, who had an amazing portfolio of comedy tracks. His tracks are tragicomic themed, and coincidentally, he kept adding more tracks in the genre as the game progressed.

The game now features a total of 9 comedy audio tracks by AudioAgent. (The tracks change every 10 levels.)

You can check out the tracks in the below Youtube playlists:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1Ajh9Cn23k&list=PLnTakDx63B8L0pBpjPD10VB3NJEcXj2l4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXeq713R444&list=PLnTakDx63B8IS3hr4Sd-tnZXgu5vCIoi6

Sound

I had already made a list of suitable sounds from AudioJungle, but it was from a variety of artists and didn’t seem to fit together. I was not sure if I should hire a sound designer for the project. I figured it would be a good idea to ask around anyway.

I am active on Twitter in the gamedev community, and I found Elise Kates’ profile there. She had done some amazing work in the past for games like Moss, and I thought she’d be a good candidate to help me out with the sound. And it was a great decision afterall. The sound effects added the finishing touches to the polish in the game and really brought the characters to life!

Putting It All Together

I’m glad I’ve been able to put all of this together in a single package. The pun in the name, gameplay mechanics, art, animation, sound and music all come together really well. It would be perhaps be one of my proudest achievement since it is an important skillset to have.

Translation, Screenshots, Trailer and Preview Videos

In December, I took help from the Indie Game Localization community to get the game translated in 12 languages. It was an overwhelming amount of work, about 5000 words. I maintained separate Google Sheets for each language.

But what was harder was designing screenshots and preview videos and localizing them into all languages. But it did pay off eventually because it got the game featured in most of the regions that I had localized for.

Check out the preview video below:

Robinson helped in creating a landscape trailer for the game as well, since Android needs a landscape video regardless of whether the game is landscape or not. it was more of a theatrical trailer that served as an introduction to the premise of Sheeping Around and dab a little bit into its gameplay:

Freemium, Premium or Paymium?

The hardest decision for me to take was whether to go premium or freemium (or paymium), and if premium, what would be the price point of the game. Early on I had decided that the game would be premium on iOS and free-to-play on Android, given how easy piracy is on Android (more on piracy in the Piracy section below). I had thought of keeping the game’s price to $4.99, as I had read that Card Crawl had recently upped its price to $4.99 from $2.99 and it increased their month-on-month sales by more than 2x. Turns out, it won’t work very well during release when both developer and the game are new to the market and there are no ratings and reviews. This is also why my day 2 sales were more than day 1 sales, when I dropped the price to $2.99.

My game also has in-app purchases, and most people object to the idea of IAPs in a premium game. But if you look at the top paid charts in the card game category (or even any other category for that matter), you will find that more than 70% of the games have IAPs. This model is called paymium on mobile platforms, and has only recently entered the debate alongside freemium and premium. In the PC world, most games are paid, and the concept of DLCs is fairly normal and accepted, so I don’t understand what the issue with IAPs in premium mobile games is about.

Besides, the IAPs in Sheeping Around aren’t your typical in-your-face popups that appear at the end of every game to give you a reward or to increase your life. They are subtle, just two coin packs that you can buy if need be. You probably won’t need to though.

Pre-orders and the Coming Soon Feature

I set the game to be available for preorder on 31st December 2018. That would make my first new years’ resolution to be to release this game. I set Thursday, 17th Jan as the release date. That is because App Store refreshes every Thursday and it would get greater number of days in visibility if it gets featured then. (Most features last at least a week.)

That is also when I also submitted my game and my story to Apple via App Store’s promote link, hoping to get featured.

On January 5, the game got featured in the Coming Soon section, and it started getting a little spike in pre-orders. From 1-2 per day to around 25-30 per day. On January 20, the game got featured in a lot more territories, including US, UK, South Africa, Middle East, Australia and New Zealand. I netted about 250 pre-orders from this feature. But it turns out that in some places, since Apple lets you preorder without having a linked credit card, they would fail to be billed on release of the game. Because of this, only about 200 pre-orders went through successfully. App store still shows -1/-2 net preorders days after the game’s release.

New Games We Love & Top Charts

Upon release, the game was featured in “New Games We Love” in US, China and the Greater China Area (HK, Macau, Taiwan), South-East Asia, India, UK, Europe, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. It also went on to become #3 card game in US (iPhone) during launch and stayed between #3-#5 during the first week. In China, which is the second biggest market for me, the highest it went was #9 in card games. (Competition is quite high in that category there, with most paid games priced at ¥1 ($0.15).)

I especially love the words UK editorial team used to describe the game in Games We Love.

Reception

The reviews so far have been positive, with occasional negative reviews talking about some bugs, most of which I have fixed in the week after release. Here are the current reviews and ratings stats for the game so far:

US: 4.6 / 5 (56 ratings, 32 reviews) China: 4.3 / 5 (41 ratings, 23 reviews) Thailand: 4.7 / 5 (15 ratings, 11 reviews) Germany: 4.0 / 5 (11 ratings, 6 reviews) Russia: 4.6 / 5 (8 ratings, 7 reviews) UK: 3.7 / 5 (6 ratings, 4 reviews)

Some encouraging reviews:

“I’ve only played this game for 20 minutes, and I love it already. The creativity, the idea, everything about this game is just beyond my expectations, and I can only assume how addicting this game will be.”

“It a really good game. You should make a physical card game for this game. I really like it and it’s definitely worth buying it.”

“Don’t really review apps, let alone end up playing one a day or two after I started. But this one... this one got me hooked! It’s fairly simple gameplay but sometimes it gets pretty exciting.”

“Pre-ordered it, I've played Card Monsters since release & Hearthstone for 4 years & this game is very solid & entertaining.”

“I think this game is another new twist to a card game, I can definitely see potential for this game. I can’t wait for the next update, hopefully with some new cards to use.”

“This game is family oriented and so easy to play. It has the simplicity of UNO yet with enough strategy to keep you engage but not overwhelmed. This is highly addictive and fun to play. The element of luck is always a factor but how to use the cards given is the key. The games are short but competitive. Those who love card/card battle games should download this without hesitation! Kudos! Look forward to updates to see what you guys come up with next!”

DAUs, Screen Time and Retention Rate

I use Tableau for my data visualization needs, and have custom graphs and dashboards created for all kinds of metrics. 27% of the players have played the game for at least one hour, which is quite encouraging. 4.5% of the players have been addicted and have played for more than 5 hours. I’ve been seeing an average DAU of around 750 and average total session time of over 450 hours. Not that it matters much for a premium game, but I’m tracking it anyway. In terms of retention, my day 7 retention is about 10%, which isn’t so bad. I will give it more time to see what my day 30 retention is.

Press Coverage and Critic Reviews

I had mailed a lot of media sites and YouTubers to review the game. A lot of them covered the game. Thanks to the localization effort, the game was featured in a lot of foreign language blogs. 

Specifically Pocket Gamer and Pocket Tactics wrote about the game. The review from Pocket Tactics was negative with a 2.0 / 5 rating, and from Pocket Gamer was somewhat above average at 3.5 / 5 rating. Pocket Tactics review, though negative, gave me a chuckle because of their words of choice.

You can check them out here:

Pocket Gamer: A surprisingly tense, exciting and fun card battler that doesn’t quite have the tactical depth for the long haul.

Pocket Tactics: Sheeping Around looks the part, but sadly the game turns out to be as dull as you would expect for a game based on an animal that stands around in a field all day chewing grass.

The criticism though has been pretty good in these reviews, and I will add more content and depth in the future updates to address the weaknesses they have mentioned.

Piracy

One thing I wanted to point out was that about 25% of the users of Sheeping Around are using a pirated version. I was under the impression that it would be very hard to pirate an iOS game, because it would need jailbreaking and it isn’t very easy to jailbreak your iOS device. Turns out I was very wrong. There are pirated App Stores like AppEven that you can install on your device, and you can install premium iOS games for free using those stores. You don’t need to jailbreak your phone and the whole process is dead simple. Turns out these folks are abusing Enterprise App certificates for ad-hoc app distribution, and Apple hasn’t been paying much attention to them. 

Within about two minutes, I was able to download a pirated version of my own game from AppEven. It even added its own ads that pop up once every few minutes that bring revenue to the owners of the pirated app store. It made me a little sad, but that’s the way it is. No matter how many attempts you make to prevent piracy in your app, the hackers will have a workaround to bypass it. They can remove the code in your app that prevents piracy, replace your ads with their own. It is their daily business.

Promotional Artwork

For games that Apple finds worthy of promotion using a banner feature or on the Today page, Apple requests developers for promotional artwork. I got this request last Monday and I submitted the artwork by Wednesday. The game hasn’t gotten a banner feature or Game of the Day yet, so I can only hope it will happen one day in the future.

By The Numbers

And finally, the moment you’d been waiting for. Sales. Sheeping Around was able to break even about 50% of its outsourcing costs (art, animation and sfx) in 10 days since launch. 

The top 2 territories where the game made some decent revenue are US and China, followed by Germany and UK.

What’s next?

I’m already working on some new cards that add more variety to the gameplay. These include:

Bonus cards

Peek - Look at the opponent’s hand. 

Undo - Undo the opponent’s last move. It can also potentially undo a stolen or whistled sheep.

Lucky Pendant - Draw half the number of cards in your hand (rounded off).

Shepherd cards

Fence N (N = 2, 3, 4) - Build a fence around all sheep preventing any of them from being stolen for N turns.

Electric Fence N (N = 2, 3) - Build an electric fence around all sheep preventing any of them from being lured or stolen for N turns.

Quarantine N (N = 1, 2, 3) - Cure all sheep of Infestation or Intoxication by N turns.

Vaccinate N (N = 3, 4) - Prevent Infestation or Intoxication on all sheep for the next N turns.

Thief cards

Infest N (N = 2, 3, 4) - Infest all sheep with pests to prevent them from being whistled for N turns.

Intoxicate N (N = 2, 3) - Intoxicate sheep to prevent them from being grazed or whistled for N turns.

Thrash N (N = 1, 2, 3) - Damage a Fence or an Electric Fence and reduce its value by N turns.

Termites (N = 3, 4) - Spread termites to prevent building a Fence or an Electric Fence for the next N turns.

Changes to existing cards

Rescue N (N = 1, 2, 3) - Reduce the effect of Trap, Infestation or Intoxication by N turns on one sheep.

Distract N (N = 1, 2, 3) - Reduce the effect of Guard, Fence or Electric Fence by N turns on one sheep.

You can already add an ally that unlocks at Lv. 20 to the game. Future updates may include upto 5 allies in total:

Shepherd’s side

Beaver - Jack Kim (Lv. 10)

Llama - Fuzzy Wumpkins (Lv. 20)

Sheepdog - Casper Cloud (Lv. 30)

Emu - Emily McCoy (Lv. 40)

Donkey - Muriel Miller (Lv. 50)

Thief’s side

Raven - Merlin Kook (Lv. 10)

Eagle - Cradoc McClaw (Lv. 20)

Coyote - Roxy Fang (Lv. 30)

Badger - Agent Chaos (Lv. 40)

Bear - Boris Rockpaw (Lv. 50)

Additional Features I’ll also be working on some features like: - Expressions and dialogs - Offline mode vs AI - Pass and play multiplayer - Quests

Conclusion

Sheeping Around was a fun project, and unlike my other shelved projects, it saw the light of the day, and it is a proud achievement for me in that regard. For the past 14 months, I’ve worked part-time at a consistent pace on this project (and full time for a few months). Especially as a solo developer being able to develop a PvP multiplayer game where people in US can battle people in China with servers located in London, I think it is a great feat.

Look forward to more updates in the future on this blog. Follow the blog on Tumblr or me on Twitter to keep yourself up to date on the progress of the game.

[leftwriteb]

Retail Tales [Part 2] - When Nintendo Fans Turned Detective On Me

In the run up to the release of the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Nintendo fans were working themselves up into such a state that it was almost dangerous. A few days before the game was due to be released, the stock arrived at our store. Thinking nothing of it and eagerly awaiting the chance to play it in a WiiU I had borrowed from my brother for no other reason, I posted a little tease in anticipation of the game on my Instagram. What a mistake that was. 

As you can see from the photo above, it was a pretty harmless image. From the attached caption on my post you’d assume it was fairly obvious I hadn’t acquired a copy myself and was simply eagerly waiting for those last few days to tick by so I could pick up from where I’d left off at the event I’d been lucky enough to attend a few months prior. I, like so many others, could not wait to see more of Breath of the Wild.

Except, to those without the right context, this post could have been (and indeed was) misconstrued to the point where you might think I’d acquired a copy early. I still argue it’s unlikely, but you could see how someone could make that mistake. As I left for my lunch break at work that day I had no idea how many people would assume exactly that, and how quickly the post would explode and circulate. I came back from my lunch to find over 100 notifications. Nintendo fanatics had found me. 

At the time of the post, as well as at the time of writing, I was working at a videogames store and understandably our stock for the game had arrived a few days earlier to ensure delivery upon release and so we could allocate our preorders with time to spare. Staring at the stacks of games on Switch and WiiU, I could feel the excitement getting to me. What was the harm in posting a little photo to help try and ease that enthusiasm? Well let’s look at what happened in the course of a few hours and then the few days that followed. Naturally, most of the comments and notifications were tied to the Instagram post itself. 

Things started off nice enough: a few messages from fans just as excited as myself. Nicer still was a friend request from some other Nintendo fan. Then you have the understandable enquiries about where I’d got the game from, this being maybe three days before the game was supposed to be on store shelves. Then, as you can see, things started to be cranked up a notch. Fans, if you want to call them that anyway, began asking me to use the WiiU disc I supposedly had in my possession to upload the files and game content online, allowing people to datamine and potentially pirate the game early. It’s not hugely surprising given the intense furore some people were getting into before the release, but what really struck me was how quickly these comments had surfaced. In only a matter of minutes someone had found my post and made the request.

And once the first ticket dump request came in, further requests followed. The same chap that had asked about where I’d apparently got a copy had followed things up to further stress the importance of helping them out. Before a third request had come in, a delightful chap had decided to go the route of name calling because I’d somehow angered him by not complying, despite my lack of comments altogether. While I deny the claims I’m a “moralfag”, he was right in that I wouldn’t have uploaded all the files even if I had the option to. Of course, this was followed up by a little damage control from another fan in an attempt not to dissuade me from helping them all out.

I chose not to comment on any of it. Perhaps it would have been easier just to set the record straight but, in the interest of both my job and my curiosity, I remained quiet. I wasn’t able to upload the files because I didn’t have the game yet. Even if I had, doing so would have been a huge mistake and would have meant stealing from my place of work. On top of that, if I had done so and gotten away with it I would have likely faced consequences from Nintendo because doing so would’ve been flagged so quickly. And, on top of all of this, I didn’t want to betray the team of developers and other staff who had worked so hard on the game. To have put years of time and effort into a project only to have all its secrets leaked early in such a seedy way, without the right context no less, would have been a huge disservice to them and gamers around the world.

But nope, it didn’t end there. I was never even considering doing what they had asked but when I served these fans a dead end, they decided to build the pressure further. As the Instagram well ran dry, I then received a good few messages on my Twitter profile like the one below.

Somehow this little post had ended up becoming a topic of discussion on 4Chan. This warning was arguably maybe a little overblown, I thought. It was a little weird to think that, out of everything, my little post had somehow gained traction online and there was very little more I could expect, as far as I could tell. The logical conclusion was that some fans were a little obsessive and with my Instagram and Twitter accounts both using the same handle, it didn’t exactly take a genius to find my Twitter profile. There were a few extra steps needed if they wanted to bombard me further and these were steps they evidently were happy to take.

Mulling it over, I’m pretty sure I figured out the path these fans took to message me elsewhere and while it’s not exactly tricky it is still a little alien to me that many people took time out of their day to try and get hold of me just in the slim chance I’d help them get access to a game only a few days early. My Twitter contained a link to what was the predecessor to this site; a Tumblr blog. This blog got a good handful of messages just like those previously, asking me to lend them a hand on their misguided adventure.

On this blog was a link to a social area that linked people to my usernames on various gaming platforms. Once they’d found this page, they than began messaging me on Xbox Live, PSN, Steam, DeviantArt and more. No matter what avenue was available, they made sure pretty much every account I had would have messages, requests and (in one instance anyway) slightly vulgar voice messages. Call it passion, obsession or toxicity, it was all a little weird. Thankfully there was some positivity sprinkled within there too!

By the end of it all I’d amassed around 120 notifications across various platforms. Most of which were in the space of the first few hours but the odd one would pop up in the remaining days before the release. This, of course, doesn’t include any other areas I don’t know about; I never investigated 4chan and, for all I know, talk of it may well have spread to Reddit or NeoGaf forums as well. I don’t quite know the extent of how far it spread other than the information available to me and maybe I don’t want to know.

The release of the game came and went and the whole thing slipped to the wayside, but it was an eye-opening moment and one that’s stayed with me since. Random people across the globe effectively stalked me, in a way. Bizzare.

So there you have it. In the space of a few hours I’d had lord knows how many strangers bombard me with messages and demands, all because they had wrongly assumed something. In an age where reviewers and developers are bombarded with harassment, it’s easy to see how something as little as this can spread, let alone something far more large in scale and scope. It’s interesting really given that it’s hard to tell what motives were in play; greed, intrigue, jealously, excitement, or something else. All I know is that some Nintendo fans and Zelda fans don’t mind turning detective if it means they might get their hands on the tiniest slithers of a Nintendo product early. Nice try, folks. It’s a good thing I never said anything when Nintendo let us buy their last Super Smash Bros. game early back in 2014. Sitting in college playing that before it was released sure was fun…

[sambart93]

2018.02.09 Neko to Inu to Yakusoku 2018 [Review]

Official Website here Official Twitter here Press Coverage 1 DVD PreOrder here

CAST and CHARACTERS Takashima Yuuki as Koyano Mitsu Matsushima Yunosuke as Iwatani Gunji Kunishima Naoki as Shimoda Kaiji Shinozaki Ayana as Koyano Miki Futaba Yu as Shiroi Ryo Kyo-Hey as Hirose Kouta Karube Ruka as Yodogawa Hana Ota Riona as Yodogawa Hana Nakatsuka Tomomi as Imamiya Yasuko Matsuura Shotaro as Toga Ichiro Azuma Nanae as Yamano Sayumi Iizuka Rie as Kishiba Kou Takamatsu Yuki as Danda Yuzu Ohashi Noriyuki as Matsudaira Yuuki Haru as Shibaki Youji Tatsumi Shina as Sakurai Ann Enoki Tomokazu as Genjo Fumimasa Midorikawa Ryosuke as Kusumi Reito Sakaba Asuka as Yoshikawa Kana Araki Masaya as Ishimine Sho Takahashi Asuka as Daidouji Emi Igarashi Keisuke as Daidouji Kengo Umeta Ayano as Nekoko Sakata Ryuichiro as Kenta Konishi Keita as Tegamiya (lit. Post Man) Izaki Hisato as Sazanami Kurita Yoko as Daidouji Kiyomi Morooka Moro as Daidouji Mutsuo

*

NON-SPOILER REVIEW Overall: I did not expect to come out of this stage balling in streams of tears, but I damn well did! This was so heartwarming and so touching and so good! It was equals parts funny as it was dramatic, as it was family dynamics, as it was about life, as it was about youth and finding out what you want to do in life. It was such a good balance of everything and every theme this stage wanted to cover! I love how it started off as something small but eventually the story grew into this huge thing connecting everyone and everything slipped into place by the end. ODAC has definitely earned my trust and I'll be keeping an eye on whatever they do in future! Rating: 8.5-9/10 << I pretty much can't fault anything about it!

*

SPOILER REVIEW

STORY

We follow Mitsu who is basically leading his life and getting through life by jumping part-time job to part-time job and he’s also using methods and ways in order to swindle money out of people rather than going out and finding an actual job. His best friend, who is the same as him, joins him on his many ways of ‘getting money quick’ and one day they hear about a very wealthy business man who just died, so they decide to pretend to know the guy so they can help out at the funeral in order to steal the money (at Funerals and Weddings in Japan, people bring money in envelopes to the family and is all registered and written down when they get there) while everyone else is attending the funeral. This all goes well until he finds out his sister is an employee at the company; also he falls for the daughter of the deceased man; AND someone has just burnt out the deceased’s company part way through the funeral - so what is going on?!

There is so much more to this and I’m barely telling you the main story but I don’t want to spoil it completely until we get to spoilers. Which is right now!!

STORY SPOILERS: So we very quickly find out early one that Mitsu keeps coughing and had been given medicine from the doctor. We also quickly learn that he can see a ghost Postman and his deceased pet cat and dog which he loved so much! The postman tells him the only reason he can see him is because he is going to die soon. Which escalates and becomes hilarious when Mitsu is able to see the damn business man! But turns out, he’s left his family is a massive state; his wife HATES him, his daughter HATES her mother, the son BARELY visits home and is a failing guitar player. So thanks to Mitsu he is able to mend each other of these relationships while trying to not let slip of his condition to any of his friends or family. WHICH eventually comes out because his newest/third friend finds the prescription and, because he’s studying to be a doctor, is able to read what medicine it is and KNOWS what the medicine is used for – we can assume it’s terminal lung cancer because he smokes and he keeps coughing and it’s a terminal disease, but I’m not a doctor, there could be a billion other terminal lung diseases but I assumed this one.

I still haven’t told you anywhere near enough of the story but I hope this is enough to inform you and wet your palate.

OKAY now for some break downs… I’ll have to go back character as I think it’ll be the best way to jog my memory and be able to pick out specific scenes:

Takashima Yuuki as Koyano Mitsu: He's our main character so obviously he's on stage for the majority of the stage. While the story only takes place over about a day or two, his character development is really good! We see him going from this irresponsible guy to realising he only has a short while left to live and we see him conciously making decisions like trying to make the best he can and/or choosing to not tell anyone for more than just one reason. But his story IS super sad. We know pretty much from the beginning that he's dying (or at least has a serious illness) and we see him getting in arguments with his friends and sister who are angry he didn't tell them but he tells them he didn't want to worry them and he definitely doesn't want his parents step in which of course make everything even sadder because while his sister wants to tell their parents, she respects him enough to not tell them but you can see how damn heart broken she is. It's the same with his friends. For the most part he's very calm and cool about the fact he's going to die BUT that final scene right at the end when he opens up to his pets and just wail cries about being scared about dying and not wanting to die is just heart breaking. I really liked the actors performance in this too and he did a great job at making the character feel so normal and down in the dumos. His performance at the end was so good too!

Matsushima Yunosuke as Iwatani Gunji: The main character's best friend since childhood. I really liked this character; you can just tell from the visual he's like my type of guy. I really liked his relationship with Mitsu and you could tell and see they were best friends. OH I also loved how much he liked Emi and he'd always run to her side all the time and try to impress her xD

Kunishima Naoki as Shimoda Kaiji: The new friend Gunji recently introduces our MC to. I liked how even though he was the new friend, he was the one who figured out about Mitsu's disease and I love how it turned out he was/is a Tokyo Uni student but was seriously thinking of dropping out because of the pressure and such which I felt was really accurate, espeically for many Asian families still it seems. I also love the moment where Mitsu finds out he's at Tokyo and wants to quit and even though Mitsu dropped out and stuff he's very passionate about Kaiji understanding how amazing it is that he's in Tokyo Uni and that he shouldn't quit. It was a really nice scene. Also Kaiji discovering the medicine and figuring out what it was for straight away was a really good moment to and he runs off to find Gunji and it's great!

The end scene with these two where they’re doing the Japanese Baseball way of chanting just outside his door and yelling their support to him even though Mitsu is inside just wailing crying to himself about how scared he is about dying and how desperately he’s trying not to get his friends involved. Gunji is an absolute crying wreck at the end of this scene and stage.

Shinozaki Ayana as Koyano Miki: Our MC's younger sister who works at the deceased CEO's company. She had a short role for the most part; up until she learns about her brother's illness. She was a really sweet character though and her support and love for her brother is very evident and totally cute. We do have a minro side story of her and Matsudaira getting together and planning to get married.

Futaba Yu as Shiroi Ryo: Also an employee at the company and in love with the CEO's daughter Emi. Ahhhh he's so small!! That was literally my thought for most of the time he was on stage. I personally never thought he was small but next to people like Takashina and Kyo-hei, he's TINY! It was ADORABLE! He didn't have a big role in this which obviously made me upset but the story ended up being really great that I wasn't too bummed about him not being in it so much. Also he looked great in that dang suit! His character was really adorable too; he's love with Emi and spends most of the time by her side or trying to impress her but it's also clear that he knows Emi really well and that she opens up to him because there's a scene where he faces off with her mother (because she's a bitch to Emo in all honesty) and says 'do you even know what your daughter wants to do?' and then goes running after Emi who's stormed off upset. I think they did end up together in this end. I liked how sweet and supportive his character was ^_^

Kyo-Hei as Hirose Kouta: Employee at the company. He reminded me A LOT of Higashi Keisuke (aka. TonChan); not just because Kyo-hei is damn tall like TonChan but just his overall presents and his slim body and his characters attitude, I just had huge TonChan feels from him. I liked the part of the story where we're supposed to semi-suspect he's the one that set the company on fire and I also loved how Kou really liked him but he was either ignoring it or oblivious to it xD

Karube Ruka and Ota Riona as Yodogawa Hana: Employee at the company. I'm going to be honest, I have no idea which one it was that was in the show I saw. She didn't have a big part anyway, she was kind of like the new employee so was new to everything and wasn't very helpful.

Nakatsuka Tomomi as Imamiya Yasuko: Employee at the company. Turns out she's an ex-AKBer which kind of surprises me because I'm pretty sure I've seen her in other stuff and I find her really funny. She's really good at the ridiculous comedy parts.

Matsuura Shotaro as Toga Ichiro: Senior Manager at the company (now CEO). I think we're supposed to not like this guy and find him ridiculous but I actually quite liked him. He definitely gave me the giggles at times and he's definitely someone the employees don't really listen to xD

Azuma Nanae as Yamano Sayumi: I found her really difficult to handle. I get she's upset that her lover has passed away, I get that she's pissed he promised to buy her the famous Mont Blanc from their favourite cafe but now that he's dead, that promise is broken. I get it BUT... she's the CEO' lover, NOT his wife, he is cheating on his wife with you; I have no sympathy for you and you have no right to mourn MORE than his wife. I found her a little bit too dramatic and VERY inconsiderate and insensitive towards his family. She literally has a massive go at the wife and it's like 'she's just lost her husband of like 50 years. How dare you make a scene and yell that he hated his wife and that he was unhappy with her. It's his WIFE! Regardless of whatever shit was going on between them, you have no damn right to yell at her!,' I am totally fine with this character turning up at the funeral, she does deserve that but just... how dare you have a go at his wife. You have no right. She really rubbed me the wrong way very quickly and I didn't give a shit about her. Am I making any sense about my anger for her?

Iizuka Rie as Kishiba Kou: Neighbourhood worker. She was hilarious! She was the stereotypical funny fat girl and I know I should hate that because it IS such a stereotype (more so in Japan than in other countries now I think), BUT I found her totally charming and a wonderful character and very funny who just happens to have a bit of weight for her. And yes they did make many fat jokes but I assume the actress was consenting and mature enough herself to decide for herself to put those jokes in so I had/have no problem with them being there. And all her jokes and all her humour was great! I found her such a delight of a character. She was very... fresh << probably the best way to describe her. She was such a nice and sweet and fresh, funny character!

Takamatsu Yuki as Danda Yuzu: Neighbourhood worker and Kou's friend. SHe was interesting because she never really spoke. Like she would 'whisper' to Kou and to Haru but she never spoke and a lot of her comedy and such came from her body language. Also it was an interesting dynamic because Kou is really tall compared to her, Danda is TINY, so that made it interesting too.

Ohashi Noriyuki as Matsudaira Yuuki: He is Mitsu's old friend from school; they meet back up again for the first time in a while during this event. Also, we later learn Yuuki is dating Mitsu's sister Miki. His character is really interesting; he's really calm and mature and collected and he really helps Mitsu see the reality of things, but he's also super hopeful because he still hasn't given up his training and his dream to be a pro-boxer even though he's already way past the age to be drafted/scouted (is that the right term when it comes to boxing?). BUT what makes his mysterious is that, like Mitsu, he can see Mustuo, Nekoko and Kenta who are all dead and now ghosts. What makes this point MORE interesting is that at the beginning of the play, the postman explains to Mitsu that he can see them because he's going to die soon; so it's implied that Yuuki is ALSO going to die soon but it's never revealed why or how or what's wrong with him. He's very much a positive, well put together guy so we're left thinking like 'what's wrong with him?!?!?!' so yeah, I found him super interesting.

Haru as Shibaki Youji: Singer, Guitarist, Danda's boyfriend and more of a guest for the stage than anything. I say guest because he's in it for only two parts and he sings live during those parts; so he seemed more like a guest role slash musical insert than an actor and character who was part of the play. He's a really good singer though and I got super emotional when he was singing at the end because it was already sad and he sang a sad song and he sings really well and it was live and with a guitar; it was a GOOD performance!

Tatsumi Shina as Sakurai Ann: She played a very, very minute role so I'm gunna skip her. But she's very pretty.

Enoki Tomokazu as Genjo Fumimasa: Yakuza Boss. I really enjoyed this character! He acts like this tough yakuza/yankee like guy but his henchmen (Midorikawa Ryosuke as Kusumi Reito and Araki Masaya as Ishimine Sho) walk all over him and always speak over him even though they really repsect him. He was a HUGE source of humour. Especially because whenever (Sakaba Asuka as) Yoshikawa Kana was around, he was this HUGE softey and she is just a badass, very outspoken woman; it's great! Especially Sho - he is just this camp but very aggressive Yakuza guy and he is absolutely hilarious! He had the perfect balance of acting tough, being funny and adding a camp sparkle everywhere! I really liked his character and you could tell he was a crowd favoruite too. Sho and Reito constantly saying Genjo's lines before he could say it and just the exhaustion coming out of his mouth every time they did was hilarious xD

Takahashi Asuka as Daidouji Emi: Deceased CEO's daughter. I liked seeing just how 'walking on egg shells' the relationship with her mother was but I also liked how Yuukun's character was always there to support her and kind of set up the scene of 'do you even know your daughter', BUT for the most part she spent the play storming on and off stage with Yuukun running after her and not really opening up and just (like a typical teenagers) assuming her mother understands what the hell is wrong with her.

Igarashi Keisuke as Daidouji Kengo: Eldest Child and Son of CEO.He had an interesting story arc. He originally turns up as this loud kid who quit school, is aiming to be a musician and doesn't really respect his family BUT as the story progresses we see that he's be seriously thinking about his future and has even been considering quitting being a musician. He ends up being a really decent and nice guy.

Umeta Ayano as Nekoko and Sakata Ryuichiro as Kenta: Mitsu's deceased pet Cat and Dog. These two were absolutely adorable! They were the typical cat and dog that don't get along most of the time but they were also at the center of a lot of the comedy. I also loved how that even after death they were loyal to their owner and wanted to keep their promise which was to never let him be alone or die alone. I really enjoyed their dynamic and they were such good characters! ALSO Kenta has a freaking Kansai accent and uses Kansai Dialect which is absolutely LOVED! They did a lot of cat and dog things too like saying Nyaa or licking their paws, making cat and dog barks and meows, and they were always on all paws and walking around. Honestly the scenes that stick out to me the most from this play are the ones they are in. The opening scene where they're being typical pets and fighting. Another scene where the CEO comes through the window and proceeds to do some adlibbing that causes both of them dying laughing; and the end scene where Mitsu is crying his heart to them about how scared he is to cry and they're like 'we promised we'd never leave you' oh the feels...

Konishi Keita as Tegamiya (lit. Post Man): He is the postman of death essentially; he comes to Mitsu and tells him he's going to die. He pops up now and again but he's really just the bearer of bad news.

Izaki Hisato as Sazanami: The real culprit behind the fire. He was a really interesting character! He's very mysterious for the first part of the play and we even see Kyo-hei's character interact with him which is what makes us suspicious of Kyo-hei but in the end, it is Sazanami who did it and he did it because when he first entered the company, he was all hopeful and everything but then they ended up firing him (I think due to a misunderstanding) and because of that, he couldn't find another job and basically fell to the lowest of the low (I think he's homeless too) and he wanted to get his own back. But in good Japanese story style fashion, in the end he hands himself into police and Kiyomi says she'll give him a job a the company when he eventually gets out. The scene where he confronts everyone and is somewhat crazy is a really good scene - kudos on his acting there.

Kurita Yoko as Daidouji Kiyomi:  CEO's wife. For the most part I was very in the middle with her. When we're first introduced to her, we get a scene of her hearing her husband's voice yelling at her 'you can't do anything right! You're an awful cook!' so you feel (pretty much all the way until the end) that she HATES her husband so much. But she was very well put together and never got verbal or went yelling on about it so I always felt like that wasn't really the case. BUT the way she treated her daughter and how little she knew about her daughter really gave me a negative image of her somewhat. It was touching when right at the end it turns out that she never doubted her husband and that she didn't hate him; she was just super upset that, on their wedding day, he had promised her that he wouldn't die before her, that he wouldn't leave her alone, but clearly he did die first and that's why this entire time during the funeral and everything she called him a betrayer and stuff. She couldn't care about the bit he had on the side or anything, she was just heartbroken that he broke this one promise to her and now she was all alone without him. I really liked at the end where she decides to take over and become CEO in his place and start the company over again and offers job to Gunji, Sazanami and Mitsu.

Morooka Moro as Daidouji Mutsuo: I didn't like him. We're told these entire time that he's a shit head but as soon as he shows up, he's all jokes and he has a LOT of adlibbing comedy time but it's like 'mate you cheated on your wife. You (inevitably by accident) broke your promise with your wife. Your family is a broken mess because you spent more time with your company and your whore rather than with your family'. I get we're supposed to like him and be like 'oh he's not as bad as what everyone's making him out to be' but I personally just found him to be a shit head that didn't deserve all the apologises and forgiveness that he ended up getting. The actor himself is very sweet and very funny (like I said earlier, he had Nekoko and Kenta's actors dying with laughter one stage).

*

I really, really enjoyed this stage. I laughed, I cried, I was moved in so many feels, great story, great characters; I really liked all their performances; I’ll definitely be wanting to keep an eye on ODAC from now on. Especially because even Hiramaki Jin has worked with them and Domoto is part of the group and he’ll be in their play in May!

*

GOODS

*

And that’s done! I am SO FAR BEHIND on reviews but I am trying! I really am!

[ackackh]

HBO War YouTuber Headcanons

(SO MUCH MORE under the cut)

BAND OF BROTHERS

George Luz George has a review channel He sits at his computer at his desk where his camera is set up A lot of the time, you can see his (big ass) mic in the shot. He doesn’t care. He’s almost always wearing headphones. Either apple-type earbuds with the cord under his shirt, or giant headphones, one covering an ear, one tucked behind his other ear. He’s really onto hi-fi audio tech, it’s where most of his spending money goes. He reviews music, tv shows, movies, books, video games. Anything popular and anything he likes. 

The reviews are always fair and he tends to review things he likes anyway so there aren’t a lot of negative vibes on his channel. He also does some reaction videos. When he’s feeling up to it, he’ll make fun of Trump (and when he does it’s hilarious) but the boy has his limits. He wants his channel to be a reprieve for himself and for others. He has a lot of followers and they all just fawn over him because George has such an animated face and he gets so excited about things he likes. It’s adorable. Too pure. He also produces some original music! It’s mostly beats and he has a SoundCloud and a Patreon. He uses Snapchat and Vine a lot, in tandem with his channel. What’s on his snapchat/vine you ask? Every. Impression. Ever. And George is really good at them! They’re funny and accurate and his viewers really like them! He also has a million videos of him bugging his friends (mostly on vine). His favorite stunt is to see how long he can film Joe without him noticing. Spoiler: it’s not very long. Most of his vines end with him running away from an irritated Joe or with Joe smacking the phone out of his hand. The phone falls to the ground and you can hear George whine “What’d you hafta do that for?” He loves to do Special Guest Episodes! Sometimes the guest is Perco, sometimes it’s Skip, or Don, or even Carwood. He’s a good friend and if they have a channel he’ll plug for them. BUT he gets the most requests for Special Guest Episodes with Joe Toye! Joe will pull up his own desk chair beside Luz and reviews things with him (George will pick things Joe is actually interested in for the video). Joe has a harder time remembering that there's a camera and a mic to perform towards, and he’s quieter than Luz, but he gives his honest opinions which are always well thought out. Plus the viewers dig his voice. People will comment or email Luz, saying how much they love their banter, their chemistry. How they love how earnest Joe is (he’s a naturally charming guy!) Sometimes they get carried away with the “light” flirting, always smiling and always completely focused on what the other has to say. Joe doesn’t always stay for the whole video because he has shit to do, ya know? So he’ll get up and kiss George’s head or squeeze his shoulder and say “later, Georgie” And George will look at the camera and and yell to him “I LOVE YOU, JOE” and you can faintly hear Joe somewhere else in the house say, “love you, too, idiot!” And George giggles and gives the camera a wink.

Carwood Lipton Carwood keeps a video diary! He just films wherever he feels is right. Sometimes the family room, sometimes the office, sometimes the bedroom. The vibe is really chill, relaxed. You can almost think of Michael Aranda’s What I’m Doing Right Now He has a modest following, but he’s really interactive with the community: frequently answering questions, participating in conversations and debates. His vlog is multimedia! He uses twitter and snapchat a lot too, sometimes incorporating them into his videos. He loves to take candid videos and pictures of himself and his friends, with or without their immediate knowledge. (He always gets their permission before he posts anything) Viewers will often times find his video for that day is a mash up of videos of time spent with friends, Ron, Harry, Kitty, Dick, and Lew, on some small adventure. There’s some pleasant, energetic music playing, spliced with audio of the original video when someone says something particularly interesting or funny. His videos are for his followers, but he also keeps in mind that some of his family watches too, so everything is pretty PG. Ron isn’t super interested in YouTube, but he like’s to watch Carwood’s videos. He lives with the guy, and he always sees the bits and pieces as Carwood puts it together, so he likes to see the finished product. Sometimes he’ll come sit and be in a video, just for a little while if Carwood asks him. And of course they’re super in love, and Ron is so taken with Carwood, that the community comments like, “WE LOVE RON, GIVE US MORE RON PLS.” Ron will sometimes sit down with Carwood and answer questions. Either from the viewers or from a top googled list. It becomes a segment, titled something like Everyday Answers with Ron. And people love it because Ron can’t be anything but himself and he’s so oddly charming and adorable with how straightforward he is. he doesn’t quite understand why people like him so much. Carwood’s most viewed and most liked video is the one of the day Ron proposed. Harry, Kitty, and Nix were all in on it and got the whole thing on video and made sure they got footage of the celebrations afterward. He recorded in their bedroom that night, all sleepy and lovey with Ron, who kisses his cheek and thumbs over the band on Carwood’s finger.

Kitty Grogan Welsh Kitty’s channel is full of really fun things! Like stories, adventures in things like baking or hand crafts, personal make up tutorials. And, maybe most surprisingly, video games. So, she doesn’t do the average let’s plays. She’s not actually interested in showing people the game. Instead, she picks a topic, often sent in by fans, and shares her thoughts and ideas on this topic while she plays whatever games she likes. She plays games like, FIFA, Madden, Overwatch, and random platformers. These are her most watched videos. Maybe about once a month she has Husband Episodes where Harry sits and plays with her or watches her play while they discuss whatever topic they’ve decided on. He’s adorable and she spends a good amount of the time teasing him. Upon many, many requests, she has posted both a “My Husband Does My Makeup” video and an “I Do My Husband’s Makeup” video. I can’t reiterate enough how adorable Harry is here.

Joe Liebgott and David Webster Joe and Web don’t share a channel. Because that would be a disaster. But here’s how they know each other: That Prick YouTuber Whose Opinions Are Wrong Joe’s channel is mostly about music. He reviews artists, albums, and singles. AND he records original pieces and post the videos to his channel. He’s really. really. good. His emotions are so raw, he doesn’t even have to be singing for them to come out and it’s frankly… enchanting. A decent chunk of his viewers started watching because Joe is hot AF™ but they stayed because he’s talented and smart as a whip. While Joe does love The Clash and other punk groups, he one thing that speaks to his soul is an angry John Darnielle. That’s right kids: The Mountain Goats. They serve as a lot of inspiration for his original songs. So Joe plays and talks mostly about music, but he also talks about things like art, fashion, and COMIC BOOKS. Listen, he preorders that shit, he has whole videos just about how excited he is for some edition of some comic. So, Web stumbled upon one of his videos, this particular one about an artist, and ugh, everything about this guy just rubs him the wrong way. He falls down a rabbit hole of Joe’s review videos and he decides he basically can’t stand him or any of his very wrong opinions. Don’t ask him why he hit subscribe. Joe finds Web in his Suggested Videos Feed and listens for maybe two minutes to Web talk about his college classes and all the literature he’s reading and all the things he knows now and he’s like, fuck this guy. Joe just thinks he’s so pretentious. He likes The Catcher in the Rye. Like, come on, dude. Most of Web’s videos are about literature. Books and Poetry he’s read and likes/dislikes. He really enjoys the Transcendentalists. He loves the themes of man v nature and the natural imagery and how they talk about what makes up the human soul. Joe fucking hates Transcendentalism. As far as he’s concerned, they were a bunch of rich, white men who pretended to be one with nature or some bullshit but didn’t acknowledge the privilege of their status or even mention the fact that they could go back to their cushy homes whenever they liked! Eventually they bump heads and get into a few times through comments. They can’t stand one another, can’t see anything from the other’s point of view… UNTIL Until Web listens to one of Joe’s original songs. And it’s so raw and personal and the lyrics! He can’t believe how beautiful the lyrics are! They’re simple and effective and they hit him right in the chest. Until Joe listens to some of Web’s spoken word poetry. It’s not his usually style, it’s flow-y and flowery and romantic. But it’s fucking beautiful and it stirs emotions in Joe he’d forgotten about. Joe also listens to Web go on and on about his ideas for the books he wants to write. And he finds it’s almost impossible not to fall in love with Web like this, so animated and happy. Here’s what happens: they meet sometime in real life, maybe at Vidcon, and after arguing for forever, they decide to try and put there heads together and write a song. Joe on the music and Web on the words. And it’s great. Their ideas are different, but they feed off of each other well, and they find a good balance. They record a video of it, Joe performing with his guitar and Web watching him, taking notes, even. And when the music trails off and they fall into each other, the kiss doesn’t make it to the final cut of the video. Neither does the making out on Joe’s hotel bed.

Babe Heffron and John Julian Their videos are just fun and silly shenanigans. They play games (lots of Cards Against Humanity) and do every youtube challenge. ever. Chubby Bunny and the Cinnamon Challenge are two of their most viewed videos. So many stupid dares. So many ER visits, all filmed and all with an angry Guarno grumbling about how fucking stupid these “kids” are. Julian: I am not a kid! Bill: Come talk to me when your foot isn’t in a boot, alright? They have more than one video of them trying to do parkour. I mean, how do you think they ended up in the hospital? The channel is called Orange Julian and their icon/header image is the two of them, wearing only boxer-briefs, completely covered in orange body paint. They’re standing next to each other, purposefully looking a little awkward. Like, it’s almost album art worthy. All of this for a stupid Orange Julius pun that only like 1/3 of their viewers get.

Renee Lemaire Renee has a small channel about her life! It has lots of sweet things in it! Soft, gay vibes!!! Her dog. Her cat. Her good friends, Gene Roe and Ralph Spina. Delicious food and cooking! Crazy/hilarious/gross stories about working in the children’s ward of the hospital. Her experiences in America as a French woman. French history lessons! French language lessons in modern day/interesting/specific vocabulary! Gene and Spina often come on and they have culture clash videos about France and America at large. Sometimes Gene will talk about Cajun culture or stories or food. And Renee and Spina will sit there just bewildered by everything he says. Sometimes Renee and Gene will trail off in French conversations together, leaving Spina to either complain loudly OR look into the camera like he’s on The Office™ Renee can only upload like every other week or so because she’s so busy. But her viewers don’t mind! Her videos are like little presents!

GENERATION KILL

Rudy Reyes Rudy also keeps a diary! It’s called “Fruity Rudy” and the graphic has a cute lil peach on it. He always films in his living room during the day. The video and audio are both super high quality and he even has a nice front light. He looks fucking beautiful, as always. He just talks about his day, his friends and family, whatever subjects he’s been thinking about recently. And his house is always fucking perfect. 9 times out of 10 Pappy is in the kitchen cooking, slightly out of focus, while wearing an apron. He likes to listen to Rudy do his thing while he prepares dinner or w/e (cooking and baking is a big hobby of his). Every once in a while he’ll comment on something Rudy says or talks about, or he’ll poke fun at someone or tell a joke. Usually the mic picks up what he says, but it’s faint and Rudy adds in little subtitles in the bottom of the screen. And he either reacts with a fond smile of some kind of comment or comeback. The viewers love their banter because they’re HELLA MARRIED Like literally. And also figuratively. Like sometimes Rudy will call back to Pappy to ask him questions, sometimes looking for a real answer, sometimes because he knows the kind of sassy reaction he’ll get, and he’ll just roll his eyes at the camera. He gets like a million comments a day telling him that they adore Pappy. “omg u guys are so cute” “I wish pappy was in more videos!!” “is pappy his real name? if not, what is?” When Rudy hits 10,000 subscribers (“wow, that’s insane, thanks you guys!!!”) as a present, he makes this big reveal video of Pappy’s name. “Drum roll please… *drums on his thighs* it’s Larry.” *in the background* “RUDE, WHAT THE FUCK?” *uncontrollable giggles from Rudy* *the camera is lifted from it’s place by ~~someone~~ unseen and a blurry Rudy can be seen half-heartedly protesting before the footage cuts*

Ray Person Ray is basically iDubbbz/h3h3 He’ll get all of his friends to participate in stupid videos. Mostly it’s Walt, Christenson, or sometimes Q-tip or Gabe. But sometimes he’s by himself, it just depends. So we get lots of these types of gems. (x) (x)  Brad hardcore pretends like he doesn’t want to be a part of it but look, he operates the camera for every video, he’s not fooling anyone. It’s hard to mistake his laughter when he’s right next to the mic. Sometimes Ray keeps in the little bits where Brad comments or calls him an idiot and you can see Ray look behind the camera, laughing and smiling or giving it right back. Ray’s channel is nuts!! but every once in a blue moon Ray will upload a video called “Serious Talk #1” (and so on) where he talks about something he really cares about or is really bugging him. And people are like, I knew you were smart, but oh jeez, this is scary.

Nate Fick The videos started out as study tools for his undergrad students but eventually gained a legit following. So, it’s basically an educational channel, but there’s no company or anything funding him. He tries to be as professional looking as possible, though. He talks about history! All types of history! And guess what, this boy is salty about the many, many important peoples and their accomplishments that are always left out of textbooks and shit. And he’s going to do his best to cover them properly. As in, entire episodes dedicated to shit (most) people don’t know. And he was in the military, so he has… lots of feelings about that as well. If he talks about military history or social issues he puts a disclaimer in the beginning of the video like “This is tainted by my feelings, I can’t help it, but this is my channel and I’m gonna say what I like.” He has some crash courses and some videos that go way too in depth. Like, maybe calm down, boy scout. Brad and Mike are his most frequent guests. He’ll do things like quiz them (on shit he knows they don’t know) or ask them for their opinions or direct the whole freaking lesson just to them. Brad and Mike really like picking on him, but he knows they love him. He invited Ray on the channel once. Once. It was… an experience. But Ray surprisingly, or not so surprisingly, has some really well educated and in depth thoughts on certain subjects. He gets lots of comments from girls/boys being like, “Hello, Professor Hottie.” (He gets the same reaction from many of his undergrads, so he’s used to it.) BUT most of his following watches because they’re interested in what he has to say, so don’t worry.

Poke Espera Poke has a channel with no schedule or organization. The video’s care shot from a cheap video camera and he doesn’t have a proper mic. And you know the Channel name is literally just his name. It’s literally all just videos of him from the chest up with titles like: “THOUGHTS ON ALL THE BULLSHIT” and “I’M GONNA KILL ME A WHITE BOY” and “PAUL RYAN CAN SUCK MY THICK LATIN DICK” They’re always in all caps. You knows the type. Yes, he does have a whole video dedicated to the story of the time he saw a dude get killed behind a Tastee-Freez. He has over 2 mil followers and all the boys are like …how? He just has good things to say, yo. People appreciate the cruel honesty.

Q-Tip and Christenson These cute boys have a let’s play channel! It’s pretty straight forward, they just play whatever games they like the best and sometimes play other games on request. It’s got Game Grumps vibes because it’s these two dudes who are BEST FRIENDS and they spend nearly every episode talking about whatever they want. And usually they want to talk about each other. Because they’re hardcore Bros. They get some of their friends to sit with them and play or just talk, depends. But their most requested repeat guest is Ray. Because Ray sure as hell doesn’t need a camera on his face to be animated as fuck. Also There’s lots of singing. Almost too much singing. At least they have excellent taste in music.

The Lady Marine (Whose Name We Unfortunately Don’t Know) She has a youtube channel that she really enjoys putting a lot of creativity into! Like, it’s great quality, for starters, and she also designs her own awesome graphics and animation!! She’s so talented!! Because everything is so damn quality, she only puts out a video every couple of weeks. But they’re pretty lengthy and always SUPER worth it. It’s about her (current) career in the military and focuses on a lot of social justice themes. Not only does she a) have a lot of interesting/enlightening things to say, but b) she also understands her privilege as a white woman and plugs for a lot of other women of color vloggers when she talks about something a little out of her depth or better said by someone who actually experiences it. She has a very complex view of the military and simultaneously knows how it manipulates/harms people and can’t help but love her job. She feels like she was born to do it, honestly. Idiot men come at her in the comments and she gets a lot of harassment. But let me tell you… She takes those motherfuckers out. You thought she was just talking shit? Bitch, she has 8 peer-reviewed scientific studies! She can cite her sources, all 2 dozen of them! She knows her shit, don’t test her. And if that doesn’t satisfy you, she’s always got her M16. One time she slams a dude so hard it goes viral over night and she gets hundreds of new followers, most of them young women looking for some source of empowerment and encouragement. She takes her new role very seriously. She will always, always listen and talk to young girls who are struggling or need an outlet or someone to talk to who won’t get upset with them for thinking X or Y. I love her, she’s my wife.

THE PACIFIC

Bob Leckie Leckie’s channel is called “Dear, Vera.” Each video is an adorable virtual letter to his wife, who he is just crazy smitten with. They started out as literal messages when Leckie was traveling for his first book tour (very proud of him). Like, he would literally just write out letters and then read them to the camera. Of course, Leckie is the most poetic idiot on the planet, and lots of people started following him because his words were honestly so beautiful. Even if he’s extra as heck. The following isn’t huge, but it’s substantial, and he still addresses each video to his wife. So he talks about whatever he likes. It was updates about his life when he was traveling, but when he’s home he likes to get creative about it. And not every episode is so serious. He invites dudes from Team Leckie to come hang all the time! And the boys are always like, “Hi, Vera!” and wave like she’s actually there. (She’s in the next room doing a Sudoku puzzle or something). Every video, he signs of with, “Yours, Robert.” AND AND AND when Vera tells him they’re going to be parents, Leckie gets extra extra. But it’s so cute, like, he makes a single video about it. He opens it with, “To my future child” And he basically goes on this whole teary-eyed kind of schpiel about how he’s so exited to meet them and how he and Vera are going to love them unconditionally and protect them and do their absolute best to keep them happy. He signs off with, “With love, your father.”

Hoosier Smith Hoosier is literally Cr1tiKal

Eugene Sledge Eugene’s channel is about ornithology, botany, and BEES! He loves bees! He uses the channel to geek out over biology things and it has so many cute graphics and jingles. Like, I mean, it’s hella gay. And he’s kind of awkward, but it’s so endearing. Most of his subscribers are girls and mlm and he’s just like, huh *shrug* He has little segments about current scientific events/findings. He has a birb of the week. It’s just… so nerdy. Like, chill out, dude. (Jk pls don’t ever chill out, follow your passions.) Snafu refuses to be in videos but he shouts at him from other rooms in the house, being a dick on purpose, calling him nerd, telling him to shut up. But Eugene is pretty good at coming back at him. He’s known Snafu too long for that kind of shit to actually bother him. And Eugene is like 70% sass, anyway.

Eddie Jones Eddie has a channel entirely dedicated to his original music!!! All his spending money goes to instruments and high quality recording equipment and audio editing software. He’s so good. Like. He’s got this warbling kind of sweet and broken voice. It’s very similar to jpitts, actually. And there’s so much heart in it. Not to mention the songs he writes are amazing and have clever lyrics. And guess what, boys and girls!!! Andy Haldane can sing. But he’s super shy about it. He and Eddie have had so many conversations that are like “Andy, come on, one video” “Nooo…” “Just one!” “Eddie, I caaaan’t” (Andy gets a little whiny when he’s nervous) So Andy won’t sing in a video BUT his soft voice can be heard harmonizing in some official recordings. Eddie loves listening to Andy sing. He’s not perfect or anything, but his voice is pretty and light and Eddie’s head over heels for him, so he can’t help but love it.

So, like I said. Way too long. But I had so much fun thinking up this stuff, so time well spent! I just did the boys (and girls) who came naturally to me when I tried to think of who would have a YouTube Channel. If anyone feels like adding to this monstrosity, go for it!

[fivedollarradio]

On the morning of May 10, the World Bank communications officer and mother of three tweeted a photo of a black female Metro worker who was breaking the D.C. region transportation agency’s rules by eating breakfast on a train.

“When you’re on your morning commute & see @wmata employee in UNIFORM eating on the train,” Tynes tweeted. “I thought we were not allowed to eat on the train. This is unacceptable. Hope @wmata responds,” she wrote.

By 10 a.m., less than 30 minutes later, Tynes had deleted the post and apologized for the “short-lived expression of frustration,” according to court documents. But the fuse of public outrage and ostracism had already ignited.

[...] As The Washington Post previously reported, in response to the tweet, Rare Bird announced it had decided not to distribute her book. “We think this is unacceptable and have no desire to be involved with anyone who thinks it’s acceptable to jeopardize a person’s safety and employment in this way,” the company announced on Twitter.By the following day, the publisher had announced plans to halt shipments of the book and postpone the publication date while taking the “appropriate next steps to officially cancel the book’s publication.” Preorders for the novel were also canceled, even though sales had skyrocketed, court documents say.

[...]  After the tweet and the resulting uproar, Tynes was hospitalized for “an acute anxiety reaction and suicidal ideations,” the complaint says. She was placed on administrative leave by her employer, and the Goodreads book review website received a barrage of negative reviews for the not-yet-published novel.

First off, why are we all cops now? Who decided that every infraction, no matter how minor, must be videotaped and posted to Twitter? When I was kid, the last thing you wanted to be was a narc. But if “policing the bodies of marginalized women” isn’t okay, neither is this:

Tynes began receiving online threats, the lawsuit said, and she became the subject of racial slurs, including being called a “terrorist,” “a plane bomber,” “un-American” and “a radical Muslim,” while others called for her deportation.

This is, by far, not the first time someone has suffered professional and emotional consequences after being the subject of Twitter outrage. but I think this is the first time a writer has sued her publisher after being dropped because of it. Most quietly delete themselves, so I think that says something.

[swmmm]

Morning Musume '17 Live Concert in Hong Kong (2017.06.25)

lots of big & scary changes are happening in H!P right now, but that doesn’t change the fact that i had an absolute BLAST at the mm17 HK concert!!!!!!!!

Preparation

I went in a gradation-style Kaga wota T!!! Something something not Italian red, but that colour basically doesn’t exist in North American print shops unfortunately ._.

Venue

KITEC Star Hall in Kowloon Bay with a max capacity ~3600

It's a multi-purpose exhibition center with a concert venue, shopping places, food places all integrated into one 

There’s a free shuttle bus going from the subway station to this place too, so everything is super convenient

Buying goods

The merch corner opened at 3pm, and I made the big mistake by thinking that it'll be good enough to arrive BY then! The line up was 400+ people long by the time I got there!!

Ended up lining up for 2 hours and the photoset and glowstick were sold out by the time I got to the front!!!! :( I would’ve gotten everything, but ended up with just a towel and tshirt. 

The tshirt/towel design looks like somebody figured out how to rotate text in Microsoft Word for the first time, but I wasn’t gonna leave empty-handed so whatever (・へ・)

While waiting in line, a HK fan came over and handed out to everyone:

plastic fans with drawings of all the girls on it. She let us take both a black and white one :D

a packet of 3 mock Instagram cards with drawings of the girls. It also had a map of Hong Kong landmarks on the back

They intended for you to trade with other fans to get the cards you want, which is really thoughtful -- lots of ppl are shy in striking up a conversation with strangers, but they've given you an ice breaker!!

I started with Chel, Eripon, and Fuku-chan, but I love everyone so I didn't really mind who I got and traded so people got what they wanted. I traded:

Chel for Maria with the Chinese fan in front of me

Eripon for a group card with the Japanese fan behind me

Another HK fan gifted me the above card which says "thanks for coming to Hong Kong". I think she thought I was a Japanese wota though LOL

When I got close to the front of the line, a Chinese fan asked if I could buy some goods for him since they wouldn’t let anyone line up anymore (too close to concert start time). I agreed and basically let him into my spot in the line, which in hindsight I feel kinda bad about since people behind me had been waiting a long time too. He was very very grateful though since he could get a shirt/towel & use it right away for the show. It turned out he's a Kaedii fan too so he might have asked me because of what I was wearing

At some point in the queue, I also bumped into and met @helsic! Pretty crazy considering how small the H!P Tumblr fandom is!!

I wrote a quick message on the fan tapestry outside the concert hall. I assume this was gifted to the girls later (there was a present box that you could drop stuff into) 

Various local HK “”vendors”” (more like bootleg sellers) were trying to sell generic glowsticks around the hall, and since the official ones were sold out, I haggled the crap out of one of them from and scored one for $100 HKD (~$13 USD) which is pretty damn cheap! I already had another glowstick but more for cheap is always nice lol

Getting Seated

When entering the concert hall, the HK fans handed out a piece of hard cardboard paper with instructions (in Chinese and Japanese) on what to do during encore:

(1) Put this mask on after the girls come out after our encore calls to give them a surprise

(2) As the members leave after encore, please change your glowstick colour to orange and start chanting "Haruka" and give her a good memory to look back upon

I skimmed really quickly so I didn’t even notice the words “the mask” until I sat down, noticed that there were two weird holes on the paper, turned it around and found an (eyeless) Harunan staring at me ಠ_ಠ Pretty surreal, I have no idea who OKed this project but it’s the thought that counts lol. 

The words on the paper are lyrics of solo parts - e.g. for Harunan’s, it’s “hora muchuu ni narou” from Happy Daisakusen. 

I preordered my ticket so my seating was pretty damn good -- about 20 rows from the front. I’m not that tall though so at times I had to tiptoe, but I could comfortably make out each girl's face!! 

My seating section was pretty much 50/50 on guys/girls

I’m pretty sure the blonde girl who danced on stage at the presscon sat next to me. She was a Maachan wota. Her friend kept bumping into me cause they were waving their glowsticks so hard lol

The Concert - Songs

The energy level in the venue shot up to a max the moment the intro for BNM started!!! I waved my glowsticks so hard that I was tired out already before BNM ended and had to routinely switch arms

Setlist is fairly standard with only A-sides except for the last encore song (Bravo), which makes sense for a foreign concert -- you wanna do the recognizable stuff

I was surprised they didn’t do Ame no furanai hoshi...., but I guess the “local song” for Hong Kong was One & Only. For various political reasons, it makes more sense to sing an English song over a Mandarin one in Hong Kong...

As a 13ki wota, Utakata Saturday Night was a highlight (・∀・)  -- Kaedii and Yoko rock paper scissors-ed at the end of their duo dance break (Dii won)

Speaking of Kaedii -- I spent most of my time looking at her and her limbs are every bit as long as they appear to be in videos!!! It’s hard to look away! My only grievance is that they didn’t do Oh my wish with Kaga-sama’s dancing

I hadn’t been able to watch the Budokan concert so it was my first time seeing the new Joshi Kashimashi Monogatari -- actually quite impressed with the visuals and it was probably the only time when I stared at the screen over looking at them on stage. Maachan also got to sing her part too!

MAADUU fans. EVERYWHERE. So much screaming whenever they hugged or were shown on the screen together. It probably was amplified to me too because I was surrounded by Maachan wota.

I had a good seat this time, so I was surrounded by people who were willing to shout and scream (e.g. “aisaretai! aisaretai!”) which was REALLY fun

The Concert - MCs

The girls tried their best to speak Cantonese and most of the short phrases are recognizable enough (although Oda forgot how to say “I’m really glad to meet you all” in the very first MC haha)

Kudo mentioned that they did a 拜神儀式 (ceremony of worshipping the gods) before the concert, which involves cutting open a roasted pork and praying for the success of your event. This is a Canton/HK tradition, so it’s the first time ever they’ve done it.

They held raffles to give out 13 gigantic autographed posters!! Lots of funniness with people screaming like they’re gonna die when they found out they won hahaha

A Japanese wota in the VIP section dressed up as a Chinese zombie (jiangshi) and won one of the raffles! I later on read on twitter that he gave away his poster to a local Hong Kong fan instead (!!!!!)

Ayumin asked for girls and boys to cheer (separately) in Cantonese. The first time around, the loudness of the girls’ cheering completely decimated the boys’. Maybe it’s the first time that’s ever happened in a MM concert lol. The members actually had to tell the boys to pick up the slack!

At the end, Fuku-chan read aloud a letter she wrote -- in Cantonese. The simple phrases were understandable at first but became incomprehensible by the end, where we just started being like “...... yeah!!!” and waving our glowsticks to pretend we understood XD. She tried very very hard to keep reading it in Cantonese, but when we didn’t understand, she said it again in Japanese. She insisted on at least trying the Cantonese a few times first though -- what a good girl. She posted the full Cantonese transcript on her blog later that night:

Can everybody understand my Cantonese? Please listen to me! Thanks for coming to watch Morning Musume '17's concert today! When it was decided that we would have a concert and high-five session here, we were really happy! We were really, really happy. This year, it'll be Morning Musume's 20th anniversary. We will continue to treasure and sing our seniors' songs as well as new ones with our current members. Each one of us feels pride in being a Morning Musume member. From now on, we want to continue spreading love throughout the world with our singing! Everyone in Hong Kong, please continue supporting us!

Morning Musume '17 leader  Fukumura Mizuki 

Encore call: the cameras started zooming in to show the audience’s goods, etc. People started messing around with the mask we got by putting glowsticks behind the eyes, which was pretty surreal and funny. LOL. The members were certainly surprised to see all the masks! 

During encore, the girls came out in the tshirts that you could buy as merch today, but the big “Musume” kanji was in their member colours. I feel like the colouring mysteriously made the tshirts much more desirable... but it doesn’t change that fans only got ones with white lettering!!

After the encore songs finished, we started chanting “Haruka”, and she came back out crying, blew a kiss, and exited the stage 

After that, the concert finally ended at 8! 

Watching videos at home is one thing, but actually being there, chatting with fellow fans, watching the girls  sing and dance live is something else. The energy levels were so, so infectious.  Overall, this was a super, super enjoyable experience!!!!

TL;DR i!!!!!!!! love!!!!!!!!! morning musume!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!