#this episode is so funny when it’s just the two of them

[ceiling-karasu]

I had a dream about the Ray Bradbury story All Summer in a Day (because a plane dripped water on me while I was trying to doze in my assigned seat?? Just decided to ignore that at least we were finally ON the plane at that point). That one where humanity has bases on Venus, and it rains all day except for the one time every seven years. Anyway, the classmates lock a girl from Earth in a closet because they think she is making things up about this 'sun' thing.

Which later somehow started making me think of Dalnim living in a small apartment by himself, but some misunderstandings make his classmates think he was living under a local bridge. Then one entire week, it rains super hard, and starts flooding rivers, and some of the classmates freak out and lock Dalmin in a school closet over night/the weekend 'for his own good,' on the idea that they don't want Dalmin to fall asleep and get swept away to drown. Which only increases everyone's misunderstandings of one another.

But yeah, in the dorms sounds nice! Plus, work-study programs where he and everyone else can find out about the archives and photography. Maybe Sena is a guest lecturer one day.

I don't know much about what high schools are like nowadays. I remember 7 classes, but some days you had to rotate (class A M-W-F at 10 am, class B T-Th at 10 am), so it was technically more.

I just wound up writing about Tokgasi because parts of Lightning Rod were starting to focus on the aftermath of Aekku's secret document. Like, was everyone caught in one swoop, or did some of the agents notice others getting captured and run off somewhere? And why is the Tokgasi group named after this one individual? Has he done operations like this before?

Personally, I am also kind of obsessed with Field Mouse Number 8.

We see that he was apparently not chosen by Aekku, but is still away on a mission somewhere. Why was he not chosen? Where is he? Will Mulmangcho disguising as him have repercussions? If he is a field mouse/dormouse, and was actually known reasonably enough around the base that Mulmangcho could disguise as him without anyone asking questions, then he was probably close to Commander Jogjebi like the other field mice. Which means he could be off on a spying mission somewhere as part of Jogjebi or the Special Forces' groups. If Commander Jogjebi is gone, what would that mean for his mission if he is on one?

Yeah, maybe the past parts are good to have first. They are entertaining to read, so far.

The layout would be for the farmhouse villa in Lily Bell. Technically I have it all written out in the story, so the details are already there and I can take some liberties. Nothing really seems to contradict itself, but making an actual schematic is hard. I'll have to do it by hand. But, I have figured out I can make something by hand, upload it, and then trace over something in another layer and hide the first layer. So that's nice. Less worried about merging layers and more annoyed that sometimes I can't use the fill function in certain sections anymore after random periods of time. I am learning to use layers when I make clothing, though.

I kind of wish I could have gotten to know my grandfathers, but they both passed away young due to issues with heavy smoking.

I was thinking 'beauty and gracefulness' for Nayeon, for reasons that will come out much later. But yeah, at the moment, they are just not letting Nayeon figure out the truth about Jollin, since her interest in helping the neighbor distracts her from missing her parents, I guess. Plus, she would be bonding with someone who is also missing their parents, from everyone else's perspective.

It wouldn't have been only a simple reference. I was planning on writing more chapters involving perspectives from Geumsaegi, Juldarami, and Flower Hill and their search/investigations to figure out what happened to Bamsaegi. Which would have included a lot of dredging the ocean floor for a bit, and secret internal investigations. So a bit of a duel story going on there. But a soft romance just seemed disrespectful.

Thank you very much for the feedback! It means a lot to me. Although I think the amount of research you put into your own stories is great as well! And you are way better at the naming conventions and Hangul than I could ever be.

Something I did while I was waiting for class.

I don’t know if she would be a new character of mine. But if she was, she would be working as an archivist or doing something based around culture. Idk. She isn’t a character I would place in OFP since she wouldn’t be a solider. She would have been exempted.

The quality came out a bit wonky

[monosanimegenericzone]

Hunter x Hunter: Being bitched by a dude half your age

okay so can we talk about these two

and i cannot stop laughing how silva fucking zoldyck. in his prime at something like 42. getting his shit absolutely rocked by a "tee hee im not a teenager anymore" chrollo.

anyway. this is a breakapart analysis of how chrollo bitched him for a second time in the fight in yorknew.

side note: omg look its shalnark hiii

anyway

yap ahead. it got really long so proceed at your own risk

so the yorknew fight starts with the two zoldycks walking in on chrollo after tracking him down as fast as possible. and i mean as fast as possible. yes zeno probably could have used his 100m En to flash scan the whole building, but to parse out information from that- considering zeno has never met chrollo- would be pretty much impossible.

plus they had to deal with mafia grunts being idiots.

this is also a viable strategy. if chrollo was a pussy, he could have easily jumped out of a higher story window.

at this point neither the reader nor the zoldycks know what chrollo is doing in the building. they know the merchandise is intact and that they lost contact with 8 assassins so far, that's it.

we find out later that chrollo was playing for time, so if illumi was taking his sweet ass time taking out the 10 dons chrollo could have easily led the two zoldycks on a wild goose chase, but no, he's waiting for them.

getting into speculation territory. we don't know how long the fight actually lasted. the animated fight lasted like an episode and a half, but in hxh, time is irrelevant. the fight could have been 20 seconds tops.

minor point but- slightly relevant.

chrollo probably wanted to wipe out the assassins before making his next move and i cannot tell if he knew it was the zoldycks or not. again, him and zeno have never met, so even if zeno used En, chrollo would have no idea it's him.

point is. chrollo was waiting for the assassins to come to him. he wouldn't waste the time looking for them, so he wasn't even trying to hide as he just. casually meandered up the cemetery building.

but as soon as chrollo sees who it is his face does the iconic dark shadow. that- imma be honest- 2011 did him so dirty with.

for reference. he greets the other assassin like this

dawg is not playing

im giggling bcs its one of those "you can see the exact moment when he locked in" type things. its so funny

now this next part i will just present as a silly moment

but chrollo literally pulled a knife just to shank silva specifically. the grudge here is so real

how petty are you that you're trying to shank the guy and not his dad. this is so disrespectful

(satire)

anyway.

zeno earns chrollo's respect by being an actually seasoned fighter and able to break chrollo down for all he's worth.

those are eyes alright.

chrollo knows that silva is not going to attack him directly anymore, but he will have to keep silva in sight so that he never gets an opening.

chrollo is playing for time.

and- i did not notice this before-

ZENO FIGURED THAT OUT TOO.

THIS OLD MAN IS TOO OP. EXCUSE ME.

i can skip the rest of this fight otherwise i'll be here for 5 years glazing zeno for being the goat he is.

but chrollo's plan was to capture zeno alive. he can't secure abilities otherwise, and we assume fun fun cloth is inescapable once closed.

now picture this for a second. chrollo knows what silva's hatsu is most likely. and if he wanted to, he could have captured silva and gotten a hatsu out of him easily. silva is poisoned, slower than zeno, and the less obvious threat.

but no.

chrollo is more interested in zeno because silva is not worthy of his respect. even if silva had a really useful hatsu, i doubt chrollo would want anything to do with him. he won't even look at silva if he can help it.

also i realized that they were fighting in the basement. j'accuse.

but the really juicy part is what happens after the fight.

so i have a theory.

what if silva didn't know who illumi got a contract from. that would be the best troll ive ever seen out of chrollo in the history of ever

consider: chrollo knows about silva's warning to his kids. he and illumi have known each other for a long time, and because silva fought chrollo at least 3 years ago, i think it's reasonable to assume that chrollo and illumi already knew each other by then.

obviously we don't know for sure, but for my delusion let's go with that.

illumi is suddenly harder to reach, so chrollo tracks him down and illumi being illumi was just like "yeah dad said not to hang out with you anymore" so, chrollo, who knows illumi is a good asset, is like "bitch you aint going anywhere. imma pay you just to hang out. stick it to your old man"

so with that in mind. illumi ringing in asking for his client- who isn't zeno nor silva- and silva realizing in 0.2 seconds that it's chrollo. the immense fatherly sigh that woulda left his old ass man would have been fucking hilarious.

(based on textual evidence i dont think this is canon but its still too funny)

regardless, it's proof that illumi has either gone behind silva's back or got his reluctant permission. assuming the 'no phantom troupe' rule still applies at this time

"JUST BARELY"

SILVA BE FOR REAL I SWEAR TO GOD XDDDD

"JUST BARELY" ALIVE MY ASS.

anyway. real disrespect is chrollo only speaking to zeno. like zeno and chrollo are best buddies after going toe to toe for like 2 minutes and chrollo clearly respects zeno.

but here

right here

THIS RIGHT HERE. THE DISRESPECT IS ABSURD.

chrollo asked this question on purpose.

notice how silva isn't even in that question. SILVA IS NOT A THREAT TO CHROLLO.

AND WHAT'S WORSE.

ZENO CONFIRMED. INDIRECTLY. THAT CHROLLO COULD WIN THAT 1V1. IN FRONT OF HIS POMPOUS ASS CAT EYED SON.

LIKE LOOK AT HOW SILVA LOOKS AT CHROLLO.

HE'S SO MAD AND HE CAN DO FUCKING N O T H I N G

CHROLLO JUST BITCHED SILVA WITHOUT EVEN SAYING A WORD TO HIM, BY DEMONSTRATING THAT HE HAS CONNECTIONS TO AND CAN KILL EVERYONE SILVA RESPECTS IN THE FAMILY.

and chrollo is satisfied. he's done. he's out.

bro hit the deck waiting for his pals to show up.

and we know how pissed he was at the beginning of the fight. to be able to let it go like this- because chrollo's ass petty as hell-- he would not let it go-- means he KNOWS he made silva look like a bitch.

AND GOD DAMN. HE'S RIGHT.

thats my rant for the day. tata

[gwaevalarin]

Trying to sort through my thoughts after watching Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants for the first time.

Spoiler free review ahead.

First of all: If there is any chance at all, you need to watch it on the big screen. It was made for the big screen. It's so, so epic!

I went in with high expectations. And I was still blown away!

If you've read the book: The movie is nothing like the book. But at the same time, it's still clearly The Legend of the Condor Heroes. The movie takes bits and pieces of the book, really just a small part of the whole, and not even the main parts, rearranges them, re-interprets them, adds something new, and just makes the story its own. It's still Legends of the Condor Heroes. But it's also a brand new story. I'm glad I read the books, because I think some of the flashbacks might have made more sense to me, and some of the relationships made have had more of an impact for me. But because so much was so different, the storyline was still surprising for me. Familiar, but also not at all, in the best way possible.

Same for Xiao Zhan's Guo Jing. He was undeniably Guo Jing, but Xiao Zhan - with the help of the script and director, obviously - made Guo Jing his own. Turned him into his own character, his very own, fresh version of Guo Jing. (Side note: I tried watching one of the TV versions not long ago, but had to give up a few episodes in, because the story was almost 100% faithful to the book, but felt wrong. Here the story was different from the book, but felt right).

I did not expect the movie to put such a focus on the love story. The first part basically has the love story at the heart of everything, and builds the rest of the story around it. And it works! Because it's really well done, and because all characters involved, Guo Jing, Huang Rong and also Huazheng, are all amazing characters in their own rights. Love, love, love the interactions between the two girls in particular. Love both girls, period.

All the important characters are memorable, actually: Temujin, Tolui, Guo Jing's mother, Ouyang Feng, the beggar clan...

The movie is surprisingly funny at times, even at times when you don't expect it, but even then it just works and fits seamlessly into the moment. My very favourite surprisingly funny moment: Guo Jing's "I cannot believe that actually worked" face. You'll know it when you see it.

And it's super, super epic. The fight scenes, the effects, I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it before.

Also, don't forget to stay through the credits.

There's so much more, but that's all I have for now. I'm still feeling pretty overwhelmed and very, very grateful I got to see it on release day, on the big screen. And that I'll get to see if several more times, so I can pay more attention to the details, and give everything more time to truly sink in.

I'm so happy for Xiao Zhan, that this movie is such a special one. And I hope everyone gets a chance to see it, fan or not. It's just a really, really good movie that works on every level.

[knaveumineko]

Umineko Episode 2 Blog: Fool's Gold

Despite its similar setup, Episode 2 diverges wildly from Episode 1 in how frequently and explicitly it depicts the use of magic to the point where its existence seems almost undeniable. Of course, the story is only able to do this because it spent so long teaching us to question all that we see.

The biggest curveball the story is throwing at us is the appearance of Beatrice in the flesh. After spending a whole episode hiding, she's now showing up on screen every 5 minutes in her sick new outfit just to mock me for doubting her.

Since the first Tea Party, it's been interesting to observe how Umineko blurs the line between the main murder mystery subplot and its meta B-plot where Beatrice and Battler flirt at each other in-between arguments about keys. Episode 2 Battler and Meta-Battler are sort of the same person but also sort of not: it's not like Battler is discovering his parents' bodies and thinking "oh my god, Beatrice is going to be so smug about this" but at the same time his emotional breakdown at having to accuse his own family is framed as equivalent to Meta-Battler resigning the game, and after becoming furniture he bursts back in to demand a rematch as if he's been Meta-Battler the whole time. He also has that whole "it's not my turn" thing while napping. I don't think of this as a puzzle, really: the two narratives are seperate but related, each commenting on the other, and the boundaries between them blur at times so that we can have a satisfying emotional payoff to both parts of the story.

As a consequence, we do not have to accept Beatrice as "real" simply because she appears in the meta plot. Taking this perspective also lets us explain the banquet at the end of the episode without having to doubt Battler's narration in general. Of course, he was also drunk when all the magic stuff was happening, but I think it's a bit too convenient to say that he somehow had a one in a million reaction to the alcohol and hallucinated these scenes in particular, although if he did do all that stuff while drunk out of his mind then I can see why Rosa was in such a hurry to flee the island.

Beatrice's early appearances are as a character in Shannon and Kanon's (and Sayo's) psychodrama. She appears out of nowhere only to them. She's the serpent offering the fruit of knowledge and granting them the opportunity to escape their roles as furniture at some vague cost. She later says that she's just doing this because it will be funny to watch them fail, but I think this reflects Sayo's complicated feelings about whatever decision she's made. Framing it as a malicious plan by Beatrice is just drama for the sake of the witch story.

After the fact, Shannon clearly sees herself as responsible for the killings, and I'm guessing there's more to it than the mirror thing. I was very suspicious of Kanon and Shannon going into chapter 2, and dedicating so much time to their characters only reinforces that. Throughout the story so far, the biggest problem has been motivation. Even if I manage to guess who's a culprit or accomplice, it's hard to untangle why they're doing any of it. Somebody solving the epitaph and figuring out where the gold is, then telling everyone else to try and find it too, but also slowly killing them to stop them from actually doing it?

I wonder if Shannon meeting Beatrice for the first time while standing at her portrait is meant to tell us that she solved the epitaph. It would seem she's in a fine position to do so, visiting every day and being familiar with the person who wrote it. We have that little exchange where Beatrice says that furniture is resistant to her because they lack desire, and Shannon's character in episode 2 revolves around a contradiction between her identities: she's caught between joy at her miracle and horror at what she had to do to achieve it, and she accepts the proposal even though doing so will get her killed. Is there something about understanding the epitaph that forces the killings to occur? Solving it is an expression of desire, contradicting her role as furniture, and it also brings with it immense power and wealth, allowing her to escape her situation in life, but it also brings ruin in the form of the sacrifices? I don't know precisely how that could be the case (some dark family secret?) but it fits the story being told on an emotional level, and we know that the epitaph was indeed solved. It also provides some coherent motivation for why someone would try to get others to solve it after already working it out themselves.

Something that really stuck out to me while reading was Beatrice's dialogue in Shannon's death scene.

In general, I'm not a fan of how Umineko likes to throw grammar and punctuation out of the window in emotionally intense scenes. I understand it's supposed to feel raw and unfiltered, but it unfortunately just strikes me as amateurish and undercuts the seriousness of the scene. Still, this is extreme even by Umineko standards. Her dialogue is almost incoherent as her screed continues, to the point where I, continuing in my denial of the Witch's existence, wondered if what I was really reading here was Sayo having a breakdown as she realises that her wish has gotten her and George killed.

Beatrice is not just confined to Sayo's mind, however. She appears in the flesh, albeit only once, or maybe twice depending on how literally you want to take Kinzo's study. While some of these witnesses aren't reliable (Kanon and Shannon's conversations are easy to write off as allegory, and Genji would 100% lie about the meeting) we still can't deny Kyrie, Rosa and Maria seeing her, although it's interesting that Kyrie has her doubts, even in the chapel scene where she accepts the existence of the witch.

I think here we see the payoff to the alter ego theme: there are still 18 people on Rokkenjima, and Beatrice's one and only appearance before vanishing is because she's being impersonated. After all, in chess, even if you vary which opening you play, the pieces on the board when the game begins are always the same ones. If I want to remain consistent with my other guesses, Shannon seems like the obvious candidate. It would explain why Genji gives her the duty of bringing Beatrice food: if anyone else went then they would question why the room is empty. It also lines up with this Beatrice knowing everything that happened in the conversations that didn't really happen (I'm not really suggesting that Shannon is hallucinating or anything - I just think the conversations Sayo describes are metaphors for an internal struggle). Could the scene of all the parents in the chapel have been Sayo luring everyone there with the reveal of her solution to the epitaph, which she proved by showing them the gold bars? It would explain everyone accepting her as a witch. If she was less forthcoming, she also could have remained in-character as Beatrice that night and used the gold to verify her alchemy.

The biggest flaw here is everyone recognising her from the portrait. If I had to throw out an excuse here, I'd question who exactly modelled for that portrait. Surely, it would be a young woman who was already on-hand at the mansion? I suppose we'll see if they dive into the origins of that painting.

Kanon is also a pretty good candidate for the witch: he was already "Beatrice" in Episode 1, so it would make sense for him to be her in Episode 2 as well. His doppelganger also starts cackling like the witch, and while he is initially critical of Beatrice, he also clearly has some of the same repressed desires that Shannon does. His voice is high enough that him impersonating a woman isn't totally out of the question. Kanon being the witch mostly fits for the same reasons Shannon does, and it also gets around Shannon's pretty convincing corpse. I really doubt that one could be fake.

Beyond this, I think most of the locked room mysteries in Episode 2 aren't all that interesting. The main roadblock to solving them is really that Battler doesn't want to think about who the culprit is, so he doesn't bother with the easy out of the servants just lying.

I do have a pretty out-there theory about Kanon's doppelganger. I would compare Kanon's death in Episode 2 to the story I came up with in Episode 1 (my Fifth Twilight post): Kanon was originally in on the Demons' Roulette, but after a loved one of his gets killed he betrays his co-conspirators and attacks them. It is interesting that the bodies of Kumasawa and Nanjo are found in the courtyard, which is the same place that Kanon's killer fled to in Episode 1. I would suggest that a similar confrontation happened in this case, but the servants can't reveal how much they know, hence how vague they are on the details of murders that they personally witnessed.

Of course, this is complete nonsense, because Kanon is dead. There's no body, but it was stated in red. Even at the very end of the story, Kanon's body is nowhere to be found. I already brought up that I think Red Truths could be misleading, even if they're technically true. In Kanon's final moments, he dies trying to speak his real name. This theory offers another payoff to the alter ego theme: Kanon died in the sense that he rejected his identity as Kanon and reclaimed his identity as a human being. Therefore he can be "dead" while still appearing later to kill Nanjo and Kumasawa, and potentially to impersonate Beatrice again in Kinzo's study.

That's pretty much all I have to say on the major mysteries and the presence of magic in the story. I even managed to avoid mentioning the hilarious lightsaber thing! There'll probably be one more post to wrap up Episode 2, unless I decide to skip it and go on to 3 immediately. You'll find out pretty soon, either way.

[911lsbts]

Where did the idea for this final emergency come from? And it’s teased at the top of the episode the asteroid won’t be the only part of the emergency in the finale, yes?

The high concept of this episode being the asteroid and the secondary crisis it causes for our characters — our cast and our crew, we’d all found ourselves in this sort of end-of-the-world feeling for us when our show was canceled, in all of our minds, too soon. I think that was infused in where we wanted to end this season, and put all of our characters and our audience through this feeling that the world was just ending too abruptly. And that’s the theme of these last two episodes, in all of the storylines, and also in terms of our actual emergency.

We were looking for an emergency that started with that theme. So then the two ways that the world could end too soon would be, 1) the asteroid, which we thought was the perfect metaphor of what we felt like, and then, 2) the thing that the asteroid causes in the finale, which I won’t fully spoil, if you couldn’t deduce it from the opening of this episode.

After this, do you think it’s going to be pretty hard for “9-1-1” to top this series finale when it comes time for that show to end on ABC one day?

It’s funny, because Tim and I work hand in hand. We both are executive producers on both shows, and so we’re always thinking we have to make each episode, whether it’s “Lone Star” or “9-1-1,” you look at each one and say, “What’s the best thing that we can do for this moment of each particular show?” And we never pull punches. One thing we often have to say is, “Wait, you can’t do that. We just did that on Episode 5″ of this show. You can’t do that kind of emergency or that viral video, because we already did it.” But we always want the best for both shows, the biggest for both shows, and I’m sure that we’ll figure something out for “9-1-1.”

In this episode, we find out TK and Carlos are not being approved to adopt Jonah strictly because of their high-risk jobs. Does that mean that one of them will quit their chosen careers so they can proceed with adopting him?

I once read that, “There is no meaning without sacrifice.” So to make the most meaningful decision of one of their lives, somebody is going to have to make a decision. This decision gets made before the apocalyptic event, in either case, as you’ll see in the finale. But I think you’re onto something.

At the end of the episode, it’s heavily implied Tommy has died due to the effects of her cancer, and she even sees her late husband Charles welcoming her into the afterlife before she appears to pass away. Can you confirm whether she’s dead going into the finale?

I’ve said when we did this whole journey with Tommy’s cancer and with Gina, the actor, as well is we really were going to have to go all the way. And a big part of it was also an opportunity in this episode for Tommy to have it come full circle. And to be to be frank, I took a lot of heat for ending the Trevor and Tommy relationship, but part of why we did it is because I knew this was where we wanted to take her character full circle with this love of her life. And not to get too personal, but when my mom, right before she passed, I was in her hospital room, and she was telling me about how her mom and dad had come to visit her that morning. And it was so vivid for her. She wasn’t saying it as if, “Oh, they’re ghosts.” She was just saying it as if it happened. And then she passed not long after, and it gave her such comfort. And I think that stuck with me.

And it was actually Tim Minear who said we should find a way to get Charles back in the show before it’s too late. And that was a deep anchor of inspiration that we really wanted to get to. And it seemed like this was the way that we could really show what that love of her life meant to her, and also this cancer battle was going to require the ultimate, I don’t want to say price — but that she’d have to go to the ends of herself. So that’s what I’ll say about it.

You get into two big character storylines in this penultimate episode: Mateo being deported and Paul mentoring a nonbinary teen who is endangering themselves in stunts to gain acceptance and popularity. Why did you decide to approach these two topics with so little time left in the show?

Like I was saying before, part of the theme of these last two episodes is that your world could end at any moment. And for Mateo, he’s just at the gardening shop with his girlfriend, and he thinks he’s having an existential moment when she reveals that she doesn’t want to get married, but then actually, no, the real existential threat is because of his tenuous DACA status, even an injustice could cost him everything. And what you’ll see in the finale, I think, is it’s going to lead Mateo to the ultimate place of growth in this series by doing it. So that was part of it, to tell that Mateo story at the end.

And then as far as the Paul story, funny enough, when there were about four episodes left of our show, Brian Smith, who plays Paul, came to me and said, “Look, in the pilot of this show, the way that Owen is able to convince Paul to stay in Austin, is he says, ‘Somewhere out there in Austin is a kid just like you looking who doesn’t feel accepted for who they are, and maybe one day they’ll see a firefighter like you and believe that they matter.'” And he said, “Wouldn’t it be cool if before the show wraps, we made good on that little promise?” And I thought that was a brilliant idea. So Brian is the reason why we did that story, because he brought that up from the pilot and that led to the Jax story.

Owen is just about to tell the 126 about his plans to leave and move back to New York to head up the city’s fire departments when the asteroid alert comes in. Should they all make it through this, is Owen going to proceed with his decision to leave Austin?

Well, first he has to live. I’ll say that. I think what we wanted to show in this episode is that you can make up whatever thing you want to make up in your own mind. “I’ve thought about it. I reflected on it. I’m going to do this,” and then real life has something to say about that. And how do you deal with it when your plans get scuttled, because fortune turns its back on you. So you’ll see him experience that. You know, if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. That’s what happens for Owen.

[lyquynhnhu]

Thank you for liking my post. I never expected a reply. I've never been good at writing essay or do text analysis at school and english is not my first language. I just enjoy guessing the lore of anime a really like.

By the way, Memmeln being the second last to die make sense. I just suppose that Unio was the first and Destiny the last.

As for the movie being a total tragedy… There was a scene in the first episode after Natsuko collapsed and she as a child was at the cinema watching a scene of the movie with the 9 heroes together. I thought that was the last scene of the movie. Also, I just remember that according to the prophecy the Nine Soldiers are supposed to become the new light of humanity. This could mean that their deaths/sacrifice serve to revive the Soul Futures. So, maybe that scene in the original Luke die defeating the Great Void but after that he reunited with his companion in the afterlife.

As for the remaining heroes, I watched the episode 5 preview in which Memmeln list the names of eight of the Nine Soldies except for Justice (the two you mentioned are included - by the way all the cast was already announced before the anime aired and can be found in Wikipedia along with the seiyuus).

So, next episode will be about Justice, the title of the episode is also "Seigi" (it means justice in japanese). And in the preview we see Natsuko summoning the Sailor Moon homage. And Sailor Moon is iconic for the concept of "champion of justice". Also, it’s funny the way they use the titles in Japanese and in the same episode a character with the name in English appears. Episode 3 was “Unmei” meaning “Destiny” and Destiny character was introduced.

I didn't know about Sailor Moon original seiyuu voicing here. I appreciate that they are not only making tribute to old animes from a visual point of view, but also from the seiyuu side. To be honest, not having watched the original anime for the reference for episode 1 to 3, I didn’t get it at first. After doing a research I discovered that the Tiger Mask (manga) inspired wrestler to wear a tiger mask. I thought it was the opposite, that is a famous wrestler inspired manga and anime to create wrestler character wearing a tiger mask.

With episode 4 it was different, since I’m familiar with Utapri, Idolish7 and many idol anime. And Exister seiyuu is Mamoru Miyano, he voiced a character in Utapri.

Anyway, I wanted to integrate this in my post, but I’ll write it here. I read many comments that said summing an idol to save Memmeln was stupid idea and it make no sense. I rewatched the episode many times, and here’s my explanation to why Natsuko decide to summon an idol.

Natsuko was going to follow Luke’s plan and draw the Great Void

According to Luke, Memmeln’s cult worship the Great Void and they would do everything he says

When Memmeln transform in the Great Void, Natsuko had to think to a plan B on the spot and her solution was to create something the cult could worship

The keyword here is “worship” and according to the many idol anime I’ve watched, idol are indeed people that are worshipped.

The choir is not an evil organisation that wished for the end of the world. Cults are group of peoples that search for salvation through a god. In this case, they choose to worship an evil god (or the only thing more similar to a god that exists in that world. Does that world have religions?). Considering they live in a world with constant war and in the verge or ruin with only one city still existing in the whole planet, it’s not illogical they lose hope. Natsuko basically give them a new god to worship and this god is all “life is beautiful and worth living”. What the cult needed is salvation and something eternal to believe in. And art is something eternal, and idols are connected with music which is a form of art.

Maybe it seems that the cult change values too fast, but it does happen to suddenly fall in love with a song, book, movie, etc. That’s exactly what happened to Memmeln.

Also, about Memmeln not get punished for what she did. From what I understood, transforming the void in the priest was the first and only attempt of the cult to help the void. Before that, they only try random summoning rituals. From a viewer point of view, her motivation are lame and resolution too easy. Even Natsuko didn't expect Memmeln to be a "poor written" character. In the movie she was supposed to be cool and mysterious (her motivation was neve explained, after all). But even Luke, who is supposed to be the leader, a rightful hero, didn't blame her but feel pity for her. Maybe it's just a matter of cultural perspective.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to next episode for more unconventional way to defeat enemies.

A Tale of Perishing - analysis (part 1)

Just watched episode 4 of Zenshu and it was hilarious. To be honest, it’s since episode 2 that I’m curious about the original movie plot.

What we know is that “A Tale of Perishing” was an original anime in movie format. Just from the title it’s is expected to be very dramatic. Natsuko stated that the plot was depressing, the type of angst for angst sake.

Natsuko gets reincarnated at the start of the movie. At this point 8/9 country of that world have already perished. Only 1 city survived, the Last City.

The movie probably just introduced the hero party and soon after the enemy army attacked, like it happened in episode 1. Then Unio sacrificed himself to annihilate the enemies. This means that Unio just died before getting to know his character. However, from the bit of the movie that Natsuko watched on her computer, he was alive. Maybe Unio appears only in flashbacks.

Before Unio funeral, there is the voids attack from the sky. And somehow, Luke, who was devastated by the death of his best friend, somehow managed to defeat them. However, in episode 2, QJ stated that Luke has 3% of possibility to win. Like, in the movie he was mentally unstable but manages to win, while in the anime he was physically and mentally alright and still struggle? My theory is that Luke is able to trigger some special power under dire situation. But since Natsuko resolved it all, the condition to awake such power are not met.

So, after this attack, the city has time to held Unio funeral. There, Luke meets and fall in love with Destiny. We know that Destiny would died, but I think that happened further in the movie. In fact, I think that others of the Nine Soldiers died before she did. After every loss, Destiny stay with Luke to comfort him and give him courage (while also attracting problems). The Memmeln cult stuff probably happened in the middle of the movie. Destiny is probably the last one to die and Luke completely broke.

It’s unclear if the movie ended with Luke saving the world or the enemies winning. It’s probably the former, but it’s not totally an happy ending since almost all the cast have died.

Anyway, since it was an anime movie, the duration is limited and many parts got cut. For example, Natsuko know nothing about the choir and had no idea why Memmeln transformed in the Great Void.

As for Memmeln, she lived more than 200 years always in battlefield. But the void are supposed to have appears not many years ago. On the official site, it’s written that Luke and Memmeln come from different countries before the country falls. Since Memmeln lives long, maybe her country fell century ago while Luke’s fell when he was a child.

Memmeln says that she joined the cult recently. She realizes for a long time that her life is hard, but doesn’t consider taking her own life maybe because of her responsibility as a hero. The Nine Soldiers seems to have been chosen by a prophecy. Unio said that Luke was destined to be become the legend hero the day he was born. Memmeln doesn’t choose to be a hero, but she cares for the world and the people. If she died, void would continue to attack and the people would suffer more with one less hero protecting them. With the cult, she found people who think like her. By awaking the Great Void, Memmeln believe that the world would end peacefully and equally ending everyone suffering. Her decision is quite selfish and drastic, but her decision comes from her particular circumstances.

The cult doesn’t control the void attacks, they just want them to get the last Soul Future. Memmeln doesn’t want to create panic, that’s why transforming into the Great Void and attack Luke was her last card. But she regret it. In the anime she detransformed back because she was having second thoughts, while in the original movie she is easily defeated by Luke. Probably she didn’t even try to fight seriously.

In the movie, all her motives are cut. Nor Luke nor the audience understand this twist of the plot. No wonder the movie was rated bad. I’m quite convinced that the movie condensed the story too much. Like, there are 9 heroes, but they died without getting development. It’s already difficult to develop everyone with 12 episodes (I think Zenshu have only 12 episode, wish it had more), and the movie was 2 hours long.

I think from episode 5 to 9 the anime will introduce the remaining 5 heroes. In the preview we see the dragon who was also in the opening. Usually, in the opening should appear all the characters or at least the silhouettes. But the dragon is the only one that appears.

I really wished this anime has 2 cours.

[kyurochurro]

shore leave on the mind bec its such a wacky episode 😭 SO here’s a fun spirk drawing cus they were all over the place in this one GHDJBSJKSBJ

(also feat. a small angry bones appearance :D)

[egophiliac]

I love your take on Crowley!

I know that the early, non-Diasomnia stories aren't really your thing, but are you reading the novels at all?

I have been following some of the fan translations and the second book seems intense! Would love to hear what you think about them.

thank you! 💚💚💚 I'm not really sure why you think I don't like the earlier arcs though, I love pretty much all the characters and their storis! (I think 5 and 1 are my favorite of the past episodes, though 6 infected me with the Shroud brainrot something fierce.) I just...ESPECIALLY love diasomnia. :') but there is room in my heart for all of these dweebs! like, who among us is not just as ride-or-die for Adeuce as they are for us.

that said, I don't really follow the other adaptations like the manga (aside from a dip-in just to see the new Yuus) or the novels, though I keep meaning to check them out! I do like seeing the differences between the different forms of media, and how certain things get adapted one way or another! but alas, time/a lack of accessibility stands in our way more often than not. :( someday...someday I will have time to consume all of the media...

[funsizedshark]

pacing around in circles muttering to myself about daniel and louis and the years between the first interview and now...... daniel telling armand "he didn't even want me in the end" after offering to get on his knees for him instead... they didn't fuck but for decades "i really thought we did" / "do you want to now?"... daniel is old and dying in a penthouse full of impossibly young beautiful immortal beings and louis still laughingly offers something that daniel thought for years he'd gotten already. and then it turns out that not only he didn't, but something in him had assumed they did have sex and never explored that further and he's gone through this entire second interview so far under that assumption because that bridge has been crossed already. except it hadn't and when louis says "do you want to now" you can see the change in his expression like for the briefest of moments he really is considering it

[just-call-me-moran]

I am so normal about these two men. Like completely normal.

[luna-the-cretar]

I will never not love Sarnax taking phrases too literally. Especially since it usually involves him trying to be helpful, and not understanding that it’s just a phrase

Like Victoria mentioning the phrase “catch more flies with honey than vinegar”, and this man was SO ready to give Victoria tips on how to actually catch flies. I just. I can’t. I love him so much.

It’s like Shepherd keeps saying, Sarnax is a little rough around the edges but he means well.

[swan2swan]

They've been living together for six months.

[bumblingbabooshka]

Polycule Moments Guess who got access to recording software

[icewindandboringhorror]

Some (late) holiday photos of the boye~!

[astralhope]

While I was rewatching the first Zexal episodes, I noticed something interesting: aside from stuttering his name the first time they met, Yuma never referred to Astral by his name until episode 6. He only referred to Astral as “ghost”, “spirit”, or “this guy”, or simply “you” when talking directly to him. At the beginning of episode 5 Yuma is saying to Kotori and Testuo that Astral had repeatedly told him the day before to call him Astral. Furthermore, since Kotori and Tetsuo didn't have any idea that Astral had a name, shows that Yuma had never said his name while they were around.

I don't think that being called like that was a bother to Astral initially, (he wasn't even sure that Astral was his name when he crashed on Earth), but, probably, after knowing the name of the place he was from (and that he had a mission to fulfill), he started to have a more strong sense of himself and wanted Yuma (who was the only person who could see him) to call him by his name (and also wanting Yuma's friends to use his name and not calling him “ghost”).

In this scene, Yuma says Astral's name, but he is just repeating what Astral had said to him.

The first time Yuma calls Astral by name properly and directly to him is during episode 6, after Tokunosuke took control of Leviathan Dragon and Astral's condition worsened. And after that, he calls Astral's name two more times, trying to get him to answer.

Astral, instead, tries to use Yuma's name from the start... with poor results.

But in the next episode, when talking to himself, he refers to Yuma with his correct name (while Yuma calls Astral a ghost or similar even when he was talking to himself).

Astral calls Yuma with his correct name for the first time during episode 3, when he tells Yuma to duel against Mr. Ukyo because he has a Number.

It's kind of ironic that it took more than one episode to make Yuma and Astral say the other's name, seeing how the more the show progresses, the more these two end up screaming each other's name.

[hampterguts]

forever amazed and confused at how often transformers franchise just straight up depicts suicide attempts. like not even considering the superhero trope of "i have to save everyone!!! by choosing to die!!!!!" thing. like. non-allow-yourself-to-die-to-stop-a-thing-from-killing-everyone-immediately type situations. which tbh i wish more ppl talked about but not the point here

like. sure mtmte, a comic abt mentall illness and war, i expected it to be aware of the concept. but its not handled well and mostly used for shock value or "im better now i swear! i have a husband and everything" BUT ITS IN THE KIDS SHOWS TOO??? MY BESTIE G1 RODIMUS?? BEAST WARS DINOBOT???