#this is a excuse to reuse art kinda

[no-one-turose-shipper]

turo is my favourite sv old man, rose is my favourite swsh old man, so basically turose is my ultimate yaoi i love u

I love you too outby16s

Anyway Danganronpa reference ‼️

[flutterclangen]

very, very quick refs for the starting siblings !!!

[meirimerens]

i noticed it a couple of times in your pictures (mostly those that are uh. you cannot show here) that you draw Burakh with tavro signs on his body. are these tatoos? scars? something else? and on a similar topic, how do you apply these symbols on herb brides when you draw them? do you do this based on their meanings (though as far as i'm concerned most of them haven't been given any clear meanings by the developers) or just randomly?

hello darling

if you mean signs like those:

(excuse the. crops on these two first ones you know how it is you've mentioned) (the third one was posted on here it's fine...)

they're scars! specifically scars i give him when i draw him in the ATA Extended Universe, meaning the drawing Exists with my fic's lore behind it :3 i'm not saying which chapters the scars show up you're just gonna have to read the thing. teehee giggle.

on burakh, they're all sigils that exist within the game's lore, either of those

or these

all kinda flowing into one another. as you can read in the first link, some of these sigils have meanings, and some don't, so i pick and choose what i feel is right. what i Fuck Wit.

as for the Brides, their models and/or character concepts come with sigils already smeared on.

depending on whether or not i follow their models precisely, follow them loosely, or go balls to the wall with my own concepts, i either replicate the exact same sigils at the same place, put other sigils in the same or other places, or take inspiration from the placements and lines of them to draw on my own brides. i either reuse the sigils i posted above, some others drawn on these brides that don't appear on the sigil sheet, or i make some up following the same design patterns as the canon sigils. since besides a few the sigils have no canon meanings i just go cuckoo. some patterns i tend to re-use when i draw Herb Brides are the facepaint-bride's elongated sigils on the thighs and knees, the flower bride's back-of-thigh sigil that looks inspired by mongolian traditional script and her chest-painted sigils, and those on the arms. I try to leep the sigils on places where the Brides could have drawn them themselves, as i think that's what they do for the most part.

examples:

^ reusing the patterns of sigils with elongated "tails", new sigils, same placement

^ reusing the patterns of sigils over the chest, new sigils new "texture" (on the left), same placement

^ reusing the patterns of sigils with elongated "tails", different (on the left) and same sigils (right) as the concept art, different placement

thank u for askin 🫂

[acornshell]

🌲A small stroll in the woods𓂃𓂂🍃

I suddenly had the earge to draw Moceit so here they are🤲💛💙 (This might be my first SS ship art to post on here( ºﾛº))

I kind of reused thier outfits from Thomas's into the unknown vid ! I guess I wanted an excuse to draw Janus in his coat (〃´-`〃)♡

I had fun with Jan's text bubbles, interpret it however you like!✨

I think Patton's just kinda pretending to listen seriously for his over-the-top edgy snake boi :)

[pchslc]

Ngl I just wanted to draw a girl with some tentacles...

[calocera]

got tagged in an ask game about art processes, i dont really feel like doing an ask game format rn but i can share the process of this piece they wanted a process post about! always happy to provide that kinda thing :v

the first one was just a screencap redraw, but i did change some things to give the piece a more distinctive feeling! Got rid of the items in the foreground, added more movement in the hair and fabrics to show a stronger wind, and i upped the saturation and changed the lighting a little because the entire arc had that gray filter over it and i am not a fan of it. you can really tell i struggled with Xiao Xingchen by how many more sketch layers he has, i just went with the flow for the other two i guess! (i also changed the flow of the fabric on Xiao Xingchen cause i didnt want to draw feet 😔) i slightly changed the poses too just because i wanted to make it feel like a standalone piece and not just a direct redraw

this one i put more thoughts into! (also didnt save the sketch layer oopsie) The flowers and the sword boarder are reused assets from another yi city piece i did but never posted bc i hated how it came out; at this point i have sooo many reference photos of various swords i just dip into constantly :( (i would also like to flex again that i did NOT use any line tools for these, i used a piece of paper on my tablet to get some lines straight and did lots of mirroring, but otherwise its all freehanded)

for the first panel, its kinda a redraw of an older concept sketch i did, i changed the composition but the theme is pretty much the same. i kinda just made shit up as i went in regards to how this whole thing is colored.

The second panel just came from me wanting to do some more painting, also i hadnt gotten to draw Xiao Xingchens eyes yet so i took it as an excuse to do closeups. The hand in the first one is perhaps Baoshan Sanren taking the eyes and ofc the other is Xue Yang, they are referenced just from my own hands :) I actually copy pasted the eyes, so if you look closely hopefully you can see that they are the same despite them being in different positions!

hope thats all at all interesting for anyone :D

[askfallenroyalty]

How do you plan to explain a lot of these smaller (but still significantly important) details answered in asks in the final completed comic? Are you going to?

//i’m gonna certainty try! otherwise it’d be erased by time O: but i also think like... sometimes (and actually, certainty! fundamentally by the limited nature of how stories are made and experienced) you can’t know every detail of the world or inner workings of the characters. like, yes, for example i’d love to explore more about asriel’s dealings/interactions with humanity! why would a CEO be allowed/able to yell at a king, even if he’s a monster? how did Asriel get roped into marketing off monsterkind, did it escalate, did he approve of it? did he fight it? was it his idea? i know the answers, but do we need to know? is it organic to pause the story to go into the history of a million little details that I have in my head but aren’t really needed for the story to flow naturally?

like, small thing, when i reused panels from the cancelled Christmas arc, i changed the flowers from the red christmas poinsettia to yellow lilies. small detail, nobody's gonna notice or care. that’s what’s?? so cool about comics and animations specifically? it takes so long for the story/art to be made that details like are thought of and add depth but like, overt. its there to be subconsciously noticed or to fill the story with more cohesive tissue or structure. like, i want toriel to rearrange her house and change things up throughout the years (within reason, I still gotta keep track of it esp when time moves around in flashbacks and crap!) and small changes like that or Franky’s hair growth ect. are all there to flesh things out without needing to be addressed.

is this kinda an excuse/hand wave that i’m limited by time and what effort i can pull off? eh, yeah a bit. but its also not really a bad thing I feel, I like things being open ended and I hope the reader knows to engage with my work with this kinda analytical/thoughtful lens. sure, my ooc lore bits will be lost with time but the fact it’s there in the comic at all is just kinda cool? people can fill in the blanks and interpret my work in vastly different ways and thats not bad at all :>

[lunammoon]

The Problem With Hetalia (As told by someone who actually in the fandom until like, 2016)

I'm hoping this post will explain to people who are still into Hetalia why a lot of people have an issue with from the perspective of someone who knows a lot about the show. 

TL;DR: By making the WW2 axis powers come across as a lovable idiot, his serious friend, and the stoic voice of reason, it downplays the serious nature of what the Axis did and seeing as the real-life Axis harmed real-life people, many people have a justifiable huge issue with this. 

I will go more into depth about this under the cut.

A lot of people are talking about how Hetalia is coming back after 5 years and a lot of people are rightfully annoyed at the show. But what I'm seeing is that a lot of the people who are upset are people who clearly haven't watched the show and therefore are unable to explain to people who have watched it why it’s bad. The most that you hear is:

"it glorifies the Axis Powers" (which isn't 100% accurate although the assessment that they are portrayed in a way that makes them seem less bad is accurate) 

"Hetalia Cosplayers wore Nazi uniforms in front of a Holocaust memorial" (which I'd say is more of an issue with fans than the show). 

That is not to say that there isn't an issue with the show, because there really is. But these observations are unlikely to mean much to someone who watches Hetalia. So, in this thread, I'm going to explain why Hetalia is Problematic with the added context perspective of someone who was into the show during most of middle school and until Freshman year of high school. 

I knew the human names, used to jam to "Always With You" and "Pub and Go" and “It’ll Settle Itself Somehow” and “Light my Heart” and “Absolute British Gentleman” and “Mein Gott” and “World Rondo” and “Excuse Me, I’m Sorry” and so, so many more. 

I lost my shit with everyone else when the season 6 ep dropped and Italy danced like he was possessed by a demon. When I hear “ACE” family, I don’t think of Youtubers. I actually took a side on the FruUK vs UsUk debate and if you look in my archive, you can probably find some Hetalia posts that I’m too lazy to delete.

The point here being, I’ve actually seen the show so I know what I’m talking about. This isn’t an outsiders perspective is what I’m saying.

So, let’s get right into it. While technically only seasons 1-2 are officially actually called "Axis Powers" (Seasons 3-4 are called "World Series" Season 5 is "Beautiful World" and Season 6 is called "World Twinkle") WW2 and things relating to the Axis Powers are an important part of every season and appear prominently.

While Hetalia has covered many things from all different time periods, the two most common periods covered are the modern-day and of course, the second World War. The show is Japanese and (I assume) because Japan was on the Axis side, these portions focus more on the Axis Powers of Italy, Japan, and Germany. The Allies do come into play. And while the Allies aren't directly like, evil, which would've been FAR WORSE they've got a kind of Team Rocket-esque thing going on? They're not exactly mustache-twirling villains but they're clear antagonists. Make no mistakes.

I think the deserted Island arc is the best example of the problems many people have with the show.

Take for example, that beach fight. If you've watched Hetalia, you'll know the one I'm talking about. The one that they reused like, 50 times. The Allies are clearly shown as the antagonists/aggressors while the Axis are literally just vibing on a (kinda) deserted island and defending themselves. 

Now, if this was three dudes chilling on the beach and they suddenly got attacked by another five dudes also on the beach who they then fought off until the five attackers ran away that’s be one thing.

The issue is that this is supposed to be a representation of WW2. It's basically saying "oh, Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Fascist Italy were literally just vibing, not bothering anyone when suddenly, the Allies attacked for no reason. Luckily, they (the Allies) retreated because the Allies are Cowardly but they keep coming back and bothering them,". Do you see the issue there? Most of the beach arc seems to be the writer forgetting that these are supposed to be Nations, not a random Italian dude, a German dude, and a Japanese dude.

“Oh, but they don’t glorify Nazi Germany. They don’t really even talk about what Germany was doing! Look at this pic of Germany in a lab coat holding a dandelion :)“

That’s not the defense that you think it is and it’s actually a main part of the issue that I, and many other people have with Hetalia.

I think the scene where this issue is the most obvious is the one where they are gathering around a campfire and talking and one of them comes up with the name "the Axis". The whole scene has the same energy characters in a moe anime coming up with a band name.

They’re sitting on a beach at night. I think there might’ve been a campfire, the stars are out, and the three of them talk about their dream of making a world that revolved around them. One of them comes up with the name “the axis” and then they all talk about how you would translate "axis" in their language. It’s all very found family-esque. The way the scene is framed is to encourage you to route for them to reach their goal. It’s the same kind of tone you’d see in a shoujo with a girl telling her friends about how she wants to win the singing competition no matter what or in Sword Art Online when Kirito talks about saving Asuna.

The issue is that their goal isn’t to win some competition or to save someone they care about. It’s to spread facism, imperialism, and bring about genocide.

There of course don’t SAY that that’s their goal, and outside of a one off line in the English dub that’s been since censored, they don’t really bring up what Germany was up to during WW2 vis-a-vie the Holocaust and if they did bring it up, I either wasn’t paying attention, it was in the manga, or it was in one of Germany’s character songs.

The issue is that during WW2 the show seems to at best forget and at worst, gloss over it that the main trio that they're focusing on are the villains. And not like, fantasy villains. Actual real-life villains that hurt real people in the real world. Imagine if instead of Ludwig Beilschmidt and Feliciano Vargas, it was Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. 

Are you seeing the problem yet?

I get why people like to watch the show. Ignoring the WW2 bits, it’s actually pretty good. I, as an American, really like Alfred F. Jones and the way he’s portrayed.

If Hetalia had stuck to non-WW2 related things such as that episode where the nations all talk about how horror movies differ in their nations, or they talked about their Christmas traditions. Or the ones where America and Japan are roommates. Or when they showed that time when America airdropped XL condoms on Russia labeling them as "small" for intimidation reasons. Or that series of episodes where they talked about Micronations. Or that time they all had to come together to fight aliens. Or the bit where they talked about the WW1 Christmas Armistice. Then it would be fine.

The issue is that they didn’t.

If they kept WW2 stuff for SOME reason. They had two options. 

Make the axis as proper villains

 Be explicit in showing that the nations will doesn't reflect what their leader wants. 

The first option wouldn’t be ideal if they wanted to cover any time period other than World War 2. The axis would be too unlikable and I doubt that an anime where Japan is the villain would appeal much to Japanese audiences.

But what about the second option. Have a bit where Ludwig is passing out White Rose pamphlets or smuggling people to safety.

Have Kiku (Japan for people who don’t watch Hetalia) purposefully looking the other way as Sugihara writes visas to get people to safety and covering for him against his boss. SOMETHING!

But instead of doing either of those, they took the bad third option which was, their choice to instead make the axis seem like likable individuals who are a group of three good friends who work together will in contrast with the “bumbling Allies” who are barely cohesive and constantly fight and argue. At best, makes it seem like both sides had a point and at worst, makes it seem like the Axis was a better than the Allies.

All of this is to say that liking Hetalia does not make you inherently a bad person, but you need to be more critical of what you watch and understand that there is a reason that some people have a genuine issue with it and they have a very good reason for that. You can still watch it the show, but do keep this information in the back of your brain as you do

[enzo-zzz]

A vent on the fandom + cg

If you dont wanna hear any negativity, please just ignore this post. It includes dissatisfication on the yttd fandom and ongoing belief in it. I'm not going to use very kind words here, so just ignore this post. 3b spoilers included.

I like yttd so much, but the english fandom, i cannot interact because how toxic it is. Even the smallest different of which route you choose, will attract anyone to abuse, harrass, ridicule or humiliate you. And to be truth, there are many of them who are so judgemental, to the point that there is only one thing that are right and the other are wrong. Black and white mindset. The term "canon route" is what fans created itself. I guess there are many of them who are teens or kids, since most of kids who havent grown up yet tend to lean towards black and white mindset, even if they believe they are not. If you find people who keep arguing especially on social media, you can bet that its teens. Adult are too tired to involve in things like fighting with strangers. There is one time when the poll asked your age and the age range quite small to teens age. I guess thats why i think so.

OTHER THAN THAT, THERE'S ONE THING I'M ANNOYED WITH. ABOUT THE CG AND HOW THE FANDOM DECIDES THAT THE MORE CGS, THE MORE CANON IT IS. To be perfectly honest, i'm the one who came up with the analysis that on certain route 2-2 ending the cg is more. But people really use it the wrong way and now thought that anything that has more cg is the canon route. The word canon route is wrong in itself, who tf come up with the term canon route in yttd? Is the reason for creating two route is for one to be canon only, or for sparing different characters, or for having different storyline? (I personally think that on different route, the story will change and the ones who got to live at last is probably different ). Now i see those who misuse that information everywhere. "In sou route 2-2 ending evil joe AI dont even have new cg but in kanna route he has. See how biased the devs are? he should have drawn more if he really meant the route to be the canon one. Kanna route will get happy ending, sou route is bad ending." I think thats stupid. B*tch, he keep reusing his old art here and there. You can check for yourself. Joe and midori has same hand based on the cg? He's just reusing the hand art. The arm in 3b and 1-1 is the same arm he reuse. Sou and kanna 2-2 ending basically use the same sou drawing, he just changed it a bit. Sara in 2-2 kanna ending use the same cg as when keiji try to calm her in front of computer, he just changed the face. Midori and sara on the 3b game screen cg basically use the same cg in the 3b content, but changed a bit. So i can think why need to create new cg when joe is still malicious as the hallucination in 2-2 sou ending? If i want to create something i will also reuse this to save my time.

So if you wanna really use this cg argument, then maybe you can consider why alice memory game got so many more cg than reko's? and how ranmaru gone insane has so many new sprite and pose with the hair like that. And why when dummy is dead they got cg's. Especially the ranmaru dying one, he got moving cg's and how it was put more effort into that. Then that means dummy dying is actually the canon route since when they alive they got no addtional cg? This is my assumption, but i think the devs just do as many cg as it takes depends on how impactful the scene he's working on, not because its canon, thats really a lazy take if he is actually unwilling to do extra route but still forcing himself to do it anyway. Imagine if dummy is dying but no cg, instead a message " ranmaru/mai/anzu died ". Do you think that will really give impact to you? This game clearly hinting that joe is going to be the spotlight of the game, even in 3b. So when sou set the real joe ai in kanna route for sara, the script is written for the real joe to genuinely react to sara. of course thats going to be heartwrenching since joe himself is the very important part of sara's life. When the script is made that way, lacking of cgs will hamper down the storytelling nankidai genuinely want to deliver. All i can say is it come from the heart of the author himself. If it is just only text for something as tearful as that moment and no cgs, it wont really touch the feeling isnt it? It is the same with alice memory game that tells about how alice "kill" midori. I'm not sure how many it is but atleast there is 3 cgs with one of them has variant. The story of how alice kill midori is also important and should have impact, thus the extra CG's. I can say its about being passionate and indulged in the storytelling.

I dont even know if joe will ever heal sara in sou route, but based on how the story still keep joe relevant til the end, then there must be something that need to happen between them in the end right? Nankidai even made sure that sara see the dog keychain in 3a if player probably choose to not ask gin about the dog keychain he's hiding in ch 2. Its also for relating ranmaru and joe. Having closure or conclusion with joe in the middle of game is still valid, and having a closure with joe at the end of the game is still valid. Imo, having closure with joe at the end of the game after all of those suffering involving him makes the better climax or impact for sara chara development since the game build up to highlight joe and mr. Policeman, it can be even better if all of it are to be pull together in the ending.

Even if the devs has route he prefer, he's not abandoning any route he less prefer, only if its true that he ever have a route he prefer. Plus you dont know which route he's prefer if any. He's taking his work seriously, it just some "fans" looking down on him, even to the point calling him biased, he's punishing the one who take another route, treating like he only use his career for egostatiscal reason (it somehow clearly mirrors that you are the one who egostatiscal to the point of wanting to find any excuse to punish other, you just using the devs name to validate your mindset). If he's dislike people who chose that route that much, then why create that route? If he know its tiring to make alternate route, then why still make the choice to let 3 dummy alive route at the end? It will make more work. I can only assume its out of passion, or just that he deep down wants the character to be alive atleast in a route ( idk if this is correct, i just read google translated version of his public fanbox that he's actually very reluctant at first when the time comes and "crying" so hard when he had to kill joe in chapter 1. So the part where he wants to spare some character is only my assumption ). By this punishing logic, shouldnt he not make alice die when you push reko ai to spare gin, and only do it to those who dont push the ai to save gin by killing real reko? I am more sure that the variants is to tell a different story or who to spare, and specifically for who sara actually was.

Happy endings? I'm not sure. I've expected that once from story with a lot of deaths, wishing for atleast the protagonists alive. Anime or story with a lot of death is definitely my jam, but from what i see, most of them has bittersweet ending, it depends on how the author wants it to be. Some author dont mind killing them all till the end, and some author just easily kill them all because they plan to revive them later. And everyone sense is different. Some japanese people sense in storytelling is a bit different imo. As the one being the audience, happy endings is the most common wish the audience wants. But its all up to the sense of the author. This is why i'm annoyed with some kids from overseas who rarely watch or play many things that involves a lot of death from japan suddenly says that this "one happy ending, this one bad ending! Everyone will survive in this route, everyone dead in this route"

Just play any route you like, nothing wrong with that. Whats wrong is to start this war of ridiculing others or have that irritating attitude towards those who play their own first route and start bad mouthing or desperately throwing bad assumption that one route will end very bad just for the sake of feeling better for your choice and to scare others.You do know that when you read a book, you'll only know if the overall story is good or bad until you know the ending right? The ending will conclude everything that happened. What happening in the fandom is now like, you only read 3/4 of the book and already expecting that this one will have good ending and bad ending. What if its not about the binary, but for the difference in direction? Its not that bad if the story of the book is kinda predictable, but with how plot twists become the main part of yttd's charm, its getting more difficult to predict how it will end. There's a lot of story which was masterpiece in every part as seen by fans, until the ending hits. Its what the author wants, but its not what the fans wants.

If you pick fights with others, even passively, the consequence is all on you. Good luck taking care of your mess.

Thats why i'm reluctant to publish any theory because the fandom will always use it as an excuse to pick fights with other and say " i'm more right bcs i got this proof" . U see in my caption i dont want any of those harasser to even digest my theory. If you are one of them get out of my blog.

[aj-anime-blog]

To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts - Review!

First review here we go!!

So, after being completely and utterly obsessed with Jujutsu Kaisen and AOT season 4, I decided to check out MAPPA studios and watch a bunch of stuff from their roster. My so-called "MAPPA binge" included this strange and unknown piece: Katsute Kami Datta Kemono-tachi e, or in English, To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts. An adaption of a manga originally released in Bessatsu Shounen (you might recognize this as the magazine that released Attack on Titan!), it looked pretty promising. I do have to admit that I didn't read a page of this anime's manga, though the art style on it looks gorgeous!!

The concept behind the show: A war has torn two halves of a nation apart, split into the North and the South. The Northerners, who were previously greatly outnumbered in battle, created a half-human, half-beast species known as "Incarnates" because of their God-like abilities. But the Incarnates begin having some issues when their beast forms take over their bodies, turning them into monsters. When the war ends, our protagonist, Hugh Hank, an Incarnate and previous captain of the Incarnate squad, swears to kill all of his mutating Incarnate buddies before they can destroy the world.

This review will not contain spoilers until the labeled "Spoiler" section at the bottom.

In general, what do I think?: 4/10, this show kinda sucked. Ouch! I hate being that blunt! Especially on my first review here! But To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts (let's call it TTASB from here on out!) had glaring flaws that, while it did hold up as a show, made it uninteresting and hard to love. Not only were the characters mediocre and boring, but the show seemed to contradict itself and its own opinion of the Incarnates all the time! Are they bloodthirsty monsters that need to be killed? Are they misunderstood humans who should be given peace? I don't know! Our main characters don't seem to either! Other than the "war bad" motif that gets shoved down your throat from episode one, the show felt stagnant in what it was trying to make the audience feel.

I hate being so cynical about it, though, because it does still earn those 4 points! Even though a lot of it falls flat, as a whole, it's still an ok show! Hank and Schaal have good concepts and their dilemmas are interesting in certain parts when the writers manage to nail pits and pieces of their development! The fight scenes were cool and I think that the concept for the world was neat! And the show does have a pretty cool title. Let's be honest, To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts sounds super metal.

So what about those characters?: 5/10! Hugh Hank and Schaal are our two main protags for the show, and they both have pretty interesting concepts! Hank is an Incarnate, he used to be the leader of the other Incarnates, and he made a vow with them that when they lost their minds, he would kill them himself. Schaal is the daughter of one of these Incarnates that fought under Hank. Interesting, right?! How could these two opposing characters get along with one another?

TTASB tries to give the two of them a sort of grumpy-old-mentor-teaches-a-cheery-youngster relationship (which, admittedly, is one of my favorite tropes) and manages to forget everything good about having this kind of relationship. To start, it feels like Schaal has next to no reason to be tolerating Hank, and vice versa. She follows him around because *insert some excuse about understanding the Incarnates?* and Hank lets her because *insert I really don't know*. It really feels like Schaal doesn't need to be there, and she's just a plot device to move along Hank's character development.

Then, the two of them never really interact in ways that really moved me. It never felt like they made a deeper connection that meant something to the plot. They interacted, sure. They spoke about their issues, yeah. But it never felt like Hank needed Schaal, or that Schaal was emotionally tied to Hank, until the show spoonfed it to you that they were.

In the end, neither of their developments felt compelling or interesting. There were a few scenes that maybe, if you squinted, hinted towards them growing as people, but for a 12 episode anime, it was very menial. It also felt like said scenes were fairly forced, with their development not really leading them to the point that they ended up at. Again, TTASB has a bit of an issue with contradicting itself.

The villain was so meh. He has a motive, yeah. It's pretty lame. He's not compelling at all. Nothing about him is interesting or kept me hooked on him. The show probably could've existed without him, to be entirely honest. I don't really have much else to say about him! I just did not really care about him at all.

The best characters in the show are hands-down the supporting cast of Incarnates. Each one has fairly interesting motivations, and even though they're only given an episode or so to tell their stories, they feel the most genuine. My biggest qualm with them is that the show doesn't build their connection to Hugh Hank at all, so when he gets emotional over them, you're kind of like "uhhh u know this guy??". More about this down in our spoilers section, as I'll go over a scene where this is prominent.

So characters were meh, but what about the story itself?: 4/10, just as meh. Again, very interesting! Lots of potential! But it fell flat where it mattered. To be clear, just before we dig deeper: the 12 episodes of TTASB isn't the entire story. It's clearly intended to be continued, though, as of writing this, I haven't been able to dig up any news about a potential season 2.

I don't really mind if animes aren't completely original, as long as they're fun, but TTASB didn't really do that. A lot of the episodes felt boring and reused like it was a watered-down copy-paste of other material. Some episodes were repetitive and seemed to be trying to hammer in the same themes, only to be later contradicted by other episodes. TTASB will spend a few episodes showing you how misunderstood and sweet the Incarnates are and then have an episode where an Incarnate murders a bunch of people. I would love it if it was, in any way, shape, or form, sarcastic, but it is not. TTASB just thinks it can get away with the blatant disregarding of its own morals. It only ends up feeling disconnecting and frustrating.

It follows an almost monster-of-the-week style format for introducing the Incarnates, which does them a bit of a disservice, in my opinion. I really would have liked it if there was a bit more overlap between the Incarnates and their stories! We know that they're all very close (or, at least, the show tells us that they are without really showing us) so seeing them interact with one another outside of their respective episode would've been fun!

The story tries to be darker and grimier than it actually is. I didn't end up caring much for the nation itself and much of the politics that the show tried to utilize felt boring and, again, watered-down. It felt like the show wanted to make it a political drama about war and human rights and only ended up shying away from what makes those genres impactful. Again, this isn't to say that TTASB's story is bad, it's just not as good as it could've been.

But it's MAPPA, so the art has to be good, right?: Yeah! Art was cool! Nothing golden, like MAPPA's newer stuff, but a solid 7/10! The fight scenes were nice, and even though a lot of them felt redundant to watch, they were still smooth! I have some qualms about a few of the Incarnates' beast forms (especially Hank's) looking like they belong back in 2001, but they still looked cool nonetheless.

I don't really have much to say on this front! Nothing really blew me away, but I never looked at the screen and winced away.

Ok and finally, pacing!: 4/10. 12 episode animes always have tricky pacing to them. I like to think about the show being pretty much only 5 hours long, which isn't that much time to cram in as much story and plot as they might want to. Overall, TTASB actually had pretty decent pacing, with a long enough build-up that led to a final showdown. If you ask me, I do think there was a pacing problem in the second half, as it felt far too stretched out, but that could've just been my perception of it.

My biggest issue with pacing loops back to the characters again. They're never really given time to explore or build up relationships. Especially not Hank and his prior team of Incarnates. I think that there should've been more screen time dedicated to their time in the army, to better explain the emotional distress that he's going through as he's forced to hunt them down. Instead, TTASB relies on a throwaway line or scene to deliver this emotional blow, and it nearly always falls flat.

Music!!!!: 6/10, The soundtrack in this anime really wasn't memorable and I don't remember much from it. Whoops!

I did like the opening a bit! It was done by Mafumafu, who I think has done a Pokemon intro song? Either way, it was energetic and fit the theme of the show well! The ending is also a bop, now that I'm thinking about it! It manages to be nostalgic and sad without being too slow! So good music on both fronts!!

OK, now we're in spoiler territory! Be warned!

I don't have too much to say regarding spoilers. Nothing in the show really feels important enough that I have to mention it under a spoiler tag. A few small notes, I suppose.

The show treats Hank like the more important character but then throws him away in his "death" to focus on Schaal, which was a very frustrating episode. Schaal felt so bland and useless in it, even when she faced her father again. Bringing him back to life felt like a sad excuse to force her into character development. I did like it when she found the courage to shoot him, but I also thought that it wasn't really as emotional as the show wanted it to be.

Hank's connection with Schaal, particularly in the second half, feels completely unnatural and forced. When she gets kidnapped, he has some sort of mental breakdown over her and it, if anything, felt creepy. It was undeserved and was forced down your throat rather than built.

Beatrice was the best character in the show and I think that if they stuck to ideas like hers (misunderstood creatures who just want to go back to their old lives), the story would have been much better. Instead, you switch to characters like the Gargoyle Incarnate, who just goes on a murder spree, and it ruins a lot of the development that Beatrice brought to the table.

& our deep deep look at one part: Forgive me if I get this screwed up a bit, it's been a weekish since I finished the show and my brain dumped out all details of it already.

Hugh Hank goes to the mountains and fights the Garmr Incarnate, Rex (Roy? I'm a bit confused on his name), in an epic show-down. Obviously, at the end of it, Hank wins, killing Rex. Now, if you're like me, you sat there for most of the fight going "who tf is Rex and why is this battle important?" and only at the very END, when he's dying, do you see a clip that you might remember from the very beginning of the anime, with Rex talking about Schaal. You go "oohhh I know who he is!" but you wished that you remembered this ten minutes ago when the fight started because it would've been so much more impactful. The show didn't remind you of this scene. It didn't tell you that Rex was this same person that you already met. It expected you to remember, and I didn't. This scene sums up a lot of the character problems with the show, where even if something does have emotional weight, the show doesn't act on it.

Now we're done!: Sorry if this was harsh, but that's my full review on To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts! I'd love to hear if you agree with me or think that I'm totally wrong! If you've read the manga, tell me if it's better or worth a read! And thanks for reading!

(The crossed-out "Hugh"s are all of the times that I got Hank's name wrong! I'm not super great with character names, but I always take it as a bad sign when I screw up the name. )

[meowstix]

Pokemon X Notes

-It really seems they’re trying to make accepting other views a theme, but it really doesn’t show up too much. Show, don’t tell.

-if lysandre is some well known figure and owns a company why the fuck is he established as some mysterious figure?? bitch everyone knows who jeff bezos and steve jobs are.

-the palace is. really weird. like there’s mentions of past wars and the current owner being somewhat of a shitbag, but it never goes anywhere?? where is our war profiteer lysandre au?

-at one point if you talk to trevor he mentions seeing a pokemon when he was young that he can’t remember and it just goes nowhere?? it kinda reminds me of go so i guess they reused that idea

-it feels like team flare is trying to pull off the whole “comedic villains who still get shit done” thing but like. it doesn’t work when the leader is this asshole capitalist who’s obsessed with keeping the world beautiful by committing genocide.

-why is the poke ball factory in laverre? could it be a message about how nowhere is safe from industrialization? or am i looking too deep?

-honestly lysandre is just so boring in game. he’s just some edgy guy and i have no idea how i’m supposed to feel about the whole “losing faith in humanity” thing. is it supposed to give depth? to me, it makes him so much worse. rich people aren’t motivated by making the world what they view as a better place, no matter how bad the path to it is. they’re motivated by profit, and pokemon doesn’t seem to get that. anyway generations lysandre is best lysandre.

-in lysandre labs, mable states that they’ve gathered data of tons of people throughout the region through the holo caster. excuse me what the fuck??

-first off, jesus christ no need to pull this curse of immortality shit on some kids, and secondly, was lysandre fucking buried alive?? at first i thought he just died but apparently it’s a fate worse than death.

-hey why the fuck is this game saying “but lysandre DID kind of have a point”??? fucking no. he attempted mass genocide and thought that punishing all for the crimes of a few was ok. yes, it’s important that shitty people should face the consequences of their actions. but there will always be bad people, and you can’t get rid of all of them. fight against the injustices that you CAN change. plus, sometimes it really is black and white. with mass genocide there is no moral gray area. what lysandre was doing was bad no matter how you look at it and he was a bad person, no matter his motives.

-“I think the reason we’re alike is because we have so much in common” -Calem

-Do I still think these games are a fucking mess? Yes. But, for better or worse, it’s a mess with so much potential. But, it was ruined by bland characters and whatever the hell happened with Lysandre. Really, I suppose you could argue these games are pretty similar to Sword and Shield. Of course, those had amazing characters, while in X/Y, Shauna is the only one who I’d call a good character. I think the best way of putting these games as a whole is style over substance. Now, I’ve got a postgame plotline to do...

-hey who the fuck decided to make the method for triggering the looker plotline so complex?? they really didn’t want people doing this huh

-i would fucking die for emma and mimi

-how the hell does pokemon have not 1, but 2 incidents where an orphan fucks up a piece of historic art within 2 gens (even if the circumstances are very different)

-hey why is the looker plotline that dark?why the fuck did it just go off the rails?? what’s up with malva??? what the actual fuck is happening????

-hey so why the fuck is xerosic doing this?? like jesus christ this is horrifying

-NO??? DO NOT LET THAT FUCKER ANYWHERE NEAR EMMA, ESPECIALLY WHEN SHE DOESN’T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED. LOOKER WHAT THE FUCK.

-jesus christ what was this??? it wasn’t bad but it was. weird.

[amadeyus]

Creator 2017 Tag Game (moderately long post ahead)

tagged by @ackersoul , @sookashira , and @eren-s , thank you all for tagging!! <333 bc now i have a legit™ excuse to shamelessly promote my creations hehe

tagging: (doing this is optional as usual, so i can understand if you don’t feel like doing it/if you’ve already been tagged in this)

@kacchan-pls , @oh-warukunai , @bossard , @julystorms , @trash-god , @themusicalbookworm , @just-quintessentially-me , @kuchenackerman , @v0ngola , @kyojinofbraveos , @levizs, @omeinfreund , @alemanriq , @thecrazysugarlover , @drinkyourfuckingmilk , @shitpost-no-kyojin , @uttsukushi , @lolakasa

rules: it’s time to love yourselves! choose your 5 favorite works you’ve created this year (fics, art, edits, etc!) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you’ve brought into the world in 2017. tag as many writers/artists/etc as you want (fan or original!) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works.

Levihan Spook Fest “Haunt” edits. It LOOKS really minimalist but you gotta click the images for a surprise :))) It’s probably not the most complex thing I’ve made (and I would change some stuff if I made it today lol), but I’m quite happy with the concept and I usually come back to it to reference the height differences between Levi, Hange, and their SC friends/comrades.

Various Signal Flares Used by the SC Gifset. I like this one a lot because seLEctiVE colORinG and I kinda like seeing/making those kinds of gifs. I made this because I was always quite fascinated by the SC’s Long-Distance Scouting Formation and their use of flares and also because yayyyyy colorssssss. 

Humanity’s Strongest & Humanity’s Brightest Motion GFX (Levihan). I made this one because I got ambitious one day and binged a tutorial on how to do the trim paths thing in After Effects (which is pretty commonly used in like animated logos and some text effects and etc). This was the second MGFX content I posted, and I like it because the animation is smooth and the otp looks great™ in their Hangeki no Tsubasa attire :)

Rico Birthday Gifset. I like this one a lot because sELECTIVE COLORING AGAIN (it’s b/w with red accents). I also like it for the threshold effect I used in the middle gif, the 2-1-2 composition (usually I’m not that creative with my composition haha), and also because of symmetry (ish). I may/may not have reused the MGFX animation from a previous post :)))

My meta on the New SC Uniform Design. This is the one post that I truly didn’t expect to get as far as it did (partly because I’m not reaaalllly a meta writer and it was my first “meta”). It was mostly my inner product design nerd fangirling over how much more practical and cOOLEr the new 3DMG/uniform was (as evidenced by the lack of prose in the post). Although, I’m glad what I learned in IB Design Tech. helped me to analyze design stuffs outside of academia (yayyyyy) and also got me thinking more in-depth about the 3DMG. 

(btw i only resumed making gfx/gifs/edits in September 2017 and the majority of the stuff i’ve made these past few months are mostly snk....but uh, hopefully there’ll be more variation with what i make in 2018 and hopefully it’ll be better. all of the gifs/gfx i made above were made before i learned a proper better way™ of making gifs so theoretically they should be better than my 2017 stuff)

IF YOU MADE IT TO THE END OF THIS POST CONGRATS AND THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME

[ch-arl-ie]

11/11/19

we have a guest speaker called daniel burleywho is also a second year tutor. he is in his mid/late twenties and had a cool mullet. i like his art BUT his IS SHIT AT TALKING ABOUT IT. i’m actually getting increasingly more angry listening to him speak. he is incredibly monotone and uses lots of sentence fillers such as “umm” this is honestly a direct quote “this is hmmm i’m quite inspired by umm” WHAT did u not think about what u were gna talk about before u came to speak about it??? how can u not plan a talk that ur gna give to a group of people

i understand him getting nervous but he is a tutor so he should be okay taking in front of large groups SO WHY can’t he?? how can u be ummmming and ermmmming about ur own work?? apparently this talk is 2 hours??? excuse me listening to him is infuriating me honestly i promise u every third work and every sentence starts with ummm

“umm so umm i did this recently ummmm” ARE U SERIOUS ????? i don’t think i can sit here man what the hell WHY

i like his art though it’s cool and futuristic but honestly step ur pussy up man

OK OK OK other than this, i did really love his art. I rlly liked his warhammer inspired weapons he designed they were super cool and reminded me of being younger lol. I remember being in primary school and doing a ‘topic’ where you would basically research something as in depth as a 9 year old could and make ur own contextual file which would then be marked. I remember doing about the Romans and the tudors, i would ALWAYS have a chapter i dedicated to the weapons at the time, where i would draw them and explained how they would kill people. >:^) another thing he did which I !!! LOVED !!! He admitted to being a brony!!!! LOVE THAT!!! Me and my friend harriette would binge watch all the my little pony movies in secondary school lol. He did this portrait of his grandma as a my little pony and i related to it becauase i really like bootleg toys and stuff, and to me that’s what it looked like. It was a very high quality portrait, if i were to do something like that i would have done it rlly shitty out of markers or something lol made it all janky and stuff.

He also introduced us to some cool artists for example Jenkin Van Zyl. He showed us this trailer for one of his films.

I thought this looked really cool and I would like to see the actual full length film. I really enjoy crazy surrealist films. This one made me think of dr who, Star Wars, Star Trek, babylon 5 and the game payday i would love to make something like this, but i would want mine to be more on crack. Well i say that but I don’t know how on crack the actual full length one is

He showed us joey holder and i really liked her stuff, it was quite sci-fi inspired as well i thought. I don’t remember the names of the pieces we were shown but to me it was all about the relationship between technology and biology, as i said everything looked very sci-fi (alien vs predator vibes) and also quite sexual lol like u could use it as a dildo. I think this is a very interesting thing as usual, i like all the controversial arguments that come with all this kind of stuff. Having come from a catholic background i know 100% some people do not think technology should interfere with biology what so ever. This also relates back to when I was gonna do stuff about quackery at the start of the year. I think these people that buy into black salve and jilly juice and other snake oil thinks are just very technophobic. They don’t reuse technology. It intimidates them. They haven’t educated themselves about it. Because if you look at history, massive medical improvements have only just stressed to be made really, because people have started fucking off religion a lot more. Also i just really like the idea of cyborgs n stuff lmao like terminator and stuff. However, if i had the opportunity to get robot arms I don’t actually know if i would take that offer. I would be quite scared because i feel like if something could be programmed, then someone could hack it. Could u fucking IMAGINE if someone hacked ur frickin ROBOT ARMS. Holy shite. Imagine. No thanks. No thank u forever. I think the fact that i even had that thought its kinda crazy really. Someone from like, 50 years ago wouldn’t have even had that thought because technology wouldn’t have advanced enough for them to even think that, y’know?

He showed us his collection of polly pockets which i appreciated too. That was cute :^)

[tumblunni]

One of my other fave cuddles is my gengar named gaspar! I’m really filled with love for him too right now cos I’m learning ev training and apparantly he ended up being perfect for a speedy build, which just seems so cute and fitting for his personality! ^_^ I’m a bit tired so i dunno if I’ll ramble as much about him but here we go!

Gaspar is also a good friend: The Post

He also has a lil story behind how I got him, I think his is the more silly one. See, he’s actually a sinnoh reminder of mine! There’s one ~absolute asshole~ npc in sinnoh who offers you a trade of a haunter for a kadabra, but then when you get it you find out it had an everstone attatched. So she got a trade exclusive evo and left you without yours, and this is friggin AN INGAME NPC! It was so memorable to me because i got trolled by nintendo personally! XD So i wanted to spite that npc by adoring that haunter so much forever. And I kept him for the next decade and loved him a many! I actually kinda got attatched to him being stuck as a haunter forever, cos I didnt have any friends to trade with. Haunter has always been my fave of the evo line, even if i preferred its early design where it was shadowy and had a glowy outline similar to gastly. (I think that stopped in gsc? it was always pure purple in the official art but the spritework looked SO much better...) So I actually ended up irrationally upset when he finally evolved by accident during a trade like six years later. i totally forgot that he even COULD evolve! I feel bad that i was upset at my friend I did the trade with, I knew it was irrational but I still whined like a lil baby. I was all ‘ugh now he’s FAT’ like a stupid hypocrite XD But now that we have mega gengar and i have my own gengar plush at last, ive grown to like it a lot more. And honestly id still be just as attatched to my pokemon even if they completely change appearance, its not like I hated gaspar just because i didnt like the species as much. IM SORRY GASPAR FOR MY DUMB POUTING! You are so cool you changed my mind on gengars!!! Also its a nice excuse to redesign his really old gijinka form I drew once:

Anyway, his personality is a big ol childish goofy lug! He’s kinda similar to the personality i ended up headcanoning for my rotom gizmo all those years later. honestly i always have a sort of perspective on how all ghost pokemon fundementally are, even tho i still try and give them their own personality too. All ghosts are some form of cheerful tricksters, okay! Gaspar in particular is a big snickering lazy loaf of hugs who is absolutely addicted to sugary junk foods. ‘The wonders of the modern world!’ Even though he’s kinda procrastinatey about actually doing what he has to do, he’s very hyper about pulling pranks on everyone and generally being kinda like Loki from norse myth? He’s a bit more morally flexible than the others, or its more like he has trouble remembering what a lot of stuff was like from being human. (I’ll get to his backstory in a bit!) He’s definately a well-intentioned guy but he can be very scary to his enemies, and sometimes accidentally cause problems for the group cos his vices are easily manipulateed. He tends to get stringed along by his ‘ghost instincts’ to pull pranks even when its self destructive, and he always jumps in without thinking. A candy in the middle of a blatantly obvious trap = he registers the candy part and only gets the rest when he’s already captured XD But also he’s probably the member of the older pokemon that’s the most open about his affections. He’s one big ol jolly hug to everyone who asks, and everyone who doesnt! Even though him and Reaper can both be sly together, he doesnt understand this young man’s strange fascination with pretending he doesnt have emotions. Gaspar’s one big driving force behind all his various quirks is that he’s flawlessly honest. He finds it hard to keep quiet when he’s joyous, and everything is made of joy nowadays! He’s just really happy to be alive right now... or, well, “alive”. But also his easily exciteable nature means he blurts out all secrets with no restraint, and has trouble not throwing a childish tantrum whenever the tiniest thing goes wrong. Though, still, he’s very rarely ACTUALLY angry, and will forget about it in like ten seconds. he just kinda enjoys making a fuss XD Then again on the rare occasion he is mad it is because you HURT HIS CHILDREN, and you will really get to see why gengars are known as spirits of vengeance...

So yeah! Backstory! This was actually the first thing I thought up for him, and it shaped his whole character. Again, it all came from that one weird ingame trade! ‘Gaspar’ felt like an odd name to give a random trade, I mean its a cute pun but also its like an olden times name you dont hear often. So I imagined maybe this ghost is the spirit of a human from long ago, and obviously he’d be excited to try modern junk food, etc etc the beginnings of a character! But cos I am blessed with the ability to create sad headcanons out of everything, I... did that! Alas! I somehow got a really sad idea for who this mysterious old human nobleman could have been. I thought maybe he was a guy who was murdered and came back from the grave to take revenge on his killers, but then had to deal with still being stuck here even after his big quest was finished. Making a new life because he cant go back to his old one. Initially the idea was that he was a guy killed on his wedding day, hence the tuxedo in that old design. But he ended up feeling more like an asexual character as I developed him, so thats a bit outdated now. He’s just like the dad of a thousand kids and no wife. Its good that he’s finally happy nowadays with all these new friends! A shame it took that long though, he can barely even remember who he used to be. (A more cynical part of him thinks that maybe going senile is the only reason he’s able to finally let go, and he wonders if he missed many other chances to make a new family cos he was so hung up on mourning a life he couldnt go back to...)

Anyway, even though his powers were born from rage and hatred, he finds that becoming a ghost is the thing that helped him forget all of that. He just has kind of a childlike joy for this stuff. He claims its ‘pokemon instincts’ or whatever and he had no part whatsoever in his own development from a scary anger man into everyone’s dad, but honestly that just seems like he’s making excuses not to give himself credit. there’s nothing here but the fact that his fundemental nature is a kind man who can find wonder in the simplest of things. Yknow, when he isnt being distracted by great tragedy! It was just like ‘wow i’d never thought about it but gaining the ability to fly and walk through walls is pretty kickass’. Think of all the pranking potential! And he proceeded to distract himself from his loneliness by haunting the graveyard and running around wearing bedsheets. But at the same time sneaking around the town and doing good deeds for everyone, even if they were all terrified of him. And no matter how sad he got, he could be cheered up by the tiniest thing like just being able to see the sunset again. He always remembers how scared he was thinking that he was gonna die at such a young age and never get to do so many things... And then his loneliness started easing when he realized he could talk to other pokemon now, and he worked up the courage to leave his grave and travel the world in search of a new place to belong. Then... he ended up with a bunch of shitty trainers!! But at least thankfully he was finally traded to our protagonist and now things are looking up ^_^

Oh and yeah thats why his old design looked so young, even though he was always meant to be the oldest team member. (Not just chronologically I mean, he’s like 300 but he’s like middle age by ghost standards.) Tho really saying he died at a nebulous teen-young adult age was just my excuse because those were the only people I was able to draw at the time. And i was dumb and thought every other sort of more creative design was ‘ugly’ and everyone should be a generic anime bishie :P Honestly redesigning him to look like a cool cuddly butler or a circus ringleader or all the millions of gengar gijinka ideas would be a HUGE improvement for his character! Even if he’s childish he’s still the team dad, yo! Im just worried that I won’t be able to draw a spoopy action pose again, I always felt like that first pic was a huge fluke. It was my best piece of artwork for like four years straight, I barely ever improve :P Also I really liked his hair as a haunter, but funnily enough I designed him like a few months before Charon was revealed, lol. Now it just looks like i tried to copy him! Bishie teen gaspar loses a bit of the appeal when he’s stealing looks from old men XD I’m thinking maybe he could have a cute mustache of some sort now, in the shape of ghosty spikeys? or a top hat that’s spiky on top, or a bunch of other ways to make him resemble gengar’s mohawk without actually having one. Nothing against that hairstyle but it maybe wouldnt work for a middle aged stay at home dad whose greatest form of punk activity is eating frozen poptarts out of the box.

OH WAIT Maybe he could reuse this design I did of myself as a ghost for a meme??

“chubby characters are something I will never draw ever, they can never look cool” said the past bunni, continuing to be incredibly chubb srsly ditching the self hate and doing some stylization lessons is the only place where i can admit my art improved!

[genzgay]

Flustered (part 2)

Pairing: Yugbam

Word count: 1.9k

Warnings: more bad pickup lines, butchering BamBam’s Thai name, wearing white shirts to coffee dates 

Fluster, verb. To make (someone) agitated or confused


Yugyeom, a quiet and shy library assistant, just wants to keep the peace. BamBam, a quirky design student, knows too many pickup lines. When they exchange numbers it feels like the world turned upside down.

based off this ask

part 1

for @cutepimook

Yugyeom blazed through the campus. He was overjoyed to visit BamBam, but the Green dorms were on the exact opposite side of the campus. Yugyeom couldn’t be late for his very important date. Once he was inside building two, he found the nearest stairwell and took the stairs two by two. At the second floor, he pushed open the door and scanned for room two. There it was at the end of the hallway.

Yugyeom used the time it took to walk there to calm himself down. His heart rate had picked up again and his cheeks were most definitely a scarlet color. He took two deep breaths, then four, then two again, which always seemed to calm him down. It didn’t. He apprehensively knocked on the door of room two.

No answer.

He knocked yet again. The door opened with a click, and BamBam stood there with a finger to his lips and a phone pressed to his ear. He was speaking some language that Yugyeom couldn’t identify. It was definitely something southeastern based off BamBam’s looks- maybe Malay or one the hundreds of Indonesian languages- but Yugyeom couldn’t be sure. He followed BamBam’s motions and sat on his bed, then watched BamBam pace back and forth in the tiny closet of a room. With a big smile, BamBam ended the call.

“That was my little sister, sorry.” BamBam explained, placing his phone on his desk.

“So you’re not Korean?” Yugyeom asked. Of course he’s not Korean, you dumbass.

“You couldn’t tell from the accent?” BamBam answered with a giggle. “Nah, I’m from Thailand.” Yugyeom was experiencing the greatest ah-ha moment known to mankind.

“Oh cool! I’ve never been, unfortunately.” Yugyeom said, scratching his forehead.

“Well, maybe you’ll have to visit.” BamBam said, hopefully. He pulled a clear plastic case from his closet, opened it, and revealed a bright pink roll of measuring tape. “If you could just stand and take off your shoes.” Yugyeom followed his instructions, depositing his beat up Adidas near the door. He stood, looking at BamBam’s corkboard. “Okay, just hold your arms out.”

As BamBam completed his measurements (quite quietly, to Yugyeom’s surprise), Yugyeom had a chance to contemplate the cork board in front of him. It was divided into four sections, each with their own themed collage. The upper right section had the word “home” pinned in the center and what Yugyeom assumed to be the Thai flag pinned above it, with a map, some family photos, and some images of notable landmarks. On the lower right, the word “inspiration” was pinned in the center and hundreds of cutout pictures, drawings, and patterns in purple, black, and white blooming around it. The lower right had “dream” in the center, with pictures of boutiques, famous labels, and expensive clothes juxtaposed against pictures of nice family homes, children, and wedding rings. Lastly, the upper left, with the gay flag in the center instead of a word. Multicolored pictures of pride parades, definitions of slang in Thai, Korean, and English, and rainbows made the corner the most obvious of the four. The entire board felt raw, as if BamBam had let his soul bleed into it.

“Your cork board,” Yugyeom started, unsure of how his sentence would end, “it’s,” He couldn’t find a word to describe it and his tongue was super glued to his teeth.

“Oh.” BamBam froze. “Yeah. It’s a lot and kinda cheesy, I don’t know why I did it, like it’s so lame.” He yammered. “Like, who actually uses their cork board, and isn’t it for, um, staying organized?” He laughed, moving in front of it to block it. The collage blended around BamBam’s frame like a holy halo of himself, his purest self.

Yugyeom smiled. “No, I like how raw it is. Nobody bothers to use theirs and mine has approximately two sticky notes on it from September when I promised myself to be organized. But this, no, this is art.” He shared. BamBam’s shoulders dropped like Yugyeom had just lifted a weight.

“Really?” He asked, his eyes big and shimmery.

“Yeah.” Yugyeom went over to the inspiration section. “So, purple?”

“It looks like it’s your color.” BamBam answered. “I guess I’ll have to add you.”

Yugyeom giggled. “Oh please.” He threaded a hand through his hair.

“Yugyeom?” BamBam moved to make another measurement. Yugyeom could feel the measuring tape against his ass, but accepted it.

“Yes?”

“Are you made of sugar?” BamBam swiveled back around, pulling Yugyeom in with the tape. “Because your ass is sweet.” Yugyeom knew his cheeks would be be crimson, but it didn’t matter, because he was eye to eye with one of the most handsome people he had seen. Summing up this feeling with a sentence would be hard, so Yugyeom tried his best.

“So, you have siblings?” Yep, he was a disaster. A flop. A failure. A wreck. He couldn’t even just take one freaking moment to relish in the fact that he could of just held his crush by the cheeks and kissed him then and there (even if they had only know each other for 48 hours). BamBam straightened himself out, leaning away from Yugyeom and turning toward the board.

“Yeah. So my sister,” He sounded disappointed. He pointed to a selfie, “Her name is Baby. I mean, it’s not her real name, that’s Hataichanok, but in Thailand everyone uses a nickname.” He waved at another photo, with two nearly matching faces. “Then there’s my oldest brother Sarunchai, or Beer, and older brother Chindanai, or Bank.” He scratched the back of his neck. “They’re all really nice and I miss them loads.” He flopped on his bed with a sad sigh.

“They seem nice.” Yugyeom said, reusing BamBam’s words. “But what’s your name?” He sat next to BamBam, careful to duck under the overhead shelf.

“BamBam.” He said, unblinking. Then the light bulb blinked in his head. “OH! Mine’s Kunpimook.”

Yugyeom knew he wasn’t going to say it right. “Kun-peh-muk?” He attempted.

“Kun-pi-mook.” BamBam stressed.

“Gunpimook?”

“Kun-pi-mook.”

Something clicked in Yugyeom’s head. “Kunpimook?”

“Yes!” BamBam smiled, “Thai sounds good coming from you.” Yugyeom could feel the burn of BamBam’s gaze on his lips. “Want to learn more?”

“Of course.” For another two hours, Yugyeom happily subjected himself to embarrassment and confusion as he tried to make sense of BamBam’s native language. They only stopped when Yugyeom’s roommate, Jungkook, called for the fifth time. “Yes?”

“Yugyeom? Oh thank god.” He breathed into the phone and there was some mumbling. “Gyu is drunk off his ass and I can’t find my room key, plus it’s the RA’s night off.” Yugyeom’s shoulders sagged.

Great.

“I’ll be there.” Yugyeom answered. He ended the call and looked at BamBam regretfully. Their legs had intertwined messily like a beginner’s first knit scarf and it was sad to undo it.

“Guess you gotta go?” He asked.

Yugyeom nodded. “Yeah.” Another light bulb flashed in his head as he slipped on his shoes. “Want to get a coffee sometime?”

“Definitely.” BamBam’s answer gave Yugyeom enough energy to run home. 

“What drugs are you on?” Jinyoung asked, a thick eyebrow raised in suspicion. He’d just witnessed Kim Yugyeom skip gleefully across the library with an armful of two-inch thick textbooks. He was humming. The kid had been more than pleasant to any stranger that had walked in here and that alone was frightening.

Yugyeom pranced back, finishing his exercise with a huff. “Nothing!” He sang. He grabbed another pile, pivoted, and was off to re-shelve the books.

Jinyoung blinked at his rejection. “It has to be something!” He called across the library, instant on finding out what was literally making Yugyeom jump with joy.

“I thought librarians don’t yell!” He shouted from the other end. Jinyoung snorted. That was kinda funny.

“They certainly don’t skip around, either.” He retorted. Yugyeom was back within view, still bouncing. “You got the last few, right? I’ll go sort and you can take the front.” He turned to go.

“Jinyoung, wait.” Yugyeom suddenly sounded pitiful. “Actually, do you know of any cool cafés?” He was rubbing at the back of his head and his cheeks were redder than roses. “It’s,” Jinyoung just grinned.

“You’re going on a date, aren’t you?” He questioned, giggling. Yugyeom turned crimson.

“Psh, it’s not that, I just-” He played with his hands. “Just wanna check out Seoul some more.” He grinned unconvincingly.

Jinyoung decided to give Yugyeom his blessing. “Go to Cafe Chu. Have fun with BamBam and get some churros, ya nerd.”

Yugyeom was sitting in Cafe Chu with a churro and a coffee, alone. Which was fine. BamBam was only five minutes late and Yugyeom could excuse that. He could forget it happened. As it grew closer to fifteen minutes, Yugyeom was taking a bite of his lukewarm churro and staring at his phone screen. Where was BamBam? Just as he’s about to type out a text teasing BamBam for being late, the screech of a metal chair on hardwood announces his very arrival. “Hi, gosh I’m so sorry, I...” 

Yugyeom didn’t even hear BamBam’s excuse. He was much too distracted by the sinfully angelic outfit BamBam had chosen: a white button up that exposed  just enough chest and a thick black choker to match. Yugyeom prayed he wasn’t drooling because Bambam was more than forgiven. “It’s fine.”

“Phew,” BamBam wiped his forehead, “I thought I’d ruined the date.” He laughed, “Looks like you’re going to need a second churro.” The pair got up and in line, debated getting heart shaped churros over the regular stick shape (general consensus was the heart churros), then sat down to enjoy deep fried heaven. 

“Wow.” They said simultaneously. They both laughed, smiling at each other’s being. 

“So, Yugyeom, tell me about your major.” BamBam prompted. He sipped at his coffee while Yugyeom described the in and outs of a dance major. Yugyeom then sparked a discussion on tattoos, which lead to a retelling of the time BamBam attempted to runaway from home, which turned into a debate on dog breeds. “Pugs are the cutest though, with all their wrinkles and they’re just designed for cuddling.” BamBam argued. 

“Nope, Labs are more friendly, plus they just have such a gentle demeanor.” Yugyeom refuted. 

“But pugs!” BamBam fought. He swung his arms out to make his point, his right hand flying straight into his cup. The paper object did a back flip as it fell to the floor, causing the top to come loose and spray it’s latte goodness everywhere. BamBam and Yugyeom looked at each other, then the floor, then back to each other. Fuck.

“I’ll get some napkins.” They shouted simultaneously again. The two split up in order to find the maximum number of napkins possible. By the time Yugyeom had made it down to the end of the cafe and back, an employee had brought out a mop and was clearing away their sugary disaster with a flustered BamBam bowing and thanking him. Yugyeom and he decided to escape after that. 

“So long, Kim Yugyeom.” BamBam said, squeezing the taller human into a hug. “Now next time, I pick the place. Somewhere without coffee, preferably.” His white shirt was now only kinda sorta white now, so Yugyeom could see where he was coming from.

“Okay. Text me?” Yugyeom asked. He still had a hold on both of BamBam’s hands, unwilling to let him go.

“Yes!” He promised, “And Yugyeom?”

“Yes?” 

BamBam had this shit eating grin on his face. “If you were ground coffee, you would be espresso because you’re so fine!”

A message for June: Considering that I posted this at approximately 1 am, I hope you deeply enjoy this and know that I’m dedicated as fuck to getting this updated every Tuesday (or, Wednesday at 1 am EST) for you. 

[dubstepkazoo]

So I recently finished watching Hina Logi.

And yup, sure enough, it sucked.

Okay, I play the card game (by which I mean I bought the trial decks), and I can confirm that this anime had no reason to exist. They were clearly just trying to advertise for the game. It was an act of desperation, since even in Akihabara, I couldn’t find anyone who cared about it. The only other players I found were also newbies.

So how do you advertise your card game? By making it incredibly impossible to tell that the source material is a card game. We gots us another SOL CGDCT BBQ anime here, ladies and germs! One that doesn’t really do anything original. None of the characters really develop in any unique way, nor is any of the comedy new or... well, funny.

Wait. Before I launch too deeply into the bad stuff this anime did, I at least want to make it clear that it did two good things. The first was Lion’s outfit when she Trances with Rosa. That was really cute. Like, I’m more of a Nina guy in the card game, but come on. Warawa!Lion is so cuuuuute! I want her to whip me. The second was Yayoi. Her entire character. She was the best thing about this anime, despite being an ojou-sama. Nay, I assert that she is how to do an ojou-sama character right. Rather than assaulting the viewer with obnoxious cackling (LOOKING AT YOU, TO LOVE-RU), she carries herself with an air of elegance while reading social cues and displaying care for her friends. Also, she’s adorable. Also, her Trance outfits (especially with Qipao) are adorable. Also, she’s perfect.

Okay, that’s enough positivity. Let’s get into why this anime is garbage.

As if the genuinely ear-bleeding OP and ED (and their unoriginal lyrics, apart from their L&L flavoring) weren’t enough, this anime didn’t have the decency to give us any interesting characters. Every single one can be described in just a handful of words. Lion? The infuriatingly energetic ditz. Nina? The quiet girl who learns to open up. Yayoi? Ojou-sama, correctly though she may be executed. Yuuko? Ara ara. Mahiro? Tomboy, complete with -ssu. I could go on, but I think you get my point. Now, you might argue that Lion’s dad was unique. And while the doting father character isn’t commonly done, it turns out there’s a reason for that. It’s annoying. He was a waste of screentime, his voice was obnoxious, and nothing he did made sense. Like, he launched a missile at a foreign country’s school and experienced no repercussions? Why? How? Oh, and then there’s the principal, or whatever. All she did was speak in riddles that never made sense, though those scenes were shot with the kind of gravitas that tries to make you think they do. Just because something is cryptic, that doesn’t mean it’s profound! No scene that contained her left me thinking anything other than, “So what was the point of this scene?”

The A story of this anime was very clearly centered around Nina’s development, but it never really ended up being interesting. It was just the same as any loner character’s development. Heck, didn’t My Little Pony do this? It’s been years and years since my brony phase, but I’m fairly certain this character arc was lifted straight from Twilight Sparkle in season one. At least that cartoon had an interesting setting and good music.

Another thing the anime dropped the ball on would be its inclusion of Trancing. Yeah, I get it. It’s a fundamental aspect of your world’s lore. It’s the cornerstone of your precious card game. But it’s kinda underwhelming to make your characters into magical girls and have them do nothing but spar against each other every once in a while. Let’s see them engage a hostile Foreigner, or something! I’m assuming that’s what the first Luck and Logic anime was about - I haven’t seen it - but again, this is the fundamental premise of your IP. Bring it to the forefront. Heck, you can even keep the SOL-ness. Just give us a reason to care about their fighting prowess! Justify your inclusion of magical girls! And no, I don’t consider the girls’ rivalry to be sufficient justification. Their shoving in of this element regardless of its meaninglessness is what made me realize this series was meant as nothing more than a desperate advertisement. That, and the excuse to reuse transformation scenes gave them an easy out when they needed to save budget or find ways to fill an episode.

Okay, now it’s time for the elephant in the room: the fan service.

This anime made several half-hearted attempts to sexualize its characters. Its characters who are first-year middle school students, which puts them safely in the category of “too young.” Once you get younger than about the third year of middle school (since Kuroyukihime didn’t trip the creep alarms), fan service stops being sexy and starts being off-putting - usually.

If you really want to sexualize young characters... well, setting aside how I feel about that decision, I do believe there’s a way to do it without creeping your viewers out (or at least, without creeping them out too much). As an example, I direct you to Prisma Illya. Prilya is an anime that will put any of its viewers on about a dozen watch lists, but for good reason: it successfully portrayed elementary school characters as sexy.

Wait. Hear me out.

Prilya succeeded at this because it knew it was ridiculous. It knew the very notion of sexualizing elementary school girls was downright insane. So it used over-the-top methods as a tongue-in-cheek way of acknowledging this. Notice the unbelievably lust-filled actions taken by Kuro at just about any point in the series. Notice how she cranks situations from zero to eleven in the blink of an eye. Notice the dramatic cinematography and art direction in these scenes. Notice Illya and Miyu’s over-the-top reactions that kick in instantaneously. Heck, the fan service scenes were more funny than arousing. Done incorrectly, the viewer would have grimaced at the show and said, “You’re going to hell.” However, Prilya’s sheer audacity and willingness to poke fun at itself (coupled with its genuinely interesting story, but that’s a different post) resulted in the viewer laughing and saying, “We’re going to hell.”

However, the majority of Hina Logi’s fan service took itself seriously (or at least, as seriously as fan service can take itself), like Strike Witches did. And that just doesn’t work when your characters are that young. To its credit, the Valentine’s segment in the penultimate episode had fan service that, while cliche and unoriginal, was at least a step in the right direction. That Mahiro/Yayoi scene was the only fan service moment in the anime that actually held my attention and didn’t make me roll my eyes. What I’m trying to say is, I know what doujinshi I’m looking for the next time I go to Japan.

My final rating for Hina Logi ~from Luck & Logic~ is a four out of ten.

Nobody liked the first L&L anime, and I’ll be surprised if anyone likes this one. Yayoi was indeed a miracle of the universe, and Lion had her moments. But other than that, this anime swings and misses on almost every level. It’s aggressively mediocre. Ordinarily, that’d result in a five out of ten, but its stubborn refusal to explore the few elements that did stand out left the sour taste of resentment in my mouth.

I’ve actually watched a lot of series recently that I just haven’t written about because I never really made the time for it. Stuff like Guilty Crown, Canaan, Nanoha (okay, that was months ago, but I still haven’t written about it), Strike Witches, Grisaia, you know. If there’s anyone who wants to hear what I think about any of those, drop me an ask.

Actually, first, maybe I should ask if anyone even reads this stuff at all. Eh, who cares. Even if nobody does, I’ll keep writing these dang walls of text anyway.