#wahlanders

[hitomikisugi]

[beansproutsong]

[Proxy] for Indo,

Proxy free! Plush from GEE (US-based) plush. These are official plush, but not from Japan.

If you’re in Indonesia, I will be hand-carrying this plush (no custom tax).

Price is listed in the pictures. Order deadline is 31st July

Also if you’re based in Asia and also interested in the plush, feel free to join. However unlike the usual proxy, this will be shipped from Indonesia.

[airisu7425]

Free! - Dive to the Future - Omanjuu eco bags (all 3 types)

[kinbari14]

Free! The Final Stroke Poster

[badpostureart]

Message in a Bottle (pt. 2)

For anon, who asked my thoughts about secondary characters in Free! (continued).

I like Natsuya, I really do, but the guy needs to smarten up! While it’s totally understandable that he wanted his little brother to step out from his shadow and become his own person, I think it’s unwise to just throw Ikuya in the proverbial deep end, watch him almost drown himself, and refuse to help him. It’s obvious that Natsuya cares a lot about Ikuya, but he seems to struggle with actually being there for him. I don’t know why as an older brother, knowing your baby brother is shy, you wouldn’t try and introduce him to other kids or offer to do things together. It sounds like he just stopped showing up for Ikuya and didn’t explain to him why. Now, it isn’t Natsuya’s fault that Ikuya became a moody son-of-a-bitch as he got older, but he made it so that Ikuya didn’t feel comfortable confiding in him anymore. There would be no need to strap Hiyori with the responsibility of looking out for Ikuya and giving him updates about how he’s doing if Natsuya would just show up. Then again, it wasn’t until recently that Natsuya even considered showing up for himself and thinking seriously about what he wants to do with his life…maybe he thinks commitment is scary, hm?

I don’t think Natsuya purposely withheld love/affirmation from his brother. Maybe he just underestimated how badly he needed it or felt too awkward to say how proud of him he was. How all of this became Haru’s fault of all people is beyond me, and maybe that’s why seeing the Kirishimas actually reconcile and start to communicate felt…just meh. I’m not sure Natsuya understood the gravity of what he did, nor do I think Ikuya directed his hurt at the right person. They’re in a much better place than they were, but I’m not sure either brother fully owned up to anything, does that make sense?

Which segways to Ikuya himself. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that some of my frustrations with this kid may simply be due to projection. I too was once a moody son-of-a-bitch, so I get it, I do. And because I get it, I know that at a certain point, you gotta own up to it. You gotta say, “My attitude is shit. Yeah, people have let me down, and I feel lonely and angry, but I can’t keep holding onto all this shit and being miserable. I have to do something about it.”

In Dive to the Future, Ikuya expressed wanting to be a hero like Haru: “Not a hero that fights evil and stuff, but the kind that everyone looks up to. The kind that helps out whenever someone is lost or stuck.” But the only “heroic” thing Ikuya seemed to have done since smiling at another kid in kindergarten was convincing his university team captain to put Hiyori on the relay team with him at regionals—which they should have been doing together the whole time anyway! Then in the Final Stroke, Ikuya tells Rin, “Back then, I looked at the stars with Haru like this…as I made a wish to be able to swim faster.” So, was he just saying that “hero” stuff to look good? Or does he think that people admire Haru simply because he is a fast swimmer?! See, here I go getting pissed off again!

This is perhaps a bit off-topic, but something that both frustrated and interested me was Ikuya’s curiosity about the nature of Haru’s relationship with Rin. He’s straightforward in asking Rin if he’s happy to see Haru win or finds it frustrating, he tags along with them to see the venue in Sydney despite being “well aware…that this is an important place to you [two],” and asks Rin if he was okay not being in the room with Haru after he collapsed for the nth time. It seems as though the primary reason Ikuya wanted to start spending time with Rin was to try and sus out why he’s so important to Haru. On the one hand, it feels like he’s intruding and being nosy. But on the other hand, the more he pries, the more Rin talks about how much he adores Haru and the more it’s made plain that Haru feels the same way…and as a member of the Rinharu propaganda department, I hoard those moments like treasure! 

Ikuya certainly pisses me off, but he’s not a bad person, y’know? Just dramatic! But so am I for getting so worked up over his shenanigans!!

For someone who has always been “mature for his age,” Hiyori has a really warped understanding of how friendships work. Ikuya was patient and reached out to Hiyori when nobody else seemed to give him the time of day and from thenceforth, he became this glorified hero figure in Hiyori’s eyes that he wanted to hoard for himself. He actively chased away people who tried to get close to Ikuya, dubbing them unworthy of being his friend, even though those people would probably become his friends too if he wasn’t such a territorial weirdo. Even after Ikuya reconciles with his old relay team (despite Hiyori’s attempts at preventing this), Hiyori remains weirdly possessive over Ikuya. When Sousuke compliments Ikuya’s strength as a swimmer in light of Sydney’s prelims, Hiyori thanks him. Sousuke, reasonably enough, wonders why he’s saying thank you. I don’t think it was because Hiyori was trying to take credit for Ikuya’s strength or to thank Sousuke on his behalf, but more likely that he means to say thanks for complimenting his Ikuya. Hiyori seriously gives me the heebie-jeebies!

Also, I still can’t believe he got away without so much as a bloody nose after telling Haru that “everyone who swims with you ends up suffering somehow, huh?” The sheer audacity is baffling!

Ryuuji, much like Haru, has unorthodox methods and is a bit of a weirdo, so I think he’s a good fit as his coach. However, I also think he’s sometimes too hard on Haru and his advice that he should “throw things away” to become a better swimmer is fucking awful. I won’t go as far as saying that Haru’s falling out with Rin after Sydney is Ryuuji’s fault, and I don’t think he was wrong to tell Rin that he needed to fix things himself, but Ryuuji was the one to tell Haru that “the only ones who make it are the ones who don’t waver an inch, even if something happens to someone they care about.” Or in other words, one shouldn’t let things in their personal life affect their swimming, no matter how dear or important. This logic operates under the assumption that swimming is (and should be) completely divorced from everything and everyone else, which is directly contrarian to how Haru swims! It’s literally what sets Haru apart from someone like Albert! Moreover, if your athlete calls you in the middle of the night out in the pouring rain and tells you he’s ready to sacrifice everything to improve despite explicitly saying previously that he won’t do that, you’d probably think something must’ve happened, right? Then you watch him over-exert himself because he’s in a hurry against his own anatomy and your solution is to shove Rin against a wall and tell him that it’s his responsibility to fix things with Haru?

I’ve never been in sports myself, so I can’t say for sure to what degree a good coach should be involved in their athlete’s personal life when it’s clearly affecting how they perform. Still, I don’t know how realistic it is to expect Haru to just forget everything while he swims—because on the one hand, it’s important to focus on himself as he is instead of pushing himself too hard in order to surpass others, but on the other, distancing himself from the people that he cares about so he can spend all his time and energy training is counterintuitive because his bonds are where he draws his strength from. I suppose this is why the expression “don’t mix business and pleasure” exists because swimming simply isn’t “just a job” for Haru, nor is it separate from everything else he cares about. This is his life we’re talking about here! I hate the idea that life is supposed to stop just because a person has a job to do!

And hell, maybe I’m misinterpreting things and Ryuuji’s stupid advice to Haru had no impact on his decision to throw himself into a self-destructive spiral. But if Ryuuji wants Haru to avoid the mistakes he once made, I think it's unwise to advise him to stop concerning himself with people he cares about. Y’know that shit Ryuuji told Rin? That he needs to “grab on to what’s important” to him “and not let it go”? That’s the advice he needs to give Haru too. He doesn’t need to give up anything—all he’s ever had to be is himself. Wait, shut up. Just as I’m typing this out, I realized that Rin pulling Haru into an embrace in the night pool is literally grabbing on to what’s important and not letting go. Oh! I’m gonna make myself cry! GOD, I LOVE RINHARU! Much like Haru’s personal life being intertwined with swimming, BadPosture’s Free!meta is never without Rinharu!

Kinjou is an arrogant son-of-a-bitch with a history with Ikuya and Hiyori that I am completely oblivious to. I’m seriously wondering if there was another movie or something that I missed because I don’t know what’s going on with them. He shows up for the first time at the end of Road to the World to tell Hiyori that he thinks he’s worse off being friends with Ikuya and to call him “Hiyori Crybaby.” I don’t remember Hiyori’s character ever being established as a crybaby, so I’m not sure where this nickname came from. Then in the first part of the Final Stroke, we see that Hiyori and Kinjou met as kids, but something else must’ve happened between then and university because kid-Hiyori moving away suddenly doesn’t explain Kinjou’s animosity towards Ikuya.

At the prelims, Kinjou calls Ikuya “Mermaid Princess Hero,” which means he’s probably heard Ikuya’s claim that he “gave up his heart in order to get stronger,” but “couldn’t become human.” Who’s to say if he knows anything about Haru? Anyway, he also brought over another breaststroke swimmer named Kotetsu Sudou to intimidate Ikuya, saying, “You might always be pushing Hiyori and your brother around…but don’t get full of yourself.” So…Kinjou bullies Ikuya because he doesn’t want him going around thinking he’s hot shit? I was gonna say that this is pretty unnecessary, but I just remembered the whole “Bullying Ikuya For Sport” thing, so I guess I’m not one to talk… Anyway, he goes on to say something rather curious about Ikuya’s performance at prelims: “Don’t show me such mediocre swimming. There’s too big of a gap between you and Sudou…even though there’s someone rooting for you.” Does he think that Ikuya’s performance should be enhanced knowing that he has Hiyori back home rooting for him? While that’s an awfully romantic statement, it’s not exactly realistic! Then later, Kinjou confides to Hiyori that he’s jealous of Ikuya because he’s “blessed” …presumedly in the form of cheerleaders Natsuya and Hiyori. Perhaps knowing that Ikuya takes his support system for granted is what makes Kinjou dislike him. (And perhaps he and I have more in common than I thought!) Then again, in the second part of the Final Stroke, Kinjou apologizes to Ikuya for “always lashing out” at him and Hiyori, effectively resolving the matter less than two minutes into the movie. So…that’s that?  

Then there’s the business with Kinjou’s cousin, Kiyo. What the hell happened to him? Is he even still alive? Because I know next to nothing about this mystery relative, Kinjou’s conversation with Ryuuji about him “going through a lot” is really confusing! And then in the next movie, Ryuuji says to Kinjou, “I’ll save you someday, too!” LIKE I’M SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS. (And in case you forgot, Ryuuji, your only charge ends up in rehab after one season of you coaching him! You aren’t in any position to be saving anybody, bitch!!) Anyway, it’s obvious that Kinjou’s arrogance is his way of overcompensating for the fact that he’s a lot more sensitive and cares more than he wants to let on. He’s something of a tsundere whose actions run contrarian to his words—because while he keeps saying that he’s only swimming for himself, he joins the Haru protection squad and swims to give Haru a chance at competing in the final. So, in short, I think Kinjou is alright, but I haven’t spent enough time with him to get to know him, y’know?

Albert is something of an enigma, but mostly because I have no idea what his motivations are. He’s an ominous figure in the world of swimming, with the nickname “Odin” instead of the usual animal motif. Mikhail cautions Rin that his swimming is “out of this world” and Isuzu says there are rumours that anyone who swims with him “feels their mind being torn apart.” But when he meets Haru, he seems…nice? He’s not arrogant like Kinjou and he actually seemed to be kind of free-spirited. We see that he’s an exceptionally quick learner and he acknowledges Haru as a swimmer. Nevertheless, competing against Albert disrupted Haru’s subconsciousness (in that the answer to the big “why do you swim” question gets fuzzy in his mind) …but I’m not exactly sure why. Mind you, Albert’s interactions with Haru after they met are just downright bizarre. He says such cryptic shit like, “The water favours you, I can tell,” but he seemed so genuinely pleased that I can’t get a proper read on him at all!

It’s my understanding that Albert’s team manager is living vicariously through him, and so Albert has been strapped with the expectations and dreams of someone else. I can understand why he’s a clinical swimmer because the only things that matter to his team are his appearances and results. With that all said, I wonder if Albert chose to miss the finals in Sydney partly as an act of defiance against his manager and partly to fuck with the psyche of other swimmers—especially after dismissing Kinjou completely before the semi-finals and telling Haru that he’s “not swimming for fun today. I’m just going out there to do my job.”

Feeling as though he had to take on Albert alone is what made Haru “throw everything away” (in the form of a dissociative episode where he breaks things off with Rin), and then launch himself into self-destructive training under Ryuuji. The second part of the Final Stroke is all about Haru recanting that idea and accepting the support of others. Meanwhile, Albert is hardly in this movie at all! I think my biggest question is whether or not Albert likes or wants to break the spirits of other swimmers. I honestly don’t think he does, so I can’t help but feel bad for him. Still, his general cadence is so fucking weird! I have no clue what he’s thinking at all!

[cyncallenreese]

𝙸'𝙼 𝙰𝙻𝚆𝙰𝚈𝚂 𝚃𝙷𝙸𝚂 🤏🏻 𝚃𝙾 𝙼𝙰𝙺𝙴 𝙰 𝚁𝙸𝙽 𝙷𝙴𝙰𝙳𝙴𝚁 𝙵𝙾𝚁 𝙼𝚈 𝚃𝚄𝙼𝙱𝙻𝚁... 𝙱𝚄𝚃 𝙸𝚃'𝚂 𝙽𝙾𝚃 𝙴𝙰𝚂𝚈 𝚃𝙾 𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙽𝙶𝙴 𝙼𝚈 𝙲𝚄𝚁𝚁𝙴𝙽𝚃𝙻𝚈 𝙷𝙴𝙰𝙳𝙴𝚁.. 𝙸 𝙼𝙴𝙰𝙽 𝙴𝚅𝙴𝚁𝚈𝚃𝙸𝙼𝙴 𝙸 𝚂𝙴𝙴 𝙰𝙻𝙱𝙴𝚁𝚃 𝙰𝙽𝙳 𝙷𝙸𝚂 𝚂𝙼𝙸𝙻𝙴 𝙸'𝙼 𝙻𝙸𝙺𝙴 "𝙷𝙾𝚆 𝙲𝙾𝚄𝙻𝙳 𝙸 𝚂𝚆𝙸𝚃𝙲𝙷 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝙾𝚄𝚃 ??"....

[rightwheretheyleftme]

Does The Legend of Korra have a gender disparity problem in the writers’ room?

Being nosy, as I was watching ‘Korra’, I couldn’t help but wonder how many of these episodes were written by women. Well, here are the numbers:

How many TLOK episodes per season were written by a woman?

Season 1: 0/12

Season 2: 0/14

Season 3: 1/13

Season 4: 1/13

Total: 2/52 episodes were written by women. That’s 3,8% of the series.

How many women worked in TLOK?

Just one. Katie Mattila, she wrote Old Wounds and The Calling.

Now, still being nosy, let’s compare it to its predecessor:

How many ATLA episodes per season were written by a woman?

season 1: 1/20

season 2: 5/20

season 3: 5/21

Total: 11/61 episodes were written by women. That’s 18,03% of the series.

How many women worked in ATLA?

Let’s list them:

Elizabeth Welch: The Northern Air Temple, The Avatar State, Return to Omashu, Zuko Alone, Appa’s Lost Days, The Avatar and The Fire Lord, The Western Air Temple, The Southern Raiders

Joann Estoesta & Lisa Wahlander: The Tale of Toph and Katara (segment in The Tales of Ba Sing Se)

Lauren MacMullan: The Tale of Sokka (segment in The Tales of Ba Sing Se)

Katie Mattila: The Tale of Zuko (segment in The Tales of Ba Sing Se), The Beach

May Chan: The Boiling Rock part 1

I don’t like making assumptions about artists, but I find it very revealing that the showrunners made the sequel be about a female protagonist and promptly kicked all of the women out of the writing room. Maybe a female writer could’ve told them that Asami was a flat character, or that the torture scene was awfully fetishistic, or that ending the show with Korra saying that she deserved to be abused because it made her “humbler” was a mistake. Alas, a girl can dream about a TLOK with female creatives.

[tetsunabouquet]

KinkTober Fanart Round 3

[partrin]

i dreamt of haru????? but in the weirdest way. i fell asleep watching the jujutsu kaisen 0 movie so naturally, i dreamt up a scenario where i was a jujutsu sorcerer (with cooler hair) and apparently haru was my partner during a mission.

the place we were scouring looked like something out of a counter strike map tbh. the weird part was the fact that haru was like, draped over me like a backpack the entire time. like, imagine giving haru a piggyback, but his arms are kinda dangling over your shoulders like the strap of a backpack. that's how it was. and i could feel his dick the entire time lmao. what's wild was that we were walking past a reflective pillar, so of course my vain self looked into it to check my hair, and when i saw our reflections i saw myself as my normal, human me (with cooler hair) and haru as a normal, clearly japanese man (human flesh!!!! not anime haru!!! but it was clearly him because i could hear his voice) with the same hairstyle (real and soft hair) and dark blue eyes.

he was a bit tan, like how he's drawn in some official art, and he spoke japanese the whole time in his soft, neutral tone (which i could understand despite myself speaking english and not being fluent at all in japanese. felt like fucking albert wahlander).

there was a part of my dream that insinuated that haru was also my romantic partner, but i can't really recall the exact scenario. sorry rin LMAO.

idk it was kinda cool and i had to document it here because i'm a freak about weird dreams heh. also goddamn am i that hyperfixated on him??????? i guess so.

[macni-art]

[ianime0]

Free! Kouhen | Your a work of art.

[beansproutsong]

[Proxy] Free! Final Stroke Preorder Goods Part 2 

Preorder for Free! Final Stroke Goods part 2 is starting. Preorder is open until 10 July and item will be shipped around October. 

Some new items listed! Such as: 

Acrylic standee design for all 16 characters : 1980yen

Clearfile (type A: the one with Haru, type B: the one with Rin) : 550yen 

Postcard: 1100yen 

Omamori: 1100yen 

Tapestry: 3300yen 

DM me here (or at my twitter @angelic1408) to place your order

[kinbari14]

They deserve nothing but happiness

[grassus3000]

Haruka Nanase 🐬 and Albert Walhander ☠

[cyncallenreese]

アルベルト・ヴォーランデル 💜

ᴄᴜʀʀᴇɴᴛ ᴡᴏʀʟᴅ'ꜱ ʀᴇᴄᴏʀᴅ ʜᴏʟᴅᴇʀ ɪɴ ʙᴏᴛʜ ᴛʜᴇ 100ᴍ ᴀɴᴅ 200ᴍ ꜰʀᴇᴇꜱᴛʏʟᴇ ᴇᴠᴇɴᴛꜱ.

[takakuteki-butterfly]

Free! The Final Stroke fundown rundown

I just came out here for fun swim times, and now Haru’s evil.

Ok, I’m just gonna post things as I remember them.

Spoilers, obviously.  And this gets really long.  Have a snack ready.

As a warning, my Japanese isn’t fantastic, so I may have missed some things or misinterpreted some things (though, to toot my own horn a bit, I understood a lot more with this film than with other raw Japanese movies I’ve watched).  Also, at this point it’s been several hours since I saw the show, and my memory is shit.  Take anything I say here with a grain of salt.

So.

Movie starts off cute, with Nagisa, Rei, Makoto, and Rin making some kind of video about (for?) Haru.  I think it took place in the past?  Because Haru, Makoto, and Rin are in their high school uniforms, so I think maybe this takes place before Dive to the Future.  Maybe.

There’s a childhood flashback with Hiyori and Kaede.  Seems Hiyori is actually the one who got Kaede into swimming, though Hiyori ended up moving before they ever got a chance to swim together.  If I understood right, Kaede’s family member(???) was also a swimmer.  And in fact, because of stuff that’s shown later in the movie, I think it’s strongly hinted that the friend that Coach Azuma lost in his past was Kaede’s family member(???).

There’s some stuff with a school festival, but it must be joint because Haru/Asahi’s university and Ikuya/Hiyori’s university are both involved.  Rin and Sosuke go and Rin and Ikuya tease each other relentlessly, then run off to compete against each other at a game booth.

And that’s all well and cute.

The bulk of the story takes place in Australia, with Haru, Rin, Ikuya, and Kaede (and Kaede’s friend, who’s name I forget, but apparently is a crazy strong breaststroke swimmer) representing Japan in an international tournament.  Stuff happens, Rin and Ikuya both lose their matches (in butterfly and breast, with Ikuya losing to that friend of Kaede’s).

Before Haru’s match, he and Kaede are in the locker room.  Albert comes in; Kaede tries to rile him up and is blatantly ignored.  Albert says straight up to Haru, “I’m not swimming for fun today.  I’m just here to do my job.”  D=

Haru swims against Kaede and Albert, and swims so hard he can’t catch his breath afterwards and falls down a flight of stairs (no worries! Ikuya catches him).  Albert wins, but Haru does qualify for the next round.  At some point, Haru yells at Azuma about how to get stronger?  But I didn’t really understand that bit.

For the next race (the next day), Albert drops out for unknown reasons.  He gets shit for it later from that old guy who controls him (father? grandfather? caretaker? idk).  It’s clear that Old Guy is using Albert for sponsorship money and to live vicariously through him.  I don’t know which is worse.

So Kaede gets bronze in that race.  Haru doesn’t place.  Everyone goes back to Japan.

Meanwhile!

While all that is going on, it also frequently cuts to what the others are doing in Japan.  Makoto has basically taken on coaching Sousuke, and they spend nearly the entire movie together.  Asahi, Hiyori, and Kisume also spend much of the movie together, streaming the events in Australia and talking about the future and stuff.

And in a scene that is a clear callback to the rainy poolside scene in Eternal Summer, where Haru, Rin, and Makoto talk about what they’re going to do after graduation, there’s a scene with Rei, Nagisa, and Gou by the poolside, in the rain, talking about what they’re going to do after graduation.  Sounds like they all have a plan, but if specifics of those plans were mentioned, I didn’t catch it.  But they all looked happy and positive about their futures.

And at some point, Sousuke, Makoto, and Hiyori have a backstroke race.  Hiyori wins, though they don’t actually show him winning (-_-); they just show pictures of the batsu game Sousuke and Makoto had to do because they lost (dressing up and taking obnoxiously cute photos).

With everyone back in Japan, there’s lots of talking and... stuff.  Then they all go back to their hometowns for New Year’s.  There’s a scene of Haru and Makoto in that place where the fireworks scene took place in Eternal Summer, and Makoto is about to tell Haru something, but then his phone rings and he remembers that he promised his siblings he would do something with them, so he runs off, leaving Haru alone.

There’s also a scene of Ikuya and Asahi swimming alone in a pool at night.  They praise each other’s swimming, saying how they’ve both been impressed with one another since middle school.

And there’s a scene with Hiyori in Kyoto (looks like he’s at Kiyomizudera, but it’s night time and is that place open at night??), and Kaede approaches him.  They talk.

Haru goes to Iwatobi Elementary and is standing under that sakura tree when Rin finds him.  Haru talks about how they’ll challenge the international tournament next year, and they can do it! because they’ll be together.  Rin tells him that he and Ikuya both have decided not to participate next year; they’re going to go pro instead.  Haru gets really upset, because they’re abandoning him and he’ll be all alone.

Then he gets possessed by the ghost of Albert and basically tells Rin to piss off and that he doesn’t need him or anyone anymore.

The end!  To be continued in seven months!  =D

Other bits:

Though the character count has exploded, I felt there was a good balance between showing what everyone was up to, while still keeping the focus on Haru, as the main character.

60% of the movie was flashbacks to stuff that happened throughout the entire series.  Saving money on animation, or trying to hammer in the memories before the grand finale?  You decide.

Flashbacks also includes the animation from the original commercial that started this all.  =D

The English voice actors for Albert and Old Guy can not act for shit.  >_<  It’s so jarring.

I’m pretty sure I didn’t hear any OLDCODEX.  I knew they were on hiatus; I didn’t think they’d pull the song from the movie at the last minute.  (Unless that was them, and it’s a totally new style than what we’re used to.)

If you’re here for the shipping, you’re going to be disappointed.  There was very little.

There was a preview for the next movie, but literally the only thing I remember is “REI~!! <3″

They also showed the main image for the next movie, which is almost the exact same as this movie’s (see above), except instead of looking pissy, Haru’s expression is incredibly soft.

The end~!