#whenever i'm talking about an anime that i've read the manga for with someone that hasn't

[ishikawayukis]

if someone watches an adaptation of something else, telling them what's gonna happen is a spoiler regardless of how long the thing has been out. someone telling you hey please tag this as a spoiler and your answer being "well it's been out in the manga for a year i don't have to coddle you if you don't read it" is a fucking asshole move lmao

[joanquill]

Ngl i don't know how to request clearly even i read all your rules so pardon me if i make any mistake

So my request is, maybe a headcanon of ( moriarty bros,billy) meeting f!reader who is calm and unreactive but has social anxiety ALSO likes trying medicine and posion on herself like maomao from apothecary diaries and is good at sword fighting

i'm sorry if it's too much or the grammer is bad

Sis, the way i only have you to get some mtp realistic content in whole tumbler to feed my deluluness😭 don't listen to anyone, you writing are masterpiece👏🏻

Apothecary!Reader with the Moriarty Brothers + Billy

Albert, William, Louis James Moriarty, and Billy the Kid

A/N: LMAOO GURL YOU PRAISE TOO MUCH BUT THANK YOU STILL 😭😂 I haven't watched The Apothecary Diaries, only saw some clips so I might get the character wrong 😅 but I've been planning to watch the anime and read the manga for some time now :)

Tag/s: Fem!Calm!Apothecary!SwordFighter!Reader (yeah sorry idk how to do the tags on this one 😅)

Albert James Moriarty

You two met during a soiree. You were working as a server when a noble lady accused you of poisoning her drink.

 You quickly debunked her statement and revealed the culprit, who was a nobleman with the poison left over on his fingertips and sleeves.

While the culprit was being dragged out by the police, he managed to break free and stole a sword from one of the armor on display.

Albert was about to step in but you managed to steal the sword in his hand and subdue him.

This completely caught Albert's attention, watching how you calmly proved your innocence and showcased your knowledge of medicine and poison and how you protected yourself with finesse.

After consulting with William, he went on to recruit you, seeing potential in your skills to help their cause.

And now, you were appointed as Albert's personal maid.

During gatherings, you're usually a poison tester and his shield-- I mean personal bodyguard from flirtatious noblewomen. (Much to your dismay)

This became a permanent position when someone tried to poison his wine at a gathering.

But he usually compensates by giving you rare herbs and ingredients.

That doesn't mean you stopped trying to find any means to not go to social gatherings though.

When you're experimenting, you can generally see him looming around--looking at your works and asking questions.

You'd ask him why the sudden interest, but he usually brushes them off as mere curiosity.

He likes listening to you talk about different medicines and herbs, finding it fascinating and even joining you in gathering herbs from the forest or planting them in the garden.

He once made you a special sweater that smelled like peppermint for Christmas, providing pockets for the herbs you collect. 

William James Moriarty

You two met when you were kids, back before William and Louis were still living in the slums.

You would try to give some medicine or painkillers to Louis whenever his heart condition acts up.

You and William also browsed the library and whatever books you could get your hands on about medicine and illnesses.

You two would stay by Louis' side to take care of him when his condition gets severe.

You try to look after William, scolding him when he pushes himself too far and nursing him back to health when needed.

But he usually teases you with how you would try poison in your free time, despite you explaining it's for research purposes.

However, you were separated when the two brothers were adopted by the Moriartys.

Until one day, you found two familiar faces in noble attire knocking on your door.

You became the team's medic and support.

He even prepared your own laboratory for your experiments, stocked with different herbs, plants, and ingredients.

Unfortunately, the poisons are all locked and only he and Louis have the key.

William usually has you at the back with Herder and Jack during missions, not wanting you to get into trouble despite knowing how to fight.

You're also his spar partner whenever he wants to sharpen or practice sword fighting.

Unsurprisingly, William usually wins. But he lets you have a victory every once in a while.

He also likes spending time with you in your office, watching you work on your latest creation, or listening to you explain or talk out loud, saying it brings him some sort of peace whenever he's in there with you.

Louis James Moriarty

Same with William's, you both met back when you were kids before they got adopted.

Whenever William is busy trying to find a way to buy food or other essentials, you would stay by his side and try to give him painkillers or medicine.

Sometimes, you would even bring some soothing aromatic plants to help him rest or talk to him about medicine and poison to distract him from the pain.

You even try to make food or snacks that are healthy or help his condition.

He's amazed at the knowledge you possess that even he and his brother couldn't find in books, let alone the passion you have for apothecary.

This doesn't mean he'll let you test anything and everything you can get your hands on.

Not after seeing you accidentally blow up something during an experiment.

Same as William's, you separated after being taken to an orphanage but met again years after and were recruited.

You usually stay at home and help Louis with managing the manors, along with making medicine for everyone.

You usually help him in the kitchen, trying new healthier recipes and avoiding poisonous ingredients.

The poor man has a panic attack every time you taste test poisons with a joyful expression.

He practically child-proofed the house to make sure you didn't do anything too reckless with your tests and experiments.

He also makes sure you don't create anything bizarre whether it's a request or a harmless trial, like an aphrodisiac or hallucinogen.

You two also share advice and spar when it comes to using the blade, despite you using a sword and him focusing more on knives.

You even try to make suggestions, like putting poison on his blade but William quickly shut down the idea.

Billy the Kid

You were assigned as his partner by the Pinkerton Detective Agency.

At first, you were both against it. With Billy's history and you're lack of social skills mixed with his cheerful personality, it was a recipe for disaster.

However, you two managed to work together and somehow fit each other's style, fighting in tandem with your sword and his revolvers.

You're usually in the front lines while he watches your back and blind spots.

Despite facing your enemies head-on, Billy makes sure you don't get hurt and takes the hit when he sees you about to get hurt.

Earning a lecture from you while you tend to his injuries, saying he shouldn't throw himself into danger and you can defend yourself.

Additionally, he usually takes charge when it comes to talking to clients or other people while you stay in the back.

...Maybe looking around the area for any herbs or plants that pique your interest.

This is why Billy usually keeps an eye on you and makes sure you focus on the mission, dragging you by the collar or hand, sometimes even linking your arm with his to make sure you don't wander off.

When you're in your lab experimenting, it doesn't take long before Billy is knocking on your door with fruit snacks, sometimes he even brings some plants he thinks you would like.

While you're working, he's usually in the back looking at the different apparatuses and ingredients on the shelves, asking questions.

It doesn't help when he tries teasing you, saying how unfriendly and awkward you are with people to get a response.

He even stretches your cheeks to see you smile despite your annoyed expression when he's feeling extra bored.

Unfortunately, it only extends to the nicknames he gives you and the corny jokes he'd tell you in between missions.

And the day he finally sees you laughing your heart out, he'll never let you live it down and try to recreate that sound from you.

A/N: Side note where are there no gifs for Billy :') I get that he wasn't in the anime but I see gifs of manga panels so why...

[paikothecateater]

Headcanoning Iceland and Denmark's relationship is so hard because in the manga and anime they're super duper close, but whenever I see their relationship in fanon it's always kinda distant. I see them having a father son relationship. Iceland being Denmark's favourite because they were together for huge chunks of their life. They've rarely been separated for very long periods of time and have always been there throughout the hard times. Now, I know what a ton of you are going to say, so let me just say this.

I know that during all of Iceland's hard times, Denmark as a nation was very negligent of their colony, but I don't believe that to be the case for Denmark's human representative. I think it would have eaten him up from the inside to watch Iceland in that state with the knowledge that as the representative of a nation, he can't go against a decision of his boss, no matter how much he personally opposes it.

Every time I make a headcanon about Denmark loving Iceland I always get an ask to the tune of 'oh back when Iceland was a Danish colony things were actually terrible, so that means Denmark hates Iceland' alright, I get it, but I'm not talking about the actual countries. You guys do know this is a hetalia blog, yes? This isn't a dig at anyone, I just personally don't like it.

This also applies to the Nordic countries being a little distant with one another in real life. I know you want everything to be 100% accurate, but again, you signed up to read a hetalia blog.

It's especially bad with Iceland because every single time I make a headcanon about him being close with another Nordic (usually Norway) I get an ask talking about some 'Norwegians actually don't care about Iceland' sir, respectfully, I am basing my headcanons off the anime.

It sucks the amount of times I've changed a headcanon just because someone didn't like it. I'm pissed at myself for changing my own headcanons because I didn't want people to comment on the accuracy.

Anyway, as always thank you so much for attending the yap session, sorry this one got a little negative.

[onnoffwrites]

I have been losing my shit over this damn panel for the past THREE DAYS (more or less) and I need to yell somewhere so it's gonna go here.

It all began when I was writing my fic (I think this was for My Immortal), and I needed to recap significant hakukai moments. And I remembered "hey, I should include this one thing saguru said during sunset manor that was stupidly super gay for no fucking reason" bc like, yea hakukai not canon, but if canon was gonna give me a whole ass confession then I might as well use it. So, like always, I head to mangadex to look for this panel... Except... It's not there... The line... The line's not there... But I remember... I remember something about "the only one to disrupt/disturb my thinking/mind"... Where... I didn't imagine that right? I mean I read a lot of google translated Chinese fanfics but... I REMEMBERED reading that line... In a manga... In English... ON mangadex...

This is where I should mentioned, that if you weren't around for the Great Collapse of Mangadex. Then... Well, so there was this period of time where mangadex just DIDNT EXIST. Bc there was some cyber?? Attack??? On the site??? I can't fully remember. But it like wiped out most of the site. The mangas r just, gone. So mangadex fixed it. It took a while bc they figured "might as well revamp our site and system". And they did. And it's great. And it looks beautiful now, even more than before.

But see. The line I remembered? Yea... Yea that was from before The Collapse. And mangadex let multiple translation groups submit their translations. So u can read diff translations of diff group, see how things are interpreted differently... And... I remembered this one, that I posted here up top, but I remembered there was another. One that had The Line.

And it was driving crazy so, like usual, I asked my cn friend. But my cn friend (why am I still saying that, it's @beingvv , that's the friend) has A Life, and isn't always online, and we love that for ppl. So. I'm still crazy. I can't trust my own damn mind and memory bc why tf do I remember something that isn't there (happened before btw, but that has nothing to do with this).

Luckily, I have a friend who knows jp. UNLUCKILY, I don't have the jp raws and it's from chapter 300 and we are in the thousands. So, I went back to losing my mind. Until I found it again, and realized. Heyyyyyyy there's a whole ass ANIME. So like the baggage my dear friend had the misfortune to be saddled with, I went to find the ep, timestamped it, yelled begged them for help.

This is where I lose my damn mind the first time in the recent weeks.

(thank you my dear piglet, u don't even go here but u tolerate my insanity)

THIS. THIS WAS THE LINE. THATS WHAT I REMEMBERED.

So, I feel a little more sane (bc my mind didn't fabricate a memory again) and also A LOT more insane bc WHY WOULD U SAY THAT, HAKUBA SAGURU 😭😭😭 WHY WOULD U SAY IT LIKE THAT 😭😭😭

In any case I feel validated. Told beingvv about my discoveries (for whenever they come back) not that they need it cn fandom already got the correct translation. And finished writing my fic.

And then Saguru's comeback was announced.

So I've been losing my shit for 3 days on twitter, looking at all my fave KR and JP accounts and the things they say.

And then someone dug up and old tweet thread that talked about this panel. Specifically, op talked about the nuance in the word choice used.

Here's the og thread if anyone wants to read or Google translate it urself.

(mkppyong my love, bless you)

Bc mkppyong talked to a jp acquaintance about ??? Uh I dunno just language I guess. POINT IS. They pointed out that gosho used specific words/phrases that really wasn't needed if all he wanted to say was "the only one who drives me crazy/mad." But he did used them. It's specifically "his thoughts/mind" that's being driven crazy. And that if he wants to just talk about Saguru's mind being disrupted/confused, then there's rly no need to use the words "go crazy"

And then they wrote out a whole symbolism about clocks and saguru and being broken down/disrupted and I lost my shit over the clock symbolism, sue me 😭😭😭

I don't think I'm making sense anymore bUT WAIT, THERES MORE, THE FINAL BLOW

THE THAI TRANSLATION

This is where I expose myself more than I ever want to, but here's a fact. I'm thai

Here's a second fact. I'm SHIT at Thai. I've been bad at this language before I got good at English. My Thais as good as an elementary student. Every time I understand difficult words I get confused bc where did I know THAT from???

In any case, point is, I saw that tweet, read the text, immediately understood it and began losing my shit all over again... And then I doubted... Bc like, I'm not good with this lang anymore... Maybe im understanding it wrong? So I look up Google.

Google: คลุ้มคลั่ง just means go crazy

So I was like, damn guess I'm wrong, read too much into this. BUT SEE BC I LIVE HERE I HAVE FRIENDS WHO ARENT A DISGRACE. And so my friend said:

SO WELCOME TO MY THIRD ROUND OF INSANITY.

HAKUBA SAGURU WHY WOULD U SAY THIS SHIT IN FRONT OF LIKE NINE OTHER PPL 😭😭😭😭😭 BOY WHY R U TELLING THEM UR OBSESSED 😭😭😭 youre driving ME crazy 😭😭😭

So. Here we are. At the end. I have no idea how tf I'm supposed to end this post. I'VE been obsessed for 3 days straight. I don't have a lot of braincell left in me (there weren't any to begin with). I don't have a statement to wrap this post up in a nice little bow. Go make ur own conclusion I dunno.

But I would not have been losing my shit over this stupid panel for a month if it wasn't for the fact that eng translation was missing a pretty crutial thing in what Saguru said. I don't know if this was a mistranslation or a misunderstanding or something, but the English translation was lacking. And I love and have always been thankful and grateful to the ppl who worked hard to translate mangas in their free time, and do it all for free, bc I haven't had any real way to rent/borrow mangas from renting shops/libraries in years. So this was one of the only ways I can read mangas. But, even as I checked the raw panel with Google lens just now, even google translate it as "the only one to make my thoughts go round." No where was there any mention of "case" and "solving." So that's just, multiple accounts of ppl who knows jp, including native jp speakers, all saying that this panel is Saguru saying "the only one to drive me crazy". And man I rly hope this doesn't make me come off as ungrateful or like shitting on the translation team, I'm rly not. But yea. Uh. The translation was wrong. And I remembered that there used to be a diff eng translation. And it led me to go to all this trouble and journey to find out what was actually said. And here we are, at the end.

The only one who could disrupt Saguru's thinking.

The only one who could disturb Saguru's mind.

The one whose sole existence drives him mad.

The only one to make his mind obsess over till he's driven to madness.

Or to use the symbolism mkppyong wrote: the only one to break down the clock, the precise and accurate mechanism, that is Hakuba Saguru.

[oulkheir]

Hi, how are you?

What do you think about the fact that Juvia basically stalked Gray for months, was mean to every girl (threatened their life, etc) that came close or even spoke to him (especially Lucy) and that he only feels "obligated to like her" because she saved his life? (like saved victims fall in love with their firefighter or doctor) I want them to work out but if their gender were reversed, everyone would scream that it was grooming. He told her "no" multiple times, he was clearly averse and if a guy would not accept a "no" there would be backlash. Juvia is an amazing character with a lot of development but I think that Fairy Tail often makes fun of serious sexist behavior rather than addressing it. Like making fun of Lucy's naked body or horny old men gawking at young and underage! girls. I'm aware that it's a manga and that Japan has huge issues with gender equality and sexism but I kinda expected more from the new manga/anime. According to Unicef, every 11th boy (and every 8th girl) is a victim of sexual violence. For a long time, nobody took boys being a victim of sexual violence seriously. Of course, Juvia didn't "do" anything to Gray. But it's the same when people said to girls "if a boy is mean to you it means he likes you" (hello Sasuke!). This teaches children that they don't really have a choice and bodily autonomy. Juvia never accepted a "no" and we as the audience should believe that this is her being persistent/ romantic/ etc. It shows: if you just keep harassing and stalking your person of interest, they will eventually like you back. At the end of the original anime, it felt like Gray feels the same and we are made to believe that this him finally realizing his "true" feelings. But it kinda felt like "i'm giving up the fight, you won't stay away anyway". Important notice: I only watched the original anime, so if I missed something in the original manga, please tell me.

hi anon ! i'm good thanks for the ask :) was truly not expecting this lol

first of all, the fact that i've watched fairy tail first when i was younger may bias my analysis and i apologise for that. of course, i've read it again enough to change my opinion on many aspects but the filter still may be a little present. but well you did ask for an opinion haha :)

juvia's obsession and gray's feelings

as you mentioned that you only watched the anime, be aware that it exaggerated juvia's stalking by adding her in scenes where she wasn't actually present and by creating a weird running gag with her obsession for gray. however, she does have an obsession with gray, which can't be denied, and which lead her to be pushy with both gray and her "love rivals" in different directions. but rather than this, she wants to prove him and show him that she loves him whenever she has the occasion, because it's usually what you want to do when you're proud to love someone. it's more clumsiness than wanting to force him into something. since it can make gray uncomfortable, it's not defendable to say it's okay every time, but there are plenty of moments when these are cute attentions rather than stalking. she's not hindering gray's job, sleep and life, by repeating how she loves him. juvia still respects gray's boundaries by not forcing him to go on missions with her or following him at his place.

besides this, i don't think you missed other important points from the main manga, but sorry if i'm spoiling the 100 years quest later on.

if you think that gray feels like he owes her his life and must return her love, then i strongly disagree. gray already had feelings for her by that time, that's why he tried to commit suicide as well to save her. he didn't feel obligated to love her just because of that. he said before the final arc that he wanted to talk about these feelings seriously with her, and had already shown proofs of love by spending time with her during the timeskip after tartaros. gray considers juvia as more than a simple friend since longer than what he says, otherwise you couldn't explain why he chose to create a unison raid technique with her at the grand magic games, nor why he could assure their bond was strong enough for this. he's not avoiding juvia like the plague, or apprehending seeing her, and that is the case since their first encounter. he's glad that she's joining the guild and helping them. in the main series, he feels more reluctant to public display of attention than to her showing her love. in the spin-off, he's being more open to his feelings than before and that's why everyone is shocked around him, but juvia seems quite used to it.

that is all about how i perceive the characterisation of gray and juvia. sorry if i've missed some points, tell me if it's the case :)

now, i feel like most of your criticism is about how fairy tail, and the shounen manga genre in general is associated with sexual fan service issues and sexism. my blog isn't so much of a place to deal with such political and societal questions, but let me try to answer at least partly.

sexual fan service and other borderline behaviours issues

first, when you talk about the gender reverse thing, don't you think it's more the other way around ? i can't see people reacting more to juvia's insistence if she were a man, because you already quoted other issues related to sexism and fairy tail fans don't really complain about it. or at least, they make abstraction of it. have you ever seen someone calling natsu a pervert/stalker because he's breaking into lucy's house all the time ? the most important thing remains to not be hypocritical with these situations : if you consider juvia a stalker, then at least you have to admit that natsu breaking into lucy's place is not okay. and as i said earlier, i don't remember juvia even following gray to his place even once. but that's not the main point here.

to keep it to what you said about the gender reverse, i think it's actually the contrary, and that people tend to accept men's obsessions/non-con acts more than women's. that's why the word "stalker" is so easy on juvia even when she's mostly just watching gray without any bad intentions.

fairy tail has a fair amount of wrong sides that you shouldn't teach to young teenagers. but is this supposed to be a life lesson to them, in the first place ? can you choose to show fairy tail to your kids just so they know how important friends can be, how you should treasure your bonds, how you can be free if you don't harm the others ? is it the best show to watch when you want to learn about care and freedom, even when the sexualisation of both boys and girls is overly present and when the said characters are sometimes minors ?

nowadays, i feel like the shounen anime genre tries to get better on these points, slightly, here and there (jujutsu kaisen being the most obvious example that comes to my mind) but the 100 years quest sequel is in fact directly linked to the main series and since the author is the same, he didn't bother to change anything in his way of making fan service. he likes doing that in his gags and art, it's part of the vibe of his series, so he won't take that away nor even reduce it. i'm a bit sorry that you can't have high expectations of the 100 years quest just because it's more recent, regarding the sexualisation of the characters or of their borderline behaviours. but if you enjoyed the main series, then there's no reason why you couldn't enjoy the sequel because of these.

i hope it answers your questions ! thank you so much for the ask again, i don't usually analyse fairy tail characters this thoroughly because although they are all really good and enjoyable characters, i can't guess if the author wanted them to be so deep after all. have a nice day !

xx

[astro-can]

pfft what are you talking about I don't overthink that much

also me whenever I meet a new person at my new school:

person: hey what's up?

me: oh hey, I'm good. fuck I should have said hi not hey because now it seems like i'm copying them. how about you?

person: oh, I'm pretty good. what's your name?

me: oh i'm *name*, wbu?

person: my name is *idk*! so, what are some of your hobbies?

me: hobbies? HOBBIES? oh I have plenty of hobbies I like reading but if I say that then they're going to ask what kind of books I read and then i'll have to tell them I read whatever's trending because I can't tell them I read manga bc I would seem like a weeb and then they would think I'm one of those booktok girls who like dark romance when in reality i'm still stuck in my 12-year-old Percy Jackson and demonslayer phase, if I tell them that I like drawing then theres like a 80% chance that they're going to ask to see my drawings which I can't show them because I only draw my silly little ocs and anime characters and cartoons and that's embarrassing to show to other people, I can't say I like writing because they might ask what kind of things I write about and I can't say "oh I write fanfiction" because that's stupid and if they really want to know what kind of stuff I like to write about, then I would tell them the entire plot of the 3294673964932 stories I'm writing but then I might scare them off--

me: oh haha I like reading...and drawing.... FUCK WHY DID I SAY THAT AHHHHHHHH

person: oh cool! what kind of books do you read?

me: ummm just whatever's trending FUCK IM SO BAD AT THIS

person: cool, do you like music?

me: yeah totally!

person: what kind of music do you listen to? maybe rec me some artists?

me: WHAT DO I SAY I can't say that I like kpop because they're going to think i'm weird and a koreaboo even though i'm actually Korean but would they know that its kpop if I recommended a kpop artist? would they know txt? what if they search txt up in front of me right now and then they say "oh is this bts?" what do I do? if I say I like conon gray or taylor swift, i'll seem too basic. will they think i'm gay if I say chapell roan? well, I AM gay but that's not something I want to tell someone when i've first met them, especially since I don't know if they're an ally or not. ok, so what if I say mitski? would they think i'm depressed? would they ask if i'm ok? would I seem like a basic white teenager? I should just say mitski and lyn lapid those are my best choices--

me: oh I like mitski...chapell roan... FUCK I WAS SUPPOSED TO SAY LYN NOT CHAPELL IM GOING TO GO DIG MYSELF A HOLE what about you?

person: oh really? I like *music artist that I probably haven't listened to the music to before, probably someone like the weeknd or some rapper*

me: oh yeah I love the Weeknd too I have never listened to the Weeknd before i'm going to kms

person: anyways nice talking to you

me: was it really? was it really nice? am I nice? was I pleasant enough? did I stutter? did I fidget too much? oh shit, should I fix my hair? would they think I'm flirting with them if I tuck my hair behind my ear? oh gosh they're going back to their friends what if they're trash talking me what if they hate me and i've already ruined my reputation even though i've barely been here a month. i should've complimented them! I should've told them that I loved their hair or something....

yup that's basically my entire thought process. there's more but I can't write it all out because i'm not actually in a situation like that rn but that's the gist of it. help

[akihabaradivision]

Criss's Thoughts on Obihiro Division

Hisoka Tetsumasu

"Hisoka-san's ranch? Oh, it's definitely on my list of places to explore! I mean, with all the history he has, there's got to be some kind of supernatural energy there, right? Horses are such spiritual creatures too; they have this wise look, like they've seen things we can't even imagine. I haven't had the chance to sneak onto the ranch yet, but believe me, it's tempting. I've heard stories about places where animals live being crossroads for spirits, and I'm curious if Hisoka-san's ranch is one of those places."

"I wouldn't be surprised if there were spirits lingering around, maybe even watching over the horses. It would be fascinating to investigate and see if there's any truth to the tales. Plus, I think it would be pretty cool to meet Hisoka-san in person. Despite his past, I bet he has some interesting stories to tell. And who knows? Maybe the spirits are drawn to the place because of him. It's all speculation at this point, but I’m eager to find out more. Ghosts or no ghosts, Hisoka's ranch is definitely a place where the veil between worlds feels thin."

Daiki Kamiyama

"Daiki-kun's superhero antics are totally cool! I mean, who doesn't love a bit of mystery and adventure under the cover of night? We've bumped into each other a few times while I'm out on my paranormal investigations, and let me tell you, it's always a blast when he's around. His enthusiasm for superheroes and doing good is just infectious. I think it's awesome that he's trying to make a difference, even in his own unique way."

"We've explored a couple of spooky spots together, and Daiki-kun's bravery really shines through. It's like he's in his element, you know? I can't help but admire his dedication to his hero persona. Sure, it might be a little risky, but life's too short to not chase after what you believe in. Plus, having a 'superhero' by your side when you're chasing ghosts? That's just epic! I'd say we make a pretty great team when it comes to exploring the unknown!"

Jack Verrill

"Jack-san is like a character straight out of a manga! The stoic butler with a mysterious air about him—it's just like something you'd read in a story, and I find it pretty amusing! Whenever I'm hanging out with Daiki-kun and Jack-san is there, I can't resist teasing him a bit. I’ll sometimes just throw out a classic line like, 'The butler did it!' when we're talking about mysteries. He usually just gives me this look that's a mix of exasperation and amusement, which only makes it funnier!"

"Honestly, I think Jack-san's presence adds a whole layer of intrigue to any situation. He's got this vibe that he knows more than he lets on, and I respect that. It's clear he cares a lot about Daiki-kun, and his dedication to his role is something you don’t see every day. But I do wonder what secrets he's keeping. With someone like him, you just know there's a wealth of stories behind those quiet eyes. Maybe one day, he'll share some of them with us. Until then, I'll keep enjoying the mystery that is Jack-san, the enigmatic butler. Because, after all, he is just... one hell of a butler." Criss giggles to herself.

Veiled Vanguard

"I like these guys! They're an interesting bunch! I've hung out with them a few times, and it's always an adventure! Hisoka-san's ranch has this mysterious vibe that's just so captivating, and Daiki-kun's enthusiasm for heroics is super contagious. Even Jack-san, with his stoic butler act, has a certain charm. They're like characters from the paranormal fanfics online come to life, and I love that!"

"When it comes to facing them in the Division Rap Battle, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit torn. On one hand, it's going to be epic. But on the other, I've gotten to know them, and they’re not just opponents; they're friends too. It's going to be tough to go against them, but that's the nature of the game, right? We all want to win, but more than that, we want to share our stories, our music, and our hearts. So, no matter what happens, I'll give it my all and hope that our friendship can withstand the competition."

[leonawriter]

I was meaning to add something earlier in my response about why people probably portray the Hakuba-Kaito relationship the way they do, when I saw someone point out that Hakuba is not present in the story from the last chapter of his introduction (Akako's Delivery Service) to Golden Eye. Though technically he's present in the same story during Twilight Mansion, set between those two stories, that doesn't fully count for the purpose of the point here, because they're surrounded by other people, other detectives, and there's never a spare moment during the case, which only takes one night.

It probably isn't much at all to mention, but when I thought about just how long the absence seems to be, it made me wonder why that might have been such a thing.

It's not impossible that Hakuba was simply in class but not causing a scene, but I would say it's unlikely. Whenever Hakuba's nearby, Kaito seems to pay attention, or Hakuba draws attention to himself. That said, the animated Red Tear special has him simply reading in class, which supports that

It seems just as likely that Hakuba really was absent for a while - in the Detective Koshien case, however, it's stated he's been away in England for a while, and has just recently returned. So, he went home.

This is supported also in the manga by how during the Clocktower heist flashback (i.e, some weeks/months before the Black Pearl, since Shinichi's his normal size) someone directly says "I haven't seen Saguru-kun, the son of superintendent Hakuba, lately" and Nakamori explains that yes, "Apparently he's returned to London to finish an unsolved case of his."

What strikes me is that he's introduced, he attends a heist, he asks Kid why he's doing what he's doing, he gets the response "aren't you the detective? shouldn't you be figuring that out?", he then figures out who, attending two more heists in the process, and his last appearance in MK before Golden Eye has him staring as Akako flies off on her broom, dressed as Kid.

My running theory at the moment is that he might have spent that time away from Japan not just solving cases elsewhere, but also using the time and distance to actually go over what he knows, and take Kaito's words at their first meeting to heart.

He starts asking himself questions: why did Kaito start stealing? Why is the Kid Nakamori knows about older, and why is this Kid his age? If he has assistants, then why would they be helping him? (Fascinatingly, if he has any idea that it'd been Akako under the top hat that one time, it doesn't get in the way of his canon crush on her.)

If this is the case, I'd love to be able to have seen him actually in the thinking state for any of the conclusions he's come to. Does he tell or talk to anyone else? Does his housekeeper know his hypotheses, or... is it just him who knows what he's put together?

And carrying on from that, it'd make sense if the TL;DR is that there's an aspect of "I am removing myself from the situation until it makes sense to me, and you aren't going to complicate matters by confusing me before I've figured it (and you) out, so I'll be back when I have my head around you a bit better."

With that in mind, his subsequent appearances might make sense in the light of him being called back, but he goes from "not being sure what he feels yet" to "helping Kaito out from all the way over in Paris."

I've also seen people suggest that it's only during this time away from the plot that he gets Watson, who he'd never mentioned before. Honestly, as far as I'm concerned, it could have been both at the same time. Or he could have had Watson before his introduction and it simply wasn't relevant.

Actually - I wonder if part of him needing to take time away from Japan was that he needed to sort out, in his own time, and in his own head, how far he'd be willing to go to help someone society had labelled a criminal? It's so easy for me to read Hakuba as autistic that I barely think about it, but if he is and that's the case, then the transition from "solves all sorts of crimes" to "casually helping a known international thief" can't have been an easy one for someone who must have had pretty strong feelings about the law in order to want to become a detective in the first place, and with so many cases solved, right?

Which then makes his absence have a twofold reason: to figure out Kaito, and to figure out himself, in relation to Kaito.

[cosmicjoke]

At this point why do people keep complaining about E/L shippers. I don't get it😭 It's becoming redundant tbh. It's not like they're going to change. On the contrary, at Twitter they just keep growing in masses. We're letting them occupy Levi spaces too often.

I know it's not your fault because you don't control what anons ask. I'm sure you're tired of talking about it too lol

I feel like tearing out my hair whenever I see Erwin's name and I don't even have anything against him🖐🏽💀

I'm really glad you said this, because this is exactly how I feel. I keep getting asked about it, over and over, and it's driving me nuts. That's why I pinned my post about Levi and shipping, to try and get these people to stop bugging me, lol. Instead of asking me about Levi, or wanting to just talk about Levi as his own, separate character, people keep coming to me complaining about Levi/Erwin as a ship and how awful the shippers are, and I really, really just don't care. I don't care about the ship, and I don't care about the shippers. I want to talk about Levi, not about these people and their delusions, lol.

The problem I feel, is I get why people want to complain about it, but by complaining about it constantly, and focusing on it, instead of Levi himself, they're letting these people win. They're letting the shippers dominate the conversation surrounding Levi, so that instead of actually discussing Levi as a character, they only ever talk about the ship of him and Erwin, whether it's to complain about it or not, you're still ONLY talking about it.

Like, damn, there's so much to talk about with Levi as a character. So much to discuss and analyze and understand. But I would say 95% of the questions I get are either people complaining about how much they hate shippers, or coming and telling me about some negative bullshit some idiot on twitter or ticktok said about Levi (when I've said repeatedly that I don't go on those platforms specifically to avoid seeing that shit, and yet they tell me about it anyway). It's like they want me to reassure them that what some moron said about Levi isn't true. You can figure out it isn't true on your own just by reading the manga or watching the anime. That's all you need to counter these fools. Nothing they say should matter or bother you, because the canon completely undoes whatever mad claims they want to make.

Anyway, yeah, it's getting to that point for me too, whenever I see Erwin's name, I feel irritation, because almost every time, I know it's going to be someone asking me if Levi cared more about Erwin than humanity, or accusing Levi of caring more about Erwin than humanity, or asking some dumb fucking question about "the vow" and completely not getting that it wasn't FOR Erwin, it was for all his comrades that gave their lives that day in Shinganshina. It's fucking stupid. Why are people so insecure about Levi's character? They shouldn't be. Levi's character speaks for itself. He doesn't need defending, because he's a genuinely good person and a hero.

[melonteee]

i think the talking points surrounding the live action are going to be interesting (but not necessarily ground-breaking) whenever the hype dies down.

there's a lot of charm, and as much as it can be, judging it based on its own merits it's certainly a show. comparisons are inevitable, but i feel like the show could decide if it wanted to do its own thing or if it wanted to be an homage. i feel like zoro was on the pole because it was in the anime/manga and it's a visual people recognise. it's the same with nami's "help me" scene (which i felt was very well done, but oddly placed in context with the surrounding scenes).

there's an essence of the writers wanting to have their cake and eat it too, and it's such a bizarre mix to me. it's the first live action i've really been interested in watching but i feel like i've seen it a hundred times between disney and marvel, and it's so bizarre considering one piece is so much of it's own thing. the way that what makes the manga and anime stand on its own has either been put to the side in favour of more tried and true, recent tropes, or critically misunderstood by the writers that leaves it feeling just shy of re-capturing one piece's core.

i really did enjoy myself watching it, but by comparison of the way that the manga has had me hooked for going on a year, the live action doesn't have that same impact. jumping from scenes the audience familiar with the franchise will recognise to added fluff as far as i can tell. i really hope someone makes a video or essay about this series coming from the perspective of someone who knows nothing about one piece, to see if it works as a show from that perspective. because i can't judge it like that, because i know where scenes are supposed to be / where certain choices have been made in contrast to the original material and it's so hard not to draw those comparisons and choose which is better served.

i do hope there's a second season, because it is a lot of fun (and i wanna see live action smoker / tashigi / vivi / karoo / robin. i hope robin's powers in live action are horrible to look at (in the best way)) but more than anything i'm confused by it as a series/story.

I have nothing to add to this, you've made plenty good points all of which I agree with. It's a good read btw ty <3

[banqanas]

Can I ask how you learned Japanese? I'm curious about learning it myself but have no clue where to start.

Disclaimer:

I'm self taught (only have one basic class in Japanese) and never took JLPT. I can talk, write and understand basic japanese, but definitely not proficient. Because I only apply my jp knowledge for hobby stuffs (a.k.a i can read a novel about oshi and have conversations with fellow otaku. but none of it is applicable in regular daily life)

I started since 2014 so I've been learning jp for almost 9 years (still am). I dont think I'm qualified to give advice so instead, here's a short essay on how I got to this point;

2014: learnt reading & listening from manga & anime. reading raws while comparing to fan scanlations. same with anime. doing this consistently to get used to the language 2018: peak of my learning -took a basic class in japanese in college. helped a lot in getting used to sentence structure and particles -started translating seriously (short written text only: interviews, tweets, articles) -practice writing and conversing via twitter. started tweeting in japanese and talked to japanese people in same fandom. found kaiwa friends. -also started translating spoken japanese (livestreams), but was not confident enough to translate word-by-word 2019- jan 2021: started translating mobage contents. literally just doing the same things as the year before but more frequently and more quantity. also started translating short spoken japanese without any text/script aid (radio). feb 2021: discovered high&low. met todoroki yosuke. trajectory of life changed. stopped translating for the time being 2022: slowly translating media with real people starting with some kamen rider stuffs. got more comfortable with translating spoken japanese (unscripted). 2023: here i am.

The long essay version:

The earliest I started learning japanese was around ~2014 where I was into a very niche series that has no translation so I had to buy the manga and try to read them myself. At the time there's no translate using image function, so a lot of it was me typing in the words in hiragana and hoping that I find the right kanji. During this period I (was forced to) learn a lot about kanji radicals and how to properly write them.

From that day on, Jisho was my best friend

I learnt mostly by comparing anime/manga fan translations with raws and going back and forth to check the words in dictionary. I prefer fan scanlation bc most of them are literal and are easier to understand as someone who isn't an english speaker.

I still consciously do this whenever I watch anything but I can differentiate what's a literal translation vs localisation now.

I started dabbling in translation around 2018

At the time I was into Hypnosis Mic (rap songs). I was better at understanding jp words now and could write simple words. I would tweet in japanese and reply to my fav artists drawings (this template is my origin). I also started posting my drawings with jp caption

I used to help around the fan translation group with seiyuu interviews or magazine articles (mainly written text). And the admin of the group would check my translation before posting them. I tried translating songs myself, but I realised that while I could translate, they don't make sense 😅😅

I made some friends in the fandom who were also learning japanese and we would consult each other with translations. I also made a friend with a japanese person wanting to learn english. So I would talk to them in japanese while they would reply to me in english.

So I stuck around with translating short interviews/tweets. I also started doing livetweets of niconico livestreams. I wasn't confident enough in spoken japanese so I only made general summaries instead of word-by-word translation.

At the same year I also took an introductory class to Japanese Language at my college. It was my first formal lesson in japanese. The book we used was Minna no Nihongo Elementary 1. The class got me used to sentence structures, particles, numbers, time etc etc. The class did not made me translate my anime stuffs better back then but the present me is very thankful for everything I learnt during this class bc it's what people in the real world use.

The next following years (2019- early 2021) were when i was most active bc I got into translating mobage contents. I translated pretty much everything I could from home screen lines to event stories to radio. I got better at making my translation sound better and not too literal. Also helped proof reading friends translations.

I personally think this was the best learning duration for me. Compared to actors, seiyuu (voice actors) have really clear enunciation which helped me got confident in my listening skills for spoken japanese, thus became confident enough to translate it. I could understand and catch up with what they were talking about with minimal text. But I still need to listen to the same radio show 2-3 times before I could fully understand them.

I dedicated every waking minute of my life to this game until it shut down. Then I got so broken hearted, I didn't want to consume anymore 2D media. Depressi spaghetti phase.

On that fated day in February 2021, I watched High&Low on netflix and I fell for Todoroki Yosuke. Started the process all over again by consuming everything i can about highlow to get used to the actors voices, way of speaking, dialect, common words/phrases etc. Also includes stuffs related to exile tribe. During this time I barely translated anything bc I wasn't confident enough with unscripted spoken japanese.

By 2022 I got the hang of it and started translating stuffs for kamen rider. And this year I can listen to fanta's radio while doing chores without thinking too much about it but can still understand their conversation! I read a novel for the first time!

I'm sorry that this got too long but I hope it helped to give you an idea of where to start! Here's to learning more! 👍

[applescabs]

I was tagged by my buddy @phoenixfangs so lets goooo

Are you named after anyone? I've heard this story a buncha times so I'm pretty sure my mom got my birth name from a singer. She heard it on tv and liked it a lot, back then it wasn't a very common name in my country. My names as of now are 50/50, Tom didn't come from anyone but Teddie was 100% something I picked up from Teddie p4, hahah.

When was the last time you cried? Last Sunday when I rewatched ep 11 of Bucchigiri. especially during the part where Zabu got the absolute shit beaten out of him. Finn came home right after that and doesn't understand that one of the big points of media is to reach you emotionally, so he thought it was weird that I was crying.

Do you have kids? Nah, but I'd like to some day, if fate allows it.

Do you use sarcasm a lot? Not nearly as much as I used to, because most of my friends are autistic and don't get it most of the time, so I just end up upsetting them whenever I do use it. Being sincere is much more fun anyways.

What sports do you play? None, but I would love to swim or ice skate (or, hell, do some skiing). Neither are really possible for me atm, unfortunately (do you have any idea how expensive skiing is btw. it's crazy). When I was a kid I did gymnastics and streetdance, I also played tennis briefly as a teen, but had to quit due to a lack of people in my age group playing at that club.

What’s the first thing you notice about people? I usually take note of how someone dresses and does their hair. Ever notice how dull most people's clothes are? I like seeing styles that stand out.

What’s your eye colour? Brown, it's not a particularly dark shade, but I wouldn't call it hazel (my dad has hazel eyes though).

Scary movies or happy endings? This ones a little... vague? But I guess if I had to choose... I wouldn't. I don't care about genre or what type of emotional impact it has, as long as it's coherent and entertaining in its own right. (That doesn't mean I don't care about quality btw. I literally just. watch anything and judge it for what it is.)

Any special talents? I'm a boss at packing in groceries quickly and efficiently. Not a talent that everyone possesses, I've learned (sorry Minke <3).

Where were you born? Netherlands babeyyy ✌ North-Holland to be a bit more precise. I lived next to a dyke (not that kind) so I got the real under-sea-level experience. I still live around the area but not in my hometown anymore.

What are your hobbies? Drawing, (writing?), translation and the nuances that come with it, watching movies, tv shows, animes, cartoons, playing video games, reading books, comics and manga. (and then talking about cinematography, parallels, themes, symbolism and the likes) I also collect soda cans (+ the occasional glass bottle), candy packaging, and anime figurines + other merch.

Do you have any pets? My little baby Jody (dog) who I've had since I was 7 years old! She's about to have her sweet 16 on the 23rd (that's in 2 weeks!) she's getting blind and deaf as hell but she's still lively and sweet as ever <3 And my sweet Tiger of course, who's of undetermined age (around 8/9 the vet said) and currently living with my good friend Minke and their 2 other cats (he does not like them) and dog (he is ok with her). He's not with me rn because my mom's bf is allergic, unfortunately.

How tall are you? 1 meter 59. that single centimeter haunts me. I would've also preferred an additional 10 as well.

Favourite subject in school? Art history used to my favourite in high school, and when I was in film school for a brief period I loved film history. I just love anything pertaining to the arts and it's history that involves analysing and comparing it to other time periods, really.

Dream job? I wanna be someone's househusband and make a buncha weird art on the side. Not kidding btw. But if I had to choose a more conventional dream job... it had to be something in the creative or design industry, otherwise I'll probably die of unhappiness.

tageroonie @kuwupikaa @sunflowermews @xrd @isleofair @spunktrumpetsasara and uhhh other mutuals who feel inclined to do this 👉👈

[icarianarts]

More about me under the cut! ;P

Icarian • he/they/she (no preference) • transsexual • 21 y/o

I'm a Graphic Design Major ^_^

A running joke about me is a lot of my points of interest reflect that of a cishet boy but I promise I am normal about everything I get into. I may talk about some things more than others because I get embarrassed with what I like easily, but here's a general list!

General Movies + TV Shows

• Seinfeld

• The Birdcage

• The Yellow Submarine

• The Muppets

• The Shrek series (Unironically, whenever I talk about Shrek it is never for the meme, but for my love of the movies and characters.)

Various Adam Sandler movies + things that are so bad they're good, if that makes any sense. I love regularly watching tacky things that were poorly produced and/or written. Pretty much anything I can commentate on easily with my friends and complain about lightly LOL

Anime + Manga

• Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (Parts 1 + 3 + 6 are usually my areas of focus, but I have read all of it up to 9, which I've yet to really dive into.)

• Dragon Ball (Childhood interest of mine, I haven't watched the series regularly or have drawn fanart regularly since I was 14 or so. Hilariously, I still find myself to this day getting into conversations surrounding it so I might as well include it!)

• Berserk (I LOVE PUCK ^_^)

• Devilman (Obligatory post-Berserk catch up read so I could see the elements Miura was inspired by.)

Video Games

• Pretty much most Nintendo games, I have a baseline knowledge of everything under that company's label. (Focus on Pokémon + Mario + Kid Icarus + etc. it'll be glaringly obvious what my favorites are just by checking my old smash bros ultimate tags...)

• Mega Man Classic

• Second Life + VR Chat (If you ever consider wanting to play any of these games, feel free to shoot me an ask or DM if you'd like an insider's explanation on what the scene is like on them! I can go into great detail the amount of stories I have accumulated from my excursions, all the good and the bad LMAO)

• Genshin Impact (I do not engage with the fanbase, and find a lot of the fans genuinely exhausting to be around. While it is no worse than The Legend of Zelda with its issues, the fans remarkably make it so much more agonizing to talk about.)

• Ball Gay 3

Miscellaneous

• I love the Abrahamic Faiths and sometimes post about my experiences struggling in queer spaces predominantly ran by culturally christian white atheists who choose to say all organized faith is inherently bad and perpetuate the "queer vs. religion" issue.

• I went to a Japanese immersion school from the ages 5 through 11 and have been casually keeping up with the language since!

• I love classic country and folk rock. When I say I like country, I specifically mean the genre and general scene behind country that predates the 9/11 shift in music. I also (embarrassingly) know a shit ton of Beatles trivia. John Denver is my favorite music artist.

...and much more I am probably forgetting to list out! I am critical of all my interests, so please do not be presumptuous. Ultimately, I consider a lot of "Fandom DNI" things to be hypocritical and performative in the sense that it eliminates any nuance.

Simply put, I will just block you if you are someone who refuses to have any critical thinking skills...that being said, given how tumblrinas seem to be incapable of figuring out what that means, here is a brief rundown of what I that tends to encapsulate. LMAOOOOOO

No stupid discourse No creeps No "it's just fictional!" No whatever I deem to be genuinely sickening I know "DNI" pages are performative and areas for people to flaunt their basic morality but lately I have had to block so many people I feel as though I need to put a typical warning up so. You Know. Gestures Vaguely. For Genshin Fans specifically coming to my blog know I do not put up with any ship remotely creepy. I see a good portion of the "short" character model characters as children, and genuinely cannot "unsee" it. This is not something to argue in my asks about. Just leave me alone, I do not participate in the fandom for a reason.

[freyalise]

do you have a favorite "bad" isekai

this is kind of a difficult question because a lot of the isekai i'm into have enough good parts to qualify as good overall. however, this is isekai we're talking about; at the end of the day we're all diving in literature's dumpster so there are naturally going to be "bad" isekai that i'm still fond of

the first one that came to mind was my instant death ability is so overpowered, no one in this other world stands a chance against it. it's a parody series, but fujitaka tsuyoshi approaches his parody with the subtlety of someone firing a shotgun out of the window of a monster truck. main character-kun can kill instantly with a single thought? sure. mc-kun's class is filled with absurdly implausible characters like ninjas and robots and secret agents? yeah! fujitaka references dragons fucking cars in chapter 1? wait what

it's one of those things that is just so stupid and over-the-top that it loops back around into being good. plus it's getting an anime adaptation in winter 2024, so that's cool

i have to mention yoku wakaranai keredo isekai ni tensei shiteita you desu at some point as the honorary "i can't believe it's not hentai" entry in my library. it's crass, light on world building, and honestly just plain not very good, but there's a certain something something that convinces me to keep it in my library despite being a target for the most dogshit machine translators known to man. this manga is like the evil version of she professed herself pupil of the wise man.

as for another entry, i don't know if i'd consider kyuuseishu ≪meshia≫~isekai wo sukutta moto yuusha ga mamono no afureru genjitsu sekai wo musou suru~ (救世主≪メシア≫～異世界を救った元勇者が魔物のあふれる現実世界を無双する～) as "bad" per se, but it's not really a stand-out hitter. but it's solid enough and has decent characters and comedic timing, so i keep reading it whenever new chapters drop.

i tried looking at my manhwa to see if there were any that fit the bill so i don't overrepresent manga in this answer but honestly the bad isekai manhwa i've read tend to be bad in ways that aren't enjoyable or funny, so you get three manga instead.

[ezralva]

I've been following you for a coupla years now ever since your xicheng era. It's interesting to see whenever you get into new fixations, it introduces me to lesser animes or BLs or new ships that otherwise I would never think of and more often than not I got hooked to them thanks to you 😁 I'm very shy and awkward so mostly in fandoms I'm in im just a silent enjoyer and follower. I'm so happy when you started posting and reblogging jjk because it's a fandom I've been silently lurking for years and moreover because you like stsg and also chousou because they are one of my favorites too. I pretty much enjoy reading your posts and your reblog tags, they are funny! May you share how you got into that? Because you mention one time that you regret those who drew you into jjk 😅 is it something to do with big fandom?

Ps. I like your fic so much, it's like a healing session after chapter 236, I thought i'd let you know here because i'm too shy to comment directly on the fic

Omg this is so sweet of you, anon, thank you! I hope y'know your kind words just made my whole day <3. Wow if you've been following me that long then you shud go off anon so I wud know who you are ^^ but I get it! I enjoy being silent lurker and follower too from times to times.

Also wow I'm amazed you've put up with my everchanging fixations that long lol I know I'm annoying that whenever I'm into new fixation then I wudn't shut up abt it for a while and too lazy to ever make sideblogs. Anw, I don't really remember when I said that ahaha I'd most likely just joked or be sarcastic when I wrote that. I did feel so much pain knowing my otp is a doomed ship but it's nothing I didn't know before I even started jjk. Moreover it ended in a good note for me what with the latest chapters of them so it's all good now. The abundant loveable characters of jjk making it easy to explore other dynamics and ships too. Even dynamics I'd usually nvr entertain so it's been an eye opener experience! I don't regret a thing. Glad to know we share similar tastes :)

but yea I'm really not good with big fandoms overall and am usually content with the tiny corner of my own. My last experience with big fandoms, before I switched completely to obscure fandoms, were too unpleasant that I didn't wish to ever repeat it. But I'm more adept with curating what I wanna see now so I won't get put-off or get bored quickly. Tiny fandoms are nice and comfy but they were oftentimes unsustainable for me due to the lack of interactions. Still, I'm so happy to hear my shitposts could actually introduce you to new fixations!

Abt how I get into jjk. Well, unlike any other animes mangas I'm into, I actually have irl friends and coworkers that are fans of jjk. 3 of them are close to me (one of them is my spouse lol) and had literally pestered me to try it for long so they'd have someone to talk with. So I'd known about it since around 2 years ago when the movie came out. I was curious bcs it was such a hype around me even though they were all adults who usually didn't even watch anime so there must be sth different abt it. Yet I kept putting it off cz I was just not into supernatural fantasy shounen. I decided this year would be a good time to start since with season 2 the hype around me was too high that I just got swept in it, naturally. I cudn't tamp down my curiosity any longer plus I got time now during this break so why not, right? The thing is my irl friends arent into simping let alone shipping (at least not that I know in public, who knows what they might be doing in private) so I keep that side here ofc!

Awwwh thank you so much for letting me know you like my fic! Ch 236 was indeed devastating for a while tho it was still a HE in some aspects (for me). It's an outlet for me to pour my HCs for the characters that stuck with me. I hope you know that even if it's just excited emojis, a comment in the fic worths a lot for authors cz it let them know not just abt whether their fics are being read and liked, but how their works actually affect the readers, it's a potent drive for authors and feedbacks are helping authors so you don't need to be shy 😉

[raeseddon]

Had one of those "well *that* makes sense" moments the other day when I realized that the specific American cartoons I watched as a kid all but assured I'd adore Shounen and (some) Shoujo manga later in life-- I'm talking your YST/Ronin Warriors and your Pretear's and the like-- the ones that take time to really push and examine the psychological impact of being told "you are the world's only chance at survival, and for as competent as they seem, everyone else around you is winging it as much as you are."

(I tried, but couldn't get into Madoka Magica, it struck me as one of those shows that people were reading way too much into to justify liking something that was that dark and unabashedly misogynistic. There's deconstructing a genre, and then there's punishing your main characters because you think they deserve it for having certain feelings/beliefs that are stereo-typically associated with their gender.)

The American cartoons I've been jumping between watching are the D&D cartoon and Mighty Max, and man, the mid-80's to early 90's really had a thing for not just cryptic but borderline cruel "mentor" characters who's primary flaw was having planned things out sometimes thousands of years in advance in their heads only to become very flustered and upset by the main characters deviating from "the plan" -- a plan that more often than not said mentors never reveal in full because they know their protege' will disagree with it vehemently. (See: Dungeon Master in D&DC and Virgil in Mighty Max.)

I'm almost willing to give Virgil more of a pass than DM because there's genuine PTSD and survivor's guilt going on in Virgil's case, whereas DM has compartmentalized things so much the only time he shows any regret for how he treats the main characters is when they quite literally snap and tell him that's it, they're done, fuck it, someone needs to die. (It shows how frustrated with modern social media I am when it's actually refreshing to hear a cartoon say the words kill and die. God that's depressing....)

Virgil has watched his previous protege' sacrifice his life for The Cause and it's one of the biggest reasons he gets upset whenever Max "goes off-script" because literally everything he's planned up to that point has been about keeping Max, the literal child savior, alive...while at the same time forgetting he's a child and that kids can be really good at improvising on the fly. And where Virgil learns to trust Max's instincts in the end, there's nothing of the sort between Dungeon Master and the kids in the D&D cartoon-- he leads them around from one traumatizing situation to the next, relying on Hank's innate willingness to trust people who help him and play on his good samaritan streak--which is so strained by the end the only reason he continues to trust DM is because it's the only thing he knows how to do, and he knows it. So it's really, really hard at the end of the day to have a lot of sympathy for Dungeon Master, while Virgil at least works through some of his issues.

Come 1995 and of course I'm going to see the parallels between Mighty Max and YST/Ronin Warriors-- sketchy mentor characters contrasted with really bright, caring and trusting main characters (with a fantastically written female lead this time as well!)and later Pretear. In fact a huge part of me feels like Himeno and Max would benefit from being in group therapy together-- especially with the "everyone around me lied by omission almost right to the end because they refused to believe I would mature to the emotional challenge of handing The Truth" plot point.

TL;DR

American cartoons in the mid/late 80's and early 90's weren't quite as "dark" or edgy enough to catch the culture zeitgiest that anime later did--<i>but</i> if anime had taken longer to catch hold here in the States, you can absolutely see where American cartoons were stepping up to the same level of maturity, aging with their audience and filling the emotional need for more mature stories that had been growing the entire time Regan had his iron-fisted control of the FCC.