#where are all the COOL animals taro .

[brutalage]

if you had to be a raccoon or opossum which would you choose.

" AS IF I would be any of those creatures . it isn't even worth humoring you for . "

[uwublr]

Pine's Ridiculously Long List of Free Japanese Study Materials

First Month Edition

All my current study materials, because sharing found resources is caring. These are not JLPT-specific and are for pre-beginners to beginners like me. I can't believe I have been studying for a month. Comparison is truly the thief of joy. I am a slow learner, but that's okay. Find a community because it truly does make a difference. Shoutout to Seitokai's Nihongo Discord, and to @tokidokitokyo whose post let me know about it and is just overall a great person too.

Main study material: Marugoto Online A1 Self-Study Kastudoo and Rikai with downloaded PDF and Wordbook (my original post about it)

Supplemental references:

A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar (The only NOT free resource in this list, sorry! The e-book sold on Amazon does not have good reviews as it's a scanned copy of the book, rather than a properly formatted e-book. A free alternative to this is JapBase which also contains Intermediate and Advanced content.)

Marugoto Plus which accompanies the Marugoto courses and includes videos, audio files, etc.

Apps: Anki, Renshuu

Anki decks:

Tatsumoto's Kana (Recognizing and Writing)

Tatsumoto's AnkiDrone Sentence Pack V7

Official KanjiDamage Deck (from the creator of KanjiDamage, crude language warning for both the deck and the site)

Marugoto A1 Rikai Katsudoo 2021

Dictionaries:

Rikaitan browser extension (installed JMDict English V4, JMExtra, 日本語文法辞典(全集), and Kanjium)

Takoboto app (with offline access)

Other resources:

Sukiruma for practice writing sheets

Reader Ttsu for reading Japanese materials on a browser (used in conjunction with Rikaitan, since I couldn't find an e-book reader that I can install a Japanese dictionary in)

Sousakuba for downloadable genkouyoushi without watermarks

Youtube:

Favorites marked with a ⭐️.

Comprehensible Input for what it says on the tin, in bite-size formats

Daily Japanese with Naoko for vlogs with Japanese subtitles

Dogen for the funny videos that you can learn from and/or relate to

Game Gengo because Japanese learning through games, and has JLPT geared content if you're looking for it

Gino Kei who has shorts teaching Japanese in a not so serious way

Hiro - Food in Japan for cooking videos, not in Japanese, but these make me crave for Japanese food anyway so that counts

⭐️ Japan Eat for Japanese food commentary in English and also makes me hungry. So, yeah, not in 日本語 but it's delicious so that also counts

Japanese Koro mostly for kana reading practice which actually helps you get short serotonin boosts for when you do actually get to read the words correctly

Japanese Quest which plays games in Japanese

⭐️ Japarrot! for fun, animated comprehensible input videos

Let's ask Shogo for culture content

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Matcha Samurai for delightfully unhinged culture content, debunking Japanese misconceptions one video at a time

Namba Tsuyoshi for no narration Japanese walk with me style vlogs, very chill and relaxing

⭐️ NihongoDekita with Sayaka for fun, short grammar content

ShekMatz Japan has videos/playlists where she teaches Japanese in Tagalog, so if you can't understand Tagalog, you'd better skip it

Sora The Troll because why not

⭐️ Takashii from Japan is honestly one of my favorites, even before I started learning Japanese. His interviews are just really good!

Taro's Sewing because my toxic trait is thinking I can sew the cool things they post. Also comes with short Japanese commentary on screen

Tokyo Lens counts as uh, immersion even if it's not in Japanese, but it's in Japan so that counts? Yeah, let's go with that

もしもしようすけ for Japan vlogs/walk with me with Japanese and English subtitles

Yomii Japan Piano if you like piano and the occasional trolling

Japanese Calligrapher Takumi because my other toxic trait is thinking I can write this beautifully

[chaoticnezz]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~You're favorite part about working with animals was when you got to see the sea creatures. You worked at a place that was like a zoo but for sea creatures (aquarium). Most of the time you spent giving the children a tour of the place, or just playing with them as the parents got a break.

"And this kids is the petting area, where you can pet all of the sea creatures. But before you touch them let me show you how to handle them, so that you don't hurt them."

The children surrounded you as you crouched down to be level with the water table. The table was quite deep filled with water and aquatic life. You gently touched a black octopus that leaned into you touch with each pet.

Softly you pulled your hand out of the water, "and that's how you should handle all the sea animals so please be gentle, you are free to touch them." Soon all the children scattered around the water table, all but one.

"E-excuse me miss but I'm scared to touch one what if they hurt me." You crouched down to the boys level and you patted his head with your non- wet hand. "It's alright they won't hurt you I promise, do you want me to help you pet one?"

"Y-yes please" "alright what's your name I'm y/n." "I'm Tim" you gently grabbed Tim's hand and slowly led him over to the water table. Looking into the water table you grabbed the friendliest sea animal you knew.

The black octopus it was about the size of your palm so it was small enough not to terrify any of the kid. You and Tim both crouched down at the water table. "Alright Tim I want you to meet, Minato if that's to hard for you to say you can just call him taro."

"Taro?" "Yeah, Why don't you touch him with one finger, to start off." "But won't he bite me?" "Of course he won't let me show you." You took one of your fingers and began to gently rub it across the top of the octopus, causing Minato to rub his head into you finger.

"See now you try" Tim reluctantly pet the octopus, only to calm down after seeing that Minato didn't bite. "There you go, see he doesn't bite." Tim smiled "woah, you're right he feels so cool."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You but the final starfish back into the giant tank. It was closing time and today you were assigned with the task of bringing all the sea creatures from the petting zoo into the ocean tank.

The ocean tank is basically a part of the ocean near the zoo meant specifically for the sea creatures that you kept their. The last group of sea creatures you had to move for the night was the octopuses.

And there was only one of those in the petting zoo area. Gently you grabbed the small black octopus and put it lightly into the bucket that was half filled with water. You walked so carefully as if you were walking on glass.

Picking up the octopus you bent over and placed him into the ocean tank. Standing up you turned to walk away only to get pulled into the salty water. You gasped for air as you made your way back to surface, only to get pulled into someone's chest.

"Love <3!" You could practically hear the love in their voice, the fact that their was someone in the ocean pool wasn't what scared you. What scared you was whatever was gripping onto your waist and legs.

You hesitantly looked down only to see black tentacles. You felt a muffled cry escape your throat. "Love? Ways wrong, do you want to go back to the shore?"

The strange creature gently put you back onto the shore. You turned around now being able to fully see him.

He had short black hair with blue tips, on his neck was a black choker with gold spikes followed by a gold spikey necklace, his ears were accompanied by dangleing golden shell earrings. His arms had long fishnet like gloves on, along with a black bracelet on each wrist.

His nipples were covered by a gold swirl thing on each side, both side were attached at the front by two lose chains. Where his v line would have been their was a heart shaped tattoo. Instead if legs he had the bottom of an octopus. The color of his tentacles were black while the underside was blue with teal suction cups. His waist was adorned with gold swirls and shapes.

Your mouth was hung open in shock of what you were seeing. You finally got the courage to look at the male in the eyes only to meet with a pair of concerned bright green eyes.

"Oh my it seems your dehydrated here let me take you back to the water." Before you even have time to object you were grabbed and plunged into the depths of the ocean. You struggle in his arms you captor not noticing until you body went limp.

You were on the verge of passing out when you were suddenly brought back onto shore. You began to gasp trying to intake as much air as you possibly could. "Love I'm sorry I don't actually know much about humans!"

"Love I'm truly sorry! so, please... Please don't leave me."

[caffernnn]

Thanks for the tag @sage-nebula !! Been a minute since I’ve done one of these ✨

Last song: “Not Sorry For Loving You” from EPIC: The Vengeance Saga. Probably my favorite from the most recent saga — loooove Calypso’s voice

Fave color: greeeeeen! I’ve probably tried to pin it down more specifically in the past, but the shade of green fluctuates tbh. Olive green, forest green, sage green, seafoam green, emerald green, jewel-toned phthalo green… all of them live in my heart tbh. (aaand I’m just a sucker for cool colors in general lmao)

Last book: I’m finally getting back to a place where I feel like I could try reading again!! Last book I started was Cultish by Amanda Montell, and I have a lot of other promising reads I checked out on a rare feel-good day and haven’t cracked open yet (which might be overdue; they’ll return home soon 💀)

Last movie: When Marnie Was There! My brother and I have been trying to catch up by watching some Studio Ghibli movies from time-to-time (hadn’t heard of any outside of Ponyo until I was out of high school… OOPS—), and Marnie was next on our list. Looots of big feelings about that story.

Last tv show: main things I’m (mostly) keeping up with tv-wise are DanDaDan and NCIS: Origins. I’m thiiiinking about starting Moriarty the Patriot, and everyone’s praise for Arcane has me curious 👀

Sweet/savory/spicy: heavy on the savory tbh. There’s appreciation for the sweet and spicy forsure, but savory is at the top for me currently!!

Relationship status: friendship is magic NEXT QUESTION

Last thing I searched: I can’t lie, that poll I reblogged about soup had me looking up Italian wedding and pumpkin soup recipes. Tumblr is makin me HONGRY

Current obsession: LMM frEakin bit me again; Warriors (2024) has been stuuuuck in my head and on repeat for days. Those are my giiiirls. So many fun genres to explore in a musical! Outside of that and the usual suspects (bears, the swimmies, etc), I’d probably have to say Pokémon TCGP and Pokémon Sleep. I still need to pull my beloved Snorlax and Venusaur on TCGP (or some worthwhile dark types to progress in the solo battle challenges), and I was so happy to wake up to a baby Bulbasaur next to my Snorlax on Sleep this morning <333 I’m such a sucker for lil guys

Looking forward to: soon? I get to visit my grandma again tomorrow! I’ve been trying to see her close to weekly since she’s been in that nursing home (and since they allowed for safe masked visits), and each day I still have with her is a gift 💕 hospice and general QoL decline have been a process, but on days she’s doing alright, she adores getting to see me <3 beyooond that, I’m looking forward to the sakadays anime in January!!

Favorite drink: tough one!! Umm, I’ve been on a rootbeer kick on and off for the past year so that’s def up there. Apple juice and fruit punches are good sometimes as well, same with Dr. Pepper and Mr. Pibb. I’ve been a water guy lately tbh, but I like a fun lil drink now and then!! OOH I need to have wassail again soon 🤤

Song playing on a loop in your head: “Call Me Mercy” from Warriors, due to the aforementioned obsession. Something particularly earwormy about that one. Other songs from the musical come to me in snippets, but that one is fully on loop

Current favorite character: outside of the permanent mind residents (I see green and blue in everything), Fox from Warriors and Taro Sakamoto from SakaDays have been spinning around in there, along with their friends. Momo and Okarun are also bickering up in the mind palace, naturally

Fun activity you would like to get into: I just need to get back to cultivating my hobbies now that I’m a lil less doom and gloom than I was a month ago. I guess different forms of crafting are always on this list. I took a drawing class/session at the library last week that looked into the basics of light and shadow, so maybe I can get into graphite and charcoal sketching!! I used to try some charcoal stuff years ago without instruction, and experimenting it was fun enough to try again.

Last video game: Balatro my beloved !!! It’s been surprisingly fun, despite my fear of deck-builders in the past. I think it helps that there’s a lot of chance and variety to it, so each run can be a chance to try something new.

Last comic/graphic novel: I guess Blue Exorcist? Again, it’s been a minute since I’ve been in a mindset to read 😅 I’m probably going to catch back up on it soon, and I’ve been planning on doing a sakadays reread since my brother just started reading it. We’ll see what happens!!

No pressure tagging @ahobbitincamelot @tonfea @shenyaanigans @reikunrei @lithopsy @celesteeal @suhmayzooka and anyone else who feels like yapping 💚💚💚

[bi-frog4girls]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You're favorite part about working with animals was when you got to see the sea creatures. You worked at a place that was like a zoo but for sea creatures (an aquarium). Most of the time you spent giving the children a tour of the place, or just playing with them as the parents got a break.

"And this kids is the petting area, where you can pet all of the sea creatures. But before you touch them let me show you how to handle them, so that you don't hurt them."

The children surrounded you as you crouched down to be level with the water table. The table was quite deep filled with water and aquatic life. You gently touched a black octopus that leaned into you touch with each pet.

Softly you pulled your hand out of the water, "and that's how you should handle all the sea animals so please be gentle, you are free to touch them." Soon all the children scattered around the water table, all but one.

"E-excuse me miss but I'm scared to touch one what if they hurt me." You crouched down to the boys level and you patted his head with your non- wet hand. "It's alright they won't hurt you I promise, do you want me to help you pet one?"

"Y-yes please" "alright what's your name I'm y/n." "I'm Tim" you gently grabbed Tim's hand and slowly led him over to the water table. Looking into the water table you grabbed the friendliest sea animal you knew.

The black octopus it was about the size of your palm so it was small enough not to terrify any of the kid. You and Tim both crouched down at the water table. "Alright Tim I want you to meet, Minato if that's to hard for you to say you can just call him taro."

"Taro?" "Yeah, Why don't you touch him with one finger, to start off." "But won't he bite me?" "Of course he won't let me show you." You took one of your fingers and began to gently rub it across the top of the octopus, causing Minato to rub his head into you finger.

"See now you try" Tim reluctantly pet the octopus, only to calm down after seeing that Minato didn't bite. "There you go, see he doesn't bite." Tim smiled "woah, you're right he feels so cool!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You but the final starfish back into the giant tank. It was closing time and today you were assigned with the task of bringing all the sea creatures from the petting zoo into the ocean tank.

The ocean tank is basically a part of the ocean near the zoo meant specifically for the sea creatures that you kept their. The last group of sea creatures you had to move for the night was the octopuses.

And there was only one of those in the petting zoo area. Gently you grabbed the small black octopus and put it lightly into the bucket that was half filled with water. You walked so carefully as if you were walking on glass.

Picking up the octopus you bent over and placed him into the ocean tank. Standing up you turned to walk away only to get pulled into the salty water. You gasped for air as you made your way back to surface, only to get pulled into someone's chest.

"Love <3!" You could practically hear the love in their voice, the fact that their was someone in the ocean pool wasn't what scared you. What scared you was whatever was gripping onto your waist and legs.

You hesitantly looked down only to see black tentacles. You felt a muffled cry escape your throat. "Love? Ways wrong, do you want to go back to the shore?"

The strange creature gently put you back onto the shore. You turned around now being able to fully see him.

He had short black hair with blue tips, on his neck was a black choker with gold spikes followed by a gold spikey necklace, his ears were accompanied by dangleing golden shell earrings. His arms had long fishnet like gloves on, along with a black bracelet on each wrist.

His nipples were covered by a gold swirl thing on each side, both side were attached at the front by two lose chains. Where his v line would have been their was a heart shaped tattoo. Instead if legs he had the bottom of an octopus. The color of his tentacles were black while the underside was blue with teal suction cups. His waist was adorned with gold swirls and shapes.

Your mouth was hung open in shock of what you were seeing. You finally got the courage to look at the male in the eyes only to meet with a pair of concerned bright green eyes.

"Oh my it seems your dehydrated here let me take you back to the water." Before you even have time to object you were grabbed and plunged into the depths of the ocean. You struggle in his arms you captor not noticing until you body went limp.

You were on the verge of passing out when you were suddenly brought back onto shore. You began to gasp trying to intake as much air as you possibly could. "Love I'm sorry I don't actually know much about humans!"

"Love I'm truly sorry! so, please... Please don't leave me."

[abyssalgalaxy]

Ive been reading the reigen manga finally so have my live thoughts that i wrote while reading it

Spoilers to the REIGEN manga ofc, actual proper comments at the end of it

Tome

TOMEEE YAY

Tome witnessing the highshcool girl with a toast trope I love it, sending tropes out of the window like always <3

Tome has a UFO bag!!!

Oughhh she feels like an outcast, give this girl the chance to infodump

Hi reigen

REIGEN AND TOME ARE BOTH LIKE THAT LMAOO THE FREE TIME DUO

I get why hes trying to get her away, it is a dangerous job, but he def does kinda see her as a nuisance

Serizawa

Hii serizawa!!!! :DDDDD

Reigen fucked up lmfao

oh nvm Serizawa saves the day :D

Dimple

Tome's teacher kinda looks like the first guy from the first episode/chapter, Taro I think was his name, it would be funny if he were lol

"Giving her my powers" I SEE WHERE THIS IS GOING HEHEHE

The ghost actually does look kinda scary wow

DIMPLEEE LETS GOOOOOOO

Roshuuto

So she really just fuckin brough him to S&S

So this is the infamous Roshuuto

My fuckin god Reigen is so cringe sometimes/aff/, bro wtf do you mean by spiritual level????

HIS CONTACTS ARE ALL MIDDLESCHOOLERS HELP

HE FUCKING FELL FOR THE SPIRITUAL LEVEL THING

BOTH JODO AND ROSHUUTO FELL FOR IT HOLY SHIT

I thought Jodo was gonna cook, he didnt do shit

Ooh shit, things are starting to go down

Oooh fuck

YAAAY SERIZAWAAA unless...

ok <3 yay <3

Roshuuto is a diiiick

So Tome heard reigen cus she trusts him, and Hoshida heard Roshuuto cus he trusted him too, only to be left to die, damn

Also reigen heard tome beacuse he worries and actually cares about her

Tips

Ooo Serizawa flexing his powers, imagine that in anime, i see a lot of potential

Wagh Serizawa has learned a lot from Reigen and Mob, hes changed a lot from the first time we saw him

Its interesting how this is the first time we see the "Psychic powers are not special" on a non esper

IN THE SPANISH VERSION SHE CALLS HIM LIL DIMPLE BASICALLY LMAOO

So theyre trying to make her realize that psychic powers arent special and to see beyond other things that could interest her, its basically what mob does in the series, but this time it's Tome's turn to learn

I felt a little "I love my job beacuse I get to be around people i like" from reigen when he was gonna tell her about why he works but HE DIDNT

Oh imagine the salt panel in an anime adaptation he would look cool

Salt splash

Is it me or did the artstyle change, it looks a bit more like the anime

SO SHES BEEN THROWING SALT

GET SALTED IDIOT

Oh shit hes gonna say it

OH HE ACTUALLY DID SAY IT I didnt think he'd say the truth

Ow that did kinda hurt, but it makes sense, he does care about her, hes trying to protect her

Reigen

Oh hey its the anime girl again

Rip hoshida again lol

Oh they changed the lion joke here, in this translation it was translated as "Why dont lions like fast food? Beacuse they cant catch it" lol

OOOOH WE'RE SEEING THE GIRLS OTHER SIDES LETS GOOOOO

SHE MAKES YAOI

WEIRD GIRLIES I LOVE THEM SO MUCHHH AAAAAA

SHE GETS IT NOW YAAAAAY

What the fuck happened to roshuuto

SERI NOOO WTF IS HAPPENING

DIMPLE WASNT ABLE TO HELP EITHER???

ROSHUUTO UR A DIIIIIIIIIICK WTFFF I GET IT BUT WHYYY

FIUWHECOIQUEOCQIERGQOIERCHQOEWU9CHQOWEIFFQHE8FQ7HW9F8QU294F7QH28FQHWEJ

THE HUG OUGH

HE TOOK IT

HOOO NOOO

OH whats he gonna do

Oh fuck

Aw hes hugging it

OH OH I SEE

Oh it worked! I think

OH NO THAT CANT BE MOB IT CANT

I WAS TOLD HE DIDNT APPEAR HERE

Oh hes just grabbing his ass by the suit

LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO unless...

YAAAY, I didnt hink Mob would actually show up, I thought some other thing would appear but yayyyy

I wonder if he ever told mob what actually happened

N you can tell its mob cus the first thing he says its asking reigen again to not call him so suddenly also he sees mob cus reigen trusts mob

Aw they just go for ramen, ngl he deserves one, that mustve been stressful

LMAO ROSHUUTO

He doesnt even know math

NONE OF THEM KNOW MATH

Final thoughts: That was so fun to read omg, we really need an anime adaptation or a movie even that could work too Aside from that, I get why its called REIGEN and not TOME despite Tome being the protagonist, the spinoff it is about Reigen, its about what he taught to mob and others, the core message of the series "You arent special" Tome's arc here is understanding that. She feels lonely and bored beacuse she cant be herself in this new enviroment, shes an outsider, different from the other girls that are just interested in superficial things so she goes to s&s to be around things that she enjoys, ghosts, cursed places, psychic powers, etc. She isnt seeing that theres more things to see However she then realizes that the rest of the girls do have that problem of feeling like an outsider beacuse of their interests and when they realize that theyre all weird they start trusting each other and start to fully enjoy their company, she understands that her situation is not special, theres many more people that accept her as she is, she starts enjoying the connection she has with others, shes found a place where she fits in Thats what reigen did, he was able to find a place where he can be with the help of others, this ones about apreciating the connections we make with others

Ok my thoughts were kinda scrambled so I hope that makes sense, thanks for reading my shits <3

[best-fictional-cat]

ROUND 1 IS OVER

Believe it or not, but I am also devastated because of some results.

First off, USEFUL LINKS:

All competitor masterlist

Where you can find a spreadsheet with all round 1 poll results

Round 2 match-ups (and poll masterpost)

Here's a visual on the survivors of round one:

Here's the list of our winners (green) and losers (crossed out) (all the 50/50 made it in even if there were decimals involved; I stated that I was going to do this before round 1 because we need extra cats for an even bracket):

Garfield (Garfield) vs Puss in Boots (Puss in Boots / Shrek)

Khoshekh (Welcome to Night Vale) vs The Admiral (The Magnus Archives) vs Pippa (The Penumbra Podcast)

Tom (Tom and Jerry) vs Sylvester (Looney Tunes)

Judd (Splatoon) vs Lil' Judd (Splatoon)

Garfield the Deals Warlock (The Adventure Zone: Balance) vs Pib (Dimension 20 - Neverafter)

Opalescence (My Little Pony) vs Charmmy Kitty (Sanrio)

Slugcat (Rain World) vs Rivulet (Rain World: Downpour)

Cool Cat (Cool Cat Saves the Kids) vs Tabby Von Meow (Webkinz)

Sisters of Plenitude (Doctor Who) vs Thomas Kincade Brannigan ( Doctor Who)

Domino (Amphibia) vs Domino 2 (Amphibia)

Thomas O'Malley + the Aristocats (Aristocats) vs Serafina + Wolfie (Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper)

Hollyleaf (Warrior cats) vs Jayfeather (Warrior cats) vs Yellowfang (Warrior cats) vs Bluestar (Warrior cats)

Bob (Animal Crossing) vs Raymond (Animal Crossing)

Cattail (Plants vs Zombies) vs Stray Cat (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)

Yoruichi Shihoin (Bleach) vs Grimmjow Jaegerjaques (Bleach)

Greebo (Discworld) vs You (Discworld)

Pusheen (Pusheen) vs Nyan Cat (Nyan Cat)

Felix (Drawtectives) vs Capper (My Little Pony)

Cat (Stray) vs Spot (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

Bungle the glass cat (Oz) vs Eureka the pink kitten (Oz)

Squanchy (Rick and Morty) vs Talking Cat (Rick and Morty)

Barry Ill ( Sparklecare hospital) vs Caroline Coughs (Sparklecare hospital)

Shoe (Ace Attorney) vs Wagahai (Ace Attorney) (will carry on as a tag team because you guys are unstoppable apparently)

Alpine (Marvel comics) vs Mew (Marvel comics)

Hong (Trash of the Count's Family) vs On (Trash of the Count's Family) (will carry on as a tag team because separating the siblings was a mistake apparently)

Catra (She-Ra) vs Khajiit (The Elder Scrolls)

Constable Whiskers (Cookie Run) vs Tabby Slime (Slime Rancher)

Arlene (Garfield) vs Nermal (Garfield)

Stelmaria (His Dark Materials) vs Kirjava (His Dark Materials)

Candy + Cindy (Five Nights at Candy's) vs 808 (Hi-Fi Rush)

Carla (Fairy Tail) vs Panther Lily (Fairy Tail)

Jellie (Double Life SMP) vs C!Antfrost (Dream SMP)

Midnight (Castle in the Air, Diana Wynne Jones) vs Thomas (Earwig and the Witch)

Skimbleshanks (Cats the musical) vs Rum Tum Tugger (Cats the musical)

Ortensia the Cat (Disney) vs Felix the cat (Felix the cat (Paramount))

God Cat (Homestuck) vs Vodka Mutini / Dr.Meowgon Spangler (Homestuck)

Kyo Sohma (Fruits Basket) vs Miyo Sasaki / Muge / Taro (A whisker away)

Blaze the Cat (Sonic the Hedgehog) vs Big the Cat (Sonic the Hedgehog)

Jiji (Kiki's Delivery Service) vs Luna (Sailor Moon)

Puppycat (Bee and Puppy cat) vs CatDog (CatDog)

Chairman Meow (The Shadowhunter Chronicles) vs Church (The Shadowhunter Chronicles)

Pounce de Leon (Homestuck) vs Jaspers (Homestuck)

Sandstorm (Warrior cats) vs Squirrelflight (Warrior cats)

Mae Borowski (Night in the Woods) vs Princess Carolyn (BoJack Horseman)

Hobbes (Calvin and Hobbes) vs Tigger (Winnie the Pooh)

Ankha (Animal Crossing) vs Kabuki (Animal Crossing)

Valerie Oberlin (Monster Prom) vs Juan The Small Magical Latino Cat (Monster Prom)

Coco Grimalkin (Purrfect Apawcalypse) vs Felix Munch (Purrfect Apawcalypse) vs Mittens Wichien (Purrfect Apawcalypse)

Catty (Undertale) vs Catti (Deltarune)

Aslan (The Chronicles of Narnia) vs Simba (The Lion King)

Ghazt (My Singing Monsters) vs Nyanky (Taiko no Tatsujin)

Nameless evil white cat (James Bond) vs Meowthra (Lego Ninjago Movie)

Minerva McGonagall (Harry Potter) vs Behemoth (Master and Margarita)

Macskacicó (Hungarian folk tales) vs Pangur Bán (Pangur Bán (Irish poem, 9th century))

Kuro (Blue Exorcist) vs Grim (Twisted Wonderland)

Baron Humbert von Gikkingen (The Cat Returns) vs Nyanta (Log Horizon)

Lumi (Cats are Liquid) vs Mewo (Omori) vs Pet cats (Stardew Valley)

Leone (Akame ga Kill) vs Blake Belladonna (RWBY)

The Black Cat (The Black Cat, E.A.Poe) vs Black Cat (The Price, Neil Gaiman)

Chi Yamada (Chi's sweet home) vs Happy (Fairy Tail)

Kitty White / Hello Kitty (Sanrio) vs Salem Saberhagen (Sabrina the Teenage Witch)

Firestar (Warrior cats) vs Meowth (Pokémon)

Ghost (The Owl House) vs Morgana (Persona 5)

Kitty Softpaws (Puss in Boots) vs Goose (Marvel comics / MCU)

Catbus (My Neighbor Totoro) vs Cake (Adventure Time)

Cheshire Cat (Alice in Wonderland) vs Che'nya (Twisted Wonderland)

Plagg (Miraculous) vs Chat Noir (Miraculous)

Bagheera (The Jungle Book) vs Nuka (The Lion King 2)

Cure Cosmo / Yuni (Star Twinkle Pretty Cure) vs Ichigo Momomiya (Tokyo Mew Mew)

Luxor (Tutenstein) vs Chester the Cat (Bunnicula)

Cat (Red Dwarf) vs T'Ana (Star Trek: Lower Decks)

The Cat (Coraline) vs Mothwing (Warrior cats)

Shampoo ( Ranma 1/2) vs Diana (Sailor Moon)

Frumpkin (Critical Role) vs Archie (Tales of Arcadia)

Periwinkle (Blue's clues) vs Brave Heart Lion (Care Bears)

Catbug (Bravest Warriors) vs Pasty (Neko Atsume)

Atsushi Nakajima (Bungou Stray Dogs) vs Natsume Soseki (Bungou Stray Dogs)

Tigress (Kung Fu Panda) vs Captain Amelia (Treasure Planet)

Pixie (Pixie and Brutus) vs Tumblr lore witch

Lucifer (Cinderella) vs Tab (Watership Down)

Gary the Snail (Spongebob Squarepants) vs Magolor (Kirby series)

Mad Mew Mew (Undertale) vs Mr. Mistoffelees (Cats the musical)

Lucrezia and Meek (Frakk, the Cats' Nightmare) vs Findus (Pettson and Findus)

Leona Kingscholar (Twisted Wonderland) vs Cheka Kingscholar (Twisted Wonderland)

Maurice (Discworld) vs Heathcliff (Heathcliff)

Cringer / Battlecat (He-man) vs Mr. Kat (Kid vs. Kat)

Angel Grimalkin (Purrfect Apawcalypse) vs Tigger Sugden (Purrfect Apawcalypse)

Rosie (Animal Crossing) vs Rover (Animal Crossing)

Blanca (Animal Crossing) vs Tangy (Animal Crossing)

Nali (Assassin's Creed: Valhalla) vs Miyuki (Avatar the Last Airbender)

Chococat (Sanrio) vs Kuroneko-sama (Trigun)

Gatomon (Digimon) vs Kyubey (Puella Magi Madoka Magica)

Shrödinger's cat (you know the one) vs Felix (Felix cat food mascot)

The Cat (Monster Camp) vs Xiaohei (The Legend of Hei)

Artemis (Sailor Moon) vs Samantha / The Cat (Infinity Train)

John Blacksad (Blacksad) vs Mao Mao Mao (Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart)

Solembum (Inheritance Cycle) vs Ren (Monstress)

Taokaka (Blazblue) vs Niko (Oneshot)

Ember (Cattails) vs Lyrus (Cattails) vs Mayor (Cattails)

Missy (Cattails) vs Sarge (Cattails) vs Scout (Cattails)

Lion (Steven Universe) vs Cat Steven (Steven Universe)

Glameow (Pokémon) vs Litten (Pokémon) vs Meowstic (Pokémon) vs Skitty (Pokémon) vs Sprigatito (Pokémon)

Mog (Mog books, Judith Kerr) vs Tom Kitten (The Tale of Tom Kitten)

Jenny Linsky (Jenny Linsky, Esther Averill) vs Kaspar, Prince of Cats (Kaspar, Prince of Cats, Michael Morpurgo)

Pixel (The Cat Who Walks through Walls, Robert Heinlein) vs Invisible cat (The Invisible Man, H.G.Wells)

Jonesy (Alien) vs Grudge (Star Trek Discovery)

Aldwyn (The Familiars) vs Jess (Postman Pat)

Remlit (Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword) vs Mo (Lego Monkie Kid)

Assistacat / Sub-manager (Cardfight!! Vanguard) vs Haru (My Roommate is a Cat)

Mao (Darker than Black) vs Amanojaku (Ghost Stories)

Izutsumi (Dungeon Meshi) vs Opera (Welcome to demon school Iruma kun!)

Nyako / Meowy (Chainsaw Man) vs Yuigadokusonmaru (Durarara)

Heinkel (Fullmetal Alchemist) vs Cheetu (Hunter x Hunter)

Graystripe (Warrior cats) vs Scourge (Warrior cats) vs Sol (Warrior cats) vs Tallstar (Warrior cats)

Bristlefrost (Warrior cats) vs Cinderpelt (Warrior cats) vs Ferncloud (Warrior cats) vs Turtle Tail (Warrior cats)

Leopardstar (Warrior cats) vs Spottedleaf (Warrior cats) vs Leafpool (Warrior cats) vs Mapleshade (Warrior cats)

Sox (Lightyear) vs The Kitty (The Bad Guys)

The Cat in the Hat (The Cat in the Hat) vs Boo (The Funky Phantom)

The Sphinx (Adventures of Puss in Boots) vs Fluffal Cat (Yu-Gi-Oh!)

Hiili (Fox Fires (webcomic)) vs Varjak Paw (Varjak Paw, S.F.Said)

Potato (Cat loaf adventures) vs Whiskers (Pixel Cat's End)

Mingus Crown (Dialtown) vs Burgerpants (Undertale)

Arthur (Code Geass) vs Amp / Anp / Anpu (The Disastrous Life of Saiki K)

Sakamoto (Nichijou) vs Blair (Soul Eater)

Darwin (April and the Extraordinary World) vs Finley / Jelly Donut (Hustle Cat)

Jemima (Cats the musical) vs Victoria (Cats the musical)

Also democracy said we should try randomising the match-ups. See yous in a few days, I have some cats to put on a wheel ;)

[abimee]

so tbh i was hard on nier:a while playing it cos i don't really like a lot of the anime tropes BUT i really like tragedies and i was promised some twists, and got some. but i wanted to ask you how you felt about the pacing. basically, did it feel like there was a solid line connecting plot points, or do you feel like certain things happened at random? barring the fact that yoko taro said he literally wrote the story out of order, is that how it felt to you? imo it felt really rushed through super cool parts and like things that were annoying or setpieces ran on for too long. ig i'm still fked up over how much it fell short of my expectations bc even after playing nier:a completely thru and h8ing how absurdly film-student its tone and ideology are, i was hyperfixated enough to read some of the side literature and learn drakengard lore. tl;dr, nier:a is cool and has some fun parts but i wish the android were more mature (or artificial) in physicalilty to avoid weird anime loli baiting in the fans and also they'd asked a writer to help revise and implement the og author's ideas okay bye thx for reading my rant ♡ i'm glad u had fun and ur fanart abt a2 and the indoor grill made me cough

ill gladly listen to people bitch about yoko taro ive had PROBLEMS with this man since a young age ☝️☝️☝️☝️

I was actually thinking about the pacing and insertion of certain scenes/plot points today because admittedly like. okay this might be all over the place but

The start of the game (Route A + B) was like pretty solid pacing I think due to being low risk, and I thought it was cool that the game let you see 9S' side of things --- but it really started to fumble when it got into it's moe complex storylines in C-D-E and went on to deposit a lot of information on it to the point where it felt like we were forgetting entire plots and characters because something new and shiny showed up

Like okay first off. Adam and Eve and the aliens. We never once got any sort of explanation WHY adam + eve killed the aliens, or why the aliens made the machines, but within that general thought we did learn that humans died before going to the moon (and possibly even before the aliens came?), and that YoRHa's only goal was to fight the machines until a specified amount of data was gotten and then they were to explode. Never did we get more elaboration on the aliens or adam/eve, and while we got some YoRHA spotlight stuff it also entirely just decided that explaining the true mission behind making YoRHa and why the androids had to die is beyond it. Which frustrated me because it Brings Up Ideas but doesn't specify if thats the true reason, like we learned that the machines fight purely because that was there sole reason, and so they made an enemy for themselves purely to enact that goal that the aliens gave --- but then it even goes ''haha okay but hear me out'' and introduces Red Girl and this vague idea of the Machine Ego and wanting to defy their masters of the aliens, but then DOESN'T ELABORATE WHY. Like we don't know WHY adam and eve and the machine ego wanted to develop enough to defy their machine logic and purpose because it wraps back around to ''theyre human just like us because they want to defy their masters because.... they're human like us?"

Like it often felt like some concepts or plots brought up walked itself in a circle, dog-chasing-tail style, where it's entirely contained within itself and refuses to expand upon it's existence, which then causes it to get sort of left behind when the plot finds a new fancy idea to latch onto. Like how quickly the story introduced, focused on, then discarded Adam & Eve is almost criminal because of the things it could've done with them literally as the closest approximation to what the Machine Ego/Red Girls wanted, since they defied their creator's orders to be their own selves. Eve especially feels wasted in this regard --- like if the plot spent a little more time focusing on Eve & Adam in a B-plot scenario showing Eve and Adam learning more from humans and even leaning into Eve's wants that we saw in his mind when 9S hacked him (the human home built around him and his brother, and his brother wanting to go somewhere peaceful with him). Like they even could've tied that to when they get on the Ark and leave and Adam is holding Eve, that's literally Adam bringing Eve somewhere peaceful, but because those two instances are so seperated from each other and their own sort of throw-away concepts it becomes hard to Remember the tether between those two thoughts

This is also my biggest problem with A2's writing, I can only assume she's meant to be a Kaine-type character (and boy did my eyes momentarily widen seeing Emil say ''it must be fate that we've met!" to her) where her reserved nature and somewhat limited character blends in with her personality, but they really could've just given us like at least 2 more hours-game to learn about her past rather than just infodump us with her lore in some logs at the Resistance Camp. This is another problem Red Girl had where I feel like the fact you get unit data on them that basically explains away the confusing parts of their involvement in the lore felt cheap because this game has over 40+ hours under it's belt but couldn't be damned to give us information on our main antagonist directly in the game instead of in a post-credit LOG?

Like okay. I love my baby boy emil. He is the most special boy in the world to me and I am so happy seeing him get a pretty decent character arc for himself in the sequel to his original iteration. But why do we learn information about Emil more easily than the Red Girls? No unit data paragraph, no document information to read, no external book needing to be sourced. You learn whats up with him, why his big event out in the desert happens, and how it ends. You even get TWO special areas involving him. Red Girl gets to speak for a little bit and then vanish. It just astonishes me a bit

And it's not like the game doesn't try to expand characters last-minute either, that entire cutscene where Pascal reads Nietszche and then gets surrounded by the baby machines before the events of the Factory/suicide felt so forced in suddenly that it felt rather obvious something was going to happen. And I say this as someone who was in tears seeing Pascal get called ''uncle Pascal'' and see him defend the children in the factory --- it was super obvious that they possibly didn't originally plan that scene but needed something to really show that Village acted just like a human community with children and babysitters and family. Like not to be like ''this couldve been something beautiful'' but i think giving us a little time between A2 and the Village more could've done something beautiful. A2 getting the necessities to build the slide definitely made me drop to my knees but I noticed even the LPer was confused why A2 had a crying child inside of her as her enemy at the end of the hacking (like how 9S had 2B at the end of his destroying his memories), but the game didn't do anything with that besides lightly imply A2 lets down her mean bit for children sometimes (and again. why is this Kaine behavior). And then the fucking laughing children sound at the end of the route where she hacks 9S and she looks to the sky like ? This is all very interesting but it doesnt mean anything.

NOT TO MENTION 2B BEING AN EXECUTIONER TYPE. COOL CONCEPT BUT IT DOESNT MEAN ANYTHING IN THE END. It's just another thing to tack onto 9S's migraine of learning everything is a lie but nothing gets DONE with that incredibly interesting though afterwards because we never see 2B after that because she's been dead for a while now. We had a brief hint at it when we heard that transmission of 2B being her new name but the payoff just doesn't work if you just state it and then not do anything with it.

There's many cases of this and I notice it with how much questions I have that simply have no answer in this game despite the fact we have nearly 5 routes worth of time that could've gone into either sticking to like 3 ideas to the end or bridging the gaps, Which the story Does Do Sometimes! Red Girl talking about fucking up its own network to make pacifistic machines that want nothing to do with the war, the lie of YoRHA

OH MY GOD ALSO. SPEAKING OF RANDOMLY PUSHING STUFF IN. OPERATOR 210. The fact that they wanted to pull the whole ''she was curt and distant with 9S but secretly saw him as like a son because she wanted a family :(" could've gone INSANE if they didn't decide they wanted to bring that idea in at the last possible second and make 210 randomly baby 9S (and then make him point out how strange she's acting), and then ignore that until we get to the cutscene that they wanted to make for it. Like they could've had 210 start out as curt and distant, but as 9S operations with 2B got more dangerous she could've started laying on the doting mother thing, but it just came so abruptly in Route.....C? That it felt forced and rather last-minute, like they finished writing A and B and someone walked in and went ''wait I want 210 to see 9S as her son :(" and this is how they crammed it in

oh this post isnt even about the pacing i'm just talking about dead end plot concepts. But I can definitely see where you're coming from there because we spent an awfully long time with the Resistance only to know so little about them, but it defos felt more ''a lot of stuff is getting brought up but we dont have enough time to give it developing room because we want to bring in the next concept asap". A2, the forest king, Red Girl, hell even Pascal and Adam & Eve all suffer this. the only person who really got a steady character Was 2B and 9S but 2B felt like she got cut short and just became a puppet for 9S' plot which is so tiring how often we get dual man/woman protags and the woman's story just becomes part of the man's story and she becomes a nebulous concept. that yoko taro brand Misogyny

I SPENT AN HOUR TYPING THIS? I haven't even gotten to how I feel like 9S' plot feels like it was destined for something more but got bottlenecked for time and cut off at the like 80% mark

I can definitely feel that though of feeling like Nier:a didn't meet expectations, when I finished all the routes and the playlist i was watching just Ended I genuinely sat up and bed and just felt a deep sense of ''THAT'S IT? THATS ALL?"

it's crazy too because I really, REALLY loved what it had going and im going to be thinking about this game forever but it also just left me feeling like i'm missing something so badly that when I try to think about it sometimes my mind just draws blanks like im left speechless at it.

Like that was nier: automata? that was just 40 hours of being asked what it means to be alive

[aura-bug]

favorite yo-kai from each tribe?

Brave: Either Asura or Hovernyan, I fucking love Asura's designs/origins (<- nerd) and I am just VERY attached to hovernyan bc ykw2 is my favorite game

Tough: Toadal Dude. no contest. "surfer dude war general who is also a frog" is the funniest possible combination of character traits you could come up with. AND his name is TOADAL DUDE? thats peak. amazing. wonderful. Robonyan is very close in 2nd though

Mysterious: oughhhhh mysterious is one of those tribes where it's hard to pick a favorite bc there's so many I like 😭 if you held me to gunpoint and forced to me choose just one, though, I'd probably say Tengu. Neat design, I'm a folklore nerd, and he's just one of the guys I got weirdly attached to for no reason. idk. I liked his anime episode with Tenguriginal a lot omg

Charming: ouGGGGGHHHHHH another hard tribe,,,,, probably either Whirlweasel or Princess Pearl. Whirlweasel's anime episode was so fucking cute ??? like??? it had no right to be that adorable. what. also their design is just very gender

Princess Pearl bc I'm a sucker for all of ykw3's added legendaries asdfgh,, I like her little fish guy and the story of Otohime/Urashima Taro is just very iconic

Heartful: Predictabull. I can't explain this one. I just think he's a silly little guy. his folkloric origins are also very cool I like the kudan/other prophetic yokai a lot

Shady: Either Hidabat or Wobblewok. Hidabat's entire existence is just so insanely funny to me. Imagine allowing some loser recluse to live in your closet bc they're scared of the outdoors, then you slowly start finding out they're actually some sort of multi-millionaire that can just casually call up limousines and buy out entire houses and get in touch with extremely famous people n shit. headcanon: hidabat mines bitcoin

also wobblewok is just one of my favorite yo-kai in GENERAL. friend form AND boss form. people have died trying to confine this thing to the depths of hell and it looks like a big chocolate pudding cup with a dopey face. and its named WOBBLEWOK. thats a name that people were so afraid of that they DARED not to speak it out loud. WOBBLEWOK. its so silly I cant

I love its name I love its design I loved its goofy anime episode I love the way it goes "hiiiiii :)" when you fight it in blasters. everything abt wobblewok is perfect to me

Eerie: Arachnia!! Arachnia!!!!!!! also sort of Arachnus but I love Arachnia so goddamn much. I've talked at her before so I'll spare all the details but I want to *holds gently in hands* her. if you add a tsuchigumo/jorogumo character to your franchise they're basically guaranteed to be my favorite

Also Arachnus bc the donut war plot line is so fucking goofy I love it. It's one of the reasons why I'm biased towards 2. I was a bony spirits kid 💔

Slippery: OURGHHHHHHHHGHGH,,,,,,, dude this is the hardest,,,,,, there's so many slippery tribe yokai that I love to deathhhh 😭

Noko is so cute... I'm biased towards Venoct bc dragons...... I'm biased towards Draggie/Dragon Lord/Azure Dragon bc dragons.......... I'm biased towards Draaagin bc dragons................... I'm biased towards Mython bC DRAGONS.............................. I'M BIASED TOWARDS WHYVERN KING BC DRAGONS...................................... ARE YOU SENSING A PATTERN HERE

oh also whisper ig

If I HADDDDDD to choose, I guess I'd go with Whyvern King. Out of all the other dragons he has my favorite origins, being based on Nanda Ryuo, the most powerful of the 8 great dragon kings from folklore. and I was WAITING for SOMEONE to make that "nanda = why" pun eventually

Wicked: Unfairy, my favorite little piece of shit rat. their medallium entry literally calls them a pain in the ass. they're so goofy. sorry to all the unkeen fans out there ily all but UNFAIRY should've been the face of the wicked yokai. UNFAIRY shouldve been the main poster child for psychic specters. unfairy shouldve come in plushie form and I shouldve been able to bulk buy hundreds of them. I think it'd be funnier to have this little shit's face plastered on everything like some sort of parasite that'd be soooo funny

Enma: Lucas. "But aura, he's-" I don't care. Lucas.

[canmom]

nier automata anime! nier automata anime!

honestly? this was kinda painful. a mixed bag with some good bits but more miss than hit. but this is the intersection of two special interests so you bet I'm going to be picking this apart.

let's get the obvious out of the way: the CGI suuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked. the flight units in particular - sure, the plasticy shading, the shots where they very obviously had a stiff CG doll inside the unit, but more generally, the way they moved, the way they were clearly going for a lot of classic mecha type of shots (Itano circus, Kanada pose in front of an explosion) but just... not selling it at all because of the very stiff way the rig is animated. so the first few minutes were pretty painful, especially since they lose some of the most memorable shots (the five YoRHa units flying together in a delta formation and getting picked off one by one) in favour of '2B doing cool shit' and then flub the '2B doing cool shit'.

that moment in the game is a moment of immediate desperation, like a parachuting scene in a war movie, where there's nothing to do but stay the course and hope you don't get hit. 2B, however, never feels like she's in any danger at this point.

but once they actually got on the ground, it gets so much better! 2B in action was a joy to watch. that's something that they got very right, hitting the feel of Platinum's fighting with the sort of lovely little details that you couldn't get in a game.

sadly that doesn't really last.

the first episode basically covers the tutorial mission of the game, with a kind of checklist approach of key scenes: the fight with Marx, the fight with Engels, 2B and 9S detonating their Black Boxes. there's a couple of bits of extra stuff: we see that the Engels unit you fight was not finished.

the pacing was sadly kinda shot. it's necessarily very compressed, but I think the balance is off. the Engels fight, which takes up about half the episode, doesn't have the sense of relentless escalation and desperation it does in the game. a lot of the episode is dedicated to action, often not very good action, and very little time to appreciating the emptiness of the setting.

in the game - and to be fair, this is a big advantage of games - you get a real sense of place as you make your way through the factory, descending into the dark and back out; the moment before Engels has a weighty sense of anticipation as you set out onto a large, empty road, uncertain of why you haven't found your enemy. here... there's a brief montage of 2B walking through the factory, seeing passive machines, as 9S talks in VO. this is nice, I'd have liked more of it. but it's not long before we charge into the next action scene.

seeing it in anime form with some Okabe's most Kenji Kawai-esque tracks underlines just how much Yoko Taro was cribbing from Mamoru Oshii, and while the pacing of Oshii movies is infamously slow, this really overcorrects. which would be OK if the action felt good and tense, but it doesn't; enemies come out of nowhere (e.g. a swarm of flying enemies abruptly surround 9S) and disappear about as quickly, while the big battle with Engels has a weird moment of downtime and very little sense of progression. Engels is active, then he's down, then he's up again. when 2B attacks with Yoko Taro staple 'would you just.. die already!' (here subbed 'just break down already!' - I can't parse the Japanese by listening unfortunately, but it's brief), it doesn't feel like the desperate yell of someone who's tried absolutely everything, and this fucking robot still won't die. (or 'break down'.)

it's a shame. they've hit all the expected lines and moments from the game, but as an adaptation into a new medium, it doesn't really seem to know how to play to the medium's strengths. and yet where they do make changes, like having 2B fight a flying goliath unit during the descent, it's largely for the worse.

when the lines from the opening (everything that lives is designed to end...) are recited at the end of the episode, they're a little altered - I think possibly a version from one of the concert readings? - so instead of hoping she will find God and kill him, 2B, says she will continue to wish for 9S's happiness. it feels like it's kind of rushing ahead in the relationship between 2B and 9S, but I guess that's a sign that they're going for something different, which is a very Yoko Taro thing to do.

one thing that surprises me is that the Crunchyroll translators have frequently made different translation decisions from the game localisation. that's fine - the original script isn't sacred, and it's not as bad as the localisations of the novels and short stories lmao, at least they get 'Machine Lifeforms' consistent. but, for the most part, I find the CR version worse. here it's "all existence is designed to become extinct", or the above "break down" instead of die. unless the Japanese actually is different? I'll have to investigate further.

it won't ever detract from the game, and obviously Platinum are a tough act to follow in terms of cinematography, but I had cautiously gotten my hopes up and now it doesn't seem like it will be much more than a show to mine for occasional sakuga. I hope to be proven wrong though.

it's frustrating, because there are some good aspects. the backgrounds are generally pretty solid. the 2D animation has some really great moments - the character interactions are clear, the 2D fight scenes are (as mentioned above) really good, and the omake puppet show sequence at the end was cute and playful in the right way. there's some really nice 2D effects animation... and some really bad 3D effects animation. but there's potential here. that's what's frustrating. A-1 wouldn't have been my first pick of studio, but they've clearly got capable people on it and they're leaning on amazing source material. hopefully the balance will get a bit better as they get into the later game, and don't feel the need to rely solely on action.

[summersfirstsnow]

Some other books that I like and aren't also... alt right pipeline-y

Gardening

The Layered Food Garden by Christina Chung: I'm reading this right now! She also has an internet presence where she provides pretty down-to-earth gardening tips without the... kind of conspiracy-y tone than some permaculture-adjacent books do (I like a lot of the values of permaculture and I feel much of the work in the subfield comes from a good place but it does have some flaws and oversights (including of Indigenous land rights and agricultural histories) and the risk of it slipping toward conspiracy when "wanting to provide some of your own food" slips into "society is collapsing and you'll be all alone")

The Year-round Vegetable Gardener by Nikki Jabbour: a good little guide to using some pretty affordable materials to extend your growing season if you live in a cooler place- since salad greens are so expensive to get fresh and they're frost-tolerant, it's a good toolkit to have on hand

Start a Community Food Garden by Lamanda Joy: another one that I'm working my way through right now- kind of what it says on the package, with an emphasis on building a working community centred around gardening, which is critical to building a more sustainable, decentralized food system

Perennial Vegetables: From Artichokes to Zuiki Taro by Eric Toensmeier: this one's pretty cool, it touches on a lot of lesser-known plants eaten as vegetables around the world (make sure to check if they're invasive in the place where you live)

The Home-scale Forest Garden by Dani Baker: another good reference book for planning and building up a perennial food garden

The Edible Front Yard by Ivette Soler: this one provides some good suggestions for if you're wanting to grow your own food in a place where aesthetics are a concern

Sustainability/Land Stewardship/Nature/Human-Environment Relationships

Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have to Do Is Ask: Anishinaabe Botanical Teachings by Mary Siisip Geniusz: as always be careful with any medical application of plants- the book does go into this, but it bears repeating

Sounds Wild and Broken: Sonic Marvels, Evolution's Creativity, and the Crisis of Sensory Extinction by David George Haskell

The Nature of Our Cities by Nadina Galle: environmental stewardship stuff with an eye to urban environments and urban nature, as well as the use of technology in the field... I don't agree with everything but the urban nature part is valuable to keep in mind

Fen, Bog and Swamp by Annie Proulx: some stories and info about wetlands, this one is quite well-written if a bit limited in scope

The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees by Douglas W. Tallamy

An Immense World by Ed Yong: this is about sensory science and animal senses, which might be a bit outside the stewardship zone and area but it does really encourage the reader to stretch their mind and cultivates a respect for the natural world

Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet by Ben Goldfarb: another good human impact on the environment one

Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses by Robin Wall Kimmerer: this one is a bit less on-topic than her other book but she has a beautiful writing style (and her reading of the audiobooks is beautiful too)

The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing: this is one of the few cultural anthropology leaning books that I've ever enjoyed- it explores some cool corners of the world through the lens of a the matsutake mushroom

Homemaking, gardening, and self-sufficiency resources that won't radicalize you into a hate group

It seems like self-sufficiency and homemaking skills are blowing up right now. With the COVID-19 pandemic and the current economic crisis, a lot of folks, especially young people, are looking to develop skills that will help them be a little bit less dependent on our consumerist economy. And I think that's generally a good thing. I think more of us should know how to cook a meal from scratch, grow our own vegetables, and mend our own clothes. Those are good skills to have.

Unfortunately, these "self-sufficiency" skills are often used as a recruiting tactic by white supremacists, TERFs, and other hate groups. They become a way to reconnect to or relive the "good old days," a romanticized (false) past before modern society and civil rights. And for a lot of people, these skills are inseparably connected to their politics and may even be used as a tool to indoctrinate new people.

In the spirit of building safe communities, here's a complete list of the safe resources I've found for learning homemaking, gardening, and related skills. Safe for me means queer- and trans-friendly, inclusive of different races and cultures, does not contain Christian preaching, and does not contain white supremacist or TERF dog whistles.

Homemaking/Housekeeping/Caring for your home:

Making It by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen [book] (The big crunchy household DIY book; includes every level of self-sufficiency from making your own toothpaste and laundry soap to setting up raised beds to butchering a chicken. Authors are explicitly left-leaning.)

Safe and Sound: A Renter-Friendly Guide to Home Repair by Mercury Stardust [book] (A guide to simple home repair tasks, written with rentals in mind; very compassionate and accessible language.)

How To Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis [book] (The book about cleaning and housework for people who get overwhelmed by cleaning and housework, based on the premise that messiness is not a moral failing; disability and neurodivergence friendly; genuinely changed how I approach cleaning tasks.)

Gardening

Rebel Gardening by Alessandro Vitale [book] (Really great introduction to urban gardening; explicitly discusses renter-friendly garden designs in small spaces; lots of DIY solutions using recycled materials; note that the author lives in England, so check if plants are invasive in your area before putting them in the ground.)

Country/Rural Living:

Woodsqueer by Gretchen Legler [book] (Memoir of a lesbian who lives and works on a rural farm in Maine with her wife; does a good job of showing what it's like to be queer in a rural space; CW for mentions of domestic violence, infidelity/cheating, and internalized homophobia)

"Debunking the Off-Grid Fantasy" by Maggie Mae Fish [video essay] (Deconstructs the off-grid lifestyle and the myth of self-reliance)

Sewing/Mending:

Annika Victoria [YouTube channel] (No longer active, but their videos are still a great resource for anyone learning to sew; check out the beginner project playlist to start. This is where I learned a lot of what I know about sewing.)

Make, Sew, and Mend by Bernadette Banner [book] (A very thorough written introduction to hand-sewing, written by a clothing historian; lots of fun garment history facts; explicitly inclusive of BIPOC, queer, and trans sewists.)

Sustainability/Land Stewardship

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer [book] (Most of you have probably already read this one or had it recommended to you, but it really is that good; excellent example of how traditional animist beliefs -- in this case, indigenous American beliefs -- can exist in healthy symbiosis with science; more philosophy than how-to, but a great foundational resource.)

Wild Witchcraft by Rebecca Beyer [book] (This one is for my fellow witches; one of my favorite witchcraft books, and an excellent example of a place-based practice deeply rooted in the land.)

Avoiding the "Crunchy to Alt Right Pipeline"

Note: the "crunchy to alt-right pipeline" is a term used to describe how white supremacists and other far right groups use "crunchy" spaces (i.e., spaces dedicated to farming, homemaking, alternative medicine, simple living/slow living, etc.) to recruit and indoctrinate people into their movements. Knowing how this recruitment works can help you recognize it when you do encounter it and avoid being influenced by it.

"The Crunchy-to-Alt-Right Pipeline" by Kathleen Belew [magazine article] (Good, short introduction to this issue and its history.)

Sisters in Hate by Seyward Darby (I feel like I need to give a content warning: this book contains explicit descriptions of racism, white supremacy, and Neo Nazis, and it's a very difficult read, but it really is a great, in-depth breakdown of the role women play in the alt-right; also explicitly addresses the crunchy to alt-right pipeline.)

These are just the resources I've personally found helpful, so if anyone else has any they want to add, please, please do!

[semi-imaginary-place]

yorha raids

wow pc is getting sassy here. really should fire that guard. wow look at that animation budget. i realize this is a cameo thing. but eulmore totally would have noticed a giant city on the other side of their island with their airships. oh both twins have good arguments, 2p shouldn't be trusted (although idk why they're trusting me), and 2p is their best source of knowledge. the map is useless. they used the alliance map but allow access to areas off the map. oddly somber carvinal music but ok. god those balloons. they're so pastel in contrast all the surrounding brown that they look like they're fluorescing.

ok 2p's evil and a machine. and other white humanoid machines attacked komra? why what do they gain from that. or was it actually androids and 2p infected them or something. either way the attack is the machines/androids fault. the dwarves deserve to be mad yeah their village got turned to rubble and people are dead/dying. konogg and anogg could have take more precautions but it's not like they blew up the village. anogg's taking this hard.

i wonder where that secret dwarf tunnel is. we literally took the longest mead trip. there's 2 other towns along the way to stilltide. also Wright was the one where we had the whole... ale? questline and is famous for brewed drinks. writers didn't talk to each other.

oh the ball's back. i don't like that. huh pushed their little brother out of the way of a falling boulder, two pairs of siblings. i did get spoiled on this like most of shb. good tie in with 5.0's themes of loss, death, and grief. the angel script is probably there to look cool but oof yikes the drakengard knowledge. so anogg likely got crushed by a boulder pushing konogg out of the way but he finds her gloves and and hat down the cliff leading him to what looks like the machine hive ball thing which turns into a copy of anogg and like scans him or something and learns how to talk. which raises the questions where did machine anogg go? back to being an orb? actually when was the last time we say (orb) anogg, she was with us for puppet's bunker and then afterward with the angry mob when her guilt really got to her did she run back to the alien ship and revert to orb? im sorry you found both of them in that same tunnel originally? double orb?

boy can't stay away from the orb. then it covers itself with angelic and spawns more 2ps. hey's there's (replica) anogg she brought 2b and 9s and tells us to destroy the sphere. oh great another ominous tower. anogg comments it's too late. anogg's not coming back from this.

orb hatched. it's a girl!. music is good as always but wow is it meaningless. devola and popola for the twin guardians which kinda fits. but kaine for the red girl 2b chimera? ah i remember seeing clips of this on twitter. yup god is evil and hates you in drakengard. i wonder how canon this is wouldn't put it past troll lord taro.

so in the end they all had to go no matter who went first.

replica anogg totally had this entire journey of self discovery and existential crisis offscreen.

i wonder what this means. i she telling konogg she's gone to another world, remembering orb world, or did she really go on an adventure while gone.

"Death! Mutilation" yikes we got a lynch mob its better that konogg skipped town. wow maybe the throlls were right.

and then i disconnected.

we're getting 1 dwarf tribe faction quests. they should have just done 1. oh not tribe quests. devs are just forcing us to wait a month irl. they should have made warp points for the raid not just return.

the story isn't complete but from here's I'd say this is one of the better side quest lines. that said i remember first joining ffxiv during the 5.x patch cycle and watching this this because i never planned on playing shb at that point. and seeing it on it's own, sure it's hype but it doesn't tell a full story certainly no where near taro's words (yes even dod1).

[otakween]

One Pound Gospel - Volume 2

I forgot to mention the format I'm reading this in. This manga is super duper out of print. Since I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars tracking it down physically, I downloaded some scans of the first Viz release. It's so old that it's a "flipped" manga (left-to-right). Also, instead of chapters it's broken into parts with like sub-chapters, but maybe that's how it was originally, not sure. I'm just numbering the chapters as I usually would to avoid confusion.

Ch. 10

Kosaku gets challenged by a boxer from his past, Taro, who holds a grudge against Kosaku for knocking his teeth out.

If Taro's a waiter now, does that mean he's no longer a pro boxer? Are non-pros allowed to challenge pros? Or maybe he's still a pro and working at the restaurant is a side hustle lol.

Kosaku has to get even skinnier than before and I guess I'm supposed to find his suffering funny? :/

Ch. 11

Taro kinda hot (even tho he has no teeth lol). His face is definitely different enough from Kosaku's, but I feel like they have the exact same hair. Kinda a feathered look.

I guess when you have no teeth you can wear cool fantasy dentures (vampire teeth), an advantage I'd never thought about...(not that I want to lose my teeth, but if you had no choice, might as well have fun!)

They show a chart with all of the weight classes in this chapter. I was surprised to see how minimal the differences are between the classes. Why is it so granular?

What does it mean to be a 6 rounder vs. a 10 rounder? I'm guessing it means you're so skilled you could last up to 10 rounds (but it could also end sooner than that??)

So Taro is a pro boxer out of spite. Very anime of him.

What is that manga reaction when someone gestures in shock with their hand like this 🤟Where does that come from??

Ch. 12

Oh look, it's the same joke about Kosaku overeating again. Hardy har har.

"Lamb who strays so easily from the light" is such a nice way to color things lol. I can see why people seek religion for comfort. (I can also see why people can be terrible people and still consider themselves in good standing with the G man).

Needing to gain weight quickly can be just as detrimental as needing to lose weight quickly. Are boxers okay?

Ch. 13

Yeah, fat definitely means something different in the boxing world. Them calling Taro a "whale" was wild. He looks very average.

Kosaku finally shows some restraint for once. I guess the other workers at the gym have better tactics than the coach (do those dudes even have names? lol).

Ch. 14

Ohh so Taro can't gain weight fast because he has no teeth. I missed that connection.

They really just keep telling the same "if you promise him steak, he'll win the match" joke over and over again. Kinda feels like Popeye eating his spinach or something.

Not winning a fight for 4 years is pretty crazy. I'm guessing money comes from ticket sales? After that long you would think people wouldn't want to pay, but I guess plenty of sports teams have had long losing streaks.

Ch. 15

Omg Sister Angela without her habit hype! She cute, I like her really short bob (a rare style for the cute girl in a manga. I feel like that's how you know this was illustrated by a woman).

Finally we get a little more focus on the romcom half of the story and some acknowledgement of Angela's position. (Is being a nun a job? I guess it's more like, a calling).

All the nuns ganging up on Kosaku was funny, new opponent seems entertaining too (his gimmick is that he looks really tough but is actually a coward).

Ch. 16

Kurusu is really cute, I'd choose him as a romance option in a dating sim <3 (the way his eyes are drawn reminds me of Mob Psycho)

It was refreshing to see Kosaku acknowledge that he's been dumped. I have a sneaking suspicion he won't take no for an answer though. Alternatively, it might be Angela who snaps when she realizes she misses him. We shall see.

Ch. 17

So Kosaku ends up being able to focus on his training more when he's not thinking of Angela, but then he relapses into his food obsession again, so not much has changed really?

Kurusu getting into fights because he looks tough...I feel like I've seen this trope before. Toradora maybe?

Apparently "Abbess" is a title, not a name. I was pretty sure that was the case, but was unfamiliar. I guess their was a Mother Abbess in the Sound of Music.

Ch. 18

Awe, this chapter was cute. Mother Abbess pulling the whole "you know, I was quite a looker in my day," the kindergarteners helping Angela hide, and Kosaku comforting being gentle with Kurusu in the church <3 All nice moments

The dream at the beginning with Angela being tormented by a devil Kosaku made me laugh.

Ch. 19

I'm glad Kosaku lost, even though it's clearly just to prolong the romance drama. Kurusu needed the W more ;w;

The coach saying "You like rituals? Try harakiri, loser!" had me laughing. Savage.

I only consciously noticed in this chapter that Sister Angela is the only nun who isn't inked in black (her habit is left white). She's an anime MC for sure lol

The nuns cheering on Kurusu while simultaneously not understanding how boxing works at all was cute

[maguro13-2]

Hiromu Arakawa : [grumbles] Kamierabi. Kamierabi. Alright. Mr Ohkubo, you have your chance with video game legend Yoko Taro to of getting your show on the air after you abandoned your own manga characters that you left to die! And now the Ohkuboverse is gone because of you, ya idiot! Well, at least the new protagonist I introduced has now become the new star on the Gangan Joker magazine line. Fine! I'll just watch the first episode of Yoko Taro's new show that fans of Soul Eater wanted to look at. Wonder what's this show about any way?

"After watching the first episode..."

Yoko Taro : My first animated tv show is finally on the air during the block program on Fuji TV, fans of Nier are really going to see this one in action! So what do you think of it, Arakawa? What did you think of it!?

Atsushu Ohkubo : So, did you like it....?

(pauses for a moment)

*crickets chirping*

Hiromu Arakawa : ....(holds out a guitar)

*GUITAR SMASH!*

Hiromu Arakawa : Kamierabi, my ass! Who needs to watch this crap anyway? I'm going over to Wit Studio to have Moonrise in production! Didn't have time to waste my time for this CGI trash!

(door closes)

(birds chirping)

Yoko Taro : (goofy voice] I think that I am a genius. Does anybody have an cube of ice for a pack to heal myself? I didn't realize that I was planning Death Game show since Future Diary.

Atsushi Ohkubo : [goofy voice] Told ya I get that she still pisses me off about that! I designed the characters to look like the ones from the manga

Yoko Taro : [in a normal voice] But hey, if you were in charge of designing the characters to look like the ones from your manga, what happened to the Ohkuboverse that existed in Real World AU? And more importantly, what happened to the previous protags you created!?

"Meanwhile..."

Shotaro : Hey, let us go! Looks like we got ourselves on the wrong foot! The truth is we lied about the Ohkuboverse, Demon Vibe. Look, The Shadow Realm is cool! We promise that we beings from the Ohkuboverse to never tell a lie again! This was Shinra's idea that he started!

Shinra : What!? I told you that I was gonna bring hope to win, but you didn't let Truth from FMA to believe that the Ohkuboverse we lived in was a facade and now it's your fault that you got me and everyone else into this mess!

Tsugumi : What!? Our fault!? Everything was perfect in the Ohkuboverse until the Time Eater came and destroyed it to reveal that Soul World was completely a facade!

Shinra : If the Men of my influence wouldn't been hiding the truth from all of you, you would be all too stupid that the villains we faced in the ohkuboverse has been puppets on a string to Demon Vibe! The entire time

Tsugumi : Well, that's the problem about dealing with heartlesses in the first place! Right, Maka? Maka...?

Shinra : I think she's still in Real World AU with her boyfriend, Makoto. That Phantom guy.

Shotaro : Then where did the Time Eater brought someone that isn't Maka Albarn and is from the 1930s?

Time Eater : Time to take out the trash! Sending you to the place where you belong!

Inky Albarn : What? No! What do you think you're doing!? Please don't do this to me! I liked being the hero of Soul World, I got a reputation of being a meister. I'm Maka Albarn and I'm the coolest, I can't go back to the 1930s right now! I disguised myself as the one and only Maka Albarn, I have authority for being a shounen protag! No wait! I didn't deserve this! I deserve to be the most respected hero in the World! I swear it! The world of Soul Eater is mine! I can change the author's ways of- [The Time Eater sends her into the portal to 1930s au] NOOOOO....*fades*

Shinra : Well this sucks! We're gonna be stuck here forever!

Tsugumi : I thought being a hero would be cool! Thanks a lot, Shinra!

Shotaro : Yeah, Shinra! This is all your fault!

Shinra : Oh bite my shiny metal--

Demon Vibe : Silence! Your transgressions has caused me nothing but trouble! It's time that I give your attitude a new meaning to what it means to be the great and powerful Demon Vibe that I am! To put yourselves into submissions for your reckless way in Angel Vibe's plans, the same way as your foolishness of being heroes.

Shinra : No...No...NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

~ Farwell Heroes of the Ohukoboverse, Forever! ~

[astralartefact]

Making sense of the "Abortion is bad"-Scene in Kamierabi because it doesn't leave my brain and I really don't want Yoko Taro to be an Anti-Abortionist

Why am I still trying to give the ugly show nobody but me watched the benefit of the doubt?

I don't know either. It has to be wishful thinking.

Okay, I know exactly why, it's the scene after all of the Lall BS where Ryo fcking 'kills' Ono and tells him that that's her wish and he doesn't get to grant it, that shit slapped and it singlehandedly keeps my hope alive that that whole previous scene was supposed to be bad so it can be 'debunked' in the next season.

Because if they actually thought Lall's monologue was it and they were spilling some hard truths about abortion being murder, women just shouldn't cheat and how society has gotten selfish bc evil evil smartphones then not only is whoever wrote that shit either downright evil or missing the forest for the trees - they're also a horrible writer.

Like Lall's whole thing is her tearfully boasting about how nobody there listened to other's wishes, how everybody else is just selfishly trying to become god for their own goals and that's why Ono Goro is so good and smart and different and deserves to become god.

But like - that's wrong. And it's wrong to an almost comical degree. Almost none of them are in this for themselves.

From what we've seen almost everybody wants to make the world a better place by becoming God - and sure we don't necesarily really know what they wished for, but from their actions and characters none of them really fight for themselves.

Sawa wants parents like hers to die because they literally killed her brother - she fights for her brother and not for herself. Akitsu literally let himself die so Goro could win and fix the world. The only thing we really know about Ama is that he is too good for this world. Chika fights for Ryo who fights for Kyo. Iyo is literally another guy who let his favorite Idol overwrite his entire existence.

Like typing this out I'm almost feeling stupid for even entertaining the thought that they could actually mean what Lall is saying - especially since Yoko Taros recent themes (that are also in kamierabi) just fly in the face of any conclusion like this - but to me the episode framed it just sympathetically enough that I'm just not all that sure.

this is literally that one crossroads meme but it's between "Kamierabi is criticizing the white savior complex" and "Kamierabi is an alpha podcast that thinks Abortion is murder, women should just stop being sluts and single mothers are ruining society by raising bad men" and it's going to take months until they finally reveal which one it is

(and i think part of my problem is that turning this into 'ono goro is just a white guy(tm) (yeah i know he's asian but you know what i mean, in his social sphere he's a white guy) who thinks only he can solve all of society's problems because he listened to a woman once' would make this a killer story. like that would make so much sense. they could bring the whole thing with him being the one good iyo stan back so we finally have an anime talking about how all oshi-ism is bad q_q but like. what if it isn't. what if these people just fully drank the alpha podcast cool-aid???)

[thegeekynarwhal]

Okay so I've actually been watching it, I've been watching it with a group because watching it alone is not fun at all

And the same person who wrote kagepro wrote it, Jin, along with the concept being from the game maker Yoko Taro, who produced the nier franchise. He's producing this as well. And the character designer is the same one from soul eater. An absolute wonderful team, which had me very excited for this anime. but the anime is incredibly bad. It has a very few good ideas and cool concepts but it's all lost through the just not good pacing and writing and it takes half the anime to get to the characters that are interesting. The literal best episode so far is the episode where the protagonist is out of commission, it is so much better without him there. It's such a bad anime, and yes it is just a different take on future diary

i was looking at seasonal anime, and one anime, Kami erabi, caught my eye so i looked up the synposis

......and its literally, LITERALLY the EXACT same plot as Future Diary, even down to being told the message through their phones

jfc is all anime just riffing off of previous plots these days