#would he be able to speak to her at all?

[russenoire]

here, i'm gonna spill some more ink over studio bones' decisions adapting ???% in mob psycho 100's confession arc... in a lighter color, perhaps.

some manga readers are upset at the lack of separation between '???%' and 'mob' in the anime vs the clear separation in the manga. that separation doesn't exist in the original japanese.

mob's 声優 (seiyuu) setsuo itō's voice acting in this scene from MP100's first season is by turns startling and visceral (tbh, most of the VA work in this scene is amazing, but i'm only referring to mob here).

given the above, i expected a voice come up from the depths of hell for ???% in the confession arc, but bones and itō-san did not indulge my whims here. what they gave us instead...

...actually reflects the source material.

while there is an audible distinction between ???%'s nonchalant contempt and mob's considerably-more-animated (thanks to all that emotional growth we've seen over the course of the story!) upset, they sound like the same person in the anime... because they are. i thought this a tidy way to convey that fact, and this subtle distinction is not that different in feel from what we see on the page in the original language.

inside the teenager's mind, shigeo (???%) and mob quarrel in the same font. tails on their speech bubbles eventually disappear as they continue to argue with each other. i found this pointed lack of separation a little confusing on first read, but eventually became used to it.

(for a breakdown of this full conversation in the manga, check out @exilepurify's awesome translation post.)

shigeo chafes at the thought of considering others' needs. he scorns mob for bending himself into a shape he thinks will suit tsubomi, mocks mob's desire to blend into the background and somehow escape notice. his own wish for tsubomi to accept him in all his explosive vainglory doesn't take her wishes into account, either.

and yet. his desires are subordinate to mob's.

he wants what mob wants -- only without that whole pesky 'consideration for other people' thing -- and he wants to keep mob alive. their full conversation reveals just how much shigeo actually loves mob.

for all practical purposes, any distinctions between shigeo and mob -- private vs public, subconscious vs conscious -- only exist in the boy's head. even then, they have been unfairly imposed... by mob himself.

the teenager laying waste to seasoning city? the teenager his friends and family love? one and the same.

his loved ones and allies address him with the names by which they know him; they assume he's the same person, just experiencing an involuntary loss of control and in need of some help. it's important to emphasize that. drastically different voices for shigeo and mob would have drawn a hard line between them where there is none.

studio bones removed and/or internalized ???%'s lines, apparently robbing him of speech. but ???% is talking to himself, and no one else can hear him.

in the manga, shigeo seizes control of the boy's speech centers and speaks out loud as ???%, in a scratchy, rough font meant to evoke a harsh voice. (it's the same font used for ???%'s last brief, conscious takeover when mob discovers the crispy fried corpses of his family in their merrily crackling home! you can hear itō-san's delightful interpretation of it in episode 9 from the second season.)

he says:

｢僕の好きにやらせてもらう。」 boku no s'ki ni yarasete morau. 'i'll be free to do whatever i want.' or more literally: 'i will take [from you] the allowance to do as i please.' his use of 貰う here emphasizes that he is forcing mob's hand.

this line and the shift in viewpoint serve to highlight the exact moment where shigeo gains the advantage in his argument with mob.

mob and shigeo squabble for external control for a while; ONE shows this by letting them both speak aloud in this same rough voice. both sides of the fight between the two (at least after 'i'll be free to do whatever i want') can actually be heard from the outside. we only get a few small panels of this as it's happening, but it's unnerving.

shigeo, who is winning this battle, not only gets far more lines as seen from without, but his harsh rasp even colors mob's external speech. this is mob's only line the mangaka lets us see in that font, and it's heartbreaking:

｢だって… もしこれが本当の僕の姿だっていうなら…」 datte... mosh' kore ga hontou no boku no sugata datte iu nara... 'because... if this [???%] is what i really am, as you say...

the line continues within:

｢本当の僕になんて誰も近寄らない。誰も…　誰も助けてくれない。そんなの嫌いだ。」 hontou no boku ni nante daremo ch'kayoranai. daremo... daremo tas'kete kurenai. sonna no kirai da. 'no one will come anywhere near the real me. no one... no one will be there for me. i won't have that.'

the full takeover, which happens a bit later, is marked by:

shigeo's dissolution of and absorption of mob's consciousness into himself;

reigen's ｢すまない｣ (sumanai, 'i'm sorry') for not knowing the nature of what his deshi was struggling to contain;

???%'s last glance back at the man before pressing on towards his goal... as reigen begs him to wait, running after him.

thereafter, we see ???% from without. we get two short glimpses of shigeo's internal perspective before dimple's reappearance, then rejoin him inside for his last explosion with mob.

the anime depicts the moment of full takeover thusly:

shigeo's dissolution of and absorption of mob's consciousness into himself;

a ｢すまない｣ from reigen, who senses something has gone even more wrong with the boy and renews his pursuit... begging him to wait;

shigeo's turning his back on reigen and walking on. we see him spurning his mentor from the inside, his face hardening against a stark black backdrop.

the outward shift happens on-screen too. while it eventually returns to an internal view just as the manga does, it largely stays there, owing to a serious expansion of the scene where shigeo indulges his thirst for revenge on reigen.

except for an audible sigh when teru remarks on how normal his friend's losing control of himself actually makes him, anime shigeo speaks to no one.

???% is alone when he speaks in the manga; reigen is nowhere within earshot and shigeo is only addressing mob. in other words, he's talking to himself. shigeo never utters a word to anyone else in either manga or anime, as if he owes no one an explanation for the choice to sack his hometown or injure his friends.

as bone-chilling and unsettling as ???% speaking out loud is on the page, as much as it enhances the reading experience... in my opinion, it adds nothing new to our understanding of this situation on the screen. viewers can see for themselves that:

an internal takeover has occurred in this boy's mind,

???% is sentient and human and ever so divinely enraged at having been chained up for so long;

???% is finally free.

so why should studio bones belabor this point by having him shout, in the middle of a tornado, to no one in particular? if a boy speaks in a tornado, and there is no one around to hear it, does he make a sound... ?

i also don't know that this would translate well to film. in real life, talking to oneself like that usually carries connotations of psychosis, and resolving it as is done here would honestly be an insult to real-life sufferers. i love it to pieces in the manga but understand why this was cut.

the only things removing ???%'s outward speech loses for me are:

one last opportunity for itō-san to flex that audible jump-scare STOMACH-TWISTING SNARL (oh, i will miss it so);

a slightly-less-vague sense of how shigeo might make his wishes known to tsubomi, were he to present himself to her like this... he wants her approval so badly, and is terrified of not getting it. would he be able to speak to her at all? in the manga the question becomes what would he even say to her?

[rist-ix]

https://www.tumblr.com/rist-ix/749015401700229120 not you reblogging this when you ship bloom with the man who murdered her family 😭

Bloom's into ppl who slay! Hope this helps :3

[lanayrutower]

this keeps me up at night btw.

[hikeyzz]

i used to think i knew love until someone came along that makes me smile and giggle like i did when i was a little girl and now i feel i've known true love

[idledreams4]

I improved my morning alarm

[autumnoakes]

man... rhoam's "redemption" in aoc really sucked, huh?

like botw SHOWED us, several times, how much pressure rhoam put on zelda to unlock her powers, despite her telling him, several times, that it wasn't working. he got angry and banned her from doing not only something she saw as useful, but something that she was clearly very interested in and passionate about because she "wasn't dedicating enough time to her prayers." yes, his diary expresses regret for it, but at the end of the day, if zelda saw that it wouldn't mean much to her. the actions rhoam took, and the way zelda grew up under so much pressure that she nearly died as a child in one of the springs (this is in urbosa's diary, iirc) mean so much more than his regrets and his intentions. it took him nearly 10 years to realize that he fucked up, and by that point it was too late. the calamity had returned, and rhoam had lost any chance he had at making things right with zelda.

meanwhile, in aoc, all that's there is some half-hearted scene in the temple of time that's supposed to make everything better? yes, aoc had a very different and arguably better outcome than the calamity that led to botw, but the damage was still done by rhoam. it's still the same hurts and abuse and trauma that he put his daughter through all because of the prophesized calamity.

[araneitela]

WHICH SYMBOLIC FRUIT ARE YOU?

Cherry. (Man, this is going to need some tag rambling; because while it's what I suspected and it's very fitting in many ways, I need to address one element).

In popular culture, cherries have come to represent sensuality, sex, and seduction. In the cult classic, Twin Peaks, Audrey Horne expresses her sexual expertise by tying a cherry stem with her tongue. "Cherry" is also used to refer to the concept of virginity: why? I don't know to be honest, but here we are. Much like the cherry, you're a sensual person who enjoys all the creature comforts the world offers. You enjoy delicious food, dynamic relationships, passionate lovemaking and stimulating conversation; however, you may also come across a touch vapid or shallow, due to your quickly fading attention when something has served its usefulness to you. To quote some man on tinder: "you're here for a good time, not a long time". You can come across, at times, slightly tart, carrying a bit of a bite to you that not everyone can handle. That’s okay: you’re an acquired taste!

Tagged: @basbousah (Thank you 🩷) Tagging: I don't tend to tag for quizzes easily but this one was actually fun, so let's harass. @immobiliter (how about Furina?) @kushtibokt @genus83 @genius81 @spiderwarden @delusionaid (Wriothesley, or Zhongli— porque no los dos? 🤭) @apocryphis (Topaz) @aventvrina @resolutepath (Elio) @daybreakrising (Blade) @astrxlfinale @kahakera @cygnor @chasersglow @scrtilegii (Jing Yuan)... and anyone else who'd like to do it, say I tagged you because I'd love to see the results!

[greghatecrimes]

The concept of Ghost Amber will not leave me alone, so I give you this:

After being tormented by Amber and his subconscious through the end of s5, House goes to the psych ward to get rid of “The Amber Hallucination” once and for all. He thinks he’s finally succeeded and put it to rest when he comes out in s6… only to finally return to PPTH and have Ghost Amber pop right back up while he’s talking to the ducklings about their first case back. She’s smiling like the cat that got the canary, smug that she actually drove him insane enough for him to come off of Vicodin. House, unnerved, thinks he’s hallucinating and tries to ignore it while throwing his tennis ball at the wall. Ghost Amber is not fond of being ignored, and so she reaches out and grabs the ball before House can catch it. Every single one of the ducklings watches with wide eyes as the ball hovers in midair for three full seconds and then drops to the ground.

(Wilson comes into the room a minute or two later only to find it eerily silent, and asks “why do all of you look like you’ve just seen a ghost?”)

[apollos-boyfriend]

one thing about me is that i’m ALWAYS thinking about chapter 4 kokichi ouma

[nevada-got-screwed-over]

Actually I don’t think I’ll ever forgive how Wash’s disability and subsequent ‘cure’ was handled.

[arolesbianism]

Doodle of my boy

[dennisboobs]

ok at the point now where looking at an image of dennis makes me want to smash my head through a wall

[trollzz]

it is sooo important to me that for as codependsnt as ven would be to vel she is equally if not more unhealthily attrached to him. her baby brother shes tormented since before they could remember. who allows himself to be oushed around. to sink to he rlevel and takr part in whatever weird little scheme she's come up with .

thinking so fondly about the interview at the beginning of the movie and her split second look of pity before pickkng up where veneer dropped the ball and righting everything. its one thing if SHES the one upsetting her brother, in fact its becomr soo second nature to her she doesnt even realize shes doing it, but someone else doing so sets something offf in her i know it . her ass was feeling some crazy white hot rage under the surface both at her incompetent baby brother being unable to answer a simple question and the GALL of kid ritz to put the two of them in that situation (but oh i looove her immediate damage control. having to logically aside...she loooves cleaning up after the mess shes made(of him)) . tbis cannot be the first time. there is something so sexual about him being unable to handle the pressure and her constantly letting him take the first hit. what is it girl. are you testing him? reinforcing how if it werent for you he wouldnt have all of this? is it just funny to watch?

[soft-serve-soymilk]

More random head children musings (aside from the really sad one because that deserves better than a throwaway post):

Honestly I think it’s very fortunate that Dism’s team isn’t *entirely* comprised of lucid dreamers.

[mars-ipan]

i do love my family very dearly but the internalized ableism the men in here struggle with is. so much

[deadrlngers]

can i ask everyone's opinion on smth? so that i can understand if i'm being a childish asshole or like just being a normal human being not wanting to do smth

basically next month there's the wedding of one of my cousins and my family was invited. my brother said he's not coming since the start while my parents will go and my mother wants specifically that i go with them. while i already don't really want to go to this wedding (bc i'm not really close to this part of the family and i don't want to spend time with one of my cousins that will be there as well bc i hate her lmao) i told my mom that i would suck it up and come IF someone stayed home with our dog. at first my brother said that he'd stay here with him but now he changed his mind so we would have to leave our dog to someone else for one day + i guess half of the next day bc we would have to move to a different city to attend the wedding.

my parents say i'm being irrational and there's nothing to worry about leaving our dog but while i know that, i just can't find the heart to leave him for smth like a wedding i don't want to go to and of a cousin i literally don't speak to since years (i don't even know the bride). my dog is nearly completely blind and is a senior dog now and i don't want to leave him for smth like this but my parents argue that next year i will be forced to leave him for a few days bc of my brother's graduation (since he studies in a different region we will have to move there) so they say it's dumb that i won't leave him now when i'll clearly do so next year but they don't get that while i'm 'forced' to attend my brother's graduation since he's, uh, my brother ofc, in this case it's smth absolutely avoidable but my mother cries out that 'she's never able to bring her kids to these family events' (italian families and their having to keep appearances..). also my dog hates the car and is always anxious when he has to travel with one which we would need to take him to the place we would have him stay and then take him back home. so i just want to know if i should stop bitching about this and go to this fucking wedding or they are the ones that are being too obsessed with forcing their adult child to come to a goddamn wedding of ppl i never see and never speak to