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shadowscans · 3 years

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Translation of natalie.mu's Interview with Soumatou

Source: https://natalie.mu/comic/pp/shadowshouse03

With the TV anime “Shadows House” starting its broadcast on the 10th of April, Comic Natalie is running a special feature on the work. In this third installment of the series, the original author Soumatou makes their long-awaited appearance. Here, we are given the chance to hear them talk about the behind the scene of the production, the sense of speed that comes from the short amount of time between the adaptation decision and the broadcast, the background behind the creation of the original work where the characters have no face and whose expressions cannot be seen, as well as the story behind the creation of the 2-person unit Soumatou, with Nori in charge of design, and Hisshi in charge of drawing. It should be noted that in this interview, they are answering not as Nori and Hisshi but as Soumatou.

“It’s probably a work that’s hard to adapt into anime”

──Soumatou-san, when did you hear of the anime adaptation?

In 2019, about 50 chapters were made free to read online, and amidst the great response, we learned that the anime adaptation was greenlit.

── Making something open to the public has such an effect, huh?

When “Shadows House” started, it was a relatively subdued serialization. With the chapters being made free to read, people started sharing their thoughts through various means like Twitter, and the paper volumes were selling out. In regards to the public release, back when the person in charge proposed the idea, we approved of it since our impression was that “If not many people were reading it anyways, then let’s just give that a try.” Therefore, in the midst of all that, when we heard of the anime adaptation, we were very surprised. “Is there such a thing?” Because production starts immediately after the decision, it was very speedy.

──With how short the time period is between the decision and the start of broadcast, it doesn’t seem like you have much time to rejoice huh (laugh).

We were happy at the time of the decision of course, but apart from that, “It’s probably a work that’s hard to adapt into anime” was what we thought. In the first place, we’re the type that only believe in something we can see, so it didn’t really sink in for us. We were thinking something like “This project might not even fall through” (laugh). That is why ever since the anime adaptation was publicly announced, the feeling of joy finally sinked in.

──Soumatou-san, in what ways were you involved with the anime?

We supervised roughly all the main processes. When the anime adaptation was greenlit, since the person in charge advised me that “If you will be involved, then be involved with everything. If you won’t be involved, then don’t be involved with anything at all,” we thought “If it’s going to be like that, then we will do as much as we can.” However, the supervision of the script was quite hefty, and having to do that concurrently with the serialization was rather physically difficult.

──I had the chance to watch the first episode, and the thing that surprised me was the original development related to Emilyko’s establishment. Was it difficult to supervise these parts?

We had thought to draw that in the original work, though we decided not to since we thought it wasn’t particularly important. That was just a story from the original work which was added on. However, what was difficult were the adjustments made based on the decision at the script meeting to also depict elements or episodes which are not yet revealed in the original work. We have to think two steps ahead of the current plot of the ongoing serialization, then we have to put in stories or elements that would put us closer to that in the anime. It was a maddening task (laugh).

──If that’s the case, then it seems like it would be fun to compare the original work with the anime huh. Even though it’s difficult, was it refreshing to work on the anime?

Yes. Since we didn’t know anything about anime, or rather, we had no production know-how, so at first, we had no idea how everything would progress. To begin with, we gave them the material created for the serialization. Because we have already created a vast amount of material like the building’s 3D layout, it was easy to say “This is what the layout looks like.” In addition, even though the creation of the colored edition was intended for overseas readers, that material seemed to have been of use for the creation of the colors in the anime. In that sense, there might have been little materials that must be created when it comes to adapting it into an anime.

Supervising as far as the way soot is emitted and the movement of the Clingers

──Soumatou-san, what kind of impression did you have when you saw the anime?

We were amazed by how much more profound the atmosphere was than what we expected. We knew the character’s line drawing and the colors that go on them since we supervised it, but we can’t visualize the final image with just that. However, when we saw the processed recording with the background attached, we felt it was close to the impression of the original work.

──How about the directing?

Expressions that aren’t possible in the manga, such as the movement of the soot, Emilyko rolling on the ground or the inclusion of the song that the Living Dolls sang to themselves, left me with a strong impression.

──As for the soot, I was convinced that it would move like that. Was that also supervised by you?

As for the soot and the clingers, we were shown a few patterns, then we fine-tuned it from there.

──By the way, what kinds of patterns were there?

As for the soot, there was a difference in how it was emitted, be it softly or firmly. For the clingers, there was a difference in the movement, like whether it would move slowly like a cockroach or quickly. Such were the patterns that were there. We did quite a bit of trial and error.

Only the voice actors for Kate and Emilyko were entirely decided by others

──Did you go to the dubbing location?

We only visited for the first time to say hello. The voice actors went through the performance about 3 times. As we listened to the anime staff's directions without giving any input ourselves, we felt it fit our image. On the other hand, when the voice actors were asked by the director “Is there any part you want to re-record at the end?,” they responded with things like “I want to re-record this part” or “would this part be better like this instead,” one after another amending it. It was also the first time we observed a dubbing session, so we were very impressed.

──Well then, did Soumatou-san have any particular request?

There were one or two scenes where we thought “This doesn’t seem to come through, so we want it like this,” and asked them to redo the intonation. However, because anime has a fixed length, I felt that it was better to leave it to the director to draw out the best performance within that time limit. The rest of the time, it was alright for us to really just watch.

──That’s roughly how I imagined it to be. Well, then, please tell us about the impression you got from the main characters. First , how were Kate’s by Kitou Akira-san and Emilyko’s Sasahara Yuu-san?

The rough images of Kate and Emilyko’s voices in our own heads were just “calm” and “cheerful.” That’s why we were able to express our wishes after the audition for the other characters. However, just for these two, we only said, “Please use the person that fits the best'' and left it for others to decide (laugh). When we heard the audition, our impression was that Sasahara-san would fit Kate’s voice, and Kitou-san would fit Emilyko’s voice. However, when we looked at the results, it turned out to be the other way around. There are differences between the performance they did at the audition and at the start of the dubbing, though now we felt that this way was definitely more fitting.

──The other shadow and living doll pairs are played by one person each. What was your impression when you heard of that?

We stated in the original work that the shadows and living dolls have different voices. However, for the anime, when the idea to have the same person performing the roles was proposed, we told them that “we are looking forward to the voice actors doing their best.” The voices are altered based on vocal ranges, and I think the end result is that you will be able to enjoy the voice actors’ varied performances.

──Currently, the cast for four sets of characters has been announced. Please tell us your impressions about each of them.

Sakai Koudai-san’s duet between the hearty, easily carried away John and the cool-headed Shaun is very amusing. Both characters sound good, and their voices are cute. As for Sakura Ayane-san, she was able to portray the very different atmospheres between the lively Louise and the calm Lou.

──Those two consist of clearly different characters so it might be easy to work with, but I felt that the remaining two seem difficult.

Indeed. Kawashima Reiji-san has to play Patrick and Ricky - two characters whose voices and personalities are quite similar, so we thought it was quite a hard role. However, he was able to perform the roles with the understanding of the fine differences in the character of the two. For Shimoji Shino-san who plays the role of Shirley and Ram, there is a lot of dialogue with the imaginary friend, and she has to portray a different image than that of others. She said that “It’s a type of character that I have never played before,” but her voice fitted perfectly.

The pair’s 20-year relationship

──Well then, let’s move from “Shadows House” and let's hear about you Soumatou san, and your past works. You two work together as a pair, but when did you get to know each other?

We have known each other since when we were students, so it is already a roughly 20-year relationship.

──Why did you two start making manga together?

When Hisshi stopped submitting to manga awards, they no longer drew their own manga and ended up settling down as an assistant. I thought that this was a waste of potential, so when I quit my own job, I told Hisshi that I would write my own stories and asked Hisshi to draw them.

──Afterwards, you seemed to have created doujinshi for a while huh.

Yes. Because Nori normally doesn’t read manga and had not created a manga before, we thought to make a lot of them and send them to publishers. Since around 2008, we made a few and showed them at exhibitions. Afterwards, we were able to thankfully get in touch with Shueisha.

──It sure is amazing that you called out and said that you would “make your own story” even though you had no prior experience. Nori-san, what is it about the manga that Hisshi-san made that drew you in?

The composition is very skillful. To phrase it slightly poorly, even if the story is not that interesting, the skillful composition has the power to make you read from beginning to end. That is why Hisshi was able to receive rewards from various magazines.

──I see.

However, since I’m the type to make a manga from whatever episode or idea I want to draw, I have a good grasp on it, but I’m bad at putting things in order over a long span of time. I can draw one-offs, but they did not lead to serialization at all. It seemed like I was slowly running out of things I wanted to draw.

──How do you two divide the work for making the manga? For example, please teach us the making of a single chapter of “Shadows House.”

Firstly, Nori describes the entire course of events, then after bouncing the ideas off of Hisshi, it’s all put together into the plot. With that as the base, Hisshi makes the mini storyboards, which Nori then uses in the briefing session with the editor. Afterwards, Hisshi draws up the real storyboards, and after another meeting with the editor, we head to the rough draft. Hisshi checks that rough draft, then we work on things like new characters, backgrounds, minor characters and the frontispiece’s design. Then, Hisshi inks a pen sketch while Nori does assistant work around the characters. Finally, Hisshi puts the finishing touches and the manuscript is complete. Also, Nori makes the final adjustments to the dialogue right before submission.

──You sure communicate in great detail.

We think we go back and forth more than others whose original works and drawings are separated. Furthermore, we also consult each other when we come to a standstill in our work.

Both “Kuro” and “Girigiri out” have the same ingredients

──Well then let’s return to “Shadows House”, please tell us how and from where you got the idea for the work.

I was staring at a mannequin at a clothing store when the idea suddenly flashed in my mind. The rest is a mishmash of things such as Hisshi’s specialty of clothes and backgrounds, as well as our shared interest in buildings and everyday life in a strange setting.

──Even if you have come up with the idea, it must take courage to make the main characters pitch black, right?

Mangaka are tasked with doing works like drawing facial expressions, though we wondered whether it was possible to present emotions without facial expressions in “Shadows House.” Nori simply thought that “It can be done in novels, so it should be possible in manga too,” and Hisshi hates drawing characters’ faces (laugh). Hisshi even says that “I just want to draw clothes and backgrounds” all the time. Of course Hisshi tries to draw the characters cutely, but that’s without a spontaneous desire to do so.

──That’s surprising to hear, since in your previous work “Girigiri out”, the charm of the beautiful heroine is pushed to the forefront.

Originally Nori was a graphic designer, and Hisshi was a Mangaka’s assistant, so it was deeply ingrained in us to accede to others’ demands. There wasn’t anything that we could say “We want to draw that!” about as Soumatou. Because of that, basically, we are the type to start by fumbling at themes and genres that the editor has an interest in. From there, we come up with various things, and the engine gradually starts. Moreover, at the serialization meeting, among the three works we submitted, “Girigiri Out” was a discarded idea to give the impression that we were trying our best. We thought that if we submitted three works at the serialization meeting then it could look as if we’re trying our best (laugh). Since we didn’t think of anything aside from the 3 chapters submitted at the meeting, when the time came for the serialization, we were worried about what to draw from there.

──”Girigiri Out” is about a situation surrounding a girl who wets herself when she’s nervous, and a boy with the power to suppress someone’s urge to urinate through touch. Even though you have only thought of 3 chapters, during the serialization, you drew quite a few variations on wetting oneself huh.

Generally speaking, we were motivated to make every chapter a different situation (laugh).

──Furthermore, among your previous works, “Kuro” has parts that felt connected to “Shadows House”, but “Girigiri Out”’s style was surprising. I understand now that it’s a story that started from fumbling about with themes and genres of interest to the editor.

However, maybe it’s hard to notice, but the themes drawn in “Kuro” and “Girigiri Out” have quite a bit in common. Everyday life in a strange setting, strange characters that are not people, restlessness, action, surreal jokes, familial love, release from trauma, folk beliefs… the packaging is different, but “Shadows House” also has roughly those same ingredients.

We want to do a gag manga next, but it might be difficult?

──Please let us hear a bit more about “Shadows House.” The story was carefully foreshadowed from the beginning, but just how far ahead did you plan at the start of the serialization?

Since the beginning we have faintly thought about what happens very far ahead into the future, and from there we flesh it out. However, we don’t know how long each part will take if we haven’t drawn it, and parts do change due to the characters’ relationships. For example, at first we had planned for the Debut to end in about 3 chapters.

──In reality it took a volume and a half. That sure is a big change.

We have a bad habit of putting off thinking about the minute details.

──The garden in the Debut also had such a complicated map that I didn’t think it was planned to end in just 3 chapters.

The person in charge is someone who likes exciting and shounen-like things, so we were told that “If I go to the garden then I want a map of the garden.” Though, since we haven’t thought of anything, we spent the next day making a map of the garden as well as all of the gimmicks (laugh). We feel like without that, the story would have been aimless, so we appreciate the advice.

──It certainly has an exciting adventurous feel to it, so the Debut looks like something that would shine in an anime huh. By the way, when I was reading “Shadows House,” the thing that surprised me the most was how screentone was not used at all. I’m sorry that it’s a simple question, but isn’t that quite difficult?

It normally is difficult (laugh). Originally, for a drawing method that suits the work, we wanted something that is reminiscent of old printed works. It started when Nori, who was simply bored, lightheartedly suggested that “This time let’s use hatching (Method of filling in space using uniform parallel lines).” It limits the range of expressions, so now we do regret it a little bit.

──I will continue to enjoy your wonderful drawings from now on. Lastly, you mentioned that “there wasn’t anything that you wanted to draw as Soumatou,” but when you finish drawing “Shadows House,” please tell us what genre you want to tackle next.

Let’s see… how about gag manga? We originally started with drawing gag manga, and the works submitted together with “Shadows House” at the serialization meeting also had comedy in them. However, the gag portion was so hard to do that the editor was put off by it. It might be difficult, but it would be nice if we could publish it some day (laugh).

#shadows house #shadow house

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itsclydebitches · 3 years

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RWBY Recaps: Volume 8 “Witch”

Happy Saturday, everyone! Well, it's perhaps happier provided you didn't watch today’s episode lol. Getting through these 18 minutes felt like watching an extended version of a CinemaSins vid. I heard a little 'ding!' every time something nonsensical, contradictory, or just downright stupid happened. My mind became a pinball machine.

Which, in the interest of being fair as opposed to just snarky, only matters if you're looking for something resembling emotional depth in this show. RWBY, for all its faults, is enjoyable as a mindless spectacle. It's when you expect — or simply hope — for anything more that this very fragile house of cards comes tumbling down.

If it’s not clear already, today’s recap contains copious amounts of salt. Fair warning.

With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s dive in. Episode nine is titled "Witch," which is fitting since many members of our group go toe-to-toe against Salem herself. The narrative issues inherent in having your heroes fighting their final boss years before the series is meant to end might have been avoided if it weren't for Oscar's ridiculous, sacrificial attack... but we'll get to that.

We open with a sweeping shot of the Atlas battle, as hundreds of dead soldiers segue into endless grimm. Hold onto that image for a bit. At the end of this carnage is, of course, the mouth of the whale. We cut to Jaune, Ren, and Yang already safely inside.

"Well," says Yang, "that was harrowing."

I'm on the fence about this choice. On the one hand, yes, it's good that RWBY knows it can skip over extraneous scenes. We have NINE characters to keep track of and develop, fourteen if you count Ozpin, Maria, Winter, Ironwood, and now Whitley. Plus villains. There simply isn't time to show every insignificant moment... but was this insignificant? Obviously finding Oscar and escaping Salem's clutches is the true hurdle of this mission, but that doesn't mean getting through an entire army of grimm is in any way a cake walk. I'd be more willing to ignore this time skip if it weren't likewise presented as such a challenge for Winter's team. They have to "clear a path" to the whale, but our trio got there unscathed and unnoticed? The obvious implication here is that Ren just masked them the whole way — supported by his aura breaking later in the episode — but it still feels like we missed an important chunk of this task.

I'm nit-picking though. As said, I’m straddling the fence on this one and, given that, I'm inclined to settle on a, "Good job, RWBY. You're keeping the writing tight," if only because I don't have much else to praise about this episode. Throw the poor, struggling show a bone lol.

Now that they're inside, they realize they haven't the slightest idea how they'll find Oscar. “Like finding a needle in a giant…whale… why did we think this was a good idea?!” Because you and your friends are idiots who no longer bother to think about a situation before throwing yourself straight into it? This isn't me being mean to Yang, she literally says as much later on. Our heroes no longer get by on intellect, strategy, and skill, but rather plot armor and a staggering number of coincidences. For example, Ren.

Yang: Wow, it sure is lucky for us that on our way to this incredibly dangerous mission Ren inexplicably developed a new part of his semblance. Now he can not only mask peoples' emotions, see the true emotions that someone is feeling, pull thoughts out of their head about what they believe about a situation, but can also track someone across long distances through their emotions alone. Even that doesn't actually help us find Oscar, we just got lucky again when, in this maze of a whale, he ran right into us!

Me: So what were you going to do if this meta-world stopped giving you the most contrived solutions in Remnant history?

Yang: Die gloriously, I guess.

What Yang actually says is, "Okay. That's new!" and they enter the literal belly of the beast wielding a shield of convenience.

Jaune is also being awkward again because remember, RWBY doesn't know when to incorporate humor and when to treat a situation seriously. He reminds Ren not to "drain [himself]," he'll help him, and it's clear the scene is hinting at their earlier fight. There's a lot to unpack there, but I want to save it for the second conversation.

For now, we cut to Oscar, curled up in his cell, repeating stories to comfort himself. Yeah that's fine. I could use a broken heart right before Valentine's Day.

“She brushed off her bumps and bruises, for nothing hurt worse than the loneliness in her chest." It's a line from The Girl Who Fell Through the World, which Ozpin recognizes given that he's "lived through" a fair number of fairy tales. He immediately asks how Oscar is holding up — because he's a caring person! — and Oscar admits that he never understood why the girl of the tale was sad upon reaching home again. Now he does: she wasn't the same person anymore. I don't think the fact that Oscar has had both a metaphorical fall — leaving his farm to 'fall' into this war — and a literal one — falling through Atlas to unlock his magic — is lost on anyone. This is a nice allusion to our themes. Yang's speech to Salem later on? That’s something else entirely.

Storytelling done, Ozpin says he thinks "this plan to divide might have run its course” and it's time to try and find a way to leave. I'm sorry, I love my farm boy, but what plan? He didn't do anything. At least nothing that could remotely be termed an intellectual plot. Oscar convinced Ozpin to try and turn Hazel by telling him the world would end under Salem's rule and the only reason that worked is because the story decided to chuck out Hazel's entire character. You know, the one that hates Ozpin above all others, wants the world remade into a non-Academy horror show, can't understand that people make their own choices, is terrified of Salem, and has no reason to trust a prisoner he's currently torturing. Oscar's "plan" hinged on his writers erasing a great deal of work to build a new story that fits said “plan.” He didn't even get Emerald involved, she just — again, conveniently — eavesdropped outside their door at just the right moment.

To be clear, I'm not against a story being written to work in the hero's favor. Of course things are going to be convenient in a happy-ending tale. Someone manages to hold out just as long as they need to, a sword is lying just within reach, you, yes, happen to run into the one person you're desperate to find. This kind of stuff is reassuring, telling its audiences that sometimes things do work out for the best. It's enjoyable... but only provided the hero's entire success doesn't hinge on fate being shockingly kind to them. That's what RWBY has become. A world where Salem doesn't attack Mantle, Amity Tower is suddenly finished, the group can charge into any deadly situation they want to and bank on destiny twisting around itself to ensure they come out of it safely. A hero finding a convenient weapon nearby to defeat their enemy with is only reassuring after we've seen them implement a brilliant attack, struggle, nearly win, but then suddenly be faced with failure, necessitating that little push from coincidence. They earned it. The hero doesn't get to run in blindly and find a Defeat Bad Guy plot point gift wrapped for them at the first sign of trouble. They just die.

RWBY used to be a better written show because that's precisely Pyrrha's story. She charged a Maiden unprepared, without a single plan or hope for success, and she died. That's what happens in a dangerous, internally consistent world, but RWBY has since lost the second half of that formula.

I'm harping on this because this entire episode is built on that foundation of coincidence, something that shouldn't be happening at all, but especially not when you're pitting the heroes against Salem herself.

So yeah, it just gets worse from here.

Back to Oscar. Without the cane magic is the only weapon they have at their disposal, but he's reluctant to use it because every time he does, they merge more quickly.

They... do?

Okay, there are three major problems with this announcement:

I'm pretty sure we've only seen Oscar use magic once: creating that barrier to survive the fall through Atlas. That was the point of his near death experience, to unlock something that had previously been unavailable to him. Yet if he's only used it once, why is he so sure that it hurries the merge along? What's this "every time" business? This confusion could have easily been avoided if the show had just let Oscar use his magic this volume, tackling some other questions and gaps in the process. Let him use it to fight off the grimm in Mantle, giving him the opportunity to admit to at least Jaune, Ren, and Yang that Ozpin is back. He could have used some magic against the Hound with Ozpin's encouragement, answering the question of why he was entirely silent while the two of them got their ass beat. Give us a moment where Oscar uses his magic against Hazel, nearly escaping in the process, but is captured again at the last moment. Basically, his line makes it sound like magic has been this ongoing resource with an established downside when... it hasn’t.

Coinciding with all of the above, how is it that Oscar can suddenly use magic at will? Yeah, yeah, he unlocked it during the fall, but really? You open up the magic gates and from then on out it's as natural as breathing? This is the same issue with Ruby's silver eyes. The story gives these characters incredible powers, but never has them talking about how they work, let alone training them. They just exist, perfect in execution, as soon as the plot needs them. (See: the final shot of this episode.) At least Weiss had to practice her summoning for multiple volumes.

Finally, the question of how Oscar instinctively knows how to use magic could easily be answered with, "Well, he's kind of Ozpin now," but that would require the story to actually explain what the merge is. "We merge faster," Oscar says, but what does that mean? The Ozpin and Oscar we see in this scene are fundamentally indistinguishable from the Ozpin and Oscar who existed at his aunt's house, four whole years ago. They're still separate people, with one controlling the body and the other existing as a consciousness he can talk to. Nothing has changed. The show keeps insisting that Oscar is going through this deep and painful arc of losing himself to Ozpin... despite the fact that he has yet to lose a single bit of Oscar-ness. Has he changed? Well of course, but anyone going through these experiences is going to change. Remove the "merge" aspect and Oscar's confidence or power up is likewise indistinguishable from any of the other characters' developments. Nora is becoming more of an individual this volume. Ren is becoming more powerful in his semblance. Neither have an Ozpin to force that change, it just happens on its own. So what separates Oscar from every other character going through a formative experience? When is “I’m not the same person anymore” due to unnatural magic vs. just growing up?

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy our boy is getting more screen time — and that the cast is actually being kind to him now — but overall his arc is objectively terrible. He bought some clothes, told Ironwood he was as bad as Salem, told Hazel how to access the Relic, and then asked him not to be a villain anymore. Somehow these things are presented as significant moments of growth while the real questions surrounding his merge go unanswered.

“Honestly, I think you’re doing just fine on your own," Ozpin tells him, but he's not. God knows our boy is trying, but this is a moment where Ozpin's self-hatred (and the story's insistence that the younger generation is intrinsically better than the older) is blinding him to the situation. Oscar has made terrible decisions lately, in as much as he's been able to decide anything at all, and now he's rejecting escaping captivity because he's terrified of a concept he doesn't even understand yet. None of that is fine. Reassurance is one thing, but painting this situation as Oscar making better choices than he would with Ozpin's input is insane. He literally just decided to keep them in Salem's clutches indefinitely because something something magic is scary, I guess. Oscar doesn't need a, 'You're better than me' speech, he needs a reality check so they don't both die. Remember back in Volume 5 when Oscar, a brave but idiotic 14 year old, insisted on fighting someone entirely out of his league and Ozpin was like,

then saved him from getting his head crushed in like a cantaloupe? We need more of that. Our teenage heroes need guidance, but because RWBY keeps insisting that every adult they encounter is corrupt or incompetent, that hasn't happened in three volumes. They're just aloud to decide things like, “Let's tell our captor the Relic's password because UwU ~trust~” and then the story bends over backwards to make that work. Instead we could, you know, let characters learn that they can be wrong.

The snow scene was the beginning, but RWBY really went off the rails the day it let Qrow warn the group against stealing from and attacking an allied city, only for them to call him an idiot for doubting them. Now, Ozpin doesn't even get to warn Oscar about stupid decisions, he just agrees with them, reassuring and passive. Never mind the complication of whether Ozpin is even emotionally capable of providing guidance after they labeled him the worst thing to ever happen to them.

Why does RWBY keep ruining my faves 😔

Anyway, we’ve got to stay on track. Oscar has decided to just lie there but, luckily for him, Hazel's redemption — I use that term so loosely — has begun. He drags Oscar out of his cell before we cut to Winter.

She's leading a portion of Ironwood's army, trying to get things ready for when the bomb arrives. Neon and Flynt are a part of her team, sharing scared glances and trying to remain optimistic. It's a legitimately hard-hitting moment, striking that balance between horror and hope. Funny though, I wonder that RWBYJNOR would think of their friends fighting for evil Ironwood...

Marrow, continuing the tradition of insisting that our heroes be both adults and kids simultaneously, looks sadly at the soldiers heading into battle and goes, "But... they're just kids." I would like to remind everyone reading that Ruby is younger than them. Anyone who thinks that these teenagers shouldn't be fighting grimm — the thing they have been training to do as their professional career, during an unprecedented attack on their home — should not simultaneously be looking to the girl who is two years younger as his savior. (Something that, while not overt yet, is very much where Marrow is heading as he continually doubts the Ace Ops and looks to RWBY's group as his new, moral leaders.) I'm glad that, for once, this perspective is firmly called out. Elm arrives to tell him point blank that he needs to figure out his personal ethics later. It doesn't matter because there's an army of grimm out there and monsters aren't going to spare anyone, adult or child. Quit philosophizing and kill some already.

Back to Hazel where we get the doorway shot from our trailer. He's taken Oscar to the Relic, because of course he has. Do I really need to list how convenient this is too? Apparently, "the moment we move that thing, this place goes on high alert," but there’s no alarm for when Oscar is taken from his cell, they enter the Relic's room, or when they use it. What does a movement alert matter if someone can just waltz in and waste the last question themselves? Put some of those endless grimm in the room to guard it, Salem!

Just assume that I am, at any given point in this episode, letting out the longest sigh my lungs are physically capable of.

Emerald shows up, demonstrating both the convenience of everyone arriving when they need to, and the very real danger that Salem herself could come in and discover what they're up to. Hazel has Oscar summon Jinn, only to immediately say that “Actually, I think all my questions are answered now.”

I'm sorry, how does this answer any of Hazel's questions? His driving question was not, "Is the Relic actually a magical object capable of doing magical things?" but rather "Are you telling me the truth about Salem's plans to summon the Gods and destroy all of Remnant in her quest to finally die, thereby changing who I'm going to support in this war?" Seeing a naked, blue djinn does not answer that question.

Hazel's "redemption" is non-existent. He — we — learned about Salem's death wish despite how that contradicts previous lore, then he trusted Ozpin despite that contradicting his entire character, now he joins the heroes because, literally, he sees Jinn floating there. It’s bad enough that Hazel goes from clear villain to sacrificial hero in a matter of in-world hours, but we don’t even get a reason for why that change occurred.

Oh, there's also this:

So Jinn doesn't come out of her lamp unless someone intends to ask a question, but does it for Ruby because she's special, yet still reiterates that this won't happen again. Then Oscar summons her without intending to ask a question, she comes out anyway, confirms that none of them seek knowledge from her, and happily pops back inside her lamp because eh, it’s whatever.

If RWBY had any courage the three of them would be cursed now for toying with a powerful, magical object. Remember the days when Jinn was a little terrifying because it felt like she was warping her answers and we had no idea what she might do to someone who used her carelessly? When she felt like a djinn? Good times.

Or better times, at least.

So Good Guy Hazel and Good Gal Emerald promise to get Oscar out. Never mind all the horror they caused, the people they killed, and that for Hazel, at least, this defection is coming out of nowhere.

Anyone remember that Emerald orchestrated Penny's death? No? Just me?

As they leave it turns out Neo was camouflaged against the wall, because she was also precisely where she needed to be. Does everyone just periodically pop into the Relic room to see what’s going on? At least this time it's not working in the heroes' favor. Remember when I said it's beyond idiotic for Oscar to just hand out the Relic information to known enemies currently holding him captive and torturing him?

Yeeeeaah.

So Neo's got the Lamp. Funny how all of this could have been avoided if Ruby had just put it in the vault like she came to Atlas to do ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We return to our trio where Jaune and Ren need to rest because their aura is giving out. Good! These guys fought a battle, fought Neo, fought more grimm, fought the Hound, traipsed through the tundra, presumably fought through more grimm to get to the whale, and have been using both their semblances to look for Oscar. It's about time their reserves started to falter.

Jaune decides to scout ahead a bit, leaving Yang and Ren to talk about nothing of importance. I mean that seriously. Remember a few days ago when I spoke about how, if the snow conversation does come back up, Ren's points would be entirely ignored for a nonsensical “I’m glad we’re friends” speech? Remember how I also spoke about how every emotional beat now is entirely generic and you could replace any character with another and not a single thing would change? Yeah. This is both those arguments in one. Nothing is said about the points Ren made. His problems with how the group has been acting lately and the very real, very deadly consequences it has had are flat out ignored. We went from

"But these aren't the kinds of decisions we should be making because we have no idea what we're doing!"

"Forward, no matter what!"

in a matter of hours, with precisely zero insight into how Ren went from one perspective to the exact opposite. Kind of like Hazel. Because see, RWBY doesn't write arcs, it just writes one thing until it decides to switch it up for something else, with the opposite idea presented as a “resolution” or a “twist.” Our creators writes scenes they know the fandom is begging for without considering how to get a character to that place, let alone how to get them out of it. That's all Ren's speech was, the equivalent of moral fan service. Here's a glimpse of actual character depth and a morally gray situation... now forget it ever happened because we're back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Instead of working through the laundry list of issues Ren raised, Ren instead accepts Jaune's aura help — something they've been doing since Argus — and tells Yang it's okay to be scared. These moments are meaningless and, as said, could have been between anyone in our cast. Ren could have told Nora she doesn't have to use jokes to cover up that she's scared. Jaune could have reminded Ruby that she can depend on him. Yang could have tried to keep Blake and Weiss' hopes up. This scenes ignores the individuality of the characters, like the fact that they just fought over very different world views, to instead favor any dime-a-dozen moment of support. The number of times this volume has rejected the conflict and resolution the group needs for bland, generic reassurances staggering.

Also, apparently Jaune isn't scared at all? I don't think that's as good a thing as Ren seems to think...

Then Jaune immediately rounds the corner, terrified lol.

One of the seer grimm is on its way and he tells Ren to mask them. Apparently he had been masking them before — one of the reasons he's so tired now, trying to do two things at once — but it's only here that they go black and white again. Ren manages to keep it up for a little while, but his aura breaks before the seer passes and they're spotted.

Hark! A consequence!

That was well done. It makes sense and it adds to the stakes. We've seen the insane amount of fighting the group has done since Volume 7, we just established that they're at their breaking point, and then Ren's aura fails him right when he needs it the most. Add this to the miniscule pile of things that were well done this episode.

Salem runs into Emerald and Hazel, the former of which is acting very suspicious when asked if he's made any headway with Oscar. The seer's alarm interrupts them though and... okay. Was I the only one who cackled during this moment? Between Salem's voice acting and the fact that she just yeets herself down the hallway, it came across as really funny to me.

Either way, it is a bad situation. Our trio is trying to figure out what to do, to which Yang responds, "Do what we do best… charge blindly into danger!!”

Ren's aura is broken. Jaune barely has any left and it’s unlikely he could heal right now even if Ren had any aura to amplify. If Ren takes a single hit anywhere important he is dead.

Me, on my knees, surrounded by the ashes of the Hound, the last bit of serious storytelling we had: "For the love of God, the kingdom is on fire and simultaneously dying of cold. There's a grimm army decimating hundreds outside. Half their group is missing and they're wandering lost inside a devil whale, about to have the most powerful being Remnant has ever known personally try to kill them — can we please have their attitudes reflect that?"

The answer, in case you were wondering, is no.

Back to the bomb. Whatever scientists were given this task have completed it and Marrow watches as it's flown out towards the whale. "Come on, Juan" he whispers and I'm all, "Juan?" Apparently it's a callback to last volume when Marrow couldn't remember Jaune's actual name, but it took me hopping onto the RWBY wiki to remember that.

As death via explosion inches closer, the trio runs into Hazel and Emerald. Turns out though that Hazel is really Oscar, disguised through Emerald's semblance. Nice trick! Jaune immediately drops both weapons to hug Oscar and, while that's nice and all, it's also the stupidest thing he could possible do in enemy territory. Also, Oscar has been beaten up by the Hound, tortured with magic, and likewise beaten bloody by Hazel. I was hoping for a tender hug like the one Nora gave him, not a giant squeeze for more comedy purposes. It just feels like RWBY has no idea how to manage the tone of this volume, let alone the torture of a child...

There's the obligatory, "Why should we trust you?" from Yang regarding Emerald joining the team, to which Ren responds, "Because she's scared, just like us."

That doesn't prove anything. Literally everyone is scared right now. There is a war going on. I really cannot emphasize enough how RWBY throws out Deep™ sounding lines that are, upon inspection, absolutely nonsensical. Nora reminding Penny that there are different parts to her personhood, Hazel saying that all his questions have been answered, Ren announcing that Emerald is scared... it's all worthless chatter that has no bearing on their problems: How do I keep from being hacked? How do I know you're telling the truth? How do we know you're trustworthy after you spent years trying to kill us? But of course, because it's RWBY, Ren's announcement is treated as some sort of secret truth that everyone accepts. Emerald joins up.

As they head for an exit we return to Marrow who, frankly, is getting on my last nerve. I know the fandom loves him because he's clearly leaning towards Team RWBY, but does anyone actually listen to what he says? He starts yelling at Winter for sending in the bomb because the trio might still be alive in there, despite:

Seeing for himself the hundreds of soldiers that have fallen trying to keep Atlas safe

Knowing and hearing again from Winter that the only way to stop this carnage is to take out the whale. Given more time, the whole city falls

Sadly announcing to the world that children shouldn't have to fight in a battle, rather than just joining the fray and helping to keep those kids safe

How does Marrow think those kids are going to be able to stop fighting? How does he think he'll get a city to return to? It's no wonder that he's drawn to Ruby because both characters stand around twiddling their thumbs, mourning that things are bad, and blaming others for imperfect solutions rather than doing something to make the situation better. Marrow's disgust at Winter over the bomb is precisely the same as Ruby's disgust at Ironwood over Mantle: how dare you not have a plan that results in both victory for us and zero sacrifices? They want perfection which, yes, is an admirable trait, but their problem is they refuse to do anything until that perfection appears. They’re paralyzed, a trait that’s particularly dangerous when your story insists that perfection will never appear: it’s not a fairy tale. So they just continue to get mad at others for the fact that they live in an unfair world. You want that perfect solution? Think it up yourself. Otherwise, stand aside and let those coming up with something do what they can to make things better.

Marrow goes so far as to drag Weiss into things, trying to guilt Winter with the knowledge that she'll have to relate the death of her sister's friends back to her. Winter, because she's a badass who isn't in denial over the situation, tells him that yes, she will shoulder that responsibility. To Marrow's credit he backs off then, but man. RWBY has legitimate moral questions here — when is holding out for a few worth risking the many? — but they go about exploring it in the most frustrating way possible. I personally have no respect for the guy who wants to announce that Children In War Is Bad instead of, you know, using the power he currently has to protect those kids already neck deep in a battle.

Because John Mulaney remains relevant:

"There shouldn't be a horse in the hospital :( "

"We're WELL PAST THAT."

Marrow is the one going, "There shouldn't be kids in a war :( We shouldn't have to kill a few to save the whole kingdom :( " and everyone around him is like, "No shit, dude! But this is the hand we were dealt! You going to help us, or what?"

Literally all of these characters could have been so much more than what they currently are.

Except Winter. She's doing great.

Now for the final scene. Our group nearly manages to escape the whale, but is incapacitated by some sort of screechy power that Salem employs.

She contorts her body, stretching out her arms to snag Emerald, and the others have a brief, but intense skirmish. Jaune manages to block a blast of magic aimed at Ren with his shield — nice — and Yang dots Salem's face with a bunch of bombs before blowing her sky-high — double nice. Oscar shoots out some magic of his own because, yeah, I guess he can just do that now? It really feels like it came out of nowhere after eight episodes of being the punching bag.

Of course, Salem immediately reforms. She traps the group with grimm arms that come out of the whale, interrogating Ozpin about why he bothers to keep coming back. There's a very sad answer there of, "I don't," referring to his lack of choice in reincarnating to fight her.

Yang interrupts their little tet-a-tet to throw the question back in Salem's face, calling her out on her choices. A great idea but, as always, execution: "because something bad happened to you once upon a time? No one gets a fairy tale ending."

I’m sorry, but that dialogue had me cringing. Like I said before, way too on the nose. There's keeping with the fairy tale theme, and then there's shoving the viewer's face in it. More of Oscar's musings on how he relates to the protagonists of fairy tales, blurring the lines between storytelling and reality, which in turn encourages the viewer to consider how they see themselves in the RWBY cast. Less... whatever this is.

Yang goes on to talk about how many people Salem has taken from her, which upon reflection makes a certain amount of sense if you toss in all the people who are here, but changed somehow due to Salem's influence, as well as acquaintances who died as a result of her meddling: Raven is scared off, Tai suffers as a result, Pyrrha dies, Penny dies, Yang loses her arm and her school. I think the dialogue could have been revised to reflect that better though because what Yang implies is that Salem has killed countless of her loved ones, yet what she says is, "Summer Rose. My mom." Honestly, for the few seconds this exchange was happening my thoughts weren't even on Summer. Yang calls Salem out for killing loved ones and my brain went, "Pyrrha??"

That's how little they've done with Yang and Summer. I know in the past I've argued that RWBY has a "better late than never" situation going on, that I would praise them for making the right writing choices even if they arrive years too late... but now that we're here, I find that it's a hard problem to overlook. Summer is Yang's mom? When's the last time we heard that? Volume 2? Whenever the conversation with Blake was. Since then Yang has called Raven "Mom," focused on that emotional connection (or lack thereof), was excluded from the conversation with Qrow, comforted Ruby after she was blindsided by Salem's taunt, and otherwise hasn't mentioned Summer at all. There is no foundation for this accusation except a few lines about getting cookies as a child and the fact that we're tossing references in now makes me worried that we'll indeed get a grimm!Summer reveal. Better remind the audience that she exists before the twist arrives! Honestly, as much as a part of me wants to praise RWBY for trying to get things back on track, moments like this just ring hollow now. They waited years and now it’s too late. It doesn't help that this is the episode where we shrug off Ren's speech. What will Yang's cutting admission amount to based on this trend? Probably nothing. Summer will become Yang’s mom again in another six seasons.

Salem, obviously, doesn't care. The real Hazel arrives and she orders him to take Oscar back to his cell. Instead, he gives him his cane with a whispered, "No more Gretchens, boy."

Behold, another meaningless line. Hazel hates Ozpin for "forcing" Gretchen on a mission and "getting" her killed. The whole point of his villainy is that he doesn't understand the concept of choice and that bad things can happen to good people with no one able to prevent it. Not every loss has a responsible party attached (outside of, you know, Salem/the grimm). So what is he even demanding here? No more huntsmen schools? That's what you wanted Salem for. No more "forcing" people to fight for you? Ozpin never did that in the first place. Or is it just a strange promise that no one else will die here? RWBY seems to be under the impression that they can just name drop dead family members — Summer, Gretchen — and that's that. Emotional depth created, never mind a lack of buildup or clarity.

Then Hazel punches Salem across the room and she releases every single hero from their bonds. See the theme of this episode: convenience. Hazel shoves a whole bunch of dust crystals into his shoulders and yells that he's doing what Gretchen would have wanted, clearly sacrificing himself so that the others can escape. The battle between him and Salem is pretty decent. I enjoyed the dust vs. magic creativity and the sheer damage Salem can take before reforming. This fight really showcases how not human she is.

It does, however, bring into question Hazel's reveal about her needing an hour to heal at the longest. I mentioned how unlikely it would be that our heroes would get the chance to "kill" her multiple times, yet here we are, just a few episodes later. They got that opportunity and... does it matter? Salem's reforming doesn't appear to slow down at all, despite her head getting obliterated at least three times, so at what point does she need longer than a few seconds to heal? If this was meant to be a potential weakness the group would eventually exploit, we needed to see it here, both for that setup and to keep it consistent with Hazel's story.

Regardless, they fight and at first it looks like a pretty straight-forward sacrifice on Hazel's part, giving the group their chance to escape. Except... Oscar.

"She'll just come after us," he tells Jaune, turning away from him to fight.

I need a list for this:

Of course she's going to come after you. This is not some shocking revelation. At no point has anyone thought that escaping the whale is the answer to all their problems, it just creates one less problem to deal with. Namely, the problem of "Our ally is captured, being tortured, and may give up important intel to the enemy. Oh, also he's about to be blown up with a bomb." Salem coming after them doesn’t matter. What matters is making her plans as difficult as possible as you work to come up with more solutions of your own. This is just a smaller version of the Ironwood conflict: “Well, Salem will just follow Atlas into the sky so it’s useless to attempt escape, or to buy ourselves time.” It’s really not. I know I’ve used this ridiculous comparison before, but if you’re ever chased by a horror movie serial killer hell-bent on your destruction and your reaction to this problem is, “Why run? He’ll just chase us. The only possible choice is to fight him with a 99% chance of our death,” then I beg you to re-evaluate things.

What was the point of coming to rescue Oscar if he was just going to stay behind? The whale is about to be blown up by a bomb and the trio risked their lives ten times over to get to him. If I were them I would be pissed. We went through all that to get you out and now you’re refusing to leave when we have a chance? Thanks for that.

Same with Hazel. Not that I care about the guy, but if I was sacrificing myself for others to escape I'd be pretty annoyed at them randomly deciding not to do that.

What does Oscar even think he's going to do? Kill the immortal witch? The entire point of our series is that they can’t do that (yet).

However, if he is able to do something significant via Ozpin's magic, why didn't Ozpin do that generations ago? Somehow I don't think a younger Ozma closer to the height of his power was in a worse position to attack Salem than a tortured, aura-less kid who unlocked his magic yesterday. The more RWBY reveals about Salem, the more I go, “Okay, but why didn’t his happen [insert any number of years] ago?”

Did Jaune actually leave? I assume he's just grabbing an airship or something before coming back to drag Oscar away, but seriously where did he go?

There's no way I can approach this scene without throwing up my hands and going, "What? WHY?" Which is a real shame because we finally get to see a bit of what the cane does and it’s... precisely what Ozpin's magic has always done? I mean, we saw that green shield five years ago and now there's a giant white beam. Okay.

If the beam just hits Salem with Generic Magic Power then there was never anything secret about the cane, it’s just, you know, Ozpin’s weapon. If the cane does something significant to hurt her we're left with the question of why it took literal generations to use it. Nothing is making sense to me and the only way I can think to salvage this scene is if Jaune runs back in, snags Oscar like a sack of potatoes, and runs out yelling about how he's clearly suffering from a concussion because what are you trying to accomplish here?

It doesn't help that this moment feels... final. Hazel has managed to hold Salem in place. Oscar has unlocked his cane and lands some mega hit right before Hazel passes out and looses his hold. Not only does this feel like a scene that should be at the end of the volume (we've still got five episodes), but also the end of the series. RWBY is building Salem into an unbeatable enemy by giving her more and more powers, and simultaneously eliminating the stakes by having our currently weakest character (in terms of exhaustion/injuries/aura/training) landing a shot like that. Why would you nerf Salem's threat level like that in the middle of a volume? Especially with a tool our group has had available from the start? If the cane does damage, maybe lead with that in the, “Here’s why we should stay and fight” office conversation.

I assume that Oscar's hit will obliterate Salem to the point where both he and Hazel have time to escape, or he obliterates both of them (“Do it”) and that's somehow presented as a better choice than just running while Salem is captured, or the bomb will interrupt things somehow... but it's just so shoddily done. At the very least, if they were going to have Oscar refuse to let someone fight alone, have it be an actual friend he's staying to assist. Having Oscar refuse his own rescue to help Hazel has more than one problem attached to it. We can say what we want about RWBY's themes of forgiveness, but this guy was torturing him just a few hours ago while serving Remnant's version of the devil. Just let him sacrifice himself and move on.

And that's where we end. Oscar powering up, the cane getting all magic-y, and him shooting a crazy big blast that engulfs both Salem and Hazel. I can't believe how not excited I am about my farm boy doing something badass, but here we are.

Overall I think this episode was way worse than last week's. We absolutely had problems in "Dark," particularly when it came to the Hound and the group's blind devotion to Ruby, but at least those moments were cushioned by an otherwise decent episode. "Witch" felt like I was watching something closer to a parody of RWBY, one deliberately poking fun at the fandom's desires: erase all conflict for awkward silly times, your favorite villains are instantly good now, the heroes go toe-to-toe with the main antagonist because why not, throw a bunch of magic in there for good measure, and wrap it all up in some over the top "this isn't a fairy tale" lines. I can see the pieces of a much better episode here — Emerald sneaking Oscar out with her semblance, Neo snagging the relic, Flint and Neon, Hazel attacking Salem — but it simply didn't come together.

I know I said this last time, but I have no idea what we're going to do for another five episodes. Salem slowly reforming from bomb damage as the group tries to keep Penny from opening the vault? The grimm attack halted with the whale gone so Qrow can go after Ironwood? The longer this volume runs, the more I think it was a mistake for them to introduce Salem as a fightable antagonist now. RWBY doesn't know what to do with her besides have her inevitably fall in the final season, so until then she's left being stupid (Relic), passive (Mantle), or, likely, written out of the story temporarily so the heroes can turn their attention towards smaller conflicts and weaker foes. They literally can’t beat Salem yet, but they can’t focus on other problems when she’s around without coming across as negligent, so if you have to find ways to erase her to make room for that... what was the point of bringing her here in the first place? We could have established that Salem is bound to her realm and had her send the Hound and whale to attack Atlas. There, all the fun parts of the volume without her complicated presence.

Well, the next five weeks will certainly be interesting, at the very least...

Until next time 💜

[Ko-Fi]

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 8 #rwby witch #mymetas #rwby recaps

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meimae · 3 years

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Look at me, not being on time for my April Immersion Overview as is the usual. (・w・;

First, little blog updates to get out of the way:

I reached 100 followers! Got an influx of people checking out my 1 year update post, and got plenty of nice compliments on my data collection.

For those of you wondering just why I keep up with so much data, it's mostly because it can get really hard to notice how much you're improving in a language especially with something like immersion learning that for people who don't get it feels like a waste of time or a time sink.

Graphs showing consistency, improvement in reading speed, increasing vocabulary counts, and generally just seeing numbers grow turns language learning more fun and motivating for me, and if as a bonus, it encourages someone to try immersion learning then that would be cool!

With that said, whether you're here as a fellow language learner, graphs enthusiast (笑), or just want some Japanese media recommendations, ようこそ!

Also, made a tiny DP change - it’s チト from 少女週末旅行. Pretty sure it’s the first manga series I ever finished in Japanese (not the first one I started since ちはやふる is still ongoing), and I always felt a bit of a ☆connection☆ with her - between her book-loving personality and being a no-nonsense kind of person, there was no way for me not to enjoy her character. Great beginner anime/manga if you’re not into most beginner recommendations.

-☆-

April has been a pretty good immersion month, as I was able to dip my toes in a variety of media. A bit competitive, too! The club I joined has been pulling all the stops to get to the Top 20 Immersion Leaderboard in it’s first month. I was able to snag the 9th spot among a bunch of people of different comprehension levels (the majority being N1+ since they’re able to comprehend much more and in turn stand longer immersion hours). Lots of tiny complaints though of potential “whitenoising” content (”listening” and “reading” but not comprehending very well just to get a large number to post), but really what can you do? People lie all the time on the internet. Besides, it’s internet points that doesn’t do anything beyond being a little shiny I guess.

Enough about that, let’s get into the nitty-gritty details you came here for!

ANIME

フルーツバスケット

Might need to rewatch this one. Felt like I didn’t connect with the characters the way the rest of its fandom has. I’m kinda sad about it, since I normally love Slice of Life and Fantasy, and I know this is one of my friend’s diehard shows.

ラブライブ! School Idol Project S2

A filler anime to watch tbh. Nice and easy enough to follow for beginners. Pretty good songs. With regards to it being a show about music and moe, I still 100% prefer K-On! if I’m going to be honest, but for a show about non-toxic idols, it’s good!

魔法少女まどか☆マギカ

First read this as English translated manga when I was 13 or something. Mistakes were made. Let’s all just agree to throw キュウベえ into a pit of fire and never talk about it again. Great ending and a show that really reworked the magical girl genre. But seriously, I was traumatized by マミ’s death then and now, help.

四月は君の嘘

Already knew what was going to happen even before watching this so I didn’t ugly cry like I was expecting. Still got that awful sinking feeling though. 10/10 would recommend for a good cry. Also, I’m planning to read the manga, might enjoy that more, because I’ve always liked it more than anime actually. *shocked pikachu face*

ホリミヤ

Watched before I even finished the manga which felt like a mistake at first until I realized that it perfectly stops where I stopped reading. Nice and comfy anime, the kind I would have loved as a teen. Fun animation too, making parts very dramatic even though it wasn’t really that deep of an issue even in the manga. Just teens feeling feelings. Still salty that we lose bad boy styled 宮村, but I get why it had to happen.

AUDIOBOOKS

氷菓

Second re-listen. I understand it fine, but it’s very easy to drift off when you can’t catch all the words so I had to replay often. Will have to mine more from the anime/book.

君の名は

I mined from the anime, and was really pleased to be able to follow all 6 hours of this audiobook perfectly fine. Will need to read the book, because I realized just how seamless reading it would be after listening to it with hardly any issue.

BOOKS

キッチェン

Completed! Read my thoughts about it and see my stats on this post.

君の膵臓を食べたい

Still trudging on with this one. It’s not a bad story, it’s pretty well written actually, I just made the mistake of watching both the anime and live adaptation first, so I know exactly what’s going to happen and it’s killing my motivation to keep reading. I guess reading the book first before watching the movie still applies in any language with me. Really need to 頑張れ and finish so I can move on.

三日間の幸福

Started reading towards the end of the month, mostly because I realized that every chapter is only 5000-15000 characters long, and I was able to read up to 40k in a day with Island most days. Only two chapters read so far though because I got distracted by manga, but it’s shaping up to be a really good plot and potentially a really sad one, too, so I’m interested.

DRAMA

花ざかりの君たちへイケメンパラダイス

Heard this was a classic so I gave it a try. Loved 生田斗真’s character in this one the most especially all his internal dialogue acted out. Also, 小栗旬 in anything is bound to be a good watch. Simple and fun watch. They dragged the ending so much though lmao

ごくせん

Look, I see 松本潤, I click. Definitely the kind of show you should watch for some great life advice. Planning to watch the 2nd and 3rd seasons even if there is a terrible lack of 松本潤, because I love my strong female protagonists, and man, ヤンクミ is such a great character. Need to read the manga, too, if I can find it.

極主夫道

Oof, this was kind of hard. The yakuza talk was throwing me off, but the rest of it was enjoyable. Not really plot heavy as I thought it was going to be. The comedy side of it was fun and predictable after the first few episodes. Overall, pretty good slice of life, family story with a twist.

MANGA

Read a bunch of manga this month, mostly because I am struggling to find the next vn to read.

おやすみプンプン

Read a couple of volumes (6-7). This manga is so good, but it’s so depressing I need to stop to take a breather every once in a while. Please don’t leave any spoilers. The club has been reacting to me reading this, and it has mostly been a lot of crying emotes. It’s both been enjoyable to see and really worrying. 笑

チェンソーマン

Club recommendation. Only read the 1st volume so far. I really need to get into more 少年 anime/manga. That’s currently my 苦手 genre which is awful because literally all the top anime/manga is 少年 help. I just can’t enjoy it much still even though it’s comprehensible to me.

ちはやふる中学生編

Read Vol. 1, chill read to me at this point after reading 45 volumes of the regular manga. Look, it’s my favorite 幼馴染 manga in baby format, of course I’m going to read this! 太一 has been a flake way before season 3 confirmed. Don’t come at me たいちはや stans bc I also like his character.

約束のネバーランド

Volume 7. I’m taking my sweet time with this one, because I heard the anime for season 2 sucked, so I’m avoiding it like the plague. This is 少年 how am I enjoying this and not everything else what.

ヲタクに恋は難しい

Enjoyed the anime hated the movie why did they make it a musical that sucked (ps i normally love musicals hated this one)

The オタク jargon is kinda hard to read suprisingly but I do enjoy this ship very much. It’s a lighthearted take to otaku culture which is great because seriously it’s scary out there.

ツバサ -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-

It’s my childhood ship, obviously I will read this again (read in English several years ago). Still as plot twisty as I remember it being (now at a bonus hard level reading it in Japanese 笑). Really enjoyed reading this one (I finished it this May).

-☆-

I’m starting to really dislike furigana in manga. It was a great help as a beginner, but now it’s like training wheels that you can’t take off. I feel like the gains I’m getting from manga is much lower than it was when I first started which makes me both proud of how far I’ve come, but also sad because I love manga. Sad that I might have to start choose VNs over it, because it’s not going to challenge me as much going forward. I mean it didn’t stop me from reading a lot of it this month, but you get the picture.

VISUAL NOVELS

ISLAND

Completed! See my stats and read my long spoiler filled post here.

ファタモルガーナの館

Picked up this VN and finished two doors (15 hours) before stopping. On the fence about it, because it has been kind of predictable so far, and I don’t particularly enjoy the horror genre. That said, this is more psychological than anything, so it’s probably not that that’s putting me off. The language is not exactly difficult, too - maybe some oddly specific words because it is after all historical fiction (which is one of my favorite genres, btw), and 敬語 is definitely interesting to read for once after encountering so many お嬢様 characters in anime/drama so far.

I think maybe it’s the conversations that are kind of dull - dots (silence) every few clicks that keeps breaking the flow of reading. Probably judging it really harshly too early, because it’s rated so high everywhere, and I just have high expectations. Definitely not dropping it yet though, just taking a break and testing a couple of other VNs before I settle with whatever I end up choosing. It is, after all, going to be another 50+ hour read, and I just don’t want to not enjoy the process, because having fun with the process is a huge part of immersion learning.

Let me know if you’ve read Fata and if I should continue!

-☆-

That’s it for this month!

If you have any suggestions on what to watch and read next, please send me a reply, especially for VNs because I’m struggling over here.

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a-man-for-hire-and-his-archives · 3 years

Text

How Luke Arnold went from pirate to author to Home and Away

Mediaweek Original by Trent Thomas

“2020 wasn’t the ideal year to be a debuting author let alone putting two books out”

Actor Luke Arnold first became known to Australians on a main stream scale when he portrayed Michael Hutchence in the mini-series INXS: Never Tear Us Apart. Arnold then went on to gain international recognition as a lead on the US drama Black Sails.

2020 was a busy year for Arnold who released his first novel titled The Last Smile in Sunder City followed by his second novel Dead Man In A Ditch later in the same year.

Mediaweek spoke to Arnold about life as an author as well as his career as an actor including his return to Aussie screens through Home and Away.

When we spoke with the actor, he was in the middle of a tour with the pop culture expo Supanova, which has since been delayed. Arnold said that he had relished the opportunity to connect with fans of his work, especially considering he hadn’t done many expos like this before.

“I never did any of these before. There was one time that Zach McGowan, who played Vane on Back Sails, and I did a little signing in San Diego [for Comic-Con] one year, but that was just an excuse to be there for the party.

“But now doing Supanova in the Gold Coast and Melbourne I am really loving it, it’s such a great community with the guests, the fans and all the other creative people there. And I am straddling the two worlds now being there as both an actor and as a writer.

It is the first time I can really hang out with other authors because my books came out last year and I didn’t get to do the events I had planned. This was my first time getting to go out with my books and meet some fans of the acting and some fans of the writing.”

Luke Arnold: Author

The year 2020 saw Arnold release not one but two fiction novels and Arnold said that he is enjoying juggling being an emerging author and continuing his acting career.

“2020 wasn’t the ideal year to be a debut author let alone putting two books out in the one year, but going back and forth between acting and writing I have been enjoying it a lot. I am lucky enough that jobs are coming in and I work steadily but there is always a gap between things. I finished a job in Sydney a couple of weeks ago, and my next one is not for a couple of months so it’s the perfect time to get some writing done.”

Arnold said that it is hard to know how the books are going because it’s a world that he does not have much experience in, but he is optimistic about the process so far.

“People seem to be buying them, liking them, and we are editing the third book in the series now and there are plans to keep doing more so fingers crossed it turns out all right.”

Two books in one year are rare from a writer and Arnold said not to expect that level of volume from him again, but one book a year may be possible.

“From the point I finished the first one to when we got it out, that took quite a while so that’s why I was able to follow up the first one so quickly.

“While we were working out the release of the first one, the different countries and how that was being handled I had time to really run ahead with the second. I definitely won’t be putting out two books every year as an ongoing routine! Maybe one book a year is probably doable, and I think that routine I can keep up depending on how I balance that with the acting.”

Luke Arnold on Black Sails

Arnold is best known to American audiences for his work on Black Sails, Arnold described the role as a dream job.

“It was the perfect job in so many ways. When you sign on for anything you never know what it is going to be.

You might get the pilot script or maybe a couple of scripts but even if that is good you don’t know what the actors will be like, or the directors will be like or where you will be living. There is this gamble that happens every time especially when you sign a multiyear contract, and with Black Sails I couldn’t have hoped for anything better.”

Arnold said that the show continued to improve each season because there was a clear idea of what they were trying to achieve.

“No one quite knows what type of show you’re going to be in at the start, and they have different ideas, as actors you are looking to your directors and show runners and producers trying to work out what it is meant to be according to them.

We came back for season two knowing what the show was now, when you start a show there is sometimes that feeling of too many cooks in the kitchen, but by then we knew.”

The series was filmed in South Africa which Arnold also credited with helping improve the quality of the performances.

“Over time our cast really galvanised. One of the blessings, when you work on the other side of the world, is that all you can do is focus on the job and really commit to it. It was like we were developing a play for four years with that level of rehearsal.”

Arnold said that another reason the show continued to improve after season one was that they were able to have more sets to play with.

“At that point we had one and a half ships and the town and it was like ‘okay you pretty much have to do all your story on these sets because it cost us a lot of money and that’s what it is’.

Then at the beginning of season two the world starts opening up and we begin to see different places and characters start to go off on their own adventures and that really helped shaped where the show was going.

By the time we were in season four we were spread all across the world, building sets just to see them once before we blow them up, setting ships on fire and hunting sharks, the scope of the show became quite mammoth by the end.”

Treasure Island?

With Black Sails being a prequel to the famed Treasure Island story, Arnold said that he wouldn’t rule out reprising the character of John Silver in the original tale.

“I reckon we need to let John Steinberg, Dan Shotz and Robert Levine do another couple of projects and then maybe we all come back and do that next adventure.”

Home and Away

Most actors do a show like Home and Away before going to Hollywood but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Arnold did it the other way around with a turn as Dr. Lewis Hayes on the Aussie soap.

“2020 for me was meant to be a bit of a world-wide book tour. I was in LA doing some stuff there and preparing for the book tour and that got scuppered and I found myself back in Australia.

“I think Home and Away and Neighbours were the only things shooting in Australia. They called me up, and I guess that I have an existing relationship with Seven because I played Michael Hutchence in Never Tears Us Apart. When it came up, I was like that is something that I have never done before and is an Australian staple.

“It is the type of show where you make so much TV every week and everyone is working really hard, and it was in the back of my head a good way to let people know that I am back in town and might be around for things.”

source: Mediaweek

#luke arnold #interview #home and away #black sails #treasure island #the last smile in sunder city #inxs never tear us apart #i'm back because this is so good not to share

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min-chery · 3 years

Text

In the way | KTH

Pairing: Artist! Taehyung x Sound therapist! Reader

Rating: PG-13

Genre: angst

Warnings: Swearing, Both MCs have a sad past :( , side pairing Yoongi x Jungkook and Jimin x Hoseok is mentioned.

Word count: 2.4k

A/n: This is an excerpt from my ongoing series ‘Sky’ that is posted on Wattpad. I’ll insert the link right here if you want to check it out.

Also I have no much knowledge in sound therapy. So if you find any points inaccurate, you can leave it for me in the ask box!~

“Is that all you’ll need?” Taehyung asks, looking at the one bag that sits on the passenger seat of your car.

"Yes. Everyone in our team decided to split up and bring the necessities. I was in charge of lunch. So... this is enough." you reply. You had packed enough food for 8 people to eat one afternoon, a change of clothes, your laptop and sound equipment.

It had been three months since the two of you started dating. The two of you spent almost all of your free time with each other. A lot of time spent in each others’ homes and even met at each others’ places of work for lunch. One thing the two of you did in common at all places was make out.

It seemed impossible to keep your hands and lips to yourselves. Kissing against the wall, on the table, on the couch, on the bed and even on the living room floor. Too many times you’ve been walked in on, but you cannot bring yourselves to be fazed by it.

And now, you are getting ready for a project with your sound therapy group at a mountain a little far away. Another group that had been there before had claimed that the variety of birds that reside in the area make the most beautiful songs in the early hours. It was enough motivation for your group to decide to have a trip and record some of it.

"Okay. I think we're all done here." you sigh, standing on the tip of your toes and pulling Taehyung in for a hug by his shoulder. And he slumps into the embrace, nuzzling his face into your open hair. You rub his back, feeling your boyfriend yawn into your blue tresses.

"Still tired? You can go sleep, baby." you say, lifting his head and squishing his face in your palms. He shakes his head, pouting while his grip on your waist tightens.

"Go on, sweetheart. It's only 4am yet. You go catch up with some sleep, yeah?" you usher, wanting to see him well-rested and chirpy when you return in the evening. But he doesn't seem to want to oblige.

"Can't. Our best friends are too loud in there." He whines, eyes half closed as he falls back onto your shoulder. You laugh, happy for the two who are so in love.

"There won't be a disturbance anymore. I'm about to leave too." Yoongi joins in, with Jungkook holding his hand. Both of their hair are ruffled, sticking up at random places and clothes crumpled. Both look utterly ruined with blushes decorating their cheeks.

"Drop me off at my place, will you?" Yoongi asks you, placing a kiss at the side of Jungkook's head. He smiles at Taehyung as he gets into the passenger seat.

"Bye, Tae. See you later." you speak, pressing a kiss on his cold, red nose. Taehyung reluctantly lets go, pouting as he waves you goodbye. He watches you slip into the driver's seat and disappear into the morning.

"Aren't you tired? Come sleep with hyung." He tells a very drowsy Jungkook who's rubbing at his eyes, a sleeping yawn falling from his own lips.

***

It's around 1 pm when Taehyung calls you. You close your lunchbox that is almost finished, excusing yourself from the group.

"Tae bear!" you exclaim into the phone, voice full of cheer.

"Hey baby!" Taehyung replies, voice equally gleeful.

"How's the recording coming along?" he asks, sounds of a window being opened accompanying his voice from his side of the line.

"It went good, baby. Maybe we should come here on a date together some time. The view looks like one of the pictures you painted. Too beautiful."

"Maybe we should. Have you had your food yet, darling?" He asks and you hum into the receiver.

"Planning on returning yet? Or do you still have work to get done?"

"Why? Miss me already?"

"You know I do." Taehyung laughs.

"Our work is done but we found an amazing free climbing trail close by. Decided to check it out. And it's for beginners too." Leah says, expecting an enthusiastic response back. But all you's left with is stillness from the other line.

And then comes the shuffling, the sound of something falling down and Taehyung's muted cursing.

"What do you mean free climbing?" His voice somehow feels distant, piercing Leah through her heart.

"You know, rock climbing. And the ropes are going to assist me if I fall." you tentatively answer.

"And you thought it was okay to do that without telling me?"

"I didn't know I had to ask my boyfriend before I did things." Both of you speak with an edge to your voices, as if the sole purpose was to hurt one another.

"See ___. I understand that you have to climb up cliffs and dangerously high places for work. But this seems really unnecessary. I really need you to stop doing these things. Are you even aware of how many accidents take place during things like this?"

"You don't tell me what's necessary and what's not. I do it because it makes me happy. And I'm not going to let you stand in the way of my happiness."

"You can do whatever the fuck you want! I don't care anymore!" Taehyung yells. It has you flinching, lips wobbling from unpleasant memories of the past swarming you.

"Don't yell at me." you shout back, unable to hide the tremble in your voice. Taehyung is breathing hard into your ears through the phone.

"And it's not the first time I've noticed you clam up when I talk about going like this. You need to tell me whatever the fuck is your problem if you-" you never get to complete what you start from Taehyung abruptly ending the call.

Your hands tremble at your sides, knees feeling weak. It had been true when you said Taehyung clams up when such matters are brought up. Avoiding looking you in the eye and slowly drifting away from the conversation with an uncomfortable smile. It was clear he hated heights at this point.

But the extent to it was only now becoming clear when the ever calm yet cheerful Taehyung raised his voice. It seemed more of fear and frustration than anger towards you. But you weren't going to let him get away with yelling at you knowing how it affected you.

You make your way back to your group who are waiting for you with their bags on their back and smiles on their lips. Forcing a smile of your own, you sling the bag onto your back.

Like you said, you weren't going to let a guy get in the way of your happiness. No matter how much you love him.

***

Taehyung draws deft lines on the page of his new sketchbook with a charcoal pencil. He sighs, hating the texture of the pages with the kind of pencil he’s using. Everything blurs when he feels the tears rise. Hurt and shame surge through his veins for raising his voice at you. He looks out the window of the diner, watching droplets of rain wash over the street. For a minute he wonders what the two of you would've been doing in this weather had you not fought. Would the two of you be drinking a mug of hot cocoa at your apartment as you watch a movie on the couch? Or would the two of you have been watching the rain while cuddling on the swing in his balcony and being huddled in a single blanket?

‘I miss her.’ The voice in his head says. He misses you so much that it feels like a knife is lodged in his throat. But it's nothing compared to the way he’s felt when you left him behind that day. Better than being terrified to death wondering if he’d get a call bringing him news he'd never in his life want to hear.

Taehyung drops his head down on the table, pulling up the hood of his jacket as he goes down. Focusing on the pain that blossomed on his forehead, he forces all thoughts of you out of his head.

Just as he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, the loud noise and vibration of something being slammed down on the table reaches him. His head jerks up startled, coming face to face with the very person he’s been avoiding for a whole week. His lips part, nothing but silence falling out of it. You look vexed at his expression.

"A 100 calls!" you say, pointing at the phone you'd thrown onto the table with your call log on. "A 100 calls and countless texts. All to you. I even emailed you dammit! What the hell are you doing, huh? Ignoring me like that! Do you even remember you've got a girlfriend?" your voice takes on an edge, volume increasing the slightest than your normal.

He can't do anything but stare at your red face. He’s washed over with worry with how little you've dressed for a rainy evening. He holds himself back from swiping your wet lips in for a breathless kiss.

"Answer me!" you yell, slamming your hand down on the table. It makes him flinch in his seat. And the women at the counter.

"I don't want to." he says, a slight tremor in his voice. He avoids looking you in the eye, instead setting his gaze on the device on the table. He’s afraid anything he does will anger you further. And it does.

" 'Don't want to'?" You scoff dangerously. "What else do you not want!? Your girlfriend spending time doing something she likes!?" you grab the collar of his shirt, pulling him up from the chair and in front of the table.

Taehyung’s jaw ticks at your words and actions. He pushes your hand away and straightens the shirt. Dominating him like that in front of another person jabs at his ego as a man.

"That is not something I'm ready to talk about yet!" He shouts. Memories from the past swarm him, choking him so hard that it feels like he’s combusting from the inside.

"I'm your girlfriend, asshole! I would've listened to you if you had told me that at the time instead of yelling at me!"

"Stop repeating that you're my girlfriend!"

"Why!? Do relationships scare you now too!?"

"Because I'm not sure I want this anymore." he whispers, head falling low in resignation. It's only half-true. He does want it. More than anything else. But he’s too scared.

Fear, he learns, is the most dangerous emotion.

"You are breaking up with me?" you ask, voice too composed than earlier. Taehyung keeps looking down at his shoes. Big mistake.

You lift up the cup of hot tea from his table and smash it on the wall at your side. You throw it with so much force that the shards fly back at you, slashing you on the cheek. The hot liquid splatters all over your hand, turning it an angry red. You don't flinch. You stare at him, eyes void of anything he's ever seen in them. Like he has no more access to you.

You rove your eyes over him one more time and then turn away with your phone. You slam a fifty-dollar bill in front of Mrs. Choi at the counter and leave without looking at Taehyung again.

Taehyung looks around the cafe at the wreck the two of you have caused. He bends down to pick up the shards of glass through the tearful blur. He stays back, helping the part-timer clean up before he leaves. Mrs. Choi even comes around to take him into her arms, bracketing him into her motherly embrace.

Crying all through the walk back to his house, he asks himself the same question over and over again.

‘What the hell have I done?’

***

Yoongi can clearly see the smoke come out through the gaps of your bedroom door. His jaw ticking in anger, he pushes it open and immediately meets with the sight of his best friend.

You are leaning against her headboard, a cigarette clutched between the index and middle fingers of your healing hand. You leave out a puff of smoke and when he enters, you hurriedly push the remaining against the ashtray. You put it away in your drawer with wide eyes and fumbling hands.

"I saw that, ___. You're smoking again?" He sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Sorry I just... I didn't know you were coming over."

"So you were planning on keeping this away from me? You promised me you'd stop." He says, seating himself down beside you.

"You know why I do it." You sigh and pull the comforter over the lower half of your body, pulling your legs towards your chest. Clutching your face in your hands, you put it on your knees.

The sight of you, curled up against the headboard has Yoongi's heart wrenching in sadness. It had been a week since the breakup and you were still as broken as the day at the diner.

Moving closer, he pulls you to his side. Almost instantaneously, you lay your head on his shoulder and curl up against him.

"Why did you come over without telling me? You always call me before."

"Jimin called me. He was scared of how little he saw you around the house. And any time he did see you, he said you were high. Barely aware of what was happening."

"I should've worried him a lot. Where is he?" a troubled look crosses your features.

"Apparently it's been affecting him too much. So, Hobi took him out for some breakfast."

You hum. You are glad Hoseok is being a good boyfriend to your other best friend.

"You need to learn how to control your ang-"

"I can't Yoongi." You say, lifting up your hand. It trembled in frustration.

"I almost smashed a cup against his skull. Had I not mentally reminded myself of who was in front of me, I would've put him in the Emergency room." you recollect, wiping the tears.

"We can always seek help, ___." He rubs up and down your arms to soothe your emotions.

"Is that okay?" He asks and you nod against his shoulder blade. The two of you bask in the silence afterward. Embracing the calmness that you knew wouldn't last once the voices in your head get too loud.

"Should've known it was too good to be true." You sniffle, "He was way too perfect from the beginning."

#bts #btsboys #bts fanfiction #bts fanfic #taehyung fanfic #taehyung angst #books & libraries #angst #wattpad #bts wattpad #wattpad writer #fanfiction #fanfic writer #taehyung x reader

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themegalosaurus · 3 years

Note

Hi I am a long time supernatural fan but got introduced to online fanbase only last year. I discovered many interesting things and one of them was your blog. It's one of my favourite blogs on this site even though you weren't that active because the content on it made up for it. I love the parallels you make, your take on an episode or a scene , discussion on Sam's ugly shirts basically everything.

Being a Sam girl myself I can listen and read what a fellow Sam girl has to say. So I guess I wanted to ask you what are the things that fascinates you about Sam ? What's your favourite season of supernatural and episodes of supernatural and why? What's your favourite Sam arc and why?

I heard you on the 'Conjoined' podcast recently but I couldn't follow your accent. SORRY. But I m gonna try and listen to it again. Have a nice day!

Hey! Thanks for this nice message. I also entered the fandom at a stage when there was lots going on already (back in 2014 towards the end of when season 9 was airing). One of the nice things about SPN is the sheer volume of fan-created content! And thanks for sticking with my blog even though it hasn’t been super-active for the past year or so. I think it was a combo of the general shift from Tumblr to Discord that happened in late 2018 and also just being busy and overwhelmed with life stuff. Still, I seem to have new energy for it now so let’s see how long this lasts!

So: what are the things that fascinate me about Sam? Obviously, he's cute as heck with a smoking body (very important) but that isn't the ONLY thing (!). I'm interested in this ongoing conflict that's generated by his desire for a safe life that isn't full of blood and death and the ways that tugs against his sense of responsibility and his love for Dean. I like that he's funny and snarky and smart, I like when we get a Sam sex scene and see him really let go. I'm fascinated by all his behaviours around eating and working out. I like his ugly shirts. I like how considerate he is of other people. I like how focused and determined he becomes in a crisis. I guess looking back after the finale, I’m interested that we see a Sam at the start of the series who feels like/thinks he has/is trying to get away from and get over his childhood but then gets the confidence beat down and knocked out of him and it’s really not until the very, very end of those 15 seasons that we see him in a place where it seems like he’s gotten it back.

Hard to pick my favourite season of Supernatural; I really love 2, 4 and 5 but I have a weird affection for 8 and 9 as well even though they are so conflict-riddled and Sam suffers so much. Really I like all of them up to S9, think S10-12 are weaker and S13-15 weaker still, but there are still plenty of things I love in those later years. Favourite episodes change minute to minute! I love A Very Supernatural Christmas because it does what it needs to do SO well. I love Mystery Spot, obviously. I love Changing Channels because it's funny but it has a point. I love It's A Terrible Life because Sam Wesson gives such a funny insight into who Sam is. I love Red Meat, SO MUCH. I loved the finale, way more than I expected to. Oh, I love American Nightmare, the episode with Magda (good stuff Davy Perez). I love When The Levee Breaks, lawD. I love Sex and Violence. I just watched the pilot and honestly, I love the pilot. There are MORE.

My favourite Sam arc is everything to do with his demon blood powers; from psychic baby Sam in early seasons to the terrible tragic arc of S4 and 5 to the trauma Sera Gamble spent time with in S6 and S7. And including that moment in S12 when Sam tells Magda that he used to have powers and actually, they didn't make him evil. GROWTH. We love to see it.

Also, thanks for listening to me on that podcast and sorry my British accent was so incomprehensible! I didn't say any of the intelligent things that I thought of immediately after so I don't think you were missing out on much, hahahaha.

#jess replies #long post #my stuff #Anonymous

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atomicblasphemy · 3 years

Text

7 x 1

After the worse defeat in Banshees history, the players try to process the loss. And Boscha learns of her new responsibilities to the team.

“Okay guys, I know… Today didn’t… Go as planned. But we have to keep our heads held high right now, next season is around the corner and...”

Last time something like this happened people were burning Hexside jerseys and flags in the streets.

“Boscha...”

Last time something like this happened riots broke out through Bonesborough.

“Please… I know you’re the captain and all that, but...”

Last time something like this happened the Emperor himself had to step in, declare a state of emergency in the whole realm.

“Just shut up.”

And last time, years before any of the current players in the Banshees were even born, the humiliation was nowhere near what they experienced today. Semifinals, home-field. No, this hadn’t been mere humiliation, humiliation was what that Half-a-Witch and Amity – along with that… human – did to them that other day. This, this was tragedy. Epiderme’s team were not witches, they were machines, that’s the only explanation Boscha could come up with. And that didn’t convince her, not one bit.

Normally, Boscha wouldn’t stand for Skara’s insubordination. It would be bad enough it they weren’t wearing the Banshees’ uniform. Still at the end of the day she was her best friend, that granted her some privileges. Now, however, they were in their uniforms and Boscha was the captain. All fight had left her after Epiderme’s third goal, however. And what they heard and saw from the many fans wearing their blue and yellow colors didn’t help her to get some optimism back.

The four of them were alone in the dressing room, Skara’s voice lacking any sass, let alone alone her usual bubbliness. Off to the side, a few feet away, Cat tried to debatable success to console a still softly sobbing Amelia. “I only wanted to bring my people joy” the crying girl moaned over and over, in a lower volume every time. None of them could actually look at each other. None of them could start to point fingers and throw blame around, not yet at least.

Worse part was that should they have kept playing the way they did up to that fulminant counter-attack that resulted in Epiderme’s first goal they could have won. They dominated the first ten minutes or so of the game, barely giving any breathing room for their adversaries. Then the first goal came and whatever motivation, that old flame, they still harbored vanished. Their tactics broke down. But tactics was a generous way of putting it. Only a madman would have Skara in a starting position, and those were her own words in the locker room after each and every training session.

And it was the wrong moment for this sort of thing to happen to Hexside. The scandalous decision to have a human exchange student was just the tip of the iceberg. The school as a whole was ongoing a slump of sorts, under-performing in academic and sportive competitions alike. While once upon a time parents would enroll their children as soon as they knew they were expecting, Glandus and the other schools serving as something of a plan B, now Hexside was turning into this second echelon. Some, like Boscha herself, would place the blame on Bump’s somewhat erratic methods. His stubbornness in one hand, his weird pedagogic gambles on the other, and, of course, his rotten finger when it came to picking staff. Today’s tragedy was but a symptom of a more pervasive condition, that was her conclusion.

But Bump wasn’t the sole culprit here was he, Boscha? The time for pointing fingers arrived.

“Guys… I… We all are to blame here…”

Before continuing, the captain was cut off by the striker, the striker that for just the third time ever started a game in the bleachers. The one that was still trying to console the left fielder.

“Are we? Are we really though? I mean, four of seven goals came from your side of the field, the side you were the one supposed to be defending.”

Boscha’s mouth stopped in it’s tracks, she couldn’t refute her friend. Sure, she could throw her usual words to get her back to her place beneath her. But today wasn’t the day for something like that.

“Cat, back off a bit, will you? We all are feeling the same way, and it was the first time she played that position.”

“Come on Skara, you know I’m right. She is all talk before the game, but now she just won’t act like a captain. That’s a cap out.”

Skara, leaving out a tired sigh looked Cat in the eyes and, carefully, rebutted.

“Look, all I’m saying is that nothing good can come from this argument. Seriously. It wasn’t Boscha’s fault alone. Heck, we all really have a share of the blame.”

Cat just huffed. “Wish we got Willow instead”, she muttered under her breath.

“HEY!”

“DON’T HEY ME, BOSCHA!”

“YOU TAKE THAT BACK, RIGHT NOW!”

“NEVER!”

Amelia gingerly placed a hand on Cat’s shoulder. The girl’s anger seeming to seethe, she lifts both her hands, open, in front of her face. Looking down, avoiding the captain, she sits down.

They all sit there, silent, for a long time. Amelia’s sobs subsiding. Cat’s muscles relaxing as she calms herself down. Skara looking straight ahead, studying Boscha’s void expression.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to...”

Cat finally let out.

“Sure… Just don’t do that again.”

The mood around Hexside and the whole town, at least the part that rooted for Hexside, had been optimistic since the tournament started. It had been a while since the Banshees had this amount of support. It wasn’t because they had a particularly prodigious roaster. They were okay, but far from capable of overwhelming any qualified opponents. No, the reason for the optimism was simply due to that being the first time a single school was hosting all matches. A series of – rather suspicious one might say - beast attacks prevented the other schools from hosting any events, the only option the league had was to have Hexside receive all the spotlights. It would be the first time in history Glandus and Epiderme would host Grom Night outside their premises, and together no less, as to be able to afford the venue’s rent.

And Bump took as much advantage of the roll of the dice as possible, it was the school’s first chance in years to shift their decaying image and more then a few conspiracy theories were floating around the hallways and streets. And if the spotlights were on Hexside, on the Banshees, then all that means was that they also were on Boscha, on the team’s glorious, spectacular, competent captain.

This had been the game with the most press coverage any of them ever played. The stands were filled to the brim. The colors of blue and yellow taking over taking over the stands, the shouts of support bordering on overwhelming. Boscha was born for a day like this, her underlings were visibly anxious. But not her, she knew the only possible was victory, confirmation of who she was. If the arena had been a chocolate box she’d devour it in one bite. And as any captain would, she tried to convey to the rest of the team what she was feeling. They could not mess this up for her, it was important that they remembered that, but it was also important that they remembered that the four of them combined were far superior than Epiderme’s team, despite them being on an undeniable winning streak and being traditionally one of the most competitive teams in all of Bonesborough or even the whole Isles, much like the Banshee’s themselves. Matches between those two were always neck to neck, often ending in draws with few scored goals, if any. The coach echoed Boscha’s position thoroughly, he was after all the one that led up to about a fifth of Hexside’s many titles. Him being the one on the side lines was maybe the main cause for optimism among fans, he came back from retirement just for this season after all. His professional image was on the line much like Boscha’s. Both were confident they managed to convey the importance of the game to the pale looking girls.

“Where’s coach, by the way?” Boscha asked, breaking the silence.

“Scolari? No idea.” Skara answered.

“Last time I saw him he was storming off, saying something about how the press kept on ganging up on him or whatever. Pretty sure he left before punches started flying.” Cat continued.

“Oh...”

Having calmed down, Amelia now browsed her scroll seeming oblivious to the others’ conversation.

Eleven minutes. A shock with Epiderme’s first goal, but that came with the nature of the game. All they had to do was to make a goal of their one and they would be back in equal footing, Boscha doing her best to ignore the many ways she could have avoided that score, Skara and Amelia looking lost but trying to muster on some determination. Twenty three minutes, the difference increases. Twenty four, Boscha fails again. Twenty six, they would need to put up the best performance in Banshees’ history to turn this into so much as a draw, the stands growing deafeningly silent, Boscha failed again. Twenty nine minutes, Boscha failed again, the other team looking ever so slightly less enthusiastic in their celebrations. This couldn’t be real.

As they left the field after the referee declared the end of the last half she saw, they all saw, the booing, crying, lost faces in the audience. That illusions track kid, one third of the human’s trio, clenching those flags to his chest hugging them like a baby while his father tried prying questions about their performance from Scolari. This all felt like a dream, Boscha was just not capable of failing this badly, she was just not capable of belief herself capable of this kind of failure. And she couldn’t wake up.

“Hey… They are making a live interview on Penstagram. Epiderme’s team, I mean.” Amelia finally said, seeming to get back into the conversation.

The other three just look at her, expectantly. Taking that as something of a confirmation she raises her scroll’s volume.

“… shocked too. We didn’t expect the game to go as it did. Hexside, the Banshees, they did so much for Grudgby. I mean, so many of their old players are personal heroes to anyone who loves this sport. So yeah, we didn’t want to humiliate them, we have a ton of respect for their team so during the break we all agreed to take a bit of a step back, you know, show proper respect to their history. We are proud of winning, but not of how we won. So we tried to keep our heads on the game and we were lucky enough to score twice more. Here’s to hoping they can manage to fix the problems they’re having right now. The sport deserves and needs the Banshees we’ve always known back. Now we gotta start thinking about who we might face in the finals. Both teams...”

Amelia turned her scroll off. They heard all they needed.

How kind of them.

The uncomfortable silence in the locker room only grew louder.

With the game undeniably settled by a seven neill score half way throw the second half the stands steadily grew more and more empty. Only a few of the fans still there to see Cat score their consolation goal after replacing Skara. They only managed to do something resembling sport again in the very last minute. Those few last fans alternating between boos and supportive chants about “Hexside pride”, but the cheers were so timid might as well not have happened at all. Boscha would take the former over the implicit pity of the ladder any time.

Before today, the Banshees were known as the best Grudgby team in Bonesborough’s history. Whether this title would now go to Epiderme or someone else Boscha didn’t know. But it was high time she made peace with the fact it wasn’t theirs anymore. That she was the captain during the team’s - no, the sports’ - greatest fiasco. But Boscha was stubborn, she still wouldn’t take this hit alone.

Before she could dwell further, Amelia asks a question that seemed to be burning on everyone else’s minds.

“What now?”

“What you mean?” Boscha can’t turn to see her as she asks.

“Well, Boscha… You’re the captain… You are the one who decides. We have been talking though… Before the game, I mean. For a few days actually.” Skara, the second in command was the one to ask.

“I’ll figure something out… Wait, you’ve been talking? About what?”

“Yeah… Sorry about going behind your back… You just seemed so, I dunno, hyped. It was kinda cute and we really didn’t want to make you worry, but...”

“But we been kinda expecting something like this to happen actually. I mean, we wanted to believe your speeches... But yeah… So…”

Cat was the one to continue, every word both from her and Skara were deliberate. They had known each other for so long, was she really the type of friend that called for this type of carefulness when breaking bad news? Was this the kind of stuff that made the Blight leave their click? She shouldn’t be thinking about any of that, not right now.

“Okay then… Stop dancing around the issue and give it to me straight.”

“Well, that will be a bit hard” Amelia, showing some agency said to the curt nods of agreement from the other two. “But, I guess the main thing is the leadership style we’ve been having. Not you, not just you. But… coach was… tough, and pretty boneheaded… I mean, we all tried to convince him that Skara should not be a starting player, that she is our fastest player sure, but she hasn’t the endurance for the whole game, she can pull off counterattacks, so she should always enter later when the other guys are already too tired to keep up. I mean, that’s how we always played and it always worked well enough. But no. He wanted to use the same tactics as he used way back when. Anyway… I guess my point is I think, we all think he’s the first and foremost culprit. And well, I mean, I guess you didn’t really… help… But…” The desperate girl shoots pleading glances to both Cat and Skara.

“Look, all we are trying to say is: your leadership style is not exactly the best for a captain, and his is definitely not the best for a coach. We know it, you know it I guess, Bump knows it, the fans know it, literally everyone knows it. So… We figured a few changes need to be made.”

Cat, with a rather coy tone of voice, took the lead again. For whatever reason there always seemed to a silent agreement between the four of them that she should always be the one to break the bad news, especially when Boscha was to be the recipient. Like that one time when Amity had to cancel their sleepover. Even those outside their tight social circle seemed to acknowledge this, like that time when the professor had Cat be the one to announce to Boscha she was on the brink of failing her Into to Beast Keeping class. Despite Skara being her closest friend, Cat was the better one at disarming the captain.

Of course, in a time like this this only sounded ominous. But something else was bugging her.

“What you mean my leadership style?”

“Boscha, come one. I mean, seriously. Do you really think yelling ‘do this or that for me’, or ‘my legacy as a Grudgy player depends on you’...”

“Don’t forget the classic ‘I swear to Titan guys, you can’t mess this up’.” Skara commented.

“Or ‘If we lose today because of you I’ll haunt all of you in your sleep. See you in your worst nightmares.’” Amelia added.

“Yeah… Do you really think any of that helps? As a captain, as someone that’s on the field with us?” Cat finally finished.

“Come on… You know I wasn’t being serious right? I can’t be that bad...”

As she watched her fellow Banshees trading wary glances with one another, Boscha just sat and waited. With none of them saying anything, she chose to get back to the main topic.

“In any case… What do you mean change?”

“Well… You see. Here’s the thing. This leadership style of yours… It isn’t entirely ineffective. Titan knows we wouldn’t have passed the quarter-finals without this… Rough nudge… And it actually is better than what coach has been giving us since day one. I mean, you both were always essentially saying the same things but at least with you we have a bit, at least a bit, of reason to actually care, a bit. Sooo… We were thinking… And we talked to Bump about this already… Again… Sorry for going behind your back on this one… He said it isn’t entirely impossible… But you kinda have to be the one giving the last say...”

“Can you please, for the love of the Titan, just say it already?”

“Boscha.” Uncharacteristic firmness in her voice, Skara called her friends name. “We want you as the Banshee’s next coach.”

“WHAT?”

“We want you as the Banshee’s next coach.” She repeated with the exact same voice tone, not even a semblance of wavering or stuttering.

“I heard that… But… Doesn’t the league forbids it?”

“It does… But there’s a loophole in the rules.”

“A loophole?”

“Yeah, it means the rule book wasn’t all that well written and that there are specific ways to interpret it so we can do something that would otherwise not be allowed.”

“I KNOW WHAT THE WORD MEANS… I just… What, pray tell, is this loophole?”

“Well… You see, according to Bump, all it says is that in order for someone to be a coach they need to be a part of the school’s staff, as in an employee of the school, pay check and all. It doesn’t say anywhere that they can’t also be a student at the school in question.” Cat took back hold of the conversation, sending shivers down Boscha’s spine.

“So… What are you saying is that I will become a teacher or something before graduating? How would that work? I also still to play, you know.”

“We’ll get to that last part eventually… Anyway… I said staff, not faculty. You wouldn’t get any classes, according to Bump… So… You know Kyle right? That old janitor that was working at Hexside even before our parents went there? He is needing a break, according to Bump. He just can’t handle full time work there anymore and… Well… Bump has been scrambling to find a suitable replacement.”

“...”

“You see… Kyle’s... specialty... is actually illusions. Now that I think about that kinda explains why so many of our classrooms smell like mold. But anyway… So… The best case scenario for Bump would be to hire someone more capable at potion making. You know, someone who could make and use appropriately all the cleaning potions… Aaannd. Well… That’s pretty much what you’d be doing?”

“Oh… Just that, huh? You say it like it’s ‘just’ that. Like it’s nothing. I have an image to keep, you know?”

“I know, I know… Look. It would be just a part time thing. Besides, you’d mostly just be cleaning the bathrooms. All you’d need to do is to put up a sign, shut the door, and no one would even know you’re there. And you’d be getting paid. Sure, not a lot but something. So yeah, Junior Janitor Assistant.”

“You know there’s no way I’ll agree to that, don’t you Cat?”

Skara stands up, slowly stepping closer to Boscha, her eyes never leaving the captain’s. She kneels down in front of her friend, her oldest friend. She places a place in the witch’s shoulder, squeezing it lightly.

“Boscha, I’m not happy to ask you this, the girls aren’t happy with it either. Heck, I think that if Bump was here he wouldn’t be happy about it either. But the truth of the matter is that we need you, Hexside needs you, the Banshees need you… to clean some very, very clogged toilets.”

“Why can’t one of you guys do that?”

“Because you are the leader. This should be obvious, Boscha. You are the leader and we follow you. But this time… This time for you to lead us… You’ll need to clean some extremely dirty toilets. And yes… This does include that one on the second floor that has been closed off for a couple of years for mysterious reasons. Bump was clear on that part.”

“This is a joke right?”

“Do I look like I’m joking, Boscha?”

Skara was right, all their faces revealed nothing but the utmost seriousness of their predicament. The kneeling girl continued.

“Either you do that or, and this is what Bump told us, we’ll have to ask Bob.”

“Bob?”

“Bob.”

“A Bob.”

“THE Bob.” The girl solemnly shock her head from side to side.

The madness in Skara’s words was impossible.

“Bob Bob?”

“Bob. Bob Bob.”

The room grew silent as the concept sunk into Boscha’s mind. After a long moment of disturbing quietude she finally mustered the much needed courage.

“No… No… We can’t have that.” A deep sigh, all her eyes looking even further defeated. “Fine… I’ll do it… But people can’t know about it, I swear. This is between me, you girls, and Bump.”

“And Kyle.”

“Yeah, sure. Kyle. No one else.”

“Promise.” They all said in unison. Amelia timidly complemented. “Thanks, Boscha. We can visit you during your shifts if you want.”

Deadpanned, Boscha responded.

“You guys just want to watch me humiliating myself, don’t you?”

“NONONONONO… No… No… Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous… No...”

“Sure… Sure…”

“And look.” Cat said, trying to get the conversation back on track. “Bump even said he can make it look as though you’re just doing office work. Anyway… You start on Tuesday and your shifts are on the afternoons.”

“Tuesday? Isn’t that the day the Human said she take over the kitchen and make us… what was it? Tacos? She seemed pretty pretty worried about the ingredients and how we’d… agree to them… whatever that means… Can’t I start literally any other day?”

“Nope… Bump was adamant - yes, Bump - it has to be on Tuesday. This Tuesday to be more specific. Yup, Tuesday you’ll start on your new job. And we’ll be there… Cheering you on. Yes, cheering.”

“Well...” A stoically empty façade on her face, Boscha continues. “Could be worse I guess… I don’t know how it could be worse, but yeah… Too bad I’ll have to stop playing though… I’ll miss it.”

Skara, a small and sincere grin forming on her lips.

“Not necessarily… The rule book doesn’t say anything about the coach also playing either.”

“REALLY?”

Finally some good news came Boscha’s way. She couldn’t find it in her to contain the sudden burst of excitement.

“Yeah, really.” Skara continued. “But…”

“There’s a caveat, should be obvious really. Have you ever coached anything before Boscha? It isn’t the same as being captain. You’d need some time learning to do it, not to mention all the adjustments you’ll need to make in our training plans, tactics, and so on… So… You’d eventually be able to carry on both role, but not right from the go… In the mean time you’ll need to find someone who can replace you… Temporarily, of course.” Said Cat.

“Oh no… Nonononono. Don’t you even think about suggesting that. I know where this is going and NO. Absolutely not.”

“Boscha… You know well enough who is the person in all of Hexside that’s most suited for the job.”

“No, that’s going too far. I am not asking her, anyone else. Even the human.”

“Boscha… You need to give up on your pride. You need to ask Willow to join our team. To join us. It is the only way. Together, all of us will make a team that will conquer all adversaries.”

“No. That’s impossible. I’ll never do that.”

“Look into your heart, Boscha. You know this is the only way.”

“Nooooo...” She whimpered… This was her least favorite part of today. So far at least.

But it was a losing battle and she stood alone.

“Fine… I’ll do it.. I’ll ask the Half-a-Witch to join the team...”

“Willow.”

“What?” Boscha growled. Low, menacingly.

“You’re not asking the Half-a-Witch to join the team.” Cat stated matter of factly, defiantly even. “You are asking Willow. Boscha… It’ll be a negotiation. You’ll to need convince her to join us, to flex all of your… charisma… on her. You can’t do that if just go around insulting her all the time.”

“But… Come on, I get why I need to be the coach instead of any of you. But why this? Why do I have to be the one to this.”

The answer came immediately.

“Because you’re pretty much the main reason why she’d refuse.” It wasn’t a question, it was a statement as clear as day.

“I… Fair enough… Fair enough. You know what? I’m the captain in the worst defeat in Banshees history, my reputation is probably all gone, and today I also learned I’ll have to clean toilets on a daily basis. What is another loss compared to all this. I can do this. I can do this… I… I can do this. I mean, even I can admit I don’t have much face left to save. So yeah, let’s just get this over with then. I’m gonna shoot her. A TEXT. I’m gonna shoot her a text, Titan danmit you don’t need to look at me like that. Anyway, does anyone have her number?”

“Sure” Came all three voices, Skara and Cat reaching for their scrolls.

“Seriously, all of you? I can understand Amelia, but you two as well? You know what, you know what? I don’t care. Nope, I don’t care at all. I’m serene, beautiful, powerful young witch that doesn’t care about stuff like that anymore.”

“Don’t you think you should, I don’t know, do this in person?” Skara ignores Boscha’s remark.

“I will. Just gotta set up a meeting with her or whatever, get off my back.”

“Sure… Look, we’re here to help, you don’t need to get all snappy like that.”

“Skara, I swear to Titan… Just give me her number already.”

She, with her lovely lovely friends’ assistance, manages to write a short, to the point, message to the Half-a… Willow. She messaged Willow. It was a polite, some might even call elegant, thing. She didn’t dwell on it, not on the text, all of the girls were insistent on that being something she’d have to do when face-to-face with Willow, but she tried to convey some degree of repentance over her previous treatment of the girl. Her hopes of it being effective were slim to non-existent.

All done, she remains sat on the bench. She remains there for a long while, the silence returning to the dressing room as the other, concerned, members of the Banshees watched her, waiting for her next move. Head downcast, jaw clenched tight, rubbing her closed middle eye with a couple fingers she tries to process the day. Finally, through gritted teeth, she lets out.

“Guys… I hate you… I hate each and every one of you.”

Had Boscha been looking at them she would have seen their relieved smiles, or maybe even the quick wink Cat shot Skara, who nodded in response before answering the former captain.

“We love you too, Boscha. Now. Come on, lets get out of here. We still have to face the music.”

“Titan...” Boscha said, standing up. “I almost forgot about that… I guess we have no choice, do we?”

“Nope, not at all.”

“Lets get this over with then.”

As they left the dressing room together, as a team, Boscha felt the scroll in her back pocket vibrating. She grumbled at the thought of her future. “For the Banshees”, she thought, less than enthusiastically.

#THE OWL HOUSE #toh boscha #toh skara #toh Luiz Felipe Scolari #toh #toh cat #toh amelia #2014 FIFA world cup #huehuehue #fuck fifa fuck cbf #too klose to home #not my best stuff i think but eh... whatever better just post it than leave it collecting dust i guess

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mitsuhasnolifebutwatchesanime · 3 years

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Natsume Yuujinchou the Movie (The Empherial Bond)

If you can’t tell by the everything about my blog, Natsume Yuujinchou is my favorite anime ever. There’s so many reasons for it, which I’ve detailed several times, but I do like to call it free therapy. This movie definitely felt like a therapeutic session, but like, the kind that leaves you feeling relieved and determined. Just popping the bluray into my machine and letting the music play made me feel like I had just taken a muscle relaxant, I just felt so safe and cozy.

This review may feel a little late, because it is! Finances has been the name of the game this year! So I haven’t gotten to really get down and indulge in my usual practice of buying so much anime and manga shit. Plus with the lack of cons, I haven’t gotten to have my favorite trips through the dealers hall wherein I can easily drop hundreds of dollars in one go. Maybe it’s good cons got cancelled since my finances were so unstable this year lmao. Well, with the first paycheck of the new job, I immediately bought the Natsume Yuujinchou movie finally!

This might be a little hard to summarize, but it follows the usual anime formula, a youkai wants its name back, another youkai wants the book of friends and attacks Natsume, shenanigans ensue. Except, this was like four separate Natsume episodes skillfully weaved into a very cohesive story. There were zero loose ends left, I didn’t have many questions because it just shook out so well. This is very much a movie that cannot be viewed as a stand alone, I think. Maybe you don’t have to watch all six seasons of the anime to watch it, but it definitely requires at least two seasons!

The anime starts with Natsume realizing on his way home a mysterious youkai shadow is following him along the walls in the town. He parts from his friends and goes to find the youkai and see what it wants, just in case it's hostile. Then suddenly, a hostile youkai appears, demanding the book. Thankfully the youkai in the wall, with one of the best designs I’ve ever seen, helps Natsume out of this tight spot before he gets his name back. In the memory, Natsume sees Reiko’s relationship to some people in another town a little ways away, including a young girl who ran from her in fear, which Natsume assumes is the last moment his grandmother decided to pursue interaction with other humans.

The next day, Toko sends him on an errand over in that town, and he happens across the girl and her adult son. He makes friends with them while Nyanko-sensei gets into a bit of a scuffle with some other youkai, getting a seed stuck to his tail. This all puts into motion the main plot wherein after eating fruit from the mysterious youkai tree that grows from the seeds, Nyanko-sensei is split into three little Nyanko-senseis, which all eventually get separated and it appears to be having an effect on the memories of humans.

Phew! That was a lot, but I didn’t want to give too much away! It is incredible how this movie takes all that a-lotness and wove it into a very cohesive and enjoyable story. The animation is beeeaaaautiful. Every little detail is so nice and pretty, the scenery is breathtaking, the story hurts my heart in places…It’s so familiar, yet a very new and a welcomed addition to the series.

Once thing I hadn’t been expecting all those years ago when Natsume Yuujinchou first came out in 2007 and I found the anime online in 2008 and fell in love, excited there would be a second season-- is that more than ten years later, it would keep feeding me. Six seasons of anime, a good fistfull of OVAs, so much merchandise! And this beautiful movie. It’s definitely a great cap off if you’ve decided to plunge into the hefty series, but I really hope more is to come as the manga is STILL ongoing, 26 volumes and strong!

#natsume yuujinchou #natsume's book of friends #natsume yuujinchou the movie #anime review #mitsu review #natsume takashi

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luckystarchild · 4 years

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INUYASHA Volume 01, Scroll 01: “The Accursed Youth”

Welcome to Lucky’s INUYASHA recap—a recap of the Inuyasha manga by me, Lucky, an anime fan who has somehow never read it or seen the anime before.

Over the course of these posts, I’ll be recapping and reacting to the events of a chapter (or series of chapters) of the Inuyasha manga. I’ll be using the official VIZ manga volumes as my source material. References to Not Quite Kagome (“NQKagome”) pertain to my ongoing fanfiction series, Lucky Child.

And without further ado... chapter 01 of Inuyasha (or volume 01, “Scroll 1,” as VIZ titles the manga chapters.)

We begin in media res; Inuyasha has stolen the Jewel of Four Souls (the “Shikon Jewel”) and is rampaging through a village. He wants to use the jewel to become “a true demon.” Kikyo, mortally wounded, shoots him with an arrow and pins him to a tree. Her body is burnt along with the jewel by her young sister, Kaede.

I don’t generally like prologues that employ flashbacks in writing, as they sometimes seem like a way to shoehorn in backstory that either isn’t necessary OR backstory that could be imparted through the reader more organically. (They’re all-too-often lazy, basically.) But this is a manga, so maybe it’s not so bad. Not sure how I feel TBH.

Was sort of surprised we learned what Inuyasha’s goal concerning the jewel is so soon; thought maybe that would get dragged out a bit longer, though IDK why I got that impression exactly. I’ve seen a few random eps of the anime and know he isn’t fond of his own half-demon status. Perhaps I feel like we should’ve earned this revelation during the narrative and on Inuyasha’s terms, rather than have it handed to us right off the bat by a faceless narrator. But that’s me being overly critical, perhaps.

Flash forward to 1997. The day before Kagome’s 15th birthday. Her grandfather tries to tell her a legend about the Shikon Jewel, but she shrugs it off.

Kagome’s family lives inside a big temple, and everything has a legend attached to it (including the massive 500-year-old Go-Shinboku God Tree), but Kagome never pays attention to them. Later, her brother loses their cat in the mini-shrine, specifically in the well house (which a sign declares the home of the Bone-Eater’s Well). Kagome bravely ventures inside to search for the cat.

Right off the bat, we get the impression that Kagome is a pretty average teenage girl—a bit of an airhead with a sharp sense of humor who isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty or shy away from a dark and spooky well house. Nice bit of characterization in just a few panels. Well done, author-san.

NQKagome Bonus: She’d probably pay more attention to all the legends her grandfather tells, which could give her an edge in the Feudal Era.

Kagome hears odd noises coming from the covered well; the cover pops off the well and a horrible, Noh-mask-faced women with a skeletal snake body to leap out and drag Kagome into the darkness.

Her body regenerates, turning into a... centipede body. Not a snake. D’oh. Frightened as they fall, Kagome emits a light from her hands, breaking off the woman’s arm and sending her careening away into the dark as she cries something cryptic about the Jewel of Four Souls.

Soon Kagome stops falling and finds herself at the bottom of the well, but upon emerging, she’s lost in an unfamiliar forest.

I gotta say that as far as first-chapters go, this one is pretty good! We immediately know who Kagome is, where she’s from, what she’s like as a person, and this introduction to the supernatural is spooky and interesting. The stakes are high and the action is fast-paced, without an overload of exposition.

Kagome spots the God-Tree and hurries toward it, noting that she always used it to find her way home in the past, but she does not find her familiar home at its base. Instead she finds Inuyasha pinned to the God-Tree.

We’re treated to this gorgeous two-panel spread:

She notes that the boy pinned to the tree has inhuman ears before some villagers find her in “Inuyasha’s forbidden forest” and bring her to Kaede, the younger sister of Kikyo (who is much older than she appeared in the earlier flashback). Kagome realizes she is in the Sengoku Period (1467 to 1615 CE). The villagers theorize that she’s a spy, a kitsune, and similar before Kaede realizes that Kagome looks identical to the deceased Kikyo.

Kaede tells Kagome briefly who Kikyo was before the centipede woman attacks the village.

That bit where Kaede tells Kagome about Kikyo is where I would’ve placed the flashback from the start of the chapter, FYI. Would’ve given the earlier parts of the chapter more mystery to withhold some information from the reader.

Also we have TOO MANY K-NAMES. Already three of the four named characters start with K, and two even start with the “ka” sound in Japanese. We have this problem with YYH and I foresee it being a problem as I type these names a ton, LMAO 🤣

So... Kagome realizing what time period she’s been magically dropped into after approximately seven seconds seems… IDK, kind of handy? Easy? The only info she has to go on are the vague references to “battles” a few villagers shout at her, and maybe the way they’re dressed. She supposedly doesn’t pay attention to old legends, so it doesn’t seem plausible that she’d pay enough attention in history class to discern what period she’s in now based on the cut of a kimono.

(Disclaimer: I’m American and the American education system is notoriously horrible at teaching the subjects of history and science with any accuracy, so I might be projecting my experience onto hers to some degree. Maybe Japan is better about this stuff. IDK, but thought I’d mention it.)

ALSO, Kagome jumps to the possibility of time travel really fast. I would jump to “this is a dream” or “I have fallen into a historical reenactment amusement park in which no one will break character” (a special hell of its own) first. Again, though, this chapter is moving quickly to draw in readers, so I can see why they didn’t give her confusion more screen-time. Especially with serialized manga, you have a handful of chapters (if that) to grab readers, so it’s gotta move fast as a matter of necessity.

I appreciate that some of the villagers mentioned “kitsune” in this section (and not just because it reminds me of all the reasons Yu Yu Hakusho is so easy to cross over with this manga). It shows that the supernatural is something the locals consider on a daily basis, which helps with worldbuilding.

Also, I wasn’t expecting the nipples on the centipede woman??? In her first panels, her breasts were covered up a bit, but now we’ve got detailed nipples. I’m guessing the scant few episodes of the series I watched were censored quite a bit. I’m wondering if there’s going to be more fanservice in this series than I expected, especially after reading that the series’ author, Rumiko Takahashi, advised the anime team to avoid using Kagome for any pantie-shots…

The centipede claims Kagome has the Shikon Jewel, and Kagome flees the village (toward “that light” in the east, which Kaede notes she shouldn’t be able to see) as the centipede woman gives chase. Elsewhere, Inuyasha wakes, stating he can smell the scent of the woman who killed him.

So I know a few things about this series already thanks to the research I did for Lucky Child, and chief among these things is that Kagome is Kikyo’s reincarnation. We can already see this tidbit coming through in obvious ways: Kagome’s resemblance to Kikyo, the Jewel being connected to her somehow, etc. Kagome seeing that light is probably a power she got from Kikyo, too.

It’s interesting that these connections are as physical as her having the same scent as Kikyo, though; scent is informed quite a bit by genetics. Obviously we’re dealing with magic and not science in this story, so I’m not looking for infallible logic when it comes to this reincarnation plot device… but it’s almost like the magic here overrides things like genetics and the extreme differences in what Kagome and Kikyo must’ve eaten in their respective times when determining their scent and appearance. The soul is more important than the body, etc. Wondering how consistent that will remain over the course of this admittedly massive story.

And that’s it for chapter 1. This was super fun! I’m guessing I’ll have more to say once we get past the set-up and are introduced to more characters, but overall I think this was a really strong start to this feudal fairy tale.

If you enjoyed this recap, feel free to buy me a Ko-Fi☕, and subscribe to the tag “lucky’s inuyasha recap” to see more!

NEXT CHAPTER

#lucky's inuyasha recap #inuyasha recap #inuyasha manga recap #inuyasha manga #inuyasha anime #inuyasha #kagome #higurashi kagome #kagome higurashi #kaede #kikyo #luckychildfanfic

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clansayeed · 4 years

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Bound by Destiny II, part 1 ― Chapter 16: The Fugitives

PAIRING: Kamilah Sayeed x MC (Nadya Al Jamil) RATING: Mature

⥼ MASTERLIST ⥽

⥼ Bound by Destiny II, part 1 ⥽

While struggling with nightmares of lives she’s never lived, a shadow from the past looming over her city, and the proposed idea that her life may just be a little bit too weird to handle alone, Nadya makes sure to tell herself that everything is perfect just the way it is. If only. When the self-proclaimed King of Vampires (and Maker of her sometimes-girlfriend and always-boss, can’t forget that little tidbit) Gaius Augustine returns intent on claiming Manhattan as the throne that was promised, she and her friends find themselves forced into the task of saving the world. But with millennia-old vampires and an Order of hunters on their heels as well as allies hiding catastrophic secrets at their backs… it won’t be an easy task. Too bad destiny didn’t exactly ask for her input.

Bound by Destiny II and the rest of the Oblivion Bound series is an ongoing dramatic retelling project of the Bloodbound series and spin-off, Nightbound. Find out more [HERE].

*Let me know if you would like to be added to the Destiny II tag list!

⥼ Chapter Summary ⥽

Nadya and the others land in Paris in the hopes that Adrian's mysterious psychic friend will be able to help them in their search for a way to stop Gaius. But things are very different for vampires in Europe; from old customs that could prove dangerous to a secret Order that definitely is.

[READ IT ON AO3]

The storm follows them across the ocean. Nadya doesn’t mind; even if it does paint her first view of Paris in bleak and grey. How it looks outside matches how she feels inside — and somehow that helps in its own little way.

Landing is slightly less bumpy than takeoff though that isn’t saying much. When Adrian’s voice comes over the speakers telling them to buckle in her stomach flips nervous. Her nervous habit would have Nadya lifting the shade on the window to watch their descent but it’s too close to dawn; too much of a risk — so she just picks a spot on the wall and stares.

Though why she had to pick the splattered blood, remnant of their actual pilot whose fate Priya left gruesome evidence of, she didn’t know.

The jet pulls deep into the hangar; keeps the shadows tied around them like a safety blanket as the cabin depressurizes and they disembark. Adrian is already on the ground addressing the airport crew in rapid French and its by pure chance that Nadya is the last one to step out.

Hands braced on either side of the doorway; looking down but not really seeing. Because the second she takes that first step she’s not in that strange in-between of an airplane anymore. She’s not somehow, in some small way, still tied to New York.

Not like refusing to move will get you back there though, which her rational brain says no matter how much Nadya doesn’t want to hear it. And it’s right.

The gold rim of Nadya’s charm bracelet dug grooves into her palm hours ago. She squeezes and keeps the imprint fresh the whole way down.

The routine will be a familiar one by the time all this is done. Shuffling from the hangar to an expensive-but-modest (and safety-tinted) vehicle. From the vehicle to wherever they’re staying — and Nadya hadn’t actually thought about that part but thankfully Adrian had. Then the brisk walk disguising a mad dash to the safety of indoors.

The storm here tastes different. Nadya can’t say how, exactly, but it does.

And it’s abundantly clear when they step into the apartment that it wasn’t made to accommodate four (five, taking into account this Serafine woman) people but they’ll make do.

While the rest of them flick light switches and outlets, check out bathrooms and make sure blinds are drawn tight and secure, Adrian turns to a small kitchen. There’s a large manila envelope on the counter that he grabs like he was expecting it. Now that Nadya thinks about it — he probably was.

He beckons them to join him in the main room and confirms her suspicions. Starts pulling out handfuls of papers from within and spreading them out for all to see.

Passports, paperwork, little cards with a set of what look like emergency phone numbers handwritten neatly under the laminate. He hands each of them a different color of the same clunky flip-phone but the rest they have to sort out of the pile themselves.

Jax grabs for his passport; props it open with his fingers to stare at the photo in discontent.

“Do I want to know where you got this information?” He asks gruffly. Nadya glances at her own. She’d just assumed everything was taken from her personnel file.

Adrian shrugs it off, like privacy isn’t a real thing. “The Council always keeps —” and the need to change the tense throws him for a second, “— has always kept this kind of information on hand in case of emergencies like this.”

“You had a plan for ‘Sociopath Regent Takes Over the City?’”

“Funny. You know what I mean.” He starts plugging numbers from his regular phone into the burner. “Kamilah and I have been seeing the same woman for papers since… for as long as I can remember, actually. These aren’t forgeries, they’re the real thing. They’ll be your IDs and travel papers while we’re here and in case we need to leave town.

“Phones, please.”

One by one they lay their real phones out. And one by one he presses the heel of his palm into the fragile metal and glass until each one yields with a crunch.

Lily doesn’t hide a little noise of distress; nor does she turn down the offer to tuck herself against Nadya’s side in consolation. Adrian offers her an apologetic look. “It’s for the best, Lily.”

She sighs as a reply. Adrian can’t do much else but take what he can get.

“Normally I wouldn’t call it necessary, but we can’t take any chances. Priya and the Baron have access to the same resources, finances, and investigative tools that Kamilah and I do. We’re lucky in that the papers are a favor from an old friend, but I have a feeling favors are going to be few and far between going forward.”

His words put them all on edge. Jax fiddles with the strap of his sword resting in his lap.

“You make it sound like we’re fugitives.”

For a moment it looks like Adrian plans on denying it; correcting him, maybe, with something a bit more eloquent or less dangerous.

But that would be downplaying the severity of the situation now… wouldn’t it?

“Until we know just how many from the clans went to Gaius’ side we may as well be. At the height of his power there wasn’t a city across the country that didn’t somehow wield his influence. Gaius kept his inner circle close but over the years Kamilah and I, along with Vega, Lester, and probably even some I don’t know by name, put all our effort into securing his kingdom.”

Nadya looks down to see Adrian’s fist clenched, shaking in his lap. If the coffee table weren’t between them she’d reach over and try to steady him. That darkness on his face is becoming uncomfortably familiar.

His eyes sweep over the two younger vampires; a fact he seems to have only just realized. “You’re all… so young.” And the look on his face is as exhausted as he was prior to feeding on the plane. Not a good sign.

“What does that have to do with anything?” asks Jax. Adrian’s jaded little “ha” isn’t an answer but still speaks volumes.

“It makes you vulnerable. It makes all of us vulnerable.”

His eyebrow quirks up; a look between the lamenting older vampire and his katana that says “let someone underestimate me like that, see what happens.” Not that he says it.

As the youngest of them all, the worry in Lily’s voice is justified. “How so?”

“We probably should have gone over this earlier.”

“Gone over what?”

It’s slowly dawning on Nadya why Kamilah had been so bewildered by her invitation to Lily’s One-Year Turning party. At the time she had thought it was because of the fact they had kinda-sorta split just a few days before, even if she wrote the woman off as being a bit dramatic… which in hindsight wasn’t like Kamilah at all and should have tripped more than a few alarms in her head.

And, really, she only has herself to blame for being so surprised. She’s encountered this type of behavior before — she watched the proud and accomplished Kamilah bend her head to the Trinity, despite looking like she would have rather staked them instead.

Because things are different overseas; the culture here is nothing like in the States. Among those the oldest of their friends had spent her centuries with. It only made sense for her to hold on to old habits.

Here in Europe everything is based on the only thing that has ever mattered to a race of immortals. Age.

“Modern innovation hasn’t just made human lives easier, but ours as well. Blood bags, tinted glass — more and more vampires are living through their initial fifty years. That may not sound like much to you, but it was a cultural stigma that was just starting to phase out by the time I was Turned. Think about how long humans were expected to live back then, and in the hundreds of years before.

“The longer you’ve lived, the stronger you are. Smarter, faster. Able to outwit nature itself and the constant changing of civilization. The newly Turned were taught to admire that kind of survival instinct. Admiration became respect, which gave way to superiority. There was once a time when speaking improperly to a vampire a certain number of years over you was grounds for defanging.”

Lily’s hand flies to her mouth — either from shock or to protect herself, both are applicable. From the look on his face Jax can’t help himself from thinking about how many times his words would have gotten him outright staked.

“But much of this mentality came from centuries of being at war for their very lives,” Adrian continues, “The whole reason Gaius set his sights on the New World was to try and solidify a place of power outside of their enemies’ reach. For centuries now the vampires on this side of the world have been living in the shadows. Survival is as good as currency; a symbol of strength and power that demands an inherent respect. And in truth that desperation worries me.

“The idea of an empire ruled by a Vampire King might sound pretty appealing to more than just people like Priya and the Baron. People who would do anything for freedom… even hunt us down.”

The look he gives Nadya is as forlorn as it is resigned. They didn’t flee to safety over here. Paris just happened to be where they needed to go. They’re still in just as much danger.

Maybe even more danger, now that she thinks about it. At least back home she knew the faces of the people who would hurt her friends. Here everyone is a stranger.

They really are fugitives.

The feeling seeps out from him and to the rest of them, bleeds into their clothes and skin until the entire apartment is stifling with their new understanding. Nadya rubs at her throat with an open palm. It feels like a real, physical vice around her.

“And you’re sure we can trust this psychic chick of yours?” Lily asks to clarify.

Small mercies; like the relief Nadya feels seeing Adrian’s stalwart nod. In this he is certain, unlike everything else going on around them.

“Absolutely. I met her through Kamilah; the pair of them go way back. When you meet her you’ll understand. I knew immediately when we met I could trust her with my life.”

Lily and Nadya exchange mutual stifled giggles; it’s pretty damning that Adrian is too lost in whatever memories he may have of this ally to notice.

When he comes back he’s still oblivious. “And for what it’s worth she was the person I asked for guidance when the time came to put a stop to Gaius’ plans. She was the one who made up my mind in the end.”

Which automatically gets her Jax’s seal of approval. “I like her already.”

Because her life is the way it is, it isn’t lost on Nadya how all of her friends are vampires and, with it being in the middle of the day and all, they don’t hide how tired they all are very well.

She’d been out like a light the entire flight. Excessive emotions, crying, and fright will do that to a poor human heart. But the same definitely couldn’t be said for Adrian who had flown them all here, and probably for the rest of them either.

“Still no word from Serafine?”

Adrian looks up from his phone and shakes his head mutely. That’s all she needed to hear. “Then get some sleep. Seriously, you look like you all need it.” There’s something else they need, too, but that Nadya can’t quite provide right now.

Hopefully in an apartment full of vampire-specific amenities like black-out curtains and a window that doesn’t face direct sunlight at any time of day anyway, blood bags are covered. Or, like, hot French donors or something.

Lily is the first to stop pretending; yawns wide and loud and with a stretch that almost hits Jax in the face. “You gonna be good, Nadi’?”

Good is relative, she thinks, and definitely doesn’t say it.

“Actually I was thinking about going out. We need clothes, I need food…” Because like most girls, Nadya finds the siren song of French shopping trip to be almost impossible to resist.

Adrian doesn’t look entirely thrilled with the idea of her wandering the streets all by her lonesome, but it’s a point in her favor that they can’t go with because of the sunlight; “Which means all the other vampires will be asleep too.” He can’t argue with that.

Well he could. He doesn’t — which might be more for his benefit, she realizes as he clears his throat to contain a yawn of his own, than hers.

But every step she takes further away from the apartment complex feels heavier and heavier; until Nadya doesn’t think she could possibly go another step without breaking through the concrete and sinking into the center of the earth.

Back home the world is kind of ending. And here she is, squinting against the dreary sun (hey it’s sun, she’ll take it in any form) and snapping subtle pictures every couple of minutes and praying the older phone doesn’t ruin the quality.

Does she even have a right to enjoy herself anymore?

Why shouldn’t she find joy in the fleeting things while she can?

Nadya leans against a nearby building, hands flat on the freezing brickwork, and inhales deeply. Funny how a city smells like a city wherever you go. But it’s hard to breathe through the tightness in her chest.

That was Kamilah’s voice in her head. And, yes, most of her rational thoughts over the past couple of months have sounded like Kamilah (the best coping mechanism her subconscious had invented yet, really) but it’s different now isn’t it?

The voice has a point though.

And even with all of the storm clouds over her head there’s one little ray of light that shines through…

Kamilah would want her to enjoy this. For herself; for the both of them maybe. Ha, she can even see in the shadow of her eyelids that little downturn of the woman’s lips, hear some kind of admonishment like, “Paris is too beautiful of a city to spend your first time walking her streets in melancholy.”

The cold may be bitter but even with slushed snow pushing up against the curbs the beauty of the city can’t be denied. When the wind is too much Nadya finds a store and ducks inside, pink-cheeked and shivering, and does exactly what she told Adrian she would do.

Lily’s size she knows by heart — that’s no problem; if it has metal studs she buys it. Out of the corner of her eye she catches sight of a dazzling blue and finds it’s a neon-dyed leather cuff. She buys it because if Lily is feeling anything like she is… it’ll be a comfort. Adrian is a guess-timate; it helps that one of the fresh-faced shopping aids looks roughly as tall as him in the store. Funny how their fake and placating smiles change when they see the black card she’s willing to put down. Well it’s Adrian’s, but, you know.

Nothing on this fancy side of the store caters to Jax’s unique brand of ‘Action Movie Star Who Shops Solely at Resale Outlets’ but she tries her best.

But the most important purchase of Nadya’s day comes near the evening and on her way back to the apartment.

Let it be known that there is no sadness a crepe stuffed with strawberries and shoveled full of choco-hazelnut spread. The pain later will be so. freakin'. worth it.

Nadya’s glad to find when she returns that she’s not the only one who needed a little time to relax. Not that crossing the threshold doesn’t immediately remind her of the weight of their predicament but who can think about that when she’s met with smiles relieved, happy, and rested?

When Lily is finished crushing the wind out of her lungs she pulls back and immediately hones in on… something. She watches as the girl licks her thumb and drags it over the corner of Nadya’s mouth, eying the stain with suspicion. Refuses to look even the slightest bit ashamed when she starts getting ragged on for not having brought enough sugar for everyone. She just shrugs with her hands full of large bags of fancy French clothes.

Not-so-amazingly all is pretty much forgiven for that.

Freshly showered and dressed, the curtains pulled back to reveal the beginnings of the Parisian night; the change in overall morale is almost jarring for all of them.

Well… almost. Because apparently neither rest nor a new (and perfectly-fit, thank you very much) look will un-crinkle Adrian’s brow. It’s been well over twenty-four hours and still no word from Serafine — from the entire reason they’re in Paris in the first place.

“What’s the plan if she never shows?” Jax asks finally; tired of the question flitting through their eyes but never through their lips. “We just fly back to New York?”

Unfortunately they all know that’s not exactly an option.

Adrian doesn’t have an answer, and it has him in knots. Jax turns away, back to his attempts to decipher the news anchor and her rapid French.

“It’s just not like Serafine at all,” he eventually confides; only in his lowest voice and when Nadya has signaled for Lily to turn up the news to the highest reasonable volume to drown them out, “I mean — it’s been a decade or so… I’d hoped to see her at Marcel’s, honestly. But that’s only in person. We’ve kept in close contact otherwise. She even wished me a good Dark Solstice…”

The more he says, the more Nadya’s starting to think there is to their connection. She places a gentle hand on top of his.

“How did you two meet? When, too, I guess I should ask.”

His smile is slow to start… but there. “We met in New Orleans, actually. At the Graveyard Shift.”

Maybe it’s because she’s touching him, or maybe it’s because they both share memories of that quirky little bar. God; it feels like they were there years ago now… But she can feel the tickle of him at the edges of her eyesight. Like her mind wants her to see… but — no. She can’t.

Maybe Adrian doesn’t want that. She can’t afford to lose someone else she loves because of this. But pulling back; pulling away? That would only prove she can’t ever care about her friends again.

Nadya keeps her hand on his because she needs to learn how to not look.

So she distracts herself, the both of them; “You said Kamilah introduced you?”

“Yes; it was pure coincidence that they knew one another. Kamilah and I were… on a job.” We were there because of Gaius. He doesn’t have to say it. She knows.

“We had drinks,” he continues, “they caught up and told me stories of their days back here in Europe. Even here in France, in Paris. Big vampire community here back then, apparently. And there was just this way she talked, Nadya. Like I could imagine I was there myself. There was still a lot of tension all around at the turn of the century, you see. People were still so disheartened. But when Serafine spoke about the world she brought light into it. All her centuries and she still saw beauty around her.”

That’s… a lot more than Nadya was expecting if she’s being honest. Not that she’s complaining! It’s so so nice to see Adrian talk like this. To see him look on something from his past with a happiness rather than that broiling anger.

“How come you’ve never mentioned her before?”

He blinks; taken aback. “How do you mean?”

“Well no offense,” read: full offense intended, “but I’m a little hurt there’s someone out there I could have been teasing you about this entire time. Especially when you and Lil’ started conspiring together.” Not that Nadya’s not still grateful for their intervention.

He’s just accrued a lot of payback is all.

It doesn’t get the smile she hoped for. It’s more like Senior Picture Day and your mother shoved you into a sweater vest.

“It’s not… Serafine and I aren’t like that.”

“You sure talk about her like you are.”

“What?” He has the audacity to actually look surprised. Well either that or he’s genuinely oblivious… which is seeming more and more like the truth. “I’ve barely said anything about her. Until now, obviously.”

She nods slowly. “Mmhm, yeah that’s true. But I think you and I both know it’s not what we say… but how we say it.”

After all; Adrian had seen her at the Ball. Had trusted Kamilah to keep her safe while he was away with Katherine and maybe he knew even before Nadya herself did. He’s remarkably astute for a complete dork.

He gives a long sigh and looks out the window instead of giving her an answer. If she were anyone else she might worry about having gone too far. Especially taking into account they’re still boss and assistant.

But she’s Nadya — so she doesn’t worry about that at all.

“Hey, I’m all for it. In fact I’m honestly relieved,” she catches how his facial muscles twitch; she has his attention, “since up until now I’ve been under the impression the only people you’ve been into were the bad guys.”

Adrian groans. “Please don’t remind me.” She doesn’t have to. Valdas did that enough on his own at Persephone.

Even after Vega; they never talked about that. Seeing as she had just watched the old-as-dirt vampire chop off a man’s head, Nadya definitely wasn’t going to be the one to bring it up. Maybe (and especially after the events of their meeting) she should have. For Adrian’s sake.

“I know what you’re thinking.”

Nadya jumps. No use trying to hide it with that kind of reaction. Luckily Adrian shrugs it off. “I wish I had an answer; Kamilah certainly wants to know. That night when you were dancing with your friends she very clearly told me her thoughts on it. I only wish now I’d understood what she was trying to warn me about.”

“Trust me, I think we both underestimated them. And how much they were involved in everything that happened.”

“I think back to that night sometimes.”

“T-M-I.”

“No,” he sighs, “about… something he said. We got to talking about experiences, then wars, then soldiers… and now I can’t help but wonder if he knew who I was before I even introduced myself.”

“Because that’s what Gaius called you? His Soldier?”

Adrian tenses under her touch. Nadya goes to pull back, curses herself for opening her mouth in the first place… but the way he relaxes is a silent permission. So she stays. “Kamilah told me about… but I’ve been a little nervous to ask, truth be told.”

Ask how much you’ve seen of me, he means.

“Another time, maybe.” Because I can’t push you away too.

His laugh is rueful; harsher than he should ever sound. “Fair enough. But you’re right — I was… that. But I wasn’t the first. Actually… I think that was Valdas; that he was the first of Gaius’ soldiers. Maybe that’s why I was drawn to him.”

There’s an unspoken asterisk hanging on the edge of his words. That’s what I tell myself, or something to that effect. Nadya is no stranger to the lies we tell ourselves to find the strength to keep moving, so she can hardly blame him.

“Does it matter…?”

“No,” and it’s clear he wants to wave the conversation off, “it doesn’t matter. Why try to find rationale in the irrational, right?”

Fair point.

But that doesn’t sit well with her. That he’s okay drawing comparisons between himself and that manipulative man — no matter what Valdas would say to the contrary. That being alike to him is better than… than the other elephant in the room.

“Adrian?”

Nadya keeps her eyes trained pointedly on the table; on their hands. He can feel him look at her, feel the tension rippling under his skin.

“Hm, what is it?”

“We never talked about what happened.”

And for a second she’s hopeful. Sees the resolve flicker in his normally unwavering armor. He’s just as exhausted as she is; if not more. Doesn’t that mean maybe…

“Another time, maybe.”

Nadya knows he’s just giving her back the same response; and maybe she even deserves it. But that doesn’t mean she’s not left sitting there, watching him head into the living room to join the others, feeling like Adrian’s just slapped her in the face.

#bloodbound #choices bb #choices fanfiction #adrian raines #kamilah x mc #lily spencer #jax matsuo #bloodbound mc #mc: nadya al jamil #fic: oblivion bound #oblv: bound by destiny ii #; my fics

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howaboutswords · 4 years

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I was tagged by @2-dream in this post to list my top 10 favorite characters. I’m supposed to tag 10 people, but I’m not in contact with that many people here so I’m gonna ignore that :)

Saber/King Arthur from the Fate franchise (but mostly Fate/Zero because that one’s my favorite): Listen. I had a hardcore crush on her when I first watched the anime and I didn’t even know it was a crush at that time. There’s a good reason she’s the face of the Fate universe. A female knight king? Who’s chivalrous and refuses to give up her values? Who wields a golden sword and doesn’t show too much skin? How could anyone not love her?

Hatori Chise from Mahoutsukai no Yome, literally the best manga ever. I am in the process of collecting the 14 volumes out so far (it’s still ongoing!), and I have like, 6 of them? Anyway, I would absolutely die for Chise but she’s all too likely to die for someone else because she doesn’t take enough care for herself :’(

Toph Beifong from ATLA: She’s a spunky little kid who’s also the best metalbender that ever existed, not in spite of her blindness but because of it; you wish you could be this iconic.

Nausicaa from Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind: Movie or manga, take your pick. She’s cool, capable, and peace-loving. What I love about her is how far she’ll go to stick to her own values and sacrifice everything she has to make peace for everyone.

Sandry from the Circle of Magic series by Tamora Pierce: Sandry is an energetic gal who doesn’t care what other people think about her. She’s a bit of a spoiled rich kid sometimes, but she actually uses her privilege to help others! She’s the pin that holds the rest of her friend group together.

Egwene al’Vere from The Wheel of Time series: I had to dig deep for this one because I haven’t read this series in a while! It’s a really complex and engaging high fantasy series, and I highly recommend it! She’s a nobody from a small village who grows to greatness through a mix of natural talent and hard work. She has a strong personality and doesn’t give up on anything she’s started. She was always my favorite POV to read in the series.

Misaka Mikoto from the anime A Certain Scientific Railgun: Well, I’m a real sucker for electricity-related powers. And she wears shorts under her skirts. Truly a girl after my own heart. What more could I ask for? She’s often arrogant about her own powers, but through various events, she comes to understand and help those who aren’t as powerful as herself. She’s got a strong sense of compassion and doesn’t care about the law if it gets in her way. All around a very fun character!

Ryougi Shiki from the Garden of Sinners anime move series: She’s also connected to the Fate universe some way or another. Shiki’s got these magical eyes called the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception that allows her to kill anything she sees. She’s really handy with a knife, and she’s always wearing a kimono. She’s just super cool!

Tsunemori Akane from anime Psycho-Pass: She’s a rookie on the Investigator business, but she has a strong sense of justice and follows her own convictions! Wait. Do I have a type or...?

Seraphina from the Webtoon UnOrdinary: Powerful in more ways than one, and she really cares about her friends. I am concerned for her well-being at this time in the Webtoon but I’m sure all will be well :)))

This list ended up a little longer than I expected! There’s just too many pretty amazing characters to fall in love with admire! Okay, I guess I’ll tag @suricata-passer and @adorakeys. Of course, do or don’t, doesn’t matter. Just have fun!

#tagged

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komatsunana · 5 years

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My Yuri/wlw Manga Rec List

Heeeey I’m bored so I’m making a Yuri manga/webtoon/etc recommendation post of some of my faves that are underappreciated or deserve more love. Obviously this isn’t a comprehensive of all great Yuri series out there, just some that I enjoy & think are worth reading... And have (obviously) either read or are caught up on.

All of these are available to read as online scans, but I’ll indicate if you can legally purchase it in English as well. I’ll also indicate if they are on-going as of April 2019.

There’s a lack of yuri series that aren’t set in a high school but I’m going start with all of those first, just to get them out of the way, but this list will mostly be dedicated to college and older aged characters.

Additionally, my recommendation of these series is not my personal endorsement of everything about the series. Don’t expect any of these stories to be perfect by any standards, much less Western standards. Additionally, I try to give warnings for some series with dark themes: that is not me giving the series a condemnation. Just a heads up for common triggers, that I caught and remembered to warn for.

A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow (Nettaigyo wa Yuki ni Kogareru) by Makoto Hagino

Summary:

Konatsu Amano is a high school girl who has just moved to a seaside town in Ehime Prefecture after her father is transferred overseas for his job. Lonely and unsure of her new surroundings, Konatsu finds herself gravitating towards Koyuki Honami, an older girl at her school who is popular but is seen as out of reach by her peers who view her as too perfect. Koyuki is also the sole member of the Aquarium Club, which in turn makes her feel cut off from others. In an attempt to help ease Koyuki's and her own feelings of loneliness, Konatsu befriends Koyuki and the two gradually grow closer together.

Why I think you should read it: This is SUCH a sweet but impactful series. At a surface level read, it’s a beautiful and enjoyable series that I’m interested in seeing where these girls’ relationship goes, but a deeper look at the series really shows the amount of thought that went into the characters and their surroundings. Honestly [this] YT video by Zeria is why I finally started this series and covers why this is such a good worthwhile series much better than I can so I recommend watching it, if not jumping straight to reading!

Status: On-going, first English volume will be released in late 2019!!

Their Story (Tamen de Gushi) by Tan Jiu

Summary:

Tamen De Gushi manga is a slice of life manga that revolves around two high-school protagonists, Sun Jing and Qiu Tang, and how they meet and fall in love and start dating.

Why I think you should read it: If you’ve been on tumblr long enough and follow enough queer fandom blogs you’ve probably heard of this series. Everything you’ve seen about it is true: it’s sweet, cute, funny, and fluffy. It also covers topics like victim blaming without derailing from something you’re reading to distract you from reality.

Status: This one is a webtoon and currently on-going.

Pietà by Haruno Nanae

Summary:

A story about two classmates, Sahoko and Rio. Rio is depressed and self-harms due to lack of loving relationships with her "family" -- which consists of her negligent father, selfish stepmother, and stepbrother; and Sahoko quickly becomes her only comfort in life. Sahoko on her part has a frigid relationship with her otherwise loving parents, and lives with her aunt.

Why I think you should read it: Prior to meeting, these girls dealt with mental illness and that’s what bonds them very quickly as they come to rely on each other. I debated whether or not this series should be with the school-girl series or the adult ones, I decided to keep it with the school-girls because... they’re high school girls! Even though the girls’ school is really only ever the place they first meet, it’s the fact they are high school girls that colors their perspectives for the best and worst.

But the reason I think it is worth reason it is that it portrays depression, self-harm, and suicide the way you think about it as a depressed high schooler but it is narratively treated with the seriousness it deserves, and to be responded to with love and compassion. While we’ve got Rio’s parents who don’t take her mental illness seriously and compassionately enough (or at all), but there other adults who do from the very beginning. It’s 1 volume long and despite all the trigger warnings I am about to give for the series: I promise a happy ending.

*Warings* Self-harm, suicide attempt, forced institutionalization, parental abuse, gaslighting

Status: Completed, not officially in English but completed online scans are available.

Kase-san by Hiromi Takashima

Summary:

Yui Yamada, a girl who enjoys tending to her school's greenery, falls in love with the athletic Tomoka Kase. The two eventually begin dating, and the story follows the pair as they face various challenges in their relationship

Why I think you should read it: Another one I see on tumblr a lot and, again, it’s everything you’ve been promised: cute, fun, and a natural progressing romance. What I think is worthwhile about the series is that it’s continued into their college years, but that hasn’t automatically made them adults. They continue to deal with the same insecurities they did in high school, but even still they’ve been maturing since the start of the series and they continue to do so.

This series is unlikely to ever delve into darker or political themes, but we need series like this - where problems don’t linger but are resolved relatively quickly without losing the character’s defining traits and flaws.

Status: Ongoing and available to buy in English. Also has an OVA.

Ano Musume ni Kiss to Shirayuri o (Kiss and White Lily for my Dearest Girl) by Canno

Summary:

In middle school, Ayaka Shiramine was the perfect student: hard-working, with excellent grades and a great personality to match. As Ayaka enters high school she expects to still be on top, but one thing she didn't account for is her new classmate, the lazy yet genuine genius Yurine Kurosawa.

Why I think you should read it: A rivals-to-lovers story, for all my rivals-to-lovers lovers out there! <3 While Shiramine and Kurosawa are definitely the protagonists of the story, roughly only 40% of the time are chapters focus on them and their relationship, as the series spends a lot of time on their many, many side characters and relationships... which are all wlw too. Lots of different relationships explored in the side characters, including a triad that forms together wonderfully.

A part of the series that particularly tickled me was that male characters are barely ever mentioned, if ever. It’s entirely possible that that men do not exist in this world.

*Warning* One romance between a student and her aunt (though the aunt is only 4 years older). The two chapters depicting their relationship are skipable and even then it’s vague enough that you can interpret it as a family relationship imo.

Status: Completed and available officially in English.

Bloom Into You (Yagate Kimi Ni Naru) by Nakatani Nio

Summary:

Yuu has always loved shoujo manga and awaits the day she gets a love confession that sends her heart aflutter with bubbles and blushes, and yet when a junior high classmate confesses his feelings to her...she feels nothing. Disappointed and confused, Yuu enters high school still unsure how to respond. That's when Yuu sees the beautiful student council president Nanami turn down a suitor with such maturity that she's inspired to ask her for help. But then the next person to confess to Yuu is Nanami herself.

Why I think you should read it: What, did you really think it wouldn’t make my list (lol)? Of course everyone should give this series a try! I’ve been following this series for a while so I’m glad to see it blow up in popularity recently because of the anime because it really deserves it. This series is very far from your typical straight-forward cute high school yuri romance, it’s an awkward fumbling as the girls have their first relationship and all that comes with that - including learning consent and boundaries - in a very unusual set-up (that I’ll let you read to discover).

Additionally, an adult relationship between two women is also portrayed, proving the usual “lesbianism is transient” is many school-girl manga wrong, but the adults tend to mentor Nanami’s also gay friend more than Yuu and Nanami (who could frankly use some adult guidance, since they can’t seek out their parents).

Yuu reads as very aro-spec too, if that resonates with you, and I (personally) don’t think that anything in her relationship with Nanami negates those feelings.

Status: Currently ongoing and available in English. Anime which covers the first half of the series.

Nameless Asterism (Nanashi no Asterism) by Kobayashi Kina

Summary:

Tsukasa, Nadeshiko, and Mikage have been inseparable since they began junior high, but Tsukasa has a secret she's been keeping from her best friends—she actually has a big crush on Nadeshiko. Not wanting to risk their friendship, she planned to keep it a secret forever, but when Tsukasa learns that Nadeshiko has a crush on Mikage, her desire to support her friends now conflicts with her own feelings. First love blossoms in unexpected ways for these three young women and their circle of friends.

Why I think you should read it: This one is actually a junior high school one, but I’ll stick it here regardless. But it’s a fun series, and for a love-triangle story it’s not over-wrought at all. More than a series about love, it’s about the concept of romantic relationships at the characters’ age as well as friendship. One of the character’s in particular thinks her feelings are transient, but it’s also rather clear that they are not and she’s just scared after a bad past experience. Despite being in a love triangle that not all of them are completely aware they are in, it’s also very clear they want to keep being friends and fear losing their friendship more than anything else.

It ends prematurely so some things are left unresolved but still a fun read and I still give it a huge rec. YMMV on the handling of one cross dressing character, especially as he takes over the story for a bit, but it’s far from the worst handling but. ya know. Heads up, he exists.

Status: Completed, not officially in English but completed online scans are available.

Aaaaaand that’s about it with the light-hearted (mostly) school romances.

On to college-age and working adult yuri series which don’t get nearly enough love!

It’d be great if you didn’t exist by Carbonara

Summary:

Why did she meet her ideal girl in the worst situation?

After catching her boyfriend with another woman, Han Guk-hwa promptly breaks up with him and expects to never see him again. What she didn't expect was to keep thinking about the woman who was with her ex and develop a begrudging crush on her.

Jang Mi, the crush in question, also didn't expect to see such a beautiful girl approach her and finds herself thinking that she could do so much better than the scumbag Guk-hwa was dating.

Why I think you should read it: There’s.... a lot of reasons I could give you about why this series is worth reading. It’s a wonderful balance between funny and a soft, tender romance between two women, even while dealing occasionally with darker themes and topics. The characters are both well fleshed out with flaws and a rationality to their actions. More than that: for every bad experience they had in the past which gives them insecurities about themselves and others, they are rewarded for trusting each other with a happy, loving relationship. Inter-relationship problems (like insecurity) are resolved with communication, while their separate personal problems they share mutual support.

BUT ALSO, I mean... it’s pretty much like that text from last night that goes: “ I just found out two girls I dated met each other, bonded over how much they hate me, started dating and are gonna get married soon.” And I just.... really enjoy and appreciate it. Because it’s like: that’s it that’s the series.

*Warnings* Stalking, abuse, bullying

Status: Another webcomic, completed at 80 chapters all available online in English

Cheerful Amnesia by Tamamushi Oku

Summary:

Arisa wakes up in the hospital, with no memory of the last three years. When Mari, a girl who's just Arisa's type, arrives at the hospital and informs her that not only are they living together, but they're actually in a relationship, Arisa is over the moon.

Why I think you should read it: MC has amnesia, but as the title suggests, it’s light-hearted series. Afterall, MC wakes up to discover she has a beautiful girlfriend! What couldn’t be better in life? Well, there are... like sex with your girlfriend. Wait no, that’s way too good for Arisa to handle (lol). And it just gets better for Arisa as the story plays out.

Usually the amnesic lover trope is played for the drama, but here it is only played for laughs. A little eye-roll-y regarding some aspects and maybe even down right stupid but still cute and a fun romp if you need mindless fun. It’s a 4-koma so it’s not particularly deep, but a fun exploration of the story’s premise. Let’s be honest: all the jokes about sex probably won’t make you laugh and probably won’t even titillate you, but you’re not here for laughs you’re here for something cute and see an adult relationship between two women get to be fun, silly, and mindless.

Status: On-going and not officially in English but completed online scans are available.

Ultramarine (Gunjou) by Nakamura Ching

Summary:

Out of desperation, a woman asks an old high school acquaintance to kill her abusive husband for her. The acquaintance, having long been in love with this woman, does it, and now they are on the run from the law.

Why I think you should read it: I’m going to be honest. This isn’t a series for everyone or even a series that most would like and that’s ok. The summary just covers the first few pages - everything devolves from there as they avoid the police and the stakes get higher - or rather, revealed to us as the readers. Definitely not a series for a fun, quick read and I don’t rec it if you want an ideologically pure series - but the series mostly acknowledges the fucked up nature of everything going on. If you’re interested in story where the main characters aren’t clear-cut “good” and “bad” and you don’t mind not rooting for the main characters’ romance, give it a try. Because this is not a series about two women learning to be good to each other.

It’s a heart-wrenching read for those that read it and explores themes that aren’t often explored without being edgy for the sake of being edgy. I think if you can stand to read this series in one sitting, you’ll be absolutely gutted and be thinking of this story for a while. It’s a powerful read, awful in a very necessary way.

*Warnings* for rape, abuse, dub-con (between the main characters), lots of talk of suicide, infant death, death of a wlw (not main romance).

Status: Completed, not officially in English but completed online scans are.

Lonely Wolf, Lonely Sheep by Fuka Mizutani

Summary:

Two women with the same name happens to meet each other when they're at the same hospital for the same injury. They want to become closer, but both must overcome their insecurities and self-loathing first.

Why I rec it: Ehehe. If you follow me, then you probably know I’m half-way to being a NANA blog.... Well this has the basic premise of NANA, with two girls with the same name (in this case first AND last) meeting under similar circumstances. It’s a short & sweet series, but not without a lump of angst mixed in, because despite their meet-cute they’ve still got a shared loneliness and fear of rejection to contend with. Despite that: it’s not drowning in angst and unnecessary, drawn-out melodrama.

Status: Completed, not officially in English but completed online scans are.

Fluttering Feelings by Ssamba

Summary:

The comic follows the life of two Business University students, the average slightly immature Kim No-Rae and the beautifully captivating Baek Seol-A but equally immature, as well as their friends and family.

Why I think you should read it: This series is a beautiful exploration of two women slowly falling in love - or rather, slowly realizing and accepting that they are in love with each other. A lot of will they, won’t they story get stale very quickly but here the characters are so expertly explored that you understand why they aren’t kissing right now this second and it just makes you hope that one day they will and be happier.

Additionally, just because they aren’t dating doesn’t mean that they friendship doesn’t continually progress and flourish as they continue to get closer and more emotionally intimate with each other. As their friendship gets closer, they struggle more and more to define their feelings for each other.

Unfortunately Ssamba passed away last year, before completing the series. So the series will likely remain forever unfinished but I think this series is so great that it’s a worthwhile read even unfinished. I think Fluttering Feelings maybe even is a series that especially proves that unfinished series are worth reading, because for me: the ending to a story is one of the most important parts... but not for this series. This series is all about the journey and the journey until where it left off was worth it.

Status: Unfinished Webcomic, available online in English

Ohana Holuholu by Shino Torin

Summary:

Maya, who works as a translator, lives with her bisexual former girlfriend, Michiru, and Michiru's son, Yuuta. Residing in the same apartment building is an actor called Nico, who drops by for a visit almost everyday, and knows about Michiru's past. Somewhat like family, and somewhat not, their lives interweave full of warm days.

Why I think you should read it: This one is about family, at it’s core. A found family, in particular. I think for many like me, that’s enough of a recommendation (lol). The rekindling of Maya and Michiru’s relationship is an important part to the story, but just as important is the fact that they have formed a family even before then. Michiru isn’t always the best friend, roommate, lover, or even person and she definitely isn’t the best mother, but watching over her growth through the series to take responsibility for herself and for her family is incredibly rewarding.

Status: Complete, still in the process of being translated online into English.

Collectors by Nishi Uko

Summary:

Two women in a relationship disagree about the other’s spending habits.

Why I think you should read it: Most of this list is comprised of series that are about before the relationship begins, but Collectors is here for everyone who desires a pre-established relationship! It’s very sweet and very obvious how much the two women love each other.

This is the bickering couple done right - with love, especially after the initial few chapters, and it’s honestly just a form of flirting as the characters just as often find common-ground on their spending habits.

It’s primarily 4-koma style, so not much happens story-wise but it’s well worth it just for to see their day-to-day interactions, how much they enjoy spending time with each other, and their friend’s commentary about their relationship. Also, if you’re a collector or hobbiest that compulsively buys things related to your interests... be prepared to be called out!

Status: I thiiiiink it’s on-going - definitely the English online translations haven’t caught up as far as I can find.

The Robot Next Door (Tonari no Robot) by Nishi Uko

Summary:

In an ordinary neighborhood, a team of engineers are developing a robot they call Praha, who looks like an ordinary human high school girl. Chika, a 4-year-old girl who lives next door, meets her neighbor and learns her secret. The two girls become friends and high school classmates, and Chika teaches Hiro—as she calls Praha—about human emotions, including love.

Why I think you should read it: Another story by Nishi Uko!!! There is a severe lack of sci-fi Yuri works!! It’s a short and sweet feels trip as it explores the premise - a robot and human girl having feelings for each other. While the bulk of the series takes place while both characters are in high school, I’m sticking it here with the “adult” series because it’s not about youth so much as it is about the premise.

Anyway: one of the interesting things about the series is how Praha expresses her love for Chika, which is obviously different than how humans feel ”love” because she’s a robot. Meanwhile, Chika pines for Praha in her youth but insists that Praha’s feelings aren’t love. She thinks their feelings for each other are “different,” which is both true and untrue. As it is thought, robot/human love stories are often bittersweet because the premise predicates that the human will age while the robot will not. Honestly, the ending is not bitter in the least, but it’s something that looms over you as you, the human reader, know as inevitable future.

Status: Completed, not officially in English but completed online scans are.

Poor Poor Lips by Gotou Hayako

Summary:

Okashi Nako is a young woman living in poverty. When she applies to work at a Gem store, she learns that store owner, Otsuka Ren, is a lesbian. Ren promises that Nako's not her type, but she may be lying.... Nako takes the job and so begins a comedic tale of rich and poor, sickness and health, for better and for worse!

Why I think you should read it: It’s a boss/employee romance but tastefully done imo - it’s been a while since I read it but I remember it fondly. It’s primarily set-up as a comedic series (another 4-koma!) but by the end the ladies *are* explicitly in a relationship, after some “will they/won’t they.”

Status: Completed, not officially in English but completed online scans are.

Octave by Akiyama Haru

Summary:

This story revolves around 18-year-old Miyashita Yukino and her life as a former idol. As a child, Yukino had always been fascinated with TV. And before she knew it, she wanted to be one of those idols behind the screen. At 15, she entered the entertainment industry and debuted as a member of the four-person group "She'sN." However the group wasn't very successful and they broke up shortly afterwards. Returning home in disgrace, Yukino was welcomed with people's curious looks and hurtful words. Wanting to find herself, regain her pride, and perhaps experience love, Yukino decides to move back to Tokyo. There she meets a certain woman, former composer Iwai Setsuko. Together they embark on a very interesting and mysterious relationship.

Why I think you should read it: Don’t be fooled by the simple, minimalist art... The characters are complex and each of them realistically flawed. The series explores themes unfulfilled dreams and miscommunication and most of all: maturing into a decent person. A lot of people are turned off of this series because the choices Yukino sometimes makes are, but it’s worth seeing her journey imo.

The series also deals with coming out not being an entirely positive experience and... it’s gutting but real and in the end says more about other people than Yukino.

Status: Completed, not officially in English but completed online scans are.

And that’s it for now!! Let me know if you read any of these, whether or not on my recommendation or not! Depending on if people liked this I might do another one, because I discovered a whole bunch of series while researching plus cut some from the list last minute that I still think deserve a rec!!

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 5 years

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Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider #4 Thoughts

The very, very, very end of Spider-Geddon and...a surprisingly great issue!

Covering this comic is very strange for me because I’m coming at it from two places mentally speaking.

Firstly I’m jumping into the fourth and final tie in issue to an event comic having not read the prior three issues.

Secondly I’m jumping into Spider-Gwen, a series I abandoned long ago, back in volume 2 issue #10 to be precise, which was published over 2 years before this issue was. It also had an entirely different writer/artist team back then.

Frankly I picked this up purely because I knew Mayday and some RYV characters were going to be in it. In that regard the issue was rather pointless, they cameo and do little else.

However I’m actually glad I bothered with the comic all the same. I was expecting this to be fluff and filler at best. An insufferable worshipping of Gwen Stacy, as so many comics (including Spider-Gwen itself) was when Spider-Gwen got big back in 2014-2016.

To my delight that wasn’t the case.

I admit to being rather lost with some plot points such as Gwen having a symbiote (this was brought up in Spider-Geddon #2 but it was unexplained there too) and how exactly Gwen can transverse dimensions.

However the rest of the issue was mostly good. Now I read Secret Wars: Spider-Verse, Web Warriors and Spider-Geddon #0-5 but I didn’t read any other Spider-Gwen or Ghost Spider issues so to me Gwen’s sense of loss over Noir and Spidey-UK felt rather unearned and cheap. It wasn’t that I didn’t think she’s be upset over losing a comrade but the deep sense of loss and words towards little habits within their respective relationships didn’t ring true to me. However that may have come up in issues I didn’t read so I’m willing to be corrected on that.

But based upon my reading Gwen feeling as sad as she did was a bit of a stretch. I also felt the milking of Spidey-UK’s death from a reader point of view was questionable because...did anyone honestly love that character? Spider-Man Noir I can understand, he has a fanbase (and this issue hammered home how asinine a decision it was to kill him back at the start of this event) but Billy Braddock? Who cares really? He was used for some cheap pathos in Web Warriors and that was about it. Now that being said I did love the idea behind him being buried in Lady Spider’s dimension as she was English (although if memory serves that was never confirmed outright, she may have simply lived in 1800s New York). I did wonder where the Hell Lady Spider was throughout this event though.

The addressing of Noir’s death though was much more necessary and as stupid as it was to kill him I do give Marvel credit for having an issue which addresses that. His fans deserved at least that much, particularly I think the Noir/Felicia shippers who are undoubtedly out there. I also very much appreciated how May, MJ and Felicia had different reactions to his death respectively.

Another great thing was that the general addressing of grief, sadness and death in the issue felt respectful. It felt real even though as I said the specifics of Gwen’s relationship with Noir and Spidey-UK didn’t quite ring true. It’s like it would’ve been perfect dialogue and execution if used for another character’s death. A small detail I especially liked in this regard was Gwen’s drumming as a coping mechanism. One of my major complaints in Latour’s issues was how Gwen’s hobbies and passions were underused and underdeveloped. She was a drummer but that didn’t factor that much into the stories I read. So to see McGuire embrace that is as welcome as Miles’ artistic talents in ITSV.

Now I admit, those of you who recall my thoughts on Latour’s Spider-Gwen book might be calling me a hypocrite here. Because another of my frequent complaints was how doom and gloom and glum Gwen typically was in that series from the outset, yet here I’m praising that.

I think the distinction is this. Latour came out the gate defining Gwen as grieving and guilt ridden, reeling from a tragedy that happened an undisclosed amount of time ago (but still making with the yuks and gags). Not only was this tonal whiplash but it also was a shitty way to set up a new ongoing series. It began world building for Gwen in media-res of extenuating circumstances and circumstances which were incredibly derivative of Peter Parker.

Where McGuire succeeds in this issue is by having not only a distinctly different tragedy but also the benefit of this occurring both after Gwen’s world has been built up and in the aftermath of a huge event. It’s totally realistic and earned that there would be a mourning for fallen warriors after a war. It’d be disrespectful for that not to be the case; in fact it’s kind of disrespectful that that mourning happens in a tie-in issue not the main book!

By having this issue actually deal with the aftermath it re-contextualizes the prior issues of the event. Spider-Geddon as a whole was definitely a bloated poorly written inconsistent mess. But this issue as a coda treats it with the weight the main book never had. There is an emotional realism to the story even though we are dealing with something as wacky as inter-dimensional travel and totem vampires.

This emotional realism is pulled off so well you even feel a little something for Karn’s death, you even feel bad he died alone and so violently even though again, no one is a fan of that character. No one gives a shit about him.

Part of this realism comes from McGuire from this one issue apparently being an inherently better writer than Latour ever was, at least for Spider-Gwen. Latour in all this works I’ve read emphasises style, and wants you to ‘watch’ the story unfold rather than feel like you are right there with the characters. You can ‘see’ Spider-gwen is upset but McGuire takes you inside her head and writes her grief from the inside out. Latour might’ve used internal narration but he rarely pulled this off, probably because he was too busy making a clown show on the side with stupid ass Spider-Ham cameos, wacky humour about the Bodega Bandit or building up Evil Daredevil instead of you know, the ACTUAL main character.

His Spider-Gwen work felt a lot like watching things sort of just happened rather than experiencing things unfolding like in this issue.

What further enhances this story is the deliberate or accidental metatext behind the story. No I am not talking about how Stan Lee had recently died when the issue came out, though that did make me tear up thinking about it.

Gwen has been rebranded Ghost Spider (though her recap page doesn’t quite admit that weirdly) and this is an issue about Gwen dealing with ghosts, dealing with death, spreading the grim news as a reluctant messenger of death. That angle just works in this issue and if embraced would work brilliantly as a new element to the character to latch onto. In no small part because, as the issue itself acknowledges, Gwen Stacy’s legacy is inherently linked to death.

That might be admittedly a radical departure from the punk rock youth vibe the series began with, but not only was that rather squandered by Latour (with bullshit like Hipster Electro and Hipster Kraven the Hunter, go fuck yourself seriously!) but at the end of the day that vibe is perhaps rather...shallow...for an ongoing character...??????

Other elements of the issue I liked was the artwork. It’s not much like what Rodriguez was going, which was I admit very distinct and gave Spider-Gwen’s series a unique identity. But this art is still lovely and works very well for the subject matter. What is particularly nice was the different period outfits Gwen adopted as she made her travels through the multiverse. Also, though this isn’t strictly ‘art’ per se, the word balloons at Karn’s funeral have a cool moment where everyone speaks a salute to Karn and the combined word balloons look like a spider. That was just a cool touch.

My final note is that McGuire has one of the best Peter Parker moments I’ve seen in a long time, and considering the quality of Spencer’s run that is not damning with faint praise (as it would’ve been just over a year ago). In the scene Spider-Gwen and 616 Peter discuss Gwen needing some time off and Gwen asks if that is selfish. On the one hand this is a little bit derivative of Peter Parker, King of Guilt and Responsibility. On the other hand I guess most heroes would ask this of themselves. Peter Parker surprisingly gives a very mature answer.

Now this answer is very much in character and logical for Peter, but it’s also something too often writers neglect in favour of writing Peter in a repetitive manner that renders him a caricature. Peter acknowledges it is selfish but that that is not wrong, He says the world will always need saving but the heroes get to pick their battles and have to sometimes rest, that indeed they deserve it.

Though a mere moment in a story not about him McGuire writes a Peter Parker who truly feels like a mature adult, that feels like the Peter who is truly the sum of his experiences.

Were this teenage or college aged Peter he wouldn’t have been likely to say that. If it was friggin Slott’s Peter Parker definitely not (even though he’d have still gone to play with Miles in the park rather than do his actual job). But a Peter Parker who’s insanely experienced and knows his limits? Yes absolutely he’d know he’s entitled to down time and more importantly needs it. It’s demonstrative of how guilt is present in his character and yet is not the defining trait. Responsibility is, and there is a responsibility to himself. Spidey-UK even echoes such a sentiment earlier in the story.

So with all that said I must admit this issue was a tremendous triumph from where I’m standing, I’d recommend you read it and would go so far as to call it the best issue of Spider-Gwen I’ve ever read sans her debut.

Does it change my feelings for Spider-Geddon as a whole?

No, it still sucked and was still pointless beyond resurrecting MC2 Peter (which in my book makes it worth it, sorry Spidey Noir fans, I’m sure he’ll be back eventually) but this last issue took it out on an unquestionable high note.

#Spider-Geddon #Spider-Gwen #Ghost Spider #Gwen Stacy #Spider-Man #Jason Latour #Robbi Rodriguez #Seanan McGuire #Peter Parker #Spider-Man Noir #Dan Slott #Nick Spencer #Lady Spider #May Parker

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