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imagineanime2022 · 1 year

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Amusement Park Outing *Part 3*

Chuya Nakahara X Fem!Reader

Word Count: 3205

Requested: Anon

Request: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8

Warning: Suicide, Talk of suicide, Suicidal reader, the reader is severely injured, hospitals and manipulation

*Part 2*

Yokohama had lost all sense since the escape of your prisoner, there were incidents all over the city, poisoned water, missing people, and even members of the Port Mafia had turned victim to whatever the rival group had been scheming. The official meeting had been postponed in favor of finding a way to save the city and the people in it.

You, Chuya and Koyo were in the middle of a meeting yourself after the realization that the poison used in the water was very similar to the one that they attempted to use against Koyo “with Akutagawa, Gin and Higuchi are sick now.” Koyo said. “They targeted them.” You leaned your head against your hand as you spoke, you were angry that you had managed to let the mirror user get away from you. “But what are they trying to get?” Koyo asked. “They want us to leave Mori and join them or die.” Chuya said “when I was fighting the hostage before she offered me a place with them.” “I’ll talk to Mori about this.” Koyo said as you all stood, before you could leave Ace appeared at the door. “The phone that you gave me, was hers?” Ace asked. “Who else would it belong to?” Chuya asked “She had it.” “Well then her last call before breaking out was to the Armed Detective Agency.” Ace handed over a piece of paper as you all looked at it. “The ADA…I didn’t think that they would have anything to do with this group.” You frowned. “Dazai might but the rest of them…That’s unlikely.” Chuya frowned. “You should all be more careful, you know after losing a hostage, you’ll be on his watch list.” Ace smirked, Koyo looked at him giving an overly friendly smile for the words that accompanied it. “You are barely an executive. I suggest that you stay out of this.” Koyo ordered. “Well then one last thing before I leave the signal came from somewhere near the river. (Y/N) you should check it out.” Ace explained before finally leaving. “We’ll report to Mori.” Koyo said as she looked at you, you nodded as you headed off to check the location that Ace gave you.

“You should go home and rest.” Koyo suggested after they had finished reporting to Mori, Chuya looked at her and frowned, he wanted to say no but the truth was that you had all been working hard and he wouldn’t be of any use to anyone if he tired himself out with the investigation.

As he made his way home, he texted you to make sure that you were okay, his attention taken from his phone as he looked over at the crowd blocking his journey home. “I heard it’s the Port Mafia.” Someone whispered, he frowned as he walked over to the scene, he pushed his way through the crowd crouching to look at the body that way lying on the floor, there was a woman, she had been stabbed with a knife, he assumed the one next to her, Chuya stood only for a woman to bump into him, he glared down at the coffee over the front of his shirt, he turned to try and find her but she was already gone, he grunted before stepping away from the scene and headed home.

Chuya run a bath as soon as he got home in the hopes that he could get the coffee smell off of his body, he new that he was going to have to get rid of the shirt as it would likely stain but he’d deal with that later. He was alerted to something being wrong by the sound of the water, he turned in time to grab the water user around the throat pressing her to the wall, she smirked before turning into water and reappearing slightly to the left of him “as much as I want to fight you, I have a message for you…” She said. “What?” Chuya asked. “We’ve stolen information from the Port Mafia, if you want it back then we want something in return, some information, we’ll tell you what we want when your boss agrees to a meeting” She explained. “That’s not how deals work.” Chuya glared before grabbing the knife under the sink and throwing it at her, she dodged before throwing water at him. “I really want to fight you, maybe something more… It's a shame that girl is still alive.” She sighed “the next time that we fight, I’ll fight and win, you’ll be crying for me to stop and then I’ll walk away taking that hat of yours with me as a trophy. Actually…” She reached over, taking the hat and putting it on her head, she disappeared as Chuya reached out for it. Once he was sure that she was gone, he emptied the water and left the room to Koyo who he hoped was still at the Mafia Base with Mori. “Chuya, how can I help you?” Koyo asked. “Well that water user we were talking about was just here, she said that they’ve stolen some information from us, she didn’t say what and she said that they wanted something in return, but she’d only reveal that in a meeting with the boss.” Chuya explained. “It seems that there is a lot to talk about (Y/N) has found something too.” Koyo explained. “The amusement park that you all went to a couple of months ago, seems to be the place that the poison originated from, it’s also long since been abandoned.” “It was a trap.” He mumbled. “What does the boss want to do?” “He wants to hear from everyone in the morning.” Koyo asked.

The next morning everyone relayed what they had found with Chuya starting, it then moved to you “even the gift that she got there was part of the plan, they’ve been tracking your location through her.” You explained. “Then it was a trap?” He asked. “It would seem so sir.” You nodded. “Well then you should both go and see what they want.” Mori suggested. “They said they would only tell us if you were there sir.” Chuya reminded him. “Well they’ll have to make do with you, now go.” He ordered, Chuya glanced at you, after he met you at the bar last night he had been worried about you, you’d been quiet, Chuya was about to ask if you could serve as backup when you spoke first. “I would like to do this alone.” You said, Mori smiled. “It’s too dangerous for you to go alone, you’ll go with Chuya.” He informed you before waving you both away. “Hey-” “If something goes wrong, call Dazai.” You said before walking away from him, he wanted to talk to you properly but you were gone before he could.

When you both got to the abandoned amusement park, you both saw the water user smirking at you with Chuya’s hat on her head, he grit his teeth. “Hello you two.” She waved. “I swear I’m going to kill you and take that hat back.” Chuya growled out as you walked over to the mirror user and walked back to Chuya. “It’s lucky this doesn’t matter because I know that’s all fake.” He smirked while throwing the paper to the floor “Is that what he told you to give us?” “You didn’t tell us what you wanted.” You glared at him. “Doesn’t matter, all she wants is to fight your boyfriend over there since he intrigues her so much.” He waved her off as the water user threw water at the two of you which forced you to split up. “Well, aren’t you a great friend? You are telling them all my secrets.” She glared over at him and he shrugged. “Not much of a secret is it?” He asked as he used his ability to separate the two of you. Chuya dodged the water attacks thrown at him, the water user growled before throwing some old debris at him with the water, he dodged making sure to touch the object before using his ability to throw it back at her. Chuya didn’t realized that head stepped close enough to the river on the to be dragged into the river, she attempted to drown him while she had him but it didn’t work, he easily broke her hold with his own ability and flew up above to water, Chuya threw water at her as a distraction before seemingly appearing in front of her and kicking her in the stomach knocking her to the floor, he attempted to punch her but she dodged before kicking him her foot connecting with his chin. “You really don’t remember me do you?” She asked, “Idiot.” “What are you talking about?” Chuya asked. “Well you're taller than you were when we first met.” She shrugged.

You looked at the mirror user in front of you “how are you still loyal to him after everything that you’ve been through at his hands?” He asked, you didn’t answer him, instead you activated your ability. “He saved me when I was a child.” You finally said. “He’s told you to let someone you cared for die, I feel sorry for you, even after all of that you can’t walk away from him.” the mirror user sighed. “Did you know that I can connect to spirits? Do you know what they say about you?” “You can’t connect to anything, spirits aren’t real.” You informed him. “Well what about the little girl that you left to die on her own.” He pointed to the mirror where your old friend stood, you remembered the day that she sacrifice herself for you “she died alone because of you and what about Oda, the man you neglected to help because Mori told you not to from what I understand he helped you get over the shyness and suicidal thoughts..” Oda then appeared in the mirror “and what about your father, you left him to die, the first time that you saw him use his ability to protect you.” Your father stepped out of the mirror this time his voice sounding through your head as he asked you why. Your hands came up to your head clutching your head as you cried. “You can make it stop.” The mirror user held a knife out in front of her , he wrapped her hand around the knife and pointed the end of the knife at her chest. “(Y/N)!” Chuya yelled “stop.” In a rush of movement the knife plunged into your hand.

“You should really focus on me.” The water user smirked as she attempted to hit him again, he dodged out of the way of the ice. “What the hell is he doing!?” Chuya asked. “We’ve been doing this for a week, capturing people close to the Port Mafia in some way and bringing up past mistakes, making them feel so guilty that they give in and kill themselves.” She explained “I assume he’s doing the same to her, looks like it won’t be long now.” Chuya attempted to get to you but the water user threw him back towards the river and away from you, he saw the knife in your hand, he recognised it as the one that was with the woman yesterday. The water user created a wave that carried rocks with it, he kicked the rock into the water user before attempting to get back to you, she hit Chuya before creating ice around his leg. “You really should remember me.” She held up the bracelet that looked too small for her to wear now, and he recognised it. “You were with the sheep?” He asked. “I tried to kill you before, I wanted to be queen.” She informed him. “I should have killed you back then.” He glared at her. “You should have, maybe the sheep wouldn’t have betrayed you, after all I’m the one who told them to.” She informed him, everything around them seemed to rise and fly around erratically. The water user stepped back onto the water, Chuya followed her and when she got the chance she created a water prison around him freezing it, he easily broke it before kicking a rock at her, she blocked it with an ice wall, Chuya used his ability to throw her into a wall before throwing some knives at her, she dodged those before she slumps forward Chuya pushed her back against the wall again “this was fun better than when we were kids.” She laughed. “Shut up.” He ordered throwing a rock at her.

“It’s okay to end this yourself, it’s the strongest choice you can make.” He said “Even if you want to make it as painful as possible.” “I’ve wanted to die in the most painful way since I was 15 years old.” You mumbled. “Well you're one step closer to that dream,” He promised. “This isn’t the same as that, I don’t want to die here.” You said as you started to stand, he lifted the gun he had concealed and shot you in the head, you continued moving, you kicked him creating some distance, he lifted gun and tried shooting you in the leg but again that didn’t work and you continued moving towards you, he didn’t understand, you weren’t bleeding or anything, you were fine. He retreated towards the mirror to try and escape you as he continued to shoot at you, you grabbed him around the throat headbutting him, he desperately threw glass in your face, you were hurt, you couldn’t see but you didn’t let go of him. “If I die today then I’ll be taking you with me.” You sneered, the mirror user seemed genuinely shocked though you would never see that look, he tried to get away from you but it was no use if your grip was too tight.

The explosion drew the attention of Chuya and the water user, she rushed over to the now shattered mirror to her friend while Chuya rushed to you “(Y/N)?” He asked to lift your chin so that you were looking at him, he took a deep breath as he saw the glass around your eyes, he wasn’t sure how badly your eyesight would be affected, he looked back to see that the mirror user was. “Next time I’ll kill you, both of you.” The water user informed him before disappearing into the water, Chuya knew that he wouldn’t be able to chase them he instead turned to face you and realised that you were barely breathing. “(Y/N)…” He lifted your head so that it was on his lap as he took your phone out and called Dazai. “I didn’t think that you would call.” Dazai’s voice emitted from the phone. “She told me to call you if something went wrong, I think she’s almost dead.” Chuya said followed by an explanation of everything that happened. “Patch her up as best you can, I’ll be there soon.” Dazai said before hanging up the phone, Chuya but bandages on the wounds that he could see. Dazai appeared 30 minutes later to nullify her ability, this caused all of the wounds to bleed more, Chuya glared at him. “What the hell did you do?” Chuya asked. “She was using an ability called ‘painless’ . I nullified it.” Dazai answered. “What?” Chuya asked. “Painless allows her to turn her organs to stone and endure more pain than she normally would, unfortunately just like corruption the longer she uses it the more likely she is to die from it, when she stops using it the wound becomes much worse.” Dazai explained. “There must be others out there, there was a spy in the Armed Detective Agency, she manipulates memories, she’s already targeted Kyoka and Atsushi.” Handing him a picture. “She bumped into me yesterday.” Chuya muttered as he recalled the woman that spilled coffee on his shirt. “I think you were their next target but (Y/N) would get in the way so they decided to take her out instead.” Dazai explained. “You should keep an eye on her, she came here to kill herself, she asked to do this mission alone didn’t she?” “Yes.” Chuya answered. “Do you remember when we were younger, we weren’t joking, she wanted to die to escape the guilt of leaving her friend to die, that was why she was so impulsive and protective of me, she just didn’t value her own life. You are the only reason that she’s still alive, she admitted that she’s just not brave enough to disobey Mori that is until she saw you. You know you should get her to a hospital, she could lose her sight.” Dazai said as he stood up. “You hurt her feelings at the bar.” Chuya called out as Dazai crouched, picking something up. “I was only telling her the truth.” He walked back towards Chuya and put whatever he had picked up on his head, his hat he realised “look after her.”

It had been 4 months since the incident, you had been in a coma due to all of your injuries, Chuya visited you everyday and was there when you opened your eyes for the first time, he calmed you as you panicked about your surroundings and then allowed the doctors to check you over. “What happened with Mori? He's probably mad right?” You asked. “It doesn’t matter, you need to get better.” He said as he looked at her “we'll have to take a vacation after this.” “I don’t know-” “Shh.” Chuya muttered. “I need to ask you something.” He said before proceeding to explain everything that Dazai had said before asking if it was true. “I did intend to use Painless as an easy escape.” You admitted “everyone was disappointed in me and everyone around me was angry at me.” “I wasn’t.” He promised. “I need you to talk to me, I can’t have you dying on me.” “Will you let me lean on your head when I’m able to walk around?” You asked, he was relieved that you were making jokes but he wished that you would have talked about the actual issue more. “Doesn’t matter how much pain you're in, you'll never be able to do that.” He answered as you laughed, he rolled his eyes as there was a knock on the door, and you both looked back at Koyo at the door. “I came to make sure that you were okay.” She smiled softly. “Can I come in?” You nodded shyly as she walked over and put a vase of flowers on the bedside table. “Don’t ask him but Aktugawa wanted me to bring this for you, he worried for you.” She explained “as did we all,” “You did?” You asked. “Mm, you are a valued member of the mafia and friend to many.” She nodded. “Thank you for coming on their behalf.” You said as you smiled softly to yourself, Koyo caught Chuya’s eye as he mouthed ‘thank you.’ before a normal conversation continued even branching into what you wanted to eat when you were finally out of the hospital.

*Part 4*

Request Here!!

#bungo stray dogs x reader #bungo stray dogs oneshot #bungo stray dogs scenarios #bungo stray dogs imagine #bungo stray dogs #nakahara chuya one shot #nakahara chuya imagine #nakahara chuya #imagine #oneshot #one shot #reader insert #x reader #female reader

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sskk-ao3feed · 6 months

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Quirks vs Abilities

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/CvsofWt by ilovekousano Heyyyy so um I quit my first story cuz I got rlly bad writers block and I'm already writing a story in my english class cuz teachers hate honors students but ima just use that story cuz it's pretty similar to the first one! Yosano Kana, Yosano Kira ( that's right! twins! but IDENTICAL ), Nakahara Ayaka, Gogol Alexa ( Lexi ) and Logan Callahgan ( cuz i love wild fire by Hannah Grace so much, I took Russ' last name ) are sent on a mission outside of Yokohama to infiltrate UA and gather info on the HPSC before they declare war in 3 years!!!! FYI Logan is actually in the guild! Kana and Logan are childhood rivals cuz I said so. But anywayyyyyssss how will the 4 girls + Logan complete this extremely risky mission where if anyone finds out, they'll get executed!? Words: 716, Chapters: 2/?, Language: English Fandoms: 文豪ストレイドッグス | Bungou Stray Dogs, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia (Anime & Manga) Rating: Not Rated Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Categories: F/F, F/M, M/M Characters: Original Female Character(s), Original Male Character(s), Yosano Akiko (Bungou Stray Dogs), Nakahara Chuuya (Bungou Stray Dogs), Dazai Osamu (Bungou Stray Dogs), Nakajima Atsushi (Bungou Stray Dogs), Akutagawa Ryuunosuke (Bungou Stray Dogs), Akutagawa Gin, Higuchi Ichiyou (Bungou Stray Dogs), Class 1-A (My Hero Academia), Pro Heroes (My Hero Academia), Fukuzawa Yukichi (Bungou Stray Dogs), Edogawa Ranpo (Bungou Stray Dogs), Ozaki Kouyou (Bungou Stray Dogs), Mori Ougai (Bungou Stray Dogs), Edgar Allan Poe (Bungou Stray Dogs), Tachihara Michizou (Bungou Stray Dogs), Hirotsu Ryuurou (Bungou Stray Dogs), Tanizaki Junichirou (Bungou Stray Dogs), Tanizaki Naomi Relationships: Ozaki Kouyou/Yosano Akiko (Bungou Stray Dogs), Original Female Characters/Original Male Characters, Dazai Osamu/Nakahara Chuuya (Bungou Stray Dogs), Akutagawa Ryuunosuke/Nakajima Atsushi (Bungou Stray Dogs), Fukuzawa Yukichi/Mori Ougai (Bungou Stray Dogs), Edogawa Ranpo/Edgar Allan Poe (Bungou Stray Dogs), Armed Dectective Agency Ensemble & Port Mafia Ensemble (Bungou Stray Dogs), Yosano Akiko (Bungou Stray Dogs) & Original Character(s), Ozaki Kouyou (Bungou Stray Dogs) & Original Character(s), Class 1-A (My Hero Academia) & Original Character(s), Akutagawa Gin/Higuchi Ichiyou, Tachihara Michizou/Tanizaki Junichirou (Bungou Stray Dogs) Additional Tags: Class 1-A Friendship (My Hero Academia), Class 1-A Shenanigans (My Hero Academia), lida is a little shit, Angry Bakugou Katsuki, Twins, Yagi Toshinori | All Might Being an Idiot, Yagi Toshinori | All Might Bashing, Yagi Toshinori | All Might is a Bad Teacher, mha x bsd crossover, kousano is my fav ship, thats right, soukoku isnt my number 1, its actually number 5, suck on it, i like higugin more than soukoku, Light Angst, Fluff, gay people, Elise is a little shit, Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead is So Done, Tired Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead, i mainly write abt kousano, cuz lesbian couples 4 life read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/CvsofWt

#ao3feed sskk #akuatsu #fic rec

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thefinalcinderella · 5 years

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Tsurune Book 2 Chapter 6-Door (Part 2)

It’s the Inter-High finals! Who will win, who will lose? Read on to find out! Also some really weird shit happens and by that point I was just like “...yeah okay”

This part took forever, but I hope it isn’t so tedious to read

Glossary here

Full list of translations here

Translation Notes

1. Heki-ryu Insai-ha is one of the styles still active today

2. Sakae Urakami was a 10-dan hanshi rank archer who was very well known in the kyudo world. He shot in the Heki-ryu Insai-ha style

3. Mato-tsuki means pointing the arrow at the target and teki-wari literally means dividing the target, which means turning the bow with the arm outstretched apparently. I could only find one English source for this the rest was in German hahahahahaha

4. Meigen is the ceremonial plucking of the bowstring. It is primarily done for the Imperial family. It’s believed that the tsurune helps drive away evil spirits

5. Fudou Myouou or Acala is a Buddhist deity who is a Wisdom King. He usually looks angry, carries a sword in the right hand, and has flames at his back

6. This isn’t the first time I came across wabi-sabi, and you’ve probably heard of the term before, but it’s a “world view centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection

7. The “Bow Saint” is a title given to Awa-hanshi

Previous | Afterword

At the moment one step foot in that place, one was invited into another world.

A tsurune, a matooto that pierced through the chest.

The shouts of "Alright!"

Bows and arrows came into this world as tools to sever the lives of others, but archers used them to sever their own lives.

And then, be born again.

Minato slept like a log after he returned from the hospital, and the next morning, his fever had completely receded. Even though there was still some pain left, his body felt lighter than he expected.

The fourth day of Inter-High, the last day.

The venue was wrapped in a tingling atmosphere. The number of spectators was also the most on this day out of all the days. There were many famous schools that had won, and their bow covers and bags with their schools’ name on them let their tradition and self-confidence peek through.

Next to Seiya, who was stretching, Ryouhei and Nanao were having the mysterious conversation of "Did you gooshura last night?” “Of course I did.” It was somewhat comforting. Here was the same scenery as when they were at Kazemai High School.

Kaito, with a sullen look, suddenly struck Minato’s back.

“Ow!”

“Yesterday you seemed to be gasping for breath, but since you’re able to cry out that loudly, you’re fine.”

“Your way of making seems a bit rough, Onogi.”

“Whatever. Right, we going soon?”

Prompted by Kaito, the five bumped their yugake-covered right fists.

Their opponent in the quarterfinals was the winning school the year before last. Kazemai won with seventeen hits against fifteen.

After the deciding matches for fifth to eighth place were finished, the semi-finals began. They won and advanced, but it was hard to listen to the sobbing from the people crouching behind the venue or from the washroom stalls. This was the path that they had taken, and for this tournament as well, there was the bitterness everyone except for the winning school tasted equally. The insides of their mouths felt coarse and rough.

Kazemai’s opponent in the semi-finals was Tsujimine High School.

In the hallway before the waiting rooms, Nikaidou had an amiable smile on his face. His large eyes were so full of vigor and spirit that one wondered if his panicked self from yesterday was an illusion.

He approached Minato, who was swinging his white headband.

"Why, if it isn’t Minato-chan. We were both miserable yesterday, weren’t we?”

"No, it was a good experience for me.”

"Heh…what a mature way to handle it.”

Behind Nikaidou, Fuwa was standing at a distance. He did not like to get friendly with others, so this sense of distance felt comfortable to him.

In the extreme cases of Ootaguro, Higuchi and Aragaki, they did not belong to any group from the start, because they had the air of people marching to the beats of their own drums. They were neither ashamed nor proud to be minorities—they had a natural attitude towards it. They wouldn’t feel insecure or worried even if they weren’t connected to large number of people.

Minato fixed his gaze on Nikaidou.

“Nikaidou-senpai. I’ve been recalling a lot of Saionji-sensei’s words since then. Because of that, I am convinced of this. Even if Saionji-sensei opened his door wider, your uncle would never be his disciple.”

"I’m shocked. Minato-chan, the always good boy, is provoking me? Do you feel like doing whatever it takes for the sake of winning? You sure have grown, Senpai is so proud of you.”

“Your uncle shoots in the shamen uchiokoshi style of the Heki-ryuu Insai-ha, correct? (1) Also, taking the ‘sanbun no ni’ is from the Urakami school, isn’t it? (2) Saionji-sensei talked about it. He said that since nowadays most people did shoumen uchiokoshi, he didn’t want the number of shamen archers to decrease. He also said that since he could only teach shoumen uchiokoshi, if we ever wanted to try shooting in shamen style in the future, that we shouldn’t hesitate to seek other teachers.”

“What?”

"I think Saionji-sensei knew the difference between who each archer wanted to be, and where they are aiming for. He wasn’t amazing because he hit a hundred targets. Hitting a hundred targets doesn’t have that much meaning, but the figure of someone shooting a bow is cool.”

"Heh…Thank you so very much for your valuable opinion. You must have an awful lot of free time to think about things like that the day before the competition.”

“I loved seeing you shoot, Nikaidou-senpai. The Heki-ryuu taihai you showed us several times: mato-tsuki, teki-wari and the yudaoshi towards the front of target—it was all truly cool. Yeah, you really love kyudo, Senpai.” (3)

“…I’m doing kyudo out of a force of habit. It’s just that since I’m doing it, I don’t wanna lose, and when I need to, I can use it for university referrals. It’s only insurance for broadening my future course.”

"Even so, I looked up to you when you were holding a bow. Those kinds of sharp movements could only be done by someone who trained a lot, and even now, you don’t seem like you’re doing kyudo out of a force of habit at all.”

"Hah…you two really are alike. Just as I thought."

"Huh? What do you mean ‘alike’?”

“You and your master.”

A corner of Nikaidou’s mouth lifted, and he left while fluttering his hand at him.

At the convocation call, they went on towards the third waiting room and passed through the door.

In the space enclosed by white cloth, there were also five to six staff members in addition to the competitors and managers from the two schools. Minato’s team placed their bows and arrows in the designated place and sat down in their seats with Tommy-sensei, their manager, at the end. To verify the identities of the competitors and manager, they underwent inspection of their equipment and numbers, as well as their attire, hands, and other body inspections. The staff told them that even if they lost, the deciding matches for third and fourth places would begin immediately, so they would need to come back there again.

Tommy-sensei collected the ID cards hanging from their necks, and took with him a small basket containing things like reserve arrows stuck in palm-sized, three sun (9.1cm) targets and spare bowstring reels, then they moved to the second waiting room. The competitors put down their bows and arrows again and sat down.

They would be entering the shajo once they left there. Tsujimine’s Ootaguro was cramming his left hand into a flat can filled with fudeko powder, and next to him, Seiya was doing things like rotating his shoulders.

At the signal, the ten competitors took their bows and arrows in hand and lined up in one single line.

When they entered the kyudojo, Tsujimine and Kazemai entered the first and second shajo respectively and sat down—it was finally time.

“Rise, begin!”

They did their yuu bows simultaneously, advanced to the shooting line and nocked their arrows.

First to shoot was Tsujimine’s oomae, Nikaidou.

A yugamae done in the shamen style involved making the tenouchi small to make it look like red leaves piling up, and pushing open the bow diagonally to the left at a third of one’s yazuka. Keeping that form, one raised their bow, and then at hikiwake, the right hand passed over the ear, and the arrow stops at a height that is almost level with it, which is the “sanbun no ni” position. After doing kakehodoki—making a grinding noise with the yugake at kai—he flicked his thumb, and the sharp flight of his arrow invited a matooto.

Next was the second archer, Fuwa.

His hoozuke was slightly higher than those for shoumen uchiokoshi, and his arrow was placed in between his cheekbone and the corner of his mouth (kuchiwari). He continued to stretch his arms as though they were holding the ends of a piece of string and he was extending it evenly to the left and right. He waited for the "yagoro"—the moment that led to the perfect opportunity for hanare. He also hit the target.

The third archer, Ootaguro, was very conspicuous due to his bamboo bow that was unusual for a student, the huge size of that bow, and not to mention his massive and bulky body. His amber bow bended so much that it seemed to engulf other people, and his arrow pierced the target with such a force that it made the azuchi cave in.

Conversely, the fourth archer, Higuchi, slowly lifted his bow. He drew his bow so gently that it verged on being too careful, and even if one thought that he finally reached kai, he took a considerable amount of time to release his arrow. After the spectators, wondering what was going to happen, were kept in suspense, finally at last, his arrow drew a parabola and fell to the target.

The ochi was Aragaki the maskman. Of course, he took off his mask in the shajo. Since he was narcissistic about his profile, he was extremely particular about the angle of his face. He fixed his gaze on the target to ascertain it, as though his name was being called from the target. He did not blink even once since he started uchiokoshi. He performed nobiai at kai as though to thoroughly worship his own profile.

The five got a kaichuu, and there was applause from the stands.

Kazemai did not succumb to them.

Elderly people, even if they were great archers, could never imitate the lively and youthful shooting they performed one after the other. They captured their targets in succession, and heated shouts of “Alright!” flew from the stands. The frog fans were shaking faintly.

In the second round of shooting as well, neither school missed.

Aggressive Kaito, cheerful Ryouhei, intelligent Seiya, sparkling Nanao, and cool and clear Minato――.

They increased the freshness of the colours each of them possessed, and painted a picture rich with those five colours.

Suppose that the settings book for the story called life had been written in one’s genes before one was born. Inevitable large events were prepared at each important point. However, it was up to the person themselves to write a heavy and dark story or a fun and bright story. Even if the plot was the same, it would become something else depending on the episodes one chose, and even for the same episode, just changing its arrangement would change the implications and meaning of it. There were endless ways to write, and each person had their own impressions and feelings.

Just as everyone’s faces and voices were different, no one had the exact same shooting form. No one could always shoot with the exact same form. Humans were creatures who kept on changing moment by moment. What one ate became flesh and blood, the information that entered from the eyes and ears was processed and stored by the brain, and skin cells were reborn in two weeks. One’s faces yesterday and today were similar but different. Even if one came to a stop, hung one’s head, bent over, crouched down, or shed tears of blood, a wind would still blow somewhere.

A new wind blew.

Supple limbs danced.

The color of evergreen.

Let’s etch these moments that would never fade into our memories.

The third shooting round. Seiya missed.

In the fourth shooting round, Nanao also missed, and Kazemai had the result of four, four, three, three, and four for a total of eighteen hits.

For Tsujimine as well, Fuwa and Aragaki both missed one shot each, and the results of four, three, four, four, and three—a tie.

For the tiebreaking match, each archer would shoot one arrow, and the school with the most hits won. Each person received a spare arrow from their manager, who acted as the kaizoe and sat in a reserved chair, and steadied their breathing. Even though it was just one arrow, it felt heavier than the four arrows they always had, and it was slippery in their hands from all the sweat.

“Begin!”

After finishing yugamae, both schools’ oomae raised their bows grandly. Both were marked with circles.

The second archers hit. The third archers hit.

And then, the fourth archer. The ochimae.

Tsujimine’s Higuchi missed, and Kazemai’s Nanao hit.

In the stands, the spectating Hanazawa, Shiragiku, and Seo shouted while holding each other’s hands.

The last was the ochi.

As Aragaki’s matooto sounded, Minato was inserting himself into the centre of his bow. He performed nobiai in all directions, and waited for the moment of release. After he let go of his arrow, a circle was displayed on the scoreboard.

In the midst of the applause, they exited the shajo, and Minato’s team clapped each other on their shoulders. Ryouhei carried Nanao on his shoulder and they were shouting joyfully as though the championships were already decided for them.

Kaito, overcame with emotion, covered his mouth with his hand.

“…Did we just break through the semifinals?”

Seiya answered him.

“Yeah. We defeated Tsujimine.”

“Crap, my stomach kinda hurts.”

“Again?”

While Kazemai was shouting for joy, the competitors from Tsujimine were silent. They walked as though they were heading towards the practice venue.

Nikaidou and Fuwa looked at their two senpai.

“Higuchi-senpai, Aragaki-senpai. We should hurry on back to the waiting room.”

“I’m sorry for missing…”

“It’s fine, Higuchi-senpai. That’s just how kyudo is.”

Aragaki also nodded deeply.

Nikaidou turned his back on Minato’s team and started walking. His eyes were tinged with a quiet heat.

Damn it, damn it, damn it.

So frustrated, so frustrated, so frustrated, so frustrated…

I will not be finished. This isn’t over――.

Fuwa laughed scornfully.

“It still ain’t over yet. Let’s go take third place. Then, after the closing ceremony, we’ll have a strategy meeting. When we win third, I’ll turn the information I learned into a souvenir, we’ll snatch permission to use the gym, and then we’ll reassemble a practice regimen for next year’s Inter-High.”

“…You serious?”

“If you don’t wanna, then I don’t really care.”

“…You’re still a crafty bastard, as ever.”

“Aren’t you the same?”

Nikaidou gave Fuwa a good punch in the stomach.

Tsujimine High School won third place.

The finals match.

The school that lasted to the end was, as expected, Kirisaki High School. It was a match between schools in the same prefecture.

The five Kirisaki team members were face-to-face, and Motomura gave them his final words.

“Let’s make this our greatest stage. There is nothing that can frighten us. Let’s show everyone the shooting of the powerhouse, Kirisaki!”

Shuu and the others got goosebumps at strong and confident Motomura’s words. No, they were trembling with the excitement of warriors. It felt like a burning in the pits of their stomachs. An impulse only understood by archers were in love with the bow, who were at the mercy of the bow.

Bargaining with the target.

One must not let it know that you wanted to shoot through its heart.

The five light bumped their yugake-right fists together.

Meanwhile, Kazemai was also gathered around Tommy-sensei. Masa-san spoke.

“Forget everything I’ve said up to now. You should shoot as you want, as though this is the first time that you are holding a bow.”

Tommy-sensei spoke after him.

“I feel the same way as Takigawa-san. All of you are plenty cool as you are. The best archers. This is today’s final mission. Now, let’s go.”

“Yes!”

Tommy-sensei put out his hand, and Kaito, Ryouhei, Seiya, Nanao, Minato, and Masa-san placed their hands over it.

After they entered the second waiting room, the two schools sat next to each other.

Kirisaki High School—Motomura, Senichi, Manji, Sase, Shuu.

Kazemai High School—Kaito, Ryouhei, Seiya, Nanao, Minato.

There had never been a scene that was so tense. The prefectural finals felt like it had happened a long, long time ago.

Shuu was on Minato’s left side. Even at this tournament, he got a continuous kaichuu and accomplished a monster-like act, but didn’t that put more pressure on him instead? You couldn’t keep on hitting forever. No matter how masterful an archer was, the moment when they missed would inevitably come.

However, Shuu was indifferent to Minato’s worries; he seemed happy. When he met Minato’s eyes, he smiled gently. It was like the time when they played with Souta at Saionji-sensei’s house, like even now he was planning a trick. Seeing him like that, Minato unintentionally guarded his left flank. He was far from his persona of being the “Young Prince Shuu” who many archers knew him as. He was just like a child.

Where did that calmness come from? He said that he would embody “one shot and expire,” but Minato didn’t even know what that meant.

What he did know was that his heart was pounding, and that he was excited.

The joy from being able to shoot on the same stage as Shuu.

At the signal, they stood up, and Kazemai and Kirisaki faced each other and bowed, saying, “We look forward to competing against you.”

It was the start of nyuujou. The five sat down simultaneously in the chairs of the first waiting room in front of honza. Tommy-sensei also sat down behind the competitors. The arena was different from the kyudojo they had always shot in, and even the smallest sound was picked up. It felt like everyone could even hear the sound that persisted in Minato’s chest.

His exposed heart.

The immovable target.

At the order to “begin,” the two schools went towards the shooting line, their yellow-green and purple headbands swaying above their shoulders. Masa-san, holding his breath as he watched over the group with the same-color headbands, was also at the very end of the shajo.

The oomaes began to raise their bows.

Motomura had the face of a young family head, and his true form was that of an extraordinary exorcist. When admonished by his gentle face, one would forget suspicious things and uncanniness. There were “sounds” and “words” that made people uncomfortable and those that soothed them, and seeing miracles on the bow since ancient times was because of the beauty of its form and shape. Before true beauty, people lost their wickedness, and a beautiful tsurune possessed the wavelength to heal people.

Meigen—the sound of joy. (4)

A sound that reset everything, returning them back to zero.

Kaito did not hide the heat that slept within him, and suppressed the demon with his look of anger. Like Fudou Myouou (5), he held a sword in his hands and carried flames on his back, waiting for sprouts of new life in a burnt field.

The second archers after them were Senichi and Ryouhei.

For both of them, their ideal archer was Shuu. His shooting that surpassed those of the same generation as him always captivated those who saw it. They groped for how close they could get to him, how it could superimposed over them, and how to recreate it. It was fascinating how even if they copied him, it wouldn’t be exactly the same as the original, but another way of shooting was born, mixed with their own colors. Senichi was delicate, and Ryouhei was bold and heroic. They both hit their targets.

The third archers were Senichi’s younger brother Manji and Seiya. They painted layers of muddy paint and hid their own inborn colors.

Manji had sealed up his fast shooting and kept on practicing to shoot carefully and without rushing in order to not have hayake. Just like how Senichi chased after Shuu, Manji chased after Senichi. The two of them absolutely couldn’t stand was being left behind or surpassed. A circle was shown on the scoreboard.

Rather than imitating someone, Seiya pictured his ideal image of what he wanted to do in his head and simulated it. He repeated that until he tricked his brain into believing that was truer, so even he himself completely forgot who he was originally, but from Kaito’s point of view, he didn’t seem to be able to change completely. His intricately calculated hanare induced a matooto.

Sase was an idol lover, and he himself had the talent of an idol. Like a refreshing and easygoing sportsman, he was not bashful at all, and was always in the center of a circle of strangers. He started talking to Motomura, who was brimming with wabi-sabi (6) even when he was young, not because he worried that he felt out of place in class, but because he wanted to talk to him and so he did. He also started doing kyudo because he wanted to try doing it. That was all it was.

Nanao was actually quite straightforward. He knew very well that his popularity with girls would make him the enemy of some boys, and that was exactly why he spread love. He couldn’t keep his overflowing feelings in his chest. I smile because you smile. I’m happy when you’re happy. Your angry faces, your troubled faces, I want to see lots of you.

After he snatched a magnificent hit, the yellow-green frogs in the stands swayed.

The ochi were Shuu and Minato.

When Shuu raised his bow, the world changed completely. One got lost in a shining golden land. Before that divine and beautiful archer, everything that had life stopped breathing. The fire he released from the depths of his body created an updraft, which started up and quickened. He slowly raised his two wings and spread his white feathers.

Sound was what fell.

A sound that stole away people’s memories.

When the watchers recovered their senses, the area was engulfed in the echoes from shouts of "Alright!" It gently rained with the sound that made their skin tremble and scorched their chests.

At the same moment, Minato raised his bow up high. He held his bow at kyuuha, with a strength like he was playing with it—not too strongly, not too weakly. The beautiful tsurune he heard when he was young. When that sound rang, Minato’s world changed. On the other side of the rain that fell beside him, a rainbow from thick clouds spread.

Even if he tried to not recall what was taught to him, his body remembered it all perfectly. The disciple inherited the master’s colors. Kazemai had Kazemai’s colors, and Kirisaki had Kirisaki’s colors. Even from among the many archers, when told, "You are from Kazemai High School Kyudo Club, aren’t you," he could continue hitting.

In the silence that made one even hesitate to move, the shouts of "Alright" bounced off the surrounding walls, continually going back and forth.

From right to left.

From left to right.

Thud, thud.

The sound, similar to fireworks, echoed.

The instrumental trio of tsurune, matooto, and shouts.

In the second shooting round also, tsurune were played in succession. It was all hits. Two five-person kaichuu were carried out, and there was applause.

When they entered the third shooting round, A bead of sweat ran down Minato’s cheek. His hearing wasn’t working normally, as the way he heard things was somewhat strange. A sensation of having dozed off, like he was being talked to in his head, like he was talking to someone in his dreams. Where was he right now? What was he doing? Even the act of drawing his bow felt like he was doing it in a dream-like state and lacked a sense of reality.

In the stands, Hanazawa, Shiragiku, and Seo whispered to each other.

"They are so good it’s kinda scary…"

"I agree. I feel chills, even though it is the middle of summer."

"――This is divine possession."

Seo’s words made their surroundings more and more frozen.

In the fourth—final—shooting round, the oomae Kaito missed. At someone’s sigh, the tension in the shajo was broken for a moment. Perhaps overwhelmed by the change in the flow of that wind, the arrow the second archer Senichi released also pierced the azuchi. Since it was an indoor azuchi that didn’t use soil, a tap sound, similar to a matooto, resounded.

With that, both schools had one miss――. Once more, it became a one-on-one battle between the two ochi.

The spectator’s gazes were fixed on Shuu and Minato.

When Minato raised his bow, Shuu also raised his to follow him. They parted their bows grandly and inserted their bodies into the middle of them. They slowly released their breaths from their filled and content dantian. Upon doing that, the target itself approached the archer and assimilated into him.

The target is me, and I am the target. The great I, whose boundaries as an individual had blurred, will draw my bow.

They extended in all directions and formed crosses.

Nikaidou had asked Minato, "For what reason do you shoot a bow?", but that question didn’t make sense to him. He didn’t draw the bow to win or to train his body; he faced the target to breathe. Breathing was the proof of living. Therefore, on the days when he wasn’t holding a bow, he felt like he was dead.

It wasn’t "correct shooting makes for true hitting," but "correct questions make for correct answers." A good answer was born from a good question. If one were to ask Minato a question, it should not be "for what reason," but "How do you shoot a bow?" He embodied the answer to that question every single day.

Minato and Shuu were no longer thinking anything.

They didn’t hear anything.

They returned to the time when they met, losing themselves in drawing their bows.

For honing one’s body and entering a state of absolute concentration, it was annoying and hindering to have words inside one’s head. Thinking interfered with physical activity. Therefore, deep breathing was what helped empty one’s head. Along with breath, one would make "thought" get out of one’s body.

The one who shaded the event of an arrow hitting a target with good or bad, or emotions, was the "self," and the opposite of hayake and Yips was the state of "selflessness", or the zone. Being unconscious, in a sense, was like being someone who had expired. Dead people had no consciousness, and babies played innocently and without thought. Words did not intervene there.

――One shot and expire.

The archer dying at kai and being born again at hanare was the greatest shooting technique in the ultimate secret techniques left behind by the one who was called the Bow Saint. (7) The two were making use of that technique—Shuu intentionally, Minato unintentionally.

They cried their yagoe in their hearts.

Fly, yagoe.

Clear your path.

Run, yagoe.

Today’s a day of beginnings.

The two arrows were sucked into the bull’s-eye.

Amidst thunderous applause, the bell signalling seven-and-a-half minutes sounded. Minato and Shuu turned to face their targets and moved backed towards honza, and then sat down in their chairs.

Nineteen hits to nineteen hits. It was a tie.

The two schools’ managers handed their archers one backup arrow each. Each team shot a total of five shots, and if it couldn’t be decided in one set, then they would repeat the process. It was like an izume match for group competitions.

"Rise, begin!"

The Kazemai and Kirisaki archers nocked their arrows. With a single arrow, victory or defeat was decided. An arrow that was too heavy.

My chest hurts. My chest hurts. My center of my head feels hazy, and my fingertips are getting really numb. The insides of my ears sting. To get away from this choking feeling, I’ll breathe slowly, slowly.

The first shooting round. Both schools got hits.

Next was the second round.

Ryouhei’s arrow landed to the right of the target. Sighs overlapped with shouts of "Alright" from the stands.

Third round, hits.

Fourth round, hits.

And finally, the fifth round.

Minato and Shuu made beautiful tsurune ――.

After they exited the shajo, Kazemai and Kirisaki bowed to each other. Kaito and Motomura, feeling just like Ryouhei and Senichi, mutually smashed their yugake together. Minato and Shuu also bumped the backs of their yugake.

When they passed through the exit, the press gathered to interview the winning school. Minato and the others passed by them. On the return path, there was the staff room partitioned off with white cloth, and large windows on the left side. It was dazzlingly bright outside the windows, the trees swaying in the breeze.

Ryouhei came to a stop in front of the wall between the windows, and collapsed on the spot. He pressed his head against the wall hard, and his shoulders were shaking. He got on his knees temporarily, then he couldn’t stand up anymore.

"If I…If I hadn’t missed… I wanted to shoot more, and more… It’s my fault we lost…”

Minato put his arm around Ryouhei’s shoulders from behind.

He couldn’t say anything. That regret he himself had also tasted. That intense anger and sadness towards himself.

If one was experiencing such painful emotions, then they shouldn’t be doing things like kyudo.

I’m so frustrated, I’m so frustrated, I can’t forgive myself――.

Seiya also bent down in that spot and placed his hands on the two boys’ shoulders.

"Me, Kaito, Nanao and Minato—we’ve all missed before. We’re all the same. Someone who never missed before doesn’t exist."

"Uugh…ah…"

Kaito was watching over shoulder at Nanao folding Ryouhei, Minato, and Seiya together into a big hug. Kirisaki, having finished their interviews, passed by them there, and Shuu remained behind as the other members continued on.

When Nanao and the others noticed him, they removed themselves from Ryouhei, and Shuu knelt down before him.

"Ryouhei, Sae wants to meet you. Summer vacation is still long, so would you come and play with us, if you like? It seems Toujou would also like another bout with you."

"…Alright. I won’t lose, after all."

Ryouhei had his hands taken by Seiya and Minato and stood up. He then smiled.

Shuu left them.

In the hall, competitors could be seen chatting with their families. The accompanying children, perhaps bored, ran around in their slippers while making pitter-patter sounds.

Suddenly, Shuu remembered that it was the day of Sae’s violin lesson today. He turned his face towards where the sun was shining and narrowed his eyes. He could see an illusion.

"…Sae? Why are you here?"

“Shuu-niisama, congratulations. We came here to support you, of course. We thought we would make you nervous if you saw our faces, so we made sure to not be seen. It was hard.”

Next to her, Shuu’s mother was also smiling.

“Congratulations, Shuu. You were wonderful.”

Unexpected words, from an unexpected person.

As Shuu was at a loss for words, a man appeared from behind. Without needing to cross swords with anyone, he gave off the air of someone who made others lose their will to fight—someone who had the nickname of “Samurai.”

“Father…”

“Congratulations. Your shooting closely resembled that of Saionji-sensei’s in the past. I can see that you trained a lot, Shuu.”

“…Thank you very much. I am truly sorry that you had to come all the way here while you were the one who was busy, Father.”

“To tell you the truth, I received many phone calls at my company. From Sugawara Senichi-kun and Manji-kun, Motomura-kun and Sase-kun, as well as Narumiya-kun and Yamanouchi-kun. All asking me to please come and see Shuu shoot. It seems that my son has some good friends. I am looking forward to seeing the growth of all of you from now on.”

Shuu wanted to respond, but couldn’t make words come out of his mouth no matter how hard he tried.

The unseen words written on that Tanabata paper strip were, “From your son, Shuu.”

To be able to heard the word “son” come from you--.

When the wind came dancing in from the doors, the light that reflected off the windows hid Shuu’s face.

Meanwhile, Minato and the others exited the hall to find Masa-san waiting for them.

He smiled, and while saying things like “Alright!” “Okay!” and “Let’s go and eat something tasty”, he roughly tousled the five boys’ hair. Tommy-sensei also patted their backs.

Even though Minato had been holding it back for a long time, it was at that moment that his tear glands loosened. Seiya, Ryouhei, Nanao, and Kaito were the same.

Masa-san, Tommy-sensei, you’re both awful.

Even though the closing ceremony is going to take place after this, isn’t it super uncool to mess up our hair like this…

The five boys formed a circle.

And then, they shouted that they would stand on this stage again.

At dusk, the train carrying five boys departed.

On the screen of Ryouhei’s phone, there was a picture sent by his sister.

It was a picture of overpowering mountains and a tall sky.

The first star of the evening, which couldn’t be seen from the windows of their rooms, shone.

Fragrant ears of rice and the sound of cicadas.

Before he knew it, Minato dozed off, and leaned on his teacher beside him.

Previous | Afterword

#tsurune #tsurune translation

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its-jijii · 5 years

Text

bsd girls

im gonna just uh.... warning. i didn’t expect this to be so long but below the cut is 6,745 words of me crying over girls in bsd. be warned, it is probably a long and hellish read lol. (no spoiler warning cause i think everything right now falls in realm of what has been shown in the anime)

okay hi i'm supposed to be editing photos in the car but instead i am going to rant now about how underrated the bsd girls are and why

starting out, the reason that they have so little content and attention is because there are so few female characters. in the armed detective agency the ratio of boys to girls was 8:4 (or 8:2 not counting naomi or haruno)

in the port mafia the ratio was 8:4 (counting elise)

the guild was 7:3

overall in the entire series (not counting gaiden or minor side characters), there are 40 males and 15 females*, which ends up in a ratio of 8:3.

*counting characters if they showed up in multiple different scenes or had some kind of actual role in the plot

taking this further, the number of girls with an ability are even less. elise is an ability herself, and several girls do not have an ability, such as naomi, haruno, sasaki, aya, and gin. higuchi is unconfirmed to have an ability. teruko and agatha christie have named abilities but unknown details. in the end, that leaves us with a total of ~6 females whose abilities we know of and have played a part in the plot. that is considerably less than all the males in the series, whose abilities we mostly know of- or even if we don't know all of it- the girls are still greatly outnumbered by males present and relevant to the plot.

now if we are to talk mainly about the girls relevant to the plot, there are so many reasons they should have more attention and recognition. i'm lazy so i'm just going to do them in order of who shows up on the wiki first ️✌️

armed detective agency

yosano is a wonderful character and in my top favorite characters. her personality is based strongly on her real life counterpart, who was an activist and feminist. yosano is a strong female character that has been portrayed correctly in my eyes. she is feminine, yet clearly very tough and assertive in comparison to more submissive characters or female stereotypes.

she can definitely hold herself in a fight, and has proven to be near invincible due to her strong ability. she doesn't need to rely on it all of the time, which is what makes me like her so much. some characters depend completely on their ability in order to attack, but since yosano's is a healing ability, she is unable to use it to attack. as a result, she is simply a strong and capable character. she is often shown to wield large knives or other sharp objects, and despite her slim body type, she is clearly able to handle heavy weapons with ease and still be agile. many others (males specifically) tend to underestimate her and face the consequences. by either believing she is a weak female, or believing that her ability would be useless in a fight, her enemies end up in trouble when facing her.

she is the armed detective agency's biggest weapon, with dazai landing in second place. her healing ability allows for any amount of reckless behavior or dangerous fights, because as long as her subjects are still mostly in one piece, she is able to heal them completely as if the injury never occurred in the first place. she even ends up healing her opponents after she beats them- she can bring them to a state of near death and then revive them as many times as she needs to get the information she seeks. she has no problems doing this either, as she is a doctor and is always in the face of injury and death. she knows how her ability operates, so she can stay calm in situations that would cause others to panic or struggle. she is both physically capable and mentally; there is little that can derail her, likely due to her past (vague manga spoilers mention).

as she already went through the worst of the worst when it comes to having to use her ability, and how she felt about using her ability, she has become strong and overcome her reluctance. she believed her ability to be a curse and that healing others would only bring them unhappiness. when presented with the freedom to choose, to not be forced to use her ability- she became confident and felt okay about using her ability again. as long as her ability wasn't abused like it was in the past, she was able to heal her coworkers without feeling bad about it. in overcoming her fear and unwillingness to use her ability, she became stronger in other aspects too. on top of using her ability in moderation and for good, she stands up for herself and refuses to be dominated or controlled by others. she is a doctor through and through, as she will treat injuries of friends and enemies alike. she is against meaningless death, and believes in equality between men and women.

these are just some examples regarding yosano's strength, which i respect so much. in terms of backstory, she is one of the characters who has shown growth and determination. i won't invalidate the struggles of other characters, but i believe that her progression and character should be more recognized and appreciated. she contributes and helps out more than most people realize. in the series itself, she is a desired ability user because of how useful it is. in the end, yosano chose to align herself with good. she's good to herself, she's good to her coworkers and friends, she's even good to her enemies. and i love her for all of that.

next on the list is kyouka. i apologize in advance if this seems a bit scattered; kyouka is not among my top favorites, so i haven't given her a ton of thought beforehand. (aka i am completely winging this)

kyouka as a character deserves better, and while she has shown growth, she has more room for growth still. kyouka was unfortunately pushed into a very sudden and drastic change in her life, and as a result is pretty traumatized and still has to shake off her negative mindset and bad habits. unlikely yosano, she is still very young, and has not had very long to recover from her trauma. she went from living a peaceful and happy life with her parents to being forced into the mafia after watching both of her parents die before her eyes. demon snow, her mother's ability, killed kyouka's mother and then was passed on to kyouka. kyouka could not control her own ability, and was instead forced to become an assassin for the port mafia using her ability. with no control over her ability, and having no desire to kill, it's not surprising that kyouka hated demon snow and the port mafia. upon joining, kyouka was suicidal and begged for akutagawa to kill her. when he refused and instead used her as a tool and treated her like she wasn't human, her view on life changed considerably. she could not view herself as anything more than a killing machine, a mindless and disposable tool for the mafia. upon being treated with kindness, kyouka did not know how to act. she claimed she never left because she had nowhere else to go- other reasons likely included that if she left, she would be considered a traitor and killed, and that she believed that at least in the mafia she had a purpose and use to others, even if it was evil.

kyouka found it necessary to suppress any emotions she had, probably as a coping mechanism for having to commit murder that she didn't really want to commit. she wasn't loyal or invested in the port mafia as a result of her treatment there, so when given the option to leave, she accepted with little resistance. when questioned about things regarding the mafia, she also didn't resist, and ended up willingly offering the information in exchange for food she liked.

through time spent with atsushi, kyouka has gradually grown from her original thinking and bad actions. in the beginning, she would instinctively use violence or other mafia tactics in order to get what she wanted or to defend herself. atsushi did his best to prevent her from doing that, and since then she has stopped immediately jumping to violence. she still struggles in expression emotions, but as akutagawa also stated, she has improved. she is no longer suicidal or hopeless, and feels like she has more use than just killing. she recognizes herself as a human, and that her worth lies in just her existence instead of what she can accomplish. it's okay if she doesn't use her ability, because the armed detective agency isn't about using abilities or fighting. they solve crimes and sometimes use force, but it is never required. like yosano, she has slowly begun to accept and use her ability. she recognizes that her ability, and herself, are not responsible for the death of her parents or the countless murders she committed. her ability was abused by the mafia, and her ability was given to her by her mother, though she didn't know that at first. after learning that, she has used demon snow in more reasonable situations such as defending herself, causing distractions, and using demon snow to escape situations. she hasn't used demon snow to kill anyone, and the most violent thing she has done is hold someone at knifepoint either with her own knife or with her ability.

kyouka has grown, though it isn't a sudden extreme change like with dazai and yosano- and she still has some problems she needs to sort out- but she is improving. i tend to not feel for her much because of how little she expresses emotion or opinions, but as soon as she becomes more confident i will appreciate her for more than just being a cute and supportive character. i will always love character growth, and although kyouka hasn't taken big changes regarding emotions, she still has gone far and it deserves recognition. not to mention she is still only 14, but she is doing very well in adjusting to a different life. she didn't deserve any of the bad things that happened to her, so in that i can sympathize. she was not evil by choice like some are, so her decision to completely desert her future in the mafia in exchange for the armed detective agency is wonderful. she is near fearless but protective of those she cares for, and passionate even though it isn't shown well most of the time.

port mafia

moving from the armed detective agency to the port mafia, i will begin with higuchi. higuchi is another character i think is considerably misunderstood and underrated. on the surface, yes, she can be seen as obsessive and weird, but she isn't really all of that. i believe that a big part of the hate she gets is due to shipping reasons- she is romantically interested in akutagawa, which can interfere with other ships. as a result, they end up attacking higuchi and pointing out all of the perceived flaws in her relationship with akutagawa.

i do not believe higuchi's behavior to be creepy or bad, actually. to me, she more acts like a teen with a crush. she does not stalk or harass akutagawa, nor has she done anything terrible to him. the hate she gets for crushing on akutagawa is unreasonable to the extreme for me. upon introducing them both, higuchi is shown as being overly eager to assist akutagawa. as she is his direct subordinate and cares about him, it's understandable for her to not want him to be in danger, or simply trying to make his job easier. akutagawa as a person doesn't like help, so he sees higuchi as an annoyance and trouble. he treats her (and kyouka) how he was treated- he's abusive and unnecessarily cruel, though i believe that is also learned behavior from dazai.

however, despite higuchi's over eagerness to help, she always has the best of intentions. in no way is she trying to inconvenience him or annoy him. she is just doing her job as a mafia member and helping her superior. i cannot understand the faults people find in that. i do not hate people for doing their job, even if their job is evil; it is just what they are required to do, and sometimes you can't fault that.

her "creepy" tendencies can be narrowed down to stalker-ish and obsessive. it is true that she is interested in akutagawa, but that does not mean that all of her actions are purely from a romantic stance. she cares for him, so it is natural for her to want to protect him. it is understandable for her to be concerned for him- he is not in the best of health, he's reckless, and he refuses help. she wants to avoid him being injured or killed, and not just because she is interested. i believe she also simply respects him as a person, and as her superior. in the mafia, loyalty is a strong tie, and for higuchi, her loyalty isn't 100% rooted in the mafia itself. she is more loyal to akutagawa, but that isn't unusual either. dazai was more loyal to oda, which is why he left for oda's sake. akutagawa is more loyal to dazai than the mafia, so he will respond to dazai's calls and orders. the same can be said for higuchi.

higuchi may be a bit overprotective, but again, that isn't a bad thing. she saved akutagawa's life when she realized that he was in critical danger and that the mafia would not do anything to save him. she bravely took on the task of raiding the enemies to rescue him while he was incapable of fighting back. she might have died had the black lizard not intervened, but she was willing to risk her life for the person she cared about. she also has implied many times that she does not feel that she is suited for working in the mafia, but she stays anyway because she loves akutagawa. again, that doesn't really pass into obsessive territory. if you are close to someone and love them, of course you would do these things for their sake. of course things with her seem more intense, but that is only because of their job. normally doing something for someone you love is maybe an easy task or errand. in the mafia, it can mean fighting a difficult battle in order to help your loved one(s). this is all circumstantial stuff that feels inadequately thought about.

regarding her stalker-ish tendencies, i still do not understand where that comes from. the definition of a stalker is "a person who pursues someone obsessively and aggressively to the point of harassment". higuchi does not follow akutagawa around outside of work or harass him. at work, naturally she is with him a lot and doing things for him (it's her job). however, she does not know unnatural things like where he lives or even familial ties. when she passed him on her way home from work, she appeared excited and wondered if she could offer to drive him home. not because she wanted to know where he lived, but simply to do him a favor and potentially increase his feelings for her. she also debated inviting him for tea. to people who think that is weird, i have to think that they have not experienced many normal connections. to coworkers or not very close friends, inviting people out to dinner or for a drink is not uncommon. as it was night, it would make sense for her not to think "i should take him to a cafe" but rather think "i should invite him over for tea". she wanted to drink tea with him, spend time with him, and talk to him. if shops at that time so happened to be closed, it would only make sense to invite them over. i cannot see what is unusual or wrong about that situation.

when she saw akutagawa meeting with gin, she misunderstood the situation, which again is a forgivable mistake. her thought process was not overly obsessive or weird; at first, she was jealous because she believed gin to be akutagawa's partner. from there, her overprotective side also kicked in- sure, gin could be his girlfriend, but she could also be a spy sent to kill him. not 100% of her malice at gin was because of jealousy, but she was worried for akutagawa too. when she congratulated atsushi on delivering a love letter to gin, it was both out of hope that she would have a chance again, and that akutagawa would be safe if gin was in fact a danger to him. later when she spotted gin, gin was startled and began running. higuchi picked up on her agileness and decided that she was definitely an assassin/danger to akutagawa. she was trying to harm gin, yes, but she did not know it was gin or that she was related to akutagawa. when she later learned that, she was very sweet to gin. she felt no real ill will toward her, but more concern for akutagawa taken a bit too far. i still would not say this is stalker or obsessive tendencies. higuchi is a misunderstood worrywart with a crush. i understand why some people think she is annoying, but at heart she is really just a caring and funny character. she does not deserve the hate she gets, and she also does not get the love and attention she should have. whether or not she "interferes" in your ship, you shouldn't dislike her purely on that and her interest in akutagawa. she is yet another powerful queen and she is trying her best.

higuchi’s interests aside, she is still a great character. at times she is shown to be unsure of herself or relying on others, but i would say that she is still independent and capable. she does not need others to take care of her; she can handle a weapon fine, and she is brave and selfless in fights. she is not stupid, although her hesitation in some situations can be labeled as that. however, she does not need others approval to make decisions, and she is considered a high rank. i do not know akutagawa’s direct position in the mafia, but if she is serving under him, then she is still above the black lizard. as shown when the squad came to rescue her without her having to order them to, they do have a degree of respect and care for higuchi. she is ranked above them somehow, and that position doesn’t come with ease. they are in the mafia, and i imagine that rising in ranks is difficult. while we don’t know her backstory or how she came into the position she is in now, it should be acknowledged that she did something to get where she is now.

kouyou is another one of my favorites. she is a good example of what can be considered a traditional woman while still being powerful and capable on her own. we don't know a ton about her (especially about backstory), but there is plenty of things to appreciate about her. she is loyal, caring, and protective to those she cares for most, notably kyouka and chuuya. kouyou is one of the port mafia’s five executives, and she is another mafia member who worked to get her position. being one of the five executives is second only to the boss of the port mafia. she worked to get into her position, and it is a considerably high rank. mori stated that kouyou is one of the few people strong enough to be able to leave the mafia and live. despite wanting to leave the mafia in the past, she switched her loyalties along the way and now serves the mafia well.

while golden demon is a strong ability on its own, kouyou is strong in fighting with her own sword. her appearance is deceiving, as she is not portrayed in an overtly threatening way. on the surface, she has no weapons, and her outfit initially gave me the impression that she is the type to refrain from violence or fighting. why would she get blood on her kimono, and how does she fight wearing high heels? (it seems that a lot of female characters fight in heels, which is respectable). however, kouyou is perfectly capable in fighting and defending herself both with her ability and with her own concealed weapon. considering kyouka’s tendencies and style of fighting, she was likely trained as an assassin under kouyou. it can be assumed that kouyou is a good assassin, as she certainly does not appear to be one.

there is discussion of if kouyou works in a brothel, as her voice actor apparently speaks like one. if this is the case, then it is even more likely that she and her subordinates are trained assassins. there are several things also implying this as her job, which i have no fault with. she is good at what she does if she is one of the five executives.

while kouyou may be overly negative and cynical, she is not a bad person. in the end, it seems she just wants the best for kyouka. while her idea of what is best is warped, that also cannot be faulted. she is thriving in the mafia, and she directly suffered the consequences of trying to leave. she is trying to prevent the same thing from happening to kyouka. while we can’t necessarily see growth in kouyou due to the lack of scenes with her, it can still be said that she has grown out of her initial plans for kyouka. while she likely still has the same negative mindset, she stopped projecting everything onto kyouka and encouraged kyouka’s freedom and happiness. she recognized that the best for kyouka was not necessarily staying with her, resulting with her letting kyouka go. she grew out of her possessive behavior and bad mindset and changed to do what would help kyouka and make her happy. in the end, she just wants kyouka to be safe and happy, which is a nice motivation considering her aggressive and violent nature toward enemies.

elise is going to be a short one due to lack of information and the fact that she is an ability. i do have to say that despite her existence and situation, none of that can really be helped. she is powerful as an ability, and probably is a pretty good cover for a lot of things. she can always be passed off as mori’s daughter, and her young and innocent looks do not give off any impression that she is dangerous or an ability. she has her own personality and opinions, and while they were mostly determined by mori, she is still capable of thinking and acting as she wants. it can’t be said that she is her own person, but she is certainly in charge. so far it does not seem that she is 100% bound to mori’s orders, so she is able to argue and get what she wants. a big portion of why i personally am not a huge fan of elsie is because she is connected to mori. but mori aside, not considering how he acts around her and treats her, i think she’s a good kid. she’s pretty normal considering that she’s an ability, in the mafia, and capable of murdering someone.

gin is an absolute darling and i will now tell you why. there is not a ton of canon content of her, so it is understandable that people are not really into her. in the first place, it isn’t clear that she is a girl until a good way through the guild arc. she has no ability, and no definitive backstory or personality. however, that does not mean that she should get so little attention. regarding the mafia, she is very good at her work. she is another assassin, and while her looks can be deceiving, it is also very clear that she is dangerous and deadly. right off the bat she is shown to be sly and fast, and capable of assassinating people very well. being a selective mute, she is very quiet and secretive. not talking means obviously that we cannot deduce her exact thoughts, intentions, and motivations, but based on other things we can guess some things.

to start with, despite her angry exterior, she is a sweet girl. she’s beautiful and considerate, and clearly cares for her brother akutagawa. in the past, she was the one who saved herself and akutagawa from being killed by the mafia. after joining, she rose ranks to be one of the three commanders in the black lizard. outside of work, she is still quiet, but is considerably softer and more expressive than when working. she does not wear a mask to conceal her emotions and reactions, and she is less apprehensive of speaking. she was considerate of katai when he confessed his feelings for her, not treating him in a rude manner at all.

the thing that stood out to me most about her was how much she thinks about akutagawa. noticing he was stressed about work, in an omake she was shown to have gone around asking other mafia members for things to help him relieve stress. she found problems in each solution offered, and ended up choosing what she thought best. she sat down and had tea with him, which was very sweet and caring of her. she is not always cruel and violent, and her motivations are likely along the lines of her care for her brother and her will to stay alive and in a good position in life. she is not violent for the sake of violence; she is just doing her job and what she is good at.

(i wrote a different analysis of gin here)

the guild

to start with discussions of the girls in the guild, lucy maud montgomery is first. she has considerably more content than the others, but that cannot be helped, as she has more screen time than alcott or mitchell. montgomery’s motivations and feelings are pretty open, so i cannot say that she is misunderstood or ignored. she has attention, but i do think that she deserves more (as all the girls do). at least, beyond shipping material, there is more to her character. she has improved since her traumatic past experiences, albeit in a different way than atsushi has. in the beginning, her actions and methods were confusing and not explained. however, she was just another character doing what her job required, and what she required to live happily. to her, she wanted a place to belong, and the guild was that place. when faced with potential loss of her newfound home, naturally she was willing to go to any lengths to stay, including capturing and messing around with the detective agency. montgomery is smart and capable with a strong ability to back her up. her ability, while used for kidnapping, has many other purposes as it later shows. had she initially been on the good side, a lot more people would probably like her. she was purposefully made to look and act intimidating and mean, although that is just a front she puts up. after she can be considered a tsundere, although terms like that annoy me slightly. it is weird to simplify a unique character down to a few shared traits with a stereotype- let’s just say that montgomery is flustered easily and does not know how to deal with her emotions in a positive way. by that i mean that how she acts can be perceived as bad by readers and watchers, though that is not what she is intending to do. i think that montgomery is trying her hardest and while her methods are not the best, she is still a good person who is just trying to get along in life and make close connections to people.

margaret mitchell is another character i cannot talk very much about, as she has hardly appeared in the series at all. despite her outwardly narcissistic and snobby personality, i also do not think that she is all bad. her ability, which we have not seen much of, can be decidedly negative. we have not seen a way in which she uses her ability in a positive manner, but as we do know her motivations, i can still say that she is not trying to be a bad person or anything of the sort. her reason for joining the guild and attacking yokohama was to restore her family’s honor. as we know nothing of her backstory, i cannot say why this was so important to her, but it seems to be of noble reasoning at the least. a lot of characters have good intentions or motivation and just a terrible method of execution. mitchell is one of these characters.

however, even if you were to dislike her purely based on her arrogant and rude attitude, it must be acknowledged that she is not terrible to those on her side. while threatening kajii and akutagawa, she was also shown to be selfless in defending hawthorne using her own body as a shield. now that she is stuck in a coma, hawthorne seems intent on helping and erasing her family’s debt for her, since she is incapable. that implies that she must have some kind of soft and nice side, otherwise i do not think hawthorne would consider her to be his loved one. we only saw her disintegrating his bible and arguing with him. aside from sacrificing herself, she must have done something to earn his affection and loyalty- hawthorne has gone very far in his attempts to save her.

personally i think the reason a lot of people dislike her is her stuffy attitude combined with her appearance. her complaining of others not working while combined with her wearing an over the top large dress likely contributes to the dislike or indifference i see directed at her. she is very unlikeable on the surface, nor can i say that i like her at this point.

and lastly in the guild, i will be talking a lot about louisa alcott. she is the main reason i decided to write this long ass post. alcott is in my opinion, probably the smartest of all of the geniuses in bsd. there are different kinds of smarts, of course, and it is not too hard to sort them. dazai and fyodor lie mainly in tactician. they are wonderful at predicting enemy moves and creating plans. ranpo is also shown to be helpful in that, though his strength lies in solving mysteries and analyzing evidence. dazai is also good at solving mysteries and analyzing. mori is implied to be good at a variety of things- strategizing, logical thinking, effective manipulation, and leading. he is good at making things go his way, and good at doing what is best for his organization, even if that means sacrificing others. in general, there are many intelligent characters, but the “geniuses” tend to be labeled as fyodor, dazai, mori, and ranpo. i have never seen alcott included in that grouping despite her being debatably the best out of all of them.

it must be noted that alcott’s ability is not the cause of her intelligence. rather, it simply furthers her abilities. i do not think that she would need to rely on her ability to be good at what she does; she is a very thorough tactician, and given extra time, can write out the most ridiculous plans i have seen. it is absurd how much she is able to predict and write about. “Little Women is an ability that allows Louisa to make time pass at 1/8000th of regular speed, but only while thinking alone in a private room.” nowhere does that description list that it furthers her intelligence in some way. from that, we can gather that she indeed can sit in a room for a few minutes or hours, and in real time weeks will pass. she can sit for weeks straight and simply think of and write every possibility. she can list every outcome, every action their enemies might make, all the action plans the guild can go with, and so much more. she can estimate the damage her plans provide, the likelihood of success, and compared to other plans she has written out, whether or not she would recommend it. she is shown to be cautious in her planning, since despite her seemingly ruthless plans, she always directs fitzgerald away from choosing the more dangerous options. that also shows that despite her listing very violent plans, she is against going with them and disagrees with the more violent options she came up with.

i think it is amazing how much concentration and energy she has. sure, the other geniuses may be able to reason out how their enemies are thinking and doing- but alcott is a different level. she will write packets (multiple!!) of analysis and options. i do not know how much i can stress this. these packets are hundreds of pages, written in a few hours by her. with given information, she can predict up to how other people will react to given situations, and how to manipulate the situation for the best outcome for the guild. she was able to somehow predict the reappearance of kyouka when atsushi was attacked, and how exactly to get away with capturing atsushi while simultaneously eliminating kyouka from doing anything more against the guild. she wrote up to the very specifics how that situation would lay out, and all that fitzgerald needed to do in order to capture atsushi. call the police on them! how did she know the police would be nearby and that atsushi and kyouka would turn to them? hell if i know, but that is amazing as fuck and i don’t think that the others compare in any way to that.

of course she does have boundaries, such as when chuuya and dazai teamed up against lovecraft and steinbeck in order to retrieve Q. i would say that she could not have planned that given what she knew of their personalities and how they would work together. even if they were past partners, logically it does not seem likely that they would team up, even in a dire situation. but they did, and to top that, chuuya used corruption. that was something that alcott did not plan for, likely due to lack of information she received. otherwise, she was able to take into account so many factors- timing, abilities, personality, and likelihood of events happening- and create functional and effective plans. knowing how Q’s ability works, she thought of a way to cause the most amount of destruction by combining Q and steinbeck’s abilities. personally, i would not have thought of such a method. it is brutal, but it did work out for them. most of the mafia and detective agency were occupied with dealing with Q’s curse rather than pursuing the guild. she had backup plan after backup plan. i believe that they were so detailed and complicated that without an exact copy of all of her writing, dazai and ranpo would not have been able to come up with a plan to counter what she was doing. they are good at guessing what can come next, but attempting to guess all of alcott’s thinking is impossible. to me, she will always surpass the other geniuses in the series, as she is the best of the best considering everything.

if comparing her capabilities to that of others, she covers almost all the bases. in terms of leading, mori is good because he is willing to sacrifice others for the sake of the greater good. alcott made plans that were willing to sacrifice all of yokohama for the benefit of fitzgerald solely. dazai and fyodor are good at guessing how the other will think. i would say that alcott can do the same, though on a much larger scale. given a longer amount of time, the others could likely come up with similar plans, but since they are not alcott, they cannot come up with her predictions that cover almost every base. her ability to slow down time and then sit still for technical weeks at a time thinking of every possibility is amazing. though we have not seen her solve any crimes, i would say that she is still very good at analyzing and using data to her advantage.

brains and ability aside, i think that alcott is a lovely person. though she has severe social anxiety and is very bad at talking to people, she is very kind and loyal to those she cares about. again, she can be ruthless against her enemies, but who isn’t? when not considering her position as a tactician in the three way organization conflict, she is very good. she wants to do the best she can to help others, and despite her low self esteem, feels confident enough to present her thoughts to those she is comfortable with. unfortunately she only seems comfortable with a small number of people, but she is caring and giving to those few.

i apologize for the long rant on alcott. it feels kind of unorganized and sloppy, but i honestly have no idea how to properly explain my respect and love for this character. she is never talked about or drawn or anything, and she deserves so much more than she gets. once you get past that initial barrier of “she’s too quiet, she’s a pushover, her plans are cruel and violent” you will realize that is not always the case. in reality, when consulted she is able to provide good advice and solutions to problems. she was very against fitzgerald going with her more extreme plans. yes, she thought them up since she thought up every possibility, but she strongly advised against those plans for obvious reasons.

the rest of the girls i cannot say much about. aya seems very sweet and justice oriented, and i think i would prefer to see her as an actual character rather than the odd lovechild of dazai and chuuya. chuuya did not even really show up in the manga in that scene…… anyway, i do not know enough about teruko and agatha to talk about them properly. teruko seems overly violent, but i do believe that she is just doing her job, again in a kind of bad way. unfortunately, i do not know anything of gaiden, so i cannot properly discuss tsujimura. however, i have heard that she is a sweet girl, and i would like to read more about her.

in conclusion, i don’t feel that the girls in bungou stray dogs are properly appreciated for what they are. sometimes they are misunderstood, sometimes they are ignored, but no matter the case, i think that all the girls in bsd are wonderful. slimy men? yeah fyodor, dazai, and mori. slimy women? there are none. they’re all perfect. they have their faults of course but really, none of them are incredibly evil or anything. for the most part we know their intentions, unlike some of the guys i listed. and often times those intentions are not bad at all, even if they are executed in a bad way. they tend to not rely completely on their ability, unlike a lot of the males in the series. dazai, akutagawa, and atsushi are all good examples of characters who rely heavily on their abilities to do things. in contrast, most of the girls don't rely on their abilities or other people. their abilities help them, of course, but they are plenty capable on their own. some of them don’t even have abilities- higuchi and gin being prime examples- but they are able to fight and be independent.

please give the girls in bungou stray dogs more care and attention. they are so fucking valid and i love them from the bottom of my heart

also!! i forgot to say but please reblog, dm, comment, whatever the fuck unpopular bsd opinions. i love a good rant™ and i have a lot of thoughts

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austerlitzborodinoleipzig · 5 years

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Favorite programs of the 2018/2019 season

I thought since the new season is right upon us that I would list my favorite programs from the last one. So let’s start with the SP.

Also before I start, take the rankings I made with a grain of salt. Last one on the list means I absolutely adore them. First one, I love them but wouldn’t call them masterpieces. Between that, the order’s a bit random, so yeah...

Ladies

8 - Alysa Liu - Don’t Rain On My Parade (vid from US Nats)

I won’t go in a debate on whether Alysa’s win at Nationals was ridiculous, and yeah I’m aware that the amount of hype around this girl is stupid and unhealthy. And sure her jumping technique is far from ideal and her skating skills, albeit good for her age, not that good. And yes she has her entire career ahead of her so let’s not count the chickens before they’s hatched...

But her charisma, her performance and the sheer joy on her face when she was on the ice!...The song was well chosen, wonderfully tongue-in-cheek. And maybe she’ll turn out to be a fluke but what the hell. She won Nationals at 13! She already made history and whatever happens, that skate was one of the highlights of the season. When watching I was just smiling and smiling the whole time and no one had any right to rain on her parade.

7 - Alexandra Trusova - Kill Bill OST (vid from RusNats )

Thank God she ditched to black and yellow pantsuit with that horrid skirt. Sasha’s the only Eteri girl who had a good packaging that season. Both programs played to her strength and did a marvelous job of hiding her weaknesses. Performance and interpretation have never been Trusova’s strong point. But she was delightfull in that SP. She had fun and it showed. Also that 3Lz-3L right on the beat is just wonderful.

6 - Anastasia Gubanova - Take Five (vid from the Cup of Russia Final)

Okay so I have a soft spot for jazzy programs. Plus I love Nastya’s posture and carriage on the ice. I love her sassy spirit. I especially love the choreo for the arms. Nastya knows how to dance on the ice and the SP showcases that. Shame about the telegraphed jumps tho

5 - Marin Honda - Seven Nation’s Army (vid from Skate America)

First of all, Marin had the second best dress for the short of the season. Secondly that final spin alone makes the program a good one to my eyes. And finally the step sequence is just fire. And that final pose. It’s elegant, it’s sophisticated, it’s lovely. Marin Honda was never on my radar, but after her SP at Skate America I was hooked. She’s that good a performer.

4 - Alena Kostornaia - Departure Lullaby/November (vid from JGPF)

From a fairly ordinary Daniil G program, Alena was able to make a work of art. She’s that strong. (So let’s hope the same will happen with the Twilight FS). Each gesture is refined, detailed, carries a meaning. She skates through a gazillion transitions and is still able to keep the program’s flow. She can be elegiac, she can be intense. She feels the music and expressed it through her moves. She’s one of a kind.

3 - Satoko Miyahara - Song for the little sparrow (vid from Skate America because that was my favorite dress of her)

To date, my fave program from her. Okay Satoko is not one of my faves. I admire her skating bu I just can’t get into. I usually really like her SP but most of the time her FS fail to make an impression on me. I didn’t like her tango last season. But this program is exquisite. First of all the music choice is original, the spins and the steps are to die for

2 - Evgenia Medvedeva - Orange Colored Sky (to see what could’ve been we have to do a mesh up of Skate Canada and ACI)

Okay I’m cheating a bit here. We never saw it skated to its full potential, and she ditched it fairly early in the season, so... I’m left sobbing thinking about what could have been, because that program was a choreographic jewel. So inventive and fun (and I wish she’d skated it in a tuxedo, as Sandra Bezic proposed). Let’s hope she skates it some time in the future as an EX or even as a competitive program, and that she continues to work with Bezic.

1 - Wakaba Higuchi - Energia (Skate Canada is my favorite version. Some transitions were gone by the time of Japan Nats)

Okay Wakaba wins the Most Original Music Choice as well as Best Dress award. That dress is gorgeousn, and the illusion fabric so well done that I had to watch her SP half a dozen times to spot it. Also I want to say that Wakaba as impeccable tastes and I’ve never seen a bad program from her. They all range from “lovely” to “masterpiece”. That SP is fun, brilliant, out of the box. It’s a BOP.

Honorable mentions : Alena Leonova (Nocturne), Anna Kuzmenko (I Won’t Dance), Bradie Tennell (Rebirth), Poline Tsurskaya (And The Waltz Goes On), Ting Cui (Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini)

#figure skating #favorite programs #alysa liu #alexandra trusova #anastasia gubanova #marin honda #alena kostornaia #satoko miyahara #evgenia medvedeva #wakaba higuchi #ranking programs is my passion

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tsukihoshi14 · 6 years

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Spin The Dream - Yuzuru Hanyu (part 1)

This is a two-part special feature done by Goto Taisuke, Asahi Digital about Yuzuru’s skating career. They are both beautifully done, so I highly recommend you to go through both slide shows: first feature (Dec 2017), second feature (Feb 2018).

The first feature focuses on Yuzuru’s skating career and people involved early in his skating career while the second one puts an emphasis on his senior years. I really like this first feature as it really highlights all the support that Yuzuru has been receiving ever since he was a child, with mentions of people we may never hear about anywhere else such as coach Mami Yamada, Yutaka Higuchi-san. Reading this, I can really understand how the support from so many people helped shape Yuzuru’s career and why he's so grateful for them.

I’ve done the translation of the second feature here if anyone’s interested. Below is my translation of the first feature. Enjoy! :D

「SPIN THE DREAM - YUZURU HANYU」

(Slide 1)

Caption: Reaching that stage once again with the support from many people

(Slide 2) Title: Spin the Dream - Yuzuru Hanyu

(Slide 3)

Caption: He touched the ice after a practice session 10.19.2017

(Slide 4)

Yuzuru Hanyu always bows very deeply. Before stepping onto the ice or leaving the ice, he'd touch it. There were also times where he looked at the ceiling and muttered "I'm sorry" after having a bad performance.

"I'm not sure since when I've been doing it. I think I've gradually been doing it more and more. A lot of things came to me, and I was supported a lot too."

Hanyu puts into his routine the thoughts he has for his coaches, his family and predecessors in the Japanese skating world.

(Slide 5)

Title: 4 YEARS OLD -1998: THE TROUBLESOME PRINCE Photo caption: Yuzuru Hanyu in his childhood

(Slide 6)

"Oh no, hey, not so fast!", Coach Mami Yamada still remembers the impatience of the 4-year-old Yuzuru Hanyu when he first got onto the ice. He came running and jumped upon the ice, then fell down hard hitting his helmet onto the ice, and quickly got up and running again. Yamada raised her voice without thinking.

Every time he came to the rink together with his sister who were learning figure skating, he would run around outside the rink. After Yamada told him "If you're so noisy, want to try this?", Hanyu put on the skating boots. A child that skates for the first time would get onto the ice gently, fall from the sitting position and get used to the ice. However, Hanyu was different. "I've never seen such a fearless child.", she said.

Photo caption: Mami Yamada and Yuzuru Hanyu

(Slide 7)

The skating notes with which he reflects on himself

He would be bored of the training after 10 minutes and go somewhere else. His expression when he turned his head or swung his limbs was also unique. "He was very good at expressing his sincerity, it felt as if he were a prince from a shojo manga rather than a protagonist in a shonen manga." She wanted him to drop his style of doing things and learn the basics, but he didn't listen so she was very troubled.

He didn't remember what she said at all, so Yamada told him to keep a diary and write down things that he was advised on and couldn't do. They are the notes that Hanyu calls "research note", in which he has been continuously writing down key points.

Hanyu talked about it like this: "It's probably around my second year in elementary school. I've been doing so after I was told to keep a diary for daily practice. And I also write down the thoughts I have as I see fit."

After practice, for a short time in the evening before going to sleep, he would write down the ways he jumped and the movement of his arms while jumping. He has been experimenting at the practice rink to find the jumping style that would suit him.

(Slide 8)

Taking care of the raw talent

After coaching him until the end of his 2nd grade in elementary school, Yamada moved back to her parents' home in Hokkaido. At that time, she called the famous coach Shouichirou Tsuzuki. "Sensei, I beg you, please come to Sendai. Please make sure you don't put his talent to waste. Because he's an amazing child."

(Slide 9) Title: The people who have decorated Japanese Figure Skating history

(t/n: An interactive display of people who have greatly impacted the history of Japanese Figure Skating and their relationships. Because there are quite a lot of them, I only translated the information of those directly related to Yuzuru in the display)

Soushi Tanaka Born in 1982, from Miyagi Prefecture. "The jump genius" coached by Hiroshi Nagakubo. He taught Hanyu how to jump triple axel. Relationship with Hanyu: He coached Hanyu in his middle school and high school years. Mainly taught Hanyu jumps.

Hiroshi Nagakubo Born in 1945, from Yamanashi Prefecture. Won the Japanese Nationals in Pairs for 5 consecutive years from 1967 to 1971. Competed for Japan in the 1971 Sapporo Olympics. After he turned to coaching, he has trained Shizuka Arakawa and other skaters. Relationship with Hanyu: He coached at the rink in Sendai where Hanyu skated. He advised and encouraged Hanyu on jumps.

Nanami Abe Born in 1972, from Miyagi Prefecture. A coach and choreographer. She coached Yuzuru Hanyu at Sendai's ice rink until 2012. Relationship with Hanyu: She coached Hanyu in his middle school and high school years. With a focus on the beauty of glides and skating skills.

Daisuke Takahashi Born in 1986, from Okayama. He is the 2002 Junior World Champion and was the first in Japanese Men's to win an Olympic medal, a bronze, at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Relationship with Hanyu: He co-starred with Hanyu in the charity ice shows supporting the recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Tatiana Tarasova Born in February, 1947, from Russia. She trained many World Champions and is called "Gold medal Maker". She also offered a piece of music as Hanyu's exhibition skate. Relationship with Hanyu: She offered his exhibition music for 2016-17.

Mami Yamada Born in 1973, from Hokkaido. She coached at Sendai's ice rink after graduating from Nippon Sport Science University. She coached Yuzuru Hanyu and his sister. After that, she moved to Sapporo. Relationship with Hanyu: She coached Hanyu since he started competing at 4 years old until his 2nd year of elementary school (~7 years old). She advised him to keep a diary.

Shouichirou Tsuzuki Born in 1938, from Aichi Prefecture. A Nion University alumnus. He established the instructor certification system. He trained Yuzuru Hanyu when Hanyu was small. Relationship with Hanyu: He coached Hanyu from Hanyu's 2nd year in elementary school after Coach Mami Yamada. He taught Hanyu the importance of dance and artistry.

Victor Ryzhkin He worked for the president of Soviet Union for a long time as a coach, and was the coach of Tarasova. From 1989, he came to Japan for a few years at the request of Tsuzuki and coached skaters there. Relationship with Hanyu: Ryzhkin coached Hanyu. He cooperated so that doing choreography and training in Russia would be possible.

Mao Asada Born in 1990, from Aichi Prefecture. A Chukyo University alumnus. The triple axel is her weapon. She is the 2008 and 2010 World Champion. He won the silver medal at 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Relationship with Hanyu: She co-starred with Hanyu in the charity ice shows supporting the recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Yutaka Higuchi Born in 1949, from Tokyo. He competed at the Olympics twice as a competitive skater. He was the first non-European member of the Cricket Club in Canada. Relationship with Hanyu: He asked his long time friends Orser and Wilson to support Hanyu.

Brian Orser Born in 1961, from Canada. He coached the 2010 Olympic Champion Kim Yuna (KOR). He has been coaching Yuzuru Hanyu since 2012. Relationship with Hanyu: He has been coaching Hanyu since 2012. Beside a emphasis on skating skills, he also respect his skaters' opinions.

David Wilson Born in 1966, from Canada. He's one of the world's best choreographers. He used to choreograph for Midori Ito upon the request of Yutaka Higuchi. He's also in charge of choreographing skaters such as Yuzuru Hanyu. Relationship with Hanyu: He has choreographed Hanyu's free and exhibition programs since 2012.

Jeffrey Buttle Born in 1982, from Canada. He was the 2006 Olympic Bronze Medalist and 2008 World Champion. He has been working on Hanyu's choreography since 2012 Relationship with Hanyu: He has been choreographing all of Hanyu's short programs since 2012, "to show the charm of a boy becoming a young man".

(Slide 10)

Title: 9 YEARS OLD - 2003: BECOME AN ARTIST Photo caption: Yuzuru Hanyu when he was elementary schooler, after winning an international competition

(Slide 11)

Sing Sing Sing

From elementary school to middle school and even high school, Yuzuru Hanyu never changed and was always a mischievous kid. Looking back, Shouichirou Tsuzuki said "He would fight with other boys, cry and still go against them. He couldn't concentrate on ice and would lose interest after 5 minutes."

On the other hand, he felt the exceptionality of Hanyu's musicality. "When he skated with the music on, he performed very lively like a different person. He liked this song called 'Sing Sing Sing'. He really liked jazz, and would go skate to it right away all excited whenever we played that piece of music."

Photo caption: Shouichirou Tsuzuki and Yuzuru Hanyu when he was in elementary school

(Slide 12)

Expressing his feelings

In 1969, while visiting the former Soviet Union, Tsuzuki witnessed the kind of figure skating in which people performed jumps while dancing. He went through a lot of troubles to invite coach(es) from Soviet to Japan and teach the [Japanese] skaters those techniques.

Hanyu is different from other Japanese skaters and isn't embarrassed to express his emotions. He also has a good sense of balance and physical capability. "I thought that he is the skater of a new era at first sight", Tsuzuki said this every time. "Become an artist", "Spread your wings for the world to see". Tsuzuki took on the role of a mediator in order for Hanyu to train in Russia.

Photo caption: Skaters that Shouichirou Tsuzuki has coached (t/n: he was coached by Mitsuhiko Kozuka (Takahiko Kozuka’s grandfather) and coached many skaters such as Machiko Yamada, Minoru Sano, Takahashi Mura, Yuzuru Hanyu, Mami Yamada)

(Slide 13)

Looking back, Hanyu said: "Now I feel like I've understood what Tsuzuki-sensei had been telling me. When I was small, he taught me to jump with some extra quality. I realized, even when I was small, that it was very important to express my own emotions properly through my performance."

With both the ability to jump and to express his emotions, Hanyu expressed the depth of competition like this: "I think that I not only need to land all my jumps and use my physical power until its limits, but also need to create an atmosphere in which I can express myself properly as an artist."

Photo caption: Winning the Junior GPF 4.12.2009

(Slide 14) A short clip of coach Tsuzuki recalling his first encounter with Yuzuru (I didn’t translate this, as we already know most of the information here)

(Slide 15)

Title: 17 YEARS OLD - 2011: BEYOND THE TEARS Photo caption: Ice Rink Sendai after the earthquake 21.5.2011

(Slide 16)

Losing his rinks twice

After losing his rinks twice, Hanyu said that he himself changed. “In the first 3 years in elementary school, I always skipped practice.”

The first time, his rink closed due to financial difficulties. He was 10 years old at that time. The second time was due to the Great East Japan Earthquake when he was 16. He lived in an evacuation shelter, stood in line for 3 hours and stuffed his mouth with the one bag of candy that he got. When he left Sendai to come to Yokohama where Shouichirou Tsuzuki was at that time, Hanyu cried. "[He] was not sure whether it was okay to continue skating in such circumstances". That's what Tsuzuki told us.

(Slide 17)

The courage that Kobe gave him

Although he moved around many different places for about 60 shows between April and July, his heart was healed.

"I realized that the fans were supporting me. It made me think that I had to face my training seriously.", "I've received many invitations from others to come (to practice) at their places.",

"(At the show in Kobe) I put my thoughts about the earthquake into 'White Legend', and I received a lot of applause..... Kobe has recovered from a big earthquake. That gave me some courage. If I hadn't gone to Kobe, the idea of [continuing] to skate would have become really vague for me."

Photo caption: Practicing with Kanako Murakami 3.8.2011

(Slide 18)

Photo caption: Performing at the charity show in Kobe 9.4.2011

(Slide 19)

Landing quad salchow for the first time

Within that situation, he was scared of the aftershock he felt at Yokohama. He kept getting interviews as a symbol of the earthquake survivors that were persevering, but at the same time, he was also tortured by the feeling of helplessness: "I cannot do anything". In June, Hanyu bursted into tears as if a dam inside him had broken, and his mother told him words of support "[We/You] have to do our best, right?"

A few days later. Hanyu told him mother. "That's right. It's alright now because I've already cried."

At that time, Hanyu succeeded in landing the quad salchow, a difficult jump, for the first time. His coach, Soushi Tanaka, said: "He had been training with a very tired expression, but it suddenly changed. He laughed, saying "This is fun!". The kindness that many people treated him with after the earthquake became his treasure."

Audio: Hanyu’s thoughts about figure skating after the earthquake disaster 30.8.2013

Uhm, it was very tough that many things happened and there were a lot of ups and downs. Nevertheless, at the Kobe charity event, for the first time, I came to think that I've been supported by others all these times.....

Q: The Kobe charity was the first time after the earthquake?

That's right, it was the first time it became apparent to me, I skated to White Legend with things like the thoughts about that earthquake on my mind. Nevertheless, the audience gave me an applause. After all, Kobe is the town that has experienced and recovered from the Hanshin Great Kobe Earthquake, and even if it hasn't fully recovered, I think it feels like a town that is recovering [from the earthquake]. And so, I feel that it gave me courage. That's the reason why I can earnestly skate like this. If I hadn't gone to the Kobe charity event back then, I think that the idea of [continuing] to skate might have become really vague for me.

Q: Hanyu-kun is indeed very young, still in your teenage years, but with the Sochi Olympics next year, there must be some kind of feeling like you've become the representative of the earthquake disaster’s victims. As an athlete, how do you perceive that?

Uhm, rather than representing, I'm simply coming from Sendai, and if people recall the memories they have related to the earthquake disaster because of me then I'm grateful for it, after all, at this moment, there are still a lot of places that haven't recovered from the earthquake disaster, so I really want to convey that message to everyone properly from now onwards.

Having the opportunity to talk with many people from the media like this is indeed very... for recovery from the earthquake....[he changed his mind], it's not just to support for the recovery from the disaster, but I think that it'd be a good thing if it can become an opportunity for such support, and I myself am doing my best for it too as there are still places that haven't fully recovered, places that were hit hard by the tsunami or the earthquake.

However, even until now, there are still many people who are coming here to volunteer. That's why I think that we definitely don't want to forget such things.

Also, I hardly see any fund-raising activities recently, but after all, please try to come to the places that has experienced the earthquake and places that has been hit by the tsunami if possible, even just for once. Uhm, this is not a request from me saying 'I hope you will do something', but rather 'I hope you won't forget'.

Uhm, but I am an athlete, and I'm in the position in which I can skate, apart from that, I strongly think that I must continue competing for a long time. If I do so, appear on TV and achieve some results, I hope that that can become a chance for something, such as a chance for others to remember [the areas affected by the earthquake disaster], I think that'd be a good thing.

(Slide 20)

Title: 18 YEARS OLD - 2012: I WANT TO BREAK THROUGH Video caption: Performing at an event in Yokohama 16.8.2017

(Slide 21)

Photo caption: Talking with coach Orser during practice 15.2.2017

(Slide 22)

To Canada where great skaters gather

At a kaiseki restaurant in Shibuya, Tokyo. Hanyu, his current coach Brian Orser, the current director of ANA's skating department Noriko Shirota, and Yutaka Higuchi, who has been involved in the training of Japanese skaters for over 40 years, they pledged together: "Let's aim to be the World Champion".

In the summer of 2012 right after that gathering, Hanyu moved his training base to Canada. Higuchi was the one who recommended him to transfer to a prestigious skating school in Toronto called "Cricket Club".

The primary coach of Cricket, Brian Orser, used the difficult 3.5-rotation jump as his weapon in his competitive days, so he could give Hanyu, who wanted to become the quad-era pioneer, apt advices. They were kind and there was no worry that chased after Hanyu. Canada, a place with many immigrants, treated him without any discrimination.

Higuchi thought the same and made necessary arrangements with his old friend Orser and the famous choreographer David Wilson, saying "Take care of Hanyu-kun".

(Slide 23)

Hanyu was surprised at the skating environment of the place he had moved to. The quad(s) of Javier Fernandez, who would later be in contention for the World Champion title. The kids' one-footed turns. Hanyu said "It was frustrating. But I was happy. Because I've found many things that made me think 'I want to become more like that'."

(Slide 24)

Photo caption: Performing his SP at Sochi Olympics 6.2.2014

(Slide 25)

The heartbreaker in Sochi

Jeffrey Buttle, who was very close with Wilson and choreographed for Hanyu together with him, brought out more than enough 'the charm of Yuzuru, the boy who is trying to become a young man' in the short program "Parisian Walkways". Hanyu, who acted like 'a heartbreaker that messed around with girls', reset the World's Record scores 4 times. At the 2014 Sochi Olympics, he won the gold medal with this short and the free program choreographed by Wilson. Even after Sochi, Hanyu repeatedly broke the World's Records many times with the short programs choreographed by Buttle. Polished by the Canadians, the Japanese talent shone even brighter.

Photo caption: People related to Yutaka Higuchi (t/n: he is friend with Brian Orser, David Wilson and supported many skaters such as Yuzuru Hanyu, Miki Ando, Machiko Yamada, Shin Hea-sook (Kim Yuna’s coach))

(Slide 26)

The event that brought Hanyu to skating was the 1998 Nagano Olympics. He started to competed together with his sister, who was riding that boom [of interest in figure skating].

The Olympics that determined his life. He vowed "It is because I've became a gold medalist that this is the start". Continuing the rehabilitation for his right foot which has been injured during practice, Hanyu is trying to be the first skater in 66 years to win back-to-back Olympic Gold in Men's Figure Skating. This season, he said these words: "Be it hardships or joys, I'll embrace each of those things in my heart", "With the warm support from everyone, I'd like to do my best at the Olympics".

(t/n: the article was written in December 2017)

(Slide 27)

Yuzuru Hanyu Born in 1994, from Sendai. Affiliated with ANA

2018 Pyeongchang Olympic Champion

2017 World Champion

2016 Grand Prix Final Champion

2015 Grand Prix Final Champion

2014 Grand Prix Final Champion

2014 World Champion

2014 Sochi Olympic Champion

2013 Japanese National Champion

2013 Grand Prix Final Champion

2012 Japanese National Champion

2010 Junior World Champion

2008 Japanese Junior National Champion

#yuzuru hanyu #figure skating #spin the dream #part 1 #translation #byme #caution: it's a longgggggg read #it's an old one but it's a good one #glad it's finally done #i've been delaying it for the lonnnnngest time #:">

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shipwreckseemssweet · 6 years

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10 Figure Skating programs I love

With the FS off-season--and all related drama revelations--in full bloom, what better time to look back on beloved programs new and old.

Here are ten outstanding pieces (singles disciplines only) from the last couple of seasons that I managed to find online. I feel a bit guilty about not having put in Marin’s Romeo & Juliet. :(

10. Wakaba Higuchi - Skyfall (FS)

youtube

The best FS performance of the 2018 Worlds! I must admit I wasn’t a big Wakaba fan until this season. In my prejudiced view, I considered her too rough around the edges. Then she rolled out this season’s programs and I was sold. What’s more, she owned her FS - a mix of Bond music including Adele’s Skyfall - more than any other of her competitors. From her sleek dress to her cool final spin, Wakaba makes a case for a Bond girl movie starring her. And if her electrifying performance is any indication, it’ll be one to remember. The choreography unleashes all her power while funneling it in purposeful and creative ways, never letting the tension disperse. The crazy fast 3Lz3T may be her main weapon, but it’s the step sequence that steals the show.

9. Patrick Chan - Dear Prudence/Blackbird (SP)

I couldn’t skip over Patrick, our newly retired King of Skating Skills. Dear Prudence/Blackbird by The Beatles signaled his last great season and a return to form. A very good return, despite his jump ailments. If anyone can measure up to 60s pop rock, it’s Patrick with his effortless, flowing, confident skating. His classic elegance and somewhat old-fashion charm seem to recall a bygone idyllic spring. These are songs about inner awakening and struggles; about finding a place you belong. They seem to reflect Parick’s journey to reinvent himself. At the same time, Dear Prudence is about the beauty of nature: "The sun is up, the sky is blue, it's beautiful,” and it’s the pure feeling of connection to the music that stays with you.

8. Javier Fernandez - Malagueña (SP)

Another great skater on his way out. Coming into Helsinki as the defending World champion, Javier managed to skate this short program cleanly in its two-quad glory. For me this is his finest, most sophisticated SP to date. (I welcome the absence of comical elements.) Certain programs can only be performed to their fullest potential when given another season to grow, and Malagueña is a perfect example. It’s all about getting into character, making every movement count. Obviously, having Javier perform the flamenco - choreographed by a Spanish ballet director - and go the extra mile on every element really adds to the authenticity of the program. His effortless skating is just a rung below Patrick and Yuzuru. This is what an energetic and mesmerizing skate looks like!

7. Mao Asada - Ritual Fire Dance (SP/FS)

youtube

If Mao can’t make you love figure skating nobody can. All my favorite skaters use their bodies as silent musical instruments and Mao is the leader of the pack. Her musicality, arm movements, footwork, versatility, attention to choreography and emotional projection are absolutely unmatched. In what turned out to be her swan song, all her best qualities shine through. Portraying a mysterious black bird, Mao transformed the piano version of Manuel de Falla’s ballet with her charismatic, soft interpretation. Every step and turn, every detail of the performance appears uninhibited yet polished. She has reached a level of fluidity and complexity where jump errors no longer detract from the overall quality. Also, I love the ponytail.

6. Boyang Jin - Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (SP)

Boyang is one of my recent favs despite there being room for growth in his skating and other components. Beyond the excitement of watching a young skater evolve, I think he has great potential in every area and will just get better with time. His jumps are already prodigious, his performances iconic. Underlying this program is the idea to present a more complete (and serious) version of B for the Olympic season as well as blend in Chinese elements. Unfortunately I don’t think he got the recognition he deserved. Infused with the right mix of composure and energy, this is an atmospheric character-based program that wonderfully shows his refinements in interpretation and control of edges. That step sequence is *fire*.

5. Carolina Kostner - Ne Me Quitte Pas (SP)

A very sophisticated and adaptable lady. At 31 and having lived through many system changes, Caro brings new meaning to the word “veteran” in singles skating. She first hopped under the spotlight with her stunning jumps, but stayed on the stage until today thanks to her masterful skating prowess and evolving artistic “voice”. Her effortless glide and changes of speed/direction are done on the deepest of edges; her arms move like a painter’s brush. Every movement of hers is flowing, full of love for what she does. And rather than a competitive spirit, it’s the emotions and experience she brings to her performances that keep her in the sport. As Lori Nichol said, this short program allowed Caro to be the athletic and sensual woman that she is.

4. Yuzuru Hanyu - Ballade No.1 in G minor 3.0 :) (SP)

youtube

Yuzuru knows how to start off the Olympic season with a bang: breaking his own WR in his first performance at the Autumn Classic. A horifically difficult piano composition, Chopin’s Ballade No.1, with its dramatic chords, abstract motifs, dynamic rhythm and interwoven themes running from subtle to stormy, seems to fit our agile FS King like an elegant glove. Over the years, Yuzuru gave us not less than three different and perhaps equally iconic interpretations of Chopin’s favorite music. This particular one is all about the aura and intricate details. Every element is blended with the music. The final jump combo comes out of nowhere. This emotional peak then transitions into the StSq which is majestic in its smoothness; it rumbles and flows together with the fiery chords running down the keyboard. All doubts are resolved yet the mystery persists. Nothing can be added or taken away--this is perfection.

3. Satoko Miyahara - Madame Butterfly & The Planets/Princess Leia (FS)

I adore Satoko’s skating, despite her imperfections (read: jumps). The world needs skaters like her, whose elegance, musical flow, precision, and subtle presentation touch your heart. Her body lines and layback spin are gorgeous; her multidirectional skating effortless. (That reverse Walley into the Salchow!) Satoko is a strong character performer. I loved her Goddess/Princess Leia FS from 2016/17, how original the choreography was and how engaged and fast Satoko seemed. It’s such a difficult piece to skate to yet she managed to showcase different sides to her. This year’s M Butterfly was, given the circumstances, a safer skate, but her emotional projection only increased. Her showing at the JNats was the finest in that regard. Butterfly’s anguish and suicide seem to become Satoko’s own struggle with her injuries. But the piece ends with a spin to the dreamlike yearning of Un bel di vedremo, as if we’re witnessing both Butterfly and Satoko’s rebirth.

2. Kaetlyn Osmond - Edith Piaf (SP)

IMO, to her belong the two best ladies’ performances of the 2018 Olympics. With Edith Piaf Kaetlyn has finally found an iconic short program! You can tell when a skater is truly feeling the music and looking happy while on the ice, and this program has accomplished just that for K. We meet a French young lady, sauntering down the streets of Paris, wanting to be noticed by someone special. Accompanying her is the voice of Edith Piaf, who sings Sous Le Ciel de Paris and Milord. The program has it all: purposeful choreography, powerful skating, sensitive interpretation of music, ease of movement, the speed going into her huge jumps. Her outgoing character just floats up so naturally. Thanks to her charm, K could indeed give Cotillard a run for her money.

1. Yuzuru Hanyu - Hope & Legacy (FS)

During the 2017 Worlds, Max Ambesi proclaimed this as Hanyu’s best skate, and also the best skate in history. I couldn’t agree more, even if everyone has their own favs. It was an inconsistent season before Hanyu had surpassed himself to skate clean a program massive in ambition and complex in expression. It was as if he’d become an ethereal nature spirit. He was the air, wind and water contained within the melody. He made himself appear weightless and effortless on the ice, seemingly not needing any strength to execute any of the elements. A dreamlike aura surrounded him. I just love how the program highlights his natural musicality and attention to detail. My favorite part: the serene StSq followed by the 3F as the music rises.

Bonus: Alena Kostornaia - Stella’s Theme (FS)

What a talented Junior we have! In her first international season Alena has shown she has nothing to fear from the Seniors. Her charisma, skating skills, and arm movements are those of a fairy. Her jumps are spiced up with steps/transitions. Her spins sizzle with creativity. Nothing feels rushed or incomplete. I challenge anyone to watch her lyrical, immersive performances and experience “backloading” done right. :)

#figure skating #music #mao asada #yuzuru hanyu #art #kaetlyn osmond #boyang jin #wakaba higuchi

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iguana012 · 6 years

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Why can’t Satoko Miyahara jump high(er)?

So ever since Satoko Miyahara came back from her long injury caused hiatus in which everyone was wishing her good health, speedy recovery and fast comeback, that comeback turned out to be a bit too fast for some people. It’s not a stretch to assume that some were clearly counting her out in the Olympic spots equation (including journalists and commentators). And now that she’s back, it’s become a bit of a race to find all the reasons why it’s not a real comeback. She didn’t compete in a strong field, she didn’t get the UR calls (I actually agree here in the particular case of Skate America), or just going to the real problem - she shouldn’t be competitive with those jumps.

Everything else becomes an excuse. That is the actual problem. No matter the field she competes in, no matter how hard she tries to get those jumps around, people will say she has no place competing with - quoting actual posts I’ve been reading - “those cringe worthy jumps”, “the worst jumps ever” or “that disgusting technique”.

The more competitive she becomes, the more critical comments she gets. I remember people who used to say “her jumps don’t bother me so much because everything else she does is high quality” that are now ripping her apart because she’s been beating their personal faves. Sometimes that’s what it all boils down to. And there are people who can still give her a chance and see beyond her jumps and discover that what she does beyond her jumps is close to perfection.

But why are her jumps like that? One of the most common reasons people can think of is because of her small height. But that’s not the correct reason, and critics will show you how there are skaters just as small (or smaller) who have some of the biggest, most powerful jumps. “Midori Ito was smaller and yet she could jump through the roof”. Or “Wakaba Higuchi is also small but her jumps are twice the size of Satoko’s.”

Midori Ito and Wakaba Higuchi have twice the muscle strength Satoko has.

I’m not claiming having strong muscular legs is the only reason why skaters like Wakaba and Midori can jump so high but it is a reason. Having strength in your leg muscles can sure as hell vault you up in the air. But what happens when your leg muscles are just strong enough to help you walk but nothing more than that? After the cut, I will list all the reasons that Satoko and/or her team have been discovering in their long quest to improve Satoko’s jumps.

This is not an attempt to excuse bad judging, nor Satoko’s technique in any way. It is an attempt at looking at the bigger picture and taking into consideration all the potential variables that come into play when talking about Satoko’s jumps.

1. Very poor bone density

This is something Satoko and her team have discovered when she was diagnosed with a stress fracture of the hip joint. The original question was, how did that stress fracture happen? Stress fractures happen in figure skating, but in the hip joint? That’s a bit rare.

Sure, factors such as overtraining and multiple attempts to correct her toe picking technique have played major factors but why is that toe technique relying on her completing half a revolution on ice to begin with?

Having poor bone density usually means osteopenia or in worse cases osteoporosis. Both are very less likely to happen at Satoko’s age, so she’s basically dealing with a problem that’s not common among fellow skaters. Bone density problems are sometimes hard to diagnose and the signs may be extremely subtle or not present at all in the beginning.

I’m not an expert but a bit of research has helped me understand maybe just a bit what happens when you lose bone. From what I’ve read, people with small frames are more likely to develop osteoporosis at a younger age. That means every time Satoko jumps a triple, she is at risk of getting fractures and had she jumped higher or used more power than she uses now, the risk of getting fractures would have automatically become higher.

2. Very poor leg muscle strength

By definition, muscle weakness happens when your full effort doesn’t produce a normal muscle contraction or movement. It’s sometimes called reduced muscle strength, muscular weakness, or weak muscles.

There are many possible reasons or conditions that can cause muscle weakness. Satoko’s personal trainer has mentioned that she barely uses her leg muscles when she jumps. She’s known for not using much of her upper body either so how she manages to jump at all is sometimes a mystery to me.

3. Jumping against her dominant direction

I’ve talked about this one before and many people know about it already. Satoko was supposed to be a clockwise jumper, just like Carolina Kostner, Kaetlyn Osmond and Ashley Wagner. That’s how she started jumping when she was living in the USA as a young kid.

But when she came back to Japan, the rinks were extremely crowded and jumping in the opposite direction to that of the majority of the other skaters increased the risk of collisions and accidents. So she started jumping counter-clockwise, against her dominant direction.

The advantage of that has been developing the ability to spin in both directions and her multi-directional skating. But as far as jumps go, it was just another factor that’s been preventing her to use full power. As a consequence of training in the non-dominant direction, the dominant direction was left undeveloped so she can’t jump clockwise anymore even if she tried.

I read a very interesting quote in this article that said “a concert pianist demonstrates superb skill with both hands, but this mastery is complementary rather than competitive”. I think this applies to Satoko’s skating as well.

4. She could use the help of her upper body to vault herself up in the air, but she doesn’t

You might have heard of the expression “to muscle one’s jumps”. It’s when skaters use their upper body to vault themselves up in the air and it’s sometimes noticeable when you look at their mid-air posture. Their shoulders are raised up to the level of their ears as opposed to making a 90 degree angle. Muscling jumps is not anywhere near a good technique but it can help some skaters get more height on their jumps and avoid underrotations. The judges won’t look at your shoulders but they will look at how you land.

Every time I see a picture of Satoko, her mid-air posture looks as flawless as her posture on ice, which is something that she’s been praised for. I guess there is no other way to highlight her good mid-air posture other than comparing with skaters who have the tendency to raise their shoulders up.

That’s not to say the skaters who tend to raise their shoulders do it all the time. But they’re more likely to do it.

You can also see it in the way they prepare their jumps. Skaters who rely on their upper body are more likely to look like they’re using more force when swinging their arms and their arms will end up looking tense in the air, as can be seen in the pics above.

Some conclusions

Her toe picking technique is questionable in that she completes half of rotation before her blade leaves the ice. This is called “prerotation” and it’s something many other skaters do, but other skaters don’t lack height like Satoko does. The ISU guidelines say a clear forward take-off should result in the jump getting downgraded but I’ve barely seen this happen at all and I’ve never seen it happen with Satoko’s jumps. Which means the judges have okayed Satoko’s jumps as far as the forward take-off rule is concerned. I’m not arguing whether what they’re doing is correct or not because no matter how varied opinions can be and people will always have their version of the ISU guidelines, the reality is that Satoko’s jumps have never been flagged for prerotation and unless the rule will become more specific or the judges will start using it for her, she won’t get dinged for prerotations.

Speaking of prerotations, I’ve always wondered what the ISU considers as clear forward take-off. Is it picking the toe and rotating on it until the skaters face forward, or is it the toe picking directly forward like in Mai Asada’s case here?

(source for the gif)

See, Mai Asada is simply picking forward for that double toe, no rotating on the toe pick no nothing. She completes at least half a rotation simply by pointing her picking foot forward. So why aren’t the judges punishing Satoko (or any other skater that we think prerotates)? Is it because the clear forward take-off rule was actually meant for jumps like the one above?

Back to Satoko, she usually does get punished for underrotations. She didn’t at Skate America. I thought at least 3 jumps looked UR but the technical panel disagrees. In skating competitions there will be lenient panels and there will be strict panels and every skater will benefit / won’t benefit off them at some point in their careers. What actually makes people angrier in Satoko’s case is the fact that they think she already gets away with prerotations so she should actually be getting downgrades on all of her jumps. But I ask again, what does the ISU actually mean by taking off forward?

It’s very easy for Satoko to become the #1 target for critics whenever panels get too lenient. But the reality is that she usually does get punished for underrotations when she underrotates. Skate America was a bit of a fluke. Rest assured, I don’t believe Satoko will win anything other than Nationals in the near future. She usually doesn’t. Her last international win was in 2015.

Critics will also say that it’s easier for her to jump than it is for other skaters who jump higher. I believe any kind of technique has its advantages and disadvantages and in Satoko’s case, fast rotation and timing are everything. If the timing is off then she will also pop her jumps (see NHK Trophy) but the thing with her is that she will practice that timing over and over again until the margin of error will be reduced to nothing.

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor and I am not an ISU judge. I’m just a fan with biased point of views (like many others here) attempting to speak my mind on issues regarding my favorite skater.

#Satoko Miyahara #figure skating #personal #there has been so much debate for the past couple of weeks #i needed a place to get my thoughts off my mind #feel free to disagree

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sambart93 · 6 years

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2017.12.24 Bungou Stray Dogs Stage [Review]

Official Site here Official Twitter here Press Coverage 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 Video Coverage 1, 2, 3, 4

CAST and CHARACTERS

Torigoe Yuuki as Nakajima Atsushi Tawada Hideya as Osamu Dazai Teruma as Kunikida Doppo Nagae Ryoki as Edogawa Ranpo Kuwano Kousuke as Tanzaki Junichiro Saito Akari as Tanzaki Naomi Hironouchi Hitoshi as Miyazawa Kenji Imamura Miho as Yosano Akiko Hashimoto Shohei as Akutagawa Ryunosuke Masaki Kohei as Kajii Motojiro Hirata Yuka as Higuchi Ichiyou Kuwae Sakina as Izumi Kyoka Ueda Keisuke as Nakahara Chuya Ensemble: Elizabeth Mari, Okamura Tatsuki, Obigane Ryouta, Jintoku, Suzuki Ryouhei, Funaki Atsushi, Kurihara Sayaka, Takei Mirano

NON-SPOILER REVIEW This is very faithful to the original anime and manga story, and I feel Hideya, Ueda and Teruma were the perfect casting for their characters, they did not disappoint. Nagae as Ranpo was also a surprise and it was interesting the different ways they had him woven into the stage and story. There was a lot of comedy in this and there's some moments that are exactly as you would want them to be, especially Dazai's idiot moments like trying to die in ridiculous places and ways, as well as his trolling of other people. The way they showed the powers was great along with the use of projection mapping. The best scenes were definitely Dazai and Nakahara's scenes together; they also got the biggest applause. The ending, where you should start clapping, is rather confusing to figure out because they don't bow when they start doing Character Credit Names and Powers, but now you know if you see it live. It's obvious they have intentions of continuing on this seies and I do think that'll happen. Personally there were a few things I wasn't happy with; the tiger fight scene wasn't very smooth or perfect and I think would be confusing to those who haven't seen the anime nor know the story. The one scene I was really excited to see wasn't up to my expectations. And finally, the ensemble were a big distraction for me because I felt the dancing they did was not needed for this stage, and looked rather odd; I strongly feel a normal ensemble cast would've been better and more apparent and fitting. BUT I think many fans and people will be able to thoroughly enjoy this show and see how much effort went into it and how great the casting-to-characters is and everything. Objective Rating: 8/10 Subjective Rating: 6/10

STORY

As mentioned above, the stage is very faithful to the original material. I haven't read the manga so I can only say the stage copies the first season of the anime faithfully. So if you want to know what happens or what to understand what the hell is going on before you see this stage, then I recommend you watch / read that.

THE POSITIVES

PART ONE

Part one was probably the strongest out of the two - although I think this is a habit of mine. I really struggle with stages that have a break in the middle; all my energy and excitement is usually used up in the first half and then during the break I get too chill and relaxed and I also somewhat zone out for the second half =/ I'll try and fix this!

I loved the opening for this stage because Nagae/Ranpo comes out from the right side door and comes down the aisle and approached someone saying 'you're in my seat... yes you are... oh you have a ticket with your seat? I don't have a ticket!' and then comes onto the stage and is almost like a narrator introducing the world and the stage.

Nagae did such a great job with his adlibbing and natural comedy. This little shit, he always plays little shits, keeps growing on me every damn stage! But he's getting better and better every time too! I still can't get over how young he is because his confidence and acting on stage makes him appear so much older and more mature! Even though he does mess around and have fun. Nagae was a GREAT choice for Ranpo and he went way beyond what I was expecting him to do as the character! Which makes me sad, I loved him as Ranpo so much but, as we know, his participation in the first season of Bungo is so small! So I'm excited to see all the stage time and scenes he'll have in the next one!

And of course, as we all expected, Hideyan and Teruma as their characters are spot on and great! They were the best choices for those characters.

Hideyan went way above and beyond my expectations for him as Dazai because he is just PERFECT as Dazai! You couldn't have asked for a better choice in casting. So many Dazai moments he was faithful to and did perfectly. The moment where he does the wavy arms to Kunikida is in there. The while him trying to commit suicide with his legs sticking out of the big bin/can is in there. The classic where he tells Kunikida loads of stuff and then goes '...I'm lying' is in there. So many amazingly classic and memorable moments of Dazai were in this stage!

Torigoe used a LOT of energy in this stage so I could start to understand why he was cast as Atsushi instead of (what I wanted) UeChan. He never stops running around the stage or switching from yelling to turning to the audience and stuff. I am impressed at how much energy he had and could use!

This stage is very, very funny! We were laughing for a lot of this stage which keeps the nature of Bungou's anime/manga at heart which is great!

I giggled a few times at Kosuke because I couldn't imagine him as the sister-incest-relationship-character but I actually really liked his section of the stage too! He looked so much like he didn't want his sister all over him and his facial expressions were very funny.

PART TWO

I feel like 90% of the audience were there just for UeChan. Him, or a combination of him and Hideyan. Because at the end of UeChan and Hideyan’s final scene, they got a MASSIVE and the BIGGEST round of applause at the end. So much so that even though the lights went up to signal the start of the next scene, the audience CONTINUED clapping! The poor actors had to wait until we were down with our massive round of applause so they could start the next scene. I found it absolutely fascinating.

The fight scene between UeChan and Hideyan was so good! I was so impressed with how HIGH UeChan can kick his legs and their movements matched very well; it was overall a solid and great fight scene.

Their entire two major scenes together was just perfect.

I really liked towards the end when Akutogawa and Atsushi were fighting and to show Akuto's power, Atsushi was physically wrapped in black cloth and it looked really good visually and worked really well with the scene and the intensity of it.

Masaki didn't disappoint me as Kajii! His scene is one of my favourite ones and he was crazy and did a very faithful job of the character! While the scene was somewhat ruined by the ensemble, his performance of the character was solid and enjoy his performance.

I remember really liking the subtle coughs and stuff Shohei did as Akutogawa but he was very much off to the side and just being like this looming and overwatching character in this first stage rather than being all that active. Only the final scene at the end is Akutogawa somewhat active in the play, so, just like UeChan, I have hopes that his stage time and activities will increase (just like they do in the anime) in the next stage. I did like that they did the flashback scene between him and Dazai and Hideyan looked for freaking good and badass in that flashback! Shohei did good as Akutogawa in his two major scenes (the flashback and the end scene) but I can't confidently say he was a good choice or he's a good Akutogawa until I see more.

After the first round of applause, Nagae came back on stage the second time and he said ‘Do you see this? *pointing to the 'THE END' sign on stage* It means we're done. Go home.... You know it’s Christmas…. what the HELL are you all doing here?! Out there is Yokohama, you can— oh whatever’ and we all died laughing and he walked off.

And finally, a random comment related to the goods; the photobook and pamphlet have absolutely stunning photos and shots in them. I’ll put them below.

THE NEGATIVES

In the non spoiler section I mentioned three negatives (but now in more detail):

- The tiger fight scene at the beginning of the stage wasn’t very smooth or perfect and would be confusing to non-Bungou fans or knowers. This mainly comes down to how bad the projection mapping of the tiger is. It's very jittery and doesn't really move around the stage smoothly and sometimes it didn't looked like Dazai's attacks were going in the directions of where the tiger was.

- The one scene I was really excited to see, which is the scene when Atsuhi and Kyoka go on a date through Yokohama, really wasn’t up to my expectations at all. For those who have seen Honoo no Mirage, I was expecting something similar to that where they would put background and locations of Yokohama on the stage through projection mapping and we'd see Kyoka dragging and pulling Atsushi to all these places. But in reality we got a song and dance (see picture above) and the song was 50% in English (if I remember correctly) and it was just them dancing in the middle of the stage. There were no obvious Yokohama locations or Yokohama-esque things in the sequence at all and I was so super upset and disappointed with it. That was the one scene I was so looking forward to seeing and they, in my opinion, missed the opportunity and butchered it.

- The ensemble were a big distraction for me. I felt the dancing they did was not needed nor really fitted for this stage, and looked rather odd and out of place. The actors would be in the center of the stage talking about something or being serious and then the dancers would come on doing these strange movements or were being passerby but would do it by dancing their way through the stage and to me it honestly looked ridiculous and distracting. Honestly, I strongly feel a normal ensemble cast where they just were normal people and normal passerby and did the normal helping out with the stunts and stuff would’ve been better and more apparent and fitting. Even now, weeks after watching this stage, feel like the ensemble looked bloody ridiculous and stupid. ALSO I watched KuroMyu AFTER this stage where they too had a dancing ensemble and it worked completely fine for that stage! I think it's because dancing ensembles definitely fit musicals and songs better than just a normal stage and that's where my problem with them in the Bungou stage lies. Seriously, I was so in love with the dancing ensemble for KuroMyu (review here).

Okay I'll try and tone the rest of the negatives down:

- There was no questionnaire with the stage. I opened my leaflets and checked their twitter and their official website but no paper questionnaire, no QR code or website link for a questionnaire which I think is super strange. I know most people were saying they wanted a questionnaire so they could complain about the lack of trading bromide stock but I always write a questionnaire, I always write what's good, what's bad (which would've just been the ensemble and the date scene) and I always write ' hey maybe try this' or 'I want to see this' or 'this particular actor was great, if you continue please keep them on' etc. so I felt somewhat naked without them supplying a questionnaire to us. I hope they often them at the Tokyo one or something and get a friend to write it for me xD

- They only did Daiza trolling Kunikida with the '...I'm lying' joke ONCE! I’m so upset! It’s like one of best comedy parts. It should've been done at least three times throughout the stage.

- Another personal gripe was my seat. I got my ticket in the very FIRST lottery of tickets and yet me seat ended up being 4th to back row on the 3RD FLOOR. And I know for a fact there were MANY seats empty on the first and second floor. So I was super pissed I got such a crappy seat to say I got my ticket so damn early into the ticket sales.

- It's not really a negative but more of a confusing moment: they don’t bow at the end to signify the end of the stage. They finish the final scene and then the ensemble come back on (just them) and go a sort of dance before going off and then the members come on one by one with their name and then their ability is shown on the stage walls. So we got about two cast members in before we all realised we should be clapping! It was really confusing and somewhat awkward. So now you know if you go!

- They didn't do any curtain call speeches at the end of the show. It was the final Yokohama show and you'd think, with the sotry being set in Yokohama, that they would do a speech at their FINAL YOKOHAMA SHOW. But no; poor Nagae had to come back on stage twice and be like 'thank you all for clapping and I know you're expecting speeches but we're only doing them at the final Tokyo Show. Everyone is already backstage and undressing out of their costumes. Sorry but the show is finished for today.'

- Final personal gripe; Not enough UeChan BUT again that's because he, just like Nagae's Ranpo, isn't really all that present in the first season of the anime. So he'll definitely get enough stage time in the next one!

GOODS

As mentioned above, the pamphlet and photobook is gorgeous and definitely worth the money!

Fin.

#bungou stray dogs #bungo stray dogs #文豪ストレイドッグス #review #ueda keisuke #tawada hideya #nagae ryoki #teruma #torigoe yuuki #hashimoto shohei #kuwano kousuke

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