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yurissweettooth · 3 years

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On Trauma, Alienation, and Yuri Petrov

After the anon I recieved yesterday got me thinking about Yuri's lack of support system as well as had me coming back to this one scene in the Rising where Kotetsu tells Yuri that he could never understand what Barnaby went through. This will be a bit of a ramble so bear with me!

As he's meant to be a foil for Barnaby I feel like most of the attention goes to Barnaby and his trauma when making a comparison between the two (which is fair, he's a main character after all). Because of this some people don't really see the depth behind Yuri and the realism to his trauma. Some have written him off as part of the "abused people become abusers" stereotype or outright dismissed him as some egotistical man child of a villain. I think it's important to take a look at him and how his multiple traumas, and the alienation he faced thereafter, lead him down the path he's on by focusing on his side of the comparison.

To start with, one notable point is that Barnaby is able to reveal his trauma on live television and have the entire city rally around him. His support system and the people who have his back extends further than just the people he knows.

Yuri, on the other hand, can't reliably even talk to his own mother (the only person he's shown to have any type of connection to) about what he's been through as her responses seem unpredictable. We can make the reasonable assumption that he doesn't have any friends because it states in the translated hero schedules that nobody has his phone number.

As a judge he can't admit to murder, as the son of the most highly regarded and beloved hero he can't speak ill of him (he likely wouldn't be believed anyway), and as someone who is seemingly still full of guilt and questioning his own behavior (no doubt aided by the fact that even his mother, who he was trying to save, doesn't always support him) he can't easily admit to the aftermath either.

Continuing with the focus on his portrayal in the Rising, I'll point out again (as I did in my response yesterday) that there is a particularly interesting scenario where we get to see the aftermath of the effects of trauma relating to loss of a parent in three people at once. One desperate for revenge and one who has technically gotten his revenge yet didn't feel any better because of it.

"Now wait a moment." You may be saying "Yuri killed his own father so isn't that different than the other two?" and to that I would like to posit that Yuri did have his father taken from him before he ever killed him.

Aside from his hatred of "evil", Yuri also seems to view heroes as immoral, fame driven, and unable to help those in need. I think a lot of this can be tied back to the fact that Yuri lost his father as he knew him the moment the abuse started.

Child Yuri seemed amazed by his father, right down to the Legend themed outfit. It can be assumed he was a great dad and a great hero at this point. However, that image was shattered when Legend began to drink and abuse his family (as an aside, one of the artbooks confirmed that Yuri was beaten as well). The man he looked up to, the hero, the man who taught him to never let evil go unpunished, was hurting him. It's not difficult to image what that sort of effect dissonance could have on a child.

Legend was staging his arrests and trying desperately to hold on to what he had, putting the anger he felt at losing his position over his duty as a husband and father to be there for his family (I could contrast this with how Kotetsu, in the same situation, uses this time to get closer to his family but that's for another time). He was loved and admired by all with no one any wiser to what happened behind closed doors.

I think it's because of this that Yuri seems to live his life in opposition to the hero lifestyle. In a way this could almost be seen as a form of revenge seeking against heroes themselves. He's seen what a "hero" can be like and he can no longer trust them to make the right choices or have a genuine desire to help anyone so he takes it into his own hands and has no qualms about airing his spiteful opinions while doing so.

As a side note, in a way I also believe that his decision to kill those that are evil is, in part, a form of reassurance to himself that he's not wrong for what he did to his own father. We kind of get a hint of that in the scene where he's hallucinating and yells at his father's apparition after having his actions questioned by him.

To return to the main point, Yuri isn't really given the opportunities the others had to change their ways and heal. There was no one there to stop him from going down the wrong path. Barnaby tells Virgil that he's not out to save Schneider, he's out to save Virgil himself. Barnaby also says how Kotetsu was able to be there for him and that, had it not been for him, he wouldn't even have been standing there today and would have gone down the wrong path himself.

I often see people discuss what Yuri might have been like had he never been abused or killed his father but I think a more interesting thing to consider is what he could have been like had he had someone on his side when he really needed it, if he didn't live in a world that would likely turn on him if he spoke against the most well-known celebrity hero (I would imagine that, much like in our real world, if an abuse victim spoke out against a celebrity they'd be shamed and called a liar), if there had been someone there to set him straight before his pain and twisted morals consumed him.

Even as we see him in the show I don't think he's a bad man. He does terrible things, yes, but he does them out of a desire to save people, to help others, to prevent more suffering. It annoys me to see him portrayed as some childish villain just stupidly killing for the sake of it. He's misguided, yes, but there's a method to his madness.

I guess the main point is that, regardless of how Kotetsu meant it, I feel sad thinking about Yuri stating his views on how to heal from the past only to be told that he "Doesn't know the first thing about what [Barnaby's] been through". Yuri does know pain, loss, and betrayal quite well which is how he came to those conclusions in the first place, he just hasn't been in a situation that's allowed him to admit and process that.

#tiger and bunny #tiger & bunny #yuri petrov #barnaby brooks jr #t&b

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kanchelsis · 3 years

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If you wrote the Nikolai Duology, how would you change it? You have some good ideas!

aaaaaa thank you!! people have been so lovely about my salty post ghsfjks i'm kissing you all on the cheek 💕

to answer your question, i think it might be less about what i would do, and more about what i wouldn't do. i'll make some bullet points and say whatever comes to mind.

(to be honest, the idea of nikolai having his own duology has lost its appeal to me, which is sad because i adore him. i just believe he's a better side character than main, and there are more interesting grishaverse stories waiting to be told. but let's work on the assumption that i have to keep the basic pillars of the books and not just throw away the whole concept.)

ok so... zoya. i would take her in a completely different direction than lb did. i love a good morally ambiguous character, so i wouldn't just erase that - what drew me to her in tgt was her stubbornness, her shallowness, her capacity for petty cruelty, but also her determination and confidence. we can't just have her holding one of the most powerful positions in ravka and everyone just accepting that. not only does she need to have doubters, the doubters need to have a point.

we have a ruthless young woman, a soldier no less, suddenly needing to utilise diplomacy to protect an entire country. make her screw up. make her uncompromising and callous. make her human. don't expect her to step into this role seamlessly just so unlimited power can be handed to her on a silver platter.

if she has to be an ultrapowerful grisha, it's so much more logical to make her work for it. to hell with the saints on the fold stuff, what even was that?? lb tells us that everything we thought about grisha power is wrong, but 1) throws away the really cool magic system she made and 2) doesn't replace it with anything else. just let zoya be a squaller, not a dragon-saint-chosen-one or whatever.

writing this has kinda made me sad, since zoya could've been amazing, but anyway. onwards to nikolai.

this is the nikolai duology. if he's giving his name to the series i expect him to be the central character. i'd want his main struggle to surround identity and an uncertain future - who is nikolai, underneath the charm and flirtation? there could be an internal war between the demon, carefree sturmhond and the duty-bound king of ravka. both he and zoya are faced with a disarrayed court filled with people who don't think they have what it takes to lead.

there are so many nonsensical subplots in the duology that... fizzle into nothing. cut it down. pick a few things to focus on and give them the detail they deserve.

speaking of, the cult of the starless! lb took what could've been a source of endless interest and turned it into a bland caricature. we get it ma'am, you hate the darkling. but the problem is that the darkling's root motive gets conveniently glossed over in favour of character bashing. he wanted a safe world for grisha. that still doesn't exist. there's a tidbit about grisha no longer being forced to join the second army, but that was not the issue at hand at all? they're not going to know how to use their powers. they're still going to face discrimination.

so onto my point, what if the cult of the starless was predominantly grisha? those who feel let down by the world around them, who see the darkling as a martyr for a reason. now THAT would be something to contend with. a physical consequence for the events of tgt. put them next to people like genya and nikolai who intimately understand the harm the darkling has done, and you've got a badass subplot going there.

plus, imagine zoya spotting old friends and comrades amongst the starless. angst potential. also, yuri's treatment in the books pisses me off so much - lb wants us to see him as a foolish annoyance, but this kid literally marched the religious sect that he leads right up to the gates of os alta. now top that off with grisha powers (inferni would be cool) and you have a way more threatening character.

zoyalai. right, ok. what irks me about these two is that their so-called banter and pining go nowhere. we get some half-hearted justifications for them not being together, and the narrative completely overlooks zoya's comments about him in the trilogy. let's fix this.

maybe they could start off professional around each other, somewhat cold. until at some point, they begin an exclusively physical affair, just fwb and nothing more. i think this could work given the fact they're both flirty and materialistic. the stakes would be that if the court found out, their reputations would be significantly tarnished, yet neither are willing to stop. as they spend more time together, feelings blossom. they're no longer the demon king and squaller general to each other. they just want to be nikolai and zoya, yet both are too proud to make the first move. let the pining commence.

either that or give nikolai a new love interest. wasn't there a line in kos that joked that nikolai would be prone to falling in love with a palace maid? the potential spice of his love interest being someone with zero political standing, someone like dominik. a fellow pirate or even a starless member.

i don't even know what to say about nina. i was devastated over her treatment. there really do need to be more stories where a character who has lost a lover moves on and finds love again, but matthias is quite literally freshly buried when she meets her new boo. that's a major disservice to the potential of hanne's character as well. i'm kinda in favour of scrapping nina's whole plot. it would need a colossal amount of overhaul to work and even though i'm enjoying sharing my ideas, i don't have time to think about that.

same goes for isaac and mayu. either scrap it or give it the attention it needs.

i'm aware this is very kos-centric, but kos is the root of my issues and row is just an extension of that.

MOST IMPORTANTLY: no darkling return. no alina and mal. this story has been told and wrapped up. please don't cheapen it by going back and contradicting tgt. no gratuitous, shoehorned crow cameos either.

that's that about that, i guess!! i apologise for any spelling or grammatical errors, i wrote this rather quickly. i know this isn't gonna be for everyone. that's alright. i just ask people to civil about it and if discussion is going to be had, don't take things in bad faith. sorry anon this got long af.

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dropintomanga · 4 years

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Can Sports Manga Really Break Through in North America?

Here we are in the summer of 2020 and it’s usually San Diego Comic-Con time. And with it comes discussion of how manga is doing in 2020. There was a Manga Publishing Industry Roundtable discussion at Comic-Con with representatives from almost all of the U.S. manga publishers (which you can watch here) about what’s happening in the U.S. side of things. While manga sales have dropped due to the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, they have rebounded back in some ways. A great thing about this is that it’s not just mainstream titles that are selling; it’s also series that are from other genres like slice-of-life and horror.

Which now leads into the title of this post because at the end of the discussion, publishers were asked about what they would like to see in the future. Erik Ko, chief of operations at UDON Comics, said something that really piqued my interest. He said that he wants to see if sports manga can truly break out in North America (i.e. reach levels of sales and popularity a la My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer, etc.). Erik mentioned how his daughter loves Haikyu!! on Crunchyroll and watched all 3 seasons multiple times (It’s also mentioned that Haikyu!! sold well during the pandemic for its U.S. publisher Viz Media).

While the manga has officially ended as of this writing, Haikyu!! will last for a while as the anime will have a 4th season and possibly more. However, while Haikyu!! is loved by a lot of anime/manga fans, it’s not exactly a series that has gotten EVERY shonen fan or manga reader talking. With the many sports manga licenses that manga publishers have gotten over the past few years, it doesn’t sound like there’s significant traction.

This does beg the question of what will it take for sports manga to really catch the eyes of manga readers here in the United States.

For starters, I’ll discuss a bit about the history of sports anime here in the United States. It’s been noted that a lot of sports anime do not tend to sell well over here. There was an Answerman article on Anime News Network answering “Why Do Sports Anime Bomb in North America?” that really goes into this. While it’s noted in the article that Yuri!! on Ice and Free! are indeed sports anime and have sold well, almost all discussion about those series revolves around the relationships between the male characters. Sports play second fiddle to the relationships compared to series like Haikyu!!, Slam Dunk, and Captain Tsubasa (where the sports aspect is still preached a lot).

Speaking of Captain Tsubasa, if you don’t know about this series, this is the one sports anime/manga that generated a lot of love overseas in countries that worship football/soccer. In the Manga: The Citi Exhibition book, there was an article on the promotion of Captain Tsubasa in Baghdad, Iraq by the Japan Self-Defense Force. The series was promoted via pictures on water distribution tanks in Iraq in the mid-2000s’ as a way to make Iraqi children smile. During the U.S. occupation of Iraq, Japan would later work with Iraqi media channels to show programming that would help encourage the country. One of these shows happened to be Captain Tsubasa, which was dubbed in Arabic. The series’ fandom took off from there and more places in the Middle East (like Saudi Arabia) even got in on the action using hacked satellites to watch.

I wonder if this is what Erik Ko wants to see - something like Captain Tsubasa that not only gets fans gushing about the story and characters, but also inspires kids to become professional athletes or at least become more physically active in their own lives.

A big problem that gets in the way of this happening in the U.S. is how sports culture is like over here. How do I explain this? I’ll use a quote from a 2016 article in the Milwaukee Independent about Anime Milwaukee.

“While the Anime Milwaukee convention does not collect statistical data about those who attend, walking around the convention provided empirical confirmation of how Anime speaks to multi-generational and multi-cultural people.

Anime itself will not solve the very real problems faced by disadvantaged residents in Milwaukee.

But unlike the adversarial escapism offered by sports teams and the nature of competitive games, the appeal of Anime is with its positive messages. Where as sports is an unrealistic role model for struggling youth, for the most part Anime offers socially beneficial and moral examples.”

Sports in the United States are very much “us versus them.” In Japan, sports focuses on healthy competition between players. At least, that’s what Japanese sports stories try to focus on. While healthy competition between players does happen over here, it either doesn’t get shown as much in U.S. sports media or that competition becomes toxic to the point it hurts innocent people. In the U.S., you’re supposed to win and get recognized in order to move ahead in your respective sport via whatever means necessary. A good example is college basketball over here and how competitive schools have been involved in recruiting scandals over the best high school players. Another example is the psychological trauma faced by the number of young female athletes who were sexually abused/harassed and forced to believe that it was all part of the process to get ahead in their respective sport. I want to note that sports programs in the U.S. are often heavily underfunded, which adds to the pressure that faces any youth going through sports programs.

There’s also this tendency to view athletes over here as all-knowing celebrity gods (i.e. athletes who say awful things with confidence on social media) or people that only know how to play their respective sport (ie. the “shut up and dribble” comment to outspoken basketball players on social issues). There’s no in-between where we get to see the complete humanity of the athlete.

This does tie into how sports fans and anime/manga fans may not get along. You usually learn more about the nuanced aspects of life from outside sports than within. Sports over here preach some questionable values that anime/manga fans sometimes don’t believe in. Add the fact that sports is shoved down Americans’ throats so much and you can see why not everyone over watches sports. I do want to note that there are U.S. pro athletes showcasing their love for anime. While this is nice to see, almost all the titles they grew up watching are mainstream shonen/shojo. I’m curious if athletes would watch series like Haikyu!!, Kuroko’s Basketball, Eyeshield 21, etc., but then I wonder if they would keep watching as they can only handle so much sports drama as it’s part of their everyday reality.

So what will it take for a sports manga to break through in a big way? Viz Media tried to promote Slam Dunk here using the NBA to promote literacy in 2008. I also found out that Tokyopop tried to do something with the NBA via its Cine-Manga initiative in the mid-2000s’ and it only lasted from 2004-2007. So to that extent, there probably has to some kind of manga that’s similar to the now-famous The Last Dance documentary, which chronicled Michael Jordan’s last championship run with the Chicago Bulls in the 1997-1998 NBA season.

Though honestly, it’s gonna take a mangaka who’s really interested in all aspects of American sports culture to come up with that kind of story. What might be better is that the story heavily criticizes the culture in a compelling and sometimes humorous way. I think that’s what will really get all U.S. manga fans and comic fans interested, especially those who are sick of commercialized sports exposure wherever they go. I do think over time as anime/manga continue to be accepted in the geek ecosystem, we can see this kind of story take off.

Until then, if you happen to be someone who likes both sports and anime/manga in a level-headed manner like me, you’re doing alright. It’s hard to occupy both spaces when you’re supposed to choose a side. Although I liked physical education during my school days, I can understand why anyone whose hobbies lie more towards the artistic and creative side disliked physical education possibly due to the structure in how it’s taught. I know sports anime lovers that dislike watching real sports in general and I get why.

Hearing Erik’s comments made me wonder about the beauty of sports manga. Now that I think hard about it, sports anime/manga are a intersection of both the “nerd” and “jock” in a way that helps everyone. To be honest, that intersection is what really bridges gaps that makes people better. It’s what truly completes a person. I’ll use this example - you can’t have mental health without physical health and vice versa. Some kind of exercise can help the mind while learning how your mind works can help you do better in physical activities that connect people together.

Maybe more importantly, what sports manga tends to preach is that winning shouldn’t be everything. Right now, everyone is encouraged to win at something just for a taste of meaningless status and we’re seeing how that mentality can ruin someone. Sports, with all of its benefits freed from corporate influence, are supposed to teach us (like all great manga stories do) that there’s no “us versus them,” there’s only “us” in the end.

And that kind of story deserves to hit a home run that rounds all the bases to reach a celebratory and meaningful win for the world.

#sports manga #manga industry #manga #mental health #psychology #sports culture #sports fandom #manga fandom

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rickyriddle · 5 years

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Sociopath/Psychopath characters in anime/manga

Hi there. So after the first and second psychopath lists and the sociopath list, here’s a fourth list for other psychopaths/sociopaths anime/manga characters. For this list I chose 20 characters that I believe have anti-social personality disorder (aka sociopathy and psychopathy), explaining whether its regular sociopathy, high-functioning sociopathy or psychopathy. Keep in mind that I’m doing that for fun, I’m not a specialist, so I may be wrong about certain details. Spoilers, especially for the series Revenge Classroom, Umineko, Higurashi and Danganronpa. TRIGGER WARNING FOR SENSITIVE SUBJECTS

Yuri Meichi (Akuma no Riddle)

High-functioning sociopath/Psychopath

I guess I can’t make a list without at least one AnR character. I first diagnosed this chapter with a superior complex but I come to realize it’s more than that. Yuri is a woman that seemed empty and hiding behind the same smile that looked printed on her face. She showed through the series that she lacks empathy, she has dubious morality, she’s manipulative and seems incapable de bond or love. In fact, the only time we saw her losing her usual smile was when a character proved their love for someone. Yuri is the typical calm mastermind who’s never bothered and doesn’t sympathize with anyone. I don’t know if I would classify her as a high-functioning sociopath or a psychopath, but given that she’s implied to have a rough childhood I feel like she’s not born that way but made.

Igarashi “Ulith” Rumi (Wixoss)

Conduct Disorder and High functioning sociopath

So, Conduct disorder is the precursor of Antisocial personality disorder, the former being diagnosed for child and teenager and the latter adult. Since she saw this character as a child exhibiting antisocial behaviours such as animal cruelty (well, more like bugs cruelty), lack of empathy, and a total disregard for rules. As an adult, Urith hasn’t changed and is quite manipulative and charismatic, and is, in addition, a sadist. She likes to manipulate and torment pure people until they break and commit suicide. If it wasn’t of the ending of the movie that made her break down in cry I would have diagnosed her as a psychopath, so I’ll go with high-functioning sociopath.

Matsuzaka Satou (Happy Sugar Life)

High-functioning sociopath

Satou is quite disconnected from her emotions but hides behind smiles and a kind persona, her mask to pretend to be normal. She has no problem manipulating others, threatened and even kill. She’s quite antisocial but she isn’t a psychopath. Unlike them, she’s capable of bonding and feeling love, even if it’s quite obsessive, her love is still genuine and sincere. She’s not born that, she was made this way because of the twisted environment she grew in with her unstable aunt. All of this caused her to become numb inside. But she’s not impulsive and is quite in control of her pulsion, making her high-functioning.

Donquixote Doflamingo (One Piece)

High-functioning sociopath/Psychopath

Even since he was a kid, Doflamingo was a monster. True, he was raised in a society of noblemen who view common people like trash, but his parents were so good and kind, so it’s more likely that his behaviours are nature, not nurture. His total lack of remorse or empathy seems to classify him as a psychopath, but at the same time he does seem to have genuine sympathy for some of his comrade, so he could also be a high-functioning sociopath who was born with genetic predisposition to become one (since sociopathy can be both caused by environment and genetic predisposition). So I would say he lay between those two disorders.

Esdeath (Akame ga Kill)

High-functioning sociopath

I was going to classify her as a psychopath at first before I remembered her genuine love for Tatsumi and her past. Her past with her father shaped her actual mentality that the strong lives and the weak die. Esdeath has no empathy and doesn’t show remorse for all the horrible acts she has committed, she has no problem killing innocent people or torturing them. But she’s not incapable of love or bonding, she seems to at least care a little bit for her comrade who earned her respect, and deeply love Tatsumi. But in the end, she’s a cruel a ruthless woman who enjoys hurting others and has no remorse whatsoever for all the horrible things she has done.

Kamiyama Itsuki (Goth)

Psychopath

This one is interesting because he is most likely a psychopath, yet doesn’t hurt or kill anyone. In fact, most psychopaths in real life don’t, so he feels more realistic. The manga made it really clear that he’s wearing a mask to appear normal, typical of psychopaths. He doesn’t seem to be able to bond and genuinely love others, his only “love” interest is a girl who he fantasizes about cutting her hands. He actually put this girl in danger just to achieve this goal. But he never takes direct action to cause her harm. He is also quite fearless and doesn’t show empathy, other signs of psychopathy.

Musician Of The Forest Cranberry (Magical Girl Raising Project)

High-functioning sociopath/Psychopath

A character that looks at first really calm, cool-headed and somewhat charming, but the more we know about her the more we noticed that she’s quite fearless and always in need of stimulation. She seems quite rational and in control of herself, without any sympathy for others. She treats life and death situations as a game and is always calm. I only saw the anime but I read about her backstory, being through a horrible situation where all her comrades (she was a child) were brutally murdered in front of her. Hard to tell if that moment traumatizes her and made her the way she is, or if it awakened something she already had inside her. So I can’t make a definitive diagnosis but to be she’s definitely antisocial.

Abigail (Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka)

Sociopath

This girl looks like the lovechild of Nio and Otoya from Akuma no Riddle. She’s all cheerful and looks sweet, but is actually ruthless and commit atrocities remorselessly. She’s cruel and has no empathy and hides her true self behind a cheery mask. But Abigail isn’t high-functioning, she’s pretty impulsive and can get easily angry, she basically has no self-control. But she’s capable of bonding and feeling love for her master. In addition to being a sociopath, she’s also a sadist who enjoys torturing people.

Enoshima Junko (Danganronpa)

Sociopath

I hesitate to put her on my list because I saw an analysis of Junko with different disorders, but her being a sociopath is also a high possibility. She hides her true self behind a charismatic mask, she’s highly manipulative and doesn’t seem to have a single drop of empathy for anyone. Even people she claimed to love she ultimately hurt them (or even killed them) for her own selfish desire. I wouldn’t say she’s high-functioning though, the main reason why she succeeded was because she was rich, she had a super strong sister and she was really intelligent, but she doesn’t seem to have much self-control and is pretty impulsive. So I would say she’s pretty mid-functioning, enough to carry out her plan.

Takano Miyo (Higurashi no naku koro ni)

High-functioning sociopath

Another one I have been conflicted about for a long time, but I think high-functioning sociopath could qualify her. She had a rough childhood where her parents died tragically in an accident, she was abused horribly by her orphanage and her adoptive grandfather who she deeply loved was humiliated to the point he suffered from mental illness and committed suicide. It’s understandable if Takano broke after all of this and became numb and disconnected from her empathy. She’s a liar and quite manipulative as an adult, committing atrocities and hurting people without a shred of empathy and even enjoying it. She’s quite cruel, hiding being a nice and friendly mask while in reality she enjoys frightening people and toying with them. She’s still capable of love and bonding, but it has it’s limit as she has no problem killing her own allies. I would say she’s mainly high-functioning, but when she loses her certainty to win she can crumble.

Ushiromiya Kyrie (Umineko no naku koro ni)

High-functioning sociopath/Psychopath

From the same series as Higurashi. It took us a long time before realizing what kind of person Kyrie truly is. We discovered that she’s the true murderer of the Rokkenjima Massacre along with her husband. At first we’re lead to think Kyrie is a cool person, I would even say a calm big sister. She seems like one of the best adults on the island. Wrong, totally wrong. Kyrie is actually cold-blooded and lacks empathy, she would kill anyone who gets in her way. She was obsessed with her husband, getting jealous and cursing any women who get close to him, and she was even ready to kill his new wife. Luckily for her, she died, so she got what she wanted without dirtying her hands. Despite all she did for her husband, when he died she didn’t seem sad at all, which lead me to think she was simply obsessed by him but never actually loved him. She even revealed that she never loved her own daughter and her family was nothing more than a facade. We don’t know exactly Kyrie’s past so I can’t say if she’s born or made that way, but given that she seems incapable of love or bonding, I would say she’s most likely a psychopath.

Bernkastel (Umineko no naku koro ni)

High functioning sociopath

Another one from Umineko. For half the series, we’re led to believe that Bernkastel is an ally, she’s on the side of the hero and she reminds people of Rika from Higurashi, who was the heroine. She seems to sympathize with Battler and doesn’t show much bad intention. But then, she began to be more antagonistic, taking control of Beatrice’s game with Lambdadelta and toying with everyone, while heavily mistreating her piece Erika, revealing her true cruel and sadistic nature. She basically treats everyone as her toy and doesn’t hesitate to torture them for her own pleasure without a single drop of empathy. She can hide her true dark intent and pretend to be nice when she wants, but it’s only an act. She’s also quite petty, she lost so she plots to take revenge by literally destroying those who offended her. Bernkastel isn’t born like that, she was made that way after spending hundreds of years of being brutally killed and another thousand years being taught how to be cruel by her old master. At least Bernkastel is capable of love, but let’s say that her love is really twisted.

Kiryuin Ragyo (Kill la Kill)

Psychopath

Mother of the year… That woman has no empathy, no love and only cares about herself. She used her own children as tools for her goal, and didn’t feel remorse at all when she thought one of them died and regularly molested the other one. She tried to kill her own husband when he got in the way. This woman is incapable of having empathy, love or bonding, yet we could say she’s quite charismatic in a way, a lot of superficial charms. Even in the end, she preferred to kill herself with a smile.

Medusa Gorgon (Soul Eater)

Psychopath

Another mother of the year… At the beginning of the story, Medusa pretends to be the kind nurse of Shibusen, while she was actually a ruthless witch who abused her own child and raised them as a tool and an experiment. She treats pretty much everyone around her as tools or experiments and has no problem manipulate and using people. She never showed any empathy or love for anyone, she was a cold and cool-headed person who was in perfect control of her pulsion.

Yamase Yuuya (Revenge Classroom)

Psychopath

Nearly forgot about him. Yuuya is portrayed as a soft and kind boy for almost the entire manga, until the end when it’s revealed he’s actually the mastermind behind all the events, starting with people starting to bully Ayana which leads her to seek revenge and ended up in a bloodbath. Yuuya knew exactly that something like that would happen and still caused it, why? He was bored. He always felt empty in the inside and always had been an excellent manipulator, so he decided to start this just to satiate is boredom. He actually enjoys to see people suffer, he doesn’t seem to have any empathy or love for anyone. He’s quite a good actor and managed to fool everyone, until the end when his masquerade is finally revealed. He does have some bad stuff happening to him in his past, but I don’t feel it’s enough to make him this way, so I would say he’s born that way, thus a psychopath.

Celestia Ludenberg (Danganronpa)

High-functioning sociopath

Another Danganronpa character. Celes is known to be the queen of liars, she’s good at manipulating others and usually keeps her composure, looking rather elegant and superficially charming. She doesn’t seem to appreciate humans, proof is that her most important person is actually her cat. Some sociopaths prefer animals over humans. Everything about her is a lie, her name who is Yasuhiro Taeko, her past, her origins, and most of her personality. As we see in her class trial, Celes can be quite impulsive and aggressive, but most of the time she wears a mask that make her look calm and elegant. She doesn’t seem to have empathy for people, she had no remorse to manipulate Yamada and then murderer him, shamelessly lying to everyone, ready to get them all executed for money. She’s the type who had no problem sacrificing and using others for her own ambition.

Since I have three spots left to make a 20 characters lists I’ll take this opportunity to fix some of my mistakes from my first psychopaths list.

Oh Sangwoo (Killing Stalking)

Psychotic sociopath

On my previous list, I said he was a psychopath, but the manhwa wasn’t over yet and later we see how mentally unstable he was which makes me think he’s more psychotic. But he still shows lots of antisocial symptoms such a superficial charms, lack of empathy and remorse, deceitful, cruel and manipulative. But he’s not born that way, this is the result of his abusive parents, especially his mother who tried to kill and rape him. I would say he’s mid-functioning, enough to kill efficiently, but still really unstable.

Yagami Light (Death Note)

Sociopathic narcissist

Another one I qualified as a psychopath but after rereading about him I have to change my statement. Light does show a lot of antisocial symptoms such as charisma, liars, lack of empathy and remorse, deceitful and manipulative. But he’s not born that way, we saw when he lost his memory that he was capable of sympathy. And he doesn’t seem to have anything in his past who would have made him that way. My guess would be that he’s a narcissist that gains sociopathic tendencies due to the influence of the Death Note. Maybe he has genetic dispositions for sociopathy and it got awaked by the feeling of power and the ability to kill. I think Light is mainly a narcissist, he feels superior to others, he wants to be God and he’s power-hungry. He feels morally superiors and thinks he has the right to kill whoever he wants.

Baek Yeonhwa (White Angels Have no Wings)

High-functioning sociopath

And another one that was classified as a psychopath on my first list. Don’t get me wrong, with the first manhwa she could definitely have been a psychopath. But the author made a sequel and I have to change my diagnosis. Yeonhwa is definitely antisocial, she’s a cruel and remorseless girl who hides behind an innocent mask, she uses her disability to gain sympathy from others and hide her true self, she enjoys tormenting and hurting others and even went as far as raping her own sister. She showed no remorse for her actions and doesn’t seem to have any empathy. In the sequel, however, she fell in love with a girl and seemed to genuinely care about her. She’s not incapable of bonding and love, but it doesn’t erase all the antisocial traits she has. So I suppose high-functioning sociopath would be a better diagnosis for her.

That will be all for this list, I don’t know if I’ll make a fifth one, but if you have any suggestion feel free to tell me!

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kendrixtermina · 4 years

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Do you think any of the FE3H cast would ever betray someone close to them? I feel like many of them would be okay doing so if they didnt know the person (they would likely see it as normal tactics/behavior as you wouldn't trust someone you dont know.) But when it comes to someone close to them I feel like a lot of them couldn't do it due to moral/personal/other reasons? The only exceptions I could see are cases like El where her goals are above all else but I couldn't see her doing that post-CF.

Hm. This depends on what you count as betrayal.

Both Dimitri and Rhea accuse Edelgard of “betraying” them but she never had loyalty to them to begin with at least not over the age of twelve. She definitely would choose the cause over any previous affiliation but she also makes sure her followers know what they’re in for and gives them the option to back out.

Claude tells no one his true intentions and in part makes ppl work towards causes that they wouldn’t necessary support (he wants to lower the influence of the church but talks the church people into supporting him) but he does get people what he promised them and doesn’t wash his hands of them at any point.

Then you have Yuri who deceives his allies, doesn’t make himself accountable to anyone etc. but still values trust in his own way. Claude relies on people’s self interest and aligning it with his own; Yuri on the other hand will come through for you, he just won’t precisely tell you how he’ll do it...

And I mean everyone who is recruitable can change factions and thus end up opposed to people they used to be friends with. Dimitri and various church people certainly consider this treason.

Though this wouldn’t be for the selfish reasons typically associated with “betrayal”, but because they became convinced that Byleth and [faction leader] have chosen the right approach to fixing the country, depending on who they get to know better and what they know (same for Byleth themselves really)

Definite no:

Most of the faction-locked ppl bar Jeritza (who doesn’t have real loyalty and just wants an outlet)

So Dedue, Hubert, Gilbert, Rodrigue, Judith, Ladislava...

Also the characters who will join many factions but will not outright oppose their home faction (Hilda, Seteth, Flayn, Cyril)... I would exclude Catherine because while she wouldn’t backstab Rhea she’d backstack others FOR Rhea. She’s a definite yes Cristophe was her best friend.

Probably yes:

Catherine (see above)

Felix (Is certainly written to have made a deliberate choice to jump ship on or even outright oppose his father and former friends)

Leonie (”Sorry I can’t go easy on you just because I know you”)

Lysithea (the one of the religious characters who will outright stop being a believer in CF, generally some level of pragmatict self-interest going on - See her character arc in AM)

Shamir (”Between you and me I’d choose me”)

Lorenz (definite opportunist - though it comes from a place of protecting his own)

Rhea (lies to Flayn and Seteth which puts them in danger once someone wants to hold her accountable for her wrongdoings, treated the homunculi in a warm maternal fashion while also keeping them isolated/controlled and waiting cheerfully for them to become meat puppets)

Byleth (whatever route you pick you fight some ppl you lived in close quarters with and they’re heartbroken about it. Especially thinking of Leonie, Alois or Dorothea if you don’t recruit them.)

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subliminalcherry-blog · 5 years

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Long Ass Enta Rant

The only thing more problematic than defending Enta’s behavior because he’s “14″ and “we all did dumb things as kids” (I sure as hell didn’t do the things Enta does toward my crush at 14 but I’m not going to get into that) is claiming that any hate/criticism directed at Enta is based on homophobia?? Or an adult not understanding how a child’s mind works when they’re in love?

And after seeing so many posts in the tags about it, I’m going to explain why that’s a garbage conclusion to come to.

Like, y’all do realize that Reo and Mabu are the fandom’s favorite characters, the most popular characters to come out of the show while it’s airing regardless of whether people read the Manga first or not, and they’re both undoubtedly, definitely, and indisputably gay? And they’re both ADULTS out here relentlessly murdering people but they’re still well liked.

Where are these homophobia claims coming from? They’re both baseless and stupid. A characters sexuality should NOT be a shield from criticism. Ever.

For people who shit on Reo and Mabu fans for still liking them but in the same breath, criticizing Enta, People can continue to like Reo and Mabu despite all the things they do because we can acknowledge that they’re the bad guys and they’re intended to be the shows main villains or at least so far that is what we are being lead to believe. No one tries to justify the things they do. No one is saying Reo is in the right for trying to kill multiple children and MAYBE succeeding the second time around. They’re villains. They don’t try to justify their actions or so far have not made themselves out to be victims. And most of all, we don’t see their fans jumping to their defense every time they do something inherently wrong. Most of us were just as shocked as anyone else that Reo’s crazy ass shot Enta. But moving on.

In the case of Enta, what’s worse than the things he unapologetically does is his fans acting like the things he does aren’t bad and use his age and sexuality to guilt people and deflect criticism from him as a character. First of all, gay people do not need to be coddled and treated like they can do no wrong. Real gay people are human beings who make mistakes and eventually own up to them. Enta has not and has only continued to make mistakes while learning nothing from them. I understand that Sarazanmai is short and fast paced, but that’s still no excuse in my opinion. Second of all, No one is vilifying Enta because he’s gay. That aspect of his character is largely irrelevant compared to the things he does. Enta is not being singled out because he’s the only openly gay character of the main trio. He’s being criticized because the things he does are inherently wrong and mostly without justification. And he’s not the only one being criticized.

Kazuki, Mabu and Reo have all come under fire for the things they do. Chikai maybe has faced backlash as well, especially for what he does in episode 8, but I haven’t went out of my way to look for it. The only one of the relevant cast, Sara aside, who hasn’t done a thing to warrant backlash is maybe Tooi. You can bring up the fact that he killed someone and his brother covered it up, but he was a child, even younger than Enta and he did it in self-defense - and was lead to believe that was something he must do to project his brother who shifted the blame onto himself. It is in my opinion that Chikai pretty much conditioned him into thinking this was an acceptable lifestyle and choice, but I’m not entirely confident that it was written with that intent so just take that for a grain of salt.

As per the Ikuhara character standard nowadays, Enta is a piece of shit. He makes himself out to be a victim and his fans treat him as such. He refuses to see the error of his ways even if he hurts the person he cares about the most and wants to connect to in the process. He’s not entirely unsympathetic and sometimes he may even be understandable, but he’s shown to take things to illogical extremes, as Ikuhara characters tend to do. He acts entitled to Kazuki, and only loves the idealized version that he once knew or ultimately made up in his head, refusing to accept that Kazuki doesn’t reciprocate his feelings. Enta is the type of character that everyone would hate if he was a straight male character doing these things to a disinterested female character. But suddenly because he’s gay it’s justifiable and endearing and anyone that doesn’t like him is a homophobe? That’s ridiculous. I don’t give a shit what a character or human beings sexuality is. A piece of shit is a piece of shit.

I’m not even going to lie. I wanted to like Enta at first. I was following Sarazanmai since it was first announced and when the character designs first came out, Right off the bat, I wasn’t a fan of his design or how aggressive he was toward the other characters in the trailers. For me, those were red flags. But I still tried to like him regardless. when he kissed Kazuki, I got excited until the implications of his actions fully set in for me. Kissing someone without their consent isn’t okay, especially if the person is asleep. That was already another red flag for me. And then they reveal that he just stepped up to the next level of creepy by making him sniff kazukis clothes and suck on his recorder for indirect kisses? He has delusions about him? And people tried to justify it because he’s 14 as if it wouldn’t be creepy if it happened to someone in real life or again, if a male anime character did it to a female anime character? Only scenario I could see this not receiving hate wildly in is if it was a comedy anime or something but then we’d still have a number of people labeling the character as a creep.

Enta’s love for Kazuki is unhealthy. It’s more than just being a dumb awkward gay 14 year old who has their first crush on someone. He’s just a character in a long line of Ikuhara character’s that don’t display their love for another person in way that is understandable or healthy. I don’t see how relatable this character could be on a surface level when you think of all the things he’s done. He’s not a borderline rapist like Ringo from Mawaru Penguindrum, which I’m grateful for because she may be one of the most unlikeable characters Ikuhara has ever written, but he’s basically Lulu 2.0 from Yuri Kuma Arashi except a guy. He even ““dies”” in the same way as her.

While Kazuki is no saint and getting some of the backlash he deserves, Enta is not entitled to Kazuki and part of the hate directed at Kazuki shouldn’t have anything to do with his feelings or the lack of them toward Enta or being too dim-witted to acknowledge them. Enta is not a victim just because his love is unrequited. He’s a flawed character, borderline unlikeable for some including myself and relatable for others but a flawed Ikuhara character nonetheless. The criticism he receives is not baseless. It’s not based on homophobia. He’s not being singled out because he’s an ““awkward gay 14 year old” as if a homophobe would sit through this show for 8 episodes anyway just to come to that conclusion. Episode 1 was a turn off for even people who aren’t homophobic anyway —

He’s criticized because he’s a flawed character that shows no remorse for his actions, acts entitled, acts like a victim in situations where he’s in the wrong, is a creep and is currently fighting Kazuki for the title of the most unlikeable, most unsympathetic character in the cast for me and no amount of ““self sacrifice” is going to change that for me until i see him change. I think next to Tooi, he’s better written than Kazuki, who imo has been bland and never stopped being bland. But that doesn’t necessarily make him a good character or ““well-written” either.

At the end of the day, it boils down to your opinions and perspectives. It just gets tiresome seeing people trying to write off criticism toward Enta as irrelevant just because he’s gay or because he’s “14″ as if this “14″ year old wasn’t written by a grown man with a history of writing problematic underage characters? Ringo didn’t initially get a slap on the wrist when she was shitty until she truly earned her sympathy card. None of the characters in Yuri Kuma did either except Lulu who ended up dying despite being the most likeable character in the cast.

The amount of people I see defending him makes me think this is a lot of you’s first Ikuhara anime. Most of us who have seen Ikuhara anime before would have expected a character like this due to his repetitive story-telling and character molds. Like I said before, Ikuhara has a history of writing problematic characters. Everyone in the main cast is in a way, even Tooi. Sara is squeaky clean for now, but she may end up being a morally grey character as well.

I just can’t take the opinions of people who make baseless claims like that seriously. Or people who try to justify Enta’s actions because of his age either. He’s a FICTIONAL CHARACTER. not a real 14 year old. I don’t get why people are so defensive over him either. I get that we can relate to characters sometimes, but the amount of projection I’m seeing is almost as unhealthy as his obsession with Kazuki.

Anyway, come for me if you want. Send hate or whatever. If you wanna discuss your perspective on Enta’s character, feel free to do that too.

If anything, y’all should be mad that all the most outwardly problematic characters in the show are gay and barely have any justification for their actions. I mean Kazuki tried to kidnap someone and impersonated Sara because he wanted to form a connection with his brother, but he not only failed at getting Sara kidnapped, he also learns from his actions and tries to form a genuine connection with Haruka on his own. Being dismissive of Enta’s romantic feelings for him shouldn’t be an subject of criticism and shouldn’t warrant a justification. If you aren’t interested, you aren’t interested. Onto Tooi - We don’t know what Tooi’s sexuality is, but his justification for killing a guy was self defense and he was most likely conditioned into believing that the lifestyle he lives is acceptable by his brother.

What’s Enta’s excuse other than that he was jealous? Reo and Mabu didn’t didnt have a genuine excuse to kill all of those people, including trying to kill Harukawa and then shooting Enta. I understand that they’re threatened with death, but They could have just threatened Kazuki and Enta into giving up the dishes of hope since they had a gun. Just saying.

Anyway rant over. If you lasted this long, what are you doing with your life. And what am I since I sat down and wrote all this shit.

#sarazanmai spoilers #sarazanmai #i actually considered not posting this but you know what #Someone had to say it and I got enough pent up annoyance at enta as a character just to do it.#Christ i wrote a whole damn book lmao I don’teven wanna reread this for spelling errors.

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toonstarterz · 5 years

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BECAUSE I’M NOT POPULAR, I’LL READ WATAMOTE: CHAPTER #153

Naturally, Watamote hits us with a relatively “light” chapter after the dumpster fire that transpired between Tomoko and Ucchi. But even if we put that inevitable faceoff on hold, this week’s snack-sized chapter gives us something fresh and sweet to cleanse our palettes. And that my friends, is our favorite lil’ observer, Hikari Itou.

Chapter 153: Because I’m Not Popular, I’ll Participate In My 2nd Sports Tournament

♪ It’s the ciiiiircle, the ciiiiircle of liiiiiiiiiiiiiife! ♫

The softball team making it far doesn’t surprise me too much, given that it was obviously the overachieving Komiyama who dragged their butts over to the winner’s bracket.

Same goes for the ping pong team, whose Weapon of Mass Destruction, the enigmatic Shiki Futaki, decimated the poor first-years. Of course, both teams had its share of respectably athletic girls, so a team effort can definitely be attributed here.

That surprises absolutely no one at this point.

Add this to my “Tomoko Noms” folder.

I noticed that Tomoko is that type of introvert who needs to feel productive, even if its something as quiet as reading manga. A lot of her anxiety, I believe, came/comes from self-defeating boredom. Unlike Yuri, who doesn’t seem to have any qualms about doing nothing, Tomoko has to at least feel preoccupied to relax her nerves.

It easy to forget that the Komiyama who can explode into irrationally perverted hissyfits is also the Komiyama with actual polite manners.

While Komiyama prefers to keep to herself like most introverts, she stands apart from the other “quiet” girls like Tomoko or Yuri in that she’s not afraid to take the lead when she wants to. If she could learn to keep her temper in order, I honestly think she’d make a good leader.

Hey, hey, hey! It’s that pretty girl who was on the cheerleading team during Tomoko’s 2nd-year sports festival. I bet that Nico Tanigawa has a spreadsheet of background characters for easy introductions.

I can appreciate that Komiyama can set aside her differences with Yoshida especially–given their admittedly entertaining cafeteria fight–to see her value to the team. Despite both being kind of hotheaded, they aren’t really the type to hold grudges, are they?

Itou’s straight face is meme-worthy.

Given her borderline stalker levels of Komiyama’s background, I think we can take Itou’s word on this one. Who would’ve thought Komi had some chuuni in her?

Breaking news: Itou’s a real bestie.

This just in: Dicky-chan makes a surprising comeback.

Swiggity Swooty, comin’ for that...eye circles.

Yeah, Nemo’s a tease, Yuri’s cute, and Katou’s hot, but Shoujo!Komiyama is by far the most adorable girl in the entire series.

I know I’m not the first one to think that Itou had ESP in this scene.

Psychic powers or not, it’s clear the Itou’s friendship with Komiyama is intimate enough that she can practically read the girl’s mind. What makes it even better is that Itou has an impartial view on who Komiyama is. She can see Komi as equal parts wholesome and perverted. Much like Tomoko, Komi is really transparent once you get to know her, and much like Yuri, Itou has really accepted the girl’s faults in stride.

Five nonexistent bucks say that Komiyama’s personality is practically the same as it was before.

C’mon, Itou. You can’t just leave unfinished thoughts like that. Simple? Consistent?? Insane??? Even so, Itou hasn’t left the girl’s side at this point, so I’m thinking she must have slowly built up a resistance to Komi’s near-borderline personality disorder.

A flashback within a flashback? Insert easy Inception reference here.

I’m already getting the, “girl without many friends” vibe here. Everybody knows that eyeless girls in screentone are off the table as potential buddies.

Then, of course, we have Komiyama, who effortlessly pulls of the “literature girl” vibe better than the main character from Nico Tanigawa’s other manga.

Awkward gaps galore. What catches my attention is that Itou was the initiator for this fated first meeting. Something about Komiyama grabbed her attention, enough where this usually observant girl decided to approach her. Did she sense a kindred spirit in this solitary bookworm? Maybe Itou thought Komi was lonely and could use some company? Or perhaps Itou’s action was entirely out of happenstance and Komi just happened to be there at the time. Whatever the reason, I doubt either of them ever thought they’d be best friends after this.

I rather like that Komiyama apologized and asked for Itou’s name again when in reality...Itou didn’t even tell her. Komi was polite enough to acknowledge the random girl next to her, even when she could’ve just ignored her without consequence.

How wonderfully decent.

Implying, of course, that Itou was actively looking for an opportunity to connect with her. Again, it’s still uncertain why exactly Komiyama caught Itou’s eye, but if this series has taught us anything, it’s that “normal” people tend to be drawn to weirdos.

I originally questioned why Komiyama doesn’t play baseball herself when she’s such a big fan of the sport. But the answer came to me after some thought.

You can appreciate something and not pursue it yourself.

Not all foodies become chefs, not all gamers develop games, etc. Hobbies don’t necessarily have to be precursors for your careers. The harsher realities that come with making it your job can ruin the enjoyment of it, and Komiyama exemplifies that better than anyone in this series.

Although, being such a tryhard during this tournament suggests she likes to live out the fantasy, if just for a little bit.

“Cool Beauty”-o-Vision activated.

Bookworm problems, I tells ya.

Did she ever succeed? We may never know.

Normally, people like Komiyama who are so insistent on converting people into becoming fans of their hobby tend to be rather annoying in real life. But for some reason, Komiyama pulls it off in a way that doesn’t feel too in-your-face about it. I think it’s because Komi is so passionate in her own interests, that she likely won’t feel offended or insecure if Itou doesn’t become a fan. That being the case, it just feels like a pure-hearted girl trying to spread the fun.

For the record, there was an inner monologue by Itou here that got scrapped in the translation.

What can you do?

Okada just can’t get away from the otaku swarm, can she?

Resistance is futile.

Thank goodness this video was on Itou’s phone(right?) and not Komiyama’s. Heaven knows the kind of Tomoki lewdness she has on it.

Oh, she’ll be analyzing his play-style A LOT tonight, I’m sure.

I love Tomoko doesn’t blame Itou at all for taking the video. Absolute proof that she’s totally biased against Komi-something.

Speaking of which, I’m surprised she gave such a straight response, hence the opaque glasses. She used to get all flustered whenever someone suggested she was perving on Tomoki, though that was before she supposedly decided to start being honest with herself. Maybe she really is just using it for reference. Either way, Komi’s keeping to her word, and I respect that.

I sense an overabundance of empathy in Okada’s words.

Quit being so cute, Itou. We’ve already reached max cuteness capacity for this series.

And there you have it, folks. The first-ever “Itou Hikari” spotlight chapter. I’ve mentioned before that the Komi-Itou relationship is parallel to the Tomo-Yuri relationship, but I now see considerable differences. Unlike the other girls, who started off as black slates before being developed, Itou’s character grown runs in reverse. She’s already been “developed’, but we can expand her character by seeing how her previous experience shaped her into who she is today:

A self-imposed background character who’s content in providing moral support for her more imposing friend.

I look forward to seeing more behind the mind of this adorable, observant lil’ chipmunk.

#watamote #watamote review #chapter 153 #no matter how i look at it it's you guys' fault i'm not popular!#tomoko kuroki #yuri tamura #mako tanaka #masaki yoshida #hikari itou #kotomi komiyama #akane okada #hina nemoto #asuka katou #akari iguchi #review

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rwbyconversations · 5 years

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A retrospective look on the second half of Volume 6

Just over a month and a half ago, I did a retrospective on the first half of Volume 6- everything from Adam’s short up to The Grimm Reaper. Now in hindsight if I’d known the season was getting cut down an episode I’d have done the analysis a week earlier so it would be perfectly symmetrical, but life comes at you fast. I adored the first half of Volume 6 and still rank it as the best string of episodes quality wise that the show has ever had. It was very clear even early on that the crew over in Austin were going all out to prove that they knew what they were doing and could still create a stellar season of a show. I was confident at the time that the back half would stick the landing, and while it wasn’t as good as the first half, Volume 6′s second half still retains the quality that makes it one of the best volumes of the entire show and a standout piece of animation by any standards.

As such, this will be a review of every episode from Chapters 8 to 13, spoilers obviously will follow if you haven’t watched those.

Dead End- the stumbling block

So you know how I said in the retrospective for the first half of the volume that if chapter 8 was good than we’d get the longest uncut string of good episodes in all of RWBY? I’m pretty sure someone upstairs heard that and chose deliberately to make Chapter 8 the weakest episode of the season. There is good to be found here, but unfortunately every race has someone end up dead last and chapter 8 drew the short straw.

While the opening scene with Caroline and her minions is funny at first, it quickly drags on for too long and desperately needed another few goes with a weed-whacker to condense the scene. Barring setting up Corvodin as an obvious antagonist little is gained from the scene, especially given how much of the episode it consumes.

Jaune’s scene with Oscar remains... sketchy on a moral level, especially the accusation Jaune makes that Ozpin has been pretending to be Oscar the entire time. Jaune’s still not truly processed his grief over Pyrrha’s death and while I’m glad to see his anger at Ozpin return after it went missing in Volume 5, I think Jaune crossed the line when he decided to start manhandling Oscar. It’s also still really weird how outside of Yang and Weiss saying “Jaune!” with the concern you express when someone stubs their toe, no one actually runs over to pull Jaune off. It’s just a weird moment, I still don’t really like this scene or many of the defenses for it. Fuck’s sake, Oscar’s trembling like a leaf in a hurricane afterwards that stuff ain’t right.

Ruby’s scene with Maria is the real saving grace of the episode, especially since we finally got some solid information on the Silver Eyes, accompanied by some wonderful background music and cinematography. Maria really is one of the best characters in the show and it’s amazing how much audiences grew to love her in just one single year, so kudos to the writers, designers and actors for that. Maria’s Semblance is simple but neat, and you can actually go back and listen to the Maria vs Tock fight for their auditory trigger which is an insane attention to detail touch.

Also something I couldn’t fit in anywhere else; it’s sad but fairly realistic that Qrow falls right back off the wagon after the Corvodin meeting goes south.

Dead End has some quality to it, mostly in the back half with Maria and Ruby bouncing off each other wonderfully to create a great teacher-student dynamic, but the first half drags and is let down by an overly long intro before pouring gasoline on the fires of the anti-Jaune crowd.

Lost- The Refound Footing

Remember what I said in the first half of the volume retrospective, Em and Merc appearing is an instant thumbs up in my book. So an episode where they get half the episode to themselves, and even get to be in the thumbnail for the first time since Volume 3? Hoo boy, that’s a solid contender for episode of the season right there. And it nearly is, in all honesty. In fact, Lost’s only mis-step is how a part of it feels like the third act to a trilogy when we never saw the second part, but we’ll come back to that.

Mercury and Emerald’s scene is nothing short of breathtaking. There’s a lot of great lighting choices in this scene such as Emerald initially sitting in the darkness before rising and coming into the moonlit parts of the room after being confronted with her denial to believe that Cinder’s a monster, that lend the scene a bit of extra weight. Yuri and Katie are their usual amazing selves, especially since this is the first time either of them have been given some really meaty dialogue in a while.

Kerry had already teased content for Mercury was coming in the Reddit AMA, and we already knew the kick boi was sporting one of the darkest backstories of anyone in the show, but the curtain was uncovered here to make it absolutely obvious how much of a bastard Marcus Black was and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that interest in Mercury jumped up after this episode and the average theory on Team Jaded went from “Emerald will defect and Mercury will stay or die giving her a chance” to “Emerald and Mercury will leave as a group.”I also love how the Yang and Mercury foil status only continues to amplify, as now we have both of their fathers giving different advice and training in regards to their Semblances- Tai encouraged Yang to learn to control it and not to use it as a crutch unless she was sure it would finish the fight, while Marcus stole it so Mercury never got reliant in the first place.

Merc’s backstory is also making me salivate for when he finally gets to cut loose in a fight, since his two biggest fights- against Pyrrha and Yang- were him holding back, so Mercury fighting needing to worry about keeping his cover would be an insane fight. And if Cinder and Neo is any sign of the CRWBY’s skills with hand-to-hand fighting... yeah, Merc’s next bout will be something to look forward to. I also love that Merc spends this scene training his punches, showing that he’s covering his bases for the next time he gets to fight Yang or another brawler.

Emerald is still the best girl in this show. I love to hate how the music changes to a soft version of Cinder’s theme when Emerald explains why she’s backing Cinder, as if Emerald is twisting the music itself to make Cinder out to be the hero. Mercury bluntly telling her to stop living in fantasy land was a great moment that I’d been waiting years for, and “I’m sorry you didn’t have a mommy who loved you, but I had a father who hated me,” is just solid gold in writing.

I love how Merc’s smirk as he calls Emerald out on her denial just melts off his face because he cares enough to want Emerald to stop being delusional, but he’s not going to be nice about it.

Also can I just say Mercury, the whole “I think I’m right where I’m supposed to be” crap would work if literally every other one of your scenes this volume didn’t show you scared and clearly rethinking your life choices.

Tyrian’s tail upgrade is fine, but the real treat to his grand return is Tyrian playing psychoanalyist on Mercury and immediately calling bullshit on his above line- Merc’s only here because he’s been in a cycle of violence his whole life and is too afraid to leave it. The way he practically begs them to run because he called dibs on hunting them down is way too gleeful for my liking but given how Merc and Tyrian are two of my favorite villains right now, them finally getting to chat was a delight. I can’t wait until Volume 7 when we get to see Tyrian bounce off Watts without Mama Salem’s watchful eye.

OK I’m done talking about the best scene in the Volume. Now let’s talk about another great scene.

So first off I’d like to give my apprecation to the crew for making new Argus locals every episode we spend in it. It gives the city a lot more weight as a locale to see different streets and environs every week instead of prop recycling like a motherfucker. It gives Argus a lot more weight and makes it feel more lived-in than the few samey environments of Mistral that we got to see, and the streets are beautiful as a consequence. It also lets me play my new favorite spot, Spot The Emerald Clone!!

Jaune’s scene at the statue is a beautifully shot and acted scene, no complaints from me here and Forever Fall has already killed me and claimed my soul. I love how it calls back to the Volume 1 OP as well, and Miles and Jen kill it here. It’s on its own an amazing scene, but the wider problem is what sets it down. This is JN_R’s only scene this volume, and as a consequence it feels like it needs to include most all of their character beats since they won’t get the chance to otherwise- their mutual grief over Pyrrha is brought up, Nora tells Jaune to drop the suicidal tendencies he suddenly gained at Haven and Ren... is there. If JNR had more to do this volume I wouldn’t mind but this scene just gives the vibe of “JNR get one scene to develop and justify them staying to fight Salem and that’s it!” So nothing wrong with the scene itself, more the problem around it.

Finally we have Oscar’s sudden return. I think even if Chapter 8 hadn’t been the episode before the New Years break, fans wouldn’t have liked how this played out. Oscar really needs more character moments, especially after spending much of Volume 5 as just a fleshsack for Ozpin. Him going solo would have been a great way for Oscar to develop on his own and come to terms with his part to play in the war against Salem, maybe even have Ozpin or Ozma manifest and talk to him. Instead, he just goes and buys a new costume.

I still think Oscar lifted Qrow’s wallet for the record. And I still like his new outfit. The bandages give me Bungou Stray Dogs vibes.

So in this retrospective, I’ve been pointing out little moments for Ruby in each episode, moments where the writers pointedly have her take center-stage, even if just for a minute, to remind the audience that she’s the leader. Here, her moment is... fairly weak. Ruby’s inspirational speeches are never her strong suit, but her telling Qrow that they “didn’t need an adult” when he saved her from Tyrian back in V4 and Maria saved her from the Apathy just a few episodes ago is almost darkly comedic. Her quiet exasperation with Qrow when she finds him on the stairs is a much more understated moment that landed for me. Her hero worship for Qrow has been pretty much shattered at this point and now she’s just tired of his crap.

Lost is just an amazing episode. Mercury and Emerald are easily the most interesting characters in the series for me, this episode gives us more sights of Argus, the statue scene is wonderful and now I have the mental image of Oscar lifting Qrow’s wallet to go stress shopping as my favorite headcanon of the volume. Ruby’s speech is a little phoned in but it’s still a decent ending to a fantastic episode, and it’s easily my favorite episode in the entire season as a consequence.

Stealing From The Elderly- Most Apt Name For An Episode 2K19

The Argus Battle episodes all vary in quality- while none of them are outright bad episodes, some flow more smoothly or have more standout moments than the other. There is, however, one constant.

They’re all too fucking short. Half of the episodes are just barely fourteen minutes long, and taking out the Genlock preview and the opening and closing credits, it’s more generous to say they’re ten to twelve minutes on average. While I will take shorter, more concise episodes over something that drags on longer than it needs to (see Dead End and the opening scene again for my thoughts on that), there is a point where I must bemoan the length being too short. Especially when some of these episodes are insanely good.

Jaune’s plan is alright. Not quite as much of a disaster as some make it out to be, it’s a decent plan if lacking in contingencies. I think it’s noteworthy that had Adam not intervened, the plan would have gone off without a hitch.

The first half of the episode is also really funny. Corvodin’s guards are a lot easier to manage in the shorter pace of the episode and Maria is just a goldmine of comedy. Like I said earlier, it’s amazing how fast the fandom fell in love with this salty old grandma. I also love the joke that Maria’s jargon was perfect (which it is in real life btw I checked), but the guards knew something was up because their pilots aren’t old women.

The one real drag to the episode is Qrow having another angst episode and bemoaning how everything is his fault again, which just seems to be in the episode so Ruby can have another Ruby Moment. This is perhaps the weakest of all of her moments in the season, as it feels the most shoved in for the sake of being able to say “We gave Ruby something to do in every episode!” Which is fine, but repetition is a beast best avoided when possible in writing.

The mech is kinda cool, at least. And for the record, Corvodin is the guilty party in this conflict- yes, Ruby and co stole military equipment, but it was Caroline’s call to escalate to the Walking Gen;Lock Ad. They could easily have just dispatched other airships to catch the protagonists.

Adam’s return was a bit of a wet fart, unfortunately. A CRWBY episode released days prior to this episode releasing accidentally had mocap footage of someone fighting with Adam’s style, and storyboards that could be seen in this episode showed he was fighting Blake during it. Had the CRWBY episode not been so blatant in spoiling the surprise the twist of him suddenly arriving may have had more impact, but alas. I will say on an animation level, the fight in the tower is pretty good, if a bit clunky compared to what comes after. It makes good use of the environment and has Adam and Blake constantly crawling up and down the tower, giving the fight a bit of a unique quality to it. I also like the new visual additions to Adam’s Moonslice such as the bolt of lightning that crawls up his back.

Stealing From The Elderly is a decent, if very short, opening act to the Argus Battle episodes. It sets up the major conflicts of this trilogy of episodes, and has some great wit at the beginning, but doesn’t have much to make it stand out on its own.

The Lady In The Shoe-

Pretty. Fucking. Stellar. This episode is almost all fight scene, and works for the most part.

The mech fight is unfortunately the letdown of this part, and I’d probably rank it as the least exciting fight of Volume 6. While it does have some great moments such as Ruby getting to run on goddamn missiles, Ren actually getting to do something and not job for once, Ruby and Weiss’s great moment on the Lancer, everyone getting a moment to themselves where they get to land a blow on the mech (barring Oscar) and a new song in Big Metal Shoe, it’s overall a very slow battle that never really picks up. It doesn’t help that Caroline as a villain is very one-note, an exaggerated caricature who we know won’t stop the heroes, she’s just a stop gap for them.

Honestly though, the fight in this part of the episode just peaks at Ruby zooming up and firing her sniper rifle one handed at Caroline, and landing a no-scope right on the window. Heck, go and look and it’s at head level with Caroline. Ruby went right for the kill shot! God it’s so cool to see Ruby being a badass again.

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But of course the real highlight of this episode and of the entire Argus Battle sequence was Adam’s brawls against Blake and Yang, the latter of which has already earned a spot in most people’s favorite fights of the entire show list. Every time I thought Volume 6 had peaked fight wise, it got one more burst of energy and make a new “best of the season” fight to top the last. Cinder vs Neo was topped by Maria vs Tock, and now that was beaten out by Adam vs Yang. I can look at this fight and find a new favorite moment each time- Blake putting Adam’s sword into her sheath and disarming him for a few seconds while dual wielding for the first time in years, Adam’s almost instant turns whenever Blake uses her Semblance on him and him breaking Gambol Shroud, Yang smashing Adam with the bike, the list goes on. It’s not only great to see the Adam/Yang test footage getting remade to give the fight an extra edge, but as someone who wrote a lot of words on what the Battle of Haven did to Adam’s reputation, it was great to see the CRWBY remedying that mistake and giving him and Yang a fantastic battle, easily their strongest outings. Yang in particular really has evolved since Beacon, with her style having specifically changed to counter Adam and a whole barrage of new tricks- that rapid-fire machine gun punch is beautiful.

If this is how Yang fights now, her rematch against Mercury is going to be a fucking treat.

Adam’s face reveal was also a big shock. Some people had predicted branding but I don’t think anyone specifically called that he would have the SDC logo plastered on his eye socket. It’s a rather haunting sight, and puts his utter hatred for humanity in a startling light. It doesn’t excuse Adam of his actions, especially the abuse he put Blake through, but it puts a lot of Adam’s older actions- his disregard of the people on the train the Black trailer, his sadistic grins in his short whenever he was dominating humans- in a new context. Kudos to CRWBY for finding a way to take what most people thought they’d called already and putting a new spin on it.

While the mech fight isn’t stellar (though Nora’s moment of “You get back here with MY MAN!” was adorable), Adam vs Yang on its own makes this a high-ranking episode of the season with what cannot be stated enough as a good fucking fight. Melanie, you are a goddamn boss and I can’t wait to see you get that team working on more battles.

Seeing Red- The Assassination of Adam Taurus by the Not-So-Cowardly Blake Belladonna

So uh... last episode had Maria’s ship get hit with a missile, then it’s fine in this one? No smoke trails, not even any damage? OK?

Mech fight isn’t as good as it was last time, unfortunately. Ruby’s speeching is still rather annoying but at least she makes up for it by jumping into the cannon to make sure we all realize Volume 5 Ruby is a thing of the past. A really nice touch was her psyching herself up for a second before taking the second shot. It reminded me of Wonder Woman when Steve dies, he takes a second to breathe before firing. I like that she didn’t succeed with the first plan to shoot the missiles, it added a little tension to the fight. I also loved her moment with Qrow when he tried to stop her, it was a really soft and humanizing moment for both of them.

Adam vs Yang and Blake is still great, but last episode has it beat for sheer choreography. I very much enjoyed seeing them tag-team Adam, but part of me finds it funny that after Lady In The Shoe’s declaration of “We’re protecting each other,” Blake gets knocked out 40 seconds into the fight while Yang has to fight Adam for over a minute.

It was great to see the fire hair finally make a return, and having it serve as part of a climax where we see Yang correct her error when she fought Adam at Beacon- literally, they recreate the move where Adam cut her arm off but this time Yang dodges to the side first- was an amazing touch. And the hair looks pretty great too.

Adam’s death was a bit of a shock. It’s karma, no doubt, and ultimately this fight was only going to end with either him or the protagonists dead. But to be honest, I don’t think anyone expected him to win, especially after Weiss and Cinder took a spear to the narrative stakes last year. After the branding reveal I was personally hoping (but I was 90% sure he’d die) that Adam would get knocked off the cliff (I suppose I wasn’t wrong on that front at least) and get picked up by Cinder and Neo, then he’d become a problem in the Atlas arc. In particular I feel it would have been a great way to tie Adam into Weiss’s plot, as a way for her to see first hand that the SDC under Jacques is directly creating the monsters that go on to kill Weiss’s family. I’m fine with the death here, so long as what Jacques has done to the Faunus still appears in the Atlas seasons. But I feel this was a good place to see him off. On a technical level it would have been difficult for the crew to top the fighting scene in Chapters 11 and 12, while on a thematic level unless Adam went full-in on the Faunus cause he would have felt like dead weight. In effect, he’d have become the villain’s version of ReNora in how useful he really was for the plot. Additionally, even with the choreography here, had he run away again or lost I think that would have been a nail in the coffin for Adam’s threat-factor regardless. So ultimately, this was the best place to get rid of him, and at least he went out with a good death. (i really hope none of this paragraph gets twisted by someone trying to say i’m an abuse apologist, been down that road already thanks)

Also Blake breaking down was harsh. Her and Yang are gonna need to have a long conversation or six about trauma because that’s the closest either of those girls are getting to therapists in this death world. But for real, the finale all but confirmed that Blake and Yang are endgame, and whether your own thoughts on that, their arcs next volume should be about addressing that before romantic tension comes in. We’ve got at least six volumes left, the show can afford to take it slow and have them get some therapy before they get a Tinder profile.

... though I will complain about one thing about the fight. Adam’s sheath is a gun, why didn’t he just try and shoot Blake and Yang after he lost Wilt? He just rushes for the broken fragments of the sword when he has a working gun at his belt. Literally, the one thing I don’t like about the fight itself and it’s the epilogue to it.

Seeing Red’s fighting choreography might not be as impressive as Lady In The Shoe for either fight, but both are augmented by instead focusing on the characters and nailing a lot of the symbolism in its key moments. Ruby gets to shine with a hell of an insane move, and the show parts ways with its first real villain.

RIP goatboi, you were trash but at least it was fun to watch you swing your weeb stick. Thanks for sucking in Volume 5 so much I started writing narrative essays about the show as a consequence.

Our Way- And now, the end is near, and so I face, the final curtain

As an episode, Our Way is pretty cool. As a finale, it’s a bit weak, continuing the meta trend of season finales getting shorter every volume since V3. Nothing here is inherently bad, in fact it’s a lot of good material, but it’s not finale material.

Ruby’s arc (well it’s not really an arc but that’s a subject for another post) has been building up to the moment where she finally become a proper leader, and her facing down the Leviathan was that moment. The shots of this thing looming over Ruby are cinematic gold. I love that Ruby uses Jinn’s time stop feature to cheat out a few more seconds to prepare her Silver Eyes, and that Jinn, albeit begrudgingly, admits that she made a good play. When a near omnipotent lamp admits you’ve got some moves, you really have come a long way as a fighter.

The 2D stills of the Beacon season moments were a delight to behold, especially thanks to the added detail they gave moments like Weiss giving Ruby coffee and Penny’s death. The Summer appearance was amazing and made the finale for me, and it fading right as the lyrics to Indomitable kick in is a fantastic rush of emotions. Four lines and that song’s already my most anticipated track on the volume. I’m kind of bitter it wasn’t the credits song if I’m being honest.

Corvodin getting the final blow on the Leviathan was mixed. I appreciated how fucking anime it was that she used her DRILL THAT COULD PIERCE THE HEAVENS to kill Bubbles, but that the Leviathan was just so casually one-shotted made for a bit of an anticlimax to the battle. I’m not exactly also fond of the racist old hag being given a “soft” redemption but whatever.

Really that’s my one big problem with this. I get that there was no real way to have another big Grimm fight, but it makes the Battle of Argus feel like a bit of a cheap fight as a consequence. I’m overall fine with the result, but it does weaken the finale as a direct consequence. If the Ruby Silver Eyes moment didn’t land for you I can imagine this finale being rather weaksauce. Still, at least most of it was onscreen this time, so progress over Haven. It’s overall an OK episode but it needed a bit more time in the oven to make it a great finale. I didn’t hate it, but I can’t deny that outside of the character moments it wasn’t as climactic as I hoped it would be, especially once they cut episode 14 as I assumed that meant a longer than normal finale to compensate for the runtime. If you like Ruby, this is a great conclusion to a season that’s been great for her overall. If you don’t? Well, twelve out of thirteen good episodes.

Really though, Our Way made clear one important fact. Blake will never be allowed to solo her own songs, she will always have to share it with someone else. Honestly after From Shadows, Wings, Like Morning Follows Night, This Time and now Nevermore, it has to be deliberate that Blake only gets duets.

Also you remember how I pointed out that each even-numbered season up to V6 opened with Em and Merc? Well the tradition was kinda kept alive because they closed out Volume 6. Fitting that they be the ones we close out the Mistral seasons with, alongside literal flying monkeys. At least Mercury has his eyebrows back to normal now so... character arc?

... oh yeah and Neo and Cinder were in this I guess

Conclusion

Volume 6 is stellar, superb, at times outright spectacular. As a fan who felt Volume 5 was at best mediocre and at worst just bad, Volume 6 is an immediately counteraction and a redemption arc for RWBY as a show. Almost all of the major criticisms that had been levied at the Maya Era since Volume 4 started- janky animation, poor pacing, underused characters, weak fights, poorly explained backstories and weak villains among countless others- were all addressed and fixed to a certain extent. Ruby finally feels like the protagonist of her own story, Salem and Ozpin’s backstories have been explored, Adam was given a shred of sympathy before his death, the songs were great, the fights were stellar and it managed to, for the most part, stick the landing.

Granted, the first half is far better paced and written, the pacing does take a hit once RWBY reach Argus, but a conscious step was taken to avoid the Mistral House Round 2, we only spend three episodes in the Cotta-Arc house and a large portion of time outside it to boot. Miles said in a post-RTX interview that the plan was for each episode to have at least one new location per episode to avoid repetition and for the most part, they succeeded. As a consequence, the world feels more alive than it ever has before, Argus feels much more intimately known and we see the characters reacting to new environments and stimuli. But regardless, things slow down and hit a roadblock at Argus and while the pacing smooths out, it does break the stellar flow the earlier episodes had managed to keep going.

The Argus Battle episodes, while as a whole better shot and choreographed than last year’s battle at Haven, have far smaller stakes. The mech fight has some entertaining moments but fails to entertain, but the slack is thankfully picked up by Adam vs B&Y which will top a lot of “best fight of the show” lists for a while to come. But still, the episodes feel less wide-reaching than the Beacon or Haven versions, and perhaps because of this, the final episode fails to excite as much as it does due to the Battle for Argus having no real stakes or danger. It leads to a great moment, but it’s not as exciting as it could have been.

While overall the pacing was very good, one plot did drag- Cinder and Neo. This did not need to be in Volume 6 and while I liked their fight, Cinder’s plot is rather blatantly just there to set up Volume 7 and their threat there. While it did give the crew a chance to finally explore Mistral’s criminal underworld that had been teased in the World of Remnant, Mistral still feels woefully underused compared to Vale thanks to a shoddy start. As well, plain and simply, I just don’t like Cinder and Neo as much as I do the other villains, and I’d have rather their screentime be used on the other villains- a segment of Adam stalking Blake in Argus, more of Emerald and Mercury processing Cinder not being around anymore, Hazel and the duality of his want for pacifism and his utter hatred of Ozpin, Tyrian and Watts and the inevitably buddy cop drama that will ensue from them. This is a personal gripe, I’m aware, but Cinder has still failed to grab me as a villain six volumes in- hopefully now that there’s one less villain to juggle, she can finally get something to hook us in next volume. Also I just don’t like Cinder’s new outfit, give Em and Merc new outfits already for Christ’s sake.

Another plot that didn’t so much drag as was just removed was Oscar going missing. I was sure this would lead to an Oscar solo scene where he’d get to confront Ozma and Ozpin and figure out his place in life. As it is, it feels like he just went missing so Jaune, Ren and Nora could have the statue scene. At least his new costume is nice.

But overall, the second half was good, no, great a lot of the time after the awkward stop in Dead End. Volume 6′s second half may not have been as grandiose as it could/should have been, but it still maintained a steady pace, gave us a lot of fantastic standout scenes, great combat and character beats while finally leaving the ghost of Volume 5 behind on Mistral. I am thoroughly onboard for Volume 7, and I am now eager to see where Miles, Connor, Kerry and Melanie steer the ship.

Thank you for reading.

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99dreams1nightmare-blog · 5 years

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My 3.. “Christian” beans, xDD

First - Myron (Also he’s not wearing shorts, I swear to whatever god is out there, xDDDD)

Second - Vritra

Third - Nyven

They’re apart of this roleplay I’m making called mindset. These 3 would be considered the “antagonists”, let me explain, owo

Mindset takes place in a heavily Christian private school, usually I hate school roleplays because, they’re a good idea at first then the idea falls because.. School isn’t exactly an interesting place, but I’m trying really hard to make this one interesting.

Any “athiests” found in the school will be taken to the basement of the school. Where, they may die immediately, Or be taken to the judgement arrangement room, where they’re put into classes with the teachers being Nyven, Myron, And Vritra. (Though, vritra doesn’t show up until really really late into the roleplay)

Once they’re put into classes, it would be announced by Myron and Nyven that the last 3 out of 20 students get to leave unharmed, but a student will be killed off each week, if nobody dies on there own, henceforth, the students will have to kill eachother so nobody else dies, bUuUUt, that isn’t just it, >:3 If they are caught killing another student, a class trial is held to decide if they are guilty or not guilty.

The classes themself are basically hell, Well.. A very diluted version of it, xDD

3 students would be chosen every class for the “activity”, and by that, I mean possibly tortured. I’m getting there, Okay? I’ve only been working on this idea for 2 days off and on, xDDD

I have to put 20 characters in here, Not including the 3 “priests”. Aka Vritra, Nyven, and Myron-

But uh-

Heres what I have so far for the characters, xDD

Mindset’s characters

- - -

Lazarus - A precious bunny boi, he’s pretty damn shy, except for.. Uh.. That 2nd and 3rd part, xDD The Poor bapy breaks easily under pressure and has trouble even looking at people,

Lazarus: ..? O-Oh..I-I’m Sorry.. I’ll leave..

Lazarus: What do you mean..?! That’s so goddamn stupid! AGGH.. JUST SHUT UP ALREADY, WONT YOU?!

Lazarus: ..Hmph.. I’m already quiet as it is.. Why *should* I shut up?

Rowan - Maxwell’s twin, she’s majorly narcissistic and bossy, but she can be.. Kind of nice at times, But she’s super fukn pretty, so there’s that? xDD

Rowan: Haaahh? You better have a good reason for interrupting my nap!.. >:C

Rowan: OI. Perv, Give me your jacket, It’s cold.

Rowan: Hmph, Dumbass.. Making me do stuff myself.. What does he think I am?!..

Maxwell - Rowan’s twin sister, she’s the smarter of the two, obviously, Rowan is fucking stupid, xDD Maxwell doesn’t exactly hesitate to insult someone, Or.. Hesitate on kind of anything, Though due to that, she has never exactly had any friends so she gets all excited and shit when she makes a friend, so that’s cute, xDD

Maxwell: No, it’s not that, it’s the other answer, Jeez.. Are you really that dense?

Maxwell: Woooahhh..~ I have a friend! .o.

Maxwell: Tch, Shut it, you’re starting to annoy me..

Aromara - Myron’s favorite student, Even Though she’s a complete pervert, she sees Myron as a big brother and respects him. Though, she lacks any kind of manners. She’s a bit unfinished, tho! But I’m getting there, xDD

Aromara: Fuck yeah! Gimme this shit! >:D **she chugs a can of soda** WOOOOO!~

Aromara: HAHAHAHA! INSULT ME AGAIN! AGAIN! AGAIN!

Aromara: Wha?! Hey! Shut up! That’s my line! >:0

Isamu - This precious little creature respects any kind of rule, Not hesitating to call someone out on it, he doesn’t blush very much unless someone tries to hold his hand. He hates sweets with a fukn p a s s i o n, but he’s still precious, xDD

Isamu: ..Mmmmm.. xc **red red red-**

Isamu: I really appreciate it!.. But.. I don’t like sweets. Sorrry,

Isamu: That’s.. A lie.. At the start of the trial you said you were in class 102? You filthy liar! Liar liar pants on fire!

Edgar - A big fukn teddy bear, Not literally, He’s just really tall, xDD he’s pretty damn childish in the long run, Though, he only has one eye and no mouth, He manages, he usually writes down in a little note pad to talk to people. Truthfully, he has never even mentioned religion once, the only reason he’s in the basement of the school is because people think he looks like a demon.

Edgar: . . . “I don’t understand.. What do you mean?.. I know I look a little weird but I’d never hurt someone..”

Edgar: . . .

Edgar: ..”I’m sorry.. I can’t speak..”

Myron - A superficial, verbally abusive bean, he rarely acts kind to people, Not even Nyven, he’s iconic for being the loudest and strongest of the 3, Truthfully he was saddened to see his “little sister” put in the basement, but he probably wouldn’t hesitate to kill her.

Myron: Hmph, All I wanted to do was help. How rude of you.. I can’t believe you.

Myron: Get off of me, you dumb bitch, I aint’ your “big brother”, Aromara. Let alone, friend, Leave me alone, I’m busy. (Aromara: bRotHer tHiS iS bEtRaYaL ;O;)

Myron: Oh.. It’s okay, I don’t mind as long as it pleases me, After all.. Your mine, got it?

Nyven - A sort of.. Biopolar bean, one second he’s acting all shy and shit and the next he’s stabbing your eye out, Tsuyoshi learned that the hard way. Also may have a few yandere tendencies and very sadistic but we don’t talk about that, xDDD

Nyven: ..Sorry about this, I can’t let you continue through here, So leave before I must use force.

Nyven: Love.. Oh my honey.. Ahhh.. Is this what Love feels like..? I love it.. I love it! I’ll never let go of this feeling! Ahh.. uwu (Creep, lOl)

Nyven: Mmm.. I’m sorry.. Are you just a pussy or are you really gonna step up to save them?

Tsuyoshi - Hes a new bean that I just added, I’m planning on him to slack off a lot during class and shit and mostly just be really easily pissed off, Though, his only friend is Isamu who has, Might i say, dragged him across the floor to class one day. Moral of the story, He’s a lazy ass hOe, xDDD

Tsuyoshi: ..Mmh.. Don’t give a shit.. Go on without me..

Tsuyoshi: ..Eh? What the hell? That’s not what I meant, Jackass.. Now let me sleep.

Tsuyoshi: Why do you think I killed him? Do you really think I have the time to do any of that shit? I’m busy doing more important things. Like sleeping.

Vritra - This guy is so easily obsessed, He easily falls in love, which might I say will probably play a part once he appears, He’s.. Definitely a low-key demon, Only one of the 5 main characters able to see his horns an tail (a boi named Shiro). Whilst Nyven and Myron.. Might know? It’s hard to tell.

Vritra: ..Hehehe..~ Look, Veve! His eye has fallen out.. He’s starting to decompose!~ Isn’t it just wonderful..? Haha..~

Vritra: ..How boringg..~ I was really excited to execute someone today!~ xc *he sighs* Maybe tomorrow.. qmq

Vritra: Comebackcomebackcomeback!~ Don’t run from me!~ I’m going to catch you anyway..!~ Where have you hidden, my dear?~ I know you’re in here.. Ehehe..~

And for the main characters I mentioned earlier!

Those characters are gonna be played by my girlfriend, Izzy. I haven’t exactly gotten her to make examples of their personalities and shit, but I don’t mind explaining them myself, xD

Shiro - An awkward boio, He’s a hint of stoic with extra truth. Tbh I’m excited for this boio, xDD

Strawberry (gonna be changed) - He’s pretty chill, flirty at times, but probably gonna handle all of the murders the easiest.

Lucy - Obsessed with the idea “perfect”, henceforth why she ends up hanging around Rowan a lot (who is far from perfect because she’s such a bitch, but eh, xDD) And she’s pretty insecure of her own body, sadly. Love this bean, tho, xDD

Yuri - ..I honestly have no idea how to describe her, I know that here, she’s probably gonna be one of the first to go, she seems like she would break really easily under pressure, Poor Yuri, xDDDD

*..forgot the name - This is Yuri’s brother, he’s really fukn chill and harmonicas his sadness away, he’s probably gonna handle everything okay-ish until Yuri dies, which is sad, but hey! Most of the characters are gonna die anyway. xDDDD

So.. Yeah,

That means I only need to makee.. 8 more characters? I think? xDD

Aromara

Lazarus

Edgar

Tsuyoshi

Maxwell

Rowan

Isamu

Strawberry

Yuri

Lucy

Shiro

Yuri’s brother

So that’s 20 - 12, Woo! 8 characters left! xDDDDD

Batteries not included

— — —

Nyven

Myron

Vritra

Welp, That’s all folks! That’s Mindset. xDDD

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one-girly-geek · 5 years

Text

My ultimate 14x20 thoughts post

Well, it’s finally time for me to type out my mess of feelings regarding the episode- and by extension, Dabb era as a whole. As a whole, feelings will not be positive. You have been warned...

If anything, this finale made me more certain that it’s time for the show to end (before Dabb runs it into the ground completely).

I realized once and for all how dissatisfying later seasons have been for me just before this episode aired. I was looking back at previous season finales and thought ‘when was the last time we had a season finale that was actually about our main characters?’ And I realized that there hadn’t really been one since, S11. An argument could be made that it hasn’t been since S10. 90% of the S12-14 finales have been about Jack...

Some small positives-

-The first half was fun. It is nice to see that truth-spells don’t have the same effect that they used to- early seasons, the boys would have been yelling nasty, ugly things at each other, but now it’s just affectionate teasing+ the revelation that Dean reads mommy lifestyle blogs. Everyone else was going nuts, but they’re so in sync with each other now, nothing really phased them. One thing the newer seasons have done well is to show that maturity between them.

-I was bracing myself for a big brofight, and was really grateful that that didn’t happen. I was glad that what really pushed Sam to not be okay with killing Jack was the knowledge that Dean would have to die too. It hurts, but he can go on without Jack. But not without Dean.

-Chuck was right, I liked the old Death better too.

-The last few seconds were an epic cliffhanger. I would have no qualms with if it wasn’t for what happened in the previous 20 minutes.

The rest- this is gonna be long. And probably incoherent.

Disclaimer- I personally am religious, but I firmly believe I would have hated the ‘twist’ regardless. I don’t and never have watched this show for theological accuracy. Fiction=/reality. Now in no particular order-

-Why is everyone acting like it’s some revelation that Chuck knew what was going on and didn’t do anything? They’ve known that since they knew Chuck existed. They had a whole conversation in S11 about it, they knew he was aware of everything that went on on Earth and usually didn’t interfere. So why is it some shocking reveal now that he...knew everything that was going on and didn’t do anything?

-Free will. Are they trying to tell me that Chuck was, in fact, interfering all along and nobody had any free will? If so, way to just kill the biggest overarching theme in the show. We’ve already had the big storyline of the main characters saying screw destiny, and how making their own choices is the most important thing. It’s arguably the most consistent theme over all these seasons. And now Dabb &Co is basically spitting on it and saying it never mattered anyway? I know a lot of the current writers don’ care about previous seasons, but how do you screw that up?

-Scream at me all you like about how I’m just ‘buying into Chuck’s manipulation’ and ‘all the foreshadowing was there.’ because this was a retcon, plain and simple. Coincidence is not foreshadowing. The Chuck originally created by Kripke was not like this, nor was he intended to be. Carver had his issues, but the Chuck he worked with wasn’t like this either. This a complete 180.

The Chuck at the end of Swan Song, who said that free will and choice were the most important things in the world, wasn’t originally written to be a lying manipulator who would start an apocalypse because people...used their free will and choose family. Changing the entire original intent of that scene is a retcon. The beautiful scene at the end of Don’t Call Me Shurly was not written to be ‘only putting on a cute guitar routine and playing us because manipulation.’ Forcing the viewer to look back at it now and assume that is a retcon. Chuck telling the angels to love and protect humanity (and he himself locking up the leviathans to protect the angels) but now saying he never really cared, is a retcon.

-This whole thing just retroactively taints so much that I loved, particularly S5 and S11. This about sums it up for me.

Not to mention, this definitely ruins the Sam/Dean/John Lucifer/Micheal/God parallels that were you know, kind of important in S4-5. Now I am definitely not a fan of John by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s clear he was supposed to parallel Chuck/God as a largely absent father who made many mistakes, but ultimately did love and care for his children. That’s out the window now.

A good foreshadowing is when you look back and say ‘Oh! That made sense before, but now I have a deeper understanding then I did then’ The example I’m most fond of is the E10 reveal in Yuri!! on Ice. It’s not that everything didn’t make sense before the revelation that Viktor knew Yuri first and had been in love with him all along, but it deepened our understanding of him. It fixed a few little things we wondered about, like why Viktor acted as forward as he did when first coming to Japan, but it didn’t fundamentally change who any of these characters were as people. You looked back at everything and were like ‘wow, that makes total sense‘ It was a well-planned, well executed bit of writing. It deepened our understanding of the characters, it didn’t change them completely and expect us to believe they were really that way all along.

-The amount of Lucifer/Micheal/Amara were right! posts I’m seeing around are frankly sickening. Lucifer made his own decisions. Even if Chuck was bad all along- Lucifer loved him. He hated humanity, not Chuck. He wanted to destroy humanity out of spite and jealousy. Are we now saying he was right to do that?? That torturing human souls to turn them into demons, killing entire towns of people to raise Death, everything he did to Sam, everything he did to Kelly, how much he admitted he enjoys crushing teenagers skulls (and that’s just the tip of the iceberg)- all of that is okay because Chuck was bad? Lucifer loved Chuck. He hated humanity. Whether or not he was right about Chuck’s motivations (and honestly, did he really care? so long as Chuck apologized to HIM, nothing else really mattered) doesn’t mean he was right about anything else. Ditto for Micheal.

Amara- she is a bit more complicated. It could be argued that due to her nature, and how she’s been locked up for eons, she doesn’t have much of a sense of right and wrong the way other beings do. But just because you don’t know something is wrong, doesn’t mean it isn’t wrong. I’ve seriously seen people saying that ‘Amara did nothing wrong and Chuck only locked her up because SEXISM’ *headdesk* Amara destroyed entire worlds before the current one.She wasn’t a totally innocent being, just locked up for the hell of it. She herself admits that she did what she did out of jealousy, and that in the end she was wrong, because creation needed to exist. She didn’t actually hate Chuck, and they reconciled. (Now, I suppose they expect us to believe that the whole beautiful end of Alpha and Omega was a lie/manipulation as well? Retcon.

- Basically, this is lazy. And that’s a mark of Dabb era as a whole. (He’s okay as a writer, but not as a showrunner). Anything that was weird in previous seasons? We can just handwave it say ‘Chuck did it because manipulation.’ SPN has had a problem with constantly trying to escalate its villains-from demons to Lucifer to Metatron to Amara-and now to God? It’s just the laziest thing to do. Dabb was just like ‘we need the BIGGEST, WORSE villain of all for the last season! Who’s the most powerful being around? GOD!’ It’s utter LAZINESS.

-It didn’t have to be this way. You could have done a final season as a love letter to the early show that started it all, not started another apocalypse. A lower stakes, character focused final season would have been great. A tribute to what came before, while showing how far the characters have come since. But no, Dabb had to be lazy and escalate everything once again, because the subtly and character driven plots seem to be beyond him.

-I don’t know how they’re going to write themselves out of this one without massive retcons. You can’t kill Chuck or Amara and not have all of creation perish. But Dabb retcons everything whenever he wants to (see: every inconsistency regarding Jack’s soul magic/powers/morality this season), so I’m sure he’ll find some way to do that. (Which reminds me, does everyone going like ‘oh, Sam is such a badass for shooting Chuck!!’ remember the whole ‘Sun will go out and creation will die’ thing? It was tremendously stupid).

-I am so, so, so sick of Jack. I’m tired of everything and everyone revolving around him, anyone who goes against him being wrong, and everything he does being so easily forgiven. I’ve realized that most of my issues with the later seasons go right back to him. I didn’t want him dead (because of how it would affect others I do care about, not really because of him), but I wanted him gone. Now, he is dead, but not gone at all. He’s hanging out with the Empty and Billie, which means a huge part of the plot of S15 is gonna revolve around him again. I stg if we end with Jack basically becoming God, Dabb is gonna catch these hands. Talk about being the ultimate Sue, who took over the whole show from the main characters...

-All I wanted was a lower-stakes season focused on the actual main characters and no one else...I guess that was too much to ask for.

-There’s some interesting theories going around that might make some sense of all of this, but I don’t know if I trust the currents showrunners to be smart enough to use them.

https://missjackil.tumblr.com/post/184463865432/theory-chuck-isnt-throwing-a-tantrum-at-all-he

-So that’s it. I’ll still be watching S15 because I’ve invested too much time into this show not too, and because I still care about the boys and J2,and of course I’m going to cons for the same reasons. It’s not their fault the writing is shit...

P.S You’ll not convince me that part of J2′s choice to end the show wasn’t due to the writing. They’ve said before that they would keep going as long as the writing was good- then S13-14 happened and they’ve decided to stop. They’re far too nice/professional to ever come right out and see it, but it makes sense. I also think they realized that they couldn’t get the time off they wanted and still make a show they were happy with. We’ll see what the upcoming con circuit says, since they’ve got less reason than ever to hold back their opinions.

#spn #I've spent my entire afternoon typing this shit that no one will read #but I just had to organize my thoughts

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blueeyeswhitegarden · 6 years

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Yuya and Reiji for the meme!

This is going to be pretty long, so I’ll put my answers under the cut.

Yuya:

Why I like them/why I don’t like them: Of course, I love Yuya. There are so many reasons why I like him. He’s just so likable, relatable and sympathetic. He genuinely wants to make everyone around him happy even when he’s dealing with so much sadness and pain himself. I love that he wears his heart on his sleeve, which makes it easier to emphasize with him. Even though he deals with emotional issues like self-doubt and self-confidence throughout the series, I love that being emotional himself was never treated as a flaw exactly. Even near the end of the series, Yuya would still break out into tears, but he wasn’t looked down for it. That is so refreshing, especially for a lead male character.

He struggles through his emotional problems throughout the series, but he doesn’t give up on his goals in spite of those issues. That makes him inspiring in a way. Wanting to end the Dimensional War works so well with his goal of becoming a great Entertainment Duelist like his father, as well as the tone of the series in general. I love that he is able to reach out to people more with his dueling once he develops his own kind of dueling. Instead of trying to be someone he isn’t, being himself made Yuya closer to his goal, which was a nice touch considering his self-confidence issues. His development is fantastic and he is still my favorite character in the franchise.

What I like about their appearance: I think that the red, green and orange color scheme works really well for his design. Plus, I still love how fans see his hair as a tomato and a Christmas tree. It’s a cute fun little joke.

Do I prefer their dub names or their original name?: Yuya has the same name in both versions, but I do prefer how the Japanese version pronounces his last name. Maybe I was just too used it after watching the Japanese version for nearly two years before the dub even came out, but Sa-ka-KEY sounds like a much more natural way to say Sakaki to me than Sa-KA-key does.

OTP: I love his relationship with Yuzu. They’re such good and caring friends, which makes it easier to believe that they’d develop romantic feelings for each other. I especially appreciate that you can read their relationship as platonic or romantic, but either way, they clearly love each other.

NOTP: I’m not really a fan of any of the pairings between the Yuya counterparts, mainly because the idea of being romantically interested in someone who has the same face always sounded weird to me. I probably dislike his pairing with Yuri the most given how he treated Yuya in the series.

OT3: While I don’t like the pairings romantically, I think that the relationships between Yuya, Yuzu, Sora, as well as with Gongenzaka, are really good. They all have good friendships with each other.

Favorite card they use: I love so many of Yuya’s Performapals, but Discover Hippo and Silver Claw would be some of my favorites. They’re cute and perfect sized monsters for Yuya to ride on. Odd Eyes Pendulum Dragon is also great and is a pretty cool ace monster. Smile World is really good too. It represents Yuya’s ideals on dueling, as well as perfectly captures his goals. He wants to make everyone, including his enemies, smile with his dueling.

Favorite moment they were in: There are a lot of great moments for Yuya, but one of my favorite ones were his last turn against Jack. Seeing Yuya being able to reach out to the whole City with his dueling was so heartwarming and wonderful. Whenever I think back to that moment, to that duel and to Jack holding Yuya’s arm up to celebrate his victory, I still get immensely happy. It’s one of those moments that remind me just how much I love both Yuya and Arc V itself.

Least favorite moment: I’m not sure if this counts, but it was probably when it was revealed that Zarc had taken over Yuya completely after Yuri was defeated. It was a good shocking twist for the match and it made sense, but I was also really sad that Yuya wasn’t able to fight off Zarc’s influence even after struggling so much.

Would I fuck, marry or kill them?: I love Yuya, but I’m also over twice his age, so I wouldn’t be into those first two options and I obviously wouldn’t want to kill him. I would want to give him a big hug and have a duel with him instead.

Reiji:

Why I like them/why I don’t like him?: I like Reiji. I still remember thinking he was going to be another Kaiba clone based on his character information, but he turned out to be a much different and refreshing take on a main rival. He was still Yuya’s main rival, but they were more polar opposites. Yuya is more emotional and prone to act out of anger, while Reiji is more calm, collected and calculated. He rarely acts without having a plan in motion and only takes action himself when he deems necessary. That made their rivalry pretty different and refreshing, especially when Yuya wasn’t focused on defeating Reiji. Plus, I like how Yuya and Reiji slowly develop a nice friendship over the course of the series.

Being more morally gray also helped to make him more interesting. In retrospect, I do think I was a bit hard on him, mainly during season two. I never hated him or thought he was evil like a lot of fans did, but a combination of misreading his behavior/actions and being surrounded by a lot of negativity towards him made me upset at him for awhile. After getting away from that negative environment and looking back at what he did, I think too many people, myself included, read his calm demeanor as being too cold or a sign that he didn’t care about people around him. Even now when rewatching the series, I’ll often think to myself that Reiji didn’t deserve the hate he got and feel kind of bad about how his character was received.

What I like about their appearance: Reiji’s scarf is still so ridiculous that it turns around to become awesome again. I love it and the jokes about it make it even better. His plain blue shirt really works for his design too.

Do I prefer their dub names or original names?: I prefer Reiji over Delcan. I’m just more used to Reiji and I think it fits him more than Delcan does. It isn’t one of the worst dub names, but it is pretty strange. It is a shame that they didn’t choose Reggie instead. Maybe they didn’t want to do that because of Shark’s dub name, but Reggie would have been a much more fitting choice than Delcan.

OTP: I don’t have too many pairings for Reiji, but I kind of liked the pairing between him and Serena. I thought that meeting three years prior to the start of the series gave them some potential for an interesting relationship. I kind of like his relationship with Yuya. I don’t see it as romantic, mainly due to how I can’t see Yuya developing romantic feelings for anyone besides Yuzu, but I like it as a platonic pairing if that makes any sense.

NOTP: I’m not sure if there is a Reiji pairing that bothers me that much. Maybe the closest would be his pairing with Shun, but even then, I’m more indifferent towards it than anything else.

OT3: I think I have a three character pairing involving Reiji that I like either.

Favorite card they use: Unlike most rivals, Reiji usually use different monsters as opposed to having a more traditional ace monster. I thought that the three new D/D/D monsters he used during his third duel with Yuya were pretty cool and intimidating. I also liked his use of Contract cards in general. He always had a plan in mind when using them, which fits with his personality quite nicely.

Favorite moment they were in: One of my favorite moments for Reiji was when he was struggling against Leo during his tag duel with Yuya. Reiji had spent years preparing to stop his father and the show had shown just how powerful he is multiple times. But he still couldn’t defeat his father, even with Yuya’s help. Leo even called him out on his poor strategy and Reiji was clearly shaken up over being put into a tight spot. Since Reiji is so calm and collected most of the time, seeing him actually struggling against another opponent and being more clearly emotional made the moment stand out.

It’s also why I was glad that they didn’t have Reiji lose to hype up another secondary villain before this point. If he had lost to Roger or Yuri before, it would have weakened the emotional impact of this moment since we would have already seen Reiji lose before. It helped to make Leo more threatening and the fact that Reiji couldn’t defeat him even after planning for this confrontation for years gave the moment some good emotional weight behind it. Plus, the tag duel had some nice moments for Yuya and Reiji’s friendship so that was nice.

Least favorite moment: I’d probably go with Reiji making sure that the LDS trio’s memories were altered. It did show Reiji’s morally gray mindset, which does help to make him more interesting, but I also think that was the starting point of people thinking that Reiji was secretly evil. Plus, it wasn’t the best way to effectively write the LDS trio out of the plot. People might have thought Reiji was really evil regardless of how they handled the LDS trio, but handling that in a different manner that still showed that Reiji is morally gray might have helped.

Would I fuck, marry or kill them?: Reiji is cool, but I’m still over ten years older than him, so I wouldn’t be interested in the first two options. I certainly wouldn’t want to kill Reiji. I like the idea of telling him to relax and have some fun after the events of the series since he would definitely need that.

Thank you for asking. ^_^

#Asks #Arc V #Arc V Spoilers #Yuya #Reiji

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recentanimenews · 3 years

Text

REPORT: Cast of Mythical Spirit Chronicles TV Anime Summon Thoughts on Their Characters

Concurrent with the announcement that voice actors Akane Fujita and Yuki Kuwahara will be voicing Celia Claire and Aishia in the upcoming TV anime adaptation of Yuri Kitayama's popular Mythical Spirit Chronicles light novel series, also known as Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles, the pair spoke to Japanese website Cho! Animedia in a pair of interviews about their characters and the series as a whole.

We have the pleasure of bringing the interviews to English-speaking audiences for Crunchyroll News. We have combined the interviews for clarity and ease of reading.

Character art for Celia Claire

Please introduce the character you are voicing for the series. Please let us know if your impression of the character has changed at all since recording the lines.

Fujita: My character is a very smart girl. I've been her voice actor since the drama CD, and back then I had the impression that she acted a little bit more mature than her actual age of 12. However, there is a sense of youthfulness in the way she is teased and influenced by those around her that matches her young age.

Kuwahara: Aishia is a spirit who has a contract with Rio.

My first impression of her was that she was a cool girl who didn't show much emotion but while I was voicing her, I realized that while she had a mysterious atmosphere, she also showed warmth towards Haruto and had the kind of charm that people couldn't help but love. I ask that people please pay attention to the subtle emotional expressions she shows throughout the series!

What do you keep in mind when voicing the character?

Fujita: Because it's anime, the addition of movement and animation enhances the childishness and cuteness of scenes where she's angry or annoyed, which is something I tried to keep in mind.

Kuwahara: I think she's a girl who doesn't have a lot of range in her expressions of joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure, so when there's an occasional glimpse of transformation in her facial expression, I had to be very conscious of being "careful and delicate" when voicing her.

In what kind of way do you feel you relate to the character you're voicing? In turn, what aspects of the character do you feel you don't relate to? It can be in any aspect, personality, appearance, etc.

Fujita: Celia studies really hard and is adorable, which are both attributes I feel I lack ......! I have so much respect for the way she always treats Rio and everyone else as equals.

As I answer this question, I'm thinking of dying the ends of my hair white, so I might be able to become Celia by about 1 percent sometime soon!

Kuwahara: She has a fluffy and curious air about her, with a sense of her own individual pace that we might share. I could have Aishia's strong and kind heart which is something I deeply admire about her.

Character art for Aishia

Is there anything from the recording sessions that left an impression on you?

Fujita: I was given some delicious, individually wrapped sweets and I was so greedy with them that I took two home with me! LOL!

For the most part, because I was recording alone, the timing of the direction and when I drank my tea overlapped, so I was in a very silent rush to finish my drink before saying my lines.

Kuwahara: There are a few lines in Aishia's dialogue that had a heart mark on them, and I wondered if it was okay to show her full range of joy as I voiced the words on the page. However, I was directed to "express the heartfelt emotions a little more softly ..." and I feel like I was able to convey Aishia's true emotions in those scenes. The joyful Aishia was so cute that I couldn't help but give it my all! (LOL)

Do you have any memorable lines or scenes from the episodes that have already been recorded?

Fujita: There's a line in Episode 2 that goes "Stop calling me 'little!' I'm still growing~!” Episode 2 is filled with not only cute Celia scenes like this but also with her expressing herself in many ways. This may be the episode Celia is showcased and shines the most!

Kuwahara: When she goes to rescue Celia and in the battle scenes, there are many scenes where Aishia is very dependable! The contrast between Aishia's everyday vibe and the rest of the story was so cool that it makes my heart go doki doki.

If you had a previous life, what do you think you were like?

Fujita: I feel like I'd be either a sloth or a stone on the side of the road. That's what I think.

If I was a human, I would like to believe I would have been morally upright.

Kuwahara: The first thing I'd like to know is if I was a human or not.

If anyone out there can confirm that, I'd love to hear about it!

Key visual for the series

If spirits existed, what kind would you like to make a contract with? (Please think about the attributes, appearance, strength, abilities, etc.)

Fujita: I would like to make a contract with a cute, fluffy, palm-sized wind spirit. It doesn't have to be strong, but it would make me happy if it blew a pleasant breeze when I was laying in the sun on a bright sunny day or dried my hair after a nice relaxing bath.

Kuwahara: I like dogs, so I prefer a spirit that looks like a dog and can communicate with me. I'd be happy if the spirit had enough power (primarily combat power) to transform into a lion and protect me in a pinch. I also want to enjoy drawing anthropomorphic illustrations of the spirit alone.

What do you feel are the main points of interest for this work? It can be anything from the character you voice to the story or even the animation?

Fujita: For me, I think it's Rio's way of life. Although sometimes his life as Rio intersects with his life as Haruto, he lives as Rio while keeping his memories as Haruto.

Since we couldn't all record together, I'm also looking forward to seeing the performances from the other cast members and the finished animation!

As for me though, I'd be delighted if people could see Celia's age-appropriate charm and intelligence, as well as think of her as cutecool.

Kuwahara: I think the series is a fascinating work that depicts the connections between people and the delicate emotions they experience. I think Aishia is a girl who can give us "comfort" in the story, so I hope you enjoy watching her in her energetic appearances!

youtube

Mythical Spirit Chronicles is scheduled to be broadcast in Japan in 2021.

Daryl Harding is a Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs a YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram.

By: Daryl Harding

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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prinzenhasserin · 6 years

Text

Fandom5K 2018

Dear Writer!

I had so much fun doing this exchange last year, and please don’t feel obligated to use my prompts. This letter is just in case you might want to poke at some more of my likes. Generally, I’m open to a lot, and will be happy with any rating from gen to explicit.

My AO3 account is here. My prompts are pretty ridiculous in places. That’s just how my mind works! Feel free to play them entirely straight, or subvert them to your hearts desire. I’m not so much a fan of darkfic, exceptions apply for hopeful/happy resolutions.

Feel also free to include other characters or OCs as side-characters, if they are necessary because of plot reasons. ❤️

(If this letter cribs a lot from my other letters, it’s because I’m lazy, and my likes don’t change around that much :D You can find some of my other letters under the exchange letter tag. I hope you have fun creating!)

Likes:

loyalty

odd couples!

found family, dysfunctional families that nevertheless love each other

historical stories for same-sex pairings that aren't unhappy but that fit with the society of the time (so like, spinster ladies living together; bachelors-for-life); I also like homophobia-free societies!

cultural differences! age differences! height differences!

heists, rescue missions

character driven narratives

dragons, fairy tales, magical realism, urban fantasy

Space AUs

competent characters

people not realising they’re the most competent at their job/hobby

people failing their way to success

happy endings, earning your happy ending, open yet hopeful endings

cynical humour

mutual pining

everything is better in suits, corsetry, fancy dresses

crossdressing

Identity shenanigans (secret identities, mistaken identities)

Blatant Lies

Enemies becoming friends and/or lovers

outsider POV

epistolary, poetry, unusual narrative formats

orange/blue morality (that is, not entirely human morality); grey/grey morality

non-verbal expressions of affection

Kinks I’m always down for:

wall sex

shifting power dynamics

semi-public sex

lots of foreplay, drawn out orgasms, edging

desperate sex, drunk sex, we-just-can’t-help-it!sex, sex for life-affirming

sex toys

sex toys in public (though I get embarrassed if someone else notices)

DNWs:

infidelity in mentioned pairings

suicide

permanent character death

Yuri!!!on Ice

Pairing: Lilia Baranovskaya/Okukawa Minako

Freeform Tags: Getting Together, Established Relationship, Interpersonal Drama, Smut, Character Development

How do these two know each other? Did they meet when Minako was a shining new ingenue? Did Lilia feel like her position was threatened, or did she teach her replacement? Was Minako perhaps the reason for Lilia/Yakov's divorce, or was she perhaps Lilia's rebound? (I would love if there was a presence of time and place in this, if the characters background would be a strong drive for whatever they are doing, but PWP would be great too)

…they are my favourite pairing coming from Yuri!!! on Ice, because they seem so utterly competent, and have amazing life journeys, and yet they are only hinted at in the series.

I know I don’t want infidelity, except here I wouldn’t mind if Lilia and Yakov are married still (they could be separated, or just in an open relationship, or on their way to get a divorce, too)

Minako seducing an older, more experienced Lilia? Lilia seducing her bright-eyed ingenue

Minako and Lilia competing for the same roles, and admiring each other’s techniques without being able to admit it.

Or, during canon, applying their rivalry indirectly by competing with their skaters?

Les Trois Mousquetaires | The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

Pairing: d’Artagnan/Athos; d’Artagnan/Jussac

Freeforms: Action/Adventure, Getting Together, Canon-Style Plot, AU - Canon Divergence, Fix-it fic

d’Artagnan/Athos

d'Artagnan pays so much attention to Athos, and his many swings of temperament, and he has such a crush on him! It's hard to tell if he wants to be him, or bang him, and I really really want the latter. When Athos says, he's sworn off of women, what he means, he's only interested in men, right? right? that is to say, I'd love canon divergence, where they end up together (and please, with the possibility of longterm happiness) If you want to set this before Milady's appearance, sure! If you want to set this after Milady's appearance, I would love to see the dramatic fallout of Milady flirting with d'Artagnan, or hurt/comfort after Athos kills his wife the second time.

Treville makes them root out the Cardinal’s spies out of his ranks! They have to spend a lot of time close together; or Treville makes them go on duty together, because Athos is very experienced, and that’s not the only thing he’s experienced with ;)

d’Artagnan needs help managing the estate the King grants him, and Athos lends a helping hand

I like a good helping about catholic guilt, but not just specifically about homosexuality.

d’Artagnan/Jussac

Then, there's also Jussac--and their rivalry is set up so well! The longstanding Cardinal's Guard against the new impulsive Musketeer? Perfection. And then Jussac disappears, and it made me so sad. So, rival hate!sex? Are they assigned to protect someone and have to arrange themselves with each other? Are they banding together for a greater enemy? Is one of them blackmailed for their sexuality, and they can only go to the other for help, because nobody is going to believe the gossip they have about the other? I'd prefer if the blackmail doesn't put emphasis on homophobia, just that the sexual behaviour was not socially acceptable.

They are wooing the same mistress. Because of reasons, they have to hide in her closet together, and the only reasonable recourse of action is banging each other.

Foiling an assassination attempt? getting imprisoned together, because they duelled in public?

I'd also be game for a total AU! But please preserve the general fucked up character dynamics, because they are what I like about this canon.

Gokusen (Manga)

Pairing: Sawada Shin/Yamaguchi Kumiko

Freeforms: Canon-Style Plot, Humor, Mystery/Procedural, Smut, Slice of Life

I want to see Yankumi/Shin as a couple so badly--and I would like to see how they interact with the world. Will Shin become a Yakuza member to oppose his father? Will Yankumi be accused of using the highschool as a Yakuza front? Will she still call Shin to come and help her beat up people when he's a fancy lawyer? How will the other groups react to Yamaguchi's boy toy?

How does Shin convince Yankumi to have sex with him? (A wonderful fic I got was with plenty of bad yakuza movies, which :D :D :D but I am always open for more! Maybe Shin speaks to Kumiko’s competitive spirit? Maybe he asks her to spite the police commissioner, by doing it in his house? Maybe there is some heavy kissing because they are trying to escape thugs/police/Kumiko’s students?) Is he getting kidnapped left and right before they actually get together because all and sundry already think they’ve been doing each other for years?

If they are already in an established relationship, how does Shin deal with Yankumi’s students (especially when one of them develops a crush)?

I’d be also super interested to see how other people view their relationship, like Shin’s father, Kumiko’s grandfather, the other yakuza groups, her students– or simply Kumiko and Shin setting out to fight an up-and-coming group of delinquents, rescuing kittens, or Shirokin, from an overzealous school commissioner?

I have no problems about depicting violence, or graphic criminal activities, but please no major crimes involving children.

Crossover Fandom

Pairings: Elle Woods (Legally Blonde)/Cher Horowitz (Clueless); Jane Marple (Miss Marple)/Phryne Fischer (Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries); John Constantine (Hellblazer)/Severus Snape (Harry Potter)

Freeforms: Canon-Style Plot, Mystery/Procedural, Smut

Elle Woods/Cher Horowitz

I imagine them meeting at a charity dinner, wearing the same dress and insisting that the other wears it better. Or through a sorority donation drive, where Elle lets her car get washed by girls in Bikini, and then they start flirting. Or, if you want to use the other Legally Blonde movie--how about Elle Woods running for Senate, and meeting Cher during a workshop for foreign policy? I'd love to see either one of them running for office, too.

I am here for all the tropes: does one of them have an ex who invited them to their wedding, and they really need a date? high school reunion? stranger at a bar?

Also excellent would be: Elle does criminal law, Cher is in charity work, and they need to solve this embezzlement case.

But I’m also here for the porn, because that would also be amazing. Or like, buying a house together. Getting married. Deciding to adopt a puppy together.

Jane Marple/Phryne Fisher

Do they meet during the war? We know Phryne was an ambulance driver, but maybe Jane's code division was a euphemism for spy work, and Phryne has to get her across enemy terrain? Would also love a story later in their lives, where they visit each other to solve murders and gossip about life.

teaming up to solve a murder!

teaming up to drive a poor inspector up the wall

teaming up during the war, codebreaking! and seeking comfort with each other

they went to girl’s school together, and now have to relive old glory days!

definitely here for Phryne and Jane being each other’s lesbian experience

John Constantine/Severus Snape

It's a pairing with everything I ever wanted: So much inferiority complex wrapped in a shabby facade with too much bravado and not enough sense of when to back down, and they're both such delightful fuck-ups and it's glorious. I mean, this is definitely not the first evil person who John Constantine wanted to fuck, and it's nice that he sometimes helps out with the more structured magic. AU's are great, as long as they both keep their magic, and their general personality. Would also read a Severus-Snape-Lives!AU in which he's resurrected because the devil didn't want him, or whatever, or he goes to the US to hide with a more Legends of Tomorrow!Constantine. Basically, anything is good.

they’d be so glorious together! I’m here for all the fucked-up-ness this pairing can generate

hatesex? sex pollen? :D i hate repeating myself, but really, anything would be great; I’d love a AU in which John convinces Severus to not join the death eaters because they are all wankers anyway

or a AU in which Severus survives and joins John on madcap adventures trying to survive eldritchs horrors

or like, a one-night-stand that ends in Severus hearing the prophecy and defecting from Lord Voldemort

also, I’d love if they’d bonded up over their chavness, or something. really, anything would be great

Original Work

Freeforms: Smut, Getting Together, Mystery/Procedural, Action/Adventure, Humor

17th Century French King's Male Musketeer/17th Century French Cardinal's Male Guard

The Musketeer/Cardinal’s Guard request comes from my love of 'enemies to lovers' and 'love across enemy lines'. The real life feud between the two corps is a great premise for this! I'm more interested in the adventures they have. How do they resolve it? Do they end up getting new jobs, or succeed in ending the feud, or forever pretend to hate each other?

(See also my prompts for d’Artagnan/Jussac for a more specific pairing of this dynamic!)

Some interesting prompts:

The King requests that they work together to... guard a diplomat? foil an assassination? root out some bandits?

They start wooing the same woman, but then it turns into some strange kind of one-up-manship, and then it turns into gay chicken, and then it turns into a proper relationship and when they retire they get a cottage in the woods somewhere

they hunt down the thief who stole the King’s jewels and happen to get into a storm. Luckily, there’s an inn not far from where they are, but when they get there, there’s only one bed...

Art Thief/Museum Curator

This is also an excellent request for enemies to lovers! Do they meet during a casing of the joint, all the while the museum curator thinks the art thief is just a normal art appreciator? Or the Thief becomes an art thief because the museum curator is bemoaning that more and more of the art disappears into private collections far away from the public eye?

I’m here for all the identity shenanigans! maybe the curator realises their new lover is a thief, and they deliberately talk about paintings that they’d like to see, and fake incredulity when they’re suddenly rediscovered?

fake dating that turns into real feelings?

I have no preference for gender combination! I’d love this dynamic absolutely anywhere, anytime. Singapore 2018? Paris 1940? New York 1920? Set in space?

Or like, the museum curator finds them in the act of stealing, and is more upset about how they keep handling the priceless art than the actual stealing (it belongs to the jerkass major who cut funding for the arts, you see)

Master Thief/Put Upon Art Restorer Just Trying To Do Their Job FFS Steal This One Next Week

Basically, the same prompts as above apply! I’m very interested in this rivalry! How does it play out? Does the Thief only steal sanctioned paintings? Does the art restorer understand what kind of power they have?

Is the Thief trying to slowly seduce the art restorer by getting them “new” paintings to restore, and the art restorer is just... very done with this.

perhaps the thief keeps faking these very elaborate paintings, and aging them with all sorts of techniques, and the art restorer is just, like “why would you do this to art?”

Female Mobster/Woman Who Is Running Their Front As A Legitimate Business

I love the dynamic of scary person/person who is not afraid to talk shit about them -- and I can see the endless conflict there could be between the two of them. What is this Front? A restaurant? An orphanage? A charity organisation? Either one would be great, and need a lot of know-how, and the female Mobster can just suck it up and keep hauling in the crates, because they need this, dammit.

One gets kidnapped by rivals, and the other has to go in to save her

the mobster was just looking for someone to run the front-- they don’t need it to make any profit, since it’s just a front, but now it’s evolving into an actual business conglomerate, and all thanks to one woman--success is very attractive

Selkie Pirate Captain

Look, okay, I love Age of Sail, and I love fairytales. I just think the adventures of a pirate captain selkie could be super interesting!

Do they fret about the crew finding out about their secret? I’m very into found family tropes, and it would be very interesting to see how the crew reacts to the reveal. Perhaps they’ve known all along? And tried to protect their captain to the best of their abilities?

The best thing about selkie captains is that they are resistant to sirens, and they can always find the way home, in every storm

I’d read about them going treasure hunting! Or perhaps captain is after a Great White Whale and their life’s mission is to see it dead

would also read a shipfic! (heh)

#exchange letter #fandom5k letter

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