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thechekhov · 3 months

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Since you've covered a pretty big bit of the manga so far, can I ask what are your opinions on it? Deeper than just the quick reactions you've shared with us so far.

What are your opinions about the manga's characters? Its pacing? The mystery element? The magic system? What areas do you think it succeeds, and what areas do you think could be better?

I understand if you're reversing judgment until you finish, but you've also read quite a bit of the story so far. Idk, I'm just curious!

Especially seeing as you're a writer yourself, so I imagine you have a different perspective on how the story functions as, well, a story!

Oh, hmmm... that's an interesting question.

As of right now I'm on chapter 35-36 so I'm about a third through the story. The first major arc (find dragon, yoink falin out of its body, etc) has kinda happened, and we're hitting some larger world arcs.

As you mentioned, I DO want to withold judgement but for now... But I will say what I think thus far, with full awareness that my mind might be changed later depending on circumstances.

Comment 1: The manga is finished! Actually, just knowing that makes me feel like it's a more cohesive storyline.

Maybe I'm boring, but I'm not a huge fan of neverending storylines in general. Naruto, Bleach, etc. They have their place in the forever-young-monster-of-the-week genre, and I know why so many manga just keep... on... publishing....... but I feel like there's a lot of merit to being able to just wrap up a story and say 'there, that's how it ends'.

Comment 2: Laios is very well developed, even at this point of the story. Senshi remains a mystery. Marcille... speedran her arc?

I think this is the closest thing I have to a criticism. While I think Laios' character is well-paced in its revelations throughout the series (the slow ramp-up from 'oh this guy is weird' to 'oh, this guy is a freak club card carrying member' to 'oh, this guy is the freak club president' was great!) Marcille is.... a little more of a mystery to me.

Now, perhaps my memory is bad. But I did find her turnaround at the end of the Red Dragon arc a bit... out of the blue?

Don't get me wrong. I think it's entirely believable. But I wish there had been more hints - or rather, more visible progress of her studies of ancient magic. I know it's been mentioned, and there WAS that chapter of her and Falin during their school years... but watching episode 2 of the show on netflix when she goes 'I feel useless, my magic doesn't help anyone :(' and then reading the manga and seeing her straight up go from 0 to 100 as she decides "we're gonna rearrange falin's bones and then I'mma raise her using this ancient technique I've been studying all along that I didn't tell you about because it was sus" is... a little bit of a turn?

Maybe it's on purpose! Maybe, when I read further about her personal journey, the pieces will fall into place more neatly. But compared to the rest of the characters, which seem relatively steady in their reveals (Laios, Chillchuck, Senshi) Marcille took a bit of a turn.

Which, again, isn't bad! It just seems contrasted to the rest of the team.

Comment 3: The magic system is more like a magic ecology.

Actually, in the beginning, I found the magic system Marcille used very vague. It was just a 'do what needs to be done' type of power with very few apparent limits or power balances aside from 'sometimes you run out of mana'. But I think at this point, I'm beginning to assume that the details of the magic are closer to the functions of an ecosystem or an organism, and therefore WHAT the magic does is kind of moot point. Marcille is just a little bacteria inside of the great intestine labyrinth of the dungeon, and she is using its energy to survive, like a sort of microfauna.

Comment 4: Man, the worldbuilding is cool. It's so cool.

I don't think I've seen another story that goes so deeply into dungeon ecosystems before this one. Not only are the people who live there fleshed out in terms of individual cultures and traditions and norms, there are also monsters that serve as a natural fauna that inhabits the halls of what OUGHT to be a mindless 'turn left and fall into a trap' setting!

There's sticking monsters into your world, and then there's 'digging out a trench 1 meter deep, pre-soaking the soil, inserting monster's roots lovingly into the spot, and then covering it with fertilizer and spritzing the leaves'. I don't doubt that there ARE other works that go into this level of detail, but the dedication and the ideas Kui-san has for this very much makes the dungeon a living part of this entire tale. :)

I'll probably have more to say later but for now.. that's about it!

#chekhov answers #dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #chekhov reads dungeon meshi

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midnightechoes · 1 year

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So this week is going to go down as maybe the most sapphic week in animation history. It’s going to have a great case, there are so many sapphic shows or shows with prominent sapphic couples airing this week.

Don’t know what I’m talking about? Here’s a quick rundown:

Yuri Is My Job!

Premiering on Crunchyroll on April 6th.

Yuri is My Job! is based on a yuri manga of the same name. It follows high schooler Hime, who cares deeply about her image as sweet and helpful, even though she’s actually selfish. She accidentally injures the manager of a cafe, and agrees to work there to make up for it. But this is no ordinary cafe, it’s like a cafe dinner theater where all the waitresses play characters from a fictional high school and act out skits for the patrons. Hime’s character is supposed to be in love with one of the other waitresses’ character, but she starts actually falling for the girl. Only problem is, behind the scenes the other waitress seems to hate her.

Yeah, that sounds kind of bonkers! I can already see the story now, Hime starting out playing a role, and eventually having to legitimately earn the love of Mitsuki.

Birdie Wing: Golf Girls’ Story

Season 2 premiering on Crunchyroll on Friday, April 7th

Ah Birdie Wing. If you saw season one, you know just how delightful wacky this show is. It follows the stories of Eve, a golfer that plays in illegal underground golf matches for the mob, and Aoi, a golf prodigy and the new sensation of the golf world. Their lives crash into each other and the chemistry is overwhelming and immediate.

Technically Eve and Aoi aren’t canon as of the end of s1, but it’s hard to imagine that the show isn’t heading in that direction. It makes no effort to hide the fact that these two are into each other.

I’m so excited to see what season 2 has in store for these two. Birdie Wing is just a delightfully weird little show.

Princess Principal: Crown Handler Chapter 3

Premieres in theaters in Japan on Friday, April 7th

Alright, so this won’t be useful to a lot of people reading this, as this is only premiering in Japan this weekend. But I wanted to mention it because (a) it’ll come over to the US sometime this year, and (b) Princess Principal is awesome and I want to promote it when I can.

Princess Principal was a 12 episode series that aired in 2017, and Crown Handler is a six-part sequel OVA series.

In a nutshell, Princess Principal is a steampunk spy thriller set in an alternate universe European kingdom that has been divided by a wall, Berlin-style. It follows a team of spies, masquerading as high school girls, as they try to prevent the two sides from going to war.

I know, “why is this on a list of gay shit?” Well, because it is. Two of the main characters, Ange and Princess Charlotte, are big-time into each other and while the original series does the anime thing of “we’re only allowed to go so far with this”, the OG series has a lot of intimate scenes between the two and does end *SPOILERS* with the two of them sitting on the beach together while holding hands.

And perhaps Crown Handler, being made years later, can finally take their relationship farther.

RWBY Volume 9

Volume 9 episode 8 airing on Crunchyroll on Saturday, April 8th

RWBY has been ongoing, and the current volume has been airing since February, but there’ll be another episode this Saturday. Right now RWBY is in the middle of dealing with a lot of trauma, BUT, the bees are canon and dating so every episode of RWBY is now officially gay. So says me.

The Owl House: Watching and Dreaming

Series finale airing on the Disney Channel on Saturday, April 8th

I’M NOT READY TO LOSE THIS SHOW! 😭

*ahem* The third and final season 3 special airs on Saturday, and promises to be mega emotional and super gay.

I’m grateful that this show had a chance to finish its story, something a lot of sapphic media doesn’t get to do. But I am still pissed about it getting cancelled in the first place simply because it didn’t fit their “brand” (read: this show is too gay for Disney).

But I just know that Dana and her team put together a sensational finale.

Mobile Suit Gundam: the Witch From Mercury

Season 2 premiering on Crunchyroll on Sunday, April 9th.

Affectionately called G-Witch, season 1 of this show was a revelation in the fall. It follows the story of Suletta Mercury, precious cinnamon roll and the most talented mobile suit pilot around, and Miorine Rembran, daughter of the president of the Benerit Group, a mega-corporation that has massive political power.

The show revolves around a school that’s mostly full of the children of powerful people. And then there’s Suletta, a nobody that just wants to be a normal girl and have a normal school life but through a series of events ends up in a mobile suit duel that she easily wins, earning her the title of Holder, which makes her Miroine’s groom.

At first, the two treat the arrangement as a business arrangement, both seeing practical value in this arranged engagement. But it’s obvious that Miorine is actually pretty into Suletta from the start, and we see Suletta slowly falling for Miorine too.

G-Witch is incredible. Part awesome mecha fights, part political intrigue, part romance between two useless girls who’d rather die that admit their actual feelings.

I am SO EXCITED for season 2!

LGBTQ media hasn’t had it great as of late, with a ton of frustrating cancellations and it almost feeling like Hollywood is going backwards in terms of its commitment to giving us space to tell our stories.

But animation, both in the US and in Japan, seems to be making great strides, being our light in the dark.

All five of these shows are airing episodes this week, and Crown Handler will be in theaters this week and on streaming/blu-ray later this year. RWBY has been airing for weeks and its been the gayest volume yet. the Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady just finished airing and was wonderfully sapphic. I’m In Love With the Villainess is scheduled to air sometimes this year. And just maybe we might get Arcane season 2 before the end of the year.

I’m excited for how sapphic and yuri animation is progressing, I hope it keeps going forward.

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lurkingshan · 2 months

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Japanese QL Corner

ICYMI: There are so many Japanese qls airing weekly, so I’m going to start posting this little round up at the end of each week. Most of these shows are on Gaga and I highly recommend watching!

Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna 2

Besties, I screamed!!! We were blessed with episodes 9-12 of this fantastic second season this week, and we finally reached the moment we've been building toward for so long. I AM SO PROUD OF KASUGA AND NOMOTO. Amazing job using your words, ladies. And I loved the way they tied Kasuga's family plot in here, with her need to move giving her the motivation to finally tell Nomoto what she wants. Nomoto was ready for it, too, and already planning to confess on her own (still not over that adorable screamsqueal she let out after inviting Kasuga for Valentines dinner). I can't wait for them to buy a big house, invite Nagumo and Yako to live with them, and start their very own lesbian commune where every meal is amazing.

Chaser Game W

I did some investigating this week because the way these characters are written was just not making sense to me. And as it happens, not only is this show about women written by a male screenwriter, it was adapted from a het manga! Itsuki's character was originally a heterosexual man. Let me tell ya, this made a lot click into place for me. Trust a male writer to take a het romance about power dynamics, gender swap one of the characters to make it a gl, and fail to adjust the characterizations and plot for the completely different power dynamics and communication styles that would entail. It doesn’t explain all the issues with the writing, but it sure does explain a lot about the puzzling lack of feelings processing and communication between these two women. Despite that messiness, I will finish watching this one to support the ratings so we get more gls soon.

My Strawberry Film

What we got here is a love chain of pain. Chika loves Ryo, but Ryo loves Hikaru, and Hikaru is fixated on Minami. Everyone is pining and there is no way for everyone to get what they want. A classic high school angst set up, though admittedly not my favorite kind of story. I will continue to hope that Chika experiences an awakening and we end up with both a bl and a gl pair in this show. I did not expect them to find Minami that easily (or that she would be their peer), so I'm curious to see where they take the plot for this one.

Sukiyanen Kedo Do Yaro ka

Last week I said I was wary of them bringing Mizuki back into the mix to interfere in the relationship, and as expected I was irritated with the way the show used him in this week's episode. I like where that final conversation between Sakae and Soga ended up, but I didn't care for the way Mizuki was used to interfere. It felt like a retread of the last couple weeks, didn't accomplish anything new for those relationships, and just made Sakae seem kind of weak willed and immature. Sakae was not feeling confident about Soga's feelings because he had not communicated clearly, but every time Soga tried to talk to him, Sakae just stood there and let Mizuki get in the way. I would have liked to see him draw a firmer boundary with Mizuki and talk to Soga like an adult, but instead he was wavering through most of the episode and not giving Soga the chance to explain things. It was an annoying dynamic and I hope it's actually over. But of course, Mizuki hasn't left yet and the episode didn't allow us more than a brief happy moment before flashing forward to a breakup, so we're clearly in for more seesaw shenanigans before this ends.

Perfect Propose

I love this show, y'all. I already posted a little love note to this episode, which I thought was so smart and authentic in the way it depicted Hiro's ongoing struggles with work, his burnout, and his fear about moving on (also shoutout to this post from @befuddledcinnamonroll for a great overview on why the storytelling choices are so effective). And for an episode where Hiro and Kai shared only a couple scenes, it got a surprising amount of relationship development done, as Hiro became more aware of his growing feelings for Kai and Kai made his intentions and his boundaries clear. I love that he put the ball firmly in Hiro's court to decide what he wants and ask for it, and I am so looking forward to seeing Hiro run next week. If only I could get another six episodes, everything here would be perfect.

Ossan's Love Returns

I'll be honest, this show has been kinda wobbly for me in the back half. It feels like they put too many balls in the air and are not quite sure how to land them all. For one, I am just not nearly as invested in this Izumi/Kiku loveline as the show clearly wants me to be--I've been shipping Kiku x Moving On the whole time and was hopeful we may be finally getting there, but it just keeps coming back around. Takegawa's story seems to have gotten lost somewhere along the way, and I was so confused by some of the storytelling choices re: Kurosawa's plot this week that I had to convene @twig-tea and @my-rose-tinted-glasses, and our collective brain power still couldn't quite piece together the show's intent. I loved the first stretch of the episode with the whole squad assembling to puzzle through what they know about Chief's health woes and support him, but then they lost me with that goodbye video sequence immediately followed by a one month later psyche! moment. If they are not killing Kurosawa off (which I don't think they are) the very overwrought final scenes with him, Haruta, and Maki hit pretty weird. Having now seen the end scene that undercuts it all, it could be that it was meant to feel like comedic melodrama, but in the absence of any solid reassurance to the audience that the health threat was not real, that did not really land. All that said, I still love all of these characters and it's been a real delight to see Haruta and Maki settle into their married life, so I'm still very happy to be watching and looking forward to how they wrap up.

#japanese ql corner #tsukuritai onna to tabetai onna #she loves to cook and she loves to eat #chaser game w #my strawberry film #sukiyanen kedo do yaro ka #perfect propose #ossan's love returns #japanese bl #japanese ql #shan shouts into the void

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levenlike11 · 10 months

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your lovely usual at the cafe, akaashi keiji came inside as the bell above the door announced his arrival. he kindly smiled at you and took his place in his favorite spot. he always chose that corner away from the windows and the loud chatter in the cafe, where the 3 month old little ginger kitten liked to sleep in his tiny basket. he pet the cat and took out his laptop, putting it on his legs as he was sitting on a soft cushion on the floor next to the cat, making it purr sweetly at the affection.

taking the order list with you, you made your way to him. despite the sound of your footsteps in the silent corner, he didn't hear you until you softly called out his name.

"mr. akaashi?" he turned his back and smiled.

"please, just keiji."

"alright, keiji, welcome back! it's always great to see you here, that little baby misses you." you grinned and he turned back to the cat, picking it up and touching his tiny nose.

"he's growing so fast, he won't be able to fit in my palm in a few weeks." he pouted at the small creature in his hand. he was too cute.

"do you want to order now or should i leave you guys alone?" you gestured to the cat.

"oh yeah, sorry. can i just get the usual americano? hot, please." he uttered looking up at you with a smile as bright as the sun.

"want a dessert with that? i just tried a new cheesecake recipe today!"

"if you did it, then of course i want it. i love trying your stuff." he put the sleepy cat back in his basket which caused it to meow sadly but he had to finish editing this new episode by tonight for the manga magazine.

"thank you! i'll be right back with those!" you went and brought him his coffee and cheesecake, along with an iced drink for yourself.

"i don't understand how you can drink hot coffee in the middle of july." you chuckled as you sat down near him on a different cushion, although they are pretty huge for one person. he is just a regular at the shop after all, you should probably keep your distance in case it disturbs him.

"if you really want me to, remind me to try an iced one next time." he said without turning his head, too concentrated on his work. you sipped some of your own drink as you watched him fix spelling mistakes and add little doodles or words on the pages. he looked too good to be true. how could someone appear so angelic while simply pushing buttons on their keyboard?

you first met akaashi while he was working on the new episode of your new favorite manga that started coming out recently and you couldn't help but ask if he was the writer himself. he told you he was just the editor in the magazine and let you look through the new episode a day early from everyone else, which would probably cost him his job if his boss found out. but he thought of himself as a people reader, and he just felt like he could trust you.

this became a routine for you two for the past 2 months. he would purposely wait to come until your break was nearing so that you could both prepare his drink and sit down with him afterwards. your little secret, the advantage of seeing the episodes early, wasn't one sided. you would make him try new recipes you found or came up with in exchange. it was a win-win situation so he accepted. it meant he could eat delicious treats made by the barista he started to feel flustered around, and you could get honest feedback about your cooking. him being an editor made the honest feedback part much better.

you were deep in thought, the ice in your drink long melted as you stared at him. it probably took a few calls of your name for you to snap out of it, as he seemed both worried and intrigued by your look.

"sorry, i zoned out." he smiled, "it's okay, i was just wondering if there was something on my face i couldn't see. you seemed like you were staring at me." he bit back a grin.

"i was not. your face is completely fine. very fine." you punched yourself mentally after that, but at least you managed to make the man laugh.

oh, his laugh, it made your whole day better. it was a blessing to hear. you knew it was stupid to fall for a customer at your shop who could stop coming anytime and you'd possibly never see him again if he did, but the heart wants what it wants.

"i really like it."

"the coffee or the cheesecake?" you asked, by the looks of it, he seemed to have liked both, as he finished both of them completely.

"both. the cheesecake's really nice. you should try another flavor as well. this'll become a best seller in no time." you smiled in victory, despite trying so many times and even ruining an attempt, you finally made it perfectly.

"thank you, want another slice?" he shook his head.

"need to control the sugar i eat, sorry. or else i get too greedy and empty my candy storage at home." now it was his turn to make you laugh.

"i would love to see you munching on sweets." you giggled, "are you still planning to adopt him next month?" you pointed at the cat.

"yeah, i even bought a bed already. it's too big for him now, but he'll grow into it." he petted the yawning kitten's head.

"i'll miss him after he's gone. he's my favorite too." you smiled sadly, rubbing his stomach and tickling him, which made him shake his butt funnily.

"you could always come visit him at my apartment?" akaashi suggested. seeing the surprised look on your face, he added, "if you want, of course. i could also get a carrier and bring him here with me."

"i wouldn't want you to go through the trouble. i'd like to come visit him, as long as you're comfortable." he smiled, letting go of the breath he was unintentionally holding.

"of course, you can come anytime you want."

he finally pressed send on the email to his boss with the finished manga episode and closed his laptop. "so, it's a date?" he had a little smirk he was trying to hide.

"yeah, it's a date. come back sooner, he'll miss you again." you smiled and he reached out for your hand next to him.

"i will, i'll miss you too." he squeezed your hand a bit and left after turning back to beam at you one last time, leaving you all nervous by yourself with the kitten now up and begging you for food.

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rikan-oo · 3 months

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So I was thinking about creating a loose list of recs for ORV fans or, in other words, "If you liked ORV, you also may like this." I decided to add things less obvious because I think people already read works like Trash of Count's Family, etc.

Princess Tutu

“The beginning of a story is a sudden event; the start, a happy accident, the end, the fate for which it's meant. A story that never ends is a sad fate.”

Let's start with Princess Tutu (PT), anime, not manga because they're different. I watched it about a week before ORV and after finishing both, I can't help but notice their similarities. However, meanwhile, ORV is about the relationship between the reader, the author, and the protagonist, and PT is more about the relationship between the author and their creation: the story and its characters. Don't let the name fool you, don't be like me. It's much darker than I expected from this style and genre. Be ready for angst.

Plot: Ahiru is a small duck in a pond. One day she notices a dancing boy with a very sad gaze. Boy every day goes to dance near the pond and the little duck is completely mesmerized by him. She can't help but notice sadness and loneliness in his dance. She wants to make this boy smile and at that moment a writer Droselmeir appears. He tells her that she could do this by collecting shards of his broken heart but under some conditions. He gives her a magic pendant that can transform her, first into an ordinary human girl, then into the graceful ballerina Princess Tutu, a fictional character from the tale that was doomed for tragedy in the original story.

Later we find out that this city is kinda enchanted by Droselmeir's tale (reverse isekai before it became mainstream) and some characters broke out of the tale like the boy by the lake - Mytho or Raven - the villain of this tale. Tale elements blend interestingly in the city and its residents.

Also, I have no idea wtf is happening with the main characters' dynamic in this complicated rectangle, but there is no straight explanation for this.

I can't help but see some parallels between Mytho - KDJ, Fakir - both YJH & HSY, Ru - HSY, and Droselmeir - Dokkaebi. I love how the story describes characters doomed by narrative and the struggles of being a writer. Also, all of these subtle references to fairytales at the beginning of the episode? Love it. I bet there are more references for the ballet part, but I probably didn't get it. I gently encourage you to check it out. (Definitely not gently, I'm as desperate as Kim Dokja trying to advertise TWSA to other people)

“May those who accept their fate be granted Happiness, may those who defy their fate be granted Glory.”

Miss not Sidekick

It's a much simpler read, just to chill and have fun while laughing at Mc shenanigans. Plot: Typical isekai story, where Mc is a fan of the internet novel of the reverse harem genre. When isekaied decided to invent popcorn and enjoy full time 4d immersion in the story.

There are not so many similarities in themes like with Princess Tutu, but more the role of MC – Latte as reader. I liked how she continued to behave like a spectator of a story inside Isekai world, treating it like she's inside a special 4D theater, not existing in this world as a part of it, until she couldn't.

Until her 4th wall is shattered (*badabums* it's a bad pun, she doesn't have it like kdj) and she realizes she could actually die, (quite shocking I know). Also, MC invents BL for this world and converts other people into it. Overall, the art style is different from other isekai romfant and it's something you need time to get used to, but after a while, you understand it suits perfectly for the narrative and silly tone of the comic.

Inso's Law or My Life as an Internet Novel

I feel like it's more reverse isekai similar to orv, where the story becomes part of your life. But if in KDJ's case, this transition is obvious and life-crashing, then in MC's situation is really creepy. It blends seamlessly into her regular life making her feel insane because everything remains the same except having a whole new friend who behaves like your bestie and a different school, where everything starts to feel like a romantic novel full of clichés. MC like KDJ is also unreliable in her perception of others here and thinks her knowledge of clichés like a reader-outsider makes her more omnipotent than she really is. Too bad they used 3 person POV, so it's really obvious, but funny nevertheless. (One of the cases where she thinks one of her classmates is a girl pretending to be a boy cause of some kind of cliché family drama, when in fact it's just a boy and I find it funny how this classmate looks like Jang Hayoung twin and have similar fate, poor souls) guess she also has similarities in her character to pre-scenario or regular life KDJ. They both seem to have this introverted avoidance type of personality. I'm curious about supernatural events happening in manhwa and I hope we'll get some explanation for it.

Pandora Hearts

Nice little thing with funny and cute tea parties that everyone would enjoy. 😍

SHHH, nothing about the plot. Let it be a small surprise for you.

It's all vibes and similar tropes now, folks.

Like dynamic between the main trio: Gilbert - Oz - Alice YJH - KDJ - HSY. Also this time loop thing? Daddy issues? Self-sacrifice as a form of love? Ugh. (Also, I need this scene with Oz and Brake "Where in the world are you?" But with KDJ. Maybe I even draw it).

It's all for now, maybe I'll write more. Please share the recs if you have them!

#whoever readed till the end #thank you #omniscient reader's viewpoint #orv #omniscient reader webtoon #kim dokja #miss not so sidekick #princess tutu #orv spoilers #inso's law #my life as an internet novel #pandora hearts #it was in my drafts since October

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my-rose-tinted-glasses · 3 months

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My memory is terrible so I wanted to do a breakdown of my stuff every once in a while. Might be monthly, might be whenever I feel like it.

BL - Currently Watching

7 Days Before Valentine [11/12] - Unlike some other shows, this one is actually getting better towards the end. I appreciate that Sunshine did some self reflection and became a better human being and I really enjoy the visuals here. Also, 7 days before valentine we will watch the finale, so that's neat.

Cherry Magic Th [7/12]– I like what the thai version is doing with the source material, I think they are being really smart and I'm so happy I got to watch the shopping date and the helicopter ride that were missing from the japanese live action.

Cherry Magic Anime [4/12]– I'm enjoying all the parallels way too much. Part of me wishes that it had stayed closer to the manga but since I get that also from Thailand, I can't complain.

Cooking Crush [9/12]– My expectations weren’t as low as maybe other people because I'm a OffGun fan but I am enjoying this show way more than I thought. It’s so refreshing to see good communication and well rounded characters that are given the space to work stuff out and be honest with each other. I feel for Samsee, cause, been there.

Dead Friend Forever [6/12]– this show continues to surprise me every week. I’m a big horror and slasher fan so for the premise alone I was gonna watch it. But I’m liking the way they chose to structure this story, moving from the slasher bit to the past at that moment was really smart. The visuals are so strong in this and I’m enjoying the communal murdering impulses towards the original friend group.

Ossan's Love Returns [3/12] - It’s chaos but the kind that only Japan can get away with for me. That season opener alone would’ve made me stop watching if it wasn’t for that. But the thing about these characters for me is that they get to be this ridiculous because it’s all grounded in such heart and kindness towards each other. It's a balancing act that only Japan can deliver at this level.

Playboyy [10/14] – I applaud the effort to make something new and out of the bl box, I think the show is trying to talk about interesting things and there are moments where the visuals are very strong. However, the acting is the weakest part of the whole thing and so I cannot connect to the characters, which leaves the whole experience kinda empty for me.

Although I Love You, and You? [3/10]- Japan my beloved. What’s there to say? Sakae is my new favourite boy and I’m really enjoying these two bridging the gap in their personalities.

The Sign [10/12]– Phaya and Tharn are delightful. Yai is the bestest boy ever. But there’s too many loose threads considering we only have 2 episodes left. There’s still to much going on and the investigation part of it just seems too disconnected for me to care. I really hope they're not counting on a special or a second season to wrap this up.

BL - Finished

Last Twilight – No need to repeat myself. here and here

Love for Love's Sake - What a wonderful surprise this was. Yeo Woon is one of the most adorable characters of all time and I seriously cannot handle it. From the beginning there was always a cloud over the whole story and I think in the end it all came together really well, to give us a happy ending that feels earned. Also really appreciated the way the story dealt with the triangle. Most of the time I hate them with a passion so I was really happy that Sang Won didn't just disappear and stayed in the group and kept teasing Yeo Woon. And now I'm just suppose to move on?

Night Dream – I liked the beginning a lot, but, as it’s becoming increasingly frequent, it dipped as it approached the end and although I liked how it finished I wasn’t a fan of the path to get there. Time skip once again not used well.

Sahara Sensei to Toki-kun - I have not seen the finale yet but I didn't want to wait so I might update this post when I watch it. However, Toki is my favourite boy, and I just want him to be happy.

VIP Only – Cute but ultimately forgettable.

Rose Watches OJBL

So this month I started my journey into older jbl stuff in order to have a bigger understanding of the landscape and what came before. With the help of the amazing @twig-tea I've started this journey with 2 films: Ai no Kotodama (2008) - Such a wonderful way to start this adventure. Really enjoyed this film. Without spoiling it, I understand that the beginning of the film might turn some people off of it but I think it's actually really smart and purposeful. I would definitely recommend it.

No Touching At All (2014) - Also really enjoyed this one. The direction is really interesting I thought. I feel it's all very intentional and it reflects very well the characters state of mind.

And because Cherry Magic opened the anime gates I also watched:

Given (2019) - This is SO GOOD. This show rewired my brain. Just now I was listening to THE SONG and I got emotional again. Every once in a while I enter this mindset where I feel like nothing that I watch can surprise me anymore. Then I watched this show. My thoughts after watching can be found here.

Not BL - Watched this month

The Killing Vote Taxi Driver 2 Vigilante Fermat no Ryori

Well, that's it I guess. Now I have to go and make some Love for Love's Sake gifs because I just can't move on and need to live there a little longer. Speaking of gifs, I'm always happy to take gif requests so let me know.

💜💜💜

#rose rambles #rosy watchlist #7 days before valentine #love for love's sake #pit babe the series #playboyy the series #although i love you and you #cherry magic th #cherry magic anime #no touching at all #Ai no Kotodama #given anime #the sign #ossan's love #cooking crush #multi bl #Rose Watches OJBL

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saltydkdan · 7 months

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Yo, Salt man. Decided to finally bite the bullet and dive into One Piece. Currently on Volume 4/Chapter 27 of the manga (also episode 2 of the Netflix live-action, really good ngl). I'm excited to read it, but the sheer length of the manga is extremely daunting to me, and I'm starting to wonder if it's even worth reading at this point. Dunno if you got any sort of tips or such to help someone like me through this, or at least boost morale?

Don’t worry! I felt the exact same way. The length of One Piece can feel really daunting when you start. However here is what I tell people to keep in mind:

Get to Arlong Park

This is what EVERYONE SAYS. But it really is true. Get to Arlong Park, and if you enjoy it, then you will 100% love this series. Arlong Park is the arc where One Piece starts to really become what it is known for (and in some senses Baratie too). And what’s cool is that as someone who has caught up, Arlong Park isn’t even my favorite anymore, far from it. Arlong Park made me a fan, but later stuff like Alabasta, Skypeia, and Water 7 especially made me HYPER FOCUS on the series.

Basically if you think Arlong Park and stuff like Baratie is good, it really only goes up from there, as it’s more or less a taste of what you’ll be getting as Oda develops the story. If you don’t like it tho? No harm no foul! You’re allowed to feel however you want! You can move on to something else if you feel like and that’s super okay. Though based on your current reactions I feel like you are def gonna like it LMAO.

You don’t have to binge ALL of it

You are totally allowed to pick it up and read a saga and then put it down to switch to something else for a bit. In fact, if you do find yourself getting too tired at points, def switch it up with another series, TV show, or video game! Nobody expects you to finish reading it in a month or something. It took me a full year to catch up after jumping on and off of it and I had a blast because I didn’t force it!

There’s a reason that the series is broken up into arcs and sagas! The end of a Saga specifically is meant to be a very good break point for you to do something else if you like!

And trust me, if you’re anything like me, you won’t want it to end. After I passed chapter 1,000 I had a sudden violent awakening that I was going to catch up and become a week to week reader and I got really sad LOL.

Being a One Piece reader feels rewarding!

This is something I would have loved to know going in, but reading/watching One Piece (especially nowadays) feels like an insanely rewarding experience.

I have no idea how Oda pulls it off, but there is information that is as immediate as Chapter 1 that is still relevant all these years later in Chapter 1,000+, it really feels rewarding to be into the series for so long.

I’ve never read or watched anything THIS LONG that rewards the reader like this, it’s so fun. And it’s also something that makes One Piece great to re-read or re-watch.

There are so many fun twists, turns, and reveals that are either foreshadowed, or established in a very small way early on. I can’t emphasize harder how fun and connected it makes everything feel.

I call it the opposite of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. Because while Jojo will constantly reset itself with a new cast and characters every arc, instead One Piece doubles down, and is still revealing massive bombshells that we’re hinted at ages ago.

The series does show it’s age at times

I don’t like ending stuff on a bad note, but I like to let people know to keep in mind that One Piece has been running for a LONG time, and this can be both good and bad.

It’s good in the sense that I think it gets better and better over time, but bad in the sense that it does feature a couple of outdated depictions, as well as “Pervy” anime-esque humor that I honestly cannot enjoy personally. Just make sure you’re aware going in because some of it has aged… horribly.

That being said though, when One Piece gets depictions right it gets them SOOOO right.

There’s a reason that there’s an ongoing joke in the community that “Luffy would have died multiple times over if not for the Queer Community” lol it’s extremely correct

Reward yourself with the side content

One of my favorite things to do, is after I caught up to a certain point in the manga, is that I rewarded myself by watching one of the One Piece Films from around that time.

It’s a great thing to use as a rewarding little checkpoint and be like “Omg now that I’m this far, I can enjoy this fun animated film without fear of spoilers”.

And while a good chunk of films are very obviously not canon and don’t clearly fit into the overall story (I.e. there is not a good space for them to canonically exist) some of them actually do fit super well, and in my opinion, even add greatly to the overall story.

A big favorite of mine, One Piece: Baron Omatsuri, fits this description like a glove. Not only does it easily fit between the sagas of Skypeia and Water 7, but it even adds to the later themes of the story, and even foreshadows certain elements later on in a super fun way! Plus it’s one of the only One Piece films to have a very experimental direction, created by the guy who made Summer Wars. It feels very different, but in a super fun way, and works as a great little treat for getting as far as you have in the manga!

Anyway, I hope that this helps you out? Remember it isn’t a race, and you can pick up and put down the series whenever you want! There’s absolutely no pressure at all.

A part of me wants to kind of make a “read/watch list” for people who get into the series based off my own recommendation/experience. Obviously everyone is going to read and watch the anime in order, but it would probably be cool to know when you can check out certain side content like Anime-only specials and animated films during your read-through.

If anybody wants that let me know! (I’ll probably end up making it on my own time anyway I have zero self control).

Anyway yeah, enjoy One Piece!

#saltydkdan #salty asks #one piece #anime #manga #long boys

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canmom · 8 months

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Animation Night 169: Sex. 2.

So. Storytime.

Two years ago, we had a joke. "We should totally show some hentai on Animation Night 69." we said. Having said that, we were honour-bound to totally commit to the bit. Teaming up with @mogsk, I wrote a massive post on sexuality in animation and the history of 'hentai', from the hentai seiyoku discussed in 20th-century sexology journals to the modern subcultural kaleidoscope.

It is, genuinely, one of my favourite posts I ever wrote in this project. It's definitely not perfect - the sections on BL and the lolicon boom are especially weak, but still! There's no way I'm beating that.

Mogs, meanwhile assembled a perfectly pitched playlist of animation dealing with the theme of sexuality, from classic oldschool BL like Kaze to Ki no Uta to charming little comedies like Oruchuban Ebichu, and a scattering of actual h-anime like Weather Report Girl. For my part, I led with the genuinely classic film Kanashimi no Belladonna (Belladonna of Sadness).

So somehow - somehow! - we managed to make the idea of getting together with your online friends to watch a bunch of anime about sex just... plain fun and uplifting, to the point that @footsteps-on-the-dance-floor will tell me years later how much she enjoyed it. Not to mention, we got a pretty good cross-section of the different dimensions of sexuality in animation as well!

I didn't even get banned on Twitch.

This week, the counter has drawn the sex number. So can we do it again? Well, my friends, we're gonna try~ Tonight, @mogsk and canmom present: the long-awaited sequel to sex. Sex, 2.

This time we're narrowing our focus a bit. One of the distinctive elements of eromanga, by the analysis of Kimi Rito in The History of Hentai Manga, is how particular images get encoded as signs that can be reused by other mangaka, and these signs can become the seed for particular subgenres. So, our selection tonight is in part designed to give a brief cross-section of some of these visual tropes.

So let me introduce you to our program. CWs: sex, obviously; also a couple of these films (Cleopatra, Parade Parade) cw for rape. Here's the programme, read on for brief descriptions of each item and a lil cultural context~!

Cleopatra (1970) - oldschool Tezuka weirdness

Boku no Sexual Harassment (1994-5) - 90s salaryman BL

Interspecies Reviewers (2020) - monstergirl sex comedy, and an instance of the trend of recent cable TV h-anime

Agent Aika (1997-9) - panty shots to the most ludicrous degree

Comical Psychosomatic Medicine (2015) - ONA comedy framed as fetish education

Parade Parade (1996) - futanari + yuri

Golden Boy (1995-6) - 90s sakuga and a classic comedy

Queen's Blade (2009) - kyonyuu

Colorful (1999) - panty-centric comedy skits

after that: if you still have energy, I might take requests~

[n.b. a lot of these are TV series - we will only really be getting a 1-2 episode sample of each one, for runtime's sake.]

Cleopatra (クレオパトラ), 1970

Last time we led with certified classic, genuinely moving and good as hell film Belladonna of Sadness. This was part of a last gambit by the struggling Mushi Productions, the studio of Osamu Tezuka, credited with inventing TV anime back in the day with Astro Boy. Long before there would be such a thing as an h-anime subculture, Tezuka experimented with creating erotic animated films based on history and mythology.

Belladonna is the best remembered of the three, and with good reason. Tezuka was largely not involved by this point. The others, though... are some plain fucking weird movies, I'll tell you that much. So tonight we'll be watching Cleopatra (1970). I may have shown you the trailer before - this is the Caesar trampoline movie. That is only the beginning.

I recently finished reading Osamu Tezuka's manga Ayako, written in 1972-1973 - not long after this movie, actually, during Tezuka's gekiga phase. I'm sure it's common knowledge by now, but Tezuka was one horny old guy! Ayako has all manner of skulduggery: incest, murder, gangster stuff, more murder, etc., but the core story is about a girl who is imprisoned in an underground cell for 20-some years by the machinations of her family. As she grows up, she ends up in an incestuous relationship with her protective brother - and once she finally escapes, she is highly agoraphobic but also throws herself at nearly every man she meets.

It's very much a story of the sins of the past echoing down into the future, shot though with post-war history and gangster movies, but its central fixation is the figure of Ayako herself: the soft cloistered object of obsession and attraction. Whether they want to protect Ayako, seek absolution from her, fuck her, or exploit her.

But it's also in places a really wacky manga, with a lot of very comical contrivances or hyper-cartoonish panels with extreme squash and stretch. It's a completely different way of displaying action.

I think this gives me a sense of the sort of wavelength Tezuka was on when he draws a scene where Cleopatra is tied down by stakes and a bunch of guys line up to rape her while she shouts at them defiantly. It's all very theatrical, a huge contrast to the much more internally oriented Belladonna. Just a plain strange movie, but it's one I've been fascinated to watch for ages.

Whatever we make of Cleopatra, we'll jump into the program that Mogs drew up! Once again she's come through magnificently.

My Sexual Harassment (僕のセクシャルハラスメント), 1995-6

Our next act is some old school yaoi! One day I'll get to do that big effortpost on the history of BL, but not this day. In any case, Boku no Sexual Harassment is an OVA from the mid 90s about a young man called Junya Mochizuki trying to fuck his way up the company ranks for the sake of himself and his partner Kazunori Honma. In particular, he has an affair with his boss, Mr. Honma, running across the whole OVA.

This is perhaps best known for an infamous scene involving corn. It's here as a window into this period of BL - not quite as high-mindedly aesthetic as its 80s predecessors, and with its erotic focus being on like... 90s salarymen, which is quite a specific thing!

Interspecies Reviewers (異種族レビュアーズ), 2020

Next, a series which has the dubious distinction of proving too steamy for Crunchyroll. Interspecies Reviewers enters the general milieu of modern videogame-inflected fantasy anime, a comedy dancing along the line of whether it's too overtly porn to air on TV. The story tells of a group of fantasy characters who are the clients of monstergirl sex workers, hoping to encounter as many different species as possible. This is a frame device for a series of episodes focused around what it would be like to have sex with various kinds of monstergirl.

This is an example of a recent trend in TV anime, namely very overtly sexual cable TV anime such as High School DxD, which have in a way come to fill the gap left by OVAs. This is a niche that also includes the likes of Goblin Slayer and Redo of Healer. In contrast to those series' "big grimdark plot with a side of rape" approach, Reviewers is light-hearted fantasy sex comedy mixed with (if you live in China) a certain amount of actual porn, which fansubbers have kindly spliced back in to the censored release for us.

Agent Aika (AIKa), 1997-9

The panty shot is one of the more popular visual tropes in eromanga, to the point that Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga dedicates a whole two page spread to the history of the trope. (Surprisingly, I can't find any more substantial account in Kimi Rito's History of Hentai Manga).

You'll see it often enough in anime, overtly or subtly, and certainly in the early works of Katsuhiko Nishijima, who debuted in 1986 with Project A-ko, a classic Kanada-inflected OVA that still bears signs of its hentai roots. But there is nothing that takes the panty shot to the same extreme as Agent Aika (1997). The degree to which the camera in this action anime contrives to show panties at a machinegun rate... it crosses over into a level where it feels less like outright fetish material and more like experimental art.

This is a series that is only coherent through the erotic focus. And yet, it's not generally categorised as porn. Nobody actually fucks. Lines are very arbitrary...

Comical Psychosomatic Medicine (アニメで分かる心療内科), 2015

This ONA adapts a gag manga series themed around the idea of an education series on fetishes, paraphilias, and so on - not so different in concept from Peepoodoo and the Super Fuck Friends, from the sound of it! The ONA is produced by Shin-Ei Animation, a venerable studio known for beloved characters like Doraemon; it's a bunch of five minute bite-sized chunks which I plan to sprinkle in between the other stuff we watch as a palate cleanser.

Parade Parade (パレードパレード), 1996

Having warmed you up sufficiently, this is the point in the evening where we pull out the futa porn.

Parade Parade is an OVA by the studio Pink Pineapple, one of the giants of the 90s erotic OVA scene - I wrote about them a bit last time. It's a relatively "tasteful" example of the futanari (二形) trope, literally 'two forms', referring to basically a character with a mostly cis woman-typical body except for a penis (generally in addition to a vulva), which she will typically use in penetrative sex. This is typically represented as either the result of magic, an intersex condition, or just a fantasy world where it's not unusual.

Depending on your subcultural corner, this might be further distinguished from other niche variants of dickgirl (e.g. a futa must have both sets of genitals).

In anime and manga, the futa trope apparently traces back to the introduction of American trans porn magazines to Japan, inspiring mangaka such as Kitamimaki Kei to start drawing futanari characters. Futanari manga first spread through dōjinshi in the 80s, and became popular in eromanga in the 90s, before circling back to the West. So actually yeah I guess this one is on us trans girls! I always assumed it was like, an independent invention. The more you know...

Here we have succesful idol Kaori, who's secretly intersex - and only her girlfriend Yuko knows. She's very careful to let nobody know, for the sake of her career, but a rival lesbian idol is about to find out...

Golden Boy (1995-6)

youtube

Now here is a true classic.

Golden Boy is a comedy series about a wanderer named Kintaro, who dropped out of uni to travel around Japan getting into sexual escapades. Each episode, he runs into someone and hopefully falls for them while coming across as an idiot pervert, but gradually reveals that he's actually a decent and resourceful guy - and yet, having found love, there will always be a reason he must move on. A setup to hang all sorts of plots, carried by some honestly unreasonably impressive animation from the realist school, most notably Mitsuo Iso. It's just... very very well done.

The above clip did the rounds on here a while ago (I think maybe the dubbed version), and we will indeed be watching episode 4 to put that in context.

Queen's Blade (2009)

So this is a studio ARMS OVA - the guys who did stuff like Mezzo Forte with Yasuomi Umetsu - a fantasy story about a warrior tournament. But for our purposes it's standing in for the 巨乳 kyonyuu subgenre - meaning 'huge boobs'. So if you wanna do the meme in Japanese, that's the word you need.

This has a rather specific history in eromanga, recounted by Kimi Rito in The History of Hentai Manga. Per Rito, the popularity of the term dates back specifically to 1989, where it was used to promote porn star Kimiko Matsuzaka, as well as Western gravure porn magazines. Gradually displacing other terms like 'D-cup', the onomatopoeic ボイン boin and portmanteau デカパイdekapai, kyonyuu soon became cemented as the term for a type of character design. It grew in popularity in the space opened up by the bishōjo genre established by the lolicon boom.

So under the pen of mangaka like Kei Keitamimaki (him again!), designs with massively exaggerated boobs became very popular, defining a subgenre of their own. Artists would sometimes express anxiety over whether they would be 'allowed' to draw such extreme designs, but it became widespread in seinen magazines. Gradually, these genre boundaries dissolved and boob size started to become a symbol of characterisation.

Queen's Blade is a fairly longrunning series but as far as I understand, it's broadly a silly ecchi anime about women with very large boobs fighting to become queen. It's not the most comical example of this trope necessarily (nothing can really beat High School of the Dead's supersonic bullet dodging tits) but it's pretty up there.

Colorful, 1999

Colorful is a comedy series of brief (~7 minute) skits about boys trying to see panties and suffering many consequences. As a late 90s anime it's got some interesting stylstic Y2K stuff - look at that rotoscope clip! - as well as strong animation from people like Norio Matsumoto of Naruto fame.

So!

Mogs's encylopedic knowledge of weird obscure horny anime once again coming to the rescue: I'm fascinated to see where this night will take us. And whether I'll still have a Twitch account tomorrow.

I realise this is a much later start than we'd like with such a big programme, but I hope you will come join me for some weirdly educational sexy animation! Dip in and out or stay for the whole programme, the choice is yours - see you at twitch.tv/canmom, going live now, programme starts in about 30 minutes at 22:30 UK time!

Animation Night 169 is gonna be a little postponed - we'll be going at 7pm UK time on Tuesday (29 August) at twitch.tv/canmom! Hope to see you there! I will try to write a little more interesting info as we lead up to that~

#animation night

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girlfriendsofthegalaxy · 3 months

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tuesday again 1/30/2024

a good 60% of my brain is screaming in unemployment terror at all times so these will be somewhat abbreviated until that situation resolves itself

listening

sleeping on the ceiling by friday pilots club. this is a song by a five-piece alt-rock band from chicago that could EASILY open for mid-aughts fall out boy. i would like to think it is from the point of view of a freshly-turned vampire. listen this slot isn't about the best song i heard this week it's about the one that got stuck in my head the most

Hey, I swear I'm okay Honey, I been sleepin' on the ceiling all day Yes way, like hey I swear I feel great Looky, looky, love the feeling of being okay Yes way

spotify.

youtube

reading

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and the Amulet of Power by Mike Resnick. it was in a dollar book bin and i got it as a joke gift for a friend. mike resnick is a remarkably prolific writer who's done a lot of tie-ins. i don't have anything particularly notable to say about his star wars books but they are a sort of minimum viable product? they feel star warsy and don't annoy me on every page.

this book was published in 2003 and treats the people of the Nile delta and their beliefs with all the delicacy you might expect from a 2003 video game tie in novel. i do think the twist is being telegraphed way too hard. perhaps i should say instead of sending a telegram mr resnick has simply set the telegraph office ablaze as a signal fire. the titular triangle-pointed woman herself ms croft is VERY insistent she's just as good as the boys. this is pretty on par for my experience of 2003 empowering womens' feminism AND my experience in a male-dominated field so i can't really ding it too hard? aside from the racism, in the notably racism-free fields of archaeology and video games and archaeology video games, this book is aging a little strangely overall. i do not know if i will finish it before i mail it out to my friend, but despite its sins it is a very fast read.

watching

watched the four dungeon meshi episodes. it's cute! ProzD was an unexpected delight! it made me want to make something fancy for dinner but alas i still have to go food shopping!

some posts on my dash were talking about how the episode with the mollusks inside the living armor really got them hooked and i have to agree. i also saw the full potential of the show's speculative biology unspooling before me. i don't know if i currently have the brainwidth for the manga but it is going on my reading list for after i finish berserk. which is kind of like saying i'm going to watch chopped after i finish up hannibal

playing

forgot i had an original gen switch, given to me through a complex series in a complex series of friend barters back in uhhhh late '21? early '22? i got through 3/4 of the divine beasts the first time around and then could not crack the camel. it was well past time to create a new switch profile so i could start a new game without losing the old one.

omg twinnsssssssss

i did forget how goddamn big the map is. i have just now unlocked the camera and the memory quests, i have not really. done much more than basic tutorial and beginning of game stuff.

making

anxiously junebugging between a whole bunch of shit. finally figured out the correct charger/extension cord setup for my bedroom. replaced all the fluorescent lightbulbs and took them to be recycled. fixed the hall door enough so it latches closed and an irritated cat can't claw it open. tidied up the balcony and patio and repotted the surviving houseplants.

in textile news, started this cross stitch. this is a Bless This Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy Star Wars themed sampler, i have made two as gifts and had to throw out a mostly-completed one i made for me bc of the moths. but i now know exactly where this will go in this apartment and i already have the frame and i bought all the floss pre-being fired, so might as well? the real bitch of the situation here is backstitching the buildings. it's so start and stop. it's so much tan. i talked about this on the weekly siblingchat facetime and now my brother has requested one lmao. that's his christmas gift settled. i suppose.

i had somehow forgotten how loadbearing textile crimes are for me. i haven't done much of anything since the moth debacle, and that was almost two years ago. last night i found some suspicious holes in a camisole and i'm really really hoping it's just cat claws and not moths or carpet beetles or any other fun things that eat clothes.

#tuesday again #tuesday again no problem #feeling unsettled. feeling petulant.

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aciddaffodil · 25 days

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Winter 2024- What I Finished

So as this anime season is coming to an end. Here are the shows I actually kept up with and overall enjoyed immensely.

There will be spoilers so be warned lol

The Unwanted Undead Adventurer

I have enjoyed this series, the way Rentt is so determined to become a mithril-class adventurer even as an undead. The 3D models for the fight scenes move pretty well with the background matching them, especially in episode 9. This series is a slow-burn, even with the story progression, but I appreciate it because we see so much character growth for Rentt and how he interacts with the people and his friends. The music is fairly average for the series, but it does have some good moments especially when Rentt is in thought or making a choice. I loved coming full circle and him regaining his "human" features even though he still is very much a vampire now. Shun Narita, the composer for the series had some standout moments (fight scenes and contemplativeness) of music throughout the season so hats off to him.

The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic

I fell in love with the humor of this series from the get-go and not a single episode is a disappointment. It is so full of life and this past week for episode 11, the line " Now that's the wrong way to use healing magic" was used in a perfect moment. The lead up of Usato's characters growth and seeing all his hard work and "torture" from Commander Rose's training *actually* matter was brilliant. Element Garden has done a great job with the music that just gets your blood pumping. Probably will make a separate post for this series once it's over.

A Sign of Affection

The shoujo everyone is talking about, FOR GOOD REASON. To see the romance between the leads develop was so satisfying and wholesome. The development of the side characters so far is handled well, and at times the flashbacks scenes take over an episode but they are necessary. The art style and the use of lighting are done so well. It was a very cute show and always will love seeing an adult romance.

Solo Leveling

What can I say that hasn't been said already? I started reading the manwha in 2019 and have reread many times since. Hiroyuki Sawano was a great choice and the soundtrack WILL be on loop once it's released fully. Smart pacing choices to have it end with him gaining a job, this week will be a blast of an episode. Wish it had been slotted for 24 episodes... The last two episodes KILLED it, the animation, the music?! I was on cloud nine.

Mr. Villains Day Off

A perfect wholesome background anime, that is just about a Villian who loves pandas on his days off. The episodes where they focus on the Rangers aren't super interesting and makes you question the ethics of the world? It's a very cute show and sometimes, it's just a need in life. Ending was split between resolving the previous episode and the lead up to the Rangers and the Villian's battle.

Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss but I'm Not the Demon Lord

The Isekai'd into an Otome game genre is SO saturated but somehow I ended up loving this show. Yumielle is so autistic coded and straightforward, no one quite knows how to react to her. Patrick is head over heels for her, not that she ever notices, and they're dynamic is adorable. I have laughed watching this show and the only reincarnation anime that didn't bog me down with guessable plot.

Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable!

I fell so hard for this anime that I binge read the manga...who's art is definitely butchered in the adaption, it's so wholesome but the way episode 11 ends off MY GOD the miscommunication hurts me, and people will definitely riot watching the finale...and then picking up the manga to suffer for 40 chapters...BUT it's worth it. Tsubasa and Fuyuki all the way, they're chemistry is the best in the show as they each influence each other to open up, to be serious about the future and to help themselves grow as people. So sad to see this show go but maybe we'll get another season?

Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?!

This anime has me kicking my feet in joy and makes me miss my long-distance partner so fucking much. When Kurosawa and Adachi kissed? I was whooping in happiness. Adachi has a lot of room to grow with his communication with Kurosawa but pretty sure the final manga cover is a wedding outfit? My poor notes app I use to write my thoughts/observations as I watch seasonal anime is " SO GAY. KISS PLEASE." for several episodes between them. I loved that the end credits was the wedding but I can't wait to read the manga to compare it!

Gushing Over Magical Girls

I'm not one to watch ecchi shows but this, THIS is just such a delight to watch. Utena is such a loveable protagonist, a magical girl loving person who gets turned into a villain and has to "fight" the girls she loves. By fighting its not LMAO. I adore all the characters in this show and how fresh the writing for them is. Its beautifully animated and the finale was so much fun to watch!

Mashle S2 - Divine Visionary Arc

I picked up the first volume at the bookstore halfway through the season to try reading, after Bling-Bang-Bang-Born blew up, and I was not disappointed. Binged Season 1 and caught up in a day. There's just something so satisfying with gag humor and shounen fight scenes. I love everyone (besides for Innocent Zero, fuck that guy) and will for sure be binge reading the manga. The music, as always, is so hype and having rap for the fight scenes is very interesting. The soundtrack for S2 just released yesterday and has some amazing tracks on it.

Shangria-La Frontier

What. An. Amazing. Show. Never thought I'd like a VR Gaming anime as much as I do now, but this was just so vibrant and humorous. Sunraku's tenacity at gaming and taking on challenges, plus my love for rogue/assassin builds from DND, made him such a likeable character. The entire Weathermon fight to be slotted for 4 episodes was just..gorgeous and stunning. The Music?!? God its perfection. The NPC's of Rabitzu... to have characters and just to not be weird was very much appreciated to me. I sincerely wish it had the fandom that other Fall 2023 shows, cough cough Frieren, Undead Unluck and Apothecary Diaries, has because I just want more merch sobs. The cosplans I have for this show? Too many, and its already in production for another 2 cour season for this fall!!

The Apothecary Diaries

What a spectacular show and fabulous 24 episodes. The animation, the music (Satoru Kosaki, Kevin Pinken, Alisa Okehazma), the characters, the backgrounds?! I enjoyed watching the characters interact and loved the humor in the animation. I also just read and caught up with the manga in 2 days...so it's that good and a worthwhile watch and read!

#winter 2024 anime #anime #anime review #the apothecary diaries #shangria la frontier #mashle magic and muscles #gushing over magical girls #cherry magic! thirty years of virginity can make you a wizard?!#hokkaido gals are super adorable!#villainess level 99 #mr villians day off #solo leveling #a sign of affection #the wrong way to use healing magic #the unwanted undead adventurer

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fairylynnarts · 3 months

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Funny how I suggest the idea that if I don't draw the Outers in 2024 I'd be a fake fan and within a couple weeks I've drawn the Outers lol. My brain is so weird. Anyway here are the more Mysterious senshi.

My dumbass ranting and comparisons of the rest of my senshi drawings under the cut 👇

Inners

Looking at these its kinda obvious I drew these after barely having the time to get to know the characters. I finished volume 2, the Dark Kingdom arc and was already hooked, so I drew the Senshi as I thought they were. Clearly I'm using 90s as reference which is very obvious looking at details like Mina and Mako's color pallettes, Ami's puffed sleeves and lack of extra studs in her ear. In Rei's case I had the first panel of her from Act 4 in mind. I dunno why but that struck me as her "true personality" after having seen her be so polite and proper in her intro. But then it just ended up looking like 90s Rei LOL.

I keep floating the idea of redrawing these. But I also just want to draw solo art of the girls.

Uranus and Neptune

Most recent art, drawn after getting to know everything there is to know about the series, its characters and even other versions of them. By this point I've read the manga over and over countless times, binged the hell out of Crystal, watched 200 episodes of the classic anime, and even witnessed the infamous "cousins" dynamic from DIC/Cloverway. Oh and I maybe drew them this way out of spite. Also completely ignored any of the anime's interpretations of Michiru's hair and made up my own rules lol.

In this art it definitely feels I know these two on a personal level that I just did not when I drew the inner senshi. But its kinda nice because I think my inner senshi art from 2022 shows how excited I was to get to know them 🤭

Pluto and Saturn

Okie so the reason I didn't go the Setsuna-mama and Hotaru-chan route is- okay 2 reasons- first being they would have been Super Sailor Pluto and Super Sailor Saturn. But the rest of my drawings of the senshi are how they were introduced. Wouldn't fit. Second, as Pluto and Saturn were introduced, there was a separation that there wasn't between all the others. Saturn was almost made out to be the villian and Pluto was gonna let Uranus and Neptune kill Hotaru. So yea maybe this looks angsty but thats because it was that way lol.

Oh and they have their talismans while Uranus and Neptune don't because official art shows the girlfriends without them all the time. But for the mother/daughter duo their staffs are like glued to their hands. (Didn't draw Pluto's staff cuz artistic license)

I really enjoyed finally drawing the outers for the first time! Pluto was actually a lot of fun to draw 👀

#myartwork #sailor moon #pretty guardian sailor moon #outer senshi #sailor pluto #sailor saturn #manga #fanart #hotaru tomoe #setsuna meioh #my artwork #sailor senshi #sailor neptune #sailor uranus #sailor venus #sailor jupiter #sailor mars #sailor mercury

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aoki553 · 1 year

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A Full Guide To Saiki Kusuo No Psi Nan and Asou Shuuichi's Works

- compiled and written by aoki553

Disclaimer: This post contains links to unofficially translated media from the series. I do not support piracy. Please support it by buying the original work online and support the creator.

Don't know where to start? Just finished watching the anime and don't know where to go to for more content? Wanna get to know the series better? Then this post is just for you!

Saiki Kusuo No Psi Nan (JP: 斉木楠雄のΨ難, ENG: The Disastrous Life of Saiki K., Abbreviations: 斉Ψ, SaiPsi) is a multimedia franchise that has started as a manga drawn and written by Asou Shuuichi.

The manga started as a one shot work, but since its release in 2012 it has recieved a serialization that ended in 2018. In 2013 is has recieved a Flash anime adaptation that was exclusive to Shonen Jump's mobile app, as well as a series of Vomics that dubbed the manga. The series recieved two novels written by Hinata Shou and illustrated by Asou-sensei. It's currently best known outside Japan for its 2016 anime adaptation.

A list of (most notable) Saiki Kusuo No Psi Nan media:

Chounouryokusha Saiki Kusuo No Psi Nan (Volume 0) - Buy it on Amazon | Unofficial English translation

Saiki Kusuo No Psi Nan manga (2012-2018) - Buy it on Amazon | Unofficial English translation

Saiki Kusuo No Psi Nan Flash Anime - All links here

Saiki Kusuo No Psi Nan Vomic (manga dub) - All links here

Saiki Kusuo No Psi Nan: Nerae Heibon! Tairyoku Sokutei (mobile game) - DISCONTINUED

Saiki Kusuo No Psi Nan Novel: Extra Stories of Psychics - Buy it on Amazon | Unofficial English translation

Saiki Kusuo No Psi Nan Anime (2016)

Saiki Kusuo No Psi Nan: Shijou Psi Dai No Psi Nan?! for Nintendo 3DS - Buy it on Amazon | English translation and guide for the game Teruhashi Kokomi No Psi Nan Ippai Offu for Nintendo 3DS - Get it on Nintendo 3DS eShop

Saiki Kusuo No Psi Nan (2017 movie) - Link | English Sub version is easy to find online

Saiki Kusuo No Psi Nan Mosou Bousou Psychic Battle (mobile game) - DISCONTINUED - Official twitter | Official website

Other medias related to Saiki include: - The Character Guidebook - Psychic ExcerPSIses (More To Be Added: Extra books, CDs, etc.)

Best Saiki Kusuo No Psi Nan Anime Watch Order

The Disastrous Life of Saiki K Season 1

The Disastrous Life of Saiki K Season 2

Reawakened Episodes 1-5

The Disastrous Life of Saiki K Season 3 (Conclusion Special)

Reawakened Episode 6

Wanna read something else from the same author? We got you!

Our Hero Studies (Boku No Watashi No Yuusha Gaku) - Buy on Amazon | English translation in progress - PLOT: A manga centering around an eccentric teacher Haganeno Ken - a self-proclaimed hero, but in reality, Haganeno is just a huge video game fan obssessed with RPGs. He drags his student - Kouno Jun and others on his delusional hero adventures. - The characters from this work appeared in the Saiki series for a crossover chapter/episode. - It's Asou's first multi-chapter work - you won't regret giving it a try - updates appear on mangadex every few weeks.

Shinseiki Idol Densetsu: Kanata Seven Change - Buy on Amazon | English translation in works - PLOT: Kanata Seven Change focuses on a teenage idol Aoki Kanata, whose dream is to become a comedian. His manager - Tanaka Akio, does his best to keep his real personality a secret away from the public eye. Eventually, Kanata becomes a part of an idol group called SPLEEN. - This work's characters - Ruchi Shizuru and Tanaka - also made an appearance in the Saiki series (Ruchi appeared in the anime, manga and the novels. Tanaka made an appearance only in the manga.)

One Shots - List of oneshots with info (WIP) | Buy the Saiki Manga to support these works! Asou Shuichi has drawn and written several short stories, most of which have been translated to English. All oneshots that have recieved a translation have been linked to their MangaDex entry. TRANSLATED ONESHOTS: - Improvisational Theatre - Mikami Case Files - Our Hero Studies Oneshot - Saiki Kusuo No Psi Nan Oneshot - Full Power Explanation, High School Baseball (it's literally one page lol) - Your House Is Haunted - Terrace House Dust - The Detrimental Environments For Minors Regulation Act - The Problem Filled Restaurant - The Struggles of Food Critic Rikuya Tessai - An Author’s Research Trip To Another World UNTRANSLATED ONESHOTS: - Hero Party Appears - Gluttoney and Greed (lost oneshot), - LEGEND TOWER, - Deep Red Lie And Pure White Paper

Frequently Asked Questions

When is the next season of the anime coming? - There won't be one. Unless the studio decides to adapt the novels, which is unlikely, they don't have enough source material left to make a full season out of it.

Will Saiki get more manga chapters? - The manga finished in 2018. It's unlikely for Asou-sensei to continue this project after concluding it.

Where can I read/watch...? - Re-read this post - I've linked EVERYTHING I could think of. Just click the hyperlink.

Is Kusuo transgender? - He's a shapeshifter who turns into Kusuko when he needs to or gains from it. It's only technically canon as he left the womb as a girl, but it's only a result of his shapeshifting powers. He immediately changes to male - the gender was assigned before birth. If you want to headcanon him as transgender though- go ahead.

Is Kusuo aroace? - Canonically no, but it's a popular headcanon.

Thank you for reading!

More information will be added to this post in the future. I hope you could find it somewhat useful :) ~aoki553

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zonaenthusiast · 1 month

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Oh, I just found out people on twitter are now in their OPLA hating train era and I wonder... Why is there never a middle ground? Why does everything have to be an extreme like or an extreme hate?

I can understand it, just a week ago I finished watching it again (the first time after the hype period) and I noticed more things that don't convince me or directly I don't like. But there have always been things I didn't like even then, I've talked extensively about episode seven, some dialogues and some decisions of the series in general.

But still, I still think it's a pretty solid adaptation. Perfect? Absolutely not, but it's a good introduction to One Piece and has served to encourage some people to read the manga or watch the anime (although I wouldn't recommend anyone to watch the anime but read the manga because it's the superior version).

I'm so tired because this happens all the time with every piece of media in existence. And things aren't usually black or white.

#one piece #live action #opla

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trans-ace-lee · 11 months

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Borne Back Ceaselessly into the Past

Author's Note: Warning this is a tickle fic. This has been written for almost 2 weeks now. For the record, do not, I repeat DO NOT read this fic if you haven't watched episode 8 The Mu in Muichiro episode of Demon Slayer season 3 Swordsmith Village Arc and/or finished the entire manga.

Tagging (Note, I'm tagging people I talk to that I know watch demon slayer @italeean @wertzunge @myreygn @ticklygiggles @otomiya-tickles @giggly-squiggily @duckymcdoorknob

Muichiro knows the other hashiras get into tickle fights, but they take care not to include him. Before regaining his memories, he had forgotten what it was like to smile, let alone laugh. After meeting Tanjiro and everything that happened at the swordsmith village, he can recall faint memories of being tickled by his mom and dad before they died, leaving him and Yuichiro to fend for themselves. And maybe even rare times of his brother, Yuichiro tickling him whenever Muichiro annoyed him. He remembers the warmness from those moments, but he can only see the face that matches his own, albeit colder and stronger than he ever was then. The others are blurred like footprints in the sand washed away by the sea.

But he’s unsure. He attributes tickling to happy things. Yet, all these emotions he gets to experience once more are sometimes overwhelming and confusing. His survival instincts have told him to lash out, so thinks the rest or all of the hashiras would be too much.

Muichiro knows that Oyakata-sama, Tanjiro, and the hashiras care about him, but a part of him is afraid of hurting someone. The former two are kind and considerate. Shinobu is what he imagines his mom was like before she got sick. Sanemi and Obanai are strong. Although Mitsuri and Tengen can be a bit much sometimes, they have good hearts and care about the ones they love. And Gyomei is gentle despite his size and wise even though he’s blind, knowing what others need before they realize it themselves.

He doesn’t know who to go to. He’s been able to hear and remember the other hashiras’ stories, so he knows whom he doesn’t want.

“Tanjiro?”

Tanjiro greets Muichiro with the same dizzying smile, radiating such warmth and kindness that breaks through almost every wall he has. It’s so infectious that Muichiro can’t help but return the gesture. “Yes, Tokito?”

There’s a tightness in his chest. It bubbles up into his throat, and he feels like he is drowning in his own saliva. His heart is beating, no humming, like hummingbird wings. He imagines his eyes are rounder than normal as he stares at Tanjiro. Muichiro’s brain is telling him to flee.

Tanjiro’s eyebrows furrow. “Is something wrong?”

He doesn’t reply right away. Something in his head tells him he’s just nervous, but the new feeling isn’t welcome, nonetheless. “I’m…fine.”

“Well, you can talk to me if you ever need to,” Tanjiro replies with a smaller smile this time.

Muichiro debates shielding his eyes.

“Did you need something in particular?”

‘N-no?” Muichiro stammers, clenching his sword.

In reality, he knows he can ask Tanjiro for any favor, and Tanjiro would do everything in his power to fulfill the said request, but the words just won’t come. “Remember when you told me about your siblings?”

Tanjiro’s smile falters for a bit, but it quickly returns, his eyes softening. “Of course. Is there something else you want to know?”

“Huh?” Muichiro says, feeling a faint warmth on his cheeks. “It’s not that…”

“Did you need something, then?”

He’s smacked in the face by memories of someone younger and sweeter than the person he is now. He can remember bits and pieces. Tanjiro is reminiscent of shared laughter and making food with his family. It’s a feeling filled with joy, like sitting under a tree when rays of sunshine hit your face in just the right place to warm your entire body. The birds are chirping, and every negative emotion you have is replaced by the love you give and the love you get from others.

And yet, it’s sad and distant, even though Muichiro knows he can find it among the demon slayer corps, but he doesn’t know if he has enough time to trust everyone enough to feel the same way again. When he’s reminded of the person, the child he used to be, he mourns the lost innocence and the big heart his brother admired.

Muichiro takes a deep breath. It’s moments like these that remind him that Tanjiro is older than him, if only by a year or so. They’re both kids. He doesn’t like being reminded that they’re so young, but they’ve gone through so much.

“You know the thing you’d do with your siblings?” he says, turning the statement into a question.

Tanjiro’s eyes widen, blinking in response. “Oh?” He cocks his head to the right. “I know you’re still warming up to that kind of stuff, so I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

“But if it’s you, then I don’t mind?” Muichiro mumbles, contemplating digging a hole in the ground and throwing himself inside it. Right now, he really wishes Tanjiro wasn’t looking at him the way he is. If a person would ever befriend a demon that wasn’t Nezuko, Tanjiro would be the one to do so.

“Well, where do you want me to start?”

Well, there’s no turning back, Muichiro supposes, as his face grows hotter. “Uhm…I don’t even remember where I’d be…you know...”

Tanjiro chuckles. “Let’s go inside where it’s more comfortable.”

Somehow in the few minutes it takes them to walk into one of the rooms in butterfly mansion, every Kakushi they pass is left glowing with happiness when Tanjiro greets them by name. Muichiro normally keeps to himself, but he might consider talking to them every once in a while.

“Can you sit in front of me?” Tanjiro asks after he kneels on the tatami mats in one of the mansion’s spare training rooms.

Muichiro’s fingers twitch as he fights the urge to fiddle with his hair, a habit he’s picked up when he’s confused or unsure. “Like this?” he asks, sitting down with his legs crossed and flat on the ground.

“That’s fine,” Tanjiro hums. He holds his hands out for Muichiro to see.

Muichiro stares at Tanjiro’s hands, his lips faintly twitching.

Tanjiro grins at his reaction. “It’s okay. We can do this at the speed you’re comfortable with.”

“…I’m just a little nervous,” he admits. Although Tanjiro’s words are comforting to a degree, Muichiro wishes his bangs were a bit longer to cover his entire face. He settles on covering his eyes with his sleeves.

“We can go slow if you’d like.”

He peeks at Tanjiro behind his fingers. “I-I think I’d be okay with that. I just don’t know where to start.”

“Let’s start with something easy,” Tanjiro says with a chuckle, “How about your sides?”

Muichiro closes his eyes and nods before he can change his mind. He’s nervous, but he doesn’t find himself scared in any way. He trusts Tanjiro. He knows he can trust Tanjiro to stop if he feels uncomfortable.

“I want you to see what I’m doing.” Tanjiro holds up his hands in claws.

Maybe Muichiro isn’t ticklish anymore. Maybe his body has forgotten what the sensation is like.

At the electric feeling that shoots up his body, he does not topple over backward. He does not squeak when Tanjiro’s fingers make contact with his sides with a gentle flutter. His face does not flush when Tanjiro comments that Muichiro reacts just like Tanjiro’s brother, Takeo.

“Are you okay?” Tanjiro asks. Muichiro can hear that Tanjiro is equal parts amused and concerned.

And he does not pout when he replies. “I’m fine.”

“How does it feel? Am I good to keep going?”

Muichiro thinks for a moment. “…It’s different, but not in a bad way?”

He grumbles to himself when the statement comes out like a question. After losing his memories, but before recovering them, he knows his smiles are few and far between. The ones he can remember are mostly mocking enemies or forced by an overzealous Mitsuri’s hands pulling at his lips when she gets carried away.

Muichiro’s lips twitch once more, a movement that Tanjiro still doesn’t miss. “You can keep going,” he mumbles.

“Are you going to come back up here or am I going to have to go down there.”

“Noooooo,” Muichiro whines, covering his face with his left arm.

It’s just tickling. He’s seen the tickle fights the other hashiras and the demon slayers get into.

But why does he feel so light and almost giddy? It’s an emotion he’s not familiar with at all. He might have felt this way before but can’t quite remember when. Was it before he became a demon slayer? Before it was just him and Yuichiro? When his mom and dad were still alive?

He doesn’t know where this feeling came from, but he wants to find out, so he doesn’t want this, everything that’s happened after regaining his memories, to stop.

Muichiro doesn’t want to forget anymore.

When Tanjiro’s fingers start moving again, he finds himself giggling, the laughter bubbling out of his mouth like a babbling brook. He likes to think of himself as a serious person for the most part, but he just can’t stop laughing.

Besides the tickling, there’s a fluttering sensation in the back of his mind that reminds him of…home, so he just lies on the ground with his arms on his chest as more laughter pours out of him.

Muichiro’s face hurts from smiling for so long.

“Your laughter is brighter than I imagined,” Tanjiro says as if reading Muichiro’s mind. “…It’s cute.”

Muichiro cackles at the comment when Tanjiro pokes at his ribs. “I’m naahaat cuteee.”

Tanjiro clicks his tongue. “That’s what someone cute would say, right Nezuko?”

Muichiro hadn’t noticed that Nezuko had been in the room. It didn’t surprise him, since he knew Tanjiro and Nezuko were usually together, but he couldn’t focus on the details as Nezuko nuzzles her hair into his neck.

He shrieks at the slight roughness of her hair, but he wishes that necks were less sensitive. He wishes his neck was less sensitive.

Tanjiro laughs, wiggling his fingers into Muichiro’s underarms. “You have to be gentle, Nezuko.”

This time his elbows move back, arms clamping to his sides. “Aaahaaaha. Waahait. Wait. Wait,” he blubbers.

The tickling stops immediately. “Did we go too far?” Tanjiro asks, his voice oozing concern.

“No. no!” Muichiro says. And no, he does not squawk. “I just wanted to say thank you.”

Tanjiro’s face brightens at Muichiro’s words.

“M-mmph! Mmph.” Nezuko replies as she lies down beside Muichiro.

“Do you want tickles, too, Nezuko?”

“Mmhhp,” she giggles when Tanjiro’s hands spider around her stomach.

Muichiro can’t help but smile at the two of them. Maybe he and Yuichiro used to look like that when they were younger.

Tanjiro smirks at him. “Oh, don’t think I forgot about you.”

He squeals when Tanjiro does the same to his stomach, arching into Tanjiro’s fingers because it tickles too much. He doesn’t want to reminisce about his tragic past anymore, he just wants to let the happiness and laughter take over him.

Muichiro can see the same soft smile on Tanjiro’s face when he talks about his siblings. It comforts him.

“No. No. Noohohoho,” he yells when Tanjiro’s fingers slip past his sides to the small of his back. His body slams back to the ground as he cackles, snorting when Tanjiro hits the slight dimples above the back of his waist.

It tickles. It tickles. It tickles.

“Ooh. I think I found a good spot,” Tanjiro says, laughing along with Muichiro.

Scratch that. Now he wishes his back was as ticklish as his neck, but he doesn’t feel overwhelmed. He supposes that this is the biggest range of happy emotions he’s ever experienced. The sensations that make this uncontrollable laughter spill out of him aren’t bad, they’re just something he needs to get used to.

The bottom half of his body is less sensitive than the top half of his body, but he can’t help the snorts that burn his nose when Tanjiro scribbles his hands behind his knees or the way his eyes close when Tanjiro pinches his thighs.

When tears are prickling at the edge of his eyes, and Muichiro’s face has become a little red from laughing so hard, the tickling stops. Muichiro can tell his hair is a little messy, but he finds that he doesn’t mind when Nezuko curls into his lap.

Nezuko hums when Muichiro starts running his fingers through her hair. “Thank you for that, Tanjiro,” he says, trying to return the blinding smile that Tanjiro has on his face.

“No thanks needed. I’m happy to do it any time,” Tanjiro replies with a somehow even bigger smile than normal.

“Who started a tickle fight without me,” Tengen calls out, sticking his head in the doorway. “Oh?”

Tengen looks at Muichiro’s hair and then at Tanjiro and Nezuko.

“All right, why didn’t anyone tell me we could tickle Muichiro now,” Tengen says in a mock hurt tone.

“Huh…This is kind of new, I guess…”

Tengen holds a hand as if to ask for permission before patting Muichiro’s head. “Well, I’m happy then. Now to find Sanemi. That grumpy bastard is going to get used to smiling at some point.”

Muichiro’s face morphs back into its usual blank slate. He can’t get the past back, but maybe being here, with them, is enough.

#tickle fic #demon slayer #kimetsu no yaiba #kny #tokito muichiro #kamado tanjiro #kamado nezuko #jin's fics #jin writes

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waitmyturtles · 1 year

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What a WEEK IT HAS BEEN. Double Savage savaging, The Eighth Sense ending, The Promise sucking, the Our Skyy 2 x The Eclipse trailer dropping -- I’ve been taken on an emotional whirlwind by the drama gods. (Oh, and I’ve finished my Love Sick OGMMTVC analysis, which I’ll drop tomorrow. So THAT’S been bouncing in my head. AND, I started watching Make It Right. So I’ve ALSO been spending time with MORE turnt up teenage boys. GAWD. BRACES.)

ANYWAY. ALL OF THIS CONTEXT TO SAY: when Our Dining Table drops, I drop everything and run to it, because:

1) it’s beautifully done, as ever 2) it has the pace that I’m looking for in a show 3) it has delicious food, obvi, and 4) this week, we began to get very direct insights into Yutaka’s past that help us understand who he is -- and more importantly, helps Minoru to begin understanding who Yutaka is, and 5) we really begin to see Minoru cheese out on Yutaka, which is SO cute and SO great to see visualized, as opposed to the manga, which doesn’t offer quite the same nuances.

Our Dining Table gives me all the comfort. I keep, keep, keepin’ on, keep going back to the familiar blanket of Japanese BL doramas that brought me to this Tumblr space in the first place.

So: to thoughts on Our Dining Table, episode 4, we go.

We find out Yutaka was adopted, and made to feel incredibly uncomfortable about eating -- AND about joining in a family structure -- by the actions and behavior of his older adopted brother. We see Minoru utterly GIDDY with being able to spend time with Yutaka alone. We see Tane-kun doin’ his damn thing, being SO CUTE, OMG, I WANNA PINCH YOUR CHEEKS, CUTIE -- but also serving, of course, as a metaphor of the family that Yutaka has now been DIRECTLY INVITED to join, by dad Ueda-san himself. AND as a metaphor of the family that Yutaka had been NOT invited to join as a youngster, somewhat close to Tane-kun’s age.

Yutaka had been directly invited to join his adoptive family, also by his adoptive father. But we saw at the dining table of THAT family, how engagement and communication worked. There.... was none. At least, none coming from the parents. None at all. No correction, no discipline, no nothing. You were expected to fall into your role, eat in silence. Very patriarchal, very expected, very common. You exist, without existing, if that makes sense.

I just love comparing that paradigm to how we see the Uedas interacting, jovial and lively at the table, sitting on the floor on cushions, as opposed to stiff dining chairs, with Tane-kun laying down like an uncle after a big curry meal. (Sweet potatoes in curry, radical!) Tons of conversation, interaction, jokes, physical affection.

I love Yutaka staring into space. I love it. I love him falling into his meditations and Minoru catching him on it. The wheels are NOT quite turning yet for Yutaka -- he’s still dealing with the trauma of his childhood.

But he’s recognizing why he’s drawn to the Uedas. I think he’s beginning to define what that warmth means to him.

That’s why I LOVED THE FLASHBACKS, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. Yutaka is doing a comparative analysis of his past and present in those flashbacks. It was SO WARM AND SO CUTE. I LOVED every moment -- seeing what moments Yutaka was drawn to recalling, and how he compared them to his cold childhood. (If the show continues to hew to the manga, we’ll see how Yutaka ended up with his adoptive family, and it’ll all make sense.)

Oh, and I LOVED -- gah, my heart -- I loved how the episode ended with Minoru looking at the picture of his mother, and recognizing that his was not the only family who had gone through something. And we see in next week’s preview, that we get the story of the Uedas.

This show. Perfectly paced. Perfectly warm. Centered on food. Centered on family. Family warmth and growth. With every episode, we see Tane-kun getting more and more close to Yutaka -- and vice versa, as Yutaka pats Tane-kun’s full belly. It’s just....

It’s just perfect family warmth for me, the thing that I love about doramas so much, so much more than anything else in a show.

---

I want to quickly say that if you love the food in Our Dining Table, the last food-centered dorama that Japan produced was PHENOMENAL, and directed by Koreeda Hiroyuki, called The Makanai: Cooking For the Maiko House, which is on Netflix. Many of the food shots in Our Dining Table are reminding me of the cinematography of The Makanai -- simple, sumptuous, gorgeous.

I feel like The Makanai was one of the most important doramas to come out of Japan in recent years, and even though it’s not a BL, I think it’s really worth watching, to see how Kyoto and geisha/maiko culture still exists in the face of modern Japan. I learned a tremendous amount, and the acting was off the charts. Highly recommend if you have the time!

#our dining table #bokura no shokutaku #minoru x yutaka #yutaka x minoru #inukai atsuhiro #iijima hiroki #the makanai cooking for the maiko house

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