#im rereading the manga to get a better understanding of it. but every time i see this chapter/episode it sets off alarm bells in my brain

[takami-takami]

@mystech-master The commission did very bad things to Hawks. :(

The context is the woman talking is Lady Nagant, who Keigo replaced. They have the same job. And in the flashback, she recounts being told to kill people over and over— sometimes needlessly— to uphold their vision for society. When she tried questioning them, they subtly threaten to kill her (so she kills the president eventually and defects).

Having to do this over and over broke Lady Nagant's spirit so badly she began to see her hands as covered in blood and flinches away from kids who approach her (a parallel to Keigo, by the way, when Tokoyami tells him "your hands aren't dirty, Hawks").

So she's surprised that Keigo isn't completely broken by his history, too. He answers that he wasn't alone, and that he's an optimist (Keigo is extremely resilient! To the point that it's scary!). But still. He looks so sad/contemplative when she asks him the question. Like he knows EXACTLY what she's talking about. She doesn't even have to say it, he just knows. All she has to say is "my soul couldn't take it anymore. How do you still have that look in your eye?"

There's also a parallel right before then when AFO hires Nagant and then tries to kill her when she fails her mission, and Keigo says "He used you, but don't let it end like that."

Don't die as someone used.

Keigo does not say this simply because of what AFO did. Lady Nagant has always been used. Keigo knows that better than anyone.

#this is my interpretation #i think that Keigo's history with the commission is extremely complicated #he sees them as shackles yet he also uses them as a platform for his goals #it's very interesting #im rereading the manga to get a better understanding of it. but every time i see this chapter/episode it sets off alarm bells in my brain #and i need the commission on a stick #on a skewer #truly #🐇 rambles #mha manga spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha spoilers

[racecarcat]

You know, I just finished rereading Part 1 of CSM after about a weak and ohh myyy godddd… how is this level writing achievable. I strive to write something this great and dooming every thing day. Anyway, here is some thoughts about part 1 I had after rereading.

SPOILERS ⚠️ ABOUT THE ENTIRETY OF PART 1 OF CSM (CHAP 1–97)

• I originally didn’t understand the hype about Reze when first read the manga, like I loved her design and personality, but I came to appreciate her a lot more this time around. Especially after realizing that once the fight with Denji/Reze that Reze actually does try to go to the cafe—idk why I interpreted the first time around as she just trying to escape Japan.

• Denji… really does talk like a teenager no matter how depressed he is. I feel like I don’t feel like I see I don’t see that so very often. Especially during his monologue(?) while cooking and eating Makima.

• Being famous KILLS Denji. I’m sure there’s some symbolism im not in the intelligence level to understand.

• Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE in Public Safety has always been doomed. Aki was doomed to die the worst fate, Denji was doomed to have all his happiness taken away, Makima was doomed to be a Public Safety dog, Angel was never meant to find solace in others without them dead—I CANT STAND IT.

• I hate Makima, don’t get me wrong. But seeing the scene of Pochita explaining how violently lonely and isolated Makima was because of how she was raised and how her version of love was sick and cruel because she didn’t know how else to tell people was just so… fjdjxjdjf

• Hirofumi Yoshida is a lot sillier than I remember. He has this stupid little :) I think is cute.

• Cosmo is such a fun character. Her whole “Halloween” thing is something I wish I understood more but I will take what I can get.

• I finally understood Quanxi’s whole arc when she shows up to the point she dies.

I’m sure there’s more but I read chapter 97 at 5:30 AM this morning. Anyway, if you were to ask me if I like Part 1 or 2 better, I would definitely say Part 1.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m going to reread part 2 so this may change but just… Part 1 has such a charm to it.

(Also Power comeback when)

#csm spoilers #yoshida hirofumi #csm #chainsaw man #denji #Part 1 CSM #Makima #quanxi #cosmo csm #doomed by the narrative

[dottores]

I KEEP SENDING YOU STUFF IM SORRY IF ITS ANNOYING BUTTTT

now that im not on the verge of sobbing at 4am, i can actually give proper feedback that makes sense and isnt just me keymashing and hoping you understood what thats supposed to mean

LITERALLY HAVE SM TO SAY I WILL BREAK IT DOWN YEAH THAT SOUNDS BEST I THINK

i mentioned in an ask (i think?) about how much i admire your understanding of the characters and shit but that was too vague and now that i can actually fucking think and form coherent sentences i'll just go deeper into it. its SO SO obvious within your writing how much you understand the characters and their personalities, but more importantly, their emotions. im not sure how else to word this but your writing is so...well rounded? if that makes any sense. every single emotion you portray these characters in is so insanely accurate it feels weirdly canon even though most of the time, theyve never actually been shown like this in the actual manga. IF YOU DONT GET WHAT I MEAN I'LL USE RAN BEGGING IN THE RECENT CHAPTER AS AN EXAMPLE OKAY!! obviously ran is presented as a pretty closed off character emotionally, so we've never seen him break down or get upset or beg in canon, but god the way you wrote him im fully convinced that if he did ever beg for something (or someone 😱) it would be exactly the way you wrote it (I RLY HOPE YOU GET WHAT I MEAN). even more simple and often overlooked emotions like joy...you write them so well like its almost like you studied every bit of these characters before each chapter because god its just...wow honestly. im always going into the chapters with such high expectations yet somehow you exceed them EVERY SNGLE TIME your writing leaves my mind all fuzzy and i have to put my phone or laptop down for a bit and process what tf i just read bc its just THAT GOOD i would talk more about how you present rindou, y/n, and EVEN HANMA?? (i only started liking him after i read lda btw) but atm all i can think ab is ran and the way you write him so i'll analyse them another time 4 you <333

other than ur unbelievably accurate understanding of the characters, the way you invoke tension within the story and how it changes ever so slightly each chapter is so beautiful to me. this chapter you repeated the phrase "three dead, five arrested, six." OR SMTH every few lines and i was about to scream bc of how tense the atmosphere was i could not I WAS FIGHTING TRYING NOT TO READ AHEAD YOU DONT UNDERSTAND?? in other chapters you, if i remember correctly, tend to drag things out but not in like an annoying way, you do it in such a thoughtful and tactful way and it makes reading so so much more enjoyable than it already is. god i just I CANT SAY ENOUGH FOR MY LOVE OF HOW YOU USE SUCH SIMPLE AND COMMON LITERARY TECHNIQUES IN SUCH A BEAUTIFUL WAY IM GOING TO SOB CAT I CANNOT. DO THS. ANYMORE.

i also mentioned in an ask about how good you are with pacing i think? a lot of the time some stories may seem or feel rushed but thats never ever the case with you??? again you "drag things out" but every single word is so so important and meaningful and i could neve even think about skipping ahead or missing a few lines in the fear that i'll miss somethig out. each chapter goes by so slowly but so quickly at the same time?? how did you even manage to do that im screaming. i was reading and thinking about how the pace is bc its just..insane, god. the techniques you use, the words you choose, everything is so well thought out and makes the story feel so real like YOU HAVE ME THINKING IM Y/N???ENOUGH MY HEART CANT DO THIS. no, and i truly genuinely mean this, story has ever had me feeling this many emotions PER CHAPTER and ive been on here for a whilleee. honestly saying good job isnt enough, neither is rereading, i need to inhale all of your words and let them live in my lungs bc i cannot do this i wanna hug and bite and squeeze ad kiss your ran and rin YOU PORTRAY THEM BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE IVE SEEN SO FAR and it genuinely drives me crazy bc they feel so real to me when i read lda

i have so much more to say but this is getting too long and im sure ur very very busy so NEXT TIME OKAY!! <33

anyways IM SO SORRY THIS IS SO LONG I DIDNT REALISE!!!! but the point is i love you and your writing so so much and im so grateful to have you posting these FOR FREE??? insane honestly. TAKE CARE OF URSELF MWAAHHH ILY BYE BYE <333

i waited all day to respond to this cuz i wanted to give it the attention it deserved. oh my fucking god. i don’t think you understand i read this at work and literally started crying at my desk. and then i read it like 8 more times and teared up every single time after that too.

like i am genuinely at a loss for words right now this is actually the sweetest and most thoughtful think i’ve ever been sent. like i worry so much about characterization and pacing — they’re two of the things that stress me out the most while writing i always am so anxious over not capturing characters correctly, so this might’ve been the most reassuring thing you could ever say to me 🥹🥹

you literally do not ever have to apologize for sending me long asks or anything oml pls i am so grateful and appreciative it literally means the world to me when you guys send me stuff about LDA cuz i want you guys to love it and the characters just as much as i do 🥹🥹🥹 i love talking to you guys about it i literally love you sm you just made my entire week 🥹🥹🥹 maybe the whole month tbh

#my asks #series: little dark age #excuse me while i go cry over this ask for the 50th time #i literally love u sm #i want to give you a million hugs n kisses sobs

[grapejuicefilledpools]

My ramblings on finishing Magi and Magi: The Adventures of Sinbad and **SPOILERS for the whole series**

So to be fair, I finished reading Magi like a month ago. I just finished The Adventures of Sinbad like 5 minutes ago. For a short summary: I’m not a big manga reader but this makes me want to read every manga that has been adapted into anime. I’m planning on purchasing the whole series so I can reread it whenever I want to. For an out of 10 rating? All together it’s a 9/10 for me. It’s in my top 10 for anime/manga I’ve finished but idk where.

About the anime after reading the manga. I get why the anime started out like how it did but MAN when you read the manga the setup there is better. If my memory is correct, the manga starts with Aladdin and the anime starts with Alibaba. I’m guessing why they decided to adapt that was either because the mangaka wanted that or to make Alibaba fit as the protagonist more. It’s understandable but we’re with Aladdin more? Idk my mind was blown that they switched that much early on. That and some people will start a manga from where the anime left off, not from the beginning. And tbh? Now that I’ve rewatched Magi, anime kinda isn’t all that. The last time I watched was when I was 14-15 but it still left an impression on me. Not as good as I remember but the manga just fuckin destroyed the anime so whatever lol.

About manga past the anime. Tbh I’m still surprised at how good the manga got after where the anime left off. I still remember the shit leading up to chapter 260(I read like 130 chapters a day I was hooked). Like I finished 260 and just put my phone down and sat there until I went to sleep. I didn’t think I cared for Judal/Judar that much I was fuckin heartbroken. And Aladdin saying he didn’t have a choice and the look on his face ughhhhh shit fuckin SUCKED. Yeah I was going through it especially because before that you see Hakuryuu and Judal/Judar got along(was it that idk I was being feed a dynamic I didn’t know I needed let it be) and they’re not doing the good thing but whatever I’ve always liked Hakuryuu what do u want me to do?? The lead up was perfect and I want to reread Magi again just to get that led up to that fight again.

Now, the whole last arc? Kinda think I’m stupid lol. Sinbad just not stopping and I’m reading what he’s saying and I can’t completely disagree with what he was saying was frustrating for me. That and David being there(and finding out how he got there thx to the Sinbad spin-off) was a lot to take in which means I’m literally talking to myself abt this shit like a madman when I changed pages. I didn’t think it would go as far as it did with its subject matter so imagine my reaction when they start just fucking going at it the end between Sinbad and David. I had to put my phone down a lot during the end because I couldn’t understand what I was reading for a sec. Im not gonna reread the series for a minute because the stuff they were talking about is a bit too real for in my life and I don’t want to argue with my mom about fated paths and shit.

Overall I’m very satisfied. I got that hollow feeling in my chest after finishing both series and I’ll always be sentimental towards the series as a whole. I did some very cringe shit when I first watched Magi when I was young(listen I thought Morgiana was the coolest so let your imagination run wild) but I cherish those moments now. Not sure about recommendations but I very much enjoyed my time with this and I’ll remember it fondly years from now. But now my eyes are starting to unfocus so I have to stop typing lmao l8r.

#magi labyrinth of magic #magi the adventures of sinbad #literally just read the manga it good I like #don’t do what I did reading wise I finished it in like 4 days #then I couldn’t focus my eyes for like 2-3 days after don’t do that pls #masrur is the fuckin dude I love him my fav by far

[hikari-ni-naritai]

Youre just too nice Em ; ~; Id love to chat privately but my anxiety is through the roof with this already so I dont think I can yet... But on the subject of yuri,any recommendations!? I search a lot but I cant find more ... And yeah, I highly doubt anything could get you to like her, especially if the combination heroes unit thing with byleth didnt help, that one got me real good hahaha.. I always feel judged if people I like dislike something I do like, though with media im fine, but girls...

Oh, and again, thank you for putting up with all this kinda out of nowhere babbling ;~; if I wasnt such a pot of anxiety I'd have approached you way earlier but yeah... I will appreciate you from the shadows and sometimes send a buttload of asks instead, though that sounds a touch creepy now that I write it out ; ~; In any case, I hope you won't mind my wackass fictional lesbian problems when I drop by hahaaa.. I do gotta split now so again!!!! Thank you!!!! <3<3<3<3<3! 

you are always welcome here! there is no need for fear. but i cant pretend i dont understand anxiety, so im glad youve at least managed to send me asks <3  also fuck that combination hero that should be EDELGARD with byleth in a cute swimsuit not that whore pope

and you KNOW i got yuri recs i got yuri recs for days! if you want anime, Bloom Into You is top tier. Adachi to Shimamura just finished airing and its pretty good too. the Kase-san and Morning Glories ova is really nice and sweet. Citrus was, i think, pretty good? but they were step sisters so that might put you off. i also really love Sakura Trick, bc its just about girls kissing, and they do that a lot. oh, and its not really like, Yuri yuri, but My Life As A Villainess was really good and the main girl is really gay and all her girl friends are really gay also. i enjoyed it immensely.

i dont know much about manga bc i dont read it often, but if you want recs of that, ive ended up rereading Bright and Cheery Amnesia like 3 or 4 times. Ive heard really good things about the rest of the bloom into you manga since its finished.  thats about all ive got for manga but im sure i could rustle up a dozen more that ive heard are good.

but i think the real place for yuri is visual novels! heart of the woods i cant recommend enough its SO good and everybodys SO gay and ghost gf im in love. highway blossoms is also by the writer of heart of the woods, and its also incredible and one of the only experiences with english voice acting that was good enough for my standards. kindred spirits on the roof is really good and theres so many couples in it that are really cute but one of them is a student with a young teacher and some people would be put off by that so i have to give this disclaimer. and shit i would even recommend sakura gamer, which despite being fuckin a horny trashy sakura game, is still really cute and the writing i think is clever and you can date BOTH girls at the SAME TIME and its REALLY good theyre very cute. the sakura series surprisingly handles yuri plots a lot better than they handle straight plots, which isnt to say they handle them well, but . . . at least the girls have personalities instead of being cardboard cutout self inserts.

also this ones a bit niche but i played through one game of ladykiller in a bind, which is about a girl pretending to be her twin brother on a cruise, and theres a lot of bondage and “plot crucial” lesbian sex scenes but you can just fucking turn on “sfw mode” which makes everybody wear christmas sweaters during the scenes and it fucking kills me every single time i see a girl just with a really oversized christmas sweater tht doesnt match the art style at all. and also it’s very good about dealing with consent and gender and i just really enjoyed it. also you can name the characters whatever you want with no letter limit so i named one “She Who Licks The Boot” and it made me laugh every single time she appeared.

ive got a lot of other yuri vns in my steam library but some of them i havent played and a lot of them are sakura games. if you want more detailed recommendations of any of these please just let me know! i am always excited to talk about yuri. but now its bedtime and i have a terrible headache! i hope you have a good day anon! <33

#Anonymous

[runawaykotaro]

hi i have a weirdly specific question about the benizakura arc cause im rereading it. irt katsuras "death" do you think gintoki ever ended up, even for a small portion believing kataura did die, or did he always hold faith? its probably a silly question but i keep vacillating between gintoki having strong faith in his friends abilities vs being pragmatic after his fight w nizou that he himself only got out of because of shinpachi so i wanted to know your opinion cause your meta is fun to read

Thank you!! I’m glad that you enjoy reading my meta posts! I really enjoy writing them!

You’ve posed a really interesting question, and one that I’ve been vacillating on for a while. Unfortunately, I don’t really have a definite opinion. I’m inclined to believe, however, that Gintoki believed that Katsura was alive the whole time. My rationale gets kind of long though- so the rest of this post is going to be under a read more.

This comes first from taking Gintoki’s dialogue, parallels to later confrontations in the arc, and shonen genre conventions. First, you have his initial confrontation with Nizou where he tells Nizou “Zura would never be killed by a lame-ass murderer like you.” Then, after being shown Zura’s hair, “Don’t make me repeat myself. Zura would never be killed by a nobody like you.” (admittedly, this was before Gintoki almost died but,) In the manga at least, Gintoki never contradicts this or expresses any doubt about it past this. Second, the way that Zura going missing is mirrored (paralleled? I’m not quite sure what the correct literary term would be lol) later in the arc also suggests that Gintoki believed that Katsura lived. The first moment is when Katsura jumps out of and slashes takasugi- then immediately says ‘I could not rest knowing that I had been killed by a former comrade. Isn’t that true for you as well, Takasugi?’ The second moment is Katsura and Takasugi watching Gintoki battle Nizou on the roof, while Takasugi comments that fighting the benizakura is like fighting a battleship with your bare hands. Neither of those situations DIRECTLY match up with how Nizou claiming that he killed Katsura, but they all convey the Joui 3′s confidence in the others’ abilities to survive. Each of them believes that the others can’t die except in specific circumstances. Because Katsura and Takasugi believe that of Gintoki, and because of the way the narrative hints at their understanding of each other, it implies that Gintoki would hold the same faith in Katsura even faced with the heavy realities of his confrontation with Nizou. You can also say here that Gintoki is familiar with the fact that Zura is “Runaway Kotaro” too (I’m still so glad i got this url) and knows that Zura is the kind of combatant who would play dead or hide, and doesn’t feel the need to engage with an aggressor to the end of the confrontation. That leads into the shounen genre conventions- the protagonists Believes in their Companions, unless something Actually Happened to them, in which case the Protagonist is able to Instantly Distinguish that what the antagonist is saying is True. I’m not sure how to explain it better but basically, metatextually, as the protagonist, Gintoki gets to believe that Katsura is alive as long as Katsura is alive.

Of course, if that was all there was to consider, then it would be a pretty clear cut question to answer. There are significant conflicts with those arguments. For Gintoki’s thoughts, in the manga, he doesn’t comment on Zura’s life status after “Zura would never be killed by a nobody like you,” however, the movie has the conversation with Tetsuko: ‘I can’t help you. I got beaten up, and my friend was killed.’ With this line in mind, Gintoki does seem to think Zura is dead. However, his sincerity when delivering his line is called into question when it’s revealed that he was intending to help Tetsuko all along, he was just trying to shake off Tae. But why say that to her at all? Neither Tae nor Tetsuko know Zura at that point, and saying that to Tetsuko when she’s already torn up about what Benizakura is being used to do just seems pointlessly cruel. So if it wasn’t part of the deception, why say it at all if he didn’t believe it? (There’s just A LOT to discuss with this line, and I feel like its the line that called Gintoki’s belief in Zura’s survival into question the most.) Another piece that could easily be interpreted either way is the panels after Gintoki sees that Katsura is alive:

(First of all, don’t even get me started on that line but) He doesn’t look shocked, which would imply that he believed that Katsura was alive the whole time, however, Gintoki isn’t a very open person, and his expression could ALSO be interpreted as relief, implying that he was worried that Katsura was dead.

There’s also the element of rationality, like you said. Gintoki almost died fighting Nizou- would have died if Shinpachi and the police hadn’t intervened. Nizou also showed him Katsura’s cut off hair, which is solid evidence there was a confrontation that Zura didn’t escape from unscathed. The rationality argument conflicts with the shounen conventions, because the protag usually just Believes what is correct, without regards to pesky things like logic, reason, and the possibility of death in a combat situation. However, Gintama has violated shounen conventions plenty of times before- Gintoki just being who he is stomps all over the idea of what a shounen hero is supposed to be. However, it does tend to stay pretty close to the power of peoples’ bonds- which is why I believe that the protagonist power of Companion Well-being Radar is in play here.

So there are a lot of different factors at play, and while I do believe that Sorachi intended to convey that Gintoki kept faith in Katsura the whole time, there’s a solid argument that that’s not the case. Personally, I change my interpretation every other drabble I write about the benizakura arc, so…? I can’t really give you a definite answer. I think that Gintoki could have been in a possible middle ground. Maybe he believed that Katsura was alive but was worried that he wasn’t? Or he might have been too focused on Tetsuko, Shinpachi, and Kagura to focus on thinking about whether or not Katsura was alive? I don’t really know, but I feel like it’s more likely that Gintoki believed that Katsura was alive for the duration of the benizakura arc.

#Meta #New years cards #Sorry its so long. And late. And goes back and forth so much. #but this is actually a question that has been bugging me for a long time!!! #It was cool to dissect it!!!

[romchomp]

My Thoughts on Chapter 39 of Citrus (and also a lot of 23 and 24)

It truly amazes me how far Citrus has come since chapter 1. Somehow Citrus has managed to go from a yuri romance with a slightly larger amount of smut and angst than usual that had about every yuri trope, to an actually endearing and heartfelt love story of two girls. I reread the first volume and then reread chapter 39 again just to make sure the vast difference wasn’t all in my head and it isn’t. The tone of Citrus has been gradually shifting since the moment back somewhere in volume two when Yuzu realizes Mei needs a family more than she needs a romantic partner. Granted, they still end up dating not too much later, but the relationship dynamic changes after Yuzu has this realization. And the change is to something much healthier. But that’s not what I really wanted to talk about in this post. I wanted to specifically talk about chapter 39 (as the title would suggest).

Chapter 39 is tightly connected to chapters 23 and 24, which are my two favorite chapters of Citrus. If you want to have a vague idea on why then I’d suggest reading this post of mine, which could also probably help you have a better understanding of what I think about chapter 39 as well.

In chapter 23, Yuzu runs into friends from her old high school who she hasn’t talked to in a while. She gets ready to show her friends a picture of Mei, expecting them to be happy for her on her relationship.

And it’s fair to say that that didn’t exactly happen.

Yuzu is typically carefree and has an attitude of doing what makes her happy before anything else. It’s why she didn’t follow the school’s dress code, it was her biggest contrast to Mei at the beginning of the series. She did what she wanted (i.e. what made her happy) without caring about the consequences- because to her, the consequences were worth it in the end. This interaction with her friends almost broke that part of her.

I mean after she tells Mei about the incident with her old friends. She says:

So we know Yuzu went into this relatively carefree- or at least carefree from outside factors in their relationship. She never expected a negative reaction like the one she dealt with. She was just about to show them a picture of Mei before they started being homophobic towards the lesbian couple across the street. This experience has messed with Yuzu on a fundamental level. She’s feeling pain and sadness because she’s chosen to do what makes her happy (date Mei). And...Uhg I just loved these two chapters in the manga because in this time when Yuzu was feeling upset and confused Mei showed Yuzu her own notebook.

And the advice is very...Yuzu. And then Mei says to her-

and we see how the two of them have gone full circle.

Now I’m finally going to talk about chapter 39. Chapter 39 pretty much reinforces how Yuzu’s encounter with her old friends affected her, plus more good advice from her mom.

Chapter 39 is basically Yuzu coming out to her family and friends. But we see how nervous she gets before telling all of them in contrast to how excited she was to tell her old friends in chapter 23.

In the page with her mom you see how she isn’t sure how she’ll react and from her facial expression, you can tell that Yuzu is stressed by that. In the page where she’s ready to tell her best friend, Harumin, about her feelings for Mei you see that while her expression is partly goofy, her eyebrows are furrowed from worry. Her previous interaction with her old friends affected how she tackled telling others about Mei. I also want to mention the sense of urgency from Yuzu in the page with Harumin. Yuzu is determined to tell those close to her about her feelings and relationship with Mei in order to fix their relationship. This chapter kind of helped me realize where Yuzu’s carelessness stops, and that’s with people she loves. When it came to Mei and even her friends, she was always caring and sensitive. Even careful at times.  

Of course. You need to take into account that Yuzu and Mei are also stepsisters, so them both being girls isn’t the only reason she’s worried about how others will react to her relationship with her. However, even without that factor, I think the emotions shown by Yuzu are relatable. The worry of not knowing how someone will react to your relationship. Or with Harumin, who she had no reason to think she wouldn’t accept her relationship, but was nervous regardless because of past experiences.

I also like the way Harumin and Yuzu’s mom reacted to Yuzu’s confession compared to her old friends.  Harumin and Yuzu’s mom where two characters that were always framed in a positive light, while Yuzu’s old friends were typically presented as shallow. I thought it was nice how the manga basically said it was shallow to not see same-sex couples as equally genuine to straight couples.

Okay, these two pages actually get me really emotional. Like, I’m tearing up as I write this right now. The look of worry on Yuzu’s face when her mom interrupts her in the middle of her outing herself about dating Mei and her expression when Harumin not only supports her feelings for Mei but offers to help her get back together with Mei is just...a lot. They're not facial expressions we’re used to seeing on Yuzu. And I don’t know, there’s something about seeing all of Yuzu’s worry being responded to with nothing but positivity from her mom and best friend that felt really good. Especially considering that Yuzu had reason to think they wouldn’t. Hell, we’ve been around these characters for 39 chapters now and we had reason to think they wouldn’t respond well too. And there was Yuzu’s mom, who went on to say some really touching stuff.

Oh god I’m tearing up again. How did Citrus turn into so much? I really like how Yuzu’s mom compared her relationship to Yuzu’s dad to Yuzu and Mei. It shows how she sees no difference between the two relationships. She also talks about how choosing what makes you happy can also cause pain, which we’ve seen Yuzu realize and experience. And she’ll probably have to experience it a numerous amount of times in the future- her mom tells her this as well. But she also says the reason she’s telling Yuzu all of this is because she sees that she’s already made the decision to be with Mei. This is...actually...a pretty good message for a yuri. Not even for a yuri but for a romance. Relationships aren't meant to be treated with a happy go lucky attitude. Sometimes relationships are difficult not because there’s anything wrong with the two people but because of outside forces like time, work, money, sickness, people, outside forces are especially hard in lgbt+ relationships. Citrus emphasizes how much it really means to care enough about someone to be willing to go through all of that.

Citrus came a long way, and I’m proud of it. This is honestly probably one of my favorite Yuri’s. It’s been revealed that the next chapter will be the last and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t sad about that. (I think it’s chapter 41 that will actually be the last whoops) But hey, how things are heading, it looks like we’re gonna be getting a happy ending! Yay!

Anyways I ended writing this way later than I intended to. I’ll probably end up writing about the last chapter of Citrus as well, knowing me. And I think the new chapter come out relatively soon if it’s not already out. Like I said, I wrote this really late.

NOTE: So last night I saw on twitter that chapter 40 is out in english now. And...I was joking when I said it might be out already. I really didn’t think I was that late like it really took me a month to come up with this post im

#citrus #manga #anime #yuri #shoujo-ai #citrus chapter 39 #chapter 23 #chapter 24 #i can't believe it took me a month to finally write this #romance #gay romance #lesbians #belljarsandbeatles

[franeridan]

i appreciate the bakugou post you made because it highlights his strengths within the context of his weaknesses & it emphasizes his development. i understand that people are critical of his behavior. i dont understand that i dont see anyone critical of midoriyas behavior in terms of their "friendship". midoriya is/was obsessed with bakugou & essentially stalked him all throughout their childhood & completely disregarded his boundaries. bakugou was p clear abt not wanting to be friends. [1 / 4]

but midoriya wouldnt accept it. i figure midoriya used bakugou as a proxy to project his hopes and dreams onto. once he had his quirk midoriya idolized bakugou progressively less. its completely true that bakugou bullied midoriya but how else do you expect a kid to handle someone refusing to leave them alone? rationalizing that stuff is a level of maturity a kid doesnt naturally possess. [2 / 4]

saying that bakugou is entirely in the wrong or even abusive for having an overreaction to midoriya ignoring his demands to leave him be is p dismissive of their dynamic. claiming a character can do no wrong in your eyes is just blatant favoritism. and that goes for every character in mha. esp because mha gives its characters so much depth & the respective issues they have to work through is part of storytelling. theres no final word abt any character b4 the manga is finished. [3/ 4]

their initial conflict makes the story interesting. a story needs conflict. there has to be room for growth. the fact that we see bakugou and midoriya grow out of their respective predicaments at a realistic pace is a testament to how they mature during the span of just two years & i feel like theyll grow much more during their time at UA. i hope the manga follows them until graduation (or even past that) & im curious to see how both characters develop. sry for rambling ;;

This is something I don’t talk about often, because Bakugou doesn’t straight out state his exact view on his relationship with Izuku until the second Deku vs Kacchan, and that’s chapter 117, spoiler for whoever’s only following the anime - but it’s also why I know for a fact I can’t have an eye to eye conversation with whoever’s not up to date with the manga, because they’re missing a whole half of the relationship they’re trying to judge. And I do think, if you’re not prone to empathizing with the type of person Bakugou is but you want to try and understand Bakugou and his actions anyway, that this is exactly where you need to start, because this is the most universally relatable Bakugou ever gets

Everyone, everyone, has that one person that they just can’t stand. It might be because of their view on life, because of their way of speaking or the words they use, because the way they move or a habit they have that just ticks you off or their tone of voice or anything, maybe it’s just a feeling sort of thing, who knows, but you can’t stand them. Imagine that person, that one person that pisses you off by just existing in your close proximity, and imagine them just not leaving you alone. They’re everywhere, follow you around, always look at you and want to talk to you, and maybe you’re a sensible adult and tried to brush them off easy the first few times, but they still stick around till the point where you straight out tell them you don’t want them around and yet they’re still there. The exasperation and anger that comes from that, that’s a universally relatable feeling. Everyone can understand it.

But Bakugou wasn’t a sensible adult. He was a kid, one with a temper too, and one used to always getting what he wanted to top that off. So he was violent in his rejecting Izuku, hit him and told him horrible things, and yet Izuku was still there. Izuku, for however kind he is, isn’t much of an empathetic boy. He pushes himself on people a lot - it’s his whole point as a hero, being unable to sit back and leave people alone even after they tell him to do just that (if not Bakugou then see Todoroki, see Iida, see Kouta, see Eri). A kid four, five, six years old isn’t made to deal in a mature way with that sort of relationship, least of all a kid with Bakugou’s personality. And with the way Bakugou is, Izuku’s insistence in being always around him and telling him stuff like “do you need help” translated pretty damn easily in Izuku making fun of him, and this is a way of seeing Izuku Bakugou’s just now growing out of. Now that they’ve had time away from each other, now that Izuku has stopped being hyperfocused on him, now that chapter 90 happened and Izuku properly realized that his hero behaviour just isn’t gonna cut it with Bakugou. And now that Bakugou has been faced with the reality that is his actual level of strength and self-sufficience, now that he knows for a fact he’s not the best, now that he can’t just put himself above Deku by proxy and needs to prove he’s better both to the world and to himself 

(which is why his bullying stopped after the sludge incident, a lot of the childhood/middle school bullying came from Bakugou being completely convinced of his righteous place above Izuku/everyone else and being really fucking tired of Izuku still not understanding it, so once he realized he was actually the one in the wrong the foundation of that belief went missing and with it his reasons to act that certain way) (this specific new way of seeing life and himself gets reinforced every time you see Bakugou have a breakdown in the manga, and then something similar happens again during Deku vs Kacchan 2 when another of the pillars he built his life upon gives out and leaves him unsure of how much of his actions through life were actually meaningless - it’s probably a useless digression, but understanding that most of Bakugou’s yelling and kicking and raging after the sludge incident is more directed at himself/made to prove something to himself than at whoever’s in front of him can help in understanding him as a whole a bit better, I think)

What a lot of Bakugou haters don’t realize is that Bakugou and Izuku have never been friends - there’s never been a time in their past when they used to get along, a friendship between them is being born right now for the first time ever. And this is not just because Bakugou’s a huge asshole, but because their personalities don’t naturally mash at all, and for there to be a civil relationship between them you need them to reach a level of maturity where they can talk shit out and establish boundaries and actually respect them once they’ve been established - and that’s as true for Bakugou as it is for Izuku

So yeah a lot of the blame rests on Bakugou’s shoulders, rightfully so, but there is a reason why the only person Bakugou’s ever had that huge of a problem with is Izuku. And anyone, anyone who can look at Izuku and genuinely say “he’s never done anything wrong ever” needs to go back to the start of the manga and reread it all once more, because there is a reason why Izuku’s an interesting character, and most of it rests in the fact that he’s got flaws he’s working on to fix just as much as everyone else is

#replies #long post #now THIS is rambling #but izuku having flaws is important to me #because #i actually love him #his character is incredible #and yet #i SO RARELY see a fanwork about him that doesn't make me hate him #and that's something that literally only happens with deku #i love him as long as horikoshi's the one handing him to me #but when he passes through the fandom's hands he becomes a type of character i can't stand #and that's literally only because this fandom as a whole has made a habit of pretending his flaws don't exist #and i don't understand why! #they're what make him interesting to follow through his journey! #let characters fuck up please #a story without fuck ups just isn't worth reading #anonymous

[tumblunni]

I'm just venting about that cos im rereading Zombie Powder and laughing at how absolutely terrible the Predictable Generic Chapter 1 Stereotype Villain is, even by shonen standards

Like he's straight up a gang leader named King Kuro (king black...) And the viz translation tried the most low effort way of making it slightly less obvious cos now he's... Kin Q.Ro. Also he straight up stops being black mid panel?? The shading is REALLY bad, its like they couldnt keep track of who was meant to be black. Either that or this guy's gang contains a large amount of mixed race couples who share clothes SERIOUSLY THERES LIKE TWO OF EVERY CHARACTER

Also it goes without saying that this guy is fat and has big over the top lips, dreads, massive ass teeth and goes "haw haw haw" a lot

And the most predictable plot of just Generic Gang Of Thug Peoples who are extorting money from Ordinary Guy but GASP they try and kill him anyway even after he paid

Also generic female family member dies right at the end because of course

And we're all going on the hunt for INSERT NAME OF LEGENDARY TREASURE HERE bla bla bla bla bla

I remember how when i first read this as a kid i was SO much more interested in Ordinary Dude Kid Sidekick than Jackass Mc Perfectpants, yet they just keep having the kid be Too Weak To Help and whenever he tries he gets in trouble and also how dare u try and do anything urself or have any agency in ur plot just auuuuugh

Its especially bad here cos genericman perfectprotag straight up has a worse motivation for wantinf the INSERT NAME OF SPECIAL TREASURE HERE

the protag whom we are supposed to relate to: yeah i just wanna collect the [insert number] of [thing] to get the [magic thing] so i can be even more stronger and better than everyone

Sidekick boy: yeah i actually wanna save my sister's life

So anyway thats why the manga doesnt get good until they introduce that secret agent businessman guy whos super sassy and it becomes Sidekick Kid And His Two Dads

Srsly the entire thing coulda been vastly improved if they really were dating and we had some actual emotion between any of these characters and also the kid should have been the actual protagonist dammit

Also "Kin Q.Ro" can go in the sadness bucket with Mick The Nick from Digital Devil Saga for characters who were just SO over the top "scary fat black man is the most evil man on earth" that it made me feel super sorry for them. Give me a damn au where these two get to be the protags of their own show! With fully rounded personaluties! With actual human traits! With a life! With a reason why they do any damn thing! Theyre probably twin brothers! THATS JUST HOW IDENTICAL THIS STEREOTYPE ALWAYS IS!

God i just get so pissed off whenever i see the "scary fat black man thug", it instantly makes me 100% less sympathetic to your protagonists and HOO BOY my opinion of you the writer goes straight down the goddamn toilet

Can we have more stories where this character design gets to be the good guy? For the life of me i cant understand how racist fucks think this dude is meant to look ugly. "Oh no a guy with very cool hair and fashion sense but he is slightly overweight and not caucasian." IM SORRY BUT THIS SO CALLED SCARY GANGSTER LOOKS LIKE A PERFECT COOL UNCLE MENTOR MAN I WANT TO HUG! "Oh i hate black men loads, yknow whats even scarier a black man who is friend shaped"

And of course theres also the thing of if its not a "gross and ugly" overweight black man its a "scary thug" strong one. Because as we all know, no white superheroes are ever muscular... >_>

Srsly every time u even think about putting one of these shitty characters in ur villain role u owe 50 bucks to your nearest anti racism charity. And i will personally extract it from your face with my fist