Tumgik
#it’s been so so long since I’ve seen HANAKO CONTENT
beachblu3s · 2 years
Text
OH YALL LOOK I MADE SOMETHING FOR THE NEW SPIN OFF CHAPTER
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
TSUCHIYAKO PARENTS YEAAAAAHHHH
164 notes · View notes
thebeautyoffanfics · 3 years
Note
Idk if you already made this but Hanako, Kou and mitsuba jealous Hcs with their girlfriend that is quite popular among the students pls? thank u!!
hanako x f!reader, kou minamoto x f!reader, mitsuba sousuke x f!reader
a/n: sure thing!! No worries, I haven’t made it yet :D you’re so very welcome, and thank you so much for requesting!! I love jealousy headcanons tho I don’t think I’ve ever written them? I hope these turn out alright, and I’m so sorry for the time this took!
warnings: jealousy?
word count: 1,936
Hanako <3
Oh boy- can I do anything but wish you luck?
Hanako is already a fairly clingy and jealous guy, that’s practically canon. He’ll stand between you when you’re talking to anyone, and I mean aaaaanyone. He just can’t risk losing you!
(It’s got a whole lot to do with his insecurities, of course- while he wouldn’t admit it, not wanting to drop his “ah? I’m just an innocent little boy, free of issues and perverted thoughts <3” attitude, he does struggle a lot. He’s a ghost, a murderer, and imperfect in more ways than those. You’re popular for a reason. You’re so pretty, so kind, so lovable- you’re alive, and probably have morals. What are you doing with a dead murderer?)
Wow, ANYWAY- we’re here for jealousy, not Hanako’s issues, though they will probably resurface shortly.
Seeing everyone around you… always wanting your attention, always complimenting you…
You deserved it! He thought all of those positive things and more-! But… at this point, so many people admiring you, why were you still with him?
Even if you explain to him constantly that you love him dearly, and wouldn’t leave him for anyone else, he still gets somewhat possessive. Eventually putting the “but why does (Y/N) still love me,,” aside, he just wants others to keep their hands off you :((
It’s no fault of yours, and he acknowledges that! But it’s the fault of others getting so close to you >:((
Though they can’t see him, when people go up to you, talking joyfully- he’s standing there, arms wrapped around you, head on your shoulder as he glares daggers into their souls.
BRO IF SOMEONE FLIRTS WITH YOU OR TOUCHES YOU??
You’ve never seen him super angry, much less murderous. He doesn’t want you to see him that angry normally- but holy moley is he about ready to beat someone.
Yet, he’s still just a ghost- plus if he did something Teru would exorcise him, booooo. So, he settles for continuing to glare, standing between the two of you, hitting their arm if it’s resting on your shoulder. Once again, they’re completely unaware of it, but you aren’t!
“Hanako, you know I won’t leave you for them. They’re a classmate, I barely know them, really.”
“But they want to know you. And I don’t want them to know you… they’re gonna try and take you from me, (Y/N)!”
“I won’t let them take me, you big dummy. So, if you could please let go of me so I can get back to class?”
“No :((“
Not only does he cling to you, of course- though he hugs you bunches and squishes your face just because you’re cute- you can also expect a lot of kisses. Ranging from quick “hey, I’m here, and please don’t choose someone else over me”, “hey, my kisses are better than theirs!! Here’s proof!”, “you’re my girlfriend, not theirs, and if they keep treating you like you aren’t taking I’m going to stabby stabby (but I can’t stab cos Teru’s here, but I would if it wasn’t upsetting)”, etc, etc. It’s… almost strange how easy it is to understand what he means from the way he kisses you- but, I digress!
Overall, he gets jealous fairly easily, and gets very clingy when jealous. He’s not amazing with words, so he wants to show you that he loves you with actions!! However, those actions, more often than not, end up just being… clinging to you, and glaring at people who try to get too close to you.
(RIP Akane, Kou, and Nene for bearing witness to you walking around the school with a visibly angry Hanako. Though the worst the others get is the feeling that someone is staring at them, they get to witness his jealousy from off to the side.)
Kou Minamoto <3
He’s nearly completely opposite from Hanako, actually! He doesn’t get jealous very often, trusting you to actually tell him if something were wrong in the relationship. And, when he does get jealous, he does his best to not show it.
He’s not fond of being jealous. It makes him feel like he’s betraying you…? Like him being jealous is the same as him saying that he doesn’t trust you. But, similarly to Hanako, he trusts you. He just doesn’t trust others quite as much. Not with his very cute and very pretty and very sweet girlfriend :((
While it takes a lot to get him jealous, two things that really can make his temper cut short are (similarly to Hanako) when someone outright flirts or touches you. Especially if they touch you and the two of you aren’t at least friends-
If someone flirts, he’s going to casually slip into the conversation, if he wasn’t there already. A quick “hey, (Y/N)! Wait, sorry, I didn’t realize you were talking-“, then he’ll stand next to you, grabbing your hand lightly. One thing about Kou is, he does his best to be gentle all the time! Even when he’s jealous, he’d never ever hurt you intentionally-!!
If someone’s touching you, he’ll hop into the conversation as he does when someone flirts, adding a “I need your help with something, when you can.” This time, or any time really, if you’re uncomfortable you can use it as an excuse to get away!! Kou’s got your back!!!
If it’s been a day where people just constantly seem to be needing your attention, he’ll start to let his jealousy get to him a bit. It’s not even that some people like your attention- heck, he gets it! He likes having your attention as well. It’s more that… they constantly need your attention. Someone always needing something, even when he just wanted to have a conversation with you :((
In that case, he’ll be slightly clingy, and slightly pouty. Almost like a young child. His lips will be pouted slightly, eyes looking a bit lower to the ground than usual. His hand will be secured in yours, and your shoulder will be lightly pressed against his.
“Kouuu, tell me what’s wrong~,” You spoke, poking his cheek with your index finger. When he was like this, it was easy to tell he was embarrassed about whatever he was pouting over, and not upset over something too serious. It was the perfect time to mess with him.
His face would flush as it usually did- and he’d look away, pouting a bit harder as his eyebrows furrowed slightly. “It’s nothing, (Y/N), really.”
“You’re pouting. Come on, now, you really can tell me. I promise I won’t think of you any less!”
“…it’s just… well- well, seeing all those people around you all day, and I couldn’t really… even get to talk to you. You even had to leave early during lunch-! I’m not angry or anything- it’s dumb, it’s dumb, really-“
“Awwwwh, Kou! Don’t be jealous, sweetheart! It’s not dumb, I actually find it sweet. You know I’d choose you over any of those people. I’d much rather spend time with you than them, but it’s not exactly easy to say no… but, if it makes you feel bad, I’ll make sure they know that, at least, lunch is off-limits.”
“Y-you don’t have to, but… that’s up to you.” (AKA “I want you to, but I don’t want you to feel obligated to do something just for my sake.”)
Overall! Kou’s going to be a sweetheart, even when (not very often) jealous. He doesn’t want you to think he’s silly or not trusting of you when he does get jealous- so he does his best to hide it? Still, he fails, since he can’t help but want to be at least a little closer to you!! Plus the way he pouts- he’s easily read in most situations, and that type is no different.
Mitsuba Sousuke <3
Ahh, where to begin… I suppose the same way I’ve been beginning the other two-
Mitsuba is… a complicated jealous boy? He gets jealous rather easily- and… doesn’t admit it, but makes it painfully obvious. He thinks he isn’t being obvious, but it’s practically plain as daylight.
As he does all things, he masks his jealousy in insults at first! Making his way into whatever conversation or interaction your having, offering an ‘uninterested’ “what’re you doing?” After that, he criticizes every little thing the other person does- his levels of mercy depending on how much the person deserves it.
A quick question? Minimum amount of insults. Maybe one, two if they drag it out.
Just having a normal conversation? More than a short question, but not an excessive amount. If they drag it out too long, the insults go up.
Flirting? Lays the insults on THICK. Plus, after a moment, an annoyed and rather cocky sounding: “why haven’t you gotten lost already? Can’t you see I’m (Y/N)’s boyfriend? You idiot. Moron. Pervert. Who talks to a taken girl like that??”
Touches you? Doesn’t even happen. They reach for you, and he’s smacking their hand away. “Idiot. What right do you have to touch my girlfriend?? That’s invasive. Gross. You’re so weird, trying to put your sticky little hands on her.”
But! If it’s a situation he can’t interfere with, be it because he’s dead and the other person’s alive, or in which the people needing your attention goes on for too long- he enters Sulky Mitsuba Mode.
Don’t get me wrong, Sulky Mitsuba is still full of insults, just… sad. In those times, as a ghost, he can’t help but wonder if you’re content in the relationship. Look at you… popular with other students- other students who could leave the school, buy you things, and such. He was a cute ghost, but he was a ghost. He wasn’t even really Mitsuba- he wasn’t the classmate you once knew. How hard was it for you? Yet, you gave it your best to get to know him again-
Luckily, Mitsuba has the ability to tell himself “if (Y/N) did that much for me, she must at least care.” However, it won’t get rid of all his doubts- and he’ll still sulk once you finally catch up with him.
“Hey, Mitsuba! Sorry, I’ve been busy!”
“Mh? Have you? I’ve barely even noticed you were gone.”
Terrible acting skills, Mitsuba. He looks annoyed, his voice sounds uninterested, but… it’s still somehow easy to see through his little act. He’s jealous, and you’re bound to be aware of it.
Take a seat next to him, and he’ll scoot away. Be patient- when he’s jealous, it’s like approaching a stray cat. No sudden movements or you’ll scare him away!
“I’m sorry, Mitsuba. I know I’ve been caught up today, and I’m really sad that I haven’t seen you much until now. Did you have anything you wanted to do? I’m all yours now!”
“Tch, whatever. I don’t have anything I want to do, so just leave it be.”
Ah… do I even have to mention that he’s stubborn. Apologize a bit, he’ll dismissively forgive you, and go from there. Lighthearted conversation, asking him about his day, talking about yours- slowly move closer to him, and! Next thing you know, his heads on your shoulder as he rants about something that happened.
Overall, Mitsuba does get jealous rather easily! He’s stubborn as always, partnered with his insults constantly ready to be fired- it’s interesting when he gets jealous. He never outright admits that he trusts you, and doesn’t consider much more than “I’m feeling a bit jealous since this person keeps taking (Y/N)’s attention, but he’d never put the blame on you. Just… like I said, be patient, and don’t get too offended.
738 notes · View notes
Text
The Crossroads to the Sun 🌞
Takemura/Female V
Rated: M for mature themes and explicit content NSFW 18s only
Trigger Warnings: Themes of death, suicide, gallows humour
Part 1 of ???? “The Sun Series”
Link to part two :
https://isuspectyouhavefantheories.tumblr.com/post/641314624666468353/search-for-the-sun
Will eventually be posted on my AO3 account when I get this beta’d. 🤟
———
She had decided she wanted to be away from night city when she pulled the plug. If anything, she wanted it to end under the blanket of the starry skies, part of her hoping they would guide her into the next world safely. Driving through the neon jungle felt like a technicolor funeral procession. Or perhaps a walk to the gallows? She was thankful she still had most of her senses as she pulled herself from her morbid reverie just in time to avoid a badly placed bollard on a sharp turn straight down the road heading towards the city limits. She swore under her breath but continued. The pain was dull, but festering in her mind, less so than before, but enough to keep reminding her of the internal ticking clock that was getting louder with each passing hour as it neared to zero. She breathed deeply though her nose and steeled herself. But more doubts began to drift through her, like a slick fog encircling her mind she thought of all the people she would be leaving behind and hoped they wouldn’t hate her after tonight.
Goro’s name flashed up on her biomon and it took her a minute to register. She nearly rear ended a truck at a traffic light before finally answering.
“Yes?”
“Where are you?” His voice was gruff, demanding and her eyebrow crinkled in irritation.
“What’s it to you?”
“Let me help you V. Just take the deal with Hanako, we make this right and you get back your life. If I were you, I would not waste the chance.”
“You mean you get back your life.” She spat, Takemura went quiet on the other end for a moment, his eyes flinching at her tone. “Don’t try and pretend this is concern for my well-being and as far as making this right goes... You really still think you and Arasaka can fix this? Goro I know when I’m beat. Nobody can fix this. I’m done for and it’s time I just fucking faced facts and made my peace. I’m done. I’m calling it.” She hadn’t realised how hard she was gripping the steering wheel until she felt the alloy begin to crunch lightly under her guerrilla cybernetics.
There was a long pause and she thought for a moment he had hung up until she heard the shuffling of erratic, hurried movement on the other end.
“Where are you V?” He demanded, his voice was direct, to the point, no room for nonsense, no room for anything but answers.
“It doesn’t matter. I’ve left a data chip with Misty. It contains all the relevant evidence, via brain dance, you need to get the vindication you so desperately require.”
“V, tell me where you are right now. ” It was sharp this time.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t help more. Goodbye, Goro. It was a pleasure to have known you.” She hung up and looked down at her phone, closing her eyes a moment only to be jolted by Takemura calling again. She took a deep breath before turning it off and throwing it in the passenger seat and popping into third gear as she trolled though the gates past the city limits to security. She was quickly flagged through with little bother from security. They seemed more interested in what was coming into the city that what was going out.
It took her an hour to get to where she needed to go. The edge of the badlands. The final touch stone before she headed further in, back to all she ever knew. Just another busted down prewar gas station covered in sand, nature already claiming back its land. She parked her car outside and managed to pry open the front door after digging some accumulated sand from the way.
—————
She woke to the whistling of the desert storm on the shutters, the dilapidated old outpost rocked shakily. She almost felt as if she was in the belly of a ship at sea being pulverised, to and fro, by an onslaught or roaring waves.
She sat up, listening to them a while, until eventually the weather died down to a gentle lulling breeze. She stepped outside for a moment and thanked whatever powers that were out there that the sky was clear enough to see the moon and a dim scattering of stars. She climbed from her make shift cot and stepped outside.
“Still think you made the right call? Those Saka assholes might have fixed you up all nice.” Johnny flashed back into her peripheral vision, sitting on a bench under a busted canopy with his guitar slung across his lap.
“I dunno. I guess we’ll see.”
“Val.”
She looked up at him with narrowed eyes.
“They were just going to extract you and dump me the moment it suited them. What, you think I was just gonna put my head in a hungry lions mouth and just hope everything would just sort itself out? For all I know they would have just cut me open the minute they got me up there. I’d rather die out here, on some dusty ass terra firma in the wastes than lose my mind up in some space prison.” She flipped out Evelyn’s cigarette case, only three left in place making her sigh before pulling out one and lighting it up.
Johnny groaned at the sensation of the nicotine flooding her system from her first drag. It had been a while since she’d allowed herself such little pleasures, but for the first time in months she wasn’t on deaths door, bringing death so someone else’s door or trying to kidnap an heiress, so exceptions can be made.
“Weather out here huh? Never notice it in the city but, fuck. Mother nature sure is a feisty broad.”
“You have no idea.” She chuckled.
“Pretty good we got here before the worst of of the storm hit earlier. I would not want to be the sorry sack of shit that had to drive through that.” Johnny chuckled.
—————————
It was about 5am, sun already shining and blistering the ground, she had scavenged a few things from the outpost to keep her and Johnny going long enough to get to the Aldecaldos
Or just long enough. The thought of kicking it just before saying goodbye to Panam and Saul and the others churned uncomfortably down into the pit of her stomach but she attempted to occupy her mind, busying herself with prep work and repairs on her gear. She was going to try at least.
Before she could think of the next task, Johnny materialised again, already on edge.
“Someone’s coming.”
“Raffen? Cops? Arasaka?”
“Can’t be sure. I’d get ready if I were you.” He was gone again, and all she could think to do was get back to the gas station and ready herself for the visitors.
A Herra Outlaw that looked as if the chemical desert had taken a shit on it, genuinely one of the most out of place thing she had ever seen in the badlands and that was saying something, pulled up with a soft screech as the brakes engaged and the engine shuttered off. The pop of the car door made her grip her baseball bat tighter as she edged closer to the door, so as to be on the hidden side when it opened.
The door flung open, nearly ramming her in the face had she not hugged the wall so closely, she held her breath as a darkened figure entered the room, but the rasping baritone that filled the air made her freeze.
“V?” Takemura’s voice cut through her and all she could do was stare in disbelief.
“What the fuck?”
He whipped around like lightening, his wild searching gaze landed on her and his eyebrows all but flew up into his hairline and his eyes widened in disbelief but seemed to relax after a moment, a wave of relief washing over his features as of up until this moment he had been in a panic.
It was all a blur, he pulled the rusted metal door closed, nearly wrenching the door off its screeching hinges before his arms suddenly reached for her. He pulled her forcefully into his chest into an embrace that should have shattered her spine with the implants this man had. The newly back online ones, she noted.
She scrunched her eyebrows incredulously at him when he pulled away, his fingers tracing down the length of her arms until they still rested on her shoulders as he continued to look at her as if he was afraid the moment he took his eyes off her she would disappear into thin air.
“What are you doing here?” She breathed, still struggling for air after the uncharacteristic ribsplitting hug.
He looked down now, almost sheepish in his manner but he did not waiver when he returned his gaze to her.
“Stopping you from making a foolish choice.”
She sighed deeply.
“And since when do you have any right to tell me what I can and can’t do?”
“I do not. But I can try at least to make you see reason.” He wasn’t budging, she wasn’t budging.
“Goro...” she pinched the bridge of her nose and temple in an attempt to quell the newly forming tension migraine.
“You could have your life back. You would be good as new, Arasaka would ensure it if you testify at the board meeting. Arasaka always rewards loyalty.”
“I know that’s some rhetoric you’ve been spoonfed your whole life but unfortunately I have a very different opinion on the subject of ‘who Arasaka serves’ and it most certainly isn’t people who have a history of stealing from them.” She dead panned, making Goro groan.
“If you would just listen to me you would know that is not the case. Hanako-sama has extended this life like to you V do not waste it.”
“I’ve been listening. And watching. From the very start. I’ve seen them from an angle you have yet to even comprehend and part of me fears even then you wouldn’t see the truth.”
“They are-.”
“Only in this for themselves. I won’t argue with you about this, there is nothing you can say that will change my mind. I’m not selling my souls to the fucking devil, man, I’m sorry but that’s how this situation feels to me. I know there is nothing anyone can do for me, not you, not Arasaka, not Hellman, not even Alt fucking Cunningham’s AI ghost from beyond the Blackwall knows how to undo this so fuck this. I refuse to spend the last days of my life scrambling for answers only to whither away to nothin and die anyway. I’m leaving this hellhole on my own fucking terms. So just let it go. Just forget about me and go back to your cushty little life as Arasaka’s cheerleader or body guard or whatever the fuck it is you do.”
She couldn’t remember how, but during the course of their verbal spat, he had pushed her against the adjacent wall from the door and upon hearing her retorts he snarled in frustration and slammed his hand into the wall beside her head, denting the already disintegrating plaster, sending a cloud of dust in the air around them. The pluming cloud fluttered and caught the small rays of morning light seeping through the crags and cracks in the windows and walls of the abandoned gas station. She managed to push him off with a forceful shove only to have him lunge back to her. His martial arts clashed with her own brand of badlands fist fighting. She was flexible, contorting her body out of his reach before rounding on him with a left hook followed by a hasty jab aimed for his face. Unfortunately, he had reach, countering her wild strikes with a wave of his arm and tugging her to him. She lifted her knee between them to vault herself from his grasp but lost her footing at the end and it took only a single low sweeping kick to her other leg that sent her off kilter, but Goro followed her to the ground where he pinned again, this time on the floor with both her hands above her in each of his. She struggled against his vice grip, twisting and squirming beneath him to roll him off but he refused to be moved barely even flinching as she thrashed beneath him, awaiting her to finally stop. She roared in frustration but refused to give up. If she couldn’t knock him with her strength then she could knock him with her words.
“Hanako knew!” She spat at him, the intensity of her glare ripping though him.
“Knew what?” He asked with narrowed eyes.
“She knew it was Yorinobu who murdered her father. She knew you were telling the truth, that you were being framed and she still let you go down. Then guess what the kicker here is?” She laughed bitterly. “Saburo’s not even dead. He’s being kept as an engram, he’s been planning something with Hanako this whole time and they were going to let you go down regardless!! They were going to discard you, who served them faithfully your whole life, for their own fucking agenda. So tell me, why you think for one fucking second that they will actually help me?” Takemura was quiet, his hold on her waining enough for her to flip them, her hands balled into his shirt begging him to look at her but it was as if something had been shattered in him. They both were panting from their verbal and martial exchange, but they were far from done.
He suddenly reached up, his hand cupping her cheek gently, tracing the cybernetics of her face with the tips of his fingers before pulling her down to him without warning, his lips finally met hers in a heated kiss.
She gasped into his mouth, giving him the chance to shove his tongue in to explore her. He didn’t know when he would get the chance, if he ever would again after this. But she had yet to bite his face off so he took that as a good sign. In fact she had nearly gone limp from the shock of his sudden advance. He pulled away slowly, his face still inches from hers but his eyes bored into hers with a renewed intensity.
She pulled her hand from his now loosened grip and reached down gently and placed a delicate hand on his cheek, only for him to lean into it with closed eyes. He pressed his own hand over hers and took a deep calming breath.
“Goro, look at me.”
His eyes opened again, staring down at her with so much hope yet one word from her could shatter him into a thousand shards. And fate was a cruel mistress.
“I’m going home.” He looked down at that, his brow tugged in an unreadable expression but she chased after his gaze and held his chin so he had no choice but to stare wordlessly at her.
“I’m going home. To the people I love. To say goodbye. And maybe... maybe, for once in my life just try to do some good in this world, not for eddies or cred or some fucking illusion of grandeur, but just to do something worthwhile. I want have something real. Before I... before I can’t anymore.” She stroked his cheekbone with the back of her knuckle. “I don’t expect you to understand. But it isn’t up for debate.” Not what he had wanted to hear, but the finality in her words left him no room to argue. And so he was then left to stare down the inevitable horribleness of a world with no V.
He rested his face in the crook of her neck, her soft sun kissed skin, slick with sweat from the desert heat.
“Then let me have this at least.” He whispered against her, causing her to shiver under the weight of his words.
He returned his lips to hers, an even more energised passion driving his need and to his surprise she returned it, hands cupping his face gently. She then pushed him back down on his back and dove back to his lips. He began unbuttoning and loosening her clothes as fast as his hands could allow him. He pulled off her tank top and stopped a moment to admire her perky little breasts before pulling her back to him and lavishing her chest adoringly with bites and kisses that made her mewl against him.
“You have been taunting me since the day we met. Not wearing anything but that tight blue netrunner suit.” He growled against her chest, biting at the underside of her breast, his eyes primal and burning hers with an unspoken need to be closer.
“I’m a net runner you gonk, ah-!” He bit a little harsher around her nipple at the comment but lapped at it gently afterwards. “I-it was for practicality’s sake.” She shivered against him.
“It was to torture me.” He chuckled.
He lifted them suddenly, his hands under her thighs again as he deposited her on a near by countertop, her legs wrapping around his hips as he ground himself desperately into her while trailing his lips from her ear lobe to her jugular and back before biting then tugging sharply causing her to yelp softly.
“Maybe a little.” She gasped, casting him a delighted grin which elicited a growl from deep within his chest. He leisurely ran his hands along the hem of her jeans, tugging at them slightly before slipping his hand down underneath to grab a handful of her ass, squeezing it appreciatively before moaning at how soft and pliant her skin was under the extra sensitive touch of his cybernetic hands. He allowed himself to become lost in her for a moment. Mapping her every contour in his mind, committing each breathless sound that fell from her lips to memory, savouring her sweet breath on his tongue and wondering if he would ever again taste something so perfect as her. He felt her pull away lightly, a few centimetres from his face to gasp for a breath and still his lips chased hers. It was as if she could read his mind sometimes, she was looking at him with those confounding purple eyes, her smile faltering as if she could see how banefully torn he was.
“This won’t change anything.” She whispered sadly against his lips .
His brow creased under the weight of his anguish, another growl, not so carnal as before but instead a roar of frustration and he attacked her body with a new found, punishing fervour. He pulled her up effortlessly once again and threw her into the cot, her body’s weight caused the springs to groan and he had managed to discard his shirt fully, then turned to her. She was now only in her underwear, her golden skin glistened in the low orange morning haze. Her body was lithe yet athletic, her skin tantalisingly smooth to the touch yet disturbed by stray scars scattered about her person. Her years of fighting for her survival in this hellscape had shaped her and moulded her into this picturesque model of strength and beauty. He kneeled before her, nipping his way down her navel to the hem of her panties that he then quickly slid off in one fluid motion. He dove between her legs, basking in the sweet gasps she made as he drove her wild with his tongue. Her hands twisted and twined themselves into his ebony and silver locks, pulling his bun loose to let his hair cascade down his shoulders, grazing her nails over his scalp delicately. He introduced a single finger to her and pumped deeply inside her yet at a controlled pace, eliciting another quivering gasp that made him smile against her.
“Goro...” the way her breathless lips formed around his name drove something in him. She was able to bring out the strangest and most wonderful of feelings in him.
He was sure from her cries she was nearing her climax and before she could taste the sweet precipice of her release, he rose up to kiss her. Her taste on his lips had a lewd yet arousing effect on her, but her climax, once so tantalisingly close was now receding and the heat biting and curling in her abdomen made her squirm against him. She pulled away after a moment and gasped a quick breath.
“You ass.” He pressed his face into her neck again and she felt the rumble of his chuckling. He continued to kiss her neck and his hands pinched and rolled her nipples in a torturously teasing manner. She writhed under him, a mewling mess.
“Stop teasing me.” She pleaded, her own hands cupping either side of his face to pull him from his ministrations on her neck that she was almost certain would be bruised to absolute fuck in the morning.
He nudged her legs to open and she obliged eagarly.
He teased her entrance lightly running his tip up and down coating himself in her essence before sliding steadily inside of her. He had to stop half way and swallowed a guttural moan. She was so tight. Like a warm vice pulling him further inside her and dragging him impossibly closer to her. Her legs had wrapped around his hips, her thighs quivering around his girth. He took another moment to make some experimental, shallow thrusts and groaned once more at how deliciously slick she was.
“Oh... V...” his forehead pressed against hers and his grip around her hips tightened.
“Don’t.... stop...” she was barely above a whisper, which made Goro want nothing more than for her to be louder.
He took this as his moment to flip her onto her stomach against the cot.
His right hand held both her arms behind her back, folded and solidly trapped there. His left hand was holding her hip, dragging down to guide her over his girth once again. He rather enjoyed the view of her at this angle, he was so lost in the way she bounced against him, the feeling of her walls rubbing so exquisitely against his length, that he was sure he wouldn’t last long. The thought of having their tryst cut so short however did not appeal to him, the feeling of being fully encased by her was so unequivocally amazing he never wanted it to stop, so he forced himself to slow down to a languid yet laborious pace, favouring drawn out leisurely strokes.
“Jesus Christ...” she gasped, arching her back in a way that made him want to go back to pounding her within an inch of her life but he was controlled, no foolish young man driven by a cardinal need, but a mature and tentative lover who wanted to make his partner see the stars before this was over.
He reached around, dragging his hands from the underside of her bellybutton to glide along her ribs, up and over her breast, giving it an appreciative squeeze before cradling her throat gently and turning her head to look back at him as much as she could in the position which granted wasn’t much. He leaned forward, still thrusting inside her at a restrained pace, and ravaged her neck, suckling the flesh at the junction of her shoulder and neck before trailing his bites to the underside of her jaw, then to her ear where he nibbled her lobe gently.
“Tell me what you want.” He breathed against her, the lewd sound of their bodies meeting in their primal dance and the soft gushes of wind rattling the shutters were all she could hear above their own crescendo of panting and haggard moans.
“Don’t... be a dick...” she gasped, earning her a sharp smack on her ass cheek.
“Tell me.” He thrust inside her, harder but not hard enough to satisfy her fully, leaving her trembling for more.
“Ah... fuck! Please...” she breathed, trying to shove her own hips back into his for more friction but his hand migrated back to her hips, a solid anchor, preventing her from getting her way.
“That’s not what I asked you.” She could hear the underlying cockiness in his tone and it pissed her off almost immediately.
How could this man illicit such polarising reactions from her, she thought. One moment she wanted him to bend her over a desk, the next she wanted to snap him in two. But the sentiment remained, she wanted him.
“Please... Goro... fuck me... harder...” he hummed in satisfaction and released her arms from his vice grip.
“Then I suggest you hold onto something.” He had leaned forward his lips against her ear, the vibrations of his bassy timbre tickled her in an irresistibly tantalising way.
But her inward musings came to a hault when he began his unforgiving pace, she could feel him hitting her cervix with every thrust and she cried out, hands barely holding on to the edge of the cot as her body rocked against the force of his hips.
His hand came down to tease her slit, circling her sensitive nub in a maddeningly delicious way that caused more mewls to erupt from her lips.
Goro stared down at her, enraptured by every twist and twitch she made. Her arching back defining her musculature and he’d be lying if he was doing any better than her right now. He was holding on for dear life, dragging this out for as long as he possibly could. But eventually, the warmth and curling in his abdomen could not be ignored and he quickened his circling around her clit to drive her to her end. She screamed softly into her hand as her release rolled over her in wave after wave, his continuing thrusts helping her ride out her climax to its fullest. He followed her soon after, nearly collapsing on her, his forehead resting between her shoulder blades as he struggled to regain his breathing. She recovered before Goro and pulled him further onto the cot where they crumbled into it. He curled around her, his arms pulling her flush against him as he savoured the feeling of her skin on his. He pressed his nose and lips to the top of her head, inhaling her scent deeply, attempting to sear these details into his mind for a later date. He tried his best to keep his eyes open, but she began to stroke his chest in a soothing circle, and before he knew it he was out like a light.
——————
He woke with a jolt, the room now completely darkened by the night and a sudden anxiety disquieted his mind. He reached for where V had been but his hand grabbed nothing but empty space.
“V?” He called, sitting up and listening for anything, then scanning the area. He could see from his thermal scan she had been gone from his side for nearly two hours.
He pulled himself up, dressing quickly and wrenching the front door open to see that her Thorton was gone, whatever tracks that were left had been swallowed by the desert wind and he stood in silence.
“This isn’t going to change anything.” Her words echoed in his mind and he clenched his hands into fists, a slight shake evident from his barely controlled emotions on the cusp of breaking through to the surface.
“They were going to discard you, who served them faithfully your whole life, for their own fucking agenda.”
He tried to quell his anger, his hurt, his inescapable feeling of betrayal. He fought to keep his composure but the memory of her touch was seared into his mind and body yet it did nothing but only make him ache to have her back in his arms. He would never feel that again, never experience that intense, intrinsic connection to another human being. The thought did nothing to disquiet his mind. Eventually he broke and turned to punch his hand nearly completely though the wall of the garage as he breathed in ragged and strangled chokes. Unshed tears burned in his eyes and he wrenched his arm back to completely break through the wall altogether with the force of his strike. He didn’t stop. He pummelled the wall until his cybernetics were scuffed and cracked. Warning signs flashed in his peripheral vision but he ignored them, slumping to the ground he cradled his head in his hands and roared in futility. He stayed there a moment, still, quiet and thoughtful. He raised his head with a thud against the nearly dilapidated wall and he looked off into the distance. On one path, the further reaches of the badlands, down another was the fluorescent and blinding lights of Night City, beaconing him back with a curled finger.
And not just night city, but the ominous red looming glow of Arasaka Headquarters illuminating the night and further banishing the stars. The only life he had ever known was within Arasaka’s ranks. All he had ever been was a vassal, a loyal one at that. Traded his life and limbs for them. Let them carve him into an instrument of their empire from the moment they had deigned to elevate him from the slums, only after he had skinned his fingers to the near bone scrubbing his clothes in the chemical sickened canals. He had given Arasaka his life.
Yet Hanako knew he was innocent. Not only her but Saburo, his lord tono, his idol. He had known. It stung him to his nucleus, like nothing ever had. He was stilled, inaction gripping him to his core. He found his gaze always defecting back to the badlands. To her lands. He didn’t make a choice so much as follow an instinct.
He rose from his seated position and opened the door to his car, looking back at Night City one last time, not saying goodbye to the city, but farewell to all the possibilities it held. They were not meant for him. A defiant grin stretched over his lips before a determination set in his eyes, looking back to the badlands. He dove into the front seat and revved the engine before backing out to the edge of the main road and quickly pivoting into position then tearing out onto the dusty highway, sending a plume of dust in his wake as he made for the badlands, his spirit lightened and rejuvenated. He undid his top shirt buttons, ripping off the front Arasaka logo to his cybernetic neck plates and throwing it with a quick flick out the car window, then looking down at the Arasaka patch logo on his arm which he also tore from his jacket then sent it too flying out the window. With each metre he put between him and the city, the younger he felt.
“I’m coming V.” He whispered under his breath as he pressed harder on the gas.
78 notes · View notes
theheavenlymoon · 3 years
Text
I totally did this out of order, so let’s try this again!
I would like you to meet Uzuki Hanako! (うづき- Uzuki はなこ- Hanako)
(My first introduction was a hot mess, so I wanted re edit that one and put up this one instead!)
(I can’t draw for crap so I’m using picrew.)
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
This will basically be me talking about her rather than all the fandoms she’s in. I’m gonna be making post about her and the fandoms later, but for now it’s all about her!
First Name: Hanako
Last Name: Uzuki
Gender: Female
Race: Demigod
Age: ??? (Depending on the fandom, her age changes)
Birthday: December 27
Zodiac: Capricorn
Height: 6’3.3
Sexuality: Bisexual
JP CV: Ami Koshimizu
ENG CV: Amanda Céline Miller
FRENCH CV: Indila
(Couldn’t find a Greek CV 😔)
Nicknames: Shachi-chan (Floyd), Child of Hearth (Malleus), Ms.Herbivore (Leona), Princess, Wifey (Gojo)
Favorite food: Cheesecake, literally anything sweet
Least favorite food: Hummus, mushrooms, candy, and beans
Likes: family/friends, cooking, singing really loud to her music, working out, making clothes, nail polish, memes/vines, rain/cloudy weather, animals, purple, doing anything around the house, video games, anime, fictional books, roughhousing, and day dreaming about her crush/significant other
Dislikes: Fights between friends and family, Candy, crying in front of people, and bookshelves
Since I can’t draw I have to use picrew, but sadly some of the makers that I find have limited options so allow me to go into detail about her looks. (I’ll probably make another post about her abilities later)
Hanako has bright gold eyes and long lavender hair that goes all the way down to her mid thigh. She has two beauty marks, one under her right eye and one on the left side of her lip. Her signature hair style is space buns with the rest of her hair down in the back. Like I’ve said before, I can’t draw so I’m using characters I know as reference! This is what her body looks like.
Tumblr media
(^ This is Flare, a character from fairy tail! I recommend watching it if you have time. Fairy tail is a very long series, but it’s really good!)
(I’m pretty sure you can look at almost all the women in Fairy tail and get the idea.)
Obviously I know that Hestia doesn’t have any demigod kids but demigods don’t have to be born the normal way. Hanako was born from fire and was given to her father. With that being said, when Hana was first claimed she was given a fire place poker but traded it in for a sword so she it could help control her pyrokinesis. (Her sword is disguised as a charm bracelet!)
As for her sword...
Tumblr media
Hana’s sword helps her control her pyrokinesis a little better and it’s fun to try and see who can pick it up. Her sword can reach up to about 2000°F (1093°C). She has a few special moves but those are for another time.
Although Hana acts like her mom in some moments, she met Apollo and Hermes when she was quite young and those two have had a big impression on her personality. One moment she giving motherly advice, and the next moment she screaming vines across the room.
Random facts about Hanako 🌸✨
Since Hana means flower I use cherry blossoms and lavender to represent her.
Has a huge soft spot for children!
Hanako is super understanding and open. Wanna try something new? She’ll come with you, so you aren’t lonely and scared. Skydiving? What time are we leaving? Want to be left alone? Call her if you need something! Wanna try working out? She’ll be your personal trainer! Feeling down? She’s coming over with movies and snacks! Can’t make it to game night? It’s alright just be safe with whatever your doing!
Once Hanako falls, she falls hard.(Romantically speaking) She is a SIMP. She’ll wear the most giddiest smile after talking with them. Probably screamed in her pillows at least a few times. “They make my heart beat so fast, and they make me feel like the happiest girl in the world!!” - Hanako.
Attempts her best not to be obvious about her crush, and for the most part it works. Until anything other than platonic stuff comes up. Her face is gonna turn crimson if ANYONE mentions her crush in not so platonic ways, gods forbid anything even more intimate. Children of Hestia are so shy when the idea of sexual things is even bought up that they blush deeply and cannot articulate any coherent words, and any fire nearby also turns crimson as if it were blushing like the child of Hestia. This shyness is amplified if they are around their crush.
Gets kind of anxious when she’s beside a bookshelf.
She’s a smart ass. It’s gotten to the point where she does it automatically. It doesn’t even have time to process, it just comes out.
Hana is actually really good at acting and singing. She was in a few commercials and videos when she was younger but only as background characters.
Hana is amazing with kids. She grew up with 3 little brothers before she was moved into the orphanage, which meant even more kids to watch over. (she takes her big sister role very seriously)
Since she was born from fire, she can raise her body temperature up if she wanted too, and she rarely gets hot or cold. Heat based attack have no effect on her. Hana’s hugs feel like a warm blanket wrapped around you while sitting next to a fireplace, all in all just really comforting
Hana grew up around a lot of guys and so she calls everyone ‘bro’ and ‘dude’ a lot. She has a few friends who are girls but most of them are guys. That being said, she grew up rough housing and yelling.
Hana also comes from a very affectionate family. (Hugs, kisses, feeding food to each other, smashing food into someone’s face, etc.) So it’s not uncommon to see Hana tackle all of her friends into hugs and kisses.(platonically)
Hana also likes to tease a lot (curtsy of Hermes) so don’t be surprised when she tease about you burning food.
Is super flexible. I’m talking like, Mitsuri flexible. Her friends have at least saw her in the scorpion pose a few times. The more flexible she is, the easier it is to move in battle.
The woman is a tree. I’m pretty sure all of her lovers (with the exception of Gojo) are shorter than her.
She can not, for the life of her, wear heels. Anything above a 3 inch that isn’t thick, would make her snap an ankle. Besides she’s already tall enough
In terms of anger, Hana has the patience of a saint. She still gets annoyed here and there, but very rarely does she get genuinely angry. On the rare occasion that she is angry, she gets pretty violent. Veins showing from her forehead, her body temperature spikes, and she wears one of the most nastiest glare ever. (from what she’s been told) Only a select few have seen her mad.
When thrown into a new situation (or a new world-) that isn’t familiar, Hana will come off a bit sarcastic (more than usual) and aloof. She wants to get a feel for her surroundings before she can actually be herself. Give her some time to come around and she’ll be back to hyper and happy.
Hana has a bunch of hobbies. She plays volleyball and is known as the queen of the court. She loves to paint her fingernails and her toes as well. Her cooking is top tier! As a Hestia child obviously she would excel at anything that has to do with domestic and home type things.
She 100% would/will make her own dress. Once made a huge ball gown dress because none of the place had what she was looking for.
When she isn’t doing any of her hobbies she’s working out and practicing her pyrokinesis. Hana trained a lot back where she was from, so she could master her pyrokinesis and her sword. She’s gotten to the point where she can lift a car. Just because she’s in a different place doesn’t give her the excuse to slack off!!
Ironically her mother is a virginal goddess and isn’t married to anyone. Hana on the other hand, wants to get married and have kids. She shooting for 4 but it all depends on what her partner wants. (2,6,8 it just depends)
Hestia children can induce serenity and make tense situations a lot more calmer. Hanako has defeated a lot of enemies and monsters this way.
Hanako knows 4 different languages. English, Japanese, Greek, and French. She was taught Japanese by her father and Greek by her mother. She learned French and English herself
Even though Hana loves to do girly things, makeup is not one of them. She always thought it was pretty cool but she never had the time to sit down and practice it.
Thank you for reading✨ I had a lot of fun making this and I can’t wait to write more stuff about her! I’ll probably have to learn how to make a master post so her stuff is easier to access. If you have any questions about Hana my inbox is open, or you can message me in private, either way works!
I hope you stick around for more content with Hanako! 🌸🔥✨
19 notes · View notes
madame-fouquet · 3 years
Text
2020 Anime Retrospective
With the end of the year here, and all the anime that came with it now behind us, I feel like looking back and reminiscing on it. So, following the style of ANN's own yearly retrospectives, may I present my 2020 anime in review! Enjoy.
Tumblr media
Best of the year: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken
    This is actually not the first time Yuasa and his crew of, let's be honest, visionaries have rolled something special out right at the beginning of the year in some weird power move against everything else that has to follow it. They did it back in 2018 with Devilman Crybaby, and then they hit us this year with Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken.     You ever have one of those shows where you're just constantly in awe of everything it does? Where you never found yourself chasing merch or hunting after content based off it online, but you consistently find yourself thinking about it? Yeah, that's what Eizouken did to my brain after I watched it. It was such an earnest love letter to anime and anime production, to animation in general, that I couldn't help but get sucked into its imagination and enthusiasm. The way it was able to so perfectly illustrate that pure, boundless, childlike joy that one can derive from the simple act of creating, I'd be lying if I didn't say that it had a powerful effect on my own desire to continue creating. (Corny as that sounds, it's true.) The sheer amount of love it contains, and the equal amount it puts out into the world make it so I know I am going to be thinking about it again and again for a long long time.
Tumblr media
Runner-up: Akudama Drive
    I don't know if it's really quite a matter of my two favorites being opposites, but there are definitely some pretty sharp stylistic and tonal differences between my two top shows this year. Akudama Drive's cocaine-fueled bender of an intro episode made it very clear what it's intentions were and what it wanted us to be prepared for. That doesn't mean I had ANY idea of where it was headed narratively, but I did know I was in for one hell of a ride. And it delivered is spades on that promise.     The twists and turns, no matter how insane, illogical, or steeped in tropes they were, were all such a colorful energetic spectacle that it would be hard to hold anything against the series. Every character was such a force that I didn't really consider any of them a weak point. Yeah, some of them were more or less cardboard cut-outs of antagonistic elements, but when the cardboard cutout looks REALLY FREAKING COOL, it's hard to get too torn up over the details. It's a show that oozes style and knew EXACTLY what it wanted to do and be, and I have to respect that.
Tumblr media
Runner-up-up: Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun
    The next few entries aren't really in any sort of order, I actually found it near impossible to sort anything below my top two. Hanako-kun however does hold a bit of a special place for me though because, at least from a stylistic standpoint, it hits so many of my buttons. Just visually this show is the exact kind of thing my younger self would have latched onto immediately, even before knowing anything about the actual content. I suppose not much has really changed though.     I'm absolutely in love with the animation style of Hanako-kun, and I got really lucky that there is an interesting story and delightful cast of characters underneath that visual splendor. Along with the sharp lines, intense colors, and soft characters, I'm also a sucker for contemporary supernatural mysteries. That's a fancy way of saying one of my favorite shows as a kid was The X-files, but both make the point pretty well. The world of Hanako-kun has a lot to offer, and I can only hope it gets a second season so we can continue to delve into it's beautiful and terrifying mysteries.
Tumblr media
Runner-up-up: Kaguya-sama: Love is War Season 2
    I know a lot of people will be talking about this one when it comes to “Best of” lists. I know a lot of people were talking about the first season when it reminded us just how funny anime can be back in 2018. Absurd high school comedies (Is that a genre?) could definitely be considered my favorite. Hell, of my top five favorite anime of all time, THREE of them fall under that category. So believe me when I say Kaguya-sama absolutely deserves the deluge of praise it receives. For what describing something as “laugh out loud” is worth, this show had me constantly needing to pause it just so I could finish laughing at whatever ludicrously funny misfortune had just befallen it's cast of lovable morons.     The thing is though, Kaguya-sama understands that you can't just earn love and goodwill on laughs alone, there needs to be a beating heart at the center of all the shenanigans. And when this season had me actually cheering on and feeling sorry for Ishigami of all people, I knew that beating heart was present and accounted for. Look, the cast are all self-centered idiots, but I'll be damned if they aren't also my dear children who I delight in watching slowly grow and become slightly less self-centered idiots.
Tumblr media
Runner-up-up: Dorohedoro
    When the Dorohedoro anime was first announced, a lot of my experience was watching a group of people online scream about how they were so pumped that it was finally getting an anime. I had never heard of it before, but the excitement was very real and tangible. And I gotta say, sometimes you need to believe the hype.     I've never been one to shirk a series just because it was CG animation, (Watch ID-0 dammit!) but Dorohedoro makes a strong case for why people shouldn't sleep on something based solely on it's animation. The dirty, grease-encrusted world of Hole is brought to life with plenty of flair and style that, I feel, the CG didn't hold back at all. What I had seen said was that for a long time Dorohedoro was kinda considered “unanimateable” but I think MAPPA did the iconic manga a fair amount of justice. Even if pulpy ultra-violence isn't normally your thing, I still highly recommend giving Dorohedoro a look, it might just end up being a hole worth going down.
Tumblr media
Honorable Mention: Show By Rock!! Mashumairesh!!
    I know what you're thinking, but hear me out. The first Show By Rock!! was definitely an indulgence for me. While not something I considered a high level series by any stretch: messy plotting, shallow characters, a weird isekai angle, a lackluster finale, and an even MORE lackluster second season, it still got is hooks into me with its sheer energy and fluffy charm. So despite the, as mentioned, rough second season, I was more than happy to check out the new series in the franchise. And boy was I glad I did.     Mashumairesh!! takes all the heart and sweetness that worked for the first series and dials it up. It then took a hard look at a lot of what DIDN'T work in the first series, and manages to fix most of the issues. Removing the isekai angle and the whole existential threat thing, and just letting the series be a “slice-of-life but in an electric animal filled music world” did wonders for the direction and consistency. Add to that more properly fleshed out characters, and you get a series that is far stronger than it's progenitor.     The next series, Show By Rock!! Stars!!, will be adding back the cast from the first series, and that could very well be a sign that it will be falling back into its old habits, but the presence of the Mahumairesh!! girls gives me hope that it might have a chance of staying the new, far better course.
Tumblr media
Worst of the Year: Digimon Adventure:
    This one really hurts to say. What hurt more was how quickly I knew what show I'd be electing for this position. One thing to clarify is that I would not nominate a series that I'd only watched one or two episodes of, that's just not fair. So the award was bound to go to something I had at least dedicated a decent amount of my time too. And in any other year this may have gone to something that was more my “least favorite” or had an ending that disappointed me. But unfortunately I have to be honest and sit here and tell you that the newest entry in the Digimon franchise was easily the worst thing I watched this year.      I have been a long time Digimon fan. Ever since I was but a wee lass watching the original Digimon Adventure premiere on Fox Kids at a family reunion, I have always considered the franchise a sort of cornerstone of my anime fandom. So please understand the excitement I had felt when I found out they were doing a full on remake of that flagship series. Imagine how absolutely pumped I was when the bombastic movie-like premiere of Digimon Adventure: wowed us with everything it delivered, and all the promises of what was to come. And then imagine my disappointment, my despair as the show devolved until it showed us what it really was during the finale of the Fake Tokyo arc.     I would call it a production meltdown, but considering the precedent that got set back in episode 10 during the already shaky Ultimate Evolution arc, has been so clearly informing everything up to the current episodes in the early 30s, I have to be honest with myself and admit: this is what we were going to get all along from day one.     All of the heart that had made the original series so endearing, despite its own flaws, just isn't present here. What you get here is just a non-stop (and I mean non-stop) string of barely related fights with poorly-defined stakes, or sometimes no real stakes at all. It's just one ugly set piece fight after another as the children chase after vaguely implied evils. I think the most damning thing is how much more I could say about just how much this series has let me down. Like I said, this one hurts.
Tumblr media
Best Theme-Song of the Year: Night Running (BNA)
     My opinion of BNA as a series is complex. But my opinion of its ED, Night Running, is simple: Its a god-damned bop! I could spend this whole section talking about the artistry of the ED animation itself, its fun and creative use of color, the slight variations for certain episodes, the focus on character, or the fact that it was done by an American animation team. I could even talk about the song's importance to the series as a whole and its place in the narrative. I won't though. The fact of the matter is that even without all that, I STILL probably would've picked Night Running as my best of the year because as a song it is just that much my jam. This is the kind of shit I could listen to on repeat for hours, days, weeks, and still keep coming back to it. Don't get me wrong, Ready To is a damn powerful and catchy tune that goes hard, but at the end of the day, I'm a sucker for a soulful pop tune like Night Running. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWTFfEnMCCc
Tumblr media
Best Character: Sayaka Kanamori
    This was actually probably the hardest category for me to decide on. It was stuck hard between Eizoken's Kanamori and Akudama Drive's Doctor. I know those are a powerfully different pair in basically every way, but it was specifically for their startling differences that both characters stuck out to me so much. In the end though, it was the poignant rounding out of, and emotional hooks of Kanamori's character that let her triumph over her delightfully two-dimensional opposition.     Kanamori already had me from episode one. In a show that I wasn't really worried about the usual diversions of anime ingestion like picking a favorite character, Kanamori sealed herself as “Best-girl” from the word go. I have mad respect for a girl who knows what she wants, and has a clear idea of how she's going to go about getting it (See also: Doctor.) But Kanamori was more than a driving desire for success and money. Underneath her unstoppable ambition there was a very real, very relatable driving impetus. She stood apart, and yet still believably vulnerable and invested in the people she associated with. It was always a blast watching her suffer as the only thing keeping the more creative minds on track, and yet she was never reduced to a simple task master; her love and respect for her friends was always clearly visible. I could go on and on about how Kanamori is a nearly perfect character, but I hope I've said enough already without having to resort to senseless rambling.
Tumblr media
Best Moment: Howan confesses her feeling to Himeko (Show By Rock!! Mashumairesh!!)
    By the time episode six rolled around, Mashumairesh!! had already shown marked improvements over its progenitor in basically every area. Not only was the story in a better place by focusing on what had worked in the original series, (Ya know the BAND part of this show about bands) but the cast was also doing a good job of standing out from their seniors and feeling more equally rounded out. Where the original series had just kinda been the Cyan show with guest stars, I felt like I had an actual grip on all four of the main girls now.     There were however the usual issues that come with a cute-girls-doing-cute-things series, chief among them the “ambiguously gay member of the group who constantly reacts with clear romantic interest towards the main protagonist but the writing will never actually do anything with those feelings” trope. Retoree had spent the better part of the first two seasons fawning over Cyan only for nothing to come of it and, despite the increased focus on all of the girls this time around, it looked like we were going to get the same old song and dance with Himeko's feelings towards Howan.     But then the climax of episode six hit and, midst a really intense subplot about Himeko's abandonment complex, Howan comes out with a straight up love confession. And I kept waiting for the usual dead-ends these moments always seem to have. The “I love you! I love the girls too! I love the band!” Or a “I love being with you.” and the dreaded, “I love having you as my most precious friend.” But none of that happened. It was a full on heart-felt, “I love you, Himeko. I want to stay with you forever!” I'm just not used to getting that sort of straightforwardness from my silly little band shows, so I was shocked, but also completely overjoyed. And frankly the series just kept getting better from there.     The evolution of their relationship built off that moment, no dreaded resetting of the status quo. I daresay it was on the power of this moment alone that I wanted to include this series in my top five at all. If there was anything I would want other anime to take from Mashumairesh!! it's that it's okay to introduce radical changes to character relationships partway through a season, and it's okay to let characters unequivocally state their feelings for each other. People will respond positively to that earnestness, I promise.
25 notes · View notes
sol-luminosus · 4 years
Text
Same verse as that of ‘Creep’. Happening first chronologically before they ended up on the hallway. Only that this is a Hananene version.
A look into Amane’s own point of view of love.
Title: Lego House
Fandom: Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun
Pairing: Hananene
Genre: Romance/Angst
Rating: T
Chapters: 1 (One-shot)
Summary: And out of all these things I’ve done, I will love you better now.
Yugi Amane was captivated.
It coiled and coiled and turned in the very expanse of his chest, gripping his heart so hard and so intently that he was positive his chest would burst into a thousand pieces at any given minute.
 Nene was gazing at him questioningly, tilting her head of glittering silver locks so a few strands would cascade and slightly obscure her face as it waterfalled and framed the edge of her cheek.
He’d resisted the urge to tuck the stray pieces at the back of her ear.
Just by a moment’s brave surge of will to control himself.
Amane simply answered her concerned expression and previous barrage of questions about his well-being with a gentle smile, hoping that his beguiling expression would be enough to ease the worries in her mind.
He could tell however, that his strained effort had failed, given by the way her brows had furrowed further in a mixture of what seemed to be annoyance and worry from having something clearly hidden from her.
Indeed, the eyes were windows to the soul.
His in that very moment, must have been filled with desperation and longing. Perhaps at least surely, only those two emotions had leaked out.
She couldn’t have seen it, he was positive.
He’d never let her see it.
The clear and vulnerable emotion of love he’d tried so hard to will down and forever entomb in the very depths of his heart. It screamed so deafeningly, almost numbing his senses at times and making him forget of the actuality of things.
That he was dead and Nene wasn’t.
That his future was long gone with his wishes to remain rooted to where he is now as the only thing he should cling to,
That he had let go of his dreams to fly to the moon a long time ago.
A few decades which oddly, seemed to span for as long as an entire lifetime.
That at the very least, he knew he had the power to alter Nene’s fate.
So that he won’t drag her to the same empty abyss that he had long accepted to be irrevocably submerged in until the day he’d received his judgement.
This journey to redemption was and his alone. It will and would have nothing to do with her.
For a moment, he was sure his heart had swayed. When she’d regarded him with those iron-willed gems for eyes expressing her desire to live her life the way she wanted with a lifespan that could barely be a fistful, Amane just couldn’t seem to peel his eyes away from her. She’d called out to him—reached out with those two hands clasped together as if in a fervent prayer.
The same position as she had back when she’d first summoned him in the bathroom stall.
And all the while, although it was her own wish that should have nothing to do with him, she’d undauntedly declared that she would no matter what, journey to the moon together with him.
He knew he’d seen them before. On that very night however, they’ve shone and glimmered much more blindingly than they’ve ever before. The stars in her eyes had enthralled and bewitched him so that at that moment, he was certain he’d forgotten about anything else for a split second.
That he wasn’t the infamous Honorable No. 7 called Hanako-san.
That he was simply a child burdened with a sacrifice far too heavy for him to carry than what his small shoulders could have handled.
That he was just Yugi Amane, a socially awkward teenager who was in pieces and had eyes which reflected an unsettling amount of wisdom for his age.
And she was just Yashiro Nene, a girl with her head up in the clouds in search for dreams of true love and a promising long life ahead.
But he’d only forgotten for a split second.
How he’d wished, that he could’ve told her with all the honesty and transparency that his resigned heart could offer, that he was content enough with seeing the entire universe in the depths of those two luminous, ruby eyes.
Those very eyes he’d come to love ever since he was just at the tender age of nine all those years ago in that festival.
“Hanako-kun, what’s with you today? You keep spacing out for no reason and there’s clearly something wrong. I’m not going to stop prying unless you tell me—“
The sudden boisterous noise of the bathroom door swinging open and slamming on the wooden wall had both of them jumping out from their positions.
“Oi, Hanako! This is bad. Nii-san is out on a rampage right now because the mokke are running wild in the student council office. He’s talking about ‘exterminating all spirits’. What if he goes after you during his crazy fit?”
The golden specks in Amane’s eyes had turned dark with mischief, hovering over to the loud intruder in the name of Kou with a teasing expression and fingers touching his lips in a bid of mockery.
“Oh, what’s this? You’re suddenly so worried about me? Could it be? Are you in love with me?”
The blonde haired boy had reddened a dusty shade of pink from both shock and embarrassment, before the bellow of his voice had come booming in a strong effort of denial. “I am not, you crazy apparition! Maybe my brother’s already tried smacking you before I came here that’s why there’s suddenly something wrong with your head. In the first place the one I love is sen—“
His sentence had been cut off none too curtly, with an audible slap of skin ringing through the four corners of the room from having a palm slammed flatly over Kou’s mouth, effectively silencing him down. The leader of the School Wonders could barely show any sense of sympathy for the exorcist’s angered protests from the evident pain of having his teeth graze and split the skin of his lips.
“Oh, look at the time. Shouldn’t we hurry over to this mokke massacre you were talking about?” Amane had animatedly declared, glancing over to the wrist of his free arm where a nonexistent watch was strapped.
Kou had struggled to wheel away the hand clasped so tightly over his face. If he’d had the sense to be as livid as his brother would be in situations like these, then he’d be absolutely convinced that Amane had actually tried to suffocate him just to get him to stop talking, with the sheer amount of pressure he’d used reminding him far too irksomely of wood glue.
“What are you saying? We haven’t been here for long. In the first place we should hurry up and think of a strategy firs—“
For the second time on that afternoon, Kou had found himself being stopped midway of his musings, only having to have realized then that Nene had been in the bathroom all along. His eyes had grown wide with startlement, before having the familiar creep of a blush climb its way back up to his face with the difference in shade ten times as strong compared to the previous flush of color he’d donned just minutes earlier.
His dimwitted self which entirely lacks self awareness had almost confessed to her indirectly and in the middle of a bathroom of all places. Nene had only stared at him with an exasperated expression, a combination of what was obviously that of displeasure from the two of them bickering nonsensically and the urgency of the situation which they were very, very clearly stalling at that moment.
“Oh, yeah. You’re right! Let’s get going already.” Kou had laughed nervously to himself, the embarrassment hiking further up in his throat with his voice clearly about two octaves higher than normal before speeding up and out first out of the bathroom.
“What the heck was that about? Is there something wrong with my face?”
“Other than still looking human and not resembling a radish yet, I think you’re perfectly fine.”
Nene had turned to him with a brief look of irritation, before harshly spearing him on the head with the sharp ends of her hair pins.
“Hmph, stupid Hanako-kun acting all weird and suddenly calling me a radish, again.” She’d grumbled in frustration under her breath, with an injured Amane cradling his head in his palm and having his complaints about Yashiro’s ruthlessness ignored to be whisked away by the wind.
In the midst of his half-heartedly hurt reverie, his thoughts had peddled back to Kou’s would-have-been confession, noting how easy it was for him for the words to flow and cascade from his mouth.
And he was certain that had he been not there and the setting at the very least, had been somewhere that wasn’t as peculiar and off-putting as a bathroom, then the blonde boy would have not hesitated. He could picture him perfectly in his head, the words which Amane had kept from spilling running freely with his heart completely exposed and in its rawest for her to have as her own if Nene would willingly accept.
The very thought of her responding and reciprocating his feelings had caused an unutterable amount of fear to brew in Amane’s chest.
For he who was nothing more but a sham that could merely falsify and imitate what little of his memories could correctly recall as ‘life’, Kou was the living, breathing counterpart to his lies—someone who actually had the ability within his reach to promise her happiness.
He knew, and frankly, he didn’t really need to be reminded.
It was never a competition from the beginning.
And Amane was neither a willing contender.
His eyes in the shade of a precious mineral had darted on her back, watching with a somber fondness as the slope of her slight shoulders further sagged from her dipped mood exclusively caused by him just minutes prior.
Amane’s stare had narrowed in a sentiment of strangled affection, one that he was absolutely terrified for anyone or anything to ever decrypt from him.
“Maybe just for a little while. If it means I can keep you, I can stay in love with you for a little while longer.” The words had gone out and died in a whisper, coherent but with every syllable surely indistinct enough for anyone other than himself to understand.
She’d whirled her head around in query, certain that she’d heard him speak but not quite catching his words as she’d been lost in her own embittered sighs and grievances over the grating spectral being.
Amane had simply smiled at her, that same tenderly lonely smile he’d given her earlier that day when they were in the bathroom.
And Nene had only felt the same sting of emotion she’d felt back then as well; puncturing and aching yet beckoning her to him at the same time.
Creep: (Same verse/Tsukanene version)
42 notes · View notes
Text
Toilet-bound Hanako-kun Chapter 21: The Tea Party (Part 1)
Previously: we went on a very stressful and very emotional trip. We finally learned Hanako’s brother’s name: Tsukasa and he continued to unsettled me like he does every single time he appears. Mitsuba actually passed away, this time for good, it seemed and it made me tear up a bit ngl. After that, the chapter decided I hadn’t suffered enough so it punched me while I was down and showed us how Hanako feels about the existence of the dead as ghosts in general and how that reflects in his own sense of self. We also got another glimpse of the mermaid and she said some real ominous shit :)))) if anything happens to Nene istg :)))))) Sigh And last but not least, Natsuhiko went to see Nene at her classroom and I’m,,,,concerned,,,,
Now onto the next chapter!
Personal update for the 50 (holy shit?) of you that still follow this blog: Well…..hi there, it’s been a while ^^;; Looking back on it, quarantine really hit me like a bag of bricks and burned me out. It’s not the first time that has happened, and what it means to me is that I just can’t bring myself to consume new content; I might have loved it so far but my brain is like “nope, we’re not doing that today” and well, this time it happened for almost two months. Also, one of my cats went missing for a little over a week (he’s home now, thankfully) and that just added to the general distress I was feeling. But over the last week I actually wrote small fics for another fandom and it finally pushed me back into a creative state, so I went back to re-read the last couple of recaps I did for JSHK and it made me realise that I miss my babies and I really want to know where the story goes, so here I am c:
Ohhhh that’s right, we’re starting a new volume with this chapter! Our main trio is front and center and judging by the colorful pastries and the tea, it is a reference to the tea party that was alluded to in the preview of the last chapter. Also, I see the ropes are back again, but this time Kou also has some around him! Nene and Hanako seem to be tied together with pink, blue and yellow ropes, Nene and Kou seem to be tied together with an orange rope and both Hanako and Kou seem to have another rope each that it’s not connected to neither Nene nor each other. Hanako’s is red and considering the way in which we’ve seen him tied up before, I would guess this represents his connection to Tsukasa. Kou’s is pink and considering everything that just happened, could his rope represent his connection with Mitsuba? Like, I know he’s dead dead now and their actual friendship was short-lived but I would also like to think that even though he’s gone, his memory will live forever with Kou, hence the rope. But I’m speculating and I already went on a long enough tangent for the cover page so let’s move on.
The next color page has the main trio again as the central focus in what seems to be the inside of a place that has a clockwork-like mechanism. On the corners of the page we have who I assume will be important character during the following arc(s): Aoi, Akane, Yamabuki and Teru (the latter one worries me slightly ngl). 
Ohhhh okay, the content page says that one of the arcs is called “the three clock keepers” so the art on that page now makes more sense.
Tumblr media
……….I really don’t trust him hhhhh please be careful, Nene, please don’t let your weakness for pretty boys cloud your judgement.
Ohhh it could be because of Nene’s dress and the bunny ears (and the twins) but the title page gives me strong Alice in Wonderland vibes. It’s a cute picture but Tsukasa is there and Nene is tearing up so I’m,,,concerned 
Okay so Nene followed Natsuhiko outside and 
Tumblr media
Are you reciting her your dating profile or something? also “call me Natsuhiko-senpai ♡” omfg he’s one of those, huh? Like, it could all be an act but he’s looking less and less threatening by the minute lol
Nene, bless her, has the common sense of asking him why he wanted to talk to her all of the sudden and he says it’s because “someone wants to meet her”. Gee, I wonder who that could be :)))))
Tumblr media
…………….oh, oh no. Nene, sweetie, I need you to run and to run fast because this boy is up to no good and you’re not gonna  like what’s gonna happen. (Edit note: also this brings up a question: how did the chaotic trio know that Nene turns into a fish when she touches water? Like, I know they had been keeping tracks on her and Hanako for some time, so maybe they found out that way? Oh, maybe they use the Mokke? Because the Mokke were there in Yako’s boundary when Hanako pushed Nene down the waterfall)
Hhhhhhh and to the surprise of no one, there’s Tsukasa here to make Nene’s day more difficult.
Tumblr media
asdasgdjash please do not make my daughter share the same fate as the puffer fish, she doesn’t deserve it (゚д゚;) (゚д゚;)
Nene fainted (can’t say I blame her jfc) and now she’s waking up in what seems to be the tea party and the floor is wet! so she thinks she could be on another boundary. Interesting, I wonder which number would this one be? Because the boundaries are assigned to the seven mysteries, right? So one of them should be in control of this place. Could Tsukasa be in control of this one? But that wouldn’t make much sense because he managed to get his “physical” form only recently, right? However, Hanako also spoke of a traitor that was changing rumors and we know that these three are responsible, so if they’re not the owners of the boundary maybe they somehow managed to manipulate the mystery that does control it? Oooor it could also be that there’s another boundary that managed to go under the radar and in turn the other mysteries don’t know about it.
Tumblr media
sjdgjjasd she’s so done with them lol I know I call them the chaotic trio but it’s really the chaotic duo + Sakura. I’m so curious about how this whole *gestures wildly towards them* arrangement came to be.
Ohhhh this great! So Sakura got everything under control and from her introduction to Nene we now know that she’s a third year and we have confirmation that she became Tsukasa’s assistant in the same way that Nene did, in exchange for a wish. B U T, again, that brings up even more questions because Tsukasa said that while Amane granted the wishes of the living, he granted the wishes of the dead. So like (⚆.⚆) what’s up with that?? Is she an exception? Is she dead? Another supernatural? Or, maybe, even though it should be impossible considering what we know so far, could her wish have something to do with her being ‘alive’ in the school right now? Mhmmmm…...suspicious.
Tumblr media
Okay but like, I actually really want to know how he fits in all of this because okay, Sakura and Tsukasa are linked together by the wish she made, but why is Natsuhiko here? Who is he? How did he end up working with these two?  He seems silly and completely whipped for Sakura, so maybe they knew each other before she made her “contract” with Tsukasa?  Hhhhh idk let’s keep reading.
Sakura says that she wanted to meet Nene because they’re in similar positions and she thought they could be good friends. And like, that’s a fair point…...but I don’t trust like that, no sir. Even if she didn’t want the boys to be so rough when they brought Nene here, the fact remains that they still kidnapped her so if this was just a friendly meeting, why would they need to do it in such a convoluted way?
Okay good, Nene is suspicious because of their methods and the amount of knowledge they have about her.
Tumblr media
………………...sigh, I shouldn’t be surprised but bby no please don’t trust them so easily. She’s venting to Sakura about Hanako’s unpredictable behaviour and Sakura says that she can empathize with most of her struggles while Tsukasa is sitting on top of her shoulders and wrapping his arms and legs around here…...I can definitely see why she said he was cat-like because my cats do things like that when I’m sit down to write at my desk. But again, I know he’s technically a kid but I really need him to stop acting so cute because it unsettles me a lot.
Tumblr media
Even he can see the romantic chemistry between those two. Well, thinking about it, that’s probably why they dragged her here, because she’s important to Hanako.
Tumblr media
(;;⚆.⚆) NOPE, no, no thank you, I need you to back tf up please jfc
Nene snaps out of it and realizes that she let herself be drawn in by girl talk. She thankfully knows it was a stupid thing to do but she was just relieved and happy to have found someone who seems to understand what she’s going through, so I’ll cut her some slack. And she mentions that they don’t look like bad people but like I did, if they had innocent intentions, they wouldn’t have had to bring her by force.
Tumblr media
………………...I feel like I’ve mentioned this before but I really hate it when either of them does this fucking face, it’s so creepy >n< also, Nene, sweetie, once again I’m asking you to run, run far and don’t look back because that look doesn’t spell anything good, especially paired with Sakura’s scared/resinged look (which makes me think that maybe her own intentions had been more innocent that I had originally given her credit for)
Tumblr media
Hmmm. This is concerning; like, yes, Nene has to help Hanako with whatever he needs as his assistant as part of their deal and he does threaten to turn her into a fish when she pouts but I never got the feeling that it was malicious. On the other hand, Sakura’s wording (especially calling Tsukasa “Master” and saying she “can’t” disobey) and the look Tsukasa gave her make it seem like her punishment for not following his orders would be much more severe. hhhhh I really don’t like where this is going
Tumblr media
Σ(゚Д゚|||) Σ(゚Д゚|||) Σ(゚Д゚|||)  WHAT THE HELL THIS THAT THING WHAT THE EVER LOVING FUCK OH MY GO D
“We’re gonna have you disappear now” okay so, yeah, he’s doing this specifically to upset his brother. the room is fucking sinking though and omfg what even is this room?? is it really a boundary? Since this happened at this very moment, it looks like they do control it so my questions from before remain, the biggest one being “how”. Also I’ve just noticed that the eyes all over the place are very similar to the ones in the broadcasting room and now this tells me that those weren’t an artistic choice and that is terrifying.
Tumblr media
…………………..excuse me, w h a t??? why? hello??? “she’s like this sometimes” ????? Sakura what???? I have….so many questions, the main one being why do you let her treat you like this??
Tumblr media
……………………………………...oh…..y’know, I hate the term simp with a passion because I feel like it’s been memed to death but wow.
Hhhhhhhh it looks like she can’t stop sinking and that (and the fucking eyes) tell me that this is not normal water (since she would have turned into a fish already). She’s yelling out for Hanako and that’s how the chapter ends. I’m still :)))))) concerned :))))))))
10 notes · View notes
writingpaperghost · 4 years
Text
I Would Offer it Happy With a Smile on My Face (Chapter 8)
Chapter 8: I Believe in Second Chances and That’s Why I Believe in You
Asahi becomes a Pokemon trainer. Sort of.
AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24860734/chapters/61094734
Asahi had been cleaning out her pockets that day. Pulling some candy wrappers she hadn’t yet thrown away among a few other bits and bobs that she’d shoved in there at some point or another. She tried to do it every once in a while. 
While she was refilling her pockets with candy, Tomomi walked by, looking down at the items scattered on the table. There wasn’t anything particularly unusual, at least as far as Asahi was concerned, but there did seem to be something that interested Tomomi.
“Is that one of your... medals?” He asked, pointing at the object he was referring to on the table.
Asahi looked up, noticing where he was pointing. It was the Grigio Regina Crystal. She liked to keep it with her in her pocket, as opposed to wherever the Gyro and the rest of the Crystals went when she wasn’t using them. It let her keep Saki close, she supposed.
“Oh, uh, yeah.” Asahi responded, trying to hide the way her lips were beginning to dip into a frown.
He leans closer to inspect it, “It’s a Kaiju,” He notes, “But I’ve never seen this Kaiju before.”
“Um...” Asahi began, “That’s, uh, Grigio Regina,”
“Grigio Regina?” He glances at her, “And you’re Grigio?” There was a lot more to the question than what he voiced. It was questioning both how and why the names both were Grigio.
“The person who used the Gyro and the Crystals before me, her name was Grigio.” Even if that wasn’t what Asahi knew her as, “That’s why the Kaiju shares a name, because they belonged to her and I took the name Grigio in her memory. Because she was really important to me...”
Tomomi looks from her to the Crystal and then back to her. Though she hadn’t said everything there was to say, he didn’t ask much further. She could tell he wanted to, perhaps to ask more about Saki, but he seemed to have the restraint not to. So instead he chose to speak of something else, “Does it do anything?”
“What?”
“The Crystal,” He clarified, “You have a Crystal to transform into Grigio, but does this Kaiju Crystal do anything?”
Asahi thought about it, “Before - before I was Grigio, that is - I was able to use it and I could become Grigio Regina.” She reached to the table, picking up the Crystal, flipping it around in her hands. She held it up to her face, looking at the picture of Grigio Regina on the front. “After I became Ultrawoman Grigio, I never tried using it again. Seemed pointless, since I could just go straight to Grigio.” She knew that Ultraman Ginga, Hikaru, was able to become Kaiju’s using his item - she wasn’t really sure what it was called - but had long since started skipping that step and going straight to Ginga. When it was often a better choice to use the power of an Ultra, it didn’t make sense to use the power of a Kaiju.
Tomomi hummed, stretching, before walking away. Whether he’d realize it or not though, their conversation had gotten Asahi thinking. Could she still use the Kaiju Crystals? All she had with her was the Grigios, she’d let her mom keep a hold of all the others that they’d come across, but Asahi insisted on keeping the three Grigio Crystals. No one had tried to argue with her about that, even her brothers understood how important Saki was to her.
It was still the morning, so Asahi decided, she knew what she was going to do today! She finishes cleaning up the table and returning some of it’s contents to her pocket. She needed to test and see what, if anything, happened when she tried to use a Kaiju Crystal. It might not be important, it might not be at all helpful and all it was was the same as before. But she felt that she owed it to Saki to know the full extent of her abilities - and if a part of that was whether the Kaiju Crystals still did anything, then that was what she needed to know.
The biggest issue was where to test it. She couldn’t just do that in the city, if she could still become a Kaiju, that would cause a lot of alarm, what with all the Kaiju attacks. So she’d need to at least go somewhere outside the city, preferable without a ton of people. Even then, she had to try not to attract KPaRS’ attention. That was assuming she could even still use the Crystals.
With no intended destination in mind, she set off to the train station. That would be the best way to get out of the city, she’d just have to figure where to go from there. A bit of a train ride later, she arrives in a small town. The overall size of the town wasn’t very important, though it did contribute to the part that was. She just needed somewhere that she could find a place where a Kaiju appearing wouldn’t be noticed. At least not very much.
She finds a nature trail that leads into a forest, which she figures if she follows it should take her far enough away. She didn’t mind the walk, it was nice, peaceful. There didn’t seem to be anyone else in the area, of course given it was a forest, unless they made a lot of noise, she probably wouldn’t be able to notice if someone was nearby. 
But really, she was pretty sure her brothers had transformed in places with more people then here, so she was probably fine. After walking for a while, she ends up entering a clearing. She surveys it, quickly deciding that it should be large enough and far enough that no one should notice her. Even if there were people near, the second they saw a Kaiju, they’d probably run away. By the time anyone might be able to contact KPaRS, she’d probably be back to normal. Again, that was assuming that the Crystal still worked.
With a deep breath, Asahi takes out her Gyro in one hand, the Grigio Regina Crystal in the other. She looks at them, remembering the only time she’d ever held them at the same time and try to use them. She inserts the Crystal into the Gyro’s center, moving the hand to grab the other handle of the Gyro. It was time to try... She pushes in the sides of the Gyro in and...
Nothing.
She tries again.
Still nothing.
Well, she supposed that answered the question. She couldn’t still use the Kaiju Crystals. It shouldn’t... She shouldn’t really be all that sad about that. The reason she’d never tried sooner was because she was stronger as Grigio the Ultra than as Grigio the Kaiju. Besides, the Kaiju Crystals were Saki’s thing - so to speak - and it was that reason that was probably the real answer to why she hadn’t tried sooner.
But it was fine. Nothing to be horribly upset about. She still had the Crystals, they were still her memories of Saki. So she should be happy about that!
It doesn’t stop her from dejectedly pulling out the Crystal, gripping in tightly in her and looking down at the Gyro, as though it had insulted her. In a way, it felt like it was laughing at her. Like it was saying “Haha! Look at me! Remember that thing that Saki could do? Sorry, now that you’re an Ultra, you can’t! It’s fine, it’s not like you’re a fighter anyway. Actually possibly having some skills that could help fight aren’t necessary!” ... And she supposed that was the answer to why she was so annoyed. As Ultrawoman Grigio, she just didn’t have a lot of offensive ability. While the Kaiju’s weren’t getting stronger, she wasn’t going to assume that was impossible. Especially if she was right about her theory that there was someone behind this.
She sighs, not quite feeling up to a smile right then. She was alone, so it wasn’t like anyone would see her.
Or at least, she had been alone, but judging by the sounds of giggling children that were slowly getting louder, she wasn’t going to be for long. The children that were making such a ruckus were a small group, probably all between the ages of seven and nine - though Asahi wasn’t all that good at recognizing the age of children. They were running around, having now ran into the clearing. One of them attempts to climb onto another, knocking them both to the ground. They laugh.
Another one roars playfully, while the one on top of the other, mimics it. Asahi’s half tempted to ask if the two on the ground are okay, but the two quickly stand back up. They change their group formation, with the little girl who had been knocked down standing alone with the others circling around her. One of the children notice Asahi.
“Hi!” The little kid waves, “Would you like to play with us, miss?”
Another next to him gives an excited nod, “You could be a Kaiju, like we are!” He gives a squeaky roar at the end.
The girl who stands alone pouts, “No fair! You’re all Kaijus and I’m supposed to be fighting you alone!”
“Well,” the first boy suggests, “Why can’t she be a Kaiju who helps Hanako- I mean Grigio?” There was a detail in that question that surprised Asahi. They were playing and the girl, Hanako it seemed, was playing Grigio. Did children really-? Well she supposed it made sense, but she hadn’t been in this world very long.
Another child, farther from her, gasped, “A Kaiju that helps Grigio? That’s crazy!”
“Yeah!” Another piped up, “Why would a Kaiju do that? They just attack places and cause trouble!”
“I don’t see why a Kaiju couldn’t help Grigio,” Asahi said, “Kaiju can be nice.”
“Then why do they keep attacking Kurokita?” One child quietly asked.
Asahi thought about the best way to explain that, “Well, you know how sometimes when someone bugs you, you get really annoyed and sometimes angry?” The children nod, more or less, “Sometimes that’s how the Kaiju feel when people bug them. And then sometimes they end up attacking the city.”
“But that’s not what always happens, especially recently,” She continued, “For some reason, Kaiju have been attacking and no one knows why. But that doesn’t mean their bad, and even if it does, not all Kaiju attack. So I don’t see why a Kaiju couldn’t help Grigio.”
The children seem to take in what she said, before one of them groaned, “I’m hungry. Let’s go home and get lunch.” The other nodded and they ran off. Except for one, the boy who first spoke up. He stood there, looking at her.
“Do you really think that a Kaiju and Grigio could work together?” He asked, “Every time I say that to an adult, they don’t think so.”
Asahi smiled at him, “Of course,” She said, “And I’m sure that if there was a chance, she’d be more than willing to work with them.”
The boy get’s a determined look in his eyes, “When I go back home after the summer, I’m going to see Grigio,” He said, “And once she finishes stopping a Kaiju, I’m going to tell her that I know she wants both Kaijus and people to be happy!”
So the boy must be from Kurokita, “I’m sure she’d appreciate it. There are a lot of people who don’t think Grigio really wants to help.” And boy, had Asahi heard those people go on and on.
The boy nodded, “One day, I’ll help people, like her. I’m going to join KPaRS!” By the look he was giving her, she could tell that he would do everything he dreamed to, “I’ll be Akimitsu the hero, and then little kids will look up to me and want to help people!”
Asahi laughed, “I’m sure that you will, and I’ll make sure to keep an eye out for your name.” As much as she’d like to see that, though, she was holding out on the hope that she would be home sooner than ten or so years from now. 
The boy, Akimitsu, gave her a wave and ran off, most likely to have lunch, leaving Asahi alone in the clearing. She sighed, deciding that she should at least head back to Kurokita. She reaches into her pocket and retrieves the Grigio Regina Crystal. Honestly, she wished that she could use it, because while she knew Saki was with her, especially when she was as Grigio, there was a strange feeling that there was still more of Saki in the Grigio Kaiju Crystals then in the Grigio Ultra Crystal.
She makes it back into the town without anything interesting happening, though the grumbling of her stomach makes her regret not bringing lunch. Maybe she could find somewhere to eat here in the town? Probably, but she wasn’t really sure where to look... She ends up wandering around a bit, before she walks by a group of teens, huddled around one of their phones.
“Seriously?” One asked, and it wasn’t like Asahi was meaning to listen in but she was slightly curious, “Another one?”
“Kaijus just keep attack, Kurokita especially,” One notes, then laughed, “That place has to be cursed! Man, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m glad I don’t live in the city now.”
Asahi thought she did a pretty good job hiding her alarm. But there was a Kaiju attack, she knew she had to get there quickly. She didn’t think she was so far from Kurokita that she could transform and fly there, whether she had enough time to fight the monster was what she wasn’t sure about. That, and where she’d transform at. She runs around and finds an alley way, deciding that she doesn’t have time to spare, quickly transforming and flying off towards the city. She misses the excited yell that Akimitsu makes when he notices Grigio leaving, pointing wildly.
It didn’t take her long to fly to Kurokita and what she was greeted with was a Kaiju she was certain she’d seen before. It looked vaguely birdlike, though also like a star, with a beak and a horn on it’s head. On it’s stomach was some kind of marking or something.
Grigio summoned her bow, firing an arrow at the monster. When the arrow got close, the thing on the Kaiju’s stomach opened, like a second, star shaped mouth, and began to inhale, sucking up the arrow.
“What the hell?” She squeaks, standing there flabbergasted. Did the Kaiju seriously just eat her arrow? Should she try again? Tentatively, she raises her bow and fires another arrow, watching as the Kaiju repeated it’s previous actions. Okay, so projectiles don’t work, which probably took Grigio Shot out of the equation as well. That left her with only her physical attacks. Which meant she had to get close and her hand to hand skills weren’t very good. She moves forward, trying to get close to attack when the Kaiju’s horn begins to glow. It fires a blast from it’s horn, one that Grigio just doesn’t have the time to block. She’s too close so all she can do is throw her arms to cover her head and take the hit. It hurt. A lot.
“If only I could be Grigio Regina right now...” She thought, trying to pull herself together, “Then I’d be a bit more suited for hand to hand combat...”
“Do you really think that a Kaiju and Grigio could work together?” She’s not sure why, but she hears Akimitsu’s question once agian.
“When I go back home after the summer, I’m going to see Grigio, and once she finishes stopping a Kaiju, I’m going to tell her that I know she wants both Kaijus and people to be happy!”
Her color timer begins to flash, and Grigio hopes that Akimitsu won’t be too disappointed. Disappointed that Grigio failed to stop this monster. Disappointed that there may never be a day that Grigio and a Kaiju will work together, because all the Kaiju she encounters here seem to be more willing to fight against her than with her. Disappointed because he chose to look up to someone who can’t even fight a monster who’s even slightly more challenging than the one’s before it.
The Kaiju began to charge a blast at it’s horn again. This time she might be able to put up a barrier, but that wouldn’t help her stop the Kaiju. That would just delay her defeat. There just didn’t seem to be much left to do.
“Grigio!” And she isn’t sure where he is, but she can hear Tomomi yelling to her, “You can’t give up! Not yet! For your friend who you named yourself in memory of!”
And he had a point. He may not have known Saki, but he was right. Saki wouldn’t want her to just give up... But what was there left that she could do. She might not even be able to get close enough to attack it, and she’s not even sure if she could take another blast from the Kaiju.
Then there’s another glow, she isn’t sure from where, not right away. Then she sees, a Crystal, glowing and presenting itself to her. She grabs it, seeing it was the Grigio Regina Crystal.
She could hear it talking to her. Well it wasn’t really talking to her, but she could hear what it was trying to tell her. “I’m here. I’ll help you.” How, she wasn’t exactly sure, but she can feel it telling her to try.
She puts the Crystal into her Gyro, like she had earlier, and pushed the handles in. This time, there was a sound, “Grigio Regina!” and she could feel an energy building. She pushes it in again, and again, and the energy builds and builds. Finally, it reaches it’s point and a light shoots from the Gyro, taking form besides Grigio. With a roar, there stood Grigio Regina.
Grigio was shocked, understandably, but she knew she didn’t have time. As the Kaiju fires it’s blast, she summons a barrier while Regina fires missiles from her cannons. Then Regina runs towards the Kaiju, tackling it and jabbing her horn into it. The monster jolted as it was shocked by Regina’s electricity. Grigio saw her opportunity and used a Grigio Shot. She wasn’t sure how well it would work, but she followed it with Grigio Bind.
While Grigio Shot hit the monster, it’s second mouth on it’s stomach just opened to swallow up the bindings. Regina swung her tail at the monster, giving Grigio an opening to land a solid punch on the Kaiju’s chest. It recoiled back, stumbling, before falling. When it hit the ground, it begins to turn into light.
Was it... was  it dead? Normally, Kaiju’s sort of blew up when they died, but that wasn’t what this one was doing. Regina disappeared in a flash of light, her Crystal returning to Grigio. Actually, the light the Kaiju was becoming was a lot like what Regina just did... Then the light of the Kaiju shrunk into a small size and shot at her. It was a Crystal.
But Grigio didn’t have time to worry about that, she turned around and took off. She’d worry about it when she got back to Tomomi.
---
“Did you summon Grigio Regina to fight with you?” Instead of being greeted, Asahi returned to Tomomi’s curiousity.
“I guess?” Was her response.
“And what about the Bemstar that you were fighting?” He asked. Well, she knew what the Kaiju was called now. “It just turned into a little ball of light and shot into you?”
She presents the Bemstar Crystal she’d just gained, resulting in a shocked face from Tomomi. “I think I’ll be able to summon him like I did Grigio Regina.” She explained, “So he’ll be able to help me fight.”
“That’s,” Tomomi began, “Actually really helpful, especially since you said you weren’t good at fighting on your own.”
“Yeah!” Asahi agreed with a smile. For some reason, she felt a lot lighter now. And tired, but that wasn’t unusual after a fight.
2 notes · View notes
vidaflxwer · 4 years
Note
hello! i’m the anon who sent you a message about hanako-kun so long ago! sorry i haven’t messaged earlier, i’ve been so caught up in school. anyways, i am VERY open to any suggestions you have for me! the anime i’ve watched are pretty mainstream so i hope that doesn’t put you off (naruto, fmab, tpn, kny, mob psycho, watching haikyuu right now, more i forget) but i will literally try anything. i think some must haves for me are good writing, good character development, and good OSTs are a bonus!
anon i knew you and i would have so much in common in terms of what we love in anime, i’m such a sucker for good character development and writing! and i’m the same way with good OSTs actually! oh and don’t worry about watching mainstream? i honestly respect mainstream anime a whole lot, since it’s where most of us start out, you know? my first anime was soul eater, and that’s insanely mainstream, so no worries there! 
but as for some suggestions... 
death parade is my personal favorite anime of all time, and it essentially revolves around this bar where, when two people die at the same time, they come there to play a game and have their souls be judged to either be sent to heaven (reincarnation) or hell (the void)! it has insanely interesting commentary on morality and human nature in general, but also how our lives intertwine with those of other because, more often than not, a lot of the people who died at the same time were connected in some way. or their deaths somehow paralleled each others! either way, it’s super interesting and made me cry a whole lot so fair warning there! i will say though, because this is an anime that does cover such dark topics, a whole lot of the deaths aren’t pretty and can be very painful to watch so please be wary going into it!
comic girls is another one of my personal favorites and i know, by the title, you’d probably laugh at it like me and my sister did when we found it on the first day that it started airing, but it’s so much more than the synopsis or the title might imply. it’s a slice of life about a girl named kaourko moeta, or kaos who is a struggling manga artist that has very low self-esteem and is about to give up on manga all together, thanks to the constant lack-luster reviews she gets on any of her works! however, her editor suggests that instead of giving up, she joins a female manga artist dorm! and it’s there she becomes friends with three (eventually four) other girls who each draw different types of manga! now what seriously surprised me about comic girls was truly how much character development each of the main four girls went through. comic girls didn’t shy away from showing how painful it can be to have your work shot down time and time again, to struggle to pull yourself back together enough to continue working despite that constant agony of failure, and i connected really deeply to kaos’ struggles. but there’s so much more they cover than just that in the twelve episodes and honestly, it deserves so much more credit. i wish it had been more popular back when it first aired, but i’m thankful that i, at least, had the pleasure of watching it in real time. (by the way: please look up the translations for the opening and ending after you finish the series because they will make you cry, especially the ending, they’re such good lyrics and i connected to even them so deeply so that’s another thing!)
if you haven’t watched carole and tuesday yet, that’s another one i’d highly recommend! carole and tuesday seriously surprised me in the character development department, specifically with one character whose growth brought so many tears to my eyes and i still can’t believe they actually managed to make me feel so empathetic towards her when i absolutely hated her in the beginning! but essentially, carole and tuesday is about these two girls who meet one day when tuesday’s decided to run away from home on a bridge where carole is singing along to the tune she’s playing on her piano. from there they basically become best friends and decide that they’re gonna be the next big thing in music, essentially, in a world where most music is written by artificial intelligence based on the knowledge of what we, as humans, gravitate towards in terms of music! the songs are all in english and they’re beyond stunning, i cried almost every episode whenever one of them would come on because there’s so much soul and emotion put into every single one of carole and tuesday’s songs, and it really does differentiate them from everyone else! it’s absolutely amazing and i can’t praise it enough!
dusk maiden of amnesia is probably another insanely underrated series that i still cry whenever i think about because there’s truly no other word to describe it than beautiful. it’s about this boy named teiichi who, one day, meets a ghost named yuuko! only she has absolutely no memories of her life before she became a ghost, hence why it’s called dusk maiden of amnesia, and she asks him to help her find out what her life used to be like! thus he decides to become the founder of the paranormal investigations club, where a few other girls join him in his quest to find out what exactly happened at their school, all those years ago when yuuko died! what’s interesting about dusk maiden is that it’s considered a horror series, though i don’t really think it’s honestly that scary in my personal opinion, especially if you’re already used to the promised neverland. it’s more like death parade in the sense that it’s dark and more of an exploration of yuuko’s character and the darkness within her, which i really enjoy! there is some romance though so fair warning, but it’s actually a romance i can stand because it’s a rather sad romance instead of over-the-top romantic comedy style stuff so yeah!
a few more i’m just gonna mention are yuru camp, new game!, and possibly kuzu no honkai (or scum’s wish, is the english translation) because this post is getting way too long but those are also very good! please be warned that scum’s wish is very sexual but it’s actually one of the most depressing anime i’ve ever seen in my entire life and i more like it despite the sexual content! the other two are just slice of life series so no worries there with anything i need to warn you of, i think! 
god i am so sorry i didn’t mean for this to be this long but i really wanted to give you more a more specific synopsis of each and what aspects they really shine through in since, like i said with comic girls, these series are kind of? very misleading? and i think that might be the fault of slice of life and horror as genres not really accounting for the different facets of said genres so i hope my descriptions are able to help!
3 notes · View notes
paraclete0407 · 3 years
Text
Pretty sure I'm going to become Catholic if I don't die from Delta tonight - I've been thinking about it my whole life and I feel awful contemplating how much time and how many people I've lost.  Recently I concluded what might have been my last intimate love-relationship with someone - the last person I feel I ever wanted to marry, it's just  over now. I have a lot of flaws like sensualism, aestheticism, expectation of unending maternal unconditional love.  Ever since 18 I relied on the same few pieces of music to hold me, Franz Biebl's 'Ave Maria,' Praetorius' 'Es It Ein Rosentsprungen.'  Biebl only wrote a few pieces of music in his life. I don't know why in the past decade I went to war with the world when meekness had seen me through for a long time and kept me surprising everyone who said I wasn't doing enough or getting with the times.  I'm really dumb, blind.  I also accumulated various cupidities and preciosities.  It's pathetic.  Today there are race-wars, class-wars, gender-wars, identity-wars, age-wars.  Covid I still feel is just anti-Asian racism though - I can't see it any other way and I always, always lose my motivation for studying or reading about anything but the history of Western imperialism.  I don't want to speak ill of Protestants b/c I read Metaxas' Luther bioraphy at least in part and the cynicism of that priesthood... but 'Heil Hitler point 1' in Milwaukee is like 'Joshua and genocide' every day, showing no mercy.  I love John Piper, John MacArthur, RC Sproul I only wish I'd listened more like 35 years ago.  But.  Chest-beating.  However the fault is mine for I'd be more masculine if I simply abided with probity by the rules of Scripture and subjected myself to wholesome discipline.  I don't know why I'm so skittish of everything. Honestly I'm a Satanist - in the Baudelarean sense and otherwise.  There was a student I worked with in KR who reminded me of the poem 'Benediction' which is 'bad sauce' but poems like that and K-Pop stuff like Aespa or 'Lamborghini Angels' by Lupe fiasco is kind of 'advanced, ultramodern' religious contents.  I can't say more than that b/c those are real people and also part of my 'patrimony' or simply my experience as a man / human; specific responsibilities. One thing I really regret is in past I always tried to blow my family off with cheap gifts which was 'pozzed' b/c cheap gifts and fake gifts and twisted as opposed to linear gifts is part of what's wrong with all of Europe Germany Netherlands et cetera.  Like, 'I have a perfect idea- nah, let me f--- it up to personalize it or sth.'  Milwaukee's obsessed with ethnography like 'Wales has mining and its own language' but they never ethnographize German culture which is all about hiding your virtue and doing less than you can - 'be more than you seem.'  But why?  It's completely diametrically anti-biblical to hide your light.  Anyway criticizing the Church when 4 million people died and my own DNA (Dutch) just got an 800% spike in Delta infections might seem kind of idle / academic but lit-crit is sth I've been doing all my life.  Why wait? I keep thinking of 'Lincoln' lately which is not a great movie and Kushner says a lot of dumb stuff.  But the 'now now now' and 'millions unborn' is absolutely epic and it's what is going on right now all the time.  Today I got lost in Chicago while trying to report to the ROK Consul General literally to discuss matters fro mthe past as well as literally to tell them to evacuate Koreans from Milwaukee (most of the ones I knew in past are already gone).  Right now I wish I could make myself as little but perfect a box / chamber as possible in which to exist like a prison-cell just to I stop wrecking my own chances.  I also remembered a Sowon hyper-fanfic called 'My Brother's Type' about someone I knew who used to like these leggy lissome slightly remote types but decided to trash their own taste in women (nothing wrong with changing mind per se but) and deciding B-52's and gangster / clan / tribal conspiracy is better than being open and honest.  Ironically 'B-52' was a nickname given to Chairman Mao by I think [I forget]'s son since he had a huge stomach that dropped out all kinds of murderous ideas which again I can't see any other way but that's the origin of Covid.  I was thinking of all these snice things to say about my carpet-bombing-philc family but thta's pozzed too at this point I just need to get baptized and hopefully plenary indulgence(?) before  Iget flamethrowered in my containment-zone.  I remember this picture of a Vietnamese woman with a crashed B in the background; I read 'Fire Road' and 'Ru' with that boy named Pascal and I read 'Pensees' over and over and over again like, 'Finally my friend.'  if I live to be even 51 or 52 I really want to go back to Asia or even just K-Town LA; I miss all my friends; I hear them, Protestants don't need me, Milwaukee doesn't need me, I'm just a 'little flower' or something.   I remembered today the face of the person I most wanted ot marry and the day we went on this kind of 'communication session' with a chaperone(?); went home and started reading Proust feeling 'everlasting gratitude.'  Never finished Proust nearly.  I bought a Korean language version of 'The Remains of the Day' which was the other novel I read that year and remembered trying to interpret 'South of the Border West of the Sun' in terms of a geographic-anagogic sort of Dantean-Northrop-Fryian system that would turn the title in to 'Before the Beginning and After the End.'  Sitting in the meditation-garden of the Church of Peter and Paul and just thinking of sailed ships and corners turned but that too was years ago.  I don't even know how to work gas-station pumps anymore.  Remebering the last words of someone from a vanished era, the 1990s when we thought that every little people could have their own republic and now the passive resistance people in Myanmar etc. are all getting jailed by dictators.  Richard Holbrooke with his arterial dissection, 'I love so many people.'  Maybe I should just wait outside the local church gate all night; little kids from Syria in France and such are sleeping in parks.  IDK why I stopped letting myself be acted on b/c my typical 'seizure of agency, self-coup' modus operandi is to headbutt immoveable objects and feast the obese.  I should've been a Jesuit or Cistercian, love Bernard of Clairvaux, 'Honey and Salt.' I am only sad that HH.1 et al. talk so much about saints from like 500 years ago in this 'winter of peril' era.  Where is Francis Chan?   Llove Augustine who seems to be watching over the whole world right now, 'an intellectual giant,' hoping we will all remember Original Sin and the 'curse in hope' instead of thinking of C19 as somebody's technical error / lack of being a smart Democrat... I also liked 'Humana Vitae' to say the least; Koreans always talk about love of life and I realize death and evil and the Devil are things I should've taken more seriously in the past but... Anyway I also noticed how people are scrambling to conceptualize everything in terms of 'oxygenation' nowadays.  Concept of 'holiness' related to separateness but what can that mean if not integrity when we're all part of the metabolism of the Earth.  I'm saying too much now I always do too much or too little.  The future appears to be cereal-grains and the consciousness of chains. I ate some 'rice-salad' and remembered 'The Last of Hanako' just to hopefully teach myself once and for all that my mother's body is a graveyard of her best dreams b/c women in the end [cynical I-read-Nabokov] - 'Abolition of Woman' Gen-Alph; 'town bike.'   A few weeks ago I had the 'Stepfather' idea about reading the Episcopalian newspaper with Minju b/c Scripture says don't talk with daddy-daughter 'extend my love to the unfinished woman' ppl but I talked to them again and got R. Kelly'd.   I remember watching 'I Miss You' and almost breaking my hand (Minah looks like s1) but now I'm more trained.  
0 notes
jadedahlia · 6 years
Text
This anime season is coming to a close so I guess it’s time for my final thoughts. I’m doing things a little differently this time and starting with my least favorites.
Disappointments
-Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Arc makes me think of an episode of Community where some characters conduct a social experiment. They’re trying to see how long they can keep people waiting in a room before those people get fed up and leave. Clear Card Arc is the anime equivalent of that social experiment, especially since the reward for sticking with it to the end is absolutely nothing. The only positive is the episodes with Meiling, but otherwise this was a complete waste of time, especially if they don’t plan to animate another season (though I’m not in any rush to watch more unless they get their shit together tbh).
-I think I already mentioned dropping Kakuriyo for casually justifying a character being a literal slave owner, but in case I didn’t it’s worth mentioning because y i k e s.
-Amanchu was one of my favorites during its first season, so I was excited for more. This season, while very different from the first, was enjoyable. At least until they pulled the most horrific No Homo I’ve ever seen in my life. Basically, there was a character presented as a girl who liked macho things, and portrayed as a rival to Futaba for Pikari’s affections. But ~plot twist~ it turns out that character was a boy the whole time. And Futaba says something about his love for Pikari being “different from [her own]” because he’s a boy and lol girls can’t love girls ~that way~. Not to mention he’s a middle schooler while the girls are in high school. Because apparently that’s more acceptable than being a wlw. Uuuuuuugh.
(Gonna put the rest behind a cut because as usual this got longer than anticipated, haha)
Running Behind
-There’s a couple anime I didn’t exactly drop but haven’t finished yet either. Namely Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Nue These and Wotakoi. Galactic Heroes is good so far, but I have to be in the right mindset to watch it. It requires a lot of focus to follow what’s happening, at least for me. And with Wotakoi, while I loved the first episode, I’m still put off by Kabakura and his relationship with Hanako, so that’s been keeping me from watching it (that and the fact that the next episode after the last one I saw is a Christmas special and as a Jewish person I rarely care for those). I also still need to watch this season of My Hero Academia, though I already read that part in the manga and it’s some of my favorite material from the series to date.
Almost But Not Quite
-Golden Kamuy had a lot of great things going for it, particularly Asirpa and the respectful handling of Ainu culture in general. However, it wasn’t quite so considerate with queer characters, and I dropped it after hearing about the trans villain character (not that queer villains are inherently bad if they’re otherwise handled respectfully, but when there aren’t also queer heroes then it’s a problem).
-Gegege no Kitaro was quite often hit or miss. An episode about a stalker fell flat when it completely contradicted its own message at the end, and the kappa episode got really uncomfortable with the weird butt ball thing that kept repeating over and over and came across pretty rape-y (I eventually got fed up and didn’t finish the episode). Episode 7 (the one with the ghost train) was a standout though, and if you only watch one episode of this show make sure it’s that one.
Overall favorites
-Aggrestuko is hands down my favorite short anime series and also one of my favorites, period. Even the initial premise of it sounds like it was made for me as someone who is also a metalhead, haha. But it’s also consistently funny and relateable, has great lady friendships, and great characters in general (Gori is definitely my fave).
-Megalobox had consistently excellent writing, gorgeous art and animation, and strong character work. Even though the story itself was familiar, the execution was what made this series stand out as an example of how to make a great sports anime.
-Hinamatsuri was also hilarious from start to finish, though a lot of the content with Hitomi got uncomfortable at times, especially in episode 10. But Anzu is amazing and episode 6 made me cry, which is a testament to how well this show also handles more serious and emotional content.
-Yotsuiro Biyori is probably this season’s underrated gem. It’s a cute, chill show with lots of good food and also cats being adorable. It also has some great messages, like an episode where a macho guy wants to eat cute desserts at a cafe but is concerned about being the only guy there, and he’s encouraged to be himself and enjoy the desserts. The characters are also really endearing, and the comedy moments are well done (often based in being ridiculous and over-the-top, in a good way).
1 note · View note