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#oshii writes
popponn · 7 months
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call you later; 1.
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notes: what if you didn't pick up their call? they left a voicemail, in their own ways. characters: isagi yoichi, itoshi sae, seishirou nagi. [ part 2 : rin, bachira ]
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isagi yoichi
Probably felt a little bit sad you didn’t pick up. You are probably his first crush—and only, for a long time, maybe, and this boy is committed with capital C when he is into something—so don’t be too hard on him. Like, hey, his #2 after the soccer itself didn’t pick up his phone? Poor guy.
But like the considerate boy off the pitch he is, Yoichi will immediately give you a brief of what he wanted to tell you before leaving the classic note of ‘i will call you again later’. It won’t be overly long, as he prefers to talk to you rather than to the empty void of a voicemail. Or at least he intends so to seem polite and proper, until he stutters and tripped all over his words a little bit. It’s cute though.
All in all, probably one of the most normal guy from Blue Lock, as usual, and whatever sad feelings he had from getting his call not being picked up will be gone the moment he got the chance to talk to you. A little advice, just make sure to actually call him later—knowing you reach out to him as soon as you can will make Mr. Egoist pretty happy.
“Uh, so… are you busy? Wait—you are not picking up of course you are busy…” Yoichi trailed off with a nervous laugh. “But, so, anyway, about our promise to walk around Saitama, I was wondering if your schedule is free this Sunday? I got two weeks off Blue Lock but I kinda want to make sure we can do it as soon as we can, so if anything comes up—ah, but I didn’t mean it in a bad way!”
It took Yoichi a few seconds to gather his composure before he continued, “I mean, uh, yeah, I just want to do it with you soon. I will call you again so we can talk about it later! Work hard, or have a good time! See you!”
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itoshi sae
First of all, how dare you. He is famous and probably have people lining up for his number while you get him punching your number and didn’t pick up. Just for that, Sae might throw a tantrum, albeit a silent one.
On a more serious note, he will raise an eyebrow honestly, especially if you are the type to usually answer. But he is pretty independent most of the time, so he will only left a few words on the voice mail. In some occasions, though, when he just calls for the sake of listening to you, he will feel a little bit down. You can cheer him up later—you should, actually. Sometimes talking with Sae requires advanced mind reading technique and when he is a little bit down or pissed you really have to use that skill. Because boy, this guy is pretty constipated emotionally.
So, end notes, just call him real soon, okay? He might act cold and tough but he is also someone whose favorite show is Chibi Maruko-chan. He won’t say much in the voicemail or act like it afterwards, but he might really wait for you to call back, especially if he didn’t hear anything from or about you for a day. Though, honestly, just call him back or answer his next call before five seconds so everyone could be saved from his scathing vocabularies.
“What do you want for dinner? I’m picking you up later,” Sae said without wasting a second. “Hurry up and decide, then call me soon, got it? And in case you are thinking of anything funny, finish whatever you are working on first, then call me as soon as possible.”
For a moment, it was as if he was done. Then, a few beats of silence passed and he continued, “…and honestly… nevermind. Just call me soon.”
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nagi seishirou
Yeah, let’s be real—he won’t leave a note and just give up. He willed out energy to call you first and you asked more from him? Wow. The fucking audacity.
But, let’s say, he really really wants to talk to you at the time and is in a really really really good mood—it will be long, if only for the long pauses. He will speaks sparsely, like the personification of bullet notes, as he doesn’t really see the point in talking if you are not really there to begin with. But, at the same time, Nagi Seishirou is also a Blue Lock egoist and he thinks having you listen to his voice note for a long time is not exactly a bad thought.
In the end, though, he really just want to hear your voice, actually. So, sooner or later, he will end the note with a ‘call me soon’ and plays a few games while waiting for you. The guy really need to recharge whatever small battery he has with you, so you really better call back if you don’t want to deal with a pouty Nagi holding a petty grudge for three minutes. And come on, do it for Reo, dude has way too much on his plate already.
“Eh, why are you not picking up?” Seishirou started with a complain, before immediately staying silent for a long time. Clearly on purpose, rather than for trying to remember something. “…I want to talk to you, so call me later, ‘kay?” he continued, in the end. “Choki also misses you by the way. You love Choki, right? So you really better call me back.”
Then, as an afterthought, he added, “Oh, I also have something I want to show you. So, let’s meet up next week. That’s all. Later.”
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teabree-shark · 1 year
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Okay so Mamoru Oshii, you write about cyborg girls with ambiguous childhoods and pasts.
The Major in GITS was cyberized as a young child.
There's a scene early on in the first season where Batou tries to goad the major into "switching into a male frame,"
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(in the dub he even says "You'll get more power and respect that way.")
And the Major hacks him and makes him punch himself.
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And she replies with "A girl's frame is just fine."
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Moving forward, the show puts a lot of focus on 1: the Major's lesbian relationships and friends in various penthouses and hospital supply closets throughout Japan, and 2: third party characters questioning her choice in prosthetic body.
However, during one of the finale scenes, after Batou gives the Major her prized watch back,
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She says, "This body suits me, no other will do."
As a teen and young adult, the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex OST was a regular rotation in my car's MP3 CD player. I was still closeted back then, extremely closeted, but I remember sitting in my car in the high school parking lot one day, listening to the song "Beauty Within Us" practically on repeat for the entire lunch hour.
There's one line in particular that not just notably stands out, but blasts a big ol' "You're an egg, Harriet," beam directly at literally anybody except myself at the time that may have been watching:
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Right there, in the beginning of the song. "A mutant man, a woman underneath." The song goes on to rage, lament, and then beg for mercy at the singer's metaphorical mother.
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And further on, it ends with a cry for help:
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(just gonna idly note of the three times I recount this song playing, one is right before said "Batou gives back watch" scene.
In conclusion, I'm trans and the Major was a major contribution to me coming out, whether or not I knew it at the time. Thank you, genderfuck Oshii.
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ogradyfilm · 3 months
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2023: A Year in (Movie) Review(s)
Every cinephile has at least one Holy Grail. It's a common story: interest in said rare movie is piqued by a fleeting allusion in the pages of some neglected reference book or obscure magazine article. Gradually, curiosity evolves into infatuation, then obsession, manifesting as a desperate pursuit that might persist for decades, the search constantly hampered by the tragic fact that the White Whale in question remains stubbornly elusive—either out-of-print or never officially licensed or localized in the first place. And even if it is available (usually through sources of dubious legality), the image quality is always barely a step above an nth generation VHS transfer.
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Well, in 2023, I managed to cross five such films off my personal “bucket list”—and despite the year’s numerous challenges (financially, in particular), I think that’s an accomplishment worth celebrating. Thus, in the interest of posterity, I’ve enumerated them below, along with brief descriptions and links to the corresponding reviews I wrote immediately after seeing them:
A Page of Madness: Of all the miraculous discoveries on this list, this one was undoubtedly the most unceremonious and anticlimactic. I randomly stumbled across this silent avant-garde masterpiece (of which I became aware way back in college) while nonchalantly browsing Amazon Prime’s digital library; suddenly, there it was, available to rent for a paltry three dollars. The movie itself was sublime, of course; after spending such a significant chunk of my life hunting it down, however, the relative ease with which I ultimately acquired it couldn’t help but feel a bit… underwhelming.
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Samurai Wolf: Although Hideo Gosha’s lean, mean chanbara classic has never truly been out of reach to those “in the know,” my own research into the assorted bootlegs and unauthorized foreign imports available via various online marketplaces was… less than encouraging. Fortunately, Film Movement came to the rescue like a chivalrous ronin; the restoration on the company’s Blu-ray release is borderline pristine, enriching the director’s already bold compositions and dynamic camerawork. Nihilism and moral decay have seldom looked so beautiful.
Angel’s Egg: Home video copies of Mamoru Oshii’s surreal animated allegory tend to be obscenely, prohibitively expensive in the West, and tickets for the infrequent repertory screenings generally sell out almost instantly. Thankfully, a recent overabundance of free time afforded me the opportunity to experience the film’s haunting, hallucinatory magic under ideal circumstances—in a theater absolutely packed with fellow fans and aficionados. The Q&A with art director/character designer Yoshitaka Amano that followed the feature presentation (courtesy of Japan Society) was just icing on the cake.
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Door: While Banmei Takahashi’s taut, suspenseful, claustrophobic thriller is the latest addition to this list (I learned of its existence roughly a year ago, through out-of-context clips shared between several Twitter accounts), you shouldn’t make the mistake of underestimating my enthusiasm for it—my desire to see it burned with the fiery passion of a spurned admirer. As luck would have it, my thirst was sated rather quickly compared to the previous entries on this countdown; the movie played at this year’s Brooklyn Horror Film Festival—perfectly scheduled to coincide with the Halloween season.
Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis - When I initially encountered this ambitious, extravagant, and extremely expensive special effects extravaganza, the only viable way to view it was in twelve parts on YouTube, compressed to about 240p resolution—a format that hardly does the spectacle justice. Thank goodness for the fine programmers at Japan Society; the big screen really smooths out the movie’s minor flaws and superficial blemishes, and Kyusaku Shimada’s magnificent performance as the nefarious Yasunori Kato certainly benefits from a more expansive frame. Guess I can finally stop requesting the film in the feedback section of literally every post-screening survey…
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And that essentially sums up my 2023; the satisfaction of enjoying so many films that had been taunting and tantalizing my imagination definitely took the sting out of the whole "prolonged unemployment" situation. With that said, I’d like to wish everybody a very Happy New Year! Hopefully, my adventures in cinema will continue in 2024. (For God’s sake, will some distributor please show Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Sweet Home the love it so richly deserves?!)
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lupincentral · 13 days
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The 2021 released animated television series Lupin III: PART 6 is now available for pre-order on Blu-ray in the United Kingdom, courtesy of All The Anime!
The boxed set, which is currently on sale for the introductory price of £49.99 (£79.99 RRP) contains all twenty-four episodes, in addition to Kiyoshi Kobayashi's special send-off episode, "Episode 0 ~ The Times".
Also included in the set is a 52-page art booklet, featuring character profiles, sketch sheets, background artwork, and more. Both the English and Japanese audio versions feature, along with English language subtitles.
Clean opening and ending animations, along with seven television promos make up the special features, and all three discs some in a special digipak with a collectors slip case.
PART 6 is directed by Eiji Suganuma, and while is primarily written by both Takahiro Ōkura and Shigeru Murakoshi, it also features a variety of guest writers coming in for its one-shot episodes, including (but not limited to) Ghost in the Shell's Mamoru Oshii, and Astro Boy's Masaki Tsuji.
The set is due to release in the U.K. on the 15th of April 2024 (a little over a month away from time of writing), and the early-bird price will only be available until Thursday the 21st of March, 2024.
You can read our thoughts on the series as a whole by visiting our Final Thoughts article here, and check out individual episode reviews via the review hub here.
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1moremilgram-enjoyer · 2 months
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Deep Cover Partial Analysis
Updated Murder Theory, "Lucky" & Kotoko's Relationship, T2 Verdict
Hello there, members of the jury! Deep Cover, huh? There's a decent bit to talk about in this MV, more than I really want to cover in just this post. So to put down my initial thoughts somewhere, I'm writing this! An update on my old theory from HARROW, my thoughts on Kotoko's relationship with the girl with the "Lucky" hat (which I'll just call Lucky for convenience), and my verdict for Trial 2!
CW Violent murder and blood, vigilantism, child kidnapping
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Me trying to figure out what's going on in this video
Updated Murder Theory
What IS Kotoko's murder?
In the aftermath of the video, there have been a few different ideas about why exactly Kotoko ended up in Milgram, what her “Milgram murder” actually is. And while there are certainly many very interesting ideas going around, and I always love seeing different interpretations of what these videos show, I feel a lot of them are overcomplicating things.
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This is Kotoko's killshot from Undercover. This is the most concrete confirmation we have of why Kotoko is in Milgram. Kotoko's murder involves her kicking someone to death. And given how much focus is put on her killing the white hoodie guy, both in HARROW and in Deep Cover, I feel the simplest explanation is that Kotoko's "Milgram murder" is the murder of the white hoodie guy.
That last point is important btw. The white hoodie guy death is the only one that actually is referenced in both HARROW and Deep Cover. Every MV to date has at least included an allusion to the murder, even if really abstract like Magic and Tear Drop. If Kotoko's "Milgram murder" involves Oshii, then Deep Cover is the only MV not to reference the murder. If her "Milgram murder" involves Lucky, the HARROW is the only MV not to reference the murder. This is inconsistent with all other MVs, which would be strange. You get what I'm saying?
Plus, let’s not forget what Kotoko says in TASK.
[TASK]
Kotoko: I did kill someone
Someone, singular. Unless there’s some ambiguity that’s lost on translation, Kotoko only killed one person, and her Milgram murder is kicking someone to death. She killed the white hoodie guy by kicking him, so he’s sorta the only option as to who her Milgram murder is.
And yes, Kotoko could have lied in her MV, but she has no reason to. She also says this:
[TASK]
Kotoko: After all, Es, you can access my heart, right? Through songs and videos..
Es: That is correct.
Kotoko: Then there's no problem. People who understand will automatically do so
So Kotoko believes the videos will reveal her murder, meaning she’d likely get caught in a lie once the extraction process began. Given she’s trying to team up with Es in TASK, being seen as a liar by them is counter-productive. In other words, Kotoko shouldn’t be lying here. Unless she somehow forgot another murder, she’s only killed the white hoodie guy.
The reason it's considered an "indirect" murder (if you don't know what that means, uh, don't worry about it) is that under Japanese law, it wasn't judged as actual murder, but rather legitimate defense, as revealed in Deep Cover. Now, I fully believe Kotoko did want to kill the guy and it wasn't entirely defense, but that's the ultimate ruling. Thus, I believe an "indirect" murder in Milgram's eyes is "an act which led to someone's death, but wouldn't be judged as murder in a court of law." Which is the definition I was always working with anyways lol.
All this to say, I don't think Lucky ever died, since as far as I can tell there is no solid evidence for it. It’s a nice theory, I like reading about it, I just don’t subscribe to it.
Now, I do want to be clear. There are still inconsistencies with this being the Milgram murder. The alley in Kotoko’s prisoner card is very strange, and while there are alternatives as to what those images could represent, they’re not very strong. Indeed, the card is very weird.
Additionally, her Trial 2 Voice Trailer distorted line doesn’t fit perfectly either. The lines in that trailer are generally understood to be from before the murder, but Kotoko’s seems to be directed at Lucky, which would place it after the warehouse incident. It could be directed at a different character, but it would have to be someone we’ve never seen before.
That said, no current theory about Kotoko’s murder is perfect. At some point you have to accept some inconsistencies somewhere, and I feel like the white hoodie guy murder being the Milgram murder is the least inconsistent of the answers. Occam’s razor; the simplest explanation, the one which makes the least assumptions, is usually the most accurate.
The Article and New Details
In Deep Cover, Kotoko is seen reading an article about her murder.
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I'll leave two translations: Translation 1 and Translation 2. I recommend reading both for a full picture of what the text seems to say.
Now, this article gives us a few more details than we had in HARROW. First, white hoodie guy's name is Kaneshiro Tsugumichi (or Michi for short) and his father's name is Kaneshiro Isamu. Second, we also learn that Kotoko actually faced trial for her murder, but as she vaguely implied in TASK, the case was ruled as "justifiable defense", despite later investigations going against that idea. And of course they did, Kotoko tracked this guy down and went in fully intending to kill him. The ruling is at best a technicality and at worst a complete mistake. Still enough to qualify as "indirect" murder in my eyes though.
Kotoko's testimony of justifiable defense was corroborated by Lucky, although Lucky later retracted her statement. We'll get there.
Finally, the article ends by revealing that the case had become a bit of an internet meme. People claimed there were "multiple murderers" (referring to Michi and Kotoko) and that Kotoko was a hero. Or, rather, a "female university student." Given the wording in the article, I believe it's possible Kotoko's identity was never revealed to the public, as there would be no point in hiding her name if that weren't the case. I don't know enough about Japanese law to know if this makes sense or not, but I feel it's at least a possibility.
The article doesn't add much to what we already knew, but it's nice to get some extra details.
The Shots for the Updated Theory
Given how little this murder is actually referenced in the MV, you'd think there isn't much we can learn here, but there are two moments that I feel can help build on my previous (pretty outdated) theory.
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What do we learn from these shots? Well, the main thing is that Lucky was actually in the room when the murder happened. Because while it's true the lighting and Lucky's position are slightly inconsistent, the water in the dark floor combined with Kotoko's kneeling position heavily implies these two shots happen one after the other.
More importantly, though, we actually see the restraints she had in the room she was being kept in in the floor.
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This would imply she didn't go there on her own, and wasn't moved by Kotoko, who would have naturally removed the restraints before moving her. That means Michi moved her from the small room to the death room. And this fixes one of the biggest issues with HARROW's depiction of the murder: the switching rooms.
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(Yes the shot in Deep Cover is flipped. No I don't know why)
As you can see, the walls are slightly different. And of course, they're way more open than the room the girl was being kept in. My original explanation for why this happens was more complicated than necessary, but now we have a bit more context.
First, the difference in the warehouse walls can just be explained by assuming these are two different sections of the warehouse, or even two warehouses which are connected somehow. This is somewhat consistent with the outside appearance of the warehouse:
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You see how there's two buildings that share a wall? If that wall has a door, it would be possible to go from one to the other. And if they have different walls for some reason, it's possible the wall change simply happens because they enter one and end up in the other.
And why did they move? Well, because of the discarded restraints in Deep Cover, we can assume that perhaps Michi attempted to escape from Kotoko with Lucky in tow. He could have stunned Kotoko somehow (hammer maybe?), and ran away to the death room. Here's a diagram!
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Pretty simple, right?
The Time Skip Confirmation
This is also a continuation of my previous theory. If you're not aware, Kotoko sees Michi kidnapping Lucky while she's wearing her blue and yellow hoodie, but attacks with her red hoodie.
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I believed this, among other things, implied there was actually a period of time between when Kotoko spots the kidnapping and when she actually steps in. And the shot of Lucky on the floor corroborates this, as she's already bruised as if she had spent a decent amount of time under Michi's grasp.
As to why Kotoko didn't step in immediately, while I originally believed she was disheartened in some way, I now think it may have more to do with trying to hide her identity as she did when she attacked Oshii. Men's sneakers, red hoodie, etc. Except this time there was a witness, and since she apparently forgot her face covering at home, she couldn’t avoid being recognized and had to go to court. Perhaps that's why she seems so distressed when Lucky hugs her? She didn't want the attention, she didn't want to be recognized, because it would mean having to deal with the law.
Anyways, what does this mean? Well, not much, really. But it’s important because it means Kotoko wasn’t prepared to see a kidnapping that day, which in my eyes throws out some theories I’ve seen around about her possibly setting up Lucky as bait for Michi. If she had done that, surely she would have already been wearing the correct outfit, wouldn’t she?
And speaking of Lucky…
On Kotoko and Lucky's Relationship
This has almost become the main point of discussion around the MV, so I feel compelled to talk about it. Here’s what we know:
-Lucky originally testified to corroborate Kotoko’s testimony in court, but later, apparently while speaking to Isamu, retracted it. We don’t know what, if anything, Kotoko told her after the murder, but we can assume Kotoko lied to her the same way she lied to everyone else; “killing Michi was the only way to stop him, it was legitimate defense.” We also don’t know why she retracted her statement, but I’ll get to it in a moment.
By the way, Isamu claims Lucky may have been threatened, but I just don’t believe him. Lucky doesn’t seem scared of Kotoko until the very end (after the retraction), and Isamu has been involved in cover-ups of his son’s crimes before, as implied in HARROW. It’s in his best interest to defend his family name if he can cast doubt on Lucky’s testimony (more on this later).
-After the retraction of the statement, Kotoko is sitting on a park bench reading an article about it when Lucky comes up to her to show her the matching hat. Kotoko distractedly pats her head, but mostly ignores her in favor of the article. We don’t know if this meeting was arranged, or if Lucky just stumbled into Kotoko randomly and wanted to show off her cool hat. I’m leaning on the latter, personally. We also don’t know if they interacted further, or if Lucky just left immediately after. There’s no way to tell.
-After the park scene (note that Lucky already has the hat on her head, unlike when she first shows it off), Lucky waits outside a book store, mimicking Kotoko’s wall lean from HARROW. Lucky sees Kotoko and walks up to her, but becomes horrified when she sees the look in Kotoko’s eyes. Kotoko is wearing her murder outfit, and looks very angry. She ignores Lucky for the most part, only giving her a spare glance as she walks past. This means the meeting was not arranged, as Kotoko clearly wasn’t in the mood for it.
We don’t know why Lucky was waiting in front of the book store (was she waiting for Kotoko? did she know where Kotoko would be? Or was she waiting for something/someone else and just happened to recognize Kotoko walking by?). We don’t know if they met in more occasions, or if we’re shown the full extent of their interactions after meeting in court (did Lucky start mimicking Kotoko after hanging out a lot? or did she pick up the habit almost instantly, having seen Kotoko do the wall lean after the murder/during court procedure?).
I repeat that we don’t know much because, well, that’s the main problem here. We just don’t know, and we can’t know based just on the events of Deep Cover what their deal is. The only info we definitely have is:
-Lucky likes Kotoko, even after retracting her statement, though she’s scared of her meaner side.
-Kotoko appears dismissive of Lucky, at least from what we saw.
And that’s it! The only way we can further try to infer what their relationship is like is by looking at Kotoko’s character and speculating on what she would act like around this child. Thankfully, Kotoko’s actions are very straightforwardly informed by her overly simplistic worldview.
According to Kotoko, there are essentially three types of people. The Evil People who oppress and hurt those weaker than them:
(T1) Q20: What do you think is evil?
K: Oppressing innocent weaklings.
The Hero who will protect the Weaklings by destroying the Evil People:
[Deep Cover]
Come on, rely on me, go on
I became your fangs
As the long-awaited hero I engraved the answer
Tell me why you tell me, “Stop”
Don’t you dare stop now
I want a reason for judgment execution, I want it
Give me the next target
(I hate mobile formatting I hate mobile formatting I hate-)
And the Weaklings, who need to stay out of the way.
[Trial 2 Voice Trailer]
Kotoko: From the beginning I've never asked for your understanding! My actions, one by one, are bringing earth closer to peace. Useless weaklings should just shut up and let me protect them!
Weaklings shouldn’t meddle with the actions of the Hero, because the Hero knows best. If a decision or course of action is too difficult for a Weakling, they have to sit back and let the Hero choose for them.
[YONAH]
Kotoko: Weak... You're too weak. With that fragile body of yours, you can't stop anyone. You can't protect anyone. You can't even do your justice. All imperfect.
[…]
K: You're unable to do it yourself, that's why you need me. The fangs to do your will.
This fits with Kotoko, the Hero, being so dismissive towards Lucky, a Weakling. She probably wouldn’t want someone like Lucky to mimick her, because Lucky is Weak and should just rely on Kotoko for protection. It’s what gives Kotoko’s life meaning, after all.
[Deep Cover]
I want a reason for judgment execution, I want it
Give me the next target
This is what makes me believe that Kotoko and Lucky may have never really hung out outside of what we’re shown in Deep Cover. Because simply put, there’s no reason for Kotoko to be hanging out with her after the court case. Even back then, the only thing Kotoko had to tell her was that her murder was legitimate defense, which again is just what she was telling everyone else. Kotoko most likely had no reason to believe Lucky would retract her statement, and she doesn’t seem interested in hanging out with her for any other reason.
To be clear, I do think Kotoko cares about Lucky to some extent. She did show up in the magic subconscious video, after all. Kotoko is most likely glad to see Lucky happy, at least. I’m just saying that I don’t think their relationship really extended beyond “it’s nice to bump into each other in the street occasionally.” Of course, that’s only my interpretation, it’s perfectly fine if you interpret it in some other way.
Temporary CW Grooming
No, I don’t think Kotoko groomed Lucky. Unless you count lying to her about how legitimate the defense was, which again is more of a lie Kotoko told everyone than anything Lucky specific. I can definitely see the angle, the few scenes we have are pretty damn sketchy if you look at them a certain way, but I don’t think we have to assume the worst. Again, there is no reason for Kotoko to even groom her in the first place. She wouldn’t want Lucky to follow in her footsteps; she has no reason to be worried about the testimony, at least up until the retraction; and there’s not many other reasons she would have to do it. And Kotoko is decently pragmatic, she doesn’t usually bother doing things she doesn’t need.
To be clear, I absolutely believe Kotoko would have groomed Lucky, if it had been convenient for her. She does it to Es in YONAH, the lines I already used.
[YONAH]
Kotoko: Weak... You're too weak. With that fragile body of yours, you can't stop anyone. You can't protect anyone. You can't even do your justice. All imperfect.
[…]
K: You're unable to do it yourself, that's why you need me. The fangs to do your will.
That’s grooming. That’s what’s happening there. I’m not trying to defend this or even Kotoko, she absolutely is a groomer and this is Very Horrible. This deserves discussion, but it’s not what this post is about.
However, in YONAH, Kotoko has a reason to be doing it. She needs Es to hand out the Guilty judgements she wants. That doesn’t make it better, it just makes it in line with her character. She has no reason to manipulate Lucky, and again, she’s always shown to be dismissive of her.
Again, I do see where the concern comes from, and I wouldn’t be 100% surprised if it turned out to be true. I just don’t like to jump to conclusions on this sort of thing on principle, not when we have so little context for what we’re seeing, and especially not when it’s somewhat contradictory to Kotoko’s character and the central themes of her story.
Temporary CW Over
The Withdrawal of the Statement
This is one of the weirdest details of the MV, so I feel I should address it before signing off. Here’s what we know:
-Lucky testified in court that she was saved by “a female university student” according to the article (read: saved by Kotoko), and corroborated Kotoko’s testimony. Which was likely: she was being kidnapped (true), Kotoko caught the kidnapper red-handed (basically true, Lucky was tied up and on the floor with Michi beside her), Kotoko and Michi got into a fight over it (true), and Kotoko had to kill Michi to stop him (debatable, but Lucky likely believed it true).
-After the trial, Kaneshiro Isamu, the CEO of a big newspaper company, launches a private investigation that concludes Kotoko used excessive force.
-After that, it’s mentioned Isamu claims that Lucky retracted her statement.
-Isamu also claims some other stuff, trying to muddy up whether or not his son really was a kidnapper or not, but being The Guy That Covered Up a Bunch of Child Murders, I’m not inclined to believe him.
When I lay it all out like this, it seems like there’s a pretty simple explanation for what happened here. There is only one part of Lucky’s statement that could have needed retracting, the “legitimate defense” part, and that’s exactly what Isamu’s investigation contradicted. Given it’s Isamu, a newspaper company CEO of all things, the one who reveals the withdrawal, it’s assumed Lucky retracted it in his presence or in the presence of someone working for him. Meaning they could have told Lucky there was evidence of excessive force.
With that in mind, I believe it’s possible Lucky was told Kotoko may have used excessive force, and decided just in case to go back on the whole “legitimate defense” thing. Which of course Isamu spins into “she retracted the entire statement” because that’s what’s most convenient for him, who is likely trying to protect the family name from accusations of kidnapping.
I feel this is the most straightforward answer as to what could have happened. It’s consistent with Lucky still wanting to hang out with Kotoko and getting matching hats, it fits with her being scared of Kotoko later as she fully realizes Isamu and his people may have had a point, it fits Isamu’s known behavior, and it fits the context of the article.
It could even vaguely fit Lucky’s design choices. You know how her outfit looks like a prisoner’s outfit? Well, she sure is trapped in a weird situation between the kidnapping, Kotoko lying, Isamu trying to get her to retract the statement… I don’t know if this makes sense or not but I’m saying it anyways!
Is it the only possibility? Hell no. We have way too little context about the withdrawal to say anything definitive, so I’m perfectly open to hearing different reasons for why it could have happened. At the moment, though, I believe this to be one of the more solid possibilities.
This idea could also indicate who Kotoko wants to kill at the end, given she is wearing her murder outfit and all. She could take this as Isamu and his people manipulating a “weakling”, and we know she doesn’t take kindly to that kind of thing. That’s complete speculation, though, so don’t take it very seriously. I still think she only killed one person anyways, because of the whole “killed someone (singular)” thing.
Verdict
With all of it laid out, what am I voting her this Trial?
To what I imagine is no one’s surprise, Guilty.
I know this post has been kinder to her than a lot of other posts going around, but that doesn’t mean I’m ignoring the awful things Kotoko has done, and would continue to do if Forgiven this Trial. Already, she is stuck in a cycle of violence where the only way she can find fulfillment is by attacking those she considers worthy of punishment, a problem she’s had since Trial 1. While I don’t think regret is necessary for forgiveness (I’m the “Local Amane Momose Apologist” for a reason), it is important for forgiveness that I can believe they won’t continue to do the same bad thing in the future, which is not the case with Kotoko. At least from what we know, it seems she would absolutely kill someone else if fully Forgiven.
And that’s without the very obvious meta aspect. There are quite a few prisoners who could be in real danger if she’s Forgiven. The most obvious ones being Muu and Haruka (even if Haruka does have other stuff to worry about too), but Amane and Mikoto could also be targets because Kotoko didn’t manage to get to them in Trial 1. Oh, and Es. She would probably try manipulating them further if she sees them as an ally, which is what a Forgiven verdict would cause.
Mind you, an Unforgiven verdict isn’t perfect, either. She will certainly become antagonistic towards Es if she’s Unforgiven, so I doubt she’d actually listen to the verdict. She’ll likely close herself off and become isolated, which is the worst thing that can happen to someone with a mindset like hers.
Hell, it’s not even perfect for prison safety purposes. A restrained Kotoko is still probably stronger than a restrained Muu, a restrained Haruka and even an unrestrained Amane. Just, hopefully not strong enough to cause serious damage.
More pressingly, though, Kotoko herself is a massive target, given she’s antagonized basically the entire prison. Fuuta has a vendetta and a strong sense of justice, and while I’d hope he’s learnt the lesson that he shouldn’t take justice into his own hands, Amane’s religion (which is clearly starting to influence him) also places a lot of value on punishing those who go against destiny, so. Then there’s the fact Kotoko’s clearly shown herself as a threat to Mikoto, and while violence landed them into the Milgram mess in the first place, John might decide Kotoko’s dangerous enough to warrant becoming a “savior” again.
And God forbid she does get hurt and Shidou doesn’t have enough time or resources to treat all the injured people around. Because Mr “someone’s value cannot be the same as another” Kirisaki is not going to help Kotoko at anyone else’s expense.
But ultimately, we have to pick the lesser of two evils. From a meta sense, I’m more worried about what Kotoko could do to Muu/Amane than what Fuuta/John/whoever else could do to Kotoko. More importantly, from a mindset sense, I’m more worried about enabling and encouraging her current behavior (which at this point would be practically irreversible, given there’s only one Trial left) than antagonizing her and causing her to isolate. Both are bad, but one of them has a chance of getting the personification of the death penalty (death penalty without trial, no less) to change her ways.
See, what I’m hoping is that (depending of what happens from this point on) we can try to make amends and Forgive on Trial 3, with the hope she understands we believe she’s in the wrong, but that we won’t abandon her and she deserves a chance to better herself. That compassion could be enough for her to start working towards improvement… maybe.
I’m definitely being way too optimistic, but when we’re working with The Worst System in History, all that’s left is to try our best and hope things turn out alright, even when we lack good tools to try and make that happen.
I sincerely hope she can break the toxic mindset she’s stuck in and gets to a place where I can vote her Forgiven in Trial 3, but as of right now, a Trial 2 Forgiven is just not on the table for me. Sorry Kotoko, I do feel kinda bad for you still, Milgram’s punishment for the Unforgiven is awful :(
Conclusion
That’s it for now! I’ll maybe make some other posts discussing other stuff in this MV, since there’s surprisingly quite a bit in it, but for now I’ve said what I needed to say. Take care!
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doctorbunny · 4 months
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Last minute Kotoko theory I've been meaning to write up since Harrow
I don't think her murder victim was the guy at the end
I think Kotoko thinks it is
But halfway through we see a news article about a guy called Mikio Oshii
He's a thief who steals purses and accidentally broke an old woman's wrist when she fell after he grabbed her bag
According to the article, he recently got out of hospital after what seems to be the last time Kotoko beat him up
We see him in an alleyway as Kotoko approaches to punish him again (specifically we see her raise her trainer to kick him)
Notably, both Kotoko's undercover scene and the stock image on her card depict not a warehouse but an alleyway (and Kotoko is shown "killing" Es by kicking them)
There's a theory that the prisoners are split between direct and indirect murders
Direct = Haruka, Muu, Shidou, Amane and Mikoto
Indirect = Yuno, Fuuta, Mahiru, Kazui and Kotoko
This theory mostly seems to fit with what we think the crimes are (Haruka strangled someone, Muu stabbed Rei, Amane beat her mother with the umbrella and Fuuta, Mahiru and Kazui’s victims are speculated to be suicides)
But Kotoko being indirect always seemed out of place... Unless, instead of killing her victim by kicking them to death... She aggregated the injuries of a guy who just got out of hospital and left him in a cold, unhygienic alleyway and he got an ultimately fatal infection
Kotoko didn't directly give him sepsis but he wouldn't have been exposed to the thing that killed him if not for her
But thats just speculation~
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cs-rylie · 9 months
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Random idea to break the tie of who to ship Ruby with in my reader-guided fic.. Connect the Prompts (on ao3). Y'all get a preview in how I'll write the ships you've suggested, and maybe vote someone off.. (or you can tell me how bad an idea this is lol..)
LMK if you want to be added/removed from this list @jrob64 @kmomof4 @teamhook @elfiola @anmylica @soniccat @booksteaandtoomuchtv @winterbaby89 @tiganasummertree @undercaffinatednightmare @zaharadessert @eddisfargo @oshii @xarandomdreamx @gingerchangeling @deckerstarblanche @hookedmom @dashingpiratesandswans @thenoveljunkie @djlbg @insanelydeadlybookcollector @grimmswan @veiled-in-moxie @hannahhook7744 @julesep3026 @onceratheart18 @theejael @jonesfandomfanatic @inspiredbystardust @huntressandlioness1 @cleme-art17 @qualitycoffeethings @thepiratething @xellewoods @caityrayeraye @amyveanie @tequedarasavinon @wateryouremu @clickingkeys @stardreamer28 @middlemistcs13 @avmsstuff @thepansexualdemonchef @poetryslam12 @normadcisba @anonymous-persona @kday426 @momontheice @andiirivera
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haknamindustries · 9 months
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Future nostalgia - Patlabor - The Movie.
Made in 1989, the story takes places in 1999. Patlabor - The Movie is a great example of how Mamoru Oshii crafted a convincing vision of the (now past) future. The following quote is from the making-of documentary for Patlabor 2, but it fits the first movie as well.
''I'm not good at writing simply from my imagination. In fact, I don't think anybody can. The image of the world that someone creates from his imagination is too limited. The best way is to gather information about things that I know and that other people know, and to get the most out of it. Then, add a little original flavour. (...) The world you create should be based on reality, because reality persuades the audience to believe in your world. (...) We see that even a telephone pole is very complicated, with a very strange form, more interesting than a spaceship from a cheap movie. [...] You have to think about why these everyday objects make for believable scenes."
If you look at the individual frames, nothing in them feels out of time. Piles of printed books, chunky screens, lots of cables, a minidisc, a newspaper, an operation manual for MS DOS. A print of Mt. Fuji in the background and a figurine of a sumo ringer to locate everything in Japan. The only things that stand out are the Babylon Project and the Labors, both of which get surprisingly little screen time.
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oshii · 1 year
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Not @kyofetus about to block me for asking what if oreos were called soreos and filled with pus instead of creme 🤣
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popponn · 7 months
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hey but what if you are a burnout artist who forgets why you started and loved painting in the first place. and then you met isagi yoichi who loved soccer so much to the point it moved you. the first it was a friendly coincidence. then it happen and happen again and you fell for his passion before you knew it.
meanwhile, isagi who first accepted your presence simply because of the coincidences and politeness, slowly find comfort and company in you. what begin as "it's unfortunate that you feel like this towards what you love" became "i want to see you happy and paint again because you clearly still love it" not realizing it's one of the few times he get this invested in anything other than soccer.
then when you asked him if you could use him as drawing reference, he agreed. not knowing that when he finally saw you painted with happiness he just hit the oh moment.
he fell in love with your passion and maybe something a little bit more.
fell harder!isagi hits different. both in hs or pro player setting. that's it. (actually not, the concept of falling in love with each other's passions while inspiring each other while finding company and comfort in each other is also very very good.) (also the concept of oh thats manga blue lock and that could be manga blue period is funny to some degree)
update: yeah im writing this!!!! m.list here!!
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sleepihaven · 2 years
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Can I request a fanboy shu where shu is a massive fan of reader and was inspired by them to start doing streams. One day reader gets invited to join a luxiem collab and it ends up with a very flustered shu, even more than the time he has to do the bath rice or me voice tweet, due to reader's flirting and his genmates teasing
Flustered shu is very cute
Mercy on Me
Pairing: Shu Yamino x GN!Reader
Synopsis: Getting invited to collab with Luxiem was something, but knowing the kind-hearted ‘shupport’ sorcerer was flustered with your presence was another thing.
A/N: The plot of this is like you’re an independent vtuber but debuted like before Luxiem and Shu got inspired to do streams cuz of you <3 I’ve been touching grass so I’m sorry if like my writing is blegh and I hope you enjoy this comeback of mines
DISCLAIMER: All of my works are purely fictional and is only to entertain. They’re not something to be projected to reality. Daydreaming about it to some extent is fine but please learn to distinguish fiction from reality. This doesn’t only apply to Vox, but all of Nijisanji members.
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Though he has several reasons of wanting to become a vtuber, one minor reason is because when Youtube suddenly gave him an ad about your introduction stream. He was so taken aback from how good you can carry your stream, though you’re not the best of the best gamers, but the vibe of your stream was so comfortable and welcoming.
Ever since then, he has been your #1 fan lurker in your streams, becoming another secret personal reason to join Nijisanji
Now here he is, collabing with his beloved genmates and you playing Golf with Your Friends. He has this composed calm expression but inside? He’s a panic mess, wanting this collab to be perfect also take this as a chance to finally meet his oshii.
Everyone introduced themselves respectively and started the game. It was chaotic screaming from their shots to the each golf holes.
For Shu though? Every Yaminions noticed how much of a flustered wreck he is, though they don’t know the reason why
There was like a pause in Shu’s golf ball and everyone was worried from the abrupt act, what was going on in Shu’s head? Trying to impress you of course but his thoughts made him stop moving, even his model was frozen.
“Earth to Shu Yamino Nijisanji EN Sorcerer!” He shakes his head from his overflowing thoughts, he blushed so hard from the embarrassment of letting his thoughts go wild on what to chat about while playing.
“Awwww our shubert flustered? We know there’s a beautiful person playing with us so I understand.” Vox teased, the others chuckling from Shu’s muffled groans.
“I’m not, I’m just… Ahhhh…” he covers his face in his hands. Why is it so hard for him to concentrate!!!
Everyone chuckled lightly with Shu trying to get some air and calm himself down.
“Haha, it’s alright Shu! Take your time alright? I’ll be waiting for you~” You make a kissy noise and it just broke him even more. You heard him trying to gasp for air, not so unfazed as he usually is.
OK its just a game. A normal friendly collab with Y/N and Luxiem. He can do this. Right? Right…??
Absolutely not.
After he managed to calm himself down, everyone kept throwing teases to him and you threw in a number of flirts.
“Wow, I’ve never seen Shu this nervous before.” Ike murmured, causing him to groan again. “Ike…. Help me stop them please.”
“Awww hehe, ah that reminds me!” Shu’s eyes darted around, scared what has dawned in your head.
“I heard your new song!! It’s so cool oh god, everyone was so cool.” Shu let out his breathe in relief but what came out your mouth next just murdered him on spot.
“Especially you Shu! Your growls are so on point and oh my,” He’s waiting for it, “You made me lose my mind seriously.”
RIP Shu Yamino fly high, he’s beet red frozen in spot while his genmates just question how you got him so red
Well, worth it.
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Masterlist
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ogradyfilm · 7 months
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Recently Viewed: Angel’s Egg
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In the 1980s and 1990s, a lot of anime was produced exclusively for the booming home video market. Freed from the more stringent censorship guidelines associated with traditional distribution models (theatrical, television), these relatively low-budget “OVAs” became synonymous with “Mature Content,” a misleading label that in this context alludes to extreme violence and sexually explicit material (see: Demon City Shinjuku, Wicked City, Doomed Megalopolis)—superficial pleasures that are not totally without merit, but are nevertheless rather juvenile. Angel’s Egg, however, is genuinely mature; this hidden gem—which has only recently been rediscovered and critically reevaluated after being largely dismissed upon its initial release—is thematically rich, emotionally resonant, and exquisitely crafted. I don’t know if I even possess the language required to articulate what makes it so utterly compelling… but that will hardly discourage me from trying anyway.
The film begins with a tight closeup on a pair of small, delicate hands. Gradually, the thin wrists rotate, allowing the viewer to observe the creases in the pale flesh, the lines on the palms, the faint sheen on the nails; the joints audibly crack and pop as the fingers flex, curling into clenched fists. This minute attention to detail permeates every subsequent frame. Individual strands of hair billow gracefully in the breeze, mirroring the swaying motion of rustling grass. The reflections of gnarled tree branches ripple on the deceptively placid surface of a subterranean lake. Later, this same body of water slowly envelops our heroine’s calm, tranquil features as she sinks into its dark, icy depths.
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Although director Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell) provides fluid movement and a hypnotic rhythm, Yoshitaka Amano (whose cinematic credits include Belladonna of Sadness, but who is probably better known in the United States for his Final Fantasy concept illustrations) contributes the vital framework, sculpting the visual style and establishing the oppressively bleak, haunting tone. His character designs, of course, are instantly iconic. The protagonist is particularly striking; her skin is so immaculately white that it almost appears to radiate light, starkly contrasting the dull, drab, monochromatic gray shade of the setting—a nightmarish realm of carved stone, shattered glass, and petrified bone wherein the inhabitants resemble the surrounding gargoyles and solid objects are indistinguishable from their own shadows. The backgrounds are equally evocative: barren, desolate wastelands stretch out for miles beneath the blood red sky, while the architecture is a surreal, chaotic amalgamation of Gothic cathedrals, industrial factories, and techno-organic horrors beyond human comprehension.
As for the plot… well, to be perfectly honest, it’s far too minimalistic to be properly summarized. Indeed, attempting to describe the story in literalist terms is inherently futile; the narrative is entirely figurative, revolving around such recurring motifs as feathers, fish, machinery, moisture, and incubation. Naturally, I have my personal theories regarding the intended “meaning” behind these cryptic symbols (they could represent the conflict between religion/spirituality and rationality/skepticism, for example), but I would prefer to avoid delving into concrete interpretation; to dissect the movie from an academic, intellectual perspective would merely diminish the captivating beauty of its ambiguous subtext.
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Ultimately, Angel’s Egg is unlike anything that I’ve previously encountered. Sure, it’s possible to identify a few obvious artistic influences (H.R. Giger, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Andrei Tarkovsky), but such shallow Easter egg hunts are fundamentally reductive when applied to films as singularly unique as this. In an industry defined by repetitive formulas and generic archetypes, Oshii and Amano created a defiantly unconventional, experimental, avant-garde masterpiece. I’m glad that I was able to experience it on the big screen, alongside an enthusiastic audience—thank you, Japan Society!
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canmom · 2 years
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Three animated films about children in the war
So, I have finally seen Grave of the Fireflies! (And watched Totoro for the... not even sure, n+1th time.) For comments before the film, see Animation Night 111.
Anyway, what a fascinating range that was. I went into Fireflies not know much more than the premise - two children die in the war - and to expect an extremely sad movie. So, let me talk about some things that stood out to me, compared to that expectation. And then, I want to lead into a comparison to some very similar films, namely Barefoot Gen and In This Corner of the World...
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So. The first surprise - perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise, given we’re talking about Takahata here - is how understated it is. It does use music, but only sometimes. In contrast to the exaggerated emotions and stretchy faces of Totoro, characters are mostly quite stoic. It’s not to say that characters do not emote at all, as in many of Mamoru Oshii’s films - indeed, the film may be the first to contain the iconic Ghibli tears running down a character’s face - but a lot of the time, we are led to infer the emotional context from the characters’ actions, the scenario, and the framing of the scenes.
Grave of the Fireflies opens with the death of the boy Seita. He is one of a number of starving, listless children in what I think is a train station. Even before his death, he barely responds to interaction or offers of food, and before long he dies. A uniformed man finds his body, but does not seem to find it remarkable - children dying here is a regular occurrence. He finds a sweets tin, and can’t work out what’s inside it - it is only much later that we find out the tin contains ashes of Seita’s sister Setsuko, who starved to death under his watch, and the tin becomes a symbol of their relationship through the rest of the film. Seita and Setsuko’s ghosts rise from the tin; the rest of the film is a flashback, showing the circumstances in which Setsuko died.
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The film is based on a short story written in 1967 by Akiyuki Nosaka. It is semi-autobiograpical; in reality, Nosaka lost three family members during the war: one sister to illness, his father to the firebombing of Kobe, and then his younger sister Fukui to malnutrition; the story is framed as an apology to Fukui for her death. So in a most direct sense, Seita represents Akiyuki Nosaka, and Setsuko represents Fukui. The story is written in the tradition of ‘double suicide’ stories, more typically about lovers. It is in a way quite abstracted: Nosaka spoke of writing about an ‘idealised humanity’ in an ‘idealised situation’ in contrast to his feelings about the culture of 1967.
If you read the wiki article there, almost all of what we read is Takahata’s interpretation; it’s safe to say his film has heavily overshadowed the original story in memory. So let’s look at his connection to it.
Takahata was born in October 1935, so he would have been nine, approaching ten years old when the war ended. He had also survived a US air raid, on Okayama in June 29, but it seems he did not lose family to the war. However, as his later films would show, he is very concerned with cultural memory, and things being lost: the protagonist’s memories of her rural childhood in Only Yesterday, or the tanuki forest being cut down in Pom Poko.
So, by the time of Grave of the Fireflies being released, Takahata was already 53 years old. In the context of the 80s economic boom, he evidently saw himself as belonging to a different era; there’s something of a ‘kids of today!’ angle in how he spoke about the contemporary generation in the 1987 interview that forms the basis for most of that article..
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There are two other obvious films to compare this one to - both dealing with children living through the war, and the time afterwards. Historically, the most relevant one is Barefoot Gen (はだしのゲン), which we watched back on Animation Night 26. This is based on a manga by Keiji Nakazawa, a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing, but it’s equally concerned with the brutal period right after the war, serialised from the period 1973-1987. The manga began serialisation in Weekly Shōnen Jump but stayed there only one year where it proved unpopular with readers, before moving to leftist publications like Citizen’s and Cultural Criticism; it was enjoyed a lot by Art Spiegelman of Maus fame. You can read it here on archive.org.
In the introduction, Nakazawa writes that many of the awful scenes in the story are directly autobiographical; he says:
1966, after seven years of illness, my mother died in the A- Bomb Victims Hospital in Hiroshima. When I went to the crematorium to collect her ashes, I was shocked. There were no bones left in my mother's ashes, as there normally are after a cremation. Radioactive cesium from the bomb had eaten away at her bones to the point that they disintegrated. The bomb had even deprived me of my mother's bones. I was overcome with rage. I vowed that I would never forgive the Japanese militarists who started the war, nor the Americans who had so casually dropped the bomb on us.
Barefoot Gen was adapted to two anime films by Madhouse in 1983 and 1986; at the time the mighty Osamu Dezaki had just departed in 1980, and so under Masao Maroyama, Madhouse was becoming much more auteur-driven studio with an increasingly diverse output with figures like Rintaro coming into their own. The two Barefoot Gen films are directed by first Mori Masaki and then Toshio Hirata.
Compared to Grave of the Fireflies, the approach taken to animation in Barefoot Gen therefore comes from the Mushi-Pro/Dezaki lineage rather than the Toei lineage. It’s much less concerned with realism in character animation, taking a more exaggerated approach to motion with a lower drawing count that at least to my eye calls back to the Kanada school, but also the Dezaki visual language and drive towards going all-in on presenting emotion seen in works like Ashita no Joe. Which is certainly not to say that Barefoot Gen is completely lacking in moments of subtler animation, like a doctor washing his hands after taking care of a patient or Gen carving wood; it’s just not the overwhelming focus of the film like Takahata’s work. Despite the harsh circumstances, most of the early parts of the film end with the characters laughing and a fade to black.
Then the bomb drops.
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When it comes to the Hiroshima bombing Barefoot Gen does not at all hold back on detail; it is not exactly realism but it clearly draws heavily on nuclear bomb test footage. The moments leading up to the bombing are excruciating anticipation: the characters dismiss the ‘spy plane’ and talk about the weather, and then we cut to radio chatter in English between the observation planes and the Enola Gay discussing the weather in a horribly different light. The planes are drawn in exacting detail, and we’re shown supernatural omens like ants crawling inside. Then, we see the bombing through the scope of the plane; the pilots are drawn in a heavily hatched style with realistic proportions reminiscent of an American comic. The bomb drops, and the mushroom cloud rises silently as an expanding circle; then we see a series of shots abruptly switch into harsh black and white shadow shapes. Like in Grave of the Fireflies, they are using the techniques of cel shading to show form through shape, but with the contrast pushed up to maximum.
In the 80s OVA era, Madhouse would become experts at drawing monsters, but Gen actually predates most of these well-known works. Nevertheless, it delivers a huge amount of grotesque imagery: a chain of shots showing characters we have grown to like over the course of the film being melted away, their eyeballs falling out, etc. All of these are drawn with a low framerate, and there isn’t too much concern for realism, but that might be the point. All of these scenes are shown in vivid, hypersaturated colours against a swirling paint background.
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Following this the rest of the film is a series of further horrors as Gen loses his family trapped in a burning building (an event directly experienced by Nakazawa) and stumbles alone through the city, witnessing the injuries of survivors (who stumble out of the ruins like zombies), and then the effects of radiation poisoning. It is a harrowing film; it never looks away. The focus on rubbing our face in horror and gore could feel voyeuristic, especially in the context of later OVAs which are pretty gleeful with their violence, but here - perhaps because of how it is framed by narration - it achieves an appropriately sickening effect. After all, even if it didn’t look like this, this really happened: there was an instant in 1945 where thousands of people had their flesh melted like this all at once. Animation here is used to slow down time and show the effects of the bomb in even more excruciating detail than live action could manage.
The focus of the first Barefoot Gen film is therefore the horror of the Hiroshima bombing. This wasn’t a completely unprecedented subject in film, with prior Japanese examples including the Japan Teachers Union funded Children of Hiroshima (1952) and Hiroshima (1953), and Barefoot Gen had already seen a live-action adaptation in 1976, but as I understand it was still at least something of a taboo subject; later in the 80s would come films like Black Rain (1989). The manga goes much further, telling the story of Gen’s life in the aftermath of the war, but the first film (reasonably) makes the decision to spend its runtime on Gen’s life leading up to the bombing and its immediate impact.
The second film adapts later parts of the manga, following Gen’s life in the years after the war - but if the first film was hard to acquire, the second is essentially impossible. So sadly I can’t comment on this one.
Grave of the Fireflies also has scenes of bombing, primarily at the beginning, with the firebombing of Kobe. Waves of firebombs fall like seeds and bounce off buildings to scatter in the street - in contrast to the expected explosions, it is a surprisingly quiet scene which gradually builds up into an emergency. There is one brief aerial shot, but for the most part, planes are seen from a distance.
Compared to Seita, who is caring towards his sister but quietly very proud, and who idolises his sailor father (who is fighting at sea and implicitly dies offscreen), Gen is a lot more energetic and playful. Gen’s father is also a completely different figure: the film is at pains to show that he is opposed to the war, which reflects Nakazawa’s real father, who was arrested and imprisoned for his involvement in an anti-war theatre troupe. Without knowing this context, the film can come across as somewhat idealised, painting the father as opposed to the war to make it easier to sympathise with him. But no, that’s real.
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(please forgive the off-centre subs; it is almost impossible to find a good encode of this movie and the alternative is subs that are bright purple!)
In contrast, both Grave of the Fireflies and much later In This Corner of the World portray how much of the population did indeed hold nationalist sentiments and hope for Japan’s victory in the war. Seita acts as as a synecdoche for the forgotten children starving to death in the station, but he also represents a certain stupid stubbornness: rather than swallow his pride and return to his asshole aunt, he starves to death along with his sister. In one striking sequence, sitting in a hole in the ground, Seita sings to himself a patriotic song about Japan seeing off invaders near and far, and imagines a sequence where his dad sails past on a huge warship bedecked in lights, mingling with the symbol of the fireflies. It is a child’s view of the war, but he is after all a child. And sure enough, his dad almost certainly dies at sea; we do not find out for sure, only that he never returns Seita’s leters.
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The archetype of a brother struggling to protect a sickly sister is a classic one - in recent years we’ve seen characters like Nier and whatever the kid from Demon Slayer is called - but here, Seita completely fails to live up to this. He can’t save his sister, and the failure kills him too.
Food is a huge concern of both films: because it is in such short supply, what little is available is all the more important. The loving rendering of food that Ghibli is known for began in Castle in the Sky, but it attains special significance here, with items like fruit drops and white rice becoming treasured items. Similar is true in Gen: a major plot point concerns Gen and his brother stealing a fish to give to their sick mother, and a kind fisherman letting them keep it.
And, for the most part, adults in Gen are kind, and proud of the children. This is absolutely not the case in Grave of the Fireflies. Here, the adults are just about universally indifferent to Seita and Setsuko’s plight. Their aunt berates them as other mouths to feed who don’t work in return, sees Seita’s decision to buy a stove as a stubborn refusal rather than an attempt to accommodate, and simply lets them go when Seita decides to leave to an unknown destination. The local farmers soon run out of rice to sell, and so Seita resorts to theft, which gets him beaten. The doctor diagnoses Setsuko’s malnutrition, but has no suggestion of where she’ll get food. About the only time they do receive a gift is after Setsuko’s death, where one of the farmers has a ready supply of charcoal to burn her corpse.
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Since Grave of the Fireflies is adapting a short story rather than a long-running manga, it has generally fewer events to cover, and can proceed at a slow pace. The story is simpler: it is not trying to show all the horrors of the bomb, but merely make us bear witness to the story of these two children.
The final image of Grave of the Fireflies shows Seita and Setsuko’s ghosts looking out on a modern Japan with new high-rise buildings - implicitly one that has completely forgotten them. The painfully beautiful but short-lived fireflies are a recurring image; early on, Setsuko crushes a firefly by accident, and the title of the film refers to a point where the children capture a number of fireflies and release them to light their shelter, but by morning they are dead; Setsuko digs a small mass grave and puts the fireflies in it. Later, Seita will burn her corpse, and the grave marker comes to correspond to her as well. The symbolism is very direct, but the way it is executed - that fascination with light - makes it work.
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In This Corner of the World (2016) comes much later in this lineage. Unlike the previous two films, it is not based on anyone’s direct experience of living through the war. Instead, the impetus comes from mangaka Fumiyo Kōno’s editor, who asked her to write a story about the Hiroshima bombing. Kōno is a resident of Hiroshima born in 1968, but none of her family are bomb survivors; she was not initially moved by the suggestion, but changed her mind after realising how the bombing had become a taboo subject, not even remembered by many people in the city. This led to her manga Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms (夕凪の街 桜の国, 2004). WP writes:
According to Fumiyo Kōno's afterword, she was prompted to write Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms when her editor asked her for a Hiroshima story. She was initially reluctant because, while she was born in Hiroshima neither she nor anyone in her family was a survivor of the atomic bomb, and growing up she found the subject upsetting and had tried to avoid it ever since. She decided to tackle the subject because she felt it was "unnatural and irresponsible for me to consciously try to avoid the issue." Living in Tokyo, she had come to realize that people outside of Hiroshima and Nagasaki didn't know about the effects of the bomb, not because they were avoiding the subject but because it is never talked about, and so she attempted the story because "drawing something is better than drawing nothing at all."[9]
Kōno described "Country of Cherry Blossoms" as "what I most needed to hear two years ago, when I still avoided anything to do with the atomic bomb."[9]
Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms is a two part manga, about two generations of descendants of bomb survivors. She followed this manga up in 2007-2009 with In This Corner of the World (この世界の片��に), following a young artist called Suzu who lives in Hiroshima and nearby , during the war.
Kōno credits a series of inspirations, many of them old school manga artists:
She feels that Osamu Tezuka and Fujiko Fujio were among her early influences, but then she was inspired by Sanpei Shirato's literary style and at present, she takes inspiration from Yu Takita's versatility.
Tezuka needs no introduction. Fujiko Fujio is the pen name of a pair of manga artists who started writing in 1960, notably creating Doraemon. Shirato is a pioneering gekiga artist who frequently contributed to Garo magazine. Yu Takita was another Garo mangaka, known for autiobiographical manga, though I can’t find much more than this.
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In 2016, this film received an adaptation directed by Sunao Katabuchi, known for Princess Arete (Animation Night 74). The animation was carried out at Mappa, who are funnily enough an offshoot of Madhouse, as well as outsourcing to Madhouse proper and DR Movie - however their approach calls to mind much more Takahata. The character designs are not nearly so solid and detailed, instead going for a more abstract and simplified style that follows the manga, but the approach to movement is very much in the realist school, with lots of carefully observed, subtle everyday actions.
Many scenes seem to draw heavily on Grave of the Fireflies, such as when the characters witness an enormous ship come into port and slide gradually past the camera, elaborately animated food preparation, a scene where a character ducking for cover in a field sings a patriotic song, a precious supply of white rice. Other scenes, such as aerial shots of bombs falling, step closer to Barefoot Gen. Actually all three films have a scene where a plane strafes the ground where a character is running and they have to dive for cover!
Compared to the other two films, In This Corner is less concerned with foregrounding the horrors of war and death, though it is absolutely interested in the emotional experience of war. There are certainly plenty of scenes where the main character has to duck from air combat; she loses her drawing hand and narrowly escapes death from a burrowing bomb. But it’s also deeply concerned with the romance plot, and the longer arc of a life. It wants to show not just the experience of the war, but the experience of moving past it.
One key moment not explored in the others comes with the announcement of Japan’s surrender. In Fireflies, Seita hears about this from a man in a queue to withdraw his mother’s money at a bank - he demands to know whether his father survived and flees but that’s really the end of it, since it leads right into the death of Setsuko. By contrast, In This Corner shows the whole family listening to the radio as the surrender is announced, and explores how Suzu is appalled to realise that everything she went through was for absolutely nothing; this is soon followed by the revelation that her parents are respectively killed by the bomb and dying of radiation poisoning.
The film continues after the end of the war for some time, heavily compressing time now, following Suzu adopting a child and gradually regaining a will to live. In a flashback scene it does show the bombing, and the child holding the corpse of their mother crawling with maggots and pierced with broken glass, but even here the drawing of injury is much less meticulously detailed than in either of the other films.
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As far as depicting warfare, In This Corner uses CGI for some of the scenes of planes and bombs; it’s not especially jarring but it is a little noticeably different, and actually quite elaborate. There are some interesting bits of stylisation like the colourful bursts of explosions. Ships, on the other hand, are hand-drawn, and there’s an interesting balance between the detailed accuracy to the historical vessels and a certain sketchiness. The backgrounds have noticeable brushwork texture - they’re very strong in general, both more stylish and more detailed than Mappa’s TV backgrounds.
The most noticeable difference in aesthetic brought by 30 years is the use of digital ink and paint, and the looseness of shapes. I think the designs are quite closely based on the manga, which uses rough lines and watercolours; what it means in practice here is simplification and abstraction of shapes.
Oh, and of course... In This Corner is a much longer film than the other two, which both come in sub 90 minutes while the extended cut of In This Corner (which I haven’t seen) is literally the longest animated film ever made at 168 minutes; even the original cut more than two hours. This is in part perhaps reflecting different production conditions (making Totoro and Fireflies side by side strained the resources of Ghibli as it is, while Mappa are a large - if incredibly overworked - studio in a totally different era), and norms about how long a film should be. The longer runtime gives In This Corner time to do more, but it also makes it less pointed about any one thing.
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In terms of the emotional tone of the three films, Barefoot Gen is a very angry film: it wants you to be confronted with the full horror of what happened and share in the author’s furious disgust towards the Japanese government and American bombers. But it’s also, perhaps surprisingly, a hopeful film that wants us to believe none of this is inevitable - as Spiegelman’s intro the comic describes it, an expression of the worldview that let the author carry on after going through a literal nuclear bombing.
Grave of the Fireflies is more a film about remembrance. Seita is a tragic figure, but we’re invited to understand him much more than condemn, and see what could lead to a girl dying in a hole in the arms of her brother. Its gaze is cold, almost clinical, precisely absorbing every detail. There is no living on after the war: just two ghosts watching a world become unrecognisable. There is very little that is hopeful to be found here; at best the wistful thought that all these people lost to time and entropy might live on as ghosts. But that is what gives the film its force.
In This Corner of the World expresses a different generation’s attempt to dig into a war that predates our births. It is the view of someone who cares a lot about portraying it right, and Katabuchi certainly excels at portraying wistfulness and loss of motivation, but it is also inevitably a view from afar, and to me that means it feels like it ends up being less bold in its artistic choices than the other two - though that could simply be because it reflects the tastes of this era, and not a past one! 'Less bold’ absolutely does not mean ‘bad’; it’s still a moving and truthful picture, and it was definitely the film I needed to watch after Gen and When The Wind Blows two years ago. As much as it’s rooted in history, its story is ultimately a personal one, about the course of a life, and I suppose about committing to a future despite incredible adversity. 
Taking all three films... like, this isn’t about trying to pick a ‘best’ one. They all complement each other, and it is deeply fascinating to see how many different ways you can effectively approach the same period and even the same subject matter, and also I suppose a case study in seeing how 30 years changes the way we tell a story about one of the worst periods of history. By this point, the number of people who remember WWII is dwindling; we are left with artworks to get a sense of how they understood it, and then if it is relevant we try to connect to that history with our own artworks.
Perhaps it would be worth digging into other significant manga that deal with this period - I think for example Suehiro Maruo wrote quite a bit about orphans in the aftermath of the war. But that’s a discussion for another day...
(If you read all this... thank you. This isn’t really going to be a regular feature or anything, I just had a bunch of thoughts I wanted to write down after that movie, and I wanted to give it a more detailed treatment than I could in a couple of hours before the film!)
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Re that post about Kenzaburo Oe, you mentioned the term 1968 kids, talking about him and Hayao Miyazaki, how would describe that group? I get the gist of a certain kind of utopian artist from that generation, but I haven't heard it before, wondered if there was any other traits/anyone else you'd put in that group?
Definitely worthy of a fuller write-up, and I wish I had a concrete "unifying" source for all this, but Japan had a rapidly growing leftwing radical movement in the 1960's. The Anpo protests, a huge series of demonstrations against the US-Japan Security Treaty (which gave the US military bases in Japan) from 1959-1960 were the launching point, and they built on growing movements of unionization, environmental activism, and anti-militarism. It culminated in the 1968 seizure of much of the campus of the University of Tokyo by the 'Zenkyōtō' student activist faction, which was part of a global wave of student activism in 1968.
And like in so many places, 1968 was this movement's high water mark - they were awash in factionalism, police broke up their occupation, and support for them plummeted in the face of the violence they both initiated and recieved. In the 1960's members of these factions thought that they could seize political power, change the state, all that jazz. By the 1970's that dream was dead.
Most political-style artists were part of this movement, and shaped by that break - as political opportunity faded, they saw in their art a way to express their concerns, visions, etc that the political system would not. Since I am an anime person, this is where a lot of leaders of 70's and 80's anime would emerge from. Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata were both animators at Toei Animation during this time, got heavily involved in the union efforts there - Miyazaki was the union's general secretary in 1964 - and were avowed Marxists. Mamoru Oshii was similarly active, participating in the Shinjuku Riot over the Vietnam War and identifying as Trotskyist-Left. There is an entire genre of Japanese cinema called New Wave which was part of and shaped by this movement - director Shūji Terayama would be a notable for films like 1971's Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets, which I will mention because its creators included theatre director and music composer J. A. Caesar (real name Takaaki Terahara) who composed the soundtrack for Revolutionary Girl Utena, for the anime connection. There are of course hundreds more I could name.
I think their themes are well known - what united them as a 'movement' was A: they all mutually saw themselves that way, and B: they are the last generation to believe that their art could truly change minds. Miyazaki is making Nausicaa because he actually thinks it will turn people away from techno-fetishization, stuff like that. Creators after that make works about society, but they don't view them the same, their ambitions are different - insight vs activism, or reform vs revolution. Of course these creators will age and change - Oshii for example did so, he would famously criticize Miyazaki of being a typical "Anpo man" in feeling like his films were responsible for society and the world, saying such responsibility was itself a form of fascism (its Oshii, he says shit like this all the time). In his criticism you can see the identity of the 1968 generation reflected back. They were more-or-less wrong, of course - art can change things, but not that much, and it turns out politics is way more complicated then their visions could contain. But I respect their conviction dearly and find the art they made to have something irreplacable due to that conviction, so its worth remembering.
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yyh4ever · 1 year
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A Flower Blooming in the Room
By Yoshihiro Togashi
I translated this 10-page manga that Togashi drew to the "DRILL CAPSULE -DRILL CAPSULE MARKETS-" doujinshi (pp.141-150).
The japanese scans were shared on Weibo by 山是三山岛的三
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"DRILL CAPSULE" is a series of doujinshi created and released during 1997-2000, with the participation of famous manga artists such as Nobuyuki Anzai (Flame of Recca).
There are several volumes: "DRILL CAPSULE", "DRILL GUNDAM 00800", "DRILL CAPSULE 2", "SHADOW FLAME", "SHADOW FLAME 2", "DRILL KENSHIN", and "DRILL×HUNTER". They can be roughly divided into two categories according to the content: "free play by the author" and "secondary creation using another work as motif".
Togashi participates in the first volume (1997) with a "free play", an original and super beautiful story.
Hana is a flower that blooms and grows in the emotionless room of Tatsuya Oshii. They spend time together and everything seems fine, until...
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Source: Japanese scans were shared by 山是三山岛的三
It's so sad and beautiful! Now that Tatsuya is happy, she eventually withered. She doesn't want to bloom again. She doesn't want to grow in his room without emotions anymore.
Her last message to him was entirely written in katakana. She probably can't read or write japanese (hiragana and kanji) very well. That's why she said she had a poor handwriting, and couldn't help him copy his notes.
The last panel is touching, the seedling that sprouted from her body ended up becoming wonderful flowers. I bet she's satisfied with Tatsuya's smile. The new her is now blooming in a room full of happiness :)
The scene Hana and Tatsuya are playing video game is exactly the same scene of Genkai and Yusuke in Yu Yu Hakusho.
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In the Table of Contents, Togashi starts commenting that he drew a manuscript of 17 pages. But, he was joking, and the story ended up with only 10 pages (lol).
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"I did it, I drew the 17-page manuscript in one week. I haven't actually drawn it yet, but if I say it beforehand, I definitely will. Perhaps…" (Yoshihiro Togashi)
In this book, there's also an illustration of Mukuro made by Nobuyuki Anzai (Flame of Recca)
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If you're interest in others Togashi's doujinshi, please also read the crossover he drew of Akira VS Pikachu (1997). There's also the Togashi Empire Doujinshi (1999) he wrote with Naoko Takeuchi.
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somaisbatman · 6 months
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Tag ppl you wanna know betteeer
Tagged by: @zendoe . thank you for tagging me, I followed you because I inherently trust deer furries
Last song: the last album I listened through was The Hot Rock by Sleater-Kinney, so it'd be A Quarter To Three. love that one.
Favorite Color: red red red. Earlier in the year I catalogued my favorite shades of red, and found that the average of them was #B0303A.
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Currently Watching: Fionna and Cake. I'm 6 episodes in, and so far it's managing the tonal balancing act that makes seasons 5-7 of Adventure Time so good. I just wrapped up the last Patlabor OVAs with my girlfriend yesterday, so we're in between shows now. Though we have been occasionally putting on episodes of Bang Dream MyGO per a friend's "dude trust me" recommendation. It is a generic high school idol anime except it's about a female manipulator picking up the pieces of a friend group that imploded and inadvertently reigniting all of their old drama in her attempt to start a band. If the show was yuribaiting a little harder I'd be obsessed, but where it stands it's a fun social mess.
Last Movie: Patlabor 2. Really challenging movie, and not for the reasons I was expecting. Oshii's criticisms of the JSDF's scope and Japan's place in the neoliberal order are delivered quite straightforwardly, it's the atmosphere that's so melancholy and complicated. I spent most of the year going through the Patlabor TV show and OVAs and falling in love with them, and this is a movie about moving on from all of that. The bubble economy is over, the cold war has ended, SV2 has scattered to the wind, the artstyle has gotten more serious, and Noa explicitly states that she no longer wants to be the mecha otaku girl she once was. It's probably a great standalone watch, but it really got to me because of its willingness as a sequel to say goodbye for the sake of looking forward, even if only uncertainty lies ahead.
Currently Reading: …the patlabor manga. A bit dry compared to the show or movies, but I'm milking this franchise for everything it's got. The last book I read was Light From Uncommon Stars, which has an extremely well-executed main narrative about trans survivor's guilt alongside a terrible B-plot that fails to mesh thematically at all. Very uneven book, but the good stuff is real potent and I'll definitely read whatever Ryka Aoki cooks up next.
Sweet/spicy/savory: Sweet
Relationship status: Partnered and living a domestic yuri 4koma
Current Obsessions: I mean, in case you couldn't tell it's been Patlabor, but I'm finally reaching the tail end of that. I've been on a mecha kick all year, and that includes little gunpla guys gradually taking over the apartment. In a broader sense I'm becoming more at peace with being a huge weeb, and that's shifted my recent media consumption very strongly in that direction, which will probably even out over time.
Last googled: Some doxxable info about trying to schedule flu shots. Before that, "sidney powell kraken" after reading a news article and trying to remember what the fuck was going on there.
Currently working on: preparing for the end of the year! My yearly creative projects are assembling a Christmas album with my old college friends and writing 10 or so pieces for my anime side blog @floatingcatacombs, which go up in mid-December. I've also been messing around with GameMaker again, a intermittent hobby for most of my life even if I have little to show for it. Maybe this time!
I'll tag my oldest mutuals who I've never talked to: @magicians-rad @bl0ndle . and also some pals who have recently joined the site @dudettastone and @bluemouseblackpad . Obviously feel free to ignore if you don't want to do it
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