#save me onsen drama

[berrygoji]

yea, dazai can't cook.

but he can stir up a bowl of chazuke for atsushi and that's all that should matter.

#it matters to me #a lot #it means everything to me actually and i want you guys to know #onsen drama save me #save me onsen drama #dazai osamu #osamu dazai #atsushi nakajima #bungou stray dogs #bsd #bsd.txt

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

When discussing or analyzing Dazai, one thing I hope you will keep in mind when reading anything I write about him is that from my perspective, he is always, always both.

What do I mean by this? Well, I find there tends to be a general split among people who hold the opinion that "he's a manipulator and will always be manipulative" and "he's doing his best to be good and helpful and live up to Oda's last wishes for him", of which, neither is completely right - because he is both. But even among the people who hold to this dual-nature interpretation, I find that his individual actions and motivations still tend to be thought of in a dichotomous manner - is it manipulative, or genuine?

Again, I think it's always both.

Dazai has a very pragmatic view on a lot of things - he is always looking for the usefulness of things and people so that the situation turns out in his favour. He's incredibly adept at this, and his prediction and placement and careful reveals are all manipulation tactics to get his allies and enemies doing exactly what he needs them to. I don't think anyone can contest this since we see it over and over in the series.

But that's not all there is to it. He's not solely manipulative and he does, to some extent, sympathize with others - I think there are several instances of this in the series, but I want to stress that this has been apparent since Chapter 1!

For context, Dazai is recalling what Atsushi said to him a few minutes earlier, but it's very interesting that it should be this specific part of the conversation. He could've flashed back to the part where Atsushi said he had nowhere to go; no money, no food - he is about to trick him into joining, after all, and this is the key piece he uses to basically force Atsushi into the Agency. But instead it's Atsushi's self-deprecation that catches his attention, and it really does, because even during the conversation, he turns to look at him after he says this with an odd expression.

You could say that this makes Atsushi easier to manipulate, if that's your angle, but that can't be solely it, because in the later conversation with Hirotsu, we know Dazai was planning to bring Atsushi into the Agency and set him up as one half of the new Double Black the moment he met him. The panel shown there is the riverbank, set much earlier in the day than this scene. He was already planning to pair him with Akutagawa since he figured out he was the tiger, so what's with this reaction?

Well. Sometimes the simplest explanation is the best.

He manipulated Atsushi into joining with the intention of utilizing him in his future plans. He also helped him and gave him a place to belong, and importantly, he likes this kid! It's both.

I think much of it might be that his brain just kinda works way too fast - he's such a natural at crafting these elaborate plots and seeing how things connect and gathering useful people like resources that it's practically automatic - though this is not a great means when you're trying to be a kinder person. There's an omake, I believe, that has him saying "I like using my head for justice", i.e. using these underhanded means to act for the better. Not great, but those are the kind of gifts he has. He's way more suited to exploitation, but is choosing to use these tactics to save people now, which is quite reminiscent of what he tells Kyouka. Kyouka's talents lie in killing people - when what you're good at isn't who you want to be, what do you do? Well, I expect you use what you have, even if it's not ideal.

Now, about the current situation with Sigma - I think he definitely likes him, and is intrigued by him and his situation. We did get a little thought bubble where the guy amusedly compares him to Atsushi, and you can't tell me he doesn't care about Atsushi (listen to the onsen drama cd, or read 55 Minutes if you somehow don't believe me). But also, it's undeniable that Sigma is in a very vulnerable position of being homeless and having had no one be genuinely kind to him before. His trust is very easy to earn, and with the latest chapter, Dazai has now saved his life multiple times. There is, as always, a practical purpose he needs him for. And I have to be somewhat amused because Dazai is quite literally telling Sigma everything he ever wanted and needed to hear. It's a brilliant means of quickly endearing himself to Sigma - but I don't think that's all it is.

Look. The most honest moments we get in this series from Dazai are, interestingly for an expert manipulator, when people are at their most vulnerable. In spite of every pointlessly cruel act he inflicted on Akutagawa, his first meeting with him was open and transparent; much like the orphanage director, it seems he thought this treatment would make him strong and adaptable (he's wrong but that's not the point of this). He cuts Kyouka off in irritation and says "don't give me that" when she implies that she would fail the entrance exam. He tells Atsushi it's normal to cry after losing a father figure and to feel however you feel, even if that person caused you nothing but incredible pain and cannot be forgiven. He refuses to entertain Sigma's assumptions that Dazai sees himself as a superior being to him.

Selective honesty can also be utilized to great effect; Mori does this, and undoubtedly it serves this purpose for Dazai too. But I want to stress that I do sincerely believe this is all still honesty from him. Manipulation, or genuine?

Both. It's both.

#or to summarize: Dazai is a gemini (derogatory) #<- said as a fellow gemini (also derogatory) #the few exceptions to the always both rule are basically any of his interactions with odasaku #and the bit in sb where he tells chuuya about what activating corruption will entail #most everything else appears to have a dual reason. #to be clear: there's lots of ways to interpret dazai - but this is the approach i personally use in my analyses #so i'd love it if you guys would read my dazai analyses keeping this standpoint in mind :) #i think instead of debating 'is dazai bad' which is seriously kind of irrelevant to me #i'd love to talk a bit more about how dazai is actually quite helpful but also equally presumptuous about what will help people #we could also talk about the fine line between protectiveness and possessiveness with him too. #or about how drawn he is to kind people who value life likely because he's hoping to find answers or a vicarious experience #anything except the 'is he good or bad' debate. i don't like it. :/ #bsd #bsd meta #bsd analysis #bsd dazai #storyrambles #oof i never know how things like this are going to go over.

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - Cameos & Familiar Faces

Entirely subjective yadda yadda. Organized by favs in each category. No numbered lists anymore, tumblr be buggn'.

End of Aug Start Sept 2023

Ongoing Series - Thai

Laws of Attraction (Sat iQIYI) 8fin - Oh the DRAMA. Why does the insane ex (my true love) remind me of the cartel leader from Romancing the Stone? Even the sides got HEA! It was fucking great!!!!! Charn remains a bonkers spoiled evil murderous brat with a cruel smile beloved by his one true paladin. Also: post it love note trope! Been a long while my old friend. NO SINGING!!!!! I do love that wedding jacket frock coat cape thing Charn wore. 

In conclusion: This is a great gay suspense thriller with several solid couples, fun plot, killer characters, queer rep, and a happy ending. Charn may be my favorite lead character of 2023. However, this show is not entirely BL, more on the fringe, like Manner of Death. Add that to several "singing incidents" and pairs being a little weak in the chemistry arena, and this lands safely in 9/10 territory. It’s tons of fun tho: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. 

I Feel You Linger in the Air (Sat grey) ep 3 of 12 - This show is getting more and more lakorn each ep. Apparently the straights are having a class divide arranged marriage crisis. Who cares? Our boy is ALWAYS in trouble. Crazy that he has to save the people who betrayed him in a previous life - but I guess he chose revenge! That's unexpected.

Had to switch to grey and couldn’t find a working rip. It was frustrating and I wouldn’t have bothered except I like this show so much. Still, it means no screen caps because the rez is naff.

Dangerous Romance (Fri YT) ep 3 of 12 - Uh oh. Kang wants to save Sailom and be his hero. The fact that K’s Pa puts no pressure on him whatsoever, makes me wonder if K's Ma committed suicide or something? It’s definitely the opposite parental dynamic we normally see in BL. I have to say, the pacing is great in the show. And the acting is on point. It’s really great. 

Hidden Agenda (Sun YT) ep 8 of 12 - these two just kiss well. I mean not "rip your clothes off Taiwan-style," but sweet young boyfriends-esk. Joke wants to be claimed so bad. It’s great. I enjoyed this ep, unfortunately it looks like we have a manufactured angst drama drop in the next episode. Is this a 10 episode arc? I thought it was 12. It’s odd to have doom happening next episode already.

Only Friends (Sat YT) ep 4 of 10 - Back story time! Ray and Mew are HARD to watch. Incestuous friend group gay is the worst. Omg I got such QAF vibes from this ep. Nick Boston Sand chats = very throw back 90s gay soaps. 

Location game moment: Top's hotel room is also Chan’s apartment in Laws Of Attraction. 

Naughty Babe (Sat YT) ep 1 of 8 - Ooo. Est is back! Hi handsome. Head of security suits you. Please lead out the new Waterboyy remake? You’re perfect for the role. (If it must happen.) Yi’s Pa is GREAT. Please give daddy a nice boy? Could that be our secondary couple for this series? 

Meanwhile, with the leads (sorry I was distracted by daddy) we got us an arranged marriage, run away bride, and an amnesia trope. Put in a secret baby and it's squarely 1980's Harlequin. Will there be Vikings? Sex herbs? Pirates? Dub con?

Be Mine Super Star (Mon Viki) ep 9 of 12 - Again with lovely sex scenes, it’s just the plot stringing them together is frayed. Also don’t fuck in an onsen. Both yech and ouch.

That goes for all y’all.  

Wedding Plan (Wed YT & iQIYI) ep 7fin - Trash watch here! Honestly this was an okay ending, I’m not mad at it. If you can tolerate Mame and liars (kinda the same thing) you’ll be fine with this show.

Summation: An innocent wedding planner falls haplessly and hopelessly in love with a groom who relentlessly pursued him, even though he’s about to marry someone else. A somewhat lackluster mame offering with less of the usual stellar chemistry, but all of the usual lies and manipulation. 7/10

Love in Translation (Sat iQIYI) ep 3 of 10 - I skip everything to do with Tammy and it’s fine. There’s only about 20 minutes of fine but that’s more than enough. On the bright side. So far. No singing.

My Universe (Sun iQIYI) ep 2 of 24 eps - Cassanova Begins Part 2. Aw. It was sad. Another variation on the “my ghost boyfriend” trope (usually sad). 2/10 I don't do sad BL.

Next up is Merry Go Round featuring the pair from Destiny Seeker (we likey) who want to marry each other, but end up fake engaged to the same woman. Beard squared? Looks silly.

Crazy Handsome Rich (Sun Gaga) ep 1 of 10 - There are 2 things I like about this. I bet you can guess what they are.

Lee Long Shi

The whipping boy trope

There wasn’t enough of either in this first ep. ALSO the captions, sound effects, and voice over are truly next level bad. Utterly atrocious.

The 2 leads fucking around in the end credits was the funniest part of the whole show. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Jun & Jun (Korea Thur Viki) ep 7 of 8 - I am confused and frustrated about what the communication delay is between the two Juns. It feels artificial and narratively manufactured. But since this is a short form KBL and I know it will be resolved quickly, I’m not as annoyed as I would be if this were Thai BL. Still it feels audience manipulative. I also feel sorry for Simon. BUT it looks like it’ll be a sweet boyfriends final episode.

Stay By My Side (Taiwan Fri Gaga) ep 10fin - Omg they’re so cute!!! Taiwan the purveyors of ultimate sappy gay domesticity. I am going to miss having these to nonsencing all over my dash.

This show was an interesting take on the "ghost boyfriend" trope. About a boy who is tormented by hearing the dead, except when he is around one other boy - desperation+proximity = love. Unfortunately, the story was erratic and waffled about. While the leads turned in solid performances and the sappy domesticity was off the charts, it never really had the strength of the narrative convictions such a strong concept should have supplied. Highly rewatchable and enjoyable for that sappy domesticity but not a whole lot more. Still I always give extra credit for the diabetes-inducing sugar content and rewatch capacity. 8/10 

Kisseki: Dear to Me (Taiwan Tues Viki & iQIYI) eps 3 of 13(?) - I love the punching thing - there is a lot of violent flirting in this show. I’m not mad about it. Ugh, poor thing has real abandonment issues. And now trust issues. I see why we’re getting 12-14 eps. This gonna be MESSY.

Meanwhile, does EVERYONE have a guest cameo? Not that I’m complaining. Hi BLIHID boys! Now I need to rewatch that show. 

Love Class Season 2 (Korea Fri Viki) eps 7-8 of 10 - Oh my God the next morning w/ couple 2 was so darn cute. They are all such terrible flirts with each other. Honestly, this show makes me laugh more than any other BL currently airing. I’m not sure it is meant to be as funny as I find it. While couple 3 (the mature characters) is by far my favorite, I actually think they don’t work with the other two pairs, they feel superfluous to the show. I like the show better because they’re in it, but it feels like two different BL‘s stuck together. KBL certainly can’t handle more than two couple threads at the same time. 

Why R U? (Korea Wed iQIYI) eps 3-4 of 8 - Ugh. I am such a sucker for the FighterTutor dynamic. Why so good? Uh oh. Real kiss! KBL you're spoiling us. But, isn’t sad-seme-hyung dating some chick? Argh. Poor Sunwoo. This show is even worse at repping Fighter's character sympathetically. Who knew that was possible?

My Personal Weatherman AKA Taikan Yoho (Japan Sat Gaga) ep 3 of 8 - The date episode! Even Japan is doing it now. And these two who have been living/fucking together for ages still dance around each other like junior high kids. I gotta say, I watch this one twice because Vicki has different subs from Gaga. I feel like it’s easier to understand if I watch two different translations of the same script. But it’s still quite a taciturn piece. 

Minato's Laundromat Season 2 AKA Minato Shouji Coin Laundry Season 2 (Japan Thu Gaga) ep 8 of 12 - Sides are great. It was mostly a cute ep with tiny bits of Progress and a proper Confession. I miss Shin’s siblings. And then… the much loathed amnesia trope. Really?

Everyone say it with me: Must you, Japan? 

Stay Still (Hong Kong Tues YouTube) ep 5fin - It ended happier than I was expecting. Optimistic for one couple, and most likely optimistic for the other.

Summation: What to say about this offering from Hong Kong? It’s different, a mix of early CBL, Taiwanese shorts, and Pinoy visuals. It felt like the story was 2 independent shorts that had been lengthen and then stuck together, and I wish they'd been approached as separate and tighter entities. Nevertheless, this was a complex little piece,  interesting in a sweaty grungy way, with a certain aura of queer authenticity that made it simultaneously tense, unpredictable, and refreshing. I’m not sure I would necessarily call it BL, but any county’s early foray into the genre usually starts out this way, so perhaps nascent BL? Worth watching, especially if you enjoy stuff from the Philippines and Taiwan. 7/10

In case you missed it

Dinosaur Love ended its run but the final 2 eps are behind a paywall. Word on the street is they aren't good anyway (shocker) so I'm marking it as DNF and moving on with my life. If I can find em grey I'll watch 'em merely so I can give it a rating, but I can't imagine it will get more than 5/10. Seriously, do not bother.

Next Week Looks Like This:

Coming September

9/15 You Are Mine (Taiwan Gaga) Secretary has to deal with grumpy boss.

9/15 Bump Up Business AKA Bump Up Project (Korea movie) suspected cinema release? I don't know much about what's going on. Last status update. Love story between a trainee who is about to debut and a celebrity from the same agency. Kpop boy group OnlyOneOf has signed up to star in this idol-based BL (based on a webtoon). They’ve been auditioning for this since Libido IMHO. You can watch me chronicle their BL MV series in this post. It’s from Idol Romance who will do sad but can do good kisses (Wish You, Nobleman Ryu, Once Again, Kissable Lips, Poongduck 304, Tasty Florida, Tinted With You).

9/26 I Cannot Reach You AKA I Can't Reach You AKA Kimi ni wa Todokanai (Japan ????) - Adapted from the manga, childhood best friends: The cool, smart one who’s good at everything, and his average, dorky friend who struggles. Always by the other’s side, but not together in the way they truly want to be. No matter how hard they try, their hearts cannot reach each other.

9/27 Absolute Zero (Thai iQIYI) - from 2021, Studio Wabi Sabi and New Siwaj finally bring us this “time loop to prevent tragedy” romance. We don’t always get HEAs from them, so I'm on my guard.

9/? Venus in the Sky (Thai iQIYI) 10 eps

9/? Mr Cinderella 2 (Vietnam YouTube?)

2023 forthcoming BL master post (see comments, some are inaccurate, NOT KEPT UPDATED).

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

Hidden Agenda hitting us up with a hug + lap + kiss. Very nice.

I think these two might be GMMTV's best cuddlers.

Boys, I think your JoongDunk is showing.

(Last week) 

#this week in BL #bl news #BL reviews #korean bl #japanese BL #Taiwanese BL #Thai BL #Rakutan Viki #gagaoolala #GMMTV #Hidden Agenda #JoongDunk #Kisseki: Dear to Me #Be Loved In House: I Do #Laws of Attraction review #laws of attraction #stay still review #hong kong bl #wedding plan review #stay by my side review #2023 BL reviews #new bl #upcoming bl #bl 2023

[lurkingshan]

Japanese QL Corner

I am currently watching four different Japanese qls every week (is this real life?? I’m not used to this kind of bountiful access to Japanese media) and I don’t want them to get lost in the shuffle amongst the bigger Discourse shows, so I’m going to start posting this little round up at the end of each week. These are all on Gaga and I highly recommend watching!

Chaser Game W

Finally a high quality gl, we have been waiting so long. And this one is making some really interesting choices, namely in making one of its leads deeply unlikeable. It's clear that Harumoto broke her heart in a deeply foolish way (I smell noble idiocy), but Fuyu's revenge for her hurt feelings is way over the line of what anyone could consider fair. Not only did she pursue this job just to personally harass her ex, she is a terrible boss who is abusing her employees to work out her personal grudges, and she's awful to her husband, as well. This show is smart enough that I trust they have a point with this (likely one that will involve commentary on misogyny and traditional gender roles) so I am hanging in to see what it is.

Sahara Sensei to Toki-kun

This one is the latest in the Drama Shower line up, and it is really not working for me on the whole, but Toki is a great character and I wish I could port him to another show. This week's episode spent a baffling amount of time filling in a backstory for Sahara that we already understood, and didn't even connect it thematically to the ongoing plot in any meaningful way. In fact, given the backstory we saw, it made even less sense that Sahara would be encouraged to pursue a relationship with Toki. This show just feels very confused about both the social conventions of its universe and what it's ultimately trying to say. Looking forward to it wrapping next week and seeing what Drama Shower has on tap next.

Sukiyanen Kedo Do Yara ka

I LOVE THIS SHOW. Sakae is such a kind soul, and Soga is a dear. I love that this show is exploring the reality of what it looks like for an "opposites attract" pair to actually try to find common ground. Sakae falling for Soga at first sight, only to realize they have nothing in common and he will have to work hard to build a bond with him, is such a delight. And I like that it feels reciprocal and Soga is also making a sincere effort. And this show is doing nice things with the side characters, too. Tatsuta is a great Get A Grip Friend for Sakae, and Kazuyo is such a sweetheart that I really hope she'll stick around rooting for this pair once she inevitably gets let down gently. Also loved getting a glimpse of the exes this week and hope to see more filled in there.

Ossan's Love Returns

I am saving this one for last on Fridays going forward, because it's such a great note to end my week on. I already posted last week about why I'm so in love with it, and this week continued the love fest. This show is SO FUCKING FUNNY while also having some really awesome messages about relationships and love at any age. I love the way Maki and Haruta are given the same cute couple moments we'd see for younger bl pairs, and the casual affection between them really stands out among more reserved depictions of Japanese couples. Highlights this week also included father-in-law bonding, Takegawa trying out a Bachelor-esque reality show in his quest for a diaper partner, Chief continuing to be an absolute delight in every scene, and several new twists in the mystery of the neighbors (loved that Haruta was having all the same reactions to that backstory that I was). ONSEN EPISODE NEXT WEEK, BABY!

#chaser game w #sahara sensei to toki kun #sukiyanen kedo do yaro ka #ossan's love returns #japanese bl #japanese gl #japanese ql corner #shan shouts into the void

[yume-x-hanabi]

1, 2, 3, Tales of Xillia!

1. Favorite character from Xillia

Gaius and Wingul, to the surprise of absolutely no one :p

(and no, I cannot choose between them. They can be my faves together.)

Among party members, it'd be Elize. Love her character and development, and especially love maining her (and isn't it funny the cute little healer girl who loves pink also has dark-element offensive magic? bc that contrast gets me every time XD i love spamming negative gate okay)

2. Favorite episode/ chapter/ etc from Xillia

From the game, the first meeting with Gaius in the throne room. I absolutely adore this scene, his arguing with Milla, the party's reactions, the subtle body language between him and Wingul, Elize & Rowen cleverly saving the day... It's such a cool and important scene, I love it.

From side material, the Chimeriad onsen Drama CD. The entirety of it. It's glorious. (Links: 1, 2, 3, 4)

3. If you had to pick a character to date from Xillia who would it be

No one, cuz I don't date haha. I can pick characters who should date each other, though (Gaius and Wingul, obviously) 😏

#tales of xillia #ask yume

[lavidadelavie]

Dazai's thoughts and his suicide attempts

(WARNING: This post contains suicidal thoughts and is merely written based on my own experience.

All of the text that is written in Italic is merely my thoughts, not that of the author Dazai Osamu.)

Throughout the manga and the anime, Dazai has never succeeded in killing himself despite his numerous suicide attempts. He wants to die without pain, and I'm certain that he is too intelligent not to find out a way that would meet his demand. *there are actually many, i searched for em myself hehe*

There are three possible explanations:

1. It might be simply because this is subject to the same things that happened to the author Dazai Osamu.

2. Dazai can't get what he desires. There is a beautiful analysis by @justanotherdamnedweeb here. Also, in this CD Drama, Dazai had soaked his whole body in the onsen for 10 minutes but he could not die.

3. Somewhere in Dazai's heart, he doesn't want to kill himself, even though he might be quite reckless of his life. (I know this have been mentioned a lot in many other analyses, but I feel quite interested so let's dive a little deeper into this theory :>)

- In most of Dazai's suicide attempts, there are ways to save Dazai from dying and Dazai is surely well aware of that. When Atsushi asked Kunikida to help Dazai in the anime (sorry I forgot what episode the scene is in), Kunikida and other ADA members did not seem to care because they knew that Dazai would not die from his suicide attempts.

- In the first episode of the anime, Dazai tried to drown himself and the chance that he would be able to save himself was low. However, that was how and when Atsushi first met Dazai, leading to all of the events that happen in the following episodes/chapters.

Dazai also tried to drown himself in another episode in Season 1, and I think that he did this because he wanted to follow Atsushi to keep an eye on him.

I feel quite certain that those are not coincidences. Dazai might have planned to meet Atsushi these ways, but I am not pretty sure why he had to jump into a river just to meet Atsushi. I guess it would make their meetings more natural and not "suspicious" or "weird" to Atsushi.

- Dazai was really putting his life on the line in this iconic scene:

As I mentioned, he might not have wanted to kill himself, but it might have been fine for him if another person killed him.

*From my experience with depression, I always tried to find a painless way to kill myself while simultaneously craving a reason to life. Even though I managed to find a way to commit suicide without pain, I never dared to do so, because I was scared that when I was dying, I would change my mind, then hope to live and feel hopeless and depressed because there would be no way to turn back. As a result, I was always hoping that someone would come and kill me, giving me no opportunities to reconsider my wish to die. I also managed to find some reasons to live. They were not actually "reasons why I WANT to live", they were more like responsibilities - "reasons why I cannot die yet". But these reasons were not strong enough to save me from my suicidal thoughts. This might be quite similar to Dazai. He can't die yet, because he has to fulfill Oda's dying wish.

At that time, I was scared to die, but did not want to live.

If I had been Dazai in this situation, I would have done the same. I would both willingly and unwillingly force myself to stand in front of the gun and ask the sniper to shoot me, even though I might be shaking, a little bit scared and sad. I don't know why I would feel that way, but I was in a similar situation and this is exactly what I thought: "Please kill me. Kill me, so I can finally be free, so I can finally escape from this toxic world. I might regret this later, so please don't hesitate, but please don't be too quick, give me some more seconds so I can savour the beauty of this world for the last time."*

However, this might not be true because whoever knows what was going on in Dazai's mind.

That's all. Thank you for reading my ramblings and sorry for my broken English as well as any mistakes :> Please feel free to correct me in the comment section.

#bsd #bungou stray dogs #bungo stray dogs #bsd theories #bsd analysis #bsd theory

[onesheeptwosheepandachicken]

I’m going to be honest you, you have to understand why people are mad at you because it isn’t without a reason. It’s nice that you want to help others and spread positivity by making a list, but you have to acknowledge that the way you’re going about it isn’t the right way. It’s wrong because you’re overstepping boundaries and evading blocks to talk to people who have you blocked or invading discord spaces that blocked you or randomly you join in. And by doing this you’re not going to get your message across successfully to those people and you’ll only end up making them mad and have you in a situation like this. 

It’s impossible to expect everyone to have a positive opinion or always talk positively about the show and people are entitled to have a negative opinion and not like it. And bringing up drama from the past or jumping to conclusions and trying to make someone look bad also isn’t the way to go either. Always go after the points that someone makes in their arguments and never after the person who is making it. It makes a much stronger argument when you attack the points that they are making and because attacking the person and their reputation and trying to humiliate them is stooping down to the htdm’s level. 

And if you truly want to help others you need to work on respecting boundaries, not evading blocks or invading discord spaces or spamming continuously when someone wants you to stop in order to spread your message. Also if someone disagrees with you that doesn’t automatically make them a bad person, it just means that they have a different opinion. So if someone doesn’t want to listen or engage with you, let them not engage with you. And if someone wants to block you, let them block you and don’t go around it. And if someone tells you to stop, respect it and stop because sometimes you don’t realize your overstepping. Remember everyone has a right to have boundaries and not have someone break it. Because not all battles are meant to be won. 

I want to call out rwby youtubers, but I’m not going to spam in their messages or spam in their comment sections in order to get my message across.

let me debunk lies spread about me.

first? not an art thief?

second? crimson-carcal and a number of liars accused me of being a racist? that was debunked

third? the slander was promoted by the ISWV community

This is a member of the ISWV community...as are Nick Golden's friends who complained about me.

furthermore, i was accused of commissioning parent-child fanworks.

every time i tried to talk with those accusers, they blocked me.

i commissions "couples" fanart....that is not the same.

furthermore, in terms of harassment?

Encouraging Cyberbullying?

As for FRWBY, aka the "fixing rwby" people?

raymond mcneil...didn't we have a discussion in this fandom about him? mr "cardin x velvet" who called himself "better writer than crwby"...the onsen scene for teenagers?

i was blocked for that.....as for arguing with the very people using the fanfic to attack the show.

I debated with people insulting rwby by using the glorified fanfic.

if you're going to criticize me, that's one thing.

but lying and distorting the truth?

That's a different story.

and when judgemental critter and twiins and vexed have all spoken ill of RT and the writing in a toxic manner?

i ask this of the so-called critics.....practice what you preach.

also...racist? really? wanting peace between two countries is racist?

also, I DID NOT meant to say autism spectrum, i meant spectrum...as in range.

I literally tried explaining that as soon as i deleted the tweet. but the screenshot was saved and used as a lie.

So go you guys for being the supermarket tabloid journalists.

#clemprim13 #thefloofartist #calxiyn #dextixer #crimson-carcal #rwde #anti-rwde #rwby fandom

[patkinmon]

Hi, thanks so much for your fanfics recs on Ash/Eiji and Langa/Reki....I love them...🤩

Can I ask your top fav moments from those 2 anime series (Banana Fish and Sk8)? Thanks a lot...

Hello!

First of thank you for asking! I'm glad you liked the fic rec posts and I hope you found a few gems to read.

Pinpointing my favorite moments of the shows is really hard, because they were my comfort shows in 2018 and 2021 respectively and I enjoyed it all, even the sad moments because I added a lot of character development, but I will do my best to pick:

If I had to pick something for Sk8 it would be all of episode 6 because it splits the show in two parts. It was the last breath of fresh air, before the drama started with Reki and Langa and it was a great bonding experience for all the main characters (excluding ADAM). I remember laughing through the beach scene, awwing at the rescue scene with Renga und screaming with Joe and Cherry during the onsen scene. It was just a really well rounded episode in my opinion and I really loved all the shipping moments it gave us.

As for Banana fish I have a really happy and a really sad one that I can't pick between. My favorite happy moment is a really small moment in episode 6, where they went to Bosten and Ash taught Eiji how to shoot a gun. It's such a small moment in the whole series, but it stuck with me. I loved seeing Ash happy, just being himself for maybe the first time in the series and it was all thanks to Eiji. Ibe put it best when he said, that Ash could be a 17 year old boy when he is with Eiji and I think this is one of the only times in the anime that they could just stay with each other, without someone threatening the calm. Like their own bubble so to speak? I'm not sure I'm saying it correctly, but that's how I felt while watching it.

The sad moment is in episode 18. I cried so much during the end of the episode and I couldn't stop even after it was over. It baffels me to this day that Ash loved Eiji enough to give up EVERYTHING he did until this point just to keep him save. After his "fight" with Blanca, Ash said that he is the luckiest person to have met a person who wanted nothing from him in return - just his happiness - and that ripped my heart into pieces. To know their love is this strong makes them my favorite couple/soulpair to this day.

So I hope I could answer your question (and I'm sorry that it got so long). Thanks again for asking, I'm always happy to ramble about my favorite shows!!

#banana fish #sk8 the infinity #renga #asheiji #ash x eiji #ash lynx #okumura eiji #reki kyan #langa hasegawa #my ramblings

[blog-of-the-godless-month]

From the Limited Edition Series Guide Book for Kannazuki no Miko

Episode Commentary by Sumio Uetake (credited with Series Composition/Scenario Writing)

Episode 2 “Overlapping Sun and Moon”

The daily life starts to break apart--Makoto Saotome--

Makoto is the cheerful and energetic friend who forcefully pulls along the reserved leading character. However, due to a sudden incident, the symbol of ordinary peace is destroyed. The character born for that purpose may be “Makoto Saotome.” The day of the book reading, Kaishaku-sensei’s rough drawings came out and Fuji-san’s character setup drawings were tremendously cute… it really got me excited. As one aspect of the story, we wanted some light touches in some areas (although the premise of not destroying the story’s world perspective was to be kept as it is). There were several ideas that came out. The ideas that remained as candidates were… Orochi is hip and seems like fun. 

Although she’s totally unrelated to the incident, HImeko’s friend, Makoto, gives her support. As a result, “Orochi’s idea” remained, but “Makoto’s idea” was pretty interesting, too. When you’re going through some difficult times, it could be quite a relief emotionally to talk with a friend who is totally uninvolved with those situations. We thought something like that is interesting, too. 

Ultimately, because we didn’t have room in terms of the number of episodes and as a result of our discussion on whether or not it was right to have someone other than “Chikane” and “Souma” to lean on, we decided to let her exit the story in episode 2 in that way. We also had a discussion over what kind of a hospital scene will be most effective. “Throw a vase and scream ‘Get out!’” “Not being able to see her directly and being told off by the others in the club.” “Himeko runs away leaving behind a loud crying sound.” ...and many others. Makoto will have another big entrance after this.

And the climax of episode 2… Typically, it would end up with Chikane catching Himeko who has lost her ground, but we decided to add a different twist here. Probably Chikane’s persuasion alone would make Himeko decide to stay put in the village. However, Girochi appears and ensnares her in a crisis. Souma appears and controls the situation. Even though she’s holding Himeko in her arms, Chikane’s heart is filled with a sense of defeat. Amidst the struggle that goes beyond the intensity to follow, what would Chikane end up doing? What would Himeko end up doing? And how about Souma? Even though the emotions start to swirl, the story will mercilessly go on.

Episode 3 “Secret Love Shell”

Bivalve of a Bond

This episode was born during a meeting we had after we roughly finished the composition of all twelve episodes, as one of those episodes that “we’d like to create (if we have the time).��� The episode involving the play at the school festival that we used in the CD drama, how Himeko ended up liking photography, Himeko being a fan of Reiko-sensei and going over to get her autograph, etc… all of those were discussed during that meeting. Others were such stories as the two going off to collect some autumn leaves and meeting with a disaster, going to an onsen and ending up fighting over many things with the Orochi girls, a mob surrounding the Himemiya family’s estate, finally Otoha-san going over to Himeko and… There were a lot of interesting ideas, but, with an additional push from the director, we decided to go with this. As for the other ideas, we’ll wait until another time and place.

To Himeko, who wonders that perhaps she shouldn’t be next to anyone, Chikane tells her something… Only one pair exists in the world… but its partner always waits for it… waiting for the only one true partner… a pair of destiny that will surely meet each other someday… bivalve. That’s me… I am the one… how much Chikane wanted to tell her that… But I’m a girl… I don’t have the power to fight for Himeko… there is no way I could justify saying such a thing to Himeko who is mourning. That is why I will defend you… I will continue to wait until someday when my feelings will reach you… no… even if that day never comes… even then… I will… Holding a shell in her hand that is of a different color than Himeko’s shell, Chikane talks to her while stifling her true feelings. Only for Himeko, for her smile, for her happiness. Because those things are much more important to her than the world, than herself… But the reality even crushes such a tragic decision that Chikane makes. That power is immense.

Even though they promised each other so much, their hands separate from each other. The two are torn apart by the raging waves. At the end of the day, what save the two was Souma’s Take no Yamikazuchi. Chikane slams down her fist in resentment. In front of the immense power called Orochi, the Shrine Maiden’s feelings are too powerless. As I said before, in this story, the immense power is not for the battle or for the romance in this fiction, but it serves as one situation to be a hindrance as well as to promote the love. Because everyone on our staff likes robots, at times we almost wobbled, but… I’d like to write a lot of things about Otoha-san, too, but I’ll save that for another time.

((this is word for word from the guide booklet, however I’ve added extra paragraph breaks for the sake of readability and have changed the spelling of some character names for consistency. In the booklet it has Mako-chan’s name written as both Satome and Saotome, so I wrote both as Saotome. It also has Reiko’s name written as Rehko, but I went with the first spelling because I’ve seen that more and also the wiki uses it.))

#guidebook content #kannazuki no miko

[katyatalks]

MP100 OVA Drama CD Track 5 - Episode 4: Dimple & The Local Spirit - English Translation

The MP100 OVA Drama CD, titled “The first spirits and such company trip; The other side of a journey that mends the heart and heals the soul and such” comes with the blu-ray/DVD, and is officially described as a compilation of 1) conversations from the day before the OVA itself & 2) exchanges that aren’t depicted in the OVA. More info here!

Here’s the translation of the fifth track, “Episode 4: Dimple & The Local Spirit”!

Characters: Dimple, Nebaru

You can listen to this track from the masterlist!

-

DIMPLE [As narrator]

This fourth story takes place at twilight before dinner.

[BGM: water flowing, SFX: Dimple floating]

DIMPLE

Woah… what an amazing scene! I feel like I’m being showered with negative ions. If I mix with more of the spiritual energy here, perhaps I could regain all the power I had in my heyday…

Huh? What’s that? I feel the faint presence of another spirit… where is it? Is it in that mountain somewhere?

[SFX: Dimple speeding off]

[BGM: Birds squawking]

[SFX: More dimple movement noises]

Around there…? That’s pretty deep in the mountains.

NEBARU

AH! Help me! Spirit, over there! I’m here, I’m here! Come quickly!

DIMPLE

Hmm? Over there!

[BGM: spiritual flutes, SFX: Dimple movement]

NEBARU

I’m here, I’m here! [SFX: Dimple floating closer] Ah… I’m saved! Ah, to think I’d meet another spirit here…

DIMPLE

I should be the one to say that… gross! You’re seriously sticky.

NEBARU

[SFX: stickiness] Ah, It’s become so hard to move because of this stuff... it’s so difficult!

DIMPLE

What is this sticky stuff?

NEBARU

I don’t know myself… since I came out of the hole, it’s been stuck to me!

DIMPLE

The hole…? 

NEBARU

You don’t know?! Are you… not a spirit from around here?

DIMPLE

I just happen to be here on a trip.

NEBARU

A trip?! (laughter) But you’re a spirit?!

DIMPLE

Like that matters?! In any case, what hole?

NEBARU

It’s over at that mountain. The huge one. It’s been blocked up for a long time by a strange God and ‘something’, but recently, there’s been openings.

DIMPLE

Hmm… so that hole leads to the rumoured isekai?

NEBARU

When I slipped out through that hole, I… ended up in this state.

DIMPLE

That came along with you, huh?… My name is Dimple. I am a high-class evil spirit, and my original aim is to become a God. And you?

NEBARU

Who gives a damn about names?

DIMPLE

...Oi, I’m being polite to you, I only extend that courtesy to spirits.

NEBARU

Is that meant to be a joke?

DIMPLE

I’ll ask you only once more. Your name.

NEBARU

(Nervous) My na- my name……! Nebaru! [1] I - I just came up with that now, I can’t remember my name from when I was alive... As far back as I can remember, I’ve been floating around in the other world, so…!

DIMPLE

Ah, a spirit born and raised in the isekai…? So. What was your plan, crossing over into this world?

NEBARU

Isn’t that obvious? To destroy the weird God and that ‘something’ that’s keeping this world from my own! If I do that, then we can drag human beings over to the other world, just like we used to before!

DIMPLE

I see.

NEBARU

It was so much fun, back then…! Even people who just came to the mountains would be roped in… When they’d be taken to the other world, they’re… so frightened, it’s like they could drop dead! We’d want to get more humans in, and just like that, they’d be stuck in the other world. Doesn’t that excite you…? [2]

DIMPLE

Yeah, that sounds fun…

NEBARU

Right?! But, because of that ‘something’ and that strange God, we’re unable to do that anymore! It’s been so very boring… So. Hahaha… I’ll destroy that ‘something’ and that weird God, and I’ll make the world as amazingly gloomy as it used to be!

DIMPLE

I see…

NEBARU

I’ll let you get involved, too… s-so, eat this stickiness off of me!

DIMPLE

Oh, sure!... but, you’re going with it.

NEBARU

...Eh?

[SFX: sucking]

[SFX: gulping]

DIMPLE

Mmm…

[SFX: burp]

Too bad, Nebaru… but can’t tolerate a low class spirit like you laying waste to the world I’ll become a God of!

[SFX: Dimple floating]

[SFX: burp]

...Even if I had to eat something weird with you… super salty and heavy on the stomach... I’m gonna go back and watch TV or something.

[SFX: Dimple speeding off]

--

[1] Nebaru's name is derived from 'nebaneba', which is sticky

[2] Nebaru’s voice is run under a filter which is fine most of the track, but makes what he’s saying hard to understand in places here, so this is more a rough translation than a very accurate one

--

Track 1 (Intro) is here!

Track 2 (Episode 1: Serizawa’s Preparation) is here!

Track 3 (Episode 2: Going Shopping) is here!

Track 4 (Episode 3: Onsen) is here!

Track 6 (Episode 5: Reigen’s Will) is here!

Track 7 (Episode 6: Ritsu Can’t Sleep) is here!

Track 8 (Episode 7: Breakfast) is here!

Track 9 (Outro) is here!

Crossposted on twitter here!

#mp100 #dimple #ekubo #mp100 ova #mp100 ova drama cd #ova drama cd #my stuff

[otome-reviews]

SLBP “The Bride’s Memories, Fleeting as Tears in Rain” Event Review

Props to Voltage for exploring past the traditional happily ever after! This event has been a little surprising to me in several ways - first, I didn’t expect it to ever exist, and second, well...let’s just say there is no correlation between how much I like a character and how good I thought their stories were, lol. My personal ranking, from least to most fave:

In Masamune’s ES, Hideyoshi and the Hojo clan are preparing to go to war against each other. Both of them want the Date clan to help...and both of them want MC as a hostage as well. WTF? The retainers are split, Masamune’s obviously reluctant to do anything, and MC ends up getting chloroformed by Hojo sympathizers at some point, only for M to conveniently save the day at the last second. She convinces M she wants to be a hostage, and the story ends up with MC in a palanquin, on her way to...somewhere.

My tolerance for unrealistic bullshit in SLBP stories is pretty high, but this story was just too damn much, lmao. Masamune clearly has the position of power here as the third party...can’t he just declare that he’ll ally himself to the first clan to rescind their hostage demand?! Hideyoshi and Masamune seemed to get along ok in M’s Act 2...I’m sure the guy could be made to see reason. I did like the beginning scene where Masamune strokes MC’s hair and lets her sleep in, but to be very honest I kind of thought the rest of the story was crap. ^_^

Personal enjoyment: 1/10

In Kojuro’s ES, he and MC decide to take care of a boy from the enemy Ashina clan who’s lost his memories (not sure why they couldn’t have just watched him from a distance, tbh). Except then the whole town becomes convinced that said boy is Kojuro’s “bastard” child from before MC, and gets super mad at him! I’m sure this is exactly how people in ancient Japan would’ve reacted to a powerful man’s extramarital child, lol. In the end, boy regains his memories, the Ashina clan learns about him and declares war with the Date clan over the “hostage” they imprisoned, and that’s that. 😂

I mean... I’m glad the story didn’t end with some bullshit reason to separate K from MC?! Besides that, I’m not really sure what the point of this whole ES was. The plot was pretty boring imho, and Kojuro was absent/distant/not romantic for a large part of it. I’m not sure why MC was so insistent that Kojuro be nice to an enemy child, either. Also I saw that trap coming from a mile away once Kojuro mentioned the Ashina were plotting something, and I can’t say I’m super excited to see how this story plays out.

Personal enjoyment: 2/10

Nobunaga spends most of his ES humiliating his new retainer Murashige. From forcing Murashige to eat mochi directly off his sword (not an innuendo!!) to insulting his young son’s drawing of him to giving a military leadership position to Hideyoshi when Murashige made the most strategic sense, one really starts to wonder how Oda “no people skills” Nobunaga was ever able to get that close to Divine Rule in the first place, lol. In any case, to nobody’s surprise Murashige ends up betraying Nobunaga at a crucial moment, and Nobunaga ends up divorcing MC (this again?! 😂) after a night of astounding sex.

Things I did like about this route: Nobunaga secretly being nice to the son when he thinks nobody’s watching. That sex scene. Nobunaga getting pissed with Murashige claiming his young wife is the most beautiful woman in world (of course, lmao). Things I didn’t love so much: Nobunaga’s total lack of communication regarding why he does the shit he does! I bet we’re going to find out during the sequel that Nobunaga knew all along that Murashige was suspicious. ^_^

Personal enjoyment: 6/10

After saving the road to a neighboring province from kidnappers and murderers, Yukimura truly proves himself to be the hero we all know he is in his ES! There isn’t too much plot beyond that, but this story is full of cute/hilarious moments instead, such as the poor idiot freaking out when he learns that MC’s gravely injured herself after several rounds of telephone, lmao (spoiler: she just cut herself, a little, while cooking). There’s also a bit of drama/angst when the neighboring province tries to poach Y for a few months to handle some problem I don’t remember and he’s reluctant to leave MC, but he eventually does leave, only to quash said problem... and have a cliff fall on him. !!

This story was definitely super light on the plot, lol. But no plot is better than a bad plot, imho! I did really like the little slice of life moments we got between MC and Yukimura, such as his adorable reaction to MC figuring out how to carve a turnip chrysanthemum ^_^ These two dorks are so in love and impressed with each other. I thought it was super sweet!! Best quote: “I cannot put anything or anyone else before you, even in my thoughts.”

Personal enjoyment: 7/10

Mitsuhide’s ES is a cute little treat. Here, the poor guy’s been obviously overworking himself, to the point of not having time to accept MC’s care/food (!). And in the meanwhile, people in town have been collapsing for mysterious reasons! After M himself also passes out, he realizes the townsfolk have been suffering from malnutrition after switching from farming to fishing. While MC teaches them how to cook veggies with the fish (lol), he saves the day by establishing a vegetable/fish trading route, and everyone lives happily ever after! ...Except not, because MC finds the guy coughing BLOOD. Uh oh.

I thought the plot was a little silly (do the townsfolk really need some uppity city girl teaching them how to cook vegetables?! lmao), but it was nonetheless a lovely, self-contained, and interesting read! The real star of this story was definitely Mitsuhide himself, who apart from being an overworked sweetheart for the whole ES, also busted out the single best line of dialogue in this event: “When I eat your food...that’s how I know I am home.” Awww 😍 I’m really hoping we learn his illness isn’t terminal in the sequel!

Personal enjoyment: 8/10

Saizo’s story is one of the more adventure-filled ones! Here, the ninja’s been sent alongside Yukimura on a diplomatic mission to one of their more remote territories/villages. Unfortunately, the son of the village elder holds a grudge against Saizo due to murder (understandable). Said son also kidnaps MC and tries to rape her (less understandable!), but of course, Saizo saves the day. MC talks S down from killing the guy, but the ungrateful bastard claims Saizo’s attacked him and has him arrested...! Yikes.

This story was delightfully dramatic, and I really enjoyed it. Not to mention, Saizo was sweeter than I’ve ever seen him before! From buying MC a cord she was eyeing to resting in her lap to talking in the onsen with her to acknowledging that MC’s made him less murderous, this guy showed that he definitely is capable of doing the romance thing when he wants to. Not to mention, his saving MC scene was super badass (The ravens have come...and so has he)!! I’m quite curious to see what’ll happen in the sequel!

Personal enjoyment: 9/10

I may not have loved every story in this latest event (cough Date clan), but every CG looks so good, like wow! My favorite is definitely Nobunaga’s ;)

Anyway, what did you think of this event?? ^_^

#slbp #slbp saizo #slbp mitsuhide #slbp nobunaga #slbp yukimura #slbp kojuro #slbp masamune #the bride's memories fleeting as tears in rain #post wedding #event #review

[the-clock-hit-seven]

Dororo spoiler for who hasn’t seen episode 13 (yet)

J U S T   S T A R T

• AHH HYAKKI IS DREAMING ABOUT HIS PARENTS

• POOR BOY

• AND WHY DOES THAT STATUE HAVE A GREEN COLOR???

~

• AAHHHH HYAKKI IS SUFFERING!!!!!

~

• Why is this his way of suffering???

• Hyakki you are going to kill yourself if you don’t take care of your body

~

• Look at them, walking so peacefully

• It feels like I’m walking with them…

~

• Hyakki you are so good at talking T-T

• AND DON’T KILL DEMONS WHEN YOU ARE PISSED THAT’S NOT A GOOD COPING MECHANISM

• But is it me or does this scene look familiar?

~

• NOOOO HYAKKI

• DONT PUSH YOURSELF YOU ARE TOO PRECIOUS

~

• HYAKKI WATCH WHERE YOU ARE GOING YOU JUST PUSHED YOUR BROTHER

• POOR DORORO HURT HIS BACK

~

• T A H O M A R U

• AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH

~

• AHHH DORORO DONT CRY

• STAY STRONG YOU BOTH

~

• DORORO IS SO SUPPORTIVE

• HYAKKI YOU ARE SO BLESSED TO HAVE HIM

~

• N E W   O P E N I N G   W H O O P   W H O O P

~

• DAMMIT I FELT THIS IN MY OWN STOMACH

~

• Is it me or does that look like the bridge where Hyakkimaru and Dororo first met in the game: Blood will tell?

~

• Yay! Hot spring!!!

~

• DORORO YOU SNEAKY LIL SHIT

~

• S H E   L I V E D   B I T C H

~

• Dude you realized that to late

• You are a goner

~

• GRUESOME

• I DID NOT EXPECT THIS

~

• Dororo you are too cute for this world

• BUT DAMMIT DORORO DON’T TELL HYAKKI TO BE CAREFUL WHEN YOU AREN’T

~

• Hyakki is sad because Dororo didn’t allow him to kill anyone

~

• Dororo’s expression are priceless!!!!

~

• OH NOOOOOO

• THE DRAMA IS COMING

~

• AAHH POOR DORORO

• THAT’S NOT YOUR MAMA

~

• Hyakki looks so exhausted

• This boy needs a hug

~

• DO NOT BE FOOLED

• AHHHH WHY CAN’T HYAKKI TELL?!

~

• DON’T BE DECEIVED DORORO

• AAHH I WANT TO CRY T_T

~

• DORORO IS SO SHY

~

• AAHHH PAST MEMORIES!!!!

• LET ME HUG DORORO!!!!!!

~

• I want to believe that she was truly happy when Dororo loved her food

~

• Ohh Dororo

~

• WAIT WHAT DRUG???

• AAAHHH SHE DRUGGED THEM!!!!!!!

~

• DORORO DON’T SLEEP SHE IS GOING TO TAKE HYAKKI!!!!

~

• AAAHHH MOMMA

~

• AAAH DORORO GO SAVE YOUR ANIKI

~

• HYAKKI IS SO DRUGGED

• SOMEONE WAKE HIM UP!!!

~

• DORORO IS SO STRONG

• HE IS FIGHTING THE DRUG SO HARD

~

• GET HER DORORO

• SAVE YOUR ANIKI!!!!

~

• HYAKKIMARU WAKE THE F UP BRO

~

• T_T

~

• AAH HYAKKI WOKE UP

• HE LOOKS SO INNOCENT IN HERE

• AND ALSO FED UP

~

• THAT’S A LOT OF HAIR DAMN

~

• ALL THOSE FACELESS PEOPLE

~

• HYAKKI DONT LOOK

~

• BREATHE

~

• OKAKA HOW COULD YOU?!?!

• HE NEVER SAW HIS MOMMA

• DON’T HURT MY BABY

~

• OH NO WATCH OUT HYAKKIMARU!!!!

~

• AAAHHHHH

• MY BABY IS TO INNOCENT FOR BONDAGE

~

• WE KNOW HYAKKI IS MAGNIFICENT BUT YOU CANT HAVE HIM!!!

~

• DORORO ASKING THE REAL QUESTIONS HERE

~

• OH NO THE BDSM IS EATING HYAKKI!!!!

~

• YES!!!

• OKAKA YOU ARE A GOOD PERSON!

~

• Wow Okaka turned into ashes…

• RIP OKAKA

• Now Dororo lost 2 mothers…

~

• AHHH DORORO YOU CUTE SHIT

~

• AHHH I LOVE IT WHEN HYAKKI TALKS

• AND HE SAID THAT HE’S FINE

• AND HE SAID ONSEN

~

• Oh it’s the same scene from before

• WAIT

• IS THAT….

• HOGE HOGE TARA TARA HOGE TARA PON

• YASSS

~

• Do I sense some sass from Hyakki??

~

• Look at that dorky face

~

• IT IS THE LEGENDARY BUTTMARU

~

• B I G   M O O D

~

• DONT SAY THAT TO MY KIDS

~

• AAHHH ITS BUTTRORO

~

• Hahah splash!!

• Their expressions though xD

~

• Yesss….

• TELL ME IT’S THE MAP

~

• ITS THE FREAKING MAP

• AJSDFJHFGJHFG

• IM READY FOR THIS AND SHARK BOI

~

AND NOW FOR THE PREVIEW OF EPISODE 14

• AAAAHHH ITS BIG BABY

~

• S A B A M E

• LET’S GO

• I CANT WAIT FOR THE NEXT EP

~

I look forward to next episode!

#Dororo #Hyakkimaru #Okaka #faceless buddha #episode 13

[skyhopedango]

EX#2!!! Later than I wanted to watch it but at least I got around doing it. And anyway I’d been accidentally spoiled about Doug not being in the episode much and that made me look forward to it less than I originally had... oh well.

Travis knows how to convince Kirill. Just appeal to his fantasy! :DDD

So basically Doug wears his stuff until he has nothing to wear anymore, whereupon he takes a day off to wash his entire wardrobe. Just... Doug... about your life and getting it together... yeah, please do that...

Seriously, why is he such a disaster... :DD

Mila... A pro indeed, and it was really nice how he & Kirill both did the thing with their voice switching from masculine to feminine and back so smoothly, it was pretty impressive.

Oh god, Travis and his rose. Oh god. :DDD 

Seriously, that was amazing. I can't even tell if it's just plain painful, or if it’s so painful it actually goes around and becomes kinda smooth.

I guess this is just saving on the animation budget, but one would have expected Max to wear a wig or something...

OK, the Yusef thing is a pretty standard standalone romance plotline for Kirill? Like, the one you see in similar live-action TV dramas with the MC and the Love Interest Of The Week That We Never Hear From Ever Again Because Status Quo. Normally I'd be enjoying something like this a lot more, but... *shrug* Sorry, I'm the cancer that’s killing fandom that fan who does OTPs, and it kind of tickles me the wrong way that we're never gonna get moments being framed as clearly romantic with Kirill and Doug. :D (With its own love song, too.)

Kirill is such a good person though, awww.

And at least Hosoya gets to do his ikemen voice, that's always good to listen to. Why doesn’t he get to do it more often, his voice is so beautiful!

And at least Kirill’s otomegokoro is now fully awakened, and we know that it’s weak against dudes who look just like Doug when they do romantic shoujo manga ikemen things, I can live with that. (I just hope Doug gets all the training from Mila to be able to do the romantic shoujo manga ikemen things...)

Still, Yusef looks way too similar to Doug. Even his eyes are green! (or blue?) I wonder what happened there - this show doesn't have so many characters that a design so similar to one of the title characters would just slip through by accident. Maybe Yusef is based on an previous Doug design that they liked too much not to use somewhere.

Kay... Kay, just... don’t draw, ever again.

DEANA!!! :D Thank you, Deana. :DDD

SO THE WEDDING DRESS WAS DEANA, TOO! :DDD Well, at least hte original idea came from her. She's such a troll, I love her so much.

So that was EX#2! To be honest I can't help being disappointed over Doug basically sitting out the entire episode. I mean, if at least it was a random episode in the TV show, but it's an extra! A bonus! And Doug's barely in it, sigh, extra sigh since it's an episode where Kirill has a quasi-romantic subplot with another character. I absolutely demand a whole lot of quality Doug, and Doug & Kirill moments in the last extra, to make up for it. 

And on that note...

ONSEN EPISODE, YAY! And it seems they're going to do the "onsen investigation" trope, those are always hilarious. :DDD

Derick & Mila are there too? That means Derick will find out about Mila... right? I mean, unless Mila spends most of the episode avoiding getting into the actual water. 

Or it turns out that he’s known it all along and was just playing along. I kind of want to see that happen, Derick just going along with Mila pretending to be a woman because he thinks there must be a reason for that and he doesn’t want to get in Mila’s way.

Or hell, Derick has known all along and Mila knows that he knows, and the joke’s on Deana & co... :D

TRAVIIIIIIIISSSS :DDDDD

#double decker #double decker: doug and kirill #doug and kirill

[yuzuruspoohsan]

what kind of dates do you think yuzuru would like? would he like quiet dates (ex: art museums, cafés, walks in parks, etc.)? or would he like fun dates (ex: amusement parks, arcades, go-kart racing)? would he like more common dates (going to the movies, fancy dinner, etc.)? is he just an all-rounder type of guy when it comes to dates? what do you think? (and it’d be great if you gave more examples of your own!)

So, I need to explain to you guys, hear me out.

While I love answering your asks (I mean all of you), sometimes there are things where I’m like….”okay, this isn’t necessarily something I should answer because I have nothing to back it up with.”

I know that I answer a lot of things (particularly ones that have some proof or evidence to draw from) about him at in regards to how he acts or is, but then there are things where I’m like, “okay, this is heading into the fantasy/fiction department.”

This is kind of ask where there are no concrete answers.

The only way I would or could answer this is on the premise of, “I’m only answering this, so that the fanfic writers have some material/inspiration to work from.” Because this completely out of the realm of prediction. I can only guess because like the other NSFW you all throw at me sometimes, I have to tell you guys “how the hell would I know?”

But if you’re really just pondering or need some inspiration, I am more than happy to put my 2 cents in. 

I just wanted to clarify this with everyone that’s all. So, this is just a more casual exercise for fun and entertainment (not to be taken seriously). 

So, a date with Yuzu. Sigh.

Sigh as in, how does one begin to fathom what truly goes on in a young man’s mind? Is he like the other guys or is it crazier than the rest, I’m not sure.

The only way to go about this is is like picturing him choosing a number randomly from the baggy for the order of performance. Except the bag is filled with blocks and marbles (or gachapons) so-to-speak.

But he is probably leaning towards casual dates because he’s only in his twenties and has no experience doesn’t know much about what girls want to do (and when left to his own devices to plan a date, he might start pacing back and forth in his room until he has set the track ablaze in his steps).

Experience plays a major role when it comes to dating and courting people. As you grow older, the way you court will change. However,…..when you’re only twenty something….you tend to do what other normal twenty somethings do or suggest, which tend to be casual/hang out dates.

I mean, he isn’t going to do anything too romantic or bougie because he doesn’t roll like that. If he doesn’t know what is considered romantic or isn’t quite fancy himself, he isn’t going to do those things. So, those are ruled out.

He isn’t…….quite the type to suggest for instance MOMA. Art is fine and all, but he ain’t about to tour in an art museum for 2 hours (which is the average time you should spend in an art museum to get CULTURED). Let’s just say he’s not going to suggest museums in general unless the person he’s with, is crazy about museums or a particular exhibition.

Yeah, he’s the typical, I-got-drag-into-this-and-I’m-only-here-because-my-girlfriend-wants-to-see-it-so-badly. Though that being said, he is open to trying new things and hearing what his girlfriend has to say about the things they see. So, who knows, maybe he will enjoy it after all.

(But he would enjoy those space, engineering, or technology exhibits….cause….he’s a nerd. If you got him an exclusive tour/interview on how headphones and earphones are designed in a high-end company, he would be really interested and be very happy,)

Things he would be really open to: movies (if only he wasn’t so famous he might be able to watch one at the theater XD), “fun dates” like amusement parks (yes, just not in Japan for obvious reasons), and walks in the park…..Ci

Ain’t gonna get more romantic than a quiet stroll, my friend.

As for some food for thought (can’t really think of a better phrase at the moment), he might suggest an onsen trip (dem hakone hot springs would be nice mmhmm) if his partner’s okay with that. * Ci winking intensifies * 

(IT’S FOR THE SAKE OF FANFIC PEOPLE, IT HAD TO BE SAID!)

Also, video game night at home. Yas. His favorite. That or Japanese Drama or anime marathon night.

Hmmm…..can’t think of much more, save for study sessions (cause I think he’s still a college student, probably undergrad. HE’S A SUPER SENIOR. XDDD)

#anon #replies #dates #for fun

[lunawings]

Yuri!!! On Stage Event Report!

So today (4/29/2017) I went to the Yuri on Ice Yuri on Stage event. To clarify though, I was not at the actual Tokyo event, rather a live viewing at a local movie theater. Which of course does alter the experience but it’s the next best thing. At first I thought the theater was only doing the afternoon session, but very last minute I ended up being able to attend both!

For starters, the voice actors of most the skaters were there +Nishigori. When everyone came out they more or less came out in order of popularity from lowest to high so it was all like... YURI ON STAGE... Here is Nishigori!!! to start which got a good laugh. 

(Georgi just existing always got a good laugh too.)

Characters of voice actors who attended: Yuri, Victor, Yurio, Phichit, Chris, Georgi, Minami Kenjiro, Leo, Guang Hong, Seung Gil, Emil, Nishigori.

Characters of voice actors who did not attend but appeared on video: JJ, Michele, Otobek.  And Kubo-sensei.

Victor’s voice actor cosplayed for both showings. First he was in a suit, and second he was in a black shirt and pants like his the new figure. YES he did the pose. He even dyed his hair. Apparently he kinda killed it dying and redying it though. 

Yuri’s voice actor was wearing a necklace that could have possible been interpreted as a silver medal. 

After everyone came out and introduced themselves with a key line from their character, we moved into the talk show section. Unfortunately I don’t have that much to say about this part because they just talk so much so fast that I only understand about 70% to begin with and only half of the jokes... 

Georgi’s voice actor was the moderator and they split up the characters into different groups. Afternoon session was.... Teens: Yurio, Emil, Leo, Guang Hong Kyushu: Yuri, Kenjiro, Nishigori 20-somethings: Victor, Chris, Phichit, Seung Gil

Evening session was...  Not not just cute: Guang Hong, Emil, Chris, Leo? “My Pace”: Victor, Emil... Phichit? (I might have mixed up some of these... sorry I don’t remember.) Surprising gap: Yuri, Yurio, Seung Gil, Nishigori

Kubo-sensei was very involved in this section. It was funny because at other events I have been to the voice actors were always like “lol well I think my character would be like this...” but at this event she kept interrupting like the voice of God to be like “Well, ACTUALLY.....”

Chris was only in the “cute” group because of his cute butt.

He put Chris character badges on his butt to show off too.

I think Kubo-sensei said something about when she starts drawing Chris she just starts with a butt.  The “My Pace” group refers to the characters all having a “do whatever I want” attitude. They came out wandering all over the stage. I had no idea how to translate “surprising gap”... it meant like, characters who have two sides to them. Like Yuri with his eros, and Seung Gil when he got really upset after losing. 

During the “gap” group Nishigori’s voice actor describes the gap with a very long convoluted story that ended with the birth of the triplets? So they were like Kubo-sensei did you know about this? Apparently she DID write it... then forgot about it. 

At one point they were talking about who they look up to as voice actors, and Kenjiro’s said he looked up to Yurio’s voice actor. This was during the Kyushu men segment, so he wasn’t on stage. But they pushed him out and made them sit VERY CLOSE. It was... a moment. 

There were a lot of innuendo jokes about how Phichit’s name sounds like “pichitto”, Japanese for “tight” or “snug.” For example: Phichit’s ass is pichitto.

Anyway, next came the world quiz section. 

So they separated everyone into four groups. During the afternoon session they drew cards from a box on stage, but for the evening they just did it in advance to save time. 

Every group got a table with a buzzer. They really liked the buzzer. 

So basically, what they did was they translated an anime scene into another language featured on the show and had a native speaker read it. Then the voice actors had to guess which scene it was.

In the afternoon session the language was Thai and it was basically impossible to guess right away. SO they had JJ’s voice actor, good old Mamoru Miyano, appear on the screen give a clue. He basically just gave us the Thai word for “onsen” then showed a several minutes long JJ montage to the theme of King JJ and then told us to enjoy “JJ On Stage.”

Also during the Thai reading the guys were laughing because a part of the Thai sounded kinda like “chinsuko” which sounds like an Okinawan snack which sounds like “penis.” Anyway.

After two more clues, first “hold back”, and then “internet” I was able to guess the scene and so did Yuri’s voice actor. (It was the Chinese restaurant scene.)

For the evening show however, the puzzle was MUCH easier. Even in the original Russan I could make out “piroshki” and a very heavily Russian-accented “katsudon.” You could tell from their reaction that the voice actors knew it too. But if someone guessed too early we would miss Mamoru Miyano’s clue so everyone stayed silent. 

Mamoru Miyano gave us the Russan word for “grandfather.” And at this point somebody (I forget who) said “Well clearly we all know it’s the scene where Yuri and Yurio eat piroshki--” BUT TOO BAD because we were shown the JJ video anyway ahaha.

So at this point everyone knew the answer but to keep the segment going they just decided to fuck around instead by buzzing in and saying random words in Russian. Phichit’s voice actor tried to make “miso soup” sound like a Russian word and the hosts got mad at him when he defined it as “japanese soup made from miso” without any other ingredients. Yuri and Guang Hong’s voice actors were on the same team with Phichit and both were wearing glasses so they were all like “which one is which???” and Phichit’s actor didn’t have glasses so he had to improvise with his hands and this foam thing he found. Victor’s voice actor tried to use the “grandfather” clue to tell long fairy tales “a very long long time ago there was a grandfather....” It’s so hard to describe well but this was so amazing and everyone was just having such a great time. 

Oh, and the Russian speaker’s name was Emil so we had a brief WHOS THE REAL EMIL contest. (If they were speaking English surely they would have said “would the real Emil please stand up?”)

So anyway, Kubo-sensei had to chose the winner in the end and she picked Yuri’s team twice in a row. This is interesting because she got to put gold medals on the winners both times. After that the winners also got to eat samples of the katsudon piroshki they are currently selling at Namja Town. 

After that they did some script reading of key scenes and it was very artistic and beautiful. While Yuri, Victor, and Yurio were reading on stage they somehow raised a TINY ice skating rink where a woman did Yurio’s Agape in the afternoon and free skate in the evening (or at least as much as she could on a tiny square of ice, no jumps or anything). 

And now, what you have all been waiting for... the original drama. 

(No, this was not animated. They could not. They just stood and read a script. Quotes are of course translated from memory and probably not 100% accurate.)

It starts off with Victor reading something vague about how unforgettable the previous night was. Yuri is making noises that sound increasingly sexual until we realize... actually he’s throwing up.  Phichit: Green stuff is coming out of Yuri’s mouth... I have to put this on the internet!! 

Seung Gil: I have something to say to you. Yuri: What do you mean, you’re just looking at me with that same unreadable expression as always. Seung Gil: Put some clothes on.  Yuri: HUAAAAHHHH.

So Yuri is naked with Russian written on his back that Yurio translates to “Overcome Chihoko” and a strange cap on his head which is actually Victor’s underwear. And his body is extremely sore. And he remembers nothing. And Victor is gone.

Yurio: Yuri Stinking Katsuki what did you do with Victor. Yuri: Don’t say “stinking” like it’s my middle name.... 

And so, piece by piece we figure out what happened. So the setting is that everyone is in Hasetsu for a “Onsen on Ice Victor With Friends” show and the night before they were all drinking at the Katsuki place. Victor is poking Yuri’s soft belly. But Chris comes into the picture and soon Drunk Yuri starts to get whiny and jealous...

Yuri: Victor... stop looking at Chris... look at me.... Victor: I am looking at you.  Yuri: No you’re not. Victor...... let’s do it...... Victor: ...........................do what Yuri: Do... what people do when they drink..... And to be honest I do not know exactly what he said next, but from the next few lines I gathered it was a drinking game where you get naked. So Yuri was like “SO I LOST THEN” but the others explained that.... ACTUALLY, Yuri then ripped Victor’s clothes off to practice a naked Eros routine and then also needed his underwear for a coronation ceremony. I may have missed a couple things but I’m pretty sure this is not supposed to make sense in the first place and Yuri basically wants to die. 

SO everyone is blaming Yuri for Victor’s disappearance when detective Minami Kenjiro steps in to solve the case. He mentions Yurio is the only one with a motive since he found a list Yurio made of different names for a show he is planning to take over the Victor With Friends show with. I wish I could remember them all but the only one I remember 100% accurately is Yuri on Tiger. Yurio denies it though. But also apparently Otobek came up with half of them. Also Yurio has no idea who Minami is even though they were “rivals” in junior.

To make everything worse we suddenly find out from Nishigori from the triplets that the skate otaku are flipping out because the Victor With Friends show will not have Victor in it. Somehow they found how he is missing. SOMEBODY uploaded photos to the internet of their get together... PHICHIT! 

But this is a blessing in disguise because now they can check the photos. And they find... Seung Gil kissing Nishigori.... AND IN THE BACKGROUND is Victor stretching out Yuri. (”Oh, that’s why I am sore all over,” says Yuri.)

Georgi then comes in to reveal that Victor and Yuri actually had a fight last night (Phichit: YOU... GOT DIVORCED...?!) , but about what he does not remember... he rattles off some words that sound vaguely like “penis” before they realize it’s “Chihoko”! The word on Yuri’s back! So, it’s in Russian, and if Yurio and Georgi didn’t write it, that must mean... VICTOR. 

So then Emil comes in, who apparently came to Japan on jet skis or something, and informs them that he knows where Victor is... He’s at Hasetsu Castle... on the roof, naked. 

So they all run down there and it’s revealed what really happened. 

While they were stretching Victor commented on how Yuri’s belly is soft but his back is rigid. Yuri says of course he can’t compare to Victor, but there is someone more limber than Victor... “Sha... Chihoko...”

Okay so. The joke here is that Victor hears this and thinks it’s the name of Yuri’s ex-lover and gets jealous. But the thing is, I have NO IDEA what Yuri was actually trying to say? It had to mean something because people in the theater were laughing. I know it also sounds vaguely like “penis” but that alone cannot be the joke... HELP. 

EDIT: OKAY. I think I got it. It’s a mythical carp which bends backwards. I should have known this because it’s also Nagoya thing. The statues of them are on Nagoya castle too. This ties in with them going to the castle in the end OF COURSE.

(EDITEDIT: Guys I’m sorry but it’s NOT that Yuri was saying Victor was too tense. I know you must think I’m nuts but grammar wise Yuri was comparing Victor to a person or an object. I know that sounds like that could make sense but you’ll just have to believe me. The whole point was that Victor IS flexable... but not as flexible as “Shachihoko”... Yuri even refers to “Chihoko” as “aitsu” as in “that guy” which makes Victor’s blood boil. And once again the castle part completes the joke.)

So Victor writes “Overcome Chihoko” in Russian on Yuri’s back and then goes off to train. There is this whole montage of scenes from the anime as Victor reflects on the fact that Yuri had a past before him but... VICTOR IS HIS NOW.

So, in present time Yuri shows up at the castle to find Victor bending over backwards on the roof:

Victor: IS THIS BETTER THAN CHIHOKO? Yuri: WHO THE HELL IS CHIHOKO. Nobody is better than you. 

In the end he convinces Yuri to strip and do stretching too as the skaters below gaze up at the amazing one in a million sight. 

Phichit: MY BEST FRIEND GOT REMARRIED...!!!!

The end. 

What followed was a live performance of “You Only Live Once” and a really cool ending ceremony. Everyone came out with laser pointers imitating the fireworks in the ending. Then they showed a slideshow of photos from the event (as in stuff that JUST happened) also to mimic the anime ending, and finally at the very end they showed a time lapse photo revealing that the voice actors were not waving the laser pointers randomly. They were spelling out the words “thank you”....... AWWWWWWWWWGHHHH--

So at the afternoon show the end was the end.

This meant if there was going to be any announcement it would be in the evening show. As it wound down I was skeptical there would even be one because Kubo-sensei actually said something about taking a “season off”... and I was like NO... NOOOO.

But then the display dimmed and we say that one card which said “All new original movie has been decided!” I wish I had more info, but that was it! No key visual or date, just... we’re getting a movie! It’s coming! It’s not a second season, but, I guess they have their reasons. 

#yoi #yuri!!! on ice #yuri on ice #yuri on stage #yuri!! on stage

[murasaki-murasame]

Yuri on Ice Rewatch: Episode 2

Time for episode two now! Let’s see if I can keep this up for the next ten weeks or so. I’m enjoying this even more than I thought I would, so it should be fine.

May as well just get right into it, so the rest of this will be under the cut.

Before I sit down and properly watch the episode, I should probably make it clear here that my process for doing these posts is to write up the beginning parts before I actually watch the episode, and then after I finish the episode I come back and write down all of my thoughts, in a way that’s hopefully sort of chronological but not really. It’s almost halfway between a review and a liveblog. But most of all, as said last time, this rewatch mostly exists to be a walk down memory lane for me, and to give me a chance to express all of my thoughts and feelings about the show that I haven’t really had a chance to express yet, since I made my blog way after I finished watching it originally.

Anyway, my memory of how I originally felt before watching this episode last year is pretty foggy, but I remember being really anxious and afraid of what might happen next. The premiere episode was so good that I was just bracing for there to be some kind of catch. Though that’s not really unique to this episode. The process of actually watching each new episode when they came out was a weirdly stressful experience at the time. Not really in a bad way, just in the sense that I became so immediately attached to and invested in this show that I couldn’t help but expect the worst each week.

I don’t think I really started following the fandom for another episode or two after this, but I’m pretty sure that the fandom was already coming into existence before episode two aired. I think that even the pre-orders on Amazon JP and Animate and whatnot were already starting by this point, which was the start of them dominating the charts for, uh, basically forever. I might get more into the topic of sales data and chart rankings if I make an epilogue post of sorts to this, discussing the state of both the show and the fandom after episode twelve aired, but in terms of what was going on while the show was airing, it was already beginning to top all the online sales charts.

This beginning part got a bit longer than I expected so I’ll just stop and watch the episode now.

-

I wonder if I should continually pause the episode between scenes so I can write as extensively as possible, instead of watching it all at once and forgetting some details by the end. On the one hand it’d lead to me giving more detailed thoughts, but on the other hand it’d really mess with the flow of each episode, and it’d probably inflate the time it takes to write each post. So for now I’ll stick to just watching each episode uninterrupted and writing about each one after I’m done with it. So I might end up glazing over some details. That’s probably not the end of the world though, since there’s a lot of topics to do with the series that I might make separate posts about outside of this rewatch. We’ll see.

Anyway, onto the episode itself. These beginning episodes are really interesting and sorta weird to rewatch. On the one hand, there’s a lot more scenes devoted to character-establishing/developing than skating, compared to the second half of the show, but on the other hand, most of this time is spent establishing the characters before the rest of the show properly develops them, so they don’t quite feel the same as their later selves, which are the ones we’re more used to. It’s especially weird to watch the very beginnings of Yuri and Viktor’s relationship. Not in a bad way, of course. It’s not as if I didn’t enjoy these parts the first time around just because I didn’t know everything about the characters. It’s just interesting to look back on these parts in hindsight. It’s almost hard to imagine that the flippant and casually rude Viktor we see in this episode would end up being such a loving, considerate, and thoughtful person by the end. Well, not that he wasn’t that way at all at first, but he certainly had to grow as a person in order to become a better partner for Yuri. And of course, Yuri himself is at his most insecure and pessimistic [more or less], so at the time I probably wouldn’t have believed that he’d end up being casually flirty with Viktor in public later, or drag him out to a cathedral to exchange wedding rings.

Which gets into the part that REALLY makes rewatching the show interesting, and that’s the unreliable narration / plot twist aspect. I know I mentioned it last time, but it really comes into full swing in this episode when we get to see everyone properly interact. Pretty much everything here takes on a whole new tone once you understand how Yuri and Viktor actually first met. It really contextualizes why Viktor was so forward and flirtatious at first, and why he seemed so surprised at Yuri’s shyness. It honestly makes Viktor seem like way less of a stereotypical flirty dude, and more like someone who’s largely inexperienced in love, wants to chase after a spark of inspiration and passion, and doesn’t really know how to do things in moderation. It’s really endearing. I still have my suspicions that Yamamoto was intentionally trying to subtly deconstruct [for lack of a better term] that whole character archetype. I guess that makes it sound more complicated than it actually is, but you get what I mean. I still think that part of what makes the eventual twist so interesting to me, and why it’s so interesting to look back on this sort of episode in particular, is that we just took it for granted that Viktor was being aggressively flirty and making risky life choices because ‘eh that’s just what his character type is like’, and that the very concept that he actually had a REASON for being that way was in and of itself a surprise, even beyond what that reason was in the first place. There’s a lot I can similarly say about Yuri’s character and the expectations we as the viewer have about ‘his character type’ going in, and how those get challenged, but I’ll probably save that for next episode, to start with.

Also on the concept of things that are kinda interesting upon a rewatch, in a slightly different way, Yurio did indeed get the brilliant senior debut he always wanted, with a program choreographed for him by Viktor. It’s one of the main reasons why his petty attitude about everything, at least later in the show, still doesn’t sit well with me. It at least makes the whole Onsen on Ice competition kinda odd in hindsight, since in the end, both of them got what they wanted. Yurio just got what he wanted in a way he wasn’t expecting.

In terms of things that aren’t immediately noticeable but are really worth knowing, I want to go over the whole ‘koibito’ translation drama for a bit. It’s talked about in the fandom so frequently that most people reading this post are probably fully aware of it, but I want to go over it for future reference, in case anyone doesn’t know. Basically the gist is that in the scene where Yuri and Viktor are talking in front of Ice Castle Hasetsu, when Viktor asks Yuri about ‘past girlfriends’ and whatnot, he’s not actually using the word ‘kanojo’ which would specifically mean ‘girlfriend’, but the word ‘koibito’, which pretty literally just means ‘lover’, in the same sort of gender-neutral way that word works in English. It’s also not really a word Japanese people commonly use in this sort of casual context, in a similar sort of way that English-speakers never really seriously use the word ‘lover’. The issue here is that, as is made abundantly clear by the rest of the show, Viktor isn’t straight, and so he didn’t use the word ‘girlfriend’ for a reason. But the translators didn’t know at the time that Viktor was actually attracted to men, and so they assumed that he was specifically referring to female partners, and so the gender-neutral term koibito was plastered over with the gendered word girlfriend. This wasn’t immediately an issue, but it certainly started making things awkward in episode four when he uses the exact same word to say that he’d be fine with being Yuri’s boyfriend. And, in the long run, the fact that this translation was never fixed [as far as I’m aware] has caused many, MANY people to make inaccurate assumptions about Viktor’s character, that make them unnecessarily skeptical about his eventual relationship with Yuri.

It’s an interesting and noteworthy example of heteronormativity in action, and how even if 90% of the time you can get away with this sort of thing, you still end up with cases like this where the actual meaning was erased or obscured because of the translator’s subconscious assumptions. And trust me, the ramifications of this piece of mistranslation have been ongoing and numerous. So it’s worth going over for a bit.

On the general topic of that scene, I also want to say that one of the things I most loved about Viktor right off the bat was how fun and bubbly he is. To be blunt, I wasn’t the biggest fan of Viktor at first because of the more callous and inconsiderate side of him that we see in this episode, but I liked seeing him be all fun and outgoing. At first I think I was skeptical that that was basically all there’d be to his character, so I’m glad that wasn’t quite the case. He still does have a side to him that’s genuinely kinda rude and blunt at times, but as the show goes on we see so many more parts of him, and he becomes a much more well-rounded and three-dimensional person who I was able to grow to love.

Though I should make it clear that just because I had my doubts and fears about Viktor’s character by this point, it didn’t stop me from being invested in their relationship, even if the long-term concept of ‘their relationship’ was basically just a hope and a dream by the time this episode first came out. I already knew by this point that if the show actually had them develop a relationship together, I’d be incredibly grateful for it. I just wasn’t sure if it’d happen in the first place, and I certainly wasn’t expecting how well it was going to be written.

On the topic of Viktor’s misleading first impressions to the audience, I think this was around the time people seriously started to speculate that he was, like, some kind of evil manipulative villain who was just going to toy with Yuri. It mostly blew up in episode three, though, from what I remember.

I feel like people who got into the show after it finished don’t quite have the full context of this, so I really want to make it clear that most of the fandom was genuinely afraid that he was going to turn out to be evil or something. Partly because of his attitude in this episode, and partly due to a general sense of paranoia and fear. It basically took until episode nine or ten for this to completely die away, although as time went on it kinda got replaced with people thinking that Viktor was going to die of cancer, and then people thinking that he’d tragically part ways with Yuri in the end. Which persisted until the finale came around. Everyone basically spent the entire show fearing that there’d be some sort of catch involved, and that we couldn’t possibly get a good, happy, romantic ending for these two. It’s a big part of what I said at the start about how each week I always felt nervous about watching each episode, even though I was still excited for it.

I guess I should leave most of my thoughts on the Onsen on Ice competition until my post on episode three next week, but it’s still an interesting thing to watch in hindsight. I wonder if Viktor truly would have gone back to Russia if Yuri had lost the competition. I honestly think he would have. There were already hints throughout the episode that he was secretly confused and upset about Yuri’s awkward attitude around him [like the split-second shot of him crying in his sleep], so I think that by that point he honestly felt that if Yuri was unable to win the competition and truly surprise him, and unlock the sort of Eros he’d seen at the banquet, then he’d accept the idea that his whole trip to Japan wasn’t going to work out, and that he really wasn’t going to find the passion and inspiration he was hoping for from Yuri. I think he would have pretty much given up and left, but he of course wouldn’t be very happy about it. It’d presumably have driven him even deeper into the stagnancy and depression he was already in. It’s not like Yurio was ever going to do much of anything to help him through it.

[OK I kinda ended up giving at least some of my thoughts on it anyway haha]

I still really like the whole running theme of Eros and Agape that’s introduced in this episode, and the choice to make Yuri work with Eros, and Yurio work with Agape. It’s an interesting swerve, though in hindsight it becomes amusingly obvious how much Viktor was desperately trying to rediscover the eros he’d witnessed at the banquet party.

I do think it’s worth pointing out that this is just the beginning of the many ways in which love, in all it’s forms, is a genuine, textual theme in this show. People spend like half of the entire show after this point openly talking about love as a concept in different ways. Including, you know, eros, AKA sexual love. I feel like it’s easy for people to kinda . . . glaze over this, in a way, or to at least forget about the fact that it’s not exactly standard or ordinary for a show like this to literally be about love in so many ways, and for it to be an actual theme that characters discuss.

Now that I’m hopefully getting to the end of this post, I want to spend at least a little time talking about Yuri, after having spent so long talking about Viktor. I mostly chose to talk about Viktor a lot here because we explore and develop a lot of Yuri’s character in episode three so I kinda wanted to talk about him a lot there, but still.

I really liked Yuri as a character from the start, but like a lot of people, this was basically the episode where I started to like him even more. We start to see more and more of him in this episode, like how he responds to Yurio’s entire attitude in a more calm and mature way than you might expect from a character like him. We also learn more about how Yuri isn’t really a child prodigy or anything, or a natural-born genius, but just someone with a passion for skating, and the sort of family and support network that gave him lots of free time and resources as a child to practice his skating. I always prefer ‘average but hard-working’ protagonists in shows like this to ones that are more like geniuses and prodigies. I also almost forgot that Yuri has a lot of training in dance and ballet, along with skating. It doesn’t come up much, so I kinda forgot about it.

I also still love the scene at the end where Yuri says that he just wants to be able to keep winning, and eating katsudon with Viktor, and that in order to achieve that he’ll win at Onsen on Ice with all of his eros. It’s just a really great moment that shows off both how motivated and fiery he is as a skater, and how he also has a more sensitive side to him. [I also really love how taken aback, in a good way, Viktor was by that. He clearly didn’t expect that Yuri didn’t really want some kind of a service out of him, but instead just companionship and support]

This also kinda tangentially gets me into the topic of how in this episode, Yuri and Viktor are at the stage in their relationship where Yuri still puts Viktor on a pedestal as a god-like idol, to the point of being nervous and hesitant about just saying that he wants to be able to keep eating katsudon with him. The way that they start off so completely separate and on entirely different wavelengths, and slowly become more and more equal, and more aware of each other as actual people and not just lofty and vague aspirations and ideals and possibilities, is really wonderful to watch, even if it means that their relationship evolves so much that, as said, these early parts can be really jarring to rewatch when you’re more used to how they act once they’re, you know, literally engaged. But the level of development they undergo is part of what makes them such an engaging couple.

I’m really excited to get to episode three next week. I’m pretty sure it’s the point where it really started to dawn on me that this show was going to be something unique and wonderful, and that it was going to have a special place in my heart.

#murasaki rambles #yuri on ice #this is getting up a bit later than I was hoping for #oh well #I can't tell if this is any shorter than my first post but it probably is