What do you think about the X-Laws?

That's an extremely tough question, because this is something I actually think about a lot whenever I read the series. To a certain degree, I can respect the results and heights they have achieved as a charity organization, but that's all I can say without opening my can of opinion-worms. Because for one, I definitely don't agree with their mass-focus on war and conflicts. At the end of the day, war is the end result of various bad circumstances. If you focus on the end product, and not on the circumstances that lead to war, you're carrying coals to Newcastle as the British would say. This is why Iron Maiden Jeanne kind of needed to marry Ren in a way, because he actually focuses on one of factors that lead to war and allows for X-Charity to have more control over warfare. I do have my criticism with the way Ren goes about it, but so far he's the only one who's actually working mass-scale on societal factors so I'll give him a pass for having at least some braincells in the way he executes his plans for a peaceful world. I'm also kind of against the organization as a whole because of what they used to stand for. I get the whole reclaiming-shtick, but seriously why did they felt the need to reform the X-Laws into X-Charity? This organization isn't just like a slur that hurt a person's feelings- this is a religious extremist organization that believed in suicide bombings and indoctrinated children to essentially become serial killers in the name of 'justice'. You don't reclaim that shit, you leave it in the dumpster fire it belonged. The fact that they continued to allow Jeanne and Lyserg to put themselves into danger by helping out in war conflicts after the Tournament just sents me into rage mode. They were surrounded by adults, who didn't gave a damn about their childhoods. Fuck, did Jeanne ever even attend school? Perhaps that's why the X-Laws are doing futile efforts to begin with- because their leader had zero education and thus doesn't understands basic concepts. I pity Jeanne so much. In a way, they kept her stupid by sheltering her so much and not allowing her normal education. I find that heartbreaking. I mentioned before on my blog, that I have two cousins who are Jehova Witnesses, so the topic of people being kept stupid in an extremist religious enviroment is something I am familiar with. I genuinely pity the people who grow up that way, I do.

Some Jeanne Appreciation ❤️

Justice for Jeanne 😭🙏

Je verrai toujours vos visages (Jeanne Herry, 2023)

🐺 sappy 🎸

[og thumbnail + closeup bc i thought her face looked cute <3]

Some Fumi sketches because I miss him...need to replay his route soon - probably as soon as I'm done with Sou's...

Mitsuki Shirota's Short Story

On the official Japanese Jack Jeanne website, there's a page of full of concept art and short stories for each major character (as well as stories for every character + Kisa). They were written by Shin Towada (primary writer of the game and Ishida's sister) and the art is by Ronin (also did concept art for Nier, Pokemon, Fire Emblem).

I thought it would be cute to post translations on each character's birthday. Since they were written as promo material, spoilers are quite minimal (mostly around the first performance). I tried to keep the original notebook aesthetic and dialogue colour-coding to post on Twitter, but I'm posting a regular text version here for better accessibility.

As if he were observing the ever-fluctuating world through a pane of glass, he always kept his distance. "It's already been a year since we were on stage at the Newcomer's Performance, huh?" He heard those words while in class at the beginning of lunch period. It wasn't that big a deal. The topic should have ended with that one disruptive statement, but it captured the attention of the Univeil Drama School second-year students. Voices of shared nostalgia all piled on top of each other.

"A lot has changed since then, huh? For us and for the ones in other classes too." "I didn't think Sugachi would become the Al Jeanne of Onyx. He's so reserved." "And in Rhodonite, Minorikawa is likely their Jack Ace yeah? It's probably tough being a Jack Ace over there." People always brought up the same names to represent the second-year class.

"Shirota became a tresor like we all expected too." The moment that name was said, the Quartz second years turned their eyes to him. They're so annoying.

Sitting in a chair, chin in his hands, Mitsuki Shirota looked over his sheet music. He remembered something even more clamorous than the noisy stares of a crowd. Shirota was a second-year Quartz student, same as them. The term 'tresor' was reserved only for Jeannes with strong vocal talent. Combined with his unmistakably Jeanne-like facial features, he drew notice from people around him. But their unrestrained gaze was not something he enjoyed.

Shirota raised his head and looked directly at them to catch their stares. His calm expression suddenly turned sharp. Crumbling under the impact, the students hurriedly averted their eyes. "W-well, our grade sure has a lot of talented people, huh?" Avoiding the topic of this interaction, they resumed their conversation. But Shirota knew this discussion would be pointless. He took his sheet music in hand and stood up.

"But y'know… it's because 'that guy' is here." The end of these conversations was always the same. "The moment I saw that guy on stage at last year's Newcomer's Performance, I lost all hope." The cheery atmosphere immediately turned and a heavy air permeated the classroom. "As long as that guy is here, us in the 77th class are…" Shirota and the other second-years were part of the 77th class year in the history of Univeil Drama School. And in that 77th class, everyone had been cursed by the existence of just one person. This doesn't just apply to our class though, does it? It affected the third-years in the 76th class and the first-years in the 78th class too.

Leaving the classroom, he closed the door as if to shut out everything. It's pointless

He fled the group's vortex and went to the terrace next to the Univeil school building. This place, covered in vibrant plants mixed with the smell of flowers, enveloped him in a peaceful atmosphere Siiigh Shirota released a big breath from deep in his lungs, sat on the bench, and opened his sheet music. The Newcomer's Performance vocal section. It was a performance for the newly enrolled first-years to be in lead roles, but Shirota and the other older students would be on stage as well. The duty to support the first-years seemed burdensome to him. Staring at his music sheet, he began to play the song in his head to see the shape of it. Huh?

Suddenly the song was scrambled by noisy footsteps in the distance. Going this way and that, the sound started moving towards Shirota. "Oh, it's Shirota! Working hard today!" Echoing even louder than the footsteps, that clear voice penetrated the ears he was trying to cover. The one who came to greet him with the sunny face to match his personality was the brand new Jack of Quartz, Suzu Orimaki. He had barely just enrolled and was in Shirota's class. "Shut up." "O-oh! My bad!" After being smacked with this unreasonable anger, Suzu sincerely apologized. He didn't avert his eyes the way the students in Shirota's grade did. Shirota's eyes relaxed. "What are you looking around for? The other ones in your grade?" "Whoa, how did you know bro?!" "You're being too loud." "Oh, my bad!" Seeing Suzu quickly cover his mouth, Shirota let out a breath. "I knew because you were wandering all over the place. You're probably looking for Yonaga." Suzu nodded and opened his mouth, "I promised to run lines with those guys on the terrace." He took care to lower his tone of voice a bit, although strangely his voice still reverberated. "…You're with the other first-years a lot huh?" In competition for the good roles with others in their grade, there was often a lot of friction early in the school year. A friction that continued all the way up until graduation in some cases. Images of students in his year flashed in the back of Shirota's mind. "Yeah, they're great guys," Suzu answered with a smile that showed no trace of conflict. "Hmm," Shirota responded vaguely. "Well, sorry for bugging you! I'll be going now!" Suzu gave a short nod and ran off.

As his footsteps faded into the distance, the quiet returned. "…He sure is an energetic one eh?" As if waiting for the right moment, another presence appeared. "Fumi." "Yo." How long had he been there? Without disturbing the quiet, Sarafumi Takashina, the Al Jeanne of Quartz, showed himself. As Shirota was a Jeanne himself, this was the person directly above him. "Kuro would get so excited seeing you talking to the younger students." "Please stop…" The person Fumi called 'Kuro' was the leader of Quartz, Kokuto Neji. He fit in with the rest of those prodigy guys, but to Shirota he was just a bothersome senior. Seeing Shirota make an upset face from deep in his heart, Fumi chuckled. He stood next to Shirota and looked in the direction where Suzu ran off. "Orimaki seems like the type to be friendly with everybody huh?" "No matter what I say, he doesn't back down." "Wherever he goes, the place becomes brighter." "Even just his presence is loud." As soon as Shirota said this, in the distance he could hear, "There you guys are!" It seemed like Suzu had rejoined his classmates. Even with him not present, he was such a loud man. It would probably get even noisier as they started running lines. Or so he thought. Miraculously, Suzu's voice faded and he could no longer hear it. Maybe they changed locations. "Orimaki isn't the only one you've talked to right?" "Hmm, well…" Shirota had an unapproachable energy. While many of his juniors kept their distance to avoid upsetting him, there was one other first-year who approached him like Suzu did. There was this first year with a gentle face whose name kept coming up over and over, from the time he enrolled until being nominated as a Jeanne. This student was always hanging out with Suzu and Yonaga, even the other first-years too sometimes. Maybe those guys changed locations because Orimaki told them I'm here. When he had unpleasant thoughts towards others, all he had to do was reject them. But, if he wasn't like this, how should he be instead? Thinking about it made him a bit tired.

"…Well, Mitsu, it's good to take baby steps," Fumi said in a slow relaxed voice. He spoke as if seeing a future not visible to Shirota himself.

As if surrendering himself to the idea, he quietly replied, "Yeah, we'll see."

Wolverine #44 preview

"You could never love him. You could never protect him. So you owe him your fucking grief."

Written by: Victor LaValle, Benjamin Percy Art by: Cory Smith, Frank D’Armata

Cartoon & Anime Romances + Arm and Arm Together

The King is back!! 😎👑

IT'S FINALLY HAPPENING!!

What’s your opinion on Iron Maiden Jeanne

Oh, hi! Well, as I mentioned in my post about Ren X Jeanne, at first I hated her after watching the original anime. If you ask me, one of the biggest flaws about the original anime is the fucked up Babylon's Gate shtick, and how Iron Maiden Jeanne never got to showcase who she actually was: a brainwashed kid who didn't knew any better because she was kept isolated by the X-Laws. But then I completed the manga- I started the manga when I first watched Shaman King as a little girl but never finished it. That's when my opinion began changing, because Jeanne in the manga actually did see the errors in her ways, and both scenes she was in the car with Manta and Tamao respectively, you could see glimpses of how isolated she was from other children until Lyserg joined the X-LAWs. I became rather torn about her character, because the original anime just left such a bad taste in my mouth, but Jeanne was nothing more then a child soldier and canonically did repent. And then the final push I needed to join the Justice for Jeanne team, came out. Red Crimson. Oh how I can write page after page about Red Crimson. Sure, I completely meant when I said that Red Crimson did NOT handle Ren X Jeanne well, a 2 page romantic scene is NOT enough to be emotionally invested in them as a ship and I reiterate that Iron Maiden Jeanne becoming a housewife is complete character assasination when it comes to everything established about her as a person. BUT, one thing that Red Crimson does well about Jeanne is one big thing: It does actually makes you care about her and her fate on a individual level. Because I do care now. The way she tried saving Black Maiden from becoming like her to the point she was about to execute herself? To give a description of my initial reaction reading Red Crimson chapter 4, "BITCH WTF?! No. NO. Jeanne don't kill yourself you delusional idiot! Think about your son, de-escalate the situation and save that girl from those fuckers! This is not happening. This is not happening. Those fuckers really killed Jeanne. I'm sorry for all the mean thoughts I ever had about her. I can't believe they killed Jeanny-poo like that. WHY JEANNE, WHY?!" Anyways, I now believe she's one of the characters the series in general did the most dirty. The painful irony of being a symbol for justice, whilst barely getting any of that shit herself. Jeanne is a tragedy.

Prince Darling (1889) - Henry Justice Ford

Kim Kaphwan VS Ryuji Yamazaki

Alright, I did it!!!! I finally posted my suzukisa fic!!!! Anyways, what’s the final word account, according to Microsoft Word?

22,222 words….Yeah…..

Anyways if you love Kisa, Suzu, suzukisa, or you just wanna figure out what the fuck is wrong with me writing a 22k+ long oneshot, I hope you’ll check out this fic. And please let me know what you thought about it! Writing romance isn’t my strong point, but I did my best ✌️