For the ‘Humans are *insert word* here/alien fans fanclub’, I have another small headcanon:

I feel like most aliens (from aliens that travel planets, to aliens that are the embodiment of a nightmare, to aliens that are small and fuzzy),

would absolutely love David Attenborough. I mean they probably found out about Earth’s animals and how they live and stuff from watching his documentaries, because one human on a crewship put it on to help them fall asleep.

David Attenborough would be adored by all the cosmos I think.

Irken Zim’s 8 biggest fans

For funsies! As we are well aware, this guy has a lot of gut-haters and censurers across the galaxy. Over his long years of life, he’s gained a proud infamy from every corner of the Irken empire, all the way to the fringes beyond, and the number of critics snapping at his heels only grows with every adventure. Whole civilizations sit at their seat’s edge waiting for this invader’s downfall, but what of those who defy all odds, expectations, maybe even logic? Even devils somehow find worshippers, even criminals get fan mail, and even Invader Zim has someone rooting for him within the 4th wall. Weirdly quite a handful of them, actually, let’s recount.

8. Table Headed Service Drone Bob

It’s humorous, how odd circumstance can make for strange advocacy. The show’s universe operates on the rule of funny, and Bob just so happened to be in the right place and time to comedically become the only Irken alive with something to gain from Zim’s success, and so much to lose for his failure. The sheer unfairness of what the Tallest put him through along with Zim serving some hope for a miracle ticket out of his low standing seemed to snap something in him, even if just for an episode. It would make sense for anyone in his position to have a much more dampened love for their society and leaders, to the point where cheering on its greatest enemy would be preferable than another moment of being a doormat. An underdog rooting for an underdog, even if for purely selfish and coincidental reasons.

7. The Judgementia Control brains

Even more deliciously ironic, isn’t it- That Zim’s praise was be sung once from the very bottom rung of Irken society and then again from the highest spike? What better to follow up poor Bobby than another victim of astronomical circumstance, or rather, three victims together? The nutshell recap of “The Trial’s” plot climax spells out the tragedy of, what is basically Irk’s highest court officials, to become he first ever victims of Zim’s malignant code becoming a contagion. They’ve joined the Fanclub, even if against their will, and all the better for Zim this time to have support from such a high place, seeing that it literally saved his hide in this instance.

6. Dib Membrane

Yeah, that’s freaking right. He’s on the list. You think being a hype man and a mortal rival are mutually exclusive? You either haven’t been watching enough DBZ or you haven’t been watching enough Hellsing and should fix that. Anyway, and I’m speaking within the actual canon dynamic of these two… it is very important to Zim that Dib is perceived as a formidable opponent to bluster his own ego, and vise versa. Dib is not in any self-serving position to accept what an actual mess Zim’s operation is, even though he has more evidence of the alien’s horrible tactics, nonsense plans, failures, etc. than anyone else on the planet. Gaz can see Zim for exactly what he is and why fighting him doesn’t have to be this 24/7 urgent priority. Dib refuses to get that because stopping Zim’s pop-up schemes only keeps the score tied for them. They’ve both been at this long enough to get incredibly frustrated with the lack of progression regarding the big picture goals, taking over the world, and exposing a live alien to the world, respectively. I don’t think he has to keep describing this space goblin as some ultra-cunning master of villainy, or GIR as this nefarious minion because that’s what he actually thinks of them, but because if he admits otherwise, that’s not a great reflection of his own merit for the obvious reasons. Just the presentation of another dimension’s version of himself succeeding against Zim before him causes a spiral of self doubt, just as it can bring Zim to a minor panic watching other invaders leaving him in the dust. Dib wants this guy to be a challenge worth the victory lap when he finally gets what he’s been fighting so hard for.

When Zim is getting on some truly idiotic antics, Dib doesn’t actually revel in his disorganized stupidity, but meets it with a baffled or annoyed disappointment. Like me watching a character I thought was super badass suddenly do something that reveals them to just be utterly lame. Too often he almost comes off like he is critiquing Zim’s performance as a villain rather than,, you know, the fact that Zim is a villain in the first place. It more than once has led to accidentally giving the guy new ideas or pointers on how to do his own job better once in a while. If I were in Dib’s place I would under NO circumstances be giving Zim advice or corrections on what he’s doing “badly” when it comes to the invader thing, but, whatever makes you feel cool & smart, you little dork. There’s also the whole “Dib’s hatred for Zim belies his geeky fixation with aliens broadly” angle I’ve mentioned here or there before, and don’t mind to again. Studying/stalking Zim is only partially about defeating him. His curiosity over Irken tech, biology, etc. is still coming from a place of genuine scientific passion, as literally all of us know. And of course, on occasion the two make for unlikely allies against much bigger shared enemies.

5. Minimoose

Oh come on, how much could I even have to say about this moose-weapon? He has two fathers and is fully aware that Zim is one of them. Assuming we all here know about the cute Florpus quote; no need to recap the whole existence of the lil guy.

4. Invader Skoodge

Now this guy… this guy ain’t right. Exactly here, at this (I say with love) loser of an invader, we reach two tipping points when it comes to Zim-affinity. One, the tipping point where Zim ceases to ask for and ceases to appreciate the toadying. Two, the point where I actually kind of struggle to find any rational explanation for the toady’s behavior. Like I’ve tried and I genuinely don’t know how to put together how Skoodge keeps jumping into this position other than ‘it’s that funny’ or some weird familiarity from smeethood factor. All of the invaders know what Zim has done and what he’s capable of. He’s a consistent terrorist of his own kin and defamed as the greatest disgrace to the Empire. The two options for how to feel about Zim as any random Irken soldier are fear, and/or loathing. If Skoodge were just neutral or indifferent of Zim, that’d be pretty freaking odd. But Skoodge interacts with Zim on the level of at least a lukewarm acquaintance, readily even deferring to his command, despite the fact that he nearly dies every single time he does so. He survives miles of being chased by a monster on Hobo-13, he makes it to the finish line, and his first reaction is to let Zim know he’s made it in one piece. He decides to lay low and slack off after getting fired (into the blighted surface of Blorch) and out of the entire universe to choose from, he decides to go hole up at Zim’s place and stay conveniently out of the way for some time. Dude finally shows himself in the unfinished scripts, and it’s to motherfucking help Zim troll around with Dib. I’m up at night wondering what is going on in Skoodge’s head because he’s n o t an idiot. He’s a real invader in all other respects, just as competent and nationalistic as the rest of them. Easily suggestible, yes, but not stupid. There’s basically no way for him to be ignorant of the big lie the Tallest sold Zim, yet he chooses not to utter a peep on the matter. Pity? A bizarre sense of solidarity?? A delusional one sided friendship??? Don’t look at me like I know other than the fact that he’s on our protag’s team, in spirit. The wannabe Irwin to Zim’s Billy, essentially.

3. Keef

So yeah of all things to blow Skoodge’s unhealthy attachment clean out of the water, we stumbled into this freak of a human child. Keef is a loyal compadre to a fault. A huge, creepy fault. Kid was originally supposed to make a return as well, wherein he was no less of a stubborn stalker than already proven once. And extra points for the irrational selflessness. Even while demonstrating an understanding of what Zim did in Dark Harvest, possibly even with the memory of that whole squirrel incident, he still wishes nothing but for the ability to put a smile on his green friend’s face.

2. The Amoeboid Cult

And when none thought that the scary conviction Zim garnered on Earth could be his biggest fans, you find this little ditty in the comics, and it starts turning into an irresponsible god analogy fairly quick. The short recap is that following a crash on a strange planet, the Voot Runner starts leaking fluids that inadvertently spark abiogenesis, which results in the creation of a rapidly evolving race of blob-things. Seizing an opportunity, Zim at first demands their followership, and then shortly after gets fed up with it as he did the previous fanatic on the list. Nonetheless, the cell people continue to reproduce and age thousands of years their time in the span of a couple minutes, never losing that zeal for their unintentional creator, even going so far as to repair the cruiser despite Zim’s rejection of them. Out of what little they gathered about him during his short visit, they correctly learned he’s a destructive god who planned to abandon them as soon as he could. Their last wish as a civilization? For this god to also obliterate them, as final treat. Such was their devotion that it even left Zim himself completely baffled for a moment when its full depth was revealed.

1. GIR

You watch this show, right? Yeah? Henchman and sidekick number one? Chaotic thing this whole fandom can’t decide to perceive as an adoptive child or a talking pet? He may not be as competent in pleasing Zim’s wishes as minimoose, or as focused, but his heart and loyalty are ultimately with their intended master, unconditionally and for as long as this setting has continued.

in 2021, i made a post promoting the band set it off that i have since deleted, praising them for being kindhearted individuals who cared deeply about their fans without an ounce of toxic masculinity involved. so how the hell did they lose the core of their diehard fans in the past 2 years? as someone who would have done anything for them at some point in time, allow me to explain.

midnight era was set it off’s peak as a band. they had come back after their last album flopped a bit and were bigger than ever. they also won a fan power award from rock sound magazine, praising them for having such a dedicated fanbase. they’d already kicked sexual misconduct-ers out of their band and off of tours — they felt safe. and when the pandemic hit, this brought another golden era i was involved in — maxx and cody’s twitch era. i was a moderator for cody and i’m close friends with maxx’s former mods (and am dating one of them). with this, many of the band’s most diehard fans felt rewarded.

the beginning of the end started with maxx. maxx did not pay his emote artist, taking advantage of a minor who was just dazzled to do work for ✨maxx danziger✨ and when the artist eventually realized their error and asked for either payment or to take the emotes down, maxx took the emotes down. my partner also did free videos for maxx for a while, but eventually asked for an extremely low payment per video. when they realized how badly they were underselling themself, they asked for more or for the paid videos to be taken down, and maxx took down all of them.

the asking for payment was happening amidst it coming out that maxx had been cheating on his ex, lindsay, for almost the entirety of their relationship. maxx refused to reach out to anyone about it, including lindsay, and has not said a word to this day. it also came out that he had cheated on his current girlfriend, who has shown forgiveness.

this is when i started losing hope in the band. at first it was kind of funny seeing maxx look miserable in all of the promotional stuff coming out since their album elsewhere was releasing. it was funny thinking about how many of sio’s songs were about being cheated on and kind of infuriating at the same time. i hoped he would feel embarrassed every time he had to perform bad guy. but no. he was smug.

at some point in time maxx tried to start up his discord and twitch again after his previous mods left, but boy oh boy. anyone who tried to call out any of his actions or criticize him at all was banned from his server! i remember all i said was it was kind of pathetic of him to delete the mods’ very sweet goodbye message to the community, and i was banned just for that.

my own personal problems with cody aside (a whole other story), i started feeling truly bad about the band as a whole when they revealed their paid fanclub with exclusive content. things went exactly as it seemed they would — the club was overpriced and updated sparsely. it was, in short, a money-grab.

back in october, they released a few parody merch designs based on horror franchises, including a fnaf design made by an artist that did not give them permission to use the artwork. i don’t know what ended up happening to the artist/the merch design.

not long after the elections in november, cody made a really awful tweet. that’s when it was revealed that he was registered as a republican, and all of the remaining faith i had in the man shattered. sorry, this is the only screenshot i could find of it.

when he received backlash on the post, he doubled down on it. it’s pretty clear at this point he’s socially liberal and fiscally republican but it hurts to see him support such a harmful political view. he deleted his tweets but he hasn’t been back on twitter since. he also eventually took the republican view off of his facebook.

as if to double down on losing fans, sio announced a show with machine gun kelly, known for sexualizing minors, and then recently a tour with all time low, known abusers. the mgk show felt a bit “well, do they know?” at first, but all comments of concern were ignored. the tour with all time low being announced felt like a slap in the face. what happened to the band that cared about their fans more than anything else? what happened to that fan power award? this feels malicious. it feels like they’re alienating fans on purpose. they deleted comments calling atl abusers. i’m sure they took this tour for the money, and it hurts knowing they value that more than the safety of their fans.

in short, we can’t trust these guys anymore. they’re not here for their fans, they’re against them. so much for the fan power award!

I still don't understand the obsession with Seiya. Let's just think about this situation from Usagi's perspective. Your fiance has gone to another country for school while you remain in your own country where you're just trying to get through school while something inside is telling you something is very wrong with your fiance because he's not calling. However, as if this isn't bad enough, some popular guy starts stalking you and insisting on being in a relationship with you although you already mentioned more than once you have a boyfriend, you have tried to let them off gently, but they can't seem to take the hint. To add more salt to the wound, your friends are encouraging this behavior and gaslighting you into playing along just so they can get with the guy themselves, which leads to you being humiliated and bullied. All the while, you still worry about your fiance and having the other guy continually insult him and trying convince you that he doesn't even love you anymore.

Because you know emotional abuse and gaslighting are just signs of love, right?

I have always looked at the situation from her POV ever since I watch Stars back in 2017. Especially the first episode after Mamo left and S.A.D and their two back up singers I mean the other two Starlights come to their school.

All Usagi wanted to do was try to get trough the school year without Mamo being there and be unbothered.

That's it.

Because the looks she gave them through that whole episode..

"I don't want to fuck with you. Leave me the fuck alone."

Which was so fucking relatable!!!

She showed zero interest in the fact S.A.D was an idol and The Starlight’s while the other girls was gushing over them. 

All she wanted to do was make it through the rest of the school year without Mamo in peace damn it!

She told Luna when she ask if it was a club she was want to join like the girls are and this was her answer.

If the school said they was doing a student exchange program with high school students in America aka Boston Mass where Harvard is at, Usagi would be the first to put her name on the list and get the fuck out of there to see her man. English be damned. ( Which how the other four and Luna treat her I don't blame her. ) ( She looks like an Alien in the last pic but the 90's anime have the best animation... )

When S.A.D and the Starlights come to school, so was so unfazed with the fact they were Jpop Stars/Idols while all the other girls around the school was fangirling since they were apart of the fanclub. Also while Mina was start scheming, Mako was fangirling, Ami was secretly fangirling and Rei went from her damn school to their school just to see them after school.

Just think about the fact that she technically met them first before the four groupies I mean her friends met them.

But the way they acted toward Usagi because it because she could careless about them and the other two..

Doesn't make any sense.

And I get it.

It was nothing wrong with them fangirling over JPop Stars/Idols/ Boy Brands.

I am a 90's baby who was kid during TRL days on MTV and it was Backstreet Boys Vs.Nsync Vs. 98 Degrees. ( This was before social media was a thing)

My classmates had pics of B2K, Pretty Ricky, and other black bands on the wall and fight over who was their fave.

Hell Might as well include Boys to Men, All for One, New Edition.

Hell my sister was a HUGE fan of New Kids on the Block when she a teenager. Which now a few years ago, she got into KPop and is a huge fan of Shinee and other Kpop groups like NCT 127 ( and the off shoot groups with it's fifty elven members lol) , EXO, Stray Kids and others. Hell it got me into listening girl groups like Mamamoo, Red Velvet, Girls' Generation, CLC, Black Pink, After School and others

So I understand that and the fact they are 16 year old's girls because I was their age once.

Hell Naoko in the manga got them fangirling over them as well but it's a balance which the 90's anime didn't give them. They kept pushing S.A.D on her for their own personal grain and not thinking about Usagi doesn't want NOTHING to do with them.

Because this shit in that Softball episode and the Episode where S,A.D is at her house alone..

She gives two fucks that S.A.D is an Idol. All she wants is to see her damn boyfriend.

And she keep telling S.A.D over and over again." Hey I have a boyfriend." Hey I really don't vibe with you. Leave me alone." Hey We are not dating. I got someone I'm waiting on to come back." and S.A. D keep thinking " Oh She's just playing hard to get. She really digs me. Let me keep throwing my weight I mean Swag around her. "

Which ends up to their own heartbreak on the damn roof when it supposed to been about her and not about them.

Cause that moment was about her. I’m really tried of seeing so many scenes in the 90’s anime that her feelings get sideline for someone else. I’m tired of the part of fandom saying it’s about both of them.

She is on the damn ground in the gotdamn rain venting about missing her (dead) boyfriend cause she doesn’t have a clue why he’s not replying in which she told NOONE the whole damn season that she haven’t and you have the nerve to be like “ Am I not Good Enough”

You would done so much better if you would have hug her or just told her “ Come on lets get you out of this rain.”

Since they keep putting themselves in a situation that they know jackshit about and thinking Mamo didn't give a damn about her which is father from the damn truth.

" Oh He's making her sad..He doesn't love her.." DON'T TOUCH SHIT THAT DON'T BELONG TO YOU!

The more insult to injury after the rooftop scence her "best friend" have the nerve to say this.

Child If your ass was paying attention the whole season instead of hightailing your ass from your school to the girls school just to see the damn Starlights you would have fucking knew all the damn time she told space alien dive ass that she had a damn boyfriend. She may have told yall that she haven't heard from him since he left but since yall been shitty ass friends for almost 200 episodes...

Especially one arc in particular which you sit up here , joked about her being dumped and precede to give her the most shitty ass advice you can give someone. " Oh You got to trust him" even tho he really give her ZERO reasons to trust him since he was hot and cold towards her. Which the rest of yall was like " Oh he had his reasons" which he did but yall didn't fucking rally behind her which yall most def didn't rally behind her dealing with Seiya and could told them to back off.

No yall asses was too busy using her proximity to Space Alien Diva ass and their two back up singers for yall own personal grain.

Be damned about a friend yall claim yall love and want to protect feelings.

HER FEELINGS NEVER FUCKING MATTERED TO NO ONE BUT FUCKING MAMORU!

But hey

People always going to use the break up arc against him when the one time he wasn't thinking rationally at all because all he wanted to do was protect her ( which he honestly though not from the dreams he was having but from himself because he still through he couldn't have no one close to him. Since he didn't have a set of friends and support system like Usagi did) which he didn't think it through and how it would affect her and himself greatly.

He was a freaking 17 years old boy having a dream about marrying the girl he is in love with ,having her die on which supposed to be the happiest day of their lives and having a booming voice to telling him " Oh you need to stay away from Usagi" which in his mind translates to him thinking that he is bad news/curse to her since she already died one lifetime because of their love.

Which he would rather just put the burden of staying away from her and dealing with it on his own instead of just telling her. Which for a 17 year old boy what the fuck do you expect? He have not matured yet which the most rational thing to do was to tell her. ( But hell some adults still don't tell shit.) Rei had dreams in S about the whole world including the girls getting destroyed and haven't told a soul until Pluto told her to tell them. No one got on her withholding important information about the world to her team.

But oh no

That's not forgivable but "Am I not good enough" is

When a person who made Usagi finally breaking down about missing Mamo and feeling like she can't do all this shit she is dealing with by herself into being " Hey what about me?"

I mean what about you?

Half of the season you got on her damn nerves thinking she was playing hard to get when she was constantly telling you she had a boyfriend and wasn't interested.

The rest of the season yall become friends but you thought you can " Treat her better than he can."

Then being upset that you found your princess and she's not interested in you so transfer your feelings to a person who most def not interested in you and your ass got hurt because you wouldn't simply listen to her and leave her the fuck alone.

Unrequited love is a bitch but come the fuck on.

Then it trips me out when people translates that scene to "Oh Am I not doing a good enough job to distract you from your sadness.” instead of S.A.D trying to “replace” Mamo is still making the scene about them.

Because S.A.D is still not understanding the fact that when she saw that rose, everything she held on inside the whole season come out and it was not only just about Mamo.

She have a group of friends and still feels utterly alone to the point that she didn’t even tell them she heard nothing from Mamo.

She has a guardian cat that she don’t even tell her what’s going on because she is so judgmental and still act like Usagi can’t do the work.

She misses not only Mamo that she doesn’t know what’s going on with him not retuning her calls or her letters but missing Chibiusa.

She have to deal with Outers and the Starlights bullshit and how the Outers don’t want to hang with S.A.D or be allies with the Starlights. While the Starlights don’t want S.A.D to do the same thing.

She constantly dealing with the inners shit and how they acted like groupies while using her to try to get close to S.A.D the until they found out S.A.D and Starlights identities. Which the inners are completely useless in fights she is having now.

She had to deal with S.A.D shit and not understanding that she have a boyfriend and just ask her to do things before just thinking she will automatedly do it with them.

To top that all off she got to deal with Galaxia and her people stealing people Star Seed.

All the while not having the one person that have been by her side since she become Sailor Moon. Mamoru.

No 16 year old girl should have to deal with that much shit.

And it all come ahead with her seeing that rose and think maybe just maybe he come back to her finally. That she’s not alone.

The saddness she feels runs deep and just because you think you finally decided to stop “ shoot your shot” and be supported of her you think it’s going to “Proof” magically disappear. Because you make her smile or laugh for a few minutes.

Naw dear It doesn’t work that way. No way in hell does it way that way because it’s more than her missing her boyfriend.

Usagi was depressed this season and you can’t tell me otherwise. So no amount of S.A.D trying to make her “ happy” would actually make her “ happy” if she’s not mentally.

But we should feel bad for S.A.D because they love her oh so much by pushing boundaries and throwing emotional baggage that weight a fucking ton on a girl who have to deal with her OWN emotional baggage!!

"Poor S.A.D! They just love Usagi so much. Bad Usagi for not bring their feelings into consideration while you are breaking down about being alone and missing your boyfriend.”

Poor S.A.D my ass

Sorrows, Sorrows Prayers Seyia

i'm screenshotting this post not bc i want to mock it or anything, like i completely disagree but also the rest of the post's tone was pretty personal so i didn't want to reblog with my own digressions and derail the op's intentions; genuinely much love to them. it's just that this kinda jumpstarted some thoughts along with that series of panels i collected in my last post.

i don't think fujimoto is making fun of fans, or of parasocial relationships in part 2. i think the hypercommodification of chainsaw man as a brand and celebrity in-universe IS meant to be ironic and cynical (as they quite literally consume pochita from inside out and weaken him), but i don't think fujimoto is making fun of the people themselves.

so far in part 2 there are several main themes standing out to me--lost/blurred identity is one, and i have many thoughts on that one, but so far the strongest theme has been alienation under the current system and how people cope with extreme isolation and with their longing/struggle to forge an intimate relationship and maintain it. the school setting is a play on some shoujo tropes, but it's also the greatest stage for this theme to play out because schools are inherently alienating spaces, particularly for kids who don't fit the norm in a certain way. fujimoto has commented on adultism and the structural struggles of children/teenagers before, especially re denji's lack of autonomy vs the adults in his life. the previous setting WAS an adult setting, an actual workplace and office with a uniform and all.

the current school setting is all teenagers--the only adult we've seen at the school so far was the teacher in chapter 98, and said teacher didn't even seem to be teaching properly, but rather using his friendliness as a way to groom female students. so far the school hasn't been a place of learning or even companionship, but a place of bullying and of kids being shaped into being the next devil hunters--and we've seen what devil hunting is as a job! it's a nightmare of exploitation and dehumanization! yet the devil hunter club seems to run the school council and practically the school itself, luring in orphans who want revenge on devils and kids who are not allowed a part-time job and need any way to make money to survive under the current system. and again, add to that the bullying asa and yuko endure with no outside intervention, the fact that students ARE clearly starving or struggling to survive, the fact that the only social circle seems to be, again, the fucking devil hunting club....

what i'm trying to get to here is that the characters in part 2 are deeply fucking lonely, in part due to teenage years woes, in part due to the way the current system and in particular the school system is set up. the bullying yuko endures is so severe that she considers that the only way to stop it is not only to kill the bullies, but raze the school itself. she tries to connect to asa through the only way she can think of--making a contract with a fucking devil. the fact that this is her first option says a lot about just how lonely and hurt she's been. yuko focuses on chainsaw man as a symbol of justice, an idealized figure who'd do her right, unlike any adult or even other teenage figure in her life who just let her and her newfound friend suffer.

we don't know much about harumi yet, but it feels like the devil hunting club is also an unofficial chainsaw man fanclub, which is partially how he became president. chainsaw man as a subject is a way for a lot of these kids to socialize, to form bonds through their admiration for him and through the shared culture and games around him. again we don't know shit about him but he clearly also struggles with wanting to be well regarded and forge connections, and his way of doing so is emulating an idealized superhero to the point of getting fucking surgery to be closer to him!

it's like. fujimoto is not making fun of "ridiculous fans", he's commenting on how HARD it is for people to form intimate relationships, and how they use parasocial relationships as a way to do so with others, or to emulate the sentiment. yoshida actually verbalizes it in the new chapter:

why even try anymore if you're just going to get hurt or lonely again? why not project onto this perfect stranger whose image becomes a mirror to whatever your fears and desires are?

and then there's denji, who IS chainsaw man and who can't imagine being loved as himself at all, so he doesn't try! he thinks exactly like all these other kids--no-one could like me for myself. so either i remain alone forever, or i forge a relationship through this dominant cultural and political figure that can be whoever and whatever people want: a hot celebrity, a monstrous force of chaos, a prince charming who'll rescue you from abuse and a terrible face, a justice dispensing warrior, an american spy.....

(also there's no doubt in my mind that's asa's own vocal distaste for chainsaw man plays a role in why she was alienated from her peers in the first place. the class president's first attempt to befriend her is by bringing up chainsaw man and then she just stands there awkwardly as asa tells her she can't stand him! chainsaw man has become such a cultural staple that by refusing to participate in said cultural staple, asa has further been estranged from her teen classmates.)

A quickie book review!

Colonel Parker - Hero or Heel by Todd Slaughter.

Hi, hello! Sooo.. I just finished this book and I said I'd do a review on it, so here we go. It'll probably be shorter than my previous one because I'm a lazy biiish but I wanted to put it out there nonetheless.

If you're set on Baz' movie and believe the movie to be facts, this book might not be for you. If you want to learn more about The Colonel and what he was all about, this book is a good buy. I'm not here to change anyone's opinion about the man (y'all do you) but it's simply not what Hollywood and the media have made it out to be throughout the years.

(!!!) Trigger warnings for S/A and r*pe.

Todd Slaughter is a writer and Elvis fan from England. But not just any Elvis fan; he ran the official British Elvis Presley fanclub pretty much all throughout Elvis' career and there after.

To The Colonel, he was quickly turned from a fan into a friend and Todd traveled back and forth from the UK to the States with and without the fanclub. Todd became a pretty well known name in the Elvis world and even among big names in the industry.

He has been to Parker's house several times, they went out to lunch, Todd was part of meetings and whatnot. He met Elvis on a few occasions too, presenting him with fanclub trophies and stuff like that as The Colonel would let a few members of the fan club backstage.

Todd and The Colonel kept in touch all throughout The Colonel's life- writing and calling. The Colonel phoned Todd every month.

First things first: was Parker an illegal citizen?

He wasn't. It's most likely he entered the States without papers, but at the time he did, this wasn't something unusual. He served in the U.S. Army for four years (1929-1933), this alone led him to no longer being an 'illegal alien'. Later on, he got married to a U.S. citizen (Marie Ross) which also provided him with a legal right to live in the States.

He had a social security number, he worked for a politician and for the City of Tampa. He founded several companies, paid millions in taxes and lived a very public life. I don't think anyone who resides in a country illegally would be this reckless and careless. He also had access to (and became friends with- work!) six presidents throughout his life.

We can also wipe the assumptions that Elvis didn't know The Colonel was Dutch off the table. Elvis knew. He met The Colonel's brother (who didn't speak any English) in the early '60s, The Colonel told Elvis he had family left in the Netherlands and Elvis' response was: "Maybe we can visit them someday."

Elvis has been to Breda to drop off a package in Parker's name during his years in the army, buuut that's a whole 'nother story.

The rumors about The Colonel committing a murder are also just that: rumors. There aren't any recognisable connections between the victim and Parker (other than them being from the same city) nor a motive. His migration to the States had been planned for a long time. He didn't flee. The murder story is nothing more than a publicity ploy to help promote another book on Colonel Parker. (Ahem- Nash Trash).

Trigger warning here!!

Before The Colonel's first trip to the States (which is not a lot known of other than the fact he stayed with a Dutch family in Jersey), his maternal grandfather told him: "When you can, run away, boy. There's a whole world out there into which you can disappear."

The reason for this being that Parker sought sanctuary with his grandfather when he'd disappear for days on end because he was frequently sexually assaulted and r*ped by a family member. The book also mentions something about gang r*pe, so I believe more people were involved at some point.

When he returned to the Netherlands, he was faced with the same abuse. He didn't get help or comfort from his parents and when he left for the States this time, he told his mother he would never be returning to Europe when he crossed the Atlantic for the second time- she was unmoved by his statement. The Colonel sent his mother money until the day she died but she never acknowledged it or contacted her son again. When hearing about his mothers' death from Ad (his brother), he was broken.

The Colonel never liked talking about his family back home or WW2 and the German occupation in the Netherlands (despite him not being in the country himself, he was still Dutch). Loanne, Parker's last wife, told Todd that his sister had been r*ped by a German soldier, hence why he never visited Elvis in the army- besides, he was too busy making sure Elvis still received the same attention as before he got enlisted.

End of trigger warning!!!

The reason for not wanting to visit Germany sounds accurate to me. My grandmother was a young girl in German occupied Holland and she disliked Germans for the rest of her life. Not saying here that The Colonel felt like that until the end of his life, but a lot of Dutch people felt like that toward the Germans, even many years after the war.

Now about him not wanting Elvis to go overseas- from what I gather in this book, he did want it. It just never happened due to several factors. And even if The Colonel didn't have a "passport", getting one would have been a piece of cake for a taxpayer like him and being the manager of Elvis Presley. He wouldn't've let something as big as a world tour fail because of something so minor and easily resolvable.

People seem to forget that he escorted Elvis to Canada in 1957 and accompanied him to Hawaii in the same year. Hawaii didn't become the 50th state of the US until August, 1959.

The Colonel also did not steal anyone's name. It was usual for a carny to take on a different name and he did so because Andreas van Kuijk was too difficult to pronounce for English speakers. He got the title "Colonel" by Jimmie Davies, Governor of Louisiana, in 1949 to thank him for his support during a campaign. Before Elvis, The Colonel was already a highly successful artist manager and tour organizer for country music top acts like Eddy Arnold and Hank Snow.

There also have been rumors going around how The Colonel supposedly made chickens dance on hotplates and all kinds of shit that would indicate he abused animals. But would an animal abuser direct a municipal animal home where he took care of abandoned and abused animals and install a pet cemetery? I don't think so. Sure, he made good money with it, but it doesn't make him an animal abuser. I think he loved animals (it's said more than he liked people sometimes) and we all know how fascinated he was with elephants.

The 50-50 deal...

is a bust? jk lol.

Honestly, I have trouble putting my opinion in a proper sentence on this, lol. English is not my native language and there was a lot of numbers and business talk in this book. My brain needs a rest.

But the 50-50 thing was only for Special Projects. And hey, I might get shit for this, but fuck it; it's a business deal. It wasn't like Elvis was eating dry bread every day. He still got 75% for everything else while The Colonel got his 25% share. Even in the 1950s, Elvis was the highest paid entertainer in the music industry.

It had been The Colonel's intention that the comeback special should become an annual thing (like Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, etc. did) but according to Charlie Hodge, Elvis didn't agree with it because he was nervous about the format and didn't want to perform the movie recreation segments.

Parker didn't force Elvis on stage when he wasn't doing well- sure, contracts were signed and both men had obligations to fullfil, but he actually made Elvis cancel Vegas shows at times when he saw Elvis wasn't doing too well.

Elvis wasn't a dancing monkey trapped in a golden cage as some people make it seem like. He was a grown man and he wasn't always easy to deal with, everyone knows this. Do I think The Colonel was a saint? Ofcourse not, but he was a human being and a businessman through and through. His only job was to get the highest amount of money possible out of whatever Elvis did artistically, because that's what managers do.

Elvis complained at times, yes. Elvis felt trapped in Hollywood from 1963 and after, yes. But he wasn't the type of person to argue with the man who was still bringing in millions of dollars, no matter how "superficial" or whatever that might sound.

Saying The Colonel is the one who killed Elvis Presley is absurd.

Anyways, I said this was a quick one, but it's already getting too damn long, lol. My opinion is that The Colonel genuinely cared for Elvis and wanted him to be as successful as possible. I believe them to have a friendly relationship with each other, but that they could butt heads as well. Unlike other managers, The Colonel only had Elvis and focused all his attention on Elvis alone rather than managing several artists at once, and he managed to do a good job.

We will never know what truly happened and what words were truly spoken between Elvis and anyone in his life. But if you're holding on to the thought that The Colonel was some kind of monster and the downfall of Elvis, you need to look further than your nose. It's easy to point fingers, but it's unfair.

Even after Elvis' death, The Colonel kept in touch with the fans. He talks about how it's important to keep Elvis' legacy alive, so that newer generations can experience the magic of him. I don't think he ever said a bad word about Elvis, ever.

When Bobby Mann, Elvis' cousin, was paid by a magazine to snap a picture of Elvis in his coffin (and succeeded in it. The magazine put the picture on the cover and sold 6.5 million copies), The Colonel said:

"Elvis was a private individual off stage, and he would not have wanted his fans to see his corpse. It wasn't right for me to interfere in Vernon's wishes, but Elvis would have hated that publicity and all the after-death rumours." His wife Loanne, as well as Joe Esposito and Charlie Hodge agreed to this on different occasions.

The Colonel also said in an interview in later years that Elvis was such a talent, that anyone could've made him a star. Maybe, maybe not- but I think The Colonel is a big and important part of Elvis' legacy and he shouldn't be sweeped under the rug, or be painted as some kind of money grabbing monster. In my opinion, the world simply isn't that black and white.

On January 20, 1997, The Colonel suffered a stroke and died the following morning from complications in a Las Vegas hospital at the age of 87. His funeral was held at the Las Vegas Hilton, which was attended by a handful of friends and associates, including Eddy Arnold, Sam Philips and Priscilla Presley.

Priscilla spoke at the funeral, saying: "Elvis and the Colonel made history together, and the world is richer, better and far more interesting because of their collaboration. And now I need to locate my wallet, because I noticed there was no ticket booth on the way in here, but I'm sure that the Colonel must have arranged for some toll on the way out!"

According to Tom Hanks, who had thought Elvis' manager was nothing but a cheap crook, both Jerry and Priscilla said he was a nice man.

Loanne Parker asked that donations be sent to the SUN Youth Camp Fund in lieu of flowers. Her late husband had given thousands of dollars to the camp fund over the years, just like he made many donations to different charities with Elvis in past years.

The Colonel was cremated and put to rest at Palm Cemetery.

(The Colonel at Elvis' grave at the Meditation Garden.)

To

Kickin Hawk, Heatblast, Bullfrag, Cannonbolt

How would you all react if you guys found out that you had a fanclub that was getting into a fight with another fanclub of another of your alien brothers. Like, being SUPER aggressive and even physical. For example

"No! Heatblast/Kicking Hawk/Cannonbolt/Bullfrag is the best alien, not Wildvine. Either get it straight or get beat up, you stupid wildvine fan. People like you make me sick"

How would you all handle that?

"Ignore it. Aint't really our business if someone wants to be a jerk on the internet."

"Yeah! 'Sides, if they need to insult our sibs just to make a point, we want nothing to do with 'em anyway!"

"Honestly, these days the fansites have some pretty good moderating going on. You rarely see messages like this in the forums anymore."

"An' he'd know. He checks 'em out at least once every day."

"S-so? Can't a man be curious about what his fans are saying about him?"

"We are the fans of the Yukari-sama. Gathered in support of her singular beauty!"

Fanclub??

"And we are the fans of the Akira-sama! Gathered in support of her gallant kindness!'

OMG THEY TEAMED UP TO PROTECT THEIR GODDESSES!!!

omg I love how bug-eyed they all are. They look like aliens!

Their worship really stretched so far as to become a hivemind to call for this eye horror.

It kinda reminds me of the Teruhashi Fanclubs!

"The Friends of Sapient Beasties" (1979)

A while back, I was looking through Fanlore, a wiki for media fandom, when I found this short page with very little content, except for this old flyer:

"That's right. Finally a club for animal-loving Science Fiction fans."

It's an ad for a fanclub dedicated entirely to animal characters! More specifically, it's an SF fanclub, dedicated to intelligent animal-like races in science fiction. It also mentions fans who collected plushes.

The last paragraph lists several examples of animal-like races, which I tried my best to define:

Hokas - Comical teddy bear-like creatures from the Hoka short stories written by Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson, first collected in 1957.

Hrrubans - Feline race, from Anne McCaffrey's Doona series, beginning in 1969.

Pern dragons - The telepathic dragon companions from Anne McCaffrey's Pern series, beginning in 1967.

Dilbians - Bear race, from Spacial Delivery by Gordon R. Dickson, 1961.

Fuzzies - Small fuzzy humanoids from the book Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper, 1962.

Fire Lizards - Dragons? Might refer to the fire lizards in Pern, which are separate from the dragons.

Hrroshii - ???

Wookiees - The big hairy guys from Star Wars, 1977.

The selection is very specific. Out of all the aliens in SF, it's specifically those that are "fuzzy, furry, scaley, or leathery" like an animal on Earth. And not just any kind, they have to be an intelligent and evolved race (often to the point of being anthropomorphic). I decided this was something I had to look into.

Behind the Flyer

While Furry fandom has its roots in the Minneapolis animal cartoonists and Los Angeles animation fans that both emerged in the latter half of the 1970s, this flyer comes from Chicago in 1979, and doesn't seem to have any connection to the other groups.

There's two people mentioned on the flyer, Paulie Gilmore and David Hosky. Paulie Gilmore, who seems to have been in charge of the club, was an active fan artist in Chicago around the time of the flyer, contributing to fandoms like science fiction and Starsky and Hutch. She's a decent artist, but there's not much more about her to talk about here.

David Hosky, another Chicago fan artist whose work often appeared alongside Gilmore's, is shown depicted on the right of the flyer, as an anthropomorphic bear character. Being a fan of animal characters is one thing, did he really have a fursona as well?

Origin of (Per)Sonas

The Fanlore entry on "-sona" says it's likely that the concept of an artist persona started with furries, but this is inaccurate; it already existed throughout media fandom. When media fandom first arose in the 70s, it was unique in that it focused on fanart and fanfic, as opposed to earlier SF and comic fandom, which were far more scholarly and analytical. Then, the 1975 release of Dungeons & Dragons introduced roleplaying to fandom. It's totally likely that these fan artists began to take the roleplaying concept and use it with their favorite media.

Below is issue 24 of the fanzine Fleet, from 1978. It was a "persona issue", featuring drawings of many of the artists' personas. The cover was drawn by Paulie Gilmore, and features David Hosky's artwork inside. (link to page on Fanlore)

When D&D first came out, there were people that wanted the animals and monsters to be playable characters. With all the SF and fantasy properties with animal-like alien races, it makes sense that some would make personas out of those, too.

Below is Hosky's contribution to the above fanzine. His persona, on the right, is a Hoka!

Doomed to Fur

There really must be something innate about the interest in intelligent/humanoid animals. At about the same time the first furries were gaining traction in fandom, this fanclub for "animal-loving Science Fiction fans", along with a proto-fursona, developed completely independently. Furry fandom may have been inevitable all along.

Heya caring for your clown fans!

I've got a new server as a fanclub for my favourite book caring for your clown! Cfyc is about this boy trying to fit in at his school as the only trans person there, and dealing with the presumed death of his mother... and a godlike alien clown from space :P

https://discord.gg/2esbVCFFyZ

Insert of "All Jets Are Gonna Fall Today" CD, 1992 by Bar/None Records.

transcription of the text of the inserts:

The words and music here-in are the sole property of CHOCOLATE and may not be used for the overthrow of small Mediterranean islands by the CIA or Pepsico, to seduce mailmen, to remedy that "not so fresh feeling", to use as a meat substitue or to bludgeon your friends without the expressed written consent of CHOCOLATE. Unauthorized reproduction of this recording for the use of barbaric space aliens who plan to kidnap the inhabitants of the planet Earth and take them to an interplanetary plastic surgeon who will subsequently turn all mankind into the thin blonde blue-eyed "Porn Gods" whose voices sound eerily like Ethel Merman is strictly forbidden. FANCLUB Join the CHOCOLATE Fan Club. If interested, please write to Bar None for info. The narration on this album was taken from the year long audio tape correspondence between Julian and Marie Caso, and from a live interview at Marie's N.Y. home. Thanks for watering our garden. "Smile" was recorded with a 4-track and a speaker phone in Julian's bedroom. The calls were all made at random and are in their organic order.

Be the first kid on your block to join: "THE CHOCOLATEY GOOD SMASH HIT of the MONTH CLUB" The Way-Fun Mail Club where you get a new, Homemade, Low-Fi, mini Batch of CHOCOLATE Ditties, available nowhere else, delivered to yer doorstep every month. Tapes delivered on the average of every six weeks 2 Months = 6$ 3 Months = 8$ 6 Months = -16$ Make check or money order payable to: Solid Dad Inc., in care of: Bar None, P.O. Box 1704, Hoboken, N.J. 07030 (Continental U.S.A. only. Please include name and address.)

* * * JULIAN KOSTER, Lead Vocals, Guitar, Bass Guitar, Manic-depressive insecurity Complex and showing up at the studio at 4:45 AM, Pick AXE in Hand, Covered in blood and unable to recall anything that had happened since the previous morning * * * KEITH BLOCK, Drums, Toothbrush on SMILE, Cardboard Box on WASH MY FACE, Lampshade, Orgasm tape, "The Keith Block Blow Drum", etc AND Lovely Vocalization * * * LIZA WAKEMAN, Violin * * * LUST, Vocals on 100 FT TALL, MACHINE GUN, ALL JETS (LUST as played by Hellen A.S. Popkin) ** EXTENDED FAMILY: * GEORGE BLOCK HARRIS, Guitar, Bass, Keyboards, Phallic References, Cool hair, Accordian and getting Pissed at Julian * OPIE BLOCK, Guitar, Piano and Lead Vocal on THE FEELIES SHOW * EVEN MORE EXTENDED FAMILY: * LOLA POOBASH, Clarinet * GERRY "FENGERS" HAMMILL, Guitar on 100 FT TALL and THE FEELIES SHOW * JON "LIPS" HAMMILL, French Horn * D.J. JAZZY WREN, Record scratching and a hil/l-a-beans * MAGGIE COUNCIL, Vocals on TEST and Handclap conducting * JON HARRISON, Scat, Scat, Scat, Scat, Scat, Scat-Singing on SMILE and Just being a Sex Pot * CHRIS IRVIN, Cool Wah, Wah... * BLAIR BLOCK, Bass on THE CRASHING SONG, SKYPHILIS and KRISS FORD * ROXY DYLWYN, Bass on THE SHOWER SONG and WYSOTSKY'S TEA

an idea for the ‘Humans are *insert word here*’/ALIEN fans fandom: MUSIC & FILMS & PLAYS/MUSCIALS:

I had this idea in the back of my head for a while now…

what if Aliens or certain species of aliens never heard of Music?… like imagine a human is playing some music as they work and an alien hears it, and because they’ve never experienced it before it all feels euphoric for them…

they’d probably feel and could vividly imagine the lyrics as they happen aswell, and that would put them through astral projection.

I think it’d be the same for films & plays/musicals…

They probably would have a transcendant experience watching them, seeing the creativity of it all, feeling the emotions they see on screen or on stage, and going through this sense of euphoria & astral projection as they see something so bewildering… as they’ve never ever seen something like this, or atleast at such a level it can make them feel sad or angry or happy… it confuses them

which is why they now sometimes start watching moreand more of these films & plays/muscials and more music… so they can try to understand what it is that makes them feel so distant yet so close to reality as they hear & see this.

(like do you get what im saying?)

The MC vs. The Brothers’ Fanclubs

Is this truly the only fate of the italics blurb…? To be dark lines on a screen for aesthetic appeal to the reader? A brief interlude meant to be rushed over or forgotten for the story below it? The nonsensical meanderings of an author utterly inconsequential to work that gave it life?? A tortuous running gag that has spanned throughout multiple works in order to prolong its pensive suffering????

Lucifer

Oh his fans are livid… Crazy jealous of the MC and the fact that Lucifer always pays attention to them while he doesn’t give his groupies the time of day.

Poor MC gets glared at all the time by them in the hallways or class or even just out on the street!

At one point a couple of them even kidnapped MC and hid in a janitor’s closet while “interrogating” them on how they managed to get Lucifer to like them so much.

Turns out “Helped him with family drama” wasn’t a very replicable answer…

The kidnappers were punished severely after Lucifer found out… If they thought they ignored before phew… Now he’s like ice.

Mammon

Another jealous group… but mostly because these bitches be going broke to have a little Mammon in their life and the MC gets him for free!!

They bring up how unfair that is to Mammon A LOT but he never lets them get too far with their complaining.

The MC has a pact with him, that’s like… a free pass or something. (And other half-assed excuses to explain his favoritism like that).

At one point, he did try to float the idea of the MC maybe giving him a Grimm or two for hugs…

They went so long (two days) without touching him at all that he cracked and took it back for life. Mammon may as well be an Affection ATM to them, enjoy it while they can.

Levi

They’re honestly too desperate to be jealous… “Can you tell him we exist… Please?” 🥺

They ambush the MC all the time to ask how he’s doing, what he’s like, what his favorite anime of the week is… that sort of thing.

They constantly give the MC fan-mail to give him (but he always assumes the MC is playing a trick on him).

A more sympathetic MC may end up getting pretty sick of him not noticing his fans and start including them in things. The next time Levi has a game tournament, he may show up to see the MC leading a whole troop of groupies carrying orange glowsticks and pom-poms…

Can’t miss them now. Mission accomplished!

Satan

The groupies saw Satan hug them once and that recognized an “in” when they saw one. Why alienate a possible Golden Goose of Interaction??

They spent multiple weeks trying to suck up the MC of all people rather than Satan. They got a suffocating amount of gifts and attention… 

If he’s not going to pay them any mind on their own, then maybe they could get on his good side by befriending his favorite human? Right?? Good idea?

Bad idea. Bad bad bad idea. Satan DID NOT like them bothering the MC all the time just to get to him… He pulled a Lucifer and got extra cold, if not outright hostile until they left his human alone.

Considering his temper, it could have been a lot worse. Honestly, they got off pretty light so no one complained as much as they could have...

Asmo

His fans are either the friendliest bunch in the school or some seriously catty bitches… No in between.

They’re not too bad to hang out with really. They know there’s more than enough Asmo to go around so they aren’t as jealous of the MC as other groups are.

BUUUUT there’s a lot of internal drama in that group… Members will gossip and fight with each other constantly… It wouldn’t be so bad if they weren’t demons so most fights end in a curse-war if not outright bloodsport…!

The MC has to weigh the risks of hanging out with them whenever they’re invited somewhere… If Malphas and Paimon are having a spat (as they do every week), things may turn south for them quick.

Asmo is a great peacemaker at least so he can calm his fans when they start getting too riled up… But jeez, what a toxic bunch…

Beel

His fans are mostly just really nice people (solely because they don’t want to disappoint such a sweet and friendly guy).

No, seriously. Beel’s niceness just keeps his fans on their best behavior through pure influence alone. The thought of him getting even a little mad at them is soul-crushing…

So they treat the MC very well. If anything, they just ask them how Beel’s doing and if he’s getting enough to eat.

The MC has brought home so many bags of food for Beel after his games or practices, it’s not even funny... 

They do get a little jealous from time to time but look at Beel! He gets so happy when they're together and who can stay mad looking at that face?

Belphie

You gotta wonder if Belphie is a cult leader because these guys are fucking creepy…

MC tried to befriend his “minions” once, ONCE, and it was like walking into a psychological thriller…

They don’t shut up about Belphie and it’s soooo weird… They may not even have nice things to say half the time, but call him a dick or something and they’ll cut you.

MC avoids his fanclub like the plague after that… Look, they may like Belphie but they’re certain one girl has a shrine to him somewhere in her house and that’s just uncomfortable...

They’re also mildly concerned one of them may snap and try to poison them one day, but Belphie says they’re harmless… (Sure, Belphie. Sure.)

[ʜᴄ] 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐲 𝐛𝐨𝐲𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝 = 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬

sʏɴᴏᴘsɪs: kuroo and oikawa with a s/o who is jealous of their fan girls and is insecure that they’re not enough for them

ᴀ/ɴ: gender neutral pronouns

— 𝐨𝐢𝐤𝐚𝐰𝐚 𝐭.

baby i am so sorry JSHEHO

his fangirls are downright ruthless it’s scary

his last gf didn’t have much of a problem cuz she somehow made amends w the fanclub but they are literally so downright rude to you

even oikawa said something 😐

oikawa is your number one hype man, he’s always calling you his “cutie” and “pretty baby” but after hearing it for a while

it doesn’t cheer you up as much

and oikawa notices that when you pull away from taking pictures with him and stress over your outfits to go out for something dumb at night

oikawa is genuinely such a sweet guy who he doesn’t have to put on some dumb persona at school

literally such a nerd he chills w u in his glasses and an ugly green alien top with shorts that have spaceships printed on them

tbh he probably brings it up when he’s trying to take a photo w you for his private story

“[y/nnnn] why don’t you let me take photos with you anymore?”

“cuz im ugly”

oikawa almost let’s his dramatic side unleash 💀

oikawa is the type to pull out a full PowerPoint presentation on how you’re the most beautiful being on the planet earth

he even pulls away from interacting with his fangirls too, leaving to excuses and allowing iwa to pull him away more than usual

— 𝐤𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐨 𝐭.

canon kuroo is the opposite of a girl magnet

he is eye candy,, yes

but every girl he’s spoke to had almost immediately left the chat cuz he’s such a dork lol

but he bewitches a few..

he has a lot of followers on Instagram cuz,, yk

so you’re quite insecure when he posts a picture with you and the likes go down and a lot of the comments are backhanded compliments aimed towards you

he confronts you when he realises you’ve removed your tag from the post

when you begrudgingly tell him it’s because you’ve received a few dms and the comments have affected you,, he ends up almost crying

he’s so sensitive - I feel it

he hates when people close to him feel down and he’s such an empathetic person

he ends up blocking all of those people who were making rude remarks and proudly displays you on his social medias (he’s already doing it irl 😌)

kuroo makes you feel special in so many ways, leave it down to this man to brighten your mood

[220311] Changes to Integrated Notice of Dreamcatcher official fancafe

Hello, this is Dreamcatcher Company.

This is a notice on the points you should keep in mind as you use the Dreamcatcher official fan cafe. Please check all the rules listed below, and we ask for your active usage of the cafe.

1. Membership rules - ID, sex, age, and the last visit date must be set to be visible to managers. - It is mandatory to enable email and group message in your receive settings (Privacy settings must allow managers to see member info, and failing to do so will result in a level down without notice.)

2. Nickname rules - Up to 8 characters in pure Hangul, up to 10 characters in alphabet - A mixture of Hangul, numbers and the alphabet can be up to 10 characters. However, the nickname must be readable. (ex. hello07, 안녕hi3) - 'Alien language' (nicknames that are undecipherable, initials, blank spaces, standalone Hangul vowels or consonants, Chinese characters, Japanese, special characters, swear words, and suggestive terms are banned. ex) fffeeess (x), 뛤뜋(x) ,ㅋ안녕ㅋ(x), hello(o)  - Names of other artists and other fandoms are banned. - The real names of Dreamcatcher members' or the team name in standalone form is banned. - Nicknames that suggest you may be a cafe manager, or a member of the company staff are banned. - A change of nickname to something banned after you are leveled up to a full member will result in a level down without notice.

3. Messaging board rules

(1) Title - Choose the appropriate board for your post. - The title must be within 30 characters, and not exceed one line. - You may not alter the font size, boldness, font, or color of the title. - You may not use standalone Hangul vowels and consonants. - Do not mention other agencies, artists, and fanclubs.

(2) The body and comments - Use appropriate honorifics for Dreamcatcher members and other fan cafe members. (Cafe managers have the discretion to give out warnings and level downs) - Do not mention other agencies, artists, and fanclubs. - Posts for advertisement, commercial or defamatory purposes are banned. - All commercial and monetary transactions are banned. - All posts and comments against the rules or considered controversial may be returned or deleted without notice by managers.

(3) Secret posts and comments - Secret posts are disallowed. - Secret comments are only allowed on specified messaging boards. (Deleted without notice)

[Messaging boards that allow secret comments] * Level up applications (등업신청 게시판) * Questions and Suggestions (질문건의) * From. Dreamcatcher (From. 드림캐쳐) (secret letterboxes)

※ We are seeing a recent increase in the number of impolite comments being posted on the secret letterboxes. Such comments are going to be deleted without notice in future. (ex. Defamation, causing discomfort, swearing, etc.) If impolite comments continue to be posted after this notice, all secret letterboxes will be closed, so please take note.

4. Warnings and penalties for members - If you break the rules listed in the cafe notices, you will receive warning or be leveled down without notice. The cafe managers may level down or ban users by their discretion.

We ask for your kind and active cooperation with these rules as they are for the healthy and smooth operation of the fan cafe. Thank you.

Source

Translation by 7-Dreamers HojuneTL Please do not take translation without credit

KAORU PERSONAL INTERVIEW SPECIAL HEADBANG VOL.27 TRANSLATION ½

The ideal figure that the guitarist who leads the band as a leader got while struggling, and the reason for his unstoppable pursuit. “When we released "CLEVER SLEAZOID", we were still chasing an ideal, and I think we didn’t reach it. We didn’t, but I feel that pursuing how we could do that, the power at that time, remains in it as something that could be only be produced at that moment. If you look at it now, I think it’s connected to reality”

Notes before reading: This is the first part of the personal interview of Kaoru from the magazine Headbang Vol.27 released on 18th August 2020.  The interview is 11 pages long and this part covers the first 6 pages. As Toshiya and Die’s interviews, 2nd part is focused on his roots as a guitarist and overseas experience. You can read Toshiya’s personal interview here You can read Die’s personal interview here

 You can get the magazine at Amazon Japan or CDJapan.

 Feel free to correct me if you spot any mistake or any confusing parts.

 Links or credits to this post when the content is reposted or captured in other SNS is appreciated :) -------- Text by: Yohsuke Hayakawa The first to appear in this magazine is Kaoru, the guitarist who is also the composer of the latest single "Ochita koto ga aru sora”. Starting with the process of making the single, leading up to the completion of this new song, the days of struggling to pursue the ideal sound, the originality that they got from that, and the current band that has not changed from the past intense days. What I saw on him was, the figure of a stoic leader who bet on Dir en grey possibilities and devoted himself to it. Also in the latter half of the interview with the theme of “Albums that inspired you”, he did  not only  talk about X Japan and national legendary bands that changed his life, but he also talked enthusiastically about the unknown world that he learnt from Hide and Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi, who he is a fan of.  “I think there is something that can be challenged now” -First of all, I would like to ask you about the corona outbreak we are currently in, but it was impressive when you, with your own words, announced on SNS  a live without audience ‘The World You Live In” that was held in March with the message of  "it’s not the things that we can do now , it’s the things that only can be done now”. I thought the movements of DIR EN GREY with these rare activities and projects that entertained fans were summarized in those words. K: Well, that's right. There are things that can be done in the current limited situation, things that we wouldn't normally do, things that we didn't come to, and things that we can challenge now. There were quite a few things that were more like "Let's do it".  Regarding lives without audience, we don’t know how long this situation will keep going on but, under these circumstances, it wasn't that much at that point in time for us to perform live. We thought it would be a plus for what we are expressing and what we are going to express in the future. Also, we tried to do it in a moment in which you could feel something. -Including the streaming that came after that, I think there are many people who felt closer to DIR EN GREY. In particular, the livestream of talk between members (DIR EN GREY LIVE ARCHIVE & SPECIAL TALK) is a project that you wouldn’t had think of before, isn’t it? K: (laughs) We don't usually talk much. -(Laughs) Moreover, I thought that it was only now that we could see an appearance of the combination of Kaoru and Shinya acting ‘as usual’. K: Well, that's right (laughs). -Is that something that you could do now, 23 years after your formation as band? K: No (laughs), the main reason is to do it is the situation right now. If this weren't the case, I think the idea wouldn’t even come up. Normally there are live performances, so I'd like people to feel it there, but we can't do that now. Well, it’s just to entertain the fans, but after all we thought it would be nice if they could feel something similar to that, feeling excited by our presence. -I see. So, regarding the status of the announced the Pia Arena MM performances for the  tour final "The Insulated World -The Screams of Alienation-" in July, you probably were thinking about what do to about them until the very last minute. K: That's right. It was decided a few days before the announcement that the lives were canceled. Of course, we also made a set list, and the production side was also moving. The entirely staff were informed, and everything was working. I actually went to the venue and talked about how it would be possible to hold the lives in these conditions. However, there may be some people who couldn’t come no matter how much they tried to. There was also the risk of not knowing if you can do it until you start it. -I think it was canceled after assuming the kind of live performance that was possible to be held, but it was a really tough decision. K: Well, it couldn’t be helped. -Oh, in a nutshell. K: Yes, it couldn’t be helped, it couldn’t be helped. What we could do following the rules (the government guidelines) is the reason we couldn't do it. Tickets were sold in advance through the fanclub, but in fact, with the spreading of Corona on the way it already had a significant impact on sales. -Oh, that was what happened? K: Yes. So, in response to that, we even came up with the idea that all the arena would have seats not only the designed areas. We could do that by reducing the capacity in order to keep a social distance. That way, we also thought that we might be able to do it. However, there may still be some people who wouldn’t be able to come, and moreover, there were a lot of things that we couldn’t do in both days. Well, it was a half-way point situation. Therefore, there is no choice but when the situation calms down, to relocate the dates. -Under such circumstances, you said you were producing the single in parallel. K: Yes, we were planning to release it around the Pia Arena performances, so we have been working on it for some time. -And “Ochita koto ga aru sora” was completed. The original melody was composed by you but, the title was announced in May. I wondered if it was going to be a song that brings melancholic elements to the forefront. I was trying to imagine it. K: (Laughs) Ah, the atmosphere of the title. -Yes. The sound that we actually got is bursting with DIR EN GREY-ish aggression that explodes from the beginning including a grooved dragging guitar riff. So, to put it into words, I had the impression the style of DIR EN GREY was contained in a "super condensed" form. It's used in a kind of luxurious way, with the melody refrain being minimal by scraping off the excess. K: That’s right. This shape (final song) is like, we were really worried about it and it felt like it just got here. Along the way, there were elements that would make things more exciting, more piercing. There was more development.  However, we made it in that way, but I felt like “Well, I’m tired of it” (laughs). -Hahaha. K:  Rather, it doesn’t seem as interesting as usual. This is really…. words may not match…it’s somehow Japanese. I wasn’t satisfied with anything, so it felt more like I was speaking out my mind (laughs) I scraped it off though. -The reason why the song became very condensed is that all the members were looking in the same direction. K: Well, I don't know that. However, as my method, I don’t really decide (the direction) at the beginning. If you do that, the result will be in that shape and I prefer to explore the possibilities. Besides, because I don’t know if the rhythm really matches the melody or if the back-melody matches, there are many things to think about, so I don't want to decide at the beginning. Under such circumstances, I didn’t know what to do in the end.  Well, I settled on something that someone said, or something that inspired me, but it was hard to get to the point where I could see it.- -As a result, I feel that the single became very DIR EN GREY-like. K: Yes, that’s right. I was working on it while thinking that there was that “likeness”

-Did you imagine the development of this single with an impressive melody popping out even though it’s aggressive? I wonder if something like this come out naturally.

K: No. I didn’t really imagine that. Even if I try to imagine, there are things that I can’t imagine at all.

-So, how does the completed form of this song look to you?

K: This time I was arranging it all the time based on the data of the tentative/provisional  songs recorded at the beginning. So, with that, it was almost brought to this finished form. From that point on, Kyo sang again several times and changed it slightly but along with the melody from the beginning, it was made with that flow. However, there were setlists that each member made during this time, right? (”DIR EN GREY AUDIO LIVE STREAM 5 DAYS" that was broadcasted on YouTube in May).  As you could see there, there are various DIR EN GREY, right? On the other hand, I feel that whatever we do, it will probably feel like DIRENGREY-ish.

-Something that can be hidden anymore. There is something that oozes out.

K: Well, very much, as far as you don’t do something different. I was too worried. When I told the members that I didn’t know what to do, I was told ‘You don’t have to think so much about, right?”, so I was like ‘is that so?’. In the end, the song turned out like this (laughs).

“At that time, I kept struggling to find out how to get closer to the sound I envisioned.”

-Oh, that’s what they told you. As for the form of songwriting, you work remotely regardless of the corona, right?

K: Yes, that’s always the way. So, nothing was different than usual for us.

-The change was that you couldn’t go outside between work time.

K: That’s right. I was concentrated on it all the time.

-Always? (laughs) Then, in that situation, that a member told you to not think about too much, did those words make it easier for you?

K: Well, you can open yourself to new options like “well let’s do it this way a little more”. However, it’s something that I do all the time. Year after after, it’s not finished.

-It will take some time to complete the song.

K: It takes some time. After all, if it doesn’t become something interesting, I feel like what should I do. It takes time to move from the first stage, the members listening to it and go to the “let’s do this”.

-What’s that next step?

K: Listen to the demo songs together and decide to try one from the songs that are there.I think it’s necessary to put a song and drop the world view and the atmosphere of the song clearly at some point, but it takes a long time to get there.

-I think it’s difficult to express this stage in words, but it’s the key to make songs.

K: Yes, it’s quite difficult.

-However, this is also one  of the traits of  DIR EN GREY but, the chorus that enters at the key points is burning with passion. It seems like it’s going to look good live.

K: As I said before, Kyo is the one who puts the chorus, so it’s normal than the rest don’t know where the chorus is until we record it.

-It doesn’t matter how the guitar riff is going…

K: Yes. It doesn’t matter. That’s why we have to practice all the time during the rehearsal before the live performance. I’m the type of person who can’t do different things at the same time, so I skip it quite a bit (laughs)

-Hahaha. You leave it to the other two (Die and Toshiya)

K: Yes (laughs).

-Then there is another retake of the song “Clever Sleazoid”. What made you pick this song again?

K: He said that he wanted to translate the lyrics into Japanese. Kyo said something like he wanted to try it because the lyrics from the original song changed. It was like, “Well, let’s try to do it”.

 -Then, how about the completed form after re-recording?

K: Well, it was already released once, so I don’t really care about it(laughs) Some people liked the original, others will like the new version. Except for the lyrics, the tempo is a bit faster but overall, it hasn’t changed much.

 -Originally, this song was released in 2005, but when you look back on DIR EN GREY at that time, what do you think is very different from the present of the band?

K: I would say that there is a solid feeling now. Rather than trying to catch up with anything, I think we are proceeding in a somehow calm manner. The same applies to the stage. It was 15 years ago, so we were young….it was like an apprenticeship, now we are old men, that’s what different from that time.

-What do you remember pursuing at that time?

K: At that time, I was struggling to get closer to the sound I was envisioning.

-Do you mean that you haven’t been able to achieve what you were looking for?

K: Yes. It’s the same with the songs. I was thinking about the sound aspect every, like “How can I make a powerful heavy sound” every day.

-Was that a personal thing?

K: It was for the band as well, I often talked to the members about the kind of sound I wanted to do at that time for the CDs but also for the lives as well, I wondered how could I do it. But at that time, I was struggling to understand it like, “I haven’t achieved it, but I can only show the power of pursuing it while looking for the way to reach it”.

“I haven't reached it, I can only show the pursuit and power of" how can I do it?"

-Did you see anything regarding that aspect when you started going overseas?

K: No, what I thought when we started going abroad was the importance of being ourselves. I wonder if that would be the most powerful thing. So, around 2005, I felt like I was still chasing my ideals.  Like a way that I could I express them in this way. But since we went abroad… and I started to notice that being ourselves was the best more and more….. how could I say it?,..it seems that the destinations we were looking at have been pinpointed all the time. It’s not about how to do it, if we could express what was in ourselves more and more, we would change it to the consciousness that would create that kind of sound.

 -That means, for example, that when you released “CLEVER SLEAZOID”, looking back, you hadn’t reached that point that you are talking about yet.

K: I think we didn’t reach it. We didn’t but I feel that pursuing how we could do that, the power at that time, remains in it as something that could be only be produced at that moment.

-True. It emits an unbelievable power and it was a proof of that struggle.

K: Yes. If I look at it now, I wonder if that it’s linked to its originality.

 -Surely.   After that it connected with THE MARROW OF A BONE (2007). Around that album, did you feel like you obtained that you were looking for?

K: Well, I think I did, but still at that time, I was wondering how I could do it. So I think it’s only recently that I’m thinking in this way.

-Ah, recently?

K: Yes, about “DUM” (DUM SPIRO SPERO, released in 2011). But “DUM” isn’t recent either (laughs)

-Hahaha  you noticed that…that’s right (laughs). In an era when you were struggling to pursuit something, you became solid as a band. Then, the atmosphere in the band would naturally change for the better, because it means that from that moment, along with them and the music, you have reached your goal.

K: I think so.  Also, what could I say about our band?..... All the members think that they have a different feeling about their knowledge and ability to imagine but, the reaction will definitely come when the song seems to settle down in a “this is it” form. Some of us will say, “I think it’s better do it this way”, while other will say “if we go in this direction, we should do this”. Therefore, that we can talk about such things has not changed from the past. While my senses are growing, after all there is still an atmosphere of pursuit in the end, in doing more and more interesting things, so I think that’s a good place for us.

-Even if you gained more knowledge and experience, it doesn’t feel strangely calm at all. K: It’s not. If that happens, it wouldn’t be interesting.

 “Now I think, do we really want to do that?”

 -I see. So, the mastering engineer and mixing-in engineer this time are also talented, but did you proposed the selection of these people to the members after listening to how overseas artists sound?

K: Sometimes I do. As for this engineer,Josh Wilbur,  the director said he would like to try to work with him once and asked him to mix “Ochita koto ga aru sora”.He had been trying to get in touch with him for a long time, but he couldn’t, but he was able to communicate with him this time and asked, "Would you like to try it once?".

 -Josh Wilbur is a person whose range of work goes from Avil Lavigne to Lamb of God. How was the result?

K: Well, I’m glad we asked for a simple one.

-After all, with that width….

K: It’s better that way. This kind of person will return what you ordered exactly as you ordered it. Sometimes no matter how much we explain it, there are people who don’t understand, so they don’t know what to do. At first, Josh used to put a lot of effects on songs and so on. Listening to that, Kyo said "nothing is good" (laughs). The exchange was interesting, though.

-If you leave the decision to someone else, something that shocks you can come out.

K: Yes. Wow, this person comes quite a bit (laughs)

-(Laughs) At that moment, you understood his way.

K: So, Josh’s first mix was more metal-ish. Also, the sound of the drums….it wasn’t like it was crazy but it felt like bumpy….it was like “mmm, it’s a bit different”, but after several exchanges with him, it went well.

-What about Jens Bogren (who has worked with many famous metal bands such as Arch Enemy and Opeth) who mixed “CLEVER SLEAZOID”?

K: It’s a different type (of mixing) from Josh. Jens has worked with us several times so far so  he knows the directions.

-And the mastering engineer for the three songs of the single, including the live version of  “Followers”, Brian Gardner (Linkin Park, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Eminen etc..) is the same one than “Ningen wo Kaburu” and “The World of Mercy”.

K: Yes. If you change the mastering too much, it’s hard to predict the finish result.  It’s difficult to know how the mix will turn out, so if you want to change the engineer that does the mixing, you should do the mastering with the same person as before.

-I see. Because the song will be created from the scratch again.

K: Well, that’s also interesting but I’m worried about what to do if it fails…

-About the future of DIR EN GREY, of course, I think that you will only do what you can do under these circumstances but, what kind of expectations do you have?

K: We are thinking about moving towards making an album.  As for concerts, it can’t be helped that we have to wait until we can do them, so I guess that I have to devote myself to making songs.

-Taking advantage of this situation, you will be able to concentrate in that.

K: Well, that’s right. I have time, so in that sense it’s easy to concentrate.

-In fact, is it time already to move into the album?

K: Yes. After Pia Arena, we were planning to go to production as we don’t have any concerts.

-For example, the single “The World of Mercy” included an acoustic version of “Dozing Green”, was there any talk about trying to do an acoustic live at these times?

K: Sometimes….that’s right. If we do that, I have to think about acoustic arrangements for that so let’s do a normal live performance (laughs). It’s not a bad idea to do a live like that because of this situation but, it’s like “do we really want to do it now?”.

-Ah, I see. Apart from your intentions it doesn’t make sense to you to simply say “We’ll do it because we can do it” in the current situation.

K: Yes, I think so.

 “Without “BLUE BLOOD” I wouldn’t really be who I am now” (second part here)