the debate continues (pt 1) but kurama gets called in

bonus under the cut (ft hiei):

gay people

Custom Toonami Block Week 71 Rundown!

Code Geass: Lelouch establishes the Black Knights floating iceburg country complete with representatives and shit and somehow no one on the team monitoring Lelouch notices he disappears right when Zero is exiled, like yeah half of them are in Lelouch’s pocket anyway but you’d think him just yeeting himself out of the country would be difficult to hide from the oversight committee. Anyway Brittania being Brittania is going to have a political wedding with the Chinese Disturbingly Loli Empress and their literal oldest Prince, like they couldn’t even pick a slightly younger prince to make this less creepy, it’s literally the First Prince who’s like 40, I’m sure Charles has fucked more recently and they have a younger prince but no we have to really hammer home how creepy this is. So yeah now that Lelouch’s new band is under the Chinese banner, having them make peace with Brittania and sell them out would be bad so Lelouch decides to crash the celebration and… challenge Schnizel to Chess, because reasons. And both of them just proceed to completely ignore the rules of Chess for shit that’s thematically appropriate before Nina tries to stab Zero and Schnizel says he has all he needs about who Zero really is. Also Milly’s here and I feel bad for her because all of her friends are several degrees down the sanity cliff now and she’s just there trying to hold their cliché student council group together while wondering if she really will have to marry Lloyd or not because it’s been a year and they threw together this Chinese marriage in like two days so who knows anymore. Anyway Xingke crashes the wedding because of his adorable backstory with the Empress and Lelouch crashes Xingke’s crashing of the wedding by literally appearing out of nowhere which is pretty good for a guy as shitty at athletics as Lelouch and also Jeremiah is on a chair in a desert and this is important or something.

Inuyasha: So we start the Panther Deva filler arc and it’s pretty good honestly, we have an array of Captain Planet Panthers to fight with elemental powers of varying strength to give Koga, Miroku, Sango and Sesshomaru something to do so it’s not just the Inuyasha Wind Scar Power Hour and we have some good foreshadowing/fluff of Inuyasha eating steak in the modern era and fucking around with Kagome’s cat and pissing it off which is a good thematic throughline about how petty cats are and the whole thing has this sunset coloring and it’s really pretty. Anyway Kagome gets captured, you know how it goes, Koga’s pissed because Inuyasha is always letting Kagome get captured and he has a fucking point, bitch is captured more than Princess Peach at this point. But turns out the Panther Demons run behind a barrier and too bad for them Inuyasha just got a new anti-barrier sword to try out.

Yu Yu Hakusho: So Suzaku’s kind of broken, he can dispel his clones to heal himself which apparently gives him all of his energy back because he went from exhausted to just being able to re-do the clones again and start blasting Yusuke so he heals and rests indefinitely as long as one of the clones is alive that’s fucking insane. Anyway apparently despite just healing, Suzaku got his guidance system damaged by Yusuke’s first attack and his aim has been getting progressively worse so he just has to sit there with stormtrooper aim winging Yusuke now and then to torture the poor guy despite going Super Saiyan last time Yusuke only had one shot in him but now he does the whole Life Chakra deal and gives his life for one more even Super Saiyan-yer burst and Shotguns Suzaku’s clones into dust and somehow transmits energy to Keiko through the tv to protect her. It’s pretty convenient that Yusuke learned an AOE attack right before fighting someone that needs all of their clones to be killed at the same time to stay down but yeah, arc over, pretty fun, Yusuke pulled so much power out of his ass he literally dies but some spirit mouth to mouth with Kuwabara saves him with surprisingly little consequences for either of them while Hiei says he’d never drag himself down to save anyone and I’m sure that won’t come back to haunt him. Also Yusuke FINALLY tells Keiko he’s a Spirit Detective given this is like the third time she’s been held hostage by a demon she probably should’ve figured this out sooner.

Fate Zero: Caster’s sitting there talking about how Saber is his waifu and like dude Saber is EVERYONE’s waifu but apparently it’s not actually Saber he’s after but a Saberface so he’s not wrong but he’s also not right. So yeah, he orders more child murders which knowing this guy there isn’t a situation that calls for less child murders. Also Lancer’s teacher asshole dude is cheating by using two E-Tanks for his servant after being all ‘haha old magician families are just better lol’ he has to use two dudes to make his servant fight and still got rolled by Iskandar. Also Kiritgusu bombs the fuck out of his building which given this takes place in 1994 is probably in very poor taste. Also Kirei meets Kiritsugu’s battle maid and shit goes down but everyone’s like “Okay Caster’s more insane than usual so we should probably take care of that” and Gilgamesh claims he’s gonna teach Kirei about pleasure while shirtlessly drinking wine so there’s that.

Konosuba: So Dio-voice Dullahan is back and he’s pissed because Megumin keeps getting off to destroying his home. Though through a combination of luck, Darkness being a meatshield, Aqua’s absurd water/holy power and Kazuma’s dumb luck along with Megumin blowing up the henchmen, everyone plays a role in defeating him in the most ridiculous manner possible. Despite not actually getting any money from it, it’s nice to see the group come together and actually accomplish something in their own way. Makes me think maybe this series won’t just be dicking around about nothing forever, which is fun don’t get me wrong but I don’t think I could stand 52 episodes of one note character jokes with absolutely no progression.

Sailor Moon Crystal: Tuxedo Mask blows the load on the whole Silver Crystal deal to the whole town so now everybody knows about it and can keep an eye out for it. So despite Tuxedo Mask being nothing but helpful Luna assumes he still may be bad and has the power to brainwash a whole town despite his only notable skills thusfar have been standing on telephone poles like Itachi Uchiha and cheerleading. Anyway Luna takes everyone to Zordon’s Morphing Control Center under the aracade which you think would’ve come up by now and reveals she’s a moon cat which you think also would’ve come up by now. Luna’s really just been “We gotta do the thing cause I say so” this entire time. Anyway they wreck the tv broadcast and kick the King’s ass but we have a Disc One Final Boss as Queen Beryl shows up and uses her Conqueror’s Haki to knock out the other Guardians without touching them while Usagi has an existential crisis about her crush maybe being problematic. They give motivational speeches to each other, basically Usagi telling him that they both have to try harder despite feeling powerless and them immediately wilting and saying she’s hopless so he can have a turn giving her a speech and then she gets surprised when he knows she’s Sailor Moon despite literally just telling him she’s the leader and has to help everyone and shit. Anyway, you know how this goes by now, Ancient Moon Laser Beams, bad guys fall, Queen retreats and Usagi wakes up in Mamoru’s apartment ready to reenact Fifty Shades of Moon. Hey an actual fucking cliffhanger for once, that’s kinda neat.

Durarara!!:  Mikado’s plan finally comes together and he meets with Ms. Yagiri while Celty confronts the girl with her head who says her name is also Celty. We get Mikado’s backstory about basically creating Reddit to make The Dollars a Stand Alone Complex, a gang that doesn’t actually exist outside of the rumors of its existence, man this kid’s been watching too much GitS. Still despite it going predictably awful with guys doing shitty things in their name by some miracle some of Mikado’s wide-eyed optimism gets through and his belief in the good of humanity makes the Dollars a gang that’s good at its core. And now they use that good to outnumber the Yagiri goons and let Mikado get away while Celty jumps off a roof on her bike and has a mental breakdown which people seem to hear for some reason. Also Seiji broke out and is using his yandere energy to hunt down Mikado.

hey gabe! can i ask 3, 5, 6, 8, 11, and 14 for your yyh insert :0???

frgbshdfh Hi Benji!! Thank you for the ask!!

3. Who in their canon are they closest to? Who would they drop everything to come help, if anyone? Who’s the person they’re least close to? Who would they most likely not get along with, if anyone?

Gabe’s always been pretty close with Yusuke and Hiei. Yusuke ended up as more of an older brother to them, and was the first one they came out to when Gabe realized they were non-binary. And Hiei’s their mate, soo...

Keiko, Yukina and Gabe were the ones who usually ended up in trouble: Getting kidnapped, picking fights with the wrong people,

The one they’re least close to is probably Botan, but only because she wasn’t around that often. Being a Pilot of the River Styx keeps you rather busy.

The only person Gabe ever had an issue with, was Koenma, but only when they were younger. Being allowed to help Yusuke and the other on missions for the young ruler came with a lot of stipulations and rules, especially concerning their abilities, so the two butted heads quite a bit. Once they got older Gabe realized Koenma was doing what he could on his end to keep them safe while under his fathers rule.

5. Does your insert have any magical talents or otherwise special abilities? Are they passive, like the ability to befriend animals, or dangerous power that the villains want? Or if theyre evil - any powers the heroes want to stop?

About that same time I originally came up with my s/i, I was obsessed with Charmed, no shame. So, Gabe is a witch, from a long line of powerful witches. They came to Genkai’s temple so they could learn how to control their magicks, otherwise it would run wild; Spells would either fizzle out, or be 10 times more powerful than it needed to be. Their lack of emotional regulation also caused issues with their powers, making the spell backfire’s worse. That kind of power tended to draw the attention of people like the Black Book Club, who were obscenely rich humans who have their hands in many of Demon World’s pockets.

It’s also the kind of power that’s attractive to power-hungry demons that are convinced that if they eat someone with that kind of strength, they’ll gain it. Now, that’s true for psychics, not so much witches. But most of these demons are too stupid to tell the difference between the two.

6. Do they fight? What’s their weapon of choice? Do they stay on the sidelines? What would it take for them to get off the sidelines? Revenge? Saving a loved one? What’s the motivation for them to fight, or to stay OUT of a fight?

In the beginning, no, Gabe did not fight. They were afraid of using their magicks because of the lack of control they had, and generally stayed on the sidelines with Yukina.

Yusuke, being the big brother he was, taught them how to take a hit and brawl. When Hiei had started gaining an interest in them, he started teaching them basic defensive tactics, eventually moving on to team them swordsmanship. No need to rely on unstable powers there.

Once they’d gained control of their powers, Gabe fought more often, even going with the boys on some missions for Koenma. But because of the way King Yama was ruling, Gabe was very limited on what they were allowed to do, concerning their powers, causing Gabe and Koenma to butt heads rather often, Yusuke and Hiei siding with Gabe about the muzzle orders.

Gabe has a very short temper, similar to Yusuke’s, and a smart mouth with no filter, which gets them into quite a lot of trouble. They’ve ‘settled down’ over the years, in a way, taking a page out of Kurama’s book, and wielding their sharp wit to get Keiko and Yukina out of trouble from people looking to get at Yusuke, Kuwabara and Hiei, and turn the attention onto them so the girls can get away. Gabe can handle themselves in a fight with damn near anyone at this point, and whether they’re getting backup or not won’t stop them from fighting for their little family.

8. How do they fit into their canon world? What’s their role to play, if any? Do they have a big destiny? Or do they more live as a side character that’s helpful for the protagonists/antagonists?

They’re a side character. A pain in the ass side character, but there’s no prophecy to fulfill for them, no destiny to achieve. Just helpful to the main cast.

11. How easy is it to make your insert angry? Sad? How easy is it to twist their emotions into negative things? By contrast, how easy are they to cheer up? What can brighten a bad day?

It does not take much to make Gabe angry. They’ve gotten a better handle over how their emotions control them, yes, but it only takes a smart remark, or a wrong look before Gabe’s telling the poor schmuck off, or just getting into a fist fight.

Making them sad is a little harder to do. Gabe has their own inner demons they have to try and contend with, and if anyone thinks Gabe’s just gonna go ahead and let some uppity little nobody try and ruin their day when they were doing it just fine on their own? Now they just have an excuse to blow off some steam. And there goes their bad day.

To cheer them up, the girls usually team up and invite Gabe out for a Spa Day, Kurama sometimes tagging along as well if he’s back in Human World. Yusuke treats them to a bowl or two of ramen from his cart. Kuwabara’s go-to is to invite Gabe over to help him take care of his new foster kittens.

Hiei initiates cuddle time, and spending time with their mate will always make Gabe feel better, no matter how bad their day was.

14. Does your insert have any family relations? How do they get along? How do they disagree? Is it a biological family? Adopted? Or is it found family? How did this family come together, if it was one of the last two?

Gabe’s only living relatives are their cousin’s back in Canada, from the non-witch side of their family. They don’t really talk much, other than the obligatory “Happy Holidays, we’re still alive!” phone calls and cards. Their mother died from cancer, shortly after they came to Japan to train under Genkai, and their father died the same way shortly after Gabe and Hiei’s 3rd anniversary.

Yusuke, Keiko, Shizuru, Kuwabara, Yukina, Hiei, Botan, and Kurama all make up Gabe’s little found family, and they wouldn’t trade them for the world.

Self Insert Development Meme

Jade (re)watches Yu Yu Hakusho S1 E3

AKA I lose my shit over Kazuma Kuwabara for 22 minutes.

Figure 3.1: A good boy.

I love this episode so much. It doesn’t really advance the main plot, but does a lot to establish Kuwabara’s character while developing Yusuke’s further, so I certainly wouldn’t call it filler.

* Botan and Yusuke’s banter is so cute. The anime skips over most of Yusuke’s ghost stuff but I do like that it shows these two getting closer, even if it’s just implied like this. BROTP.

* Kuwabara and his homies get to be cool here, too! I’m sure a lot of their fights are over dumb teenager shit, but they’re more than willing to stick up for someone in trouble. Man, Sarayashiki’s kind of a rough town???

* Mr. Akashi is a creep and can go fuck himself for real. One of the ways this show caught my attention back when I first saw it as a kid was in the petty nastiness of the teachers. I think most of us ran into at least one that seemed hell-bent on breaking kids down for whatever fucked-up reason. (Mrs. Perkins from 7th grade algebra, I’m lookin’ at you, you miserable old jackass...)

* Kuwabara’s posse doesn’t get many lines, but I love them all. Okubo in particular, how could anyone look at this poor kid and think to themselves “yes, I’m going to make the life of this at-risk young person in my care even harder, on purpose.” Fuckin’ Akashi.

Figure 3.2: A boy who has enough shit on his plate already.

* It occurs to me, for the first time since 2001, that Kuwabara might be my fave in part because he just...gets beat up constantly. Like, he really gets his ass kicked a lot. I’m neither proud nor ashamed to admit this-- y’all know me by now. :V

* Akashi, you gonna like...call the police, or an ambulance, or do literally anything to help? Of course not, because you SET UP YOUR OWN STUDENT TO GET JUMPED AND BEATEN, WTF. “You’re pretty tricky,” he says, as this grown-ass man watches his 14-year-old nemesis getting curb-stomped. This is very stable and normal behavior.

* Literally what the fuck is this loser’s damage. This horrible little man fascinates me. I wanna take a big pair of nail clippers to his teeth but like, what drives him???

Figure 3.3: Akashi and his fucking tacky-ass chinos, left.

* “I got a 12!” |D  Yusuke, you lovable dolt. He says it with such conviction.

* “Tell us who did this” Did I mention I love the posse? These good good boys. Top shelf. Outstanding.

* The dream study session. <3 By their powers combined they form one functioning brain.

Figure 3.4: Their combined score on the previous test was still only 19/100. #godspeed

* I also just noticed that both of Kuwabara’s threats toward Yusuke so far are cat-related. If he doesn’t have, like, a secret Hello Kitty eraser in his desk or something, I’ll eat my hat. The boy has cats on the brain 24/7.

* The random dudes who talk like 1920s gangsters??? Why??? Also, one of them is also psychic? I wonder how common that is in this universe.

* Possession hyjinks, part 2! Fuck em up, Misato from school! So satisfying. How the fuck does Kuwabara not notice the absolute mayhem going on back there?

* I love the posse.

* And I fucking loathe Akashi.

* Minor, but the sound effect draws attention to it: when Yusuke goes to grab Kuwabara’s wrist, his hand actually connects instead of phasing through like he’s done every other time he’s tried to touch a living person, including the last time he tried to slug Kuwabara. Are they more attuned to each other after the last week, or is it something to do with Yusuke reaching out while motivated by something less selfish than anger or self-preservation? Or something else? QUESTIONS.

* FUCK YEAH, MR. TAKENAKA! THE ONLY GOOD TEACHER.

Figure 3.5: FUCK YEAH.

* Someone help Okubo’s family please??? Not that any of his classmates’ families can likely spare much, but c’mon. Was there a Usenet or BBS analogue to GoFundMe??? Let’s have a fundraiser raffle or a luncheon or something, damn.

How do the main 4 +Jinny boi and Chu-y boi handle a SO with severe periods (Cramps so bad they cant move, heavy bleeding, ect)

Are you psychic cus this was good timing.

Yusuke: “It can’t be that bad” s/o passed out due to cramp pains. “Well I guess it is that bad.” He goes to get the stuff, and he’d be hilarious at trying to find the right kind of product, and always end up getting the long kind. He’ll make you do some stuff that you really don’t want to do that’s like, really

Kuwabara: Thinks it’s kind of gross but is there to give you the medication, heat pad, and all that stuff to help pass over the pain. He’d have a very difficult time getting you the supplies you need. One of those dumb things where it just “feel wrong for a man to hold a box on tampons” Will also get grossed out by seeing blood on the bed.

Kurama: Quite understanding, treats the subject matter maturely, for the most part. He’ll be able to get you the right kind of stuff. He’d make you go on walks with him and work through the pain. Bastard. He’d make you drink water and eat healthier and have you take iron tablets or make you eat iron rich food. Bastard.He’d also know when you’re gonna start due to your smell. Bastard.

Hiei: “Get over yourself, I’ve been through worse pain, you can handle this, you do every month. You survive, quit complaining.” And he’ll claim he won’t get you any of the absorbent products, but he will on the occasions when you’re out. Also he’d down for period sex if you want to have some fun.

Jin: You poor thing, you’re gross and in pain when you bleed, not a good combination. He’s more than willing to help, but sometimes he fails to get you the extra supplies you need. He’s more of an emotional support system than a go getter.

Chu: A mix of Yusuke and Hiei. You’ve survived this every time it gets you, so this one shouldn’t be any worse. Don’t exaggerate your pain, but unlike Hiei, he’s much more supportive, and unlike Jin, will remember to get you more supplies if he’s out and you need more. He’ll make sure you’re as comfortable as you can be without pampering you.

Custom Toonami Block Week 79 Rundown

Code Geass: Lelouch is establishing the official United States of Fuck Imperialism which is like the UN but actually does stuff, plus he has to deal with the fact that CC’s lost her memory and is acting like a demure slave girl harem choice from a VN. Charles is still trapped in the Human Instrumentality Shadow Realm so everyone figures this is a great time to unify everyone against Britannia. Kallen beats the shit out of Suzaku for being a dick to her all this time and the Knight of Ten is making his rounds because they realize they forgot to give him any buildup and he’s going to be a miniboss later so they have to cram all his being a dick personality into like five minutes while all the Knights of the Round assemble to prepare for an attack on Japan once the National Federation is formed. Llyod and Cecile for some reason enhanced the Guren for Suzaku even though he’s clearly more used to the Lancelot but apparently they enhanced it too much and made it a death machine like the Talgeese in Gundam Wing so Suzaku has to stick with the Lancelot. Looks like the Guren will have to sit and collect dust unless a certain pilot is rescued and then immediately has a convenient upgrade. Amazingly all the countries go along with everything Zero says and give up their militaries and have the Black Knights be the official military of the Federation. I don’t know how that works given that the Black Knights have been struggling to fight off one nation’s military idk how it’s supposed to substitute for a dozen nations’ military but I guess they conscript support and troops from the other nations or something. Charles comes back on the tv after the Federation is formed and is all “Awww what a cute little UN you have, fuck off bro.” which you’d think this’d be the perfect time for him to just out Lelouch as Zero and wreck the Black Knights’ morale but he doesn’t for some reason and they’re just gonna fight. Lelouch is freaking out and knows that having everyone want to murder the Britannian royal family includes Nunally so he calls Suzaku who just straight up goes “Bro cut the crap are you Zero or not?” and after so much plotting and scheming Lelouch just comes right out with it. Suzaki agrees to protect Nunally as long as Lelouch meets him alone at the Kururugi Shrine where this all began.

Inuyasha: This is another one of those Modern Day filler episodes which are always fun. There’s just something about Inuyasha running around in modern Japan being Spider-Man and saving people and catching bank robbers on the way to deliver Kagome’s lunch that’s so thoroughly entertaining. Basically Inuyasha spends this whole episode jittery that everyone’s so chill and ready to relax after Naraku just got away and is probably an inch from death but after a big adventure in the modern era where Kagome is as usual unprepared for her test, he ends up passing out on the bed after insisting a little battle with Naraku wouldn’t exhaust him. It’s a really cute little episode to let everyone bide some time and reflect on the past arc now that we’re starting a new wave of filler before we get to the Band of Seven and Mt. Hakurei stuff.

Yu Yu Hakusho: The first match of the tournament is about to begin and Botan, Shizuru, and Keiko come in with Koenma who is sick of baby jokes and puts on his bishonen disguise to impress everyone. There’s some neat lore about how they gave Koenma the guest team every year to bribe him into not shutting down the tournament without giving him anything of value and how the bloody show of the Dark Tournament pacifies the demons so they kill fewer humans, so that’s cool. Since Yusuke is still passed out, Kuwabara is de facto Captain and decides on simple one on one matches while the other team Captain just kinda roasts an eight of the crowd to see if it’ll wake Yusuke up. Kuwabara’s in the first match versus Prototype Killua, complete with afterimages and yo-yo tricks. They size each other up for a while and Kuwabara shrugs off getting his fucking neck broken surprisingly well while they go back and forth with “Well I can track YOU better” for a while. Togashi really loves his yo-yos of death so those have Kuwabara on the ropes and turn him into a fucking kite ready to slam back down into the arena, so yeah, Kuwabara’s having a rough time of it.

Fate Zero: Waver’s been having strange dreams about Iskandar, and not the ones people usually have about him. So he goes to get a basic history lesson on the historical figure that’s been chilling on his couch for a few weeks and spending all his money on xbox live arcade. They also go through all the ridiculously obvious historical inaccuracies and Iskandar’s just like “idk bro, I’m here so the book must be wrong” which is hilarious because Fate also does this with more modern historical figures that we have pictures of and shit so they basically sit there saying all historians have no idea what they’re talking about and gaslighting the field of history as a whole. On the way back Waver’s upset that Iskandar’s so awesome that it basically takes any effort on his part to win and it won’t be an actual achievement despite the fact that they’ve taken out like… one servant, MAYBE, and most of the other historical figures are equally over the top. But still Iskandar says that if your aspirations are big enough it doesn’t matter how big or small you are, everyone’s tiny in the grand scheme of things and clawing at greatness you can’t truly perceive is what matters. Also Caster and his boy have found the wreck they made of their workshop of dead bodies and are kinda fucked up about it but also ready to fuck up more people because God sucks or some shit. So Caster summons a Bloodborne monster which you think more people would notice and mention during Shirou’s time, like nobody in UBW ever said “Hey remember like seven years ago when a giant Bloodborne monster appeared in the river?” so I’m guessing there’s some kind of perception blocking going on. But yeah everyone’s gonna jump on the Bloodborne Monster next time for the season premiere.  

Konosuba: So we pick up where we left off and Kazuma is working off his debt by… killing more toads. Wow this world really is like a video game, we get the same five enemies over and over again. However they’re fucked without Darkness throwing herself into monster orifices looking for a good time so Yunyun has to save them. We already met Yunyun in the OVA so it’s kinda weird to be re-introduced to her here in basically the same way but their relationship is basically like Gai and Kakashi if they only did the lame dorky challenges Kakashi suggested when he’s too lazy to think of a good one. Also there’s a cat now, I don’t think that really comes to anything, just a scene of Megumin going “we have a cat now” and everyone’s like “kay”. Kazuma and Megumin play Naked Chicken to see who can get more naked before the other backs down and end up taking a bath together because they’re both stubborn assholes. Also we get a quick snippet of Yunyun and Megumin’s backstories which you can basically make Yunyun’s the swing scene from Naruto (idk why Yunyun is bring out the Naruto references in me today) and Megumin is stealing bread like Les Miserables in increasingly bizarre and disgusting ways because she’s ridiculously poor or some shit.

Sailor Moon Crystal: So turns out that Usagi and Mamoru BOTH had their shots with the ‘fucks everything up’ sword with a pocketwatch and… the discarded gems of the four knights? Idk how that works given they were humans and also dead but what baffles me more is that both Usagi and Mamoru very obviously did not get hit by the sword but decided to fall down dead and not move for a couple minutes despite their shots very much being blocked and there being no blood. Anyway Queen Metalia has the crystal, bullshit is happening, 1000 years of darkness, you’ve seen Xiaolin Showdown, you know the drill. The remaining four Guardians get a cute little flashback of Usagi saying what she likes about them and then they give up their lives to revive her inside the dark energy blob of Queen Metalia and crystals and lights and shit happens and swords and wands are pulled out of nowhere and you know how a final boss goes, they beat it with the power of believing in themselves and shit like that. Also apparently the only difference between sealing Metalia away and killing her is hitting the giant bullseye on her forehead so yeah, hopefully she’s down for good this time. I don’t want to complain because this show was genre-defining but it’s hard to find things to say about something so generic and milktoast, it’s the Seinfeld problem where there’s been so many more interesting iterations that it’s just kinda “get on with it already” at this point. The only real markedly noticeable thing about it is how plainly and unashamedly it is about being a power fantasy for teen girls, and there’s something to that, harmless power fantasies can be fun but it just feels like the physical mechanics of this kind of progression being “She feels this shit REALLY HARD” is less exciting than some of the alternatives

Durarara!!: It’s the big Masaomi backstory episode and we get the whole deal of how he formed the Yellow Scarves and got into a relationship with Saki because Izaya wanted to orechestrate a gang war because that’s what Izaya does all day is orchestrate gang wars. It’s kind of amazing how many kids in this show are like “I don’t know how it happened but one thing led to another and suddenly I was at the head of one of the largest gangs in the city” like they kinda really yadda yadda over how that actually happens. But anyway Saki gets hurt in the gang war and Kadota’s gang has to save her because Masaomi’s adrenaline wears off at the last second and he can’t try and rush in and save her. I mean Dota’s van got there first anyway so how much he’d have been able to help would be doubtful but he feels bad about not even being able to try and Izaya says that fear and failure of his past will dominate his future actions which is exactly what he’s doing by letting his paranoia and frustration lead him to a war on the Saika army. Dota-chin tells him to face up to it and stop running or live with the shame of lying to Saki but Masomi can’t do that and his shame and determination to reverse the situation leads everyone into chaos as Anri discovers his secret.