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a-shakespearean-in-paris · 3 years

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I'd love to see your take on Cullen's recovery arc as an alternative analysis! I feel like we're only ever presented with the two options of: "he needs to atone!" Or "he was a victim that needs protection!", neither of which I've ever fully agreed with. I think it's a result of the lack of attention given to his arc in DAI, which leaves a ton of room for interpretation, and results in people swaying towards either camp depending on how sympathetic they are towards him and his history.

I totally agree with this.

The problem with the way Cullen is presented in DAI is that he’s presented in an unambiguously positive light, and as @tokutenshi pointed out in this post (which I do agree with) if your Hawke was hostile to him you don’t get some of his dialogue about questioning Meredith. Additionally if you side with the mages rather than the templars Cullen has some realizations about the Order that you’re not going to hear. It’s too little too late for a lot of people, though I would also argue with what tokutenshi said, he was severely traumatized after the Blight (if you take a female mage Warden in the tower during the Witch Hunt DLC you will get lines that indicate he is suffering from PTSD, notice the lines about him being “twitchy” and “jumpy”) Personally I think we can find a middle ground between Cullen being a victim of manipulation and indoctrination, someone who suffered after experiencing trauma, and someone who works hard in the moment to do some good, whether we can or should call it “atonement” or not. That being said, he does acknowledge in Inquisition that the war against Corypheus is his chance to atone, and he works overtime to the point where it’s commented upon by several characters including the Inquisitor how hard he works.

By the time we meet Cullen in Inquisition a couple of years have passed since the chantry’s explosion. This is where I will be critical of the writing because I do think the game should have better established what exactly Cullen was doing in the time in between, though we get bits and clues from dialogue if you pay attention: He served as Kirkwall’s knight Commander after Meredith died, and he and presumably Aveline’s guard worked to basically repair the city, as Rylen says in Griffon Wing Keep that there was a lot of rubble, a lot of people without homes. Cassandra noticed Cullen’s work and recruited him to the Inquisition. (Also, keep in mind that the Inquisition was originally going to help quell the worst excess of the mage and templar fighting, restore order because the chantry lost control. Then the conclave happened, it went boom, and suddenly the Inquisition’s purpose became far greater than anyone would have expected. So Cullen as Cassandra’s choice of Commander makes total sense to me, considering he was a former templar and bringing him in basically acted as a symbol to any wayward templar, letting them know that there could be another way. But I digress on that part, haha.)

I *think* some people are dissatisfied with Cullen’s “redemption” arc in DAI because we don’t really see him fall on the sword or beat himself up for his past. There’s also no moment where he like, faces a mage he maybe knew in Kirkwall or has to deal with the mages not trusting him. Obviously of course there is nuance there as well as Toku and I mentioned--he wasn’t allowed to heal as much as he should have before being shipped to Meredith. However, here’s an interesting bit of dialogue you can get if you pick the right options after Perseverance if you tell him he doesn’t need lyrium:

Quiz: The man you were. You can’t pretend like he never existed.

Cullen: Not even if I wanted to. But I’m here now. I can make that mean something.

Cullen knows he screwed up. What’s more, he doesn’t want to forget he screwed up. But he lives in the moment to make things right. Blackwall’s arc actually shows him falling on the sword and wanting to atone, versus with Cullen it’s implied he has come to terms with his screw ups off screen. He doesn’t continuously beat himself up, he does what he can for the Inquisition to the point where if the Quiz tells him to go back on lyrium for the better of his soldiers, he does, knowing it just may kill him. There is also limited dialogue that challenges his views which turns some people off, but I know for my Inquisitor she’s very much about the now and what they both can do in the now. I won’t blame anyone who wants to be able to challenge him more, but frankly I find the fact he doesn’t continuously fall on the sword or beat himself up interesting.

All that being said, I do think of his arc as more of one of recovery versus redemption. And to be frank I’m kind of critical of the term “redemption” and what makes good redemption arcs or not. Someone having a “redemption arc” seems to imply that there’s only one road to the top of the mountain when maybe redemption is something you should always strive for? But as for the “recovery” arc: the chantry, IMO, purposely devoids both mages and templars of a personhood or life outside the order and Circle and treats them as objects. Many templar recruits are children and are basically indoctrinated to believe they serve the Maker and they are needed and that they do the Maker’s will. There’s an interesting bit of dialogue you can get if your character is a warrior and talks to Cullen about the templar spec, basically if the Quiz says “templars serve the Maker, I’d do the same.” Cullen basically replies, “uh, yeah, that’s not going to make you righteous, believe me,” implying this was the way he once indoctrinated to think, but he no longer believes it so. Templars are given lyrium for their abilities, but also to placate them, something Alistair says in DAO.

After Kirkwall Cullen sees where the Order is going, gets an offer from Cassandra and decides that if he removes the “part that kept [him] chained,” he would find his own purpose again. (He says this is your Quiz makes him take lyrium.) In Inquisition we learn he always wanted to protect people. (Our local mind reader Cole says “some templars want to only protect, like Cullen” if you ask him about templars.) And as a kid living in rural nowhere Ferelden, he saw the templars as protectors. Why I interpret his arc as more about recovery than redemption all has to do with Perseverance and the way you as the player can handle it: You can either let him know he can start over, he can endure and one day find a life of his own away from duty and battle, or you can make him take it and thus let him remain indoctrinated to what the chantry taught him, that there is nothing outside of duty and battle. It comes down between a choice of “you are leashed to what the chantry made you till you die” to “you are more and you can recover and make your own life,” which he does do by Tresspasser, romance or not. At the end of the game if you keep him off lyrium he basically thanks the Inquisitor for giving him a chance, letting him know he could be more. Additionally, a lyrium free Cullen in Tresspasser speaks of meeting his siblings again, developing a relationship. If you make him take it forever he refuses to see them.

I could also see the arc as one of faith, and finding it again. If you keep him off lyrium the prayer in the chantry he speaks is one of quiet reassurance and finding strength through his faith, but if you make him take it the prayer is “blessed are the peacekeepers” and it’s uttered desperately as if he is trying to believe it. He also mourns how far he fell. All this to say that I find it very interesting his writer focused his personal quest around the lyrium and what lyrium represents rather than say, him meeting a mage who lived in Kirkwall or something and him trying to atone to them.

When I wrote my post about why Cullen gets so much fandom related wank I got a lot of different responses that echoed the same thing about Cullen’s arc not getting a lot of attention. I think there is a lot of good writing there with his personal quest, but his writing doesn’t fill in every single gap---not to mention people are going to have vastly different experiences on how they played the games till Inquisition. And my examples of dialogue are things you may not get if you don’t pick the right options. And heck, some people only have played Inquisition.

So, I think me calling his arc in Inquisition a recovery arc has partially been not me trying to justify why I like him, but analyze a differing way a character who has screwed up in the past is written. Blackwall’s arc is a true redemption arc IMO. Cullen’s isn’t so clear cut as a redemption arc, but at the end of the day it is truly about him finding his own purpose again, which leads me to lean more toward calling it a “recovery arc.”

#cullen rutherford #replies #thanks!#toku I was going to expand your post but I got this ask and thought I'd talk about it here #I once wrote more about this in a longer post that expanded on it being a recovery arc I think #but this is a summary #resjade #long post #I had a screenshot of the quote but the post was already too long lol

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canmom · 3 years

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Animation Night 6.6: You Can (Not) Watch Eva

Hoi, weebs! This week is a special occasion: at long, long last, our patron saint Hideaki Anno has seen fit to bestow on us westerners the final entry in the Rebuild of Evangelion! All together now,

Mm. Now take a break, dude.

Jokes aside, hype train or not, I really am pretty damn excited. And while I thought the movie was gonna drop tomorrow, and I was going to show End of Evangelion or something like that tonight, it’s actually already here!

So what do we do?

Well, we download that shit immediately of course. Not every day you get to hop into a 4000 seed swarm.

(pictured: me steering animation night to a new course when I realised the movie was out)

However, if you’re like me, you might be a bit fuzzy on what happened in the Rebuild of Evangelion. After all, it’s been quite some time since we last watched Eva. So even though we’ve already watched the Rebuilds on Animation Night, I think we’re going to do our first (perhaps only) rerun since the year anniversary post, and watch them again.

This brings us to our second problem. Altogether, the Rebuilds of Evangelion run to 464 minutes, which is to say, slightly shy of 8 hours. If we started right now and watched without breaks, it would take us to... 4am. Which may be doable, but we’ll be exhausted by the time we get to the end. So let’s exercise a little prudence...

Instead, my plan is to split this Animation Night in two: tonight, we’ll rewatch 1.11 and 2.22, and if we can hold on just one more day, tomorrow we’ll enjoy this new spectacle.

Not much more to say than that! I wrote quite a bit about the Evangelion series - its historical significance, its strokes of aesthetic genius, its rather convoluted legacy - last time, so go read that post. Since then we have visited Anno on many other occasions, e.g. Animation Night 29 (Gunbuster and The Wings of Honneamise), Toku Tuesday 4 (Cutie Honey) and Toku Tuesday 10 (Shin Godzilla) to get ever more of a sense of his whole, thing. (Incidentally, he was also an animator on Macross. Mostly an explosions guy back then.)

Well, back then, it’s safe to say the Rebuilds made a favourable impression. They’re intriguing in the new story they’re telling with the familiar material, astonishing in terms of animation, and no less striking with their choices of imagery than the original series. Even the use of 3D CGI - which has a tough act to follow given how strong the traditional animation was at the key points of Eva, especially End of Evangelion - had a sufficient sense of design and composition that it could play to its strengths, like the intricate airship we see as the pace ramps up in 3.0.

On a narrative level, there is a clear emphasis on the emotional throughline rather than any technicalities of angels or robots, as seen vividly in the extended gay piano sequence in 3.0. A lot of thematic balls are up in the air...

...so it remains to be seen how they’ll bring this home - what this modern Anno’s trying to say, in contrast to his past self, by revisiting his most famous work. Are we, for example, right to interpret Mari (pictured above, sniffing Shinji) as Anno’s girlsona? Having moved past the hedgehog’s dilemma - a Shinji who is a little bolder, a little less prone to self-destruction - what is the question which he struggles with today? I’m sure we’ll see a lot of ink spilled on Interpreting this movie in the next few weeks! Hopefully I’ll get a chance to spill some myself!

Well, we’ll find out tomorrow. For now, let’s revisit some of the most spectacular animated films I’ve ever seen to juice up our hype glands (sorry) for tomorrow’s big answer. With the sheer weight of anticipation this film is carrying, it’s going to be hard for it to meet everyone’s projections and desires... but whatever it turns out to be, I’m sure it’s going to be interesting.

There is much to be said about the broader context of the Rebuilds - the exodus from Gainax to studios like Khara and Trigger, the key animators whose contributions give them such flair, the whole wodge of capitalist machinery that has built up behind this psychic nucleation point (almost any kind of product you can imagine has an eva merch version). I’m sure kVin’s going to have some interesting posts before long. But for now, let’s just enjoy the movies.

Animation Night 66 will be starting very shortly over at twitch.tv/canmom - showing Evangelion 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone and Evangelion 2.22: You Can (Not) Advance! And tomorrow, a special bonus Animation Night will bring us Evangelion 3.33: You Can (Not) Redo and, at last, Evangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time.

#animation night #it had to be this

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Tokusatsu Streaming Guide: Where to Watch Kamen Rider, Ultraman, and More

https://ift.tt/2VR6eGr

Ten years ago a fan of Tokusatsu (Japanese special effects shows, mostly superheroes) could have never imagined the access we’d have to these programs today. Back then official releases of anything outside of the American adaptations, particularly Power Rangers, seemed like a far off dream. However in the past few years especially there’s been a slow trickle of Toku shows becoming available to stream in North America.

In the last few months though that trickle became a waterfall as several new services have quickly become mainstays, finally allowing Toku fandom to finally enjoy their favorite shows legally. This also allows more casual fans a chance to experience these shows for the first time and that’s who this guide is mostly for. If you’re curious about the wider world of Tokusatsu and need a place to start, this guide should cover your bases for the many kinds of Toku series out there.

Just as a note, we are only discussing shows that are legally available. This also isn’t a comprehensive list. Many of the streaming services mentioned below have multiple Toku series available, we’re just picking a small sample. With that in mind, let’s dive into this ocean of Toku, shall we?

Kamen Rider (1971)

Available on TokuSHOUTsu (Shout Factory TV/tubi/Pluto)

The release that shocked and delighted Toku fans, the original series in the long running Kamen Rider franchise may be old but that doesn’t detract from its enjoyment. This is Toku in its purest form. Incredible fights, trippy special effects, bizarre monsters, and a strikingly bleak backstory for the main character.

Hongo Takeshi is kidnapped by the evil Shocker and transformed against his will into a cyborg. Worrying if his humanity is intact, Hongo still fights for justice as Kamen Rider. It may seem simplistic in our modern age of superheroes but there’s something enduringly appealing about Hongo’s quest to stop evil despite the wrongs that were inflicted on him.

Plus, come on, you can’t beat those trumpets that come in for damn near every music number. Highly recommend if you’re down for old school heroics or just want to enjoy some trippy 70’s TV.

Zyuranger (1992)

Available on TokuSHOUTsu (Shout Factory TV/tubi/Pluto)

Many people reading this are no doubt aware of Power Rangers, especially the original Mighty Morphin series. If you want to rock your world, you gotta check out the Super Sentai series Zyuranger. It’s as far from MMPR as you can imagine, with a team of dinosaur-evolved humans from 170 million years ago brought into the present day.

Power Rangers and How It Adapted From Super Sentai

By Shamus Kelley

TokuSHOUTsu: Kamen Rider, Ultraman, and Super Sentai Coming to Streaming

By Shamus Kelley

The differences between it and MMPR will be the main draw for most and as you watch the series you’ll be impressed just how much the producers of Power Rangers were able to take this footage and remold it for America.

Ultraman Mebius

Available on TOKU

You can’t do a list about Tokusatsu without giving love to one of the big three, Ultraman. While the franchise’s original series sadly isn’t streaming (but you’ll be able to soon), you can’t go wrong with the 40th anniversary season Ultraman Mebius. Following the adventures of the rookie Mebius, the Ultra comes to Earth and joins up with the attack team (hilariously out of context) named GUYS. Mebius, GUYS, and even a few characters from past Ultraman series, fight off giant monsters attacking Earth.

The Challenge of Bringing Ultraman to America

By Shamus Kelley

Comics

Marvel Reveals Ultraman Details

By Shamus Kelley

Both a great introduction for new fans and rewarding for long time Ultra fans, Mebius is a fantastic show to jump headfirst into the hero that’s larger than life.

Garo

Available on HiDive

If you want something off the beaten path of the big three Tokusatsu franchises, Garo might be right up your alley. Feeling a bit darker than other Toku (and not just because much of the action taking place at night or in darker spaces), the series follows Makai Knight Kouga Saezima attempting to protect humanity against the evil “Horrors.” Along the way though he encounters Kaoru, who is set to die in 100 days, and he sets out to try and save her.

Everything from the look of the series to the designs of the Garo suit feel different from Sentai, Kamen Rider, and Ultraman and if you aren’t feeling the more traditional vibe of those series Garo might be right up your alley. It’s also the first in a very long and surprising franchise so if you like it, there’s a lot more to get into.

Space Sheriff Gavan

Available on Toei Tokusatsu World Official

The first of the not as often remembered Metal Heroes franchise (although some of the series in it were adapted into VR Troopers and Beetleborgs), Gavan stands out for just how wild it is from the jump. Sure there’s the story about Don Horror (wonder if he’s a bad guy!) trying to destroy Earth and Retsu Ichijouji (Gavan) being sent out to stop him but that’s all icing on the cake.

American Tokusatsu Shows: VR Troopers

By Shamus Kelley

American Tokusatsu Shows: Big Bad Beetleborgs

By Shamus Kelley

Metal Heroes have a reputation for bonkers visuals along with great action and Gavan delivers in spades. From the opening seconds of the first episode we’re greeted with Gavan standing atop a robot dragon standing against a gloriously lush background of outer space. Lead actor Kenji Ohba is also stunning in his action scenes and he puts even the superheroes of today to shame with just how good he is in these hand-to-hand fights.

Love action? Love weirdness? Want to be cool and not go with the obvious choices? Gavan might be for you!

Android Kikaider

Available on Toei Tokusatsu World

An absolute smash hit in Hawaii that’s still talked about to this day, Kikaider is more classic ’70s Toku action if Kamen Rider wasn’t enough for you. Following the heroics of robot Jiro against the (obviously) evil DARK, the main draw of the series is not just the delightfully over the top action but also the compelling conflict between Kikaider and evil robot Hakaider.

We should also mention that while the first two episodes of all series on Toei Tokusatsu World are subtitled, further episodes that will be uploaded won’t have them and it’s being left up to fans to subtitle the rest. Even without subtitles though, Kikaider’s action should more than keep your attention.

Dynaman (Night Flight Dub)

Available on Night Flight Plus

Easily the strangest entry on this list, Night Flight’s Dynaman isn’t just the seventh entry in the Super Sentai series. Oh no, it’s a little known dub of the show that aired on USA Network’s Night Flight program in the ’80s. It’s a gag dub through and through and mostly relies on pop culture jokes and (and we’re being generous here) outdated humor.

Still, it’s a peek into one of the earliest examples of Toku being brought to America on a large scale. For that alone it’s worth checking out, especially for those interested in the history of Toku in America and exploring the “what if” of imagining this getting popular instead of Power Rangers.

Gridman The Hyper Agent

Available on TOKU

Bold proclamation to make, but Gridman has the absolute best design of any Tokusatsu hero ever. It takes what worked well enough for Ultraman but added extra detail in all the right places to create a truly iconic look for a hero.

Gridman follows three hip computer kids (Naoto, Ippei, and Yuka) whose videogame superhero is taken over by the interdimensional Gridman who then combines with Naoto. The computer hero fights against the digital monsters of the evil Kahn Digifer in some of the best looking fights of all the series we’ve mentioned. Some shows might have better action overall but the look of the computerized world of Gridman can’t be beat.

American Tokusatsu Shows: Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad

By Shamus Kelley

SSSS. GRIDMAN Episode 1 Review: Awakening

By Shamus Kelley

The show may look familiar to some American fans as its footage was used in Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad. Gridaman also experienced a revival in the form of the SSSS.GRIDMAN anime, which redid some of the concepts of the original series with a few easter eggs to Syber-Squad for very hardcore fans.

Special Rescue Exceedraft

Available on Toei Tokusatsu World Official

Look, I’m going to be real with you. I’ve only seen the first two episodes of Exceedraft. I have no idea if the whole series is good. What I can tell you though is that the first episode is straight up the most batshit wild episode of any Toku I’ve ever seen. It’s like if someone took the plot of Speed and said:

“Aha, let’s do this but condense it down to 20 minutes, add in some shiny superheroes, and make it way more intense.” Also, the title of the episode is “The Kindergarten Bus of Death.” Just watch it. If you watch nothing else on this list, watch this episode. It’s Toku on, well, speed and it’s fantastic.

Jetman

Available on TokuSHOUTsu (Shout Factory TV/tubi/Pluto)

What if Super Sentai, but a soap opera? It’s not that Tokusatsu had never had soap opera elements before or after this series, but Jetman took that idea to a level that’s still being talked about today. When Red Ranger Ryuu’s partner is killed in an attack by the (say it with us now) evil Vyram, the powerful “Birdonic Waves” are unleashed on four unsuspecting civilians. Ryuu recruits them and they become the Jetman team.

With strong characterization from the start, Jetman stands out by jumping into the romance between team members as Ryuu struggles with his growing attraction to White Ranger Kaori. It’s standard soap opera stuff, with a love triangle thrown in for good measure (which would have been better if Kaori was given more agency), but if you love those tropes then Jetman might be the series for you.

As we said earlier, this is only a small sampling of some of the shows available on streaming sites in North America. What are some of your favorite Tokusatsu series that are available to watch and which ones do you hope are picked up in the future?

The post Tokusatsu Streaming Guide: Where to Watch Kamen Rider, Ultraman, and More appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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shoudesuka-mechadork · 5 years

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Week of Toku Ladies Day 3: OTP

I want to be humorously aggressive about this (IE, ‘Sit the fuck down kids I’m gonna tell ya’ll about my OTP), but that is kind of a worn trope.

So. When I say this, please understand that, spiritually, I am yelling as I write all of this.

I call this ship “Picture Perfect��. It was my first tokusatsu OTP, and, if I am being honest here- I still feel it strongly 10 years later.

It all starts...with a gift.

Goodness. But where do I begin? There’s so much I want to say about these two.

I suppose I should start with some of the elements that make this ship as good as it is. There are a couple of ingredients at play in this particular cocktail that repeatedly kick my ass whenever I think about it.

Personal interactions.

There is a constant back and forth between Tsukasa and Natsumi. It feels like half of their dialogue with each other is just picking at one another. Despite the fact that they haven’t known each other (I instinctively wrote ‘done it’, good lord I’m trying to keep this SFW) very long, the way they talk about one another makes it seem otherwise.

Another thing that betrays it, at least in my eyes: their body language. Tsukasa is an extremely flippant, aloof individual. Despite that, Natsumi, repeatedly, gets him to stumble, or change the subject. She’s the only one in the show who can make him do that.

Look at Natsumi in this gif. She’s checking him out. Look me in the eyes and tell me otherwise.

...I will also acknowledge her realizing, “Wait, he looks ridiculous” half a second later.

Speaking of dress...I find it interesting that the moment Tsukasa gets the chance to do it, he puts Natsumi in a maid outfit. I know he’s not exactly the best person to trust with power, but...worth pointing out, right?

Choice and Fate

I have already made mention in my previous two posts about how Natsumi and Tsukasa are bound to one another. When Tsukasa is erased, she’s the one who leads bringing him back. She finds both the Decadriver and the K-Touch (which was hidden away by her alternate self, no less). As seen above, Natsumi is the only who can stop him.

That is certainly fate.

But I believe, also, that there’s a bit of choice in the matter of these two. Decade has two themes: choosing your own path, and one’s purpose.

I don’t exactly remember when reference is made to it (I want to say it’s in the first episode), but when Natsumi first found Tsukasa, the only thing he knew about himself was his name. He was lost. She was his guiding hand. She gave him direction.

I strongly believe that the hand holding out the famed magenta Blackbird Fly to him in the opening is her.

Tsukasa could have chosen to reject it. He could have built his identity around something else. Anything, really. Even before he had the Decadriver again, he already had his wardrobe center around magenta.

He chose to be a photographer (well, try to). He chose to let that color define him.

Not only that, but that camera? It defines his identity. Throughout the show, no matter how many outfits he’s put into, no matter what roles the worlds give him, the camera stays. It always does.

In the movie, when he finally accepts his role as Destroyer of Worlds, it’s the one thing cast aside. At that point, he is only Decade.

Even now, 10 years later- it’s still a part of him. Curious, isn’t it?

It’s something he takes care of. It’s something he cherishes.

She gave it to him.

Typically, I don’t like pairings that are made up by fate. But there’s more than just fate at play with these two. There’s natural attraction. There’s choice.

Yes, it’s true, Natsumi was the only one who could stop Tsukasa. But she chose to become Kiva-la. She chose to stop him. It wasn’t just Destiny’s Play (HAH).

She chose to believe in him when he was erased. She chose to remember in spite of everyone forgetting him.

To wrap this all up, I’m going to put the scene that hurts me the most. Every time I watch it, it’s like a punch to the gut.

Remember how Natsumi said the Hikari Studio was Tsukasa’s world- his home?

What was the first place he went when Dai-Shocker didn’t need him anymore?

How ironic...the one place meant for him to be, given to him in spite of rejection...is the one that rejects him after he hurt it.

Natsumi chose- and so did he.

#Week of Toku Ladies #Natsumi Hikari #Tsukasa Kadoya #Kamen Rider Decade

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magibigbang-blog · 5 years

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Fic Summaries Post

We apologize for the delay in this post- between people dropping and unforseen health circumstances in the mod team, things were a bit delayed. Thank you so much for your patience! The artist claim form will go up tomorrow at 1 PM EST, so that people have a chance to read over these and decide which fics they are interested in drawing for.

With no further ado, let me present our stories!

FIC 001 Ships: Sinbad/Judar Characters: Sinbad, Judar Rating: M Warnings: Graphic Violence Additional Warnings: Mentions of slavery and abuse Summary: Somewhere between the painful burn of his clogged lungs and the bloody petals falling from his lips, Judar remembers a distant past and a broken slave with exquisite golden eyes. A slave who now is the mighty king of Sindria. soulmate!AU, Hanahaki!AU

FIC 002 Ships: Sinbad/Judal Characters: Judal, Sinbad Rating: M Warnings: no major archive warnings apply Additional Warnings: Nothing in particular, I’ll keep you guys updated as I continue to work. The rating might be explicit depending on... how explicit I decide to go with nsfw :’). Summary: In a world with no use for kings nor magi, Judal has never felt more alone. It’s only the rumors of a certain king’s return to the world that reignite his sense of purpose; however, it is the fate he so desperately abhors that brings Sinbad back into Judal’s life, and he finally begins to understand the love of fate.

FIC 003 Ships: Juhaku, background Alimor & Hakuei/Paimon Characters: Hakuryuu and Judal Rating: T Warnings: No Major archive warnings apply Additional Warnings: none Summary: Modern Figure Skating AU. Ren Hakuryuu is an up and coming prospect in the figure skating world. He’s been trained all his life by his coach and aunt, former champion Arba, to surpass her and gain prestige for himself in their chosen sport. However, his first attempt to move onto the world stage is soured when he meets Judal, an equally skilled skater who is seeking the exact same thing and being coached by Solomon to achieve it. Much like their trainers, each of them is instantly put off by the other and are determined to leave everyone else in the dust in pursuit of the gold medal. However, as they train for competition, they find their fierce rivalry developing into something much deeper.

FIC 004 Ships: Judal/Hakuryuu Characters: Judal, Hakuryuu Rating: T Warnings: No archive warnings apply Additional Warnings: Does it count as major character death if one of the characters is dead before the story starts? Also mentions of magic bullshit violence/death/ghosts Summary: Hakuryuu stumbles upon a dead amusement park, now inhabited by the ghosts of past patrons, magical creatures, and Judal, a former employee who PROBABLY should have died from all the bullshit he did in the park after hours. Hakuryuu is clued into the world of magic and has run from his mother's magical cult, with plans to gather power and fight back.

FIC 005 Ships: Sinbad/Ja'far Characters: Ja’far, Sinbad, and a small orphan girl... Rating: Not Currently Sure Warnings: Graphic Violence Additional Warnings: I’m not entirely sure what I want to do yet in terms of darker content, but there could potentially be disturbing themes or imagery, as well as physical harm to either an animal or a child... Summary: In the wake of loss, Ja’far finds himself incapable of moving on in his life. Drakon, concerned by his lack of self care, relieves him of his work and insists he travel. Upon heading to the only land untouched by his former fiancé’s legacy, however, Jafar learns he can’t truly outrun his despair. Mistania, instead of a new start, brings him a stranger with the exact face and voice of a man he once thought dead. Now, set into the turmoil following a revolution, he’s on the run with an amnesiac, a dog, and refugee princess. What has his life become... Longer summary/planning document can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Az6dKCZOM3hQkAtzvWo-VsK9MkjiSvqfVkOIE7_N1qE

FIC 006 Ships: Kouen/Judal, Sinbad/Ja'far Characters: Kouen, Judal, Gyokuen, Kougyoku, Kouha, Koumei, Hakuryuu, Hakuei, Sinbad, Ja'far Rating: T Warnings: No Major Archive Warnings Apply Additional Warnings: None Summary: When the only way to access his inheritance is to get married, Kouen has to turn to Judal, his right-hand man. Kouen will do anything to protect his family, but falling in love with his new husband makes it just a bit more complicated.

FIC 007 Ships: Gyokuen/Hakutoku Characters: Gyokuen, Arba, Hakutoku Rating: M Warnings: No Major Archive Warnings Apply Additional Warnings: Some sexual content, unsure of how explicit it will be Summary: Growing up as an orphan, Gyokuen wanted nothing more than to have a family of her own. But being a person who regularly starts fights, it was unlikely for her to get married. That is, until a traveller named 'Toku' expressed interest after she beat him in a fight. But that was just the beginning of her problems as soon, a curse her family had been harboring comes to haunt her, the very same curse why she was abandoned in the first place. And that curse has a name; 'Arba.' As time went on, 'she' claimed more and more of her family's lives and Gyokuen cannot do anything but watch as she killed them with her own hands.

FIC 008 Ships: SoloShe, AlaKou Characters: Aladdin, Kougyoku, Solomon, Sheba Rating: G Warnings: No Major archive warnings apply Additional Warnings: none Summary: Post-Final Arc! It shouldn't have been possible, but in front of Aladdin stood King Solomon and Queen Sheba. Something gone wrong with the Rukh, but Aladdin's just happy he gets to meet his parents.

FIC 009 Ships: Gen, with some Badr/Esra Characters: Sinbad, Kil, Yamuraiha, Maader Um Mariadel, Falan, Arba, Ja'far, Badr, Esra, Fatima, Masrur, Mystras Rating: T Warnings: No Archive Warnings apply Additional Warnings: Canon typical violence, abuse, guns, starvation, eating disorder mention Summary: Thousands of years after the events of Magi, Sinbad was reborn and lives his life as a High-school student in New Remano. When he meets a mysterious girl with a link to a past that he cannot remember and discovers a plot against him he must fight to stop history from repeating.

FIC 010 Ships: no ships expected, potential for otome game style harem teases Characters: Kassim, Kouen, Koumei, Kouha, Hakuryuu Rating: T Warnings: No major archive warnings apply Additional Warnings: fluff, angst, hurt/comfort Summary: Kassim lives and stays in Balbadd as it's reformed by the Kou Empire, which has moved in as canon. He approaches the princes to change Balbadd back and ends up working with them (begrudgingly) to aid Balbadd's integration. This allows him to interact with them, his own people, and help work out the hidden scars of the royal family. Now that he's finally talked to his own family, he doesn't want to see the one in charge of his home destroy themselves and everything around them.

FIC 011 Ships: Gen, maybe some ship tease for Ja'far/Masrur, Ja'far/Drakon, and obviously, Ja'far/Judar. I suppose there could also be hints of Ja'far/Sinbad, due to some reminiscing about the past--however, I want the artist to know that I am trying to write Ja'far as a person who is learning to become more independent and self-motivated, rather than motivating himself with Sinbad's goals and pining constantly for Sinbad's return. Characters: Ja'far, Judar, and supporting/somewhat major roles from every ex-general of Sindria. Any other characters would have brief appearances. Rating: T Warnings: Graphic Violence (canon-typical) Additional Warnings: Canon-typical violence Summary: The world has changed and there's work to be done. With the shifted landscape, changes in leadership, and the departure of a certain king, there's a never-ending stream of challenges to be overcome. Oh, and the brat magi of Kou has up and vanished without a word of warning. Well, Ja'far is sure they can do without. Like with all cockroaches, he's a pest that always turns up eventually. And besides--he's far more concerned about the black cat he stumbled upon in the gardens, found wounded and mewling in hunger. Sure, its personality is a bit aggressive, and it claws him every time he tries to pet it, but that's only natural for such a frail, scared little animal, likely separated and lost from its mother. And he's always had a soft spot for cats, as Drakon would say… The first chapter will be from Ja'far's perspective and the rest is Judar begrudgingly witnessing the events through his cat body and getting used to his short bout as a cat. Basically, this fic will explore the changed/re-emerging relationships between Ja'far and the other ex-generals after the end of the final arc, and will attempt to explain how Judar and Ja'far--two polar opposites that fell in hate at first sight some years ago--reach a mutual understanding and tolerance of one another in this new world. I definitely do see this as a multi-chapter fic that will stretch beyond 10k words and the required scope of Big Bang!

FIC 012 Ships: Gen Characters: Hakuryuu Rating: Not currently sure Warnings: No major archive warnings apply Additional Warnings: Canon Death, and Canon Violence Summary: Hakuryuu wondered what his place was with his family before his family massacre as he was the youngest son. Even now with his new siblings, he still struggles to find a place among them. With meeting Alibaba and the other he felt as if he had finally gain a place where he can be himself but again he stuggled to find himself accepting the hand he was dealt and goes off with Judar.

FIC 013 Ships: Gen, potential background sphintitus Characters: aladdin, ja'far, scheherazade, yunan, ugo (as a cat), yamuraiha Rating: T Warnings: No major archive warnings apply Additional Warnings: this deals w the aftermath of living under the influence of a cult, so certain gaslighting/brainwashing/false worship fall under it. specific ptsd, possibly, and panic attacks, with adjusting to normal society. Summary: modern au. deals with aladdin, after the cult al thamen is disbanded, and the only life he's ever known getting thrown on its head.

#magi big bang #magibb2019 #mod post #fic summaries

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bog-o-bones · 6 years

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Kaiju Forecast - 2018

The new year is quickly approaching us and kaiju fans certainly will have their plates full next year. Here’s a list of some of the major movies, events, merchandise and more to look forward to in the coming year!

Movies

Obviously the main tent-pole film of the year will be Legendary’s Pacific Rim: Uprising due out on March 23rd. The sequel to arguably the forefather of the New Kaiju Boom has seen plenty of ups and downs during it’s development, including a terrifying “indefinite hiatus” stamp placed upon the film in late 2015. Thankfully, the film has marched on through production and features the return of fan favorite characters from the first film as well as a new team of Jaeger pilots, led by Star Wars and Attack The Block’s John Boyega. Although a few trailers and promotional ads have been released, kaiju groupies can probably expect a surge in marketing around February.

Second banana (no pun intended) to Uprising is New Line’s Rampage loosely based on the popular city-crushing game franchise. Another film that’s spent time in Development Hell, Rampage stars perennial popcorn flick favorite Dwayne Johnson and will be unleashed April 20th to theaters everywhere.

One can’t forget about the King of the Monsters either. The second installment in the anime trilogy will make landfall in Japan on May 5th, titled Godzilla: The City Mechanized for the Final Battle (whew). Initial details remain scarce bar the inclusion of Mechagodzilla (who can be seen in the poster above). International fans may also get the chance to view the first installment in the series on Netflix, although no details for that are available either, aside from a continuously fluctuating date on the film’s Netflix Instant listing.

Tsuburaya’s latest entry in the Ultraman franchise will be seeing it’s traditional theatrical film in the form of Ultraman Geed: The Movie. Abroad fans of the show will most likely have to wait for a fansub service to translate the film in order to see it, but it may also be subject to a small theatrical screening like it’s predecessors Ultraman Ginga S: The Movie and Ultraman X: The Movie, although those were released to coincide with the Ultra series’ 50th anniversary. Never give up hope, though!

Of course, one can’t also forget about the ever-so-secretive Cloverfield franchise, which supposedly launches it’s third film in the semi-anthology series on February 2nd. Tentatively titled God Particle, the film has been pushed back three times from its initial October 2017 release date, leaving some to speculate if it is even going to come out at all. The Cloverfield franchise is noted for its heavy use of alternate-reality games for its marketing, but God Particle has seen effectively nothing so far, even when we’re less than three months away from release. Only time will tell, however.

Not necessarily a kaiju film, but it does feature the 8th Wonder of the World and may or may not feature Ultraman and the third incarnation of Mechagodzilla, Based on a thoroughly bland and tasteless early teen novel, Ready Player One is basically this generation’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit only for “geek culture” (hard gag) and...you know, bad. Kaiju fans will most likely want to wait for the YouTube compilation of all the references instead of wasting $9.00+ on a movie ticket to see some giant monster action.

Also supposedly on the docket is a film adaption of the above novel, Steve Alten’s Meg which features a surviving prehistoric Megalodon terrorizing some form of human society (you can tell I’ve read the book, can’t you?). Yet another film stuck in development hell, although the production for this film is at least two decades old. Supposedly principal photography has been completed on this film, but who the hell knows.

Television

While Tsuburaya is most definitely working on the next main installment of the Ultra series, a short series in the style of Ultraman Retsuden or Ultraman Zero: The Chronicle will be aired starting January 6th. Ultraman Orb: The Chronicle follows the history of the titular Ultra’s alter ego Gai Kurenai. Unlikely to be picked up by Crunchyroll like it’s original show, Ultra Fans will most likely want to stalk fansub sites to view this series.

Another of Tsuburaya’s toku heroes will see an animated revival next year with Studio Trigger’s Gridman anime based on a short shown at the Japan Animator Expo in 2015. Titled SSSS Gridman, named after the original show’s Americanization Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad, the show will be released in the Autumn of 2018. Also related to Gridman, the original show is being broadcasted to nearly-impossible-to-document-channel Toku starting this December.

Aside from Ultraman and Gridman, I don’t know of any other kaiju-related television shows happening next year, so to not leave this section sparse, I should probably mention Kamen Rider Build, which while technically not kaiju based or a 2018 release, is tokusatsu-related and will be continuing into the new year. I know nothing aside from the basics of Kamen Rider, but according to the wiki it will be the last Rider show to be fully broadcasted during the Heisei era, as the next series will run into 2019 when Emperor Akihito will abdicate the throne to his son Prince Naruhito, thus beginning a new era of Japan.

Events

It would be heresy to discuss kaiju-related events and not bring up the quintessential annual kaiju con G-FEST! Next year’s convention looks to be an absolute banger and the entire guest list and schedule hasn’t even been announced yet! In attendance next year are Akira Takarada, best known for his role as Ogata in the original 1954 Godzilla film as well as his other roles throughout Toho’s library. Joining him will be Megumi Odaka, known as Miki Saegusa in the Heisei Godzilla series. This is her first G-FEST in over fifteen years, having attended back in 2000. Fans will most definitely not want to miss this event! G-FEST 2018 will be held July 13th - July 16th at the Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare in Rosemont, IL.

San Diego Comic Con has always been the number one hotspot for pop culture news every year, and 2018′s convention is definitely one kaiju fans want to keep their eyes peeled to. The highly anticipated sequel to Legendary’s Godzilla reboot has wrapped filming and it’s extremely likely that the film will have some sort of presence at next year’s SDCC. Whether this means a panel with the cast and crew or a trailer is anyone’s guess, but considering it’s the last major convention before the film’s release (with the possible exception of New York Comic Con in October), it’d be insane of Legendary not to promote the film here. San Diego Comic Con will take place July 19th - July 22nd at the San Diego Convention Center.

On a slightly smaller note, Monsterama is a convention in the Atlanta, GA area that seems like your average horror/monster fan convention. Of special note on the guest list to kaiju fans is Matt Greenfield, former president of ADV Films and current president of Kraken Releasing. Both companies are notable for releasing many kaiju films to DVD & Blu-Ray in the west. Kraken’s latest tokusatsu releases include The Return of Godzilla on Region 1 disc for the first time, and Garo, the creation of character and monster designer Keita Amemiya. Fans will want to keep their ears open for this convention as new information regarding possible new releases from the company could be revealed.

Merchandise

The S.H. MonsterArts line continues releasing highly-articulated and accurate representations of characters from the Godzilla franchise, including the first non-Godzilla Showa character in the form of Mechagodzilla. Reissues of the infamous Shin Godzilla figure and the sought-after SpaceGodzilla and Little Godzilla are also in the pipeline. And of course, the highly anticipated release of the 2002/2003 KiryuGoji design as well. Mechagodzilla has been licensed by BlueFin to see a stateside release, but the others will remain Japanese exclusives.

Continuing the theme of super-articulated figures, the S.H. Figuarts line will be seeing a surge of Ultra-related figures next year. On the docket are too many figures to list (see the Ultraman Wiki article) but of special note are the kaiju Antlar, Pandon, Twin Tail and Gudon (seen above). No release dates for any of the kaiju have been revealed, but it’s very likely these monsters will see release in the coming year.

In the world of vinyl figures, chances are Bandai will produce figures for the Godzilla anime sequel, but of special note are new releases in the Movie Monster Series line for 2003 Kiryu and Biollante! This marks the first vinyl figure of Biollante since the original 1990′s deluxe-sized figure. Despite the lack of pictures, the low price of only 1500 yen means collectors will not want to miss out on this one.

Pacific Rim Uprising continues to dominate off the screen with a highly anticipated line of figures from Bandai’s Robot Spirits line. All six of the film’s main Jaegers will be released for less than $40 each (and imported to America via BlueFin) and are easily available for pre-order from mainstream sites like Amazon and BigBadToyStore. Tamashii also plans to release an expensive yet extraordinarily accurate Gipsy Danger figure through its Soul of Chogokin line as well as vinyl representations of the kaiju enemies in the newly revitalized Sofubi Spirits line.

Alternatively, Diamond Select Toys is putting out their own line of Pacific Rim Uprising figures of the Jaegers and the kaiju. These figures appear to be more in-tune with what NECA released for the first film, so those who want similarly scaled figures have that option. DST is also releasing articulated kaiju, for those who aren’t satisfied with Bandai’s vinyl offerings.

Continuing with American companies, NECA has been hard at work sculpting new figures for their Classic Godzilla line. Nothing new has been revealed yet and information is reportedly coming at ToyFair in February, although NECA is notorious for not keeping their word on reveals for their non-80′s properties. Part of this has to do with Toho’s infamously strict licensing policies which resulted in NECA being only allowed to do Godzilla suits in their line as opposed to supporting monsters as well. NECA also revealed that they do not have the rights to create figures based on the 2019 designs of Rodan, Mothra, and King Ghidorah leaving the likely scenario being similar to Pacific Rim Uprising’s toys, with Bandai doing S.H. MonsterArts figures of the three kaiju to be distributed in America via BlueFin.

In late 2017, Criterion secured the streaming rights to fourteen Showa Godzilla films, comprised of the films Classic Media released in their Toho Master Collection, Media Blasters’ two-film library of Destroy All Monsters and Godzilla vs. Megalon, and the out-of-print Son of Godzilla and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974). The films are currently available for streaming on the FilmStruck service, but Criterion has implied that they are interested in a physical release sometime in the future. Nothing concrete has been revealed yet, so fans will want to keep an eye on Criterion’s monthly Future Releases updates to see if any of these films make the cut.

Finally, kaiju artist and fan extraordinare Matt Frank is drawing an officially licensed Redman manga! From the previews shown, it appears to be taking on more of a dark tone than the original show. No word on a US release yet (although it’s likely copies will be offered at his G-FEST Artist Alley table).

With each passing year, the kaiju fandom grows bigger and bigger and more and more kaiju-related media is being released every month. It’s truly a new age for the genre and definitely the best time to be a fan. Here’s to a happy 2018!

#kaiju #2018 #daikaiju #kaiju fandom #daikaiju fandom #godzilla #redman #ultraman #criterion godzilla #criterion collection #bandai #robot spirits #tamashii nations #pacific rim #pacific rim uprising

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retrokid616 · 6 months

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going into the theater of imagantion like

oh yeah tottaly forgot abotu toqger speaking of train also this so be sam in this sentai

#live blogging #bells hells #critical role #campaign 3 #cr spoilers #tokusatsu #super sentai #i will bring up toku every chance i get #toqger #fan cast sam as a sentai character

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maketakunai · 7 years

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Toumyu Mihotose 4/23 Live Viewing Report and Stage Summary

Hello! I watched the new Toumyu, Mihotose no Komoriuta, once live and once at the live viewing, and now I have a nice(?) report about it to share with you!

Warnings:

-ALL the spoilers -Very tl;dr, it’s almost 6k long lmao -Written very unseriously and in Asuka-language -Tsuntsun for Kuri-chan -Many editorializing comments -I was writing this while watching the LV and I forgot some parts -Ishikari (Ishikirimaru/Nikkari) contents www -Otokomichi is JUSTICE

Notes:

-Nikkari Aoe = Araki = Nikkaraki, etc - “Nikkari is the best sword” directly translates to “there was a fight scene and Nikkari was really cool in it.” But also he’s the best sword -Ookurikara = Kuri, Kara, etc. -Sengo Muramasa = Sengo, Senbon, etc. -Kebiishi = KBC = a big bad guy -bug = Matsudaira (Tokugawa) Nobuyasu, Ieyasu’s son -Links to historical figures’ Wiki pages tossed in where relevant but I’m no expert on Sengoku Period/Tokugawa family history myself, so, yeah.

The show starts with Ishikiri drawing lovely pictures at the sword house. He shows Kuri but Kuri doesn't like it. Even though it's very nice! He explains that he's writing the story of their adventure, and Kuri asks him to show it to him when he's done. Ishi's like are you interested :)? and he's like NO I DON'T MAKE FRIENDS ok

Ishi decides to start with a cool flashback to when Sengo-chan came home from the sword bakery, pink lights flash all around. Ota Motohiro must be stopped. Stop him. A strange song plays. Tonbon says OH NO you're here and Senbon is like “Hey! Let's get naked!” and poms his pompom. Spicy.

Tenbu 11 Mikawa - Nikkari and Kuri coming back from expedition, suddenly bad guys are attacking the people! It turns out that these people just so happen to be the Tokugawa family vassals, like, Honda Tadakatsu and all them! But unfortunately they all get murdered by the retrograde army. Regrettable.

A guy carrying a bb gets stabbed, a lot, then just as he's about to kick it the swords show up and he passes the bb off to Araki wwwwwww My favorite line in the entire show: “この子はどうすればいいのかな”Just in this really soft and 8D;;; smiley nervous voice “Um, Ookurikara? What :T do you think I should do with this kid :T?” wwwwwww “DONT TALK TO ME”

Back at the sword house, Ishikiri's talking to the boss, they say it's going to be intense! Ishikiri wants him to leave it to him. The sword boss also says there's a high chance of “them” showing up and to be careful!! D: nuooo...

Meanwhile, Tonbon introduces Senbon to Mononon, he mysteriously manages to refrain from hitting on him for possibly the only time in this musical. Or, possibly before he can, they get called in to see the sword boss.

They go see him with Ishikiri, he gives them their mission to find the kids that have been attacked in the middle of expeditions and save them and figure out what's going on.

These four sing a song about going out to battle, it's kinda good. Monoyon's tights are intense.

Nikkari is the best sword

Kuri tells him to go alone, it'll be easier to protect the bug that way, but bad guys show up and Araki's like “sorry, I'd love to, but it looks like we are tied together by destiny~~~~~” They fight some bad guys, when suddenly who shows up but a hot pink sword! Senbon Muramasa shows up to uchigatan some randos. “instead of an introduction, how about we take our clothes off?” “Hahahaha what”

Mononon visits next to bring luck to all the swords

Tonbon storms in a while later to spear some guys.

Finally slow sleepy Ishikiri, so chill, the chillest of all swords, shows up, and destroys like twenty guys in a single attack because he is an ootachi. The best sword

at some point during this scene Nikkari ducked off the top left hand side of the stage to drop off the baby, a little while later a bad guy kinda wandered over there and suddenly Nikkari sword plunged out of the darkness and assassinated him, it was so cool, Nikkari is the best sword

So!!! Finally the six swords are together and we can sing! The most important song!

TOUKEN RANBU TSUYOKU TSUYOKU KITAESHI HAGANE IMA

Here he is, it's Mr. KBC. He looks like Darth Vader, I was very scared to see him ahahahah. It was ok in the LV but when I watched it live I kept getting really scared every time they said something about KBC or when he showed up ;;;;;

Nikkaraki explains the situation about everyone dying, bb starts crying, Ishi takes it and cheers it up for a bit, it cries again, Monoyon discovers! This bug is Tokugawa Ieyasu. Monoyon cuddles it and talks about how it's his treasure. His most precious bug. I feel like there was just a lot of laughter in this scene for whatever reason. Well. Nikkaraki and Ishi and Senbon are all in one place. Of course there's going to be a lot of casual hahahas and huhuhus flying out of any given conversation.

Lullaby one sung by Monoyon Sada-chan to lull the baby Ieyasu to sleeps. This nen nen nen nen nen kororin song will be repeated many times throughout this musical so please be prepared. Well. The title of this silly musical is “the lullaby of 300 years” so what else can we expect! It would be stranger if there wasn't a lullaby being sung a bunch!

Swords are trying to figure out what they should do now that all the Tokus are dead, obviously history cannot continue on its usual track if the kid who is going to grow up to unify the country is suddenly an orphan and has lost like 95% of his army/family/etc. thingy. Just then Ishi has an idea so crazy it just might work! What if, to keep history on course and ensure that those bad Retrograders will not show up and ruin everything again... we become the Tokugawa retainers....

He sings a song to gently persuade the other swords to his way of thinking. Koko ni kibou ga aru, a bug~ we can't let anything happen to this bug~

Yes, so, we will become the erased retainers, hahahaa, I will be Hattori Hanzo :|b we will make history happen just as it did before! But, Senbon thinks he is an evil Muramasa Demon Sword cursed to bring misfortune so he will go away, Kuri is not interested in anything but stabbing dudes so he will go away too, oh no. Meanwhile Nikkaraki will become Sakai Tadatsugu, a nice advising fellow. Monoyon will become Torii Mototada, a very reliable and loyal retainer! Famously, in the end, he sacrificed his life when he and 2k troops managed to hold off 40k of Ishida Mitsunari's forces long enough to let Ieyasu's forces regroup in time for the battle of Sekigahara. Perfect for a Monoyon! Tonbon is supposed to be the Honda Tadakatsu replacement (his former owner) but he has no faith in such a thing.

Little cute Nikkari was shocked to learn the warmth of a bb ;n; He and Ishi have a little private chat about the past. “Before, I asked you why I couldn't become a holy sword, and you said it was probably because I cut down a child, even if it was a ghost... I never thought I would be able to understand the warmth of a child, but holding this bug in my arms, I think I'm starting to understand what you meant...” “Well, you may have cut down a ghost child before, but this time, the child you have saved will become a god. I'd say that's pretty holy.” “A-ah... really ;;o;;/ ;n;” is I think the gist of the conversation they have here, tbh I'm a little fuzzy on the details but what is important here is that they laughed softly together and gave each other a lot of soft meaningful looks.

Ishikari is real

Now a montage of fool swords tryna raise a baby wwwwww narrated by Ishi. I cannot help but notice that we do not get the chance to see any of Ishi's amusing parental blunders, why are you trying to erase history!!!11!11!1 “To absolutely no one's surprise, Monoyon Sada-chan was the single best sword parent, as expected of the little waki who stayed by his side as his treasure~” Monoyon came out with the bug and played peekaboo and stuff with him, making the bug laugh, but suddenly the bug started crying! “Oh no, looks like you pooped a lot, let's get your diaper changed!” says the cheerful waki.

“Mr. Nikkari also surprisingly took to childcare like a sword to stabbing dudes” Araki shoved the baby bucket wwwwww in previous shows he came out with a stroller thing and was pushing it like a normal human but in raku he was just like. Shoving it and letting it roll on its own while he walked behind it wwwww He picked up the bug and then said “You know, i don't hate soft things.... maybe I'll eat you!!!” a good sword parent

“Tonbon seems like he should have his shit together, but perhaps he was the roughest and most disastrous of all of them.” Tonbon came out with the bug strapped to his back and started flailing around his spear. At first the bug liked it but then it Did Not and he panicked and unsuccessfully tried to cheer up and continue spear practice with the crying bug wwwwww

“Senbon and Kuri were protecting us from a bit farther away. Probably. Separately. Probably.” “Hey, Kuri, want to ~~~live with me~~~” “I DON'T MAKE FRIENDS” “But I~~~ extremely~~~ want to become ve-ry good friends with you~~~~”

Time skip!! The Ieyasu bug became a smiley bigger bug of 10 or so, very cute! I want to squish it. Nikkari and Ishi? and Monoyon are talking with the bug. He clearly loves his sword family very much! But, he doesn't know they're swords, of course...! (also it makes you wonder if these kids are supposed to be in disguise or if this bug just grew up like “well my one dad has green hair and my other dad has pink hair and my other other dad is blond with pink tips and my other other other dad has normal-ish brown hair but I have literally never not seen him with anything less than flawless eyeshadow, i'm sure all kids grow up this way” Also??? They have to be doing other things like castle management and raising armies and whatnot, right, so probably the implication is that they're supposed to look like normal randos of the time period bUT ALSO LIKE what if they don't??? what if they are just like. Clearly otherworldly swords and the bug's just like Nothing Is Wrong and so nobody else has the nerve to question it wwwwww) Anyway they have a chat or something and Monoyon's like “Let's sing a song little one! KAA KAA, GEKKO GEKO” and the bug sings it too and it's so precious wwww i love

Senbon and Kuri are visiting to report their status. romanchikku Muramasa Fwamily song? Side note Mokkun worked really hard to imitate Suwabe's weird katakana pronunciation of desu and things, side note 2 how does Suwabe do that? Anyway Tonbon sang a couple bars of a song, then explained to Kuri (who DOESN'T WANT TO KNOW, HE DOESN'T MAKE FRIENDS but Ton's like chill, it might come up in the mission so just let me tell you this ok) that there was a legend that Mr. Muramasa Demon Sword was bad luck to Tokugawa thingies, then Sen sang his song about night and darkness and moon thingies. Clearly he is very worried about this mission!!

Nikkari came out and Senbon got EXTREMELY NERVOUS AND PANICKY. “Sh-SHOULD WE GET NAKED????” “There's no need for that.... right now 8D” standing in silence, Senbon wiggling “HAHA WOULD YOU LOOK AT THE TIME” “it sure is. A time 8D” Nikka tried to give him some advice like “hey it's nice trying new things, like, me raising a bug, who would have thought it but it's p good!” but Sen was too shook to deal wwww (did I miss something, why would Senbon be nervous about Nikkari all of a sudden? Is it just because he walked in while he was showing Emotional Vulnerability through song? Is it because he relies on his aggressive flirting as a means of keeping people away, except for not only does it not bother Nikkari but Nikkari is Extremely Into It and is flirting back and Senbon can't actually deal with that? Did they hook up sometime during the intervening ~10 years but it didn't go so well and now it's awkward? I really just don't know.)

is this a new song or is this the same song still. anyway more singing! Kuri sang too maybe! Cool bug growing up montage with it, the small bug had sword practice with his best boy Monoyon and then spun around and transformed into a cool adult! Probably, exactly like that.

And, his first child was born, a small bug named Nobuyasu (known as “bug” from here on). I don't remember this so much in the LV but in the live show, Ieyasu, like, kept passing the bug to Ishi but then the bug would start crying and so he'd have to take him back. He played with the bug and made silly sounds and it was really cute :)

OK now time for battle again! This is the battle of Okehazama where Ieyasu's ally the Imagawa clan gets rekt by Oda Nobunaga but the Tokugawa turn out totally ok :) Monoyon advisor, when asked about the luck of this battle, told Ieyasu something to this effect, hey! that's spoilers! Senbon flirted with Kurichan outrageously.

So there are these soldier dudes standing around and this little farmer guy called Gohei comes out and he's like wow! A war! My first war! and the soldiers are like “you, a soldier? Give it up, you won't last five seconds :/” They go to beat him up and Gohei's like STAY BACK and they're like OH NO he's got a weapon but then he just pulls out this tiny little sickle wwww They menace him a bit as he flails the sickle around and then who appears suddenly but Kuri Kara-chan!!! Gohei became friends with Kurichan, somehow, somehow. Somehow. Basically he's like “o-OH hey BRO yeah this is my BRO if you mess with me, you mess with my BRO” and Kuri doesn't really do anything lmao just stands there and all the soldier guys are too intimidated by his existence www Eventually they're like “w/e let's go guys :|;;;” only the poor two soldiers that are stuck with Kuri between them and the exit like slowly awkwardly move toward him, then give these incredibly deep respectful bows before dashing away. Gohei runs after them like “that's what you get you NERDS,” and taunts them by shaking his butt in their general direction, only he forgets he still has his sickle in his hand and stabs himself in the ass. Regrettable. Kuri turns to go now that this tomfoolery is over with but Gohei stops him and says “Um, hey... what's... war like?” and. I. Well I forgot what Kuri said in response =u=;; but after that he said something along the lines of “it's no place for someone like you :/” and ran off!

Then we get a battle scene, not so much with swords battling I think? Mostly a lot of human soldiers? But also Ishi is there for sure! At some point the whole scene kind of wobbles and falls into slow motion and Ishi has this small dissociation moment where he's just surrounded by all this horror and bloodshed and violence and he's kind of just slowly turning around taking it all in.... before he turns back to his fight and finishes off his enemy. Poor sweet Ishi ;n;

At the end of the battle the swords meet up again. Kuri's like “hmph ;/ is that all there was to this battle ://” and Ishi is really not having this today so he's like. “Oh 'is this all' huh so the many lives that were lost today mean absolutely nothing to you, all right, if that battle just now wasn't enough for you, that's fine, I have good news for you, DRAW YOUR SWORD I'M GOING TO FIGHT YOU” They have a sword battle where Ishi clearly has the advantage. He kind of pushes Kuri around like “hmm :/ your sword is very light isn't it?” and Kuri is unhappy.

Senbon breaks it up. “exCUSE ME. What are you doing you are NOT ALLOWED TO GET NAKED WITHOUT ME” Ishi's like haha oh you're right! he's Into It too wwwwww

Then Ieyasu finally turns up and he's like oh hey who's this cool guy I've never seen before, he was great in that battle thingy! Hey! Guy! What's your name! Ishi(?), seeing his chance, says “oh 8D Mr. Ieyasu 8D This is of course none other than Sakakibara Yasumasa!” Ieyasu says Wow cool! Hey Mr. Sakakibara, how about you fight with my team, it'll be real nice to have you! And in a surprising moment, the Kuri kneels down and swears allegiance to Ieyasu. Nice

Lullaby 2? Probably. Probably sung by Ieyasu to his bug? That's my heart's impression but I didn't take any actual notes on this. Anyway it grew from a baby into a small bug that can run around!! Again, very cute!!!

The bug ran up to Ishi to show him a nice flower he found! “Do you know what flower this is?” “Hahaha. Yes, it's called aconite. (In Japanese, torikabuto, “bird helmet” www)” and the bug's like “Wow cool!!” and then Ishi's like “By the way it's extremely poisonous hahaha” and the bug got scared and threw it across the stage www. Ishi had him do HaraKiyo and it was very cute www The bug has been watching this war go on and such and he wants to be useful. Ishi(?) tells him “well to be useful you have to work on your swords practice” but he only likes flowers, not swords. He wants to do something useful with flowers! Then Gohei came into the scene and wanted to learn swords from Kuri but he was like Nah. Then Gohei told a sad story about how war took everything from him, his parents got killed in a war and he and his little sister survived but after that they had no food and his sister starved and how now he has to be strong too. Then the bug asked Kuri to teach Gohei as well and Kuri had no choice but to agree to his lord (a very loyal sword? Kinda cute...) and bug and Gohei became friends? And the bug looked at Gohei's hands. “A-ah, this is embarrassing, I'm sorry, my hands are all hard from farming...” Meanwhile poor little Kuri-chan having agreed to this absurd demand is waiting at the corner of the stage. Ishi's like “Ah, is it ok to keep your sword teacher waiting?” and Gohei's like OH NO I'M SUPER GOMEN and ran after the very annoyed Kuri Kara. The bug looked at his own hands as he walked away. “My hands... are very soft...” Perhaps, I get the feeling that Ishi is feeling a bit melancholy here, but maybe that is just because of what is to come...?

Now Ieyasu is allied with the Oda forces and is participating in their battle vs. Azai Nagamasa. Again, Monoyon advisor tells him that luck is on their side...!

Nikkari is the best sword

Tonbon is still deeply uncertain about being a good replacement for his former master, Honda Tadakatsu, which is a problem because this is a battle where Honda played a pivotal role. Monoyon Sada-chan, reliable as all wakis are, thinks of a clever way to make him get it together. “Tonbo! There's someone who's been badmouthing your former master!” he says! Tonbon gets mad! Who is it!! Who is this guy!!! I will FITE HIM!! But Monoyon points to him and says “The one insulting your master.... is you!!” Basically to not believe in himself is insulting to the master who always trusted him as a weapon, maybe? Tbh I forgot what his point actually was OTL Anyway he gives him a pep talk about how he can be the best Honda Tadakatsu if he believes in himself and isn't dumb. Then Ton sings a song about he will become Honda and breaks into the enemy stronghold singlehandedly against like 10000 guys. Cool sword.

After a successfully won battle, we get a scene with Gohei and bug and Kuri, bug has a request! He wants Gohei to teach him how to farm. Gohei says ofc!! but if it's okay, in exchange, he wants bug to teach him how to read. Ofc it's okay!! says the bug, and he doesn't know many yet but he'll do his best to learn new words so he can teach them to him too! then they sword together with Kuri, Ishi sings a song and we get another growing up montage, welcome Ohno Mizuki, thank you for your self.

WHY AM I HERE BY HIS SIDE WHY AM I DOING THIS IS THERE ANOTHER WAY Ishi says and aggressively rips out pages from his notebook. Bless

Suddenly Senbon shows up to a meeting of swords and Ieyasus and declares that he is now Ii Naomasa and he's going to join their team. Please stop your wicked ways. Also like no offense but.... why... what was the buildup to this change of heart......

And Nikkari saw that Ishi was stressin' out and not letting anyone into his heart so he tried to strike up a conversation and help him but he got rejected..... please fall in love............. let him support you in your time of suffering.....

SO HISTORICALLY it turns out that what happened is that this very bug that the swords have raised from childhood will be ordered by Ieyasu to kill himself quite soon...! Not only that, the one who assisted his suicide aka actually killed him was none other than Hattori Hanzo, currently being portrayed by our boy Ishi Kiri Maru. Oh no! Meccha trouble. No wonder the poor little big sword is so sad and doesn't have time for love :/ Probably everyone knew about this except like Kuri bc he doesn't make friends. As the sword who stayed by Ieyasu's side to the end, Monoyon remembers that Ieyasu always regretted this to the end of his life.... and even he isn't quite sure why he had him killed. A nice sad slow rendition of TKRB plays over this scene.

Now we're going to fight something! Cool!

Nikkari is the best sword

Bad guys from the time army thingy come for the first time in a while and they fight them, Senbon is kind of losing his chill but it's fine, also he definitely sat on an enemy uchi or something and spanked him

Swords are defending Ieyasu and bug and Gohei and sending them deeper into the building to hide from the bad guys, but bad guys keep spawning! Eventually all the other swords are distantly located and the only one left is Kuri-chan! He does his best to fight all the guys, alone, just like you wanted, right :? He kind of collapses in exhaustion after he finished off the last one... right? Except OH NO there was one uchi or something left and it ran up to stab Ieyasu! But!! Gohei jumped in front of it and took the hit, giving Karabou enough time to get back to his feet and finish the uchi! Rest in RIP gohei. “That's why I didn't want to be friends :((“ nice live viewing camera work slowly zoomed in on the Kuri's 1 (one) emotion.

Ishi comes out to visit and pray at Gohei's grave. He has a song about “I want to save you, but everything keeps spilling from my fingers. Why do we fight, I don't want to lose any more of the things I'm holding onto....” He fights with Kuri by unspoken mutual agreement and afterwards Ishi tells him his sword has gotten heavier. Nikkaraki comes out and tells him Ishi is praying not just for Go but for all soldiers and things and even enemies and just everything. “why is he fighting then” probably he wants to put an end to all war...

sad Kuri whose feels are now getting in the way of his ability to fight and he's dokidoki artichokey. He goes to give Go's grave a flower except then he doesn't. “Idk what will happen when no more war but.. maybe I want to see it!! And only then will I give you a flower” ok that's fine but what are you going to do with the one you have now tho

and the sad baby bug visits the grave, full of regrets...

NO KBC IS WAITING STOP YOUR EVIL THESE SWORDS ARE DOING THE BEST THEY CAN

Mononon is under attack! From bad Sengo “COME ON NO ESCAPING GET NAKED” “WHY DO I HAVE TO GET NAKED” “BC WHEN YOU LOSE IN PRACTICE FIGHTS YOU HAVE TO GET NAKED” “BUT I WON” “WELL THEN YOU SHOULD BE STRIPPING OUT OF SHEER JOY” suddenly Araki and Sengo gets a little panicked because he's here to foil his nefarious plot. “Haha, sh-shall we all get naked then?” Araki: “Ok but I only get naked after a fight” “o-okay GOOD CHANCE LET'S ALL GET NAKED” Monoyon: “Anyway what's so good about getting naked” “SHALL I SHOW YOU 8D” Ton: DO NOT BE FOOLED BY HIS EVIL WAYS then Kuri came out and Sen almost stole his heart(?) by pretending to be hurt but then he didn't. Then because all four of the great Ieyasu generals were together Sengo made them line up and pose for no reason. Nice

Ishi came in and asked if they were having fun “WE'RE NOT” Araki: “no it's fun we're lining up” “IT'S NOT FUN” “oh, well, that's very nice, suddenly I have to go kill the bug now so bye” nice transition

There's a big argument about “what Ishi are you really going to kill this bug!! He did nothing!! Can you really kill someone who did nothing wrong!!” and Ishi snaps back that it can't be helped! This is how history goes and we have to protect history! He is suffering so much :(((( Nikkari probably makes them let him go. After some discussion the other swords are going to go help him kill him(?) for moral support(??) and everyone's sad especially Monoyon, they tell him it's ok and he doesn't have to come, he should just bring luck to everyone instead of death. He trails sadly after everyone on their death mission anyway.

the bug talks to his father Ieyasu. He wants to be slain because poor Gohei's death traumatized him and because he doesn't have the determination to be in the war anymore. Can't deal. Can't hold a sword anymore. Dad shoves his sword back in his face and screams at him that he has to fight!! He storms off and Ishi comes to take his place, presumably to kill him. Cool bgm of that yurayurara song whose name I don't actually know. The Ishi's sword is half drawn and he is frozen as bug confesses his inability to succeed his father. But then he sings his lullaby and Ishi gets his heart broken. His sword slides slowly back into the sheath. “Hanzo, I have a request of you. Please kill me” <//////3

approximately 2.5 seconds after Ishi decides that he really can't kill the bug after all, the KBC arrives to ruin everyone's day. Thus begins a very difficult and long fight against the single OP enemy D||!! (Also. I have to ask. Is the KBC automatically dispatched without any other info on the situation as soon as a change in history is detected, or like. were there a big panel of KBCs monitoring the silly swords going about like forty years of child-raising like “well yeah technically they’re not supposed to be here doing this, but those other guys already screwed things up and I’M not about to become a surrogate sword parent, let’s just.... leave them alone for now....”)

Everyone is being tossed around but our very strong and sturdy ootachi is still standing strong! Ishi fights the KBC singlehandedly and declares his intention of wrecking the KBC even if he breaks in the process, kind of??? implied???? that????? he's getting corrupted or something???? something is very wrong, but then, the bug shows up and gets stabbed trying to save Ishi from KBC. Everyone fights KBC and Ishi yells over his fallen bug!!!!!!!

Then they all fight together, they say lines about getting hurt (awakened?) they all stab the guy and then suddenly light flashes out!!! Very similar to the end of Tenroudenmyu when The Thing happened.

Next, timeskip! to the day of Ieyasu's death. ;n; he is an old man! Monoyon shows up and Ie recognizes him as Mototada, then he sees Nikkaraki, “wow, you came for me too Tsunetsugu!” then everyone! “Wow, everyone! Sorry, I'm the only one who lived such a long life.....”

“I always hated war. Sorry for being such a pitiful and terrible aruji” the monoyon shakes its head nyuaaa “when I first held the bug, the bug who was happy with just a lullaby... I cursed even that small happiness. I wanted to bring war to an end.” gets out of bed “How's that!!! I did it!! I got rid of it!!!” “i wonder if this was for the best.... that it took this much spilled blood to make it here.... Nobuyasu... sorry....” and keeps apologizing over and over. Intention to keep calling for him until the end. Then a cloaked figure shows up, who is it? It is none other than our bug Nobuyasu, but! he has become Gohei!! A humble farmer planting his crops in peace! Nice!!! and the world is beautiful! The Ieyasu is so happy and he falls back into Mononon's arms, softly singing the start of the lullaby until he passes away. Monoyon starts singing with him but stops because he is in tears. Araki advises him to smile :)

They come back! Sen and Ton are arguing about Tokugawa stuff again, then they're going to practice fighting, then Monoyon, a Fool, wants to join and Sen says “Ok, but by the end we might both not be wearing a-ny-thing at all~~~” “W-Well that would be! A problem!” Monoyon runs away chased by the cackling Senbonzakura. Nikkari and Ishi are sitting down looking at Ishi's book, Ishi shows him his nice picture of him! “ehhhh~ so that's how you see me...?” Ishi is shocked www then he shows him Kuri “Ah yeah, I can imagine it perfectly” “right!!” “his face when he sees THAT” wwwwwww heartbroken. Then Nikkari sits next to him and looks at the gloomy Ishi and says “Ishikiri?” “Hmm?” and starts laughing until Ishi laughs back and they both laugh with big smiles on their faces!!!!!!! I love them!!!!!! Laughing is the best in the end!!!! (the cry of my heart)

Ishi writes some more stuff, then realizes he has to go to horse duty, accidentally leaves his book behind. Sneaky Kuri finds it, flips through it until he gets to a certain page, then softly smiles for just a second before he frowns again.

Everyone sings the lullaby song together!!! The full version! the end of the first act!!!! Very nice!!!

Act 2

Starts with weird vines and a haunted house? Why? I don't know. No one knows. Some nice dancing by our ensemble guys.

A cool song. I liked the Nikkari and Ishi kecha part, Ishikari is real. They all had cool black cape thingies and the lining of Senbon's was pink and beautiful. I love it.

“Shall we get naked?” says Senbon and they take off their first layer of clothes. another cool song. Centered by Senbon Muramasa. At the end he does a sexy dance move where Tonbon spins him around and he ends with his leg wrapped around him :) whoa. Muramasa fwamily.

The part where they determine who slacked off the most in today's musical. Tonbon says “I have never once slacked off in my life!!” unfortunately for him at the show I saw live he was chosen www Senbon or someone was like “so much for never slacking off 8D” hahaha. At that show, he said his “近寄らせはせん！ ”(I will not let anyone get closer!) line except he followed it up with “...except for you, Aruji~♥” Thank you................. I love you..........

At senshuuraku, a miracle occurred and the sword chosen to say an embarrassing romanchikku line to the audience was none other than... Both!!!! Ishikirimaru and Nikkari Aoe!!!!!!!!! At the same time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I lost it tbh I was screaming alone in my house at 9:14 pm. Anyway they went back to back and took turns saying parts of their lines together and Ishi shot the audience to the heart with a bang and Nikkaraki blew a kiss and anyway Ishikari is real, thank you...

Nikka to Kuri: “I'm going to have you accompany me a while longer.” Araki/Zaiki duet. Endless Fighter? That was the primary Englishy bit in the chorus. Some mystery notes in there. Pretty catchy? I don't really have a good ear for songs to start with but this is the only one that I can still remember some of the tune and lyrics to which says something probably! :D;;;

Ishi and Mononon duet. A lot of high notes, I don't know that this was necessary? But it was cute, they're cute. Cute swords.

Tonbon solo, probably the best song(?)? Because y'all spi can SING. He was really cool and cute too :(((!!!! Wonderful!!!!!! Very much he deserved this solo!!!!

Soft and slow song with swords wandering through the audience. Ishi peekaboo'd the live-viewing camera wwww Kuri showed the camera an X because he doesn't make friends, thanks. There was a very important moment in the live viewing where Ishi was singing and Nikkari just kinda stopped and watched him with a really soft look..... Ishikari is real.....

When I watched it live, Kuri was going to walk down our aisle (where a lot of Kuri oshis were waving lights for him) but then he was like EXTREMELY NAH and turned around and went back to where he came from :T Brat. In character but like come on. At least Monoyon hung out at our area for a while and Ishikiri came and harakiyo'd some people, please purify me Ishikirimaru.........

Next they brought out the drums and the human actors and had some flag waving! Cute tokugawas!!!! Cool drums!

Next, everyone takes off their second outfit and we get a song that is not Otokomichi. Like it's a p good song, like, it would be really hype if it was a leadup to Otokomichi, but, it's not Otokomichi, so, what's the point...? why even have a sword musical? Without Otokomichi? Tbh

In Not!Otokomichi their little prop thingy they played with was a small version of one of those jingly shrine bell thingies where there's a lot of bells attached to the one thing? And it had like rainbow strings -u-! Great! Like this maybe vvv

Finally we end with Touken Ranbu (song) drum version and the redressed swords sing a final reprise of it!! Right!! This is how you have to end the swords musical!! I'm lookin' at you Tenrouden!!!

At Japan senshuuraku, they announced a DVD for the live they held at Itsukushima Shrine on Miyajima, only a year after it happened but that's fine. Then they announced a new myu to be happening between November and January of this year, with no further information! That's fine! I didn't want to know what swords were appearing in this one, of course not! It's fine!!!!! Last, they announced Dream Live Swords 2017 for this December, to be held at Budokan and Osaka Castle Hall and Saitama Super Arena!! Holy cannoli!! Big houses for lots of swords!!! Please bring back all the swords for this but ESPECIALLY my Shinsengumi swords :V Please give Kanesan an ever larger audience for his haikus......... thank you.......................

Personal Rating: 7.5/10

I enjoyed it a lot! And I know for many people this was their favorite swords musical this far :O The casting as always was flawless, the only equally perfect casting decision to Araki Hirofumi as Nikkari Aoe that has ever been made is Ogoe Yuuki as Horikawa Kunihiro. And, I was happy to see it live! But, I thought Tenroudenmyu was superior in having bigger emotional moments as well as having overall catchier songs (esp. in part 2 ><). And, there wasn’t really anything in Tenrouden where I was like “ok but why” like there was in Mihotose. Also they took Otokomichi out????? I’m legit really upset about this lol. But, I also think there were some things this one did that improved on previous ones, like trying to share the focus more equally between all six rather than having two kind of leftover swords just hanging out in the background. And it very much feels like they’re trying to take the overall narrative somewhere rather than limiting it to the Swords Angst Over Their Former Masters plot we’ve had before, especially by bringing the KBC in. I’m really looking forward to seeing what they do with the next one...! *____*

Thank you for reading! Please share your thoughts on swords musicals as well! Discussions and dissenting opinions are always welcome *u*

#toumyu #mihotose #long post #spoilers #touken ranbu

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titleknown · 7 years

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Enter The Gungeon Active/Passive Ideas

Because, even though the Supply Drop update came over a month ago, these ideas have been bouncing around in my head for a while and I might as well.

ACTIVE

Jam-Maker of the Jammed- Creates health when used, but not as a single-use item like many others, but rather recharging whenever you kill one of the “Blobulon” enemies. Meant mainly as an all-new incentive for flawlessing Blobulord on the Oubliette.

Henshin Ammobelt- Basically a Toku-type Transformation Belt, which gives unique buffs to each character that uses it, as long as a snazzy costume. Can be used only once on each floor.

Folding Table- A table that you can produce at will, which can be flipped. Works with Table Techs and recharges really fast.

Gensyouko Postcard- A card that, when activated, fires a spread of bullets from your current gun in a huge array; based on one of several possible infamous Touhou bullet formations, without using ammo.

Judgement Toy- A toy that looks like a vaguely-humanoid scale suspended from a chain that, when activated, makes you choose between more money and key drops on the floor and more heart/armor drops. But, it also gives you a bunch of curse when taken, so you’re probably not going to be getting many drops of the other if you choose. YOU’VE MADE YOUR CHOICE, AND NOW YOU HAVE TO LIVE WITH IT!

Burstchester Egg: An egg that, when activated, will cause a “Facehugger” that temporarily incapacitates an enemy until it comes off. Then, when the enemy is killed, a Mimic messily bursts out of them, with you being able to get an item if you kill it and with the type of chest it spawns being based on the floor one is on and whether it’s from a boss or not. Naturally, a one-use item.

Chest Polish- A one-use item that brings chests present in the room up a tier. This works on all chests in the room if there are multiples.

Accountant’s Essence- Gives you an increase in speed, shot speed, and attack and an increase in attack power upon every use, but also a decrease in coolness. Efficient, but quite boring.

Red Left Hand- An item that summons a mysterious man with a Red Right Hand, who gives you higher spawn rates of a certain thing you ask for from him, but then he randomly decreases the spawn rate of another, randomly selected item.

Lazy Diamond- An item that, when used, can turn any Junk on the floor into the item it was originally supposed to be. Can only be used one floor,

Blue Fairy Jar- A one-use item that turns all armor into heart containers. Would even work on the Robot, with a grotesque Cronenberg-y change to the design...

Tanhauser Gate- An item that immediately spawns a Black Market on the floor you use it on, albeit with a Unicorn’s face instead of a Great Green Devil’s one. No charge meter, but randomly disappears after one to four uses. Like tears in rain.

Savings Wizard- A tiny wizard that, upon use, reduces prices on all things requring spending shells by 50, including Special Shops and statues/idols. These effects last as long as one is in the room, and the item can only be used once per floor.

Check Blank- A blank with an arcane fiscal inscription on it that, when fired, allows all items in a single shop to be gotten for free, Only single use, naturally.

PASSIVE

Law Bullets- Makes any “random” effect on a shot appear 100% of the time. Naturally, an S-Tier item

Heart-Attack Bullets- Causes any enemy shot by one of your bullets to explode when destroyed. Any enemy, which makes it better than the Explosve Bullets.

Midas Bullets: Has a random chance to turn enemies into large armounts of shells.

Slime Bullets- Shots hit randomly trigger a mass of Green Slime falling from the sky, with a similar spread to the Molotov, that stuns and causes slowed movement temporarily.

Just The Right Bullets- An aim-assist akin to the Crutch and the Remote Bullets, at a much lower tier level and possibly better than them. But the cost is that every chest you find has a one-in-seven chance to be destroyed by a bullet “coming back” from the gun you most recently fired, out of nowhere. And yes, it’s a reference to The Black Rider.

Buster Bullets- Gives all weapons a Charge effect to power up the bullets. Has a special synergy with the Mega Hand in that it gives it another level of charge that takes longer to acchieve, and with the Heroine in that it also fires an explosive rocket with a Charged bullet.

Fall Guy- A dummy that takes the first hit for you in any boss fight, allowing you to still get a Flawless with one point of damage.

Arnold Napalmer- Give a heart container, fire immunity, and causes you to trail fire when walking.

Bag of Tokens- Makes Winchester spawn on every floor afterwards. Even Bullet Hell.

Das Keypital- A book by Karl Marksman, that essentially gives you infinite keys, but also makes it so that the main shopkeeper doesn’t allow you to purchase from his store (though Special Shops are fine)

Metal Husband- A spherical robot follower that shoots slowly, but at random can turn into mechanical versions of bosses and do some devastating attacks.

Rocket Man- A follower that fires explosive rockets instead of bullets, at a higher tier than other followers. Looks like chibi Commando Cody, but with at least _one_ William Shatner reference.

Falcarne Asada- A flying bird-type follower that dire-bombs to attack enemies and, upon dealing a certain amount of damage, lays an egg at the end of the room that contains a plate of delicious meat that not only heals the player, but also gives them a buff until they get hit next.

Elder’s Flame- A flame that circles your character like a Guon stone, and starts firing if ther player is dealt damage, firing more and more frequently with more and more damaging bullets depending on how much the player gets hit. Has a synergy with the Blasphemy to give perma-sword-lasers no matter the player’s health level.

Gritty Re-Boot- An item that respawns the player at the top of the Gungeon upon dying, but with half of his items/guns taken away, at random, for the sake of REALISM. Naturally lower-tier than the other resurrection items. Takes the form of an actual gritty boot.

Mysterious Scar- Increases your Coolness stat by three and your Curse stat by two. Keeps showing up on acquisition, ala Spice, until it is not picked up.

Gunsel Arrow- An arrow that spawns a weird bio-mechanical companion based on the character’s ideal same-gender lover, with unique abilities depending on each character. A play on both the Stand Arrow and the old double-meaning of the term “Gunsel.”

Black Parade-Leader’s Jacket- A black bandleader’s jacket that changes your character’s sprite upon acquisition to be wearing it, and looks quite snazzy. Gives a chance for; upon killing an enemy, them to spawn a black; semi-translucent Hollow-Point that is perma-charmed and follows/attacks for you. Though they would be reset on each floor, it’d probably be pretty cool to see a lineup of them TO JOIN THE BLACK PARAAAAAAAAADE!

Jammbalaya Gunbo- Not only a heart container up, but also Jammed enemies attacks do less damage! The sprite would be a bowl of Gumbo WITH A GUN!

Better Mousetrap- Prevents the Resourceful Rat from yoinking items, with him struggling in it being shown on the occasions where he would. Looks like a normal mousetrap with a gun handle

Gull Gizzard- The gizzard of the Gattling Gull, works like the Gull’s Revenge condition in Challenge Mode, but the shots falling actively try to seek enemies and avoid you.

Gunnner Gunlocker- A Familiar that works like a Mimic, but also can be used as a Gunmuncher once per floor, and has the ability to eat enemies and a chance to spawn pickups afterwards. Based on the Luggage from Discworld.

Horrible Mask- Upon first getting into a certain range of view, causes enemies to be stunned, ala a one-use-per-enemy version of the Don’t Blink challenge condition. The mask bears an uncanny resemblance to Steve Bannon

And, that’s what I got! So, whatcha think?

#enter the gungeon #video games #indie games #dodge roll games #item ideas #NOTICE ME!

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