#kurokiorya | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

impracticaldemon · 6 years

Text

Tagged ~ 10 Tough Questions

@kurokiorya challenged me with these a long time ago - here goes

I just don’t feel right to tag people I don’t know well to my awful questions :) See for yourself:

I’ve put my answers under the cut, since many of the questions really aren’t easy, or of interest to everyone.

1. Are you an easy-going person? Is it hard for you to make friends in a new company?

I’m not exactly an easy-going person, but I play one on TV. I’m good at empathy, and I really listen to people; however, I hold myself to too high a standard to relax easily. Sometimes my standards for myself make those around me uneasy. I’m rarely completely at ease with people (including people I’ve known for years).

2. Do you think that countries with historically-entrenched autocracy (eg Russia or Qatar) will benefit from establishing a western-type liberal democracy?

I think people underestimate how long it takes for meaningful social change. Every generation thinks that it has the right standards, and is “the end product”; consequently, every generation is both a force for change and - eventually - reactionary. In the biggest sense, there is improvement with every generation in terms of moving from a self- or family- based focus to one that considers the well-being of the whole (and even that kind of progress can be nullified because of disasters, including war etc.).

Also, liberal democracy in the west varies widely. My own belief is that the US, for example, has been a plutocracy since it was founded; it is easing its way very slowly, and with a lot of mis-steps, towards something akin to “true” democracy (complete enfranchisement), but the wealthy have far too much power right now for the shift to be anything but slow and painful. Every western country has issues with race and poverty (and sexism, homophobia, and much more), which means that full enfranchisement is still a long way off.

So... I think your question is too complicated for me to answer, because true democracy has never existed - those who invented it disenfranchised women, immigrants / people of the “wrong” race, the poor, and the uneducated. That said, I do think that a shift away from autocracy is eventually necessary to the social evolution of a nation’s people and the world as a whole. In the short term, it’s painful, ineffective, and inefficient.

Are you interested in fashion? Do you consider your clothes and make-up a way to express yourself? No (despite having a clear sense of colour and aesthetics). I resent spending time and energy on clothes and make-up (especially in a world that has such wildly different standards for men and women). Clothes and make-up are a massive source of stress for me; I’d rather be able to wear a loose dress, or PJs, or yoga pants, and not be judged.

Are you ready to move to another city or country in search of a better employment? I’ve done it before. Right now, I’m happy where I am.

What do you think about adultery? Do you condemn such people? I think adultery is wrong because it means breaking a promise to be faithful (whether or not marriage is involved). Problem is, from my moral standpoint, adultery requires a freely-given promise, and the right of every person to retract that promise. Where those conditions are met, a person should have to take the appropriate steps to retract their promise before infidelity occurs. And yes, that may cause them discomfort, embarrassment, and the loss of certain advantages. If they’d rather break their promise than openly face the person to whom the promise was made, then I tend to condemn. (Argh, why so complicated, Kuro???!!)

Do you have an experience of being prejudiced or discriminated (against)? Yes (specific instances and in general). It will take a lot longer than people think for women (especially young women) to be valued equally as a matter of course and not as some kind of “virtue”. This is the problem with systemic inequality - those who have benefited from the system are both consciously and unconsciously blind to the prejudice (and very defensive about it).

Have you ever hurt or harmed someone (albeit unwillingly) and then regretted it? Yes.

What do you think about traditional gender differences being less and less distinctive in modern society (well, in the most modern part of it)? Do you fell like it’s an opportunity to live a more interesting life or are you afraid that the world is going in some wrong direction?

I think that the (very, very gradual) dissolution of traditional gender differences (both in terms of roles and in terms of relevance) is a complicating and unsettling facet of modern society. It’s not wrong (the reverse); but it is scary, even for those who will benefit. Humans have often chosen oppression over trying to change something “known”. So it can be both interesting and scary. Either way, it’s necessary.

Do you have any ambitions to do something big and important in your life? I think I may have, once. Now I’m not so sure it’s what I really want. Setting aside being prime minister, or being on the supreme court, I still have a quiet, flickering ambition to be a good and popular writer.

How do you usually deal with depression or bad mood (if you have any)? Poorly. At the moment, I lack the resilience to do what I need to do to deal more appropriately / effectively. Okay... um... Listening to music; singing; being left alone; writing. I dislike sunshine, so that’s a problem. Chocolate (not good, but not the worst strategy). Completing one single, specific task. Oh, and well-written games or books that aren’t afraid to poke fun at themselves and the world.

Ah, I guess some questions are a bit… heavy. But I really tried to think of something I want to know. Feel free to skip the ones you don’t like to answer (or just ignore the whole thing).

#little demon chats #honest to god this was brutal #i am incapable of quick answers #kurokiorya #ten questions tag

8 notes · View notes

filliteapot · 6 years

Text

@kurokiorya ответил(a) на ваше фото: scentofblackart: Tennoji in Snow, Kawase Hasui,... @filliteapot, have you seen any other works of Hasui Kawase? Seems that he’s my favorite japanese artist. He’s incredible. There’s even one work of his in Moscow museum of Oriental Art.

I saw some other works of this artist and loved them! (Especially this one) I’ll check his other works then, if you say so <3 Also, glad to know about the museum, hehe.

#replies #kurokiorya

1 note · View note

hidetheremote · 6 years

Note

5, 8, 9, 12, 52 for the writer's ask =)

5. Books or authors that influenced your style the most.

Someone already asked this, but I’d like to add that I’m a huge fan of thriller and horror genre so I’m very influenced by Alfred Hitchcock. If you’ve read any of my 5-Sentence Stories, I love throwing my readers off. Take Costumes for example. I had a reader thought they were reading cute and fluff, and then suddenly they’re sad. Surprise endings are my fave to write. 8. Favorite trope to write.

High school and College AU. I like writing tsundere men, LOL. Best friends turned lovers. Soulmates.  9. Least favorite trope to write.I’m not good at period pieces or historical. The dialogue is hard to keep up. I’m also too lazy to research settings to try it. 12. How do you deal with self-doubts?

Not really well, LOL. Ask Imp, NaluFever and HakuSaitoSan how I was last week! Talk to other writers. That helps my doubts. It’s nice to be reassured by my peers.

52. How did writing change you?It has fulfilled me. I never knew I could be happy by creating. I feel accomplished when I finish a story. I feel elated by the responses I receive. And particularly, writing fanfiction has opened me up creatively.

Thank you so much for the ask! Sorry it took long to respond, but I wanted to give a thorough answer!

#ask meme #ask Rachell #on writing #kurokiorya

5 notes · View notes

akumanoken-archive · 7 years

Text

@kurokiorya

Hey! I do share your sentiment about the relationship of those two in PMK. Have you read a fanfic '25 things Hijikata will remember'? It's short and incredibly beautiful. Actually, it's closer to good poetry than to prose, especially fan prose.

I haven't but it sounds nice!! I may have to look for it!! I'm actually terrible at reading fanfiction (read: I generally don't)

#kurokiorya #outofteasing

3 notes · View notes

elf-archaeology · 7 years

Note

The ask meme: 13, 16, 26, 38, 46,

13. Favorite band/artist. This one is always really hard for me because my taste in music is very eclectic and what I prefer listening to changes constantly. I’ve been listening to the Hakumyu soundtracks a lot recently, so I’ll go with that. 16. Where do I live? Texas!26. What I wanted to be when I was younger? I had lots of different dream jobs when I was little. The two that have stuck with me are veterinarian and archaeologist and I still haven’t quite decided which I prefer. I also wanted to be a geologist (I used to have a huge collection of rocks I had found) or a teacher (like my mom). 38. Other than tumblr, what do I do in my free time? I usually read or watch anime to relax and I also play a lot of video games. I recently started drawing too, so that takes up a lot of my free time. 46. Can I speak another language? Not yet, but I’ve started learning Japanese! I took three years of Spanish in high school, but it didn’t stick with me. Thanks so much for the questions! 💖

#kurokiorya #sarah rambles #ask meme

2 notes · View notes

khorazir · 2 years

Note

Hello. I've been visiting your Tolkien artwork for years. This year, with the war breaking out in Europe, I turned to The Lord Of The Rings again. Rereading it with the experience I have now is heartbreaking. At the same time, it's a great source of hope. Now more than ever I can see how wise and knowledgeable Tolkien was. And my rereading is accompanied by your artwork, again. I'm a great Faramir appreciator and you capture him so well. Thank you!

Thank you so much for this message. It touched me. Reading Tolkien’s works does bring comfort in dark times. I know many people turned (or returned) to his books during the pandemic, and now with another war going on, they feel even more poignant. I’m glad that you chose my artwork to accompany your reading experience, and also that you like my version of Faramir.

#tolkien #jrr tolkien #tolkien art #tolkien illustration #faramir #kurokiorya

23 notes · View notes

impracticaldemon · 7 years

Note

Why do you like Fairy Tail? What are you favorite things about it? I haven't watched it so I'm curious.

I am so sorry for the late response, I don’t know how I missed this. 🤔

Fairy Tail is a lot of fun and energy. There are a wide variety of characters, and the anime is (with certain specific exceptions) reasonably faithful to the manga and they’re all/both/whatever the brain child of the same mangaka (Mashima Hiro). So you’ve got an overarching visual and general concept.

They even tossed the Shinsengumi in there almost completely randomly at one point, which was great! (And is why I’m writing my Shinsengumi x Fairy Tail fic, although it’s darker than the original Fairy Tail milieu. That said, from what I can see, I’ve only just started to get to some of the darker parts of the anime, although the Tower of Heaven arc early on got dark at several points.)

I enjoy magic and the idea of guilds using magic. Having started out in life as a fantasy enthusiast, quests and magic still appeal a lot to me. One thing that’s neat about Fairy Tail is that it blends semi-modern and not-really modern into a unique world that–to be honest–doesn’t always make a lot of sense, but is still fun to watch. If you suspend your disbelief a little, it’s a great world to wish to visit.

I also like certain specific characters, although since I’m only just over halfway through a series that is now in its final arc (after TEN years!), I’m not the best judge. On the other hand, I find it leaves me much freer to just kind of “enjoy things” than those who honestly know a LOT more about Fairy Tail than I do.

Finally, I will say that I got “drawn into” Fairy Tail. I wasn’t an immediate enthusiast; some of the antics and brawls were a bit “too much” for me (I suspect part of that lies with only watching the anime and not reading the manga). But I didn’t stop watching. And the story deepened, and the characters grew on me and it turned into a great way to enjoy something new and improve as a writer by writing for a different genre or at least sub-genre. Fairy Tail and Hakuouki are fairly dissimilar.

There are things I’m not crazy about (it’s Japanese, it’s anime that isn’t based on otome, so… lots of cleavage a lot of the time–not so much a problem in itself, but the number of times one of the main characters is told to flaunt herself as a way to resolve a situation gets a bit old, at least for me).

So… my favourite things: interesting characters; character development based on friendship and respect; interesting world design; lots to play with creatively. Also, in a few places redemption (of “villains”) is done very well.

… too long as usual! Hope that sort of answers your question!

(I should add that it’s also a good show to share with my husband–I think @shell-senji found the same thing!)

Thank for asking! I appreciate it.

#fairy tail #little demon chats #asked and answered #kurokiorya

9 notes · View notes

hijikata-toshizou-official · 7 years

Text

@kurokiorya replied to your photo “@kurokiorya that’s very true! I think if it weren’t for the entry...”

I've found PMK while searching for information about Shinsengumu. There was some sort of historical (non-anime) fandom in my country back then. I've found an information that PMK contains the most accurate Shinsengumi portrayals, so that's how it started for me =)

Oh, that’s interesting! I envy you a bit because in my country, it’s difficult to acquire knowledge about any field of Asian history whatsoever and one has to mostly rely on English sources... which are also scarce when it comes to the Shinsengumi.

#kurokiorya

1 note · View note

filliteapot · 6 years

Text

kurokioryaответил(a) на ваш пост:

hameowlton ответил(a) на ваш пост: Do you...

I always change Chizuru’s proportions while drawing her. She looks like a damn 12-year-old in Hakuouki. Tiny neck, tiny shoulders, enormous head and insect’s eyes =/

I’m glad to know that there are enough people to form a let’s-draw-Chizuru-in-a-more-realistic-way squad :>

#replies #kurokiorya

2 notes · View notes

flower-dragon · 6 years

Text

10 songs game

I was tagged by the super-cute @otomeduck to list 10 random songs that are (still) my current jams. Thank you !

Here they are, without any particular order. This time I tried to be gentle and did not add anything that has any other than clear vocals:

AMORPHIS - Wrong Direction

Eluveitie - The Call Of The Mountains

Within Temptation - Shot in the Dark

Nightwish - Ever Dream

EVERGREY - In Orbit

Be'lakor - Husks

Crossfaith - Calm The Storm

Nightwish - Last Of The Wilds

Rammstein - Ich Will

Dream Theater-Home (I strongly recommend to listen to the whole album if you like this song as this one is part of a brilliant concept album.)

Tagging (no pressure, just skip if you want):

@lescahiersdesable @pseudofaux @kurokiorya @eliz1369 @tentori21

or anyone who would like to do it! (I am really interested, but just can’t tag all my mutuals:-( )

#tag game #10 songs #songs #mostly metal #yeah all of them #¯\_(ツ)_/¯

8 notes · View notes

shenanigumi · 7 years

Note

Hello! My question follows one of your recent responses. You mentioned that your favorite 'husband' is Okita (yes! I share it completely), your favorite pairing is HeiChi (for solid reasons) and your favorite character is Kazama due to his complexity. If you want, could you expand this statement? Why is Kazama so complex in your opinion, what are the possible reasons of his complexity (his inner conflict, his motives etc)?

Ohhhh man… ‘If I want’? I’m always down to talk about my faves. You’d best be prepared for a goddamn characterization essay, because I love Kazama to death. Also, it’ll be good practice for getting started on an actual essay, so I thank you for this wonderful way to wake up the brain!!

I’m throwing this under a read-more for those of you who can see it, because wow I talk a lot:

First off, let me get one thing straight: I hate Kazama. I don’t hate him in the same way or as much as I hate Kaoru; my ‘hatred’ for Kazama is rooted more in awe (e.g. “Wow, that was badass, but what an asshole”) than in genuine dislike (e.g. “I AM GOING TO SKIP ALL YOUR TEXT AND THEN KILL YOU”). By no means is Kazama a good person, but one doesn’t have to be a good person to be a good character.

Admittedly, I think the games could have handled Kazama’s characterization a lot better, and hopefully some of it has been resolved in Shinkai. Though I’ve made the connections that fit all the different sides of his personality together, and will hopefully be able to prove it below, I feel like it should have been more obvious in canon. He’s so different between routes that unless you spend a lot of time thinking about him and his character, like I apparently do, it can be pretty jarring.

Since I’ve already practically written an essay on the wiki I made, I’m going to be lazy and use my four fucking paragraphs I wrote on Kazama’s personality as a basis for analysis. The wiki-entries are as objective as I could make them, but I’m gonna give a warning for possible speculation/headcanons re: how I interpret them. Basically, I’m gonna try to explain my perception of Kazama’s characterization, which is pretty self-explanatory as far as why I like him is concerned, but I can’t guarantee that there’s any solid evidence. These are just the conclusions at which I arrived after considering what I have seen in canon:

Kazama is proud, selfish, domineering, and often cruel. He is severely prejudiced against humans, and even more so against furies. He refers to them almost exclusively as “fakes” or “abominations”, and sees it as his duty to dispose of them. Having little respect for those incapable of adapting to changing times, Kazama asserts his superiority of race and cause whenever possible. He is fatalistic and detached from his own violent actions, regarding them as proof of humanity’s frailty without ascribing any agency to himself. However, though Kazama maintains a clear dislike of and disdain for all humans throughout all routes, he strives to keep his emotional distance and remain aloof.

Whenever Kazama must do something he considers unpleasant, he tries to find a way to further his own enjoyment in the meantime, up to and including using Chizuru as an excuse to toy with the Shinsengumi. However, though he initially considers this a game in which he holds no real investment, he eventually becomes genuinely intrigued by the humans and their ideals. In Hijikata’s route, Kazama is unable to reconcile his existing values with his newfound attachment, and—once Amagiri confronts him about his errant ways—finally abandons his title and status in favor of engaging them. Thus, though Kazama has an extreme sense of responsibility and loyalty to his clan and people as a whole, he “[sees] no charm in command”, and is willing to step down from his position and pursue his own agenda if he finds a purpose he perceives as more worthwhile.

First and foremost, I love Kazama because he is not the person he is trying to be. Even though his development is never directly focused on, and in fact I’d actually argue that he develops the least on his own route, that little tidbit is an enormous driving force in his side of the story. Kazama’s Thing™ is that he’s an Honorable Demon, and tries to live Honorably, but he just doesn’t have the temperament to keep his distance. He’s too naturally curious, too easily driven to anger, too arrogant and drunk on power over humankind, and he knows it. He simply doesn’t care until these tendencies cause him to become completely entangled in the Shinsengumi’s affairs. Although this doesn’t happen on every route, the foundation for that frustration is there in all of them.

Essentially, Kazama is in pursuit of an ideal he cannot obtain for as long as he continues acting the way he does… and eventually, his behavior gets him to the point where he must either change that ideal or change himself. Each time he hits that crisis point, Kazama has opted to change his ideal, and that speaks volumes about his strength of will and character. Rather than ‘improve’ his flaws and conform to demonic expectations, Kazama would rather change what he is fighting for. Sometimes, his new goals do change him in turn—but his shifting priorities always precede his development in any direction. (More on that later.)

Kazama is persistent to the point of obsession when he wants something, demonstrated most prominently in Saito’s route, in which he turns his back on his previous concepts of good and evil, joining forces with Kodo for the sake of marrying Chizuru. Similarly, once his pride has been wounded, Kazama will stop at nothing to get revenge, and does not consider tipping the odds in his favor to be morally dubious. This is most evident when (in Hijikata’s route) he procures his family’s legendary sword, the Demonslayer, to vanquish Hijikata. However, despite his willingness to ensure his victory by any means necessary, Kazama has his own brand of honor in that he views lying as beneath him and will always tell the truth as he sees it. Though he may twist situations to his advantage or omit certain information if his own interests demand it, the few direct lies he tells are obviously identifiable. This applies to even the smallest matters, such as insisting that he rested during the night when in fact he was tending the fire.

Kazama is the voice of the conscience, and of radical reason (which I use in opposition to emotion in this case). I love Kazama because he’s never wrong. There are a lot of things you can say about Kazama, but you can’t exactly say he’s wrong. Humans are weak in comparison to demons? Absolutely right. They don’t know what they’re doing? No, they don’t. Furies aren’t supposed to exist? Indeed they aren’t. His methods may not always be sound, and I certainly don’t always agree with them—but his statements are generally true, if harsh.

Despite his aforementioned inability to live up to expectations of aloofness, Kazama is still duty-driven and follows a very strict, largely self-imposed code of honor. This also says a lot about his character, since it does not allow for direct lies, but it is extremely flexible since it is wholly unconnected to his sense of responsibility to his clan. Rather, it centers around whatever he has chosen as his goal—and, once he gives up on the idea of staying out of human matters, his code relaxes. Once Kazama no longer tries to maintain his distance from humans, he becomes more comfortable with acting based on his emotions. Through his fixation on humans, Kazama seems to become more human himself (and his choice to use the Demonslayer is incredibly ironic for exactly that reason).

Now, to circle back around to priorities… In his own mind, Kazama is always fighting for demonkind. If he cannot keep his distance as is expected of him, then he chooses to discard that notion and instead dispose of furies (in Hijikata’s route) or even dispose of humans (in Saito’s). No matter what his goal is, Kazama never abandons his self-identity as a demon or his wish to live an honorable life. He may change his definition of what exactly that means route to route, but no matter what he perceives as the right way to go about fulfilling it, he still centers himself around that idea.

In both Hijikata’s and Saito’s routes, Kazama concludes that it is impossible for him to operate within his current boundaries and chooses to pursue a new ideal, each one still rooted in what he believes to be a cause worthy of the demon he is… even if his people openly disapprove. However, even though anger plays no small part in Kazama’s decision to seek revenge in Hijikata’s route, he thinks of that decision as built more on moral righteousness: a fake spilled demon blood, so of course he should die for it. There is still a rationale for his actions, and while Kazama demonstrates and acts on his anger more freely, he maintains his morals (however gray). His mission is specific and personal, so all his wrath—as uncontrollable as it may be in the moment—is deliberately directed at Hijikata.

However, on Saito’s route, Kazama demonstrates what happens when he stops fighting his emotions altogether, and instead allows them to rule him. Because his goal is now to resurrect the Yukimura clan by marrying Chizuru and to eliminate all humans, his mission becomes less focused, and so too do his feelings. He no longer has a singular cause to fight for; he’s simply thrown in his lot with Kodo. He loses his conventional moral compass somewhere amid his natural arrogance, exacerbated by these loftier ambitions. Since Kazama still believes that the end justifies the means, and this end requires more power and the exercise thereof, it’s little wonder he abandoned his usual reluctant restraint. The only thing that changed was the ideal he chose to pursue, and that in turn altered his behavior almost beyond recognition. The potential was always there; his new goal just turned him inside out.

(Again, I think the game should really have made this connection clearer, because the consistency in Kazama’s motives between Saito’s route and all others is a tad indistinct.)

…And lastly:

Though Kazama’s attitude is cold, direct, and serious by default, he does have a sense of humor, which is dry and sarcastic and usually manifests at others’ expense. He also readily displays scorn, anger, and conceit, all of which appear impossible for him to fully conceal. However, Kazama finds it difficult and/or unpleasant to openly admit more sentimental emotions such as affection, sadness, gratitude, or even agreement.

Yeah, so let’s not forget about the sense of humor, since it’s a more prominent (if somewhat shallow) reason why I love him. On Heisuke’s route, their sass battles are legendary, okay. Plus, on Kazama’s route, some of his one-liners are pure gold. And speaking of humor, as a postscript, I’d also like to point to my previous essay about Kazama and Shiranui’s similarities, which everyone has probably seen by now, but which further my point that he’s really an interesting character. Anyone who can be so similar to another character yet so strikingly different is A+ by me.

Okay, I think I’ve talked enough, considering I just spent two hours putting this mess together. Hope that actually answered your question!!

#answered #kurokiorya #characterization essay #kazama chikage

43 notes · View notes