Tall In The Real Way

[insert cool tagline here]

[ladyloveandjustice]

ok remember how i'm keeping a running list of female-centered sports anime/manga

I WILL NOW BE KEEPING A RUNNING LIST OF THE SPORTS ANIME TO CROSS OUT AS I COMPLETE THEM!

Taisho Yakyuu Musume- About a women’s baseball team in 1920’s Japan. 12 episodes. Deals with themes of gender inequality. Very cute and sweet anime that has two canonical lesbian characters. 

Bamboo Blade- About a kendo team, with focus on the female characters. The  main character adores sentai, is very strong, and takes down bullies she sees.Both a manga and anime, 26 episodes as an anime. I have completed the anime- it was okay. There were some fun female characters, but also quite a bit of male gaze and a really flat stalker lesbian character. 

Shion no Oe- This isn’t really a sports anime so much as a gaming anime, but it looks interesting. It’s about a shogi player whose parents were brutally murdered in front of her. YEAH. So like, it’s part sports/gaming anime and part murder mystery. 22 episodes as an anime, 50 chapters as a manga. I’ve downloaded it and I’m watching this next!

Princess Nine- older women’s baseball anime, the girls want to be able to go toe to toe with the boys. Naoko Takeuchi (creator of Sailor Moon) mentioned she liked it. It will probably be a while before I get to this one. It’s 26 episodes

Battle Athletes Victory- A futuristic sports anime that seems to deal with…general athletics? It’s older, made in the 90s. Apparently one of the characters is a racist stereotype (she’s from “Africa” while everyone else is from a specific country. Because Africa is a country!) and the het romance is minimal but awful- but on the other hand, there’s tons of canon yuri romance with the main character? Like her rival is canonically in love with her and they kiss and everything. So basically, I’m torn between by great hate and my great love. I guess I’ll check it out and see if the good outweighs the awful. It’s 26 episodes, though there’s also six OVAs that tell an alternate version of the story.

Dance, Subaru- this is about a girl who’s twin brother is dying but also she’s into ballet. It’s only a manga,123 chapters. Once again, it’ll probably be a while before I get to this one.

Crimson Hero- About 83 chapters, about a girl who restarts the female volleyball team in her high school with opposition from the dudes and her parents. Told about this over PM.

Already Completed

Teppu (Ongoing)- A women’s MMA manga where the main character is more in line with the typical sports manga rival in personality. Tall and imposing, everything tends to come easily to her- until she’s faced with a cheerful girl who managed to wound her while practicing MMA. She becomes obsessed with taking down her rival and practices MMA for the feeling of finally having a challenge, all while struggling with her broken relationship with her brother and former friend. Includes actual buff ladies, Brazillian characters and a canon lesbian (though her crush is unrequited so far)It’s fantastic. Ongoing, with 20 plus chapters so far.

Kaleido Star- This anime deals with a girl who aims to be the star acrobat in a Cirque de Soleil like show in California. She struggles against difficult rivals, impossible odds and dangerous stunts. Also fantastic. 51 episodes with two sequel OVAs

Chihayafuru- This is a gaming anime rather than a straight sports anime, but it has more of the feel of a sports anime, especially since the main character does physical training, battles exhaustion, and even gets injured in the course of playing- the game is karuta, which actually requires really good reflexes, so there is an athletic component. Chihaya is hyper focused on Karuta and friendship and forms a motley group of misfits as her karuta team after playing it with her best friends as a child. The anime is gorgeous and currently about 50 episode long with two seasons- the manga is ongoing. Highly reccomended.

[be-nice-2-nerds]

Aaron Burr: How does a bastard orphan son of a whore…

Aaron Burr: This obnoxious arrogant loudmouth bother…

Aaron Burr: Feral tomcat…

Aaron Burr: How does a bastard orphan decorated war vet…

Aaron Burr: They don't need to know me, they don't like you.

Aaron Burr: Your pride will be the death of us all.

Aaron Burr: Hamilton, the short-tempered Protean…

Aaron Burr: An arrogant immigrant bastard orphan whoreson…

Aaron Burr: …

Aaron Burr: The only common thread has been your disrespect.

[be-nice-2-nerds]

welp it’s been a while since anything has left me that emotionally compromised

[be-nice-2-nerds]

Oh wow I LOVE the contrast between Rose and Steven and their floating powers. Rose uses hers to make dramatic entrances, all smooth and graceful and controlled and poised. And Steven is a super happy excited kid so of course he uses his to bounce around.

Rose’s feel kind of like a mask, part of a carefully projected image, and Steven’s are just full of sincerity.

[be-nice-2-nerds]

The more episodes Sour Cream shows up in the more convinced I am that it’s definitely his real name and not a nickname. Which is awesome but let’s face it, Sour Cream is not a ‘normal’ human name.

Which has made me realise that what may well have happened is that Vidalia let Amethyst (who we know was friends with her at this time, and who knew very little about human culture but really likes human food) name him. And that idea just makes me super happy.

[andyzer0]

His half-brother is named “Onion.”  I think it’s more of a “this Earth is an altered universe because of the Gem presence.”

Also a possible anime reference, often characters are named after food.

[be-nice-2-nerds]

Heh probably. And their mum is also a type of onion. This is not a serious headcanon really :P

[be-nice-2-nerds]

I really appreciate how much every time Pearl being in love with Rose comes up in the context of the show it is made more and more explicit. Because let us not forget that there were (I HIGHLY doubt if there are now, but let us never underestimate the ability of straight people to ignore queerness) so many people who were still insisting that no it couldn’t be a thing. And in this episode it’s made even more explicit than ever while none of the characters treat this as some kind of new revelation and that combination of things is just really important to me. Pearl gets a whole arc of healing from losing Rose (in more senses than one) and no one ever interrupts to be like ‘you were in love with her?!’ because everyone already knows that. While to the viewer it is made more and more explicit.

Anyway I love this show and I love Pearl’s character arcs.

[be-nice-2-nerds]

just ugh yeah validation and complicated relational dynamics and still not answering all the unfinished questions and Pearl being so Pearl I hadn’t realised how much I’d missed her having a central role in an episode and also that suit is amazing and the songs were good and yeah. So many good little moments as well as the big thing.

[be-nice-2-nerds]

aaaah new SU was so good and i am super tired and incoherent and shouldn’t be typing but aaah

[be-nice-2-nerds]

The more episodes Sour Cream shows up in the more convinced I am that it’s definitely his real name and not a nickname. Which is awesome but let’s face it, Sour Cream is not a ‘normal’ human name.

Which has made me realise that what may well have happened is that Vidalia let Amethyst (who we know was friends with her at this time, and who knew very little about human culture but really likes human food) name him. And that idea just makes me super happy.

[be-nice-2-nerds]

Aaaand this is the way to punch straight through to my heart. I wasn’t convinced by Kill La Kill for like the first 10 episodes but man I love this show so much now. Guh protection/devotion bodyguardish relationships (which aren’t necesarily romantic thank you very much) get me everytime.

[be-nice-2-nerds]

I am alive! But my hands are still messed up and I can’t write much (which is killing me a little) but also SU is starting up again soon so I’ll probably be moderately active again with opinions about that. And I read a lot of books and watched a bunch of TV and listened to Hamilton while my hands were (are) messed up and I have opinions about those things, so this blog miiiiight start being active-ish again soon.

[be-nice-2-nerds]

So anyway long story short I managed to fuck up my hands and have to avoid my computer + phone for a while so that's why I haven't been around for a while and why it'll probably be another month or so till I come back

[be-nice-2-nerds]

anyway sudden irl stuff happens yaaay!

so this blog’ll be quiet for the next few days while i sort all that out, just geting that out there

[be-nice-2-nerds]

Black Moon clan anon again! Those were great thoughts, the BMC are my fave SM villains (well at least in terms of the anime and musicals... manga not so much tbh) I think you got them down perfectly! ^_^ (Saphir is also my fave!) Do you have any ships for them or sexuality headcanons though? I assume, (or rather HOPE) that you don't ship Demande/Usagi just like most of the fandom right? (no judgement if you do, just personally think its a gross ship and hurts Demande's character)

Yay I’m glad at least one person on the internet cares about my rambles on this blog :D

Tbh I haven’t really thought that much about Black Moon sexualities. I Very Definitely don’t ship Demande/Usagi though. I mean him being attracted to her (and acting SUPER CREEPY about it, ugh, I’ve seen that scene like 3 or 4 times in different incarnations by now and I’d still forgotten about it) is canon but like hell that would ever be mutual. It’ll stay onesided forever and ever.

Yeah, I dunno, I know my super detailed Inners sexuality headcanons and stuff might not give this impression but in general I’m not actually that big a shipper. *shrugs* SM wise I ship, like, harumichi because it’s canon, and kinda maybe hotaru/chibs when they’re older (and DEFINITELY in the manga because jesus Hotaru possesive much), and literally ANY combination of the Inners with each other up to and including the blurred-lines-between-romance-and-friendship ot5. And obviously usamamo is endgame canon so i guess that, but tbh I’m not amazingly invested in it? Though obviously it’s a thing. And the only stuff of that I’m super invested in is the ‘literally any combination of the Inner Senshi’ thing, and the fact that it’s ‘literally any combination i’m not picky’ tells you all you need to know. (Oh yeah, and if anyone still insists harumichi isn’t a thing (though I don’t think anyone does that anymore, thank the gods) i guess i get annoyed at that too? But I hesitate to say I ship them ship them because to me they’re just a brute fact of canon.)

But yeah, I haven’t thought about them in as much detail as you obviously seem to have, and I have a lot less fodder than I do with the Inners. I dunno, I’d say Saphir is gay and not be able to tell you why (it’s probably me being bad and stereotyping from somewhere. Though my irl ‘gaydar’ is actually really good, so. *shrugs* maybe he has (vaguely-incesty) subtext with Demande? That might be it, if I could remember better), but I THINK the thing he has with Petz is mutual? It’s been a while…

Yeah, I’m sorry, but I can’t really give you an answer. The cheat answer is to say they were written by a kind of heteronormative writing crew and so probably were WRITTEN as straight, but then they probably didn’t mean to write Ami as pitch-perfect bi aceish and Rei as a flaming lesbian (pun intended) either and yet they did, so I don’t like that answer. You have to read the text and not the intentions. I just haven’t really thought about them enough. But no, no ships really either.

I ship the Ayakashi sisters with being happy and having normal lives and eventually finding hapiness however they may! (Oh yeah, that reminds me, they’re all rough parallels to the Inners, so maybe they share sexualities with them? So Berthier is bi ace and Koan is super gay and Petz and Calaveras are bi? Idk).

Anyway, thanks for asking, I’m sorry that I feel like this isn’t quite what you were looking for! If you have any more definite thoughts I’d love to hear them :)

[be-nice-2-nerds]

Oh wow I LOVE the contrast between Rose and Steven and their floating powers. Rose uses hers to make dramatic entrances, all smooth and graceful and controlled and poised. And Steven is a super happy excited kid so of course he uses his to bounce around.

Rose’s feel kind of like a mask, part of a carefully projected image, and Steven’s are just full of sincerity.

[be-nice-2-nerds]

Thoughts on the members of the Black Moon clan? Since you're watching R and all

Hahaha, I don’t know if I’m watching R right now so much as rewatching episodes that make me happy. But I guess I kind of am rewatching R? I dunno, I rewatched the first two episodes, opened the third and was like ‘oh god the Shinozaki episode with no budget so really eh stills while Mako narrates and the introduction of the Moonlight Knight (can something be orientalist when the Middle East is technically west of Japan?) I don’t know if I feel like this right now’ so I jumped ahead to the Rei song episode and then the Ami Germany one (which I had SO MANY EMOTIONS about that I have not yet subjected the internet to). But yeah, I guess I kind of am rewatching R at the moment :)

Ok, right, anyway, Black Moon. Hmm. I guess first up I should say that I 100% watch SM for the Inners and their characters and dynamics and friendships and stuff, and everyone who isn’t one of them I kinda pay less attention to. Like, even when the narrative tries to do really interesting things with the villains (I’m thinking PGSM Shintennou here specifically) I’m still sitting there all like ‘yes yes fine can we get back to the Inners now’. But I’ll do the best I can.

Well, the Black Moon as a whole is a fascinating, fascinating concept. People who committed no crime, but their anscestors did, and now they’re banished on the Black Moon and understandably kind of pissed off about this. (It’s been a while since I’ve seen the R finale and the last half of this arc is the only bit of the manga I don’t own yet so I can’t just grab a volume off the shelf and double check, so sorry if I’m a bit shaky on the details). I’d be pissed off about this too if I was in their position! So, initially, they want to go back to the past to get revenge (and, importantly, secure what they think will be a better life for themselves) by ensuring Crystal Tokyo is never created. These are fascinating and compelling motives! And they raise really interesting questions about the morality of Crystal Tokyo which I think is super cool. So the Black Moon is pretty sympathetic, really, in a way that none of the other seasons villains aren’t. Which is cool.

And then Wiseman happens and messes up everything. I don’t like Wiseman. I think he works better in the manga than in the anime, where he just kinda comes in at the last minute to be this really two-dimensional big bad. Also, he hurts Demande’s character a little, because I feel Demande would be a lot more interesting as a guy who got corrupted by his own power and carried away by his own ideals until they’re basically unrecogniseable anymore. I dunno.

Right, so actual Black Moon Clan people. I don’t know if you’re counting the Ayakashi sisters in this or not, but I am. So, them. I like them a lot, and I really like their arc. And how they show up near the end after usually we’d never hear from a villain again. I don’t really remember enough about them distinguished as individuals, but they do all have personalities and stuff, which is cool. I also really appreciate how in Berthier’s redemption story Ami isn’t actually the one who does it, but rather Koan - Ami’s just kind of acting as a foil/parallel to underscore thematic ideas and stuff. I kinda wish they all got individual redemption episodes like Koan and Berthier (which also means Mako and Minako get character episodes! Minako especially is super lacking in character episodes at that point in the series).

Next comes Rubeus, who is kind of a dick, though I kind of appreciate his aesthetic. And Esmeraude, who I don’t really remember much about. They’re just kind fairly forgettable villains, as far as I’m concerned - Rubeus is overshadowed by the Ayakashi sisters, and Esmeraude is pretty forgetable. (THOUGH I know I hate it when people write off my favourites as boring and uninteresting so if you really like one or both of them please feel free to explain why and maybe I’ll look at them in a new light :))

The interesting characters here are Demande and Saphir. I really like Saphir (oh, hey, blue smart one… gee I wonder if I have a favourite character type…) because he’s the one most about sticking to the original, actually pretty sympathetic goals. And he argues with his bother about this and ultimately dies a hero by sticking to his conscience. I think he’s really interesting and basically the epitome of what I find fascinating about the Black Moon Clan as a whole. His manga and myu versions are pretty interesting characters, too.

Demande is also interesting, as someone who started out with vaguely sympathetic goals and ended with ones that…aren’t. Like I said, though, I think he’d be more interesting if HE was the ultimate big bad and Wiseman wasn’t in the picture.

Anyway, yeah, thoughts on the Black Moon Clan, as requested :) It’s been a little while (ok, half a year, let’s be real) since I’ve seen all of R, so hopefully I didn’t mess up too much :)

[be-nice-2-nerds]

New avatar cribbed off @shoujotai​, cheers mate :D

It’s an Ami icon because she is and will always be my favourite but you can still kinda see Minako in the background because like hell she’s letting Ami take over the spotlight completely. And Mercury’s visor with cool text in it. I always knew I wanted a visor icon but I was too lazy to hunt through several hundred episodes for the best one (and some of the best visor aesthetic comes from Crystal but I don’t like Crystal enough to want a Crystal icon) so yeah, thanks.