Heyheyyy!! <(￣︶￣)> You can call me Fru, and I started this blog so that when I rexperience/experience media, I can have a place to jot it down. I have absolutely horrible memory and shitty literacy skills but welp, I'm here to improve on that ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ
I mainly like Project Moon, Project Sekai, Reverse: 1999, Classroom of the Elite, Bandori and D4DJ!! In the pictures are my favourite characters (｡･ω･｡)ﾉ♡
I don't really expect anything much from this, so it's alright if it's just myself but thank you for having me!!
This anime was recommended to me by my classmate Pearl and was the first anime I watched from start to finish in the past 2 months. The last one was Buddy Daddies in March which I wrote my review on my private Twitter account.
Also I keep forgetting how I format these, so I hope to come to a point where I remember how I layout my review.
❌ As always spoilers ahead! This is only a review of the anime version ❌
Favourite Character: Laurent Thierry
There's something about ENTP guys who lie with a straight face that charm me okay (Ahem Kuroba Kaito, and Venti to a certain extent). His magnificent swagger and poker face have charmed me. His gambling skills and tragedy have altered my brain chemistry. That blond bastard..... NOT TO MENTION HIS CHINESE IS SO AUGHHHHHHGAGHHHHHHH
Favourite moment: In Los Angeles Connection when it was revealed that everything was a lie, a plan to get Makoto on board. That "Pola Dickens" was Cynthia in disguise, that the old lady that Makoto first scammed was actually Shi Ohn.
Cynthia is so gorgeous like HELLO!??????? I love you Cynthia. At first I thought that "Pola" would be the cop that tries to catch Abbie/Laurent/Makoto but when I found out the truth about her I was so astonished and even more hooked. To be fair every single twist and turn this series had me at was incredible, every "death" would always leave me wondering if it was for real or not but this was the first moment I thought of.
OKAY NOW FOR THE YAPPING. This anime is GORGEOUS. It's so vibrant and colorful which goes with the friendly tone of the show that no one dies, only bad guys get punished. I really need to study the art here (I just wanna draw Laurent)
Something that I really like is how the hair cuts of Oz, Laurent, and Makoto show how they grow and inherit the spirit of the "Great Pretender". The slicked back hair, the suit, the confidence. They are their mentor figures.
I love the word play of The Wizard of Oz to Ozaki and also the gachapon Wizard that Makoto got for his mother. Wizard of the Far East, The Last Wizard of the Century... I LOVE TITLES LIKE THESE SO MUCH I wanna be a wizard. It really inspired me to put in a lot of work. I need to stop posting WIPs for dopamine in that case though.
As much as I like how worldwide this anime is, it does use a lot of stereotypes which is ehhh for me. I will commend them for finding a nice name for Kawin though (กวินทร์) CLARK'S BLUE EYES SCARE ME
I love how Makoto's name means truth, and while yes he is a con man - his acting is a mix of his true emotions which is always a suprise to see every single time. I don't really have a lot insight since I'm Stupid but I was bedazzled by all the spectacle.
Most of the people in Team Confidence all have shadows of their past, they pretend to be okay and hide behind a smile but are all shackled by their past trauma somehow. Makoto with his father, Laurent with the loss of Dorothy, Cynthia with what happened to Thomas, and bombing with Abbie's parents. But they move forward into the future, forgiving themselves. And I think that's beautiful as someone who loves stories about revenge and overcoming it (Canto 5 Limbus Company). I feel that if I watched this a year ago alongside Canto 5 my life would've been changed.
Overall, Great Pretender is a beautiful anime. Visual wise, story wise, message wise. An absolute recommend from me. Thank you so much for reading if you did!!
After some discussions with a friend of mine as well as watching Razbliuto, I have some gripes with the second season as well as Razbliuto itself.
As much as I love Laurent, the season is kinda ruined by the scumbags of the first season suddenly coming to work with Team Confidence at the end - which was totally unnecessary and was there just to add shock for the viewer.
Also Dorothy being alive just collapses everything, and in Razbliuto all we get is fanservice of Team Confidence and no meaningful build up or anything like that. Her being alive somewhat defeats Laurent's arc, even though he did move on it doesn't have as much impact compared to if she was dead.
I'm unfortunately going to have to drop the series as a whole to an 8/10, Razbliuto gets a 3/10. As for the original anime the first season is 10/10 while the second is 6.5/10.
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, recommended to me by Cherine. It's the first book I finished reading after a year from my read of The Stranger. It took me around an hour to finish, I was so happy that I was eagerly flipping page to page.
❌ Spoilers ahead of course! ❌
I think that this book will stick with me for a while and it paints the convenience store as a mini society. It talks gender roles, conformity (especially in Japanese society), and honestly it scares me but I want more and more. I really want to slap Shiraha.
This place never changes, does it?
This was the quote that stuck with me the most. Society doesn't change how it wants to be satisfied with assumptions even if they are wrong, it doesn't change how it expunges those who don't fit in. And when Keiko says that she's 30% Ms. Izumi etc etc.. it was haunting, it made me think about how nonexistent I was. I say gorb as the gorb echo chamber continues, I don't bring anything unique to the table, and without my work I'm nothing.
The title emphasizes Woman instead human because of the gender roles. Like when the male customer was ordering other customers around, he was doing what was good for the convenience store but because he did it so loudly he was kicked out but when Keiko does it at the end of the book she was welcomed and even thanked for it.
As much as I hate Shiraha, I do see where he comes from and he parallels Keiko. He's an outcast as well but while he craves normalcy he isn't a good cog in the machine. He doesn't pay rent, he doesn't work well at the convenience store job, there is no place for someone that can't be put to use - like the convenience store that will eventually have to fire that person.
My memory is really bad, it's the reason why I write my reviews, but around year ago I read The Stranger and this book really reminded me of that. The stock orchestral music that was used in Squid Game was also playing in my head as I reached the end of the book.
I feel that all jobs are important because all the cogs are important, even stuff like YouTubers since entertainment needs to be there for people. Hell, even artists need their background audio (no matter how beautifully edited your video is it's inevitable albeit a bit sad).
Do I relate to this book? Yes... and no, as bland of an answer that is. I usually keep my true self (as nonexistent as that is) hidden because I'm scared of being judged that I'm wrong. A friend alluded to a character I based off myself to have catholic guilt (I'm Buddhist) but it's more like i feel that I don't belong anywhere, that I'm always another number from a different set.
I remember this event in the past. Two years ago, I won't get into it but ever since then I think I've been scared to show my true self. I'll become one with the convenience store, so that nothing unnecessary happens.
This anime was recommended to me by my classmate Pearl and was the first anime I watched from start to finish in the past 2 months. The last one was Buddy Daddies in March which I wrote my review on my private Twitter account.
Also I keep forgetting how I format these, so I hope to come to a point where I remember how I layout my review.
❌ As always spoilers ahead! This is only a review of the anime version ❌
Favourite Character: Laurent Thierry
There's something about ENTP guys who lie with a straight face that charm me okay (Ahem Kuroba Kaito, and Venti to a certain extent). His magnificent swagger and poker face have charmed me. His gambling skills and tragedy have altered my brain chemistry. That blond bastard..... NOT TO MENTION HIS CHINESE IS SO AUGHHHHHHGAGHHHHHHH
Favourite moment: In Los Angeles Connection when it was revealed that everything was a lie, a plan to get Makoto on board. That "Pola Dickens" was Cynthia in disguise, that the old lady that Makoto first scammed was actually Shi Ohn.
Cynthia is so gorgeous like HELLO!??????? I love you Cynthia. At first I thought that "Pola" would be the cop that tries to catch Abbie/Laurent/Makoto but when I found out the truth about her I was so astonished and even more hooked. To be fair every single twist and turn this series had me at was incredible, every "death" would always leave me wondering if it was for real or not but this was the first moment I thought of.
OKAY NOW FOR THE YAPPING. This anime is GORGEOUS. It's so vibrant and colorful which goes with the friendly tone of the show that no one dies, only bad guys get punished. I really need to study the art here (I just wanna draw Laurent)
Something that I really like is how the hair cuts of Oz, Laurent, and Makoto show how they grow and inherit the spirit of the "Great Pretender". The slicked back hair, the suit, the confidence. They are their mentor figures.
I love the word play of The Wizard of Oz to Ozaki and also the gachapon Wizard that Makoto got for his mother. Wizard of the Far East, The Last Wizard of the Century... I LOVE TITLES LIKE THESE SO MUCH I wanna be a wizard. It really inspired me to put in a lot of work. I need to stop posting WIPs for dopamine in that case though.
As much as I like how worldwide this anime is, it does use a lot of stereotypes which is ehhh for me. I will commend them for finding a nice name for Kawin though (กวินทร์) CLARK'S BLUE EYES SCARE ME
I love how Makoto's name means truth, and while yes he is a con man - his acting is a mix of his true emotions which is always a suprise to see every single time. I don't really have a lot insight since I'm Stupid but I was bedazzled by all the spectacle.
Most of the people in Team Confidence all have shadows of their past, they pretend to be okay and hide behind a smile but are all shackled by their past trauma somehow. Makoto with his father, Laurent with the loss of Dorothy, Cynthia with what happened to Thomas, and bombing with Abbie's parents. But they move forward into the future, forgiving themselves. And I think that's beautiful as someone who loves stories about revenge and overcoming it (Canto 5 Limbus Company). I feel that if I watched this a year ago alongside Canto 5 my life would've been changed.
Overall, Great Pretender is a beautiful anime. Visual wise, story wise, message wise. An absolute recommend from me. Thank you so much for reading if you did!!
This is something overdue for a few days, requested by my good friend Murmansk. I'll be ranking all of Azur Lane's Shinano skins, including her base artwork. To be frank Shinano was one of my favourite shipgirls even before meeting Mur so this will be a short and fun read (I hope). Going from lowest to highest ranking.
Number 5. Visions of Fantasy (Bunny Girl)
It was hard to choose between this one and her summer one for 5th place as I don't like how she is presented (that applies to a certain degree between 5th and 3rd place). The colours are gorgeous and her tails are so beautifully rendered however just look at her 😭😭😭😭 what is she doing that for 😭😭😭😭. She would NOT do that. I do see what they were going for with the magic cabin relating to zhuangzi's butterfly dream (Like how this may just look like a normal box, but viola! Shinano is there. It plays on the perception of the audience) but alas the art is just. Over sexualized (but this is Azur Lane we're talking about. Okay Fru.) In the past there were some tasteful skins as you will see in this ranking but overall this isn't for me I guess...
Number 4. Dreamy White Sands (Swimsuit)
She would not wear that 😭😭😭😭 She wouldn't wear something so revealing in my headcanon. But props to the artist tho since that beach is so beautifully rendered. I wish that Azur Lane was just a music project with art alongside it. No gacha bc you will see how much I love base Shinano. The composition is solid I just hate it less than bunny girl Shinano.
Also something to note is that these two are newer skins so the chibi has changed. I like the old one more.
Base Shinano, left. Swimsuit Shinano, middle. Bunny girl Shinano, right. I like her old eyes more. But if we're talking about chibis alone I like bunny girl more since the blue contrasts with her skin and her hair more.
Number 3. Moonlit Chrome (Racecar)
Okay let me just say that is one amazingly rendered car. I kneel. I don't really have much to say other than that. It's in the middle because I have some bias from Mur lol. She's doing the boobs and ass pose 😭😭 Touche.
Her chibi looks really good, I actually like how the outfit looks on her, I just wish the moons were there as well (same applies for ballroom)
Number 2. Dreams of the Hazy Moon (Ballroom)
This skin is BREATHTAKING. The composition, the colours, the view at the back, the moons. Perfect. So so beautiful. The colour ratios here with the blue, white, gold, and hints of red make this such a feast on the eyes. The outfit is quite tasteful too. I really want to draw something like this one day (which reminds me I need to check Micord)
The only downside to this skin is the chibi which I wish they kept the frames in. Her chibi here looks quite empty. I do like how she's holding a glass of wine there though.
Number 1. Default Skin
I just love default Shinano okay. At the time of her release this was considered to be very very impressive, especially since she was the first UR. The moons, the dream like deck, the butterflies, the swords, they're so good together. While the URs of today are absolutely impressive, don't get me wrong, I just feel like looking back at simpler times to see how far the art direction for Azur Lane has come. Lowkey I get overwhelmed by all the effects in the URs these days. ALSO HER CHIBI HAS ALL THE ASPECTS THAT MAKE SHINANO GREAT. The moons, the swords, the old art style - everything. It's perfect for me.
That's all for today!! I do not recommend Azur Lane to anyone except for it's music. Off I go back to edit.
I just finished R1999's 2.5 patch yesterday, I wrote a review of it on my privtwt but the character limit of Twitter is seriously unbearable so I'm taking my reviews to Tumblr (ب_ب)
⚠️ THIS IS ONLY THE EVENT STORY no character stories yet because I want to review them seperately also SPOILERS AHEAD!! ⚠️
Favourite Character: Liang Yue
She's the limited character of this patch so I will admit there is some bias, but it's very little since I also love Noire loads. I really loved her character in the story: how she has the heavy expectations from her parents, her love for films, and how she was able to distinguish fiction from reality.
Favourite Moment: Liang Yue's flashback to the first time she watched a C07 movie as the CG shows her child self sitting at the bench, then shows her current self sitting at the same bench as she has never forgotten Qi Xing's words from that interview.
Favourite OST: Originally it was the EP Rock Solid but I'm currently listening to The Truth Will Come as I'm writing this.
Favourite NPC: Poitier / Constance Scott (I CAN EXPLAIN MYSELF FOR SCOTT)
Let's first clear my name. Scott was someone who parallels Liang Yue in the sense that they have expectations placed onto them, it's just that Scott's one is in the negatives. (Now that I think about it Maltida makes sense too) She was raised in an environment where her mother didn't really acknowledge her and always looked down on her so when she meets Latham/Loggerhead she looks down upon her so that she can feel superior in something. She wasn't cold or calculating, she was lashing out. Go forth inferiority complex.
Liang Yue Family expectations: You must fulfill your duty as the Zhenzi of Qiangliang. Liang Yue feels this duty yet also feels like she doesn't live up to it. (Like how she sees Qiangliang responding to her call as a coincidence)
Maltida Bouanich Family expectations: Beryl Bouanich don't care 😭😭😭😭. Yet Maltida wants to be the best (fostered positively)
Constance Scott Family Expectations: You are nothing... Scott wants to prove herself (fostered negatively) (self fulfilling prophecy)
I get where Scott is coming from and yes I do very much hate her, yet I understand her. She shouldn't have treated Loggerhead like that. That was foul.
Main Themes
The main themes, from what I could gather are:
Diaspora (shown in the earlier chapters)
Liang Yue and Noire are both characters that show this (while they haven't moved there we see cultural clashes, familial expectations, and connections with the community in Chinatown). I do wish this was further explored seeing the strong start from the beginning but I do hope and think we'll get more patches with this theme in the future.
The roles people play / peeling off to appreciate one's individuality
Double entendre with the roles in a movie, the role of the Zhenzi, etc. As someone who has experienced some form of parasociality from my YT channel (I'd like to keep it a secret but it's pretty obvious), I think that this is conveyed well as Liang Yue peels back the layers with sense. Going in blindly will create problems for both sides and I'm glad that this was tackled so well as coming to embrace someone's individuality is beautiful, like Noire says.
How fiction affects reality
The line between C07 and Qi Xing was blurred for the actress. How C07 inspired conviction in Liang Yue. I love it as it reminds me of when I watched Youzitsu and felt so inspired I put my life together for a few months.
Identity (We're Reverse: 1999 guys of course we have identity)
This is a really bad transition but this is my blog we BALL!! But I need to write an apology letter to Noire because for the whole time I thought she was based of off Wong Kar Wai (I love In the Mood for Love it's the only film I've watched from him but well I made this blog for a reason it's time to consume media) because her name was Noire like Noir films. But she makes action films oh I'm stupid (-̩̩̩-̩̩̩-̩̩̩-̩̩̩-̩̩̩___-̩̩̩-̩̩̩-̩̩̩-̩̩̩-̩̩̩)
I really love how Noire is written: how she is passionately in pursuit of the better film, how she shows that deep down creators will always want to create, and especially how reckless she was in the past. I was like Noire in the past as well, reckless and selfish, and honestly a jerk but I've learnt from those mistakes. It takes a team to create something better as we are limited to our own brains when we think alone.
⭐ AFFLATUS TALK 🌱
Liang Yue: Star
The aspiration to be a hero that brings happy endings to everyone, the desire to prove herself. The star that she saw that day was in the Detective C07 films.
Noire: Plant
The care for her set (environment). I don't really see anything else other than that. I also think maybe it's because they wouldn't want to release too many star afflatus characters (including Barcarola from last patch as well) but I think that plant is very fitting for her. Like I see the vision y'know.
I'm out of things to yap about now but if you read this all thank you so much 🙇♀️🙇♀️🙇♀️ I hope to remember to write the next review. I'm always open for discussion, thank you again!
