Vincent’s mole missing in ch134 was a drawing mistake
Vincent is a bit distant to his children because that’s how fathers in a noble family used to be like in Victorian era
Vincent and Frances are 100% blood-related siblings
There was no deep meaning behind Sebastian and Ciel’s conversation in ch87
Sebastian loves to see OC suffering and struggling + if OC gives up on his revenge, Sebastian will kill him immediately
RC and OC are exactly the same height (RC isn’t supposed to look any taller / older than OC)
Important: Do not send any spoilers to Yana’s official twitter account. Revealing new information before the official release date is wrong and illegal.
Yana only uses twitter and tumblr. She doesn’t use FB, pixiv nor instagram.
Yana had planned Agni’s last scene ever since his first appearance
Yana basically uses the Japanese version of the language of flowers
The flowers in ch125 were Mimosa (’friendship’) and Marigold (’sorrow’, ‘despair’ OR ‘changeless love’, ‘trust’)
The flowers in ch50 were Digitalis (’insincerity’)
Alexis and Frances are lovey-dovey
Undertaker is the most handsome character in Kuroshitsuji, i.e. he is more beautiful than Sebastian
but also: UT’s hair is supposed look dirty and oily like it’s not been washed for some time
Lizzy’s feelings for OC are genuine (she loves OC the most)
Back in Campania arc, Lizzy’s badass scene received the most response from the readers (i.e. it had more response than Grell’s re-apperance after 3 years and Undertaker’s revelation), that’s why Yana chose Lizzy for the cover of vol.13
Bard and Mey-Rin still have problems dealing with Snake’s snakes, but Ciel and Finny get along well with them
Since the looks of the footman used to be an indicator of one’s wealth and status in Victorian era, OC must have been seen as a weird person by other nobles for hiring a man with scales as his footman. That’s why Snake felt ashamed of himself in ch52.
Tanaka was modeled after famous Japanese actor Shunji Fujimura (he voiced Tanaka in the anime). Mr. Fujimura died in January this year (4 days after the release of the BotA movie).
Members of the shinigami dispatch association basically call Sebastian “Sebas-chan” because Grell (who is their source of information) calls him so.
The eye colour of shinigamis (yellowish-green phophorescence) symbolises the phosphorus (”onibi” in Japanese foloklore, “will-o’-wisp” in Western folklore) that is born from decaying corpses.
Hence, most shinigamis had a different eye colour when they were humans.
Sascha has his own death scythe but it wasn’t shown in the manga.
Music halls in late 19th century used to be the epicenter of fashion and music (basically all things entertainment) for common people. So historically speaking, the boy group thing wasn’t that out of place^^;
Sebastian basically doesn’t eat anything unless it’s for testing for poison
The supernatural characters in Kuro (Sebastian, UT, etc) are so old that an 80-year-old man would be a shota for them lol
Rachel was (much) younger than Vincent. Therefore, Vincent tried to look younger to keep up with his young wife.
Phipps is younger than Grey
IMPORTANT: PHIPPS IS YOUNGER THAN 24-YEAR-OLD GREY
Bonus:
Charles Phipps (right) is younger than Charles Grey (left)
I wish Animal crossing Pocket Camp had a better friend system so you could interact more. I and one other player kept watering each other’s flowers and gifting bats in the gothic bat event and I developed a sense of camaraderie, but I know nothing about her. Just who are you Ami!?
This is Kjell Lindgren. He’s a NASA astronaut who just got back from 5 months on the International Space Station. There are two reasons why this picture is hilarious:
His wife is flawless and makes bad space puns to make him do household chores.
I have that shirt. Thousands of people have that shirt. That shirt is available at Target. Which means actual astronaut Kjell Lindgren, with his wardrobe already full of NASA-issued and logo-emblazoned clothes, was at Target, saw a NASA shirt, and was like, “Yes, I am buying this because this is what I want to spend my actual astronaut salary on.”
Ok but there was this guy called Ea-nasir who was a total crook and would actually cheat people ought of good copper and sell them shit instead.
The amount of correspondences complaining to and about this guy are HILARIOUS.
And we haven’t even touched on the true hilarity of the situation yet. Consider two additional facts:
He wasn’t just into copper trading. There are letters complaining about Ea-nasir’s business practices with respect to everything from kitchenwares to real estate speculation to second-hand clothing. The guy was everywhere.
The majority of the surviving correspondences regarding Ea-nasir were recovered from one particular room in a building that is believed to have been Ea-nasir’s own house.
Like, these are clay tablets. They’re bulky, fragile, and difficult to store. They typically weren’t kept long-term unless they contained financial records or other vital information (which is why we have huge reams of financial data about ancient Babylon in spite of how little we know about the actual culture: most of the surviving tablets are commercial inventories, bills of sale, etc.).
But this guy, this Ea-nasir, he kept all of his angry letters - hundreds of them - and meticulously filed and preserved them in a dedicated room in his house. What kind of guy does that?
Okay, but imagine from the other guy’s point of view. You send angry letters about how Ea-nasir shipped you half a ton of subpar copper, and then 3800 years later—
Previous years: 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016
It is again time for the annual roundup! It feels this was not a particularly good animanga year in terms of amount of series consumed, but when it comes to enthusiasm Attack on Titan has single handedly offered more excitement than anything else in the past... I dunno, 3 or 4 years.
Attack on Titan
Finally ended up giving this a proper chance, mostly by accident, and I'm still in that hole. I'd say that a sizeable amount of my appreciation for this manga comes from how it stands out from all the other action shounen I've read in terms of how it deals with common shounen characters, themes and tropes, but as of late I've learnt to appreciate more how it stands on its own as well. Also as upset as I am that I'm so late to the party at least catching up to happened at a relatively good spot, since I found it was easier for me to get into the new arc without the main cast when I just had gotten some 50 chapters worth of material with my favourites. And with the new developments the wait was definitely worth it, even if I'm as thirsty as everyone else for the rest of the main cast's new designs.
Awards given: Best manga, Best boy (Eren), Best OP that I didn't actually see (didn't watch the anime outside listening to some music), Best friendship (Eren and Historia), Best mentor (Levi)
Made in Abyss
Heard this got a lot of praise so I decided to check it out too, knowing only that it's supposedly pretty grim. At first it seemed like just a "plucky kids go on an adventure" kind of show, even if the darker elements were always there (like how the main characters embarked on their journey fully aware that they won't be coming back). The upper layers of the titular Abyss felt pretty easy for their rumoured danger level, but when things finally went south they did so spectacularly. Very bad things happen to children in this show! Overall I really liked the Abyss as a location, the characters were great and especially the female characters were way above average (as in, pretty much got treated equally with the dudes).
Awards given: Best anime, Best OP I actually saw
Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid
This one I watched just because it looked cute. Which it was I guess, KyoAni's animation is always a pleasure to watch, but I got little else out of it. Kanna teeters between actually cute and manipulative-and-kinda-disgusting.
Awards given: Best cute animation, Best side boy (Fafnir)
Spirit Circle
Finally bothered to get into another manga from one of my favourite authors, and it was definitely worth it. The story revolving around the two protagonists reincarnating in different periods and often ending up killing one another was definitely something more unique than usual, the plot was well thought out, and the character work was just as great as I had learned to expect from the author (plus the female characters don't suck). On top of it all there is the strange calm and positive atmosphere despite sometimes grim subject matter that Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer also had. The art still isn't that amazing and sometimes the space-time talk gets way over my head but otherwise an excellent read.
Awards given: Best girl (Kouko (and iterations)), Best laughs, Best romance
One Piece
Not sure if it's because of the quality of the manga itself or because Attack on Titan dethroned One Piece from the top spot, but my interest in OP has waned a little in the past year. I haven't been able to get into Sanji's family drama, and the stuff with Big Mom has raised some good expectations but so far hasn't quite managed to live up to them. However my interest has only decreased in relation to the series itself, and compared to everything else I've consumed OP still stands tall, and Best Bunny Carrot even got to do something so I'm good I guess?
Awards given: Best side girl (Carrot)
The magical girl corner:
Doki Doki! Precure
I thought this was from last year but apparently no. So here it is, my least favourite magical girl series of all time! Might also be the least favourite anime in general (judgement pending)! Those interested can find a long rant here, but the tl;dr is that the show revolves around glorifying the main character who has no flaws, has no character development since she's amazing from the start, gets all the other characters' personal storylines be about her too, gets the story to bend so that she's always right in the end, and so on. Ugh! Though I must say that at least that in a way the series was interesting in how blindly and confidently it assumes everyone in the audience has the default assumption that the main character is the most amazing thing to ever grace this earth with her presence.
Awards given: Worst anime, Worst girl (Mana), Worst “romance"(whatever it is when everyone proclaims their 'love' for Mana), Worst friendship (Mana being the center of everyone's universe)
Kira Kira Precure a la Mode
Tried watching an ongoing Precure series this time, and while I'm still some episodes behind it could be a lot worse. Overall a really lackluster season and suffers from the same problems as the other Precure seasons I've seen: generic, unambitious, noncommittal, repetitive... There's very little going on with the plot, and while I do like some of the characters it's hard to care when the show is so adamant at doing nothing interesting with them. However it's still the best out of the Precure seasons I've seen so far properly, which probably says more about the other two's (HapiCha and DokiDoki) quality. And I do have to commend KiraKira for sticking to the sweets theme; at least it's clearly about something.
I've also watched some Go! Princess Precure which blows the other three Precure I've seen out of the water, but I haven't made very far. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it next year.
Yuuki Yuuna is a Hero: Washio Sumi chapter / Hero chapter
Why is it always the dark magical girl shows that try anything new and interesting!? I find that the new YuYuYu stuff has had some really clunky and awkward direction, stock characters, limited animation and ham-fisted drama, but I still appreciate what it's doing with its plot. Also gotta love the veteran magical girl's reaction to the new magic system which allows them to trade defence barriers for +1000% power: "lol back in my day we didn't have any shields in the first place!"
Awards given: Best magical girl outfits
Also finished Flip Flappers (final verdict: cool premise and looks interesting, execution a little uneven but still worth watching), Punchline (an uneven but still interesting little thing with great character designs), Uta Kata (a slow moving dark magical girl show with some nice ideas, good outfit designs, poor animation and awkward fanservice) and Pop in Q (mostly forgettable upbeat magical girl thing; though it did manage to hold interest for its short length).
Awards given: Biggest WTF (Uta Kata's poorly implemented fanservice), Best character designs (Punchline)
I also watched the second season of Hibike Euphonium, but I can't remember if it was at the end of 2016 but either way I don't have a lot to say about it.
Animal Crossing Pocket Camp
Good old Animal Crossing in mobile form, there's not much else to it and there's very little to do, but I'm a sucker for collecting and the leisurely and friendly atmosphere is worth it. Seeing Tom Nook ask for real money this time was definitely the highlight even if I'd never pay for a mobile game myself.
Awards given: Biggest Time-Waster (but I still keep playing it)
I've also kept playing Pokemon Go but there's not a lot to say about it, like can you add some new gameplay stuff to it please? Also did not get Ultra Sun/Moon. I didn't care too much for Alola and most of the new content seems to be about the Ultra stuff which is unlikable to me by default; I've never been into the legendary/mythical/ultra/save the world from apocalypse aspect of the games, like just let me train my pets to become the very best like no on ever was.
Not a lot of negative awards this year it seems. The bad stuff I read was just forgettable instead of bad in a funny way or so bad it's fun to hate it.
Plans for 2018:
Finally watch the Attack on Titan anime to catch up with the rest of the fandom and prepare for my favourite arc getting adapted
Finish with the mostly disappointing Digimon Adventure Tri.
Watch the newest Precure as it airs, finish Go! Princess and at least one of the earlier seasons
More magical girls! Maybe finally check out Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card arc, finish Matoi the Sacred Slayer (which has been on my list since 2016...), Pretear, series where the magical girl is a side character (Concrete Revoutio, Samurai Flamenco, re:Creators, Invaders of the Rokujyoma!?)
Finally watch Neon Genesis Evangelion (been working on it since 2005) and finish Gurren Lagann
Finish reading Neuro
Read Sengoku Youko, NaruTaru and Rozen Maiden
maybe get a Switch and the new Zelda and Mario games for it
gracieabrams
origamiaround
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turnnoffyourmind
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