#ric talks

[randomidiocyncrazies]

lmao i never thought i'd see Coco hate but... i guess there are all kinds of haters under the sun

it does kill me that the criticisms are about how "stupid" and "annoying" she is, how "she has no common sense" and how "she never learns from her mistakes" (which... are we watching the same anime/reading the same manga??? I don't know where they got "Coco never learns from her mistakes" because Coco is always learning about the pointed cap world and improving her craft... Or maybe they're so cop-brained that Coco not instantly falling in line with the Knights Moralis and pointed cap laws is her being a "stupid trouble-maker")

btw these criticisms are in the Chinese-speaking fandom; thankfully i don't think I've seen the English speaking fandom call Coco a "stupid trouble-making mary sue brat who never learns from her mistakes" yet. I'm sure those people exist out there, but I am grateful that I have not encountered them yet.

anyway. pretty wack that people would attack a 12 year old girl character who didn't grow up in the magic system by saying "wow she's so stupid and made mistakes" as if she doesn't learn from them and try to save her mom/undo her original mistake. if she does things too effortlessly she's a mary sue, if she makes mistakes then she's stupid and a thoughtless troublemaker... kids (especially girl kids) really don't get a break huh. and I thought the backlash against Agott is bad enough (at least that is somewhat justified, in the sense that she's definitely not in the right and you're supposed to criticize her behavior, though the comments calling for her graphic suffering/calling her gendered insults are too much imo).

(also part of the complaints in the Chinese-speaking fandom is that Coco is "too nice (preachy)" and it's like. okay sorry the MC isn't an OP genius who has overwhelming power/smarts to dominate dissenters and can do no wrong, sorry you didn't get your power-trip fantasy, go watch one of the many many isekais around to get your power-fantasy fix lol

[randomidiocyncrazies]

Ironically having the medium to actually experience the rakugo stories in Akane-banashi actually makes it less enjoyable from how they're handling it

i wish the show would let me like... enjoy the performance more before jumping in to explain it. It works in the manga bc we can't experience the performance ourselves so we must rely on the commentary to get why it's so great, but in an animated medium with voice acting, these explanations crowd out what actually makes the performance charming in an attempt to make the audience realize why it's so cool etc etc... I don't mind the summary of the story because those are helpful for people who aren't in the scene (like me), but I wish they let us experience Akane changing the tempo on the audiences etc for ourselves more before the show says "oh look she's changing the tempo without alienating her audience!!"

I think Kyoji's performance showcases his strengths as an entertainer better, so hopefully they lean in that direction more for the rest of the performances... likewise, Akane's crowdwork segment was much better at showing how she is taking her audience into account and creating a good atmosphere for them, and she is very charming during it

[randomidiocyncrazies]

TBHX ep 12: Fall of the Star

With Queen's arc coming to a close, I just wanna say... I like Queen and I liked parts of her arc, but all in all it wasn't really *her* story, which makes it kind of frustrating.

ngl it's so annoying that we still don't really know what drives Queen to be the way she is by the end of her arc—it's like "wow something mysterious happened in her childhood that made her only trust in her own strength" but we don't even get a hint of what happened even until the end. It's really funny/frustrating that her arc isn't really about getting to see what drives her as a person, but more about setting other arcs up. I also feel like her powers are shown in really limited ways, in the sense that I don't really get why she's utilizing her powers like that, or how her arsenal and her powers interact/boost each other etc.

it's also very strange that Bowa has such a deep hatred for Liu Zhen (and hates Queen for being his daughter, among other things) but we have no idea why she hates him so much. Like... I guess she just hates him and Queen for being close to Mikey...? Or is it something more specific, e.g. Liu Zhen caught onto her "heroic sacrifice" (taking a bullet that is partially staged) and then blackmailed her about it? If it's meant to be specific then I feel like they failed to convey the specifics to us, since right now Bowa comes off as just jealous of Queen and the Liu Zhen connection is kind of unimportant despite the show treating the reveal as a important one. Her hatred of Queen really is tragic because she should've teamed up with Queen to take out X, instead of seeing the fellow female powerhouse hero as her nemesis... sexism is alive and thriving in the hero industry😔😔😔and totally calculated by Mikey with his office talk in ep 11 :/

It's also... interesting... that the arc ended on Big Johnny going berserk(?) when Luo Li's arc is up next. (Sorry but I will not be referring to her as Loli.) I guess her arc will connect to the end of Queen's arc, and maybe the Big Johnny thing will get properly resolved in the Johnnies arc??? Or maybe it'll get done in Luo Li's arc, and the Johnnies arc will provide context for it. idk. It does put a sour taste in my mouth if that's really the case, because it kinda feels like Queen and Luo Li's arcs are there to set up the Johnnies (and Little Johnny is a guy while Queen and Luo Li are female heroes.)

Regarding DOS's investigation into X, we can see that X seems to have a bad relationship with Rock, and has a potential ally in "Rebellious Hero: Nine", as well as records of fighting Wreck. There's also a mysterious lady that nobody knows anything about on the board, so maybe she'll start appearing in the other arcs too.

[randomidiocyncrazies]

i know this is not the point but I genuinely think the romance between Spring and Winter would be so much more interesting to me if Spring was the boy and Winter was the girl? While keeping key traits of Hinagiku and Rousei (so basically if Hinagiku was a male character and Rousei was a female character, with their personality intact).

I think part of why I'm so whatever about the endgame canon het ship is that it feels very... traditional to me? like i do think Rousei's yearning for Hinagiku was compelling (though less compelling to me than the bond between Sakura and Hinaguku) but I'm not very interested in it because it's kinda the usual formula in het romances. I think it's way more interesting if male!Spring had to deal with others pointing their finger at him for "not being strong enough to break free sooner/do his duties immediately after coming back/dying sooner so the next agent of Spring could be chosen" etc, despite his bravery in letting himself be taken resulting in no deaths all those years ago; I'm interested to explore a world where female!Winter resents the fact that Spring saved her but she can't do anything to save him, not knowing where he is or how he fares for years, while the Spring Village made it clear that they're just waiting for him to die, and that after a few years her own Village concluded the search too (even though Spring saved her all those years ago). and if they're too worried that people would ship male!Spring/Sakura and female!Winter/Itecho instead, then gender flip Sakura and Itecho too (granted, i wish Hinagiku/Sakura is the endgame ship, so agent/guardian ship would happen regardless of the genders involved).

I'm also very whatever about the Sakura/Itecho ship tease, but that's related to my hangup of the romance plot of Violet Evergarden and my personal dislike of the "older male figure with more authority x younger female student/underling" trope.

and i know people will be like "if Hinagiku is a boy then it's too unrealistic/a guy with Hinagiku traits would be too unlikable to be a compelling male lead in a romance" etc but i don't think that's true. maybe some stuff would need to be adjusted due to gendered socialization, but I think it's very compelling to have a guy who IS soft and loving and expresses his bravery through more quiet forms of resistance than going in guns blazing, and I love brusque ladies who have deep resentment in their hearts and feel like they have to be distant and hide their softer parts because of the hurt they've experienced.

Anyway. tldr Hinagiku should've been a boy and Rousei should've been a girl if they wanted me to care about the Spring and Winter official pairing, just saying.

[randomidiocyncrazies]

P4R real but also. what else could they add that isn't just updated graphics. I doubt they're gonna update the writing for Naoto to a more trans friendly interpretation, and I also have very little confidence that they're gonna include the Yosuke romance or even have Yosuke like. Realize he was an absolute ass to Kanji and try to make amends about the homophobia specifically. (I actually don't mind Yosuke's homophobia in the sense that I think it makes sense for his character to be Like That given the context—and it's more meaningful if it's a flaw he had to work at to overcome rather than not having those thoughts in the first place—but I'm frustrated that the game sort of just brushes his homophobic bullying under the rug and treats it as a joke. It sucks that you can't call him out or talk to him about it, especially since he has a good opinion of you so he'd be inclined to at least hear you out.)

I hope I'm wrong and just being overly pessimistic, but I can't help but wonder what's the point of P4R and if the new stuff will justify a remake

[randomidiocyncrazies]

ngl I honestly think Shishitoren being a "might makes right" girl gang (or Tomiyama being a petite cute teen girl who lives to be the strongest so that she can be free and have fun beating the shit outta people) would be so interesting. Tomiyama's breakdown about chasing strength for freedom only to end up consumed by emptiness and turning on their followers would have a different texture in the context of a girl gang (or a gang that has a female leader), and it's interesting to see how Umemiya and co. would've dealt with a girl gang that is gunning for their territory (as well as what kind of conversations the fandom would have about the arc if the MCs are dudes but the opponents are gals)

[randomidiocyncrazies]

eeuergh finally had time to go on a nice trail instead of doing Serious Business

Too bad we went at the tail end of daylight hours... the pics would've turned out a lot nicer

[randomidiocyncrazies]

i’ve spent the last few days cleaning up/editing someone’s fansubs (for my personal use only). while there had been lines mistranslated here and there (they did it by ear, so I don’t blame them bc it is hard to tell sometimes), it had been pretty appropriate for the context... until this line:

“Maybe an unexpected Korean faction is coming?”

BRO. THE CHARACTERS ARE TALKING ABOUT THE WEATHER. it’s 大寒波  来るらしいよ, not 大韓国...