This tiny gray cat showed up in our backyard and we were like oh shes so small she must be a little baby kitten, we have to help her, so we got her inside and took her to the vet and they were like nope. no she has all her adult teeth. shes just small. she's literally just that small.
Marriagetoxin is awesome. The dryness that it treats all the crazy shonen battle stuff with compared to how much it focuses on the main marriage plot is incredible. Like it just throws you into power battle world and is like "and we're not going to dwell on any of that. Don't worry about it. You don't need explanations you've seen a battle shonen before you get it. We're not focusing on that right now. We're moving on we're thinking about Gero's love life now. Isn't Kinosaki so cute? Let's look at Kinosaki be cute for a while"
Theoretical good thing about IDW reboot: maybe they can start out with the good shit this time instead of going through five years of mediocre spotlights and a bunch of miniseries that amounted to "yeah if you want more, like, sunstreaker backstory you can read those I guess"
going a little bit crazy over strange eden. you mean to tell me these men are in homoerotic situationships with these monsters? and they have dynamics like priest x corrupting influence and doctor x sickly god? I'm seated I'm listening tell me more
ok here's some various strange eden thoughts on each pair that I've been discussing with friends. Link to my friend's profile translations on twitter which is where my info is from :) also thanks to another friend for talking with me about some of the voice lines (although some I'm just figuring out myself and my jpn listening is spotty at best so if I'm wrong on them it's my bad)
Senri & Kosei
On an extremely surface level, they're childhood friends, but there's definitely way more to it than that, right? Senri is ofc an echo like we see in the MV, but he's the only one whose profile doesn't state that. And in their illustration he's covering Kosei's eyes... So like. Senri's definitely hiding it from him, right. Especially with that profile quote--"I would rather walk with a friend in the dark than alone in the light," and their little duo tagline, "I only hope you won't uncover this secret."
It makes me extremely curious about Senri's entire deal with being Michitaka's little brother? How is an echo the brother of a human. We know so little about how they come into being that we can only make guesses. rattling the gates LET US IN RELEASE THE DRAMA TRACKS TELL US MORE!!!!!
Also curious about how they were childhood friends when it says Kosei grew up outside miitsu city--did Senri and Michitaka also grow up there? It all makes me genuinely wonder if Senri has used his echo abilities to manipulate Kosei to the point of planting false memories in him? Their titles are about looking towards the past and future, too--Kosei looks towards the past, but is the past he seeks real? Senri looks towards the future--away from the past he's concocted, towards a future with Kosei the way he wants it? You can spin this so many ways
Kosei's voice lines on the site are both like "if you want something ask Senri. If you want to know about me, ask Senri, he can answer better." which, like, dude, with whatever secrets Senri is keeping from Kosei, it's insane for Kosei to trust him to that degree!?!?!? WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!
on the surface they seem like such a normal pair but there is definitely some crazy secrets being kept and manipulation going on. Awesome.
Itsuki & Luka
ok I am calling him by his family name because luka calls him that and it's faster to type than shuichiro
priest x corrupting influence is an inherently awesome dynamic. very funny that the corrupting influence in question is a biblically accurate gyaru. I don't actually know if luka is corrupting itsuki, they might have some other thing going on.
Luka seems to have the least understandable form of all the echoes--he gets no fullbody shot and the shots that do exist of him are just masses of intertwined arms and hands. All the other echoes at least have a body visible amongst the hands! He also keeps his status as an echo from most people--does he keep it a secret because his form is so frightening? I'm kinda spitballing there, I got no idea.
I wonder if Itsuki knows Luka is an echo? The sheer drama of their worshipful pose together in the mv makes me wonder if Itsuki treats Luka very differently whether he's in monster of human form. Or maybe the pose is just for sexiness reasons which is fine
Luka has a voiceline like "I'm Itsuki's partner, best friend, family, and destiny!" which is great. omg the eldritch gyaru is in love with the priest
I'm looking at their duo tagline again--"Oh, god. That's why I love humans." Ohhhhh a flighty monster who travels and does so much and meets and loves so many humans and a priest who stays in one place and meets so many worshipers and listens to and loves all of them and they find each other and love humanity through each other ohh ohhhhh there's something here there's something so good here
Hinata & Oujin
Hinata is a really cute little guy. The sweet, put-upon ingenue taking care of the 1200 year old monster who falls in love with her naive & yet optimistic outlook on life is a classic trope and that's basically what I assume is happening here
Hinata's profile quote "everything exists in limited quantity, especially happiness" is really scary. is that kid okay?
In the MV, Oujin can often be seen with white threads hanging off his fingers. Does that have a particular meaning? I think red thread of fate, ofc, but if it's white, does that mean death instead...? Or something like spider silk--thinking on it, his multi-eyed, multi-armed appearance is kinda spiderlike. A spider silk thread out of hell...?
okay yeah given Oujin's title "the hand full of compassion" the latter interpretation definitely feels more apt, he's supporting Hinata and offering him a way out of his burdensome daily life. Great stuff!
Feiran & Yao
The general vibe in the group chat is that these guys are the sillyzone. their dynamic doesn't seem to have nearly as much codependent drama going on as any of the other guys
sorry I just realized yao is 190cm tall. we have to end the scourge of 6'2" anime boys
I generally enjoy scion x older devoted servant type dynamics well enough. this one of course gets bonus points for the devoted servant being a scary monster, and also him being devoted to said scion because he finds him pretty and for literally no other reason. that's a classic scary monster move.
These two have some voice quotes where Yao is like "Don't hurt the face, please. Other than that, do whatever you like." and Feiran (presumably) responds "I'll do whatever I like without you telling me. Just do your job." I'm not 100% on whether the face being referred to is Yao's ("don't hit my face") or Feiran's ("don't injure your beautiful face"), though I'm leaning towards the latter based on tone. That's great. That's a pretty fun dynamic. bodyguard who does his job entirely because he wants to keep his employer looking pretty.
that said, the dynamic at play does feel relatively one-note. that's different from the others, but it does give them more room to develop and BECOME insane about each other over the course of the story, so that's good. You want variety with these things
That said Yao's thing about taking beautiful things he likes to his room makes me uhhhh. hey you gonna take Feiran to your room too? keep him there? treasure him? in your bed maybe? yeah uhuh
Michitaka & Rin
They're making me a little crazy. I will be brief (1/347)
Their voice lines are. They're kind of. ok so Michitaka has a line like "Anything Rin can't do, I'll do. I'm not a useless child anymore." And then Rin mentions Michitaka in both his lines with one being something like "I don't know what to say... I've lived a long life, but I'm still worthless. But if Michitaka is here, then... it's all okay." and his other one being just "I'll take care of Michitaka's life."
So, like, on top of the basic "Rin lives with and is cared for by Michitaka", Michitaka is also, like, Rin's entire reason for living, right!?!? And Michitaka seems like he might have a history with Rin. And he previously felt useless--saved by Rin's blessing, I wonder? and now devotes himself wholly to caring for others, especially Rin. This is a recipe for delicious delicious codependency
Rin has a fair bit of mermaid imagery going on. His aquatic monster form and their placement in the seaside district, plus his character quote. The "scaly" puff jacket and long sinuous braid also evoke mermaid features.
Michitaka has the id card bit about keeping what he treasures safe (Rin, obviously) and also saving his favorite food for last
hey you know how eating mermaid flesh grants immortality
is michitaka eating rin do you think. and/or has he eaten him in the past. to overcome his own childhood frailness. how much cannibalism can I expect to be happening with these two
I mean it's definitely consensual cannibalism though like Rin is definitely offering up his flesh for Michitaka to eat willingly. if there is any cannibalism I mean
Could also be the other way around I mean Rin has that redacted profile bit about having to xxxx on yyyy's zzzz. Maybe he's drinking Michitaka's blood we don't know. Giving him a blessing in exchange. Literally anything these two having going on is going to be crazy I know it I know it
I guess i.adore is gonna be dropping daily boys until its start date? The first idol is all of 16 years old which makes me curious what the ages of the other characters will be. Making the protagonist of a series with political themes a teenager is probably a good move though, narratively speaking. I like that from his handful of quotes here he seems simultaneously extremely motivated and kind of clueless. "I don't know how, but I think something has to change." That's the realistic teenage political experience. Also the bit about his readings being absolute, is this that sixth sense thing? Can the politics idols seriously see the future. Is that really what they're doing. Insane move
