[waitineedaname]

crazy how much mxtx fucking knocked it out of the park with Luo Binghe. her first book, and he's perfect. my bpd princess who has committed every crime and has also done nothing wrong. he's incredibly cool and badass and is a pathetic crybaby. he's genuinely terrifying at times and also has the vibes of a sopping wet puppy abandoned in the rain. he's the most beautiful man alive and yet no one wants him except his husband who has been completely insane about him since before they even met. he took care of his shizun's corpse for five years and didn't correct anybody when they thought he was fucking it, when the reality was he was tenderly embracing it nonsexually to feed it qi, which is somehow weirder. he tried to blow this whole place up because he thought he would always be rejected. he's the narrative's favorite and this is not a good thing. he's bad at kissing and worse at sex and his dick is cartoonishly large. I Love Him.

[goldenstage]

get a free copy of golden terrace (e. danglars, peach flower house)

as you know a year ago peach flower house closed down. a lot of people couldnt buy the novel or managed to buy only one volume. after that sites like aliexpress started selling fake copies of the fan translation claiming it was the official one. then people started reselling the volumes they managed to buy but at crazy high prices. some of these turned out to be fake copies.

a few months back seven seas announced that they had bought the license and were working on publishing the novel themselves. however as it turns out they're hiring a completely new translator and will not be using e. danglars' translation.

and since this novel never had a digital release all this means that e. danglars'/peach flower house's translation will be lost to the void and only available to a few lucky fans.

as one of those lucky fans i decided to digitize the novel for archival/preservational purposes. this includes a colored scan of the front and back cover of both volumes. its just too sad to see an amazing translation be lost forever.

i am not a lawyer and since this fandom is very repulsed by piracy i would like to direct a few words to any fan who believes i should be sued: as of now there is no way for e. danglars or peach flower house to get money from the work they made. there is literally no way to buy this novel. seven seas will be releasing a completely new translation and possibly a new cover. would you rather have this version of the novel be lost to the void?

depending on how safe or unsafe i feel i might delete this post and the links in it so download while you can.

Golden Terrace Vol. 1 (16.6MB)

Golden Terrace Vol. 2 (17.9MB)

[tnbwrites]

The ship name cumplane is extra funny because it sounds like complain - which is all they do

[tnbwrites]

I really enjoyed that SVSSS was both a satire and a deconstruction of all of Shen Qingqiu’s expectations.

He thought Luo Binghe wanted to kill him when he came back, but actually he wanted to love him to death.

He thought Liu Qingge would look like a manly man but actually he was a delicate beauty.

He thought Shen Jiu, Yue Qingyuan, and other cannon fodder characters had no depth but actually they all had tragic backstories that explained their very human motives.

He thought Tianlang-Jun was the big bad but actually he was just a victim of circumstance and loving someone.

He THOUGHT he was STRAIGHT but really he was down BAD for the disciple he turned into a BIG GAY CRYBABY

[tnbwrites]

Coughing bomb vs. hydrogen baby

[tnbwrites]

Just read the Bing-ge vs Bing-mei extra for the first time and I’m obsessed. The fact that Bing-ge bedded over 300 women and will still drop everything to go gay for his shizun at the first drop of kindness is insane. Bing-mei never stood a chance.

[tnbwrites]

Obviously I think it’s really sexy when fics make Lan Wangji go “I’m no better than my father” *que LWJ doing something utterly depraved to WWX*

But I do want to point out that Lan Wangji is actually the completely opposite of his father! They both made different decisions when faced with similar circumstances.

Qingheng-Jun: Falls in love with Madam Lan at first sight

LWJ: Falls in love with WWX at first annoyance sight

QJ: Asks Madam Lan to return to Gusu with him. Is denied.

LWJ: Asks WWX to return to Gusu with him. Is denied.

QJ: When faced with a horrible decision made by Madam Lan, forces her to return with him both to protect her and punish her for her choice.

LWJ: When faced with horrible (in his own belief) decisions made by WWX, disagrees with him but stays by his side to help him nonetheless.

QJ: Keeps Madam Lan and himself locked away, both separate, until they both die. Does not return to cultivation world in any capacity due to anger and grief (presumably).

LWJ: Allows WWX to make his decisions and accepts that those decisions lead to his untimely death. Stays in cultivation realm and takes in child from Wen clan to raise. Chooses to raise the new disciples with compassion as a way to keep WWX’s beliefs alive.

The narrative rewards him for his behavior by bringing WWX back into his life, to give them both a second chance at a life together. When WWX goes to Gusu after their meeting at Dafan Mountain, he does explicitly say he wants to go with LWJ. WWX is also given a proper amount of time to contemplate his feelings for LWJ before announcing them - loudly. For everyone to hear.

It also allows the narrative to focus on WWX’s growth as a character. LWJ’s growth is off screen, and we see glimpses in flashbacks. WWX is the one who needs to resolve his conflicted feelings, but also his main character syndrome. When he decides to go with LWJ it’s if his own free will.

[tnbwrites]

[tnbwrites]

LXC: So… my brother tried to bring you back to Gusu after you did some bad stuff?

WWX: Mhm.

LXC: Total non sequitur, but our father attic wife’d our mother after she did some bad stuff. Do you think he was justified in his actions?

WWX:

[tnbwrites]

MHA and Greco-Roman Imagery

I, and many other fans, have noticed a trend within My Hero Academia to include Greek and Roman imagery and symbolism. It feels like these themes are ramping up as we get closer to the end of the story so I figured I would list the ones I've noticed so far!

Possibly the most obvious would be Hawks' parallel to Icarus, who flew too close to sun and whose wings were burned, ending in his demise. Oop. In this case would Endeavor signify the sun, who Hawks wishes to be close to?

The other extremely obvious parallel is Tartarus, literally named after the Greek underworld abyss Tartarus where the wicked are kept to torture, far below Hades. This is also where the Titans were kept before escaping.

Speaking of Tartarus, it seems Kronos- I mean AFO let all the Titans and sinners out to wreak havoc on the living world which ends in a huge war against the Olympians. Ultimately it was his son, Zeus, that defeated Kronos. Hmmmm.

Another interesting parallel is how much AFO looks like a biblically accurate angel, his wings even have hundreds of 'eyes.' While this might be a Christian reference, Christianity notoriously had a moment during the Roman empire (soz Jesus). His tunic do be tunic-ing though.

Oh yeah, and then there's this big flag. Seriously, how did I originally miss that one?

Anyway, if ya'll have anything to add please do, these are just the obvious ones I picked out.

[tnbwrites]

Oh we’re so back, baby! Literally, babies…

We’ve got a wonderful parallel to Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, who were twins that were saved by drinking the milk of a female wolf.

If you didn’t know, the Latin word for prostitute was the same for she-wolf, lupa.

We also have a very subtle nod to Orpheus and Eurydice. The latter trying to get his wife back from Hades and, by turning around to look at her loses her to death forever.

And more Kronos parallels. He was considered an all-devouring force that eventually threw up all the children he ate. Methinks someone will have the quirks rebel against him.

[tnbwrites]

The list keeps going! I completely forgot about All Might naming his car Hercules after the god of strength.

And now we have a new cover by Horikoshi! “Educational Manga: World History” received all new covers and he did volume 3. I don’t think I need to say it but it’s Caesar and Cleopatra.

Hori, probably:

[tnbwrites]

The world popularity poll art has dropped and it did not disappoint!

It appears the Greco-Roman imagery just keeps going!

Are they gods? Royalty? I’m not sure, but this one seems to be another fantasy adjacent spread. I think it’s a nice detail that Izuku is wearing a simple black shirt under his robes. He looks very humble compared to the others.

And just for fun (not really related), someone on twitter has already pointed out the reference to Cabanel’s fallen angel painting.

[tnbwrites]

One last MHA meta for the road.

The epilogue was spelled out for us from the beginning. Like, we were explicitly told how it’s gonna go down.

The first thing we see is a panel about how the wind is blowing which has always been a metaphor for change, and how one small impact could change the world.

We move onto izuku and all might talking about how izuku couldn’t save Tenko’s life, but he did save his soul by shattering his hatred.

There’s a panel mentioning that what matters is what you do tomorrow, and how you continue to do your best even in the wake of great personal tragedy. The personal tragedy in this case is Izuku’s loss, he couldn’t save Tenko’s life.

Cut to Kacchan dramatically showing up right as izuku mentions the ember of ofa. Now, here’s my question: if ofa was gone for good, would the ember even still remain? I’m not sure but it’s worth noting. We are both told and shown this ember multiple times in the epilogue.

This entire page is important. It lays the foundation of hard work again, that you don’t get things easily even after the “big battle.” It also lays out the epilogue’s order of events.

We start with the Todoroki family where touya is doomed to a machine for the rest of his waning life. Then we move onto spinner who is deeply grieving Tenko’s life and has a personal vendetta against izuku now. Then ochako who is faking a smile while holding onto her grief over toga. Then onto the pain that both her and izuku are sharing over the loss of their villains’ lives.

This all culminates to a moment where class 2A shows up to comfort them both, and izuku reflects on how even in the wake of this tragedy they must always do their best to stop it from happening again for someone else.

This is also physically shown with a Tenko look-alike who was teased from the beginning. We get a moment where he is saved by the very person who left Tenko, and a moment showing that Izuku’s do-your-best attitude spurred her to action.

Now you’re thinking, “how does this show how it’s all going to end?” Well, that’s what chapter 425 was for.

Exhibit A: Mirio’s graduation speech. He gives an example that they lost a lot during that fight, and are striving to bring it back from -1 to 0. They’re not there yet, and it will take time, but that’s the goal.

They’re not at 0 if they lost the people they tried to save.

Exhibit B: Fuwa’s “taste of death” monologue. They needed to experience death to understand why they need to work hard as heroes. She’s talking about being expelled, but in Izuku’s case it’s tenko’s death.

And how did that end for Fuwa’s class? After being expelled and learning their lesson they got to rejoin UA again as students.

If izuku follows that pattern, and it does seem he’s learned his lesson from this literal death, then perhaps he too will be rewarded for his work.

Here’s where things get vague and I’m just guessing at this point. This epilogue has been deeply sad and unsatisfying. There’s no reprieve. We’re due for that, right?

What if Tenko was able to unlock the restoration part of overhaul’s quirk and rebuild himself? Wouldn’t he be able to rebuild both society and the villains? Technically he also has OFA. Wouldn’t he be able to give that back to izuku?

These rewards only mean something if the heroes work for them and continue to strive to do better in the future.

The villains also never truly got a chance to atone the way endeavor and aoyama did. Killing them wouldn’t fix this. But bringing them back to a society that has been shown to be kinder? So they can also work hard for a future that they fit into?

That feels very Plus Ultra to me!

[pikahlua]

Parallels: Katsuki Bakugou (chapter 362) vs All For One (chapter 423)

[bakudekublogblog]

a twitter user pointed out that everyone is helping izuku forward but the only one he looked backward for was kacchan and the director was like “hehe you noticed” and I’m UN FUCKING WELL

[bakuhatsufallinlove]

Just to clarify!

The original tweet actually says, "For an instant, Kacchan pushes him forward...!"

Director Nakayama retweeted to say, "You noticed! The idea came from Mr. Sasahara. I'm grateful..!"

There's nothing about Izuku looking only at Kacchan in this exchange. The original poster responded to someone else later in the thread with the comment, "Deku-kun is checking in on Kacchan again," but Nakayama does not appear to be reacting to that, since it is separate from the tweet she shared.

[bakuhatsufallinlove]

Let's talk about Jump GIGA

Jump GIGA covers, 2016-2024. Volumes are published (left to right per row) as Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn releases, with 2018 and 2019 briefly breaking the pattern by having three Winter and three Summer volumes each. 2023 has an Early Spring volume in addition to the standard four.

So, people have pointed out that the 2024 Spring cover is, uh, not like other covers.

But I've only seen comparisons to other MHA GIGA covers and MHA Weekly Shonen Jump covers. Out of curiosity for what GIGA's typical marketing aesthetics might be, I put together a comparison between all of Jump GIGA's covers to date.

And, um. Some things stand out, to say the least.

First, let me clarify what Jump GIGA even is: it is a seasonal magazine from Shonen Jump, published separate from Weekly Shonen Jump. SJ is an absolutely massive brand and they have a number of magazines serialized outside of the most well-known weekly magazine.

The content of Jump GIGA is primarily made up of one-shots and spin-offs. From the beginning, a lot of the appeal has been the cool cover illustrations which showcase special merchandise that comes with the purchase of GIGA. Usually the cover also promotes big things going on related to the WSJ series, like movie events, new games, or special figurines for sale.

The marketing aesthetic has been clear from the start: the cover consists of one core illustration and a number of ads surrounding it. Most often you get a cover illustration of a protagonist, and then ads and merch for other series, e.g. Food Wars protagonist cover with One Piece film promotion and Haikyuu!! merch.

The purpose of this marketing direction is pretty obvious. Spin-offs and one-shots are not likely to generate a ton of interest consistently, so they lure people in with the cool covers and tempting limited edition merchandise of the series they already know and love. In this way, highlighting one series with the cover and different series with the merch makes sense, because maybe somebody doesn't care about Food Wars, but they definitely want those Haikyuu!! stickers, stuff like that.

Starting from 2020's Autumn volume, you can see a shift. For the first time, basically all of the merchandise is for the cover series. The Demon Slayer manga had already ended five months earlier in May, but a two-chapter spin-off was scheduled for release in WSJ during October. This GIGA was released exactly one day before the second chapter was published and it capitalizes on the hype.

After this point, only MHA and Jujutsu Kaisen dominate the cover and the merch in quite this way, with Black Clover getting attention last volume as a way to highlight the fact that it actually switched syndication from WSJ to GIGA.

Anyway, most commonly the cover illustration is a solo shot of a core cast member (usually but not always the protagonist), and if it's not a solo, it's a big cast illustration.

Only a few covers focus on two characters, and usually it's a crossover as opposed to characters from same series sharing the limelight.

Here we've got Food Wars' protagonist with the main characters from Dr. Stone and Act-Age.

The two covers most similar to the Izuku & Kacchan cover are 2022 Winter and 2023 Autumn.

Winter depicts the main trio of Blue Box in a seasonally-appropriate aesthetic. Not gonna lie, this one kinda makes me laugh--Blue Box is a romance and sports manga, and even though Christmas has a romantic air to it in Japan, instead of depicting any sort of like, hesitant but hopeful romantic energy between the heterosexual couple that actually get together later in the series, they focus primarily on the two girls being cute with the guy is a wee footnote? I mean, all right.

Meanwhile, Autumn depicts one of the protagonists with the series antagonist with a typical cool action style. I'm not very familiar with JJK, but I hear these two have got Some Drama going on, so, there's that.

The merch itself has also evolved over the years. Stickers and posters were present early on, but they have since expanded to decorative folders and now acrylic stands and coasters. 2021 Summer sees the first time the cover illustration is marketed as merch, with the Jujutsu Kaisen cover included as a decorative folder.

Right after that, the Kacchan cover of 2021 Autumn is included as a poster alongside earlier covers featuring Todoroki and Izuku.

2023 Summer's cover is a huge, wrap-around MHA cast illustration and it was published three days after chapter 396 came out, strategically timed to highlight the big shift in the final battle as Ochako vs Toga ends and All Might vs. AFO begins. Merch includes a decorative folder of the wrap-around cover and character motif stickers.

And then we get this!?

A duo cover illustration where the cover art itself has been merchandised to hell and back!?!?

Acrylic stand and pin set!?

Double-sided coaster showing bkdk greatest hits!? With volume 29's river scene cover!?

There's also a double-sided poster featuring the Spring cover with the ninth popularity poll art and a decorative bag with the anniversary art. The cover art itself is plastered all over the volume, front, back, and spine, apparently a total of 21 times.

I honestly don't know what to say about this. It feels wild that this is actually what the cover is. Obviously it is a huge marketing push in anticipation of season 7, and Izuku and Katsuki are the most popular characters, but. it just feels... unique.

In the course of Jump GIGA's publication, this direction is kind of unprecedented. Genuinely no one could have expected this. This seems to be the first time there's been this much merch for a cover. And it was a solid fucking move, marketing-wise--it's sold out basically everywhere, everyone is talking about it. And even people who don't follow the series or ship these two can't help but comment on how strikingly romantic it looks!?

I don't know how much say Horikoshi had in what the cover was, but damn it sure feels like he drew this with immense affection. I kind of wonder if he personally pushed for it to be these two, rather than the typical solo shot, cast shot, or even a protagonist vs. antagonist shot.

I'm KO'd, man. idek if this post is useful to anybody I'm just on my hands and knees here.

Everybody knows what we're all here for, and it's these cute boys finally getting their happy ending.

[tnbwrites]

MHA and Greco-Roman Imagery

I, and many other fans, have noticed a trend within My Hero Academia to include Greek and Roman imagery and symbolism. It feels like these themes are ramping up as we get closer to the end of the story so I figured I would list the ones I've noticed so far!

Possibly the most obvious would be Hawks' parallel to Icarus, who flew too close to sun and whose wings were burned, ending in his demise. Oop. In this case would Endeavor signify the sun, who Hawks wishes to be close to?

The other extremely obvious parallel is Tartarus, literally named after the Greek underworld abyss Tartarus where the wicked are kept to torture, far below Hades. This is also where the Titans were kept before escaping.

Speaking of Tartarus, it seems Kronos- I mean AFO let all the Titans and sinners out to wreak havoc on the living world which ends in a huge war against the Olympians. Ultimately it was his son, Zeus, that defeated Kronos. Hmmmm.

Another interesting parallel is how much AFO looks like a biblically accurate angel, his wings even have hundreds of 'eyes.' While this might be a Christian reference, Christianity notoriously had a moment during the Roman empire (soz Jesus). His tunic do be tunic-ing though.

Oh yeah, and then there's this big flag. Seriously, how did I originally miss that one?

Anyway, if ya'll have anything to add please do, these are just the obvious ones I picked out.

[tnbwrites]

Oh we’re so back, baby! Literally, babies…

We’ve got a wonderful parallel to Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, who were twins that were saved by drinking the milk of a female wolf.

If you didn’t know, the Latin word for prostitute was the same for she-wolf, lupa.

We also have a very subtle nod to Orpheus and Eurydice. The latter trying to get his wife back from Hades and, by turning around to look at her loses her to death forever.

And more Kronos parallels. He was considered an all-devouring force that eventually threw up all the children he ate. Methinks someone will have the quirks rebel against him.

[tnbwrites]

The list keeps going! I completely forgot about All Might naming his car Hercules after the god of strength.

And now we have a new cover by Horikoshi! “Educational Manga: World History” received all new covers and he did volume 3. I don’t think I need to say it but it’s Caesar and Cleopatra.

Hori, probably:

[delawaredetroit]

An important difference in Izuku's version of heroism compared to hero society's general approach is that Izuku returns agency to the people he has saved rather than inspiring the bystander effect/learned helplessness in others. He doesn't just beat the big bad and leave. Izuku tells the child who just felt helpless that he was a part of his own salvation and that he can now help save others

[tnbwrites]

It’s gotta be deliberate at this point, right? Right? Bueller?