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[cure-typhoon]

my read on Nagisa and Honoka has been that Honoka is only interested in girls, knows it and has known it for a while even if she hasnt told anyone. and that she is awkward and scared and she knows what she feels for Nagisa but won't tell out of fear of ruining things.

whereas Nagisa is unaware she has feelings towards girls (maybe girls and boys, perhaps really only girls) and can't describe or fully understand what she feels about Honoka.

I agree totally, I feel Honoka realized very early that she didnt had an interest in boys the same way other girls do. Though she probably didnt know why until her early teens when she could look more into it and could put a name to it.

Honoka does have low self esteem, like yeah she can be naive at times about social queue, but when she realizes she screw up she tends to pull away, like the first time she fought with Nagisa she gets very down, quits being a precure and prefers to not talk to Nagisa, or when she fighted with Nagisa in the movie she quite literally says she hates herself

Where i'm going with this? Honoka is not telling Nagisa any time soon that she likes her. Like yeah she gives hints, like calling her cute just when Nagisa said that "someone will find her cute the way she Is" but theres so much in line if Nagisa rejects her. Is different to her pestering Nagisa to confess to FujiP, theyre magical warriors whose connection make them stronger to fight, their relationship breaking can cost the world lmao

I also feel that the stronger reason why she wouldnt confess anytime soon is that she doesnt want to lose Nagisa as a friend. Like yes, Honoka has Yuriko and FujiP but their bond isn't as strong as what she has with Nagisa, with the closest being Hikari and Mipple but theres a possibility of losing them if she confess to Nagisa.

Realistically I feel that even if Nagisa rejected her I dont think she would want to stop being friends with Honoka, but It would probably be very awkward for a while, but Honoka doesnt know that, she probably thinks that she would nuke their relationship and thats the last thing she wants.

Nagisa I feel is gonna take a long while to realize. Other girls seem to confess to Nagisa and she has never reciprocated to any of them or considered the idea of "oh i might like girls too" even too, lets be honest, she likes girls lmao (Her whole gay ass relationship with Honoka, wanting Yuka to like her and their whole "rivalry", even blushing with that captain of the other school team in the Lacrosse Finals)

I think the thing that holds her back (aside from the fact that she probably doesnt even think that liking girls romantically is an option (at least long term) is that Nagisa is afraid of that vulnerability that comes with having a crush, towards the series we see that she doesnt want to accept that she has one, she gets shy and bangs her head against things when thinking on anything love related with FujiP its not until the latter episodes of Max Heart that we saw her more calm about it to Hikari and Honoka

Her whole confession to the air in the Christmas episode was more for herself, to accept that she is in love and being fine with whatever the future holds her in that regard, as before she always had this "oh i dont have a crush, i'm focused more on other stuff to be in love" vibe, possibly out of embarassment over liking someone.

Nagisa, like Honoka, tends to have some self hating tendencies when things go wrong, as well to being kinda negative in general. So i cant imagine she would handle well the realization that she likes Honoka romantically and would probably think the same of "oh this Is gonna nuke our relationship i cannot tell her" which funnily enough i think her trying to hide It would pull them closer and end up with them starting to date.

In a world without the pressures of being a precure and possibly ruining their relationship due to homophobia i think they would get together sooner but right now im thinking its happening in early-mid 20's

Anyway thats my little rant because i like them

[wearemercs]

The Nearsighted Knight (translated 1, 2) by rui2simu (original 1, 2)

[raspberryjamnnnn]

@short-for-melancholy

[thebibliosphere]

The kid next door (talking toddler age) is playing outside and just wiped out in his Fisher Price car, and I just heard the babysitter say, “oh no, your insurance premium is definitely going to go up!” And the kid who had only been mildly sniffling before made the most confused, but startled sound you’ve ever heard.

Just very clearly an attempt at saying, “my what?”

He straight up forgot about his scraped knee and is now worried about whatever the fuck an insurance premium is.

[xxxdragonfucker69xxx]

[emmaubler]

A tried and true response of dealing with toddler sadness--confuse the hell out of them. I worked with a woman in child care who would often respond to a not-terribly-hurt child running at her whimpering, "My knee!!" by saying, "Whelp, better cut it off!" and then pretending to cut the leg off and quickly sew a new one on. The child would inevitably be startled out of crying, contemplating whether they actually had a new leg, and another child observing the process would fake an injury so they could run up to get their leg "cut off', too.

[dclaret-blog]

a mission in life

This year gave me a good revelation, haha

[fairymascot]

this is hardly the most creative storyline ever but something about the way the show’s doing it is successfully FREAKING ME THE FUCK OUT

i guess because when a bad guy impersonates a good guy it’s usually super obvious to anyone but the other characters, like they go around with yandere eyes shoving puppies into traffic and sprouting creepy sociopathic-sounding sentences at completely inappropriate places, and their friends are like ‘ha ha what’s up with you today!!’. but poisony actually got down honoka perfect?? her speech and mannerisms were spot on, it’s only her lack of knowledge relating to precure-stuff that gave her away. and even when she was calling mepple by mipple’s name and referring to him as ‘it’, which is something honoka would not do ever, she still did it with perfect confidence while retaining that flawless honoka voice and expression? SO UNNERVING.

and then when nagisa calls her out on it she sticks to the honoka act at first but then, in an instant, her expression and voice change to something DISTINCTLY NOT HONOKA and it’s just so effortless it’s kind of freaking me out. and now that nagisa told her what she got wrong she’ll be able to avoid repeating that mistake, and oh my god nagisa can never know whether the person she’s talking to is honoka or not how fucking freaky is that.

[aquarterasian]

Harry: you’re precure! You don’t have time to be upset!

Nagisa: fuck u we’re in middle school we’ll cry all we want

[pochqmqri]

Splash Star and the theme of “Kachou Fuugetsu”

The third series in the PreCure franchise, Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash Star, is based on the theme and concept of the Japanese proverb “花鳥風月” (kachōfūgetsu). In a literal sense, the four kanji in the proverb represent Flower (花), Bird (鳥), Wind (風), and Moon (月). When the four characters are put together, the meaning can be interpreted as “experience the beauties of nature [in Japanese aesthetics].

In fact, “花鳥風月” can be seen in the characters themselves.

Cure Bloom represents “Flower,” and so does her fairy spirit Floppy (furappi), whose name derives from the Japanese transliteration of the English word (furawā).

Cure Egret represents “Bird” (although rather more loosely in comparison to Cure Bloom and Flower), and so does her fairy spirit Choppy (choppi), whose name derives from the reading of “鳥” in “Kachou Fuugetsu.”

This naming theme carries over to Saki and Mai’s second set of Cure forms, but there’s a slight interesting twist I want to highlight.

Despite her rather contrasting appearance, Cure Bright does indeed represent “Moon,” and yes, that technically makes her a Moon-based Cure. Eat your hearts out, Cure Moonlight and Cure Selene. Moop, the fairy who assists Saki in transforming into Cure Bright, has his name derive from the English word “Moon.”

Cure Windy, of course, represents “Wind.” Fuup, the fairy that assists her transformation, has her name derive from the reading of “風” in “Kachou Fuugetsu.”

In the two images above, I specifically highlighted “Michiru” and “Kaoru” in the girls’ introductory speeches, since those are the names of the two sisters from Dark Fall who defected to the side of the good guys. I find it really clever and interesting how their “name drops” acted as sort of a hint to how during the final battle, Moop and Foop allowed the Kiryuu sisters to use the powers of Cure Bright and Cure Windy. 

As a result, all four elements of “Kachou Fuugetsu,” the beauties of nature, fought back against the dark powers that wanted to ravage Earth. 

[emberkeelty]

Those lines in the transformation, as well as some other little lines connecting Michiru and Kauro to the moon and wind, and also their early and incredibly conveniently timed meeting with Moop and Foop (as though they were connected somehow, and Fated Meetings are absolutely a thing in this show), have me convinced that it’s Saki and Mai who were simply borrowing the powers of Cure Bright and Cure Windy, and Michiru and Kaoru are the densetsu no senshi granted those powers by destiny.

[pochqmqri]

[punk-mahoucore]

I think part of what makes NagiHono stand out from many other ships in Pretty Cure, next to the fact that they had two seasons to develop, is how their fights are choreographed and how they take hits for one another. I don't know how to put it, but this coupled with a lack of flashy shields or other powers makes them seem closer in the battle scenes than many other of the Cures. Part of why White is my favorite is how she keeps tanking really hard hits for Black, despite arguably being frailer.

It’s true, they’re such a battle couple and everything they do is like a dance.  Kind of the entire point of “black” and “white” is to be yin and yang, to become something greater together, and I think they really accomplish that.  Both in the way they fight (Nagisa is largely punches and Honoka is largely kicks) and in the way they strategize (Nagisa asks Honoka for her ideas, Honoka tells her one, Nagisa polishes it and then they both pull it off with aplomb.)  They work so well together and it’s a big part of why I ship them so hard.

[emberkeelty]

It’s not just punches versus kicks, they’ve got completely different fighting styles. Nagisa focuses more on strikes, as in karate, while Honoka focuses more on throws, as in judo. I think that might actually be part of the sort of butch*/femme aesthetic they’ve got going, as throw-heavy styles tend to be popular with female martial artists as they’re useful for giving smaller, less muscular combatants an edge against larger ones.

Anyway, this is a really good point! The Futari Wa/Max Heart fights stand out for being so much more physical than the fights in the later seasons. The fighting just looks scary and painful, and this is highlighted by how often the girls talk about how tiring and frightening this whole secret life they have together where they keep having to fight for their lives out of nowhere can be. It gives a really visceral edge to the way that they protect and support each other both in and out of battle.

*Yeah, I know Nagisa is by no means actually butch, but she plays Romeo across from Honoka’s Juliet, she’s the one with the male fairy who is in love with Honoka’s female fairy, and so on. It’s a thing.

[jplee]

[jplee]

[jplee]

[jplee]

[jplee]

[jplee]

[punk-mahoucore]

Futari Wa Precure Max Heart 2: aka Max Gay: The Movie

So over the past two months myself and my lovely girlfriend @emberkeelty have been watching Futari wa Precure and its sequel series, Futari wa Precure Max Heart.  And I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve been loving it.  Just loving it.  I love Honoka and Nagisa, I love the fairies, I love Hikari, I love the battle scenes, I love the music, I love most of the side characters, I loved the Max Heart finale.

There was one major obnoxious thing about the show that I was NOT a huge fan of, though, and that was this dude:

who, in fairness to him, spent most of his time being polite and playing soccer with his buddies and clearly not caring about girls.  Unfortunately, the show had to try to shoe-horn in Nagisa’s crush on him at every moment.  Arienai?  Yeah, arienai!

This is where I introduce you to the second Max Heart movie, which aside from being probably the best Precure movie I’ve seen so far, basically takes all the subtext out of the Nagisa/Honoka ship teasing and turns it into… well, just text.

The movie starts out with a bang: Nagisa isn’t good at snowboarding, so Honoka provides moral support by looking deeply into her eyes and telling her she believes in her.  This culminates in hand-holding, because they are girlfriends who love each other.

Next, Honoka and Fujipi-senpai (the boy in the earlier screenshot) are mistaken as a couple by some other girls.  This upsets Nagisa.  You would think this is where the het nonsense would kick in, but you would be wrong.  See, this is presented completely ambiguously, i.e., it can be easily read as Nagisa being jealous because Honoka is hers, not because she thinks the boy could be.  In fact, this reading actually makes the most sense, because when Honoka confronts her later and asks her if she wanted to go skiing with Fujipi?  Nagisa gets upset and runs away.

Soon after that the main story starts rolling.  But don’t worry, the Gay Energy doesn’t stop there.  At one point, Porun laments that baby phoenix Hinata will be all alone, and contrasts this with Mipple and Mepple (fairy lovers) and… Honoka and Nagisa, who promptly give each other terribly flustered looks.

Soon after that, Nagisa and Honoka (as Cure Black and Cure White) are forced to fight each other thanks to the bad guys planting ice chips of hatred in their hearts.  Originally only Cure White is affected, but when Cure Black refuses to harm her girlfriend…

the bad guys implant an ice chip in her heart as well.  They beat each other up for a while in a scene which is remarkably more gay than I have time to put here because there are flashbacks, brief tearful moments of recognition, the use of each others’ first name (rather than typical Cure call sign), and eventually Honoka holding out her arms and accepting her fate at the hands of the girl she still loves.

…then they remember their feelings for each other at the last second and hold each other as they plummet to what the bad guys hope is their death:

…they don’t die, of course, because they’re Precure (and their fall was cushioned).  They DO, however, have a very emotional scene where they hold hands and cry and talk about how awful it was having to fight each other:

Then they escape by climbing out of the pit that they’re in - with one hand, because they’re refusing to let go of each other.

(Rina and Shiho are two of their friends, who are also very clearly girlfriends.  Rina was giving Nagisa a pep talk earlier in the movie about how to reconcile with Honoka.)

They make a makeshift snowboard to travel back to where the bad guys are (STILL HOLDING HANDS), and when they get there and the bad guys demand to know how they thawed their frozen hearts, Nagisa and Honoka reply that it’s because their hearts were burning with love.  Gay love, obviously.

They hold hands again (do they ever stop?  NOT REALLY) to take one final blow from the bad guys:

at which point they truly are frozen solid, still holding hands.

They are saved by the phoenix baby and go on to win the day, of course.  The movie wraps up with the girlfriends reconciled and going skiing together.  The boy Nagisa has supposedly been crushing on asks when she got so good, and…

…then they ski off into the sunset together…

…and we get a gay ending theme…

…and Toei brings us wedding merchandise.

Excellent gay ending to an excellent gay series.  10/10, would watch again.

[emberkeelty]

Fujipi was pretty much always a Plausible Deniability character and I am so glad that for this movie the writers finally gave up on trying to do anything else with him besides repeatedly show shots of him and Honoka standing next to each other while Nagisa talks really vaguely about being in love. The first couple of shots in the credits with that blatant love song feature him too, before it transitions to being a NagiHono slideshow with the exact same lyrics playing over it. This was possibly the most clearly telegraphed case of using a supposed heterosexual “love interest” to get away with broadcasting a gay love story I have ever seen. It was breathtaking.

Calling NagiHono “text” might be slightly overstating things, but at the very least it is “subtext” in the actual literary sense rather than the fandom sense. Well played, Toei.

[uzukun]

Title: 生きていて一番 Artist: タダ

A bittersweet embrace of the legendary duo.