And so, as Admiral of this proud vessel, I pledge you this… Though it mean offering up mine own body and blood to the Navigator Herself, I, Merlwyb Bloefhiswyn, shall see you safe through this storm! Brothers and sisters of the sea, come! Gather beneath the undying crimson standard and pledge me your strength, your skill, your wisdom! Show the enemy your fatal blades, granting them the same mercy they would us… and commit them to the gaping abyss! The Maelstrom has launched, it’s final destination a new Eorzea where Limsa Lominsa’s founding principles shall shine like the lodestone and reverberate like thunder, till sea swallows all!
ah, rei batsubami. she doesn’t exist in the manga, so every scene with her in the anime obviously isn’t in the manga. i think i will ignore the scenes with rei, since it’s anime-exclusive and everything else that happens isn’t really affected by rei being there or not. this post will mainly be comparing things that happened in the manga that didn’t happen in the anime for kakegurui xx (season 2). here’s a link to pt. 1 for season 1:
LONG post with spoilers under the cut. season 2 had a lot more differences than season 1.
i’m going chronologically according to the anime. this might get confusing later, but bear with me. there’s a LOT to cover.
let’s jump into the very first two episodes of xx, when kirari announces there will be an election with the student council and the -bamis are introduced (ch. 34):
the one person who would know about kirari’s family would be, obviously, sayaka, kirari’s secretary. in the anime, sayaka has no clue who they are and kirari makes rei introduce them (more on that later).
after the introductions, we get reactions from each student council member. yuriko asks sayaka what she thinks about the situation:
and here we have the first major difference. in the manga, because tower of doors happened already, sayaka is much more confident and content both about herself and her relationship with kirari. she doesn’t need to understand everything that happens in kirari’s head, and sayaka knows that kirari doesn’t love or value sayaka any less because she doesn’t understand or for the things she chooses not to tell her. in the same way, kirari doesn’t understand sayaka all the time either, the difference being that kirari was never bothered by that as much as sayaka was bothered about it. SO, in the manga, we have a mutual understanding between the two characters now, thanks to tower of doors.
however, in the anime, sayaka reacts much differently and agrees with yuriko:
the fact that she doesn’t know who the -bami’s are also adds to pre-tower-of-doors sayaka’s growing list of “things kirari didn’t trust me enough to tell me”. they really want sayaka to suffer, huh?
i already wrote a bit about the meeting between kirari and terano (Ch. 36) in pt.1, so i’m going to skip over that to the next thing (but i’ll come back to this in a bit, it’s related, trust me), mary and ririka’s meeting (ch. 40). there’s a little bit of extra dialogue before mary takes off ririka’s mask:
it’s not that significant, but mary’s a little more animated in the manga, where in the anime she just kinda listens to what ririka’s saying without interrupting:
and then the mask comes off, and mary mentions ririka’s appearance:
“Kirari’s already exposed this face to the public. She doesn’t see it as any big secret.”
this line is interesting. i don’t know what to make of it yet. ririka is hiding her face, despite the fact that she claims kirari doesn’t care. so is ririka wearing the mask of her own volition? it’s easy to assume that kirari’s forcing ririka wear the mask, but that’s apparently not the case. i want to refer back to chapter 36 again, since it’s related here, the meeting between kirari, ririka, and terano:
notice how terano calls out ririka, not kirari, for doing this. why is that? was terano calling out ririka for being the one responsible for deciding when kirari and ririka switch identities, or was ririka just doing what kirari told her to and terano was calling ririka out for being kirari’s door-mat? or maybe i’m completely overthinking it (lol) and terano was just calling out ririka simply because she was the one in front of her? god i wish we could have seen how this scene played out.
we haven’t yet seen kirari and ririka interact at all, even in the manga. the mystery that is kirari and ririka’s relationship is one that i can’t wait to see unfold.
onward. there’s extra insight into miri’s feelings in the manga during the gamble vs. mary and suzui, when one of the sisters has to lose (season 2 ep. 4, ch. 43):
poor miri :( in the anime, she kinda just does what miyo tells her and faints, skipping over her thoughts about her sister threatening her.
this one isn’t significant at all but i thought it was funny, the first rankings (Season 2 episode 5, Ch. 44):
#9, horo joumaru.... exists (lol). in the anime, he wasn’t even ranked, instead being replaced by sumika.
this is where things might get a little hectic, because there’s multiple things in this one episode that is spread out over multiple chapters in the manga, but bear with me. in the same episode, rin and sumika challenge kirari to a gamble. the anime cuts to the second half of the gamble, but in the manga, there’s a little bit more build up (ch. 50):
and then kirari immediately proceeds to tear apart rin’s lie. god, i love kirari so much
and it’s at this point where the manga and anime match up and kirari goes “all in” a million times.
next is the yumemite vs sumika gamble (still season 2 ep. 5, but ch.51). the reason the manga is ahead here is because the anime moves the greater good game to after this gamble, but it happens earlier in the manga (ch. 45-49).
before the meeting, there was a scene that wasn’t included in the anime where mary and ririka are trying to find someone to gamble, which is why they weren’t in the pre-gamble meeting for the yumeko/yumemite vs sumika gamble. this is confusing because, chapter 46 (season 2 episode 5), the scene where mary decides she will work with ririka if she can win a gamble, didn’t happen yet. the anime kinda shoots itself in the foot here, and i’m still not sure why they decided to move things around they way they did, which resulted in the loss of this scene (maybe to build suspense for the greater good game? idk). i’m going to include it here, since it’s relevant, and we’ll go over the chapter 46 scene with mary/ririka in a bit when it happens in the anime. here’s the scene, at the very beginning of the yumeko/yumemite vs sumika meeting (ch.51):
“It’s a pity, but oh well...” the yumary ship is sailing
there was also a little bit more dialogue during the meeting where they’re discussing how to beat sumika that was kinda cute that didn’t make it into the anime:
“Let’s whip Kawaru Natari’s (i refer to her as sumika) butt!” “YEAH!” you dorks. i love them.
next is the scene with mary and ririka (back to ch. 46). mary’s a bit more aggressive in the manga:
but the main difference in the manga is that ririka wants mary to make good on her promise earlier about punching her if she wins:
which is kinda intense. then mary yells at ririka which makes her cry (which doesn’t happen in the anime):
the end result is the same, though. mary wants ririka to gamble to prove herself, and if she wins....
we get this killer line from mary in the manga which didn’t make it in the anime, because the whole punching thing wasn’t even in the conversation:
mary implies that she’s going to punch kirari, since it’s heavily implied that ririka is under kirari’s orders to work with mary (but who knows? i don’t think ririka ever explicitly says who she’s working for, but correct me if i’m wrong, i could have missed it). man, i wish they kept this scene intact in the anime.
next, season 2, episode 6 (ch. 53), yumeko and yumemite vs sumika:
in the manga, when it’s revealed that yumemite broke her finger in an attempt to trick sumika with a reflex, the crowd disapproves. the anime doesn’t show this. this leads to a little extra dialouge:
sumika is actually impressed by yumemite’s resolve, and even encourages yumemite to continue to pursue her dreams. imo, this adds more to why yumemite doesn’t want to win against sumika in the last round, even though this small scene wasn’t exactly necessary for the point to get across (the anime cut it), it’s just nice that it’s there, because it makes the reader acknowledge sumika’s charm/manipulative-ness as well, and shows that yumemite is completely moved by sumika in every way.
after round two, there’s another extra bit of dialogue that didn’t make it into the anime, which gives us a little more insight into what someone like sumika is doing here:
again, not that significant, but it’s there. she just wants to observe people, and what’s more “alluring” than her own crazy family? also, it doesn’t matter, but why are they naked?? i’m not complaining ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
it’s not that significant, but there’s another extra exchange between yumemite and sumika before the final round, when yumemite convinces herself she will lose in terms of talent no matter what:
everything else that happens is essentially the same.
mary is also shown checking up on this gamble in episode 5, at the beginning of all this:
in the same scene in the manga, she’s just walking with ririka behind her, without her phone:
good job, anime. they also show her checking her phone later in both the anime (at the very end of season 2 episode 6) and manga as well (ch. 55). it’s just nice because it shows that mary cares about her friends even if she can’t be there with them.
season 2 ep. 7 (Ch. 45-49), aka, the greater good gamble. there’s a little bit of dialogue the anime doesn’t show, about terano having to revise her plans (also, holy sh*t, when was terano expecting to defeat kirari?):
this isn’t too significant, but there’s a bit of extra dialogue about how many votes sumeragi earned and how she earned them when she’s conversing with manyuda that they didn’t show in the anime (ch.45):
there’s also a little bit of insight into sumeragi’s thoughts about terano and yumeko when they all get together for the greater good gamble, before they start playing (ch.45):
and again, some more extra pre-game stuff from ch.46, where we get to see a little more of ibara’s personality and sumeragi’s thoughts:
this isn’t that significant, but there’s a little extra dialogue from ibara and manyuda during the first turn when manyuda asks yumeko if she feels guilty about ruining people’s lives when she wins:
“You nervous? Want me to hold your hand? Hmmm?” ibara’s such a big goofball (lol)
there’s some more pages that include sumeragi’s thoughts during the game about the gameplay, but it’s not that significant. it’s mostly her saying things that we the readers already know, or her explaining the gameplay that’s happening. so i’m not going to include it since it doesn’t really give any insight into her character (it’s not that deep, really) and this post is getting long AF.
after the first perfect round where everyone paid 5 coins in taxes, we get a very cute moment with ibara and manyuda in the manga that unfortunately didn’t make it into the anime (season 2 ep. 8, ch. 48):
i’m really liking ibara (lol).
that’s it, for everything that happened in the manga that didn’t happen in the anime. again, i excluded everything with rei, since she didn’t exist in the manga. i also excluded the scenes with sayaka that kinda build up to tower of doors (for example, season 2 ep. 8, at the very end where sayaka wants kirari to order her to get rid of terano) and the tower of doors arc itself (season 2 ep. 9-10), since it overlapped with season 1 stuff and i already covered that in my previous post. they didn’t change much in the tower of doors arc anyway (literally only the puzzles on the doors were a little different), it was very faithful to what happened in the manga (thank the lesbian godesses)
i encourage y’all to watch the anime if you’re curious about rei and how they integrated her into the story, as well as some extra scenes with kirari and sayaka (i mentioned one already, season 2 ep. 8 at the very end, there’s also two small scenes in episode 12 about rei) .
let me know if i missed anything, season 2 was difficult to do because it involved going back and forth through multiple chapters. if you’ve read all this, thanks for sticking with me til the end :)
some differences i noticed between certain scenes. i’m not going to go over the differences between when something happened, because ultimately it would be redundant, and also because i think it’s more interesting to look at the differences between what happened. mainly, this will be about things that happened in the manga that didn’t happen in the anime. long post under the cut. ofc, spoilers.
season 1, ep. 8 (Ch. 17), the helicopter scene
it essentially plays out the same way. in the manga, there’s this small extra scene between sayaka and “ririka”, in which you get to see more of sad sayaka, being ignored by both the president and VP (poor sayaka).
@kakeguruibeyond already made an analysis about what happened, specifically about the twin switching, along with what happens later in ch. 36 (season 2, ep. 2).
in the anime, because rei exists, they changed the meeting between terano and actual kirari to be about bringing rei in the election. in the manga, since rei doesn’t exist, their meeting re-inforces the fact that yes, kirari and ririka switch places, and also lets the audience know that yes, terano, and most likely the whole family, at least knows about this trick. but terano is able to discern the difference between kirari and ririka at a glance. we don’t know (yet) if any of the other family members can do that. i can’t wait to see what this will mean in the future.
but maybe i’m getting ahead of myself. let’s go back and go over some differences in season one. Ep. 6, after the debt-resettlement gamble, there was a small extra scene between mary and yumeko, which i’ll just leave here:
kind of sad this yumary scene wasn’t animated
another difference was when kirari attempted to recruit mary, season 1 ep. 7 (ch. 16) . essentially, it played out similarly, but in the manga, when mary asks about the housepet system, instead of bringing up the aquarium, she explains her motivations in a bit more depth using a different example:
like i get why they wanted to use the aquarium metaphor in the anime during this scene, because that’s a recurring theme, but here we have the origin for the aquarium spiel. it’s not just about making the big fish eat the smaller fish because it’s interesting, it’s about power and how kirari is maintaining and preserving that power. this scene in the manga just adds more depth to kirari’s motivations beyond her doing things just because it’s “interesting”.
now, let’s talk about this scene, season 1 ep. 11 (Ch. 26), when kirari reveals herself during the yumeko/manyuda gamble.
previously, during the helicopter scene, we’ve seen sayaka already having doubts about the president not trusting her. this thought has been embedded into her ever since kirari left without telling her anything, and now, she is sure. kirari not saying anything to sayaka as ririka, solidifies that fact in sayaka’s head. in the anime, she says something completely different that lessens the impact of sayaka’s internal struggle: “How long has she been in our midst?” which is a lot different from what she’s thinking here. i guess you can infer in the anime that sayaka is having doubts, but in the manga it’s crystal clear that she is freaking out and not okay about the whole situation.
another big difference was the build up to the ending of season 1, right after the yumeko/manyuda gamble. the main difference is, in order for the yumeko/kirari gamble to happen in the anime, sayaka had to be more passive and not have that emotional/mental ourburst that led to Tower of Doors in the manga, which was already being set up by the previous helicopter scene and the realization that the president doesn’t trust her:
unfortunately, this also means we miss out on some more of sayaka’s dialogue in the manga that made her a more interesting and relatable character (imo, anyway). more on that later.
next, in the same scene, there was an exchange between yumeko and kirari that didn’t make it in the anime. @castleoflions already made a post about that.
there’s also another exchange that didn’t happen in the anime where kirari brings up the aquarium again, when sayaka asks why they can’t just expel/make people stop gambling with yumeko:
which leads to sayaka freaking out even more about not understanding the exchange between yumeko and kirari, and wanting more answers:
ow. again, poor sayaka, being refused an answer again from the president, not being trusted by the president. which leads to... more sad sayaka, when sayaka initiates the gamble with yumeko and what each person would bet was being discussed:
oof. i wish the anime kept these scenes with sayaka, it just gives us more insight into what’s going on inside her head besides the angry/jealous, obsessive, tit-grabbing (lol) secretary. sayaka was hurt by kirari, (multiple times! with no explanation!) and wants answers, and when she still doesn’t get them, she breaks. which leads to the all-or-nothing gamble with yumeko at the tower of doors. it makes more sense to me than the slow buildup between two seasons in the anime, but i get that they wanted to add in an original scene (the yumeko/kirari gamble) and therefore a lot of sayaka’s internal struggle had to be dampened and spread out over another season. what do y’all think?
that’s it for season 1 ish. (Ch. 1-29). i think i’ll make a separate post for (more) season 2 stuff, since this is long AF
as a person who makes trash gifs, i’ve come to appreciate animation, and wanted to share why i love bruno bucciarati’s animations so much. long post with lots of bruno gifs. ofc, spoilers
let’s look at the very first episode. pay attention to his eyes:
look at how ANIMATED his eyes are. any animator could’ve just made his eyes/face static while having only his mouth move, but they BOTHERED to make bruno’s eyes (and JAW!) animated. it might not seem like much, but it makes him so much more INTERESTING to look at. almost like, you can’t take your eyes off of him, or you’ll miss something.
and then THIS part, after he punches giorno the first time and puts luca’s fingers in his mouth:
BUT if you pause it, right before he says the line, there’s this single, subtle, frame:
make of that what you will, but to me, it’s almost as if he’s both disgusted and concerned (for giorno) by what just happened before he puts on his “gangstar” facade again. like, there’s a reason this frame exists, they bothered to put it there, what do you all think?
here’s some more eye things:
i slowed this one down so you could see all the frames that were used. SO animated. and it’s not just his eyes, sometimes his HEAD moves. they DID that.
even in combat/dangerous situations, or maybe especially in combat/dangerous situations, his eyes move. he’s always observing his surroundings, planning the next move in his head. i don’t think ANY of the other characters have this quirk (but correct me if i’m wrong maybe i’m just hyper-attentive to bruno because he’s my favorite):
even when he’s DRIVING???? his eyes are animated, for a split second.
even as diavolo??????? his eyes????? are so animated?????
EVEN HIS EYE SPARKLES ARE ANIMATED AS DIAVOLO?????
and this is BRILLIANT because this is like, bruno’s THING. that’s how you can tell bruno’s in there, even if his body is different, because even before the soul switching, his eyes had that sparkle (examples below) or was animated in some way (examples above):
they could’ve gone the lazy route and made bruno very static, but they MADE bruno such a better/deeper/more interesting character just by adding these subtle things. he’s responsive to things, and you can see it, even if he doesn’t say or do anything, he’s definitely thinking about and processing it, which informs his actions. that’s also what makes him a good leader: he thinks first, then acts (unless something defies his moral values).
so there ya go. want to make an anime character more interesting without taking up too much time? ANIMATE their FACE and move the story along instead of dumping a 10 min. internal dialogue about how a character is feeling
Long post about Don’t Monkey With Broadway/An Evening With Patti LuPone on Friday, July 12, 2019.
First of all, for people who have never been at Davies Symphony Hall, it's essentially a 360 house, with the stage in the center. Patti was pretty good at making sure she faced the terrace (the people behind her). I’m sitting at side terrace in the very front row (see pics above for reference), so I have a view of the audience’s faces. Patti was at center stage most of the time and I could only see the side of her face and back of her head, unless she actually turned around. Which she did a lot, actually, bless her soul. If you look at the pic above, I was sitting RIGHT in front of the water glass on the piano, so every time she drank from the glass she was directly facing me. Swoon.
The first song after opening with Don't Monkey With Broadway, she knocks her mic off the mic stand while reaching for it to take it off. It plonks onto the stage with a loud thump and EVERYONE (including the pianist) looks shocked and audible gasps are heard. She picks it back up and everyone including Patti laughs it off.
During Big Spender. Props to the pianist, Joseph Thalken, who had a bell on top of the piano to ding on cue, which he would casually reach over to do. He also jumped up from his seat once, dinged the bell, hovered there a bit, and sat down just as quickly which got lots of laughs. Also lots of giggles from the expressions and movements Patti was making. I was sitting at terrace so unfortunately I couldn't see her face for most of it, and boy, am I jealous of people who can afford orchestra seating, but I sure did stare at those swaying HIPS.
She brings out a silver prop gun during If and shoots it (audience gasps) and there's a very LOUD sfx BANG and scares the bejeesus out of everyone as we all jump a bit in surprise. Lots of giggles after.
She brought out those two albums that her mom bought her at “the East Northport A&P supermarket checkout” and talked a bit about playing really strong women on Broadway and how that was never how she saw herself. She pauses and gives a look and the audience laughs. She riffs with that and says something like how she was always a shy and soft-spoken (lmao) kid, more laughs from the audience.
She sang Don't Cry For Me Argentina for the end of the first act, before the intermission. My god, she sounds as good as she always does. She did the iconic raised arms pose before the song started, at everyone (including terrace, she turned around and did it just for the people behind her), but not during the song at the part everyone expects her to do it in. I could only see the back of her head/side of her face but I could TELL she was doing those same facial expressions that she always does. And of course, the iconic palms out for each and every "don't keep your distance". At the end, lights black out and intermission starts.
Beginning of act 2
The chorus (SF Gay Men's Chorus, yaaas) rolls out to do Trouble, right under the side terrace I was sitting in. Patti comes out, in a different outfit (it was like a black see-through-silky dress...thing, and she wore black pants underneath and black heels) and faces the side terrace (finally!) the whole time while they were on stage together. And they do it FLAWLESSLY, lots of giggles with the dramatic acting by the chorus. "Words like... swell?" the chorus GASPS, some people in chorus shout TROUBLE at the end of every other line as she goes through the rest of that verse. Lots of applause and bowing. Patti is smiling a lot and you can tell she’s having a blast.
Blow Gabriel Blow. YES, someone in the chorus hit THAT iconic high note (you know the one) while waving his arms in the air, holding onto that note for dear life. The chorus all face him while he's holding that note to make sure he stands out, everyone applauds as he does it and you can tell Patti is impressed, more smiles and laughter from her. Audience loves it, lots of applause.
Give My Regards to Broadway. This song always gets audience participation. Everyone clapped in rhythm and sang along.
She starts doing Sondheim. Sweeney Todd: Not While I'm Around, Company: Another Hundred People, Being Alive and...
Before the next song starts she steps off backstage and comes back with a martini glass full of what looks like water. We ALL know she's about to sing The Ladies Who Lunch. And yes, she throws the martini glass full of water INTO the audience, center stage, first two rows. I could see the looks on the audience's faces, and it was priceless.
For her last song, Some Other Time, the chorus is brought out again, behind Patti, center stage. Patti sets her mic down on the piano, and even without mics, she and the chorus are still quite audible. It was magical.
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