I guess this would be a blog?

Just here to share my thoughts and anything interesting that happens to me or around me

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Playing D&D, our gunslinger-fighter and paladin were doing a stakeout when they caught an npc crawling out of a sewer grate. Instead of talking to him, they IMMEDIATELY set to kicking his shit and our bard, who was originally just watching, began casting illusion spells to confuse the npc from running away...

My party members succeeded in murdering a most likely innocent npc and traumatizing his daughter LOL

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I'll drink to that - JoJo's Bizarre Adventure edition

So my sister very recently told me she wants to watch JoJo's Bizarre Adventure from part 1 to present; in celebration of part 6 FINALLY being released soon, we decided to have some fun and do a drinking game while we watched Phantom Blood. The rules are if something from the list happens, you take a drink (like drink from a glass or bottle, you can take shots but I advise against it). Here are the commandments of the game:

1. A music reference is made (they all come in the form of character names and are of older music creators so keep your ears open)

2. A visual sound effects appears (like when MENACING in Japanese pops up)

3. A completely animated background appears (such as colored lines taking up the entire background, this doesn't include visual effects being adding to the existing background like when a character starts to run fast and white lines appear on the sides of the screen)

4. A villain/hero speech is made (pretty self-explanatory, basically whenever someone starts to monologue about their ideals or plans)

5. When someone dies (this includes everyone on the first episode; take a big gulp of your drink or down a shot if it's Danny)

6. Explanation of an ability or technique (once again pretty explanatory, if they explain what they did or how it works then you take a drink)

7. The camera suddenly zooms (for example, the object of focus starts as a wide shot and camera suddenly jumps closer to the object)

8. Rapid-fire fight scene (the kind of stuff you see in the Dragon Ball or One Pieces series, hands moving "faster than the eye can see" sort of fast fighting)

9. Whenever Dio screams (he surprisingly screams a lot)

10. An extreme JoJo pose is struck (body parts stuck in weird positions, you know the memes)

11. If you are ever personally confused (basically, if you're ever confused about what you're eyes are consuming, you, as an individual, must take a drink)

12. Whenever "Ora" or "Muda" is said (this is a staple of the series and while they're said more towards the end of Phantom Blood it's still a golden rule of JoJo drinking games)

Feel free to add or take off rules but this is what we used and we had a blast. If you do use it, let me know how the game went

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I had to buy it...

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Ok so I'm watching this video called Everything GREAT About Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (by CinemaWins, y'all should check it out cause it's a good vid) and I just paused on scene where a teacher (I would think a philosophy teacher but the rest of her board is covered in dreaded mathematics) is talking about Socrates' philosophy, and I was blown away.

Now, I made a post a while back explaining how much I love the slight differences in Miles' world as compared to our own; things, events and people that link the two universes together yet are changed in simple ways in order to show that the universes are, indeed, two separate entities. What I noticed has most likely already been pointed out but even after 2 years of this movie being out, watching it multiple times and owning my own copy I still didn't noticed until now.

What I'm talking about in the scene mentioned above is what the teacher has written on her chalk board: All men are mortal, Socrates is a man, Therefore Socrates is mortal. (Not all of these words are visible in the scene because of the students blocking the board but I imagine that's the most reasonable way the sentences go.) The way Socrates worded it is "I think, therefore I am" and I was floored once again by the level of detail this movie contains. It's a twisty take on Socrates' words and I love it as it reinforces, even in this split second of a moment in the movie, that Miles' world is not our own yet IS related to it in some way.

On a side note, I think that this scene has a double meaning to it. While it's probably just another detail used to build the world as well as Miles' character, I'm pretty sure it's hella foreshadowing. "All men are mortal" is the only thing on the chalk board us viewers are able to clearly make out; everything else is either too small, blocked by students or are just scribbles. Why? Because Peter motherfucking Parker, aka Spider-Man, DIES within a few minutes of this scene. "All men are mortal" indeed, I couldn't imagine this line talking about anything other than the unstoppable march of human life towards DEATH. Mortal, by the literal definition of the goddamn dictionary, means "a living human being subject to death." Anything mortal is prone to die one way or another. By no means do I think Peter believes himself to be immortal but, between his awesome one-liners, superhero attidute, comedic way of talking (bro legit calmed the Hulk down by making him laugh, you CANNOT get funnier than that) and those SICK Spider-Man moves, it's easy to forget that Spider-Man is still just a man. And all men are mortal.

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So I don't post my drawings on Tumblr since I post them to my Twitter (Kay's Art) and InstaGram (SilentSmokey) but my absolute banger of drawing skills improvement begs to be shown. I'm on mobile so the top (sharper looking skull with pencil shading) is the original drawing completed Nov 8th, 2019 and the bottom (round looking skull with marker shading) was just finished tonight (Oct 13, 2020). Nearly a year and this is the result! Oh, the reason I redrew it is 'cause one of my managers saw the drawings I used for decorations at work.

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Just a fyi! Yashahime takes place in the Reiwa era so in around 2020. Inuyasha actually took place in 1998/2000ish. So in Yashahime, Rin is actually around 31-33 years old. If she is the twins mother, she gave birth to them around 17-18 years old which is very normal for the feudal era (Sango was around 17 when she had the twins). Also the red streaks in the twins' hair actually comes from Sesshomaru's face markings! During a recent interview, voice actors for Sesshomaru and Rin confirmed it!

Well, no kidding! Face markings into hair color...now that's a first. Seems to make more sense just to give them the face markings instead of some weird face to hair explanation. As for the timeline, seems a bit wonky considering the information we've been given but there's no shadow of a doubt that they have plenty of time to explain. Still, 18-20 years will needed to have passed. 10 of those years are explained due to the time skip but there's still 8-10 years of downtime that need to be explained. Either way, we have pretty solid evidence that she's the mother (I'd be so excited if she's confirmed too)

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Quicko thing I've seen about Yashahime

So, as a recent commenter and the general fanbase of InuYasha have said, the mother of Towa and Setsuna is theorized to be Rin. She's an obviously popular choice to be Sesshomaru's lover/baby mama. Honestly, I would be ELATED if she's confirmed canon as the mother but there are a few complications that need to be checked in order to reasonably explain the theory of her being the mother. Keep in mind, I'm not a guru of InuYasha and I'm going to be referencing mainly the anime canon for this. So, in the case that I get something wrong or miss something, don't mob my house and crucify me amongst my mint garden. With that being said, let's get into it!

So, right outta the gate is the obvious one: Rin's age as she's 11 years old at the end of InuYasha. The seasons never seem to change in the Feudal Era but we know it was spring when Kagome graduated high school and transported back to the Feudal Era. So, as we know that time in the Feudal Era moves at the same rate as the Modern Era due to the 3 year time skip, we can safely say it's fall during the Since Then chapter/episode. I'm not an expert in the Japanese school system but a quick Google search says Japanese high school begins in April and ends in March, so I'm just gonna assume I'm close enough. Anyway, we don't know Rin's birthday but, just for a best case scenario for the theory, we'll say Rin turned 12 during this time. The synopsis of Yashahime is that it begins "a few years after" Since Then and then time is skipped ahead by 10 years. The girls are 14 years old - 10 years + 9 months of pregnancy = they were 3-4 years old during "a few years after". If they were 3, then we'll just say they recently turned 14 as we're only counting the years and not the months or days. Now, in ye olde days girls were generally married off when they got their first period, and that usually happened when the young ladies turned 13-14 years old (due to changes in nutrients in the modern world's food, puberty and, thus, periods actually start earlier so that's why 13-14 years old might seem a bit old for it to start). With that in mind, I'm going to add a year to this Rin is the mother theory so that she can be 13 and become eligible for childbirth. Kinda weird to show a 13 year old as a mother but Miroku did have a 14 y/o girl beg to be his wife (Kagome commented on this as well) so it's obviously a line that Rumiko isn't afraid of crossing. Also, given that Miroku and Sango's twin daughters are 2-3 years old and Sango was a 16 y/o during InuYasha, Sango and Miroku were clearly married and got busy while she was still 16. This is Rumiko telling us that modern expectations don't mean shit in the Feudal Era; what we consider underage is overage in the Feudal Era.

Whew! I think that's the biggest one out of the way, so let's move on to genetics - phenotypes in particular (remember, genotypes have to do with genetic appearance and phenotypes have to do with physical appearance). Typically, children in the InuYasha universe look very similar to their parents. Sesshomaru is the spitting image of his parents: white hair, face markings (Sess takes after his mother in that category along with her pale skin) and golden eyes. InuYasha also takes after both his parents: Toga's tanned skin, golden eyes, white hair and (in his human form) Izayoi's black hair and eyes. We don't know what Kagome's father looked like but she does share many similarities to her mother in pretty much all phenotype categories. The only real difference between the two is that her mother's hair seems to be on the curly side while Kagome's (and Sota's) hair is more straightened, presumably a trait from their father. For an example from Yashahime itself, look no further than Moroha: brown eyes from Kagome, InuYasha's tanned skin, Kagome's (and technically InuYasha's) black hair - hell, she even got InuYasha's doglike behaviors (even if it was meant for comedy relief at most times). Setsuna and Towa though? They don't look a lot like Sesshomaru to begin with, let alone Rin. Assuming Rin is the mother, Setsuna has Rin's hair, Towa has Sesshomaru's hair, and both have Sesshomaru's pale skin; however, both girls have red segments in their hair and both have differently colored eyes, neither of which match their parents. Now, Setsuna and Towa are half-demons and, although we don't see a lot of half-demons in InuYasha, we DO know they don't always look like their parents. Case in point: Jeninji. Jeninji is...well, physically-wise, the general definition of a monster despite his father being godly in appearance along with a very pretty mother. The only other (canon) half-demon we've seen is Shiori, and the only things she got from her mother was her gender. So Towa and Setsuna, two confirmed half-demons, having physical features that match only one or neither of their parents? Fairly plausible.

Lastly is Rin and Sesshomaru's relationship and Sesshomaru's general relationship to the general human race. Sesshomaru fuckin hates humans, no ifs, ands or buts about that one; HOWEVER, there are a few humans that meet his exceptions. I'm fairly positive he only puts up with Kagome (she called him big brother at the end of InuYasha and no shit it looked like he wanted to kill her) because InuYasha loves her and I'm a firm believer that Sesshomaru cares for InuYasha more than he lets on. As I said in a previous post, Kohaku is on Sesshomaru's good list due to his efforts to protect Rin; I think the only reason Sesshomaru seemed to be harsher to Kohaku was because he was a boy and was expected to take care of himself (for example, Sesshomaru expressed annoyance at having to defend Kohaku and threatened to leave him to die but didn't follow through with it). Last human on Sesshomaru's 'this person is ok, I guess' list is, obviously, Rin. He loves her, no ifs, ands or buts about that either but we don't know what kind of love it is and we don't know where it could extend to as she grows older. When Rin died the second time, Sesshomaru cradled her body and probably would've cried if he was normal in literally any kind of way. When his mother (y'all ever realized that Sess's mother doesn't have a canon name?) revived Rin, Sesshomaru crowded her and caressed her cheek. As one of my dad's favorite songs goes, if that ain't love then I don't know what love is. The way Sesshomaru views Rin is never stated, whether explicitly or implicitly, and, in my opinion, Rin is too young to understand whatever type of admiration she has for him. Rin has stated that she wants to be with Sesshomaru for forever and Sesshomaru, who seemed to feel the same way, had obvious plans to retrieve her once she spent more time with other humans - but only if Rin wanted to come along. Also, lets keep in mind that Sesshomaru was reluctant to separate from her to begin with and he still visits her very often plus brings her gifts on each visit.

With half-demon daughters and his general hate for anything human, Rin is by far the strongest candidate to be the mother but we don't know what Sesshomaru is up to during his travels. For all we know, he could've bonded with some other human woman in the time between InuYasha and Yashahime. On a sidenote, and I know this is pretty stereotypical, but clothes (the type of gift he seems to leave her more often than not) is among the top 3 things you give to your boo to woo them (I especially say this 'cause even I enjoy clothes shopping) but that kinda depends on the person.

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Yashahime is out! Spoiler warning

Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon is out! First episode was about as I expected: quick overview of the original InuYasha series, the inclusion of the Since Then extra manga chapter plus a show of the three main warriors (Towa, Setsuna and Moroha) scripted to kick ass in this long awaited sequel.

Now, let me get straight to the point and SPOILER Towa was the one called the half-demon princess, not Moroha. I didn't expect Moroha to be the princess, it's easy to tell that she's a riot just like her parents and I think she's more akin to a quarter-demon rather than a half-demon (if such a thing is feasible within Japanese folklore).

What I DIDN'T expect was for one of Sesshomaru's daughters to be called the half-demon princess. Why? Firstly, Towa is said to be quite the riot herself (I can't remember where but I read that she wears men's clothing just to make fighting easier). Royalty tends to be very poised in InuYasha, so a rough pup like Towa doesn't exactly fit the bill on that front. Secondly, and more importantly, I have my doubts that Sesshomaru would fuck a human; if there's one thing he hates more than half-demons, then it would be humans (excluding Rin and Kohaku).

Honestly, I thought the whole Princess Half-Demon thing would be kinda like Legend of Zelda: the franchise is named after a secondary protagonist rather than the main protagonist. What I mean is that, although we've got our three young, badass ladies, perhaps the half-demon princess isn't one of them but rather a future character yet to be revealed.

Now, Towa didn't outright deny that she's the half-demon princess nor did she say that they're thinking of someone else (kinda like the way Kagome would when she was called Kikyo even though they're technically the same person), so here are a few things that I think is happening.

Firstly, Towa could be in the same situation as Kagome. When Kagome was traveling through the Feudal Era, she kept getting called priestess despite the fact that she looked NOTHING like one. There were reasons for this but that doesn't change the fact that she obviously wasn't a priestess or even one in training. How does that apply to Towa? Well, she's a demon but she was raised by humans (more specifically, Kagome's little brother Sota), hence the half-demon part. As for the princess piece, since Towa obviously isn't a princess (once again, this is why I thought that the princess might be a character we've yet to see), Towa could be called that simply for being from "another land" (aka the Modern Era). Kagome might've been called a princess too but she probably wasn't due to being a descendant of Kikyo (main reason for being titled a priestess). Plus, Towa's clothes look a lot more regal than Kagome's school uniform (the cloak Towa had on at the beginning of the episode reminded me a lot of the clothes Akago, Naraku's little freak baby, used to wear).

The other possible reason why she was called the princess half-demon is because maybe Sesshomaru DID fuck a human, as unbelievable as it seems. The mother could be royalty and, thus, her children would be as well OR Towa and Setsuna gained royal titles from their father. That's right, I'm talking about daddy Sess. How? Toga (aka Inu no Taisho aka Sesshomaru's and InuYasha's pappy) was a powerful man deemed Lord of the Land. Correct me if I'm wrong, but, basically, the way royalty comes about is like this: person is rich and mighty + conquers a lot of land through military efforts and/or buys territory = crowned royalty. Very simplistic but this is tumblr and the only thing I want to go in depth about is anime. Anyway, Toga very clearly applied that equation to real life and worked that shit since he was LORD of the Land, not protector or whatever other title would befit that glorious slab of meat. So Towa and Setsuna royalty by bloodline? Very probable. It does bring up the question of why Setsuna isn't called a princess as well but she has amnesia and, for all anyone knows, is just another demon hunter.

Just as a sidenote, InuYasha is technically royalty from his mother's side. Izayoi is canonically a princess so that would make InuYasha a prince. Granted he's a bastard (both figuratively, 'cause he's an asshole, and literally 'cause of the definition of the word) but, by all means, if he found Izayoi's homeland and excerised his birthright, given that there are no others of the bloodline, he could totally be a lord himself. Why would he do that? He probably wouldn't, but he totally could. Anyway, thanks for coming to my tedtalk, let me know what y'all are thinking.

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Whoever said cats aren't as loving as dogs has obviously never owned a cat and I stand by that

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Just a quickie something

Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon is coming out October 3rd and I'm hyped 'cause InuYasha is one of my FAVORITE animes.

Now, as I've seen pointed out, Kagome is...nowhere to be found. Wtf, right? And in all the promotional material InuYasha looks distant, which is kinda odd for such a hot-headed and passionate character. Weird af, yea? Popular theory, of course, is that Kagome died but how can only be guessed at.

Did she die of old age? Doubtful, considering her daughter is only 14 and it's most likely only been about 15 years since the ending of InuYasha (Yashahime starts 6 months after InuYasha but Kagome isn't pregnant at that time + childbirth, duh, is a 9 month process + Moroha is 14 = about 15 years). Did she die from a demon? I feel like that shouldn't even be a question (InuYasha, Sango/Kirara and Miroku protecting her + Kaeda 'cause that old lady actually isn't a pushover + she lives in the same village as Rin and Sesshomaru has a goddamn danger tracker attached to that girl + Kagome is probably the most powerful character and she ain't no bitch who can't stand up for herself = she's pretty fuckin safe)(I'm exluding Shippo and Kohaku from this body count 'cause they're no doubt off doing their own things).

Honestly, the most believable way she could've died was childbirth itself 'cause death rates due to that shit were actually pretty high back in the ol' days (on a serious note, CDC states about 700 women die in the U.S. alone due to pregnancy/childbirth-related issues) and it's only gone down because of advancements in modern medicine and medical practices. Kagome willingly chose to live the rest of her life in a rural farm village in a year between the 1400s-1500s (I'm not an expert in Japanese history but the series is set in the 1990s and says the Bone-Eaters Well transports her 500 years into the past), plus all the raging wars so doctors are kinda few and far between...but Sango and Miroku did just fine and they've got 3 children. Even if Kagome died, I would imagine that Sesshomaru would bring his mother into the picture (he might be a complete dick but, once again, Rin exists).

Anyway, another thing is that Shippo is completely missing too. Of course, he has a better reason to be out of the picture (the fox exams or whatever it was called) but I'd like to point out that Shippo is ALWAYS with Kagome when she's separated from everybody else. Always. The only exceptions is when there's absolutely no way for him to follow her (i.e. she goes to the modern era) or when she's kidnapped (and even then he still somehow manages to tag along sometimes like with Koga).

Thirdly, whomst the FUCK laid herself out for a dickhead like Sesshomaru?? Hell yea he's sexy af but even then I would never let a guy like that anywhere near my naked body. More importantly, who tf did Sesshomaru find worthy enough for his dick? You gotta KNOW that egomaniac ain't gonna pick some random ass lady, I'm honestly surprised there hasn't been any mentions of whoever his baby mama is since I find it really hard to believe he'd pull a one-and-done. When finding someone worthy of his dick, he probably spent at least a few months with her or some shit and, by the fact that he not the type to do something just because, he probably liked her too (as shown with Kaguya and contrary to popular belief, romance and the feelings associated with it isn't totally lost him). Kinda sappy but it's true; I don't believe for a second that someone like him would tap it and leave, at the very least he was probably hoping for kids to continue his lineage.

That brings me to my last point: where the fuck is Sesshomaru in all of this? One of his daughters is missing, that I understand he can't do much about, while the other has lost her memories. Ok, but she works under Kohaku, who works (as far as us viewers has seen) under Sesshomaru. Kohaku has most likely moved on from Sesshomaru's wings but I would think they're still quite close (Rin obviously holds him dear to her heart + Kohaku risked his life to save hers on multiple occassions = Kohaku is to be protected as well, at least to a certain extent). Setsuna losing her memories means she probably doesn't remember Sesshomaru is her father and Sesshomaru is JUST enough of an edgy bitch to not be like "ay you my daughter and you got a sister." Dick move.

Anyway, I know this was a whole ass essay but I'm actually really interested to know what y'all are thinkin down in the comments (if you actually cared enough to read through this essay but a girl can hope)

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Yu Yu Hakusho spoilers, just so ya know

Since I got back (like a month and a half ago) I've been rewatching Yu Yu Hakusho 'cause it's a great anime and deserves more love and attention. I know a lot of y'all mention underrated friendships between the characters like Kuwabara and Kurama BUT I turn your attention to a friendship that is loved by fans yet isn't talked enough and is still somehow (in my opinion) underrated: Kurama and Yusuke.

I say that their relationship is underrated 'cause it seems to me that not a lot of folk delve into it the way they do between other popular brotps like Yusuke and Kuwabara.

My reason for thinking this way comes from episode 70 when Yusuke has to guess which of his friends is actually an imposter. Yusuke first asks Kuwabara what his blood type and birthday are, to which it's quickly revealed Yusuke knows jackshit about either. After questioning Botan, Yusuke then turns to Kurama and asks him for his mother's name and age. Of course, after Kuwabara, Yusuke knows better than to ask for information he has no knowledge of. Obviously, Yusuke would know Shiori's name because of his meeting with Kurama at the beginning of the series. What got me was the fact that Yusuke knows her age. Until that point in the series, there had been no mentions of Shiori's age and, thus, no way for Yusuke to know how old she is (he could've looked at her record while in her hospital room but I seriously doubt Yusuke is smart enough to understand anything on those clipboards let alone care enough to take a look). This must mean that Yusuke has shown interest to Kurama's life past just being on the same team AND, given how excited he was to learn of Shiori's engagement, Yusuke has probably spent time with her at least a few times (I wouldn't expect a stranger at my wedding even if they were friends of my children, but that's just me). If correct, this also means that Yusuke has taken time to travel to Kurama's home (this is reinforced by how familiar Yusuke is with the travel time between his home to Mushiyori City) or has at least talked with Kurama about things beyond just battle or techniques.

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Well y'all I'm back, but I'm also back home. Bootcamp was fuckin FUN OMG (very unpopular opinion, the other recruits called me weird) but the military just wasn't for me it seems. So, I'm home and I'll be starting work this week. All in all, a pretty good transition back to normal life.

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The time of the cha cha slide has long since passed so I vote that we now do the electric boogie

Come, brothers and sisters, and join me in the electric slide in order to fill the void which the cha cha slide has left in our dancing hearts

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Well my school semester is finally over; I passed with A's in both my classes and can now do the review for JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind. I need to rewatch the show, which will take a while, so that I have it fresh in my mind when I do the review. Before the review, I'll do a review on the intro songs cause badass intro songs like Golden Wind's needs a post on its own

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Harkening back to when I said my D&D character's nickname is Flowers, I said that I'd show WHY that's his nickname. There's two reasons my character goes by his nickname instead of his real name:

The first reason is that he committed a taboo act by practicing in black magic (aka necromancy); he'd prefer not to be called out by his real name considering it could have dangerous consequences. The second reason is because he actually comes from a family of flower shop owners! Flowers opted for another job field and picked to become a doctor instead.

Anyways, I've been working on this card for a while now, it's had multiple versions (none of which I liked, hence the multiple versions). However! It's finally complete and I'm very happy with the result

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(Minor JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime spoiler warning)

As I said in my last post, this post is going to be about JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable's multiple openings. I'm going to be going in order of their placement in the season so, without further ado, let's get into it!

First, of course, is Crazy Noisy Bizarre Town (what a mouth full lol). I've already mentioned in my review of Diamond is Unbreakable that this season uses a kaleidoscope of color palettes, and this holds true in Crazy Noisy Bizarre Town: Never settling on just one color or mix of colors, this opening absolutely murders your eyes with all the popping hues. I love this intro for a good couple of reasons: not only is the song a fantastic choice in my book, but there are also visuals hints at the multiple Stand users (you can even spot Kira Yoshikage if you watch closely). Another reason I love this opening is that it fits with the new boyish art style, and they even used a rock version of the song making it even funkier and, thus, more enjoyable. Just like with with the outro, this intro adds on visual details as the episodes go on until it's switched out for the next opening.

Speaking of the next opening, I can't say that I'm crazy about Chase, with or without sound effects. However, objectively speaking, I do like the visuals quite a lot, especially with the first few opening seconds alluding to Kira's habit of needing to constantly cut his nails. Unfortunately, there's not a lot I can say about this opening since it's pretty straightforward and, sadly, not as colorful as the others; however, the same cannot be said about the next and last intro:

Great Days. Oh my God, I love Great Days. There's three different versions of this opening so before I talk about each one individually I'm going to start with what they all have in common: the song. Great Days is absolutely wonderful and it's my favorite intro song across all the seasons (Diamond is Unbreakable really has great music choices). I also love the opening seconds of the intro when it's spelling out JoJo: It's such a creative way to make the letters and even without the letter outlines I'm pretty sure you would be able to tell what it's spelling anyway due to the remarkable placement of the characters, objects and their Stands. I'm also positively smitten with the fire/explosion effects when the song goes, "Breakdown, breakdown!" The little hints of what Kira is capable of in between those explosions, the 3-2-1 countdown right before opening truly jumps into the song, the echoes of the characters as they go about their business and the subtle changes in their faces/body language? I love it all, no questions or doubts. They even added those little black spots that you'll see during old films to really set the timeframe of 1999.

Since that basically sums up the first version of the opening, let's move on to the second version: Great Days [Bites the Dust]. When I first saw this, I honestly could not believe what I was hearing and seeing. I know David Production had Stardust Crusaders' second intro actually stop for a couple of seconds when Dio busted out his ZA WARUDO but I wasn't expecting for David Production to reverse the opening entirely. The ingenuity behind their team is uncopyable, true brilliance. Not only did they reverse the visuals, they reversed the entire song. Instead of starting at the BEGINNING of the song, you know what these crazy bastards did? They started at the END of the song. They decided alright fuck the first half of the song, we're gonna skip to the second half to show the absolute madness behind the Bites the Dust ability. What the fuck? Who thinks to do that? Whoever thought to do that needs to get paid more because where else have you seen shit like this? I'm not afraid to admit that the originality had me falling in love with the opening all over again. Not to mention the use of introverted colors AND changing up Kira's appearence after he stole poor Kosaku Kawajiri's facial features.

And now... The third and final version: the sound effects version. Do I actually need to say anything about this? It's amazing, it's badass, and it's tied with Phantom Blood as my favorite intro when sound effects are added. I'll be the first to say that I didn't think David Productions would add sound effects to either of this season's openings; I thought that because the art style had changed so much, so would the way things were normally done. However, I was happily wrong. Starting with the letters spelling JoJo again, you can actually hear the sifting of paper, like these are flashcards that someone is quickly pulling one after the other. Next is, once again, the 3-2-1 countdown: in time with the rhythm and the words is the sound of ticking and then, when Kira presses his finger, you can hear the sound of switch and the SHATTERING OF GLASS WOW. I was like holy shit, is this happening? That's not the end of it though; just like the rest of the sound effects added intros, this opening lets you hear the movements of the characters and the world, which I can't help but take delight in. However, my unequivocally (breaking out the big words because I love it THAT much) favorite moments in this intro are when the characters are taken out if their statuesque forms and bust a poke; the ear-splitting sound of more glass shattering brought an unimaginable amount of joy endorphins into my brain

[winterbites]

(Major JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime spoiler warning) My review of...

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable is fantastic if you ask me; 39 episodes, each one fun and funky, Diamond is Unbreakable brings in many new elements that the previous three seasons didn't. Being my second favorite season in the series, I'm very much ready to give my review so let's jump right to it!

First, I'm going start with those new elements since I absolutely love them; there's a couple of them so I'll try to be brief (but I know I'm not good at being anything but descriptive). First is the new art style. Trying something different from what he normally does, Araki went with the more popular art style of the time called Bishonen, which is basically just a softer, more boyish art style (translated, it means beautiful youth). However, the style Araki used for this season isn't exactly Bishonen, but is instead an art style inspired from it while also mixed with his own personal touches. This mix makes for a refreshing breath of fresh air for the series and I think that it's wonderful for Araki to try out new stuff.

Next is the universal-wide range of color palletes. It's far from unusual for the JoJo seasons to switch up from one color pallete to the next during battles, but Diamond is Unbreakable takes it to a whole new level. There's not much I can say in this category because, once again, things like this are better experienced first-hand, but I can say that it's a wonderful aspect of the season that I truly adore.

Third, we have the Stands. While Stands aren't new to the series at this point, the inspiriation and creativity for them are. Stands have stepped away from being representations of tarot cards and are instead true portrayals of their human counterparts. Josuke's Crazy Diamond is crazy tough, powerful while also being able to heal, which is just like Josuke's indomitable will, physical strength and readiness to protect those he holds dear. Okuyasu's The Hand gets things closer to himself, embodying Okuyasu's simple in-your-face style of fighting. Koichi's Stand, although changing throughout the season, keeps the same feature of supporting at a distance while still being able to throw one helluva punch; this characterizes Koichi in that he's not as violent as the rest of the cast but he'll kick some ass if he needs to.

For the last new added element, I'm talking about the behavior of the season's criminals. The words modus operandi, in terms of crime, refers to the method of operation (or MO) used by an offender to commit a crime while a criminal signature is basically the unique mark a criminal will leave (usually used to satisfy the criminal's needs like emotional needs and please don't ask how I know this stuff).

Moving on, while I usually take time to talk about the intro, I'm not going to in this post but rather a separate post. The reason for this is because, as I learned with my Stardust Crusaders post, I'm not going to be able to make a relatively short post if I include a discussion on the intro. Unlike the other seasons of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Diamond is Unbreakable has three intros, each having different versions and unique additions. Since it would take a long time to talk about them, I'll save it for later.

With that being said, let's move on to the next topic: the characters. What can I say? I love them, the entire cast is so unique and special in their own way, even more so than Battle Tendency's. Much unlike Stardust Crusaders, most of the "enemy" Stand users in Diamond is Unbreakable aren't really enemies but rather people with their own interests who are just trying to achieve their own personal goals. Hell, you even have Stand users who aren't fought at all, with most of all the Stand users being reoccurring characters that fill the world (or in this case, fill the town) and get actual character development, minimal as it may be. You have the asshole Rohan who's only friend is Koichi due to Rohan being a very picky and particular person. You have Koichi (whom objectively has the best character development in the entire season) who gets stronger and braver throughout the season, confronting more and more problems head-on while also getting better at thinking on his feet in the heat of the moment. There's even development of relationships between characters, such as Josuke and Okuyasu going from being enemies to brothers by heart or Yukako going from trying to torture and murder Koichi to the both of them creating a loving and lasting bond.

Now, I want to go back to those little bits about criminal behavior and talk about one of the best anime/manga antagonists and the best JoJo antagonist so far: Kira Yoshikage. So the guy has a kink, but don't we all? Yes, he takes it too far by actively murdering people but it plays into that criminal signature I mentioned before and his Stand, Killer Queen, helps to create Kira's MO. Kira's signature is taking the hand of his female victims, which satisfies the psychological needs of his hand kink, and his MO is to explode people. The best part about all of this is that he didn't have either immediately: it took time for him to start stealing hands and it took him time to develop his Stand. Kira also has the most amazing motive of simply wanting a peaceful life; granted, that motive includes murdering people but I never said he's a good person, just that he's a good character. This all adds a very real feeling to Kira and makes him possibly the most human character in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

Quite different from the rest of the seasons, Diamond is Unbreakable's soundtrack takes a more chill approach towards music in between fights; however, once a fight does hit, get ready for badass music to ensue (Sudden Battle is really good and A Blossoming Love is really cute). As for the outro, I Want You is my favorite outro across the seasons. Keeping that extreme use of multiple color palletes and emphasizing the softer art style, this outro has a groovy song and adds on more visual details as the show goes on.

Finally, I want to talk about three things that bothered me throughout the show. First was that, once again, Araki threw one of his characters under the bus; this time around, it was Joseph Joestar. While Joseph has shown himself to not be above cheating at games and battles, I don't believe for a second that he would cheat on Suzi. This woman single-handedly took care of him and kept him company during his recovery after his battle with Kars. Not to mention, as I've said before, Joseph has strong familial values and there wasn't even a given reason for his adultery. To top it all off, Tomoko truly loves Joseph; that means that he would've had to stay in Japan long enough, which he has gone on record to say how much he hates Japan, to make such a lasting impression on Tomoko.

Next is that Araki made the characters Shizuka Joestar and Mikitaka Hazekura, which are both cool characters in their own rights, yet never showed or mentioned them after Diamond is Unbreakable ended. I understand that Shizuka can't be used in the near future since she's a literal baby and maybe Mikitaka simply stayed in Morioh, but we never got any closure information on them (is Mikitaka an actual alien and what ever happened to Shizuka's parents, things like that).

Lastly is the absolute Deus ex Machina of Kira's Bites the Dust ability on Killer Queen. He got it when he was under extreme pressure and that's just not a good enough explanation in any world; not to mention it's a bit uncreative given that Dio ALSO had a Stand ability that allowed for timey whimey shenanigans. A cool ability no doubt but that doesn't make in any less bullshit