Komachi Hikigaya
Not that long ago, my brother went, at length, on one of his rants regarding something incredibly pointless and farfetched that he treats like the most important thing in the world.
The subject in question?
Anime parents.
Dragon
I feel… out of sorts.
Unlike Lisa.
“Yes! Suck it, Tagg!” she says, pumping her fist exaggeratedly enough that her seat on the wall of my latest carrier bobbles.
“Okay. Now tell him that face to face,” Taylor drily comments from he...
2023-12-07 05:52:15 +0000 UTC View PostThere are plenty of differences between anime and Western animation, but there’s one that particularly stands out when you know what to look for.
Take a classic Disney film like, for instance, Fantasia. Each and every frame was hand-drawn, with staggering attention to detail. You can feel...
2023-12-05 00:43:14 +0000 UTC View PostSo.
The party system.
Party management, sidequests, companion events, random skits… there are a lot of things that make the party system shine, and we’ve touched upon plenty of those subjects already.
But they are not the party system in itself.
Because, at its core? R...
2023-12-03 03:11:36 +0000 UTC View PostPiggot
A last goodbye with Jasmine.
It’s… tempting. To confess. To tell her just precisely who Emily’s niece is. To admit that, yes, I’ve been monstrously stubborn. Needlessly antagonizing. That I could’ve saved myself and so many others plenty of g...
2023-11-29 04:52:27 +0000 UTC View PostSayaka – No Rest For the Wicked
Sooo, that thing about guys falling asleep right after they come that I only have Kyousuke as a vague indicator that it may actually be a thing rather than hilarious slander? That an (ideally) shared orgasm is a great way for a boy...
2023-11-26 11:34:50 +0000 UTC View PostSo. Long-running series. Do you know what’s an issue that they often run into?
Descriptions.
Admittedly, that’s not as much of an issue with visual mediums such as manga or anime, but in light novels? In things that are shoveled out the door as quickly as the publisher can arrange...
2023-11-25 08:25:07 +0000 UTC View PostPiggot
“My appointment was half an hour ago,” I say to the secretary barring me from Tagg’s office.
My former office.
My former secretary.
“I’m very sorry, Miss, but the director is taking an important call at the moment,” she...
2023-11-23 03:15:48 +0000 UTC View PostThe formula is an inherent part of every long-running series. You know what I’m talking about: if it’s a magical girl show, the monster of the week is it; if you’re watching a romcom, the tsundere’s violent outburst will be it, and if you’re watching a shounen battle series that is stil...
2023-11-19 00:35:52 +0000 UTC View Post“So. Armsmaster’s back in the roster,” Tagg says, leaning forward over his desk and bulldozing over my frantic blinking at how to tactfully inquire precisely why he thought my lateness would relate to a pool boy—
Tagg’s concern with chlorination—
… I’...
2023-11-16 03:32:19 +0000 UTC View PostIt’s a sad statement about the past state of my social life that coming to Florida keeps getting me in stereotypically teen-themed situations that I never experienced back in Brockton. From confusing flashes of hormones that have nothing to do with broody people wearing black jackets, or ...
2023-11-14 03:08:10 +0000 UTC View Post“Pity?” Hana asks as if she doesn’t understand the very concept.
“Funny, isn’t it?” I say, looking away from her eyes to follow the stream of smoke coming from beneath the armrest and between my fingers hanging barely past my sleeve. “I wonder how many times it has spoiled a d...
2023-11-12 00:36:26 +0000 UTC View PostAs has already been explained often enough, Taylor’s application of her powers in her culinary pursuits is, far from the horribly disturbing mental image that it incites on unwary Thinkers at first (and second, and third) blush, a thing of beauty.
From hidden corners in my open kitchen, h...
2023-11-08 19:16:58 +0000 UTC View PostI’m not familiar with political games.
Most of what I understand about the whole thing? It comes from faculty meetings and talks with yet another befuddlingly miffed principal. I know about alliances and presenting one’s needs as the most pressing concerns to ever be encountered in a le...
2023-11-06 05:38:48 +0000 UTC View PostYet again, thank you all for staying with me for another month. To say that I couldn’t do this without you is factually true, yet also bordering on the understatement of the year because I don’t think I’ve properly processed how much I’ve grown thanks to you all.
No, I’m not talki...
2023-11-03 21:49:02 +0000 UTC View Post(For optimal immersion, play this before reading.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORbseYAkzRM
A thin man dressed in a black suit and with his hair combed back steps f...
2023-11-02 04:40:32 +0000 UTC View Post“School’s the other way, you know?” Audrey comments with characteristic concern for a newcomer getting twisted around in Lakewood’s urban jungle.
Or actual jungle.
Seriously, how do people stand all these trees just hanging around like teenagers in a convenience store’s park...
2023-11-01 21:39:21 +0000 UTC View PostBrooke
“Can’t I just skip?” I ask the woman fretting on the other side of the kitchen counter.
“You know what your father would say,” she replies with…
Weirdness.
“Are you sure you don’t need a hand?” I ask her as she keeps check...
2023-11-01 04:30:43 +0000 UTC View PostA series of interesting choices.
That, according to the veteran game developer Sid Meier, is the definition of a game: having the player choose and having that choice be interesting in some way.
This, sadly, immediately disqualifies most JRPGs.
Should I equip the +1 sword or the...
2023-10-31 05:25:46 +0000 UTC View PostA white horse is rarer than most people think.
Mostly because people are uneducated and often illiterate, so they don’t know what a white horse is.
It is understandable, given how short-lived humans tend to be, that they wouldn’t study as much as elves do through our infancy. Know...
2023-10-29 03:18:43 +0000 UTC View PostUnfair.
It’s an accusation often heard of in anime, usually thrown around by sulky, younger girls who may as well be tugging on somebody’s sleeve while a slow blush creeps up their cheeks.
But let’s (for once) not talk about Iroha.
What is, indeed, fairness? Is it fair for...
2023-10-27 03:35:44 +0000 UTC View PostColin Wallis
After so much time in a coma, I guess it’s no wonder that my circadian cycle is screwed up.
By which I mean that I end up waking up earlier than usual.
Earlier than usual and with a slender arm draped over my chest that, when I f...
2023-10-25 03:05:44 +0000 UTC View PostFanservice.
Fanservice has often been vilified, the herald of poor writing, of a show racing to the lowest common denominator. A clear sign of the creators running out of ideas and bogging down the narrative with anything at all that won’t force them to advance a plot or a character arc w...
2023-10-21 03:04:03 +0000 UTC View PostColin Wallis
For reasons I would rather not explore, there’s only one line running through my head:
I never asked for this.
“There. He’s awake now, and the surprise’s ruined. Are you happy now?” Minnie asks Dragon without dropping her sharp sm...
2023-10-19 03:13:17 +0000 UTC View PostI’m too used to walking in beauty like the night.
Unseen, unnoticed, each footstep light as that of a fairy bringing ice to a winter lake’s surface.
Each movement a dance.
Because poetry never hid its roots. Poetry is rhythm and rhyme, the beauty of the spoken language on fu...
2023-10-17 02:28:11 +0000 UTC View PostA baton pass.
He can be so goddamn corny at times.
It’s one of the things I like best about him.
One of the others has to do with how he’s looking at me right now, hovering over me, making me feel unable to move away from where he’s laid me down across my kitchen counter. ...
2023-10-16 13:52:01 +0000 UTC View PostColin Wallis
‘You may experience some disorientation,’ the doctor said. ‘The next few days may be a bit rough,’ he warned.
“Wheeeeeeeeeeee!” Mouse Protector squeals as my wheelchair speeds down the hallway and away from Hannah’...
2023-10-14 02:34:33 +0000 UTC View PostGallant blasts my back.
The boom makes me fly over the roof’s edge.
And euphoria takes over.
I’m covered in Amber, the world slowing down as I take everything in. As I note each of Crusader’s ghosts’ positions around Lung, Kaiser throwing a wedge of steel down the street...
2023-10-11 00:51:16 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor’s Note: So, this was supposed to be an omake prompted by a comment on the main thread of this story on QQ. A small extra to write if I had the time through a week that went not according to keikaku ™. It would contain a subject matter that some readers may be turned off by, but no ...
2023-10-08 03:39:05 +0000 UTC View PostSometimes, life just goes and decides to throw you a curveball.
It’s particularly aggravating when you can’t shake the feeling that you should’ve seen it coming.
“Hello, I’m Pamela Livsey,” Mom says as she offers a brittle smile and extends her hand toward the lightly dres...
2023-10-06 03:15:52 +0000 UTC View Post