These Two Nameless Characters Literally Had One (1) Minute Of Screen Time In 2021 And Yet...I Still Think

This elderly woman was one of the leaders of demonstrations against the Vietnam War in 1968, when she was a student at Columbia University. Today, 56 years later, she returns to the same place and says, "Palestine must be free."

macau saying "that was fast!" after pete and vegas kissed is really making me think about what vegaspete looks like from macau's point of view. imagine you're macau, your older brother has been shot four times by the major family and hospitalized. a guy you kind of know because he's your cousin's bodyguard shows up at the hospital and starts taking care of you and your brother. until now you've had like three conversations with him total. after a month of this weirdness you overhear this guy call your brother his owner and himself your brother's pet casually in conversation, and for some reason they start making out about it. like isn't being a teenager already hard enough

My Personal Weatherman had the strangest color exchange yet because Mizuki is a Blue Boy and Yoh is a Green Guy,

But after thinking Yoh ran away resulting in Mizuki tying him up, voilà, we got a color exchange.

How do I process this knowledge that Yoh feels Mizuki's love the most when tied up?

And Mizuki feels the most love for Yoh when he is basically taking him prisoner?

Instead, I'm just gonna focus on all the ways the colors popped up this episode like the little blue (and red) over Yoh's heart for Mizuki, and the laundry poles being green and blue.

Yoh also wearing blue with a little umbrella (for Mizuki) over his heart.

That Mizuki's character is in blue, and the cover has blue and green on it.

Yoh's notebook having green and blue circles, and his green pencil case.

Yoh's Green Gal wearing blue because she sees Mizuki's side.

Mizuku's comforter being blue.

The laundry being blue and green.

The rug being green.

Yoh's sweater having green accents.

And Mizuki's cardigan being blue.

Yoh buying drinks with green and blue labels and carrying them in a green bag.

Only for Mizuki to grab the one with the blue label.

And, of course, the tie!

Japanese QL Corner

In which I cling to the last vestiges of two of my favorite shows of the year, write a eulogy for one of the most disappointing, and rejoice over the entry of a new fav. These shows are available for weekly streaming on Gaga unless otherwise noted.

Mr. Mitsuya's Planned Feeding

Farewell to a wonderful show. @isaksbestpillow has posted all seven episodes as of last week, so if you've been waiting for a binge, now is your chance. I already said a lot about why I loved this one, so I'll just use this space to urge you again to watch! This show is a goddamn delight.

Takara's Treasure

The main narrative ended last week, but this week we got a sweet little epilogue and one more visit with Takara and Taishin. I enjoyed the brief glimpse into their near future and getting to see Taishin turn 20 with his very first fuzzy navel, though I was a bit sad we got a repeat of the finale's themes rather than treading new ground for their relationship (I could not have cared less about the fujoshi writing RPF). This was a lovely show and I will miss these characters.

Happy of the End

CWs: Assault, child abandonment, child molestation, childhood sexual slavery, dubcon (including between the main characters), human trafficking, rape, sexual coercion and exploitation, suicidal ideation/possible attempt, unsafe S&M practices, violence

A very rough week for this show in terms of the content--please mind the triggers above because these are explicit depictions and it can be hard to stomach. I am waiting to see where this show is going with its themes before I make a final judgment, but watching the fourth episode in particular, some parts felt like crossing the line into gratuitous trauma porn that provided little additional illumination. We'll see how it shakes out in the end, but please take care with this one. I continue to find the characters and relationship dynamics compelling, and I am invested in Haoren and Chihiro's attempt to have a relationship despite the metric ton of baggage they are shouldering between them. Neither is equipped to even have any idea what a healthy relationship looks like, but they see something in each other and they want to try. That tiny bit of hopeful but likely doomed thinking may be all we have to cling to in this story.

I Hear the Sunspot

Sigh. I am sad about what this show could have been. For me, the finale definitely did not succeed at sticking the landing and making the last six weeks of wheel spinning feel worth it, and this show is going down as one of the big disappointments of the year for me. As you know if you've been keeping up with this weekly post, I loved the first half of this show, and Taichi's original characterization, so much. And I don't understand what happened here. The second half has felt like a completely different, confused, demonstrably worse show. Taichi hasn't felt like himself in weeks, the plots with Maya and the job at Sign were poorly grounded, inconsistently executed, and offered little pay off either thematically or in terms of character development, and the romance writing was a complete failure. It was actually painful to see Kohei run after Taichi and confess to him again, and the directing and editing of that sequence was so muddled that I had no idea what I was supposed to understand about Taichi's emotional journey or why this was the moment he was suddenly able to reciprocate. After all that brooding and his big speech about communication, he did not communicate much of anything to Kohei in the end. And I'm supposed to be content with leaving them here? Deeply unsatisfying on just about every level.

I understand from @twig-tea that while the story followed the beats of the manga's first two volumes at a high level, this production chose to remove many of the contextual details that actually made sense of the characters' behavior. It also seems they didn't understand they were setting up character arcs that did not get resolved until a later volume the show will not cover, thus ensuring the story would end at the wrong place. Just a baffling set of adaptation choices, and so much wasted potential. It's a shame.

Love is Like a Poison

But at least we have a new favorite coming in hot a week sooner than expected! I absolutely loved this first episode, in which we meet Shiba, our cold-hearted lawyer with delusions of grandeur and a sexually charged fixation on his house plants, and Haruto, our flirty scammer who has his number. This show is really well written and packed a ton of story, comedy, and deep characterization into its first episode. It's a promising start! For now it’s only available grey outside of Japan; I am hoping it will get picked up for proper international distribution soon.

Tagging @bengiyo to add this week's anime update.

That Rolling Stone article about Chappell Roan... the bits about the shit she went through are already wild, but what really gets me is when the article starts listing. every. single. singer. who reached out to her, worried, to commiserate, to give tips, to agree that the harassment of fame is indeed hell. I'm like. "So y'all agree?? All of y'all agree being famous is horrible???" Good LORD.

Fellow stars have reached out to see if she’s OK. Charli XCX was one of the first to do so (..). Eilish has been keeping tabs on Roan (...). Hayley Williams DM’d her, offering to chat with Roan anytime. Katy Perry told her to never read the comments. Lorde gave her a helpful list of things to do at an airport to fly under the radar. The band Muna hosted her for dinner. Miley Cyrus invited her to a party. Lady Gaga has passed along her phone number (...). Roan went on walks and grabbed coffees with Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker. Their boygenius bandmate Phoebe Bridgers came over to Roan’s just to hang, commiserating on how fandom behavior has become increasingly “abusive and violent.” Sabrina Carpenter, who’s also had a shockingly massive year, suggested they meet up and unpack their summers. “We’re both going through something so fucking hard … she just feels like everything is flying, and she’s just barely hanging on,” Roan says. “It was just good to know someone else feels that way.” Backstage at the Vic Theatre in Chicago, Roan flashes her phone to show a lengthy email from Mitski she received that morning. “I just wanted to humbly welcome you to the shittiest exclusive club in the world, the club where strangers think you belong to them and they find and harass your family members,” it reads.

I?? MEAN???

23.5 Ep 6 | The Apocalypse

April 12, 2024. Source: Quds News Network. "Despite the loss of lives, the devastation and the displacement, the children of Gaza make sure to have little room for joy at Eid al-Fitr."

The fact that Seojoon has folders upon folders saved and named: (1) Seojoon, (2) Do not open, (3) Are you sure? (4) You may regret it (5) Hanjiwoo… in order to access Jiwoo’s pictures he didn’t come around to delete, kills me. Also, the fact that he finds it difficult to fake cry onset during filming, but cries deeply upon viewing these photos, kills me even more.