Dance Dance Danseur

Dance Dance Danseur by Studio MAPPA

Man, I’m late to the party, BUT I’ve joined it, so that’s something. I guess? Anyways, the first anime I’ve seen in months, because I’m a sucker for sports stories. The last previous being SK∞, which was more on the “meh” side of things, I had my hopes high for DDD with a more classic sports story approach.

And I kind of started reading the manga a while back, but there wasn’t much scanlated yet, so I stopped somewhere in episode 2 or 3 or so? That was all the content there was and I really REALLY need to check out, if there’s more available now. I binged the entire 11 epsiodes. I wouldn’t say it was a 10/10 by a long shot, but it was very enjoyable and seriously left me wanting more.

The story was kind of predictable and pretty standart, nothing outstanding, but even though Junpei only started with ballet at the age of 13 (I think, it was?), which is way too late, if you want to become good enough to be a pro, it’s not entirely unbelievable, that he’s actually going to make it. It’s not like he’s a total beginner, even though he just started with proper lessons. He’s been involved into the sport since he was a small child and he’s been teaching himself theory and practical dance ever since. Also, he’s been doing marial arts which massively helped him to be athletic and very flexible. He’s got everything you need for ballet that you can’t achieve via hard work, the perfect feet, the aura, the long limbs. He’s crazy talanted and gifted, but even though he’s a prodigy he’s still very likable.

And boy I didn’t thought he would be. It honestly starts out with him being kinda pervy and joining for the cute girl with ulterior motives. It helps the anime very clearly showed us his childhood before all of that, so we know he’s been genuinly loving ballet for a long time. He’s nowhere near perfect, he’s flawed and he struggels, but that makes him so likeable. Ballet comes easy to him, but he still struggles so much, even if he’s doing good and he’s getting applause, he’s still a bad dancer – as to be expected with his level of professional training. He also never parades around that he’s a prodigy. He acknowledges his mistakes and flaws. He knows where he stands and if he doesn’t, his surroundings make sure to tell him. He grows as a character A LOT. He’s a very beautifully handled prodigy type, wonderfully flawed and likable.

I honestly thought it was kind of weird when he and Miyako just became a couple in episode 8. Like… what? It was very clear that Miyako likes Luou, even though Junpei liked her. Also, the moment Junpei noticed she liked Luou, he immediately withdrew and I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have made any more moves, if his summerclass mates didn’t set them up. Heads up to you, Junpei. Instead of “fighting for his love” he chose to accept and not interfere, you don’t see that often. I was just really surprised she immediately went along with it, but hormones at that age, I guess? I mean, she clearly liked both of them, just Luou more. She probably would’ve been happy in a relationship with Junpei, but it wouldn’t have lasted. Luou would’ve loomed over their relatonship the entire time and it wouldn’t have worked out. I think it was honestly better to end it as quickly as it happend. What brings me to the next question: why was it even necessary?

The entire relationship thing with Junpei and Miyko was really sudden, super quick and over in a heartbeat. Everything they realized and learned from it, they didn’t need the relationship for. Luou didn’t nessecarily need to see that kiss to become pissed and run to his grandma. It added another layer to his tragic self, also loosing his only friend/love interest, but other than throwing Junpei in a quicky relationship with Miyako that could’ve been done better.

Even more so, after Oikawa Natsuki was introduced. I ain’t gonn lie, but I’m team Natsuki all the way. The two of them kind of clicked immediately. They’re so nicely different, but have so much in common at the same time. I think she really appreciates him looking beyond her stoic face and they share the same love for ballet. Like, exactly the same. They were paired up once for one lesson and ticked off better than Junpei and Miyko did the entire season. I know she’s 2 years younger than him and still a bit too young for a relationship, but they’re not dating yet. They don’t really know each other yet. In, like, 2 years, it’s not going to matter anymore. Junpei, my boy, thats your girl right there. You guys will make each other sparkle and shine when the time is right and I’m all here for it.

Which brings be to the rest of the cast. I really liked the other top dancers in the ballet class. Just like Luou, I thought they were set out to be enemies, but they all became friends, even though they were competing for the same thing. And this is so wonderful! We don’t have a real antagonist for Junpei. If anything, he’s Luous antagonist. Junpei has very good social skills and we see them in action when he manages to befriend all of his fellow competitors. I think this is a very real situation at the summer class, because they’re all in the same boat and they’re all aiming for the same thing, so they have a lot in common. You can absolutely compete against each other, but still be friends. That was surprisingly wholesome.

The one real “bad guy” was the grandma, I guess? But she’s already ancient and has severe Alzheimers, so it’s more like picking up the pieces she left behind, rather than actively fighting her. Luou needed to realize he can start healing the wounds she created and there’s loving people around him, who’ll help him.

Another thing I want to point out is how well this story shows what toxic words can do to a child. And no, I’m not talking about the grandma. She was downright abusing Luou, that’s very much a big fat HELL NO. I’m talking about Junpei’s uncle. He meant it well, but his words caused Junpei to change his entire life in a direction he never wanted to. “You’re the man of the family. You need to protect your mom and sister. You need to be strong and manly.” That’s just so toxic, that poor child didn’t know what he was supposed to do with that advice. He only knew he had to do something, because his uncle said so and because he didn’t know any better, we wanted to become like his male rolemodel – his father. His obsession with being cool, just to look strong, that’s so unhealthy. The good things that came out of it were his really good social skills, but that poor child lived in fear for years and had to hide his passion and danced in secret. All that just because of a single comment by his uncle. Words can do so much damage and these ones sure did.

Overall, I ended up giving DDD 8/10. The animation was so beautiful, the characters were very well done, but the story was lacking. The super quick relationship with Miyko wasn’t sitting well with me at all. Junpei knew that taking the scholarship was the right decision for him, but there Miyako comes and BAM I want to stay with Goudai! Sure, that’s a very hormonal teenager like decision, but it tried to create unessacary suspension. We, the audience, were told very clearly that he has to choose Oikawa, Junpei knew immediately that he had to and there was just no way he was going to throw this opportunity away. That relationship quicky really bothered me on all ends and the rest of the story is your classic prodigy sports story kind of thing, so yeah.

It still deserves it’s 8/10 very much, because even though the story is on the weaker side, it left me wanting for more and for that I’m very mad and very happy at the same time, because now I’ve got to pray the manga is getting regular translations. Besides, I gave SK∞ 7/10 (which, in retrospect, is way too high and I should totally change it to a 5/10) and DDD is a lot better.

Hajime no Ippo current chapters- The tease is killing me

I’ve been reading Hajime no Ippo for over 12 years now. The manga itself is ongoing for 32 years, has over 1300 chapters and and has been animated into 3 anime seasons so far. It’s a beast of a manga, but it’s a great example of a successful long running series.

Hajime no Ippo follows the life of Makunouichi Ippo, a highschooler who lives with his hardworking single mother and helps her every way he can. He’s a pushover and gets bullied at school, until one day Takamura Mamoru inspires him to try out boxing. He joins the Kamogawa Gym, starts boxing, becomes a pro, becomes the Champion. Classic sports shounen stroy.

Ippo is quite a classic shounen protagonist. He has talent, but is a very very hard worker. He’s not a genius, but very honest and timid. He’s just… very likable. Despite the fact he’s a beast in the rink and makes a living by beating the crap out of other people, he’s a surprisingly average guy. The entire cast of the Kamogawa Gym is pretty likable, with Aoki and Kimura serving as comic relieve most of the time, but they have their shinig moments of awesome, too.

What I really like in Ippo compared to, say Bleach, even though the series is so log and we’ve met so many characters along the way, the story never forgets it’s main cast. You have the core cast, which is basically Ippo and the Kamorawa Gym and then you have the frequent (semi-)important supporting cast, like Ippos girlfriend. After those, there’s the important, but not often present, supporting characters, like Miyata and Sendo who we only get to see every here and there, but they are quite important friends/foes/rivals for Ippo and the story. The rest of the cast pretty much just comes and goes. The story never loses it’s focus from it’s main cast and it’s main character.

I like that Ippo struggles and it was such a bold move to have him quit his active boxing career, but they served a legit reason. A reason that was already questioned in canon by … I think it was Itagaki? Basically, it’s been impried Kumi pushed Ippo into it to have him stop boxing, because she doesn’t like to see him boxing and getting hurt whole doing so. And she was kind of right: he was stuck in a corner with his boxing style and he was receiving too many punches, he was punched too much. However, if he really was punch drunk, was quenstioned in canon.

Also, the story had Ippo searching for “true strenght” pretty much since the very beginning. He saw that in Takamura and wanted to find out himself, what it means to be truly strong. He might have become the undefeated japanese champion and was climbing the world ranks, but he never achieved his ultimate goal. A shounen manga that just stops before the main protagonist achieves his goal doesn’t exist. It’s also very unlikely he achieves his goal through his trainer position, because he already knows people he consideres truly strong, but wanted to experience it himself. He can’t so that as a trainer, so he will have to go back into the active sport to fullfill his goal.

And ever since Ippo quit his active career and started to focus on his new role as a trainer, the teasing about him going back as a active boxer started and it’s getting worse and it’s driving me crazy. In order to achieve his goal, he will have to go back into the rink. That much is clear. He will have to go back and he will have to cross that infamous line and bring out his full potential. There had always been this “line” that Ippo hasn’t been able to cross, because he’s afraid of what he will become if he does so. The line that the real beasts like Takamura and Sendo have crossed.

The way the story is progressing it’s very clear Ippo will make a comeback and I can’t wait for it, but it could take a while longer still. He may go back after Takamuras match, but he might wait until something with Miyata or Sendo happens, for example. The thing is, he’s so damn close. Every single boxer around him, including his former trainers, they all want him to make his comeback. The timeout and the trainer perspective and done him very very good. The day he makes his comeback he’ll be stronger than ever and he’ll be prepared to enter the realm of the beasts such a Takamura. He already crossed that line once, when he punched the student in rage under that bridge.

Just thinking who his opponent for his comeback match might be, is so exciting. They could do it either way: Bring in someone new, some cannonfodder he can absolutely destroy and be done with. Or they can bring someone we already know, a strong opponent from the past and a fight of epic proportions. I think they will probably go with the cannonfodder, build the hype up over a couple of irrelevant matches to raise in the ranks and then fight the real strong dudes. I’m very concinved he will fight Sendo a thrid time and I think it will be right before he fightes the World Champ.

Sendo is very damaged right now and will take some time to heal. Even though he already has the right to challenge Martinez, I think he would go for Ippo first, when he makes a comeback, before he challenges Martinez. I mean, that would work out timewise, if Ippo enters the carnival relatively soon and Sendo definately wants to fight Ippo. I would even go so far as to say, Sendo has more desire to fight (and beat) Ippo than he has to fight the World Champion. Ippo is the only man Sendo ever lost to and I personally think the Ippo vs Sendo matches were the best in the entire manga. Their next and final clash will be nothing short of epic.

That is, however, after Ippo makes his comeback and who knows when that will be. Hopefully soon! I can’t wait.

SK∞

I love me a good sportsmanga or -anime, so when I saw SK∞ happened, I really wanted to watch it and with just 12 episodes it’s a nice bite sized anime.

Going into it, I thought it was going to have Air Gear vibes, because of that street-sports thingy going on, but it ended up being much more like Initial D. Btw, I did not watch Air Gear, only read the manga so I don’t know how much was actuall animated. The manga kind of got weird towards the end, but I have to give it to Air Gear, it has one the coolest crowning moments of awesome in a manga I’ve read, when Ikki was declared Storm King. It wasn’t even a big win or anything, Ikki was in normal boots, it was literally just a declaration, but the build up and how it was done was just so damn epic. I was considering to reread it just for this scene.

The entire structure was much more Initial D-like, though. It’s just instead of cars, they’re skating downhill on skateboards in mostly one on one battles and the main character is a genius.

The animation, being done by studio Bones, looks amazing for the most part. Wider shots look kind of cheap here and there, but overall very nice to look at. Especially the beefs looks really good and paired with an amazing soundtrack, it’s so much fun to watch. The final skate had such great music and visual, even with paper thin characters and storylines, it’s fun to watch.

Here’s the biggest downfall: the story is pretty much non-existent. It’s basically “let’s beat the bad guy, because I want to and skateboarding is fun”. That’s the extent of the story. Honestly, in many sports stories, the story is pretty thin, it’s usually about some sort of tournament they want to win. Yes, there is a tournament in SK∞, but it all boils down to “skating is fun!” This is the message thats drilled into your head: “Skating is fun! And it’s even more fun with friends!” Yes, sure, I would guess everyone is doing their sports of choice, because it’s fun. This message is conveyed to the point where it gets annoying.

Let’s move on to the characters. The first main is Reki and he’s like a skateboarding nerd, he’s decently good at it and teaches Langa. I like that they tried to go a different route with Reki, that he’s not the best and the most talented and the genius – that’s Langa. I still feel like I’m kind of disappointed in Reki. He literally lost every single beef he had in the entire series. He didn’t win even once. He did have his crowning moment of awesome when he managed to keep Adam in check and just barely lost to him. It makes sense that he’s just not good enough to beat Adam, but couldn’t they have given Reki another moment of awesome linked with a win? Since he lost it feels kind of disappointing after all, even if he was awesome. Also, he’s totally Langas waifu and spends half his screentime screaming “Langa!”

His depressive episode was well done, though. That was cool. That showed some real weakness and depth of his character. It’s very understandable he get’s upset when everyone around him is so much better than he is and even the guy he taught how to skate is suddenly pulling away very fast. Kudos for this.

Langa is a little bit too perfect for my liking, they could’ve given him more flaws. Since he’s a very experienced snowboarder I guess it makes sense he catches up skaeboarding very fast, they kinda overdid it a little bit, though. And he’s always nice and understanding, never said a mean word, yada yada. He was unable to properly deal with the situation when Reki was depressed, but it’s not like he royally screwed up or something, he just didn’t know what to do and tried to reach out to Reki, which was fine tbh. They could’ve make him miss his father a little more and his mother is really cheerfull for a fresh widow. I wouldve liked to see more anger and more sadness within him. He’s too much “good guy”, too one dimensional.

The main antagonist is Adam, who’s quite frankly batshit insane. When “S” was founded, he was a teenager, but now he’s an adult who’s messing around with mostly underage teenagers. Pretty much all of his “techniques” are extreamely dangerous and are meant to injure other skaters. He assaults teenagers to the point of attempted murder. He crashed his skateboard into Cherry’s face, while Cherry was going top speed downhill right into it. I’m pretty sure under non-anime-circumstances, that would’ve killed Cherry. He tried to do the same to Reki. He crashed Reki into walls and tried to straight up beat him up. What he’s doing is screaming “Oh my God!” on so many levels, I don’t understand how the adults present, who actually know who he is, can just watch and let it happen without bringing him to justice.

Yeah, I get it, he has every reason to be messed up, but that doesn’t make it okay to act like that. Because he was abused as a child, doesn’t make it okay to abuse underage teenagers. This man needs to be locked away and needs professional help very urgently.

The few adults in this anime are not exactly very responsible. I thought they would look out for the kids, but instead they’re okay watching them getting killed (Cherry and Joe) or injure them themselves (Adam and Shadow). Reki was more responsible than any adult in the series. At least he stood up for Mika when Adam was verbally attacking Mika to the point of psychological abuse. The rest of the cast is very trope-y. I liked they picked up Rekis promise towards Mika to not leave him alone, when Reki was depressed and pushing everyone away. Mika had every right to be pissed at Reki for breaking his promise. Honestly, if Mika would’ve been left alone, he probably would’ve turned into another Adam somewhere down the line. Just by being a friend, Reki saved Mika. Also, that cat suit? Adorable. Cute angry kitten. No as smol as Yuri Plisetsky, but still pretty cute.

And then… there’s the fujioshi-bait. This anime is nowhere near as straight up gay as Yuri on Ice, but I’ve already mentioned Reki was basically Langas waifu. At the finale of the last beef when Reki was waiting for Langa at the finish line? And how Langa threw himself at Reki? Yeah, sure, you guys are “just friends”. Then there was the whole thing when skateboarding wasn’t fun without Reki and his heart wouldn’t go dokidoki without Reki when he was skateboarding and then his mom thought Langa was talking about a girl he liked, but it was actually Reki… they definately didn’t say it straight out and in the beach filler epsiode they made Reki interested in a girl, but the bait is out there. It’s deifnately out there.

Overall it was a fun watch. I don’t expect a very deep story or deep characters from a sports anime, even though it’s very much appreciated. They tried a couple of interesting approaches with Reki, which was nice, but they very much overdid Adams violence. I guess what bugged me the most was the repetitive “skateboarding is fun!”-theme and Adams overly violent behavior towards underage teenagers. They could’ve made him the villain just fine without attempted murder and yes, it was very satisfying when Adam was laughted at, becasue he tripped. he deserved it, he actually deserved so much more. Like, I don’t know, a one way trip into a closed facility.

I did rate it with a 7/10, despite it’s flaws. Mainly because it was still overall a pretty fun watch and the visuals and music was very outstanding. It’s kind of a guilty pleasure. On a scale of 1-10 it deserves more of a 5-ish, but the enjoyable parts where very much cool to watch.

Writing Bleach Fanfiction and Hitsugayas Strenght

I admit I have this love-hate relationship with Bleach. I loved it when it came out, but at one point it kind of overstayed it’s welcome, it got messy and threw all logic put of the window. I was glad when it was finally over, but every once in a while I go back and read or write some Bleach fanfiction, because I love shipping Bleach characters.

We’re getting close to the 5 year mark since the manga was ended and yes, I’m still salty over the endgame pairings. IchixRuki was a lot better developed and written than anything about or with Orihime, including her relationship with Ichigo. Also, the way the main characters ended up, just made no sense at all, because it was quite literally what none of them wanted.

Therefore, let’s dive into the wonderful world of fanfiction. The Bleach fandom quite literally pairs up everyone with each other, but I prefer stuff that makes sense. I’m open to some more experimental stuff, I mean, I can totally see the appeal of GrimmjawxIchigo, even though I don’t ship them myself. Ichigo belongs to Rukia, IchixRuki is sacred. By accident I rediscovered a delicious Omegaverse AU modern time IchixRuki, that I’ve read before and totally threw me back into Bleach fanfictions. Hot sex scenes, oblivious Rukia and overprotective Ichigo are just my thing.

Usually, Omegaverse is used in BL pairings in order to make babies and mpreg possible, it does work very nicely in heterosexual pairings, too. I’ve started reading a nice still unfinished Omegaverse IchixRuki with Omega!Ichigo and Alpha!Rukia, where their characters aren’t completely destroyed. Yas.

My personal favorite pairings are IchixRuki, of course. IchixRuki is life, IchixRuki is love. They’re my absolute favorite Bleach ship, they sail themselves no problem. That one time when Ichigo went ice skating with Rukia before he lost his ability to see shinigami and ghosts/spirits? That was the closest damn thing to an actual date we saw in canon. His world has literally faded away when we saw her. In canon, Ichigo never expressed any romantic interest in anyone, but his relationship with Rukia was the best developed point blanc. She made the most sense for him, she suited him best, they kicked the very best out of each other. I do find it quite hard to write about them, because I have trouble with their bickering sounding okay. I have a 20k words long IchixRuki fanfiction in the making, though. And yes, I may bash the idea of Ichigo having children with Orihime two or three times in that fanfiction, at least once from Ichigo himself.

My second favorite ship, which is my favorite to write fanfiction about is HitsuxHina. This is the childhoodfriends-gone-lovers ship in this series that I prefer. Honestly, like many others, I adore Hitsugaya, he’s such a cute angry cinnamonroll. He’s basically a child in this world full with crazy and strong people and behaves more mature than most of them. He’s awesome. And Hinamori is cute and together they’re even cuter. The way he opens up when he’s with her, actually smiles and wants to protect her from everything, it’s just too cute. I think in canon he just wants to protect her, because she’s his childhood friend, but his entire behavior towards her can be interpreted as a crush so damn easily, they sail themselves, too. I’ve written all sorts of stuff about them and since Hinamori has this tragic psychological abuse thing going on, you can make their stories center around her healing process or go further, say she’s fine and make it more spicy and fun. They give so much material to write about. Also, personally I love aging up Hitsugaya. He was a cute little brat, he’s a handsome teen, but he’s a banger as an adult. Momo… you’re in for a real treat. I have a 15k+ unfinsihed lemony fanfiction in the works about them post story aged up into adulthood. I would like to write an Omegaverse fanfiction about them with Alpha!Hitsu and Omega!Hina, where it starts out with Hinamori in a realtionship with Beta!Kira (I’m not very kind to Kira, he’s often her boyfriend until Mr Ice Prince comes around and steals Momo away in my stories), because she’s afraid of alphas, but Hitsugaya starts courting her anyways, pining over her and all that good stuff. Honestly, I just want to write Hitsugaya being nervous about his inner alpha wanting to provide for “his” omega aka Momo by making sure she properly eats and brings her bentos every day to work under the very amused eye of Shinji. Also, him blowing off steam in alpha-fights with Ichigo? Heck yeah.

I do like other pairings, like ShunsuixNanao, but that one got quite a blow by the fact that Shunsui is Nanaos bio uncle. Their relationship is awesome, they pretty much behave like a married couple anyways and they’re a lot of fun to play around with. They’re adults, wirte some lemony stuff, no problem. I love them … and than the entire family connection thing happend and it took my fun wout of this ship. I still kind of ship them and I think Nanao has a legit canon crush on Shunsui, if only he wasn’t her damn uncle.

Ishida deserves someone, too. Ishida can have Orihime, their interests and personalities match so much better anyway, And Renji can have Byakuya, I don’t mind.

So, the other thing is, due to going back to writing about Bleach, I reread some parts of the manga, watched some anime clips and stuff. I ended up watching an amv about the chase scene from Diamond Dust Rebellion where Kira and Hisagi are trying to capture a severly wounded Hitsugaya and fail very much so. I know it’s a movie and therefore not canon, but I’ve always really liked that scene, because it puts Hitsugayas strenght as a Captain in better perspective than the normal storyline does. He’s severly injured and completely destorys two Vice-Captains. Whoever had the bright idea of sending two Vice-Captains to capture a captain is bonkers anyways, but it helps to show how strong Hitsugaya is compared to “normal” Shinigami.

Hitsugaya is that boy genius. Shunsui said he would be stronger than him in a 100 years and Ichimaru said he’s a genius that only ever shows up once in a 100 years, he wields the strongest ice type zanpaktou, he’s the youngest Captain of all time. He’s a grumpy cute little dude, but he’s damn strong and his potential is acknowledged in canon. As a Captain who often fights at the front lines alongside the core cast memers he get’s himself into some very dangerous situations and is paired with some very very strong enemies and doesn’t always win. In the main supporting cast, he sometimes looks like one of the weaker guys even, but he’s actually a LOT stronger than Rukia and Renji from the main cast.

Honestly, at the very end of the manga when he shows his perfected Bankai where he literally needs to age himself up (however that works, but at that point Bleach had no logic left anyway so whatever) in order to manage it, he’s frightenly strong. Rukia has an ice type Zanpaktou as well and she’s strong, her Bankai is strong. Hyrourinmaru is on an entire different level, tough. I like that the story remembers Hitsugaya has this insabely strong Zanpaktou and is supposed to be special, by showing his potential as an adult with access to his Bankai’s true power, which is insane. He gains the power to freeze everything at will and he doesn’t even need to do anything for that. He flicks his finger and flashfreezes everything. Try to get close enough to him to hurt him, good luck and if you manage to and you touch him? You’re frozen. You can’t touch him. He freezes freaking fire. And when he freezes someone, their abilities are rendered useless. Why in the world, didn’t he fight Yhwach? Freeze him, render his ability useless, shatter him in a million pieces or just keep him in that block of ice for all eternity for all I care, but wouldn’t that have worked to much better than using Ichigo with his brute force?

Granted, aside from Hitsugaya himself, nobody knew he could even do that and he never used it in battle before, but instead of sending Rukia and Renji for sentimental reasons, even though they can’t do shit about Yhwach instead of sending adult!Hitsugaya true Bankai from, who could actually make a difference, is just mindblowingly stupid. Plot convenience for main characters, though.

As much as Bleach did some very stupid things, every once in a while there was that comedy that I loved in the beginning and for example in that particular scene when Renji and Rukia face adult!Hitsugaya Bankai and they assume he’s his own older brother and he just goes along with it, was hilarious. Byakuyas comment about Hitsugaya not even bothering to explain himself was the icing on the cake. Yeah, those two idiots won’t even get it anyways, why bother? I loved that.

Trying to watch Skate-Leading☆Stars…

So, I kind of saw that “new” teaser-trailer-thing for the Yuri on Ice movie (that is thankfully still a thing!) with a couple of seconds of young Viktor at the Olympics, but it’s a couple of seconds of Viktor Nikiforov therefore it’s amazing, because Viktor is still best boy. Thank you very much.

Anyways, since I’m still waiting for my precious gay babies to return, I thought I should watch another sports anime, because I really like sports manga/anime and I haven’t watched anime in a while, so why not? I’ve read over 1300 chapters of Hajime no Ippo and every single sports manga Adachi Mitsuru ever wrote. I really like my sports manga/anime.

Apparently, thanks to Yuri on Ice Skate-Leading☆Stars was born. Well, I love figure skating, so yay, but any anime with a star in the middle of it’s title worries me. So I’ve watched 3 episodes and I’m done. It’s basically Yuri on Ice Boyband edition, just less offically gay and written about 10 times worse. I mean, I get it, it’s not targeted towards me, I’m “too old” for the intended demographic, but it could have been good.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly:

The Good: The animation is nice and the actual figure skating is looking pretty good with some nice shots. The idea of a figure skating team event is nice, too. It doesn’t really make much of a difference, because they could’ve just done the same story with the normal men’s singles figure skating event. I guess it was some kind of excuse to add more bishounen to the story. I like the general idea, but it’s not beneficial for the story at all to use a made up version of an existing sport instead of just using that sport.

The introduction of an artifical scoring system is AMAZING. We all know artistic sports with judges are very prone to questionale results here and there. The women’s single gold medal scandal at the 2014 Olympics for example and many fans are convinced Yuzuru Hanyu is getting downscored quite a lot, too. Anyways, for an anime to tackle this problem and intruduce a fair objective rating system is surprisingly good.

The Bad: The team event of Skate Leading is fiction, but it’s based off a real sport and the elements they’re showing are based off real elements, but I don’t like how they’re handling it. Pretty much in the first episode, they’re breaking all rules what’s humanly possible in figure skating. I just really don’t like when these boundaries are broken too much in stories with real existing sports, which is my main complain with Kuroko no Basket for example that borderlines on superpowers. The main Maeshima hasn’t been on the ice for years, he stopped still in Gradeschool and started again in Highschool, that’s at least 4 years not in skates. Children can do amazing stuff and it’s very beneficial to be small and light, if you want to spin fast, which is the main reason why so many top female gymnasts are so insanely young. I’m pretty sure gradeschoolers don’t jump quads, though. Maeshima, off the ice for at least 4 years, comes back and lands a perfect quad Flip. That is absolutely insane. If quads by themselves aren’t hard enough, a quad Flip is a harder one on top of that. In episode 2, he attempts a quint, a freakting quint. By the comments of the bystanders he actually managed 5 rotations and by going by his own comments, he only fell, because the ice was overused and his blade got stuck. If landing a quad flip with 0 practice after 4 years off the ice since Gradeschool is not insane, a quint is. The Axel has 1/2 extra rotation, which is the reason why a quad Axel has not been successfully landed during competition yet. The 4 + 1/2 rotations a quad Axel requires are considered the holy grail of jumps right now. Trying for a quint with another half rotation more, is absolutely nuts.

The Ugly: Yes, it get’s worse. The figure skating could have been done better from a technical standpoint, why not stick to what’s possible? What really makes it trash is the absolutely horrible writing. The story is super flat. Revenge and that’s it. Revenge for what? For a silly comment from a cocky child? It honestly dones’t even feel worth all the hassle. It looks like Maeshima is overreacting so much. Then there’s the characters and talking about Maeshima, he’s so unlikable I don’t even want to root for him. He’s cocky, he overestimates himself, he behaves like a 5-year-old, he changed his mind from “I’ll never figure skate again” to “let’s do this!” in 5 seconds flat, he mistreats his teammates and is overall all around an absolute ass. I didn’t even know you can mess up a main character this bad.

The main “antagonist” Shinozaki is pretty much an ass, too. Didn’t anyone feel the need to teach this kid some manners and respect for other people? No? Because that would explain why he’s so rude towards everyone around him. He beat Maeshima by 0.3 points in this Gradeschool competition. That’s super close, it’s not like he had a huge lead or anything… and he tells Maeshima to quit figure skating, because he’ll never be able to beat him? Like… hello? Maeshima could have won that day. Shinozaki just spits on every single person who’s below him in skill, which apparently is everyone since he’s never been beaten, but Maeshima is pretty damn close and he treats Maeshima like a cockroach. Well, that’s one way to get rid of your rivals, I guess. And that’s all there’s is to him.

The other characters are pretty much the same: one after another one dimensional caricatures of stereotypes as Fujioshi fanbait. The cutie, glasses-kun, the genius, etc. and they all have color coded hair, too! Isn’t that nice? They really are like a boyband… or the cast of a reverse harem. Are there even females in this anime? Like, do they even exist?

It’s absolute trash and not even the guilty pleasure or enjoyable kind. It’s just straight trash.

Dragonball Super

Am I in a litte bit of a Dragonball phase right now? Well… maybe, yes.

This is one of the anime I’ve grown up with, so it’s quite amazing to see it still being popular today and I have to admit Dragonball Super hits the comedy part quite well. Unfortunately the animation quality and layout of the fights aren’t as good as I hoped them to be, even more so after the amazing job they did with Kami to Kami. I’ve admittedly never been much of a fan of the movies, but most of them are not canon anyway, so that might be part of it.

Kami to Kami was the first movie in a long time, where Akira Toriyama actually worked on himself and it shows. A lot. This movie is a work of art, it’s absolutely on point: the animation, the quality, the comedy, the characters (well, most of them anyways) and above everything else the main fight between Beerus and Super Saiyan God Goku is absolutely breathtaking. And apparently I’m not the only one who thought that way, because it was popular enough to spawn another movie Resurrection of F and ultimately resulted in the making of Dragonball Super.

Unlike GT Super is considered canon, because Akira Toriyama is working on it himself, but as far as I know he contributes the general plot points an the rest is up to the animation team, which leaves a lot of room. As for the original series and Z they had the manga to rely on, which they don’t have this time and unfortunately it shows in the way the fights are constructed. It’s still fun to watch most of the time and I know the minute-long screaming in Z was annoying, but the fights aren’t as exciting as they used to be and I’m already overlooking substantial drops in animation quality on the character models, I’m just talking about the fights themselves.

One of the characters who’s standing out the most in Super is, in my opinion, Vegeta. They’re doing such an amazing job with him and walk a pretty nice line between awkwardly funny and dead serious. Also, he’s now pretty much a much better father than Goku ever was and shows genuine interest in his family, that he apparently came to love for real. It doesn’t really hurt we finally get to know why Goku took ChiChi and Vegeta Bulma and Piccolos reaction to that was just plain priceless.

Bulma and ChiChi are both very headstrong women and that’s exactly the reason why Vegeta and Goku got attracted to them, because that’s apparently what a Saiyan is looking for in a woman, because she needs to be able to handle a Saiyan family. Remember how many people said they’re bowing their heads to Bluma and ChiChi (even though the latter is annoying as fuck) for being able to raise Saiyans? Yeah, basically, if they wouldn’t haven been as headstrong as they are, Goku and Vegeta would’ve never gone for them.

Now, this is just my theory, but I personally believe Goku does not differenciate between his love for his family and his friends. He knew instinctively this particular women would be able to raise his children, so he went for it. I’m not saying he doesn’t love her, but I think he loves her and his sons the same way he loves his friends. I mean, his relationship with Gohan is closer to that of being best buddies instead of being father and son. Also, excuse me, but I don’t think Goku has ever been a good father for Gohan. I believe he’s somewhat trying with Goten, but that’s nowhere near the level of what we’re seeing from Vegeta, who refused to leave because his baby was about to be born soon – and not just out of fear for Bulma, but genuine interest in his child. Goku? He didn’t even understand why that’s a problem. I actually felt sad when Vegeta wasn’t allowed to name his daughter, because it looked like he was really looking forward to giving her a strong saiyan name.

I’m not saying Vegeta is the perfect dad, because he neglected Trunks a lot, too. I’m just saying he’s a better father than Goku, who always saw Gohan more as sparring partner and nakama to save the world, instead of a son. Heck, I’m supporting the guys saying Piccolo has always been more of a father figure for Gohan than his actual father. The father-of-the-year awards goes to Gohan anyway, who’s doing the most amazing job with Pan.

What brings me to the one person whom I think got heavily downgraded and that’s Videl. I have to be honest, I loved her when she was introduced: she was strong, she was a tomboy and she knew what she wanted. She complimented the awkward Gohan in the most amazing way, they turned out to be such am awesome duo. Unfortunately… she got the ChiChi-treatment. I’m just glad they didn’t turn her into the same nagging mess of a woman that ChiChi is, but she’s basically been downgraded to just being Gohans wife with their child. Where’s the headstrong teenager we all knew and loved? Now she’s sitting at a round table with Bulma and ChiChi talking about how she always loved girly things, too. What? WHEN? WHERE? That never happend in Z, they’re just trying to make her more domestic, which is sickening me.

I honestly would’ve preferred if Videl would’ve gotten the 18 treatment. Sure, she got domestic as well, she’s madly in love with her husband and daughter, but she NEVER lost her bite. She’s still kicking ass and neveryone knows not to mess with her. She’s even representing Universe 7 in the tournament of power and doing a damn well job at it. I’m sure ChiChi can still fight, I mean she even trained Goten up into a Super Saiyan and I’m sure Videl can also still fight, but it’s not worth anything anymore. Their place is being a wife and raising their kids and nothting else, that’s what their characters have been reduced to and that’s what’s annoying me. I really miss that temperatment of her’s that Vicel had, when she stood up to Gohan.

I’m not saying being a fulltime wife and mom is a bad thing per se. I’m just disappointed all of her other personaly traits got thrown out of the window. It’s like, dude Gohan, who did you marry again? And… why? Didn’t you like her for being independent, headstrong and reckless?

As for Gohan, he’s always been against fighting and only did so when he was forced to. He’s always been a sweet natured guy by heart, so being a loving dad totally suits him. From all the demi-saiyans, he’s probably the one who’s most aware of being a child of two worlds and he probably has the two most different hearts beating in his chest. He’s got the full figthing potential from his saiyan side, but the sensitive heart of a human. Wow, great thing he arguably had the worst childhood ever… and people are honestly surprised he stops training and fighting every second he gets.

I mean, sure, I’ve dedicated an entire post about the lost potential of Gohan, because he’s been buffed drastically for Goku to take the spotlight and it hurt so damn much seeing him useless, because you KNOW he could be the strongest. Piccolo just recently confirmed his potential to be “bottomless”, Gohan could be Earth’s strongest weapon, if he wished so. I’m really glad he decided to not completely abadoning his saiyan heritage and started training again. And guess what? He’s already strong enough to force Goku into his strongest form, but what I think is even better for him, is that he’s trying for new heights, but without relying on the Super Saiyan forms they’re been abusing ever since Freeza on Namek.

I’m always a sucker for meeting characters from the original series. Maybe it’s the nostalgia, but I just love seeing those characterst hat have been there since the very beginning, when Dragonball was a martial arts fantasy adventure and before it was turned into a superpower Sci-Fi festival. I admit I’m a huge fan of the Dragonball saga before Z, before there were aliens and when humans were still able to hold their own against the protagonists. When we had talking dinosaurs participating in the great tournament and a protagonist with a tail that nobody gave a fuck about, because… why? Between flying and talking cats, shapeshifting pigs and humanoid wolves, a kid with a monkey tail doesn’t even need much of an explanation, you just accept it as being part of this fantasy world.

 

Ballroom e Youkoso Anime and Manga Spoilers

Damn those necks.

Okay, so with Ballroom e Youkoso my arguably most anticipated anime of the year was released and we’re 5 episodes in and far enough to say something of substance.

First of all, I love the art direction. I know, the necks are a little bit too long, but overall I think it looks absolutely gorgeous and the animation quality is pretty nice. I was hoping for fully animated dances in the same way Yuri on Ice fully animated the figure scating programms, but that’s very unusual for anime, so I guess I kind of knew this wouldn’t happen? It’s still a tiny bit disappointing, though.

They make use of freeze frames quite a bit and while that’s not unusual in anime at all, the manga does such an amazing job of capturing the movement and power of dancing, I actually think the anime looks a little bit too static sometimes. I’ve seen much worse, don’t get me wrong, something in me just screams: “This is not right.” when the manga is creating better movement with still images than it’s animated counterpart. It’s still good! I just think it could be better.

It’s been such a long time that I’ve seen the start of the story, it made me realize a lot of stuff and it’s really funny seeing all the new people react to the characters, who you know will not be what they seem to be when they are introduced, but first things first.

I noticed I’m really missing Chii-chan so much, not just because she’s one of my favorite characters and I totally ship her with Tatara, but also because she’s giving Tatara a real challenge and brings out his worse. She makes him suffer, she makes him question his ablilities, but she also makes him move forward the absolute most. Right now in these first 5 episodes, everything came so easy to Tatara, he’s basically been given everything on a silver tablet with the best wishes from the Chef so far and it will continue this way until Chii-chan arrives and messes with everything Tatara thought he knew.

Tatara is a total beginner and yes he first struggles a bit with the Waltz, but he gets his lessons for free, he is taught by literally the best dancer in Japan, he gets his suit for free, he gets to dance with two very experienced and advanced girls to learn from and has the ability to learn extreamly fast by seeing and remembering basically everything about dancing. Explaining doesn’t work very well for him, but seeing it does.

I really didn’t notice it that much when I was reading the manga, but Tatara is very priviledged – and has the balls to try and go after Shizuku as a partner, because he has a crush on her, even though she’s partnered with Hyodo. I don’t want to sound too mean, because he’s still training a lot, even at home, but I stand by my words, he has it very easy at the start and it takes until Chii-chan arrived that he’s actually forced to struggle for real for the first time.

I guess having it easy at the beginning makes up for all the struggle he has to go through with Chii-chan, because once it starts, it’s not going to stop. Tatara learns to suffer and is forced to face his weak spots, but creates something very unique together with Chii-chan. In a way, Chii-chan is the 3rd experienced & advanced girl he gets to pair up with, but she’s his first real partner and unlike Mako and Shizuku, Chii-chan has a whole damn lot of learning to do herself, because she always danced the male part and never the female part. So, you end up with a beginner who doesn’t know how to lead and an advanced dancer who doesn’t know how not to lead. Perfect combination for trouble. Awesome.

It’s actually even more awesome that in recent chapters they’ve started to discover a way to work together and bring out both their strenghts in their dance. I hope they can move forward from being the dysfunctional couple in desync to being a real unity, because in the rare moments they were, they were freaking unstoppable. They complement each other so well, there’s no way I want to see Tatara leave her for Shizuku at one point. If that’s ever going to happen, I’m dropping this manga, Tatara and Chii-chan absolutely need to stay together.

Talking about staying together, I love Hyodo and episode 4 made me realize again just why. This manga/anime has a great talent and that is: introducing an antagonist as some evil guy, that ends up in a friendly rivalry with the main protagonist. It happend with Hyodo, who’s some kind of mentor/elder brother to Tatara in manga right now and it also happend with Gaju. It’s so funny seeing all the people watching the anime complaining over Hyodo, wishing he would break up with Shizuku for Tatara’s sake and now they’re upset about Gaju “snatching Shizuku away” from Tarara being the mean guy… when it fact they all have their partners, they all will stay with their partners, Tatara will get his own partner and they will all become pretty good friends.

They are still rivals, but I love that they’re friends at the same time in a very healthy way. They do shenaningans, they mess up, they tease each other, but everything is on friendly terms and they rely onto each other when needed, too. In case of Hyodo, these could very well be his first actual frindships and Gaju? I mean, he’s even messing with Tatara in school all the time, they’re partners in crime.

In shounen, and Ballroom e Youkoso is a shounen, you usually have the main protagonist and his close ring of friends, his nakama. In case of Tatara, his “nakama” are his rivals, wich is kind of cool to be honest. I’d be interesting to see if Masami joins this ring of friends/rivals as well. So far, he tried his best not to and be the long wolf. He’s a very different type of guy and I think he might always stay more reserved, but I think he could very well become friends with the rest of the group.

And by the way, Akira is pretty ingenius as a comic relieve. She’s not just funny in the way she interacts with Chii-chan, there’s a very serious background to all of this and I hope to see more of her. Not because she’s gay for Chii-chan, remember I ship TataraxChii-chan, but because of her great dynamic with Chii-chan.

Before I finish this, I need to get this out of my system: You don’t teach Slow Foxtrott to a beginner. You… don’t. It’s too hard, even the basic steps are long and complicated, it’s a dance for advanced dancers and nothing Tatara should learn after Waltz as his first dance ever.

Too many interests

I have way too many interests… and still waste my time onthe internet doing nothing most of the time.  You know, like writing a blog noboidy is going to read anyway about my crazy interests nobody is going to find interesting, even if he stumbles into it.

So, as I just mentioned, I have a lot of interests and I often find myself very much into something for a short period of time, before I move on to another. I just can’t do everything at the same time, but unfortunately I tend to neglect something, if I’m currently into something else.

Hold your horses, I’m a responsible person (at least I hope so), I will always care for my guinea pigs as best as I possibly can and if that includes feeding my big girl 7 times a day again, like I used to when she was growing up very ill, than I will do that. Our pets are part of our lifes, but we are our pet’s entire life. These are living creatures depending on our care, no matter what happens I will always provide the best possible care for them. I love them to death, I wanted to have them for at least 10 years before I finally got them and they are certainly not just a phase of mine, but treasured pets and part of my family.

I’m talking more about stull like… movies, games, anime and manga, stamp collections – this is all stuff that I like. I also have a full time job. And guinea pigs, including a very high maintance individual, that needs special care and a special diet. I also love doing postcrossing, something that I really really need to pick up again. I’m into photography, but I need to get my lazy ass outside more to actually take photos of… well… something. I love to go to the zoo and basically love everything connected to animal care. I have a huge book about the green tree python and one about the genetics of corn snakes, but even though owning a snake is something I can imagine, I will probably never actually own a snake.

I also have books about strawberry poison-dart frogs, dwarf hamsters and box turles – I’m not going to own any of those for sure. I’m interested in it, though. I have to admit I hate learning for exams, but I do love learning about the stuff that I like. This is what I loved about the time I went to University: I was able to do what I really wanted to do for the most part. I was able to attend a lecture about the origins of the universe, starting with the big bang all the way until the development of the first cell on earth, as part of my studies. No, I did not study astrophysics, I studied biology for teachers. How does that make any sense? I don’t know, but I do know the universe is finite and still expanding to this day, thanks to that lecture.

Surprinsingly, I’m not into US TV shows at all and even though I’m a pretty nerdy girl, I don’t like US comics.

Omegaverse

I though I’d never say what I’m about to say, but I’m obsessed with Yuri on Ice Omegaverse fanfictions right now. After 2 weeks and 65+hours of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (and I’m still only halfway done, DAMN this game is freaking amazing – I’m currently on Death Mountain and the game actually expects me to buy a helmet for 2000 rupees? REALLY? When the chest part was like… 600 rupees? I may be swimming in money, but 2000 rupees for an item that’s not even important still hurts. Time to sell some more diamonds.), I took a break from my Nintendo Switch and buried myself in Yuri on Ice again.

Did I EVER mention I love Yuri on Ice? *cough* Yeah, Victuuri is my life.

Either way, when I first heared about Omegaverse, I was disgusted. I’m no expert by any means, but here’s the basics of what I’ve learned about it:

• people have secondary genders: alpha, beta and omega
• these secondary gener roles are very animalistic and based on sexual behaviorism of animals
• betas are basically “normal people”
• alphas are strong, leaders and at the top of the hierarchy, they are very protective over “their” omega, they go into ruts, knot with omegas while mating and can bind an omega to themselves
• omegas are the lowest in the hierarchy, but are often treated as a “prize”, they go into heat (a time in which they are extreamly vulnerable), they usually build nests during heat, can get pregnant and may bond with an alpha
• both alphas and omegas have a very strong distinctive smell that attracks them to each other, betas are ususaly either not affected, or can’t smell it

As you can see… very animalistic. There’s a lot more, like growling, sexual drive going absolutely mad, leaving one’s scent on the other, fighting between alphas for an omega and so on. There’s so much more, but I’m going to go into any more detail. I’ve read a short descibtion about a fanfiction where deltas were mentioned and I was like: “NOPE! I’m glad I got the general grip on alpha/beta/omega, please don’t knot my brain any more.” and another one that was an alphaomega, so… kind of a mix between an omega and an alpha – something like an alpha that goes into heat or something. As you can see: it varies a lot.

Now… I’m not just reading everything I see. Like I said, I was disgusted the first time I learned about it. It being so extremaly animalistic, it’s also very sterotypical and I personally support equality in gender roles. One of Victuuris many charming traits is that Yuri and Victor are in an equal relationship. They support each other, they lean on each other and even though Victor is Yuris coach and emotional support, you see him fail and Yuri stepping up to expain what he needs. The rings were Yuri’s idea. Their Ice Dance at the end of the final episode very clearly shows the lead changing between Victor and Yuri as a beautiful protrayal of their equal relationship.

Therefore, I prefer Omegaverse with Victor as the omega and Yuri as the alpha. It’s the exact opposite of what you would expect and I hate fanfictions/fanarts with domestic passive Yuri who’s at Victoir’s feet, because that’s NOT how their relationship works. With omega Victor and alpha Yuri, you have to challenge gender roles and expectations comming with them. Unless you want to write something completely out of character, you need to challenge both characters with their secondary gender. In one fancfiction Victor  has mental problems with going into heat and he had suppressed his heats so long, his body forced him into one, leading to a doctor’s visit who denied him any more suppressants forcing Victor to face his fears of being an omega. Or alpha Yuri who sees himself as a failure and thinks he should’ve been an omega or beta instead. He’s shaken with fear when Victor wants to share his heat with Yuri, but turns out to be possessive and protective when he needs to be.

Yuri on Ice was a show about equality and acceptance, where not a single soul  discriminates if you love someone of the same gender as your own or not. It’s a show about two very different characters finding, supporting and helping each other to become equal partners. The last thing I need to read/see about this show are fanworks about stoneage old sterotypical gender roles.

A few thoughts

Okay, first of all: Where’s Yuri on Ice season 2? WHERE IS IT? I need my gaylicious babies.

Apparently, everything was planned from the start and nothing was changed in favor for a possible second season. I’m not entirely sold on that, but whatever. From what I heared a second season will be made, if the DVD/BluRay sales are good. Judging by the huge waves the TV broadcast made, I’m hoping sales will be good enough. Since Yuri now lives and trains with Victor in Russia, this is the perfect opportunity to get more background on Victor, who’s still more of a walking mystery than anything. Also: more Victor skating, please? God, this man is just too delicious for his own good.

 

Akagami no Shirayukihime. I mean, I love this manga. Contrary to what I initially believed, I absolutely love it. It’s one of the sweetest romance stories I’ve read in a while and quickly advanced to become one of my favorite romance manga. If Yuri and Victor are a pair of sexy gay deliciousness, Shirayuki and Zen are a cute bubble of innocence. I love seeing them together, even though I think it’s quite ironic Shirayuki flees from her home country to escape from a prince who wants to marry her and ends up in another country in the arms of another prince who wants to marry her.

Either way, the latest chapters are great and all, but I really miss my cutsey dose of Shirayuki/Zen love. I get it: Zen is trying his best to be able to stay with Shirayuki permanently together in the castle where his mother is currently “ruling”, taking over her place. This needs time and preparation. Yeah, but… I remember getting impatient when we haven’t seen Ed in Fullmetal Alchemist for half a year after he was massively injured and the story focussed on something else, before he gloriously reappeared (seriously, that was freaking amazing, but that’s FMA for you), but if I’m not mistaken we’re getting close to 1 & 1/2 years since Shirayuki was sent on her mission away from Zen. They met somewhere in between and currently the focus is more on the aids and as much as I adore Mitsuhide and Kiki and their own little love story, but I really really really miss Shirayuki and Zen being lovely dovely.

 

Shokugeki no Soma took a very sudden turn in events and now it looks like it’ll be over relatively soon. Judging by the popularity of the manga, I’m a bit surprised by that and I’m not liking the decision of this new Shokugeki. I mean, that’s just bending the rules to have some plot convenience. I know that happens a lot in shounen, especially in long running sounen, but it still kind of bothers me. It’s like saying: by the way, the ultimate weapon against all of our problems have been there the entire time, if someone would’ve just been nice enough to bring it up, which strangely never happend. Yeah. Stange, isn’t it?

Saibas backstory was pretty cool, though. Why do I seem to like the backstories of father figures in shounen so much? Isshin had a damn awesome backstory in Bleach as well. On the other hand: Isshin as well as Saiba are some pretty cool dads. I don’t think Saiba has been a very good father, though. He’s cool, but not a good father. He loves Soma, sure, and it’s not like he did everything wrong, but some of his decisions regarding Somas upbringing are very questionable.

 

Ballroom e Youkoso is back to a regular release and it’s as great as always. I don’t even know what else to say. It’s back, that’s awesome! And the two chapters released since it’s comeback have been awesome. Not much dancing, but more character and the right dose of humor sprinkled in here and there. I love Akiras and Chii-chans relationship, I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of it, even after this competition is over. Furthermore we got a glance at the possibility how easy it is to loose for Chii-chan and Tatara. Rememeber: they promised to break up, if they don’t win and winning will be a miracle, if they don’t get it together soon. Thank you Hyoudou for ripping Tataras shoulder apart, so instead of being too stiff he’s too loose now. … great…