>This page is for collecting various manga and anime I really liked that don't really warrant their own page.
>Black Jack is a classic manga by Osamu Tezuka starring the titular doctor, a mysterious unlicensed surgeon who takes on the most difficult and impossible cases for exorbitant sums. He is accompanied by his small assistant Pinoko, who has declared herself her wife (though he sees her as his daughter).
my black jack tag
Black Jack, interestingly, has one of the first trans characters in manga! The character talking to Black Jack in the above is Kei Kisaragi. He works as a ship's doctor and is one of the few recurring character in the series. He was a fellow medical student alongside Black Jack and they had a short romance. Then Kei was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. In order to save his life, Black Jack had to perform a complete hysterectomy and ooectomy (removal of the ovaries) on him. After this, Kei decides to live as a man. Part of this is due to scientific understanding at the time that believed that the lack of estrogen from the ovaries would cause one to masculinize, but even then Kei is happy to live as a man and is treated as a man in modern official art, such as this card set from 2003 that features him as the King of Hearts.
After Kei transitions he and Black Jack break it off, but Kei does later admit that he still has feelings for Black Jack, and perhaps if the manga had been written today this love could have been requited or at least have a bit more closure for Black Jack. But yeah, he's great!
Official art of Phos hugging Pinoko, drawn by Haruko Ichikawa in 2013 for Black Jack’s 40th Anniversary
I love how fuckin feral Black Jack and Pinoko are all the time
>It's a fun series with fun characters, even if it's probably never going to actually conclude... ShinRan is one of my very few Acceptable Hetero Ships™ (even if they're absolutely bi4bi).
> I'm not a super huge fan of the orignal Devilman manga, but DEVILMAN crybaby, Devilman Grimoire, and Devilman Lady are pretty good.
>I'm currently working my way through the series, starting with the original Mobile Suit Gundam. I really like it! I even got a little model kit of the White Base and a little gacha figurine of the Guncannon.
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“I'm sorry, Lalah. I still do have a place to go home to... and nothing could make me happier...! I'm sure you understand. We can be together any time we want... Lalah...”
I like to sit down and think about how good Bright Noa is- like, we joke around a lot about how he constantly goes around clocking people but honestly? he’s a wonderful person. He found himself, super young, in charge of a ship full of refugees and a super important weapon, with a crew that was mostly civilians, constantly threatened by the enemy, without asking for any sort of authority. And he just. Went for it. He saw what he had to do and did it. He just went “I guess I am the dad now” and took whole responsibility for everything
Of course he has no fucking patience. He is about as subtle as sandpaper. But he is honest, responsible, brave and he only knows one way and it’s forward. I love that he has no qualms to throwing down with Amuro. A lot of other people would take time to try to talk to him and coerce him slowly into getting back in the Gundam, but Bright doesn’t have the privilege of time and no patience. Bright, like Amuro, acts by impulse and his first tought is telling Amuro that he thinks he’s a fucking worm. And tbf it’s effective, even if it doesn’t really help their relationship, it spurs Amuro back into action because Bright has shown himself to be worthy of respect and nobody wants someone they look up to to think they’re a coward.
I love that Bright has his heart in the right place even when he is super blunt. I love his integrity and conviction and determination. I love how quickly he adapts to the situations he’s thrown into, his discipline and how he tolerates exactly zero (0) bullshit from anyone, whether it comes from adults or children. I fucking love Bright Noa and he’s more of a parental figure to me than my actual dad
> I love this dumb group of found family morons.
Hey, remember that time Arina Tanemura made a magical girl manga where the main character was told that she needed to be a virgin to keep her powers, and if she was no longer ‘pure’ she’d lose them, but then she had sex anyway with the guy she loved, and not only did she still have her powers afterwards, but she realized that in the end she didn’t even need her powers, she actually managed to win because she decided that she didn’t want to use her powers but only needed to be herself.
Remember that? That was awesome.
>I ended up watching this on a whim and was very pleasantly surprised. The vast majority of the cast is nonbinary, the character designs are so damn amazing, the anime is really cool and I love the soundtrack, I love Sensei so much, and the color spreads remind me of some of the artsier Sailor Moon color spreads.
you, confused: hnk doesn't seem that fun to read because things just get progressively worse and man why do you keep reading it? you must really enjoy it
me, desperately clinging to the pages via my laptop screen: i'm the only friend phos has left. if i stop reading they'll be alone
> I'll admit, I'm not really super into the story of this series, but I really love the side characters and character designs, so I made this to collect some things I like for it.
>Who would win in a fight, jonathan joestar or all might?
you fool, they would shake hands like gentlemen. they both win because they won each other’s friendship
Look, I'm going to be level with you all. Unless something amazing and drastic happens between now (03/03/19) and the time you're reading this, I fucking cannot stand Bakugo. Cool, I don't give a damn if he's secretly really nice with a marshmallow center. Actions are what matter, and even now after character development he's still a fucking asshole. If he's so goddamned insecure that he has to constantly lash out or whatever, he needs to see a therapist, not be allowed to continue training to be a hero, where he's going to have to interact with all sorts of people.
I honestly don't understand why anyone in-universe can stand him. He's loud, rude, and such a fucking sore loser asshole that he has to be chained to get a winning medal because he doesn't like how exactly the battle turned out. Part of what really turned me off from the actual story was how Bakugo was somehow charismatic and sought after, even though he actively insults and denigrates everyone around him- it just felt like some sort of blue-and-orange morality thing because in real life that sort of person would have zero friends or admirers. And this is ignoring his years of bullying Deku. If I was in control of the BNHA universe, I would make him take a gap year or something to get a fucking grip.
Literally everything about him just makes me angry and miserable because so much of his 'character' is just straight up the bullies I grew up with and abuse from my parents. A lot of the time, I can't even stand him in fics unless it's severely AU or he's getting comeuppance because of just how upsetting he is.
i’m just so full of love ok
i love them all
yes or no, do the students of class 1-A sleep with stuffed toys?
Assorted Headcanons I have for BNHA
I like to headcanon Izuku, Bakugo, and Satou as trans guys, Jirou, Ochako, and Hagakure as trans girls, and Kaminari as nonbinary. Kirishima's def gay, as is Jirou and she's also Momo's girlfriend. I also like h/c-ing Deku and Todoroki as some flavor of ace and arospec so that they have a queerplatonic relationship. Deku, Iida, Kouda, and Aizawa are also all autistic. I'll also admit I'm not insanely into Shinsou so instead of Mineta I like Shiozaki taking his place in Class 1-A. Aizawa and Present Mic are also married, with Aizawa being ace and homoromantic and Present Mic being pan. I don't really have any other strong headcanons for the rest of the class, except maybe a bit of love for Ojiro and Hagakure as a ship...
What does Class 1-A smell like?
bonus
>I honestly have never read this series or watched the anime. I just like the memes and some of the side characters.
my naruto tag>I enjoy this franchise quite a bit. I've seen parts of Futari wa Precure, KiraKira, and Mahoutsukai; I've only completely finished Hugtto so far, but I plan on working my way through the rest of the series.
my precure tagi am a george kurai hater first and a human second
>God, I love this manga so much. The art is super beautiful, the story intriguing, and it has the perfect balance of horror, angst, and comic relief. Shame about the anime though...
my tpn tag
Another thing I love about The Promised Neverland is that Ray, Emma, and Norman are incredibly close to a canon OT3 triad, and I love them so much?
The Promised Neverland follows Emma and her foster siblings, who live a seemingly idyllic life with their foster mother Isabella as they await adoption. Their paradise is abruptly shattered, however, when Emma and Norman witness the truth: they're not being adopted, but shipped off to become high-grade food for literal monsters. Horrified, they and their siblings plan their escape.
The most effective horror stories aren't about the monster itself, but about the fear that monster represents. These fears can range from the neutral (death), the regressive (xenophobia), or the progressive (the effects of bigotry), but they're always tapping into some broader anxiety felt by the target audience. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but a good monster is never just a monster.
Because monsters serve as metaphors, they also have the potential to map onto a variety of ideas or concerns. The nightmare depicted in The Promised Neverland serves as social commentary, but that doesn't mean it's only one social commentary.
On a general level, the series addresses fears about growing up, entering "the real world," and realizing the adults in our lives aren't always truthful (or even good people). On a more culturally specific level, Neverland's competitive education system and concept that "smart kids taste better" likely reflects the pressures kids in Japan feel to succeed in school—only to one day be "devoured" by a job that might work them to death.
You could also read anti-capitalist and pro-diversity stances in the series, given that the children feed "the rich" and the foster family is comprised of kids from a variety of racial backgrounds seeking a world where they can live together in peace. There's a lot going on in Neverland, which allows its monster story to resonate with different readers for different reasons.
But for Emma (and much of the series' female audience), there's another, even more specific fear bundled up in this horror story: the traditionally limited options available to women, and the restrictive gender norms many girls must fight against to live the way they want.
As a protagonist, Emma stands out in the landscape of Shonen JUMP, not just because she's a girl but because she has a lot of traditionally masculine qualities. Rather than serving as the level-headed "brains" of the group, as is often the case for female characters in action-oriented series, Emma's greatest strengths are her athleticism, courage, and conviction.
Like Deku in My Hero Academia, Emma is The Protector and Moral Core, the one who refuses to lose hope or compromise her values. She's clever, yes, but she's too honest to manage all the twists and lies required of the team's escape plan.
Instead, she entrusts Norman and Ray, her closest male friends, with the bulk of the scheming. And, when one of them hesitates or tries to give up on saving the whole family, Emma's there to push them forward again.
Emma is undeniably admirable, but also not what many people think of when they hear the words "female character in a shounen." Her "tomboy" personality also stands in sharp contrast to the ideal of the "good wife and wise mother" that's been pushed onto women in Japan (and much of the world, though maybe not in those exact words) for over a century.
So it's no surprise that, in Neverland's dystopia, that's exactly the role offered to her.
A few volumes into the series, we learn that not every child is destined to become food. The highest-performing girls are given a "choice": they can die, or they can help the monsters with their harvest. (The highest-performing boys likely have a similar option, given that we see adult men working with the monsters, but as of chapter 155 it hasn't been explicitly confirmed.)
Through flashbacks, Neverland depicts an academy where the "elite" girls compete to survive. Those who make it become "Sisters" and, if they continue to excel, give birth and become a "Mom" on one of the farms. They then spend their lives raising new generations of children to eventually turn over for consumption, thus continuing the cycle.
It's a dramatic but emotionally effective representation of living as a girl in many parts of the world. Even today, there's a tremendous amount of pressure placed on young women to marry, bear children, and teach their kids the "right" way to live. And while literal death might not be the alternative (though sometimes it is), economic and social barriers often make it feel that way.
What really makes Neverland's social critique so sophisticated and terrifying, though, is how well it understands the mechanisms in place to keep its oppressed characters in line. Not only are the girls provided with a non-choice ("join us or die"), but that choice doesn't even guarantee their safety. They aren't automatically selected as Sisters and Moms, but rather as "candidates" who must battle each other for those positions.
The forced competition turns them all into enemies, ensuring they'll be too busy fighting a fake opponent to band together against the real one. Sister Krone demonstrates the effects of this conditioning when she arrives on the farm and immediately starts plotting against Isabella, hoping to take her Mom position.
Krone's relationship with Isabella contrasts sharply with the camaraderie between Emma and her foster sisters, further highlighting the fabricated nature of the adults' antagonism. There's nothing "natural" about the stereotype of catty women forever in competition with each other, and the series takes pains to show that.
Yet while the adult women in Emma's life have done undeniably monstrous things, The Promised Neverland depicts them as distinct from the actual monsters. Over the course of these early volumes, the audience learns that Krone and Isabella hate the system as much as Emma does; but, unable to escape it, they found ways to justify their participation within it.
Although there are significant issues with Krone's character design and position as the only prominent Black woman (which I, a white person, am not qualified to really comment on), she is ultimately written as a fierce survivalist and sympathetic figure. The same is true of Isabella, who decided the best she could do was help the kids live as happily as they could before their deaths.
When first Krone and then Isabella realize they've failed in their tasks (and failure in this world always means death), they reveal their true feelings and throw their support behind Emma. Their last acts are ones of rebellion, as they provide what help they can to increase the kids' chances of escape. With their final lines of dialogue, they pray that Emma's family finds a way out of this broken world.
The smartest social commentaries understand that most of the people who perpetuate a harmful system are themselves victims of it. While Neverland never excuses Krone and Isabella's complicity, it also offers them sympathy and a form of redemption. They might have been forced into this system, but that doesn't mean they have to be loyal to it.
(And, as a cheerier aside, there's a bonus comic where Krone and Isabella, freed from their constant anxieties about survival, sit down, complain about their jobs, and soon become friends. It's a joke comic, but it's also an effective depiction of how quickly barriers fall when the forces that erected them are no longer present.)
While it's hard to fault Isabella and Krone for wanting to live, they still serve as cautionary tales about the dangers of giving in to a toxic system and becoming a part of the very thing that's hurting you. They thought their options were "join or die," but in truth their hopeless rage was a kind of living death—and, in the end, they were still destroyed by the monsters they'd tried to appease.
Emma sees these non-choices for what they are and rejects them both. When Isabella, in a skewed attempt at kindness, suggests that Emma "accept despair" because it's less painful than fighting a doomed battle, Emma flatly refuses her.
Emma won't die, nor will she submit to a restrictive role that continues to destroy others. She won't resign herself to being defined solely by her place within a traditional family structure—to being a Sister or a Mom and nothing else.
She may get hurt along the way (and she does, both physically and emotionally), but she'll keep fighting even so. Unlike the adults around her, Emma will find a better path.
And, with the help of her foster siblings and some unexpected assists from her Sister and Mom, she does exactly that. After four tense volumes, Emma and her family make it to the outside world.
They almost don't make it all out together, though, because Emma isn't the only one struggling with gendered expectations. During their escape, the oldest boy Ray tries to violently sacrifice himself to help them succeed. It's as if he's attempting to slot into the traditional role of the absent father- or brother-figure who nobly gives his life (whether on the battlefield or at the office) "for the sake of the family."
Emma rejects this role as soundly as she did her own narrow options. She stops Ray from killing himself and encourages him to live as an active part of their family going forward. Instead of a one-sided sacrifice, both Emma and Ray give themselves the same injury to ensure their escape.
Once outside, they promise to protect and build their family "together." It's a vow that suggests a new familial structure based on equality and mutual aid, rather than the narrow (and harmful) gender roles of "breadwinner" and "homemaker."
Emma's story is far from over and her family's journey just beginning. If the outside world is synonymous with freedom, then freedom has its own share of dangers and (sometimes literal) pitfalls. But they have a choice, and they have each other, and that means they have hope. This new path may not be easy, but it's a damn sight better than the roads they took before.
This meta was taken in part from this article, with my own commentary added in.
>
Here’s the thing regarding the season two Emma, Norman and Ray reunion- (if a second season of the Promised Neverland anime existed, which of course it doesn't, I mean)
In the manga, Ray and Emma have gone though so so much together before they meet Norman. It makes their bond stronger, and really sets their dynamic in stone. This also leads up to the eventual seven walls arc and the moment where Ray says this to Emma:
Not to mention they took out all of Emma’s character development, individuality, and personal strength.
it’s more like:
Oh? Norman’s back? Great.
Emma is “saved” from her misery. Emma and Ray were hopeless on their own anyway.
There were no badass Emma moments; the anime did not give her a chance to shine and to show that she is capable of taking care and providing for herself and all her family (and found family).
(This is why the goldy pond arc is so important: the responsibility of Emma taking and leading the 40+ children, defeating lewvis on her own, doing this without ray, learning to cope, etc.)
so now is Emma just going to sit back and let Norman take the wheel? it’s like to the writers, it’s not a girls job to fight. EMMA DOESN’T NEED TO BE SAVED. SHE SAVES HERSELF (with the help of others, but by herself nonetheless)
I am so mad at the anime for taking our real Emma away. The Emma who is wholeheartedly devoted to protecting her family. The Emma who is optimistic in the worst of circumstances. The Emma who doesn’t rely on Norman or Ray to save her. The strong Emma. The real Emma.
The Emma we all know and love.
