Are...are You Speaking From Experience Saiki? Be Honest Saiki When You Were A Young Child Did You Use

its been like that lately

going back to my old ways

THIS IS REALLY GOOD I LOVE THIS OH MY GOSH ITS SO COOOL

Pokémon trainer Ranboo !!

Forgot to post this here too lol

luffy 🙂 / the cooler luffy 😎

ok watched all of elusive samurai season 1, general thoughts

cue my latin teacher saying "they all died, it was a very long time ago" about all the characters. i have no idea how the series ends but basing it on a real guy who did not succeed is very interesting. theres a time limit of 20 yrs before tokiyuki dies so i wonder if they're going to follow through with that

the cg horses and specifically the dog hunting scene are the bane of my life but everything else is so gorgeous. going insane from the animation, and the style changes are sooooooooo cool im in love. the peacock feather ?? divine bird ?? wing effects that are drawn around tokiyuki are so gorgeous. generally any sequence with him fighting is crazy to watch

interesting eye and god themes going on (buddha, yorishige's future visions, takauji's eye, those random flashes of insight that some characters get when they see through their opponent's attacks, edit: how could i forget the emperor's laser eyes)

also a meta commentary about stories???? it's very story within a story of them ... hmmm...

very absurd and sometimes dark, the gore and moments of terror are executed well again i would give my life for the animators who draw certain decapitation sequences in this anime

overall 7/10, some of the jokes and fanservice feel out of place and put me off from enjoying it more but everything else is woah

Everything about Takauji in this episode was sooooo unsettling and creepy I was gripped in my seat. Would

Aaaaand decided to post at least one wip! Maybe I’ll post more. I did this in early spring because there’s nothing like celebrating Snufkin’s arrival to MoominValley like…. Doing moominvalley in November stuff I guess. Lol

also as I was posting this I saw this in one of the frames and adsgddsfsdsd

Au where when Saiki was younger, he sometimes ran into Aren's mom injured and helped her out, and he became something like an unofficial medic to her and her little group. Sometimes when Saiki was patching her up, she would vaguely talk about her kid around his age and stuff. Well, she wouldn't mention Aren by name or talk about him out loud but Saiki just reads her thoughts and so he vaguely knows about her little Hoodlum but then she and her gang moved and Saiki being a little too good at Rock Paper Scissors happened and so they got separated and drifted apart.

Only for some odd years later (Like, four or five) and Aren transfers into Saiki's class with his whole trying to be a normie spiel and how he is totally not gonna be a punk anymore. Aren doesn't really look like his parents (In the same way of how Kusuo and Kusuke don't really look like Kurumi) so Saiki doesn't really suspect anything- and neither does Aren, and they carry on. Imagine a similar situation as the street magician Chouno Uryoku and how his ex-wife did not look anything like how the dude thought of her.

Saiki never really got out of his Street Medic habits and Aren sometimes coming to school with some scrapes from gangsters either trying to pick a fight or drag him back into his past only exacerbates Saiki's medic habits. Like, he always used to carry bandages and alcohol wipes and antibiotic ointment, but had talked to just carrying bandages because a whole medkit had been annoying to carry and needless for an esper like him. Though, he had started carrying a bit more for Kaidou and Hairo when they become closer. (Saiki adds the antibiotic ointment back into his repertoire for Aren)

When they gets close enough and Aren invites them to his house is when the fun really starts. Kaidou and Nendo find Aren's baby album and look through it and everything. But Saiki spots a smaller album on the book shelf and is thinking "Better not show too many of these family albums to those two, who knows what we might see" trying not to think about the album collections documenting his parent's dates and stuff.

And when Aren comes back into the room the four are just vibing and hanging out, Aren even bought out some Coffee jelly as an offering thank you for coming ya introverted bean. So, even Saiki is in a pretty good mood. And then they hear the front door open and close with shuffling and stuff with a 'We're home, Hoodlum!' and Aren going to greet his parents like the totally good kid he is, and Saiki is like "??? That voice sounds kinda familar."

And whadduya know!

When Aren's mom turns around from putting stuff in the fridge, Saiki instanting recognizes her and its the same lady he helped all those years ago! I imagine its not a big dramatic moment but there is a "What a surprise" moment. And she's just like "Haha! Little Medic, you're friends with my brat, what a small world! I hope he's treating you and his other friends right."

And Aren is standing there after trying to introduce his friends like "What." Kaidou says "You know Saiki???? But he never leaves his house!" But Nendou is the one to be like "Wow, Aren's Mom, how do you know my buddy?"'

To which Aren's Mom says briefly that Saiki used to get discounts from the stores near her hangouts (Rough part of town, but great prices for stingy child espers) and how he used to help her and some of her girls. Aren is over here dumbfounded, and Kaidou is just like, "wouldn't he have been like, six, a decade ago??" That Saiki pointedly does not confirm.

But Saiki and Aren's mom are over here just casually talking while all the other teenagers are standing there, bewildered. Like, Aren is over here being like "Hold on, I thought Saiki was a goody-goody, He knows my mom?!?" Meanwhile:

Aren's Mom: How's that brother of yours?

Saiki: Moved to Britain and is still a sore loser.

Aren's Mom: Haha, good to know he's not bothering ya! So, how's my little hoodlum doing in class? Not being a brat is he?

Saiki in a true show of open candidness: If he was a bother, he wouldn't still be in my class.

And Kaidou and Aren are nearly shitting their pants from this being like "SAIKI?????" with it just completely flying over Nendo's head.

Then, the rest of the hang out is Aren's Mom sharing stories of tiny Aren while Saiki is eating more Coffee Jelly

this panel has quickly become a contender for my favorite of the series so far

large tsukasa bias heads up for this post lol, but mostly marvelling at the narrative and evocative power one panel can have because like. god. this panel is SO good. it's so simple!! and yet!!!! even my first time through it made me pause because there's such a palpable energy to it--which, having finished the chapter like 7 times over now haha, i can now say is very strong calm before the storm energy.

i love how this panel functions as like, a thesis statement for tsukasa. he's so perfectly centered, looking head on, his koku joudais on either side of him, the panel cut off right under his stab wound. this panel reads like a portrait.

and the feelings this one single expression evokes!! he's so at ease, and it makes the audience so not at ease.

because we know what "tsukasa" means. we know what tsukasa can do. and the panel immediately proceeding this tells us: akane and the clock keepers don't know what "tsukasa" means. this panel is like a stinger score in a horror movie as a character heads straight into a threat they can't see, while the audience sees the threat plainly but is helpless to warn them.

i especially love this panel coming off of all the chapters we've just gotten. we've seen so many shades and states of tsukasa in the past few chapters, including a very new state:

i've been puzzling over these panels all month, trying to figure out what felt so... distinct? about them, and 109 gave such good context for them. 108 tsukasa feels new because he is a tsukasa we hadn't seen before! this is a tsukasa who lost. but the energy in these 108 panels is really illuminated by the above panel from 109. this is not only a tsukasa who lost, but a sore loser! yet, not actually too deeply bothered; honestly, the best term i can think of here is butt hurt lmao. like. he's not actually scared, he's just sulking. 108 tsukasa looks like he lost a board game, or like he came up against a video game boss he's having trouble defeating--and in this panel from 109, he looks like he just figured out how to win. he's been puzzling over how to get out of this situation, huffy over not getting it immediately when normally he blows through challenges like this, and now he sees his checkmate.

in fact, i think there's a comparison to be made between this 109 panel, and this 92 panel:

the same symmetry, the same smile. centered in the frame, looking head on, undaunted, his koku joudai on either side of him. in his element. putting all his puzzle pieces together, and having fun with it.

i love the line "tsukasa. my name is tsukasa." coming right after such an out of character loss, and right before his return to how we first meet him, how he's been this whole time.

and one last panel comparison, just for the sake of breaking my own heart:

by himself, just tsukasa. not yugi tsukasa, no official title of yorishiro given to himself like the other three get, just tsukasa. this is not the first cage he's had to break himself out of, and he knows he'll find a way out of this like he found his way out of hanako's boundary, even if he has to figure it out himself, just tsukasa.

and he does!--because, like he says: he's tsukasa.