No, Haha, I Don't Have A Type -

“Call me if you’re in a pinch, chant these words three times: ‘The Hero Appears! The Hero Appears! The Hero Appears!’”

—Peco

i've been trying to put my finger on the exact reason ping pong the animation hits so hard for a while now, and i think i finally got it : there's just so much love in it.

the effort and determination poured into creating this masterpiece, every frame painstakingly drawn by the person behind it, every dialogue voice acted in a way that transcends language barriers, transcends the screen itself, the music that pulls you along, promising an unforgettable ride if you just get up and dare to hope. kensuke ushio, i am forever grateful for your existence and your creations. i stumbled upon ping pong by accident while listening to the csm soundtrack, and it is perhaps the best thing to ever happen to me.

and of course, the story itself. the brilliant mind behind it, who put this story into words for all to see and appreciate, Taiyō Matsumoto. the way this story treats its characters, never afraid to show failure, never afraid to show flaws, never afraid to show the ugly and the regret and the desperate and the sadness. never afraid to stand back up, to show passion and friendship and hard work and determination and confidence.

it takes the characters by the hand, it takes you by the hand, and it tells you it's okay to fall because you can get up again. it redefines the word hero again and again, and stops at the simplest yet grandest form of it : the one who shows up when you call them. the one who transcends logic.

genuinely, altered my brain chemistry forever. so jealous of anyone who watches it for the first time.

mononoke is so funny because you have the series medicine seller who's like idgaf war veteran on the 9-5 grind and judging people in his head sexily and then you have movie medicine seller whose whole thing is poster pretty boy does unnecessary twirls and flips while hunting down enemies and ships lesbians in free time

whc2 spoilers

just thinking about the fact that juntae gets introduced in the same way beomseok did, and parallels him all the time, and he's the one who ultimately tells sieun "it wasn't your fault" in regards to suho.

A writer and her reader <3

Ty to @/princess-of-purple-prose for writing the alt text!

realizing that reaffirming each other with words has always been shin soukoku’s thing

but even more than that Akutagawa’s famous repetition of this line is no longer a one off…

but a thing they both do now…

cause what better way to hammer a message into your stubborn idiot partners brain than using his own words against him…. and saying it over and over again???

the wind rises, we must try to live!

an attempt at analysis.

1. The Poem

The Graveyard by the Sea by Paul Valéry is where this line originates from, specifically "Le vent se lève... il faut tenter de vivre!" It is, to put it simply, a poem talking about life, death, and the changes brought by time.

Here is a translation of the poem. At the start, we face an almost hypnotizing view of the unchanging sea, mentions of "perfect peace" and dissolving into this scenery i.e. life after death. However, as we proceed, looking at the graveyard as well as the people buried there, we're faced with the realisation that there is no true life after death. Dissolving into something else, by default, strips us of our individuality. As such, we snap back to reality, and the still sea breaks apart with waves. There is a plea to try and live in the amount of time we have left.

Here are two other interpretations. The one dealing with the poem is fascinating to me, specifically this part :

"It feels like he is saying look, I wrote you this poem about dying, and now you will do with it as you wish and I just have to go figure out a way to live my life."

There's a lack (?) of connection here — we are deliberately left alone to figure out what we'll do with the poem and how we'll progress afterwards as the poet leaves. The exit itself is bizarre, because it feels like less of a desperate "plea" to live, and more of a shot in the dark attempt to survive.

2. The Movie

As I see it, there are two major ways of looking at this line in context of the movie.

The first is fairly straightforward (at first glance, that is). Despite whatever challenges you face, you must continue to hold onto things you deem important. However, the way you look at this interpretation changes depending on the way you look at Jiro.

What are the challenges? Is an entire World War simply an obstacle in front of Jiro's dream? Is his wife an obstacle as well, considering he chooses his career over her at the end? How pure is Jiro's dream anyway? Is he not being overly selfish? Is he not being childish and cruel, remaining in a world of fantasy and refusing to acknowledge the deep wounds his creation will cause? What, then, is the point of the message of this film? Is it not inherently negative and self-absorbed? But then again, does it matter who makes the planes? If not Jiro, surely it would have been someone else? So, do you hold onto things dear to you despite being perceived as morally wrong or do you lead boring lives devoid of passion?

This opens up a never ending debate, one that I feel is based heavily on how willing you are to humanize different sides of the same war.

The second way of looking at this line is taking into account what Caproni says.

"Artists are only creative for ten years."

Throughout the movie, Jiro has tall dreams, something specific that he wants to achieve, to create. Caproni's words come as a warning. Ten years have started ticking along even as they speak. Jiro, you must try to make the most out of the prime of your life, you must try to amount to something, you must try to fulfill your dreams and leave your mark on this world!

3. The Personal

As an "outsider", or as someone who isn't faced by the moral dilemmas of the film, I'm not obliged to interpret this phrase strictly within it's context.

To me, "the wind rises, we must try to live!" is an expression of pure freedom. It is the one quote that has stuck with me the most. I do not know what I want out of life, nor do I have the same passion as Jiro. And yet, as it happens, I take flight all the same.

The wind that rises is too strong, steering me along to someplace I'm unaware of, and perhaps I'm only riding the current temporarily before I plummet down, but it's okay. It's okay because I am trying to live, I am trying to learn how to flap my wings, and whether it ends in failure or success, it'll be my life all the same.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. I'm sure people have their own interpretations as well, and I'd love to read them :)

love when people draw sunday in cardigans that's my grandma y'all <3

"who made you realise you were also attracted to women" literally the goddess i was supposed to worship. i thought my ass was soooo religious until i realised i just fucked with the imagery of a dark skinned naked woman portrayed as a symbol of female rage with a necklace of decapitated heads, a skirt made of human arms, a decapitated head in one of her (multiple) arms, and a long lolling tongue. i did NOT stand a chance????

hualian is great but huaqing. ohhhh huaqing. two bastards with equally sharp tongues who will give as good as they get. but also if you dig a little deeper into their mutual dislike it's like. oh fuck they're so similar that it's easier for them to "hate" each other than admit the deeply ingrained insecurities they have.

i like the whole devoted aspect of hualian but if you shift canon a little and make it so that mu qing is the one who caught hong-er you get to see hua cheng watch someone who was born into the same situations as him, who was consistently ridiculed and treated as inferior, grow to be a fiercely powerful and loyal individual. it's not just god x devotee anymore, you've given it a raw humanizing aspect because mu qing CLAWED his way to where he is, and so did hua cheng.

even without changing canon you can see that hua cheng went down the path of surviving because gege became his reason FOR living, but mu qing has always been willing to keep himself and others afloat even as they kick and scream and beg to drown.

there's just this desperation mu qing carries in everything he does and to see that blend with hua cheng's uncaring or even disdainful attitude towards others is something that i think would be beautiful. like they balance out each other's most hidden and scarred parts so easily.

they're so similar yet so different it's like they're dancing around each other oh my fucking god i just. the parallels and possibilities huaqing has make me violently ill.