Kyoto Animation – Just Damn…

This is a big blow to the anime community and has left so many of us in a state of shock and horror to the anime community world wide. There is not an anime viewer in the world today that has not watched an anime from Kyoto Animation.

From classics from the early 2000’s like Munto and Air, to the titles that had everyone knowing who KyoAni were with titles like Lucky Star, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Clannad.

To modern masterpieces of the anime genre like A Silent Voice and Violet Evergarden. This is an anime company that has made an impact on all our lives within the anime community. We all share memories of the first time we discovered anime by them and we all have our favorites and it won’t come as a surprise as to what this fujoshi’s favorite KyoAni show is.

Of course it is Free Iwatobi Swim Club! This show was more than fanservice to me though, it is a story about mending friendships and finding out just what being free can mean to someone and that sometimes what may be freeing and liberating to one person, could be a personal hell for another.

The recent attack on the Kyoto Animation Studio, has been a big blow to all of us within the anime community, the loss of so many lives is always a tragedy but when it is the creators of the world we all have loved so much, it’s like losing a part of ourselves within the chaos.

However, we are all part of one hell of an amazing community who has already rallied it’s people and started raising money to help those in need from this tragedy. You just have to look at all the money already raised over on the GoFundMe page set up by Sentai Filmworks and the countless amazing tribute videos that have already been pouring in from the community. Digibro’s video in particular, aptly titled The Damage is Coming, brought tears to my eyes.

To Kyoto Animation I give them my thanks for bringing us some of the most amazing anime I have ever watched and to the anime community I want to say thank you for giving us all a little bit of faith in the generosity of strangers and humanity.

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Togainu no Chi – ANNOUNCEMENT Trailer

I was not planning on making another post this week I really was not, but then after a day out with a friend grocery shopping of all things I come home I browse my email, my social media and then I head to Youtube where I find the following trailer in my sub box…

And I am just twitching with excitement, my inner fangirl is just screaming YES YES YES! Togainu no Chi is a yaoi visual novel that I have wanted to play for over a decade and once again the lovely folks over at JastBlue have announced that this will be the next yaoi title we get from them and I am just fangirling sooo hard right now!

Though not well received by many within the yaoi community, back in 2010 there was an anime adaptation released of this game that I actually at the time really enjoyed and like a good adaptation it left me wanting more from its world and now finally after all this time I will soon be able to play the game!

I am sooo hyped for this!!!

Is Legend of Duo the Worse Boys Love Anime Ever?

In the early 21st century humanity is on the brink of extinction during an apocalyptic outbreak of a disease simply called the disease of death and the only cure seems to be the blood from a vampire. A secret to save humanity that was revealed by a vampire that in revealing this secret to mankind has betrayed his own kind and now is hunted by his own vampiric creation. Now that sounds like an interesting plot that could explore so many different themes right? Well in giving you this synopsis I have literally spoiled practically every important plot point of this anime. This is a bad anime and the worse part is, it’s not even entertainingly bad, it’s just bad.

Much like my review of Pupa so many years back now, Legend of Duo is an anime series that has a really interesting set up and it even tries to go the deep philosophical route of story telling comparing the vampire who revealed the secret cure to humanity to Prometheus from Greek mythology who was punished for bringing fire to humans. All this is lost however on rushed story telling, blase animation and character design it just comes across as the most boring anime I have ever watched.

If you are curious about this mess of an anime it is fully available to watch on Youtube, but I would not recommend it, seriously I would rather sit through a Twilight marathon than this garbage again.

Synthetic Lover Game Demo Review

This won’t come as a surprise to anyone who has read my review of the original Ai no Kusabi anime, but when you mix sci-fi cyberpunk and yaoi, you get my attention very quickly. It is a mix of genres that I thoroughly enjoy so when I was asked on Twitter by the creators of this kickstarter to check out their game I was very happy to give it a go.

Set in the distant future of 2066 biologically engineered humanoids make up a large portion of the workforce. In this story you play as a Synthetic Lover (basically a high end escort) who one day after coming in contact with a strange object begins to feel that something is off because he is beginning to actually feel things, emotions and what even seems to be an opinion of his own.

Sentience, intelligence and a moral compass within an AI are story elements I adore being explored, much like within one of my favourite books as a teen Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and I can not help but see a little inspiration from this story coming through within the world shown in the demo of this game.

Once complete the game promises full voice acting, deep character relationships and development – I can not wait to learn more about Terrance he was my fave character in the demo, multiple endings and plenty of nsfw intimate scenes. A small part of me was a little disappointed that there was not a preview of the nsfw art in the demo but that was really my only complaint for what I got to play.

I enjoyed what I played of this demo and very much hope the developers can reach their goal on kickstarter to finish their project. If this sounds like something you would like to check out and support please follow the link below.

Synthetic Lover Kickstarter

Killing Stalking – My Final Thoughts

We have come a long way since this story began all the way back in 2016, but it’s official Killing Stalking’s story has come to an end, and what a disturbing journey it has been. I know I am not alone in thanking Koogi for this amazing webtoon that has dived deep into a disturbing relationship that has kept most of us hooked over there past few years. There are those who have dropped out of the fandom over the years, as does with any fandom.

And what a fandom that has been built around Killing Stalking, it has been a long time since have been part of a fandom so divided and at times toxic, but I want to state before I continue on with this post. The toxicity of this fandom and fetishisation of this relationship by the fandom is in no way the author Koogi’s fault. It has been stated countless times by her that this was never suppose to be a romance story. It is a story of emotional manipulation and abuse that at best could be considered a crime/psychological thriller first and when all it said and done with this story, I find myself hard pressed at this point to consider this story a yaoi story at all.

Over the last few years the yaoi and Boys Love genre has become to expansive and inclusive of so many different kind of stories that it has filtered into other genres as well. This is not a bad thing as I as a fan have enjoyed watching the fandom I love grow and expend with the type of stories we get to read and the exploration of darker themes through fiction has always fascinated me, after all it was this appeal to darker stories that made Killing Stalking peak my interest as much as it did others.

The final chapters and ending to the story that is Killing Stalking has left the fanbase divided. Some wanted the two leads to get their happy ending, those who were hoping this. I’m sorry but this is not the kind of story that will give you a happy ending, but does this lack of a happy ending made it an unsatisfactory one? Well that really depends.

The twists and and emotional turns throughout the final chapters and moments of the story kept me on the edge of my seat and pulled at my heartstrings, which just goes to show what an amazing story teller Koogi really is. The exploration of mental illness within this story was what kept me hooked more than anything, at the end of the day Killing Stalking was a story with no good guys, sympathetic bad people and that it can be so easy to fall into madness and that once you truly fall into it, you will never get your happy ending and that there are many things in this world far scarier than death and that even in death we don’t all find peace.

Morningdew Farms – Demo Review

Y Press Games the lovely people behind To Trust an Incubus, have just launched a Kickstarter for there upcoming title Morningdew Farms and earlier this week I got a sneak peak at the demo for this upcoming title and can I just say I had such a blast playing through the demo!

In this visual novel you play as Cody a young man who has just moved into his families old abandon farm right next door to his sister’s farm and the best part for him about moving to the farm? The town of Morningdew is filled with many different bachelors that Cody will have the chance to woo. In my play through of the Demo I got to meet three of these bachelors. A doomsday prepper obsessed store owner named Butch, a man with a mysterious and dangerous past named Rusty and an adorable wolf man named Nuzzler! Yep that furry in the banner is one of the bachelors you get to woo! I think there were a few others in the demo as well but I kinda became instantly obsessed with Butch and Nuzzler! Seriously Nuzzler is damn adorable!

Game play is divided between completely tasks such as farm work and going into town to talk to the other residence and once a week you get a visit the town bathhouse for a little fun… ok its more than a little. I played the uncensored demo and damn I loved the bathhouse time! One other thing I will praise is the humor in this demo, if you love your humor adorably cheesy and full of puns you will be smiling the whole was through like how was.

If this game sounds like something you would love to support like I will be please support the kickstarter help make this game a reality!

FANFICTION REC 18 – THE DICK -N- THE ASS

Bet you did not think my first post back would be a fanfic rec did you guys? Well I have been wanting to write about this particular series of fics ever since I finished reading them months ago! And this will not be the only post I write about Gotham, I have a very special post in the works right now about the impact that this television series has had on me during this time in my life, but before I start I just want to say it is so awesome to be back here writing again!

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In the time I have been away from blogging and for a large part of it away from the anime community as well, I found myself falling into a non anime fandom, the Gotham fandom. A series that I watched when it first aired over here in Australia but was quickly pulled from the air due to lack of an audience. That being said the tv station that initially aired the show made it very hard for those interested to keep up with the show. From constantly moving the time slot to out right not airing the show some weeks to show sports, it was not surprise they were not getting the ratings. Then when I got Netflix last year I found the first three seasons on there and though I only planned to watch a few eps… I ended up binge watching the what was there within a week. Then I found season 4 on dvd and bought that and watched that as well.

Needless to say I have become hooked on this show and like any show with such an amazing cast and being the kind of fan I am I of course starting looking into the shipping community surrounding the show and of course one ship stood out above all others for me and many other fans. That ship will not be the discussion of this post today however. Though if you follow me on twitter you will already know of my great love for Nygmobblepot, the pairing of Edward Nygma and Oswald Cobblepot. Nope this fic rec is actually a rec of two fics that are part of a series called The Dick -n- The Ass. Those fics are Boxcutter and Safe Word and these two fics are a collaboration between fic writers owlettica and Filthycasual. There is also fanart throughout the fics brought to us by Filthycasual themselves.

Now when it comes to fanfiction what is it that is most important to you as a reader or writer? For me it is keeping characters in character to their source material. However, this does not mean that the characters can not have realistic growth throughout the events of the fanfiction written about them and this is where these two fics excel at the greatest! Boxcutter and Safeword take place after the events of season 3 and the Alice Tetch Virus infecting James Gordon and if you are not up to this part of the series stay away from this fic series because there are a lot of season 3 and 4 spoilers within. While under the influence of the virus Jim begins a relationship with one Victor Zsasz, a very dangerous hitman. At the beginning of the story they start very much in character to themselves but as the story moves on so do the characters and there is some very intriguing character growth between both characters in the story and some very very hot interactions between the two. A new relationship will change a person, for better or for worse and the exploration of this on both sides of the relationship makes these fics a must read. From exploring the softer side of a killer to the realization that giving into the darkness in ones self does not have to be the end of the person we have become these themes permeate throughout both stories.

Because this is a story that tackles a lot of violence both show accurate violence given that this is a fic in the Gotham universe and that it also explores a lot of hardcore sexual encounters including blood play and rape this will not be a fic for everyone. However if you enjoy a story that explores the darker side that can come from love and obsession and are looking a fic that explores a not so popular ship within the Gotham universe I can not recommend this series of fics enough.