Welcome to The Drama Llama!
Please enjoy my rambling and verbose posts. =) As my blog subtitle denotes, I post about a lot of different stuff. Have fun, enjoy, and if you want give me feedback!
Best,
Nami ❤
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Again, SPOILERS Y’ALL. S P O I L E R S.
Yuri marks my halfway point in Nameless. I have a lot to say so buckle up.
Yuri, Yuri, Yuri. You had so much promise and potential.
Too bad your route failed us all miserably.
To expand a bit: Yuri, the only doll from Crobidoll’s adult line, is simply a bucket of smarm. He makes lots of money (somehow) and gets free things by charming women out of them. He works as the music teacher at Eri’s high school, but spends most of his time accepting attention from women and girls or making inappropriate lewd analogies while teaching class.
He’s also part of the HOT5 – the group name Eri’s classmates gave to the five new guys in school. He’s also – and this may come as a shock – a fucking ditz. So much so that he doesn’t foresee the danger inherent in telling the rest of the school (i.e. the HOT5’s rabid fans) that Eri lives with them, and almost calls her “my honey” in front of everyone. Tei fortunately mitigates the situation by saying she’s just helping them out as a sort of maid, but this still causes people to gossip about her and treat her poorly.
Yuri hardly acknowledges this, and when he does, what does he do? Try to ask her on a date and to give her a gift. He does eventually apologize, but there aren’t really any consequences for his thoughtlessness. On the contrary, he doubles down on the gifts, giving her an expensive pair of heels, and asks her out on a date again. Eri has to accept for the good end. And what is this date? Shopping for clothes (that he thinks suit her. He even says, “What about wearing these every day? Then I’ll be happy” as if his happiness is all that matters. Fuckwad.) A trip to a hair salon. A nice tea at the cafe, Banjul.
While at the cafe, Yuri makes it clear he doesn’t really know how to love – he only knows how to accept other people’s affection and attention. He doesn’t see anything particularly wrong with that, and blames his “loving everyone equally” on that being how he was made. Eri comes to the conclusion that he’s empty inside, and must feel lonely. (For the record, I don’t think she’s wrong.)
All the focus is on him. “I thought I would be so happy…if you take all the things I give you.” And after their date Eri arrives home to find he’s bought her all the clothes she tried on while shopping, despite her having said they were too expensive. She then wears some of them to the concert he invites her to where he’s the drummer – “Be pretty for me,” he says, so she decides to dress up. At this point, she realizes her feelings for Yuri and decides to dress up and “be pretty” for him every day until he notices her.
Too bad for her, Yuri starts avoiding her and putting distance between them. Eri gets asked out by a classmate and thinks about whether she should accept him or not, since Yuri has essentially signaled that he doesn’t like her. He even congratulates her on being prettier and getting asked out; after which Eri runs away to cry and Tei rightfully admonishes him for being a dick.
If you make the right choices, Eri goes to Yuri’s performance at the school festival and, like the drama queen he is, he announces that he wants to meet his beloved in their “secret garden” – i.e. the music room. They meet in the music room and live happily ever after, have sex at some point, go to the amusement park, ride the merry-go-round, Eri disappears, yada yada.
Most of his bad ends feature the same love interest who killed Yeonho in one of his bad ends, and again, I’m very curious to see where that route goes.
But I’m not playing that route yet. I’m talking about Yuri’s. And…I cannot tell you how much I wanted to love Yuri. He has all the makings of my kind of otome love interest. He’s a bit smarmier than I go for, but once they show their serious side and restrain the flirting, I usually end up liking them a lot. So why not Yuri?
Because the writing in his route was shit.
Eri herself understands that Yuri’s problem is he doesn’t know how to love someone and has never been in love before, so he doesn’t know how to win them over. He doesn’t know how to be sincere. That’s why he continues to shower her in gifts she never asked for that make her uncomfortable, and continues to be greasy and smarmy. So it should be his theme that he learns how to love someone, that not all women want attention the way he gives it and that accepting affection and attention you have no intent to reciprocate is just hurtful.
But all Yuri seems to care about is that Eri accepts the gifts because he’s giving them to her. Nary a thought is spent on whether or not she’d like what he’s giving her. He doesn’t seem to pay any attention to her feelings – or I should say, his attention to her feelings is very uneven. Yuri eventually apologizes for causing the gossip and bullying at school – but then instead of getting to know her he forces dates and gifts on her instead. (In fact, forces the gift and date before he even apologizes. He uses them to apologize. That’s even worse.) It’s all about his feelings and what he wants. He doesn’t recognize that the “pretty” clothes and shoes her bought her make her uncomfortable – make her feel like she’s not herself, that she’s pretending, but also that they just plain hurt.
This is all before he realizes he’s in love with her. And the game rewards Yuri for these behaviors! Eri is painted as having done wrong, and apologizes for misunderstanding him, not realizing that the gifts were his way of showing love. No matter that she never asked for them and felt uncomfortable – he wanted to give them to her so she must accept them.
Don’t get me wrong, Yuri has some sincere moments. He says he doesn’t talk so greasy to anyone but Eri (which isn’t 100% true, because he turns on the charm to the saleswoman at the clothes shop, but it’s true it’s more pointed with Eri). He readily expresses that he likes seeing her smile, and just wants to give her things, make her happy, and spend time with her. He even skips the after-party of his own concert because she said she wasn’t going. All these things point to a genuine interest in Eri, however poorly he expresses it. And there’s nothing wrong with giving gifts! But you HAVE TO CONSIDER THE PERSON RECEIVING THE GIFT WHEN YOU GIVE IT AND NOT JUST WHAT YOU WANT THEM TO HAVE OR WHAT YOU WANT FOR YOURSELF.
Thus Yuri ends the route without having really learned anything except that if you bulldoze over someone’s feelings, send her mixed signals by accepting romantic, flirting attention and gifts from other women but also hitting on a specific girl including making sexual innuendos to her; taking her on dates, giving her gifts she never asked for, using gifts as an apology, talking to her as if you like her and are trying to date her; and then avoiding her once you realize you’re in love with her, you can STILL get the girl with zero consequences for your actions and she’ll even apologize to you.
The messaging of this route is even worse for Eri. The through line of her “becoming pretty” by dressing up in fancy dresses and wearing makeup and styling her hair differently is all in service of Yuri. A flashback demonstrates this best: when Eri’s mother complains she has no interest in pretty clothes and looks/dresses like a boy, Grandpa defends her. Let her be a kid and not care what other people think; besides, when she grows up she’ll want to and become pretty for the person she likes whether you want her to or not. Liking someone is tied to becoming pretty, is tied to wearing specific types of outfits.
Fuck whether she’s comfortable and happy and feels like herself. Eri should absolutely change herself just to get the guy. That’s definitely something we should be teaching. Is there a certain amount of truth to what Grandpa says? Yes – but only insofar as it’s natural to want the person you like to be attracted to you. That doesn’t mean you have to change yourself for them, not even your clothing preference. Dress in a way that makes you think you feel attractive? Absolutely. Are there times it makes sense to dress to please someone else? Yes, but only once you get to know each other and you’re doing it of your own volition because you know they like it, and not because you’re changing yourself to make them like you.
I even thought the game might emphasize this. Lance, after a few fruitless days of Eri trying to get Yuri’s attention, asks Eri if she’s really comfortable in her clothes because she doesn’t seem to be. But no. “Change your preferences to get the guy to like you, he only needs to care about what he wants and what he thinks is attractive” is the message we end with.
That’s why one of Yuri’s bad ends pisses me the fuck off. After all the bullying, gossip, and stares at school, Eri’s fed up. Yuri wants to talk to her and no matter how much Eri indicates she doesn’t really want to , they still go outside to talk. If you make the “wrong” choice, she blows up at him, sick of his thoughtlessness and laissez-faire attitude, and tells him “I’m sick of you, I don’t want to be around you.”
So the next day, he up and leaves. He’s no longer acting greasy or smarmy, just normal, and finally calls Eri by her name instead of “my honey.” He wishes her well and hopes that she lives in a bright, happy, joyful place. Although sad, he seems sincere. It’s all framed as some noble sacrifice – ‘I’m leaving because she doesn’t want me around; I’m giving her what she wants.’
Now, should Eri have said what she did? No, but there’s a middle ground! Framing the very concept of Eri expressing her frustration with him as something that leads to a bad end and therefore “wrong” is a bad move. Imagine the route we could’ve had where Eri doesn’t tell him, I’m sick of you, but rather, “I’m sick of your behavior! I just want you to be real with me and other people. To treat people with respect, think of other people’s feelings, and be yourself. Despite being a doll made to be ‘every woman’s perfect man,’ you don’t need to be.” Or make even more of the Good End choices be Eri firmly but politely rebuffing Yuri’s advances, and at certain times pushing back, questioning him, explaining that you can’t buy people’s love.
Unlike with Yeonho and Lance, Yuri’s route doesn’t focus on some underlying pain that needs healing and gets solved and healed through Eri’s love. It pretends to by mentioning that Yuri must feel lonely and empty, but he never expresses that emotion at all. All we ever see is that he’s hitting on Eri and has affection for her, he gets confounded at and scared by the idea that he loves her, and that he can sometimes get sad. He doesn’t cry or get scared or upset at the idea that he actually is empty or lonely. There is no true intimacy, vulnerability, closeness between Eri and Yuri, so the bottom falls out of his route and it collapses.
And that’s why I hate Yuri’s route. I have a love-hate relationship with the man himself, because he’s could’ve been GREAT, but the writing turned him shitty. Like, if I didn’t like him, if I didn’t see so much potential in his route, I wouldn’t be this pissed. And this post wouldn’t be so fucking long.
If you love Yuri, and you love his route, kudos to you. I love him and fucking hate his route with a fiery flaming passion that probably won’t go away.
Tei will be next! Til then, ta ta~
This review is NOT SPOILER FREE. BEWARE OF SPOILERS. *SLAPS POST* SHE CAN HOLD SO MANY SPOILERS. Ok, I warned you. SPOILERS.
Second on my Nameless journey is the silver-haired tsundere? kuudere? certainly something-dere, Lance. From the beginning, Lance comes across as very aloof, uptight, and nitpicky. He pretends he only chooses to do things for Eri and the others in service of practicality; clashes often with Red, his polar opposite in personality; and lobs his slipper at Yuri to curtail his boundary-violating antics. Yet it’s clear, the further you play into his route, how painfully aware of his feelings Lance is, which is the very reason he suppresses them.
I have a love-hate relationship with tsundere types. On the one hand, their flustered attitudes and blushing faces when confronted with their crush or some flirting is absolutely adorable. On the other, their ignorance (or often, straight up refusal) to face their feelings, coupled with their tendency to lash out with hurtful words and actions to avoid vulnerability, make them more frustrating than fun. (Also, some aren’t truly tsun and are just giant, asshole pieces of shit. Yes, Sasazuka from Collar x Malice, I mean you. Love to the Sasazuka lovers but you will never see me speak kindly of that guy.)
Fortunately, there’s a balance to be struck, and Lance hits it just right. His insults to Eri never really cross beyond calling her stupid. He reserves the worst of his criticism for people like Red and Yuri – who have very little awareness, if any, of boundaries – and is mostly just brusque or a bit high and mighty to everyone else. He gives his considered, thoughtful opinions when asked, and shows genuine consideration for Eri’s wants and desires even in other routes.
Take him seriously, give him attention, and his fragile, unconvincing mask of indifference crumbles fairly quickly. He’ll reveal that he’s only the “ice prince,” as he’s called at school, because the company who made him, Crobidoll, didn’t give him a personality. He doesn’t know who he is, what he wants, what he likes and dislikes – that was all intended to be shaped by his owner. Naturally, not knowing himself scares him. And on top of that, he’s afraid that in this mix of dolls with specific, strong personalities, especially bright, happy, force-of-nature types like Red, he’ll get thrown away or left behind. Yay, identity crisis!
In his good end, you essentially convince him that he gets to decide who he is and what he wants – that just because he was intentionally created without a concept, in order to be whatever the doll’s owner wanted, doesn’t mean that he has no identity. Convinced, he runs with this – and rather than become less uptight or nitpicky (though he does get less brusque with others and interacts with them more) Lance develops some pretty strong confidence and drive. So much so that he steals Eri’s first kiss so Red can’t have it during the school play, and eventually confesses to her – and moves in to her room , and successfully puts the moves on her. Mans really moved fast, didn’t he?
Anyway, Lance struck my sweet spot – I relate to his practicality and desire to admonish the ridiculous (*cough* I also really wanted to smack Yuri *cough*), while his brusque grumpiness when helping others anyway was cute. The way he eventually opened up to Eri and expressed his fears and worries was particularly delicious. Half of what I like about otome games is breaking men down to become emotionally vulnerable, so I enjoyed it.
Oh god, my daddy issues are showing. Moving on!
Anyway, his two bad ends are a little less intense than Yeonho’s – at least, they don’t involve abuse of any kind nor do they involve other love interests. For one end, you make the least emotionally intelligent choices, where you either ignore or just show no interest in Lance’s feelings. This leads to Lance feeling he isn’t important to Eri, so the Mysterious Voice we heard in bits and pieces before (but most prominently at the end of Yeonho’s route) appears again, with Another Voice, saying that since Eri failed to collect a piece she’s useless, and Another Voice should get rid of her. Subsequently, she’s hit by a truck (or bus? one of those). Geez. At least we know it’s plot relevant, and gets a little bit meta as well.
The second bad end is probably also plot relevant but also more thematically appropriate. If you don’t reassure Lance that you’re ok and reinforce his thoughts that you’re expecting to lose him, then instead of recovering from his hours spent in the rain, he dies overnight. So, thematically speaking, he felt unneeded and unimportant so he had no will to live. Plot relevance is in that his body was apparently full of feathers. He may have been a doll, but a body full of feathers is still strange – especially considering this was by all accounts a human body, and he already had a doll body that existed simultaneously. Next you’ll be telling me he has a plushie body too.
But I suppose I’ll find out more the more I play! Await my next review of bachelor number three, Yuri!
Here’s the first of my Nameless Route Reviews. SPOILERS ABOUND, so don’t read further if you plan to play the game and haven’t. If you do…well, I warned you.
Often I’ll start my otome games with the route I’m least interested in, or one I’m less interested in than others. Much of the time, I’m not interested in the shota or shota-coded love interests (the younger, cuter ones meant to appeal to one’s parental instincts. I’m in my 30s, and there’s really no other way they could appeal to me, to be honest).
That’s why I started Nameless with Yeonho. I didn’t expect to not enjoy his route, but I also expected to feel perfectly normal about him – which is to say, not to have many feelings about him at all. Surprisingly, for no apparent reason, unlike Orlok from Piofiore or Himuka and Tokisada from Olympia Soiree, Yeonho managed to capture my heart. I want to hug him, let him know he has done nothing wrong in his life ever, and give him a glass of milk and a cookie and sit him down to watch his favorite TV show. Or something like that.
Yeonho’s route lends itself to feeling this way about him. He truly does imprint on Eri and follow her around, which is why at school he earns the nickname 병아리, or (baby) chick. He’s constantly doing things for Eri and, unlike the rest of the guys, calls her “Master” all the time. The earnestness and sweetness with which he does these things absolutely melts the heart.
But, as expected, all is not well with him. As Yeonho eventually explains to Eri – and this is very much how it’s framed – he was abused by his previous owner. She went through dolls like hotcakes, and didn’t take good care of the ones she had (including hurling verbal abuse at them when they didn’t look as she wanted them to) resulting in Yeonho having lots of damage which manifest as scars on his human body. He now believes he has to earn love, and hardly ever expresses a preference of his own. (All of this also implies that Yeonho, at least, was sentient in his doll body.)
If you make the right choices, you’ll convince Yeonho that he’s lovable all on his own – he doesn’t need to “be a good boy” and you’ll love him no matter what. He’ll develop a healthier attachment to Eri, naturally individuate from her and participate in clubs at school, and still keep his sweet and tender heart that likes doing things for her.
And then, of course, after he confesses and they go ride on Eri’s favorite amusement park ride, the merry-go-round, the player hears a mysterious voice. Yeonho leaves momentarily to get food or something, and when he comes back, Eri has disappeared. That is, in fact, part of his good ending – and it’s clearly connected to the larger overall plot that I’m not yet sure of, though I have my theories.
If you make the wrong choices, depending on the point in the game, you will either 1) become like Yeonho’s abusive owner except abuse him while he’s human; 2) get choked by Yeonho, saved by another love interest who kills Yeonho, and then killed by that love interest; 3) or Yeonho will run away never to be seen again.
I really enjoyed this route – Yeonho was adorable (his traumatic past only makes you feel even more for him) and believably codependent, and seeing him come to love himself and be himself while still loving Eri was the perfect resolution. The bad ends have me a bit on edge but they’re really par for the course for otome games. I’m mostly interested in the other love interest, who’s route I haven’t yet played. I’m looking forward to finding out just why he’s so twisted!
The voice acting is quite nice – it’s cool to hear Korean for once – and the story is a nice break from the typical Otomate formula* . Not only are there a few (very easy) minigames to break up text, Eri has two girl best friends, who appear a lot, have their own unique personalities, and with whom Eri has an arc that could exist completely independently of the boys. Non-plot-device women are rarer than they should be in otome games, so I find their appearance in this game most refreshing.
The overarching story also intrigues me. The inanimate come to life isn’t a novel concept, but I don’t think I’ve seen it in an otome game before this, and it really is the perfect setup for multiple routes and romantic shenanigans, along with slightly heavier topics.
So, that’s it for the lovely, adorable Yeonho! Next up once I finish his bad-ends will be stuffy kuudere Lance~ Hope you enjoy!
*A Japanese company that puts out otome games; most otome games localized into English were made by them.
You all know I’m trying to get through my anime and TV show (….can we call them that anymore? since so many things aren’t even on TV?) backlog; and I may have mentioned I’m trying to get through my gaming backlog.
Welp, I started playing the PC otome game Nameless put out by Korean studio Cheritz (of mobile game Mystic Messenger and The Ssum fame) and got inspired to write reviews of each route.
So!
In the next few weeks that’s what you’ll see, as I’m enjoying the game and getting through it at a pretty fast clip.
A brief summary of Nameless to get you all acquainted:
High-school freshman Eri collects ball-jointed dolls. She’s afraid to reveal this unusual hobby, but it’s easy to keep hidden now that her beloved grandpa – the only other person who knew – passed away, and her disinterested parents work abroad, so she lives alone. One day, Eri wakes up to the unexpected – her five now-very-flesh-and-blood dolls hanging around in her house. Their doll bodies are still on the shelf where she keeps them, but she can’t ignore the humans in front of her who know way too much about her to be anyone other than her dolls.
In order to hide their true nature (and so they don’t stay cooped up her in house all day every day) they join her high school as students and/or teachers. How and why did this happen? How well will they adjust to their now human existences? What are each of the guys really like?
If, like me, you play it, then you’ll definitely find out.
When I finish a show (or a season ,depending on how long it is) in 2024, I’m going to post my thoughts on it. Here’s my 4th finished show of 2024. I’m ahead of the game right now with 4 shows in 3 months! But if I finish even twelve shows/seasons this year I won’t be mad.
As I said, the last thing I’ll be posting about that’s Vivziepop related is my thoughts on Helluva Boss. Despite a slight delay, I finally caught up to Season 2 Episode 7!
For those unfamiliar, Helluva Boss takes place in Hell and follows the lives of selfish, callous imp Blitzo (the “o” is silent) and his employees from his business, Immediate Murder Professionals. As the name implies (snort), he and his team are hitmen – specifically for the souls of the dead who want to satisfy their grudges – and will pretty much take a job from anyone as long as it pays.
Initially, Helluva seems like most shows of its ilk – episodic stories where characters remain static and we laugh at their antics once a week. Once the show enters the second season, and even some episodes before that, the show takes a turn and focuses more on relationships. Primarily, we see Blitzo and his would-be boyfriend Stolas, a demon (owl) aristocrat who lets Blitzo use his magical grimoire to visit the living world to do his hits (and is constantly trying to get in Blitzo’s pants when he’s not fighting with his wife or being a bad dad to his daughter).
Helluva has much the same problems as Hazbin Hotel, and many people have pointed them out multiple times: setting aside problems with representation and other more ethical dilemmas, the haphazard writing and slide from irreverent sitcom to relationship drama has put a lot of people off. I agree with many of these criticisms, and I don’t blame people for voicing them – I think, in fact, it’s necessary.
Despite all that, I still enjoyed Helluva Boss – not as much as Hazbin, but still. There are a few reasons I enjoy both shows. These are animated shows aimed at adults with an animation style I actually like. When it comes to animation and video games, I absolutely judge books by their cover – that is, I am more likely to pick up what I find aesthetically pleasing. South Park, Family Guy, The Simpsons, even shows I’ve heard are good like Bob’s Burgers and Bojack Horseman, are drawn in a style that does the opposite of tickle my fancy.
On top of that, both are intentionally overtly provocative to Christian aesthetic and ideology (although more superficially than one might think, though I’m not going to get into that. Maybe one day). For people like me who are deconstructing my Christian upbringing and are still swinging too far one way on the pendulum of rebellion, these stories are quite cathartic. Sex, swearing, and extreme stylized violence are all in your face. Hell’s denizens don’t seem so bad, and their cutesy pastel Heavenly counterparts seem a lot worse. The things we were brought up to avoid, to the point of fear and disgust, are on display.
And quite frankly, this provocation, this willingness to criticize, packaged in (and I mean this in the best of senses) your favorite Deviant Art Ocs, are where both Helluva and Hazbin have the greatest potential. I believe they’re what draw people to Vivziepop’s work – many people relate to growing up and having their worldviews flipped upside down.
Both shows are deeply flawed – not least in the writing, which I wish Vivzie would have let someone else do, not to trash all her ideas but to more harmoniously and sensically bring them together, and to actually formulate a viewpoint and have something to say on the topics she brings up. (At this point, it’s quite easy for the viewer to fill in the blanks themselves with their own beliefs, and say that’s what the show is saying.) But these stories and characters also resonate with people (including me), and have intriguing premises that, while the shows may not deliver on as well as they could have or that people hoped, are still fun romps to watch, in my opinion.
Since writing and posting my Hazbin Hotel review, I had just a few more words to say.
I’m not rescinding my review or anything – but to address one of my footnotes in a bit more (but still brief) detail. I said specifically:
The show and its creator have met with controversy (including replacing the original voice cast, which seems to be a nuanced issue and I understand why people were upset), but I won’t be addressing that here for a few reasons: 1) this is a discussion of the show in and of itself, outside that context; 2) most of the controversies I’ve read about are nothingburgers that the internet just likes to argue about, and 3) the ones that do have merit are nuanced.
Keeping in mind that the only controversies I had seen at the time of writing were replacing the voice cast and people’s objections to depictions of SA in episode four, I was not particularly bothered by them. Learning of more, including but not limited to 1) Vivzie allegedly being a shitty boss, 2) not properly crediting a writer, and 3) (whether she did research or not) not properly handling the usage and depiction of voodoo/hoodoo symbolism for Alastor and perpetuating negative stereotypes of a country and culture’s practices, I’m definitely more bothered. I don’t want anyone to think the word “nothingburger” applies to these. (It doesn’t help that there are a bunch of nothingburger complaints also mixed in with all of these so it was a little harder to determine that there were actual legitimate complaints, but I’m glad I was able to find them).
From the knowledge I have at this point I’m not planning to stop enjoying or consuming Hazbin or Helluva Boss content – it’s doesn’t personally rise to the level of a boycott for me yet – but due to these controversies I will keep it something I primarily enjoy on my own, and something I take time to further investigate on my own. I’m not going to judge anyone for continuing to consume nor for boycotting the show.
The only thing more I’ll post on the internet about Vivzie-related content will be a review of Helluva Boss Seasons 1 and 2, since I’m pretty much done with the show.
Anyway, just wanted to follow up with that, so people were aware and could also make their own decisions about the show/Vivzie content.
Content Warning: This show features vulgar language, sexual content (both verbal and visual), irreverent depictions of Christian figures, and general mild, gruesome body horror.
Although most of what I have on my watchlist is anime, I do watch the random other show from time to time. It’s especially easy if the show is short, and animated, and a musical. Which, aside from friends talking about watching it, is how my third finished show of 2024 came to be –
Charlotte “Charlie” Morningstar, daughter of Lucifer (yes, that Lucifer), comes up with a plan to solve Hell’s overcrowding problem: a rehabilitation hotel for Hell’s sinners. Most people think the idea is stupid, and Heaven is less than cooperative with the notion; but with the help of her girlfriend Vaggie, inscrutable Radio Demon Alastor, and the hotel’s other denizens, she just might succeed.
In the same vein as other “adult” animated shows*, it’s irreverent and crass. One of the main characters is named Vaggie – yes, although it’s not explicitly stated, her name is Vagina; one main character, Angel Dust, is a porn star and (as the name implies) an addict; and there are plenty of sex jokes and gruesome gags. (Hell has an area called Cannibal Town, after all).
But unlike shows like Family Guy or South Park (which, full disclosure, I’ve only ever seen clips of and don’t like the animation for, so I’m biased), the setting is unconventional and the characters (in my opinion) more endearing. For those who are devout Christians, it’s most likely a pass – but for others, especially those with religious trauma, it’s quite cathartic. The shocking content isn’t there purely for titillation – it clearly has something to say, whether it’s subtle or blatant.
The show has its flaws – unevenly fast pacing due to too short an episode run time and too short a season, too short songs (ex. “Welcome to Heaven”), as well as complaints I’ve heard from artists about the animation (seems fine to me but I trust them). But the show’s good points far outweigh the bad: it’s the layered, compelling characters, the fun character designs, excellent voice acting, and the music – the music! – that charm and pull the viewer in. (Having actual Broadway stars voice the characters for an indie animated show was a great choice,** especially as they help elevate the songs’ weaker moments.)
And after the show’s finale, all I’m doing is waiting for more! I wish I could say more in this review in general, but considering how much the show packs into such a short season, that would be spoilers, so I’ll leave it here for now.
Overall Hazbin Hotel is a flawed but deliciously fun breath of fresh air fortunate to get picked up by studios with money to put it out to a (hopefully larger audience). It’s something not based on existing properties, and that, coupled with its inherent charm, make it enjoyable in my book. Here’s to Season 2!
*I use the quotation marks because animation isn’t just for kids but that’s how especially in the Western world’s it’s come to be seen and so the divide between kids and adult animation has been very distinct and – I’ll stop here, or else you won’t get me to stop.
**The show and its creator have met with controversy (including replacing the original voice cast, which seems to be a nuanced issue and I understand why people were upset), but I won’t be addressing that here for a few reasons: 1) this is a discussion of the show in and of itself, outside that context; 2) most of the controversies I’ve read about are nothingburgers that the internet just likes to argue about, and 3) the ones that do have merit are nuanced.
I’ve already finished my second anime of 2024, which is….Buddy Daddies!
Literal partners-in-crime Kazuki (right) and Rei (left) end up with four-year-old Miri on their hands after a bungled but successful hit. Do these hitmen-cum-roommates have what it takes to be a family and raise a kid, or will it all crumble around them?
I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an enjoyable watch, and has some good moments and emotional beats. But for some reason it just…doesn’t quite hit. The show definitely feels like it’s taking, in some aspects, from the other, infinitely more popular spy/assassin family comedy you’ve probably heard of – Spy x Family. Jazzy music, an abandoned young girl, unexpected parenthood, ethically dubious professions.
But the two shows prove quite different – and I say that having seen only five episodes so far of Spy x Family (it’s also on my list. Maybe that one’s next?). Spy x Family, from what I’ve seen, focuses on the goofy and the bizarre: Loid is a literal super-spy; Yor couldn’t be more obvious of an assassin if she tried and yet Loid never notices; Anya reads minds. It seems to be set in a not-quite-modern day alternate universe where powers like mind-reading are possible. It’s also based on an ongoing manga, which means the story has more time to grow.
Buddy Daddies is firmly in the modern day, with no superpowers, and quite convincingly believable hijinks (at least, not any less believable than your typical action hijinks). Kazuki and Rei live like two single late-twenty-somethings and are appropriately clueless when Miri first falls into their laps. The show follows the men’s growth past their personal traumas into the responsibilities of fatherhood and the joys of family life. It’s an original series not based on any prior media, so its twelve episode run is one contained story, which is just as much of an advantage as a constraint.
Watching Kazuki and Rei learn all the work it really takes to raise a child is genuinely enjoyable. They have to start considering proper nutrition; following daycare requirements; dealing with an energetic child’s pestering or tantrums; the endless cycle of laundry and cooking and cleaning up; the absolute heart-sinking worry when a child is sick; and how if you leave all the work to one partner it makes for a very unbalanced, unstable relationship. (Miri’s occasional involvement in their hitmen shenanigans is also darkly funny, until it takes a more serious turn toward the latter half of the show.)
Where Buddy Daddies sadly fails is in what should be the crux of the show: the relationship between the daddies. And no, I don’t mean that it needs to be romantic. BL enjoyer that I am, I also enjoy platonic relationships perfectly well; and quite frankly, I think my BL media consumption just makes it easier for me to put on my goggles and see even the slightest hints of chemistry (romantic or not) between male characters.
And the reality is, Kazuki and Rei don’t have any real chemistry. Fanfic authors can make it happen but textually speaking even as hitmen partners, there’s zilch. Nada. They’re stereotypical tropes – blonde, outgoing Kazuki and dark-haired, introverted Rei – that should work together. But we don’t really see them become family. They start out as coworkers and roommates and end as two guys who care about the same little girl. Each has their own trauma, and for the most part each only deals with and resolves it alone. The only thing holding the two together is Miri. At the start of the show, that’s fine; but by the end of the show, I should be convinced that they all feel like family. All I was convinced of by the end was that they both cared about Miri and wanted to take care of her.
It’s not until the credits scene that I sense any hint of a (platonic) partnership or chemistry between the two; and from that, I wanted more to the story. I wanted to see Miri growing up and Rei and Kazuki getting more comfortable with each other and growing closer as people and as dads. If you’re only putting that feeling, that potential, into a credits scene, you’re doing it wrong.
Overall Buddy Daddies was a fun watch, with a dash of dark comedy, hapless hijinks, and genuinely emotional drama. But what it could have been does put a bit of a damper on what it actually was.
This year, I’ve decided to tackle some entertainment backlogs: manga, anime, video games. I perused my TBR, my watchlists, my Backloggd, and chose some media I’m determined to finish in 2024. When it comes to anime, what better way to record that I finished it by dashing off a short review?
Enter the first anime I finished in 2024: Love Stage!!
(The exclamation points are part of the title, as you can see.)
18-year-old Sena Izumi just wants to be left alone to draw his manga and fulfill his dream of becoming a famous mangaka; but his celebrity family really wants him to enter showbiz. When Izumi is invited to reprise his role in a commercial (his one step into the limelight as a child), he reunites with fellow child-star-turned-heartthrob Ichijou Ryouma. Despite his initial confession under the impression that Izumi is a girl, and subsequent disappointment that he’s not, Ryouma finds that he can’t seem to get rid of the ten-year crush he’s been nursing.
So naturally, chaotic hijinks ensue.
I read the Love Stage!! manga sometime last year, and enjoyed it for what it was, and for what little I remember of it: a light, wacky BL rom-com that, while at times slipping into some of the more tired and concerning BL tropes, still goes down easy when you just want something fun and heart-warming.
The ten-episode anime and one OVA from 2014 felt much the same. Possibly due to my not watching much other anime recently, and possibly due to it actually being good, the animation holds up well. It doesn’t appear (to me) to be dated, and the shoujo-esque style and bright colors suit the general tone of the story.
Ryouma and Sena at times fall into stereotypes (especially when it comes to who tops/bottoms for sex), but tend to move on from them fairly quickly. For instance, Ryouma is initially devastated (and homophobic) in his response when he finds out Sena is a guy.
However, when he realizes his feelings aren’t just going to go away, Ryouma acts as maturely as one can in a rom-com: he apologizes to Izumi for various things (including assaulting him, which was fortunately something cut short and that he immediately regretted), and then asks Izumi out, or to at least become friends. Their friendships beings somewhat rockily due to Ryouma’s eagerness, but they eventually do become friends and fall in love, and do all the things and make the same mistakes most 18-year-olds in a relationship would make.
My main complaint is that it just isn’t long enough. While the show does center their relationship, wrapped up in that is Izumi’s growth narrative – he goes from having unreasonable levels of confidence in his manga and completely shunning showbiz, to realizing that doing some activities in the family business might help him broaden his horizons and grow as a person. But Izumi’s debut as an actor comes right at the end of the short, short series; and it feels like there’s more to see happen for him, his boyfriend, and the others around them (a.k.a the side couple of Rei, the family manager, and Shougo, Izumi’s singer brother).
There’s nothing particularly special about it, but I think it has a certain charm in how straightforward and lighthearted it is; that, the sometimes troubling attitude it has toward sex aside,* makes for a pleasant watch when you just need some fluff.
Also recommended just for some of the voice acting, mainly because of Hirakawa Daisuke – most would probably know him as Kakyoin from Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure; Rei from Free! Iwatobi Swim Club, and Laito Sakamaki from Diabolik Lovers. He’s done quite a bit more than that, and features prominently in otome games. Like many Japanese VAs, he has a lot of range, but also a unique, easily recognizable voice, and does a great job as Rei here.
*The common, manga-wide “it’s ok if it hurts because it’s you/it hurt at first but it feels really good now” sentiment. This does get addressed in the OVA, where eventually Ryouma puts effort into finding out how to please (and specifically not hurt) his partner, and communicate about what feels good and what doesn’t. But the attitude is still, at least initially, there.
— 1 —
I’m gonna change formula just a tiny bit here – I haven’t been listening to kpop as much lately (I still enjoy it), as it’s taken a backseat to gaming as my main hobby the past few years. What can I do easily without much thought, I wondered?
Introduce you to some anime men. So….to inaugurate this I’ll show you someone I think I’ve shown before:
Impey Barbicane from Code: Realize! Impey is actually a character from Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon, and is extremely different from his otome game counterpart. Today’s Impey, however, is a genki engineer flirt who plans to get to the moon one day. Despite his mild Chivalrous Pervert tendencies and himbo behavior, he’s actually quite the respectful and intelligent guy. (And he really likes the MC.)
— 2 —
I’ve decided to try and learn Japanese! A part of me wishes I had started with Japanese instead of Korean ten years ago, mainly because I didn’t realize how big a difference ten years would make in my energy. That part is also anxious that I won’t be able to actually learn; but I remind myself that it’s never too late to start something. I didn’t start learning Korean as a kid and I still managed a lot. As long as I keep at it, that’s all that matters.
I decided to start with Genki, and after looking at the Level 1 book that wants me to know hiragana for Lesson 1 and katakana for Lesson 2, I decided to just memorize kana first. It’s gonna take me a while, but I know I can do it.
I’m practicing mostly by learning to write them right now. Sounds crazy and might not be the best path, but I’m a pretty tactile person. Writing the characters over and over was how I learned Hangul, and I have the disadvantage of having seen lots of romanization over the years. I want to try and counter that as quickly as possible.
— 3 —
Every so often I go on a kind of horror kick: it’s calmed down a bit but I’m still looking for horror movies to watch. A good one I recommend is Incantation. It’s a Taiwanese found-footage horror movie on Netflix. The found-footage part didn’t bother me too much, and it was legitimately creepy; I enjoyed it.
I’ve watched a bunch of random other ones over the past couple years. It’s surprisingly easy to find older stuff for free on sites like Tubi and Pluto. It’s how I watched Japanese movies like Audition and even the original Ringu movies; as well as Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers and Shivers.
Recently – though I never would have dreamed of doing so even just a few years ago – I gave the Saw series a try, since I like death game stories. Saw III was my limit (past my limit, really). The original Saw was good with an interesting end twist (and to my shock, the guy who looked like Cary Elwes was Cary Elwes); and Saw II was ok – neither had the same kind of gratuitous, detailed focus on graphic torture that characterized Saw III.
I think it should’ve stopped at the original, since the point it makes is 1) appropriate for a horror movie and 2) gets muddled in sequels that try to justify Jigsaw’s behavior. Not a murderer my ass – you don’t have to pull the trigger yourself to be a killer, wise guy.
— 4 —
Gas is expensive and I lack energy so I was very happy to find a rather bar-like cafe near me that’s open until 10 PM. They serve surprisingly good tacos, and have events (trivia, live music, open mic nights) on several days. Twice I’ve been while they had live music. It makes it a bit difficult to focus if I’m on a Discord call or listening to some music, but I usually have something else I can do while enjoying the music as well.
— 5 —
Right at this very moment as I write, I’m packing for a 9 hour car trip to see family. I’ve been taking things out to the car tonight to be better prepped since it will be a rather early morning, and it’s such a nice night. The moon seemed rather close, and like a perfect little fingernail, in a clear sky, on a night just chilly enough to need a light sweater.
I’m so glad it’s finally fall~
— 6 —
I’ve been reading a lot more webtoons/manga the past year. Mostly BL, but also some other things. I’m almost done with Wotakoi; I need to keep reading Phantom Tales of the Night. I’ve bought a lot of manga but I don’t really have room for that much. So while I want to buy as much of The Case Study of Vanitas as there is (it’s so beautiful, Mochizuki Jun really…how dare…my heart….), I can’t do that for every series.
That’s why I buy more BL than anything else – lots of other series are longer running, and there are long-running BL, but there seem to be a lot more one, two, or three volume BLs. Which means more stories per shelf.
I suppose if I got really into it I could just…pay for a bigger storage area….TT_TT
— 7 —
I just finished the live-action One Piece the other day and I really liked it! I tried the anime once but couldn’t get into it past the first couple episodes. I think the art style was a bit off-putting for me. But this has convinced me to give it another go! I don’t think I’ve heard a single negative thing about One Piece. So hopefully you’ll hear more from me about the Straw Hat pirates.
The Drama Llama 