Regardless of his relationship was with the twins, this whole arc made me realise how truly painful the whole ordeal had been for Cross.
He’s known them since they were kids. And then Nea died in a horribly awful way and left a message that merely said “Find and protect Allen”, and Mana lost his mind and memories and morphed into someone who was barely a shell of himself and Cross had to witness his downward spiral till he drew his last breath.
It must’ve been so deja vu for Cross. We don’t know for sure if he was there when Nea and Mana were on the run from the previous gen of Noahs but Cross was Nea’s ally. And at the very least he definitely knows how they struggled.
And then Nea died and Mana kept running alone. With Nea’s last words reverberating in his head that was otherwise empty of most of the other memories they shared. Cross at the very least had Tim. Even though he served as an painful reminder of the relationship he shared with the twins(and Nea in particular).
But Mana was alone till he met Allen(the dog). And then even Allen died and he couldn’t even mourn him. It somehow led to him befriending Red, the real “Allen”, which again, ultimately resulted in….
And Cross had to witness all of that. He had to witness all of that and continue like nothing happened while also raising Allen and making sure he didn’t find out any of it.
Its just so irrevocably sad
(Translation creds to Kougeki scans!)
All of this and it is only gets worse for Cross.
He’s been following Mana for 25 years at that point, forced to watch Mana fall apart as he made sure to keep him under the radar, losing friends in the process and having to kill innocents because he had to prioritize Mana.
Then the very kid Cross steeled himself to kill, the kid who he blamed for Mana’s falling apart, had ended up being the host that Cross has been searching for and had to live with the knowledge that he would have to guard this traumatised mess of a kid so he could be consumed and erased by Neah, all the while he grew to love that brat as his own.
He crossed the boundaries of humanity, being the one closest to the truth, and he has to watch everyone he cares about either die brutally or slowly fall apart physically and mentally until they tap out of existence.
So I finished Sailor Moon anime, manga and what is out in the Crystal adaptation and some thoughts:
- while I usually don’t like it when anime studios change around stuff when they adapt a manga, Sailor Moon might be the exception for me. I think it benefited the anime greatly that Usagi as the focus of the series got decentralised and had her “reluctant to take on her role” part extended. Seeing her in such despair an distress, have her friends be frustrated with her and chastise her really made her feel like the child cracking under pressure she was and that only made her finding her courage the more compelling. And thanks to Usagi taking a bit of a step back from being in the spotlight the other characters got better fleshed out as individuals. From a mainly romance focused battle shojou female friendship came to the front and I have to say I had no idea I was so starved to see that
- the changes though made some parts and connections were a bit thin on the ground but I may be unbothered by it because I watched the anime first and then read the manga when I discovered that there are some alterations.
- ngl I binged through the manga so that may be one of the reasons why I feel a bit meh over it? For a classical and beloved series it appeared to have a lot of generic stuff I seen other places but that is precisely because many were inspired by this work and elevated it to mainstream
- Crystal is as close to 1:1 as possible and from season 3 on the animation is beautiful, fluid and bouncy, the music is nice - but damn the 90’s anime was so damn good with its animation, its palette and the music just hits better?? The emotional parts feel much better delivered?? Each season had different music for the transformations, there was a sung theme song, how cool is that??
- Hoshino herself appears to be a fan of Sailor Moon, based on the Sailor Moon Timcanpy doodle and now I can see some inspirations she took for D.Gray-man: from the Death Busters arc the concept of levelling up, the Daimon Eggs, crystallisation and in the grander scheme of things Lenalee design and personality wise feels like a nod towards Usagi
So in the end it was a super fun ride and I can very much see why about 30 years later it is so well known and beloved. Hope D.gray-man gets to be that too one day.
I wish there were dgm popularity polls again, I want to see dilf Mana in the top 10
Earlier today we shared our theory as to why proship accounts were being terminated and why these terminations were not being reversed as false/mistaken.
Our theory was that tumblr was actually enforcing the rules outlined in it’s TOS change from November 2022, which appeared to be banning all depictions of underage characters in fictional text and artwork, as well as adult characters who are too short/chubby/cute etc.
As of now, this theory has been confirmed as true.
Fictional images and text about underage characters or characters who “appear” to be underage (no criteria or metric given) are no longer welcome on tumblr and are an offense receiving account termination.
Likewise it appears that victims discussing their experiences of child sexual abuse are no longer welcome on tumblr either. This info was shared by @xxlovelynovaxx and is also the likely reason for our own recent termination.
Tumblr is now officially a fiction and art hostile site. Please remember to treat it as such. If you think your content may fall under tumblr’s new prohibition, please make sure to only post it at AO3, Pixiv, Inkbunny or Aethy and link to that account on your tumblr.
Likewise remember that these new rules apply equally to all members of the site, and that if you see fancops discussing child sexual abuse, or sexualizing characters who are under age those posts may (and should) be fairly reported.
Are you telling me that this absolute dogshit moderated sight that will let targeted harassment hatespeech and nazis be now go after this too? Tumblr really wants to join the race of shittiest site huh
Reading the Vol 28 corner again, seeing Allen-Kanda-Lavi-Lenalee be referred to as “teen 4s/4 teens” got me thinking, have they been ever officially referred to as “main 4” or that is purely a term the fandom has made up?
Because now that I think if it, I only remember seeing it in western fandom places, as fans deem some combination of the 4 most popular characters as “main” (be it all 4, Allen+Lenalee or Allen+Kanda) while Hoshino herself called Allen and the Earl as “protagonist and protagonist behind the scenes” respectively.
Thank you for the input!
Checks out then, the Earl andAllen are the real mains and Road and Lenalee are in competition to be the heroine.
I hope this doesn’t come off condescending but like I really am stunned and confused over how it became a fanfic trope and fanon that:
- Allen, Apprentice of Cross Marian who canonically sleeps completely naked and starts the day sunbathing nude, was depicted as so “pure and innocent and unassuming” that he was absolutely ignorant of sex or what maiming meant
- Lenalee who at a young age got kidnapped into the notoriously anti-sex, pro-celibacy Vatican’s military organisation, who her brother very protectively guards and is consistently shown to be very oblivious to advances, ended up somehow well versed in relationships and sex
- Kanda who can barely stand being around anyone but a select few is a rampaging sex chad who fucked everyone in the Order and has an insatiable libido
The exact reason why I make my own food and only very rarely invite myself over to anyone other than a few trusted authors.
Lol Tyki is definitely someone who very much has Pure Sex Energy But He Never Had Sex, but at the same time with norowareshimono confirming he really is the Apostle of sexual pleasure too and Lavi in the latest corner wondering if Tyki was so focused on Allen because “Allen may be his type” Tyki wanting to violate Allen doesn’t seem that out of line.
What rubs me the wrong way that in those kinda stories Tyki for some reason is made to abhor Allen, while Allen is rendered to a doormat, which is a huge turn off forn me since Allen’s strongest characteristic is his unyielding determination, having him be helpless feels like doing him dirty.
Reading the Vol 28 corner again, seeing Allen-Kanda-Lavi-Lenalee be referred to as “teen 4s/4 teens” got me thinking, have they been ever officially referred to as “main 4” or that is purely a term the fandom has made up?
Because now that I think if it, I only remember seeing it in western fandom places, as fans deem some combination of the 4 most popular characters as “main” (be it all 4, Allen+Lenalee or Allen+Kanda) while Hoshino herself called Allen and the Earl as “protagonist and protagonist behind the scenes” respectively.
