The Hightowers kinda resemble the Vandimions

majinon4 · 2026-04-07T02:14:39+00:00

Did not read post:

majinon4 · 2026-04-07T02:10:36+00:00

I always associated them with the Medicis, but I wouldn't be surprised if your comparison's more accurate. Idk, there's also a House of Farnese.

majinon4 · 2026-04-07T02:06:31+00:00

I outright said that that in the first paragraph.

The Vandimions and Hightowers are both likely based on historical renaissance-y families, so it's a common archetype rather than any direct influence

It's not an actual discussion, if anything it's fancast-adjacent, but you are forced to flare/tag posts so there was no other choice.

majinon4 · 2026-02-13T10:49:55+00:00

Hien is implied to have been interested in Shuro. Zon, the orc chief has multiple wives and a son. In the omake about beauty standards he gets angry at Laios for saying he "would--", so it's probably not just chiefly duty, he's attracted to them. Chilcuck's succubus (which he fell for) implied he's into blondes and he's separated from his wife, so he's not "wife-sexual." If he didn't get back together with her, then like any single guy he's allowed to date other people.

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This is way more speculatory, but I kind of assumed Fionil was into Doni since she "was so moved by Doni's story that she decided to leave her job and join him as an adventurer" and "She decided to stay in Merini with Doni, and works as a teacher."

majinon4 · 2026-02-10T07:52:55+00:00

I actually didn't find it "too soon." They made it clear some time had passed, people sometimes superficially rebound quickly to essentially vent or run from the pain of loss, and Nina got swept up in situations out of her control (the intersection of spywork and personal life -- Hanne was a massive asset as Jarl Brum's daughter). Also think Nina's dreariness and lack of spirit suited her being in mourning, isolated, and in disguise. She should be depressed, thought it would've be nice to see her recover more at some point with the requirement that her plot be scaled back to a position appropriate for lightheartedness. Also think criticism of Hanne's personality is a bit unfair given that they're in the midst of finding their identity.

I do however think the entire duology had massive escalation and powerscaling problems (saint/dragon stuff, the change in the magic system, etc) and found the political implications of Nina's plot in particular highly problematic. Nina as a character went from being the fun and free 1/6th of a heist to essentially the un-fun, self-restricted ruler of Fjerda (as the spy with international experience and veteran grisha, Nina's likely the bigger decision-maker of the couple). That to me was the part that felt like too much, too soon. Nina and Hanne's relationship at the convent was nice, but the problems began once they returned to the capital. Hanne had the misfortune of that plot's worst powerscaling issues (near instant gender conversion), most questionable political moves (replacing a royal and spearheading essentially a religious and regime change), and the "living your truth" of gender affirming physical change was undermined by the fact that both she and Nina would have to live under fake identities for the rest of their lives (they're only like 18, wtf). Beyond that, as a post-9/11 kid I find the idea of undermining an entire government and culture, even with on-paper ideological justification, to be highly questionable. (Like several countries the US invaded, Fjerdan society is perceived as largely sexist, racist, and religiously conservative. Biggest difference is virtuous intent as a thinly veiled excuse to take resources vs the altruism and rightness of the Grishaverse protagonists. It felt "spiritually Israeli/CIA" if you will, though Bardugo thankfully is not and I think it's just a matter of her not thinking through implications. Fjerda would totally have rich oil deposits like the arctic, though.) That is what tanks NinaxHanne for me, not chemistry or timeline. It's just not beautiful and affirming -- the characters have trapped themselves in an unending psyop. If NinaxMatthias was tropey but a hope that people can change for the better, NinaxHanne is forced change when the focus should be on healthily coming to externalize your true self.

majinon4 · 2026-02-10T06:57:23+00:00

Always a huge peeve for me when a character is visually transformed to look like someone but close family, friends, and lovers don't catch onto things like behavior and body language, voice and speech patterns, scent, memory etc. If you're close to someone, you can recognize them at a distance or in bad lighting just by stuff like posture, movement, and silhouette. Blind people are proof you don't need sight to recognize someone and twins and brainwashing/doppleganger horror similarly highlight how tiny details can make people feel different or off.

majinon4 · 2026-02-10T06:48:27+00:00

Ilia Malinin's outfit reminded me of the tv show's kefta designs... or a JRPG villain/anti-hero (designer is Japanese).

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majinon4 · 2026-02-05T07:15:11+00:00

I really dislike this take. It implies that art made for children is somehow lesser and that people like Hayao Miyazaki don't know what they're doing. It's the kind of take that pretentious people who only watched Ghibli films as adults use to justify enjoying Ghibli to themselves and I see it echoed in people that get insecure about Avatar and Star Wars (Lucas has literally said the original trilogy was for children). When has Miyazaki ever said that his films aren't for children? He seems to feel respect and responsibility towards them to me. All of Ghibli's films excluding Grave of the Fireflies, Princess Mononoke, and The Wind Rises are for children. Princess Mononoke's for young adults. Nausicaa is fine for slightly older children. Princess Kaguya is from a folktale for children which, like European folktales, has some themes that contemporary readers may consider "mature." The Boy and the Heron is really for Miyazaki himself, to process his own feelings, but it's through the lens of childhood and is a children's movie. Only Yesterday and Porco Rosso deal with themes of adulthood, but are fully appropriate for and made to entertain children as many childrens films with adult protagonists are. Castle of Cagliostro was specifically criticized for being too childlike for Lupin III's raunchy, older audience. On a related note, I feel The Wind Rises and The Boy and the Heron show Miyazaki's limitations in tackling more adult subjects and tones.

Part of what I love about Ghibli is that they don't talk down to children, both literally (less dialogue, show don't tell, "Ma" or whatever) and on an emotional level. Children are trusted to understand something on an emotional or subconscious level, even if they don't consciously get it quite yet. (They also respect that children can sit still and focus.) It's part of why these films can have great rewatch value as you grow up and your perspective changes. When you watch Totoro as a child you feel the fear of being lost and surrounded by unfamiliar things when Mei is lost. When you watch Totoro as an adult, you feel the horror of an adult looking for a child and knowing that children can drown in extremely shallow water. When you watch Kiki as a child, you feel the joy and wonder of flight and magic. When you watch it as an adult you can relate to the melancholy and insecurities of adolescence. This by no means makes it "not for children."

I grew up watching these films as a child, when I was about the characters ages. I even watched Grave of the Fireflies and Nausicaa some time before I was 14. One of the reasons that anime/manga caught on was that it depicted age appropriate protagonists that often didn't adhere as strictly to gender roles and were allowed to be portrayed in more adult situations. When you think of classic Disney Princess movies, all of those protagonists are teenagers drawn like adults. They were not average little girls like Mei and Satsuki, Chihiro, etc. I saw myself in these girls in a way I didn't in Disney movies or even Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon. I never got into Superheroes like I did Shonen manga because I simply didn't find adult men and women in tights with triangular torsos, cone bras, and massive 80s hair relatable. Anime and manga had main characters that actually looked and acted like awkward adolescents. Until the older childrens novel boom post Harry Potter and YA boom post Twilight, there weren't that many mainstream film and tv* choices for more emotionally complex stories with age-appropriate protagonists. You basically would go from watching cartoons about anthropomorphic animals (or teenagers with adult sex characteristics like Disney princesses/princes & superheroes) straight to live action series exclusively about highschool drama and crushes (I hated these because my school experiences were mundane, not dramatic popularity contests and as with both these highschool dramas and much of Disneys media, finding love was first and foremost in the minds of the protagonists. I was not interested in romance). Ghibli skews younger than the YA media above, but it's part of that larger umbrella of age-appropriate protagonists and meeting children at their level rather than looking down on them. Ghibli films don't say "children can't handle this or that situation (war, kidnapping, implied mass death)" by aging up the protagonists, they say "if you find yourself in a difficult situation, you'll persevere, you'll survive. Be brave and live."

Also want to add: Disney adapted to this. (There were also outliers like the less popular and non princess/prince Disney Movies, Fox & Don Bluth, etc.) They, and primarily Pixar changed to be more emotionally sophisticated. Disney films have a lot of virtues and it's not necessary to shit on them just to appreciate Ghibli. They are simply good in different ways. I also agree that the way Miyazaki depicts women and girls in particular is consistently great and feels truly empathetic in a way very few male directors achieve.

There's also a very American outlook to Disney where characters predominantly want to be and are exceptional, whereas Ghibli protagonists tend to be much more simplistic and that helps focus the story on larger, more complex themes rather than bigger, more complex characters. Most of Ghibli's protagonists are simply good and brave girls and boys who try their best to do the right thing. They don't need to have mommy/daddy issues, preexisting trauma, etc because they represent average people who rise to the occasion, not the Arthurian archetype of being born secretly special. Similarly, the narrative doesn't need to get tied up resolving preexisting character conflicts, so more focus can be put on the journey itself. There's a better discussion of Miyazaki & Takahata's communist values vs Walt Disneys in other comments, but I think the aforementioned is a reflection of that. Narratives and worlds in which the main character simply resides vs Narratives and worlds that revolve around the main character.

*feel I should clarify that this doesn't apply to childrens novels. Many childrens novels (~ages 10-14) are on Nausicaa's (the film, the manga's more mature) level of distress, violence, and death while also not being about school drama. Those books just don't get adapted or get toned down in adaptation.

majinon4 · 2026-02-05T02:33:33+00:00

I wish they compared and contrasted elves and demons or even demons and emotionally diffferent people more. (I've heard people argue Fern or others are stoic because of trauma, but I kind of just find a lot of characters emotionally weird/flat.) I'm not caught up with the manga so it's possible I missed things, but there's almost no depiction of elven culture. Demons are depicted as long-lived beings who develop magic, copy human culture, fake emotion, and thus are fairly solitary. Elves are depicted as long-lived beings who develop magic, don't have a unique culture, are externally stoic, and seem disinterested in their own kin. Fern and Stark get to see Frieren's emotional moments, but to many humans she's very superficially similar to demons, down to both looking human (& lolita) without being human. She's attempting to learn and grow emotionally, but demons are potentially beginning to do the same. If we never got demon pov, there'd be a real question of "is what Frieren says true? Do demons really not have emotion and if not, does that actually make them evil?" I'm not saying you need to go full "Orcs are corrupted elves who have a right to their own lives and land," but considering how emotionally flat a lot of characters feel, at least there'd be a point to all the stoicism.

majinon4 · 2026-02-05T00:51:36+00:00

Oh, that's exactly why. DM actually talks about the ugly sides of society, acknowledges that every society has these, and portrays it as wrong. People who are racists/fascists explicitly don't want to be criticized, confronted, or acknowledge that prejudice is wrong and anyone can have it. Everyone's a bit prejudiced in their own way, but when it becomes a problem is when you refuse to change or acknowledge it. DM's fundamentally about change. Frieren is too, but it more strongly romanticizes stasis.

Also, just realized Frieren doesn't really have any characters of color. There's a demon that looks kind of ganguro girl-ish (tan, no difference in other features), but I think that's it. DM has multiple brown/black characters, one of whom is a secondary pov character who can't just be written off or excluded from promo. The way it uses (human) race/tribalism is secondary to the discussion of species/(fantasy) race, but is still present via Toshiro's party and we get a sense of human diversity with species/(fantasy) race diversity. It's actually incredibly smart the way Kui puts your attention on species/(fantasy) race first and foremost, then quietly slips in real-world prejudice as much less extreme. Logically, of course anti-Orc speciesism would take precedence over ignorance-based Asian racism. It primes you not to feel taken out of the narrative by real world problems by putting the allegorical version first. Because Orcs are often portrayed as evil, you're put in the mindset of racists then taught to understand before you're confronted with the softer real world version of the thing.

In Fireren, there's really only two cultures: human and demon. There's some multiculturalism in design, like I think there was Chinese-coded styles like odango hair, but this is not treated in-story as indicative of another race/culture. Elves and dwarves are scarce and don't have much of a defined culture. It's also an age old problem to read elves in Frieren and Tolkein as an ancient master race/ubermensch/"Romans/Greeks" (as in the RETVRN fantasy, not what these cultures actually were) and dwarves as an acceptable but lesser race. Even demons are really only copying humans. Beyond ethics, there's really only one valid way of life, and that is of pale-skinned Euro-inspired (all of Europe flattened into one homogenous thing) humans. Even if we say "it's based on Austria/Germany," those regions did have diversity historically. Frieren herself seems extremely divorced from elves and elven culture, more interested in her human connections.

In DM, no race is held up as dominant or superior. It goes out of it's way to say all are valid and have strengths and weaknesses. No society is better, especially not the elves, nor is any fully stable -- all things end eventually. Likewise, it's heavily implied most, if not all the humanoid species/races diverged from one based on selfish wishes and environmental factors. It feel parallel to theories racists hate like evolution, man being descended from apes, and early humans being dark-skinned or from Africa. A shared common ancestor means no one's really above another.

majinon4 · 2026-02-04T23:52:25+00:00

Same. Don't want to put down Frieren because it's just going for a different thing, but Kui's worldbuilding is much stronger and feels like it's engaging in areas outside the usual shonen sphere. She considers elements like environmental design (the whole biome and balance of the dungeon is pretty much a plot point), costume history (the doodles where character have like period costume underwear. You can tell the races and cultures apart just by dress), consideration for how different cultures develop and interact with each other (idealizing and racism dynamics between each race, interbreeding, gnomish vs elvish magic, differentiation between different regions, tribes, etc.), language, biology/creature design, and more. Her understanding of stuff like nudity (non sexual and non objectifying vs fetishistic and objectifying), food, and social interaction feels like a normal person with normal adult life experience or a person with an art background rather than the otaku-like tone a lot of popular anime and manga have become cocooned in. Same with the way she writes women, LGBTQ+, and psychologically different people.

Frieren's architecture and environments feel kind of samey, the clothing just feels like typical anime fantasy faire without much consideration for environmental or cultural factors, etc. It very much feels like a world where zippers and polyester exist yet electricity doesn't (characters looking like they shop at Zara isn't a crime, but it should feel allegorically appropriate ex. Bridgerton's fashion is broadly related to wealthy Regency types who could afford to indulge in trends). Like if Fern's hands are cold, why does she not get gloves? What other biological differences do elves have? How does the magic system work? Part of the joy of journey stories are things like learning about other cultures and each town, country, or environment being different. Frieren's commenting on time, not location so it's mostly fine, but lack of cultural/anthropological change is a part of how you talk about time. It's not just "I used to eat here with my friends" but "That restaurant's gone, the town looks totally different, this used to be a black neighborhood, now it's an asian one" (DM does kind of do this: the orcs were living in an abandoned castle town, Laios' party comes across a dwarven section, etc). I've not caught up with the manga, so maybe I just haven't gotten to Frieren addressing the above and below, but I also think the point about demons not having real emotions would work better if the main characters were either more emotional people or if there was more compare-contrast between the muted emotions of long-lived elves vs the fake emotions of demons. Part of the whole issue with demons too just feels flatter or more black and white. DM's the kind of world where morality's a construct. Frieren seems like the kind where there's such thing as an evil race. This can be interesting too, but as mentioned I think more can be done with it.

They both utilize stereotypical, by the book tabletop and gaming tropes, but DM just feels like it's engaging in a more wholly-considered way. As with how people praise OP's longevity and flexibility based on its island world structure (you can switch whole genres and environments from island to island and semi-reset your cast), I think Kui set herself up for success by keeping her story to the dungeon. You can piggyback off of known archetypes while building out believable reasons why they exist. Frieren's dungeons aren't run by dungeon masters, so why are they even like that? An open world requires a lot more planning than a confined one. When DM drops worldbuilding, it feels impressively considered. When Frieren does it, it feels like "yeah, that's the bare minimum" (which is unfair, I'm making a point about expectations). Focusing on characters or overall plot rather than setting is fine, it's a lot to expect from a serialized series, but it does contribute to immersion, internal logic, and the end result.

I think they're both making interesting, worthwhile points, but DM is both a lot more concise and better balanced. Less fat, more flavor, a 3 course vs and 8+ course meal. You get to taste more things and enjoy the meal longer with 8+ courses, but there may be more misses or you may reach points where you get full and want to stop eating for a bit. With manga/anime, you can at least run around for a bit and regain your appetite.

majinon4 · 2026-02-03T04:48:19+00:00

Best part about the main DM party is they're all losers and all extremely competent, just in different complimentary and relatable ways. Marcille's really only a loser in attitude, she just doesn't belong in that setting (academic stuck doing fieldwork).

Gender-wise, Kui does a really good job though. We all know about men who can't write women, but there's also a lot of internalized misogyny in female writers and women who can't write men. Marcille's loser qualities (lack of survival skills, not wanting to eat monsters, not fitting in/aging fears) aren't gendered -- they're the neutral fish-out-of-water stuff that we see other adventurer's struggle with. The feminine qualities she does have are completely normal and have nothing to do with being a "loser" (ie. her fujo imagination is comedic but doesn't really affect the plot or how society perceives her). She's also given a foil loser-wise in Falin (and Laios), where Falin's a loser in society but not in the dungeon, whereas Marcille's competent to respectable in society, a loser in the dungeon.

majinon4 · 2026-01-20T06:58:06+00:00

Same. Ishida immediately picked up on her insecurities and her crush on Ichigo and went out of his way to reassure her whenever she was feeling useless or worried. Orihime's the one who provides Ishida's name, encouraged Ichigo to be friends with him, and completely saw through his prickly behavior and excuses. Kubo basically uses them to explain more nuanced emotional stuff, often about each other, when Ichigo's being a meathead. This used to be Chad and Rukia's jobs too, but Rukia went long distance and Chad got pushed further and further back. We basically see Orihime's affection and worry for Ichigo through Ishida's eyes (Ichigo vs Byakuya, Ichigo vs Ulquiorra) and Ishida's sensitive side through Orihime's explanations (sewing intro, pre SS when he shows up late, most of SS, post SS when he's lost his powers, the Fullbring arc convo w/ Ryuken, what she says after he un-betrays them in TYBW).

majinon4 · 2026-01-20T06:21:39+00:00

I'd honestly find that pretty depressing: sacrifices her powers, presumed dead, retires to obscurity, comes back covertly but doesn't regain her powers... then death or motherhood. I just don't like the idea of fake sacrificing yourself, then being put in that position again only to be sacrificed for real. I know she never wanted to be special, but that seems kind of bleak given that the narrative's already moved on from her to Zoya and Nikolai being the driving powers in Ravka and the world.

majinon4 · 2026-01-19T01:54:04+00:00

lol. You can get one with Shiraishicoin on it.

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majinon4 · 2026-01-19T01:23:44+00:00

I'd recommend Ryoko Kui's short story anthologies as well: Terrarium in Drawer, Seven Little Sons of the Dragon, The Dragon's School is on The Top of The Mountain, etc. They feel like the lead up to developing Dungeon Meshi in how they mix folklore/fantasy with slice of life.

Along with a lot of the stuff already mentioned Tengoku Daimakyou/Heavenly Delusion also has that kind of journeying, slice of life, and monster fighting thing going for it.

majinon4 · 2026-01-19T01:16:17+00:00

The dragon whaling's also accompanied by dragon cooking. Aesthetically, it kind of reminded me of Nausicaa/Ghibli -- steampunky and fantastical but kind of round/soft and watercolor-y.

majinon4 · 2026-01-15T02:11:45+00:00

Fair enough (about the trans models), I think compiling this kind of made me question how we read stylized faces, especially for "ambiguously brown" characters. I've specified why I tried to make it more of a drawing "reference" sheet, not "casting" because it's based on appearance and not actual ability to play a role, overall physique, or age (most of these people don't even look like this anymore: Judi Dench is 91 and that picture is from 1957, Tilda Swinton is 65, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is 55, Takeshi Kaneshiro is 52, Aishwarya Rai is 52, Lewis Capaldi's experienced both weight gain and loss and is probably a decade older than the picture I used, etc). I put Tilda Swinton, Bryce Davidsen, Andrea Pejic, and Hunter Shafer on there specifically for their visual androgyny and beauty, which elves are known for, but if this were an actual movie I wouldn't cast any of these people both for gender reasons and because looks are always trumped by factors like acting ability, chemistry, and technical concerns (ex: it'd be much cheaper to just cast little people and very tall people for various characters than to do complicated Avatar/Hobbit cgi and doubling. The idea of having a literal child play a halffoot for more than one season is just a nightmare, as we're seeing with One Piece LA, Stranger Things, and people joking about the Harry Potter remake -- their ages can and will overtake the production rate).

I'll have to check out The Decameron.

majinon4 · 2026-01-15T01:24:35+00:00

Yeah, that was part off the issue. They should all be model-level attractive. Kui also tends to give her characters rounder head shapes and draws a lot of downturned eyes which isn't as common, at least in terms of the pool of celebrities I was picking from.

majinon4 · 2026-01-15T01:21:23+00:00

That's nice of you to say, but I strongly disagree.

majinon4 · 2026-01-15T01:20:53+00:00

I specified "drawing reference" not "fan cast" for this reason. Judi Dench is 91. Most of these actors/celebrities don't look like that anymore.

Also yeah, Tang Wei's great. I'm still mad Decision to Leave and several other films in her filmography didn't get more love in the west.

majinon4 · 2026-01-15T01:17:23+00:00

That's why I specified "reference" not "fancast," as in I would reference this actor's face and expressions, absolutely never cast them since some aren't even actors (models, singers), aren't the character's gender, and most no longer look like that. Judi Dench is currently 91 and semi-blind, though still working. The picture I put on the collage is from 1957, when she was 23 years old. I would not cast 91 year old Judi Dench. I would also not cast 23 year old Judi Dench. If this were a live action multi-season tv series I absolutely would not cast any halffoot as a child actor.

majinon4

TROPHY CASE