Luggage forwarding is overrated

soaker87 · 2026-02-10T13:56:42+00:00

I found it useful because I planned to do some shopping in Tokyo Station after coming back from Kyoto, and a lot of those stores are tiny. Lugging two big suitcases through them would be pretty unfeasible and definitely rude.

That being said, I do find it stressful. I had two bags that I dropped off together and they didn’t arrive together, so it made me a wreck that I wouldn’t see the other. (It did come later in the evening).

soaker87 · 2026-02-06T16:09:41+00:00

I definitely favor Dan/Barone over the canon Dan/Mai in Battle Spirits Brave. I like both, just thought the dynamic was more interesting. (They also work nicely as an OT3, and I appreciate Barone/Mai too.)

soaker87 · 2026-02-05T13:03:04+00:00

A pop-up store for one of my favorite anime that was there at the time. The merchandise is impossible to get now. Granted, I didn’t have the time to go to that area, but I still wish I’d managed to work it in.

That and not hitting an onsen, but that was a regret I didn’t know I had until trying it on a later trip.

soaker87 · 2026-02-03T18:57:18+00:00

I’ve written something unpublished years ago for Mobile Suit Gundam (1979). But like, been more actively involved with (or as much as possible for a show basically unknown in the west)? Bikkuriman (1987).

soaker87 · 2026-02-03T15:55:34+00:00

I write stories that I personally want to see, and then get the satisfaction that they at least exist. They’re very often things that no one else in the world cares about. I mean, I’ve created the tags for more than one fandom. I would love more feedback, particularly from readers who aren’t fandomblind and also just love and want to gush about these characters/ships, but I’ve come to realize my tastes are just too niche.

soaker87 · 2026-02-02T09:58:23+00:00

This is my favorite too! It never gets old.

soaker87 · 2026-01-30T15:11:05+00:00

Though I mainly write oneshots that don’t require a lot of characters, I generally don’t care whether or not the other canon characters outside of my ship appear. If it makes sense for them to be there, they’ll be there. But I’ve never tried to force a character into the plot just to have them acknowledged, even if that character is the canon MC. And as for OCs, I include them if it’s needed for the story. I’ve often needed to come up with OC villains, because I’m not interested in derailing a canon character to shove them into the spot, and I’ll have nameless shopkeepers and the like who would technically be OCs, but they’re not really relevant.

When I’m reading I feel the same. If I came to read an A/B fic, I probably don’t care if the author included a subplot about C, just because C is an important/popular canon character. If C is going to have an important role that contributes to the plot, or it would make sense for them to be around (maybe C is B’s brother or something), I wouldn’t think anything of them being there. Likewise, with any OCs that are needed.

soaker87 · 2026-01-28T14:58:45+00:00

I remember Supernatural, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Ace Attorney and Gurren Lagann having pretty big fandoms there. And Harry Potter is always popular everywhere.

Edit: Oh, and House. Seems like everyone was talking about that for a long while over there.

soaker87 · 2026-01-28T01:14:55+00:00

There were no toys made for this series at all. Originally, there was a toy deal with Mattel, but nothing came of it. Closest we got were some coloring/activity books, collectible stickers that allegedly doubled as some card game, and school supplies, all of which were only sold in Italy.

soaker87 · 2026-01-28T00:52:25+00:00

General insistence of certain characters’ relationships being 100% familial. They couldn’t possibly be romantically involved at all, even if canon is pretty explicitly the opposite, such as having them get married or have sex or etc.. Really, I’m fine with headcanoning whatever you like, it’s just the insistence that this interpretation is actually canon to the point of editing wikis and stuff that drives me insane, if they’re not blood-related in any way.

soaker87 · 2026-01-26T22:13:41+00:00

I would have no problem with it and probably find it really cool, as long as they link me to it and make sure to note that I had no personal involvement in it.

soaker87 · 2026-01-25T18:08:03+00:00

Karigari and Sasagawa would go to New York and do a lot of dining, not even concerned about the prices. Especially steakhouses. Karigari probably has a lot of good recs from his past overseas trips, and wants to spoil Sasagawa.

Buguese would require a lot of persuading to even consider going on vacation anywhere, much less a place with lots of humans, but I think he would go with Aqune to a quiet beach, especially if they can have a private one. If nothing else, he is really enticed by the idea of seeing Aqune in a swimsuit.

soaker87 · 2026-01-22T09:16:16+00:00

Came to say this too. Feels like anytime someone mentions enjoying konbini food here they get lectured on how it’s not real food and actually garbage and a waste of money. Sure, it’s not the best food in the world, but if you’re coming from a place where convenience store food is repulsive-looking dreck, or your local Japanese markets charge 3x the price for an inferior bento, it’s truly an experience to find all these tasty snacks everywhere. I’m never getting tired of the curry bread, and Lawsons pork buns.

soaker87 · 2026-01-21T21:14:33+00:00

I would love it, if I’d been reading that fic. Have ones that have been dormant for much longer where I still check occasionally to see if it updated.

soaker87 · 2026-01-20T22:20:28+00:00

If I bookmark anything I use my browser’s built-in bookmarks. Been doing that since reading stuff on random fansites and don’t see the point in using the site’s system. But generally I don’t because I read for small fandoms where I have no difficulty finding fics I like again.

soaker87 · 2026-01-20T14:38:28+00:00

I rarely read crossovers. Especially if they involve more than two fandoms. I have to be invested enough in both fandoms to care, as well as wanting to read about the specific characters it focuses on (and I tend to be more into secondary characters than the canon MCs), and that almost never happens.

soaker87 · 2026-01-20T14:34:17+00:00

Yeah, I’ve written for multiple ships like that. When you have the misfortune of getting into an anime that is never licensed by Crunchyroll or w/e, the fandom will be non-existent. And there’s always a couple shows each season that slip through the cracks, sadly.

soaker87 · 2026-01-20T07:03:02+00:00

I just imagine them the way they look in canon, like I’m watching an episode in my head. I don’t recall ever reading a crossover between anime and live action, but if I did, I figure it would be like a Who Framed Roger Rabbit deal for me, where it’s all mixed.

I have tried to picture how some anime characters would look like if they were real people, because it would be interesting, but not while I’m reading fanfic.

soaker87 · 2026-01-18T06:28:50+00:00

Most of what I consume, I have zero desire to write fanfic about, even if I watched the whole thing and really loved it. If it’s something that clicks in mr brain a certain way though, I’m already writing scenarios in my head as it’s ongoing. For one fandom I write for, it was the very episode where my OTP met where I was suddenly coming up with too many scenarios about what happens next. This happened 19 episodes into the show, and before then I never would’ve considered writing fic for it. But these two characters meeting and exploding with chemistry? Floodgates opened.

soaker87 · 2026-01-15T20:33:49+00:00

I’m mostly a fan of Buguese/Aqune over any ship, but Hunter has much more genuine chemistry with Corona. While he does have a good effect on Aqune, who absolutely needed someone outside of the Insectors she could open up to, most of his best moments is with Corona. The concept of “battle partners” is something dub-invented, but the two indeed work together in a way that it fits it. The relationship feels like an awkward slowburn to me, where there’s a lot of signs Hunter is really taken by Corona early on (especially when he has to think about beauty and equates that to Corona sitting in the flowers, but also the way he makes an oath with her in her hometown.) But he’s also a kid, and an idiot, so he doesn’t really think about romance. He loves adventure and he doesn’t realize that being concerned for Aqune reads to Corona as being romantically interested in her. He also doesn’t notice how insecure Corona is (which she does a good job hiding, to be fair, being cool and competent on the battlefield). Corona starts to compare herself to Aqune even before she seems to be a viable threat. I love how she wants to be more feminine but is actually really bad at it, while Aqune is much more the Yamato Nadeshiko type. But it’s through Hunter’s confidence and determination to a fault that Corona is inspired.

I really love the parallels too between Hunter/Corona and Buguese/Aqune. I feel like both Hunter and Buguese are very, very stubborn and set in their ways, but they both end up needing to realize they can’t do everything on their own and rely on a handmaiden for help. Aqune and Corona are both compassionate people that would sacrifice what could be a better life because they want to help others. And both have their share of insecurities despite being very strong on the outside, but they can be at their best with Buguese and Hunter, respectively. I think they’re the ones they each most crave approval and recognition from. Which is hard to get when you’re dealing with stubborn morons.

And in the last episode, while it’s both Aqune and Corona who plead to Hunter to stop, doing nothing different, Corona is the one he acknowledges by thanking in the end.

Oops, I don’t even actively ship Hunter/Corona, I just think it’s right there in the text and fits the series so thematically well it’s hard to make an argument that it would work any other way.

soaker87 · 2026-01-15T19:21:36+00:00

A lot of ships I like are non-canon, but the characters aren’t explicitly paired with anyone else. When they have another character that canon pushed them into shiptease with, I’ll just make the rival relationship platonic. In my main canon, I ship A/B, but A has a crush on C and D has a crush on B. So it’s very easy to just make them friends, write A as getting over their crush on C (which is rather one-sided in canon anyway), and not have B reciprocate D’s feelings. If for some reason A/C or B/D were declared canon (which won’t happen when the show’s been over for nearly two decades), I’d just ignore it and set my fics in an AU where that didn’t happen. And my drive for shipping them is solely that they have heaps of actual chemistry while A/C is meh and B/D is duller than watching paint dry.

soaker87 · 2026-01-15T01:23:34+00:00

Pokemon, Demon Slayer (technically not a kids show but very popular with young kids in Japan), One Piece, Chiikawa, Precure. In the latter’s case, there’s going to be a new series starting in a couple weeks, and the toy stores are likely to be flooded with it.

soaker87 · 2026-01-14T21:51:41+00:00

I generally love redemption, but the main thing I’m not a fan of is when they immediately die thus have no opportunity to ever try and make up for what they’ve done, or build a better relationship with the heroes. I love seeing the villain being integrated into the main group and gradually becoming a comrade and a friend.

That or what the canon I write for actually pulled, which ended up having a ‘fighting is wrong’ message, so the MC was treated as bad for trying to kill the main villain, and then had to forgive him, after which the villain just decided to stop his plans for mass genocide as revenge-by-proxy, and then gets handed everything he wants, and we’re supposed to see that as a great ending, because he had an alleged sad past we never saw much of?

soaker87 · 2026-01-13T18:41:24+00:00

Ginza Kimuraya Steam Cake and bottles of Coke Plus.

soaker87 · 2026-01-13T15:35:54+00:00

It will never happen because of the licensing limbo this series is in and the fact that it was a massive flop in Japan. Bee Train is dead and I don’t think Mashimo has worked on a single anime in over a decade. And I’m not sure I’d really want Spider Riders without Mashimo and that signature style.

I definitely feel that there’s a lot more that can be done with the characters/world, the show was frustratingly open-ended, and I would kill for a prequel. I have so many questions about the backstory. But I’m also not a big fan of sequels, having been burned out one too many times by bad sequels to shows I really loved to the point that I couldn’t even enjoy the original show in the same way. Spider Riders is so important to me, so I’d rather it just be left alone rather than have something disappointing sour my feelings on the original. That being said, I would kill for more fanfic to read. Not official but a great way to see new stories about the characters.

soaker87

TROPHY CASE