Moved

Shit hit the fan on YouTube and a lot of people lost their accounts. I'm moving my stuff off thise email address to a new one.

The new blog is: https://youjoreviews.blogspot.com/

SOONER OR LATER comic versus the fanfiction REVIEW

Sooner or later is an undertale fanfiction, based on the underfell AU, based on the mafia fell AU that started as a fanfiction that got adapted into a comic.

This contains spoilers and details about what happens in the story, so if you want to read the fanfiction or the comic don't read this.

it is subjectively the more problematic side of the fanfiction heterosexual cisgenderism rearing its ugly head making frisk a heterosexual cisgender assumably white passing woman. not that I have anything against heterosexual cisgender people, I just wish they would stop rubbing their agenda in my face. Even worse, she turns out to be a damsel in distress later on story - but let me not get ahead of myself about this hetero patriarchy shitshow!

In the beginning

Frisk is a talented singer in a mafia gang crime-riddled City. at this point in her life, she's lost a lot of friends and family, was in abusive relationship, had a miscarriage because of it, and abuse and death has been 90% of her adult life. But don't, because she's a strong independent woman who don't need no man. 

She has money saved up, but that's for the obscure idea leaving, without the story expressing a destination or plan. Just bankrolls that could have been spent on a bus ticket and a new apartment a long time ago - buy real life standards. While that's going on, she's cussing out racists, and getting beat up by night club managers. No mention of feminism, even though that was obviously the thing back in the twenties. 

Into the story's events, frisk seeds Sans and the mafia Don at the club where she singing that night, and they're stared each other for a little bit because of course he looks fucking weird, and she sings blows the mafia boss a kiss, and is like I need to get the fuck out of here. Except she's not; in the fanfiction, she expressed urgency and leaving the club before she it went down because of the attendance. In the comic, they took that urgency out. 

the person who did the comic express some artistic license and putting in and leaving out details, but for some reason they didn't think it was a good idea to take out the story written narration that is necessary for a comic where you can see people's expressions and what's happening. And there are some things that aren't relevant in a setting where you can see them, like backstory for the most part. some things people can just guess why these things are happening, but there has to be an artistic way of expressing back story that isn't just narration, because that's boring and unnecessary.

Back to the events; she can't change clothes and get cleaned up fast enough for sans to be able to come into the women's bathroom, compliment her, get rejected, use his powers on her, and then slam her head up against the wall twice. someone fearing for their lives should have just thrown on their coat and bolted out of the door "slutty dress", makeup and all. And this was a really long time for no one to come into the bathroom. and the story has to throw in the time that first almost got raped in the bathroom, but someone came in, and then people came in and beat the guy almost to death. not to say that that doesn't happen, and rapists don't deserve to get beaten to death, but God damn this woman's life is horrible and it gets worse.

She somehow overcomes his powers when being accused of being a racist, and then he decides to be decent all the sudden, even though this is still taking place in a gendered bathroom, which has already been played up to be a big deal. He then later creeps her the fuck out by telling her he's been stalking her for a while - weeks, if not months. And then he's like JK, but for real I'm stalking you, now. so now she has to try to put her foot down, while living in fear of this dude knowing he has powers.

Then they address the brothers

 Sans and Papyrus obviously have anger issues and they would kill everyone and blah blah blah. this takes place in the world where a w d gaster is alive, and he's their brother. He has a handle on him, they're afraid of him and how violent he can be with them and blah blah blah. Traumatizing violent troped for days blah blah blah. The birth order is WD, Sans, and Papyrus - with no clearly expressed age Gap.

At some point, it's hinted that asgore sexually abused either wingdings or Sans, I don't remember which one. Or maybe it was it sexual abuse, but that's how I interpreted it. And I think it sans that doesn't want to talk about their parents, so I don't know if the story will ever get around to what happened to them.

Sans and Papyrus are the two that are the most out and about, while wingdings does most of the background, megamind operation stuff. They've been building a reputation for years in fell, and have decided to expand to a human City. I don't know how or why that's happening. It sounds like there is no underground and they all exist on the surface but their population is mostly contained. And there is no barrier to keep monsters from coming into the human areas. I really don't understand it when stories take this angle, but there are some a use that are commonly known for stuff like this really the monsters can interact with humans at any time, but what about the war and stuff? Why aren't they living amongst humans normally if there's nothing keeping them isolated? but those are questions to address more with the fandom at-large.

Sans and Papyrus are the ones who bother frisk the most, even though they helped her out of some trouble sometimes, but there's kind of no reason for that trouble to exist. But Sans isn't straight up abusive stalker, who seems like he's doing all this because she's pretty and he wants to fuck her. On the subject of racism, "as a man of bone, I have a thing for skin" is something that Sans says to her very early on. That's racial fetishization, if we really want to talk about racism! But if only it were that simple, instead it's far more Insidious. He harasses her bosses and gets her fired from all her clothes, and has all her bills forwarded to him to pay them without her knowledge or consent. He wants a full time trophy that only depends on him for survival. 

of course, she didn't ask for this, and this whole premise is really set up around some different type of form of holding her hostage in her own life. it's the constant cycle of trying to make amends after doing something horrible to piss her off after that for a while. But there's no attention put on how they're still forcing themselves on her without asking her how she feels about all this.

Where we last left off...

Of course, being the strong independent woman who don't need no man trope, she tries to get away from it by going to fell City. In this particular story of the alternate universe, underfell is a city, not a place inside of the mountain. She goes to sing at a club, and gets kidnapped by toriel and asgore because she looks like Chara. for some reason this happens with the assistance of grillby and a human who gets paid to lure people into fell City. 

Mettaton, Alphys, and Undying are on asgore and toriel side. it's hinted that undyne had past relationships, most likely with Papyrus, but she pick outfits over him. That's how I interpreted it. also Burger pants and the nice cream guy are former lovers. Burgerpants got dragged into the bullshit with mettaton and isn't even allowed to see him anymore, and of course he's doing all that to try to achieve fame and fortune. His life is also 90% abuse.

Toriel becomes obsessed with frisk and wants to make her into a little child. Frisk is drugged and forced into a wheelchair, while being threatened by a score that if she misbehaves she'll be taken to a whorehouse to be viciously raped on a daily basis. But somehow that saves her, because he can't mutilate her too much for her to remain attractive at the warehouse. in contrast, toriel wants to mutilate her a lot to make her into a child. Two things that get pointed out is that they want to give her a mastectomy, removing her breast, and a hysterectomy, removing her reproductive system so she won't have menstruation. and she also has to put on makeup to make her look younger as well, and large ugly dresses to make her look smaller. "This is Tori's world; Everyone else is just allowed to live in it", a paraphrased quote by frisk im an assessment of the situation. she realizes she can get away with a lot as long as she doesn't upset toriel. this Frisk is by no means stupid, she's just always in a victimized roll.

at this point, the fanfiction isn't updated that much. It got one update earlier this year, but I think before that it was less than a huge gap. And now it's November, with another huge gap. Last I saw, the artist that was doing the comic was having money issues, and might have suffered from the Tumblr crash. I haven't been back on Tumblr since the announcement, so I don't know what's happened to those people.

something that I can say that is my heaviest criticism of the comic is that when you use narration alongside the art, you're talkin down to your audience. You're taking away their agency and being able to read the situation that they're looking at themselves. Comics don't need to be narrated in a way that written stories do, for what I would like to think is obvious reasons. For as great as the art is, I wish that better judgment had been applied on the translation from written to visual. 

On the other hand, the writing isn't all that great either. Bringing up back story of arbitrary times is also pretty unnecessary. The writer had a hard time staying in the moment events, to set up backstory while the events were happening. and I think I've made it pretty clear that I disagree with the theming and where the story is going. I didn't walk into this story knowing that it would be a damsel in distress situation. first takes as much agency as she can, to the writer's credit, but everything is very set up against her being able to get out of the situation on her own. And at the last part of the story, Sans was on the track to save her, but I don't see an interesting way that this would play out where Frisk doesn't end up owing her life to an abuser. 

abuse is not funny, it's not cute, and it shouldn't be a redeemable concept Floyd. Even when he's not hitting her he's still abusing her by forcing himself into her space. and is she going to fucking leave? All questions that may never be answered.

I know you have to be a bad writer to become a good writer, and the same pretty much goes for anything else. I highly advise everyone to learn about racism, and different types of racism. Abuse, and different types of abuse. It can only be educational and beneficial for everyone to broaden their ideas beyond the over things that are presented to us in the mainstream Hollywood funded media. Shit is Insidious and in a wide variety!

That's all I have for now. Thank you for reading!

Is the current studio that did osomatsu-san lgbtq phobic?

To open up, while I acknowledge that there were a lot of things that were handled it very difficult ways in the Osomatsu-san series, I'm fully aware that a lot of social issues or tackles from the lens of Japanese culture no matter how outrageous or realistic they actually are. I do believe that there are some things that Osomatsu-san did right, but this along with a few other issues we're tackled very poorly. And I am saying this from an American culture pov.

My biggest inspirations for this review article are the girlfriend rental service episode, the Valentine's day episode, and a specific scene from season 2 episode 4. In examining the scenes and how the world is observed around the sextuplets, I have come to a few conclusions on this subject matter.

we all know that being lgbtq is as old as the existence of humanity, but there are a lot of cultures and societies and our modern-day that act like somebody just thought it up in the 70s and a lot of people are still slow to get on board. If you aren't familiar with lgbtq rights in Japan, that is for your own research.

Starting off, everyone around the sextuplets is very pointedly heterosexual and cisgender. all six of the sextuplets themselves are heterosexual and cisgender. At no point do you see any depictions of assumingly same sex or queer couples presented at anytime. This is especially highlighted in the Valentine's day episode, if everything else going on was to settle. with the show's Focus being on a male set of sextuplets, they also faced a narrative downfall of addressing white day. For those who are unfamiliar, and Japan Valentine's day is "split in two". There's Valentine's day where the women give the men chocolate, and white day where the men give the women chocolate.

The origins of Valentine's day comes from Saint Valentine who married people that were not accepted by the Catholic Church - interracial, inter-religious, etc. We have the term Valentine's, because after Saint Valentine was in prison before his execution he exchanged letters with the couples that he married and continue to give advice to others. the origins of white they are much less dramatic and gratifying. What day was simply started because Valentine's day was always the day where women were expected to give men gifts, and white day was created as a "payback" for that. Most countries that celebrate Valentine's day celebrated as a single day where is an exchange regardless of sex or gender. I see that white day that's mostly observed in East Asia. Of course, this inherently hurts trans, non-binary, and intersex people.

Before I get ahead of myself, I will talk about the events in the order that they appeared in the series. First is the girlfriend rental service episode. Maybe played for laughs, maybe damning. Iyami and Chibita go to Dekapan for essentially instant sex change medicine, and immediately target the sextuplets for their girlfriend rental service. And in Chibita’s case, I feel like it's justified for how many times they ate at his food stand for free. Iyami could have gone somewhere else and expand it out to more clients.

So immediately, we are faced with the issue of transgender sex workers. Some may argue that the girlfriend rental service isn't sex work, but we’ve already on the transgender track, so I’m pushing it from my own cultural context. Being relatively in the loop about the issues going on with Japanese culture and being transgender, I feel like this is an issue that was played for laughs, but still addressing a sort of light-hearted way to where some people might not catch on. It was handled by characters with that we know with methods that were used to in The

Osomatsu-kun "lure". and when the medicine wear off, they got what was coming to them for tricking the sextuplets (even though Chibita had a case). But in the meantime, they actually have the nerve to try to go into the woman's side of a bathhouse, instead of waiting for the medicine to wear off and going in as men. That has very perverted implications that's very specifically related to being transgender. The idea of going into a place where you don't belong.

The next highlighted problematic episode is the one dealing with Matsuzou and Matsuyo. Huge highlights of issues with misogyny, but we're talking about lgbtq, right now. The Love potion is found to only affect the male libido, and had the women running in fear of their safety. But the specific moment that needs to be pointed out for the sake of this subject matter, is the scene with Chibita, Hatabou, Iyami, and the Gang of cats. In a short scene of Chibita's oden stand it's pretty clear that Chibita and Hatabou are having sex. Iyami is outside chasing felines, to try to have sex with them. In my lifetime, I have seen the age-old argument since the 60s about homophobic rhetoric that they tried to teach in schools and churches tying homosexuality to bestiality and pedophilia. This is the part where tone-deafness was no longer an option in my speculation. I don't believe there's anyone in that studio that worked on this anime that's younger than I am, and Japan also adopted Christianity and lgbtq phobia. I feel like they know what they did.

Now for a more extended explanation on the Valentine's day episode, specifically pertaining to the characters. After creeping and stalking around town, all six of them try to gang up on Totoko. She's the only woman they know, and she has already expressed that she is not invested in dating any of them, let alone all six of them at once. However, when she wants attention they are expected to give it. Even though a few female characters have come and gone at this point, there was never a proper addition for the boys to actually be able to relate to. They stock and creep around town again, and seem to have a mental break down before they go home.

At the end, the boys actually express a form of love that is just as valid - the love of one's family. it would have been all well and good to end the episode on this note, and highlight that your mental health is more important than the social expectations of romance and intimacy which the memory of the Brave Saint Valentine has unfortunately been used to sell the people. But, of course, they had to go full mental breakdown, beat each other up in self-pity, go full involuntary-celibate mode, and attack people buying, sharing, and making chocolate. and swim to South America and attacked the cocoa, itself.

To my disappointment, the anime did skip over white day. But I feel like that's a part of the satire of the Valentine's day episode. I'm sure the overall thing is to point out how selfish the sixth uplands are, even though on other occasions who seemed to be generous. Nobody seems to have it set moral code, anyway. But back to the matter at hand, throughout that whole scene as the boys go around town being creepy and then later attack people there are no lesbians depicted. or gay men that don't care about society standards, and giving each other gifts on Valentine's day anyway.

After speculating these episodes first, I also realized that any other time that anything considered relatively homosexual content is brought up it is in some sort of dehumanizing fashion. like the way they play male sexual assault for laughs in the show. it was something that they also did it the 1988 series but to a much lesser degree, because those were children. But the 1988 series also had a supporting queer character. Admittedly, problematic in his own rights being a queer character with mental health issues being the only queer character depicted in the series.

In the "San" series, the main male characters are anally raped on multiple occasions, and the series has no lgbtq character to try to soften these blows to say "hey lgbtq people are people, this is all for laughs but seriously we see you and we love you". Realistically speaking, I've seen Twins and triplets have an lgbtq siblings. So it's completely unrealistic -in a bad way- for all six of them to be like that.

At the same time, a part of me is speculating "is this the world of the sextuplets?" giving this team a very unnecessary amount of benefit of the doubt, maybe the world is always working through the lens that the sextuplets see it from. There could be a huge psychological thing going on that erases lgbtq people from existence in their eyes, because they don't want to be like those people at all, and only relate anything that has to do with lgbtq as bad specifically from the siblings worldview point. Maybe their upbringing was taught that being lgbtq wasn't an option, so whenever it's present they just wipe it out, or manifested is something bad. Since this is a world with no consequences, we can't be sure what has long lasting effects, and what will carry over in continuity. Maybe all the times that they're raped are metaphors for things that didn't actually happen. Maybe it had something to do with an LGBTQ person or any consideration of being LGBTQ that translated into that for whatever reason.

I am going to stretch so far as to say that the crude handling of any otherwise sexuality that isn't cisgender or heterosexual is usually connected to money. Hatabou and Chibita who both own their own businesses, and one of them being rich. Hatabou it's so rich he gets to violently shove over-sized flags into people's anal cavities. In the first episode of season 2, the sextuplets are rich. There's the race episode where Iyami has one of the top is flags in his butt which immediately implies that he is now an employee of “Mr. Flag’s”. To a much wider degree, the Osomatsu detective episode, where Todomatsu does the finger jab thing. A part of me is going to let that slide, because that's a real prank that they do in Japan. But, it did happen in a mansion, which lines it up with my theory.

In my observations of same-sex male animated porn, there are rarely any healthy relationships. A lot of that type of porn is centered around coercive relationships, usually related to money, a position of power, and/ or just social status. With as much as I see it, I'm willing to believe that this behavior is playing into some sort of rampant homophobic stereotype. Either power has corrupted you into being gay because corruption has no morality, or you're on the receiving end of the coercion - forcing you to be queer. But there are far and few animes/ manags where characters are down-to-planet, normal, working class queer people that aren’t evil and/ or mentally ill.

And a bit of an off-topic nitpick: piercings and tattoos. They do actually bring up tattoos, as characters, and echo the sentiment that tattoos are unacceptable. That is still a thing in Japanese culture where tattoos and piercings are unacceptable, but they aren't illegal and people still do have them. It's like A Slice of Life anime without the life! But I guess it's not that Nitpicky, because the whole world is still somehow about conforming outside of conformity. The brothers are sexless jobless 20-something year olds that run around committing all kinds of random chaos. There's all kinds of rape, Carnage, debauchery, and murder. but Shiva and Parvati forbid you be a working class transperson with tattoos and piercings and a functional family.

That’s the end of this think piece. More to come?