THE LONGEST MEME.
THIS IS THE MEME THAT DOESN'T ENNNNNNNND.
Top Five Reasons for Fangirling the Wall So Much
1. I love non sequitur humor, when things happen out of nowhere that make ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE. And the wall kinda epitomizes that for me. Here we have this awesome main character having an incredibly badass fight, and just when he runs in for the kill... he crashes into a wall. Brilliant. Seriously! It's brilliant!
2. What makes it even better is that the fandom, being an awesome fandom, immediately recognized that brilliance and embraced it. I saw people spoofing it in RPs, there were people making icons; everyone was hopping on the bandwagon. Enough so that it became a meme! And well, you know I love memes.
3. And once something becomes a meme, you can basically do whatever the hell you want with it, such as assigning it random personality traits based on the thing that made it funny, which in this case was the wall's victory over a main character just by standing there and being a wall. So, for example, I could say...
4. His stoicism and brutal apathy. Or...
5. His sleek, enticing figure, all sexy right angles and gleaming, come-hither surfaces. ♥
Top Five Awkward Reborn Moments
I thought this was going to be a funny list but then it dissolved into thinly veiled bitching and :| faces! I'M SO SORRY.
1. Okay, do you all remember chapter 32? That's the Gokudera Training Program chapter, where Reborn said he was going to "train" Gokudera but then basically just dicked around and messed with his hair and stuff. So then Gokudera got DEPRESSED~ but fortunately Maman showed up out of nowhere and told him "Tsuna is always talking about you!" which Gokudera interpreted as "THE TENTH SUPER RELIES ON ME, HOORAY." |D
So basically that entire chapter is awkward, but by far the most awkward part is the end, when it's revealed that Tsuna is always talking about Gokudera because he's complaining about him. This revelation comes literally two panels after Gokudera determinedly thinks that he'll follow the Tenth until the very end and will definitely become a person suited to be his right hand man. I'm pretty sure the twist was meant to be funny, but all I could think was, "FFFFFF HE'S SO EARNEST AND EAGER TO PLEASE AND YET HE IS TOTALLY HATED BY HIS BOSS, OH HARSH." So yeah, number one on this list is The Crushing of All Gokudera's Hopes and Dreams for the Purposes of Comedy. XD
2. I know there was a chapter when Lambo peed himself. While Tsuna was holding him. I KNOW THIS CHAPTER EXISTS. I JUST CAN'T FIND IT. Or maybe it was just in the anime? But man, I've never felt so embarrassed for a fictional character in my life. That was like the epitome of awkward.
3. Chapter 9, when Reborn announces the fact that Bianchi was his lover. KEEP IN MIND, THIS WAS BEFORE WE KNEW THAT REBORN HAD NOT ALWAYS BEEN A BABY. So yeah. D: AND THEN LATER we found out that although Reborn hadn't always been a baby, he still hadn't been an adult in years, which means that if/when he was dating Bianchi in his pre-Arcobaleno state, she must have been SO ILLEGAL that you'd think even the mafia would be raising a few eyebrows. That's just not on, you know?
4. "So hey, Gokudera, it turns out that EVERYTHING YOU EVER THOUGHT WAS TRUE WAS A LIIIIIE. So I guess that all of that angst and the whole running away thing and thinking you weren't loved by anyone and basically your entire shitty life up to this point was all basically pointless! Whoops! But it's okay, you know we're all going to be laughing about this later."
5. Chapter 237. Almost in its entirety. XD This would be the boycott chapter where Haru and Kyoko decide that they're going to stop doing chores until the boys tell them what's going on, and then spend the whole chapter worrying about "ARE THEY EATING NUTRITIOUSLY?" and "IF ONLY THEY'D TOLD US WHAT WAS HAPPENING, WE COULD HAVE MADE THEM A BETTER MEAL!" Somewhere around page seven, the boys have an epiphany of "Oh wow, we never realized how much we depended on the girls cooking and cleaning for us!" and I guess this is supposed to be a major victory for gender equality given that this is the world of KHR. And then Bianchi starts talking about how men have manly pride and are risking their lives for that pride and that women just can't understand it and I'm just like, seriously, WHAT?
In the end, even though Tsuna ends up telling them the truth, basically nothing changes, so. It's something I try not to think about too often, cuz this is shounen and if I threw a hissy fit every time the boys got to be heroes while the girls JUST WATCHED, I would be an extremely miserable person! But just that one chapter in particular, it was really hard to ignore. XD
Top Five Best Scenes in Reborn
1. "I wanted to see the fireworks again, so I've come back..." For me, the image in this scene that always sticks out in my mind is Gokudera stumbling out of the smoke, limping and bloodied and then collapsing, but alive. He lost, but he's still there to fight another day because he finally realized how important that is to his boss, his friend. You're important, Gokudera! Your life is important, you mean something to someone! And he had to go to hell and back to finally see this, and it shows, you can physically see how close he came to dying. But he didn't. I'm trying my best to describe what it is about this scene that compels me so much, but I don't think I'm doing a very good job, heh. XD But basically it's about... redemption, I guess? The fact that he lost the fight, and yet came out understanding his own worth more than if he had won.
2. "The Shigure Souen Ryu style... is completely flawless and invincible." The page that I linked, the one of Yamamoto standing up covered in so many wounds that he probably shouldn't be able to stand up, and you can't see his face but you can just feel the determination emanating from his entire being, and you can see it in every inch of the way he holds himself... this, to me, is everything I love about shounen manga, defined in a single image. Never giving up. Believing in yourself even when the odds are overwhelmingly stacked against you. "I know I don't look like much right now, but you know what? I'm still going to win. Because I can't let myself do otherwise." And then on the next page he has this amazing, confident, absolutely fearless smile, and he says he's invincible, and he says it plainly like it's a fact, because honey? It is.
3. "I've always been... determined!" This is partly me being shallow, because frankly that bottom panel is the hottest Gokudera has ever been IMO, but it's also one of my favorite moments for kind of the same reasons I listed the Yamamoto scene above. That whole shounen determination thing. This is a really charged scene with a lot of adrenaline; basically, if Gokudera doesn't do something in the next few seconds, he's toast--and not just him, but Yamamoto, Haru, Lambo and I-Pin, too. PRETTY TENSE. And then right in the middle of that, he remembers what TYL!Yama said about how to activate the rings, that it's all about resolve, determination. And whatever other failings he might have, he has never lacked for that. And it's just like this sudden calm moment in the middle of all this chaos, and then BADASS. Hell yeeeeeeah.
4. "I will wipe out the Vongola!" So I guess I can't list my favorite Gokudera and Yamamoto GAR SHOUNEN moments and not put Tsuna's here too. This one I like because it shows how atypical a hero Tsuna is. The main characters in most other shounen series, they're all about BECOMING THE GREATEST HOKAGE or BECOMING THE PIRATE KING and so forth, but Tsuna's most determined moment in his series is about not becoming a mafia boss. Confronted with the Vongola's bloody history, he rejects it all in no uncertain terms. Even knowing that it might mean the death of not just him but his family and friends, he's still unwilling to accept the Vongola mantle under those circumstances. And you know what? That takes balls. It sure was enough to impress Primo.
5. The end of the Future Arc. Lastly, I had to go with this page because IMO it's the most beautiful shot in the entire manga. It just perfectly sums up all the horrible things that happened in this arc (what with the coffin there and all), but also the fact that in spite of everything, they managed to overcome it. And it's also a picture-perfect mirror of the opening scene of the arc, but now the situation is all different. The symbolism, it is delicious.
Top Five Characters in KHR Who Actually Act and Look Mafia Enough to be Mafiosi in Real Life
1. Adult!Reborn. I don't think I need to qualify this one.
2. TYL!Yamamoto. Uh huh.
3. COYOTE FUCKING NOUGAT. If you ignore the whole robot arm thing.
4. Gokudera's dad! From what we've seen in the flashbacks anyway.
5. Gamma, prior to the formation of the Millefiore. Man looked damn fine in a suit.
Top Five Reborn Characters You Hate
1. M.M.
2. Ginger Bread.
3. ...okay I honest to God don't hate any of the other characters. Let's just change it to "characters I might perhaps like to slap in the face a bit", and I'll go with Skull, Kawahira (because he just DISAPPEARED and he never calls, he never writes...!), and Torikabuto because dude what the fuck happened with you.
Top Five Events You Wish Had Never Happened in the Reborn Manga Canon
1. Choice. Just the entire Choice battle and everything having to do with it and leading up to it and even its aftermath. It turned out to be a complete waste of about thirty chapters, because absolutely nothing happened that couldn't have been done in some other, MUCH LESS COMPLICATED AND TIME-CONSUMING way. Basically it was an excuse for Yama to have a rematch with Genkishi and for Shouichi to get maimed. Both of these things could have happened in the real final battle instead. Speaking of...
2. The end of the battle with Byakuran. I'm a bit torn on this, because part of me is happy it was at least brief, but that's also because the whole arc had been dragged out for so long before this. If Choice had been skipped, we would have been able to put all those chapters to better use, and this wouldn't have been so weird and abrupt. If it was going to be like that, they could at least have done the Bad End where Byakuran won and took all the rings and then got destroyed by a tri-ni-sette power overdose, so that Tsuna wouldn't have had to kill him and then NEVER ACKNOWLEDGE IT EVER instead. XD
3. MAYBE THIS MAKES ME A TERRIBLE PERSON, but I kiiiiinda wish Gokudera's angsty troubled past had actually stayed angsty and troubled. See: Top Five Awkward Reborn Moments. Yeah.
4. If Ginger Bread was never going to do anything else anyway, WHY NOT JUST HAVE LAL KILL HIM AND BE DONE WITH IT?? We would not have missed out on anything! In fact, I'm pretty certain that half of you didn't even remember that Ginger Bread ever existed until I pointed it out in the question right before this one. BE HONEST.
5. And on a similar note, if Ghost was just going to come along and vamp the life out of Zakuro and co. either way, couldn't Gokudera have been allowed to have a victory for once in his dismaying life? XDDD
Top Five Things You've Learned from the Reborn Fandom
1. How to write fic on a deadline! This is a skill I never possessed before I started participating in some of the challenges here. It is, in large part, still a skill I do not possess, but at least I've managed it once or twice. XD
2. The more a character just stands around glaring and looking pretty, the more fandom will worship him.
3. It is possible to have two popular and seemingly at-odds pairings and NOT have the people who ship those pairings constantly be at each others' throats! KHR does have its occasional shipping wank, but it's absolutely nothing compared to the ship wars in fandoms like A:TLA, Naruto, and Bleach, for which I am so, so grateful.
4. Rule 34 is very much alive and well.
5. The key to not only having a successful anime filler arc, but having that arc be so successful people actually start enjoying it more than the manga? FILL IT WITH PILES AND PILES OF G. |D
Top Five Favorite Villains from Any Series
1. Yagami Light (Death Note). You know you're an awesome villain when you actually get to be the main character.
2. Benjamin Linus (LOST). Sometimes I wonder if they've actually invented the situation this guy can't talk his way out of.
3. Barbossa (Pirates of the Caribbean). By far the most piratey of all the characters in this series of films about PIRATES, and I love him so much. *_*
4. Magneto (X-Men). He's fascinating because he really believes he's in the right, and he almost kind of has a point. The best villains are always the ones that aren't one-dimensional LET'S DESTROY THE WORLD! bad guys, but actually have believable and sympathetic motives.
5. Byakuran (KHR). The exception to the rule I just stated about LET'S DESTROY THE WORLD villains. He's the Joker of the KHR world, a guy who just wants to fuck around and create chaos for the sheer glee of it. Only he did it dressed like a rock god with fairy princess wings, surrounded by fireworks. He was a pioneer. ;_;
Top Five Things You Want Somebody to Say in Reborn
1. "Pack your bags, Tsuna. We're going to Italy."
2. "You mean Byakuran is still alive? And he's on our side?" 8D
3. "Takeshi, there's something I have to tell you about your mother."
4. "It's a real gun, with real bullets. It's about time you learned how to use one."
5. "Bianchi, I have one favor to ask you. Please don't tell your brother I've come to watch the ceremony. It's easier for everyone this way."
Top Five Non-KHR Fandoms
Keeping in mind the difference between series and fandom...
1. Naruto. This fandom had has SO MANY PROBLEMS, and yet despite that it's still one of the most enjoyable fandoms I've ever been a part of. I kinda miss it sometimes, but I definitely don't have the energy for it any longer. XD
2. LOST. There are so many awesome LOST blogs around that I almost look forward more to reading people's reactions and speculations after an episode than the episode itself. I'm just sad it's all ending in little more than a week. :(
3. Inuyasha. Man, it's been ages since I was in the IY fandom, but oh, the fic. I don't know what it was, but something about IY just inspired so many people to write really long action/adventure/romance epics, and a surprising amount of it was pretty damn good, even on FF.Net.
4. Harry Potter. I always steered well clear of the shipping wars and pretty much all of the fanfic on this one, but I adored the discussion and speculation aspects of the fandom, and the excitement that built up whenever another book was on the verge of release. The midnight release of book 7 was one of the most awesome experiences I've had in my whole life; people were counting down like it was New Year's, and then SO MUCH CHEERING, and then awed silence as the first person purchased the book, haha. It was so much fun.
5. Star Wars. Again, this is a fandom I associate with lots of awesome discussion, and some equally awesome midnight film releases. Say what you will about the prequels (I can say a fair bit about them myself), but each time I went to see one of them on opening night, it was an absolute blast. People cosplaying and having lightsaber fights, applauding when the main title appeared onscreen, and cheering at all the right moments... my God, it was epic.
Top Five Unintentionally Hilarious Faces in the Reborn Manga
I thought for sure these would all be Daily Life faces, but hilariously, all but one of them is from the Future Arc.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Teehee.
And the chapter 289 recap will be up vaguely soonish probably.