Round 2 Strangers: Yami No Matsuei
Quick note: Due to an oversight on my part, a 7th Stranger synopsis has been added to the Wonderfalls post. Check it out!
I hope all of you celebrating Thanksgiving are having a lovely one!
Yami No Matsuei
Vids Used
-"Danse Macabre" by Sarahtheboring (sarahtheboring@gmail.com)
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members/members_videoinfo.php?v=47256
recommended by sansets
-"Shape of My Heart" by boniblithe (boniblithe@livejournal.com)
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members/members_videoinfo.php?v=48281
recommended by thefourthvine
For instructions on downloading from AMV.org, go here and scroll up a few lines.
Grokker Synopsis
The Characters of Yami no Matsuei
Tsuzuki, aka Ol' Purple Eyes
Tsuzuki is a dead guy. No, really, he is. He's also half demon, which is why he has purple eyes. (This may make you wonder about Elizabeth Taylor. Go right ahead and wonder, is my thinking here.) So, when he was alive, he was kind of bummed out about the half demon thing, so he killed himself and became a bureaucrat. (I know! It explains so much!) He works as a detective, aka shinigami, who deals with cases of inappropriate death (people being dead who shouldn't be, or people who aren't dead who are supposed to be - you know, the afterworld is complicated, there's a lot of paperwork, mistakes get made) in the Second Division of Chyugocho, which is kind of the Death Division of the underworld.
Tsuzuki is a really badass shinigami who can summon shikigami to help him; these are the big magical creatures made of fire and whatnot that you see in the vids.
Tsuzuki is mostly interested in food and Hisoka.
Hisoka, aka Green Eyed Whiner
Hisoka had a very hard life. No, really; he's got this mysterious empathy power, which made his parents fear him and lock him in a cellar on feast days and basically whenever they felt like it. (...Yeah. It honestly does sound a lot like the slasher's ultimate canon, doesn't it?) Then, when he was 13, he witnessed a murder, and the murderer caught him, raped him (really not kidding about this - they show it in the anime), and cursed him with an incurable disease that killed him at 16. At which point he became a shinigami - undead detective dude, in other words - and got partnered up with Tsuzuki. There is love and stuff between them.
Hisoka is mostly interested in finding out about his own death, which he doesn't remember, Tsuzuki, reading, and swooning.
Muraki, aka the Weird Eyed White Haired Whackmobile
Muraki is actually alive, which makes him rather special in this canon; he's also completely and totally bugfuck nuts, although in that way where you kind of like him even though he's a sociopath serial killer rapist.
Yeah. Serial killer rapist, and remember who had an encounter with one of those guys? So, hey, guess what? Muraki raped and killed Hisoka! (And then took away his memory of these events. But that's pretty minor, all things considered.)
Muraki is obsessed with Tsuzuki, just totally hot for his body and his studly shinigami powers. Since Muraki is not exactly a normal guy, he works this out by forcing Tsuzuki to go on dates with him, usually by abducting and torturing Hisoka. Muraki's reasoning is, pretty much, that once they go on a couple dates, Tsuzuki will forget all about the killing and raping and torturing and stuff and totally love him. (Not really a spoiler: it doesn't work.)
In the meantime, Muraki sets up various serial killings and supernatural events to keep Tsuzuki's life - um, death - interesting. And tortures Hisoka from time to time. Muraki leads a very full life. You have to respect that.
The Vids
Dance Macabre
This is your basic summary vid. Seriously, it's the most straightforward summary vid ever.
It starts with Tsuzuki being, you know, just generally himself. (And since this is our first glimpse of one of the more confusing supporting characters, I should probably explain that the flying chicken with the keyboard is a librarian, and also I think a god, and really I don't have any explanation beyond that, so please don't ask me.) Then he meets Hisoka - they have a little meet cute with a gun - and Hisoka does some of his usual stuff (whining, traditional martial arts, blushing, empathy).
Then we go through some of the cases Tsuzuki and Hisoka work - the vampire chick, the violin playing creepy boy who mysteriously looks almost exactly like Hisoka except sometimes he has wonky eyes. Tsuzuki solves these with his mad shinigami magic.
Then the music goes ominous. Yup, that means it's Muraki time! Muraki and Tsuzuki duke it out, with Hisoka as the prize (that's Hisoka all bloody and tied to that mattress, by the way - never let it be said that Muraki is subtle).
And, finally, we have Tsuzuki and Hisoka being sweet together, and also making out in an alleyway. The happy ending!
Shape of My Heart
This is about Muraki, and Muraki's love for Tsuzuki. If I had to describe the message of this vid in a sentence, it would be: "Muraki has depths, and you really just don't even want to know what they are."
We start with Muraki on one of his forced dates with Tsuzuki; that's why Tsuzuki is not exactly being the most cheerful date ever, by the way.
Then we review Muraki's greatest hits - killing people, enslaving people via magic, scheming, being totally insanely obsessed with Tsuzuki, scheming to use Hisoka to get him closer to Tsuzuki. A normal day in Muraki's head, in other words.
...And right here I should probably explain the green thing that you see from time to time in this vid - you see it best on "conceal a king in his hand." That would be Muraki's brother. Or, more specifically, Muraki's brother's head. He's preserving it until he can use Tsuzuki's regenerative (demonic) powers to bring his brother back. So Muraki can kill him himself. Because there's just nothing as upsetting as your brother dying before you get a chance to kill him properly, is there?
Anyway. Next, we get the greatest hits of Muraki/Tsuzuki. They fight and date and fuck, not necessarily in that order; all of these things require lots of blood to be shed, much of it Hisoka's. (He's lucky he's already dead, really; dead guys heal faster.) The fucking also requires feathers or petals or something to fly through the air, so when you see white things floating around, that's what's happening.
And I'm not going to talk about the ending of the vid, except to say that Muraki and Tsuzuki are still fighting.
Stranger Synopses
Stranger 1
All I knew about this fandom was:
Nothing, and fucking hell was my life empty for it.
Here's what this fandom is really about:
Okay so remember the internet from, oh, about 1999 - 2006? And how it was nothing but fangirls who were convinced that Draco Malfoy was really awesome and misunderstood and abused and just really really really needed a ride on Harry Potter's cock in order to turn it all around? Well apparently they've been busy, because they went and made a whole anime about him. OH COME ON, THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT'S GOING ON HERE. We have some gaunt dude with messy dark hair [coughHarrycough] who runs around in a trench coat after a tall, pale dude with white hair and an earring. A fucking EARRING, come ON, Draco fangirls, I KNOW THIS IS YOUR DOING. I kept expecting at any moment for them to either 1) discover that they can co-spell (and thus undo curse knots more effectively, obvs) or 2) move to San Francisco.
What threw me for a loop for a moment is that Harry's got some sort of latch key boarding school kid following him around, fucking with a deck of cards and bleeding everywhere. And then I realized, oh, OH, of course. This is the Mary Sue. He has BIG CRYSTALLINE GREEN EYES (check) and he seems to have a huge number of random powers (check), so I can only assume he's Dumbledore's adopted son as well as Sirius's nephew and the secret descendant of Rowena Ravenclaw. God, HP fangirls, why you gotta be so whack? (Also, WHERE DO I FIND THE DVDS, OMG.)
Stranger 2
All I knew about this fandom was:
Some kind of foreign something.
Here's what this fandom is really about:
Oh hey, this fandom actually looks cool. Not like all those other fandoms. There are vampires who have white hair, and there's a girl who thinks she's a vampire maybe,
but the Hero and his Sidekick don't let the poor girl kill herself, which is good. And LensCrafters was having a mondo sale on colored contacts, which probably helped the Hero work his majik with fire and dragons and stuff without his eyeballs drying out. But none of that is the point of the story.
Hero and Sidekick, who share a deep, deep love of sushi and beer and running everywhere they go, are traveling the world playing tricky games of "Wine or Blood?" with all the white-haired people they know. See, it's tricky to get a vampire to reveal himself, you have to casually slip him a glass of blood, and if he doesn't notice it isn't wine, you've probably got a vampire on your hands. Okay, I changed my mind, this fandom looks kinda lame now. Just goes to show how different vids can color your perception. And there's a head in a jar or something. WTF?
Ahem. Hero teaches his diligent Sidekick to deal with all manner of evil things, including white-haired pedophiles and women who are just a head and little girls who get shot and bleed all over you. Hero is a tortured soul, as most anime characters are, but soon he will escape this life of bloodshed and pain with his dear Sidekick and they will happily eat sushi and drink beer all day, in either a gay or totally non-gay way, whichever you prefer.
Stranger 3
All I knew about this fandom was:
Nothing except that it is Manga.
Here's what this fandom is really about:
There are these three beautiful young men with supernatural powers and serious relationship issues.
Danse Macabre
Our first character is the reluctant hero. Call him Mr. Black, since he dresses in classic Man in Black gear. He has the required awesome Anime hair. You know, the artful long wispy bangs in the face look. He also has violet blue eyes. He seems to be drawn to those who suffer. Maybe it's his punishment ? He can summon a powerful phoenix and also what looks like a tiger spirit. But all of this power doesn't make him very happy. Mr. Black seems to be the “good guy' of this fandom.
The next character we meet is Angry Young Man. He looks and acts younger than Mr. Black. He also has the awesome Anime hair and green eyes. He is good at cards, music and swordplay. His violin skills are so powerful that he call up demons. This seems to bring him to the attention of evil types who come after him. So Mr. Black has to protect him. This is good because AYM really has a crush on our hero. And Mr. Black doesn't seem to mind at all.
But someone does mind though. A rather nasty guy that I am calling Mr. White. This one is scary, he kills and tortures with abandon. And his magical prowess is off the charts. He has white hair and ice blue reptile eyes. And like all bad guys, he is as sexy all get out.
He comes after AYM to lure Mr. Black into a showdown. The battle is spectacular. I'm not sure who wins or loses here. But they all look damn fine fighting the war. There are other characters here, but they seem to be cannon fodder, just to be killed to advance the plot.
Shape of My Heart
This one is a character study of Mr. White. It seems that he has loved and lost. He wants Mr. Black but the feeling is not mutual. Mr. White seems to equate Mr. Black with the late love of his life. The one who's head he keeps in a big creepy green tank. Maybe he hopes to revive him some day.? I don't know, but if it were me he was after, I would run very fast and far away.
Having said all this, I find the relationship between the two compelling. I mean guys who look like male super models suffering great angst while hurling magic at each other? What's not to like?
This fandom has the advantage of stunning visuals. I think that I want to find out more about these characters . This looks like a world you could happily get lost in.
Stranger 4
All I knew about this fandom was:
I know absolutely nothing.
Here's what this fandom is really about:
Vid 1
This is about two gay boys who are saving modern japan from vampures with snow tigers and Vanessa Mae's l33t violin skillz. It kinda seems to me that the younger boy has problems controlling his power....The guy with the glasses is evil...and hot older boy likes to run a lot...and oooh, a phoenix!
Vid 2
Hot boy and glasses guy were lovers??? Why is there a girl in a jar like Cheza? Cept...this one doesn't have a body and grins evilly. So glasses guy wanted to get back at cute guy by hurting the chibi guy? Seems like it took a lot for the cute guy to hurt glasses guy…
So...this series is about a guy who has a little sidekick, who he is mentoring? He and glasses guy had a love fling and now the guy wants to kill him, or something. There are vampires and there are weird magical powers with mythical beasts that cause massive structural damage to everything around them.
Stranger 5
All I knew about this fandom was:
Well, the title is Japanese, so it seemed fairly safe to assume that it's anime. It's actually entirely possible that I've seen people on my flist talking about this one, because the title looks like it might be vaguely familiar. I think that's probably just because there's a lot of anime with "no" in the title, though. The word seems to be some sort of conjunction.
Here's what this fandom is really about:
This is the story of John Constantine's slightly less angsty Japanese cousin. By day, he sometimes appears to be a mild-mannered office worker, although the fact that he never takes off his trenchcoat might raise a few eyebrows around the photocopier. In truth, however, he is actually a bad-ass wizard who, together with his sidekick, the
Green-Eyed Androgyne, spends most of his time fighting vampires, magical monsters, and, most importantly, his Evil Blonde Twin, with whom he has the kind of complex, twisted, pyscho-sexual relationship you only get between mortal antagonists who secretly fancy each other and who are way more alike than the goody-two-shoes one of the pair ever wants to admit. Perhaps someday Evil Blondie will win him over to the dark side, and they will summon demons together in their matching white trenchcoats, which will be very nice for them, but probably less good for the rest of the universe. But until that day, Japanese Constantine walks on through the rain, heroic and alone.
Well, alone except for the sidekick, who sort of decreases the Brooding Hero effect, but is fun to have around, so what the heck.
I hope all of you celebrating Thanksgiving are having a lovely one!
Yami No Matsuei
Vids Used
-"Danse Macabre" by Sarahtheboring (sarahtheboring@gmail.com)
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members/members_videoinfo.php?v=47256
recommended by sansets
-"Shape of My Heart" by boniblithe (boniblithe@livejournal.com)
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members/members_videoinfo.php?v=48281
recommended by thefourthvine
For instructions on downloading from AMV.org, go here and scroll up a few lines.
Grokker Synopsis
The Characters of Yami no Matsuei
Tsuzuki, aka Ol' Purple Eyes
Tsuzuki is a dead guy. No, really, he is. He's also half demon, which is why he has purple eyes. (This may make you wonder about Elizabeth Taylor. Go right ahead and wonder, is my thinking here.) So, when he was alive, he was kind of bummed out about the half demon thing, so he killed himself and became a bureaucrat. (I know! It explains so much!) He works as a detective, aka shinigami, who deals with cases of inappropriate death (people being dead who shouldn't be, or people who aren't dead who are supposed to be - you know, the afterworld is complicated, there's a lot of paperwork, mistakes get made) in the Second Division of Chyugocho, which is kind of the Death Division of the underworld.
Tsuzuki is a really badass shinigami who can summon shikigami to help him; these are the big magical creatures made of fire and whatnot that you see in the vids.
Tsuzuki is mostly interested in food and Hisoka.
Hisoka, aka Green Eyed Whiner
Hisoka had a very hard life. No, really; he's got this mysterious empathy power, which made his parents fear him and lock him in a cellar on feast days and basically whenever they felt like it. (...Yeah. It honestly does sound a lot like the slasher's ultimate canon, doesn't it?) Then, when he was 13, he witnessed a murder, and the murderer caught him, raped him (really not kidding about this - they show it in the anime), and cursed him with an incurable disease that killed him at 16. At which point he became a shinigami - undead detective dude, in other words - and got partnered up with Tsuzuki. There is love and stuff between them.
Hisoka is mostly interested in finding out about his own death, which he doesn't remember, Tsuzuki, reading, and swooning.
Muraki, aka the Weird Eyed White Haired Whackmobile
Muraki is actually alive, which makes him rather special in this canon; he's also completely and totally bugfuck nuts, although in that way where you kind of like him even though he's a sociopath serial killer rapist.
Yeah. Serial killer rapist, and remember who had an encounter with one of those guys? So, hey, guess what? Muraki raped and killed Hisoka! (And then took away his memory of these events. But that's pretty minor, all things considered.)
Muraki is obsessed with Tsuzuki, just totally hot for his body and his studly shinigami powers. Since Muraki is not exactly a normal guy, he works this out by forcing Tsuzuki to go on dates with him, usually by abducting and torturing Hisoka. Muraki's reasoning is, pretty much, that once they go on a couple dates, Tsuzuki will forget all about the killing and raping and torturing and stuff and totally love him. (Not really a spoiler: it doesn't work.)
In the meantime, Muraki sets up various serial killings and supernatural events to keep Tsuzuki's life - um, death - interesting. And tortures Hisoka from time to time. Muraki leads a very full life. You have to respect that.
The Vids
Dance Macabre
This is your basic summary vid. Seriously, it's the most straightforward summary vid ever.
It starts with Tsuzuki being, you know, just generally himself. (And since this is our first glimpse of one of the more confusing supporting characters, I should probably explain that the flying chicken with the keyboard is a librarian, and also I think a god, and really I don't have any explanation beyond that, so please don't ask me.) Then he meets Hisoka - they have a little meet cute with a gun - and Hisoka does some of his usual stuff (whining, traditional martial arts, blushing, empathy).
Then we go through some of the cases Tsuzuki and Hisoka work - the vampire chick, the violin playing creepy boy who mysteriously looks almost exactly like Hisoka except sometimes he has wonky eyes. Tsuzuki solves these with his mad shinigami magic.
Then the music goes ominous. Yup, that means it's Muraki time! Muraki and Tsuzuki duke it out, with Hisoka as the prize (that's Hisoka all bloody and tied to that mattress, by the way - never let it be said that Muraki is subtle).
And, finally, we have Tsuzuki and Hisoka being sweet together, and also making out in an alleyway. The happy ending!
Shape of My Heart
This is about Muraki, and Muraki's love for Tsuzuki. If I had to describe the message of this vid in a sentence, it would be: "Muraki has depths, and you really just don't even want to know what they are."
We start with Muraki on one of his forced dates with Tsuzuki; that's why Tsuzuki is not exactly being the most cheerful date ever, by the way.
Then we review Muraki's greatest hits - killing people, enslaving people via magic, scheming, being totally insanely obsessed with Tsuzuki, scheming to use Hisoka to get him closer to Tsuzuki. A normal day in Muraki's head, in other words.
...And right here I should probably explain the green thing that you see from time to time in this vid - you see it best on "conceal a king in his hand." That would be Muraki's brother. Or, more specifically, Muraki's brother's head. He's preserving it until he can use Tsuzuki's regenerative (demonic) powers to bring his brother back. So Muraki can kill him himself. Because there's just nothing as upsetting as your brother dying before you get a chance to kill him properly, is there?
Anyway. Next, we get the greatest hits of Muraki/Tsuzuki. They fight and date and fuck, not necessarily in that order; all of these things require lots of blood to be shed, much of it Hisoka's. (He's lucky he's already dead, really; dead guys heal faster.) The fucking also requires feathers or petals or something to fly through the air, so when you see white things floating around, that's what's happening.
And I'm not going to talk about the ending of the vid, except to say that Muraki and Tsuzuki are still fighting.
Stranger Synopses
Stranger 1
All I knew about this fandom was:
Nothing, and fucking hell was my life empty for it.
Here's what this fandom is really about:
Okay so remember the internet from, oh, about 1999 - 2006? And how it was nothing but fangirls who were convinced that Draco Malfoy was really awesome and misunderstood and abused and just really really really needed a ride on Harry Potter's cock in order to turn it all around? Well apparently they've been busy, because they went and made a whole anime about him. OH COME ON, THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT'S GOING ON HERE. We have some gaunt dude with messy dark hair [coughHarrycough] who runs around in a trench coat after a tall, pale dude with white hair and an earring. A fucking EARRING, come ON, Draco fangirls, I KNOW THIS IS YOUR DOING. I kept expecting at any moment for them to either 1) discover that they can co-spell (and thus undo curse knots more effectively, obvs) or 2) move to San Francisco.
What threw me for a loop for a moment is that Harry's got some sort of latch key boarding school kid following him around, fucking with a deck of cards and bleeding everywhere. And then I realized, oh, OH, of course. This is the Mary Sue. He has BIG CRYSTALLINE GREEN EYES (check) and he seems to have a huge number of random powers (check), so I can only assume he's Dumbledore's adopted son as well as Sirius's nephew and the secret descendant of Rowena Ravenclaw. God, HP fangirls, why you gotta be so whack? (Also, WHERE DO I FIND THE DVDS, OMG.)
Stranger 2
All I knew about this fandom was:
Some kind of foreign something.
Here's what this fandom is really about:
Oh hey, this fandom actually looks cool. Not like all those other fandoms. There are vampires who have white hair, and there's a girl who thinks she's a vampire maybe,
but the Hero and his Sidekick don't let the poor girl kill herself, which is good. And LensCrafters was having a mondo sale on colored contacts, which probably helped the Hero work his majik with fire and dragons and stuff without his eyeballs drying out. But none of that is the point of the story.
Hero and Sidekick, who share a deep, deep love of sushi and beer and running everywhere they go, are traveling the world playing tricky games of "Wine or Blood?" with all the white-haired people they know. See, it's tricky to get a vampire to reveal himself, you have to casually slip him a glass of blood, and if he doesn't notice it isn't wine, you've probably got a vampire on your hands. Okay, I changed my mind, this fandom looks kinda lame now. Just goes to show how different vids can color your perception. And there's a head in a jar or something. WTF?
Ahem. Hero teaches his diligent Sidekick to deal with all manner of evil things, including white-haired pedophiles and women who are just a head and little girls who get shot and bleed all over you. Hero is a tortured soul, as most anime characters are, but soon he will escape this life of bloodshed and pain with his dear Sidekick and they will happily eat sushi and drink beer all day, in either a gay or totally non-gay way, whichever you prefer.
Stranger 3
All I knew about this fandom was:
Nothing except that it is Manga.
Here's what this fandom is really about:
There are these three beautiful young men with supernatural powers and serious relationship issues.
Danse Macabre
Our first character is the reluctant hero. Call him Mr. Black, since he dresses in classic Man in Black gear. He has the required awesome Anime hair. You know, the artful long wispy bangs in the face look. He also has violet blue eyes. He seems to be drawn to those who suffer. Maybe it's his punishment ? He can summon a powerful phoenix and also what looks like a tiger spirit. But all of this power doesn't make him very happy. Mr. Black seems to be the “good guy' of this fandom.
The next character we meet is Angry Young Man. He looks and acts younger than Mr. Black. He also has the awesome Anime hair and green eyes. He is good at cards, music and swordplay. His violin skills are so powerful that he call up demons. This seems to bring him to the attention of evil types who come after him. So Mr. Black has to protect him. This is good because AYM really has a crush on our hero. And Mr. Black doesn't seem to mind at all.
But someone does mind though. A rather nasty guy that I am calling Mr. White. This one is scary, he kills and tortures with abandon. And his magical prowess is off the charts. He has white hair and ice blue reptile eyes. And like all bad guys, he is as sexy all get out.
He comes after AYM to lure Mr. Black into a showdown. The battle is spectacular. I'm not sure who wins or loses here. But they all look damn fine fighting the war. There are other characters here, but they seem to be cannon fodder, just to be killed to advance the plot.
Shape of My Heart
This one is a character study of Mr. White. It seems that he has loved and lost. He wants Mr. Black but the feeling is not mutual. Mr. White seems to equate Mr. Black with the late love of his life. The one who's head he keeps in a big creepy green tank. Maybe he hopes to revive him some day.? I don't know, but if it were me he was after, I would run very fast and far away.
Having said all this, I find the relationship between the two compelling. I mean guys who look like male super models suffering great angst while hurling magic at each other? What's not to like?
This fandom has the advantage of stunning visuals. I think that I want to find out more about these characters . This looks like a world you could happily get lost in.
Stranger 4
All I knew about this fandom was:
I know absolutely nothing.
Here's what this fandom is really about:
Vid 1
This is about two gay boys who are saving modern japan from vampures with snow tigers and Vanessa Mae's l33t violin skillz. It kinda seems to me that the younger boy has problems controlling his power....The guy with the glasses is evil...and hot older boy likes to run a lot...and oooh, a phoenix!
Vid 2
Hot boy and glasses guy were lovers??? Why is there a girl in a jar like Cheza? Cept...this one doesn't have a body and grins evilly. So glasses guy wanted to get back at cute guy by hurting the chibi guy? Seems like it took a lot for the cute guy to hurt glasses guy…
So...this series is about a guy who has a little sidekick, who he is mentoring? He and glasses guy had a love fling and now the guy wants to kill him, or something. There are vampires and there are weird magical powers with mythical beasts that cause massive structural damage to everything around them.
Stranger 5
All I knew about this fandom was:
Well, the title is Japanese, so it seemed fairly safe to assume that it's anime. It's actually entirely possible that I've seen people on my flist talking about this one, because the title looks like it might be vaguely familiar. I think that's probably just because there's a lot of anime with "no" in the title, though. The word seems to be some sort of conjunction.
Here's what this fandom is really about:
This is the story of John Constantine's slightly less angsty Japanese cousin. By day, he sometimes appears to be a mild-mannered office worker, although the fact that he never takes off his trenchcoat might raise a few eyebrows around the photocopier. In truth, however, he is actually a bad-ass wizard who, together with his sidekick, the
Green-Eyed Androgyne, spends most of his time fighting vampires, magical monsters, and, most importantly, his Evil Blonde Twin, with whom he has the kind of complex, twisted, pyscho-sexual relationship you only get between mortal antagonists who secretly fancy each other and who are way more alike than the goody-two-shoes one of the pair ever wants to admit. Perhaps someday Evil Blondie will win him over to the dark side, and they will summon demons together in their matching white trenchcoats, which will be very nice for them, but probably less good for the rest of the universe. But until that day, Japanese Constantine walks on through the rain, heroic and alone.
Well, alone except for the sidekick, who sort of decreases the Brooding Hero effect, but is fun to have around, so what the heck.