Top Fives meme: anime answers
Feb. 14th, 2013 03:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lokifanAnime top fives! I would not have thought, two years ago, that I would be in a position to answer these, let alone STRUGGLE MIGHTILY with them.
Disagreement and discussion welcome as always!
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marbletables asked for my TOP FIVE SHION/NEZUMI MOMENTS IN NUMBER 6, because she is a bad person who lives to torment me. But I will ATTEMPT to choose only five:
5. “Sorry, but could you return him? That boy belongs to me.” <3 YOU RAT.
4. The goodnight/goodbye kiss in True Lies, Empty Truth. I love Shion’s little speech - it is exactly my kind of ship moment, where Shion says it’s because he knew Rat that he became the person he is now and he’s glad. And then the kiss! And adorable, honest Shion telling a lie, and Rat all touched and yet knowing it for a lie. BOYS.
And then Rat’s little speech: “Humans are willing to help each other. That’s what you taught me. It was a lesson I never forgot. It changed me. You’re the only one who ever tried. I could never forget that lesson. That’s why I am who I am today.” OH RAT. OH SHION. Shion’s altruism is lovely, and it breaks through to Rat when he is so cold and injured and scared. And I love that Number 6 both acknowledges that Shion’s comfortable life made him more able to be altruistic (“that innocently open window”) and that he is a deeply kind, generous person in any circumstances.
And then the sunrise behind them. The end of Episode 7 just gives me all the feels. And I know this is actually two moments, but I am counting it as onebecause I am a cheater because it’s when they both tell the other how knowing them has changed them. Basically if a pairing can plausibly be vidded to For Good then I’ll ship it like it’s my job.
3. Shion attacking Rikiga for being a slimy pimp at Rat. He’s just so earnest and adorable. “How can you say such awful things? HAVE YOU NO SHAME?” And I love Rat’s WHOA WHAT look. “Someone would get angry about someone insulting me? What? Why?” Also excellent foreshadowing for the much darker version of this moment in Episode 11 when Shion kills a man in cold blood for hurting Rat.
2. On that note: when Shion, having already shot and almost incapacitated the guard who just seriously injured Rat, shots him dead. I love it. Because it’s a very dark moment, the utterly unexpected places these two get pushed by each other: the altruist who believed in a third option shoots a man in cold blood, and the ruthless survivor who still claimed they weren’t friends breaks down in tears from the guilt and pain of seeing Shion do that, become that. It hurts so good.
1. The end of Angel of Death. Rat teaches Shion to waltz! Georgette Heyer meets grimy sci-fi! And the ruined dreamscape with the shadow of them dancing is beautiful animation. AND THEN SHION REACHES OUT and is all “you wouldn’t understand... you’re the one person I couldn’t bear to lose” and so earnest and unafraid. And totally oblivious to Rat swallowing and being all overcome by Shion’s hand on his neck. I love Rat’s line, while he watches Shion sleep during a tender moment-slash-massive freakout - “he hit a pressure point.” Awesome metaphor and callback to their first meeting.
thedomboss asked for my top five Number 6 moments:
5. The knitting needles. OH MY GOD SO SAD. Such a genius touch. I remembermarbletables and son_of_darkness pointing it out the first time we watched, and rewatching myself I nearly cried. Plus there’s something... the importance of surviving versus altruism is this constant tension in Number 6, and I feel like there’s ~significance in the fact that on their mission to save Safu (and destroy the place) Shion and Rat literally climb over the bodies of their dead, of No 6’s victims. But then Shion nearly falls and is rescued by this needle that belonged to a woman who was kind to him, who he was kind to. Idk. It is just really sad.
4. Rat interrupting his most recent attempt at pushing Shion away - I was just using you, I didn’t care about saving your friend, I only wanted to destroy Number Six - in order to take a bullet for him. WAY TO USE YOUR WORDS NEZUMI.
3. “That audience was filled with monsters. They could have swallowed you up.” I love that realisation that Rat wanted to keep Shion away from the ravenous, rapacious dudes coming to see Eva act. Abrasively-protective!Rat is my favourite. (Which is lucky since that is like 90% of Rat’s scenes.) Whether he was also feeling defensive about the acting and the Shakespeare he sincerely loves, or secretly kind of wanted to share it with Shion (or both) I love it.
It might be an enormous cliche - no art in the dystopia-pretending-to-be-a-utopia, art is for the free! - but I do love so much that the rough, ruthless, street-rat type is a Shakespearean actor who knows how to waltz and has a piano and has filled his ratty little place with books and plays and sheet music.
Although - the thick book labelled Othello? Is that where Nezumi keeps his secret weed stash or something, because seriously, a five-act play with no stage directions does not make for a thick hardback.
2. The Rat/Dogkeeper conversation in Episode 4, Good and Evil. The survivor theme - “the one with something to protect always loses.” That she calls him on being jealous over her and Shion’s close conversation. A young woman getting to do the traditionally masculine (and somewhat foolish) thing of repaying an insult to her mother with a physical attack. The whole fact of his being too deep in thought to notice her: whether because of the Shion thing, or the implicit fact of his new job whoring for Rikiga.
1. The end. I love the goodbye kiss, and more than that, the fact that when Shion calls out, Rat actually turns around and kisses him and reassures him that he’ll be okay. Rat is never ever the initiator when it comes to physical affection and he is Not Great at using his words, and I just love the theme tune playing - “thank you” in Japanese - as Shion says he knows they’ll meet again.
But actually the part of the ending sequence that makes me shiver and cry and have ~all the feels? Is when Karan sees the walls have come down and realises, and runs through the streets, her hair tumbling from its tie, running from the city to find her son.
pola_bear asked for my top five Black Butler episodes:
5. Terrorist Butler. One of my favourite things about season 1 is the way it deliberately does all the Victoriana it possibly can, with bonus Princes in the Tower. Black Butler does Murder on the Orient Express is awesome. Plus the bit where all the strangers on the train come together, realising how each of them can make individual contributions and together they can save themselves, and then Sebastian’s like “LOL NO I will fix all of it”, kills me every single time.
4. The Tale of Will The Shinigami. It’s charming and funny with great lines. Which is not very different from the rest of Black Butler, really, but as I happen to love William T. Spears with all my soul and be a rabid Will/Grell shipper, this one gives me great joy.
3. His Butler, Fluent. The end of series one. I just really love it. I love that Sebastian gives Ciel “the best seat in the house” but asks Ciel to shut his eyes because it is not acceptable for a butler to give a bad impression to his master, and I love even more that Ciel does it. I love that they carried the storyline through to its conclusion without flinching, and that this is a revenge tragedy that isn’t a tragedy. Ciel got what he wanted - at least, his targets are all gone - and Sebastian says he’ll be gentle if Ciel wants it. And Ciel doesn’t. One of the things I like most about season 2 is that it backed up my instinctive reading of a demon’s eating a soul as an act of love, and I love that final image of Sebastian’s smile coming closer.
2. His Butler, Competing. The one where they save the day with curry. IT IS THE BEST. I like the moral of this one: good curry makes you happy, bad curry makes you EVIL. Plus we get a glimpse of Ash/Angela, and lots of Soma and Agni. I LOVE SOMA AND AGNI. THEY’RE SO ADORABLE OMG. And I love the way Black Butler does its mirror characters: all the minor characters are mirrors of Sebastian and Ciel, in the end, generally with fascinating results. Also little Bassy gets his first friend. <333
1. His Butler, Offering. SEBASTIAN FUCKS A NUN. SEBASTIAN FUCKS A NUN. And Ciel and Grell stand outside fuming and waiting for it to finish!!! AHAHAHAHAHA.
Plus there is some really interesting imagery - Sebastian breaking the stained glass window is my favourite, but I love Sebastian’s line about the smell of a rotten apple fallen from the tree - and the start of some cool exploration of the dangers and seductions of memory, which are so important for Ciel, a character fuelled by memory. And I like Sebastian’s worried, angry cries of “Master!” when Angela grabs Ciel :D
Andthe bit with Grell in a stolen choirboy’s outfit never gets old.
melusinahp suggested my top five moments between Sebastian and Ciel that gave me strong feelings:
5. The scene when demon!Ciel wakes, and Sebastian comes in with his empty teapot. And dresses him, with Ciel’s acid little comment about whether Sebastian would like to pull his cravat tighter, and Sebastian pretends to pour tea and Ciel pretends to drink it. It just hurts my heart to see them desperately pretend that nothing has changed.
4. Ciel sending Sebastian away and Claude being all “fuck off, you heard him”. SEBASTIAN’S FACE. HE LOVES YOU, YOU LITTLE BASTARD, WHAT WHAT WHAT ARE YOU DOING. WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOU.
3. When Sebastian tells the Princes in the Tower that Ciel has always been his true master.
2. The chess set/king monologue. FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELS. “I’ll be with you to the very end” is like, my mantra of Sebastian/Ciel-ness. Because it is a statement of absolute loyalty with this very dark undertone and that’s just them all over.
1. The scene that gives me by the far the most in the way of ~FEELINGS re: Sebastian and Ciel is the end of the Ciel in Wonderland special. Now one day I am going to do a fucking huge bit of meta on the role of memory in Black Butler and revenge tragedies more generally, because I find the memory/identity intersection and Black Butler as a revenge tragedy super-fascinating. So already, the idea that Ciel is “found guilty on the charge of losing [his] memories” when his soul is missing is just. Cake. BUT THEN IT GETS SO MUCH BETTER.
We get Ciel denying his guilt: “you can’t, I’m innocent!” And then -
GROUP (chanting, getting louder): Show your proof. Show your proof. Show your proof.
SEBASTIAN (whispering): Show your proof.
Show your proof. Proof that whatever else you may forget, you remain yourself. Now, simply call my name.
CIEL: Sebastian.
SEBASTIAN: Call it louder.
CIEL: Sebastian, Sebastian, Sebastian, SEBASTIAN! Listen to me now, Sebastian. It doesn’t matter if I lose everything, I am still me! I am always Ciel Phantomhive! Now come to me Sebastian!
SEBASTIAN: Master.
OMFG. And then, the last line of that scene, from Sebastian: “the truth is you never need any proof at all. You have only to evoke me. Simply call my name and I shall come.”
Okay, so one of the reasons I love the Sebastian/Ciel relationship - whether in a slash-reading or not - is that I have a huge thing about relationships that define you and relationships in which the people involved create each other. Which is why the fact that Ciel gives Sebastian his name and (it’s suggested) defines a great deal of his persona by Ciel’s needs gives me ~feels. And then this name, this identity that Ciel helped give Sebastian, this person - he is what Ciel needs to remember, in order to remember himself. They define and create each other. It could not be more perfect for me.
Seriously. The proof Ciel gives, that he is always himself, that he’ll never forget, and even if he does he will still have the most important part of himself - that proof is Sebastian’s name. And he yells it, both a plea for rescue and an order. “I order you, take me out of here!” So perfect.
Especially because - this dream demands Ciel come up with proof he’s still himself - Sebastian’s name. Then his own name, the declaration of who he is, and giving Sebastian an order, claiming him. Sebastian’s rather pleased-sounding purr of Master. Leaving aside the kinky implications, I think the implication is that this dream is on some level Sebastian’s way of calling Ciel back to himself, of reforging the link between them. Even with Ciel half-gone, he is still Sebastian’s master, the contract still exists. Not fluffy but perfect.
And this is why it gives me THE MOST Sebastian/Ciel feels, the scene that’s the apotheosis of their mutual identity-creation:
Because having got this claim, Sebastian tells Ciel that he never needed proof. To remain and remember himself, Ciel only ever needs to remember Sebastian.
Disagreement and discussion welcome as always!
marbletables asked for my TOP FIVE SHION/NEZUMI MOMENTS IN NUMBER 6, because she is a bad person who lives to torment me. But I will ATTEMPT to choose only five:5. “Sorry, but could you return him? That boy belongs to me.” <3 YOU RAT.
4. The goodnight/goodbye kiss in True Lies, Empty Truth. I love Shion’s little speech - it is exactly my kind of ship moment, where Shion says it’s because he knew Rat that he became the person he is now and he’s glad. And then the kiss! And adorable, honest Shion telling a lie, and Rat all touched and yet knowing it for a lie. BOYS.
And then Rat’s little speech: “Humans are willing to help each other. That’s what you taught me. It was a lesson I never forgot. It changed me. You’re the only one who ever tried. I could never forget that lesson. That’s why I am who I am today.” OH RAT. OH SHION. Shion’s altruism is lovely, and it breaks through to Rat when he is so cold and injured and scared. And I love that Number 6 both acknowledges that Shion’s comfortable life made him more able to be altruistic (“that innocently open window”) and that he is a deeply kind, generous person in any circumstances.
And then the sunrise behind them. The end of Episode 7 just gives me all the feels. And I know this is actually two moments, but I am counting it as one
3. Shion attacking Rikiga for being a slimy pimp at Rat. He’s just so earnest and adorable. “How can you say such awful things? HAVE YOU NO SHAME?” And I love Rat’s WHOA WHAT look. “Someone would get angry about someone insulting me? What? Why?” Also excellent foreshadowing for the much darker version of this moment in Episode 11 when Shion kills a man in cold blood for hurting Rat.
2. On that note: when Shion, having already shot and almost incapacitated the guard who just seriously injured Rat, shots him dead. I love it. Because it’s a very dark moment, the utterly unexpected places these two get pushed by each other: the altruist who believed in a third option shoots a man in cold blood, and the ruthless survivor who still claimed they weren’t friends breaks down in tears from the guilt and pain of seeing Shion do that, become that. It hurts so good.
1. The end of Angel of Death. Rat teaches Shion to waltz! Georgette Heyer meets grimy sci-fi! And the ruined dreamscape with the shadow of them dancing is beautiful animation. AND THEN SHION REACHES OUT and is all “you wouldn’t understand... you’re the one person I couldn’t bear to lose” and so earnest and unafraid. And totally oblivious to Rat swallowing and being all overcome by Shion’s hand on his neck. I love Rat’s line, while he watches Shion sleep during a tender moment-slash-massive freakout - “he hit a pressure point.” Awesome metaphor and callback to their first meeting.
thedomboss asked for my top five Number 6 moments:5. The knitting needles. OH MY GOD SO SAD. Such a genius touch. I remember
marbletables and son_of_darkness pointing it out the first time we watched, and rewatching myself I nearly cried. Plus there’s something... the importance of surviving versus altruism is this constant tension in Number 6, and I feel like there’s ~significance in the fact that on their mission to save Safu (and destroy the place) Shion and Rat literally climb over the bodies of their dead, of No 6’s victims. But then Shion nearly falls and is rescued by this needle that belonged to a woman who was kind to him, who he was kind to. Idk. It is just really sad.4. Rat interrupting his most recent attempt at pushing Shion away - I was just using you, I didn’t care about saving your friend, I only wanted to destroy Number Six - in order to take a bullet for him. WAY TO USE YOUR WORDS NEZUMI.
3. “That audience was filled with monsters. They could have swallowed you up.” I love that realisation that Rat wanted to keep Shion away from the ravenous, rapacious dudes coming to see Eva act. Abrasively-protective!Rat is my favourite. (Which is lucky since that is like 90% of Rat’s scenes.) Whether he was also feeling defensive about the acting and the Shakespeare he sincerely loves, or secretly kind of wanted to share it with Shion (or both) I love it.
It might be an enormous cliche - no art in the dystopia-pretending-to-be-a-utopia, art is for the free! - but I do love so much that the rough, ruthless, street-rat type is a Shakespearean actor who knows how to waltz and has a piano and has filled his ratty little place with books and plays and sheet music.
Although - the thick book labelled Othello? Is that where Nezumi keeps his secret weed stash or something, because seriously, a five-act play with no stage directions does not make for a thick hardback.
2. The Rat/Dogkeeper conversation in Episode 4, Good and Evil. The survivor theme - “the one with something to protect always loses.” That she calls him on being jealous over her and Shion’s close conversation. A young woman getting to do the traditionally masculine (and somewhat foolish) thing of repaying an insult to her mother with a physical attack. The whole fact of his being too deep in thought to notice her: whether because of the Shion thing, or the implicit fact of his new job whoring for Rikiga.
1. The end. I love the goodbye kiss, and more than that, the fact that when Shion calls out, Rat actually turns around and kisses him and reassures him that he’ll be okay. Rat is never ever the initiator when it comes to physical affection and he is Not Great at using his words, and I just love the theme tune playing - “thank you” in Japanese - as Shion says he knows they’ll meet again.
But actually the part of the ending sequence that makes me shiver and cry and have ~all the feels? Is when Karan sees the walls have come down and realises, and runs through the streets, her hair tumbling from its tie, running from the city to find her son.
pola_bear asked for my top five Black Butler episodes:5. Terrorist Butler. One of my favourite things about season 1 is the way it deliberately does all the Victoriana it possibly can, with bonus Princes in the Tower. Black Butler does Murder on the Orient Express is awesome. Plus the bit where all the strangers on the train come together, realising how each of them can make individual contributions and together they can save themselves, and then Sebastian’s like “LOL NO I will fix all of it”, kills me every single time.
4. The Tale of Will The Shinigami. It’s charming and funny with great lines. Which is not very different from the rest of Black Butler, really, but as I happen to love William T. Spears with all my soul and be a rabid Will/Grell shipper, this one gives me great joy.
3. His Butler, Fluent. The end of series one. I just really love it. I love that Sebastian gives Ciel “the best seat in the house” but asks Ciel to shut his eyes because it is not acceptable for a butler to give a bad impression to his master, and I love even more that Ciel does it. I love that they carried the storyline through to its conclusion without flinching, and that this is a revenge tragedy that isn’t a tragedy. Ciel got what he wanted - at least, his targets are all gone - and Sebastian says he’ll be gentle if Ciel wants it. And Ciel doesn’t. One of the things I like most about season 2 is that it backed up my instinctive reading of a demon’s eating a soul as an act of love, and I love that final image of Sebastian’s smile coming closer.
2. His Butler, Competing. The one where they save the day with curry. IT IS THE BEST. I like the moral of this one: good curry makes you happy, bad curry makes you EVIL. Plus we get a glimpse of Ash/Angela, and lots of Soma and Agni. I LOVE SOMA AND AGNI. THEY’RE SO ADORABLE OMG. And I love the way Black Butler does its mirror characters: all the minor characters are mirrors of Sebastian and Ciel, in the end, generally with fascinating results. Also little Bassy gets his first friend. <333
1. His Butler, Offering. SEBASTIAN FUCKS A NUN. SEBASTIAN FUCKS A NUN. And Ciel and Grell stand outside fuming and waiting for it to finish!!! AHAHAHAHAHA.
Plus there is some really interesting imagery - Sebastian breaking the stained glass window is my favourite, but I love Sebastian’s line about the smell of a rotten apple fallen from the tree - and the start of some cool exploration of the dangers and seductions of memory, which are so important for Ciel, a character fuelled by memory. And I like Sebastian’s worried, angry cries of “Master!” when Angela grabs Ciel :D
Andthe bit with Grell in a stolen choirboy’s outfit never gets old.
melusinahp suggested my top five moments between Sebastian and Ciel that gave me strong feelings:5. The scene when demon!Ciel wakes, and Sebastian comes in with his empty teapot. And dresses him, with Ciel’s acid little comment about whether Sebastian would like to pull his cravat tighter, and Sebastian pretends to pour tea and Ciel pretends to drink it. It just hurts my heart to see them desperately pretend that nothing has changed.
4. Ciel sending Sebastian away and Claude being all “fuck off, you heard him”. SEBASTIAN’S FACE. HE LOVES YOU, YOU LITTLE BASTARD, WHAT WHAT WHAT ARE YOU DOING. WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOU.
3. When Sebastian tells the Princes in the Tower that Ciel has always been his true master.
2. The chess set/king monologue. FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELS. “I’ll be with you to the very end” is like, my mantra of Sebastian/Ciel-ness. Because it is a statement of absolute loyalty with this very dark undertone and that’s just them all over.
1. The scene that gives me by the far the most in the way of ~FEELINGS re: Sebastian and Ciel is the end of the Ciel in Wonderland special. Now one day I am going to do a fucking huge bit of meta on the role of memory in Black Butler and revenge tragedies more generally, because I find the memory/identity intersection and Black Butler as a revenge tragedy super-fascinating. So already, the idea that Ciel is “found guilty on the charge of losing [his] memories” when his soul is missing is just. Cake. BUT THEN IT GETS SO MUCH BETTER.
We get Ciel denying his guilt: “you can’t, I’m innocent!” And then -
GROUP (chanting, getting louder): Show your proof. Show your proof. Show your proof.
SEBASTIAN (whispering): Show your proof.
Show your proof. Proof that whatever else you may forget, you remain yourself. Now, simply call my name.
CIEL: Sebastian.
SEBASTIAN: Call it louder.
CIEL: Sebastian, Sebastian, Sebastian, SEBASTIAN! Listen to me now, Sebastian. It doesn’t matter if I lose everything, I am still me! I am always Ciel Phantomhive! Now come to me Sebastian!
SEBASTIAN: Master.
OMFG. And then, the last line of that scene, from Sebastian: “the truth is you never need any proof at all. You have only to evoke me. Simply call my name and I shall come.”
Okay, so one of the reasons I love the Sebastian/Ciel relationship - whether in a slash-reading or not - is that I have a huge thing about relationships that define you and relationships in which the people involved create each other. Which is why the fact that Ciel gives Sebastian his name and (it’s suggested) defines a great deal of his persona by Ciel’s needs gives me ~feels. And then this name, this identity that Ciel helped give Sebastian, this person - he is what Ciel needs to remember, in order to remember himself. They define and create each other. It could not be more perfect for me.
Seriously. The proof Ciel gives, that he is always himself, that he’ll never forget, and even if he does he will still have the most important part of himself - that proof is Sebastian’s name. And he yells it, both a plea for rescue and an order. “I order you, take me out of here!” So perfect.
Especially because - this dream demands Ciel come up with proof he’s still himself - Sebastian’s name. Then his own name, the declaration of who he is, and giving Sebastian an order, claiming him. Sebastian’s rather pleased-sounding purr of Master. Leaving aside the kinky implications, I think the implication is that this dream is on some level Sebastian’s way of calling Ciel back to himself, of reforging the link between them. Even with Ciel half-gone, he is still Sebastian’s master, the contract still exists. Not fluffy but perfect.
And this is why it gives me THE MOST Sebastian/Ciel feels, the scene that’s the apotheosis of their mutual identity-creation:
Because having got this claim, Sebastian tells Ciel that he never needed proof. To remain and remember himself, Ciel only ever needs to remember Sebastian.