[OWLS Tour 2020] Adapting to Survive

Hello Everyone!!

Welcome back to another OWLS Tour.

[OWLS Tour 2020] Beacon of Hope

Hello everyone!!
It’s me Mel!
Hope you are all safe, washing your hands regularly and respecting the social distanciation.

Today, I’m sharing with you another OWLS post.

OWLS stands for Otaku Warrior for Liberty and Self-respect, we are a group of bloggers and vlogger who want to promote the acceptance of everyone regardless of their gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion or disabilities. Each month we are exploring a given topic throughout pop culture.

This month topic is: HOPE

We are in the midst of a pandemic which has led people to live in fear and anxiety over the coronavirus. For this month, rather than seeing the dark side of the situation we are living in, we will be exploring anime and other pop culture mediums that bring hope for humanity and why they have such a positive impact on us.

[OWLS Tours] The Underdogs, They Don’t Know What Giving Up Means

Hello Everyone!
It’s me Mel!

Welcome back to another OWLS Tour.

OWLS TOUR | He Only Wanted to Protect his People

Hello everyone!

Welcome back to a new OWLS tour.

If you are new around here, let me explain you what is OWLS before getting in the main topic of this post.

OWLS stand for Otaku Warrior for Liberty and self-respect, we are a group of blogger and vlogger who promotes the acceptance of everyone regardless of their gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion and/or disabilities.

Each month, we are given a topic and using the pop-culture as support we gonna explore it.

Last mother the subject was Happiness which was quite easy. For this month the topic is: “Vulnerable”

In the month of June, we will be discussing what it means to be vulnerable. To some individuals, being vulnerable could be seen as a sign of weakness, but in fact, vulnerability is actually a sign of strength. In this month’s posts, we will explore what it means to be vulnerable and how certain characters in pop culture glamorize vulnerability. When do we show our vulnerability? How do we express vulnerability? Why should we show vulnerability? These are questions that we will be discussing in our posts featuring characters that show vulnerability and/or sensitivity and what we can learn from them or even our own personal stories.

At first I wasn’t quite sure if I would take part of this tour or not, I was going through the animes I watched and the mangas I read, I stared at it for a good ten minutes wondering what I should take about. It’s only when I was close to get an headache cause of the much think that I start to get an idea of what I would talk about, but I wasn’t quite sure about it. My idea made sense, however I wasn’t sure if I could pull it off. I was about to go eat when I pass in front of the booksehelves I have outside my room and I got a flash. While I’m still still got quite sure if I can pull off this new idea, at least I knew a little more the direction I wanted to take.

OWLS – Flying The Great Condor Across a New World

Hello everyone!
Welcome to a new OWL post!

If you are new around here, you might not know about the most awesome group of the internet so let me make your education.

OWLS stand for Otaku Warrior for Liberty and Self-Respect. We are a group of blogger and vlogger who promote the acceptance of everyone regardless of their ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality and disabilities. Each month we can a new prompt and we need to use the pop-culture to explore it.

Never Lost at Anything Before, Prideful Akashi Seijuro

Hi Welcome to June OWLS Tour!

In this new edition, we will talk about a topic that touch everyone.

But before jumping into the subject, let’s take a look at what is OWLS.

OWLS stand for Otaku Warrior for Liberty and Self-Respect, we are a group of blogger and vlogger who promote the acceptance of everyone regardless of the ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation or disability. You can read more about OWLS here .

Each month, Lyn (Something about LynLyn),our awesome Chief Creative Officer, come with a new prompt and we have to explore the monthly topic using the pop culture as support. It can be the latest Blockbuster, a book or any other series or video game.

For the June tour, Lyn give us “Pride” as prompt,

“ In honor of “Pride Month,” we will be discussing the word, “Pride” and its meaning. We will be exploring pop culture characters’ most satisfying and joyful achievements or skills that they possessed and whether or not these qualities could be seen as a positive or negative aspect in their personal lives and/or society.”

Soon as I saw the June prompt, I knew what I would talk about, I knew which series I would pick.

Kuroko no Basuke, I know I already used it back in December 2017 for the “Warmth” tour, but when I saw June prompt, I thought I could somehow like the two posts together, since one of the reason why Kuroko lost his precious smile was become some character(s) had too much pride.

Kuroko no Basuke (Kuroko’s Basketball) is a manga series written and illustrated by Fujimaki Tadatoshi, the manga was published in the magazine Weekly Shounen Jump from December 2008 to September 2014. In April 2012, the series got adapted by Production IG and count 3 season.

The story follow Kuroko and the basketball team of Seirin High School through their journey in basketball competition. Their journey wasn’t easy since they had to face five talented individuals dubbed as the Generation of Miracle.

Kuroko know the Generation of Miracle very well since he used to play with them when he was in middle-school, he was their shadow, he was that force directing any pass toward them. Being part of the first string, Kuroko saw the talent of five teammates, blooming he also witness their pride swallowing them and become an obstacle to the team spirit.

More their talent was blooming, more prideful they became, some even decide to skip practice, what was the point of practicing when they were already far above the other player of the same age of them?

They all had their pride and they were the pride of their school, the school who should have corrected them, guide them, let them free , let them do what they wanted.

They all had their pride, however one of them had more pride than the four others and this pride lead the team to forget what team play really means.

©Production IG

Akashi Seijuro come from a rich family, his father always pushed him to have good result, never acknowledging that defeat and fails can be a good thing, can be helpful when it come time to learn to never give up.

©Production IG

Akashi never failed, he always had good result, being the top student of his school, unbeaten in shogi, he became vice-captain of the team soon as he was part of it for later becoming the team captain.

Akashi never knew the concept of losing, he doesn’t know what it mean to fail. Therefore, when he face a situation where he would lose,pushed against the wall, his pride took over and became a second personality.

He was playing one-one-one with Murasakibara Atsushi, if Murasakibara was winning against Akashi by 5 points , the tall purple-haired center could just walk away and skip practice. Akashi was losing 4 – 0,only one point and Akashi would have lost the game. Only one point and and he would have taste of the defeat for the first time, this is where Akashi prideful personality came into play. By letting his pride leading the game, Akashi won the game. This was a turning point in the team dynamic, this is where everything start to fell apart. Akashi wasn’t the same anymore, he wasn’t as respectful and was looking people around him from above. He was like an emperor his order were absolute.

©Production I.G

Prideful Akashi leading the team, soon an I in Team appear, they weren’t playing together as one anymore, they were only playing for themselves, having competitions about who will mark the most point. They didn’t care about the team, as long as they were winning everything was okay.

©Production I.G

Pride can become your worst enemy, it can blind you to the point where can’t see when you are wrong anymore.

 

When you can see when you are wrong this is when you have to swallow your pride and let the other win. This is where Akashi was wrong, if only he could have realized that sooner, the effort made by the previous captain to build a strong team that know the meaning of team play wouldn’t have be sent in the abyss. Sadly he didn’t and his acts push Kuroko to come to dislike a sport he loved.

However in the same times, being prideful is okay, it can help you sometimes, pride can push you to achieve your goal, then it become you ally.

Kuroko also had his pride, his pride as the shadow of the strongest team, his pride helped him to set his goal, it help him to prove to his former teammate they were wrong to think that playing in team and not in a team give nothing but trouble.

I also had my prideful moment, moment where I was too proud to say “Hey I need help for that”, too proud to call sick cause my back was killing, I was too proud to show I could be weak sometimes. Now where I was to set my limit, I know when I have to call for help to avoid any injuries, but it’s not always easy, there is still time where I might have ask for help but didn’t. Learning to say “I might not me able to do it by myself” is not a sign of weakness, it’s just show that you are human and as every human you have your limit.

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This was my June post for the OWLS Tour, don’t forget to check out Matt (Matt-in-the-Hat) entry about Black Clover, that was posted before mine, while waiting for Zoe entry scheduled for the 12th

~ Thank you for Reading ~

[OWLS] El Dorado: The Road to Eternal Happiness

Hello everyone,

Welcome to the May OWLS tour!

If you are new around here and doesn’t know what is the OWLS group, let me tell you about the most awesome group of the Internet.

[OWLS] Seraph of the End: Guren Ichinose, The Cost of Friendship

The one thing I learn through the years is that friend always play an important part in our life, even if some are more like so-called friend than real friend. Due to various even happening during my high-school year, I came to not trust people easily, I got backstabbed more than once, even if I wasn’t the one in the wrong. Now I look back and I know that if those thing didn’t happen to me, I wouldn’t be the person I am right now.

Also, because of that, I always had trouble to give the “title” of friend to people around me, but now it’s different, because now there is people in my life who I’m happy to call friend, even if I haven’t met them in real life, most of them are part as the same group as me, OWLS

OWLS stand for Otaku Warrior for Liberty and Self-Respect, is a group of bloggers and vloggers who promote the acceptance of everyone without taking in consideration their ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation disabilities. If you want to know more about us, feel free to visit the group blog here and you can found the full tour schedule here.

At Lita’s request, this month topic for the OWLS Tour is “Squad”:

“Although some people may like to be alone at times, we all have that one special friend or a squad of friends who we kick it and have some good laughs and fun with. However, there are friendships that don’t last a lifetime and usually, they end due to a falling out or a misunderstanding. For this month’s topic, we will be exploring some of the best friendships in anime and pop culture as well as the friendships that ended suddenly. We will talk about what a true friendship means to us, what we learned about ourselves and others through broken friendships, and our definitions of a “good friend.”

When I read the prompt, the sign-up sheet wasn’t up yet, but I made sure to secure the series I wanted to talk about, mostly cause to me it’s probably one of the best series to talk about friendship and how it is important to have good friends surrounding us. This series is Seraph of the End. The show present us how deep bond create through friendship can be. Some might even sacrifice a big part of the Earth population in order to bring their friend back.

Seraph of the End is a manga written by Kagami Takaya and illustrated by Yamamoto Yamoto, the series began to be published in September 2012 in the magazine Jump SQ. In 2015, WIT Studio adapted a part of the story in anime series (up to chapter 47). The franchise also have two light-novel series. For more information about the series you can click here and here

©Yamamoto Yamato

When it come to Seraph of the End, example of good friendship can be seen all through the series since the very beginning, even at place you will not think of. We have Yuu, who truly care about his squad members and he will do anything to keep them safe, even if it’s mean to sacrifice his own humanity, he even call the demon, Asuramaru, with who he passed a contract with, his friend. He doesn’t only care about the his squad member but also about their family members. We can also take a look at Ferid, he might be a vampire a being who doesn’t care about anything other than blood (Ferid is a special snowflake tho, so he does care about other thing than blood), but he still care about Crowley more than he will let it appear. Both progenitors know each other since centuries, this is why Ferid doesn’t always say everything to the red-haired vampire, he care about him and doesn’t want him to be tortured by the higher-up. Ferid might be surrounded by a veil of mystery, we doesn’t know much about his plan, but I can tell you one thing, he will always look over Crowley making sure he never feel lonely, or get to bored.

©Yamamoto Yamato

Like Yuu there is one other character in the series who will do a lot to keep his friend safe, that character even sacrifice the majority of the earth population to have them back. This character is Guren Ichinose and one of the reason why the Catastrophe happened eight years prior the event of the anime/manga series.

Guren come from a prestigious magical clan, the Ichinose use to be at the top with the Hiiragi, but due to some unfortunate event they dropped down the ladder and now everyone look down on them. When Guren started his high-school year thing were hard, but despite that he managed gain the respect of some of his school mate and become close to them.

He formed strong bond with people, three, who normally someone of the Ichinose family couldn’t even think to become friend with, even if that someone is the heir of the Ichinose clan.

Font: Ichinose Guren, Second from left to right : Hiiragi Shinya, Goshi Notiro, Third from left to right: Hanayori Sayuri, Jujo Mito and Yukimi Shigure.
©Yamamoto Yamato

First we have Hiiragi Shinya. Adopted son of the highly respected clan, Shinya is/was  also Mahiru, the oldest girl of the head of the clan, fiancee. Everything should have set both boys apart, Shinya is at the top of the ladder, Guren at the bottom, Shinya was the fiancee of Mahiru but Mahiru loved Guren. However their situation make them become friends. They both wanted the same thing, bringing down the Hiiragi clan and change how they things were going.

Then we have Goshi Norito, the Goshi clan is one of the clan branch of the Hiiragi. While the family is renowned, people have more expectations for Norito’s younger brother than for Norito himself, more than once the tall blond man used that as excuse to hang-out at Guren’s place, since people wasn’t expecting him to do anything spectacular, whi should he care about the people he hang-out with.

Lastly we have Jujo Mito, heir of Jujo clan one of the oldest and more powerful clan under the Hiiragi. Their loyalty to the powerful head clan know no bond and they are strong and talented warrior. At first she was, like everyone, looking-down on Guren, telling how he should act since he is an Ichinose, but with time she warmed up to him and even developed feeling for his squad leader.

How those 3 people came to become friend with someone the other students called “mongrel”? Simple they knew they could trust him, Guren saved them once, they knew what he was able to do and they were ready to follow him into the battle. They would be there for him whenever he needed them.

Of course we could argue about the fact it’s normal since he is their squad leader, not following him could cost them a lot, but also it’s during war-time the strongest bond are made. It’s during those time you learn who you should trust and you see who will be able to lead you in the battle.

Guren will never admit it but he always like seeing them crashing in his apartment. With them he had some good time and create good memory. Those friend never let him down, even when he got possessed by a demon, they were there for him, they were there to help him. Guren know he couldn’t do much alone, even if he saw those friend as a weakness, somehow deep inside him he knew he needed them by his side, he knew he needed these people, the first he could call friends. They were his friend, they were his squad, he was their captain, he was the one they would follow in the death.

The reason why Guren’s squad member died is still a mystery (one day the light novel will tell us what happen), for now all what we know is that Guren committed a taboo and use the experimentation called “Seraph of the End” to bring them back to life, he sacrifice nearly 7 billion people to bring back five people from the death, even if he knew they would only be back for ten years. Now Guren have his squad back, with him, now he have his friend back with him. However Guren still need to work hard to keep them alive. Guren have to make sure they never come aware what happened, if any of them came to know they were revived, they would die, therefore to protect them, to avoid that faith, to let them live those ten years, Guren always made sure they never came to know the truth even if for that he had to lie to them. Lie about what was happening, lie about his plan. With time, Guren squad came to know their squad leader was hiding something from them and despite that they are still following him, not because he is their leader, but because he is their friend and because they trusted him, they are together since their first year of high-school, the six of them got through a lot together, they are loyal to him and they will continue to follow him until death do them apart.

The bond of friendship Guren had with his squad cost a lot, this squad it’s the only thing Guren have left and he is ready to do a lot to protect them. Guren will never admit it, but his friend are probably the most precious thing he have left in this unforgiving world.

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Howdy Everyone!!

This was my fifth participation the a OWLS Tour, I hope you enjoyed you reading. Make sure to read Naja’s post that was on the 23rd and Scott post coming on Wednesday the 28th.

~ Thank you for reading ~

See you next time!!

[OWLS Tour] Winning Through Competition and Hardwork

February is the month of the St-Valentin, each year lovers around the world celebrate their love for each others in numerous way. However, this February 2018, we will also celebrate the Olympic Winter Games.
From the 9th to the 25th, athletes from 92 nations will meet in Pyeongchang (South Korea) and during sixteen days, they will compete against each other in order to win the top position and get all the honor.

[OWLS Tour] After the Rain come the Sun, Smiles that Warmth Everyone’s Heart

Hi everyone, welcome to my second OWLS post. For those who are new, OWLS (Otaku Warriors for Liberty and Self-Respect), is a group of blogger and vlogger who promote the acceptance of everyone without taking in consideration their ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation disabilities.