Near X OC (Corrin) Mood Playlist For Near's Birthday Party 2024 @nearsbday

Near x OC (Corrin) mood playlist for Near's birthday party 2024 @nearsbday

Day 2: Memory

synopsis: compiled series of letters exchanged between Near and Corrin - close friends since Wammy's days, now young adults with vastly different callings in life

Let the 🎂🎂🎂 begin 🥳🥳🥳

it's the first day of near's birthday party! today's prompts are:

toy | strategy | the star

please tag your gifts with #nearsbday or mention @nearsbday in your post! if you are posting to archiveofourown, you can add your gift to the collection.

as a reminder, there are a few rules for party guests which can be found right here. for more information on how to participate, you can visit this page or read through the submission guide.

alt text: graphic in shades of blue. a banner at the top reads "august 17: day 1." there are three boxes on the left side of the image, which read in order: toy, strategy, the star. at the bottom lefthand corner, there is a piece of text that reads: tag gifts with #nearsbday or mention @/nearsbday in your post! on the righthand side of the image is a blue-toned manga cap of near from death note. he is laying on his stomach and playing with an action figure.

Written for Near’s birthday party 2024 @nearsbday​

Chapters: 5/19 (Part I) - Day 3: Comfort

A selected compilation of letters exchanged between Near and Corrin - close friends since Wammy's days, now young adults with vastly different callings in life.

[Eroica Musical Rant] I should not be sleepy or bored watching Eroica

(Series masterlist)

I would say the second half of the show, adapted from the chapter Dramatic Spring, is every flaw of the first half magnified by 11.

I remember upon my first reading of this in the manga, it felt so thrilling. Like it felt like there’s a knot in my chest that was increasingly tightened panel-by-panel, plot-by-plot, and at one point it was so tight that it looks like it was gonna snap but then it's undone in the most satisfying way. And until now it’s still one of the most suspenseful arcs from the original run.

When I watched Dramatic Spring in musical form, I almost fell asleep.

Let's talk about the manga first.

Up until this point, a lot of their adventures have centered around theft or extracting information, so the ultimate plots have been relatively lighthearted. But the core plot of this centers around stopping a Neo-Nazi terrorist plot at a peace conference between the USA and the USSR. This isn’t some sticking your hand under Achilles’ chiton shit, PEOPLE COULD DIE, detrimentally bulldozing over any political progress, resulting in more armed conflicts and more people dying.

And the characters treat it with as much severity as the situation calls for. From the moment the mission was briefed, everyone is immediately plunged into a somber mood. Even Iron Klaus appears visibly disturbed, upset and horrified when shown the catastrophes that have preceded and may very well happen if they don’t successfully foil the plot.

Right off the bat, Klaus is heavily weighed by this possible outcome. The next time he is shown, he is already hard at work, smoking bowls of cigarettes while trying to crack open a lead. Even with Dorian’s tip, he is increasingly agitated, impatient and visibly exhausted as he continuously goes after leads after leads. It shows in his sleep-deprivation, his neglect to eat, the way he was absolutely willing to shoot a bitch dead if he doesn’t spill. His rising anxiety heightens the tension in the story. Here is a very human person trying his best to prevent a disastrous outcome, unintentionally letting his emotions and human conditions bleed more through the cracked mask of stoicism. And it feels real, it feels intense.

Musical Klaus is so dull in this arc it’s kind of embarrassing, coming off of such a strong tank scene. He doesn’t lead the arc, he isn’t shown to process information (no internal monologue? what is this Death Note pt2 anime?), direct his team, nor personally chase after leads quite as much. Rather, he just appears and does his blocking then is pulled into another scene, where he says his lines and done. Overall, much less dynamic. Granted, it's probably due to staging and directing rather than performance but we’ll talk about that later.

However, because of this blocky, disjointed and distant depiction of Klaus, the progression of his emotions are also not shown at all. Which completely deflates the tension. Some character will verbally remark that this is a terrible situation but without Klaus' increasingly agitated behavior, there's nothing to testify to its weight. It doesn’t feel like there’s any danger, and might I remind you that PEOPLE COULD DIE, DIRECTLY AND INDIRECTLY, BECAUSE OF THIS.

And the most disappointing part yet of this second half has got to be the ending scene.

But first, we have to talk a little bit about Aoike Yasuko’s art style.

Unlike her contemporaries who favored the panel-less atmospheric style, for Eroica, Aoike went CINEMATIC. You see this being brought up a lot when scholars talk about the styles of mangaka such as Tezuka Osamu. It is when each manga panel depicts a physical moment, and put together, they create a cohesive progression of actions, much like frames and scenes in films. Now, while the atmospheric style is very dramatic and expressive, what the cinematic style can do really well – at least in the case of Eroica – is TENSION. Let’s take a closer look at this sequence of panel in which Klaus snipes a bomb off a bridge from a moving train.

There is real-time involved in this sequence with each second countdown directly linked to a specific panel showing a very small, very short moment in this continuity of events. That emphasizes the intensity of the situation at hand and forces the readers to count along as they watch the event go on, and on, and on, in very specific snippets, preparing themselves for what’s to come.

Dramatic Spring has a similar climax, albeit, with more actions as Dorian tries to remove a bomb from the peace conference, pass it to Klaus, who throws it as far as possible to prevent the summit from ending in bloodshed.

Even without a timer involved, this entire sequence takes place within only 5 minutes, and it follows the step-by-step movements of its 2 main characters, constantly cutting back and forth between them. There is not a single moment of break, the action and reaction just keep going like snap, snap, snap. And that continuity creates a long, drawn-out, tensed, thrilling scene that eventually results in catharsis.

But, whoever staged the musical didn’t understand that because they CUT TO BLACK FOR SO LONG RIGHT AT THE MOST CLIMATIC SCENE BEFORE LIGHTING UP AGAIN.

I know, that the stage isn’t big. But when you cut the scene like that, the audience’s attention is temporarily suspended. Because a black-out signifies the end of a scene. In fact, many productions use black-outs very sparingly, even as a scene-change device because the moment the stage goes almost completely dark, the assumption would be “oh it’s intermission” or even “oh that’s the end.”

You probably don't want your audience to snooze or look for the bathroom when your characters are actively trying to neutralize a bomb threat.

If I were to offer a very amateurish suggestion, as I am no expert in the matter, I would let the actors take advantage of the fact that this is a stage show with live audience, hence they can run into the audience and around the theater. Just anything to keep the lights on, the action going, and the scene continuous. Because what this black-out did was splitting this long, tensed scene, into 2 short, normal scenes. And we never received that catharsis because the black-out robbed it from us.

My dream job is where I can just gorogoro around like this

The floor is his whore

Christ, he's so listless. I want Ryuk to phase his entire arm through the floor and up his arse, it's like the only way to get him off of it at this point, he's bound to it like a lover

Well I only have 1 deck of tarots and it's Greek myth inspired

But I also have a tiny tiny deck of poker fit for a tiny tiny fluffy marshmallow 🥹

Near had to switch safe houses in a hurry and leave behind all of his toys! Will you help gather some new ones for him?

(Reblog with a picture of a toy to put it into the box, and if it's cute, I might just draw chibi Near playing with it! ♥)