Latest Posts by songhunter - Page 8

to anyone who wants to answer: thoughts on trickstar?

Adonis: I'm sorry about Tenshouin-senpai, he got excited.

// Thank you for the first ask! I'm so excited!

This is a small doodle-based blog where you can ask questions to fine/UNDEAD and Keito and I'll draw their responses! I'll also reblog a lot of UNDEAD/fine and Keito art!

⟢﹒ Tags:

-askunfine : for responses

-rb : for reblogs

-unfineart: is for random art, for example birthday art

⟢﹒ Rules/BYF:

-I have the right to skip any questions asked if they make me uncomfortable

-The relationship chart will change constantly

-I'm sorry if any characters sound OOC

Let's have fun!

The thing about Beastars that makes it so dear to me is that it's specifically and explicitly about deviancy and perversion. About having taboo desires. For meat. For immoral desires.

And it approaches it with a slice of life frankness.

And like. A lot of times you have modern queer lit that tries so hard to normalize itself. On the other end of the spectrum you have the horror/gothic works where the metaphor for desire is so elevated that it's hard to really... like... see it face on.

But like. The thing about Beastars is that... legosi's perversion is not a 1:1 metaphor for queerness. So it's not making any message like "gays, they're just like you", it's explicitly about what it means to be a deviant.

Anyway I think about this panel all the time.

"I'm gonna confess to you in Valentine's day" trend with KogaAdo/AdoKoga

some kogados

late upload again www

adonis day!!

The song is Banana Shake (sped up)

trans allegory in mystic fragrance and forbidden rain

aka: the essay no one asked for

Content warnings for: Discussions of homophobia and transphobia, and brief mentions of suicide.

If you guys have any other comments on this topic (especially KnightsPs, I'm an UNDEADP so I'm less familiar with their lore) please comment or rb or drop an ask or anything! I love talking. It's also been a hot minute (3 or 4 years) since I last took an English class so my analysis is a little rusty.

Part 1: UNDEAD's "Monster" and Queerness

Every UNDEAD song (with one exception) has the same premise — the singers are the impure, immoral monsters who are singing to a pure, human audience. There are two genres of UNDEAD song:

“I’m a monster seducing you into the darkness, give into your desires because I know that secretly you want it too” — Immoral World, Savage Love Affair, etc.

“I’m a monster and I’m so badass” — Darkness 4, Nightless World, etc.

Darkness 4 lyrics, translation by Shirayukin on Fandom wiki.

The “monster” in UNDEAD’s music is shorthand for anyone that exists outside of a pure society. By joining the monsters, you become tainted and can't return to society, but that’s the only way you can possibly live as your authentic self. In this way, the "darkness" is a safe space that these monsters have created for themselves.

This is, of course, a reference to Rei and how he feels ostracized from society -- the whole reason why Koga began UNDEAD was as a message to Rei that if Rei felt like a monster, he shouldn't roll over and die, but live with them as an undead. However, the concept of the queer monster is incredibly applicable imo. Historically, lots of villains in horror media were queer-coded as a way of eliciting disgust or a fear response, as a way of making its villain seem strange and, well, queer. (Oh, no! Look at all these horrible people ruining life for the law-abiding families!) The link between queerness and horror has been analyzed to death.

But queer people also love the misunderstood monster who's shunned by "proper" society. The gothic novels that originated the horror genre in the 1800s, like Dracula or the Picture of Dorian Grey, were written by queer authors and/or contained scores of queer themes. Do I need to go into why werewolves, shapeshifters who had to go deep into the woods to hide their wolf form, can be read as queer? Do I need to go into why Frankenstein, someone abandoned by his own creator and shunned by society by the nature of his existence alone (something out of his control), can be read as queer? Do I really need to go into why the modern-day vampire is queer? Vampires? Of course queer people will love these monsters, because they see themselves in the monsters, more so than the victims. (Also, nothing more in line with the queer experience than seeing a monster and going “ngl they're kinda hot actually.”)

In summary: It's very easy to read UNDEAD songs and UNDEAD's conceptualization of the "monster" through a queer lens. The monster is queer, and the monster welcomes you into the darkness and invites you to also give into your desire to live freely.

Immoral World lyrics, translation by Mandy on Fandom wiki.

Also, shout out the love you tried to hide, huh? Show me your truth? Show me your pride?

Dude.

Dude.

Sidenote: The one exception to this “monster” theme is of course the elephant in the room, Sustain Memories. I think it plays well into UNDEAD’s image — at least in !-era, Rei, Adonis, and Koga have always been the monsters, while Kaoru is the human that joined them (see: their Halloween costumes in !-era). So Kaoru doesn’t sing of monsters, he sings of a human love. There's also something to be said about Kaoru being the one member of UNDEAD who tried so desperately to appear cishet and experience a "normal" love in !-era. But also, it's a wedding song because the anime boys look cute when they sing about weddings.

Part 2: What about Forbidden Rain?

Here's the thing about UNDEAD's other monster songs -- they're always proud of being monsters. They're not ashamed, and they want the audience to join them in their freedom.

Forbidden Rain lyrics, translation by @/snaketaper on Twitter.

On the other hand, the singer in Forbidden Rain sees themselves as a "beast" who can never be forgiven, someone who's slowly poisoning their pure lover. They love them so much that they apparently have to let go of them, for their own sake. It's the first song that actually contains references to genuine love (usually UNDEAD is just horny).

The song remains sort of ambiguous about the nature of the relationship between the singer and the audience. It's clear that the audience does actually care for the singer, since they do reach out a "gentle hand" that the singer can't take. But the singer says, "Let's end this thing that never even began" -- are they even together in the first place? Maybe it never began because they were scared of the "beast." Or maybe it never truly began because the relationship was built on a lie. They sing about a beast inside them that they have to hide, and says that their current self -- the one they show to the audience -- is a fake. And this is something that cannot be forgiven.

It's not hard to read this in the context of queerness. Maybe it's about a gay singer who doesn't want to reveal their feelings and tarnish a platonic relationship. Or maybe it's a trans singer who's wracked with guilt at keeping their identity under wraps and hasn't come out to their heterosexual lover, so they want to break off things before they come out and taint their previous relationship.

In Love & Beast, the "source material" behind Forbidden Rain, Inogari (Adonis' character) is soft-spoken, protective, and kind. He saves the main police character in the very first scene. He's an ambassador and a respected enough member of society that he's part of the Sakurayama (Rei's character) social club. He uses "watashi," which is even more polite than Adonis' "ore." He literally faints at the sight of blood. He's the picture of innocence and goodness and all that society approves of. But in a Jekyll and Hyde-like twist, he ends up secretly being the killer Beast. In the end, the Beast is finally caught when Inogari realizes the truth and chains himself to a wall so he can be caught by the police in an act of sacrifice.

Inogari is the picture of propriety, but he keeps the Beast repressed, and eventually this Beast destroys him. Even if you try your best to act as part of proper society, you'll never really fit in.

Silent Oath lyrics, translation by royalquintet on Fandom wiki.

Another note: Forbidden Rain has a lot of the same themes of self-sacrifice, repression, and pure, romantic love that Knights songs do. Knights, in game, is a much more traditional idol unit than UNDEAD is. Forbidden Rain thus attempts to align itself more closely with the socially acceptable Knights, but it's still an UNDEAD song at its core. The monster is inescapable.

Part 3: Mystic Fragrance and Trans Allegory

This thread by @/pretty5P on twitter (https://x.com/pretty5p/status/1625958198623539200?s=46&t=lm_x5Uw5f8pKXHUoLzYksw) is a really cool analysis on the perfume symbolism in the song and how it relates to Arashi's gender identity (go read it!!), but if you don’t want to give Elon Musk ad revenue, the gist of it is this: Odette is her "masculine" initial impression, the impression others have of her, and the impression that fades most quickly. Odile is her lasting "feminine" self and the true self that remains when the top notes fade away.

Over the course of the song, the singer (Odette/Odile) grows more and more tainted, going from a pure white dress to a multicolored rainbow dress to a pitch black dress. The final perfume note is desire, the desire to live as themselves, the desire to be with the person they love.

Mystic Fragrance lyrics, translation by KYM2020 on Fandom wiki.

While the song does focus on a pure romantic love, just like Knight's songs, the symbolism of wanting to be Odile is far more similar to UNDEAD's monster. The idea of a "hidden desire" lying in wait beneath pure feelings is explored in almost every song, as is the symbolism of a dress that gets tainted by desire:

Savage Love Affair lyrics, translation by Nina on Fandom wiki.

And just like UNDEAD songs, the "tainting" of the pure is never presented as a bad thing. Note the references to the moon in both -- it's only in the dead of night, in a midnight ballroom, that one can "spread their wings" and reveal their true self. The darkness, the space of monsters, is a safe space, and in the light of the truth-seeking moon the singer of Mystic Fragrance says that their audience is beautiful.

In the original Swan Lake ballet, Odette is a beautiful woman who falls in love with Prince Siegfried. She's cursed to transform into a swan in the daytime, a curse that can only be broken if someone who has never sworn their love to anyone swears their love to her (in other words, someone untainted). Unfortunately, the evil sorcerer who cursed her turns his daughter into Odile, the black swan who looks identical to Odette, and Siegfried mistakenly confesses his love to her. Knowing that the curse can never be broken, Odette throws herself into the lake rather than live the rest of her life as a swan, and Siegfried joins her.

Mystic Fragrance isn't tragic, however.

Part 4: Living your truth

The endings of Forbidden Rain and Mystic Fragrance are where they differ. Both of their source endings are tragic — Inogari is unable to control the Beast and shackles himself to a wall, waiting to be arrested. Odette and Siegfried leap into a lake and drown themselves, because the only way they can be together is in death. Forbidden Rain ends with the singer holding their loved one close to them one last time in the rain before they leave.

But Arashi rejects her source material because she chooses to embrace the monster. She becomes Odile. She decides to live her truth, and as the top notes and heart notes fade away, all that lingers is her true self. That's why Mystic Fragrance has a happy ending.

There's a lot of symbolism in the Mystic Fragrance music video with respect to the person who loved Arashi during the war era and who killed themselves. She spreads her arms like the wings of an angel and sings in front of a setpiece that looks like the cenotaph. Her outfit contains anemones, symbols of a lost love and grief (and, coincidentally, the flower that Adonis in greek myth turned into when he died). Her greatest regret was that that person couldn't love themselves the way Arashi now tries to love herself. In this way, Mystic Fragrance is like a message to that person -- live your truth.

both adonis and arashi have white (pure) 5* mv outfits and black (impure) SCR outfits in their center song events. both the Mystic Fragrance song and the Love & Beast drama involve opposing natures / dual personalities symbolized by these white and black outfits — adonis’ character grapples with the innocent inogari and the beast, and mystic fragrance has odile and odette, the white and black swans. both songs are departures from their units’ usual themes — forbidden rain is all about restraint and loving someone so much that you sacrifice this love to keep them safe (more akin to Knights’ themes of knighthood and self-sacrifice), while mystic fragrance is all about casting off the fake layers of yourself, giving into desire, and living as your truest self, even if it’s “selfish” or “impure” (more akin to UNDEAD’s usual songs). both adonis and arashi are transgender. in this essay i will—

Redrawing enstars cards to get better at drawing pt.8

Crazy:B done!

u r so real for bird magnet adonis but can i interest u in my personal hc of disney princess adonis. all animals of every classification love him in my brain. he could walk up to a rabid mountain lion and it would turn into the sweetest cuddliest kitten just at the sight of him.

i agree but i dont think hes good with animals in a "disney princess" sense bc that suggests hes just like that naturally with no effort on his part . i think hes good with animals in an "experienced ecologist" sense . as in , hes well versed in animal body language ( both preforming it and understanding it ) and has no fear whatsoever of any animal but still respects them as if he did . so to everyone around him it looks like hes some kind of animal whisperer but in reality hes just a very good scientist .

havent drawn enstars at all this year but i'll be damned if i dont celebrate my boy's birthday!!!

if you had to pick 3 to 5 frogs in an attempt to show off the diversity of frogs on a whole to some aliens, which frogs would you pick?

(is this just so I can see some funky frogs? maybe)

Flat–Round:

Pipa pipa and Breviceps macrops

[first image: originally form Arkive, which no longer exists, which is sad as hell; second image src]

Big–Small:

Conraua goliath and Paedophryne amauensis

[first image src; second image src]

And a fifth one for good measure: an arboreal, green, weird-shaped frog with stunning patterns.

Cruziohyla craspedopus

[src]

fun fact #1: the name of adonis' character in the Love & Beast drama, inogari, was written as 猪狩 -- with the same 狩 character ("to hunt") as his last name otogari (乙狩), but with the kanji 猪, meaning boar. fun fact #2: in greek myth, adonis was killed by a boar while he was out hunting. these are definitely two totally unrelated facts and you shouldn't read into it at all (you should)

happy birthday my sweet prince 💗

alt ver under the cut

Happy birthday to Adonis Otogari AKA the most beautiful lovely prince of a man 🥳🥳

Happy Birthday Adonis!

can i request... adonis with a burger

yummy borgar..........

other ado borgar

fine!

enstars text posts but it’s just adonis and undead (pt. 1)