fini

Raiden doesn’t know how lonely the sky temple is.

Raiden is never alone.

Now is the time I finally get started on the other two and final two members of the Allied powers.

I have been holding back on talking about these guys for so long. It is so unfair to everybody else.

Let’s get started on the communist comrades-

2p China/Xiao Wang- An immensely powerful, and reluctant older man with a youthful and handsome appearance. Working alongside Yao for so long has made him more distasteful of the old ways that he propagates so vehemently. He’s an easy-going man only because it is the most simplest way for him to behave. Quite literally going with the flow, yet this seems to only really do to his more individualistic personality and personal beliefs on keeping your mouth shut when in his country for personal reasons. To say the least, he has learned how to speak, and learned when to simply take orders. His personality is easy-going, and in desiring all flirtations in life due to his restricted past he is rather flirtatious, discreet, and honest. He is more like a snake than he would like to admit. Yet his allies know that he could be trusted to a certain degree. Always hatching up a new plan has made him a man that could be trusted. He is filled with much mischief.

He’s a simple man who is far more a kin to his more positive traits if not doing his job as a “scheming Eunuch” as others liked to call him. Despite having a distain for rules, the rules that he seems to dislike are the things that sound like they would restrict his joy in the life that he has been given only recently. He has not truly been able to enjoy his long life so he takes much pleasure in it when he can. Living for so long, has given him enough time to experience the fact that he really really really hated working among the royalty in the past. Giving him an ever loving need to indulge himself in modern day, he would rather play video games and participate to western activities. In a rather confused way, he desires freedom. He is not truly cruel, at least in the traditional sense. He has a distaste for it. Yet he goes out of his way to make his more bloody work as quick and easy as possible. This is mercy to him. Always being deemed as “low class” makes him some more easy to sympathize with others. He has had envy before, and has never truly been wanting to act on it so he rushes into things hoping to get whatever can fill this void that he was not allowed to have. Yet, even if you share his background, this is not enough to escape this so-called mercy as sympathy did little to save him. He is a sort of loner and has very few friends and family because he does not get along with others.

His main talents in the arts and having an excellent taste, for all things. This is usually revealed when it pertains to his own interest and his own job. Yet he will only ever use this to his advantage for other such “projects” weather be for his owner advantages to gain everything he had ever desired or to simply do as he’s told to make his day, more easy. People of morally questionable attitude do tend to be the most dangerous after all. Despite his desires, he lacks that certain jealousy that he needs to be truly evil. It is arguably more accurate to say he is a glutton with envious tendencies. His indulgences are more in the matters of compensating for what he has missed out on and desired for so long.

Such a strange older man. One would argue that he sort of sweet in some ways more than others. This mostly shows in his never undying fondness for women. Oh my, does he love women. It says if he has been tempted with them his whole life, and never allowed to have them. In modern day he is very thankful that such a form of gluttony can be unleashed. The concept alone makes him a flirt. It may make him seem pathetic. Whether or not he’s a good one is entirely up to you and your taste in men. Ironically he is not one to enjoy promiscuity despite his more impure tendencies, he has a specific taste for older women lacking in experience. It seems as if he has a true desire to love them of all things. But this seems to be a novelty feeling. The ideal woman in his mind is one that could simultaneously shake off his advances and will allow him close enough to keep going. An enjoyment of a push and pull effect if you will. What a gluttonous man he is? I can tell you it is nearly innocent that he wants somebody simply to hold him as much as he would like to hold them.

2p Russia/Vladimir Braginski- A large strong man of true royal background. While he would like to be a pacifist, he has reluctantly taken a rather habitual liking to being the force of absolute dominance. A mature, distrusting , and intelligent man that is very well aware of the privilege in his life and is very quick to take advantage of it. He rarely smiles, and when it does appear, it is a cold smile that only has the intent of power. Yet truly one could tell you if you knew him deeply enough, he would argue that he can achieve such a kind smile if he ever met the right lady to do so.

Despite his absolutly towering form, he seems to be reluctant to actually participate in his powerful intent and regularly demands his underlings to do the dirty work as if to hide what he truly is. A violent monster. Such a privileged upbringing and intelligent mind did not produce anything other than that, and whatever goodness is there is more based on a form of self-pity that he cannot be as pacifistic as he desires to be. Even among his female family members, his domineering presence always suffocates the room, even though they harbored little hatred towards their brother. Such as presence is inherently unbearable to them both. His kindness despite being present, always feels as if there is something that wants to come out of it. As if he would linger it over to your head to keep you attached to him. A man if few words has learned that the best way to speak is using your actions and this is the main way that he has kept any type of power both for better and worse. For he has known that when working among people who desired the absolute power and dominance that he has, he must find a leeway to keep them close. This is the closest thing his kindness and pacifist nature could actively allow.

I have spent a lot of time looking at ososan official art and when you get to the point where the sextuplets are basically tattooed to your retinas, you start to Notice Things.

I believe that after years of selling the boys to the public, the marketing team has really gotten a hold on what makes a merch set successful. The key is to appeal to the character's charm points, which have shifted over time. I think that now, the characters have settled into very specific categorizations that allow for the most profit to be made and the most investment return for shareholders!

so here it is, the key to successfully merchandising the matsuno sextuplets.

let me explain. in around 70% of merch sets, especially those that are the most successful, karamatsu and osomatsu are drawn are more masculine/handsome, todomatsu looks more cheeky and cute, and ichimatsu, choromatsu, and jyushimatsu are moe.

Note: there is a distinct difference between cute and moe. todomatsu almost NEVER falls into the moe category, because moe involves some level of unintentional cuteness that todomatsu lacks. todomatsu knows he's cute, and for that reason he can never be moe.

Here are some clear examples of each category in popular sets:

Ikemen karamatsu and osomatsu:

Moe choromatsu, ichimatsu, and jyushimatsu

cute and/or cheeky todomatsu

See what I mean? Now I don't have enough images (30 image limit) to go too deep into this, but it actually didn't used to be like this at all. I wasn't a fan in 2015, but when you look at all of the official art from back then, it was wayyyy simpler and much more in character.

And this isn't to say that they're not technically "in character" in the newer, post 2017 official arts. All of these sets are still pulling from traits that they have from the actual show... but it's so funny to me how disconnected the official art is from the anime.

Although the main goal of both is to make a profit for investors, the methods they use are starkly different. The point of the anime is to make people laugh and tell a story (debatable). But the main goal of the merchandise is to make the sextuplets as marketable as possible, which means forgoing some of their less desirable traits in favor of their more attractive ones.

Like, yes there ARE fans that would totally buy a stand of jyushimatsu farting or of todomatsu making that face.... but how many MORE fans would buy a stand of jyushimatsu smiling cutely and todomatsu winking at the camera while dressed as idols?

Anyways, MOST of the time, they fall into those categorizations... but in newer sets, i think they're aiming for something like this

Note: when i say "suggestive" i don't mean that subjectively. i mean that recently they are intentionally putting karamatsu in more revealing clothing than the rest of the bros. they've actually always done this, but now i feel like it's way more obvious. the best example of this is his birthday outfit

(See what I mean? now these categorizations aren't an exact science. sometimes the bros lapse into other categories or there will be no "categories" at all)

In regards to official art, osomatsu san is an anomaly compared to other anime. While there are still aus in other anime official arts, they still have some level of restraint when it comes to things like fan service and staying in character. But ososan has been around for a decade, so the official art team has had enough time to get lost in the sauce and completely forget about the anime.

But the result of this is that the official art ends up entirely divorced from the actual anime. If you took a person who only knows ososan through the official art they see on twitter, the actual anime won't make any sense to them. like "why are they all just wearing hoodies, i thought the blue guy wears leather straps and corsets... why is the purple one crapping on the table??"

Same for like, casual fans who watched the anime and movies and haven't seen any official art, how do you explain some of this to them??? "yeah so this is the jersey maid set, no it's not from the show... they wouldn't wear that? ... yeah but it's fun and cute and-.... they're neets and don't know how to do the housework a maid does?...yeah"

Keep your hands off the sextuplets!

Original op :]