I was gonna save this until next week, but I just need to get it out of my system. 

This show had me from the moment they broke the egg yolk with the chopsticks in the opening credits for episode one. 

All the hand held and super close camerawork. Marvelous acting from everyone, subtle be very precise and tailored dirty screen directing styles (AKA lots of objects and other people’s bodies interrupting shots.) The way they manage to make things that shouldn’t be sexy so very sexy (like Togawa’s hamster cheeks - boy just wants to gorge himself, and not on food). It’s truly art. 

But there is so much more going on here. 

Japan has a long tradition of using food, both the preparation and consumption, as an allegory for intimacy… ALL KINDS of intimacy. And in this show the discovery of desserts, and the enjoyment of the experience of indulging, is explicitly both sexual seduction and emotional tethering. This is not just an exploration of youth for Nozue it is an exploration of desire. 

On the other hand, the want drips off of Togawa at all times, like true starvation. It’s epic levels of pining we are looking at and not just love but pure lust. It’s actually quite remarkable to see this done with Japan’s signature reserve, because the through line of the filming style and food allegory dictates they will simply have to show physical intimacy at soem point. But not of the explicit kind we get in the darker BLs from Japan (although they could easily go there), but of a truly sexualized romantic passionate kind that we don’t normally get from Japan in their softer BLs.

You see, there comes a point, when the food allegory has gone as far as it can, and Nozue recognizes that in episode 3, even as he doesn’t recognize Togawa’s desire. Because for him the desire has been made manifest though the medium of desserts… and now that sensation has been satisfied, he feels like that’s good enough. 

But when Nozue shuts down the eating intimacy, Togawa was always destined to break open into into sexual need, just the way the egg yolk is broken open in the credits. 

What is truly genius about this show is that when this finally happens at the end of episode 4, the camera switches to one long hand held shot. This kind of stage-craft reliant shooting is the ultimate form of filming intimacy - it is the camera’s form of trust: 

The directer is trusting the cameraperson not to waiver, 

the camera is trusting the actors to pull through for the entirety of the shot (no forgetting your lines on a long take, no missing your marks, no slipping out of character), 

the actors are trusting the crew to capture it in that one moment when they give it their all. 

This is the kind of theatrically-based close work is as near to sexual intimacy as actors and crew can get. 

Thus the shooting style is, itself, a reflection of Togawa’s needs, of Nozue’s shock and realization and crumbling, of the levels of trust between them that are fracturing and reforming. It’s absolutely brilliant.

RADISHN’T: Prithee, which one of you had planned to tell

Of diff'rent flavours gained by simple act

Of brewing tea with water hot, not cold?

MOTHMAN: Egad! you poured the water cold? Wherefore?!

FROG: An answer from you, Radish, I must beg.

RADISHN’T: Indeed I did, dear friends - why does this shock?

Without the guide of others I assumed

That heat was merely added for the sake

Of expediting this solution’s brewing!

Half a decade I have spent, or more,

Not questioning this worldview I had made.

In fact, I am myself a bit surprised

That you might think that I, your dearest friend,

Might have a patience of sufficient stock

To wait until a pot of water boils.

FROG: Three minutes overtaxes patience so?

The microwave will beep when it is done!

CATS'N: My friend, this answer vexes me the more!

Can it be true that thou dost boil by nuke?!

FROG: Are you in turn, my friend, so shocked to know

That I have not the patience, like our Root,

To boil upon the stove our favour’d drink?

CATS'N: It takes less than a minute!

FROG: On what plate?

Perhaps your dinner cooks atop the sun?

CATS'N: How long can take your stove to fill the task

Of boiling but a single cup alone?

FROG: In minutes?

CATS'N: Yes!

FROG: I counted seven, once.

CATS'N: Perhaps you ought to have your timepiece checked!

If on a middle heat you place the cup

You soon will have the scalding drink you crave.

Two minutes, in a mug upon the plate

Or even less, if you should have a pot.

FROG: You cause me tears - is this how thou dost live?

You place upon the iron stove a mug?

A mug, ceramic, filled with water cold?

How do these flames, though medium in height,

Not shatter like a glass this fragile thing?

Surely, then, your kitchen is bewitched

With magicks far beyond the mortal ken!

(The FOUR realise they have wandered into the THRONE ROOM. The ROYAL COURT watches with fascination.)

It's the double queer friend groups who are both supportive and both loving and both speak in actions and in words to make sure their friends are doing what they want.

It's Toh's desperation for anything because he doesn't see himself as capable of getting more being treated as both creepy and endearing, as something that he shouldn't do but is also the only way he feels capable of connecting with Nuea.

It's Nuea's need to be closer to Toh and willingness to put himself into awkward situations while still wanting to be sure, his willingness to do all the most obvious things just go gauge his interest.

It's Daisy and his brilliant outfits and his feminine mannerisms and his constant jokes about getting all the boys being treated as something endearing and positive, where everyone gets the joke and he's not making anyone uncomfortable because they all understand and it's just friendship everywhere.

It's Sky encouraging Jao to eat, bringing him food constantly, despite Jao asking him for help losing weight because Sky loves Jao exactly as he is but, more importantly, loves Jao healthy and waits outside his apartment to be sure he goes to bed safely and the light goes out, of course he isn't going to let him starve himself.

It's Jao's insecurity being a barrier to their relationship but being one that's understood, that feeling of inadequacy covered up by shyness and discomfort and rejection slowly being worn away by unrelenting love.

It's Som's love of her fellow girls, her love and her support of everyone around her exactly as they are, knowing who they are and knowing that she cares about them deeply and how much she loves everyone.

It's Touch who starts off as an almost-rival until it's clear that he's not interested in Toh but wants to see them happy in the hopes of getting his own happy ending.

It's the engineers chasing the com arts majors with joy and dedication and kindness and humor and adoration writ across their chest and hearts in their eyes.

It's the way jealousy is treated as something in the way of love, something to avoid, something that hurts a relationship and makes it harder to find love.

WHAT DO YOU MEANNNNN he said 야자타임 which is a drinking game where everyone speaks in banmal (casually/familiarly) for a set period of time - so in this case, the younger one can drop the honorifics and formal language. But there is also a variation with the additional rule that the older must use honorifics/formal language with the younger one, which is the version jaeyoung immediately jumps on LOL 

you know you’re a fucking crazy person, right?

drunk sangwoo swearing has my WHOLE HEART

People seem to think “Nazi” is meant as a slur or term of abuse. It’s not: it has a straightforward, literal meaning.

After World War Two, there was a campaign to argue that Nazism had no real ideology, that it was just some group of people, to delegitimize it.

That had some value, but its downside was that people forgot that Nazism *does* have an ideology, and it never went away.

Nazism conceives of the world as a struggle between races.

That’s not “race” in the twentieth century United States “black/white” sense; Jews, Slavs, Britons and so on are all “races”, too.

And Nazis believe that races have certain characteristics, which are passed on through the blood; and that they are bound to some land.

There are a few other articles of Nazi belief: for example, that acting (“the will”) is better than thinking (a sign of weaker races).

And that the strength of a race is most strongly exemplified through the untrammeled Will of its leaders.

(If you’re thinking, “Wait, you just made an ideology around obeying people who don’t think?” you may have spotted one of the problems.)

The “National Socialism” is a very real thing, too. It’s socialism *for members of the nation.* And they decide who’s in and who’s out.

Government subsidies for “good, decent people?” Sure. Just don’t give it to those parasites.

So here’s the important thing: These ideas make up Nazism. You don’t need to wear a swastika to believe in them.

And here’s the other important thing: if you’re in the United States, you may have grown up hearing “Nazis are the bad guys” without learning *why.*

Or you may have learned about concentration camps, but not about what happened in the ten years leading up to them.

When the Nazis came to power in Germany, they didn’t build camps. They passed laws restricting jobs for “non-German races” (nations).

They argued that money spent on the disabled was simply a drain on society, and we should move them to hospitals.

They held angry public rallies which often included violence. Their leaders and militias flaunted the law, because they knew it didn’t apply.

They saw who they could kill and get away with, and gradually, over time, expanded that.

They encouraged “voluntary self-deportation” of unwanted Jews, by barring them from holding jobs.

When no county wanted a few million refugees, it was their proof that nobody wanted the Jews.

So camps were started up as administrative holding centers, where they could be put to good use - that is, as slave labor.

The disabled, moved to remote hospitals, were out of sight and out of mind: so that’s where they did their first experiments of mass murder.

I could go on about this for hours, but the point is: this was a story of an ideology which did exactly what it said on the label.

Not by showing up one night and starting to kill people, but slowly, gradually, building up public normalization of what they did.

When I refer to Nazis in the United States, I am not using this as some kind of generic slur against people I disagree with.

Nazis are people who subscribe to the ideology of Nazism, plain and simple, whatever organizations they do or don’t affiliate with.

Nazism is an ideology fundamentally inimical to everyone who isn’t a Nazi. It is a known and proven threat to life.

“Punching Nazis” is a way to signal to them that their ideology is not welcome in the public sphere, to keep them quiet and afraid.

If Nazis are extremely few in number, and very reluctant to speak, then their public speech becomes an opportunity for the public to rally against them, to reiterate its refusal to allow this. This is where the old ACLU “speech for Nazis” argument came from.

If they are somewhat bigger in number, they become a part of public discourse - thus legitimating questions like “well, *are* [X] people?”

To legitimize these questions is to require every such group to continuously prove their humanity, and their right to even argue back.

This is not a real counterspeech remedy. Normalizing the question of “Is [X] human?” places the burden on them to continuously prove it.

This why Nazi speech is a public danger when they are in anything but the smallest numbers.

What are their numbers? cf this Reuters/Ipsos poll from a few weeks ago: [descriptor’s note: there’s a link there that is partially obscured, I couldn’t track down the twitter thread or the link itself, because four years have passed. end descriptor’s note]

14% of people (N=5360) were neutral to positive on Nazis *when referred to by that name.* Support for their ideas was much higher.

Punching Nazis is a minor control mecanism: it silences the danger without amplifying its speech. But it doesn’t solve anything.

Historically, there has been exactly one solution for Nazis. It did not come cheap.

Never forget what Nazism is - and that when it appears, it needs to be stopped immediately and vigorously.

“Nazi” is not a slur, and it should not be used for anyone who does not advocate those ideas. But it should be used for those who do.

And for those: no peace, no sympathy, no quarter, and no mercy.