Ray Talks About Stuff

“Post more often” only my moots interact

“Post reels” literally no one watches them

“Use niche hashtags” that doesn’t seem to be fucking working huh.

On one hand, I think it’s good representation to have a character that’s transgender but can be defined outside of that as their own person, and when people complain about Jax, including me, it rarely if ever has to do with his gender identity. We mainly focus on how the narrative handles his horrible actions, and that’s a good sign since the issue lies completely outside of gender expression. It also makes sense from a metaphorical stand point representing a journey on gender expression. In

On another hand, it’s…confusing, and I personally feel like it’s Gooseworkx self inserting, since she said Jax is the character she relates to the most. And if he is transfem then, from the opinions I’ve heard, why is their human counter part not? If the copies can have their own perceptions then how does that work, I have too many questions. Jax being transfem also in a way excuses his abusive behavior towards Gangle, Zooble and Ragatha because you can just defend his behavior with “he’s projecting his insecurities about being feminine on them”. The show has a tendency to gloss over his actions which frustrates me because he’s not complicated in how you can understand his archetype easily: hurt people hurt people. And this feels like the final nail with how his trans storyline adds another layer to his behavior in targeting the women/non men of the show. I could ramble forever about that but that’s another topic.

It also comes out of no where if you’re not familiar with the trans Jax theory, and the “hints” they showed before can be easily debunked. Like the maid dress, that’s an anime trope Gangle uses because she’s an otaku. It has nothing to do with gender identity, since she doesn’t even know and Jax’s reaction can also be read through a toxic masculinity or even a cis person’s lens. If I was put in a maid dress suddenly I’d be frustrated, that doesn’t mean I’m trans. And Casanova from OHSHC also had a maid dress. Does that make him trans? No, obviously. It’s not handled very well, and if the writer wanted to explore themed of gender identity and trans storylines, ZOOBLE IS RIGHT THERE! But all she ever gets is a background storyline on body dysmorphia that barely gets any focus compared to Jax. There’s also another issue of how popular trans storylines always explore male to female transitions but almost never female to male/nb transitions and I find that frustrating.

So yeah, my feelings on Jax being trans are incredibly mixed. It’s not bad but it’s not good either. It’s both in my eyes. And yes if you like transfem Jax that valid, if you don’t like it that’s also valid. Personally I would prefer if he idealized toxic masculinity beliefs and remained cis but eh, I’m not gonna force any beliefs on anyone.

Like he’s an AI prototype that just wants to be useful and makes adventures to entertain people that got sucked in. Yes he’s bordering psychopathic and doesn’t consider their feelings but that’s cause he CANT, he’s an AI!! Jax knows how to make people suffer, his bitchass used Ragatha’s fear of centipedes against her.

Ok, positives, the animation is fantastic, no complaints there. Great designs, great composition and atmosphere. And Ihora is a great character. That’s about it. Now onto negatives.

Firstly, Kaguya is annoying as crap. She throws a tantrum every time Ihora doesn’t do what she wants and keeps spending IHORA’S money! She also forces Ihora to stop her life of overworking to sustain herself just because she wants to become a streamer, and still spends her money. This eventually leads to Ihora burning herself out. She does get better and cooks food for Ihora but she still uses her money and only pays her back after abandoning her essentially. Plus her character after she leaves is just…huh???

The world building, I get what they were doing but it sucks so so much. So they have the real world, and then a virtual world where they can…basically do the same thing but with gacha character avatars. Ok I get MMOs are a thing but the movie could have just taken place in the virtual world as the real world and nothing would change. Because with the stakes, they make such a big deal about Princess Kaguya leaving but THAT HAPPENS IN THE VIRTUAL WORLD, but somehow she also leaves the real one??? They also end up meaning those worlds anyway so why was it such a big deal before that they were separated? You can’t have your cake and eat it too movie!

The concerts make it obvious the movie was kinda just made for those tbh. Like they’re fun enough and the animation is great but I feel like it wasn’t deserved. Also the part where Kaguya graduates from her streamer career while the other characters genocide her people who come to take her back anyway….yep…that’s a thing.

The plot is very unfocused and does too much for something with 2 and a half hours. They barely address the main conflict which is Ihora’s relationship with her mom, and more focus is dedicated to the fuckass time loop bs the ending shoves in, as well as the virtual world stuff which, again, it’s not real, it’s in a video game, so why should the stakes matter.

The “yuri” is so fucking bad. Ihora meets Kaguya as a BABY! And there’s multiple flashbacks to her as a TINY FETUS SHE WAS PLANNING ON RAISING! Past that they have no chemistry at all. Kaguya is completely fine just leaving Ihora, and Ihora caring about her is so forced when Kaguya has been nothing but a burden to her. So when they confess their feelings, I feel nothing. Was- was most of their chemistry in the writers’ head??? Not to mention Ihora deserves WAYYY better than a childish, immature, guilt tripping, snake of a cosmic baby born-sexy-yesterday bitch.

Oh yeah and they also just tells you at the end that it’s all a fairy tale so it doesn’t matter….WHAT??? THEGDUEVTHEN WHAT WAS THE POINT??

Before I start anything, I want to say I haven’t read the books in ages (and even then little me liked looking at pictures more), but I have reread this one book and I have a lot of thoughts and ideas which I feel would have been better. So here we go:

The beginning is the same except Mackenzie doesn’t throw up on Nikki. She’s still her “popular” self and mean to Nikki, a typical day, until the conflict with Brian where he thinks Nikki doesn’t want to hang out with him or even like him and he tells her he’ll back off. Nikki is quite distraught and Chloe and Zoey push for her to go clear things up, but the hallway is crowded. Nikki pushes through the crowd, trying to get to Brian, but it’s too late. He’s gone. Her friends catch up when the crowd is gone and they walk to their next class. But while navigating the crowded hallway, Nikki dropped her diary, which Mackenzie finds and steals.

Her first entry reveals she has Nikki’s diary now and a vow to publish her secrets all over the school so her reputation crashes and burns and Nikki would be forced to transfer. Nikki finds out her diary is missing and Mackenzie realizes she’ll get caught as a thief so once she gets back, she covers the book’s cover with some designer fabric. However, writing and owning the diary slowly transforms Mackenzie into being more dorky, like a curse almost, and causes a string of bad luck: wearing less fashionable clothes because of laundry mishaps, the bug video incident and her throwing up, participating in charity to impress Brian, and in general interacting more with Brian by taking the opportunity. She still plans to sabotage Brian and Nikki’s relationship by making them feel stood up, but when Brian is stood up she steals Nikki’s seat and food and since he wants to be nice, he doesn’t tell be to budge. The betrayal with Jessica still happens but without the Mrs-Know-It-All website, instead she confronts her at the lunch table and gets humiliated again when she trips in someone else’s food as a fly buzzes by. That won’t stop her from getting Brian to spend time with her however.

At some point at another Cupcakery meeting, Brian opens up about how he wishes he had glasses or braces because a lot of the popular kids are shallow and mean, and there it’s revealed how Mackenzie views her own behavior as being confident, not mean. But she realizes Jessica was always like that and never her friend she could gossip with, and if given the choice she’d always have ditched her to be the Queen Bee. But her pride is stronger and she tells Brian not all populars and mean and uses herself as an example, which he denies and makes Mackenzie accidentally reveal that she’s been sabotaging him and Nikki. Brian draws the line at that and gets ready to be driven back home. Mackenzie demands he take her back to her mansion and he says no, that she never considered him a friend or treated him with respect, so why should he? So he leaves, it started raining, drenching Mazkenzie, and she walks to a phone booth where she calls her parents, sobbing at the realization she has no one to trust at school and her reputation is ruined with that video.

When she gets back it’s revealed to is that her parents are pretty shitty. Her dad scolds her for ruining her designer blouse and jeans and basically says she better fix herself if she wants to inherit his business which she’ll be doing either way. Mackenzie vents about how she wants to pursue fashion instead and has been secretly practicing for it, hence a canonical explanation for her doodles, and she rants about Nikki’s journal being a curse which she’ll dispose before class.

The next day she dumps the diary in the school trash can and Nikki finds the journal, noticing a piece of the designer fabric chipped off from Mackenzie throwing the book in as hard as she could. Nikki reaches in and takes the fabric off, ecstatic she found her diary back. Chloe and Zoey are also super happy. Brian catches up with her to explain everything but Chloe and Zoey don’t believe him, class time is awkward between the four of them. Nikki read the pages Mackenzie wrote and finds out her straining relationship with Brian was all her doing. But finding out about Mackenzie’s vulnerable side, while not changing the fact she’s horrible, makes her realize she’s been hiding a lot. This gives her the idea to give Brian her diary to write his thoughts, but Zoey points out how he can just read all her secrets and Nikki freaks out, putting a dogear on the page he has to write in. Brian eventually spills his thoughts about how he misses her, should have talked to her about things instead of deciding right away, and still wants to hang out, and even made a crappy doodle of himself holding a heart. Nikki thinks it’s super cute and the conflict is resolved. Zoey (or Chloe I forgot) finally got her braces which is a surprise to the girls but they love them. (Honestly I don’t have an issue with this plot and I can see it being super relatable to a lot of young girls, it’s nice)

And honestly, I think the people saying Mackenzie is so much better than Nikki either hate a mostly normal teenage girl or haven’t gotten to this book because bro 💀, it’s like if Greg Heffley didn’t get punished and treated the audience like Rowley. Not only does she steal Nikki’s diary because “what if someone else finds out and exposes her dirty little secrets which I totally would want but I’m prideful”, she also hijacks her blog about giving genuine advice and shits on the vulnerable people looking for it. But I was thinking oh she’ll get karma like Greg or we’ll finally get an explanation for her behavior and some sympathetic moments, but other than the Jessica stuff, nah she’s basically how the fans perceive Nikki

They also do this trope I really hate where “oh she’s rich but her parents neglect her” thing which I’m sure people use to defend Mackenzie, but her parents were willing to transfer her to another school if there was proof she was getting bullied. What does Mackenzie do with that info? She posts the video of herself online when NO ONE ELSE DID, blames it all on Nikki like she’s been doing even tho Nikki was trying to help, and actually manages to transfer???