you can't pin joy like a moth

it must have been equally terrifying for her as it was for the real nikki to have someone else fight for control over what she perceived as her body. the scene where she's sobbing in the corner, terrified of her dreams is now more sad than terrifying to me. real nikki, who has just been raped by her once best friend hurting so badly that it seeps into entity!nikki's nightmares. entity!nikki who doesn't understand why the thing she wanted so badly is causing her so much pain. why she can't bring herself to lie in bed next to the man who is the center of her world.

and the worst part is bear doesn't even seem to like her. she's trying so so hard; she made a lovely memorial for his dead cat, she waited for him to come home all day without moving an inch, she made sure to be the most doting girlfriend at the party, and he's not pleased by any of it. he seems disturbed and angry and scared and she has no idea what to do to make it better. to make it worse, he keeps asking her to behave like the original nikki but he was the one who wished for her!! she can't be like nikki because nikki was simply not capable of loving bear even a fraction of how much she does!

she can't seem to reconcile it; he wanted her so badly he conjured her into reality and now he doesn't want her anymore. she doesn't know what to do. she tries everything. she obsesses over him, she threatens to hurt herself, she gets rid of that bitch sarah who keeps distracting him and trying to steal him away, and then dresses in her clothes for good measure and he still doesn't want her.

and then finally in a fit of desperation, she makes the wish and for one beautiful moment its all perfect. he's finally looking at her the way she looks at him. and then he's dead and she's lost everything.

binghe's content does a complete 180 after that, moving from michelin-level recipes to 'cooking on a budget' and 'time-friendly' meals. peerlesscucumber occasionally will send another picture of his poor, neglected fridge and ask for suggestions. luo binghe always fulfills his requests!

First of all, Nie Mingjue is very familiar with death not only from war but from. You know. Actively dying since the age of fourteen. Let us not forget Nie Mingjue is dead! Super dead! And maybe he didn't die the exact way he expected to but he did, absolutely, know he was going to die. To act like Nie Mingjue is unfamiliar with the scenario of "do something you find morally reprehensible or die" is to ignore that he has been living that exact scenario and chose death.

Nie Mingjue knows death is a risk for someone like Jin guangyao, in fact he explicitly acknowledges it even in his worst moments like the stairs in chapter 49. Had his issue been ignorance, then he would've responded to Jin Guangyao saying that he's in danger and has to sacrifice others for his own safety with "No you aren't you'll be fine." But he doesn't. He accepts the fact that jgy is in danger with no qualms and says: then you should die.

That's not him betraying his values, those are his values. He is, essentially, pro-suicide. Jgy is like hey I have a moral dilemma what should I do and nmj straight up goes "Kill yourself" and earlier that same chapter when he was faced with a moral dilemma he went "I'm gonna kill myself." He believes the solution to moral dilemmas is suicide! He is extremely consistent about this! When it's pointed out to him that it would have been dangerous for Wen Qing to oppose Wen Ruohan it doesn't phase him because he thinks putting yourself at risk to do the right thing is the only moral choice. The idea that he can only hold this belief because he is himself somehow not in danger, again, requires you to ignore that he is dying the whole time. And it doesn't deter him. He is the idea of self-sacrifice as a moral good taken to its absolute logical extreme. Someone who is ready to die and demands the same from everyone else.

Of course he doesnt mean to keep it up. But then things start to spiral, for the want of a nail style. Before long he’s back to his old ways, deploying dopplegangers (and actually using some of the old ones Jun Wu didn’t kill off) and infiltrating governments to investigate corruption, unblocking civil construction projects, punishing polluting landowners, etc. He’s not a “good guy,” they’re so far beyond that…but literally the entire Heaven has been overturned, who else is gonna help the orphans and poor families???? He’s actually an evil vengeful ghost so destroying the leeches stealing from the innocent is him being evil and dark and bad!!

Actual plot can happen here. Beefleaf would be fun, SQX championing a thing for the beggars and unknowingly starts working with one of HX’s dopplegangers, who seems oddly familiar.

first impressions.

i dont know if i like this very much but whatevaaaah

We all know it's a comedic gag (and a lot of the time I wish it wasn't), but I don't ever think I've seen anyone actually talk about the sheer amount of anime tropes that are being made fun of or why characters act the way they do. Like it's genuinely amazing the series got away with being a parody of so many anime archetypes; and Saiki is literally telling us it's all ridiculous.

Kusuo lists some of them right at the beginning that he made happen with his powers:

unnatural, colorful hair and eyes

people ignoring weird features like his antennas

the crotch and boobs being always covered when the rest of the clothes are blown away

fast recovery times

surviving serious injuries

Characters:

Saiki Kusuo - The overpowered protagonist; the fantasy of being all powerful (it's an inconvenience, he told you so).

Saiki Kurumi - The impossibly kind mother (even powerful psychics struggle against her sincerity).

Saiki Kuniharu - The pathetic father (well at least he's present), and the man obsessed with his wife.

Saiki Kusuke - The Genius/Rival sibling. *sigh* He is also the bro-con (brother complex).

Iridatsu Yuuta - The special kid; the child chosen by destiny. Children are often used to perceive things adults cannot and Saiki literally exposes himself with no problem to him. His powers are just explained away by child imagination.

Nendou Riki - The idiot best friend; he's the lovable moronic sidekick and his idiocy is almost like superpower because Saiki can't read him. He accepts Saiki completely, has seen him use his powers, and somehow he still doesn't know about them.

Nendou Midori - The single hard working mom

Takeuchi Riki - The absent father/ dead parent. Funny, even with no memory he actually isn't absent and helps his son sometimes.

Uryoku Chouno - The fraud magician; the mysterious occult masters, the wise mentors, the stage magicians that secretly know real magic. He is a complete fraud and the irony is he's associated with the most powerful psychic on Earth. And he started down this path because he lost his office job and his wife (Midori) left him.

Kaidou Shun - The chunnibyou hero; teenagers who believe they're protagonists in supernatural stories; the would-be isekai victim. He acts like he's battling against dark forces while everyone else is just living in a slice of life comedy. He is normal and his little brother has surpassed him in every way. If Kaidou had his own anime, he would be Saiki without all the avoidance.

Mrs. Kaidou - the control freak mother that just wants the best

Kuboyasu Aren - The reformed delinquent; the scary looking (middle/ high schooler) guy/ former gang member that is secretly nice and actually has a heart of gold. His attempts at being normal are sort of more terrifying than if he just acted like a delinquent; he has absurd superhuman strength.

Kuboyasu Rean - scary looking father; gang member/ yakuza family member

Teruhashi Kokomi - The perfect girl/ idol; the Mary Sue heroine. Saiki is the only person that doesn't react to her beauty; romance anime would have this be the start of a love story, but she develops an obsession trying to get a reaction out of him.

Teruhashi Makoto - The freaking sis-con (sister complex).

Rifuta Imu - The rival love interest who suddenly appears to challenge the main heroine. A character like her would normally be a serious threat, but instead Teruhashi utterly destroys her confidence just by existing and then she falls in love with her and starts to hate Saiki.

Hairo Kineshi - The passionate sports hero; the fiery protagonist and the guy who solves everything with effort. His intensity is absurd and inappropriate for ordinary situations.

Yumehara Chiyo - The shojo heroine; girls who constantly imagine elaborate romantic fantasies. These girls are portrayed as small and cute and concerned about their appearance. She wishes to be that but she's a normal teenager and ends up getting excited when she sees food. Her real behavior clashes with the romanticized version of herself.

Mera Chisato - The perpetually poor character; poor but cheerful, hardworking student supporting family, and the hungry girl gag character. The joke is that her poverty was turned into a personality trait.

Aiura Mikoto - The psychic/ destiny girl; the mystical fortune teller and the fated soulmate character. The twist is, she actually isn't wrong; the fortune teller is usually a fraud character but her powers are real and Saiki still isn't interested.

Toritsuka Reita - The perverted spiritual monk; the spiritual hero and the guy blessed with a supernatural ability. He'd be portrayed as someone wise and noble whose advances would be used as comic relief in some other anime.

Akechi Touma - The super detective genius/ hyper observant prodigy; also the childhood best friend of the protagonist

Saiko Metori - The rich rival; the absurdly wealthy heir and the elite who thinks money solves everything

Hii Suzumiya - The walking disaster; she is the whumpee character that if something tragic is going to happen, it's always going to happen to this specific character and to anyone associated with them. The twist is that she's completely fine and brushes it off like that's just how life is.

Satou Hiroshi - The ultimate background character; anime have this habit of introducing characters as this normal person and then you find out like two episodes later that they are the chosen one or something. Saiki is obsessed with him because he is actually a normal Japanese guy, not "anime" normal.

Situations:

Chosen One - protagonists discover they're special; Saiki is special and hates it.

Romantic Destiny - fate repeatedly tries to push Saiki into romance and he spends his energy trying to escape it. Anime usually rely on romance to bring characters together.

Sports Festival/ Tournament Arcs - Everyone becomes weirdly intense because most school anime treat sports like a life or death battle. Characters love proving themselves, but Saiki knows he would win; it's pointless and he has a secret to keep.

Friendship Power Ups - Some anime solve problems with the power of friendship. Saiki acts like it's a complication, but he ends up better off for it.

Love Triangles - Rom/coms thrive on misunderstandings. The misunderstandings are happening entirely in people's heads and Saiki is just trying to go home and avoid it all.

Right well half of their clients are nonhumans in their original form that want a break from their human lives. At first it's all normal pets, dogs,,, cats,,, maybe a bird or two... Nothing abnormal.

Things are all fine and dandy until a nonhuman--a dog demon--gets the genius idea to hire a petsitter...for themselves. Her entire train of thought was "I want to be pampered, and I'd also like a break from my responsibilities." so she hires many different pet sitters for herself, trying to find one that sticks.

Most of the ones she finds aren't bad--definitely not--they take all of the safety precautions that they would for a normal dog... Even when she gives them special instructions on how to treat her the dog they aren't attentive as she'd like. I mean, who's letting a dog watch tv and laze around all day? Who's going to give a dog a full night-routine? There's a ton of limitations that she has when it comes to the pet sitters, and she can't really blame them for treating her like,, well.. a pet.

Well she's running out of hope and she randomly hires these decently rated pair of pet sitters, two guys that look like they rely on energy drinks to make it through the days. Her hopes aren't high but holy hell they do the best job out of everyone.

She hires them twice, the first time she calls it's Shen Yuan that comes 'round. He looks over the instructions and raises an eyebrow while muttering something about rich people... BUT HE FOLLOWS THEM. He turns on her TV show at the time she specified in the letter, he brushes her from head to toe--so thorough with it that she feels like a brand new dog at the end, he doesn't question when she sits to eat at her own table. He does everything on the instructions left behind and he does such a good job (except for the cooking bit, but she can excuse that) that she can't help but brag about it to her fellow dog demon group.

Word gets around, and after a few more suspicious hires with oddly intelligent pets SY and XF have made a name in the spiritual beat/demon community. Nobody expected to get such good treatment from the two, but like they are broke college students trying to get a bit more cash, why wouldn't they take these easy jobs? It's not that hard to pamper animals anyways.

ANYWAYS ANYWAYS SO AFTER WORD GETS AROUND SUDDENLY THEY'RE PET SITTING FOR THESE HIGH END NAMES LIKE.. /THE/ LIU QINGGE, A WORLD RENOWNED MARTIAL ARTIST, ASKED THEM TO PET SIT? (LQG didn't need to be pampered but he does enjoy it. He really just wanted to run around in his original form but he didn't want to get photographed and targetted or something idk) SY and XF don't question the fact that LQG's pet is a.. giant wolf thing, the rich live in different worlds than them anyways.

QI QINGQI ASKED THEM TO PETSIT FOR HER??? LIKE ONE OF THE MOST WELL KNOWN FASHION DESIGNERS THAT CLAWED HER WAY TO THE TOP IN A CUTTHROAT INDUSTRY? Do they care that they're watching over a ... weird horse..? NO. MONEY IS MONEY. (Qi Qingqi says that her 'pet' is a rare horse with,,, odd skull growth, which resulted in the weird horn like structure on the head and the abnormally long tail for a horse. SY and XF don't question it actually)

SY and XF had a whole motto of just.. not questioning things above their paygrade. AND THEIR CLIENTS LOVE IT. LIKE whoops, XF saw Liu Qingge's "pet" fly! Oh XF said "huh, that was a long jump. Must be a special breed..." and kept it pushing... PERFECT

it's so silly, but this was based on the first ending of ascendance of a bookworm which is one of my favorite isekai~

he knows he's bad compared to all the other disciples, but yifu says to just think about how much he's improved, he'll definitely catch up in the end if he doesn't slack off