Today’s deck is the Persona 5 Tarot. Fanmade in China
My relationship with Persona is… complicated. I literally got a PS2 after graduating just to play Persona 4 (this was in 2010 so it was long before Persona 4 even had an anime) and I loved that game to bits. The atmosphere (cheerful compared to P3 in this case), the themes, the story. I knew that game inside and out, it even got me through a rough spot in early college where I was feeling lonely because I didn’t know anyone that well.
There’s pics of me putting up gifts to a pic of Rise during Valentines day out there. In retrospect it’s not that I didn’t like the character (I did) but more that it felt like a thing people did so I did it too.
First hole in that love was Persona 4 Golden. Outside of all the additions that felt tacked on, I legitimately hate Marie that much.
Jump a few years to when Persona 5 released and again, I literally got a PS3 to play that game. I was excited! But the good will ran dry shockingly fast. I was dumbfounded that this game that was putting itself to be more “mature” than P4 trusted my intelligence even less.
The way that I’d put it is that it would be like if during Shadow Yukiko’s fight, Chie went “Is this how she feels about her family situation? Like a bird trapped in a gilded cage?”. These game’s don’t have subtle imagery, the fact that P5 felt the need to spell out the very obvious and on the nose stuff felt outright insulting.
I don’t wanna say I “outgrew” Persona because that sort of statement carries an implication of me putting airs of intellectualism while also calling anyone that likes the franchise childish and that’s not what I want, if nothing else because Persona is unironically part of why my company exists to begin with, bonding about it with key people I still ahve in my life.
There’s also this salted ground all over it for me. I similarly (and with the same caveats) “outgrew” TYPE-MOON but I can still look back at Fate/Stay Night with some respect where that passion for the work isn’t, but even Persona 4 makes me feel… betrayed? Like it hurts to think about it in a way.
…that’s more with Atlus as a whole now that I think about it. Why buy the first release when they’ll remaster it? Why get attached to a solid package when they’ll make sure it’s replaced with a bloated version of itself?
Anyway, the deck is neat nonetheless. It even includes replicas of all the notes the Phantom Thieves left and even adds the post-base P5 cards like The Councillor.
Today’s reading includes The World Reversed again which is interesting. It feels kinda like checking in on what’s next to fix for The Goal (whatever The Goal might be).
It’s a similar combination as yesterday’s with a Knight and a Page (of Swords this time), indicating that I should keep exploring new ways of thinking or communicating with others (Page is that Rookie curiosity + Swords which mean communication and logic), and that I should, in fact, go big or go home about it (Knight of Swords means: Don’t think just act).
Today’s Warhammer preorders included an illustrated reprint of the first Eisenhorn novel. I’m not a fan of Dan Abnett, in fact the only thing stopping me from calling myself a Hater is the fact that I can clearly see he’s a writer-ass Capital W Writer.
The main problem is that I find his writing disorienting (Eisenhorn especially), the other problems… probably better to talk about case by case.
Why get the book then? Because I don’t HATE his work, and also, I collect Warhammer books, so…
Speaking of books, my Uma Musume Volume 1 artbook doesn’t arrive until tomorrow and I’m in outright withdrawal.
For those that don’t know, despite being live as a game for four years starting next February, Uma Musume had no artbooks of any kind within the timespan where other games get artbooks and stop service. And now that they’re gonna release them they’re outright releasing one per month for three months.
In the meantime, I did get the new KanaChoro. Valentine is perfect not just in design but also because I feel an immediate kinship with characters with dark circles around their eyes.
I was actually surprised that the next volume comes in April because the previews on Twitter were for chapters that weren’t included in this volume.
Small tangent, I appreciate the fact that underwear is included in this specific panel. Not only that but the fact that the bra is folded in a way that makes sense.
I swear to God, you only see sexy lingerie in pervy manga, the type that by function has no cup or support so most of the ones you see drawn don’t care about this specific detail.
But I do God Dammit, I do.
Buncha bitches showing their ass that they’ve never seen a bran in person in their lives I swear to God…
I also got the new Seitkoikai no Ana. My comment about Valentine might rightfully lead you to assume that Komaru is my favorite. And for the record, I would die for Komaru, I would put my life in the line for her, I would’ve long before this volume and I certainly will after the chapter with her backstory. Refer also to my past comment about Eternal Dark Circles for extra reasons.
But if you’re familiar with my work, you’ll know I have a specific weakness for a certain type, that type being “comically overpowered dumbass”.
My heart might be with Komaru but I wave Arisu’s flag.
Alongside Volume 8 an illustration book was also released. It’s not quite an artbook but more like a collection of illustrations both from within the manga and outside.
It’s nice to have the illustrations in a single place, but it also brings attention to a fun detail.
The reason why Komaru get so much focus and also gets punished (no, not “pushed”, read again) so often is because before starting the manga she was actually Muchimaro-sensei’s OC that they liked to draw in many graphic situations. I actually remember following them from before the manga and seeing those.
If any of you know what Ryona is, it’s that.
Well, to be specific, at that point she was just called “Muchimaro-chan”, so it’s more like Komaru is a new character with similar appearance and propensity to get mauled and hurt.
It’s neat that this stage of things gets acknowledged in the book.
Another neat thing is that the Extras section had a cameo by the author of Seitokai Yakuidomo, another Quirky Student Council comedy from- I REFUSE to look up when it released, I’ve been in a good mood today and I don’t wanna ruin that before bed.
I rememebr falling off Seitokai Yakuidomo HARD, though. The problem is that before long you realized that every character had a singular joke and they just repeated that joke. It wasn’t even a case of “this character’s personality is conducive to this type of joke” no, I mean that each character was only used for a single type of joke each, and without much going on on the connective plot department I had no reason to put up with even that.
As you can tell, there’s not much novelty today, for better or worse. So here’s a few decks I got that I probably wouldn’t talk about otherwise because they’re just major Arcana.
Key Tarot, limited to Air and Kanon only. I really like the drawn style.
Software Talk Tarot is a Voiceroid-themed one. Voiceroid is that one Vocaloid that’s not Vocaloid. It’s developed by the same company that makes the voice banks for Vocaloid if I remember right.
Vshoujo Tarot. I recognize Kson, I recognize the insect girl that keeps bullying Bricky, I recognize My Melody and Mr CEO… that’s about as far as it goes though, recognition. I’m out of my element here.
I’m more in my element with Touhou though, to the point where I both chuckled and groaned at these two specific card choices.
I assume there’s a Touhou Tarot Blooming Chaos 1 that precedes this one, haven’t found it though.
There’s the doll event tomorrow, so I’m most likely sorting things around for that before I go to sleep.