Today’s deck is the Ikemen Tarot.
Here’s an interesting trend I’ve noticed. There’s a kind of girl I’ve brought up a lot with regards to past decks that I call “Mall Feminist”. First of all, I want to clarify that this is more a term of endearment than it is an insult. Think about how “Mall Goth” might sound like an insult and yet plenty of people proudly call themselves that (in hindsight if nothing else).
A “Mall Feminist” in my mind is the sort of person that might truly believe in the ideals, but they focus so much in making it their aesthetic that you wonder sometimes how deep the ideal actually goes. It’s this very specific “knows the name of every goddess of every pantheon” sort of girl, where the aesthetics of female empowerment are enforced but some myopia might be in effect when push comes to shove.
I’ve noticed that western decks and tarot resources tend to appeal to either these types or “housewife in need of a hobby”. You see a lot of decks called things like “Powerful women deck for powerful women” “Inclusivity deck for an empowered age”.
I am keenly aware that pointing this sort of thing out might make it sound like I’m throwing punches but I’m not, I’m at most pointing a finger to acknowledge the existence of something. Inclusivity is cool, diversity is cool, fuck anyone that claims otherwise. Any barbs in what I say are there strictly because I tend to dislike heavily gendered things (no matter which side of the gender spectrum it is).
I also bring this up because the point is that it’s very curious to me how, meanwhile, eastern decks tend to be things like “cute shit deck” “cute boys deck” “tv drama romance deck”. Tarot and fortunetelling is very inherently a very female thing to be into (mind you, men are just as propense to this sort of thing but the superstition works differently) and it’s super interesting to see what shape that takes between sides of the world.
Case in point this deck. It’s commited to the Ikemen bit thoroughly. The Empress? A man. The High Priestess? A man. The Lovers? TWO men (three with the angel).
I am not the biggest fan of men (average hypermasculinity in general, really) but in my mind I kinda respect more a deck that’s commited to making everyone a handsome dude. It’s like how I have more respect for games with laser focus into one specific fetish over games that try to include as many fetishes as possible.
One last comment about this aside from the usual “We stan Luna Factory in this house” comment, is that it actually includes a bit of text in each orientation. It’s not a full on explanation of the card but it is still a neat guide framed “in-character” so to speak.
Today’s reading feels like it’s reflecting/congratulating me for facing all the card-related nonsense with calm and dignity to the bitter end.
The building’s janitor woke me up with a doorbell ring. They were cleaning the hallway and some stuff on my entryway was on the way.
Not a big deal but the slight physical exertion meant I wasn’t able to go back to sleep, so I was now kinda awake.
In that pre-meds-kicking fugue I decided to check Illgames’ website for any updates on new stuff and turns out they’re making a new game.
Well, “new”. Illgames is basically the successor to Illusion. They might say they aren’t, but the games they’ve been making are basically rethreads of Illusions biggest hits outside of Rapelay. First a Honey Select-like, then a succesor to Artificial Academy and now their version of Koikatsu.
I love Koikatsu, and their new games run so buttery smooth that the idea of a Koikatsu that doesn’t chug so much makes me salivate. But part of me wants to see them try something… new? Natsu no Sakari blew my mind by showing me how hot a 3D simulator with a very specific story framing can be so it’d be interesting to see them try that. Old Illusion games used to have secrets like the environmental storytelling in AI Shoujo, or the hidden lab in Artificial Girl.
However, it seems like Illgames wants to focus more on the “sandbox where you can indulge” approach and I respect that.
Real talk though, I would pay good money to know what happened that made Illusion fold and Illgames be born.
While killing time I saw that they added a mom to Bombergirl which would make that the second mom they’ve added this year (I’m assuming Dia was added this January, I refuse to double check) and that in turn made me think about Daburiel which was added to Mahjong Fight Girl recently.
While her design might not be my thing, I respect it so much. It might be obvious that in a game all about cute girls the plus-sized girl is given the same attention, care, and fetishizing that others like Pine get, I’m so tired of the weird play of extremes that media has.
A plus-sized girl is only seen in one of two contexts: As a very modest character shown in a very “diversity slot” way, or in feeder hyperexaggerated fanart. Now, I don’t need to say this but I’ll say it anyway: I love diversity and we don’t kickshame in this house (we jusr regular shame), but there’s a whole middle ground in between that’s rarely explored… in non-porn media that is.
The kind of thing where a thing is clearly made by someone still into girls with more meat around their bones without going to the extremes.
And here’s the thing, I’ve always been of thin complexion, and though admittedly genetics have compensated a little for that aesthetically as I’ve grown older, I ultimately think of myself as “thin” in my head which can be a complex sometimes. So whenever I see characters depicted as thin without being… you know, emanciated, that always makes me happy. And I can imagine how a sexy anime girl that’s clearly meant to be on the thicker side without going into morbid territory but also not being “the normal design but with a bit of belly” can mean a lot for others.
Anyway, I had Japanese lesson today and there were no problems, there, but on the way back it ocurred to me to try opening a Rakuten bank account in hopes of solving all the shenanigans with the cards.
The main concern I have right now is that I’m blocked out of Paypal and that’s how I send money to my family.
I have this gut feeling that either everything is gonna bounce out for one reason or another (including how close my visa is to needing renewal) OR everything is gonna be solved at the same time and this was just a very convoluted way for the world to make me do something I probably should’ve done a while back.
By the way, the title of today is because an account I follow that posts anime openings (specifically ones made in 8cm CDs) posted the one for Orphen, which I completely forgot is called in full “Sorcerous Stabber Orphen” and how silly that name is while being so fucking cool.
So if you’re gonna make a title it’s a safer bet to err on the side of calling it shit like Storm Arsonist Gehenna.