Retrospring is shutting down on 1st March, 2025 Read more
512
has haven dethrone mirai as ur fav song or is mirai still holding hands with kashika
Are you gonna buy the movie code since the akitoya cards are so cool (and i lowkey want the code too…)
Do you have any idea why in the official media the rainbow is shown? Like in the 2dmvs or in the special worldlink cards. I can't recall that something happened in the event so that rainbow could be associated with vbs. Is that all because they're just suspiciously gay? 😭
hi im losing my mind i'm in need of a vbs professional's opinion
do you think vbs' writing really has gotten worse like some people keep saying? i mean the general plot of their whole unit always felt a little rough to me when it comes to pacing, but i don't think their character writing has downgraded at all?? sorry if that makes no sense lol its rough out here
sure i can give my thoughts but it might get long. i don’t think vbs writing has been destroyed like a lot of people say but i do have my gripes with a few things
for what it’s worth i’ve been playing since june 2021 so i started when we just had mainsto, lyrics, nocturne and sbd. this probably colors some of my opinions. i guess i’ll try to hit some of the major complaints i’ve seen
1) i love lutf and i think an’s grief was handled well. i think most people who disagree are either non-vbs oshis who tuned in just for lutf or. idk. people who projected too hard maybe. <— that’s kind of mean but i feel like it happens a lot in this fandom, where people expect a character to act one way because of their own experiences, and get upset when it doesn’t line up. i felt to me it was pretty evident an just didn’t get over it in one event—she’s still holding nagi in her heart for a very long time afterward (lutf ss, oyf, world link, culminating with visiting her grave for the very first time in ors) and i thought the way they handled it fit her character just fine as someone who doesn’t wallow, who tries putting the difficult things out of mind so she can keep moving forward, etc. it was very an to me and i liked it.
on the note of lutf i know some people think akito acted ooc? which always confused me because i thought he was just fine. in fact i wrote a thread about it here when this conversation first started going around post lutf and i pretty much stand by what i said. it was perfectly in line for akito to do what he did even if it wasn’t “the right thing,” because akito’s kindness doesn’t take that form. i also thought taiga’s actions were decently justified even if it’s a bit silly for him to be picking a fight with teenagers because That was his sister. That’s 30+ years of memories and her dying swan song. I would also freak it if some little kids showed up talking smack. also jiena akina and itoken seem to love the story arc with lutf too lol they’ve talked about it a few times in interviews
as for that what else. people hated their training arc too right? i dunno i personally loved it because i could tell by the second event in it (concerto) that it was meant to parallel their first focuses, something that ORS would later confirm, and i thought that fucking rocked. the task format was also incredibly easy to figure out imo, since it was ken-san targetting what he saw as their biggest weaknesses and prompting them to overcome them in order to surpass RW. akito’s stoicism, touya’s lack of pride, an’s Moyamoya feelings, kohane’s ego… it’s all there. ummm i think people also didn’t like ken-san in concerto but that didn’t even occur to me? he had no way of knowing touya would have reacted the way he did and he’s very clearly not the kind of character to do that sort of thing maliciously. the only time i’d think he was really pushing anyone too far was kohane in ORS and her 12-man relay but that was at least over Months. which like whatever ORS is its own thing. timeskip things were also weird during the training arc with them all entirely taking place in flashbacks but once you realize bms + concerto + world link take place at the same time & wtwg + ors take place at the same time then it’s not that bad but i do wish they would have executed that better. that aside i have no notes on bms/concerto/wtwg i thought they were excellent ways to end the respective character’s arc. so yeah i wouldn’t agree that their character writing has gotten worse. in fact it’s only gotten better to me especially with touya5
as for over rad squad this is probably where the majority of my complaints lie… its a wonderfully executed event on the technical side but it’s like an underbaked cookie to me. so soggy and needed some extra time in the oven. imo they could have used an extra event or two in between to tie up some loose ends but i do like that it was kohane focus (though i would have preferred an). to begin with on the ORS complaints, re: “too rushed!” yeah i agree but not to the same extent. i don’t think RW could have been an endgame goal for vbs’s ENTIRE runtime in this game. if you were in the fandom pre-unity you remember how vbs were the laughing stock of the fandom because their plot had zero momentum. nothing was going on toward their goal and people wanted them to get it over with already. they took the longest out of any group to hit their arc ender by an extra 5 months, taking a full year and a half to even put their first event on. i know what it’s like to see vbs drag and i would much prefer the goal being hit sooner than whatever has been happening to wxs for the past year. because honestly and truly i don’t think vbs should be chasing the same goal for 8 real life years omg imagine if it was 2028 and they were still running in circles over it!!! so in that way i don’t really have a gripe with it being done already and them moving on to another goal, one that was set up in world link and makes sense with their “all people are welcome as long as they love music” theming that they’ve always had on vivid street. but yeah you just really gotta remember vbs were the only ones who hadn’t actually hit their first goal yet out of the units AND were notorious for dragging early on. in that sense i think the payoff was incredible, especially since the task events directly parallel the first focus events, which were character-driven instead of plot-driven.
i DO have a gripe with it being done in that slot though which was summer fes 2024. 1) fuckijg fes rates unit banner? seriously? i guess if it was any event to do that it would be the surpassing RW one 2) definitely felt like they wanted this plotline done with before 4th anni since that was their deadline with the world links. 3) ummmm yeah they could have used an extra event to cook it. arata is the biggest victim here since his arc gets nuked BUT another thing to keep in mind is that jp side of the fandom fucking HATES npcs with a burning passion and would rather they got zero screentime at all. read the comments on any jp upload of a vbs event. they call it “mobseka” which is pretty funny. so we got a lot for arasou already honestly (oyf flashback impressed me) and while i would’ve loved more i don’t think it was really on the table. but it is a shame that arata just gets shoehorned in at the end without any further development on his side. like where the fuck was he?? will we ever know…?? anyway that’s a shame but whatever. i do also hate the event name (RAD BLAST) that shit is so fucking corny and went against what they built up in lutf/oyf (painting over history in your own colors) in that i wish it had more of a specific vbs flavoring to it & their experiences instead of just. RAD for rad weekend/radder and BLAST because we’re gonna AIBOU BLAST you guys out of the water!!!!1 like just fuck off man that’s so dumb. it really dampens the event for me. also i thought it was so fucked that nobody from other units showed up… i guess it was that they didn’t want to take attention away from vbs at the time but they directly deconfirmed that anyone attended with an’s birthday afterward and the tenmas in touyamix so 😭😭😭😭😭 that’s so fucked and it could have really added to the vbs specific flavoring of it. it was my dream that they’d invite some friends to help them put on a performance only VBS could have done because of their bonds and their experiences and then RAD BLAST took a hammer to that. no power of friendship for me. and that does make me very very sad… and why i’m really not huge on ORS as the RW event. it’s also a hard watch because it’s incredibly thin in the front with really short chapters and then the later ones are 30min LOL but whatever. pacing issue. there was something else i wanted to say but i forgot? oh well.
one thing i really did love about ORS though is the ending where it’s revealed VBS are continuing the very same chain of inspiration that drove all of them by igniting a fire in the kids of vivid street and giving them something they want to surpass. i think that’s very sweet and what ive always wanted for them especially as an extension of nagi’s dream. to keep inspiring the younger generations to love singing, and those kids will grow up to battle with each other and sing and argue and sing some more… it’s really nice and i hope we get to see more of that chain going forward. rekindle pokes this a little more which i also appreciate.
on rekindle, i thought it was just fine. which is funny since i’m usually terribly obsessed with akito events and will pick them apart over and over but this one really didn’t do much for me…? the bar was pretty high unfortunately as the first unit event postRB and every akito oshi was hoping he’d explode and well we got a little bit of that. i did adore the akty sbd-callback interaction as a very subtle way of showing their relationship (touya has a kneejerk reaction but says he’ll wait for akito anyway and trust him) it’s nice. i also loved what KAITO said about stumbling across coincidences anywhere in the world and seeing what can spark you again, the same way akito just Happened to stumble across RW, because vbs is built on those fated encounters especially for their aibou pairs. if kohane took a different route to the CD shop, if ena remembered her shoes, etc… especially with what wl2 will be about (what-if scenarios) i think that’s a nice touch. the little white boys are kinda whatever but hey they’re the first new vbs npcs we’ve gotten since nagi in lsv 😭 so new blood is nice and they are honestly really funny foreigner whiteboys. they are somewhat convenient though. but they do manage to spark akito a little bit. importantly not all the way, i think at best they stopped him from smoldering completely. akito says something about this later at the end when they’re talking about going to america—he wants to go to Find something that can really spark him, because the da vinki twins taught him there’s all sorts of music he doesn’t know about in the world, crazy songs from people across the planet, and he wants to seek them out, even to the ends of the earth…!! and i think that’s cool. it lines up really neatly to touya’s long established “goal” of “i want to see sceneries i’ve never witnessed before with my own eyes, past the horizon of our dream” have new experiences etc etc. i enjoy that. akito got a bit of kindling here but he really needs something to properly ignite him. and he’s not the sort to mope around and drag everyone else down with his issues—he muses on this in his room because he wants to deal with the problem as soon as possible and he’s always been pretty funny about that. like OK How do i fix my brain so i can keep singing good. Tell me how so i can do it. FAST. exaggerating but yeah. also on the notion that he needs to break himself down completely between goals before he can build himself back up, i.e. he gave up everything he is in ORS (“god, buddha, whoever else, just this once, let me burn myself up until there’s nothing but ashes!” oops! did exactly that) ++ extreme listlessness after quitting soccer where i think it’s just a necessary part of how he shifts gears. putting his everything into a goal until he destroys himself completely, then slowly puts the pieces back together until something puts Fuel in his Tank. i jsut thought about that. but yes for better or worse akito is someone who doesn’t know how to stop and will always find a way to keep burning. i feel like i just started yapping about rekindle for far too long despite saying it didnt make me crazy. i liked it well enough i guess it was just 100% a setup event LOL. i do wish we had more of akito moping but i also recognize that’s not really his character either so. it’s alright. OH I JUST REMEMBERED with the white boys and their mysterious knowledge—weird but i thought it was a cool parallel to vbs & taiga themselves. i felt that same feeling of “what? what do they know about that dream? what do they know about how much it took to get there? how can they say they’re gonna surpass it just like that?” and then i realized OHHH. that’s the exact feeling taiga must have had toward vbs. and we’re the ones feeling it now. because vbs is so fucking cyclical it’s not even funny. (it’s funny i love it) so. cool to me! interested in seeing where that thread goes.
then time to take off—liked this one a lot. i’ll keep it brief because this is already running away from me but i seriously love the amount of aoyagifam lore we got. and remember what i said about vbs being ridiculously cyclical? yeah bringing touya to where his brother studies, learning that’s where his father ALSO studied, and being told that he strongly takes after him… the cycles!!! they continue!!!! it’s great!!!!! and i could yap about haven forever but it’s such a beautiful event that continues to tap on the core themes of “music is what connects us, even across genres and cultures, because we simply love it” and touya learning to reevaluate everything he knew, how he was subconsciously categorizing music into genres that couldn’t overlap, using violins and pianos not just for classical but jazz as well. awesome shit really. and wanting to learn more about his father too because he is so so forgiving. so freedompilled YEAH AMERICA LAND OF THE FREE 🦅🦅🦅 GET GAY MARRIED BEFORE THAT GETS OVERTURNED🦅🦅🦅 umm . Ywha❤️ good event! good burger times were had by all.
as an attempt at a conclusion—yes there have been times where i haven’t been fully satisfied with vbs’ pacing but to me character writing has always been and continues to be their strong suit. i can’t think of an event where i thought “no he wouldn’t do that” because vbs is excellent at making you recontextualize things or setting up callbacks years in advance. i have pretty strong faith in the writing team and the seiyuus who perform it. i’ll admit i’ve been less invested probably since …? wtwg? but that’s mostly because i love interpersonal conflict and vbs have been very medicated plot heavy. usually if i have an idea for something the writing team is able to execute it better (aside from ORS) so i don’t have much to complain about. my main hope is that they shift gears into an akty arc after the ankh one wrapped up with ORS and i do have a lot of thoughts regarding that paper trail… i dunno i’m pretty easy to please ultimately and i’ll be here with vbs for a long time no matter what they do. i’m excited about the america arc (arata kicked around in america for three years at the age of 16 after all???) and it’s a very good and tangible way to make progress on their “take over the world!” arc. i hope it’s like wxs ambassador arc (where they also went to america!) and they get stuck on an island next. joking. maybe?
umm this was extremely long i’m so sorry. if you have any follow up questions feel free to shoot them my way. and obligatory everyone is welcome to their own opinions these are just mine. please enjoy my extraordinarily long yapfest and stream haven ❤️ biglove vbs
I hear that apparently akito and Toya have some moments together in the project sekai movie and this makes me wish the movie comes out for global even faster or someone leak the movie already!
do you have any ethnicity hcs for the cast?
a while back someone asked u abt gender hcs and u mentioned the shinonomes are painfully (cis) gendered and That affects one's understanding of their family dynamic... can i get more info about that :O like any examples orrr what makes you say that!! i agree wholly but don't know how to explain it to others
i wrote up a whole thing and then the site refreshed… anyway i’ll try again even though it might be a bit more condensed
my thoughts largely center on how their parents treat them and subsequently how they grew up + their relationship with each other… ena is very prominently a doted-on firstborn daughter and impacted shinei’s life enough to make him question his existence as a father vs a painter. dedicated a painting to her. cared in his fucked up deadbeat dad way by trying to dissuade her from her dreams because he knew exactly how difficult it was and thought she wouldn’t be able to handle it.* shinonome mom looks after her too, recording clips of airi on tv to show ena in middle school as a way to cheer her up… the shinonome parents are far more heavily involved in her life and her story revolves around them much more in turn.
*akito ends up emulating this behavior with kohane in main story.
aaaaand then akito is there. it’s quite obvious he’s not nearly as connected to his family in fact id be surprised if they knew anything about what he’s currently up to and that probably is partially because of his position as a son. like ena would not be allowed to wander around vivid street at the ripe age of 12 (assuming there is this prevailing image of the street being dangerous—see kohane in nocturne, touya in general) he is essentially left to his own devices but has to step in between shinei and ena. in middle school he had to grow into this brotherly role very quickly, to the point that it seems like he’s the older brother (natsu mizuki ss1, iirc) if not simply the more responsible one, though there was a point in time that he nearly gave up on her—airi is the one who imparts that sense of responsibility onto him and sends him down this path. ALSO leads to his complex relationship with father figures (he hardly addresses his father like a proper son, and is much more attached to ken-san) and he’s extremely conscious of his masculinity/appearing strong.
it’s like. complex gender norms things from how they were raised and interact with each other… where more than anything i can’t really see their narratives staying intact if you flipped their genders because of how tied their characters are to it. and particularly with mizuki i don’t really think trans hcs for ena work either (though i’m not against them! but it wouldn’t really make sense with mizuki’s arc)
just kind of me yapping but hope this helps… lots of interesting gender things in the shinonome household. tenmas are like this too
HELLO ARTEMIS!! its been a while since ive dropped by here but i hope you've been having a good january so far!! much love :D
Touya feels like an unreliable narrator 90% of the time when talking about his past because when it's with other characters Harumichi is painted as this his famous father who was just a bit too strict with him. And when it's an inner monologue he's most of the time bringing himself down as well, and you can tell it clearly affected him. But then you turn around and you got him smiling while recalling how he almost fainted, got high fevers or tendinitis from playing piano. I think people don't talk about it enough and it drives me crazy when others use Touya's words to "redeem" Harumichi. While I do think Touya should heal and be the happiest guy on earth, I also think him painting the abuse as just "strictness" or something to be proud of because it gives him musical background is unhealthy. So when it's about Touya's backstory I like to read his thoughts and inner monologue but it definitely doesn't prepare me for the torturous flashbacks they're about to show right after. I was kind of hoping they'd tie this to Touya's brothers in Touya5 but from what I've heard I guess I'll have to wait and hope the writers don't ignore it...
taps chin. i agree that he’s an unreliable narrator (he has an incredibly skewed perception of himself and has to be constantly corrected by others, most prominently in “you really do love music touyakun and you didn’t run from it”) which largely stems from his massive feelings of guilt. and i also agree that its not the healthiest mindset he has but it’s also an incredibly realistic one? the way touya speaks about his past and his father, if people choose to use those words in bad faith that’s one thing, but fandom aside i believe this is his way of rationalizing his treatment alongside everything he had to go through—see main story flashbacks where his mother guilttrips him by saying he should be grateful since his father is taking time out of his schedule to practice —> touya early on internalizes this treatment as “for his own good,” and that he should meet those expectations.
of course this is unhealthy and concerto is entirely about him having a near meltdown because of it, but i don’t think it’s anything that can be held against him. he’s not “painting the abuse as just strictness” moreso than he’s just coping with the abuse he experienced, i think. it’s also not really in his character to outright say “my father abused me,” even though he’s fully aware that what he went through isn’t right. because ultimately he is still grateful for his father and his teachings despite everything. this is extremely common especially in family dynamics like these. it’s definitely going to be worked on as part of his character though
I think Toya 5 was an alright story. Yes, it would have a bit more good if maybe they went into more detail about certain things in the story or maybe not continued to not make a model for toyas brothers :( but overall it was just an alright event, in my opinion.
curious about what “certain things” you’d have rather seen? also i’m less bothered about touya’s brothers not having a model because 1) they don’t physically show up in the story at all 2) i have a crack theory regarding touya and his l2d situation so im more just waiting to see if they confirm that. that aside i liked it a lot i think my only real complaint is that shuji was waaaay more chill than i thought to the point of being plot convenience but oh well ill never complain about touya’s family being nice to him for once
On the tip of the tounge is so fucking good do you know of anything else like it....god
hello artemis i have a question/observation about akitos room bc i dont think ive seen anyone talk about this (probably missed it) and i just realized it myself but...
the whole time i thought the door on the right side of his room background (by his bed) is the door into his room from outside.....but its actually maybe a closet??...in his unfading wishing card you can see the same jacket and furniture and stuff from the same angle so....the room door is where the "camera" is located, if that makes sense....
the whole time i thought he kept all of his clothes in those shelves on the left side so now i cant tell if its some sort of continuity error, the door leads to a closet, it goes to a completely different room or i'm just stupid. please help me. hes your son just ask him for me im going insane.
yeah i definitely think that’s just a closet for his bedroom LOL if you check ena’s hers is built the same way with a closet on the same side + camera POV door. you can tell this last part from the blank canvas 4koma where akito peeks in through the door and sees her throwing something at her bed on the left, which matches up with the background.
as far as his clothes go he just prefers to hang them up/have them easily accessible because he’s a fashion guy and hates when clothes get wrinkled <— mysekai dialogue. hope this helps u from going insane
Toya's new focus card is insane. I need him to be a t3 popular character so I can read analysis on it from the moment it first got leaked... The way it's so different... The excessive presence of classical instruments while you can't find any on the other cards... The vibrant colors contrasting to the dark brows from the rest of the set... And those sketchy lines that really just make it somehow 10 times more appealing to me. What's the meaning behind that. Because while yes focus cards are usually Better than the rest of the set this is the first one where I wouldn't be able to tell it's the same set if I joined any later, like I think Ena2 comes close but even then Ena looked like a painting while the others had some relation with canvasses. Of course this is all very positive because I love card symbolism but I can't stop thinking about it.. I need a 3 pages long very detailed research analysis on This Guy
you got it man you can be the change you want to see in the world… no need to wait for others… if you truly want my two cents on the matter i do think it’s funny he absorbed all the swag from every other card in the set but i think jazz is an amazing theme for him because it’s based so heavily on feeling and improvisation compared to the strict rules of classical he was bound to before. while the event was also learning about how there’s so much he doesn’t know about his father/transcending the boundaries of genre to just have a shared love of music. and overall as his outfit name says… it’s freedom baby
Retrospring uses Markdown for formatting
*italic text*
for italic text
**bold text**
for bold text
[link](https://example.com)
for link