Would you have guessed that the random person asking you silly questions would be someone you're still talking to now? :p
I wouldn't really have expected it, but I'm glad things have worked out this way! Both for the sake of getting me more engaged with using this site and posting and because I've really valued our friendship. Take those opportunities and put yourself out there and you'll be rewarded with the stuff you'd otherwise miss, right?
What is your favorite Kessoku Band song?
Kessoku Band has such great music and I'm glad we've made a tradition of playing them every week. My favourites are either
Wasurete Yaranai, which immediately stuck out to me due to its lyrics and general energy, or
Seiza ni Naretara which both makes me feel comfy and cheers me up, and listened to on repeat for a day or two. So what I'm really saying is I really love the culture festival performance.
If you could form a mixed group of 9 Love Live idols, who would you pick from the whole series?
Fun question! They've done things like mixing different groups together for sub-units in groups of 3 or 5, but I can't say I remember a full group of 9 ever happening? Assuming it's just for one song I'd likely pick my favourites or those with voices I like. I imagine it'd end up going for a really cool vibe, something like Guilty Kiss, BiBi, or DiverDiva so it'd look a little something like Dia, Yoshiko, Setsuna, Karin, Maki, Riko, You, Eli, and honestly? Hanamaru.
But if we're talking a full season of anime filled with character interactions, I think I'd mix things up a lot more to get more girls from different groups interacting, because Love Live has such fun dynamics between its characters. Hard to give an exact answer to that one, but it'd include things like Chika and Honoka being able to interact, Ruby and Hanayo, Hanamaru and Rin, Dia and Eli, that sort of thing.
What got you into the LL series?
Long story short, I got into Bandori somewhere around late 2018, and I wanted to use my interest in that game as a jumping-off point to meet new people and form a new group of friends. I went to Instagram, and most of the time if people were into Bandori they were also into Love Live, and it was something I got to hear more about. By Summer 2019 my boyfriend and I started dating, and he introduced me to Love Live, and we watched SIP and Sunshine together. I have a ton of fond memories of what was happening with Love Live around that time. Things like the Sunshine movie, Mitaiken Horizon, and Love Live's 9th anniversary were happening around then, so I consider all of those things to be what got me into the series and made me interested and excited in it. Mitaiken Horizon is especially important to me.
I had a point where my interest in it sorta... maybe "died off" isn't the right way to put it, but the way the series was going forward made it difficult to keep up and I lost a lot of interest. When that happened, trying to play SIFAS daily and really sticking with it and remembering what I love about the game was really important to me, as it got me excited to be a Love Live fan again and rekindled a lot of that lost flame.
I assume we're talking like, drawing and painting and that sort of stuff, right? I did a little bit of it when I was a kid, but had a couple artist friends and always thought they were way better than me. I ended up losing interest and got more interested in writing (which took me years to figure out really how I want to write and what I enjoy about it) but it meant that I wasn't practicing drawing anymore, and I felt like I became a lot less skilled because of that. I have a sketch book but whenever I use it it's either to draft something like a logo or draw a cute symbol or to help me visualize what I'm thinking and put it on paper, rather than make art of a character I like or something.
I have a lot of respect for really good fan artists, half the time I think they're the ones keeping fandoms or love for a character alive. It's easy for me to get jealous and think "artists can create something quicker than I can that people can enjoy easier and more than my blog articles", but honestly, that's a personal issue, and there are a good handful of artists I would lay down my life for the support they've given the characters (or especially ships) that I love.
What's your favorite mega man theme?
I hope you people realize how hard of a question my favourite music from a video game is to answer!!
There's such good music in the entire series, but being a classic fan, 9 is not only my favourite game but has my favourite soundtrack
(when it's not recycling songs from 2 that is) but
We're the Robots is a total classic. Other favourites include
Hornet Dance,
Galaxy Fantasy,
Magma Burning, and
Thunder Tornado. In terms of other game, I really enjoy
Charge's theme from MM5, I absolutely love
Cyber Maze Core from MMX5, and both
Straight Ahead and
Falling Down from MMZ4.
Picking an absolute favourite is tough between We're the Robots, Cyber Maze Core, and Straight Ahead.
What's your opinion of Dawntrail?
I'll avoid spoilers since things are still pretty new. The short answer is that I thought it was great, but that it doesn't beat Shadowbringers or Endwalker.
Dawntrail is great but the first half or so
really depends on if you like the worldbuilding of FFXIV and if you like Wuk Lamat as a character. Dawntrail didn't have enough content in its patch content leading up to it like Shadowbringers and Endwalker did, so it has to spend more time in the expansion itself fleshing out Tural and explaining what it is and what we're doing here. It can feel boring up until 97 if you aren't interested in the worldbuilding or the plot about the rite of succession, and I understand and agree with people's opinions that your character should have a more active role instead of Wuk Lamat being the absolute focus. Everything past 97 however, reminded me of exactly what I love about FFXIV's storytelling, and what happened in the story from that point really made an impression on me.
That being said, Dawntrail has absolutely fantastic worldbuilding and has the best music of any expansion. If that's the thing someone cares about, Dawntrail would likely be their favourite expansion because it's clear that's what the highlight about this expansion is. I also really enjoyed the themes of what it means to be family and how it's better to understand people's differences to solve their problems.
However, the last area genuinely feels like it was designed to emotionally hurt me, and while I really respect what they went for and think it's well made, I personally find it hard to enjoy it because of that.
good, get your butt back in here