stardust_rifle | Entries tagged with enstars

i want to get off akira-sensei's wild ride

On Tumblr, one of my fandoms is having a meltdown because multiple named characters just died as a result of the viewers' actions. (including my favorite yes i am having A Time thank you for asking)

Also on Tumblr, another one of my fandoms is having a meltdown of similar proportions because an anime boy cut his hair.

God I love fandom.

Going to ramble about Raison d’Etre, one of my genuine favorite Ensemble Stars storylines. This will probably not make sense to anyone who’s not aggressively deep in the weeds of Enstars lore, because I refuse to provide the ten IRL years of context required to make this make sense because otherwise we’d be here all fucking day, okay? Okay.

I love melodrama. I love genderweirdoes and I love people who can’t admit their goddamn feelings. I know that everyone endlessly complains about how Climax Events have been focusing on nameless NPCs as opposed to the actual protagonists, but here I think it genuinely works, setting up Shu’s grandfather, a crossdresser who dreamed of “having a friend” who was them but a woman (appreciate the gender dysphoria, appreciate the plurality), having a pseudo-lesbian pseudo-romantic relationship with a young woman, and then when they have to go back and Get Married and Be A Respectable Young Japanese Man, they create a doll of this imaginary friend who is also themselves, and bury it as a parallel to Shu, a possible Shu Repressor Bad End, and it’s also not hard to see the relationship between Shu’s grandfather and the young woman/Shu’s landlady as ShuMika Bad End (or, one of their possible Bad Ends), but that’s not the message Raison d’Etre is about. As Shu says in Epilogue 3:

“Hey, Kagehira, let’s weave happy stories here just as they did. So we too can laugh. Let’s get along, for now and ever. That would be the greatest offering we could give to those who have come before us, wouldn’t it?”

That, combined with the wedding imagery of the song raison d’etre, makes this story, in my eyes, one about being proudly queer now, being proudly yourself now, making queer art now, spurred on by the memory of those who came before you who couldn’t be so out and proud. This message resonated with me when I read it and it’s resonating with me now, a trans person in the USA in 2025, when everything seems to be going to shit around me. Even as Enstars writing also seems to be going down the shitter, I’m glad that we got a story like Raison d’Etre even now.

if you’re curious, here’s a link to a fan TL!

Why the fuck did they translate the names of Shinobu’s frogs as “Momochi and Thunder?” Like you can go with the fanslation standard of “Peachy and Thunder”, or you can just transliterate the Japanese names as “Momocchi and Sandaa”? Like why are you not being consistent when if comes to what you localize and don’t!

Whenever people think about “the love was there but it wasn’t enough” I think most people think of, like, ships where the love wasn’t enough to save them from, like, death, but for me it’s always going to be ShuNazu.

The love was there. Shu loved Nazuna like a piece of art (the thing he loved most, that was the core of his identity) and wanted only the best things for him. Nazuna loved Shu like a partner, like someone who just wants to make the person they love and this thing they built together the best it could be, even if it meant Amigara Fault-ing his entire sense of self. Is that not love?

But it wasn’t enough. Love couldn’t save them from the outside forces that put pressure on their relationship *coughcough* EICHI. Love couldn’t save them from the intrinsic features of their personalities that drew them together- their shared devotion- causing Shu to hurt Nazuna despite having nothing but good intentions. Love couldn’t save Nazuna from finally hitting puberty, triggering Shu Itsuki’s Gender Neuroses extremely hard. Love couldn’t save their entire relationship from crashing and burning harder than the fucking Gavle Goat.

However, one of my favorite moments in Reminiscence*Marionette is in Epilogue 2, when Shu specifically runs away from Nazuna because he knows that if he sees him, he’ll hurl abuse at him, but he loves him so he doesn’t want to do that. (dbt skils babey!) That’s Shu Itsuki taking the first steps into regulating his behavior and becoming a better person. That’s the first step in character development.

Maybe the love was enough, after all.

Enstars is actually one of the only examples I can think of of a gacha game’s art getting less horny over time.

One of the things I find most interesting about Eden is how each one of them parallels a specific member of Trickstar in a sort of “mirror universe”/”twisted funhouse mirror” kind of way. Apologies if this is like, a commonly discussed topic, but I had to get my ideas on paper and I think it’s good to explicitly state these things down.

Firstly, Nagisa parallels Subaru. One of Subaru’s main flaws (at least according to the narrative) is his disconnection from other people. He can’t understand why people do things or why they’re not following his All Cheer All The Time policy, which causes conflict. But in the end, his disconnection from normal humanity is also what makes him such a great idol- disconnected from normal humanity, he can become a genius in ways that normal people just can’t. However, Subaru’s kindness and love for his friends keeps him “down to earth”.

Nagisa, then, is what happens when you take that aspect of Subaru’s character and explicitly interrogate it in-universe. If disconnection from humanity creates genius super-idol-Artistes (and this is a thread that runs through all of Enstars’ writing, from the Eccentrics to Subaru and Nagisa to Sora), then why not deliberately raise someone who’s disconnected from humanity to create this Genius-Super-Idol-Artiste? And then that’s how you get Nagisa. Nagisa is (at least before his character development) someone who finds it extremely difficult to function in society and relate to other people, to the point that he ends up hurting or confusing them. He doesn’t know how humans work to a much, much stronger degree than Subaru. While Subaru is mildly inhuman, Nagisa is an “omnipotent god”. Nagisa, then, at least in ! era, is Subaru Akehoshi’s worst traits on steroids.

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Are there any forums, social media groups, or online communities you frequent to discuss your fandom?

I sometimes hang out on the Enstars subreddit, but most of the time I'm just screaming into the void on Tumblr or Dreamwidth.

How would you describe the overall atmosphere and culture within the fan community?

*laughs uncertainly* It's a community that tends to skew rather young and dramatic, so there's some unpleasant drama, though I do think that the fandom has become less drama-prone over time as it's grown less niche. It's more interested in meta explaining character actions and symbolism than a lot of other fandoms I've been in, so I like that aspect of the fan community.

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Do you keep up with any official or fan-authored wikis or encyclopedias about your fandom?

I sometimes check the Enstars wiki (and i wish them a please please move off FANDOM already) but I wouldn't say I "keep up" with them.

Have there been any significant retcons or changes to the fandom that have sparked debate?

grinchsmirk.gif

Oh yes. The move from ! era to !! era did spark debate, and of course every time a character behaves in a way that is not perfectly in accordance with the morality of Twitterpeople, that sparks glorious debate. There's some Knights-related retcon courtesy of Kinosei that I think sparked a lot of debate, but I ignore the Knights stan part of the fandom so I don't really know the details.

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Have you ever won a quiz or competition based on your fandom knowledge?

Nope!

What are some of the iconic symbols, phrases, or artifacts related to your fandom?

"It's going to be Christmas soon, Keito." "So what, Eichi." AMAZING. Nui. Kogaball. Brand New Stars.

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Who is the creator or original author of the work your fandom is based on?

While Ensemble Stars is a corporate product and thus has many hands in the pie, Akira, the head scenario writer, is considered by most of the fandom to be sort of the "real daddy" of the franchise. This is probably not true, but alas. At least Enstars credits their writers.

Can you name a few lesser-known facts about your fandom that only true fans would know?

Okay!

> Hajime is quite physically strong. He once beat Keito in an arm-wrestling contest.

> Mao has seasonal allergies.

> Shu Itsuki is probably canonically gender dysphoric.

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Have you met any of your closest friends through this fandom?

Not really. I did have the IRL friend that was also an Enstarrie, but I feel we met more through proximity and less through the fandom itself.

Does your fandom affect the kind of events or vacations you plan?

Currently, I'm looking at what places in Japan are likely to have the greatest and cheapest selection of Enstars merch. So, yes.

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More questions!

Have your family and friends been supportive of your involvement in the fandom?

My mother is! (even if she is a filthy casual animanga fan who only consumes Shounen Jump adaptations and officially-localized BL). I remember when we were rummaging through the plushie bargain bin at this anime store and she held up a plush of Mikleo from Tales of Vesperia and said to me "Is this one of your Enstars boys?"

How does your fandom inspire you in your everyday life?

I guess it creatively inspires me to do things like meta and analysis, but I'm not the kind of person who takes a lot of life inspiration from fictional stuff.

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Okay, so I'm going to be answering five questions from this Questions To Ask A Fangirl page each day for Three Weeks for Dreamwidth (while I may not be a fangirl, I am some form of fancat, or perhaps an otaku? anyways,) I'm focusing on Ensemble Stars, which is a Japanese multimedia franchise, primarily based around the idol raising rhythm gacha game with kinetic novel elements of the same name, but it also includes anime, manga, stage plays, loads and loads of music, and a very melodramatic plot.

How did you first discover your fandom?

I was farting around on TvTropes, as you do, before I stumbled across the Ensemble Stars work page, which hooked me in immediately.

What was it about the fandom that initially captured your interest?

I can actually name three separate things! The first thing that hooked me, on the TvTropes page, was the immediate appeal of the art- the boys are very pretty and the art is very clean and shiny and has a very recognizable feel, which kept me reading and looking at the page. Then, while I was reading the tropes, I was like "holy shit this plot is insane", which prompted me to actually take a peek at the damn thing. And then, I read Reminiscence*Marionette, fell completely and utterly in love with this story of a dysfunctional found family packed full of doll motifs, an incredibly compelling depiction of an abusive autistic weirdo who is sympathetic at the same time he's a terrible person, a compelling depiction of an abuse victim who loves his abuser about the same amount he desperately needs to get out (and does, happily), and was completely and utterly obsessed.

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sorry babe, i can’t come over, i’m too busy thinking about shu itsuki’s genderqueer transfem lesbian grandpa

CW: CSA (the biggie), victim blaming (both internal and external), underage sexuality, fucked up kinks, absurd amounts of self-loathing

So this is basically my headcanon backstory for Mayoi, this might all get jossed by canon someday but *cracks knuckles* let’s get to it.

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i’ve said this before on my tumblr but i think mika gets off to the idea of being taxidermied. it combines his canon interest in guro with his basically canon dollification kink. shu can taxidermy him and he can be his perfect little specimen, like maintenance but a thousand times weirder.

shu's grandparent's backstory is like. insanely mcore. i would read this manga and cry over this manga and recommend it to everyone that i know. it's amazing.

me: *hyperventilating* they're wearing matching RINGS in each other's THEME COLORS and their outfits are one half bride dress one half groom suit and this is the first time their hands have TOUCHED in an mv and this is the first time they've ended an MV LOOKING at each other and they're beneath an arch and in the card previews shu is talkign about considering mika to be part of his family good god good god

me: *pointing a gun at me* pascal's yaoi wager. consider it.