#榧野ジョン

[mayimkjs]

FOOL's MATE Master Post

What is "FOOL's MATE"?

FOOL's MATE will be a documentary about Kayano Mikoto from MILGRAM. The goal of FOOL's MATE is to discus all of the theories and dive into all of the aspects of his character.

MILGRAM (ミルグラム) is an ongoing interactive music project by DECO*27 and Takuya Yamanaka that was first established in April 2020. MILGRAM is a mysterious, magical prison that houses 10 prisoners who have all committed a murder and it’s the job the guard to determine if their crimes are forgivable. Mikoto, the 9th prisoner, has Dissociative Identity Disorder. This means that he has multiple personalities/identities called “Alters”. Because of this, he has the most complex and confusing story out of all the prisoners. No one knows who truly committed "his" murder.

Why am I doing this?

I'm currently getting my Bachelor's in Digital Media Production and in a few terms, I'll be having a documentary class. I thought I'd get a head start on pre-production. I'm also making this as something for my portfolio.

Notes

The research document is sorta like a jumping off point for multiple other things like the script and a shot list. Because I'm basing my script off of this, it's sorta wordy and there are some jokes (one's an inside joke).

So far in terms of filming, I'm planning on having a scene where I go to an actual psychic to get their opinion on Mikoto's tarot reading in MeMe. There will also be a continuous scene that's going to be sorta inspired by Mystery Files, so me presenting this shit to my friends like an insane person. 

Disclaimers

I do not claim to be a mental health professional by any means. This documentary is being made for entertainment purposes only. If I get anything wrong, please correct me.

I do not condone the harassment of any involved party due to the contents of this project.

The content in this documentary are suppose to have a neutral view point and based on fact and common theories unless stated otherwise.

School Dates

These are so people know sorta where I am and how close I am to my docu class. Don't worry, these are vague enough that I won't get doxed.

Current: Fall, Term 9

Docu Pre-Pro: Fall, Term 9

Docu: Winter, Term 10

Tags

Research - #fools mate research

Behind the Scenes - #fools mate bts

Update Posts - #fools mate update

Polls - #fools mate poll

Asks - #fools mate asks

Storyboards - #fools mate boards

Promo Videos - #fools mate pv

Misc - #fools mate extras

Forms

Feedback

Commissions

Volunteering

Links

FAQ

Linktree

Milanote

Latest Tumblr Update

Latest Reddit Update

Latest Research Doc

This post will be updated as time goes on

[mayimkjs]

FOOL's MATE Update Post #5

Master Post　　Last Update

School Date: Fall, Term 9, Week 1

Haven't done much this month. Mainly just house keeping stuff. Most of the changes to the research doc have been made in the past week because I wanted to have this update out on the 6th.

Obligatory happy birthday to our favorite mentally ill twink. I'll be adding today's timeline to all of the documents that it needs later today. So It wont be in today's research compile. I'll give a little bit of what I think here though. I find it interesting that it's John who's in it and that he's still playing the monster act. I'll make a full post about it soon.

I was also watching Akidearest's newest video which reminded me that I should probably define what Japan counts as murder. So I wrote up a quick slide that takes what she read off of an article about if writing in the Death Note counts as murder. I'll expand it using other and more appropriate sources soon. I just want to have that slide and those ideas down so I don't forget about it.

Pre-Pro Mode

I have officially started my Pre-Production class. I'll be posting work that I do for that class whenever I have it done. The main assignments for the class, in order of due date, are the project proposal, budget, scripts and storyboards. I have the class Tuesdays, so these posts will likely be on Tuesdays.

Prototype Intro

Here's the finalized prototype intro. There isn't any audio in this version. There was audio in the version I turned into my teacher. I would have had to cut some things out and the timeline got messed up somehow, so I just rendered a different comp that contains everything that I wanted to render.

Promo Video

I've started to make the first promo video. I wanted to have it ready for Mikoto's birthday, but that's obviously not happening. So now my goal is to have this done for Double's anniversary. Here's the storyboard.

Changes

Added

How did he not get caught

General Music Info

What in Japan counts as murder?

English Covers

Finished

Vocal styles

Expanded

Birthstones

The Role of Jackalopes in MILGRAM

Links

Mikoto’s & John’s Speech Patterns

Moved

The Kayano System in a Musical Context under Mikoto’s & John’s Speech Patterns

Links

Research Doc (Comments on like always)

Milanote

Reddit Post

Feedback Form

Commission Form

Volunteer Form

[mayimkjs]

FOOL's MATE Update Post #2

Master Post　　Last Update

Before I start this post, I would like to bring up something that I saw on the cancer that it Twitter. DO NOT HARASS THE STAFF OVER THE T2 SUMMERY AND T3 COMMENCEMENT. Sucks that that needs to be said.

People Suck Man + Delays

I was planning on filming the interview and I emailed probably about 50 people. Not a single positive response. At least this got me to buy a small light kit.

I was also planning on listening to a Jekyll & Hyde audio book while on a plane and work on that section of the doc. My volume was at 100% and it was too quiet. So that's been delayed.

I Made an Anonymous Feedback Form

Made this so that people who don't wanna publicly give feedback for whatever reason feel comfortable doing so. However, if ANYONE abuses this, I will have to enable email collection. You can't see others responses, so you will still be anonymous. The email collection would just be in case I have to block someone.

https://forms.gle/Wv5S5744asszjmGf7

Finally got to do Audio Related Things

I can't really do that stuff at school because there is constant noise. So since I've been home, I was able to do this stuff. I didn't get through it all so I'll try to do Double if I don't have noisy neighbors this year.

Poster Update

I held a poll over a month ago to decide between 4 drafts for the poster/key art/thumbnail. Option 3 won so here's the sketch of John. I haven't been actively working on this and mainly have been working on this when I want to draw. If you have any critiques, feel free to share.

Illustrations and Assets

So, Adobe fucked up Photoshop a few months ago and recently Illustrator. So I've had to downgrade to Photoshop 25.4 which was released in January so I can use it for more then 1 minute. Then Illustrator was just really fucking laggy. Other from that, I'm about half way done with vector graphics. I still have to go through a bunch of pictures and get rid of the backgrounds.

I also decided to try to make some 3D graphics so I've finally decided to learn Blender. Me and a friend are also probably going to work together to make a prop since he has a 3D printer. I also bought Paintstorm Studio which is more of a digital painting software then drawing, but I've found that it's really good for design. I just wish I bought it during 2020 when it was $10.

I've also been working on adding image credits to the research doc. There are a bunch of images that I don't know who made them. I have a list on the beginning of the doc if you want to help with that.

Since I'm expanding on the DID section, I would like to make a request.

Since I've seen some systems floating around here, can you fact check me? I really DO NOT want to get important information wrong. I don't think I've gotten much wrong if at all, but I just wanna be 100% sure.

Changes

Expanded

Foils

DID Terms

Extra info here & there

Modified

Prisoner Genres

Got rid of “(Tentative)” on title page

Moved

Theories about who Es is into Ch8 

“The Kayano System and Es are more connected than we think.” into “MILGRAM Theories” 

Added

Special Thanks

More theories 

Images

Other

Cleaned slides

Links

Research Doc (Comments on like always)

Milanote

Reddit Post

[mayimkjs]

FOOL's MATE FAQ

More questions will be added as they come up.

Master Post

Q: Why do we talk about his relationships with the others? 

A: The relationships amongst the prisoners can affect each other. For example, if one person does not like someone else, there might be a major conflict. 

Q: Are you going to talk about the other prisoners in detail?

A: Only if they become relevant.

Q: Do you know Japanese?

A: Sort of. I’m not that good at it but I can do very simple translations.

Q: What about the novel, manga, covers or Minigram? Are you going to cover those?

A: I won’t be going into them in much detail. The covers were confirmed to be non-cannon some time between the release of Umbilical and Bring it On. Minigram is a spin off, even if there are some chapters based on timeline convos. 

Q: Where/when will the be released? Will it be free?

A: The current plan is to release this on YouTube in Spring/Early Summer 2025 for free.

Q: Will there be any merch available?

A: I’m planning on making a permanent poster and t-shirts, likely with Forthwall. I am also hoping on making a limited edition DVD with some extra merch after the initial public release.

Q: Can you legally do this?

A: Yes. This falls under fair use as parody/critique. 

Q: Isn't Mikoto a negative stereotype?

A: Not necessarily. He's a positive spin on a negative stereotype. There's a lot of depth and detail put into Mikoto and John as characters. Their story isn't just "oooo, evil murder alter".

[mayimkjs]

FOOL's MATE Update Post #4

Master Post　　Last Update

School Date: Summer, Term 8, Week 9

Honestly, not much has happened this month. I've just been busy with PT. On the bright side, I might finally get tested for POTS.

But anyways, This next month is going to be another strange month. I have finals, I'm trying to work on a joke cover of Double for my MV class and I'm going to Florida for an early 21st birthday present. I mainly wanna go to Florida for SPACE. Sadly, I'm probably going to miss the launch at Kennedy.

About the Double cover, I might post some WIP or BTS of it here. The reason why it's a joke cover is because I'm mainly using Meika Mikoto for it. Hime's going to be in there somewhere too. I bought their V5 and talk just for this lamo.

Milanote & Research

I've finally started to finish some things in Milanote that have been unfinished for months. My research is also significantly slowing down which is a good thing. I means that I've looked at almost everything. There's still a few small things here and there that I have to do, but I'm saving most of that for my early birthday vacation so I'm not board out of my mind on the plane.

Also, I decided to look into playing cards in tarot because a diamond shows up in Double. And I might have found something.

Logo

I've made a prototype logo! I made a post about looking for input a bit ago but I also wanna mention the logo here too.

Input Form　Input Post

Here's an older version of the logo.

Prototype Intro

This was for my Motion Graphics 3 class. This is my most recent export and you can tell there's things missing. The string needs to be replaced, I need to add the glass, I have to find a font to replace the one I was going to use since it doesn't work in Illustrator and the entire title sequence is missing. I might mess with some effects like the noise. The glitches need to be fixed as well. Also, that rectangle isn't suppose to be there. I know what it's from though. So it'll be easy to fix that. There's also some issues with the lighting.

Props & The Script Books

I finally found out why the keyframe goods have been delayed. The shipping date changed to late August, then because of typhoon season, it was delayed some more. Also, since I wanna include some props that aren't exactly MILGRAM related but related to the people who work on it, I found out I actually have like, 3-5 mangas/books that, in the anime adaptation of them, Hanae Natsuki voices a main character lamo. And since I'm not strictly sticking to MILGRAM props, I'm using this as an excuse to buy the CD of Transform.

Technically, I bought the Script Books for a prop and research. I bought them to add to the section about Mikoto and John's speech habits.

Other Shit

Finished the FOOL's MATE page on my site.

I'm also starting to plan the first promo video.

I'm finally going to finish going through all of the voice dramas next Friday since I have a 3 1/2 hour flight.

Changes

Added

T2 Summary clarification from Yamanaka

Playing cards in tarot

CMYK/HLS meanings

Birthstones

Edited

DID Info

Expanded

Foils

Links

Research Doc (Comments on like always)

Milanote

Reddit Post

Feedback Form

Commission Form

Volunteer Form

[mayimkjs]

Should I mention John's Minigram appearances in FOOL's MATE?

I'm on the fence about it. Technically, Minigram is, at most, level 2 canon as it's a comedy spin off that takes place during T1. I've put together the slides with basic info for now.

[mayimkjs]

Working on some FOOL's MATE poster drafts.

I'm not sure which one to pick so I'm polling it. I got lazy and didn't do sketches for all of them.

[mayimkjs]

FOOL's MATE Update Post #3

Master Post　　Last Update

This has been a productive month production wise. I've also decided to add a school date to these posts so people know sorta where I am and how close I am to my docu class. Don't worry, these are vague enough that I won't get doxed. The master post has been updated to include this info.

School Date: Summer, Term 8, Week 5

The T2 Summery and Kazui's Birthday

I wouldn't say the T2 summery caused problems, but it caused a lot of work. I ended up looking more into the novel because of the end. I also shot up like, 15 slides the day it came out.

So, Kazui's birthday timeline was a thing. It's honestly sorta cute, but MIKOTO ADMITTED TO HAVING ISSUES! And he's finally talking to people. So that convo is now everywhere it needs to be. I'll probably have a separate post about that convo honestly.

Props & Shipping Frustrations

So Prime Day happened. I was able to get a lot of small props that will be placed around the set that represent the other prisoners. I'm currently waiting on the keyframe desk mat and keyframe MeMe poster. The Double pin set and the Double EP acrylic stand somehow shipped before them. MILGRAM CF was sorts a pain because the carrier changed at some point and I had no idea until it was already in Mass. Then I had to wait like, 2 weeks to open it because I had it shipped to my house, not school. Luckily I have PT almost every other week so I have to go home often.

Also, since I already had her, I decided a while ago to include my copy of Miku V2 in the set. That then evolved to including all of he VOCALOIDs that DECO's used except maybe galaco. I might eventually get galaco V6. I want to get the MEIKAs first cus I want to include them in the set because one of them is named Mikoto. I recently found a copy of Megpoid - Native, which I promptly snagged up. I was originally going to use one of her V3s cus I had all of them except her Native. Even though he's only used Luka and galaco once, I'm still including them.

Side note: If your interested, I'll be holding a V3 giveaway if the serial isn't dead because my new GUMI is in a starter pack and I already have 2 copies of the base V3 editor. > https://x.com/ametra_voca

The script books were sorta a headache because of the misprint. I decided to use From Japan to order them not knowing that Buyee allows you to request items from shops that they don't have listed on their massive list if you email them I believe. So I had to go back and forth with support, which was fairly easy but support them self's were a little confusing. Then when the replacement arrived at the warehouse, I was not notified and only learned that they had it by looking at my profile. They also reset the holding time so I didn't have to worry about them throwing away the books which was nice. So those have shipped and should be here this or next week.

The Intro & Music

I'm currently taking Motion Graphics 3 and our project for this class is to make a show intro. So I'll be making a prototype intro for FOOL's MATE. I'm also taking MIDI which is a 5 week class instead of the normal 10. So I'll also be using what I make in that class and improving it to use as parts of the soundtrack. In total, I've made 4 or 5 short loops that I'm planning on improving in probably Cubase. I'll probably upload them to Audiomack once they're done. I want to get used to using Cubase so I can use it and Studio One in tandem. Also Cubase is just more common then Studio Once in the west and knowing how to use it will make my life easier. I also made a track list and have started to gather royalty free music I can use. If you have any ideas for track names, please share!

Filming

The tarot interview is on hold for the time being. I'm probably going to rework the email and guest brief. But I just need a break from all that bull. I "scripted" out all of the timeline convos. I pretty much just threw them into Celtx and mostly formatted them correctly for a script. Each convo has the date at the top, character's name, sprite info and dialogue. I also finally made the set layout.

HQ Version of the Set Layout

I'm Looking to Start Getting Other People More Involved

This means volunteer and commission work. I am looking for some proof readers for the research doc to check spelling, grammar and make sure that things make sense and are correct. If you're interested in that, just DM me or fill out this form.

I'm also looking for artists to commission. See this post for more details. If your interested in helping with the music, you can reach out in the same means as the art commissions.

Storyboarding

Decided to do some storyboarding both on my own, and because I needed one for the MGFX project I talked about earlier.

Little know fact (I think), storyboarding isn't just for animation. They are used in every aspect of film/TV. And web development too I guess. So I've started making storyboards for the scripted scenes of FOOL's MATE.

Intro

So the start of the intro will be an IRL bit. This plays out right before the opening.

Then it will go into a very condensed version of the credits that will only contain production, story, character design, music and creation credits. This'll be sorta true crime inspired.

Full Intro Style Guide

Timeline

For the timeline, the layout and habits of the assets are going to be similar to the VD translation videos that people make. So I went through all of the convos I'll be using and made a list of what sprites I need. I'm thinking of commissioning my childhood best friend, LJ, to do the sprites. Her art's improved a lot since I've last seen it and I also just wanna reconnect with her and this is an excuse to do so.

Timeline Script　　Timeline Storyboard

Needed context for "microwave". I had no idea what to name it. I image that he's viciously vibrating here and the only thing that came to mind was "microwave".

Changes

Added

Last/Next Section Navigation

Info from the T2 Summary 

Sub-sections to MILGRAM Theories

Links Page

8/5/24 Timeline Info

Reformatted

“Table of Contents” 

“Precursor”

“Who are the people behind this?”

“Color Scheme Meanings”

Moved

Mikoto Knew That Something was Wrong > Mikoto Theories

The Kayano System and Es are more connected than we think. > Mikoto Theories

Jackalopes in Folklore > Who is Jackalope

The Origin of the Modern Jackalope > Who is Jackalope

Credits & Sources to its own document

Other

Removed “Personal Theories”

Relinked navs to “Table of Contents” 

Removed unneeded drop shadows

Reorganized beginning

Links

Research Doc (Comments on like always)

Milanote

Reddit Post

Feedback Form

Commission Form

[mayimkjs]

FOOL's MATE Update Post #1

Master Post 

The Continued Prop Hunt

I’m expecting many “set parts” and “props” to arrive this month. I’ve also been working towards getting keychains off all of the characters. So far I have 5 out of 12. I’m currently waiting on the Confidential Files goods, the Script Books (which I need for other things), Double goods, Canvas/Lanyard Badge and the Keyframe Desk Mat/Poster. If you're curious about what I have, here’s my MFC list. I also completely destroyed the jewel case for my copy of Double while unpacking. Luckily that was the only thing that got damaged so I ordered a replacement case and it came in earlier today.

Filming is Starting Soon (For One Thing)

Since I’m home for the summer, a friend of mine has offered to help film a scene where I go interview a psychic about the tarot spreads in MeMe. I’m starting to email people, so if you have any recommendations in the Salem MA area, feel free to share!

Other Things

I haven’t been able to work much on assets because I haven’t been able to set up my computer. So I’ve just been using the iPad I bought a few days ago like a laptop so I can have things up on my actual laptop while I work. 

Changes

Added 

Gifs

A new chapter

The Mikoto/Kotoko Foil

Twokoto variations of Trikoto slides

Teaser-Trailer Lines

More MV details

Deep Cover’s Similarities with MeMe and Double

Mikoto’s Association with Femininity

List of Mikoto’s Split Expressions

Everyone is Going to Break Out at the End

On-slide image credits

Moved

Theatrical Depictions vs Representations

Expanded

Mikoto was Being Stalked

DID terms

MV dissections for MeMe and Double

Formatting / Sorting

Sources 

Foils 

Links

Research Doc (Comments on like always)

Milanote

Reddit Post