#Also more appreciation to the work these animators and storyboard artists put on this- Entire sequences like this were discarded

[triple-pupil]

I Will cry over the dwarves wanting to give Snow a gift, for apparently no reason other than gratitude and love for her.

And deciding to make a bed for her to sleep on.

After a day, they were already prepared and enthusiastic for her to stay. Even Grumpy was putting a lot of work on it.

Someone hold me

[brucebocchi]

Ranking 2024 anime, Pt. 1: Movies, specials, and #43-41

hey, this post is also available on my ko-fi, so please check it out and consider tipping/donating as i do this for free and am currently between jobs. thanks!

Hey, y'all. Starting a little later than usual this year but I've been busy this time of year, not the least of which with The People's The Game Awards, which will be streaming here on Dec. 31!

But now it's time to promote the output that's entirely mine. I watched even more anime in 2024 than the prior year, somehow, and it's time to rank it. Because I was reviewing these series at the end of their respective seasons, I won't be going quite as in depth on the shows I'd already covered from January through September. There will be full reviews for the stuff I just watched in the Fall season, as well as this first section here, as part of the rankings.

As always, this is entirely a labor of love, so subscriptions and donations would be hugely appreciated, and I could really use them right now.

So first, let's start with:

Movies and Specials

Look Back

There weren’t many things I was looking forward to this year quite as much as this movie’s western release. Based on one of a trio of one-shots Tatsuki Fujimoto published during Chainsaw Man’s hiatus, Look Back is a short but potent story about art and manga, the highs and lows of the creative process, and the connection between two young artists putting their heads and hearts together.

The story follows Ayumu Fujino (definitely not an author self-insert), a fourth-grader who draws short comics for her school’s newspaper. She’s mortified when she’s asked to make space for another strip by an absentee student who turns out to be a much better artist than herself (again, definitely not a self-insert for a mangaka who has publicly described his self-consciousness about his artistic talents), and even after years of further studying and practicing, Fujino feels so completely outpaced by the other, Kyomoto (also not a self-insert), that she quits. At the end of the school year, though, Fujino is talked into dropping something off at Kyomoto’s house, where she learns that the latter was a huge fan of her work and was disappointed to learn that she’d quit, and they decide to team up and make manga together. The successful one-shots they publish throughout middle and high school eventually prompt a Shueisha editor to approach them for serialization, but a rift starts to form.

Look Back and by extension plenty of Fujimoto’s works can be hard to talk about because they say so much for themselves with only so many words. The manga is a brief but potent masterpiece, and the film adaptation by Kiyotaka Oshiyama (director of Flip Flappers and key animator with credits in Devilman Crybaby, Mob Psycho 100, and recent Miyazaki films) is very much the same in its own right. This adaptation retains much of the feel of Fujimoto’s art and perfectly delivers the emotional beats of the story, while adding some flair of its own. The amateurish 4-koma that define our young artists’ early careers are given a low-fidelity animatic treatment to match, while the real-life action is animated fluidly and realistically. Haruka Nakamura’s gorgeous score punctuates and elevates Look Back’s emotional highs and lows with delicate piano and lush strings that only draw you deeper into this beautiful story. There are even references to the mangaka’s other works peppered throughout the film. 

The most distinctive trait of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s manga is his expressive and creative use of paneling, often used to wordlessly display changes in expression or the passage of time in the same way a storyboarder would. Conceptually, this would translate well to film, and although Look Back is a phenomenal film in its own right and captures much of the feel of its source material, it’s not exactly the same. And honestly, that’s a good thing. If it’s worth recommending both works in equal measure, then both were successful, and that’s the case here. 

In a featurette that was shown after theatrical screenings, Oshiyama was very outspoken about infusing realism into the production, despite the story’s climax veering into magical realism. What he wanted wasn’t a realistic look or feel to the film itself, but in the production thereof: The leads are voiced in Japanese by complete newcomers (who do an incredible job) and plenty of the film’s line art, especially in its tearjerking denouement, can look intentionally unrefined. Oshiyama has made it clear that he wanted Look Back to come across as much like a handmade product as possible, specifically because it released into an age where the existence of generative AI is posed to threaten the livelihoods of entire creative industries. 

Even if I hadn’t seen the film, I’d have known just from his comments that Oshiyama understood the assignment. Look Back is a story about creativity and creation, warts and all, and what is so innately human about it: The parts of ourselves we put on the page or screen, which of our shortcomings we can improve on our own and which ones we overcome with the contributions of others, and the connections we make throughout. Tatsuki Fujimoto is a master mangaka, and this film is a perfect companion piece to a true work of art.

Watch this movie.

Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion

I’m not usually the type who includes older media in “best of the year” discussions, and certainly not media that’s nearly 30 years old, but The End of Evangelion is one of my favorite movies ever. Full stop. Regardless of how many times I’ve watched and rewatched it in my adult life, I leapt instantly at the opportunity to see it in its first American theatrical run so many years after its release.

Decades’ worth of ink has been spilled over this film and its meaning, themes and intentions. It is a prism through which no two people may see the same thing: Many have interpreted The End of Evangelion as an angry, hateful work by a creator who wanted nothing more than to spite his fans, and others have venerated it as a message of hope, that a better world is possible as long as you put the work in. I have too many other things to write about to do a proper dive into what this movie means, or more specifically what it means to me. I’ve put it here because the experience of seeing it in a packed theater was immensely satisfying.

To be surrounded by so many people while taking in something so important to me was exhilarating. The increasing laughter as more and more production tags flew across the screen in the first minute and a half felt like a community being established. Fortunately, that was most of the noise I’d heard. Not that I was expecting a “Komm, süsser Tod” singalong or anything, but I’m thankful that the audience was mostly quiet otherwise, because the change of venue from my usual viewing environs of a desk or couch was transformative and I would not have been happy if anything had distracted from that. 

There are too many iconic moments in The End of Evangelion to name, several of which you’ve probably seen even if you don’t know Evangelion that well, and they looked absurdly good on the big screen. Asuka’s fight against the Eva series remains some of the best action animation I’ve ever seen in my life, and it held up. The inception of Third Impact and all of the iconic images that came from that sequence were visually arresting, and I don’t say so lightly: I legitimately felt overwhelmed at several of these moments. Someone a seat or two over from me was stifling tears towards the end, and I don’t blame them one bit, crybaby that I am. But by the final scene on the beach, a scene whose coda in 3.0+1.0 never failed to reduce me to a blubbering mess, I couldn’t even process emotion anymore. Seeing something this familiar, this meaningful to me, in such an all-encompassing environment, shorted my brain for a second. I was stunned, eyes bugged and mouth agape, like something had touched my soul directly. And just like my first viewing of this film, part of me was forever changed.

The first time I’d seen The End of Evangelion did not come at a great time in my life, and if I’m being honest, I wasn’t doing too hot when I saw it in the theater this year either. But, in ways I’m not sure I can elaborate, I think they came at times when I needed them. Evangelion remains a major marketing machine some three decades after its debut, but sometimes it’s still just something you need to take in when you’re going through it. I’m glad I did. If you have a favorite anime film that manages to make its way back into theaters, I cannot emphasize enough how wonderful it feels to actually go and see it. I wish I’d done the same with the Gurren Lagann films when they came back. 

I just wish Gkids hadn’t used the Netflix subtitles. The first scene just doesn’t hit the same without “I’m so fucked up.”

One Piece Fan Letter

For all of the anime I’m covering at year’s end, I think the most important thing about my 2024 in anime and manga, after hemming and hawing about it for so long, is that this is the year I finally got into One Piece (the manga, not the anime). And just as I’d expected, it required a massive investment of my time, but it paid dividends and continues to do so as the story creeps ever closer to its eventual conclusion. 

The manga is phenomenal, but the anime would’ve been a much larger time sink, so I haven’t really bothered (the live action series is great though). I’ve watched a small handful of episodes and clips of the more important moments, and took in a bit of the anime’s current arc before it went on hiatus. It’s come a long way from how it looked 25 years ago and I’m genuinely impressed that a weekly anime can exhibit such a high budget and wealth of animation talent, but I don’t really have it in me to trudge my way back to the start of the Wano arc and watch nearly 200 episodes of just that.

What I did have time for, and only 24 minutes of it at that, was One Piece Fan Letter, an episode-length special loosely based on the Straw Hat Stories novel. Fan Letter takes place around the end of the timeskip as the Straw Hat crew make their reunion in Sabaody, but it doesn’t focus on the crew themselves; we instead spend our time with a handful of regular people living their lives on the archipelago. In a way, they’re a lot like us: they’re all fans of the Straw Hats, and each one has a favorite. A Marine goes against code and secretly looks up to Luffy for giving him the courage to save his brother’s life. A shopkeeper bemoans missing Brook’s last show as Soul King. Some rowdy Marines have a drunken powerscaling argument not unlike one you’d see on Twitter any given day. 

Front and center, though, is a young girl who looks up to Nami. She dresses like East Blue-era Nami, avoids wearing glasses in order to look like her, and even has the red hair to match. She’s managed to decode Luffy’s reunion message (in a comically roundabout way) and sets out to hand-deliver her message to Nami before the Thousand Sunny sets sail again, but she finds herself hampered by several distractions and obstacles, largely thanks to the Straw Hats and those in their orbit.

Fan Letter is a short but sweet story that mirrors our own fandom of the series and its characters in the lives of everyday people along the Grand Line. A huge part of what makes One Piece work as an ongoing saga is seeing how Luffy and the Straw Hats’ escapades and freedom fights materially benefit the people of each island they visit and, if necessary, liberate. And not that the series isn’t long enough, but something we often miss is how the crew’s efforts affect the people they don’t interact with on some level (Usopp does briefly help direct our protagonist here, but she never finds out it’s him). Fan Letter focuses more on the emotional impact the Straw Hats’ heroism leaves on the regular folk and even the Marines that are meant to oppose them.

Though creator Eiichiro Oda had no hand in Fan Letter, I think it focuses on one of his major aims in writing One Piece: For all its silliness, spectacle, and hype, it’s ultimately a story of people helping and improving one another’s lives en route to attaining their dreams, and it’s meant to inspire us to want to do the same. Fan Letter puts these intentions in stark relief by showing us not only how the Straw Hats have inspired people on and around Sabaody, but also those same people trying to return the favor in whatever small way they can. Those in lesser positions might write a letter or turn out for their favorite artist, while those in positions of power can literally save lives. If someone has made your life better in any meaningful way, you are always in a position to thank them or pay it forward.

As with just about everything attached to One Piece nowadays, Fan Letter looks phenomenal. Everything has a loose, kinetic quality befitting Luffy’s rubbery nature, and the breakneck composition and sequencing of shots makes every second of the short runtime count. If you’ve been on the fence about One Piece, it’s at least a quick curiosity that might pique your interest. To longtime fans, though, Fan Letter is an essential piece of the puzzle.

Spy x Family Code: White

After a certain point, I’m having trouble writing about any new Spy x Family entries because, like, it’s more Spy x Family. If you’re already here, you know what you’re going to get. There’s gonna be silly misunderstandings, Anya’s gonna be cute, Yor’s gonna do some sick action moves, and you’re gonna have a great time. 

Code: White is a self-contained film with an original story by creator Tatsuya Endo, so continuity isn’t a factor here if you’re worried about canon. The Forgers take a vacation to the alps to help Anya with a school project, Yor misinterprets Loid’s secretive nature as a sign that he’s cheating on her, and Anya unknowingly eats a bonbon containing a microfilm that would help turn the cold war hot. We get our cozy moments, our silly moments, and our fun action setpieces towards the end. Again, it’s more Spy x Family and that’s what you’re here for.

I know this sounds dismissive, but you already know what you’re getting into here. And I want to be clear that it’s still really good! It’s cute, it’s funny, it’s exciting, and everything and everyone looks and sounds great. There’s a sequence where Anya has to poop so badly she starts hallucinating. It’s great stuff. Essential viewing if you’re a fan.

And now, let's get on with:

Ranking Every New Anime I Watched in 2024

43. The Unwanted Undead Adventurer

I didn’t want to talk about this show when I reluctantly finished it nine months ago and I don’t want to talk about it now. Maybe not the worst anime I watched this year but certainly the dullest. Ugly, slow, and boring is no way to entice me into watching a second season. Pass.

42. Tales of Wedding Rings

This somehow ended up being the only show that I picked back up this year, including the ones I initially liked. I was pretty blunt about what I didn’t like about Tales of Wedding Rings back in March, from its waifu-of-the-week format to its formulaic wheel-spinning on the main romantic pairing to its hideous aesthetic and poor animation. It had already been confirmed for a second season and I’d had no interest in finishing the first.

But against my better judgment, I decided to take some time reading the manga around the time it came to an end later on in the year and ended up liking it a decent amount. The manga looks way better, for one thing, and all of the more interesting plot elements manage to intensify and coalesce. Between the standard isekai slay-the-demon-king plot, the “will they/won’t they” tension between the romantic leads, and yes, the overt horniness of everything else, the first season really was just table setting for a story that does in fact get more interesting and worth spending time with. So, armed with knowledge of the next story beats and a more open mind, I went back and dusted off the three episodes I’d dropped back in March.

And I still can’t stand this show.

Tales of Wedding Rings is still one of the ugliest anime I’ve ever seen in my life. The color palette is weirdly muted and everything is overlit and gauzy. Line art looks brittle and cheap. You could try to make the excuse that a show with so much nudity wasn’t going to earn a high production value, but that excuse falls flat when you remember that it aired alongside well-produced (if maybe questionable) uncensored series like Chained Soldier and Gushing Over Magical Girls. Like I said earlier this year, if you present me with full-on elf tits and still can’t make me care, you’ve failed. I didn’t watch Plus-Sized Elf for the exact same reason. I learned my lesson.

I really try not to judge the entirety of a show by how it looks, but my eyes can only take so much. I can only hope the second season looks better, lest I have to Ludovico myself into continuing with the series.

41. The Witch and the Beast

I was really looking forward to this one. The quasi-gothic/steampunk aesthetic is absolutely not my shit on paper but it looked awesome in execution… at first. After just two episodes, though, The Witch and the Beast looked like too ambitious and detailed a project for its animators to handle and it started looking cheap in record time. Character models were inconsistent to the point of being unrecognizable, animation was often stilted, and lighting and color palettes were dull. Didn’t help that the action died down for a good chunk of the season as well, leaving us with a show that was both ugly AND boring.

Nine months later and there’s still no word on a second season, and I can’t say I’m surprised. It didn’t seem to accrue much popularity, and I struggle to think what would’ve helped aside from the issues I just bitched about. There was a tease of more to come at the end, right on the heels of a massive lore dump that seemed to open up the world to a much larger scale. That could be interesting, but I don’t think I’d want to watch any more of The Witch and the Beast. Maybe I’ll bite the bullet and finally read the manga.

[fly-sky-high-bug-games]

A little self reminder

I just realized how snail is a very fitting sona after writing the text. XD

But I’d like to add on to this.

Don’t take this as a great example of what you should do. Please do things your own way and under pacing you think is right.

I’m just very very slow. I learned during the quarantine a bit more about myself. When something bad happens, it hits me days, weeks even months or years later. I don’t react momentarily. I don’t learn things that quickly (unless it’s manual labor, apparently). I don’t memorize things until few attempts and some way to connect the scene to it.

This unusual slow pace affected my growth. I didn’t experience things some people do as early teens until after my (late) 20ties. I didn’t experience bad people (or it flew over my head that I did because I would just not interact with people that put me off and not think of them any further). I wasn’t abused. I’ve grown in a healthy, loving family with no pressure other than social one such as school and adulthood, the norms of it all.

When ever I try to pace myself to things around me, I start to make even slower progress, surprisingly. Or rather, it’s a quick but not good progress.

I can’t grasp some social ideas such as picking sides and without taking the understanding of why someone does something bad the same way majority of people do and this is a genuine issue for me I’ll try to resolve in the future with a therapist. 

I don’t have high goals. I just want to do things I think I’m just okay doing. I don’t want to shoot for high if I’m improving. If I’m improving I don’t want to rush it. Same with learning.

Basically... I don’t mind being mediocre and if I progress further than that’s cool but this is just fine. 

I know the world doesn’t work that way. I’m adapting it to my own ways. But I’m also starting to draw the lines a little different from before. I am setting the kind of priorities that some perusing a legit career in art wouldn’t. Unfortunately, when asked, I have no clear idea of what I want to do with myself regarding putting myself out there. I don’t want to be famous, rich or make an amazing, creative breakthrough in history of art. I just want to do the kind of art I think I can pull the best out of this tiny flame of mine, earn enough for a living, maybe learn some new interest if I take them on and that’s it.

And then... there are small things that make me happy. Something about freelance work is that commissioners appreciate the effort and making a person smile for that day alone stands out to me better than satisfying the need of a group like in school or work environment. Or when I talk about ideas or interests and others pick up on that vibe and it’s nice. Something about simple creativity and small satisfactions.

I like the feeling of accomplishment when deciding to do something on my own, even if decisions are as simple as “I’m putting this set of milk products to look like a pyramid even if shoppers don’t care as long as it’s a valid expiration date printed on them”. Stuff like that in art too. Try this type of coloring? Scene? How someone does this or that part of the face or body? Lineart? Wanting to learn more about animation? Do a very weeby 4min storyboard animatic no one would care about even if it’s a final project for uni? Because I wanted to do it, I can push it through. Again, as my tiny candle flame, with time, taking it easy...

I’m happy for artists that can blaze it, they really should! Burn like a phoenix or a dragon if they want to! It’s just not for me, though. Selfish as it is and understanding the world just doesn’t work like that, I want to put my health and happiness as top priority. I’m tired of having anxiety over other people’s expectations, or rather, expectations I LEGIT THINK others have for me even it can turn out not to be the case... I will try satisfy them IF I can satisfy myself with my work first. Which doesn’t hold water much because I’m simple and tolerable lol, I can have myself be happy for a simple doodle of two characters just being happy and snugly together, despite the quality of it. (can you guess now why I’d like to try do storyboarding?)

I won’t say my decisions aren’t faulty or bad, though. Heck, I could be missing out on greatest things in my entire life, something one would regret about later (but most often I don’t find myself doing that). Even so, reaching them with the struggles I have no energy within me would just burn me out too quickly and too painfully to put any passion in...

Time passes, people and things change, how things work and adapt as well... it’s not a giant puzzle for me. It’s a walk through the woods. I lose sight of things I passed before. I will keep passing by the things that seem cool from afar. I’ll make turns and detours depending on my own will.

There are so many paths. I want to enjoy the scenery and moment more than I want to see what’s so far ahead...

[zer0comma]

just wanna show my appreciation for gorillaz and my gratitude for them because they opened my eyes and ears to new different forms of art and genres of music. it's kinda long but ive been feeling a lot of love for damon and jamie recently so i had to write it down. before discovering them i never really cared about animated music videos. and even tho i draw, and i did enjoy watching them, i never really appreciated the hard work that was put into making them and just considered them as short cartoons that were made to catch your attention or some sort of a replacement when the artists weren't creative enough to film their own music videos (very stupid of me, i know. i was dumb and judgemental). it wasn't until i was 16 that i started to become more curious about the whole process of making animated videos and that started mainly because of gorillaz. for some reason i have always felt attracted to their music videos even tho i wasn't really into their music back then (i did enjoy some of their hits like clint eastwood, feel good inc and dare, but being the dumb and judgemental edgy, grunge lover teen that i was 3 years ago, i didn't allow myself to enjoy them). i remember reading the comments and seeing fans mention the characters and i was very intrigued by that. eventually, in april 2018, i decided to give them another shot. i was just getting out of my grungy and edgy phase even tho i still hated on anything that was released after the 90s. i kept listening to their singles and i was just blown away by the animation. how smooth and original and creative it was. how much it fitted the music even tho the storyline and the music weren't that connected. i was just fascinated and it was after listening to rhinestone eyes and looking at the storyboard that i started to realize that this band was very special, and the more i learned about them the more i started to appreciate all the time and energy and money and passion and love and devotion that have been put into this project. i started looking at a lot of pictures of the official art and i loved it a lot. it was so absurd at times, but also very unique and original and fun and lively. and what made me more interested was watching the bananaz documentary and seeing jamie hewlett work behind the scenes, and listening to the interviews that the animated band members did. i really, really liked how each character is different from the other and how interesting and unique and funny they were. reading rise of the ogre made me even more attached to them. it was during that time that my appreciation for animation started to grow. i started paying attention to all the small details that make animated videos so damn special. i started to appreciate it as a tool for entertainement and a tool for self expression. it was seriously a huge turning point for me, and i started watching a lot of different animated movies and most of the time they manage to blow me away. now let's talk about the music! i can never thank this band enough for making me get out of my comfort zone and give other music genres a listen. as i said, i was really into grunge (ironically, it was one of the main reasons why blur never made it in the us at the early 90s, but now im huge britpop fan), and i had this very wrong idea that rap music was bad, that pop music was trash, that keyboards and synths and electronic music in general didn't deserve a lot of praise because it wasn't played with loud electric guitars (im literally facepalming at my own stupidity rn, i was a very cringy 15 yo). i literally did not listen to anything else except nirvana for almost 2 years. discovering gorillaz (and later blur) completely changed my persepctive on music. it literally changed my life. i'm not even exaggerating. the year i discovered gorillaz, 2018, was the worst year of my entire life so far. and if it wasn't for the artists that i discovered thanks to gorillaz and the artists i finally allowed myself to enjoy after gorillaz changed the way i listen to music (like the strokes!), i would have done a lot of dark shit. anyway, back to gorillaz. at the beginning, i wasn't really into the songs that had rap features on them. i didn't like plastic beach that much because it was heavily influenced by electronic music. i didn't even listen to humanz. i was very selective when i was listening to their music at the beginning. but then i tried to push myself to give them another chance. i decided to listen to demon days without skipping a single song. i read a little bit about the record and what it was supposed to mean to put myself in the context of the album and i listened. my 1st listen didn't do much for me. it was during my 2nd listen however that i felt like my third eye just opened. i tried to pay attention to the lyrics, to put myself in the mood of the album, and that's when i started to understand the message the album was trying to convey and i started to emotionally connect to the music. i started to realize the importance of each of the guest artists. how honest the rap on dirt harry felt. how scary and powerful de la soul sounded on feel good inc. how smooth mf doom sounded on november has come. it was a wonderful moment. that's when i started to accept the fact that ITS OKAY to listen to anything that wasn't 90s noise rock. eventually the rest of their songs started growing on me and i found myself introduced to a lot of artists ive never heard of before. i'm currently listening to de la soul and i'm still mad at myself for not giving this kind of music a chance. last week i started listening to fatoumata diawara's discography after hearing her for the 1st time on désolé and i'm just blow away by how great she was. her music makes me emotional and ive been only listening for a week. also this may sound embarrassing, but being an african girl myself, a tunisian girl from north africa to be exact, i never learned to appreciate the music of my own country until last year, and it's basically because of damon albarn and his interest in african music. i know that having a white man encourage you to embrace your own culture is weird, but the main reasons why i decided to listen to our music again were as i mentioned before, damon's love for african music and my willingness to listen to different genres and styles thanks to gorillaz. i just want to thank damon and jamie and everyone who's been involved with the project. i know that the band has been facing some small issues related to the storyline and the consistency of their music but that doesn't stop them for continuing to be an inspiration not only for me but for hundreds of thousands of people over the globe. i'm just very grateful for their existence and i wish them nothing but the best because they truly changed my life for the better.

[malignedaffairs]

Artist Interview

Some time ago I was asked to answer some questions for a Russian community that collects interviews from various fanartists - what a lovely idea! Here’s the Russian translation along with lots of other interesting interviews. Under the cut is the English version.

On the artist

Nickname: Fifi

Date of birth: December 11th

What city are you from? Berlin

What genre in music do you prefer? Are there any favorite bands/singers? Dark electro, industrial, gothic, EBM, new wave, with a little side of metal and rock’n’roll. My favourite band is Rammstein.

The book that made the most impression and why? There’s nothing life-changing, but I have a ritual of reading before bedtime and some books have been great companions, mostly because they are gripping as hell or because they build up a huge world to blissfully get lost in. I really enjoyed In Cold Blood, The Swarm, Out, Memoirs of a Geisha, The Fifth Woman, Into Thin Air, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the Harry Potter series, Lord of the Rings and ASOIAF.

What are your hobbies besides artistic creativity? Video games, reading up/watching documentaries on things like history, nature, the psychology connected to criminal cases or the obscure niche interest du jour, tasting and trying to cook food from around the world, spending time with close friends and family, planning trips and travelling, board games, being outside in nature, doting on my cat.

What movies (TV series) do you like to watch? Is there something you revise (recommend)? I prefer short thriller/mystery/horror series like Zone Blanche, The Sinner, La Forêt, Penny Dreadful, period dramas like Moon Lovers or The Tudors, movies/series that are funny and thoughtful like Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Intouchables and Better Call Saul, Tarantino movies, oh and movies/series about food!

Favorite anime? Mushishi, Hellsing Ultimate, Samurai Champloo, Kuroko no Basuke, Dragonball Z

Favorite manga? Vagabond, Blade of the Immortal, Naruto, Dragonball, Rookies, Shokugeki no Soma

Favorite pictures, installations? Romanticism paintings, they’re so atmospheric. And traditional artwork from indigenous cultures.

Is there something that you would have trouble parting with? (Some thing, for example) There are things like my old diaries or my hard drive full of photos and drawings, but in general I’m more attached to places than to things.

What are your future plans? Getting better at my job, falling in love, lots of drawings.

On the art

What was the beginning of your passion? Discovering how crayons work as a toddler, I guess.

Do you think the academic base is obligatory and should everyone go through universities to be good masters? I think a profound education can totally polish your technical skills, so the benefits can be great. But art is very individual, and you don’t need university for expressing yourself creatively. When I graduated from high school I thought about studying to become a professional artist, but decided on keeping it a leisure activity for me to unwind and express myself without any pressure.

How long have you been drawing? I’ve been drawing from early childhood.

Tell us about the process of drawing. Where do you start, how do you finish? How much time is spent on drawing? When I’m super lazy, I just use one layer. I start with a rough sketch and refine it by just adding cleaner lines on top and erasing the messy parts. When I’m less lazy I do a rough sketch and a second layer of clean lines on top. During the process I often adjust proportions by cutting, warping and relocating parts of the content. For a comic I first think of a rough plot and draft the dialogue, then make a rough storyboard with page thumbnails. I usually only plan around three pages at a time, never the whole thing in one go. Colouring is another beast entirely. No system there whatsoever, I just put colours on there and hope for the best. Usually a drawing takes me at least two hours, comic pages take up to eight hours. I mostly use the same three brushes all the time.

How did your nickname appear? Fifi-la-fumeuse is a random thing I found in a book about curiosities I bought in Paris a long time ago. It’s basically a vintage doll that was used for educating students about the dangers of smoking during pregnancy. I liked how creepy it looked and the name sounds nice and a little similar to my real name, so I’ve kept it ever since. Malignedaffairs is an allusion to the “forbidden” nature of Itasasu, which was my OTP when I started my blog back in 2012/13. Nowadays I’m finding the name rather corny, but it’s what most people associate with my art, so I’m just keeping it.

What inspires you? Everyday life, my feelings, media, exchanging ideas with people within the fandom.

How do you feel about criticism? Do you criticize other artists? I’m not here for the criticism. My first and foremost goals in posting art on the internet are expressing my feelings, getting in touch with like-minded people and having fun, not necessarily improving my artwork or meeting any achievement goals. I’m grateful for constructive criticism if I respect and trust the person who gives it. I only give criticism if invited to do so.

Do you have your own characters? Or maybe the whole universe? Tell a little about it. No, I don’t have any OCs at all.

How did you come to the Naruto fandom? What kind of heroes do you draw and why them? My ex bf was a big fan of Naruto and always tried to get me into it, but I found it boring and childish. After we broke up though, I felt really lost and started to watch Naruto as a way to feel a little closer to him, and before I knew it I was super into the plot and the characters and then Itachi appeared and the story of the Uchiha brothers struck a very deep chord with me. I’m very much into beautiful, tragic, brilliant but troubled characters who are sweet cinnamon rolls inside, and Itachi and Shisui are like the posterboys for this concept. I feel like they’re the perfect muses for me to give some kind of shape to my ideals of love and mutual respect.

Do you agree with the opinion that national self-perception, as an intellectual factor, is present in the creative process? You’re always influenced by the social environment, the battles and the values you grew up with, and some of that can be determined by your nationality. Themes like identity, society, communication, politics and ideologies are often expressed in art, and if that’s the case you can’t and probably don’t even aim to separate it from national self-perception. I think it’s more present in original art than in fanart though.

What topics worry you and most often are reflected in your work? Belonging, mutual love, loss, sex.

Do you consider drawing to be your recognition in life? Do you plan to continue to devote yourself to this business? It’s an important part of my life and I’m going to do it as long as it feels right, but I won’t pressure myself.

What advice do you have for novice artists? Expect your drawings to look ugly in the beginning and draw all the ugly pictures anyway. Draw whatever attracts you, however silly it may seem. “Art block” means you should lower the pressure on yourself and allow yourself to draw something ugly, silly or uncreative, or even take a break from drawing. Art is not about achievement but about expression. Don’t take it personally when no one seems to appreciate your art right away. Instead actively seek out like-minded people in online communities or in real life, get engaged and show your art to them. Also: flip that canvas!

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh E8 S4: Joey’s Turn to Hallucinate During a Card Game

Alright, lets jump into Yugioh while I wait to wake up this morning. Hate mornings. Hate them.

So I guess in the Yugioh universe, San Fransisco avoided Loma Prieta, but instead got smacked by a KaibaCorp satellite dropping from space. Dunno which is worse but uh.......thanks, Seto. Maybe the building was empty though. I mean it’s not like anyone is here right now. apparently everyone working for Pegasus does so from their laptop in their pj’s situated in their apartments in Oakland.

And good news, this is one of the episodes with That Really Good Storyboarder. Like you can REALLY tell when this particular storyboarder enters the room, and apparently they really like Joey episodes?

Anyway, for anyone who’s like “I want to draw hands better.” This whole episode is a good study for how to do dynamic hands. It’s insane.

In fact apparently there is an art book just about hands in the works BY the guy who designed a lot of the Yugioh hand shots--thing is it’s entirely in Japanese and I don’t really know much Japanese....so I’m waiting for it in English. But, my friend translated the promo for me and mentioned that if you preorder the book you get 3 instructional videos for drawing dynamic hands from this particular artist.

Only problem is, the videos would go right over my head because it’s still not in English, so uh, missed opportunity because I never got serious with my Duolingo. O well. And people keep asking “are you learning Japanese for anime? Are you dating a Japanese guy?” and it’s like no, for reals, I’m an artist, this is just what you have to do, learn Spanish, learn French, learn Japanese, or you will miss out on so many good tutorials. Like every DAY I see a good ass tutorial on Twitter and it’s like...did they have to hand-write it?

Anyway if you want to buy it, it’s on Japanese Amazon and I don’t know what it’s called because it’s been a hot minute since it’s been a few months since I’ve looked at it. But it exists. I have no idea if it’ll be shipped internationally either, in fact, I was just gonna ask very nicely to my one friend like it’s middle school and I need some good looking authentic jelly pens delivered. But youknow...instead I’ll keep an eye out because I’m banking on this getting translated into English.

I will let you ALL know when I see this book translated into English.

(read more under the cut)

So, we start this episode with Mai being transported to Atlantis island. I’m not entirely sure if the Atlantis Island is the same place as the Atlantis on the bottom of the ocean, but whether she’s above or below the water won’t matter because they did a very wise jump cut.

So I have no idea if she jumped out of a motorcycle to get here. Maybe?

Anyway, Valon introduces her to the Lair. Shows her the snakes, the fire torches that are always lit, a couple more snakes. Youknow, normal stuff for a completely normal date.

PS I do appreciate the bismuth pattern here. Bismuth is a really amazing under-used concept art tool. I mean LOOK at bismuth.

Gollllll I just want to see a whole lot more bismuth in art, it pops.

And then, Valon decides to introduce Mai to his Dad, who is a LOT when you get up close to him.

Man just SO many elements here. The head chain, the yellow eyeball (which is the same eye that Pegasus wore his golden eyeball--dunno if it’s related but as I’ve mentioned before, this show is rude to eyes), The very LONG lower lashes (I’m a SUCKER for putting long lower lashes on all of OC’s myself, it’s a good time) the amount of side-bangs on this guy that would have taken like 12 hair extensions. the wind always seems to flow around him to pick up his cloak and his cape (yes he has both) And on the back he has like a princess Jasmine style ponytail where it’s like......how does he do that? Truly magical, this Ultimate-OC-looking-guy is.

We again recap a little more of Mai’s perspective from the Prism, which I didn’t think she’d be able to see everyone else from...but apparently she saw enough.

And so, because Mai didn’t want to feel scared ever again, she decided to instead feel nothing. Trade in your plateauing card career for getting OP card magic powers. I mean, it tracks.

Then our Storyboarder just started FLEXING.

Y’all.

He just...did that.

Do you know how good you have to know hands to draw that? You’d have to firstly know hands like a freakin hand surgeon, then you’d have to get like so many different references to study what the hell is even going on there. Go ahead and do this hand pose. You CAN’T. It’s amazing. And on top of that--she’s wearing a fingerless glove? And a weird duel disk in perspective?

This whole thing is FORESHORTENED are you freakin kidding me???

This storyboarder!

Enter Duke, who just woke up today thinking it’d be a normal day but alas, it was a Yugi Muto day, and you can’t escape this asshole even if you fly halfway across the world. He will show up, somehow blow up some gas station, and your boss will be mysteriously dead and there’s nothing Duke can do about this horrible curse he’s had to deal with ever since Pharaoh cursed him with Being Friends With Pharaoh. The worst curse.

Like imagine you showed up at Apple Headquarters and this madness was there instead of a lobby.

Then, because things aren’t yet weird enough for Duke Devlin to just walk into, the dragon card starts glowing and takes our third dragon boy on a Spiritual Dragon Journey.

Right now.

During a card game where Joey is facing off a serial murderer/ex-not-a-girlfriend.

And it’s not just Joey and Yugi this time.

...I know I was just applauding this storyboarder but there is NO WAY they didn’t know what they were doing. I get that Seto has a thing for dragons. I don’t need this upskirt shot to remind me of his weird hallucinatory love affair with dragons.

The amount of weird upskirts they like to do with Seto. I mean I’m glad it’s not Mai but youknow...I just didn’t expect this.

Ever.

I never expected this shot with the...joystick.

There is a very obvious joystick in this shot and like 15-45 animators looked at this and said “well it’s too late now, the good storyboarder likes it, and this is the toll we pay.”

I just want to know if any animators saw this and said to their friend “hey....I need to go take a break. Want to go to a very long lunch and forget this ever happened?”

And that’s the whole dream. We are now officially out of porky dragons, which means everyone else in this party will just have........nothing to do, right?

Is it too much to ask that Mokuba get to have a dragon?

Way too much to ask, just realized it as I was typing it.

The concern coming off of Mokuba right now.

Like seriously Mokuba is in a constant state of “do I listen to my older brother or do I heavily sedate my older brother before I get abducted for the sixth time?”

Apparently all of the Orichalcos etc is responding to the dragons, which makes sense, since it’s like...toys that were sold next to eachother in the toy store. Just feels like these things are constantly glowing but everyone forgets that there’s not just three cards and three stones but also Yugi has a stone in his pocket somewhere.

We just have a lot of artifacts hanging out everywhere but it’s Yugioh, so of course no one is going to keep track of any of them. If only Bakura were here, he’d have that down but like...instead it’s the Yugi team, so if it’s not directly around your neck it just doesn’t exist.

Anyway, it’s the holidays so I’ll get the next post up......sometime? Kind of a shame what happened to my update schedule but that’s life.

And if you want to read these from the beginning, you can click on this link here

[nightslain]

So I guess it’s that time of day where I get up on my soap box to once again talk about the incongruities and gaping chasms in the Netflixvania plot that have yet to be addressed, specifically those that strengthen the case for why shoehorning Leon into this mess divorced of his supporting cast and story is probably a Bad Idea. 

TL;DR I am perpetually tortured by the fact nothing makes sense right now so I am going to whinge exhaustively in a post to exorcise myself of misery and potentially spare my poor friend’s ears.

So. The show’s version of the origin story has not been properly detailed in any meaningful length except for the fact that a) Leon is indeed the patriarch of the Belmont family and b) he entered Wallachia specifically to hunt for Dracula. Sounds like the same story beats from LoI at face value, but just like everything else about this house of cards, it completely falls apart under the faintest bit of scrutiny. I’ve beat the dead horse of Mathias no longer being canon enough as it is, but Mathias is arguably the most pivotal character in the entire story. You cannot make a Castlevania adaptation that excludes his history and expect it to make actual sense. If you remove Mathias, you dismantle every facet of the plot in one fell swoop, especially if you’re going to try and wedge Leon Belmont into your story without him. The two are mutually exclusive, you cannot have one without the other unless you completely rewrite the canon to follow a wholly different trajectory that is free of those trappings (i.e Lords of Shadow, which I do not like, but I appreciate that it was trying to do something totally different and therefore don’t take great issue with it.)

And I would have accepted this level of reimagining was the show’s intention, if Leon wasn’t paid such a heaping dose of aggressive lip service to indisputably assert him as this universe’s Belmont patriarch as well. But put in context with the rest Ellis’ interpretation as is, this just ends up making no God damn sense.

Dracula has been explicitly stated to be the first vampire to exist in this universe. That solidly affirms that Mathias is not canon, so therefore Leon’s history with him is also non existent. So in turn, that logically means Walter Bernhard also never existed, Mathias never hatched that elaborate plot with him to betray Leon, Sara was never kidnapped, Leon never had to rescue her, she was never bitten by Walter, her soul was never sacrificed to make the Vampire Killer. So what did happen, then? If Dracula was never Mathias, then what the fuck was he up to in the 11th century? Getting his distance mirror apparently, which he made an oddly specific point of mentioning he acquired 400 years prior to the events of season two, which would have been approximately 1075. This would leave us 19 years prior to Lament of Innocence, so presumably Dracula was already a vampire when Leon was just a child. Which in itself just more effectively dispatches any expectations of their history together being the same or even just similar to what it was in LoI. 

Albeit, Trevor treats us to some pretty loaded exposition in saying that the Belmont family hailed from France, moving to Wallachia when “the dark things all moved into the east”--followed by Alucard affirming that Leon was in Wallachia looking specifically for Dracula. So Dracula and his monsters were obviously in France at some point in this canon causing a stink that attracted Leon’s notice--we also have evidence of this with one of the storyboard artists drawing Leon in his knightly garb slaying said monsters. But if Dracula was never Mathias in Ellis’ interpretation, what was he even doing dicking around in France in the first place? And furthermore, what did he do to convince Leon to chase him into the east as well as devote his life and the life of every Belmont after him to killing Dracula specifically? Because it’s gonna be a pretty weak downgrade in motivation from the original story if he just wants to kill Dracula because Vampires Are Evil ™, or Dracula just offhandedly killed someone important to him without nary a drop of history behind them to give it weight.

Also another discrepancy between these two canons is Leon is still a knight when he goes into the east whereas he gave up his knighthood in the games; this is quite boldly showcased by his depiction in that big ass painting as well as the fact his sword is present in the Belmont hold--which is also coincidentally the thing that kills Dracula, not the Vampire Killer. And oh yeah, how the fuck is the Vampire Killer here if the whole plot behind its existence has been effectively erased? I repeat, it’s going to be a weak downgrade if it came from anything less than the tragedy of Sara Trantoul’s sacrifice--which its starting to seem like it will be, based on everything else that’s been exorcised from the show canon.

There’s just no sensible way to knit these two interpretations together at this point if Ellis is going to dig in his heels and maintain that Dracula’s history as Mathias is not part of his vision, so I really can’t say I’m sure what in God’s name he’s going to inject into the story to fill this gaping hole he’s gnawed into the canon. I strongly believe Leon should just have been quietly excluded if the most vital elements of his story have been erased along with Mathias as well. I would not be here complaining about this at all if Leon hadn’t been forced into this version of Castlevania unnecessarily, which then just opened up a black hole of inconsistencies. Why even add him? Why have your main cast keep talking about him? Why sprinkle in fresh lore about him? Why make his sword the thing that kills Dracula? Why do all this if he’s going to be either a non-entity in the future of the show, or you’re going to just ignore the entirety of the canon that he is inextricably attached to?

This is why I’m kind of in a purgatorial relationship with the show right now as we wait for season three; I have no idea if there’s going to be even a molecule of exposition showing off the “New and Improved” vision for Leon’s and Dracula’s backstory--a part of me finds their constant chatter about Leon a little too heavy-handed for his character and history to just be swept under the rug thereafter, but another part of me is pretty solidly convinced the show isn’t even going to attempt to address that elephant in the room from here.

However, if Alucard’s going to be left by his lonesome with nothing but his father’s castle and the Belmont library, then he better be busting his ass down there reading up on some Belmont family history. Because honestly? There really is no other purpose his character can serve when isolated from the rest of the cast, the action and the plot, besides acting as a vehicle for exposition. I’d like to believe that this was the intention behind that very sudden and very off-handed plot point of Trevor bestowing his family’s library upon him in season 2. Why else��do that and then just leave him there? If Alucard is just going to be steered back into the fray early into the new season, then what was even the point of having the team go their separate ways? 

Anyways. I’ve said before I really wouldn’t mind if the staff decided to rewrite Dracula and Leon’s history together a little due to the bizarre and convoluted nature of LoI’s plot which definitely needs a fresh coat of paint, and I still maintain that; but they seem to be both borrowing the outline of the premise while erasing the primary facets that made it work, and I’m entirely confused about how they’re going to actualise such a shaky narrative structure. Not very well, judging by this janky mess of plotholes they’ve dug for themselves--if they don’t just conveniently forget to ever address it again, I’m half sure their answers to these questions are going to be some wacky nonsense that probably even further diminishes the symbolic importance of the story as a whole.

If the show completely erases any meaningful relationship between Dracula and Leon as well as the gravity behind the Vampire Killer’s origins, then it will have truly sunk to a whole new depth. These are the only things I am begging Ellis not to fuck up. You know, the entire crux of Castlevania’s plot as we know it, and the entire reason this story is even playing out in this universe the way it is.

There’s no shortage of us already frustrated with his treatment of the canon as it is, and its a damn shame. I really like a lot of things about the show. The animation is still gorgeous, the music is wonderful, the atmosphere is great, and I felt genuinely moved by some of the scenes they curated for us. I appreciate the hard work the team as a whole has poured into it in the limited time frame they have to complete every season. There’s no taking away from the fact that the show has value in many areas. But Ellis to date has sadly cocked up more facets of the story than he has improved, which is what is consistently holding the show back. As much as I crave answers from this series though, I’m equally as afraid that I am not going to like them when I get them. Or that Leon’s character is going to get dragged backwards through a thorn-bush should he ever appear in the flesh.

I would love nothing more than season three to blow me away and restore my faith in the future of the series but at this point, I’d honestly settle for a few minutes of icon material and whatever answers there are so I can finally leave this bespoke Silent Hill Ellis’ writing has crafted for me, amen and good night.

[ooihcnoiwlerh]

The Dirt!Tommy Lee imagine Pt 1

So I made a post a week ago mentioning a dream I had that inspired this very long fic of which I’m posting this first part.  I want to preface this by saying that while I really enjoyed The Dirt as a movie, I also don’t want to glamorize or ignore the faults of the men behind Motley Crue.  I’ve also never written fanfiction about a musician, let alone fanfiction about a slightly fictionalized version of a musician.  And this is definitely more about the film version of Tommy Lee than the man himself.

She was fresh out of college and brand new in LA, applying for work and living on someone’s couch when she first heard them, and she was hooked.

Sher certainly enjoyed the sound, which reminded her a little of the independent punk scene back in New York, but the look of it—the theatricality of it—inspired her.  Four years studying production design with the hopes of applying it to a film and theatre career, she decided, led her here to these people.  They had massive budget ideas with limited money for a limited space and she wanted to help them expand.

She kept trying to work up the courage to speak with them, and found herself choking up every time.  She, unlike they, was not a performer, not comfortable inserting herself into a group.  She lacked the confidence of some of the other women in the crowd who slipped their way into dressing rooms and raised their skirt just so.  Part of her had thought about emulating them—after her first concert she found herself paying more attention to the gangly, animated drummer over the strutting blond lead singer before dismissing the thought. She had something these other women couldn’t offer.  The band wouldn’t take her seriously if she offered to fuck them first.  She continued on sending her resume out, and, just to widen her prospects, started applying to record labels.

Tom Zutaut sought her out first—he felt that her youth and interest in the music scene would lend her some credibility with the band once they signed over to Elektra.  He assured her that they would appreciate her vision.

She sat down and spoke with them for the first time at a restaurant with her portfolio tucked under her arm and her nerves ringing as she prepared her speech on how she appreciated the band’s vision and how her visual style would work well for them on tour.  She glanced between every face: Mick Mars and his aloof, unimpressed demeanor and folded arms; Nikki Sixx and his quirked brow and slight smirk; Vince Neil and his smug grin; Tommy Lee and his frenetic energy and eager smile.  She focused on him and what she saw as a friendly, open face as she opened her portfolio to show her rough sketches…

…and felt a pair of hands slide along the inside of her thighs and push her knees apart.

She flinched and rose, but not before the men at the table snickered and a woman poked her head out from under the table.

“I’m used to sucking dick,” the woman said, grinning, “but I could go either way.”

Y/N glanced at the men at the table and realized this was a test of sorts.  Could she handle this environment?  She was certain of it.  She also knew she didn’t want a stranger to go down on her in semi-public.

Y/N cleared her throat.  “You know, sweetheart, I am so flattered.  But these are leather pants I’d have to push down to my knees and I just don’t know if I want my bare ass on this seat,” she said as she sat back down.

It was the best she could do, and apparently it was enough.  After a round of shots and some cursory glances at some of Y/N’s plans, Motley Crue had an artist ready to go on tour with them.

………..

“You sure you can handle this?” Doc asks as they get ready; the boys have their own accommodations, better rooms and first class on the monstrosity that the company calls a tour bus.  There are no other women present save for Vince’s latest girlfriend—all seamstresses and make-up artists are present at each venue.  They don’t travel with the band.

Y/N laughs.  “I’m from New Jersey, Doc.  I’ll be fine.”

Doc doesn’t look convinced.  “Listen, obviously I spoke to the guys and they do have some respect for you; see you as more than, you know...”

“A groupie.”  She hopes there’s no venom behind those words; she doesn’t hate any of the women that cling to the band and she imagines it would be pointless to get angry over how frequently they stay and how disposable they become.  To get angry with a band for having groupies, she reasons, is like getting angry at a Western movie for having horses.

She doesn’t hate them, at least, she thinks she doesn’t.  But she likes Tommy’s unmatched energy and lanky body and playful grin.  She hears stories about his stamina and size and it is more difficult to ignore the whispers about him than it is about Vince and Nikki.  Mick, it seems, dismisses any sort of physical contact. Y/N imagines it would be prudent to do the same.  She’s the only woman on the production team and is fully aware how easy it would be for everyone to resent her more than they already do.

“Yeah.  Exactly,” Doc says. “You’re not like them.  You’re here to work.”

“I know, Doc.”  Y/N gestures towards her books of sketches and layouts.  “I know.”

……..

None of this is to say that Y/N doesn’t interact with the band at all. As she anticipated, it’s something of a collaborative effort.  Nikki in particular has a lot of ideas about staging and costumes that go into effect. Granted, Motley Crue itself appears to be his brainchild, and he’s in charge of most of the creative decisions. He’s smart (although he’d be loath to describe himself as such) he’s attractive; he’s talented.  Y/N imagines that in another world she would be more drawn to him than she is.  But she’s not; she appreciates his mind and the work, and she hopes that he thinks the same of her.  

She wears long pants and jackets most of the time; she seldom wears more than the slightest bit of makeup on tour and she doesn’t try to give the appearance of curves to her slight frame where there aren’t any.  She never gives off the impression that she is sexually available, and as a result she’s left alone.

Vince ignores her.  Mick is about as pleasant towards her as he is capable of being towards anyone, and Y/N appreciates his candor.  She’s told he has a condition that causes constant, often excruciating pain and isn’t sure how to design a set to accommodate him, as if he’d ever accept the help.  Nikki is usually somewhat well-behaved around her, even as he knows he doesn’t have to censor himself and that Doc will sometimes complain to her about his coke binges and public indecency.  She doesn’t need him to tell her; she stays in the same hotels and when one or more is up to a set of antics she can plainly hear it from her room.

Tommy is playful; there are times she could swear he was flirting, and she cannot tell if he’s joking or not.  She also can’t tell if, if he is flirting, whether it’s because he’s attracted to her or because any woman of an appropriate age and decent appearance is a potential one-night stand. A cum dumpster.  

She should separate herself.  She should keep a professional distance.  

She goes to parties with them sometimes and does shots with them that have her staggering and slurring her words long before they’re down for the count and wakes up with hangovers that make her fear opening her mouth. She’s still tamer than they are and abstains from hard drugs and day drinking. She wishes Tommy luck before shows and listens to all of his ideas, good and bad.  There’s no greater feeling than his excitement when she puts one of his ideas into practice.

She has sex one night with a tall man with long dark hair who isn’t Tommy but in the dark and after whiskey could be close enough for a few minutes.  She can pretend, for a moment, that it’s he who’s inside her, gasping as he comes and holding her hips in a bruising grip.  She sneaks out of his room at five AM and heads back to her hotel.

When there she pulls her pants down and brings her fingers to her clit and thinks about him; his tongue, his cock inside of her and his lips on her clit everything finally being right. Alone in a hotel she finds the release she couldn’t get with a pale imitation of what she wanted.

The shame sets in seconds after her climax.  She groans as she wipes her fingers off on her inner thigh and tries to ignore the pull in her gut as she kicks her pants off the rest of the way and somehow manages to sleep.

……….

Tommy starts dating a girl named Roxie.  Tommy has had casual girlfriends as long as Y/N can remember. He seems to fall for every girl who shows him attention and soon forgets each one.

Y/N could say that she doesn’t like Roxie because it’s clear Roxie doesn’t really care about him, that she doesn’t know him and just wants to cling to someone with fame and power.  And all those things are true; she doesn’t trust Roxie nor does she expect her to stick around.  She says nothing, though, because what really eats at her is how much she resents the hell out of Tommy being so devoted to her.

Tommy introduces his parents to Y/N first, though.  Not because she’s the most important, of course, but because she’s the first familiar face he sees after Doc as he’s giving his parents a tour of the set.

Tommy has mentioned his parents; his mother, a Greek immigrant and former beauty contestant and his father, an army vet.  They seem too polite, too conventional for this place and yet Y/N can immediately see how someone like Tommy was able to emerge from what appeared to be a typical suburban upbringing; they clearly love him for everything he is.  So she likes them and tries to stay composed when Tommy brushes his hand along the small of her back to introduce her.

“This is Y/N.  She makes the magic happen.  The lights, the dancers, the backdrop, all her ideas.”

Y/N laughs.  “Not entirely true; it’s more collaborative than that.  I just draw up the plans and make sure we have the right people and equipment to make them possible.”

“You storyboarded our first music video.  Take some credit!” Tommy insists.

Y/N preens under the attention even as she tries to avoid what must be Mrs. Bass’s knowing gaze.  “If you insist,” she says.  “The business card says ‘production designer,’” she adds for the parents’s benefit.

“And you’re not married?” Tommy’s mother asks.

Y/N can feel herself blush.  “Oh, no.  Not at all!” she tries to laugh it off.  “Got hired for the portfolio and I’ve been on board since.”  She hears distantly Tommy gently admonish his mother and it doesn’t quite register.  She should get out of here.  His mother can probably tell what she thinks of her son and could easily bring it up. “Well, it was wonderful meeting you both,” she adds before finding an excuse to leave.

………..

“Did you hear Tommy proposed to Roxie?” Nikki asks as Y/N shows him several plans for the next leg of their tour.

Y/N feels like she’s been kicked in the gut.  She keeps her face in repose and manages to speak.

“You think it’s gonna last?” she asks.

Nikki sighs.  “I didn’t think it was gonna last this long.  You know Tommy’s mom called her a groupie to her face?”

Y/N laughs; it’s cruel and she relishes in it.  She has so few petty comforts she’s sure she can have this. “She’s not wrong,” she says as she packs up her drawings.  “I mean, it’s not like she’d be interested in him if he wasn’t famous.”

Nikki sits back and watches her.  “You would, though,” he tells her, and of course he notices her pause.  Of course he noticed how she looks at his bandmate.

Y/N can’t look back at him.  She manages to find her voice.  “Does Tommy know?” she asks.

“Nah.  He’s completely oblivious,” Nikki says.

“Well, good,” Y/N says faintly, and after setting everything into her portfolio briefcase, stands.  “I think I need a drink.”

Nikki grins.  “You joined the right band for it.”

……………………………

Tommy calls off the engagement as abruptly as he began it. Y/N didn’t see it, but apparently there was a fight involving him being stabbed in the back with a pen, him punching his fiancée in the face, and liberal use of the word “cunt.”  Specifically, Roxie referring to Tommy’s mother as one. The driver drops Roxie off at a Phoenix bus stop with a bag filled with her clothes and no one speaks of her for the rest of the trip to the next venue.

The show goes off without difficulty and Y/N manages to find Tommy afterwards before he can disappear with a mountain of coke, a bottle of Jack, and a girl who looks nothing like Roxie to take his mind off of the dumb decision he’d been about to make.

“Hey, you alright?” she asks.  She’s closer to him than she’d normally dare and as he turns around, she remembers just how much taller he is than she.

His eyes are wide but he seems neither upset nor inebriated.  He looks her over once and asks, a little louder than Y/N would like, “Are you wearing make-up?”

Y/N shrugs and takes a step back, forcing herself to meet Tommy’s gaze.  “One of the ladies was bored and offered to do some work on me before packing up,” she says.  “Anyway, let me buy you a drink.”

“You don’t need to do that,” Tommy says, and for a moment, Y/N shrinks back, gets ready to apologize, to back away, to hide in her hotel room. It lasts only a moment.  “But yeah, I’ll grab a drink with you.”  He smiles at her and it seems genuine; everything he says and does feels earnest.

He leads her to the bar closest the venue, and packed as it is the patrons and bartenders make room for the two of them as they sidle up to the bar.

“A Jameson and ginger ale for me and whatever this guy wants,” Y/N says, and glances over at Tommy, who orders a double shot of Jack Daniels. They won’t have much time to themselves, of course.  The other guys will join him and drag him to a private table, and before that fans are already lining up and getting ready for autographs.

“So, I guess you heard what happened,” Tommy says.

“Yeah.”  Y/N takes a sip from her drink.  “How are you holding up?”

“Fine, I guess.”  He finishes his shot and signals for another.  Y/N waits for him to say something else; Tommy always has something else to say.

He looks down at the bar, at his right hand as it rests against the polish wood.  “I hit her,” he says, finally.

“I know,” Y/N tells him.  Tommy glances up, looking alarmed.  “I also know she screamed at you, cursed at you, cursed your mother, and tried to stab you with a pen before you did.”  Y/N rubs her thumb along the condensation forming on the outside of her glass.  “I’m not saying you did the right thing; I don’t condone punching people in the face. I am saying she provoked you, that she would have continued trying to provoke you, and that it’s good that you’re not together anymore.”  She takes a sip from her drink.

Tommy keeps looking at her.  “You didn’t like her, did you?” he asks.

Y/N leans her elbow on the bar and faces him; his eyes are very blue. “You’re right.  I didn’t.”

“Why’s that?”

Y/N exhales.  “I didn’t believe for a second that she loved you,” she says.  “I thought she was using you.  

“Listen, I get it.  I get that you guys sleep with whoever and it’s no big deal.  It’s casual and that’s how it’s supposed to be.  But that’s for all the times there isn’t an emotional investment.  When there is, though, if you decide to give that to someone, they sure as hell better deserve it.  And she didn’t.”

It’s then that Y/N realizes she doesn’t remember the moment her favorite part of the job ceased to be seeing her designs and sketches put onstage, but instead every moment she gets to see Tommy.  The crazy lifestyle, the weirdness, it doesn’t matter.  She can take it.  She wants this, wants every part of him.  If she says anything else she’ll burst forth and say everything.  For a few agonizing moments they sit in silence and she wants to lean forward, wants to bridge the inches between them. She could kiss him so easily.

“T-Bone!”

Why did neither of them notice Nikki come up to them?

“Come on, man.  We got a room set up back.  Bottle service, strippers, the works.”  Nikki claps Tommy on the shoulder.  “Gonna get you back on the horse in no time.”

Tommy looks over at Y/N.  Y/N feels her throat constrict, wonders how she can possibly speak, and simply raises her glass in cheers and forces a little smile.

“I…” Tommy stands and motions for the bartender.  

“I want you to put this on our tab.  This and anything else the lady might want tonight,” he says, patting Y/N on the back.

“Have a good night,” he tells her as he follows Nikki to the back of the bar, and Y/N raises her glass once again before knocking back the rest of her drink.

“Another?”

Y/N pushes her glass forward.  “Please.”

The bartender gets to work.  “You know those guys?” he asks.

“I work for them,” Y/N tells him.  

“Sounds like fun.”

She forces a smile.  “It has its moments.”

She leaves two hours later after making very small talk with the bartender, ignoring horny barflies, and ordering several more drinks. She eventually gets a cab to the hotel before stumbling to her room and collapsing fully clothed on the bed.  Good thing sober her made sure to schedule a wake up call with the front desk, because drunk her wouldn’t dream of waking up at eight AM—in five hours and presumably hungover.

[zerochanges]

Ushio & Tora Blu-ray and DVD Limited Edition Box Set Unboxing

Today marks the day I finally got my hands on my Ushio & Tora Limited Edition set, and oh was the wait so long, but so worth it. 

For those that weren’t following the release this set was originally scheduled to come out in late August alongside the standard edition blu-ray (which will now be referred to as ‘BD’ for the rest of this article) and DVD sets, however Sentai Filmworks delayed this Limited Edition box set until late September, and then moved it to early October. Much to my dismay this box set seemed to take forever to come. 

Despite these minor setbacks I am truly over-the-moon about this set, no amount of delays can sour this for me. I didn’t plan to really write another unboxing post so I apologize if this may be a little off-the-cuff, but this particular box set just blew me away and I can’t help but to share. So without farther ado, let’s take a look!  

The first thing to notice is with how huge the outer case is, and how elaborate the opening mechanism of said case is--this is something that has become increasingly normal for Sentai box sets which instead of a semi-standard size set that can easily fit on your shelf like a lot of Funimation’s and Viz’s BD sets, Sentai aims to create complete showpieces. Make no mistake, if you have limited room this box set is not for you. This set is meant to be proudly displayed, and boldly draws eyes towards it. 

As alluded to above, the box set does not open traditionally but is instead kept together through fabric straps on the side, undoing said straps folds out the set. Unfolding the left side you can see some more artwork, and unfolding the right (completely opening it) you can now see all the yokai crawling around the ground--a very cool effect that is reminiscent of the cellar that Tora was trapped in for 500 years. 

Now the contents of the box set are all visible, at the very top is yet another box that holds most of the goodies (the fun stuff), underneath that is the art/guide book, and finally the show itself: separated into 3 standard DVD sized cases--2 cases for all the DVDs and 1 for all the BDs. This is another thing that has become the norm for Sentai with these box sets; for better or worse they include their BDs in standard sized DVD cases. I like to be an optimist and think this is most likely done to maximize the nice artwork on said case and conform 1 size since DVDs and BDs are both included, but this may be a bit annoying to anyone who prefers the smaller blue BD cases over DVD cases. 

Moving along let’s examine the box with the goodies in it. Despite just being locked away in the larger outer box, this box itself is pretty darn nice looking with different art on both sides and even the title in foil on the spine. Perhaps you can put this on your shelf if you don’t want the giant showpiece that is the entire box set taking up shelf space. Opening up the box reveals all the physical extras included in this set. There’s the art cards, poster, and Beast Spear replica. Let’s start off with the art cards. 

Included in the set are 4 art cards that yes, are reversible, giving you 8 works of art to admire, although still only 4 to display (unless you live in some alternate dimension that can view fronts and backs at the same time!). Only the first card is glossy, and it’s a noticeable difference, being much brighter and all together prettier than the other 3, however these 3 aren't total losses either. Said cards are nice and firm, not flimsy, and feel like they were made of pretty thick paper-stock. Overall you have your self a small yet beautiful set of cards. 

Next is the poster which regrettably is probably the weakest part of this set. Unlike the art cards the paper for the poster does feel flimsy, and I only looked at it once and I can already see creases and fold marks just from being shoved into the box it came in. The whole thing feels very cheap and kinda disappointing, but I could have let that slide if the poster was actually big! Instead it’s pretty small, not much bigger than two standard BD cases turned on their side (see here). I’ll probably still find use out of it but this is really one of the few missteps in an absolutely incredible box set. 

And finally, the last piece in this box we have the Beast Spear replica. This tiny little guy is actually made with real metal (or at least it feels like it is) and believe it or not is kinda heavy. There’s honestly a good amount of weight to it that just feels right. This is no pen or pencil, it’s a real weapon--that just so happens to be about the size of a pen or pencil. 

While the spear itself is great, the cloth tide around it really doesn't look like the cloth in the show, instead it obviously looks like the ribbon it is. Seems like something my mother would use in her crafting instead of a mighty seal that prevents the spear from going berserk. The box itself is kinda a dud too. Don’t be fooled by the nice interior the spear is stored in, the rest of the box is pretty much just flimsy cardboard. All that said, I still love the spear replica itself, and it’s a fun display piece, especially with figures. 

No longer satisfied with hunting Moblins all day, Link’s traded in his Master Sword for the Beast Spear and is ready to fight some yokai! (I really need the Ushio & Tora figures don’t I?) 

So now that we have everything in that goodies box out of the way let’s examine what was next in this box set: the art/guide book. This book is hefty, also having a good weight to it. Hard cover and solid like a rock, boasting over 150 pages of information and art. This is by far the nicest book I have gotten in an anime box set, and puts most of the stuff in Funimation sets to shame. The book comes in at pretty much the same size of a standard manga volume (see here) and is formated for western reading (left-to-right). 

Honestly this book is the biggest winner for me in the entire box set. I didn’t have any expectations for it but, boy, oh boy! There’s just so much information in this little book and it’s all displayed beautifully. 

There’s descriptions of every episode which include screenshots and bios for each character in said episode (and even more interesting is that they didn’t just copy+paste these, each bio on the characters explains what they are doing in the episode and is wholly unique), information and art on the yokai featured in the episode, and best of all the descriptions even list the script writer, storyboard artist, episode director, and animation director for the episode; info that I wish more companies would make as easily available in these kinds of books. 

Besides the episode descriptions we have your standard section dedicated to the art of the characters showing off the multiple appearances they had over the course of the show, and a section dedicated to all the background art featured in the series. This is a tome of information on the entire process of making the show from start to finish and really makes you appreciate how much work goes into anime. I ended up taking a lot more photos of this book than I should have, so if you want to take a peak: check out some more pics here. 

I do not recommend diving into the book right away however if you haven’t seen the show yet because it is full of spoilers. 

Last but not least is the actual show itself. As I stated in the beginning it is separated into 3 unique DVD sized cases that do not resemble the standard edition set for this show. The cases each feature different artwork on both the exterior and interior, and house around 13 discs in total: 8 DVDs and 5 BDs. The episode breakdown results in about 4-5 episodes a DVD and about 9 episodes a BD, pretty much a standard amount for most anime nowadays. 

Below I will post the interior art for all 3 cases.

So that is the Ushio & Tora Limited Edition BD & DVD box set from Sentai Filmworks! A huge set full of a lot of great content. If you love the show like I do and want to have a great display piece then I definitely cannot recommend it enough. I also look forward to my rewatch of it with the brand new dub Sentai has made. 

I hope this unboxing has helped anyone on the fence about getting this, as I know I absolutely love looking at it on my shelf now! 

[laurakazmeier]

Evaluation

Motivation for Design Decisions

My design decisions were largely influenced by my research. Particularly I was very inspired by the film Loving Vincent and a charcoal animation by one of my favourite artists which had introduced me to this type of animation a few years ago. I had never really worked with charcoal much in the past and was very interested in the way it could be easily manipulated. I think I was also quite interested in working more hands-on and less digitally, as I feel that though really amazing things can be achieved digitally nowadays, we are almost bombarded with too much good digital animation and it’s hard to appreciate it the same way as 2D-animated work because it’s harder to understand the amount of work that goes into it when you’re not very familiar with how it works. I think hand-drawn things like the ones I researched will always have a place because they do offer something else. Also, I felt the need to do something different this unit and had worked very digitally-based in the past.

Changes and Developments

Since I planned quite well in this project, there wasn’t that much change to my original idea, mainly clarifying details or adding small things. Examples of this are when I needed to clarify the exact movement of the birds, so what they would look like in each frame and how many wing flap cycles I wanted per second. Also, I added some small things as I was working such as making sure that there was slight movement in the sun and title throughout, since I felt it might look weird and out of place otherwise. The digging of the burrow before the eyes, in the charcoal part was another thing I came up with as I was working, as I felt it needed some more action. 

Something that I did develop was the way I made the clouds look. At the start of the video you can see that it still looks quite jagged and unnatural. I tried making it look more smooth and soft and I think I succeeded by the end of the sequence. Finally, for the very last frames I worked on - the birds coming out of the darkness, I had not realised how complicated these were and how long they would take me, and by that time I was really exhausted and really needed to start editing. Therefore, I ended up doing a few less frames than planned, which was ok because I had some extra frames of simple things such as the dark clouds and the sun up in the sky. I felt it would look fine if the birds left the frame more quickly and I had some more of the very dark period than planned. I was also not too worried about making the movement of all of these birds perfect simply because it would've taken me a lot more time and I didn't have any to spare. 

Managing Time

Overall, I feel that I managed time well though I didn’t entirely realise what I was getting myself into. I thought maybe it would take me between 20-30 hours to draw and photograph all the frames, basing it on the first few seconds I had by the second tutorial and how long that had taken me. However, I didn’t entirely consider or realise how much longer some other frames would take and added planning or adjusting of the camera/tripod when I accidentally bumped into it, did also take up a lot of time. I ended up spending almost 40 hours just drawing and photographing so I ended up only having a day before the critique to put everything together and add sound, however, though it was very stressful, I think I still managed well.

Responding to Feedback

I think I responded well to feedback throughout the unit, and received very helpful feedback concerning which storyboard idea to go with and what music to use. It was especially helpful for me to get feedback concerning my options for the music, as I had two possibilities that worked and simply couldn’t decide.

Areas of the Design Process that need more Practice

Usually I feel that I’m lacking in the planning aspect but for this project I feel that I was finally able to improve significantly and actually planned everything out very well, simply because I had to in order to animate like this. I think that the time pressure in this project also helped in this aspect because I was forced to make a decision about which story and which storyboard to go with quite quickly.  

What have I learned?

This was an incredibly educational project and so I’m very glad that I was really experimental and tried something completely outside of my comfort zone. I learned how to make storyboards and the importance of planning from Tony Chance. I learned more about how to make 2D animations and how to make photos into a stop motion video using Adobe Bridge and Photoshop and Premiere. I also learned more about charcoal animation and drawing with charcoal. In addition, I’ve been able to improve my After Effects skills through the technical sessions we’ve had. Finally, though I’m still very interested in this type of animation I think I need a bit of a break before doing it again and I learned that if I did want to do it again, I would give myself a lot more time for something like this so that I wouldn’t have to work constantly or end up with pain in my wrist and knees - or find somewhere else to do it so that I could always stand in front of the drawing. 

Improvements to the Final Outcome?

Considering it was my first hand-drawn animation I am quite happy with the result, but of course there are a few improvements that could be made. For example, I would change the look of the clouds at the start since they look too unnatural and jagged. In addition, you can see where sun was moving down and where the birds were – not sure how I could fix this except for having more sheets of paper and making more separate sequences, but then I’d also have the issue of having to make sure that the colours on these different papers would be exactly the same. Otherwise maybe correcting in Photoshop would be another idea but I really didn’t feel I had the time and skills to do that at this point – maybe if I had more time.

Another way to improve the animation would be to use stop motion equipment or just a cable and an app for stop motion that would allow me to see the last frame I drew on a screen while working on the next. Though I think I managed quite well without, there were definitely some areas where the movement wasn’t quite right - mostly with the birds coming out of the darkness. Here, I tried to get the movement of the birds that were most visible right, but I simply couldn’t check every bird since I just didn’t have the time to spare. Also, with more time I could have added the original plan of more frames for the birds coming out of the darkness, though I think I might actually prefer having more of the darkness, as it creates more of a sense of mystery and anticipation before the sunrise. 

[marvelandponder]

I ❤ Comics

Because I’m so incredibly creative, this month of Year of the Pony has been all about lurve. All kinds of the stuff! Self-love, romantic love, familial love, and, of course, some good ol’ fashioned friendship/platonic love.

But, we all know there’s one love to rule them all: dorky/fanatic love!

The obsessions and ideas that rule our hearts and, in MLP’s case, drive us ponies. 

As much as I don’t want to take all this too seriously, this kind of love really is something special. For many of us, it’s the reason characters stick with us for so long, through any kind of mood you can imagine. It’s why we get lost in fantastical worlds on our screens and pages, and come back feeling like we’ll never forget the adventure we went on. It’s common ground to socialize in if we wish, or a quiet comfort that yours and yours alone. 

These things mean so much to us that it becomes a part of our identity. I’m a Brony, I’m a Rainbow Dash fan, I’m a this that or the other. We want people to see us for things we love because we’re just that proud of them. So long as there’s a healthy dose of perspective in the mix, I think that’s a good thing.

And one of the nerdiest, if not the nerdiest MLP topics I could think of to geek out over is the official IDW comics (the Enterplay trading cards, Star Trek cast members voice-acting for the show, and upcoming table-top RPG, Tails of Equestria, obviously deserve some honourable mentions here, but the comics just gave me more to talk about on a technical level)!

I figured the best way to go about this would be to go by artist (sorry colorists, letterers, and editors; you’re necessary and appreciated but apparently not glamorous). Last month, when we dove a little into Design and Animation, I didn’t really get to talk about the teams behind the work---which is mostly because MLP is a script-driven show as opposed to a storyboard-driven show, so the same animation teams and the same style goes into every episode (unlike Steven Universe, for example, which is ‘board-driven)---but here, who’s working on a comic makes a massive impact on how it’ll turn out.

With that said, we’ll stick to the most reoccurring artists (and gloss over the writers to save on time); if you’re ever curious, you can check out this page on the wiki for a full list on who did what, but I really ramble on too much as it is. 

Artists 

Here’s a big name! Andy Price, the man with the shadows and long, bendy pones. Price excels a quite a lot in terms of expression, and I think it’s because he adds such a sense of drama to these characters without taking away the cuteness or light-hearted personalities we’ve come to love. 

If anything, he’s gotten to add personality, especially to characters like Celestia and Luna who express their emotion much less visually in the show. Just take a gander at the sketches he gives out at conventions!

And as to the shadows, look at how involved the shading is in these inked panels:

Just look at how much of his panels are darkened, and just how much more dramatic it looks than it would with flat or lightly shaded colours.

Even a simple scene can benefit from Price’s style:

See where the shadow draws your eye (even when the shot is coloured)? To the sinister looking rat emphasizing the books, to Sunset, and to the shocked librarian who would know these books best. If you’ve read this issue, you know Sunset’s reading some books she’s really not supposed to---and in fact this is what leads to her downfall.

It’s a simple panel, there’s not even a lot of dialogue on the finished product, but you can tell Price uses shadows to compose his shots in a way that tells the story visually. 

Also, a word on page layout (this isn’t necessarily exclusive to Price, but since we’re talking about layout in terms of one panel...):

This is one of those things that I had a hard time finding a place for in this post that I would kick myself for if I didn’t talk about. It’s something exclusive to the medium and something that’s extremely impactful (as comic fans know).

It’s the flow of the page. How your eye moves from one panel to the next, and how different movements are expressed.

Price is one of the many MLP comic artists who do this effectively. In the first example there, you can see how the emotion shifts as we go down the page, how Celestia’s mane both transitions us into the next panel, and seems to hide her reservations from Sombra, Luna, and Starswirl.

And in the next example, there’s this wonderful transition mid-panel at the bottom there that takes us from the interior of the train to an exterior shot outside of it for Applejack’s final line of the scene.

It’s things like this (and even the layout of the word-bubbles, because those take a surprising amount of consideration to place in a panel) that shows you the artistry and thought behind these comics, and Price’s art in particular.

A personal favourite of mine, for sure.

What’s special about Amy Mebberson’s art-style is how it’s tweaked just so from the show, but certainly stands on its own as it draws emphasis to the roundness of these designs.

You’ll probably notice the simplicity of Mebberson’s designs, especially compared to someone like Price, but look how that works to her advantage:

Check out how close to the show it is, but just a touch rounder. Cute, right? The eyes are cartoonishly big, the heads closer to perfect circles than we normally see even in a 3/4 angle shot, it just brings your attention to how sweet these characters are.

Then there’s the fact that her work will often be coloured with a really soft, soothing texture to boot:

That powdery softness only makes these ponies cuter---and here I thought they had laws against that kind of thing!

Another awesome big player!

The thing about Hickey’s art is that it’s often coloured so that the manes are especially shiny, making the characters draw focus and pop off the page.

And even when things aren’t especially shiny, she still often finds ways to use the background to emphasize the characters:

(Underrated moment in the comics award might have to go to this, by the way)

It’s a very simple snowy scene, but that matches the tone so expertly, so isolating Applejack, her breath, and the snow is an excellent choice to get the emotion across.

And when things are glossy, it strikes me how energetic the characters can still look.

When things look this polished, the worry tends to be that you might make the characters look stiffer, but Hickey’s style strikes such a great balance between polish and flexibility.

This art style comes with its pros and cons, in my opinion, but it can still serve MLP pretty well. Garbowska’s art is often coloured as if with coloured pencils, which gives everything a really soft, soothing finish, and in addition can make for some pretty cute pones.

The downside is two-fold: The characters can seem like they all have Same Face syndrome, if you know what I mean; and the ponies are often posed in needlessly anthropomorphic poses (we’ve certainly seen a few more human-like poses throughout the series---yes, Lyra, we love you, you oddball---but there are some poses that just seem uncomfortable and [to use a slightly redundant word] unnatural for them to want to be in).

Still most definitely a great part of the team, just with a few quirks that come along with the sweetness.

Welp. Guess I couldn’t steer clear of controversy entirely. Jay Fosgitt’s art style in and of itself is divisive among fans---like, really divisive.

The reason being the drastically different shape to everything. Compare a Fosgitt head to a Mebberson head, for instance, and you’ll see there’s a lot more emphasis on the foreheads and cheeks than on the muzzle or an overall roundness.

It’s a very distinct style that comes with its advantages and disadvantages. Fosgitt’s not afraid not go for some extreme expressions, for instance, and that can really serve the story well in chaotic and/or comedic situations, but he’s also had that same problem of putting ponies on their hind-legs when it doesn’t seem organic for them to do so, and combined with the proportions exaggerated the way they are (like sometimes I don’t know how those necks keep their heads up), that can make for an off-putting panel or two.

It’s definitely cartoony. I’ve never been able to place exactly what artstyle it reminds me of, but cartoony is a good word. It’s grown on me, personally, especially considering the improvement from issue to issue, but I thought I’d mention this never-ending debate so you could make up your own mind.

Tony Fleecs is a great addition to the team. He’ll often give the eyes a point or just a different shape, which takes some of the cartoonishness out, but still allows for some great expressions in a way we don’t normally get to see, with our bulbous-eyed characters.

It can especially work if he’s trying to capture something menacing:

So, I think he’s among the better ones.

On the other hand, there have been a few times Fleecs’s art has lacked depth solely because of how things are shaded, like here (I can obviously tell where everyone is in relation to each other, but it’s flatter than if there had been some shadows to it):

But overall that feels more like a nitpick.

Now, we’d be here all day if I started going into all the cover artists (as much as we appreciate their work), but there’s one in particular that’s done enough that I’d feel remiss leaving her out.

Sara Richard is a good name to know because once you know it, you’ll always be able to point out her art. She’s got some of the only traditional art in our little roster, and it’s often got some gorgeous swirls. So many swirls.

If I wanted to be crass, I could call it colour and swirl porn... so I will. It’s colour and swirl porn, and I love it.

Writers

To preface this section, I’d like to take a moment to steal a catchphrase from the ever insightful MovieBob, previously of Escapist fame: comics are weird.

Really, even the best and brightest of the medium will occasionally have some really out there arcs or issues. For every intellectually stimulating, deeply meaningful story you can tell with these characters, there’s a silly rendition of them that’s just... odd. The same Batman who comes to grips with the death of his second ward, Jason Todd, is the same one who later owns a Batcow, thanks to his son Damien.

Yes, Batcow is canon.

So, if genre-defining superhero comics have been known to divulge into stranger stories from time to time, it absolutely follows that we’d see the same from colourful, pony-based children’s comics. Basically, that shark-jumping weirdness just... comes with the medium.

You can make all sorts of arguments about the origins of that oddness---the creative freedom available, attention-grabbing to boost readership, the Comics Code Authority heavily censoring violence and delinquent behavior in the 50s and 60s which forced writers to come up with tamer but also more creative stories, etc---but one thing is clear, if you’ve noticed some interesting choices mixed in there, it might just be a comic book thing.

But, then again, there are also issues that go way more in depth than you would think!

In particular, I have to make mention of my absolute favourite arc (I never claimed to be unbiased): Reflections. For the details, the comedy the lore, the immaculate world-building, and the emotions---but most of all the character-building.

Starswirl is an absolute delight, the good King Sombra breaks your heart, Twilight faces exactly what I wanted her to face once she became a princess, and the Princesses and their sisterhood get to be developed even more here than they have been in the show (especially Celestia; here’s hoping season seven really will break that streak).

Okay, example time. 

Here’s a detail that was just pointed out to me recently that really nails all of this on the head (and granted, I don’t know whether this came from its writer Katie Cook, or the artist Andy Price, but if nothing else it shows you what they can do together):

Two silent frames that tell us so, so much. 

It’s a simple idea, that these parallel universes have developed in different ways, but that tells us so much about why Equestria’s technology is the way it is. Having the power to jump to more technologically advanced universes has allowed our Equestria to be as anachronistic as it has been---to have arcade machines and silent movie theaters, but not automobiles or light bulbs in common use.

But this is what the comics can do: contextualize. 

Take characters and worlds we love and expand on them in new lights. Some weird, strange, or just cute for the sake of being cute, but some more involved and some even inspired.

The comics, overall, can be pretty divisive in this fandom. There are fans who frequent them for every new issue, and those who have sworn off them entirely. Artists and writers we revere and some we outright revile. But when all is said and done, being able to take on this new perspective of MLP in an entirely different medium is something I for one really appreciate---especially when it’s this good.

Here’s some more pony analysis for you! The whole compilation post here, or three of the latest/most relevant, just for you:

EMLP: Design & Animation, Pinkie Pie’s Editorial, and Top 10 Cutest Families

Year of the Pony

Header Image and Art Wouldn’t be Possible Without...

Luna and Celestia by dSana Elements of Harmony by SpiritofthwWolf Elements of Harmony by TechRainbow

There’s of course all those great comic artists and writers to go check out, but aside from the official art in this post, there’s some hard-working fan-artists who made some stellar vectors! Check ‘em out!

Love Me Some Comic Books

[the-master-cylinder]

BACKSTORY Both Stuart Gordon and his producer Brian Yuzna had talked about doing the film ever since they’d first teamed up for Re-Animator. “It’s always been my favorite Lovecraft story,” beams Gordon. “At one time, it looked like we were going to do it in England.”

Scheduling conflicts on Gordon’s other “Italian” pictures prevented the deal from taking off. It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that a major studio and distributor finally expressed a sincere enough commitment to actually begin financing the project. “We set it up with Vestron,” Gordon recounts. “I had originally told them it would cost about $5 million. Vestron came back and said if we could do it for $4 million, we had a deal.”

Unlike other studio blowhards, Vestron put their money where their mouth was. “Vestron set us up in a production office,” Gordon details. “Brian and I did some location scouting through New England Massachusetts, Maine-and we managed to find an isolated town in Maine that was very much like Innsmouth. We also had the whole movie storyboarded and scheduled.”

Berni Wrightson, gifted illustrator and comics superstar hailed for Swamp Thing, was contacted and asked to consider the role of concept artist. Wrightson, is considered by his peers to have one of the finest hands in the business. His flowing, evocative pen-and-ink work is unparalleled in the graphic arts. Wrightson eagerly accepted the job. “It was the most fun experience I’ve ever had,” he attests. “I like working with Stuart. I loved Re-Animator, it reanimated me.”

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Like many. Wrightson remembers being disillusioned with the state of the horror film at the time he saw Re-Animator during its initial theatrical release. Then everything changed, forever. “I’d lost interest in horror films until I saw Re-Animator,” Wrightson confesses. “I’d given up. The imagination had gone out of them. It just wasn’t fun. Jason, Freddy, Michael-how can people keep coming back for the same old shit? I went to ReAnimator without any expectations, and I was absolutely delighted from the opening shot. It was like sitting through a real-life story from EC comics, drawn by Jack Davis.”

Wrightson had been devouring the works of H.P. Lovecraft since childhood and leapt at the chance to work on Shadow Over Innsmouth with a director he so admired. Wrightson had been out for the day and returned to find a phone message. His wife told him somebody named Gordon had called. “I wondered if it was the Stuart Gordon,” Wrightson gushes.

“Berni did some fabulous drawings and paintings for us,” Gordon praises. “He did a great job visualizing the creatures and making them scary. He played with the mutation idea. This wasn’t like a Planet of the Apes basic mask; each person had been affected in a different way.”

Wrightson worked nonstop for over a month and produced close to 70 drawings. Most were graphite illustrations, though several were done in color with mixed media. “Stuart told me to go crazy with it. We never settled on just one look,” Wrightson concurs. “Stuart kept wanting more and different designs. We had humanoid tadpoles, octopi, weird creatures with fins coming out of their ears.” The artist faithfully heeded Gordon’s directions and delivered a plethora of bizarre amphibious creatures that would eventually lead to a slight degree of consternation once the concepts were delivered to FX supervisor and makeup icon Dick Smith. “Dick called me.” Wrightson remembers, “and kind of scolded me, saying it wasn’t humanly possible. ‘You’ve got to have a human being under this stuff!

“Scolded’ is a bit strong.” smiles Smith, currently at work on Francis Coppola’s third Godfather film, “but this is a problem makeup effects people have with artists who work in two dimensions: You can draw anything you want-omit the brain pan, the cavity-yet then some designs can’t be done on a human being.”

Smith sculpted several full-size heads in addition to casting some prosthetic pieces designed as facial appliances. “I did a rough foam latex mouth and stuck it on somebody to see how it worked,” he discloses. “I was trying to avoid mechanical masks; they’re expensive and often counterproductive.” After the initial makeups were designed and proven viable, Smith was to act only as the film’s FX supervisor and consultant, with other crews employed to complete the actual fabrication and application. “The people I recommend are good enough that I’m not needed,” Smith adds. He picked Greg Cannom to execute the complex appliance makeup on the major characters because, “I saw a sculpture of his that I liked better than mine. His work is very organic.” John Caglione and Doug Drexler were to manufacture and apply the various other makeups and prosthetics needed for the close background creatures, as well as the slip-on masks to be worn by extras during the mob scenes.

Though by this time many participants’ hopes had been propelled to stratospheric heights, a Shadow Over Vestron began to gather, casting serious doubts on the ultimate feasibility of the project. Other production companies had expressed similar trepidation in the past, mostly because of the ambitious scope of the story.

“It’s a big picture,” Gordon explains. “You’re dealing with things that are notoriously scary for producers: lots of makeup effects, lots of water, needing an actual town for location shooting. And then there’s the story. The basic idea was a problem. If you explain it to another person, it sounds absurd. The idea of people turning into fish sounds like a joke.” Future developmental plans and preproduction meetings would refer to the mutants as “amphibious creatures.”

Both Gordon and writer Dennis Paoli knew that they also had to add some modern touches to a story that Lovecraft had set in the 1920s. Gordon, Paoli and producer Yuzna all had a hand in the original treatment, but it was up to Paoli to write a script that would measure up to show biz standards.

“What can I do to adapt to a ‘Hollywood’ viewpoint?” asks Paoli rhetorically. “Add a woman, since very few Lovecraft stories include women; speed the pace up, because Lovecraft is atmospheric; you have to have a scene at the beginning the hook, something that quickly tells the whole story.”

Special Makeup Effects supervised by Dick Smith

Special Makeup Effects supervised by Dick Smith

At one time, The Shadow Over Innsmouth was envisioned as a period piece. As Paoli notes, “Lovecraft feeds off the darkness of the 19th century, the puritanical side of New England culture.” Budgetary restrictions and commercial viability soon swayed the production team into a more modern approach. The town in Maine was replaced by one in Washington state. A fishy love story was added as subtext. Parts of another Lovecraft story, “The Thing on the Doorstep,” were added in order to heighten the drama. Gordon further isolated the town until it was entirely cut off from its neighboring burg. “We made it an island,” says Gordon, “so you had to take a ferry to get there. Both of the major location sites offered enthusiastic townspeople who were willing to do nearly anything to attract the film company. “They offered themselves as extras, said we could blow up a dockside building,” Gordon recalls appreciatively. “They were willing to let us do whatever we wanted to shoot the film in their town.”

However, both Gordon and Yuzna soon realized that their imaginations were running far ahead of the budget. Vestron was fairly adamant about the set figure and Gordon began to be haunted by the additional $3 million he figured would be needed to do the treatment justice. “It became very frustrating.” Gordon recalls. “The further we got into it, we realized it couldn’t be made for that. For less than $7 million, you would lose what made Shadow so special in the first place.”

Vestron refused to budge. Gordon counters, “For $4 million, there could be no town, probably just a house, with one family turning amphibious. We had a climactic sequence taking place on the reef; that too would have to go. Probably there would be no water in the story at all.”

Gordon arrived at a point where he knew the compromised version would be so far removed from Lovecraft that there would be no point in calling it The Shadow Over Innsmouth. “It was a mutual realization,” Gordon sighs. “We all knew we just couldn’t do it right for $4 million.” Despite Gordon’s overall cheerfulness and enthusiasm, it is at this point that a hint of genuine sadness and frustration begins to creep into his voice. This project obviously meant a helluva lot to all of them.

“It was a wonderful story,” adds Dick Smith. “It’s just a pity that the producers were stuck with the budget. Stuart didn’t want to do it half-assed, and I respect him for that.”

CREDITS/REFERENCES/SOURCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY FANGORIA#106 BEST OF FANGORIA 9

Empire Pictures – Shadow Over Innsmouth (1985/1991) Unfilmed BACKSTORY Both Stuart Gordon and his producer Brian Yuzna had talked about doing the film ever since they'd first teamed up for Re-Animator.

[drink-n-watch]

Editing Irina here: I have to admit this post got a bit away from me. instead of a simple list of anime directors I happen to like it turned into this little diatribe about the role of directors in anime production and now it’s way too long. Still I did enjoy writing it so I’m leaving it in but feel free to skip to the list section. I won’t be sad!

For some time I’ve been under the impression that anime directors have a much bigger impact on their end product than live action directors. By no means am I trying to imply that a traditional director does not shape the works they are a part of but for me, it wasn’t as flagrant. There are a lot of directors whose filmography stuns me. Unless they’re big names they don’t necessarily have that much control over the final cut so even renowned directors have some pretty confusing early movies. To me, I tend to notice writer directors way more, than those that stick to just directing.

But in anime, I almost never get caught off guard. I can usually see clear family resemblances between shows from a same series director even if they get produced by a different studio and are in completely different genres. I’m sure there are a lot of reasons for that but I think one of the main differences is storyboarding.

As far as I know, pretty much all shows and movies have storyboards. It’s a basic part of film production. I’m sure there are some rebels out there who just go out and wing it, but when it comes to animated works it’s considerably less optional. It also has more impact.

Even if a director didn’t write a particular series (or adapt it as is usually the case) they always have a final say on the storyboards, if they didn’t outright create them. The storyboards guide and shape the action in such a precise and deliberate way that it’s impossible not to leave a trace. This makes the director’s input as important and obvious as the writer.

or maybe not… no need to get mad

Of course, anime directors also have control of the appearance of a given series but unlike real life shows they are not bound by physical or budgetary constraints when it comes to setting and are never forced into bad casting…. Actually that’s not true. They don’t have to deal with any particular actor’s looks or physicality but they could get stuck with some horribly miscast voice actor and that can be just as damaging.

This said, as far as appearances go, animation in general allows for a much tighter control over the look of a series than would otherwise be possible. It also allows for easy signature looks. You know certain design styles and colours are favoured by certain directors and show up in most of their works. After a while you can tell at the glance when a new show is likely from a director you like. Of course you can get fooled.

The same type of signature look is very difficult and mostly, very expensive to recreate in a live action setting. Not to mention that because it is so involved, a lot of directors will purposefully avoid creating one as it can end up distracting from the story. I heard that in an interview. I don’t remember the director who said it but I like to think it was subtle shade at Tim Burton.

Animation is a more independent venture than traditional film making. Unlike actors on a set, animators do not have to be physically in the same room to create a scene. Everything is compartmentalized. Designers come up with a design. The tons of artists draw the different elements and scenes, separately. The images go somewhere else to be cleaned up and coloured. They then get put together and edited by different people once more. After that the voice and soundtracks are created. And all these people never even have to meet. The producer and director become much more vital to making sure all the moving parts fit together.

it sometimes works better than others

Because of how central the anime directors role is, they tend to leave their fingerprints all over the production. Not to mention that generally speaking, aside from new media (i.e. YouTube) most media has more oversight than anime and as such anime directors have more freedom to mould their shows than even western animation directors. Let me tell you, most of the stuff that comes out of the big anime studios would never fly at Disney. Wait, does Disney own anime now? It’s possible, they own everything else…

Once again, I want to make sure that I don’t sound like I’m trivializing the role of classic directors. They can make or break a movie or show in any format. I’m just saying that I personally feel the director’s presence more in anime than other mediums.

And it’s therefore particularly bad that I hardly ever acknowledge them. I speak or writers, voice actors, studios but I hardly ever mention directors. I would like to fix that today with a very short list of anime directors I am currently interested in. This is by no means an exhaustive list!

Hiroyuki Imaishi

Renowned key animator, director and co-founder of studio Trigger. Regardless of what people may say about Trigger’s narrative choices, most do agree that their productions are usually stylish and distinctive.

As a director Imaishi has helmed:

Dead Leaves (2004)

Gurren Lagann (2007)

Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt (2010)

Kill la Kill (2013)

Space Patrol Luluco (2016)

Promare (2019)

Considering my deep love for both Gurren Lagann, Kill la Kill and Promare, it’s not surprising that he tops my list. Beyond just the visual flare and fantastic palette choices, I find that Imaishi is very skilled at pacing high action with emotional verve. His works are often tongue in cheek and meant to convey deeper meaning and questioning through high speed antics and crazy over the top moments. He manages to balance out both plot and character development with good ole fashion fun in a way that has always managed to suck me in.

Kunihiko Ikuhara

A fantastic creator and veteran of the anime industry, if his name is attached to a project, it has my attention. Especially as a director. Utena alone was enough to win my devotion but this guy also directed:

Sailor Moon R (and a lot of Sailor Moon in fact – also Hell Yeah Sailor Moon!!!)

Revolutionary Girl Utena

Penguindrum

Yurikuma Arashi (will see this really soon)

Sarazanmai (I fell in love with this)

I don’t think I made my point clear enough, but Sailor Moon was a great series and it does NOT get enough credit. It should have been considered on of the Big Boys but somehow never makes the list. A travesty. Since Ikuhara often has a hand in writing or storyboarding the shows he directs, they often have a certain feel to them. That feel is bonkers. This guy loves him some surrealism and so do I. I don’t know what his next project will be but count me in.

Yuki Yase

Ok, I’m not gonna lie, I enjoy good visuals and strong compositions. I sort of give them disproportionate importance. So the director of Fire Force made this list. Whatever else it may be, the series has given me some of my best gallery posts by far.

Yuki Yase may not be quite as seasoned as the two I mentioned so far and although he’s worked as an episode director a lot (and in some very prestigious shows), he only has a few full series to his name:

Fire Force (TV)

Hidamari Sketch × Honeycomb (TV)

Kubikiri Cycle: Aoiro Savant to Zaregoto Tsukai (OAV)

Mekakucity Actors (TV)

Admittedly aside from Fire Force I’ve only seen Mekakucity Actors but it made an impression. I would say he is one of the most adventures directors I know, unafraid to experiment with productions. Sometimes even a bit too much but then again, I appreciate the verve. Both shows are distinctive and visually interesting which is enough to make me want to see what’s next.

Naoyoshi SHIOTANI

Naoyoshi Shiotani has been in the business for a while and racked up quite a few credits but as a director, he’s basically done two things. Blood+ and Psycho Pass. But pretty much all of Psycho Pass) I haven’t watched the second season of Psycho Pass (and I haven’t great things), but I have seen clips of it. And one thing I enjoy about Shiotani is his consistence. I can tell its Psycho Pass from a mile away. And it’s not all up to character designs and backgrounds. Colour choice, voice actor delivery, movement framing and camera angles. All of them have a very specific style and remain true in both movies and series throughout the years. There’s a dedication to his direction which I just appreciate. He also manages to spread out a complicated story in such a way that it’s clear for the audience without talking down to the viewers. That’s a gift.

Takuya Igarashi

Wikipedia makes a point of stating that Igarashi is a freelance director, I’m not sure why. And I might never have picked up on this guy until last season of Bungo Stray Dogs basically made me get a pinterest account so I could keep all my screencaps safe. It was gorgeous. The framing in the series, the angles… Beautiful and masterfully integrated into the atmosphere and ambiance of the series.

Bungo Stray Dogs (TV) : Bungo Stray Dogs (TV 3) :

Bungo Stray Dogs 2 (TV) : ) Bungo Stray Dogs: Dead Apple (movie) : Bungo Stray Dogs: Hitori Ayumu (OAV) : Captain Earth (TV) :

Ojamajo Doremi (TV) :

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars (TV) (Hells Yeah Sailor Moon)

Soul Eater (TV) (whoa)

Star Driver (TV)

Zatch Bell: Attack of Mechavulcan (movie 2)

So I guess the moral of the story is, I like directors who worked on Sailor Moon at some point? Good moral. Let’s go with that!

I am going to start paying more attention to the production team when new anime get announced cause that’s usually the best indicator of how likely I am to enjoy a show. Who am I kidding..? I’m gonna look at the promo picture band decide entirely based on that. Reading is hard guys! But maybe I’ll look at the production staff of the first few shows! Baby steps.

Do you have any favourite anime directors? Who are they?

Way Too Long My Top 5 Anime Directors post Editing Irina here: I have to admit this post got a bit away from me. instead of a simple list of anime directors I happen to like it turned into this little diatribe about the role of directors in anime production and now it's way too long.

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S1 Ep28: Bakura Can Still Kill Everyone If He Really Wanted To

First off--my apostrophes work again! Many thanks to the tumblr staff who helped out and will never see this post. Now I can update without looking like my computer is encrypting itself as I go.

So guys, I’m all about weird TV and weird movies. I watched the entirety of Color of Pomegranates. I just want you to know that because when I say that “wow this got weird real fast” we are going by my metrics. It’s not as weird as Color of Pomegranates, because well...it has a plot that isn’t under four layers of symbolism and esoteric Armenian poetry, but whenever we have a Bakura episode, stuff just gets UNEXPECTED.

But first, the most wonderful thing has happened:

I mean kind of a weird choice to put some of these things together, but this was about .5 seconds of screen time, I’m just special and can pause to realllllly take it in. Mm.

(Read more under the cut for EVEN MORE FOOD)

Man!

MAN!

What did I do to deserve all this good anime food in the same episode as Bakura doing something completely nuts (again)?

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and we have to go back to cards, which for some reason is still the crux of this show...I think. This is still a show about cards, right? I’m no longer completely sure.

At the start of the season, Yugi was gifted these two cards as entrance tickets to the Island of Regret where they are now hanging out. These cards are how you collect your prizes if you win. The one with money is the prize of 3 million (or is it 300 million? It’s been a while since I’ve heard the number). The blank one is the chance to beat Pegasus. I assume your soul will go in the blank one after he beats you.

Youknow, it’s really a shame we never got to see the stats on Grandpa, Mokuba, and Seto cards. I don’t think they even had any. I mean, when Bakura turned his friends into cards, at least they had stats.

Anyways, some of our contestants have suddenly remembered that they actually have no right to this contest.

But, turns out Pegasus also has an interest in anime food, so he’s done something a little extra for...some reason.

DEAR LORD. I mean it’s not a real eyeball but think about the eye grease for a moment. Firstly, I don’t even know if you have to grease up a false eyeball and I want to look it up but I am too afraid. Secondly, now my mind is thinking of every unctuous substance that may or may not grease up a false eyeball. It does not pair well with pumpkin soup.

There’s eyeballs...in the soup...

This is when you go home. This is when you say “sorry Gramps, but...I am pretty sure that guy is a cannibal, I gotta goooooo.”

I mean, again, it’s not a real eyeball but freakin A are they having a weird halloween dinner party? Why would you do this? Why would you EVER put your own eyeball facsimiles in the soup? Is it like “eat my ass” but “eat my eyes” ?

Pegasus doesn’t get many guests and I can start to see why Kaiba hated him so damn much. Can you imagine working with this guy on a daily basis as the head of a large corporation while constantly getting pranked with his weird ass eyeballs?

Does it say “I open at the close?”

Why did they do -- what?!

This was all about a stupid bracket? What the hell, Yugioh?

The boys decide to throw caution to the wind about what may or may not be in this bizarre dinner that not even Pegasus wants to eat and they fully gorge themselves and get a real good food baby belly going.

I guess Yugi didn’t really eat because he is fully alert and his empty beacon eyes are still one of the most spooky things on this show.

Yugi decides to hand off his card to Joey right in the view of Bandit Keith, and Joey only takes it when Yugi convinces him that now they’d have twice the chance to beat Pegasus. I mean, not really, actually, but it was still a nice thing to say. Yugi is a kid of sooo many good intentions.

Mai goes to bed and says this actual line from the show.

Despite the fact that she’s so acidic about...eh...75% of the time, she really is the nicest person they have met on this horrible, terrible island. In fact, everyone is ready to tuck in to the most clearly haunted murder castle as if eyeballs weren’t just hanging out in their soup. What a bizarre heartwarming round of goodnights, as if there wasn’t clearly several people out to very much kill them living in the same castle as them.

This is how Agatha Christie novels start.

This episode does not actually dive into Joey’s gigantic donut dream, which is a shame.

Because this episode, it’s time for our B-team to shine.

I love the implication here that Tristan first knocked on Bakura’s door, woke him up with this and then Bakura clearly answered along the lines of “Bollucks, Tristan, I am not doing this right now” to which, Brakura dragged him down to Tea’s door in the hope that Tea would be at all reasonable.

Which backfired him in a major way because Tea and Tristan are desperate to chase some snipes and prove themselves useful.

I honestly can’t tell if Bakura even likes these guys. I mean, I get that they’re school friends but, this guy was introduced as totally murdering them and then getting magically “cured” with the same cure that failed on Seto Kaiba. The fact that this meek little fake-british accent can get so easily snowplowed by Tea and Tristan is never clearly just an act or just him getting snowplowed.

But, apparently there’s some part of him that is still that tiny little nice-side-of-Bakura, so dutifully, he decides to babysit, since the only other psychic they got around is currently having an eyeball-soup induced dream.

Back at the dueling arena, Tea decides to stand guard/do nothing as usual.

Tristan reveals why he has a grudge against Psychics.

Tristan’s character is pretty flat. It basically revolves around mothering everyone elses problems and pining about Serenity who is barely a character on this show. I always figured that Tristan was at least smarter than Joey and Yugi, who can be kind of...dumb, but it turns out Tristan is just as empty between the ears.

He gets completely fascinated by a beam of light shining through a window. Forget looking for cameras. Forget the fact that this room was full of Pegasus’ mooks, some of which were standing right behind Kaiba. Na. He’s gonna Sherlock Holmes straight to this window.

During Bakura’s desperate pleas to get these two assholes back to bed, Yugi is getting some crazy as hell conspiracy theories from Grandpa.

Oh, so he’s like a normal grandpa then? Once my Grandma told me that the entirety of San Fransisco would fall into the ocean during an Earthquake and she was EXTREMELY concerned about my safety (despite the fact I live inland, not in San Fransisco), so this dream Yugi’s having sounds like a pretty average dinner conversation with your Grandparents.

No one expects Bakura, not even the colorist.

And then for some reason they want Tea to go first in their climb up the tower although no reasonable girl in a mini skirt would do this in front of two boys.

Isn’t she a freakin dancer? Maybe she’s not as strong as Tristan but she’s certainly the best balanced of the two and could climb way easier because she’s lighter. And Bakura is clearly the weakest but, whatever.

Back in dreamland, Yugi’s grandpa join’s up with the other cards in card hell as if they’re some sort of Grandfather, asshole son, and ghost child card hell trinity

Oh yeah, I nearly forgot I was watching an anime for a second. Nothing like devilish blue fire to make you remember oh yeah, that’s a fine anime fire choice.

But rather than dwell too much on that artistic direction of blue fire, lets see if anything at all was inside of the red herring tower.

They’ve been slipping a picture of this chick all over the place. I’m surprised it took until now, when she’s like 15 feet tall, for them to finally notice “Hey maybe there’s something up with this random chick who is clearly a dead person Pegasus was close to”

Now I gotta get a little art nerdy on you for a moment because this storyboarder is really good at sneaking in people’s reactions right near the focal point without making them the focal point. This whole framing of Bakura’s tired face happens so quickly and I just want to spend a little moment for us to appreciate our storyboarder’s sense of humor.

Now, somehow. SOMEHOW things are going to get weirder.

Because with all this dream sequence stuff happening this looks like it’s a dream but I’m going to come out and say no, this is actually happening. They have, indeed, fallen into some tomb under the castle covered in Egyptian murals and people are chanting about sacrificing souls as offerings.

This happens SO QUICKLY.

THE HELL????

Like remember when I was like “How did all these skeletons get here? what’s up with these skeletons?” I didn’t actually really want them to tie up those loose ends but here we are.

So this has been going on this entire time!? For the past 28 episodes? When Kaiba was like “man Pegasus is the worst!” He didn’t feel like bringing up the crazy killer cult that was living under the island?

And to top it off, Bakura already knows what’s going down. He knows and is quickly getting more and more urgent to get away.

Oh, and PS, The cards we’ve been using these past 28 episodes are now giant stone tablets. Bakura mentioned once that the millennium ring was supposed to work alongside Duel Monsters. And he was like “but duel monsters is like ten years old so whatever” but it turns out that was a complete lie because there’s an ancient version that uses 10 foot tall tablets instead of cards. Their decks would be like 6000 lbs.

Also you die at the end of Ancient Duel Monsters, that part is different, too.

I have so many questions.

I mean you find out when you’re a kid that Ring around the rosies was actually about people dying of the plague and go “eh that’s sad” but it’s nothing like Ring around the Rosies killed people and made serial murderers into magical evil psychics.

I mean it’s never actually said, but there’s enough evidence here that I’d like to think Yugi was sleep running all over the castle during half this episode saying “grandpaaaazzzs” while Bandit Keith was like “OMG are any of them going to go to bed so I can finally steal their stuff?”

But back to the stuff that is actually not a dream and definitely happening. Pegasus pulls back his hood and decides to give them a quick Q and A before he outright kills them.

And so, Bakura, who has been playing dumb for...I dunno, 10+ episodes, who has been doing nothing spectacular and who has been clumsy and sort of a space cadet finally reveals that “yeah, that mind wipe did literally nothing, I’m a still an evil son of a bitch”

And they have a...shine off. Or something. It’s very hard to look directly at.

Thing is, from what we’ve learned, Pegasus is super duper powerful because he’s been killing people under here for many, many years. Every time he does a murder, his power grows. Which means...Bakura should be at a loss since he’s like 12 and...how many people can a 12 year old really murder?

Says a lot about your relationship if you can’t take 2 steps forward without getting Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind-ed 4 steps right back where you started.

Welp that’s it, guys! that’s Season 1! Bakura did it! He beat Pegasus! Why Bakura decided to retcon the REAL ending of Season 1 and just put everyone (including the villain) back as if it never happened is a little weird, but hey--at least I got through it. I did it. I recapped all of Yugioh Season 1. I’m proud of me!

Bakura will go back to playing dumb probably for another 10-15 episodes until he can steal that eyeball off of Pegasus. Apparently there wasn’t a good enough opportunity for eyeball theft when he was doing the weird laser show thing.

I assume somewhere, Pegasus is also sitting on his bed in his day clothes and thinking “the hell just happened?” but rather than look at one of his zillions of security cameras is like “well, that’s psychics!”

I’d like to think that Bandit Keith saw Bakura dragging Tea and Tristan’s bodies down the hall and they just nodded at eachother like “crazy evening, amiright?”

Also, a lot of this episode would have been different if any of these people locked their own doors. Like this, for instance, wouldn’t have been able to happen.

Then five minutes later the sun rose.

I mean it’s the only explanation for all the nuts stuff that went down last night.

Next week, on Yugioh:

Will Pegasus have a splitting headache for all of tomorrow and be wearing sunglasses the whole time? Will Pharaoh reveal that in his time off he got really into All My Children? Will they seriously go the third day without washing their clothes? These kids must SMELL.

The hell just HAPPENED?

[recentanimenews]

The Uniquely Creative Dream Worlds of "18if"

18if is a celebration of individuality. Like the episodic anime creators' playground Space Dandy before it, each episode is an independent story in a longer adventure; however, 18if takes things one step further. While Space Dandy had something of a coherent vision behind it, 18if has no single director, and each episode operates with a new creative lead every week. This unusual structure offers the opportunity to bring in new character designers, new animation staff, and entirely different narrative themes. Every. Single. Episode. To put it simply, no single episode is indicative of the entire series—it's almost as if it's a brand-new show every episode.

  The studio behind 18if, Gonzo, is a place where shows as weird as this one come to life. Originally founded as a response to the lack of Gainax TV series at the time, Gonzo was set up with the intent of bringing new levels of creativity and innovation to anime. However, although many of the original teams have moved on to new studios and series (for example, many of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures' most distinctive qualities are due to the ex-Gonzo staff working on the show), by working with staff that value creative freedom like Hiroshi Ikehata for Akiba’s Trip and Koji Morimoto for 18if, the studio has kept their core values consistent.

  The premise of 18if is a simple, and flexible, one. Our protagonist, Haruto, is trapped inside of a dreamworld. In order to survive and escape, he must overcome the problems of the “witches” that also become entrapped along with him. It's a perfect setting for a show whose biggest goal seems to be creating a distinct experience every week. With supervision (but not series direction) by famous film director Koji Morimoto and the designs supervised by cognitive psychology enthusiast and veteran animator Hiroko Kazui, the only requirement here is that it has to be weird.

  Like many anime directors, Koji Morimoto appreciates being given the freedom to create the sort of animation that he feels is the most stylistically interesting. This desire was the main motivation that drew him to being involved with 18if, and he even took the opportunity to direct the series’ 10th episode himself. Furthermore, under Morimoto's supervision, the creators working on 18if's different episodes have had a chance to shine—and to display their own individuality as creators.

  One of the standout episodes of 18if was episode 7, which was led by Last Exile director Kouichi Chigira. Animated in 3D with character designs by Indonesian artist Rianti Hidayat Wong (whose also known as an artist The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild), this episode took total advantage of the dream setting, producing the one of the show's most unique episodes. Opting not to use the original character designs, Rianti Wong’s fun, fairytale-esque drawings are both unique and surreal additions to the ensemble of creativity.

  This is just one in a whole series of examples of how 18if has brought together singular creative talents to create something special and unique. The only thing to expect from each episode is the unexpected. Whilst most series are cases of “if you didn’t like the first three episodes, you probably won’t like the rest,” 18if is a different case entirely. If nothing else, the show's first three episodes are merely the first salvo in 18if's greatest trait—that it gets noticeably more ambitious with each passing episode.

  One might  say this pattern culminated in the episode directed, written, and storyboarded by Koji Morimoto himself. Although Morimoto was the Chief Supervisor for the entire series, it’s evident from this episode how little he has exerted his influence on the aesthetic styles of each director’s episode. Morimoto's episode is like nothing else in 18if, seemingly proving the point that, if he wanted anything from this series, it was to encourage creators to take their own path, rather following his lead and only creating what might have been expected of them. The end result is that Morimoto’s own episode remains entirely distinct (as do the other episodes in the series). Although there are 18if episodes with weirder worlds and premises, his position as both an animation director and key animator on the episode lends it an entirely unique form of movement. It’s the episode worth watching the whole series for.

A mecha, a drama, an action, an adventure, a romance? 18if encompases everything. Rather than describing it as a series, it’s perhaps better regarded as an anthology of short films with the same cast and premise, but also with wildly different stories and ways of telling them. Some episodes don’t even use the same opening as the others. So as long as you’re prepared to face the weirdest and most wildly inconsistent anime in recent memory, 18if is one of the hidden highlights of the season.

---

Callum May is on an unending quest to make the anime industry seem cool and interesting. You can follow his journey on The Canipa Effect Youtube channel or follow his Twitter.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[creativesip-blog]

10 Tips on Hiring a  animation company in dubai

On the off chance that you have somewhat of a financial plan, hiring an animation company in dubai can be the ideal answer for your requirements. However, how would you know who's an ideal choice for your venture? Here's our guide on hiring an amazing illustrator.

 1. Have a sensible spending plan

 Animation isn't shabby and there's an explanation behind that.

 It's truly talented work and takes a considerable measure of practice to make them look amazing. On top of that, it's tedious. You must get outline by-casing delineations (for 24 FPS work, that is 1440 drawings for consistently!) and any voice work/sound you require on top of that. One moment of animation can take 4 weeks to be finished from pre to after generation, and that will cost in any event $1500 for a 2D animation. This will fluctuate depending on the multifaceted nature of the fine art. For the most part, in the event that you need something more cartoony it will be less expensive, while truly definite workmanship is going to drive the cost up. 3D animation is an entire other ball game – for that it will be around $4000 every minute.

 Essentially, you're going to require in any event $1000-$2000 in case you're in the market for an animation company in dubai.

 In any case, the greater part of this sounds like a bargain when you consider that Disney are budgeting a staggering $24,156 for each second of animation!

 2. Have a reasonable reason in mind.

 Individuals need illustrators for a wide range of activities – explainer recordings, music recordings, energized shorts… You'll need to employ an animation company in dubai who's knowledgeable about the work you need. Have an outline of the item or administration prepared for their scrutiny. In the event that it's for imaginative purposes, a storyboard or plot rundown is useful.

 3. Know your timeline

 At the point when takes every necessary step should be finished? Be practical in this. As we said before, one moment of animation can take 3-5 weeks to be finished. Both individuals and animation studios will put a premium on surge work.

 4. What style do you need?

 The conceivable outcomes are unfathomable. In any case, not all animation company in dubai can do a similar thing – so think about what kind of animation you're looking for. Here's a synopsis of the three most basic sorts:

 1.     Classical 2D Animation. The ideal example for animation all in all. Think outdated Disney, similar to Snow White and The Lion King.

 2.     Digital 3D Animation. 3D animation delivers more practical models than 2D and it's truly prominent in the motion picture industry at this moment, as found in movies like Frozen.

 3.     Stop-motion. Outline by-casing recordings of models which are then sewed together to give the impression of smooth motion. Think Wallace and Gromit.

 5. Post a better than average brief

 In the event that your brief is correct, the correct animation company in dubai will choose themselves. An ambiguous brief, then again, is quite recently going to pull in individuals who don't have the correct aptitudes for your venture. You'll wind up wasting time trawling through insignificant show reels and interviewing the wrong applicants. Your venture brief ought to cover the greater part of the above, yet here's a fast reminder:

 1.     What's the animation for?

 2.     Timeline.

 3.     Budget.

 4.     Style of animation.

 6. Take a gander at reels

 So your brief has contributes flooding and you're feeling a bit overpowered. However, as with any craftsman, you ought to make a request to see their portfolio. An animation company in Dubai portfolio is known as a 'reel'. Looking at these isolates the good product from the refuse.

 7. Step by step instructions to know whether an illustrator's work is great

 Affirm, so you're looking at reels yet it's not clearing anything up. All things considered, you're not knowledgeable in animation. And also the ordinary methods for judging an animation company in dubai, this is what you ought to construct your judgements with respect to:

 1. Specialized capacity.

 Are scenes all around created? Are moves between edges smooth and consistent? Is the shading palette a decent decision?

 2. Past experience

 Is their past experience applicable? Because an artist's work is incredible doesn't imply that they're appropriate for your venture. You likely would prefer not to procure a toon artist for a demo video, for instance. Correspondingly, in the event that you need 3D animation don't employ somebody who's exclusively worked in stop movement some time recently.

 Again, if your brief is point by point, you ought to just get pitches off artists who do have the correct understanding.

 8. Talk with the Company

 You've investigated reels and have an entirely decent waitlist. To settle on that final choice, it's a smart thought to mastermind a talk with the animation company in dubai, you're interested in. A fast talk on Skype works similarly also.

 9. Set it in stone with an agreement

 Once you've chosen to contract somebody, you can't simply wing it. Contracts are 100% important for an animation company in dubai. We can't stress this enough. Lay out the terms, the expectations, deadlines and installment terms. At the point when that is done, you're ready!

 10. Appreciate the finished item!

 Congrats! 3 after 5 weeks, you'll be finished! You've explored these deceptive waters and your fantasy animation is prepared to be conveyed into the world. So appreciate it!