#IM CRAZY ABOUT THIS ARTSTYLE ITS BEAUTIFUL

[ashtxeman]

WHY I LIKE GLASS JOE A LOT

I promised a lot of information about why I like Glass Joe so I wrote this in an hour with no plan, no proof reading, completely improvised. If I planned this it would probably be WAY longer lol but I'll spare you all the pain of that. SO. ENJOY MY REASONING.

Glass Joe. Glass Joseph. Fragile Joey. It’s a name that’s been uttered for centuries in many different forms, given many different explanations. Critics, theorists, philosophers alike have carved away at their lives trying to solve the answer to the universe's greatest question. And that is:

Glass Joe, good why?

I can answer that, absolutely.

HEY I LOVE GLASS JOE A LOT IF YOU DIDN’T KNOW THAT ALREADY JUST GOTTA ESTABLISH THAT HAHAHA OKAY LETS GO. SHOUTOUT TO THE FUCKING RTGAME PUNCHOUT VIDEO YOU DID THIS TO ME.

POINT 1: HE IS HANDSOME.

I swear to God this man was hand-crafted by the hands of an incomprehensible deity because HOW is he this flawless. He’s 5’10, great height honestly I’m 5’3 I don’t want to be dating a skyscraper you know. He’s a skinny bastard but that’s okay, more on that later. His hair, oh my goodness gracious, lord above, help me Jesus. HIS HAIR. IS SO GOOD. If you put that skateboard ramp ass hairstyle on literally any other character they would look like a dumbass, but here, on this man alone, it’s the most delicately poised series of ginger strands I ever did see.

His hair looks SO soft. It’s unbelievable. It’s such a lovely shade of auburn with hints of burgundy. It must smell like cinnamon. He must take great care of it. A real Head and Shoulders, coconut oil, double wash kinda guy. A real bougie kinda guy. Yeah he’s not great physically in SPORT terms but in PUBLIC terms he’s absolutely stunning and stronger than anybody else. I wanna run my fingers through his silky locks so bad it’s insane and to understand this desire I’ll have to be strapped down and operated on. DONATE MY BRAIN TO SCIENCE GO AHEAD. THEY NEED IT. 

Not to mention it is SO fun to draw. SO SO SO FUN. Maybe I’m just lucky it’s such a wacky and dynamic hairstyle it transfers quite well into my artstyle, but it’s so fun. It’s easy, it’s fast, it creates an absolutely iconic silhouette, I love colouring it because it’s so damn pretty and ginger/red is such a broad colour scheme that can be put into a gradient so well (i love doing gradients with hair cause i hate when its just a block of colour). Nobody could understand the sheer joy i get putting that dumbass ahoge between the bridge of his fringe and the rest of his hair. That little ‘ right at the top ITS SO FUN. i love him his hair is great.

His face. Carved like the works of the finest artest. He’s a canvas of quality that can rival Van Gogh, for god sake. He’s got the jawline of a man on a lifelong mewing streak, STOP IT HE’S SO GORGEOUS I CANT EVENNNN. He is seriously so good looking. His eyes, the little pink-tinted eyebags that show he doesn’t need sleep because he’s so hardcore on caffeine, his gorgeous big ol nose i wanna kiss so bad, his super dynamic chin i wanna kiss so bad, his face i wanna kiss so bad. I wanna kiss him so bad. He is genuinely such a beautiful man its stunning, im literally a lesbian but if they somehow brought glass joe into the real world looking exactly how he does in those GOD DAMN CUTSCENES OOOOO i’d be bisexual so fast it’s crazy. He’s just that great. He’s got that power. I love his nervous little grin and the little creases on his face, cause he’s OLD AND SENILE. He’s 38 for god sake he shouldn’t look this good and sure, you can see his age slipping in a little with the eyebags and the wrinkles but that only ADDS to how stupidly divine he is in appearance. Stop that handsome man officer!! He’s breaking the laws of BEAUTY. GIVE IT TO MEEEEE. MEEEE.

His fashion sense although odd (ive never actually seen anyone wearing red trousers) just works. It wouldnt work on anyone else but it works on HIM. this is a theme. THINGS DONT WORK ON OTHER PEOPLE BUT THEY WORK ON JOE HE’S SO COOL LIKE THAT. his turtleneck kills me its so good it highlights what little figure he has and it contrasts his red hair so well cause its a really deep blue. SIGH. i wish. I have a turtleneck thats exactly the same but let me tell you i dont even breath the same air of fashion that he breathes. He’s so far ahead of the game he’s on an entirely different runway. He is not gonna sashay away anytime soon. On a constant shante. Unstoppable.

POINT 2: HE EMBODIES HIS CULTURE WELL.

Cats out of the bag, joe is a french stereotype. But. and dont quote me here. I find it very admirable HOW he is a french stereotype. Because he kind of.. Isn’t? He uses the characteristics of that stereotype sure, but he doesn’t engage with them the same way an actual french stereotype would. He likes coffee, he likes bread, he loves France like its his child, sure. But he doesnt have a twirly moustache, he doesnt wear a beret, he doesnt galavant around in black and white mime clothing. Even if that would be funny yknow it just wouldnt be as good. 

His admiration of coffee and bread is so relatable cause hell, I LIKE BREAD AND CAFES AND STUFF! He needs that coffee to keep him going you dont understand. If he misses a dose of caffeine he’ll deflate like the pyramids did in despicable me 1. He’ll be a puddle on the floor, he’ll quite literally cease to exist. Coffee is his golden idol, his hand of midas, his treasure. He has great willpower (more on that later) but coffee is that secret weapon he uses to push him just a little bit further. Plus he just thinks it tastes good and is happy to express that, you cant blame the guy for that. A good drink is a good drink. Even though i dont like coffee he’s so happy with it i respect it. He makes things i dont like respectable. Thats whats so real to me. What a goat. As for bread, bread is just great. Baguettes are yum. All the french bread i know about is usually close to white bread and autism behold thats like the only bread i can bear to eat so its alright with me man. You can go to joes house and he will have one of those fancy bread cupboards. He’ll pull out baguettes like he’s at a renaissance fair and they have a sword shortage. He’s on the case. You will NOT leave his house on an empty stomach. Like a very caring grandma, he will get you fed with the most immaculate 5 star meal you ever did eat. French food is great and theres no doubt about that, thats why he loves FOOD. I TRUST HIM. HE KNOWS WHATS GOOD. if mr glass joe turned around to me and said ‘broken glass is good food’ you bet your ass id be smashing windows and munch munch crunching all day long. 

Maybe his admiration of his country is a little over the top to some. You know the french landmarks in the back of his cutscenes, the ‘vive le france’ and singing the national anthem. But no. i dont think its excessive, i think its passionate. This is undeniably a man that is SO passionate about his culture and the lifestyle he’s grown up around, he’s not afraid to express it to other people until they cant stand it anymore. He’ll take as many hits as he needs to in the name of france. He is an embodiment of everything endearing about being foreign, honestly. An extreme love for the things his country has: food, landmarks, fashion, language, culture. EVERYTHING IS ON HIS LIST. NOTHING IS LEFT OUT. HE LOVES FRANCE AND I LOVE HIM. YES SIR!! VIVE LE FRANCE!! YES!!! 

Also he single-handedly convinced me to start learning french. I seriously didnt care about it before but after i started to like him more and really get into punchout i downloaded duolingo and i still have a streak going AND im actually convinced to try hard in my french lessons and exams because yknow.. I want this fictional french guy to be proud of me. :] 

POINT 3: HE IS DETERMINED.

OHHHHHH BOY. okay right im gonna get inspirational here. Play some dramatic orchestral music or something. 

The thing about Glass Joe is that he never. Gives up. Never. There is nothing in the world you could do to this man that could possibly stop him from boxing. They call Kaiser a fighting machine but boy have they not seen Joe. once that man stepped into the ring for the first time, he’d found a second home, and i think thats evident. 100 times this man has fallen down, brushed it off and gotten right back up. He’s had hardships, ups, downs, tumbles, falls. But everytime, no matter what, he’s back on his feet and ready to try again. And there is something so admirable and inspirational about that kind of approach being written into a CHARACTER THAT IS MEANT TO BE A FRENCH STEREOTYPE. ‘GHHHH FRENCH PEOPLE ALWAYS SURRENDER ACSHUALLY’ SHUT UP!! NOT THIS ONE!! I like to think Joe’s motto is ‘never surrender’. Yes he’s a little self aware how ironic it is thats hes french and doing all this but shhh. He knows whats hes doing and he’s happy to do it. Because like ive said again and again, theres nothing that can stop him. 100 kos, 200 kos, 300, 400… you keep cranking that number up and he’ll keep cranking the punches. Keep those lights up, keep those gloves on, you knock Joe down and eventually, no matter how long it takes, he’s back for more.

Now dont misinterpret that, he’s not a masochist like aran ryan, no sir-ee. He doesnt enjoy losing, nobody does. But the thing is he pushes past that disappointment and those hardships because he knows that eventually, if he keeps on going, things are going to change. He knows that if he lays down the gloves and walks away, there’s no possibility of succeeding. You could drop Joe off on the other side of the world and just like that immortal snail, he’s gonna find a way back. Even if it takes forever. Cause he is weak but determined, he isn’t threatening but relentless, he is stoppable but unstoppable. Glass joe has the strongest will out of any character i know. Cause if any of my other favourites went through 100 whopping losses like he did, they’d retire on a tropical island and never interact with the world again. But not joe. Never joe. My king.

POINT 4: HE IS ENDEARING.

THIS GUY IS SO DAMN CHARMING IT MAKES ME WANT TO EXPLODE INTO CONFETTI AND GLITTER AGHHHHH.

Come on. How can you look at his smile, his lovely little, subtle smile with those shy old eyes, and not immediately fall in love with him. He’s got some many little subtle things. Like the way his pupils dart around or his little sway back and forth when he’s knocked out or the way he bounds back and forth on his legs like an old-timey guy about to have a squabble. The way his mouth goes :0 so very subtly when he’s breathing. The way he always looks either shocked beyond repair, completely zooted or very confused. It’s all so perfect. IT’S ALL THESE THINGS THEY MAKE HIM BRILLIANT.

Im seriously looking for scraps here but i love finding meaning in otherwise meaningless things. I love analysing every detail until there is literally nothing else i could possibly say about it. He is perfect for this.

His fucking VOICE. OHHH MY GOD. it was so damn funny the very first time i heard his voice, because honestly it feels deliberate how they put his humble cutscenes before his first bit of dialogue so you expect this soft-spoken kinda light-voiced french guy only to be greeted with CHRISTIAN BERNARD’S DEEP ASS VOICE. OHHH KILL ME HE SOUNDS SO HANDSOME I WANNA SINK INTO THE FLOOR AND CRY WITH JOY. i wouldnt even mind if he was a soft-spoken light-voiced french guy but they really had to amp it up a little and give this lowly frenchman the most eloquent unnecessarily deep and silky voice ever. HE DIDNT NEED THAT. BUT THANK YOU FOR GIVING HIM THAT NINTENDO CAUSE ITS ONE OF HIS GREATEST QUALITIES. Plus french is just a really fun language to listen to. I could honestly sit listening to joe’s voicelines on repeat for hours on end and be fine with it. They’re so good. He’s so beautiful sounding. Its absolutely hilarious considering his voice in comparison to appearance. COME ON!!! AAHAHHGGHGHGHGHGHGHGHAGHGHS I LOVE CHRISTIAN BERNARDS VOICE I WISH I COULD HEAR HIM SPEAK IN ENGLISH. I NEED MORE OF HIS VOICE. AGGGGGHHHHH. 

POINT 5: WHATEVER ELSE

I erm i erm i just wanna say i love joe so much. The way he’s constructed, appearance, personality, physicality, dialogue, culture inspiration, story. EVERYTHING about him is just so cool and fun to think about and in my head it all weaves perfectly together to create the best character in all of fiction. It has now been over 2 unapologetic years of me yapping on about this guy. Whether it be his canon self and the things he does or the fanon version of him thats ive sourced from other peoples awesome HC’s or forged from my own lore. Any excuse i get, i talk about joe. Because it is so utterly fun. Yeah, he’s not the only boxer i love!!! Not at all!! I have several other favourites persay, but on the punch-out tier list joe is so good he has his own category thats about 4 ranks higher than what S rank is. And that is deserved. 

He loves his culture, he never gives up, he’s arguably a weakling and an absolute screwup but he never lets that get in his way because of her persistent he is, he’s gorgeous, he’s cool, he’d be a great friend, dad, boyfriend, husband, EVERYTHING. He’s got a weird hairstyle and weird fashion sense but somehow he looks great with it. He beat NICK BRUISER CANONICALLY?!?! He’s french, he’s ginger, which in a joking sense makes him the worst but against all odds he is the best. The french are lucky to be represented by him because he’s so utterly and unapologetically awesome and cool and fun and nice and inspiring and all that jazz. There is not a single thing that could stray me away from the path of Joe. my lore for him is SO deep. My admiration for him is INFINITE. Ive read through his wiki a pagillion times. Ive beaten him over 80 times in-game simple because i like seeing him so much and.

Well. i have entire shrine dedicated to him. let me know if you wanna see that....

[hellothereandimsosorry]

I'm ALMOST watching dorohedoro bcs of you 🥹🥹🥹🥹 is it really that good? Bcs I'm kinda scared to start watching it bcs I'm not used to the artstyle

- 🦈🦈

ok im ngl it is literally my favorite manga of all time.

like ive read it front to back several times. its one of those pieces of media where the story is so good that i literally have no complaints like its genuinely a perfect work of art imo. it is absolutely that good.

Its definitely weird and not for everybody, I wouldn't recommend it if you're squeamish about violence because it's very violent and bloody and can get pretty gross. but its also super unserious and its actually really funny. the characters are lovable and without spoiling one of my favorite things about it is that there isn't really a good vs bad in it bc all the characters fall somewhere in between. they all have their own motivations and their stories are all intertwined and compelling.

the story is simultaneously sprawling, involving many different characters and their complicated motive, while also being tightly contained in the world it exists in. the world building is also some of the best i've ever seen its truly excellent. everything matters to everything else in the story and it is so well done.

idk if i can relate it to many other works because it kind of exists in its own genre. ive seen people call it seinen which i get because its mature in themes and storytelling, shonen which is definitely wrong??? i was confused af when i saw somebody call it that lmao, horror-comedy which i think is pretty close? its a mystery but it doesnt always feel like a mystery, theres no detective although its plot is driven by mystery. honestly idk. its really unique and i dont think that any other popular media matches its freak tbh.

it might be too weird to become super mainstream, even though its well known and loved. its plot is winding and weird, the main character has a lizard head, its set in an intentionally grimy world and actually looks like it. the characters arent cutesyfied, theyre mostly huge and bulky and gritty but they are so lovably human.

personally i love the art style i think it perfectly fits the world that it is meant to portray. the anime also does a fantastic job adapting it, though it did take me a minute to get used to the 3d models, it is a gorgeous anime like genuinely it is so beautiful like they cooked so hard.

ok holy shit this is so long sorry! i just really love it that much lmao. as for whether or not you should watch it - YES! (if it wasnt obvious) but don't sweat it if its not your cup of tea. i recommend it to all my friends and some of them couldnt get through it because of the violence, the art, or because its just too weird/not their thing. while i think theyre totally missing out, i understand that not everyone is like me and instantly loved it from the first chapter because the 1st tim i read it literally read the first 80 chapters in a day i was so crazy about it and finished it like 2 days later (the whole thing is like ~180 chapters i think? idk the exact count)

also if you're worried about the anime's art... you like blue lock and if you were able to get thru the s1 animation you will be fine. its way way better animated trust me.

ok gonna end it there bcs this is a whole ass essay

[mekatrio]

im basing this on my completely fallible memory so ive surely got the more finer details wrong but i do think that im correct abt the overall idea, that despite the drastic visual changes of tt2003 starfire compared to her OG ntt designs, i think they still managed to maintain most of the core components of her original personality, mainly her deep love for others, her very passionate way of expressing this love, and of course, being the Token Foreigner.

they definitely played the Foreigner (Alien) trope up to 11, to a degree that many tt2003 critics find very annoying, which like, fair. its very zany and comical (love of mustard comes to mind), meanwhile theyve toned down her fiery/passionate personality by a bit, which led to some people saying that tt2003 has completely flanderized her. and while on a surface level it may seem true, i dont think it is entirely. tt2003 is an adaptation of her character after all, so yes they played up the foreigner aspect and toned down her more assertive traits, but i do think that theyve managed to have her still be essentially the same character at heart.

but in spite of all this, tt2003 still does deserve shit for starting the (still ongoing) trend of whitewashing starfire, or more specifically, making her racially ambigious. bc in tt2003 she does have that one(1) episode where shes actually experiencing racism so she is still very much a Girl of Disenfranchised Racial Identity, just not specifically black coded anymore. though more recent comics have gone way too crazy with this and sometimes she just looks like a tanned white girl which is like... 🤮

so much to say about starfire. like although it couldve been done without the whitewashing, i do think that her design is great for the show*, just like how donna troy's design was adapted, starfire's design is still very much inspired by her ntt design but was adapted just enough to be more age-appropriate, clean and impactful, and more readable as an animated character, but the fact that it continues to inspire how she looks in non-animated properties is like.... eh? stop that. but tbh from what ive heard at least, it doesnt seem like starfire has gotten any good writing after tt2003, so its sadly not super suprising that theyve gotten too lazy to give her a better design either (her injustice 2 design is the best recent one i can think of)

*although i like her design i can recognize that theyve essentially made her into a 'Generic' Anime Girl, which while very cute! it does take away quite an amount of charm that her original design had. (her beautiful voluminous hair was very reflective of her character). and whether whitewashing was the intention or not, the simplification of her character design (most glaringly, making her hair thin and straight) was most likely done in order to make her easier to animate, bc as pretty as she look with voluminous big hair even in tt2003's artstyle, it wouldve not hv been practical to animate for 5 whole seasons.

tho making her more practical to animate doesnt entirely justify the other design choices done to her character (alien eyebrows, thin nose, no lips**) and theres definitely ways they couldve still have starfire to be practical to animate while not entirely converting her into a Racially Ambiguous Anime Girl (which im currently making an edit of, and will post later :3c)

**also interestingly, while the show does have starfire be an anime girl in all her anime girl glory (aka no lip, though sometimes she'll get a small bottom lip if the shot calls for it), in the comics she does tend to have a lip

...sometimes. todd nauck is the main artist for the comics (these 3 starfire lips pics are by nauck) and starfire always has a lip when drawn by him (except pre-issue #7, when hes still getting used to tt2003's artstyle), but guest artists are plentiful and when its up to them, its a "sometimes they do, sometimes they don't" deal on whether or not starfire still gets her lip or not. though it tends to often fall on the 'no lip' side.

credited pencillers from left to right, top to bottom:

yes lips: mike norton, issue #17; sean galloway, issue #22

no lips: alexander serra, issue #52; ethen beavers, issue #54

[today-pepperland-goes-bluey]

Okay here we go, my main gripe is with the artstyle of the flim, I think personally ys is hard flim is translate into cgi, cause its meant to be a wacky ANIMATED movie with crazy visual designs, not at all to look realistic.

lets take a look at how they did the Beatles:

Oh my god that's horrifying? I see they tried to keep the long legs like the orginal had, but here it just looks wrong!!! They look like if the ys beatles and irl beatles had some horrible cross breed selfcest children!! They look cartoony and realistic at the same time and its very unappealing.

2/10 : I could see what they were maybe trying to do, but it looks awful

Okay let's maybe move on to blue meanies...they cant mess that up right?

P A R D O N

He looks gay and homophobic at the same time??? Now Blue meanies are suppose to be scary but this is just...ugh, Wheres his fur??? Why is it all s k i n??? Personally I've always hc that blue meanies are like rabbits, not whatever this is!! I like his little spikes but that doesn't make up for...everything else!! He looks completely awful and wretched, and not in the good way like blue meanies should >:(

1/10 (only likes are the spikes which i will now be stealing)

Well what about Pepperland? Our favorite unearthly paradise

It actually looks very beautiful :0 it has that fantasy element and landscape that comes together well, the textures are a little ehh but maybe seeing it in action would help, i think this one of the very few good designs

5/10 looks like my grandma's garden

Time for time the sea of monsters!!

This is so far from its orginal design?

From what I understand this reboot was meant to be more "dark and gritty" (Which explains some things, and i think is a pretty cool idea) im all for eldritch sea of monsters, i dont really know how to feel about this design

3/10 its tolerable in context of the reboot

Last but not least!! The best part of yellow submarine!! Jeremy Hillary Boob PhD!!

What the hell is

T H AT

What the in god damn did they do to you, look how they massacred my boy!!! Its so awful but i can't look away. This thing deserves to be banished to the sea of nowhere! Why did they make him actaully a boob?? (In the context of the movie it's meant to mean: a foolish or stupid person,) Where did all his fur go too?? And his tail?? I do not trust his little human hands and feet, i cant express my free terror and dread upon seeing this

0/10 if i was the beatles I'd get back in my submarine and hightail it outta there.

Anyone wanna hear my long rant on the ys 2011 falied reboot