#What was up in 2019 that kept having cute chibi styles

[sysig]

Some redraws, and an additional chibi (Patreon)

[withanina]

***Trigger warning: Self loathing, gender discrimination, murder, suicide(premeditated and aftermath)*** 

[Image description- series of black and white 3-koma manga panels. The art is in gudaguda style, cute chibi type characters who only have one eye and a mouth to express emotion.

Image 1- Titled “Tale of the Fool of Owari”. Credits below say “ Translated by @AelenAltria ; Beta by @butchcorgi ; Typeset by @Azenon“

     Panel 1: A soliloquy starting as the speaker, Oda Nobukatsu, looks at the back of his sister, Oda Nobunaga, stating “My older sister is incredible.”

    Panel 2: “I am incompetent” Nobukatsu states, smiling at the simple truth, as we see him in his formal japanese clothes.

     Panel 3: “But for some reason, it was always my older sister who was viewed as a fool, not me.” Nobukatsu is seen turning back, away from Nobunaga’s cheerful walk listening to gossip saying “What’s with that outfit? You’re a woman!”, “She’s really gone mad.”, “The Odas don’t have much time left.”

Image 2-

     Panel 1: “The guys who make my sister out to be a fool always say the same thing,” Nobukatsu continues as he stares at his sister’s back again. “ “You’re a woman, why are you like this?” “

    Panel 2: “Then what does that make me,” Nobukatsu wonders, frowning. “Someone who’s incompetent even as a man?”

    Panel 3: “One time our father asked us, “What is the thing you need most to protect the country?” “, Nobukatsu recalls. He and Nobunaga are both seated respectfully in front of their father, whose face is in shadow. Nobukatsu replied emphatically, “I answered that you need an excellent commander and many soldiers to serve you.”

Image 3-

    Panel 1: “Firearms.” Oda Nobunaga’s face is mostly hidden, but the visible expression is one of total confidence. “My sister’s answer was just one word,” Nobukatsu remembers.

    Panel 2: “ I couldn’t really get how you’d protect a country using firearms, but I was sure my older sister could pull it off.” Nobukatsu’s expression is marked as confused as he has a smile, but a question mark floats beside him. “But for some reason, Father had a bitter look on his face.”

Panel 3: “It was around that time that my sister started to parade around the castle town dressed much more eccentric than before,” Nobukatsu recalls, as we see him worriedly chase after Nobunaga( dressed as Kippoushi form of Maou Nobunaga- Long ponytail, sword at their waist, alcohol gourd in their left, another sword in their right)  who is merrily advancing. “And she was ridiculed as a fool that much more”

Image 4-

    Panel 1: “It was a given she would succeed our Father when he passed away,” Nobukatsu explains, his expression now troubled as he frowns slightly. “But for some reason, our retainers came to welcome me instead of her. For some reason they kept insisting she was incompetent.”

    Panel 2: “ I don’t get what they’re saying...” Nobukatsu is now a pure black silhouette, his eyes and mouth visibly sad and upset. “Why are they saying this, why, I don’t get it, I just...”

    Panel 3:”Ah, I see now...” Nobukatsu’s silhouetted face is now a bright smile as he understands. “They’re all fools”

Image 5-

    Panel 1: “There’s no way these idiots deserve to be my sister’s vassals,” Nobukatsu states, gazing at Nobunaga’s distant back. “And of course, neither do I!”

    Panel 2: The silhouetted Nobukatsu stands among the corpses of the unfaithful vassals, most of whom are pierced by swords or arrow. Nobukatsu stands in the center, a large smile on his face. Noticeably, his ponytail has now taken Nobunaga’s trait of being seemingly on fire.

    Panel 3: “It serves you right, fools.” Nobukatsu is sitting in ceremonial white robes, a bright expression on his face. In front of him is a blade on a small tray. “Come now, Sister- All that’s left to do is kill my incompetent self!”

Image 6-

    Panel 1: A close up of Nobukatsu, hiding the top of his face. A joyful smile covers his face and his hair retains some of the previous flame trait.

    Panel 2: The background has now changed to black, and the characters are more pale outlines than before. “I leave the rest to you, Sister” Nobukatsu’s final words as Nobunaga stands in front of her disemboweled sibling, her expression isn’t shown but her hair is noticabley whiter even against the black background. “Ah... But if I could only do one more thing...” Nobukatsu says.

    Panel 3: ‘I wish I could’ve had just a little more fun with you...’ Nobunaga is seen advancing energetically again, possibly dancing the Atsumori.

Image 7- “Sister! Let’s go get some ice cream in the cafeteria!” Nobukatsu cheerfully suggests, he is now wearing his military cap and uniform with the cape. He is cheerfully running towards Nobunaga, who is in her Archer uniform. “Come on, don’t follow me around!” Nobunaga complains as she heads forward, a smile on her face.

End Description]

From Koha-Ace 2019 Winter special by Keikenchi.

I don’t think I’d believe you if you told me I’d get so attached to Nobukatsu, but here we are and I love this child so much. He needs to get adopted into my Chaldea ASAP to be with his sisters!

[kiridork]

My thoughts on Furuba 2019 ep. 1 and 2

I went to the Columbus Ohio dub showing (which was March 26th). It took about three hours to get there from where I live, but I think Fruits Basket was worth it. I won’t bore you with what I did in Ohio before the showing so I’ll just skip to the theater part. Me and my friends got there about two hours before the showing started and we played cards to pass the time (the theater we went to had a lounge area that we could sit and wait. About an hour later is when people started showing up to get tickets. So, we go down and show them our preordered tickets and got out merchandise.

The merch consisted of a cup, a lanyard, and two buttons. All of the merchandise was beautifully made which was a surprise to me because I thought that it would be cheap considering that Funimation had to make tons of them. I only got Yuki and Kyo buttons and I was disappointed that I didn’t get Tohru, but we were able to fill out a voucher to receive the items we didn’t get so hopefully I’ll get Tohru soon.

During the wait in our seats was one of the best parts. Not so much the theater itself (it was pretty trashy tbh) but the environment. Most of the people there were in their 20’s and 30’s which was to be expected. You could tell everyone had read the series when they were younger and held it to their hearts. Everyone was talking to each other the entire time and not like how it is at regular theaters. I was talking to strangers and others were doing the same as we all talked about our hype for the episodes and the series itself. I had never felt so welcoming and warm at an event like this ever. Everyone was super nice and respectful. Considering it is America, I thought it would be too loud and people talking through out the episodes, but it wasn’t like that at all and everyone reacted at the same times. It truly was a beautiful experience being able to connect with strangers about our love for Fruits Basket (like seriously I thought i was going to be the only one who drove three hours to see this but people all around drove up here! It was insane!)

Before the episodes were showed, they did an interview with the Japanese voice actors of Yuki, Kyo, and Tohru. I was surprised that it wasn’t the english cast, but I’m still very happy that it was the Japanese. The cast was very charming and very cute. You could tell that they loved this series and are looking forward to what lies ahead for it. I was surprised that Yuki’s voice actor thought he resembled more like Kakeru because he isn’t even apart of the first section of the series, but I was honestly really glad because it shows that he read the series. To me they resembled a lot to the characters they were playing and it makes me glad that these characters are in good hands.

The only thing that I can really talk about with the english cast interview (?) was of what they said about the manga. They said that they used the manga series to help create the lines for the english dub. It makes me extremely joyful that they’re doing that and making sure that what they’re saying is correct to the original story.

For the episodes I’ll be talking more about the Story, voice acting, and the animation.

Story: At first I thought it was too fast paced, but then i realized that it resembles that of the manga and it should be like that. The first anime was too slow and I’m honestly really glad that they took out the random tv static and the cut scenes. It makes everything flow a lot better and keeps the story pacing even. Also the added aspects like looking more into tohru’s life when she was a kid (she did the accounting… like wtf tohru) and all of the other added, longer parts were so well done and didn’t take away from the story (it actually added to it!). I also really like the small parts that they had to change like kyo falling into the pond or yuki and shigure actually going up the stairs and seeing kyo from the window. I think it flowed very well and even if it’s not accurate to the manga it does keep the feel to it. This one is a lot more serious than the 2001 version but it still keep its funny charm. The added serious tone is such a good thing especially for later on. It gives the feel that there is more to this story than you think.

Voice acting: I found it.. Strange at first honestly. I thought Tohru’s voice was a little higher than what it was before which I’m not too sure that I like. Eric Vale’s voice just seemed… not great. You can tell that he was rusty at playing Yuki and it just didn’t fit him. It’s strange cause I really liked him in the original, but I guess getting older does change your voice. I’m sure I’ll get used to it. Shigure and Kyo’s voices sounded the same as before and I was extremely happy with it. I don’t have much to say about Kyo (which is�� shocking coming from me) but Shigure’s voice had a more serious tone to it. The other anime had a more lighthearted manner to it while this one is more serious. I think it fits Shigure well considering his character and how he is a son of a bitch with a more darker side. His voice actor did A very nice job. The change of Uo, Hana, and Kyoko’s voices were outstanding. They did a very good job in picking voice actors for them and I thought they suited these characters a lot better than the old ones. I also have to admit that I was a little disappointed in Akito’s voice. It sounds too feminine for my liking. I understand that it’s hard to find a woman voice actor who can go low with their voice, but I just think it gives away that Akito’s a girl.

Animation: It was just… stunning. As an art major, I found this to be artistically stunning. The lighting, the different viewpoints, how fluid the animation was. It was stunning. They even added little things in their anime form like kyo scratching his ear with his leg or being able to see yuki and kyo fighting in the background. Also the combination of a more serious art style to the chibi one was very fluid and just felt right (I loved the face kyo made when he came up for air in the pond). The style and the animation really reflect the original manga. Like the sparkly backgrounds or the little notes that takaya put in panels. It felt like the manga coming to life. It wasn’t cheap animation like before. This era was the right era for Fruits Basket to be made because of the advances of technology.

The entire experience just felt like home. I was the kid who watched the old 2001 anime thousands of times because I loved it so much. And I still do…. But as a separate thing. It was hard to keep it like that while watching it. I kept comparing it to the old one because it felt strange that something I knew by heart was completely different. But I’m glad it is. And I’m going to enjoy both like they are separate things.

I still have a lot more to say but this is just my initial thoughts… I hope you enjoyed them!!

[celio-santos]

Nostalgia and Memory

For our fifth assignment, we had the chance to explore something that would hit home hard, and that being nostalgia and memory. Here we were allowed to go a little crazy and explore anything is our past that made us have a strong experience, be it a video game, movie or even an actual deliberately distorted memory. I could not think of anyone more worthy to be placed as the center of attention in my project, other than the mighty Tigrex.  

Monster Hunter Wiki. (2019). Tigrex. [online] Available at: https://monsterhunter.fandom.com/wiki/Tigrex [Accessed 3 Nov. 2019]. This big boy was the definition of my perseverance at the ripe age of 14, he was a hard enemy to hunt down, he would push me down more times than I could count, and yet, wiping away the tears of frustration and ignoring the searing pain from holding my hands in the specific position to hold on tightly to the PlayStation Portable, I finally managed to topple him, and it was at that very moment that I could taste sweet victory, my first greatest achievement at the hands of a gaming console. Since I had such a good experience with the last time that I used Zbrush, I decided to continue on that same path to produce something of equal quality, if not better, because I always want to better myself in areas that I know I can thrive in if I dedicate time to it. First off I pulled out the mighty pencil and sketchbook and started scribbling around and defining some key features of the Tigrex, his snake-like nose and eyes, his muscular posing, the stripes that mimic those of a tiger, and the webbed wings that sprout out in between his arms. Only after a few more drawings did I realize that for only a week, I was starting to bite off a bit more than I could chew, so I settled down and thought to myself, how could I make this simpler, without having to sacrifice the initial idea, since I love puzzles and theorizing, this was somewhat enjoyable for me.

Shortly after I managed to come up with the idea, inspired by Japanese cartoons, to turn the Tigrex into a “Chibi”, literally meaning short in Japanese. They created this style of drawing by downsizing and simplifying characters to their most fundamental aspects, and so I ran straight through with the concept so that I wouldn't lose too much time, and then I managed to come up with something that I could work on by sculpting. Utilizing only a few but well-defined teeth, big expressive eyes, and a chunkier body, I managed to make this Tigrex into a mixture of serious and cute.

So that I wouldn’t repeat the same mistake as before, I decided to carry on with the next stage and not to get lost with the part that I consider myself somewhat decent at. Grabbing a simple base clay sphere in Zbrush, I simply start to push aside its form to create some basic shapes for the start of its head, and then adding on top of that another piece of clay to mold into the shape of the jaw just underneath it, I learned from my previous tutorial that creating separate objectives for different parts of the model, not only makes your work much easier, but also organizes the entire project, and I myself value efficiency over productivity.

Using the Dam brush, I managed to really dig into those eye sockets to create that vibrant and cartoony look that I sought after, making the space ready to lodge in the eyeballs afterward, then did I define the shape of the nose. After which I added the base of the torso so finally give this beast some structure, smoothing everything up so I could start to see how things were holding up nicely.

Adding the limbs did prove a bit more tedious since there were a large number of separate shapes so that I wouldn't mess too much with the deformation of the arms, I relied on overlapping objects and using various types of brushes to create the effects that I was seeking.

And finally, after a few more days over arduous work, I managed to release the beast within the Tigrex and make him stand tall and proud, adding the side and central spikes really did an impact on his character. Extending his arms with the wings really showed in a way that he has more than the eye can see at first, something lurking to attack an unwilling prey.

I was extremely satisfied with the end result, that being said, I was also proud of myself that I kept my word by not getting washed away with the concept art alone, I managed to dedicate a good amount of time towards each phase, and this is exactly what needs to be done by someone in my field, that need to have good time management or they could end up halting the entire project and slowing down their team.