#a lot of her design takes inspiration from violet evergarden

[mooniety]

"Don't let her frilly appearance fool you! She's more than wiling to dirty her dress for the sake of invention!"

see cut for reference sheets & alt design:

i still can't believe all of this started because i was watching a friend play fortnite & making popcat jokes on discord vc, i literally can't make this shit up.

[amaiguri]

OC ORIGINS TAG

Thanks to @anyablackwood both for tagging me and for the very cool post about her relationship to Japanese immigrant names! The rules for this one are:

"Talk about the origins of the names and personalities (and maybe even the design?) of a couple of your OCs!"

We don't have time for a couple so we will, of course, do Arlasaire from my Untitled Yssaia Game!

🏷NAME

Arlasaire comes from the Googly-Translated words for "Of Fire" in Irish. But then I spelled it more French because Thuillean (before I made it into a real Conlang) was me taking Irish words and spelling them "more French."

In universe, Giluniques d'Magnia made the name up for her because he was 10 and 10 year olds think stupid names sound cool. (Take me at 10, giving all my characters Japanese names to make them "more anime". Ick!) Why did he name her something? Because she was burned so badly and all her family died, so she couldn't speak for a long time. She couldn't read or write either, so House d'Magnia just said "Gil, this is your new human pet! You name her!" And so he named her Arlasaire.

"But she was like 8, right? What was her name before that?"

Good note: Before that, she was named Tjen-Sa -- which is a Saegen name because her father was Saegen. It means Boon.

This is because, before I was adopted in China, I was left on a orphanage with a note pinned to me, saying my name should be "Tian Zao" (which I think is 1st-tone, 4th-tone?) which means like "To be a talent from the Heavens". So yeah, Arls is fully a self-insert and I'm happy to own that -- make me the next Dante's Inferno.

(Sidebar: I've always thought of that as like... "My True Name", if that makes sense -- like in the Fantasy Magical Names sense. But that means it is too sacred to go by on a day-to-day basis. It's like... I'm Belle and you should call me Belle. But my legal name is Isabelle and my True Name is Tian Zao. I also had other Chinese names because of the way orphanages work and stuff. It's like... a gradient of trueness. Also, while I don't know much about Chinese culture, I know names are tied to your fate and sometimes, kids have to change their names if their fate is too big or something. But I have always felt that's the name that fit me best -- it SOUNDS the most like the kind of person I want to be.)

🕯CONCEPT

Arlasaire was most inspired by Tehanu from the Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K LeGuinn and Violet from Violet Evergarden.

🎨VISUALS

Visually, Arlasaire was inspired by Zuko and Todoroki, but while their scars make them look more handsome, I explicitly wanted her scars NOT to make her prettier. It was important to me that you wince when you look at her for the first time -- because that's what people in the world do. And I think, IRL, that's what we do too when we see someone who or hear someone who is little bit mutilated and we're not used to it -- even if we don't want to!

That being said, Arlasaire is also supposed to be babygirl. Look at her. She's just a little blorbo! She's just a baby 🥺 She only stabs a little! I want her to have these big gold eyes -- like how a scared black cat will hiss and bite and then look up at you big when you pet them and they realize they like it.

Her First-Half outfit is supposed to be simple but recognizable -- SO I CAN DRAW IT over and over and not die. You know how a lot of anime takes elements from Western fantasy but you look at it and go "Nah, that's so Japanese"? That's what I wanted to do in reverse, is take vaguely Japanese influence and then make it Victorian/French-ish. (So basically, I did western clothes without the buttons!) And then her simple outfit became the backbone of all Thuillean fashion moving forward!

SO YEAH now you know :D

[cavegirlpoems]

For some reason, the most influential thing in animation is a podcast where Matt Mercer and some of his voice actor friends watch family guy with the screen off, and do their own dubs of the characters. It's very popular; they are, after all, professional voice actors. As a halloween special, Matt & Pals watch Marjane Satrapi's award winning, deeply personal autobiographical film Persepolis, cracking jokes and improvising new lines like they always do. They are widely praised for their positive representation when they do this. Marjane Satrapi tweets that it's nice that a wider audience has been exposed to her work, but it would have been nice if they'd paid any attention to the plot or the visuals. Persopolis is the only French animation any of the fans of Matt & Pals have heard of, and none of them have actually watched it themselves.

Matt releases a series of animantics for his favourite family guy episodes. He's not a particularly good draftsman, but he's adopted some basic techniques like stretch-and-squash and is widely hailed for his inovation as a result. You have spent the last three years of your life doing character animation for the production of Violet Evergarden. Your wrist hurts from drawing all day. You mention your work to an aquaintance. They say you should check out Matt Mercer's Family Guy animatics; he even does close ups sometimes!

You don't even like Family Guy. It's a crude, crass cartoon with nothing really to say. You remember the first time you watched Redline, and the way JP's car disintegrating as it reached the finish line took your breath away, and in that rush of adrenaline you realised you wanted to be an animator. Watching Redline changed your life; it was a commercial flop. You got really into early silent-movie rubber-hose-era animation for the inventive visuals. With dawning horror, you realise most of the people taking inspiration from Max Fliescher are mostly in it because of the racist charicatures and objectified women. Somebody in the scene writes a very influential essay about how sound design is a betrayal of the medium and for weak-minded fools. His short film gets a bunch of critical acclaim and awards; his draftsmanship is about on par with Mat Mercer's, and this time there's a bunch of half-naked objectified women getting killed everywhere. You're at the movie rental place to see if they've got the new Makoto Shinkai film. Some guy in a Brian Griffin shirt says girls don't even like cartoons, and when you object he challenges you to guess which episodes his favourite quotes are from. You haven't watched Family Guy in half a decade. You tell him you worked on the new Violet Evergarden film. He's never heard of it, and complains about anime fans being pushy. The store doesn't have Suzume, but it sure has a lot of Family Guy funko pops. Your best friend from university calls you up, says he's found this amazing new show he's been watching, and he remembers you were into cartoons, so why don't you head over to his, and watch it with him? It sounds really cool, with a plot about a secret government agent dealing with aliens in disguise. You sit on the couch, crack open a few beers, and prepare for something exciting. He puts on an episode of American Dad.

So, I'd like you to imagine a world where watching cartoons had become suddenly super popular over the course of a few years. Huge burst in popularity. Suddenly everybody's talking about animation. Except: -Most of those new viewers only watch Family Guy, and a good chunk of older viewers stopped watching anything except Family Guy. -Most of these new viewers have got into the habit of just listening to the audio of Family Guy, 'cos the actual animation's kinda ugly, and normally just turn the screen off and listen to the cartoon like a podcast. -These new viewers, whenever they try watching any new animation - from Bob's Burgers to Cowboy Bebop - turn the screen off and just listen to the audio, and then don't understand why these shows are any different and go back to Family Guy because it's familiar. Imagine being an animator in this world. Imagine pouring your soul into the craft of making a drawing move and emote and live, the hours of painstaking effort taken over animating a single scene. Imagine talking to supposed fans of animation who don't even bother looking at the screen to see what you've produced. Imagine making a film like Redline, a celebration of visual art and an absolute technical slam-dunk, and it flops because it's a visual medium and nobody has their screen turned on, and people go back to talking to you about Family Guy with the screen turned off.

This is what it often feels like being a designer of tabletop games in 2024. Why yes, I *am* salty.

[annalyticall]

Anime Newbie in her Twenties Ranks her First 10 Anime

With the recommendations of my sister @ging-ler​ and friends, I started watching anime just over a year ago and within that time I’ve watched a total of 10 - some clocking in at almost 200 episodes and some with only 12. I told myself a while ago that once I had finished 10 anime shows I would rank them like some Anime Newbie WatchMojo list, so, here we are. Really this is just an excuse to force more of my unwarranted opinions onto unwilling followers.

I should also preface this by saying I don’t think any of the anime I watched this year was bad, and I enjoyed a lot about every show even if I ranked some low. However, the top three anime on my list are the ones I would recommend to anyone following me even if they don’t watch anime.

10. Death Note

Despite absolutely loathing the “protagonist” since episode one, I really enjoyed the first half of Death Note! The story was intriguing with all of its wild twist and turns and I found myself immediately invested in what was going to happen next. Unfortunately, after the death of who I thought was by far the best character, the show seems to go off the rails as it introduces new characters and contrived plot devices in the second half that were frankly hard for me to care about at that point. The ending was satisfying but I forced myself to sit through a lot of painful meandering to get there.

9. Cowboy Bebop

Cowboy Bebop was the first anime I watched as suggested to me by @mcsherrybr​. The smooth and jazzy art, atmosphere, animation, action, and music were all a lot of fun, as were the lovable ragtag group of misfits that made up the main cast. I enjoyed myself a lot while watching this western/sci-fi melding pot of a show, and I only ranked it so low because the last few episodes were a huge disappointment to my found-family-trope-loving heart.

8. Violet Evergarden

Violet Evergarden, following the story of a child soldier learning to love, is absolutely beautiful to look at and listen to. The music in this anime is, for me, THE best music from any show on this list. This is also the only anime that made me sob several times while watching it. The collection of short episodic stories that explore the deep facets of human love and connection are incredibly resonant and will stay with me for a long time. However, the strength of the small story arcs made the rushed overarching war story and finale weaker in comparison. Similarly, the memorable characters introduced in the one-off side plots were more interesting to me than the cast of rather bland reoccurring supporting characters. While I will remember a lot of great individual moments, I can’t seem to remember a single character’s name besides Violet’s, but that might also be due to being one of the shorter entries at only 12 episodes.

7. Hunter x Hunter (2011)

Going from one of the shortest anime on this list to the longest, Hunter x Hunter was an great and engrossing story during the entirety of its 160+ episodes. It’s colorful and playful, but can also be very dark and at times even heart-wrenching. Because it contains so many distinct arcs, there is a wide variety characters and stories to get attached to, and some, like the Chimera Ant Arc, I even cried over. But this also left me with issues regarding the pacing. The show has great action and introspective moments but will often drag with long drawn-out pauses between fights to explain simple concepts (though I understand that’s a common trope in old shonen anime in general). The world-building is rich but also caught me off guard with some strange ideas, and admittedly not all of them I liked. Some eccentric characters and concepts rubbed me the wrong way and ended up hindering my enjoyment of the show. Overall though, it was a lot of fun and I left with a few more endearing favorite characters, like Leorio and Killua.

6. Erased

Also a 12 episode anime, Erased was amazingly impactful for how short it was. Even as I followed the unfolding murder mystery, I was also touched by the meaningful themes and kind-hearted characters I met along the way. The already-strong story is accentuated with great symbolism, art, and music. The only problem I had was with the mystery itself; I was able to tell who the true killer was within the first 4 episodes, which didn’t lend itself well to suspense and I spent the remaining episodes frustrated that the main characters couldn’t see some obvious clues.This is a minor problem, though, since the finale has less to do with mystery and more about the morals and resolution of themes that I felt was satisfying.

5. Demon Slayer

Demon Slayer is gorgeous. The stunning art style, fluid animation, and breath-taking music are all valid reasons to watch it, but the main character Tanjiro and his unwavering devotion to find a cure for his sister-turned-demon Nezuko are the reasons to stay. Tanjiro is unbelievably gentle as he shows even the evil demons he has to slay a hard-fought kindness, and it’s those tender moments between all of the amazing action sequences that really elevate this show for me. The issues I have lie with the rest of the cast. While I love some supporting characters, like the pig-headed Inosuke and the stoic Giyuu, others have very niche personalities that can get annoying if they’re on screen for too long, which they definitely tend to be. Still, the bond between Tanjiro and Nezuko is so strong that it gets me through even those dragging scenes.

And it’s written by a woman!

4. My Hero Academia

Hey so this might come as a shock for anyone who’s followed me for a while: My Hero Academia is not my favorite anime! I do love it a lot - it’s the only anime on this list that has inspired me to read the manga, write fic, and buy merch. There are so many lovable characters and exciting arcs in this show that there is bound to be something for everyone to enjoy, both inside and outside of canon. It’s a wonderfully paced and animated deconstruction of the superhero genre and besides its deeper themes and commentary, there’s also just a lot of endearing teenage goofin’ to be had, and the show balances the tone of these two almost-equally engaging aspects of the story fairly well.

The downside, for me, is the show’s sexualization of female characters, especially the teenagers. With the likes of pervy fellow classmate Mineta, it’s a flaw that’s hard to avoid and takes up an unfortunate amount of screen time. There are in-universe characters that protest against this behavior, and the female characters are still well-written for the most part, but that doesn’t make up for the canon material including it at all. It’s not a huge part of the show but it’s present enough that it really knocks the ranking down for me.

3. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Out of my top 5, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is the only one that is complete. Because of that, I can tentatively say that so far, it is the best completed story on this list. From beginning to end, the pacing was perfect - the action never dragged, the characters were never unnecessary, and the plot twists were never unearned. I found myself more invested than I thought I would ever be for the large cast of characters, and everything, including its ending, was satisfying to watch. The animation is fluid and lent itself well to the most impactful scenes, especially involving the flame alchemist Roy Mustang. It’s also written by a woman! Really, the only nitpicks I have were with tonal problems - serious moments would sometimes be ruined by too much slapstick or visual gags.

As I mentioned before, my Top 3 are shows I would recommend to anyone who’s unfamiliar with anime simply because they’re good solid stories with almost no distracting anime tropes. This is a good place to start.

2. The Promised Neverland

The Promised Neverland is deceiving; on the surface it looks like a sweet show about a bunch of adorable kids playing together in the spacious green backyard of their quaint orphanage. Once you finish the first episode, however, you will quickly discover that there is definitely something more sinister lurking under the surface. This show is an expertly executed dark horror/thriller that always had me on the edge of my seat. The cute aesthetic never distracts from the suspense, in fact, it adds to the discomfort when the horrific visuals and expressions are contrasted against the character designs. I loved all of the characters, including the antagonist, who manages to be just as sympathetic as she is menacing. The sound design and music are also beautiful and adds so much to the rich atmosphere. I am definitely excited to see where this series will go!

1. Mob Psycho 100

ONE, the creator of Mob Psycho 100, said the single word he used for the concept for the series was “kindness”. Kindness shines through so much of this story following the life of Mob, a super-psychic kid that just wants to fit in, and I adore every second of it. While many shonen anime stories force the child protagonist to get stronger, become more powerful, and fight in battles against hostile adults, Mob Psycho 100 says “that’s stupid. Kids shouldn’t have to be traumatized by immature power-hungry adults. The only strength that anyone should pursue is strength of character, motivated by self-love and love for others.” And it says it with the most beautiful animation I have EVER seen in a show. The simplistic character designs mean the animators can have as much creative freedom as they like with expressions and movement, and they absolutely use that freedom. Humor is a large part of this mostly-comedy anime, but it makes the serious and introspective scenes so much more important when they do happen. The shifts between these two tones never feel awkward or imbalanced.

Mob Psycho 100 has inspired me to become more experimental and joy-seeking with my art, as well as just become a better person in my own life, which I can’t say for many other anime or many other pieces of media period. Even though a Season 3 hasn’t been officially announced yet, I can still safely say Mob Psycho 100 will forever hold a special place in my heart.

[hameru-is-cool]

Anime Awards voting is up and I felt like it’d be fun to share my picks.

Best Protagonist - Violet Evergarden

Despite how many people kept going on about how bland she was I got really endeared with Violet and her journey to move on.

Best Antagonist- Akane Shinjou

Akane easily takes this one. I really disliked her at the start but along the midway point, what she does gets radically re-contextualized and I ended up feeling surprisingly sympathetic. There’s a lot to unpack with her character depending how deep you want to analyze it. I’m sorry for calling her trash Mashu for months.

Best Boy - Kotaro Tatsumi

Deku should be disqualified, no repeats pls. Kotarou and Sakuta were two really fun little shits and Honda was a good boy but ultimately I picked Kotaro because I felt guilty about robbing Mamoru Miyano of recognition for his VA work.

Best Girl - Lily Hoshikawa

This entry is stacked with great choices, normally I would have picked Mai or Anzu as they were my favorites from their respective shows. However, I feel like crunchyroll put her here to spite all the twitter funnymen misgendering her and posting “it’s a trap” memes on their post supporting Lily. I am 100% with them and I hope Lily gets it although I wouldn’t be upset if any of the other excellent choices won.

Best Opening Sequence - Kakegurui

I have no idea why Crunchyroll put Kakegurui for two categories when the show came out and Summer 2017 but whatever. Out of the options presented it is still my favorite OP closely followed by Pop Team Epic’s. Zombieland Saga, Devilman, and Kokkoku should have made it in.

Best Ending Sequence - FLCL Alternative

It’s the Pillows! Out of the given choices the only other one I liked besides FLCL’s was Revue Starlight’s ED. Should have included Gridman, Bunny Girl, and Asobi Asobase’s EDs too.

Best Fight Scene -  All for One vs All Might [Hero Academia]

While Hina vs Anzu was really funny and it’d probably be even funnier to have Capcom present the award to it I’d be lying if I said I didn’t also get super hyped during the United States of Smash. Revue Starlight should have definitely been nominated for a fight like maybe Big Banana vs Hikari, the choreography in those fights was amazing.

Best VA Performance (JP) - Nao Toyama (Rin Shima)

Needed some recognition for my overall best girl of the year.

Best VA Performance (EN) - Erica Mendez (Retsuko)

Not usually a big fan of dubs but Aggretsuko overall had a pretty good one that kept the feel of the original.

Best Director - A Place Further Than the Universe

They really nailed the direction in this show. It had a really youthful but grounded feeling throughout. I’d say Bloom into You should have been in this category rather than best animation. I still haven’t watched it but from the clips I’ve seen it definitely has some excellent direction. I’d nominate Gridman for this too, I hadn’t seen such engaging and well directed conversations between characters since Owarimonogatari S2.

Best Animation - Violet Evergarden

It’s not as stylized as others sure but from a technical standpoint it’s kind of hard to argue with Kyoani winning best animation.

Best Film - Liz and the Blue Bird

Admittedly I haven’t watched a single movie of the choices but knowing my tastes it would have been between Mirai and Liz.

Best Character Design - Violet Evergarden

Make all the Fullmetal Saber jokes you want but Violet’s design is pretty dang good and super extra points to Kyoani for omitting a giant axe that she apparently carries around in the novels. Sure giant axes are cool but it would have completely clashed with the rest of the show. Here though SSSS. Gridman was robbed, I think it’s hilarious that they made most of the character’s designs be inspired by classic Transformers but yet they still came out really aesthetically pleasing (especially the eyes). Plus Rikka Takarada’s thighs were probably one of the most revered character design decisions of the year alongside Bowsette and Zero-Two.

Anime of the Year - Violet Evergarden

It was a real toss up between Yorimoi and this but even though Violet doesn’t get particularly get good until around halfway, when it gets good it really gets good.

Overall Crunchyroll did a better job at getting some diversity of shows but it’s a shame they got rid of the genre categories.

[giantkillerjack]

Late night autistic art ramblings.

IT STANDS TO REASON that if I can create character sheets for future reference, knowing that some of these sheets have to be useful to me quite possibly years down the line, then I could theoretically create future reference sheets that are not for human characters but for building styles.

And, theoretically, I should be able to learn how to draw different styles of architecture in the same way that I can learn how to draw in different art styles and then apply that style to different shapes and sizes of subject. There will be some shapes that each style prefers, but ultimately, it seems a similar concept.

And since the architecture in my graphic novel is usually me combining two or more specific city's architecture designs, I would indeed need a reference sheet made specifically for me by me.

It may make sense to seek out or else build reference sheets for each town/country and THEN work on the combinations from there.

Some combos featured in season 1 of my graphic novel, which is a road trip arc so I have to (or well, really really want to) make each place feel rich and unique!

New Orleans, USA + 1980s Liverpool, England

Guatapé, Colombia + Havana, Cuba + San Juan, Puerto Rico (main question: how would Colombian architecture change on a small tropical island community?)

What if Frankenstein and Reanimator had a baby and that baby was a town in a medieval fantasy?? (Answer: it sure wouldn't be a fun place to get stuck for like a month and a half! Undead creatures notwithstanding.)

Christmas Town from Nightmare Before Christmas, that one town from the movie Klaus, plus what if fucking ANY people of color were there?? (Otherwise great movies but GAWDS it is like, literally so easy ffs)

This one sleep podcast on the headspace app + Howl's Moving Castle

Jessica Fletcher's hometown but make it fall-themed because this is the 'autumn vibes' episode

A totally normal village + a mountain + a mountain god + a woman who fucks that mountain god + her demigod son + a recently developed problem involving a mop and a demonic poltergeist

oops all horrors (on a train!)

A capital city that I'm just now realizing is going to need a lot more fleshing out! All I got so far is "big" and "class divide," but I have no doubt I'll manage to make it harder for myself don't you worry

A pirate ship + but put that shit in the sky

Okay so maybe only two settings so far are super solid but I have been awake for 100000 hours so

Hey you I hope you're doing well, reader. I'm okay. I will make every place they go in my graphic novel so very beautiful.

Or at least cool as fuck.

Eat shit, Violet Evergarden. My backgrounds will be... not nearly as good as yours! But they will be so beautiful for the work of one person rather than a team! And MY character isn't going to fuck off and marry her [REDACTED] in the last episode and taint all the beautiful backgrounds forever! YOU FUCKING DIPS.

I suppose I ought to go looking for other beautiful and interesting places to inspire my work. With the exception of a couple places that need to be unappealing but should nevertheless be interesting, I mostly choose settings based on what is prettiest because when I draw stuff, I feel like I'm there, and I only want to spend time in nice places when I can.

Life is hard enough without stomping down on my saturated colors for the sake of realism.

Anyway this whole thing has been brought to you by me spending most of my life learning to draw and only recently realizing I don't know how to draw backgrounds, edibles, autism, and of course the MVP insomnia

If you've read this far, you've fallen right into my trap! and now you have to try and think something neutral or good about yourself. Unless you don't want to. But otherwise, I'm afraid you must. I think you are doing your best. I think you are trying your hardest. I believe that. I am too. Your body is taking in oxygen and keeping you alive and that is enough for now. Goodnight, neighbor, goodnight

[cheswirls]

a quick sum-up of che’s future career plans, bc reasons

im halfway through the dive!! anime show that came out this summer season, and i’m having a lot of thoughts, and plus i finished going through all the footage i missed today of skate america while i was at a bball game, and it’s made me realize different things i guess? 

it might be mid-long length so its going under a cut, but to gain intereststart off, this is all about my desire to be an athletic trainer for the usa olympic center at colorado springs, co !

ive been an at(now when you see that abb. you know what it means hah!! not assistant teacher hmm) student since my freshman year of high school, and i’ve loved it a whole bunch. back then i was set on going to columbia U for their writing program, and i wanted to major in graphic design afterwards/during/it wasnt super planned out i was a fr. i didnt know what bfa or mfa stood for yet. it wasnt until end of sophomore year than i thought about being an at for realsies.

but i also still loved gd. so there was a confliction there.

junior year i took a break from working volleyball in the fall and did my one and only year of football and it was terrible primarily bc the team i worked with didnt know how to function as a group and half the group were selfless bitch whores but like thats another storyyy, secondly bc i jus really discovered i didnt care abt football at all. it was mostly for the experience and i gained it and i liked it bc i hung out w a lot of people from helping out w varsity (i was one of two our of the five juniors that had been there since my fr year and was only on jv bc it was my first year w football, but one of the seniors had to work a bunch so when they needed an extra person i was the one w the most experience so i was w them a lot,) point was it was fun!!! and you have fun w ppl you like that you dont work w all the time and i shouldnt say fun bc lots of times it was awful,

basically! it was fun being w the varsity trainers which were the seniors and the other junior that had been around since fr year. volleyball was fun but it had always been a one-at-student-per-team sport , so it was different jus being w other ats that shared the same team and not the same sport(which in the us is made up of at least three different teams, a fr,jv,and varsity). it was a more open environment and so it inspired a lot of talk with the at grad students we had that semester (we got 3-4 every semester in a partnership w the D1 uni in town, it was always cool to hear stories from them!) and anyway i remember talking w a couple of the grads one practice and we were discussing all the different occupations athletic trainers could have, and what they wanted to work with in the future, and the topic veered towards professional sports and the olympics.

i thought it was really cool when we were talking about it, and then we got busy and it flew out of my mind. i dont remember when it came back and became a focus, but sometime before my senior year, i had decided i wanted to work at the olympic level.

real quick i mentioned gd and the struggle, so to bring that into focus, my junior year i took a whole bunch of different tech classes (gd&i, compsci, webtech) and in one of those, i had the opportunity to go to a ... i cant remember what the term was for it, but it was kinda an event for gd students and it had a little competition and stuff, and it was really fun! nd you got a lot of info abt the community college hosting it and i learned their program was really good, so the gd versus at internal struggle continued, and i remember talking to my sponsor teacher (she actually taught all three of my tech classes that year aaa i loved her) about how i didnt know what to do and shit and i dunno what she told me but like, i think she was trying to be encouraging but she basically said it was up to me, like she didnt try and nod me into a direction, that i can recall.

so SOMEHOW bc i honestly cannot remember, by senior year i’ve decided that im gonna jus fuck it and pick BOTH and double major in gd and athletic training. AND i had it all planned out, where i was gonna get a degree in gd and open up an online business, and then go into a masters program for at and then enter into the olympic field. 

by this point creative writing is still cool and a great hobby but i couldnt possibly double major AND have a minor that’d be too much. id still love to take a cw course tho one day.

basically a buncha crazy stuff happened that first semester but by winter break i had an acceptance letter to a uni a couple hours north of home with a good accredited undergrad program (accredited basically means you graduate w a masters in four years so its fasttracked which woulda been great but uh..) and by the time i found out that next semester that they were doing away with the accredited program i was already too emotionally invested to consider panic-switching(panic bc it was february and id already been admitted hah...) but i decided it’d be okay. basically if you dont remember/werent around one of my school’s head ats died in a car crash died around early october ‘16. she went to undergrad where i go now, and i’d talked to her about it september that semester wondering if she knew anything abt their program and uh surprise, she’d done the same program small world. after the funeral in november and a ton of thought i applied there. (november was.. crazy in general last year. rly crazy)

may was when i started adding on sports to the future olympics job, bc i started thinking about it and after finally getting a friend to watch yuri on ice, he started making his was through all of sochi’s figure skating stuff, and then the 2010 vancouver olympics, and i decided i wanted to recap a bit on that too.

the 2010 olympics was really my first experience with figure skating. i’m a west texas gal and so theres not a lot out here to get exposed to, so seeing these best-of-the-best class sports was fun, and the earliest experience i can remember of such. i was in fifth grade so i dont remember a ton, but i do remember being captivated by korea’s yuna kim, who won gold that year in fs. shes an fs legend at this point, so if you’re into figure skating and don’t know who she is, go look her up. you wont be disappointed.

in 2012 was the london olympics. i remember a lot from it, like watching the opening ceremony with my parents and seeing the queen jump out of a helicoptor(which is like,, still cool to this day wow) and being fascinated my michael phelps and all the swimming he did so grandly. it was also my first real exposure to diving. the oldest i could recall anything abt the sport was at a pizza hut somewhere.. in town i think, and i was w my best friend at the time and my mom was there so i think maybe we were on the way back from the lake??? sounds right, i think. and we were talking abt how i always held my nose when i went underwater bc i didnt know how to not get water all up my nostrils and be underwter(and i still dont to this day aha) and she mentioned like, joining a diving team would be cool! would help me get over it and all! and i like recalling it dunno what she was talking abt bc we lived in dirt city nothing so i highly doubt there was or is any sort of diving sport happening. swimming, yeah maybe, there were lessons at pools and bodyworks areas around town, competitive teams im not sure tho, but not diving like at all so??? dunno.

so my next and technically first real experience with it was watching the london olympics. and i thought, wow, this is so neat!! i watched from that one day like the opening events, and i think i was old enough to search online like yea i had a laptop by then so i looked up the schedule for the things i wanted to see most of, and i ended up watching i think most of the diving events (i missed a couple for.. archery, i think? maybe?) and absolutely loving it. iunno what it was, maybe something i never thought i could do?(bc not hold my nose?? while i dove???????? scaryy) but i enjoyed it a bunch.

i was older when sochi was a thing, my 8th grade year. i was able to appreciate things a lot more. when i tuned into events, tony hawk and snowboarding were the main focus, but figure skating was on a lot as well. i had a tv in my room by that point, so if i didnt like what was playing on the main tv, i could go watch another event. i learned a lot of names and faces through that, and so while my bff was watching it our senior year if i was with him id point out skaters and their nationalities and stuff, like yuzuru hanyus always been a modern day household name w figure skating, but i leanred abt him BECAUSE of the sochi olympics, and he was one of the ones i’ve never forgotten. i really really liked it, so much that i watched worlds after, and around the same time my fr year, i tuned in to just the worlds championship again. i didn’t pick up trying to watch grand prix(which is their regular season, for those unaware) season until my junior year, and most of it was day-or-two-late videos from youtube, since the ice channel i think it a paid-for thing (i still dont know much abt it hah) and nothing was on tv otherwise, aside from the skate america event. but since that first time after sochi, ive always been around watching worlds fs near the beg of each year. i’d familiarized myself by senior year with the fs world, and actually,

early (i think march?) of my junior year, i searched up trying to find a figure skating anime at the time. and what did i find?? ginban, the only figure skating anime at the time. i watched like maybe all of one episode, it was abt a girl who shared her body w the ghost of a former figure skater while she was competing in events, and it was.. okay? lackluster, in the animation dept, but it was a 2005 show so.. yeah.

so after that i was like kk that wasnt good lets find another. and i didnt. not yet, anyway. instead, i found an announcement for violet evergarden’s animated adaptation, and yuri on ice, a realistic adaptation of the sport of figure skating. thats bolded bc its important. i found that shit abt yoi before it even had a promo poster, certainly before the pv came around that got everyone hyped up. i found it bc i was looking for figure skating in the first place. in fact, i think when the pv came out and got popular, i didnt even relate it to the upcoming fs anime i’d read about previously. it took me a bit to connect the dots. 

watching yuri on ice at the same time as the gp 2016 season was surreal, but really interesting. i got my bff into it before the second to last episode came out, and i only remember that bc he finally showed any interest when he found something on twitter abt it being gay (newsflash/// hes gay, and before yoi his fav show was no6 bc that was as close as it got. he still rly likes it, we both do, but his solid favc is now definitely yoi. representation matters and all) and was like well now i HAVE to watch it and i was all yes it ends soon so pls. and he watched it twice in a weekend, and thrice before the finale came out, and then a few more times after that, iunno how many times but certainly more thn i have(i went back after the .. maybe ep 10? w/e ending had the after party reveal that changed everything, so i went back to analyze everything before the next ep) and between the week of 11 and finale 12, he started watching the sochi fs competition, and then the 2010 after the show ended w ep 12. 

seeing this great fs show and getting a friend into the world of figure skating really renewed my love for it all. before the semester went out i went back and watched the reruns of the sochi fs stuff. and by may i’d decided i wanted to cosider that to be the sport i worked with.

with diving, it took a similar twist. in the form of the rio 16 olympics. i was all over that shit, i downloaded an nbc app on my phone so i could watch events live while i traveled with volleyball to a tournament in dallas and while i was at practice w them at home and generally jus away from the house and a tv. i planned that shit out had a schedule and everything for what i was watching live, and a lot of it was swimming, but a whoooole lot of live stuff was the diving. 

in the hotel room in dallas the tv would always be on to w/e olympics events were airing at the time, either track or diving tho, one or the other, or recaps. quite a few girls ended up in the room in the evening and we’d all do stuff and watch in passing at the same time, and it was suuuuuper fun. watching the chinese women perform flawlessly and walk away w all the gold was fun, but finding a good commentator to actually say such was a disheartening challenge( one of the most memorable moments w live commentary that year was hearing a woman say of one of the chinese ladies that she’d done better before, after they revealed her personal best score ever like rly cmon be unbiased and jus passionate abt the sport youre covering pls.

ive always been super fond of the diving scene. it may not be as much as fs, but honestly, i wish i grew up in an area w a diving team now, or wish i could try it out now, bc thats how much fun it seems. i still wanna go up to the big city like 30min away from uni and learn to ice skate in the civic center there, but hands down if i had to pick a sport to join tomorrow or die i’d pick diving. 

so also by may, and throughout the culmination of senior year, diving was the second sport on the olympic to-train-for list. you get a five-year contract w the olympics, now i think it’s usa as a whole and i think its by center so say, if i get a job in colorado springs i cant apply in another five years to chula vista or even like lake placid, but iunno for sure. the five-year thing is involved somehow bc i’ve heard it from a physical therapist and trainer-that-works-in-a-sports-med-clinic duo in one body named sarah, who’s been contracted out from the clinic by my high school since junior year also, bc she knows people who’ve worked w the olympics, and then another from church that worked w olympics that knows my family uh iunno how well but i know of him, i think he also works in the clinic as some sort of on-hand surgeon but a diff person than who sarah knew. so its five years somehow and then i’ll take my bfa in gd and open my online business and do that from a studio at home and look after my owl/cat pet combo.

since may, it had been ‘olympics, with either figure skating or diving’. and it stayed that for a long time. now, since a couple weeks ago, and this is again while gp season is happening for fs, its diving. i wanna work w the usa olympic diving team as their team athletic trainer, and i cant do it this summer bc i have to have completed two years of uni, instead of a certain standing, like be a junior, but so NEXT summer, before my senior year of uni, (i came in a sopho so 6 sem only ah) i’m applying for an internship at the center in colorado springs, and that’s the team i hope i work with. 

now i tell people, diving, but if i get offered figure skating, i’ll take it, but diving is the goal now. if i love it and wanna continue professionally, great, i can do that and have an online gd shop. and if i decide i want something different? i’ll work olympics and then join w a professional-level figure skating i actually dunno how it works. coach, and their skater in turn. coach, with multiple skaters under them. a culmination of diff usa skaters. w/e, something in the professional fs world.

and thats uh, thats it! dive has been so much fun to watch, and i realize i talk a lot on here about working w basketball and being an at student in general and the vast majority have no idea what i mean, so hopefully this clarifies. thank you!!