#as you can tell i highly enjoy detailed character designs that have bits that are meant to represent something

[moonlit-orchid]

This post came back to haunt me in my mind the other night. When I was meant to be studying.

I figured, let's do a quick young scrooge sketch. One hour later I was still drawing.

Here are the results

As you can see i got carried away. First I drew scrooge and then i wanted a donald. And then i wanted a della as an example of how her hair and eyes are slightly different, and then a webby to give her design a slight hint at her relationship to scrooge.

I was sketching scrooge and then realised he looks like a 2000s shonen protag... and went with it. And i am proud of it. The eyelashes now i realise kinda make him look like a ghibli character

When I did donald i kept in mind that he's at his current age while Scrooge was younger in the sketch, and also that his canon design hasn't got a lot in terms of hair. I decided to let it match Scrooge's in terms of colour and the bangs having the same number of spikes as well as the spikes in the back, but make it shorter because he's older and to match his canon design a bit. It's also messy because being a single parent for 10 years will do that. That's also why he has dark circles under his eyes (my headcanon will be now and forever that Donald is Scrooge's spitting image) His eye shape is meant to be the same as scrooge's too.

With Della I wanted her to be blonde to match the rest of the Duck-Mcduck family, who all have varying shades of blonde (Gladstone being pure bright blonde and Fethry is like a darker blonde that's close to brown) because Donald is the odd redhead cousin out of them all (yes lets give donald more reasons to be bullied in the family we love that). Her hair is canonically straight, so I kept that and made sure her bangs also had the spikes scrooge's have but like straightened and together. Her kids also have this hair colour too but their eyes are more of a grayer blue like scrooge and donald while della's are bright blue, but her eye shape is the exact same as scrooge and donald's but with less visible eyelashes. I wanted human Della to look like she's perfect and brilliant, a contrast to Donald who looks like he's barely holding his life together, and also because she hides her insecurities with a shield of confidence

Yes, i took webby's facial design inspo from Anya forger. I gave her a lot of visible lashes and then thought "ooo lets give them to scrooge so they match and there's like an indication in their design that they're related", so i did. As you can see her hair is very... pink in the blonde. I don't know how to colour strawberry blonde. Either way, she's supposed to have hair that's just a bit more red than blonde, just a lil' hint that she's related to donald and scrooge who are also red heads with bluish eyes. (Launchpad is obviously ginger too but his eyes are brown). The back of her hair is also meant to resemble young scrooge's too, as well as the lines in her bangs being equal to his spikes. Her eyes are very vibrant blue and I wanted them to be almost unnatural to hint she isn't exactly natural herself.

Anyway that's what i did instead of my coursework that one evening :)

[wazzappp]

You write fanfics, right? Would you mind giving a newbie a few tips for writing their very first fanfiction ??? 🥺

FIRST OF ALL WOAH. IM HONORED YOU WOULD ASK ME FOR ADVICE AND SECOND OF ALL AKAKKFJGKHKHSKSGG I uhhhhh. Kind of????? Write?? I make plans and then I draw comics I'm actually trying to WRITE write something right now (key word being 'trying') but INEXPERIENCE ASIDE I guess I can try to tell you about some stuff I like to think about when planning a comic?

I like to start by knowing both where everyone is starting out and where everyone is going to end up. It's also helpful to know what everyone WANTS. I make sure to separate those two because they aren't necessarily the same thing. It's good to know both before you get to the details. If you don't know where you're going, you cant have fun getting there!

When I'm planning something out I like to start with the big parts as bullet points and then fill in the gaps. That way, if you realize one point doesn't flow into the other the right way, you can rearrange things before you're 5 hours deep and realize 3 hours worth of it doesn't work.

Try to think up multiple different ways a scene/situation could go! I replay something in my head a dozen times in a dozen different ways until I land on one I like. If you have something solid its totally cool to stick with it, but it's also fun to explore possibilities in your head before committing. That way you can pick out what the most impactful version is and go with that.

TALK!!! TO YOURSELF!!! FOR DIALOGUE!!! Find somewhere private where you wont be judged or interrupted and just go for it (my personal favorite is in the car on my drive to work but don't do that if you think it will get you into an accident lol). Try and get into each characters headspace and think about how it feels to say the things you're saying. Does it make you feel sick? Choked up? Tense? Notice it and think about how it will change their body language and how other people perceive them.

Know what your characters flaws are! Perfect people are BORING. Not to mention unrealistic. Also its really important for how people interact with each other! If someone is distrustful, judgemental, naive, defensive, blunt LITERALLY ANY CHARACTER FLAW it will play a role in how they deal with both people and problems.

Working on biographies + character designs (if you draw) for characters to make sure you understand them as well as possible is really helpful. I do it for almost all of my AU's that I make. But also I'm incredibly detail oriented so yk. Take that bit of advice with a grain of salt. I like picking my favorite little guys apart with a scalpel but if you find that demotivating don't worry about it too much.

If you're following along with a game or a movie, it's good to know ahead of time how closely you are sticking to the established story and universe. Keep track of any new rules you make. Working within a set of constraints helps to get both you and the character to think more creatively, and keeping those rules consistent makes the world feel more real. In a way, setting limits makes your world bigger!

Its also worth mentioning that I like to pay attention to what I enjoy reading when I'm figuring out a story. What pacing do you like? What level of description? Do you like things phrased more straightforwards or more poetic? I'm not suggesting you copy people of course. Just know what you like and try to apply it to yourself!

Damn that was way more than I thought I had to say lol. I'm going to also tag @moosemonstrous @rokhal @kermit-coded @cannibal-wings sin case they might have some tips to add because they are all absolutely exemplary in their craft (bring out the FANCY words today just for you) and I HIGHLY suggest looking at their works.

<3 Thanks for your ask!! I cant wait to see what you make!

[bunnymi1k]

i'm gonna make a bit of a masterpost with all my good art here, as i'm officially opening my commissions. i don't expect many requests, but i'm still limiting it to five total for the time being. first come, first serve, but i do have the right to decline for any reason i see fit.

let's get into the do's and don'ts first. it's a bit of a read, but please stick til the end if you're interested

things i WILL draw

ship art, within reason*

original characters

official characters, movies/shows/etc

other people's ocs, with permission!!

furries/anthros

my little pony characters

powerpuff/teen puff art style

chibi characters

nsfw art, but only if you can verify you're 18+!!!! and no underage characters!

portraits of yourself or others in my art style, which is not realism sorry

mild gore or body horror

things i WON'T draw

loli/shota

*ship art of the following: incest, pedophilia, canonically abusive couples, noncon situations

nsfw art of or for minors; unless the character canonically is 18+ at some point in the story, they're off limits. no fanon aged up designs.

mecha/highly robotic designs; it's just not my forte and i would hate to disappoint anyone expecting highly detailed mechanical designs. if you feel it's simplistic enough, we can discuss it further.

nsfw art of full-on animal characters, or anthros with realistic animal genitalia

nsfw art in the mlp style. same situation as above; if they're not anthropomorphic enough, i'm not drawing nsfw of it

chibi or ppg style nsfw

extreme gore/violence

payment can be made either in full, or 50%, upfront.

if you choose to do half upfront, the other half MUST be paid after approval of the final sketch for me to continue further. adjustments can continue to be made within reason. ie: please don't ask me to change the composition when it's half finished, or anything else outlandish

works in progress WILL use programs such as nightshade to prevent usage in AI programs, and will be heavily watermarked to avoid theft.

you will receive the full FINISHED artwork in any file format(s) you want (PNG being the default) via email, with a smaller watermark. it is yours to do whatever you wish with, all i ask for at that point is credit linking back to my blog!

please bear in mind that i have a full time job and other responsibilities if you choose to commission me. i would love for art to be my full-time job, but as it stands, it can't be. all of this to say, please have patience and empathy for the person behind the screen <3

now to get into the juicy part, pricing. please note- these prices are for single character pieces. additional information will be below

BUSTS (shoulders/chest and up)

sketch: 5 usd

lineart only: 8 usd

flat colors: 12 usd

cell shading: 18 usd

fully rendered/painted: 25 usd

HALF BODY (lower torso/waist and up)

sketch: 10 usd

lineart: 13 usd

flat colors: 17 usd

cell shading: 23 usd

fully rendered: 30 usd

FULL BODY

sketch: 15 usd

lineart: 18 usd

flat colors: 22 usd

cell shading: 30 usd

fully rendered: 45 usd

the cost of ONE additional character is ½ of the price listed above. anything more than two will be 25% of the listed price PER CHARACTER.

if you've made it this far, congratulations! now you get to enjoy my portfolio, if you wanna call it that. reblogs are very much appreciated!!!

if you're interested after all of that, dm me and tell me your pet's name so i know you read through everything (;

some of this stuff is a bit outdated, but like i said i think these are some of my best works to show. i'll definitely rb this with more stuff to add someday, as well as when the number of open slots updates.

0/5

[ssa-dado]

Pre-exam IQIWIANQLQPL, Chapter 21 updates and a desperate writer begging for your opinións (Help me, I'm spiraling 🤌🤖)

Hi lovely humans!

Long post ahead with lots of updates, so buckle up 🏎🏎🏎🏎

I’m temporarily rising from the dead to drop some info bombs! 👯‍♀️👯‍♀️👯‍♀️👯‍♀️ This week is pre-exam chaos central for me (two major reviews: one on Wednesday and one on Thursday), so I’ll only be sporadically active for a few minutes here and there. Wish me luck hahahahahhaha (I want to di*)

Now, onto the fun stuff: I have an ask about philosophy that I’ve been dying to answer for weeks (seriously, I’m so exciteddddd AAAAA) I’ve been working on some notes and promise to carve out a bit of time for a detailed, exhaustive response...... it’s going to be so much fun (warning: I might get a little overly talkative and probably a bit technical but I'll do my best to make it user-friendly)

Chapter 21 Updates:

I’m actually more than halfway through the chapter! If all goes well, it should drop this weekend (lessons wrap up Thursday, so yay, more writing time!). No more waiting 71,718 days for a new chapter!!!! WE CAN START CELEBRATING YEEE HAWWW LET THE BANQUET BEGIN! 🍝🍷��🍅🥖🥗🧀🍽

When I say “halfway through,” I mean I’m halfway through the outline I had in mind 🙃

If I stick to it, we’re finally looking at a decently sized chapter (10k-12k words - bye bye 20k monstrosities). These chapters have been trickier to draft because as you've seen they’re so heavily focused on Hotch (we’ve been spending way more time in his POV than Teach's. I love doing it idk why)

Idk if I've said it before (probably I did) but in a way, these last Act 2 chapters are a love letter to him, as each one (Logic, Physics, Ethics, and Logos) is designed to dismantle the idea of him as a stoic, using events and narrative to challenge the principles of stoic philosophy. Some heavy character development going on (because poor man he gets a divorce and also the girl he fucks with fucking explodes lmao)

But enough philosophy rambling.......you’re probably here for plot details, right? 👁👁

Right?!

Left?!

OK enough with those dad jokes

So, Chapter 21 follows the events of Criminal Minds episodes 3x09 through 3x11 (do with this information what you will). The title, Physics, is inspired by the Stoic’s highly deterministic view of the universe, where fate plays a central role.

(Hint: if you’re curious about this, check out the colors of Symposium moodboard... pay special attention to the color black 👹👹👹 Remember that both characters were involved in that case back then... just saying.)

The chapter will also include a flashback that ties directly into the present and impacts Hotch’s character. Most importantly, it will push SOMEONE toward figuring out how they really feel about a certain SOMEONE (yes, I mean Gissi or maybe not)

Help this poor lovely human being

As the story progresses, I’ve started to feel more pressure (in a good way don’t worry!!!!!) to deliver what you want to see. So, tell me, what parts interest you the most? What do you enjoy reading? This way, I can focus more on those elements and cut down on others.

Speaking of which, a while back, I wrote a scene set right after the last chapter where Aaron takes the reader out following their breakup with Peter. I was in a super fluffy, bantery mood, so naturally, I had him take them to a traditional Italian restaurant, complete with the classic nosey Italian staff 🤌🤌🤌🤌🤌 (I’m Italian, so I get a free pass on the stereotype, ty). Of course, the staff assumes they’re a couple (what a shame, really), and the two totally lean into it, turning it into one of their lawyer/philosopher-style challenges, only this time with some added hand touches and overly exaggerated flirts purely for the sake of the game (they’re still fun to read I swear)

It’s a trope I love reading, and I couldn’t resist writing it into this universe with these blind af characters.

But drumroll please 🎺🎺🎺🎺 I ended up cutting it because it was just cute fluff and didn’t really serve the plot. Typical me: I get so carried away with the pining and banter that even a "short" scene spirals into a 3k-word detour. Classic Phi.

I wanted to keep it to myself, but maybe you might want to read it as well! So I'm actually debating whether to put it back at the beginning of Chapter 21 (though the current opening feels right), or post it as a standalone one-shot preview, like a “Chapter 20.1.”

What do you think? Should I include it, or save it as a fun bonus chapter?

Also, while you’re waiting for the chapter, would you want to see any more WIPs, or would you rather experience everything as a whole when it’s done?

Alright, enough rambling and people-pleasing for today, I’m off to write 🏌‍♀️🏌‍♀️🏌‍♀️ Sending lots of love! 🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍

Phi (& Dado, the one and only chairman of the blog)

[shewholovestoread]

My Journey To You - Thoughts and Impressions Part 1 of 2

I realise that I've been missing these past few months, i've been on a consumption binge but with little to no bandwidth to write about any show/film irrespective of how much I may have loved them. (depression is an ass) But I can, once again, feel thoughts tingling in my brain and I've decided to get back to writing, something that I deeply enjoy. Anyway, enough about me, let's get started.

To keep the post from getting obscenely long, I'm going to split it into two. This post will be about the technical aspects of the show. Part 2 will focus on the characters.

My Journey To You is a 2023 fantasy, Wuxia show (shows/films that are based in ancient China with martial arts warriors being capable of superhuman feats, like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). It was highly anticipated owing to the amazing trailer (one of the best I've seen)

Plot: The series tells the story of Yun Wei Shan, a spy longing for freedom, who infiltrates the Gong residence to complete a mission. In the eerie and treacherous Gong residence, she encounters love and friendship, embarks on a journey of self-discovery, and finds the determination to move forward. Together with the rebellious nobleman Gong Zi Yu, they grow and mature through their shared experiences. (via mydramalist)

It stars: Yu Shu Xin (Yun Wei Shan), Zhang Ling He(Gong Zi Yu), Ryan Cheng (Gong Shang Jue) and Lu Yu Xiao (Shangguan Qian), Tian Jia Rui (Gong Yuan Zhi), Jolin Jin (Gong Zi Shang) and Sun Chen Jun (Jin Fan)

Written by: Edward Guo.

Series directed by: Edward Guo & Luo Luo

I'll talk about everything I liked before I get into the stuff that I didn't.

Right off the bat, this show has some of the most gorgeous characters you'll come across and this applies to both the men and the women. The costume and make-up departments do an amazing job making already attractive people look ridiculously attractive. They also help the actors really inhabit the world seamlessly. The costumes are especially incredibly detailed and intricate, you can see the care that went into crafting the look for each of these characters. Shout-out to Huang Wei (costume designer) and Shi Hui (Make-up)

One of the best aspects of the show is the cinematography by Wei Hong. This show is aesthetically beautiful, so many absolutely stunning shots. Chinese shows (and Korean shows) love slow-motion shots, and while at times, it can be a bit much, this show makes great use of them, especially during the fight scenes.

The cinematography is helped to a great extent by the excellent production design, courtesy Jiyao Zhang. Like the costumes, the production design too is detailed and intricate. The world feels fully realised and yet also lived in. Each of the different clan mansions, the Front Hill and Back Hill are so incredibly different and distinct that you can immediately tell where you are. An insane amount of hard work went into the show and it shows in every frame.

You can tell that they had a good budget to work with and every bit of it was spent on making the show look as stylized as possible, there is not an ounce of realism to be found here, cue slow-motion beautiful hair flying shots. (Every day I bemoan my inability to make gifs) But the screencaps below illustrate the beauty of the show, it's so gorgeous that you could literally use screencaps as wallpapers.

The fight scenes in the show are some of the best I've seen. They are intense and thrilling and always coherent, you can always tell who's fighting who. The fight scenes are also so aesthetically pleasing, like an exceptionally deadly dance.

Now, we come to the not-so-great stuff.

First off, the marketing. The show was marketed and advertised as an action fantasy show and while there is action and it is excellent, it's not an "action" show. The main focus of the show is on the characters and the internal power struggle of the Gong family. There are also whole scenes, sometimes making up the bulk of an entire episode which are just conversations. I've seen a lot of viewers disappointed and it makes sense. they thought they were coming for action and instead they got verbose conversations.

The pacing also comes to a near-halt in some of these scenes and instead we're treated to lengthy expositions which isn't necessarily a bad thing but it becomes tedious when it happens repetitively.

Now, let's come to the worst thing about the show, it's ending, specifically the last 5 minutes. This end is ridiculously mindbogglingly bad when you consider that there is almost no confirmation on a 2nd season. It's just such a bad idea to end on a cliffhanger like this. If they wanted to leave things open for a potential 2nd season, they could have ended with the Wufeng elders coming together at that character's home, possibly to hold them ransom or something, like literally anything else.

if you're planning on watching this show and I do recommend it, keep in mind that it does get slow and don't watch the last 5 mins of the show. Trust me, you'll like the show a whole lot more if you follow that approach.

Part 2 HERE

[rayclubs]

Reasons why MUSHI-SHI is the greatest animated series of all time and you should watch it right now:

The world is so incredibly beautiful that even the most mundane shots wre filled with a sense of wonder and awe. The animation is gorgeous. It's popular online to be obsessed with the Ghibli studio nature and wildlife shots but really nothing ever seemed as real and stunning and utterly breathtaking to me as the world of MUSHI-SHI.

It's an anthology where each episode tells a separate story from beginning to end. The central character Ginko is the same but he's rarely the main character, and is simply pleasant to observe as he travels across the world and meets people with rich lives, unique problems, interesting relationships, and fates ranging from inspirigly joyful to soul-crushingly tragic.

Every episode is filled with so, so much love for the world, nature, people, every living thing, every animal and plant and creature. Just. So, so much love. It's as if the author personally comes down from their godly throne to give you a hug and a kiss on the forehead and tells you that things are going to be okay.

The characters are real and alive. They face strange, often fantastical problems, but their reactions and struggles in the face of those problems are as real as you and I. You meet them in the beginning of an episode, you spend twenty minutes with them, and they're gone - but you feel like you have known them all your life.

The sound design is just as beautiful as the animation.

The concepts behind each episode are unique, creative, magical, and so thought-provoking I keep pacing around my room after each episode because I need time to process it.

Character designs are so endearing. Their features are simple, often similar, but still remaining unique through the tiniest details - the way they style their hair, the shapes of their eyes, the incline of their nose.

The weather has such a strong presence throughout the episodes. The way the sea behaves, the wind blows, the snow falls, the way the characters dress, shiver, walk, live in the unique and often temperamental microclimates. The sea trade, the boats, the nets, the islands. The way the clouds move. Sometimes you just watch Ginko walk through a mountain pass and that's enough.

Because it's an anthology, it can't rely on cliffhangers and cheap hooks to get you to keep watching. You can watch the episodes in any order at all. Because there are no tricks the series can use to hold your attention, it has to rely on raw concise storytelling, and it's so good at that! It always has a story to tell and wants to get to it as fast as possible, but it never ever feels rushed. People meet, change, die, years pass, but Ginko still finds the time to sit in the shade of a tree and look at the ripples on the ocean surface.

A small thing, but a bit of animation that really stuck out to me was Ginkowalking through a narrow doorway and stooping awkwardly, like any tall person would. It's all real like this, not in a gif-able, croppable, tiktok-able way, just... All of it.

I'll put some screenshots below. They're not some important major shots, most of them were on screen for only a second. It's all like this. All. Sorry for the bad quality, I was watching it on my phone.

Just please trust me and go watch it. Seriously. I have never praised anything so highly in my entire life. I genuinely believe that this is the best piece of media I have ever had the pleasure to enjoy.

[shai-manahan]

thank you for adding trigger warnings! i still wanted to give the game a go but i am sensitive to some of the things listed (hallucinations and memory gaps). would it still be possible for me to enjoy the story even if i only skim through those parts? i've already did for some parts but i was scared that i might completely miss something

Short answer: yes, you'll be okay without them

If you want a little more detailed explanation (and you're ok with seeing me talking about it) with moderate spoilers, you can see it under the cut:

In such cases, you’ll have to remember specific details yourself as a reader if you want your MC to immediately recall what's missing. There may be an example of this soon, though one that’s fairly easy, and I do try to emphasize the things you would need.

The frequency of hallucinations your MC’s gonna experience would highly depend on whether or not you would ‘dive deeper’ into them when they do occur (there will be a tracker dedicated for it), and the more you do it, the worse the memory gaps would be, and sometimes, the MC will forget a lot of things. 

As long as you opt out of giving much attention to them, however, you wouldn’t have to suffer through these.

I’d also like to point out that the biggest reason why they are referred to as hallucinations for now is because it’s the closest term to what���s happening, and most characters have no idea yet as to what it exactly is, but it’s actually a bit different. It's... basically something that those with knowledge how to utilize them uses them for an advantage, but with awareness of certain consequences attached.

I don’t know if you’d be more comfortable once the nature of these occurrences is revealed in the story (and I do hope that will be the case!), but always put yourself first and skip over these portions if needed!

You'll be missing some hints, sure, but you wouldn't be entirely lost without them as the game is designed to be enjoyable even without making your MC get too involved in it.

I'll also try to be as detailed as I can with the content warnings (like in which chapter they'll apply to and how serious they would be, so you'll also be able to assess for yourself which scenes you can handle).

If, in turn, you get lost on where the story was going because of the skipped scenes, you can tell me and I'll see what I can do :)))

Thank you for raising this concern, anon! If you have more questions, feel free to bring them up. I tend to miss things sometimes.

[bahamutgames]

Sea of Afterthoughts

Game: Sea of Stars (August 28, 2023)

Console: Xbox One (Via Gamepass)

Another afterthoughts coming at you hot off the presses! It's been a bit of a rough day. Being a little under the weather and making some mess ups, but I got some work done and it's only just now noon so hopefully I'll be in a better headspace going forward. Anyway, we've got games to talk about!

I played Sea of Stars a little earlier this year around its launch, and I've let me thoughts sit for a long while so I figure it's a perfect time to finally tell you what I thought about the game!

As always this is NOT a review! This is just me throwing up my thoughts onto the internet to get them out of my head and so other people who played the game can see what I thought! You shouldn't take this as serious well written criticism, and every game I talk about is something you should play for yourself if you're interested!

BIG SPOILERS FOR SEA OF STARS AHEAD!! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!

Opening

So I've actually been interested in Sea of Stars for a while. I saw a screenshot for it in a game informer magazine around when covid started and it looked SUPER nice. As it got closer I only got more and more excited for it, it was really amazing looking! Sadly when it launched, I just wasn't in a comfortable place money-wise to pick it up and I was pretty upset. I LOVE JRPGs and I was missing out on what looked like the best this year! Thankfully for my birthday my family got me a month of gamepass and I was able to finally sink my teeth into the game through that!

Stuff I liked

Man, where to begin? There's a LOT to love about Sea of Stars. Right out of the gate, this game is GORGEOUS! The sprite art is seriously amazing, being highly detailed with great animations. And they do a lot of sprite manipulating to make things look even more detailed such as having trees and plants actually sway in the breeze or having the ocean with actual ripples and waves. With some amazing enviornments, great character and monster designs, and even some nice hand drawn cutscenes, it's a seriously beautiful game all the way through. I was particularly impressed with the Dwellers which would typically be HUGE boss monsters with loads of detail on them (Torment was NUTS).

The game also have wonderful music, probably to no one's surprise I was really into the battle themes of the game, and the main theme is nice to. It's been a bit since I've played it so not a lot of the music is still in my head but I don't think there was a single track during my playthrough I didn't enjoy!

The story is also very interesting, I love the world they built, the solstice warriors are VERY interesting and I really love a lot of the concepts in the game like the dragon sleeping on the mountain and even the dwellers themselves. The story is nice and keeps you very engaged for most of it (we'll get to it) and the characters are really lovely! There's some misses but overall I think the cast is wonderful! I liked Valere and Zale and alot, but there's no doubt Garl is the best character hands down! He's charming, capable, fun, and just all around a great guy. I remember when the game was coming out I was rubbed a little the wrong way that he was fat and a chef. But I think the game handles him so well, he's not bumbling or food obsessed like most fat characters in fiction. And he's not a chef because he's fat, he's fat because he's a chef? If that makes sense? He doesn't feel like the butt of the joke ever and honestly, he might be one of my new favorite RPG teammates ever, it's nice to have a teammate of my body type I can cosplay lol

However where Sea of Stars REALLY shines is in the gameplay. This game has some absolutely fantastic traditional turnbased JRPG gameplay that still manages to bring in new ideas without totally watering down the formula, and inspiration from tons of sources while still being wholly unique to itself. The game really wears its influences on its sleeves so I'll be making a lot of comparisons to other games to explain stuff, apologies for how tacky that might come off lol.

So Sea of Stars is obviously heavily based on Chrono Trigger, you can really see that in the visuals. But the gameplay also brings in some elements from CT such as having area of effect attacks, so enemy positioning matters, as well as crossover attacks between allies! There's timed hits just like the Mario RPGs, which are always welcome imo. You can even see what moves some things are based on specifically. Like Moonerang (which I loved a LOT because I was pretty good with the timing so I could totally devastate some enemies) is clearly based on the shell bros. moves from the Mario & Luigi games. Meanwhile Sunball works similar to Geno Beam, ect ect. And of course there's simple timed hit and timed block action commands which are staples in Mario RPGs. The overworld sections also have a lot of interactivity, like using grappling hooks (which I LOVED, you could use this to get first strikes) or blowing gusts of wind to push things around. This is another feature I always love to see as it adds nice depth to exploring the world maps and solving puzzles. Even item management is interesting, there are no healing items. Instead, cooking mechanics similar to the Tales of series make an appearance, and they are the main way of making food. You find ingredients everywhere, overworld, shops, and even enemies, so you'll never have trouble getting what to cook with. And I think making cooking the main source of healing is a great way to encourage me to do it. Also, those foods look SO tasty!

There's other positives too, I like that the whole party shares an EXP meter, so they all level up together (even if they're not in the party! this is important!) I love that you can swap teammates during combat (always a fan of this and it's really needed for this game particularly.) The ability to stop enemies from casting spells was neat. There's a lot to like about this game and its REALLY good gameplay.

Stuff I didn't like

BUT, the game is not perfect. Early in I have some very teeny tiny gripes. Sometimes it can be almost impossible to properly hit enemies with everything you need to make them stop casting, personally I really did not like the pirate crew at all and also don't really understand why they're hanging with Serai or why they wanna go to the Sea of Stars. But, whatever, it's all small stuff.

No, I think this game is FANTASTIC... Pretty much until the final act of the game. RIGHT when you get out of the Sea of Stars and onto the other side. That's the MOMENT the game kinda starts to drag and lose itself in my opinion. So, after they kill Garl, the best character. You then travel across the Sea of Stars, into an alternate reality where everything is more Sci-Fi... kind of? Only for 2 dungeons really. Serai is a cyborg, which is cool! Though it doesn't come up much. And then you realize there's a HUGE chunk of the game left in this alternate world, where it really feels like it should sort of be the climax. And I don't really care for a lot of stuff that happens at this point in the game. It all feels weirdly tacked on and doesn't get the development time it needs at that point in the story. They try throwing loads of new stuff at us but like, at this point I kind just don't care anymore, and again these concepts are introduced and then IMMEDIATELY left behind. The weird smoke soul creatures? Yeah one joins (we'll get to it) but I don't think what he is is ever mentioned again? The weird bird cult with daffy duck? Neat idea but like... idk it's kind of nothing and then it's gone? And you free a prisoner who shows up out of nowhere to help you and it's supposed to be this feel good scene but... I don't know who that guy is? He's just a random NPC to me?

Then there's B'st. Your final teammate and easily the worst teammate in the game. I just don't understand him. He's clearly meant to be a Garl replacement as a heavy hitter. But like... there's not really a reason to have one considering the true ending (we'll get to it!!!). His skills just make him generally more useless than the rest of the cast. And from a story perspective, he shows up SO late into the game that I absolutely do not care about him at all. I have no time to bond with him compared to the rest of your party who you have for nearly the whole game! B'st basically solely exists to tie up a lose end in Garl's story. Which is neat, but I can't help but feel like he could have been SO much better as maybe not a teammate, or being a teammate that's introduced way earlier than near the end of the game. This is something I feel like a LOT of indie RPGs do, introduce a new teammate CRAZY late into the game where no one will care about them at all. In my opinion, while it's always the more the merrier when it comes to RPG teammates. If you're gonna add a character that late, just cut them or find a way to introduce them into the plot earlier so they don't feel completely tacked on.

But, that's still not the worst part of Sea of Stars. No, that's the ending, and ultimately the resolution of Garl's story. So, you have to beat the game at least once to get the true ending. You fight a cool final boss, and then the true villain just kinda gets escorted out and the whole finale ends so unbelievably anti-climatically. And for good reason, this is NOT the true ending. No, to get the true ending you have to nearly 100% complete the game. I HATE when games do this. It's very common in platformers but I have never seen this in an RPG before. To get the true ending you must complete a personalized sidequest for each teammate to get their ultimate weapon (ala Chrono Trigger), fully rebuild a town (why do so many RPGs have this side quest lol), and collect every single rainbow conch, which are hidden all around the world. And while you will have a head start from playing the whole game, it's still a daunting task that requires you to do TONS of side quests on top of this. And there's no way to just view totals in the area, you can have a parrot tell you at random what's left in an area, but unless you're CERTAIN you've collected all of one thing and he isn't just never choosing to tell you about what you're missing, it's basically pointless.

So you do all that, and you get Garl back! B'st fulfills his whole purpose of bringing back... the teammate he was meant to replace...

So why are we hanging out with B'st again??

Anyway, then you get the true ending right? No??? Idiot. Now you have to go around the whole world and catch EVERY FISH IN THE GAME. Yeah, there's a fishing minigame too. And the only way to know if you've caught every fish is to actually enter the fishing areas and check inside the areas. Albeit it's not THAT bad since you can fly on the world map at this point. But also you promised I was done with the game two times. Let me leave please.

After that, you are FINALLY permitted to go to the finale and fight the real final boss. Who is the main villain of the game... before he gets escorted out again. But at least this time the ending isn't super anti-climactic. In fact, it's a good ending. So, why is it locked behind nearly 100% completing the game? It's not just a slightly different ending, you are just straight up getting a worse conclusion unless you put in this HUGE amount of work. And I was hunting for this stuff during my blind playthrough, what if you found NO side content? You'd suddenly have to do hours of shit to get the true ending. It's nuts. And very confusing.

I feel like the ball was dropped during the second half of the game. Maybe be combining more of the first and second world this could have been avoided? Maybe by making getting Garl back a required part, and maybe having B'st be a side character rather than a half hazard teammate you could fix some of the awkwardness? But I don't know. The game is still great! And absolutely worth the playthrough! But damn they really punish you for making the effort by the end of the game.

Final Thoughts

Sea of Stars is an AMAZING Indie RPG. It's everything I was hoping for and then some. If you're a fan of the genre, you have to play it. And I'm very excited to see what they cook up for the DLC and future Sea of Stars titles (I still haven't played the messenger lol). But ultimately the game just drops the ball so awkwardly by the end of it. Then expects you to still have the steam after that fumble to do EVERYTHING in the game for a decent ending. I've honestly never seen anything like that before and it totally knocked the wind out of my sails while playing.

Again it's a GREAT RPG and I'm so glad I sat down to play through it, but I just don't think it's that game of the year I was hoping it would be. I still think there's something I've played this year that just scratched all the itches more than this did.

===

Thank you for reading! I know this and the last afterthoughts I did skewed a little negative, but I do want to make it very clear that I liked Sea of Stars! And I think the next few games I talk about will be more positive over all!

There's so many games coming out lately and I really can't keep up with any of it. Lately I've been playing some shorter stuff that I haven't had a huge oomph to talk about. So that's why I've been a bit inactive. But hey, just one week again from the biggest game ever for me aha

Also, apparently Tumblr might be in some danger according to some scared posts I've seen. I have no idea if this is true. But if it is that would kinda suck! I'd have to find a new place to post massive word vomit essays about games I played, so hopefully that's not the case. But if it is, you should follow me on another dying platform: Twitter! To see what I'm up to and if I have to replace this blog with a fuckin... wix or some shit idk.

That's all I have for today, go out and play a game you've been excited for!

[airlock]

I’ve been pretty scarce lately, haven’t I? last week this was because uni was demolishing me, but lately, it’s been more about, ehum, the downside of spending like 50% of your social time in Fire Emblem communities when a new game releases, precisely in the middle of the aforementioned demolishment by uni

I’m still probably going to be ignoring non-direct notifications for the next while or so, but now that I’ve finally gotten my hands on the shiny new toy too, I’m eager to become part of the problem for everyone else!

and on that note, I’m here to post my impressions of Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes as of the start of ch4

maybe this should go without saying, but goddamn, the DIFFERENCE that it makes to be back to having a protagonist with their very own dialogue as well as a discrete personality. Shez and Arval’s back-and-forths really get the most out of the “gremlin living rent-free in your brain constantly complaining about your dumb ass decisions” by actually having two participants to it. even the none-too-revelant dialogue pick prompts are a lot nicer now that Shez will actually verbalize the option that you pick, which also means you really get the most out of all the funny and/or mean options-

also, Arval is cute and I want to pinch her cheeks no matter how gross the texture there probably is

plus she forced Shez not to call Alois out on telling dad jokes. she gets it

on a related note, I’ve only had this version of Byleth for like three voiced lines, and I’ve already seen more charisma than anything they’ve done in the entirety of Three Houses. y’know, Jeannie Tirado is a phenomenal voice actress -- actually giving her lines to read brings that out all of a sudden, who woulda thunk? (somewhere between this and Xander Mobus complaining about how few actual lines he had as Persona 5 Joker, I’m arriving at the perhaps bygone conclusion that one should maybe not waste highly talented voice actors on silent protagonists-)

anyway, it’s funny as hell to me that they went to all the bother of setting up the whole “hey, you’re a garreg mach student now!” thing, only to shut the academy down and send everyone home in 2 chapters. also I hope Leonie got a refund-

I’m digging the gameplay so far; I was a bit worried that it seemed to be trying to spin too many unique plates at once -- I will, of course, really see yet how all these interlocking systems hold up throughout an entire game, but in this early juncture, it actually feels like everything has a place and nothing is encroaching too hard on anything else.

on the other hand, though, I think I can see what people mean when they said the original Fire Emblem Warriors was surprisingly headache-inducing for a Warriors game. I enjoy the tactical aspect, but it feels like it comes at the detriment of direct gameplay; you decide what everyone’s going to do, it feels awesome, and then you’re like, wait, what am *I* going to do now-

(”I never quite understand which character I’d rather be playing as at a given time” was also a thing that hassled me in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, though, so I guess this is just how Warriors game are designed now. that, or I had it too good with the original Hyrule Warriors)

also, apropos of nothing, but I’d not realized how fucking sweet Ignatz’s new outfit is back at the character trailers. holy fucking hell the man is oozing drip alongside all that paint

(ETA: and how could I forget to mention Holst??? they had me at “ProZD is doing his voice btw” and what can I say, promised and delivered)

if you’ve been beholding my wretched reactions to things so far, though, you know what the thing I’ve REALLY been looking forward to in this game is. and...

just the ch4 basecamp has already hit me with TWO long documents about little details about the Alliance, including new details about the local economy as well as more lords, territories, and details thereof. even Acheron has a household name and even a full name now! and they went and gave him one of the most badass fucking full names of anyone in this verse-- but I digress; I can see I’m going to be eating out of this game’s hand when it comes to worldbuilding. which is to say, I’m high up in the clouds right now, ready for Claude’s first named murdercousin (brother, apparently?) to fly by with his wyvern and kill me instantly.

[monitsou]

HOW THEY WOULD PLAY ANIMAL CROSSING + WITH THEIR S/O

characters: kenma, atsumu, akaashi

warnings: a bit of swearing :p

post note: so it’s been 6 years since i played ac :( so i just recalled the things that ac features usually had, pls tell me if i mentioned something wrong ! and reblogs are highly appreciated!

KENMA KOZUME

you can’t tell me that kozume doesn’t daily grind? he probably would spend all day just catching fishes and foils around his island

he wouldn’t pay too much attention decorating his island though, he will just put everything in one place so he can see that it’s there ??

he usually completes his task but tend to get bored so he’s just free styling whenever he’s playing

actually likes tom nook, even though he’s almost broke from paying his debts

his island can look neat at some point because you would encourage him to put a little bit more design to it.

doesn’t care about the design of his villager’s house but he’ll still talk to them because it’s part of the game after all.

his character always goes for a comfortable look, like sweaters and sweats ‘cause he thinks it’s nice to have a miniature character of him.

you once gave him a custom design sweater and trust me, he never took it off <3

has a little corner of his island to drop off bells for you to receive whenever you drop by his island.

one time he dropped 20k bells and you cried for hours

eventually, kuroo would try to steal the bells and kenma threatened him that he’ll block the shit out of him ( and he did lmao )

he absolutely LOVES it when you update him about the new tiny details you placed on your island, he thinks it adorable <3

because kozume usually likes to play animal crossing at night, both of you would stay up late to do such things

this always leads to midnight walks across either your town or his, nonetheless he finds it pretty relaxing when you play with him while he tries to keep up to your enthusiasm over the game

ATSUMU MIYA

this mf is annoying as hell, he prolly doesn’t know how the game works

“ angel! why’d they talk like that? am i on the wrong settings or — “

he can’t even catch fish ...

spends all his bells to the able sisters to get new fancy clothing and he tried making a design for himself but it didn’t turned out as great :/

so focused at talking to his villagers, it’s like how he’s talking to real life people ??

he’ll show off any kind of rare and expensive stuff that he got and maybe even shove his switch to your face

his island would look kinda messy at first but it gets better once you actually explore more, that’s because he likes to kinda surprise you and see your reaction at first 🙄

he always prepares a red carpet for you to walk on whenever you visit to feel how special you are even in games, however he removes it INSTANTLY if osamu and suna comes to tease him about it.

i can see his island theme having the color palette of yellow, beige and white, maybe a tad bit of maroon as well.

LOOOVES hyping you up !! when he sees you wearing a new hat, clothing or having new decors around your island, he’ll always have the best reactions to appreciate your work !

picnic dates are a thing with him !! he picked a nice spot to place the picnic decors to watch the sunset, it even has trees and flowers surrounding it for you to enjoy. ( i’m sobbing )

exchanging gifts and letters were always a thing ever since atsumu learned how to write postcards. it also happens once a week so prepare yourself for some fun stuff <3

he’ll sometimes write sweet messages but often it’s just bad jokes that still makes you laugh at some point.

AKAASHI KEIJI

let’s hear it from the best animal crossing player of all time !!!

plays animal crossing like a pro, and can manage to pay his debt while designing his island better than you ( JUST SAYING 😳 )

he likes taking his time while playing it, he doesn’t usually use time travel unless he really needs to.

his favorite part about playing it is how the music changes as the time passes, it really relaxes him after a day of work + bonus relaxing points if he plays with you !

his island’s color palette would include different shades of brown, beige, white, gray and maybe a bit of baby blue

his island looks so neat and organize! he’ll definitely have those nicely designed coffee shop with a library next to it ( it makes you want to quit tbh )

lowkey excited whenever he sees a balloon with a present floating in air or whenever he sees a bottle w/ a letter on the beach

he literally just appreciates every single thing and detail in the game

MUSEUM. DATES. ARE. HIS. THING !!!

he often lets you visit his museum to look how far he’s gone by collection his fishes, butterflies and fossils.

and he’s highkey proud of it

always takes couple pictures near the aquarium and the !!! butterfly house !!! while doing cute poses and he’ll eventually make it his lock screen ( it’s too cute for him )

he would make a waterfall area that’s actually nicely built and he also placed it with his pastel colored flowers.

he also prepared a diner set that’s close to the waterfall so it would look so ethereal at night because of how romantic and peaceful it looks :(

he gives so much effort when designing areas and making clothes for you in particular.

and he would always invite you whenever he’ll have meteor showers because it’s a moment where you both wish on shooting stars with the most heavenly scenery <//3

© ATSUMAKI — do not plagiarize my future and current works as well as posting it to other platforms.

[lexacoolfox]

(I was about to ask you if you can do Nagito with an S/O who’s like Leviathan from obey me but since you don’t know the game, I will just describe his personality for you.)

So basically S/O is an otaku who usually spends most of their time on the internet and doesn’t usually talk to people unless if they really have to. They usually rant about whatever anime or game they’re interested in to their closest friends and they tend to use internet slang even if they’re speaking to someone (ex: “Someone go grab the popcorn lolol”) Despite them revolving their reputation around being an otaku, they don’t think very highly of themselves and is very insecure. Since Leviathan represents Envy in the game, S/O is also easily jealous and often talks about how “unfair” or “lucky” others are. They also like to invite their closest friends to events in video games. They are also a mix of shy and energetic since they have a lack of social skills but they also gets angry when they get jealous or ecstatic when they see something rlly cool happening.

I feel like that sums it all up, I hope the request isn’t too hard.

Thank you for describing the personality in such good detail! I can definitely work with this!

Nagito with a S/O like Leviathan.

You were known as the ultimate otaku! You spent most of your time on the internet. Had very pricey anime merch and manga. Your room look liked an anime paradise. You also played video games.

When you got accepted into hopes peak you weren’t the most excited. You were homeschooled mostly, you hated going out in public and being ‘social’. You were pretty awkward in public.

You knew you didn’t have to go to the school. It wasn’t necessary to attend. But your parents practically forced you to go. They threatened to take away your privilege to buy anime merch and manga for 4 months if you didn’t go. You couldn’t live that long without being able to buy the things you like. So you reluctantly went to hopes peak.

You arrived the first day and you felt extreme social anxiety. You sat in a chair and noticed a girl with a game in her hand. You saw she was playing (insert random game.) you actually really like that game.

“You play (game name)?”

“Yes. I do, I like the story and design of this game.”

“I must agree the story and design are pretty great. I personally like to play games with a story like Kingdom of hearts it’s one of my personal favorites, the first one was good and I like the second one. I can’t wait for the third.”

“I really like that game too. It’s such a fun story and the mystery behind it is so much fun. What’s your name? I’m chiaki nanami the ultimate gamer.”

“Oh I’m f/n l/n the ultimate otaku.”

“So you like anime and manga I’m guessing.”

“Yeah I do. I also don’t do to well with social interactions, unless I’m online. I honestly didn’t want to come but my parents would cutoff my ability to buy merch and manga. So I really didn’t have a choice.”

“You don’t seem to be too bad at interactions. I mean your talking to me just fine.”

“Well that’s because we’re talking about something I’m really into. Normally I have nothing to say that isn’t consider to most people as nerdy or geeky. Sorry for uh wasting your time, I going back to my desk.”

You sat back in your desk and pulled out your phone talking to your internet friends. When somebody walked next to you. You noticed but that’s all.

“Hello.”

You looked to see a boy with very white hair and a smile on his face.

“Uh hello…”

“I’m Nagito Komeada the ultimate lucky student! If I may can I know your name and ultimate?”

“Um I’m f/n l/n the ultimate otaku…”

“Oh wow! That’s mean you probably have a lot of anime merch and manga right?”

“Yes I do…Um…not to be rude…but is there something you need?”

“Oh no. I just wanted to know introduce myself even though you will probably forget trash like me.”

“Hehehehe well there’s something we have in common. I doubt you’ll remember a loser like me lol, Ugh it’s so unfair, I can’t believe I’m an ultimate for something so lame. There so many people with such better Ultimates.”

“What! If anybodies ultimate is lame it’s mine!”

“Yeah…totally… being super lucky is so much worse than a loser who just watches ‘cartoons’ and collects figures that super expensive all day.”

Before he can respond you pull out your headphones put them on and started listening to your favorite anime openings. You just wanted to go back home and play video games.

Throughout the day you overhead everyone’s amazing Ultimates, you couldn’t help but think you didn’t belong there. These people had all these amazing skills and what are you an otaku. After a while you walked out of the class and went to a hallway and looked out a window.

“Hey.”

You looked over to see Nagito.

“Oh hey.”

“What aren’t you in class with everyone else?”

“Cause I don’t belong in that class.”

“But your an ultimate!”

“So what. My ultimate is so boring compared to the others. I just want to go home and play video games.”

“What kind of games do you play?”

“Oh I play games with a story and good graphics. But I also like games that don’t have a plot like, Minecraft. It extends my creativity. I’ll also watch a random anime while playing. Normally if I’m playing the anime I put on is death note. It’s one my favorites no cap.”

“No cap?”

“Sorry I tend to use internet slang even in real life conversation.”

For the next hour or two, you mentioned the type of games you play, anime you watch, and some merch/figures you have. Nagito was mentioning a game you played very often, you told him that a event of the game was coming up. You invited him to join you and he agreed.

When joined in one the event, you sounded so much more happy and very enthusiastic. He got to see a new side of you, the both you had a quite a bit of fun. He even learned a bunch of new internet slang. (Even thought he probably not going to use it.)

You guys were now really good friends. You two just got along very well. You two would play video games, watch anime, read manga together.

When you two played games with each other online. Sometimes he glad he can’t see your face. Cause you get jealous and angry when somebody beats you. In public if your jealous which makes you mad. You silent rant on the inside of your head. But online, it’s like a explosion of yells. Nagito tries his best to calm you down when you get like that, he’s learned not to say ‘it’s just a game.’ Cause that just makes it worse.

You kinda developed on a crush overtime. You realized you liked him when he gifted you a manga, that you couldn’t get cause you got in trouble with your parents.

You didn’t know how to tell him. There was no way you could do it in person.

You thought how something cute and something he might like. He really enjoyed the game Minecraft. So on Valentine’s Day you texted him to join you in a game. You spent about maybe a week making the little Valentine’s Day confession.

“I know it’s not the most romantic thing in the world. I was also to scared to tell you in person…I really like you Nagito.”

“Aww s/o…this is so thoughtful of you. I really love it! It so you! I would be delighted to be your valentine.”

“Really! Wow! I’m just so…!! How about we meet up at our favorite cafe?!”

“Yeah that’s sounds great!”

You two went on Valentine’s date. It was great. You guys went on more dates after that, and soon became each other’s significant other.

A few relationship headcanons

He is the only one allowed to touch any of your expensive manga’s or merchandise.

You get so easily jealous of other people when they flirt with Nagito.

You and Nagito have anime marathons. Like a movie night but anime.

He loves to see your excited face when new merch for you favorite animes or a new/sequel to one your games comes out.

You and Nagito get matching anime outfits

Nagito also helps with your insecurities by showering you with compliments while also degrading himself. For example while you were saying how uninteresting you were. You told he could probably do better. he responded with ‘don’t say that, it’s amazes me that someone as worthless as me. Is given the privilege of calling someone as amazing as you my significant other!’

You also give him compliments and shower him with affection. You also do anime classics like a kabedon.

When you did do a kabedon he almost passed out by how flustered he got.

I really hope I got the character right! So komeada-simp37 if I got it wrong or wasn’t really what you were looking! Sorry! Anyway hope you have a nice day!

[ot3]

i watched red vs blue: zero with my dear friends today and i was asked to “post” my “thoughts” on the subject. Please do not click this readmore unless, for some reason, you want to read three thousand words on the subject of red vs blue: zero critical analysis. i highly doubt that’s the reason anyone is following me, but hey. 

anyway. here you have it. 

Here are my opinions on RVB0 as someone who has quite literally no nostalgia for any older RVB content. I’ve seen seasons 1-13 once and bits and pieces of it more than once here and there, but I only saw it for the first time within the past couple of months. I’ve literally never seen any other RT/AH content. I can name a few people who worked on OG Red vs. Blue but other than Mounty Oum I have NO idea who is responsible for what, really, or what anything else they’ve ever worked on is, or whether or not they’re awful people. I know even less about the people making RVB0 - All I know is that the main writer is named Torrian but I honestly don’t even know if that’s a first name, a last name, or a moniker. All this to say; nothing about my criticism is rooted in any perceived slight against the franchise or branding by the new staff members, because I don’t know or care about any of it. In fact, I’m going to try and avoid any direct comparison between RVB0 and earlier seasons of RVB as a means of critique until the very end, where I’ll look at that relationship specifically.

So here is my opinion of RVB0 as it stands right now:

1. The Writing

Everything about RVB0 feels as if it was written by a first-time writer who hasn’t learned to kill his darlings. The narrative is both simultaneously far too full, leaving very little breathing room for character interaction, and oddly sparse, with a story that lacks any meaningful takeaway, interesting ideas, or genuine emotional connection. It also feels like it’s for a very much younger audience - I don’t mean this as a negative at all. I love tv for kids. I watch more TV for kids than I do for adults, mostly, but I think it’s important to address this because a lot of the time ‘this is for kids’ is used to act like you’re not allowed to critique a narrative thoroughly. It definitely changes the way you critique it, but the critique can still be in good faith.  I watched the entirety of RVB0 only after it was finished, in one sitting, and I was giving it my full attention, essentially like it was a movie. I’m going to assume it was much better to watch in chunks, because as it stood, there was literally no time built into the narrative to process the events that had just transpired, or try and predict what events might be coming in the future. When there’s no time to think about the narrative as you’re watching it, the narrative ends up as being something that happens to the audience, not something they engage with. It’s like the difference between taking notes during a lecture or just sitting and listening. If you’re making no attempt to actively process what’s happening, it doesn’t stick in your mind well. I found myself struggling to recall the events and explanations that had immediately transpired because as soon as one thing had happened, another thing was already happening, and it was like a mental juggling act to try and figure out which information was important enough to dwell on in the time we were given to dwell on it.

Which brings me to another point - pacing. Every event in the show, whether a character moment, a plot moment, or a fight scene, felt like it was supposed to land with almost the exact same amount of emotional weight. It all felt like The Most Important Thing that had Yet Happened. And I understand that this is done as an attempt to squeeze as much as possible out of a rather short runtime, but it fundamentally fails. When everything is the most important thing happening, it all fades into static. That’s what most of 0’s narrative was to me: static. It’s only been a few hours since I watched it but I had to go step by step and type out all of the story beats I could remember and run it by my friends who are much more enthusiastic RVB fans than I am to make sure I hadn’t missed or forgotten anything. I hadn’t, apparently, but the fact that my takeaway from the show was pretty accurate and also disappointingly lackluster says a lot. Strangely enough, the most interesting thing the show alluded to - a holo echo, or whatever the term they used was - was one of the things least extrapolated upon in the show’s incredibly bulky exposition. Benefit of the doubt says that’s something they’ll explore in future seasons (are they getting more? Is that planned? I just realized I don’t actually know.)

And bulky it was! I have quite honestly never seen such flagrant disregard for the rule of “show, don’t tell.” There was not a single ounce of subtlety or implication involved in the storytelling of RVB0. Something was either told to you explicitly, or almost entirely absent from the narrative. Essentially zilch in between. We are told the dynamic the characters have with each other, and their personality pros and cons are listed for us conveniently by Carolina. The plot develops in exposition dumps. This is partially due to the series’ short runtime, but is also very much a result of how that runtime was then used by the writers. They sacrificed a massive chunk of their show for the sake of cramming in a ton of fight scenes, and if they wanted to keep all of those fight scenes, it would have been necessary to pare down their story and characters proportionally in comparison, but they didn’t do that either. They wanted to have it both ways and there simply wasn’t enough time for it. 

The story itself is… uninteresting. It plays out more like the flimsy premise of a video game quest rather than a piece of media to be meaningfully engaged with. RVB0 is I think something I would be pitched by a guy who thinks the MCU and BNHA are the best storytelling to come out of the past decade. It is nothing but tropes. And I hate having to use this as an insult! I love tropes. The worst thing about RVB0 is that nothing it does is wholly unforgivable in its own right. Hunter x Hunter, a phenomenal shonen, is notoriously filled with pages upon pages of detailed exposition and explanations of things, and I absolutely love it. Leverage, my favorite TV show of all time, is literally nothing but a five man band who has to learn to work as a team while seemingly systematically hitting a checklist of every relevant trope in the book. Pacific Rim is an incredibly straightforward good guys vs giant monsters blockbuster to show off some cool fight scenes such as a big robot cutting an alien in half with a giant sword, and it’s some of the most fun I ever have watching a movie. Something being derivative, clunky, poorly executed in some specific areas, narratively weak, or any single one of these flaws, is perfectly fine assuming it’s done with the intention and care that’s necessary to make the good parts shine more. I’ll forgive literally any crime a piece of media commits as long as it’s interesting and/or enjoyable to consume. RVB0 is not that. I’m not sure what the main point of RVB0 was supposed to be, because it seemingly succeeds at nothing. It has absolutely nothing new or innovative to justify its lack of concern for traditional storytelling conventions. Based solely on the amount of screentime things were given, I’d be inclined to say the narrative existed mostly to give flimsy pretense for the fight scenes, but that’s an entire other can of worms.

2. The Visuals + Fights

I have no qualms with things that are all style and no substance. Sometimes you just want to see pretty colors moving on the screen for a while or watch some cool bad guys and monsters or whatever get punched. RVB0 was not this either. The show fundamentally lacked a coherent aesthetic vision. Much of the show had a rather generic sci-fi feel to it with the biggest standouts to this being the very noir looking cityscape, which my friends and I all immediately joked looked like something from a batman game, or the temple, which my friends and I all immediately joked looked like a world of warcraft raid. They were obviously attempting to get variety in their environment design, which I appreciate, but they did this without having a coherent enough visual language to feel like it was all part of the same world. In general, there was also just a lack of visual clarity or strong shots. The value range in any given scene was poor, the compositions and framing were functional at best, and the character animation was unpleasantly exaggerated. It just doesn’t really look that good beyond fancy rendering techniques.

The fight scenes are their entire own beast. Since ‘FIGHT SCENE’ is the largest single category of scenes in the show, they definitely feel worth looking at with a genuine critical eye. Or, at least, I’d like to, but honestly half the time I found myself almost unable to look at them. The camera is rarely still long enough to really enjoy what you’re watching - tracking the motion of the character AND the camera at such constant breakneck high speeds left little time to appreciate any nuances that might have been present in the choreography or character animation. I tried, believe me, I really did, but the fight scenes leave one with the same sort of dizzy convoluted spectacle as a Michael Bay transformers movie. They also really lacked the impact fight scenes are supposed to have.

It’s hard to have a good, memorable fight scene without it doing one of three things: 1. Showing off innovative or creative fighting styles and choreography 2. Making use of the fight’s setting or environment in an engaging and visually interesting way or 3. Further exploring a character’s personality or actions by the way they fight. It’s also hard to do one of these things on its own without at least touching a bit on the other two. For the most part, I find RVB0’s fight scenes fail to do this. Other than rather surface level insubstantial factors, there was little to visually distinguish any of RVB0’s fight scenes from each other. Not only did I find a lot of them difficult to watch and unappealing, I found them all difficult to watch and unappealing in an almost identical way. They felt incredibly interchangeable and very generic. If you could take a fight scene and change the location it was set and also change which characters were participating and have very little change, it’s probably not a good fight scene. 

I think “generic” is really just the defining word of RVB0 and I think that’s also why it falls short in the humor department  as well.

3. The Comedy

Funny shit is hard to write and humor is also incredibly subjective but I definitely got almost no laughs out of RVB0. I think a total of three. By far the best joke was Carolina having a cast on top of her armor, which, I must stress, is an incredibly funny gag and I love it. But overall I think the humor fell short because it felt like it was tacked on more than a natural and intentional part of this world and these characters. A lot of the jokes felt like they were just thrown in wherever they’d fit, without any build up to punchlines and with little regard for what sort of joke each character would make. Like, there was some, obviously Raymond’s sense of humor had the most character to it, but the character-oriented humor still felt very weak. When focusing on character-driven humor, there’s a LOT you can establish about characters based on what sort of jokes they choose to make, who they’re picking as the punchlines of these jokes, and who their in-universe audience for the jokes is. In RVB0, the jokes all felt very immersion-breaking and self aware, directed wholly towards the audience rather than occurring as a natural result of interplay between the characters. This is partially due to how lackluster the character writing was overall, and the previously stated tight timing, but also definitely due to a lack of a real understanding about what makes a joke land. 

A rule of thumb I personally hold for comedy is that, when push comes to shove, more specific is always going to be more funny. The example I gave when trying to explain this was this:

saying two characters had awkward sex in a movie theater: funny

saying two characters had an awkward handjob in a cinemark: even funnier

saying two characters spent 54 minutes of 11:14's 1:26 runtime trying out some uncomfortably-angled hand stuff in the back of a dilapidated cinemark that lost funding halfway through retrofitting into a dinner theater: the funniest

The more specific a joke is, the more it relies on an in-depth understanding of the characters and world you’re dealing with and the more ‘realistic’ it feels within the context of your media. Especially with this kind of humor. When you’re joking with your friends, you don’t go for stock-humor that could be pulled out of a joke book, you go for the specific. You aim for the weak spots. If a set of jokes could be blindly transplanted into another world, onto another cast of characters, then it’s far too generic to be truly funny or memorable. I don’t think there’s a single joke in RVB0 where the humor of it hinged upon the characters or the setting.

Then there’s the issue of situational comedy and physical comedy. This is really where the humor being ‘tacked on’ shows the most. Once again, part of what makes actually solid comedy land properly is it feeling like a natural result of the world you have established. Real life is absurd and comical situations can be found even in the midst of some pretty grim context, and that’s why black comedy is successful, and why comedy shows are allowed to dip into heavier subject matter from time to time, or why dramas often search for levity in humor. It’s a natural part of being human to find humor in almost any situation. The key thing, though, once again, is finding it in the situation. Many of RVB0’s attempts at humor, once again, feel like they would be the exact same jokes when stripped from their context, and that’s almost never good. A pretty fundamental concept in both storytelling in general but particularly comedy writing is ‘setup and payoff’. No joke in RVB0 is a reward for a seemingly innocuous event in an earlier scene or for an overlooked piece of environmental design. The jokes pop in when there’s time for them in between all the exposition and fighting, and are gone as soon as they’re done. There’s no long term, underlying comedic throughline to give any sense of coherence or intent to the sense of humor the show is trying to establish. Every joke is an isolated one-off quip or one-liner, and it fails to engage the audience in a meaningful way.

All together, each individual component of RVB0 feels like it was conjured up independently, without any concern to how it interacted with the larger product they were creating. And I think this is really where it all falls apart. RVB0 feels criminally generic in a way reminiscent of mass-market media which at least has the luxury of attributing these flaws, this complete and total watering down of anything unique, to heavy oversight and large teams with competing visions. But I don’t think that’s the case for RVB0. I don’t know much about what the pipeline is like for this show, but I feel like the fundamental problem it suffers from is a lack of heart.

In comparison to Red vs. Blue

Let's face it. This is a terrible successor to Red vs. Blue. I wouldn’t care if NONE of the old characters were in it - that’s not my problem. I haven’t seen past season 13 because from what I heard the show already jumped the shark a bit and then some. That’s not what makes it a poor follow up. What makes it a bad successor is that it fundamentally lacks any of the aspects of the OG RVB that made it unique or appealing at all. I find myself wondering what Torrian is trying to say with RVB0 and quite literally the only answer I find myself falling back onto is that he isn’t trying to say anything at all. Regardless of what you feel about the original RVB, it undeniably had things to say. The opening “why are we here” speech does an excellent job at establishing that this is a show intended to poke fun at the misery of bureaucracy and subservience to nonsensical systems, not just in the context of military life, but in a very broad-strokes way almost any middle-class worker can relate to. At the end of the day, fiction is at its best when it resonates with some aspect of its audience’s life. I know instantly which parts of the original Red vs Blue I’m supposed to relate to. I can’t say anything even close to that about 0.

RVB is an absurdist parody that heavily satirizes aspects of the military and life as a low-on-the-food-chain worker in general that almost it’s entire target audience will be familiar with. The most significant draw of the show to me was how the dialogue felt like listening to my friends bicker with each other in our group chats. It required no effort for me to connect with and although the narrative never outright looked to the camera and explained ‘we are critiquing the military’s stupid red tape and self-fullfilling eternal conflict’ they didn’t need to, because the writing trusted itself and its audience enough to believe this could be conveyed. It is, in a way, the complete antithesis to the badass superhero macho military man protagonist that we all know so well. RVB was saying something, and it was saying it in a rather novel format.

Nothing about RVB0 is novel. Nothing about RVB0 says anything. Nothing about it compels me to relate to any of these characters or their situations. RVB0 doesn’t feel like absurdism, or satire. RVB0 feels like it is, completely uncritically, the exact media that RVB itself was riffing off of. Both RVB0 and RVB when you watch them give you the feeling that what you’re seeing here is kids on a playground larping with toy soldiers. It’s all ridiculous and over the top cliche stupid garbage where each side is trying to one-up the other. The critical difference is, in RVB, we’re supposed to look at this and laugh at how ridiculous this is. In RVB0 we’re supposed to unironically think this is all pretty badass. 

The PFL arc of the original RVB existed to show us that setting up an elite team of supersoldiers with special powers was something done in bad faith, with poor outcomes, that left everyone involved either cruel, damaged, or dead. It was a bad thing. And what we’re seeing in RVB0 is the same premise, except, this time it’s good. We’re supposed to root for this format. RVB0 feels much more like a demo reel, cutscenes from a video game that doesn’t exist, or a shonen anime fanboy’s journal scribbling than it feels like a piece of media with any objective value in any area.  In every area that RVB was anti-establishment, RVB0 is pure undiluted establishment through and through.  

[scope-dogg]

SSSS.Gridman: Final Thoughts

Even though I watched it during its original run in 2018 just three years ago, I felt compelled to rewatch this show thanks to its inclusion in the upcoming Super Robot Wars, where it’s most likely the most exciting new inclusion in the roster for many if not most. I don’t think I ever wrote a full review piece for it during that original run, so I’ll use this opportunity to sort that out. It was one of two mecha series made by Studio Trigger in 2018 (you could argue that it’s not a mecha series really, but that’s splitting hairs, the appeal of this and various super robot shows overlaps heavily,) the other being Darling in the Franxx. It was Franxx that was probably the most highly anticipated of the two, with Gridman, as the soft reboot of an old, not-especially-popular toku Ultra-series knockoff from the 90s, probably rating a fair bit lower on the hype charts. In the end, reality defied at least my expectations if nobody else’s, with Franxx being somewhat of a letdown and SSSS.Gridman turning out to be excellent. On a repeat viewing, my opinion has changed somewhat - this time I enjoyed it even more than the first time around. I truly think that it’s one of, if not the best mecha (or mecha-adjacent if you want to be picky) series to air in recent years.

The plot setup is that one day, highschooler Yuta Hibiki awakes in the house of his classmate Rikka Takarada with a problem - he’s lost all his memories. More concerning still, he’s the only one that can see the giant, silent, unmoving monsters towering over the city, and an armoured figure inside an old computer calling himself Gridman and telling Yuta that there’s something important that he must do. Before he has a chance to reach the sensible conclusion that he’s gone insane, a monster that’s indisputably real attacks. Yuta is sucked into the old computer, and merges with Gridman, allowing him to manifest as a giant defender in the real world to fight back. The next day, however, nobody except for Yuta and his friends remember anything about the giant monster attack, and the city is as good as new - with the only difference being that history seems to have been rewritten so that those who died at the hands of the monster were actually killed in unrelated circumstances years prior. Unbeknownst to Yuta, those killed were specifically singled out by the creator of the monster - the most popular girl in his class, Akane Shinjou. Yuta, his friends, Gridman and a band of peculiar new allies must fight to protect the lives of the innocents living in the city from monster attacks while attempting to figure out just what is going on.

The plot setup is strange, similar to that of the original 90s Toku series, but the show does an incredible job of selling you on it and drawing you in. You want to know more about what’s going on and what will happen next, and the show wastes admirably little of its short 12-episode runtime in delivering on the promise of its narrative. Each new episode manages to deliver both new revelations and fresh excitement in equal proportions - there’s basically nothing from this series that feels like it’s missing, yet also basically nothing that feels unnecessary either. I sometimes despair slightly how many more recent mecha anime have gotten shorter, with 12 or so episodes seeming to be the norm for all except the biggest new releases, but if all of them paced themselves as well as this show then it wouldn’t be an issue at all. I recently watched one very long old show in the shape of Heavy Metal L-gaim, and one shorter recent one in Knight’s and Magic, with the former feeling like it’s treading water for far too long and the latter skipping over too much in an effort to cram too much into a shorter run - Gridman, by contrast, is a superb example of how it should be done. That great pacing is in service of a surprisingly interesting plot, as well - it takes its interesting setup to even more interesting places, and ends up using them to address some interesting themes. To say too much would be to spoil it, which would be a disservice, but broadly it’s about how humans approach reality and the conflicts that issue from that.

That the series succeeds on this front is largely because of a really memorable cast of characters. While Yuta, the hero, isn’t especially memorable, Akane, the antagonist, is very much so - figuring out her deal is arguably the primary driving force behind the narrative. I honestly can’t say I can think of an antagonist in a mecha series that’s quite like her - though it’s revealed that she’s the villain in the first episode, you wouldn’t be likely to guess as much on seeing her for the first time, as she’s outwardly cheerful and seemingly normal - though it soon becomes apparent that this conceals a penchant for doling out incredibly harsh judgement for incredibly petty slights, just one aspect indicating a highly disturbed mindset. The show increasingly centres around her increasingly as it nears its climax, in a way that arguably makes her just as important to the narrative as the protagonists. The supporting cast are pretty excellent too, with standouts including Yuta’s firends Rikka and Utsumi, both of whom contribute to the plot in their own ways, Anti, a monster created by Akane disguised as a young boy who’s utterly obsessed with striking down Gridman and has an incredibly memorable character arc, and others besides.

Plot and characters are just one half of why the show’s so great though - the other half is its striking presentation. Trigger’s notable for animating with a very distinctive flair, whether that’s Kill la Kill or their also-excellent feature film Promare - after all, it’s made up by much of the talent that worked on Gurren Lagann. However, their approach to SSSS.Gridman was different, if no less striking for different reasons. For me, the show’s aesthetic is defined above all else by the contrast between the ordinary and the extraordinary. The show puts a great deal of effort into portraying mundane things - city streets, school halls and the like - and then contrasting that against the bizarre and spectacular. A great example of this are the frequent shots of busy streets full of people minding their own business, completely unaware of the mysterious, ominous monsters towering over everything quietly in the background. This even leaks through into the one scenes are directed - most of the dialogue is written in a way that feels very natural, with people talking to one another much how you’d expect them to in real life, over mundane topics, even as strange and spectacular things are happening around them. It has a double effect of enhancing the air of mystery around the strange aspects of the world, and also making the spectacular events, especially the battles between Gridman and monsters, seem all that more exciting when they come around. The mechanical and monster designs alike are spectacular, and their battles are blockbuster events. The show uses a mix of 2D and 3D animation for these. While 3D generally has probably finally reached a stage where it’s generally good enough to stand in for traditional 2D animation, at least for mechanical fights, few other shows exhibit the level of mastery that Trigger exhibit when using it in this series - largely due to their deft blending it with traditional 2D for certain shots, and fantastic judgement of when to use what manner of animation. Much of the battle animation even pays homage to classic super robot shows of the past. Ultimately, I think this show’s action is close to the top of the pile when it comes to mecha shows in general - but as I said earlier it’s the blend of the ordinary and extraordinary that makes it really stand out, and the same level of care was put into the most mundane scenes. The result is a beautiful and exquisitely detailed series from beginning to end.

Overall, I think SSSS.Gridman stands out, not just within this era, which is arguably a relatively weak one as far as mecha shows are concerned, but even within the grander body of work of mecha shows as a whole - which nobody would have expected from a followup to a hokey old 90s toku show. While their recent feature film Promare was also a spectacular accomplishment from the studio, I think this show’s probably my favourite thing that Trigger’s put out in their lifespan thus far. With one worthy sequel having already aired this year in the form of SSSS.Dynazenon, another still in the pipeline, and the series achieving entry into Super Robot Wars, it’s already starting to accrue the legacy that it arguably deserves as an instant modern classic.

[x0401x]

Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun: Ghost Hotel’s Café (Part 2)

Revealing the secrets of the menu, such as “crushing muffins so they will look like earth”! Interview with the staff of Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun GHOST HOTEL’S CAFÉ.

GHOST HOTEL’S CAFÉ, the collaboration café of “Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun” – an on-going manga from Monthly G Fantasy (Square-Enix) by Aida Iro-sensei –, was held in Ikebukuro, Tokyo at AniPara CAFÉ for a limited period from December 5 to February 11. Here, we have carried out an interview with the staff behind the planning and production of “Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun”. We have discussed things in detail, from the background of the collaboration café’s presentation to the public to the secret stories behind the development of the food and drinks that reflect ideas from the author, Aida Iro-sensei!

Interviewees

Square-Enix café organizer: Ookubo Kana-san

Square-Enix editor in charge of “Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun”: Imanishi Chiharu-san

Grounding Lab café planner: Andou Minako-san

Grounding Lab café planner: Nakayama Natsuko-san

Andmowa café menu creator: Aizawa Kanto-san

AniPara CAFÉ manager and menu creator: Shirato Kouhei-san

The collaboration café of “Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun” is entirely supervised by AidaIro-sensei!

——How was it decided that “Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun” would have a collaboration café?

Ookubo: The cue was that, while the café planning members were talking about what café to hold next, we were introduced to “Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun” as the most highly recommended title of our company.

Andou: There are a lot of young people in the staff of AniPara CAFÉ and most of them knew “Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun”, so by the time SquaEni-san talked to us about it, we gave them the one-sentence reply of, “By all means!” and asked them to let us do it. *laughs*

——This is the third time that “Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun” earns a collaboration café, so how were the fans’ reactions?

Imanishi: Since this is the third time, there were many reactions of concern about the very concept of “how will it turn out next?”. Thankfully, the responses were good and we received many warm messages such as “it was fun”!

——How was AidaIro-sensei’s reaction when it was decided that yet another collaboration café would be held?

Imanishi: They were very pleased. An event that the readers can enjoy is a rare opportunity, so they were hyped about many things, such as, “I wonder what we will do~!” and, “How about this?” (laughs).

——The theme of the collaboration café is a “ghost hotel” this time. How was it conceived?

Ookubo: This time’s theme was proposed by AidaIro-sensei.

Imanishi: In the first time, I think it is orthodox that the characters are made into café waiters, but since this is the third one, Sensei suggested that they felt like displaying them in yet another a different light, and that they wanted to make it so that both the people who would be attending for the first time and the people who had already attended before would be able to enjoy it in a brand-new way.

G Fantasy carries out a project of giving away color spreads as presents every year along with the commemorative issue of its launching, and the theme for the color spread of “Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun” on the 25th anniversary was “ghost hotel”. There was also the fact that the readers’ response to it was very positive, so Aida Iro-sensei decided, “Let’s go with a ghost hotel this time!”.

When it comes to “Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun”, you cannot miss out on ●●●!

——Did you get any menu or decoration suggestions from Sensei?

Ookubo: They granted us the base ideas of the menu and supervised the whole thing. They also chose the names of all the menu items. Writing “holy” in English was one of Sensei’s ideas. *laughs*

——The shop’s interior has a wonderful decoration perfectly fitting of a “ghost hotel”, with spider webs and mini characters hiding everywhere.

Andou: When we were thinking about how to reproduce the worldview depicted by AidaIro-sensei, we thought it was perfect... so we left it there (laughs)!

Ookubo: That spider web is amazing, isn’t it? The first time I looked at it, I thought it was a perfect fit for the café’s mood!

——The BGM that plays inside the shop is also a perfect fit for a “ghost hotel”.

Ookubo: We choose after listening to lots of tracks, so hearing that makes me happy! This time, Sensei gave us proper suggestions regarding the worldview, so the interior design parts were easy to picture.

Imanishi: There is a fun to it that is similar to riding on a horror attraction, even if you are inside a café. I think we were able to create this atmosphere exactly because its worldview is solid.

Ookubo: Also, since this is “Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun”, we would like everyone to check the toilets, by all means! I want people to see at least this with their own eyes.

——The toilet is a checkpoint that people cannot skip. The illustrations for the café were made by AidaIro-sensei this time too, but do the numbers written on the keys of each character have a meaning?

Imanishi: In this thematic setting, the employees (the characters) live and work in the ghost hotel. The numbers on the keys are the numbers of the rooms where the employees live, and they increase like 1, 2, 3... when you see them lined up in order, you will know who is whose neighbor and which of them are in the floors below or above. This is linked to the nature of the characters’ relationships, so please give it a check.

——Sensei did not just write the story but also story cards.

Imanishi: There might be people amongst the readers of G Fantasy who know about the 25th anniversary illustration, but I believe most of them will be seeing it for the first time. Since it could be difficult to understand what the story of this ghost hotel is and what the characters are doing, so we introduce them in the story cards and in-store PV. This method is easy even on people visiting for the first time, so we would like them to come hang out with friends here (laughs).

Aizawa: Quite a lot of the people who come to the shop are young, and on Sundays, it is not rare for families to fill up the seats. Amongst them, we have received a call from a father who had never been to a collaboration café before, telling us, “I want to make a reservation for my daughter; how do I do it?” and we have also been asked, “My daughter wants your goods; are they still not sold-out?”.

Andou: We have also been told, “I’ll save up my allowance to go there!”. Hearing things like these makes me think that it is great that we managed to implement a wonderful café, and I want people to enjoy it by any means.

“We crush the muffins to make them look like earth.” “The pot-au-feu is always chamfered.” – The secret stories behind the cooking of the collaboration menu are revealed!

——You have quite a quirky menu, with things such as the “GHOST HOTEL’S CAFÉ Afternoon Tea”, which comes with a written invitation to the Ghost Hotel; Hanako-kun’s favorite food, the “Hanako-kun Floaty Doughnuts”; the shinny “Mokke’s Delightful Candy Cake”, which is modeled after candies, Mokke’s stable food.

Andou: “Mokke’s Delightful Candy Cake” is quite a painstaking piece of work...! Of course, it is delicious, but I think being able to have fun taking pictures of cute food is a point that everyone looks forward to in a collaboration café, so we prepared a menu that everybody would be able to enjoy from their eyes too. When we were planning it out, we had about thirty suggestions for the menu in total, and from there, the team narrowed them down through discussions until the menu took the form it has now.

Nakayama: When it comes to Mokke, I think the image that comes to mind is of candies, do after a bit of devising, I came up with a cake that looks like candy. I am happy that, thankfully, the fans also had positive reactions to it!

——The “Edible Plots of Nene from the Gardening Club” shows quite a bit of uniqueness. Having a dessert inside a vase had a lot of impact.

Ookubo: The “Edible Plots of Nene from the Gardening Club” consists of muffins in flower vases, and the sight of the vases lined up in rows in the kitchen is quite surreal (laughs).

Shiratsuchi: We crushed chocolate muffins for them to look like earth and made them dirt-like. As a cook, I am also conflicted as to whether it tastes good to eat it like that, so while obsessing over the reproduction of its appearance, I break muffins into pieces every day, in order to combine them with a definite deliciousness.

——(Laughs) “Nene’s R•A•D•I•S•H Pot-au-Feu” is a warm and comforting dish, perfectly fitting for this time of the year.

Imanishi: This is actually the menu item that requires the most work out of the other collaboration foods.

Ookubo: The radish used in “Nene’s R•A•D•I•S•H Pot-au-Feu” is not a ready-made one that we warm up, and instead we cook the radish in the shop every day. On top of that, since the ingredients do not absorb the taste when cooked in the normal way, we chamfer (thinly scraping a vegetable so that it will take a round shape) the radishes one by one, so this is a menu item that takes up a lot of time. It costs 880¥, so when people ask, “Is this the quality of a collaboration café?”, I think it is in the good sense (laughs).

——My! The people who visit the shop should totally try this out, then.

Aizawa: We want them to! This desire is quite strong in us, but since it is a hassle to prepare that menu item, it would be a problem if too many people ordered it (laughs).

Shiratsuchi: While I was happy that everyone said, “It’s delicious~” during the sample food meeting, this item made me think, “I might’ve created something terrible (in a laborious sense)” (laughs).

All: (Laugh).

Ookubo: The cooking team really created the collaboration menu with a lot of passion. We make the crust for the “Clock-Keeper’s Tart ~with fruits~”, which is from the latter half of the menu, by hand every day in the shop. We fill it up with layers of berries, chocolate cream and wiped cream one after another... It gives us so much work that it could make people think, “Are you really serving this at a collaboration café?!”. I believe that even people who have only ever been to regular cafés and never to a collaboration one can also enjoy it.

Imanishi: The menu for the latter half of the collaboration has quirky and cute items, such as the “Mad-Risky Soup”, as in a “pretty dangerous” soup, and a limited number of the “Pipe Dream Cake”, so I think anyone can enjoy it, be it the people who visited during the first half or the people who are visiting for the first time during the latter half.

By the way, AidaIro-sensei’s top recommendation was “Kou’s Specialty Omelet Rice”! This rice omelet has caponata (boiling of fried eggplant) inside, so the flavor is unlike that of any other collaboration café. The fact that these secret gems exist is part of the wonderful levels of consideration from the cooks’ side.

——All the foods looked delicious, and every drink was wonderful too, so I was indecisive about which ones to order.

Ookubo: “Nene’s Welcome Cocktail” is also in the story that AidaIro-sensei posted on Twitter before the café’s opening. I recommend it as the first drink to the people who are visiting the collaboration café for the first time.

——By the way, are there any menu items that were rejected?

Nakayama: There was a legendary menu item named “Hanitarou Sandwich”, right?

Imanishi: There was! There is a character named Akane-kun who uses a haniwa as a protection charm, and I suggested a meal based on him – a “haniwa” coppe bread.

During the planning stages, I thought it was possible and tried reproducing it, but the cost turned out pretty high and its appearance was a haniwa through and through (laughs), so I wondered if anyone would order that... There was also the fact that Akane-kun is not much of a “haniwa stan”, so it became a legendary menu item (laughs).

Andou: I had suggested “Hanako-kun’s Doughnut” with the image of a school cap at first, but then the talk turned into, “Rather than a hat, I want it to have the appearance of a cute and tasty-looking doughnut”, so the cap version was rejected.

Ookubo: I also tried to produce a book-shaped cake, with the image of Tsuchigomori-sensei’s Four O’clock Library, but it seemed the price value would be too expensive, so it was unfortunately rejected.

——So there were menu items that were cast aside as “legendary” ones! This means you have created quite a number of items, but how do you come up with those ideas?

Nakayama: We were already collecting information from Instagram and Twitter and analyzing what the costumers were after. We deepened the conceptions from there to plan out the menu a lot.

Andou: Also, we think first-thing about what will be suitable for the costumers’ age range. In these occasions, rather than thinking about it as the menu of a collaboration café, we tried coming up with tasty-looking stuff as a regular food and drinks menu, and from that point, we created many things that drew close to the characters.

——It seems you were very conscious of the “showiness” of several menu items this time, so is “showiness” an indispensable element for your needs?

Andou: That’s right. Of course, the menu has to be delicious, but I think that, if it also turns out good for taking pictures, it will be posted on Instagram and Twitter, and become a cue for the fans to interact. The people who know the series will obviously do that, but I would be happy if this menu could become a trigger for even the people who don’t know it to talk about it, like, “That’s wonderful”, “What series is this?”.

Ookubo: We believe that the collaboration café’s menu is important for the original work’s side as well, so we take many requests, such as, “I want you to make this kind of dish” and, “I want to put this illustration card on it”, and the side that plans out the cooking does their best to give them form, so a wonderful menu is birthed every time, and as a result, it turns out as something that the fans can enjoy.

——It seems the people who will visit the store are quite young, so have you devised anything for the flavors?

Aizawa: We added a bit more variety to the taste of “Nene and Mokke’s Broccoli Gratin XD” during the planning stages, but we reviewed it in order to make it match the palate of young people better.

Ookubo: The “Mokke Curry”, which appears in the latter half of the event, was a green curry at first, but we changed it into a normal curry so that it would match the young ones’ tastes.

——On the topic of creating menu items that suit the customers’ age group, were there any difficulties or things you obsessed over?

Aizawa: The biggest hardship in making the menu of a collaboration café is the items’ appearance. Even if we deepen their image, we often worry about how to bring out their colors.

We repeatedly have conflicts such as, “I have to use this ingredient for bringing out this color, but this ingredient doesn’t fit this menu. Then how do I reproduce this coloration?” so it’s a relief when we eat the finished products and calm down with a, “It’s surprisingly good now that I’ve given it a try!” (laugh). Also, when we are feeling confident, the ideas soon flash into mind, but when we are in a slump, we get distressed.

Shiratsuchi: There was also a difference of views between the cooks’ side and the original creators’ side, so there were times when we thought, “We’ve made something really good!”, the original creators would say, “This won’t do!” (laughs). In regards to the menu, it is purely an insight race, so it made us happy when good flashes of inspiration took form and received approval.

——Anything from this menu that gave you an especially hard time?

Aizawa: As expected, that would be “Nene’s R•A•D•I•S•H Pot-au-Feu”, which we talked about earlier (laughs).

——Lastly, please leave a message for the readers.

Imanishi: New menu items will be added in the latter half, so I believe it has turned out as a café that people can enjoy no matter how many times they come. We want them to eat, drink and have fun. Also, the coasters that they can earn by ordering foods and drinks have wonderful designs, so I hope people will take them as a memory, by all means. I think you will definitely enjoy it, so please come over!

Aizawa: There are many attractive menu items, so do not forget your cameras!

——Thank you very much!

[thyon-nero]

So. How do you feel about the litjoy crate strange the dreamer collection? The art with the setting and places is beautiful, and I love the miracle for breakfast art. On the other... the characters just look... a bit white? All the godspawn has a POC parent... no way they all look Eurocentric. Idk. I feel like I will regret not collecting it, but I already have the books and it seems kinda a waste...

Hi! Thanks for sending this in—I didn’t know that litjoy was making a Strange the Dreamer collection so thank you for bringing it to my attention. And sorry for taking so long to respond! I had quite a bit to say and wanted to make sure that my thoughts were at least a little coherent. Since tumblr doesn’t like links in posts, I’ll be dropping the litjoy link in the replies for people to see what we’re talking about. Also, to the anon who sent this in, I’ll be using the generic pronoun “you” to talk to everyone reading this, so don’t feel like I’m calling you out specifically!

Your ask brings up several good points for discussion that I’m going to try and apply to a broader conversation. Namely, the whitewashing in art and consumerism in the book community. I’m only one perspective so please feel free to continue this conversation in a respectful way: if there’s one thing that Strange the Dreamer should have taught us, it’s that only through communication and understanding can we resolve conflict.

First of all: the Eurocentrism in the art. I’m not sure what policies are for reposting the art on a separate site, so I’d encourage everyone to look on the litjoy website to see it for themselves.

Is the art beautiful? Yes. Does it depict characters canonically described as brown with Eurocentric features? Also yes.

Although Weep is a fictional place, we can still fairly easily draw some parallels between the people of Weep and real world people and cultures. Off the top of my head, @readingbooksinisrael made a post (linked in replies) noticing how the words at the beginning of each chapters sounded Semitic, @inkwingart created incredible artwork of Sarai (linked in replies) without the Eurocentric features of the official art, rightfully calling out the differences between how the characters are described and how some artists choose to depict them, and I’m sure that others have spoken on this as well.

Despite the written portrayal of the people of Weep and godspawn as non-white, it’s easy for artists to avoid depicting them with non-Eurocentric features and only use blue skin as a defining feature.

Within the broader art community, I’ve seen conversations on how to depict characters of different racial and ethnic backgrounds without just changing the skin color and keeping all of the other features identical. Some art styles (typically more cartoony and stylized) definitely do draw all characters with the same face and rely on clothing, hair, and other distinctive characteristics to tell them apart. But this isn’t really enough. When artists provide enough detail to show Eurocentric features but consider using a different shade of brown (or in this case, blue) to be “enough” in terms of drawing diversely, they aren’t hitting the mark.

Ultimately there is no “right” way to visually depict these characters. However, I would encourage artists to think deeper about their designs and question why they chose certain features for certain characters, and if these features are consistent with the source material. I’d like to give the artists involved with the litjoy crate the benefit of the doubt and assume that they weren’t thinking about the implications of their art erasing the godspawn’s brown heritage, but unless any of them have made a statement, I think it’s up to everyone to decide for themselves whether these portrayals are worth supporting.

(That being said, I do adore the landscapes! It’s incredible to see these magical places brought to life. Highly, highly recommend looking at the art just for that!)

I also want to talk a bit about consumerism within the book community and whether this set is worth it, especially if you already own the books. Please keep in mind that I don’t intend this as a callout for anyone or a be-all-end-all for this discussion. My thoughts are my own and do not affect how you spend your money!

Personally, I’m not the sort of person who buys more than one copy of a book. With my current living situation, I don’t have infinite room for books and I (tragically) don’t have the money to buy every beautiful book I see! Although I only own Strange the Dreamer and not Muse of Nightmares, I still won’t be buying this collection because I know that the second copy of Strange the Dreamer will just be collecting dust on my bookshelf and taking up space from other books that I don’t already own copies of.

As of writing this (March 14, 2021) preorders haven’t opened yet so I don’t know how expensive this set is, but if you don’t already have the books and want them, this looks like a great set that’s definitely worth looking in to! However, and here’s where I circle back to your point about regretting not collecting it, I personally don’t think it’s worth buying just for the sake of collecting everything to do with this series.

If owning these editions will make you happy in the long term and you have the resources to purchase them, go for it. I think it’s important to remember though that regardless of which editions you own or whether you’ve read the books through your public library, you still have the story. This world and these characters will always exist in your mind! That being said, I think a lot of people within the book community look to special editions, different cover art, and other merch as a way to become closer to the stories that we love. Even though these may offer new visuals or (in some cases) deleted scenes and extra written material, they don’t change the fundamental story. The experience of reading these stories doesn’t depend on owning special editions. Ultimately, if you’re buying multiple copies of a book, you’re pretty much only paying for the experience of having a pretty cover on your shelves. There’s nothing wrong with that (I know I’ve been guilty of paying extra for a slightly prettier cover!) but that’s the only thing you’re missing out on when you don’t buy these editions.

Especially with the rise of BookTube and Bookstagram as ways of seeing what other readers’ shelves look like, I’ve noticed people putting more stock into what others own as opposed to what they’ve read. Although not perpetrated by everyone in the community, there is some pressure to own all of your favorite books and have the fanciest editions to show just how much of a fan you are, when ultimately that doesn’t mean anything. The person who owns every special edition and the person who checked out their library’s copy can both love the story just as much. We as readers shouldn’t have to “prove” our loyalty to different stories or authors to enjoy them. It’s perfectly alright to not own your favorite books or everything by your favorite author! It’s the experience of reading these stories that brings us together as a community, not the experience of buying everything relating to these stories.

All that being said, it’s still a personal decision whether you want to buy these editions or not. Do what brings you joy! And if that’s owning these books, more power to you. If anyone wants to chime in with more thoughts on the artwork or whether these copies are worth buying, I’d love to discuss it further and have an open discussion. We all have different perspectives and can learn so much from each other through respectful conversation.

[acommonloon]

I remember asking Master Distiller, Jim Rutledge, when would the juice in Bulleit bottles no longer be Four Roses. It had been announced Four Roses would no longer provide the juice for the Bulleit brand. I asked my question at a Bourbon Society meeting in Louisville and though I don't recall the year, I very clearly remember Rutledge was easily the most boring master distiller to ever speak to us. In fact, he was the only boring master distiller to ever speak to us however, he immediately warmed to my question.

He said by the end of the year they (Bulleit) would likely have sold through all the Four Roses juice, then he proceeded to tell us about the birthing of Bulleit Bourbon. To the best of my recollection:

He said he was brain storming one day with marketing when he came up with the idea that the word "Bullet," like from a gun, would have a great association for selling bourbon. Again, I don't remember details but he said they found Tom Bulleit who had a connection to bourbon under another brand name so they entered into a business agreement with him and began to sell their (Four Roses) bourbon under the Bulleit brand. Thus lies legends are manufactured. lol

Now, it was understood Four Roses could sell their bourbon under their own brand name more profitably so the arraignment with Tom Bulleit was being discontinued. While he never said anything specifically derogatory about Tom Bulleit, it was clear, in his opinion, Tom Bulleit's only contribution to the whiskey being sold under the Bulleit brand was his name.

To this point, I don't remember tasting Bulleit Bourbon but I had tasted the highly regarded Bulleit Rye. This Rye was sourced from the giant MGPI (Midwest Grain Products) at Lawrenceburg Indiana. Yes you read right. Bulleit's suddenly popular rye whiskey was made in Indiana and in fact most of the 95% rye sold in America was made there and sold under dozens of other brand names. So none of Bulleit's whiskey was distilled by a distillery owned by Bulleit.

Why am I recounting this random boring story to folks who likely care little about bourbon whiskey? Well it's March and March is Women's Appreciation Month - Right? What's that got to do with Bulleit? Not so much back then.

I've always been a proponent of women. Most men would say the same but I doubt they mean it as I do. I mean, anything good is better when women are involved. I mean, I like women as people better than men, generally speaking. I mean, women rule men drool...usually after women. How do women not rule the world???

Anyway, in those days when Bulleit Bourbon became high profile, their primary brand ambassador was Tom Bulleit's daughter Hollis. While I never got to meet Hollis, being one who keeps himself informed, I knew who she was and I applauded Bulleit for employing a woman in such a prominent position. I even bought a bottle of Bulleit Rye. I think there's still a bit left in it.

At some point, Bulleit was bought by the British spirit giant Diageo and they applied their leverage (money) to promote the Bulleit brand. Also at some point after that Hollis came out as gay.

This did not go over well with her father, Tom, and they began to fight in a very public manner. Mostly Hollis revealing how awfully she was being treated by her father. If you google Bulleit Bourbon you will find many articles describing the back and forth but there is no doubt, Tom Bulleit is a homophobic POS and Diageo did not support Hollis. At some point Hollis was outed again...from Bulleit this time.

Diageo continued to promote and grow the Bulleit brand and have now constructed an actual distillery but by this time I was out. I never bought a second bottle of Bulleit or even a drink with a Bulleit product in it. Hey, it's what I can do.

So why am I posting pic of a bottle of Bulleit Bourbon. Well 1st, Tom Bulleit has been removed as the face of Bulleit bourbon and as far as I can tell is not involved in promoting the brand. Second Diageo has hired a BLACK WOMAN as one of their two blenders and her name is Eboni Major. This bottle is especially marketed as part of the Diageo Craftswomen campaign, intended to shine a spotlight on the contributions of women in the spirits industry. Finally, this bottle has been given rave reviews as super delicious bourbon.

So today is March 12th, my 57th birthday - no need for happy wishes. I grew up with little recognition for this date and honestly, having survived another year, while fortunate, it's no accomplishment. The alternative is death so. I bought this bottle designating it a birthday gift to myself. I do this when I buy things within 30 days of my birthday but, I would've bought it anyway. It's a bit disappointing to be honest.

It's a 100 proofer, a bit hot on entry with good viscosity on the palate and medium linger but little depth of character taste-wise . It tastes like bourbon with a nutty character I enjoy but a bottle of Wild Turkey Russell's Reserve is superior whiskey in this regard. Damnation by faint praise? Was hoping for more but not sad I bought it.