#but sharing fanart is perfectly acceptable and fun to do. Don’t limit yourself from doing something you want to <3< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[hplonesomeart]

More animation frame screenshots whoop whoop! I swear it’s almost comedic how he’s managed to hijack my YouTube channel and gain me a baffling amount of new subscribers from OUT OF NOWHERE WHA- someone needs to stop him before this happens again I’m scared /j. It’s been fun watching the numbers increase in real time if not a tad overwhelming, but thankfully it mostly makes me feel appreciative more than anything else. Hopefully it’s made people laugh or helped inspired others <3

I would have talked myself out of sharing it otherwise…so glad I made the right decision with posting there. Took a leap of faith and now I feel validated for doing so. I just hope that I’m doing the characters justice even if adding my own unique spin on it. Plus gotta take a step back and remind myself that viewership isn’t what makes the world go round. Wouldn’t want the numbers getting to my head this early on and intervening with my creative visions jksjskp! I get easily influenced sometimes so finding a healthy balance for it is key :))

In meantime enjoy the facial doodles I love drawing expressions hehe

[historyman101]

Time to leave the nest.

I think I speak for everyone when I say that, regardless of how you view Eureka 7: AO or Hi-Evolution, the community is not what it once was. I’m not going to make this a diatribe about what’s wrong with Hi-Evo (since my friends and I dissected it quite thoroughly in the podcast) or AO or even PFOR, but I will say that the lackluster reception of Hi-Evo has doused a lot of the passion this community once had, or at least it played a role.

As I’ve said in the podcast and elsewhere, I’ve been a part of the Eureka 7 fan community really ever since it first aired in the US in 2006. I’m what you would call an OG. I’ve been here since the very beginning, and I’ve seen so much happen to this beloved IP and this community, not all of it good.

When I joined the tumblr scene in 2012 when AO was airing, there was still a high level of enthusiasm and energy in the community. Even if AO wasn’t well-received by many, we still had the motivation to do some great things. The passion people had was really inspiring, and it was a major factor in me continuing my historical fanfiction series. Knowing people still cared about what I wrote kept me going. I’ve said this a million times, but to all those people who followed me and kept up with my historical series, thank you so very much. I wouldn’t have finished it without you.

As I was writing my historical series, other people made great contributions as well. Artists on tumblr made fanart that is still well-loved to this day. Users made and shared remixes of classic E7 songs. We organized weekly chats and Secret Santa events each Christmas. Some of us even tried to make a visual novel based on Eureka 7. To me, that is nothing short of remarkable.

As time went on, interest died down. It’s only natural that people would fall away from it. By the time 2017 rolled around, I was well aware that enthusiasm was waning and, as I’ve said before, were it not for Hi-Evolution being announced, I would have quietly made my exit from the community upon completion of my fanfiction series. That’s not to say I was bitter about it, either; I figured it was the best course of action since I made it clear in past anonymous asks that I wasn’t going to add more to the fandom once it was done.

When Hi-Evolution was announced, I was initially excited. The community went through a brief resurgence as hopes ran high. There was a genuine belief that this would be the franchise’s saving grace. I thought this was a chance to rekindle interest and learn from past mistakes.

Boy, was I wrong.

All the hopes I had were shattered at Otakon, and while I can only speak from my own perspective, it seems like Hi-Evo 2 as well as the delay of Hi-Evo 3 killed any remaining interest in the fandom. Instead, it’s left a splintered community, one where people no longer have the enthusiasm to write fanfics, make fanart, or even do special collaborative projects like the visual novel.

Many of the friends I made in the community tell me point blank that they are either fed up with the franchise entirely or are done after Hi-Evolution 3. If people are saying that, then I genuinely fear we are facing the death of a once-proud, tightly-knit community. And that makes me beyond sad.

I know I come off as abrasive and some people sling the word “hater” at me for my opinions, but people who know me will tell you that I’m only speaking from a place of love for Eureka 7. For all the problems I have with Hi-Evolution and the franchise writ large, I don’t want to live in a world where this anime doesn’t exist. It made me into an anime fan. I have made some of my closest friends through this, some of whom I still keep in contact with to this day.

I believe the bonds we make are stronger than whatever Bones throws our way, but I can’t help feeling saddened that the thing which united us is now turning us against each other. If the sometimes vitriolic asks I’ve received and the horror stories we shared in the podcast are any indication, the fandom is split, possibly beyond repair. We’ve reached the stage where you can’t have a conflicting opinion and be treated with respect anymore; instead, you’re viewed as the enemy. A hater. A troll whose views should be discounted.

If you voice anything other than a positive opinion about anything E7-related, be it AO, the manga, the games, or Hi-Evolution, you’re shut down and cast out. It’s not enough to just like E7; now, we all have to be comfortable and build a hugbox. That’s not the message E7 originally imparted.

Eureka 7 is a show about accepting reality in all its ugliness. Anyone who has watched the anime knows it can be very uncomfortable at times. Some moments are hard to sit through, but that’s the whole point. Renton had to learn the hard way that the life he dreamed of was just that: a dream. The people he looked up to weren’t the idealized heroes he thought they were. The world is ugly, and he had to accept that. I think we need to take the same approach when looking at this franchise.

It’s okay to dislike Hi-Evolution, AO, or anything else that’s come after the original. Fuck, the original isn’t perfect by any stretch. What anime is? What’s not okay is to disrespect others for a differing opinion or (in my case) harassing them. I hardly think that’s the message Eureka 7 wanted to leave its viewers.

What makes me sad is that it was never like this before. Even in the AO days, people were willing to let it all go. We still had fun together because we thought that the bonds we made were more important than a show that didn’t turn out well. But something changed between then and now. I don’t even know what, but the community and how it dealt with differing views changed. And I don’t like what it’s become.

Now, our community is all but dead. Not just on Tumblr, but everywhere I go, the story is the same. When Hi-Evo was announced, the Subreddit was abuzz with activity and excitement. Now, it’s practically a ghost town. The Discord server, which I left some time ago, has gone the way of disco according to all my friends. I think it’s because many of us are just bitter about what’s happened or are fed up. I’m not surprised people have gotten bored with Eureka 7; I have too.

To be perfectly honest, I wish Hi-Evo was never made. It would have been better if our fandom just slowly faded away from inactivity instead of splitting into ever smaller, squabbling camps. At least then it would have ended on a positive, happy note. Now, based on everything I’ve seen, heard, and read, it’s ending on a note of bitterness. It’s doubly sad, because Eureka 7 is optimism: the anime.

So where am I going with all of this? I don’t know. Honestly, I just wanted to vent because I needed to get this off my chest. It’s been a drain to watch something I loved and cherished for so long slowly fall to pieces and the friends I once had in this fandom turn against each other.

Eureka 7 has been such a touchstone in my life for so long that to see it crumble away like this is heartbreaking. Revisiting this franchise’s fall from grace just leaves me depressed. It’s like a blood-sucking vampire, and I can’t fucking take it anymore.

That’s why this is my last post about Eureka 7.

As much as you guys think it’s interesting, I can’t keep doing this. I don’t have the patience to wait until 2021 for the final film, and I don’t suspect many others do, either. I don’t care if it will be all hand-drawn; I’m sick and tired of even talking about it. It’s like I’m beating up a disabled person; nothing I say is going to change what we’ve already gotten or alter the reality of where the fanbase is now. It’s really sad, but I just need to move on from this.

Almost 15 years have passed since I first watched Eureka 7. Back then, I was just a lonely 16 year old kid trying to find out where to go in life. I will be 30 in January, I have a full-time job, my life is much more hectic now than it ever was, and it’s turned out better than I ever dreamed. Eureka 7 Hi-Evolution didn’t turn out too well, but there will be more disappointments to come, no question. Life is full of them. Why focus on them forever?

I don’t think that harping on the past is productive. Time only moves forward and it waits for no one. I have limited time on this earth, and I don’t want to spend it kicking this turd around forever. Life is too short to waste it on small things like an anime franchise that didn’t end well. I want to start the new decade fresh, and that means letting go of the things that have weighed me down.

I’m going to grab my future with my own hands. Because I learned from Eureka 7 a seminal lesson that’s guided me through life:

Don’t beg for things. Do it yourself, or else you won’t get anything.