#character design stuff is interesting

[mss-pit]

some bravern translation snippets from magazine interviews (animage april 2024)

Translated some short comments on Bravern's character designs by KamoKamen and Motomura Kouchi from Animage 2024 April issue + some interview snippets.

Kamokamen is the original character designer and Motomura is series chief animation director and animation character designer (i.e. the one who adapts the original designs to animation)

Isami Ao:

Keigo Koyanagi (series composition) told me to give him a face that is made for bullying (lol). His request was to give him a face that starts out as cool-looking but is fun to watch crumble little by little. - kamokamen

In the early key visual you see him standing behind Smith, and before the series started people said he seemed like the kind of character who would die right away (lol). Who would have thought he'd become this well liked! - motomura

Lewis Smith: His design was pretty much decided on straight away without much hesitation. Compared to Isami's slim and small physique, he has a sturdy build that matches the common image of an American soldier. - kamokamen

We intentionally tried to give him good looks as contrast to Isami. In addition, all the male characters were to have their muscles emphasised, so I suggested names of pro wrestlers to use as model reference. - motomura

Hibiki and Miyu: I didn't know how to start designing them at first because their personalities and backgrounds weren't decided on early. At first Koyanagi-san adviced me "start by drawing however you like. Then look at their designs and try picturing how they will move and act". I designed them somewhat based on the two policewoman protagonists from a certain anime I love. (*probably You're Under Arrest) - kamokamen

Karen and Nina:

At first it wasn't Nina, but Karen who had droopy eyes. Then I was told she was like a certain female commanding staff from a certain famous anime (*probably Ritsuko from Evangelion), so she ended up with her current design. At first I was told Nina is British, so I thought she must drink whiskey, and Nina who is American loves bourbon and drew them picturing that. After that, they made my ideas of their favorite drinks official. - kamokamen

Snippets of interview with KamoKamen from the same issue:

"Please tell us which characters you were in charge of designing." The seven characters Isami, Smith, Lulu, Miyu, Hibiki, Karen and Nina. Except for Lulu, all characters were paired to be opposites of each other: Smith and Isami, Miyu and Hibiki, Karen and Nina. They were mainly created through back and forth with Takenaka (executive producer) and requests, or less requests and more approval of everything I did by series director Obari. It was to the point where I thought "is this really okay?" […]

"When designing the characters, was there anything that left a lasting impression on you?" Actually, Isami's design. It was the most difficult. I got a request to redesign his facial features from scratch. He was originally drawn with bigger eyes, and slightly longer hair, looking something like a protagonist from the Yuusha series. Picture something like Captain Ryuuji Satake as a high shooler or closer to Hibiki's age looks-wise when placed next to her. From that base we changed his design, and ended up with what people now call his "background character(mob)"-like facial design (lol) . […] "You were allowed to add a suprising number of your own ideas". That is correct. For Smith's 'tricolor' shirt, I thought of what type of clothes he would wear and drew it half as a joke (lol). I didn't think it would end up in the show itself, so I was happy. […]

[somewhereincairparavel]

"jason is a knockoff watered down percy" NO hear me out, jason actually parallels annabeth immensely, sharing SO many similarities with her personality, not percy, in this essay I will-

edit: my full analysis is out now! here

[umblrspectrum]

3 years of this godforsaken show

[pigeonstab]

I spent like so long on this qwq anyway here's my dragon Cross ref sheet, click for better quality (lord knows tumblr's gonna eat this one)

@twinribbonz Hope you don't mind the tag, I just know you like him

also without the stuff next to it

-Cross by jakei

[sergle]

man, you know, nobody asked me, but I have such conflicting opinions on some of the fat falin art, where on one hand: it's always nice to see A Fat Body in fanart anywhere + it's being done in positive ways, for funsies and on the other hand, there is something so familiar about how you are automatically The Fat One if you are a woman simply standing next to a more petite woman, bc I've had a 0% hitrate in seeing people change Marcille's body type and keep Falin's, or change both of them. it's just Falin

[yippee-optimistically]

mods r asleep post humanized 4x

finished catching up on tpot it was peakkkkkk but i am so scared of one. also working on little clay and felt dolls of 4 x and 2

[rabbitcrimes]

When people are like Wei Wuxian was NOT suicidal it’s like. Ok sure. He just believed that his debt to the Jiangs should be paid with everything up to and including his life. And also that the moral and obvious thing to do in any situation is to put himself between anyone and harm's way. This is because he thinks he’s unkillable but he makes himself unkillable for the same reason he’ll die for a good enough reason: because it’s a way to have worth!

And then famously once everything goes to shit he does beg Lan Wangji to let him die as part of the moment where he is either destroyed by his own evil magic or lets his own evil magic tear him apart, a distinction I don't personally think matters very much at that point. Less explicitly textually, his mentally ill ass behavior after he gives up his core says to me that he wishes that he'd died honorably for Jiang Cheng when he had the chance and doesn't know what to do with himself since he hasn't.

Again I’m aware that he’s operating under a pretty specific set of culturally informed norms as a cultivator and member of a sect but like. TO ME. Everything about how Wei Wuxian conducts himself indicates that he has a box in his mind at all times that says 'in case of emergency break glass' and what’s inside the box is his own death. All the sound of mind actions of a man who has a normal and not suicidal relationship to death.

[larkmousedesigns]

Moonpaw

[olrinarts]

so yesterday i was fuckin brainblasted by the wildest AU idea: yuri rock gods AU

i swear it will make sense just hear me out (bonus leshy at the bottom because it's the only other design i liked)

Okay so here's how it works: they're all still the gods of what they're the gods of, but they're all lady-shapes (shamura and lamb continue to use they/them), and it's more that divine magic is expressed through music as conducted through the crowns, rather than a completely different setting with different domains

Narinder isn't chained in place, but she IS locked into an underground concert arena, because the only lock they needed for her was the one around her throat

how it all went down was that they each had their own primary instrument: Leshy's got drums, Heket's got the bass, Kallamar's on keyboards, Narinder's on guitar, and Shamura's got essentially a real time mix studio, it looked cool but shamura's design was trash so i'm sorry you can't see it 😔

vocals just weren't a thing yet, until narinder was like 'you know what would sound good'

shamura was instantly like 'shit if there are vocals/lyrics, people are going to pay less attention to the rest of the band, meaning our divine power will wane, so we gotta get rid of her before this spreads too far'

so the bishops cast her down below, and intentionally made the seal require vocals and a band to unlock - but the lock has narinder's singing voice muted (she can talk but she can't so much as hum let alone sing)

and from then on vocals are heresy

that doesn't mean they go away, since the idea is out there now, so eventually the prophecy comes along: there's a sacrificial lamb that if not destroyed, will free the One Who Waits by uniting the instruments under one Crown and singing the song that'll break the seal

The Lamb ends up getting got by the bishops, bc they were a naturally talented vocalist (they have a roller derby aesthetic because i like the kinetics of rollerblading for fights, that's the only reason and i make no apologies) and since they were a sheep, that meant they were a target

so they're sacrificed, only to wake up Below with a giant hot cat having just resurrected them. Lamb sitting up and immediately heart eyes lmao

She hands them the Red Crown, whose form has become volatile in its time cut off from half of Narinder's divine instruments (she can still use guitar, but as she essentially split her power in order to use vocals in the first place, things are a little whack)

So once she's explained some things to the Lamb, she promises to teach them how to use their voice, and get revenge on the bishops for all the vocalists they've ever killed to try and keep the One Who Waits locked away, and so between the prospect of revenge and the divine favour of giant hot cat goddess, the Lamb's instantly in

with each bishop defeated, the red crown absorbs the instrument, but it needs fans whose devotion will make the Lamb stronger, so the Lamb's time is split between growing their fanbase, crusading against the Bishops and their entourages, and spending time with the One Who Waits in the Below

The two of them are significantly more touchy feely than they would be if Narinder was chained up - the whole seductive persona/flirtation is originally a technique for Narinder to ensure the Lamb stays loyal and gives up the Crown at the end, only for it all to go downhill because she ends up with genuine feelings for the Lamb

Any time she's done the same kind of thing to prior vessels she's had a really firm 'no touching only looking' rule, only for poor Aym and Baal have to watch their not-foster-mom carry the Lamb around or let the Lamb ride on her shoulder or snuggle up to her while they're talking instead of the singing lessons they originally went Below to have

it gets to the point where Narinder and the Lamb start to sleep together somewhere between the Lamb defeating Heket and defeating Kallamar (it takes some coordination since Narinder's like five times the Lamb's size, but two people who really want to sleep together will find a way)

(Aym and Baal having taken to just going to the backstage greenrooms during the Lamb's 'singing lessons', so the twins have no idea until at some point they get an eyeful because they came out from the backstage rooms before Narinder and the Lamb were expecting them lmao)

amusingly when Kallamar's like 'she's seducing you for her own ends' and Narinder starts to freak out while she's watching, the Lamb's just like 'idk she shouts my name pretty loud for someone who's seducing me. anyway i'm here to kill you not talk about my holy friends with benefits situationship with your hot sister'

when the bishops are dead and the time comes, the final battle with Narinder isn't about trying to kill each other but essentially over who's going to be frontman from then on, only to fight to an unwinnable draw and have the Red Crown really exasperatedly communicate that duets are a thing you dramatic lesbian morons

so it ends in mutual custody of the Red Crown and getting to tour the world that's now theirs, overcoming all obstacles with the power of yuri and rock n' roll

(whole AU exists because I was listening to Heart of A Dancer by the Happy Fits and I pictured roller derby Lamb doing a flying somersault and smashing through a title screen with the Red Crown as the Red Axe (as in guitar) and here we are)

anyway here's the bonus Leshy

[tritoch]

Something that bugs me a lot in Dawntrail discourse is watching people who think they are defending the expansion argue away its best aspect. Because here's the thing: Wuk Lamat isn't like prior FFXIV characters. She takes up way more space than them. That's good!

A common thread you see in defenses is that people are complaining about things they were fine with earlier in the story. "Oh well actually Lyse was also the main character of Stormblood and people didn't hate her as much!" or "Heavensward is the story of Aymeric and Estinien and Ysayle, and the Warrior of Light doesn't do that much!" or "No one complained when Gaia jumped into the Eden raids, or when Emet showed up during Seat of Sacrifice" with the implied conclusion of "Wuk Lamat's not different from any other previous major character, your complaints have more to do with [sexism/transphobia/your crippling insecurity about not being the main character] than the way she's written." First of all people did hate Lyse. I get what you are saying but they very much did hate Lyse.

But Wuk Lamat is different. She's different because Dawntrail is unapologetically, full-throatedly her story. She is there at the start, she is there at the end, she is there basically all the way through except for a brief interlude. She is the character you talk to the most, she is also the character that talks the most. She has more of a complete arc than anyone else in the expansion. The antagonists develop much stronger direct and personal relationships to her than they ever do with you. Several major characters have relationships to you through her more than they do with you directly. At multiple points in the story you explicitly step back and are like "Go right ahead, queen, do the main character stuff." She 100% takes your role in certain ways. She's literally a new WL to your WoL!

and that's awesome! Like, holy shit! If you had traveled back in time and told me after Endwalker, "Hey, the next expansion will be almost solely and entirely focused on the character journey of a young woman, and she'll be nuanced and complex and allowed to fail but also allowed to succeed wildly, and her characterization will be interesting and her ideals will be very directly challenged, and she'll get to do some real classic 'sorry my noble opponent but I must stop you, even though I sympathize' shit, and the way she is framed won't feel excessively male-gazey, and she won't get stuck in the FFXII Ashe Miniskirt, and she won't just be someone you watch and clap for while the real protagonist and narrator is some random guy in her entourage," I would've been like "haha, okay, I like FFXIV as much as the next guy but I don't think it's shaken its baseline sexism off enough to do an expansion entirely about a woman and her personal growth and what makes her a good leader, especially after Stormblood's mixed reception. And CBU3 definitely doesn't have the guts to make her even more of a main character than any other prior NPC, and you didn't mention this part future time traveler, but I also don't believe they'll be willing to cast a trans woman in the role." And I would have been fucking wrong!

Yes, Wuk Lamat is the main character. Yes, she does get more attention than other NPCs, or even your Warrior of Light. And yes, that's totally fine, and even something to praise!!! You don't have to run from it to accommodate people who are looking for something to complain about!

[sonknuxadow]

this is probably an unpopular opinion with the amount of "everyone is married with kids" type future aus people make for sonic characters but i cannot see sonic getting married or having a kid ever. if he did somehow end up with a kid hed be the worlds first transmasc absent father or however the joke goes

[vampyriix]

finished my deity/emboiment of the universe!rt design lets goooo think i’m gonna refer to him as celestial!rt because it sounds cool

[random-dragon-exe]

I'm starting to think that I've slept on the brilliance behind Oogie's design, and now that I think about it, his design is so simple yet effective.

For one, there's the aspect that he's supposed to be the boogeyman, which when you think about it, doesn't have a set in stone appearance.

Other aspects/forces do, for example Death: which is usually depicted as a skeleton under a cloak with a scythe. And that design can be played around with.

Going back to his design, sure there’s no set in stone appearance for a boogeyman, but there's just one trait that is quite common: the sack to put children into.

Another thing is that there's one boogeyman type creature called the Bugbear, which comes from the word "bugge" which means "a frightening thing". The word "bugge" basically makes up the word bug which is of course another word for insects.

And Oogie is this exact combination of the two.

Plus, bugs/insects are generally a thing that some people feel disgusted by. Heck some people have phobias of bugs/insects, arachnids and snakes.

So by combining the two, it not only creates a simple yet uneasy design, but it finally gives the boogeyman a a type of face.

In fact, I'd say that out of the other designs we've seen for a boogeyman in media, Oogie's is by far the most popular.

So when you think about it, Henry Selick and Tim Burton created not just another iconic character, but also a worthwhile recognizable face for a boogeyman/a personification of fear.

Props to them.

[yo-yo-yoshiko]

I was complaining about not being able to draw him properly today so @ultrainfinitepit dared me to draw him seriously crying. Are you happy? He's sad now!!

[moonshynecybin]

digging into the little avatars that some riders have.... all of them are so cute and representative of their riders... im only gonna talk about a few here but i might add more later !

vale: cartoony turtle. the first to do this as far as i can tell! originated from a toy turtle (i think a teenage mutant ninja turtle lmao) that his mom gave him as a kid that he mounted on his helmet. classiccccc vale, very ironic and tongue-in-cheek, tattooed on his body in the funniest place possible, and of course the joke relies on the audience knowing that he's the fastest dude in the room ! very in-character choices all

marc: fire ant. he said i am tiny. he said i am SMALL. he said i am fierce and strong for my size... not a classically fierce choice but nonetheless makes a lot of sense to me ! also very funny that the intial design for the ant was made by vale's helmet guy, though i think he's moved towards the sharper design in recent years post-divorce and the legal stuff with its image rights... fun post about marc choosing it as his mascot by @frongsonabike here (also a very deeply catalan choice, according to @babynflames !)

bez: scorpion !!!!! this man is undeniably keyed into astrology lmao. hes a scorpio and he LOVESSSS IT. absolutely fascinating implications for his character on that, considering scorpios are a sign that catches a lot of flack. like. he looked at a list of scorpio traits and said omg me fr i need to convert this into a branding opportunity...

cele. the WAVEEE literally iconic to me. fits him SO well imo. serene. immutable. undeniably and probably unintentionally hilarious when used as punctuation. my favorite of these in the graphic design sense and i love that he changed FUCK ALL about it design-wise when he moved to KTM. also very cute that the 13 on his bike looks like the bottom of a pool!

fabio. el diablo !!! very fun considering i think hes the biggest lover boy on the grid but hes also FASTTT so i get it, its baddass etc. i DO think he would prefer the devil emoji on instagram to be red but that has been cruelly denied from him by apple.

[lynxgriffin]

If Eldritchrune characters switched places (the humans became the eldritch monsters while the eldritch monsters became the humans), wondering how much it would change and what they look like ?

That would have to be for someone else to work out. I've already got plenty to do just doing the actual AU, I don't really have the time or headspace to do another swap AU of the AU!