#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

[egophiliac]

Final manifestations for Book 7?

I'm trying REALLY hard not to build up any solid expectations, because I wanna go in ~fresh~! they're already so far away from anything I thought would happen (not in a bad way, I'm just accepting that I'm on Miss Yana's Wild Ride at this point and we're seeing this thing through 'til the end, by gum). so it's nothing too major, but:

they've been handing new crying expressions out like candy lately, I want to see some delicious Malleus tears.

honestly I want everyone to cry buckets. their tears sustain me. the more Silver angst specifically I get the happier I am.

SILVER!!!! 👏 VANROUGE!!!! 👏

just let him have this. the poor boy's been through so much. let him have his big "I'm proud of you, son" moment with Lilia.

I'm 100% expecting Grim's arc (and probably whatever's going on with Crowley) to be its own episode, but a nice hook to leave us hanging on would be good!

a nice hook though, please, I don't think I can take another "Grim is attacking us! now wait eight months to find out what happens :)" cliffhanger...

some Meleanor? as a treat? just a little bit, a tiny quick flashback or something, please Twst I just, I just want to see her again. let her have a little ghost cameo like Dawnathan Knight got. Lilia and his kids are all having their big group hug or whatever and she can gently fade in to be all like

(turning asks off until I'm done playing, SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE Y'ALL)

[dreamsy990]

drew some of my fav ody designs! wasnt originally meant to be also replicating the styles but thats sort of just how my brain works. except i didnt copy the lineart styles of anyone here so its DEFINITELY a bit uncanny for a couple of these (LOOKING AT YOU QINNY IM SO SORRY) but whatever

the designs featured here (from left to right) belong to: me, @gigizetz, @neal-illustrator, @irunaki, @bigidiotenergytm, @qinnyanimation, and @foopsie-daisy

[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

[ghostfiish]

Did a good old fashioned magical girl generator prompt again

[c00kietin]

kny + acnh <3 more waffling in tags javdjhdbdjf

[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

[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!

[foreverephemeral]

rare non-fandom oc content!

This is Clemente, an easy-going artist from renaissance era Italy who also kind of accidentally wound up involved with a literal devil

[prisma-palace]

Mind sharing your HMSW designs with the class?/nf

HELLO!!! apologizes for the late reply i forget to check my inbox ^^ i've actually been intending to make reference sheets for em... buuuut i havent gotten around to that yet. so. heres what i got as of now!

(i'll make a big post digging more into specific details and design choices and headcanons Eventually cause i do have a lot to say. but that'll probably be included in the ref sheets when i finally make them. Unless someone asks me about specific details. Wink Wink Nudge Nudge)

mind

spider motifs!!! he has little fangs and an extra set of arms (that i keep forgetting to draw him with Oopsies). the spiderness was Unintentional at first but then i decided to just go with it and lean into it more cause i liked that idea. ill probably eventually redesign him to make him look Even More spidery but that day is not today sorry

his lower set of arms can extend/retract as he chooses. he likes to annoy heart with this. he also installed said arms himself one loop. it confused the Fuck out of heart & soul

HMS are all the same height so he wears heels to be taller cause of his Ruler-Of-Everything complex. and also i just like drawing characters with cunty ass heels

the broken side of his face is a result of the juno incident! his teeth are exposed and the big ol light on that side is his broken eyelight. its supposed to vaguely resemble a sun

also his teeth are blue. yeah

OH YEAH he also has a plug tail. it was a more recent addition so it isnt in these drawings but he does have it

heart

last two are a little old. but they show off his design so it doesnt matter

face feathers!!!!!! makes him look more creaturey :-)

the way his hair parts is supposed to be shaped like a heart

he does have a teeny feather tail but its usually covered up by clothing

his wings are purposefully messy looking, he does NAWT take care of himself. sigh. he cant really fly with them because theyre not strong enough to carry him, but he can hover/glide for short periods of time

hes SOME kind of amalgamation creature. mooostly bird, but nobody really knows exactly what he is. not even himself!

he has claws and sharp teeths hehe

he can Technically see but its VERRYYY blurry, he can only rlly see vague blobs of color. hes also super light sensitive so he wears the blindfold more out convenience than anything else ^^

hes a trans guy cuz im a trans guy and i said so Thank You

soul

right. so the problem with my soul design is that i've been meaning to redesign him for, like, a long time. However i havent actually properly fully drawn my new design for him yet! so instead enjoy what i Could find, put in order of newest to most outdated :-)

devil motifs however theyre not really fully intentional it just kinda Happened. hes not really anything specific to me, just an Unidentified Thing

neck scar. No further comment!

he has two rings on his horns, blue for mind and purple for heart

his middle horn is broken off .. :-)

claws but only on the shadowy side

if he gets particularly stressed or angry his shadow side starts to lose form and get all static-y

star shaped rip on his jeans!

also he has a star patch on his sleeve, as to match with heart and mind, who have a moon and sun patch on their knee and coat pocket respectively!

^^^ the yellow background on his patch is intentional

the eye on his shadow side is always closed. if its open thats how you KNOW you Fucked Up

whole

my whole design also has a problem but its kinda different. and its that. i dont. really. draw him often? what i Do have of him is either Old or not colored. so like. have what i do have i guess ^^

hes literally Just Some Regular Guy

his hair is a combo of HMS's: length/half-circle shape from heart, bangs from mind, ponytail + side thingies from soul

they arent rlly shown in these but he has two bracelets! one is red, purple, n blue and the other is tally hall colors

i kinda gravitate towards his name being CJ. a while ago i saw someone somewhere call him first name "Cash" last name "Something-That-Starts-With-J-I-Cant-Remember" hence the nickname CJ and its stuck with me. but also i havent thought about it all that much so Who Knows

theres a difference between him and "whole". whole is more of a Concept while hes the actual Person

on the rare occasions he manifests in headspace, HMS only see him as a shadowy figure. the closer they get to concord, the more of him gets revealed!

also. you didnt ask for her. but i wanna show her off anyway

love interest

i need to draw her properly sometime soon......

i like to think that her name is stella. as a miracle musical reference. heheh

idk shes very subject to change ill probably fuck around with her color palette sometime soon

i dont have like anything to say about her sorry. i like her. shes fun to draw

[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

[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

[ask-the-druggieverse]

How does swap deal with the fatigue? And the heart problems? Is there anything that helps??

- ALT - There's not much I can do but I try to be well rested and I also try to reduce less stress! (Dream helps me with that)

Science assigned me a diet for less sodium and just basically eat healthy. I also have bi-weekly check ups with Doc and get heart meds from Sci

I also live with Ink, Dream, and Error just in case anything happens to me (my uh... my AU I don't really ent- ... nevermind)

INK: We pirated cussing hotel

Ink and Error... aren't really in good condition to help me but at least they don't encourage me to re-lapse (their cooking is really good tho)

SWAP: That's uh... pretty much all I can do SWAP: I kinda fucked myself over with... edibles...

- IDK - Fuck it I'm just using regular font cuz chat font is being difficult with me, also HI SORRY FOR NOT UPDATEING IN A FEW DAYS!!! I recently just got two new guinea pigs and I'm trying to have all of my piggies get along! (uh... it's gonna take a long time because Butters/Pig HATES them... (it's slow progress! she's getting used to Reese right now :3))

MAIN: @inkyu

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