#credits to Keiko Nobumoto for Wolf Rain

[livewildlivefree]

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Happy Halloween Everyone!

I hope you all have a Spooky Day!

[animefeminist]

Brief Connections: A Nobumoto Keiko Career Retrospective

Nobumoto Keiko was not a prolific writer. When she passed away on December 1, 2021 at the age of 57 from esophageal cancer, she had only about a dozen live action and anime credits to her name, plus a video game. However, what it lacks in length, it more than makes up in impact. Among those few titles are some of the most influential series of the last few decades of Japanese pop culture: Macross Plus, Cowboy Bebop, Tokyo Godfathers, Wolf’s Rain, and Kingdom Hearts. She has worked alongside industry titans like Watanabe Shinichiro and Kon Satoshi, who similarly left behind a brief but brilliant legacy before passing away too young, but time and again, her own creative voice asserted itself.

One of the benefits to a creator having worked on so few projects is it becomes much simpler to look through their body of work to find common threads, and Nobumoto undeniably returned to the same themes over and over again. She examined the humanity of those who have hit rock bottom or the end of their lives, and the connections they can make even in moments of pain and loss.

Read it at Anime Feminist!

[fght-ff-yr-dmns]

RIP Keiko Nobumoto

Writer of Cowboy Bebop, Wolf's Rain, Tokyo Godfathers, Macross Plus, Space Dandy and script supervisor on Kingdom Hearts amongst many others.

Such a talented writer who i feel never truly got the credit she deserved as one of the best writers in the industry. Her influence often overshadowed by that of Watanabe and Kanno, but without Nobumoto there would be no Bebop.

Thanks for some of the most memorable episodes in anime history.

See you cowgirl, someday, somewhere

[jennlegacy]

WAIT A FUCKING SECOND I JUST FINISHED WATCHING A KINGDOM HEARTS LET'S PLAY AND THIS WAS THE FIRST TIME I EVER BOTHERED PAYING ATTENTION TO THE CREDITS

KEIKO NOBUMOTO WAS THE HEAD WRITER FOR KINGDOM HEARTS

KEIKO "HEAD COWBOY BEBOP WRITER AND CREATOR OF WOLF'S RAIN" NOBUMOTO

WHAT

[themattress]

7 Lights - The Unsung Heroes of Kingdom Hearts’ Writing

To provide a counter-balance to the negativity of this post of mine, here’s a post that names and celebrates the people responsible for the good writing that the Kingdom Heart series used to have before the whole creative process became monopolized by Nomura and Oka. 

Shinji Hashimoto - This is the guy who got it all started, the Squaresoft executive who wanted to make a game with Disney and seized his chance when he happened to take an elevator ride with a Disney executive. He was the chief producer for the first three - and best - games in the Kingdom Hearts series: Kingdom Hearts, Chain of Memories, and Kingdom Hearts II. I believe that he, moreso than Nomura, deserves credit as the creator of Kingdom Hearts...even Nomura was only able to make up the concepts of the story because Hashimoto hired him to do so.  After those games, Hashimoto has receded into the title of “Executive Producer”, and the franchise has been worse off for it. Come back to us, Shinji!

Hironobu Sakauchi - The creator of Final Fantasy and Executive Producer for the original Kingdom Hearts prior to his departure from Square. During that game, he was on hand to help Hashimoto and Nomura whenever they needed his RPG-making expertise.  At first, the game’s story was extremely simple in order to appeal to Disney’s usual target audience of kids, but Hashimoto said that if it doesn’t go deeper and on the level of Final Fantasy then it will fail.  Thus the story was given an appropriate level of depth...and the keyword is appropriate, the kind of depth that Sakauchi put into his Final Fantasy stories. When Sakauchi was gone, Nomura took the advice in the wrong way and made the story convoluted on the level of the Metal Gear Solid franchise, mistaking needless complexities and overwrought details for depth.  But with Sakauchi’s style, the pieces of the puzzle actually fit together, and the story of Kingdom Hearts was more interesting as a result.

Eri Morimoto - A production assistant from Square. To quote Jun Akiyama from an interview conducted after the original game’s release: “He is famous within the company for loving Disney, and during production he would sometimes say, "This is different" to the director and not allow him to do certain things.”  Now, how many games was he around for?  Just the original trilogy of KH, CoM and KH2!  And when he left, the way Disney was handled in the series took a very noticeable downturn, being phased out (along with the Final Fantasy elements) in favor of Nomura’s original concepts and characters holding dominance. Coincidence?  I think not!  Without a Disney fanatic like Morimoto to stand up to him, Nomura could get away with marginalizing most of the Disney elements besides Mickey and Yen Sid.

Keiko Nobumoto - Head writer of Cowboy Bebop and creator of Wolf’s Rain, two of the most critically acclaimed anime series ever, accessible due to the simplicity they have on the outside and beloved for the great inner depth they gradually reveal.  Brought on to be the Scenario Supervisor of the original Kingdom Hearts, she made certain that its story was very much in the same style, conveying a charming simplicity that conceals depth of plot and character that becomes more apparent as the game progresses.  Sora, Kairi and Riku are all human, three-dimensional characters who provide neat twists on their respective archetypes, the thematic elements and character development is done in a way that it sneaks up on you and only fully sinks in at the climax at Hollow Bastion, and the mysteries are left vague enough to allow many theories and interpretations, but their presentation kept simple enough to not be distracting.  It all makes the story of Kingdom Hearts the best one in the franchise (unless, of course, you count the united story of KH, CoM, and KH2, which is even better.)

Jun Akiyama - The main scenario writer and Event Director of the original Kingdom Hearts, which meant he was in charge of not only creating the story but deciding upon how it is presented visually.  Being a very cinematically inclined person, Akiyama was the perfect choice for the job.  He was also a Disney fan (he begged for the job because he recently saw and loved Disney’s Tarzan), and was always conscious of making sure each Disney world’s plot wasn’t just a copy of the movies but was solidly linked with the overarching, original plot of the game, and that they serviced the needs of the KH universe that Nomura had created. He also was fond of inserting Disney-esque humor into scenes, such as Donald entering through a small door within a larger one, the Gummi Ship dropping out of a trap door just when it looked like it was about to exit through a different way, Donald pulling the camera down to face him and shortly afterward getting smashed against a wall by Yuffie slamming the door open on him. Speaking of which, we owe Yuffie’s inclusion in the game to Akiyama, who was in charge of her events in FF7 and was always fond of her. I really miss this guy. Masaru Oka, who now has his job, is about as far from his standard of quality as possible.

Daisuke Watanabe - The second-best writer in the franchise beyond Jun Akiyama is Daisuke Watanabe.  After writing the cult classic Threads of Fate, Watanabe was brought on to assist Kazushige Nojima in writing the draft for Final Fantasy X’s scenario. It was after this that he became the secondary scenario writer of Kingdom Hearts, assisting Akiyama from the start of the story up to the climactic events at Hollow Bastion.  Following work on Final Fantasy X-2, Watanabe was brought on as the scenario writer of Chain of Memories, which he did excellently at save for several missteps in Riku’s story mode, and he (along with perpetual writing assistant Harunori Sakemi) also contributed to Nojima’s base draft of Kingdom Hearts II’s scenario.   Clearly on a roll, Watanabe was then asked to write the scenario for Birth by Sleep, while also supervising Coded and 358/2 Days to ensure their BBS references lined up. But something went wrong...namely, Final Fantasy XIII, which he had to go work on after only finishing the full plot draft of BBS, leaving the actual scenario to Masaru Oka (Ugh!)  And tragically, Watanabe has never been involved with the KH franchise again, even though it’s very evident from the results of his work that he was a great asset to it.  He is sorely missed.

Amanda Jun Katsurada - This is the most obscure name on the list, but she was the Localization Specialist of the original Kingdom Hearts, which means that she wrote the translated English script.  I personally don’t think the two who have come after her, Brian Gray and Jyun Takagi, have been able to match up to her work.  Many of the choices Katsurada made benefited the game greatly, such as changing the Princesses of Heart from “hearts without darkness”, which is contradictory and impossible, to just “the purest of hearts” (basically hearts with the least amount of darkness), making certain Disney characters’ dialogue more in line with their characters elsewhere, writing the message on the machine in End of the World to be more mysterious and creepy rather than rambling and needlessly specific, and cutting out a weird inner-thought line of Kairi’s in the ending FMV that kind of threw the whole thing off.  The series could use more localizing decisions like this.

[livewildlivefree]

Desolate Paradise July/August Update

Hey another monthly update, but it isn’t a good one...

You see I’ve been dealing with a lot bad luck during these last few months trying to tackle my life issues, it’s like a roller coaster that I can’t get off of.

Like holy cow, it’s never ending...

Anyways during the beginning of July, I’ve been working really hard on finishing Kane’s character reference and making a lot of headway through the first half.  

Of course just when stuff is going well, my unlucky streak has to ruin it yet again.

Around the middle end of July, this happened...

Yeah... 

Basically my body kinda gave out on me. Nothing seriously wrong, but I had a horrible pinch nerve that stopped me from continuing on with Kane’s bio or even getting any drawing content out. The best way I can explain it, I couldn’t sit down or even stand for long to do anything.

It sucked because I was hoping to finish him in July, but I was able to finish at least this much.

The whole half end of July I was forced to be bedridden and rest a lot to heal my poor back and hips.

I was really annoyed because I was hoping to get him out of the way by the end of the July deadline I set for myself. Sometimes it makes me feel like I’m a failure and disappointing you guy’s with more delays. On the positive side I do see the massive progression I’ve made in 2023 compared to the last four years since I’ve started. I feel that I’m getting closer to my biggest goal for the Desolate Paradise project.

I’m just rolling with the punches with the bad luck in my life and it won’t be discouraging me anytime soon.

Now with that out of the way.

I can thankfully say that in the beginning of August I was able to finally finish Kane’s character bio!

Yay! Whoopee for me!

Meaning that I’ll be taking a break from writing for a while and turn my focus on making drawings and overall content for this blog for the next couple of month’s. I’m quite excited to start drawing the many ideas I have and using the new tools I’ve been experimenting with...

So stay tuned!

Now what will be going on in the future?

Well I can’t really say at the moment, due to what I’ve experienced in the last few month’s. A lot of stuff is going on in my life and important stuff that needs to be addressed before anything.

Which is stressful for me but I know it needs to be done.

All I can really say is that I’ll be drawing for the time being as promised but the pace might be slow and having longer pauses.

Once I get these stressful things out the way, hopefully things will get back to normal again.

 I’m sorry about this guy’s, but sometimes I can’t control the curves that life throws at me. I’m doing my best to my abilities to keep going through these rough patches to accomplish my goals.

Just give me time...

Thank you for listening and have a good day!

[livewildlivefree]

A Brief Pause To Desolate Paradise Content!

Important!

Desolate Paradise content flow and progression is gonna be put on hold over the next few weeks because of some important real life stuff needs to be taken care of. It's nothing too major but it's gonna be taking up lot of my time and focus.

I just need some time to deal with these things before I can get back to this project. Don't worry, I'll be back before you know it!

[livewildlivefree]

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!

With lot’s of love guys!

(An update is coming soon!)

[livewildlivefree]

Desolate Paradise June Update

Hey everyone!

I have another update again. A lot of stuff has been happening in my personal life that has caused a bit of slow down on development of my characters.

I’ve finally finished Julie after much trial and error due to the limited amount of information I had on her character. I ended up having to improvise a lot of her elements and what will fit in this Desolate Paradise story plot. Thankfully I’m quite content with what I’ve accomplished with her.

Now Kane...

Like I said before I had a good feeling that he would easier to figure out then Julie. After plenty of brainstorming ideas I’m content with the direction of his character / villain. I just need to finish it and get him out the way.

Next will be Jacob and Dr. Hudson, I know these guys will be a lot easier in the story because of the ideas I had for them before Kane and Julie.

So wish me luck!

As for my drawings, I don’t really have much at the moment due to Kane and Julie’s character references taking a lot of my time. Once I finish them I’ll be taking a break from writing and focus on drawing for a while in July.

Don’t worry, I will still work on Jacob and Dr. Hudson, when new ideas come around.

That is all I have to say in this update.

I’m glad you guy’s take the time to read and support me, it means a lot to me even though a lot stuff has happened in my personal life during the start of this project that delayed it and causes a lot pauses for the comic to be released.

I’m working really hard this year and trying to reach my goals for 2023.

Thank you again for having patience and sticking with me.

I will see you all at the end of July!

[livewildlivefree]

Desolate Paradise - The Lead Scientists of Kane.Co Darkest Secret Project

The concept designs of my own scientists characters for process of my project and I wanted to get a rough idea of what they look like, that’s all.

[livewildlivefree]

Burners Pack Emotion Practice

(Just playing around with Doodling)

[livewildlivefree]

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

[livewildlivefree]

Happy Birthday Creator and the Desolate Paradise Blog!

Happy Birthday to the Desolate Paradise Project!

This project would have never been possible except for an odd birthday gift I received years ago that inspired me to create this AU.

A simple idea that I never thought would've got this far.

I'm glad for the progress I've made so far and have followers that enjoy the content and even inspired a few to create their own.

I'm quite thankful to share this AU and art content I provide, and appreciate everyone loving it and sharing it.

So thank you guy's, this project would never become possible if it wasn't for you.

The Desolate Paradise Project will continue...

See you guy's later and hope you all have a wonderful day!

[livewildlivefree]

The Battle has Only Started - (Mike Chilton) - 1/7

“Is that all you got Mutt!”

“No...” Mike groans as he rises from the ground slowly transforming into his animal form.

“The battle has only started...”

He rushes forward to the group of enemies.

Just a quick doodle of Mike in the rain and glaring towards the gang that’s ruff him up a bit.

I had lots of fun with this doodle and enjoyed the color scheme that blends into the art piece, I hope you guys enjoy and the little story!

[livewildlivefree]

Desolate Paradise - Graffiti Art Assault (Dutch) - 3/7

Dutch nervously glances around as the clinking of the spray can echos through the night. Just a few more touches and he’s done.

 Dutch takes a step back admiring his creation. “That’s better, this bland city needs some color.”

Dutch grabs his bag ,”Alright, where to next?”

A doodle I tried more of an experimental color theory approach and I really love how it turned out and how it blends in. I would do it again with other colors just to see what I could come up with.

Anyways I hope you guys enjoy the doodle and the little story.

[livewildlivefree]

Desolate Paradise - Worrying Thoughts - (Chuck) - 2/7

Chuck sighs, “Alright let’s test this out.”

He presses a button activating his little invention. The cute little square eyes appear on the visor screen, “Hello, I’m your beloved Bearful Helper! How may I be at your service?”

“Scan Mandatory Health Check Up on Patient, please.” Chuck commanded.

“Right way!” The Bear scans Chuck and the results are instantly shown on the screen across the bears stomach.

”You have some issues with your mental health but your physical health shows you are quite healthy Mr. Chuck. I would recommended getting some rest for the time being. We can try improving your mental health. Is that alright with you?”

“I would like that, Bearful Helper. Thank you.” Chuck replied

“See you soon!” The Bearful Helper shuts down.

Just a doodle I’ve done for this series. I’ve always wondered what Chuck would look like before he became a Burner and what inventions he would come up with.

I came with this idea and I like how it turned out. Also a little back story without revealing too much. I hope you guys enjoy it!