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theartofmedia · 6 years ago

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The Art of Review: YIIK: A Postmodern RPG

I have been sitting here for about two hours with this tab open, trying to find out how to properly introduce this. At the time of writing this (May 7, 2019, 10:02 PM), I have just finished watching YIIK several hours ago. However, I have been doing just about everything to avoid actually writing about it, because I have no idea how to ease the reader into this.

YIIK is so reprehensible that I created this segment--”The Art of Review”--because I needed to talk about this game. I needed to explain just why this game fails on every single account, and is so blatantly offensive. Initially, I was going to do a piece on something creator Andrew Allanson had said about games and his protagonist, Alex. It had to do with character development, and a common criticism was Alex’s sheer lack of it; naturally, I decided to watch a walkthrough online in order to see this for myself first-hand.

I was not prepared for what I saw. I have never had to take as many breaks from any media before due to sheer anger at what I was witnessing. I have never seen a game that fails in every single sense, that is regarded as such high art by its developers. Except maybe David Cage, but he’s a topic for another day.

YIIK: A Postmodern RPG is one of the worst pieces of media I have ever had the displeasure of viewing... probably in my entire life. I wish I was exaggerating.

Before I go any further, I would like give immense credit to GrandmaParty and the others at the Something Awful forums for doing an LP of the game with commentary and cutting out the fights. GrandmaParty graciously linked the thread to me--which is full of sources that I will also be linking to throughout this piece--and made the entire game tolerable enough for me to power through. It wouldn’t have happened without you guys, so thank you very much for extending a hand to a small creator trying to get her footing in the world. <3

I will also be linking to the various episodes of GrandmaParty’s LP with timestamped links to show particular scenes or dialogue. I’ve heard that one Andrew Allanson likes to say that people doctored screenshots of his game to make him look bad. Sorry, but I don’t like being accused of forgery, so I’m going to just preemptively strike that claim down.

Now then. This is going to be a big, long review. Allow me to tell you how we’ll be separating this.

We’re going to have two main sections: a non-spoiler review, and a spoiler review. This is mainly due to the fact that a lot of the game’s issues come from its mess of a story, one that can only be understood fully if you’ve seen it through to the end (and its multiple endings).

But let me be clear here.

DO NOT BUY THIS GAME.

Don’t buy it for a laugh. Don’t buy it to see how bad it is. It’s broken, it’s offensive, and the creators and proven themselves time and time again to be genuinely awful and prejudiced people. Do not give these people money.

The non-spoiler and spoiler sections will be divided into subsections, which may also have subsections of their own.

With that said... let’s begin my review of YIIK: A Postmodern RPG.

Non-Spoiler Review

Plot:

The plot of YIIK (it’s pronounced like Y2K, but I’m going to pronounce it as ‘yick’ personally) follows Alex, a freshly-graduated college student, and the strange events that begin to occur once he returns to his hometown of Frankton. He follows a cat to an old factory/hotel, where he meets Sammy, a young woman who appears to live there. When she is taken by some mysterious creatures in front of Alex, he begins a journey to try and find out what happened to her, and begins to make discoveries that could endanger the very fabric of the universe. In theory, at least. In reality, the story is an absolute clusterfuck of vague metaphysics, and the rules of the world were never clearly established, so everything just becomes an incoherent mess.

Characters:

The characters are bare-bones at best and absolutely insufferable at worst. Alex especially is infamous among critics and detractors of the game for his arrogance, ignorance, underlying racism/sexism we’ll get to that, and lack of properly-written development. I’m not going to go into full detail with Alex just yet--there will be an entirely separate post on him. Something also to keep in mind that general consensus appears to be that Alex is an author-insert for Andrew Allanson. Whether that is or isn’t true is frankly up to the viewer, but there’s no definitive proof of it.

(Oh!!! Quick thing!! This image here keeps circulating around--this person is not Andrew! That is someone named Cr33pyDude on both Twitter and Reddit! He just so happens to look like the main character. Don’t rag on this guy, everyone, he doesn’t have anything to do with this shitshow. <3)

Most of the other characters are bland and underdeveloped, but all have potential to be better (Rory especially, in my personal opinion) if they were in the hands of a better writer. The female characters, though... either they are fawning over Alex, being written as nagging and overbearing, or having so little significance that taking them out entirely would change nothing. Don’t worry, we’ll get to that. Other NPCs are forgettable, and enemies are out-of-place monsters that hold no consequence to the story.

Writing:

And the writing--dear god the writing. The writers don’t know the phrase “show, don’t tell.” So frequently would Alex monologue about nothing. Upon coming back from seeing a woman get taken by supernatural creatures, he goes home and reflects--only to go on a tangent about his mother. Immediately after that, he goes on a rant about p/o/r/n/ when sent an email and how girls that he used to go to school with wouldn’t be doing “particularly unladylike” things. And the entire game is like this. Alex will go on pseudo-philosophical rants to himself, and they reveal nothing about his character except that he thinks he’s better than everyone else. He’ll also frequently describe things as though talking to someone--while this does get explained later, it still is completely frustrating when the narrative says “I said this and she said that” instead of just having dialogue or actions between characters. A lot of the dialogue doesn’t exactly... sound like anything a human would say. It’s stilted and unnatural.

Graphics:

The graphics are... bad. Really bad. The style is supposed to be a throwback to old-school, very polygonal games, but environments lack any and all actual texture, making them incredibly flat and uninteresting at best and painful for the eyes at worst. Everything is extremely colorful, but in the sense of neon colors. Everything is so bright and vibrant, and there is barely a place where someone’s eyes can rest--it’s balance in art. Brightness like this needs to be contrasted with darker, more muted shades, or else it just hurts to look at. The viewer’s eyes need places to rest, and the muted shades allow them that reprieve. You don’t get that with YIIK. It’s just a constant bombardment of colors and lights, to the point where if you are sensitive to these kinds of things, you may not want to look even at game footage unless you’re prepared. The character portraits are fine, even if some expressions are odd, but the in-game chibi-esque models are... bad. Really bad. They’re so uncanny and unsettling, and their expressions almost never change. (Also Alex has detailed teeth and it’s just as horrifying as you might think.)

Music/Audio:

The music is. Awful? It’s awful. It’s genuinely really bad. Case in point: one of the boss battle themes. You can hear this poor guy trying so hard to put power behind his voice, but it just sounds unnatural and strained. (Also he clips the mic at some points, and the balancing in general is. Bad.) He’s out-of-tune and occasionally off-beat, and it just makes for a very unpleasant listening experience. And a lot of the music is like this, being just an assault on the ears. The one real exception to this is the track “Into the Mind” made by one Toby Fox, presumably before he made Undertale and was doing freelance work. (He has since deleted his tweet promoting it. Screenshot of the tweet here, courtesy of @GameTheoryRejects.) The audio in general is poor, with irritating sound effects, occasional distorted audio that’s supposed to be scary but is so poorly done that it just hurts to listen to, and voice acting that’s lackluster at best and utterly emotionless at worst.

Gameplay:

Full disclosure: I did not personally play the game. But just looking at it shows how irritating, slow, clunky, and repetitive it is. Each character has a minigame that you play in order to attack, defend, use special attacks, and even run away. These minigames, unlike in something like the Mario & Luigi series, are slow, drawn-out, and completely break up the flow of the fight. And none of the other characters matter then anyway, because turns out if you max out your LUK stat, you can use a particular move that hits all enemies and completely one-shot them from critical damage. (And this move can even glitch out the game in some cases!) The menus are crowded and visually uninteresting, making everything sort of meld together. (Another minor criticism: YIIK has a tendency to put the player in unwinnable fights. You are never aware of what fights are winnable and which fights are designed to kill you. More on this later.)

Speaking of gameplay, the leveling system is... bizarre and tedious. You get EXP, but you don’t gain the ability to level up (yes that is an ability you have to gain) until a couple hours into the game. Leveling up is done in the Mind Dungeon, which you access from save points, and you have to go through doors that increase the stats you assign it. There are four doors per floor, and when you go to the next floor, you and all of your teammates (even if you haven’t met them in-game) level up. Sounds simple, right? Well. It’s slow and repetitive, and NOTHING HAPPENS. You walk in a door. You walk out the door. Rinse and repeat for 70 floors. (280 doors, by the way.) Here’s GrandmaParty doing this for an hour to get an idea of the tedium that this induces. You get to play a minigame when you banish certain enemies, but that serves less as ‘spicing up the gameplay’ and more of ‘adding more steps to this already-boring section.’

So to recap: Flat characters, word-salad plot, painful prose flat-out ugly graphics, backwards gameplay and leveling system.

Tl;dr: Game bad. Don’t buy it.

... This ends the non-spoiler portion of the review. And also the section where we start to talk about some... sensitive topics.

As such, I am going to issue a legitimate trigger warning: the following pieces talk about suicide/depression in detail, as well as physical & domestic abuse situations.

And a small content warning for those who aren’t legitimately triggered by these subjects but still feel uncomfortable reading about the following: homophobia/transphobia; sexism; racism; and the actual use of a real-life woman’s death as a plot device. No I am not fucking kidding about that last one.

So. Let’s get into the real shit about YIIK.

Spoiler Review

Plot:

Let’s start with the plot. There isn’t really a driving force for this plot; initially, it’s finding Semi “Sammy” Pak (well, everyone except Rory says “Park,” even though all of the written lines say “Pak,” so that’s great) after she is taken by mysterious figures. However, as the game progresses, the search becomes less about finding Sammy until she’s just a footnote, and becomes more about... meandering around the world going from one goal to another while fighting things. (The game points this out, but self-awareness doesn’t excuse the fact that it happens. Especially considering the upcoming plot points...)

Then the metaphysics start--people have been trying to decipher this world’s rules for a while with little success, so bear with me, I’m going to try to make as much sense of what we’re given as possible.

There exists a “place between places“ known as the Soul Space. It exists between parallel realities. A person can actually will themself into the Soul Space via... depression? One character, Vella, says that another character, Rory, left his body when he “surrendered himself to his misery” following the death of his younger sister, and explained herself that she fell into a deep depression as well before entering the Soul Space... but it’s not dying? Or it can be? Here Rory asks The Essentia 2000 oh we’ll get to her don’t you worry if dying means you enter the Soul Space. She says that it’s complicated. Her explanation boils down to, “if you care only about material goods and not about your bonds, when you die, you will cease to exist. If you don’t care about materialistic goods when you die, then ehhhhh???”

Also, if your reality is destroyed but you go into the Soul Space, you can become a Soul Survivor (aka the not-Starmen, seen in the cutscene with Vella and Rory linked above) and get stuck in other’s realities as you try to find a physical body. Also, people share a Soul across parallel realities--meaning, parallel versions of yourself would share the same Soul. But they’re not the same people. They have different lives, races, genders, names, but they share the same “Soul.” Only one person with that “Soul” can exist in a reality at a time, hence the form that the Soul Survivors take if they enter a reality where another person with that “Soul” lives. If, however, that person with your “Soul” is no longer in that reality, you can retake physical form and essentially take their place--though not as them, but as you.

And if you go into the Soul Space you apparently understand the secrets of the universe and are beyond normal human follies.

Confused yet? Me too, and I wrote this damn thing. The worldbuilding is so vague, and the players aren’t given set rules that the world plays by. Even when the more surrealist elements of the game start to appear, there should still be rules. Perhaps nonsensical rules, but rules nonetheless. Instead we get talk about Souls and parallel realities, scenes of bright colors and strange imagery that never gets explained or really acknowledged (other than a mention of them being “breaks in reality” like, once), and some plot twists that imply... a lot.

Let’s talk about the characters before we get to the ending.

Characters

Besides Alex, there are five major characters in YIIK:

Michael, who is Alex’s childhood friend and who doesn’t really have much relevance between the beginning and the end of the game. No, really, for the middle portion of the game, he doesn’t really do anything. He hangs around, that’s about it. He gains relevance again during the end of the game where he goes into the Soul Space and becomes Proto-Michael, and that... happens, I guess. I think it contributes to the revelation later on about reality breaking.

Vella is... a strange character. A strange character forced to contradict herself because the plot demands it. She’s shown to be a character who takes no shit, but also bends at the first flimsy apology Alex gives her. She is compassionate to someone like Rory, but spends most of her time calling out Alex. (And yet, somehow, they fall in love???) These notes I took previously on Vella’s first appearance show how what kind of walking contradiction that Vella is as a character:

”Stop creeping on me while i’m at work”

”Okay I’ll go to the house of two strangers who i just accused of perving on me, in the middle of my work shift, to look at these pictures of me on this website i’ve never heard of that can’t go wrong”

”So let me tell you about this traumatizing experience i had with a supernatural creature, saying how emotional and painful it was without any emotion in my voice”

”also i’m not going to tell you how I got to where the supernatural creature was because it’s very personal and I don’t know you and revealing that would make me vulnerable”

”By the way I’m going to give you my number as well as this other number for a training dungeon basically because I like you two”

... yeah,

Rory is probably my favorite character out of this dreck, and he deserves so, so much better than being in this shit. He’s a quiet scene kid who initially gets roped into the plot with the disappearance of his 12-year-old sister--turns out, however, that she killed herself, and Rory struggles with the resulting grief, trauma, and depression that follows. He’s a sweet kid who’s a pacifist, is teaching himself how to make games, knows a lot of random bits of information about many things, and overall deserves so much better than this game. Sorry Allansons you’ve lost your Rory privileges he is My son now

Claudio and Chondra... are just kind of there? Claudio’s a stereotypical weeb. Chondra is the “sassy black girl”/little sister type (which is later revealed to be even stranger, because she’s apparently a graduate student). They don’t have much outside of that, and that’s a shame, since they had a lot of potential to be really good. However, they also seem a bit... tacked on and included for diversity’s sake, as both of them mention racism at some point, and... yeah. The game isn’t very graceful with that topic, as I’ll soon get into.

There is also the character of Panda, who appears out of nowhere in the factory/hotel and is never questioned. It becomes very clear that he’s a figment of Alex’s imagination, and is Alex personifying him as his sort of “conscious“ when he is, in reality, only a stuffed bear. He only talks when Alex is alone. A lot of people really don’t like him, but I will admit that I got mildly emotional when he drifted away in space near the end--but only because I myself make stuffed animals and dolls, so nearly any stuffed animal holds a place in my heart. However, I can very much see why people wouldn’t like him at all.

Anyway.

The Fucking Ending:

So everyone just kind of meanders around for the middle portion of the game until surprise! On New Years’ Eve the world is going to be destroyed. Not just the world--the entire reality. And it’s going to be Alex’s fault, somehow. Also Sammy--who Alex becomes obsessed with--Vella--who is an explicit love interest for Alex--and an android--the previously-mentioned The Essentia 2000, who Alex has a dream about and immediately becomes infatuated--with all turn out to be the same person! Why pick between love interests when they can all just turn out to be the same person?! Also, Sammy was taken by apparent demons because her Soul was in the process of going into the Soul Space, and the creatures the took her were actually the other 2/3rds of her Soul that had already gone into the Soul Space and they were just collecting the last piece. I think.

The game turns into a watered-down version of Persona 3, where you have about a month--from Thanksgiving until New Years’ Eve--to train and get strong enough to stop whatever is going to destroy reality. (The actual Y2K thing is mentioned about halfway through and serves little relevance other than to mark when the end of the world is, since Y2K isn’t actually the cause of the world ending). Then there are some weird plot twists about how reality has been breaking for a long while (this was briefly foreshadowed in Alex going to Michael’s house only to be told that Michael doesn’t live there, and then going to another house where Michael is) and it makes a lot of things really confusing?? And then New Years’ Eve comes where everything is really breaking. Turns out the end of this reality is caused by a meteor with Alex’s face on it a la the moon from Majora’s Mask, no I am not fucking kidding. And it moves around like an inflatable arm-flailing tube man, no I am not fucking kidding.

And then everyone dies. No, really, this is an unwinnable fight. You die. Your entire party dies. Their reality is destroyed.

Alex wanders around the Soul Space for a while until he finds other versions of himself, and various “dark versions” merge together to create the Proto-Comet (’proto’ being the suffix to describe the end product of parallel selves merging together to form one entity). Alex follows the comet around as it destroys reality after reality until...

He finds one that hasn’t been attacked.

And gueeeeeeess what?

You, the player, are a parallel version of Alex. So he enlists you and another party of parallels (using the names you were supposed to input in the beginning) to destroy Proto-Alex. Here, you meet a spectre who is very obviously Sammy Pak, and she says that she’s sorry that Essentia “used her to get to you,” and you hug her.

Eventually you do get to Proto-Alex, as well as a different form of Essentia. Turns out that Essentia lied to you about Sammy and Vella--turns out, Essentia IS you. Well, Essentia is part of Alex, and she tricked Alex into destroying Proto-Alex in order to free herself from the “Soul” that they share. So you can choose to fight Proto-Alex, and if you do, you lose. Again. The boss fight in unwinnable.

And then this... really weird section happens with the character of Roy from Two Brothers, Ackk Studios’ previous game that got pulled from Steam due to bugginess and crashing. Roy basically says that people were “trying to stop his quest” (aka critics) and that Alex shouldn’t give up. (Note that this is a complete non-sequitur to anyone who doesn’t know who Roy is, where he came from, or the story behind the game being pulled.)

After that, you control both the player avatar given and Alex in order to “unplug” Proto-Alex and Essentia, which will make them “whole”? It basically means that all the versions of Alex will merge together into you, the player.

Then the game ends.

At least. Kind of. There’s more than one ending.

But... we’ll get back to that in a bit.

There are many questions the game raises without answers. Why was Sammy bleeding and screaming for the Soul Survivors not to take her because “you promised you wouldn’t move me again!”? Who actually is Vella? Why did no one question Essentia and Vella being in the same space if it was already said that they couldn’t be? Who actually is Sammy? Why is she a ghost and not a Soul Survivor? Why were Proto-Alex and the other “dark Alex”-es trying to destroy realities? Why does Proto-Alex look different than the other Alex-es, who look relatively similar? Who actually was the voice on the phone--it was implied to be Proto-Michael, but he didn’t exist when those phone calls were made? Is Claudio and Chondra’s missing younger brother actually a version of Alex, as this clip implies (esp. w/ the anime shirt)?

Good luck getting answers, because we sure as hell don’t get any.

Also--glad to know that the entire month of training that you spent the latter half of the game doing was all for naught, since the last two major fights you’re in are unwinnable. There are four minibosses to fight, so it isn’t all for nothing, but still. You don’t even get the satisfaction of killing the final boss. You pull a lever and he and Essentia get weirdly electrocuted.

One more thing: the twist of “Essentia lied to you” made a metric fuckton of exposition in her Mind Dungeon utterly pointless, and also feels like a flimsy excuse to absolve Alex of blame for the shitty actions of his parallel selves--more on that later.

So let’s touch on some controversy now that we have gone over the rest of this incoherent mess of a plot.

Elisa Lam

One of the most famous controversies of YIIK is the use of Elisa Lam’s death to propel the story. This is true--the creator admits that he “was very moved” by Lam’s death.

For those not in the know, let me give you a brief summary of the case of Elisa Lam. (Yes this is going to be primarily from Wikipedia but it also has news sources cited for it.) Elisa Lam was a 21-year-old Chinese-Canadian student who was reported missing at the beginning of February 2013. On February 17th, the workers at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles (where Lam was visiting) discovered her nude body in one of the hotel’s water tanks after guests complained about the taste of the water. The police released footage of Lam, from the day of her disappearance, acting strangely in an elevator, appearing to be hiding from something, pressing elevator buttons, and gesturing and talking to no one. There was controversy surrounding her death, as people wondered how she could have locked herself in the water tank, and how the police could rule her death as accidental. People have suspected that it was due to paranormal activity that she was acting like that, or others said that she could have been having hallucinations (as Lam was diagnosed with bipolar and depression). Her death was quickly spread through internet circles as some paranormal myth.

YIIK incorporates this as a huge part of its starting plot.

Semi “Sammy” Pak is very clearly inspired by Elisa Lam. The two bear striking resemblance to one another, being young Asian women in their early twenties with straight black hair (even parted in the same place)--and this photo from the LA Times shows that Lam wore rounded glasses, like the ones Sammy wears. (Lam is Chinese-Canadian, while Sammy is stated to be Koren-American. Sammy is also 23 when Lam was 21.)

This photoset from JamJamJamJamuel shows the biggest criticism of YIIK: the recreation of the elevator video. It’s obvious by the angle and some of Sammy’s movements that this was, in fact, meant to emulate the elevator video of Lam. The game also shows that people are less concerned about Sammy as a person and more about the mystery of the elevator, like the internet stopped caring about Lam as a person and more of a supernatural myth.

However, there’s more than just this.

There’s a weird... almost fetishistic nature when the in-game protagonist talks about Sammy. Alex describes his meeting with her as “intimate” (they met for like. an hour), calls her “my Sammy” when comparing his story to the story of the news, says that he “misse[s] her. I didn’t know her really, but I felt like I did.” And the very next line is uh. “In the unreal twilight hours, in-between sleep and waking, she slipped into my dreams, got tangled in my thoughts, like the blankets tangled between my legs, her brain melting with mine.”

... Gross, to say the least.

And yes, by the way, Sammy basically becomes a love interest. That’s not completely disrespectful and disgusting to the actual human woman that the devs never met or anything at aaaaaaaall.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE.

Rory basically goes on to describe a “creepy urban myth” about the water tower near his town. You can imagine what that leads to. It’s a beat-by-beat retelling of the finding of Elisa Lam’s body, except they make it a “nameless girl,” and the writers basically insert their opinions of how it was definitely a murder and the police called it an accident.

More tasteless than a fucking saltine.

OH BUT WAIT THERE’S EVEN MORE.

Near the end of the game, you find the ghost of Sammy Pak. Since she’s not a part of Essentia, it seems that Essentia used her form to get to Alex. She says that she’s sorry and that she’s going to go back ‘home’ now, and you hug her.

But that’s not even the worst of it.

Allow me to tell you about the second ending.

Second Ending:

YIIK has more than one ending--both are considered canon. Ending 1 is the one described above.

Ending 2, however...

Just before leaving the house for the last time, in order to get this second ending, you have to look at the computer in Alex’s house and read this post. It implies that you need to go find Sammy. (It also has some things to say about postmodernism but that’s for another day.)

You go outside... and she’s hiding behind a tree outside your house. No I’m not kidding. (Granted, this is the part of the game where reality is beginning to break apart, so.) She also says “I love you” which, given her “inspiration” by Elisa Lam... yeah. That’s not creepy and tasteless at all. And it also doesn’t make any FUCKING SENSE BECAUSE ALEX KNEW HER FOR AN HOUR AND NEVER SAW HER AGAIN.

Okay, okay, anyway, if you go back into the house and leave through the back entrance, you’ll be taken to the world map. Your destination is the KNN--the Korean News Network, where Sammy had been employed before she vanished. The faceless NPCs only refer to Alex as the name you put in at the beginning of the game, so presumably, everyone from this point forward is now talking to you, the player. (Also everything is pink. Really pink. For no real reason unless it’s “””symbolic””” of something?) You wander around for a bit, doing menial tasks, until you finally get to a pink version of the room you first met Sammy in. She calls you on a phone and tells you that she’s sorry for dragging you into this mess (because Alex/the player went looking for Sammy in the first place), and that she “has a solution” to prevent Essentia from using Alex any more.

You find yourself in front of an elevator, the same elevator that you rode with Sammy when she disappeared. She calls you on the phone again and says that if you go through the elevator doors, there’s no turning back. If you step through, you see the spectre of Sammy again, and she wants to show you where she’s been. You hug her, and she says that she’s so glad that she met you, “even if it was just a game. We’ll be together in your waking reality one day, I’m sure of it. For all I know, we may already be.”

... Roll credits!

No. Seriously. That’s the second ending. You, the player, (presumably) go into the Soul Space with Sammy for eternity, and Sammy basically gives you a love confession (after all she says “I love you” before anyway).

Need I remind you all that she is based off of a REAL-LIFE WOMAN WHO DIED THAT NEITHER OF THE ALLANSONS KNEW?!

Hi, yes, sorry, I’m fucking livid about this. Not just because of the disgusting use of a real-life woman’s death in your game, not just because they fetishized her and turned her into a love interest, not just one of the endings--which is a canon ending--had her telling you she loves you and having you go off with her...

... but because this game has been in development since 2013.

Elisa Lam wasn’t even dead for a fucking year.

Yes, other media has cropped up about Lam’s death, and I think it’s just as tacky and tasteless as this. But these guys had so much time to change it, to have someone say “hey maybe you shouldn’t do that,” and it happened anyway. The sheer lack of respect that the Allansons have for not just Lam but also her still-grieving family is astonishing, and it genuinely makes me sick. My thoughts and condolences to the family of Elisa Lam, having to deal with the press, internet conspirators, and people like this. I hope that they all can still find some sense of peace, even with all of this going on.

Racism:

So this game can be really, really fucking racist sometimes. Let’s start with the more explicit dialogue.

In the very beginning, Sammy calls Alex a ginger, and he says “that’s our word.” He’s equating “ginger” to a derogatory slur.

Here’s the next instance, with Alex referring to Vella--an Asian woman--as “vaguely ethnic” and “exotic.” (He doesn’t face consequences for this, either. Just a slap on the wrist of “don’t talk about race.”)

Later on, Chondra talks about race in an actually not that bad rant about how “I bet if [my brother] had been a beautiful white woman, everyone would have cared that he vanished.” This actually is somewhat insightful, as... well, it’s rather true. POC, when it comes to investigations, are often pushed aside, ignored, or given the least amount of effort. And then Chondra also calls out Alex’s lowkey racist fantasy of “being the white knight swooping in and saving the exotic Korean girl.” However... that’s it. Alex doesn’t get any insight from that, or rethink his reasons on why he wants to save Sammy.

And that’s where we get into Claudio and Chondra and the more implicit racism in the game. Neither of them have much in terms of personality--Claudio likes anime, Chondra is there for quips. Neither of them have any significant arcs, nor do they serve much story purpose beyond being extra party members and talking about race--which feels racist in and of itself, just to have characters of color there to talk about race. (Claudio even goes into an extensive rant about how it’d be racist to think that he knows how to pick locks, but he does know how to pick locks, just not the type that they need open. It comes out of nowhere, is utterly unwarranted, and is completely against the rather chill persona that Claudio has had up until then.) Their characters had a lot of potential to be good! However, much like every other character, they’re very underdeveloped.

(Also, if you have either Claudio or Chondra in your party when you get attacked by cop enemies, they will only shoot at either of them, you know, the only black characters in the main party, and my god I wish I was kidding.)

And then... the love interests.

Sammy is a Korean woman. Vella is an Asian woman of unknown descent. The Essentia 2000 has shown that many of her parallel lives are women of color. All of them are love interests for Alex, the white hero. Yeah. And the game calls it out, but no actual repercussions are given!

Speaking of these ladies...

Sexism

This game is really fucking sexist. Like, genuinely, it’s really sexist.

I think a lot of Vella’s contradictory character comes from this sexism and seeing her as a love interest rather than a character. Though she calls out Alex and is upset with him most of the time, she still accepts his weak apologies very easily--apologies that seem very manipulative and insincere when almost immediately after, Alex tries to convince her to let him into her Mind Dungeon, and if you take that as a metaphor than it gets even worse.

As well, Vella’s backstory includes her being used by a much-older man. What can you do after she tells this traumatic story about her being used by a man? Kiss her. And she doesn’t even get upset or angry with you; she just blushes and says to head back to the others. Because that’s not gross and manipulative or anything. That’s not taking advantage of a vulnerable woman at ALL.

The only female characters of importance that aren’t lusting after Alex are his mom and Chondra--I’ve already mentioned that Chondra has little story importance and personality, and Alex sees his mom as nagging for asking him to get groceries, gets angry at her when she says that she lost her job and asks him to get one to support the house (please note that she paid for his and his sister’s college educations in full, including semesters she didn’t plan for), and gets annoyed with her freaking out when he went missing for five days.

So yeah. The game doesn’t have the highest view of women.

But let’s talk specifically about Essentia. Essentia mentions that Alex has hurt her in parallel realities--but it’s okay, because they’re parallel versions, not actually him! And Essentia reveals that Alex’s parallel was the person who hurt Vella! But it’s okay, because she’ll love him unconditionally no matter how much he hurts her. It’s... really reminiscent of domestic abuse. And it frankly doesn’t matter that Essentia turns out to be a part of Alex and that any of the story of Vella or Sammy isn’t true; the game frames it as perfectly okay that it might have happened. It’s okay that parallel versions of Alex have hurt parallel versions of Essentia, because she loves him. It’s incredibly twisted, and it’s honestly a dangerous message to be sending.

(Also, in a very weird instance of sexism against men, out of all of the parallel selves that Essentia shows Alex, the only man is extremely hostile and violent towards Alex. It’s... kind of weird, honestly.)

Depression/Suicide:

Oh boy. Oh fucking boy.

A little background on myself.

I’m two years into my undergrad for a Psychology/Criminology double major. Classes I have taken include classes about pathologies of the mind and mental health (Psychopathology of Childhood, Developmental Psychology, Personality Psychology, Seminar on Positive Psychology, and of course Basic Psychology to be specific). I have also been clinically diagnosed with anxiety/depression, and both of these are genetically based, meaning that I have lived with them my whole life and will continue to live with them. (I am medicated, for anyone wondering. The meds are the only way I can function at a normal level.) I have felt suicidal before, I have had friends who have been suicidal before, and I have talked others down from self-harm or suicide. I’m not an expert, but I know a thing or two about mental health, depression, and suicide.

This game... this game doesn’t fucking get it at all.

(Just a quick thing: the game makes an OCD joke. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder jokes aren’t funny, folks, since people who have it are affected by it all the time to the point of it often being debilitating. Just wanted to mention it a) to give you an idea on how the game handles mental health and b) because it really doesn’t fit anywhere else.)

Most of this surrounds the character of Rory, as he clearly suffers from depression and suicidal thoughts, as well as feeling grief surrounding his sister’s own suicide. When this is revealed, you know what Vella says to “comfort” him? “Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. I understand what you were feeling. 'This depression is unbearable.' 'I can't take it anymore.' The 'depression/pain' part is an unavoidable reality, but whether or not you can overcome it is up to you. You decide if you're going to keep going. Your sister is dead. Nothing can change that. [...] You can't help but feel the pain, but you can get through the suffering. That will go away. Look, I understand that it's easy for me to say. I'm not the one whose sister is dead. But you have to understand that I am telling you the true reality of the situation. You're playing with some otherworldly dangers here!“

Let me break this down to show you why this is not something to say to someone who is traumatized and in a deep depression due to the loss of a loved one.

“[W]hether or not you can overcome it is up to you.” This puts full responsibility of overcoming grief and depression onto the person suffering from it, which is not okay, and not true. Rory lost his 12-year-old sister to suicide! Very recently in the game’s timeline, as well!

Vella is basically telling him “it’s your job to get over your grief and depression.” Putting full responsibility on someone for feeling depression and grief is disgusting. If someone is grieving, what they should do is reach out. If they aren’t, reach out to them. Don’t let them suffer alone. Suffering like this is not a choice. People don’t choose to suffer.

By saying that suffering is “optional,” it subtly blames the person suffering for their own suffering, which makes their chances of getting better plummet. So frequently will people suffering from mental disorders put the blame on themselves for “not trying hard enough” or “being broken” or “not being good enough” because they think that this is all their own fault, and they won’t seek help, because “it’s all my fault.”

Now, when someone is in recovery? Yes, they should definitely try--even if it’s in small bits at a time--to to learn to cope with their disorders in healthy ways. However, when in recovery, the person is assisted by therapists, friends, family, and possibly medications. They aren’t alone. They aren’t alone, and are often guided by those who know how to help them and want to help them. The responsibility isn’t pushed solely onto them. One doesn’t “get over” being depressed. They learn to cope. They learn to accept it as a part of them, rather than all of them, and learn that they are more than their depression. The suffering never truly goes away; it can lessen, though, and a person can learn to live with it.

Some people may defend this by saying that the Allansons lost their mother very recently, and this is how they handle their grief. I lost my father in February of last year. I know this type of grief. And just because that’s how they handle their grief, that doesn’t mean it’s a healthy way of coping, nor the type of coping mechanism you should promote in your game. (I will admit that my own methods of coping weren’t great, and that I’m trying to improve on that now.) There’s a quote that I heard somewhere that goes something like, “grief never really goes away. We just learn to live with it.” That suffering doesn’t ‘go away.’ It ebbs and flows, some days being bearable, and other days not.

But that’s not the end, friends. Oh, far from it.

At one point, you can flat-out tell Rory to “stop being depressed. Being depressed is a choice.” It is noted to be the “wrong” choice, however, Rory barely reacts to it, making it not seem like the wrong decision. I don’t feel like I need to explain why “depression is a choice” is a take colder than the depths of space. Depression’s not a choice, folks. Hell, I would love it if it was, I would love to stop the fatigue, the emptiness, the lethargy, the lack of motivation, the irritability, the messed-up appetite, the fucked-up sleep patterns, the fits of crying. That would be fucking great. But I can’t. BECAUSE IT’S NOT A CHOICE, YOU WALNUT.

Okay, okay, sorry, back on topic. So let’s say you’re mean to Rory. You wanna know what happens?

He kills himself. And according to this user, the story doesn’t change and barely acknowledges Rory after his death. (Obviously there’s not footage out there of the characters mentioning that Rory committed suicide. However, the developers themselves commented on the previously-linked Steam forum post confirming its legitimacy. This is so unbelievably fucked up. Suicide is already a topic that should be handled with care, but having a main character commit suicide and have that death have no impact on the story? I don’t even have words for how deplorable that is. (Doesn’t help that the game basically pushes whether Rory lives or dies onto the player, which is also disgusting, because I don’t think the developers had the insight into suicidal ideation to know that it’s a multitude of factors that lead to suicide, and not just one person being )

(Sidenote: here are the links to the National Suicide Prevention Line and the Crisis Text Line in case anyone needs them. Please take care, friends. <3)

[Addendum: as I was working on this review and listened to the podcast linked a little further down, Andrew Allanson had this to say at 2:08:47: "When you make an unlikable character, people expect Sherlock Holmes or Dr. House. They want flawed heroes, but only to the extent that they’re beautiful and intelligent and slightly Asperger-y."

Thank you for basically saying that having Asperger’s Syndrome is an unlikable trait or makes people unlikable.]

Anti-LGBTQ+

So let’s talk about the prejudice against non-straight and non-cis people!

Andrew Allanson has been rather fucking clear about his prejudice against trans people and non-straight people. In the “The Dick Show” podcast, starting at 1:45:45, Andrew Allanson was interviewed by the commentators. I will be providing timestamps of quotes since I can’t directly link to them.

(Sidenote: I was listening to this podcast and waiting for Andrew’s pa rt to start, and one of the commentators was talking about Women’s History Month, and saying “If a woman doesn’t have a man, she’s going to expect the government to be her man. That’s just the way they’re wired.” [1:44:24 - 1:44:31]. Yeah. That tells you the type of people who run this podcast and the type of people that Andrew decides to associate himself with.)

[1:52:15 - 1:52:] “... we made the mistake of asking the player, ‘what name did your parents give you?’ And it turns out that that is a very offensive question. Because some people, um, are trans, and don’t use the name their parents gave them. So immediately the game is targeted as being transphobic. [...] So we wanted to basically create a character off of the player in the game, the first thing we ask you ‘are you a boy or a girl,’ ‘what’s your name’, and people were so bent out of shape over this. Look, I’m sympathetic to trans people, I understand why it upset them. But the problem was when we apologized, that wasn’t good enough. People then took it and said ‘what else can we find in this game to prove that it’s offensive?’”

So here’s the thing: that... is lowkey transphobic? Because it’s like you said, these people don’t use the names that their parents gave them. You’re asking them, intentionally or not, to deadname themselves. There’s a reason they call it a “deadname.”

Later on they ask, “which of these do you identify with?” and show a male figure and a female figure. Which frankly, is alright.

And then they changed it in an update to “what do you look like?” which feels like a very direct jab at trans people, especially the ones who were upset by the initial question relating to names.

Oh, and then there’s this part (I only know DIck and Andrew’s voices, I’m afraid I don’t know the third, sorry m8).

[1:54:35 - 1:55:10]

Andrew: So you play as this guy, Alex, you just come home from [college, audio cut out here], you’re an entitled asshole--

Dick: You get points for stomping queers, as I understand it, that’s the game, right? You go around and--

Andrew: The goal is to establish the white ethnostate.

[unintelligible as others laugh and talk over each other]

Dick: --you have a little ‘gaydar’ in the corner and it points you to the nearest homosexual, and then you go, y‘know, “Hammer [X]”

Andrew: It’s - it’s - yeah, it’s a hack-and-slash.

Dick: If you buy the game they send you a special overlay you can put on your controller that turns all the buttons into ‘K.’ So it’s not ‘A’--

Andrew: Yes!

Dick: --Just ‘K,’ ‘K,’ and ‘K.’

Andrew: Just ‘K,’ ‘K’--yeah, exactly, exactly.

So we not only have the mockery of gay folk, but also mention of murdering them (whether in a joking fashion or not, this still isn’t fucking funny and not something to joke about, especially if you are not LGBTQ+ yourself. And to my knowledge, none of these men are).

And that’s just from the creator himself, as well as the first few minutes of the game.

Let’s talk bout The Scene.

What is The Scene? Well, it’s the scene where Alex and Rory talk, where you can tell Rory that “depression is a choice.” Should you be kind and supportive to him, you know what you can do? “Try to kiss [him.]” And there’s art for it. There is literally no reason for this to be here other than “haha it’s a guy trying to kiss another guy, gay people are funny!” It seems to be an attempt at humor, but it fails... rather miserably.

The Legendary Third Ending

I call it “legendary” because no one knows if it actually exists or not, because people can’t find it, regardless of the hints given by the developers.

Andrew, while doing “The Dick Show” interview, mentions that he put DIck Masterson (the host of the show) into the game in the third update [1:45:56] , and that you have to give Dick a pair of aviator glasses, where he will give you a red pill [1:47:15 - 1:47:33]. Dick is also found in Chapter 4 of the game [1:47:40].

The devs also tease it on Twitter, saying that it’s “sad and challenging to complete”, and they give vague and unclear hints that don’t seem to help even the fans of the game--after all, no one has found it, apparently. Even the YIIK Discord (though this is just hearsay) has been losing steam in trying to find this ending.

I think it’s a testament to the quality of the game when one of your major three endings is nigh-impossible to find. (For the record, I feel the same way about how PT went about its ending, and how arbitrary it felt to do these very specific things that the game barely tells you about.)

Miscellaneous Other Things That Don’t Fit In The Above

There are a couple other things that irk me about this game, so time for a rapid-fire round!

You can kiss Rory, who’s implied to be a senior in high school (due to this talk of college). So he’s, at best, 18. Alex had 5 and a half years of college (the game says “five and a quarter” but unless I’m mistaken colleges work in semesters not quarters,), so he’s probably 23-24. Yeah. (There’s also the issue of consent--when you kiss Vella she just blushes and acts more docile, while with Rory, he rather vehemently rejects it. So women just accept an unwanted kiss? Hm.)

You fight a flasher as a miniboss. Because sexual harassment is hilarious. (And if neither Michael nor Rory are 18 yet, then there’s the possibility of minors being involved. YEAH.)

The title card is intentionally glitchy af and it hurts the eyes, honestly.

If you go through New Game+ and go to the 70th floor of the Mind Dungeon, Alex will basically talk to himself about some things:

It mentions that “crows are ugly.” You fool. You absolute buffoon. Crows? Excellent. Very intelligent birbs.

This is basically “hey we suck, but so does everyone around us, it’s fine”

This game unironically uses Wonderwall lyrics in an emotional scene, like I know it was popular and not a meme in the 90s but my guy, you gotta think about the connotations with the audience you’re releasing this for,

“I sighed as the elevator began to shake, vibrating with motion.” Thank you for using three words to describe the elevator shaking,

The One Thing That I Liked

Surprisingly, there is something I liked about this game. Not solely in concept, not in its potential, but in its actual execution.

It starts on the day of New Years’ Eve. It’s dark outside and inside. Alex suddenly starts getting many random calls, some from people he knows, others he doesn’t. Some voices are distorted, some aren’t. Some are talking to him, some aren’t. And they’re quick little calls before they hang up, and Alex barely says a word. He can’t leave the house, and keeps getting phone calls that get more and more distorted as time goes on.

That? I think that actually really works.

It’s a more subtle way of showing reality breaking: getting calls from people, both friends and strangers, that are slowly getting more and more broken, and you can’t do anything. You’re trapped in your house, you can’t see outside, you don’t know what’s going on. You can’t help your friends, even when Michael screams for your help. The slowly deteriorating stability of the calls are your only indication of what’s going on outside.

And for me, that works. It was the one section of the game that I felt legitimately invested in. So, kudos to the devs for that one.

Conclusion

YIIK isn’t just bad. It’s offensive. It’s ignorant, it handles serious topics incredibly clumsily, and the worst of it is that Andrew Allanson considers it to be ‘art.’ (If you’re wondering why I didn’t talk about the “video games aren’t art” quote, don’t worry. That’s going to be its own essay.)

YIIK fails on every level, from technical to storytelling. Please, I beg of you, don’t give this game money. Just go watch the LP.

You may have noticed that I didn’t talk much about the “postmodern” aspect of the game, nor much about Alex as a protagonist.

Both of those are going to be their own separate essays.

This wild ride still ain’t over, folks. Hang on.

#yiik a postmodern rpg #yiik: a postmodern rpg #yiik #andrew allanson #yeehaw #holy shit this one is SO LONG but im so proud of it

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courage-a-word-of-justice · 5 years ago

Text

New season...incoming!

Iruma-kun 13

How did Iruma even notice that collar? Geesh, that kid is perceptive…

This “spitting blood” joke is getting old already…

*Kiriwo starts his machine* - Why do I get the feeling something bad’s about to happen…?

Could you possibly call this “rank is the most important thing” a study of class consciousness, to throw some of Anime Feminist’s words? Or maybe this is a fantasy version of technology and it’s extolling the virtues of technology advancement?! *eyes sparkle*

Can Iruma join Kiriwo already? Please?!

Aw, dear darling! (<- I’m not sure if I’ve said that a lot in these notes, but I say that when I get the warm fuzzies and wanna protect a character…basically, platonic love, I guess…? Oh, “moe instinct” - that’s the words I’m looking for.) Iruma, go and live your best life, okay?

Thank you, story! Even though I knew it was being foreshadowed so heavily by being the focus of basically 24 minutes of this show’s runtime (= about 1 ep), I thank you from the bottom of my heart that Iruma went to the right Battler.

Wait, so Ameri is actually Iruma’s senpai by one year?! Hmm? I never realised that and I read some spoilers!

I like this new chibi animation style! Yay!

I never noticed this until now, but Kiriwo has one big horn and one little one.

I think the title, aside from the pronunciation of “Thirteen Dinner”, is meant to mean “The Thirteen Counts’ Gathering” (or some other high rank) or something of the sort. Update: So I checked and the character used, kanmuri/kan, is used to mean “crown” or someone who wears a crown, i.e. a peerless person, so it would be appropriate to translate that using the term for a high rank which is presumably going to be stated in the segment itself.

Turns out Babel…is just makaitou (the demon world tower). I don’t think it’s really Babylonian in any strict sense.

Depending on where you live, the 665th floor could count as the 666th or…well, the 665th. I know in Japanese, the word for the floor on the ground is ikkai (first floor)…I’m not going to tell you what I know it as though…that would reveal my location outside cyberspace, no?

According to the katakana, the guy’s name is Beruzebyuto (hence the translation as “Beelzebuth”). Beelzebub is the Lord of the Flies and a quick google tells me Beelzebul (close enough) was apparently an alternate spelling for him (or something like that…?). Patron demon of gluttony.

Astaroth, also a demon (king of rot, I think it was from Blue Exorcist)…interestingly, Beelzebub, Lucifer and Astaroth make up an unholy trio and all of them were referred to by a dude called...Solomon (which does kinda sound like “Sullivan”, if you think about it). There’s the connection between these guys…I like his top, too.

Asmodeus, patron demon of lust. We already knew that demon was represented through Azz-Azz, but now you see a spoiler I’ve been hiding for a while – Azz’s mother.

Amaimon…uh, I don’t remember what kind of demon he is in the demonic canon but I know him from Blue Exorcist.

Behemoth…?

Ooh, Ameri’s father is smokin’ hot! (Dangit, I do not want DILFs…) Azazel, a fallen angel and apparently personification of uncleanliness(…?)

Belial and (Lady) Leviathan, which we already knew existed from initial namedrops.

Who’s Baal? Even I have no idea…Update: Apparently he’s a Middle Eastern equivalent to Zeus, which explains his thunder allegiance.

Paimon kinda looks like Chaika, LOL.

LOL, “lifehack” is certainly the right word for it, Sullivan.

LOL, Belial is so short!

Although it’s kind of awkward to not see Lady Levi take a position of power for herself, it’s nice to see she has spirit!

Aw, this is cute. In much the same way I wanted Iruma to join the magical apparatus Battler, I want Sullivan to be Demon King.

Is Opera perhaps related to Ameri somehow…?

Somali 1

I was hoping to get to Plunderer, but got carried away writing another post and then lost the ability to watch both episode 1 and 2 ahead of schedule. So Somali is the new start of the season, but the last relic of the fact Plunderer was meant to start my season (outside ID: Invaded’s advance premiere) is the visual I have for this season. (Oh yeah, one of the reasons I’m supporting this – aside from it being a mid-ranker on my hype list – is that I heard a French animator, a friend of Thomas Romain, is getting his big start here.)

“Dad.” – Oh, f***. I have myself an Usagi Drop. I knew I was going to get something of the sort going into this show, but…Usagi Drop’s experiences (or rather, watching the anime knowing the manga has that ending) have left their mark. Not to mention Somali (as this girl will come to be known) has Latina eyes, which annoys me even more since I dropped that on the basis of being scarred by Usagi Drop.

I’m wondering what Crunchyroll was thinking when they decided to coproduce this – sure, it’s probably quite cute and wholesome, but I’m far from the target audience. Did they think, “Is this what Western audiences will like?” Sure, it would hit a niche that likes this surrogate father/daughter stuff, but I don’t think it’s for me (and I’ve been thinking that all through the OP). I’ll give it a bit more to wow me, but it’s doing pretty terrible so far (because note all other anime of this particular reputation I’m more on the “neutral” side than the “like” one). Somali’s voice is probably the biggest factor – it sounds like an adult woman’s voice got pitch-shifted to attempt to be a child, rather than an actual child.

How can this golem talk about sight when he doesn’t even have eyes??? (Kinda like Juzo from NGL.)

Alright, that’s it. I can see when you’re trying to bait me with supposedly “cute” children, show. You’re gone.

Okay, since I have time and the reviews say otherwise, I’m trying again. I don’t expect to be sold to this though…

Was it just me or was there a reduced frame rate when Somali’s cape was the only thing in the frame…?

For some reason the subbers put “Why?” when the word was actually “What?”, which is a bit silly to be honest with you. (Nande?/Doushite? vs. Nani?...it’s kind of similar-sounding, but the sound is distinctly different.)

Still dropping this show. I just have another episode to add to my list now.

Magia Record 1

I heard there’s no Urobutcher this time around, but the first time I encountered the Urobutcher (in ConRevo) he made a particularly weird-feeling (in the context of the show) episode, so…uh…let’s say the Urobutcher is only as good as the material he writes, and leave it at that. Anyways, this topped my list – even before ID: Invaded came to hunt down that top position – so this better be good.

Um, am I just imagining it, or is that Sayaka and Hitomi discussing magical girls (or Madoka?) over the top of Iroha (I know that’s her name already from the synopses floating around the ‘net) and her fellow magical girls fighting?

Letterboxing? Now there’s something I thought I’d never see in Madoka Magica, ever.

One of the books was on organic recipes.

The teacher talks a tad too fast – I can understand what she’s saying, but it’s like she operates on x1.5 speed compared to the x1 speed of everything else…

“Nakama – because we can do it” – I wonder if that will mean something later…? In Madoka Magica, strange details always mean something.

“The only good witch is a dead one!” “Speech is silver, silence is golden.”– The tiny English isn’t particularly subtle, is it?

Uwasa = rumour.

Takarazaki, huh? I’ll make a note of that.

Who’s Ui?

According to the credits, I assume the blue spear girl is Nanami Yachiyo.

This is a respectable re-entry into a universe which I left not too long ago (in 2017). I’m definitely going to be able to stick with it for a season or however long it lasts.

BnHA 75

All this talk about a database…reminds me of the Quirk I designed for the wiki (also called “Database”). I conceived it in 2015, but I don’t remember who was meant to use it before I retrofitted it to fit the BnHA universe. Update: Welp, I found the document. The superpower Database (which was retrofitted to be a Quirk) is for one Itsuki Hatano.

“One blow to the top of the head!”

Iruma-kun 14

(Note: Some notes may be missing because I was busy multitasking while watching this episode.)

Go, Iruma! Live your best life!

Note “speak of the devil” isn’t how it’s said in Japanese. It sounds something like “whisper a rumour and it will come back to you” based on what I heard Kiriwo say (since I heard the word uwasa in there). Update: Apparently the phrase is uwasa wo sureba… (if you spead a rumour…) and then you cut the saying off to finish the rest of the sentence, just like you would in English.

You can’t even see a substantial part of Iruma’s hair when that demon on the phone (<-I know who it is, because I read spoilers, but I’ll keep quiet on that front!) yells for the first time.

Makura (demon pillow) has that demon pun going on.

Ooh, Kiriwo-senpai is actully kinda sexy with his hair up like that…not that I know the first thing about sex appeal…

So is the ED about the Battler Party, in a sense?

Eizouken 1

I picked this show up because of the rave reviews it was getting.

Very Future Boy Conan, that.

…what? That OP was trippy. Then again, I didn’t mind ConRevo and that was trippy…this negative feeling is probably because I don’t know much about Masaki Yuasa’s quirks, I guess.

Why do people not translate “Eizouken”???? It means “video research club”.

The back is a good spot to sit in a theatre for anime. Why do I know this? I sit in the back of my anime club all the time, that’s why!

“Are those MiBs?” – I laughed pretty hard at that one sentence.

Why does this strawberry milk seem to be a parallel to the milk Asakusa promised Kanamori? (P.S. Asakusa is in Tokyo, IIRC.) Update: Mizusaki means “on top of water” if I understood the kanji right and Kanamori, with the right combo of characters, can mean “forest of gold”...which makes a lot of sense, considering how gold is equated with wealth and currency. Also, here’s proof Asakusa is in Tokyo...not to mention it’s the place from Sarazanmai! Meanwhile, I was thinking there was some sort of anime-related significance to the name, but I was thinking of Asagaya. Update 2: Mizusaki actually means “water peninsula”. Sorry, wrong saki.

I know there’s a chase scene at the end of this ep, thanks to reading reviews. I want to be wowed by it, which is why I’m (metaphorically) holding my breath.

I like how Asakusa and Mizusaki are bouncing around ideas. That really brings the process to life.

Long skirts and wind but no sexualisation. That’s a good sign!

Whoa, that scene with the comets was AWESOME! I want more!

Idolish7 s2 1

Back with some good boys one season too early…let’s have some fun while these simulcasters can get this stuff fast!

Oh no! (<- self-censored) Nagi’s stupid accent is back! *yells incoherently for a second*

I like the little sound effects that happened whe Nagi’s finger moved around (to suggest “magic”).

I think the joke was something to do with the word gera (?). I don’t quite get it myself.

Misuta- Shimooka, LOL. I love how this s2 isn’t doing any hand-holding, though! I half-expect a flashback to appear and it never does.

Yamato, how are you so-*crying and Yatta! can be heard in the background*Okay, nevvvvvvvvvver mind…

I remember mistakenly saying that Nishiyama was part of Idolish7 (since I looked through some of my old notes lately). Nishiyama is part of ZOOL, so now…I’m not wrong anymore…(That’s not quite relevant to the random announcement of Re:Vale showing up, but it’s on my mind now.)

Hmm…Yamato’s thoughts on Re:Vale…I’ll keep an eye on him.

I think people like Tamaki because he treats them like he would his little sister…a true gentleman. Or maybe that’s all in my head? I haven’t been in the fandom properly, y’know.

This switch to occasional chibi antics…I’m not sure I like it…

Ohmyglob! Another boy to add to my growing list of husbandos! *points at Yuki* I knew he existed, but I haven’t had a proper chance to have a reaction to him ever since I started really “having a thing” for long-haired guys.

Re:Vale are like a comic act (manzai).

Momo has pink nail polish…I just noticed. Update: It’s probably more red than pink.

“Chan-momo” appears to be a variety of modern slang similar to Pig Latin. Apparently Gen from Dr Stone uses it as well.

Yuki has these cute little diamond earrings and Momo has studs. I’ve also never noticed this until now. (I, myself, can’t wear anything past clip-ons because I have a genetic quirk that makes it annoying to get my ears pierced, called beta thalassemia, so I can only fangirl about other people’s earrings.)

What’s the FSC again…?

Kyu-to aidoru!

I think Momo and Yuki are going to reach out to Mitsuki and Tamaki (respectively) most this season…just a feeling, based on their dispositions. Tamaki and Yuki have similar faces, on top of that, so thank goodness we can tell them apart by hairstyle.

Yuki wears this steel blue shade of nail polish…ooh, also cute.

*Riku goes stiff-faced* - *audibly facepalms at Riku’s reaction*

Momo has a black and green earring set on one ear…huh.

Ooh, very nice. It’s a keeper.

Update: Apparently, you pronounce their name “Re:ba-re”, which is a bit different to what I was expecting (essentially “Re: veil”).

#simulcast commentary #mairimashita! iruma-kun #Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun #boku no hero academia #My Hero Academia #Idolish7 #Chesarka watches BnHA #Chesarka watches MI-k #Chesarka watches Idolish7 #Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!#Eizouken ni wa Te wo Dasu na!#somali and the forest spirit #Somali to Mori no Kamisama #Idolish7 Second Beat!#Magia Record #magia record: puella magi madoka magica side story #Chesarka watches Magia Record #Chesarka watches Eizouken

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cosmiciaria · 6 years ago

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World of Final Fantasy Review! (Spoiler free)

I know the game is pretty old by now. It was released in October, 2016, before Final Fantasy XV wrecked the fandom. I've always wanted to give it a shot, but the apparent light-hearted approach didn't suit me well – so I waited for a decent discount in PSN, and I finally managed to get it in my hands! Disclaimer: this is a review of the vanilla version of the game. Saw there's a big expansion adding quite a a lot of stuff, including gameplay mechanics, so… either way, the game is quite enjoyable as it is, I don't deem an expansion necessary in my case to make me like the game more.

So yes, this is a GUD game. Even GUDER than I'd thought it would be. Like REALLY. Real good.

I'm not explaining myself. You see, this game seems made for younger generations. It was the result of the 30th Square Enix Anniversary, and it's the cocktail boiling in the cauldron every Final Fantasy fan wanted to have. It's a crossover, it's the perfect fanfiction across all the universes we've learned to love and care in this franchise. It's a love letter to fans, and I want to stress this idea, because… this game is great, is awesome, is moving, but only if you're an FF fan.

I mean, you'll still enjoy it for what it is, but… there are a thousand nods and references to the previous FF games that you won't get if you at least are not familiar with their premises. I, for instance, haven't played many of the mainline FF, including I, II, V and XI. I knew about their characters and some of its most characteristic thingies (like Gilgamesh being from FFV), so I still could get some of the references, but it's not the same.

It's not the same, because, like I said, this game is a love letter to fans. And it shows.

But – wait, are those chibis? Is this a children's game? What are you talking about? I know it's hard to take chibis seriously, but hear me out – this game is more serious than it seems at first sight. I expected nothing but RPG tropes and I did get many of those, but DUDE (pun intended) did I had a great (TRAGIC) time with those twists and turns!

So we follow Lann, a fifteen year old ginger boy who goes to work at his usual café. He doesn't seem to notice the Pokémon – I mean, the Mirage on his head, a cute white little fox that seems to defy the laws of gravity by gripping to his hair. In the café, Lann meets Enna Kros, a mysterious woman who asks for a very sugary coffee. Minutes later, we meet our other protagonist, Reynn, Lann's twin sister, who crashes into the place to tell her brother that there's nobody anywhere. Lann is like, hey, there's this woman over here, but truth be told… the neighborhood is empty.

So this woman, Enna Kros, introduces herself and tells them that she's a goddess of some sort (her nature is, eh, well, never fully explained and that's fine). She reveals they are in a place called Nine Wood Hills, a land that looks like it's stuck in time and space. Lann and Reynn had forgotten what the hell they're doing there, or who their parents were, or anything, so Enna Kros gives them (or more like, reminds them of) the Prismariums: the ability to imprism Mirages, like the little fox I mentioned, and bend them to their will. The purpose, she says, is to catch as many Mirages as they can, across Grymoire, the world she's the goddess of, and collect memories about their past. Then the little fox is introduced as Tama, a very important Mirage that is going to accompany the twins for the rest of the journey.

Off they go to Grymoire, and this is where the crossover starts: here people are tiny (chibis) called Lilikins; Reynn and Lann remain normally proportioned (Jiants), but they can turn into Lilikins whenever they want. Jiants had disappeared from this world a hundred years prior, so the twins kind of attract everyone's attention. This only feeds the mystery that shrouds this pair.

Grymoire is full of towns, regions and dungeons. Across all these places, the twins will irremediably come across the chibis we all know and love: the FF characters. Their storylines are so well intertwined that you forget that they belong to an original game, for their personalities and backgrounds fit this story very well. We have a Bahamutian Federation who's conquering everything in its stride, except for a few kingdoms that still fight against it. The League of S, the resistance group, wants to recruit as many people as they can, and it's up to the twins to help this insurgence grow. But this is not everything: it seems that in the Federation there's a prophecy, a Crimson Prophecy, that foretells the arrival of two Jiants twins who are Mirage Keepers…

The story gets more and more complex, until it reaches a point where I couldn't believe my eyes. And this was a game for "children"! But I won't spoil it for you. Instead, let's talk about the gameplay first!

I said Pokémon earlier – It's the closest approximation and I'm not lying. If you wanna be the very best, you gotta catch 'em all. Mirages will appear as your ordinary enemies in dungeons, and every first time you encounter one, Enna Kros will give you a new prismarium to imprism them in it. But to do this, you first have to create a prismunity: a chance that leaves the Mirage vulnerable to the imprism. This prisminuty is quite easy to achieve in the early levels, but they get more and more difficult and specific to attain as you progress. Each Mirage has an ability tree to develop, in which you'll spend SP points, and most Mirages have also evolutions (is it Pokémon enough yet??) that you'll be unlocking once the requirements are met.

Catching Mirages is not everything, though. Mirages are actually useful: you can equip them. Since we don't have equipment or ability tree for the twins, the Mirages are our only source of power, so their stats and their abilities become our own when we fight. Each twin in Jiant form can 'stack' on their heads a Medium and Small size Mirage, and in Lilikin form, they can stack on a Large Mirage and still have one Small Mirage on their heads. The stack becomes your shield in battle, and at first it looks ridiculous, but once you understand how it works, you can create MAGIC out of its mechanics. Careful because the tower you form can topple and your Mirages can fall from your character's head in a quite funny animation.

Twins don't have ability trees, I said. Well, that's partially true. You see, in the ability trees of the Mirages, every now and then you can come across a Mirajewel: this is the equivalent of a skill card in the Persona franchise – meaning that you can equip that Mirajewel into Lann or Reynn as you please. The Mirajewel doesn't lock to just one character, you can switch it between the twins as you like. The slots for these Mirajewels take a while to unlock, though, and it's related to the twins's levels.

Battles are your good old friend turn base combat. And it's great. IT'S GREAT. Like really. They can STILL do this and it's still loved, I don't know why people say that turn base combat is outdated and old fashioned. It's pretty slow paced, but fear not, because there's an ACCELERATOR button that lets you fast forward battles. Isn't it convenient? In fact, everything in this game is so convenient it makes me wanna cry: you wanna leave the dungeon? No prob, just use this unlimited teleport stone; wanna change your Mirages for others? Never fear, you have a save point every half hour. You wanna fast travel to this place? Nine Wood Hills got it covered for you. You're not enjoying this minigame? You can skip it and still advance in the main story! You kinda not dig this new menu we created for this game? Try the old style FF menu and play like you did in the old FF titles!

Really. Everything is there for you, at your disposal. The option to choose how and when you play is available, and it's kind of heart-warming they did this. I just wish every new FF could work like this one, on terms of gameplay! This game is SO Final Fantasy that I wanna cry a river.

Alright! Too much gameplay. What about characters?

Lann and Reynn are just hilarious. Their interactions are natural and casual: they truly make us believe they're twin brother and sister who deeply care for each other. Each of them has their own quirks, like Lann being quite slow, always saying "dude!" and protecting his sister at all costs; and Reynn being determined, direct and fearless, but also hiding her nervousness behind blurting trivia into the void whenever things seem to get nasty. There's one particular funny scene in the game where Reynn is angry with a Cactuar and she wants to, basically, punch it to death, which she can't, because Cactuars have their agility skyrocketed to high heaven more or less, and her hysteria is so relatable that you want to get yourself inside the screen and pat her on the head.

On that note, voice actors for the main protagonists were a delight. I was kind of surprised to discover that the guy who voices Lann also voices Shiro from Voltron: I couldn't recognize my favorite gay spaceship leader anywhere in this upbeat character, but there were moments where Lann became serious and angry, and damn, did that Shirogane emerge! All the other FF characters that we know have their original actors returning –not only that, but also we hear some characters from the older FF games that had never ever had, in any other media, voices. I swear my control almost fell to the floor when I heard Vivi f*cking SPEAK.

The FF characters remain in their personalities and they're never out of character. They bring about a thousand references from their original games, that are not forced at all. The script is clever enough to blend these moments inside the main story in such a way that you never see them coming, and more than once I was at the verge of tears, specially with Tidus and Yuna who belong to, I may very well say it now, my favorite Final Fantasy game (Oh I never wrote a review for FFX, even though I played like six times). I won't tell you, just play the game and discover these scenes for yourself. They make the game ten times more loveable. There are also instances of 4th wall breaking so beware yourself for a good laughter. Read the Mirage's Manual, I fully recommend it.

The game has all the RPG tropes you can ask for: the mandatory ice, fire and water levels, the really really bad guy you can tell he's bad because of his demoniac appearance bad villain bad oh bad he's bad because reasons, treasure chests, chocobos, cactuars, tomberris, flans, malboro menaces and anything you can expect from an FF game. But this isn't a copycat of previous installments. Towards the second half the game shows its true colors and we're faced with an original story, with huge twists that left me open mouthed, and you forget about the first few hours of the game that seemed taken straight out of any other FF, because, you know it, honk's got real. (Oh, btw, Lann used 'honk' every time he should've used the f-word, it was so funny, once he says 'shut the honk up' I'm cryinggG)

On the music department, I just couldn't really get into it. There were some boss fights that caught my attention but that's all there is to it. Nine Wood Hills background music gets under your skin after a while of continually listening to it, and sometimes it plays during important sequences, so I guess it's the most memorable piece of music. On the other hand, we have remixes of all those FF's themes we liked so much that play during certain characters' arcs and they may bring more than one tear to players' eyes (I did NOT cry when Suteki Da Ne started playing I did NOT). Visuals are nice and all – you can tell it had less production than, let's say, FFXV, its contemporary companion in release dates, but damn, some places were vivid and realistic! And lighting and shadows were real enough! And who cares about an anime appearance or chibi characters when everything SHINES and the story is good either way!

This game made me for some reason ship Cloud with absolutely everyone? What the honk?

All in all, this is a Final Fantasy game in all its glory, and it shines bright in many aspects I believe it was done even better than most of the newest games in the mainline. I just wished it had a more 'independent' story, in the sense of what I first mentioned: that this is a game for fans, that the experience would be very different if you haven't played the majority of the FF titles (and even some spin offs!). Still, the main story holds up well and at the end of the day, the main characters are the twins, not Cloud or Squall.

I do have one or two tiny complaints: there are some FF titles vanished to oblivion in this vanilla version. Firion from FFII only appears in the expansion and Balthier from FFXII, although he is a free dlc, he's not part of the story and he doesn't even have a page in the people's compendium, his appearance being the only silent presence of that title in the game. Also there's something spoilerish I wasn't really fond of – I'm just gonna say, without revealing anything, that I don't like how certain character was handled. And no, I'm not speaking about the masked woman. Anyway, that's all I can complain about, actually.

I think credit must be given where credit is due. And this game is due a lot of credit. For its amazing gameplay, giving us a taste of what we've been asking for years, and for the good use of the Extrauniverse to weave this story for us. Interactions between characters are a delight because of how well written they are. And there's a lot of post game content so, here I go, the route to platinum!

If you enjoy FF, then you'll love this game.

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waystobuild-blog · 6 years ago

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RWBY- Shopping Daze

I didn’t expect to upload anything else this week, but this is an idea I had for a while and just decided to go with it. So, I hope you enjoy this.

Think of this as like a RWBY chibi sketch. It’s jokey and funny.

Oscar Pine sighed as he looked at the clothing store before him.

“Really, shopping?” Oscar asked aloud.

“Of course.” Ozpin answered within his mind. “You truly are a real huntsman now so of course you’re going to need some new threads to go with it.”

“Threads?”

“Oh, is that not what the kids are saying these days? What about duds?”

“Um… no.”

“Well no matter. The point is clothes make the man and with our triumph back at Haven Academy, you’re definitely deserving of some new clothes.”

“If you say so…”

Quickly, they went into the clothing store and picked out a few outfits that both of them insisted on.

Soon, they were in the fitting room and began trying on outfits.

The first one was one that Ozpin insisted on. It was a dark suit with a green scarf that sat nicely around his neck along with tiny glasses that rested on his nose.

“There. Don’t you look dashing, Oscar?” A triumphant Ozpin asked.

Oscar sighed. “This is just what you wore in your last life…”

“What…? Really?” Ozpin so obviously lied.

“Yes!”

“No, it isn’t.”

“I’ve seen pictures of you!”

“Really?”

“Yes!”

“Well… how did this happen?”

“You know for someone who lies so much, you’re bad at it.”

“Oh fine. Let’s tryone of the others.”

Now Oscar was dressed in even worse farm clothes complete with overalls, a dirtied shirt and was even barefoot.

Oscar put his hands on his hips with a smile.

“Now this is what I’m talking about!”

“You must be joking.”

“What? This is great.”

“No, it really isn’t.”

“Sure it is! Cousin Joseph wore this stuff all the time and he was the coolest guy back on the farm!”

“Yes, sure. But out here you look like rubbish. Please change.”

“Aw… come on.”

“You’re barefoot. We could trip over Jaune’s self-esteem and die like this.”

Oscar sighed, but complied.

They tried on the next outfit and Oscar had to lift up the hole in the helmet so he could see.

“No.”

“Why not, Oscar?”

“There is nothing fashionable about this.”

“but I wore it all the time back in the middle ages.”

“Yeah? Well no one does now.”

“So?”

“So where does someone find a green suit of armor in the middle of a Hot Topic?!”

“Well…”

“Next!”

This time, Oscar had a nearly identical version of Ruby’s old outfit only opting to go with long black pants instead of a skirt.

“Oh, this is pathetic.” Ozpin deadpanned.

“What’s wrong with this?”

“It screams desperation.”

“No, it doesn’t…”

“Really?”

“Sure. Ruby is just a friend who I happen to admire and wanted to show that.”

“This is not the way and please, my presence makes your silly crush rather awkward and undesirable.”

“You’ve been through your teens hundreds of times. Isn’t that all weird high school romances?”

“Touché.”

“Alright, what do you suppose we do then?”

“How about we pick something out we agree on and hope for the best.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

So the two did just that, eventually deciding on an outfit that they could both at least tolerate.

When they got to the checkout counter, the shopkeeper asked them an important question. “Do you always talk to yourself when you’re changing?”

“Perfect.” Ozpin practically grinned. “Tell this old hag to watch his mouth and know who he is-”

“Yeah…” Oscar sighed, cutting him off. “Sometimes I can be pretty annoying when no one asked me to speak!”

“Rude!”

“Right…” The shopkeeper nodded. “anyway, that’ll be eighty Lien.”

“Right…”

“I don’t have any money…” He whispered.

“hm… true.” Ozpin noted. “Not to worry, I have this.”

“Oscar, I told you that my cane holds a special place in my heart, correct?”

“Yeah, you told Ruby that it’s not a relic.”

“It’s even better than a relic. Please, turn the handle to the right three times, left four and right twice.”

“Okay…”

Oscar did so and when he did, the glass on top of the cane popped open to which a radiant golden light streamed out, forcing everyone to cover their eyes.

When the light finally cleared and they could look again, Oscar’s eyes widened in shock, surprise and delight at what he saw.

Hovering just a little bit above the exposed glass was a solid gold credit card as an angelic harmony sang from nowhere in particular thanks to the incredible musical stylings of Jeff Williams.

“Wow…” Oscar gaped.

“Mr. Pine, as my new host, I bestow upon you the single most powerful item in the world of Remnant: My credit card. It is armed with poorly misplaced trust, government funds, the Beacon Academy tuition fees and however much Ironwood thinks he donates towards the fight against Salem but is actually just my hot cocoa account. I drink a lot of expensive, exotic hot chocolate.”

“It’s beautiful… C-can I touch it?”

“It is yours now.”

Smiling, Oscar took the card and happily swiped.

~Shopping Daze~

Back at Beacon, Salem’s crew was absolutely bored. Ever since the Battle of Haven Academy and the loss of the relic, they hadn’t really had anything to do.

For this reason, that’s how Emerald was still crying in her chair, Arthur was fiddling around with his custom scroll, Salem was glaring into her crystal ball and the rest of the guys were playing Go Fish.

“So…” Mercury asked. “Got any twos, Tyrian?”

Tyrian, who was hiding his face behind his cards slowly looked up from them revealing a great big Cheshire grin on his face. He let out a little chuckle. “Hehehe… do I have any twos? Ohohoho… Do I have any twos he asks me. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA…”

And with that, the chuckles slowly rose to cackles and then great guffaws.

“Shut up!” Mercury shouted. “We’ve been doing this for two hours and every single time you make any sort of play you just keep doing that! You know what, I quit! You and Hazel have fun playing!”

At that, Mercury got up and stormed off to the head of the table where Salem was still glaring angrily at the silver ball.

“Yo, what’s up, Sal?”

“First, do not call me that, insect.”

Mercury sheepishly held his hands up in defense.

“Second of all, I am trying to find Ozpin’s crew. The Grimm between Haven and Atlas haven’t spotted them yet and I am growing frustrated.”

“Maybe they’re on a train.”

“Don’t be stupid, the story’s much more fun if they go on foot.”

“Whatever.” Mercury rolled his eyes.

He then poked the crystal ball, to which Salem hissed. “Don’t touch that!”

“You got any movies on this thing? I’m think of watching The Room…”

Salem was about to snap at him only for the crystal ball to let out a loud alarm in the room.

Salem, pushed Mercury away and nearly, broke the ball getting herself up close and personal with it. “Ozpin just used his credit card! Finally! Hazel, go and get the Grimm Ozpin is-”

She looked only to see a cartoonish puff of smoke and cards scattered around the ground where he used to be.

“Yeah, he left the moment you said Oz.” Mercury quipped.

~Shopping Daze~

Oscar came out of the store carrying shopping bags (one of which had a few boxes of expensive chocolate, hot chocolate mix and milk curtesy of General James Ironwood), eating a triple scoop and whistling a happy tune. This was actually a pretty great day now that he had Ozpin’s dirty secret money. Nothing could go wrong.

“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

He looked up from his cone only to drop it at what he saw. A mess of Grimm of ridiculous shapes and sizes stood in a circle outside of the shopping mall and sitting atop a dragon Grimm was none other than, Hazel freshly dusted and ready to be a hypocritical child murderer.

“What the fu-“

“Oh yeah… I forgot Salem had tabs on that card.”

“Now you tell me?” Oscar asked as he threw aside the shopping bags and pulled out his cane.

“No worries, you’re a true huntsman now. We’ll take them on, together!”

And with that, Oscar ran into the fray.

#rwby #Ozpin #rwby ozpin #Oscar Pine #rwby oscar #fanfiction #fanfic #oneshot

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vengelogan1979-blog · 6 years ago

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I saw at least one Amazon review from another person saying they did the same thing.They work by blocking androgen (male hormone) production, so I guess it stands to reason that if they mess with your hormones that effectively, there may be other unexpected side effects :(justsobored 2 points submitted 2 years agoI am the poster and I agree you should be careful with supplements and make sure to not overdose and look out for unexpected side effects. I personally only used half the recommended dosage when I took the supplements (I took one capsule daily, where two was recommended on the package). I haven experienced any side effects but YMMV. Place a piece of tape vertically on the middle of your forehead from your scalp to the area between your eyebrows. Move it to the outside corners 영월출장마사지 of your eyes, across the apple of each cheek and above your lip. Press gently in each spot, leave it for a few seconds, and carefully remove. In almost every conceivable way he is the wrong person to send, except one he is honest. Landing in the Haitian capital Port au Prince, Romesh sets to work getting to grips with a country that arguably more than any other has suffered from a bad reputation. Guided by his host Peabody award winning journalist Jeremy Dupin Rom throws himself into Haitian life. Not me but my sister, I never let her live this down. We were poor and didn have many groceries, so for lunch I was frying some potatoes in a ton of butter (margarine). I was hyping the food up to my siblings, telling them these were about to the the best fries they ever tasted, etc., to lessen the impact of how little food there was.. I just started a new birth control in January for my hormonal acne called Gianvi (has the same hormones as Yaz), I don't have any experience with ortho tri cyclen, but I'm really glad I started this new birth control. I've been taking birth control since 2015 and have tried three different kinds, this was the first one that worked for clearing up my face. As long as you take it around the same time 영월출장마사지 every day, you shouldn't get irregular periods or spotting. Is another simple one, they need a diverse build tree that has 10 15 styles of play but takes hundreds of hours to max out, look at WoW again. You can tailor yourself as you want, now the negative to this is that there will always be the strongest build, but if they are smart enough to have a strong build for damage, then one for surviving, then one for support and finally one for maneuvering. This would go a long way.. It's always worth a chat. No B vitamin is going to help with N. It'll only really help if you're deficient in that particular B.. I think my skin type is oily/dehydrated, but it calmed down a bit either I got a regular skin regimen or just due to getting a little older. Basically my skin gets oily after a couple hours, but powdering results in my skin looking crusty at the end of the day despite the oiliness. Honestly I just given up fighting against the oil and lightly powder my cheeks around my nose.. 7 points submitted 1 year agoThis isn a question since any question I like to ask could only be answered with what surely is spoiler material for future volumes, I just want to thank you for the show. It a lot of time, energy, passion, dedication and thought that went (and is still going) into it and, though some vocal minority never seem to be happy, a lot of us love your work with all our hearts. You brought us something we crazy about and we looking forward to each installment, whether it be new volumes, chibis, manga, or whatever else you have in store for us.So yeah, thank you.

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lythbounddrama · 2 years ago

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My brain still hurts from the update. I’m just really baffled they thought the new species had anything special enough to be added, so since I’m kinda huffy let me rant a little bit.

Too many of these species just look like a different kind of Nitpicki, and I didn’t even like those to begin with. Their lore? Honestly laughably vague. (Like most of em but they don’t even have any particular intrigue)

Fabremon? Boring, we already have “inorganic species made with magic” with a bunch of companions. In concept they’re too similar to fuwa bozu and in design they’re basically just “small animal in hood”. Their lore? Weirdly not about them? It mentions how Faerilees went to war with chaotic forces and how fallen Allies would be resurrected to fight their friends in monstrous plush bodies, and like, huh??? Absolutely NOTHING on the Faerilee page mentions this shit but here it all is on the Fabremon one! Oh but don’t worry, Fabremon aren’t actually those things, they’re just recreations of that genuinely awful concept using purified gemstones that put a (still sometimes unwilling???) soul into their body! How charming. /s No but really who invented them, because you’d think the Faerilees would, I dunno, hate that???

Speaking of Faerilees, you can really tell this is a species geared towards Minka’s cutesie style because they have zero substance outside of that. Supposedly born from dandelions, their baby forms are fluffy puffs, but they do not have anything to do with dandelions in their design after that. Unlike that weirdly dark mention in the Fabremon page, their own origin is just this fluffy 3 sentences about a child making a wish.

I didn’t realize Galibytes were primates until I read the page. They look, again, like a Nitpicki. I’m really not sure how magic works in Lyth because apparently even though they have cores, they can’t do magic. Cool, glad we’re throwing out another consistent through-line. Glad nobody gets to know whether lyth has consistent worldbuilding or not. (Well, they have magic I guess, they just have so little that they can’t do shit with it) Also? Can I just say? I hate how they name individual species specific magic energy because it’s just dumb terms like “magnet” or “photo”. Personal pet peeve but it just feels so lazy to me because they sound ridiculous. Also why slime…why are they made of slime… “born from a puddle of specialized primordial soup” tells me fucking nothing. They’re apparently not even from lyth, so did they bring their weird soup with them after their world DIED apparently?

Moving on because I realize I’m rambling too long. I think Veela look like companions. They’re so small and simple and they legitimately wild be considered “simple characters” based on the submission guideline’s silly “too chibi means not a fullbody anymore!” Rule. Like, just go look at it. And another good vs evil war species story? Write. Something. More. Interesting. I swear to the gods. It’s just the Haenym lore but worse, because everyone just flat out forgets why they’re fighting. Fun.

Lastly the new companion, Atenilee. It’s a shame it’s the most Lythian like design introduced despite being a companion. They’re apparently artificially made (like literally made of metal or material) which of course you’d never be able to tell anyways. They’ve even got funny subspecies that I do think are cute. Oh well, guess it would be kinda weird if essentially robots were characters of their own.

Bottom line is that I don’t like any of the new lythians and wish they’d just at least make them more interesting or something. Or better yet? Make what species they already had more content already. I have zero hope for anything not made by a staff member shoving in their own creations will ever get more content because I’m starting to believe that Jack’s got no motivation to work on this shit on his own, and staff’s motivation to work on their own self serving content is the only reason they have content at all.

Thanks for letting me get that off my chest, I’m not actually as annoyed as I probably sound. I just think lyth could be waaaay more fun for more people so easily and they’re just, not doing that. And the fact that it feels like they kinda don’t even care is why I’m upset really. Love my OCs and drawing them is fun, but clearly this group is more focused on their own fun (that they get paid for) than anything else.

Honestly? I'm not sure they even cared about the lore of any of their species to begin with. The new species' lore certainly feels very out of place. And I've never liked Lyth's magic system to begin with because it's....not even a magic system. It's just 'Magic exists' and that's it.

Too many of the species added this year look like they could be subspecies of already existing species.

~Mod Zebra

#mod post #lythbound

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timeisacephalopod · 6 years ago

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4, 5, 6, 7, 13, 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 30

Dang, prepare for word count because I never keep these things short and that’s a lot of questions lol.

4) What is your favourite genre to write for?

Urban fantasy hands down. I love worldbuilding, it gives me an opportunity to stretch my creative abilities and I know I’m doing a good job when readers A- buy what I’ve written and B- comment with how grounded it feels. Sci-fi is another genre I love that’s a close second as far as loves go.

5) If you had to choose a favourite out of all of your multi chaptered stories, which would it be and why?

Sum of Our Parts. I sometimes reread my works (its a good exercise to find where you need to improve as a writer and also sometimes I want to read the concept I’ve written so I’ll come back to it when it’s not so fresh). Anyways this story is subtle in its message in a way I’m near incapable of doing. As a person I’m blunt, and I also did schooling in a subject that encourages bluntness and harsh analysis (like most academia really) so my writing tends to be pretty on the nose. Not necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes subtlety works better.

Anyways this story utilizes subtleties I didn’t realize I was capable of writing and actually has a pretty decent plot (I hate plot, I’m fucking allergic to it, I prefer character driven over plot). I have others that have done significantly better with readers but this particular story, to me, is impressive in its world building and in the way the themes were conveyed naturally.

6) If you had to delete one of your stories and never speak of it again, which would it be and why?

The first few stories I ever posted on AO3. Shit is cringey. I was just getting the hang of writing, didn’t have a set style yet, and also I hadn’t gotten a good grip on characters. So the stuff was bad flat out. Its a space I had to go through to get to where I am now, but yikes that stuff is... not good.

7) When is your preferred time to write?

My preferred time to do anything is at night lmao. I function better at night, I’m sharper and more aware. I am a night owl in an early bird world and I resent it.

13) Who is your least favourite character to write for? Why?

I don’t necessarily have a least fav, but I do have characters that are difficult to write. Wanda Maximoff for example is one of those though World War Me had an entire arc for her- but I don’t write her a lot so her characterization can be hard to grasp (and also she’s a whiny brat in canon, which is sometimes painful to watch because she has so much potential). I have a few characters like that from the MCU, but I don’t necessarily have a least fav so much as characters I just don’t care for writing for whatever reason.

21) Tell me about another writer(s) who you admire? What is it about them that you admire?

For fanfic writers I’m very fond of @tsuki-chibi. I don’t necessarily care for age play (not hate to it!), but I LOVE her writing style and characterizations. I think her style is unique, dynamic, and interesting- From You I Cannot Hide is one of my fav fanfics ever. The way she explores relationships and character dynamics is always a delight to read. I highly recommend, especially if you like age play (non sexual)- that’s sort of chibi’s thing lol.

As for a published author Ellen Hopkins. I recently went back to her books and fuck me are they good. I could never write like Hopkins- she’s gritty, real, and her characters are so heartbreakingly fucked up. Her stories are incredible and all written in narrative poetry, which is a style that has a ton of restrictions but wow does Hopkins make the most of it. I never read stories from an author and like every single book but Hopkins is the exception to that rule. I highly recommend her stuff but be warned, there are always really fucked up dark themes in her stories.

22) Do you have a story that you look back on and cringe when you reread it?

Most stuff I wrote when I first got into fanfic. As I said earlier they’re all bad, necessary for me to have learned, but bad. I rarely feel this way about things I’ve written recently (I can’t think of anything) but there’s usually something I’d change. That’s pretty standard. However lets be glad that shit I wrote as a fourteen year old is in a landfill somewhere, where it fucking belongs. You want cringey, that shit was crying tears of blood cringey.

23) Do you prefer listening to music when you’re writing or do you need silence?

Depends on what I’m writing. Usually I have the TV on for background noise unless I want heavy concentration, then its silent. However if I’m writing BDSM (weird caveat I know) I’ll listen to classical music. Usually that also plays into what I’m writing (sometimes I’ll include the music I listened to in my author’s notes for audience benefit), but it also helps to set the tone and the mood for what I want in that situation.

Basically this is a long winded way of saying it depends lol.

28) What is something you wished you’d known before you started posting fanfiction?

To be honest I think most of what I wish I’d known revolves around how to write but that only comes from writing more so like... that’s unavoidable and not really posting related specifically. Though I still wish I came more prepared to handle concrit- I know I’m bad with it and I always try not to be an ass regardless, but it always feels so personal when I know logically the person is trying to help. This is also because I have anxiety issues, but you know, it would have been helpful to have a better method of dealing before posting. Though none of my early work ever really got bad press (not necessarily of the concrit variety)- that goes to my newer stuff for some reason and there’s been a bit of an uptake of it in the last 8 months or so, which is strange. Point is I wish I was better at handling concrit but that’s all on me.

29) Do you have a story that you feel doesn’t get as much love as you’d like?

I already mentioned Sum of Our Parts- it really should get more love. Sometimes I write crack stuff (like How Tony Stark Got Three Kids and a Romance) and that takes off in a big way, and then sometimes I write stuff I put effort into and get a half a cricket chirp. But yes, this particular fic is one that I’m exceptionally fond of and wish got more love. It even has a real plot!

30) In contrast to 29 is there a story which gets lots of love which you kinda eye roll at?

Its not really a specific fic, but when I post crack stuff sometimes there’s a huge response to it rather than stuff I put effort into and I’m like ??? Bois, why? Granted a good laugh is a nice break from reality so I get it, but sometimes I have to wonder what the shit is going on lol.

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ellana-ravenwood · 7 years ago

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Each tattoo is a story - Batmom x Batfamily

Good idea. I wrote it in the very short free time I had available today, hope it’s still ok, and that you guys will like it :

You can find my masterlist here : @ella-ravenwood-archives

_________________________________________________

It’s Tim, who wondered about it first.

You guys were all coming home from a (rare and peaceful) day at the beach, when he noticed it. And curiosity got the best of him.

Of course, you’ve always had a lot of tattoos even before you became his mother. It was so normal for him, so part of...You, that he never even wondered once what they meant.

Until that day.

Until he noticed a small symbol on your ankle, surrounded by bigger designs that attracted all the attention. And it surprised him so much, that he just had to ask you. He resisted the urge to ask you right away, thinking it was none of his business but...it was too much now. He couldn’t stop himself. And as all the family is helping Alfred putting away their beach stuff, Tim cracks.

You noticed him staring at you for a while now, so you were expecting a somewhat personal question (which never bothered you, why would you have secrets for your own family ?). But nothing really prepared you for what he was about to ask :

-Mom...Why do you have Superman’s symbol tattooed on your ankle ?

Bruce freezes. Your other boys are suddenly very attentive, and Alfred...Oh bless Alfred, he couldn’t help but smile because he thought that the way Bruce tensed up each time the word “Superman” was uttered was just the cutest (they all knew by now, that you and Clark used to date).

Your husband turns toward you and, his brow furrowing, asks :

-...You have a Superman symbol tattooed on your ankle ? I never noticed...

-You should have had, you often kiss it when we...

-OH PLEASE MOTHER ! No details about anything regarding your intimacy with father please. Just tell us why you have a Superman tattoo...Please.

You chuckle a bit at your youngest son’s comment, but your gaze doesn’t leave Bruce’s, and you smile at him...it’s not a mocking smile, far from it, and he relaxes. You’re not going to tease him about Clark once again (ever since he discovered you had a thing with him, one of your favorite past time was to make comments about it, just to provoke a reaction in him...and oh a reaction it provoked each time alright...a very nice and pleasurable reaction you might say).

But you’re in no mood to tease him on the subject, especially since you had such a pleasant day and you just don’t want to ruin it by making him grumpy (even though he never stays grumpy very long once you manage to get some time just you and him). Besides, you can see it kinda disturbs him that he never noticed this particular tattoos...He thought he knew your body by heart ! And yes, he did kiss your ankles more than once so...why did he never notice it ? If you could read his mind you’d tell him that maybe, he was always a bit too busy to actually pay attention to that minuscule tattoo.

To be honest, you’re quite surprised Tim saw it...Bruce was right. That boy really was the most observant and smartest you’ve ever met. You were pretty sure that he even surpassed his father in that area and...the fact he noticed that tattoo while Bruce had your ankles right in his face more than once proves it (oh the number of time your ankles ended up on his shoulders, and he turned his face to kiss it as he pumped into you...well, come to think of it, maybe that’s why he never noticed indeed, you guys were always quite busy when your ankles were close to his face...).

You smile at your sons and you say :

-It’s just because Clark has been an important part of my life, and still is. He’s one of my best friend. Just friend dear, don’t make that face.

They can’t help it, they can’t help but snickering at their father’s reaction, this little “jealous face” he always make, where his nose and mouth crease.

But, what you just said about this tattoo makes Tim think and he asks :

-Do all your tattoos mean something ?

You give him an enigmatic smile and nod. And you just know they’re going to ask you what they all mean.

************

And that’s how you all end up in the main living room at the manor, with you in a sport bra and shorts, explaining what every piece of art means on your body.

The bat’s meaning on your collar bone is obvious. You don’t even have to talk about it. So are the four little bird following it.

The huge piece you have on your back, that seems abstract...actually isn’t. It’s the blueprints of your birth place, The Narrows, one of Gotham’s poorest and most dangerous neighborhood. You got it tattooed when you turned 18, it was your first tattoo, and you got it in honor of your parents who were murdered, and of your brothers who unfortunately hung out with the wrong people and got killed in a drug bust...You also got it tattooed to remember where you’re coming from. So that no matter where you’d go, you’d always know that the Narrows were printed into you. That it was just part of you.

Your arms were bare, when Bruce first met you, and Dick even remembers that he saw you with tattooed less arms too...And yes. Yes it makes sense because...Your arms are dedicated to your sons.

The little circus on your bicep is for Dick, when the official adoption papers were signed. Below the circus is written a date, the day Dick Grayson officially became your son, and next to the date are little symbols that do not seem to make any sense...That is until you explain that, when Dick arrived home, a lost little 8 years old boy, he was just so shy. And to communicate with him, you’d draw things. Like, yourself smiling and hugging him...and slowly but surely, he warmed up to you. Hugging you for real, calling you “mom”...but when you still communicated only through drawings, he drew things for you and...you got them tattooed on your skin.

Those symbols meant something, and just showed how bad at art Dick used to be. They was a heart that looked like an apple. A house or...maybe a gift ? There was a stick figure...dancing ? And the face of a character smiling.

Dick tried his hardest not to cry at the thought that you got tattooed on your skin those silly drawings he made for you...and the memories of how amazing you’ve always been to him were almost too much.

On your forearms, there was a tire less car and...oh that was about Jason for sure. It was an aston martin (one of Bruce’s favorite car...you couldn’t really get the bat mobile tattooed) and it missed all its tires. Below that, there was a silhouette of a boy wearing a hoodie, with a comic bubble that read : “Haha gotta run faster old man”. Bruce wasn’t amused (but deep down, he thought it was extremely cute).

The two tombstones on your other bicep didn’t need any explanation either...and the little arrows below them that pointed to a two bright star design didn’t either. Every thing was symbolizing Jason’s and Damian’s death, and the stars were them coming back to you.

You had a small coffee cup on your wrist. For Tim of course. Next to the coffee cup was written “X 9324″ and your family couldn’t help but laugh at your accurate portrayal of the number of coffee cups your son drunk. There was also a little computer, and a “sleep is for the weak”.

You had a lot of arabic things written on your arms too and Damian almost teared up when he realized they were things he told you that you loved...Things he told you that came straight from his heart.

You had each of them drawn as Robins. Dick being the biggest one, blue. Then Jason, red. Tim, yellow. And finally, Damian, green.

Above your elbow was a drawing of Damian and Tim drawn Chibi style, and they were fighting. Above was a very exasperated Dick, and a “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT” Jason and they all burst out laughing when they realized that those little characters on your arm, it was indeed definitely them. How did they never notice ? They were just so used to your tattoos...

And oh there was so many tattoos on your arms related to them...A staff, Dick’s two stick, a gun in a “stop” sign, their symbols, their date of birth, their favorite food (Jason got excited to see you tattooed some chicken drumsticks on you, he thought it was hilarious) etc etc...your arms were a canvas in honor of your children, and oh how touched they were by all of that.

Your legs had massive pieces on them. One leg was...just wonderful. A sort of abstract depiction of your relationship with Bruce. From the day you met at a charity event you organized (one to give easier access to books to poor population in Gotham) which was represented by books flying off at the start of your thigh, to your wedding, represented by a lot of colors (your super friend’s costume colors) and two rings, to when you adopted your children (four colorful dots tattooed with the aquarelle technique...one blue, one red, one yellow and one green). Everything was there. Even the way you were so sickeningly in love with each other, there was definitely your silhouette and his kissing...Gross.

Bruce’s heart beat wildly as he realizes you had an entire leg tattooed just for him...That it symbolized your life with him...And he never even wondered what all those things meant !

On your other legs you your favorite places in Gotham drawn. One of the park. The rooftops. The docks. It was just a lot of wonderful pieces about your favorite city in the World (though not many understood why you loved that place so much), and there, lost in the middle of all of it, was that superman tattoo...You told them it was one of your first one. You didn’t really expect to have that many tattoos.

Alfred full on cried when he saw that you had a “butler” drawn on your ribs, but hey, why wouldn’t you ? Alfred was such an important part of your life...You also had other things on your collar bone that didn’t have the bats and the birds, related to Alfred : a few tea cups, and a “sassy, butler is sassy” that made everyone laugh. The other side of your ribs were still bear, so was your stomach and belly in general, and you told them that, once another important event would occur, you’d draw something there too.

All of your tattoos had meanings. All of them. And you had too many to explain everything to them but...Now they knew.

They already knew how important they were in your life, but now even more than ever. You had your skin permanently changed with reminders of them...

Many hugs were exchanged, many laughs too as some of your tattoos were just based on very funny memories (like for example, you had a “R.I.P Sledges” with a broken red sledge representing all the sledges you broke with your sons over the many winters you all had together), and almost tears too, as some memories were painful, or just made them have happy tears.

************

You spend the entire day talking about your tattoos. And finally, you told them about everything and...satisfied their curiosity.

After kissing your cheek lovingly, your sons’ follow Alfred in the kitchen for their snacks ritual of the day (tea and crumpets...for real) and you’re left alone with your Bruce.

He comes closer to you and asks :

- What about the one you have...you know...between your thigh, right before your...

-I know which one you’re talking about Bruce, and this one ? It’s just a meaningless cute one.

You can see he doesn’t believe you, and as he narrows his eyes at you you just smile and can’t resist to laugh.

-Meaningless cute one uh ?

You nod, but you damn well know he won’t let go off this. And you also know what his technique to make you talk is...When the first tickle wave hit you, you are able to hold your laugh in but...Oh it’s always impossible. He knows all your sweetest spot. He knows where to touch you to make you beg for him to stop tickling you.

-I won’t stop until you tell me what’s that tattoo means !

-Fine HAHAHAHAHAHHA I’LLHAHAHAHAHAHA I’ll tell you !

And it stops. But he’s ready to start again if you don’t actually comply...You look at him and you say :

-It’s about my first time.

-Your first time ?

-Oh please, you know what I mean. The placement is pretty obvious really.

-I just wanted to hear you say it and...Wait, why is it a manta ray ?

You slyly smile at him and manage to slip away from his grasp, and can’t help but laugh loudly and run away when you hear him say :

-Don’t tell me your first was Aquaman !?

Fin.

_____________

Hope you liked it. Wrote this during my pause at work, so like in 5 minutes so if it feels rushed I’m very sorry. Hope it’s still fine.

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joyofcrime-elinorhigh · 6 years ago

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All My REVIEWS REVIEW: (2016 and 2017)

Review-ception!

Hello everybody, my name is JoyofCrimeArt and welcome to my first review of 2018! I guess you could call this season three? Which if we're going with that analogy that means that this and 2019 will be my best years of reviewing. And then it'll be all downhill from there, as I slowly fall into a rut of perceptual seasonal rot. So enjoy it while it last, damn it! It's insane to think that I've been doing this for almost two years. And as this dawned on me, I started to feel a bit...introspective. We've all look back at our past, sometimes with regret, other times with nostalgia. And we've all made mistakes that we are not proud of- EXCEPT FOR ME CAUSE I'M A FU*KING BEAST! -And I got to thinking about my past works, my old reviews, and began to wonder if they actually still hold up. It had been forever since I had actually reread some of those older ones. And that's what we're going to be doing here today. Because what kind of critic would I be if I couldn't take criticism myself? And since they say that "you are your toughest critic" I figured it be good to see if I could take what I've spent the last two years dishing out. Here's how this is going to work. I will be looking at all twenty two of my past reviews, and give my BRIEF thoughts on each of them, as well as possibly give some context on where my mindset was when I was writing them. Think of this like a directors commentary of sorts! However, any multi-part reviews will be counted as one for the sake of convince and time. So really it's closer to eighteen reviews. Also, obviously, this review will be sort of a companion piece to those reviews, so might wanna read those reviews first. But with that all said, let's jump right in and start at the beginning, with my first ever Deviant Art review... Powerpuff Girls 2016 REVIEW Part 1: (04-14-16) Powerpuff Girls 2016 REVIEW Part 2: (05-02-16) Powerpuff Girls 2016 REVIEW Part 3: (05-19-16) So I wanna explain where my mindset was with this review, and what inspired me to start reviewing in the first place. If you remember back in early 2016 EVERYBODY in the cartoon reviewing community was going on and on about this show. Everybody was hating on it and bashing it, even before the show had premiered. Saying that it was going to suck. I was cautiously excited for the reboot, excited at the idea of the Powerpuff Girl's becoming a spanning franchise in the same way as Batman or Ninja Turtles where. If this show turned out well, Powerpuff could become a cartoon that's remade every decade or so, and people could watch and experience it for decades to come. And when you're in the minority opinion, and you see everybody just bashing the thing that you are super excited about, it can be a bit discouraging. When the show actually premiered I thought it was...okay. And the problems I did have with it weren't the problems that everybody else had. But as more and more videos came out from popular cartoon reviewers, I decided that I wanted to write a review in order to release all my pent up thoughts and frustrations. So yeah, my reviews weren't made because of a love and passion for reviewing and animation, but out of BITTERNESS AND HATE! Re-reading the reviews, They weren't AS bad as I thought it would be, though there is very much a "pilot" type of vibe to it. There's no videos or images like my future reviews would have and it's kinda light on actual jokes. There's a part in this review where I said that Craig McCracken gave his blessing for the show, we now know that isn't the case. But at the time that's what Tom Kenny said. And I don't want to change it because I believe that it's important not to try to undo past flaws and mistakes. I also feel like I was too nice in the review looking back on it now. I don't know if it's just my opinion changing or just me wanting to extenuate the shows positives because oh how much everyone else was extenuating it's negatives but if I wrote this today I wouldn't be so kind. I said the show was meh but now I think it is a bad show. I just don't think it's the "end of CN" like so many people were saying at the time. But regardless I feel like I still stand by a lot of my points I made in the review. I still don't care about the memes, or the change in crew and voice cast. I'm upset by writing and lack of action and comedy that made the old show great. And I still hope that CN will give Powerpuff another try sometime down the line, and give it the reboot it deserves. But I had a lot of fun making this review, and it would inspire me to make many more in the future. So I guess Powerpuff 2016 changed my life for the better.... Steven Universe Hit the Diamond REVIEW: (06-16-16) Honestly...I think this one really holds up. You can easily tell that this review set the trend for what my reviews ended up becoming overall. Images and videos where added, there's a really good balance of both comedy and analysis. My intro was introduced (yeah, I didn't realize this till now but the Powerpuff Girls reviews didn't have my typical intro.) And it started the Lapis "This plan sucks" meme. A bit of background, originally this wasn't going to be my fourth review. I was going to review the CN short program "Mixels" because somebody had asked if I had. But after watching through it I just...had nothing to say on it. Then I saw this episode and impediment got re-inspired. I remember writing the whole review in just two or three days, it was all very impromptu. Overall I'm proud of this one, and I think it would be a good "first review to read" kind of thing to introduce someone to my reviewing style. I'm not sorry for that RWBY Chibi joke by the way. It was my finest moment. Don't Hug Me I'm Scared REVIEW: (08-22-16) "So that's my review of Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared (Hopefully it didn't come off as too rambly and fanboy-y)" Well too bad past me, because it totally did. Okay, to be fair, this review isn't THAT bad. Not as bad as I remembered it being, but still not one of my best in my opinion. Part of it has to do with the topic. DHMIS is a hard series to summarize and explain, and that's kinda the point of it. But I still feel like I could of done a better job describing it. The problem is a lack of structure, and the whole thing comes off as kinda rambling and confusing. Especially if you were a newcomer who had never heard of the series prior to my review. I feel like I did a better job talking about the production side of the series than I did talking about the plot and characters. During this time I feel like I really struggled with purely positive reviews. I feel like a lot of them just came off as, like I said, rambly and fanboy-y. That's why I did so many "so bad it's good" movies and episodes in my first year of reviewing. I feel like if I had given it another draft it could of been a lot better, but what are you going to do. Camp Camp REVIEW: (09-24-16) I remember this review being a bad one, but after rereading it, It's nowhere near as bad as I remembered. It's far from one of my best review and a lot of the problems I had in regards to doing positive reviews are still present thought. (Over-explaining things, a bit fan boyish at parts.) Overall though, it's not a BAD review, just a very "average" one. The only noticeable things about this review in particular is that 1.) It's my first review where I had links at the bottom to other reviews and 2.) it's the only review to my knowledge that actually convinced somebody to watch the show they probably wouldn't have watched otherwise. And that really means a lot to me, cause that's a huge part of why I even do this. To introduce people to things that they will hopefully really enjoy. So in that regard I can't look upon this review THAT harshly. Scary Godmother: Halloween Spooktacular REVIEW: (10-24-16) "Anyway, then we Jimmy appear on top on a tombstone dressed in his devil pajamas," Yes past me, "Then we Jimmy appear" indeed. SERIOUSLY WHY DO ANY OF YOU WATCH ME- When it comes to my reviews there are two main types. There's the one's that are deep analysis, often based on series that I feel very passionate about. These reviews are made with the purpose of introducing people to these underrated series with the hope the reader will check out the series, and hopefully be as impacted by ir as I was. And then there are the reviews where it's just like "Ha! This is stupid. Let's make fun of this direct to TV movie intended for five year olds, lol." This is one of those reviews. A problem I do have with this review other than grammar is that there are several moments where I kinda explain the jokes that are in a movie. And I don't do a very good job at explaining them because I lake the context surrounding the jokes. If I made the review today I probably would wanna cut some of those lines out. The review is also noticeably longer than the others up to this point, so that's something. I never did end up reviewing the sequel like I said I would...at least not YE- Ouran High School Host Club REVIEW: (12-09-16) So for some background here, I started watching the series really early in the year and decided I wanted to review it. However, the series took me a long time to finish, like almost six months from what I can recall. Which is odd because the show only has 26 episodes. But this was a very busy time for me, with me getting my first part time job, my family moving, and having to work on my comics on a weekly schedule. By the time I had finished this show, while I did enjoy the show a lot, I had kinda burned out about the idea of doing a review of it. But I didn't want all the material I had already worked on to go to waste, so I decided to just kinda muscle through it, and I think you can kinda feel that in the review. There are still plenty of jokes in it that I'm proud of, but there are also some flaws with it. I wish I was a bit quicker in terms of summing up the cast, as that takes up almost half of the review itself. I also feel like the review doesn't have the best "flow." to it, if that makes sense. It kinda feels like I'm just jumping from point to point. But it was my first Deviant-cember review, and my first anime review. So two big milestones there! Frosty Returns REVIEW: (12-16-16) The most interesting thing about this review is that it's the to take a MASSIVE jump in total page view. It's weird, like why this one? I guess Frosty Returns is what my audience was secretly clamoring for? I think, this might have been when I started posting my reviews on the Mr. Enter deviant art page, so maybe that could explain it. But I'm not positive. Anyway, as this is another "make fun of something stupid" review and not a deep passion filled analysis. There's not much to really say about it. I really need to stop mentioning the good jokes in reviews like this, they don't translate very well when transcribed from special to script. Also it spoils all the best parts. I'M SORRY FOR SPOILING FROSTY RETURNS, I HOPE YOU ALL CAN FORGIVE ME! Also I remember getting very tired half way through this. It was my first time doing reviews back to back and I was really anticipating the "2016 Year in REVIEW." But I buckled through it regardless. I still need to review T.I and Tiny's Holiday Hustle by the way. Add it to the list! The Legend of Frosty the Snowman REVIEW: (12-23-16) By the time I had starting writing this review I was so tired of writing and so wanting to work on the yearly retrospect that it kinda felt like a chore to write. But like a chore, I'm glad I did it because I think it turned out pretty good. It's a good bit longer than my previous reviews, which was a pain at the time, but there are some good jokes in here. Nothing else really to add, except for the fact that I wanted to use this image in the review, but forgot until after I already published it.

I could give you context on what this image is...but is there any context that would justify it? 2016 Year in REVIEW: Part 1 (12-30-16) 2016 Year in REVIEW: Part 2 (12-31-16) "Getting mad at the year, an abstract concept, just feels...unproductive to me. It seem's like it's the wrong target to be directing all this anger at. Sometimes bad stuff just happens, and there's a good chance that by the end of 2017 we'll hate that year too. Because most of the bad stuff that happened in 2016...probably won't just go away come January 1st."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-VawFj4GRM

I got the idea to do this review probably half-way-ish through the year, and it was by far the review that I was most excited to work on. And honestly I think the yearly retrospects are, in general, the funnest reviews to work on. And good thing too because if It were any other review, I would probably be to tired and unmotivated to actually work on them. If I have one regret it would be the final ranking of the series. In hindsight I would swap RWBY Chibi and Camp Camp's rankings. Though this may just be a "hindsight is twenty twenty" thing, as I think Camp Camp improved with it's second season, while RWBY Chibi got a bit worse. These reviews where a lot of fun but also an exhausting experience. I had written five reviews, back to back, during the holidays, which each review becoming longer and longer. I was tired and started to feel a bit done by the time I was working on part two. (As originally it wasn't going to be a two parter. It just kinda ended up that way.) Also this was sorta the point where my reviews started getting longer. As righting five reviews in such a short amount of time naturally made me start writing more. Like how when one is put under intense physical training over a short period of time there bodies naturally adapt, and become stronger. It's like that, but with dumb cartoon articles. Top 10 Toonami Ad's of the [adult swim] Era: (03-20-17) As you can see, there was a bit of a gap between reviews here, for obvious reason. After Deviant-cember year one I was DONE with reviews for a long while. I needed a break. This might be one of the funniest reviews to do the research for. I sat down and watched ALL the eligible bumpers and ads in chronological order and it was great! I didn't even care that there where hundreds of ads to look over, I just had a blast! It was also my first top ten list! Top tens and top fives were always something I liked seeing other people do, but not something I often felt very comfortable doing. Not that I'm against them or anything, it's just that I have a hard time making them. I'm the type of guy who's exact opinions on things changes very often, and so it's hard for me to say "this thing is worse than this but better than this." I don't think that I could ever do a "Favorite Show of All Time" list or anything like that. I like so many different things for different reasons...I just don't think my brain is wired to work that way. So that's why whenever I DO make a ranking list, I try not to take the actual ranking that seriously, and just use it as an excuse to show off some stuff I like. However, despite this, there are some things about the review that I would change looking back on it. You can still see my struggles with doing a fully positive review. Like I said earlier, It took me a long while to learn how to do positive reviews without sounding rambly and fanboy-y. Also there's almost no jokes in this one. I don't think the lack of jokes in a review is NECESSARILY a bad thing, but I feel it kinda is in this case. Since I was covering such a niche topic, some humor might have made the review better, and give people who we're uninteresting in bumpers and Toonami something to latch on to. Oh well... Dragon Ball Super: Battle of Gods Arc REVIEW: (05-01-17) The first part of my Dragon Ball Super retrospective series, (Which, with the recent announcement of Super ending will now have a conclusion. I sort of assumed I'd be reviewing Super until I either died or stopped doing reviews, whichever came first.) This review had a lot less recapping than I remember it having and has a good amount of both comedy and analysis. (Probably because I had the whole "compare and contrast" element to it.) Overall a fairly good start to a retrospect. Other than that not much to say though. I'm also really proud of that "Godtube" joke. Like I know I used MS Paint, but I still think it's a really good edit. #humblebrag Samurai Jack Season Five REVIEW: (06-19-17) "In general I tend to be more critical and nit picky about things I like than things I hate." Does anybody else feel this way, or is it just a "me" thing? I'm genuinely curious. If there's something that this review made me realize is how quickly things come and go in the cartoon community. I was on a hiatus at the time the season ended so this review came out about a month later. And by that time it seemed like everybody had moved on from Samurai Jack for the most part. And I don't mean this as a way to complain about a lack of views or comments or anything. On the contrary the amount of views this review got seems to be on par with what they normally are and I think I actually got a bit more comments than I usually do. What I more mean is that while the season was running it was all anybody was talking about, and then once it ended nobody was discussing it. The "buzz" was gone so to speak, and it feels like that's what happens whenever a show isn't currently running or goes on break. The fandom burns bright but dies out fast, and that's kinda a shame. I feel like a lot of great shows don't get talked about as much as they should because there not quote unquote "relevant" and thus end up getting swept under the rug. As for the review part, this is one of my personal favorites. I really wanted to make sure I did the season justice, which is part of the reason it came out almost a month after the season ended. I wanted to let my feelings settle for a bit a see how I felt after I had time to think about it, rather than just having a gut reaction. (Though I'm not saying there isn't a place for stuff like that.) Also my first review with a title card! Title cards where something I always wanted to do but I was always afraid it would just be to time consuming, but now I think it's worth it, as I think it does add a bit of flair to the presentation. Also I've gotten a lot faster at making them. (The title card for this review was done in one evening for instance.) Watamote REVIEW: (Oh, the Cringe!) (08-14-17) This review was easily one of the hardest to make. I started watching the series in preparation for the review in FEBRUARY, and didn't finish it until SUMMER! (I don't have time to watch cartoons! I have cartoon reviews to work on!) At the time I was watching each episode twice, once alone and once with my brother, and I think that's what made me burn out on the series. That time period was also the time where I started my new job as well, so maybe that was also a factor. I guess it makes sense, but considering the show is one of my favorite cartoons of the decade and only TWELVE episodes long, I dunno, I figured I wouldn't have that kind of reaction to it. This review was suppose to be my fourteenth review. Then it was going to be my fifteenth review, until finally it ended up becoming my sixteenth. That's how long it took for me to finish the show episodes! So eventually I just bit the bullet and finished the dang show. Then came the problems of actually writing the show. Like I said before, I have a problem doing positive reviews without ending up ramble-y and fanboy-y, and so I REALLY wanted to make sure that it didn't happen this time. So I wrote THREE drafts of this review (prior to this I only did one draft.) I would go reread it and change things, reread it and change things... And I'm really proud of how it turned out. The beginning part has a few awkward lines, but overall I really am proud of how it turned out. This is really my first positive review that I really loved, and it has given me the confidence to do more reviews like that in the future. You don't need to just make fun of things and review the most bottom of the barrel stuff. You can make a review where you just talk about a series or show or movie that has a special place in you're heart without it being boring. I tend to prefer reviews where their is a balance of jokes and analysis, but you don't always need that. If you're talking about something you're passionate about, that passion will seep through to the viewer. Or at least that's how I feel. Dragon Ball Super: Resurrection 'F' Arc REVIEW: (9-18-17) I typically try to get the Dragon Ball Super reviews to come out roughly as the arcs finish on Toonami, but here I was a bit late, and by the time the review was finished the televised broadcast was already well into the Champa arc. As such, I kinda had to rush this review out in order to not fall even farther behind. And so my heart wasn't really into this review as much as it was with some of my other reviews. I still like how it turned out overall (I wouldn't publish a review if I wasn't proud of it at least a little.) but overall this feels like a review that's just kinda...there. I feel like to much of the review was just recapping the events of the arc, and it could of used more jokes or analysis to make it feel a bit less dry. This is also my first review with a title card drawn in FireAlpaca! That's right, I moved on from MS Paint! (At least with title cards.) Rick and Morty REVIEW: (With MiketheHuman113) (12-01-17) My first colab review! I had wanted to do a collab for a while, and at the time Mike was the person on the site that I knew the most about, and when I saw him post a list of all time favorite characters, and saw Rick as number two, I thought that he would be a good pic. Actually doing the review however was a bit of a challenge. I had to write my segments, send it to him via note, and then get his segments back and paste them into my journal in a way so that it sounded natural. Then I had to rewrite some of the transitions to make it all flow together. Why didn't you just use Google Docs?

...

NNNHHHHGGGGUUUUUU!!!!! Anyway, this was a topic that I wanted to get off my chest for the longest time, so I was very happy to finally do so. I do have some problems with the review though (None of which where on Mike's end BTW, just to be clear he was awesome.) I feel like there's a lot of jumping around with the points, and the review's overall flow suffers as a result. I also wished I hadn't jumped around so much from spoiler to non spoilers as much as I did, and if I were to redo the review now I think I would want to make them review more general and less focused on specific moments and episodes. That way it be easier to follow if you hadn't seen the show. I also wish that maybe it was a little shorter. It was my first time doing a collab, and I figured it be easier because I would only have to do half the work. But what ended up happening (and I blame my own workaholic-ness for this.) Is that I made a full length review, and then stuck Mike's contributions on top of it. So not only was the review long, but it wasn't any easier than a normal review. in fact it was probably harder. But I'm glad I did it. I was fun and I'd love to do more collabs in the future. However given the previously mentioned difficulty it'll probably only be a "once a year-ish" thing. But y'never know. Who do you think I should collab with? This was also the first time I made art for a review outside of the title card. In this case the Super Smash Bros style intro I did for Mike. I want to make those for everybody I do a collab with. Also I noticed that after this review, I began to be more noticed in the DA review community. Probably because Mike's in it, so I could leach off his audience. However, oddly enough, the views for this review are bellow average, so who knows. Dragon Ball Super: Champa Arc REVIEW: (12-08-17) HEY KIDS AT HOME, COUNT THE AMOUNT OF TIME I SAY THE WORD "MISSTEP" "OPPORTUNITY" AND OR "WASTE." I'LL GIVE YOU A HINT, IT'S WAY TO FRICKIN' MUCH!- There's also more spelling errors than normal. Overall I just blame the rush of Deviant-cember, and the fact that like in 2016, my heart was really set on the yearly recap instead of this. The review as a whole however, ironically, is kinda like the arc itself. It starts out kinda slow, with mostly recapping events. But as the review goes on it's get's a lot better, with more jokes and insightful analysis. Not much else to say about this one. Top 5 Obscure Christmas Specials You Should Watch: (12-15-17) I feel like there were some unprofessional moments in this review, mostly as a result o a time crunch to finish the review before the deadline. From not rewatching Nestor to tracing the Hawkmoth logo it feels a bit sloppy to me. (Even though I'm sure these are things that won't bother most other people.) I was in a bit of a rush for this part of deviant-cember as work and the holidays in general gave me less time to work on the reviews, in addition to the stuff that I was posting on Mondays. I wanted to succeed in my goal of doing two uploads a week during Deviant-cember since I failed to do so in 2016. However, I am glad that I was able to talk about so many weird specials, and I don't think that review suffers to much from the rush. When I was writing the review, I felt burnt out from reviews and just wanted to move on to the yearly recap, but looking back on it now, the review isn't really that bad. There are some good jokes in it and I love recommending obscure stuff to people. Maybe one day I'll do a part two. OH! And it turns out that "A Cranberry Christmas" IS lost media! It's the first piece of lost media that I watched before it got lost! WE NEED TO FIND THIS, GUYS! 2017 Year in REVIEW: Part 1 (12-22-17) 2017 Year in REVIEW: Part 2 (12-29-17) Most of the things that I said about my 2016 year in review could be said about these reviews, so I don't have much to add. Have I mentioned that I hate the "This year sucks" meme yet? It such a stupid thing, to hate on a year. And I worry that with our cynical society we live in that the "This year is awful" thing will go on until the end of time itself. 2017 was fine. 2016 was fine. Y'wanna know what year was really a dumpster fire. 1942. That's the year we entered the second World War, segregation was still a thing, and all the meme's sucked that year! It was awful! My only real regret about this review was using the word "hate boner" when talking about Castlevania's views on religion. I think the term "hate boner" is really dumb sounding and at the time of writing the review I didn't realize that people used the term so unironically. (No offense to people who do use the term. It' just a term I really don't like, personally. Just use the term "bias.") And that's it. ALL 22 of my reviews reviewed! Do I recommend...me? Well personally this JoyofCrimeArt guy does have his fair share of problems. He can come off as a bit fanboy-y and ramble-y at times. His reviews sometimes have weird pacing issues, jumping from point to point. While I enjoy how in-depth he can SOMETIMES be, they can be a bit long at points. Also he has a lot of unpopular opinions, and sometimes I wonder if he's just being contrarian. Not the mention the fact that, since the idiot thought that having THREE web comics running simultaneity at the same time was a good idea, he doesn't actually post reviews very often when compared to some of his reviewing counterparts. On the other hand though...there are some positives to the guy. He seems very passionate about the topics he talks about. He has an okay balance of analysis and comedy. And I also like how he talks about a variety of different stuff. From popular series, obscure series, anime, web series, direct to DVD movies, bumpers, HIS OWN REVIEWS. You never know what you're going to get. Is he the best reviewer on DA. Probably not. Heck, he's probably not even in the top fifteenth. But if you're willing to devote a half hour of you're time to reading one of his overly long reviews, who knows, you might just enjoy yourself. Or not. I dunno. So that was my review of my reviews. What are your thoughts about my thoughts about my thoughts. Leave those thoughts in the comments down below. I would love to exchange thoughts even if we don't have the same thoughts. Do you have a favorite or least favorite review of mine? I'd be genuinely curious to know. Please fav, follow, and comment if you like the review and have a great day. (I do not own any of the images or videos in this review all credit goes to there original owners.)

https://www.deviantart.com/joyofcrimeart/journal/All-My-REVIEWS-REVIEW-2016-and-2017-739596421 DA Link

#Reviews #cartoon reviews #animation reviews #meta #cartoon

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certidumbre · 8 years ago

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May’s AnimeStyle interview with YOI’s animation staff (part 2)

I shit you not, this will have three parts. Not one, not two, but THREE. It’s that long. The first part is here, now edited for length! Translated by /a/. Source.

Disclaimer: The anon puts letters in place of names, so here’s a handy key! H -> Hiramatsu S-> Shishido T -> Tatenaka I -> Itou A -> Abiko

(talking about how the work was divided) T: I worked on Yuuri's free skate and things, too. The truth is our roles were supposed to be divided so I'd work on Yurio and Abiko-san would work on Yuuri. A: Partway through, though, it just ended up being the case where if we had our hands free we'd work on whatever cuts we could. T: It was the same for people working on characters. We usually did meetings about things in a hurry, too, so there were times I'd forget. The cuts I was supposed to be working on would completely slip from my mind, and then later I'd get asked, "How's this cut coming along?" and I'd go, "GWAH!" I: Yeah, things like that happened (laughs) (skipping) I: We all had no idea how the other people's jobs were going, and so all we could do was try our best to get our own work done. T: We didn't even have the chance to ask what was going on for other people. Like if we wanted to ask "How's it going?" we wouldn't even get to finish the "how" in the question. I: Looking at the finished product, it's mysterious we were able to find some way to air it without any accidents. Each division found some way to keep things in check. A: Normally we'd know how we wanted to complete everything when we were checking over things because we'd have a grasp of the whole thing, but for YOI we had to do our work without knowing how anyone else was doing. H: Although it was still kind of incomplete, in the end we still did it somehow. It's kind of baffling. T: Maybe that's just because we're so amazing? Everyone: (laughs)

Interviewer: Itou-san, were the characters in YOI easy for you to draw? I: Yeah. I'm not really good at drawing the moe-style characters that are popular now or characters that have a balance too them that's really far from reality. I have a hard time keeping the balance right on characters where the head's the same size as their shoulders, or where the hands and feet are super tiny. It's definitely easier for me to draw characters that are a little closer to reality. H: For me, it was my first time working with all of these people on YOI, including Itou-san, so it kind of felt like I was going into production without having any clue about what kind of images she drew. Since she'd previously worked on "Kono Sekai no Katasumi Ni", I thought that she'd probably be fine drawing everyday imagery if she'd been working for director Katabuchi. It was only much later that I knew she was really good at drawing gag/chibi characters. I: That's right, I've lived this far always drawing SD characters. Ever since I did the blackboard scene from the first episode, every time we had a cut like that come up, all the work went to me. And on top of that, the director would put a couple of these special cuts in every episode. When I looked at the storyboards and thought, "Who's going to do this?", she was like, "It has to be you, right?" (laughs) In the end it'd all come to me.

Interviewer: The parts where the chibi characters explain things. I: That's right. And then at the spot where the Nishigori triplets are explaining things in their drawings. When I asked Sayo-san, "The storyboards say that it's storytelling through pictures, so what should I do for this?" she said, "You have no choice but to just really draw this with crayons." I went out and bought crayons and seriously drew it with them. S: There wasn't any other way. H: Since Sayo-san really likes to experiment. I: There are some cuts on a blackboard, but I really went out and bought a blackboard, drew the images on them one by one, took photos, and composited them. S: She drew them straight on the blackboard without any underdrawing/rough sketch and took photos with a still camera. I: Yeah, yeah. We took the photos in our meeting room. I should've taken a picture of how it looked. And on top of it, when I was reading through the storyboards for the blackboard parts, chibi characters of Yuuri and others appear, right? When I looked closely, it said "It should move in 2 or 3 images." In the end I would draw one picture, erase it, draw a similar picture again and have a picture taken, and repeat that a couple of times. H: Yeah, she did it that way. It would've been much easier to just draw it normally.

(about Yamamoto) S: Her talent is really amazing. As someone in the same position of directing, I have nothing but jealousy because she's such a bundle of talent. She has talent that I don't and the guts to shove other people into doing what she likes, or should I say that she really can't read the mood, but in a good way. I'm really envious of that.

Interviewer: Does she come across as being totally confident in the workplace? S: She's not like that at all. She actually comes across as being really reserved. T: But she's REALLY something else when it comes to pushing for something. S: Yeah. When it comes to something she likes, she'll go all out. She won't break. H: Up until now in my career, I'd maybe do the opening or ending or help a bit with the original production art, something like that, but this is the first time I've ever gotten really involved. If you're an animator, you might think it's impossible, but Sayo-san casually throws it out there, going, "At the least, this is what I want." We're thinking, "WHAT?" but we somehow manage to pull it off, which is funny. S: I really respect Yamamoto-san. If it were me I'd think maybe this is a little impossible, and compromise, but she doesn't know how to compromise, or at the least, she absolutely won't do it. It really makes me think that this is what a director should be.

Interviewer: What do the 2 of you think? What was your impression of the director? T: I want her to get to work a little faster... All: (laugh) H: This was your chance to praise her (laughs) T: Oh, is that so? I want her to start her engine like half a year earlier. H: The same could be said of me.

(when talking about the ED and how he only made small corrections here and there where asked to but left Hayashi-san's art alone otherwise.) H: This is unrelated, but I got a message from the director of Doukyuusei saying, "I bet you didn't make any alterations on the last shot in the ED." When I responded, "I didn't do any," I got told, "I can tell~." What's that about, "I can tell~"(laughs) I: Every time I watch the ending I really think, yeah, this is Hayashi-san's art, and when I see the opening I really think, this is Enoki-san's art. H: The message had the nuance of "Why didn't you fix it up?", but I replied that it's fine the way it is. Maybe it's because I have a stance like that that I'm not really suited for being an overall animation director. Interviewer: Right now it's mainstream to make every effort to have every shot of every episode look uniform. H: I don't really mind if things don't all look exactly the same.

Aki's twitter mentions how Yamamoto says her scheme to get Hiramatsu-san to draw sexy guys was a success but leaves off the next sentence, where Itou says Yamamoto told her that she'd had that plan in mind from the very start and it's why she hired Hiramatsu in the first place. Lady's got a dream. I: I think she probably liked your particular sense of distance from it, or how you don't try too hard to aim for what girls like in your designs. S: Ah, I totally get it. It's not overly concerned with the aesthetics. I like that they don't look too stylish. H: Sayo-san's interesting because she doesn't just totally go for what girls would want. And one of her merits is that she always seems like she's having fun. Even though there are times when I want to say, "This is no time to laugh!" Everyone: (laughs)

#yuri on ice #translations #sayo yamamoto #yuri katsuki

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roi-chan · 8 years ago

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I rlly love your art style,,, do you have any drawing tips for a beginner orz

THROWS MY DINNER TO THE SIDE, THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT, I AM VERY PASSIONATE ABOUT THIS KINDA ADVICE HSDKJFHSDF-!!

Ok, first all! I’ve been drawing a very long time for I am past being a Young Adult and now am a full blown adult, lols! When I was first learning to draw, I didn’t even have a computer in my home- that was fancy business man.

That being said, I quickly figured out why beginners can get disenchanted really easily (and how, I, too, fell into that disenchantment after a few years of drawing).

First, never compare yourself to others. This is so stupidly hard, and it can crush you easily. Especially to those much younger than you, and are beyond what you consider your skill level. People are being exposed to amazing creative ideas at younger and younger ages, and are inspired by that. Keeping up with what feels like the entire world is difficult.

Instead of seeing other people’s art and being crushed that you may never be as good, ask yourself, what is it I like so much about this art? You have admit, some artists just stick out to you. It’s a matter of preference. There’s some artists who I love their art style, some for their coloring style. Figuring out what you love about art pieces can help you develop you creative voice!

For example, in a more broad scale, my lowest interest is in color. It’s why my pictures tend to be clean cut and boring. Because that’s my jam. I love dynamic styles and poses tho! Nobody told me this tho, so it took me years to realize that’s was my interest and to start developing in that aspect. Now that I’m happier with my dynamics, poses, that sort of thing, I’m slowly pushing towards color!

Just. Please. Remember that, above all else. You can always learn and practice anatomy, backgrounds, styles, but strengthening the heart for always feeling overlooked, under appreciated and not good enough takes a long time.

But for literal art tips!

To be honest, I started with fanart. Sailor Moon, Hamtaro, Powerpuff Girls, Zoids, Tenchi Muyo!... ya, them oldschool Toonami shows lol!!

It helped me because I had a set character design to work with. I had something to compare to. “If I draw her legs longer, it’ll look better!”

I’m not kidding. I used to record Sailor Moon episodes on my VCR, pause frames, and draw them lol! But when I got a strong enough foundation, I started drawing my own original fanart! That gave me the confidence to push past redraws of frames and making even original characters! ^_^

And don’t worry if you have troubles with certain areas of the body. Honestly, I worked so hard on drawing faces and hair. That was my favorite- especially eyes. Slowly, I’d draw more of the body as the months went on!

Don’t try to bite off more than you can chew, basically. Don’t feel pressured to make every piece a flamboyant, full body treasure. Half bodies just mean you can put extra love into the details, right~?

Oh, oh! And don’t always feel like you gotta push your boundaries! If you like drawing girls in lacy dresses but are bad at drawing boys, well god dammit, draw them girls! It’s what you enjoy. When you feel up to the challenge, try the dude.

Pushing yourself too much, too hard, just ends with a lot of bitter feelings.

On that topic of learning how to draw things! Tutorials are great! Don’t be afraid to be picky about them tho. Some tutorials just aren’t made in a way that teaches you well. It’s no different than a teacher- some teaching styles just aren’t for you. Don’t feel bad, just keep looking for the ones that make you go “Ohhhhh!!”

Bouncing back to something I said up there! ^ This might sound mean, but also look for things you dislike in others’ art. For example, I’m very particular about chibis. I hate when they have pointed chins, most of the time it’s not very cute to my eye. It’s all a matter of opinion! You gotta take notes of what you like and dislike, it’s all part of growing! You aren’t being mean. Unless you purposely go out of your way to tell the artist what you dislike and that’s it, then I hope you lose your tablet pen. :(

Don’t toss things! I started with traditional art, and I have a lot of art from as far back as 2003! They are embarrassing reminders of your newbie days, but to compare what you did then versus now is incredible! Be proud of the smallest of growths, because you’re even just a decimal point better than what you were yesterday!

One other thing. The people that have grown in this generation tend to be shyer than previously before. Even as recently as yesterday, I was looking down at my own art. But then I saw this ask in my inbox and it made something click.

You just never know how many people actually enjoy your art. There’s so much that goes into it. Not just how well the art is drawn, but the concepts, aspects, detail, love you put into it. People can see that, a point of view that’s obscured from the artist’s sight because we see it from our mind’s eye. What we envisioned versus what we spat out on paper.

I know this isn’t a very helpful ask in term of literal drawing tips. ;;; But these are things I wish somebody told me, it’d have saved me from a world of heartache over never being good enough.

Art is one of the many things that can be learned- by anybody. It’s up to your determination, creativity, and your unique view on how you see the world and showing us, the audience, how the things that have inspired you became your unique, creative voice!

It can be a slow process.

It can be a painful process.

Sometimes it’s like taking 1 step forward, 3 steps back.

All you have to do is take a step back and look at it from a different angle. All art is art, regardless of how much time or effort you put into it. And you know what? I can’t tell you how many times I hated something I worked on, saved it, and a few days or weeks later I reopen to it to realize... it’s actually not bad. I’m just being hard on myself.

For those days, just sketch. Loose, scribbly drawings! Or maybe try new things. Buildings. Interior shots. Nature. Animals. A new style. Anything!

Just remember. It’s okay to feel discouraged, it’s okay to feel proud. Remember that art is never a perfected ability- but something you are always growing and learning. But never, ever, give up!

Giving up is absolutely the only 100% way to never get better at art.

And lastly, thank you, anon! This is a well timed ask, because I needed to hear these words, too. I have renewed determination! ^_^ I’m honored to hear such words. ;;;;

So, good luck, anon! I believe in you!

#roi asks #FUCK MY FOOD GOT COLD BUT IT WAS WORTH IT #im sorry im rly passionate about this kinda stuff #DHFHJDSF BUT GOSHI FEEL THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT?#nobody ever talks about the mental aspect for a beginner man dhsfkjdhsf #OR AT LEAST I PLACE PRIORITY OVER IT #my advice for all beginners #Anonymous

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ohnohetaliasues · 8 years ago

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Okata Mizaiya

(Kat)

I found an ENORMOUS Mary sue.

She’s not even a country.

Let’s begin.

Okata is a fan made character for the anime Hetalia. She is a short pure blood Japanese girl (in terms of her human side) who is the last of her people.

She belongs to a late race of humans who had perfectly balanced mix of human and wolf blood. Her people used to live in Aokigahara before being wiped out by early British poachers.

Uh. For one, Aokigahara is the Suicide Forest, and has always been a forest. There is no record of any sort of civilization ever living there, much less British poachers killing said civilization.

Also, she’s a wolf girl?

It is there that she raises her pack of wolves. The myth of werewolves seems to be based off of her people, though the details are pretty far from accurate and a bit rude. During the World Wars, she is titled completely neutral, though she did participate for WWII. She has been made an official prefecture in Japan till the day that she is able to rebuild her population.

Which prefecture?

Aokigahara is a forest. It has never been a prefecture.

Also, how did she rebuild her population if she’s the last of her kind?

Personality

She is shy to other nations, but is very brave when it comes to protecting her friends. Due to her young appearance, she tends to do things rather cutely unintentionally. She is open to other cultures (AKA cultures other than Japanese), so long as the nation/country does not outright mentally scar her at first.

But she’s a random wolf girl who was made an unnamed prefecture.

I don’t understand.

She is very strong considering how small she is. She is very respectful and does not speak unless she is bothered by something that is spoken or is spoken to directly. She is very much an otaku and does her best not to weird others out with her fantasies.

She has a weak spot for her wolves, which she has come to raise. Her rather modern yet traditional home is set in Aokigahara where she lives in comfortable solitude.

I’d assume not, as Aokigahara is one of the most popular suicide spots in Japan.

It has seen its share of clean and messy days, meaning that her cleanliness varies on what she is doing during the day. She prefers modesty to looks. She acts more like a tomboy than a female most of the time. However, she is very self-conscious when it comes to her breasts as they are very flat.

*Small.

When near bustier women, she will most likely be facing away and patting her "nonexistent' ones.

I didn’t need to know that.

she never goes a day without at least one cup of tea. She tries to avoid as much conflict as possible and tends to be on everyone's side.

That’s impossible.

She is very particular of people and considers first impressions vital to how she herself will respond to others. "How a person acts around a complete stranger gives insight to how they treat those that are closer to them."

That was unimportant.

While her people lived...

She was an excellent leader and very protective of the young and elderly. When her people were threatened, she was ferocious and merciless, giving her the nickname "Mother Bear" from Kumajirou when he witnesses her defending the nations with vigor.

Why was Kumajirou in Aokigahara?

When she was young, she turned to the elders for guidance and when she herself became elder, she earnestly shared her knowledge. She was filled with energy even when she began to feel the pains of old age. She was a bubbly alpha who led her people well and her people respected and loved her. She desired and respected honor in battle and chivalry was foremost in her mind.

After her people died...

Her happy bubble was shattered when the last of her people died. While she still had her wolves to lead, her leadership skills took a noticeable plunge. At the same time, her protective nature became much more prominent as well as a growing sense of paranoia. It was during this time that she put assassination skills into practice. A policy of kill before you are killed replaced her chivalry. She developed a distrust in humans and refuses to go anywhere without a weapon on her person. She has become more serious and more withholding of her people's history and culture. Now she tends to be more like an old hermit, but still goes out when need be.

I am very confused.

Interests

She loves the cold and hates heat, many times retreating to a cave during the summer.

I hate heat too. There’s a reason winter is my favorite season.

She can be bribed with only one kind of chocolate, but which kind you must figure out yourself.

Why is it always chocolate?

This being said, she is actually very loyal to those she cares about to the point where she cannot be bribed even by her favorite treat. While she is part wolf and chocolate should be poisonous in a sense to her, her human half takes care of the issue well.

Then why does she eat it?

Since the fall of her people, she had lived in perfect isolation with her pack of wolves. She picked up swordsmithing when she was still young and is secretly the best swordsmith in Japan.

Mary sueeee.

She is an excellent craftsman and huntress as these were the trade of her people. Sadly she despairs in the lack of artistic ability on paper. She tailors almost all of her clothing from scratch.

Her literal only flaw is that she can’t draw.

Hey, that rhymed!

Abilities

Though not a technical ability, Okata boasts amazing agility and flexibility. Her battle style is based purely on dashing in to deal multiple hits before dashing back out to avoid getting hit. She has mentioned that if her legs were to be injured then she would lose her all worth in battle. To her, endurance and stamina are two different things. "Endurance is what keeps you standing. Stamina is how long you can keep battling."

Uh... okay?

Echo Sketch

Being the wolf mix that her people were, she has excellent hearing and sense of smell, being able to tell when people are around, how far away and how fast they are approaching. While all canines are color blind, she was gifted with seeing color.

No.

Even if her vision is impaired, she has no issue with getting around even if she is running. By combining her sense of hearing and smell, she is able to mentally map out her surroundings. This ability is called Echo Sketch and it was an ability that only her people possessed.

I just can’t anymore.

Petal Coat

Sometimes there comes a time when being in a human form gets in the way or tiresome. Okata and her people all share the ability to change into their wolf forms via transformation magic whenever they so wish. Unlike the myths that say that werewolves can only change at night or on full moons, her people can change at any time of day for however long they want and whenever they want. This ability is called Petal Coat due to what it looks like when Okata transforms.

And what does it look like, pray tell?

Appearance

She is short and slim with black hair that falls to her hips with a blue tint. Her eyes are a bright blue. Despite her youthful appearance, she is actually rather old, having just hit 1,673 years.

WHAT DOES SHE REPRESENT?!

Her youthful appearance is due to how small of a population she represents, which is actually just herself, her pack of wolves and the few farmers that live on the outskirts of the forest.

THEN SHE IS NOT A COUNTRY.

SHE IS A LEADER OF A WOLF PACK.

BECAUSE AOKIGAHARA IS NOT A PREFECTURE OR A COUNTRY, OR A CITY IT IS A FOREST.

When she is first seen, she is wearing a dark blue hakama and matching kimono top.

You don’t wear kimono tops with hakamas.

When she is invited to Japan's house, she appears wearing a lighter blue yukata and a grey jacket on top.

That’s called a haori.

She is usually seen with a small light grey wolf pup in her arms or following beside her. When she goes to the World Conferences, she wears a dark blue military uniform with tails and gold effects and a black hakama. She also wears white gloves.

BUT SHE DOESN’T REPRESENT ANYTHING.

She was often mistaken for a boy when her hair was short. This leads her to be very concerned with its length. When her hair gets cut from a failed attempt on Japan's life, she panics when he does not recognize her the next day while shopping. At the World Meetings, her hair is often held up by sharpened chopsticks in a ponytail. With her uniform, she is always equipped with a katana and hidden throwing knives.

I just can’t anymore.

Also, mostly Chinese people use chopsticks in their hair. Japanese people use something else.

A feature that her people share when in human form and that Okata hides are a pair of wolf ears and a tail. Her wolf ears and tail are white with a pale blue tint at the ends.

But wolves are grey?

When in wolf form, she is a large white wolf with blue tints at the end of her fur. She towers to be a few heads over Russia when standing.

WHAT.

THAT.

IS.

HUGE.

WOLVES ARE NOT THAT BIG.

She has a gentle mouth, being able to pick up a person without harming them at all.

That is kind of counterintuitive.

Also, this picture.

I don’t think women wear skirts in combat.

And a chibi. Which is admittedly, kind of cute.

Okay, so the creator also made this thing for that Hetalia card thingy that Himaruya did.

It doesn’t look like a card or chess character at all.

It looks like wolf girl from space.

Chessverse

In the Chessverse AU, Okata is the second Black Knight.

But there only needs to be one.

Her outfit is based off of animal print, referencing her trade as a hunter.

That does not look like animal print.

HetaOni

During the previous loops, she was never present as she was late for the World Meeting. In the current loop, she appears with England and China and serves as a trickster (Fire Emblem reference). While Italy is scared witless as to why she is in the mansion, since she was never in the past time loops, he lets her join the party as his personal hope that this time loop will be the last.

Yeah, why is she? Seeing as she’s not a canon character?

Stats:

She boasts the the second best speed of the entire group, the first being Italy. Her attack power matches Japan's. She has average defense and very good skill, allowing her to be a hard target to hit. She only has one magic skill which allows her to transform into her wolf form. In her wolf form, she loses a little bit of speed in exchange for more attack power. Her defense gets a major buff and loses some skill. With her defense buff, she can act as a tank if needed.

She is very over powered.

This is literally just based off of a character design for Japan.

Okata's 2P's human name is Arashi Tsukino, which means "Storm in Moon Fields" in Japanese.

That doesn’t make much sense.

She fought with the Axis in WWII for the literal reason of being bored. She pulled out of the war when her Japan pulled out.

What the heck no. You do not fight in a war because you’re bored, you fight because you’re directly involved. The suicide forest is a forest, therefore has no military forces to fight with.

Personality

Arashi is a silent huntress who holds a strict no human policy for her forest. The few times she speaks is when she is spoken to or when in battle which usually just consists of shouting 'Die' in Japanese. Much like Okata, she is the leader of a pack of wolves, but just barely managed to prevent the genocide of her people; a fact that Arashi boasts to her 1P self quite a bit.

I don’t think the 1ps and the 2ps ever met.

Deeming her past actions too forgiving, she has trained her people to be the best hunters of both beast and man. When humans tried to expand into her forest, she gives them a warning shot to leave before aiming for their head, in which she rarely misses. As a result Mount Fuji does not have any tourists as it rests in the middle of her forest. This leads 2P Japan to find her after hearing that someone has been harassing his people. Like Okata, she has a very protective nature however it is very difficult to befriend her. She does not trust humans or the other countries and says that she never will.

SHE’S NOT A COUNTRY.

To those who she doesn't outright despise, she will show loyalty of a sort. The only one that she actually likes is 2P Japan though they do have their moments of arguing over otaku based things.

2p Japan is not an otaku.

Other than this, Okata and Arashi tend to act the same.

They shouldn’t.

Variation

When the 1Ps first meet her, they found that she is the one behind the serial killings of many human hikers. Apparently she was acting on 2P Japan's orders to take down Allied scouts, but soon went overboard and killed any humans that came into sight.

This makes me mad and I don’t know entirely why.

This version of Arashi is less reserved that the others and seems to be much more feral than the others. This Arashi follows 2P Japan's orders without question, perhaps hinting to a lost fight between the two making Arashi 2P Japan's servant. When the 1Ps meet her, she barely misses sniping Italy between the eyes with her bow.

But Italy is an Axis Power?????

This apparently angers her, hinting to a hatred of failure, and proceeds to attack the 1Ps. In her monologue before engaging in battle she shows a bloodthirsty side to her and speaks in broken English. When the 1Ps are about to be beaten, Okata comes the their aid and forces Arashi to retreat.

No, 1ps and 2ps do not meet.

The next and last time the 1Ps meet her, Arashi and Okata are engaged in a death match like battle, in which Arashi is winning. The 1Ps subdue Arashi and Okata forces Japan to behead her 2P to force her to regenerate.

TIME LORD.

2P Japan arrives and drags Arashi's regenerated body home. The 1Ps have yet to see Arashi again.

But she was beheaded.

I am moy confused.

Interests

Arashi stresses the importance of blacksmithing, hunting and training to a bit of an unhealthy degree. While Okata is similar in these aspects, Arashi is on the borderline of obsession.

I can’t even scream anymore.

While Okata also farms as a source of food, Arashi has a purely carnivorous appetite; not to mention that she finds farming boring. Both Okata and Arashi refuse to use guns for the same reasons and both are otakus.

How many times must I stress how otaku is an offensive term in Japanese?

While both are secretly fujoshi,

Arashi is slightly more bold in her reading, often sneaking in books into World Meetings. She has yet to be caught, but she has realized that if anything (non war/weapon related) was to be her weakness, it would be her secret getting out. Her weapons of choice are similar to her 1P: duel-wielding katanas, throwing knives and the bow and arrow.

She is really overpowered.

What is anatomy anymore?

Appearance

Okata (left) and Arashi (right)

Arashi sports short black hair with a tint of red that just touches the shoulders as apposed to Okata who has a tint of blue in hers and falls to her waist. Instead of strictly Japanese based clothing, she wears a mix of oriental clothing with wolf pelts. Her most commonly seen attire is a black hakama with a white shirt and a white wolf pelt acting a hood.

If she protects wolves, why is she wearing a wolf pelt?

Also, wolves are not at all common in Japan.

Arashi's right eye is red as opposed to Okata's blue eyes. Her left eye is missing due to a brawl with a rebellious male wolf who wished to be alpha. She wears a black eye patch over her left eye, though at World Meetings she wears a white one and very rarely a red one.

Am I the only one who’s confused?

Unlike Okata, Arashi does not hide the features of her people, sporting black wolf ears and a graying wolf tail.

Um, shouldn’t they be the same color?

She shows these features with pride and scolds her 1P's "cowardly" actions of hiding them. When in battle, Arashi wears homemade armor and wears a samurai mask to cover her face. Otherwise her outfit doesn't change much except for a change in color pallet to all black. Instead of being seen with a wolf pup, she is always accompanied by two grown wolves. Like Japan's Pochi, they have not aged for centuries. These wolves are named but Arashi does not call them by their names when near others. She considers it top secret.

Why?

2P/2P Relationships

America-

Arashi openly admits her hatred for America.

For what reason?

It all started with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While She may not have been close to the prefectures, what he had done was still unforgivable as she was a prefecture at the time.

SHE IS NOT A COUNTRY.

(Japan had not recognized her as a country yet, to give her time to adjust to the sudden increase in attention.) At least one fight occurs between the two at World Meetings, with Arashi being the victor majority of the time.

Canada-

Arashi and Canada are on good terms. Both of them tend to team up against America. Since they both have an affinity with nature and Arashi technically being a part of a nature, Canada is openly affectionate to her. Arashi doesn't mind his presence and has accepted his affection to an extent. The only thing that she can't stand is Canada's smoking habit, which he is willing to stop in her presence if she actually spoke up.

That is really unneeded.

China-

Due to China's dislike for the "lower class" and Arashi's slightly wild nature, he often refers to her as "the savage" which in turn leads to arguments between the two. China once admitted that his insistence to spark fights with Arashi is due to his jealousy to how close she and Japan have gotten. "He didn't even let me get that close to him! Yet a little forest mutt has gotten closer than me?!"

Yeah, a little forest mutt who literally represents nothing.

England-

Very simple. England loves Arashi. Arashi hates England. England sees Arashi as a little puppy with a bit of an attitude even though Arashi is slightly older than him.

No she’s not. British history goes back farther than 1,673 years.

He is often seen hugging her much to her annoyance and even petting her like a dog. Arashi has often threatened to cut his hands off if he continued to pet her for too long (usually her patience runs out and then she give him a warning) and has actually followed through on her threat once.

She literally cut off his hands?!

England has since then figured out that she gives him 3 seconds of petting and hug time in total which he takes full advantage of. While this may seem like a weakness to some, this is actually Arashi's attempt at being more merciful as she usually is not.

Germany-

Arashi tends to ignore Germany while the later tries to befriend her. When Germany tried to sympathize with Arashi, wondering if the scar where her left eye once was still hurt, she finally gave in.

It never mentioned her having a scar.

He has been given permission to pet her once a day. A notion that she would usually threaten violence to.

I would break his arms, personally.

Italy-

While aware of Italy's potential sadistic attitude, Arashi is not afraid of angering him. Despite this, the two get along rather well. Italy often refers to Arashi as his "Wolf Princess" and is openly affectionate to her often giving her a pat on the back. He has been given permission to pet her whenever he wants, but on the condition that they spar sometime that day. Arashi made him a special set of throwing knives as a sign of their friendship which are decorated but much sharper and stronger than his usual knives.

THROWING KNIVES AS A SIGN OF FRIENDSHIP I CAN’T.

Italy only uses them as a last resort. Arashi is a big fan of Italy's "special" pasta and is aware of whats in his homemade pasta sauce. This most likely is due to her wolf blood. Italy has mentioned that Arashi is probably the only one that he would never betray, not because he fears her, but because he likes having her around.

That’s kind of out of character.

Japan-

Like his 1P's case, Japan was the first to meet Arashi. After clearing up the issue around her forest, Japan has agreed that no one is allowed to enter it.

People are going to enter it anyway.

In return, she had to visit him at lest once a month just for conversations due to his curiosity. He is the closest of any country to her and is free to pet her whenever he wants, free of charge. Their relationship has gotten to the point where rumors say that they are a couple.

Both of them deny the rumor, but their actions tend to betray their words. Japan is the only human to enter her forest much to the dismay of her own people. Eventually they accepted him as one of their own. Arashi was the one to nurse Japan back to health after WWII, but no one else knows this.

Must I use this gif again?

Instead of conversations they meet once a month to spar.

1P/1P Relationships

America-

She holds a secret grudge against him for hurting Hiro and Saki (Hiroshima and Nagasaki) during WWII, but has since managed to hold herself back when in his presence.

Why? She still isn’t a country.

The only thing that she has adopted from his culture is some of his more modest clothing. Many lost reports say that she fought in Okinawa against the American forces, before she was injured by a stray bomb and had to retreat home.

Belarus-

When Okata began to get close to Russia, Belarus came on the scene and tried to murder her. Still unsure why Belarus hates her, Okata can only see Russia at World Meetings and when he hides at her house.

China-

She considers him a big brother and sometimes even a father in some sense. After Japan broke away from him, she once snuck away to see how China was doing. In more modern times, China refers to Okata as his granddaughter, even though he usually hates being called old.

I don’t think China cares. He knows he’s old.

England/Britain-

She, like Japan, gets along very well with him. Their love for tea is unrivaled even by japan. After he saves her from France's advance, she feels indebted to him and considers this a very good first impression. When Britain returned home after the Revolutionary War with America, he was treated to a small gift box from Okata, her way of trying to cheer him up. Later that year, he sent her a gift box full of her favorite teas with a small note: "For one so small, you have a big heart. Thank you." Despite the fact that his poachers killed her people, since it was not he himself, she forgave him when he apologized on his people's behalf. She said: "A wolf remembers every sound it hears. Accents are only to help confirm the individual."

I’m just going to pretend like that made sense.

France-

Officially labeled a pervert, she refuses to deal with him unless absolutely necessary. When she went to her first World Meeting, he instantly tried to woo her into going on a date with him. Her reaction was as good as it gets; she punched him right in the face and hid behind Japan while apologizing. Needless to say, he failed his chance to make a good impression.

FRANCE WOULD NOT DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT WITHOUT CONSENT.

LEAVE MY BEAUTIFUL SON ALONE.

Germany-

Germany's first impression was not a very good one. His tone of voice frightened her and it took a few years for them to grow close. Once tensioned eased a bit, he introduced her to wurst as an apology, which she gratefully accepted.

If you know what I mean.

The next year, he received a box full of homemade mochi and sake. They both agreed that when she looked the age, they would go out and grab a beer. (He and Prussia pushed her into this.)

Germany wouldn’t give a dang about some wolf girl from the Suicide forest. Neither would Japan.

Italy-

Italy's first impression was the same as Japan's impression of him. Though her tolerance of his constant surrendering has touched a nerve several times, she eventually forgave him each time. She had seen Japan riding with Italy and refuses every one of Italy's offers to drive her home ... or anywhere strongly. She often comes over to Italy for the change of pace and to see her old friend Romano.

Wait, what?!

WHEN DID SHE MEET ROMANO?!

Japan-

Japan found her on her home front near the foot of Mount Fuji while investigating a rumor of a kitsune in the area. When he found her, he was shocked to see a country no one knew about standing right in front of him, and ready to strike him down.

WHAT.

COUNTRY.

IS.

SHE?!?!?!?!?

It turns out that she was the one to craft his trusty katana and a few of his uniforms. In an effort to apologize, he offered to rebuild her people, which she promptly refused. "My people are gone and now it is just me. Time has not brought them back, and it probably never will. I just have to continue going forward till time takes me away too." After their first meeting, Japan decided to make her his bodyguard, though this is only so he can watch over this little providence.

WHAT PROVENCE?!

He has no intention of letting her get hurt or taken over. Though she refuses to acknowledge it, he swore that her people would be remembered if not by the world, then by him alone. In return she had to promise that she would do all that she could to stay alive, which she did not say anything to. He took her to the World Meeting to make her existence known in order to put his promise into motion. After that, she came to as many meetings that she could. She also became his training partner as she is very skilled in swordsmanship. They have come very close in a big brother/little sister relationship. A bit of love might be in the air.

At one of the meetings, he named her as an official country, but would act as a providence until she gets big enough; which may never happen.

WHAT PROVENCE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Korea-

Both North and South Korea failed to impress her. Like Japan, she dislikes them with a passion.

What I’m getting from this is that she only likes people who impress her.

Prussia-

Though she knows that he means well, she can't help but get irritated by him. Like her case with France, she prefers not dealing with him unless absolutely necessary.

Like I just said, LEAVE FRANCE ALONE.

Russia-

She does not have the mutual fear of Russia as the other countries do and honestly has no idea why everyone fears him. Once she was in sight, Russia wasted no time trying to "make her one with mother Russia".

My eye literally twitched when I read that.

Also, Russia has never ever referred to himself as “Mother Russia.”

Once again England came to her rescue while she pondered what Russia meant. When Russia was hiding from Belarus, he took shelter in Okata's home without invitation. Okata grew a bit close to him, but then began to see the downside of being close to Russia when she met Belarus.

South Italy/Romano-

She and Romano get along very well as they share a mutual annoyance at Spain.

Why is she annoyed with Spain, a country that Japan doesn’t really talk to?

Romano met her while he was till young at Spain's house. Apparently one of her wolf pups was caught following the scent of pizza into his garden. When Romano came on the scene, Okata was trying to get her puppy back from Spain who was holding the poor thing by the tail.

Spain isn’t that heartless.

Needless to say, Romano wanted to vent that day and hit Spain on the back of the head with a broom and procured her a sure escape . They became best friends that day. She often comes over to Italy to visit him.

Vulpin-

Vulpin was once Okata's sister when she still represented the Canine family as Canini. Back then, they were never very close. However, after Okata left, Vulpin began to regret how she treated her sister and now they are on much better terms.

Wait, what? Who is this person? They were never mentioned!

Extras

Okata's people had nine treasures. One necklace, four swords and four pieces of armor.

The Forest's Paw

The Forest's Paw is the Okato's national treasure.

What nation? In order for someone to have a national treasure, they must be a nation. And she is not.

It consists of 7 gems cut into the shape of tiny daggers. For every Alpha the Okato had, a new gem was made. When 7 Alphas passed away, the Okato forged the daggers together into one trinket for Okata when she became Alpha. The Forest's Paw is the completed trinket. After the fall of her people, Okata separated the daggers again and gave them to certain countries she met as a way of testing the world if they were worthy of her trust again.

You don’t just give away sacred things.

Ruby Dagger

Represents the bloody war to become the first alpha. Worn by the very first Alpha of the Okato. Given to Japan.

Sapphire Dagger

Represents the tears of the very first female alpha when she lost her son/heir to hunters. Worn by the second Alpha of the Okato. Given to Romano.

Obsidian Dagger

Represents the birth of Mount Fuji. Worn by the third Alpha of the Okato. Given to Russia.

Emerald Dagger-

Represents the forest the Okato live in. Worn by the fourth Alpha of the Okato. Given to England.

Silver Dagger-

Represents the beautiful moonlit nights the Okato were blessed with. Worn by the fifth Alpha of the Okato. Given to Canada.

Gold Dagger-

Represents the plentiful harvests the Okato were blessed with. Worn by the sixth Alpha of the Okato. Given to Germany.

Crystal Dagger-

Represents the clear skies that the Okato were blessed with. Worn by Okata when she became Alpha. Given to Italy.

Literally none of this is important.

The Sacred Blades

Only four blades and respective armor pieces were made to accompany the daggers that made up the Forest's Paw. The Silver, Gold, and Crystal Daggers did not get a weapon or armor.

Crescent Fang-

A rapier like sword. Wielded by the first alpha. Accompanied by the right gauntlet.

New Gale-

A custom katana. Wielded by the second alpha. Accompanied by the left gauntlet.

Half Claw-

A broadsword. Wielded by the second alpha's son. Accompanied by the samurai helmet.

Full Brush-

A custom broadsword. Wielded by the third alpha. Accompanied by the hunter's tunic.

The Armor

Right Gauntlet-

Shaped like the arm of a wolf. Fur lined plates on the forearms and fur patterns go up to the shoulder. Accompanied by the Crescent Fang.

Left Gauntlet-

Mirrored version of the right gauntlet. Accompanied by the New Gale.

Helmet-

A samurai helmet with a wolf mask. The kuwagata (the gold horn shaped metal) is shaped like a half moon. Wolf ears are forged on the top to protect the ears. Accompanied by the Half Claw.

Hunter's Tunic-

Tunic made completely form animal hide and wolf pelts. Accompanied by the Full brush.

Trivia

-She shares the same birthday as Japan, but is younger by 1000 years; making her 1675 years old as of 2015.

-Okata is about 3 to 4 inches shorter than Japan. While the land that she owned was small, her population was the main factor of her growth. After her people were killed, her growth stopped despite the increase of her wolf population.

-Okata's human name is Hisako Tsukino. Tsukino means "moon field" in Japanese and Hisako means "child of an old story" in Japanese. Japan believes her full name to mean 'Child of an Old Story in Moon Fields'. Okata's 2P name, Arashi, is actually a boy's name. 2P Japan believes its due to the fact that she can be easily mistaken for a boy.

WHAT.

I THOUGHT OKATA WAS HER NAME.

-Okata and Japan share the pains of old age. Okata suffers from low stamina and back pain.

-Every year she comes to celebrate New Years at japan's house, bringing with her homemade mochi and baked goods.

-A few days after meeting Japan and officially establishing a friendship with him, she cut a path through the forest to his house from hers.

- If she is not at her home in the forest, she is most likely in Japan's backyard playing with Pochi.

-She hates guns. Since she is part wolf, her hearing is much more sensitive than a human's. The sound of gunfire actually causes her pain, whether she is wearing protective gear or not.

-Her name, Okata, is based of the Japanese word for wolf = ookami. The name of her people is actually Okato, based off the combination of ookami and the Japanese word for people = hito. This literally translates her people as "wolf people" or "the people of wolves".

sHE REPRESENTS A SPECIES?!

THAT IS NOT HOW HETALIA WORKS.

-To the prefectures, she is called Shizu short for Shizuoka, the prefecture around Mount Fuji where she lives.

OH NOW YOU TELL ME.

NOW I CAN ASK.

WHERE IS YOUR RESEARCH?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!

-Though she should technically be considered a micronation, considering how her population is literally just her or in other words a situation much like Sealand's; her wolf population has reached the millions.

The population of the Shizuoka prefecture is 3.751 million.

ALSO FOR THE LAST TIME, WOLVES ARE NOT INDIGENOUS TO JAPAN.

WHY ON EARTH DOES SHE REPRESENT THE WOLF POPULATION? YOU JUST SAID SHE REPRESENTS SHIZUOKA.

Since wolves are a blood relation to her people, they are able to sustain her existence as a country. However since it is wolves and not people, Okata must have at least 5,000 wolves to survive. Any less and her health will deteriorate to the point where she will cease to exist.

NO.

- Okata was not always a country. She used to be known as Canini when she represented the Canine family in the Animal Kingdom. However, she and a few other animal families wanted to grow closer to the human race and created small countries within already existing countries. As Canini, she represented all dog-kind, but when she became Okata, she only represented her wolf-man kind. The status of Canine fell to her sister Vulpin.

I don’t usually say this, but that was really, really terrible. There was no research. It was like the OC creator took a random Japanese prefecture and shoved some wolf OC from another fandom into the representation. It was an utter self insert, and an enormous Mary Sue.

I cannot stress how important research with Hetalia OCs is. It is the most important thing ever with them, or they don’t work. Which is why Hetalia OCs are so hard to make. I made a London OC recently, and the research I did for her takes up almost three pages. This is no way represented the history of the Shizuoka prefecture, and in no way resembled anything of the likes. I’m sorry, but this OCs character, while interesting, is not fitting for a Hetalia OC. The OC just needs to be redone.

As always, Do your research, Hetalia fans!

Well, I’ll see you guys later!

~Kat

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