#doesn't seem like whatever this is will have a big budget tbh

[marerittmarit]

I'm so bothered by this not because capcom isn't allowed to do whatever they want to their own promo art and bend and break pngs as they wish, but like i don't get why? Why did they get some intern to badly trace him and then they didn't even have 5 minutes to clock the missed fill on his jacket, the missing attorney badge or the frankly broken looking hand.

My teensy guess is to make it seem a bit closer to the aa5-6 art style but didn't want him in the new suit? He still has his trilogy eye color but his skin color is closer to AA4 onward so i don't know if that makes sense either.

But ALSO i've been looking for that background asset and i'm pretty sure it has to be the defendant lobby in aa 1-3 (plus aa4 flashback only), but nobody i know can find this specific asset used in the new promo so I guess it's new?

I'm inclined to believe them when they say it's just a series introduction trailer, I'm just kind of baffled they hastily threw together a traced graphic over a seemingly new background, especially when they could have just used an existing png which they do all the time?

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

I think that it's probably the fact that the most recent big budget Hollywood rom com that actually sold anything was crazy rich Asians and before that the most recent romance to have any cultural impact was a fault in our stars which was like a 4 year time gap 5 years ago, but I genuinely think some people have forgotten that romance is a genre. And part of the issue is that in the west "rom com" has meant movie, but still.

Like I'll see people talking about TV shows like Our Flag Means Death or Heartstopper (which have vastly different audiences owing to the setting and ages of the characters) and saying stuff like "this doesn't have a plot" or "new type of gay baiting where the characters are gay but the show is boring" and then you go and watch the show and it follows the general plot trajectory of 90% of rom coms.

Now there's factors here. I would guess that queer people in the past have been less likely to watch/read romance owing to it being a generally pretty heterosexual genre, with a few exceptions. As I mentioned at the top there's a cultural disinterest in romance at the moment. And I think most notably people care a lot about representation right now, so people are getting recommended shows based on the representation rather than the content so a person who wants to see more queer characters in action/adventure or horror or mystery or whatever might be recommended something based on its rep that's not to their tastes. Still I think that despite these factors accusing media like that of not having a plot is media illiterate because tbh some of you would have the same reaction to a Jane Austen novel if you read it without knowing who it was by. And I think we need to value romance more as a genre because for decades it's been considered "for girls" and demeaned on that basis and now days we seem to not really be doing it at all with the exception of a few queer TV shows who are playing cultural catch up to a certain extent now that you can more or less show queer stories on mainstream TV.

Anyway tl;dr: romance is a real genre and just because the romance is the plot doesn't mean there's no plot.

[forkaround]

i don’t see why they would need pr? i mean all shows and movies need pr of course but even with the budget not being big it has lots of people watching and talking about it? am i wrong or is that not the most important thing? or will the writers and creators of it talking about it and hyping it up help the pr? ngl i don’t know how any of this works tho i thought pr was just meant to bring it viewers which it already has but i could be wrong? https://www.tumblr.com/forkaround/725704160869220352/the-only-friends-team-is-interacting-a-lot-with

Yes, people watching and talking is important and that's my point. The OF team starts responding to comments/theories or posts something (like the blacked out card very early on this year.) And people start making theories and analysis before the show is even out giving it publicity. It's honestly an interesting tactic that perhaps other productions might learn from.

Now tbh, I'm personally very interested in how this all unfolds. I've not been following everything to closely, I never follow promo material for any show from anywhere, just a post here and there and what people repost to tumblr, basically whatever reaches me through word of mouth. And that's why it stands out as odd to me. For other shows I've seen lesser activity and even people repost something it has to do with the actors, what they said, some details of the characters, etc. but not enough to piece together a plot or characters even if these theories end up wrong. On the other hand Only Friends has Jojo and other Behind The Scenes people responding to fans or, like a day or two ago, where someone from the crew said something about heartstopper and then Jojo said something too. Like how often have shows hinged on the behind the scenes members [director, writer, PD, etc.] instead of the actors. For most shows everywhere it's the actor that determines how many people show up, thus the concept of brand pairs is so popular. And no doubt people are here for FK, FB, NeoMark, but more than that fans are here because of Jojo. For the queer rep he has promised. I've seen more reposts of his tweets than any of the actors.

Now this very much has to do with money. OF does not seem to have it. But it does have a dedicated crew who would like to tell this story and prove that this story and stories like these are worth telling and people are invested in it. That people will show up to it. In my personal opinion I think the crew is more dedicated to it's success than the cast. Perhaps it has to do with contracts, perhaps money but overall, while I see the actors playing their role as actors when doing publicity, it's no different than they would for any other show, afaik.

The thing I'm most worried about and perhaps even the most dangerous thing with this approach is if the show does not deliver on what it's promised or if they do deliver on the scamming, cheating, sex but with a bad storyline or if the show loses steam towards the end which GMMTV shows are infamous for. I don't think it would take away from the show but I suspect people could use it as an excuse to not invest in similar shows. [There is a very slim chance of this happening. LBF it would require the show to fuck up so bad it doesn't even make any sense by the end. But thing is, fans have hyped it up in their heads so much that I imagine anything less would cause an uproar. Which would be really sad. But I've also seen this fandom stick to terrible storytelling and flat out refuse to see the issues when the word queer is slapped on something.]

Sorry this answer was so long. I'm just as interested in the show as I am in watching how it unfolds in the fandom and how people react to it so I have a lot of thoughts on the matter. It's the crew's strategy that has done the PR for the show.

[plantrelated]

Watch out for an illustration/design scam on Indeed

TL;DR if you don't have time/don't want to read the whole thing: If you apply to a job on Indeed and they're asking you to do an illustration job worth $6800 for a "Pandemic: Precaution and Prevention" class: refuse the job.

I wouldn’t normally make a post like this, but I just had the weirdest 2 weeks. I applied to, what seemed to be, a pretty standard designer/illustrator job (I won't mention the name of the company it was posted under since it's a legitimate company that had no idea their name was being used.) A lot of very similar beats as most other art/design/illustration jobs on pretty much every job site out there. I applied, didn’t think much of it, had surgery a few days later, and woke up after sleeping off anesthesia to a text from a supposed representative of the company. We got in touch via email and this was the rundown I was given:

He also noted in a later email that, while they would reserve the rights of use, the art could still be used in a professional portfolio, no worries--totally fine with me. For the most part, this doesn't read as anything particularly strange--in fact, it reads as pretty great. In a sea of the literal hundreds of jobs I've applied for, this is probably one of the few times I've seen a truly solid paycheck for this kind of work (lots of folks out there either don't know what kind of budget their projects actually require or there's the Ye Olde I Just Don't Want to Pay You What You're Worth.)

There's a standard back and forth, things seem okay, and the job itself seems fun. I'm always down to do some art for education and especially for pandemic stuff. He emails me this:

Up front is also cool--I've been ghosted before getting paid in the past, so a "good faith" payment is okay with me. And while it's a little unusual to get a cashier's check, I understand that they're often used when larger funds are involved. Rarer now, with online payments being so common, but not wildly unheard of. Tbh I'm getting kind of excited by this point. I'm thinking this is my first "big job." This is money I could really use right now. And this is probably something they were betting on: there are a lot of desperate artists looking for a paycheck and this one is an amazing one. Especially considering how hard it is to find art jobs, in general, but also to find ones that pay you what you and the job are worth. Then, about a week into pretty consistent correspondence, I get this:

By this point, I've only had the official green light to start working for about 2/3 days. Barely any time to do anything, really. So, obviously, he hasn't seen anything yet. Even if he had looked at my portfolio and liked what he saw enough to trust whatever I came up with, I just found it odd that he was so willing to immediately hire me on for "phase two" (which I also wasn't aware was even a potential factor in the job.) And to also double the payment--even if it was an accurate calculation for the workload added--without having any idea of what you're getting felt weird to me. But I really, really wanted it to be legit. Thankfully, by this point my sister had made me aware of some similar scams going around on Indeed, so I started looking a little deeper into this. Eventually, unable to find much, I went directly to the site of the original company and contacted the owner. I gave him the rundown of the job and the name of who I was in contact with (Clayton West.) Within an hour, I got a reply back that said his business hadn't posted any sort of job and that he would be contacting the authorities. I emailed Clayton to let him know that I was severing ties, authorities had been contacted, and that I was going to shred the check. Unsurprisingly--despite his faithful correspondence up to now--I never got a reply. About a day or two later, I got the check in the mail and found it had been written for $13,600. And note: the check had been sent to me before I had even known there was a "phase two." Into the shredder it went and I thought that was it. Then today, less than a week later after this whole thing dissolved, I applied to another job on Indeed. A different type of business (a school, which is also a real and legitimate place), different info, different application parameters; different country, actually. Within 45 minutes of applying, I got a text from someone claiming to be a rep from the school (Anthony Toochio) saying they were hiring for an illustration job that was worth $6800. Immediately, I thought that was a weird coincidence. Surely, I was just burned and overthinking, right? I look up the school, confirm it's legitimate (no one named Anthony on their staff, I saw), and eventually decide to check the link. Guess what I see? Guess. Yup:

And the header, as mentioned in the doc, is one of the exact examples I was sent by Clayton in an early email. They post the jobs under the guise of being legitimate businesses and institutions (specifically small and/or relatively unknown ones, as far as I can tell) and it's not limited to a singular country or one type of industry, either. The first job listing was posing as a sign shop in North Carolina, USA, and the second was as a secondary school in the Southwark district of London, England. I'm sure there are more. So, all that to say to be careful when you're applying to jobs, as a general rule, but if anyone contacts you with this specific job: cut off all contact before you get your hopes up, time wasted, and involved in a scam of some kind. I have no idea what they hope to gain, and I'm so glad I didn't have a chance to find out. So, just be wary out there. As a freelancer without a company to back you, you've got to be super protective of yourself. I'm definitely learning that, myself, right now. Additionally, here's an article from the The Graphic Artist Guild about other sorts of scams out there, just so you can be aware.

Be safe!

[redwyverndht]

Episode 30: (SPOILERS) ft. the key to Ghost Game

TL;DR: I get that people want plot and villains and big fights, but if you look beneath the surface of the episodic shenanigans, there's clearly a goal for each episode, and I really hope it can be more appreciated instead of the usual "where's gulus?" "where's the plot?" "where are the villains?" But there's more than that!

^ me chewing over whatever the fuck my brain is overanalyzing this week

General thoughts

I hate bETSUMON I HATE BETSUMON I HATE BETSUM-

Somehow, without giving them a bulge, they made Betsumon very, VERY hateable!!!!!! Hate them!!!!! That might've had to do with the fact that Gammamon is babey and must be protected at all costs

Can I also just say that Meicoomon's existential ennui felt like a slight dig at tri.? Just me? lol (sorry tri fans)

Is it just me or this ep's theme felt very… ominous?

The first thing Gammamon said ever:

"I am Gammamon"

And we're now reaffirming that Gammamon is Gammamon but... are they??? Gulus is THERE, it really recontextualizes the phrase. It feels like that's the ethos of Gammamon's arc... Maybe this IS why they dumped all the budget and promo on this one. (Also, we all love Gammamon :D)

It also felt like the all-star ep we had with Morphomon a while ago: very, very high quality animation, they went above and beyond for this week's animation! I particularly loved Gammamon's expressions, they really went above and beyone to make them cute (and heartwrenching! :( )

I loved it! Awesome ep :D

also monster disco is the best ED so far don't judge me-

I have lots of thougts today!

A structure: The Partner Ethos

Since we got Canoweissmon, we've got the thesis of each character very firmly stated. There haven't really been many "character focus" episodes like we're used to -they're more "relationship centric", kinda like 02. But this episode, THIS EPISODE, along with Tethysmon's evolution and last week's, the charaacter focused episodes are mounting onto each other...

Did you want crests? Well, I'll do you one better: characterization! Every partner has a specific "ethos": a phrase that (imo) describes their motivations and points of view.

Gammamon: "I am Gammmamon, Hiro's brother" Angoramon: "I will protect and get closer to Ruli" Jellymon: "I don't know how to expresss my affection to Kiyoshiro"

Out of all of them, Jellymon is the one I can't exactly pin-point BUT GUESS WHAT? Next ep seems to be Kiyoshiro-centric! And I hope we're getting that thesis from them!

The Reptile in the Room

We're all waiting for Gulus, aren't we? In my opinion, this episode cemented my theory that Gulus is gonna try and take Gammamon out of the equation, whatever that might be. (AAAAAHHH-) They haven't appeared yet because, as Gulus stated, it isn't time yet. It's kinda meta tbh, because it both isn't time in-universe (why), but it's also not time yet narratively speaking…

There's also the case for Lamortmon, too! What are they gonna do???? How tf are they gonna deal with a murderous Angoramon if when they dealt with them in the beginning they only survived because of Zubamon ex machina!!!12!"1!1 (i'm losing it help-)

I get that people want plot and villains and big fights, but if you look beneath the surface of the episodic shenanigans, there's clearly a goal for each episode, and I really hope it can be more appreciated instead of the usual "where's gulus?" "where's the plot?" "where are the villains?" I also want them!!! But (I think) they're cementing strong bases for each digimon and partner, and even though it looks like nothing is happening, each episode contributes something in characterization and/or background lore details.

It's not perfect, for sure, there are lots of times where I would've loved acknowledging past episodes (digitamamon, ajataramon, and this ep I wish they explained some stuff i assumed like how betsumon's powers work and what happened to meicoomon, the conclusion was kinda brief for a problem of this caliber), and there doesn't seem to be an active path. But some of these things feel intentional, rather than bad writing. Like they're not the main point. In retrospect, Ghost Game seems very calculated and thought out, but who knows what will happen next? Only time will tell, because Toei sure won't!