#i also really like this traditional bordered style of manga

[rhythmgameurl]

For todaaaay's 3D alter, it's the Japanese version of One Piece, Volume 1! I've been a huge fan of one piece for a while, so this one felt like a no-brainer to make! The wood and Luffy's soles have been textured so they reflect the materials they're made from! It's my first time trying this technique after Laios' armor in my previous Dungeon Meshi cover, so I hope it's come out well!

[helloanthy]

🗒️ 24.04.2024 ⋅⋅⋅ 🥀

some notes for 20.09.2023 post and a separate cut out for utena because i spent a very long time rendering her ... the original concept i had in my head for this art was very different. it was just supposed to be a style study of this an official anime prop design art, and i'd thought to draw anthy in a similar pose across from her like in the shown version, but with her wearing her prince outfit from the manga. something something another form of female competition under the patriarchyyy stop pitting 2 girlprinces against each other omg etc (side note, how sick would it have been in an AU where akio made anthy fight against utena in the ring? like i dont think it would hav added more to the story or made it better really ... probably would've diluted the message to be honest ... but everytime i see that manga art of prince anthy i imagine some convoluted black rose arc AU where utenas dodging anthy getting her hair hacked off left and right like himemiyaaa nooo snap out of it this isnt uuu while anthys silent and dead eyed hahaha) but then after i drew prince anthy, the picture looked rather empty ... so i thought to add a few decals or borders in the style of the show & official arts but aaahh ... there was still too much negative space. i had to scrap anthy's prince outfit and put her back in her rose bride dress 😭 man !!! he cant keep getting away this !!! [blames akio the figurehead of patriarchy instead of taking responsibility of my own actions] which made me sad because i was pretty satisfied with the way i drew her pose and legs ! but i had to cover it up 🥲 ... the composition overall looked better though. and then after that it kept spiraling. i just kept adding more and more things until i lost control of this drawing and it plagued my WIP folder for months ... i dont want to try and connect all of it in words so ill just lay out all the pieces for you so you can connect them yourself. and you can experience my art thought process in fraction of erraticity and frustration as i experience it myself. this is a lot neater than what happened in my head though because i bothered to put it in order. honestly if i can make you feel a little bit insane trying to scroll through and read all this than i can make you understand how annoying my brain is when all i wanted to draw was utenanthy girlprinces fighting starting references & inspiration: utena prop reference sheet & manga prince!anthy

the tower & the lovers tarot

above: the lovers as depicted in the tarot of marseilles deck, tarocco bolognese deck, & tarocco piemontese deck the lovers (tarot card) wikipedia: The Lovers is associated with the star sign Gemini, and indeed is also known as The Twins in some decks. Other associations are with Air, Mercury, and the Hebrew letter ז (Zayin). In the Rider Waite deck, the imagery for this card is changed significantly from the traditional depiction. Instead of a couple receiving a blessing from a noble or cleric, the Rider–Waite deck depicts Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

a.e. waite, the pictorial key to the tarot, part III, section 3, no.6: UPRIGHT: Attraction, love, beauty, trials overcome REVERSED: Failure, foolish designs. Another account speaks of marriage frustrated and contrarieties of all kinds a.e. waite, the pictorial key to tarot, part II, VI. the lovers: In the foreground are two human figures, male and female, unveiled before each other, as if Adam and Eve when they first occupied the paradise of the earthly body. Behind the man is the Tree of Life, bearing twelve fruits, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is behind the woman; the serpent is twining round it. The figures suggest youth, virginity, innocence and love before it is contaminated by gross material desire. This is in all simplicity the card of human love, here exhibited as part of the way, the truth and the life. It replaces, by recourse to first principles, the old card of marriage, which I have described previously, and the later follies which depicted man between vice and virtue. In a very high sense, the card is a mystery of the Covenant and Sabbath. The suggestion in respect of the woman is that she signifies that attraction towards the sensitive life which carries within it the idea of the Fall of Man, but she is rather the working of a Secret Law of Providence than a willing and conscious temptress. It is through her imputed lapse that man shall arise ultimately, and only by her can he complete himself. The card is therefore in its way another intimation concerning the great mystery of womanhood. going off of the rider-waite tarot deck: the pictorial key to the tarot—biddytarot's interpretation of the lovers: UPRIGHT: Love, harmony, relationships, values alignment, choices REVERSED: Self-love, disharmony, imbalance, misalignment of values In its purest form, The Lovers card represents conscious connections and meaningful relationships. The arrival of this card in a Tarot reading shows that you have a beautiful, soul-honoring connection with a loved one. [...] The Lovers is a card of open communication and raw honesty. Given that the man and woman are naked, they are both willing to be in their most vulnerable states and have learned to open their hearts to one another and share their truest feelings. [...] On a more personal level, The Lovers card represents getting clear about your values and beliefs. You are figuring out what you stand for and your philosophy. Having gone through the indoctrination of The Hierophant, you are now ready to establish your belief system and decide what is and what is not essential to you. It’s time to go into the big wide world and make choices for yourself, staying true to who you are and being authentic and genuine in all your endeavors. At its heart, The Lovers is about choice. The choice about who you want to be in this lifetime, how you connect with others and on what level, and about what you will and won’t stand for. To make good choices, you need to be clear about your personal beliefs and values – and stay true to them. Not all decisions will be easy either. The Lovers card is often a sign that you are facing a moral dilemma and must consider all consequences before acting. Your values system is being challenged, and you are being called to take the higher path, even if it is difficult. Do not carry out a decision based on fear or worry or guilt or shame. Now, more than ever, you must choose love – love for yourself, love for others and love for the Universe. Choose the best version of yourself. Finally, The Lovers card encourages you to unify dual forces. You can bring together two parts that are seemingly in opposition to one another and create something that is ‘whole’, unified and harmonious. In every choice, there is an equal amount of advantage and disadvantage, opportunity and challenge, positive and negative. When you accept these dualities, you build the unity from which love flows.

the tower (tarot card) wikipedia: The Tower is widely associated to danger, crisis, sudden change, destruction, higher learning, and liberation. In the Rider–Waite deck, the top of The Tower is a crown, which symbolizes materialistic thought being bought cheap, downcast. a.e. waite, the pictorial key to the tarot, part III, section 3, no.16: UPRIGHT: Misery, distress, indigence, adversity, calamity, disgrace, deception, ruin. It is a card in particular of unforeseen catastrophe REVERSED: According to one account, the same in a lesser degree also oppression, imprisonment, tyranny (the wikipedia included a.e. waite's upright meanings, but i have no idea where they got the reversed meanings) going off of the rider-waite tarot deck: the pictorial key to the tarot—biddytarot's interpretation of the tower: UPRIGHT: Sudden change, upheaval, chaos, revelation, awakening REVERSED: Personal transformation, fear of change, averting disaster The Tower shows a tall tower perched on the top of a rocky mountain. Lightning strikes set the building alight, and two people leap from the windows, head first and arms outstretched. It is a scene of chaos and destruction. The Tower itself is a solid structure, but because it has been built on shaky foundations, it only takes one bolt of lightning to bring it down. It represents ambitions and goals made on false premises. The lightning represents a sudden surge of energy and insight that leads to a break-through or revelation. It enters via the top of the building and knocks off the crown, symbolizing energy flowing down from the Universe, through the crown chakra. The people are desperate to escape from the burning building, not knowing what awaits them as they fall. [...] The best way forward is to let this structure self-destruct so you can re-build and re-focus. [...] with a card like The Tower, you have no choice but to surrender to the destruction and chaos, no matter how unwanted or painful [...] After a Tower experience, you will grow stronger, wiser and more resilient as you develop a new perspective on life you did not even know existed. 

infant stars taken by NASA hubble used in the background overlay of akio's tower star birth | cool cosmos: Stars form from the simplest of building blocks - huge clouds of gas and dust that permeate the Galaxy. [...] While these big clouds of dust and gas lay dormant for many millions and perhaps billions of years, eventually some of them are disturbed. This can happen gradually, maybe caused by the approach of one of the Milky Way's spiral arms as it slowly sweeps around the center of the galaxy, or it can be a sudden event, like a nearby supernova explosion that blasts a shockwave through the cloud. Either way, a small increase in the pressure and density of the cloud forms knots in the gas and dust that eventually collapse under their own gravity, pulling more and more of the surrounding material in, and forming the stellar "seeds" known as protostars. From Protostar to Star: As the clouds collapse, they start to rotate, and, like a spinning skater pulling in her arms, each of these seed protostars begins to spin faster the more it collapses. The material falling towards the protostar flattens out into a rotating disk of dust and gas encircling the central core. The protostar warms up, as the potential energy of the material falling in is converted into kinetic energy, but it has not yet ignited to form a fully-fledged star. For the next few million years, the protostar's gravity pulls in more material from the surrounding cloud into its disk. That disk transports the gas and dust onto the protostar, causing the protostar to grow. The increase in mass causes the gravitational field of the protostar to increase and so even more material is pulled into the disk. The addition of more material, in turn, increases the gravitational field even further, pulling in more material, and so on, creating a feedback loop that keeps the whole process going. [...] The density and temperature of the protostar keep climbing higher and higher, until eventually the core grows to about one tenth the size of our Sun, and becomes hot and dense enough for hydrogen nuclei to spontaneously stick together to form helium, in a process called nuclear fusion. At that instant, the core ignites, and the new star is born. Meanwhile, in the disk, clumps of material have been forming, which are the seeds of new planets. These seeds sweep up material in the disk in a process called accretion, forming the planets of a new solar system. Once the star has started nuclear fusion, the heat and wind from the infant star begin to blast the gas and dust away, creating a cavity in the cloud. As more and more matter gets funneled onto the star from the disk, the star gets larger and larger, causing it to push harder and harder against the cloud and the disk, enlarging the cavity, vaporizing the disk, and halting the growth of planets.

deadheading (flowers) wikipedia: Deadheading is the horticultural practice of removing spent flowers from ornamental plants. Deadheading is a widespread form of pruning, since fading flowers are not as appealing and direct a lot of energy into seed development if pollinated. The goal of deadheading is thus to preserve the attractiveness of the plants in beds, borders, containers and hanging baskets, as well as to encourage further blooming. Deadheading flowers with many petals, such as roses, peonies, and camellias prevents them from littering.

[...] Ornamental plants that do not require deadheading are those that do not produce a lot of seed or tend to deadhead themselves [...] if the plant bears attractive seeds or fruits, deadheading is normally avoided

ladybird, ladybug, lady beetle: scientific name "coccinellidae" wikipedia: Etymology: [...] The common English name ladybird originated in Britain where the insects became known as "Our Lady's birds". Mary ("Our Lady") was often depicted wearing a red cloak in early art, and the seven spots of the species Coccinella septempunctata (the most common in Europe) were said to represent her seven joys and seven sorrows. Trophic Roles: Coccinellids act both as predators, prey and parasitic hosts in food webs. The majority of coccinellids are carnivorous and predatory. [...] Cannibalism has been recorded in several species; which includes larvae eating eggs or other larvae, and adults feeding on individuals of any life stage.

Defense: The bright warning colouration of many coccinellids discourage potential predators, warning of their toxicity [...] Species with more contrast with the background environment tended to be more toxic. Coccinellid haemolymph (blood) contains toxic alkaloids, azamacrolides and polyamines, as well as foul-smelling pyrazines. Coccinellids can produce at least 50 types of alkaloids. When disturbed, ladybirds further defend themselves with reflex bleeding, exuding drops from their tibio-femoral (knee) joints, effectively presenting predators with a sample of their toxic and bitter body fluid.

despite said being named after the lady virgin mary they are known to be promiscuous breeders, who's habits have been documented to result in epidemics of sexually transmitted infection in large populations, subject to various academic studies

lyric from lady oscar's theme song "the rose perishes beautifully"

ok there was more but its been like 8 hours it turns out trying to put my thoughts into words even if its just a bunch of copy pasting is even more annoying than just thinking them im ending this post 😭

[queerliblib]

Hello. I'm someone with ADHD and have a pretty hard time reading books that don't have any pictures or illustrations. There are plenty of ya books, manga, and graphic novels out there, but I have been wanting to expand my horizons.

So I was wondering if you had any recommendations of books in your collection that have pictures, that aren't part of the 3 categories above?

Thanks in advance.

Hello! hmmm right, that’s tricky. Here’s a few that we’ve got that don’t fit the categories above, but definitely include illustrations (not sure to what extent in each though)

The Ex-Girlfriend of My Girlfriend is My Girlfriend

Let Me Out - doesn’t bill itself as a graphic novel, but does look a bit like one

Liberated: The radical life and art of Claude Cahun

The Pride Atlas - lots of photographs

Bordered Lives: Transgender Portraits from Mexico

queer, some illustration or photography, not yet in our collection;

She of the Mountains by Vivek Shreya

Queer as all get out by Shelby Criswell

The Fire Never Goes Out: a Memoir in Pictures by N.D. Stevenson

Oh, Luna Fortuna by Stacy Bias

We are Everywhere: Protest, Power, and Pride in the History of Queer Liberation

The Invisibles: Vintage Portraits of Love and Pride 

There are a lot of great graphic novels out there beyond the traditional superhero comic style.. so we really are missing a lot of possibilities by cutting those out. the borders between graphic novel, and illustrated book are also very nebulous!

we had some success searching things like “illustrated adult fiction” but then not all of those are going to be queer

[jujutsutrash]

The four times Noritoshi loses you, and the one he doesn’t

I got the Noritoshi brainrot after his style change in the latest chapters, the dollar store Neji got an upgrade. This is gonna be a 5 part series of which the last chapter will have very minor spoilers for the manga, be warned. Pairing: Noritoshi x reader Word Count: 1486 Warnings: None

1st -

When Noritoshi started his first year at Kyoto Jujutsu High he was keenly aware of the weight that rested on his shoulders. He knew that every one of his actions were being watched and that everything he did affected his clan. The words he spoke, the way he behaved and even the people he associated with, everything was being watched and judged. Which is why he knew he should not associate with you, and yet you held a spell on him that bordered on obsession.

A nameless nobody, at times wilder than even that brute Todo, but just almost as gifted. A child of foreigner blood, raised by a single father who knew nothing of jujutsu and believed only his daughter to have gotten a scholarship at a fancy school. With no clan and little respect for jujutsu traditions, you were, by most definitions, a misfit, placed in the Kyoto college only by the happenstance of living in the surrounding area. You were not someone the future head of the Kamo clan should associate with.

And yet.

At first, Noritoshi would tell himself that he partnered with you for training and missions only because out of the people at his level the options were you or Todo, and you were nowhere near as annoying as Todo. He also held a deep respect for your dedication and quick thinking. He’d tell himself he only watched you intently to understand your moves, you were a mighty sorcerer in the making and a worthy work partner. 

And maybe, at the very beginning, this was true. You were blessed with enough cursed energy to stand against someone like him, as well as the tactical mind to make the most of that energy. You had an outside of the box thinking - maybe a bit too outside of the box for the Kyoto higher ups - that worked well to solve problems on the fly. And you took your work seriously, which made him actually enjoy being partnered with you. Still, Noritoshi knew this was not an association that would be seen with good eyes by the clan.

Then why did he feel himself each day more drawn to you?

Lying to himself could only go so far and soon enough he couldn’t ignore the weird feeling in his stomach your presence gave him, which he worked so hard to hide from the world. He could not pretend he didn’t notice how your presence brought him joy and peace. Nor could he deny how he looked upon your carefree antics with warmth - and maybe a bittersweet tinge what seemed to be jealousy, or was it just pain?

As the months passed Noritoshi found himself constantly following you with his eyes. Relaxing at the sound of your voice. Gravitating towards your presence, even if ever so little. He even found himself enduring Todo a little more if just to have an excuse to be around you. He’d partake in hand to hand combat training more - even if just for a chance to touch you, even if just for a split second. He found himself used to your presence, and to this sort of second hand feeling of having you. He found himself used to these crumbles of something that were all his cowardice and fear of judgment would let him have.

He was the next head of the Kamo clan and here he was, wishing for the crumbles of something he could never have.

“God, you really think too hard, huh?”

Your voice broke him out of his train of thought, a startling return to the real world that saw him move harshly - a bit too harshly for his bruised body - to turn to you. Noritoshi almost snarled at the discomfort brought by a mix of pain and the bothersome hot weather of the summer day. 

“You know,” you started, slowly and carefully sitting down on the floor beside him, “I was standing there for a good two minutes and you didn’t even notice. Gonna fry your brain like that.”

The last mission you two had gone to took a surprising turn for the bad seemingly out of the blue. What was supposed to be a mindlessly easy job ended in you two surviving by running away and calling for reinforcements. Hardly elegant but you two survived - although bruised and shocked - to see another day. By now all you had left from the encounter was a sprained ankle, while Noritoshi was still nursing a nasty gash on his side.

“I apologize,” his voice was low and a bit too quiet.

“No need. Anyways, what you frying your brain about?”

When Noritoshi hesitated a bit too long to answer you already knew what was the matter. You could read him like that.

“Come on, you can’t still be mulling over the mission.”

“You don’t understand,” he sighed, “as the next head of the Kamo clan I have to perfor-”

“Perform your best always because something represent the clan something else,” you cut him off and completed his sentence in an annoyed tone, you had heard that tale from him before. “Listen Noritoshi, cut yourself some slack, we are just first year, you don’t need to be so harsh on yourself,” this was your turn to sigh, “besides, your family is already gonna do that to you, they don’t need you to do their job for them. Don’t be an asshole to yourself.”

Noritoshi lowered his head, he knew he couldn’t do what you were saying and he couldn’t find the courage to meet your eyes. He was ashamed of himself, although he was too proud to even let it show. In the distance a bolt of lightning struck the ground followed by the sound of thunder and rain started to fall on the warm grass of the garden before you too. The drumming sounds of the heavy drops hitting the roof of Kyoto Jujutsu High resounding all around you.

“Thank you,” Noritoshi replied softly.

“Come on.”

You sounded genuinely hurt this time, at this he lifted his eyes to you, just in time to see you read to the large bag beside you and pull something out.

“Here,” you said, handing him an origami lotus made of soft pink paper, “a little gift to cheer you up. I was gonna put it on my dad’s gift box, make it prettier ya know, but I’ll have plenty of time to make another one on the train. You know he moved to Tokyio, I’m gonna be spending some days there with him.”

Noritoshi sat in silence observing the flower on his hands for a few moments before you spoke again.

“What? Didn’t think I’d be the type of person to enjoy folding paper as a hobby?”

You laughed that beautiful laugh of yours, the sound like music to his ears. To be honest, he hadn’t really imagined you as the origami type of person, silly of him not to imagine you could contain multitudes. However, right now he had something else in his mind.

“You are going away?”

Noritoshi didn’t register how soft his voice was, he barely registered how much the thought of being far from you for more than a day or two hurt him.

“Well, yeah, the principal allowed my request to leave, I haven’t seen my dad in a while and he’d get suspicious if I didn’t go home anyways,” you paused and looked at your phone. “Shit, I’m getting late already, gotta go Nori.”

You got up before he could offer to help and pulled the bag with you, making your way to the door. Before you left, however, you came to a stop.

“And please, let yourself rest a little,” your voice held a mix of kindness and worry that melted at his heart.

“I’ll try,” before he knew it he had replied.

You smiled and left. Noritoshi was left alone, contemplating the paper flower in his hands as the rain poured from above. Subconsciously he scooted over a bit further from his original spot at the edge of the roof, not wanting the flower to get wet. He wished time would rush so he could see you again. But he wouldn’t, not so soon.

As the next school year rolled around you did not return to Kyoto High. When he checked your room - when nobody was looking - it was empty of your things. Noritoshi did not ask around about you, he was too much of a coward to do so, he was also too much of a coward to have called or texted during the days you had been away, and this was on him. However he overheard Todo talking about how you had been moved to Tokyo High. Placed with the other misfits under the tutelage of Gojo Satoru. Kyoto Jujutsu High had a name to preserve after all, and a non-caring nameless nobody had no place in tradition.

[centaurworks]

I posted 244 times in 2022

That's 198 more posts than 2021!

100 posts created (41%)

144 posts reblogged (59%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@pureiceblue

@constellor

@krunkidile

@oc-a-day

I tagged 210 of my posts in 2022

Only 14% of my posts had no tags

#oc - 85 posts

#original character - 79 posts

#art - 60 posts

#tgcart - 58 posts

#anime - 58 posts

#artwork - 57 posts

#digital artwork - 54 posts

#anime style - 54 posts

#anime art style - 54 posts

#art 2022 - 54 posts

Longest Tag: 40 characters

#you're probably wondering how i got here

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Suzume of the Stars

Commissions Open I have a Ko-Fi Social Medias Art & Character (Claudia Synderson) © @CentaurWorks There are times when a genie can feel disconnected from their life and the magical world around them; and that has happened to Claudia as well. Some feel a closer connection to the goddess by belly dancing, a tradition started by the first Ancient Genie to reconnect with the goddess. For Claudia, it is to rekindle her genie side in a healthy way, to feel relieved and calm under all the scars. And as she dances, the stars around her join Synderson in her graceful waves.     This felt like a long time coming. Not just an Old WIP that started at the beginning of the year, but one that has started and stopped several times, and now it is done and came out so beautifully. It ended up really clicking for me when I ended up listening to Suzume (feat. Toaka) by RADWIMPS. Combine that with the relationship to Genies and space in my lore, plus me being a fan of space, everything soon clicked and I can't be happier with the beautiful end result!     Hope you like it! :D

3 notes - Posted December 17, 2022

#4

Christmas Night Flight

Commissions Open I have a Ko-Fi Social Medias Art & Character (Cynthia Chuseio, Peyton De Zine) © @CentaurWorks      Merry Christmas to all! I wanted to make a picture to celebrate the holiday and I'm delighted with how it came out. Of course, I added the Christmas Centaur into the image as well as an inclusion from the 2021 winner of the OC Ballot: Cynthia Chuseio. I might have been overboard with the snow but I still love it. I also wanted to create a special border for the occasion as well.      Hope you like it and Merry Christmas to all! :D

5 notes - Posted December 24, 2022

#3

So I found some fan translations of Mermaid Melody Aqua, the sequel to the manga/anime series that got me into anime and... it's meh, and occasionally bad. I get that's it's for a certain demographic, but I also wish that the series could have grown up as well.

A lot of it feels like back-tracking, remember-berries, and even irritating. Probably if I went back and read it, I would feel the same about the OG. And don't get me wrong, it's not bad, it's not Vampire Knight, it's not even Mermaid Boys, but it also could be better.

See the full post

6 notes - Posted December 6, 2022

#2

2011 ⏩ 2022

You'll never know when you'll start, but I'm thankful I kept on creating.

7 notes - Posted December 16, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Thank You, Dragalia

Commissions Open I have a Ko-Fi Social Medias Art © @CentaurWorks  All characters in the image belong to Cygames/Nintendo     It's hard to realize that this game is nearing the end of its life and I'm sad to see it go. Dragalia Lost was one of the first mobile games I ever played, and the one that made me realize that mobile games weren't always about getting money out of your wallet. I fell in love with the characters and story but had to put it down due to IRL matters. I wanted to stream it but could not easily do so thanks to multiple elements. In the end, though, I will still hold this game close to my heart; this piece is to thank the developers who helped create this fantastic world and the stories that came from it.     I hope you like it and for what may be the final time, Thank you, Dragalia.

11 notes - Posted November 26, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[mangamushi]

Thoughts on Panorama of Hell

 (HINO Hideshi, 1 volume, 1984)

(warning for spoilers and disturbing topics)

In Panorama from Hell, a painter obsessed with depicting hell takes the reader on a journey to discover his life. His work, his neighborhood, his family members and family history are presented to paint a bleak and violent picture of hell on earth.

Hideshi Hino is a very big name of horror manga. Panorama of Hell is one of Hino’s most famous and acclaimed manga, and represents in many ways the quintessence of his style. When he draw Panorama, he thought it would possibly be his last horror manga (he didnt actually stop after that, though).

It displays all his favorite themes and even blatantly recycles ideas from his previous works. It is therefore is a very good entry point for anyone interested in Hino’s stuff. One the other hand, it feels a bit redundant when you are already familiar with his work, especially if you have read Lullaby from Hell, as both manga are very similar. 

As the title suggests, Panorama takes place in a hellish setting, described in great details by the main character.  He is a painter who uses his own blood to paint, and the world he lives is horrible in many ways: from his window he sees an execution platform operating non-stop, a stream full off trash and corpses runs next to his house, he lives in the smell of burning bodies because of the next-door crematorium... 

These first few chapters are so insistent on being as abhorrent as possible that I found it hard to take seriously. In the beginning it felt so exaggerated and lacking any subtlety  that it almost felt a bit comical at times, like the author was just stacking awful things on more awful things for shock value.

“his daily routine”

And it keeps escalating from there. Next, his family is introduced: cruel children with a dark sense of curiosity, a beautiful wife who seems straight out of a classic japanese horror tale (pale skin and long black hair, wearing traditional clothes...), until we go back in time to witness the story of his grand-parents and parents. 

It gradually becomes more interesting, especially the part about his family which shows deeply ingrained violence and insanity getting passed down from a generation to the next. It culminates when historical events (WWII and its aftermath, the atomic bombings) are shown, intertwining with the painter’s personal story.

Different kinds of hells complete each other (ambient with initial setting and scenery of desolation, a more personal hell with the intra-familial violence, and the wider-scale historical hell of war).

Overall, I find Hino less imaginative than  fellow “horror masters” Junji ito and Kazuo Umezu. Those two can come up with the craziest ideas, whereas Hino’s scenarios and imagery are somewhat more expected/conventional for horror. 

But perhaps the most interesting part of Panorama is the way it blurs the borders between reality and fiction. First of all, the main character, an artist who specializes in depicting horror, acts as a stand-in for Hino himself. This is fairly common in his work, his other manga Lullaby from hell even has an extremely similar character overtly present himself as Hino: 

The artist from Panorama is making his last, best painting, just like Hino who was thinking of ending his mangaka career with his strongest work.  Both the painting and the manga share the same title, “Panorama of Hell”. 

 The similarities between Hino and his main character don’t end here, and many elements of the story are actually taken from Hino’s own life: his grandfather really was a yakuza, his brother went into a coma, his father was pig farmer with a tattoo on his back...

Just like the painter, Hino grew up in the context of the direct aftermath of WWII. Both the character and the author were born in Japanese-occupied China, and were nearly killed when their family fled back to Mainland-Japan after the country’s loss. He takes inspiration from his own life and in the traumatizing things he witnessed and lived through to draw his manga. It is hard to discern what is fiction or not in the painter’s story. Many elements are obviously fantastical and folklore-ish, like the beheaded ghosts visiting the wife’s bar (this chapter feel like a tone-shift, it is much more whimsical, with the corpses happily eating their own body parts), yet the references to real historic events like the war and Hiroshima bombing still links Panorama of Hell to reality, to our world. 

The painter’s insanity makes him an unreliable narrator. Indeed, at the end of the story, the current members of the painter’s family (his wife, his daughter and son, his brother...) are revealed to have been fake all along : the wife and children are a mannequin and puppets, the brother is a pig’s corpse...

Moreover, by having the painter address the reader directly (”let me show you...”) Hino breaks the fourth wall that should separate the world of fiction from reality.

 This culminates at the very end of the book, where the painter throws an axe at the reader to kill them.

Hino’s art style is really simple and easily recognizable. The way he draws body horror and wounds isn’t very realistic, which makes the gore parts less shocking. His character’s simple, soft, deformed appearance reminds me of modeling clay or perhaps melting plastic toys.

I am even tempted to describe his style as cute. The big eyes, round features, and the way his characters are often miserable and mistreated by others...it is cute in a pitiful way.

Hino draws lots of babies, children, and baby animals which adds to both the cuteness and the horror. It also helps that I share Hino’s fondness for insects, worms and other similar crawling creatures...

There are figures based on his works that are just too cute! 

Hino often puts animals in his stories and even merges animals and humans. He writes stories where people transform into animals (Bug Boy) or give birth to inhuman creatures ( Unusual Fetus -My Baby ). Human bodies are more often than not hosts to parasites and maggots (Mermaid in a manhole...).

In Panorama of Hell, humans are executed one after the other like livestock in a slaughterhouse, and their bodies get dumped in a stream where they mix with other dead animals. Beheaded bodies try to put animal heads on to feel complete again, and the painter’s daughter is obsessed with animal corpses that she collects and dissects.

He doesn’t use any screen tones, nor does he use a lot of crosshatching as a mean to create different shades of grey, so the jet black ink creates a stark contrast against  the white of the paper. Some pages are beautiful and esthetically pleasing in spite of the repulsive contents. Especially towards the end of the book, which depict strange surrealist imagery as the world is falling apart.

His frequent use of pitch black silhouettes reminds me of shadow play theater  (which originates from China where Hino was born), as well as of Kamishibai (street theater using paper, which was very popular in post-war Japan). 

Kamishibai originates from buddhist temples and was often used to spread buddhist teachings.

Hino makes uses of buddhist concepts and imagery in his depiction of hell. Panorama of Hell could be compared to the Hell Scroll, a famous scroll describing the Chinese Buddhist conception of hell with text and pictures. 

↑ The “Blood Lake” and “Needle Moutain” in this panel refers to two of the different kinds of hells depicted in the Hell Scroll. The blood lake is exclusively for women.

Young women are only thing that are drawn in a conventionaly beautiful way.  However, finding beauty and fascination in the most horrendous things is a central point of Hino’s body of work. His characters are either artists or collectors obsessed with what fits their strange idea of beauty (cf. Flower of Flesh and Blood, where a woman’s dismemberment is an act of creation and a research of ideal beauty in the perpetrator’s eyes).

The contrast between the solid black shadows and the untouched white of the paper can give the impression that a strong, blinding light is hitting the world. The violent light emitted from an explosion, for example. Which is fitting, giving the importance of the Hiroshima atomic bomb in the story and its repercussions that still dawn on the characters years later. It’s like the characters are constantly bathed in the harsh light of the bombings. 

The Hiroshima bomb is called a “gigantic emperor from hell”, it rules over the character’s lives, even years after it was dropped. As a child, the painters created a replica of the mushroom cloud that he worships like a god.

Panorama of Hell is a very dark and pessimistic work, displaying a world where there is no hope and nothing is spared (not even the reader, who receives the painter’s axe!). In fact, the main character was already doomed before he was even born. Indeed, he is the child of the Hiroshima bomb itself: his mother got pregnant as she was hit by a beam from the explosion. 

[sorrelstream]

entering “proper grammar” mode because I’m writing this on a google docs first and I don’t want to deal with all those ugly squiggles ahdfsdfds…

But!! Here’s the fully answered Ailuornymy question list, as requested by anon :D! More below the cut!

Favourite canon warrior name?

Hmm… let’s see… Honestly? Probably Silverstream! I don’t think we get many -stream suffixes anymore and there’s something soooo pretty about her name and the way it flows !!

Least favourite canon warrior name?

Snowbush. There’s something so clunky about the way this dude’s name reads in my head and I don’t know why!!! Also Harrybrook >:(

Warrior you’d most like to rename?

Harrybrook. I just!! It doesn’t sound nice at all please give him a better name :( Best name-change name? One-eye! I’m not sure if she asked for her name change or not, but I’ll admit “One-eye” is a pretty baller sounding name and I love that. Also Deadfoot has a cool name too (though I wish he had asked for that name change rather than saddled with it :/)!

Favourite canon character overall?

 Mousewhisker and Hazeltail! They’re two unimportant side characters that don’t really do anything ever but man do I love them with my whole heart <3!

Least favourite canon character overall? 

Thistleclaw and Crowfeather. I’ve talked about why I don’t like either of them a lot before so to keep it short they both make me incredibly uncomfortable nor do I enjoy reading about them at all.

Favourite Warriors book? 

The Darkest Hour! It was my first Warriors book that I read from the main series (Sasha's manga was the first Warriors book in general and how I got into Warriors), and MAN does it still stick with me! So many scenes from that book are just iconic. 

Least favourite Warriors book? 

Anything from Dawn Of The Clans honestly :'). I tried so many times to get into reading that arc and I never could get into it -- it just bored me any time I tried. Same for AVoS, eh.

Favourite canon scene or dialogue of all time? 

Such a random scene but there’s a scene I think about all the time from Power Of Three where Lionpaw has a nightmare about Hollypaw, and she just playfully (? ominously?) says “I’m going to get you” while hidden in the shadows before turning into a fox and attacking him. I think about it SO much…...

Favourite canon leader of all time? 

Crookedstar, followed closely by Tallstar! I love them…. 

Character you think deserved better? 

SO, SO MANY. IT’S UNREAL. Hollyleaf didn’t deserve to get killed off the VERY NEXT BOOK after she came back to ThunderClan, Snowkit didn’t deserve to get killed off just to push Speckletail into the nursery, Nightcloud didn’t deserve… literally anything she got both in canon and how the authors and fandom demonized her, Honeyfern…. Silverstream… the list goes on really :’/

Character you’d like to see “morally” flipped (made “bad” or made “good”)?

Leopardstar, kinda?? But not like. Morally flipped? I guess? I just mean I wish they had gone more into her redemption arc and why she allied herself with Tigerstar besides just “oh she was in love with him”. So it’s not that I wish she was morally flipped, but I wish they went more into her morality because she’s soo vague as it is (and, frankly, maybe I’m biased because I like her but I would’ve loved to see her overcome her initial prejudice or perhaps work for forgiveness for her Clan - perhaps her alliance with Tigerstar was out of worry for the entirety of her Clan since she saw him as the strongest cat and not just… because she “loved” him). Same for Breezepelt, honestly! They kept dancing between “he’s a troubled son of a negligent/abusive father” and “he’s evil :)” and personally? As a child of a negligent father who also abandoned me, it would’ve been way more … I’m not sure WHAT the word I’m looking for is but I think Breezepelt’s story would’ve been better if they focused on making him a troubled teen of a negligent, bad father and actually embraced Crowfeather being an antagonist in PO3 instead of not wanting to make him look bad. It’s just weird the erins flip flop between “this character is evil” and “this character is ok” so much it’s FRUSTRATING :/

Favourite AU (alternate universe) concept? 

Answered here! 

Warrior code rule you think is best?

Always help a kitten in need, no matter their heritage! I know that’s not the exact wording but anyways. Perhaps I’m biased because I, in general, don’t like reading about child death (I know it happens and I can handle it in some plots but sometimes it’s just so excessive), but in general I think it’s one of the best and genuinely helpful code laws, especially because kittens always deserve a chance at life. I think the second best rule would be the one that states a warrior does not need to kill to win a battle, because I think that adds a lot more depth (potentially) to how warriors value the lives of others and creates a bigger scene? scandal? when someone is killed in battle versus dying of wounds later on. It also, again, keeps the youngsters like apprentices safe!

Warrior code rule you think shouldn’t exist/should be changed?

If you know me, you won’t be surprised because it’s the same answer as always: the leader’s word is law. I’ve spoken a lot about that code before and even have a comic about its flaws, so I won’t go into it too much here, but I just think it’s a recipe for disaster.

Describe your ideal vision of Starclan/clan afterlife.

Hmmm let’s see… my ideal vision of StarClan/clan afterlife would be a little bit like what it’s like in canon at the moment but with a few twists. I think the borders would dissolve in StarClan so there’d be less in-fighting (though I imagine, after growing up your whole life hating your neighbors, a lot of cats have a hard time getting used to the no-boundary life-style of StarClan, and a lot of young/new spirits tend to stick within their own Clan cliques before venturing out and meeting former members of other Clans. Older spirits would be the ones most used to interacting with former members of other Clans). I think there’d be sections that mimic the corporeal Clan’s territories in theme, but with different landmarks and such so that new spirits have a new world to explore. I’d also take away the fading aspect because I don’t really think that’s… fair? I guess? It’s weird to me but I’d prefer not to go into it. I’d also make it so that there’s no great wisdom to these cats - or, at least, the wiser StarClan spirits are the ones that have been around for as long as anyone can remember. They wouldn’t be able to interfere with the living as much in canon and can only really visit medicine cats, or possibly leaders, in dreams; anyone else has to go to the sacred area to commune with the dead. Not sure what else though! This is just kind of a general idea.

Traditional or non-traditional naming. Thoughts?

I think both have their merits! While I prefer traditional naming systems because I enjoy seeing the way people develop suffix meanings and assign well-known meanings to them (and even connotations!), plus it helps me personally assign even the smallest trait to a side character so they feel just a little more real, I see why people would enjoy non-traditional naming systems as it does give more breathing room for individual name creation. Also, I’m not gonna lie, there’s some gorgeous lyrical names out there that flow beautifully. My heart will always belong to traditional naming, though, I think. 

If traditional: What non-traditional suffix would you include in your system? If non-traditional: What’s your favourite canon suffix?

Traditional! I actually have included some non-traditional suffixes in my system, just for variety! But those are: -throat, -pool, -belly, -fern, -bee, -berry, -chirp, and -tooth, for example. There’s actually quite a few more but I don’t wanna list every single addition shfbd!

Best thing about the clan system as a concept in your opinion?

Hard to pick, honestly! But I do think the best thing about clans as a system is their unity; they’re a little society that has each other’s backs, and the care for young and elderly a lot is touching!

Favourite Warriors fanfiction (or fanfiction writer)?

HA this might be an obvious answer, but 100% solacefruit on ao3 (also: @/ailuronymy and @/burnt-sycamore on tumblr!). His worldbuilding is to die for and there’s something so charming and attention grabbing about his writing style that always has me waiting for the next update. Seriously, probably one of my biggest writer inspirations. 

Favourite Warriors fanartist (includes animators)?

Answered here!

Most interesting villain?

Mapleshade and Sol, honestly. I’ve rambled about Mapleshade before, I think, but I think her story could have had a lot of potential to call out the misogyny and bias of StarClan and the code, and how mollies are often punished harsher than the toms for their code-breaking. Her story also features how weird the warriors are with the warrior code - it’s like they cherry pick what they want to believe? Oakstar sends three innocent kittens out of the Clan, presumably to die (which they do), despite the code speaking to never endanger a kitten’s life no matter their heritage, and no one ever questions him, or the rest of ThunderClan, for standing by to watch kittens die? Even Frecklewish outright stated she watched the kittens die and did nothing about it. Why? Why was everyone okay with punishing Mapleshade for breaking a rule of the code but no one questioned Oakstar or anyone else in ThunderClan for kicking out the kits alongside Mapleshade, when it was Mapleshade’s crime and not the kits? And why doesn’t Appledusk get punished or ostracized by his clanmates as severely as Mapleshade did? It had a lot of potential but it’s just a mess. Anyways - onto Sol. Another interesting concept kinda messed up by the Erins. In general, I really love villains that are just nuisances at best and no real threat - kind of like Heinz Doofenshmirtz - and with Sol’s backstory being the way it was, he was the perfect opportunity to have him be this little antagonistic shithead who, while annoying and causing problems, wasn’t actually a serious threat, and he of all villains would have had the best shot at redemption I think.

Favourite canon clan?

RiverClan! I love their aesthetic, their territory, and their general vibes. In love with water-based places <3!!

What would you ask Erin Hunter, if you could?

“Would you hand the series off to a new team of writers?” All good series must come to an end, but with Warriors being as broad as it is, I think this is a series where spin offs can be made and still thrive - just not with the current author staff we have at the moment. There’s lots of people with amazing, creative ideas for Warriors, and I know this is just a fantasy at best, but I would love to see a new writing team take over and weave brand new stories and worldbuilding with it in spin-offs. Hell, even I’d love to take a crack at publishing a Warriors spin off, but, again, it’s a fantasy at best.

Top five prefixes (canon or otherwise)?

Sorrel-, Chub-, Mink-, Rose-, and Vervain- (you can tell I like these prefixes considering these are all prefixes of characters featured in my webcomic besides Sorrel-, which is used for my wcsona’s name ha!) Honorable mentions to: Black- (or any color based prefix like Yellow-, Red-, Ginger-, Blue-, Gray-, White-, etc. I don’t know why but I’m fond of them), Beetle-, and Fidget- (which isn’t a traditional prefix, but I think it’s cute hehe.)

Top five suffixes (canon or otherwise)?

Just narrowing down for traditional because I need a smaller pool to pick from habdfsd but! -face, -flower, -stripe, -storm and -nose! 

If you were on Drunk Warriors Rants, what would you talk about?

I have no idea what Drunk Warriors Rants is actually but I’m assuming it’s something where you get drunk and rant about warrior cats so… I would absolutely rant about Hollyleaf and mainly the wild mischaracterization the fandom has made of her break down and the murder of Ashfur. It irks me to no end how so many people have pushed this weird concept that Hollyleaf was aware her parents were Crowfeather and Leafpool when she murdered Ashfur to the point that most people I talk to genuinely don’t realize this, because not only does it just make so sense narratively but I feel like it really does take away from the depth that is her character. I think Hollyleaf is one of the few characters we get, like, an actual depth to, who is developed beyond “typical protagonist with love interest”, and has an interesting arc, downfall, and redemption. When she killed Ashfur, she was totally unaware that Leafpool and Crowfeather were her parents - in fact, the entirety of Sunrise is about Hollyleaf, Jayfeather, and Lionblaze trying to figure out who their parents are, so I honestly don’t know where this whole “Hollyleaf knew about her heritage when she killed Ashfur” thing came from. It really ruins her arc by making her out to be some nonsense cat who killed to keep a secret she spilled anyways, and not a cat who killed to keep a secret she didn’t fully understand yet, who then completely unraveled once she discovered the origins and how her existence completely went against everything she was raised to believe in.

What would your warrior name be?

Pretty obvious answer but my warrior name would be Sorrelstream! Or possibly Sorrelstripe, but I lean towards Sorrelstream. I love to swim a lot actually but I wouldn’t say I’m a particularly strong or skilled swimmer but hey… It’s my warriors sona and I get to give him one (1) skill.

Bonus questions:

Describe your favourite original Warriors characters! 

HONESTLY this question is a little tough because I have such a huuuge cast of original warrior characters it’s hard to narrow down! I’d say if you’re interested in hearing more about my ocs or seeing them in action to check out my @/roseface blog, which is dedicated to my wc comic, or check out my ao3 account (kiittenteeth) because I’ll probably be posting warriors-centric original character stories there soon!

Describe your original Warriors clans! 

Heyyy fun fact! I’m actually working on a small novel fanfic (only about ten chapters long) featuring my fanclans! They’re a group of four Clans set in an abandoned gated neighborhood/area - FernClan (located in the local abandoned mall), PondClan (located in the abandoned golf course), GleamClan (located in the local abandoned restaurant/diner), and FieldClan (located in the abandoned K-12 academy school). I won’t go too much into them here since I want to explore their worldbuilding in my fic, but keep an eye out for them when I drop the first chapter of Ribs! 

Talk about your feelings about the Warriors series! 

Oh man. A lot. The series itself is… disappointing, at best, but I’m awfully attached to it no matter how many times I try to break away from it. It was my biggest media interest growing up (keyword: media), so it’s a pretty big part of me and the way I grew up. Plus I met a good chunk of my friends through warrior cats related areas, so :’)!!! It’s a series that despite all its flaws is incredibly close to me but I’m mainly here to read everyone’s fan content because MAN does the fan content go above and beyond!

(Asked by @/whocares-idont) What’s your opinion on fan made Clan pantheons? 

I LOOVE fan made Clan pantheons actually! Mythology was always something I loved learning about as a kid, and I’m particularly fond of the worldbuilding people make for the Warriors setting. I feel like creating a pantheon and mythos tied to it adds to the depth of the world and makes it all the more interesting and realistic, especially since mythology is such a huge part of so many cultures, both ancient and modern one. I think creating pantheons really adds to the setting people make with warriors, and, honestly, they’re always really fun to read about!!

[deltaengineering]

Fall Anime 2019 Part 4: also, he has a gun for a head

Beastars

So here’s the CG anime that everyone for some reason decided way in advance would be the best show of the season, more or less by default. I was very skeptical of this for a multitude of reasons. First of all, that is a bad name for a show and you can’t convince me otherwise. It’s actually even worse because you’re supposed to write it in all caps, but I refuse. Second, it has a terribly on the nose conceit in which all sorts of animals live together in a high school setting and it’s all metaphorical ‘n shit. The main character is a wolf but get this, he’s actually all sensitive and quiet! Yeah, this is definitely rated D for Deep. And finally it’s by Orange, the CG studio that got an inordinate amount of acclaim for making Houseki no Kuni, the show that everyone thinks looks great and finally made CG anime worthwhile (actual real fact: HnK does not look great most of the time and CG anime was worthwhile well before it). 

But enough about my preconceptions since Beastars is... pretty good, actually. If you ignore the setting, which is indeed terribly on the nose. And there’s not much else to say about the story so far besides it. However, it looks significantly better than Houseki no Kuni because it actually has really good character animation throughout instead of a one-minute action scene with flashy spinny camera tricks every other episode. The directing’s strong too, even if the show conspicuously mainly consists of obvious manga panels. I’m still not too hot on the animal stuff but the general writing seems to be sufficiently competent it would work simply on a character level. So I don’t love it, but it seems solid enough to see if it goes somewhere with its “Zootopia but also Beverly Hills 90210 but also they eat each other sometimes″ plot.

Rifle is Beautiful

Remember the whole “anime about some assorted anime girls joining a club doing an oddly specific activity” thing? This is another one of those, and now it’s about air rifle sports shooting. Except it’s not about air rifle sports shooting because that’s apparently way too violent, so they use rifles that look like exactly like air rifles but are actually based on lasers or really bright flashlights (they can’t keep their bullshit straight between scenes, sorry) instead. I just don’t think “girls doing activities” anime should blatantly misrepresent their subject matter like that, you know? With the possible exception of idol anime that is, ain’t nobody who wants to hear about that shit. Apart from that it’s nothing special, so if you are really into air rifles and wish to watch an anime that’s not about those, knock yourself out. It goes through a whole “club needs 5 members” arc in the first half of the first episode, so I really can’t say where it goes next. Nowhere much, I would guess.

Oh right, there’s one more thing: They frequently render the bodies in CG and the heads in traditional drawings, and they do it every time when they’d actually have to draw a rifle otherwise. It’s a weird effect that I think I haven’t seen anywhere else before, and it’s not great but also not terrible. And it’s the most interesting thing about the entire show.

Kabukicho Sherlock

“Let’s take a bunch of public domain characters and put them into a hip modern setting” seems to be its own genre at the moment, and not only because the BBC did that with S. Holmes, Esq. already. Obviously this show is influenced by that (besides other public domain namedroppers like Bungou Stray Dogs), mostly in Watson and his relationship with Sherlock, but Sherlock-san is rather different here; he’s neither the classic Victorian bohemian nor the abrasive sociopath of the BBC version, and tends more towards a bumbling 90s pop culture version of autism and/or general wackiness here. These two are surrounded by a bunch of campy transvestites for some reason, and I’m not quite sure whether I’m supposed to find this particular stereotype offensive or empowering this week, but it sure is annoying. And it has the same character designer as Joker Game, so if you like chiseled, angular anime men, you’re in for a treat here - even if they tend to wear a lot of makeup and dresses sometimes. I don’t know man, it seems sort of okay-ish for the most part but it’s neither as funny as they think, nor as weird as they think, nor is the murder of the week intriguing at all. Oh yeah, he’s hunting noted public domain character Jack the Ripper. Because of course he is.

 Shin Chuuka Ichiban!

I am told this is the sequel to episode 19 of a 52-episode anime TV show from 1997. Okay. I am also told to not dare watch this without the important setup therein, which makes me think I should pay less attention to what I’m told because understanding Shin Chuuka Ichiban and its backstory is not hard at all. Kid is superawesome cooking champion in ancient China and goes around clowning on lesser cooks, got it. It’s not a complicated setup and it’s not a complicated genre either: This seems to be mostly about sick shounen cooking duels. Besides the setting, the main difference between this and Shokugeki no Soma seems to be that SnS goes for ridiculous and Chuuka Ichiban goes for epic - which is to say that it fancies itself emotional as well. Apart from that it’s what you’d expect from a cooking shounen, big moves, big reactions, huge twists and so on. One notable thing is that this show looks really, really nice. Production I.G seems to be establishing a sideline in taking stuff from the 90s and updating it with smoother animation and shinier lighting, while keeping the overall look intact; They did it for Mahoujin Guru Guru, and this looks much the same. Still, I’m just fundamentally not really interested in what appears to be a very straightforward cooking shounen from the 90s.

Assassins Pride

Straight from the Department of Chuuni, we have this light novel masterpiece about a cool as fuck teenage assassin who teleports behind u and nothin personells fools all day. He then meets a princess he’s supposed to off but just kinda decides not to, probably because she seems to be smitten by his m’lady act. Now he has to use his sick skillz to keep them both alive. It’s awful and terrible and no good and also kind of adorable. This truly is the most 13 AND A HALF MOM years old anime in a while, and it’s not even isekai! The writing’s just so amateurish and corny you can’t help but smile when princesses exposit their backstory for no reason while being accosted by pumpkin monsters (without knowing that Awessassin McCooldude happens to be listening in, which is certainly convenient). Or when the episode ends with the man just reading the synopsis of the show out again, in case you were too fascinated by this plot to pay attention to what it’s about. Yeah I’m not going to watch this in a thousand years, but it sure made me chuckle. Your mileage may vary.

Mugen no Juunin - Immortal

Speaking of 𝔱𝔥𝔞𝔱 𝔫𝔦𝔫𝔢𝔱𝔦𝔢𝔰 𝔢𝔡𝔤𝔢, another anime adaptation of Blade of the Immortal appeared! You know, the manga for the cultured and historically minded guro fan. The first episode of Blade of the Immortal runs with this and is an arthouse production that someone most definitely directed the shit out of. I don’t think I’ve seen this much directing since, well, Sarazanmai, but “Ikuhara amounts of directing” is pretty much the idea here. And most of the time it even works! The quickly edited, disorienting style gives episode 1 a feeling closer to horror than to a cool swordmen action show, and that really brings out the best in the material, which is grotesque splatter bordering on the comical - It’s somehow a better Junji Ito anime than the actual Junji Ito anime. I think it tries too hard in a few places, but at least it does try.

But then I watched the second episode and that one’s a fairly conventional splatter-comedy swordin’ anime. I am not at all pleased with this development. The third episode was better again and seemed to split the difference between 1 and 2, even if it mostly uses the tricky editing to save on effort in the action –  I would much prefer actually readable fights and the wacky mannerisms in the more psychological stuff, thank you very much. Based on episode 1 I thought we might have something special here, but as of episode 3 I’d already merely call it pretty decent. I guess I’ll still stick with it but man, that’s a real bummer.

No Guns Life

No Guns Life is a neo-noir thriller about a guy who has a gun for a head. That’s fuckin rad and exactly the kind of silliness I am totally down for. He also has a gun for a hand, and there’s also some battle nun’s who carry revolvers with two cylinders, so in short I think the title is false advertising. This sounds very wacky (and it is), but it also takes its noir very seriously, down to details more wannabe neo-noirs tend to neglect (like being set right after a big war). The look and feel is pretty excellent, with sharp design and high-contrast artwork, and the music goes all in on the moody saxophone as you’d expect. And there’s some really adorable “look mom, I’m writing” stuff about how Man With Gun For A Head really “needs someone to pull his trigger” and so on (which is, as the astute reader might remember, at the back of his head). It feels like a throwback but then I can’t really think of many 80s/90s shows like this, so it’s actually more like the sort of faux-retro idea Trigger/Imaishi would come up with on a lark. Trigger/Imaishi would, of course, make a far worse anime out of it, so it’s all good. Well, it has some pacing problems and as always it’s a fine line between amusingly camp and not so amusingly camp anymore, but No Guns Life seems to have enough real qualities that it can probably stand on its own even when its conceptual gimmick eventually doesn’t suffice anymore. I give it a two gun’s up.

Hoshiai no Sora / Stars Align

And finally, here’s an anime about middle schooler softboys playing a tennis just as soft as themselves, while being henpecked by the elites on the girl’s team. This is not an “actual” sports anime though: for starters, it’s not based on some shounen manga and is an anime original with quite some staff pedigree instead. It’s also more of a character drama that already goes to some surprisingly real places by the end of episode 1, reminiscent of the recent and quite good Run with the Wind. Furthermore, it looks delicious, with minimalist but distinctive and varied character designs and animation that’s both extremely detailed for a TV anime and also not trying to shove that fact into your face with flashy stunt cuts. In short, this show seems very simple at first glance but every aspect of it just oozes quality. If nothing else, it’s already worth watching just for the excellent ending sequence where the characters show off their “best” dance moves and the chunky student council president dunks on everyone. This one caught me by surprise and it’s an easy pick for most promising show of the season.

[sylleboi]

𝕮𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖗𝖔𝖙𝖔𝖘𝖈𝖔𝖕𝖎𝖓𝖌 | 23/10/19

During the morning we went to the photography department of the school where we would start the day off there by filming our own footage to rotoscope later on. There were no restrictions as to what we were allowed to do in front of the camera and green screen, but we had to move from one side of the screen to the other. I decided to go for a gun man or James Bond type of vibe. I didn’t want to just do a simple walk or run cycle, but instead I wanted to challenge myself a little. I did this by sneaking into frame, holding my hands up as if I was holding a gun (this added a prop that I would have to draw form scratch during the process of rotoscoping) then doing a turn and running back out the frame. When recording the clips in the green screen room, I also decided to turn around and then turn back while moving to add to the difficulty of animating everything together. This is how both of them turned out:

I decided to go with the first of the two clips for my rotoscope. I did this simply because of the turn being slower and therefore making it more challenging to animate the gun to follow the movement in such a way that it won't look “out of place”.

I didn’t find the time during college hours to actually do the rotoscope for this, so I did it at home using my own program (Krita) and my drawing tablet.

The process was relatively simple; I took the video and took a screenshot of each frame as I went, dragging the screen grab onto the canvas and began tracing my figure. As I went, I also drew in the gun for each frame, lining it up with the position with my hands.

To keep the appearance of the gun consistent I copied most of the frames, up until I came to the part where I had to change the perspective of which the gun is seen from (during the turn).

Once I had finished the whole rotoscope this is what I was left with:

The finished amount of frames came to 66. Quite a high number for such a short animation, but I didn’t want to take away from the fluidity and smoothness. Now I could have just left it here, but I wanted to do some more experimenting. I tried out filling in the clothes with some texture to create a more interesting looking sequence, but half way through I decided to go back to the original linework since I just wasn’t happy with how it was turning out, but here was that in motion:

Instead I did a bit of brainstorming, thinking about what I could do to improve what I had already made. Here’s the mindmap of the brainstorm that I did:

So as you can see, I ended up wanting to experiment with depth, leading me to be doing something to the background. Most of the mind map is based off visual language. I found using this as the root for my brainstorm really useful due to the way you can interpret each term differently to whatever the context is. I will definitely be doing this again and experiment with it further in the future.

I had also settled on wanting to keep it monochrome (misspelling in mind map) and more specifically drawing towards the style of the classic black & white manga comic book style. Based on this, what immediately popped into my mind was this program I recall trying out years and years ago called Medi Bang Paint Pro, or as I think it was used to called; Medi Bang. I was probably around 12 or 13 when I first downloaded it, but I didn't know what I was doing what so ever, so I quickly gave up. For a long time it wasn’t compatible with Mac up until recently; so I decided to take a shot and download it again. The program is free; but that wasn’t the main reason to why I wanted to try out this program again in particular. It has a lot of great tools for drawing and building comic pages, and I thought “What would it look like if I made a background inspired by traditional manga?”- so that’s what I did.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to pull it off at first, so I did a little test run beforehand and I really liked the result:

So the way that I did this was by taking a picture (that I unfortunately have lost now) and then proceeding by changing the levels of the picture, playing around with it until it’s primarily just blacks and whites. With a brush tool I began cleaning everything up a little by either erasing unwanted bits or adding additional linework just to emphasise on the subject and shapes within the drawing. I added leaves and other vegetation with some pre-made brushes that came with the program. The last step was to add a screentone of a clouded sky to add a bit of texture, shading and general interest to the whole piece, and voila! Done. This technique is super quick and efficient for creating backgrounds for comics of this style, though I still prefer when everything is painted by hand. The screentone has a very recognisable style to it and is quite often used in manga’s. One of the ones that come to mind for me is Berserk. I have always loved the artwork of that comic series; it’s the kind of art that you could stare at for hours on end and not get bored with. When looking at the artwork from the series, you can clearly see the technique of screentones are being used to create a lot of additional detail to each panel.

Here are some examples of some screentones:

In this example, it has been used for the background. A screentone with blobs lightly shaded has been added to almost create some sort of mist, changing the whole mood and feel of the panel very effectively.

Like mentioned before, in Berserk, the screentones are mostly used as an extra bit of atmospheric detail, rather than being used for any of the shading which is all hand drawn. In this example, it has been used for the lettering/type and again for the background. It creates a gritty and sort of dirty effect, emphasising how he is in a battlefield with monsters around him; definitely not a place you could call “clean”.

In this example, different kinds of sceentones have been used in each panel. In the panel to the left, the opaque stripes are a type of screentone very often used to indicate either speed, focal point or action of some kind. Not only that, but at the bottom of the panel a softer pattern of screentone has been used to create the look of dirt or sand, again with a gritty texture to emphasise on the fact that the character, Guts, is inferior at this moment.

In this super epic and intense illustration, you can again see the great use of screentones, most notably used for the background yet again. It really helps to create a strong feel to each illustration. The use of tone is especially important in manga or comics, since it so often is done in just black & white, so you have no use of colour; this is where screentones come in as a great tool to use for just this.

So, with all of this brainstorming and researching done, and by using the same technique as I did when doing the “test”, I began drawing. I used this picture which I recall taking somewhere on the border to Germany as the base image:

I chose this because it has that “street” vibe to it, which I thought could be cool with the whole theme of “gun man”. Very edgy, very edgy indeed.

This gif above shows loosely the process of the piece from start to finish. It was mostly just me playing around and figuring out all the tools of the program, but it was quite fun to put together.

With the background now complete, I put it into my rotoscope, went over each frame and painted the shape of myself in the animation white and was finally finished with the final rotoscope; being the third version or option that I did.

I am very happy with how it turned out in the end, and I have definitely learnt masses with this exercise of rotoscoping something that that I have filmed myself. I think if I were to further improve on this, I’d definitely consider animating the background itself (birds flying or leaves rustling), or maybe even try shading the subject somehow, taking inspiration from manga’s such as Berserk or any of Junji Ito’s work.

I decided to try out asking a few of my peers in the class what their opinion was on the final rotoscope. The feedback that I received was purely positive; the people I asked said they couldn't think of any particular way of improving the finished product. They said it both looked great as well as it answered what the task was questioning and challenging us to do.

To me, this really shows and proves that the work I have done here is successful work that I can be proud of and take what I have learnt through doing this task with me for the future, without doubting if what I have learnt is of quality.

✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

As a little extra note, here are the same frames (frame 23) in the three different versions:

[afreakingdork]

Review: KONOHANA KITAN

“ In a bustling village of spirits, Yuzu, a cheerful fox girl, starts her first job as an attendant at the traditional hot springs inn Konohanatei. Though Yuzu has no experience working at such a high-class establishment, Kiri, the affable and reliable head attendant, immediately puts her to work learning the basics. While Yuzu's eagerness initially proves to be more of a hindrance than a blessing, her playful nature brings a unique charm to the inn, as both customers and her fellow workers quickly warm up to her clumsy yet well-meaning mistakes. Under the guidance of the other foxes—the rigid Satsuki, the carefree Natsume, the critical Ren, and the quiet Sakura—Yuzu steadily learns the trade of an inn attendant while learning to love the magical world surrounding her. Konohana Kitan presents the heartwarming tale of a simple fox girl forging bonds with others and finding a home amidst the mysterious, beautiful world of spirits. “

This story is the real yuri la-la-lesbians I have been waiting for. It makes citrus (both the manga and anime) look especially bad considering the main protagonist is also named Yuzu! This story was sweet and warmed my heart, I had a few complaints, but let’s save that for... 

Criticism: 

My biggest complaint with this show is actually the characters themselves. The show just sort of starts with them and gives them no life or exposition at all. So then you would think: is this one of those shows where you learn more about the character as you go? Not really is the unfortunate answer. They are little more than puppets that these short stories are acting upon. 

I am glad ‘Okiku’ has little do to with the show because she is so annoying. Her personality is garbage to the point where they even point it out in Episode 11 "A God's Day Off". I am also pretty annoyed that since this show makes the point to, ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS, mourn the loss of the old Japanese traditions to restyle her from a traditional ‘creepy’ Japanese doll to a western style doll. Way to shoot your own foot! 

I am so mad that they don’t explain the setting until Ep 11 also: 

You would think: Oh, they waited for story reasons right? No! There was no big reveal or revelation, this piece of information you had been slowly wondering about all show was revealed in a throw away line. It really ticks me off. 

Yeah no these girls ain’t sisters. I hate when anime makes siblings look literally not even kind of alike. It’s so improbable to not even look A LITTLE like your sibling. 

Also speaking of the scene above which is from Episode 10 "The Sister Strikes" I really am saddened that this show didn’t have the animation budget to animate several scenes such as this one of them dancing. The backgrounds are gorgeous and it makes me sad. 

Why the fuck did they feel the need to include this weird licking scene... 

Don’t even get me started on the HUGE age difference between these two also... At least this is a one off thing that never comes back... 

Positives: 

The story telling is absolutely superb. I have not seen this incredible level of magical realism bordering on reality since the likes of the goddess Kozue Amano (which is funny because the writer of Kitan is named  Sakuya Amano!!! They even go into a chibi form that is reminiscent of Kozue Amano’s work) I was caught by at least three different twists over the course of the show. This is an author that can truly play with your emotions in just an incredible way. I cannot praise this type of story telling enough and how rare it is for someone to be so successful at it. 

This

In another point, I want to again applaud the writing, especially the back half of Ep 10. You have gone the whole show thinking Hiiragi is this ethereal priestess that Satsuki cannot live up to and then you find that just by seeing the story through another person’s eyes that everything you thought was wrong and that Hiiragi was sent to be a priestess because she was ONLY good at being a priestess while Satsuki is good at everything. Satsuki wasn’t sent to  Konohanatei as punishment but instead Hiiragi was sent to be a priestess for that reason. Again, mind-blowing story telling... 

Oh and this: 

I love how everyone and everything is connected. Such a beautiful mentality. 

We stan queens: 

I adore how they aren’t treated as a joke. These are true goddesses to be worshiped. 

Verdict: 

[candymayvary]

continuing what the other anon asked about dating castiel... people call his behaviour abusive. i know you finished the game with him and all so this might end up being biased haha but what do you think? do you think its fair to call him that?

I think this ask is referencing this other one, and I was kind of holding off on answering this... 

I don’t quite know how to phrase all of this, honestly? Personally, I wouldn’t consider his behaviour ‘abusive’. I know, from when the game was first written, to how it finished a few months ago, mentalities changes. We become more aware of issues, more aware of the signs of issues, and react accordingly. We’re also a little more ready to just slap labels on to things without any critical and informed thinking, mostly out of concern of not being associated with certain things. It’s a very slippery slope, that has actually caused more harm than good, in becoming hyper aware of every little thing. But that’s an argument for another time. 

When this game was written, at the height of popularity was the cool, indifferent guy, who made comments that would get a rise out of characters (especially in anime/manga). Castiel was played up to eleven, in that respect. And his opposite, Nathaniel, is the sweet, quiet guy, ultimately so respectful it borders on indifference as well. At the time of the game first being brought out, Castiel filled out the tropes, ticked all the little boxes to make him the ‘bad boy guitar player’. I’m surprised they didn’t add on womaniser too but thank god, really. He was literally created to be the polar opposite to the ‘good guy’. 

But he was mean and personal in remarks. I’ve said it before. At the time I played (six years ago...), I did like the whole ‘sweet side only shown to someone he liked’ thing. I also really appreciate the growth he showed and the few times Candy has actually stood her ground against anyone (because she is written as remarkably weak willed and nosy, which is unfortunately a part of a standard in otome style games), it was against Castiel. She has put her foot down with him several times. Remarked that his negativity doesn’t make her feel good. Made a point to say that she wants him to change. Romance or friendship, he does do this. 

Honestly, on some level, I think the older MCL episodes should’ve probably been rewritten and retouched, just to keep up a little with the current shift in attitudes. I replayed the episodes and raced to catch up to current episodes back in December or something, but when I first played the game to now... I’m not surprised that people still don’t like him. On the one hand, yes, it’s an otome game. You’ve got to work to get the guy. But if the guy is mean to you, hot and cold, for a decent amount of interactions, you don’t want him compared to the others. You can play up until that final decision point, and still not like him. You can have a lot of people telling you that it pays off in the end, that he gets the development, being openly sweet to not just you but friends, starts becoming more social and not unloading his personal baggage on you, but that won’t change your opinion. And you’re allowed to have that opinion, that disagreement, and that feeling. 

I do believe there is some level of forgiveness towards these kind of games, when characters fill out tropes. It’s very obvious that the original angle of MCL took a lot of inspiration from the more traditional otome games, and I can tell you even now, with the gradual localisation of some of the more (in)famous ones, including their anime counterparts, people are vocal about their dislike for what the games present. There is the matter of things being changed for western sensibilities, of course, and I’m not saying all things should fly just because it’s okay in one country, especially where the game was made and what audience it was aimed at. But it’s critical to recognise these points, make concise arguments about it, and for some things, just accept that you aren’t the target audience (especially, notably, in regards to anime/manga). 

Not excusing such things, of course, but also recognising what you are ultimately getting yourself into. With the way the internet is now, you can search up a hundred different things to breakdown what a game/movie/tv show/book will contain before having to get into it. You can ask someone on a forum, or on a blog, to give you a quick rundown of what to watch out for. Creating a personal space for yourself on the internet, as there are tools and easy to use references to filter out stuff you don’t want to see, from low level discomfort to extremes. So if you come across something that doesn’t make you feel okay, like a screenshot of a character saying something personal to another character, don’t follow on. 

Bringing this all back to Castiel now: no, I do not consider his behaviour abusive, in any way, shape, or form. I do believe his initial writing, referenced heavily from otome games, was to fill out a certain role in the roster of dateable boys. I also believe that some time should be put aside to actually go back and tweak certain dialogue, make small updates, and just bring the beginning of the game up to speed, so as to not deter new players. Castiel is an abrasive character, for sure, whose trope doesn’t age well in the western demographic. For the most part, we’ve moved past the standard hot/cold character who only exposes a soft side to one particular person. 

So, his character I feel is more not up to date, than anything else. Which makes me concerned for his MCLUL continuation, because they can’t fly the ‘insolent’ and ‘hard to approach’ flag anymore, especially after the development he’s received. If they keep up the character that he was in episode 1, he’s not going to be received well. That archetype is very old, and doesn’t fit into the demographic that they are aiming the game at anymore. They’ve decided to age up the characters, give them some growth... but they’ve got recognise trends and changes, too. I mean it’s a wait and see moment right now, for how Castiel comes in. Nathaniel’s MCLUL introduction and subsequent interaction in episode 2 is already causing a bit in the way of ripples (such as his punching bag line). But yeah. I think I made my point, on some level? Hopefully this made sense, as I’ve seen the reactions to Castiel over the years - which ultimately shocks me how they consider him the most popular, when I’ve only ever seen negativity.

[themangaguide]

There have been celebrations

Tale Review:

Through which lead characters perhaps deal or familiarize themselves with these designs surrounding vampires is coming to be prevalent today, where visitors recognize with view the common college atmosphere. Though the exact same concept is not treated by manga online it does change it by opting for a substantially one-of-a-kind method on its styles as well as interpretations of it, paired with outstanding funny over the board. It normally might be considered long-running joke manhwa surrounding the major subject of skeletons with fantastic action. What's extremely crucial to see for individuals who do not such as this won't have the capability to appreciate this work-in its greatest; what's even more, along with is the reality that comedy can be a crucial aspect of the manhwa, its primary protagonists aren't teens, however individuals.

Story Upon discovering his faithful slave Frankenstein, he selects to comprehend and also therefore mix within the very university in the human world his slave. Along with his missing out on information on existing society in addition to their very own personality, entertaining situations are ensured. Despite the tranquil environment bordering him, the planet is really no better than the old. Secret, fraud, bloodlust as well as greed are about the purchase of your day. I would desire to clarify the earlier sections are in fact extremely unique in the remainder. Which indicates that the initial order of sections are without almost no discussion with a peculiar framework regarding its craft growth; this might direct site visitors to think (me included) that it 'd progress within similarly, which considerably to my surprise wasn't the situation.

As formerly pointed out earlier, the idea of the sequence is global and absolutely nothing innovative, nonetheless why is it fascinating is its technique: it employs the enigma bordering its numbers and styles to its benefit to be able to generate a general atmosphere making site visitors interested on which would be ahead next. Absolutely sufficient, you can discover 3 greater groups: the Marriage, known due to their human composition adjustments, meant for the security of humankind. After that you will find the Nobles, the "skeletons" (not within the traditional sense) should you might, the exceptional race, after which eventually you will locate the werewolves. What's interested might be the fact the Nobles aren't repainted whilst the normal bad guys that will certainly be normally duplicated within the medium; rather great deals of nonpartisanship is worried for that various teams. When dealing with these companies, which creates great deals of dispute in between these deceit, greed and also recognition are main topics.

From class ga isekai shoukan sareta naka ore dake nokotta n desu ga the architectural point of view they often play out in a the same method, but what makes them promptly satisfying would be the growth of the battle along with the different abilities of the characters, their growth itself. There have been celebrations where it got pretty similar, along with personalities of tiny significance not shed significance, and therefore getting continuous easy updates for your benefit of looking into the item. For your mayor personalities it was not instance, as a result it might be overlooked. It must be noted that it might not be really tense, because it is really obvious that a few of the numbers are exceptionally overpowered, however it was recommended at right from the start, and consequently had not been a large problem.

Funny isn't to be disregarded within manga online; it's like a matteroffact of crucial relevance that enhances the whole experience. Making use of the unknowing of the planet of many numbers about practices on both groups does this; additionally, the different individuals match to these situations. What's remarkable, it's all set to keep its high quality within the period of the account, without breaking involvement in the plot together with offering it within the ideal events. It's a setting as mentioned previously, the only reason for that is to enhance dive in enhancement to the wit and remove its actors. Talking about which, college students were somewhat cliché due to the fact that it simply provided to create tight circumstances in which these concentrated the choices of the actors, as well as were occasionally active in the higher fights. See you people soon! Farewell reading manhwa online! You might also want to check https://jocelynhonore.doodlekit.com/blog for related stories and information

[elizas-writing]

Anime Movie April, Day 5: Tokyo Godfathers

So I really wanted to watch In This Corner of the World to finish off the selection of Hiroshima films, but after Barefoot Gen, I wore myself out. So that’ll be put on the back-burner while I find a couple movies to boost my spirits. And what better start than Tokyo Godfathers?

The film follows three homeless people: a middle-aged hobo named Gin, a transwoman and former drag performer named Hana, and a teenage runaway named Miyuki. You wouldn’t think it for how much they bicker and argue, but they found a way to live together as they just try to survive in the streets of Tokyo. Yet their lives will change forever on Christmas Eve when they find an abandoned infant in the garbage. At first they want to take her to the police, but fearing she’ll just be tossed from foster home to foster home, the trio sets out to find her parents and figure out why they abandoned her. As clues lead to more questions than answers, the three are also forced to confront their dark pasts and finally make peace with themselves.

This is the first film I’ve seen of Satoshi Kon’s work, and it’s impressive in covering topics like homelessness-- which I almost never see in manga or anime-- with a hell of a distinct artistic style which aims to make the characters as expressive as possible. It just perfectly flows from one face to the next with about fifty different emotions at once. It’s fluid, exaggerated, and perfectly captures the scene’s tone whether comedic or dramatic or even both. You can tell the voice actors busted their asses to give performances for the animators to work with, and they just match up perfectly.

Tokyo Godfathers is as charming and hilarious as it is heart-touching as the three main characters try to tolerate each other while finding the baby’s parents. But over time, they lower their defenses and open up to each other and the strangers they meet and talk about their personal struggles. Their relationship evolves into a family akin to Guardians of the Galaxy in trying to find a sense of belonging they wouldn’t get in a traditional family. And I love that the strangers they encounter for the most part are kind and helpful. My all time favorite scene is when Miyuki ends up in the home of a Latino couple (which I dare not spoil how or why), and she talks with the wife about her parents and why she ran away. The wife only speaks Spanish (which has no subtitles), but even though they’re strangers and barely understand each other, Miyuki finally has a moment to allow herself to be emotionally vulnerable while the wife comforts her. It’s a very touching scene where one doesn’t need to fully understand the other’s language; they just know when someone is hurt and needs comfort.

I love seeing them help strangers and reunite with old friends and family and come to terms with their mistakes. I love that it knows not to reveal every single detail about the main characters’ lives, and you’re left to piece together the blanks on your own. I love seeing what wild destination they’ll be taken to next. While the ending’s a little predictable, it’s more about the crazy journey to get there and the unexpected twists and turns along the way (which this film has plenty of to keep you on the edge of your seat). It’s just a fun ride from start to finish with a great trio to go with.

That being said, the only thing I’m on the fence about is Hana. She’s by no means a bad character, but it’s really hard to determine if this is good transgender representation (even all things considered with a 15 year old movie). She’s very kind when she can be and her strong desire for motherhood makes her a wonderful caretaker, and I love following her arc of the plight of LGBT+ people in Japan. However, there was one analysis I found on through a blog called Trans Women in Media which noted that Hana's humorous side seems to overpower her serious moments. Granted she’s not the only one with exaggerated facial expressions with the animation style, but it seems she goes cartoon-y more often than she needs to be. It most likely wasn’t intentional, but it almost borders on stereotyping her personality as “an exaggerated ‘act’ of womanhood” (which is more questionable with her voice actor being a man). As such, it’s hard at some points to tell if we’re supposed to take some scenes seriously with the emotion behind it or laugh because, look at all the funny faces Hana can make.

But the biggest injustice to her character is the English subtitles which unfortunately scraps her transgender identity in translation. For example, there are a couple instances where she’s called “kuso jiji” to which she reacts violently to. It supposed to translate to “smelly old man,” but the official subtitles replace that with “old fart” and suck out why the phrase is such a trigger for Hana. She’s also often referred by various characters as “okama” which is Japanese slang for a drag queen. The subtitles? They change that to “f*gg*t” and some other homophobic slurs. And granted “okama” apparently isn’t the nicest term to use, but by no means does it have the same weight as f*gg*t does.

I still really like Hana, but as a cisgender woman, I hesitate to say if she’s good transgender representation. She’s someone you just have to watch and determine for yourself if her mannerisms are a bit much. And remember that these subtitles are the only ones out there, and they’re definitely not accurate. I don’t know why they cut out chunks of her character in the dialogue (yeah I do, erasure and all that nonsense), but don’t let them fool you to thinking she's not supposed to be transgender.

Aside from that, Tokyo Godfathers is still a nice, heartwarming film about overcoming your past and finding family in this messed up, lonely world. It’ll make you laugh, cry, and wonder what the hell is going on at the same time. Whether you watch it at Christmastime or any time of the year, it’s a great film to check out.

[undeadimpulsereviews]

Demi-chan wa Kataritai (Interviews with Monster Girls)

Pre-review context; just like pretty much every manga I review, this one will also be shortened when I refer to it. Instead of the full name I’ll just say Demi-chan. Also I’ll be switching to a first impressions of the manga; I have a rule and I forgot for a moment that this manga barely falls under said rule. I do not review manga under thirty chapters; instead I give my first impressions. The reason for this is because I personally feel that if it’s under thirty, unless it is completed before reaching thirty, that it is still to early to pass a solid judgement of the manga. That’s just how I like to do things; manga, as well as any type of segmented media like television or comics, can change for better or worse at the drop of a dime. I think that thirty chapters is a nice milestone for manga to show both the progress it’s made as well as the path the manga will start taking. I did this with my recent look at the manga Uratarou, which we’ll most likely be coming back to though I’ll update on that soon. That said there will be no score, but instead just sort of a general opinion on the manga so far and my hopes for the series if any. With that said lets begin.

Demi-Chan wa Kataritai, or Interview with Monster Girls as it’s known in English, is a recent and ongoing manga from mangaka Petosu; It’s a school seinen manga that started three years ago in 2014 and has been going since. The manga was serialized in Young Magazine the 3rd and is being published by Kodansha Comics in the USA. From what I can find there are currently only four volumes out in the manga’s country of origin; as for America, Kodansha has released up to the third volume. I read Demi-chan online and currently you can read up to chapter twenty six; I started reading this because I saw that an anime adaptation was in the works. I knew little to nothing going into the manga so I was starting clean; as of this writing I am caught up with the manga and I can say that I really enjoy the story so far. I don’t exactly know where the story plans to go in the future or how long it plans to run, but as it is right now I like it. Though what can Demi-chan bring to the table that other monster girl manga hasn’t already done; it’s become a popular sub-genre and there is no shortage of manga. So what do I find enjoyable about the story of this one?

Demi-chan wa Kataritai follows the story of Takahashi Tetsuo, a biology teacher at the local school. For a while Takahashi has been fascinated by demi-humans and has always wanted to research and learn more about them; however, demi’s are extremely rare, there are only a few records of demi-humans in society and Takahashi was unlucky to work in an environment that has none. At least that was his original thought; on a day like any other a new teacher enters the school, she seems normal at first glance but actually she’s a succubus. Though it doesn’t end there, as the day goes on three more demi’s appear out of the blue right before Takahashi’s eyes; all of which happened to be his students. How did they go unnoticed? Whatever the reason, Takahashi now has his wish; four demi-humans right before his eyes, and he’s not going to let this opportunity pass him by.

I really enjoy this story; at first glance, with the English title, this manga could be confused as a possible harem or ecchi manga. The emphasis on monster girls instead of just using demi-humans made me, at first, sway towards that assumption. I’ve done a little research into the sub-genre of monster girl manga, and that tends to be the majority of what I find; however, Demi-chan is far from it. Demi-chan is a very mature story mainly about being comfortable with ones differences and body; Demi’s have been portrayed in many different ways through the media or folktales, but there are many misconceptions in said stories. Through out the manga Takahashi takes common stories of monsters, such as vampires, and slowly learns what true demi’s are like. I think one of the main reasons I enjoy this story is that they take old well know monsters and make their own interpretation. For example, do vampires need to suck blood to survive or is garlic truly a weakness of theirs? Instead of the norm that we’ve come to know they not only expand on the old lore but rework said lore and make it their own. Let’s take the garlic idea; vampires aren’t hurt by it, but it’s understandable where the misconception might have come from. In Demi-chan the vampire has a heighten sense of smell so it’s assumed that that might be the reasoning behind it, but garlic is one of the vampire’s favorite things. The story is a great take on how each person is different; when it comes down to it the demi-humans are just another form of human, they were just born different from the rest. Take the vampire character for instance; not a single person in her family is a vampire, her sister is an honest normal human being. It’s a great story that tells of how one should be comfortable in their own body, that what makes you different doesn’t make you any less of a person. It’s an amazing story that is both heartwarming and enjoyable; So far the story is following a pretty straight line; almost each chapter you get a little insight into the character and the type of demi they are. I don’t know how much more they can build on the demis with what they currently already set for the story, but I’m sure the mangaka has a pretty general idea. Overall I really enjoy the story of manga it’s fun and heartwarming and I look forward to what it has to bring. Now the story needs a good cast of characters; most will be demi’s but there are still a good amount of supporting human characters as well.

Demi-chan has a total of four demis and Takahashi; the four demis my be familiar to some. You have the Vampire, the Succubus, a Yuki Onna, and a Dullahan; I’m sure pretty much all of you know what a vampire and succubus, but for those who don’t know a Yuki Onna is a snow woman. Basically speaking, she is a woman that can control the temperature of herself and others; in Demi-chan she can only control it for herself, her tears freeze when she cries, and she projects a cold aura around herself. A Dullahan is someone who’s head is detached from her body and a flame is in it’s place; it’s hard to explain so here is the Dullahan from Demi-chan.

Dullahan are usually depicted as headless horsemen; they are usually male, but a female dullahan isn’t uncommon. Now take the old ideas of these beings and throw them away; the four demis in this story are not like the folktales you might be use to. Like I said before with the vampire, whose name is Hikari, the classic folktale legends you know are regarded as common misconceptions in Demi-chan. In fact they sometimes make fun of them in the manga.

The characters of Demi-chan are really lovable and entertaining; they provide great moments of drama and comedy. Over the course of the story the characters are developed really well; the best one so far in my opinion is the Yuki Onna, Kusakabe Yuki. Kusakabe’s story is filled with drama at first and it makes a great source of development; between being bullied, and the fear of her demi abilities, the progress of Kusakabe’s character is really well done. Though that can be said for any characer in the main cast; thanks to Takahashi’s guidance each character starts to not only open up about their differences and how it effects them; but also grows closer to one another in the process. Overall I really love the main cast of Demi-chan, the supporting cast is really good to, but it’s clear that the main cast is the focus. I don’t know where they plan to take these characters from here on out; I’m sure there are plenty of problem they can place before them, but as of right now it’s anyones guess. Lastly comes the visuals, I gave you a little preview this last section, but lets take a closer look.

How do I explain the visuals of Demi-chan? They are very different from the classic manga style you’re use to. It’s not the hyper realistic, or overly exaggerated body drawings you might see in other comics like superhero tales. It’s also not the clean classic look you might see from other manga. It’s a little more dirty in terms of shading and line work, and it’s a little more cartoony in it’s design. The best way I can show this is through picture.

The first thing that always caught my attention when reading Demi-chan was the faces; the design and style the mangaka took was something I was not fully use to. The best examples of this are Takahashi’s face in the first frame, and Hikari’s face in the last; hell Hikari’s face works in just about any frame from the picture. Lets look at Takahashi first; first off is the design and angling of his nose. When you are at a lower angle to him his nose tends to always be drawn as two rectangles put together; then you have his black narrow eyes, in the scene he’s disappointed in Hikari and her grades. So both the shading of the background and his eyes serve to show this. Though what gets my attention is the narrow lines that create his eyes.

Though that tends to be the case for most of the adults; if it’s not a comedic scene or moment their eyes will look like the ones in the second frame of the picture above. Really small pupils surrounded by a lot of white space, or no surrounding borders and just black dots like in the first frame above. The girls of the manga follow closer to the more traditional style.

Take the first frame in the picture above; the Dullahan, known as Machi Kyouko, is shown with bigger pupils than Takahashi is in the last frame. This is the normal look for both characters whenever there isn’t anything really comedic going on, or when the tone of the manga gets serious. It’s not a huge difference from your average manga, but at first glance it’s definitely something new among the mainstream we’re use to. Overall I really like the visuals of the manga, they add to the enjoyable feel that the story can bring; it helps drive both the drama and the comedic moments this manga has to offer.

Overall I really love the manga and what it currently has to offer; I want to see where they plan to take it from here. I have faith that the manga can keep it’s pace and be something many can enjoy. The story and it’s characters are great and the visuals give a nice new flavor to the work as well.

Next week will be the review for Ape Escape 2, sorry for the late review; I had some family business that took my time. See you all next week and thanks for reading.

[comicsbeat]

§ Nice Art: Francesco Francavilla gave us the Thing vs Thing team-up we’ve all dreamed of on Twitter.

§ Nice art supplemental! Takashi Miike has made a movie based on the manga JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and it looks insane!

This is the guy who was somehow able to make us laugh at a scene depicting a hitman slicing off his own tongue in Ichi the Killer, after all. The JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure manga by Hirohiko Araki debuted in 1987 and chronicles the adventures of the Joestar family across several generations as they use their unusual powers to tackle a variety of supernatural threats. With around 100 million copies in print, it’s the bestelling horror manga of all time and also one of the bestselling manga series overall. Judging from the trailer, Miike’s adaptation will feature highly stylized visuals and colors, so we should be in for an incredible cinematic experience when Toho and Warner Bros. co-distribute the film in Japan on 4 August 2017. It stars Jun Kunimura, Nana Komatsu, Mackenyu, and Takayuki Yamada.

Bestselling horror manga? Whoa. Here’s the teaser trailer:

And the character posters! So manga!

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  § Alison Bechdel has drawn a few new Dykes to Watch Out For comic strips, and it might be about a certain orange toned president.

§ Tom Spurgeon interviewed Ron Wimberly about Prince of Cats and the rest:

It’s such a shit show, the human brain. We think the way we remember things, that’s how it truly happened. Photoshop has been great because we’re now even more aware how fake everything is. [laughter] It’s just perception. Now that it doesn’t require someone that’s great at gouging, or working on something with a knife, now that a teenager can put Hillary Clinton’s face on Snoop Dogg’s body, we know everything’s fake. Karen Green asked me something. She had read the book. When I’m thinking of names, I always give myself a game or a problem to solve to come up with answers. So the tape at the beginning, at first they were listening to the Stooges or something. Then I was like, “No that contextually doesn’t make any sense.” What would they be listening to? How is this tape a microcosm of the entire world? What if Milton, a contemporary of Shakespeare: he had written this poem about Shakespeare when he died. So Rammellzee and Milton, I mashed them together, and that’s what in the tape in the tape deck. But I totally forget about that! I had come up with a name pulled from one of the prior authors of a Romeo & Juliet. Karen, being the genius she is, is like, “Oh, that’s such a great thing you put in there. I can’t believe you did that.” And I was like, “Oh, yeah. Thanks.” [laughter] I totally forgot I had done that!

§ Someone PLEASE MUZZLE FINN JONES. The Iron Fist star just keeps digging a deeper and deeper grave with every interview where he attempts to explain why Iron Fist reviews are so awful and people don’t like the whitewashing. First it was “it’s for the fans” then he blamed Trump. Here’s his take in Vulture below. A couple of things: Jones is British and they have a slightly different approach to racial issues than we do in the US. No excuse, but probably why he keeps blabbing. Second, he’s an actor. A young actor. And not everyone can be Cole Sprouse. So please, someone…teach him how to listen and acknowledge. It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.

There’s so much outrage in the internet these days, right? Why don’t people just — look, the issue is that people are judging before they’ve even seen the show. And that’s problematic. C’mon. Don’t get angry and start a mob when you don’t even — you haven’t even seen the show! You don’t even know what we’re doing with it. It’s unjust. It’s unfair. Whatever issues they have may be true of the comic books; it was written in the ’70s. It was a very different time to where we’re at now. Very, very different. I get it. There needs to be more diversity in film and television, in all fucking aspects of life. There needs to be more diversity, period. Unfortunately, this show was picked, for whatever reason. I don’t fully understand, really, but what I say is, Watch the show. Watch the show, then make your opinions.

  § Paste magazine has the picks for comics on sale tomorrow and it’s a good week!

§ Vanity Fair chatted with 96-year-old Al Jaffee who is still cartooning and still amazing.

§ Image is holding a Homecoming Dance at Rose City Comic Con again. Details below:

Back by popular demand, Image Comics is pleased to host a very special formal Fall Homecoming dance for the comics community during the Rose City Comic Con festivities. The dance will be held on Saturday, September 9th from 8:30 p.m. – 12:30 a.m. at The Evergreen. This event will be 21+ only. IDs will be checked at the door.

Tickets to the Image Comics Fall Homecoming Dance are on sale now.

Image Comics’ Fall Homecoming will be in the style and spirit of a traditional high school dance and all comics fans and industry members are encouraged to come mix, mingle, and dance the night away.

Image Comics Fall Homecoming ticket tiers: $20: Entry ticket $45: Add-on pack, including an Image t-shirt, variant cover comic, commemorative pint glass, and enamel pin $79: VIP pack—ticket to the party, add-on pack items, and access to special VIP area at the venue (limited quantity, only 100 VIP tickets available)

§ Britt Hayes reviewed Atomic Blonde, the new comic book movie and liked it:

In one of the most striking cinematic introductions in recent memory, we meet Theron’s Lorraine Broughton, covered in bruises and soaking in an ice bath. She sits on the edge of the tub and plunks ice cubes from her bath into a glass, filling it with Stoli and gulping it down without the slightest wince. If you’ve been waiting for a female 007, she’s here — and she might be even cooler than Bond with all his ridiculous gadgets.

§ But Valerie Complex of Nerd of Color saw a preview for Ghost in the Shell and it was Worse Than We Thought:

On February 28, I saw a 15-minute sneak peek of the Hollywood adaptation of Ghost in the Shell. From the announcement of the project, this has always been a bad idea. But the announcement of the cast and story has made things much worse. Most noticeably, Hollywood adaptations of Japanese anime have yet to be successful. Either their stories veer too far from the source material, the director isn’t a good fit or the casting makes no sense. You would think Hollywood would learn, yet here we are, on the precipice of another anime-adapted flop.

§ Good news for Valiant! The Russo Brothers (Civil War) have signed on to make a Quantum and Woody TV show .

The team behind “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and “Captain America: Civil War” will develop “Quantum and Woody,” about the world’s worst super-duo, with Valiant Entertainment. Anthony and Joe Russo will be executive producers alongside Mike Larocca and Valiant’s Dinesh Shamdasani.

§ Another graphic novel is coming to the screen! Days of the Bagnold Summer was a hilarious and sad graphic novel about a 15 year old heavy metal music fan forced to spend the summer with him mum. Created by Joff Winterhart, it was shortlisted for the prestigious COsta Award in the UK, and now it’s going to be a movie, directed by Simon Bird, a well known Brit comic known for The Inbetweeners. Some good comic fodder there.

§ Vox runs down why people are so upset about Marvel, Magneto, and Nazis, explained:

For people who aren’t comic book readers or casual fans, the vocal fight over the origins of fictional characters can seem confusing, or even trivial, considering real life white supremacists have become fixtures in the current national political conversation, and bad fiction happens all the time. But the fight goes beyond the comic book history of Captain America and Magneto and deeper into the significance of art’s connection to morality. It’s an embodiment of how powerful fandom can be, and the ever-challenging question of who owns art: the artists creating it or the fans purchasing it.

I know Marvel got locked into this storyline long ago, thinking that the old good guy turns bad switcheroo was a comics book staple, but those days are over now.

§ Also over maybe, line wide events? This article at CBR suggests so.

We’ve come to expect that every year the seeds for an event will be planted to culminate in a crossover that summer. Now, it seems like the only thing that makes these stories different from one another are the principle cast members. It doesn’t help that Marvel touts each crossover as a universe-altering incident that will have repercussions for years to come. How can this be true if the following year’s incident will change the status quo that had been established just a year prior?

§ Finally, this photo from the set of Logan got punked on the internet and now Snopes had to explain that, no it isn’t a photo of a man who got mugged on his way to buy comics for his daughter. Fake news. It’s everywhere.

Kibbles ‘n’ Bits 3/15/17: Please muzzle Finn Jones § Nice Art: Francesco Francavilla gave us the Thing vs Thing team-up we've all dreamed of…

[beejuboxes]

  YumeTwins

$35/month

Free international shipping!

  YumeTwins is a kawaii goods box shipped worldwide from Tokyo! Each box includes 6 to 8 cute licensed items from popular Japanese brands. They include a variety of things, like plushies, stationary, and squishies. They focus on curating a selection of unique and quality goods.

It’s probably been over a year since I received a YumeTwins box! Since then, I’ve moved to Yokohama, Japan, where my love of cute things has only intensified. I poked around their website for a while, and I was impressed with how cute and easy to navigate it was. I also liked the sense of community; they seem to like to share about their own team and their customers.

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The box itself is sturdy with a cute purple and green design, including a cat pattern! The included insert tells you how to access the online zine. You simply go to the url and type in a password. You can check out past zines in their archive. They give you a detailed description of each item, including explaining any helpful cultural context. I can’t express how much I like that! So often Japanese boxes fail to explain what Japanese words mean, which is part of the fun!

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Each month they do different contests on social media. They also have a referral promotion, where you can win one free box by referring three of your friends (who get $5 off their box as well). It’s worth keeping an eye on their social media too for promotions and contests!

This month’s box has 6 items with the theme “Magical Future.”

Hello Kitty Halloween Donut Squishy or Snoopy Woodstock Bread Squishy

I got the Woodstock squishy, which I love! Watching “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” is one of our Halloween traditions. It’s soft, dense, and big enough to have a satisfying squish.

Cardcaptor Sakura Pillow Case

This 62cm x 43cm pillowcase comes in 3 different Cardcaptor Sakura designs. I’m not very familiar with this manga and anime series, but it has been recommended to me by friends. I like the magical girl style in general, and items like pillowcases are fun and practical.

Round Animal Kawaii Plushies

There are five possible animals for this round plushie: a cat, a dog, a hedgehog, a honey bee, or a lady bug. As a cat lady I was hoping for the cat, but they are all adorable. The toy is soft and well-made. My ladybug also has a heart for one of its spots, which is a cute detail. There’s also a bell inside this plush.

My Melody Memo Pad

My Melody is a popular Sanrio character, and she adorns this 10cm x 10cm notepad. I like having a stash of cute stationary, so this kawaii pastel design is a welcome addition.

Sumikko Gurashi or Rilakkuma Lanyard

Sumikko Gurashi and Rilakkuma are two of my favorite kawaii characters! I got a Korilakkuma lanyard. Rilakkuma is a very relaxed bear, but Korilakumma has the opposite personality. This lanyard says “Mischievous Days of Korilakkuma” and shows her in a bunny hat with strawberries (one of her favorite foods).

Kawaii “Higemanju” Cat Gamaguchi Pouch

The last item is a cat pouch from the brand Amuse. The pouch comes with a neck strap and a coin purse style metal clasp. The name “Higemanju” is explained in the online zine (yay!). “Hige” means beard and “manju” is a type of round Japanese sweet. So those words together describe the cute shape of the cat’s mouths and round body. I got the gray cat named “Gomao.” I think it’s a play on sesame seed, which is “goma.” He’s really cute, and I love his little grumpy-ish face! I see these cats in UFO catchers all the time, and I might just have to try to win him a friend…

Overall I was very happy with the YumeTwin’s October box! There was a good variety of items, all adorable and high quality. The Rilakkuma lanyard and Higemanjyu cat pouch were my favorites! This box definitely delivers for anyone who loves kawaii goods. I really like that there wasn’t any cheap filler, but instead a well-curated selection of licensed things. Plus, they include some practical items so you can have some cuteness in your day-to-day life.

If you’d like to subscribe, you can do so here. It’s $35 per month with free international shipping. The next month shipped out will be December. The theme for December is “Cozy Holiday,” which sounds awesome.

PR Sample. All opinions are my own, and no compensation was received. Affiliate links are in this review.

YumeTwins – October 2017 Review YumeTwins $35/month Free international shipping!