#i have a different version of this concept but it can only exist as storyboards in my head bc i'd need to make an animatic at minimum

[chimerafeathers]

[ on youtube ]

a concept for the type of OP i'd love to see for the second season of Dungeon Meshi! both s1 OPs are great, but i'm really hoping for one that captures both the "dangerous fantasy adventure" and "comedic cooking adventure" aspects of the series in equal measure, because it's the integration of those two concepts that makes the series special to me. the joyous whimsy and the dramatic horrors are equally important!!

[ziorre]

✨Commission info✨

I'm ready, I'm rested, I'm refreshed! And I'm completely charged to take care of your new ideas and characters!! Especially for this, I'm trying to expand the ways to bring your characters to life so that you can see them and be convinsed that they exist! I truly believe that every character is awesome and original and deserves to be shown with their own story! And I'll try to help you with this in a way that is more convenient for you! You just pick one below ;)

✨ PRICES:

- SEMI-REALISTIC STYLE (for the cases, when you want it looks more real without much stylizing)

- USUAL STYLE (for the cases, when you don’t mind it looks more stylized and a lil sketchy)

- STORYBOARD (for the cases, when you want to tell a story and don't mind to do this in very sketchy stile)

(this is a new way to tell your story in several frames. It'll look like still frames from a video, where you can show the dynamics of the scene and insert replicas in the form of subtitles. The form and type of storyboards can be redesigned. Keep in mind that frames will look very sketchy and with visible inaccuracy! DM me for more details ;))

Aaand...

👀COMING SOON!!!👀 - 3D MODEL OF YOUR CHARACTER

* you can find more examples on my page by commission tag and more examples of storyboards by rita diaz tag ** a helpful post describing a right order for your refs

✨ DEADLINES:  After you DM me with a brief description of your idea, I’ll tell you the approximate date when I’ll be able to proceed with your commission   !!!!Always warn me in advance if I need to draw art by a certain deadline!!!

✨ PAYMENT:  What: USD or RUB When: full pre-payment (when you sent me the email and we approved the art idea) Where: Boosty (russian platform, supports payment via PayPal)

✨ THE PROCESS: You write to me in private messages on Tumblr, briefly tell me your idea of our future art, what style and what slot you want (full body / half body / bust). Then I give you my email address and you send me an email (with your Tumblr name as the topic please) with all necessary references (your character's face claim, their pose, clothes, background etc.). You describe the idea of the art in details, where it takes place, and other things that I need to know so that I can base the sketch on all that info, because after you approve the sketch, I don’t change art much in the further stages of the work, just some details. I send you the payment link on my Boosty page. Send you the sketch. After you confirm that you like the sketch, I finish the work and send it on your email😊

✨ OTHER:  - I don’t correct the art after you approved the finished version.  - I don’t copy other artist’s work or poses from their work.  - I publish every commission on my social media, if you don’t want it to be published, just let me know.  - If you’re not sure about art idea, I can suggest you 4 sketches with different poses/concepts/angles for extra $20 and you pick the one you like the most.  - For significant corrections or a lot of small ones at any stage of work, an additional fee may be charged (this doesn’t apply to some small adjustments or details witch I missed). There are 3 free changes at the each stages of the work (sketch, finished version), further - $2-$5.

___________________________________

And of course I can't skip to say a huge thank you to those who commissioned and continue commissioning art from me! It means a lot! For real! This is not only material support, but also moral one, saying that I’m not wasting my time and energy in vain, that I’m moving in the right direction, that people like what I do! I can't tell how inspiring it is!! 300 commissions! I’ve never imagined that one day I would draw so many art for others! Just.. wow!! Thank you again so much for trusting me bringing to life your ideas! I truly appreciate it!😌

____________________________________

I think this is it, right? If you have any questions, feel free to DM me ;)  

I’ll be VERY grateful for your reblogs!! ❤❤❤❤❤❤ (and thank you very much for this in advance, it helps me A LOOOOOOOOOT, I see each and every one of them! You’re the best!!!) Thanks for your attention! Have a good day =)

[foodfightnovelization]

M&Ms, What Happened in 2001, and a Tie-In Video Game

Hey! So analyzing each chapter of the novelization is fun and all, but I want to take a break and discuss a few other things about Foodfight! that fascinate me. I'm gonna discuss other miscellaneous trivia relating to its production for a while and just see where it takes us, okay? SO fun fact, at one point during Foodfight's development the M&Ms mascots were supposed to be in the movie (as seen by the concept art on the left). And as seen in the article to the right, they were hoping to have one of them making a joke about having "Peanut envy"...get it, like penis envy. You have to wonder if a lot of brands pulled out of this movie because Larry Kasanoff was just using their famously child-friendly mascots to make unoriginal penis jokes.

At one point, Cap'n Crunch, the Keebler Elves, Pringles and many other mascots were all also supposed to be in the movie too. I have to say, I think the movie would have sold the idea of a supermarket coming to life a lot better had there been more recognizable branded characters populating the store. As it stands, in the finished movie there are only about 15 (I think? I'll pore through the movie and give an exact number in a later post) brand icons present, and I don't think any of them are as recognizable in the same way something as iconic as the M&Ms mascots are. To really sell the concept you need a BUNCH (a banana bunch, if you will?) of heavy hitters, otherwise it comes across less like a grocery store and more like a random city filled with generic cartoon characters- Mr Clean and Charlie the Tuna just aren't enough to carry this movie on their own.

Actually though- all that concept art I just showed, the M&Ms, Cap'n Crunch, the Keebler Elves... that wasn't concept art for the movie at all, but for the the Foodfight! videogame that was in development alongside it for a while! That's right, I pulled a bait-and-switch on you. I didn't want to just talk about M&Ms, I wanted to talk about VIDEOGAMES too. Of course, these characters were intended to be in the movie as well, but I'm using them to segue into a discussion about the game because I'm not just a girl, I'm a gamer.

So, at various points in Foodfight's development, there was supposed to be a tie-in videogame released alongside the movie. The earliest the tie-in game goes back to is 2001, which is when Foodfight was in the earlier stages of production. At this point in development, Dex Dogtective wasn't even a dog- he was just a regular-looking man vaguely resembling Rick from Casablanca, and was known simply as Dex Detective. There's very little information about what the movie was like this early on, but some very brief snippets of footage from it can be found online, as well as this piece of concept art from the early 2000s.

I think this piece really shows the strength of the core idea behind the movie and how incredible it could've been had it been executed properly. You can really look at it and see what they were going for, and I would have loved to have seen this version of the movie on the big screen. Grocery stores ARE kinda like cities, and you have to admit this piece really shows how rich of an idea that is.

There also exist a few articles online from around 2001 mentioning a villain called Professor Plotnick, who creates genetically giant prunes for unspecified evil purposes. This character isn't in the final movie at all, so we can say for sure in 2001 that there were a BUNCH of differences in the plot and characters of the movie compared to the finished film, and that can absolutely be seen on the website of concept artist Jason Leong. There are a LOT of storyboards for the planned tie-in game, and these are evidently based on the 2001 version of the movie mentioned above (which is why I spent some time talking about it). They can all be found here:

Notably this concept art includes far more licensed characters than the movie ever did (including the M&Ms characters I showed at the beginning of this article). We can also see concept art for various minigames, such as shooting pieces of cereal so Cap'n Crunch can get across a shark-infested ocean to an island treasure chest. Also in this concept art there seems to be a proposal for a fully-open world Marketropolis to explore, with Hamburger Helper hands as shortcuts catapulting you to different areas of the supermarket. This all sounds really fun! My personal favorite piece of concept art is this:

The idea of these two tiny guys fighting each other with boxcutters on fast-moving carts through a chaotic supermarket is honestly really cool and sounds like it would've been a treat to play, as well as see in the movie itself. (There is a scene LIKE this in the movie, but it's so clumsily put together it has none of the impact this concept art evokes) Unfortunately it seems like this iteration of the game didn't get much further than the art linked above as Jason Leong mentions this is basically all he did for it, and so it was shelved (...get it? shelved?) for years. Until...

A different (seemingly entirely separate) Foodfight videogame was shown at E3 2006! This makes sense- the movie was planned to release in 2007 at one point, and the novelization and other merchandise were all released around 2007-2008 too. They must have been really confident about the 2007 release date to usher so many different tie-ins into production, which really makes you wonder why it didn't release back then.

Anyway, there's really not much to say about this version of the game, as this few seconds of footage is all that exists. All we can see of it is that it would've been a third person platformer in which you play as Dex, and the footage we see includes some sort of area with moving platforms. There appears to be a HUD showing health and also ammunition for his price tag gun, and that's... about it? The footage is too grainy and there's too little of it to make much else out, other than that the poster above it mentions it would've released on Gameboy Advance, Playstation 2 and Gamecube. There's also a cast list above it that seems to suggest the cast of the movie would've reprised their roles for this game, but unfortunately without seeing more of it there's no way we can know for sure. So unless someday in the future I find the only copy of this game left in existence and write a blog about that too, we're done here for today.

This was just intended to be a short interlude to talk about things other than the novelization itself, but I really went down quite the rabbithole, right? (the...Trix Rabbit hole? I can do food puns too!) It's honestly impossible for me to talk about anything from this movie without spinning off into at least 5 other things about it that I find completely fascinating, but I hope you enjoyed this. I'll be posting a few more of these interludes between analysis/discussion of the book's various chapters, so stay tuned for more!

[frosted-night]

Jack Frost Designs Review

Yes it’s finally his time. This is going to include his book designs including previous incarnations in said books. There are more movie concept designs than book so, let’s dig in shall we?

This was in fact the first ever Jack Joyce designed while he came up with The Guardians Of Childhood. He even comes with his own backstory! (Which was cut. Sorry Joyce posts walls of text so it’s a girthy read.)

So instead of a young mischievous trickster, we got a much more depressing story of Jack. (Jack by default is sad obviously) but this one... It kind of hits differently and almost reminds me of the story he crafted for Pitch. A dad who tried to defend his family but through tragic events was ripped from them and changed completely. Design wise, he’s a lot more tree than snow. There doesn’t exist a colored version of this so we’ll never know if he sported winter and dull dead leaf colors rather than grassy greens.This Jack has a weird presence to him, I can’t put my finger on it. Rating: 6/10 He’s really neat! Just a little too Autumn feeling rather than a blend of both Autumn and Winter.

Nightlight feels like the baby evolution if Jack was a pokemon and that's what I’m gonna stick with. Below is a more recent version of him colored.

In all honesty that one is easier on the eyes proportion wise because sometimes Joyce has ‘interesting’ anatomy choices but we aint going into that today. It’s interesting how his hair somehow looks shorter and longer than Jack’s at the same time. Could be because the longer strands float seamlessly but star boy hair physics what can ya do. It’s a little hard to tell what is his skin and what is his armor, so that is a casuality in making a character only have one or two colors in their color scheme. I love other artist’s depictions of Nightlight but the canon one feels a little weak color wise. Rating: 5/10 Sorry, get some better LEDs and then come back.

Here we have a book Jack but I can’t entirely recall if this was used in the books or not. I digress. This design looks like him still wearing very Nightlight-esque armor/clothing and slowly growing into his new persona as Jack Frost. The intricacies are hard to make out but we’ll work with it. This one is very interesting to me because he very much looks like an older teen close to young adult. His hair looks very fluffy too. Not many complaints about this one but not much praise either.

Rating: 6/10 Not great but doesn’t stand out that much.

Remember when I said Joyce had ‘interesting’ anatomy decisions? Jack looks like he has half a head here and it bothers me GREATLY. This is the adult Jack design he went with. Supposedly he likes the opera and he sure looks it. This! Exists!! Kind of wish it didn’t. The outfit is nice but it just doesn’t fit Jack as a whole. This just screams to me that it’s someone else with a similar-ish hairstyle.

Rating: 3/10 Guess he’d be the...Phantom Of The Opera. (I’ll go home and so should he.)

And finally the final Jack. This is the one that almost exactly resembles the Jack we got in the movies(Probably because it was made after the movie but w/e) but just add a cape on him. I can’t really tell if hes got a hoodie and a cape, or just a cloak+hood on top of a sweatshirt. It isn’t too important because my thoughts on this one are obvious. Rating: 10/10 Edna Mode would have a field day with you boy.

MOVIE DESIGN TIME

Joyce claims this is a design he drafted when Leonardo DiCaprio was considered to voice Jack and I can kind of see that with how his face is drawn here. This Jack looks a lot more like a warrior and less of that trickster look. I can’t say I’m a fan of the weird antenna his hood has but his sword is really cool looking.

Rating: 4/10 Nice bow and sword but it can’t save your fashion choices.

This looks like a lanky 11-13 year old who would put rocks or slugs in my shoes and relish in my disgust. He has the exact look of a snot nose kid and I’m unsure how to feel about it.

His various hairstyles drafted here sort of make him softer looking or just more of a snot nose, no in between. Maybe even an Anime Protagonist.

The top right one almost looks like Hiccup from How To Train Your Dragon if you squint. It’ll be a little hard to rate them all as one individual but why not.

Rating: 5/10 I don’t hate them but they aren’t my cup of tea.

AH- IS THAT A FUCKIN GREMLIN?

Oh wait no it isn’t he looks like a 10 year old. Whatever don’t feed him after midnight. The staff’s design of not being shaped like a G is an interesting tidbit but the whole design looks like he’s really young or like a troll etc. This Jack looks like he thinks girls have cooties uses outdated slang.

Rating: 4/10 This is me being generous.

It honestly looks like he hiked his pants up all the way to his chest. A late teen with horrid fashion choices once again. Not many other thoughts here.

Rating: 2/10 Get a sweater on or something.

This is one is very interesting looking to me. His clothes looked a lot more leather based and very human-like. The tatters, tears and frays all make him look like he was a victim of an accident that never changed his clothes. It makes me wonder if this Jack had the same death as the final movie Jack or something else entirely. Either way, this one looks like hes a mid to late teen which really adds to my intrigue.

This was another image that greatly resembled the design so I included it here. It almost looks like his skin is blue here which is pretty neat to me at least. He’s also got leaf motifs here, which from the first Jack design Joyce made, we can see a pattern here.

Rating: 8 /10 I was originally weirded out by his head but now its not so bad.

This Jack is definitely dressed more like a nature boy rather than him having human influenced fashion and it’s an appealing touch. The tiny leaf sprouting from his staff is also kind of cute since the designers seemed to want to put leafs somewhere on his designs. His hairstyle is also very cute but it reminds me of Sasuke Uchiha in a sense. (Not a setback for me at least)

Rating: 7/10 13 year old Jack is going thru a phase.

I thought this Jack didn’t show up again in story boards but I was wrong!

They look a little different from each other but just similar enough to pair together, so bare with me. The first one obviously has looser pants, slightly longer sleeves and got his leaf motif going. This second Jack is a VERY green. It gives the impression that this Jack made his clothes out of plants and natural materials. Again I’m not wholly sure if greens fit his color scheme but they sure went for it for a while. I can’t say I’m a fan of it because it heavily reminds me of Peter Pan.

However a very similar looking Jack could be found in this storyboard. It doesn’t look as green as the other storyboards made it out to be and looks more like dead grass. Which is a pretty nice touch.

Rating: 5/10 I don’t hate it but it just doesn’t vibe yknow.

Speaking of a vibe...hoo this certainly has one.  This Jack isn’t old but certainly doesn’t look very young, maybe in the 20-30 range, thats just me. He has facial features that remind me of Pitch but resembles the Jack Frost of Santa Clause 3

That being said, I wondered if him looking similar to Pitch was in the storyline of them being brothers.(Which was a scrapped thing, who knew.) He’s a bit more menacing in this design but certainly seems like he relishes in his work.

Rating: 4/10 I’d make it a lower score but I gotta give it props

NOW THIS JACK IS KINDA INTERESTING. This one looks like he’s 16 and going through a grunge phase. He’s gonna play Nirvana loudly and not turn it down even if you tell him too. His staff itself has mini icicles hanging off of it and leafs look stuck to his shirt. Did you glue or staple those on Jack? His hair also looks much longer than his other designs and I kind of dig it( Shut up I’m bias.) I’m not wholly sure why else this design has stuck with me but it just has something about it that I just love. I wish there was a full body drawing of it.

(He also kinda has the same hair as the Jack Frost in Runescape but I wont go on about that hoo hoo)

Rating: 9/10 *Bad Boy by Cascada plays in the distance*

This one definitely feels like middleschooler trying to be in a band. His sticks just resemble drumsticks to me what can I say. I’m a big fan of his shoes and his color scheme screams a hibernating tree in winter. His hair also looks like it’s covered in frost rather than it being wholly white, which is very neat!! He looks like he wants to fight but has slight hesitance. Overall a very balanced Jack.

Rating: 8/10 He’s ready for band practice

Not many thoughts here, I just found these tiny Jack designs cute. His hoodie being a jacket instead just adds to the charm of this one.

No talk to him he angy.

Rating: 6/10 fun sized boi

Now this Jack resembles the one earlier that dressed entirely in leather brown colors, however he clearly is different than that one. I’m gonna say it, he looks like a zombie or undead in this design and its pretty fucking gnarly. I don’t know whats going on with his hair but I’m gonna assume it’s just the wind making it look like that. He just has the vibe that he was once human but was turned into something else entirely. It isnt in uncanny territory but borders that. This version of Jack meeting Pitch and the others would have been *very* interesting. Rating: 7/10 Eat a twinkie Jack you’ll feel better.

The final design! I can’t complain much about this one. The way his staff subtly has a G shape and a hexagon(his signature shape) is a wonderful touch. Additionally, the way the frost is gathered mostly where his hand is such an intricate detail. His signature hoodie is iconic at this point so I can’t bad mouth that either.(I can’t anyway because there's no complaints from me here.) Although, I never understood the leather straps that his pants had or their functions. I couldn’t find any colonial outfits that resembled Jack’s pants so its a total mystery to me at least.

And I can’t go on about this design until I mention the snowflake pattern in his eyes

Pure beauty. It’s at a hue of blue that almost looks impossible to have, combined with the electric blue color of the snowflake in his eyes. The amount of detail in this movie amazes me to this day. Rating: One Great Blizzard <3/10

[systematicallycapricious]

Some goodies from the P4U x P4U2 combined art book! (So very much not my art, just to make that clear!)

Mainly posting this because I haven’t really seen any of Sho’s concept art from this art book mentioned around the internet so far (although I may just not have come across it yet, but regardless), just the stuff in the P4U2 solo art book, and really the only place I found any confirmation of this book having Sho’s remaining concept art was a stray review on the book on like Amazon Japan I think. So I wanted to share it so people know that it exists! (And also to not look to the P4U2 solo book for it like I did, because you’ll likely end up disappointed, but I have a more comprehensive post for that purpose..)

There’s all sorts of cool stuff in this book in general: concept art, animation frames (with creator notes sprinkled all over!), storyboards, creator interviews (with questions pertaining to Sho! I don’t know fully how yet as I don’t yet know Japanese, but I’ve seen his name pop up several times throughout them), official art, illustrations, art of the stages... they even collected the PQ1-style lobby avatars and the majority of different color palettes for the character sprites in the game. So if that stuff interests you for any of the characters (because all of the main characters in Arena and Ultimax get this treatment, minus the creator interviews since that’s dependent on what questions get asked and what conversations take place), then I definitely recommend it if you ever come across a copy of the book! (Keep in mind that it’s all in Japanese though, because there doesn’t seem to be an official English translation of it.)

Anyway, I’m not going to post all of that in great detail because I don’t want to be disrespectful to the creators, but at the very least this stuff seemed like it might be enjoyable or useful to other Sho fans, so... here it is!

Also sidenote! Though again I can’t read the Japanese, I’m pretty sure that the first picture (with Sho and Yu’s sprite concept drawings standing side by side) is intended to be a height comparison, as this isn’t the only place in the book that that specific Yu art is used in this manner. Take for example this reference for Koromaru:

Though the horizontal lines aren’t exactly the same, their general purpose seems to be. Therefore, it seems to be that Sho was intended to be slightly taller than Yu? (I think the Dancing game models might have already confirmed this? But if not, then this might.) Of course, official numbers for height haven’t been given for either of them that I recall (I’m not as well-versed in Yu though, so it’s possible that I’m incorrect), but at least it can be approximated when you take illustrations where various characters appear together and do a lot of comparisons, hehe.

Edit: Also adding because I found this, evidently someone else scanned the colored version of the second image’s fullbody, or else had the digital version, and posted it on Tumblr in the past. If you’d like to see it, the post is here!

And if you want to see some of the PQ-style lobby avatar pictures, I included a picture of them in this post here.

[thegoodomensdumpster]

ALL THE OMENS

I keep seeing people confused / discovering one or several iterations of Good Omens, so here is a masterpost of everything Good Omens that officially exists (and that I could gather, so there might be mistakes):

WILLIAM THE ANTICHRIST (1987)

The original draft of what would later become Good Omens, written by Neil Gaiman before he teamed up with Terry Pratchett. It notably features a demon called Crawleigh who would then be split into Crowley and Aziraphale.  The draft exists in a book form included in the Ineffable Edition of the illustrated Good Omens.

LINK TO A WTA RECAP (by @fuckyeahgoodomens)

BOOK (1990)

The core material of Good Omens, written by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Exists also as an audiobook read by Stephen Briggs (for the English speaking crowd of course). There is also some audio of David Tennant reading part of the book during the recording of Playing in the Dark: Neil Gaiman and the BBC Symphony Orchestra in November 2019. LINK TO DAVID TENNANT’S READING (by @merinathropp) @good-omens-covers is a blog where you can have a look at book covers from accross the world

MOVIE SCRIPT (1992)

The script for an aborted movie project. Attempts to write a movie script were made by both Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, but this is the one Gaiman ended up tackling on his own after Pratchett wisely decided to step away. The conflicted requests from the producers lead the way to a story that was related to Good Omens only in name. The movie script is only available in few numbers on specialized websites for a very high price.

THEATRE PLAY (2013)

An adaptation by Amy Hoff made with the permission of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, that was played by the Cult Classic Theatre for the Glasgow International Comedy Festival. As far as I know, no footage or script is available anywhere. I know nothing about this play besides the fact that Crowley looks wild. Amy Hoff’s website mentions that GO is currently unavailable for stage production or adaptation. LINK TO THE (BROKEN) PAGE OF THE THEATRE PLAY LINK TO A PHOTO GALLERY OF THE PLAY

RADIO DRAMA (2014)

An audio adaptation originally broadcasted on BBC4 in 6 episodes, adapted by Dirk Maggs and directed by Dirk Maggs and Heather Larmour. It is however available in an 8 episodes longer format (including bloopers) on CDs and such. The cast includes, notably, Peter Serafinowicz as Crowley, Mark Heap as Aziraphale, Josie Lawrence as Agnes Nutter, and a cameo from Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.

LINK TO THE BBC4 PAGE FOR THE GOOD OMENS RADIO DRAMA LINK TO AN IMAGES GALLERY

TV SERIES (2019)

A six episodes long TV series, produced by the BBC and Amazon, that premiered on Amazon Prime in June 2019. Directed by Douglas Mackinnon. The script was written entirely by Neil Gaiman as the whole project was the achievement of years of struggle trying to get a video adaptation of GO, and as promised by Neil Gaimand to the late Terry Pratchett that this would get done. 

The cast still includes Josie Lawrence as Agnes Nutter, David Tennant as Crowley, Michael Sheen as Aziraphale, and many other talented actors and actresses that would be too long to list here but are worth watching. 

As derivative products coming out of the making of the TV series, the script book of the entire show (including cut scenes that were never shot) is available, as well as some storyboards that depict, without a doubt, the least expected looks for Crowley and Aziraphale. The TV series is available for streaming on Amazon Prime, in DVD and in BluRay. The soundtrack composed by David Arnold can be found in CDs, vinyls and mp3 sets.  Additionally, there is a TV Companion book for behind the scenes and interviews that can be purchased, and very few official goodies such as enamel pins, and, of course, the very necessary Good Omens Nail Polish. A Q and A with Neil Gaiman and David Tennant is also available on Amazon Prime, broadcasted live and recorded in May 2020. In 2017, Neil Gaiman made a reading of cutscenes in Austin, Texas, for the Long Center event.

LINK TO THE DVDs / BLURAYs MASTERPOST (by @fuckyeahgoodomens) LINK TO THE SCRIPT BOOK MASTERPOST (by @fuckyeahgoodomens ) LINK TO SOME STORYBOARDS VISUALS: PART 1 and PART 2 LINK TO NEIL GAIMAN’S READING OF CUTSCENES

THE LOCKDOWN VIDEO (2020)

As a direct result of the TV series (and a direct result of a worldwide pandemic and a several months long lockdown...), Neil Gaiman wrote a little script for a short video that is, actually, mainly audio, in which David Tennant and Michael Sheen reprised their roles as Crowley and Aziraphale.

LINK TO THE LOCKDOWN VIDEO ON YOUTUBE LINK TO THE LOCKDOWN VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

MUSICAL (still in developpement as far as I know on this date in June 2020)

An Australia based project that has been years in the making, developped by Vicki Larnach and Jim Hare. So far, what has been officially released on the internet are a few videos of a reading by the actors, a sizzle reel with footage and audio of several moments from the show, as well as promotional pictures. The musical has been played on stage in front of an audience a few times these past two years in a version that is probably rather close to what the end product will be, and hopefully, once the final version exists, it will be made available for the widest audience possible.

LINK TO THE MUSICAL WEBSITE LINK TO THE MUSICAL SIZZLE REEL LINK TO THE MUSICAL INSTAGRAM LINK TO A REVIEW OF THE MUSICAL (by @seraphofshadows) LINK TO A GALLERY OF PICS FROM THE SIZZLE (by @crunchy-goblin)

OTHERS THINGS THAT ARE (AND THINGS THAT AREN’T)

668—The Neighbour of the Beast AKA the sequel that doesn’t exist. Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett talked about writing a sequel to Good Omens, came up with a few things (the most infamous being Aziraphale watching a porno in a hotel room, but only catching glimpses of it and trying to figure out the plot by writting it down in a notebook), but it was never written. LINK TO AN INTERVIEW GIVEN TO THE LOCUS IN 1991 MENTIONING THIS SEQUEL LINK TO A POST ON GAIMAN’S BLOG MENTIONING THE PORNOGRAPHY BIT LINK TO A RECAP OF THE SEQUEL + COTTAGE THING The movie directed by Terry Gilliam Before GO became a TV series, it got stuck for years as a movie project meant to be directed by Terry Gilliam. For various reasons it never happened, and the rumors about Robin Williams being cast as Aziraphale and Johnny Depp as Crowley seem to have started from there. The cottage “canon” The widespread concept of Crowley and Aziraphale sharing a cottage originated from a blog post made by Neil Gaiman, reporting a conversation between him and Terry Pratchett regarding the whereabouts of their characters. Gaiman has since offered the precision that this cottage sharing thing would happen way after the events of the sequel that was never written, so years after Armageddon, and that the location would be Devil’s Dyke in the South Downs. LINK TO THE ORIGINAL POST ON GAIMAN’S BLOG LINK TO A COMPREHENSIVE EXPLANATION (by @irisbleufic) LINK TO A TUMBLR ASK FOR GAIMAN ABOUT THE SOUTH DOWNS LINK TO A SCREENSHOT OF A TWEET BY GAIMAN The New Year Resolutions List (made for Harper Collins, now taken down from their website) A list of resolutions written by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett on request of the publisher in 2005, one list for Crowley, one list for Aziraphale. LINK TO THE LIST ( by @ladylier )

LINK TO AN INTERVIEW WHERE NEIL GAIMAN TALKS ABOUT A FEW OF THE THINGS MENTIONNED IN THIS POST And as an ultimate bonus, as I was gathering all the informations for this masterpost, I found back Michael Sheen’s Spotify Good Omens Playlist. EDIT (02/08/2020): Someone mentionned (in a post I can’t find anymore ?) that on the list of existing merch that was absolutely unexpected, there was a whole collection of Good Omens perfume oils. It was made around 2007 with the approval of Pratchett and Gaiman and was apparently updated when the series came out in 2019. The profits of the oils go to different charities.

I was also reminded of the Chattering Order of Saint Beryl, a group of singers promoting the TV series before its release in 2019.  Their Youtube Channel has a playlist that was last updated in June 2020. There is one video clip of the song Brand New Baby Smell that features a cameo by Neil Gaiman. And I found back @fuckyeahgoodomens‘s masterpost about the merch, even though I mentionned most of these in this masterpost, I’ll include the link for convenience sake.

[finsterhund]

A comprehensive guide to Heart of Darkness lost media. Fake, and real

a forward: there appears to be some sort of conflict between Eric Chahi and Frederic Savoir. Things Eric speaks about, Fred denies. However Eric generally has proof to support his side of things but Fred never provides such.

I will edit this as I go along. I intend to source things as best I can. I will not post it to a better website until it is adequately sourced.

I’m not currently planning to include press material, promotional renders, alternate releases of the final game, etc. here (yet!! that may change)

The Movie

What we know is true:

Dreamworks was interested in adapting Heart of Darkness as a feature-length computer animated movie. Predominant parties at play were Jeffery Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg. They invited several of the devs including Eric to the Dreamworks studio in LA, showed them Prince of Egypt storyboards, and toured them around. The movie was never made and development was never started.

According to Eric, the head of Virgin Interactive, Martin Alper repeatedly went to Paris to bother and harass him to abandon all work on the game and give the movie rights to Katzenberg. Eric didn’t want to throw away all that work and wanted to release the game first. Alper abandoned the team and project soon after, dooming the game to years of development hell as they needed to find a new publisher. Fred claimed that “half of the article (in which Eric discussed this) was incorrect” but never went into detail as to how or why

Rumors:

Even though George Lucas was interested in HoD’s display at several expos, he did not involve himself in any film ideas. It is believed he may have stolen ideas of alien monster designs for use in the Phantom Menace but this can easily just be coincidence and is unfounded.

The movie was not going to be live action despite some fan speculation.

The Pilot Animation/character test

What we know:

In Eric Chahi’s biography he mentions that a small animation studio did contract work of some animation concepts for Heart of Darkness. They were ultimately replaced with what Amazing would go with. This may or may not be associated with the same concepts as when they briefly thought to make the cinematics with 2D bitmaps but it is unclear. Eric states that this pilot was made however and in a demo reel from the studio they mention working with Virgin and Amazing Studio.

Rumors:

Fred said it wasn’t a thing but didn’t clarify.

This might have been the opening cutscene in 2D, or it may have just been character models and test animation. It is currently lost entirely with no actual stills of the thing itself.

Blood

What we know:

Someone untrustworthy but people latch onto this sort of shit said the original version of the game has blood in it. We know from tradeshow footage, digging through the final game’s code, an early build of the game, etc. that if anything the original versions were LESS violent. There is no evidence there was ever blood. Anymore than there’s evidence of the poison berries (which we will get to later)

The Gameboy Advance port

What we know:

Heart of Darkness was going to be ported to the Gameboy advance. According to Frederic Savoir the project was quickly canned due to cartridge costs that Nintendo didn’t want to pay for.

Rumors:

Someone claiming to work on this port said that Infogrames founder Bruno Bonnel wanted the game to have an Adidas promotion and change Andy’s shoes. Fred says this isn’t true, and there’s no evidence that this was ever an actual thing.

The Jaguar Version

What we know:

Heart of Darkness was briefly considered to be published on the Atari Jaguar. There are internal letters discussing how good of an asset it would be for the console. That’s as far as it ever apparently went.

The fake developer copypasta:

A copypasta of obviously fake ideas that were potentially given from Amazing to this apparent Jaguar dev has been passed around since 2014. This included poison berries that would make Andy explode, fan-theory sorta ideas about how other children perished in the darkland, a magic mirror, and what is very clearly just the maggots from spiritual successor “Limbo”. This individual provided no proof and his story was far from convincing. And no evidence that someone other than the Amazing team themselves having access to official development code from the game has ever been brought forward.

The Saturn Version

What we know:

Before the game ultimately came out for Playstation, it was going to be a timed exclusive for the Sega Saturn with Sega purchasing an exclusivity from Virgin Interactive. This fell through due to Virgin intentionally (according to Eric) throwing a monkey wrench in things and the Saturn was not viable when they were finally able to publish the game after getting picked up by Infogrames.

There is an incomplete playable demo of the first level and first two story cinematics in English and Japanese from the 1996 Toy Tokyo Show. In it there are slight programming differences such as a screen sliding transition animation, the inability for spectres to eat Andy, features cut from the final game involving the shadow dogs that are still mostly present in the final game’s code, and some slight graphical differences.

Frederic said the Saturn was easy for him to program on, and he finished things quickly so it was likely fully playable but no complete copy has been found.

Rumors:

It is unknown if there is a full build of this version of the game for Saturn. The Toy Tokyo Show build is the only publicly known one.

Based on footage from other events it appears to be from after changes were made to spectre sound effects and some behaviors. So this may have been a build from after the game was altered to be “easier” as mentioned by Eric Chahi at the time.

The Phillips CDI Version

What we know:

Heart of Darkness was offhanded mentioned a handful of times in a few CDI magazines in 1996. But there is no actual evidence the game was actually in development for the console and it was never confirmed in more trustworthy publications. CDI has less evidence than the planning letters of the Jaguar version. A supposed slipcover of a Heart of Darkness CDI CD was supposedly in existence but the guy claiming to have it couldn’t or wouldn’t prove this, with the only evidence appearing as convincing as a fake mock-up photoshop job and CDI websites discussing the final version of the game in full despite providing no evidence development for the console existed in the first place.

The most likely explanation is some idiot at Virgin said “CDI” when discussing this at-the-time secretive project because it would have had to be on a CD-based console and there weren’t that many of them yet at the time and this slip up briefly spread.

The iMac Version

What we know:

There was discussion of a Mac OS version of the game being developed, but nothing about the final product has surfaced online.

There was a page titled “imac” on the official website but the image files weren’t archived.

Heart of Dakness: The Return of Shados

What we know:

A scam artist on indiegogo pretended to be affiliated with Amazing Studio by using stolen assets and copying the kickstarter campaign of a different indie game in an effort to scam HoD fans out of money.

Both Eric Chahi and Frederic Savoir collectively agreed that this was a big fat scam.

It got taken down in under 24 hours of its discovery after I personally called the guy out on being a scamming piece of fucking shit and tattled to Fred.

As it was a scam with its only “evidence” being stolen text and doctored fan art and concept art from the original game, it’s very obvious nothing about this mess actually existed.

Delicious meal.

Merchandise (various)

What we know:

There are photos of merchandise, there have been real items show up, and there have been rumors or discussion of potential merchandise. Real confirmed ones include:

The Vicious and Amigo action figures. Given away for contests, at trade shows, sold on the infogrames store, and potentially included as part of a special box set of the French version

The Japanese big box version came with a mousepad. It is different than the round mousepad that also exists. We do not know where the round mousepad originated from. Potentially tradeshows or contests like the other items here.

Playstation controller and memory card. A memory card was sold separate in the UK, and in France a controller and memory card set were sold. Only photo of the set is in Eric’s collection. Memory card has shown up several times online. I own a complete sealed one.

The hat. Given away at press events, potentially worn by team members, and a version was also available on the infogrames store. Only physically existing version documented has the VIRGIN logo on it however so there’s definitely variations

Skateboard and t-shirt. Discussed in contests. Photos in magazines. Have never shown up so far. skateboard may have been available on infogrames store.

Photos exist of a backpack and fanny pack. Eric has these, the only known ones to exist, in his collection. Fred said they were officially released but they have yet to show up.

Rumored Merch:

A blanket. Briefly mentioned as if it genuinely existed on a French forum

Probably more tbh but my memory is shit. As I am writing this it is 2AM

[insomniacowl]

Neon Genesis Evangelion analysis chapter 7: Human instrumental project Seele’s Version type B & C

Including the two that will be covered in this chapter, we have identified 5 different HIPs. This shows why the concept of HIP is difficult to pin down when it comes to the discussion of the series.

Getting meta for a moment, Seele’s HIP version B: The use of Tabris in the initiation of the “Third impact”, was an improvised plan that they hurried in the fly, but it seems to have been the same for the producers of the series. In looking at the storyboard drafts, and materials from the planning phase of production, Nagisa Kaworu was not supposed to be an angel. Rather, it was a cat that he brought along that was supposed to be (thus episode 22 was initially called ‘The cat and the transfer student’).

Returning to our main analysis, even though Seele’s scenario required all of the angels to be repelled, they decided to cause the “Third impact” via using Kaworu. Nagisa Kaworu refers to the angel Seele created and we should understand his existence to be the container for Adam’s soul (We will delve in deeper on what this means in the following chapters).

Therefore, as Kaworu’s identity as Adam preceded his existence as an Angel, Seele believed that by imposing their desire on Adam and using him to cause the “Third impact”, the atonement of humankind would be possible

Gendou: The Lance of Longinus that served as our biggest obstacle is gone. We don’t have much time left; the final angel will appear soon.

Gendou: Once that is done, we can be together again.

Of course, since this form of atonement is not in line with the idea of causing the “Third impact” solely via human hands, HIP type B was not the most favourable for Seele either. Yet due to Gendou throwing the Lance of Longinus into space, initiating type B was a compromise for the old men of Seele. So, let us see what those old men have to say after sending Tabris to Nerv headquarters.

Fuyutsuki: I cannot believe they would do this

Gendou: Those old geezers are trying to make us hasten their plans

Humans are foolish and shall repeat the mistakes of the past. Unless atoned for by their own hands, humans will never learn.

We will not borrow the strength of Adam or the angels. We will do it ourselves.

These are the words from Seele spoken during Tabris’ decent through central dogma in episode 24.

Since by this point, most of the viewers are aware of Kaworu’s identity as an angel, it would be difficult to understand why Seele would send Kaworu to Nerv as the ‘Fifth Children’. This confusion makes the words spoken by Seele to be authoritative or philosophical, but taken into the whole context, we can see that this is a complaint against the actions taken by Gendou.

Especially the “We will not borrow the strength of Adam or the angels”. Since Seele is using Tabris,(although artificially created) who is still an angel, it might seem contradictory for them to say such a thing. It definitely is, but more than that, that sentence embodies their criticism, and jealousy against Gendou who has Adam in his grasp and is planning to fuse with Lilith.

If we rip away the cryptic manner of speech, what lies beneath is this, “We are not going to be as shameful as Gendou. We are going atone for our sins even if we have to send an angel using our own hands”. Even Nerv would not have expected Seele to send an angel to cause the “Third impact”, and Seele’s plan of “Hah, Gendou, you dare go against our plans? Well here’s some punishment for you” succeeded to a degree.

Yet we all know what happened when Tabris was standing at the crossroad of choice. He relinquished his right of choice to Shinji; to a Lilin.

Kaworu: You (Lilins) are not a being that deserves to die like this. You all deserve to have a future.

I’m glad that I was able to meet you

Now, let us remember how Yui and Gendou are rejected by Shinji and Rei, respectively. We can see this happening again over here With Keel (and Seele as a whole) and Kaworu. By Shinji, a Human boy, Rei who is Lilith, and Kaworu, who is Adam. Especially for Kaworu, whose exposure to Lilin from his moment of birth where only the old men of Seele who only had suicide in their minds.

It likely struct him deeply when he met Shinji, a boy who had a different view regarding the concept of living, and felt that if it was anyone that deserved the right to choose the future of humans, it would be Shinji.

And thus Seele’s version of HIP: type B fails

Tabris, being the angel of freewill chose his own death through Shinji’s hands. The old men of Seele labelled this action as betrayal and had to come up with another way to accomplish their version of the HIP.

This is what I refer to type C, the one that happened according to plan up to the very end during the End of Evangelion. Type C refers to the use of Eva unit-01 for the initiation of the “Third Impact”

With the consumption of the S2 engine, Eva Unit-01 became as though god.

What made the “Third Impact” using Eva unit-01 possible were two things. First, this Unit being based on Lilith. Second, that it has consumed the S2 engine; the fruit of life (This happening in episode 19), making Eva Unit-01 a perfect being.

By possessing both the Fruit of knowledge and the Fruit of life, this “God” can help make the HIP happen in the way the controller would want it to (this explains why Gendou was so confident in throwing the Lance of Longinus into space). Yet because It was Gendou that was in charge of Eva Unit-01, Seele had many obstacles to overcome to make type C happen.

Mass-produced Eva required for the ritual of atonement being deployed.

Using Unit-01 that has become a god to initiate the “Third impact” is the commonality Seele’s type C had with Gendou’s version of HIP. What Seele had to prevent was Gendou’s personal Will being allowed to determine how the ritual took place. To prevent this, Seele initiates a brutal attack on Nerv, killing off everyone in it, and tried to capture the Evangelions for the purpose of the ritual.

How this goes on is what we see happen in the End of Evangelion.

[blazehedgehog]

That io9 commenter from December again: With the Sonic Prime announcement, I'm extremely surprised to discover today that I might have been right on the mark with that "successor to one of those shows" prediction... Indeed, seems it might try to serve as a bookend to all three. What are your snap thoughts on it?

I’ve seen a lot of negativity about the show today on my timeline and, y’know, I think it’s safe to say that I can be pretty cynical sometimes. A lot of the time, honestly.

But I see people today being like “WOW THIS SOUNDS LIKE GARBAGE, IT’S SO UNORIGINAL” and it makes even me take a step back and be like, whoa, dude, chill out.

I need to see more of it, personally. The pitch of a Spider-verse like exploration of alternate dimensions sounds like it could be interesting, but only if they stick the landing. Like if they want to do an episode where Sonic meets a group of alternate dimension freedom fighters, and they don’t get The Freedom Fighters...

Like, if they do an episode that is clearly referencing SatAM but they are forced to get off-brand versions of these characters because they’re scared of the Ken Penders Boogy Man then they are wasting our time.

And it really, really sounds like that’s definitely a possibility. With the press release mentioning this will be a “journey of self-discovery and redemption” it sounds like Sonic’s going to end up taking a trip through his own messed up chronology, offering commentary on all kinds of different events. Almost like a Sonic the Hedgehog version of Quantum Leap.

Because, like, we’ve talked about The Meta Era, right? I talked about Sonic’s social media poking fun at itself, and how that felt kind of bad at first, but it eventually ended up feeling kind of freeing. I could very easily see this being that concept blown out to a 24 episode TV show.

Like, I imagine there will be an episode where Sonic finds himself getting kissed by a human princess and his reaction will be “Lady, what’s wrong with you?!” That will be a joke.

There will be an episode where Sonic plays in a rock and roll band, and at one point he’ll stop and say, “Wow, this music is TERRIBLE” and another character will fire back with “Yeah, but we’re going to make a ton on royalties.”

There will be an episode about sports tape.

But if they have to dance around direct references to these things, if they have to come up with legally distinct stand-ins because Sega of Japan or Ken Penders or whoever is breathing down their neck and won’t let them play in the full sandbox, then it’s not going to hit as well. And they shouldn’t be soft on this.

Because remember: the snarky, self-referential Sonic social media is gone now. It hasn’t existed in a while.

And with the confirmation that this won’t hit Netflix until 2022, I would assume they’re still pretty early on in terms of production. They are probably still writing up the first few scripts and maybe starting storyboarding.

There’s a lot of room for this to go wrong. All we have is a logo.

[the-awful-falafel]

Rick and Morty - S4E10 “Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri” Podcast Summary/Breakdown

I said I’d keep doing these breakdowns if people were interested, but I was also waiting for a podcast that gave some good analysis/trivia on the characters and writing process. And what better podcast to summarize than the one about the season finale? I recommend watching it yourself if you have time.

(Link to full podcast video here!)

The interviewed staff this time are Erica Hayes (director), Anne Lane (writer), Brent Noll (lead prop designer), Steve Levy (associate producer)

The way episodes get scheduled/made is that the writers try to break as many stories as possible and see what sticks within the production time they are given. If they have to rewrite an episode a lot it can possibly get pushed to later in the season than they originally intended

This episode wasn’t necessarily always going to be the season finale during the early writing process, although it was always intended to be in the latter half of the season

Star Wars is so big in our culture that there is seemingly an obligation to trope it, which the writers are kind of exasperated about, so that led to the type of referential humor in this episode

Justin Roiland was the one who wanted Rick’s internal organs to be partially cybernetic/synthetic, and it wasn’t initially in the storyboards. It’s also meant to show that Rick’s enhanced and able to take more punishment than a regular human

The placeholder music for the Phoenixperson VS Rick fight was heavy metal, which made it feel almost DBZ-ish, but they toned it down once the actual track had to be composed because they wanted to focus on the brutality of the fight

The writers try to never force characters/plotlines to come back early, and their idea is that characters should only be brought back when it’s the right/optimal time to use them

They’ve been discussing whether or not Beth is a clone in the writers room since early in Season 4

Anne Lane points out how the show—and, in a way, its take on continuity and its own internal canon—seems to be predicated on “nothing matters”, a viewpoint often shared by Rick, but that philosophy is constantly called into question and shown as not true by characters such as Morty, because things do matter to them on a personal and emotional level. Family matters, their experiences matter, humanity matters. If this was the “Rick” show, it would probably be entirely episodic, but a canon exists regardless because no matter how much Rick tries to deny it, he himself is also human and cannot help feeling human emotions.

The invisible garbage truck gag was originally going to be a part of the main episode as a culmination of Morty and Summer’s plotline. It was planned to get teleported onto the Federation ship, driven by Jerry, and brutally crush guards into a gory pulp while they couldn’t even see what was killing them. The gag was cut because it didn’t help the story enough, but everyone was still really attached to the concept, so it got moved to the post-credits scene instead

The original episode title they came up with was “Star Mort: Bethisode 2: Ricktack of the Clones”. They chose a different Star Wars title to riff on since this version was obviously too spoilery

Space Beth’s spaceship was intentionally designed to look like Rick’s spaceship, as he originally built it for her when he sent her off into space and she’s been making upgrades to it ever since

The Gromflomites’ insectoid ship designs weren’t created until season 2 despite the species originating since the pilot

The interviewed staff are absolutely aware of the fans who idolize Rick, and they believe that viewpoint has become less popular in the fandom as the show went on due to the show increasingly highlighting Rick’s flaws and making it clear how terrible he truly is. Pickle Rick and Dr. Wong’s speech was brought up as an example

The writers didn’t actually go into Season 4 planning “this is the season where Rick is taken down a peg”. It was more of an organic result of the writing as they broke the story for all the episodes, as well as coming from an interest in telling stories about Rick that focused on the side of him that he doesn’t want expressed, rather than focusing on the “badass smartest man in the universe” schtick that we’re already familiar with

They were still aiming to be consistent with depicting Rick’s character in Season 4 as someone who, following Beth taking control of the family back in the Season 3 finale, is trying to not “rock the boat” too much while still attempting to find ways to get away with what he did in the past. They were basically looking at Rick as someone struggling to find his place in his family and the universe this season

Despite the huge episode order and having 60 episodes left to go, they don’t really plan ahead or focus their energy further than a season-by-season basis (10 episodes at a time). So they probably don’t have any massive character arcs set in stone this far in advance, they mostly play it by ear

Rick and Morty is an incredibly difficult show to make from an animation standpoint compared to other adult/”edgy” cartoons due to how high-concept and ambitious its environments, characters, and camera shots are. It’s especially stressful because they said that they reached a point recently where they juggled 3 seasons at once, which has never happened in the show before.

They try to cope with the high demands of the animation by reusing background characters and environments whenever possible. They try not to reuse background characters that got dialogue and then got killed off, though, for the sake of continuity. They also try not to use stock aliens that have gotten recycled too much in past episodes.

A lot of the gun assets are reused throughout the show. The weird organic bug-gun Beth used in this episode was a new design, and it apparently gave Brent Noll a lot of difficulty in the prop design phase

A caller asked what Roiland and Harmon were referring to in a past interview which heavily implied there was a Season 4 post-credits scene which would lead into Season 5, and all of the interviewed staff were confused (since no such scene exists and they don’t recall any from development) and came up with different theories about what they might have been talking about. They also point out that most post-credits scenes are written as jokes and that the only real plot-related one was the Tammy and Birdperson one back in Season 3’s premiere episode. They prefer to keep implied future plot elements within the episode itself. “They’re not like Marvel post-credits scenes.”

The Wrangler jeans joke came pretty late in the process and wasn’t an actual paid advertisement. It was given to the Gromflomite ship as its weakness because the Gromflomites are very corporate and they were already parodying the Death Star trope so they wanted it to feel hackneyed

The Zeus fistfight and the Phoenixperson fight weren’t meant to be parallels to each other despite how brutal they were in episodes released back-to-back. Initially the planet-fucking episode was placed earlier in the season so it was mostly a coincidence. Also, the Zeus fight was meant to be more of “a dick measuring contest between two idiots” rather than anything impressive or epic

The reason Beth turned the clone decision back onto Rick is that she realized the choice he gave her was, once again, him stepping back from the responsibility to care about his daughter. So Beth attempted to force Rick to choose for once in his life whether or not he wanted her around, and he failed to commit to even that, which was the cowardly action needed for Beth to move on from her father’s emotional neglect.

Steve Levy dismisses the allegations that only the first and last episodes of the season advanced the plot, as the staff consider character growth  to also be part of the canon and something that is advanced throughout this season (using Morty’s character as an example). They also have pointed out that they’ve done canon-heavy episodes in the middle of past seasons before, such as the Ricklantis Mixup in Season 3, and it was only by coincidence that Season 4 had the major lore episodes be the bookends.

They also point out that some episodes that fans consider “filler” can be called back to later, retroactively making them important to the canon, so there’s always an implied level of continuity going on unless they explicitly call out an episode as non-canon (like the story train episode)

The interviewed staff don’t know when Season 5 is coming out, but they do believe it will be sooner than past seasonal gaps

Many of them are currently working on Season 5, and some of them are even working on Season 6

Erica Hayes is currently working on a different show because the board artists/directors are usually first in the process, meaning they wrap up work first and have to find other work in the meantime. She’s wrapped on Season 5 and expects to be back for Season 6 once the scripts are ready

And that’s it! Hope this was comprehensive enough for y’all to enjoy. (And now, I wait for Season 5′s podcasts.)

[theshinobiway]

The whole Lee being bald thing was just a mean hoax. It was never verified by any legit sources, just a bogus reddit post. There’s been plenty of those.

PSA: Rock Lee isn’t balding! I repeat, Rock Lee IS NOT BALDING! Here’s the Proof!

I knew that not watching Boruto would catch up with me eventually, so here’s me amending my previous statement: There’s no official confirmation that Rock Lee is actually balding in Boruto. 

And BOY did I do a deep dive of the internet for this. Saddle up kids, I’m about to throw on my amateur detective hat and take you for a wild ride through the internet to end this rumor once and for all.

Warning: Long, picture-heavy post where I cross-examine multiple sources.

Part I: The situation!

Here’s a compilation of the screencaps from Boruto episode 58 that sparked a thousand rumors.

Looking at the top-left screencap, we can see a strange rendition of Lee’s hairline. Following this introduction, Boruto and Yurui begin their match. When Yurui unleashes his unnamed Bubblegum-Pop jutsu, Boruto is thrown back. Rock Lee then grabs his hair due to the heavy winds that emanate from the burst. Putting the two together, it looks vaguely like Rock Lee has a strange hairline that accompanies him frantically grabbing his own hair.

Part II: The “Sources”

Okay, I spent probably close to 4-5 hours scouring through different links and articles. Here’s a breakdown of the internet’s say on the matter:

The first major source is from a website called “Comicbook.com” It’s the website that was linked in multiple other copycat articles, blog posts, and forums, and was the first result for any Google search of “Rock Lee balding” (or variations thereof)

Okay, this isn’t so bad. I see that there are sources linked, so I should be able to logically follow the trail back to either an interview or the name of the “book” in question. First, let’s look at where these so-called linked ‘sources’ lead. 

In any part of journalism, linking your sources is the most important step to ensure your audience that you cross-referenced with legitimate sourc-

aaaand YOU HAVE FAILED Journalism 101. 

Hm. despite the fact that this is a Reddit post and not an actual link to ANY book whatsoever, the link’s dead. Deleted. Frankly, this whole search was an endless loop of dead ends, but I was deadset on getting to the bottom of this.

So thus far, I’ve got one lead that wasn’t solved: there’s a rumored “Book” out there somewhere, and it was referenced at “some point.” My first guess would have been a databook, but I’ve read those. Perhaps the one I read had a translation error?

Scrolling through the comments of this Reddit post, I came across this:

Important context clues here: It’s not stated in a Databook. That means Naruto’s Jin no Sho, the Fourth official databook, is NOT the source of the rumor. Also, I was able to find a scanlation of Rock Lee’s page for the very same book here:

Rock Lee’s balding also certainly wouldn’t mentioned in any of the previous databooks where Rock Lee was, y’know, a teenager. All four official databooks are off the table.

Secondly, the link posted by user “Hydrobolt” leads to a twitter post with the following:

No sources, no reference to a book, nothing. Except for a few screenshots of Boruto Episode 58. I’ll discuss these shots later, but this appeared to be yet ANOTHER dead end. (Also, this twitter thread has ZERO links or sources!)

I can see why the post was deleted by the mods, but this was troubling: Did this whole rumor start from ONE twitter post from a shipper (that had single-digit likes/reblogs?) 

I didn’t think so. Even if this random tweet was picked up by a semi-popular media outlet, I still needed to answer the following questions:

What was the “book” that supposedly had Kishimoto’s confirmation? Did it exist, or was it a bluff?

Where could I find a scanlated (and hopefully English, though my husband speaks Japanese) version of the Rock Lee page?

Part III: The Search for the Non-Databook “Book”

Even if it wasn’t in a databook, there are multiple interviews and exo-textual sources that can be used to glean information about the characters. I knew I wasn’t looking for an interview–in part because the key was “book,” and also because Kishi has only given a set amount of serious interviews in the past, and most of those are available in translation. Thus, there might have been a storyboard, book, or some other source that was exclusively released that might hold this information.

The most promising lead was from a site called narutoforums.org

The original post:

Okay, first, there’s no actual link on “here”. That’s a major red flag, especially given that the post is currently only a year old (posted 7.27.18) 

And it’s yet another dead end.

…Sigh.

But wait!

User “Platypus” mentions that the source was a ‘movie booklet that’s been out for three years.’ That’s a lead!

A movie booklet, huh? Here we go: Sometimes, highly-anticipated animated movies are released in Japan with exclusive manga chapters or other easter eggs, as well as other goodies.

So, let’s talk about this unnamed “Movie booklet” – Three years prior to 2018 would have marked the release of the Baruto movie in 2015. That means the booklet would have been this one: Zai no Sho

This was the most difficult piece to dig up information on. The booklet in question was only released in Japan and during the original premiere of the movie in 2015. I couldn’t initially find scalations, so I did the next best thing: Looking for a table of contents. Good ‘ol Naruto wiki was here to save the day.

Boom. It even has page numbers!

Now, I had a supposed book source and even the page numbers. All that was left to find a translation. After some deep digging, I found one—right here on Tumblr via user Emotionalrockfish.

This was the moment of truth! I opened the link for Rock Lee’s page and carefully read over the description…

Rock Lee

Tireless effort and ambition! With his hot-blooded passion, he guides a genin!!The leaf village’s pride, an expert of taijutsu. He possesses absolutely no skill for ninjutsu, but refines his taijutsu by exceeding the limits of effort with the gutsiness he inherited from his master, and does nothing but aim high. He and his son, Metal*, absolutely can’t miss their daily training!

*Metal Lee is shortened to just Metal here, so no, he’s not called Lee like his father.

(*Pterodactyl screeching*)

AND THERE IT IS: After a whole trail of vague suggestions and dead links, I‘d finally come to the final source material. And there’s nothing! Nothing there that even remotely mentions Lee’s baldness!

N-O-T-H-I-N-G.

Conclusion: RUMOR UNSUBSTANTIATED

Part IV: So where did this rumor all start? And what’s with “that” scene?

The Situation Unfolds: The whole situation is from Boruto, Episode 58: The Tournament Begins! The wind in this scene is shown to originate from Yurui’s jutsu.

The bubblegum pop emits a wind blast, throwing Boruto back. The very same blast tussles Lee’s hair.

It’s an obvious gag, but not about Lee: it’s meant to convey the sheer strength that emits from Yurui’s bubbles popping. This is a common trope in anime: Character emits a powerful attack, the audience sees/feels the “force” from the fallout wind. 

The audience now knows that there are some stakes to Yurui unleashing his gum-based jutsu, because the force of the blast not only throws Boruto back, but can also reach a good distance away to where the proctor, Rock Lee, was standing. 

Further Explanation: It’s also fairly obvious that Boruto (and Ikemoto’s style) deviate from Kishimoto’s, so we should expect some variation in character appearances outside of the expected “age-up” factor.

Here are some original renditions of Lee with his hair (flying) up and his younger self’s hairline:

In Part I, we see that Lee’s hair falls into a widow’s peak. Then, in concept art for the Naruto: The Last, we see a far less defined peak—in fact, the hairline is decidedly square-shaped.

Then, finally, in the Boruto animation, Lee’s hair is almost circular (but also shown from an extremely tilted perspective.)

So we see a distinct transition in the actual SHAPE of Lee’s hairline in conjunction with the evolution of SP/Kishi/Ikemoto’s style. A story written over at least 17 years and spanning over three different series has a change in style? More likely than you think.

Conclusion: It’s a change in the animation style and a throwaway gag aimed at emphasizing the fallout wind from Yurui’s jutsu. Nothing more.

I rest my case, Pumpkin OUT!

[fly-pow-bye]

DuckTales 2017 – “Friendship Hates Magic!”

Story by: Francisco Angones, Madison Bateman, Colleen Evanson, Christian Magalhaes, Bob Snow, Rachel Vine

Written by: Rachel Vine

Storyboard by: Stephanie Gonzaga, Victoria Harris, Vaughn Tada, Brandon Warren

Directed by: Matthew Humphreys

No ponies here, headless or otherwise.

While we've seen a conclusion of at least one part of the Della plot, one other little thing from the season finale hasn't really been elaborated on outside of the occasional mention of Magica De Spell. Specifically: while we know whatever happened to Della Duck, and have a clue on whatever happened to Donald Duck, we never really found out whatever happened to Lena since she became Webby's shadow. Needless to say, it's a long story.

This is the episode where that plot continues. I will say this: Lena plots don't have good track records with me. I liked Jaw$, and The Shadow War was great, too, which was pretty much a foregone conclusion since it was the season finale. However, there's also Terror of the Terra-Firmians and The Other Bin of Scrooge McDuck, two episodes I almost gave a Disgusted Donald to. Granted, neither are because of Lena in particular, but still. Which column will this episode fall in? We're about to find out.

Our episode begins with Webby going to the library, because she loves the smell of thinking in the morning. Gotta get that reference out of the way. Oh, and Lena is here now, as an invisible, unhearable shadow being. While nobody else can see or hear her, the audience sees her as this black and green version of herself. Lena says that she's fine with her current situation, though it's quite clear from the tone of her voice that it's more in comparison to any alternative.

Webby doesn't want to do that even if she could hear Lena, so she's continuing her impossible mission to find a book at the library that can teach her about the shadow realm. Yami Yugi is nowhere to be seen, but we do get Mrs. Quackfaster. I guess Scrooge isn't paying her enough so she has to double as the amount of libraries she works at to get that sweet retirement at Birdaydos. Er, Bird-baaaaaay-dos. She tells her that she can't offer the particular book she's looking for.

It's because this new character already checked it out. Webby is shocked, because this book is only in Ancient Syriac, but this "odd girl" happens to know a lot of ancient languages. She introduces herself as Violet Sabrewing, and, after bonding over knowing conversational Akkadian, she offers to stay at her place, possibly overnight. In other words, and eventually Webby's: a sleepover.

Webby, of course, accepts, but Lena does not.  It's almost as if she's read Disney Now's description of this episode, which refers to her as this "suspicious new friend". Then again, it may be because of the way Webby's last sleepovers ended. She wouldn't be the only one to remind her of this.

As Mrs. Beakley gives us the excuse for why we're not going to see Scrooge or the boys in this episode, they're busy in the office for Bin-ventory Day, Webby barges in and tells her grandmother she's having a friend come over for a sleepover. Mrs. Beakley is proud that her granddaughter wants to do another sleepover after the last two ended with money sharks and unicorn fights in the other bin. Gotta love those casual previous episode references that could still work as fantastic off-screen adventures to those who don't know.

Lena is excited that Mrs. Beakley could talk her out of this, and tries to jinx Webby again by saying "cancel the sleepover." Needless to say, that jinx doesn't work out like the library one, as Webby has a different idea.

Instead, Webby decides to have the most normal sleepover ever, as she tries to hide everything that is supernatural in the house, and try to just be normal. Mrs. Beakley attempts to say that the best way to make a good impression on her new friend is to be herself

Mrs. Beakley: ...barring from that summer undercover in Paraguay.

Webby brushing aside what is most likely the origin story for one of her parents, hey, we were all thinking it, she tells her Granny that she's not like her, because she needs friends. After Webby walks away, she tells her to name one person she doesn't get along with.

Enter Launchpad McQuack, inept pilot and ruiner of any plan to make this the first DuckTales episode with only female characters. To disprove Webby's accusation, she decides to invite him for a "sup", and spends a little more time than she wants explaining what she meant. Lena episodes sure seem to love the B-plots that, for the most part, never really seem to converge with the A-plot. This will be another one that fits with the "for the most part".

Going back to the other planned meeting, Webby is all done storing magic rocks in the attic, and her new friend has arrived for the normal slumber party for normal people. She tells Duckworth to get the door, and then realizes that ghost butlers don't help out at slumber parties. Surprisingly, that's not one of the Bailey School Kids books.

After slicing Duckworth's ghostly form in half, him not appreciating it in the slightest, she opens the door to Violet and her totally normal pie. As Webby shows her awkwardness with this whole situation, Lena is not amused, saying she isn't buying it. See, I didn't pull that out of nowhere, Lena hates this girl. I mean, maybe it's a bit convenient that this girl happens to have the same shadow realm-related interests as Webby.

Violet is then brought to Webby's room, and Violet looks around to see all the places that clearly used to have mysterious objects in them. She just says it looks clean, but I can imagine she did not miss that.

Meanwhile, Launchpad tries, and struggles, to drink pea soup from a straw. Mrs. Beakley tries her best to deal with this.

One section she was focused on was this section about Tulpas, an actual concept in the world of mysticism. This whole concept sort of reminded her of that one time all the shadows came alive and...

Webby: Who wants Baggle?!

Violet actually does want Baggle, but wants this obvious distraction some other time. Webby responds that it's just her way to get to know each other a bit more, and suggests asking some ice-breakers. Violet's first icebreaker:

Violet: What do you know about Magica De Spell and the Shadow War?

Lena, feeling completely vindicated, tries to tell Webby that she said the "M" word! I wouldn't say she forgot that nobody can hear her; she's like those people who yell at the characters while watching TV. Heh, nerds. Webby has a different "M" word in mind: makeovers! Violet is clearly not buying this at all, but goes along with the makeovers anyway.

Violet ends up leaving her backpack behind, fully opened, and Lena notices something that definitely shouldn't be in there if she was an ordinary girl who just happened to really like shadow people: Magica's amulet! She runs off to try to warn Webby, and...okay, maybe she still thinks she can hear her, even though she never once acknowledged her existence. She does end up at least finding Webby, except she's now a zombie, complete with one of her eyes falling out.

That fake-out turns out to be Violet and Webby's idea for a make-up session. Webby praises her best friend's make-up, saying that she looks just like the demon named Rakshasa. She's definitely a great friend, I don't know a lot of people who would take kindly to being told "you look like a demon!" Webby should know what Rakshasa looks like, because she met him in a previous adventure, and she has proof...that is definitely not in the attic. Oops.

Webby relents and lets her into the attic, as this cover was completely blown. She was obviously interested in these things, so she doesn't mind that Webby happened to have some magic rocks. They never really explain what those magic rocks are, and I'd like to think I am a little beyond the obvious joke there. She also notices some ectoplasmic energies from that friendship bracelet.

The scene switches from their point of view to Lena's in a neat way, where Lena still thinks she can alter anything here. Sadly for her, Lena is also intangible. Thankfully for her, Webby distracts her from that bracelet, and offers that game of Baggle again. Violet agrees on one condition: they need to use Demogorgan runes. I don't want to reveal that I'm just looking up every one of these words on Wikipedia, so I'll be quiet.

Meanwhile, Launchpad tries, and struggles, to color a coloring book, and then eventually tries to get Mrs. Beakley to get into Darkwing Duck. Mrs. Beakley tries her best to deal with this.

...okay, maybe I shouldn't just brush this off for this running gag, since this scene has quite a bit of lore to get into Jim Starling's eventual big role in The Duck Knight Returns...but maybe I'll wait for that one.

Back to this game of runes, it just so happens that book has the right chant to make those dice-like runes glow green. Lena tries what might be her 50th attempt to actually affect anything as a intangible shadow person. She's shocked to find that it actually worked this time!

She then tries to rearrange the runes to spell out a message. Unfortunately, since these people are nerds, they think it's the writing on the runes that have any meaning, and not how this layout is shaped like the words "don't trust her." Not getting anywhere with these mysterious messages about rat messages, Violet tries another shadow spirit summoning trick: humming this melody. It works...but only Lena can see these white spirits ominously creeping out from the dark. She has to think of something.

She tries to manipulate a white sheet in a form of a ghost. This actually works, because of ghost cliches that even Lena is aware of, but it doesn't solve the "they can't hear me" problem. Violet decides to use a weapon against the one evil spirit they can see, and it turns out this weapon happens to be Magica's amulet. One side effect is that this amulet allowed her to actually see and hear Lena for a second, which is enough to clue Webby in on what is really happening. However, that is only the second most of her worries.

The main side effect is that it finally gets Webby to realize that maybe this girl may not be what she seems. Just like Lena wanted her to, she starts to question their future friendship, and asks everything she knows.

It’s here that we finally get her backstory, or at least her claimed backstory. She was just an ordinary Muggle, having no interest in magic or anything else of the sort. Then, everything changed when the Shadow War happened, and. Oh, and she just stumbled across Magica's cane, which turned back into the amulet. That's pretty much it. We don't know if she's completely telling the truth...

...but Webby buys it completely, to the disappointment of Lena, and they start to do a seance. You see these shadow beings that look like the shadow of Magica De Spell. This, of course, gets Lena to attempt to grab them again.

I hate to spoil this, but I will say that this seance does lead to Lena being able to drag Webby and Violet into the shadow realm. No, not that one, thankfully. We get a big reunion, but this hug doesn't get to last long, as Webby and Violet finally get to see those white shadow ghosts.

That was spoiler enough, so I'll run through this: a big chase scene happens here, and it all leads to a good conclusion to this episode. Even the "tulpas" from the earlier scene comes up, as that turns out to be a little bit closer than one might guess from the opening of the scene. Here's a hint: they don't just stay in this Magica-like form.

In a sort of fake-out transition from that mayhem, we see what is the conclusion to the Launchpad trying to get Mrs. Beakley into Darkwing Duck plot. Turns out, they both got really excited over a cliffhanger ending. Unfortunately, in this universe, that was how Darkwing Duck ended, with a Woody's Roundup-esque cliffhanger. I usually don't talk about future episodes, but this will be given more detail in The Duck Knight Returns.

What were those shadow beings? Will Lena ever learn to trust Webby's new friend? Should Lena ever learn to trust Webby's new friend? Most importantly, while we got the reunion, will it last? At least some of those questions will be answered by watching the episode. It was a treat to see one of those answers in the end, something I thought I wouldn't see until the end of this season.

How does it stack up?

This episode didn't give me anything to dislike, and a lot to like. The biggest challenge this episode had was introducing this new character. I'll say this, without spoiling anything: while she doesn't have any Earth-shattering twists like Lena did, yet, she has potential.

I kind of skipped over the Launchpad bits, I can admit they're all pretty funny. Obviously, it wasn't going to be something as big as the A-plot, but just something minor and maybe even a little bit cute.

In the end, it's definitely in the Jaw$ column.

Next, I actually find a way to talk about The Powerpuff Girls...and not those ones!

← Raiders of the Doomsday Vault! 🦆 The Dangerous Chemistry of Gandra Dee! →

[ualscout]

Captain’s Log: Cask of Amontillado 10x

I totally misunderstood the prompt initially and did a week of preproduction for a project I would end up abandoning…

I was assigned Flowers for Algernon, which hit really close to home for me. Losing my intelligence or memories is by far my worst fear and I saw a lot of good imagery to the story I could use in a simple but meaningful animation. I wanted to represent intelligence by flower height in a garden. The main character, Charlie, is a small sunflower (flowers known for their height) and other flowers bend down to interact with him. Some help him and some mock him. The different characters would have different flower types to represent their personalities. Charlie’s flower starts low to the ground, where Algernon can be seen scurrying around the ground, and the two scientists start to help it grow taller. As the flower grows taller and taller, it shows how Charlie is not only isolated by idiocy, but the intelligence he thought would help him relate to his peers better isolates him as well. The petals on him become more and more elaborate and big, and Charlie’s flower comes to represent the sun in the sky. Then he starts to wilt. He struggles as he goes back to what he used to be, trying to fight back, then giving up. Once the withered husk of the sunflower is left, someone picks the flower and puts it on top of a grave labeled Algernon. Do you know how much easier this project would be if I just stuck to that?

I wrote the script, did a ton of character exploration, and started designing characters. After all that, I decided to scrap everything and do “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe. Even though the story is dark in tone, I always saw it as comical. I mean, this guy just walks right into a very obvious trap. It’s so PAINFULLY obvious. The story is kind of a meme in the American educational system, and even online. I think I could tell the same story 10+ over in an even shorter amount of time...

I started with writing a series of situations similar to how the murder happens. It’s always some sort of betrayal with very little blood on the murderer’s hands. I wrote a series of short scenarios, ranging from tense with actual dialogue to basic internet jokes the modern high schooler would understand (we read it in like 9th grade, the kids need an abridged version). One included the character getting tricked into getting possessed, one is the character foolishly saying yes to a “free candy” van, one was getting hooked on addictive stuff from drugs, tabletop gaming, and bad social media sites like reddit, one is him just being yote off a cliff, one is a callback to the Cincinnati Zoo incident that I couldn’t finish storyboarding not out of lack of time but because of moral obligation and guilt. Anyways, they get increasingly absurd and stupid. I was challenged to fit as many as I could into one minute.

The script underwent a ton of revisions, this was the most time I’ve spent on a script. It was hard because I had to shave off as much as I could, but I think it made the stories better. They’re not supposed to be long set up jokes, it’s a series of punchlines. The joke is set up in the intro, when the characters meet in the original setting and say abridged versions of the lines. Everything else is what happens after. 

One thing that was challenging, but fun, was the character design. Since the characters change outfits, have their faces covered, are often not fully in the shot, and otherwise obscured, I had to design characters that were identifiable by every single angle. That means I had to really stretch the shape of the characters and lean into the cartoonish nature of design. One is a warm and innocent character, so I made him more likable and approachable with a bigger body but shorter stature. The other character is more cunning and harsh, so I gave him harsh angles and lines with a tall pointy stature. I tried to keep both of them in as similar a style as possible, and I think I did alright. Still used a lot more lines than I should of- whenever the characters had to have lined clothes, it was hell to draw. In retrospect, the physical dynamic is similar to two characters I used to draw a lot of in high school... 

The character designs had a base, but the outfits changed. I designed the costumes based on what I needed in the moment, so they weren’t filled with thought, unlike the first ones in the masquerade. I was just playing with shots and angles mainly, keeping information from the viewer and getting the drama across without heavy pauses or shots, just by angles. I also liked drawing the characters with the style, I kept it very simple and it made the process much easier. 

I also considered sound design heavily while the script was being written. I made a list of sound effects I would need for each scene, a list of songs to download for background music, and audio cues. I also designed one if the characters around a voice actor I already had in mind. The other character, I was entertaining using text to speech. 

I got much more comfortable with animating in Photoshop, which was nice. It’s still annoying keeping track of the frames and not drawing on the wrong frame, though. I need one of those set ups for animating on paper, just don’t know where to get one… I have a Lightbox, just need the paper and hole puncher. I found a lot of cool tricks in animating Photoshop, like taking advantage of stretching a frame and using layers. The style I was aiming for was very quick, yet stiff, and I had a lot of issues getting that style completely. It’s something I have to work on, but it all just felt too fluid. 

… I wasn’t able to finish this project. 

It was a lot, even when I cut it all down. I had big dreams and not a lot of time. I also had a bad case of depression which I’ve been dealing with since winter break. It all just felt like an uphill battle. I had so many ideas and stuff I wanted to do, but I couldn’t be happy with what I did or always ran into roadblocks which I would ignore for working on something else. Like, I was working on the project in some way, just not in a way that would help me progress in the way I needed. 

I liked connecting, writing, and concepting it all, but when it came down to animating it, it was just too much to do. I did learn a lot about Photoshop animation and feel a bit better using it, but I do need to learn aftereffects so I can use flat images and animations together more effectively. 

I enjoyed being able to flex my comedic writing skills and push them to the limit. My last comedic venture was more about telling a story with the assistance of a joke that already existed, but this one was coming up with new ways to tell the same punchline in increasingly comedic and unpredictable ways. The audience should know how the joke starts and ends, but how the joke gets to the end is the fun and mysterious part. Writing was where I felt my energy was most effectively spent even if it wasn’t the thing I spent the most actual time on (that would go to struggling with ProCreate and Photoshop). I did get to figure out my drawing and animation style a lot more effectively, though. How I draw characters feels a bit more established and defined, which does feel good. However, I think I need to start even smaller and just work on making small second animations or something. 

Anyways…

Your move, Poe. 

[namesisfortombstones]

The article about Destroy All Monsters in the most recent G-Fan was an improper draft with many mistakes in it. This is the version I turned in to be further refined for print. If you don’t know, the editor’s notes are not meant to be included in the text, but more of a warning sign to the author. The Secret History of Destroy All Monsters

By John LeMay            

           Fan dogma has usually assumed that Destroy All Monsters was created as the grand finale to the Godzilla series due to Son of Godzilla’s poor performance at the box office with a record low 2,480,000 admissions. [editor's note: rewrite a new opening completely; no they don't and ticket admissions are irrelevant to a film's success] 

          However, a first draft script for the 9th Godzilla film was submitted on November 22, 1967, before Son of Godzilla had even been released in December of that year. Furthermore, several sources attest that Kaiju Soshingeki/Attack of the Marching Monsters (the Japanese title of Destroy All Monsters) was announced alongside of Son of Godzilla, possibly as a competing project! In either case, Toho’s inspiration for their grand monster opus was probably the Monster Boom of 1967 in which Shochiku, Nikkatsu, Daiei, and even Keuk-Dong Entertainment (in association with Toei) in South Korea produced at least one giant monster movie and Toho felt they needed to up the ante to prove that they were still masters of the genre.

           On the other hand, many believe Tomoyuki Tanaka planned to end the series due to rising production costs and the advent of television drawing potential ticket buyers away from theaters. In the book Godzilla Days, effects director Sadamasa Arikawa is quoted as saying, “They were going to end the Godzilla series then. Producer Tanaka figured that all the ideas had just run out.” However, the commentary track by assistant director Seiji Tani for Destroy All Monsters' Japanese DVD release denies that the film was ever meant to be the final Godzilla movie at the time

           Kaiju Chushingura ("The Treasury of Loyal Monster Retainers", a title which would hold little meaning to anyone outside Japan), the earliest version of what would eventually become Kaiju Soshingeki/Destroy All Monsters, was titled after the famed Japanese tale of 47 Ronin (the Kilaak aliens are named after that story’s villains, the Kirakozukenosuke). Supposedly in this version, there was to be included every monster suit in Toho’s arsenal, even King Kong, Sanda, and Gaira. In fact, in an interview with David Milner, Ishiro Honda even said, “The original idea was to show all of the monsters.” Of course, this statement is open to interpretation as to what “all of the monsters” really means (is an H-Man a monster? Is the Human Vapor a monster? Or Matango?). In any case, this idea came directly from the Toho brass.

           The first draft script, Total Monster Attack Directive, by Kaoru Mabuchi submitted on November 22, 1967, included a confirmed roster of Godzilla, King Ghidorah, Rodan, Varan, Mothra (larva), Manda, Baragon, Kumonga, Ebirah, and Magma. Everything presumably plays out just as in the finished film except that Magma and Baragon guard the Kilaak base and Baragon actually attacks Paris. Also in this version, Varan teams up with Rodan to take on King Ghidorah in the final battle. [Editor's note: you can't just drop that on us and walk away. How do they team up? We readers demand details!] Ebirah would have most likely stuck to the water and it’s presumable the scene of Godzilla destroying an ocean liner at sea in the finished film was meant for Ebirah. However, a Japanese website dedicated to tokusatsu scripts, cyberkids1954.com, seems to imply that Ebirah would have made it onto land for the final battle. The author of the website writes, “Apart from the smaller number of monsters, it is a very well-written script.”

           How the second draft script differed is unknown, but the monster roster of the third draft script, submitted on January 9, 1968, is known to be Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra (larva), King Ghidorah, Baragon, Varan, Manda, Kumonga, and new additions Minilla and Anguirus. By this point, Ebirah and Magma were discarded… or were they? There is a curiously written scene for the very end battle that says Godzilla leads a charge flanked by Rodan, Anguirus, and Mothra and behind them is Baragon and Manda, plus more monsters making for exactly a dozen earth monsters (who are never named in this script) against King Ghidorah!

           The listed monsters only number six, and if one adds in Varan, Minilla, and Kumonga, that ups the number to nine. Naturally, one can speculate Gorosaurus is among the unnamed monsters, but his was a very last minute addition—more on that later. As this script was post-1967, King Kong was no longer a candidate for consideration at this point and was probably dropped by this time. The gargantuas, or possibly just Sanda, were a possibility. Frankenstein, being free of copyright unlike King Kong, was another possibility, but still very unlikely. Second rate kaiju like Kamacuras, the Mondo Island Sea Serpent, the Giant Condor, and the Giant Octopus are also possibly candidates, but those were probably never seriously considered due to the required extensive wireworks. As it was, Kumonga and King Ghidorah alone were nightmares for wireworks, so the Toho special effects crew likely shot down any more heavy wireworks monsters (look carefully when Kumonga's onscreen and you'll see that very few shots feature all of the spider's legs moving at once, as they had in Son of Godzilla). The likeliest candidate for one of the other mystery monsters was still giant walrus Magma; cyberkids1954.com features an excerpt from the third draft script that mentions the beast:

#93 Scene of Security Headquarters/Liaison Conference (between Director Sugiyama and Moonlight SY3 Captain Katsuo Yamabe) Director Sugiyama: “At Izu all the hot springs are dried out, the same situation as in Monsterland.” Katsuo Yamabe: “Is it also proof that it is Kilaak?” Director Sugiyama: “I am checking the underground monsters at Amagi.” Katsuo Yamabe “Magma...”

           In the finished film, this line was naturally changed to Baragon, and it’s possible the mention of Magma (who guarded the base in one earlier version) was just a mistake. As stated earlier, Baragon was initially supposed to attack Paris but his ears proved too difficult to manage (actually, the ears may have been in danger of being damaged) and so the part was taken over by Gorosaurus towards the end of production. However, there curiously do exist storyboards of Gorosaurus emerging from under the Arc de Triumph! Since his 1965 debut in Frankenstein Conquers the World, the Baragon suit had been loaned out to Tsuburaya Productions and converted into new monsters. They did this by removing Baragon’s head and placing new heads on the body creating Pagos for Ultra Q and Neronga, Gabora, and Magular for Ultraman. After that, the suit was kept at Tsuburaya Studios until Toho requested it back for Destroy All Monsters. As to why Toho had even bothered to repair the suit, chances are it was because Baragon was a very popular kaiju and toy sales of the beast were high. Sources say a new head was created just so the monster could have a cameo, but the body of the suit couldn’t be repaired because, supposedly, too much money had already been spent repairing King Ghidorah and Kumonga, in addition to creating new Godzilla and Anguirus suits. [editor's note: only Godzilla and Angilas are new costumes. All the other suits or props are from previous films] As it was, Haruo Nakajima crawled into the Baragon suit for scenes on Monsterland that play in a Monsterland base monitor as well as the shot in the final moments. As Baragon is still blamed for the attack in the finished film, one can assume that despite the storyboards, Gorosaurus’s attack on Paris was a last minute change. Perhaps the storyboards were drawn on set?

           Other mysteries concerning Destroy All Monsters include why recent creations Minilla and Gorosaurus, whose suits were in pristine condition, weren’t included in the first draft. [editor's note: Minya is NOT in pristine consition. You can see the suit falling apart in stills] Equally curious is why Sanda was axed, though supposedly, the third draft script featured Sanda hanging around Monsterland (likely glimpsed in a monitor early on), but he doesn’t partake in any of the action afterwards. As for Anguirus, his inclusion is slightly more surprising since, at least in part, this film revolved around using existing monster suits. Naturally, the 1955 suit had now deteriorated—not to mention behind the times—and a new suit was constructed. The new suit would pay off for the studio in the 1970s when the monster replaced Rodan as Godzilla’s main battle ally.

           The film’s manga adaptation could shed some light on early script concepts as well. At the beginning, Minilla can be seen holding up a giant shark he has caught. Manda’s attack of London is shown and considering it is mentioned in the final film’s newscast, chances are high the London sequence was meant to be filmed as well. Other notable differences include the Fire Dragon resembling an actual dragon! And naturally, Baragon destroys Paris. Most exciting of all, Manda wraps himself around King Ghidorah’s wing during the final battle and Baragon and Varan also participate.

           As fantastic as the finished Destroy All Monsters is, it’s too bad Toho didn’t produce it when they still had rights to King Kong. Fanaticized artwork of King Kong vs. King Ghidorah has appeared in at least one Sonorama book, and had he been included in the film this fantastic battle could have finally taken place. It would have also been interesting to see Kong team up with his old enemy Godzilla. Coincidentally, a European release of Destroy All Monsters renamed the film The Heirs of King Kong and features a giant ape on the poster.

           Another concept dropped to the wayside in one of the later scripts was that of lunar colonies and interbreeding the monsters—Ishiro Honda’s ideas. What these creations would have looked like was anyone’s guess. Specifically, Honda told David Milner, “We then started thinking about undersea farming... You see, we imagined that undersea farming would be required to feed all of the monsters. I very much wanted to explore that idea but because of financial constraints, I was not allowed to do so. Only the idea of an island of monsters survived.” Another, even more in depth quotation from Honda exists telling of his original hopes for Destroy All Monsters:

“[Kimura] and I... agreed it would be crazy to make each of the monsters just somehow appear. Eventually, we came up with an island on which all of the monsters had been collected for scientific study. We imagined that undersea farming would be required to feed all of the monsters... What would happen if that got developed on a super scale? I thought about the idea of a marine ranch... Scientifically, it would be what we now call aquaculture... From there, we started to develop the storyline. Initially, I had a lot more underwater scenes in the script. I was going to use special effects and set filming to depict them. But because of financial as well as time constraints, what you ultimately see is what we were able to do, the bare minimum. In a way, those things [that I could not do] were the scenes I wanted to film the most. Back then, the notion of aquaculture and biotechnology was already there, and we knew that things were going in that direction in the future.”

           One concept that most people think was abandoned, but in fact survived, was Honda’s idea of the creation of new sea life. The evidence is the strange whales with odd fins that Rodan attacks and eats. [Editor's note: wait, they're just ordinary dolphins, aren't they?] In later years shortly before his death, Honda would reflect that the film had the same premise as Jurassic Park (the book, of course, as the movie didn't come out until after he'd died) and this included an unused idea of raising the new crossbred monsters on the island. These crossbred monsters wouldn’t be due to forced mating of the monsters, but biotechnology!

 [Editor's note: that's it? It needs a proper ending. A conclusion wrapping things up]

[fuckyeahkagepro]

Kagerou Project Analysis: Hibiya (& Hiyori) Encountering Momo Kisaragi Before “the Daze”

[ How, When, Where, & Why do Hibiya (& Hiyori) encounter Momo before the Kagerou Daze song happens ? ] [ also: The Daze itself. ]

( continued from here ! )

Friendly reminder the official order of the Routes / timelines goes, like so:

Music Route -> Manga Route -> Novels Route [as of 2014] and/or MCA Route MCA: ‘closest to the latter’ (but now we may have more Routes coming so .....)

Music Route: (keeping in mind what’s been recapped so far from previous posts!) - Momo Kisaragi hasn’t even been created at the time Kagerou Days was. - Kagerou Days happens. - Hibiya wakes up inside the Daze. - “What time is it now?” - Repeat (two verses/choruses/loops) - Third loop: - “Ah!” “Yume [dream]”? - Repeat final time; Hibiya switches ? the timelines. - Momo Kisaragi does not yet exist in the real world (our world). - Momo Kisaragi is later created / designed by Wannyanpuu. - Wannyanpuu: possibly contributed to inspirations for the storyline (especially re: Hiyori Asahina’s design / concept.) - Wannyanpuu’s Hibiya: has phone. (phone: has time) - Jin’s Hibiya, still: “what time is it now?” [ all Routes after ] [ Hibiya: /no phone ( until possibly novel 8′s end ) ] [ Hiyori: /has phone ] [ Ayano: doesn’t even bother mentioning ‘the phone’ ]

Manga Route: - Shintaro & Momo encounter Hibiya & Hiyori very very early on. - The entire course of the Routes changes almost immediately. - Hibiya: “the boy who doesn’t have a wish” [to “save the girl” (yet)] - Saeru - Hibiya & Hiyori don’t know about “The Park”

- The Park: the initial spot where the Kagerou Daze first begins / traps them.

- Momo: tells them about “The Park”. (MOMO NO) (MOMO STOP) - Hibiya & Hiyori: encounter truck. - Hibiya & Hiyori: dies / encounters Daze? - Hibiya (& Hiyori, but not shown until later on): revives (with Snakes ? ?? ) - Saeru (Snake of Clearing Eyes) forms in Hibiya sometime before - Hibiya meets (Manga Route) Ayano. - Hibiya meets Ayano at “The Park”, while trying to remember what happened to him & Hiyori. - Hibiya can’t recall everything that happened to him. - Hibiya notably glances towards the swingset [prominent in Wannyanpuu’s Kagerou Days and indirectly seen in MCA.] [Hibiya & Hiyori often sit there having heart-to-hearts before the Daze happens.] - Ayano: tells Hibiya about Azami’s past. - Saeru: [ possibly: hearing all of this. ] - Hibiya later winds up in the care of Momo & Shintaro as they all try to search for Hiyori. - In between, them all encountering various members of the Dan, Konoha (Hibiya encounters Konoha), etc. [ will come back to Konoha later ] - Saeru: possessed Hibiya at some point before meeting Ayano. - everything else: happens - Hiyori: [seemingly] has Focusing Eyes. - Hiyori: hasn’t had an “Otsukimi Recital” type solo encounter with Momo. - Hiyori: will probably fail no matter what she does. - it can only be Hibiya [ ?? ?? ? ] - Hibiya: “i’m sorry” - to Hiyori - Hibiya: dead. (no thanks Saeru) - Konoha: also dead, trying to save Hibiya. (again no thanks Saeru) - Saeru: duped everyone into thinking Hibiya had Focusing Eyes. - (ok but what if ..... Saeru’s still duping everyone .....) - - - - HOW WOULD (COULD?) HIBIYA REVIVE WITHOUT THE SNAKE OF FOCUSING EYES ??? - IS IT (HIM REVIVING) JUST BECAUSE OF SAERU ??? - IS IT BECAUSE OF ANYTHING ELSE ????? ??? - HOW LONG WAS MANGA ROUTE SAERU THERE FOR ??? - SAERU: “FROM THE VERY BEGINNING” - DIRECT QUOTE FROM SAERU - - - IS IT POSSIBLE FOR TWO SAERUS TO BE POSSESSING HIBIYA AT ONCE ????? - - Manga Route’s New Form Saeru (literally the most recent chapter as of the initial writing of this post):  “ Hello  ! ”

Novels Route: - Momo Kisaragi exists design-wise and “in real life”-wise (our world), but ..... - Hibiya & Hiyori do not encounter her before The Daze. - Hibiya & Hiyori wake up inside The Daze. - Hibiya has various monologues while inside The Daze, Hiyori does too (to Hibiya). - some monologues may be happening in alternative timelines / spoken to a different character (Hibiya -> Ayano in the Daze from here appears in MCA 04) (still curious about another one exactly [I’ll get back to later]). - Hibiya escapes The Daze / revives. [w/Focusing Eyes] - Hibiya meets Momo. - Otsukimi Recital: later happens. - Hibiya drops Momo’s “oba-san” (auntie/old hag etc.) and “Aun” cheeky rudeness from him. - Hibiya -> Momo: “Momo”. (no honorifics.) [ Momo & Hibiya have become closer ! ? Congratulations, “Momo” & Hibiya-kun! ] [ .... at the very, very least, he’s a bit more polite now. ] (... there’s some other fun things in between Hibiya meeting Momo and that) (I’ll come back to those in a later mini analysis!) MCA Route: - starts off very similar to Novels Route re: Hibi+Hiyo’s weirder dynamic. - Kisaragi Attention (Episode 02) happens - Kisaragi Attention in Music Route: Momo meeting Mekakushi Trio + Mary only. - ‘Kisaragi Attention’ here: Momo meeting Hibiya. only - (Momo would later meet MekaTrio+Mary in Mekakushi Code ep 03 instead.) - Hibiya: still calling her oba-san - Momo: let this kind onee-san show you the way! [or: I’M NOT OLD] [ ^ this: happens only once in all forms of the canon iirc. ] - Hibiya: NO WAY OBA-SAN -- - Momo: attracts the crowds with her Eyes. - Momo & Hibiya: “shit” - Momo & Hibiya: RUNS [cue Kisaragi Attention playing] - Hibiya: gets overrun by crowds in between, escapes - Momo: doesn’t get any chance to tell Hibiya about “THE PARK”. (... would she have?) - Momo: doesn’t get to even meet Hiyori, only Hibiya. - Momo: doesn’t even make it to the Department store she wanted to go to. ( more on that recurring theme later too ) - Momo: SIGHS - everything else: happens - (including Otsukimi Recital towards end of anime) [ MCA 04 ] (compare: this dumb old amv I made once) [i’m sorry] ( because screencapping everything would take way too long, ok ;; ) ( but it has most Daze scenes in it while trying to line them up with Wannyanpuu’s version thematic wise ) - Hibiya & Hiyori: [ inside the Daze. waking up ] - Hibiya: /NO PHONE (IN ANY OF THEM) - Hiyori: /has phone - Hibiya: [ probably thinking it’s like a “dream” / “yume?” ] - Repeat four or so Daze loops, getting progressively worse each time. - Hiyori in between: saying things Hibiya can’t hear while smiling / crying - Hiyori: (”i’m sorry”?) (”I love you”?) - possible - Hibiya: [ final loop happens ] - Hibiya: SCREW YOU CAT “Serves you right !!” - (Cat in Novels timeline: Kano interference.) (Cat anywhere else: ???? ??) - (Kano interference: by means of Saeru forcing him.) - Hibiya: SWITCHES THE TIMELINES. - Hibiya: receives the Snake of Focusing Eyes from the Daze and revives. - everything else: happens [ considering new Routes incoming ] [ MCA: also Reset ? (maybe / likely ) ]

BONUS (from Kisaragi Attention, Ep 02:

( ^ listen. I am not the one writing this series. It’s doing it on its own.) ( Friendly reminder: Hibiya & Momo - closer in age than not ) ( ok but seriously it’s more like Hibiya: just entering junior high school as of Mekakucity Talkers; with conflicting age in canon [still closer to his birthday during loops [August 15th]; Hibiya’s birthday: November 4th]. Momo: just leaving/left junior high school as of MCA, but also with conflicting age. taking supplementary classes; hasn’t yet taken re-do exams. - She SHOULD be closer to ‘15′ by this point of the timeline. - her birthday is literally right before the Japanese school year begins. February 14th -> April [school year begins] -> August 15th [loops / timelines] -> March [school year ends] - MCA Kenjirou too (I realized): “if you [Momo] fail these [supplementary classes] you’ll go back to being a first year [in high school]!” - Kenjirou / as Saeru: manipulating the entire freaking city. INCLUDING MOMO’S SCHOOL. INCLUDING MOMO (?) - loops: happening (probably?: screwing up even more timing re: conflicting ages) - ... friendly reminder Hibiya has another birthday only a few months after escaping loops. then he’s taking junior high school entrance exams ?. ) - Momo: still has to wait until her next birthday (February 14th) to age another year regardless. - closer than not ? - look I’m just saying - - anyway look I seriously doubt Jin would intend for a serious relationship at all at this stage ok at most it’s friendship / fluff / developing - even the anthologies imply this with older!HibiMomo comics / manga - Wannyanpuu and Sidu (Kagepro’s official artists) have contributed to various official anthologies too - Jin certainly approves of the materials or they wouldn’t be published - literally ..... - my opinion aside, literally. - this is mainly for analysis ok. i am not writing this series.

Anyway all that aside: - MCA screencap above:

HIBIYA SWITCHED HANDS WITH MOMO TO RUN IN FRONT OF HER.

[ MANGA ROUTE QUICK RECAP: ] Hiyori to Momo: “i’ll walk in front” Momo to Hiyori: “wow” “it’s like you’re always protecting me .....”

“ There is no such thing as coincidence in this world, there is only Hitsuzen [the inevitable]. ” ( ^ oh hi CLAMP, Cardcaptor Sakura & Tsubasa’s Clow Reed & Yuuko Ichihara ) ( JIN, WANNYANPUU, SIDU, ETC. PLANNED ALL OF THIS. ) ( or at least most of this ) ( storyboarding wise ) ( where even is all of this going ?! )

[ ..... ok a short MCA summary follows ]

( ^ loop 1. NO PHONE. only clock [right; top] ) (still) (”what time is it now?” - KageDaze official song lyrics, Hibiya’s POV)

( ^ oh hi swings ) (looking very ominous with Daze colors imagery.) ( friendly reminder: even if the animation was weird in many ... many parts of MCA ) ( literally all of this is still storyboarded. )

( ^ waking up. loop 2 / in between loops)

( ^ NO PHONE [only clock] )

( ^ oh hi “The Park” Momo tells them about. ) [ she tells in Manga Route only that is ] ( looking ... even more extremely ominous ) ( Hibiya’s awareness ... growing ..... ) ( among other thematic parallels: sky, wires, birds, stop signs, blood, etc. ) ( adding poles, etc. ) ( birds / crows: also in Wannyanpuu’s music video [inside the clocks] )

( ^ [silently saying something] ) (^ “I’m sorry” / “I love you” ?) (note her tears.)

( ^ red red red sky ) ( ^ Hibiya waking up, frantically looking around [as if to check it was a dream])

( ^ RUNNING ) ( ^ NO PHONE [only clock] )

( [silently speaking] ) ( “ I’m sorry ” ? etc.) (tears flying.)

( ^ final loop ) ( ^ OH NO ) ( ^ waking up. )

( ^ Hibiya: “.......” )

( ^ clock ) ( but still not phone ) ( that he still wants in some Routes )

( ^ no phone ) ( Hibiya: closes door slowly. )

( ^ SWINGS / THE PARK ) ( shit )

( ^ TIMELINE SWITCH ) ( this time it’s me not you - Hibiya probably )

( ^ “SCREW YOU CAT!!!” ) I mean ( “Serves you right!” ) (lit: “look at your own failure / how much of a failure you are” “look at your pitiful self after failing so hard” etc. [to Cat]) alternatively: “take that!” “look at the state of things” etc. etc.

MCA Hibiya: dead MCA Hibiya: receives the Snake of Focusing Eyes and revives MCA everything else: happens Manga Route 2: happens New Form Saeru even after like 6+ YEARS OF THIS: happens

( JIN )

[ ... also: re Honorifics and progressions of ] ( basically it’s like : last names: can be more polite; first names without knowing: rude last or first names used intentionally rudely: rude last names with -san: very polite; formal; etc. first names with -san: more polite than not with -san etc. last names with -kun, -chan, etc.: a bit more informal, but still some politeness ? -san in general: polite, distance; -kun, -chan, etc: more friendly/informal -kun: often for boys (but can also be used for younger girls, such as underclassmen / etc.) -chan: often for girls (but can also be used for younger boys, kids, as a cutesy honorific; etc.) progression to first names, no honorifics: typically means - becoming closer; can be rude if not ) ( it’s kind of hard to explain um ..... ) ( if you’ve ever watched the Digimon Adventures series ? ) [ oh hi another of my main fandoms since long before Kagepro ] ( ... I don’t know how many of you have, but this is a very good example video ) ( if you watch it, note how they progress from last names -> first names ! ) (literally they go through like 5-10 honorifics changes) ( also: rudeness [in between] -> familiarity/closeness ) (note: Hibiya also calls Hiyori by her first name and first name only.) (initially: can be rude. Hibiya is often cheeky/rude. Hiyori even notes this in Manga Route - [he’s from the countryside so he doesn’t have / know manners] etc.) (after: _____ ? ?? ) ( also [Digimon spoilers below]: the canon pairing at the end of 02 [Sorato; Yamato x Sora] also becomes canon through honorifics changing and progression all throughout the first and second series. It was a real surprise to most of the Western / American fanbase at the time because literally all of this gets lost in translation [and very bad, fully Americanized dubs]. ) People there to this day still tend to be confused by it because of things consistently lost in translation and their lack of initial interactions otherwise. [ there are multiple honorifics issues within Kagepro in general too. ] [ literally there’s a reason why they’re used as plot points multiple times ] ( ..... don’t say I didn’t warn you. )

[kshitijvivaninstitute]

The Beginners Guide to Whiteboard Animation

Storytelling is the most common and effective way to get connected with the audience whether it’s for personal or business purposes. And when one combines this skill with animation, it’s a cherry on the top.

Although now most of all industries use animation videos and it is more difficult than ever to stand out in the industry. But no worries, the animation industry is growing and innovating and has come up with better ways of telling a story.

The solution is a new style of animation--Whiteboard animation.

What is a Whiteboard Animation? Whiteboard animation is a type of animation video style that uses graphics, moving images, text, and sometimes voiceovers to communicate ideas in an interesting way on the plain whiteboard.

At any point in time, whiteboard animation will outshine and perform better than plain videos.

Whiteboard animation  grabs immediate viewer's attention Whiteboard animation is the best and effective way to grab anyone’s attention whether it's a toddler, an adult or old generation. Everyone can resonate with whiteboard animation in some way or another plus it’s fun to watch.

Whiteboard animation is easy to consume and simplify concepts It is estimated that about 85% of all information processed by individuals is obtained through vision and it is a lot more interesting to the human brain to watch an animated video. Whiteboard animation powerfully combines the two great means of human communications – images and text – to convey rich and replete meaning to the viewer.

Whiteboard animation goes viral easily Whiteboard animation is entertaining, interesting, visually alluring, and often educational so it has a tendency to go viral easily. When they’re done watching whiteboard animation, viewers feel self-satisfied and informed. Whiteboard animations are easy to create

Whiteboard animation production process may seem laborious and time-consuming. But it’s not the case, if you love animation then you will fall in love with whiteboard animation and it’s all fun to make interesting to watch too. 

There are a number of software programs available nowadays that makes whiteboard animations an easy task. Some of the software programs available are: Videoscribe Video scribe from UK Company Sparkol is one of the leading whiteboard animation software used by all. It is available as a desktop version and an iPad app. Features:

- Quick video templates - Free library of over 7,300 images - A diverse range of hands, pens, erasers & more - Over 190 royalty-free music tracks - Add your own logo watermark - High definition (HD) videos   - Add your own images and audio.

Doodly If you don’t have any technical skill to start working on animation, NO worries! Doodly is the first and the only animation software which helps to create beautiful animations without any technical knowledge required. As the name suggests, Doodly is used to create doodle videos. Features:

- Experiment With Board Styles: whiteboard, green board, glass board, and blackboard images. - Unlimited upload of images - Add Free Tracks. - Templates available. - Sharing is compatible with social media platforms and websites. - Different real hand styles and cartoon hand styles

Vyond It is a fully-featured Video Making Software designed to serve Agencies, Enterprises and is an effective tool to make professional animated videos easily with N numbers of professional features available. Features:

- Hundreds of pre-made templates - Expanded Timeline(easy to see the props and effects) - Keyboard Shortcuts(save a lot of time) - Global Editing(allowing you to instantly swap an aspect that appears in multiple scenes of your video) - Create MP4s or animated GIFs - Character lip-sync

Animaker Animaker is a web based and easy to work software on while making animated videos. It can be  used for personal as well as business purposes both and one even doesn't need to download the software and can use in online on web.

Features:

- Drag and drop interface - Library of images, characters, audio - Professionally Crafted Templates - Gradient Background(Add up to 5 colours in Background) - Extensive Facial Expressions(over 20 facial expressions) - Auto Lip-Sync - Smart Move(Complex Animations with the click of a button) - Multi-User Collaboration (Work together with teammates to create videos in Real Time!)

Explaindio Explaindio is an online whiteboard software animation tool and is easy and simple to work on.It includes complete package that helps in creating effortless and amazing 2D and 3D animation designs

Features:

- Wide range of built-in transitions - Download footage and royalty-free images from Pixabay - 180+ Pre-Made Text Animations - Over 300+ Fonts Included - 140+ pre-made video, image, doodle objects animations - Import videos in a most popular format like AVI, WMV, FLV, MOV, and MP4

How to create Whiteboard Animation?

Know your mission and goal: The first thing you notice about a whiteboard animation is the images – but that isn’t where you need to start. If you don’t have a clear idea of what you’re trying to say, your audience won’t either. You should define the mission and goals behind the animation video in order to properly evaluate it on a later date. Ask yourself what you want to accomplish with a whiteboard animation. An example could be: ‘I want to increase the conversion rate by 20%.

Understand your audience: Before making a Whiteboard video, you should know who your target audience is and what they actually want.

As you are making animation videos for them and they are the one who will see it. So, make whiteboard animation videos that resonate with your audience.

Try to put yourself into their shoes and imagine how they speak and set your tone accordingly.

Compose the perfect script: Marketing videos, educational videos, presentations, whatever you’re planning, they can all benefit from having a few storytelling elements added- just something your audience can connect with emotionally. You need to add three things in your script: Take one likeable hero: It could be anything a product, a person , a thing Create and satisfy desire: Pose a problem and solve it Create a perfect call-to-action: what you want people to do after watching your video.

Select graphics or make one: Now you have two options- You can use pre-existing images from the image galleries already available in popular whiteboard animation software like in VideoScribe and Doodly.

If you are an artist-You can even turn your illustrations into SVG format.

Things you need to take care while selecting graphics-

The strongest animators use just one type of illustration throughout.

Match the brand elements in your graphics-use your logo.

Stick to one main colour if you can and use other colours to complement the main one.

Find your Font: An expert animator knows that choosing the perfect typeface can strengthen that message and bring all the other visual elements together. It’s best to keep the number of typefaces in your video or scribe to a minimum, using no more than two typefaces per video.

Voice-over/background music: Music is the most emotive and engaging communication skill you can use while making a video. You may want to hire a professional voiceover artist to record your message. However, it’s more than possible to produce a strong voiceover yourself by using softwares like audacity available online.

Storyboard- Lay it all out So, your script has a story, and your story has pictures and music. Now’s the time to lay out your pieces on the storyboard. Just be careful to get a good balance between movements Staying still too long risks making your video look static but too much movement can look over the top.

Share it to the world: Now you have all things ready and one step away from making it viral! What is that one step? The answer is-- SHARE IT! There are tons of other video platforms ready to help you propel your video into the world like youtube, vimeo, Facebook etc.

CONCLUSION: Whiteboard videos are an effective Video marketing tool. It's a style that makes your audience's mind into an entertaining and engaging mood. Use them to introduce your business to your audience and explain how your product and service can save the day and increase your conversions. So this is the ultimate guide to Whiteboard animation for 2021. Hope you found what you were looking for. And learning new skills in this changing world adds value to your business and personality. It's a great time to learn Whiteboard animation from the Best Animation Institute and grow your career and business.