#im a fanartist the point of it is that i made art with my own two hands! i created something by myself!!!

[milkcryptid]

do people have no shame anymore?

[meruz]

hi!! im sure ppl have asked this b4, but i scoured your asks tag for an hour or so looking to see if you answered anything abt it and couldnt find anything, so i was just wondering if youve made any posts on your process for making n selling merch b4? and how you know which franchises you can make merch for w/o getting into trouble w copyright n trademark stuff (hopefully that makes sense, im not sure,,,)

hi! got a bunch of asks abt merch stuff lately im gonna put it under a cut.

preface: i don't know if i'm the best person to ask about all this stuff because I'm doing merch on a strictly hobby basis LOL. I have a fulltime job which takes care of the bulk of my finances, I don't really make big quantities of anything and my main priority at cons is to just make enough money to see my friends in different cities at minimal expense. i pretty much always get a refund when i file my con taxes because my profit after all the deductions is like fucking..nothing.. lmao. So if you ultimately lose money following my advice don't blame me. OK NOW lets get into it

my process for making merch: when I have an event scheduled that I want to make merch for I start by brainstorming a bunch of stuff I wanna make. for mgscon this is what I wrote down in my sketchbook lol

i made a legend to denote which ones are actually just reprints. it gets easier to plan out merch when you already have merch. out of the new merch ideas here i actually only made like 4 of them. and out of the reprints i only reprinted like three. i also came up with like 4-5 other merch ideas after writing out this list that i actually did do. LMAOO UM. my point here is that nothing rly goes as planned.

when i get a merch idea i start with thumbnails what i want it to look like (sometimes this is based off merch ive seen before so its very realized and sometimes its really vague bc im kind of pulling it out of my ass)

then BEFORE i go into making the final art I research how I'm going to make the merch. whether its printing/constructing it myself or looking for a manufacturer. There's a lot of different places that you can get custom merch made, i used to go shopping around at local printing shops but nowadays it's really common to do it all online. For both these jet tags and the washi tape I did some of my own research into manufacturers and also asked friends for their contacts/referrals/recommendations etc. most manufacturers either have their specs/template publicly available or will give them to you when you ask. so once I've locked into a manu and gotten the specs I'll start designing the final art.

then it's sending it off and waiting! easier said than done.

i will say this process is a lot lengthier for some types of merch than others LOL. for prints... I've been doing prints for like a million years and I plan out almost none of it. I draw everything at print resolution so a week before I have a con scheduled I'll simply go through all the files I've accumulated since my last con, squeeze whatever drawings I want into standard print sizes lol (ie. 8.5x11, 11x17, 4x6 etc), and print them at a local shop. takes like a couple hours max.

how you know which franchises you can make merch for w/o getting into trouble w copyright n trademark stuff?

I mean. honestly I don't know. selling fanart is the kind of thing that IP holders kind of just let slide as long as they don't think they're losing a substantial amt of money on it. there ARE a couple franchises people avoid because they've been known to send IP lawyers after fanartists... disney is the big one and they're known for being pretty petty abt it... that's why you don't really see people selling fanart of the disney princesses at cons. ive heard pokemon will also crack down if your project seems to be making a lot of money lol, part of why i think a lot of pokemon fanzines operate on a charity basis. I do feel like the pokemon company has bigger fish to fry than someones artist alley table though so i wouldn't sweat it too much.

it's also generally considered impolite/bad taste to sell fanart of small franchises. webcomics and indie games especially if they only have like 1-2 devs who rely on the income that game makes.

I'm not a lawyer so you shouldn't consider this legal advice BUT I will say... I don't think you should let IP law stop you from selling fanart lol. especially if it's low quantities/not mass produced and you're not making crazy amts of money I think you kind of have a leg to stand on. Besides, most cases it seems like the worst you'll get is a cease and desist.

you Will notice that when people start turning their artist alley endeavors into a real business they'll generally ease up on selling fanart (the case most prominent in my mind is omocat lol). but i love fanart and thats why i will never make money and thats a promise [snake saluting gif]

SORRY IDK IF ANY OF THIS WAS HELPFUL. I've been doing merch and cons for a long time (10+ years lmao, you can find record of this on this very blog) and i think im kind of old fashioned about it. i recognize the artist alley/merch scene is a lot more demanding now than it used to be but start small at local low-risk events, online sales etc and work your way up and remember to have fun and itll be ok i believe this wholeheartedly.

its literally just layers of acrylic like any other dinky charm. I'm sure pretty much any manu that does acrylic charms could do it but this specific charm/template i did order through a group order server. they're pretty well known! heres a link to their twitter

@wheatormeat sorry for taking a full month to answer this... anyways. This is tricky because I've actually been changing up my sticker manu everytime LOL IDK if I've found one I actually love.

these ones i ordered thru an alibaba manu because I was jumping on a friend's group order to save on shipping. it was ok. they arrived a liiiitle late and printed a lil dark but i think thats kind of my fault LOL I use dark colors i always need to lighten things before i get them printed and i think i just didnt lighten these enough. otherwise i rly love the quality!

i realized i never posted these online and also this is not a good picture (the lighting in my living room sucks rn) but i printed these tmnt stickers thru stickerninja they feel really solid but they needed kind of a lot of space for the cutline. but their customer service was very nice and helpful!

these ones i got printed at washimill and i was so impressed with how fine their cutline is... pricing and quality of the sticker itself is alright they feel a lil flimsy? idk. but i do like the printing. i kind of elected to go with them solely because i was already ordering washi tape. A LOT of my manufacturing decisions are made based on how much money i can save on shipping tbh.

and thats my sticker manu reviews dont forget to like comment subscribe idk if i have one im gonna stick with forever or anything im rly indecisive. ideally id like a manu based in the u.s...? because im based in the u.s. and international shipping is pricey. but idk if i keep ordering washi tape maybe ill keep using washimill. who knows...

[gamersagainstthemachine]

i hear sh2 remake is good? i know nothin about silent hill. got my sister into RE and just beat dmc1 with her watching, hoping she starts to like 3 and 4 when i get there. but yeah, vido games! love em

ive been playing these games because i found the ps2 which i thought had died and i also frequent thrift stores and have been able to find these games cheap (not the silent hill games obviously collectors have scalped those) but my friends got me dmc1 because it "seemed like something id like" yeag. it cracks me up especially the devilman references. but it seems like these games are also just popular again with the general person?

i havent played sh2 remake myself yet im busyyy and also tired of people rushing me to play things instead of doing it in my own pace. but ive been following along the release and it has some good things to it like environment details and even more endings. people have always been praising the little things in the writing and art direction which arent in the remake and they havent been replaced with better content so its lesser in this way. absolutely no way replace plauing the original with this one lol

i like games that are like interactive theatre with a great soundtrack and silent hill is often this. there is a lot of silent hill content, from installments that prove games are art to b movies that facilitate stupid cliches and it also encompasses other franchises like forbidden siren which i have played a bit of and team psyskallars fangames which are better silent hill games than some silent hill games and also hit closer for me because they take place in urban scandinavia. You know me its all been indie game supremacy because i didnt want triple A bullshit but ive made friends that have introduced me to the value of Big Gaming because its a part of them and because they are important to our culture and they are creative and its fun and there IS a lot of bullshit done in the name of marketability like blatant sexism and racism which i complained about the other day completely devalues the new dragon age for me because once i start thinking the authors are idiots with no other values than representing a power fantasy it really just feels like a waste of time to visit their work. Not that i dont want a power fantasy but i need it to address what matters to me especially the unattrative parts of life. Silent hill 2 is exactly this its what marias character is all about. i set my standard for video games when i first heard about silent hill 2 and similar games. the thing to like about it is that it is just so honest. its not really about people being horrible and ugly it makes a point about people being multifaceted and realistic and it is a sufferfest sure but its to drive a point home about ultimately love and gotta like media that examines the concept of love. they never try to censor themselves which i like because adults dont need content censored for themes they have specifically sought out depictions of. because it doesnt dumb down or glamourize it is entirely different from other commercial experiences which makes it weird that it is a popular franchise and video game with things like remakes coming out because you just cant treat it like any other consumable product its not anonymous or universal like that which lends itself to waifus and merch. but at the same time its also a video game made for an audience of adult gamers so it was made to create a fanbase around it. the best thing about being a silent hill fan is the gatekeeping and elitism it has resulted in and im serious because they arent games for everyone and it shouldnt be treated like they are. everything in moderation and all and the overexposure and bad retellings completely undermining or missing the sophisticated point is really prevalent. mr ito said it best https://x.com/adsk4/status/1495530138922283008 but seriously i have to even ask silent hill cosplayers and fanartists if theyve even played/seen the games and they often say no. a bit alienating. i think its fair to say the reputation overshadows the actual content for better or worse. it gets more exposure with the remake delightfully making history repeat itself like dis

i think you would like silent hill games for their thoughtfulness i rec emulating 1-3 maybe 4 and maybe give siren a try even though its difficult. it is pure japanese horror and the face model scans are very haunting the plot is also more resident evil-scoped. but yeah very big franchises, tap out when you get tired.

personally i think any remake should be played as a sequel although triple a games are usually finished products when they come out so they dont really need more content? but people talk about remakes all the time so playing through an old game series like dmc made me think about it. DMC4 has a lot of things to like that were never realized or only realized in pachinko games because it wanted to be this big final fantasy hero adventure but had rushed development. playing it feels very stiff and vague and it should have been much longer story wise but it was padded out with nonsense gameplay. it "needs" a remake or prequel for sure! DMC2 was also never realized and i personally like its tone more and i think it could be remade to be the sequel that DMC never got.

DMC truly feels like the designers just did whatever they think is fun and throw it at you and thats good because media should be challenging and the gameplay and puzzles definitely felt like the game was treating you like an adult. I was really surprised when DMC turned out to be important to me. Because it wasnt really where id look for a game experience that is intelligent or subversive. But i was surprised when its an emotionally smart game. ill be honest what makes DMC work is the camp, which isnt necessarily profitable or what a straight audience of noncreatives want so i think thats why it kinda has been worked out since DMC1. but dmc1 güde. i dont remember the last time i noticed i was smiling while playing a game my genuine and& honest reaction

i thought dmc was final fantasy for the longest time which is why i got pleasantly surprised by the dmc1 cutscenes you know the ones when they happened ahahah. that game is just entertaining i hope you and your sister had fun with it too! i have played all of the dmc games now except for the reboot which i am very interested in playing because even though its a bad dmc game from what i have seen it looks like an excellent devilman game it seems their train of thought was very similar to crybaby. dmc4 was almost my least favorite moreso than 2 but i can imagine DMC4 is very good if youre a catholic teenager. dmc5 is worth playing the other games for, its like the details and continuity keep hitting you and V is goth incarnate he is the character ever. his official manga is that good and it has no official english release at all. fucked. the dmc1 anime is fun its very 2008 anime. The franchise overall feels like it keeps giving.but it also feels like its thinning out by relying too much on happy reactions in the reader like jokes. it really hurts vergils character the most i think.

i was so excited to play 4 more games like dmc1 but they are very different which also has its merits i guess but i miss the darker stuff and difficulty. dmc5 gives you gold orbs just for starting the game... the novels can def be skipped for fanwritten lore dumps

its pretty common for people to say that dmc is for kids but i think its exactly for people that have seen all the tropes genres and series it draws on before and want a fresh spin on them that doesnt take itself seriously when it comes to plot but does handle emotional maturity carefully. its different from resident evil in this way right? when they arent implementing internet discourse, then franchises are increasingly asking us to take their stories seriously marvel is prime example of this and i just cant bring myself to gaf so i lov dmc way more than resident evil. i also got into that franchise by chance because i won a copy of re8 village and some of my ps4 games were stolen so i needed things to play. im peeved by the shallowness of the series but they do haunted house experiences SO well. i get a bit scareds. RE engine is also insaaane they really spend so much money on rendering every single wrinkle on dantes ass in leather and dynamic wetness its excellent to play with

the thing about these games is that you can really help getting an attachment to them after playing because they are really effective. i understand the dedicated audiences. I hope you take your time with them and its so awesome to bring somebody else along for the ride. it can be challenging to visit old media that has its installments in perspective to eachother because old players view them retrospectively. but there is also some cool historical fan content to find. and its one of those beloved franchises once you know it you just remember seeing it everywhere. i think my friend had pictures of trish and nevan on her computer when we were like 9 and had no idea what it was from but our favorite activity was of course Google Images

so ya i wrote much but that was all i wanted to say. youll have to list the replies in numbered order or something if you want to add anything XD

clown lady 4 u V have a wonderful day

[miiilowo]

im going to be stupid and vulnerable for a second in front of everyone. i have to get this off my chest i think itll help. but uuummmmm. ive been like. very paranoid of being Found Out about the fact i have some unpalatable kinks and fetishes and whatnot. ooky spooky scary violent ones. i know half of tumblr jokes about woundfucking but still. i dont exactly keep it a Secret, but i'm not super open about it either and it i have experienced . some really fucking weird shit from people on here before. for example:

a while back i was dating someone who, by coincidence, was a fictive of a character i liked. didn't like him because of his source, just liked Him. people discovered this. they did not like this. i knew i wasn't causing any harm, boyfriend was totally cool with it, everything was fine, but we both got fucking harassed for literal months via anons (or maybe just one person who kept making new accounts i dont know) about it because there was this perceived immorality even though everyone involved knew nothing Weird was afoot [the 'weirdness' in question would be people thinking i was dating him exclusively because of his source if it isnt clear. i am a singlet. this would be fucked up to do in most cases but that wasnt what i was doing] and like. as a result of that i think i have developed this irrational fear that if i do anything that could be perceived as slightly suspicious or unpalatable that people are going to harass me about it.

i have a pretty decent following online. not just on tumblr but other places too. i see my own art everywhere. people have recognized me in discord servers and on fucking ponytown for christs sake. im a decently known fanartist in a couple circles. and im like. really fuckin paranoid about the concept of people harassing me again to be frank. i am Not good at handling hate. ive been getting better, but im not good at it

i think i need to be more open about who i am in Full in order to feel more in control of the situation i suppose, even though "the situation" is a scenario i made up because im anxious. thats what the point of this post is. if you follow me and havent caught onto my fascination with gore and whatnot and the idea of that bothers you feel free to unfollow me block me etcetera. tumblr is generally more acceptable of this sort of thing, but i know a lot of people are repulsed by it still. no hard feelings, i just dont want it to come as a surprise and have someone feel the need to make a callout post like its 2016 again

need to start actively posting more weird unappealing shit to weed people out of my followers

[literallyneurodivergentandaminor]

this is kinda hard to say but ive really been meaning to make an emotional post like this for a long time but ive always thought it woudnt matter anyways and-- i should just get to the point.

tumblr is.... special to me. i hate it here but also ive been here so long and made great experiences too and i really fuckin love how the site is built in general so im staying.

and

tumblr was also the place where i first expressed my own creativity. where i first made art and posted it. ive been lurking on tumblr for a long time, as far back as i can remember anyways, but it was only 2015 when i made an account myself. and it was to post undertale stuff. and follow my favorite undertale fanartists and au creators and

although that old account may be gone and forgotten now, since i forgot the password somewhere around 2018 and at this point also forgot the url. but ill never forget the experiences. the friends i made. the things i learned (yeah i learned digital art from a friend here on tumblr!) the things that kept me going while i was in a prettttry bad place (its gotten better, even if only minimally)

but

the internet changed a lot since then.

things i used to enjoy are now cringeworthy in the eye of everyone. and my favorite things have long been discontinued

ive lost hope in a sense

ive always looked back at the things i used to love, and still do love, and then just seeing how they

stop at some point.

and every time it made me sad. really REALLY sad.

and of course this relates to deltarune as well with it being from toby fox and tying back to undertale and the fandom even being for some part even the same people but its. its different. of course it is. its supposed to be.

and yesterday was the same thing with the handplates comic by @zarla-s (if you read this, hii!!!). something i used to love. and i still enjoy it. and i expected it to be the same as always. its ended or discontinued years ago and ill be all sad again about things having changed so much and me not being to handle it but

this time it was different

this time it didnt stop

and when i checked the date of the last page

it was today. 10 hours ago, from when im writing this at least.

and its probably really fucking stupid to say this but ive already said so much so might as well

it gave me hope

hope that maybe i was wrong. that i still can be happy like i was back then. and thag the things i used to love arent entirely dead. and that not only the bad things from my past persisted, but also the nice ones. i mean, this is proof!

and even though ive planned to finally write this for so long, ive only now gotten to because i have this hope i guess

idk

i guess im just weird

[qinxiin]

Being a Fanartist

Note: I'm not attention-seeking or anything, this is just a vent. Feel free to skip <3

I noticed that people follow me for my fanarts and that I gain quite a lot of attention (ultimately on IG) bcs of them. On one hand, I feel super grateful for it, knowing that you guys enjoy the art I create. But on the other hand, i feel a little... Guilty (?)

Because it seems like i'm using someone else's character & story instead of my own.

And also, i feel like i "couldn't escape" the fandom(s) i'm in because once i do, i'd lose a lot of attention (especially because i'm known in a certain fandom). Note: I'm not saying that i'm going to leave though.

If some of you notice, i've started to draw more of other fandom's fanarts (and even some original art). I tried getting out of my comfort zone although my insight would drop real fast.

Call me addicted but I keep monitoring the numbers and they actually do affect my performance. Lately, i get kinda stressed out and my insecurity kicks in because a lot of people unfollowed me after those posts.

No matter how hard i tried nor how much time i spent, nothing actually worked. I treasure each and every engagement (likes, comments, and reshares) i get on the new ones, and start to not care abt the engagements i get on the fandom related posts. Everything felt numb for a moment.

Now i get why people say that fanarts are the highway to popularity. I feel like im cheating bcs there are actually a LOT of underrated artists that are better than i am. That's where i started to doubt myself. I couldn't help but think,

"Am I actually good enough? Do I even deserve this much attention..?"

Yes i do get it, i also follow artists for their fandom related contents sometimes, and unfollow some when they don't post them anymore. That's why i couldn't blame anyone

I didn't want you guys to be disappointed at me.

There were some points where i kinda forced myself to make fanarts and eventually "got sick of it", so i took a break from drawing at all. I got back because i know that some of you wanted to see more of my art and i don't want to leave you hanging, too.

But either way

I'm still proud of being a fanartist because i get to improve my art a lot and meet people who share the same interest i do. You encourage me to work on my art even more, i wouldn't have gotten here if it weren't for you guys. Each and every words you say are the reason why i'm still here.

Y'all are the best istg, huge thanks to those who have been here since the beginning (i might as well mention them but i don't wanna make this post too long haha). And also to those who follow me merely for my art!! 🙌

Wow, you made it till the end!! I'm super grateful, tysm!! I'm happy that i could at least be a part of your day. I want to be your inspiration and also the reason why you're still fighting. Now, i let me say:

Thank you so much for supporting me ✨

I'll keep on improving for you, just you wait!

- Qin ❤

[spookobat]

hi!! i love your cute bruabba themed christmas tree and was wondering if u have any links for the charms and buttons on there!! im working on a bruno ita bag and its so hard to find good merch lmao

quite a bit of stuff on there is secondhand official merch! generally for official merch i use a shopping service and buy a lot at once, i’d recommend using fromjapan because i find their system easiest! good websites for finding secondhand official merch are places like yahoo auctions, surugaya, jungle, mercari jp*, mandarake, otamart. (some of these places you don’t need a shopping service but i prefer to use one because that way i can get One Big Parcel shipped to me from several stores instead of several smaller ones i have to pay shipping individually on. mercari won’t let you use fromjapan but there are some shopping services that will, i can’t recommend a good one bc the one i use is currently only accepting orders from previous customers). 

a lot of it is also from booth! booth is pixiv’s ‘creator marketplace’ with a lot of fanmade goods, again, you’ll have to use a shopping service but i really like ordering from there because supporting small creators is good! i’ve gotten a lot of cute notes from artists (often in english bc they’ve seen my name in english ;n; ) that i keep bc they make me happy. 

the two ‘vento aureo’ badges are from an artist on taobao who has one for pretty much any character you can imagine. there is some legit fan-made stuff from chinese fanartists on taobao but a lot of it is stolen art so be wary; look to see if you can find the art anywhere else. sometimes you can find second-hand stuff from japan or resellers there too. you’ll need a taobao specific shopping service for it, i’d recommend spreenow! 

ok and as for Links You Don’t Need A Shopping Service For:cute bear charmsrubber charmbruno and abba photo charm in the middle (sold out at the moment but they do also have a cute bruno charm!)

as well as etsy don’t forget to check storenvy or tictail! 

there’s a lot of merch being made atm because of VA airing but you can also print out screenshots/manga caps and make them into badges yourself using a kit (i did this for my doppio/diavolo bag, i used kits from flying tiger and bakers ross but i’m sure you could get them at a us store like michael’s too), or make resin charms yourself, or even get acrylic charms printed of your own art! if u use facebook i’d recommend joining the itabag & fandom fashion community, there are a lot of guides about shopping online/assembling your bag/and you can find other people who might be bagging for the same character as you and can point you to other places, especially artists who might have their own storefront and can’t be found in marketplaces like etsy etc!

[unproduciblesmackdown]

obviously what made hp The Thing isnt so much directly the content as peoples reaction to it esp since nobody cared about books back then (or not so much what was seen as british childrens literature, anyways) and anyways the way people have been constructing stuff around their enthusiasm for the source material has always been and continues to be the best part. seems like once every few months jkr says some bullshit but then i’ll also see some like little text analysis or joke or sick art from some random fan where its like hell fuckin yeah dude!!! like the collective fanalysis should be the new canon author now coz i mean....i mean honestly sometimes jkr says shit abt her own content where its like. did you even read what you wrote or

anyways the fans and their shit has always been the best part. for me when i think of myself of an hp fan im honestly like a fan of the fans. like dont get me wrong, i like the books and i like got caught up in the midst of the great like 3.8 yr break before the fifth book so i experienced all the subsequent Waits. and like part of it was that shit you had to be there for. and i wasnt there for a lot of it actually because i wasnt online enough or extensively enough to like experience the fansites side of things, much less participate in it, and i was only just 13 when the last book came out so its not like i had the options of older fans anyways. forever a touch bitter that for some fucked reason our parents figured that me and my 16 y.o. sister couldnt go to our local borders half a mile from home for the nerd party that wouldve been our first and last midnight book release! sure, the lifetime of abuse was shitty, but thats really why i disown my parents

anyhow, the point is, its pretty cool what all people did back in the day (and still do i guess but like man, when the books were still coming out. things were a thing.) like, the fansites, and the fact we owned books that were just chapter by chapter analysis of the books to make ootp/series predictions, and a book that was dh predictions, and that like some people’s hp thing turned into Their Thing. and shit theyre doing now was from what they were doing back in the day just coz they wanted to for hp and it was fun / their passion and whatever. and someone writing my immortal, which btw is an elaborate joke fic i swear to you. there were lots of good jokes, still are

didnt really set out to go anywhere with this and i clearly havent. it just speaks to me because the only reason im “creative” is coz i like to draw for things im a crap nerd for. so i respect other ppl doing these really passion driven in depth things just from being nerds for hp. making news sites and fan sites and bands and increasingly elaborate ongoing jokes until darren criss ends up on glee, speaking of elaborate ongoing jokes, Oh Shit

i mean i can be and am both a supremely depressed and passionate person and i really connect with people being passionate and earnest, who doesnt, and meanwhile people who are disengenuous or even just really all the time Cool and not in a rad way but in a like, totally unexcitable way, im just not gonna jive w you sorry. no sparks=no sparks

and then also i like hp and i think that what ppl were doing back in the day could be pretty great and i like that some people’s hp shenanigans contributed a lot to continued shenanigans and good for them, tbh. like that hp fanartist i used to know now like being one of those ppl whose art is their career and they’re fancy. and shit. good for everyone. and even if people arent fancy, there was just a lot of having fun and making cool shit that was directly fans to fans and just people doing actually real stuff that wasn’t involved in like capitalism man like shit for free or self sponsored productions of videos or bands or musicals and hell fuckin yeah, its a wasteland out here and there’s not often so much of a chance for people to just be doing shit coz they want to enjoy themselves and connect with other people. thats anticapitalist propaganda

and so anyways on occasion here i’ll see a short little text post or something and go hell fuckin yeah!!!! and jkr tweets something and we’re all like listen if it was just you i’d hate your creation completely by now alright. its always been these guys (gestures vaguely to nerds)

(edit sidenote: i do hate when ppl are like, really serious abt their house sorting though. like i’ll joke argue abt it but thats one hp nerd thing i can never get behind is like ppl who really consider it a major serious identity thing that theyre a ravenclaw or whatevs. like wtf dude. in general the only thing im mostly Serious about is that snape is a punkass bintch. which is pretty funny so)

[renmaru]

you know. sometimes i love something a lot so i need to scream about the things that piss me off about it. i don’t think this is a particularly negative post but it’s just like sheer frustration and if you dont get some satisfaction from articulating your frustration into tumbler dot coms longposts and destroying the capital of this website because you are not a gemini sun then like fair i guess feel free to disregard this. tonbokiris kiwame is cool go look at that.

now to the lukewarm tea ive been simmering for five years. the one thing i always think about all the time is that tkrb is a popular game despite itself. the piss poor gameplay with only the barest of bare QoL in the five years its been up, the seeming complete lack of direction and the frankly nonexistent worldbuilding is held up purely because of its attention to detail and reverence to the original culture and history of the swords combined with some very good character design and subtle but nuanced character writing that can be openly interpreted. just enough flavour to imply something larger but chickening out on actually making anything y’know. concrete. basically allowing the fans to draw their own conclusions. but even then a game like that would not survive cause there have been countless, hundreds of games with high quality and fervent attention to detail and respect for the source material that just died completely because they have such little to actually offer in terms of engagement. i think the main thing that bugs me about tkrb is that it has one of THE most creative, dedicated and strong fanbases of this genre of game who go out of their way to engage with any and all of the content and the devs seem kind of oblivious to this.

in comparison to modern gacha style games, touken ranbu releases barely any new content and frequently recycles content but somehow it’s still relatively popular with approx. 1mil active players daily but the maddening thing is that tkrb can reach much MUCH further. the fans are there, the curiosity is there, it’s just the game content is not fucking there. it does not put the effort into commissioning seasonal art, pushing new events with actual plotline/story content, creating promotional materials, tie-ins etc. but somehow its still in the top 5 comiket circles for nearly five fuckin years straight. here are your badley compiled receipts: c89(w2015), c90(s2016), c91(w2016), c92(s2017), c93(w2017), c94(s2018), c95(w2018), c96(s2019)

 it can launch itself from laughably low in the appstore ratings, hovering in the middle of the 200′s to TOP 30s in the appstore at the flick of a switch. what is this magic button that fucking quadruples revenue and skyrockets your app into the top 50 grossing apps? 3/4 of your characters getting static CGs that you cannot use at all anywhere in the game but will do a powerpoint transition and appear for 5 seconds at login. oh and like a few free mats i guess. and i kid you not it fuckin worked.

wanna know why that worked? it’s cause otherwise characters, especially fan favourites just don’t get anything at all. it’s like most characters outside of the very popular ones rarely get new art, new recollections, new anything outside of their kiwame upgrade which is more often than not years down the line and only recently, four years in, they decided to add alternate costumes but even then there’s a catch which has me feeling some kind of way.

and yes, i fully understand that tkrb is a multi-media franchise, i get that it’s got its fingers in so many pies like the stageplay, musicals, various manga anthologies, the animes, hell its even got live action but man, would it hurt to give some love in game? i’m not asking them to go full fgo route and commission the industry creme de la creme to make 6 full CE illustrations, lots of promo art and tonnes of new merch every single month. but the fact is for such a big franchise, reusing the same sprite art on nearly every piece of official merch, going so far as to add NEW costume art which is just the heads of the old default sprites edited onto new bodies? it screams cost cutting, it screams lazy, the path of minimum effort. it’s almost like the game itself and the original materials are an absolute afterthought at this point with only the most dedicated hanging on to it. i guarantee that the majority of people still playing tkrb are the committed day1 players and the actual rekijou cause it’s just painfully offputting to new fans, with other fans even going out of their way to specify the game is not integral to enjoying the series which sucks, but it’s true.

its a real damn shame to think that something you are so invested in is not particularly invested in itself. sometimes, just sometimes i wish they dev team for tkrb was more hands-on, more adventurous, more willing to listen to players, invest in the game and genuinely try and make the game the best it can be. i’m not asking for balls to the wall summer events, beautiful animated CMs from the likes of the industries best animators, i’m not asking for pages of supplemental lore compiled into books, character backstory novels or whatever i’m just asking for the lore and the characters that we love to sometimes occasionally be remembered in the actual game outside of like ... the two years between their kiwame and the vague possibility of a recollection. i want to feel like this game puts as much effort into itself as the fans do towards it.

it’s a painful truth but there’s one shining light which is that the fandom for tkrb is genuinely one of the most committed and transformative ones ive ever seen. i have never been involved with a fandom that varies so widely and puts in so much effort for these characters and this world. tkrb exists solely as a popular franchise due to the sheer legwork of the fans carrying it on their backs collaboratively. ultimately, tkrb is very very lore-light, there’s so much thats missing and the characters in-game rarely rarely interact with each other. the characters are contained solely in however many voice lines they get at implementation, their kiwame letters, and their updates kiwame lines and the only interaction they get with other swords is recollections or depending on the sword, the odd custom sparring lines.

but despite that there has been so much fan effort to explore everything in so many different varied ways, and amazingly there are certain tropes, relationships, lore etc. that have started off fanon and become canon. the fan community, especially the fanartists, doujins, writers, animators etc. being given a small indulgence by the anime is one of my favourite things about tkrbs relationship with its fanbase. that’s not to say that the fans dont give back in kind a hundred fold.

there’s so much i love about tkrb fans going out of their way to go SEE historical swords in japan, single-handedly reforging swords using crowdfunding and revitalising lots of small-town tourism having real world impact. shit makes me unbelievably happy. the stage plays and musicals are always met with warm reception and are always well attended and even though its hard to access, there are lots of western fans who have dived into a whole new MEDIUM that most of us arent really familiar with but out of their love for tkrb theyve done that. they have hosted the musical as far out as india and france, making tkrb a truly worldwide franchise and there theyve met full seats! as far out as india! then theres the fantranslators, who always have the drive the commitment and energy for the thankless work, the wiki always always is well maintained and they have new content up so fast, and there are so many people willing to help you out. even when crunchyr*ll got hanamaru s2 (i think) a week late and we were left without subs for the premier episode for a whole ass week, fantranslators who had never subbed before stepped up to translate a whole episode for FREE, encoding, subbing and timing it all despite never having done so just so others could understand the episode faster than cr*nchy themselves could. even, as well, it’s made so many history nerds out of a whole bunch of people, it’s created an appreciation for nihontou and japanese history that would otherwise probably never be in their orbit because of how inaccessible it is, especially in english. even on a personal note, i started learning japanese primarily so i could understand tkrb and the history behind it better and to read jp fanart/interact with fanartists.

 no matter what, i am forever warmed by how much i love tkrb and its fanbase and im glad that tkrb is still going strong, even despite itself sometimes and i hope that moving on tkrb tries new things, and becomes better for everyone.