#little experiment with coloring manga panels

[dawn-in-the--adan]

[kaqzu]

But him, he's unkillable... that's why our partnership works

[thehylianidiot]

This month's @fairytail-redraw prompt 1.

New experiment: take a manga panel and add in a little color in the redraw version.

Original:

[thegreatcaptainusopp]

So I’m primarily a manga reader who’s slowly been watching some of the anime clips over the last couple months and I’ve been surprised as to how much the medium change impacts the way the story is told. Like it really does make a difference sometimes, especially with things like pacing.

One thing that stood out to me in particular is the difference experiences I got during the fight against Kuma in Saboady. It’s such an emotional and pivotal moment for the series and the way that the manga and anime approaches it feels really different. I think primarily the version of the fight in the manga goes quick, and when the Straw hats start disappearing it’s just…one after another after another in quick succession with no room to breathe or react. They’re just gone.

The anime version, while not particularly slow placed during this part, definitely lets it breathe a little bit more. For example, we get to see Luffy’s reaction each time one of them vanishes. We don’t get that in the manga, not every time. The anime also stretched out some of the scenes between each of them getting hit which ratchets the tension up really well.

For example, Usopp’s entire section in the manga is just this:

That’s it! Kuma approaches him, reaches out, and that’s it. It’s like, two and a half panels, tops.

The anime version extends this scene significantly. After Sanji is pushed away and Usopp is left facing Kuma alone, we get what might be one of my favorite shots of the anime I’ve seen so far:

That is SO effective. The color suddenly going blue, the way Kuma looks so large in front of Usopp…it’s so menacing and scary and places us directly into Usopp’s head and shows us what he’s experiencing. It’s great.

And then it shows us him trying to escape/fight back in much more detail before he’s vanished, including Luffy and Sanji’s reactions, which really draws out the emotion of the whole thing. I will say, though, Sanji’s one panel of despair in the manga bit is extremely effective at conveying the same emotion as the anime does.

Idk if I prefer one approach (manga or anime) over another because in my opinion they’re trying to do different things: the manga emphasizes just how quickly and effectively they get defeated without room to even react, while the anime instead focuses more on tension building + emotional impact. But it’s been interesting seeing what kind of experience you get or miss out on depending on which medium you used to view this story.

[theghostofdash]

A watercolor study using line art from my new favorite manga "Witch Hat Atelier" by Kamome Shirahama. The art of that mangas so beautiful and vivid I wanted to see what it whould look like with color added. But I also didn't want to just paint strait in my copy of the book either😅 it's too beautiful. So I drew one of the panels from the book with blue pencil and experimented with how I imagined that particular scene would look in color, as well as studying how Shirahama creates such beautiful form with such deft ink work. Truly a master worth studying. The art of Kamome Shirahama is unexplainably gorgeous, words nor my little color test can not do it justice. Go check out the manga for yourselves!

May 23 2019

[kradeelav]

part of my new year’s resolution for 2024 is to experiment more across different mediums/methods/styles, and I really want to spend a long good while in heavypaint which feels like has a lot of underused potential.

did a little chart of all the brushes in heavypaint i have on “speed dial” in b/w so i can see what the options are at a glance. thinking about playing with it with just b/w for a month or two as a temporary limitation to get a feel for the textures before introducing color.... you could probably do some sick manga paneling and inking with this.

[animehouse-moe]

The Summer Hikaru Died, Volume 2: I know it ain't right

Yes, it took me a bit to get to reading this volume, but this is one of those series I really want to be in the mood to read when I do get to it. And it's absolutely worth it for the hot mess of love and horror that appear in this volume. Mokumokuren is providing such a riveting experience for the reader, and sneaking all sort of things in to make it even better. More than enough to want to talk about with this volume for sure.

So let's talk "Hikaru" and Yoshiki. This relationship is so complex and convoluted, that even what I said with the first volume is a shaky and shallow interpretation of what's going on with them. Obviously, "Hikaru's" powers are still a manifestation of his form of love, and a mirror for Yoshiki to look in in regards to how he himself feels about both "Hikaru" and Hikaru.

But that sentiment grows deeper and deeper in this volume, and for a couple of reasons. The duality of "Hikaru" and his relationship with Yoshiki is incredibly strong, and you see Yoshiki make comments about wanting to stop, wanting to leave "Hikaru" behind, but being unable to.

And then there's the sort of heavy handed work in panels like this one.

Yoshiki is represented by his black hair in the manga, while "Hikaru" sports white hair. The idea of a yin and yang immediately appears, and by applying the inverse colors to a scene like this one you immediately understand what Mokumokuren is doing. Yoshiki and "Hikaru" are mixing. In what way you take that word is your own interpretation, but the lines between them as individuals is beginning to blur.

Now this part is far more subjective and questionable, but here's my interpretation. "Hikaru" is obviously the one controlling/dominating the situation. While it doesn't look like hands, you can undoubtedly feel them in how the black mass reaches out and covers Yoshiki. However, I had said earlier that black was Yoshiki and white was "Hikaru". Personally, while this scene is "Hikaru" dominating Yoshiki, I think it's a representation of the similar feelings that Yoshiki himself bears, and I'll show you why.

Later on in the volume, something appears in Yoshiki's house, and "Hikaru" comes over to consume it. Except, things get a little hairy (pun intended) and Yoshiki intervenes.

Whatever it is has similar abilities to "Hikaru" and it presents Yoshiki with a very interesting scene. A mass of brains approaches Yoshiki and suffocates him with the words and whispers of the town around him. It's a personalized horror for Yoshiki that takes from his own mind, hence the brain-like figures from which the words pour out, and how they in turn collapse around him and close him in.

However, something changes, a young Hikaru appears in front of Yoshiki, dredging up feelings from the past.

They push and shove and bicker with one another over Crowly, and as they do, Yoshiki regresses in age to match. Though make no mistake, it's got a purpose. Yoshiki's regression has to do with his actions and his re-experience of this moment that Yoshiki undoubtedly repressed.

And what he does here, in his own mind, is reflected in reality where he fights to keep "Hikaru" underwater. It's an incredibly strong moment in Yoshiki's character where we see him break in proper. Does he realize that he's grappling "Hikaru" currently? Is that his heart's intent in this moment when he's faced with the real Hikaru in this liminal space?

It's.... a lot to take in and contextualize. What is love, to Yoshiki? What is he able to show, what is he able to experience? What can he feel from Hikaru vs "Hikaru". It's a very loaded moment that plays in opposition to the first volume's ending point. Where "Hikaru" was the one overwhelming Yoshiki there, here we see Yoshiki overwhelming "Hikaru"

And there's still so much more to this volume. The whole thing about a young Hikuaru? That wasn't purely Yoshiki's own feelings in that moment. His one classmate provides the context to look at "Hikaru" as a child rather than a monster. Not some thing, but some one that needs to grow and develop and mature.

Now, is that a good thing? Obviously not, no. That's codependency, and that woman spoke to something similar with saying that Yoshiki and "Hikaru" would mix. Because that's what they're doing.

Yoshiki can't live without Hikaru, and "Hikaru" can't live without Yoshiki. It's as simple as that, and even though Yoshiki has full control of the situation he can't let go. He can't let go of his love, he can't let go of the little boy that's pulling on his shirt, or the younger self he sees in the mirror. It doesn't matter if it's dangerous or bad, Yoshiki can't let go.

I'm unsure if "love" is even the correct word anymore. It hardly feels like there's any left. There's hatred, control, confusion, sorrow and frustration- effectively everything but happiness is there for Yoshiki. But still, he clings to his dead friend. To a love that could never be love. To something that he could never love, no matter what, because it's not Hikaru.

It's such a complicated and deep appeal to a twisted romance married with personal horror that I really can't think of another series that comes close to a similar feeling or experience. It doesn't hold your hand or tell you every detail of their relationship, instead forcing you to read between the lines and choose an interpretation that you believe is correct. But then it'll provide something new that will change your perception and cause it to evolve and twist until you become altogether just as uncertain as Yoshiki.

And then there's the actual horror aspect. It plays so well using perspective and layouts. Establishing overhead shots to isolate Kaoru in the lead up to the bathroom works great, and the reveal that doesn't work purely on shock, but rather disturbing and scaring Kaoru is just so good.

Mokumokuren is performing an incredible feat on all fronts here with The Summer Hikaru Died. I mean, this is their first serialized work, and what they're providing is an incredibly twisted story about Yoshiki's need to love Hikaru, and the suffocating nature of a country town that encircles him and his family. Just incredibly great work that everybody should be reading.

[blackstarchanx3new]

How do you draw up your comics so quickly? I've been wanting to get into making comics myself, but it seems so daunting lol

Was hoping to get some tips on how you draw them so well and so quickly /pos /nf

Omf that's a tough one. My honest first response is "All I do is draw all day" so please don't hold yourself to my standards I don't have anything better to be doing.

Basically it's a mix of stuff:

My art style is simple/character designs are simple. Backgrounds are simple, overall.

STUFF BE SIMPLE.

"Gets the point across" tends to be the idea.

Anatomy isn't perfect, gradients are used a lot, shading isn't always present, I try to limit my color pallets to be pretty small.

I have a bunch saved onto the side bar in Clip Studio. And I have presets like the borders of the panels as a pre-set so I don't gotta make a new one over and over again.

Short cuts are NOICE.

Art wise:

I start with a thumbnail. Just getting the idea/facial expressions of the character down.

Sketching is 2nd step but I have no examples because I delete those pretty quickly.

More similar to this so line art is WAY easier.

I change the sketch's opacity to like 20 ish and a light blue to see it better.

Then I do line art and add a neutral color under it to make coloring easy. I change this to black after ward to fill any gaps.

Add color and ba-bam

I use "Color burn" "linear burn" and Multiply in the layer settings for shading. Just depends on the circumstance.

I guess smth else I do is go by "Chapter" or scenes.

Smth that's helpful for some is writing a script and then drawing your stuff based on that.

Often what I end up doing is writing a script but using it as a guide rather than a beat by beat thing.

Referencing manga for inspiration is smth I do a lot.

Smth I'd recommend doing is making a one shot or a comic you purposely make to be short.

Longer comics are daunting but the best way to deal with that is to complete parts of em. XD It's like going through a video game. Beating each mini boss gets you closer to the final. Like instead of one big project, see it as a bunch of smaller ones.

Smth I do to let off steam from bigger projects is making stupid shit like this:

Like there's no point to it other than to be dumb and funny.

Keeping the story entertaining or fun even while doing a part you don't want too.

Sometimes you will just have to chug through a portion you dislike but is necessary. But staying strong really helps.

Pop on a freakin' YT video and zone the hell out is what I do.

Your art doesn't have to be perfect every single time, my comics at least, are free so anyone who complains is a little bitch.

Just do what makes you happy.

Huge thing to consider: Your art doesn't have to be held to any specific standard.

You don't even have to COLOR that shit if you don't want too lmao. There's no rules. You can color a sketch and post it. It literally doesn't matter.

A specific standard of what every webcomic should be held to is a lie. It doesn't exist. Go feral.

Draw backgrounds. Even if you suck at em. It helps give the world dimension hah.

That's what I've been trying to do.

Use your comics as a way to experiment.

Ghost Soulmate I wanted to try out this weird painter style for the shading/lighting.

In FSR it was trying out a more anime style

Falling Cards is weird character designs + A FAR too ambitious story hah.

Bunny and Kitty was to see if I could do a shorter form story.

Biggest advice would be: Just try smth. You got no obligation to finish smth either. Just try it and see how it goes.

I'd recommend having an idea where your story is going before you start, but just starting ANYWHERE helps.

I tend to doodle my characters before I jump into their comic. Doodle them doing fun stuff before I go into the meat and potatoes of what I want them to do. I often have an ending in mind too before I start. You can fill in the gaps later.

Anyways that's all I got Idk if this was useful or helpful. X'D

[stillness-in-green]

Coming Soon: Tone Poem for the BNHA Status Quo

Sometime in the next 24 hours, I'm expecting to post a project I spent the last few weeks working on. It's pretty different, format-wise, than my usual stuff--instead of a written meta post, it's a Webtoons-style vertical scrolling comic consisting of rearranged panels of the manga (with some strategic splashes of color) for the purposes of making an argument via juxtaposition. The format is new, I say, but the argument will be a familiar one to my followers.

I make this post this as a warning that, thanks to the way tumblr manages images, I will be having to make several posts back-to-back to fit the whole thing; they'll be titled "Bring It All Back" and tagged "bnha tone poem." Please click through their View Post/Read Mores only if and when you are ready for some serious "Do you like the color of sky" levels of scrolling! I'll be crosslinking the installments to each other, so feel free to just click on whichever one you see first and follow its link to Part One.

That said, I'll be leading with a post containing an AO3 link for it with a short teaser covering the beginning through to where it first jumps the track. If you just want to read the whole thing all in one go (I encourage this most strongly; that's how I intended it to be read!) please just go straight to AO3. It'll also be at its native quality there, compared to the tumblr posts, which, from my draft experiments last night, will be just a little bit fuzzier.

I hope everyone will enjoy it in one form or the other! I first thought the idea up almost a year ago, but recently hit a patch of inspiration for it, by which I mean I obsessively worked on it several hours a day, every day, for two solid weeks. I, uh, kinda blew my arm out making it, in fact. Turns out that going 0 to 60 on using a stylus for a few minutes once or twice a month to hours of daily use has some physical consequences. Go figure! (I'm doing fine now, but that is the reason this project will be posting tomorrow instead of a week ago.)

[systematicallycapricious]

I'm a bit late to the party, but I recently got the first volume of the English P4U2 manga!

I am absolutely geeking out over comparing the Jap, Eng, and fan-Eng versions, so if anyone has any pages or panels they want to see side-by-side across the three, let me know and I'll make a post for you! I can't do the entirety of the book of course, but I can do a few pages at least.

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(Below the cut is my initial opinion on the quality of the translation work, some comparisons between various details of the Jap volume and the Eng volume, and some more manga page side-by-sides.)

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As for my impression of the translation work so far... To me, it feels like the translator was trying to preserve more of the original Japanese language/culture than Eng-P4AU chose to? Not in every instance though, as there's definitely cases where vernacular translations are utilized instead of literal. But where more literal translations are favored, the wording can feel a little awkward or OOC in English.

Even still, it's a pretty cohesive reading experience, in my opinion.

Also, they translated "Plume of Dusk" correctly, which is a relief. I was worried that some of the technical lore terms might get bungled by literal translations, lol. Conversely, while I'm glad that they didn't preserve Jap-Teddie's "-kuma" habit, and happy that they included a few bear puns in accordance to Eng-Teddie's speech habits, I do lament the low quantity and diversity of bear puns in Teddie's speech overall. Maybe there just wasn't a lot of good places for those in this volume though, so I'll have to see going forth.

Oh- and I noticed that some of the background signs and text got translations as well, which I think is really neat. (I don't read enough manga to know if that's just a standard feature of manga translations though, lol.)

Granted, this is just my first-read first impression, and I don't know enough Japanese to know if some lines may be translated less accurately or not. Plus, I tend to be on the lenient side when judging the quality of creative works. So please refer to other opinions as well if you're trying to decide the quality of the translation for yourself!

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Fun fact: the Eng version was printed bigger than the Jap version (at least for the Jap volumes I have; no clue if they printed those at multiple sizes).

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Also something cool about the Eng version is that it comes with the same color illustrations as the Jap version had, just sized-up. The exclusive edition also comes with a bonus fold-out poster of the original volume cover!

The end-of-volume artist/editor comic was included as well! I'm personally very glad to finally know what this comic says. My respect for Rokuro-san and Sakamaguro-san (the fish) as creatives has grown even further.

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Here's a few other page comparisons too because I found them interesting. xP

(If you wanna see the fan-Eng in higher quality than the screengrabs I used, you can find it on Mangadex [here].)

[bestbonnist]

YAS! My not-so-subtle hint was a SUCCESS!

For Character Ask Game: -

Fushi (duh): Q2, 3, 5, 6 (I know you answered this in Discord before, but! Maybe others will like to hear about it?), 7, 8, 11 (HAHAHA I KID, I KID), 19, 23 (I ask because I lowkey think yall have a whole treasure trove of manga panels in your local storage, and you're our manga provider and a temporary translator. You've gotta had a fav!), 24

Lefthand Nokker: Q1, 9, 12, 14, 18, 19, 24

The Beholder: Q1, 2, 3, 10, 18, 19

I hope it ain't too much. Nah who am I kidding, this is a lot. But hey, it's

the Non-Human-in Origin Trio!

Fushi

Favorite canon thing about this character?

That they lie all the goddamn time. The expectation for a protagonist like Fushi, who has this sympathetic, innocent quality, is that they're an honest person. But Fushi loves lying to themselves and everyone around them. Fushi doesn't necessarily need to be truthful to be a good person, although they do need to be truthful to have good relationships. I think that's very interesting.

Least favorite canon thing about this character?

Maybe the fact that their usual body is considered good looking. How is that relevant + who cares.

What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them?

Slipping Through My Fingers by ABBA. I don't know why! It just reminds me so much of Fushi in the present era and their relationship with March.

What's something you have in common with this character?

I can relate to their feeling of isolation from everyone else, particularly how they don't think of things in the same way as other people. Seeing Fushi have the same experience as me is reassuring.

What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

When people give them bubble tea. It's nice! They deserve a little treat.

What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

Ship them with Kahaku. I'm well aware that I'm throwing stones from a glass house considering I also ship them with Kahaku (kind of), but. It's like people are incapable of liking the ship without turning Fushi into an entirely different person. That is not the same guy.

How about a relationship they have in canon that you don't like?

That's really tough. Maybe their relationship with Bon? Because of the role Bon played in the Renryrr arc, his relationship with Fushi is a lot colder/more professional than their relationships with their other friends. Even in the present era, they're still more comfortable going to Bon for advice than going to anyone else. I actually really like that, I just wish the change was acknowledged by either of them. Because it connects so well to the theme of the present era about letting go of the past, and making a move towards peace: Fushi and Bon's relationship is a remnant of high stakes of the Renryrr arc. Should they change it, or does it work fine the way it is?

Favorite picture of this character?

I do have a treasure trove of Fushi panels. My computer is lousy with screenshots I've taken and forgot about. I think my favorite is from volume 14's inside cover.

Look at their expression! Look at the color contrast between Fushi and the Beholder enveloping them! I love it when we get Fushi's whole body, because then we can see their posture. They slouch a lot :)

What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?

Yato from Noragami. You've read Noragami, right? He was created to fulfill the wishes of his father figure, he's an immortal god, and he's tasked with destroying creatures that prey on humanity's weaknesses. In Noragami, there's also the possibility that Yato's living friends could have their memories of him severed, or they could lose those memories of him after they die. It's the reverse of Fushi's situation, but there's still stuff going on with memories so I say it counts.

Left Hand

Why do you like or dislike this character?

I like it, because it serves as such an excellent foil for Fushi. When Fushi's trying to reach a peaceful solution with the knockers in the present era, the left hand is there to try and drag it back down. It hates Fushi so much, it cares more about Fushi suffering than the knockers' entire reason for existence. To most of the knockers, these two things are indistinguishable, but the left hand wants Fushi to destroy the knockers instead of cooperate with them because that means Fushi will lose.

Could you be roommates with this character?

No... well, I could. The left hand would probably be a great roommate until it killed me in my sleep and replaced me with a knocker.

What's a headcanon you have for this character?

Not really sure if this counts as a headcanon, it's more like a theory. I think the left hand will get an actual name by the end of the manga.

Assign a fashion aesthetic to this character.

Not sure what it's called but I like the idea of the left hand wearing a lot of jewelry and mismatched layers of clothing. Because the two characters it's closest to, Fushi and Mizuha, are both collectors of very different types of things. Mizuha collects medals and trophies and trinkets that are bright and shiny. Fushi collects things that most people wouldn't find any value in, like mud balls. So I think the left hand would be a type of collector too. And I would like seeing that reflected in their outfits somehow. I mean, Mizuha has a home to display her stuff in, but the only place the left hand has is whatever body its in. So wearing a bunch of its stuff might be a way of making that body feel like home. But that's all just speculation.

How about a relationship they have in canon with another character that you admire?

With Yuuki. That's the only relationship the left hand has with anyone in canon that's even remotely good.

How about a relationship they have in canon that you don't like?

With Mizuha. It's not dislike, per say, it's more like they were together for so long but we have no idea how they interacted with each other. What they thought of each other. To Mizuha, maybe the left hand was only a tool, but what about what she was to the left hand? I find it hard to believe that the left hand didn't care about her at all when it's got the same Kahaku issues as Fushi. And we saw how that turned out.

What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?

The only one I can think of is Orokappi from After God. They both take on a human form in order to infiltrate human society, and then start to resemble a human on the inside as well. He even makes the same pose as the left hand when it traps Fushi underneath it (which it does twice during their fight) when he's trying to kill his friend. Orokappi is a little less... sophisticated than the left hand, but he's no less of a complex and interesting character.

The Beholder

Why do you like or dislike this character?

I'm kinda neutral towards him honestly. I've defended him to people who don't like him very much, but he didn't get enough development for a character of his importance.

Favorite canon thing about this character?

I like how he just disappears when he loses an argument. It's really petty. In the time when he just seemed like an omniscient, uncaring god, it made him feel more human.

Least favorite canon thing about this character?

I guess I expected him to play a bigger role in the present era, so it was disappointing when he didn't. He was still there quite a bit though, despite his insistence that he didn't want to be involved. I think I would have liked to see how and why he decided to save Tonari and everyone else at school, instead of just "well, I've been human for a while now, so I guess it's having an affect on me," which is what we got. That's a big turning point for Satoru. It's the first time he's actually intervened in anything instead of acting as an observer. But it feels like he went from point A to point B with nothing in between.

Could you be best friends with this character?

I tend to stick to people I find entertaining for whatever reason, and he's definitely entertaining. Maybe that would eventually become a close friendship. But probably not.

How about a relationship they have in canon with another character that you admire?

... Sumika? It's sweet how Satoru can just be a normal kid with her, even before he loses his memories.

How about a relationship they have in canon that you don't like?

I think the closest to "don't like" would be his relationship with Fushi. I have sympathy for him but he's a terrible father figure.

[tokiro07]

Undead Unluck ep.17 thoughts

[Burn Baby Burn]

(Contents: animation - praise)

God dammit, you tricked me, Yuki Yase! You start the episode with new dialogue and then IMMEDIATELY cut to replaying the latter half of last week's episode! How frustrating!!!

Now, to be fair, this episode did make it through two and a half chapters, and the little reveal in this week's chapter works a lot better with a week off between it and its explanation next time, but still, they could have finished chapter 35 if they hadn't faffed about

Ultimately, I think new fans having time to chew on the hint is for the best, so I'll forgive it, I just think we could have reached this same point without needing to bog down the pace. I think finding a way to extend certain scenes either last week or this week so that we could have minimized the recaps would have been a better way of going about it

Just like last week, though, the real highlight for this episode was absolutely Billy! The way they animated him using the Union's Rules was great, especially how much detail they put into his use of Undead. The manga doesn't have the panel space to use up on the entire healing process, it just shows it happen, but here??? They showed how Andy's punch bulged out Billy's eye, the motion of his neck snapping back into place, his body melting as he got smashed into Burn. It was gruesome, and it was sick!

Then there was Fuuko's pose when she landed on the Roundtable holding Andy's katana as his body evaporated into blood - that wasn't in the manga, and it was a fantastic shot!!! That's the kind of iconic shot we usually get in the manga, and the anime has always seemed to remove or downplay those, so I'm really glad they made one of their own!

I do wish they could have put some of that animation budget into the visions Apocalypse showed Fuuko, but I guess the idea was that they were just images flashing by rather than whole scenes. Still, I would have liked them to have a little bit of life to them! No dialogue necessary, just some movement to make it feel like it's not a colored panel from the manga

Overall I'm really satisfied with this episode, and taken in isolation from the previous, you wouldn't even really be able to tell that the first quarter was almost entirely recap, so I think it's an overall solid experience!

Until next time, let's enjoy life

[dottoreparadox]

Ok, I actually have more I want to say about Dottore's segments, but this stuff didn't fit into the 'how they were built' post.

So here we go. I'm not done with my bullshit yet.

So I think that we've seen four or five segments so far, assuming the ones we see in the manga are not the same ones we see in the game. (And that is an assumption. We could easily argue that the second one we see in the manga somewhat fits Omega in personality so they could be the same segment.)

I think I've probably lost a few of you by saying that, as the fandom tends to lump Webttore into a single segment. I am here to say that I think this is wrong. Webttore is the first segment we see and the one with the most screen time. He's the fucker with the pink bowtie who then turns Krupp into a robot.

(here we see my favorite panel of him. i too wish to zone the fuck out when i am placed in a meeting. major mood)

The other segment is the one we see at the end. This guy is much grumpier and less energetic. He also dresses in a somewhat darker color palette from what little we can see under his coat.

My main reason for thinking these are two separate segments (besides the slight differences in personality we see) is that they seem to hold different interests in research topics. Let me emphasize that part. One of the few canon pieces of info we have about the segments is that Dottore made them and then put each of them up to different tasks.

According to Childe: "I heard that he took segments of himself at different ages, made prostheses out of them, and assigned different tasks to each one."

Now, this is phrased like it's just gossip so it could very well be nonsense, but I think it's more likely to mean that he just got this info from a Harbinger other than Dottore. Which still makes it gossip, I guess, but gossip can be factual.

Anyways.

Webttore is very interested in Visions and is likely the segment responsible for the development of Delusions.

Webttore 2.0: Grumpy Boogaloo does not give a flying fuck about the remains of the Delusion Diluc mails him. One could argue that this is because it's broken and now useless, which was my initial take as well. But coming back to it with additional information on Dottore makes this feel less likely. We aren't given an area of research he is interested in (god remains maybe? since this guy had the racist caricature as a subordinate and he was experimenting with god remains and eleazar), but it does not seem to be Delusions.

(side note: while you can argue that webttore also seems really interested in robots since he turned krupp into one, i would argue back that any version of dottore will be interested in that. it's a key feature of being dottore. man loves robots and turning people into robots. that doesn't mean this isn't the segment assigned to the creation of delusions and continually looking to improve them even after their completion. it might even be a broader category than just delusions and instead be a more generalized topic of elemental energy manipulation, which could tie in to making robot people. idk. they gotta power them somehow)

The manga does have some discrepancies with the game and they might not have finished developing Dottore's character when they made this. I think they probably had the main characters and antagonists mostly fleshed out before they started making the game though. We did start seeing references to the different Harbingers all the way back in 1.0 (Capitano and Pantalone I believe are mentioned by NPCs? That was a long time ago. We def had the Crimson Witch lore though), so I think they likely had outlines of at least some of the Harbingers done by then. Since they featured Dottore in the manga, I would imagine he was one of the more complete ones, but I could be completely off base though and giving them credit where none is due. Tl;dr: take manga information with a grain of salt and always put info from the game first.

As for the Segments seen in the game, we definitely saw two (and possibly a third if the one in Winter Night's Lazzo was neither of the two in Sumeru).

Boat guy (who seemed cheerier than...I was about to say Omega but actually, we don't know which segment was Omega? Did Omega delete the others or was he boat guy? I'm gonna say he's the one who deleted the others cause narratively it makes the most sense.)

And the one negotiating with Nahida were definitely different segments. Yet I don't see any differences.

I think it's really interesting to note that the Segments were identical. We didn't see enough segments to make any definite statements, but if we consider how close the manga segments looked to each other and how close the game segments looks, it is possible that Dottore purposefully makes all his segments look the same despite them representing different points in his life.

If you think about it, it actually makes a lot of sense for all the segments to be identical despite being different ages mentally. Dottore clearly employs their identical appearance as a tool in order to lower the guard of people he is manipulating by making them think he is somewhere else. And it's true, he is somewhere else. He just is also in multiple places at once. He's a headache like that. But it's true that no one expects there to be multiple Dottore and he is very willing to use that to his advantage. So making each of his segments look individual could actually be a draw back. He clearly doesn't respect them as individual people (see: him deleting all his segments and calling them surplus), so why would he make them look the age they're supposed to be?

But I don't think it's that simple either. If the manga and the video game are both true depictions, then it's equally possible that Dottore makes each of his segments in sets of two or maybe three. This would account for Columbina telling him he looked "very young today" and then asking about "the segment in the prime of his life." He could then pair them up in different regions. One would be out and being "seen," at least on occasion, while the other would be operating behind the scenes. It's honestly a pretty clever scheme, imo. How better to lower someone's guard than to make them confidant that you are one hundred percent gone? He could even go a step further and disguise one the way he did Escher while the other continues to look normal. (how the fuck did he do that, by the way? does he have cloaking technology? shapeshifting? unimportant)

Actually, wait, Columbina's words deserve a bit of a deeper dive. Because that part was actually really strange looking back on it. She said he looked young, but then, when we cut to the one in the "prime of his life," he looked identical. That's fucking weird. Look:

(bonus little guy)

Their outfits are different, but I don't actually see any differences in their physical appearance. Maybe their hair has some small differences?

This could be a reference to their mental ages rather than physical appearance then? Maybe? Columbina might not be human (our first non-withered/dead seelie, anyone?) and might not be viewing the segments based on their physical appearance. Especially since she walks around with her eyes bound closed. Sus. How's she seeing anything like that? Anyways, this could be evidence that they're all physically identical, or it might mean something else that we don't have the context to interpret yet.

Or it might just be the limits of making all the characters bishounen and beholden to one playable character model. Aging doesn't exist, right? Or it might have been Hoyo not wanting to develop another Dottore design. Who knows. Trying to figure out what's intentional, what's limited by it being a game, and what's just time crunch is difficult. It is weird though.

Alright. That was a good bit of rambling there. I think we can cut it here. I'm sure I'll be back to scream about the segments some more later. They absolutely fascinate me and I desperately want to blabber about how (i think) they work.

[mothwingwritings]

I hope I’m not the only one here on your blog just for the Tokyo revengers content because I never watched Baki should i thought??

I have been very Baki focused as of late, huh? ^^; You are def not the only TokRev fan though, I assure you!  My first really sizable chunk of followers came from my Taiju fic, and though I have been slacking a bit on posting anything TokRev related, I promise you much more is planned/being written currentl. A large chunk of bigger fics I am working on are actually mostly TokRev, I just wanted a lil break and so I focused on smaller stuff for a bit, and pretty much all of that happened to be Baki.

Now, as for if you should watch Baki…

Short answer: Yes!  :D

Thoughtful answer: I think Baki is a very interesting take on the fighting genre, and I do highly recommend it. The saga of the Hanma family is as engrossing as it is entertaining, and there is a colorful cast of characters that support the series that you can’t help but love, hate, or love to hate. I have been kind of waiting for a Baki renaissance for a while now-I feel like other than in Japan, it really isn’t a super popular series and that’s a bit of a shame because it truly is an entertaining watch/read. The Netflix adaptation I think has helped the series a lot (and we are all grateful for it, to see our lovely boys animated so beautifully :)) and put it on the map for newer audiences to enjoy, but I definitely recommend the manga too. It’s a pretty fast read because a large chunk of it is action, but it’s pretty cool to see how Itagaki’s art has changed over the years and also how he has grown and changed as a story teller. Earlier Baki is much different than newer Baki, and some of the characters feel a bit foreign when you go back and reread some of the earlier stuff after being immersed in the newer content.

 Baki also has some very bizarre and downright comical aspects as well that kind of put it on par with JJBA  while making it very charming. The mangaka def adds some quirky flairs to his story telling, which while sometimes I can get a little annoyed/bored/confused with them, I feel like overall they make the experience of watching/reading the series its own unique and fun experience.

And if you love delinquents, Kaoru Hanayama is like… one of the best and coolest delinquents. If you put that man in Toman he would be running the whole gang within days and 90% of the bullshit everyone had to go through in Tokrev probs would have been resolved fairly quickly, if it even happened at all. This man would grind Kisaki to paste in the blink of an eye and I would pay to see it happen. :)

THAT ALL BEING SAID: Not everyone likes Baki, and that’s fine too. I know personally a lot of people are turned off by the art/how the characters look and honestly… That’s valid lol. I remember I once showed my friend a picture of Biscuit and her direct response was “Why does he look like he’s made out of balloons, like a clown constructed him?” LOOOL and often times if my friends mention weird body proportions in comics/manga someone inevitable asks when I am gonna chime in with a Baki manga panel. ^^;  Most of the rest of my friends don’t really have any desire to partake in it though, and a few that have just really weren’t in to it. It’s very heavy on fighting and martial arts, and though the fighting is rather fantastical in a lot of cases, it (usually) doesn’t have supernatural elements or magic involved. So if that seems kind of bleh to you, you may want to avoid it.

Horny answer: Incredibly sexy men who are at least half naked a large majority of the time beating the shit out of each other is very fun, nice, and fulfilling to watch. :)

So I say give it a try if you are interested at all. At the very least, some of the fics on here may make a little more sense.

REGARDLESS THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE!!! Please stay tuned for more TokRev in the future, I have at least one more alphabet ask that is for a Tokrev chara so that may be the first thing I post, but bigger stuff is coming soon too~ <3

[books-are-my-life-stuff]

Hi, Aera!! I hope you are having a great day!! I just want to let you know how happy I am upon seeing your Mash + Glowing eyes set! That is so cool. Thank you so much for dedicating the set to me!!! ＼(≧▽≦)／

You'd think I would've thought of making that kind of set but it never crossed my mind! But then again, I'm glad that one of my mash edits made you think of this. It's such a cool idea!! Seeing Mash with his eyes glowing always means he's about to do something awesome. And it's something that we would only appreciate when animated. And to see compiled scenes in a single set and one that is dedicated to me, I am just beyond ecstatic and honored.

Thank you again for the Mash Burnedead gifset gift! I am looking forward to more of your Mashle and other non-Mashle gifsets in the future!

[PS. I'm not sure which one you're gonna see first: my ask or my tags when I reblogged your post. It may seem redundant but that just shows how much that set made me extremely happy.]

AAAAAAA OMGGGG ART!! Just to let you know your message made my entire day and I'm feeling both giddy and driven to tears when reading it aaaaa

Thank you sooo much! I'm so happy that you like the little Mash gifsets I made for you! And yeah, it was one of your edits that made me want to make this compilation, because I was reminded of how cool his eyes were when he got serious! It's true, Mash's glowing eyes moments are the kind of moments that we can only get to enjoy in animated works. So I'm glad that the anime got to do something cool, not just adapting the manga panel-by-panel but taking full advantage of being an animated media as well!

I did a lot of experiments with it, trying out some color isolation techniques to just make Mash stand out more, grayscaling the background and surroundings, and attempting to make his yellow eyes glow more through the coloring but it was the best that I could do... and I just realized that I missed his last glowing eyes moment from S2EP11 too, despite that being one of my favorite moments 🥲

Anyway, I know I only make simple gifs with no fancy colorings/effects/edits, but I'm still glad that you love the gifsets I made for you! I'm so honored too that you even went out of your way to send this lengthy, wonderful message to show how much you love it! I really appreciate it!

Thank you for all of your wonderful gifs and edits as well, for creating them, and for sharing them with the world to enjoy! Thank you as well for the opportunity to help out at mashleverse, and for all the help managing it too! I love your edits so much! Keep doing what you love and hope you have an awesome week ahead as well! ⸜(*ˊᗜˋ*)⸝

[deludedfantasy]

Trimax Vol 6 Ch 4-6

Despite the fact that there are no GHG fights in this half of the volume and the smaller scale of the plot, there is still so much going on. I have a lot to say, and as usual, have been driven slightly insane by it.

Ch 4

Well, that’s not an ominous title or anything, especially with Knives as the cover image.

Knives out in public among humans…I don’t think we’ve seen him in the presence of anyone except the GHG before. It’s very strange honestly and like the new guy says, it feels dangerous when you know what he is. And the way the panels focus in on the top half of his face, it makes him look like Vash. Like it’s reminding you that they are very similar, both equally capable of destruction.

Omg baby Knives!! He has no right being so cute. But who is this guy and why does he recognize him? Why does Knives show up in his house in the middle of the night?

Oh!! It’s manga Conrad! So Knives needs him for his Plant knowledge and nefarious plans…whatever they might be.

Hang on, Conrad was the guy that helped Knives experiment on Vash then. So he’s feeling a little guilty about what happened in July too. 

Conrad is having second thoughts about working with Knives, even though he was originally fascinated by the possibilities he presented because apparently so little is known about Independents and what they’re capable of. Well, dude, he’s certainly not the little kid you somehow remember. How old is this guy if he knew Knives when he was little?

I was starting to wonder what happened to that plot point about the mysterious empty towns. What was Knives’s goal there? Was he just killing people or using them for something?

I don’t quite know what to make of this, but it’s interesting that the Plant scientist holds up a cross when he says they’re doing a Last Run on the dying Plant. I can’t tell if it’s because he’s asking for strength or forgiveness or what. To me, it feels like he’s warding himself against what’s about to happen, especially because he’s telling Knives and co. to leave. 

Well, that was horrifying! I get why the guy told them to leave. Knives’s face though, the way half of it is obscured, has so much fear and rage and hopelessness in it. This isn’t an expression or emotion we’ve seen from him before. 

I think this might be the first time we really see how humans abuse and misuse the Plants and understand why Knives is out for blood. And I get it, I really do. You know you have a great villain when their motivations and reasoning make such awful sense.

However, I’m curious about the way Conrad described the Last Run. “When Plants reach their final stage and they’ve run out of energy, they deliberately go out of control.” So, he makes it seem like a conscious choice by the Plant as they die, a part of their natural life cycle. But Plant scientist guy made it seem like this was scheduled, something that humans are doing to the Plant. Despite what Conrad said, by asking Knives’s forgiveness on behalf of humanity, he supports the idea that humanity was directly responsible. So who’s right? The thing is everything must die eventually, including Plants. Unfortunately, their deaths are horrific. Is Knives angered that they’re simply being used like this and driven to death? Or is Conrad not outwardly acknowledging their direct hand in a Last Run?

Knives just destroys the entire Plant facility in a rage (though a beautifully drawn rage I will say. These pages are sublimely horrifying).

The black hair reveal!! On my first read, I remember putting the pieces together about this and Vash’s changing hair color and getting so scared for him. 

But Knives has just been seriously betrayed. Conrad has been waiting for this to happen and actively keeping this fact from him! 

I can’t believe I didn’t catch this the first time, but he’s a lot more mad about what this means for Vash than for himself. That’s why he kills Conrad. I wonder, if he’d known how using their power would bring Vash closer to death, would he have done what he did to him at July or Fifth Moon? 

Also, this is a great reminder that no matter how fucked up Knives’s reasoning is or his ultimately genocidal plans, he loves his brother. He doesn’t want him dead, he just wants to make a better world for him. Does he go about it in the most twisted way possible? Yeah. But, still, there’s love there, no matter how dark.

Did Vash somehow sense Knives’s anger/emotions at a distance again??? Telepathic Plant powers are so cool honestly.

Ch 5 

Love me some narrative irony. The government calls Vash—basically an angel—an Act of God. They don’t know how right they are. 

Vash always becomes friends with the local kids. It’s so cute! But I often wonder if it’s because he never really got to be a child himself, so that’s why he does it, to give himself a moment to be childish and without burden or responsibility.

A fallen angel walks into a church…sounds like the start of a joke, but he’s really looking for absolution. And he can’t find it. He doesn’t believe he deserves it, not from others or from himself. I’ve believed pretty firmly that Vash was willing to offer people forgiveness and absolution in the hopes of finding some of that for himself, but now I’m not so sure. 

This page hurts a lot. Look at Vash’s face. The circles under his eyes, the dead-eyed look, he’s completely overtaken by despair. He’s not even trying to hide it right now. 

And then we go straight into the shenanigans. It’s very rude to attack a man in a church. 

“You got him out without a fight!” If only the bounty hunters knew that Vash is just Like That. He’s not going to let them open fire in a church!

Poor Wolfwood can never enjoy his noodles in peace.

Hang on, has Vash been drunk this whole time?? That explains so much actually. Downers are not good when you have depression, no wonder his thoughts in the church were so morbid. 

I’m also losing my mind over the way he licks alcohol off his hand. It’s so not Vash at all and he looks kinda unhinged. Look at how he’s drawn when he does it. 

His face is dark and obscured, we don’t actually see what he’s feeling. This feels a lot more like what the world at large imagines him to be: a ruthless, uncaring killer who would laugh and drink his way through a fight. I know he’s probably just very drunk, but it almost feels like he’s giving up a little.

For someone as drunk as he is, he’s still fighting really well. Especially after they get the news bulletin and he gets an idea of where Knives might be. 

Lol, needle noggin-isms. 

Well, Vash’s Plant powers haven’t done that before. It caught a fucking bullet in mid-air. 

Oh, poor Meryl. She’s terrified. It just brings her back to the Dragon’s Nest and being trapped inside of Vash, no idea what he is or what’s going on. I feel so bad for her. It was a traumatic experience and she’s been pushing it away, trying not to deal with it, because this is Vash, right? He’s not scary or a monster. But trauma is trauma and seeing it again just brings back that fear.

And Vash! He’s shaking and he falls down. He’s scared too, but for an entirely different reason. He didn’t do this of his own volition, this is his body acting on its own. As many people have pointed out, Vash controls himself very tightly all the time, because he’s so afraid of what’ll happen if he doesn’t. But this chapter his control slipped just a little. He got drunk, he’s shown all these people he isn’t human and one of the few people who has ever actually cared about him is scared of him. 

I just…the townspeople stone him. Talk about Biblical references, I guess. Vash’s reaction kills me though. He just takes it, because he thinks he deserves it. I’m glad Wolfwood is at least sorta standing up for him.

This is Milly’s moment where she truly grasps that Vash smiles through the pain. But as others have pointed out, she doesn’t see this as reflection of his determination to keep moving and always see the good in the world. For Milly, all she can focus on is how much of himself he’s really hiding. She sees a pain that permeates every part of him, but that he refuses to show to the world. He feels it, but doesn’t let it out. For Milly, who is a deeply compassionate person, it hurts to know that her friend is suffering like this and won’t let them help.

In the end, they do have to leave the girls behind. I guess you could say that it’s because it’s gotten too dangerous for them or it would damage their reputation too much to be seen with outlaws like Vash and Wolfwood. But I think it has a lot to do with Meryl’s reaction to Vash. Meryl can’t be with him right now. It’s still too much for her and it wouldn’t be good for her to keep forcing herself. There’s not even an argument from anyone this time about it. 

Okay, well, this chapter made me very sad. 

Ch 6

I’m so curious what Elendira’s goal here is. She seems entertained by the possibilities of Knives’s power being limited and the potential destruction that could cause. Either way, Knives has definitely become more dangerous. 

Wolfwood does not react well to being threatened, understandably. 

Is Vash somehow picking up the memory/impression of Knives murdering Conrad? That’s an interesting new power. Is it triggered by the fact that Knives was there and the one who did it?

Vash backstory time? I’m very excited.

Omg, baby Vash and Knives are so cute! On my first read, I was shocked when I realized that was Knives because he looks so nice. Tristamp has him being a bit evil even when he was a child and here…he’s just a little kid.

Also, Vash just floating by himself in zero g curled up into a ball…it does things to me. Why do I get the feeling that even before the Great Fall he was a lonely, melancholy kid?

Every version of Trigun has a birthday scene for the twins except this one makes me really sad. I didn’t notice this before but Rem’s eyes are obscured by her glasses, the same way Vash’s are when he’s trying to hide his pain. What she’s saying too seems very much like someone trying to obscure their deeper, more complicated feelings. She doesn’t want Vash and Knives to see whatever is bothering her. 

Can you imagine being stuck alone on a spaceship when the weird power source you don’t understand suddenly pops out too babies? There are some panels missing of her freaking the fuck out about it.

Can you imagine my shock when I first read this chapter and realized that Nai was an invention of Tristamp? Rem really looked at a baby and went, “I’m going to name you Knives.” I’m blaming it on the intense freakout we never see. 

“She looked so kind. But somehow her smile seemed sad.” :( 

Just like someone else we know. Vash had to get his bad coping mechanisms from someone. It makes sense that it all leads back to Rem.

Wow, Knives actually had a little hope for humanity at one point! He wanted them to accept him. I like that Nightow didn’t make Knives a villain from the beginning. He’s just a little kid, who wants to be friends with the humans and loves his brother. 

Also, can I just say how incredibly dumb it is to have only one person awake on the fleet, purely for mental health reasons? I don’t know how Rem didn’t lose her mind pre Vash and Knives.

Uh-oh, trouble’s coming. Why doesn’t Rem want the crew to wake up?