#little experiment with coloring manga panels

[1driedpersimmon]

Do you have any advice for people who might want to get into making comics like yours? I'm always pleasantly surprised by how fast you pump them out and even have other little projects/doodles on the side. How do you keep the quality consistent?

(sorry if this sounds a lil cold (?) i rlly love your peppercakes they r so skrunkly)

First off - Thank you !! I'm honored you like my lil guys and comics hehe! (and no worries on the tone !! I didn't think it sounded cold at all!)

Alright secondly lets see...

Short answer: You really just gotta start and keep going!! Once you start you get the momentum and it gets much easier (like riding a bike, which people like to use as comparison often).

Long answer:

Alright I thought about how to answer for this for a bit and I think I'll break it down to the main aspects.

So timing ! Basically I'm drawing 24/7 (and I'm currently not working as it's an off time for me, but I shall in a week and you will see that my posting frequency will decrease substantially). Ok maybe not 24/7 but I essentially am drawing from the moment I wake up to when I sleep (minus eating, restroom, working out, some errands) and while I do not say this is the key to being better, I'm just realistically displaying how much time I'm spending on drawing. (... one of my new years resolution is to not in fact do that and go out more because I feel like I'm being cooped up in my room a lot haha). But minus the amount of time I spend itself a lot of it has to do with the importance I take in speed drawing. And when I say that I mean quite literally how fast I can draw. AND I think a large part of where that speed comes from is how I like to generalize designs and just my overall process of drawing. (Which, I will not go over now but if you'd like I could make a separate post on how I go about doing my usual sketch, lines, colors, etc) Like, I love ff and all of it's crazy designs but it's so complicated I simplify everything till it's juussstt recognizable, and that's something I feel like really adds to the speed of things.

Also that's sweet of you to say for the quality haha (I always am thinking stuff like ah man this aint it... not my finest work, and then just post anyways cuz who cares I already made it heh)! That being said my quality wasn't alwaysss consistent! Here's an example of my very first "comic" I made for my characters:

And here's the same 4 panels I redrew just about 2 years later:

So I've been basically drawing comics for this for just about 2 years now (will be 2 years officially in a few months) and I most certainly did not get here in one night. I think, as I've mentioned, it's really important to keep up with the comic making (or drawing in general) so that, yes, you can get better, but the way you get better is that it becomes familiar to you. So you can approach concepts and ideas with a more experience. And I think a large part of what holds alot of people back is the idea that "ah I can't do this idea I'm not good enough." So what !! Still do it, I most certainly did it a couple years ago when I barely scribbled my ideas. And then you can totally go back and redraw it ! no "Rule" saying you can't go back and revisit your ideas, like hell even professional artists go back and republish their works with their improved art styles ! (ex. Tokyo Ghoul... even though I don't care for the story, it's still pretty cool! I think he even added more scenes? Anyways..). I think there was that one post going around where it was something like do it scared and that's really REALLY what you gotta do.

And that leads to my final point. You gotta love doing it. I like to make comics because I LOVE my characters, their story, and actually the act of putting it all together into a story, drawn comic, visuals, etc. And, I found my method of loving them. For me, what held me back was the "structure" of comics. I mean you can p much see that the way I like to do things is def not the "traditional" manga/western comic book style right? I won't go as far to say that I "made up this way" of comic making where it's one panel at a time but it certainly worked for me. (I have no idea how many comic wips I have collecting dust in my folders from my earilier days of making this comic where I just gave up 20% of the way in because I really could not vibe with the formatting, but then I figured out I really like to "thumbnail" comics (a result of when I was studying storyboards alot imo) and I went on from there).

This is where I feel like alot of people get stuck too. Where they really do like their ideas, their character, their stories and such, but as soon as they try and go through the process of creating in a certain way... the wind is just instantly taken out of their sails. And while I do believe sometimes you just gotta push through and do it anyways, sometimes that's not the right method to go about it. So instead of brute forcing a method of creation and eventually forming a bad relationship with the process, find a method that works for you. And maybe it doesn't look all that great or good compared to others, but that comes in time and as long as you like doing it, that's what really matters at the end of the day.

Tl;dr: be a lil freak, and lil weird about what you do (this applies to everything, not only art :3)

Alright so I think that's all the points? idk if you still want to ask me stuff, feel free to anytime :) Always happy to share my thoughts!

[dawn-in-the--adan]

[kaqzu]

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

[pernesophe]

Wind Breaker Boys x Touch Starved Reader

(Minors, Ageless and Blank Blogs DNI)

Characters in this post are 18+:

Tsubaki Tasuku: (TW: smut near the end (cunnilingus, vaginal penetration, anal penetration), violence for one scene, fluff (treads into "tooth rotting" territory I fear), comfort) MDNI

Song: Honeysuckle Kisses by Orion Experience (this is the song I listened to while writing this, and what I would pick for Reader and Tsubaki's song)

Synopsis: How the Wind Breaker boys would handle a touch averse / touch starved S/O. I went overboard on the last three chapters, so I'm splitting them up!

Master List (I have no rights to these characters, the works they come from, or the art/screenshots/manga panels used in this post)

(~7558 wc)

Tsubaki saw you out shopping one day, when you were obviously feeling super self conscious about yourself and choosing your style in general. Gingerly feeling different fabrics between your fingertips before you would fold them neatly back on the pile. You kept gravitating towards muted colors that you seemed comfortable with, and then determination would flash across your face before you’d redirect your gaze to anything pink and frilly. But then a deep crease would form in your brow as you looked between the overwhelming colors and cuts.

He approached you from across the store, introduced himself politely, and then immediately asked if he could help you find anything. You were stunned by his long hair dyed red at the ends that matched his nails and tie, and when you met his eyes you were struck completely speechless just by how blue they were. All you could do was stare in awe, mouth agape, while you silently nodded at him. Tsubaki was taken aback by your reaction, and a little worried of what you might say when you did speak. 

It took you a moment to recover, but once you finally did, sputtered sorry’s tumbled from your mouth while you tried to apologize for staring. Then, you rushed to tell him that you just weren’t aware that someone as beautiful as him worked there. The raven and ruby haired amazonian threw his head back and laughed out loud at your rushed way of speaking, and the way your cheeks could get redder than Sakura’s. 

“Oh no, I’m sorry, I don’t work here,” he clarified as his laughter died down. “You just seemed a little overwhelmed so I thought I’d offer help if you needed it.” He explained with a kind smile as he folded his hands behind his back and leaned a little closer to you. A deep red blush cascaded over your cheeks while his scent enveloped you. Faint notes of citrus and floral swirled around you first, swiftly followed by crisp pine and creamy almond. Every bit of him was just so incredibly sweet.

“Ye-yes please! I would really love that - you look so cool!” Whispering excitedly as you bobbed your head vehemently. “I have no idea what I’m doing,” admitting quietly as you looked around at all the pink skirts and frilly dresses.

“But you obviously do, so any help you could offer would be greatly appreciated!” Chirping up at him with half moon eyes as you shot him a genuinely grateful smile.

Even though he was offering his assistance, Tsubaki was taken aback by how kind you were as some stranger he'd only just met in a shop. Shaking off his shock, he asked what kind of style you like and what you feel comfortable wearing while you looked around the shop with an uncertain expression as you bit your lower lip. Immediately, your newfound friend could clock that the store’s whole vibe just wasn’t you.

“This isn’t really your type of store is it?” He posed cautiously with a quirk of his brow, and you deflated a bit before bowing your head in shame. “Then what brought you here?” He inquired gently, and your gaze remained glued to the floor for a moment before meeting his with apprehension.

“My mom keeps hounding me to be more 'ladylike’ and to ‘wear more pink’ and that I ‘need to make an effort to be girly if I ever want a boyfriend’,” you divulged miserably. Tsubaki’s eyes widened at your confession as empathy swirled in his chest for your situation, but you just took his expression to mean you’ve said too much. “I’m sorry, that was a lot…” you murmured softly as you awkwardly focused your gaze to a bright pink, frilly skirt nearby.

“That’s okay!” He rushed to blurt out which made you look back at his now gentle expression. “Let’s go outside and walk a ways - we can window shop, and if there’s a shop that looks interesting to you then we’ll go inside!” Offering quickly as he gestured towards the exit, and you gratefully nodded before following him out into the street.

After the two of you walked for a bit while Tsubaki quizzed you about what you like to wear, the two of you finally found a “modcloth” type store. It sold tweed coats, funky sweaters, pleated skirts in earthy tones, fun and serious blouses from cotton to velvet. All in a style that was a bit quirky with a cute spin. As soon as you saw this white pleated, fit and flare dress accentuated with a black collar and belt, that was printed all over with black cats in the window your face lit up.

Tsubaki thought your ‘excited face’ was the cutest thing he’d ever seen, and could feel his cheeks warm up when you looked up at him excitedly before pointing to the store. Immediately he beamed down at you and nodded as he followed you under the tinging bell through the door. Once inside, he noticed the gold paperclip chain choker you were wearing, and complimented it before asking if it was a favorite of yours. 

Shyly you disclosed that it was your only piece of jewelry and something you rarely took off, but he just smiled kindly and told you that was perfectly okay. As you two perused, you kept gravitating towards a lot of unisex clothes, but your new found friend was able to pick out a few dresses and skirts for you that could be worn in a more androgynous way. Wordlessly, he kept picking out different cuts and colors of fabrics, as well as accessories that would compliment your necklace.

Every time you stepped out of the dressing room to show him the next outfit, the curtain would waft notes of caramelized fruit and peppery smoke to him. When your hair fanned out with a turn back to the fitting room, you’d leave hints of roasted coffee and balsamic vanilla in your wake.

Finally, when you came out with your armful of items, and Tsubaki leaned in to help carry some of them to the register he was enveloped in this delicately complex leathery-ambery aroma that left his head absolutely spinning. By the end of the shopping trip, you had more than enough clothes to make you and your mother happy.

At the end, you thanked your new friend profusely and then timidly requested to exchange contact information. To your relief, he happily obliged, and even told you to text him if you ever wanted to go shopping together again. Beaming at him gratefully, you agreed and thanked him again for today before you were flitting off down the street and out of his view. Tsubaki felt his heart pitter patter in his chest as a swarm of butterflies danced and fluttered around his stomach, while he replayed how much fun he had with you in just a few short hours.

It takes a few days before you nervously messaged him, “Hey it’s Y/N! I know you said we can go shopping again, but I was wondering if you wanted to just hang out? We could get lunch, or go to a park - no worries if not though!!” 

Tsubaki immediately responded yes, which left you laid out on your bed while you kicked your legs in the air and squealed with joy. Then, you offered to take him out to dessert as a real thank you for his help the other day. He made it clear that any more thank you’s were unnecessary, but did agree to go out with you. He ended up taking you to his favorite dessert spot, which became your favorite too.

A delicious time was had together, where you enjoyed green tea and tea cakes. During which he told you a little bit about his dancing, and then offered to take you over to watch his set. Excitedly you agreed, though truly he invited you half because he just wanted to, but he also wanted to gauge your reaction.

He wasn’t surprised, but he was overjoyed when he spotted your face in the crowd from his position on the pole and he could see your face was LIT UP. The widest grin graced your lips, with moon eyes peeking out above it as you alternated between clapping excitedly and cupping your mouth to cheer him on. Never having been to a place like this before, you weren’t sure how you were supposed to react so you just leaned back on how you really felt. And how you felt was that you were in the presence of one of the coolest people ever and better yet, that person invited you here!!

Once his set finished, you were stuck between speechless and babbling on and on about how impressive his dancing was. Tsubaki was pretty good at being confident and cheering for himself, but even he could feel his cheeks burning as you bounced right along next to him, singing your praises for him.

After that, he really opened his heart up to you, since it was obvious that you were just a really pure hearted person. He went out of his way to hang out with you and bring you around his friends as well. They all adored you, especially how your eyes gleamed whenever they landed on their onyx-ruby maned friend.

It wasn’t long before Tsubaki told you how he felt, and your head almost exploded because you honestly couldn’t believe you were so lucky. You immediately stumbled over yourself to confess your feelings for him too, and he eagerly asked you to be his girlfriend right away. Teeming with excitement, you were barely able to contain yourself as you squealed out a yes!

Truly, your kind hearted partner wanted to gather you up in a tight hug tight then and there, but from the start he noticed that you’ve never been super touchy-feely. Even though Tsubaki is super touchy-feely, he respected your boundaries implicitly from the get go.

So, the following months were filled with dessert dates, coffee and breakfast at your apartment, walks around Furin, shopping dates, watching Tsubaki’s dance practice and sets, and the like. It was a whirlwind of good times and endless giggles shared between the two of you. Overtime, you became more comfortable around your partner, even though you hadn’t touched him yet. Though in the recent weeks you’ve been thinking about how you would want to bridge that gap, and one sunny day it had been persistently plaguing your mind.

You weren’t confident enough to grab Tsubaki’s hand, but he noticed you on edge all day while glancing down at his side. Eventually, when the two of you were heading back to your place to chill out, he held his hand out to you on the way.

”Wanna hold hands?” He offered sweetly, and you looked up at him with the biggest moon eyes which made him titter. Timidly, you took his hand in yours and held it dearly, which he just thought was the most precious thing.

Especially when you kept peering down at his hand in yours before looking away with a bright blush on your cheeks. His hand was soft and warm, but large enough to envelop your hand securely. While yours was smaller and fit snugly against his palm. When the two of you were finally back and settled on the couch to watch TV, Tsubaki noticed that you seemed a little down after you stopped holding hands - but also embarrassed?

”Was that the first time you held anyone’s hand?” Querying cautiously, as his blue eyes filled with the worry that you suddenly weren’t okay with holding his hand. Though a small smile crept over his face as he watched you squirm a little on the cushion.

”Mhm!” Chirping as you threw him a small smile while a blush started creeping back over your face.

”Was it… alright?” Tsubaki murmured nervously - his insecurities getting the better of him. Immediately you nodded vehemently while tears gathered along your lash line, which threw him off completely.

”I-I never really got a lot of… physical affection growing up, so it was really nice and new… and I feel bad for wanting more, I guess?” you whispered vulnerably as you averted your gaze to the floor, a single tear dripped down your cheek. 

Tsubaki felt himself getting weepy for you, as well as guilty that he even doubted how much you liked him. Silently, he pulled you onto his lap before squeezing you oh so tightly against his chest. The reddened end of his hair brushed your cheek as the familiar and intoxicating notes of spiced floral, crisp citrus, and smooth wood that always clung to his locks tickled your nose. 

”Don’t ever feel bad for wanting more, especially from me, I want to give you everything!” He assured you warmly. “I won’t do anything you’re not comfortable with, and of course I have my boundaries, but as far as holding hands go - mine will always be there for you to hold.” He pressed chaste kisses along your temple and forehead before working down to place one on the tip of your nose. Sniffling faintly, you met his crystalline blue eyes that were now brimming with tears of their own.

”Tsubaki, did I make you cry?!” You exclaimed as you sat up more in his lap so the two of you were nose to nose, your eyes darted over his face to see if you injured him somehow. He chuckled lightly at your worried expression, breathing in the comforting caramelized fruit paired with the smoky cocoa aroma that seemed to always envelop you. 

”No, no… I was just worried at first that you didn’t want to hold my hand, but once you explained I just felt really relieved,” he admitted gently as your eyes went impossibly wide at the thought.

”Tsubaki.” You said gravely, earning his undivided attention as he focused completely on your next words. Timidly, you reached up and cupped his face in your hands as you pinned him with a serious look, so he knew exactly how important they were. 

“Your hand is the only one I want to hold. You're the only person I feel comfortable even trying to be physically affectionate with, and one day when I get the courage to kiss you I know it’ll be the best day of my life. Because I really adore who you are, and I love that I get to do all of these things for the first time with such a kind, caring and safe person.” You stated firmly as his sky blue eyes grew watery again, but you just dutifully thumbed away his tears as they fell.

Tsubaki squeezed you tighter into his chest, and you leaned forward to wrap your arms around his neck. The two of you stayed like that for a while, not speaking, as hints of delightfully warm florals swirled with wood smoked camphor, accompanied by the sound of your breathing filled the room as the two of you just held each other.

Following this development in your relationship, you and Tsubaki could be seen always holding hands around Furin. It took another couple of months before you felt brave enough to kiss him, and when you did, you were pleasantly surprised to find that he tasted like creamy cardamom. When he pulled back a fine pink dusted his cheeks as he quietly stated that you tasted like honey-spiced fruit - just like he thought you would. After that he began doting on you in public and private: surprise cheek kisses, tender forehead kisses, hugging you from behind, absentmindedly playing with your hair… and you absolutely ate up every morsel of his affections.

As your relationship progressed, you saw Tsubaki involved in a few fights, and you were astonished by how strong he was. Though, you were also a little sad that you couldn’t really protect him, so you decided to secretly start going to self defense classes without telling your boyfriend. Not that you wanted it to be a big deal, but you were excited to surprise him with your moves once you graduated the class.

During this time, you also wanted to try to find some “girly” outfits - dresses and skirts in tones other than earthy and nude - that fit your style. So you requested Tsubaki’s help and, of course, he was overjoyed to assist. You also asked if he could help you find some makeup that fit you, and if he’d be willing to help you practice some looks. Again he was more than happy to help, even though he made sure to follow up on whether you were doing this for yourself or some other reason. When you assured him it was for yourself and the desire to expand your style, he made a whole pinterest board for you that you could use for inspiration.

When you looked over the board you were thoroughly touched by how extensive it was, he obviously put a lot of time and effort into the endeavor, and you thought he was just the sweetest for it. Though really, in addition to expanding your style, you wanted to be able to put together a special outfit, and makeup look for Valentine’s Day. The defense class end date was set for the day before, so you wanted to dress up nice for when you told him about it over dinner.

When Valentine’s Day arrived, you had picked out the perfect outfit and eye look that would make Tsubaki swoon at the sight of you. Before leaving your apartment, you took one last look in the mirror to check for stray liner or any parts of your outfit out of place. You decided to wear a pair of sheer black tights, a form fitting, long sleeve turtleneck, with a cardinal red, button up-overall mini dress over them. He even helped you learn how to walk in heels, so today you were wearing a pair of heeled combat boots. Around your neck hung your signature gold, paperclip choker. 

Leaning closer to the mirror to check your handiwork, and you grinned at the flawless lines. You decided to go with a smoky, cherise eyeshadow wing on each lid that came to a point in the corners of your eyes - something simple and doable after extensive guidance from Tsubaki. Under each eye, you used a fuchsia liner that arched out into a point under the center of each eye, and underneath each point you drew an adorable fuchsia heart. Though you weren’t brave enough to try fake lashes yet, Tsubaki had helped you pick out a reliable mascara to practice with. Fluttering your long lashes at yourself in the mirror felt akin to butterfly wings caressing your cheeks. Giggling to yourself, you did an excited twirl before skipping out the door.

On the way to see your amazonian boyfriend, you walked into an ongoing street fight involving him, his seconds, and some first years fighting a slew of thugs. As you approached, Tsubaki saw you and shouted at you to go hide in Pothos, but while following his instruction, a thug grabbed you.

Tsubaki freaked out, and tried to fight his way to you, followed by his seconds. The first years were on the other side, so they couldn’t even see what was going on, but they heard the Furin King shouting angrily at someone and started clearing a path in the direction he was shouting.

The moment the thug’s meaty fingers wrapped around your arm, your self defense training kicked in as you twisted out of his grip and delivered a high kick across his face. He was knocked unconscious instantly, and as you whirled to face the remaining thugs closest to you, they flinched before backing away. None of them knew what to make of the adorably petite girl before them who apparently had a lethal roundhouse kick.

At that point, your protective partner shook off his own shock and stepped between you and the thugs while glaring at them. Without a moment’s hesitation they turned and sprinted off, swiftly followed by the rest of their posse. Whirling around, Tsubaki stared at you in complete shock, mouth agape.

”Y/N, I had no idea you could do that!” He half cried-half squealed, and you bashfully smiled while clasping your hands behind your back.

”Well, I couldn’t until recently, I’ve actually been taking self defense classes!” You declared proudly, and Tsubaki’s brows shot up in surprise. “I wanted to tell you, and show you what I learned after I 'graduated'. Which was yesterday actually!” You giggled airily up at him, beaming brightly now.

”D-did something happen? Why were you taking self defense classes?” He questioned you quickly, and a little worried. His seconds exchanged anxious looks over their King’s fears surfacing.

”N-no, no, that’s not it!” You insisted quickly with a reassuring smile. “You just fight a lot, and you’re really strong, and you’ve protected me before…” you pursed your lips sadly, “but I couldn’t really protect you in return, and I wanted to be able to try, at least.” You murmured shyly, hoping you didn’t hurt your tenderhearted boyfriend. But his baby blue eyes lit up like the sun as an adoring smile spread across his face. Drawing closer, he took your hands in his.

”You wanted to protect me?” He breathed out in disbelief, eyes brimmed with tears at how unbelievably cute you are. Especially with the stubborn pout that pulled at your lips, and the notch in your brow.

”Well yeah. I love you, silly-head,” you expressed in light admonishment, but an incredible wealth of care was hidden in your tone.

Tsubaki blinked at you rapidly, seeing as you just publicly confessed your love for him. Sakura was blushing on the ground across the way, because he just couldn't take the raw emotion. You knew full well what you just admitted, also wanting to confess that to him along with everything else. So, you just stared him down with a determined expression and waited.

”Y/N, you know you just said-” Tsubaki spoke in a hushed tone, not really believing you meant to proclaim that.

”I know what I said. Should I say it again?” You cut him off, letting him know that you weren’t beating around the bush, with an assertive arch of your brow. Slowly he shook his head, still not knowing what to say, even though he’s felt the same for months now.

”Well, if you’re done,” you stated quietly as you leaned around him to survey the street, now deserted of thugs, but littered with Furin members staring at the situation unfolding in shock. Tsubaki’s seconds looked a little misty eyed about it all. 

“Can I take you out for Valentine’s Day now?” You leaned back and met his gaze as you implored with a bright smile. Your bewildered boyfriend nodded wordlessly, and let you take his hand before leading him off.

Along the way, the towering Furin King finally found his words and confessed, teary eyed, while he also apologized for not saying it straight away. You just told him that it’s okay, and that you were just really honored that he loves too. Then he proposed, timidly, if the two of you could go back to your place instead of out. Oblivious to what he was getting at, you grinned brightly and agreed.

Once back at your apartment, Tsubaki kissed you gently, then more fervently before scooping you up to straddle his hips. His hands gripped under your thighs as he pinned you against the front door. A little surprised, but not mad about the development, while he breathily pleaded against your lips that he wanted to feel you in whatever way you would let him tonight.

Gulping down air as his bulge pressed into your heated core and suddenly you were submerged in the scent of his shampoo. A candy like aroma, quickly followed by minty wood sifting through the air, and finally notes of creamy almond smoked through your hair as his plump lips trembled against yours.

Bobbing your head vigorously, you instructed him to take you to bed, and he blinked at you in surprise before asking if you were sure. Draping your arms over his shoulders as you mussed his hair in your fingers before you spoke in a slightly more demanding tone, “Tsubaki. Take me to bed, please.”

He wasted no time carrying you to the bedroom located at the back of the apartment. Rich cocoa wafted past Tsuabki’s face accompanied by hints of warmed florals and spiced wood smoke as he made his way down the hall with you securely in his grasp. Once there, he laid you out on the bed, fixed your outfit and hair - even though you were a little impatient, but he said he wanted to do something special. After that, he retrieved a small vibrator the two of you bought a while ago, and asked if he can use it on you tonight. Timidly you nodded, and he flashed you a bright smile in return. 

Laying his large, soft palms on your thighs he oh so slowly parted them so the fabric of your dress rode up your hips, to reveal a pair of red cotton panties with a pink heart etched over the front. He shot you an appreciative grin before he settled between your thighs, taking his time prepping you for the small vibrator. When you seemed good and ready, he slid the vibrator into your slick walls before turning it on to the lowest setting.

Then he double checked your outfit, makeup, hair, and then his own before he laid beside you. Taking out a polaroid camera, he tenderly asked if he could take pictures of you two together laid out like this, and you nodded up at him as a moan dripped from your parted lips. 

Settling next to you, he started snapping photos, and gradually turning up the vibrator strength throughout the photoshoot. Most of the shots were of him gazing down at you, kissing you, and you peering into his eyes or the camera lens as your expression became more and more fucked out. The whole time you were heaving air for some reprieve, you kept catching the sweetly crisp floral flavor from your lover’s fragrance on your taste buds. 

The final photo was of you, shaking, cumming, and clutching onto your breathtaking boyfriend. Eyes half lidded, jaw dropped as melodic moans and sighs fanned over his simpering lips. His arm was wrapped around your waist to hold you close, red nails standing out against the back of your shirt, accentuating the way you were arching desperately into him. As you came down, you inhaled the syrupy almond and spiced pine aroma that lifted off of Tsubaki’s heated skin to swirl in the thickened air.

Oh so slowly, he removed the vibrator before tossing his hair up in a bun, and then dipped down to drink up your arousal. Running the tip of his tongue through your drenched folds as he inhaled you deeply, caramelized fruit and wood flooded his taste buds. Smoky rich cocoa drifted off your skin and made his mouth water. Groaning deeply into your cunt sent vibrations through your core that caused you to arch your back off the bed. Swiftly, he grabbed your hips and pinned you down before circling his wet muscle over your bundle of nerves until you were a panting mess.

Buttery amber mixed with something velvety and animalic before flooding his senses as he eagerly dipped lower to taste more of you. Devouring every drop you had to offer as he swirled his tongue over your clit, before he slid it down to catch the arousal that gushed from your folds. Deliriously, he clutched at your plump ass and pulled you closer to his greedy mouth as your thighs trembled against his cheeks. He stopped just before you came - only intending to taste and “clean you up”, though really he just made a bigger mess of you. 

”How far do you wanna go tonight?” Pulling back as he raised the question smoothly, breath fanning over your mound, sending a shiver up your spine. Lifting your head from the pillows, you just smiled at him adoringly through heavy pants.

”All the way, if you’ll have me,” you murmured breathily as your eyes blazed with desire, which turned scorching when they dipped down to where his skirt lifted slightly from his bulge.

”Oh, I’ll have you,” he whispered, voice laced in a sultry tone. “Take off everything please,” he requested politely as he climbed off the bed and stepped into the closet to pilfer through the clothes he kept at your place. 

He came back out wearing a stark white babydoll slip, with ruffly white bloomers underneath. In contrast to his onyx and ruby hair, accentuated by his creamy complexion, he looked downright ethereal as he climbed back over you. Pressing loving kisses to your plush lips as he positioned himself next to you on his back, and then with gentle squeezes and slight tugs, he gradually coaxed you to straddle his pelvis. 

Delicately, you opened his ruffle bloomers to reveal his hardened, blushing length - thick, veined and with a bulbous mushroom head. It jumped into your palm as you tentatively stroked it with your fingertips, which caused a delighted gasp to escape you. Tsubaki silently watched your awestruck expression, wide eyed and mouth agape as faint pants fluttered past his lips. 

Peppered iris struck your senses and bloomed behind your eyelids as you sheathed him, allowing every inch of him to stretch you oh so slowly. The whole way dawn, he held your hips and gripped your ass cheeks gently - red tipped fingers digging in occasionally to stop himself from bucking into you. Tenderly, you grasped his smooth hands to ground yourself as your walls clenched around him.

He cooed praises up at you adoringly, and made sure to tell you just how pretty you looked like this as your fluttering core grew accustomed to his size. After you’d adjusted, your boyfriend was still purring compliments to you quietly, as he kneaded your hips and thighs.

You looked down at him wide eyed - gaze traveling over the hard planes of his chest contrasted by the delicate fabric, and plump, rouge lips accentuating his baby blue orbs - you quietly told him that he was a vision to behold. His cock twitched inside you from the genuineness in your words as you continued to whisper about how beautiful he looked, and how good he’s made you feel. Not just tonight, but ever since meeting him. 

Tsubaki looked a little teary eyed as he simpered up at you while he slowly guided you up his length, and then slowly back down until you’d adjusted to him enough to try on your own. Once you’d found a good rhythm, he released your hips and allowed you to take over as he leaned up and wrapped his arms around your torso. Taking one of your pert nipples in his mouth as you whined at the new sensation and ran your fingers through his long, soft locks.

While you bounced on his throbbing member, your velvety walls sucked him back in as you dropped back down. Squelching and a satisfying plat plat plat filled the room as arousal dripped down your thighs and over his lap. Honey dewed across your skin before dripping over the bouquet of bergamot and violet permeating the air, while the string in your lower belly grew tighter.

His tip tapped that spongy spot nestled in your core over and over, causing shocks of pleasure to spread through your veins and threaten to snap that string in your lower belly. Once thoroughly blended, the sugared, citrus-floral aroma blended into the clove and cardamom coffee brewing underneath. Breathlessly, you continued susurrating praises into his onyx tresses as your paperclip chain necklace knocked against your collarbone from the repetitive movement.

After your thighs began to burn and you started to lose momentum, your beloved boyfriend asked if he could take you from behind. Eagerly, you bobbed your head before wordlessly turning around to present yourself to him - wiggling your dripping pussy at him slightly. Breath hitched in his throat, and then he swallowed thickly before purring out more praises as he lined his tip up to your entrance. 

Deliberately unrushed while entering you again, really making sure you felt every inch of him. He fucked you at a frustratingly long, and drawn out pace, but so deep that his tip kept kissing your cervix. You begged for him to go faster or harder, and though he did eventually relent with stronger thrusts - enough to jiggle your ass deliciously against his hips - he wouldn’t go any faster than that. Wrapping his wide palms around your hips just above your ass while pressing his red tipped fingers into the plush skin, and then he pinned you into the mattress as he leaned forward so his bergamot scented hair tickled your face. 

“Not tonight baby, you need to get used to me first, okay?” He hushed you soothingly as he kissed your cheek, jaw, shoulder and down your spine until he was straightened, but was still holding you down by your hips, thrusting hard and deep. 

It wasn't long before you were reduced to a mewling mess - clawing and drooling into the sheets helplessly. Tsubaki just gasped and sighed at how breathtaking you were, and praised you between deep, guttural groans. Through gritted teeth he growled out how fucking gorgeous you looked underneath him like this.

At some point you couldn’t even muster coherent responses as you whimpered, whined, and cried out his name with abandon. Whipped caramel and balsamic vanilla permeated the air, bathing both of your taste buds with the delectable flavor as the string finally snapped. Pleasure spread from your core and rushed through your veins as you creamed and pulsed on his throbbing cock. 

Tsubaki folded in half due to your unyielding grip, the hard planes of his chest and abdomen pressing into your back through the frilly cotton. Only after your fluttering walls calmed down did he finally slide out. Air hissed between his teeth as you released his still hardened length, and then he gently rolled you on your back. Lowering himself next to you, he then curled around you and combed his long fingers through your tousled hair until you caught your breath.

”Do you think you can take me one more time tonight, love?” Imploring gingerly as he cupped your cheek and thumbed the drool off of your chin while surveying your tired, fucked out expression. But the second you heard his words, your eyes snapped wide open and focused on him completely. 

”Mhm, please,” you sighed to him dreamily. Tsubaki’s breath hitched as he bit his lip to retain some self control. Running his warm hands down your thighs, he then took your legs and put them together, placing both ankles on one of his broad shoulders. Wrapping a strong arm around your calves before he gripped your ankles in a large hand, then he lined his tip up to your entrance again before gradually nestling himself deep within your gummy walls.

The backs of your thighs were flush to the cotton, frilly teddy over his abdomen, ass pressed to the hard planes of his hips while his cock twitched deep in your glistening folds. Then, he brought his other arm around your thighs and grabbed the plush flesh in a bruising grip.

Drawing his hips back earned a guttural moan from you, before he thrusted back into you. It wasn’t as slow as before, but not as fast as he was capable of, since he still didn’t want to accidentally hurt you. His cock plunged hard and deep into your sopping cunt just like before, filling the room with lewd squelching. With each powerful thrust, the paperclip-chain laid over your collarbone slid up around your throat before falling back over the delicate bone once more. 

”She makes the loveliest music I've ever heard,” he moaned against your ankle as his pace picked up marginally. Your velvety walls pulsed just from his words as his thrusts grew sloppy and stuttered. The grip around your legs grew firmer as his breathing became unsteady, and then your boyfriend released a wanton moan - fanning breath over the sensitive skin as he pressed his open mouth to your ankle. Tsubaki didn’t cum in you, he pulled out and gently laid your legs across the bed, since he planned to cum not on you to be respectful. But when he aimed towards the sheets you immediately sat up and got in his way.

Positioning yourself under him sitting on your folded legs, tongue stuck out just under his tip and eyes pleading to let you catch every last drop of him. He came instantly just from the sight, but before you could swallow he kissed you messily until the two of you fell back onto the bed with you in his arms. He continued kissing you and swirling his cum over your tongue while groaning deeply into your mouth, and didn’t stop until you were absolutely breathless. The second your loving gazes met, after he finally parted from the kiss, both of you devolved into a fit of tired giggles as you cuddled each other for a short reprieve.

Later into the evening, Tsubaki still seemed pent up so you asked him if there was anything you could do, and though he was timid at first, he eventually said yes - if you were willing. Both of you had been dating long enough that you’ve discussed every possibility for your sexual relationship - boundaries, desires, fears - so you both had a lot of toys and things that you bought to be ready, or tried out on your own.

”Are you willing to wear a strap on?” He posed quietly, expression uncertain. Immediately your face lit up and you nodded eagerly, but then your gaze turned shy as a blush crept up to the tips of your ears.

”I’m just not as coordinated though, with my thrusts… I can learn for sure, but I don’t know how good I’ll be tonight,” you conceded, a little embarrassed. Tsubaki laughed gently before explaining in a reassuring tone that you two can work up to that, and he would just like to ride you while you wore the strap on. Excitement flooded your veins at the mental image of your breathtaking lover on top of you like that as you simpered and swiftly agreed.

He helped you put on the harness, and littered kisses along your shoulders along with whispered encouragement the whole time. Then you laid down and lubricated the dildo before he straddled you and oh so slowly lowered himself onto it. You watched in complete awe as his face opened up with pleasure - brows raised, eyes falling shut, mouth dropping open, head hung back with a waterfall of red and black tresses falling around him. The air was punched right out of your lungs at the sight, and was swiftly replaced by the intoxicating mixture of spiced leather and sweet almonds drifting through the room, as Tsubaki’s strong thighs relaxed around your hips. 

Gingerly you placed your hands on the tops of his thighs while murmuring praises and compliments up at him. About how incredibly lucky you were to just be here, let alone with him on top of you like this. Your boyfriend looked down at you in surprise from your gentle touch, and then blushed a deeper shade of red with each word uttered as his bouncing became vigorous. Gradually, your hands traveled up his hips to rub tender circles into them with the pads of your thumbs. Finally at his wits end, Tsubaki unraveled on top of you as deep groans and mewls tumbled from his bright red lips. 

Which you breathlessly complimented, of course, by telling him that you felt like you were getting close from just watching him. At that, he bent in half and captured your lips, desperately needing you to stop talking lest he lost his mind. He kissed you ravenously until his cock was twitching and pumping a hefty second load up your abdomen and over your tits. 

Leaning back, his sky blue eyes traveled up your body - surveying his handiwork - until they landed on your reverent expression. The two of you were locked in a timeless moment of admiring each other as a medley of mouth watering scents emanated from between you. Aromatic, warm, candy-like iris perfumed the air, while smoked cocoa-camphor swirled just underneath the light fragrance. Creamy-balsamic vanilla stagnated in the air thickly, warring for dominance with the sweet-animalic almond which would remain well into the next morning. Finally, time began ticking once again as you broke the silence with your quiet musings.

”I wish I had taken any photos of you,” you murmured remorsefully. Though your lips still turned up in a smile, and an adoring glint showed in your eyes.

Tsubaki sputtered and blushed slightly before he grabbed his long locks and pressed them close to his cheeks as he beamed down at you lovingly. He then sincerely promised that he would pick out the perfect outfit for his photoshoot too, and you grinned right back up at him excitedly.

After cleaning up, the two of you finally got some take out and settled in for a lazy Valentine’s night on the couch with cheesy rom-coms. Tsubaki eventually fell asleep on your shoulder, so you wrapped your arm around him and pulled the blanket over him before falling asleep just like that. He woke up hours later wrapped snugly in your arms, letting him rest peacefully in the crook of your shoulder, and just about sobbed at how precious you were. He readjusted you both so you were facing each other, your forehead pressed to his chest and wrapped in each other’s arms, before he went soundly back to sleep.

The next morning you awoke to the smell of pancakes, and the sight of your boyfriend in the kitchen wearing a white frilly apron with red hearts printed over it. Taking your seat at the table as he placed your plate in front of you as well as a cup of coffee, and then you noticed a small white satin jewelry box on the table with a big red heart stitched into the top.

Peering at it, then at Tsubaki who was smiling serenely and nodding at the box. Gingerly, you picked it up and opened it to reveal a small fancy padlock with both of your initials engraved into it. Eagerly, your head snapped up to look at him in surprise and awe. But he was already grinning at you while holding up a small ornate key, also with your and his initials engraved into it.

“I wanted you to have something from me with you at all times, and you wear that necklace religiously,” he pointed out, gesturing at the paperclip choker around your neck. “I thought it would fit into it easily, and then I have this to match,” he announced as his eyes cut to the key in his hand. “I just need to find the right chain for it to go around my neck,” he murmured as he peered over the table at you lovingly. 

Without missing a beat, you rose from the table in excitement and scurried off to the bedroom. He blinked rapidly in shock, but only a moment passed before you returned with a satin box of your own. Funnily enough, it was the inverse of your gift box - bright red with a white heart stitched into the top, and slightly larger than the one Tsubaki gave you. He stared at it wide eyed as you handed it to him.

“Open it, open it!” Chirping as you bounced excitedly on the balls of your feet. He opened the lid to reveal an adjustable paperclip choker that matched yours, and then looked at you teary eyed. “I didn’t know what your gift was going to be, but I thought that we should match,” you admitted with a quiet titter and prideful grin.

Wordlessly, he pulled you into his lap before the two of you put your charms on your matching necklaces, and then put them on each other. As you sat in your lover’s lap and enjoyed your post Valentine’s Day breakfast, both of you were downright giddy while eyeing your respective gifts as you shared giggles and loving glances the rest of the day.

Oh yeah, remember all those Valentine’s photos? Eventually he made an album with all your different ‘O’ faces from that day, plus all the ones you’ll let him capture after, and keeps it in his bedside table. You had no idea until after the two of you moved in together, and honestly you couldn’t even be mad because Tsubaki masterfully captured your beauty in every photo. That plus the way he was looking at you as if you were everything to him in every single polaroid still makes your pussy drool and heart flutter years later.

[tomyo]

I just realized it's been nearly a month and I haven't reported back to the western Soul Eater community the live experience of the Soul Eater Exhibit so here's what I got for you!

First of all, these are taking place at Animate stores and if somehow you think you can make travel plans within the next month or two, there is a third showing in Kyoto happening in January. When entering you are given a random shikishi board and if you paid extra you also get a sweatband (but I did not). I went with a friend who happened to live nearby who helped a lot with getting tickets but they were at the door available as well.

The entrance was a small area that featured the main promotional image and the Excalibur floral display replicating the one in the manga.

Beyond the entrance there was no video allowed and at certain points no photos allowed. Mostly at the end where there were a bunch of Shikishi boards with signatures from staff and voice actors.

What I didn't realize from pictures is that the manga pages shared are the original pages showing all the techniques and mistakes on page. I wish I could share them all but Tumblr is not the place for that. The one I did want to share is a page where presumably Ohkubo and an assistant played tiktaktoe and made and aiaikasa for Renton and Eureka from Eureka7 which was also being released in Shonen GanGan at the same time.

Not all pages of the series were shared and it was more favored to the first half of the series with different section to highlignt characters and story beats. The first main area was after the first curtain (photo above) had Maka's scythe and a copy of each volume hung up on a side wall. You then go through a set of curtains with souls on it into a large space that had the main pairs and additional charactera from the volume art blown up with the corresponding introduction chapters. This is the space with the replica of Shinigami-sama's room. This led into a hall featuring Crona and had a decal of Crona and Maka's shadows holding hands on the ground. Then there was the Excalibur Wall. My memory after that is a little fuzzy because I was distracted/self conscious(Was very amused by another pair as the clear fan explained the series to her friend); if I remember right there was a second hall showing the brew arc then Black Star's final Mifune fight and then a corner space representing the Arcane fight with a blown up decal of Maka in her black blood dress. The space didn't feel like people should walk in it, there was a thin foam on the floor and words from the panel dangling down so you couldn't really see much of the art. Early spartoi passes by really fast in favor of a wider hall with the killing of Medusa; pages on the right with corresponding blown up art on the left. At the end was a giant wall featuring the moon. Then it the pages of the final fight and the display ends with curtains showing Maka and Soul diving into Asura's black blood to find Crona.

The major bit at the end is there is a fully voice acted section of the final chapters of Soul Eater with the manga pages manipulated to it. The motion graphics weren't crazy amazing, about what you'd expect out of a storybook style pv. You were not allowed to take photos or video of this section. So a whole voice recording of what the finale of the manga could sound like could become lost media unless it's released somehow. There's a small final room showing the pages of the final chapters art. A large acrylic display of the meisters in their final character evolution that's backlit. A final space shows off the colored art, the originals if the were done traditionally. There's a small selection of new art, really long piece. Ones that has the og cast and the not girls which probably was during the not era but I don't remember ever seeing it. And then a spread of Spartoi plus Not. Liz and Tsugumi have the best fits in it but I feel a lot of people will like Crona's shirt best. Ohkubo signed a print with a sketch of Maka at the end alongside the two pieces that he love drew on the opening days. In the same space is where the signature shikishi boards were. I was extremely sad that I couldn't take a pic because one had some sort of Maka that was gorgeous but we speculated that it was to avoid signature fraud.

After that you took the stairs down to an extremely tight store. I realized too late that there were no photo signs however it feels like I'm missing some pictures I had taken from my gallery.

This is where I'm gonna be hella real, I do not fucks with Ohkubo's Soul Eater art in recent years. I saw a guy on Tiktok standing by it was his Twitter sketch style but that doesn't work for me with official products. From the perfect edition cover art, to the exhibition special art, to the two??? new pieces for the encore art book; it all feels extremely sloppy in terms of linework, posing, and proportions. If someone were to tell me it's a result of burnout, I would respect that easily but none the less I did not buy anything with the exhibit art on it (sans the pamphlet) more grab the art book. The art book is probably not worth it either unless you weren't able to grab the previous ones. I probably will eventually get it when the English one comes out next year and I probably would've saved money if I bought it while I was there but the weight wasn't worth it and I had in fact spent ¥42,000.

For all the things I did buy, I do regret not picking up some items; an art board from the other artbooks, the sticker set A, the mini towel, and one additional set of the cookies and coffee but as seen above I grabbed a lot and felt pretty aware I had a full basket compared to everyone else. You could also only make one purchase per a ticket and sadly only one commemorative bag per a purchase (I still ended up with two due to my friend). The final thing that you may want to know is the quality of said good; the plushies are worth it simply for existing but could've been higher quality, the ¥7000 (roughly $50) hoodie I bought was extremely thin and has shed so much from the inside that I have yet to wash it in fear it would disintegrate (I'm being slightly dramatic but I truly fear what will happen when I do), and while I did not buy them I did see the in person versions of the made to order items; the skate deck was a proper translation but didn't look particularly nice considering the simplicity of the design and the Soul Jacket was worse than cosplay quality made out of a really thin poly that didn't hold it's shape. ¥18700 yen is about $120 USD right now which is already way too much for the quality but keep in mind the buying power is equivalent to roughly $190. If you want Soul's OG jacket then I would best recommend customizing a real varsity jacket, followed by finding a used one of the original great eastern release, followed by what ever streetwear brand version of your choosing because while they might have inaccuracies, they will at least have ribbed trimming. I know I'm ragging on this pretty hard but I want to emphasize that it is an item you are not missing out on in case you feel the need to proxy order one. The most worthwhile items will be the plushies and food goods, and from there O would call the general Osaka added goods nice. Initially I was not impressed with the acrylic blocks but in person they had nice dimension. Any printed good outside of that is your own discretion albeit I don't think they're particularly going to be high value items in the future.

The final final part is I found out the day before there was a wrapped train for the show. Honestly a higher honor than I expected for the series. However the night before was spent at an Onsen a good distance away and the day of was a downpour so I sadly did not witness it as it would of likely been an effort to find.

I think that's all I can give towards the experience in writing but I will include particular sights in subsequent reblogs.

[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.