#mikans really got me

[aparticularbandit]

BANDITTTT

I WANNA DRAW ENOMATSUMIKI WITH POKEMON BUT I DONT GO HERE

HELPPPPPP

....

Normally, I give Junko a full bear-mon team (especially Stufful and Pancham/Pangoro because Stufful/Bewear is a literal plushie bear pokemon and then Pancham/Pangoro is a black and white bear (but I think he fits better with Fuyuhiko, tbh).

But like.

Junko needs a Palossand.

It's a literal sand castle Pokemon.

But also it's a ghost.

She killed her sand castle and now it's following her around everywhere.

(Unless she gave it to Yasuke.)

But like - Palossand evolves from Sandygast, right, and Sandygast has a couple of Pokedex descriptions like "Yeah, this was born from a kid playing in the sand, and kids should ALWAYS destroy their sandcastles before they leave OR ELSE IT MIGHT BECOME A SANDYGAST" like. The idea of Ryoko making her sandcastle and trying to destroy it but also leaving it for so many days because maybe it would get possessed by Yasuke's mom? IS A WHOLE VIBE.

....

That's not Enomatsumiki, but.

I need to do more research on a proper Yasuke Pokemon that thought's just been floating around in my head the past few days.

[shadowthief78]

Do I start writing the sprawling and overdetailed reader insert for bllk that lives in my head or, as they say, do I wallow in my daydream like a pig in the mud?

[jamiepaige]

Constant Companions Closeup #5: CADMIUM COLORS

(also on bandcamp and spotify!)

Once again, welcome back to the Constant Companions Closeups - a series of in-depth dives into the songs off of my latest album, Constant Companions! Last time, I wrote a whole diatribe about my OCs while talking about I Wish That I Could Fall, and today, we're eating paint! Cadmium Colors featuring Soneji of Project Mikan!

Consider this a content warning: this post will discuss the pandemic, struggles with mental health, and suicidal ideation/attempts. I'm hoping it'll ultimately be uplifting, but the discussions at hand are incredibly heavy, and it wouldn't do this song right to be vague. Please be warned.

---

Let's talk about COVID.

At the beginning of 2020, I was in the midst of a long-term break from making music. It wasn't completely cold turkey, and I might not have even called it a break if you'd asked me at the time, but things were dire. I was still dealing with the burnout I'd sustained from the making of Autumn Every Day; I'd had my ego bruised by a live performance at a house party that went so hilariously bad it'd hurt even the most stoic performers (imagine watching an entire packed room of people clear out in 5 minutes flat from the already hyper-exposed vantage point of being on stage in front of them and knowing you single-handedly caused that lol); I had just moved across the country, and was preoccupied with trying to make ends meet as a 22 year old dealing with pure adulthood for the first time.

I was working a shitty minimum wage job at a discount clothing store I will not be naming, slogging through late-night shifts that wouldn't get me home until 3 am some nights. I had friends and roommates, but they were all just as overworked and exhausted and dealing with their own shit as me. I was mentally ill and unmedicated. Suicidal ideation was rearing its ugly head at my lowest moments.

Then, as I turned 23, a global pandemic shut the world down, my grandpa died with me being unable to attend his funeral, and I had a catastrophic mental breakdown that suddenly turned the voices in my head into a deafening cacophony of self-inflicted malice.

In hindsight, I think being 23 kinda just does that to you

---

Fast forward to 2021. I was back at my retail job with the pandemic raging in full force, my sense of self was held together with duct tape, positive self-talk essentially didn't exist for me, and I was the loneliest and lowest I had ever been. I was working the fewest hours I could get away with, and still, almost all spare time I had was taken up either by work or by my recovery from it.

This was around the time I got an email from Crypton, of all places - the people that make Hatsune Miku, for anyone uninformed. They wanted a remix of the song Happy Synthesizer for a Digital Stars compilation. I could not for the life of me tell you how I lucked into this or why they reached out to me of all people, but they did, and I was deathly determined to prove myself worthy of it.

This was August of 2021. I was staring down the barrel, languishing in what felt like only half of a life, fantasizing about death and trying to twist my thoughts into something that could at least keep me blearily shuffling forward another couple days. It was untenable.

(I'd also recently been diagnosed with OSDD 1b - this is a whole can of worms I can't really open until we talk about Breeze Blows, but it's important to at least mention that coping with this was a significant part of this turnaround.)

It's melodramatic, but I had only two options - make things again, or die.

I finished that remix within 24 hours of getting the stems, and I will gladly toot my own horn about it - it's really fucking good, in my opinion. Bittersweet ended up coming together in a mad dash over the next couple months as well. I was making music again.

Even though I was exponentially busier, things paradoxically got easier. I made the creative process a priority in my life, and not only did it give me an outlet for everything that had otherwise been eating away at my soul, but it struck a chord with other people who had been struggling as well. Things just... started getting brighter.

So I kept making music and living and yadda yadda blah blah here I am. This is all a lot of words and very personal stories of mental health struggles to say this:

One: The line between being an artist and being one of countless people forced to work jobs that go nowhere, that put their life at risk, that force them to strip parts of themselves away - it is a faint and transparent line built on circumstances of class and privilege and luck. Making Art and being an Artist aren't magical elevated states of existence, but something anyone is capable of if given the space to nurture their creativity. I believe the world should be a place where any person can do this.

Two: It's easy to convince yourself that art is meaningless in the face of the world at large. And yes, revolutions aren't fought by poetry and paintings, and people aren't fed through songs. But art is a source and a medium for connection; Art is how we find beauty in a disorganized and entropic world; Art is what we come home to and what words we write and pictures we paint and songs we sing to remind us that people matter to us and love is real and life is worth fucking living. Maybe that's corny and stupid, but it's true.

Three: So help me God, I will never work retail again in my entire life.

---

This is another song that is heavily inspired by artists like Prefab Sprout, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, and other artists of that ilk - very 80s, very flowery and sentimental lyricism, focused on telling a story. I greatly admire songs that aren't afraid to paint otherwise banal or ordinary scenes in abstract reverence!! I wanted the verses to contrast heavily with each other in that way, with verse one's relentless poeticisms (prosaic practice of depravity) and idioms turned on their head (suspending innocents above their disbelief) against verse two's incredibly straightforward depiction of a factory worker's circumstances.

The flowery language might have worked against me somewhat, though! I've seen a lot of folks that thought the ending was darker or much more defeatist than I intended, and while some of that is just inevitable with a work of art, I want to be clear.

Translator's note: this means "don't kill yourself, you idiot"!!

As you may have picked up from the previous post in this series, this song does heavily feature a leitmotif or two predominantly performed under pudgy pretenses. I'm not going to go on that whole novella-length spiel again, but rest assured knowing that this song, too, is one that makes me think about my OCs. Since it's something many people missed, however, I will take a moment to point out that this song quotes none other than Autumn Every Day off of my album of the same name!

Painting and visual art have been something of a reoccurring obsession of mine in my own art. I grew up around visual artists, have always been friends with many visual artists, and generally have a really intense love of it as a medium and a mode of expression. However, there's also always been a sense of... well, I don't want to call it jealousy, but it's jealousy. I've tried many times to start making visual art of my own, and I have made some things, but it's been a struggle, and I worry sometimes that my eye has permanently outstripped my ability.

However, in my quest to toss out grand expectations and simply have fun making art, I did recently pick up a cheap little drawing tablet! I'm excited to be a beginner at something artistic again...

Finally, I want to thank a couple people: Soneji of Project Mikan for the gorgeous, soaring saxophone solo; friend_xp for the mindboggling MV editing; and especially my good friend Que for the GORGEOUS painterly art that goes along with this song! Que's style was just perfect for this, and really tied the whole thing together immaculately!! There's no joke or deeper lore or anything I just fucking love Que's art go follow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And with that, I think this post is complete!! If you have anything else you wanna know about, ask away in the replies! Tomorrow will be Breeze Blows with Marcy Nabors and Marlow Jacobs!!!

MAKE ART AND BE GAY

[the-100-days-of-junkan]

Day 90

Alright. So you might be thinking, pondering, desperately contemplating to yourself a simple question.

“JEM. WHAT THE FUCK??? WHY????” And I hear you, I get it, it’s a lot to take in out of nowhere and that’s the point. Sit with me, peer into the biohazard that is in my brain as I explain to you why in the name of all that’s good I made a fucking Music Video.

So last time on the 100 Days of Junkan, for Day 80 I got very silly and animated a gif of Junko and Mikan kissing. And as I keep saying over and over again, every 10 pics I wanted to go BIGGER. And maybe this is just the brainrot causing all of my mental functions to degrade past the point of no return, but the only way up at this point was in fact a music video.

But surely I couldn’t. I mean, I only have that single gif as experience with animation! How the fuck could I try and put myself through a process that I have absolutely no experience making something as ambitious as a Music Video! I’ll have to do something else. But then.

I had a thought, a small thought, an evil little thought that wormed its way into my head and didn’t leave.

“Okay. But wouldn’t it be really funny if you sent a full Junkan music video to Val without any warning?” That was it. I was beaten, I couldn’t counter that. The sheer comedic shock value of keeping my wonderful oomfie, the one who has helped motivate me through this entire project, who has given amazing responses to all of these pics as I made them, completely in the dark over this, and then finally with no context, or warning, or even a hint, dropping a fucking music video on her lap and running away like I’m pranking someones god damn doorbell. It was too much, even moreso considering I could do the same with ya’ll! 

You! My varied followers, the silent and the vocal, or even better the random fucking people who have been staring in confusion as the Junko and Mikan tag got flooded with art of these two kissing out of nowhere for like three fucking months. I had an opportunity to send everyone into surprise and confusion because why the fuck did I make a god damn music video??? How??? It was too fucking funny to pass up!

This is easily the most fucking bizarre thing I’ve done for the entire event! Did any of you think this was the path this would go down?? Did any of ya’ll see that I made a gif and think “Surely this scrawny white bitch also made a Music Video.” I doubt it! But if you did, my undying respect goes to you!

So here we are. A Music Video. A fucking Music Video, one which I now have to talk about. It took a full fucking page just to get to the point where I actually talk about it and this took me THREE MONTHS TO MAKE, spanning from May 8th to August 1st! 

So here’s what I’m gonna do. First, I’m gonna talk about MAKING this fucking thing, and then when I finish that I’m going to switch over to talking about the actual contents of the music video. This is going to get really messy and will probably go into tangents, but ya’ll have hopefully coped with the knowledge that this is going to be a lot of words by the time you hit the end of this sentence. (Future Jem here! I think this was actually shorter than Day 60) So without further delay-

The Making of Snow Fairy, a Junkan Music Video. Yes. Really.

So the first step of this was obviously, The Music. What song would I use for this? Well initially the plan was to animate something using the song “Everything You’ve Ever Dreamed.” And if that name sounds familiar, yes, it is the song that Val’s fic was named after. Now the idea wasn’t to adapt her fanfic into a music video (or at least it wasn’t the idea for more than 5 minutes). I was simply going to use this song to make a music video depicting a romantic journey with these two. So why not this song?

IT’S LIKE 6 FUCKING MINUTES. Not to jump ahead of myself here but I can’t make it any clearer for ya’ll, that Gif from Day 80??? That was it. That was all I had going into this. I didn’t do any other practice, I didn’t make anything else like that gif. I made that gif, took like two weeks to make Days 81-89, and jumped into a music video. And yes, that’s fucking stupid, but you’ve all learned by this point that I don’t make sensible choices. I draw women kissing, scream, and feel endless euphoria- I got so off topic already, sorry.

Anyway that’s a 6 minute song and I had very little experience, even I knew that wasn’t gonna be viable without driving my head into the wall from stress. And while the idea of me dialing it back sounds unheard of given my track record, I did in fact scale back massively.

So I pondered, and eventually came to a quite frankly obvious answer.

(Sorry I could only find an AI Upscaled version with interpolation)

Snow Fairy, the first opening of Fairy Tail, AKA, my favorite piece of fiction. And Snow Fairy is my favorite anime opening of all time, if not just straight up my favorite song ever. The fact that it wasn’t my first thought is a shock. Though that still brought on some questions.

Firstly. What version? Because yes I actually had options. I could either use the original song in Japanese, or the english cover by LeeandLie. I was close to picking the original version by Funkfist, but there was two issues. One, because it was in another language that means I would have had to taken the time to put in subtitles and keep them properly timed, which would have just been one more thing on an already massive workload. The second reason is also why I went with LeeandLie’s version, I just like the translation for the lyrics a bit more. At least in terms of how well I think it works for a Junkan Music Video. So we had the cover of the song I was gonna use, next question.

Full Song? Or the intro edit? Because the version used in the anime is obviously much shorter, and not just that actually includes the very end of the song pasted to a much earlier part of it. So if I wanted to use the shorter version I would have needed to actively edited the song.

After much thought I chose to ask my friend (and now current girlfriend) Yves to edit the song to match the intro version of Funkfists cover and worked from there. Because even if I would have loved to use the full song, that’s around 3 minutes, which for essentially a beginner sounds like fucking torture.

So I had a song around 1 minute and 28 seconds to work with. Much easier- WRONG. WRONG IT WAS STILL PAINFUL. WHY DID I DO THIS- Anyway.

We had our song! Now we had to make the actual video!

Step 1, I actually made a Storyboard, this is the smartest thing I will do during this entire process.

As you can see from this lil joke doodle I made during the process, I didn’t even start the actual video before I had realized I had made a massive mistake, however I was of course going to persevere. The Storyboard took about, 2? 3 days? This is mostly because I had other work to prioritize, and I had to make sure I got this pretty solid. Here it is!

(The file name for this has the phrase "Why god Why" btw)

As you can see it’s very, very professional. 

You can also see there were a few things cut or changed, and even stuff that wasn’t there in the first place. That’s because even if I was going into this with more of a plan compared to other parts of this, I still really had no idea what I was getting into nor how to do it. The scene of all the girls doing their hair was cut because it just seemed like an awkward space filler to try and mimic the actual Snow Fairy Intro animation. In hindsight I do wish I kept it or found a replacement rather than just extending the following scene. And yeah that scene had to be super extended so I could actually time things properly.

As for the scene at the end, the various art pieces flashing in the background (which I will talk about later) were done because I realized without them I had way too much dead air in the scene. I then took advantage of it to show a montage of time passing in the scene itself, of the things that differed from the storyboard that’s the one I’m happiest with.

Storyboard has passed so now I have to talk about making the video itself, i feel like i’ve said some variation of that sentence like 5 times now.

So do you want a fun fact? THIS WASN’T SUPPOSED TO BE ANIMATED! This was supposed to be an Animatic, and even that might not be the right word. This was supposed to be basically a storyboard with hints of motion, say for the intro with Monokuma which I always planned to properly animate given his simplistic design. Everything else was supposed to be much simpler.

And then I kept. Accidentally. TRYING TO ANIMATE IT. I DON’T KNOW HOW YOU EVEN DO THAT BY ACCIDENT! And like sure, none of it really gets as meticulous as the Monokuma, but I still ended up learning way more about animating things properly during this project because I just couldn’t help myself. It was always “Well just one more frame to make it look right. One more frame. Okay just another- Oh no.” This is the depths of hell this ship has dragged me to, and even if I haven’t had a chance to fully make use of what I learned here because I’ve been busy, Junkan somehow made me into a fucking animatory at least to the degree of a hobbyist. IF YOU TOLD ME THAT A FEW YEARS AGO I’D THINK YOU WERE LYING! Because if you asked me before this year about my opinion on animating, I’d tell you something around the lines of-

“God I wish I could, but I just don’t have the patience for that y’know?” I GUESS THAT DOESN’T MATTER WHEN IT'S A NICHE SHIP?? Mind you this was still when I was under the impression I was going to get backlash for all this, I didn’t care but I certainly thought it would come to me. The hold these two have on my brain is downright COMICAL.

And I’m sorry if I sound like this is me complaining at all, because I’m really not, I just get more excitable and whacked out during these more high effort projects. This ship has brought me immense joy on its own, and making this project despite the exhaustive work it took to do so has been so fulfilling in part thanks to being able to see the joy my work has brought all of you. I wouldn’t trade this for anything.

But you gotta fucking admit, this isn’t fucking normal right?? None of this is normal! And I don’t mean that in a “We’re all weirdos for liking this” kind of way I mean that in a “What the fuck is going on with me specifically” kind of thing because what is ANY of this?? I re-learned how to write (loosely at least), learned how to actually paint in my program, have developed a deeper understanding of both myself and how to portray expressions, have just generally gotten better at drawing cause of this, memorized these fucking designs almost perfectly (almost, i know there’s some small details of Junko’s design i leave out and Mikan’s apron can be a challenge at times), learned how to animate, LEARNED HOW TO MAKE A MUSIC VIDEO ON ONE GIF OF EXPERIENCE, made angsty shipping art for the first time, and god fucking KNOWS what else that I’m forgetting. And that’s ignoring that by this point we’re edging so much closer to me being able to say “I’ve drawn Junkan 200 fucking times” any god damn day now. 

If this isn’t abnormal human being behaviour, it at the very least has to be really fuckin funny behaviour, right?? Am I just overthinking this?? 

Oh god, right, the main topic. Sorry about that it’s just been eating away at me the sheer absurdity of this project when I really step back and think about it.

Anyway making the vid, I did have a LOT of help from my girlfriend @sunmellows, who actually does have animation experience. She’s more versed in using sprites to animate, but a lot of the techniques could be carried over to what I was doing here. That segment of Mikan and Mukuro running along past a bunch of characters? She helped me so much to get the walk cycles perfect for that.

She also helped me make sure I could actually show this fucking video to people, because fun fact. I made this on an absolute piece of shit laptop! And at first it was relatively fine when I exported projects. But when I got to the point of being actually close to completion? Oh my god not only did it take hours, it just didn’t even work. It would basically KILL my laptops performance to the absolute limit until I would eventually have to force restart the thing. Which thank god didnt’ corrupt the fucking file. So when it came to the final export, I handed off the file to her and she graciously exported it out of clip studio, and then made some minor edits to the timing of the animation in a video editing program.

This is also why, much to my constant irritation, there are still a few animation errors in this because if I fixed them, I’d have to re-export the entire video. And sure, my current laptop is 10 times better and might not try to invent a new form of agony trying to manage it, but also i’m not waiting like 2 or 3 hours for that to happen. No matter how painful it makes rewatching this video. Cause i don’t actually like rewatching this one usually, I’m very proud of it but as I’ve said in the past I am a vicious perfectionist when it comes to my work, so its hard for me to ignore every issue and oddity in the video.

I was fucking losing it by the end of this, I was pulling late nighters for like a week while trying to work on the last few scenes and fix up whatever I could, which was hard because I lacked a convenient way to just watch the whole video in good quality and speed, since playing it in my art program resulted in constant stuttering and made it impossible to tell if it would really look like that, and again, trying to export it made my laptop hate me. But on August 1st I finished it, I had to stay up till 6 AM to do it but I did in fact, fucking do it. I passed it off to Yves, she exported it after some technical difficulties, and now we’re here. 

It was, wild, trying to keep this a secret. And i’m not just talking the 3 months I had to keep it quiet to Val (Though that was difficult but VERY worth it yes), but also keeping it secret up till this point. I don’t even know how many fucking months I’ve had to keep this quiet so none of you would find out about it, I’ve been anxiously waiting to see everyone's reactions to this fucking video, and at the time of writing we’re on like, Day 76. I still have so much more time I need to wait! I’m probably gonna be a nervous wreck the day this actually goes up!

Would I ever do this again? God I fucking hope not! (the answer is yeah someday)

I should actually talk about what’s IN the music video now, shouldn’t I? Will be mildly difficult because that’s probably gonna require a lot of rewatching, and as I already said looking at this music video does make my perfectionist brain scratch bad a bit.

Okay so Monokuma.

So originally the plan for this was for the vid to be a much closer 1-to-1 of the actual opening version of Snow Fairy, and while it did eventually evolve into more of its own thing (both functioning as its own slightly more unique intro for Junkan but also just becoming a more normal music video) the one thing that i always wanted for this was to recreate the first few seconds of the intro but with Monokuma. When this was meant to be significantly less like, animation-y, he was gonna be the only part I went fully into.

It was a real pain in the ass but this guy was basically my crash course on properly animating thanks in part to his simple design. He’s also brought much laughter to my girlfriend! On discord i have this part of the vid saved as a gif, and completely divorced from the context of the music vid it just looks like a silly as gif of Monokuma flying away. Like where the fuck are you going dude??

For the remainder of the first bit I wanted to include Hope’s Peak and Jabberwock island since they’re the most iconic locations in the series, granted, jabberwock feels very irrelevant in a non-despair AU but shhhh. The LOGO! I wish I had the actual thing in my files but I guess I just never thought to save it as it’s own thing. And I’m too scared to open the actual file for the music video to just copy paste it out of there because fun fact, the whole thing is ALL one file. Tip from the Ametuer here, don’t fucking do that.

I’m still really happy that I managed to find the actual font for the Fairy Tail logo to make this with, equally happy that I also managed to sneak in one more reference to Val’s work again! It is once again the tattoo design, because I just can’t help myself y’know?

After that we hit me actually doing this and for a brief moment you get to see it actually be about as slide-showy as I had initially planned on before I decided I was gonna learn how to do a proper run cycle and that took like two fucking days i think. Very proud of it though, Mikan and Mukuro’s little runs were very fun to animate and I like the stupid ass slide I made Mukuro do. I actually wanted to make a stupid animation of her rail grinding using those frames, clearly I didn’t. 

Oh also yeah this style was reused for the cover of the Day 60 Comic, partially because I wanted to retroactively sprinkle bits of this animatic into whatever prior posts I can, partially because i really could not think of an actual cover for that comic. 

So since I was trying desperately to make this seem like the opening to some kind of Junkan Series (and again that concept for the vid dies out real quick) I decided to just include as many other characters as possible during these running scenes. Not only because it would be very fun to draw some of them in this fucked up chibi style I started doing on the fly, but also because then I could insert like three whole ships that I like. We got the Ruruseiko, the Tokomaru, the Ikuzonobuki because hey someone had too.

Fun fact there was supposed to be a little pop up of Mukuro with heart eyes in the corner when Sayaka and Ibuki showed up, but I either scrapped cause I couldn’t make it look right with the limited frames I had, or I accidentally hid all of its layers and couldn’t find it. I can’t remember, this project turning out as well as it did is quite frankly a miracle.

The train scene I don’t really remember why I did like, full linework and shading for that while the rest of the fuckin vid is just sketches. I guess it was fully still animation so it wasn’t that big of a deal. Drawing the very silly little shots of them going by the train was a lot more fun though, I also used it to reference a few more pieces from the past!

The first shot of them with Angie was a reference to the Day 70 Piece, since I always kinda headcanoned (yeah headcanoning my own art, that makes sense) that it was Angie who made it. Then we got Day 82, which at the time of writing this hasn’t been posted! Flashback to whatever day that Karaoke pic with the Ikuzonobuki trio was on for the shot of Junko watching Mikan sing.

And then after that is the Flatwoods monster part, which is the really fun one because I have no idea if I’ll have drawn anything for that by the time this gets released. I really want to though because I love the Flatwoods Monster and I love Junkan, so why not combine them! Alas, I’m working on the December 24th comic as I write this so I might not have time to make that on time. 

Yasuke and Tsumugi! I’ve given my thoughts on them before of course, I think during Day 60? My brain at this point just felt very inclined to include them in this, Yasuke especially.  Even if just as a very small cameo I kinda just associate these two with Junkan? Admittedly it’s mostly because of Val’s fic, I won’t act like that isn’t just the blueprint for everything in the junkan portion of my brain. 

I also used this opportunity to once more make up for the fact that I had drawn so very little kabedon content in this whole project.

After that this probably becomes the cheesiest thing i’ve ever made. The scene of Mikan looking sad was another scene directly based off of the original opening this all based on. After the spin transition I put a little too much effort into was supposed to be a shot of Junko doing Mikan’s hair while Mukuro and Sayaka try to do the same with Ibuki. If I remember the timeline of events I realized I couldn’t make this scene last until the next scene on the storyboard without dragging it out, so I was gonna try adding other little vignettes of antics. However in a rare act of self care I decided to not make this any harder on myself and just scrapped it, skipped to the next storyboard, and extended it out to fit the time. Do I like this in the longrun?? Ehhhhhh, personally I think I shoulda just sucked it up and just added some smaller shots, but miraculously I have people who care about me and would probably prefer it if I didn’t destroy my body for a music video, so I probably made the right choice.

Those outfits look kinda familiar! Whether because I was struggling to think of a new outfit, or because I had just drawn a kabedon, I decided to reuse the outfits from Day 74! Junko’s was a pain in the ass to animate! Never again! Also I colored the Boba to match my pride headcanons for both of them, Mikan being bi and Junko being pan. One kiss and another god damn spin transition i put too much effort into making look good, and we’re at the last scene.

And there’s a mildly fun story for the art used in the background. Like I already said, they were added last minute because the scene would be dead air without them. However I could have done more little clips and vignettes and not fully drawn art pieces. So why did I do fully drawn art pieces?? I was starving, of course. 

You all know my rule that I’m not allowed to draw any Junkan before the current one on the project is finished, correct? Well guess who wasn’t able to draw any normal junkan for like 3 months because I had to focus on making a music video. I can reread a bunch of fics or stare at art forever but the desperate and violent urge to make more and add to the pile so my brain feels nice is insatiable, especially with the rate I was making these previously before the music video began production. 

Sooo, making some last minute assets seemed like a pretty good excuse to finally draw something fresh. And it was a fucking blessing on my brain at this point.

I tried to do a runthrough of their relationship up to this point, flashing back all the way until their first encounter. Was this a thinly veiled excuse to realistically include a halloween pic? Yes. But hey, that last shot was always planned so on some level I have to be justified in my actions. Let’s talk about these pieces one at a time.

First up, hey, that kinda looks familiar. That’s right, assuming the stars aligned and allowed me to gain the strength to draw the December 24th Comic all on time (I’m 17 pages in at the moment send past me your strength, time travel is real if I say it is), then you might notice that I just took the outfits for this winter-y art and featured them in the story! 

So I did in fact draw the Halloween art first and realized I could probably do something vaguely interesting with a timeline of events, so I realized it would probably be best to put the winter art BEFORE October, because I like to dream of a year where I can celebrate Halloween and not freeze to death. It just also happens that it kinda conveniently fits the current time! Since this is releasing in winter! A miracle.

This ones pretty simple obviously, I unfortunately have nothing impressive or interesting to say on the art itself, more just stuff surrounding it.

Now the Halloween Art. Well i also don’t have a lot to say there either but god dammit i’ll sure as hell try!~ 

Listen I wasn’t fully confident that I would have the project done in time for Halloween, and as I’ve probably said before (or at least implied), while I could certainly draw more art on my own time after the 100 days were ready, until this was a public thing and the world was made well aware of my obsession, I couldn’t post it. It is extremely good luck (and also burnout) that I was able to get this done in time to actually post during October, so I did get to draw Halloween Stuff! But when I was making this?? I saw an opportunity to say “fuck it” and draw something spooky with these two, my favorite holiday and (probably) my favorite ship?? Yes please!

As for designing their halloween outfits I sure did fucking wing it! Yeah no thought process, just spooky as fuck. 

Though something interesting about this art that my girlfriend pointed out is that the way I shaded and colored it matches up a lot with my older art. Since I’m not gonna drag through my old gallery to find good examples the best way I can sum it up is that my coloring style back in the day was a lot more candy colored. If that makes sense? More saturated colors I guess? Whenever I look at pieces like those and this I just think of a bowl of colorful candy. 

I miss drawing like that, I don’t know what changed. It’s hard to go back, but maybe i’ll try.

The next shot might seem familiar, but not to any of my other pics, but rather a fic! When writing my Vampire Junkan AU I decided that I wanted to do an Aquarium Date for one of the bigger chapters, because as we all know, Fish and Vampires go together like chocolate and peanut butter. When writing it I was thinking of when I wanted to do the big kiss scene, and this art came to mind! So while it’s not very 1 to 1, I tried my best to recreate it through words.

Why did I draw aquarium art in the first place? I wanted to draw a sunfish . . . I’m a very simpleminded woman in most cases y’know?

The next image was actually even more last minute than the other 3, cause even with those I didn’t have enough to cover the timeframe of the scene. Soooo, Junko giving Mikan a flower.

Maybe this was her confessing? Asking her out? I haven’t thought about it enough. 

And after so long we’re finally back to me just ripping straight from the original opening this is based off of, and in the original its a very sentimental memory for one of the main characters. So pretty early on alongside the Monokuma bit I knew I should have that specific last flashback be their first meeting. I think this is like, my 4th or 5th time depicting a first meeting between these two? It’s always fun to do, and the one in this music vid I think you can tell was decently inspired by Kayleen’s “Smile” Fic, albeit not a direct adaptation and with like, 2% more whimsy. 

And a proposal!! We all crack eventually and there was only so god damn long I could stop myself from depicting one, and what better place than an ill advised music video? Also the gleam of the ring just made for a really good transition out of this and I’m still shocked by how well I was able to make it look. 

And that’s it! I feel like I didn’t talk about this one as much as I thought I would?? Granted I think this is still one of the longer rambles I’ve gone on, but given the jump in scale I thought this’d be a bit more, excessive?? 

I already said earlier but for as, fucking agonizing as this was, I will probably, someday, try to do another animation like this. Hell I’m collaborating with my Girlfriend on a VS Project right now and I’m hoping to at least do small bits of actual animating on it. Which I think I can do??

As for music videos, welllll I do have two in mind, one is Vampire Junkan (though not in the way you think), and the other doesn’t specifically focus on Junkan but it sure will have a Billy Joel song. 

So what’s up next??

Well I’m just gonna say this now, Day 100 does not go higher in scale than this, I won’t say what it is but its like, normal. Day 99 should be fun though! As for 91 through 98? Well! We’ve got 8 days of Fanfics! I didn’t write anything don’t worry. I made 8 pictures based off of 8 fanfics, with only one repeat author! There’s reason for that though you’ll see. There’s some direct adaptations of scenes, covers for the story, and like, something more based off the vibe, it’s hard to describe. You’ll see.

Gonna try my best to sing the praises of the fics themselves though I worry that I won’t be able to adequately sing the praises of these stories to the same degree that I did on Day 60, so hopefully I can at least convince ya’ll to give them a read yourself!~ 

Here’s hopin ya’ll enjoy the results!

As always, Reblogs, Comments, and Little Notes in the Tags are appreciated!~ They always make my day!~

[carbonatedjem]

Femslash February 2025 - Day 1 - Remnants of Despair @danggirlronpa

It's Femslash February! I've always been on the outside for these since I never had the time, energy, or inspiration. But this year is different! This year I have Junkan! Based on my current pace it looks like I wasn't able to get EVERY prompt ready in advance, but my goal is to fill out this entire event with Junkan Art (Whether I succeed is yet to be seen). This'll of course be along side my Junkan Week contributions, so February is going to be a flood of even more Soft Junkan from me! It's like the 100 Days never even ended!

This may or may not include long rambles, oops! Sorry about that!

Anyway, today's prompt-

So like. This was gonna be a lot sillier originally, I was gonna make it into a halloween pic with Mikan questioning if the costume was overboard and Junko reassuring her. I couldn't get that to work so I went with option B where it's just angst.

I've talked in the past that I have a lot of mixed feelings on DR3, especially in how they portrayed the dynamic between Junko and Mikan. Even as I try to understand the more toxic angles people like to take this ship, I feel like it didn't even really play into those dynamics well either. I could however just be a bitch of course :P

Point is, the way Mikan was handled in the series did give me some ideas. My first time writing a Junkan Fic kind of covered it, but I find the idea of Junko not being attracted to the Remnant version of Mikan to be a pretty interesting angle. With her preferring Mikan back when she was still like, on her side and despairing, but before she dipped to do the first Killing Game and left her to go off the deep end.

So we got a visual metaphor that I don't know how to explain but should hopefully be easy to grasp on its own.

[lanawrx]

Zenitsu Agatsuma with a GF who acts like Mikan Tsumiki

a/n: I kinned Mikan a few years ago so I definitely would've adored to read smth like this in 2021 lol. Zenitsu, my glorious king, would absolutely love her right.

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When Zenitsu first saw you, he was instantly smitten by how utterly gorgeous you were.

You were the newest addition to the Butterfly Mansion, taken in by the Insect Pillar after proving your proficiency in medicine.

Many would argue you were almost at her level with the way you immediately got to work administering medicine, cures, and patching up slayers as soon as they landed in the recovery bay.

He’d seen you bustling around the mansion, always with a nervous smile and quick apologies whenever you bumped into someone.

You had a sort of anxious grace about you, a delicate way of moving that immediately caught his eye. Zenitsu, who was already a nervous wreck himself, couldn’t help but be drawn to you.

You were in the middle of helping one of the other assistants, your hands trembling slightly as you organized medical supplies. Your cheeks were flushed as you fumbled with a bandage roll, and Zenitsu was practically glued to the spot, his heart pounding faster with each clumsy gesture you made.

Finally, he mustered the courage to approach.

“Um, hi!” he said, his voice trembling a little. “I’m Zenitsu. You’re, um… the new assistant here, right?”

You looked up, startled, your eyes wide and your hands quickly stopping their movements. “Oh! Y-yes, that’s right,” you stammered, your cheeks turning a bright shade of red. “I’m, um... I’m sorry if I’m in your way.”

Zenitsu was immediately taken with your nervous charm. “N-no, not at all!” he blurted out. “Actually, I, um, I’ve been wanting to talk to you. You’re really… well, you’re really pretty and kind, and, um…”

He trailed off, his nerves getting the better of him. You looked even more anxious, and Zenitsu’s heart ached seeing you like that. He couldn’t help but blurt out, “W-would you, um, maybe want to, you know, marry me?”

You blinked at him, stunned, and your face went even redder. “M-marry you?” you squeaked, your voice barely a whisper. “I, um, I don’t think I’m—”

“No, no, it’s just that, um, I don’t have long to live, and, uh, I thought, maybe, you’d want to—” Zenitsu fumbled, face burning hot with embarrassment.

He usually has terrible luck with women, but to speak to someone as beautiful as you had him stumbling to keep his cool.

Before he could finish, you looked like you were about to crumble. Tears welled up in your eyes as you trembled, “I-I’m so sorry! I-I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable! I’m just… I’m really bad at, um, socializing, and—”

Zenitsu’s eyes widened, and he rushed to reassure you. “No, no, it’s not that! I just—uh, I really like you! I think you’re amazing and—”

You started to fidget with your hands, your voice trembling. “I-I’m sorry, I just, um, I’m not good at, um, understanding these kinds of things. I’m always worried I’m bothering people, and…”

Zenitsu’s heart melted at your fragility. He took a deep breath and stepped closer, trying to look more confident than he felt. “Hey, it’s okay. I’m really sorry if I scared you or anything. I just thought… well, you’re really nice, and I—”

You looked up at him, your eyes full of uncertainty and confusion. “I-I don’t want to be a bother. I’ll, um, try to do better…”

Zenitsu shook his head quickly. “No, no! You’re not a bother at all! You’re just—amazing, really. And I’m sorry if I came on too strong. I just—”

“I’m sorry,” you said again, tears welling up in your eyes. “I-I didn’t mean to—”

Zenitsu’s heart ached seeing you like this. He reached out and gently touched your arm. “Hey, don’t cry. I really do like you, okay? I’m just… kind of a mess myself, but I’d really like to get to know you better. How about we just, um, hang out sometime?”

Your tears started to subside, and you looked at him with a mix of confusion and relief. “Y-you really mean that?”

Zenitsu nodded, a hopeful smile on his face. “Yeah. I do.”

You wiped your eyes and gave a tentative smile, nodding slowly. “O-okay. I’d like that.”

Zenitsu had made it his mission to be around you more often. He found excuses to be near the Butterfly Mansion’s main area, casually dropping by to help with tasks he was absolutely no good at, just so he could spend a little more time with you. Your quiet, nervous demeanor was like a magnet for his clumsy heart.

Tanjiro had been observing Zenitsu’s behavior for some time now. While he usually kept a close eye on his friends, he couldn't help but notice the significant change in Zenitsu’s demeanor since you arrived at the Butterfly Mansion.

The way Zenitsu seemed to always be around you, the way his face lit up whenever you were near, and even the overpowering scent that radiated off of Zenitsu—Tanjiro was certain his friend was in love with you.

One afternoon, while Zenitsu was nervously practicing his breathing techniques in the garden, Tanjiro approached him with a warm smile. “Hey, Zenitsu. Mind if I join you for a bit?”

Zenitsu looked up, startled, and then gave a hesitant nod. “Oh, uh, sure, Tanjiro.”

Tanjiro sat down next to him, his expression thoughtful. “I’ve noticed how much happier you’ve been lately. It’s great to see you feeling more positive.”

Zenitsu’s cheeks flushed slightly as he scratched his head, trying to look nonchalant. “W-well, it’s nothing special. I just… feel a bit better lately.”

Tanjiro’s eyes twinkled with understanding. “I have a feeling it’s because of someone special. Am I right?”

Zenitsu turned red as he stammered. "I- Well-"

Tanjiro beamed and suggested he bring flowers and a gift. He told Zenitsu to be completely honest with how he felt about you, and surely you'd feel the same.

Zenitsu was scared to death. He really didn't want to make you feel uncomfortable or hurt your feelings. He wanted to show you how good of a person you are and how happy you make him just by looking at him.

Zenitsu spent the rest of the evening gathering a bouquet of flowers and selecting a thoughtful gift, his nerves mixing with excitement. He was determined to make this moment special.

The next day, Zenitsu approached you while you were working in the garden. Your usual nervous smile appeared as you noticed him.

“H-hi, Zenitsu!” you stuttered, cheeks flushing with a mix of nervousness and curiosity.

Zenitsu’s hands trembled slightly as he held out the flowers and gift. “H-hi! I, um, I brought these for you. I, uh, wanted to, well, tell you something.”

Your eyes widened in surprise as you looked at the flowers and gift. “Oh! Th-these are beautiful! What, um, what’s the occasion?”

Zenitsu swallowed hard, his heart pounding. “I just wanted to say… I really like you. More than I’ve ever liked anyone. I know I’m a bit of a mess, but, um, I really care about you. I’d like to get to know you better. So, um, if you’d, maybe, want to, I don’t know, go out with me sometime? I’d really like that.”

Your eyes filled with tears as you listened, your heart fluttering with joy. “Z-Zenitsu… I-I had no idea you felt this way. I-I’m so, so happy! I-I really like you too!”

Zenitsu’s face lit up with a radiant smile, his heart swelling with relief and happiness. He gently took your hands in his, his voice trembling with emotion. “R-really? That’s great! I promise I’ll do my best to make you feel special and loved.”

Without thinking, you threw your arms around him, your lips meeting his in a soft, tender kiss. Zenitsu’s eyes widened in surprise, but he quickly melted into the kiss, his hands cradling your face gently.

When you finally pulled away, your eyes were sparkling with happiness. “I-I’ve never felt like this before… I’m so happy. I-I’m really lucky to have met you.”

He gently squeezed your hands, his eyes sparkling. “No, I’m the lucky one.”

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[das6]

Some danganronpa 2 re-designs and hcs ↓

Pekoyama: I thought her schoolgirl outfit was kinda weird and that she would look more professional, i thought of her wearing a suit but that would make her link to fuyuhiko too obvious so I decided on a less formal outfit. I also think the pigtails don’t really suit her, but I think she would have some ribbons on her sword case and some cute keychains.

Sonia: her dress is based on traditional Norwegian dress, it’s longer and more princess-like I think. I kept her bow. she definitely has the longest hair out of everyone. her dress would have red and yellow embroidery on it I just got lazy

Teruteru: the only way I could cope with him is completely rewriting his character along with redesign, he’s just a very sheltered momma’s boy, who’s very passionate about cooking. he’d probably still have a rarity complex about his background and have accent slip ups. He might easily get lil crushes on his classmates at most, but he’s not weird about it

Mahiru: I feel that mahiru’s original design is overlooked, and she was basically just used so they’d have a camera in the first trial, and a background murder in the second trial. I made her a masc lesbian bc I feel it suits her character a lot more for various reasons, from her relationship with hiyoko who has complex trauma, to creating more background as to why she was the target of so much aggression in the twilight murder case. I feel like it would give her a deeper background because presenting as a masc woman or trans masculine person is often responded to with hostility or ostracism. her relationship to hiyoko makes me think she’s someone who understands her trauma.

Hiyoko: I didn’t like how hiyoko is basically a l@li in the game, so she’s the same age as everyone in my version, she’s just more petite and groomed into behaving certain ways and lashes out due to that trauma and not fully understanding her upbringing. I got rid of her weird pigtails, otherwise not much changes.

Mikan: with mikan’s background, I think it’s more natural and reasonable for her to wear nurse scrubs.

Akane: her redesign is based on a sprite edit I saw, I’ll add credits here once I find the source. akane is my favorite I think they did her horribly wrong oversexualizing and dumbing down her character, and i think being the ultimate boxer or something related to combat sports would suit her much more than gymnast, so she would be working towards gaining that title as she only became a gymnast as a means to make money. I also hc akane as maybe bi-gender or trans masculine

And I just drew fuyuhiko and nekomaru because I like them 🕴️nekomaru’s outfit is kinda toned down and he’s wearing a chain necklace instead of lugging around a giant one

[anthraxx-pology]

Danganronpa characters as types of asswipes in college (in the US):

(They/them pronouns for Kiyo and Gundam)

The one who regularly walks into class 10 minutes late with Starbucks in hand:

Sayaka, Junko, Aoi, Byakuya (blames his chauffeur), Hiyoko, Miu, Rantaro, Kokichi, Angie

The one who needs a roommate reassignment in the first week (but they are the problem):

Junko, Celeste, Mondo, Fuyuhiko, Nagito, Teruteru, Hiyoko, Tenko, Kokichi

The one who ends up with a single room because all of their roommates ditch:

Hifumi, Toko, Gundam, Ryota (maybe they’re the imposter), Nagito, Mikan, Korekiyo, Gonta (the bugs are a deal breaker), Ryoma, Maki

The one that the professor doesn’t realize is in their class, since they rarely show up:

Hifumi, Chihiro, Yasuhiro, Mondo, Chiaki, Ryota, Ryoma

Is always going out and coming back to the dorms/frat house drunk at 3 AM:

Leon, Mondo, Yasuhiro, Ibuki, Kazuichi, Miu, Kaito

Frat bros:

Leon, Mondo, Taka (was dragged by Mondo to join his chapter), Kazuichi, Nekomaru, Kaito

Sorority sisters:

Sayaka, Junko, Aoi, Sakura, Sonia, Mahiru, Akane, Tenko, Angie, Kaede, Miu

Changes their major at least once per semester:

Yasuhiro, Nagito, Hiyoko, Imposter (obviously), Hajime, Rantaro, Himiko (just wants it to be easy)

Makes advanced courses look easy and makes everyone else feel stupid:

Kyoko, Byakuya, Toko, Chihiro, Taka, Sonia, Gundam, Miu, Kirumi, K1B0, Korekiyo

May as well be the one teaching the class:

Taka: asks sooo many questions. People genuinely like it, since it takes up too much lecture time for the professor to assign homework (he’ll remind them though)

Chihiro: Tutors half of the class in coding and comp sci. Gets absolutely no credit.

Miu: is probably smart enough to tbh. Get her in a physics class, and she will run the place like a military vessel (when the horny is contained)

Toko: English class specifically. She cringes proofreading other people’s essays.

Korekiyo: Is the unchecked autistic who will go on a rant about any subject they are really passionate about. Ask them any philosophical question and they will go on for the entire period. (This is where the professor will ACTUALLY forget tonassign the homework)

Gundam: Let them read Shakespeare. They will get into character and do different voices, and get angry when the professor stops them to go through the text.

The one who blows through their dining plan in the first few weeks:

Hifumi (the convenience store stuff is way more expensive), Makoto (was just too excited by all the choices), Akane, Sakura (the protein shakes will do it), Nekomaru, Kokichi (just blows it all on candy and soda), Kazuichi

Always studying in the Library and quirky local cafes:

Kyoko, Chihiro, Makoto, Gundam, Sonia, Peko, Mikan, Mahiru, Chiaki, Kaede, Shuichi, Kirumi, Korekiyo, Gonta, Tsumugi

Trashes the residence hall (especially the rec/lobby):

Leon, Mondo, Kazuichi, Ibuki, Nagito, Kaito, Tenko, Akane, Kokichi, Angie (uses it as a studio)

Smokes weed and sets off fire alarms, so everyone has to go outside at 4 AM:

Leon, Yasuhiro, Kazuichi, Nagito (he actually has a med card), Sonia (she got curious), Rantaro, Kokichi (hearing everyone complaining about it is what makes it fun for him), Korekiyo (the secret stoner no one expects)

Very Specific: Is the one working the night shift at the front desk of the residence hall when all of the drunk morons get back from the bar and has to rent them replacement keys, hand out packages, deal with stupid complaints over the phone, and call the ambulance/police every single night (this was me):

Kyoko, Hajime (got the short end of the stick), Shuichi (is a night owl and studies at the desk), Kirumi, Korekiyo (they are up all night anyway, and find this side of humanity fascinating), Peko, Ryoma (he genuinely doesn’t give a fuck what is going on), Maki (fuck around and find out)

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

// You know, I'm worried about Eloise's personality, from her FTEs, I feel like there's something hidden inside her...

// Basically I'm scared Eloise will be the next Kanade Otonokoji.

//I do know what you’re talking about by this point, because I did Eloise’s FTE’s, and yeah. The thing is, I think Eden’s Garden are being managed by a team who is kind of tired of all the classical DR tropes, and doesn’t really want to employ them. At least I hope.

//Eloise is definitely my favourite character in Eden’s Garden right now because of how much POTENTIAL she has as a character to develop, either positively, or negatively.

//Just for the sake of protecting the innocent, since this is still early days, and I talked way longer about this than I thought I would, I’m going to hide the rest of this post under a cut in case I spoil something major. But this is my take on Eloise as a character so far:

//It’s true that Eloise is giving me the vibes of early-game Kanade, since she’s ordinarily pretty meek, but when things get serious, she gets strangely…methodical, and driven.

//However, I think we’re leaning more towards how Mikan acted when she underwent her personality shift instead of Kanade. As things currently stand, I can definitely see Eloise going the route that Mikan SHOULD have gone, and that she eventually snaps when being pushed to her limit by some bully.

//The only issue is I don’t really see who could be her victim in this case. The most likely candidate is Grace, but I do actually think she’s going to get some development after this chapter.

//Because yes, I have made it to the body discovery by now. We haven’t done the trial yet, but we will soon.

//And also, Grace is not NEARLY as bad as Hiyoko was to Mikan. She’s just rough around the edges more than anything, and considering she talks about how the golfing industry is far more cutthroat than it seems, especially for a young woman, then it’s less of her being rude, and more treating everyone like a potential enemy and doubting everyone’s intentions. It’s largely why she punched Damon on sight, stoped everyone from investigating Wolfgang’s room, and demanded her blackmail from Eloise in such a vicious way.

//Speaking of Grace’s issues, based on what I saw in Eloise’s FTE’s, my current line of thinking is that she has something similar. And with the way that Eloise and Grace seem to so subtly parallel each other, I feel it makes a lot more sense.

//Unlike Grace, who clearly has to fight for her life to get to where she is, Eloise got to where she was by LITERALLY not having to lift a finger.

//The other members of Eloise’s fencing club were too scared to face off against her. She explains in FTE 3 that in fencing, forfeiting a match counts as a win for your opponent, so basically, the main reason she became the Ultimate Fencer is because people refused to fight her, and she climbed up the ranks that way. Damon even mentions that he would call her skills into question had it not been for the fact that she'd trained with her teacher.

//And then, in the fourth and final FTE, for now at least, she talks about how her family aren’t especially well off, and that’s kind of where we see the not-so innocent and meek side of her.

//Damon tells Eloise that he makes enough money through winning debate competitions that his parents don't really have to work anymore. Eloise is in a similar position with her fencing, but says her sisters are bratty and come off as ungrateful for the life she's giving them, and she's worried about her mother, having to take care of them.

//Damon immediately asks if her mother has a boyfriend or a girlfriend that can help her out, and phrases it that way because Eloise never mentions anything about having a father before. And as Damon pries, this PISSES HER OFF.

//As far as Eloise’s family situation goes, I have no real comments. At least not yet; because it could be almost anything at this point in time. However, based on Eloise’s nature as it’s been shown so far, I do have two lines of thinking:

//The first is that I think she has some sort of anger problems that she's clearly trying to get help for, but Damon has brought them out. That anger caused her to badly hurt someone in a match before, and because of that, everyone else in her club is scared of her. This why she climbed so high in the ranks, because no one wanted to fight her.

//With that said, as unfortunate as it is, there is also a very real possibility of there being a degree of sadism to her character through her actions. In the investigation segment of this chapter, when Grace blocks the door to Wolfgang’s room and prevents anyone from investigating, Eloise very subtly threatens her, and says that she’ll call Tozu to move her if she doesn’t move herself.

//Knowing full well that Grace especially has just been repeatedly abused by Tozu, and is probably terrified of him, even if she doesn’t show it.

//This method works, and you could always say Eloise was angling for the most effective method, but there’s just something so sinister about the way that her dialogue completely changes tone, and how she speaks very directly about it, instead of beating around the bush, or hesitations like she always does.

//Again, I REALLY don’t want that to be the case, but in the instance that it IS like that, then please Eden’s Garden, at least PORTAY it well!

-Mod

[anonzentimes]

*guy who loves talking about despair disease voice* wait can we talk more about despair disease. i have so many thoughts on despair disease and esp how it pertains to nagito

i feel like when a lot of people first play/watch the games they see nagito as someone who lies to manipulate people, which while i can’t super blame them for thinking that way bc of how hajime tries to reconcile his conflicting feelings over nagito, i get SO frustrated when ppl call nagito a liar bc no!!! no he’s not!!! you’re falling for other characters’ perceptions of him!!! nagito almost never lies and when he does he’s either really bad at it (cough cough final FTE. “i got it all from a book” you are not slick buddy) or comes clean as soon as he’s achieved his desired outcome- it’s more bluffing than actual deception, and one thing he’s especially sincere in is his beliefs and admiration for the people around him. and the despair disease PROVES this without a doubt!!

ok. i know in-text the despair disease is described as “reversing people’s personalities,” but i’ve always interpreted it a little differently. ibuki isn’t the opposite of gullible, akane isn’t the opposite of a coward, and nagito isn’t the opposite of a liar. to me, it’s always seemed like the despair disease gives its host the trait they’d most hate to have— whatever trait would instill in them the deepest despair. ibuki hates conformity- stick her with a disease that makes her blindly follow whatever she’s told. akane hates showing weakness- force her into a state of constant crying. nagito hates the idea of deceiving his classmates- make him incapable of being sincere. this interpretation makes mikan’s disease make a little more sense too imo, since remembering her brainwashing isn’t exactly reversing her personality but instead literally filling her to the brim with despair. ANYWAYS.

nagito Actively Despises not being able to tell the truth. he hates the despair disease, he sees it as a complete waste. in the ult. luck and hope and despair mangas, we actually get to see some of his internal monologue right before he passes out, and he is In Hell. he’s pissed that he can’t serve as a proper stepping stone in his state, he thinks the whole disease is stupid, and he gets so frustrated about not being able to properly encourage the group that he Literally Starts Foaming At The Mouth ????? like if you EVER wanted undeniable proof that nagito is sincere look at the despair disease. it’s basically a roundabout truth serum for him and that’s a huge part of why it’s one of my favorite motives

sidenote i feel like the despair disease has a shit ton of analysis potential in general just bc of how it turns characters into what they hate the most!! i loveeee brainstorming what symptoms certain characters would have gotten were they to get infected. hajime especially. maybe he’d get a fawning disease where he starts praising everyone nagito-style (this would highlight their bystander parallels and also make hajime feel MISERABLE bc he fucking hates when nagito points out how similar they are lmao). or maybe he’d get an apathy disease that’d essentially izuru-fy him (wonderful foreshadowing potential there, not to imagine the incredible angst of izuru being the thing hajime would hate to be most in the world.) alas i am not a fanfic author so i will sit with my concepts but it is a wonderful daydream with any dangan characters i’d highly recommend it :]

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSS!!!!! I SCREAM IN UNISON WITH YOU I LOOOVEEE THE DESAIR DISEASE!!!!! MAN… I’M SO OBSESSED WITH HOW YOU INTERPRET AND ARTICULATED THE DESPAIR DISEASE💗💗💗 The Despair Disease is genuinely so good for analyzing I really do believe Danganronpa 2 Chapter 3 is the best Chapter 3 out of the franchise. I think the reserving of their personalities truly meaning the traits they would hate to have is soo good I’m eating up, sealing it in my heart, and using it forever such a delightful way to explain it. The interpretations on what disease Hajime would get is so fun, I’ve seen some people interpret him getting the honesty disease which is fun in concept but I don’t think it works as well as other ideas could, y’know? Your ideas for a potential apathy or fawning disease are really fun to me, I like the idea of the fawning disease tapping into how much of a realist he is and giving him the opposite attitude Lol. Thank you so much for sending this it’s so fun I’ll be thinking about this forever, I wish I was a fanfic writer aha! I really want to become a fanfic writer, soon with time I suppose. Thank you again for sharing your daydreams with me, you’re very right it does have a lot of analysis potential! :D

[kaika7]

You're Not Alone

Despair Disease Nagito Komaeda x Shy/Awkward and GN! Reader

Summary: You visit Nagito Komaeda when he's ill with the Despair Disease and make sure he feels loved and not alone.

Warnings: Discussions of dying (no one actually dies!)

A/N: This is my first fic, so it's likely far from ideal. I hope you still get something out of this though!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You anxiously made your way to the hospital with Hajime and Fuyuhiko. Ever since Akane, Nagito, and Ibuki fell ill with the despair disease, you all decided to split into two groups to prevent it from spreading to everyone. Originally, just Hajime, Fuyuhiko, and Mikan were going to stay at the hospital with them, but you insisted on joining their group. Everyone was a little surprised by your insistence, but they went along with it. 

In truth, you were really worried about Nagito. Sure, he was a little scary before- especially during the first class trial. But, you couldn’t help but sense there was more to him beneath the surface. 

As you had tried to talk to him, he seemed quite delighted that you wanted to spend time with him. His face would light up every time you came by.

“Wow, I can’t believe someone like you wants to talk with trash like me!” He beamed with a cheery face.

Over time, he began to open up to you about his past, and you learned about his luck cycle. He had a beloved pet dog that got hit by a truck and passed away, but the dog allowed him to experience the joy of love and companionship. His parents died in a plane hijacking, but he survived, gained his independence, and a large inheritance. He was kidnapped by a serial killer and thrown in a dumpster, but he won millions of yen in a lottery ticket he found inside. He was diagnosed with stage three lymphoma and frontotemporal dementia, but he was accepted into Hope’s Peak academy. This caused Nagito to believe that if a horrific event happens, something amazing of equal magnitude will happen and vice versa. That’s where his belief in hope came from.

Despite his easygoing outward composure, you couldn’t help but sense a deep anxiety constantly brooding within him. Wherever he went with you, he would constantly be analyzing the terrain and the activities you’d be engaging in to make sure you’d be safe. He wouldn’t even go swimming with you because he casually said you could be taken away by a rip tide and stuck at the bottom of the ocean…. And then be eaten by a shark.

After learning all of this and seeing the way he treated you, you couldn’t help but sympathize with him…. and start to develop feelings for him. You were beginning to understand him more; he was not the malicious person others labeled him as. He did some questionable things for sure, but he did them with good intentions. Plus, his frontotemporal dementia was clouding his judgement, making him take things further than he normally would have. 

Yesterday, you went for a walk on the beach with him. His eyes constantly scanned the sand and occasionally darted to the water, as if he was looking for any sharp objects or crustacean that could injure you. When you sat down under the palm trees, he checked the trunk and branches to make sure it was sturdy and not going to break and fall. He also checked for any loose coconuts. Once he felt it was safe, he took a seat next to you.

“…I…” He stuttered, not looking at you. He just stared out into the ocean. “I’ve always been alone… never had anyone’s love. Not that I deserve it, but…I’m just so scared to die alone.” He stayed silent for a bit, and you were just speechless. You wanted to tell him so badly that he’ll never be alone. That you love him. You’ll stay by his side, but you just froze in the moment. The words in your mind could not make their way to your lips.

Sensing the silence, he quickly retracted his previous statement. “Ah, that was just a quote I read in a book somewhere! Speeches such as those can surely evoke sympathy in others, right?” His lips curved to form a plastic smile.

You could see right through his excuse, but before you could say anything, he apologized for “wasting your precious time” and left.

And now, you are going to visit him in the hospital with Hajime and Fuyuhiko. His lymphoma already made him so weak to begin with, but this despair disease really put his body over the edge. You really wondered if this would be the end for him.

“How’s everyone doing?” Fuyuhiko asked Mikan. 

“Akane and Ibuki are still ill, but they are stable. Nagito, on the other hand, is in quite a precarious state.” Mikan explained solemnly. “His pulse is so weak, and I’ve been tending to him nearly non-stop for the past day.”

“May we see him?” Hajime asked Mikan.

“Of course, but he’s not awake.” Mikan guided them to Nagito’s room and let them in. Nagito lay motionless in the bed in his hospital gown. His face was even paler than normal and he had a mildly pained expression on his face. Beads of sweat were formed on his forehead, and his chest rose and fell shallowly.

Your heart sank seeing him like this. Your anxieties only grew seeing just how badly he was doing. “Mikan, do you think he’ll make it through the night?” You solemnly asked.

“I-I will make sure I take care of him properly all night, so he will be okay!” Mikan squeaked out. “But…” Her voice grew more slow and serious. “It is possible that he won’t pull through, despite my best efforts. So… you may want to take a few minutes with him now.”

Fuyuhiko and Hajime stepped by Nagito’s bedside.

Fuyuhiko crossed his arms and looked down. “Goddammit, man. I know you are a pain in the ass, but we can’t have anymore people dying, ya hear me? We’re all getting off this damn island, and that includes you.” After he finished speaking, he abruptly turned around and walked out still looking down.

Hajime watched Fuyuhiko leave with a pained expression and took a deep breath before facing Nagito. “Nagito, I know things have been weird, but you gotta pull through, okay? Like Fuyuhiko said, we’re getting out of here together. And once you feel better, I-I want to try to understand you better.” Hajime let out a soft chuckle and a genuine smile. “Maybe we could even become friends.” 

Hajime started to slowly walk out, but he noticed your eyes welling with tears. “Hey… do you need a moment alone with him? I know you guys seem sorta close.”

You silently nodded your head. You definitely couldn’t talk with everyone around.

“Hey, Mikan. Do you think we can give Y/N a few minutes alone with Nagito?”

“Let me see…” Mikan quickly checks his vital signs and dabs the sweat off his forehead with a towel. “His fever is still high, and his pulse is still very low, but I suppose he doesn’t need me to tend to him for a few moments.” She looked up at you. “I can give you a few minutes, but if anything strange happens, please call me in, okay?”

You nod and Hajime and Mikan walk out of the room, closing the door behind them and leaving you alone with Nagito.

You stepped closer to his bedside and pulled over a chair so you could sit beside him. He looked worse close up. His hair even more disheveled than normal, and several strains of it stuck to the dried up sweat on his forehead. His eyebrows were furrowed with discomfort, and his lips were slightly parted as small gasps of air struggled to rhythmically flow between them.

You gently held his hand and looked at his shut eyes. “Nagito… I don’t think you can really hear or understand me right now… but I want you to know that I’m here.” You pause and nervously laugh to yourself. “I’m sorry I don’t always know what to say. It’s hard for words to come out sometimes. But, I hope you can at least feel the warmth of my hand and recognize my presence.” You took a shaky breath. “Please, please know that you will never be alone. I-I really love you, Nagito.”

You gave his hand a light squeeze, and put it over your heart. “I have to leave soon. But, please know that even if I’m not physically beside you, you will always be right here with me.”

Nagito remained unresponsive throughout this conversation, but fortunately his breaths remained constant. You sighed and rested his hand back along his side. Then, you began to get up. “I… I won’t say good bye tonight… You will make it through this! I’ll come visit you in the morning. I promise. I’ll see you soon…” 

You turned around and left the room, and Mikan immediately went back in to tend to Nagito. You, Hajime, and Fuyuhiko went back to your cottages with heavy hearts- hoping for the best.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You could barely sleep a wink all night, but you did manage to dose off for a little bit. You woke up to the sound of knocking on your cottage door. Groggily making your way to the door, you unlocked it and opened it a crack. Seeing it was Hajime, you opened it more and instantly woke up. With desperation in your tone, you quickly stammered, “H-Hi! Did you hear anything about Nagito?”

Hajime reassuringly smiled. “Yes, I came by to let you know Nagito’s condition has improved! Well, a little bit, anyway. He’s still not in good shape, but he can sit up in bed and talk now- though he says quite bizarre things…” He forced a chuckle and shrugged his shoulders. “You could try visiting him if you’d like, but I just saw him and he told me to hurry up and go away. He even said that he didn’t want to see my face anymore.” Hajime exasperatedly sighs.

You stood there dumbfounded for a minute, but adrenaline quickly rushed through your veins. “Hajime, you LEFT him after he said that?! I-I have to go now!!!”

You sprinted out the door, still in your pajamas, towards the hospital as Hajime turned around and watched you run with a confused look. Geez, this guy sure has a serious case of the clueless protagonist syndrome! Nagito has the liar form of the despair disease, which means he means the opposite of everything he says. The poor thing must be so scared of dying alone.

Finally making it to the hospital, you opened the door to his room with a wheeze. “N-Nagito. H-how are you? May I come in?”

Nagito did indeed look better than last night. His he was drooling a bit and still sweaty, but he was now propped up in bed with a glazed look in his eyes. He turned his head in response to your voice and said weakly, “I’m feeling quite excellent today! And I really need you to get as far away from me as possible. I want to be alone.”

You felt a pit form in your stomach. He certainly had improved, but he was not out of the woods yet. You walked closer to his bedside and looked compassionately at him. “I’m here, Nagito. I’m right here with you.” 

Upon looking at him more closely, your eyes drifted unconsciously to where his hospital gown loosely was wrapped around him, leaving his collar bones and upper chest exposed. Seeing his bare chest slowly rise and fall in synchronization with his breaths made your cheeks flush and your mind freeze. You were pretty inexperienced with love to say the least, so these feelings are hard for you to process.

Nagito began speaking again which made you snap out of your frozen state. “Y/N, I didn’t hear what you said to me yesterday. You’re a nasty person for not thinking about someone like me, Y/N.”

Holy crap, he actually HEARD YOU? He heard your love confession?! That has got to be the worst way to be confessed to. Ugh way to go, Y/N.

With a shaky voice, you began, “Oh, I- er… I’m sorry you had to hear it like that… But I really meant everything I said. I-I’ll never leave you alone, and-” You paused to take a nervous breath. “I love you…”

An ounce of focus and shock came through Nagito’s dazed eyes. “Really? I thought you were telling me the truth just to be mean to me?”

With a slightly more confident tone, you said, “No, I wasn’t just saying it to make you feel better… I really do love you. I’m so sorry about the other day. I was just so shocked, and I didn’t know what to say right away.”

Nagito sat there stunned for a moment, and his eyes slowly started to well with tears. “I-I hate you too, Y/N. You’re the most despicable and malicious person I’ve ever met. I have zero gratitude for the love you’ve shown me, and you’re so awful for letting me die alone. I truly deserve it.”

Your eyes grew wide in surprise as a gentle blush spread across your face. After a few moments, tears formed in your own eyes. You could barely believe that he reciprocated your feelings, but you pushed your own insecurities aside to focus on supporting him. “Nagito… may I hold your hand?”

He shook his head ‘No’, so you gently squeezed his hand. “You will get better. You won’t die here today. There’s always hope, remember?” You gave him a little smirk, which made a smile crack on his face. “But even if the worst does come, you won’t be alone. I’ll repeat myself a thousand times: I’ll always be with you. You’re not alone.”

At this point, the tears were already profusely streaming down Nagito’s face, so you grabbed a tissue to dab them away for him. “Y/N?”

“Yes?”

“I know this is truly a selfless request- I’m so wonderful for even thinking to ask this- but c-could you not hold me?”

You blinked in disbelief. “You want me to cuddle you, right now?”

“No, that’s the last thing I’d ever want to do in the world. But I’m truly considerate for even asking you this. I’m so not sorry for taking advantage of you like this, I-“

Mustering up all the confidence you could, you cut Nagito off by pulling his blanket down, and then climbing into the bed with him. You laid down next to him and gestured for him to lie down. With a shocked look, he quickly complied. You gently held him close to you, letting his head rest over your heart. You stroked his soft and fluffy white hair comfortingly, hoping to ease him of any discomfort.

“Y/N…” Nagito said with a blush forming on his face. The sound of your heart beat and the warmth of your embrace was so soothing to him. He was so touched starved, he didn’t even remember the last time he was hugged. He never had experienced anything like this before.

“I’m here, and I always will be. You’re not alone, Nagito.”

[charlie-pippin-faraday]

Types of Shoes Worn in Danganronpa

Making that post about Makoto's shoes got me thinking about the shoes that everyone wears, so I decided to group them together into categories. So below is a categorized list of the shoes of the students from all three primary Danganronpa games (I'm only including everyone's main outfit from their primary game). Let's see who's got what kind of shoes, and who's got the most fucked up and/or questionable fashion choices.

Note: this list will not include Keebo, as he is a robot and doesn't really have clothes or shoes, and it will not include Gonta, who does not wear shoes

Sneakers

Makoto, Aoi, Hifumi, Leon, Hajime, Ibuki, Kazuichi, Mahiru, Teruteru, Kaede (10)

I was originally undecided on Leon, Teruteru, and Kaede, 'cause theirs are a bit more fancy/fashion sneakers than your standard sneakers, but I eventually decided they were sneakerlike enough to warrant inclusion in this category

Boots

Kyoko, Kiyotaka, Junko, Mukuro (as Junko), Gundham, Korekiyo, Miu, Maki, Himiko, Ryoma (10)

Admittedly, I'm less certain on Ryoma. I think those are tiny lil booties?? But I can't really tell, they are difficult to see and the wiki didn't give me any helpful info. That is my best guess for what they are, if anyone else has evidence that they're something different please tell me.

Loafers/Slip-Ons

Toko, Mondo, Sakura, Akane, Peko, Mikan, Shuichi, Kokichi, Angie, Tsumugi, Rantaro (11)

Sandals

Yasuhiro, Nekomaru, Hiyoko, Tenko (4)

Mary Janes

Chihiro, Sayaka, Chiaki (3)

Heels

Celestia, Sonia, Kirumi (3)

I know Sonia's are technically also Mary Janes, but since the heels are the most prominent feature of the shoe I'm putting them in the heels category rather than the Mary Janes category

Nondescript Dress Shoes

Byakuya, Fuyuhiko, Imposter (3)

Slippers

Kaito (1)

These are in a different category from the slip-ons because. Come on look at them these are in a class of their own what other weirdo here is wearing slippers

literally wtf are these

Nagito (1)

Is it a boot? Is it a weird sneaker?? Are those zippers on it??? I thought Kaito was a freak for wearing slippers but then I saw THESE fucking things and now I'm having a crisis

[funishment-time]

look, i know kodaka's troll-ish answers to certain questions on BlueSky can be grating for some but, honestly? there are types of things you know he could not answer without every demographic coming at him from All Sides in a severely unhinged fashion.

his creative ideas about open fan interpretations aside, if he said a certain character's gay or straight or anything, then i bet he'd immediately get a multi-language series of armies pummeling his door with:

"that's not how i interpret the character, it's pretty clear you the writer who made this intended the character to be X"

"wow, thanks for confirming it after 10 years 🙄"

"this is bad rep, please fix it for me personally, you horrid homophobe, and while i'm at it here's the list of other things that don't align with my personal narrative that you need to be held accountable for"

[fourteen intensely crass questions about if the character is a top or bottom and what kind of rimjobs they like specifically]

"yet another franchise becomes a victim to DEI" (aka the Halara Nightmare Effect)

"kodaka-san, you don't have to bend to the Feelings Yakuza!" (attached is a picture of Mikan and Fluttershy wearing N*zi uniforms)

"why does everything have to be Gay Now?"

"BOYCOTT SPIKECHUN/TOO KYO GAMES'S BOLSHEVIK CULTURAL MARXIST AGENDA"

...on all platforms forever.

i don't know him, but i'm going to give him the Benefit of the Doubt here. i don't think he's trying to be Rude and i don't think he's trying to be anything-phobic, either. as it is he gets about 20 children telling him he's a p*dophile across 3 different tongues whenever he brings up UDG on Twitter. as it is he apparently got full-on death threats about v3's ending.

he ain't perfect but i think his "silence" on these things is really Better for everyone's sanity including his own.

so, again: i get it, dodging the question can feel lousy, and he's probably humoring all of us with Monokuma-type retorts to keep himself grounded, but i genuinely think it's best right now if he never confirms anything for sure

[armless-sock]

ok ill bite.... show me the sharks

SDR2 CHARACTERS AS SHARKS

I EVEN GOT EXPLANATIONS!!

some are based on science others are just vibes honestly

Imposter: zebra shark (blending in/disguises and zebra sharks have a specific pattern to help blend into the sand)

Teruteru: cookie cutter shark (because bro is nasty just like cookie cutter bites)

Mahiru: spiny dogfish (they have big ol eyes perfect for determining what would be a good picture)

Peko: thresher shark (thresher sharks attack with their tails and peko uses swords it just makes sense)

Ibuki: great hammer head shark (ibuki is great and also looks silly and is social just like great hammer heads)

Hiyoko: bamboo shark (because she's small and although theyre no where near the smallest shark bamboo sharks typically never grow past 3ft long)

Mikan: nurse shark (no explanation needed)

Nagito: goblin shark (because nagito is a silly little creature akin to a goblin)

Chiaki: dwarf lanter shark (they're deep sea sharks that hide in the dark just like a gamer would)

Gundham: megamouth shark (a very mysterious shark for a mysterious guy, megamouth sharks nocturnal pretty much and also deep sea sharks so theyre spotted rarely and not much is known about them)

Nidai: bull shark (they're both super strong, bull sharks are also the most agressive shark)

Hajime: Caribbean reef shark (average looking shark for the average boy)

Fuyuhiko: ghost shark (ghost shark sounds like it'll be scary and then you look at one and they're just little guys, just like fuyuhiko)

Sonia: angelshark (she's an angel)

Akane: tiger shark (tiger sharks are the 2nd most aggressive shark after bull sharks and the only person Who could kick akanes ass is nidai, theyre also known as the trash cans of the sea because they will eat almost anything)

Souda: sand tiger shark (I feel like sand tigers are the losers of the shark highschool exactly like souda, also they have some crazy teeth just like him)

Monomi: basking shark (basking sharks are often confused with great whites from the surface making people think there's danger when basking sharks are really chill just like how everyone was covinced monomi was dangerous when she wasnt)

Monokuma: blacktip reef shark (blacktips can be found in a lot of places from the shore to reefs as the name suggests just like how monokuma is everywhere all the time)

Special shout out to great white sharks and oceanic white tips because they're my favorite sharks

[the-100-days-of-junkan]

Day 89

SURPRISE! Days 79 and 85 were secretly the same AU all along! And by that I mean- wait before I get into that. Time for a headsup.

So tomorrow is Day 90. And as you know I try to do something special for those, which of course can lead to my little ramble sessions to go on for much longer than normal. And while I won’t guarantee it, this is more than likely going to be the longest one of the whole project, more than likely even longer than Day 100 which will be the post marking the end of the project.

Just to give you an idea of what kind of scale we’re talking about here, Day 90 took me a total of 3 Months, starting its creation on May 8th, and finishing on August 1st.

Alright! Now that you’re tense and speculating what in the merciful name of all that’s good is gonna happen tomorrow, let’s start talking about TODAY's art!~

Anyway, so when I made Day 85 I was trying to really think of what I could even do with an AU where the entire basis is “Oh, they’re kids.” And that reminded me! I had the same issue with the Adult AU, even if that had a bit more ground to stand on with them being adoptive parents to the Warriors of Hope.

Then it hit me! Why not combine the two of them? And thus was born the Childhood Friends AU! Though you could also just call this The No Talent AU because hey, you remember during Danganronpa WLWeek when I drew Junkan for the Talentless prompt? That’s right! It was secretly a tease for this art! Now if only I drew something for them during their college days I could have fully planted the seeds for this whole pic in your collective minds. 

Anyway, core idea of this AU is the timeline is slightly shifted so Junko and Mikan (along with the whole of the DR Cast) are born slightly earlier, while the Warriors of Hope are born at the usual point they would have in the timeline, solely because this allows our two favorite lovebirds to adopt them. Hope’s Peak doesn’t exist, nor do the ultimate talents of course (Though obviously for some characters like Mikan they’re still partial to those talents. It’s just that they don’t reach the absurd levels of skill that they do in main canon). And finally, Junko and Mikan were positioned in such a way that the two were childhood friends. I feel like I worded that in a way far too complicated and excessive for something that was pretty damn obvious, but hey I like to ramble.

Anyway, I can’t remember but I think I said that with the Fantasy AU it was the only other AU aside from Vampire that I would want to make a proper Fanfic for. If I did say that, I was either wrong or lying, because eventually I wouldn’t mind telling some kind of story of this version of the characters. More than likely just from their child and highschool years, but I’m sure eventually I’d get more ideas for them in college and as adults. 

The obvious dynamic here is that Junko since becoming friends with Mikan has been protecting her from bullies and not realizing that Mikan is very desperately pining for her (Don’t worry! They get together before the end of Highschool!). Also Mukuro is there! She’s got a stick.

I’m envisioning that up till they were entering middle school Junko would call her Bandaid Girl, because as kids Mikan was the kid who always had Bandaids (both in terms of wearing them and just carrying some around on her person all the time).

And look! Mukuro is in fact there, and not just that but a shit ton of other characters! I think I was really starting to crack and lose self control at this point in the project. So I decided to also make this a mini story of Mukuro getting together with Sayaka and Ibuki! Who both generally go down the same path they normally would, though eventually Sayaka becomes an Idol Manager after a short career as a proper idol, and Ibuki of course is a semi-popular musician. Mukuro has acted as a bodyguard for both of them before and will continue to do so when asked. 

And of course, by the time they’re adults Junko and Mikan decide to adopt the Warriors of Hope, very legally, and they definitely didn’t hide any bodies (I don’t even know how much I’m joking about that here). Fun fact! I almost forgot to draw Masaru! Don’t ask me how that happened, I have no idea. I will admit when it comes to the Warriors of Hope and Junkan most of my interest is mostly in their dynamics with Kotoko and Monaca. Not to write off the other three, Jataro especially, but I just think that’s what hooks me more immediately. 

I really tried to load today’s piece with as much as I could, because even if I didn’t know how long it’d take, I knew for a fact that finishing Day 90 would take a very, very long time.

As always, Reblogs, Comments, and Little Notes in the Tags are appreciated!~ They always make my day!~

[adachimoe]

Morooka and his rotten oranges

When the protagonist asks Morooka if he's calling him a loser, Morooka responds by saying he'll put the protag on his shit list. In Japanese, Morooka instead says he will put him in his "rotten orange book" (or rotten mikan) which is a reference to a Japanese drama about a high school teacher called Kinpachi-sensei.

Morooka then proceeds to call students "rotten oranges" throughout the game, and I thought it was disappointing that it's never translated as "shit (list)" ever again.

When Morooka shit talks Kanji, "rotten orange" was translated as "lazy punk":

During the camping trip, he says it while he's drunk and checking if students are out of their tents, and here it's become rotten apple (makes sense; rotten apple is something you say in english):

And then during Void Quest, in the RPG text, it actually is just rotten orange:

The first time it shows up is on floor 2, and there's no text surrounding it that indicates that Mitsuo is encountering Morooka, so the "rotten orange" (and pronoun; see below) bit is how you're supposed to know it's Morooka.

As mentioned in PClub P4 and the Premium Fun Book, Mitsuo used to be a Yasogami High student, but he got caught messing around outside of school by Morooka, got suspended, and then he was so ego butthurt mad that he dropped out of Yasogami and went to another school. So this text is referring back to that incident where Mitsuo got suspended by Morooka, why he held a grudge against him, etc.

(I think the text is oddly worded here too - "stand against me *for* being a rotten orange" could be interpreted as Mitsuo saying this while fighting Morooka, but it's Morooka saying it. Maybe more like, "You've got some nerve defying me, you rotten orange"? In Japanese, the text uses Morooka's pronoun (ワシ), so there's no ambiguity about who is speaking.)

Anyho, the 2nd time this appears is on Void Quest floor 8, and this time it explicitly says, "Morooka has appeared", so you know it's him.

Personally, I really like the "shit list" localization. Like it works really well since it gets Morooka's crass nature across. I feel like there's a missed opportunity that they didn't keep translating it as "shit" for the rest of the game: "Kanji Tatsumi, that shit", "Are there any little shits out of their tents?!", "You stand against me, you piece of shit", blah blah. This totally sounds like Morooka in my head lol.

Also related to Kinpachi-sensei is that Morooka seems to be named after him too. Kinpachi-sensei's name comes from the timeslot the show aired: Friday at 8pm. Friday in Japanese is "Kin"yobi, and 8 is "hachi/pachi", thus "Kinpachi".

Similarly, Morooka's first name Kinshiro uses the same "Kin" character as "Kinyobi" and "Kinpachi", and then "shi" is 4, and he's in Persona "4". (Hey the first character being "gold" works out too cause Golden came out later.)