#so them being a motif in this story is really neat

[east-coast-snowboarder]

i read this story yeeeeeaars ago in some chicken soup book and i love it a lot and wanted to share it here so yeah

[theofficialpresidentofmars]

did I ever tell you guys about how I would adapt (the tragedy of) Hamlet (prince of Denmark) if ever given the chance. because I have so many thoughts and I’m adding onto them all the time so here’s a post with all my ideas compiled.

- firstly, it would be an animated mini-series of five episodes, each one corresponding to an Act. I think Animation is a highly under-utilised and underappreciated medium that would suit this particular story well in terms of what it could achieve visually and also these are just a bunch of words to say I’m heavily biased towards animation and just love it so much.

- there are so many fun little character design tidbits i would implement. including but not limited to: Horatio being the shortest, Claudius/Hamlet Sr identical twins (and Claudius having a Scar reminiscent scar on his face for the drama… and also the eventual Act 5 Scene 2 parallels when Laertes wounds Hamlet with the rapier in an incidentally similar way), Laertes having a silly curly moustache, Horatio and Ophelia resembling the other, Hamlet looking tired, pale and ghostly at all times, character’s hair being used as a way to show passing of time (Hamlet having hair on the long side of short in Act 1, growing but in a little ponytail over Act 2, medium-length and unkempt in Acts 3 & 4, and cut shortly and neatly in Act 5. also Ophelia’s hair growing noticeably as well and being often neatly braided with little flowers in Acts 1-2, loosely braided without flowers in Act 3, but being down and wild in Act 4 etc), and so on so forth.

- I would shamelessly be including flashbacks to pre-tragedy memories of the castle/inhabitants. Baby R&G&H running through the castle halls and playing hide and seek. Hamlet actually, god forbid, practicing fencing. The Players entertaining at the castle in Hamlet’s youth. Ophelia and Hamlet sneaking out into the garden beneath the willows by the pond, Hamlet braiding flowers into her hair while they sit together. Yorick entertaining baby Hamlet. All coloured with the softest, goldenest glows that nostalgia can manage to contrast the desaturated depressive hues of the current day. I think a lot of the tragedy of *Hamlet* specifically lies in comparing what was to what ended up being, and since the play starts after Hamlet’s entered his mourning period, it’s hard to fully comprehend the true nature of such a fall.

- Each Act having a lovely stylised title card in its introduction with themes and motifs that are specifically prevalent throughout. Act 3 would have curtains, for example, given the play staging and Polonius’ later poor choice of hiding place. Act 5 introduces the classic skull we all know and love.

- Very purposeful dramatic lighting and colour throughout. Daylight lighting and then the switch to a lot of Hamlet’s soliloquies seeming to appear under more ‘spotlight’ lighting. Early evening during the play, sunset during the scene where Claudius prays (golden light tricking through beautiful stained-glass windows), nightfall when Hamlet yells at Gertrude. Lighting also being used to dramatise entrances perhaps, such as Claudius’s prayer being interrupted by the shift to ‘spotlight’ lighting before we even see Hamlet at the door.

- Same goes with music and motifs, interwoven character leitmotifs and themes that shift keys and qualities and work together to make larger pieces and show up to herald the arrival of a character, or turn sour to match their emotions.

- the visual humour of the play being upped, as well as the wordy humour being emphasised, in order to really contrast the shift in tone throughout the halves of the play. I’ve always been a tragicomedy truther when it comes to Hamlet, I think if done well it could be a really neat way to get the audience to invest more in the characters while also really highlighting how quickly everything goes south.

Probably add more on as I go

[thecraftyninjacat]

Mahoro, Matakara, Aladdin and the Princess

I think Episode 8 finally confirmed to me that the role of the Princess in the Aladdin allusion was actually split between Mahoro and Matakara, rather than it being one or the other. There's a reason why they're both represented by Jasmine-chan during the Nyan Nyaight Love cutaways!

Preface; imo Bucchigiri's narrative takes inspiration from both Disney's Aladdin and the original Aladdin story, so I'm going to switch the Princess's name depending on which version of her I'm referring to. So Jasmine -> Disney's Aladdin, and Badroulbadour -> 1001 Nights Aladdin.

From what I saw in the 1001 Nights Aladdin, Badroulbadour didn't have much of a personality, so it makes sense that a lot of Mahoro and Matakara's personalities were taken from Jasmine, while their roles in the story were slightly more influenced by Badroulbadour.

Mahoro: The feistier side of Jasmine. She has a sharp tongue and always speaks her mind, regardless of potential danger. Eg. Mahoro stands up to Akutaro after he gains the upper hand on both gangs, similarly to how Jasmine refuses to bow to Jafar when he becomes Sultan.

She's also regarded as pretty desirable, and has charmed several men to get them to do what she wants (something that both Jasmine and Badroulbadour do at some point to trick Jafar/the sorcerer). Arajin falls for Mahoro at first sight, similarly to how both versions of Aladdin fell for both versions of the Princess, and like Aladdin his crush on her becomes his driving motivation throughout the series. Akutaro also talks about turning her into a NG Girl and…abusing her, a la Jafar. Ik it's just to trigger Arajin but yk what I mean!

Matakara: The gentler, more naive side of Jasmine, in that he trusts/believes in Arajin...a lot more than he should, really. The main 'lying' plot point between Disney's Aladdin and Jasmine is directly implemented into Matakara and Arajin's relationship. On a surface level there's also their blue colour schemes and phonetically similar names (Asamine -> Jasmine). Near the climax of the 1001 Nights version, the sorcerer tricks Badroulbadour into giving him the lamp with the genie in it, similarly to how Akutaro manipulates Matakara into shooting himself with Ichiya. Both actions trigger a Very Bad Turn of Events that Aladdin stops/will have to stop with the help of his own genie.

Also very interesting how Ichiya has a moon motif, and Badroulbadour's name is a metaphor for female beauty meaning 'full moon of full moons'. Totally not losing my fucking mind over that no sir

Though they both fit the Princess allusion, the entire show is screaming that Matakara is Arajin's true Jasmine, and Arajin is going to realise he was what he needed all along. Honestly, it doesn't get more obvious than Episode 9.

That's not to mention how Mahoro and Matakara also have many, many parallels to each other via their relationships with Arajin. (Both visit him one-on-one at his mom's restaurant to convince him to do something and order the exact same dish, Arajin thinks of child Matakara after seeing both current Matakara and Mahoro get hurt, his meetings with both of them are juxtaposed with one another and described as a 'fated meeting' in this trailer, etc.)

Aside from that, there's also a lot of little stuff that the two have in common! (Both suck at cooking, both deeply care about their older siblings, both are cute as hell etc etc.)

(it's also pretty neat how they're technically both the respective 'princesses' of Minato Kai and Siguma, being the younger siblings of the leader/former leader of each gang!)

[dao-the-starlight]

It’s Touchstarved MC time baby >:)))

…kinda, sorta, they don’t have a design yet, so don’t count this as a proper intro!!! I just want to make their existence known and spit out some ideas I had for them

First things first! Their name is Mykhail, Mykhail what? I don’t know! They don’t really have a last name. Their pronouns are They/He, though they ultimately don’t mind any

Their backstory is The Unnamed since that’s my favourite one of the three (*slap* I can fit so much religious trauma into this baby), though I do think I’m sort of gonna be loosey goosey with the backstory and add/take away some details that may not line up perfectly with the canon backstory

As for their romance route I’m probably going to stick them with Kuras, since he’s the first li I had interest in and also the reason I first played the game, bro is majestic and captivating what can I say

Anyways onto the fun stuff!! So, because Mykhail has The Unnamed backstory they have the add on ability that they get intense supernatural premonitions here and there. Now whether the premonitions are whole prophetic visions or are just Mykhail getting the supernatural heebie-jeebies I don’t know. But regardless! I thought it would be a really neat visual that whenever they get one of these premonitions it violently spills out of them, literally.

I don’t know how to describe it but a really good example of what I mean is Hikaru’s “insides” from the manga The Summer Hikaru Died (which you should go read btw if you haven’t)

So like this:

The more intense the premonition, the more spills out. It’s a very painful process

Lastly!! Because I couldn’t help myself I added just one more supernatural bit of lore to Mykhail. One motif of his character that I think would be fun to mess around with is that of Mirrors/Reflections! This is because as an extra bit of the Mykhail lore they have an entity stuck to them, that entity being their very own reflection. So Mykhail’s reflection is essentially its own sentient being that resides in any reflective surface Mykhail comes across. It doesn’t have a proper name yet, right now I just call it id because that’s essentially what it is to Mykhail (it’s a psychology thing, id is essentially meant to be a human’s “base instincts/desires”). The mirror entity is also a being created by Mykhail themselves, to summarize it quickly Mykhail basically manifested the entity on accident through their own belief in its existence (so it’s basically a Tulpa)

And that’s basically it! I’m still piecing certain parts of Mykhail’s story together which is a little tricky considering I don’t know any of the Touchstarved world lore cause of how late I joined the fandom, but this is what I have so far!! Again this post was mostly just to jot down the details I already had for Mykhail and make him publicly known, thanks for reading and have an enchanted day!!

[herrscherofmagic]

A look at the past & future of Honkai design: Simplicity vs. Complexity (Part 1)

Link to the YouTube channel of the person whose thumbnail I yoinked off of Google Images for this; it was the best image of the new Hyperion that I could easily find which is why I used it for this.

TL;DR:

Original Honkai Impact 3rd designs tended towards large, simply shapes that gave battlesuits (and other stuff) a strong "mecha" vibe. Many newer designs are trending towards more complex designs that do away with these simple and recognizable shapes, instead using more overlapping textures and ornamentation to create detail. Some designs balance the two, using large and relatively simple shapes that still carry enough detail to stand out as newer while still keeping the original vibes.

Because of this, I think there's gonna be a very clear visual split between Part 1 designs and the APHO+Part 2 designs because of this split between simplicity & complexity, and some Part 1 designs feel off because they stray too far from the original design motifs, making them feel out of place even if they're still good designs on their own.

~

I've been thinking a lot about the design philosophy of Honkai Impact 3rd for quite a while now. As someone interested in concept art and illustration and who's played video games for more than 3/4ths of their whole lifespan.

And obviously I'm not alone in this, given how often I've seen discussion of Honkai's character design. Whether it was the march of the pastel battlesuits or the techwear of the part 2 cast or the upcoming Garuda Fu Hua battlesuit, many people have had many opinions both positive and negative.

But I've wanted to do a sort of "deep-dive" for a while now, because I think HI3rd is a really interesting case where we can see the co-existence of (sometimes drastically) different designs made years apart from one another. It's normal for the style of a franchise to grow and change with time- my personal example is Halo, with obvious differences between Halo CE, Halo 3, and Halo 4 in mind. But typically that has been done over the release of different games over many years, not so much in consecutive releases within the same game. HI3rd's not alone in this regard, of course :)

I don't want to label anything as "bad" or "good". I can like or dislike something, and that's my personal opinion. Of course I COULD try to label designs as bad or good, but I'd want to back that up with serious analysis and get the opinions of other players, and that's way too much effort for a reddit post. Instead, I want to present some different designs in Honkai and share my thoughts, so others can feel free to agree, disagree, elaborate, etc. More of a matter of casual discussion rather than trying to present some solid theory, I guess you could say?

What I will say is I intend to label designs based on whether (or how) they fit into HI3rd's aesthetic(s), so that's the main point- not so much whether an individual design is good or not.

To start with, I'd like to talk about the simplicity vs. complexity of Honkai designs because I personally feel like this is the biggest problem I have with HI3rd, outside of story issues that is. Not because of designs being "good" or "bad", but because I feel like Mihoyo has been moving towards a new design philosophy that's different from what I loved most about HI3rd when I first started.

I opened with the comparison of Hyperion because I think it's a perfect example of this concept, and if we can understand what the difference is with Hyperion then I think it'd be more apparent with battlesuits as well. I also have another image that highlights some of the biggest differences between the two models:

I had mixed feelings about the reveal of the "new and upgraded" Hyperion during the moon arc. It's a neat design I'll admit, but I felt like it deviated a lot from the original Hyperion, not as a difference in fidelity and detail but rather as a difference in the fundamental design of the ship.

What I like so much about the original Hyperion is, as you might have guessed by now: its simplicity. Hyperion was comprised of much larger, blockier shapes with more clear silhouettes. It's actually the same reason I love the design of Halo's UNSC frigates, funnily enough. I'm a huge sci-fi fan and I absolutely adore spacecraft and vehicle design, so I really appreciated the design of Hyperion cause to me it felt very original.

The new Hyperion retains most of the same characteristics, and it's still recognizable as a version of Hyperion. But it bothers me just how much the design was changed. Many of the simple shapes of the design were broken up into smaller parts or almost totally changed, like the cannon going from a sleek polygonal barrel to a spikey... thing.

To me, it feels like Hyperion was redesigned with the idea of trying to make it more "futuristic" or "tech-y", or perhaps it was even designed with some retro anime motifs in mind like the Space Battleship Yamato. But it seems as though this was done by adding many objects that broke up the original silhouette, as well as inventing lots of new detail instead of adding details to complement what was already there. The shape of the winglets was greatly changed; the vent-like structures were totally changed; the barrel was completely changed; most noticeably, the bridge was drastically changed.

The new Hyperion model is technically "better" in terms of fidelity and the amount of detail it has, no doubt about it. But I think changing the fundamental shapes of Hyperion so much really hurts the charm of the original design, to the point that I was actually quite disappointed to see that Mihoyo used the new Hyperion design in the CG of the Captainverse Hyperion farm event. It seems as though Mihoyo wants to consider this as the new default impression of Hyperion, and not a special one-off thing from the moon arc.

I think this can be seen across other aspects of the game, too. In general Mihoyo has moved away from simple designs and towards complex designs, and I think there's been a lot of hits and a lot of misses with this.

For instance, I'd like to compare the three Herrscher Kiana battlesuits: HoV, HoFS, and HoFi.

There's a clear trend of an increase in complexity across the three battlesuits. HoV's design uses fewer and larger shapes, HoFS adds more and smaller shapes, and then HoFi is almost totally devoid of any large clear shapes.

To me, this is what distinguishes a battlesuit that "feels like Honkai" from one that doesn't.

Everyone starts the game in Chapter 1, and most long-time players have spent more time with older battlesuits than newer ones simply because they were playing the game before these newer battlesuits were even released. I think it's safe to say that even though HoFi is the grand "Kiana in her greatest form" battlesuit, most players will still have seen HoV's design more often because of the years that it's been around, and its prevalence in story content.

Most of those older designs were rooted more heavily in the mecha vibes early Honkai had. For instance, even though HoV is obviously not wearing a mecha battlesuit, the large blocky shapes are still reminiscent of armor, two examples being the large frames on her wings and the large white pad-things(?) on her sides. There's other obvious cases like White Comet being a skin-tight battlesuit which used glowy energy bits for its attacks, but I use the example of HoV because it shows that HI3rd was fully capable of creating battlesuits within the mecha theme without being limited to literal "mecha" designs. HoV's battlesuit is far from mecha in its nature, yet still fits perfectly with that aesthetic.

HoFi has pretty much none of that, though. It's a pretty design for sure, but it's also nearly completely divorced from that original aesthetic. There's few easily-recognizable shapes on her design, with the (very little) clothing she wears being almost entirely detail and ornamentation. It definitely fits the "Princess Kiana" or "Goddess Kiana" theme in isolation, but I don't think it delivers on that theme in the context of Honkai Impact 3rd.

Yet look at HoFS. HoFS definitely has more detail than HoV. Yet there are still lots of large blank areas that define clear forms; for instance, the armor on HoFS' waist. It's reminiscent of that of HoV while still adding more detail. This gives that same effect of a slight mecha vibe. It's still an appealing design and it still feels more modern than HoV, but it also manages to retain much of the same design language.

That being said, I have to admit I ADORE the Honkai wings that HoFi has, though I wish they were a little higher in the air. That's one thing that I think Mihoyo absolutely nailed with HoFi, and I wish more of that aesthetic was kept in the rest of her design.

What's also interesting is that (in my opinion) neither of the other two main Herrscher Trio designs suffer from this. For instance, consider Mei's battlesuits:

I've included Lighting Empress as a reminder that old =/= good. I'd like to make it clear that just because it's an "original" battlesuit doesn't mean it's a good one. I said before that I didn't want to label stuff as good or bad but this is a clear exception and I hope y'all can understand why, lol

We can certainly argue about whether HoO Mei's design really fits the image of Raiden Mei. It's a vast departure from her other battlesuits when it comes to her palette, for better or for worse. I didn't like it at first but it has grown on me, and I think part of that is because of that concept of simplicity vs. complexity.

HoO has way, way more detail than the other two Herrscher Mei battlesuits, no doubt about it. But it also retains many large and recognizable shapes. Nothing on this battlesuit is bulky like HoT or other older battlesuits, but it still gives off the feeling of being armor despite being so thin. Much of the detail is created not by overlapping layers of ornamentation and texture, but rather by using intricate shapes with clear silhouettes and light detail inside that outline.

And HoTr is obviously a mecha design, so I don't think we need to elaborate on that one :)

The point is that it's absolutely possible to make detailed and beautiful battlesuits without getting rid of the original shape language that HI3rd was built on. HoFS is a bit dated now but still much newer than HoV, yet it keeps the vibes. HoO is also far newer, yet it still fits the theme of battlesuit. HoFi, though... not so much.

Finally, I want to talk about the elephant in the room: the Part 2 character designs.

Once again, here's the link to the YouTube video by Matt Is Playing, where I pulled this image from!

Much like HoFi, there's very little trace of the OG Honkai mecha aesthetic in these battlesuits. It's not to say that they are inherently bad because of that* , but it doesn't quite feel like "Honkai Impact 3rd".

*except Dream Seeker, I'm sorry but what the heck is going on there???

But the thing is that this design philosophy isn't even new. In fact, it's years old by now... because we see this in APHO.

For a long time now, APHO has had battlesuits that tip-toe on the very edge of the original Honkai aesthetic. So the designs of Part 2 aren't actually some new and drastic shift in Mihoyo's design philosophy- rather, it's reinforcing a design philosophy that was introduced with APHO.

These new characters all feel out of place if we compare them to the original battlesuits. They don't use the same simple forms, instead using dense and overlapping details. But if we compare them to the APHO cast, they fit right in. We can argue about the merits of the new character designs in other terms, but I think these discussions have to keep in mind this context.

I'd say the APHO designs work well in the setting of APHO because they're following the same aesthetic. As we enter Part 2 and once we see more of the story and setting of Part 2, it's very possible that these new character designs will feel more natural and more like "Honkai Impact 3rd".

But it's a different Honkai Impact 3rd.

This is why I think the idea of "simplicity vs. complexity" is so important to understanding Honkai Impact 3rd's designs. I think Mihoyo might be trying to emphasize two different phases of Honkai through this design philosophy. These are going to be two very different halves to the same game, with the designs of Part 2 possibly becoming as distant from Part 1's designs as Part 1 is from HSR.

You have the OG mecha action vibes from the good ole St. Freya days, and we have the sleek tech-wear of the era of exploring Mars, world-hopping in the Sea of Quanta, and fighting literal aliens.

For better or for worse? Only time will tell.

As a bonus, I'd like to include some extra comparisons, though I won't be adding any more analysis. It's more about having extra examples to keep in mind. Also, I think these ideas can apply to enemies and weapons as well, but that's a larger discussion I'm not yet ready for so that will come in a follow-up later on!

[otaku-tactician]

FGO OCS

the next oc has so much lore idk what to do

OC 3- The Cursed Vanguard/ Gosunkugi 'Spike/Nail Princess' -Hime

(NAME REMOVED FROM PAN-HUMAN HISTORY)

Image 1 (Final Ascension/ Dried Blood Form)

A nameless Counter Force Guardian. A being who has been removed from the sands of time entirely, with only their infamous death being the only tale of theirs to share. A Guardian whose only gift to the world was a 'toastie'- slices of whatever she could find sandwiched between random fillings.

The tragedy of this character is that their registered name on the system are only nicknames others knew her by. And worst of all, her final ascension reflects how she passed away- by a hailstorm of spikes and nails. To add further insult to injury, all their clothes carry the same 'spike' motif... as to them, they only felt truly alive once facing their eventual death.

To them, those spikes and nails are all they have to their name.

This is the story of a being who was never meant to exist.

Image 2 (First Ascension/ Fresh Blood Form)

Yeah, this outfit is UGLY. But that's the point! In her early days as a counter force guardian; she wanted to have as many essentials on hand as possible, so bought the gaudiest-ass pocketed coat known to man. In their defence, they didn't really know what to do, or how to view things as a human- in their mind, they were a tool; a tool who had to get the job done.

However, it was way too hot for any desert missions (though it was great in cold locations). However, as one who failed more missions than succeeded them; such an outfit didn't take long to get ripped apart.

During this phase of their life, they used to carry around a little book of 'ideals'; of guidance, quotes and ways to live by. Obedient from childhood, this role exposed them to horrors like no other- horrors that not even their neat little rulebook could protect them from.

Image 3 (Second Ascension- Coagulated Blood Form)

By this point in their life, everything was gradually falling apart. The endless rescues, missions, assassination jobs... they were gradually losing even their semblance of dreams and ideals by this point. Left with no choice but to give into the ensuing waves of nihilistic despair, they let everything go; throwing their ideals into the bin.

Their coat and trousers are a mess because they never thought to replace them, simply reusing the same damaged material countless times. They also struggled to complete a lot of missions due to their inexperience, so relied on many random means to survive, such as using rusty nails as a weapon.

Sometimes also hired to work in the area of seduction, they became like a chameleon.

They could cook a good snack, though. Just about.

[perfectlovevn]

hi boss! absolutely loved Perfect Love and you did such an amazing job with the entire game's execution! i loved how you were able to so clearly portray eris as f-ked up and the main instigator for everything, pulling the strings behind the scenes instead of the usual "i didnt do anything wrong" or "im just trying to survive" type of MC (which isnt bad at all, but im so happy with the freshness and utter depravity eris brings) i love your art and the intentionally messy style that highlights the disorganisation and chaos in both eris' and milo's mind, the recurring motifs of eyes, red, blue, god i can go on and on. really your vn is so well crafted with how intentional every creative decision taken seems, im going crazy with the amount of love, time and effort you put into perfect love.

ive read every single name easter egg you put and the references to other yandere vns/media (jd <3) AND went on to give us more with adding little quips later in the game depending on the nickname eris gives milo. i was literally going crazy with how i couldnt decode the 2nd type of cipher you scattered throughout the code until 2 days later when i was ready to give up and ask you hahaha

from there, if it isnt too spoilerish, is there reason you used the nihilist cipher that removed the letter J instead of the usual Z ? and ! i loved the snippets with the friendship gang, tysm for leaving in your writing process and brainstorming products in the game files i had so much fun <3 im so sorry for the rant and thank you so much for the game! 1000% looking forward to your next one if youre working on something!

Hello! Thank you for your kind words!

Yeah, one of the main reasons I made Eris like that because because of how much I really wanted to see more evil MC in visual novels (or just yandere media in general). While there isn't anything wrong with having a yandere who is just there to survive, there is something very fun about being the one who causes the yandere to become worse than he initially was.

I'm glad that you found such meaning in the art style! Honestly the biggest reason I drew it like that was because I was trying to get it done for the 2023 yanjam and I didn't want to overwhelm myself so I just made mostly everything black and white. That and it's supposed to symbolize more of the darker aspects of the game. Did you know all my assets were drawn with one brush?

Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy the details because I really did try to put as much as I could in there. Since I think it would be fun for people to see the neat details people put in the game (I know I sure do when I play visual novels), I tried to make everything very catered to what was going on in the story. It did take some extra work, but I think it's good for the game and my general learning experience. I'm also glad you enjoyed the easter eggs I put in for names and nicknames. I was very sleep deprived when I did it and I kept adding them in because I don't have good attention span (or at least, that's part of the reason).

For the cyphers inside of the code, I put a hint at the very top relating to each of the code. Each of the four types is represented of the three Milos with the one in English being from Eris. The Nhilist cypher is specifically for Manipulation and the key is in the second line based off of the capitalized letters.

Yeah! I'm glad you liked it. I'm still in the middle of writing the other ones (I'm working on the one with Poison in it, which recounts what Eris did to get Poison to fight Violent in his route). I always like leaving my drafts in there because I always find it fun to see people's thought progress in code and games.

No, no, I love your rant on it! I think it's really fun seeing what other people like, dislike and thought about the game in general! My next game will be a lot more light hearted, but still have a yandere character in it.

[littleeyesofpallas]

Wierd I thought I'd done all this before, but I guess I only sorta lightly touched on the royal guard's names but not swords... well in the wake of Shutara's whole thing in the anime I figured it was a good a time as any to revisit stuff...

Hyousube[兵主部] written [兵]: "soldier" and [主部]: "chief division" but probably taken from either Hyouzu temple[兵主神社] which is the name of two different shinto temples in Kishiwada and Tanba cities , or Itatehyouzu[板手兵主神社] in Himeji. None of them seem to bare any direct significance to Hyousube's character, themes, or motifs as best as I can tell. Neither his personal mansion in the royal realm, nor the big temple summon kidou seem directly based on the architecture of any of the temples in question.

Duh there is a yokai just called Hyousube[兵主部] written exactly the same. I have no idea how I let that one slip by me. Makes way more sense than trying to break it down character by character. They are hairy little humanoids that attack people near rivers, they're considered "related" to kappa? I can't tell if that's supposed to be in like a literal taxonomical sense or just a comment on them having similar lore. Ichibee's a little too big, both tall and broad, to really fit the description of the yokai, but he is hairy, so I guess that's the link. They are said to cause or otherwise spread disease, and in some remote regions are considered a kind of minor god of war. They have a distinctive hideous laughter.

Anyway the name Ichibee[一兵衛] is written [一]: "one," and [兵衛]: "imperial guard." It has a neat sort of mirror with Ichigo's name being [一護]: "one protect" and [一...衛]: "one...defense."

But that's stuff I've covered before, but I realize i never touched on his sword stuff. His shikai's name is Ichimonji[一文字] and is literally the whole word for "straight line" but if you want to break it down, it's just [一]: "one" [文]: "literary" [字]: "character" but [文字]: "written character" like a letter of the alphabet, and shaped like a [一]; It's totally selfdescript. In fact, in the actual weekly print the tagline on the page where he first releases it and ends the chapter is a play on words on the fact. I wish I still had the raws but anything I had on that issue of weekly shounen jump are long long gone.

His release call is Kuromeyo[黒めよ]: "blacken" literally just the verb "to make black." Viz took some liberties with "paint it black," but I kind of like how it plays into the paintbrush.

Oh but most translations i've seen really screwed up the whole proto-bankai thing. The term Shinuchi[真打] that I've seen taken literally as "True Strike" ignores a few things, not the least of which being that [打] does not mean "strike" when pronounced "uchi." But more importantly the whole word shinuchi[真打] is a specific word referring to a star performer or headliner, but also a high rank of rakugo performer. Rakugo being a type of storytelling in yose theater, a smaller stage with minimal dressing, and a more intimate small crowd. It has, a specific type of theater/stage and even a specific style of font all tied to the subculture and aesthetic around it.

The new-ish and ongoing shounen jump manga, Akane-banashi is about a highschool girl getting into Rakugo and is probably the best crashcourse both for westerners and just a younger generation of Japanese who are less familiar with the art form, to come out in years. Totally worth checking out.

More specifically, Rakugo is a form of storytelling characterized by comedy, wordplay, and long often confusing or at least complicated plots. The lone actor plays all roles, doing voices, faces, and hand gestures. More to the point, part of the history of Rakugo traces back to Buddhist monks called otogishu[御伽衆]: lit. "honorable entertainer (of) the masses" who were often appointed specifically to be a kind of personal conversational partner to samurai lords, and thus well versed in telling entertaining stories as well as reciting Buddhist sutras, myths, and teachings.

And the bankai/shinuchi name itself, Shirafude Ichimonji[しら筆一文字] just tacks on shira[白]: "white" and fude[筆]: "brush."

Anyway, all that to say that the reason Ichibee is a monk, has a thing about word play, and calls his sword a main attraction is because of the rakugo theme holding it all together. It also accounts in part for his boisterous and comedic personality, his extreme facial expressions, and his techniques being set up like rakugo jokes with a kind of twist/punchline to them.

The monk theme is also where Ichibee's paintbrush gimmick comes from, as zen buddhism specifically gave rise to Hitsuzen-dou[筆禅道] the "Brush Zen-way," which emphasized calligraphy as a medium for deep meditation on the subjects of the writing. It's why Ichibee has command over true names and this deep abstracted meaning of concepts. The most basic and iconic aspect of Zen buddhism is the contemplation of the ensou[円相]. And in fact the use of giant brushes is a common spectacle with its own aesthetic sensibilities in the calligraphy, so other than having a blade, Ichibee's zanpakutou is actually not an exaugurated design at all. That's legit just a size those brushes come in.

[pinkprimrose05]

character asks bc other anon was a coward: blade

HAJFTOVNWHYFAGDYSDNTJ

General opinion/How much I care about them: Ren Blade Yingxing my beloved beloathed depressed miserable angsty bastard aaaaaaa-

This man, oh my god. This edgy mess is somehow the second fastest blorbo to be coined as such in my blorbo-having history, and I think that alone says a lot. But even if not, he has his special little spot for being: 1) my first HSR fave, 2) my current main (the gameplay is ridiculously fun holy shit), and 3) the reason I downloaded the game at all (shoutout to Bronya, of course, but it was mainly Ren).

Also I really like the fact that he's genuinely batshit insane. An unapologetic menace to the galaxies. He can be so unhinged and evil sometimes, and that's a new flavor of fave in my collection. Did I mention the story doesn't try to redeem him at all? Because it's true! Extremely uncommon win on the hyv writers' part there; doubly so because they manage to balance this aspect with the subtle gap moe they love to give to all their stoic characters.

Yes. Ren is simultaneously edginess incarnate and a tired grandpa that sucks with words and doesn't know shit about technology. Oh and he keeps getting roped into Situations by his colleagues- and goes along with them all the time! The dude was literally asked to pose for a movie cover and he just. did that. No questions asked. Nothing.

I care about him a very normal amount. He's so neat and- oh my god I forgot to mention the aesthetic. Black/blue/red/gold is such a banger color scheme. He also has a spider lily motif and that looks very cool! And the pretty ribbon on the back of his coat is a 10/10 design choice. His only problem is that the game keeps forgetting to edit his silly beta design sneakers out of splash art, and that the washed out jeans clash hard with the coat. But otherwise? Perfection. I could (and did) stare at him for hours on end.

A ship I love: Kafblade is one of those pairs that you can read as romantic or platonic with equal efficacy and I love that for it. They're partners in crime! There's a great sense of trust and faith between them! They're each other's guardian and tether and the one who understands them best and they're such an awesome dynamic, good lord.

Honorable mention goes to jingren for the old man yaoi potential to take the relationship in a very (bitter)sweet or very sad way. There's something to be explored here and I wish canon could give it consideration someday.

A non-romantic relationship that I love: Stellaron Hunter agenda!!! They're so awesome individually and as a group, and the comedy is just lovely. You have Ren wrangling two terribly reckless women because in some way, by some miracle, he happens to be the braincell holder among the three. You have him trailing after Kafka on one of her shopping sprees with a whole bunch of bags and coats, you have him going to an arcade with Silver Wolf because she wanted to show him this brand new game she's been talking about nonstop for four days, and you have him in an impromptu shooting session with them both because they wanted to make silly movie covers and needed an extra actor.

They're one small hilarious family and I adore them so so much, you have no idea. Can't wait until Sam and Elio make an appearance in the story so I get more fuel for shenanigans.

The NOTP: None here sir, as long as the ship is normal it's fine by me.

My biggest headcanon about them: Ren is autistic and you will pry this hc from my cold, dead hands. He's stuck in his own head 80% of the time. He doesn't do conversation at all. Back when he was still Yingxing, he used to spend so much time at the forge when inspiration struck him, to the point of tuning out everything until his friends physically dragged him out to touch grass. He's an autistic nerd through and through, and even several thousand deaths can't take that from him.

An idea for a fanfiction I would like to write/read about them: One idea I've been curious about lately is what would happen in a roleswap scenario, where the Astral Express crew find Ren before the Stellaron Hunters do. He may not make for a great archivist, his state of mind may be less-than-stellar, but it's interesting to imagine the dynamics between him and the crew- and hey, who doesn't love taking sad guys out of situations for a change?

I'm filing this concept for later, just in case. Who knows? The writing ghost visits when I least expect it.

Something that makes me think of them: Everything these days The flute, the sound of wind blowing, red spider lilies, and -to the immense detriment of my composure in public- mentions of the word blade in any context ever. Why gee, thanks for permanently altering my brain chemistry.

[yuriskies]

Otherside Picnic vol 8 spoilers below the break

It's always nice when a work retroactively adds new layers of complexity to previous parts of the story. A really neat, almost Easter egg-y, example of this is how the end of UraPi vol 8 makes a brief bit of descriptive text in File 15 ("Overnight in the Otherside") far more interesting.

After Sorawo and Toriko's intimate moment in the Otherside, they start trying to find a new label that's unique to them to move beyond the baggage they accumulated with "accomplice". Working off Toriko's suggestion of SoraTori, Sorawo hits on the idea of using a non-standard kanji for the nue (鵼, which can also be read as "strange bird"), taken from the first kanji in Sorawo's name (空魚) and Toriko's name (鳥子). Toriko says she knows about the yokai (a chimera with the face of a monkey, body of a tanuki, limbs of a tiger, and tail with the head of a snake), but Sorawo also mentions that the term can also be used to describe something with an uncertain shape. It's a really nice bit of wordplay that thematically plays in to Sorawo's resistance to having a relationship with a societally-defined shape.

Sorawo's solution was most obviously foreshadowed in the epigraph for File 23 ("Funeral of the Moon"), where the nue is mentioned as a harbinger of a soul summoning ceremony. It turns out, though, that Sorawo and Toriko's exploration of the Otherside in File 15 involves the nue as well.

The motif of the nue is clearest at the end of the file, when Toriko presents Sorawo with a knife with an epigram consisting of the first kanji of each of their names engraved side by side. The intended meaning is probably SoraTori (after all, she did try to name their first trail in the Otherside SoraTori as well), but can easily reinterpreted to read as nue with the benefit of hindsight.

However, the motif also occurs near the beginning of the file, when they have their first overnight stay in the Otherside. Sorawo and Toriko go up on a hill after dark to find a spotlight beam indicating the location of the gate they plan to trek to. Suddenly, they're weirded out by a pheasant's cry nearby, and scramble back to their camp as the darkness sets in. Rather than hang out at the campfire for a bit, the two run for their tent as Sorawo mentions the night darkness growing "terrifyingly deep". This comment sticks out, because at other points when Sorawo is in the Otherside at night, she makes no special mention of how dark it is.

Plumbing some of the deep lore around the nue suggests that Sorawo and Toriko probably encountered one on the hill without recognizing it. Over time, the cry of the nue came to be associated with the mournful cry of the scaly thrush. However, early versions of the nue myth identify the call as being associated with the green pheasant**. In the 14th century Heike Monogatari, Emperor Konoe is haunted by a nue, which is depicted as appearing from a thick black cloud that blots out the night, creating a darkness "so thick nothing could be seen".

By the end of vol 8, the nue, the relationship, and the Otherside have been explicitly linked to one another by the narrative. This early appearance of the nue motif might have symbolic meaning, perhaps a harbinger of the mounting pressure Toriko is putting on Sorawo for a romantic relationship. This sort of parallels some of Toriko's behavior in the tent that evening - getting pouty when Sorawo doesn't want to treat it as a camping date, wanting to link their sleeping bags together.

It's little details like this that make UraPi so interesting to me. It's tapping into one of the fascinating things about ghost stories - the wealth of detail that slowly created a series of coincidences that may or may not mean anything. Sorawo notes the following during the T-san saga: "When you dig through true ghost stories, there's no shortage of unbelievable synchronicity. Coincidences that seems to make no sense happen, and then end without ever making any sense. Things that are pure chance if you ignore them, but seem like ominous signs that you can read anything into once you let them bother you..."

Miyazawa is a ghost story nerd, and it's incredible how well he repurposes the framework of ghost stories to tell the story of a romance. Although he has said in interviews that he doesn't plan too far ahead and instead relies on sprinkling plot hooks into the story for himself, ttrpg-style, it really speaks to his mastery of the craft to do what he has with Otherside Picnic.

** The veiled connection to the pheasant also seems relevant to Kasumi's word salad in File 25. Although her first bit is translated as "Jack the Pisser", the original text is "Jack the Pheasant Hunter", 'pheasant hunting' being a Japanese euphemism for taking a leak.

[lomappreciationblog]

Continuing from the previous post, here's the entry for the concepts of Flowerlings from the art book!

I'll be showing closeups again, but for the clarity here's the bottom text:

"At first, the concept was for all the Flowerlings to be old people. Flowerlings 2 and 3 were selected, and the female one became younger in that chapter. I was thinking of other flower motifs, like the cyclamen that appear to be looking down or cattleya with their frills that look like orchids. However, the shape and colors of the fuhcsia flowers that I saw around town left an impression on me, so I also incorporated them into the designs. (Ikeda)"

So like mentioned, Nao Ikeda made these three concepts based off the cyclamen, the fuchsia, and the cattleya. What we got in game were the "fuchsia," the male design, and the "cattleya," who became the females, though as Ikeda mentioned, they became younger in game and look more like young women.

By the by, Nao Ikeda has a wonderful eye for incorporating plant imagery and symbolisms into her characters - if I ever post the Dawn of Mana art, she explains what plant symbolism she gave each main character. In general, she's just really good at creative characters who follow a core imagery.

The "Cyclamen" design, also named 'Scarlet Salmon," didn't make it into the game, and as with the Sproutlings the original concept for the Flowerlings also seemed much different than we got. Here's the note:

"The 'Flowerling Village, where various clans congregate and live together, is a true flower garden. However, everyone there is old. One of them, 'Scarlet Salmon,' is nor an old man with a hunched posture, but he was really handsome when he was younger... By the way, when they hold still they looks like flowers, so when they start moving they startle the main characters."

Some of these concepts also mention where the races would have been first introduced, and it seems like they were originally set in the "Giant Swamp," but it seems to have been a location that is cut out of the story, I can't think of any place in-game that resembles a swamp.

So, according to these concept notes the Flowerlings seem to be a harmonious sort in whose village the different clans live together, but there's not much beyond that, so if I had to guess any questline they were supposed to have were cut and they became NPCs that were connected to Sproutlings, and like them sort of just pop up in a lot of places. It's a shame though, I think the scenario of Shiloh/Serafina being startled by what they thought were flowers is a neat one. Hmm, I do wonder if the concept of "living together harmoniously in their own village" was given to the Lilipeas, given what we see in "Catchin' Lilipeas."

So for comparison, here's the in-game Flowerlings:

One last note, in-game Flowerlings have minor roles in a couple fo quests, helping out the students collect reagents in "The Field Trip"...

And probably being a big source of headache for players in "Teatime of Danger" haha. Though...we just kinda accept Flowerlings have psychic powers, don't we?

One also pops up in "Niccolo's Businesss Unusual 3" as a poor target for our favorite swindler.

[redliferiot]

ok here i am writing out my thoughts on double life pearl. pulling out my literary analysis brain for an unscripted minecraft series thats how it is

more below cut

so my interpretation of life series pearl (in both last and double life) is fundamentally tied to her relationship with scott so i'll also be speaking abt him alot in this little ramble

scott won last life. last life, fundamentally, was built on blocks of betrayal. while 3rd life had its healthy does of backstabbing, its got nothing on what the boogeyman mechanic introduced. all alliances suddenly got far shakier. no one could really trust anyone, but scott did not play by the rules. during his first time as boogey, he directly told his teammates (never stated to be against the rules but as far as i can tell hes the only person to have done this ever) and goes to kill someone who is specifically against him & his allies (rip impulse). during his second chance at life-series sanctioned amicide, he breaks the rules even further. he downright refuses to kill one of his allies- at this point in the series, anyone not red is his ally, so killing any of them would result in an ally lost. scott remained loyal in a game of backstabbing, and it earned him the victory.

if last life was a game of backstabbing, then double life was a game of loyalty. the soulmate mechanic not only reinforced ties of loyalty- literally paring up players into neat pairs- but it relied on that. if you shared a health bar, you'd have to be loyal to one another, or else you'd die. it's practically set up for scott to succeed, just like he succeeded during last life. if he plays all the same cards, he'll win. the game is designed with him in mind. he's even paired up with his most trusted ally from last life, pearl. he can't lose.

except, he absolutely can, because through the folly of circumstance, he and pearl end the first session wanting nothing to do with each other.

once again scott has broken the rules of the series. he's scorned his soulmate (who, in another life, was such a trusted ally he'd doom himself to red to spare her), and broken the chain. even in a game designed for him, he breaks the rules.

and this is where pearl gets involved

pearl, throughout both last life and double life, is paired with scott- once on their own terms (her terms, really- as she was blessed with extra lives, it was her decision to share her lives with scott that really solidified their alliance), and once by the hands of god. the universe wanted a perfect repeat performance of last life, a celebratory encore of the victory of someone who broke the rules and won despite it, and they did not get it. they did not get their perfect designed ending

instead, they got pearl.

pearl, like scott, does not play by the rules in last life. it's impossible for her to play by the rules, when her soulmate has scorned her so, but she takes it to new levels. She harms her soulmate, directly (ice bucket challenge, anyone?), and in the process also harms herself. she lives alone- scott, at least, has a chosen partner, and martyn spends considerable time trying to get cleo back, but pearl does no such thing. she builds herself an isolated tower and surrounds herself with her army of wolves

pearl's story in double life is, essentially, a story of lonliness (this is reflected in her motifs- lone wolf, wolves & the moon, etc). throughout the series, none of her alliances last long- hardly any make it longer than one episode. she truly is alone, her only constant fried throughout the series being tilly. tilly was there before she knew her soulmate was scott, and she was there after she was scorned. pearl relies on her dogs for protection- as minecraft dogs are very good at providing- but also, for what others refuse her: companionship.

like scott is a loyal victory in a game of traitors, pearl is a lonesome victor in a game of lovers. in the end, she stands alone- scorned and soulmate-less, the winner only because her opponent decided to loose. she, like scott, won a game designed against her. against the wishes of the univese, she stands alone

ANYWAYS tldr pearl and scott both broke the rules of their series and won bc of it, sorry no grian mention even tho i have thoughts about his 3l victory and treasure him dearly he just straight up isnt relevant to this one. might write more of these long ish analysis posts cause i had alot of fun with this one

[megafreak400]

2024 Media Thread - #35

Monster World 4 (8/28/24) -  Score - 8/10

Wonder boy is a weird series. I’ve said it before as i’ve played through them all, but it really, really is. While most of the games are action adventure games with elements of a metroidvania, it also loves to just experiment a lot. It experiments so much to the point that some of the games don’t really feel like they’re a part of the same series at points. Monster World 4 is a good example of this. While the first was kind of just doing it’s own thing, most of the later games at the very least share a similar aesthetic and sense of design to them. Monster World 4 bucks that trend, instead of going with more Arabian motifs as opposed to the traditional western fantasy style setting. Personally I’m ok with this change, since it’s an aesthetic I dig. Despite the kingdom being very different looking here, they kind of still treat this like the same kingdom as the past games. It seems to be set in the far future though, since your friends from the last game show up here as guardian spirits, which I do think is a cool call back. The plot of the game features Asha, a girl who has set off on a journey to be a protector for her kingdom. After encountering a genie in a tower of trials, she heads to the palace and is tasked with helping save the guardian spirits. Very soon she is joined on her quest by her faithful pet Pepelogoo. This weird cat bird thing is very cute and beyond being a plot point, is essential to navigating this game's dungeons. You can use Pepelogoo to do a variety of things, from carrying water in it’s mouth to blowing out fire. It also helps you by giving you an extra jump or floating you from place to place. It’s honestly a really neat game play choice, endearing you to the little pet and also just making the game feel uniquely all it’s own. Dungeons feel much more puzzley, making you consider how to use your fuzzy pet’s abilities to make it to the end. Not that combat takes a back seat, but since the RPG aspect takes a back seat in this game I think they decided to go a bit heavier on fun dungeon design. The story is simple, but returning to town after each dungeon to see the situation slowly unfold as the town changes due to the plans of the villains is very awesome. The dynamic changes of the main town I think strengthens the simple plot because you can see things slowly changing as the game goes on. I also really love the end of the game, since honestly the conclusion of the story is pretty heartwarming. The game is also much easier than any other Wonder boy game and doesn’t really have any bullshit sections in it. All the bosses are fair enough and if you’re getting upgrades you should be fine. The weird ghost heart system also allows you to get more than enough health so in some ways this would be a good Wonder boy to start with even if it is technically one of the last. There is one part near the end that’s a little annoying level wise but I don’t think it ever felt unfair.

Overall, just a solid cute action platformer that I would highly recommend.

[rmbunnie]

Watched GOTG3 on friday! Here are some of my personal thoughts (spoilers obvs):

- I really liked it, first of all. To be honest, Rocket is my fave of the group alongside Nebula. I just think they’re neat, and I like characters that cause drama. If there’s no personality traits that are a little abrasive and offputting, then i’m not saying that’s a flaw, but perhaps i am saying its a bit of a missed opportunity. This is probably one of the reasons I am still interested in GOTG when most of the mcu is a bit worn out to me, there’s this neat focus on why they’re acting the way they are and letting their reasoning steer the story to a good extent rather than using it like an add-on (especially if the way they’re acting is flat out dickish,) and I think that’s a fun approach. All this to say, Rocket is one of my faves, and so a movie largely focused around his character is pretty interesting to me by default.

- The hallway fight was great. Loved it no notes a plus.

- I really liked the tardigrade suits on the tech planet-meteor-lab thing! They looked weird and offputting, don’t get me wrong, but space suits that are visually inspired by the creature that can naturally survive the void of space, boiling temperatures, and so much else are REALLY well-suited (haha) to the organic planet founded by the man who uses existing creatures as the bases of his "creations.” I can absolutely picture the High Evolutionary learning about a tardigrade and being like “hell yeah i just came up with a GREAT and original idea”

- I also liked the organic planet. Very cool the meat was so gross and the eye motif was fun.

- I have mixed thoughts on Adam Warlock, but mainly positive. I think that with the amount of things that were happening in the movie some of the scenes that were necessary for his development made the runtime drag a little and lose some momentum, but I’d rather have them than not have them. He was funny, and the creation of Adam posing at the end was both fun, cool to look at, and kinda something to think about, seeing as he was the one taking the place of god, but he is also the one named Adam. Maybe the idea there was that the first good act he does is the birth of his own humanity, as in existence as a person or as anything more than a passive invention? Or maybe they just thought it would be fun haha. Regardless, the idea of the divine being the one who can gain something through contact with the human is a sentiment that fits in the movie about the dude who plays god via animal cruelty but lacks what his "lesser” creations have and can never get it due to his failure to recognize their personhood idk.

-The ending is how it should have been imo. I know it’s so so sad to see a found family leave each other and it bums us out, and I am bummed out best believe but particularly in the case of Peter, Drax, and Mantis, it seems like what the movie was going for (if you’re taking the latter two’s writing as anything past comic relief which, like, of course I am) is that being in the Guardians was keeping them from evolving into the people that they were meant to grow into, and stunting their potential. Again, very relevant with the High Evolutionary, evolving people against their will isn’t right but remaining frozen in time isn’t natural. It was nice to see them get unstuck.

- Speaking of evolution and the characters, Gamora seemed like she had a little divergent character evolution thing going on, with 2014 as her sorta common ancestor. The ravagers seemed a little out of nowhere but not the the extent that it was unbelievable. “I bet we were fun” was really sweet. It’s nice to see her gain some of the things that she had before the time travel death bullshit personality-wise, the idea that she would always end up kinder and happier when she was free of Thanos (who i hate btw, not even as a character although that too, there was just NOTHING interesting done with him the whole goddamn franchise) than when she was with him is not something it takes a genius to figure out, but it’s still good to see. It’s also worth considering that original Gamora had to choose to be free of Thanos everyday and work with the consequences of his actions while 2014 Gamora was brought into a world where Thanos was gone regardless of her feelings or actions. This is kinda explored in the movie, and neither Gamora is bad, but I feel like its very important characterization-wise to understand that she didn’t fight to leave and struggle in doing so the same way original Gamora did, and so their worldviews are different, too, not only their experiences. To original Gamora the Guardians were fundamental to her indepence, without Peter she wouldn’t have gotten the orb so easily and without Rocket and Groot she might not have survived the Kyln. To 2014 Gamora, Thanos is out of the way and now these other people are kinda just here.

- Gamora dying in Infinity War or Endgame or whichever it fucking was was bullshit and i won’t debate on that but it is funny to see the directors of the mcu doing the exact same thing comic writers have been doing forever coordination-wise. Trying to work with the absolute trash that’s going on in the concurrently-running title is a comic struggle that transcends medium. GOTG did pretty well with it.

- I loved the High Evolutionary! Of course, not as a person, he’s the worst, but he was consistently really interesting to watch and his actor did a really really good job with him! The religious-type traits were really interesting, and specifically his bit with the opera song and music and how he valued literature and art was really interesting and not to be too jojo in marvel but it kinda gave me Dio or Pucci vibes. That’s the type of weirdass tangent one of them would say (specifically their convos with each other or the Pucci Hallelujah moment.) Everyone has already said more than i could say about his weird evolution-genetics shit but it remains weird. 

- “There is no god, thats why i stepped in!!1!” and the bit wheres he’s scrambling to the cage where Rocket is to find out how he knew the filtration system thing were two particular highlights of his character for me. He is messy and emotional and all over the place, and he thinks he is perfection incarnate. His emotional outbursts add humor and are a big part of what makes him interesting and fun to watch, but he would ridicule them in any other being. This is proof that the High Evolutionary is a hypocrite with poor taste.

- Ayesha dead. She was a bitch but she slayed. she will be missed, for the comedy of those fucking gold lenses was a highlight of GOTG2 for me.

- Rocket is a creep. Rocket is a weirdo. What the hell is he doing here. The Radiohead singalong in the beginning was so fun. I loved it so much, genuinely. 

- Lylla, Teefs and Floor were. so much. Everyone says they’re sad, and of course they are, but the whole thing was offputting too. Not as in like “oh they’re so gross” the vibe was just horrifying and sorta nightmarish because it’s not like you think they’re gonna make it out, you see Rocket in GOTG the first and you know there’s absolutely nobody with him but Groot. The scream was, a lot, and very well voiced, I guess? It seems weird to say, it’s not like, oh wow cinema i loved the part where his friends died and he screamed as he watched them get shot in his face but i felt my stomach drop in that theater even though i fully knew it was coming so i guess what i’m saying is mission accomplished you did the thing the way the thing was meant to be and it gave me bone nausea.

- Also it has been pointed out before it is not original thought of mine but the cage death scream vs the dance party scream. I’m thinking about that. Similarly in the sense that i’ve seen it mentioned but I keep thinking about it, the Dog Days are Over was quite a choice, seeing the zune scroll to the most recent decade it has was, bittersweet, or cathartic i guess? They can finally just move through time, they get to be growing people again now. I love the Dog Days are Over. I love Florence.

- On the Lylla topic, everyone’s been saying this sad quote made them sad or that sad quote bummed them out but the thing that got me most was “We were right. The sky is beautiful, and it is forever.” in the final dream sequence. Idk why that one particularly got me like that, heaven and the sky as a pair is a pretty common concept, eternity is just hefty I guess. Compared to the cage though, I’m glad they get such a nice place to be.

- We got “vocabulistics” and now we have “emotionallistic problems.” In GOTG 1 I could give him the plausible deniability of smushing together “linguistics” and “vocabulary” but no, Rocket just likes putting “ballistics” inside words. As is his prerogative. 

- I like how weird and retro some of the sci-fi elements are. The movie isn’t just a rehashing of older sci-fi concepts of course, it implements the retro elements interestingly and makes them fresh, but mad scientist experiments and unnatural experiment beings in a slightly more horror/negative approach is like RETRO retro sci-fi, like heavy book Frankenstein original first-ever sci-fi, so it was interesting to see past sci-fi incorporated into story elements in addition to world aesthetics and soundtracks like we’ve already seen. It’s nothing new to say GOTG has a bit of a 70s vibe just as a franchise, which I absolutely adore, but particularly counter-earth has a kinda “wouldn’t it be fucked up if that happened” vibe to it that I think is really fun. We got meat planet. We got animal planet. Lets go. This is peak fiction.

- Speaking of GOTG being retro-esque this trilogy LOOOVES that fucking yellow slime. Every movie there is a prominent yellow slime feature, it’s the most consistent character in the mcu. Did they accidentally order too much on movie 1 and save the rest for later? It kills me. 

-Speaking of, it’s very funny to me that they end up living on Knowhere. Like in the grand scheme of things. They did well with it, they have lovely homes with nice tables and blankets and lamps and such but like. Imagine you break out of jail and you go to kill time at some shady weirdo planet because the guy who wants to buy your orb is there, and the guy who wants to buy your orb is also Spongebob. You call up the guy who killed your family while you’re there and he stabs you and throws you into the yellow goo to die. The weird guy you’re stuck with breaks down and gets in a fight with you and threatens to shoot you in the face after doing this weird venty monologue that you don’t get at all. This is all one night. Nine years pass and you’re besties and you live there. The goo vat you got thrown in is probably like two blocks away because the planet is kinda small. Idk it just doesn’t seem like that would give homey vibes to me but they made it work and i commend that!

- Overall it was a good movie. I definitely have some thoughts that I’m missing but the thing about situations like that is that I can’t remember them. I will be bummed that the trilogy has ended but things end and this is life. Oh well. It ended well.

- Oh one more thing but the High Evolutionary ultimately lacking creativity was really interesting. All he can ever do is use bits and pieces of things that already exist so he can’t ever achieve what he would consider true perfection, because he can’t appreciate anything that exists due to its inherent and unavoidable flawed nature, and since his “inventions” are based only on preexisting stuff the flaws aren’t going anywhere. When he does come up with something worthwhile he effectively discards it because he doesn’t understand what makes it special, he just knows that it has something that he doesn’t and he’ll destroy it and eventually ruin what was good about it in the first place in the pursuit of replication, so if he ever did achieve perfection he wouldn’t even be able to do anything with it. The one thing he makes that he values, the only thing he can think to do is copy it and ruin it. His mindset won’t allow ingenuity because his pursuit of something without flaws can only ever be informed of traits he’s already seen in flawed beings. He owes everything he ever did accomplish to the flawed. If he wants something perfect so bad he should have at least tried to start from scratch (it would have been a move of immense hubris but obviously he’s not above that) but he can’t, because not only is he uncreative but like Rocket points out, he doesn’t even want perfection, he just hates everything the way it is. 

[sho-minamimoto]

neo neku's ntwewy design is so whatever for me the gatto nero jacket idea is cute and all but idk he looks so sauceless to me. It felt like the only Distinguishing design element they brought back was the colour scheme and nothing else. the other outfits he had in the concept art book looked so so much better and more like him im so upset they didnt use any of these

more rambling abt nekus outfit under the cut i didnt meant to type this much

ok after looking at these side by side i think i pinpointed why i dislike neo neku's design so much and like his concepts a lot better

his neo design is so utterly uninteresting to me and devoid of any personality and uniqueness he had in his previous design and a lot of it has to do with the plaid jacket. Both in that it looks ugly and feels incongruous to his character but also in that it feels like a band aid fix to add some visual interest to his design bc literally everything else is so boring.

like, take away the jacket, and hes just wearing Solid Colour purple shirt with Solid Colour black pants. beyond the story/sentimental element the jacket itself as a pure design choice doesn't really say anything about him as a character it feels so generic and plain.

in his og design theres a cohesive element with the way stripes are used in his weird collar shirt and the pockets of his shorts, and you can definitely pick out that he has an attitude + is individualistic with his sense of style. i get that they wanted to update his design in neo to both incorporate a Better fashion sense (bc of shiki's influence) and show his maturity while keeping the same visual elements of his old design, but i feel like the concept designs do that job much better, AND they look way cooler.

they look more subdued than his og design and stand out less (what with them being mostly black + white and having purple and yellow as accent colours) but still maintain the stripes motif and have more visual interest than his official neo design. i like how he layers his shorts over some leggings in the first concept to the far left, and the way the pants arent completely solid black + have very slight tone variation is neat too.

but the standout is ofc the jacket, the first one on the left isnt half bad and i like how they have some layering going on there too but the ones used in the other two is really slick-looking to me. i love how this would've been an inverse of neku's og design in that he has a white top (jacket) with black pants when it was the other way around in his younger design. maybe they tried to achieve the same effect with the design they went with but bc of the plaid + how grey it is it doesn't come across as strong imo.

also the concept art looks like og neku's shoes but way less goofy and neo neku's shoes are just kind of dull in comparison.

[nite-puff]

Anyway, on to more positive things/general observations. I love how the different renditions of "Punishment Time" have these different musical flairs based on who was getting executed (Leon's starts with the baseball charge and has an ragtime feel reminiscent of music from the same time as the golden age of the sport (tho really that's more Monokuma's classic theater influences than anything), Mondo's is very rock n' roll (plain rock at first but gets more vintage towards the end), Celestia's with the grand harpsichord, Alter Ego's having this beeping and booping that reminds me of a telegraph, and Junko's takes elements from all of them). Also, "Soundproof" should have been in the main body of the album along with "Flunkin' Thrice" and "Deep End" instead of being bonus tracks, they're all very good and I feel like they would help break up the breakneck pace a little bit. Also, can we talk about the bit in "You Don't Know" where Taka and Celeste harmonize when calling the people they end up closest to in the game stupid??? Like there's Some Kind of Parallel being drawn there but idk what, especially since they changed Hifumi to a girl in-text, so now both pairs also have homoerotic tension. Also, girl Hifumi! 👏👏👏👏

Yes!!! To all of this!!!

I love all of the “Punishment Time” renditions, and the idea that Junko’s is a mashup of all of the past musical flairs is a really good way to reflect how her execution is a mashup of all the previous ones. Good musical storytelling! And I at first didn’t catch what the music in Mondo’s was referencing (because Leon, Celeste, and Alter Ego’s are a little more obvious), but when I noticed it’s supposed to be classic rock, I just got really happy for some reason. Like yeah, classic 50-60’s American bikers are what Mondo’s subculture is inspired by, so that kind of music would be super fitting. That’s such a neat detail that I really appreciate!

And yes, “Soundproof”, “Flunkin’ Thrice”, and “Deep End” should’ve been in the actual story (though I guess “Deep End” sort of is, since the beginning is part of “My Sacrifice” and henceforth sort of becomes Aoi’s motif for the rest of the show). Because Hiro, Sayaka, and Leon don’t get a lot of music moments outside of those tracks. I was trying to think that maybe all of the bonus tracks could be part of the show, but “Happen” could probably slow down the pacing a little too much, and “Powermore,” while not completely out-of-line with the rest of the songs, is very similar to some other tracks. It’d just be more of the same type of “we need to have hope” songs, so I kind of get why they didn’t include it. And “Hifumi for Christmas”… is just “Hifumi for Christmas” and really deserves its placement as a bonus track. But the other three could really serve as breathers between everything else. (And isn’t it kinda effed up that Sayaka, the Ultimate Pop Sensation, and Leon, a wannabe music performer, don’t get their own song(s) featured in the main line-up??)

Also, Hifumi actually got genderswapped?? Like that’s canon to the musical??? I didn’t know that! Girl Hifumi for the win!!!!! So yeah “You Don’t Know” has a ton of homoerotic tension. And nice girlfriend moments with Aoi and Sakura asking Chihiro to join them for their workout.