#springtime of yuuth

[meeblo]

TBWF Reread Ch1

This one will have spoilers for further in the series, so read at your own risk if you aren't up to around ch25.

I especially like how the chapter covers look in the screentone heavy style of the early series.

"The sky looked noticeably vast today" connects back to the first color page in chapter 1 and the panel of Ren looking directly upward as he falls, continuing that small motif through the start of the series. This is also the only time Ren's dad is mentioned to my knowledge, with confirmation he's dead. Sheds some light onto what Ren's life was like prior, though you don't really see what his life was like until Springtime of Yuuth gives a look at what his home situation is like.

ch01p02 inverts ch00p14, with a mostly black page where Yuu calls to Ren at the top for ch00p14 and Lord Devil speaks Ren's name at the bottom of ch01p02. The difference is that while the ch0 page is from Yuu's point of view and thus the black section is solid, in ch1 it's from Ren's point of view so we get his internal monologue cutting into the void.

ch01p04 is the first full art page aside from the color view of the sky, an impactful way to show Ren's new situation. "Please tell me this is heaven" paired with obviously demonic imagery is a nice bit of irony.

ch01p05 shows an early look at Ramia's powers. It's visually consistent with when we see them actually used a while later, which is a nice touch. LD being a smug bastard and Ren being in denial on page 6.

The pages of Ren seeing the fabricated vision LD created followed by LD saying "are you ready to face reality" are great before you know but absolutely masterful when you have full context. On a first read, Ren is seeing his own horrible death, being forced to cope with it, and having to accept the situation is a great way of setting in the series' tone after the lighter but ominous chapter 0. On a reread though, when you know Ren didn't die and that the vision is fully fabricated, it's a sickening scene to see just how deeply Lord Devil manipulated Ren from the start.

ch01p12 is the first obvious sign of LD's bad vibes, with the speed lines and way the text "grab" is written showing the forcefulness of LD grabbing Ren, followed by the emotionally manipulative "you should be happy". Ren on p13 is so indignant that he has the courage to object to that, but even Ramia speaking (no offense Ramia but you're not the most intimidating) is enough to get him to meekly back down immediately. Page 14, LD smirks as Ren is falling apart, while Ramia notes his reaction.

p15, with the manipulative "I'm thinking of giving you a chance" Lord Devil is framing himself as oh-so-generous and benevolent. Ren is still in shock and highly vulnerable to manipulation and suggestion, and that's exactly what will happen.

My Art

This idea is something I had for a while, but I ended up just cutting my losses after starting over multiple times. I couldn't get what I had in my head down. In my head, LD would be more hunched forward, the arm shape even more exaggerated and... shapey? is that a term? as he looms over the scene. I imagined more of an abstract transition from his robes into the scene, but I didn't really know how to communicate that so his robes are just sort of opening like curtains here. Doesn't really make sense since it looks like he's just directly on top of it rather than looming over it.

I realized he looks like he has no legs in this drawing and I tried to lasso and move things, but I wasn't able to move everything at once since it was all on different layers and gave up.

For the future drawings I'm definitely just going to do sketches.

[vodkassassin]

Vod!!! You read the boy who fell and springtime of yuuth too?!!!! (My midterm got postponed today AAAHHH!!!!!!!) - Wren

Wren!! Hi!!

I love all that artists works. I’ve been following starfleetrambo for years now, one of the first blogs on tumblr that I followed.

[quartergremlin]

Springtime of Yuuth! Instead of geeting isekaied to hell where he learns about murder, Ren stays on the roof and makes a friend! On the bright side, in this version of himself, he doesn't have to worry about getting canabalized by his friends. On the other hand, he is rather lonely,, Springtime of Yuuth is a "what if" kind of comic, where the inciting event for "The Boy Who Fell" never happened. You can read that one here.

[meeblo]

This is something I tend to think about as well. I also mostly read serialized works these days, or ongoing long book series. In addition to what you said about the growing skill of the author as the work progresses being resonant, I find serialized works can often be much more interesting to discuss and dissect. Due to their incomplete nature, every small release provides a manageable chunk of new information to analyze, theorize regarding, and make predictions off of. This is something that can be done with completed works, but it requires a lot more diligence; you have to pace out chunks to stop at and think about rather than just continuously reading through, and you would need to either establish a read-along with a friend you trust not to read ahead or fall behind. The small size of each release encourage close reading, whereas larger releases or fully complete works are easy to lose the minute in given the larger impact memorable plot beats get over more understated subtleties.

It's for this reason why I can never relate to people who refuse to or prefer not to read unfinished series. Even when a series is on hiatus, cancelled, or otherwise unfinished without regular releases, it can still be a worthwhile and satisfying experience that is in some ways more interesting to dive into than a completed work. An unfinished story naturally invites interpretation and analysis and leaves the reader to think about what will happen next. The momentum of the narrative may be stopped on the page, but it continues through the reader's mind. In order to make predictions about what is to come, a reader naturally becomes more mindful of structural aspects of the narrative, identifying elements of the story in isolation as well as through their connections. Winds of Winter may not be out yet, but that has allowed fans to pick over the series with a fine tooth comb and come to understand the characters and narrative as a whole in a meaningful way that likely would not have had the community momentum to happen if the series was neatly finished. Patrick Rothfuss may never write The Doors of Stone, but the same phenomena occurs. Hunter x Hunter takes long hiatuses due to the author's chronic pain, but that long gap between releases has allowed the complex and layered narrative of the Succession War arc to be understood and appreciated rather than blazed through weekly and dubbed a confusing mess. Springtime of Yuuth, a spinoff AU to The Boy Who Fell, is a comic that will likely never be finished due to shitty commenters on webtoon killing the author's motivation, but the story is still something I have found fascinating enough to reread multiple times; by all means it has not had a satisfying conclusion, the comic has left off at a tense moment, but that tension is in some ways fitting to the themes the series was covering and leaves the reader in a mindset from which they can consider prior conflicts in the series with their proper weight.

Edit: oh my god how did I forget to mention ONE? Seeing his art and writing develop through the One Punch Man webcomic through Mob Psycho 100 and then back to the webcomic is so enthralling. I just don't find any of the things ONE works on drawn by someone else nearly as interesting. Both narratively and visually the connection just doesn't feel there. To anyone who enjoyed One Punch Man conceptually or early on but doesn't really care for where season 2 or really most of the manga took things, I implore you to check out the original source material. It's fascinating, it's far less bloated, and it's much more of an interesting commentary on ONE's own experience as a hobbyist artist, celebrity culture, the corporate use of celebrities as public faces to establish their own power and influence over politics as they push out a failing and corrupt but theoretically well meaning bureaucracy and establish an even worse system wearing a nicer mask in its place, etc. Mob Psycho as well is phenomenal. Obviously the anime is a good adaptation, but the manga just has that something to it with ONE's own art, and can use its medium in interesting ways unadaptable by the anime such as wildly varying chapter length at crucial moments.

I tend to read serialized works more often than completed ones. And after thinking about it tonight, I think it’s because I genuinely find something emotionally resonant out of a story finding itself as it goes on. Something about seeing a 5/10 yuri gag manga slowly develop complex relationship dynamics and a genuinely compelling shounen power system is weirdly inspiring. I dunno, it just like. Makes me feel like I’m going to be alright eventually. Maybe my 5/10 yuri gag life just needs to find it’s shounen power system.

[heartenvy]

so is this supposed to look like theyre getting married or

[beanmaster-pika]

It’s so wholesome how much Skull ends up caring about Ren

[redbird-art]

I’m really loving Fiore’s arc in springtime of yuuth! excited to see where this goes!

Really wanted to draw Fiore in the outfits that were on the mannequins in the store.

Fiore belongs to @starfleetrambo

[peachjumex]

drew ren from springtime of yuuth !! <3

ehehe dedicated to mrs @subak-ssi

[celiacelie-stuffblog]

I wound up bingeing the entirety of The Boy Who Fell and Springtime of Yuuth... So uh... Here’s Ren I guess.

[thatgirlonstage]

Webcomic Recs!

I read a lot of webcomics (although never enough). I recommend them individually sometimes, but thought it might be worth it to have a list of recs for different moods/kinds of comics people might be looking for :D

NB: I am not current on all of these webcomics; some of them I may be far behind on.

If at least one person doesn’t wield a sword, what even is the Point?

Awaken — Piras Dameschi, an impulsive redheaded rich kid on track to become a knight of Nova, instead finds himself joining a terrorist group that uses flux to fight abominations

Namesake — Emma Crewe is plunged into a world of magic when she discovers that she is a namesake: a person with the power to travel between magical worlds we know from myths and folktales. Meanwhile, back on Earth, her sister Elaine discovers her powers as a Writer to bring stories to life.

Nimona [Complete] — a young girl with shapeshifting powers becomes a villain’s apprentice. Nimona is no longer fully available for free online, but you can read the first three chapters as a preview before deciding if you would like to purchase a copy

Cucumber Quest — Cucumber is reluctantly the hero destined to defeat the Nightmare Knight and his henchmen. Almond, his much more adventure-happy sister, takes the lead on their quest.

Paranatural — bust a gut laughing at Zack Morrison’s flawless humor in this comic about a group of children taking on ghosts, spirits, shadowy organizations, and the horrors of middle school. [Full rec post here]

Agents of the Realm — a diverse group of college women become magical girls

I’m gay and would like some Soft Gay Content™ about people loving and supporting each other

Always Human [Complete] — two girls fall in love in a future  where “mods” make it possible to alter your appearance instantly

Heartstopper – openly gay over-thinker Charlie finds a close friend and eventually falls hard for Nick, a cheerful and soft-hearted rugby player

Springtime of Yuuth — Yuu quickly develops a crush on Ren, the new boy at his school

Balderdash! or, a tale of two witches — two witches away from home meet in a small town as they try to follow their own paths in life

I have adopted twenty children and would die instantly for any of them

Paranatural — see above

Cucumber Quest — see above

Demon Street — after some neighborhoods vanish off the face of the Earth and leave portals to another world in their place, Raina goes looking for her family, Sep goes exploring, and Kate and Celine build new lives in a city of monsters and magic

Beyond the Canopy — a young Sprigg named Glenn, searching for adventure, finds himself caught up in a struggle over an artifact known as the Forest Remnant, fighting and fleeing from skeletons, scarecrows, patchwork creatures, and more

Namesake — see above

I am best entertained by the thrill of nightmare fuel, angst, and existential dread

Please heed warnings, these comics all deal with dark themes and may feature graphic content

The Boy Who Fell — Undertale meets Hunger Games in hell. Ren, a shy and quiet human, falls into hell and must fight in a dangerous tournament for the chance to go home

Ava’s Demon — Ava is a young girl haunted by a demon seeking revenge against Titan, a tyrant who controls most of the universe

Damn it all to Hell — a recently-begun comic about a boy who summons a demon to make his crush fall in love with him

Nimona [Complete] — see above

Wilde Life — Oscar Wilde moves to Podunk, Oklahoma, where his new housemate is the ghost of a 1940s mathematician, a werewolf turns up at his door, and he befriends a witch

I like fantasy/sci-fi but I’m tired of massive end-of-the-world battles

Always Human [Complete] — see above

Aerial Magic — follows the daily life of a newly apprenticed witch

Wilde Life — see above

Balderdash! or, a tale of two witches — see above

Monsterkind — Wallace Foster is a human social worker trying his best to help the monster inhabitants of District C

List subject to expansion or alteration as I add to the too-long list of comics I read. Enjoy!

[meeblo]

TBWF Reread Ch0

Here it is, the start of my reread of the The Boy Who Fell, with analysis and an accompanying drawing or sketch each chapter. I'm doing this as a combination of a few things I want to do, namely reread TBWF and get better at art.

Not sure how I want to order this in the future, for now I'll do art first and then analysis.

Chapter 0 is fairly short so I don't have much to say. The striking solid red cover does a great job establishing the tone and prevents readers from getting the wrong impression from the majority of chapter 0 before Ren is pulled off the roof. Even while the basic school plot is happening, the reader wonders what that chapter cover was about and what the deal is with the ominous past tense narration.

It's interesting seeing Yuu's characterization here. You don't learn a ton about him in this one short chapter, but he's definitely different to how his characterization is later solidified in Springtime of Yuuth. Visually different as well, not just in art style which obviously shifted over time but in terms of body language and posing as well.

Ren's characterization is very nicely introduced here. Throughout the chapter, the narration in Ren's voice is going back through the events that transpired and trying to think over what he could have done differently. The nervous self-doubt is mixed with self deprecation, as Ren states that he is "simply bad luck". Ren stating that "Yuu had nothing to do with it" and that it was just his own bad luck shows him solely blaming himself for negative occurrences that are—though not entirely out of his control—decidedly influenced by other factors; this stays true of his character up to late in the series, where he finally starts to accept that the things he was pushed to do are proof that he is a victim too, not that he has committed unforgiveable acts. This isn't to say that Yuu is at fault here; the roof edge was precarious, but an eldritch tendril from hell pulling Ren off is the problem, Ren would not have fallen otherwise. This is just an early indication of a larger part of his character. Ren is also shown to be someone with little to no social connections and a pushover when it comes to someone with more self confidence than him, other aspects of his character that are relevant early on though not as long lived as his self-deprecating blame.

My favorite panel of the chapter is the last one on page twelve. The composition is very striking, with the directly top down view as Ren is being pulled off the roof and is now parallel to the ground facing up at the sky. This wonderfully recontextualizes the very first page, the only color page of the chapter, which is devoted to a full view of the sky. Though not the exact view Ren would see when falling, page two (as the copyright notice is technically page one) definitely conveys a different tone with the context of how the chapter ends. Page twelve is also the best view of Ren in the chapter, providing a full body depiction. This is the moment when you see Ren in the most detail in chapter 0: right as everything goes to hell.

My Art

I was definitely overambitious here for my first time ever drawing a scene in a digital art program. The perspective proved to just be too tricky, so Ren and Yuu's sizes don't quite match up; Ren in particular has a massively wide chest, strange proportions I was not intending. I wanted to try and shade things with screentone to replicate somewhat the look of the comic earlier on, but I didn't actually reference and see how star tended to use screentone so it's not quite the same. Overall though, I think I had a good concept for the piece and that the composition is fine even if the anatomy and proportions are all out of wack. There are things I decided to not go back and fix because I don't want to strive for perfection on every piece; I feel like I'm more likely to improve faster if I keep making new pieces rather than tweaking one until I'm absolutely satisfied with it. Real missed opportunity though to just make the sun the sun, I realized afterwards it would have been really cool to have made it the Hell Kitchen logo.

I gained a lot more familiarity with shortcuts and navigating layers, so it's nice to already have noticeable improvement even just from when I started this drawing to when I finished.

[thecatelier]

So I couldn’t help myself when by luck I got the springtime alphonse in feheroes only to see this specific level up line. I just kind of hardcore dissociated during it and couldn’t stop thinking of Sprintime of YUUth by @starfleetrambo so here’s Yuu dressed as springtime alphonse. ((I have no self control i’m sorry))

[quartergremlin]

Boyfriends! A cute comic about boyfriends. Everyone is dating each other and it's all very wholesome.

[lazycatmeowsalot]

Zhongli: In order to date me, you have to defeat my divine exes

Childe: Don't you mean your evil exes?

*Azhdaha, Osial and Barbatos appears*

Childe: What did you even see in them?!

[a-moth-to-the-light]

My Blog Masterpost!

#nice things :) -- my comfort hashtag, where i reblog posts that will help me out on a bad day! i hope they can help y’all out too :)

#future of six -- posts about what i'm working on currently!

#six keeps on running -- journal entries/stuff about my daily life!

My Latest Rambles:

Most-Listened of June 2024

Top Ten 2NE1 Songs

Top Ten StayC Songs

Music (General)

My favorite favorite favorite artists: Alba Reche, Bad Suns, Bleachers, BOL4, Bruce Springsteen, Chung Ha, Creepy Nuts, Day6, Kai (EXO), Mamamoo, Purple Kiss, Repion, STAYC, Twice, XG, Yena.

#six stans springsteen -- the springsteen-kpop amalgamation of chaos/song reviews!

(very long, very emotional) bruceposting about "i'm on fire"

#music chats -- for my developing thoughts on songs!

#six copes -- for my comfort songs!

#my fave songs -- for my 'songs of the school year' / 'songs of the season' series, which include a post reviewing and analyzing each entry!

#artist top ten -- because i just keep doing these no one can stop me!

Music (K-Pop)

#comeback celebration! -- content related to groups that are on my mind because of recent or upcoming comebacks!

SNSD Comeback Celebration -- 1, 2

Blackpink Comeback Celebration

Fromis_9 Comeback Celebration

I'll link reviews I've done of songs/albums by my favorite groups/soloists here, but you can find other k-pop reviews within the general music tags!

StayC -- Slow Down, Run2U, 247

Top 10 StayC

Mamamoo (& Soloists) -- Honey, Big Booty, Zinggle Zinggle

Top 10 Mamamoo

Red Velvet (& Soloists) -- Beg For Me

Top 10 Red Velvet

Yena -- Smiley, Lemon-Aid, Lxxk 2 U

Oh My Girl -- Eden, Kiss & Fix

Top 10 Oh My Girl

Reading (General)

#book stuff! -- general discussion of books, not analysis!

#comic sans -- analysis! not actually limited to reading, though, since i like writing little essays about anything with a narrative, so tv shows and podcasts are fair game for this tag!

Good Omens Post

#fruits basket diaries -- a series on the fruits basket manga--mostly analysis, but some fun stuff & more personal stuff, too!

Fruits Basket & Queerness -- 1, 2

Fruits Basket Character Arcs -- 1, 2

Reading (Webtoons)

My favorite Webtoons: #muted, Deadlove, Idiots Don't Catch Colds, I want to be a cute anime girl, Let's Cast Off, Maho Shonen, Springtime of Yuuth, Witchurch.

Idiots Don't Catch Colds Analysis

(Sort Of) Fiction Writing

#prose poem -- angsty little sketches of different scenes (kinda?) from my life

Sapphic Angst

College Angst

Me When Music

[clvmsyalien]

Idk if I should post twice in one day but screw it

Art of Ren from Springtime of Yuuth

An au spinoff of The Boy Who Fell both written and illustrated by @starfleetrambo