#that summarises most of my art actually

[citrinepixel]

✧ futures

made of

virtual insanity

[v4nnyzzz]

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[prettieinpink]

NEW YEAR, NEW ME

( A collab with thee lovely lele @bloombabydoll )

If you want to reinvent and rebrand yourself, or just continue to make positive improvements in 2024, the first thing is to evaluate your current year. 

EVALUATION

Reflect on how things went for you. Was there continuous growth? Were there many difficult times? Did you discover anything major about yourself and so on. Try to summarise your year in (a) paragraph(s) at least. 

Oversee your goals. Which ones you didn’t, did achieve, difficult ones, easy ones and the impacts it had on your life. 

Compare your dream girl then and now. Is your visualisation of your life currently different to the one you have now and why? 

List any major losses or successes you’ve had in your life, and how they have helped you or why it matters to you. 

This evaluation can be as detailed or simple as you like, but as long as you have a decent outline of your year. 

PREPARING & PLANNING

To prepare for 2024, you want to know what you want life to be like in 2024. Something realistic to a point, but still is a growth journey. 

Think of something that you can associate with 2024. This can be a word, a symbol, art, a song, a book, a movie, a place, or even just all of these things. When you think about your goals and your journey, this is your theme. This is something that should relate to your goals or your dream girl somehow. 

For me, I chose a word and a song. My word is growth because, for me, 2023 was a year for just being able to shed my old self which I did achieve however I just felt there wasn’t much growth as an actual person and not just in my environment. 

For my song, it is Mayflowers by Proleters and Taskrok. This song is the epitome of what I would imagine, is the most polished mindset. I would say perfect, but having a perfect mindset is near impossible. I want to have a mindset glow up because I’ve just been hard on myself lately which has caused my confidence to plummet. 

Before we get into the fun part of the preparation stage, we have to do some organisation in our life. I want you to take a look at your daily lifestyle and your habits, and be completely unashamed about this. 

Then categorise these habits into two sections; Leave and Leap. Leave habits are habits that you are leaving behind in 2023, leap habits are habits that are leaping into 2024 with you. 

Any habits that are self-destructive, addictive or generally harmful are leave habits. Beneficial habits and self-building are leaping with you into the new year.

I want you to do the same for people in your life, all environments (school, work, online etc) and anything else you believe needs to be sorted out. 

This works better if you can reason with yourself why it is a leaping or leaving habit, but don’t try to convince yourself a bad habit is good or vice versa. 

Now, I want you to document an honest paragraph about who you are right now. List your bad and good habits, your strengths and weaknesses and your behaviours. This one requires a bit more detail. 

Then, write a paragraph about who you will be in 2024, your dream girl. List her habits, lifestyle, behaviours, mindset, strengths and anything else extra. I’ll explain later but do not include materialistic desires in this your dream girl. Once again, this one also requires details. 

Stemming from those paragraphs, I want you to create specific and achievable goals. SMART goals are best, but I want to introduce you to how I set goals. 

I divide my year into quarters. For each 3 months, I have 3-5 goals for those months. Usually, it’s one from each area of my life. Then, I break down these goals. 

Questions and How They Help 

Why do I want to do this goal - For motivation and commitment. 

How it’ll benefit me - For the sake of improvement. 

How can I involve myself in this goal - To achieve your goal.  

I prefer this method because it is a lot simpler for me, as I am just a young girl and my bigger goals are more in the future in which I’ll utilise SMART goals. 

To create good goals; Make sure they align with your current values and life principles first. Try to avoid creating goals that you have just taken from the internet. Those goals just aren’t it and you most likely won’t follow through with it. 

Be specific. Don’t say you want to eat more healthily, instead say you want to include (a certain group of veggies/fruits) in your diet and reduce the intake of ( food/drink). 

E.g using eating healthy example

I want to eat healthy -> I want to start including foods that boost my immunity system and support my skin while reducing those that have the opposite effect. 

Then break down those quarterly goals into monthly, weekly and daily goals. Make these habits that you can establish in your lifestyle and have a way in which you can refer back to your progress. 

EXAMPLE GOAL BREAKDOWN

Quarterly Goal - Read 6 books.  

Monthly Goal - Finish 2 books.

Weekly Goal - Be or near half way of one book.

Daily Goal - 20 minutes of reading per day. 

AREAS TO SET GOALS IN YOUR LIFE

Academics

Spiritual

Fitness/sport

Health and wellbeing

Mental health

Personal life

Relationships

Hobbies and recreation

Now for the best part- vision boards! Collect all of your favourite images that embody your quarters or the whole year, then put them in one place where you can see them regularly!

Some ideas are a scrapbook, Pinterest boards, mood boards, playlists etc. 

Choose your theme; It can be your healthy girl era, your academic come back or whatever you want. You can have more than two btw.

Use quotes! Then actually say them in your daily life as a way to shift your mindset to reflect said quote.

Include inspirational people. It doesn't even have to be a millionaire or a very well established person, it could be your friends or someone on the internet.

Be imaginative. Your vision board doesn't have to realistic in my opinion, as the whole point of it to me is that viewing it daily and considering it to be part of your life one day allows for you to open up to those opportunities.

Materialistic Wants

I feel obligated to make this a separate section. This section is practically tangible objects that you want.

However, when choosing this said object that you want, mindfully think about why you want that thing specifically.

It doesn’t have to be meaningful, but as long as each thing on that list has got a purpose to you, and will serve you, I think it’s all good!

Conclusion

If you want, you can definitely start implementing habits before January. However, I believe that as long as you go into 2024 at least knowing who you want to be and shedding away any limiting beliefs, you’ll be fine.

Make sure to incorporate some self care rituals into your daily life as well✨

To end this, I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas! And that 2024 they will achieve to close that gap with their current selves and their dream girl selves! 💖🙏

[exaflux]

BTAS pre-production stuff/official designs and artstyle stuff

Don't mind the title, I'm a bit naff at titling things...

I'm sure people have made posts about it before, but just in case there's anyone that doesn't know, there's official documents on BTAS floating around the net. Things covering episode writing, bios, a bunch of art that animators would have used. Whole lot of stuff.

I've seen people ask questions/have discussion on things like imitating the style/character heights/other general things. These documents are all official and might be helpful so, hey, might as well share for those not in the know.

Gonna keep it short (I'll provide some links so you can check out for yourself as there's a lot I won't cover) but I'll outline some stuff that catches my eye (first bit is about pre-production and ideas they had, second bit is stuff about how they went about drawing/designing the characters)

Pre-production

In animation, it's standard to have a thing called a writer's bible, also called an animation bible. They include everything from plot synopsis, character/concept art, character bios, episode ideas, basically the whole nine yards. These are used mainly in the early stages to pitch ideas and get projects greenlit, but are also kept around as a handy shortform thing to summarise the whole project as much as possible.

As it turns out, the BTAS writer's bible has been extensively documented! There's a PDF of it actually! And if you don't want a PDF, there's a website that covers all the contents too.

As per writer's bibles, it has a ton of their ideas and direction they wanted to take with the show, from episode structure to joke writing right down to how much settings should be able to change per-episode. There's a whole lot of art too! Here's a snippet about some of the changes they wanted to make with the Dark Knight himself:

And just for fun let's also leave some info about how they approached writing Bruce Wayne:

Anyway! On a more interesting topic- some of the rogues. The bios of most of the rogues are included, as are some art of earlier designs. Riddler looks like a sleezy car salesman and Joker is kinda just missing his lips and has stripy pants is seems.

Also of note: in some alternative timeline somewhere we could have had Calendar Man and Gentleman Ghost in BTAS...

As for character heights... The height chart is sectioned into "head" height for Batman's head. The uppermost line is Batman's height, so Batman is 8 Batman heads tall. While it can be hard to make out some of the character heights due to the poses, it'd be safe to guess that you do take poses into account on the height chart. Two-Face is shorter on the chart than Harvey is for example but you'll notice that Two-Face's art shows his head tilted down slightly, so Two-Face isn't actually shorter it's just his pose.

You'll notice these characters are uncoloured. The colour palettes featured are an interesting point that deserve their own post. I'll touch on them another time.

Style Guides / Character Sheets

Style guides tell animators how to correctly draw characters. Can also be applied for things like backgrounds and props and the likes though, whatever feels needed to be noted to keep consistency even if other people are drawing the characters.

Character sheets are character sheets. 'Nuff said. These just show off a character looks from different angles. Expression sheets showing how character emote, art on full-body posing and sheets on hand poses are things that also tend to be covered in animated productions.

Can be found here and here. A lot of overlap in the art shown between the two links but they're absolutely full of character sheets and turn-arounds. There's definitely a lot more design documents I've seen about in other places, but alas, I can't track them down for the life of me.

Here's some highlights:

(When Twoface blinks only his good eye closes completely. His injured eye only partially closes)

("John Crane")

Some early character art:

~~~

If you made it this far then congrats here's some Batmen for your troubles

[sageourplanetmeow]

Indie Animations I Recommend

Haven’t posted in a while since, as I have said, my Apple Pencil broke and I haven’t been able to work on commissions or that one hazbin hotel animation… which I was actually getting through for once. Also I have fallen into a Varian And The Seven Kingdoms obsession.

Anyhow I shall now take the chance to share a couple indie animations I’ve watched/been watching recently possibly with a brief note about what kind of audience would enjoy it (might not be accurate I dunno)

First and foremost The Epilogue Of Endings which released approximately 12 hours ago as of when I’m writing this. And just before I summarise anything I just want to praise this pilot for HOW AMAZING IT IS DESPITE ITS SMALL BUDGET! The animation is fantastic and I swear something about it makes me so happy. The art style is also amazing (in my opinion) and suits the character designs perfectly. I love the character designs, just saying, and the voice acting is superb. I think my favourite designs from it are Blu (because I mean the mask and metal arms are pretty damn cool) and the ————. I won’t say who they are because the reveal is too good to miss, but you might be able to guess who I’m talking about if you’ve watched it.

Now to say what happens. This takes place after the sun ya know, goes. I think I’m probably the most interested by what exactly is going on with Mole but I think my favourite character thus far is Blu. I suggest you go watch it, it’s very cool. I think if you like Indie animation in general then this is a good pic due to its indie feel (positive). Also would suggest to people who enjoy slightly creepy media (it’s not that creepy in my opinion but it does feature the downfall of humanity and what happens after the sun dies so it’s slightly unsettling, it masters that feeling).

And here’s their Kickstarter

We also have Dreamworld which also has a season 2, I’m just linking the first one though so just so you know you can find the second season on the channel. As said by the creator, it borrows certain tropes/aspects from analogue horror and has animatronics. As it says up there it is a sci-fi horror series that is intended to be accessible to younger fans of the genre. Again, I love the story and the character designs. So far, my favourite character and character design belongs to THE Star Light. I’m starting to see a theme with me liking sun/moon/star themed animatronics. I mean this guy has a BOW TIE and a charming smile. If I wasn’t already dressing up as Varian for Halloween then I think I would’ve looked into trying to dress as Star Light.

The pilot hasn’t released but the animation from this teaser is SO GOOD! I’m excited to see the pilot. There’s also been music/songs released by them, I can’t remember if I’ve gotten around to listening to any but I fully intend on doing so.

I’m sorry but how is the animation this good with only one person animating it (I might’ve gotten that wrong). I find the character designs really cool and the art style is fun. They’re in space. The voice acting is good. Also just gonna say, they have merch.

This is Dungeon Flippers, a fantasy real-estate cartoon following Maulie, a manticore. (I copied and shortened down the description of the YouTube channel)

The animation is great and the voice acting is really good. The story is interesting and The Ace Of Wands Theme is a joy to listen to every time.

I don’t know how to describe the plot but lemme just… the animation deserves praise, it suits the vibe of the pilot and the character designs are amazing. Voice acting is also fun and I’d recommend this even if it’s just sea side/coast vibes you’re looking for.

This one is a YouTube channel that posts OC animatics and has posted Sundrop and Moondrop animations, just saying I think they drew the Sun and Moon Q&A comics soooo that was my introduction to their work.

Just watch this and you will see some PEAK animation.

Again, the animation is awesome.

https://youtu.be/XPE3nTxV2_k?si=Rgd5yBL9_B-Fl5i7

And that’s where the video limit comes, alas, but check it out. It’s by Meppity and has some really good paper looking animation.

And this is where we have the indie animated stuff (I consider it that at least) centred around pre-existing shows.

I myself am looking forward to making my own indie animated stuff or comics (I haven’t really decided, I’m just working on different characters whilst also writing fanfics and drawing fan comics and other art stuff on top of art homework. YAY

Here is one… dated… animation I did a year ago which took me a while.

https://youtu.be/jmteRdRgHWI?si=o-p-l9gheLSkw7Xr

It’s for an OC, but with their old design. The new design has a satchel, otherwise nothing changed to be honest. I also have done another animation which was far more rough but it was me animating whilst seeing who would win the election so it’s political and not about any of my ocs or any actual characters. As I said, I already have another animation in the works for Alastor so I have to wait till my Apple Pencil gets fixed or replaced to continue working on it.

[woodsie]

Shadow Yosuke’s Symbolism

I recently got a friend to play Persona 4 and we were talking about the symbolism of each of the character’s shadow selves, when we came to the realisation that neither of us really knew what Yosuke’s was meant to represent.

Chie’s represented her relationship with Yukiko. Yukiko’s her desire for freedom but lack of action in taking it. Yosuke has… a ninja frog…?

So I’ve done some digging.

Official Statements

The first thing I did was look at the official concept art sheet for shadow Yosuke. This primarily detailed that as the first of the shadows, they wanted it to be very obvious that their shadow’s and persona’s were the same thing.

This is done quite well and tells players subtly that they are the same without being obvious.

Jiraiya does look a lot like shadow Yosuke. The main body’s colour is inverted from black (evil) to white (good), the frogs eyes are added to Jiraiya’s head and the frog’s mouth becomes a chest piece, with the frog’s skin pattern carried over to the cuffs of Jiraiya’s clothes.

Jiraiya is easily the most similar persona to shadow. Important for early game. This idea is also helped by Tomoe looking very similar to shadow Chie, and allows the idea of persona’s and shadow’s being the same to be cemented into the players minds before they meet shadow Yukiko who is visually very different to Konohana-Sakuya.

Jiraiya In Folklore

My next step was to look for any symbolism between Yosuke and the story of Jiraiya himself. Granted, as a white woman™️ my knowledge of Japanese folklore is limited but I will summarise my findings and compare them to Yosuke’s story directly.

[Sorry for the weird formatting, I’m working around the 10 image post limit]

Both stories open with a character from an influential background and moving to a new area.

Jiraiya’s stance as a robber could be in reference to the fact that Junes is taking business away from local businesses and their families.

Saki could be taking the place of the woman in the house. Regardless of if she actually likes him, she is kind to him when others are not. This is something Yosuke admires greatly but it still doesn’t prevent Junes from ruining the Konishi’s business.

His shadow self is then a reference to the old man/magic frog. It recognises him from who he is, and although the shadow is hostile its intention is to teach Yosuke about the parts of himself he is trying to hide so he can reconcile with those feelings. This is what allows him to gain his persona, or in other words “teaching him magic”

Gaining his persona is what helps set Yosuke’s resolve and desire to avenge Saki and the others who have suffered due to the killer. He shows a distinct intelligence and is often the one to piece together vital information. Without him insisting they investigate Saki’s murder, the Investigation Team might not have ever existed. In that sense you could consider him a hero.

A good portion of his social link is devoted to him coming to terms with his situation, both around the murders and his place within Inaba. He frequently talks about feelings of loneliness and a desire to be valued, and he finds comfort in having his persona and being able to do something about what’s going on, it gives him some control over his life which he lost by coming to Inaba in the first place. Overtime though he does come to love Inaba as a whole and recognises that it’s the people around you that really make a place special. He’s not alone anymore and he’s far happier for it.

Other Potential Inspirations

In my attempts at seeing what others online think about potential symbolism for Yosuke’s shadow, I found that most people also did not understand what his shadow was meant to represent. However, I did come across a few older threads of people sharing possible ideas.

One of which was of a Chinese story about a frog in a well. The story related to narrow mindedness and limited perspective as the frog is unaware of life beyond the well and is amazed by it when told what it has to offer. This could be a potential reference to his dismissal of country life and him growing to love the town.

[kamidukki]

Tokyo Debunker: Towards the Annivesary

⚠️Warning: long read

⚠️Disclaimer:

1) Despite the seemingly endless stream of complaints at the beginning, venting is not my purpose in writing this. I intend this to be a personal reflection on playing Tokyo Debunker (TKDB) in general. Therefore, I'll try to be as civilised as possible, even when writing about aspects of the experience that I dislike the most.

2) This post also mentions other joseimuke games -> Twisted Wonderland (TWST), Akuneko (AKNK), Yumekuro (YMKR), etc.

3) I mostly watched the reactions of the JP fandom on X/Twitter, so if you find that some opinions don't match what you usually see in the international fandom, that's probably why.

I'll start by summarising TKDB's existing problems, things that mostly will stand out to a new player. Almost everything I'm going to say has already been said by someone else, and this video by RoseEmber on YouTube has succinctly pointed them all out, and people have mostly forgotten/forgiven it, thanks to the highly intriguing plot, it seems?

Still, I'd like to say them in my own words, so here they are.

1) Right off the bat is the use of artificially generated images as backgrounds. I have no way of being 100% sure that they're AI. In the unlikely event that they were drawn by actual human artists, this suspicion will turn out to be nothing more than slander. What started the suspicion for me was that the general atmosphere of the backgrounds reminded me of images created in Midjourney, which I have observed is often used/preferred by Japanese AI users as an image generation tool. What added to the suspicion was how the company handled calling out. What cemented my stance on the use of AI art to be abhorred in TKDB is a particular background: Rui's bar. I wouldn't have known its origin if it wasn't for RoseEmber's video. In my opinion, the company really shouldn't get away with this and should replace it with another completely original background.

There's no way they can afford to change just one background, I know. If they change Rui's bar, I am sure people will protest and demand that they change everything to human-drawn backgrounds. I have no objection to that, although I have little more to add. I'll come back to that later.

Anyway, the decision to use artificially generated images in Tokyo Debunker will always be the biggest setback and irony, considering it's one of the most localised joseimuke games (in several languages, no less). International fandom, from what I have observed so far, is far more merciless when it comes to this particular issue, so the effort that goes into localisation is wasted in the face of blatant act of cutting corners.

2) Next is something I find neither positive nor negative, but still a problem: the advertising. Now, the company behind TKDB is notorious for its aggressive, deceptive, flame marketing tactics. I find the ads hilarious myself, although I understand why people were so keen to get rid of them from their Twitter timeline. They're gory sometimes, and if you put headphones on, the music is disturbing. The comments I read often mentioned how persistent the ads were, despite having been flagged as uninteresting. I don't know how they got there, and I never got them on my TL, so I went out of my way to YouTube to see how annoying they were. In addition to the above, the fact that the ads DON'T REPRESENT the game at all is what gets me. Like... it's half funny, half upsetting. I mean, what the hell, dev? Your potential users are not looking your way because of this unnecessary circus. (Again, the RoseEmber video gave me some valuable insight into the ad issues).

3) Next: Character design. The said design includes their characterisation, not just what the eye can see. This particular issue puzzled me at first, but unlike my discomfort with Rui's bar BG, or the BG in general, I've come to the decision to let go and enjoy. Anyway, here are my two cents about the characters.

I don't even play A3, but the moment I saw Towa, Misumi's image immediately came to mind. Jin and Haru, if you're familiar with Hypnosis Mic, will remind you of the MCD duo. Tohma's personality shouldn't be as evocative as Twst's Jade, but, well.

Once a suspicion starts, it floods.

Kaito, the guy from Kimetsu no Yaiba (whose name I've forgotten as I don't follow the series too closely). Hyde, the guy from Jujutsu Kaisen. Moby, Koro-sensei from Ansatsu Kyoushitsu.

Having made it so far into case 61, I can say I look at them with zero negative feelings now, helped by the fact that I've found that they're not just cheap rip-offs. Their inspiration may be borderline imitation, but they're so damn well made that I can't get angry.

All but one: Haku.

He leaves me with mixed feelings, as I can't get over the fact that he's a borderline rip-off the way I can with other characters. Haku, as most players probably already know, is 'inspired' by Mikage of Yumekuro, a game which sadly ended its service in September 2024. I can imagine that people who see Haku before Mikage will find him a better version than Mikage. I don't blame them. Still... Mikage is a very distinctive character, and even though I am not a big fan of him myself, I still find him endearing because of those characteristics. His mannerisms, his character voice (he uses omae-san like Haku!) and his personality in general. They're designed to be laissez-faire characters who prefer to avoid trouble, quiet but mysterious in a way that draws players in emotionally, kind and competent in a way that no one else can be. As if that were not enough, Haku belongs to Hotarubi, a dormitory that evokes traditional Japan, while Mikage belongs to Tokohana, a guild with strong Japanese aesthetics and sensibilities. Since Yumekuro stopped its service, it feels like Mikage died and was somehow resurrected as Haku in TKDB...

Okay, enough sap, back on track.

4) Worldbuilding is next. OK, we can get straight to the point with this one. A game where the player has to live in a rundown building of a certain prestigious school on a tiny island with seven dorms where the fourth years have to go off campus or something... Hmm, sounds familiar. Yeah, no surprise, Twisted Wonderland. A game where the player has something to do with a mysterious ring and demon power with its shady contract system? Akuneko. I'm not as offended by this as I should have been (you know what they say, copying from a paper is plagiarism, but copying from so many to make it your own is research or something), but I won't blame TWST and Akuneko fans if they find this part problematic to the point where they refrain from continuing to play or even trying the game.

5) Finally, the gacha. Hmmm, I really can't say. I don't dislike the system in general, and I'd like to thank the people who spend more than I do, because it's thanks to you that the game, or any game with a similar system, can continue. Yes, yes, problematic, predatory practice, I'm aware of that. I'll come back to this later.

Okay, that's all for the less savoury aspects of Tokyo Debunker, I guess?

Despite all the problems, it turns out that Tokyo Debunker has raked in money in numbers that Romeo would approve of. It ranks fairly consistently high on the joseimuke games list.

It's obvious that one of the many reasons for this is its harsh, harsher than other games, gacha rates, which has probably encouraged players to keep pouring money in. Is it the biggest reason? Probably yes. Is it the only one? No, it can't be. I have some faith in humanity that the majority of people won't spend money just because a 2D character has a pretty face.

For me, and for a lot of people whose opinions I've spied on X/Twitter, the most important reason they're hooked on Tokyo Debunker is the highly intriguing plot, so let's start TKDB's good points with that one.

1) Again, highly intriguing plot points. Masterful execution. Engaging delivery. TKDB has no event or personal story (only chat) like other games, but its main episodes are done right on so many levels that I have nothing but praise for the writer(s) and the people in the production staff. I can only confirm that @/sakugintani (X/Twitter) is the writer of episode 13, but it looks like it's safe to say that they're all written by actual human writers...? At least I hope so. I think there's a problem with the music being used... I don't know the details, so I won't put it in the problems section above. Instead, I just want to point out how well the background music they chose for the scenes and events in the story fit together. I do find a small problem with the SFX, that the volume is not consistent, but it's too small a problem to pay attention to.

2) Interesting, wide range of characters. Despite what I said about the designs? Yes. An imitation of classical painting will still sell for a high price, as it turns out. They're written pretty decently, whether it's as individuals or their personal relationships with each other.

3) Localisation. Just wow. Really commendable that they employ actual translators of many languages and then allow players to switch languages with the simple press of a button. I mean, I love Twisted Wonderland, but it's really disappointing that they have separate apps/servers for separate languages... Something to do with the copyright thing or something? Akuneko, Mahoyaku and Bungou to Alchemist have no official English localisation, while Touken Ranbu's is finished. Anyway, this part in particular is the very opposite of a deal breaker for me.

(On a related note, I played TKDB because Minami (@/sakaimii on X/Twitter), who's part of the TKDB English loc team, posted about it. I don't know her personally, but I followed her because she used to work on the unofficial translation of Mahoyaku (mahoyakueng.wordpress). I find her (and her team's) work enriching and delightful. Glad to see the same for TKDB)

What else? Uh, I can only think of three... Well, that's just my personal opinion anyway. People may find other discouraging/encouraging aspects that I haven't listed here. There are some aspects I have deliberately left out, such as the UI, the raid system, etc., simply because I have no opinion on them at all.

The overall gameplay experience generates mixed reactions, ranging from boring / too idle, with the case impossible to solve without SSR cards, which becomes increasingly true as you progress through the levels. I have no problem with idle games, quite the opposite in fact. The reliance on SSR cards, on the other hand, is a hindrance to the enjoyment of the game.

Now, why am I writing all these things out, especially when most of them seem to have been left behind?

Because I want more people to get to know Tokyo Debunker. I want more content, I want to see it talked about, I want to read and interact with other people as it progresses, and I want to see the game itself flourish for a long time.

Sadly, that's going to be quite difficult if a lot of people are put off as soon as they start. I've already seen so many people driven away by the AI images (rightly so) and even before that by the adverts. I read one JP user commenting that no matter how much they liked TKDB, it wasn't something they could boast about or be as open about as other games because it made a lot of people feel uncomfortable.

At this point, I think there have been a few murmurs here and there along the lines of "the ads suck, but the game is actually great!" I can only hope that this will help people to try Tokyo Debunker and like it.

STILL.

It will leave us with a very undesirable situation if the player base grows but none of the problematic aspects change for the better. If a game with AI images and borderline rip-off elements does well, it will only encourage other companies, especially the smaller ones, to follow in the same footsteps. That's why I hope that the company is seriously considering a change, especially in terms of proper advertising and images of human artists (since nothing can be done about the rip-off aspect).

Am I asking for too much? Probably. Who knows. I don't have any insiders to ask about the company's financial situation and whether or not my request will put a dent in their wallets. My instinct is to say no, it can't be? Surely it must be in their budget by now to hire human artists to create backgrounds and real advertisements?

Then again, who knows. A game like this costs a lot. Potential users usually don't want a company to cut corners, especially if it's so sharp that it puts an end to someone's livelihood. From a business point of view, however, some corners have to be cut, because if they aren't, the other option is EOS, because it doesn't make enough profit, maybe not even enough to cover the cost of production. There are some Joseimuke games that had to end before they even reached their first anniversary. The obvious solution is to cut corners where it hurts as few people as possible, if possible none.

How?

I don't know 😭

One solution that immediately comes to mind is not to have the story fully-voiced, but even I can find myself protesting at the prospect of this ill-conceived solution.

Now about the gacha in TKDB. I mentioned how hard it is. Specifically, you need to pull 500x to get the pity/guaranteed SSR card featured in the banner. In TKDB, a single draw costs 200 gems, but 10-draw cost 1,980 gems. If you want to reach the 500 count, does that mean you have to do the 10-draw 50 times? I haven't had a chance to test this, but I think it's safe to assume that's the case (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!).

50 pulls of 1,980 gems will cost you a total of 99,000 gems (100,000 if it is a single pull, but why would anyone do that). If you buy from the regular gem shop and choose the most expensive option, 5000 gems for 10,000 JPY, you will have to part with around 198,000 JPY. Convert that into your local currency and that's the estimated price of a single SSR card of your choice.

Okay, you don't have to spend that much, I know. TKDB regularly gives out a decent amount of free gems, and they have several back-up shops that, if you use them wisely, will give you more valuable gems for your money. (They are a little overwhelming, by the way).

I'd like to do a detailed comparison with TWST, Mahoyaku, Akuneko for the mercy system in each of these games, but let's save that for another article.

The fact that you need several SSR cards to solve the case and unlock more chapters seems to be a deal-breaker for some people. The more cases you solve, the more impossible it becomes to play without SSR cards. At the moment I'm playing on two servers, one where I pull once I've collected 1,980 gems and the other where I do the opposite. On the latter, I'm actually able to get to case 53 with just a single SR Darkwick Chic card and 8 R cards (the casual outfit ones). It's starting to get too hard, though. It's not a walk in the park when you're f2p in TKDB, unless you're very lucky.

(On another note, I have heard that TWST is just as tough for some people who struggle a lot to get through OB combat, especially book 6? I don't remember having too much trouble with it, so I can't really compare it myself)

As I said, I don't have any particular negative feelings about the gacha system, provided it's done properly. In theory, it's a good system that allows people to contribute according to their own financial situation. It allows all players to enjoy the content equally, while the company still makes a profit. However, it needs to be done in such a way that if a company gets carried away and consumed by too much greed, there will be nothing but resentment.

With the system that TKDB has in place now, I can only hope that existing players don't get tired before management can focus on and implement improvements to the overall system and UX, and the only way to do that is to keep the current level of excitement generated by the main storyline steady, even increasing, while applying a fix where it needs one.

Alright, I've said my piece. That's all I have to say, I think.

To close this long, somewhat anticlimactic writing off, I would like to wish TKDB a long and successful journey. I hope that all honour students will be able to see TKDB grow into something better as we walk with it ❤️

[ranwan-love]

Channeled Messages from Ma Saraswati

Hi everyone!! On occasion of Vasant Panchami i decided to do this reading. Usually this auspicious day dedicated to Goddess Saraswati,marking the arrival of spring and honoring the Goddess of wisdom, knowledge, music, and arts.✨🌻🍀

Even if you don't worship her i truly wish you all would be able to connect with concious of creativity, knowledge,art, music, and passion. I also set an intention by end of this reading all of stuck energy from you people goes away and is replaced by spring and blessings. 💚🍀🌱✨

If you are going to buy me coffee so thank you in advance! (Opps! It's potatoes)

Close your eyes, take a deep breath and pick the pile you feel most attracted too.

Pile one

Cards: Chariot, Hanged man, Page of wands, Two of swords/cups

Okay so this pile might be of my creators especially musician because I keep hearing "there are people who wait for your music". This thought/affirmation can be used for just starting or being yourself to manifest even greater audience. But first you need to start,like take action and then let it be. Don't think like it didn't go instantly viral or something rather just let it be there. Your music will find it's Lover at right time. It's like the feeling of actually just being in love with process of making your art instead of being in anxious state waiting for some outcome. Your music is important for someone so just do it. Like on Chariot card I see the figure looking satisfied with a sense of calmness and yet proud of himself. So make music for your satisfaction instead of standards you have been subjecting yourself too. Go for something new too. Maybe you don't have to try finding completely new topic or something. Rather see the existing thing from a new perspective. I know so many artists worry over the fact that ow it's already done by someone else but maybe it's not done by you, from your perspective? Maybe the audience love that specific genre so they need more perspective in that genre only. Like if I have to summarise I would say try something which is already popular but add new perspective to it. If you have any idea in mind try working on it because it might feel like small anxious beginning but there is definitely involvement of some higher source, could be your ancestor or your own past life efforts. This idea will take you on long journey in future.

Okay, so it was supposed to be two of swords but I end up reading it as two of cups. It can be a cautionary remark. It's like if you get compliment with a sense of critic. Take it with good heart because at end how you view those comments will definately affect you. You can take it as mutual exchange where they are helping you to improve or other way around. So double check yourself how you will be looking at things or these interactions.

Pile Two

Cards: Eight of swords (j with 6 of wands),Two of cups, The Lovers, Seven of swords

Lol somehow this pile always get an extra card it's like they have so much to hear but than i go into deep silence. I want to ask do you watch too many readings, it's as if there's something going on in your head like always but you need to drop it because you have beautiful potential to connect yourself with pure silence and bliss. There could be some evident phone addiction. It's like stop feeding yourself anything you see. Take a break, create space for new wisdom to flow. There are very high chances you might be feeling stuck, overwhelmed and no where to go. So come back to yourself sit with yourself sit with your peace. There's so much potential of union. Union! You might ask what union? Union of you and your higher self who will guide you throughout this road less taken. There's so much success and collaboration on this road aka journey. You might meet people alike you. Just know that, like always remember your soul tribe and your true work will only bring peace to you. The Chances of deceit could be early eliminated by just trusting your inner knowing. If you think according to what your intuition says then all those finger critics will eventually manifest into sweet fruit for you! Because your guides and your higher self are looking after you.

This pile have really strong psychic abilities or atleast intuition themselves so trust it!!

Pile Three

Cards: Knight of Pentacles, Nine of wands, Magician, Fool

Hi my dear pile of powerful people full of potential but serial procastinators. How have you been doing while pretending that you are awfully stuck while knowing exactly what to do ? See i get your fear of slow results but maybe, maybe you should consider that things which take time are more stable, like castles are not built in a day RIGHT???? Like on serious note stop acting confused there are no shortcuts just start it. Get used to process because the potential, rewards, fame, money it hold is insane. Like stop staying in your comfort zone because your goal seems way too big. Like trust me no one is going to save you there not even your guides because you are being stuck by your own will. Start a new journey with belief that yes it's huge it's overwhelming but you are guided along your way. I don't know it reminds me of footprints in sand. Check it out.

Like my pile three you people are walking magicians. You have everything you need to bring this vision dream into fruition. Stop tricking yourself because you know it, i know it, we all know it that you got what's needed so simply start okay. Like i won't lie but there's so much resistance here while moving forward. But at same time my bro it's not external but you, it's fucking internal. You need to trust yourself and take steps ahead! Best of luck for that if not?? You are free to complaint for longer period in same position . Just keep in mind blame will be only yours not God.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

If you feel like giving suggestions for collective future readings, dm me. I would love to do it.

For paid personal readings:

[slightly-sad-sloth]

Robin Redesigns; Tim Drake!

He’s lying, he is cringe

Wow aren’t you so glad this was posted a decent length after the last one and definitely not *checks notes* two months after. And aren’t you so glad that the others will also be posted in a timely manner and I definitely haven’t committed to doing an art series for pride that will take most my time for the next month or so! Haha cause I sure am

COMMISSION OPEN

Part 1 | Previous

Text ID for sketch page:

[Sketch 1 - aw little guy!!! Arrow pointing to next drawing OH he’s a little fucked up actually…]

[Sketch 2 - Jason: What do you have that I don’t? R!Tim: I’m… not… cringe…]

[Sketch 3 - (The Jokers wild Summarised) R!Tim: I have the power of Alfred and D&D on my side!]

[Sketch 4 - Hyah!]

[by-gray]

give us an essay about why you like the eighth doctor

Essay is a dangerous request. I’m weary it’s late at night and I will need to sleep because I’m sick but I also desperately need to answer this. I’m gonna settle for linking my last Eight post here and adding more details on to what I answered in the last one…

So, to summarise the above post: great voice acting from Paul (a difficult task), Doctor that goes through the most “development” (which actually means regression), also has the most traumatic experience of all the Doctor: the Time War.

Other shit Eight goes through (so, spoiler alert):

An autopsy. Poor bloke (gender neutral) actually gets cut opened and his alien anatomy studied.

Gonna link a really sad fan art for this real quick:

He gets infected with an energy source called Anti-Time, which makes him turn deranged, forget completely who he is, and think he’s this evil deity from Gallifreyan myth called Zagreus.

The audio for this is so, SO, sad guys… Lemme link an audio clip of Paul breaking down.

Eight also actually loses his memories on multiple occasions. In one instance, he had all his memories erased by Davros about his two companions at the time – Gemma and Samson. They became mind controlled and kept by Davros and Eight was sent on his way, completely unaware he had two friends and they’d been taken. (He gets his memories back eventually – PAINFUL).

So yeah… His whole life is awful! But also his level of sarcasm, his genderfluidity, and the fact he canonically has a boyfriend as this regeneration… *ICON*

[konaiiro]

★ Art Tag ★

thanks for tagging me to play @doshiart @spookygingerr @michellemisfit

Have you always been interested in creating art? Kinda? No? Not sure. I think I've always been interested in art in the 'wow, thats cool' way, not really creating though.

What's your favourite medium to use? If digital, what programs do you like? I taught myself to draw on digital (wacom intus medium i still use) and have the free program firealpaca - im too lazy to change now. I've owned sketchbooks to take with me and it's good but I don't think I'll ever really get over not having the command + z tool.

Do you create outside of fandom? A little, I've got ocs who I draw occasionally.

Share something you haven't finished and/or never got around to posting OH so many, its not funny. But here's a more recent piece which was initially for AFTG pride zine. It was so good, I just couldn't make it work for WEEKS. I ended up switching up and doing something else.

Favourite piece you've made? OH well, i've got a few but this would be my pick for 'konaiiro wrapped'.

Draw your icon in a minute or less - pass!! :,)

An underrated piece you've made in your opinion

you lads slept on this one (forced to screenshot from instagram bc its old and i can't find the file and, as established, im lazy). So much wrong with it and yet i fuck with the vibes and texture and expression and pose- UGH

Do you do art in a professional setting? No, not really. I've done comms in the past and I was going to go do animation in uni, but found that i like to keep my creating up to me. I would be open to run comms again, but under a different structure I think.

A piece you don't like but did really well on social media

yall flocked over these two idk. i like them enough just,, i'm so aware about all the mistakes lmao.

Post an old piece and compare it to your most recent, what are the similarites? I've done some redraws so NOW is a perfect time.

Ian and Mandy (March 2022 vs September 2024)

i think from a creation perspective, i know my base lineart is much cleaner and rendered.

Background is,, actually there lmao. It kicked my ass to draw but it happened.

Style has changed a tonne to more realistic (?), proportions are less all over the place.

effects are just better

I can actually draw hands huzzah!

They actually have a skin tone (+freckless!!)

Have you ever collaborated with another artist/s?

Yeah! A tonne; for events, challenges, zines, charity art calendars (hint hint aftg 2025 calender sales end 31st of Oct, all profits go to help those access gender affirming care.)

What piece has the most notes? Are you surprised?

I've been active on tumblr from around the start of the year, but I think its this one?

Who/What is your favourite subject matter?

honestly i think my blog name summarises better than I ever could.

Show us something not from fandom you've made

old oc art

Where do you like to create?

Desk in my bedroom! I like facing my window so I can look out like some tortured artist when my eyes need a break.

Give yourself a shoutout, where can we commission/buy/follow you for more pieces?

I'm on twitter, tumblr, instagram all are @konaiiro !!

Any mutuals, if you've made it this far, this is me tagging you lmao

[folcanta]

i'm trying to summarise the way i engage with the fiction i really enjoy, like, the divide between enjoying its presentation at face value and enjoying pulling it apart to see how it works. in trying to talk about it through text it's sorta hard to avoid coming off as pretentious instead of earnest, so just know the crux of this is that i'm both fun funny and whimsical and also deadly fucking serious.

contains spoilers for escaflowne and jjba. and i guess metal gear?

i love to feel. i love melodrama. i love art which seeks to consume you, to share a body with you, briefly, to remind you what it is to feel a feeling. not in literal form (and melodrama is usually taken to mean "flat", lacking subtlety) but a fantastical representation of an ache deeply felt— and in that way it becomes more real than anything. the desperate dejection of the father in INTO THE WEST. the hard and physical, breathless, and then suddenly floating, drifting mood at the end of HEAT.

i've never been much of a shipper or whatever because most of the time, with the stuff i really love, focusing on that feels like a distraction. i don't enjoy Ace Attorney through the lens of phoenix/edgeworth, because i find their canon (and implications therein) friendship (along with larry) so riveting, i want to follow that thread to its many conclusions. if that makes me sound like a joyless crank, um... well, i'm not.

my JJBA OTP, namesake of this blog lol, is a personal delusion yes, but the reason why it struck me the way that it did is because it's based on a moment in JJBA which is then repeated with other characters going forward— a turning point between two people (this is key to it also, that it suddenly turns intimate) which expands the story right out from under you, a painful rugpull, a literary move. it's not solely about the plot expanding— the plot of stardust crusaders remains the same— but the entire work expands because the author has suddenly revealed that there was always more going on, and to stay on your toes. shaking your foundation. everything is the same and everything has begun to change. that's what grips me about it, that's why i find it so romantic, and i mean that in a classical sense too.

going back to Ace Attorney, most of those turning point moments are expressed/developed by the story of the familial bond between maya and phoenix. because that is/coincides with the actual plot, i don't really find myself inventing new "what if?" relationships because i'm so satisfied by the presentation of the facts.

i think the storyline of MGS3: Snake Eater falls into this too. you know what your mission is, and can expect what will happen, but the heartbreak of finally fulfilling what it promises feels completely new once you reach it. the Boss is like the peak example of characters who are aware of their narrative, aware of the role they're made to play by forces beyond their control, and despite being correct, must suffer for it. in my own work i tend to call this The (trans) Male Cassandra, because that's the type of guy i keep writing, almost like i have a vested interest in doing so. it's in this one way that i think characters like n'doul and jotaro are similar, and that's not only rare, but the way it's presented is rare too. especially for a story like stardust crusaders. but from there on, because of it being in stardust crusaders, i can see the future more clearly, and i can hold the story to a higher standard, because it's also holding me as a reader to a higher standard.

spoiler | the way n'doul reacts to jotaro, what he says about him, admires about him, laments to him, tells us more about how we should see jotaro. the way jotaro reacts to him does the same thing. in this singular fight, first jotaro is freaked the fuck out, then they're both having fun and mutual respect is earned and acted upon. when we realise jotaro means to keep n'doul alive, the reader is abruptly put in a position of knowing what's about to come before jotaro does. he should, but he doesn't, because, for this one moment, he thought something else was possible. even the type of death is different (suicide) and jotaro's reaction is different (shock/horror.) we saw rules, we suddenly see exceptions to rules, we knew what to expect, suddenly those expectations are changed— and the immediate tragedy of possibility denied. watching him try to do something we know isn't going to work out also serves to make him seem younger, and putting this in sometime before the fight with dio is a good reminder that he's human.

spoiler | it's a big part of what compels me about folken, as well as what i find bottomlessly heartbreaking about him. death seems to be a necessary component of the role of the seer/cassandra, but escaflowne shows us how desperate and dire the escape from fear and violence is. this being folken's ultimate aim above all else (to free van from the cycle), and hitomi pleading with him saying if he dies, then van will be all alone... hitomi is telling me why it doesn't make sense, and the story then sets it up such that it lacks even the paltry comfort of closeness, if not catharsis, for van. at that point in the story, i can't help but find it cruel in a way i don't find n'doul to be, or even the boss. cruelty is done to the boss in the storyline, the internal world is cruel to her. you can critique the "fridging" or whatever, but it isn't a departure. it doesn't unravel the story, it's key to it, for all time.

i was telling my partner that when it comes to something like Metal Gear or Ace Attorney, the quality of the thing imo speaks entirely for itself. if someone doesn't like it, or focuses on only some minute aspect of it, or goes off on a mad one interpreting signs and symbols that imo aren't there, the thing speaks for itself so loudly and plainly that any difference of opinion rolls right off my back.

then with JoJo's Bizarre Adventure it's similar, where i think araki's career and evolution of maturity in his storytelling and contemplation speaks for itself too, but my experience in the fandom (going way back now) was of people who claimed to enjoy it admitting they neither read nor even watched it, and were in no way capable of or interested in taking it as a piece of art. instead it was something to consume through someone else's summary, as fast as possible. which made having genuine conversations about it difficult when i'd try to talk about textual aspects of the series. conversations were dominated by moralising and headcanons. so compared to the above, i do feel more moved to defend it on that basis.

there's a nasty habit of presuming araki is a fucking slapdash idiot and that none of his choices have any internal coherence, which is plainly wrong, rude, anti-intellectual, and past a certain point, probably racist. the man has written books about his approach to writing manga and there's decades worth of interviews for more. but the game of telephone people play with JJBA in lieu of any sincerely felt relationship to it is a barrier i have a hard time talking through. so while it bothers me and i still try to talk it up, ultimately i have to shrug this off. we're having two different conversations.

then with Escaflowne i feel like i have to defend her with a knife LOL.

i know this isn't literally true, but having seen and read and talked a lot over the years, it seems like a huge chunk of people on earth are coming to it with either preconceived notions and expectations or preconceived notions in the form of feelings crystalised at grade school age. the latter isn't a criticism, it's life, it happened to me. if your feelings crystalised simply but positively, i do believe it was for a reason; you felt something and couldn't make heads or tails of it then. or you attributed it to something which then becomes something else later.

i'm not going to pretend there's no alternative to liking escaflowne, lol, i understand disliking it. however, dislike shouldn't preclude one from respecting it/taking it seriously. i talk about this below, but designating a piece of art— particularly from a time period in which art was funded, lol— valueless, especially foreign art, isn't something i personally want to be caught doing.

preconception of any kind is hard to disentangle because it must be tested. i think it was like that for me, and now with my adult perspective i can really easily point to what about it stirred and stuck with me because i have a map of creative work from then to now which points to it. (particularly in writing, if not art, though i think the film particularly informed my sensibilities.) and i'm still surprised by many things i missed. even if emotionally they landed, conceptually they didn't. which is why i really believe that in key respects it Is that deep.

i see people compare it to magic knight rayearth, but it's simply the truth that escaflowne sought to accomplish different things than rayearth and for a different audience. rayearth's narrative in the manga and anime is furibund in a way escaflowne isn't. escaflowne's masterful approach to pacing means episodes can fit a lot in them without being hectic— what frenzy there is, it's sustained only within the scene for which it's appropriate. but it doesn't have the same bounce as rayearth. there's breathing room. it differs structurally. escaflowne's story is in great part shown not only through character parallels, but scene parallels, done back to back in direct poetic contrast. so from that, i understand it's only being compared in terms of genre, but in terms of genre, escaflowne defies shorthanding. and as time goes on, that's more and more impressive to me. elevator pitches don't do much for me, and "[IP] meets [IP] x [trope]" takes me out instantly. inability to summarise it concisely (without ignoring some key component) is to me a credit to its form, not a shortcoming.

the problem is, like JJBA, it takes time to show someone what makes escaflowne's deft feats of emotional storytelling stand out. even though everyone agree the soundtrack is beast mode, for some reason it's harder to believe that escaflowne deserves that soundtrack. deserves its all-star team of artists. deserves its film. as if to say, you, the viewer, also don't deserve to witness (and are encouraged not to think about) this great joint effort, this great coalescing of ideas.

its staying power isn't immediately recognisable in still images. among things i'll mention further down, lack of time/patience and preference for secondhand experience is a real problem which affects art as much as anything. the art may not appeal to everyone but with how much art i hope fellow artists (in particular) have been exposed to, i need them to come to grips with the possibility that outright aversion to style might be a juvenile bias relative to where they're at in their creative career. if you're a professional artist, and the most technically skilled you've ever been, and you can't recognise or value work different from your own, or amateur work, there is a gaping deficiency in your skillset. unwillingness to engage in "low culture" is as tedious to me as unwillingness to engage in like... theory or whatever.

like great people, great works of art are often reviled in their time, then smoothed out and rebranded, defanged, resold. discussing art and examining ones own responses to that art is i think essential for the spirit and those around you. it's infectious and influential. it's actually, like, good and important to be self-serious sometimes. there's a totally insufferable cowardice in refraining from emotional indulgence. not just making "weird art," but feeling it. admitting your influences. admitting what you wish you could do. and trying.

and i really think even if you don't like the art, there are other aspects that succeed. i'm interested in film enough that i can point out all the camera work, shifting of perspective, timing, that make the series uniquely filmic, utilising techniques we associate with live action. that should be interesting to you not just on its own but because it isn't something we tend to have reason to expect from anime (because anime can tell a story through other means) nor expect it to be carried throughout so consistently as a crucial part of what we're meant to understand. if you don't like the plot, i still think the means of the plot expanding are executed with clever creativity. but it's the same problem: this requires time, and this comes through in motion. the visuals of the series are informed, altered, recontextualised, by the sound and the silence. someone has to be willing to see it, not past it.

escaflowne is a huge exercise in inference.

and it rewards for that reason— it rewards care and attention. because it doesn't beat you over the head with exposition, there's room for more nuanced storytelling. i think that is The enduring magic of it, what it demands from the viewer as a participant in the experience. it's not passive. or, its seeming passivity as a story/experience is a deception. i have full faith in the writer and team that the metaphors, symbols, parallels are exactly as intentional and significant as they are, because they are what sells the meaning of the story— but even at the time it stood apart for the same reason it's difficult to get people into it now, which is that we've since rapidly moved into such an age of western literalism and graceless lore and total lack of respect for art as craft, as work, as language. art as not simply aesthetics, but art as communication. when what's being communicated becomes simpler and done through simpler means, in as simple a process as possible, and only references the aesthetics of the past to imply history/thought without having to think, and in turn buries history.

one has to deeply, earnestly want to communicate something. and be willing to work to accomplish it, risks and all. the risks are necessary. failure is a teacher, and in that way, failure ceases to exist. and i don't say this stuff because i think it's easy. i am bad at working. i am bad at staying afloat. the same qualifiers as always: the work is hard, making time is hard, the work you like may not be what you're naturally inclined to make, not all forms of work are accessible/possible for all people, communication comes in many forms, and it's not only work to communicate, it's also work to learn how to become fluent/familiar with someone else's communication style/method. but that process fascinates me. it's a challenge. i'm not always up for it. but i can't help wanting for connection. i value the time i allow myself to sit inside something for however long it takes to process. if i dislike something, i want to understand my reaction and see if i can understand the method and motivation in which it's told, and if that clarifies something. i'm always hungry to understand. art is also fearless for me— the craft, the labour, if nothing else, makes me closer, more familiar, with the world, including the people i admire. sentiments like this mean so little to me. i don't imagine my inspirations/aspirations in defensive RPF like this and if i were treated poorly by someone i admire, i wouldn't admire them, because i don't admire that behaviour. and, their disapproval of my work wouldn't sway me. but i also don't approach art, or artists, even my favourites, with the goal of permission-seeking.

bearing in mind how much physical and mental effort it takes to create art, i am completely comfortable meeting/respecting it when it's shown to me, and, completely comfortable ignoring something disingenuous and soulless. escaflowne does not need a remake, no matter how much more "content" you might want. look at the anime remakes of recent years, they're horrifying. the source of your nostalgia already exists— it doesn't justify a hollow reanimation.

in a similar vein, i also don't need or yearn for it to be gay or trans just because i am, because my identity comes from myself, and the experience of being me is expressed in the art/stories i make. absent of my response to it, the media i enjoy is, to others, as representative of me as a blank sheet of paper. i don't cultivate my interests based on what i think will best represent me As Gay. i don't cultivate my interests based on the checkboxes of a scene i'm trying to fit into. transness is inextricable from me, but the things that look and feel like transness to me do not to other people. this doesn't make it lesser.

folken's narrative could effortlessly be explored as a transsexual one even if just because it mirrors what in my own life feels intrinsic, inseparable from transness, in the only way i've experienced it. but it's my own art that i hope speaks loudest to the nature and quality of my soul and ethics/ethos. you should demand better. but knowing when to demand that of yourself, not others, is important and affirming. shipping etc. is your own imagination, so you've already accomplished part of the work of creation. not all, but some!

it feels too easy and unfair to insist the series would be "better" if it were less heterosexual, as if profound pain and romance can only affect you if it's a 1:1 recreation of yourself. you are always bringing yourself into what you love. and you can aspire to it. you can be shaped by it. you can be dissatisfied and seek resolution, but eventually you're going to hit a wall where there are no more answers, because they were never intended to be answered in the first place. what's your next move?

i like thinking about art and i like making it. i have insane, baseless faith in my motivations and, if not my execution, then my interest in learning how to execute them. it isn't enough for me to have my interests, ideas, inspirations floating around in the realm of the hypothetical. i demand more. at the same time, i should settle for less, and i'm making a serious effort to learn how so i can avoid burning out (if that's even possible when capitalism is designed to be punitive and disabling.) but i also know i won't be satisfied by languishing. art has been the singular constant in my shitty, chaotic life— by making, i'm also making myself more real.

i'll always be able to laugh at Ace Attorney as much as i'm able to be held in the cinematic grip of, in particular, the drama of the last case of the 3rd game. and i'll always be able to think about eli snake hanging out with his 3 dipshit dads and whipping machine parts off of mother base and zipping around in heelys til he eats shit. as well as thinking about how beautiful it is that david snake fulfills the role/will of the boss in a way of which the same dipshit dad is incapable. i'm invited to play and also to contemplate the critique of the american war machine. i'm not saying this because i think this is a unique ability, lmfao! this is very simple, this is the baseline.

what i AM saying is... what a treat it is to love escaflowne. to enjoy such well-considered art, indulging in the wholeness of the vision. it can't be overstated just how much effort went into its creation— to have not only a series but a chance to revisit in the form of (possibly? definitely?) one of the most lavish anime films ever made. even my ample critiques come from a place of trying to meet and respect the art from its position, in its own internal context, its place in the world, and in my life. if i'm a good artist/writer, it's because i saw escaflowne when i was 12.

and that's why i wield the knife. lmao

[calamarispiderart]

HAII i was wondering what kind of brushes u use for ur art:3 they're so delicious in texture and im so obsessed ive been wondering abt it for a while (specifically ur favorite/most used brushes to use and also the brushes u used for your weak and overwhelming piece)(that last bit def does not give me away, this anon could be anyone, OKAY YAY TYYYY)

hihi!! B:•] okay so i actually use quite a lot of brushes and tend to switch them up a Lot; i work in procreate, so ill list the default brushes for you! i also use a variety of brushes from brush packs ive found over the years... AND a set of brushes that ive made myself recently!! my 'favourite' brush tends to change frequently enough that i cant easily list One brush, although i do mention a particular favourite below. i try not to stick to one brush for too long.

default brushes i use frequently in procreate:

all of the lightpens in the luminance folder

multiple edited versions of the oil paint brush in the painting folder - i exclusively use my edited versions, as the main oil brush doesnt look quite right for me

occasionally the syrup, baskerville stable, inka, gel pen, ink bleed or fine tip pen under the inking folder - also edited versions. any pen that has the stability setting applied is edited to remove any stabilising

occasionally any pen from the airbrushing folder

other random pens from random folders according to how im feeling

basically, it changes quite a bit... i would list all the pens i like from downloaded brush packs but thatll get quite extensive and a bit harder to follow without being able to show the brushes themselves, sooo ill summarise it to one of my favourite pens from that extensive catalogue, which is the 09 pen from a pack called 'fooarc splash' that a friend of mine sent me. i have an edited version of that for painting as well. it has a wonderful texture to it (⁠´⁠-⁠﹏⁠-⁠` )

the weak and overwhelming piece, iirc, was made with an edited version of the default oil paint brush!

im happy to share any of the brushpacks i use if wanted, including the ones ive been using a lot recently that i made myself B:•] fun fact, the base stamp for those is a picture of jerma, and the rat from his movie 'rat movie 2: the movie'! ive been using those for the majority of my recent sketches and paintings (aside from pixel brush pieces)

ehh, hope this all answers your question! sorry i cant give you a single set of pens haha, im a bit all over the place BX•] but isnt that fun?

[herzspalter]

Hii! I was at a big con for the first time the other day. Everywhere artists sold their fanarts and my sister had the idea to sell fanarts herself. I did some research on the internet and found out that selling fanart is illegal. But everyone is doing it! What is your experience with it?

Sorry about this specific question. PS: love your art. It is stunning.

Hello there! I'm very happy you like my art, thank you!

Selling fanart is kind of a grey zone. There are certain circumstances in which you can do it, even though it is technically illegal. Through the years in my own experience, the very basic rules are this:

Only sell artwork you made yourself. This should be obvious, but don't ever sell merch with official artwork on it, because those are bootlegs and that's a whole new can of worms;

Don't ever ask an official account or spokesperson if it's okay to sell fanart. This is an unwritten rule that has many nuances, but the very basic gist of it is that most companies do not care if you sell fanmerch. Some companies like Hasbro for example have always had a pretty friendly co-existence with fan merch and fan stories, and they know that fanart is a way of introducing more people to their shows etc. That's why a lot of companies turn a blind eye to fan merch selling. However, if you ask them if you can sell your fanmerch of something they own the copyright to, they will usually have to say "no". Because yeah, it's usually illegal. But because they know that fanmerch is usually niche and small and doesn't actually hurt them, they can allow it as long as nobody asks about it. Again, this is a very summarised basic explanation bwaha

Don't sell anything that is in direct competition with official merch. For example, if there's an official pin with a specific design, don't try to copy that design and sell it yourself. That's when you are a technical negative factor for their own sales, and when they might have to intervene with you.

Don't mass-produce fanmerch. This is another unwritten rule, but fanmerch usually operates under the idea that you only do limited runs, and you don't have thousands of pieces of something that you sell. Imo it's kinda implied that you shouldn't be able to make tons of money with it constantly.

Don't try to sell fanmerch in an official store. Just keep it to conventions and online shops to be safe!

Don't make Disney merch. They will fuck you up if they find you.

But all in all, even though it's technically illegal, it's fine to sell it in limited doses :) I've been selling fanmerch for six years now and I've never had any trouble because I've been abiding to the rules above, so honestly if you don't try to become rich with massproduced fanmerch, you should be fine! <3

I wish you good luck with it!

[megabuild]

dear scott, as someone who does actually enjoy owen's work outside of POW its genuinely infuriating that youre right about it being so corporate. it's baffling to me, because on one hand i do see the niche that they're trying to go for? it could be fun to have some more scripted smps, it could be fun to have little minigame dailies server events and such. but the way that theyre going about it is such a weird take on.......the art of storytelling? it seems to arise specifically as a take on fandom interaction as opposed to genuine interest in art. i love owen. i love his new life, and outsiders certainly did something to my brain tho i wouldnt necessarily say it's for everyone due to it's.... politics. but i think ultimately the problem with POW (and largely, Lore capital L in minecraft smps) is that it feels like an uncanny recreation of art as opposed to art for art's sake. i'm sure people will disagree with this, which i'm fine with, who am i to stop you. and i wouldn't say it's a moral failing, like, i'm not plato. so i just sort of heavily sigh and wait for my insane art friends to do something compelling with all that. love, evan

hi evan! i was holding onto this at first because i was hoping it would springboard me into actually explaining why pow comes across as so disingenuous even though i know that's not their intention and they're fully capable of making something good, but honestly, i am very tired and you summarised the entire thing too well to risk it gathering dust in my inbox. the way pow approaches storytelling reminds me a little of empires' take which came down to uncanny mimicry of whatever had the most likes in the fandom's tags, except instead of taking fan ideas pirates is so committed to telling a story it leaves very little space to play in? i think that there's scope for some sort of axis of dsmp-empires-rats/pirates (pick your poison as both had very flawed stories for completely different reasons)-qsmp irt smps that desperately wanted to acknowledge the love of storytelling that this fandom holds but ultimately failed for whatever reason, but i am too sleepy to think about any of that right now so it will have to wait for another day. love, scott

[readingsfrommars]

A Hero in a City Full of Giants

So I just got positive on my covid test and have nothing better to do. I figured I might as well get started on the Don Quixote analysis of each of her IDs.

Please note that I am not infallible, and can very well get things wrong. Additionally, I might not do it all at once. It's kind of a lot.

I will also not be going over T Corp and Cinq Association in too much detail here, as I have already covered them in earlier posts.

For now, I'll discuss Shi Association and Blade Lineage. They're both pretty clear cut, so they're unsurprisingly the most brief explanations.

With that sorted, let's begin.

To start, it's important to remember the setting of Limbus Company. To summarise a lot, and I mean a lot, The City is a hyper-capitalist dystopia, one in which the best way to survive is to look out for yourself first and foremost. It is a place where in order to get anything meaningful done, one must be strong. The systems in each wing exist to benefit the rich and powerful, while exploiting the people beneath them.

Altruism is an endangered concept with The City. In a place where you have to give everything you have to merely survive, the ability to help someone else for no benefit to yourself is a luxury. Any who try will, assuming they aren't killed first, inevitably discover the futility of their actions.

Suffice it to say, heroes don't last long.

And yet, Don Quixote is still here. Still trying, despite everything that has impeded her path. Throughout the story, we have seen her time and time again going out of her way to help the weak and downtrodden, to varying degrees of success. And, while she might not be an actual hero - at least, not yet - her identities provide an interesting perspective on her motivations.

With every ID of hers we've received, we have seen a Don who, in one way or another, failed in her journey towards Heroism.

I'll start with Shi Association. They're assassins whose lethality also extends to themselves. They tend to excel when they're on the brink of death, which means that any mission they're in is likely to get very, very bloody. In Don's case, the ID story shows us that, while she acts jolly and upbeat around her colleagues, she is a deeply traumatised woman by this point.

Her ID art should tell you exactly how heroic she feels at this point. Shi Association Don is no hero, only a weapon that is on the brink of breaking.

Moving on...

Blade Lineage Don is an brief one. Don seems relatively sane compared to a number of her other IDs, even more so than LCB Don, but it is explicitly stated within her ID story that she has long since given up her quest for heroism.

Pretty straightforward, honestly. Don has lost the will to fight for others, instead deciding to act in her own best interests. In the context of The City, this would be considered a good ending for her. She's alive, still has her sanity, and is a part of a syndicate that has an above average level of morality. Not that being above average means anything, really...

So that's those two IDs done. I'll try to get the next few done by tuesday, but I can't guarantee that. If you've read all the way to here, first of all, thank you very much, but second of all...

Should I include Don's Lobotomy Corp ID? It feels a bit like an outlier, but I expect I could probably find something to talk about with it.