#tsubakura len’en

[alangdorf]

I finally drew Shion (after almost eight months) so I can finally post my shrine team + secret team ref lineup YAY

[fryshrimp]

len’en autism

[flanenjoyer]

WOAH THIS IS GREAT

(ノ๑`ȏ´๑)ノ︵⌨

[yabusame-houlen-official]

Sometime ago, @tsubakura-enraku drew my Len’en OC, Amatsubame (though I don’t think he posted it to many social medias).

I decided to draw his Len’en OC, Zuikaku, in response >:3

[yamanoskk]

[ The multiplied stories that all have the same start ]

Happy (very belated) 9th Anniversary of Len'en Project!

This time it’s heavily focus on BPoHC only, as in how the several stuffs that happen in this time has Suzumi as the real mastermind behind them, to simply lure Tsubakura out.

The first time I know & got in to this series was a time around when BPoHC demo is published (~mid 2015). Got hooked in the story (the len’en wiki already had a English translation at that time, I’m really thankful! ;;v;; ) & really enjoy the character design + OSTs. So I started to keep in touch in this series until today. XD

Even though the game itself might not perfect, BPoHC (& the Len’en project itself) will always have a special place in my heart. ;v;

Thank you so much for create this series, JynX!

[singular-yike]

Tell me about Ink Twink Supreme (aka Tsubakura Enraku)

Oof, that's a tough one, as the name Enraku implies, they are truly a dark and mysterious bird...

But! Nothing ventured, so here goes: The "greatest prodigy in all of history", Tsubakura Enraku, the Loafing Monochrome.

The Enraku En-igma (I love bad puns lol)

Tsubakura is one of, if not straight up, the most mysterious characters in the series so far. So before we dive into them in any specific way, let's take a look at what makes them so unknowable

From an in-universe perspective:

As a character within the world of Len'en, we know so much yet not at all about them. Unlike characters like Yabusame or Hooaka on whom we simply lack information, JynX has practically bombarded us with little juicy bits regarding Tsubakura, yet has never elaborated on them. Here are but a few of them:

Is apparently not a complete stranger to Shinto shrine work (EE Tsubakura's Extra)

They own a sword, whose shape changes depending on their mood (EMS title screen & 2021 Interview with JynX Q154)

They're able to remodel their own body, e.g. to be cold-resistant (RMI Official Profile)

They've once accidentally made a nuclear weapon (BPoHC Scoundrel vs. Shion), although apparently the responsibility doesn't really lie with them (2021 Interview with JynX Q172) (Perhaps they merely oversaw someone else do so at their lab?)

They “dislike” Yabusame, and yet are constantly found together (AWTIF False Spirit Account)

They worked as the general chief researcher at a research lab under the EN corporate group (BotC EE Yabusame 3-4), although they were often a slave to their sponsorships (EE Official Profile)

I've only really picked one from each game, but we can already see that these are already plenty curious enough, and I haven’t even gone into their extremely contradictory personality and ways of acting.

From an out-of-universe perspective:

JynX has once stated that every character is based on something (in fact I would argue that everything in Len’en period is based on something), and while most characters can be tied to a historical/mythological figure, story or even just a concept, you can’t really tie Tsubakura to anything other than the vague concept of... scienceᵀᴹ.

This, of course, by no means detracts from the character at all. In fact, there are plenty other aspects of there character that one may inspect and analyse, like their design, character titles, themes, etc. But it does further the mystery of our favourite ink creature. (And it’s not even really ink...)

So yeah, the long story short is that there’s simply too much about Tsubakura that it’s impossible to go into them all at once. Although feel free to ask about any specific aspect of them, mentioned here or otherwise~

Tsubakura’s Name

Instead, I’ll specifically go into one of what I think to be the most esoteric parts of their character design, especially if you don't know Japanese (and even then it's esoteric, I'll be honest): The name “Tsubakura Enrkau”. (Please note that, for this section, I'll be using the Japanese name order, so "Enraku Tsubakura")

Enraku (燕楽) Tsubakura (玄鳥), the four Japanese characters in this name respectively mean "swallow (as in the bird)" (燕), "joy/fun/relaxed/comfort" (楽), "black/mysterious" (玄) and "bird" (鳥). Here we see possibly the most important part of their name, that they have a "Bird's Name".

In Enraku, we are able to split the word with its pronunciation exactly into "en" (燕) and "raku" (楽). When read, it shares the same pronunciation as a word for "partying/making merry" (宴楽), an allusion to their ability "to enjoy that which is enjoyable". In addition, as a bit of a bonus point, although rare, 燕 can be used as an alternative to 宴, so one can argue that "enraku" directly means "partying" as well.

Tsubakura is less direct, you will find that there is no way for the characters 玄 and 鳥 to give the pronunciation of "tsubakura". In fact, you will find that 玄鳥 is an existing combination that is regularly read as "genchou" to mean "swallow" (again the bird). "Tsubakura" is instead one of the possible readings of 燕, which we've already discussed, refers to the "swallow". Thus we see, that JynX mapped one possible way to say swallow onto a different way to write swallow. It's a bit of a stretch of an analogy but it'd be like if I wrote "football" but pronounced it "soccer".

And now for the most obscure part of Tsubakura's name:

In this image from JynX, they demonstrate by highlighting specific components of each character (in black or white) how the four characters in Tsubakura alternate between the secret meanings of "black" and "white", a reference to their monochrome colour scheme. (Common character for black: 黒; For white: 白)

楽 and 鳥 are quite direct, you can find 白 directly in both of them (Although I will be a bit pedantic and say that 鳥 does not actually have a 白 component, it just has a similar-looking part that you can dissect out of it)

燕 is the most obscure, the highlighted components combine to give 北 (North). In the Chinese philosophy of the Five Phases (五行 wǔxíng), water is associated with the cardinal direction of the north, as well as the colour of black, hence the hidden "black" in 燕.

Finally, as previously mentioned, 玄 can simply mean "black" on its own.

And that, I think, will do for this preliminary exploration into Tsubakura Enraku. Let us continue looking forward to their many exploits in the future :)

[rozengermainart]

When life give you Len’ens.....

AKA, I wanted a change of pace from my usual and went full on kawaii pastels..... With Tsubakura of all chars...... GOD this looks like a wallpaper....

[reimu-enjoyer]

Who’re your favorite Len’ens?

all of them! but specifically tsubakura enraku, rei and kurohebi

[tsubakura-enraku]

I can’t believe I didnt post these here but I HAVE TWO LEN’EN FANFICS now!!!!!

Temporary Sealing - Jinbei discovers that something has happened to Tsubakura. They decide to do something about it.

The Crane’s Birdcage  (JUST PUBLISHED!!) - A crane has a strange dream. Little does it know that this dream would signify the beginning of the end.

These are just the start of my series of Len’en horror fics, please read them and let me know what you think! I’ll be writing more in the future as well so please look forward to them!!

[rabbit-of-mugenri]

Len’en Height Headcanons (that are probably widely off)

Note that while BotC more-or-less confirmed the EE cast’s heights in comparison to each other (e.g. Tsuba and Tsuru are about the same height), I’m basically disregarding it in favour of HCs, so that should be enough of a warning as to how closely I’m following canon.

Main Characters

Yabusame - 5′3″ (160 cm)

Tsubakura - 5′1″ (155 cm)

Suzumi - 5′3″ (160 cm)

EE

Kurohebi - 5′7″ (170 cm)

Aoji - 4′9″ (145 cm)

Hooaka - 5′3″ (160 cm)

Kuroji - 5′0″ (152 cm)

Clause - 5′9″ (175 cm)

Tsurubami - 5′3″ (160 cm)

EMS

Jun - 5′6″ (167 cm)

Shou - 4′9″ (145 cm)

Lumen - 4′10″ (147 cm)

Hibaru - 5′8″ (173 cm)

Sukune - 4′9″ (145 cm)

Yaorochi - 5′2″ (158 cm)

Saragimaru - 5′0″ (153 cm)

RMI

Sese - 4′3″ (130 cm)

Tsugumi - 4′9″ (145 cm)

Iyozane - 5′3″ (160 cm)

Fumikado - 7′3″ (220 cm)

Shion - 3′7″ (110 cm)

Tenkai - 5′3″ (160 cm)

BPoHC

Mitsumo (like, the stand + the mirror part itself) - 6′3″ (190 cm)

Souko - 5′7″ (170 cm)

Medias - 5′1″ (155 cm)

Kujiru - 3′11″ (120 cm)

Kunimitsu - 5′11″ (180 cm)

Kaisen - 5′7″ (170 cm)

Kaoru - 4′7″ (140 cm)

Garaiya - 5′1″ (155 cm)

Sanra - 6′1″ (185 cm)

Para - 4′7″ (140 cm)

Mitori - 5′3″ (160 cm)

Chouki - 4′5″ (135 cm)

Haiji - 4′7″ (140 cm)

Yago - 4′9″ (145 cm)

Xeno a - 5′4″ (163 cm)

Other

Jinbei - 4′1″ (125 cm)

Tasouken (sword length) - 4′1″ (125 cm)

Terumi - 4′3″ (130 cm)

[alangdorf]

Listened to Eternal Dance Engine ~ Shall We Dance!! one too many times (and then like a hundred more times afterwards for good measure) and dropped everything to go draw this. Also tried out a new shading process which kinda did what I wanted it to but I’ll keep experimenting

[inorganicfaeries]

thicc putin be walking 10 hours

[sweets303]

Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for fair use for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research.

[kusoatama]

oh yeah i took part in #sixfanarts and boy was it hell lmao

[a-shitodo-blog]

Kuroji, heard ya were spreadin' rumors 'bout me bein' in couple with Yabusame. Dunno where ya fetched that, but it ain't the case. -Tsubakura

Am I mistaken? I genuinely believed so because of something that occured about a year ago. Either I somehow haven’t been keeping up, or...

Something truly strange is going on, even for a place like Mugenri... no, maybe I should just forget about it.

—Kuroji Shitodo

kuro isn’t trying to scheme anything for once, tsubakura. i really did think that was the case too. i’m sorry we were mistaken!! let’s just forget that this ever came up. —aoji

[yabusame-houlen-official]

here’s my art for the 9th Len’en Anniversary (nearly forgor to post it here lol)

Tsubakura could not come because they were too busy sleeping.