#turukomannjuu

[monk-of-figaro]

Fanart: 鶴子さん (Tsuruko-san)

Back in March 2024, after a few months of running this Tumblr blog, I decided that I was no longer satisfied using just the default Tumblr avatar and header. The problem was that, while I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted, I'm not an artist at all. So I thought to commission someone to execute the vision I had.

I took a chance and reached out to one of my favorite artists in the FF6 fandom: Tsuruko-san. I've shared some of her work on this Tumblr before, and not only is she incredibly talented, she's also very funny and friendly. But I was worried that this wouldn't work out because 1) she had never accepted commissions before and 2) the language barrier between two people who don't speak the same language may prove to be too tricky to navigate.

Luckily for me, after giving it some thought she agreed, noting however that she would likely not have time to work on it for several months.

You know what they say: good things are worth the wait!

Not only did she capture what I envisioned, but she expanded on it in ways that fit perfectly both with my vision and with Sabin as a character.

Here sits Sabin on a high peak somewhere on Mt. Kolts, watching the cresting sunrise and meditatively drinking tea. I like to think he just finished his morning routine of training: katas, or yoga, or wrestling bears, or all of those at the same time.

Distant mountains enshrouded by morning fog that has not yet dissipated, rays of the sun breaking through the peaks, clouds tinged by the color of the sunrise… all depicted perfectly to set the "tone" I had envisioned.

The gear and equipment that he's using was Tsuruko-san's brilliant addition. Inside the giant, leather-enforced sack behind him, Sabin was cable to carry everything he needs to make a nice cup of tea to go along with a bowl of walnuts for breakfast. No doubt the sack also contains things he'd need for lunch, for dinner, for sleeping, for bathing… essentially, wilderness survival, which is part of what he loves about Mt. Kolts.

She says she made this using both transparent and opaque watercolors on drawing paper, after which she takes it to a convenience store to scan. I suspect she started working on this back in April, going through a few drafts - both digital and on paper - trying to find the proper aesthetic. I think she nailed it, and I sincerely appreciate the care and thoughtfulness she put into this

Honestly, I could stare at this image for hours. Every time I look at it, I almost feel myself transported to that exact location, enjoying the crisp morning air and calm serenity of the mountains.

本当にありがとうごさいます、鶴子さん！ Truly, thank you so much, Tsuruko-san!

If you'd like to check out more of her work, she posts a lot of her art on her Twitter account.

[wsancho]

Link twitter: turukomannjuu

I love what this image is implying. They stayed together and they look so lively and fulfilled ❤️ Sabin carries a sword, which makes me think his friendship with Cyan continued to develop and helped him grow as a person and as a warrior, which also makes me picture Cyan finding a new home in Figaro and completely rebuilding his life ❤️‍🩹✨

...But the image also gives me a bit of heartbreak because it makes me think of the other option: the scenario where the twins don't get to reach that age.

The FFVI developers were considering to allow the permanent death of Sabin. In the scene where he's holding a house to keep it from collapsing, if the player took too long to go in and out of the house, it would collapse and he would die crushed under it. And this would be part of the story, no Game Over.

Then when spending the night at this town with Edgar in the party, he would get up at night and frantically search the ruins looking for Sabin 💔😢

This alone is devastating considering how lovable Sabin is (he might not be everyone's number 1, but EVERYONE loves Sabin), how pure and loving their relationship is, and how much of a relief and a ray of hope it is to find him at this specific moment when Celes is so vulnerable (physically and mentally). So the devs dropped the idea for being too grim.

But Soraya Saga (the writer who created the Figaro kingdom and the twins) didn't drop the idea. She later worked on Xenogears, and there are some parallels between her characters of that game and the Figaro bros:

Roni and Rene Fatima happen to be (fraternal) twin brothers who fought together against some evil government. Rene died protecting his brother, which deeply saddened Roni, who then went on to found a desert kingdom. Roni died in his 40s of undisclosed causes.

There's speculation about how the death of one twin affects the other in these stories. Some make Roni's unspecified cause of death to be death from a broken heart. As for Edgar, I remember reading somewhere that this desperate search for Sabin in the middle of the night would get triggered every single time, which can be interpreted as an inability to move on. It wouldn't take too long for this kind of grief to take Edgar out. He wouldn't have the same resilience, he would become an open wound🖤

Saga has stated that all the background stories she created for Figaro and the brothers are not canon (which is technically correct because none of it was included in the final product), but it sure looks like she had a very clear plot delineating their origin, personal development and final outcomes.

I commend her ability to kill her darlings, which many writers struggle with 👏🏼🥺

However, all things must come to an end and regardless of the twins' final outcome (happy ending or not), I feel that their lineage ends with them. Figaro is the last kingdom standing (which could very naturally evolve to a democracy), and the twins are the last royals left; one of which is a permanent bachelor and the other is celibate, so no rightful heir will be produced by neither of those two.

And this is their legacy. Both were fed up with politics and diplomacy, both were burdened by the responsibilities forced upon them from birth, and both showed up to fulfill their duties (in their own ways) like real champions. No child of Figaro will have to go through that same fate because they broke the system from within. They've honored their nation and their ancestors, but a longer lasting contribution is that royalty ends up dying with them, just like magic died with the Espers. This is a careful and laborious work of love from them to all the citizens of Figaro. Bravo my kings! 🤍

[final-fantasy-fanatic]

[monk-of-figaro]

Kiss Mark

I recently read a doujinshi (and to be clear, "read" is a generous word because it was mostly Google Translate and Jisho.org lookups) where the men of FF6 were talking about where they like to leave a "kiss mark" on their lovers.

From the illustrations, a "kiss mark" is likely what we'd call a "hickey".

All the men chime in. Setzer prefers the neck, Locke prefers the upper back, Edgar prefers the belly. Even modest Cyan chimes in, saying that on his late wife (who I learned is named Mina in the Japanese version), he preferred the shoulder. Surprisingly Shadow also chimes in, saying he prefers the ankle. Wowie.

Finally they all turn to Sabin and wonder what he prefers when leaving a "kiss mark". Our asexual king basically says, "Isn't that internal bleeding? I don't think that's a good thing." Amen, brother.

(BTW, take my summary with a large grain of salt. Like I said, I'm still pretty novice at Japanese.)

You can find the doujinshi here. I might take a stab at translating more of it because the whole thing is pretty funny. There's a one-page of Terra's initial meeting with Sabin where she mistakenly thinks he's a literal bear. 🤣

[monk-of-figaro]

Doujinshi: 鶴子さん (Tsuruko-san)

I posted about one of Tsuruko-san's doujinshi a couple months ago because it had a hilarious "Kiss Mark" (i.e. "hickey") joke. When they announced they'd be selling two manga books on BOOTH.pm, I jumped on them right away.

Both manga arrived a couple of days ago, and they're amazing.

The first one, 「ともの名は」 which you can preview on Pixiv, goes into a shared history between Cyan and Shadow, and also touches on Baram (i.e. 「ビリー」, or Billy in Japanese) and maybe Relm's mother?? Sabin and Gau also make a brief and adorable appearance.

But perhaps most importantly, it really highlights how much of a DADDY Cyan was 20 years before the game started. 🥵

The second manga, 「おしえて」 which you can also preview on Pixiv, is more of a collection of short, funny comics. This includes the "Hickey Discussion" (「キスマーク談義」) that I posted about earlier, but also this single-page comic where Terra mistakes an actual bear (one of Vargas's defeated Ipooh 「イプー」, to be precise) to be Sabin.

There are so many great things in both manga, and I'm ecstatic to have them.

You can find more of Tsuruko-san on their Twitter and Pixiv pages:

https://twitter.com/turukomannjuu

https://pixiv.me/sunshine_shobou

It's also not too late (I don't think) to purchase these manga from their BOOTH store!

https://sunshine-shobou.booth.pm/

BOOTH doesn't ship to the United States, so you have to use an intermediary service to ship them overseas. I've used Tenso a few times and haven't had any issues so far.

A heart-felt どうもありがとうございます to Tsuruko-san for the wonderful doujinshi! ❤️

[wsancho]

A long wait, but very well worth it 😍

I followed her progress with this piece on twitter. Just seeing glimpses of it, one could tell, this is going to be a good one! 😗

Beautiful depiction of a mountain sunrise and mah boi Sabin taking it all in after, as Jocko Willink puts it, having earned that sunrise 💪🏼😤

And just like a sunrise never gets old, I could stare at this artwork indefinitely. Thank you so much for sharing! ☺️❣️🌄

Fanart: 鶴子さん (Tsuruko-san)

Back in March 2024, after a few months of running this Tumblr blog, I decided that I was no longer satisfied using just the default Tumblr avatar and header. The problem was that, while I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted, I'm not an artist at all. So I thought to commission someone to execute the vision I had.

I took a chance and reached out to one of my favorite artists in the FF6 fandom: Tsuruko-san. I've shared some of her work on this Tumblr before, and not only is she incredibly talented, she's also very funny and friendly. But I was worried that this wouldn't work out because 1) she had never accepted commissions before and 2) the language barrier between two people who don't speak the same language may prove to be too tricky to navigate.

Luckily for me, after giving it some thought she agreed, noting however that she would likely not have time to work on it for several months.

You know what they say: good things are worth the wait!

Not only did she capture what I envisioned, but she expanded on it in ways that fit perfectly both with my vision and with Sabin as a character.

Here sits Sabin on a high peak somewhere on Mt. Kolts, watching the cresting sunrise and meditatively drinking tea. I like to think he just finished his morning routine of training: katas, or yoga, or wrestling bears, or all of those at the same time.

Distant mountains enshrouded by morning fog that has not yet dissipated, rays of the sun breaking through the peaks, clouds tinged by the color of the sunrise… all depicted perfectly to set the "tone" I had envisioned.

The gear and equipment that he's using was Tsuruko-san's brilliant addition. Inside the giant, leather-enforced sack behind him, Sabin was cable to carry everything he needs to make a nice cup of tea to go along with a bowl of walnuts for breakfast. No doubt the sack also contains things he'd need for lunch, for dinner, for sleeping, for bathing… essentially, wilderness survival, which is part of what he loves about Mt. Kolts.

She says she made this using both transparent and opaque watercolors on drawing paper, after which she takes it to a convenience store to scan. I suspect she started working on this back in April, going through a few drafts - both digital and on paper - trying to find the proper aesthetic. I think she nailed it, and I sincerely appreciate the care and thoughtfulness she put into this

Honestly, I could stare at this image for hours. Every time I look at it, I almost feel myself transported to that exact location, enjoying the crisp morning air and calm serenity of the mountains.

本当にありがとうごさいます、鶴子さん！ Truly, thank you so much, Tsuruko-san!

If you'd like to check out more of her work, she posts a lot of her art on her Twitter account.