#well I'm a weird bad anime style artist so this is all you get ever anyway I should accept that

[sixcalibur]

Anime AU because I can

[shoechoe]

I searched "Ren Seeks Help" on Tumblr and I stumbled across your APC posts. I just want to say, that they were quite fun to read. I also find this show really fascinating - my favorite thing to put in the background while drawing are Media Mementos' videos about this show. I admit, I'm too sensitive to gross-out to watch the show in its entirety, I only watched some clips and Ren Seeks Help.

A big part of the reason why I am interested in this show, is because I am interested in John Kricfalusi in general. He's just... a fascinating kind of person, you know? Whatever he makes is weird in a way you can't quite get anywhere else. And he is such a great artist, too. I read through his whole blog, and he really knows his stuff about animation. You can just feel how passionate he is, how it really is his whole life. He is well known for having ridiculously high standards, but you have to admit he knows what he wants and what he wants is quite tasteful, cool and stylish. Well, most of the time. That's the thing with John K, his taste is really weird and specific. Half beautiful moody art, half gross-out jokes.

To me, Ren Seeks Help is just... beautiful! The expressions are so specific and inventive, the colors are so moody (I especially like that sequence of Ren walking to get help). Though, from what I've seen, the other APC episodes aren't as pretty. Altruists, from what I've seen, has this weird thick lined style, that just isn't that appealing. You can't help but think - what if we took this skilled director and staff, but gave them some restrictions, to showcase all that artistry without the bad parts? But then I realized, that was just the original Ren and Stimpy haha.

Anyway, this show is super unique, because it's one man's (almost) unrestricted vision. It's so finely crafted, so much thought went into it, and yet it sucks. Like, you'll see a character do this beautiful, smooth, well drawn sequence, but they're doing something absolutely stupid.

Usually, but not always, writing and art tend to be similar in quality. If a show is made by people who don't care about the writing, then the animation is usually also not that great. And similarly, if there is enough care put into a show to make it beautiful, then there is often some passion behind the writing too. Of course, this is not a rule, but what I'm trying to say is, that it's rare to see a show like APC, that has such a high gap between artistic quality and actual content.

So yeah, that's about it. Thanks for posting about APC. I rarely see people talking about it, and when they do, they often just repeat the same points.

Cheers!

Holy shit, another person interested in Adult Party.

For a start: I do not blame you for not watching the thing in its entirety if you're repulsed by gross out, LOL. As I have said before, I gagged twice getting through it. It really tries to be the most vile thing you could possibly animate.

I do think John K is a fascinating case. I mean, what do I say about him that a thousand people haven't already? He's a groomer and overall abuser, especially to his workers, and he is pungently nasty and bigoted. He should never be allowed to be in any position of authority ever again and he certainly should not be worshiped in any way.

I absolutely do not want to downplay John K as a case of the industry propping up abusers. John K was only really fired from Nickelodeon because his constant fighting with the network and terrible direction was causing issues with getting episodes out, not because he treated his workers horrifically. And even then, it took until 2018 for the decades-old grooming accusations to come out for his public image to be soured. It was horrible and a significant marker of how broken Nickelodeon is systemically.

John K has been exposed for years at this point and, while he should've faced more real legal consequences for the shit he did, I feel confident saying that he will never be given another job in animation and his cultural influence has waned just about as much as it will. And there really is a lot of interesting stuff to talk about with how John K's life and opinions influenced his work (the constant recurring father problems, for instance, to the point where it's uncomfortable) and his work's subsequent cultural impact for the time, as well as how his abuse punctuated all of that.

Ren and Stimpy was a darling of the nineties, after all- and that makes it even more interesting to look at how John K's abuse of his staff, extremely poor ability to communicate what he wants, and refusal to just finish shit made him a nightmare to work with and caused so many issues with production that he was fired off his own show. The animation is really technically good and fascinating to analyze, and it culturally changed animation, but you know the nightmare behind the scenes it took to make just wasn't worth any amount of good art.

Adult Party Cartoon is a very unusual case of a show for many reasons, but one of the biggest ones is indeed the contrast between the obvious technical skill in the animation (despite me really not enjoying it aesthetically due to John K's obsession with making everything extremely ugly) and the actual content being... Like that. I do think I would be less interested in it as a show if it weren't so well-animated.

Sometimes the focus on animation quality actually tangibly worsens it. The horrifically slow pacing of the series is used to accentuate the skill in the animation of every scene, yet it also completely evaporates any comedic timing the jokes could have. Like, in Onward & Upward, there's a scene that lasts for about a minute that's really well-animated- and it's of Stimpy eating a guy's snot. You're aware that this scene required skill and talent to animate yet it's absolutely abominable and it just drags on.

I'll stop rambling, but basically: Yeah. Adult Party is really interesting yet largely culturally forgotten or dismissed, partially because I think people really don't... Want to remember it, LOL. John K is a vile person- fuck him- but he is also a fascinating case as a creator in multiple ways which makes his work interesting to talk about and look back on.

[lawlietscaramels]

Hey, uhm... hi!

I had seen you have reached 210 followers which is wonderful! Great job, both your art and your writing has brought me some happy moments over the course of the last few months I've been here.

Can I ask you about your art journey? What's your relationship with drawing? Did you like drawing as a kid too? I'm currently struggling with learning how to draw (despite having graduated from "elementary" art school, lol) and I like your style, so I thought it would be interesting to get to know how you got here.

Sorry for bothering, and even if you don't answer (which is totally fine) have a nice day/night!

WLAHHH HI THANK YOU SO MUCH I'M GLAD YOU LIKE MY STUFF !! I'M GLAD IT'S MADE YOU HAPPY!!!!! <333

My art journey, huh? It's so weird to be asked about it!! Not in a bad way, I just never expect these sort of things.

As a kid - I don't know. I took an art enrichment and elective at different times from years 5-7 and I absolutely hated that. It was all "draw this piece of paper with the lights turned off" and "draw this vase with negative space".... But at the same time, I drew (bad) sketches in the margins of all my textbooks. So I guess I enjoyed "doodling".

I got into art when I got into anime 🙇 ... Yeah. Having an OC I really wanted to draw as if they were part of the media, and seeing other people do that, really motivated me. That's ... still what motivates me. I don't necessarily want to mimic the anime's style so much anymore, but I have the most fun when I draw Rie, even if it's silly!!

If you like my style, you should know it's had many many identity crises. I've tried (with my limited skills):

Watercolour (ish) (the background took 15 hours)

Anime (got pretty good at it, if I say so myself)

an obsession with chibis (I never get the facial proportions right)

semi realism (please give Rie her heart ahoge, Lei. this is Not Rie.)

whatever this is, that I only managed to do one time and kinda want to do again

and many many more, all different, some with only subtle changes, some with drastic. There is a lot of super ugly in between as well! I feel embarrassed sharing it hajajsj but believe me: I don't think what I have above is perfect, but it's some of my best work. I've improved a lot because I've drawn a lot.

I've settled on this, for now. And I like it, for now. But it'll probably change again, when I don't like it or when I like something else more. Maybe it'll be better, maybe worse.

But really it's just a lot of experimenting, picking out what I like from a thousand other artists, practising, changing, practising again... By changing style so much I've learnt a lot. I don't know, I was drawing in a different way for months and then I went back to anime and drew it the best I ever had.

I had a brief stint of teaching myself the human bone structure too. That was helpful. I should do more of the art class stuff, the colour theory and muscle and light and shadow.... but I don't wanna BDBSBZBXN

And I do it all to draw my Silly Little Characters <3

Sorry for the giant ass answer and good luck drawing!!

[vaugarde]

Aim to be a Pokemon Master! Episode 11: The Rainbow and the Pokemon Master!

It's bad scoob.

I feel mean saying it's as bad as it is, but like... honestly, I don't see the need to hold back. This was a sendoff to one of the most recognizable anime characters of all time, a character that's been around for years and years and years, so his final episode should've been handled with the upmost care. Otherwise, it'd just be disrespectful to the fans AND the characters themselves.

So how did they handle it? Badly. Under the cut because this got really long. Sorry in advance if the readmore breaks.

The episode is a mess of "throw a dart at the wall" style quicktime events with a kinda tangentially related question about what being a Pokemon Master even means. Which, the more you think about it, makes the entire miniseries feel like a waste of time.

Again- I am fine with this miniseries being a relaxed time calling back to old filler episodes by just having Ash, Misty, and Brock chill out and interact with the world. But it really feels like they wanted to have their cake and eat it too with the Eon Duo plot. You cannot act as though the miniseries is just going to be cute filler and then act like there's actually an overarching plot that we should absolutely care about.

What makes the Eon Duo plot feel even weaker is that it barely plays a part in this final episode. It is the reason Ash is now home. Because... the Latis also went home, I guess. Yeah they don't really connect it all that well. But beyond that, and Ash reminiscing about them a couple of times, they have zero relevance to the final episode. It really makes the whole thing feel like a waste of time more than anything.

I'm three paragraphs in and I haven't even talked about the actual plot so let's do that. Although in my defense, the pacing in the episode is awful, so if anything, this post being poorly paced is kind of an artistic choice if you think about it.

So, Ash, Misty, and Brock all say goodbye again in kind of a hilariously underwhelming way (I get that they've done it before, these characters will most likely see each other again, and they were never going to do anything as impactful as the OS finale, but... still) and Ash just kinda fucks around at Professor Oak's the whole time. There is a missing Charmander quicktime event that has nothing to do with the conflict, but it gets Gary to appear and ask Ash if he's closer to becoming a Pokemon Master, which sets up the "main conflict". If you can call it that.

I actually think Gary presenting this question is a good idea. Ash has been chanting about being a Pokemon Master for so long, yet has never had an answer for what that means. So his original rival who used to put him down so often being the one to really make him think about it is nice.

But... why on earth did they put it in the final episode and not the first? Why not have the entire miniseries be about this question? Hell, the marketing made it seem like that was going to be the case by having Gary pose the question in the trailer, implying that this was going to be the main conflict of the miniseries... and then it isn't. It's just the characters dicking around for ten episodes, and THEN we ask "what's next?" and that's really weird to me. Now the conflict has no space to breathe because we've only got like 15 minutes to cover, and any answer he has is going to feel rushed.

Speaking of rushed- boy howdy is this episode just a series of sidequests all shoved out as quickly as possible! Team Rocket's shitty breakup plot has ONE SCENE where they all just sorta huff at each other before they reconcile for the simplest reason ever (they all want to capture Pikachu. Which they were doing anyways and there's no reason why they would think the other members weren't in on that after the breakup). The missing Charmander sideplot leads into nothing and is an episode prompt that was done better in several other episodes before this. Gary is shoved out of the plot as soon as he's said "Pokemon Master".

And then there's Pidgeot who gets its own paragraph because this part of the episode actively annoys me and it's probably the most mean I'll get... I just wanna say... does any actual fan of the show (IE: people who still watch the episodes, keep up with the show, not someone who just kinda accepts stuff like "team rocket are teenagers" at face value because they haven't seen the show in years) actually care about Pidgeot as a character? Because I don't. Pidgeot is nothing to me. Pidgeot has absolutely no substance as a character. All it did was try to eat Caterpie that one time, pop balloons, do search parties, and then leave.

It might seem silly to insist it has no character when it's an animal that can't talk, but that feels like an empty argument when the other Pokemon are so expressive, even if it's just in certain episodes. Even Primeape, who spent muuuch less time on the show, left more of an impression with it's character arc before it left.

But in any case, the reason it seems like the bird has stuck around is because of it's release episode, which caused several people to write clickbait articles about how Ash is actually this fucked up horrible trainer because "he said he'd be back for Pidgeot!! He ABANDONED Pidgeot!! I can't believe the show wants us to think he's good when he was so HORRIBLE to Pidgeot!!" Ignoring that the line was actually a dub-exclusive one and there was never any implication that Pidgeot wanted Ash to come back for it. The idea that Pidgeot was abandoned is fanon. There's nothing to correct. There's nothing to "redeem" about Ash because he did nothing wrong.

But of course JN LOVES its clickbait- I mean, respectful character cameos! So of course we have to spend time in this episode bringing Pidgeot back in the most underwhelming and contrived way possible (Team Rocket nabs Pikachu and Ash left his Pokemon behind for... some reason.... and Pidgeot is just there and helps out and Ash is like "Wow Pidgeot you should join the team again!"). It had to right this horrible sin the OS committed! We gotta redeem Ash in the final episode you guys!! Now all those clickbait articles- I mean loyal dedicated fans are satisfied!!

So basically, they canonized something that people who actually watch the show don't actually care about, because we gotta get those clicks in I guess. Keep in mind, there are other Pokemon that got released that could've used the spotlight way more, that actual fans would have appreciated a lot more than this. Like I dunno... Ambipom? A character that was notoriously done dirty by her original season? Butterfree, a Pokemon more people love and remember? (We even got a glimpse of that in the JN finale so like... obviously it was a plot they knew people would have liked to see) Hell, why not bring it around to the first JN episode and have Pikachu reunite with Kangaskhan? Have a little cohesion and really make the journey come full circle?

Nah, obviously the bird no one cares about beyond misconceptions is more important here.

The actual reunion isn't even good. Usually, when a Pokemon returns to the team, it's an event. It's a stinger, like when Gliscor came back during the Sinnoh league and ended off the episode, and then the beginning of the next one builds off from that. Here... it just kinda happens. Pidgeot rejoins the team and then the episode runs off to the next sideplot with no space to let it breathe. Nothing about the plot would change if Pidgeot just stayed with the Pidgey flock. Wow. What fanservice. They really did care about this plotline you guys.

Anyways. So after that happens, while Delia is trying to give Ash the ugliest shoes I've ever seen (poor woman, her son runs out on her so much that she hadn't had time to make anything better) Ash and Pikachu get stuck in a rainstorm, and they watch the same gen 1 Pokemon they've oogled at all season, go "wow the world is HUGE!!!!" again because of course they do, and Ash is like "Well, I didn't actually feel the champion thing all that much. I think being a Pokemon Master is about loving all Pokemon. So let's go love more Pokemon!" and then he takes the shoes without saying bye to his mom and then he's out of the show forever.

... What

He's been.... he's been doing that the whole time though? Why are they acting like this is an epiphany and this is something Ash has to change if he wants to be a Pokemon Master? Shouldn't he be one already by that logic? If Ash didn't care about becoming champion, why did we spend so much time on that? Doesn't that undermine a lot of the show?

What was the point of any of this?

And I think that's my main issue with this miniseries: there is no point to it. It barely feels like a finale, it just makes the weakest gestures possible to make it seem like a finale, and then it just ends. It's a mess.

It feels less like a respectful conclusion to the character, and more like... "Eh we're gonna try something new next season, but we don't wanna leave Ash off the table if it bombs, so let's just kinda put him on the sideburner and wait and see". It's non-committal. It's frustrating.

"Well, why is that so bad? Pokeani always clings to the status quo, they never let the characters age and grow, why would they stop now?" Well... because it's literally the end of Ash and Team Rocket's time on the show? Because they ARE about to change the status quo by bringing in an all new cast and setting? Because this whole miniseries was advertised as an ending and celebration of Ash, and therefore the expectation is that something substantial has to happen to justify him not being in the show anymore?

Ash not changing after DP or XY or SM is a little strange, but it's also fine because he's gotta keep on trucking for several episodes. Part of the point of Pokeani was it's longevity, so keeping the general setup and characters the same was part of the point. But now, there's no expectation for Ash to keep up the same routine. He's passing on the mantle to Liko. Why SHOULD he stay the same? Why not take the chance to substantially change up his life to justify him leaving? Why leave Team Rocket in such a depressing spot where they apparently just keep chasing Pikachu their whole lives when that's not actually what their fans wanted?

Why end the character's arc the exact same way the other series probably would have ended it? What exactly is the point of ending it at all or having a celebration in that case?

This episode isn't the worst thing ever, I don't even know if it's one of my least favorites, but it is definitely one of the more frustrating ones to me. It could have been good, but... why challenge anything if we don't want to?

Very disappointing. I'm sad this is the end for Ash and Pikachu. They deserved better.

Oh also some psychic damage for reading this far. I have to end off this long ass project with something worthwhile

[saltboroughs]

I think the Thumpers' feeling of otherness probably has something to do with how the entire art team can throw in their two cents when developing stuff now. Like, think about it. One of the main complaints during the early PB years, before and during the Kickstarter, was that it didn't feel cohesive because different artists were doing different things without seemingly much art direction leading towards cohesion (instance I remember people saying the lineart and genes clashed, and we just saw some fauna get reworked). This makes me assume that breed designs were done mostly independently from the rest of the team, and you can really see it in the pre-Thumper mystics (with the exception of the Fyret as the KS designed breed, but it still slots in pretty well with the rest, or at least it didn't draw significant complaints like the Thumpers did).

Now something that was drilled into our heads from day one was that all of the 20 breeds were already conceptualized. Though I don't think we ever got full clarification on what exactly that meant, since there's a pretty significant difference between having rough concepts already drawn out just needing refinement and having the base idea of "cat breed/cat-animal hybrid" written down. Prowlers (and Thumpers) were added to the roster after the Kickstarter ended, so they would've been conceptualized at the earliest before it ended, and the design process would've probably occurred at the start of 2023 after the budgeting was figured out. Around this time they announced all of their assets were going to be overhauled to have a more cohesive style, and it's also around this time that the devs and art team started talking a bit more about how everyone gives each other feedback to make things look more unified. This leads me to believe that whoever was behind designing the breeds now had to contend with more eyes on their work giving feedback, and needing to make more adjustments than before the Kickstarter (where I'm assuming the only feedback would be from the devs and the cat breed artist (which don't forget also had a pretty big change with two devs stepping down)). Now before anyone puts words in my mouth I am NOT saying it's a bad thing. It's just that (an assumed) different environment lead to different results, and we can very plainly see it with the Thumpers.

What does this mean for the future? I don't know. It really depends on how much of the original roster was already developed. The Thumper could be an indicator of how future mystics will be designed if the originals still haven't been actually drawn out, or they could end up sticking out like a sore thumb if they've already been drawn and are just going to be rendered without major adjustments. Ideally, I would want Thumpers to be redone to either better fit alongside the mystics we've already seen OR have a more... Transitional look? If that makes sense?

For a really extreme and weird example, look at the difference between the classic traditional and modern HD Simpsons. They look really different, but this didn't happen overnight. The change happened over the course of years and, if I'm remembering correctly was done semi-intentionally to ensure the look of the show wouldn't be completely different all of a sudden. If the mystic design philosophy has changed this much, then they should've eased us into it instead of dropping a whole rabbit on our laps.

[franki-lew-yo]

((oop spelled Valka's name TWICE dangit))

Just so we're clear, this is NOT a post saying "don't betch abt Same-Face syndrome or be critical of the Didneys!!" Heck no! Call out Disney for even their (relative to the real problems like funding IDF and genocides) 'small' issues. As long as you don't heckle the og artists about it like Wish animators are getting, Disney is still Disney and criticism is good, actually.

The thing I hate about "same face-syndrome" as a an argument is it's starting to mean as much as complaining about "Cal-Arts style" (John K was the biggest harper on that; please stop complaining abt Cal-Arts). That is to say:

- YES animation is visual and good designs and styles, which Disney films lack for it's female leads and tv animation lacks for it's shows, IS important. The issue is, it's not EVERYTHING.

We're at this point where fandom-brained folks are STARTING to recognize how much people love things in theory rather than in practice, and I really honestly wish some of you would apply that to HTTYD 2 or Croods. Not to any degree that you have to stop liking ur favorite movie or character, in case it is Valka, but I mean that you ought to realize the story is not just 'rocky' but really cluttered what you like about the characters is more of the idea of them then the commitment the movie actually has for them. It's okay- that's me and all the characters from 9 or Happy Feet.

Valka annoys me because I would like her character if the movie was written better and was actually abt her. I would have liked her too if the movie was written like it is but she wasn't exactly the same character and not treated like this 'good parent' when she's kind of not. Frankly, in the midst of this 'feminism' talk, I'm just kind of mad that she ever had to be treated as a 'good' mother. If we want to talk feminism, then just like how some men shouldn't be fathers some women aren't actually cut out to be mothers. I would have totally tuned into the tv series after that film had Toothless's mom had been a kind of "feral" dragonrider who had to learn to be parental in her own way. Don't make Valka an 'actually wise good'-mommy. Let Valka say flock, writers.

In regards to the Croods girl...I'll be honest I can't even remember her name. I keep misspelling for Valka's name but hey at least I remember it. The only thing I remember about the Croods girl is she had a nice thicker-than-stick bodytype for once for a main character girl. That's it. Man I would have LOVED it had that character was actually interesting and well-designed, but I guess for some people, we apparently can't have both. Hence why Gwen from Spiderverse and even the best Disney women all 'HAVE' to have hourglass figures.

Yeah, that's the other thing... this talk does leak into weird feminism takes. Y'know something? Real people >>> fictional characters every time, and there's no need to make some kind 'reverse body-shaming' take here; skinny and conventionally attractive people will never be a maligned minority-- but for all of people's talk about fictional women not mattering as much as real women, that sure goes out the window when ones people think are well designed or not are involved.

No seriously. Sisu is bad and AGAIN, no doubt that the Light Fury does suck as a character. But maaan- I find it kind of an annoying red flag if the biggest and only take away is "this character is badly designed = bad character" right out the gate. The aversion to that creates it's own kind of annoying stan ((i.e. "Frozen never did anything wrong"-types)) and frankly, I don't trust you with your judgement.

Be hyped. Be appreciative of designs that are different and good and characters that may not be fully recognized but are pretty good too. I love Kat from Wendell and Wild even though her movie is a mess. Design wise she's pretty cool, but I also genuinely like her personality and story and I wish the movie handled her story better. However, my love of Kat doesn't make her a better character than Katie Mitchell or Mei-Ling, story-wise.

Please remember- representation wise, I can only speak for woman in general and some body positivity stuff (also curly hair standards, though Kat has all them beat for being a Henry Selick-girl). None of this applies for how you should/shouldn't identify with a woman of color/trans woman/gay woman if you are one, obv. Though, I don't know if Valka or the croods girl do.

I will say, while we're talking DisneyPixar for a moment that one of the reasons I still dislike Merida is for this. Brave is a bad movie and Merida is a bad character. Who's exact fault it is is all over the place but even now I don't give a crap about Disney making Merida more 'marketable' by changing her face SLIGHTLY, especially when the next year we had Frozen to beech about. Merida's design was never that radical at all and I still don't care about her hair and her stupid hair physics. AGAIN-love it or hate it ALL YOU WANT- Rapunzel's hair had a point in the story.

I may not be a ginger, but as a white-girl with naturally curly hair it really doesn't matter to me if you get my hair right in animation, and especially not if the character is bland. BIPOC people, I get the genuine excitement and attachment to giving characters coded, textured or accurate hair and how important that is when historically white audiences think textured or braided hair is "ugly". Call out all you want. But for fellow wonderbread like myself, unless your hair is literally magic I don't give a damn about your hair.

I kinda hate Dreamworks-stans (

No, not Dreamworks films persay, especially the ones I haven’t seen that everyone is so hyped that I do see (The Last Wish, Rise of the Guardians, Kung Fu Panda 2-3). It’s just...

The attitude -some- Dreamworks fans have about these franchises is a real turn off for me. They mostly say only good things about these movies but...they're kinda...snooty? I don’t want another Paranorman situation, is all. Before I go any further I will say, I definitely think Dreamworks films objectively look better than Disney’s modern movies-.Dreamworks’ artists are more at home with cgi where Disney’s fantasy films don’t look or feel right in that medium, compared to How to Train Your Dragon, that is. And yet...

I’ve really never liked Kung Fu Panda as a series. I disliked the first and didn’t feel anything for it all, so I've never watched the second even though everyone assures me it's better. Yeah. I'm sure it is. Part of this is all because of inner-fandom petty nonsense; baby-faced KFP stans were saying Skunk Fu! is a ripoff of KFP. Objectively YES, KFP is a better moviestory but what if I just straight up don't like it or feel obligated to like it ((this debate was always stupid regardless of what franchise was 'better' or 'worse' than the other. The idea of furries doing martial arts is a popular trope in animation cuz different styles or martial arts are even NAMED after animals sometimes.)). Either way, despite it looking cool and having a peacock as the main villain I have no desire to give KFP any attention kind of BECAUSE you all are so obsessed with it being "JUST SO GOOD".

But the thing that really irks me about Dreamworks fans is how obsessed they are with design and aesthitics >> character development and appeal.

While I liked How to Train Your Dragon a lot, I really didn’t like the second movie. That film had WAY too much going on in it. It was overstuffed and gave me a headache. It had no room to develop itself properly and sns I hate the character of Mala. I hate how she’s written to be this actually a loving mother to Hiccup and really loved Stoic deep down. To me, that cheapens her character and her son’s uniqueness for bonding with Toothless if it’s really just that his mom is just like him. I read somewhere that she was actually supposed to be a distant, kind of “wild” character who was more interested in dragons and didn’t feel that natural maternal instinct because not all women are motherly and that’s fine, and now with Stoic changed (and then dead) and Hiccup needing her she’s got to face her past and connect her dragonrider side with her family. No idea if any of that's true but WOW. I would have like that way more. But instead- I found Mala really bland and kind of awfully written, just like the rest of her movie. Oh, but everyone just "LOVED" that movie because Stoic died or whatever. I didn’t feel anything for Stoic’s death despite me liking him in the first film. I thought the second movie was a good story in theory, BUT the execution was so bad I'm sorry. It all went by so fast and so clunk that I didn't actually feel anything for this shocking and dramatic character from the first film at the hand of his son's hypnotized dragon. Believe me, I GET where people are coming from about this scene. Again I get what the emotions were supposed to be. I’m saying I found the storytelling and pacing horrid and it, by virtue, ruined the character(s). Just to add salt in my wound, everyone and their mom seems to love Mala cuz she doesn’t have same-face syndrome like the modern Disney women all have. Again, objectively Dreamworks has a better eye for style. BUT YA KNOW WHAT? I really think some of you are way too locked into this “looks generic/basic pretty woman = bad character” philosophy which kinda makes me want to scream.

Sns Moana, Maribel and Elsa > characters than Mala and that girl from the Croods.

You don’t have to love or even like them or those movies, but I mean objectively I think they’re better written story-wise. To better explain it’s the same logic that badfaith reviewers apply to Illumination: people hate the characters for their made-to-be-appealing designs and grafted personalities as opposed to their actual shortcomings as characters in the writing. Same face syndrome, manic pixie dream protagonists and EVERY Disney movie being about a man and a woman going on a wacky three-day long adventure is annoying, but if the blowback from Wish is any kind of indication, people are not going to love it “no matter what” and Disney-adults aren't sheeple.

I’ll believe fans when they tell me How to Train your Dragon 3 is awful. Yeah, I don't doubt that. Bu,t can you all kindly eff off with the implication that everything wrong with that movie stems from how Toothless’s mate is a pretty girl whitedragon version of him? Can you all shut up about how the 'Light Fury' (stupid name) ruined your life?

I too hate the trope of “girl = lighter and pretty”, but of what I’ve read that’s not the problem with her, character wise. Frankly, given how some of you act, I’m not convinced you would have any of these hang ups about her had she been better designed and not just white-Toothless. From the way some of you sound, it kinda feels like if her design was actually good, you would be stanning her character even after her movie/character turned out to be bad. It's why I also don't trust ya'll when it comes to that Elsa-looking fox girl in the new KFP 4 movie and how 'bad' she looks. Yeah, she DOES look bad...but I don't know by what margin you're talking about.

In the end, where Disney adults are their own kind of hivemind of shallow - believe me, I know - I kinda hate the unself-awareness of Dreamworks fans. They remind me of that side character in Mean Girls who gets the main character to spy on the Plastics because she hates them. They’re their own kind of shallow and mean. I wish they would at least be aware of that. 

Also, Jeffry Katzenberg is NOT your friend. He's an AI-advocate and it's his fault Disney made Pocahontas.

[always-andromeda]

Heyo lovebug🐛♥️ I hope ur having a great day, congrats on 500 u deserve so much more bbs!! I was wondering if I could request Louisa for Paul dano characters pls

Btw sorry if this is messy I’ve never done this before…..

I’m 19yr, I’m petite and very pale ( I look like a vampire lowkey) my height is 5’2 I use she/her pronouns, 99% sure i have ocd but it hasn’t been confirmed yet, I have short brown hair with highlights ( it used to be pink highlights but they’re gone now loll) I wear glasses, I would describe my style to be kind of 80s a bit mixed with goth and a hint of  cottagecore my aesthetic is so weird, I’m tomboyish but also a girly girl at times too I loveeee wearing baggy shirts and some sweat pants ( it’s my go too) I also have a few ear piercings, I love reading comics and playing video games ( lost of us is probably my favorite), and puzzles too I’m probably the biggest nerd you would ever meet lolll ( I like collecting figures and comics)  I’m obsessed with music I could talk about it for hours if given the chance too, the song I’m currently obsessed with is bad habits by Steve lacy ( my favorite band is mook of course 😤and my favorite artist is Mac DeMarco) , I hope to pursue something in art in the future,I like to think I’m a creative person and oh I’m a movie nerd too

how I would describe myself : I’m the mom/funny friend, I’m ambivert but leaning into an introvert ( for some reason I’m not shy around introverts i suddenly get this boost of confidence… Idk tbh) I like having a small friend group, when u first meet me I’m shy and quite but when u get to know me I’m a total goofy ball lmaooo,I’m a very good listener, I’m also very supportive and loyal ( im the friend u can call when u need to bury a dead body loll ) i do have a resting bitch face sadly so I look intimidating it makes it hard for people to approach me🥲 ( i promise im nice cries) I’m very goofy I absolutely love making others laugh I thrive on it , I’m very determined person once I set my mind on something I have to do right , I’m very protective over my loved ones I would literally kill for them😀 I’m such a hopeless romantic I like listening to lovey dovey songs and create fake scenarios in my head ( I live in my head 24/7) a few of my bad habits is that i don’t know how express my emotions well anddd I hate crying in front of others…… I’m also very moody too ( I’m working on it I promise 🥲) oh my god I loveeeeeeeee showering people with complements and love I’m very affectionate towards my loved ones I love animals especially cats and birds,I like to think that I’m a very responsible person, I’m a very honest person too ( i don’t really like sugarcoating things but I have to at times) I can be really stubborn at times too, I would consider myself to be really chill, calm and lowkey sensitive.

Hobbies: reading, painting I can knit a bit but I’m better at crocheting ( I like making mushrooms for some reason) baking and cooking too I also used to play the piano but I stopped, ( I ALMOST FORGOT I ADORE FLOWERS SO MUCH ONE DAY I WANNA OWN A HUGE GARDEN) I think that’s it ( I’m a sucker for riddles I ain’t the best at them but I love how it keeps me thinking) I hope this is enough luv please take ur time and don’t forget to take breaks!!

Thank you!!!!!!!

Author's Note | first of all, you adding on your love for Hot Freaks in that separate ask wasn't dumb at all because I gave them a listen and now I'm in love with them too!! seriously, your vibes are fucking immaculate?? like fuck dude I wanna be your friend?? thank you for giving me so much to work with here!! I really hope you enjoy your matchup!!

I am pairing you with ✨ Edward!! ✨

You and Edward would be adorable together, I know it. For one, your loyalty and support would mean a lot to him (you did say you're the friend to call when a body needs to be buried /j). Truly, though, your love, honesty, and kindness would make him so incredibly happy. Edward is an introvert but he would feel so comfortable with you.

Edward would come up with different riddles for you to solve. And if he thinks up a particularly good one, he has to write it down. Even if you can't figure it out, he'll gently nudge you in the right direction every time. He just loves watching the cogs turn in your mind as you decipher something he put together since he's a huge geek himself.

Decorate his life with your crocheted mushrooms, comics, and figurines. He'd properly adore and cherish every mark that you've left on him in a way only Eddie can.

[thequibblah]

hi so i'm looking for some new music to listen to and i thought you could help because you have great taste!

if this helps, i'll tell you what i normally listen to, which is very basic & basically the same few artists over and over lol

- mostly just taylor swift, she makes up 70+% of my listening probably haha and if i had to pick a favorite genre of hers it would be the folkmore style

- some other pop, like olivia rodrigo and conan gray and lorde & some doja cat but i'm not a huge fan of doja's lyrics

- lyrics are really big for me, so is having a pretty voice and nice melodies

- i love your playlists but the old songs are usually not my style (there's been some though that i really like, ty for that !! <3)

- ceremonials is my favorite florence album

- liability is my favorite lorde song

no problem if u don't want to!

OH i basically recommend things for a living so why not music, eh?

so. what i'm getting from this is that you have three big listening buckets: soft acoustic and indie pop and just plain old pop. so i will divide my recs by those broad genres! i too prefer singable music so i will try to lay off on especially dissonant artists, or mark them as such so you can be prepared (LOL)

acoustic/folksy (i'll admit i am a big indie pop girl so this stuff will be a bit sparser)

phoebe bridgers — admittedly she is more alt-rocky, but see garden song, savior complex, moon song, graceland too, prayer in open D

waxahatchee — can't do much (GOD THIS SONG), lilacs, st. cloud

lucy dacus — also more alt-rocky, but here r some softer jams: hot & heavy, christine, green eyes, red face (a jily song)

anything by first aid kit! start with stay gold and the lion's roar

hozier — i feel like most people on the internet have listened to SOME hozier but check out wasteland, baby! (i tried to pick individual songs and ended up listing most of the album LOL)

kacey musgraves — another artist you've probably listened to already, but try golden hour

brittany howard — stay high must be the sweetest song in existence, and basically all of her album jaime

arlo parks — the whole album but especially caroline, hurt, and black dog

lake street dive — i can change, good kisser (a mary song if i've ever heard one), and i adore their hall & oates cover!

anya marina — this whole album has had me by the throat since like 2013

lucius — just the whole album wildewoman, h/t @figg-anon for putting me onto this!

idk what tf genre fiona apple is but try her out as well!

artists i listen to less of but are in this vein: the lumineers, bon iver, vance joy

u know i had to rec some old people shit (LOLLLL), so in this vein, joni mitchell, heart, judee sills, emmylou harris, joan baez, vashti bunyan

one-off songs you might like: hold you now by vampire weekend, big wheel by samia, i eat boys by chloe moriondo, strawberry blond by mitski (i worship at the altar of mitski but she might not be your speed haha), like i used to (acoustic) by sharon van etten & angel olsen, body by julia jacklin, jackie onassis by sammy rae and the friends, cowgirl bebop by HANA

indie pop BELOVED

maggie rogers — ok i cannot recommend this higher like if u like lorde and conan gray drop everything now and mainline maggie's brilliant debut album

HAIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! — they've got poppier songs like want you back and more mellow songs like summer girl, but honestly i would just recommend a deep dive because they have a pretty surprising breadth within their own alt-rock/pop niche

caroline polachek — can sometimes get way out n weird in the pop sense but so hot you're hurting my feelings is a very listenable pop standard (also it's so funny she's such a clever lyricist also this is irrelevant here but she sounds amazing live), also love look at me now and her cover of breathless

charli xcx is more experimental pop but would rec trying out warm (FT HAIM!!!), blame it on your love (FT LIZZO!!), and official

rina sawayama — technically her album is all sorts of genres but especially XS, comme des garcons, paradisin', bad friend, and tokyo love hotel

orla gartland is a lil softer and i love more like you, oh GOD, and did it to myself

king princess — especially cheap queen, 1950, holy, but basically all of cheap queen

more one-offs: kansas by ashe, comeback by CRJ (full paean in her honour to come in the pop section), i am a big fan of other people covering the bleachers (LOL) especially rollercoaster by charli xcx and i wanna get better by tinashe (full tinashe praise to come too), saturdays by twin shadow (FT HAIM!!!), the kiss of venus and 3 nights by dominic fike (also his interlude on halsey's album), aute cuture and milionària by rosalía, young lover by st. vincent (i love her but again might not be for u haha), good days by sza, backyard boy by claire rosinkranz, slow dancing by aly & aj, hot sugar by glass animals

if ur down to try out something weird witchy and cool, kate bush is like the originator of 9 billion pop and rock genres and hounds of love is a masterpiece

pure pop (we can split hairs on what makes pure pop LOL but basically everything here is based on ur enjoyment of doja)

carly rae jepsen — ok if u haven't listened to her non-radio-hits u may be like "what?? call me maybe lady???" to which i say YES, especially window, stay away, no drug like me, and too much

victoria monet — this may or may not be a selling point to you, but victoria is a frequent ariana grande collaborator and you can absolutely hear it in her music (see also: the mattress spring background noises in dive JUST like they are in positions...), and i love experience, go there with you, and we might even be falling in love, and why not throw in her ariana grande collab monopoly

magdalena bay — how to get physical which i am destined, nay, contractually bound, to put in a jily modern AU someday, killshot, stop & go

tinashe — basically ALL of her new album!!! SO good. i also love rascal (superstar), esther, and old jams like company (and i JUST found out she has a chaka khan cover!)

chloe x halle have the most angelic vocals in the world

this might sound actually demented because WHO hasn't heard love on the brain but rly... go give ANTI a re-listen...

tove lo — especially are u gonna tell her, mateo, and jacques

WAIT I FORGOT TO SAY ROBYN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVERY ROBYN SONG!!!!!!!

for that throwback poppy sound u may as well go real throwback KJAHKJA and check out donna summer!

one-offs: right to it by louis the child n ashe, serial lover by kehlani (also more by her but im getting lazy now kdjfhgk), missed calls by max n hayley kiyoko, peppers and onions by tierra whack, idk who hasnt heard this song but circles by meg, todo de ti by rauw alejandro (the way i wanted this to be song of the summer so bad ;___;)

hope you enjoy and pls come back and tell me if you really liked any of these!!!! xoxo

[that-shamrock-vibe]

Movie Review: Cinderella (Spoilers)

Disclaimer: I am posting this review the day after the movie airs on Amazon Prime, so if you haven't yet seen it don't read on until you do.

General Reaction:

It is slightly weird to think of another movie studio taking on one of the classic fairy-tales that isn't Disney, because, as I am sure is the case for a large portion of the mainstream audience, Disney have almost claimed fairytale adaptations as their own.

However, as identified, Cinderella, is a fairy tale and one created long before Disney came about. As such, other studios are allowed to put across their own interpretation of these classic stories that we have seen a lot of times adapted at this point.

That being said, we have seen many different adaptations of Cinderella at this point from the classis Disney Animation version and it's live-action counterpart, to modern-day reworkings like A Cinderella Story of the mid-noughties starring Hilary Duff.

It's quite an easy story to tell and adapt to a variety of different settings, and what this 2021 retelling does with the story blends the old-fashioned with the modern. Does that mean it is set apart from the others? Well in my opinion yes and no.

While this is a Sony movie, it plays a lot like a Disney Channel Original Movie. From the comedy to the settings to the costuming and the music, it plays like the best of those types of movies. I'm talking the High School Musical franchise and the Descendants franchise. It is by no means bad or corny, but it isn't even on the level of the 2016 live-action Cinderella.

While that version was pretty much a straightforward live-action version of the original animated version, the style of the movie outweighed the substance.

Here however, there is a great blend of both style and substance. The story takes the classic elements of the original Cinderella fairy tale but tries to inject a modern and feministic twist that the recent live-action Beauty and the Beast tried to do.

In terms of whether this version of Cinderella stands out in the crowd of Cinderella movies, I would say it does. Not only is the titular character race-bent and the setting she is in seemingly plays into that, but the reworking of the Fairy Godmother as the Fab G as well as giving the Stepmother a more humanised backstory allows for a more compelling take on a classic.

Cast:

Because this is just the one all-in review I'm not going to do an in-depth character analysis and instead group the characters as who were my favourites, who did a passable job, who was bad and who were for some reason just there.

Favourites:

I have a top 3/4 favourite characters in this movie. Idina Menzel's Stepmother Vivian, Billy Porter's Fab G, Minnie Driver's Queen Beatrice and additionally Beverly Knight's Queen Tatiana.

Idina Menzel was always going to be fantastic in this movie, but to see her portray what is traditionally the villain character in the movie as a sympathetic character as part of the movie's feminist agenda was an interesting twist. No cat for a start, I don't know if Lucifer was a part of the original fairy tale but of course in the Disney adaptations Lady Tremaine is always accompanied by her faithful feline, but also the fact that her backstory parallels Ella's current story and the fact Vivian was so willing to have Ella reject her passion to do what is expected of her just as was forced on her was actually great motivation.

In truth I have only ever seen Billy Porter in one other thing aside from this movie and that was American Horror Story: Apocalypse. I have never seen Pose though I have heard good things, but from what I understand, Billy Porter only really has one speed. However, as the character's name states, that speed is fabulous. I loved Fab G in this movie, the fairy godmother is usually one of my favourite characters in the movie and every interpretation I have seen has brought something different and memorable. If this version of Cinderella is remembered for anything it will be for this very modernised take on the Fairy Godmother, not only gender-bending and race-bending a traditionally white female character, but with Porter choosing to make the character non-binary and that outfit speaks for itself, Fab G was simply a fabulous character.

In both Disney adaptations, I have never heard mention or reference to Prince Charming having a living mother...or a dead one for that matter. So to not only have the Queen being in a chunk of this movie, but also having her own story branch tying into the feminist agenda running through the movie and being portrayed by Minnie Driver, I was in love with this character.

Pretty much similar to the Fab G, if you've seen Beverly Knight's one second in the trailers you've pretty much seen her in the movie. She contributes to Ella's story in the movie and only appears in the latter half of the movie in 2 maybe 3 scenes but she makes an impact because she's Beverly Knight. My only gripe with her is she does not sing in the movie, you have Beverly Knight with not even a solo in a group number?

Passable:

Unfortunately the star of the movie Camilla Cabello is just passable in this movie as Cinderella. She does have some humour about her and her singing is great despite maybe being autotuned because I know how she can sing, but she doesn't feel like Cinderella to me, it actually feels more like a version of what Emma Watson was doing with Belle in the live-action Beauty and the Beast rather than Cinderella but at least she tried.

As for Nicholas Galitzine, he's definitely more engaging as a modern-day Prince Charming, Robert is definitely more engaging a character than Ella unfortunately, which to be fair is still good as the 2015 Cinderella is the only other adaptation to really make the Prince interesting, but I can't quite put my finger on exactly which movie it is but there is another movie I have seen where the Prince Regent doesn't want to be king but the Princess does and has to fight for her right to be it...that's pretty much this story for them.

Also Pierce Brosnan as the King, despite jokingly singing towards the end, did a great job at being the archetype of old-fashioned values with his on-screen wife Minnie Driver's queen pushing him into a modern-day thinking.

Bad:

As for who's bad, I have to say it pains but the British comic relief characters really let the side down in this movie.

In the three mice defence, Romesh Ranganathan and James Acaster are somewhat funny but unnecessary. James Corden however is abismal in this movie. I get he produces it, but particularly after Cats I do not understand 1) Why he'd want to portray another CG animal or 2) Ever think that one shot of him changing back from human to mouse with his head on a mouse body was funny...it was terrifying.

Also this movie is supposedly a family-audience movie...so why include a crass joke of Corden's character talking about peeing out of his front tail?

Additionally to the three mice, Rob Beckett has a surprising role in this movie as a potential suitor for Vivian's daughters, but he simply portrays such a creepy, cringe-worthy character it's almost uncomfortable to watch.

New Additions:

So as well as the two queens and the British comic relief there is also the addition of Princess Gwen to the movie who is the sister of the Prince and the one who wants to be ruler. It's kind of the same story as Jasmine's in the live-action Aladdin as wanting to be Sultan but being a woman isn't taken seriously, however here it is treated more comedically as every time there is a serious moment with the King trying to force Robert to grow up and be King, she always tries to interject with "Would this be a bad time to tell you about an actual real reason why I would be a good ruler" and they make sense but she's always dismissed until the very end.

Then there's a town crier, who is also inserted as a musical number while he's reading his proclamations but as a rap. Honestly I don't know Doc Brown as an artist but I did happen to enjoy what he contributed.

Music:

Which brings us on nicely to the music of the movie as this is a musical and I usually break down the songs. Again this time I will be doing groupings of best to worse.

Honestly my favourite number is probably "Shining Star" mostly performed by Billy Porter with verses by Camilla Cabello and, unfortunately, James Corden.

I also enjoyed the two original songs of the movie, "Million to One" which is Cabello's "I Want" song of the movie and used a lot through the movie, and then also "Dream Girl" which is Idina's main other song but also sung by basically the women of the movie, it's Idina Menzel if you don't give her an original song it's an insult.

Idina's other song is a cover of "Material Girl" and honestly it is a lot of fun, Nicholas Galitzine's rendition of "Somebody to Love" was also fun and surprising as I did not think this guy could sing that well.

The group numbers were fun and well choreographed but they are also somewhat forgettable. The song at the ball of "Whatta Man/Seven Nation Army" was probably the most memorable but still just mediocre.

Recommendation:

So with all that said, would I recommend watching Sony's Cinderella? Honestly I would say it is worth at least one viewing, and I do recommend watching all the way through just to get the full experience. I do think it will do better as a streaming movie than it would have done as a theatrical release, but I cannot pinpoint a market for this movie.

I don't think this will go down as one of the great adaptations, but there are moments and aspects of the movie that sets it apart from the crowd.

Overall I rate this movie a 7/10, it's not as fantastic as I feel the trailers were making it out to be, but having seen the movie twice there are definitely elements of the movie I looked forward to watching the second time around.

So that's my review of Sony's Cinderella, what did you guys think? Post your comments and check out more Movie Reviews as well as other posts.

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

TMNT 2014 design critique

Someone asked me to look at the TMNT 2014 movie designs, and since I'm finally done moving to my new place, I have time to tackle this in detail now haha. Sorry for the disappearance there.

Disclaimer: I know very very little about TMNT and I have never actually watched this movie. Now let's look at the design of these turtles.

(image description: A movie poster style image of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from their 2014 live action movie. From left to right, the poster labels them: "Donatello, Raphael, Leonardo, Michaelangelo." They are all turtle people with very round heads, color coded cloth masks, and humanoid bodies. End description.)

In still shots like this, they certainly are not the most terrible designs I have ever seen, but I still don't like them for a number of reasons. Reason number one is how they take cartoon characters and just make them a mess of realistic textures. (with a lot of added muscle.) Like the heads. not much has been done to alter the actual head shape from the weird dumpling shape they have in their basic cartoon forms, their belly shells are intentionally shaped like pectorals and abs, and their back shells look like weird backpacks. In cartoon form, this is fine. In a realistic cgi, with all the extra muscle and mottled skin textures and over-humanized non-human features, and the messy clothing/accessories, it just looks bad. Here is a close up of their faces:

(image description: a screenshot of the movie, showing the four turtles standing close together as one of them appears to be speaking and gesturing with his hands. end description.)

I have noticed as I looked at screenshots, that their face shapes change by angle in some odd ways. Sometimes they look more turtle-ish, like the full side profile on Donatello's face here making him look a bit more like a sea turtle. But other times they look awkwardly human, with more prominent nose shapes, and in particular here we can see some very very human lips and teeth on Michelangelo. I'm white, so take this with a grain of salt, but something about the way their lips have been done often makes them look a bit like caricatures of black people?? That seems questionable at the very least? I haven't watched the movie, so I have no idea if it's just an unfortunate visual coincidence or if they all get black-coded throughout the movie. Not a great choice there, I think. I can't comment much about it though, since I am unaware of the full context.

What I am fairly certain of, is that I've read other posts saying that the origin story of these turtle dudes is that they were just normal turtles who got mutated into humanoids, right? Not humans that got turned into turtle creatures? And I know the cartoon versions have vaguely humanoid teeth, but in a realistic live action I think you should go more into the real animal design. Turtles and tortoises do not have teeth! They have beak-like mouths. And their shells are not so divided, they close up along the sides rather than being open-sided like these designs have it. Turtle spines are attached to the inside of the shell, as seen here:

(image description: the first image shows simple drawings of various real turtle faces up close, demonstrating their beak-like mouths and flat noses. The second image shows simple drawings of turtle shell anatomy. At the top is a cross-section of a turtle skeleton, displaying how the shell meets at the sides and has the spine fused to the top of it. Below that are drawings of the top and bottom of the shell, which are named the carapace and plastron respectively. end description.)

I know you have to make a lot of anatomical compromises turning turtles into active bipedal humanoids with ninja skills, and that they were trying to stay somewhat accurate to the cartoon designs. But I do think they could have done better and leaned more into real turtle forms instead of awkwardly proportioned humanoid turtle people with body builder muscles and dumpling heads and uncanny lips. So here is a comparison between the movie designs and a real turtle, as well as my personal redesign:

(image description: the first image shows simple profile drawings of a real turtle and a tmnt 2014 character without all the accessories. This drawing makes it clear how detached the shell looks on the movie designs, as well as how squat and small the neck and head look in comparison to the body. The second image is a simple redesign. The shell is now fully connected to the body and fused at the sides, the legs are more squat and the arms are smaller. I have added a short tail, extra fingers because turtles do have five toes, and gave the head a beak-like mouth. End description.)

Maybe still not a perfect design for realistic cgi, but I'm not a 3d cgi artist and none of the movie images I could find would lend themselves well to an easy edit. Still, I hope my design would be able to avoid the uncanny valley if it were translated into cgi haha. I think people should just stop trying to make very cartoony designs into live action, it does tend to land face-first in the uncanny valley and that's not great. It could be done intentionally I think, but using the uncanny valley on purpose for your heroic protagonists seems like a weird choice.

Anyway, that's my thoughts on that. Now I'll go finish the creature designs for my profile picture change and find some other projects to start haha.

[tangerinegod]

Hello! I am sorry to bother you but I am a senior getting ready for college this year. I am in the US and I wanted to major in the same thing you did, do you have any possible tips for me? I still haven't even looked for colleges that would be best for animation majors so I figured if you were up to giving out any tips/saying any basic ideas if you wanted to/if you had the time to then maybe I'll have a better idea! I apologise for if I sound weird! I'm tried to word it correctly but I can't 😿

hi!! i’m totally down to share my experiences! someone else also had some questions so i’m going to put them all together in this post haha, hopefully this helps! it’ll get pretty long so apologies ahead of time but art school is a lot to think about so i wanna be as helpful as i can around it, its a lot of time and money. I’m gonna put it all under a read more cus it is really really long!

i wanna start off with the fact that I had the privilege of attending school in a financially stable environment, my parents were/are really supportive so w merit scholarship i only came out with around 20-30k in debt and i also had housing support my entire time in school. they were ok with me focusing on academics so i didn’t hold a retail job unless i was out of school like summer/winter break. Ofc though i regularly take commissions/do merch/cons to try and pay for all bills that arent rent cus i did want to be financially independent where it was possible. I also did try and work during the semester but everytime i did my body would deff start to breakdown from the fact that i didnt wanna compromise schoolwork with jobs.. so just read ahead know this experience is from a student who was able to attend focusing only on school work for most of the time!

the biggest thing is knowing art school is not required to become a professional in either freelancing or industry! there are a huuuge amount of online tools and classes these days that provide the exact same education and for cheaper too. i think it depends on what experience you prefer/can handle/want but it’s definitely possible to make art/animation art your living without higher education. the thing that college will for sure give you though is the ability to meet deadlines, work even when you dont want to, and connections with peers+teachers. i think the connections part is invaluable because you’re basically coming out with a network of people you already know and who know you! 

also its good to know if you want to attend/can handle art school! it’s a lot of time and energy and students get burned out really fast. the best piece of advice i got before going was ‘if you draw every single day, even if its for only like 5-10 minutes or a doodle for a whole year you should be fine’ consistency is super key because you’re attending school to draw, and you’ll have to create work for stuff you aren’t excited for at some point or another. burnout is extremely real and the only reason i didn’t experience it was probably because i got super into drawing naruto fanart again inbetween sophomore and junior year! it helped give me something to draw seperated from school which is the only thing i was drawing for since i had entered rip. a heads up id also consider myself a workaholic so i fit in ok with the ‘art school’ environment but it is suuper unhealthy. if you are fantastic at managing your schedule then it’s definitely possible to take care of yourself! freshman year i got 8 hours a sleep a night and only pulled all nighters for some second semester finals at the end. sophomore year + up though i ended up prioritizing hw over sleep and like for sure, definitely shortened my life span. there’s another q down below where i’ll go more into detail but ya, be careful w ur work balance!

another tip especially for animation is knowing for a fact what type of animation you’re looking to go into, and what the school is offering. I didn’t think i’d get into art school at the time so i only applied to two places + decided if i didnt get into either id attend community to get credits out of the way while building portfolio. honestly? i did not do a lot of research LOL but like i did end up having the chance to tour and stuff! just know that each school will have a very different curriculum. The main differences are schools that prioritize 3D (cg animation, cg modeling, ect) and 2D/traditional (hand drawn, ‘oldschool’, digital or traditional based) this is a huge difference so make sure you do research for it! in most cases a 2D/traditional program will also offer 3D since it’s at the forefront of the industry animation wise rn. My school taught 2D but like hand drawn on physical paper 2D, frame by frame. while it was a good experience it’s super outdated because digital tools make it way faster + easier! i’d recommend looking for a program that is digital 2D over traditional 2D. 

if after your senior year covid is still affecting campuses in the US to keep them shut down i’d recommend attending a community college to get credits and then transferring into school. one of the negatives is paying money for gened classes when ur not there for them; if you can get them out of the way sooner and cheaper there is absolutely no negative + you could graduate earlier or use the extra time for better work or to work a job! 

these are all the general tips i think i’d give on like a broad basis of attending or not to think about? let me know if u have more q’s! someone asked q’s im answering below that go more into personal experiences + work culture so heres those:

- how many hours a week do u spend studying, in class, otherwise making art? like how much of ur life does it consume?

I was basically working on art.... 24/7! since i wasnt working a job at the same time i crammed as many credits as possible into my schedule so on avg i did 18 credit semesters (around 6 classes) art classes go for 6 hours and non art go for 3, so i’d spent around 30-35 hours in class a week! hw wise it varied on the class but combined it would be around 35-50 hours a week... im guessing? on average studio classes would have 8-10 hours of hw, maybe 5 for a light week, and gened classes 5 hours w them all combined. or this was probably how things were before junior year? junior+senior year i had thesis + everything else ontop.. i’d spend around 30-40 hours on thesis a week with other classes ontop of that bc my film was super long cus im a dummy! 

- is it hard going to art school n realising that altho u were probably quite talented… so is everyone else? Like. all of a sudden. ur not special and everyone seems as good as u, you know? More generally, how do u deal with comparison?

kinda?? i think instead of the idea of like you vs others it feels more of like a competition at first to be the best. this varies hugely on school culture though; my animation year was really friendly with each other and get along extremely well, so my answer to this is v different than some others who attended different schools. i think that the idea of ‘comparison’ only lasts a portion of the first year because at some point you realize that it’s not a who’s better as much as its a ‘these are my coworkers’ type thing? like healthy competition 100% because we’re all working to improve but i think most of us learned pretty early on that viewing each other as peers going into the same workforce helped a lot. also at some point everyone develops their own style/starts to develop their artistic preferences so there isn’t a way to compare whos 'better’ anymore? i dont think there ever is tbh because style is appealing based off of an individuals preferences. If anything realizing everyone else is also amazing makes you wanna work harder ig? or thats how i felt! it’s inspiring to be surrounded by so many people who create such amazing work. 

- is there a lot of workaholic culture? all nighter culture?

100000% there can be a workaholic and all nighter culture. i know people who avoided it and thats honestly fantastic because i fall super easily into that pit. sometimes i’ll pull all nighters on a personal project just because i really want to finish it... i am definitely considered a workaholic all the way through and its not healthy rip... i’d estimate at the worst i was pulling 2-3 all nighters a week and only 4-5 hours of sleep on the nights i didn’t? that was only for one year tho, after that i was like yeah ok this is really bad for my health in the long run LOL so i tried to cut it down to one all nighter a week and around 5-6 hours of sleep the rest of the week! by senior year my decision to cram in full semesters paid off and i was able to consistently get around 7 hours of sleep a night + no all nighters minus finals since my schedule was lighter despite thesis 😭 while there is that culture i don’t think people view it as like a badge of honor or something to be proud of anymore which is good, we mostly view it as a flaw of the art school system and something that needs to be fixed!!

- are you glad u did it? how did u know it was what u wanted?

i am glad i did it! i’m definitely in a limbo right now of if it was worth both my time, money, and my parents money rip but i think with what i got out of it i definitely wouldn’t be as far skill wise or knowledge wise when it comes to the art industry. i would say it was only worth it for be because i had so much support going in though so i was able to focus so much on improving. if i had only been able to put in part of the effort and not make full use of the resources provided i would honestly have a different answer.. 

i knew it was what i wanted when i realized i really couldn’t see myself pursuing a different profession happily! despite all the bumps and stuff im fully in love with drawing still and feel honored that it’s a field that can provide a living. my second profession choice was to go into culinary school? and third option i think going was into music cus i was also a band kid hehe.  

- how do u cope with ur hobby becoming ur job? how do u deal with art going from something u do for fun to something u do on command constantly?

i think seperating work art from personal art is important! in my case im doubling naruto into being personal work so i have something to fall back onto that isn’t work related. its been a hyperfixation for 12+ years? so drawing it at this point is just like personal art imo. some people have hobbies outside of art and only draw for their job! i think after attending classes for so long the idea of hobby turning into job feels extremely natural? also i enjoy doing it so thats a huge plus! 

sorry this is SO long but i hope i answered your guys’ questions! if you have more just lmk!

[redmalbec]

My top 10 favorite openings

Yeah I know nobody asked for it, but welcome to discover new music and hopefully new animes/mangas if they catch your eye. I won't include openings of romcoms or a few slice of life stories since I should make a different list for them. I'll add the name of the band if I find it. There's a couple of songs here from animes I didn't watch. If you think there's another amazing opening that should be listened to, share!

BTW I tend to listen to music on Youtube music, if you can support the work of these artists with this app, or Spotify, iTunes, or CDs, please do it!

DURARARA!! [Uragiri no Yuuyake - Theatre Brook]

Wonderful music, I don't have much to add since I haven't watched the anime but it looks interesting. This only time I'll only share the link to the video (couldn't find an official one) since I reach the limit of linked multimedia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5-4eQuExgE

MOB PSYCHO 100 I [99 - Mob Choir]

I always thought this was some uninteresting anime, and well I was totally wrong. The animation is AWESOME, the story is really cool and explores some interesting perspectives about life that other shonen (or seinen?) ignore. It has a different style, it's kinda plain at times (and this might be good because it avoids unnecessary complexity) but in my opinion, much better than some popular animes of the moment. I feel it's very original, and stays as part of my top 10 manga/animes too.

FULL METAL ALCHEMIST BROTHERHOOD [Again - YUI]

This might be my favorite song. If I ever fall in a coma, try to wake me up with it, I'm sure it will work. I might be biased because this is the first anime I watched (when I didn't care about these kind of series) and I love it, and it's definitely my favorite (I was lucky to be gifted the first volume in japanese). The melody is calm and the lyrics are heart touching. FMA is a manga and anime you should add to your watch/read list without a doubt. Sharing short version of the song to find the channel of the artist.

BOKU NO HERO ACADEMIA [The day - Porno Grafitti]

I will never regret being on the bus playing this song on my phone (with headphones) being seen by people who would think something about the name of the band (like listening to anime openings almost every day wasn't already a weird thing). None of the other songs of BNHA surpassed the greatness of this song IMO.

About it, even though it gets criticism I think it's a good story, and I feel it can be incredibly creative at times - there's a reason why it's so popular after all. I should also remark that it pays attention to a lot of characters, secondary or villains have good development (something that I haven't seen in other shonen or they fail to do it, and remember BNHA has A LOT of characters).

This story is definitely going to be long, I think it's close to reach its first half, expect probably 70 volumes or so.

NARUTO [Kanashimi Wo Yasashisa Ni - Little by Little]

Wait? WHAT? Did you really pick this opening over Silhouette? I mean, no offense to Silhouette and the fantastic band KANA-BOON, but I've listened to it so many times (best memes lol), and I already didn't have it as my favorite. There are other openings that I love (Naruto Shippuden this time): 2, 3, 5, 9, 10, 14, 15 (Guren is the best one IMO), 16, 17, 20.

You didn't watch Naruto? Then what are you doing here? It's a must watch! It's a shonen with beautiful messages, inspiring characters, and this song probably embodies one positive vibe of the story - best part "the most important things are those without any shape".

PSYCHO PASS [Abnormalize - ling tosite sigure]

This anime is definitely in my favorite list, I feel it's the best seinen I've watched. Its manga is an adaptation, but the original story is the one that's animated. Some people say that season 2 and 3 aren't as good as the first and honestly it's hard to do something more brilliant than the incredible season 1, nonetheless you would miss the progress of the story and interesting characters if you only leave at the first one.

It reaches some philosophical thoughts that not all sci-fi can explore on the same way. Don't expect it to be an easy watch though - you better click pause to understand every dialogue.

SHINGEKI NO KYOJIN [Shinzou wo sasageyo - Linked Horizon]

Yeah, the first opening is AMAZING, but I might have a thing for 2nd openings. I must say that the synchronization of the scenes don't make justice for the melody of this song, though. Attack on Titan might reach the top 5 best shonen (is it shonen anyways?) anime/manga of all time.

I saw everyone talking about it and praising it, so I decided to watch the first episode and I couldn't get through it because of its disturbing art LMAO. My eye is accustomed to other kind of art, but I have to say I WAS TOTALLY WRONG. Good thing the second time I watched it I felt comfortable and discovered not only a mind-blowing story, but yeah, its animation is fantastic (take a peek at a few YT videos showing the process on the making of Levi's scenes). I only follow the manga to be updated, and I'm bad at recognizing characters, but you won't waste time or money by giving this one a chance.

THE PERFECT INSIDER [Talking - KANA BOON]

I tell you, this is a list of favorite openings, it doesn't mean I've watched all the anime, but I'm going to do it thanks to these fantastic songs, and KANA BOON deserved a mention. Also known as "Subete ga F ni Naru" this seinen anime is based on a novel.

MOB PSYCHO 100 II [99.9 - Mob Choir]

Wasn't this anime already on the list? No, no it's not (?) I mean, HOW CAN'T I INCLUDE THIS ONE. Fantastic. I thought I wouldn't be able to fall in love with the new opening but after listening to it twice I couldn't get it off my mind. There's a reason, well deserved reason, why it got chosen for the Crunchyroll awards...

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION [Zankoku na Tenshi no Te-ze - Yoko Takahashi/Hidetoshi Sato]

Starts with an angelic voice to a disco-like rhythm, and it's without a doubt a fantastic song. This might be the most famous opening of anime. Pay attention or watch twice if you want to understand the story, though.

🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹

There is a song that's missing, don't you think so? This one can't be part of a top 10 because it's honestly so amazing that leaving it there would make it shine less, and it deserves the BEST recognition.

Special mention

TOKYO GHOUL [Unravel - TK from ling tosite sigure]

If I'm in a coma and the song Again didn't work, then this one will wake me up FOR SURE. I love how it embodies the angst of the story, the tragedy, the bad luck of the protagonist. I recommend to read the manga instead of keeping too loyal to the anime - it's no surprise that SP messed up with the storytelling of another manga... Did I say how hard it must be to play it on the piano? Or even sing it?

[lifeofnickripley]

Favorite Manga/Anime

Kay, so If I'm gonna start posting stuff onto here, guess I gotta do some journaling kinda stuff.(It is a blog after all) Alrightly then, guess I'll start off with something relevant to the original content I will frequently post, Manga/Anime. There will be a lot that I love that aren't on here, but these are my personal favorites.(LONG BLOG I AM SORRY)

Top Anime:

Honorable mention - Amon - The Apocalypse of Devilman OVA - Kay so I'll be the first to admit, I'm a total edgelord.(one of my bands is a death metal band) and this one is GORY!! It's depressing, messed up, dark. It deviates from the Manga storyline but I always go back to it, plus that ending OST is amazing.

10.)Monster Musume - I probably should be extremely embarrassed about liking this one...but I'm not, it's amazing. Perverted? Yes. Weird? very. So much weird T&A action goin on that it's nauseating at times? oh my god yes. That being said, IT'S HILARIOUS!!!

9.) Pop Team Epic - Ever wondered what it's like in hell? This show. This show is literally meme hell, to the point where you lose brain cells if you watch it too long. It's great. I recommend it, after watching a decent chunk I wanted to scoop out my eyeballs and play tennis with them. That may sound like a bad thing, but trust me, it's an amazing feeling.

8.) My Hero Academia - Kay, so I'm not caught up on this one, buuuuut it's motivational as hell. I don't think I've ever rooted for a protagonist to win at something more than I've rooted for Deku. The popularity of the show speaks for itself but, damn, what an awesome underdog show.

7.) Jojo's Bizzare Adventure - SONO CHI NO SADAME!!! JOOOOOOOOOJOOOO!!! I still need to catch up on this one too but I love this wacky, music reference filled, insane show. I doubt I can really say much that hasn't been said already bout it. So on that note ORAORAORAORAORAORAORARARA

6.) Noir - Highly underrated anime. Bout two female assassins, one played by Monica Rial. Refreshingly dark and realistic, this awesome tale is set in France and is haunting, to the point of where I still come back to it after years and years of watching it. Quality anime that has slipped under most people's radar.

5.) Mirai Nikki - I said I was an Edgelord, right? Think this one cements that status. Home of the best Yandere in all of anime, I doubt I need to sing it's praises. Yuno Gasai is a well known character for a reason. Love this insane series.

4.) My Bride is a Mermaid - I'll admit, when I first saw this on Netflix and began watching it out of boredom, I didn't think I would like it. Matter of fact, I was sure I would hate it. I don't typically like cutesy things, edgelord here, I despise things that are cute and cuddly (Cept for cats). But HOOOOLY HELL this one was funny. Best part is? It doesn't rely on pervy imagery to be hilarious, it is humor at its purest. Comedy anime at its finest.

3.) Samurai Champloo - Sa-sa-sa-samurai champloo! Woooo where do I begin? Three misfits, Edo period Japan, Hip-hop related adventures, and badass fight secenes? Count me in! Made by the same people who made Cowboy Bebop, even has Steve Blum voicing Mugen, so you know it's good.

2.) Saikano - Kay so don't judge an anime by its art style. I repeat: NEVER judge an anime by its art style. This one is cheesy, yes, and the English Dub is horrible. THAT BEING SAID, it really does not go where you would expect it to go and one scene in particular had me shedding...manly...tears-It's sad, ok?! That character didn't deserve that death scene!!!

1.) Neon Genesis Evangelion - Ahhhhh yes. The creme de la creme of #toodeepforyou. Highly intellectual and artistic, this DIY amalgamation of a series hits many notes for me and came to me at a time where I needed it most. It's slow but if you allow yourself to be patient and analyze what is at first appearance a confusing, psychedelic nightmare, you'll find yourself in for a treat. Best part of the series for me? The movie End of Evangelion. You watch the series, you have to watch the movie. End of discussion.

Top Manga:

(BEEN AWHILE SINCE I'VE READ MANGA SO IT'S ONLY TOP 3)

3.)Inuyasha - The original Manga that got me into anime/manga. Rumiko Takahashi's work is very near and dear to my heart. I just remember the feeling of reading these for the first time in Middle School, I don't think I knew manga could be this cool when I firt started. The demons were legit terrifying, you couldn't help but root for Inuyasha and Kagome. Mindblowing stuff for an 11 year old.

2.)Berserk - Probably the one manga I still retroactively read. Dear god, it's excellent. The story, the fantastic art, superb writing and character development. There is a reason I want to get the Brand of the Sacrifice Tattooed on my neck. Guts is arguably one of the most sympathetic anti-heroes ever written. This is another series that really entered my life at the right time. No matter what terrible things happen to Guts. He lives on, he fights through his literal demons everyday. Above anything else, he carries on. Will forewarn anybody hoping to check it out though, extreme depictions of violence and sexual violence. Series is not for the faint of heart AT ALL.

1.)Ranma 1/2 - Ahhhh Ranma 1/2. My absolute favorite. Every time I sit down and read this manga, I find myself genuinely laughing from one of the panels. In my opinion, Rumiko Takahashi's best work. It is an absolute comedy masterpiece. Pure craziness and absurdity. 10/10.

[justin-chapmanswers]

I'm helping my (internet) friends make an object show, and I'm unfortunately not that confident about it, as we're all under 18 and don't have the money to really afford good quality mics or animation software. I'm wondering if you have any tips for people on a budget trying to make an object show for the first time?

Working under a tight budget is tough, that’s undeniable. I think the important thing to keep in mind is that having expensive utilities available does not guarantee success in the first place, it simply makes the process easier. Having the best equipment and software in the world isn’t going to do all that much for people who aren’t familiar with the basics in the first place. If you are incredibly passionate about this work, I would consider investing your money into equipment over time, but for the time-being take your time in that department and really focus in on proving that, as artists, you can make do with what you have.

I am far more interested in consuming media that is bare-bones in its visual and audio presentation but has masterful storytelling than the reverse, and I think much more of your potential audience will agree than the average person assumes. Know your story. Know your characters. Whether or not you will have full control over when your characters come and go (per your decision), it is imperative that you treat each and every installment as its own distinct collection of story and character arcs. If you set up your show in a manner in which you can play every detail out ahead of time, even better! Within an episode, an arc of episodes, or a full season/series you are able to construct interesting narratives in which characters are given obstacles: physical, emotional or otherwise. Especially in an object show you are given a set of obstacles, be it through challenges or the emotional burden of competition. On a budget or not, this is the heart of your show. No matter how the technical presentation comes across you can garner and audience through excellent storytelling. Anyone can do it with practice. ESPECIALLY you!

As for the technical department, itself, let’s talk audio. Back in early 2009 I picked up a ‘lil $10 Logitech microphone at Target and got started on my first voice performance (as Lakitu found here) and I wouldn’t say it’s all that bad. A little bad. Tiny bit. But it worked! Plug in a cheap mic, download Audacity for free, and you’re already well on your way. Audacity isn’t top-of-the-line, but as far as free programs go it works really well, and is probably your lowest priority for upgrading beyond if you choose to bump up your equipment/software. The focus here comes down to putting in a strong, meaningful performance as your character, working around your mic limitations through setup and Audacity editing, and being open to re-recording. It happens!

I’m going to skip over talking vocal performances for the time being (I can always return to that upon request) and stick the practical here. With any microphone set up you’re going to want to do as much as you can to keep your accosting integrity in good standing. What I mean by that, firstly, is recording in a location that absorbs noise. Typically being in echo-y locations, we’re trained to ignore our own voices reverberating (unless it is to an intense extent), so sometimes noticing whether a voice echoes in a recording takes a lot of focus. It’s often not as intense as an echo you’d hear in, say, a cave, just ever so slight to break the illusion of a character being right there on screen and not someone speaking through a microphone. This is solved low-budget quite simply in recording in tight spaces with as much sound-absorbing material as possible. The best option would be hanging up clothes, blankets, or simply recording in a closet- so long as it’s safe. (The higher-budget alternative is buying acoustic foam or utilizing, specifically, a sound booth.) Watch your recording program, find your balance of recording as loudly and clearly as you can while also not getting too close to your audio peaking (the little soundy wave bois not hitting the top/bottom of your recording strip pal). The audio can be made louder or softer later, but peaking is much tougher to fix back up.

It also helps to have any sort of make-shift pop filter you can get together. They’re foam or a screen that you can typically buy cheap that will catch some of the plosives and other weird noises your mouth makes without you noticing before they hit the microphone, which is very helpful in the longterm. And, if you don’t feel like buying them, I know Adam used a sock for a while early on and it worked just fine. Just throw that boi right over the microphone and listen back to how the quality changes. If it’s roughly the same, you’re in the clear for your early, low-budget project.

There’s also plenty that can be done in Audacity to set your audio apart from the rest. I’d say top priority is dealing with background noise. I’m not speaking to parents chatting or the house’s floorboards mysteriously creaking in the background (because that should not be heard whatsoever in your area of recording, listen back to a dialogue-less track of your audio to make sure none of that is coming through), here I am talking to the consistent track of buzzzzz or variation that will come across in any cheaper microphone. The world makes noise, some you can’t hear, and your microphone eats it up. It’ll be in the back of your recording track, and getting rid of it goes a long way. Here the simplest means of going about fixing that is to, at the very start or end of your recording session, record a solid fifteen seconds of background noise without aaaaany noises on your part. Listen back, grab just the few seconds of bg noise that has the most consistent sound without your breathing or other interference, go to effects and hit “noise reduction” (or “noise removal” in other versions), hit “get noise profile,” now highlight eeeeeverything you’ve recorded, go back to “noise removal,” start by setting your noise reduction to around 10-15, and hit “okay.” Listen back and see if that did the job, you may need to make the number a bit higher (I try my best to avoid the 20s). The job here is to use as little of it as possible to get the job done, as the more you use the more of a chance it has at diminishing the quality of your recording. You can also use “equalization” in this process, lowering or boosting very specific frequencies, if you are willing to experiment and get a feel for it. Some others use “compression” to get a much fuller-sounding voice, although if anything I keep this to a minimum and save it more-so for non-narrative pieces where a single voice needs to be dominant.

In the case of audio peaking, clipping, or any plosives/pops/background sounds coming through, you have to be comfortable with re-recording. Going back into your recording spot for a minute goes a long way for a product that you’ll be putting up alone for a forever. This also goes for potentially going in for a strong performance, but that is more subjective and up to a standard you must set, yourself. After that it is your job to bring all the audio from all characters together and balance all of them out neatly volume-wise, pace the recordings out, add in sound effects and music as necessary and balance them out too (a common mistake is making music too loud for the audience to understand what the characters are saying because the sound editor already knows what the characters are saying, so there’s a disconnect). With enough time you will have an excellent audio skeleton for your animation, even with a low budget.

I’ll be honest in that I am much less experienced in animation than I am in audio so I cannot offer all the advice in the world, but here’s what I can say. With the technology available today you are able to create a lot of striking imagery. Whether you use a cheap animation program (do people still use Anime Studio?), Powerpoint, or a more typical program acquired through illegal means (which I would not say here that I condone, but I am aware it happens and people do what people do), there is no stopping you from coming up with unique visuals. I think in the object show community people get pretty caught up in keeping up standard animation conventions, simply making smooth motions and a good frame-rate and making sure everything looks “professional.” That is a luxury, and especially when you are starting out it is far from necessary.

What you want when you are starting out are visuals that are striking. Creative. Memorable. You’re working in animation, the most fluid and fun medium out there! You can spend all day getting bogged down in the basics of movement, which can be important down the line, but what is unique to you is the style that you bring to the table. Make characters do what only animated characters can do. Make characters pose in ways that people can think back on in wonder. As an object show, think of challenges that make characters do the absurd or push them to physical limits. Inanimate Insanity does not get to hit on this often but it is something I value in animation. You can impress people with or without the best animation program in town, it’s just more trying. But far more rewarding.

So much of the magic of object show community is that it works as a training grounds. Create create create! This is the time to do the weird and meaningful things that you might not have an opportunity to create far down the line when responsibilities get in the way. It doesn’t matter in the slightest if your work is perfect, so long as you are creating something and getting it out there and, above all, expressing yourself- I am impressed.

I know that most of this has been more to general show production and not more specifically to object show production, but I think it is important to note that it does work the same as any other show. People will always appreciate good, strong stories, as well as the bare minimum put into your audio and visuals. Effort means the world.

You got this.

[putschki1969]

I read somewhere that a different composer might make new Kalafina songs and I'm kinda worried. Like yes Kajiura's songs were very formulaic but writing for a 3 piece vocal group is difficult considering the amount on instruments in each track. It takes skill. I wondered what your thoughts are about Kalafina getting a new composer since I'm very conflicted

Hey anon (´・ω・)ﾉ

I am happy to share my thoughts. This is Part 1 of my discussion where I address your question regarding a possible new composer. In Part 2 I’ll talk about Kalafina’s future in general.

Quick note: The recording industry has two kinds ofproducers with different roles: executive producer and music producer. Executiveproducers oversee project finances while music producers oversee the creativeprocess of recording songs or albums. In the following text I am exclusively referringto the role of “music producer”.Please keep in mind that these are my personal opinions

Withoutfurther ado, let’s get this thing started 〈(•ˇ‿ˇ•)-→

Firstthings first, as far as I can tell it doesn’t really say anywhere that adifferent composer might create Kalafina’s music from now on. This oricon article (which pretty much became the main source for all followingarticles) merely states that it is yet unclear who is going to be in charge of producingKalafina’s music in the future. “Unclear” as in => it could be anyone… INCLUDINGYuki Kajiura herself…I guess we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves.

Let’s makethis clear, Yuki Kajiura leaving the agency isn’t the end of the world, she isnot resigning from work, she is not dying nor suffering from a terminalillness. She will continue producing amazing music as an independentartist/freelancer and I don’t really see any reason why she wouldn’t be able tocontinue producing/writing/composing/arranging music for Kalafina in thefuture…Being in the same agency is definitely not a requirement for that. Here’san example => YK has produced and composed a song for Aimer last yeardespite Aimer being managed by a completely different talent agency. There’snothing that speaks against YK doing the very same thing for Kalafina. One mightargue that Yuki herself would rather not continue producing Kalafina’s musicbecause she wants to do her “own thing” now that she is finally independent but I personallyfeel like Space Craft Produce have never stopped her from doing exactly that whenit comes to Kalafina’s music, especially in regards to the stand-alone pieces(obviously it’s different when you produce anime tie-ins since you have toconfirm to certain themes/demands). Judging from all of her self-liner notesand song discussions she has always been given creative freedom and I don’tthink anyone ever truly interfered with her work. Quite the contrary actually, itseems like the agency trusted her with the creative process and I don’t thinkthat has changed at all. So yeah, I believe Yuki wouldn’t be opposed to keepingher role as producer. As for the agency…what’s that saying? “Never change awinning team!” From a business perspective it would be unwise of Space Craft Produceto stand in the way of future joint work between Yuki and Kalafina.

Of course Iam not ruling out other possibilities. After all Yuki Kajiura DID say thatthere would definitely be some changes and while her wish to support Kalafinaremains as strong as ever she might not be able to provide that support in thecapacity she wants to. Maybe someone else will become Kalafina’s “main” musicproducer and Yuki will co-produce certain pieces. In the past Yuki has invited composerHiromitsu Ishikawa to work on various arrangements (Christmas arrangements inparticular but he has also been involved in the making of Yuki’s OSTs). Thisproves that she is definitely willing and capable of working together withsomeone else. And if you ask me, the results of such collaborations can bepretty awesome. Hiromitsu Ishikawa has done all the arrangements for theChristmas covers on “Winter Acoustic”, personally I thought they were the bestthing about the entire album. I mean, he managed to make an annoying song like “WeWish you a Merry Christmas” into the most gorgeous ballad ever and he turned a mainstreamsong like “Jingle Bells” into a unique jazzy tune. I wouldn’t say no to moreamazing outside influences like that. I am sure there are many talented composersout there that could add a lot to Kalafina (whether it concerns covers or originalsongs).

Now I knowmany of you don’t wanna think about the possibility of Yuki Kajiura NOT beinginvolved at all in the creation of Kalafina’s music but there is a chance it couldhappen and honestly, that is no reason whatsoever to abandon ship. So many ofyou talk as if Yuki Kajiura is the only thing that makes Kalafina great. Do youseriously think that is true? Of course this is just my opinion but Kalafina isso much more than just “Yuki Kajiura’s music”. Yes, Yuki’s amazing music is thefoundation of Kalafina and originally they were little more than a means tohelp Yuki in the process of bringing her music to life. However, throughout theyears Wakana, Keiko and Hikaru have become SO MUCH MORE. It’s THEIR voices,THEIR passion, THEIR dedication to their craft that bring Yuki’s music TRULY tolife, it’s their interpretations/world views/expressions/emotions that make thesongs special and unique. Maybe it’s just me but while I very much appreciate andadmire YK’s work I have always been more attached to the members of Kalafina. Withtheir OUTSTANDING talent and charismatic nature the three of them can turnalmost everything to magic. Their many cover performances are proof of that. Theyhave also managed to make me fall in love with so many of their own songs,songs I most likely wouldn’t have given a second listen if they had been sungby someone else. So what if someone else produces music for them? Would itreally be that bad? NO! Not really. I totally agree with everyone who issaying that it is not an easy task to write music for Kalafina but hey, it’snot impossible and I am sure there are many people out there who could doamazing things with Kalafina. Also, to all those who are scared Kalafina’s “style”would change once a new composer steps in, I am not exactly sure what you arescared of…First of all, more than half of Kalafina’s non-Japanese fanbase hasbeen complaining for years now that Yuki keeps writing the same “boring/generic/mainstream/trashy”songs (NOT my words and NOT my thoughts!). Shouldn’t a new composer make you happy then?…Secondly,in my opinion Kalafina’s style has never been “consistent” per se. Yuki haswritten songs of all kinds of genres, she has written utterly complex as wellas super simple pieces, she sometimes perfectly utilises the voices of allthree singers and other times she focuses on one singer while neglecting theothers. At the end of the day however, Kalafina made all of this work and theaudience/fanbase embraced everything so I don’t think it would be any differentif a new composer came in and used a “different” style. The girls are veryproud and protective of their work so they would make sure someone competent takesup Yuki’s role. They wouldn’t allow anyone to destroy what they have builttogether for the past ten years. But they certainly wouldn’t be opposed tosomeone expanding Kalafina’s horizon. And there’s certainly a lot of potentialfor expansion. There’s still so much hidden talent that hasn’t been exploredyet and personally, I don’t care WHO brings out those talents in our girls, Ijust want them to flourish.

Which leadsme right to the next part of my discussion. Kalafina could produce their ownmusic. Why do they even need a producer? I think they are more than capable ofcreating their own music. They have been working together with Yuki Kajiura formore than a decade now, they must have learned a lot from her. I am not surehow much technical knowledge they have when it comes to composing and arrangingbut it’s not like they can’t hire someone to help out a bit. My point is thoughthat after ten years in the business they should be able to be fully in charge oftheir own music. In the first few years they have never had much of a say inthe production of music. It wasn’t until “far on the water” when the girls finallytook up a more active role. But still, I don’t think Yuki ever allowed muchinterference. As weird as this may sound, cutting ties with Yuki Kajiura mightbe a good thing for Kalafina. And I am not talking about the group in general,I am talking about Wakana, Keiko and Hikaru individually. Like I have mentionedabove, for many years they just served as a means to bring Yuki’s vision tolife. In the beginning stage Yuki just borrowed their voices, nothing else.Then Kalafina started doing lives but it was still all about Yuki’s music, itwasn’t about the members themselves. That’s why all their earlier concerts (upuntil their Consolation lives actually) are very much reminiscent of YK Lives.Yuki doesn’t like elaborate stage productions, she doesn’t like choreographies,she doesn’t like the audience to jump around like crazy with penlights. Shewants the audience to focus on the music and she wants her singers to focus onsinging. Their first Budokan live was a critical juncture in that regardbecause that’s when a lot of things changed. At this point in time Minami Sasugacame into the picture and she is the one responsible for the above mentionedchanges. I am not sure if YK approved of all these changes but she at least letthem happen. Slowly but surely the girls got to introduce personal elementsinto their performances. They were finally able to express their individualwishes. That’s why their newer lives differ so much from their old ones and whyeach new live is totally different than the last. The girls are experimenting,trying to find their own style now that they have more freedom in that regard. Ifthey produced their own music they would have total freedom because they wouldn’tbe bound by anything or anyone. A quick thing I’d like to address in this context. Kalafina’s 10th AnniversaryLive was pretty much a throwback to the old Kala-lives. I think it waspurposefully kept simple. Mainly because all previous anniversary lives havebeen simple but also because that’s Yuki’s vision. She was in the audience, atthat point everyone definitely knew about Yuki leaving the agency so the girlsprobably wanted to make this performance special for her. And I am sure theydid, Yuki LOVES these kinds of lives.

Okay, that’s it for Part 1. I hope I was able to provide some some sort of reassurance. Part 2 will follow tomorrow night.

[youremyalways]

Hey Fiona 💛 this is an invitation to talk about that person you're in love with if you want. Say as much as you need to, I'm listening!!

AHhhhh you have no clue how much this means to me!! Thank you! Get ready for a long thing of mushy feelings (there’s no order to this whole thing, just somewhat finished thoghts that are kinda sorted into paragraphs by what it’s about)

Oof where do I even start? He’s so amazing. He really funny and knows exactly what to do and say to make me smile. Though he’s stubborn as hell and a complete dumb ass sometimes, but he’s so sweet. A lot of the time he doesn’t care about much but boy oh boy you can tell when he cares about something or someone. And he’s gotten better opening up to me and telling me when he’s when he’s feeling lonely or just not good, and ahh i’m so proud of him. I’ve gotten to watch him grow as a person and it’s just so great. For the longest time he’s basically been my brother so this is still kinda weird in my head. He’s always done his best to understand and help me with my mental illnesses. 

As soon as I told him about me being touch starved, he asked if I wanted a hug. Of course I was like ‘uh yes please, i always need a hug’, and we hugged and it was so good, it lasted way longer than our normal hugs did and i felt as if I could just melt into the hug and the sunshine and just stay there forever. Now when we see each other we hug for a while and let me just tell you it’s so amazing. He gives the best hugs in the history of ever. When we hug, he’ll often tell me at least once that I give the best hugs, like dude that’s you, but it means so much to me. Sometimes when I’m doing something, he’ll give me a side hug and asdfgfd when he puts his hand on my waist it feels really comfortable, like that’s just how it’s supposed to go. 

The last time me had a hug was the first of June and that was the longest hug we’ve had so far. hhhhh it was the safest and most content I’ve ever felt in my entire life. I really really miss him and his hugs and his dumb smile. I’m on vacaction in another state right now so I can’t do anything about it other than text him but my anxiety won’t really let me, i feel like he’s kinda annoyed by me.

Whenever we’re doing something personal or anything, he always makes sure I’m comfortable with whatever it is, and he asks several times and will always back off if I answer no. There was one time where my anxiety was getting the best of me so I asked him if we could meet up or at least call (he had to work so we had to go with calling) and when we called and got it cleared up, I mentioned that the reason I needed to call was all these bad feelings had made me relapse, he kept asking if I was ok and stuff. And ahhg his voice is so soothing and I love his laugh so much, it’s such a blessing, 

I forgot when but I think it was late march/ early april when I came fully clean about all of my crap, which meant telling him about my ed and relapses. As soon as I told him, he asked to see and after tracing a few with his thumb, he picked up a pen and drew a couple smiley faces on the places. It was a small gesture but it means a lot to me, every time I saw them I was reminded I’m not alone and I smiled every time. And he’s done that several other times and it’s just so cute.

He decided he likes to pick me up, but the only way he’ll do it is bridal style, which is kinda strange to me but go for it. And honestly I love it for two reasons, 1- it tells me I’m really not as heavy as my mind says (he even tells me I’m basically a feather) and 2- god it feels so safe. He feels like home anyway but when he picks me up it’s like the world just kinda being quieter and calmer. 

We send each other memes and pictures of cute dogs as conversation starters and when we know the other isn’t feeling too good, it’s great. I don’t think a lot of people realize that I basically flirt through memes, puns, and animal pics. 

Ok so he’s the one who introduced me to blink-182 and he kinda introduced me to green day. Both bands have become sooo important to me. Blink was the first that really felt like home, though that might partially be connected to dylan feeling like home, that’s ok because they can fix basically everything at least for a bit. I’ve always felt kinda drawn to Marks voice but I’m so glad I ended up just getting the California cd because I found a piece of me I was missing when I started listening to blink. And I love that we can talk about blink and just music in general, like a few days ago I was at a bookstore and I found a book about famous queer icons in music, but it didn’t have Billie Joe Armstrong in it, and I posted that and he just pissed (maybe more pissed than me??idk it was great) and was like well screw them! We can always talk about music and it makes me so happy. 

Ahh also when school was still happening, one of my friends who’s an amazing artist would sometimes draw on me and it was super great, I would usually send pics to him and his response almost every single time was that I should get that tattooed, and I honestly will. He’s always been so supportive of that kinda stuff and I really want to ask if he’ll come with me to schedule and get my first tattoo on my eighteenth birthday, cause my parents don’t like the idea of me getting a tattoo and I don’t want to do it alone. He’s also been my biggest supporter of my fuck the government playlist and would sometimes send some songs. Also together we talked about time being fake and figured out religion and gender are fake. 

I’m not sure though. I feel like he likes me, but at the same time I really doubt he does. We’ve been friends for so long and I love our friendship so much, I’m absolutely terrified of losing the friendship if i tell him how I feel. I mean, I know our friendship is strong enough to withstand that, but I feel like he might not want to be friends anymore or something, idk. He just means so much to me, too much to risk it unless something else comes up where I feel more comfortable telling him.

Ok I’m sure there’s still so much more but this is all I can put down right now. Oh! Also I found a candle that smells like him so I bought it of course, and I brought it on vacation and on the bad days where my family is really getting to me, I can just pull out the candle and feel a bit better. Aghhhh feelings are a mess. But thank you so so soooo much for the opportunity to do this! Ilysm!!