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x0401x · 2 years

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Hi there! I wanted to ask, what were your impressions/thoughts of Tsurune season 2 episode 1 so far? And the colors symbolism in the opening song with the ribbons? Just curious about your thoughts, thanks and have a great day!! :D

BRUH. I LOVED IT??? FUCK YEAH, THAT WAS AMAZING.

I really wonder how all those annoying Anons who filled my inbox with garbage back in 2019 are feeling right now, because just in this one episode, KyoAni has fixed literally every defect that I had pointed out in S1. The amount of improvement is just surreal.

First of all, the storytelling this season. The freaking storytelling. You can tell the difference between works that a studio actually places their bets on and the ones they don’t by the amount of effort that the animation team puts into the flow of each episode. S1 was an ungodly mix of slow pace that suddenly went too fast at punctual moments without any warning, bad humor, boring tone, missing information, inconsistencies and shit that the animators pulled out of their asses to cover up plot holes. This one, though? Smooth as a feather. Full of well-thought details. Scenes and events connecting properly with one another. Flashbacks very nicely timed. It was entirely an anime-original episode, 90% non-canon content, yet there’s canon info at every single second. I love the little things, such as the way that we’re led to think that the MVP of the sports event is going to be Rika and the show makes use of every possible hint that it’s going to be her, until the very last second, where it turns out that it’s Ryouhei. Awesome screenplay right there. This episode was meticulously planned and it shows.

The changes in visual. The upgrade in the artstyle is the most easily noticeable thing about the animation of this season, but the quality is a million times better too. The characters also have a lot more facial expression now. I once talked about Morimoto Chinatsu’s incredible talent for character design and the way that she goes as far as giving not just different hair and eyes, but also different eyelashes, eyebrows, ears, noses, mouths, chins, jawlines and even fucking wrists to every single character that she drew for the novel. And seeing S1 doing the opposite and giving every character a base face was just... no. So now that there’s been a turnaround and the characters externally show what they’re feeling and thinking, following their journey is a whole new experience. That moment when the team stares at Minato after he answers Masaki’s question is pure character study right there. And it’s probably the most blatant example of this season’s improvement, given that we never had this in the previous one. I also love how the expressions are not just there, they’re on-point. On par with what the novel tells us about them. My biggest peeve with S1 was that I’d look at these kids and a voice at the back of my head would go “who the fuck are you people”. Those weren’t the characters I knew. They didn’t look like them and didn’t act like them. But now I recognize them. These are the kids I read about. They finally feel like themselves.

The symbolism of the series. By God, so many treats in this episode in that regard. The yesterday-today-tomorrow blossom splashed with watercolor in the team’s theme colors. The intimist approach of the shots. The way that Minato and Shuu’s positions oppose each other on-screen. The lighting, the colors, the smear filter… literally everything is more vivid and lively. One of the things I recall commenting about S1 is that it didn’t feel like a KyoAni anime because KyoAni’s works are very immersion-based. You can feel yourself being inside that world, together with the characters. But I couldn’t feel that from Tsurune’s first season at all. With this one, I was able to dive head-first into it. It was absolutely magical. I also love that the leaves that fly out of the targets whenever the characters hit now don’t look so obviously like CGI.

Personality traits. They’re fucking everywhere. Like I said, this was entirely an anime-original episode, yet there’s canon info at every single second. Even better: information that clearly contradicts S1 but that matches the novel. Seiya being a smartass little shit full of wit instead of a Minato-obsessed yandere. Kaito being a team-driven hardworker instead of an obnoxious asshole who wants nothing but victory. Ryouhei actually acting upon his lack of experience in archery to catch up to everyone. Nanao being charismatic and having screen-time of his own instead of being pushed to the background while all his personality and lines are used on Seiya. Minato expressing his thoughts and feelings instead of just being an emotionless doormat who never really does anything. We learned more about the characters in just these 20 minutes than the entirety of the first season. It feels like KyoAni has finally taken a step back to look at the material they had in their hands and truly took in what the novel was about and what each character had going on for them. Even the girls’ team was fleshed out in this one, which was honestly a great surprise. I think we’ve gotten from this episode all the little things we didn’t get from S1, such as the way Noa and Yuuna are fangirls of Rika. The way Nanao shines better as support than as main even though he’s so conspicuous. The fact that Kaito is good at soccer and Seiya loves soccer tactics. The way Ryouhei, who doesn’t know much about archery, is used as the eyes of the viewers, and how unpretentiously the lessons he is taught are presented to us as something that we should also keep in mind (for example, that the target is the archer and the archer is the target, and when you’re at the stage of the draw, you’re aiming at your very own self). And the way that Minato is something in this season. We finally see the inner machinations of his mind here aside from his struggles with target panic.

Lastly (and what I consider to be most important) is that the roles of each character and their relationships with one another seem to be in tune with the novel now. Well, okay, almost. Seiya is still being weird around Masaki, but I guess that’s because it’d be too sudden if Seiya started acting the way he acts in canon (y’know, like a normal fucking person). However, the difference is that the narrative is clearly pushing towards Masaki instead of Seiya now, as it should be. Kaito, Nanao and Ryouhei, who used to be just in the background most of the time in S1 are now set perfectly into their own functions and you can tell that they do exist for reasons other than just fill up the team positions. Nanao also seems to be his own person now instead of living through Kaito. Seiya is being shown looking after the whole club, as the competent club president that he is, instead of just Minato. Minato now has proper reactions to everything and doesn’t just completely ignore when Seiya is being a little shit. Masaki is now acting like a true mentor and already in the first episode we have him giving more advice to the boys than the entirety of the first season. But more than anything else, what caught my attention was Shuu. S1 did him really dirty by giving him scary jealous rival vibes and not expanding at all on his relationship with Minato. As I said before, they’re not your usual sports anime rival duo. They really respect and admire each other, are jealous of each other to some extent, but they’re friends first and foremost. They’re also opposites of one another in every way. We didn’t get any of this in S1, and now we’re getting literally all of it at once. What a fucking blessing.

Honestly, the only things I’m concerned about in this season are 1) Kaito and Seiya’s relationship. It’s probably too late to mend it now and make it the way it is in canon, and it also seems the animators are just not interested in doing that, which kinda hurts, but I guess we can’t have it all. And 2) Minato and Masaki’s relationship. I’m pretty sure that we’re not gonna get the same amount of content for them as there is in the novel, and in the off-chance that we do, it’s just not gonna have the same approach or the same quality. Minato and Masaki are mirrors of each other but the anime vehemently refuses to acknowledge this for some reason. They try to treat Masaki as a completely separate entity that has absolutely nothing in common with Minato despite all of the mystic, supernatural and fate-oriented themes that their connection is centered around and the fact that they’ve gone through very similar experiences and hardships in doing archery. But I’d rather believe that it’s a little too early to make a judgement and wait. Truth remains that the characters and their relationships in the anime will never be nearly as good as they are in the original work no matter how hard they try, so I’m just gonna take what I can get.

Anyway, these are my thoughts on this episode. It was one of the very rare instances where I completely approve of anime-original content in an adaptation.

#tsurune #tsurune kazemai koukou kyuudoubu #tsurune tsunagari no issha #kyoani #narumiya minato #takigawa masaki #takehaya seiya #fujiwara shuu #yamanouchi ryouhei #onogi kaito #kisaragi nanao #kyoto animation #seo rika #shiragiku noa #hanazawa yuuna

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hassedah · 9 months

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Hey, could you write a hc where the s/o makes (forces) the boys play 'Mr. Hopp's Playhouse 2'?

(Sorry if I misspelled something, English is not my native language)

The boys play "Mr.Hopp's Playhouse 2" :

Hi! I hope you are well! ^^

I've never played this game. So I wrote this after watching some spoilers and let's plays. (There are a lot of spoilers about the game.) I hope you enjoy it! ^^

Take care of yourself and have a nice day! ^^

Vladimir :

There's not much reason for him to play a video game… let alone a horror video game. He's only played a few games of Mario Kart and Professor Layton to please Ivan . But you were so insistent and your smiles to convince him were so hard to ignore… He didn't have the courage to refuse you for long. You seem to like this game after all, and he likes to please you.

He doesn't really like this game. For one thing, he doesn't understand little Esther. If his parents had ever given him a cuddly toy like Mr Hopp, he would have been horrified for weeks. It's not for nothing that he broke all his little sister's dolls when he was still a child. That rabbit just looks terrifying, what child would want a cuddly toy like that, seriously?

He doesn't really play and certainly not without you next to him. In fact, he can't get past the 2nd chapter. He keeps getting stopped by the Matrons. He closed his eyes when he saw Mr Stripes appear and hid his face in his hands when he saw Miss Bo.

You end up doing the game for him as he gets caught for the umpteenth time by the Matrons. It seems too complicated for him anyway.

As long as you're playing he'll complain about just about everything: "Why are there spikes in the ground?" "Why are giant hands trying to grab your character?" "Why is this rabbit so scary? Why is Isabelle so mean?" "Why is this entity trying so hard to kill you?" "Couldn't you suggest a gentler, cuter game?" He'd like to stop closing his eyes and hiding behind you every time something scary appears.

If you were planning to play this game to spend your time reassuring him, you've succeeded. He won't complain about it though, after all, it's quite nice to see the attention you give him to reassure him, almost as much as when you watch horror films together. He might agree to play another horror video game with you, as long as you continue to reassure him.

Béliath :

He doesn't play many video games because there aren't many that he likes, although he does sometimes play when he wants to please Ivan or Ethan. So of course he wasn't going to say no when you asked him if he wanted to play Mr Hopps playhouse 2. Horror video games aren't his favourite games, although he hasn't told anyone in the manor, he loves playing Otome games and Visual novels. However, he's happy to oblige you by trying out the game you've suggested.

It takes him a while to get the hang of it, but once he does, he finds it quite fun. He's really into the story of little Esther, and he's not very fond of Molly. "She called me crazy! Esther and I are not crazy! That girl is horrible, I don't like her". He doesn't like the design of the toys. A cuddly toy is supposed to be reassuring and cute, he'd never give a child a stuffed rabbit like that!

He plays pretty well for someone who's not used to video games. He gets through the first few levels easily and listens to your advice on how to avoid matrons, spades, Mr Hopps and the rest. It's easy for both of you to get to the end of the game, and he's pretty proud of himself for getting there without asking you to do certain levels for him.

He deeply hates the ending. "Why would she do that? Esther would never do that, it's not fair." He asks you to write, create, direct, draw another ending, anything as long as it doesn't go like that.

He really enjoyed this time with you and is ready to play another horror game with you, as long as it has a more positive ending.

Ivan :

Ivan plays a lot of video games, and enjoys them all to the extent that he keeps a laptop hidden away in his bedroom so that he can continue to play them despite Vladimir's ban. He likes the classic games, like Mario, Zelda or Sims, but he's never against a bit of novelty, even if he doesn't have as many opportunities to discover new games as he did when he was human. He sometimes plays the Otome game that Beliath introduces to him, even though he finds it much harder than the incubus to assume. He knew the game by name and had already played Mr.Hopps playhouse, but he'd never played the sequel. So when you offered to play it with him, he immediately accepted.

He's such an excellent player that it's almost frustrating to watch him succeed at everything he does. He's quickly attached himself to little Esther and he really wants to save everyone in the orphanage. It's important to him, he knows he won't be able to sleep until he's finished the whole game. He's always talking to you about the previous game and if you've played it too, he's even happier to be able to share his enthusiasm with you.

He's shocked by the ending when he spots Ruby. He immediately turns to you and exclaims "MC! It's so unfair! This game never really ends well! Poor Ruby! This can't be happening! I can't accept this!" He soon gets over it, though, and continues to tell you about the story with enthusiasm. He has other game ideas to play with you, like Five nights at Freddy's.

A few days later, he comes back to you in an even better mood to exclaim. "MC, they've created a Mr.Hopps playhouse 3. Do you want to come and play with me? I'll get some popcorn and we'll spend the night playing!"

Aaron :

Aaron is not a video game player. He rarely plays them, and only DS games when Ivan comes to see him to play Mario Kart. So he agrees to play this game just to please you and because you seem to like it so much. He likes a bit of horror video games, but they're not his favourites and he'd much rather play an RPG.

It takes a little time for him to understand how the game works and to remember which keys to press, but once he does he's a pretty good player. He'll need a bit of practice to get through the more difficult levels, but with your help to get hints and tips he'll get there quickly.

He sometimes makes a few comments: "Why does Esther leave her room in the middle of the night? That rabbit looks far too dangerous for her alone, she should find an adult!" He doesn't really understand why the adults at the orphanage don't react when a little girl complains about hearing voices, seeing three newly-bought stuffed animals moving around and two children disappearing. Sure, it's a horror video game, but… is it normal for adults to be so stupid?

He doesn't like the ending: "It can't end like this, MC! Poor Esther, poor Ruby. We should be able to do something to help her, I can't let the bad guy win. It's far too sad Rubis doesn't deserve this and his grandmother fought too well, it's unfair!"

When he finds out about the 3, he insists on playing it with you. He has to take revenge on Mr Hopps, he can't leave a little girl in this situation. He's going to defeat this creature at all costs, and Esther and Rubis will finally be safe.

Raphaël :

He doesn't really like video games, and there are very few video games adapted to his blindness, so he hardly ever plays them. However, he does enjoy watching other people play, especially if they're playing an RPG, otome game or visual novel. In fact, he'd really like otome games and visual novels to be adapted for him. You didn't have much trouble convincing him to stay with you while you played.

He's constantly worried about little Esther and her friends. He doesn't like your description of the cuddly toys, "Cuddly toys are supposed to be cute, why do they look scary? "Why would adults give scary stuffed animals to children?!" "Wait MC! Why are you saying that there are spikes and axes hanging from the ceiling in this orphanage?! What kind of orphanage has that kind of thing?"

He quickly becomes totally absorbed in the game's story. Sure, it looks scary, but it's still not as scary as Aaron's horror stories. But that doesn't stop him worrying whenever you cross paths with Miss Bo, Mr Hopps or Mr Stripes. "Run and hide MC, don't let him get little Esther!"

He is genuinely upset by the ending. "What do you mean MC, what do you mean Esther is giving Mr Hoops to her granddaughter?" It's far too horrible for him, it even makes him want to weep over the fate of poor little Ruby. He spends the rest of the night with a sad look on his face until you tell him that you can make things right with the correct ending of the 3rd game. Of course he wants you to play it - you've got to save little Ruby!

Ethan :

Ethan really enjoys video games, as long as they're not war games. He's a very good gamer, although he has a slight tendency to get annoyed when he can't get past a certain level. He loves all the Ace Attorney games, but also Professor Layton, although a little less so. He also really likes horror video games, as long as they're not gory horror. He sees enough blood in his daily life not to want to see any when he's trying to relax. When you ask him to try this game he immediately accepts. Firstly, you seem to enjoy playing a game with him and secondly, he doesn't know the game and is happy to discover it with you.

He likes this game, it won't be his favourite, but it's fairly easy to play once you get used to it, and the story is very interesting for him, who likes mysteries. He wants to understand what's going on as quickly as possible. He quickly realises that Dee isn't who she says she is and he's angry that he can't allow Esther to find out. "MC, she's stupid! You can tell Dee's one of the bad guys! What's the point of playing if I can't kill her now!"

The end really pisses him off. "It's not fair MC! I did everything I could to protect Esther. He shouldn't win. Why is she giving Mr Hopps to her granddaughter? The story can't end like this!" He ruminates on the ending for several days until he comes up with the rest of the game.

He'll immediately come and find you to play with him. He's not going to let it end that way anyway. There's no way a simple video game villain can defeat him.

Neil :

Neil doesn't excel at video games and, as with anything he doesn't master perfectly, that really annoys him. He likes RPGs and he loves management games - the more complicated the management, the better. He won't hesitate to spend hours on them until he knows the game by heart. When you asked him to play this game, he was initially reluctant to refuse. It's not at all the kind of game he likes, but after some thought he accepted. It's a game that you seem to enjoy and if that's all you want to do to make yourself happy, then he sees no reason to refuse you.

He has a bit of trouble with the keys, which forces him to start each level several times, especially at the beginning. Once he's used to it, he loses less often, to his great satisfaction. The only problem is that Neil is not really a calm player, although he is never angry with Esther, but always with all the other characters.

"Who does Molly think she is? Esther is so much better than her!" "What is it with you humans, always locking people in cellars?! It's barbaric, stop doing that." "I don't like that Beverley. Esther should leave that orphanage and go and live somewhere else!" "Are they all stupid in that orphanage?! Esther is a busy girl, she shouldn't be wasting her time saving them, my little is far too nice to them, she deserves better!"

He's really angry about the end, how dare the villain attack his little Esther again! He complains to you for a long time about this, things shouldn't be like this, he refuses. But he calms down when you tell him that the 3rd game has a more positive ending. And of course he wants to play it, he can't leave Esther in this situation, she needs his help.

Léandra :

Léandra rarely plays video games, not that she doesn't like them. It's just that it's not her favourite thing to do, but she loves fighting games and horror games, and she's often asked you to play them with her. So when you came to see her to ask her to play this game, you didn't have to be very insistent to convince her.

She's a pretty good player. She easily understands how the game works and doesn't have much trouble adapting to it to win. She also catches on to the story very quickly. Which she wouldn't have thought possible at first and her instincts are pretty good. "MC… I'm not feeling Dee at all. She's one of the evil ones, isn't she?" "MC… I don't think it's possible to win against them… They're too strong for the little one and there are too many of them. Esther's going to lose."

She really likes the ending. It's a bit depressing to see that you can't do anything about the villain and that he'll always find a way to get the better of you somehow. It's not what you expect from a video game and that's exactly why she likes it. It's reassuring for her, a succubus brought up on that principle. She knows that no matter what she does she'll never win against her mother, and seeing Esther lose confirms that principle for her.

When you suggest playing 3, she's frankly reluctant. Admittedly, the ending is more positive, but doesn't it spoil everything to win against them in the end? Mr Hopps and the entity will eventually come back anyway, and if it's not Esther or Ruby it'll be another child, so what's the point in trying to defeat them?

Farah :

She rarely plays video games, as she doesn't have the time to do so because she has to manage her pack and, what's more, electricity isn't the most common thing to find in the middle of the forest. She's never against the idea of playing video games, though, and she's already tried her hand at a few management games, often encouraged by younger members of the pack. She's already played Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons, and she has to admit that they're games that she's really enjoyed; if it were easier for her to own a games console, she'd probably play them more often.

When you offered her the chance to play Mr.Hopps playhouse 2 with you, she immediately accepted. She's not very good at it, though, and while she managed to get through the first few chapters without asking you for help, she needs your help to finish the game from chapter 5 onwards. She also takes the plight of the children in the orphanage very much to heart. "The poor children must be frightened and Esther must be terrified, poor thing. I would be if I were her, it's horrible that the adults don't protect them, me at least I had my brother…"

She finds the ending really sad, "Why do things have to end like this? Ruby is just a child and her grandmother would never have wanted to hurt her… It's not fair on them."

She's quite reassured when you tell her that the end of 3 is different, and she hopes she'll soon get the chance to play it with you to change things. After all, she doesn't like to fail, and she doesn't feel good about leaving Esther and Ruby in this situation.

#moonlight lovers #moonlight lovers vladimir #moonlight lovers béliath #moonlight lovers ivan #moonlight lovers aaron #moonlight lovers raphael #moonlight lovers ethan #moonlight lovers neil #moonlight lovers léandra #moonlight lovers farah

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doublefreegames · 11 months

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Travel Devil - better the devil you know!

There's less than a week left of judging for the Spooktober Visual Novel Jam and it's been a fantastic experience for us so far! Travel Devil has received such wonderful feedback and critiques. We take on board everything that is written to us so we can make better games every time!

So today I'm going to give a little insight into how and why Travel Devil came to be.

Do you wanna know how Travel Devil came to exist?

Originally we put together a game idea for a spooky pet adoptions agency. The game would take place on Halloween and have six pets (3 unlocked and 3 locked) to play with. Each pet was going to have a unique story and minigame associated with it. It was codenamed "Spoopy Pets" and it was far too much for the me and Robert to take on and complete in the Spooktober VN Jam timeframe. We worked on it for the first two days of the jam before we were flagging problems up, so we changed trajectory. It's not a dead idea though, it's in the list of rainy day ideas.

Speaking of the rainy day ideas list, that's where Travel Devil comes in. We thought this up a while ago but just put it on the back burner as there was no time to work on it. The concept was simple - a demon escapes hell and starts a travel log. Then the servants of hell follow in its wake starting the apocalypse march on humanity. When Spoopy Pets became too big we had a look at what we had to play with and Travel Devil just sort of fell into place. Robert started writing and I started drawing.

Character design went pretty smoothly. I went for a mix of cartoon styles, drawing inspiration from things like Dead End, Gravity Falls, The Simpsons and Garfield.

Traditionally, visual novels use anime and manga style design but truth be told, I'm not very good at that style. It takes me ages to make characters look good when I try to draw like that. Hats off to all the wonderful artists in this jam who made beautiful, scintillating characters. I'm so impressed by their dedication to fantastic character art.

One of the first pitfalls I encountered was background art. I like to use sites like Pixabay to get backgrounds but recently it's been flooded with AI artworks. The game jam expressly forbids AI use in your game so we had to get creative.

Fortunately this game revolves around travel vlog creation in Paris and we found loads of creative commons photos of the famous tourist destination. Seriously there are so many fantastic photographers out there and it was a complete life and time saver for the jam. All I had to do was add a translucent white filter to the top of the photos to make the characters pop out and we had our backgrounds!

Development went well once we got on the right track. Travel Devil was made using Ren'py which is a joy to develop with. We did have to wind back our ideas at one point as both Robert and I got sick with a nasty bug but we made it. We stripped back some choices and streamlined the game to make sure we could get finished. Originally, we wanted the player to be able to unlock multiple hidden scenes in one playthrough. As the deadline loomed we simplified it so that the player would only see one of three potential side stories that were growing due to the activities of our main character Tornacense per playthrough. We included 7 unlockable scenes and also 6 unlockable images in our gallery.

There's also a nifty guide to finding all the unlockables right here if you want a more relaxing time while playing.

If you've had a chance to play Travel Devil you may have noticed that we planted some seeds in our side stories that will be big plot points as we go forward. Travel Devil is going to be a series of five games travelling around Europe making video journals and outrunning the underworld.

Tornacense and Kirby will grow, we'll meet lots of new strange and devastating people and love could be just around the corner! Who knows? That choice will be yours.

If you want to check out the first installment of Travel Devil you can nab a pentagram portal and find it right here.

Travel Devil was made for the 5th Annual Spooktober Visual Novel Jam in under 30 days. The next one will be made with a lot more time dedicated to it!

Thanks for stopping by!

DoubleFree - Artist and coder for Travel Devil

#visual novel #vn development #visual novel game #spooktober #vndev #game jam #renpy #spooktober 2023 #vn game #travel devil #spooktober vn jam #devlog

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whypolar · 1 year

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Gundam Unicorn OVA 3: The Ghost of Laplace

Some of the most stunning visuals from these OVAs yet. What a beautiful piece of animation.

Choosing which screenshots to use for this post hurt me. If I had my way, I would include multiple shots of every sequence where something explodes. Many, many things explode.

I'm glad I don't have problems with flashing lights. The lasers in this one get pretty intense.

This post is very long. There's a lot of novel stuff I want to talk about. Let's get into it!

(Previous posts: Day of the Unicorn, The Second Coming of Char)

I won't lie, they got further into the plot than I thought they were going to. I was expecting more time in Palau and then Riddhe and Mineva arriving and doing stuff on Earth, with the confrontation in the ruins of Laplace being saved for the next one. If I'd paid attention to the title I could have realized they were going to go to the coordinates, but I obviously did not. It caught me pretty off guard!

I definitely feel like this one benefits from multiple watches. They all do, for sure, but this one had a lot of little moments that were much stronger the second time through. A lot happens very quickly! Taking the time to pay attention is rewarding, especially in terms of emotional stakes. It was easy on a first watch to just get caught up in the spectacle and not fully process everything that's happening-- and that's for me, who already knew the background context and plot beats going in.

The Obligatory Music Section

Some of these tracks were probably also in the last two, but I didn't link them so it doesn't count. Here are the standouts I'm highlighting this time:

Bring on a War -- I love the strings on this track. Guitar? The instrumentation for this entire soundtrack is so fun and complex. The intense drums! The woodwinds! The weird ghostly vocals! That repeated noise that sounds like a gunshot and breaking glass! So good.

Capture -- Equal parts jaunty and menacing. I like the bells at the start.

Merry-go-round -- The credits song. Pop music with lyrics about the inescapable repetition of history: it's a proud Gundam movie tradition.

Environments

You guys remember places?

We're spending time in and around a large colony again, so the sweeping establishing shots are back. The space port is so beautiful, and so alien in how you're expected to traverse it.

I definitely will be looking up the staff once I'm done watching these. For many reasons, really, but I'm very curious about who was doing the environmental art and design.

And while we're talking about environments--

Operation Billiard

The most important reveal: the glowing orb pillars in the purple palm tree lounge are low-gravity hologram pool tables.

It turns out that the vaporwave room was a billiards hall this whole time! I assume this is a nod to how the attack plan on Palau was named "Operation Billiard" in the novels.

We get a quick explanation of the plan in the OVA (separate the asteroids that make up Palau, seal the military port, rescue Banagher during the confusion) but they don't bother to explain the mechanics in detail. Why would they need to? When you see a bunch of explosions and a giant fuckoff laser, it is immediately obvious why that might be a problem for Neo Zeon.

Fuck that one Eye-Zack in particular

If you're curious about why it's "Operation Billiard": Palau is made up of four asteroids. They planned to use the force of the Mega Particle Cannon to knock them all into each other. This would obstruct the exits for the military port in the centre of the asteroid cluster, trapping the Zeon forces inside.

The manoeuvre worked as intended, but Frontal knew the attack was coming, so he was able to move all his forces off Palau ahead of time.

(A small number of other random Zeon-aligned soldiers were deliberately left out of the loop to act as bait, because the Sleeves didn't care about them. The way the guys that try to escape through the cracks get picked off one by one is kind of horrific. They might as well be marching single file into a mech-destroying meat grinder.)

I do think the attack on Palau is more harrowing in the novel. In terms of the combat, I'm not sure if that could be avoided. It feels inherently easier for me to remember that every mobile suit is a person while reading textual description than when there's a beautiful laser light show going off before my eyes.

That said, in some places the framing is just different:

I really love this scene, for the record.

In the novel, Nashiri is a perspective character during the battle. We are reading from his viewpoint inside the cockpit with his crew while they pick off Zeon soldiers one by one-- and then the Sinanju swoops into view, and they immediately know the plan is compromised and that they're going to die. They are burned and vaporized to dust, and then we switch to Angelo's perspective.

What I find memorable about the novel scene is the loss of life: how methodically they had been killing, and how quickly the Sinanju does the same to them. How they saw it coming but could do nothing. How living, breathing human beings could be reduced to literally nothing in an instant.

The OVA positions the camera outside, with the Sinanju. We see Frontal slowly and deliberately carving out the Loto's entire chest to make sure he got all of them. We do not see or hear any of the Loto's pilots. We see inside Frontal's cockpit, for a shot of him looking cooly down at his handiwork before moving on. What I find memorable about this scene is that Frontal is scary.

(Imagine me here getting stabbed with a beam weapon, saying "Wow! Cool Antagonist!")

It's not like death isn't thematically important in the OVA-- they absolutely remind you with dialogue that every mobile suit blowing up is a person dying. We see a shot of this same Loto and its partner after the battle as burned out wrecks, and it's clear Daguza and the other ECOAS guys are thinking about their dead comrades. Riddhe and Banagher both deliberately attempt to spare enemy pilots. The level of destruction is immense! The robots are simply too cool. It can't be helped.

This is one of the benefits of multiple watches. When you've already seen the cool robots once before, you can focus in more closely on what they're doing, and what that means.

There's another reason the battle loses some emotional charge: focus is drawn away from noncombatants almost entirely. We see very little of the regular people who live on Palau.

For all Riddhe assures Mineva that they have no intention of attacking the areas where civilians live, it is unavoidable that slamming the asteroids they live on together will have consequences.

The novel describes intense earthquakes. Two residential blocks collapse. Residents are rolling and tumbling around. Windows of the houses that stay standing shatter. You get a real sense of fear on the civilian level.

The OVA gives us a quick scene with Tikva. There's some dust and some shaking, but he stays standing easily enough. We don't see anything collapse on screen. We hear people screaming in confusion and terror, but none of them are visible. Likewise, the streets are totally empty of people and identical to their first appearance when Banagher is making his way to the space port. Civilians are basically not relevant.

The novel spends a lot more time on Palau even before the attack. We spend time with Gilboa's family. Banagher genuinely befriends these people! He plays with Gilboa's kids and fixes a machine they use to make a living. It's a bit sad to lose all that, but I get it.

There's also scene in the novel where a truck driver in one of the connecting tunnels gets blown back fifty feet by the force of ECOAS' bombs going off, slams into a wall, and passes out. He wakes up when he's discovered several hours later, after the attack is over. It's more funny than anything, because he's just like, fine, lmao. I was so sure he was done. Fifty feet just intuitively sounds like too much to be survivable, until you remember there's no gravity.

Anyway, you wanna know something that was appropriately menacing during the Palau attack? The Unicorn. The Unicorn was perfect.

The joy of a hunter.

Marida vs. Banagher

Oh... this sequence is so visually striking.

I was shocked by how quickly it all happened. This isn't a criticism. I guess I was expecting it to linger more, like the scenes with Amuro and Lalah in '79. The amount of concrete "information" conveyed here is so much more than that, and yet it covers it all in less than two minutes. You certainly get a sense for how instantaneously Marida and Banagher are communicating, and how overwhelming it must be for both of them.

I will likely revisit Marida's backstory in future posts, in relation to other scenes that happen later. For now, I'll just say I was surprised and impressed.

I'm admittedly very curious how this scene reads for people who don't already know the backstory going in. Hell, how does it read for people who aren't familiar with Gundam ZZ?

(I put on the dub for my second watch. This is the first time I heard how "Ple" is pronounced in English. Fucked up.)

I wish I'd taken notes on specifics, but I think they shifted some dialogue around between combat, the Newtype link, and the scene in the hospital room. It's not really important, but I think it's interesting how scenes with similar dialogue or themes can be folded into each other in an adaptation.

Some stuff cut from the hospital scene:

There's a CT scan of Banagher on the wall in novel. "You checked whether I was a Cyber-Newtype too, didn't you?" When I read the English translation, I thought they dodged telling the audience what the result of the test actually was. I thought that was a really interesting choice. Unfortunately, I don't think it's actually the case, having checked the Japanese. I can't be 100% sure, but I think the meaning of the line is that as far as the doctor could tell with the equipment they had available, he detected no evidence of Banagher being a Cyber-Newtype. 😔

When Banagher and the doctor discuss Newtype theory, they cut a line where the doctor suggests that a world where everyone knows what everyone else is thinking without obfuscation or deception might not be the magic bullet to end war, and could even be more violent. He's also a little more direct in the novel about implying that the emergence of Newtypes could create a divide between them and "Oldtypes."

The doctor points out that Newtypes are theorized to evolve in space, and how this would be a problem for Earth-Space relations. Banagher says that they should just make everyone evolve all at once. The Japanese line seems a bit vague, but the English translation interprets this as him suggesting they pull a Char / Mafty and send everyone into space. I think that's a fun way to take it, particularly because Banagher thinks it's a childish idea even as he says it. It's cute to me.

Full Frontal

In the novel, we see Frontal arranging his battle plan before the attack begins-- we see that he knows the attack coming, we see him move his troops off Palau, and we see him give orders to leave the Unicorn where Banagher will find it. In the OVA, we learn most of this in retrospect. I don't think the framing changes much, except insofar as it means less screen time for him and Angelo.

The big scene we lose is the one where they speak to one of their major sponsors in Neo Zeon, the guy who owns Palau. He tries to goad Frontal into officially admitting to being Char and taking off the mask, implicitly threatening to rescind his support if he doesn't. Frontal responds to this with "That's okay. I actually came by today to tell you we're leaving! How convenient. Bye."

Frontal speaks very differently to this guy than he did to Banagher, even beyond refusing to remove his mask. It's a fascinating contrast, and I like it a lot. Frontal is very good at being threateningly passive-aggressive in multiple registers.

A good and telling bit of dialogue from Frontal that we lose by cutting this scene: "Char Aznable is a man who lost."

I still don't understand what they're doing with Riddhe, and I'm getting increasingly concerned about it.

I cannot believe how many Riddhe opinions I apparently have had this whole time, just waiting to be revealed.

OVA Riddhe does not feel like much of anything to me so far, which is bizarre when his novel counterpart has so much going on. His blandness is even more noticeable when he's spending so much time with Mineva, who is a very strong-willed character with defined beliefs.

I would say his characterization has been made subordinate to hers, except she doesn't even gain anything from it? Cutting his screen time also cuts hers as well. He's the character that she's interacting with most for this entire section of the story, so making him less interesting just means she has a less interesting conversation partner!

Riddhe is a major character, and there are events later that hinge on the audience giving a shit about him. He needs to have substance, because the story is going to treat him like he has it. If he doesn't have it, it will fall flat.

Here are the key points I want to go over:

Novel Riddhe's values and beliefs are made very clear, while OVA Riddhe feels more ambiguous and flimsy.

Novel Riddhe's relationship to his family is far more complicated and compelling than anything we've been told about OVA Riddhe so far.

Novel Riddhe is shown to have strong emotional ties to the crew of the Nahel Argama.

Novel Riddhe has many clearly established reasons not to do what he does-- personally, professionally, and legally-- and chooses to do it anyway.

This scene was funnier in the novel, because it tells you they have a telephone for each member of the family, but they're all in the same room where they get answered by the same butler.

Novel Riddhe is thoroughly established as a person with opinions and a strong moral compass. He does more to help others, at greater difficulty than anything OVA Riddhe has been faced with thus far, and the negative consequences he knowingly takes on are made more explicit.

In the novel, there's a whole extra step before taking Mineva to earth. Mineva has been moved off the Nahel Argama to another ship, the Alaska, which was going to bring her to a be held at a base on the moon. Getting her out of there is a lot more convoluted than knocking out a single guard and then sneaking down some hallways when no one is looking.

Riddhe sets off a bunch of smoke canisters all over the ship to cause confusion, knocks out some guys, flees the Alaska in a shuttle, shakes the mobile suits tailing them by flying through a debris field, lies about his reason for returning so they let him back on the Argama, and ultimately sneaks Mineva back onto the ship and into his mobile suit. Since the battle has started at this point, it's impossible for the Argama to contact the Alaska or vice-versa.

It makes sense to cut this for time. It's an extraneous trip just to return to the status quo of them needing to sneak off the Argama again anyway. There are other ways to show Riddhe's determination without giving him a dramatic heroic sequence.

But here's the problem with removing it: Riddhe doesn't just rescue Mineva. Takuya and Micott are also on the Alaska. It is strongly implied that they're going to be disappeared.

(There are people from the Intelligence Department on the 'Alaska', so leave the prisoner to them. Don't ask any further.) "Then what about the civilians? They..." (Will be treated as those who violated confidentiality and dealt with as appropriate. You have no need to be involved with them.)

That's significant! Mineva is a person with obvious political importance, and Riddhe became emotionally attached to her before he even knew that. It is entirely possible to interpret rescuing Mineva through a lens of selfish motivations, especially in an adaptation where we aren't privy to his inner thoughts.

Riddhe has no special attachment to Takuya and Micott. He saves them because he has an obligation to do so, because leaving them behind would be wrong.

Are you wondering why the Alaska came to pick them up in the first place? It happened because Riddhe contacted his father at the request of Captain Otto, even though he really didn't want to, in the hopes that he could prevent more deaths by requesting additional support for the Argama.

But Riddhe's father didn't send the support Riddhe requested-- he sent a ship to pick up Riddhe and the prisoners. Why send military support when he can just remove his son from the battlefield that he never wanted him to be on anyway, right? He doesn't even respond himself, some random military guy does it for him.

... this admiral might not have even thought of him as a person. He was just looking at the shadow behind his back-- the authority of Senator Ronan Marcenas. Riddhe felt the emptiness of talking to a wall as he yelled, "WHY ONLY ME...!"

To me, novel Riddhe's frustration with his family is the single most important character trait he has. It informs every single one of his decisions. And so far, in the anime, it has not come up even once.

Riddhe is not just a bit distant from his family. He is repeatedly described as having run away from home. We are told he has not spoken to his father or his sister in some time. He literally refers to his 'family' in scare quotes while thinking about them.

Riddhe too felt repulsed by the fact he had to rely on the 'family' that he had been hiding from at this point, but there was no other way.

[...]

There’s no other choice. Riddhe returned back to his room and ended up spending 2 hours writing a mail to his father. He had never sent a phone call for the past few years, let alone a message. His body did not have a function to communicate with his father, and he felt a chill when he started off with ‘Dear Father’.

[...]

"Since I entered the army with the family's objection, I never intended to come back, but just this once, I have to do this."

The car ride with his father when they first meet and head back to the house is incredibly miserable. They casually drop that Riddhe's mom is in a nursing home, and then they sit in total silence.

Riddhe was looking in front silently, not looking at the greenery passing by outside the window. He was about as silent as the time when he piloted the “Delta Plus” into the atmosphere—no, he might be a lot more tense here. Sitting diagonally in front of him was Ronan, who had his mouth shut, not intending to look away from the notebook terminal. As for what they actually talked about on the limousine, there were only two lines, “Mom?” “She’s in a Nursing Home in Switzerland.” What was left was the heavy and unbearable silence passing between them.

Eventually, Riddhe starts speaking to Mineva while she's looking at the scenery, very obviously as a way of needling his dad. It's an insanely loaded conversation. He basically says "hey Mineva, have you ever read Gone with the Wind? Did you know it takes place here, in Georgia? Just thinking about wealthy white farmers enriching themselves by exploiting Black slaves as we drive to my rich politician dad's house, for no reason."

The dig is not subtle. His dad sarcastically responds to it by pointing out the comparison, as if pretending he isn't extremely aware that's why Riddhe brought it up in the first place, and then they go back to totally ignoring each other.

This is something I think is important: in the novel, Ricardo Marcenas-- Riddhe's great-grandfather and first Prime Minister of the Earth Federation-- is not white. He is stated to be mixed race both during his political speech, when he talks about his heritage, and later when Mineva sees his portrait.

It is an unbelievably pointed choice to have Riddhe and his father be white-passing and from the southern US while the dead great-grandfather with lofty ideals who was implicitly assassinated by his own government was visibly (and proudly) multiracial.

Between the family's politics and Riddhe's sister being in an arranged marriage for political and business reasons, you can guess that this is more than just a coincidence of genetics. Ricardo's descendants wanted to hold onto power, and power was disproportionately held by white people, so that's who they married. Fukui is hitting me with a big cartoon mallet labeled "racism and its consequences persist in the politics of the Earth Federation."

And this... just doesn't exist in the OVA, I guess. They cut the lines about Ricardo's heritage from his speech, and he looks like any other white guy.

The anime as a whole so far has a general trend of cutting anything that directly mentions real-world racial identity or politics, without exception (see also: Syam and Banagher). They've also been erring on the side of lighter skin tones across the board, even in cases where novel description says otherwise.

The doctor on the Argama is described as Arab, with light tan skin. They coloured him half a shade darker than Banagher, who is half a shade darker than Mihiro.

Gilboa is Black. He's still Black here, but they gave him the absolute lightest possible skin tone that still reads as brown. He's way more ambiguous than his wife and kids, and they also have light brown skin. He's described as dark-skinned in the novel!

Yeah, people can have these skin tones with those backgrounds. Obviously. But they've chosen to convey information that is clear in the original text ambiguously, and they've done it to multiple characters.

I'm going on a bit of a tangent here, but this felt like the most appropriate place to bring it up. IT BOTHERS ME.

Anyway. Do you know who is the first character in the novel to bring up the rumours that Ricardo Marcenas was assassinated by the Federation? Because it isn't Daguza in the cockpit with Banagher-- that's later. It's Riddhe.

Riddhe is the one who suggests conservative elements within the Federation might have wanted to a eliminate a more liberal and idealistic Prime Minister while also providing an excuse to root out separatists on the basis of anti-terrorism. Riddhe is the one who gives a scathing account of what his family did in the aftermath of the assassination, where Ricardo's son took advantage of the situation to gain power with the support of the same conservatives who killed his father.

Riddhe says all that directly in front of his dad, who yells at him for spreading nonsense conspiracy theories, tells him he doesn't know anything about politics, and says that he abandoned his family. Wrow.

Riddhe is ultimately ashamed of himself for provoking his father just because he's angry. He thinks it's selfish and childish for him to risk jeopardizing the relationship when he's relying on his father's power to accomplish his goals and protect Mineva.

Calm down, he's a Senate Council member who can deal with the army that will suck up to him. I have to put aside all personal feelings and tell him.

Riddhe took Mineva's line about her responsibility as a member of the Zabi family very seriously. He comes back to it repeatedly. He doesn't want to have anything to do with his family, but he knows there are things that only he can do to help, precisely because of his family-- and he has an obligation to try.

There's a very interesting tension, where Riddhe is only even able to survive and successfully enact his plan because of the otherwise unwanted privilege conferred by his father. It's made clear that even that might not have saved him if he hadn't gotten extremely lucky! It comes up again and again, at every step of the plan.

No matter whether the "Nahel Argama" survives or not, Ensign Riddhe's military career will be at an end.

[...]

"I'm risking my life here as well. I might even end up facing the firing squad if I mess up here, you know?"

[...]

If the situation had happened during a Parliamentary Session, the contact would definitely bounce around amongst the secrataries, and the "Delta Plus" would most likely be shot down without any confirmation of its identity.

Even after they manage to land safely by using the name of his family as a shield, the guards surrounding them when they disembark are hostile and keep rifles trained on them the whole way.

I feel like this element of luck is part of why they swapped his model airplanes for a good luck charm, but it's still so weird to me. His luck is important because of the risks he's taking, and they're not really playing that up as much as they could be. They could tell us in retrospect, but Riddhe knew the risks going in, and that's important.

One thing he knows he's going to lose, unavoidably, is all of his established social relationships in the military.

Survivor's guilt and having lost friends is something that comes up a lot in Riddhe's internal dialogue after the destruction of Industrial 7. I talked about it a bit in the last post. His crewmates are people he cares about, not only in an abstract sense of duty and obligation, but as people.

He's clearly deeply hurt by lying to the crew about his real intentions during the attack on Palau, especially as some of them are glad to see him back and praising his bravery as a soldier.

Does OVA Riddhe have strong relationships to anyone on the Argama? Maybe. He gets some advice from a superior officer. He banters with one of the other pilots for three lines or so. The doctor certainly believes that Mihiro is on edge specifically because of Riddhe's "death", but there are no particularly significant interactions between them to confirm it.

Riddhe's romantic interest in Mihiro is established very early in the novels, when he asks her out to a movie before launching for the first battle. He says he needs something to look forward to so he'll come back alive.

This comes back again when he's heading out for the Palau mission, when she specifically privately contacts him:

(Good luck, Ensign Riddhe. I haven't forgotten the promise to watch a movie.)

And he just has to agree, knowing that he's not coming back and she's going to be mourning him, thinking he's dead. Man.

When it becomes clear the battle isn't going to go as planned, Mineva can sense Riddhe's hesitation. She tells him to stay and fight, because otherwise he'll regret it for the rest of his life. While this works as a character moment for Mineva in the anime, I don't feel like it's a convincing one for Riddhe. What made it work in the novels was that we already knew this was an accurate assessment of his feelings. In the anime, rather than her resolving the conflict for him, it almost feels like he hadn't even fully realized he was having one until she told him.

Maybe I'm being uncharitable and nitpicky, and this all comes across just fine to people without my preconceptions. I just can't shake the feeling that too much scaffolding for his character has been removed, so now even big character moments are failing to stand up on their own.

Riddhe's latent newtype connection to Banagher and their Man's Promise is plot important, but on an emotional level it is nothing to me. I don't care about Riddhe's masculine pride. I care about him having a fraught relationship with his shitty rich dad who he has deliberately avoided for years. I care about social bonds. I care about sacrifice.

Banagher's trust in Riddhe in the novel is meaningful because the audience has reason to believe that Riddhe deserves that trust.

I really hope they can integrate at least some of this stuff going forward, but I also worry it might be too late. I can imagine it failing so easily-- like if they give me Riddhe yelling at his dad, but without all the established context it just comes off like he's a brat throwing a tantrum.

I'm pretty sure his crush on Mineva is going to start becoming relevant now, too, so I need them to give me something to work with as soon as fucking possible if they don't want me to become a relentless little hater. Please.

I want to believe they can still flesh him out enough to work for me, even if it's not perfect.

Micott's arc is altered by changes to Riddhe's arc.

This isn't a super dramatic change, since she's not a load-bearing part of the narrative like Riddhe. I do think how they shifted things around is interesting and worth talking about, though.

In my post on OVA 2, I mentioned that Micott is the one who snitches on Mineva in the novel. This was removed in the anime, where instead Daguza just recognizes her face himself. Now the reason becomes clear-- they moved it here, instead.

In the novel, the second part of the conversation they have in this scene happens on the shuttle back from the Alaska. Since the Alaska was cut, they obviously couldn't do that, but having the betrayal without including the resolution would defeat the purpose. Their solution was to combine the betrayal and reconciliation into a single scene, by having Micott consider reporting Mineva's escape but ultimately back down. I think that's a very clever way to handle it.

Micott is more emotional in the novel version. The circumstances are completely different, so the difference in tone makes sense.

"I know this isn't something I should be saying. But sorry, I have no intention of apologizing to you. Your army was the one that decimated our colony." ... "But, I want to apologize to Banagher. If I don't, I..." The rest of her words were vague due to her crying.

She apologizes to Banagher in the novel equivalent to the hologram billiards scene, when Takuya deliberately leaves them alone for a bit so they can talk. Banagher is puzzled by her apology, and they just kind of cyclically apologize to each other for a bit. It's cute.

The novel version of the conversation is very unsubtle about implying that Banagher implicitly believes Riddhe is trustworthy because they have a psychic connection. Micott's line in the anime, where she just comments on Banagher behaving differently than usual, is more vague.

Micott also sticks up for Mineva to Banagher, which I thought was sweet.

"But since you helped her out once, you have to bear responsibility and help her out until the end. That girl's feeling rather down inside despite making a strong look."

The Vist Foundation: Martha, Alberto, and Gael

God, I love Martha. I've been waiting for her desperately. I loooove her anime design. She looks so good. My evil wife.

The Vist Foundation is much less present in the narrative than expected, so far. I'm not entirely sure what to think, but unlike Riddhe's changes, it doesn't raise any alarm bells for me (yet). The Foundation itself is central to the conflict, what with 『The Box』, but all the individual people in it are minor characters.

Do you remember Gael, Cardeas' bodyguard? At this point in the novel, Gael is on the Garencieres. His interactions with Zinnerman and the rest of the crew are very tense and uneasy, but he's a key player in the plan to rescue Marida. He talks to Banagher briefly during the battle as well, just like Gilboa.

Gael wants to capture Alberto and force him to publicly reveal information about Martha, thus ruining her reputation. This allows him to have his revenge for Cardeas without killing her (since Syam objected to him doing so).

For Marida's escape-- rather than being blown out into space, the guys transporting her are gunned down by Gael, and that's when she takes the opportunity to slip out of her bonds.

Gael confronts Alberto about killing Cardeas, and Alberto has some interesting dialogue:

"THAT MAN ONLY CARED ABOUT HIMSELF! HE THOUGHT THAT HE COULD DECIDE EVERYTHING JUST BECAUSE HE'S STRONG! HE THOUGHT THAT PEOPLE WHO WERE WEAKER WERE JUST SLACKING OFF... BUT I'VE BEEN WORKING SO HARD!"

[...]

"Aunt [Martha] was very kind ... She was willing to recognize and accept me. Dad doesn't know about such things."

I could imagine Alberto having a conversation like this with Marida instead, since it's related to her reason for saving him in the novel-- she recognized his connection to Banagher. When Marida saw Banagher's mind, she saw the burden placed on him by Cardeas, and she sees the same thing in Alberto. She mentions that they both have the same sadness in their eyes.

(We still haven't seen Martha tell Alberto that Banagher is his half-brother, by the way. Is Marida going to tell him instead? Does he know? I need to know if he knows!)

Anyway. Alberto shoots Gael and more crew from the Nahel Argama arrive, having heard the commotion. Gael flees.

The scene keeps going, but I'm stopping here, since we might be getting into stuff for the next one.

Daguza has a lot of backstory that doesn't make it in.

Man, this guy is carrying around so much baggage. Banagher has no idea. Content warning for child death for this part. Scroll down to the screenshots if at any point you decide you don't want to read it.

After the conversation with Banagher in the tea room, we get a much longer conversation between Daguza and the other ECOAS guy. We learn about "The Sweetwater Operation", during which ECOAS murdered a bunch of children as collateral while trying to take out a group of terrorists. Yes.

Sweetwater was a refugee colony. The living conditions were terrible, basically a slum, and it eventually became a hub for anti-Federation activity. During Char's Counterattack, it was a working base for Neo Zeon. After the conflict ended, it became "a breeding ground for terrorist planning."

"Those terrorists ignored human rights and laws, so their crimes that went beyond the law should be punished by means beyond the law" -- gee, where have I heard that before? What could Fukui possibly be referencing here?

To summarize: intelligence failed to report the presence of a school bus, ECOAS blew up a bunch of kids along with the terrorists, 33 of them died, and the four who survived were disabled for the rest of their lives. Investigators covered up the incident and it was reported as an accident, but rumours still spread within the Federation special forces. ECOAS was nicknamed "The Manhunters."

Honestly, I think it's a kind of contrived scenario compared to the much more cruelly mundane way that kids and other innocent civilians get murdered during anti-terrorist raids and drone strikes in real life, but I see what Fukui was going for.

From that point on, ECOAS continued to be given dirty missions due to their reputation. I would bet those 33 kids are not the only children they've killed during their career.

They do a lot of justifying it to themselves during the conversation. "It was the intelligence branch's fault, we couldn't do anything." "Well, we were facing a group a group of people who would drop colonies and asteroids on the Earth. If we didn't take them down all at once, there might have been more children killed." "Yes, we have to allow a little sacrifice for the sake of the many." Again, all very familiar.

Despite his words, it's very obvious that Daguza feels guilty. His discussion of himself as a cog is a lot more charged when you know exactly what kind of violence he enacted as part of the machine.

Let me ask honestly, what is this order we have to protect even if it means killing children? [...] Despite understanding that, I still continue to kill myself off, telling myself consistently that it can’t be helped. Won’t I become a real cog gradually? I swallowed reality and sold out myself bit by bit. In this sense, I’m a foolish creature who’s sealed in this shell called an adult.

While they do talk about how Banagher is a child during this conversation, we don't get the line from the OVA here about never having had children and Daguza's implicit fatherly feelings toward Banagher.

The idea does come up later, with Daguza expressing that no matter what the box is, it's not worth exchanging for the future of a child like Banagher. It's pretty clear that this is the reason he's so ready to go to his death.

And what a death it was.

He wanted to hand his life to a child, a child who would think about the future. Of course, he did not think that he could wash away all his guilt after all the atrocity he did, but he felt surprisingly happy that he could do this. He, who only knew how to act on priorities to fulfil his duties, was leaving everything to a young life that had no blood relations or bonds with him ...

Holy shit.

I love the Sinanju with its busted face. Such a look.

Anyway, this death is one that I think is more disturbing than it was in the original text. The decision to let his rocket launcher float just far enough from the beam to survive and then splatter against the emblem is downright nasty. It allows for a person whose body has been totally vaporized to still look like they're leaving behind remains. It feels like a full body gore splatter, even if closely watching the sequence makes it clear it's not. That rules.

And that's when we get our second Destroy Mode activation.

A Gundam is a monster. A Gundam is a devil.

Do you ever think about how Frontal is tactically the single most important person on the battlefield for his side, but he puts himself at risk of burning to death to stop the Unicorn from killing Angelo? Because I do. I think about it a lot.

RIP Gilboa. It really hit me while watching that Banagher has multiple potential surrogate father figures who explode directly in front of him, much like his real dad did. So far, Otto is the only adult man to survive giving Banagher friendly paternal advice.

If you've read all this, thanks for indulging me. I hope it was interesting.

I'm really looking forward to watching the next one. I've heard good things, and that arc of the novel, uh... well, it's a lot. I'll have to think about how much I even want to get into it.

#remibloggue #gundam unicorn #gundam

17 notes · View notes

kimbapisnotsushi · 2 years

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who do you think is addicted to games on their phone? maybe which games?

ooooh this is a fun one!! let's get it!!

(also let's studiously ignore the fact that a lot of them would not have had smart phones you could play on in 2012 LMAAO)

kenma obviously and i think he's willing to try any game once - whether it's platformer, retro 8-bit style, romance visual novel, rhythm games, match 3, whatever. the fun is in the trying and seeing what the games hold, and who knows? he might find something he really likes!

he DOES have a few ultimate favorites tho he really likes pokemon go (which i maintain that EVERYONE has bc it's funny as hell that way) and mmmm i'd say some kind of rpg/mmorpg or story-driven game

(not including monster hunter bc we know he has that on a handheld already and i don't know if they have mobile games for that)

i think lev would be a big cookie run ovenbreak fan LMAAAO. it's a super easy gacha system and all the cookies have really fun designs and stories that never seem boring to him!! his favorite cookie is space doughnut cookie bc he thinks it's fucking hilarious that they have cookie aliens in the cookie universe

tendou really likes visual novels and will download every single one he finds, whether they're thirty minutes long or take days of playing through. he loooves a good story and cool art and being able to impact the plot, and isn't particularly picky about the genre - he just wants it to be fun!

osamu, fukunaga, and yukie are all avid players of food fantasy (which was developed by the same company who did love nikki dress-up) and if you've never heard of it i totally recommend it!! it's so much fun and has gorgeous characters/art and a fun story and fun events. i haven't played in a while bc updates can take up a lot of storage which i currently do not have (RIP) but it's the only game i consistently re-download other than candy crush and pokemon go LMAAAO

(yes it is about anthropomorphic foods. no i am not ashamed to admit i am in love with some of them. they are your friends and teammates and you can battle with them and it's SO MUCH FUN)

semi DOES play love nikki dress-up which tendou finds hilarious not because of toxic masculinity or whatever the fuck but because "eita HOW in the world do you get good scores you literally dress like a grandpa on our days off"

he also really likes the music!!

i think watari really likes farming/cozy village life sims and if it's the type where you can name the characters around you he names everyone after seijoh (and when he has even more characters than that he starts branching out to other teams LMAAAAO)

the mayor is oikawa obviously

the twins def have a game that they can challenge each other/co-op in so like maybe brawl stars or something??? aran has it too bc of fucking course they want to play with him and aran drags kita into it who drags oomimi who drags akagi and the twins get ginjima and suna to download it and so the whole of inarizaki basically has this one game they all play with each other and know a lil too well

bonus pics of some of my food fantasy crushes:

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satoshi-mochida · 1 year

Text

Shiravune will release the PC version of novamicus-developed romance visual novel ONE. via Steam and Johren day and date with its Japanese release on December 22, the publisher announced. It will support English, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese language options.

In Japan, a Switch version is also due out on December 22. It is currently unknown whether it will support multiple language options.

Here is an overview of the game, via Shiravune:

About

ONE. is a remaster of NEXTON‘s genre-defining and highly influential romance visual novel One: Kagayaku Kisetsu e, originally released in 1998, and is currently in production to celebrate the 30th anniversary of NEXTON’s foundation.

ONE. faithfully recaptures the beloved story of the original game and brings refined character designs by the one and only Itaru Hinoue. Further refinements and improvements are also provided for modern systems, ensuring that this classic story will remain a joy to experience for years to come. ONE. is sure to bring back memories for fans of old, and to draw a new crowd of fans to one of the foundational pillars of the genre.

ONE. is planned for release December 22, 2023, on Steam & Johren in English, Chinese, and Japanese.

Story What tied me to this world… 1998, winter. I was just a regular student until another world was born in me. Like softly falling snow, it blanketed and began to bury my everyday life. It was only then that I realized… That there were certain things in my life that never changed. The same familiar scenery. The warmth of the one I loved, who filled me with a joy I never noticed. Their existence tied me to this world.

It was when I first started to want these bonds, to want that special someone, that time began to pass, and sunlight caused the season to really shine.

When it did, which world was I standing in, and who was holding my hand?

Characters

Mizuka Nagamori

Birthday: September 26

Kohei’s childhood friend and classmate. A busybody who wakes him up every morning and can’t help but worry about him. If there’s anybody in my life who I should probably thank, it’s you, Nagamori. If we hadn’t met as children, I wonder where I would be now. Since the day we met, we’ve spent a lot of time together… even though you’re a meddler who gets on my nerves sometimes. But still, I have to thank you. You’ll always be my friend, right? But the words you said that day, that saved me… it’s like they’ve disappeared. I could’ve sworn you said—

Rumi Nanase

Birthday: August 8

A girl who transfers into Kohei’s class. She tries her best to be ladylike, but she always messes things up. Possibly because once she sets her mind on something, she single-mindedly sticks to it. On her first day, she ended up bumping into me after turning a corner like we were in some kind of rom-com. Unlike her looks, her personality was kinda… Actually, I’m scared of what she’d do to me if I finished that thought. She always seems to put a lot of thought and effort into becoming the ideal “lady.” Maybe I should reward her enthusiasm with a copy of my manuscript? “Nanase, always chasing the feminine ideal.” Of course, “always chasing” means never quite getting there… (THWUNK!!!)

Akane Satomura

Birthday: April 21

Kohei’s quiet classmate who makes her thoughts known with just a few words. She’s a great cook with a major sweet tooth. It was a gloomy, rainy day when I happened to leave home a bit early and met a girl holding a pink umbrella outside. That girl happened to be Akane. Turns out she was actually in my class. I didn’t think much of that encounter at the time, but I started talking to Akane a lot after that. She kept her distance from others even though all she wanted was for someone to see through her act and get close to her. At least, that’s how it felt to me. But… it also kinda did feel like she was really trying to avoid me, sometimes…

Misaki Kawana

Birthday: June 3

Kohei’s senior who lost her eyesight in an accident when she was little. Despite living in a world of darkness, her personality overflows with light, always positive and sociable. She loves her school’s katsu curry special. I was chilling on the sunset-dyed roof after school when a girl I didn’t know started talking to me. Her eyes were cool, but her smile was warm. I only found out she was my senior in both age and grade later. Also, what that cool look actually meant. Noticing my sudden uncertainty about how to speak to her, she whispered downcast, “Just how you normally would to anyone else.”

Mayu Shiina

Birthday: May 15

A girl younger than Kohei and Mizuka who refuses to go to school. She bursts into tears whenever something doesn’t go her way. Her favorite food is hamburgers. We met her the day she lost her one and only friend. A ferret. I guess she decided we were a good enough replacement, because from then on she stuck to us like glue. However, whenever something happened, she would throw a tantrum and scream that ferret’s name. She was a pain in the butt. But since it was the first time she was reaching out and getting to know other people, I couldn’t be too mad at her. Her beloved ferret might’ve died, but that death was the first step on her road to adulthood. Right, Shiina?

Mio Kouzuki

Birthday: June 4

Kohei’s expressive and bubbly junior. She doesn’t speak, but always carries a sketchbook to communicate with others. She’s a member of the drama club. I met Mio in our school’s cafeteria. Since then, whenever I happened to look for her, she was right there, smiling up at me. If I had to describe her, I guess she was like a rambunctious little sister? I have no idea what caused her to always smile like that, but I somehow came to take it for granted. She always tried her best at everything—usually resulting in nothing but a new mess for the rest of us to deal with. I doubt she ever noticed, though…

#ONE.#ONE: Kagayaku Kisetsu e #ONE: To The Radiant Season #novamicus #Nexton #Shiravune #visual novel #Gematsu #That's a long wait but heck yeah.

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wisteriasakana · 10 months

Text

Welcome to Soe finally does a real devlog on Pink Pro (but first, she talks about something else) + little announcement!

This experience with jams has taught me that, as I am, the perfect deadline is a month and a half. If it's a full two months, I'll end up doing something else because "there's plenty of time", only to find myself doing it all in the second month/last three weeks.

BUT! It's not like I haven't done anything, what do you think?

[Part where I talk about other things]

🍨 In parallel with the development of Pink Pro, I collaborated with GrandPiekron on his This Tomb of Ours (Run and check it out, it's right HERE!).

It was great to be part of building a game from scratch and seeing it take shape! Maybe in the next few days, I could publish Erin's beta designs. Fun fact: Her sprite creation time was 10% sprite and 90% hair lock. As I already said for Clea and Aurel, the idea of making everyone bald is increasingly tempting.

At the moment This Tomb of Ours is not yet complete, literally only the ending is missing, but it is on its way. In the meantime, how about take a look at Doomstone, GrandPiekron's other game? It's complete, but I warn you that it's very dark.

🍨 My collaboration with @time-lapse-games continues, this time for a project that you will soon see on your screens.

Here, instead of sprites and busts, I am the main characters spriter and the betatester. When it's published, I'll obviously spam it here too!

🍨 As mentioned on Halloween, I'm getting help from two great people who can make Three Yellow Quartzes a game in existing English, and that involves discussing adaptations.

🍨 For the 100+ downloads (Thank you!) of Interview with a succubus, I contacted a Spanish translator to make it available in an additional language. I love Spanish and who knows, maybe one day I might be able to translate things myself! Hopefully in a more existent Spanish than my English.

I will never stop thanking acadizs for his translation and his patience with my requests.

🍨 Given the introduction of an additional language, I put my hands on Ren'py again to do a single build of Interview with a succubus.

I'd like to do other visual novels, maybe a little longer than ten minutes and more elaborate than two ending branches. I was a little sad that I didn't get to participate in the Once Upon a Time VN Jam, but 1. I had no ideas, 2. I wouldn't have had time even by mistake. I'm eyeing the Winter VN Jam but, barring a miracle, I seriously doubt I'll participate.

🍨 I would also like to go back to translating RPGs into Italian and I contacted again an author whose everything I translated except, like, their most important game. Living Playground: The Witch's Puppets, I'll come back to you!

🍨 I fixed a few things about The Night of the Candy Apple. I plan to make a dedicated devlog about it, once Pink Pro is published.

[/Part where I talk about other things]

I've been wanting to make "a pink game" for a while now. I love the aesthetic of games like The Huntress of the Hollow, Sweeter Yesterday and Dreaming Mary and I wanted to make something pink too. I also wanted to do something with sweets tilesets (You might have deduced this from the fact that I made a post on sweets tilesets-), so I decided to merge the two! When I decided to join jams, I decided that I would make my pink and sweets game for the Yuri Jam.

I've already written about the characters in their introductions, so what about the game itself? The game itself, in theory, is very simple: dialogues, cooking minigames, ending requirements, period. Then, of course, maps, sprites, CGs, music, sound effects.

So what's the situation like?

So geometric...

🍰 The maps are complete. They're the first thing I made and the first thing I finished! Obviously, Chocomill and com-sho could not be missing. I am very satisfied with how they turned out! (… Although I definitely need to practice more with exteriors. Maybe one day I'll be able to build a house other than a rectangle or trapezoid.)

🍰 The sprites are- The sprites for Chantal and Janet are complete. Margrit's would be complete too, if only I could make her tail decently.

As for now, the sprites of the others exist - Except Zora's, who is always the last. Poor Zora. They are not all 8-directions-complete, but it must be said that not all of them need 8-directions sprites-

🍰 The busts are complete! I still have to do all the expressions, though. If nothing else, they all have an average of 3/4 expressions, only Chantal has like eight.

🍰 CGs are almost finished! Only one left.

There's one that I'm extremely satisfied with, I hope you'll like it- Um, actually, it doesn't represent a happy scene, so I'm afraid you won't like it much-

Since I started using Clip Studio Paint not that long ago, I still make stupid mistakes that I notice eight hundred years later, possibly after publishing. Above all: smudged shadows, non-blended shadows and color that goes on the lineart. But I assure you that in traditional I know how to color within the lineart! I learned it in kindergarten!

🍰 The sound side is ready.

More importantly, Pink Pro will also have a customized music track! Maybe I'll talk about it more in depth in a future post, but in the meantime: thanks to DogStudio there will be a story section accompanied by a track that they wrote especially for the game! It has a very particular sound, and inspired me for the main musical genre.

I was sure of one thing: I didn't want to play the "jangling" music typical of sweets contexts. I find them cute, but I wanted to do something different. I hope you like the result!

🍰 On a separate note, since @time-lapse-games has been my sound designer for Three Yellow Quartzes and explained to me the whole philosophy behind the choice of sound effects (?), I pay more attention to the sounds and I feel like putting them even where I wouldn't have put them before. For anyone looking for sound effects for Anything, may Taira Komori's website be with you!

🍰 Venka's Crafting Script works!

… Well, inserting the latest recipes gave me a weird problem where recipes from, like, Number X to Number Y did not appear. I still have no idea why (I thought the numbers were connected to some variables that were also used in the game or other scripts, but that doesn't seem to be the case, so who knows?), but I solved it by simply dubbing the recipes that didn't appear in the number following Y onwards.

🍰 The cutscenes exist. It's a great achievement. The fundamental parts are there, the scenes of four out of five customers and the ending are missing. I hope I don't get stuck as usual-

And so?

Initially, I wanted to post the whole game in Italian, and then translate it as soon as possible - This is because, 100%, I would not be able to finish the game and translate it by the jam deadline. However, the RL has landed like a volleyball in your face as you walk courtside, and in the next few days I won't have as much time to dedicate to it as I would like.

SO! For the jam I will release a demo. If you stop to read the flavor texts and talk to everyone, the gameplay can last about twenty minutes. Seems like a good timing to me!

In this way, I will be able to publish both the Italian and the English versions. Since the game is 80% ready, I plan to get back to it as soon as I have a bit of a break.

And that's all for now!

To the next time! Hopefully with the demo-

#devlog #devblog #game dev #rpgmaker #rpg maker #rpg maker game #yuri game jam #yuri game jam 2023 #pink pro #three yellow quartzes #interview with a succubus #collaboration

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kayjayo1227 · 2 years

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Hello there, sorry to be interrupting!

I was curious about what issued you've personally encountered with Stampede!

I'm completely new to the series, I know there's an older adaptation also but supposedly it was very inaccurate to the story and I'd love to know the differences between iterations before sticking to one.

I am definitely 👌 close to just reading the manga and nothing else though, given that Stampede didn't really spark joy for me as I'd have hoped it would.

Thank you for your time either way!

Wishing you a stellar day :)

You asked so I’m gonna probably write a whole lot lol 😝

I am not by any means a Trigun 1998 purist or anything, I actually got some issues with it too later on once they deviate from the manga. Personally, I think between the three the manga is ABSOLUTELY the better version just in terms of storytelling and visual style and whatnot. I very highly recommend it.

Trigun 98 nails Yasuhiro Nightow’s visual style perfectly. It’s got absolutely iconic music, and it’s one of those animes that helped make anime a big thing in the US. Plus, I’ve got a lot of nostalgia for it personally because I watched it first and as a kid. It’s very good.

The problem with 98 is that the Trigun manga took a hiatus and was republished later under a different magazine, and from that point on is known as Trigun Maximum (if you do watch 98 this split starts to happen right after the stuff with Eriks and the little timeskip) so it misses out on a LOT of good stuff and makes up it’s own ending. But up to that point it’s a phenomenal adaptation.

Trigun Stampede is… it’s a weird case for me. Because while on the one hand I don’t hate the cg style here, I also feel like it’s wrong for Trigun. It’s so crisp and clean instead of gritty. They seemed to be leaning a lot more into the sci-fi side of Trigun than space western and it’s just a surprising choice?

They’ve done a great job characterizing Vash. I was actually very excited to see Knives using y’know KNIVES lol and (while I haven’t got there yet) I know the ending of the series plays into 98/the manga somehow. But it felt weird to me watching it when so many characters were weirdly different.

They made changes and I don’t get why? Like changing the planet’s name from Gunsmoke to No Man’s Land lol why? I personally was really hoping they would give us more accurate manga adaptations but instead they gave us something that was neither. It keeps a lot of that original Trigun peace and love to it, but every character change leaves me just looking at the screen and going “WHY”

Just for example about what I mean (and the biggest example of it)

One of my favorite manga characters is Livio. I love Livio. He isn’t in 98 at all. But he has a big part in the manga. The second he showed up in Stampede I was pretty annoyed. They took one of my favorite character designs and just…made it real bad. And so far the characterization doesn’t seem right either, although I’ll admit it bothered me enough I haven’t watched more yet.

None of these things make me consider it an abomination or anything, I do believe there s a lot of good stuff there. Just makes it hard for me personally to keep watching. It could be better!

Some comparison photos of Livio

And some comparisons of Knives

It’s just…it’s not bad but it’s not what it could have been 🥲 I don’t believe there is anyone out there that has read the manga that would think either anime adaptation is superior to it

Anyway, sorry for the novel! I love the manga and have been screaming at my friends to read it for years lol

Definitely check it out!

#trigun #trigun stampede #trigun maximum

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mavis-merry-magnolia · 2 years

Note

for monogatari, top three favorite characters and ops so far? :3

MY FAVORITES SO FAR YOU SAY? Well after thinking on it for a bit. I...put a LOT more thought into it than I thought I would, so for the sake of tags i'm gonna put this under a read more fdkjhfgd.

For the characters i'd say it's...

3 - Tsukihi Araragi. I made a sorta short post about her a few days ago that goes over a lot that I like about her, but to sum it up here...she's just such a fun character to see on screen with all of her varied designs with each arc. It makes for great visuals, and a good indicator of what point in time an arc takes place in when the series gets funny with it's chronology! Her straightforwardness as a character is such a huge strength that helps her stand out too, given how many layers you typically have to observe and peel back for other characters in this series. And her bluntness in conversation serves an amazing double purpose as both a tool for comedy, and for pushing forward other characters around her like Koyomi and Nadeko.

2 - Shinobu Oshino. It was actually really hard to decide this one, if only because there's SO many characters that I love to death. But I think Shinobu fits this spot perfectly. I really wasn't all that impressed with her in Bakemonogatari in the sense that like. I KNEW she was popular but didn't see why watching the series back as a teen. Also her hat was stupid and i'm glad she stopped wearing it. But unlike when I was a teen, Kizumonogatari was out, and my group decided to watch in Book Order...and then it clicked Oh. I see why Shinobu is so popular now. It made me understand just how big of a deal her choosing to speak again in Nisemonogatari was. And with Meme departing from the story, I think having her take his place as the Apparition Encyclopedia was a GREAT decision, not only because of her physical bond to Koyomi allowing her to appear whenever, it also gives us her AMAZING dynamic with him too. I genuinely love what a like....Scooby Doo problem solving duo they've become by the point of the story i'm at now. And as Onimonogatari taught me, there's STILL so much more of her to learn about. Also her laugh is cute. Ka-ka-ka!

1 - Tsubasa Hanekawa. Given my current icon, banner and...I dunno, HALF of my monogatari reblog tag, is this a surprise? I wanna write a whole entire post dedicated to her someday once I finish the whole series and read the novel versions too, but Hanekawa is just...okay, to try and keep it short. She's easily one of the most dynamic characters in the entire cast. As soon as Bake episode 1 starts, you already know that her and Koyomi have a history together, we know something was up with her and the story just, teases it all through Bake until it comes to a head in Tsubasa Cat. Kizu pulls the camera back to see how her friendship with and love for Koyomi began (and they're SO fun and sweet becoming friends with each other the whole arc), Nise shows that she's...SAYING she's changed, even though we know she really hasn't, before NekoBlack helps us establish the Full Picture of who Hanekawa is, and finally showing her FINALLY learning and growing for REAL in NekoWhite. I'd be doing a disservice if I didn't mention Black Hanekawa as well, for being a hilarious charatcter in her own right, and adding in a special degree of personal relatability to me personally in how i've experienced things in my life. She's just...I have so much more to say but she's just REALLY special to me is all.

And i'd like to give special mentions to Kaiki Deishuu and Sengoku Nadeko. I have no doubt that Nadeko is gonna be a top fiver by the end, but I wanna see the Conclusion of her main arc since Otorimonogatari is really only the beginning of it. And Kaiki is just a really fun character to think on with his faker philosophy, and he's a delight whenever he shows up just doing mundane things like eating donuts or being a weird uncle for Kanbaru.

As for my favorite OPs, this should go quicker i'd say...

3 - Platinum Disco. It's...It's Platinum Disco. It and Renai Ciruclation are like THE Monogatari songs right? At least they were when I was a teen. It's peppy, it's upbeat, it's got some fun clashing lyrics, the visuals are so iconic that the series itself memed on it, it's...it's Platinum Disco. You know?

2 - Mousou Express. For a song that I heard for the first time...lemme check...FIVE days ago? It shot up insanely high on my list. I feel kinda bad mentioning Renai Circulation twice in a row without it actually being one of the answers, but the way that Mousou Express just...flips Renai Circulation on it's head, both in the lyrics being far more openly possessive and obsessive than the cutesywootsie lyrics of the original, and the visuals quite literally being made up mostly in part of Renai's visuals in reverse...it sets up the turn Naedko's character is going to be taking AMAZINGLY, even before her spiral fully begins partway through the arc (from Our PoV anyway). Kanahana's singing is also just...top notch.

1 - Chocolate Insomnia. Given my current icon, banner, half of my monogatari reblog tag and...my answer above, is this much of a surprise? Much in the same way that Mousou Express is an amazing indicator of the direction Naedko's character would be going, Chocolate Insomnia is SUCH an amazing indicator of not only where Hanekawa will being going in the arc, but an amazing look back on how far she's COME since the beginning of the story. Opening with a heartfelt apology, before literally singing about the realizations she's come to by this point in the story, set to a FAR more openly hopeful and cheerful sounding song compared to her other two openings it's...it's just a masterpiece of a song. I love it so much.

And special mentions to Marshmallow Justice just being a really fun opening with REALLY good vocals from Eri Kitamura. And to White Lies for just being one of the most GORGEOUS openings visually. Absolute treat for the eyes to go with the more subdued song and vocals.

#merry mumbles #monogatari #shinobu oshino #tsukihi araragi #tsubasa hanekawa #nadeko sengoku #thank you so much for the ask i have been Dying to spill about stuff like this kfjhdsf #i'm sorry it's SO long

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hitechlatte · 2 years

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if you're still making the visual novel thing, do you have any advice on starting one? I really want to make one, but don't know how

Sorry for the delay in my response on this! Wanted to take some time to collect my thoughts and it took longer than expected!

So yep still working on on my game, but I have some bugs that I haven't been able to fix, so no updates yet. Hopefully I'll get some free time to work on those soon! And for the advice, I'm happy to share! Click read more to see my thoughts:

Tip 1 - Paper Prototype/Design

So especially if you've never made a game before, I'd recommend sketching out your game before making anything. This could be with actual paper or just in like a google doc or slideshow. This way you can detail out how you want the game to flow, so you don't spend a billion hours trying to make something just to find out it looks bad or won't work. (TOTES didn't learn this the hard way) For a visual novel specifically, I would recommend maybe just writing out the story in a google doc, like write out the story with possible "stage notes" referencing what may happen on screen so you can more easily determine what art assets you would need! Here is an example of the sketches I made before I started working on my coffee shop demo:

Tip 2 - Start SMALL

Start SUPER small, especially if its your first game. Like come up with your idea and then CUT IT IN HALF maybe even a third or by ten! Like keep cutting away until you have a super basic idea you can test out and then after getting the hang of it, then I'd recommend doing something longer.

For example, if you wanted to do a visual novel where you bump into a love interest at a library and you see them every time you study for a month, chop it down to just one day and test out a flow to see how the idea would work.

For example in the game I'm currently working on, I'm just starting with a single customer on a single day and testing out all the features with him before I start moving to random NPCS or multiple days.

Tip 3 - Plot out your branches in a visual way

If your visual novel has branching options, make sure you have some way to check the flow of the story so you don't run into dead ends without an ending and to make sure you can check for plot holes.

For example if one branch the player decides to be mean, it wouldn't make sense for the character they are talking to to suddenly go down a branch where they say something super nice.

If the program you're using to make the visual novel in has a flow to view that's the best way to do it, but if not, then I'd recommend drafting it out in something like Miro (which is free btw, just requires an email sign up), or some other program where you can draft out flows. I mean if it's super simple branching even google images could work.

Tip 4 - The program doesn't really matter

Especially starting out, it doesn't really matter which game engine you use. The only thing that really matters is finding something you can learn quick so you can start getting your hands dirty.

If you don't have any engines in mind and would like some recommendations for free software, I feel any of the following would work:

Godot

Good for beginners, especially w/o programming experience from what I've heard

Heard it has some limitations if you want to do anything more complex

I haven't used godot yet, but I've heard nothing but great things! (I'm hoping to try it out soon, so I'll let you know once I get around to it!)

Unity

Require you to code, but it's usually pretty simple to get started as far as code goes.

The tutorials people have online are pretty awesome, and usually pretty good to follow along, and if you want to branch into more complex stuff, you'll have already learned the Unity basics.

I started learning game dev in Unity and have been using it for years so I always recommend it, but that's just what I've gotten used to.

Ren.Py

I don't know a ton about this program, but its what the Grunkle Stan Dating Sim was made in, and that game was super awesome.

And also this is made for visual novels so it should have a lot of useful tools and features.

Yarn Spinner

So this isn't an engine, but it's something you can add to Unity or Godot to help you with adding in the dialogue.

I haven't had a chance to use this, but I've been meaning to mess around with it. I've heard nothing, but fantastic things.

Tip 5 - 80/20 Rule

I always use the 80/20 rule when making games, to help prevent stress and burnout. 80% percent of the stuff I add to my games, I know how to do, while 20% is the new stuff to learn.

Now since this is your first game, you might be like Yo! I don't know 80 percent!

But to that I say HUMBUG! You know more than you'd guess! If you've ever written stories before, then bam, the story writing is part of your 80%. Just make sure to stick to a simple story that you know you'd be able to write!

Do you doodle? Bam some of your 80% is art! Stick to making art assets, only as complex as you've drawn before!

Obviously this is more a guideline, so the TLDR just make sure to focus on learning one or two main things and then keep everything else easy, so you don't burn out!

Tip 6 - Free Shit is AWESOME

Don't know art or can't make music? Use assets from online! There are tons of free assets people post stuff online that you can use.

This way you can focus on this harder stuff and get some of the easy stuff out of the way.

Some free resources I use are as follows:

Game Assets: https://itch.io/game-assets/free

Audio Files: https://freesound.org/

Music: https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music/2

If using Unity, they also have an asset store. Also I think steam and humble bundle have free stuff you might be able to use too.

There tons more sites out there too, these are just the one's I've used in the past.

I will mention too, I'd recommend not paying for anything in the beginning. Because you may buy all these programs and then never use any of them again, and there is tons of awesome free stuff to use while starting out. That way you can figure out what areas of game dev you like more and buy programs as needed.

Tip 6 - Chaos is inevitable

Everything will eventually blow up in your face.

You'll spend two hours screaming at the same bug to just realize you forgot to hit save.

You'll delete files by mistake and lose hours of work.

You'll spend two weeks plotting out a story idea to realize it doesn't make any sense.

You'll spend a month working on a game idea to realize you hate the concept and it's not as fun as you thought.

You'll show your game to someone else and they won't get it because you didn't make the controls easy enough to use or understand.

You'll KEEP finding spelling errors in your dialogue after vigorously spell checking everything.

You'll get frustrated and want to swear off making games/visual novels and just abandon project after project.

BUT

THAT'S

OKAY

Art isn't easy in any form and game dev is just art with math so it's the perfect storm.

So don't be too hard on yourself when you inevitably fail.

And know too, all your failures will make you smarter and you'll get better so when things click, you'll make something you're super proud of.

I have a graveyard of games that will NEVER see the light of day. Games I fell in love with that I'll never finish.

And that's okay.

Just like with exes, no matter how bad or messy things get, we can be grateful (most of the time), because we learned something about ourselves and we can grow from it.

So TLDR, don't be too hard on yourself and enjoy the journey! Make games that make you happy and just take developing at whatever pace works for you.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk and I wish you the best with whatever you make!

(Also if you need someone to play test I'd love to check stuff out <3)

#game dev #visual novel #indiegamedev #indie game design

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wienzard93 · 2 years

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i kinda want to ramble a bit about genshin characters and my personal opinion about them.

[ those who deserve the whole world ]

i don’t think i need to explain why xiao is up there. the reason i’m liking aether more is not only well, he is male traveler.. but also there’s always been this widespread headcanon in the fandom he’s the defensive traveler to lumine’s offensive side (i’ve always been a defensive player in games that has ‘tank’ characters). not to mention his CN and JP VA simply makes me melt. aether is the softer one and i’m weak for softie-male character which include kazuha as well.

i won’t say a lot for kaeluc and cynonari-collei bcs they simply has the best interaction with each other, interesting personality-dynamic also simply endearing. i put them there all together bcs they’re a package deal to me.

candace is an exception. the reason why is bcs i love her design and her JP VA is amazing. very different than EN where she’s portrayed to be a powerful woman with a touch of femininity, the JP dub is on the other side of the spectrum. JP candace is soft through and through, the way she spoke, her tone of voice. but she also slip some well-placed words in her conversation that speaks hidden strength (es[ecially present in the archon quest). i like her more with this overwhelmingly mother-like quality but low-key strong woman because her visual backed it imo. her hairstyle is really feminine. she got the hime-cut for god’s sake. but it’s cut short with very practical clothing (which indicate her strong-woman nature) while draped in sash and decorations to emphasize more of that gracefulness of refined woman.

[ i like you ]

i have a lot of ppl in this category bcs i do like a lot of character’s stories. i have characters whose personality is interesting and idk if they’re actual ppl i can befriend them. but i do want to get to know them more. i’m curious about them. this category include; fischl, lisa, ayato, yanfei and heizhou.

then there are characters who i want to talk to bcs i think they’ll give me interesting direction of conversation. these characters include; albedo, venti, xinqiu, mona, childe, zhongli, ningguang, and kuki.

i have characters that i’d like to see them as someone who takes care of me, in platonic way. they’re amber and yoimiya. why? i think this is bcs i’m not a cheery person, i always look at them in admiration. even in real life, i admire ppl who has positive outlook to life and cheery disposition.

then there are characters that makes my older sibling radar buzzing. they give me urges to takes care of them. cook them food, wrapped them in a blanket and pat their head kind-of-way. they’re; gorou, barbara, razor, bennett, chongyun, lumine, noelle, kokomi, sucrose and layla.

xiangling and itto left. they both are the kind of characters i like bcs if they’re my friends, i know my day would be unpredictable with wild adventures. they both are fun ppl, the absurd, quirky kind-of-way. i’m not an adventurous person bcs i like things planned but once in a while, i like having someone tugged me into one. just for change of pace.

[ i acknowledge you exist]

most in here are women bcs this game has too many of them and not enough men. i play this game for the men. so yeah. these are mostly women whose personality is just bit too boring or too wacky for me.

idk about aloy bcs i play on mobile, so. there.

there are characters who are just there to tick the mommy box which i’m never a fan of. the reason why lisa isn’t here is bcs i find the way she does her work interesting. lisa only ever tell half-lie without giving other ppl unnecessary grieve. yes, this is for yae who makes my aether work for her for free for those novels in her character story. maybe it’s bcs she’s a kitsune and that’s why yae is shady and intentionally put ppl in some kind of misery, but still. if it were a real world, i don’t think it’s funny she took the money that should’ve been ours not hers to spend for luxurious food. ppl will call her out by being shady and abusive towards her employee.

other mommy type that i find boring are jean and sara. i appreciate them being hardworking ppl but if you leave that out, i can’t find any interesting bit to their personality if there’s any. sara especially bcs of how devoted she is to raiden shogun. i don’t like military-simp characters. they’re giving me brainwashed, culty-like vibe.

i hate eula character story. the challenges were annoying (i stopped continuing her story for a month or two bcs how bullshit the challenges were). i still hold her, the character, for that. fuck being graceful and aristocratic. i don’t want that.

there’s rosaria. which.. idk what she’s supposed to be other than filling the trope of ‘sinful-sister’. i like using her in overworld but as a character she’s kind of bland imo. even in JP, all i get from her is she’s kinda edgy or a female version of kaeya. that’s that.

oh also let’s not forget shenhe and yelan whose purpose is low-key eye-candy. as interesting as their character story were, which i enjoyed completely btw. i don’t like it when developers, writers or artists made female characters with visual design that includes tight-skin full body suit for the low-key purpose to draw their body lines so blatantly without it being flagged as nudity. it left bad taste in my mouth.

then there’s the two favorites from the metaslaves; hutao and ganyu. i actually wanted to put ganyu with raiden shogun and ayaka down there but ultimately i feel more indifferent than dislike towards ganyu’s character. ganyu is just kind of boring to me. she’s like jean. overworked sexy lady with soft-spoken and polite way of talking. which is not interesting for me.

hutao.. i remembered playing her story i get annoyed at her in the beginning of it. i admire her drive with her job but as a character, she’s the kind of person i wouldn��t want to be friends with. i’ll simply avoid her irl to which i say, i already did. i’ve met a person similar to hutao irl and i simply cannot stand with the way they speak of things. sure they’re capable and got the job done but i think there are times when you need to phrase things in a better way. but i know they won’t bcs that’s just their personality. work-partner? sure. friends? no.

keqing is actually has interesting way of looking at things, which i also agreed. but i don’t like her brusque way of interacting. she’s the tsundere trope kind-of girl with twintail. which is overdone imo. which is also why despite her interesting takes, i find her ‘boring’. bcs she’s there to tick trope boxes imo.

xinyan and yunjin. ahh these two. no offense but they’re forgettable. xinyan is painfully so. yunjin only remembered by ppl bcs of the opera singing thing imo. i like their personality, they’re decent. but yeah. just being decent is not interesting. there’s also nilou. she’s also like yunjin for me. decent character but not interesting enough. i plan to pull for her in the future for re-runs though. the only reason being, i like her JP VA.

then there’s klee and nahida. these two are the only child model i’m indifferent to and not outright disliking them. the reason for klee is bcs she’s the most tolerable one out of every child-model personality and design wise. i kind of icky about nahida sometimes act like a child, sometimes not. but i do empathized with her story. also i hate to say this but i understand all of her analogies and i relate to that. i also tend to talk irl with analogies. but i’m not a fan of her having child-model. she would be on [ i like you ] section if she has teen model.

scara. oh god scaramouche. i feel like i’m going to need to write an essay about him. anyway, i probably will so, i won’t explain here.

[ i empathic to you but i can’t like you ]

raiden shogun; i also will have a goddamn essay for her.

ayaka; the yamato nadeshiko trope, tick-box character. i always have reservation for character whose trope is yamato nadeshiko. for me they usually kind-of a mary sue. ayaka is close to that imo. i understand her struggle, but ultimately i could careless bcs of how mihoyo create her personality.

[ pls go away ]

i dislike loli. i dislike children. most lolis will ended up in this tier. sayu is boring. diona is loli, kemono-mimi fetish bait. dori is scummy and her JP VA did a real good job of making her voice really annoying and i say that as compliment from a former theatrical club kid. bcs it’s not easy to convey characterization by voice alone and her JP VA nailed that.

qiqi... oh god qiqi. i don’t hate her bcs i lost 50/50 to her. i hate her bcs there used to be someone i know about who likes to play/main genshin as qiqi and they’re real asshole as a person. i can’t look at qiqi and not remember that person.

i dislike faruzan’s design. nothing can make me change that opinion. if mihoyo wanted to make that kind of design, might as well go with western name. don’t use ‘faruzan’. her design is so generic it doesn’t fit well with other sumeru characters. how do i know that? try change her name to Nina or Rose or something generic, put her in with Mondstadt characters. i bet she blend well. even nahida, alhaitham and collei, as fantasy-esque as they are, they don’t blend with Mondstadt crowd bcs their design has sumeru-flavor to it.

#my ramblings #text post #up to 3.2 so far #that's why there's no alhaitham or kaveh #both in the tiermaker and in the rant

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