#feeling weird rdk

[transinificator]

30 gours without posting on tumblr . win for me but lose for me too

[cophii]

scoots back onto tumblr to tell y’all there’s something a little different on my youtube if you like rainy acoustic covers and musician r???

[seddm]

How about a Mercury vs Toon City vs RDK vs Sugarcube when comparing to Star Butterfly and Marco Diaz?

It’s hard to compile proper screenshots to exemplify everything, and some differences can be understood only by watching whole scenes / episodes, so I’m mostly going to be descriptive

Mercury: thickest outlines out of any studio, consistent models and sizes, but with a lot of bounciness and deformation during weird faces / action moments. This studio put the most emphasis on teeth, eyelids (especially for upset expressions), and especially eyebrows, giving everyone a less soft vibe than later seasons, on average. Overall they obviously followed character models, but rather than trying to mimic the style of the boarders, they had their own “style” (other shows made by Mercury share similarities). Shorter necks, and more details for weird faces, especially for Marco. Not “gross out realistic Spongebob close up” tier, but still something rarely seen in later seasons. Maybe a bit more “cartoon from the late ‘00s” style than “cartoons from the ‘10s” style.

They worked with “puppets” animated in flash, so there’s some tweening here and there, but barely visible. They were that good.

Toon City: hard to point at specific characteristics, like RDK this studio followed the style of the individual storyboarders of the episode, but with a strong tendency for going off model or having weird proportions. If I were to make a super generic comment on this studio, I’d say that the characters - or at least Star and Marco - looked shorter in many of their episodes, but even that wasn’t really that consistent.

They worked with vectors, but without tweening, animating every individual frame. 

RDK: my favorite, almost impossible to pinpoint general characteristics here since this is the studio that followed the boarders’ style the most, but the first word that comes to my mind is soft. Everyone looked cuter in RDK episodes, and while I did obviously miss the bounciness and action packed scenes Mercury had (and RDK did suffer from “cheap” looking animation more than other studios), I think they drew the characters at their best. Especially Marco, who has slightly rounded and bigger eyes and smaller eyebrows in most RDK episodes, giving off a stark contrast compared to the almost smug/snarky feeling expression her had in Mercury episodes when idle.

They draw traditionally, with ink on paper, to then scan the frames and color & animated & composite the whole thing digitally, so you can see some imperfections in the outlines, like where the pen left the paper, or where they probably inked the same section multiple times, leading to a line of variable thickness. 

Sugarcube: a weird studio. When they go offmodel or have to animate special or unconventional poses, they easily rank second best for me; but when the characters are idle or just standing there talking, they often look too stiff - especially Star and Marco, with way too “regular” and geometric eyes and shapes, small pupils and irises, and longer than average necks. It improved a lot during S4, but I still wish they’d have made them eyes a bit bigger.

[wizardofahz]

a prompt fill red daughter surviving after she sacrifices herself for kara in 4x22 because she has SO MUCH potential left and what the writers did was CRIMINAL. eg, mikhail, the superfam and specifically, alex, finally knowing what happened to kaznian kara: how she came about, what’s she been through. because we as the audience know rdks backstory, but alex, kara and the superfriends literally know nothing about her.

A/N: I’ve also been thinking about what-ifs, so let’s partay.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

“She’s not a bad person.”

On the live feed in front of Alex sits someone who looks like her little sister, and yet Kara’s voice comes from behind her.

It’s going to take a little getting used to.

“I know,” Alex replies, turning to face her. “She just landed in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Just like Overgirl and even Bizarro. All these alternate versions of Kara being molded into someone else’s image and desire. It makes Alex a little sad when she looks at Kara, and she hopes that at least they’ve done right by her.

Alex had watched the live feeds of Red Daughter – no, Linda, Kara said she wanted to be called Linda – telling Kara about everything that happened since she first appeared on the Kasnian-Siberian border. Even though Kara read her journal, she had wanted to hear everything again from Linda directly.

Alex had bristled when Linda said that she thought Lex was her Alex. She hates the thought that Lex was able to manipulate Linda so easily because they share a name. It is the most unfortunate of coincidences, and Alex wants to punch Lex in the face for it. He may not be responsible for his own name, but he sure is responsible for everything else. 

Alex would never do any of the things that Lex did, especially not kill a child to manipulate someone into doing her bidding. Speaking of…

“What’s wrong?” Kara asks, bringing Alex’s attention back to her.

“Nothing’s wrong,” Alex says, but judging by Kara’s reaction, she’s entirely unconvincing. 

“Then why do you have that face?” Kara contorts her face into an overly exaggerated frown.

Alex rolls her eyes. “I do not look like that.” She pulls up a file on her tablet. “Mikhail’s not dead.”

“What?”

“I assigned a team to corroborate Linda’s story. They tracked down the drone strike, but there was no body matching Mikhail’s description. We found him in a group home, turns out the strike was organized by Lex, and Otis let him go.” 

Kara’s eyes widen. “Oh, Rao, that’s huge. You need to tell her.”

“You tell her,” Alex says, turning around to put down her tablet.

But Kara doesn’t leave. “You’re avoiding her.” 

“She weirds me out,” Alex admits with a sigh as she faces Kara once again. “She has your face, but she stares at me way too intensely and for way too long. She also has a drawing of my face in her journal. Tell me that’s not weird.”

Kara shrugs. “The Harun-El split us apart, and the only memory she was left with was your name. I think it makes sense that she’s curious about you.” 

Alex sighs. Fine. Maybe it does make sense.

“Talk to her? Please?” Kara pouts, which is totally unfair in its effectiveness.

“She can be curious with less staring,” Alex grumbles. “But fine. I’ll go talk to her.”

… 

Alex is in Linda’s room for less than half a minute before she’s already annoyed. As expected, Linda’s focus latches onto her the moment she enters, and it never wavers once.

“What?” Alex says, fighting hard to keep her voice even.

“Nothing,” Lindasays.

“Right, well,” Alex says awkwardly, deciding to move on as quickly as possible. “We found Mikhail.”

For the first time, Lindalooks away from Alex, face shutting down with suppressed rage. “His body?”

“No, we found him,” Alex clarifies. “He’s alive.”

Just like that, Linda’s eyes are on her once again. She appears to go through a kaleidoscope of emotions: confusion, incredulity, fury, skepticism.“That is not possible.” 

“It is. I’m sorry. This isn’t going to be easy to hear,” Alex prefaces before explaining Lex’s connection to AmerTek and how he likely targeted Mikhail to manipulate her. 

“I was such a fool,” Lindafumes. She sounds both angry with and ashamed of herself.

“You didn’t know any better back then, but you do now,” Alex reassures her. “Besides, Mikhail’s still here, and Lex isn’t. Concentrate on that. We’ll do what we can to put you in contact with Mikhail. Maybe we can start with a video call and work our way up, okay?”

Lindanods. “Thank you.” She hesitates for a moment and then adds, “Alex.”

The unexpected emotional charge behind her name catches Alex off guard. “You’re welcome. I’ll go see what I can set up.”

And with that, Alex promptly makes her escape.

… 

“Are you okay?” Kara asks later when she comes to check on Linda.

Lindashrugs, unwilling to talk about her feelings just yet, and deflects, “Tell me about your Alex.”

Kara frowns with confusion. “What about Alex? You could’ve asked her when she was here.”

“I do not feel that I understand your Alex quite yet,” Red Daughter explains.

Kara understands that feeling. Alex can be paradoxical at times, appearing cold and distant yet caring at same time. It can make approaching Alex a daunting task. Kara certainly remembers feeling that way when she first arrived at the Danvers’.

Thinking of how much her relationship with Alex has grown, Kara smiles and says, “Alex has the biggest heart of anyone I know, even though she doesn’t always like to show it. She doesn’t have powers like we do, but she’s a hero. When someone tells her to do something she knows is wrong, she gives them hell, and she does what’s right. There have been ups and downs in our relationship, but she’s my sister. I love her, and I can’t imagine life on Earth without her.”

For a moment, Lindaremains silent. Then she says, “I have read your journal. I have watched you with your Alex. I know you believe what you say to be true, but I–” Red Daughter pauses, mulling her words. “I have never felt such a connection. I do not know what that truth feels like.”

“Oh,” Kara says as she comes to the realization that, even if Lindadoesn’t know it, this is her way of saying she wants to know what it’s like. 

And just like that, a plan is born.

… 

“What is all this?” Lindaasks as the Danvers sisters enter together.

“Food,” Kara says as she distributes the various dishes across the table. She then gestures to Alex. “And movies. We’re going to have Sister Night.”

“This is too much,” Lindaprotests. She’s still not used to this American overabundance. 

Kara waves her off. “If your appetite is anything like mine, it’s not too much. Also don’t underestimate how much Alex can eat.” 

“You lying liar who lies,” Alex shoots back with an eye roll, and Red Daughter feels a pang of jealousy at their easy banter. Then she nearly jumps with surprise as Alex turns to her. “You get to pick the movie.”

Lindalooks at the mostly unfamiliar array of titles and asks, “Which is your favorite?”

“Tonight’s not about me – or Kara,” Alex adds with a pointed look in Kara’s direction, clearly in reference to a conversation they had before arriving. 

“Hey!” Kara protests. “I was just saying that we might share the same taste in movies. We’re like two halves of the same person.”

Alex turns back to Lindawith a long-suffering look and a there-she-goes-again shrug as if they’re sharing an inside joke at Kara’s expense. It givesLindathe same warm and cozy sensation that holding a soft blanket does.

“I do not recognize most of these titles,” Lindasays.

“Oh, right,” Alex responds. “Introducing aliens to Earth culture, part 2. My life is 'Groundhog Day'. Hey, maybe we should watch that.”

“Yes, okay,” Lindaagrees.

“What? No, that was a joke,” Alex says. “You get to pick the movie.” 

Lindathinks to herself that she’d be perfectly content to watch whatever either Danvers wants to watch, but she lets Alex explain the various movie plots anyway.

She picks “Lilo & Stitch”, which elicits approval and some emotions of unknown origins.

”We won’t spoil it for you,” Kara says, while Alex nods with agreement.

Linda understands when they end up in a cuddle pile of emotions.

[kansetsukiss]

Final Thoughts: Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san

I really can’t say RDK is a good show. It’s largely baffling and mostly stupid - but often these are separate issues to whether something is enjoyable or not, and I will admit that I was pretty entertained by a good portion of the show. I’m just not sure I could tell you why, or even that you’re likely to as well. I’ve sensed a vague pattern among reviews so far along the lines of, “don’t get me wrong, I like a lot of vapid shows about cute girls, but this one is just dumb!” It’s a weird doublethink, as if their Cute Girl preferences are an objective measure of quality. Of course art is subjective, but (forgive the phrasing) “low art” such as this is doubly so. It’s not attempting anything interesting or polarising - it seeks only to entertain, on a basic level, a basic part of us. That part might be ruled by pants-less military girls; primary school girls playing basketball; hardcore ramen enthusiasts. Your preference is no metric of critical ability - I mean, it’s all trash.

I’ll side-step the entire argument about “guilty pleasures” for now, and I’ll award a few generic praises in passing - the animation is fine, the voice acting solid, the OP and ED are catchy and fun. I’d rather focus on: what is arguably enjoyably about RDK? What might interest you, dear reader, with your own unique and intractable biases? Cute girls? There are a few: the extremely pretty and emotionally unavailable ramenholic, Koizumi; her over-enthusiastic and constantly snubbed stalker, Yuu (here are my own biases at play - I’m hopelessly in love with seiyuu Sakura Ayane, and Yuu is the most authentic lesbian representation on TV this season); and Yuu’s far more restrained friends, the narcissistic Misa and unremarkable megane-kun Jun.

And of course, the main character: ramen! There is so much ramen. Most scenes follow a predictable pattern of following Koizumi et. al. to a real-life location, explaining the contents and origin of her ordered dish in an often surprisingly interesting monologue, then a minute of awkward silence and mediocre OST as the girls devour their meals, reacting with vaguely sexualised delight (I’m still not sure how intentional this even is). Onlookers watch in confusion, but succumb to the ramen-loving contagion. Various side characters cross paths with Koizumi-san, and none leave unchanged, albeit in a very minute, almost pointless way.

There are a few good jokes to be had along the way, and no character is particularly unlikable - although Yuu’s persistence irked the vast majority of the Crunchyroll comment section. Even when a scene fell totally flat, I found myself more amused than disappointed, buoyed by the absurdity of the show’s entire reason for existing. Nobody in their right mind would order 12 episodes of animated ramen lectures, surely!, and yet, here we are, somehow. The banality of the conceit alone kept me entertained when the show occasionally forgot to.

So: hm. I feel like I should have reached some conclusion here, but maybe it’s impossible with this show. There is no real selling point, there’s no depth, there’s nothing to analyse beyond its surface level. RDK knows this, I’m sure. It amounts to nothing more or less than its name promises - the unexciting adventures of a girl who loves ramen. If that pitch appeals to you, as it did to me, then you may find yourself enjoying this show. If it doesn’t, you won’t. If you’re not keen after two episodes, give up. It’s wholly unassuming, and if you’re going to get anything out of it, it’s best you be the same.

[yahos-remade]

Did you watch the Onf everybody stage? I want to know what you think....

idk anything abt onf outside of their music n i JUST watched this so these r literally my immediate thoughts but uhmmmm it's a lot LOL firstable their whole look reminds me of a.c.e's on & on cover stage?? (or ig just the og looks vixx had for it too) which isn't bad but it just feels weird to have that w/ a song like everybody... even if it's a remix. n speaking of the remix.....okay i don't really know anything abt rdk so maybe this is integral to the concept but when songs get rearranged n changed this much to the point where they are barely recognisable ESP w/ smth super iconic it's just weird to me 😔 like their actual performance i.e. the dancing n all that was good obviously but idk. maybe im just dumb n couldn't grasp the concept they were going for but as a whole it didn't really feel coherent 2 me w/ the kind of music n styling they had. REALLY felt those shots of all the other idols standing up in shock going "omg everybody???" when the chorus started whew

[seddm]

Promo analysis, even though we lack any kind of context, so there’s not much to be said. The promo has, at the very least, scenes from two different episodes (different animation studios), maybe more (Star screams in her bedroom, but the hooded guys are in a wood. Could simply be later in the episode, though), so it’s possible that they just mishmashed together all the scary scenes from the upcoming episodes, to make a Halloween-ish feeling promo.

- In this scene Star’s room is on Mewni, in the royal castle. Hard to tell if that’s going to be a constant this season, since ina previous promo both Mewni and Earth sky could be seen outside the window, in different episodes. It’s possible that’s just an animation mistake, though.

- Despite being in here pajamas, Star is still swearing the headband. Possibly an artistic choice to avoid having to draw Star’s hair in a different way for all the episode - even though they already did it in Crystal Clear. Hardly relevant to the episode I guess, unless the headband got cursed and that’s what’s causing her to be haunted.

- Cultist looking hooded guys, and a scarier hooded pseudo-nazgul one. Some kind of summoning ritual? They’re even in a dark wood in the night...

- Star screaming in her bed. Does she gets woken up by nightmares? Is she seeing things in the room itself, and the editing is just confusing? Impossible to tell for sure, the editing clearly wanted to be misleading.

- These three scenes are drawn by RDK, so they are from different episode(s), just featuring scary things. Maybe the demon is just a kind skeletons selling man from the Lucitor kingdom.

- Star is holding what looks like a piece of the Book of Spells (might be one of those mentioned by her in another promo?). Was she just looking for something under her bed, and took that out along with what looks like a clump of dirt? Or is Glossaryck involved in this? Is he the dead people she sees?

- Looks like it’s night on Mewni, when it’s day on Earth. But all the other times we got to see Earth and Mewni at the same time the lightning of the scene matched. Different time zones, or just promo edited in a weird way (like, I don’t know, it’s actually morning on Mewni too, but Star is hiding under her blankets after a night of terror)? 

- Same book as the one seen in Naysaya.

- The demonic and heavily distorted voice says “Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are!”. Might be the promo’s announcer, or something from the episode.

[seddm]

What are your thoughts on each of the storyboarders. By looking at the character poses, Gina Gress and Tyler Chen's style is the most "controversial" to me. When it comes to the weird cheeks, (Mina Loveberry, Princess Marco doll), and of course the eyes on which small black pupil dots are drawn and sometimes they would show the iris(eye color) on characters like Mina and Pony Head, or maybe not at all. It's an exception to only have no iris in characters like Kelly, Heinous, and even Brian.

Mmh… granted that I don’t know which storyboarder did which scene, in episodes boarded by more than one artist, and that the individual styles are apparent in RDK episodes only, Sugarcube ones using more o less always the same style:

Freeman - Tang (Mr. Candle Cares, Baby…): love the faces, in some scenes the heads, especially Marco’s, can be a bit too big compared to the body, I think, but to be fair that’s something I noticed only while writing this post, trying to pay attention to these details.Lorenz - Cotugno (By the Book, Friendenemies…): everyone is very “cute” looking in their episodes, and very consistent from scene to scene. They got some of the best characters seen from the front -something that rarely works well, the designs are made for 2/3 poses. Marcus - Varon (Star on Wheels, Just Friends…): love their style, big eyes and expressive, “extreme” faces. Sometimes Marco looks sliiightly “weird” when seen from the front.

Bisignano - Hammersley: harder to tell on which scenes they worked, since they usually board along with several other artists, but looking at the video and animatic they shared, their style is very consistent, and good at protraying the characters’ feelings. Star usually has bigger than average eyes and cheeks, while Marco weirdly has slightly smaller eyes? But that might just be my impression.

Chen - Lee (Starstruck, Collateral Damage...): characters are slightly shorter than usual, with smaller irises and )– shaped mouths. Very good for sillier moments, probably less for action packed scenes.

Ackland - Durante (Mathmagic, Is Mystery): I don’t really have an opinion, since they worked on few episodes, and with the exception of some scenes in Hungry Larry they were all Sugarcube ones.

Gress - Mathot (Running With Scissors, Heinous): I can’t pinpoint particular elements yet, but I do enjoy their style, at least in Running With Scissors. Characters’ look is consistent from scene to scene, and both Star and Marco look good and expressive