Can I ask how you made the lil kny chocolate bombs? they’re SO CUTE
Yes of course! I bought a KNY chocolate making kit (from Bandai) from Amazon JP. But it’s not actually intended for hot cocoa bombs, so I had to improvise a little.
The molds are intended to be filled completely with chocolate and pressed together while the chocolate is warm to make one solid piece, but that doesn’t work when you need to have them filled with cocoa powder. So after a few tries, I figured out how to make it work!
If you want to make them too, I have steps listed below! It’s not that difficult once you get the hang of things!
The little picture of chocolate Inosuke with a pink nose inspired me to try out the molds in full color! Fun fact, you can buy some things off Amazon JP if you’re in the US. You do need to pay for somewhat expensive shipping, but it was cheaper to buy this from Japan than second-hand via eBay for me!
You will obviously need chocolate for this. Theoretically anything could work, but I used colored candy melts from the craft store and some almond bark stuff from Walmart. Melt it per package instructions, which is usually the microwave. The cup they give you in the kit is actually awesome, it kept the melted chocolate SO warm. But I was using so many colors for the set that I actually filled a Pyrex dish with boiling water and kept my tiny heat-safe glasses of colored chocolate in the water to keep them liquid enough to work with. If you’re going to use a lot of colors, it’s good to be strategic with the order of melting colors. If you’re doing just one of two colors you won’t need the dish of water.
For the fully colored ones I did small layers of colored candy melts and let each layer cool completely before adding the next one. This is why it took 2 hours lmao. When I made them with just plain chocolate it took significantly less time (maybe 30 min total with cool times for all 6?)
So for Inosuke I had to do the little white dot on his eyes, let it cool, add the blue, let it cool, then add MORE white! You’ll do this until the entire mold is coated with chocolate, but you want the layers to be pretty thin so you can add as much cocoa mix as possible. I was using toothpicks for small details and chopsticks for larger portions like the clothes.
HOWEVER if you just want to make solid colors or way less detailed bombs, you can just coat the entire mold in a thin layer of chocolate. Either way you want the cavity of the mold to be pretty big because that’s where the cocoa mix goes.
It’s hard to see, but one side of the mold doesn’t have chocolate up to the rim of the mold. There’s like a fraction of a cm of space. Let them cool completely.
Once cool, you’ll fill ONE side with cocoa mix. This is just a pre-made mix, but you can do anything you want. Cocoa mix is basically just cocoa powder and sugar lol. I also tried this with flavored milk tea powder! Since the other side is hollow, you can make a tiny mountain of the mix instead of just filling it to the top of the cavity.
Because the chocolate is cool, the two sides will not fit together on their own. This is why I left a tiny bit of space on the other mold.
Cover just the rim of the character on the opposite mold with hot melted chocolate. You can be a little messy here because the extra stuff will get smooshed to the side, away from the character. Match the notches when the chocolate is HOT (if it’s only kinda warm it won’t attach as well) and smoosh. You see the super thin layer of chocolate outside the character area? That will break off when you open the mold. Make sure the chocolate is totally surrounding the entire rim of the character because if there are any gaps, the mix will leak out when it is taken out of the mold.
Let it cool completely in your fridge (or at room temp, I guess?) for like 10 minutes and it should pop right out of the mold! If it doesn’t, you can also carefully press one side of the mold to take the character out.
And boom! You’re done! Now you can drown your faves in the hot milk or beverage of your choice! Go forth and eat your blorbos!
Giyu and Shinobu about to be sent to their doom:
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A very basic, SPOILER FREE guide to understanding Evillious for casual fans
Basically this is exactly what the title says. This is a guide to understanding Evillious and what it’s about for people only casually interested in the series without A) presenting all of the information as confusingly as possible, B) exposing them to every single spoiler and plot twist in the narrative, or C) requiring someone to read hundreds of wiki pages or 13+ novels worth of story. Note that because I am reducing spoilers as much as possible, some of this information may be “incorrect” (as in, it presents information that’s given by the story as true, only to be later revealed as false).
Guide is under the cut. I will attempt to make this friendly for people with a poor attention span like myself but no promises.
Series Labels
First off, a break-down of the terms you’ll see fans throw around for the series and what they mean or are used for. This is not all-encompassing, but these are the most common you’ll see out there.
Evillious Chronicles/Evillious----This is the label that English-speaking fans use for the overall series. Note that this is, from what I can gather, an entirely fandom term, and is not used in any official capacity. Most Japanese fans will call it the 悪ノ series (the “of Evil” series).
Arcs----This is a fan term often used to refer to specific points in Evillious’ chronology where a song or novel takes place. Lunacy of Duke Venomania is “Lust Arc”, Evil Food Eater Conchita is "Gluttony Arc" Daughter of Evil is “Pride Arc”, Gift from the Princess who Brought Sleep and Fifth, Pierrot are “Sloth Arc”, Judgment of Corruption and Muzzle of Nemesis is “Greed/Wrath/Grath Arc”, etc.
Story of Evil/Daughter of Evil----While Story of Evil will sometimes be used to refer to Evillious as a whole, and in fact is the name of a children’s series mothy has written which does not take place in Evillious, generally when people use either of these terms they are referring to the events that take place in the “Daughter of Evil” songs. As a note, Daughter of Evil is the official name of mothy’s first novel series that adapts these songs (the series that begins with Cloture of Yellow).
Seven Deadly Sins/Deadly Sins of Evil----This is a term used to refer to the parts of Evillious that revolve around the deadly sin contractors and their actions in the classic songs by mothy--Daughter of Evil, Lunacy of Duke Venomania, Evil Food Eater Conchita, Gift from the Princess Who Brought Sleep, The Tailor of Enbizaka, Judgment of Corruption, and Muzzle of Nemesis. And more specifically, Deadly Sins of Evil refers to mothy’s second novel series that adapts these songs (and begins with Lunacy of Duke Venomania).
Original Sin Story/OSS: This refers to anything that takes place during Evillious’ chronological beginning. Note that while content relating to these events was released for a long time in songs and album booklets, it is only very recently that the novels adapting them were released, so some people discussing it may be referring to the former, but not the latter.
VOCALOID
The vast majority of characters in Evillious that you are likely familiar with from the songs are based off of VOCALOID characters in design, and “voiced” by them in the songs. Note though that multiple characters can be based off of the same VOCALOID, so fans will usually insist on referring to them by their character names rather than the VOCALOID that they are based on. Fans can usually tell who is who by context, but even without it, you can usually tell them apart by their unique clothing designs or specific hairstyles.
Setting
The series takes place primarily in a region called Evillious, on a continent called Bolganio. Evillious is roughly analogous to Europe, with many of its countries being counterpart to ones in the real world.
The most obvious ones are Lucifenia=France, Elphegort=Germany, Marlon=Britain, Beelzenia=Italy/Spain, Asmodean=Arabian Peninsula, Levianta=Russia. Note that Tailor of Enbizaka does NOT take place in Evillious, but rather a country to the far east called Jakoku. Jakoku=Japan.
For clarification’s sake, when I say Evillious, I am referring to the series as a whole, NOT the region in which most of the series takes place.
Evillious will share events in its history that are roughly analogous to those in our own world. The most clear-cut example is the events of Daughter of Evil, which mirror the French Revolution. However, Evillious’ history takes place in a compressed timeline--it spans the length of only one thousand years--and so there is much that is blended together or shifted around. Another clear-cut example of this is that the Age of Exploration is merged into the Victorian era during the events of Gift From the Princess Who Brought Sleep.
As the series covers 1000 years, there is a very large cast of characters and a huge set of political developments that are only barely touched on in the songs. Be advised--All but two of the main Seven Deadly Sin songs take place in completely different countries and time periods to each other (the exceptions being Judgment of Corruption and Muzzle of Nemesis).
Religion/Worldbuilding
There are a handful of belief systems in Evillious, but key for the setting (and for later plot developments) is the Levin faith. This religion has multiple branches, but it is, as might be expected, roughly equivalent to Christianity. ...Sort of.
The beliefs of the Levin faith describe the world as having been created by 4 main gods. The Earth God, Held (otherwise referred to as the Millennium Tree), the Sun God, Sickle, and the twin-headed dragon god, LeviaBehemo (or rather, the twin gods, Levia and Behemo). The most popular denomination of the Levin faith, the “Levia sect”, posits that LeviaBehemo is the only true god, and that all others are “false or evil gods”.
Bear in mind that all of these figures do genuinely exist in the world itself, even if their true nature is not as the Levin faith describes.
Also worth noting that in addition to their big 4 gods, there are also the 62 “god kin”, which exist in the setting as a collection of spirits that live under Held’s protection in the Millennium Tree forest in Elphegort.
The Levin faith posits that the world was created by the main gods as the third attempt at creating a paradise, the last two having been destroyed by malice/HER (we’ll get to that later). For this reason, the timeline of Evillious is referred to as the Third Period, with the previous two attempts being the First Period and Second Period.
Many fan guides will go into more detail on the First and Second Period, but this is huge spoiler content and absolutely unnecessary to understanding most of Evillious’ plot.
History
Disclaimer: You do not need to know ANY of this History section beforehand to understand the early books in the series or most of the songs.
Related to Evillious’ religion, its 1000 year history begins with what they call the Magic Kingdom Levianta (NOT the same thing as modern Levianta), which is roughly analogous to the Roman Empire, and the originator of the Levin faith. This kingdom was a highly advanced society run by magical individuals, with technology that was fueled by said magic. This technology came from relics found under the kingdom--these are said to be remains of the society their gods came from.
This is, for reference, the time period where Original Sin Story takes place.
At this time in their history Magic Kingdom Levianta was suffering from a problem with HER syndrome--short for Hereditary Evil Raiser. This is a genetic trait that hails from the Second Period, also sometimes referred to as Malice. Those born with it take joy in committing acts of violence and destruction, and generally sought to destroy society’s mores and norms (with a broader goal of destroying the world). Some key HER individuals in the series also express a desire to make more people like themselves through various means.
Levianta’s queen gave a prophecy that the world would be destroyed by the ark “Sin” (a vessel that the kingdom was built around) if they did not produce a set of twins for Levia and Behemo to incarnate into (referred to as the Twins of God). As a result, the senate created Project ‘Ma’ (Ma being short for Mem Aleph), which sought to use women with high magical potential to give birth to these twins.
The project failed. The only set of twins produced by it, named Hansel and Gretel, were taken away by their mother before Levia and Behemo could incarnate in them, and they become regularly occurring characters in the series. The twins were later kidnapped from their mother (who is herself killed) by a woman called Eve, a previous candidate in Project ‘Ma’. This act is referred to in-universe as the Original Sin, which later results in the formation of the Demons of Sin by Hansel and Gretel.
Magic Kingdom Levianta is eventually destroyed when the “Sin” ark blows up, setting back civilization by centuries and eliminating almost (but not quite) all of the population of people who are capable of and well-trained in using magic.
Demons of Sin and Magic
The Demons of Sin are presented as a collection of 7 demons that cause the major events of the Seven Deadly Sins songs by possessing the characters who carry them out (though they do possess other, less noteworthy people over the course of the series). They take the form of various monstrous animals in their “true” form, but their physical forms are actually the seven Vessels of Deadly Sin in which they reside. These vessels (which take the form of various objects such as a wineglass, a sword, mirrors, etc) are passed around by many, many hands over the course of the series, and show up frequently even if they are not the main demon of focus.
As you might expect, they correspond to each of the 7 Deadly Sins as detailed in the Bosch painting, “The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things” (with the Four Last Things relating to Evillious’ “ending”, which is an advanced spoiler concept there’s no need to go over.)
People can form contracts with them, which grant them special powers and immunities until the contract is broken. One of these abilities includes being able to transform into a being with features of the demon they are possessed by, such as having six wings or goat horns. While the demons are capable of influencing a person’s behavior, they usually do not outright control them save for in specific instances in the series, leaving most of these characters culpable for their own actions while possessed.
The magic rules of the series overall are a bit too complicated to go into in brief, but to get some idea of what it entails, there’s classic magic ideas like glyphs, rituals, and spells, as well spell-songs, body-swapping, enhanced physical abilities, homunculi, mind control, and reincarnation. Only a select few characters in the series can use magic (though many of them are main characters or protagonists), and the fantasy elements become sparser as Evillious modernizes (usually being replaced by soft sci-fi elements instead).
Ending
I won’t go into this much because it is, as the title suggests, the ending, but the world of Evillious does eventually get destroyed at the end of its one thousand years due to the actions of Nemesis, one of the Seven Deadly Sins characters. The actual destruction is not the ending--it’s what occurs afterwards that concludes the series.
Key Characters
I will not be making an exhaustive list on every important character in the series, because the cast is absolutely enormous, but here is a brief handful to give you an idea.
Eve: The “Original Sinner”--a sorceress who was responsible for kidnapping Hansel and Gretel, which is the catalyst behind the release of the Demons of Sin, and as such, most of the series events. Her story is a fair bit more complex than I’m making it sound (there are other characters, like Adam, who are equally if not more to blame), but this is the short version that you’re given through much of the series.
Elluka: A series-wide protagonist of the story. She is a sorceress from the Magic Kingdom Levianta who is functionally immortal, and seeks to collect the Vessels of Deadly Sin. She shows up in pretty much every major arc of the series.
Allen: Another series-wide protagonist, albeit a contentious one among fans. He has been in the series since the beginning, as he is the “Servant of Evil” in the Daughter of Evil series, but chronologically he was only present halfway through Evillious’ timeline. He doesn’t take an active role until later, but he witnesses much of the story’s events.
Seth: A scientist who is one of the main “villains” of the series, albeit one who is fairly inactive as an antagonist. He is responsible for the spread of HER in the Magic Kingdom, the creation of the Demons of Sin by Hansel and Gretel, and other things besides.
Irina/Red Cat Mage: Another series-wide villain, she serves as Elluka’s foil in that she is also a sorceress from Magic Kingdom Levianta who is functionally immortal and seeks to sow chaos and destruction using the Demons of Sin in every major arc of the series.
Narrative
The series can be described as a broad mix of science fiction and fantasy, generally aimed at teenagers in terms of its content level but varying wildly in terms of how light-hearted or dark it can be depending on each installment. Despite being generally non-graphic as a rule, it can cover an astonishingly wide range of upsetting topics including (but not limited to) rape, incest, parental abuse, cannibalism, body horror, genocide, and exploitation, so those who are of a sensitive disposition regarding the fiction they consume may wish to keep their distance.
In addition to the obvious point that almost all of the main cast are based heavily on VOCALOID characters, the series makes frequent use of cultural references to the Abrahamic faiths and European culture. Mothy himself is a Japanese Buddhist (at least, as I recall, he stated he was Buddhist on twitter once when asked his religion) who enjoys video games and anime, and his writing reflects that too.
In terms of order, there’s a lot of contention over which viewing/reading order is “best” for new fans to get into the series with. I personally have always pushed for release order--that is, the order in which mothy released his songs and published his novels. Evillious is at its easiest to understand in Daughter of Evil, the novel series released first, as the first two novels feature very little of the backstory, magic, or demons, and focuses instead on interpersonal relationships and political drama (drama which mirrors the French Revolution, and as such is relatively easy to understand as well). Things become gradually more complicated over time, allowing the reader to learn information organically as they get more invested, rather than dumping it on them all at once.
Many fans have argued that chronological order is best, largely on the basis that the release order of the series is not the chronological order. I strongly disagree with this. For reference, the chronological beginning of the series is the most recently released installment, so this wasn’t even possible to do for most of the series’ run.
In general though, there’s 60+ songs in the series, so don’t freak out if you don’t watch them in exactly release order. While the novels are pretty important to read in order, the songs were made with the assumption that people would miss some of them or view some before they were supposed to. Note though that there’s a handful of songs that require novel knowledge to know what’s going on (to list only one example, Handbeat Clocktower was made essentially to advertise Praefacio of Blue).
If you’re interested in more, [here] is a release order guide I have put together for this purpose. The novels are in italics.
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Hey, I remember you mentioning on your IG something about two types of popular artists and one being good at social media and the other being good at art or something like that (I can't really remember lol). But it got me thinking, any tips for how to be good at social media? Cuz I'm certainly not even after posting art for six years lol
Heya!
What I meant by that is that there are traits that allow you to grow on social media, and traits that determine what a highly skilled artist is, and those traits do not always necessarily overlap.
I've seen so many amazing artists that post artwork that blow my head off, and yet they don't have many likes. On the other hand, some artists at the same skill level who draw more popular things will get way more attention.
That is not to say that either is the correct way to create art, but there is definitely a formula to social media that is in play.
There are a lot of posts about how to grow a social media account, particularly on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram art spheres, and imo you really need to examine what you want from your art before jumping into social media mode
The stuff you create to pander to social media might not be art that you want to create at all - I'm lucky, because I am less artist more storyteller, and what I enjoy is telling jokes and silly stories to liven up people's moods :] this, of course, conveniently does well on social media. On a personal note, I have a history of being a recluse and not connecting well with people, and art is my way of trying to communicate my feelings, one way or another.
So of course, if you draw for any reason other than my own, my approach to art and it's relation to social media might be inappropriate for you.
All that being said, if u take a look at those "get big on social media" videos they always cite the same few points... And you can look into that, for sure, but this video sums up how I feel about all that.
I spent like 20 minutes drafting words after the above paragraph, but I really ended up regurgitating sentiments from the video... So really don't listen to me, listen to that video
EDIT:
I just realised I didnt actually answer the question with my anecdotal experience, so here's a list of things I did
1. Posted like 3 doodles a day on social media
I did this for 6 months on a side account on Twitter recently and got the account to 11k followers... And I did this for 3 months on Instagram a few years ago and I think got 3.5k followers. Of course, do not spam maliciously and make sure your art is still of good quality, but for those artworks I posted quickly, I did not colour, and mostly did clean sketches. This also trains you in the matter of line confidence haha. Again, this worked for me because of my set of circumstances (love for the media, want to tell stories, simple art style)
2. Focus on my favourite aspects of media
This helps with respect to burnout - kinda hard to burnout when you love what you're making! For me, it's character interactions and comics. I want to see my blorbos kiss and if I'm not the one drawing it who will?!
3. Interact with people
People eat up work that they can interact with. A choose your own story situation, one of those like/rt to strip a character 😭 those do numbers for a reason.
Additionally, if you post stuff people love, people will respond to it with comments, maybe their own headcanons, adding on to the work... I've gone into long looong Twitter thread conversations with people who added onto my ideas that I threw up onto the screen and I think it's also a nice thing to do to respond to positive comments haha... I'm not very good at this (read: bad at communication)
I think that's the key points... Hope this helps!
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