#it was primarily character analysis. i'm not very concise

[mango-dolphin]

TO THE ANON WHO SENT ME AN ASK ABOUT TRANS MEURSAULT: I WROTE 20 PARAGRAPHS AND THEN TUMBLR ATE. MY POST. EVEN THOUGH IT TOLD ME THE DRAFT SAVED.

I AM IN HELL

[oaxleaf]

kick me but i couldn't fully and emotionally engage with tim's s3 sub arc. honestly i wouldn't have any problem if he was the one who got caught by the not-them instead of sasha as it was originally planned.

i will always say this the problem with the tma fandom is that there are a lot of young and underage people in it, adult queers love women of blue and orange morality just look at twitter

i don't have twitter, so i'll take your word for it, but i do think it's a combination of the average age and a couple other factors. now, i didn't listen to tma until oct-nov 2021, so i wasn't here during it's release and can't speak for how things looked then, but i find it quite common for people to forget about the intricacies of a show and its characters the more time passes, everything being reduced down to its core most memorable aspects. which is a shame because tma's character's strength lie in active analysis. there is also of course the issue of the most central characters and ships being primarily men, and since despite its massive amounts of subplots i'd call tma a pretty focused and concise show, people sort of naturally engage with those male dominated parts the most

that is not to say that it has nothing to do with the main consumer demographic. i do agree on you on that, these are just additional points. of course, age range is not the end all be all of how someone interacts with the show, there's plenty of younger people who really love the morally odd and female aspects of it (exhibit A: this blog) but it is a very 'young person in one of their first fandom's' kind of things, and many of them grow out of it, and many of them don't

at the same time, despite being quite deeply entrenched in this fandom, i've created a bit of a bubble for myself that i try to keep myself in, so i'm honestly not the best person to speak on the greater workings of it

as for tim, i was far more invested in his arc the first time around. i think it's because to me the important part of it really just is that he's the first of jon's relationships to properly fall apart. after we witness that in other, more interesting ways, his arc doesn't become quite as captivating on a relisten - at least not to me. although i quite enjoyed liked his arc, i do think the same greater narrative function could have been reached had him and sasha switched places.

[everykabuto]

sorry if this is a bit of a demanding question, but are their any things you would’ve changed/fixed about kabuto or his general writing? I’ve found your analysis in the tags about him one of the best I’ve seen so far so I was just a little curious haha

One of the best Kabuto analysis you've seen so far??? That's high praise, holy shit. I'm glad I could write something you like so much! But yeah, I definitely have a LOT of rewrite suggestions. For the sake of a more concise post, I'll focus on just a few things, mostly related to the arcs that have been covered (+ search for tsunade, which is currently being covered) on this blog so far. (That being said, I've generally been really liking the way Kabuto has been characterized in early Naruto! A lot of what I would change in these arcs so far has to do with how this writing seems to be retconned in shippuden.)

Primarily, I'd make Kabuto's backstory more consistent. Kishimoto obviously had no idea what he was doing with it until very late in the series. Everything before his backstory dump in the war arc feels vague, conflicting, and confusing to me. Hindsight is 20/20 when it comes to stuff like this, of course, but it would have been nice to not have aspects of Kabuto's character completely retconned.

A non-backstory example - Why was he weirdly bloodthirsty in certain scenes in the chunin exams? (Specifically thinking of the scene where he drops out of the exam.) It doesn't come up again, at least not in the same capacity, and feels like a direction for his character that Kishimoto decided to retcon, so I'd probably just remove it. (He gets pissed off during the Tsunade fight, but it felt different than what was being portrayed in the chunin exams.)

Another thing that gets retconned in shippuden is the reveal during the Tsunade fight that Kabuto has a natural ability to regenerate his own cells, seemingly seperate from any sort of learned mednin ability. He says that this ability is the reason he gained Orochimaru's favor. Instead of removing this part, I'd personally like to carry it over to shippuden. It raises so many questions! Surely this would be an ability that Orochimaru would be very interested in. Would Kabuto have been experimented on, if he had this ability? Would Orochimaru have considered using Kabuto as a vessel? It also aligns with the idea that Kabuto really was just another kid Orochimaru picked up for his DNA, which seems to be much more heavily implied in the first part of Naruto (in the chunin exams, it's mentioned that Kabuto was recently promoted!) and then retconned in shippuden, where Kabuto seems to have always been important, and wanted for his skills despite having no special powers.

What if, when Orochimaru met Kabuto in the orphanage, they saw Kabuto heal a small cut on his finger or something? Maybe Orochimaru could have recognized that this wasn't a mednin ability but something genetic, and that's why they had their eye on Kabuto.

(For clarification, I hate the focus on genetics in Naruto. Eugenics propaganda is not good. HOWEVER, it is unfortunately one of the main themes of the story, and specifically a focus of Orochimaru. It's kind of one of their main things, tbh. It makes more sense to me for Kabuto to NOT be an exception to Orochimaru's rule, and is more in keeping with the arc Kabuto seems to have pre-shippuden.)

[kwesi2777]

Brief Analysis ‘ In Motion’

Aims& Objectives

This brief I'm going to be improving upon my illustration skills through time-based problem solving, research techniques like gathering primary and secondary research. In addition to this, I'm going to improve my ability to plan and independently learn.

Initial ideas

My initial ideas are to create a comic/ manga that is a single chapter that consists of 20 pages. I know this is a very ambitious aim, but I could find ways around this, for example, using a zine format or even smaller paper. Obviously, this will change the structure of the comic, but I have a lot of options from the start.

Task 1

In task 1 I’m going to gather a range of primary and secondary research. This is because I want to start the project with a wide range of starting points so that I can explore different avenues for my comic. In this area, I need to include evidence of narrative as this is a core element of a comic/manga.

Task 2

In the second task, I’m going to gather a  range of primary and secondary evidence and document it on a mood-board. Some early artists I’m looking at are Kim Jung Gi and Yoshihiro Togashi’s Hunter x Hunter and Yu yu Hakusho. After gathering I’m going to informally present my ideas and get peer feedback on my ideas and potential areas that I need to focus on. Additionally, I'm going to be writing my proposal for the ‘In Motion’ brief so that I can clarify and clearly lay out my understanding of the brief and project I'm creating. 

Task 3

In task 3 I’m going to be experimenting visually with colour, tone, line, shape, form, and pattern to improve upon my illustrative skills. I also want to apply new technical skills such as perspective and clean lines to transition my outcome from a sketchy, jagged and rough finish to a clean, clear and concise image.

Task 4 

In task 4 I‘m going to be reflecting and evaluating my work focusing primarily on what makes I did well and what needs improvement throughout the critical analysis. Additionally, I could use peer review to give me a deeper understanding of my work and to help spot possible solutions to the problem I’ve created in the brief.

Task 5

Task 6

‘Comfort Zone’

Aims & Objectives

the objective of this workshop was to isolate interests so I can develop insights into what could be the potential focus of this brief.

Influences 

Kim jung gi

Kim Jung Gi is going to heavily influence my style during this project as he's able to draw from his imagination creating ranging from fantastical to realism he's able to create amazing visuals and importantly he's able to squeeze in narrative to his outcomes and this is a skill that i want to explore and experiment with going forward.

Yoshihiro Togashi 

 Yoshihiro Togashi is a mangaka who's mainly know for his work on the show Hunter x Hunter and Yu yu Hakusho. His style varies from simple to complex deepening on the range of the camera from the characters he's draws, but he pays close attention to narrative when creating his fictional novels.

Possible Improvements/ Peer review (crit 1)

Narrative

thinking or a potential story for my project so that it had depth and isn't superficial. Possible artists to look at are Eadwaerd Muybridge as he focuses on sequence and order.

Colour/ Cover

although this is a valid critique i didnt want to add any colour to my idea because i want to emulate the same affect youshihro togashi has with his simple lines using only black and whie. In addition to this, I dont think i’ll have time to complete my overall childrens book/ comic if i focus on experimenting with colour. If i have time towards the end ill try to add colour, but my proirity is actually finishing this project with a final outcome.

Environment & Background

Looking at my moodboard you can see that I have only included anatomy, character design and facial expressions, so a way to improve expand my knowledge and help progress and add depth to the story through setting.