#klonoa: lunatea's Veil

[aquamarine-oceanfront]

Fun fact: the artbook for Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series dedicates a page to explaining the writing used in Volk, which largely maps to the English alphabet. It contains two examples:

The second sentence is a direct quote from the chorus of "Ai wo Torimodose!!," the Fist of the North Star anime's first opening theme.

The official English translation obfuscates the reference by rendering it as "SHOCK YOU!!"

[pixie-mask]

So started Lunatea's Veil and this game is like...a lot stiffer. And I'm not a fan of how much closer to the screen it is.

[madhogthymaster]

Down The Cabbit Hole: The Weird World of Klonoa Literature - An Archive (Part 1)

It was the Summer of 2022: the HD collection of Klonoa: Door to Phantomile and Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil was released unto this world, and into my life. My reaction in seeing these videogames briefly in the forefront of (semi)popular culture was one of insurmountable elation. To bask into the vicarious feelings of people discovering The Fluffy Boy and his bittersweet adventures for the first time was an indescribable experience, almost as much as it was to re-immerse myself into it all. For a short time in human history, there was a proper, tangible Zeitgeist, a palpable excitement, surrounding one of my favourite things of all time, ever. Naturally, as a long time fan, an educated Klonoa scholar, I have provided several important contributions to the fandom... and I have bothered many Twitch streamers, in the process.

Exhibit A:

At this time, one of my biggest endeavours was the creation of a fan-page on the old deceased bird website, celebrating the existence of these games as well as the weird history of the series. That account's activity has all but gone the way of said avian critter but there is still a rich archive worth of material that I *needed* to conserve for posterity. I wouldn't want anyone on the Internet to be deprived of my immaculately composed memes, after all!

Here's a small selection, presented without context:

By far, the biggest body of work on that fan-page was my deep dive into the extremely lopsided plain of Klonoa comics, the mere presence of which left me scared and confused for reasons that shall become all too clear in a few moments. With the premise out of the way, I am going to share with you my various posts on the subject of Fluffy Boy Literature, mostly raw and unaltered, for your eye-balling pleasure. These salvaged tweets contain my thoughts, musings, honest reactions and critiques over the (surprisingly) multi-faceted girth of comics available to us, in one form or the other, as well as several panels to contextualize said reactions. Join me down the Cabbit hole, won't you?

We begin this journey with the Bandai Namco officially licensed webcomic, Klonoa: Dream Traveller of Noctis Sol.

---

18 July 2022

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Perhaps against my better judgment, I have made the decision to read the ill-fated Klonoa webcomic series written between 2012 and 2014. It is an odd curio of officially published media that was released in an unconventional manner. Stay tuned as I report on my findings.

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The publisher was a website called ShiftyLook which seemingly hosted a whole plethora of comics based off several Namco's franchises: titles such as Wonder Momo and, of course, this non-canonical Klonoa adventure.

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It was drawn by Hitoshi Ariga, whose claim to fame comes from illustrating a respectable amount of Megaman manga and Pokémon trading cards, as well as volumes of The Big O adaptation. Jim Zub is credited as the writer which is a big deal - according to Wikipedia.

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I am cautiously excited about reading this story even as I am fully aware of its untimely demise. More over, the fact it's been forcibly removed from whatever passes as The Canon means I won't have to be too pedantic about its interpretation of the *grander* Klonoa narrative.

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Which is good because I inherently disagree with any and all attempts to expand on the inner-mechanics of "Dream Travelling" when the lack of an explanation leaves the door opened for much more interesting discourse and analysis. Not knowing is what makes Klonoa interesting.

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I HATE THIS IMMEDIATELY!!!

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Oh no, you didn't!

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I can just picture the conversation in my head. "You have OTHER friends, Klonoa?" "No. I have BETTER friends, Huepow." Hey, if you have to completely ruin the endings of two of the best games ever made, you might as well GO THERE!

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On the other hand, this is a primo villain design.

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There was a rather jarring change in art style for this page. The new illustrator is Jeffrey "Chamba" Cruz, another prolific comic maker.

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Ah, of course! Guntzland! Guntz's place! The place of Guntz! The place made specifically for Guntz! ... That Guntzland? I feel like I'm going insane.

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Ariga has thankfully returned to illustrate this comic. His quality work is in the only highlight in this otherwise abysmal experience.

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A black and white dream world is a rather cheeky way to justify saving money on colouring.

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"I FOUND YOU, FAKER!"

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You know, I had hoped, perhaps naively, that Klonoa could have spared me the evil doppelganger routine. This comic is a constant cavalcade of nonsense advancing at the speed of thought whilst ironically bereft of any.

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The gang is all here. Waaaaaahoooooooo....

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This is the last page. This is the note in which the comic ends. It's probably for the best, really.

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Overall, this was a toothless, dull approximation of a *Big Crossover Event* the likes of which could not possibly appeal to anyone. It was too entrenched in the games' (unneeded) continuity to attract new fans and it was too much of a travesty to please old fans. It was just bad.

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The choice to undercut the emotional, narrative and thematic impact from both Door to Phantomile and Lunatea's Veil for the sake of cheap fan-service makes this *OFFICIALLY LICENSED* material exceptionally vapid even by corporate standards. Read fanfiction, instead.

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Appropriately enough, the next piece of literature under the proverbial lens would be an unofficial continuation to the cancelled webcomic. So, yes, I followed my own suggestion there.

However, as I find myself encumbered by arbitrary image limits on this blog, I will continue my archival sharing in the next instalment of this now multi-part series. Stay tuned, fellow Phantomilians, for the story is about to get much more interesting.

[PART 2]

[kingbeeleth]

[blackypng]

Been wanting to do this since last year 🗣💕💕

[jiiniix]

so happy I can post my full piece for the @Klonoa_zine´s Le Petit Grimoire project ദ്ദി ˉ͈̀꒳ˉ͈́ )✧

I hope you can see the other pieces there because they all look amazing!!

[kande238]

Why do you hate sorrow? Can't you accept sorrow at all?

[cozenveil]

WAHOOOO

Funny redraw of the silly one™....

if you don't feed him a burger he'll explode and all of breezegale goes with him

[playstationpark]

Boarding 'Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil' PlayStation 2

[juicesnatcher]

Got some more Klonoa doodles from the past week

[devmella]

Sorry for the sudden absence, again💔

Ehem… Klonoa but in Soras outfit!!

[cupcakegalaxia]

Some more Klonoa art that I did over the last few weeks. The two other cabbits next to Klonoa are called Glamona (double cherry pin) and Kazlo (defeated ghost pin) respectfully.

Oh then a more realistic Popka lol

[beauh]

[tiffanyelectricity]

Eedapee Klo-oa, rupurudu!

[blackypng]

Also confuror is super close and since the zine was well received last year I decided to make a bit more of klonoa merch :) this time a little sticker sheet!

[caguaydreams]