#posting it now because A NEW FUBUKI COVER IS OUT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[waifubuki]

[loremaster]

the premise of rain code band au

so you have context for whatever i end up drawing for it

so yakou started out in a band with yomi and friends (probably like. seth and dominic... no martina yet), he was the guitarist and yomi was the singer... they definitely dated though neither of them would ever admit to it now

but yomi of course is an asshole with a big ego that keeps getting worse, yakou puts up with it until he meets his (future) wife who convinces him to stand up for himself. yomi of course does not take it well, invites martina into the band and starts dating her instead. yakou gets ostracized by the rest of the group and quits the band, settles down, gets married.

she isn't a musician but she's still got a beautiful singing voice. she loves to sing along to his guitar playing. but eventually she dies (probably due to medical malpractice. fucking huesca) and yakou gets so depressed he doesn't touch his guitar again for years

meanwhile the whole world is obsessed with famous pop idol SHINIGAMI!!!!!! despite (or because of?) her abrasive personality she has tons of die-hard fans... but nobody knows anything about her personal life. she's a total mystery off the stage!

shinigami's success is really due to yuma and makoto (twins??? idk). makoto is her pr manager who handles her public image and her schedule; yuma is her creative director and songwriter, the genius behind her catchy tunes.

yuma is very competent at his job but is not enjoying his life. he feels immense responsibility for her success, and overworks himself so shinigami can keep topping the charts. he's not much fun to be around, and doesn't trust anyone else with his duties. shinigami and makoto conspire against him for his own sake, and fire him - or at least, send him on an indefinite leave. shinigami says his songs are shit. he takes her seriously.

yuma is moping down the streets when he meets yakou, also down on his luck... yakou takes pity on the kid and gives him a place to stay. he has no idea who yuma really is, and yuma doesn't tell him - mostly because of the shame of being fired. so yakou treats him like an unpaid intern.

somehow yuma ends up inspiring yakou to pick up his guitar again... which inspires yakou to put out a flyer for band auditions. he's not expecting any responses, but halara, desuhiko, fubuki, and vivia show up and he's impressed with all four of them!!! NOW THEY'RE A BAND!!!!

but... they start out as a cover band because they have no original songs. (desuhiko tries to write original songs. they are very bad.) yuma wants to help but he doesn't want to make himself a big deal... so he ends up sneakily slipping a song he's anonymously written under the studio door for yakou to find. the song is great... but the other band members can't seem to get the hang of it.

from then on the story would take more of an episodic nature, where yuma gets to know each of the band members' idiosyncrasies and learn how to write music (still anonymously) that fits their style. (i'd actually imagine the audience wouldn't know yuma's deal yet either, that'd be like... an end of the season reveal. i guess i'm imagining this as an anime huh) and in spending time with each of them he gets to actually befriend them as well and invigorate their passion for the band and willingness to work together. each time they'd get a cool new song that has a cool new solo for the focus character/instrument of each... episode? yeah

i'm going to post more about what those individual character based adventures will be later (feel free to supplement with your own ideas)

for now i am tired good night

[aforrestofstuff]

Chapter 149 Expert Review Time

Hey gamers what’s up time for another CHAPTER 👏 REVIEW 👏

It was looking kinda bleak last time for pretty much everyone so I’m hoping things improved this time around, but it seems Murata and ONE are kinda going through their “I’m going to put my characters through the MOST” phase so… that feels unlikely. But nevertheless… still excited to see my favorite boys.

The 10000th Psychic Sister cover. Murata, I’m begging you. There’s literally like 30 other characters to choose from. I know you like drawing boobs but imma need you to put the pencil down for a minute and take a walk because this just ain’t IT.

“Summer is coming” it is July. Summer has been here for ten years. I’m so fucking hot all the time. Everything has been evaporated out of me and I’m literally a raisin.

The Psychic Sisters covers are just so devoid of life a lot of the time… I wouldn’t mind if it was them fighting or engaging in everyday activities but when they’re posed for the camera and deliberately placed there to look sexy it just sucks all the human out of them. The cover/splash page is a great chance to show characters in a new light!!! It’s mostly set away from the story so you can do whatever you want! Choosing to make 80 fanservice covers is just wasted opportunity for what could be additional character development. It’s gotten to a point where even the smegma-slinging bitchboys on Reddit are complaining about the excessive sexy covers…. When PussySlayer384756 complains that there’s too much tittage being shown, that’s how you KNOW we’ve got a problem. Now, idk how the fan climate is in Japan but I can’t imagine they’re feeling much different over there either.

Also, her anatomy is… janky. Her tit is bigger than her head, her belly is too long, and she’s got like 4 spare ribs. Like, I’m by no means an art expert but it doesn’t take a chef to know the soup is shit, you know what I mean? I feel like page after page of Murata drawing obscene muscle men has made him rusty on what should be (somewhat) normal-looking people.

Darkshine learns what TRUE peak male performance looks like.

You’ve gotta wonder how Darkshine even got to the S-Class to begin with when he pussies out of nearly every single fight… except the one where the opponent was literal water. Everyone says that he just joined the association for additional validation, and I believe it… this boy is not cut out for actual hero-ing. 99% Of the time HE’S the one who needs a hero.

It kinda bothers me how useless he’s been post-Garou fight, especially when we spent like an entire chapter trying to console his ass. I get that’s part of his character and development… but it’s begun to slow things down. We get it. We don’t need to see him be insecure every time a new enemy pops up. One was enough. We would’ve gotten the same effect if he just sat out the entire time post-consolation, because everything that’s happened to him on the surface has been kinda redundant.

Here comes the boooyyy 🎶🎶

Nice callback. I’m glad Metal Bat is finally here. Bitch runs slow as fuck.

It’s nice to see him act on his own agency instead of orders from the hero association. He’s clearly much happier when helping out on his own accord, and has a ton of initiative too. The chapter he got with just he and King meeting up and slingshotting themselves to the fight was really a breath of fresh air from all of the fighting. It’s moments like these where ONE remembers that people like OPM for the characters, and not necessarily the pretty action sequences. I really like this duo. I like Metal Bat. I like it when they’re given time to be themselves and not just vessels for the next fight scene.

I know I said I wanted the heroes to die but Murata I’m begging you please don’t kill the child. You can kill Puri, though. I hate that fucker.

Child Emperor regularly visiting and eating with Bofoi even despite being his lab assistant would be a lot cuter if Bofoi wasn’t the human equivalent to a dog turd. I might’ve overstated that… seems like Bofoi is just using him as an errand boy. The clear lack of respect he has for CE is very indicative of his character and is not necessarily a bad thing plot-wise, but I would still like to beat him with a cane. Additionally, it’s clear that he’s not going to help the heroes here. At least, I don’t think so. His “fuck them kids” attitude seems to be a pretty big pillar in the building of his character and I doubt ONE would jeopardize that just because he’s written himself into a corner. Oh, well. We’ll see.

It’s very sweet that even when near death, CE still thinks of Zombieman. Aaaaghh it’s so GOOD when the characters actually LIKE each other. I know realistically not everyone is gonna be friends but man… it would be a lot cooler if we got more insight on their chemistry. Pleaz have more Metal Bat-and-King-esque chapters. I wanna see how everyone gets along.

Also, the concept of Puri just manifesting drilling powers and carving through solid rock with nothing else but pure strength and determination is so funny. A little convenient, sure, but I really don’t care because it’s actually done well. Their reunion scene is hilarious. More stuff like this pleaz….

I don’t even know what to say about Genos here. Dude, I know you made an oath to protect Tatsumaki or whatever, but there’s no shame in a good bail. You can’t even bail anymore because your damn legs are gone. See, this is what happens when you make promises. The secret to keeping your legs intact is doing the bare minimum. Hope this helps ❤️

He’s making a valiant effort but… I’m afraid he just ain’t gonna do much while roleplaying as a worm. Maybe he’ll make a chrysalis and come out as a butterfly. Wait, that’s caterpillars. Fuck. TATSUMAKI IS A GONER, BRO. WE NEED YOU TO BE THE DEUTERAGONIST!! IF YOU DIE WE LOSE 70% OF MERCH SALES NOOOOOOOO

Local man has a heart attack in front of thousands of little monsters and somehow saves the world, more at 5.

King I’m begging you please get that shit checked out that’s not NORMAL.

Yeah, I like this conclusion. Very tasteful cliffhanger. I mean we know King ain’t gonna do shit but SOMEHOW black sperm is gonna get punted like the little cumstain he is. Can’t wait to see the events that unfold next chapter… it seems like every scene that involves King turns out to be really funny and I’m super looking forward to black sperm seeing Jesus.

Also, a little off-topic but I just really like the way Murata inked his pants. Got a real comic book feel to it. I mean, he’s just really good at drawing clothes overall (save for Fubuki’s body-tight dress that is 100% not how women’s clothing works but I digress). Fucker understands fabric physics like I understand how to make a bomb ass chicken parm. I respect it.

In conclusion, lower everyone’s expectations of you and you might get to keep your arms and legs. This has been Life Lessons from Forrest. You now owe me 50$.

[kirindensetsu]

The Making of Fubuki

((Reposting from Den of Angels workshop thread because I wanted my friends to be able to see~))

After years of pining after dolls I couldn't afford as a broke teenager, my first BJD was a Bobobie Sprite I purchased for my 18th birthday. Unfortunately, she didn't live up to my expectations and I never really bonded with her. Her face was cute enough, but the Bobobie body lacked the grace and posing ability I imagined for the Unseelie faerie I'd been daydreaming of for years. Sueding and wiring didn't help, blushing and tattooing highlighted her blockiness, it was a mess. I packed her away and tried not to think about my disappointment for 12 years. In the meantime I learned to build and paint resin garage kits, inherited one of my sister's dolls, bought some others, took anatomy & physiology in college, and did a couple extensive restorations and full-body modifications. I was sure I had thrown her away at some point as a failed project, but last weekend I found her tucked away in a doll bag I thought was empty. Having just finished substantial mods on a Dollshe body, and awaiting an unfinished Unoa kit for my birthday in September, I decided that I owed it to her to try again. Doll nudity below the cut, looooong post--

My Sprite was originally going to be a pooka with golden eyes and extensive woad tattoos. The golden eyes are incredible, so those are staying, but she's now going to be a blue oni to fit in with the rest of my collection. My plan is to do extensive additive epoxy work, and then to use Krylon Fusion to give everything a unified finish. The goal of the project is to reduce the... idk, STRAIGHTNESS of the old Bobobie body. I was never going to be happy with it, the lines were all far too rigid.

Head: Modified mouth for a wider, smirking smile. Magnets added to headcap (old Bobobie used an S-hook iirc; I did this part back in 2008). Forehead drilled for 3mm brass rod armature, and epoxy used to sculpt horns over rod. Bust: Substantial subtractive modifications to breasts, which involved removal and readdition of nipples. Addition of epoxy clay to back and shoulders to give a more curved body line in profile. Deepening of shoulder sockets with 18mm eye bevel, followed by sanding to make shoulders narrower. Waist: Reshaping of upper torso joint into sphere for smoother range of motion. Subtraction of resin in back and addition of epoxy in front to enhance lumbar curve. Hips: Substantial reshaping of lower waist seam to more naturally follow the pelvic girdle. It reminded me of granny panties before  Added epoxy to butt, again for lumbar curve. Thighs: Suwariko joint mod (cut the thigh and added a PVC insert to enable swivelling at the hip). Added epoxy to make her thighs look less straight. Calves: Removed 1cm of length at the ankles and rebevelled the socket. Removed resin at the ankles to bring them in, and added epoxy at the calves to make them curvier. Feet: Sculpted little claws, which were cute, and then decided the feet needed to be 5mm longer. Cut across, drilled and pinned with brass rod for structural strength, gap filled with epoxy clay. I also modded her feet to have defined arches and balls back when I first got her. Alas, spitting into the ocean. I added S-hooks, but did so by drilling the ankle and inserting brass rod to form the axle for the hook. Arms: The proportions on her upper arms BOTHERED me! they were so SHORT! and I only just figured out that's what I hated about them last week! I added 5mm to the upper arms by cutting them in the middle and using SteelStik to make a structural repair (plumber's epoxy putty has a shorter open time but far greater structural strength than artist's epoxy clay). Sanded the heck out of the wrists to give them a more delicate taper. Hands: Beyond salvage. The hands were my least-favorite part of this sculpt. I tried to bulk them up to look less spidery but it was just too difficult... I've ordered a different pair of MSD hands which will have claws added, and then when everything is painted it'll all match. Thanks for reading this far! Here's a preview of what her golden eyes look like next to Krylon Fusion in Antique Blue.

((first progress post)) I think I'm mostly done adding epoxy clay (at least where it'll show; presumably the wrist sockets will require tweaks to fit the new hands), so now it's time for finish sanding. I start with 60 grit for shaping, then switch to a 120 grit sanding sponge. To check for scratches, pinholes, and inadequately feathered edges, I apply a wash of diluted acrylic paint. Once the paint has dried, I scrub the piece with a nylon scouring pad. Paint remains in the surface irregularities.

All sanded with 220 grit. I don't think I'll be going higher than 400 because I want there to be some tooth for the paint.

Any pitting in the epoxy clay that can't be sanded out is marked with a Sharpie and will be patched with Tamiya spot putty.

I did a test spray of the Krylon Fusion on the headcap and it's fantastic! Holy cow is it *poisonous* tho, I'm used to working with volatile chemicals but this was something else. Get OUT OF THE AREA between coats and leave it outside until it stops outgassing, not just until it's ready to handle.

This test piece is four light coats sprayed 1 minute apart, allowed to cure for 4 hours, and then wetsanded to remove the spray texture. It's pretty sturdy but I will wait several more days to see how it continues to cure before experimenting with matte sealants. ((progress update 2))

Haven't done much but sand-and-fill-and-sand-and-fill, but my 14mm beveller came in today so I can start deepening her elbow and ankle sockets. Added some epoxy clay to the insides of the eyewells so 14mm eyes will fit with no gap. I need a needle file to clean up the corners of her mouth... Monster feets! Nails on the right came out better than the left, still need to feather-sand everything.

Elbows progress. The early Bobobie elbows are I guess /technically/ double-jointed because the joint is a sphere with two slots, but I thought I could do better than that. You can see epoxy clay spliced in to make the sphere into a peanut: this isn't a structurally sound repair unless you pop it apart and drill/pin/glue-epoxy it back together.

View from the back. By keeping the joint heads spherical with no elbow-shaped detailing, there's some rotation as well as flexion, which I like.

Touching her face with one of her old hands. I hope the new ones come soon!

((progress update 4))

In good news, these parts are all ready for paint! It's really hard to do prepwork with no filler primer, hope I didn't miss any spots...

In less good news, her new hands arrived and they are... very smol ;u; I forgot that the new trend for slim minis means that everyone has TINY LITTLE HANDS.

They are, however, beautifully sculpted and a good 3D reference for what needs fixing and how. Bobobie palm is very short relative to fingers: I made a transverse cut behind the knuckles and added epoxy to lengthen More curved volume across the back of the hand: Not necessarily realistic, but looks a little cuter, plus it makes the transition into the cylinder of the wrist look less stylistically jarring. More defined joint angles: Some of these I did via cut-and-thermoform repositioning, mostly I'm aiming to fake it by building up and carving away at the weird smooth curves. The fingers are just TOO SKINNY: But obviously I'm not going to squish rice-grain-sized blobs of epoxy to the fingers, right? It's too fiddly, it doesn't want to stick. What's the solution? Brace for a truly hideous WIP image--

"AAAAAAGH WHAT IS THAT DARK GRAY MESS" it's JB Weld epoxy! It's like load-bearing, slow-curing modeller's putty! Slathering putty onto an armature and then carving it away to refine the shape is how anime figure artists make hands and detailed hair.  I was thinking about it from a polymer clay technique/perspective so I missed the obvious solution. Hand in the foreground has more layers than the hand in the background, every layer gets the shape a lil closer. ((progress post 5)) Parts set up on sticks so I can handle them without touching...

... and after 4 light coats!

Closeup of the head, lil' glossy because it's still drying. For the deeper areas like the joint slots, mouth, and the crannies of the ears, I'm going to have to decant some of the paint into a jar and apply it with a sacrificial brush.

((progress post 6)) I return from Depression! I finally finished sanding-and-spraying the Krylon Fusion coats, gave her a last polish with microfine to even out the texture, and have started blushing her. I'm using a mixture of Tamiya X-series acrylics applied via airbrush for basic contouring, then I'll go back in with pastel to add warm tones and details.

Fun discovery: in an attempt to cover some accidental overspray, I tried spraying the Fusion directly into the paint cup of the airbrush and using it to "erase" back to the base color. I'm NEVER using this product straight from the can again, it goes on so smooth and gorgeous from the airbrush! No orange peel or bubbles to sand away. I'm seriously tempted to get a can of pink and try blushing with it.

((progress post 7)) Doing a faceup over a spray-painted substrate is HARD I want to CRY. I talked about sanding out the spray texture to get an untextured surface, right? Welp, didn't/couldn't sand well enough in the corners of the mouth and the folds of the eyelids, so it's crusty-looking with pastels over it and now there's nothing I can do about it that doesn't involve stripping down to resin and starting again.

((final post)) Sueded and strung!

I didn't take pictures of the sueding process because I was using Barge Cement and it is messy and time-sensitive. I used masking tape to make templates of her joints, transferred to some thin gray lamb suede I found on eBay, and glued it fuzzy side out. The suede was thicker than real pliver, more like the thickness of silicone KIPS discs, but I think it worked out without too many fit issues. The trim store had 3.5mm elastic in a beautiful slate-blue color that I thought would look nicer in the joint slots, so she's strung throughout with thicker elastic. Some more poses to show off the functional mods~ Suwariko joints let her sit crosslegged, and more mobile wrists let her put her hands into the pose.

A more ball-and-socked shaped contact surface at her waist lets her slouch at a full range of angles instead of being locked into two.

With longer upper arms, she can reach the ground in this pose! You can also see how the modded waist joint lets her cock her hips.

She could always stand with locked knees. I think she needs some wire in her legs to let the suwariko joints hold their rotation against gravity, but I'll see how the elastic tension settles in first.

A parting shot out the snowy window. We've been having a hard time picking between a few names for her, but I think this settles it. Welcome back, Fubuki~

[runolllo-fanboygirl]

---------------------------------

I'm going to start by clarifying that these are messages I got in response to my post here /// LINK /// After this, I'm not replying to messages about this kinda thing in a long time. Talking about sexualization and such other topics is important but I'm not in a state to be made the center of it. Please, don't come to my inbox asking for discourse, go and create your own posts if you want to raise awareness or vent.

And now to answer to these new asks:

FIRST OF ALL: while I love the way Murata draws men, robotic stuff, monsters... I actually HATE the way he draws ladies! I prefer their proportions in the OPM anime and games. Murata is literally SO BAD at drawing women compared to the level of expertise he has drawing men, and it's all ‘cos he keeps drawing ladies "the h0rny way". We all know this, let's move on.

"He's drawing all the monster girls sexualized" Did the fact that Manako's genre reveal deconstructs the trope "the default is male" totally go over your head? That Psykos's reveal as a woman running the whole MA was a big deal for this same reason as well? There are a bunch of female monsters… you just assume they're all male unless you see big b00bs and then complain about that very fact. They literally made a whole point about this specifically!

"He changed Mizuki's shorts to p4nties to please fanboys" I liked the shorts better too (just because I find her whole character design a bit more balanced that way) so that change bothered me as well, but the "p4nties" are actually standard athletic wear for competition. Shorts are not. Technically, she’s drawn more accurately now.

"Sports Bras don't work that way he just wants to draw b00bs" neither do the shirts and bodysuits the guys are wearing. You can see all their muscles and manb00bs and cr0tch lines, just as much as with Fubuki and Tatsu's hero outfits and Mizuki's top.

"But when the boys are drawn that way, it's not to please the ladies, it's male power fantasy" THERE IS NO HETEROSEXUAL MALE POWER FANTASY BULLSHIT THAT CAN POSSIBLY EXPLAIN THE WAY MURATA DRAWS GAROU, FLASH, SONIC, STINGER AND SOME OF THE OTHER GUYS. The fact is that the way he draws eye candy of them appeals to other collectives other than the cis het men and he knows exactly what he's doing. Period.

"He constantly draws sexualized art of Mizuki to please the fanboys" Why exaggerate so much? This is simply not true. She's a woman in athlete wear, most of the time she's either standing up talking or fighting, no weird angles or anything. There is like 1 sexy cover of her, the back cover with all the girls in bikinis and then that infamous watermelon sequence. That's all the sexualization you are talking about.

"Mizuki only gets so much screen time because of how much p0rn of her there is" oh yeah Mizuki got a grand total of, like, *drum roll* 1 chapter and a half dedicated to her! Wow! Which is NOTHING taking into consideration how dense Garou's arc is and the fact that they will need at least 2 seasons of the anime to finish it.

But think about this: OPM desperately needed more female presence, in special with the prospect of finishing Garou's arc in the anime. Making anime is hard and COSTLY. Most of the people who is going to watch the anime haven't read the manga and they'll be like "what the heck there are no female characters in this anime for like 3 seasons?" and there is no team that's going to risk it working with such prospects. We know why.

Of all the expansion that Garou's arc got in the manga adaptation (and later in the anime), one of the most sensible and balanced decisions was to add more ladies. They put all those monster ladies for season 2, and then for season 3 we get Manako and Mizuki having some strong presence, Shadow and Kamaitachi there a bit in the back too. It benefits the pace and balance of both the manga and the future season 3 so immensely because Fubuki, Tatsumaki and Psykos take a LOOONG while to be relevant during Garou's Arc… in special with all the filler the manga put in between (but all that filler is of the S-Class boys getting development and a reality check which is kinda important too lol).

Point is: the screentime Mizuki got was VERY necessary to balance things in between of all the relentless Garou fights and the boys being boys. Sure Mizuki is beautiful and sexy and all, but really EVERYONE was waiting for a new female character that was relevant, likeable, fun… and on top of everything, it's so rare to see a strong 2m tall girl in fiction in general, not even just anime. Everyone got instantly excited about her because she's exactly what we needed AND MORE. And sure, people draw p0rn of her like they do with most other popular characters, what did you expect.

"The ladies are always more sexualized-" YES, in the OPM manga, the ladies are a little more sexualized than the men –but not by much AND not during plot stuff. By that I mean that most of the so called "sexualizing the girls" happens in the covers, back covers and promotional art very exclusively, and not during the story itself. HOWEVER, a lot of the sexy men bits do happen during the story, curiously.

 In the anime though, there is almost zero ladies fanservice (which makes sense since there is almost no female presence in the first 2 seasons anyway). Yet it's full of naked dudes, sometimes for a good reason, but mostly just so we can look at them being sexy and silly.

 I personally don't care if the man candy and ladies fanservice is not perfectly even in Murata's manga adaptation, because there is enough of both in his work, as well as other official OPM stuff like the anime and games to bring a very nice balance in the s3xy department.

 "The way the women are dressed-" Most of the background ladies are wearing skirt uniforms and shit, but all the relevant ladies primarily dress in nothing you can call "sexualized" except for maybe Tatsumaki with her strong leg game. To recall:

 Lilly wears the same as the men of the Blizzard Group; Twin Tail just dresses like a jester; Mizuki is the first to show so much skin, but she's still wearing real standard competition wear for athletes. All the other sportwomen (Hornet and Swim) and martial artists (Shadow, Suiko, Lin Lin) wear standard clothes for their respective professions too. Sure we've seen Shadow wearing some, uh, ninja bikini thing under her ACTUAL work clothes, but for actual fights she's fully dressed and surprisingly not stuffed in a tiny nylon bodysuit that rips like stocking, like all the ninja men in the series do lmao.

Fubuki and Tatsumaki are, like, the only ones wearing dresses and they can because they use psychic powers anyway. Fubuki doesn't even show ANY skin, ever! She just happens to have big b00bs! Kamaitachi is the other one wearing a "skirt" but it's similar to what Japanese martial artists would wear, too.

So, again… all this sexualization we are talking about is not even happening anywhere except in Murata's covers and some promotional art. ONE is famous for treating ladies very fairly, even if Murata tries very hard to exploit the sexy out of every single of the ladies ONE creates. All these ladies have their own agenda and personality that have nothing to do with being pretty or f*ckable. In fact, in-universe, no one ever mentions if the heroines are beautiful or sexy and no one ever talks about liking them for those reasons (except for Lilly and Erika who are gay for Fubuki and Tatsumaki respectively, amazingly enough no hetero characters mention it). I think the first time we've ever seen a relevant character talking about dating another relevant character is when Suiryu told Saitama and Suiko to date (but Suiryu is the resident h0rny fuckboy of the series, if someone was going to say something so stupid for all the wrong reasons, it was going to be him).

For being an adult series, a seinen that parodies shonen tropes and all, OPM is seriously very tame in the sexy ladies department. For this series, the sexy is just a luxurious accessory, just one more little thing. It's always pretty weird when people get so angry and disappointed about a new sexy girl cover or a couple of compromising panels, like they don't know what to expect.

 "He only draws that way to please the h0rny fanboys" Murata IS a h0rny fanboy himself and draws shit that appeals to him as much as he feels he’s allowed to insert in the series. Please remember he's the insane fanboy that reached up to ONE to beg him to continue One Punch Man and offered to make a manga adaptation to promote OPM.

From the moment Murata started drawing OPM, the tone of the manga was set and never changed: lots of blood and guts, comical and non-comical nudity, irreverence, sexy angles, Genos ripping his shirts off, ninjas in body suits that rip like they are nylons… people in shirts, tanktops and dresses so tight you can see all their muscles, boobs and even belly buttons whether they are men or women or otherwise… h0rny chapter covers, stupidly h0rny monsters…

Just reading the manga to the point where Genos and Mosquito Girl first appear, you know what you are in for with OPM. I don't know what some fans are expecting to see in OPM next, but I'm going to take a wild guess here and say: you should expect more of the same.

 At the end of the day, the manga is Murata's work with ONE, and if he likes drawing h0rny ladies more than boys, that's how things are! This is just 2 guys with their passion project. I don't expect of them the same as if there was a bigger team with a big budget behind the series, like it happens with many games and shows. In this last case, I would be a lot stricter about all this, because with more resources you're expected to do better things.

[higuchimon]

[fanfic] Wings of the Soul:  Chapter 2 [end]

 Yuusuke kept his wings folded as tightly against his back as he could.  He didn't like to look at them or think about them.  As far as he was concerned, they were a sign of everything that he'd given up, and for what?  For nothing at all - because he'd been wrong about it all.  He'd thought that he'd be forgotten and that no one would want him back, not even Ryou.

Not even his soulmate.

But the moment their eyes met again at the graduation party, both of them froze in their tracks.  Ryou, still seated in that wheelchair, slowly leaned forward to shed the black cape that covered his back, and spread out his wings.  When he first did, they'd been nothing but a shriveled, pathetic mess.  Then they filled out, becoming stronger, wider, and fuller.  Sleek black feathers grew in, and from the expression on Ryou's face, it wasn't a lovely feeling.

He knew very well it wasn't.  Because his own wings did the same thing.  His feathers were now a deeper shade of green than they'd been before, not quite matching his hair so well, but far better than they'd been.  He'd stared at Ryou, words choking in his throat, and yet not a single word had come out. 

He'd left.  He wanted so much to say something, to say how sorry he was for everything, but not a single word had formed.  Perhaps he'd figure out a way at some point in the future.  But just then, he said nothing at all.

What would I even tell him?  He could have at least had faith that Ryou wouldn't forget him.  They'd been aware of their soulmate nature since the moment they'd met.  But he'd not done so.  He wasn't going to blame Darkness for that - it was all on him. 

Even if Ryou hadn't forgotten him willingly before, he would clearly do so now.  Being soulmates didn't mean endless true love.  Soulmate required as much work as non-soulmate relationships.  Some people even thought they needed more.  After what Yuusuke did, he suspected Ryou would happily choose anyone else, soulmate or not.  He'd forced Ryou to live with broken wings for five years.  Being left alone like this was what he deserved.

But he was staying at Duel Academia until he could get his education properly finished and graduate himself.  Ryou also stayed there, for health reasons.  Yuusuke wanted more details on that, and told himself he didn't deserve them.  That in no way stopped him from wanting them. 

So he would have to figure out a way for them both to stay there without him running into Ryou.  Surely it couldn't be that difficult.  Ryou spent most of his time in the medical area.  Yuusuke would attend classes once the new year began. He could spend his spare time in the library or even in the forest or on the beach.  Ryou wasn't one for either of the last two, though the library might give a risk of them crossing paths. 

Though, what would make this even more difficult would be Fubuki.  Fubuki would insist on them meeting to talk matters out.  He'd always supported their relationship.  Back when they'd first met and their wings developed, he'd actually given a cheer!  Some things simply did not change.  But he would encourage them to talk, no matter what.  Even if neither one of them wanted to.

But he would figure something out.  Even if he just had to explain to Fubuki that he and Ryou needed to manage this on their own - by which he meant never speaking to Ryou about it at all.  Ryou had his own issues now anyway.  He didn't need someone like Yuusuke getting in his way and bringing him down.

Not that he didn't look fantastic in that black outfit.  The first time Yuusuke saw it it, when he'd lured Ryou into the shadows at Darkness's desire, he'd not quite believed how good the other man looked.  Most of his emotions then had been blunted thanks to Darkness's effect on him.  But seeing Ryou like that - seeing Ryou with his wings so battered and broken, the illustrious Kaiser reduced to bed rest and barely even capable of dueling - for the first time in five years he'd felt something.  He still wasn't sure what to call it.

Maybe it was just guilt.  Guilt for all that he'd done.  Guilt he couldn't get rid of.   At least not yet.

The End

Notes: There will eventually be something to wrap up the storyline. But not right now. Now I have ended GX Month 2021!

[gofancyninjaworld]

Review OPM Manga Chapter 128: Deep-seated Malice

I have no need for tentacle porn in my life.  Murata said ‘too bad!’ 

One-Punch Man.  Nominally a story about an overpowered super-hero, but if you don’t like the genre, wait five pages.  So it goes!

The story opens where we left off, with Tatsumaki under relentless attack from the many-headed beast that is Orochi.  While she can deal with individual ones easily enough, there seem to be no end to them.   She’s irritated that her fellow heroes seem to be slacking of when they should be rescuing the kid.

Psykos meets up with Orochi, and while the result is about as pleasant as watching someone throwing up, they eventually come to a deal: Kill Tatsumaki/Kill the baldie at the same time.  Who says size doesn’t matter?

On the Psykos end,  Tatsumaki finds her protective orb turned inside out, such that her own power starts crushing her. If she doesn’t pop it, she’ll die. But outside, there’s Psykos waiting to flatten her to a pancake with super-gravity.  It’s not looking good for her at all.

Meanwhile, on the Orochi end,  Flashy Flash, Saitama and their pet monster are all fleeing from the surging waves of tentacle looking to grab them.  It’s not looking good, until one of them grabs Saitama by the head... then slips off his shiny, shiny pate.

And Saitama punches it because he really hates having his head touched.

A lot happens as a result of this punch.  Shockwaves ripple through the base, shaking it anew. As brickwork gets jolted loose, one slab happens to fall into the counterweight bucket for the ‘up’ elevator, meaning that King and Tareo just escape being Orochi’s next snack.   The shock of having so many cells die jolts Orochi-Psykos and frees Tatsumaki,  who starts falling just to hear King message with the news she’d been hoping for.  Tareo is safe.

She may have been living on borrowed time, but now Tatsumaki intends to return the favour. With interest.

Hoo hoo, the next installment is sure to be exciting!

Meta

When I first saw the cover, I thought ‘oh, that’s interesting. Murata has superimposed a sketch of a longitudinal section of brain over a cutaway of the Monster Association base.’  Then I got it.   It’s a cutaway of the section that Saitama split when he punched Overgrown Rover. The ‘brain’ is Orochi rooting himself deep within the base and then spreading out in concentric spheres (don’t forget, this extends in three dimensions).  The rays?  The dragon heads firing at Tatsumaki.  The tiny dot just above the stem?  Psykos heading for Orochi’s very avid grasp.  The enormity of this evil, so splendidly summarised -- I got goosebumps.

Literally a snapshot of the situation at the start of the chapter.  But also so much more. There’s clever and then there’s genius. I also need this as a poster.

I’m never going to get tired of pointing out how the manga puts roots under the webcomic’s ideas, and sometimes changes them for something better.

Tatsumaki had previously raised the base out of a fit of pique -- and simply because she could.  In her hubris, she’d raised up all the monsters and left her fellow heroes underground.  She was undone by this same hubris when she failed to watch her back.

Right now, Tatsumaki is under real pressure: but for Saitama’s inadvertent intervention, she would be dead.  While she’s not out of tricks, right now she needs to do something overwhelmingly crazy or she will die.  

Her praising King now has nice roots.  Instead of randomly detecting King, she expected him to be at the base.  He has a way of making himself known and it’s to his credit that he has had the presence of mind to call.  

Her backstory has been used so well here!  Not to stop the story and dwell on it, no, but to give us the insight that the terror she felt at being left behind by the fleeing scientists. That’s what she is determined to avoid Tareo feeling. 

what a horrible situation to be in

I can’t think of a lead in sentence for the next picture, so I’ll just post it.  Psykos has prided herself on being the puppet master,

there’s a pungent (and literal) message in this: You can’t expect to fuck with exploit monsters and not get fucked back have them return the favour.

It’s equal parts revolting and fascinating to watch the contigation of monstrousness ebb and flow as Psykos and Orochi fight for mastery  before settling on an uneasy, if effective, truce.  With the manga changing so much, I’m not going to be surprised if there’s not much Psykos left for Fubuki to take charge of in the end.  Couldn’t be happening to a nicer person.

Incidentally, I’m enjoying the irony of Flashy Flash being forced to flee from the monster he was sure he’d kill in the fight of the century. Of course, he doesn’t know that.  And in his case, discretion is definitely the better part of valour (there’s nothing he can do except die), but still, I’m more than mildly amused.

Saitama accidentally and incidentally changing the fortunes of King, Tareo and Tatsumaki alike, his continuing to have an outsized impact on the affairs of man continues unabated.  That’s why nobody knows who he is! :)

[scumerage]

The Story of One Punch Man Season 3

Aplogies to @gofancyninjaworld this reply was so late, was kinda distracted by the new chapter. Anyway, here is my second response, hope it finds you well!

@gofancyninjaworld (original comment to my original Season 3 post, which in turn was a response to their original Season 3 post) If you’re a punter who got into season 2 enough to fish $300 out of your pocket to own the series, what did you come for?  Garou, most probably. What’s going to happen to Garou if the story ends at chapter 108?  The first three-four episodes, he’s going to get the crap kicked out of him by monsters and left unconscious in a hole in the wall. Forever.  That’s it.  The interesting things the story will have hinted around limiters and explosive growth, no visible relevance to Garou.  You’re probably going to feel a little cheated.  Okay, maybe you’re into the other characters.  Well, Genos spends his time cleaning the apartment, Bang is wandering aimlessly through the Monster Association along with Fubuki and Bomb.  As is King, who you only saw briefly a couple of times at the beginning and then no more.  Suiryu? Oh go whistle – but you were going to have to do that anyway, it’s a shame how much real estate he took up last season. The kid is rescued and the other heroes are doing okay.   Tatsumaki is taking on the real big bad and is also doing okay. You’re arguing that seeing Saitama punch a monster that is posing no imminent threat to anyone, and whom he dismissed with less respect than he did Elder Centipede constitutes a profitable end.  One that will satisfy people enough to buy in and come back for more.  You must be kidding!   The storyline has effectively wandered off in the middle and says nothing and means nothing. It’s the other half of the story that starts to land the second shoe and to show WHY there’s a conflict worth following in the first place.  The concept of growth through near-death experiences, now it will make sense when we see Garou wake up, challenge Darkshine and complete the tantalizing hints we’ve been given since season 2. While giving us yet more to look forward to – can he truly crush both Hero Association and Monster Association? The carelessly-dismissed Orochi comes back in more fearful form.   You want to talk about hype?  Here we see the very first monster to survive one of Saitama’s killing blows.   The support heroes do more than standing around wondering what’s going on, and we get our appetites whetted by the longest-running mystery in OPM.  The other heroes we’ve been following stop cleaning or wandering around aimlessly and do something.   The S-Class heroes who had been so impressive until now are in deep shit that runs beyond their ability to do something, now the cleverness of the Monster Association mastermind becomes manifest. And Tatsumaki – why the Hero Association leans on her and how her existence has led directly to the strategic mistakes they’ve made to date will be really great to see.  There is literally a Tower of Despair that’s been dragged out of the ruins of what was City Z to counter the Tower of Justice built out of the ruins of what was City A.  [ If the production studio is really clever, they might do a little ‘preview’ of what’s coming next season with Metal Bat and the other hospitalised heroes coming out and little snippets of the battle to come.  Or they might not – it won’t matter.]

(A) The Second Rise of Garou

First off, to the claim that Garou will disappear after 3-4 episodes in a shorter Season 3 is complete baloney. The end of Volume 19 is 500 pages past Season 2… and from there to Saitama vs Orochi is 700 more pages. Somehow… a 12 episode Season 3 would cram 125 pages or more into the first 4 episodes… then spread the remaining 8 with 90 pages or less? Garou is making it to episode 5, period. Maybe only the first half, with the S-Class meeting covering the second half. So Garou will be the main character for 35-40% of the season.

Now to his relevance… what happens to Garou?

The offer of 3rd in command at the Monster Association and his mission to kill his first hero

Betrayal of the monsters and fights in defense of Tareo

Dr. Genus’ Limiter monologue during his fight specifically to hype him up as a potential second Saitama

A bloody warpath through the monsters ranks, only stopped by the monster executive

Gyoro Gyoro’s plan to make Garou the new monster King, culminating in a duel between Garou and Orochi himself.

That… that is all irrelevant? People will feel “cheated” by Garou leading his own personal assault on the Monster Association, being singled out by both man and monster as having unlimited potential, and growing far more than he ever did in Season 2? If that is “cheated”.... then adding 12 more episodes just for Garou vs Darkshine is grand larceny.

(B) Season 3 without Garou… who will be watching?

But yes, you do make a crucial point, similar but different to Season 2: Garou will be non-existant for the second half of Season 3 (while he dominated the first and last third of Season 2). So anyone who enjoys Season 3 must care about characters other than Garou, such as Saitama or the other heroes.

Saitama fans?

Many people were drawn to One Punch Man specifically for the revolutionary character of Saitama. Presumably why the Orochi “fight”, the refereeing of the Phoenix Man battle, and Flash and Baldy’s Bizarre Adventure were added at all. So it’s no small thing to end a season on Saitama (Boros/Orochi)…. As opposed to not Saitama (Psykorochi) or barely Saitama (Elder Centipede).

The Dine and Dash, Hotpot, Limiter, Phoenix Man, and Orochi far from reduce Saitama to a gimmick… but even if they did…. does adding 12 episodes, which includes the Flash teamup, magically fulfill his character or give Saitama meaning in the story? No. “Saitama ditching his tab on Blizzard, the source of his power, saving a child hero from despair, and killing the Monster King was quite disappointing.. but Flash and Saitama running around? Finally, the anime is saved!”

Saitama Gang fans?

Of course the Saitama group will be sidelined… no matter what. Even pulling 24 episodes would just give them one fight each. Nobody will ever, ever buy the entire Season 3 blu-ray for them alone. “Aw, sucks they do nothing but eat hotpot in the first 12 episodes… but hey, they get one fight each in the next 12! Worth it!” That individual is a fantasy.

Side Character/Worldbuilding fans?

Who will be enjoying either version of non-Garou Season 3, the Saitama group hardcore fans? After the hotpot, no (two fights < a second cour). The Saitama hardcore fans? Until the hotpot, sure, but after that it’s just Phoenix Man and Orochi (and Flash for 2 cour), solid, but not enough to carry the season. Only one groups is left: the people willing enjoy side characters, just as they did after Season 1.

Amai’s Mask reentering the story and war by force

the support team contrasting the S-Class

Flash’s duel of the fates

The battle for the soul of Child Emperor

Zombieman’s slasher flic

Atomic’s Pupils’ S-Class potential

Tornado’s first onscreen “fight”... against the monsters’ 2nd in command

Those are the Metal Bat/Suiryu/Blizzard/King of the next season. Anyone too narrowminded would have left after Saitama/Genos/Mumen/Tornado/Sonic took a heavy hit in screen time for Season 2.

(C) The Final Battle of Season 3

Now for the finale: Orochi is the second character in series after Boros to both “fight” Saitama… and instantly respect him as a god among men. The Monster King recognizes the bald hero as the world’s strongest hero, the victor over two of Orochi’s strongest warriors, and the mystery monster of City Z… sounds a lot like a certain alien finding Earth’s strongest warrior, the killer of his two generals, and the fulfillment of a prophecy? Yes, of course, Orochi dies in one normal punch, he is but a shadow of Boros… but that shadow is less respectful and threatening than one giant bug who has no character whatsoever? Also a reminder: Murata said he would redraw the fight, so presumably it would be a better finale in the second version.

Yes, I’m not kidding, that is best ending for a season of One Punch Man since Boros… and will be until the end of this saga. Even Elder Centipede or Psykorochi’s defeat are obvious stop gaps (unlike the fakeout ending of Orochi), ending simply after big battles in the middle of a still ongoing war. Is it an ideal ending? No, it’s a worse repeat of Season 1’s ending… but is actually is an ending. Want to know what isn’t an ending? Cutting off at the start of two character facing off…. While other characters are being dragged up in energy bubbles… and while the main character is digging rocks. And you argue that “constitutes a profitable end… One that will satisfy people enough to buy in and come back for more”? That is far closer to “effectively wandered off in the middle and says nothing and means nothing.” It’s not even a bad ending…. Because it’s not an ending.

(D) The Unnecessary Additions to Season 3… that don’t lead anywhere:

Garou’s growth was already addressed with Genus and Orochi, it is merely 100% confirmed with Darkshine. Orochi was the first monster to dodge a punch from Saitama, even Boros never did that (though Boros did survive a direct normal punch to the chest). The Organization, the support team, the Saitama group, they aren’t necessary, the hero vs monster war works fine without them. The S-Class actually losing, Orochi returning, and Tornado nearly dying is great…. but it doesn’t lead to any sufficient result, at least not until after Psykorochi is defeated. Paralleling the monster’s tower to the hero’s tower is just a nice touch… but it adds no impact or conclusion to the story whatsoever.

[starline148]

[Memories] KDFD Ch. 04

Fan Fic Info:

Name: Memories Main couple: Kidou&Fudou Secondary couple: Genda&Sakuma Language: English, but you can ask for a Spanish version!

» First chapter: Memory 01 » Previous chapter: Memory 03 » Next chapter: Memory 05 » Index: Here

Chapter Info

Name: Why are you so noisy? Words: 2976 Warnings: The first part can be boring, because is the nomination. Summary: The new Inazuma Japan Team is going to be chosen, who would be part of the time this year?

[Memory 04] Why are you so noisy?

“I will proceed to name the players who have won a place in the Inazuma Japan team this year to participate in the International Championship. When I name you go down here and line up.” An overwhelming silence was made in the stadium where they were going to announce to the members of the football team that would go to the World Cup, until then it had been noisy because of the voices and laughters of more than one hundred young people from all parts of the country who had already attended, either because they expected to be on the team or because they did not want to miss the moment when a friend was chosen to represent their country.

“In the position of goalkeeper, Endou Mamoru …”

They heard a shout of joy not far from them, Endou had jumped up with his fists up and was running towards the football field, as if it were not obvious that he was to be chosen and it would have really surprised him, being him, surely it was. Endou was the only player, along with Gouenji and Kidou, that Fudou knew had a place, they simply could not include them, they were the three players with more merits. He clenched his hands nervously, he hoped that he had also achieved it that year, after all that had happened... At his side he saw Sakuma and Genda even more expectant and sweaty than him. If he thought about it coldly, his games with the Teikoku team were perfect and had attracted the interest of many people, they were also very good players.

“And Genda Koujirou.”

The boy sitting on the other side of Fudou roared in excitement without being able to restrain himself and hugged the white-haired boy on his right.

“You did! You did it, Genda!”

A faint smile had appeared on Fudou's lips, as he watched sideways at his friend who was hurrying to get to the field, afraid they would change their minds and put another goalkeeper in their place. The previous year Genda wasn’t in the national team. He snorted, sure he was going to be unbearable for a time of the joy of being on the team.

“In the defense position, Kazemaru Ichirouta, Fubuki Shirou, Kogure Yuuya, Kabeyama Heigorou, Handa Shinichi and Kurimatsu Teppei.”

The called boys were going down, some of them had real tears of happiness, in fact all but Fubuki cried from the excitement of being selected, the most Handa since the previous year wasn’t even one of the players to be considered. So far Fudou had not really been surprised with any of the elections, maybe he did not expect so much that Handa managed to stay that year in the nationals but the boy had worked hard together with Raimon Team, and had improved a lot despite continuing not to stand out especially in something; but Fudou thought that was fine, surely Handa was the most complete player of all and his individual game would become stronger and stronger if they knew how to direct it well. He also knew that if Tachimukai was not among the chosen goalkeepers it was because he had been severely injured shortly before the ceremony and could not play, although he was certain that if he recovered in time they would include him in the team, he was not only a very good goalkeeper but he earned everyone's affection quickly. On the other hand, Tsunami, Tobitaka and Hijikata had passed the age allowed to play in that league, but they had remained in the League of the High School. Like Nishikage, Saginuma and Mizukamiya, rivals of the National during the last year and who had remained in the Japanese senior team.

“In the position of midfielder…”

Fudou swallowed, that was his position, he noticed a cold sweat that ran down his neck and a warm hand grabbed his, Kidou had brows more frowned than ever and had automatically grabbed the hand of the brunette, although his sight behind those glasses was immovable in the man who spoke in the middle of the field.

“Kidou Yuuto” Fudou heard a sigh of relief from the boy with cinnamon hair and rolled his eyes, which a fool were all of them “”Kiyama Tatsuya, Midorikawa Ryuuji” a shouted across the stadium broke the silence of the place and they saw the green-haired boy who had hugged all his friends and jumped more than excited,”Inamori Asuto, Nosaka Yuuma, Hiura Kirina and …”

Fudou's eyes closed and that hand tightened even more, a knot had been made his stomach and heart beat with fear.

“Ichihoshi Hikaru.”

The brunette boy opened his mouth without anything coming out and felt it sink into a pit; he wasn’t chosen. The hand that squeezed him grabbed him harder, his owner's mouth had opened in stupefaction. No, it could not be. Fudou let go and hid his head in his hands, quite annoyed and disappointed with himself, he had not succeeded, he had not succeeded. He noticed the eyes of his Teikoku teammates and a buzz of fury grew inside him and he covered his ears, he didn't want to be pitied! He didn't want to be looked at! Why didn't everyone disappear !?

"Kidou, you should go down," Sakuma murmured, he had changed seats when Genda left and looked palely at the brunettet.

"But…"

"Don’t worry, Kidou, do what you should do," Fudou growled without raising his head as he struggled not to cry from frustration, that Kidou stayed there only made things worse.

Kidou left with great discomfort, despite having been chosen he did not feel cheerful, quite the opposite, his heart ached.

“In the position of forward, Gouenji Shuuya, Utsunomiya Toramaru, Someoka Ryuugo, Haizaki Ryouhei, Kira Hiroto, Matsuno Kuusuke and Sakuma Jirou.”

Sakuma opened his only visible eye and winced. Fudou looked at him sideways; yes, he was excited, but the look that Fudou discovered in his eye when he looked at him made him understand that despite that he was not happy. They couldn't be without him after all. Sakuma also left and he was left alone, the rest of the Teikoku team was behind and they were still watching him, some had begun to murmur with indignation.

“They are idiots, why have they not included it?” he heard Narukami say.

"Fudou is one of the best strategists in the country ... The best with Kidou would dare to say," Doumen growled.

“Finally …” the bustle that had begun to be made in the stadium disappeared again, nobody expected any more announcement “at the post of libero …”

Fudou raised his eyebrow with his face still buried in his hands. It was not usual for a team to have a libero, it was a position of great responsibility and creativity in the game and there were not many people who could achieve it successfully, trust and teamwork were indispensable, as was an agile mind with great ability to analyze, the libero carried the hopes of his team on his shoulders, it was a figure of faith.

“Fudou Akio.”

Fudou opened his eyes in amazement, it took him a long time to assimilate, had he heard right? Had he been appointed in the position of libero? A deafening bellow of all his companions upon receiving the news rose from the field, when he looked up and still without believing that, he discovered that Kidou was smiling from ear to ear and raised his fist towards him, he also smiled and stood up to go to meet with his teammates, although before he went through a round of claps, hugs and whistles of the Teikoku team that seemed to be radiant with emotion. 

Had he really really heard correctly? Was he going to be a libero? Was he going to be the libero?

“As captain, Endou Mamoru and sub-captain, Kiyama Tatsuya. The coaches will be Zhao Jinyun and Kudou Michiya.”

Fudou walked slowly to the field, he did not want to appear desperate, but as soon as he set foot on the grass he saw that several companions threw themselves to hug him.

“What scare you had given us, Fudou!” exclaimed Genda with tears hugging him with a tackle that almost knocks him down.

“Congratulations, Fudou! Now you'll have to be a responsible boy” Sakuma laughed, punching him in the chest.

“Let's play football, Fudou!” shouted Endou hugging him so hard that Fudou thought he was going to break his back.

“We'll be back in the field together, buddy!” Someoka ruffled his hair at his mock disgust as he ran his arm around his shoulders.

Kidou said nothing, but stayed there, smiling; but the boy with turquoise eyes didn't need anything else. All the words he didn't say were written on his lips. And that smile was better than anything else, a warm feeling had replaced the dark oppression of moments before.

The boy with cinnamon hair was the one who had shouted loudest of all when they had named his friend, not for nothing he was the one who was most pleased with his nomination. For a terrible moment he feared he should fight without him... and found no emotion in it. At that point, playing without Fudou was unthinkable for him.

Fudou shrugged his shoulders trying not to seem exceptionally excited, otherwise they might believe that he had not hoped to stay on the team and therefore he did not trust his abilities, that would begin his work as a libero very badly.

They were instructed to return to the stadium for the nomination of the Women's League team and then meet with their coaches. That was equally exciting.

Norika, Touko, Rika, Reina and Takanashi were among other girls in the team, but nobody was surprised, there were not so many female players and they were exceptionally good. They would be in command of Hitomiko and to everyone's surprise Megane was going to be one of their managers.

The boys went to meet with the coaches although on the way their friends stopped them to congratulate them. Fubuki could barely let go of his brother Atsuya, who hugged him tightly and shouted at him that next time he would also be on the team. The appearance of Atsuya had been the news of the year, Fubuki's younger brother had managed to survive the car accident years before, but he had lost his memory and it was not until he recovered that he began desperately searching for his older brother until he found him. They had barely fitted themselves with such joy when Fubuki had told them! Although as he had not been playing football for a long time, he did not have the necessary level for the international championship.

In the dressing room the coaches made the team managers Aki, Haruna, Fuyuka, Anna and Tsukushi give the boys the uniform. No one was surprised by Natsumi's absence, she had asked to be the manager of Little Gigant again.

They were also instructed about their training that would begin in two days and where they would stay for it. The same place as the previous year, a residence on the outskirts of the city with large training camps.

“Why are we so many players on the team, coach Kudou, coach Zhao?” asked Nosaka strangely.

“Last year there were several casualties during the championship and substitutions had to be made. Each substitution breaks the pace of the team. In this way there will be no need to bring someone outside to replace and lower the level we expect for the Internationals.”

“How many casualties do you expect?”

“This year there are several teams with very dangerous games.”

"Surely half of you will leave on the way" the coach from China laughed without giving it much importance.

That was received with great tension, how many of them would be able to reach the final? Because everyone pointed to the final. Each of them thought that he would not be one of those who would leave.

The boys went to celebrate the International Team nomination with their friends, Tsunami and Tobitaka congratulated Fudou and Someoka effusively and entrusted their hopes of winning the tournament. 

“You have to win for us, guys! Show what we rebel boys are capable of!”

“Fudou, Someoka, we count on you.”

“Of course, and you put Japan in a good place with the seniors.”

“Why are you so noisy?”

The four boys beat each other with laughter and began talking about their opinions regarding both teams.

Tachimukai approached Genda with his plaster leg and held out his hand, he shook it with great determination.

“I count on you to protect the goal of Inazuma Japan.”

“I’m going to protect it with my life!”

"You don’t need to go so far, Genda" Sakuma sighed in exasperation at his side.

During the small celebration, Fudou did not miss that Kidou kept watching him from time to time, every time he caught him, a mocking smile appeared on the lips of the second strategist. Although perhaps it was not so rare, his eyes also turned to the goggle boy who spoke with Toramaru and Kurimatsu. He couldn't help it.

It started getting late and the boys headed to their homes or hotels. 

"I accompany you home, Fudou," said the boy with cinnamon hair and blue rubber goggles.

Fudou looked at him with a mute question in his eyes and Kidou shrugged. Fudou said nothing more about it, when it was late according to the criteria of the boy always accompanied him to his house, and from there he asked to be picked up by car. Although it sometimes bothered him in the deep it didn't bother him, it was weird.

On the way they didn't talk much; but none of them cared, a trust between them had grown during the last year that allowed them to remain in a silence that connected more than a thousand words. They had learned to read on their faces, their gestures, their silences and their stories.

They had shared a lot together, in their training, in their matches... they had learned to be in sync.

They reached the building where Fudou lived and went inside, waiting until the car would arrive. They barely exchanged some trivial phrases regarding the team members. They were sitting on the stairs that went up to the upper floors, Fudou's hand rested on Kidou's.

The car reached the door and Kidou got up, that was the moment they liked least, when he had to leave. Fudou stayed sat. Seeing him.

“See you the day after tomorrow, Fudou.”

“Yes.”

Kidou took a couple of steps but then he turned, his cheeks were a little red, he seemed troubled by a thought he couldn't express, as if he couldn't find words for what he wanted to say. Fudou watched him in silence, allowing him that time without interrupting, a strange kindness on his part.

“Facing the World without you would not have been worth it.”

Fudou raised an eyebrow.

“Did you doubt that I would be on the team, Kidou-kun?”

“What!? Of course not!”

Fudou got up and reduced the distance between them, his forearm resting on the wall being very close to Kidou, with the bodies almost stucked together. With his other hand he lowered his glasses and looked at those eyes that appealed to him so much, although there was some anger in his turquoise eyes. 

“Tell it again to the face!”

“I had no doubt that you would enter the team.”

“Not even when they said all the positions?”

Kidou's lip trembled a little.

“Tsk ... liar.”

“They couldn't not include you, you are fundamental to the team.”

“None are indispensable, Kidou-kun.”

“You are for me. You are like a breath of fresh air that oxygenates my blood and my brain.”

Fudou looked surprised and laughed. Kidou looked away annoyed that he laughed, felt his pulse fastening and had a hard time stopping himself fromhis desire to jump over the brunette.”

“What a weird things you say, Kidou-kun. I’m gonna think you like me.”

Kidou raised an eyebrow, although his ears had inevitably turned red and his heart began to beat even faster, realizing that he had to force the expression of indifference on his face he knew there was something that did not fit. That time was the first time that Fudou mocked him that way, although over the years there would be many more times.

“Don't give yourself so much credit, Fudou.”

“Whatever.”

Fudou stared into his eyes for a moment, the hand with which he did not lean against the wall rose to Kidou's face and stroked his cheek with an unusual softness, Kidou was left without air, that contact was as tender as unexpected. He wished he didn't take his hand off his face.

“I did believe that I wasn’t chosen. I felt so disappointed ... I thought I would not be able to run after the ball with the team ... that I would not be able to run with you.” His face reflected a very sad expression and Kidou, who watched him silently until that moment hugged him. Fudou buried his head in his neck. It smelled good, although he didn't wear a perfume, but he didn't need a perfume, Kidou's smell was pleasant, he always smelled clean, like a new book and a touch of sweat that Fudou really liked.

They stayed that way until the sound of a car horn made them separate quickly, as if they were afraid someone might find them that way.

“Let's play football, Fudou.”

Kidou had stretched his arm with his fist clenched so that the brunette would bump fist.

“Let's play football, Kidou.” Fudou's fist gave a soft blow to the other boy and he left after hearing another honk.

[signutai]

Surprised kiss and Eyelashes/Glasses for the kiss prompts !!

[kaialone]

Yokai Watch News: Forever Friends

Doing my monthly summary of recent Yokai Watch news once again.

Like always, information is taken from various website updates and Corocoro, and translated by me.

Beware of spoilers, naturally!

--

We got news about:

5th Yokai Watch Movie - Forever Friends

Merchandise (showing off some new characters, too)

A bit of Puni Puni and World

Like with the past few times, I’ll only show information from Corocoro if it’s not shown anywhere else.

And due to time reasons, I won’t be doing full translations for everything, especially if it’s just repeated information that I already covered.

--

Yokai Watch Movie 5 News:

The official website for the movie has gotten some updates again.

I’ll go over the minor ones first.

-

The main page got this new cover image that we had previously seen in Corocoro:

-

The general information page now also uses this image as a background for the “story” section, but the text seems unchanged.

It also has an added bit about Enma in this movie, among other things, but it doesn’t have any new information in there.

One thing of note is that the added cast list finally seems to confirm the name of this Whisper-like character:

Previously, it was unclear if he is supposed to be Whisper or not, since it was hard to understand him when he said his name. But now it seems confirmed that his name is 臼田さん/Usuda-san, so he’s probably not Whisper.

(Which makes sense, considering Whisper should be sealed up around this time.)

-

The character page had some characters added, but no new information about them.

They did fix the apparent typo in Itsuki’s bio, so he’s no longer called a “yokai” here. Seems like it really was a mistake after all. I mentioned that typo in this post here, back in July.

-

The design contest page now shows all winning entries. Note that, as far as I know, this information especially isn’t documented forever on these pages, so back it up if you’re interested.

-

Now, onto the actual news page of the site.

There’s been a comment by TVXQ, the band behind the movie’s main song 大好きだった/Daisukidatta (”I loved you”) . But it doesn’t really have any notable information in it, so I won’t cover it unless I see people who really want me too.

Same with the short interview videos that Corocoro’s youtube channel did with Chiemi Blouson and Shun Oguri, which you can see here and here.

They all talk about the basic points of “this movie is about friendship”, and “please watch it with your parents”, which is nice, but something they went over before, like these comments from last month.

-

Actual news is this section, where they introduce ”Yasha Enma”, a character that was name-dropped before, but we hadn’t fully seen him yet.

(Check out this post about the news from last month if you want to know the context of that.)

Here’s what they say about him:

"Yasha Enma", the ultimate king who controls fire and ice, unveiled!

The "Great King Enma" is a super popular character of the Yokai Watch series. His ultimate form, "Yasha Enma" which no one has ever seen yet, will appear in this work!! Wielding the strongest weapon, the "En Ma Rod" (1), and using the "Dragon of Ice" and "Dragon of Fire", he displays power like that of a fierce deity! Will fierce fights unfold at the "Enma Butōkai" where the next Great King Enma will be chosen?! Please look forward to the battles of the coolest Great King Enma to date!!

"Yasha Enma" Enma, bearing the name of fierce deities that appear in mythology, the "Yaksha" (2). In his hand, the strongest weapon, the En Ma Rod. He won't just appear in his regular form, but also forms in which he controls the "Dragon of Ice" and the "Dragon of Fire".

Notes:

I had previously translated the name of his weapon 炎魔棍/Enmakon as “Enma Rod”, but I decided to spell it as “En Ma Rod” now, to make it more clear that it’s not spelled the same as the name “Enma”.

“Yasha” is the Japanese spelling of “Yaksha”. I use the Japanese spelling for his name, since we also spell “Enma” like in Japanese, rather than calling him “Yama”.

-

Corocoro has some more information on Yasha Enma that the website hasn’t covered yet. So I will go over those next.

-

Corocoro introduces Yasha Enma with this two-page spread:

(image source)

In addition to his regular form, it also shows the two other forms that the website only hinted at.

-

悪の妖怪と戦うシンとイツキたちは妖魔界へ行き、 次の閻魔大王を決める 「エンマ武闘会」に出場。 そこで夜叉エンマと出会うのか！？ Fighting evil yokai, Shin, Itsuki, and the others participe in the"Enma Butōkai" where the next Great King Enma will be chosen. Will they encounter Yasha Enma there?!

-

夜叉エンマ 最強の武器・炎魔棍をあやつる。 右目に特別な力を秘めている！？ Yasha Enma He wields the En Ma Rod, the strongest weapon. There's a special power hidden in his right eye!?

-

羅雪 氷の龍を宿し、 すさまじい冷気を発する！！ Rasetsu Harboring the dragon of ice, he emits terrible cold!!

絢爛・羅雪!! Shine brightly, Rasetsu!!

-

紅華 炎の龍を宿し、 紅蓮の業火を巻きおこす！！ Benibana Harboring the dragon of fire, he creates crimson fireworks!!

乱舞・紅華 Dance wildly, Benibana!!

Note that last month, I had mistakenly romanized “Benibana“ as “Kōka”, since it was really hard to read the furigana for the names.

It also seems that “Rasetsu” and “Benibana” are supposed to be the names of the two dragons themselves, so it’s a bit confusing about how those names also seem to refer to these two forms of Yasha Enma.

Notably, the merchandise I’ll go over in the next segment seems to call the forms “Yasha Enma Rasetsu” and “Yasha Enma Benibana” instead.

--

Yokai Watch Merchandise News:

Boys Toy Web has added two new Yokai Watch items to their list.

-

First we have the “Yōseiken Series 04: DX Ashura Goen-maru Yōseiken & Yōkai Ark Set”.

In other words, the 4th Yōseiken toy, and as always it comes with a special Yokai Ark.

The Yōseiken in question is of course the Ashura Goen-maru, which has actually been in the Shadowside anime for a long time, where it’s wielded by Dōketsu.

For a while it’s been unclear if Dōketsu was its Kenbumajin, but now it seems that he is not, and that it’s actually Ashura (Asura).

The special Yokai Ark that comes with it is an Extreme Rare-ranked one of “Sekka no Fubuki-hime”, following the trend of these bonus Arks seemingly always being a special form of a yokai who debuted in the original series.

This set will be released in December.

-

Next is the “Yōkai Arc Zero ~The Other Side of the Silver Screen” pack.

This is a special Yokai Ark booster pack related to the upcoming movie.

As always, each pack has 1 random Ark in it. There’ll be 13 Arks included in this series:

We got 3 Ultimate Rare ranks: Nekomata, Kappa, and Zashiki-warashi.

This time around, their backsides feature their Godside forms: Cat King Bastet, Kappa King Sagojō, and Tengu King Kurama.

Then there’s 4 Extreme Rare ranks: Yasha Enma Benibana, Yasha Enma Rasetsu, Shien, and one that’s secret.

We got 2 Rare ranks: Kukuri-hime and Karasu-tengu.

Karasu-tengu was seen in the most recent trailer, but I don’t think Kukuri-hime has been shown before. She is presumably based on the mythological Kukurihime, but her name is spelled differently.

And 3 Normal ranks: Yamata no Orochi, Tamamo no Mae, and Yamambā.

Interestingly, Tamamo no Mae is just referred to as “Tamamo” in her Lightside form here.

Yamata no Orochi is a legendary dragon, whom Orochi/Venoct seemed to be slightly based on, but we had never seen the real deal in Yokai Watch. Yamambā is one of the names of the yokai Yama-uba.

Curious that these guys are all Normal-ranked, Tamamo no Mae especially seems like she should be more special, right?

This booster pack will also come out in December.

-

Corocoro has also shown off a black Yokai Ark of Yasha Enma, and announced that they will be giving away 10000 of them in their January issue.

I think, because of how the issue naming works with this magazine, that might actually be the issue that comes out in December, but I am not sure.

Corocoro mascot/employee “Kaa-kun” made this tweet, showing off the Ark in question:

-

With the three Yasha Enma Arks, and the Ark of Shien, we’ve been shown a new tribe symbol, resembling a sun:

It seems reasonable to assume that this symbol could possibly represent the Enma Tribe, but it doesn’t seem to have been confirmed as of me writing this.

But it is reminiscent of the moon-like symbol of the Izana Tribe that Kaira belongs to:

-

And lastly, Yoroz Mart is going to release plush toys of Junior, Nekomata, and Yasha Enma in December, as seen in this tweet.

--

Yokai Watch Mobile Games News:

This is just going to be really minor, but I wanted to go over it in some form regardless.

Corocoro revealed that the Great King Enma, in his original, young form that first showed up Blasters, will be added to Yokai Watch World soon.

And, you have probably heard of it already, But Yokai Watch Puni Puni is currently having a crossover with Dissida Final Fantasy, adding many characters originally from the Final Fantasy franchise as puni.

-

The offical Level-5 youtube channel has also re-uploaded their trailer for the mobile game “Yokai Daijiten”, which you can see here.

Though they still haven’t added a proper release date for it, in fact, it only seems to say “release date to be determined” now.

In case you don’t know, this game was first announced back in 2016, I believe, alongside a smartphone version of the first Yokai Watch game.

If I recall correctly, they were scheduled to be released in 2016, but when that year came and went, the release date was updated to 2017, and now, as 2018 draws to a close, many people thought they got cancelled, but this re-upload implies that Daijiten is still being worked on in some form.

The official website for Yokai Watch 1 for smartphone says that it will be released in 2019 now, but I haven’t seen anyhting else from it.

--

And that’s it for the general Yokai Watch news in November of 2018.

As always, I hope you’ve found this to be interesting and/or helpful!

--

[neo-ally-spl]

One-Punch Man

I read this pretty early on (when it was being translated + the webcomic) and I've talked about his elsewhere but now I want to put my theories here too!

I'm just going to list every one of my speculations first and then explain my thoughts. Also the sentences in italics was my original opinions, just in case that's not clear. Or usually I will say, "I wonder", "here I wrote down", "I had said", etc.

Mar. 2018:

"Scary thought but the manga might not be very long?.". So I don't exactly remember why I thought this but there is a substantial amount of webtoon contnet to cover so I don't think it will end before say 250 chapters. Interesting that I thought this.

"Monster king Orochi is just like Saitama and he could be the most formidable opponent. Or he's just another one hit kill and there's a better opponent in the future." - so he literally was just the latter. I had thought three years ago that maybe he was actually Blast and that's why he couldn't be contacted. But the outcome is so much better. Honestly for a villain he was pretty cool, the only thing about this manga that is sometimes boring is that you know that none of the characters will die. Nobody loses powers either. EDIT: haha I had to make an amendment here. In chapter 143 a hero loses an arm and it seems as if Tanktop Master was crushed. Like- I was wrong lol. Also Darkshine loses his hands not too long after..soo whoops.

The next thing that I posted on twitter said, "what if Blast was manipulated and made into Lord Orochi". And then I had an accompanying image where Psykos confirms that Orochi was once a human being and was "gruesomely perfected". - he is definitely not Blast that's for sure. Blast's introduction was pretty cool. I was shocked for a few hours, it was good. But yeah I don't know who Orochi once was, but that's not true lol.

Oh about my first bullet point, I found another tweet while looking through my twitter and I had said that I thought this was the last arc because it seemed to be the major conflict, but ever since my re-read of the webcomic I think that's no longer true. Not 100% sure though.

The last thing that I said in March, was "what if the final boss is God himself"? This manga is a satire on heroes as it is, but that would be wild and funny as hell. I don't feel like it will happen but idk. Would be cool and totally on par with the insanity of the series lol

April 2018: I guess around this time was when I was able to read the Elder Centipede chapter. Because I mentioned that Blast "fought with it two years ago." At this point I was still running with the idea that Blast died or something else happened. Maybe he was frustrated with the fact that no one else could match up to him. Which now since his reveal in the manga is just not true, he's fighting somthing that's messing space, time and gravity itself.

I think I was just really excited imagining that Blast was greedy or something lol

I also wondered if his "disappearance" was just a big plot hole. Because how was the Hero Association able to know that Blast doesn't want to come into work? Like who was he talking too???

Also the fact that Child Emporer and Metal Knight have outside communications. (Which now we learned was because C.E was his assistant). Made me wonder who was speical enough to get into contact with Blast, it wasn't Tatsumaki because she would have been all haughty about it. lol

June 2018:

Psykos kidnapped a child or maybe a human. I still really wanted to know who Orochi was 😂

I also wondered if someone was looking for him, like they were close friends or if he had a wife and she'll never be able to know what happened. 😟 I don't know what chapter it was but there was a scene where there was a shadow talking to another human. Idk I would've liked that information. :/

March 2021:

This is where I did a big re-read of the series (webcomic and manga). At this point I had been waiting a long time for updates so I forgot a lot of important key details. Like Tatsumaki and Gyoro both say "bald guy" meaning that she heard about this mysterious person (Saitama) and kept that to herself.

Around this time is when I stopped having big speculations and it was more questioning about future chapter events. And then I was just very excited about each new chapter and it mostly turns into reactions.

Before chapter 135 I wondered just how important Fubuki was going to be. I thought it was really interesting that she can sense other life forms, and maybe that her powers were evolving. I still don't know how important she is.

I literally lost my shit at chapter 135 LOL. Like in my notes all I put down was, blast face, BLAST FAEC!!1! And then I also really enjoyed the development between Sweet Mask and Zombieman in this chapter.

Ch. 138 notes: What the- I've got no words. Ya'll need to experience reading this chapter. It has the coolest lore I've seen from this manga yet. Like they connected to another dimension. Can you tell that I was really excited at this point? lol

Ch. 139: *screaming* and that's it, that's the notes lol jk. Here I wrote down about the group worshipping something far underground, like if that is the next enemy? Or is it the dissolution of the H.A from the webcomic?

Ch. 142: Tatsumaki caring about information about Blast was really sweet to see. But if I didn't read the webcomic I wouldn't understand why he means so much to her. I hope ONE and Murata have her backstory in the manga as well. I literally spoke too soon about this because two chapters later we get that information. :O || Sweet Mask got such a bad injury that it makes me believe that he died. Not sure tbh. Something that happens differently in the webcomic is that it's revealed that he was a mysterious being. Like he has the ability to alter himself. He gets harassed by everyone (mostly the public) because they didn't expect him to be an ugly monster. And this kickstarts the public not rlly trusting heroes. And a lot of other shit happens.

Also about Ch. 142 I wondered why Watchdog man wasn't there. Was his city safe? Also I liked the fact that we actually get dialogue from Pig God.

Ch. 143: I don't like Drive Knight anymore lol. It seems like Genos could've actually died for real this time. And lastly Fubuki is a queen. She's turning out to be a really good character.

Ch. 144: It seems like a death flag sprung up for Tatsumaki. Also I kind of understand her thinking because to tatsumaki, blast was the only one that could/would save her. It's not a curse but more like a deep scar on her heart. ;-;!! I wouldn't trust others if that happened to me either. || When I seen the council of swordmasters I thought that they would betray the heroes, lol. || And finally in my notes, I said that it seems like TTM is down for the count too.

Ch. 145: I went back to re-read it and I just noticed in one panel, Pig God says that in the prophecy he needs to save up is power? Is he OP too?! I guess he'll be the savior maybe, that is if Saitama doesn't show up anytime soon. I'm starting to really like Pig God's character a lot too now.

Ch. 146: Ooh! Looks like the spotlight is on Darkshine now. I hope he continues to be a hero because in the webcomic he completely loses his confidence. It's really nice to see. I had some really bad foreshadowing, all I'm going to say is rip darkshine. He didn't die but oof. I also said that it was nice to see that the S-Class could actually hold their own. It wasn't looking promising there for a while.

Ch. 147: oh saitama is on the cover will he finally show up? He in fact didn't. 😔 also I liked the interaction between Atomic Samurai and Bang, he said that it was his job as the master to right his wrongs. I like that he's no longer looking down on him because of Garou. Like how could you expect someone to just be able to make a decision right away and deal with their own student? Like he obviously was important to Bang. That's such a hard thing to do. || Also about Garou he gets a new form 👀

Ch. 148: before I read the chapter, I wrote down that I had different expectations. Because in the webcomic Saitama comes out and supports Garou, he isn't okay with him being killed. Also around this fight is when Sweet Mask gets "revived" and is in monster form. Saitama is the only one that doesn't have a major issue with him. In the webcomic Saitama wasn't missing from the fight but he also wasn't playing a major part yet. || Anyways so the chapter ends with bang appearing to start the fight.

Ch. 149: I felt really bittersweet reading this chapter because the council was wiped out. It would've been cool to understand why there were so few of them left. The lore about the two swords was really cool though. So many events within the last ten chapters veered off from the original plot in the webcomic. I have no way to know what to expect, but I'm not complaining, I like going into these chapters newly experiencing them.

From here on out this is all new observations. Like today i just re-read 150. I would've had a reaction to 151 but it's not out, in fact I feel like I've been waiting a long time for that to release, the last time I checked was early july...

Ch. 150: Poor Darkshine. Also Metal Bat comes back!! I missed his character :o || Haha King is still being caught up in misunderstandings, i can't wait to laugh my ass off in the next chapter. because I know it'll be funny between sprm and king.

[welcometomy20s]

May 19, 2021

Three Stages of Canonization

So, this post is my reaction to that shuba duck. And why I feel proud and scared.

Back in 2012, I had a lecture-thingy about K-Pop and its meteoric rise. In one of the earlier drafts, I talked about the three stages of canonization. Canonization here means being accepted into the zeitgeist. Back in 2012, knowing K-pop was fun but was not necessary to understand the popular music of the times. Now, you probably do have to understand K-Pop to understand our popular culture. That’s canonization.

The three steps come like this. First, something would catch the mainstream attention, most would see it as a curiosity, but they wouldn’t take notice of it. Memes of similar kind would pop up every now and then, and people would start to absorb the mechanics of this subculture. For K-Pop, this happened in 2010, when videos like Bubble Pop featured on the front page of YouTube. People understood it was a thing in Asia and then kind of moved on... then few more K-Pop will grace the front page and one would get a selection of different sides of this particular subculture.

At some point, the thing that would catch mainstream culture would be something esoteric, something that wouldn’t really be popular unless the people knew about it. Now, most people wouldn’t actually know the context, and laugh at how bizarre it is, but bizarre things don’t come out of nowhere. There needs to be a kind of understanding.

For K-Pop, it’s Gangnam Style. Gangnam Style is a deeply Korean song, the song is about someone with a deeply Korean mindset. Just to understand the title, you must understand that Gangnam is a trendy part of Seoul, it’s like the south bank in London, (I kind of wanted to do a Shakespearean parody of Seoul because of that fact) and that the place is known to be affluent as well, kind of nouveau riche feeling to it. And so the person is emulating this particular style, which is coming from a country that has rapidly developed for the past 50 years. See how tortured my explanation was?

The fact that something like Gangnam Style gets absurdly popular means that the general population has at least an unconscious understanding of the complexities of K-Pop. It would only be a few years until something like BTS happens, where a K-Pop band would be part of the artist one must know, much like Cardi B or Ed Sheeran.

For K-Pop, the process took 6 years. For VTubers, I’ll say the first step happened in March 2020, with clips like Fubuki Scatman, Miko GTA, and Korone’s many quips starting to be featured. Now all of these don't really require any understanding to fully understand why it’s funny. Fubuki is funny, Korone is funny, anime girls saying the n-word is funny! And one doesn’t need to know more than that.

Soon, video of Pekora, Rushia, Aqua, Coco and more starts to be passed around and peeking through the mainstream, and people started to understand this whole VTuber thing, and of course this also lead to rise of English VTubers, which further added to this fuel of people. I kind of fell into this hole through this route, to be honest.

Which leads us to Subaru duck. Now Subaru was one of least affected by this initial rise of kaigai-nikkis. Why, because Subaru doesn’t have anything impressive physically, Subaru’s strengths are in her gabs, which are in a different language, and her comedy is deeply Japanese, in that tsukkomi tradition. But with the efforts of clippers and talents themselves, Subaru gained enough popularity that something like dancing duck can happen.

Again, to understand the duck, one must know that this duck is the avatar of this Vtuber, and that it is that way because her ASMR voice sounds like Donald Duck. That’s quite a bit more lore than Korone’s Eekum Bokum. Now, again, most don’t really care about the context, much like Gangnam Style, but the fact it became really popular, shows that there is now at least an unconscious understanding of the complexities of VTubers.

Which leads me to my worries. K-Pop had advantages, K-Pop has been doing idol stuff for a couple decades, and they had intercontinental success for at least a decade. Their rise was fast, but it still took long enough time to have the companies ease into things. Meanwhile, VTuber companies are nascent, both Cover and Anycolor have been around for half a decade at most, their rise is much faster - step two being a year after step one compared to two to three years for K-Pop - and their mode of operation mostly reside on the internet, while K-pop reside mostly in traditional media.

All of these makes for a much shaky ground, which massively increases the chance of the whole thing blowing in our collective faces. There’s a lot of worry there, Cover had to completely restructure the company and they had to deal with relatively bigger and more frequent threats than what K-Pop companies would receive.

And that’s why I want to keep a close eye on them, because I believe in the concept of VTubers, and I want these people to succeed, and put forth a new healthy industry... So, that is my current focus, at least for this year, and somewhat in future years...

[miximax-hell]

Happy birthday to me. /o/ And that’s the first and last time I mention it in this post. I don’t care and you shouldn’t either—I just want cake.

FubuGabu is back! Not by popular demand because, well, no one has asked for it, although the feedback I got was lovely. But, hey, I had this material ready, so might as well do something with it, lame as it might be.

These are some early and not-so-early doodles of FubuGabu. The latter was pretty much the base of the final design, but the former… that’s from 2014 or something wild like that. I actually had many more doodles and concepts, but I hated them all so much that I erased most of them. I’m surprised I could save that one. I might have kept it because it was a full lineart, I guess. In any case, I’m glad I could find that much.

Since it’s fitting to do, let’s talk about FubuGabu’s design today! There’s a lot to talk about, but my memory is awful, so I’m sure I’ll forget about some things. I hope it won’t betray me too much.

Anyway, as usual, more under the cut.

Well, well, well. Ain’t this boy one little shit. Fudou gave me nightmares. Kidou is still giving me nightmares (to the point where I’m considering changing the idea I’ve had for around a year now). Someoka was awful to draw and make sense of. Max’s tail was awful to work with. But Fubuki? Fubuki is on a whole different level.

Let’s start by talking about the final design, since that’s the better one. Not even good, just better. That’s an epic victory as it is, so who cares.

FubuGabu’s design, as the reference sheet and my last post states, is not based on Gabumon, but on Gabumon’s line. What this means is that it has elements from (almost) every single one of Gabumon’s evolutions. Just for the sake of satisfying people’s curiosity, namely @IshidoShuuji’s, I’ll list the different elements here, since that’s the easiest and most straightforward way to explain it:

Tsunomon: eyes, colour of the face.

Gabumon: horn, face stripes, teeth, hair ears.

Garurumon: eyebrows, pretty much all of the hair, hair tail, forehead marks.

WereGarurumon: nose stripes, pretty much all of the hair, earrings, eye scar.

So, no, MetalGarurumon, Punimon and Omnimon/Omegamon aren’t part of the design. …Or are they?

Just kidding. They are not. ww But you shouldn’t rule them out just because of that. Well, no—rule Omnimon out. There will be no Agumon miximax, so that isn’t going to happen. I don’t want to keep people’s hopes up for nothing. I made it pretty clear from the start that I wouldn’t use a franchise twice, but I bet most people don’t know that. So, yeah.

Now that I have broken down the elements, let’s look at them from up close. This is truly a difficult design to understand, so I’ll get the explaining done as I move along.

Let me start with Tsunomon’s part. I used the colour of Tsunomon’s skin because it looks human: I didn’t want to turn Fubuki into a furry—I mean, have him all covered in hair, because it just looks weird. It was either Tsunomon’s skin or Gabumon’s, and he’s BRIGHT YELLOW. So you’re welcome.

The eyes have changed very dramatically. Tsunomon’s aren’t all that complex compared to Gabumon’s, for example, so it was easier to pull off without screwing up too much. That’s in the early concept you can see above, Fubuki has eyes based on Gabumon’s instead and it looks like he’s using about 4kg of eyeliner, hah— You’re gonna run out of money if you wear so much of it every single day, pal.

They’re not exactly Tsunomon’s eyes, although it’s a rather radical change. As I mentioned when I talked about Creature miximaxes, eyes get rather distinctive shapes when animals (or monsters) are involved. I did something that goes against my analysis, though: I added light to FubuGabu’s eyes. Just because I hate myself and because it looked kinda weird without it.

While Tsunomon’s eyes are completely round, FubuGabu’s actually follow the shape of Fubuki’s eyes, although vaguely. The irises are Fubuki’s, period. I simply extended the lines to match the new shape of the eye. The lower eyelid creates a straight line based on the hypothetical line of Fubuki’s eyes, which is visible in coloured art. The outer part of the eyes also matches that of Fubuki, not to mention that I kept the fold over the upper eyelid and the little marks below the eyes. The main difference, therefore, is the thicker contour (which is linked to the spikes) and the curve that replaces the right angles on Fubuki’s usual eyes.

Let’s move on to Gabumon. His marks were probably the toughest to place, and it doesn’t help that Fubuki’s refs are so BAD. REALLY. Many, most characters have references that match. Maybe not perfectly, but almost. But Fubuki? Fubuki ain’t need none of that crap. When you are this FABULOUS, no one cares about your face changing size and shape in every screenshot or your hair going longer and shorter every 5 seconds. Everyone is blinded by your sparks, anyway, so who will notice?

I noticed. But anyway. ww

Since Gabumon only has markings on half of his body (since the rest is all yellow), I let FubuGabu borrow those on Gabumon’s nose. Actually, if you were to strip FubuGabu (please don’t do that), you’d see that his whole body is covered with markings. I like to think that those belong to Gabu, even if they could easily belong to Garuru or Were instead. Still, that means that the marks on his neck are Gabu’s.

As for the marks on his cheeks, they were very easy to place on the front view and frustrating to figure out elsewhere. I just gave up on them at some point and thought, “meh, Inazuma has pulled off weirder stuff!” They’re supposed to end somewhere behind the jaw, though, but before reaching the neck. Hence why I actually drew the jawline ww

The horn and the teeth are pretty self-explanatory, but I’ll point something out about the latter: I only added two teeth even though Gabumon has many because I wanted some kind of parallelism with Someoka. He, too, has two teeth, but they grow on the opposite direction. True teammates who complement each other!

Now, for the hair ears, aka those things growing from the sides of his head. Those are 100% hair—they don’t really serve a purpose. As such, using Gabumon’s seemed like the best idea. After all, what makes WereGarurumon’s ears interesting are the earrings, but how do you put an earring on hair? As for Garurumon, his ears are just more boring than Gabumon’s. Gabu’s ears are kind of quirky and worn out, which is a cool little thing that I felt like adding. Also, Garuru’s ears go upwards and I didn’t dig that.

Regardless, Garurumon is probably the star of this design. Most of the bigger elements are based on him, after all. You could argue that many of them also belong to Were, but I was looking at Garuru when I designed them. I guess that’s enough of a reason. I guess.

There was an element of Garuru’s design that I really, really wanted to add to Fubuki: the feather-shaped hair growing from his back. You know, these things:

After fiddling with that idea a whole lot, I eventually realised that it was best to keep it simple and shape Fubuki’s hair to look like those… however you wanna call them. I’ll just call them feathers. It may not be a perfect resemblance (and it may not make perfect sense either lmao), but I definitely thought it looked the best. These are actually not too hard to draw:

The first feather (from the top) follows the natural curve of Fubuki’s hair, but instead of curving down again, it creates an arrow-like shape.

The second feather starts and ends in the exact same spots as Fubuki’s, but instead of curving upwards, it’s completely horizontal.

The third one is the trickiest: it’s long and doesn’t match Fubuki’s normal hair. The part that touches the second feather starts where it should, but the part that touches the fourth one doesn’t. It’s tough to explain, so here’s a picture that will hopefully make it all clear:

The last feather is shorter and isn’t as diagonal as the third one, but it does start and end at odd places, too. The “trick” to draw it is keeping in mind that the third and the fourth feathers end at pretty much the same height:

The fifth feather isn’t even a feather; it’s just a simple spike. Nothing relevant there ww

Garurumon is also responsible for the marks next to the ears and the one on the forehead, not to mention the top of the head in general. The ones on the ears weren’t too bad, but the forehead was frustrating. As I mentioned, Fubuki’s references are a mess and I draw over them for the sake of keeping the original proportions, but it backfired in this case. Since they’re all so different from each other, Fubuki’s forehead grows bigger or smaller depending on the view, so the forehead mark is radically less visible sometimes, even though it technically shouldn’t be. Still, rather than repositioning it every time, I thought it made more sense to place it correctly to settle for a specific place, so that’s what I did.

Now, the top of the head is tricky. Let’s start by saying that it’s based on Garurumon’s back. Maybe WereGarurumon’s too, but I couldn’t find a single picture of Were’s back, so who knows. As you can see in the following image, Garuru’s back has a long, thin line that goes from his head to his tail, and that’s exactly what happens to FubuGabu too. You can’t quite see the end of the line because of the hair, but it’s still there… technically.

That thin line sprouts into a bunch of rugged lines, and that’s exactly what happens with FubuGabu too. The lines are rather random (and I didn’t spend much time figuring the size out, whoops), but they do follow some certain shapes. The closest line to the face might be rugged, but it goes straight down. The second one starts from way back, but it’s shaped like an arrow pointing at the face. The tips of both lines are fairly close, too. The third line is way smaller than the rest, and is also the last one you can see, but definitely not the last one in general.

Let’s talk about Fubuki’s little sprout as well. As you know, Fubuki’s sprout has two locks of hair, but FubuGabu’s has three. That’s because FubuGabu’s is also based on Garurumon: to be more specific, on this part:

I tried adding that part just the way it is by sticking it to the forehead, but I didn’t like the result at all, so I figured it was best to do something funny with Fubuki’s sprout instead. Oh, well. Choices! And talk about choices, I added Garurumon’s tail simply so the hair would be a complete portrayal of his figure. As I mentioned in the post I linked to above, miximaxing with creatures often leads to that, so yeah.

The hair is obviously the biggest and most visible part of FubuGabu’s design, but Garuru hogs quite a few other spots. Not Gabumon, nor Tsunomon, nor WereGarurumon (nor Punimon) have eyebrows, so I was pretty much forced to use Garurumon’s. Not like I mind, because they’re pretty awesome. It’s kind of sad that they’re usually not visible, but, to be honest with you guys… they’re kind of a pain to draw because of their very specific shape. So I’m secretly glad. ww

And last, but not least, WereGarurumon. Ah, what a little shit. How come there are official linearts for MetalGarurumon, but not for WereGarurumon? Anyway. ww

Were’s contribution is pretty straightforward. Earrings, a scar and marks. There are a couple of things worth mentioning, though.

For the earrings, I noticed too late that Were has both white and red earrings. I was going to use the red earrings because they stand out more, but I noticed that the visible ear was on the side of the white ones… And it was too late to change the design completely, so I just went for the white. Too bad, but life is simply unfair. Especially when you don’t pay attention.

Now, the nose marks are funny. I struggled so much with those. As you can see on the second picture of this post, they were originally going to be shaped like triangles, but I didn’t dig that. And even after I changed the design, I couldn’t get them right, which was… frustrating.

(Also, it took me a long time to realise that the bridge of the nose would be hiding one half of the marks in every view except the front one. After I did, though, everything finally looked better. Thank goodness.)

Anyway, I think that pretty much covers the final design, but let’s also talk about the early designs real quick.

Nothing much to say about the second picture of the post. I just made sure to make some sense out of the markings and retouched the elements I mentioned above. Well, I tried to polish everything, really.

Now, the first picture of the post is easily over 2 years old. It was one of the first, if not the very first, concept of FubuGabu. And, man, what a mess.

It was like, “what does Garurumon have? Feather thingies! SO LET’S ADD THEM EVERYWHERE.” The feather thingies appear on his forehead, the locks of hair over his face, on his hair and even behind his head. I could never figure the latter out—but, man, did I spend hours trying to make those work. And all because Garurumon has feather on his face and on his back, so I felt like FubuGabu needed two layers of feathers too. Thankfully, I eventually realised many of these elements simply weren’t needed, like that second layer of feathers, the earrings on Garurumon’s ear (which, again, are made of hair, so wtf), and… the ring at the end of the tail? Where did that come from? This is Garurumon, not Gatomon! Geez, self!

Some of the early elements made it to the final design. The overall shape of his eyebrows, the markings on the head, the neck and the cheeks and even the horn, just to mention a few. The final feel to it is completely different, though.

This is probably because of how different the hair looks. FubuGabu’s original hair was full of feathers, but they didn’t fit Fubuki’s normal hair. They were randomly coming out of his head for whatever reason. Not to mention that the hair falling over his face looks like tentacles rather than anything else. It looks like a miximax with Squidward rather than with Gabumon. Ugh, I hate myself. XD

One last note: I don’t know where the forehead mark on that first design comes from. I guess it’s meant to be Gabumon’s, somehow? I forgot and I’m too tired to investigate it. It probably never made sense, anyway. XD

I think I covered everything! But, phew, that took long. Still, if anything isn’t clear or there’s something I forgot to mention, please let me know!

(Also, I’m too tired to re-read this post, so excuse the many typos that I probably made. I’ll check it out... eventually.)

[kaialone]

Yokai Watch News: Yokai Watch 4 & Forever Friends

The official websites have updated with new information again, and Corocoro has been released for this month as well.

So, as always I will translate and summarize the most notable news that have come out from this.

Beware of spoilers, naturally! 

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This time around we got news about:

Yokai Watch 4

5th Yokai Watch Movie - Forever Friends

Merchandise

New Yokai for Puni Puni and World

This time around there won’t be much of Corocoro because for the most part the websites either updated with the same information, or there isn’t  much new info to begin with.

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Yokai Watch 4 News:

Corocoro has released information about Yokai Watch 4, and the official website of the game has updated as well.

For the most part both of these just go over information that is evident from simply watching the trailer and the demo footage, both of which I have translated already.

That of course being showing off the new battle system and graphics, as well as the fact that yokai who appeared in the Shadowside anime will also appear in the game. All of these I feel are better understood by just watching the footage.

But the website does have this bit on changing playable characters that they spell out more clearly:

操作キャラクターをチェンジ！ Change Playable Characters!

プレイヤーが操作するキャラクターを ナツメから途中でトウマにチェンジ！ 操作キャラクターを变使することで、 入る場所や使えるウォッチが変わる！？ The playable character changed from Natsume to Touma along the way! When you switch between playable characters, the places you can enter and the Watch you use change!?

操作可能なキャラクターは 複数。 遊びの幅がグングン広がりそう！ There are multiple playable characters. The scale of the game keeps expanding!

To me, this doesn’t make it completely clear if you can change characters by choice, or if there is pre-determined instances when the switching occurs.

But based on the fact that it seems that there’s places exclusive to certain characters, and how changing characters worked in 3, I’m assuming you can change between available characters whenever you want? But you might need to be certain characters to advance the plot at points.

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Yokai Watch Movie 5 News:

This month’s Corocoro has a section on Forever Friends, but it’s fairly short, and for the most part just goes over old information. For example, all the little descriptions next to the characters are just repeats from older issues, essentially.

These are the only truly new pieces of information out of it:

おなじみのエンマ大王に 重大なヒミツが！？ The Enma we're familiar with has an important secret?!

エンマ大王はシンたちの仲間ではなく、 敵として立ちはだかる！？ 真相は次号で判明だ！！ The Great King Enma stands before Shin and his friends, not as an ally, but as an enemy?! The truth will be revealed next issue!!

妖魔界を揺るがす戦い、そして- エンマ大王誕生の物語！！ A battle that shakes the Yōmakai, and - The Story of how the Great King Enma came to be!!

シンたちは妖魔界で次代のエンマ大王を決めるため開催される「エンマ武闘会」に参戦！！ ここで世界を支配しようと企む悪の妖怪と対決することに。 猫又たちの大暴れを見逃すな！！ In the Yōmakai, Shin and his friends participate in the "Enma Butōkai", which is held to determine the next Great King Enma!! There they confront evil yokai who plot to take over the world. Don't miss the great rampage of Nekomata and the others!!

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Note that Cocoro also currently features the manga adaptation of this upcoming movie, though from what I hear it’s like the previous one, so it will be a fairly condensed, shortened version of the story.

I’ve not seen anyone post full scans of the manga chapters, which is understandable, but this image has been making the rounds, featuring a new character who could presumably show up on the full movie as well:

His name is 紫炎/Shien, which is written with the kanji for “purple” and “blaze”, and the caption informs us that he is a candidate for becoming the next Great King Enma.

Now, while this isn’t much info, the new merchandise I am about to go over is all tied to the movie as well.

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Yokai Watch Merchandise News:

First of all, the official website for the 5th movie has updated to feature the winner of the Yokai Ark Design Contest, where children where supposed to draw an Ark design, featuring their favorite yokai together with Nekomata.

And the winning design is the one that will be turned into an actual Ark:

However, there is various lesser prices as well, which I have gone over before, and various magazines will gradually reveal the rest of the winners.

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Next up, the b-boys website has updated with two more toy sets that are coming up.

First is the “DX Yokai Watch Elda Zero & Jin Power-up Kit”.

This entire kit will be released in December and will cost 2400 Yen.

It comes with two new covers one can attach to their Yokai Watch Elda (sold seperately) to give it either the “Zero” or “Jin” look:

Adding to that, this banner here talks about how one will be able to download update data for the Yokai Watch Elda, to get it up to speed:

The URL listed there will supposedly provide additional information on how to update the Elda, but as of right now it doesn’t seem to go anywhere.

Also, this kit will come with a new Yokai Ark, the first Ultimate Rare Rank, which had previously been listed as the rarest possible rank. (Though I wouldn’t wonder if they introduce better ones eventually.)

The yokai on this Ark is called “Ame no Murakumo”, which seems to be derived from ”Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi”, the original name of the legendary sword Kusanagi.

I also want to point out that Ame no Murakumo seems to bear more than a passing resemblance to Sū-san, who was also suspiciously not given a “Godside” form in last month’s issue of Corocoro, leading me to believe the two are the same character, but that is just me speculating.

I dunno, what do you think?

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Next is a new toy set called the “DX Enma Rod”, though note that “Enma” here is written with the kanji 炎/En (”blaze”), rather than the 閻/En from Enma’s name.

This set will be released in November and cost 4800 yen.

It’s this toy weapon:

The light in its center, called an “Oni Face” here, is said to be able to glow in 7 colors, though they only show five here:

The set also includes a special “Ryūtō Yokai Ark” that can be used with the toy:

“Ryūtō“ would literally translate to “dragon light”, and from what I gather, it refers to mysterious lights, similar to will-o'-wisps, that can sometimes be seen at sea. It’s also written with the exact same kanji as the Chinese word “lóngdēng”, which refers to dragon-shaped lanters.

The two sides are called “龍燈羅雪” and “龍燈紅華”, but I don’t know what the correct pronounciation of them is. I’m going with “Ryūtō Rasetsu” and “Ryūtō Kōka” right now, but they could be wrong.

EDIT: “Ryūtō Rasetsu” is correct, but “Ryūtō Kōka” is wrong, it should be “Ryūtō Benibana” .

This graphic depicts the different play functions:

The first, labelled with “1″, shows the way you’re supposed to summon the “dragons of fire and ice”, so, the dragon depicted on the Ark.

It’s as simple as turning the Ark to the left for the ice dragon, and to the right for the fire dragon. After turning the Ark, the toy will play a different tune depending on the dragon, and then pushing the trigger will “summon” the dragon of your choice.

The second, labelled with “2″ is the fact that the light will turn into different colors and play different sounds depending on how long and often you push the trigger.

What’s interesting is this part:

This part mentions that you can use other Arks too, who have a different sound, but it also mentions a “Yasha Enma”, without explaining who or what that actually is.

It’s also said that the Ryūtō Yokai Arks can be used with the Yokai Watch Elda, too.

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And one last merchcandise thing, Corocoro teases that in their next issue they will reveal/talk about a “Yokai Ark Movie Special Pack”, which based on its name I am just going to assume will be a Yokai Ark pack with Arks specifically based on yokai from the movie?

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Yokai Watch Mobile Games News:

This is going to be brief, since it’s just new yokai that were announced.

First off, Yokai Watch Puni Puni has a new event, which has already started as of the writing of this post, I believe.

It celebrates the game’s 3rd Anniversary, and adds new crossover characters with other notable franchises of Level-5, as well as Shadowside Hi no Shin/Hinozall:

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And finally, Corocoro has shown off various Halloween-themed yokai variants that are coming to Yokai Watch World.

They’re Majokko Fubuki-hime, Trick Hikikōmori, 8-tōjin Hallowhis, Horror Orochi, Vampire Kyūbi, and Halloween Jibanyan.

The event will start on the 22nd, but of course this game can only be played in Japan.

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And that’s it for the notable news from this month so far, I hope you found this helpful and/or interesting!

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