#I like when she’s drawn like this in the webcomic/manga | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

genericpuff · 8 months

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I get asks like these a lot asking for my opinion about other webtoons outside of LO and Let's Play and ima be honest with y'all, if I haven't talked about it on this blog already, I probably don't read it. It's not for any lack of wanting to read comics, but it's sort of the nature of the beast - once you start making the medium you consume, you wind up with a lot less time to actually consume it. I don't keep up on nearly as many webtoons/webcomics as I used to, and it's partially because 1.) I'm too busy making them, 2.) the current oversaturation of the market means I'm not gonna really be compelled to try and read things unless it's something I'm really interested in, and 3.) I have ADHD so I already have a hard time starting new stories as it is, I often prefer just keeping up on comfort series that I know I like even if there are only a few of them LOL I know that means I'm likely missing out on a lot of great stories out there, but I can only keep up on so much stuff :')

Most of the comics I read nowadays aren't even on the WT app, it's stuff like Tale of Two Lovers, Alfie, Tamberlane, and Awkward Zombie. And whatever I DO read that's on the app, it's stuff that's being made by friends or stuff that fits a special interest that I've been following for a while. So webcomics like Time and Time Again, City of Blank, SHE MAKES HUNGRY, Growing Up Gerudo, Loving Reaper, and Zelda's Lullaby.

I'm frankly a bit old school so a lot of the stuff I read tends to be stuff that has its own independent site OR completely outside of the realm of webtoons and more into traditional publishing like manga.

That said, I do try to stay up to date on webtoons and newer series as much as I can as it's good for me to stay updated on what's going on in the industry and it means I'm exposing myself to new ideas and techniques, but I struggle with just picking up a webtoon and bingeing it for 10-20 episodes to see if I like it. So many of them now tend to just be the same thing with slightly different coats of paint. And I'm definitely not gonna pick up a webtoon just because people want my opinion of it, sorry but that's just not how this works LMAO Especially if it's a webtoon that people are expecting me to be critical of because it's written poorly, like why would I subject myself to reading something that I know right off the bat probably isn't gonna be enjoyable? Sure, if it's something REALLY bad I'll check them out to see what people are going off about or so I can form my own opinion, but I also don't want to be regularly subjecting myself to garbage that pisses me off when I could be reading stuff that brings me joy, I spend enough time being pissed off at LO and Let's Play as it is. I know, that's likely wild coming from me of all people, but I do like to enjoy things LOL It's not like I went into comics like LO and Let's Play hating them right off the bat, I actually used to really like those comics, until they either fell off or I spent more time reflecting on them and I realized how poorly written and drawn they were.

So no, sorry, but I don't have an opinion about webtoons like Unordinary or I Love Yoo or whatever have you and I can't guarantee I'll ever get around to reading them. If I do have an opinion about a webtoon, believe me, I'll post about them unprovoked, you won't need to ask me for them LMAO

#ama #anon ask me anything #anon ama #ask me anything

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littlefankingdom · 5 months

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Gege's writing of Gojo Satoru is lazy and bad

Here, I said it.

And I'm of the opinion that "lazy" is an ableist and classicist term thrown around to shame people of their situation, so if I'm using it, I mean it and I'm pissed.

I have been angry since chapter 236 and I fell on an Instagram post, by a fan page, full of the normies fan (aka allocishet boys/men) earlier, which just made me lose it. So, I'm finally going full rant.

I'm using they/them pronouns for Gege, as they use non-gendered pronouns in Japanese. They didn't want their gender to influence the publication (which is a huge problem in the art world, in manga but also in comics and bd (the French-Belgium comics), and I can salute that.

"The Strongest" is not a bad character trait

It is totally possible to tell an interesting story with a character describes as "the strongest in the world", and the idea that Gojo is immediately boring and needed to die for the story to progress is wrong. Superman is an example of this "strongest in the world" character, and he has been thriving for decades. And in manga/anime, we have the great One, who has given us One Punch Man and Mob Psycho. In those two, TWO, stories, One tell us the tale of "the strongest in the world", and One is known to be far from the best artist. So, to sell and have people publish (One Punch Man was originally a webcomic, and the manga isn't drawn by One, but still) and read those manga, it means that One's writing is fucking good. If you have never seen/read Mob Psycho, go do it immediately, it's, imo, the best anime ever. I am still certain that if Reigen was in the jjk's world, everything would be fine, and yes, he still would be a con. One was able to write not one, but two stories about a strongest where you are still sitting at the hedge of your seat during the fights and are so invested, where the other characters still shine and develop their capacities. How? Well, one might be the strongest in a fight, but what about mentally? Emotionally? One explores his characters' flaws and feelings. And the thing is, Gojo has a LOT of flaws that could be exploited to make the story more thrilling. How about how careless he is when fighting, which lead him to be super destructive or letting someone WAY weaker than him get away (Gojo never won a fight perfectly if you look at it)? How he barely shows emotions to others or let himself affected? How he is lonely because of the pedestal the jujutsu society has put him on, and if he got off of it and opened up, he would be way less? A lot of flaws, of "weaknesses", that could be exploited to work on Gojo. That's literally what they did when Gojo got pokeballed, exploited how Gojo does not know how to deal with his emotions because of his upbringing and status, and so, is so deeply affected by the ghost of his one best friend. But it was only to get rid of Gojo, instead of dissecting him. Because, no, we can have that, because it would make him interesting, and Gege hates Gojo.

Hating your characters is an issue

Gege hating on Gojo is funny, until it impacts the writing. And it does, A LOT. Just like loving your character too much can lead you to fail to see the issue in your writings (Catra in She-Ra), hating a character as the same effect. Gege's hate for Gojo led them to be unable to develop him, and to contradict their own writing. For example: Gojo is said to not care about anyone multiple times, Gege even mentioned, outside the manga, that he didn't care about Yuuta or Yuji's lives, he just saw the potential. However, they also wrote Gojo being annoyed at the fact that a teenager was on the death row in jjk 0, Gojo mad that they killed Yuji, Gojo getting angry that civilians are getting killed, Gojo being shaken STILL 10 YEARS LATER by his best friend's betrayal (He cares sooooo much about a man that betrayed him 10 years ago, it's borderline impossible. Like, it's been 10 years, time to stop being soft about this genocidal man, dude. I'm pretty certain that people, after 10 years, either don't care anymore or are pissed at their traitor ex-friend). There's a part of Gege, who is writing an interesting story, that started to develop Gojo, and then, there's the part of Gege that hates Gojo and need to go against this development. When Gojo dies, his dead classmates affirmed he never really cared and was only doing all of this for fun, and it's the final nail in the coffin for me. Gege has a constant need to diminish Gojo's character, that was the issue with Gojo's writing. Gojo couldn't become an interesting "strongest in the world" character because Gege couldn't let him shine. Gege sees Gojo has this uncaring asshole that people only like for his looks (they said that Gojo won the popularity vote only because female readers voted for him, which is so sexist, like women and girls only like a character's looks and cannot appreciate a character's personality and values, but also really diminishing toward his own character, as it would imply nobody could see something interesting in Gojo apart from his looks, but boy, if your character is that popular, it's not just for his looks.) but they could have made it different, a part of them clearly wanted it to be different and knew it was the way to do it. But no! Gege always comes back to hating Gojo and must make him emotionless suddenly. He is never shown to care about the two children HE RAISED for more than 10 years, while still being attached to the man that was is bestie for 3 years more than 10 years ago. That doesn't make sense at all. And he lost the two children he raised while he was pokeballed, after he got distracted. Being distrated by his ex bestie ghost cost him his surrogate family, and we are supposed to believe he is heartless enough to not care??? Gege hates Gojo, and so they keep taking away anything that could make him more interesting. Damn, Gojo wanted to make his students as strong as himself and to change the jujutsu society for the better, and he FAILED. His students are dead (Megumi was at least gone when he was alive) and he never build the new society, so him being fine with his death is so annoying. The strongest actually didn't get what he wanted, he just had "fun" and that was enough, apparently. Yeah, no, fuck you.

YOU WROTE HIM

I'm scared for the futur of jjk

Gege is the creator, the writer, the artist, the mangaka behind Jujutsu Kaisen and so, Gojo Satoru. They are their god. They had the power to make Gojo's interesting, to develop him more, to make him more weak in other aspect, to use his flaws against him, but they didn't. And that's why Gege is lazy to me. Because they refused to do the work to make things better, they chose the easy way to deal with a strong character: killing them. They kept on complaining about Gojo, like they had no power over the writing. And look, they hated Gojo for being "too strong" so they killed him, but now Sukuna and Kenjiro are too strong. Gege just keeps shooting themself in the foot.

This is my personal opinion, and you can disagree completely (don't try to change my mind, tho)

Gege has also mentioned not liking my son, my sun, my boy, Yuji, so what now? Will he also hurt his character because of that? And he has already killed like half of the characters we have been following since the beginning, which is disappointing. Like, I was invested in them, and now I'm supposed to watch some new guys, I have no interested in, fight the big bad? I'm not saying they're bad characters or boring, but it's not the fucking same. It feels like it has just become a "Who is the strongest?! Fight! Fight! Fight!" story, and sorry, but I can watch sports for that little connections or interests in the personal stories or goals (fr, I feel more connection to Teddy Riner, French Judoka, and the strongest in the world. Damn, another strongest interesting guy. He actually lost at the last Olympic Games, we were shocked). I love One Piece (and this is why it is a success) because the characters are following their dreams. They have been going into fights for more than 1000 chapters, and I read them all MULTIPLE TIMES because there's a deep connection to the characters. I love watching Luffy fights because I want him to be the King of the Pirates, because I want the people who have been wronged to get justice, because I want the pos in front of him to get their ass beat. And, as he fights to become King of the Pirates, it has a butterfly effect on the whole world and the oppressive system is crumbling. It's not just a fight. And Jujutsu Kaisen is becoming "just a fight", which seem to be enough to most male reader, but I personally find it boring.

#gojo satoru #jujutsu kaisen #jjk #jjk spoilers #in this house we only trust the queers and the girls fans #boys/mens must pass a test to prove they are valuable members of the fandom #you can not care and just want to enjoy the anime/manga it's ok #but bad boring takes are not okay #the number of times I have seen discussion from boys/men fans only being “X is the strongest tho!” BOOOOOOORING

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arikitari-josei-osaka-naru · 9 months

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Metallic Sailor Sun (Osaka Naru)

Osaka Naru never gained this form until the 30th century, but, In her past life in the Golden Kingdom in the era of the Silver Milennium Moon Kingdom, she was "Princess Osakaite", Beryl's secret daughter. She regained that dark form in Crystal Tokyo, trying to revive the Shitennou before being drawn into battle against her estranged best friend Usagi.

She is directly linked to Queen Metallia, and never became Sailor Sun in her past life; to do so is apocalypse-adjacent, a little like the "Messiah of Silence" Sailor Saturn who has a connection with Pharaoh 90. In her past life, Osakaite willingly sealed up her powers (with the help of the Shitennou) in an attempt to prevent the destruction of SilMil and the Golden Kingdom; but she was killed by the DD Girls, and soon afterwards both kingdoms fell anyway.

The seal wasn't perfect, which is my headcanon for why she canonically glows red in episode 23 when protecting Nephrite from the moon tiara- her sealed powers are trying (and failing) to emerge...

In the 30th century she's finally able to become a Sailor Soldier for the first time with the help of Usagi and Helios (who guards a part of the sun's power in Elysion), and she acts as a counterpart with Eternal Sailor Moon!

Her costume parallels Eternal Sailor Moon's,, although the black parts represent the sealed Queen Metalia, and a balance between Cosmos and Chaos. She also has the same style of shoulder epaulets as the Golden Kingdom form of Sir Nephrite, and her collar and fuku resemble the piping of a Shitennou uniform, representing her connection between the Earth and the Moon.

However, she still looks up to Usagi, who is ultimately the main heroine of the setting- but the estranged friends are finally reunited as partners, working together to try to save the universe at the end of time.

She can use "Sun Orbital Attraction" to telekinetically pull or push things in a circle around her (turns out attracting monsters was an actual power all along XD). This power may also work on the solar senshi for coordination maneuvers...?

Her staff is the same crystal ball staff Beryl used in the 90s anime (Beryl's own staff is the pointy one from the manga/crystal, and in one random scene of the anime), but in it's purified form it's revealed to be the "Sun Stick"!

With the Sun Stick she can use "Sun Healing Energization", which doesn't purify things like Sailor Moon, but can physically heal people by willingly giving them some of her own energy (which she also kinda halfway did in episode 19 by suddenly giving the surrpised "Tuxedo Nephrite" her energy).

If I stick to my guns and keep this in continuity with my previous 512TR(ans) comic, then Naru may secretly have been a transgender girl all along, and thus mistakenly thought she could never be a real sailor soldier... but Usagi and the senshi tell her she's just as much of a real girl as any of them 🏳️‍⚧️

By the way, there's also a beautiful and awesome webcomic being made by JKellicu on ComicFury about Naru becoming Sailor Earth. Although my approach is different, I consider Sailor Earth a major inspiration and I love it! If Naru-as-a-senshi stories interest you, hers is a must-read!:

#osaka naru #naru osaka #molly baker #dark kingdom #negaverse #sailor moon #sailor sun #otaku senshi #fan senshi #queen metalia #queen metallia #queen metaria #naru #sailor #trans headcanon #trans hc #Thanks to Queen Metallia the future's so bright she's gotta wear shades #I think the mask might operate as prescription glasses too since she gets nearsighted during Sailor Stars in this timeline #The sunspots appearing on her skin may be related to Metallia also

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nadianova · 5 months

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How do you typically structure fight scenes? Asking since I'm hoping to one day make a webcomic in the style of shonen manga

webcomic and visual novel can be rather different even if hteres lots of design overlap so im not sure how insightful this might be

its been actually one of the most complicated things ive had to face in the writing of this. i read a TON of shounen manga so my inspiration and ideas of combat come from there. but translating that into text an visual novel format isnt all that easy.

however i went with the approach of having my maids have hunter x hunter style special abilities. so in my case, i mostly planned every combat about these abilities. some conflicts end immediately, some get drawn out. ultimately i was like "i want this girl to reach the point where she can activate her ability in a way that the fight ends"

so i basically decided how i want hte fight to end and worked backwards to move towards a conclusion i wanted

i read tsukihime just before, and enjoyed hte fight scenes in that. theres something very simplistic about hte protagonist jsut having this ability to 'cut' the life out of anything. so of course the tension comes from him trying to set a situation up where he can do so. i tried to think of that when writing my own scenes. also lots of banter and emotional dialogue mixed in from all the character present to increase the stakes when needed

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theomnicode · 1 year

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Tell me I’m cynical or a dumbass but I’m utterly confused at how Tatsumaki and Fubuki’s “plan” panned out. Like the picture they draw seemed to have some part of… well, planning. Other than barging into the cell to stop Apollo from kidnapping Psykos, which is just well, barging into the cell… I don’t see how what the fuss was about to format it in such a mysterious way. I can’t say I’m not disappointed. There is, however, a tingle in me saying this plan is only beginning. I only started reading OPM fully a few months ago and so far I’ve seen things falling into place after ONE takes his sweet time, so I’m guessing something similar is happening here, and Saitama is somehow involved.

My bet is that they did not expect Apollo to be that strong or be that exceptionally well prepared to face the psychic sisters, one of them being that plant of his within Fubuki's rank that offered him a hostage on a silver platter.

Then all he needed to do was cover his tracks and it would've been a sweet victory for him, but as they say, no strategy survives contact with the enemy and Tatsumaki does not just display a lot of psychic power, but also a ton of fine tuned ability and control and sensing, probably something they could not gauge from Psykorochi fight as Apollo said that they studied her (power scaled her hah). Sensing abilities would go under the radar and it is what allows her to communicate with her sister from so far away, something that does not seem present in webcomic. Probably one of the things she actually honed because she cares about her sister since Blast told her to take care of Fubuki, so she wanted some kind of connection to be able to find her always. But it is also something that cannot be gauged just from looking from the outside perspective and became very useful now. (And I bet, notably distressing in childhood, never being able to get away from Tatsumaki) Fubuki is already being pestered about Tsukuyomi from her Blizzard group, so I feel like we'll get exposition once Tatsu and Saitama stop fighting and the sisters meet again or when the dangers have passed.

(Murata-sensei added two pages to 177 to show her most battle-ready group members tried their best but did not succeed vs Apollo) Fubuki tries to really protect her Blizzard group by not allowing them to know infromation, despite getting dragged in. It may be extremely sensitive information that might even put them into danger, considering how tight lipped she is about it, if the enemy would guard such information zealously. She hasn't even told Saitama, who she knows is strong af, despite trying to recruit him. Tatsumaki's past is shrouded in mystery as well and it'll be interesting if the differences in manga version will showcase more of that past and if Saitama will get somehow drawn into the picture, for his past is also quite mysterious. Psychic sisters arc would seem like a good spot to introduce their personal enemy and what they are working towards and how it ties with the sisters. But as it is with ONE, things often take their sweet time to fall into place neatly. But I can't say I hate Apollo, I already love this villain to bits. He's so evil schemer and so full of himself hah.

#opm #one punch man #asks #opm meta #fubuki #tatsumaki #tsukuyomi organization #apollo

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sunbeamstress · 8 months

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i struggled for a very long time to understand why i didn't want to make art.

it was such a mystery! some blind spot in my psyche i couldn't get a fix on.

"why haven't i drawn in months?"

"why am i sitting here playing video games? i still can barely draw hands"

"why don't i post my work online?"

"why haven't i started a webcomic yet? i wanted to over a decade ago"

why? why? why?

why was i torturing myself? all i could see in the back of my mind was my mother, seated in her armchair, the dated old phone stretching across the living room with her at the center of its web. she would always couch the phone against her cheek and shoulder and lay her knuckles against it for stability; her left hand - the one i use, myself - would reach for a pen and fill page after page of doodles into a notepad.

i remember beautiful filigree designs and landscapes and pretty flowers and sometimes an instance of something lovely in the faces of her husband or her children, captured on paper without her even having to think about it. entire worlds spilling out of her fingertips while her mind was occupied with other things.

but she stopped.

she can't draw, now. she no longer has the talent. she used to beg me to sing because my voice was a gift to god, but she had a gift from god and she left it in a dumpster. these days i don't believe in god, and i don't believe in my mother, either.

in a circumspect way i'm grateful to her for this. i'd think about her every time i picked up a pencil. this unforgivable act of waste, in my eyes, was a fire under my ass that kept my hand moving. it gives me pleasure to admit, with honesty, that while i rarely sketch or paint, i only ever seem to get better at it. to this day, i'm not half bad. in my late thirties, i'm at a skill level that i was seeing out of the very most gifted artists in their mid-twenties.

but isn't that a silly way of looking at it? "i'm 37, and i draw at least as well as a really good 24 year old". what nonsense is this? this is the sort of invasive thing that likes to run amok in my head. what sense does it make to compare myself like we're talking shonen manga power levels? why am i racing other artists? why do i have to compete?

it took me a very long time to realize that Competition Itself had supplanted what i loved about art. it wasn't something i did consciously; it just sort of happened when i was in my late teens, my early adult years, and the internet's artistic community had exploded, a detailed landscape peppered with talented people, all with their own gifts from god, gleaming and gilded and razor-edged. they were doing things i'd never imagined. they were making comics and putting their work in indie video games. they were doing animations in flash. holy shit - they were making porn! this might sound quaint to you, O reader, but by internet standards i'm what you call an "old-ass bitch" and in those days, this was pretty novel.

god, i wanted what they had so bad. i wanted a webcomic. i was going to call it "Absolute Vertigo", whatever that meant, and it would have been garbage, but i didn't care. i wanted "Absolute Vertigo by <SCREEN NAME>" at the top of a kitschy website and i wanted people to gush about how cool it was and put it into their RSS feeds and--

this was the beginning of the end, in many ways. i really wasn't cut out for competition. it would take a really long time to figure this out. my peers were putting out improbably cool stuff and i felt like i was flagging. i didn't realize it yet, but the internal language i was using to talk to myself about art was changing. suddenly i was "worse" or "better" than other artists. suddenly they were "doing more" or being more "successful" than me.

art had become a commodity.

it's wild how this sort of mindset can take a mind of its own, can build its own character, can work its way deeper into your brain. at first art was discouraging - it was this thing my mother was good at but neglected. it was this thing i felt like i was worse at than everyone else. but then it became depressing. Art, this platonic ideal of it, this idea of it in the abstract, was turning into a weapon i was using to torture myself. reader, you have no idea how many nights i couldn't sleep. to merely ideate failure was to hurl myself back through time, back to the moment i realized my mother had given up.

"why haven't i drawn in months?"

"why am i sitting here playing video games? i still can barely draw hands"

"why don't i post my work online?"

"why haven't i started a webcomic yet? i wanted to over a decade ago"

i didn't have an answer for these questions, but still they were there. they weren't important or meaningful questions, they were tools i used to torture myself. i was supposed to improve for the sake of improvement, and to enjoy art as an act of pure creation, but instead it was a hammer i would hit myself over the head with because i wasn't doing it good enough. crazy how you can talk about your own talent the way you can talk about a dead-end job.

looking back now, it's astounding that i didn't understand all of this. it seems to make so much more sense. i've always had stories and characters floating around in my head - it's literally my favorite pastime - but it took me a very long, very painful time to realize that having stories and having characters doesn't mean you're a failure if you don't immediately march to the nearest sketchbook and jot them down.

the gift of art does not obligate you to produce it. if you cast it aside, the world isn't made better or worse.

your art exists for you. it should please you, should bring a smile to your face or evoke feelings you don't dare face on your own. art should help you work through trauma. it should express when you're happy. art is a frame for the picture of you.

it should even be okay to let it go.

it's going to take me a long time to forgive my mother. but i think i understand her a little better.

#art

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kiaranovastar · 1 year

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Kimiko-ko! planned episodes

~ = Needs more

Introduce delinquent girl sooner? When she's been designed?

Update! Since the writer made this on a whim, she had to update the reference sheets! Now you can do better fanart! But since so many people think the bottom of Kimiko-chan's skirt is pleated while mine is even, these will become our new official designs! ........ Just kidding!

Draws a line. Yes it's finished!!!

Meerkats

M Hey look, a giraffe!

K takes pictures

M Hey look, meerkats!

Kimiko throws Mio into meerkat enclosure

M cries Heeelp!

Hanako1

Mio Special

A man going around being aggressive. Cute!!!

I'm a wolf! Wooooo! Mio: wooo

Achoo! Each time she does one it gets bigger until the whole world blows away

Visits Ireland. Ahh the breeze! Until she gets blown away

A lesson about skirts

Alright! Listen up! I have to tell you something. Lifts skirt up. Gets looks. Shorts underneath. Always wear shorts under your skirts girls. So you don't get oggled by perverts like this! Kicks a man underneath her

Mio ep

Crossovers

Area 9: This is another crossover! Meet Taishi and Bomb. Bomb kicks him out of the frame. No, just Bomb!

Lost Land

Time Wanderer

Fanboys, how much do you love me? Rips t-shirt off and shouts I love you!!

Kimiko tries her hand at being a therapist but fails Graduates from a top university Says something simple Huh? That happens? Manager You're actually a complete idiot!!!!!

I'm gonna be a therapist!

Goes to college

Gets a degree

Patient: And when I spend too much time alone I get sad.

Huh? That happens?

You're actually a complete idiot!!!

Mio ep

Teenagers need a lot of sleep! Zzzz... 3 days later wakes up Ahh what a good night!

I spent my entire life on this piece! It's the only thing I ever painted! All day long every day! A picture of Kimiko with a mustache "Ehhhh????!!!"

Tap tap tap tap Taps phone then different people

Every time she taps her phone she transforms into a different person

Most boring story ever: Kimiko goes around accomplishing everything instantly

Mio ep

Bug on another bug

Kimiko says to Mio pointing Look, he's cheating!

Stretching

Ahhh!

5 hours later still stretching

The sea is mine! Hahahaha! Spinning in rubber ring in pool wearing crown

An ad for Kimiko: She's so cute it's illegal!

It's Halloween! It's my only chance to eat junk food! Hahahhah! Explodes in pink

Someone tries to take Mio's money

If you could be a high-schooler does that mean you could be 18? Yes. Smoking

Introducing new character

The haters say this isn't a real manga. What do you mean this isn't a real manga? It's just a crappy webcomic. Look, it's just fluff with no real substance. And also they hate that you're Japanese schoolgirls. Kimiko or Mio enraged

Kimiko giving herself orders Kimiko, stop bossing yourself around! Tilts head in a cute way Oh wait, that's me!

Kimiko holding a street sign

Kimiko and Mio shooting up to space

Brains

Change- From now on Kimiko-ko! will be drawn in this style. (super realistic with scratchy lines)

Just kidding!

M: K, the haters are oggling me!

K dropkicks one

It's not appropriate to talk to some people about certain topics

kimiko lying on a red sofa wearing sunglasses: Let's talk about drugs

Headphones

I got new heaphones

Starts yelling abuse

Takes them off Huh????

Kimiko doing her beautiful singing while a room of haters is throwing junk at her

Say, why does everyone hate my singing but the birds?

Spinning theme park ride, then goes out of control spinning rapidly and non stop

Mio shy laugh I'm not helping.

Someone says something K: So?

Keeps saying thing k always replies with So?

Close up SO???!!!!!!

Episodes where K and co play roles throughout history

Blood, blood, blood

Yay, I got my new headphones! But they were very expensive. What do they do? Hi Kimiko! Starts talking Cool!

Go over to the kitchen and make me some toast.

Ok!

Alchemy

Talking potato

Potato in suit with orange hair on TV: Uh, potato, potato, potato. Potato potato? Potato! Making gestures

Kimiko: turns around Mio, what the hell is this potato talking about?!

Kimiko vibrating when she's excited

This is for the perverts

なんてやらしい！なんてやらしいー！なんてやらしいーー！Kimiko just standing there normally and fully cloathed looking irked

WHAT?!

K and M alternative universe! Twins

I was born a few minutes earlier than you, and so, I will die a few minutes before you. Noooo Mio! (as grandmas)

Cat staring at the ceiling. It's Kimiko sticking her tongue out!

Plane battle

And sworn enemies get into a fight

You ate my fries!

And you killed my goldfish!

This is war!

Clash

Mio lying in a destroyed city

K comes down from the plane

I will pick you up

Shot from below of Kimiko as if she's a savior

Kiss

I love you Mio

I love you Kimiko

Kimiko saves Mio

Flashback!

Bully: You're always so quiet and stuck up! Do you think you're better than us?!

N-no, I-

Hey, you stop right there!

How do you intend to stop me?

Starts making weird moves

That's it, I'm outta here!

Are you ok?

My savior!

Mio: How come no one knows whether we're middle schoolers or high schoolers?

K: Hmmm something is very strange here!

Kimiko behind a line of ghosts

Shivers

This is weird...

Mio, why do you have no body in that character sheet?

Head floats

I'm a ghost!

Cheerleader

Go, go, Kimiko! Kimi Kimi Kimiko! You're the best!

Turns around vainly

I'm the best.

K Once I met a rapist!

M What did you do?

K Oooh, you wouldn't want to know

K Kicking a censored bloody mess

M Wow Kimiko, you're so cool!

Hanako: I admire you!

Look, it's the pervert!

What pervert?

All I see is a pool of blood on the ground.

Hiccups

K hicks

M pat pat

K hick

M pat pat

K BURRRRP

M gets blown away

Kimiko on a scooter-

2D video game style

Knocks over Mio and Hanako

Plays flute and Mio comes out as a ghost

Kimiko, do you want a boyfriend?

Hmm yeah, but he needs to have

Huge list of qualities that touch the ground

You'll never find all that!

What do you do to gropers?

Karate chop!

Guy flies into distance

Kimiko and Mio turn into cats

Cat day out

Mmm this tea is delicious

Mmm this coffee is delicious

Mmm your tail is delicious

Kimiko and Mio go to a club where Hanako is performing

She's rapping

Budumdum ch! Rrrrrr!

A fight breaks out

Karate girl

Kimiko: I'm a karate girl! Hya hya! Wahhh!

Breaks a rock

Mio is behind it

Kicks her

Wahhh!

Sorry Mio!

Speedy driver

Kimiko swerving doing crazy moves

Mio and Hanako Whoo whoo! We love you Kimik-

Wahhhhh! Gets hit

Ah, the flowers are wilted!

Throws them in the bin

Hmm, I think I'll put them back on the window sill!

Kimiko and Mio visit Doomin Valley

But they're delinquents!

Hey hey! You wanna fight with me hey?

Doomins having tea

They flip the table

Doomin sinks them at sea

Doomin: We had to kick them out.

Hanako time!

Alright alright. Listen up

You look at me?

I beat you up.

You say hi? I beat you up.

K Hanako hi!

H Kimikoooo!!!

君の名は

My name is

Ki-mi-ko-ko Ki-mi-ko-ko

Crowd

Mio turned into a gangster

Mio, what happened?

Dunno. Just gimme your money

H That's it. I've decided. My best friend is Mio, not Kimiko.

Mio episodes

Kimiko cuts Mio's hair into a bob, she cries, Kimiko apologizes. ~

Mio turns into a Gundam robot

Aghhhhh!

Pat pat

Picks her up, brings to face

'It's ok.'

Exclusive Mio episode

Joke about naming her Meo because she liked the names Mei and Mio (Mayonaise with her (Mio's) head on it)

Is Mio rich? No, she's completely average! Mio- A little bit. What about you? Oh, I'm rich! No, you're a little bit below average. Cute laugh

Delinquent girl episodes (Hanako)

Intro episode where they run into her (for the first time)

Delinquents Were beating you up!

Kimiko Ahhh no thanks.

You don't have a choice in this you idiot!

Hanako beats them up

Let me be your best friend!

Sorry, my best friend's Mio!

K with M And as I was saying, he totally fell for it!

Huh?

It's the hater

Hanako throws poop at hater

Cops

Hater edition

Hater video games

1 Good: I'm gonna fill the world with chaos and destruction Bad: I will stop you! Kimiko What kind of games do these guys play!

2 Eating a carrot makes you a slut. Then why are you eating a carrot you slut

3 X? If you see a child you are a pedophile, a sexual predator and a- Sees Kimiko Kimiko beats him up

4 Couple being lovey dovey 'You, no you! No you!' THAT's A SIN YOU SLUTS NO IT"S NOT kicks him

5 Hater tries to take pic of kid, Kimiko takes pic of him then beats him up

6 There's something pervy about teens too!

7 It should be illegal to draw a girl with with such a short skirt looks at skirt with arrow Kicks him LOLICON!

Safari

Safari trip!

We see all the animals

Woahhhh

Hanako pretending to be a tree

Do not cross! Or I'll beat you up with my branches!

Hanako, what's gotten into you?

Episode with a talking tree

Kimiko in Wonderland

Pots and pans guiding her along

Kimiko is a geisha samurai

To the people of the future

To the bullies

Crowd jeering

Yeah I'm awesome!

Miss Kimiko, the rope walker

Woah! She's very skilled

Hohoho. I'm glad you like my performance, my dears

Mio takes pictures

I'm your biggest fan!

Mio chan, do you want to try walking the tight rope?

Puts one foot on the rope

Wahhh! Falls

Senpai notice me!

Theres a new girl in school

Mio

K wahhhh!

Follows her around

Takes her shoes, opens the door for her, makes her bentos

You're like my bodyguard!

Flicks hair

Hanako comes along

Hey, you, hey you! You shouldn't be following her around, I should be following you around!

The three are walking in a line k holding ms things and h holding is things

Kimiko the Star Warrior

It's Kimiko! I travel the stars throwing stars at people and fighting the evil planets!

Evil planet comes along

Hoo!

Let's fight!

Star battle

Mio topples in

Her moonshine aura breaks up the battle!

No, Mio, why did you do that?

Sakura

Kimiko playing a flute with sakura in the background

Geishas, Mt Fuji, Hanako?!

Hospital

Hanako Nurse! Nurse!

My heart broke out of my love for Kimiko.

Superhero

K and M are superheroes

M K, I will always be behind you

Dunununununununu Kimiko man!

M Miaow! Miaow miaow!

K shoves Mio and Mio falls

Tea

And so I was saying

Puts tea down

Mio

Kimiko is a musician

Goes to recording studio

Hanako and Mio are there

Congratulations on your newest album! We're your biggest fans!

M Um, I was wondering if you could sign...

My hair.

Goes off with signature in her hair

Thank you!

Hanako

Can I have your autograph?

No.

Can I have your autograph?

No.

Can I have your autograph?

Shut up girl!!! Punches

Genderbent episodes

Madame Egg intro

MKimiko, what do you think of men?

K I hate men because all they think about is sex. Im never getting a boyfriend!

Head on a man

M Way to go Kimiko!

Sword fight

And so, the battle begins.

Between two sworn enemies.

K I said I want strawberry

M I said I want chocolate

Clang

Cling

About to clash again

Hanako gets in the way

Kimiko, my plaster fell off...

Slaps it on Kimikos face

You can have it! Its my gift! Grin

Introducing Madame and Mr Egg

K and M go on a trip to the sea

Ah, what a fresh breeze!

Bumps into an egg

Huh? I didn't know eggs were so big!

Madame and Mr Egg turn around

Madame Hello dears.

Mio Bites I love eggs!

Mio Kimiko, how do you deal with hate?

I just laugh it off. I'm tougher than that. And I know I'm the cutest!

Kimikos the lollipop lady!

Yes, come through, come through!

Madame Egg topples and falls on Kimiko

Balloon on Kimiko. She detaches from it

whirrrrr. Whirrrr

mio oooh

They do a weird dance

Hanako comes and pecks at the ground

Madame Egg rolls down and crashes on them

Fry pan. Frying an egg with Mio in the middle

Car add. Skids and runs over Hanako

Techno world

The techno wizard is mixing tracks that spread evil

Kimiko looks cyberpunk

She sets off shocks

Lightning

Technowizard turns into lightachu

Be my mommy!

Men

Hi!

I want sex with you.

Ah, no thanks. Slaps and walks off

Boo!

What's that I hear?

Boo!

Thanks!

I know you all love Kimiko.

Dun dun dun dun

Mio as a shark

Look, Kamaku, it's our baby!

Sup

Sniper

Hanako shoots out and hits Kimiko in the head

ボウズ

Kimiko, Mio and Hanako as a gang

Kimiko in car. Flips, spins

Music starts

You spin me right round baby right round

Mio went to war

ended up in hospital

cute ghost comes out of nose zzz

K pop

Kimiko lives in Japan 2. Like Japan but has magic and all haters look like this. Kimiko is a sword fighter. Hanako is a professional gangster. And Mio is Miss Japan. Enjoy our country!

Leaning tower of Piza

Kimiko goes to Africa to find a gemstone

Call Kiara a whore and?

Hater is being punched into the sky

Isekai

Mahoushoujou

Hanako every day is the same sitting on bench smoking cigarette dog jumps onto face

Pocky

I got pocky!

Sticks into Mio's eyes

Wahhhh!

Zelda parody

Kimiko Princess of the cherry blossoms flute. Wears regal kimono

Samurai Mio Princess Kimiko, there is a dragon ravaging our lands. I come from afar. I offer you the magical incense to defeat the dragon.

K Samurai Mio, I thank you for the incense.

Hanako the wizard appears, uses わたくし and acts very mysterious and mature. Has a starry cone on her head and a blue robe

Turns Mio into a frog

K You tricked me!

H Hahahahaha! That's what you get for being so gullible!

Well how would you like it if I opened up a packet of your favorite snacks!

Noooo don't eat them!

K eats slowly

H That's it! Take her! And give me those snacks!

Turns M back, wolfs down the snacks

K Hands in sleeves Now will you help me defeat the dragon with the magical insense? I'll give you more snacks!

H love hearts in eyes Yes please!

Clouds and rocks

D Fool! You think I should stop ravaging the lands? How stupid can you be?

Fidgets

I'm on my period.

K M H A WOMAN?!

H She has a man's voice...

Now you will pay for bothering me when I'm narky! Take this!

Battle scene ensues

H pant pant pant

Dragon pant pant pant

H Stomach growls

K Hanako, how can you get hungry at a time like this?!

H Like I can control it!

Wahhh!

Dragon hits them with her tail

Now you're finished!

D's stomach Growl

K Here, why don't we have some snacks?

Everyone is having a disco party

Kimiko the late schoolgirl EvanKimiko

I'm late I'm late late!

Toast in mouth

Bumps into Mio

Both Out of my way!

Madame Egg shows up in the car park on a motorbike

Class Woah

ME Takes off sunglasses

Comes in I'm your new teacher.

Woah, she's so cool

Madame Egg Class, today we have a new student

Mio walks in

Both Points It's you!

Mio, sit behind Kimiko please.

Class in session

Mio blows thrpugh a straw and hits K in head

Ow!

K Grrrr....

The tension is rising.

M hits her again

and again

and again and again and again and again-

K Stands up That's it, I'm ruining your life!

Giant Eva's head appears

Eats the school

My Robot Mio

Here, I stole Hanako's crisps, eat some!

Eats

M Malfunction! Malfunction!

Goes on a rampage

Beats Hanako into the ground

Cracks Madame and Mr Egg wide open

K Stop! You'll have to get through me!

M shoots her through the chest

Kimiko is lying down, M just goes over to her

M Oh no, what have I done!

K just sits up, makes a heart sign with her hands Kyun!

M Heart comes out of chest, explodes

Sonic

Wrestling K vs M

TV keeps repeating itself

And now we introduce to you, The Lost Land!

Aota Grins Bye Nima!

Hey!

K doing the Levan Polka

Slaps everyone in the face

Accidentaly slaps herself in the face

K International Woman of Mystery

Dancing dressed as Austin Powers

Mio Hearts in Eyes

K Standing over M with hand on wall

K Yeah baby!

Hanako joins the bousouzoku

Aliens

Detective Kimiko Part 1

Mr Egg was cracked!

K Don't worry, Detective Kimiko can help!

Did they kill him with a sword, a knife or a melon?

Melon!

Smashes lemon

So, in Britain, apparently you can't take a selfie in a polling station.

K Cheese!

Cooking with Mio

Ping pong

K ping ponging with M's head

Further storyline

Hair dye

Mio K, why don't you dye your hair a different color?

K Ok!

GOTH KIMIKO

High quality

Long cowboy episode

Kimiko arrives in South Korea

0 notes

opbackgrounds · 2 years

Note

I've been thinking a lot since OP surpassed Batman in sales and will eventually surpass Superman, and how some people will still not take it seriously because ItS jUSt A sTupID ComIC

There is always going to be a level of elitism within literary circles regarding comics, but this is hardly limited to the medium. In general, fantasy and sci-fi are regarded as lesser works compared to their more prestigious cousins, the literary novel. Despite them being some of the most popular and influential books of an era, for example, you're not going to see Harry Potter bumping off To Kill a Mockingbird on school reading lists. There are a few exceptions to this, but they're the types of fantasy books or the rare comic like Maus that capture a certain "literary" spirit, which unlike a lot of populist works favors making the reader think about a certain idea or theme over invoking a specific emotion.

Comics have an additional hurdle to overcome when it comes to legitimacy as Great Works(tm), and that’s simply that they have less words per page than books. This might seem a little silly given that all the art means things don’t have to be described, but that just brings up another problem--comics are perhaps the most inefficient and labor-intensive way to tell a story.

Now, most commercial comic industries--including manga like One Piece--are made by a team of creatives, so let me try to put what I’m trying to say into perspective: I follow a webcomic that is well and truly a one person endeavor. Writing, line work, color, book sales, the whole shebang is handled by a single person who creates what I believe to be a professional-grade comic, both in art and story.

And to manage that she works 12 hours a day, 7 days a week all to maintain her three page a week update schedule.

Now, I freely admit that working entirely in color is a completely different animal than black and white, but that’s what I consider the pinnacle of human effort. By the very nature of the medium those three pages a week can only add up to a few hundred words to the overall story, whereas there are authors (particularly in the self-published and romance industries) whose business model requires them to write hundreds of thousands of words a year just to make a living.

So comics are inefficient. And because they’re inefficient, it can be hard to dive deeply into the topics Important Stories for Important People favor in the same way books can. Every soliloquy, every deep insight into the human condition, every cutting social commentary, must also be drawn. And drawing takes time.

What One Piece has excelled in is taking relatively simple systems that can be easily explained within a few comic pages and then having those systems collide in interesting ways. We don’t know much of how the Warlords work on a deep level--for all the shuffling that’s been done in membership we’ve never actually seen the process of how a new Warlord gets elected, for example--but we don’t need to. It’s enough to know that there are Seven Important Pirates who happen to work for the World Government, and then we get to spend arcs seeing those individuals put into interesting circumstances.

There are other factors at play that effect One Piece’s status within both the fantasy genre and its status as a great work--a Western-centric worldview, the fact that it’s a story primarily aimed at children, etc., etc--but if nothing else I believe that the world of One Piece deserves a place among the best that have ever been realized, both because of Oda’s art and his writing. There’s simply nothing else like it in scale and consistency, and I wish that were more widely recognized

#sarc talks #long post

116 notes · View notes

recentanimenews · 2 years

Text

FEATURE: How Does Ranking of Kings Maintain Its Webcomic Heart?

Ranking of Kings tells the tale of a prince coming into his own in a fairytale world of mystery and danger. The show has it all: gorgeous environments, shocking twists and turns, and scenes that will make you weep. Series director Yosuke Hotta and his crew of industry luminaries have delivered impressive work week after week, refining the best qualities of the source material without losing the scrappy essence that makes Ranking of Kings what it is. The result is the best adaptation of a manga I've seen since Mob Psycho 100 and its sequel.

Mob Psycho 100 and Ranking of Kings have something else in common: both anime series are adapted from webcomics. Over the past few years, the anime industry has turned to webcomics in its drive to churn out more and more material. These adaptations often take their cue from redrawn or refined versions published in the traditional market; for instance, last year’s romantic comedy anime Horimiya was based not on the webcomic original but on the adapted print edition serialized in Monthly G Fantasy. Similarly, the popular anime adaptation of One-Punch Man used Yusuke Murata’s redrawn edition as a base rather than ONE’s doodly original. I can certainly understand why anime producers might choose refined versions of these stories, yet a part of me can’t help but look back at the originals and feel a pang of regret.

You see, I was once a webcomic freak. I read everything from supernatural mysteries like Gunnerkrigg Court to video game parodies like RPG World to sprawling nerd soap operas like Sluggy Freelance. What was it about webcomics that I found so wonderful at the time? First of all, they were free. Second, they could be obscure, and the idea of stumbling on something great nobody else knew about was catnip for teenage me. Third, I thought the do-it-yourself nature of webcomics (many of which were drawn by teens and young adults learning the art and their own selves) was magical. Any strip was a unique, unfiltered glimpse into the creator’s id. This applied as much to the bad webcomics as it did the good ones!

Ranking of Kings was published in a different context and time than the webcomics I read as a teenager, but it carries the same luxurious scent of creative indulgence. Its central thread is Bojji, the young prince whose kindness impresses everyone he meets. But the series is constantly going on tangents because every other character in the story has a secret. Bojji’s foster mother Hilling looks like a stereotypical evil queen from a distance, but is she really? If Domas is a noble knight loyal to the royal family, why does he hold Bojji in such disdain? My favorite character in the show is the sneaky snake knight Despa — he constantly acts in ways that seem cruel, but those actions are revealed again and again to disguise selfless motivations.

At times this tendency threatens to detract from the pacing of the story. In one episode, we discover that Bojji is on the cusp of learning a move that will make him far more powerful. I couldn’t wait to learn what this move was, but my dreams were deferred for two episodes in favor of Hilling and her son Daida. I found myself cursing Daida, wondering when we were going to return to Bojji and his adventures. But I came to realize that the generosity of Ranking of Kings, its insistence that every character has their own importance and hidden agenda, is essential to what makes the series what it is. Webcomic artists have the freedom to follow their muse rather than magazine-wide popularity polls, and series creator Sosuke Toka’s approach is perfectly in keeping with the comic’s emphasis on the importance of empathy and respect.

Ranking of Kings is also all over the place, tonally. The first episode forecasts a charming series for children, but later episodes pull in genocide, satanic ritual, and political maneuvering. That aforementioned ritual is one of the gnarliest moments of anime horror in 2021, in competition with any of Wonder Egg Priority’s nastier moments. But Ranking of Kings isn’t a “gotcha” show like Puella Magi Madoka Magica or Made in Abyss, where the cute surface is meant to hide grim depths. It’s a series that features both heartwarming moments of empathy and grotesque dark fantasy without one ingredient displacing the other. Personally, I think that’s great! A more marketable, “refined” version of Ranking of Kings might moderate the darker elements or age up the characters so the horror comes as less of a shock. But I enjoy the version of this story where you have no idea where an episode will take you, just that it will be surprising.

With that in mind, the anime staff producing Ranking of Kings did make some critical changes to the comic. The character designs are revised for animation by Atsuko Nozaki. Art director Yuji Kaneko creates fantastical environments on a grander scale than what was present in the source material. Story and character revelations are rearranged, sometimes coming far earlier or later than they did in the original series. The final result is certainly more polished than the original comic, which at times reads like an improvisational chain of “I told you that story, so I could tell you this one.” But many of the rough edges are preserved: the simply drawn characters, tonal swings, and dedication to playing against reader expectations are kept intact.

The grand innovation of Ranking of Kings — and Mob Psycho 100, whose adaptation in my mind most closely resembles it — is to ask: So what if the source material bears the mark of an independent creator? Why not emphasize that, rather than hide it? The plot of Ranking of Kings might be familiar to you if you’ve read enough fantasy stories or boys’ adventure comics, but the form and delivery have kept surprising and impressing me throughout the show’s run. Hotta and company deserve credit for their spectacular work, but also for translating rather than suppressing Sosuke Toka’s original vision. I hope that Ranking of Kings continues to be successful and that future anime adaptations are confident enough to follow in its footsteps and be weird, indulgent, and creative in ways only the best webcomics can be.

Are you watching Ranking of Kings? What are your favorite webcomics? Would you, too, die for Bojji? Let us know in the comments!

Adam W is a Features Writer at Crunchyroll. He would recommend the webcomics minus, Octopus Pie and Your Letter to curious readers. He sporadically contributes with a loose coalition of friends to a blog called Isn't it Electrifying? You can also find him on Twitter at: @wendeego

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a feature, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: Adam Wescott

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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soyouareandrewdobson · 3 years

Text

Andy on Asian Animation or SYAC: The Master Review 2

Let’s talk a bit about anime and Dobson’s work relation with it.

I think we can all agree, that starting from the late 90s and early 2000s on, anime and manga became extremely popular in the western world. Sure, Japanese animation was nothing completely new to us (Speed Racer, Nadia-Secret of Blue Water, Samurai Pizza Cats, Sailor Moon, Kimba and Akira e.g. come to my mind as properties already known in the west before 1995) but it really was around this time that thanks to “mainstream” stuff like Dragon Ball and Pokemon people became aware of how different Japanese animation was from western. Eventually resulting in the really good shit (like Cowboy Bebop, Black Lagoon, Kenshin and Heat Guy J) coming over and enriching nerd culture for more than just a few people who knew of it as an obscurity at that point. Now, if you know anything about Dobson, you likely know that his relationship with anime is rather… complicated to say the least. Or, to let him explain it with his own words…

Dobson essentially likes silly and wacky 90s anime. But later on he hated anime in general, because it got too popular and a bad experience with an anime club in college soured his enjoyment of it. Furthermore, he put the blame on his lackluster art style and storytelling capabilities as seen in the likes of Formera, Patty and Alex ze Pirate, on anime in general, while also claiming that Disney pulling the plug on 2D animation is the result of the “anime inspired” Treasure Planet, meaning anime in a sense deprived him of his chance at working at his dream job and “ruining” western animation.

Which to me has always been ignorant as fuck. For starters, I can understand not liking certain stories or genres, either for objective or subjective reasons. But to hate on an entire nation’s form of entertainment (not just individual shows or genres), depriving yourself of the chance of potentially watching a lot of good stuff while also being rather insulting to these other works and people enjoying them? Especially when the stuff you can supposedly “stomach” has been rather simplistic compared to other things?

Second, blaming Japan for “poisoning” your art style? What, did the ghost of Osamu Tezuka possess you and FORCE you to put sweatdrops on your characters forehead while also going for the rather simplistic character style of Rumiko Takahashi, as well as emulating the slapstick of the likes as Slayers and Ranma ½?

Next, if he had emulated them successfully, I say he would have actually managed to tell decent enough stories worth to read online. Not create Uncle Peggy aka “Discount Happosai” or the bland proto-Isekai known as Formera.

I mean, let’s give some context here: There have been people who successfully managed to emulate certain anime and manga aesthetics into western animation and make it work. Otherwise we wouldn’t have gotten the likes of Avatar-The last Airbender, Samurai Jack, the Animatrix, Thundercats 2011, Super Robot Monkey Hyperforce Go, Kim Possible, W.I.T.C.H, Megas XLR and Wakfu. You know, shows that are actually awesome as hell.

Heck, Dobson’s favorite animated show of the last decade, Steven Universe, is heavily inspired by anime aesthetics to the point of being embarrassing.

But Dobson… well, he emulated anime aesthetics in his work the same way as these crimes against animation did.

Combined with his general shortcomings as a storyteller it is no wonder his initial comics did not do well.

Lastly, and sorry for digressing here a bit, but if the Wikipedia entry on Treasure Planet is something to go by, there was no real inspiration by anime involved in making this movie.

Supposedly the idea of making an animated Treasure Planet in outer space movie was already pitched by Ron Clements WAY BACK in 1985 but only came to be after Michael Eisner greenlighted stuff in the late 90s. Design wise the movie was supposed to look 70% traditional and 30% sci-fi inspired and people took inspiration for the art style by illustrators associated with the Brandywine School of Illustration. A western style of illustration established in the 19th century, that had a big impact on the illustration styles for many 19th and early 20th century adventure novels and short stories.

What, is anime supposed to be the only form of animation allowed to have sci fi elements or steampunk in it? Fucks sake, The Lion King and Atlantis, which came out one year earlier to Treasure Planet, were likely more inspired by anime. Don’t believe me? Watch Atlantis and then a certain anime by Studio Gainax called “Nadia-Secret of Blue Water”. Or read up on the controversy surrounding the two.

The truth is, it is not entirely clear what caused Disney to shut down 2D feature film animation in the early 2000s. In fact, if anything, most people put the blame on Michael Eisner and a certain change in the publics taste in movies in general, combined with Disney trying to turn almost every movie they had into a franchise via cheap follow up movies on video and DVD.

And even if Disney did not shut down, are we really supposed to believe that a certain guy with fedora would have made it big at Disney to the point Alex ze Pirate would have been made into a feature film?

But Dobson could never quite understand this and instead of “reinventing” himself properly, he would rant about anime and its fans in one form or another…

And on the peak of his hissy fit create this little art piece he baptized Anime Sux. Alternatively “West vs East”. Or as I like to call it, slap a jap.

Now, the pic was done in 2008 and Dobson claimed sometimes in the last decade, that he no longer holds his old opinions. Unfortunately, by that point he would also more or less use the chance to vent in his webcomic about anime (or rather its fans), which brings us finally back to SYAC.

While Dobson never outright thematized in more detail WHY he hates anime and manga in SYAC (likely cause if his comic reasoning was even slightly like his reasoning in his blogs, people would have torn him apart like a bag of paper) he did use the format to punch down on anime fans and their preferences.

For example, for someone who has a 4chan story going around of having been rather arrogant towards others in college for not liking Ranma ½, Dobson has THIS little college related comic to show off, where he portrays an aspiring manga artist as a delusional jackass.

Then in this strip titled manga, his manga fan is essentially portrayed as a young woman dressing up like a very stereotypical high school anime girl, who is in the wrong for even just DARING to draw her comics in the direction manga are read.

On one hand, I get Dobson’s point. She could be at risk of alienating a market of readers as she is obviously drawing for a western audience. Then again, if she doesn’t draw a traditional western comic but a manga, why shouldn’t she? I mean, as long as she enjoys it, which I assume she does as she seems genuinely just happy when stating that she likes manga, why not let her? Plus, this comic was drawn in the late 2000s. I think by then most people kinda knew how to read from right to left, so Dobson’s claim she would alienate or confuse people is kinda redundant. If anything I find a) Dobson getting angry at her just very petty (just let her have fun) and b) portraying a western manga fan as someone who would be confused by the sheer idea of reading stuff from right to left is also in itself just really dumb and insulting. What is Dobson trying to imply? That anime fans are so stuck in the way they consume certain media, they can’t act according to “western standards” again?

Then there is this strip where yet another female anime fan is essentially portrayed as the embodiment of how “ignorant” manga fans are of the idea of different art styles...

Which becomes rather laughable once Dobson describes his style as a mixture of European, American and Japanese. Why? Because he is the one oversimplifying things, rather than the anime fan.

You see while anime and manga of all sorts do share certain aesthetics (like the black and white art style, emphasize on the eyes of characters, the way hair is drawn, recurring tropes within certain genres and so on) style wise (both in art and storytelling) there can be severe differences, depending on the artist alone. Akira Toriyama’s style differentiates significantly from the likes of Eichiro Oda, Rumiko Takahashi, Kentaro Miura, Tezuka, Kaori Yuki and so forth.

The same also goes for many western artists. Herge had a significantly different style from Uderzo and Goscinny. Don Rosa has a different style in which he drew Scrooge McDuck than Carl Barks did. Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee draw mainstream superheroes differently compared to how Jack Kirby, George Perez and others did. Heck, Ethan Van Sciver and Jim Lee were closely associated with Green Lantern in the 2000s and look how they differentiate.

Which btw is the kind of skill level Dobson would have needed to have, to make it in the mainstream industry

So when Dobson says “I draw in a combination of American, Western and Japanese” all I can think is the following: THAT DOESN’T NARROW IT DOWN! WHAT THE HECK HAVE YOU LEARNT IN COLLEGE ABOUT COMICS? WHICH ARTISTS, WORKS AND STORYTELLERS DO YOU TRY TO EITHER EMULATE OR HAVE BEEN INSPIRED BY?

Then there is this little thing…

Where do I even begin? How about the fact that Dobson’s hand in the last panel looks like he has lost a thumb? The fact that the little boy, anime fan or not, is aware of Sae Sawanoguchi, a character from a short lived OVA and anime series from the 90s, which considering his age, I kinda doubt he would be aware off. Unlike Dobson, who got into anime in the 90s and admits in fact within the posts I loaded up earlier, that he had watched the anime in particular, known in the west as Magic User Club.

Then there is the implication by Dobson, that anime is so “corruptive” as a medium, little kids don’t even know the most basic characters in western animation because of it. I expect in a next panel, that all of sudden some 50s PSA guy comes along and lectures me that if I want this kind of thing not to happen at MY convention, I need to teach little kids more about the GOOD western animation, instead of the BAD eastern one. Then there is this rather unflattering portrayal of a shonen ai/shojou ai fangirl…

Which makes me laugh cause honestly, even some of the worst shonen ai and shojou ai can do better in portraying a “realistic” gay relationship than Patty if you ask me.

Also, as much as I think fangirls can be extremely thirsty (I have read my fair share of extremely stupid yaoi and yuri fanfics) I think that in hindsight Dobson is really not anyone to complain about shipping obsession and sex when he himself has KorraSami, the Ladybug fandom and a certain rat pirate under his floppy belt.

As you can imagine, Dobson would get heat for those comics, considering how he himself has been greatly inspired by anime and manga for his major comics. And while I don’t have any explicit deviantart posts of him reacting to criticism in that regard, I do have this comic which addresses it directly.

And yeah, if I were schoolgirl number 4, I would just sigh and walk away after telling Dobson that his mistakes and shortcomings are not related to having consumed anime, but rather by what sort of anime (and other stories) he had consumed and the amount of effort he had put in creating his stories instead of emulating just something more popular. Plus, if you really want people to draw more from life, how about drawing more from life yourself down the line? And no, tracing Star Wars movie frames does not count.

Finally, Dobson, considering how very little most people think of your work, I say mission accomplished: People have learnt from your mistakes and know not to be a Dobson.

And at last, there is this comic, which kinda wraps up Dobson’s “vendetta” with anime and manga fans within the pages of SYAC.

By trying to mock anime fans and make them look just as shallow as he is. I at least suppose. Honestly, the message of this comic is rather muddled. On one hand, I would say the strawman accusing Dobson hates anime just because it is popular is very simplified. After all, Dobson has made his reasons for not liking anime clear in a few more details. It’s just that the details in and on themselves in real life are still rather shallow and boil down to a lot of personal bias rather than an objective criticism of actual flaws. Which I think is worth pointing out.

But frankly, what is Dobson trying to say or point out here? That the strawman is not so different or even dumber than him, because he hates Justin Bieber for “shallow” and superficial reasons too?

Okay, this doesn’t quite work as well as Dobson wants. First, the argument Dobson’s strawman makes is in huge parts based on some verified statements Dobson made for not liking anime. Second, he just says a name and that triggers the guy to express his hatred for Bieber. We don’t know why the guy hates Bieber and you could make in fact the case, that he hates him not because he is popular, but because he has a genuine issue with the artist, his work or his behavior as a human being. Third, if you want to make yourself look like the better person Dobson, try to argue with the guy and make solid arguments why you don’t like anime. Instead you just deflect the criticism by changing the subject and then try to make yourself look like the “smarter” person in the room by mocking your critic in the most condescending manner.

Which as I think about it, sounds like your modus operandi on twitter and tumblr.

Weirdly enough, that more or less marks the “end” of Dobson tackling anime fans and the beef he has with them within the pages of SYAC. Despite how much Dobson’s negative reputation especially in early years was build around him hating on anime and belittling its fans, he didn’t really do more afterwards in the Dobson focused pages of SYAC. And mind you, those strips were also separated by other strips in-between, focused on Dobson just being at conventions.

Unfortunately for him, the strips didn’t really help in any way to diminish that negative reputation and instead just confirmed for many, that Dobson can’t handle criticism about his flawed opinion on anime. If anything, it just made people think even less of Dobson, as the strips just painted him as someone who would rather portray his critics as strawman he can be “rightfully” annoyed at, instead of fellow humans with slightly different tastes in entertainment, who are still worth listening to.

So, now that we have the anime fan related “annoyances” out of the way, what other sort of silly problems in making webcomics would Dobson cover in his strips and are “relatable” to everyone?

Lets see some of these examples in the next part.

#anime / manga #manga #Andrew Dobson #fuck you Tom Preston #Tom Preston #syac #so...you are a cartoonist #so you are a cartoonist #review #webcomic #comic #adobsonsartwork #adobsoncomic #adobsonartworks

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gofancyninjaworld · 3 years

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OPM Webcomic Chapter 134: Meetups

ONE is always a stealthy so-and-so, but this time he’s outdone himself, plunking down the first new webcomic chapter of the year without so much as a word on his Twitter (it’s Murata who Tweeted).

Story

Even though ONE still hasn’t deigned to name most of the Blizzard Group, they’re still distinctive in their looks. We open to see them glumly looking at news of Neo Heroes taking the lion’s share of credit. They muse over the value of asking Fubuki for a transfer to the Neo Heroes. Power suits, teamwork and credit sound really good.

Not that Fubuki’s available to be asked any questions. She’s been spending hours a day trying to get through to Psykos. We see a literal meeting of the minds, where under an unreal sky (unreal for them), Psykos stands in a sea of tall grass and continues to tell Fubuki that she doesn’t remember who it is she has failed. To say Fubuki’s getting a little frustrated is putting it mildly.

We cut to Suiryu biking off to A-City to see his little sister, whom he’s quite surprised has joined a hero association at the same time that he did. He just misses seeing Blue there, who came over to make a proposal to the HA’s higher ups and ask questions about his father, only to be out-shouted by the Hero Names Victim Association and left disgruntled.

He finds Suiko outside. She’s come up to thank Saitama in person and to introduce herself properly. She offers to exchange training tips with Saitama, who, being Saitama tells her what he did. Her response is pretty classic. Man, I feel for Saitama. He looks like he’s given up on caring whether anyone believes him.

Anyway, Suiryu gets slightly the wrong picture about Saitama and foolishly challenges him to prove he’s stronger or Suiryu won’t allow him to date his sister. I’m not entirely sure Saitama noticed. Suiko is super glad to see her brother well and working gainfully, but she’s not joining him, not if it means wearing a lame-ass suit. Heh, who knew Suiryu was so vain? Other than everyone who read the manga.

I’m so glad to see Genos is back. Yet again, his doctor came through and has not only given him a repair job but what looks like an upgrade. I wonder if it uses any of the data from his sparring sessions with Saitama? Blue tells him about his suspicions on Metal Knight, which Genos relays in due course to Saitama. It’s so good to see them having dinner together even if they live in separate apartments now.

The plot thickens. We’ll see what their investigations turn up.

Meta

Ahh, I’ve been waiting to find out what Psykos knows, but gosh, she’s utterly shattered. If I’m remembering Phoenixman’s description of Phoenixspace and how it’s a visual representation of a person’s psyche, I’d be curious to see the inner worlds of more characters. I wonder if Psykos will remember in time to say something useful.

Speaking about unreal, the way ONE portrays Saitama this chapter is subtle in its brilliance. He is just white, unshaded, untextured, crudely drawn and usually 2-3 seconds off from responding to people. As if he’s a character badly photoshopped into their world.

I can’t get over how the Hero Victim Names Association has only nine signatures to their petition. Talk about low traction!

And speaking about things that make me laugh, Fubuki’s fear that Saitama would over take her in rankings has come true, but because she refused to give up B-Class Rank 1 until recently. Serves her right!

That goes Blue, challenging everyone and everything. Over and above his zeal, just what is this kid’s problem?

He’s right about how Saitama works, but wrong in thinking it intentional. It’s just that Saitama doesn’t care and the HA doesn’t credit him properly.

Since the MA arc, Genos may have a rather quiet and preoccupied expression, but not when it comes to spotting people who may be sniffing around his master more closely than he’d like. Good to see some things don’t change.

We know that Blue is half-right about his suspicions, that someone is tinkering with monsters to make them stronger and releasing them to strategic impact. We know also that the HA and Metal Knight do keep monsters for various reasons. What we know that Blue doesn’t is that all the monster-hero interactions favour the Neo-Heroes, and that someone’s behind the Neo-Heroes, pulling strings. The call is coming from inside your house, Blue.

While Saitama has agreed to work with Genos on investigating what the HA gets up to, I’m not entirely sure he’s understood what Genos means. Ah well, I guess we’ll find out in due course! Whatever be the case, I hope Genos doesn’t attack Dr. Bofoi directly -- all that guy has to say is to denounce Genos as the ‘mad’ cyborg and the tables will be turned quite handily.

Two things more. 1. It looks like the clash between Puri Puri and Raiden did not end with either side taking prisoners, or they’d not be able to simply not talk about it to the media. I wonder why the silence, hehe. 2. Metal Bat? What happened to him? If he beat those guards to a pulp, I’m sure the Neo Heroes wouldn’t be going about business as usual, and if he’d disappeared, that’d also be a problem. Hmm.... want answers, please.

Btw, Suiko tearing up about her brother, *mwah* She’s a good girl.

#opm webcomic #review #Fubuki #Psykos #Saitama #Genos #Suiko #Suiryu #Blue #Hero Victim Names Association #they're right about the damaging effect of bad names #and it's sad that the Hero Association higher-ups have gone into a siege mentality and aren't listening to anyone #not an action-packed chapter #but I'm enjoying what this is building up to be #OPM #One Punch Man

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breathingwysteria · 3 years

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Hyperbole & A Half; Illustrated Novels as Gateways to More Traditional Comics

Hyperbole and a Half, autobiographical webcomic blog, turned illustrated novel; One! Hundred! Demons!, autobiographical comic compilation of personal “demons;” both detail the funny, heartwarming, and often ugly parts of the human experience as they unfold for each author as an individual. Both are told in short story form, with an intra-homodiagetic narrator (the author serves as both narrator and active character), accompanied by illustrated panels that invoke a sense of physical and emotional movement that the reader can easily conceptualize. With so many major similarities, why does each work receive such different classifications? What makes a comic a comic and not an illustrated novel? How do these seemingly disparate definitions affect the way we read them? Can illustrated novels be considered gateway materials to comics? I think so. Before we jump into that exact why, let’s look at the defining characteristics of comics.

Text, images, and some semblance of sequential flow in time and space are the most major markers of comics, utilized throughout history, found in ancient work like Egyptian tomb paintings all the way up to modern comics and manga. Speech bubbles erupt from the mouths of static character images, narration is often delineated by straight-lined boxes and a change in tone, real movement through space and time happens in the empty “gutters” between panels. Although illustrated novels and comics are constructed differently, they are still processed in the brain in fundamentally the same way. Children’s literacy researcher, Evelyn Arizpe, notes that when reading illustrated stories, regardless of form (comics or traditional storybooks), “the eye moves between one part of the picture and another, piecing together the image like a puzzle.” If picture books and comics are processed in the brain in the same way, why are they considered different mediums? Linguist and cognitive scientist, Neil Cohn, applies his academic specialties to comics, attributing the difference to things like panel placement and what he calls “navigational structure,” the direction our eyes track when piecing images in a comic together to create a sense of coherence when reading.

Traditional storybooks, unlike comics, typically utilize one image per page to convey everything from character relationships to arrested motion; comics achieve a more fluid and nuanced version of this by using panels as snapshots or windows into character worlds. Where then does the illustrated novel fall between these two states, and where does Hyperbole and a Half land? Illustrated novels rely more heavily on the text narrative of the story and the readers imagination, associated images usually only serve to enhance the story world or solidify ideas and images that would otherwise be difficult to conceptualize or to emphasize an exciting or emotional moment in the narrative. Hyperbole and a Half leans more heavily toward the multiple-panel style of comics to help amplify the narrative. Perhaps this stems from the novel’s genesis as a blog-turned-book. In 2009, Hyperbole and a Half author, Allie Brosh began a blog of the same name, where she chronicled events from her personal life, like the adoption of one of her two dogs; illustrated pet peeves, like the internet usage of “alot,” a misspelling of “a lot,” personified as a shaggy, fang-toothed monster; or her fear of spiders, captured by an image of an oval with spindly appendages replete with strapped-on knives, guns, and a swastika tattooed above the eyes. Brosh’s book maintains the same familiar tone, regularly interspersing images meticulously drawn by the author herself. Her use of illustrated images that convey character motion, emotional state, and even dialogue exchanges are reminiscent of both regular comics and contemporary memes.

In Brosh’s chapter titled “Motivation,” she chronicles her own struggle with self-starting and follow-through. She illustrates a frequent conversation she has between the “her” who knows she must complete a task, and the “her” who continues to procrastinate for no conceivable reason. Instead of floating thought bubbles, she makes this conversation concrete by utilizing a kind of split screen effect,where both versions of herself take up space within the same panel, as does their dialogue.

Most of Brosh’s panels behave in the same way, providing the reader with concrete examples of often abstract concepts, like internal monologue and discussions with oneself.

One! Hundred! Demons!author, Lynda Barry, achieves this same concept by forcefully changing the reader’s perspective. As she reveals the story of her struggle with impostor syndrome as an author and her childhood tendency to let her imagination run away with the descriptions in the Classified section of the newspaper, the reader follows her through her childhood musings and is dropped into the middle of one of her fantastical plots.

Only when Barry transitions back to a narrative focused on her own more present-tense position as a narrator do we as readers get dragged back into the present-past-tense of her childhood self.

Brosh maintains a slightly smoother sense of temporal immediacy by clumping her panels in “Motivation” together, as one “Motivation Game.” Readers are taken along the same journey, into and back out of, the author’s imagination and altered psychological state, but Barry’s follows tactics familiar to comic readers, while Brosh blurs those lines a bit for readers unused to comics.

This difference in delivery of the protagonist’s inner-world carries over into the way dialogue is associated with each character as well. In the above examples, from One! Hundred! Demons!, Barry uses the classic speech bubbles historically associated with comics; Brosh, on the other hand, utilizes both classic speech bubbles as well as free-floating text that the reader infers to be audible speech through context clues.

In the chapter “The Helper Dog is an Asshole,” Brosh retells the story of her and her partner’s adoption of a second issue-riddled shelter dog. She uses both dialogue vehicles on one page, in succession, the traditional speech bubbles allow each character in the top panel to convey separate thoughts, while the speech in the middle panel is only spoken by Brosh’s caricature of herself, as she is the only character “facing” the audience.

Brosh utilizes a similarly comic-style tactic when expressing active motion or a change in mental or emotional state. In “The God of Cake,” she recounts a childhood obsession with conquering her mothers demands that she not decimate her grandfather’s homemade birthday cake with her youthful inability to control her own sugar intake. She masterfully illustrates this rapid descent into the kind of one-track-minded madness only children ever master with a four-page sequence of successively blurry panels.

No, that’s not a mistake of my scanner, it’s printed that way in the book; while a little difficult to read, I think it conveys an emotional whirlwind with an immediacy that helps the reader understand just how much untamed tenacity is bubbling beneath the surface for this child character through the remainder of this chapter.

Another tactic that Brosh employs, that seems like a holdover from her work’s origin as an online blog, is her use of a colored filter over a panel to illustrate distress or another intense emotion. In the same chapter retelling her story of the “helper dog,” Brosh lists the myriad and often confounding behavior issues the new dog frequently displays, like her visceral and adverse reaction to other dogs. Brosh posits that the new dog must simply be unable to comprehend or abide by the fundamental existence of other dogs in the world. To depict the abrupt and unpredictable change in this dog’s mental state, Brosh uses a red tinted filter, along with grumpy-looking smiley faces and hand-written text over her base illustration of her new dog lunging toward another dog in the distance, teeth bared.

You can almost hear the Kill Bill sirens going off in the background.

While Brosh’s artistic approach is reminiscent of internet memes, it also resembles the cartoon-y illustrated style of altered mental states in comics. In One! Hundred! Demons!, Barry juxtaposes alternating bright contrasting colors with radiating squiggly lines in a few of her panels to symbolize the acid trip she and her truncated crush are having on their roam through China Town and Skid Row.

Instead of giving the audience a sense of almost seeing through the perspective of her dog’s psyche, like Brosh does, Barry’s interpretation of her own childhood experience makes the reader feel a little like a sober friend along for the ride, understanding what’s happening, but not able to reach quite the same level of empathy.

Although comics are typically regarded as a reading material relegated to childhood hobbies, books that fall between the borders of comics and illustrated novels, like Hyperbole and a Half, prove their usefulness as a narrative medium, and for readers afraid of being seen reading a full-blown comic—or have never even attempted it, can consider them the shallow end of the comics pool, a lighter commitment than the image-heavy ocean of traditional comics.

Brosh, Allie. Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened. Gallery Books, 2019.

ISBN: 978-1-4767-6459-7

#this is for a class assignment #I will not be keeping track of discourse or suggestions

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kihaku-gato · 3 years

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Random Webcomic Reccomendations

This post is dedicated to bringing to the spotlight several webcomics

(some would be considered webmanga but I’m counting them too since they are primarily presented on webcomic websites) which I’ve been enjoying that I hope can get more traction/fandom with this post. Due to my personal tastes I can say many/most have a sci fi or fantasy theming as well as some (definitely not all) have wlw as well.

Since this post will be quite extensive, I’ll first start with a “table of contents” for those who don’t want synopsises or ramblings, but instead just want titles and want to just check them out themselves.

Bybloemen

My Dragon Girlfriend

Sanguine

Straylight Tiger

Cariciphona

Amongst Us

Kiss It Goodbye

Mokepon

Seven Miles Down

UnDivine

Bybloemen

Hosted on its own website under hiveworkscomics

This is a historical semi-fantasy set during the infamous Tulip Mania period of Dutch/European history when people would pay an arm and a leg for even a single potentially valuable tulip bulb.

In this setting we follow two devils Basil and Ludwig and their avian familiars strut into the action, pretending to be foreign investors getting in on the tulip hype, probably to ensnare some desperate souls, all the while keeping man and beast alike from catching sus that they are not as human as they claim to be.

As of writing this the story is just starting up but is already making quite the unique statement. The distinct black and white artstyle is clearly holding homage to the historical “Woodcut” printmaking style in how it’s drawn, lined, and textured, which is a refreshing way to artistically state that the comic is “set in the past” w/o doing just grayscale or sepia tone that one is used to seeing for media set in historical times.

The interactions between the devils as well as the animals they can communicate with so far have been quite amusing.

If you don’t directly use hiveworkscomics for your usual webcomic browsing (so don’t get notified by it) they do have both a tumblr and twitter which frequently announce/link its updates. Bonus following their twitter/tumblr being you get to see occasionally “sketches” (I say that term very loosely) of the characters outside of the webcomic series if you’re into that.

My Dragon Girlfriend

Available on Webtoons and Twitter

Fantasy alongside modern era setting. It is primarily a wlw webcomic series about a human girl named Christy who is swept off her feet by a dragon girl named Dani, semi-magical/mythical wlw hijinks ensue. It’s hard for me to pin its identity entirely, cause while I wanna say it’s a “Slice of Life” the webcomic is at the point where Dani is fighting a werewolf tooth and nail so it’s hard to pin. It’s clearly romance genre, as even if Dani and Chirsty end up together lickity split (a blink of the eye compared to the slow-burn of most romance stories) there are other wlw subplots going on with secondary primary characters which you’ll be routing for.

It has its steamy moments and implies sex but not so far as to show full-on nudity of the main characters characters. Though there is some nudity of some of the monstergirls such as the fawn girls on the other hand it does not beat around the bush with, but luckily takes the nudity in a natural non-sexual way Correction as of writing this; only the Twitter version shows nudity, they had to censor with bras on Webtoons cause it got flagged.

If you want it hotter/steamier, sign up to the artist’s patreon. It’s definitely a nice softish wlw webomic if you’re craving a lil monstergirl flavour.

Sanguine

Available on Tapas and Webtoons

Full-on adventure fantasy setting set in a world where magic and mages have been persecuted to the point of going into secrecy.

It stars a cute red-riding-hood-like implied secret-royal (that was too much a mouthful) lady named Red, and a tall gorgeous beefy secretly mage lady named Morgan which Red has dragged into her shenanigans with.

It’s early to call this a wlw gem as of the current updates, but it is tagged as lgbt+ so take that with potential further wisdom.

This webcomic uses colour a fair bit to set its tone/mood, but otherwise has a very comfy/warm feeling about it somehow, like some of those old comics/webcomics/novels you would welcome to read while snuggled under blankets. Also the outfits are REALLY nicely designed, and I could definitely see some peeps having fun cosplaying many of these characters.

As the story slowly progresses I am holding with baited breath to how Red and Morgan’s interactions/relationship may or may not evolve, as I am totally an absolute sucker for “friendly/bubbly naïveish character dragging along the cool/grumpy don’t-get-involved character that has a hidden soft heart” trope.

Straylight Tiger

Available on Webtoons and Tapas

WARNING- while infrequent this one has some blood/gore that will shake you up, though it puts it where it would be most sensible to. Lucky for you most blood in this series is not the usual human-red blood which tones the edge down.

It may have lots of fantasy elements but this one definitely holds its identity as Sci Fi. Set in a futuristic cyberesque city full of both good and bad superhumans (one group being animal shapeshifters and the other being elemental casters), there is an extremist cult out to wreck havoc in the city, so a company responds by recruiting a handful of individuals from all 3 races to make a secret task force to eliminate the threat.

The main character in this story is a secretly-a-tiger shapeshifter named Angeline.

This is probably the most visually colourful of the webcomics in my list and is really using it to charge up its stylistic sci fi setting. Best way I could compare it to; you know those glow-in-the-dark cyber avatars you occasionally see in VRchat? Straylight Tiger matches that visual energy. Of listed so far this is also the most action-packed webcomic on the list. I could almost call it a Trigger-like comic but luckily unlike Studio Trigger it’s not into going nuts on fanservice.

If you’re craving your superhuman sci fi action, this one should at least be checked out. I want to say there’ll be wlw at some point, but it’s too early to call, and if it does I would not expect it to be a major arc when it has larger fish for plot points to deal with.

If you’re craving wlw of at least mc and her weapons-savvy human friend, I highly recommend you checking out the artist Flying Frappe’s twitter to get some sating for you wlw cravings for the two.

Caricophona

Available on webtoons as well as its own webcomic site

Tragic fantasy setting starring a supermagical woman named Veloice as she is hunted by an Assassin. I tag it as there is an undertone of death in some of the arcs, which give this colourfully magical world a more sombre tone. Among the webcomics on the list this one may be steepest when it comes to catching to speed of the world’s setting/rules/hierarchies but once you do you’ll hunger for this more.

I can’t entirely make a perfect comparison for it (Full Metal Alchemist is as close as I could compare and they are still as different to each other as apples and oranges) but it really has that rich nostalgic old manga style/world/tone to it, and its most welcome to as well.

The world building is rich, and Veloice is a mental/magical powerhouse even if at times she has a fragility about her. The fact she’s a Caricophona; magical beings which tend to either get persecuted or expire early at age from their own condition, definitely helps with giving her a almost “glass canon” energy about her.

While those points have definitely helped hook me in, the thing that tends to excite me the most in this webcomic is Veloice’s interactions with the assassin who’s been send to kill her, named Blackbird. The tension between them, the fact Blackbird both wants to toy with her, Blackbird’s somewhat flirtatious nature towards Veloice OMFG I EAT IT UP!!!! They have such a enemies to lovers feeling to them (though no, they are not lovers- we can dream though) which just gets you so excited.

I should also mention there are two other “primary characters” in the group. Two rich naïve kids ready to help Veloice however they can. You grow to like them (even if they hit tropes that may strike a nerve if you’re tired to their character type), but the mvp of this webcomic for character and interaction has to be Veloice and Blackbird.

Amongst Us

Available on webtoons and its own website

Say you like Veloice and Blackbird from the previous webcomic, but find the hefty fantasy setting a bit too much, and you’re more for the romance? What if I told you the artist was galaxy brained enough to make a chiller AU? That is what Amongst Us is; a music college-set slice of life with a slow burn romance between Veloice and Blackbird. They’re dorky, their cute, and seeing some of the characters you’re familiar with in Caricophona in a different setting is nice to see.

In some ways Veloice is less proactive in Amongst Us but still feels very in-character of her. The webcomic would end pretty quick if Veloice were to get-to-the-point with Blackbird after all (granted with how we see them in the future together at the start of the webcomic it’s not like they have to be in a hurry anyways).

Seeing a wlw / slice of life set in a college setting rather than a high school setting is extremely welcome. Please, more of this.

Kiss it Goodbye

Available on Webtoons

Slice of Life high-school beginnings of wlw romance. The artstyle is good, the characters are lovely. We know canonically that they end up together (as the webcomic starts with them in the future where they are a couple, as they begin to weave the story to their curious friends wanting to know how their romance came to be).

It’s not an unwelcome Slice of Life.

BONUS / HONORABLE MENTIONS

Mokepon

Available on h0lyhandgrenade’s website

I have honestly not read this one in a while and dropped it like, several years ago, but it was interesting and is still ongoing, so I had to mention it. Set in the Pokemon universe, it stars the main character who has been thrown into the pokemon trainer career while absolutely wanting nothing to do with it. Ends up becoming a rocket grunt which is an interesting change of perspective from many pokemon fancomics. It has old-nuzelocke energy though it is not a Nuzelocke. Be prepared for the brutality as you cry for the pokemon (especially his pikachu). The undying loyalty of his Charmander as he himself struggles with his position as a trainer/grunt is interesting. He is definitely not the usual pokemon trainer protag you’re used to.

Seven Miles Down

Available on Webtoons

A completed oneshot psychological horror where a girl takes her submarine to the deepest unventured oceanic trench in the world. Tragic end, but horrors can be like that. The psychological nature of the horror is an interesting angle. The rounded cute style may throw you off but it works.

UnDivine

Availabe on its own website via hiveworkscomics

This comic has since been cancelled from continuation, but is the webcomic to set me off in making this list, so it will still be mentioned in memory/tribute, and is the grand example of why you should interact with the webcomics you read as well as share them; there is a good chance they will not hold on their own without fan interaction and traction. Excuse me as I just use two full-on pages cause I’m wearing out on this list and browsing through tons and tons of pages for highlights wears a peep out.

Modern-set religious fantasy on an island where local their religion may be more than it seems. Stars a boy named Daniel, and Esther the Demon girl. From what can be gleaned the Demongirl knew the “god” of the island’s religion and was double crossed, so has a bone to pick with them and their “angelic” entourage now that she’s free when she got accidentally summoned by Daniel.

This webcomic loves its use of blood, but your grow used to it after a point. The setting is interesting, and its also cool to see how the “angels” are far from the usual “pretty human-like” in their true form and are instead more monstrous than you could say even the Demon Esther is.

A lot of what makes this comic interesting, outside of the “revenge against a god” main plot going on, is how messy the characters can be.

Daniel, Esther, and the one angel named Manual are all pretty interesting in how they interact with their roles that they’ve been put in and how they react to others, and are all very morally grey complex characters.

Daniel is an angst machine who tends to really wear himself out (though how he’s positioned/pressured by the world doesn’t help) and shoot himself in the foot a lot, and that’s even before Esther “turns” him into her lil monstrous pawn, not something you commonly see in main characters from the get-go.

Esther (the tall blondie) while being a Demon ready to get her vengeance on is in many ways naïve/childlike despite her powerful nature, and despite using Daniel as her pawn is shown to grow to have feelings/care for Daniel which is very interesting for “The Contracted Devil” position.

Manual…. We haven’t gotten to see a lot but it’s clear he’s meant to be the angelic hero position but its clear he does not like the position, and he also has a thing for a human woman named Rosamaria but we have not gotten to see why that’s the case.

This webcomic didn’t get the traction it needed to keep going, so was recently cancelled by the artist.

#webcomics #reccomendations #long post #wall of text #comics #manga #Bybloemen #Undivine #Straylight tiger #Cacicophona #Amongst Us #Mokepon #My Dragon girlfriend #Kiss It Goodbye #Sanguine #I probably missed a webcomic on the list to tag but I am very very tired atm

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iwillgetridofyourangerforyou · 4 years

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While I'm losing hope on next OPM season being animated (still disappointed at S2 quality), I'm definitely super hyped for Murata's manga version of Garou vs Saitama! We've already seen how epicly drawn Psykorochi vs Tatsumaki+Genos fights in recent chapters, especially on the super detailed drawing and god-tier artstyle for it. Can't wait how Murata will makes us jawdropping at his art again for Saitama&Garou's confrontation, since ONE's webcomic version was already amazing! How about you?

Hello anon~

thanks for the ask, your timing is quite good. I’ve been wanting to talk to someone about OPM again.

I agree. I’m not sure what to make of where the anime will go from here but I haven’t been particularly sad about that since I absolutely fell in love with Murata’s art. D:

I’m still a bit ravenous for any new content the creators can send our way except the live action but who knows maybe I’ll even give that a chance, but at this point every new chapter update for either the Manga or the webcomic has been well worth the wait.

The part where I start getting more specific about Spoilers

I am also super excited to see how Murata draws the Saitama confronting Garou. I imagine we still have at least a few chapters to go before we get to that moment though, and I am still looking forward to every single one. Murata has really been going all out drawing Garou and so I’m especially excited to see his take on Garou’s full monster form and in what subtle ways his character design will have changed from the original once he returns.

The amount of symbolism in the Manga is also pretty interesting and I’m curious to see what more conceptual connections are being made in the story as Murata draws it.

If the Manga follows the webcomic as closely as I assume it will we also won’t see much of Garou for a while, which unless they handle it delicately, will seem a bit jarring after everything we’ve been through with him as readers.

This is the part where I list spoilers to describe my excitement.

There are so so many little webcomic moments I’m looking forward to seeing in Murata’s style. From Tank Top Master’s training, Bofoi’s construction techniques and hoards of robots, King’s search for a Master and Atomic Samurai’s sword cutting test, I’m looking forward to seeing not-so-overgrown-rover, and the moment when Fubuki’s followers decide to follow her even though she’s focusing on building her own strength. Tatsumaki vs Saitama will be a jaw dropping fight for sure, especially after the precedent Murata set in the recent chapters.

This is the part were I talk about Genos again. Because that’s kind of the whole point of my blog sometimes.

Unfortunately, my excitement is mixed with a bit of apprehension. ONE and Murata don’t hold back when it comes to Cyborg Gore and our friend Genos is in for the worst he’s seen yet. And that will be nothing compared to the jeers cheers of the haters on reddit and other platforms. That’ll be exhausting, it is already exhausting. I’m interested to see how Genos looks when he comes back, I doubt he’ll keep the dragon inspired armor look, but maybe he’ll keep some features of it? It would almost hurt more if he discarded everything about the look entirely as if he saw what happened as nothing but a loss.

The way ONE drew Genos post MA is already so heartbreaking, seeing Murata’s style will be like experiencing all that pain again in high definition. For so long I’ve just wanted him to be OK but he’s getting less and less ‘OK’ and the resolution is still on the horizon. And I imagine during that whole time Genos hate will not subside, it might even get worse. Although, it might get a little better because ONE makes a point to show us that Genos has gotten a lot stronger multiple times, not that that’s ever stopped the haters before. (side note: I think one part of the reason the haters annoy me so much is because I think there is a really important story Genos’ character is telling us that may even be especially relevant to some of the people who like to hate on him the most but I worry that they’re unreceptive to the story.)

I don’t handle unanswered questions very well. Especially when I get personally invested in the questions. That part of the reason I struggle so much with existential dread. I may have some ideas about some of the themes ONE might choose to go with for Genos’ story partially from reading other works but I won’t really be satisfied until I get it ‘from the horses mouth’. For that reason I am almost more excited about webcomic updates than Manga updates. When the last Manga chapter dropped I quickly got caught up in the excitement but for a moment I was just like ‘oh. OH YEAH! The Manga! that’s a thing that’s still happening Yay~’.

Basically the Summary

I have to admit I definitely got an unexpectedly high dopamine rush from the last Manga chapter. I’m not 100% my tolerance is low enough anymore for Murata to top that experience for me but that doesn’t mean I’m not excited.

Thanks again for the ask!

#OPM webcomic #webcomic spoilers #opm spoilers #one punch man webcomic spoilers #seriously #there are spoilers here #asks #ask #anon

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