aphlune/moon goddess Aphmau redraw :3

Avra, lunar goddess of bears, feasts, and The Hunt.

the OG below:

Merry the ho ho, all of yous !

Alright, guess it’s time to address the apocalyptic legal elephant in the room:

For those who might not know, WotC plans were leaked to “update” the OGL in what is basically a scorched earth policy with regards to 3rd party material/creators in the hopes of cutting out the competition and forcing people to use their new products. 

As someone who lived through the 4th edition/pathfinder schism, the situation is laughably similar:  D&D is flourishing more than it ever has (thanks primarily to the OGL) but the execs at Hasbro want more of the money spent on the hobby to wind up in their pockets. Oblivious to the fact that the opensource nature of the game is what draws people to it,  they task the design team with creating a proprietary virtual tabletop through which they can sell d&d content without having to worry about books or pdfs being pirated. This rightfully outrages the fandom and burns every scrap of good will they had towards WotC, resulting in a dead edition that’s maligned years afterword as folks hop to the newer, easier game system. 

The thing that’s different this time is that the d&d playerbase has grown exponentially since the days of the first OGL, with 5th edition being the easiest version of the game to run/pick up and so many resources online, there’s almost no barrier to entry besides finding a stable/accommodating group.   Hell, with the explosive popularity of liveplay series you don’t even need to be actively playing in order to be in the fandom.  All of these people are networked together in a fandom hivemind spread across twitter/reddit/youtube and WotC just made an enemy of every single one of them with its shameless and destructive cashgrab.  No streamer or 3rd party publisher wants to give Hasbro 25% of their revenue, to say nothing of having their project “cancelled” if WotC sees it as a threat to any of their current projects ( see the huge number of spelljammer materials published after the company dropped the ball). 

It took about two years after the announcement of 4th edition for Paizo to come out with pathfinder, and I have no doubt the OGL leak kickstarted every major 3rd party publisher brainstorming some legally distinct version of the 5e ruleset. In the coming months I expect to see a number of these surrogate systems floating around the internet in much the same way that the onednd playtest content, but spurred on with the added “fuck you Hasbro” energy. After that, it’s only a matter of time till one of the big streamers picks up one of these systems and popularizes it, not wanting to pay the 25%tithe to WotC. Personally my money’s on Critical Role: they were one of the major factors in popularizing 5th edition and they’ve got the fandom pull to legitimize any claimant to the throne. 

To step away from playing oracle for a bit, I’d like to finish up this post by dunking on WotC:  

*ahem*

HOW FUCKING DUMB TO YOU HAVE TO BE TO TURN YOUR ENTIRE CUSTOMER BASE AGAINST YOU IN ONE NIGHT? This is some new coke/Reynolds pamphlet/invading Russia in winter levels of shooting yourself in the foot. Wizards was on shaky ground to begin with given that they’re coming off a series of notably disappointing products AND trying to launch a new edition/virtual tabletop/battlepass system, but to follow that up with a retroactive rules change that lets them outright steal from or shut down creators? It’s laughable.  Maybe, MAYBE they could have made this work if they were knocking it out of the park with new releases every year and cultivating a base of diehard WotC loyalists, but the fact of the matter is that aside from the brand name, the hobby has largely passed them by. Everything that Wizards does, from player options to settings to monsters to rules modules, someone else does better because they’re willing to take risks and put in the effort. Aside from the elegant simplicity of 5e’s base system, I can count maybe two pieces of actual game design (piety from Theros, ship combat from Saltmash) that I consider usable at my table, which is SAYING SOMETHING considering we’re nearing the end of the game’s ten year golden age. 

I know we’ll weather this storm, we always have, and regardless of what happens I still know my friends and I will enjoy gathering around the table and slinging dice even though we might not be playing “dungeons and dragons” in a couple years time.  I’ll keep my eye on the horizon, and let you know where I find safe harbour.

Merry Christmas from the artist! I bring a surprise gift: concept art for the King of Bohemia!

Above: The first page of sketches I ever did, dated February 6 - a week before the comic even started! At this point I was only just starting to play around with pallid mask imagery. The initial aesthetic was a lot different, but I already had the idea to have the King's more monstrous aspects "growing" out of him. Also, bonus Malevolent joke.

Above: By July, I had a design in mind for the actual King in Yellow, so I knew an update to King Boho was in order. His crown is still kind of fungal-looking, but you can see some of the newer design elements starting to show up, like the ball joints and face markings.

Above: These sketches were completed shortly before the King made his in-person debut in the comic. The King in Yellow went through multiple redesigns behind the scenes, so the King of Bohemia had to be updated to match. I started with a drawing of what poor Wilhelm might have looked like had he not been rotting and falling apart, and worked backwards from there to create a busted-up, "half-baked" version.

TRADITIONAL DOOBLES!!

im not too big on here so i doubt i'll have many people who care to see or read this but. okay,,, i can't get these out of my head so i decided to whoopty-doo and post all my old to newest paper art of the arcana!! majority of these are old and just my apprentice, Andrea, and Julian with occasional Asra so i am so sorry if you wanna see other characters (which i have drawn others so please lmk if you wanna see them!!) and what better than to post a shit ton of these drawings and then explain some (because you'll probably need it)

buckle up because these a lot to unload.

my first ever time drawing our beloved leech doctor!! (what a sight he is...) and my first ever creation of Andrea! see, Andrea started out majorly as another self insert persona, but then developed his own personality and individual structure. Andrea has never changed design over the months of having him, but his overall vibe has been tweeked, he's no longer as outgoing and awkward (well, he's still awkward, just much less sheepish) and more reserved and.... just. quieter (for the most part)

more funny haha Juliandy!! ft. some cute comics with Asra! at the time i was torn between Julian and Asra so i casually shipped Andrea with both, seeing as i was newer but over time, Julian inevitably sweeped me off my feet and i ended up adoring him. but! i do have a separate self insert MC for him as well 😭 more on him in another post. also! featuring the super cringe biologically impossible ship child i gave them! Dianna P. Devorak! its just a small dooble but i might post more of her if any of the void (you guys) is interested!!

small interactions with my friend's MCs!! meet (first one) Auster!! and (second one) Harper! i love them dearly!!

i remember making this while going stir crazy listening to lana del ray in my history class. i was so proud of it. i've come far!!

unfortunately, this is all i can show in this post but another one will be up shortly of the more RECENT art! (and by shortly, i mean literally after i post this one) :P

Some questions for the Purgatory Royal AU :D

(most of them will be Soulfire related, because I love Soulfire so so much)

• You said Eggs will be a part of it. What about new ones? Do you plan to include them as well?

• Is Tubbo in any way connected to Chayanne and Tallulah? Considering that I assume him and Phil are not close.

• Are they all human + angel Phil? Or their canonical species are still included?

• What’s Niki’s role in the Soulfire Kingdom?

• Are their kingdom/bases aesthetic similar to the Purgatory? I dont mean the whole mountains/jungles/etc bit, I mainly mean if their bases specifically influenced your visions and designs (does Soulfire still have the prettiest kingdom?))))))))

• Are Bagi and Bad friends?

• If it’s not too much, tell me about Tubbo’s dynamics with as many characters as you want. I love the idea of him as a young king just trying his best, and I adore most of the dynamics he has in canon, so I just want to hear more (especially for Blue Co-leaders and CritDuo)

SOULFIRE SWEEP!! HEHEH...once more this got away from me so have a read more XD

New eggs are planned to be introduced later on! I haven't decided how just yet but I feel like a lot of the newer eggs will make intresting dynamics with all the kingdoms still being mid-war with each other basically. Tubbo's not connected to the two here in this au, sadly, I'd love to have them meet but he's not their godfather. Though work with me here, non-canon to this au for rn, but Tubbo on a diplomatic mission and suddenly meeting these two kids not realizing their Phil's. Just acting like he does with any child and their instantly enamored by the young man. CANONICAL HYBRID AND SPECIESSS, I can't make any au even slive of life where everyone is human, it's not my speed. Everyone in this has some kinda weird hybrid traits or otherwise something special for me and me alone. Niki's role to me in much of the soulfire streams wasn't agriculture or fighting but in general she was very much a scout. I can see her being very stealthy and trying to stay hidden while spying or scouting ahead of any party. Oh yes!! bases definitely had an influence but since these kingdoms have been around for a long while it means they're a lot more developed in their aesthetics! Soulfire definitely still has that warm glow to it that the og base had. I need to draw like a small room from each of these kingdoms and how it would look! maybe the kings rooms? That might be fun! :D Bagi and Bad are friends, or well as close as you can get at first when a demon council member finds you flirting with his co-worker. He found out quickly that Bagi and Tina have a thing and has been an annoyance since but he did also vouch for bagi and the other half of ggn when they came for help from Soulfire. TUBBO TIME HEHE. Lets start with co-leaders! Bad def gets on tubbo's nerves at first, trying to 'assist' him as a new king, however the two regularly are on the same wavelength about issues. Though bad does sometimes go extreme in his methods...Bad also is the one to regularly train Tubbo and give him the latest gadgets for battle. Tina meanwhile is constantly updating Tubbo on whats going on in the internals of soulfire, she's his eyes and ears for the base, she's one of his right hands and he knows that if he asks her for something she will have it done as fast as she can. Tubbo and Etoiles where good friends, seeing as Etoiles was already close to Aypierre, the two of them have known each other for longer than Tubbo has been king. He looks up to Etoiles in certain things and has always enjoyed one upping the other king in other regards. They where the honorable fighters, the ones who always kept their morlas, they where the two who understood each other in battle. Their relationship however takes a huge hit when Etoiles joins Bolas, even if he's still the honorable fighter, Tubbo won't forgive him for what he did. Tubbo's relation to the other king, Phil, is far more...strange. Phil of course has a poor relationship with Soulfire but when it comes to Tubbo the angel seems to view him in a semi-positive light. Tubbo is young, stubborn, and full of life. He would do amazing things if not cooped up with soulfire. Phil will eventually extend a hand to Tubbo, to go the same way as GGN, to give everything up for the freedom he promises. Another relationship I really wanna explore for him is his relationship to Aypierre. Since I kinda wanna keep a semi-antagonistic vibe they have in canon but in the lighthearted way they have pranks and jabs. It's not until things get very scary that they start fighting but for the most part I want them to feel like real brothers. They will jab, tease, prank and yell at each other but in the end Aypierre will always want Tubbo to be safe and protected. Tubbo will also always want his brother safe and away from anymore accidents (we can't keep building robots!!) Hope this was good!! It def is long I have a lot of ideas for this !!!

From running these, does it seem like older Pokemon tend to be more popular versus newer ones, or is it any pokemons game? I feel like I tend to see older 'mons winning in matchups against newer ones the majority of the time, but that might be some sort of confirmation bias on my end.

Whew ok! Sorry this took me so long to reply to. This kinda caught me right at the start of the busy period, and I didn't want to give it a half-assed answer, especially because I wasn't really super sure if I was seeing any notable trends. (Most of the time I dedicate to maintaining this event is spent setting things up instead of reviewing data!)

Here are some rough and probably not precisely accurate numbers:

For my health I don't have the time to write out proper descriptions, so hopefully my discussion will be helpful enough, especially because it can be fairly easy to draw some inaccurate conclusions from this specifically because it uses a lot of hard numbers vs ratios.

You can find that down here ⬇ (readmored for scrollability)

First table:

Gen 2 and Gen 7 (!) are performing the strongest overall. Gen 9 and Gen 5 (!!) are performing the most poorly. I figure Gen 9 isn't faring too well for a multitude of reasons -- most notably, I think, people haven't really had time to grow attached to these guys yet. To speculate on Gen 5, I have a few theories. Gen 5 introduced a lot of new Pokemon, interest gets spread out (though I am surprised that age-group nostalgia isn't helping it more along here...). If I recall correctly, a lot of the designs were also quite heavily critiqued, though I've never paid much attention to that sort of commentary.

I'm honestly surprised that Gen 1 is that close to even, but then I don't think it helps that a lot of the less popular designs keep popping up to be repeatedly swept... The data set isn't large enough to avoid being easily influenced by various sub-tournaments haha.

Second table:

This one looks at each generation and how it compares to matches where it was paired with older generations. Earlier generation results are less helpful because, for instance, Gen 2 only has to contend with Gen 1, but Gen 8 has to contend with Gens 1-7... I wasn't sure how to break this up more properly, and I've already spent so much time on this 😅 I could probably figure it out with time but I don't want to keep this ask on hold for like 3 more months. I think it's interesting to see how notably well Gen 7 performs here, like it has a notable number of wins though it's dealing with 6 entire generations.

Anyway, more red in the ratios (basically, more instances where Pokemon of a given generation lost to older gens more than they won) supports the hypothesis.

Third table:

Basically the opposite of the above. More green means more generations that fared better against the generations after it. Gen 5 is the only one who doesn't have this, but it's even. It's won as many Gen 6-9 polls as it's lost

Gen 8 being the strongest here is a little funny, but it just means that Gen 8 has been performing super well when specifically placed in contrast to Gen 9. The fact that there are so few polls in this category probably is why the ratio can get so high at all though.

Generation Gap Average:

This one's a bit hard for me to explain but it basically is concerned with how much the earliest generations perform against the latest generations, but close-generation matches take a lot of weight out of the end result. Basically though a smaller number means that the Generations aren't AS stratified. There's enough love for newer Gens vs older ones. This number hovered much closer to 1 for most of the data gathering.

Idk if this is helpful, but here's the formula:

=AVERAGE(ARRAYFORMULA(IF(B2:B-A2:A<>0, B2:B-A2:A,)))

The A col lists the winners and the losers are in B, so it's literally just averaging the difference between the winner and the loser. The best conclusion we can draw from this is that there is a preference toward older generations. If there was a preference toward newer ones, the number would be negative.

Old/New:

Literally just the number of older generation wins divided by newer generation wins, which you can see right next to that, so yeah older Gens, relative to the other Gen in the poll, have quite a bit of a lead.

Other notes:

In more recent polls, voting is actually skewing more toward later generations, but at the start, which notably voted on starters, voting was HEAVILY skewed toward older generations vs newer ones. It was unfortunately because I noticed this that I ended up having to collect data from all the (relevant) polls because those trends pretty strongly impacted the results...

Anyway! I don't feel confident to make any conclusions outright, but now at least we have an idea of what the numbers look like right now! Lots can be gleaned from this.

An old OC for an old meme lol

These are actually both the same guy but two different designs, the one on the left being the original and the one on the right being the 'newer' design.

But yeah one of my besty's @mangoshibi recently found and shared an old drawing she made of my old oc from middle school/highschool. He was a robot guy named Pro (short for Program) and he was an experimental learning ai that was made to see if ai could learn sapience. the ai is then later given a robot body and he had some adventures with some mines and Shibi's ocs.

Originally he was just an android made to look human and honestly he was kinda of a know-it-all. Fell into that trope of ' "intelligent" character must act like he's better than everyone to prove he's smart ' also had fighting robot powers sometimes.

Then when I was in college I tried to use him and his story for a story development project and I wrote a more legit story for him. But I never went anywhere with it after the project was done.

Then I visited him one more time, fiddled with his story once more and then came up that more cutesy design to make him look more like an actual robot. His personality was also more innocent and child-like since he's a new ai still learning how to person, less of a jerk for sure lol.

Anyways I now affectionately call them (left) Pro Beta and (right) New Pro+ lol. I might play around with them another time and see if I can like, combine them, into a singular story. cause I honestly adore both the old and new designs and I think they could have a fun dynamic.

anyways hope yall like them!

How did you get into stardew valley? :3c

OKAY SO, I've actually been playing stardew for a LONG time. Someone commissioned me to draw their farmer x their love interest and the game was the payment. Don't ask for this commission piece because I don't think I have it anywhere tbh???

I have the exact date too of when I got it because right after an 8 hour playing session, I drew the beta design for Reina!!! March 12th 2017! Was when I started playing and created Reina for the very first time. Her old name was Ria no last name and she married Alex and completed the community center, or at least I hope I did...now that I think about it, I hated fishing so RIP....

Then I stopped playing for about two years, picked it back up in 2019 when it was on sale because multiplayer just came out and you got FOUR copies I think for one...(DOn't quote me on that, I have a bad memory and that's what I remember) So I bought it for my friends!!! But they hated the game so I didn't get to play with them....I think they like it more now, but I feel like that's because I won't shut up about my headcanons of Reina and Alex lol. And while I was replaying again, I redrew Reina! For some reason I wanted her to be really pretty? And girly for some reason. I think it was to contradict the tomboyish farmers that I normally saw in media. Like the farmer girls were really wild and one of the boys so I was like "I think I just want a super girly farmer" and so I tried my hardest to make her look pretty.

I actually forgot she has to wear glasses but normally wears contacts, so now she's blind without glasses. anyways what was I going with this? Might as well post another newer drawing of Reina

Here she is now in 2022/2023

(Ignore that Alex drawing IT'S REALLY BAD) But here she is :D OH RIGHT STEPH YOU ARE ANOTHER BIGGGG REASON I am BACK in the Stardew fandom. Her AU is really good, I shoved my oc in there for funies lol. Plus I wanted Amari and Reina to be besties <33333

4/5/2024 - Fangst animation rework!

Hi again y'all, Hauk here! If you've been peeking at our discord channel lately, you might have noticed I've been posting a lot of animation WIP's. Thats because I'm in the process of reworking some of the oldest sprites in the project- walking and jumping!

It can take me up to a year to nail how I draw and animate a character. For our protagonist the thing that has taken the most time is definitely line stylization, proportions and leg silhouette. He's gotten bigger and bigger during development, not to mention spikier! Honestly its not that smart to design a tall character for a platformer, and there's a reason most platforming type characters have a very square hitbox. Its just easier to design challenges that way!

But i'm not changing gears now!! I wanted Fangst to have a tall handsome man as a player character, and i'm gonna stick to it!!

Here's a peek at the new walk animation. The arm holding his fishing rod is a static, separate sprite that is basically glued to the player with code for gameplay reasons.

We needed a smart way to change and add bounce to the rod without having a million variants of every sprite. Here are two iterations on how a static arm could be anchored to the player. I want him to carry himself with a confident sway, as though the whole world is his catwalk- so perhaps the full bounce of the second one is too much!

Speaking of bounce, the double jump animation! Right now he has the very placeholder double jump solution of turning into a small rotating orb sonic style, and its been a frustrating disconnect seeing as the hitbox ordinarily is quite big.

My goal for this animation is that i want him to do a sexy, elegant backflip. I started with a version with an upside down split, but after some iterations we agreed that the simpler one would be more readable and use-friendly. But an upside down split is kinda iconic... maybe we can use it elsewhere?

A platformer player will spend most of their time jumping around, so nailing a satisfying, easily readable jump is important in both animation and feel. Characterization is also important here- i want it to be obvious that our player character is athletic and elegant, and that these acrobatics cost him little effort.

However, i'm expecting a bit of a pickle implementation-wise. See, him turning into a sonic-style orb made the walljumps feel practically seamless. Will a fully animated backflip be equally friendly? The sprite will be a lot bigger. Truth is, a character turning into a ball is just really easy to design around.

Here's the current in-game sprites, featuring his old jumps, idle pose and miiildly disconnected placeholder arm with a smaller fishing rod. As you might have noticed, he's also a bit softer looking, and his boots are way smaller!

I think the newer sprites will make him have a more stylish, cool and recognizeable silhouette. It will be worth it to update these old things- after all, inbetween all this technical game design stuff, its just also really important to me that the player feels like a cool and professional monster hunting fisherman!

Thanks for keeping up with our project, we're doing our best to make Fangst a proper quality "You: A Hot Man, Kill Monster!" experience!!

-Hauk

im not sure if anyone asked you yet, but thoughts on the dunmeshi anime?

thanks for asking! sometimes i forget i exist here as a person cuz i just log on to queue random stuff without making posts 💀

it's pretty rare for me to watch an anime without ever reading the manga, and there've been stellar adaptations recently. ONK, kisekoi, BTR, frieren, CSM just to name a few. in a landscape where we're used to being disappointed as readers who have a frame of reference before watching a show, i had very, very high hopes for the dunmeshi adaptations that weren't quite fulfilled.

i'll dump everything under a cut since i actually have a lot to say, sorry if you were expecting it to be brief 😎

the lines in the artistic style are good, nicely translating the characters into animated format. really no notes there. definitely a nicer comparison for char designs between manga and anime vs. tonsuki and tensura who both have incredible manga styles that the anime stumble over (though in the latter's case, i don't think they were aiming for it sadly)

the shading has been fine, but weakened by the colour choices. some of the dungeon scenes (e.g., living armour stuff) are lit with a medium blue which helps to sell the idea of the scene being in a place not lit by fire (and contrasts it with the making camp & cooking scenes), but the lack of dark shading flattens some of these very well-drawn images.

the earlier chapters don't have the same level of detail as newer ones, but the art style is still fantastic - it's expressive with high contrast and shows action and impact perfectly well. manga will often times have a naturally easier way with contrast due to it being in black & white, but i don't think that means anime should just give up on contrast in favour of playing ineffectively with colour.

here's a night shot of fern from frieren. the choices made here allow for the shading to stand out from the flats and give her more definition overall while still being relatively simple (just flats + shading)

when dunmeshi has more "normal" lighting conditions, it does a lot better. similar to fern up there, there's about the same amount of difference between the flats and shadows, so i really wish they did a better job on the dungeon scenes since they're going to have to deal with non-torchlit scenes plenty. i won't argue that the living armor scene certainly has some kind of a sickly, alien mood to it, but tl;dr i think it should've had darker shading if not also being less green. this largely applies to every other blue-green lit scene they've done.

looking at kui's coloured drawings in the ed gives me an idea of what could've been and it makes me sad to lose out on colour choices more similar to that (even if they obviously can't have her level of detail on top of it)

some of the backgrounds haven't been too interesting but some have been good, overall it's probably fine. plus you can only draw and detail repeating bricks so many times before the viewer gets bored of looking at them anyway, i guess.

the animation is really fun and expressive. it's trigger, so they don't keep scenes stiffly on-model when they want characters moving around. this is good because it helps to sell both action and comedy moments!

the music overall i haven't really cared for? the BGM has not been particularly moving, interesting, or memorable - mostly generic. and i've seen too many fantasy shows for my own good, so i might be harder to impress (but i even remember tenken had a good BGM song or two to make a fight dramatic and that show was barely above average at best)

i'm biased not being particularly into bump, so i would've selected a different artist for the OP (i actually did like the bump OP from SxF though, come to think of it). before anyone makes a wisecrack based on what i've watched lately, no it doesn't have to be yoasobi.

i maybe feel the ED song would've been better for the OP, i don't like the largely peaceful bit of the OP with very still visuals. the OP is where you reel people in! it should be an eye-catching hook, representative of what to expect with some extra sauce on top.

the ED is great, total bop. it's a fine time for slower visuals as an enjoyable wind-down from the episode, so less or no animation is no big deal. plus kui's art is absolutely gorgeous! it all perfectly fits that "end of work" fun and lighthearted mood they were going for.

i largely enjoy the voice acting. i would've personally gone for a less "old man" voice on senshi because he's really not that old for a dwarf, but they obviously wanted to make it clear he was the older, wiser, knowledgeable character.

this might be my own personally most blasphemous opinion, but i would've picked a different VA for falin. i want to make it clear i absolutely adore saori hayami - she's incredible and one of my faves. with that said, her voice fits the character, so maybe it's just because i've heard her too often which is not her fault by any means! i love the voices for laios, marcille, and chil.

it seems netflix's subs go off of the official EN TL of the manga, which makes sense, but i've talked about how i don't like it more than ehscans' TL (which is one of the single best TLs i've read for a series, official or otherwise) and that holds true for the anime ("mad sorcerer" is cooler AND less clunky than "lunatic magician"). i prefer less localisation stuff and/or quirkiness in my subs and more direct translation for both manga and anime.

as for the changes/additions they've made to the show, some of them have been alright and some i didn't care for. they really want to sell marcille as the funny joke character which is why they had her being chased by the basilisk instead of having doni & fionil like it was in the manga which was better for the pacing and had good impact vs a funny clip of marcille running back and forth.

i don't dislike when adaptations add or change stuff, but placing them cleanly is important. dunmeshi is already really funny! i don't think it needs help being funnier by reaching for the cheap laugh. when laios sees two people running for their lives from a basilisk and he just goes "wow that's a bad way to run from that monster", it's already lowkey hilarious - all the more so followed by marcille telling mr. monster-know-it-all to go rescue them if he knows what's up and him rescuing them by making himself big and chicken squawking real loud (which embarrasses marcille and chil, but c'mon guys, at least his idea worked!). i feel like the comedy in laios' funny hero moment is undercut by forcing the marcille butt of the joke moment in the anime.

dunmeshi is already incredibly good at just about everything it does. i feel if an adaptation wants to add or change something, it's often better amplifying a strength or shoring up a weakness in the source material. BTR adds a lot to the source (not hard considering the source is a 4koma) and makes already funny things even funnier. the "we should all get social media" scene is elevated to iconic status with the visual of bocchi glitching out + the VA's inhuman screech. i can't say where i'd really want to change or add stuff to dunmeshi, since it really feels so good and whole, but i'm sure there's room in the process of translating manga panels to animated scenes, and i think the direction overall could've been better (comparing most shows to BTR isn't fair i know because BTR is directed & adapted so well it's hydrogen bomb vs. coughing baby territory)

i've mostly said negative stuff, but i don't want it to sound like i hate or even really dislike the adaptation. i think when it comes to a series you really love, you want to see the best adaptation possible within reason, and the disappointment of stuff not being quite what you were hoping for is amplified by so many other recent adaptations being so good.

dunmeshi does not have a bad anime by any means, but a lot of that is thanks to the source material's quality. if they do another season, i hope they have more time/budget/whatever because i think a lot of the parts it does have are good parts! but in this case, i wasn't hoping for good; i was hoping for great.

trigger makes great shows with wacky storylines (in some ways, the same one wacky storyline, but that's a different discussion) and dunmeshi, being directed by someone who's worked on a bunch of trigger stuff (largely sci-fi leaning), maybe needed some more direction from people who've worked on fantasy stuff? i can't say for sure what would've been enough to take the show over the top, but though i generally don't hope for much from adaptations, i really did have higher hopes for this one than it ended up achieving.

overall it seems i'll end up scoring the show a 7 or 7.5 when i finish the season, though there's certainly still room to wow us all. whatever you feel about the adaptation, whether you liked it or not, whether or not you've read the manga, feel free to comment your thoughts below or in my inbox. let's keep it free of manga spoils for anime-only watchers, though!

Thanks to @authoroflight for the original template! (Though I might have customized it beyond recognizability ksdjgnsd)

2023... I got a lot of art done this year compared to past years! Though the year started out slow, between trades and commissions, the first quarter of the year somehow managed to have at least one good drawing a month, even if March's old-sketch-paintover looks a little strange next to all the creatures. XD; May and June continued the theme of painting over old, though June's original was considerably newer than May's. It also took me forever to find it!! Several of the ones I'd been going to put for June turned out to be from different months (no date on them so was going by modified date at first, oops!). And in July of course there was the Clysmia comic, August with the Choco 'comic'. September was another low but I managed to churn out another paintover. October of course had my annual flower-drawing saga with the last one featured here, and in November I got bored and drew Comet, and December held a delightful surprise in the form of a book-illustrating commission. :3 Gonna keep that one to just a preview since it's part of something that'll be published.

But! Let's go through all the rest. Keep reading for more on the rest of the pieces.

January - This was a secret santa for my good friend @toothpaste-dragon of her OC Baz! Love this grumpy crust of an alien. :D You can view the full pic here.

February - This was a commission from @dreagonarchives of her guy Guido! Full pic: x

March - Paintover I did of my character Sleepi from Torn Apart! Since it was done over an older pic the style looks a little incongruent from my current style 😅 But this was also almost a year a go now, so, y'know.

April - My half of a design trade with @chrystallink! Doggos are a bit of a challenge for me, but it was a fun one! Full pic: x

May - A fittingly sunny pic of my character Nola. This was another one that I think had started from a paintover and just went places from there. Still a little strange-looking, but oh well. Plus a photo of some sunflowers in the background. XD

June: Progress pic of an absolute freak. An attempt was made to sketch out a hand to keep it from hiding, but I never did get back to this pic... 😂

July: As mentioned above, a comic for my good friend Dia featuring her gal Clysmia!

August: The tail end of a final ArtFight attack against Chocobir! I had so much fun putting in on the Easter eggs, and Choco is so cute!

September: The suave business lizard himself, it's Nell! Another one that's painted over an older sketch. Overall I think I improved the face shape a bit since the sketch? Maybe?

October: The final flower from Floratober 2023! I had a lot of fun and it was so great getting so much feedback this year. The wonders of posting on places other than Tumblr! lol.

November: Comet from Cosmic Baton Girl Comet-san! Whenever I need to get away and draw, Comet is there as my comfort anime. :) It's been a while since I've drawn the girl and watched the last bundle of episodes!

December: And of course, December's art! From a very fittingly snowy-themed project. :) I don't know yet how much I'll be able to talk about it, but it's certainly going to keep me busy for a while!

aaaaaaaand that's all of the dorms~ want to have the staff or other side characters done? commission me for them! link is in pinned post~

drake s/o with period teeth

in light of me having to get my wisdom teeth removed, i have decided to make these

context: you’re a drake fae whose teeth fall out about every few months to make way for newer, healthier chompers. the drawback? it’s extremely painful and you become aggravated and grumpy.

Ignihyde Diasomnia edition

tw: teeth, muzzling

Ignihyde

Idia

to the secret lab! pull the lever ortho!

he’s making special teething toys and muzzles designed to keep your mouth chilled asap

this happens after he gets an sos from ortho that you’ve trapped him in your grip and were chewing his arm off

his anime merch and little brother are in danger with those teefies on the loose this is unacceptable

everything is fine until you electrocute yourself chewing on some of his wires for his computer

the room has been baby proofed and you’re only allowed to sit on his bed or lap if you’re in his room without the muzzle of shame

ortho has to be the one to muzzle you, he tried once and got thrown into his door so hard it broke he fears your power

but don’t worry he still loves you and thought it was kinda hot

Ortho

You are FRIENDS. You are NOT DATING. F R I E N D S.

now with that outta the way, let’s continue

he goes to his onii-chan and asks him to make an arm specially made for you to chew on safely

when it’s completed he’s ecstatic cuz now you can hang out again

you spend a lot of time together in idia’s room watching anime, cat videos, and the two brothers playing games

he’s happy that he can keep you entertained and your mind off the discomfort for the most part, he hates seeing his bestie in pain

Diasomnia

Malleus

you chew on his tail, he needs both hands to play with gao gao

he can and will hire you a personal chef to make you foods that will be soft on your teeth

his body temp is warmer than average so that means you don’t like cuddling it makes your teeth even more irritated and that makes him very sad

he tried to enchant your mouth to completely erase the pain until you warned him that it was dangerous to do that

the pain was necessary, it helped with keeping you from swallowing a tooth by mistake

refuses to muzzle you, he sees it as demeaning and will do whatever it takes so that it will make it unnecessary for it

sebek walked in on you gnawing on his biceps/tail once and was nearly turned into minced meat

he is no longer allowed within ten feet of you when your teeth are bitching

Lilia

oh you poor thing don’t worry let peepaw take care of you here have some homemade ice cream why are you crouched like that-

lilia can’t remember the last he had been tossed like a ragdoll through a wall

he’s not even mad, it’s nice to relive something so heartracing

after that he’s breaking out dusty books he had god knows where to look up potions and remedies specifically catered to fae having dental problems

unlike malleus his body is colder than average so cuddles galore

he lets you hide under his oversized clothes when you teeth on his arm

he might not look like it but his biceps are rock hard you’ll have to teeth really hard if you want to break his skin and draw blood

Silver

sleepy prince to the rescue

puts his newly obtained culinary skills to use and makes you tasty cold soups and salads that have a satisfying crunch that won’t hurt your teefies

you teeth on his arms and legs, it’s kinda weird to see him snoozing while you gnawing on his thigh since his arms are under him but hey it works

has had to pull you off of sebek more than once jesus crispy hakuna your tatas

you keep trying to eat his animal friends so he asks them to stay away when you’re going through this

his furry and feathery friends understand but have also grown to like you too so they bring him wild berries for you to snack on because they’re worried so cute

Sebek

tried to drag you to his father’s business after you suddenly sneezed sending a tooth and blood flying from your mouth

after explaining that you’re basically on a period but for teeth he’s writing to his parents asking for some tips that can help you ease the pain

they send him a pair of special dental fae pliers and tell him to yank out any teefies that are close to falling out to speed up the process

after getting the okay from you he prepares for the battle ahead

and nearly gets his hand bitten off the moment that cold metal touches your tooth your jaws clamp shut

has to ask for someone to pull the teeth while he sits on your back and holds your jaws open

readily cleans up the blood and makes sure your mouth is carefully clean as his father instructed him

refuses to muzzle you like malleus, he also sees it as demeaning

Anyone: Whose your favourite Ninja Turtle.

Me: I'm Autistic.

Anyone feeling two choices 🧡💜: How's your relationship with your parents.

Me:....

Anyone: So Donatello?

Me: I carries around this bottle for a day because it had his face on it.

Me: Then I thought he might be lonely so I made his brothers.

Anyone: ah-

Me: Did you know one of the head writers for the show ROTTMNT see Donnie as Autistic. I was joking about it then it was basically confirmed. I like this 2018 Donnie because he has the most personality, most iterations of the turtles in 2018 have more personality. It's nice. They feel like a real family. A lot of people don't like their newer personalities but I do. Some people don't like this April because she has a personality, it's refreshing. Also people don't like she's Black because they think "Oh another ginger..." which usually I'd be like yeah, because a lot of Irish catholics get charged, even some that being Irish catholic is a character trait but in this instance it doesn't hurt the character. Plus the original April from the comics was named after a Black woman and designed after a Asian woman. She was Asian and sometimes seen with a tan or a perm, and there wasn't a lot of continuity in the comics and sometimes guest artists would draw April Black. So mostly she was Asian and sometimes Black, but then once she colored her hair red, then she was White and ginger. But since this show in particular likes to be more intuned with the comics, and also based off the shows art style, you could say she looks Blaisan which would be really cool, especially for representation. Did you know this Donnie is the first on screen version to have the shoftshell that his species has. The first time he had his soft shell was in a comic where he fell off a building, he was saved by an A.I. system he developed. Where was that in Last Ronin-

Anyone: I just wanted to know who your favourite turtle was.

LC V50 spoilers and Conductor rambles

I'm still insane thinking about the similarities between Conductor and the Old Birds. I didn't even know of their existence when I designed it. The way there is a scanner of sorts that glows like a train light. The color scheme,, the way it walks in a bit of a janky kind of way. The loud noises it makes when it spots and chases you. Having only one "eye" it sees with. Having two different kinds of arms... They remind me of the Nutcrackers in general, but especially of Conductor since it was designed to be more of a newer and "advanced" model. I'm so happy I got to tie their lore together and give Conductor some old friends it might still have some fondness for. OUUU. I have a couple of doodles planned of Conductor and the Old Birds together but I won't be able to draw or post them for a while. They're very much on my list of things to do as soon as I can, though! I have been cooking up a lot of ideas...

idk if you're still interested in working on Cedar and Sawdust's story, but I just heard the song "When I Grow Up" by First Aid Kit and it feels like such a them song - additionally if you have other songs you associate with Cedar or Sawdust or both I'd love to hear them!

[ID: an ask from the same person reading: "whoops I meant Hazel and Sawdust not Cedar and Sawdust sorry". End ID.]

thats ok! dont worry ^_^

but ya , i love that song , and also the original fever ray version, soo much. some of my fave songs (i have a lot). and yea it does fit with them :-3 aw.

i do still draw them sometimes, quite often until up to this month because i have hyperfocused pretty hard on making new OCs with a friend and have been busy doing portfolio things n stuff T_T . . but what yous don't know is sawdust's design has changed as of quite a while ago, i just dont have energy to share ocs as much at the moment. like, i want to protect them... my icon is newer sawdust art though, if you want to see

(i might go back and forth between long and short hair for sawdust though. . they can change shapes whenever so, makes sense)

other songs i associate with them (i have a small wip playlist) is: the barrel - aldous harding, ingydar - adrianne lenker.. i want wind to blow - the microphones is the only song on my hazel playlist rn lol , i need to add more. also not a lot, just forever by adrianne lenker. . i dont remember other ones rn