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themelodicenigma · 2 years

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What makes the identification of a character should start at their character construction—as a writer, this is when you’re determining the existence of this character, the motivation that drives their agency and purpose in the story (or even that of the story itself), etc. If this is layered [depth], only then would I personally say they're a "complex character". Layers being the additional aspects of the “why” a character’s ambition exists and to the reasons of what they do—things that allow us to really understand them and the themes surrounding the story, etc.

What flows through that and becomes a part of the character’s “dynamic range”, like their personality and the range of elements attached to their character that is shown in different situations—like the, “this character acted this way here”, and “they showed this there”, “they have this significant item to represent this”, etc. This can easily be synonymous to that construction, or it can really just be it’s own thing if written that way. This in of itself can be interesting and “layered” in the sense that there is variety, hence the “dynamic range” terminology, but the understanding of that is different than what is for the sake of describing a character’s depth for identification. I would argue this is defined at the construction stage as opposed to in the counted showings of dynamic range, that otherwise, doesn’t have to be dependent upon what’s established in the construction. If you can see the flow in the range, chances are it started at the construction either way. A character’s growth is also NOT what defines their complexity, but that too can be synonymous to the construction and flow through for better storytelling. If their purpose is what changes and adds layers, depths—the WHY to what their purpose is, the it definitely applies. In most cases, you’d hope it does, but of course, you can have character’s undergo change for a specific element (or just learn something, becoming better on that front), but what sets their purpose is still 1 layer. Basically, the “lesson learned” could be an isolated thing that doesn’t really interact with their purpose as a character.

And to make it clear, whether a character is “complex” or not DOES NOT determine if they’re a good/poorly written character. I will never not stop fighting that as the art of simplicity or “less is more” is literally a thing that translates in a lot of different media. A simple character can absolutely be good.

This is really primarily in the perspective of how we identify characters and really why—at least on this level of identification (things like complex, simple, protagonist, antagonist, etc.), the construction level makes more sense than the conditional moments alone. And it can be important as to not create a misleading, if inefficient label on the character. You can’t just identify a character as a “fan-service character” because the author wrote a few moments like that (which is typically more about their style than it is about the character), or if to go even more general, to be like, this is a “video game character” for a character that originated and immediate source material is that of a “anime or manga”. Like, the type of answer you’d give if you’re answering “who is this?” Of course, complex vs simple is a weird answer to give, but if for the sake of identifying FOR a character’s existence, then the logic still applies.

Some examples I’d look at are three well known shonen protags of Naruto, Goku, and Luffy.

Out of all these three, I would go out of my to identify Naruto is a complex character type, or if for argument’s sake, the most out of them if you want to apply it to them all. He is kind of directly in a way that is basically a trope in how his character is layered, honestly. Subversions of goals or ambitions that are really just about some sad part of the character’s life, it’s what makes it relatable. The driving point of his character and how the story allows the setting for this goal is that of Naruto’s dreams of becoming the Hokage. The complexity comes into play when we understand that, in reality, this is just a means of which he attached himself to—it’s layered by what he really wants, which is to not be lonely, discarded, and shunned by the Leaf Village anymore, to feel he belongs. What better way to do that than to become the most admired person at the village. It’s a layer that is very personal to the character, revealing not just a thought they have, but a personal background that shapes who they are, and the way it interacts with the story sets the foundation of a nice dynamic range and growth that flows through the construction.

Goku, is very different. lol And granted, we have DB, DBZ, and Super (+GT if you wanted to) to pick from, and there are some nuances in his character between them (ESPECIALLY if you’re looking at either the ENG or JPN). The series of DB to DBZ especially since the tonality is different in what the characters are doing. But even then, the construction of his character is pretty simple in DB: clueless, yet strong, mountain monkey boy who likes to fight and goes on adventures. The strong point of Goku’s character is his simplicity and direct goals of being a fighter and having an adventure. DBZ starts to add some things to his character, like his obsession with training and that of being a Saiyan, but this is all still part of that same construction—his purpose in the story and how he functions pretty much remains the same is limited to this drive of getting stronger and fighting tough opponents. (the adventure aspect isn’t really there in DBZ that much).

And we don’t really get a backstory as to the WHY he likes to fight and why it’s so important to him—he just loves it. Being a Saiyan is the closest reason you get, but that isn’t really that personal for him as an individual. Despite this, we can still say Goku has a “dynamic range”, what he’s capable of has some variety that makes him beloved and cool character. His whole reason for even going with Bulma in DB was because of his attachment to the 4-star Dragon Ball and it’s connection to Grandpa Gohan—his naivety and simplicity can be an endearing trait—he loves to fight—shows great care for his family/friends—in line with that, he will fight someone just for the thrill of it, or he might actually do it because he’s angry [defending his family/friends] or knows they need to be stopped. Both the ENG and JPN show these things, but translations for the ENG give an emphasis for certain traits that the JPN may not completely have. And, even though people make fun of him for it, there is also an interest in how he tailor’s down his love for fighting and considers things like himself being a threat to the Earth, or that those living should rise to be the ones to defend it as opposed to himself.

I can say all that, but he’s still a simple character on the construction level, and I personally wouldn’t bother labeling him as a “complex character” because of his range. His simplicity is a driving point for his character, as a result.

With that being said: Luffy.

Luffy to me is someone in the middle. His construction propels the meaning and function of the story from his desire of becoming the Pirate King. He’s similar to Naruto that he wants to become “X thing”. What Luffy has going for him, though, is that he has a reason that is a subversion to other character’s greed or desire to rule over others—he’s doing it as a means to have freedom, fun, and adventure as a pirate, things of which Oda wanted One Piece to encapsulate of the “romanticism of adventure” as he put it. What it will literally take to get to One Piece is inherent to what Luffy wants out of life. Unlike Goku, he has this extra layer that supplements the simplicity of his “dynamic range”, which other character’s admire about his convictions and way of being—he has that typical shonen personality that makes it VERY easy to connect with others because unlike everyone else, he isn’t plotting or trying to find an angle, he’s direct and he’ll tell you what he wants and will absolutely strive for that will all his heart. Carefree and simple, but has conviction for his goals. It also helps that his goal isn’t at the detriment of others.

Buuuut.....

If I’m thinking of layers [depth], to me this isn’t quite enough, because I feel like what we’re really missing is WHY having freedom and adventure is so important to him personally and what does it really say about the background of his character. It’s a rather long series, so I also could be missing something about his character as well. I think he has that interesting subversion to everyone else’s reasons for becoming Pirate King, and that he sees being the Pirate King as the symbol of having had THE adventure. It basically is. But, I would want it to be telling of another layer to Luffy’s construction as opposed to a contrast to another. “I want freedom” doesn’t give a personal full picture of his motivation. WHY care so much about freedom that isn’t “because I just want to be or to just do what I want”. I want something more there that connects to the character’s background.

But it’s good, and his “dynamic range” as a character is nicely implemented in how he interacts with other characters and how his construction does flow through certain things. Like that of his love for adventure causes him to not want the spoils of what One Piece is because he values experiencing that for himself. Or even the literal hat—it’s representation of Shanks, which then is of being a Pirate and the motivation of the mentioned character construction, and there’s the extension of how then this “treasure” is a sign of trust if he lets other people handle it. Very nice things that show his range as a character, among plenty of other moments in the show, but it doesn’t change his construction, which is pretty consistent through the show in what his goal is. If it had just that layer that was really something more personal and telling, then I’d go for calling him a “complex character”, and I’d feel I learned more about the deeper reasons as to why he thinks the way he does.

But again, I could be missing something, and will gladly see other people’s perspectives on this. So please do.

Either way, a lot of people in fandom will call a character complex for different reasons—hell, you’ll have some kids say a character is complex because they’re “edgy”. Eh. But as someone who has been writing for a while and has done character analysis, for myself, I’m looking at the roots of a character’s existence/purpose to understand this ideal, if even further to how it interacts with or forms the story, their context that gives it depth and themes, what makes it important to them—THEN let’s look at the conflicts of accomplishing their purpose, external or internal, how they can overcome it and thus grow, etc. My “layering” stage is really here.

#naruto #luffy #goku #one piece #dragon ball #anime #manga #character analysis #fandom

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echoekhi · 5 months

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I’m Declaring War Against “What If” Videos: Project Copy-Knight

What Are “What If” Videos?

These videos follow a common recipe: A narrator, given a fandom (usually anime ones like My Hero Academia and Naruto), explores an alternative timeline where something is different. Maybe the main character has extra powers, maybe a key plot point goes differently. They then go on and make up a whole new story, detailing the conflicts and romance between characters, much like an ordinary fanfic.

Except, they are fanfics. Actual fanfics, pulled off AO3, FFN and Wattpad, given a different title, with random thumbnail and background images added to them, narrated by computer text-to-speech synthesizers.

They are very easy to make: pick a fanfic, copy all the text into a text-to-speech generator, mix the resulting audio file with some generic art from the fandom as the background, give it a snappy title like “What if Deku had the Power of Ten Rings”, photoshop an attention-grabbing thumbnail, dump it onto YouTube and get thousands of views.

In fact, the process is so straightforward and requires so little effort, it’s pretty clear some of these channels have automated pipelines to pump these out en-masse. They don’t bother with asking the fic authors for permission. Sometimes they don’t even bother with putting the fic’s link in the description or crediting the author. These content-farms then monetise these videos, so they get a cut from YouTube’s ads.

In short, an industry has emerged from the systematic copyright theft of fanfiction, for profit.

Project Copy-Knight

Since the adversaries almost certainly have automated systems set up for this, the only realistic countermeasure is with another automated system. Identifying fanfics manually by listening to the videos and searching them up with tags is just too slow and impractical.

And so, I came up with a simple automated pipeline to identify the original authors of “What If” videos.

It would go download these videos, run speech recognition on it, search the text through a database full of AO3 fics, and identify which work it came from. After manual confirmation, the original authors will be notified that their works have been subject to copyright theft, and instructions provided on how to DMCA-strike the channel out of existence.

I built a prototype over the weekend, and it works surprisingly well:

On a randomly-selected YouTube channel (in this case Infinite Paradox Fanfic), the toolchain was able to identify the origin of half of the content. The raw output, after manual verification, turned out to be extremely accurate. The time taken to identify the source of a video was about 5 minutes, most of those were spent running Whisper, and the actual full-text-search query and Levenshtein analysis was less than 5 seconds.

The other videos probably came from fanfiction websites other than AO3, like fanfiction.net or Wattpad. As I do not have access to archives of those websites, I cannot identify the other ones, but they are almost certainly not original.

Armed with this fantastic proof-of-concept, I’m officially declaring war against “What If” videos. The mission statement of Project Copy-Knight will be the elimination of “What If” videos based on the theft of AO3 content on YouTube.

I Need Your Help

I am acutely aware that I cannot accomplish this on my own. There are many moving parts in this system that simply cannot be completely automated – like the selection of YouTube channels to feed into the toolchain, the manual verification step to prevent false-positives being sent to authors, the reaching-out to authors who have comments disabled, etc, etc.

So, if you are interested in helping to defend fanworks, or just want to have a chat or ask about the technical details of the toolchain, please consider joining my Discord server. I could really use your help.

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See full blog article and acknowledgements here: https://echoekhi.com/2023/11/25/project-copy-knight/

#ao3 #fanfic #copyknight #theft #copyright

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cryptotheism · 4 months

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The simple yet operatic writing of shounen anime characters makes them ideal subjects for accessible media analysis. If you want to introduce an audience to how media is analyzed, discuss Naruto as an example.

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happypanda101 · 2 months

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Apologies for yet another Naruto rant, I’ve just been overthinking about things lately lol.

The fact that people continue to argue that Sasusaku got no development at all or came out of nowhere honestly boggles my mind? Granted, I know a lot of people watched the anime rather than read the manga. But looking at the manga, it’s made more obvious that Sasuke had a crush or at least had soft spot for Sakura in part 1. Things get more complicated in shippuden, but they are also able to have their moments too.

Now, am I saying it’s the best developed ship ever? Heck no. I, like a lot of people in the fandom, wish they could have gotten more development. Also maybe an explanation as to why they had feelings for each other. A lot of people like to say that Sakura’s love was shallow becasue she only liked him because of his looks, but when you actually look over everything, looks are never mentioned by Sakura at all. She’s either worried about her own or commenting on Sasuke’s skills.

Also, despite what some fans like to say, Sasuke never out right rejected Sakura’s feelings. When he knocks her out and plays the “I have no reason to love her or be loved by her” line, he’s talking to Kakashi. Sasuke is a very traumatized character, he’s not going to openly admit he loves someone.

However, what really has to irrates me is when people try to argue that NaruHina got more development, which like? Bro, a whole ass movie had to be made to get them together. And as much as a soft spot I have for the Last, it wasn’t even that good! They had to bring the space aliens in again! I like NaruHina, but it’s obvious that the simps over at SP had a role to play in why the ship actually became canon.

Anyway, you don’t have to like the pairing. I know I don’t like a few ships that ended up becoming canon. However, it would be nice that whenever a Sasusaku fan tries to explain why they ship them an anti doesn’t comment: “lol Sasuke never liked her he hated her she sucks.” The amount of times I’ve seen these fuckers on a good Sasusaku analysis is tiring.

Just leave people alone. The worlds not gonna end over people shipping a ship you don’t like.

#sasuke uchiha #sakura haruno #naruto uzumaki #hinata hyuuga #pro sasusaku #sasusaku #naruto fandom #naruto manga #naruto shippuden #//I’m sorry for all the Ted talks lately lol #//I just need to get my thoughts out before they consume me XD

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whoishotteranimepolls · 10 days

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Poll analysis part 3

Well I haven't done one of these in a while because I've been focusing on the nicknames and funny tags post But we are definitely due for another one because I've definitely noticed a change and behavior. Plus we've had a lot more and fandoms requested so that might be a contributing factor.

Let's start with the unhinged trio. Think we're due for a lineup change there. It used to be JJK, Black Butler and Dorohedoro. However the latter two only go crazy over a certain character.

Jujutsu Kaisen definitely still deserves its spot There's a reason I picked them to be the first fandom to get a Nicknames and funny tags post in fact they need an update Desperately because you guys are still up to your same old unhinged antics. I've just been busy with other fandoms (one piece) that say even more outrageous crap in the comments

Now One Piece I think you guys took that nickname and funny tag post as a challenge to be as unhinged and creative with your tags as possible because every time I think you all can't possibly get any worse. Someone puts a tag that's even crazier and now I have to update that post with more tags and new characters again.

Now the third spot of the unhinged trio should probably go to Trigun because you guys can't stop talking about Wolfwood's slutty Catholic titties and Vash's snatched little slutty waist. Plus someone has sent a match up request of their weapons no less than three times even though the rules plainly state no weapons so I think we definitely qualify for unhedged trio territory.

My Hero Academia You guys only showed up for the bunny girl and I get it. She's hot. Or to crap on endeavor, that's about it.

Attack on Titan. I finally have found proof of life. The fandom might be in a coma, but at least there's a pulse I thought that fandom was dead but someone or group of people is sending in quite a few requests for that fandom.

And now on to Naruto my problem child fandom. I am not kidding You're the fandom that refuses us to send in photos, but will throw a tantrum if it's not the photo from the correct era of the anime even though I have no clue what you're talking about. Normally when people don't like the photo with any other fandom a dozen better photos of the character will randomly appear in my inbox. Not with the Naruto fandom. I get 10 hate messages saying it's from the wrong era of the anime and I should know that. But does anyone send me a better photo from the correct era of the anime? No. Well actually that's not entirely true the a few times this fandom has sent in replacement photos it's from when in the anime I know the characters are still 14 I've done way too much research into when in canon characters turn 16 and what particular character design/outfit marks that in the timeline for this particular show because of how much I feel like I can't trust this particular fandom as a whole to follow rules. So, remember people I can't read your mind and you are the only fandom that wants to throw a fit over photos like this. Plus the few times I have tried to address the issues with the photos and try to fix the problem you guys want to get combative and very aggressive in the comments. Plus I swear you all are allergic to rules because at least 70% to 80% of requests relating to your fandom have some sort of issue. Whether it's trying to bend the rules or just outright breaking them to massive formatting problems. No other fandom causes me this many headaches. So please for the sake of my sanity do better

Sorry about that. I needed to rant about my problem child fandom maybe now they will start behaving.

When it comes to formatting there is a group of about three people that made requests either everyday or every 2 to 3 days and it was the max amount of request/matchups they could do in a single day according to the rules. They did this the entire time the box was open so they had their formatting down to a science. So basically any fandom that these people requested a lot of had really good track records for formatting and not trying to blatantly break the rules. So One Piece, JoJo's, Attack on Titan and Avatar/Korra all have very good track records right now

But with most fandoms they do a pretty good job of following the rules. No one is as bad as Naruto. Now there are some common issues and major incidents I've had so I'll go ahead and list them below

The common issues are just forgetting to put the name of the show or spelling, but Google can normally figure that out so that's not a major problem or people submitting a character that is video game only and not part of the anime adaptation. Persona, pokémon and Tekken are The worst offenders when it comes to this. Other major issues that come up frequently are with character ages? But it's normally with characters that look like they're adults. So I really don't hold that against people. I'm just guessing that people didn't realize they're actually teenagers but hopefully that will not be as much of a problem but since I dropped the age down to 16.

Now recent issues I've had to address were formatting issues where it was bad enough that I couldn't make it out due to dyslexia. Trigun has tried to submit weapons no less than three times even though that is blatantly against the rules. Like I mentioned earlier Naruto likes to submit photos from when the characters are 12 to 14 that doesn't fit the rules especially when photos are available from the correct age range that do follow the rules. So those are the ones I use no matter how many times they throw temper tantrums. Dungeon Meshi has submitted a 14-year-old and Soul Eater submitted a 13-year-old and said they were 16 in the request. So they lied. Luckily someone told me so I was able to delete those polls quite quickly, but now I can't trust anyone. So if you ever wonder why it takes so long for me to empty out the request box this is why

Oh but good news, no one has submitted a request since I've closed the box I basically consider that a miracle because the last two times there have been people that have not cared that the box is closed. So let's keep it that way please. I don't mind questions, just no requests. The box is closed I still have like 150 more individual messages that have multiple poll requests on them to get through before I open it again

Well that's going to be all for this post again. And I hope at least someone found this entertaining or informative or at least something. There will probably be another one of these in the future

#poll analysis #fandom trends #not a poll

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epickiya722 · 2 months

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I do not know if it was you, or another blogger that made a character analysis of Gojo that made me like the character and discover more about him through the manga.

While I never read the manga before or watched the anime, I had been exposed to it by my friends and some BNHA bloggers. Back then, I found Gojo to be overhyped (discount Kakashi) while liking the animation(?) style, bit still no interest.

BNHA and its Endeavour Redemption arc in the doing was tiring me to the point that I stopped reading it and manga altogether. For mayne six months or so, until now, at least. I randomly found your blog last week , and it got me a new hyper fixation 😃. You got me to start reading JJK (Megan cos playing also helps).

I bought Number 0 and Number 1 of the mangas. Only to remember midway in Number 0 that Walmart Kakashi will be snapped in two like a Kit Kat🥲. I saw that leak in one of the BNHA blogs, and I didn't mind it back then since I wasn't in the fandom, but Lord, now it sucks.

Anyways, all this long rant to say that I like reading your posts.

Gojo, rest in pain, I guess?

Probably was someone else, I don't write much analysis posts about Gojo. I think once or twice I did, I can't recall. Probably reblogged one though you saw!

I don't know, they're really just two different characters to me. Also... I was never really an active reader or watcher of Naruto like that (just very familiar) so when I first saw Gojo, Kakashi didn't register to me at all.

Like, I did not get similar vibes at all. And it actually annoys me that people will be like "He copied Kakashi's flow"! Kakashi ain't the only white haired, face covering character out there with magical eyes, y'all stop. 😆

Even funnier when, by this point, Gojo has probably been unmasked more than he has been wearing something on his face and switches up what he puts on his face. Kakashi been wearing the same mask for...? Also, didn't it take years for Kakashi's whole face to be shown or something? Took like seven episodes for Gojo to show that face.

I always been a fan of Megan's music and then when I found out she was into anime I was like "YYYYYEEEEEAAAAH". She cosplayed as Miruko one Halloween and it made my year. I am a former believer that Miruko would vibe to her music.

Just seeing other Black women being unapologetic fans of anime (or anything) does wonders for me and I hate it when people act as if it's such a foreign idea to understand. Honey, we can have interests, too, like everyone else. It's normal.

I always try to be careful about spoilers for anything I'm into. Like, I can talk about a chapter that happened two years ago, but I'll still mark as a spoiler because I know some people don't read Mangas or even if they do haven't caught up to that specific part.

That actually what set me off when Usher cosplayed as Gojo because he literally put "rest in peace, Gojo" or something along those lines and the amount of people who weren't even aware of 236... like bro, come on.

I knew it just had to be a marketing tactic because I know damn well Usher ain't seen JJK a day in his life and how convenient it is he comes out with that cosplay around the time when "Daddy's Home" becomes a fairly popular song used in Gojo's edits. I can't go watching one video on YouTube without hearing that song play when Gojo pops up. And even if he has... WHY WOULD YOU TAG IT LIKE THAT?!

Oh, but Megan definitely doesn't know any of the characters she be cosplaying, alright... okay... 🙄

I'm just going off on a whole tangent here, I apologize for that. I've been sick for like three days and just woke up from a nap. 😅

Also, thank you! Glad you enjoy my posts!! Anytime anyone says they like reading my posts, I still get shocked. They're really are just random thoughts I been having and really I'm still learning grasping the characters and story myself. And this is just for any. I don't even for them to get read, let alone for anyone to actually agree with me. I guess because, at the end of the day, I really just needed to throw a thought out there before I lose it or keep rethinking about it over and over.

#kiya answers #jjk #jujutsu kaisen #jjk spoilers #jjk manga spoilers #gojo satoru #satoru gojo #megan thee stallion

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thrudgelmir2333 · 3 months

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About Phoenix Ikki

This post is partially copied from a response of mine on Reddit, but I thought I'd expand on it here on Tumblr, where I can structure my ideas better. There's some thoughts I've had about the character of Phoenix Ikki for a while that I wanted to get out there. If you ask around the Saint Seiya fan community which character is their favorite, there's a relatively solid chance they're going to answer 'Phoenix Ikki'. In fact, you might even get told Ikki 'inspired' a lot of Saint Seiya fans. He's one of those shounen symbols of 'badassary' and 'uncompromising attitudes', like Takamura from Hajime no Ippo, but also of emotional distance, like Itachi from Naruto. In a lot of ways, if you grew up with Saint Seiya characters, there's a powerful possibility you looked forward to seeing Ikki show up and beat the crap out of some villain for hurting Shun, his little brother. It was an effect intensified by how much Ikki was usually withheld from the story. The absence of Ikki in a lot of ways made you want to crave this supposed member of the protagonists to show up.

Shun himself reinforces this interest, being adoring and forgiving of Ikki and his distance in every instance. This means all the reinforcement you get as a reader/audience is that Ikki is someone you're supposed to admire, to look forward to showing up, to be an example of how 'brutal and badass but also protective' a Saint could be.

I'd like to offer an alternative point of view on all this. I think Ikki is, well, actually a bad character. I also think that his absence had more to do with that poverty of personality to his character than any kind of perceived 'coolness' to him.

Maybe I'm the one off here. Maybe I just don't identify anymore with this sort of character. If you wanna conclude that from my post, that's fair. But I wanted to ask, though, "Isn't it about time we acknowledge Ikki is... kind of a bad character? And a terrible role model for young boys? And probably a sign of things that were to come in anime fandoms, even in the early 90s?"

Pictured above; Phoenix Ikki, deeply contemplating how little effort he has to put into the story

First, let's talk some technicalities.

This is where you'll see most of what I wrote on Reddit.

First off, I'd like to establish that I think Phoenix Ikki, in technical terms, is NOT the worst Bronze Saint, but he's definitely the worst after Seiya. And also that the way some of the other Bronze Saints, mainly Shiryu, outshine Ikki as quality characters should really expose how poorly written Ikki is to more people.

People rightfully talk about how Seiya's character stopped growing after a certain early point in the story. There's no denying that. Ikki, however, as a character, doesn't trail far much behind Seiya in my opinion. This is such to the point that I got a theory that maybe somewhere in Kurumada's mind he intended to kill him off after the Black Saint Arc, or ideally against Shaka.

I believe this because all of Ikki's involvements in the story past his battle with Shaka (and perhaps some of them during the Silver Saint Arc itself) have been needless interventions that either only reinforce how his character hasn't changed from his Black Saint days or steal the spotlight away from other characters, usually Shun.

Before we continue, another important technical note, this time on action, and this one goes especially to those concerned about how can such a strong character like Ikki be 'needless'. One important thing to retain here is that action can be written in a lot of ways, which is to say SCALING OF FICTIONAL CHARACTER IS A FABRICATION YOU DERIVE FROM HOW THINGS ARE ALREADY WRITTEN and not some kind of result from a scientific analysis of inalterable story facts.

So its not that Shun needs Ikki to save him, but rather that a choice was made by a human being for Shun to be written that he needs Ikki to save him. He could have been written, instead, to do it on his own, and even then something ridiculous like winning the Japanese lottery, just to add to the triumph of, idk, beating Capella.

Sorry for the earlier caps, I just always feel I have to remind people of that important fact whenever discussing action, become some people think that the usefulness of a character is derived from fights they win. Like they're real life wrestling competitors or something. The reality is, Ikki interferes in the events he does because he's written as such and he gets the results he does because, likewise, he's also written as such. They are choices by Kurumada.

And the reality of those choices is that they are open to discussion on weather or not they caused more harm than good to the plot and its remaining characters. This goes beyond the mere antipathy aspect in Ikki; the character is flat in a CREATIVE sense, being what the author of Rurouni Kenshin called "a joker card".

This means a character designed to counter the villain's respective 'joker'. AKA, Ikki exists to not to advance the plot in important ways (slaying main villains, help friends overcome trials, add to the story message) but to occasionally show off during an episode or two to deliver the audience the red meat of a high-octane action scene against a giant ogre or something.

What does Ikki actually DO in the story?

To understand the reason why I call Ikki a 'joker card', it is important to put his character's role in review. If you do, you'll find that most of his interventions in the story don't contribute to the plot's overall progression or the development of any of the characters, including himself.

So, just to quickly sum up his role; in Sanctuary Arc, after 'sacrificing himself to defeat Shaka' (which is where Ikki's character should have come to and end) he battles Saga only to stall him so that Seiya, a worse character, can reach Athena's Statue. This is something that can easily be written around to bolster Seiya instead, or have the lesser Bronze Saint character group that had just rejoined the story take on (instead of sitting back 'guarding Saori'). Ikki then contributes to a combination attack against Saga, but its mostly done by lending his Cosmos to Seiya, which means in terms of a physical measurable character choice, it's too abstract a gesture to feel emotionally impactful.

Yes, that's all he does in Sanctuary after Shaka. He then fucks off cause he's too cool to hang with his little brother and his friends. Moving on.

He comes back in Poseidon to show off to Caça, saving Shun, Hyoga and Seiya's life from him. The battle climaxes with Ikki defeating Caça but declaring that "Caça would have won if he had used an illusion of Esmeralda instead". It sounds touching, until you realise that it shows how Ikki is STILL not over Esmeralda, this despite his redemption arc. This is because, without that permanent grief, Ikki has no good reason to justify being away from everyone else other than just that he's an anti-social douchebag. Then Ikki, again, contributes nothing to the battle with Kanon and Poseidon that Shun couldn't have been written to do on his own. All of his involvements are in Shun's presence and taking away opportunities from the story to write Shun heroically.

And then Ikki fucks off again after posing for the arc ending picture.

Notice how, once again, Ikki's appearance is entirely predicated on taking action away from the main characters against a villain written to be particularly dangerous. Caça and Kanon act as the Poseidon Arc's joker cards; characters designed to give the cast a big giant obstacle to look cool overcoming, except it's really all fed to Ikki instead, who looks cool doing it but otherwise does nothing in the plot.

Finally, he stays away from Hades for the most part, thankfully, only to then show up to get the story rid of Aiacos (which was written to the point of being a non-character at the time, just a big Judge Joker) and have a fruitless battle against a Hades-Possessed Shun that ONCE AGAIN is all about drawing tears from the audience about how Ikki can't get over himself and do his job.

It's Saori, the character EVERYONE calls useless, that actually saves Shun, not Ikki. If Saori is a "useless", like everyone always says, what does this make of Ikki?

Oh, and then Ikki returns in Elysium for one final coolness shot; he takes a blow from Thanatos so that the story can reinforce the idea of "Oh, no, trust me guys, Ikki is TOTALLY special. Thanatos says so. Cause he took a hit and wasn't written to just fall over."

And then the story ends with him contributing to another abstract combination attack, instead of making any character choices. We don't even get a personal confrontation between him and Hades for, you know, HAVING POSSESSED HIS PRECIOUS LITTLE BROTHER THAT IKKI IS SO MOTIVATED FOR.

Oh, and guess what, thanks to Next Dimension, we know that after all this, with Seiya crippled and Sanctuary in ruins, Ikki fucks off yet again, cause apparently nearly losing Shun to an evil God taught him nothing about the need to stay by his loved ones.

The Terribleness of Ikki

I don't know if you've noticed by now, but all Ikki ever seems to do is pop in front in the camera, talk about how cool he is, and then whine about how "Death Queen Island was SO hard" until he Genma-Kens someone. And then fucking off.

Does he have a life? Can we imagine that he goes to a bar or something to drink his sorrows, or works in a farm like Shiryu, when not fighting a Holy War? Or does he just stalk Shun, looking for opportunities to swoop in and look like the big pathetic attention-needing loser emo older brother that he really is?

It's almost like the character doesn't exist for any other reason other than to show up and look cool, like a decoration. Almost as if, bear with me, the story of Saint Seiya didn't really have anything planned for him past a certain point, so they couldn't give him any meaningful contributions to the story.

Meanwhile, just to compare, Shiryu has a whole character arc about overcoming his crippling blindness, which he manages to do:

A) Without using it as a prop-trauma for how cool he is;

B) Without pushing away his friends;

C) Without neglecting his duty as a Saint;

D) Without disrespecting all the struggles everyone else go through;

E) And without making it the sole defining characteristic of his personality, unlike Ikki "My-girlfriend-is-dead" Kido;

Which is frankly hilarious considering that the reason Ikki told off Seiya early in the story and left the group to be on his own was because, I quote "he doesn't work well in a team", cause he's such a hardass, right?

Sorry, Shiryu. You had that whole 'character development' thing going, but look how cool I look.

Yeah, well, everyone in Seiya's team does a better job at being a Saint than he does, so maybe Seiya was on to something when he almost punched Ikki that night for saying such a dumb thing. This, of course, without going into all the things Hyoga and Shun also go through to show upstanding and emotionally strong they can be. I only mention Shiryu because if I talked about them as well, I'd be writing this post all day.

So you might be asking "That can't be it, right? You have to be acting reductive, Thrud. This can't be the extenct of such an influential character's contribution?"

No, seriously, it really is. Ikki never grows past his distant, traumatised self, he never learns to overcome his pain and personality problems and all of his contributions to the story's challenges is to act as the sleeping giant behind Shun's smiley face.

We're pretty much at the end stretch of ND, and Ikki is YET to show signs of change. He's just done a bit of fighting and hasnt had any friendly interactions with anyone. It's 2024 and Ikki is STILL a giant asshole.

Even the thing he's most beloved for, his contribution to action, ultimately falls flat in story terms because most of the antagonists he takes on, with the exception of Shaka, are written to be just temporary obstacles to the story (like Aiacos) or are people Ikki saves Shun from (like Caça). Shaka has a whole thing involving challenging the Bronze Saints conceptions of evil, and in the manga he even has his manipulation of Ikki, but everyone else Ikki defeats look like they were written in just so that Ikki could have someone to look cool beating on.

Which is to say you could probably envision a version of Saint Seiya WITHOUT Ikki, and you wouldn't lose that much, story wise.

So why is Ikki so beloved? What is going on here?

Well, because simply put, the fandom identifies with how macho and action-oriented he portrays himself. They like him BECAUSE he's an anti-social prick who tells you "You can replace having healthy emotional development by just being a badass". And to some people, especially in shounen circles, that's the ultimate power fantasy, giving you a bigger trip than being reincarnated as the most overleveled slime demon princess.

But don't take my word for it, peruse the internet yourself and try to find someone defending him who doesn't talk about how "badass" he is.

The fact is, not just in anime but in media in general, a lot of people love identifying with assholes who put down everyone else's contributions to the group, act like they are above it all and fall back on a fantasy that "they don't need anyone" and "are secretly the best". They reinforce the idea you don't have to put in effort to make others like you, because you can just be violent and dismissive and that's somehow automatically worthy of admiration.

Yet, put anyone problem in the story that cant be solved with punching, or put anything too complicated in the story to solve with a Genma Ken, like Hades' possession and Poseidon about to kill Seiya at the Main Breadwinner, and chances are Ikki won't know what to do about it. His contribution will be to put a strong face about how he wishes he had a way to fix it, but what a shame, this will just be "another trauma to add to the pile, poor Ikki"

There are terms for these kinds of role models that teach you to dismiss emotional problems, that teach you to admire those who see their self-imposed solitude as a curse, or even strength.

They're called sigmas. You know, those assholes infesting male media who blame everyone else for their problems and think mysoginy is super cool? And look at that, people LOVE how Ikki told Pandora "he ain't feminist like Seiya and WOULD hit her if she stood in his way". What a badass! Ikki isn't gonna let this goth girl stand in the way of him... failing to save Shun anyway. Wow!

So cool, guys, right? Right?

This is where my point just devolves into a rant.

Ikki isn't just one of the worst Bronze Saint characters. He is, in fact, a terrible character just in general, who gets by on having a cool power suit and reinforcing his audience's pre-conceived notions about the world. Ikki teaches you from a young age that your problems are to be dug deep down, only to be brought up to shield yourself from criticism.

His staleness ends up rivaling Seiya's, and only fails to meet it cause Seiya's case is so comically bad. Ikki happens to make a good Bronze Saint action figure, so he remains popular.

But unfortunately his influence casts a long shadow. Saint Seiya isn't nearly as popular as it used to be, but there are tons of storytellers and story followers that have been influenced by him as a character. Bleach, by Tite Kubo, drew heavily from Saint Seiya in not just story telling, but story structure and characters.

Who do you think Byakuya, Rukia's stoic, overpowered older brother is modeled after, my lovelies? And look at that, he's just as overrated as Ikki is, to the point the author didn't have the courage to truly kill him off in his final story arc, even though his arc was done and done.

Rukia: Nissan, there's some weird guys in armor staring at us over there. Byakuya: Don't pay attention, Rukia, those are just the characters our author subconsciously based us off from. Just focus on your sand scuplture of how pretty I am.

And honestly, it's tiring to see people my own age still thinking and saying that the pinnacle of character design and development is characters like Ikki, and the long trail of 'stoic badasses' he has left behind.

I don't respect this kind of anti-social glorification any more. You might even say I think it's toxic. Obviously Ikki is just a character, a bunch of ink on paper, but when you take a step back and you look at the characters that have copied him, or the legions of people online making unhinged rants about 'strong masculinity' that would think Ikki IS inspiring (especially when he slaps the hell out of Pandora), and then you combine it with the 'hate' directed at the weak characters? Then he becomes more than that.

I just think that characters like Ikki make people miss the point of stories like Saint Seiya. And if you have a character that makes you miss the point of the story, who just stick around because their toys sell?

Then they're not good characters. Not in my opinion, anyways.

#saint seiya #los caballeros del zodiaco #os cavaleiros do zodiaco #phoenix ikki

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siflshonen · 1 year

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BNHA “Presentations” Meta Masterpost

Please review these before asking me specific questions about BNHA. This post will be updated as I feel it is relevant.

Sequencing My Hero Academia’s “Manga DNA”: A Breakdown of Katsuki Bakugo | 1.0 | 2.0 | AO3 (updated to ver. 4.0)

This “presentation” post is a primer on Katsuki Bakugo’s character, influences, character arc, and meta. This post covers topics including Kohei Horikoshi’s manga influences, basic character roles in literature, a brief history of shonen manga and the real-world conditions in which the genre as we know it came to be, Japanese social and cultural references such as honne and tatemae, and other miscellaneous anime tropes.

Sequencing My Hero Academia’s “Manga DNA” II: A Breakdown of Izuku Midoriya (formerly titled, “Izuku Midoriya is Katsuki Bakugo's Destiny And It Makes Me Nauseous”)

This “presentation” post discusses Izuku Midoriya’s character and values from a broadly “conventional” Japanese cultural perspective. It also compares and contrasts Izuku and Katsuki’s status as narrative foil leads in a shonen series to other narrative foil leads in other classic, influential shonen series.

This presentation includes an in-depth discussion on platonic and romantic BakuDeku(Baku?) as well as my candid opinion about Naruto.

Eijiro Kirishima: Positively Reclaiming National Identity and Making Masculinity More Inclusive (with surprise guest Mina Ashido!) | 1.0 | 2.0 | Ao3 (updated to ver. 3.0)

This “presentation” post discusses Eijiro Kirishima’s character and arc as well as the real-life references his character’s aesthetic and “manly” actions and credo are meant to communicate. This post includes a discussion of Japanese delinquents and bosozoku, a brief and simplified history of the relationship of Japanese hypermasculinity and military/naval power, a brief discussion of kouha and nanshoku, and a brief general analysis of how Kirishima's early-series insecurities reflect those of an “emasculated” and outdated Japan in relation to Mina’s “effeminate” Japan of today. It also compares Kirishima and Mina’s history and character growth to Katsuki and Izuku’s.

Shoto Todoroki and the Middle Way (Formerly titled, “Original Character Do Not Steal: Why Shoto Todoroki's Best Quality Is Being Lame As Hell And the Fact That It Drives Katsuki Bakugo Nuts”)

This “presentation” post gives a brief overview of Shoto Todoroki’s character and arc, particularly as it relates to Katsuki’s. It discusses eastern notions of balance in all things and how Shoto’s personal quest for balance within himself and his turbulent family reflects upon Katsuki and Izuku’s interpersonal situation.

Todoroki: The Mountain, the Hawk, and the Haunted House | Part 1 | Part 2 | Ao3 (updated to ver. 2.0)

These “presentation” posts take a detailed look at the Todoroki family members and their stories, and provides a significant chunk of meta about Keigo Takami (Hawks). It covers the basics of Japan’s postwar western envy, the modern Japanese patriarchy, and ie family system as well as how these things relate to the characters and their motivations. These posts also discuss the parallels of several sets of characters including Keigo and Toya, Keigo and Deku, Endeavor/Enji and All Might/Toshinori, and Enji and Deku.

A Practical Solution to Ochako Uraraka and Katsuki Bakugo’s Mutual Problem (with surprise guest Himiko Toga!)

This “presentation” is formulated like a joke complete with some rough ribbing towards Deku. This discusses the similarities and differences in Uraraka, Bakugo, and Toga’s plots and relationships with Izuku Midoriya.

Trauma Doesn’t Make You Wrong or Right But it Does Make You Easier to Manipulate: Tomura Shigaraki and All for One (with surprise guests Eri, Tenko Shimura’s family, and the League of Villains!) | Ao3

This “presentation” discusses the similarities and overlap between Heroes, Villains and victims. It also breaks down how All for One is a personification of fascism throughout time and how he targets individuals, as well as what social or individual qualities he considers when choosing his marks. Oh, and this one discusses the nature of trauma and PTSD, how abuse perpetuates a cycle of itself, and how Shigaraki’s destructive rampage is really a cry for help.

From Shuichi Iguchi to Tomura Shigaraki and Bakugo Katsuki to Izuku Midoriya: With Love From Your Shadow | Ao3

This “presentation” discusses Spinner and his role in the story as well as how he and his relationship with Shigaraki parallels (or doesn’t parallel) Bakugo’s relationship with Deku.

#bnha #my hero academia #mha meta #bnha meta #bakugo katsuki #izuku midoriya #kirishima eijiro #todoroki shoto #mina ashido #spinner #shuichi iguchi #shigaraki tomura #tenko shimura #all for one #bnha manga spoilers

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steviesbicrisis · 2 years

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Hello Everyone!

A little welcoming post for whoever has stumbled upon my blog, thank you for visiting! What you will find here:

Anything stranger things related, especially Gay Stranger Things Tumblr version;

I write Steddie and sometimes other queer pairs from ST (More under the cut);

My ask is open to anyone! Prompts, questions, or anything you want to talk about is very much welcomed and appreciated!

My DMs are also open if you wanna chat about our hyperfixations together!

Rarely, I might write/reblog about:

♦ Tv Shows: Heartstopper, Doctor Who, Friends, The Office, Sherlock, Glee and many more ♦ Anime: Naruto, MHA, SpyxFamily, Given, Haikyuu ♦ Kpop: BTS, Gidle, Infinite, TXT, GNCD ♦ Superheroes: Batman, anything Marvel ♦ Ghibli studio: any movie from them, Howl's moving castle has my heart.

⬇️ Content Navigator ⬇️

Ficlets

Headcanons

Prompts

Edits

Asks

Incorrect Quotes

On Going:

Gareth the Matchmaker - AO3 (Social Media AU);

Half-Italian Steve;

Completed:

Multichaptered

Radio Hearts - AO3 (Social Media AU | Steddie week 2023);

Corroded Flowers - AO3 (Band AU | Social Media AU);

Unconventional soulmates AU (Stobin as platonic soulmates);

Compulsory Heterosexuality;

Star Wars AU;

Oneshots

The struggle of finding the perfect gift for a son of Aphrodite (PJO AU)

Eddie's coming out;

Gareth the TikTok matchmaker;

Adoption papers, the best Christmas gift;

Angst Stobin;

Childhood friends;

The one where everybody finds out (about Eddie and Steve) (Friends AU);

Grease AU;

Roommates (New Girl AU);

Parents AU;

Biquette the Goat (Corroded Coffin AU);

Role Swap | College AU;

Nurse Steve.

Others:

Stranger things rewatch thoughts: Season 1 - Season 2;

MHA x Stranger things - Characters profile;

Poll: Ultimate Steddie Prompt;

Steddie Fic Recs;

Steve Harrington's house analysis;

The Wizardly Fruity Four (Harry Potter AU);

Icons: Bi Steve Icon + Header | Italian Steve Icon | Super Mario Steve & Dustin Matching Icons | Pride Steve Icon + Header | Pride Fruity Four Header.

Fill The Jars Steddie Version: Tropes and AUs | NSFW

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animehouse-moe · 7 months

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So a friend of mine loves to write fanfics, and she have written from many popular shounen over the years (naruto, aot, haikyuu, bnha, bsd, and now jjk). When I asked her, why she never wrote for csm, do you know what she said? She said that csm is a bit different from other shounen. And even though she called herself a romance expert in bromance (she have 7 ships from hq alone 😳), she can not ship denji with anyone else from csm. What do you think?

Sorry, if you're anti shipping in shounen, please just ignore this. It's just I love reading your analysis on anime and manga.

Hmm, this is an interesting one, and I think there's a really simple answer in why they can feel like that!

Denji's relationships are always approached as familial. Aki is a brother, power is a sister, Kishibe is a father and Makima a mother. Fujimoto is all about replacing family members via Denji's personal life, and it's meant to be a symbol of growth. Could you point out a single person that Denji is friends with in the series? Not really, no. All of his relationships operate on a totally different level than something like Jujutsu Kaisen.

And it's just in the way that the authors frame these stories. Itafushi is modeled after Satosugu, for example. The idea of romantic undertones is prevalent in their relationship, and you can even see it in things like Nobara x Maki (or for the crazier/more toxic ones, Nobara x Mai).

Fujimoto just approaches characters in a totally different context than how others do with the concept of love. It's not romantic to Denji, it's a feeling that he's compensating for deep within himself. It's also why he always gets burned in those relationships because he gives himself in his entirety to those that will show him love, because he so desperately craves it. It's also why Denji's closest relationships are with the ones that were the most prickly with him to begin with. He wasn't searching for love with them, but rather he found it as he became closer to them.

Anyways, I think it's pretty reasonable to have trouble with finding a ship in CSM that you can really get behind, because the idea of love is framed in a totally different manner to how a lot of other shounen series wield it.

#chainsaw man #csm #chainsaw man manga #csm manga #csm denji #denji manga

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watermelonsloth · 6 months

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Boruto Shipping Opinions

I’m gonna put a brief aside here to say two quick things to keep in mind before reading:

I am not going to go into great detail or analysis here because I’m holding off on that until the manga wraps up.

I am caught up with the manga, I am not caught up with the anime. I have watched up until the arc the new team 7 infiltrate a prison, the second chunin exams, and whatever clips/moments I’ve stumbled upon being discussed. I am not an avid fan, I do not know all the ins and outs of character dynamics, and I don’t even keep up with that part of the fandom. I have no horse in this race.

BoruSara

I don’t like this ship, and I don’t know if that’s an unpopular opinion. I’ll try to avoid saying “they have sibling vibes” or “they’re just friends” because, coming from someone who has used that excuse in the past, it is very difficult to explain/defend argument. So much so that now it just comes across as cheap to me.

I will, however, say that I don’t like it for the same reason I don’t like NejiTen. It comes across as “he was a boy, she was a girl. Can I make it anymore obvious?” It feels like it stems from the idea that boys and girls can’t just be friends. If the dynamic was introduced with an edge of romance (like how Naruto and Sakura’s dynamic was introduced with Naruto having a crush on her), maybe it would be a different story. But as of right now, it feels like the fandom reading into something that doesn‘t need to be read into.

KawaSara

I hate to say this, but I’m guessing this ship stemmed from SasuSaku fans reading them as “next gen SasuSaku”. Look, everyone can ship whatever they want or choose to refrain from shipping, but I’m sick of the fandom projecting old ships on new dynamics. I have seen BoruSara compared to SNS, NaruSaku, and SasuSaku (for some reason). I have seen BoruSumi compared to NaruHina. I have seen MitsuSara compared to SasuSaku and SuiKarin. I have seen KawaSara compared to SasuSaku. Every single time I thought to myself, “The manga starts with Boruto asserting that he’s not his dad and this isn’t his dad’s story.” I get that comparisons will naturally arise since it’s a sequel series, but these kids are not carbon copies of their parents and they don’t have the same dynamics their parents did.

Now that my rant is out of the way, I think a hypothetical child between them having black hair with pink highlights would be cute and that’s about it.

MitsuSara

I wish these two had more of a dynamic. Both characters have interactions with Boruto and clear dynamics with him, but they don’t really have much going on with each other. They both have recognizable personalities, but they mellow each other out whenever they interact and it makes them boring (I’m guessing Ikemoto isn’t interested in them together). They also only tend to talk to each other about Boruto (at least in the manga). Say what you want about them, but at least Sasuke and Sakura had a dynamic.

Anyways, funny ha ha, Orochimaru gets an Uchiha in the way they least expected.

MitsuBoru

Gayer than any of the Naruto dynamics and that is saying something. However, I struggle to like the ship because I’m just so confused.

First, why does Boruto have so many lancer/foil/rival characters. Kawaki, Sarada, and Mitsuki all act as lancers. I get that writing doesn’t have to be formulaic, but they aren’t even all lancers to each other, having dynamics that bounce off of each other, they’re just lancers to Boruto. At least for me, it’s already gotten really boring and ends in the three’s dynamics with each other falling flat.

Second, the sun and moon symbolism makes no sense to me as a writing decision. The obvious problem is that it’s redundant; it’s already been used for multiple Naruto dynamics. The less obvious problem is that it contradicts Mitsuki’s manga introduction. Mitsuki was introduced as the middle between Boruto and Sarada’s two extremes, taking up a role similar to Sakura’s in the og team 7. If he’s supposed to be the moon to Boruto’s sun, why is he introduced to us as the earth? The admittedly more minor problem that distracts me is that Orochimaru was the one that Mitsuki down this road. Why? Orochimaru wasn’t redeemed by Naruto and has never shown interest in him or this philosophy before now. My best guess is that they’re fascinated by Naruto’s affect on Sasuke, but that still leaves me with questions.

It makes me think that the writer didn’t have any ideas when they introduced these two.

BoruSumi

I don’t like how the fandom is making another love square, but I doubt there’s anything I can do to stop them.

This ship is boring because Sumire is boring. That one anime arc made her interesting, but it’s referenced and relevant so rarely that she goes back to being boring. I’d like this more if the story let Sumire be morally gray or treated her like a redeemed villain more. As of right now, I think the only leg the ship has to stand on is writing tropes and I do not care.

KawaSumi

This ship feels like the product of the same people who ship SasuHina/SasuIno/SasuKarin/KibaHina out of spite. My last post/reblog went into why this happens but the short of it is that it’s easier to ship something in peace if the biggest “threats” to it are paired together. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I have a feeling most KawaSumi shippers also ship BoruSara.

KawaHima

Please… just stop. If not for yourself, then for me. I’m already barely coping with how popular NejiHina is. Why have I seen this as much as I have??? This feels like a personal attack on my sanity. They’re siblings.

Other

This is the section for all the ships I have little/no opinions on. I think MitsuCho is too boring for how popular it is, I think ChoSara should be more popular, I’m disturbed by all of the Eida x next gen ships because she looks and acts like an adult (at least how adults are portrayed in Boruto), and I’m surprised Code x Eida isn’t more popular, but I also think that Code has gotten the Kabuto treatment and isn’t very popular in the fandom.

The ships I haven’t mentioned I either have so little fucks to give or so little information on that I have ZERO thoughts about.

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tamelee · 2 years

Note

Can you do your drawings more the manga style? The others are fine but anime characters shouldn’t be drawn in a realistic style because it looks weird. Your art is good but maybe you can draw actors your one style and then anime for the other. I read you were practicing for the manga. Dont worry I want to read it! The thing about realism is that you cant represent a character factually in their true cultural foundation since it doesnt exist. The character doesnt exist. How can you draw Sasuke as a Japanese person and represent him as one in real life when you dont know what he looks like? Same with Naruto. This is no hate but just advice for your future career. I see many artist making mistakes like this and this is just a warning to prevent you from making it worse. I hope you can see it as such and not make a big deal out of it. I like your analysis’s though, keep up the good work have a nice day. Peace ✨

“Can you do your drawings more the manga style?”

No matter how much you try to formulate a question like this in order to make it sound “polite”, you don’t grasp the severity of the thing you’re “asking”.

You’re asking an artist (in my case someone who’s practicing to become one professionally), to change their art-style. An art-style is something that belongs to a person. It’s something that develops and an artist can play around with it, but you (and anyone else) don’t get to decide how they should do that.

It’s impossible, even if we "wanted to".

And quite rude.

When I first started with commissions people always asked me to “draw me this like that artist does” and basically they always wanted a copy. It used to be so confusing to me, because if they wanted something that looked exactly like the other artist’s drawing.. then why ask me? Why tell me you “like my art so much”, come to me for a commission because of it, but then don’t want it the way I draw it?

It made me really insecure about the way I draw.. and it still does to be honest.

“Copying” an artist’s art style can be a good way to practice art and figure out what you like, there is no shame in that, but it isn’t part of “us”.

What do you even mean with “manga-style” anyway? You do realize that there is not one “manga-style” either right? Have you seen the ‘Naruto’ tribute drawings made by other Mangaka’s? They look very different from Kishimoto’s “manga-style”.

Hirohiko Araki:

Mitsubishi Shimabukuro:

Masanori Morita:

Toshiaki Iwashiro:

Kentaro Yabuki:

Takeshi Obata:

And these are only a few... (lmao to fan-artists getting criticized for slightly different facial proportions being part of their art-style when it's more than normal (in the Manga world), but ok.)

“The others are fine but anime characters shouldn’t be drawn in a realistic style because it looks weird.”

This statement in itself is ridiculous. Anime characters drawn (semi-)realistic-looking being “weird” regardless of how it’s drawn or by who, is your opinion. Your own personal opinion which is weird to send to someone. Meaning: your opinion is not factual. Now that, is not my opinion, that’s commonly accepted as a fact.

Kishimoto himself drew his characters more "realistic" as well.

Not just him, but there is another Mangaka who did.

“Dont worry I want to read it!”

I wasn’t.

“The thing about realism is that you cant represent a character factually in their true cultural foundation since it doesnt exist. The character doesnt exist. How can you draw Sasuke as a Japanese person and represent him as one in real life when you dont know what he looks like? Same with Naruto.”

You talk like you have zero understanding of what “art” even means in the first place.

I don’t even have to explain myself to you, but:

.. these aren’t even all..

(Please guys, I’m aware of what is happening.. and yes I get them too. I’m not going to talk about other blogs, my blog isn’t a call-out blog, but this is going against my style specifically.. so here we are.)

Adding “realism” is just an interpretation, a way to enrich the fictional fantasy of a character. It’s true that you can’t represent a character “factually in their true cultural foundation since it doesn’t exist” as you say.

Because Konoha doesn’t exist. Ninja’s (from Naruto) don’t exist.

Konoha isn’t an accurate representation of Japan and its culture either as Kishimoto is also influenced by different media from all over the world. His fantasy world in which this creation was born from exists, because it isn’t limited to one cultural region and it doesn’t have your personal boundaries. His childhood as far as we know was full with superheroes that were created from minds all over the world with super-powers that aren't tied to our realistic (cultural) representations. We can't manipulate Chakra like these characters do, now can we?

That’s why it’s fiction.

That’s why you’re right and also contradicting yourself because of it.

Why the hell would I want to take the beauty out of something that not only entertains us, but perhaps even helped us cope or forget this dumb “real life” you talk about and bring it ‘back to Earth’ when the mouths that lick the asses of those that embrace this ‘cancel culture’-mentality so-lovingly want to steer us towards all these ‘problematic’ things they call “reality”. Seemingly: you.

The beauty in art or fanart, fan work, fiction, fantasy is exactly that it does NOT have to represent anything exactly in real life, but it can be whatever the creator wants it to be. Interpretation is never the same for everyone. And frankly, you don’t have to agree with it. You can turn on your news-channels, discuss shit on Facebook or focus on something else if you want to see something that “represents your reality” and even then that’s questionable to say the least :’)

Art, this platform, entertainment, humor or this story that exists from the mind of a man that somehow, someway came up with the most beautiful.. tragic, love story of all time, discussing it, getting lost in the charm or artistry that went behind in making it- it’s supposed to be fun. A way to escape that reality, but all this backlash and criticism towards not just fan-artists, but also fan fiction authors who do nothing, but share their works for free does not make it very attractive to do so. One day this fandom will die down, because of this, yet it doesn’t have to.

People will always do what they love to do.

Let them.

(Morally)

“This is no hate but just advice for your future career. I see many artist making mistakes like this and this is just a warning to prevent you from making it worse.“

No, artists following your advice is the mistake. Uno reverse warning.

Have fun on your journey drawing, writing or anything that you love to do. You’re the only one having access to your mind. In art specifically, there is not one art-style, it’s something you develop overtime through drawing the things you love drawing. Every time you’ll think to yourself “hey, I liked that, I want to incorporate that the next time I draw too!” It’ll build from there.

“I hope you can see it as such and not make a big deal out of it.”

I hope you see the hypocrisy in this sentence.

Have a nice day too. I left you a drawing. (It’s the latest one.)

#asktamelee #art talk #fandom rant #Naruto fandom #naruto rant

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