taikonaut-songhai
Afrofuturist Songhai 我在学汉语
18 》 Evil Sorcerer Nigga Wielding Swords And Darkness 》 Mech pilot for the imperial IDGAF forces 》 Black transfem nb 》 Studying mandarin 》
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Restarting Mandarin 1 on pimsleur as punishment for taking so much time away from it. Gotta start from square one sometimes
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I finally got around to starting Signalis though I only had time to play half an hour. It has a great atmosphere already and the ambient beeping from the ship's interface systems made me feel like I was really in a sci-fi movie. I'm interested in seeing how everything unfolds.
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alright so trying to work and go to college at the same time did not work at all lets not do that again
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I finished P3R recently and it's the closest I've ever come to crying at art. It's so beautiful and it's messages resonated super deeply with me especially in the point in life im at now. I'm really glad to have played multiple games that have had such an effect on me lately. Twewy, ntwewy, and p3r are lovely and everyone should experience them I think.
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I owe you an apology Hokazono, I wasn't familiar with your game...
Kagurabachi's Popularity: Familiarity Through Structure
Having a degree in writing and media is so fun because I can write an essay on why Kagurabachi can be defined as well written through craft standards and attribute its popularity overseas to its structure, which is framed similarly to western movies.
And I am!
After this interview confirmed that Takeru Hokazono, author of Kagurabachi, is a huge fan of western films, I went back to this idea I was playing with in October when KB had less than ten chapters. I had been reading since day one, and I knew it was good, and other overseas fan knew it was good. But what made it so good to us, overseas?
I made a quick thread on it on my Twitter account (that I never posted) where I mentioned Blake Snyder's Save the Cat book on script writing and story structure. I also brought up characterization and how it would've been really popular in my comic book class from undergrad. This thread discussed both Chihiro and Sojo, and the quick yet steady pace of the manga has given us more characters and moments to pinpoint. To not overwhelm myself, I'm not going to discuss the craft of characterization (maybe another time), and I'm not going to do a beat sheet for Sojo. For now, I'll try to stay under the first arc to map out why Kagurabachi has so far moved like a high budget film in manga form. So, spoilers ahead!
A quick lesson on Save the Cat, its three main characteristics are:
Three act structure
Fifteen plot beats
Mostly applied to American Hollywood films
One of the biggest things I noticed right away was the resemblance a lot of the chapters, even the story as a whole, had to Snyder's beat sheet. This beat sheet that comes from Snyder's book is somewhat of an industry standard, so a lot of movies, even those that preceded Snyder, go through this structure of Act 1, 2, and 3. Snyder just identified the parts and broke them down to fifteen beats. Plus he dubbed the save the cat moment:
A decisive moment in which a protagonist demonstrates they are worth rooting for. Having the protagonist save a cat can be literal or figurative.
This was something KB needed and did have to have us warm up to Chihiro who post time skip, just gave gloomy orphan energy in the previous chapters. Here, Char would be our cat. Chihiro chose to save Char and chose to protect her, and continued to fight for her until she was rescued. He made this choice even before it's revealed that Char's mother died for her, something that would parallel Chihiro. This is what got readers to see him three dimensionally after being introduced to him. He's still the caring little 14 year old we saw at the start, who continues to take care of the innocent despite the tragedy he's been through. It is only natural for us to care for him, too.
Above are the fifteen beats of Save the Cat and although KB on occasion doesn't hit all fifteen exactly as specified, especially final image as it's continuing, the song and dance is quite similar. Here are examples of The Dark Knight (2008) and Inglourious Basterds (2009), two movies that have inspired Hokazono's work.
Before Chihiro meets Char, we get his opening image of him and his dad forging which is works well as the entire story revolves on the consequences of them creating weapons. We get the set up to his world where he lives with his dad who made famous katanas that wield the power to end a war. The theme is stated, and it's not kept a secret: The katanas they make are weapons made to kill people. Are they willing to carry the burden? In another variation of this question, is Chihiro willing to carry the burdens unintentionally passed down by his father?
The catalyst is his father's murder that catapults him into seeking revenge and recover the katanas.
Now, for the rest of the story, this structure can be applied to the first 18 chapters or even 1-3 chapters at a time which in my opinion, is kind of insane. There's story telling inside the story telling, and these moments are both subtle and grand, signs of a strong and captivating writer. Hollywood would kill for a script like this these days. In order to get you to believe me how prominent these beats are, I'm going to do arc one and Daruma's story. The main story line should be around act one and two right now as of chapter 20, if we want to get down into it, but if anything, this feels like it's moving like a second "movie."
Overall, this structure that comes from Hollywood movies can be identified in multiples parts of Kagurbachi's storytelling. I was going to do beat sheet's for Char and Sojo's stories as well, but I think this is enough of an example of a bigger picture versus smaller. Although other mangas also fall into three act structures, as most story telling does, KB masterfully uses the 15 beats to its advantage. I believe the familiarity of this pace is what hooked oversea audiences, and aside from that, the characters that quickly capture us.
Very quickly, because I don't want to make this about characterization, Chihiro is well written through his past, who he chooses to kill and save, his dialogue that can be surprisingly vulnerable at times, and his cool façade that melts because of how hot he truly runs. He is also straight up a badass. We get handed Char's background in an "all is lost" segment as well as some lore that can present her as a resource for the main cast. We see Azami's phone background photo that's minimum 3+ years old- a government employee with a soft spot for his friends, one who he is still clearly grieving. We get one tiny yet so fucked up bit of Sojo when we see him get a flashback where he's a child and his single dialogue of "I truly love Kunishige Rokuhira," that launched his type of villainy in the maniacal fanboy category. Who does it like that? Nobody but Takeru Hokazono.
Thank you for reading this essay! I do have two other essays drafted, one on Sojo's possible return (I'm a delusional Sojo fan) and just his overall significance and impact as the first villain even if he doesn't return, and on Hiyuki plus servant leadership versus self service.
#kagurabachi#takeru hokazono#I was too quick to write this series off from a writing point of view#literary analysis#manga
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Experienced the kind food service shift that they only speak about in legends. Had maybe 5 minutes of downtime throughout the 8 hours and otherwise was robbed of a moment to even gather my thoughts let alone take a break. Just me and my one coworker at an undersupplied coffee shop booth getting slammed with the traffic of two entire standalone store locations that were redirected at us. The kind of war story you relay to your grandchildren like an injured veteran whose seen the face of the death.
#My well of contempt for people who buy from starbucks has deepened even further#food service workers are braver than actual veterans for the record#stop ordering from this over priced and mediocre union busting shithole coffee shop in the first place please
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I read this short transfem yuri Double House recently. I really like Nanae's art style and the work feels very personal and introspective. Something that caught my attention is the similarities between the subplot of ch.3 and Tokyo Godfathers. Did it serve as inspiration for Satoshi Kon, or are they both drawing inspiration from some older popular work featuring a trans woman wishing for motherhood that temporarily adopts an abandoned child that idk about, I wonder?
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Playing p3r in the rain, vibes are up rn.
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KAGURABACHI IS PEAK
I take back everything I said about this just being shamelessly generic like YES it is a simple revenge story at its core without particularly revolutionary themes but the execution is so good. After the first couple chapters it really starts to find its footing and todays chapter was actually just fucking excellent. The use of food as metaphor for them understanding one another, the countdown, the beautiful spreads, this is actually just Good Manga and I'm hopeful for the future of this series if Hokazono make villains as fire as Sojo.
#ThankYouFujoshis
#kagurabachi#genichi sojo#chihiro rokuhira#thank you fujoshis#the lesbians will save this series like they do everything else#Kagurabachi Chapter 17
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#twewy#ntwewy#this song's lyrics are significantly more sexual than i realized when i finally listened to it on its own
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Stealing houses and committing genocide are not good for one’s mental health, apparently.
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I kinda wanna throw a rock at this guy
#the most powerful man in the world is going “im baby”#you're going to hell-da-ruit#witch hat atelier#beldaruit
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Don’t have good photos of our cosplays yet but I designed magical girl vashwood for my roommate and I to cosplay to comic con and I kinda love them so here’s the design sketches.
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ohh that's how u pronounce it okay I been callin this poor girl a slur
#witch hat atelier#agott witch hat atelier#my bad british cigarette#this pronunciation makes a lot more sense#witch hat agott
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my favorite thing on tumblr is seeing something out of context that's clearly part of some kind of dumbass discourse and limiting my knowledge to only the bizarre fragments that appear on my feed
Girl you cannot “reclaim phrenology”
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