LOLI-POP
- Created By Wakusei Aoshi
Japaning Around~ :D Part 2: Nagoya and Kyoto
Here's the next part~ (My roommate turns out to be cooking rice right now so I gotta wait)
After 3 days in Tokyo we headed off to Nagoya on a bullet train~ It felt like an airplane. We did not get reserved seats so we didn't get window seats so it felt even more like my flight to Japan in which I didn't know what was going on! XD Except my flight had a tv (oh yeah the flight to Japan the radio had sakanaction on it so I calmed my anxieties with sakanaction).
And then we got to Nagoya and finally experienced super packed trains! It was super crazy! Like Harajuku except instead of stream of moving people it's just shoving yourself into a small space. Not good for peeps who are claustrophobic, which I have learned that I am not (even though I was when I was little).
Then we got off at Sunshine Sakae and looked for our hostel. I was super worried that the hostel was going to be the same as my first hostel but even worse since it looked like we were in the redlight district since there were clubs everywhere near it, but it turned out to be a super cute hostel that felt like a dorm for elementary students since everything was bright and colorful with cute drawings on the walls.
Our inept member of our group was stupid and booked his hotels a month before he came so all the ones we booked were full (obviously they would be) and he had to stay at another hostel, despite not knowing any Japanese he traveled on his own most of the time (probably for the best though since he had to learn how to do things on his own and for the period of time that I have known him that is one thing he never does). So we had to wait for him to meet us and we decided to go to a ramen shop and I had ramen for the first time and the tonkatsu on top melted in my mouth! It was super good! We were there for lunch and the restuarant we were at had specials during lunch where you could get rice, extra toppings, or ice cream. I got extra vegetables and yeahh...it was already too much for me and then the vegetables made it very difficult to finish and I couldn't, but it was still good.
Also there was manga at the restuarant was convenient since I was trying to explain to my friend about what manga was good since she had never read any before and they were right there.
So that was a nice atmosphere.
From my time traveling Japan I have learned I don't feel comfortable in a situation unless there is manga, then I feel right at home! XD
Then we tried to walk to Nagoya Castle but were too late so we couldn't see it. Also on the way there I learned that Japan has like no trash cans anywhere. I picked up a piece of trash hoping to be a good samaritin but there wasn't anywhere to throw it away. No wonder this piece of trash exists! There were pet bottle trash cans by vending machines but I had a mcdonalds bag...and that would be bad to put it in there so we walked for around 30 minutes looking for a trash can and I had to ask random people for help and finally we found one in front of a convenience store...sheesh...I dunno how Japan is so clean yet has hardly any public trash cans...;orz
Trash in Japan is super difficult makes me really just want to throw my trash on the ground but I can't. It was nice whenever we were in a hotel that had only one trash can 'cause that meant they would sort it themselves and we wouldn't have to learn a whole 'nother trash system for each place we stayed at ('cause it's different everywhere you stay. I pretty sure Tokyo is the least strict 'cause when I was looking at the trash cans at the capsule hotel a lot of stuff was in the combustible trash can that should have been in the paper trash can, but Tokyo didn't have that)
Where I am staying there are about 6 different types of trash: Combustibles, non combustibles, pet bottles, plastic, metals, paper
I think there were only four or so in the places we stayed at in Tokyo: Combustibles, noncombustibles, pet bottles, plastic
'nyways....
Then we went to Sunshine Sakae
And the building with the ferris wheel for some reason only has clothes shops for men. Which is nice but also a weird situation to be some girls on a floor with clothes only for men! XD
But we went to another store and looked at some of their stuff, pretty expensive. But they had a Book Off which is a used books store and I bought Innocent~ :D But they only had one and the way the manga sections of bookstores are arranged are by the magazine they were published in and I only knew the magazine for Innocent since it was the same magazine as Tokyo Ghoul and Blue Heaven.
It was weird being a foreigner walking around there since everyone game me strange looks and I was super lost looking for the Young Jump section...;orz Which turned out was behind this wall so no wonder I didn't find it. Also the weird thing I've learned about used book stores is that everyone is standing and reading the manga there. It makes it easy to see who the readership for each magazine is. The yaoi section only had older office ladies and the shoujo section had young girls. The shounen sections were more mixed and the seinen sections had older men. Seeing demographics in reality is weird! XD
Then we walked to see a shrine:
We felt bad for being tourists...but whatev's it was nice at night~
On the way there, there was another small shrine:
I dunno what it was for but it was cute looking so I took a picture.
On the way back, despite the fact that my legs were dying and I hadn't eaten anything since the ramen we went to an arcade which had Dance Evolution~ :D The game I have been dying to play! I played and failed so hard at it but I want to play again one day (mainly 'cause I was choosing songs I kinda knew and not the ones I wanted to do since I had a time limit to find them and I felt nervous) and then some DDR! Then my legs died and we had to walk back to my hostel! XD
We saw some peeps practicing dancing in the glass reflections of the building which was what I had been wanting to see in Tokyo.
The next day we went on another bullet train to Kyoto~ (also these trains are super expensive...I don't understand Nagoya, I paid less going twice the distance to the small town I am now than I did from Tokyo to Nagoya...)
I sat next to a very good looking guy who I couldn't look at after the first glance! Too pretty! XD That's one thing I like about Nagoya and Tokyo. You just walk around and see gorgeous guys or visual kei guys at random. I only saw visual kei guys in Nagoya though.
I was also 'town shopping' 'cause my mom knows I will probably be living in Japan in the future but she thinks I won't want to live in a big city, but I still think I would want to live in Tokyo or Nagoya or Osaka. But mainly Tokyo or Nagoya. Being able to see a good looking guy every day is super nice.
We traveled during Silver Week which is when everybody goes out to the temples so this was a terrible time to be in Kyoto. However Kyoto was very tourist friendly so we got help about the bus systems which were confusing to us since we still didn't quite understand the subway system.
We were planning on traveling with the inept guy since he really wanted to see temples and castles, but because he is inept he decided to go drop his luggage off at his hostel, but he was too early (since he didn't look this up online earlier) and then for the first half of the day he got lost and went all over Kyoto looking for us when we were literally 15 minutes away from Kyoto station in the closest sight seeing area with a large Pagoda that you can see from the distance! It was ridiculous, so we ditched him and tried to do the stuff we wanted to do in the remaining time we had.
We went to Kinkakuji temple which I couldn't get pics of 'cause my ipad decided to peace out for a day. And then we tried to go Toji In temple but were too late but it's right next to a university and we got lots of help from the nice students there.
We were staying at Ryokan in Kyoto but we didn't quite understand how to get on there from the bus since it required getting on several different buses. All the peeps at the bus stop helped us get to our destination, it was crazy nice.
We got to our Ryokan too late to get dinner so we had to go a convenience store for food and they gave us bikes, but I didn't realize that I had forgotten how to ride a bike so that was pretty awful trying to bike on a street off the side of a cliff without falling down. I feel bad for all the screaming and crying I did in the night, but it was only like 6:00 so I don't feel that bad! XD
And the ryokan was super uncomfortable just 'cause we didn't know if we were doing anything right, but I checked with my Japanese friends and apparently we did everything right, we just felt uncomfortable about it. So our stay there wasn't the nicest and I dunno if I'd really want to stay at another ryokan...not unless I am with somebody who is Japanese.
So those were my adventures for those two days~ I liked Nagoya the most of all the places we went mainly 'cause it made me feel the most comfortable in Japan.
I liked Kyoto the least just because everything was old and tourist-y and inconvenient. Oh yeah! Kyoto was the worst about packed traveling. The buses were AWFUL. There were priority seats at the front for elderly, pregnant, etc. who deserved priority, and then everyone else sat in the back. But the seats were as packed as possible so that if you were in the back you had to scream that you are getting off and to please stop. Also even if you get the priority seats and get to sit down you have peeps breathing all over you. Or like for how this one lady probably felt, some gaijin throwing their bags all over her. Yeah I felt bad about it but there really wasn't anything I could since there was this one guy who kept shoving me on top of her...;m;
Again I was carrying a backpack and bag of clothes so I didn't really have very much room to move without hitting someone.
I am very used to packed situations now so I don't mind them at all and small rooms are totes okay since the first few nights in Japan I stayed in a cubicle! XD Honestly as long as I have room to lay down and stretch my legs, a shower, a bathroom, a trash can, and a place to put my things I am totes okay.
Next post will probably be the last about Osaka and Nara~ Now maybe I can go make some gyudon? :D
Japaning Around~ :D Part 1: Tokyo
I was going to work on my mango right now but I'm just not in the mood...I need to clean my room 'cause there's mold, but I need to tell my advisor before I do just so that I know what I'm supposed to do to get rid of it, and then my first week of classes is tomorrow and I just want those to happen, and I also have to take out the trash for the first time tomorrow and gahh....I just wanna do nothing! ;3;
But I am gonna try cooking gyudon for the first time...but I'ma wait until later. Also I can't stop watching Game Grumps...this is probably the problem...I need somebody to kick me into wanting to finish this first chapter 'cause so far I can't get myself to do it...Like all the pages are drawn I just need to ink them and do the backgrounds and some effects...but mehhh...I dun wanna....;3;
'nway~ You guys probs don't care about that! But that's the main reason why I bet posting right now~ :D I have pretty much ignored the internet until now...or no...wait...I didn't get internet until Friday...so I think I am just at that point of needing to use the internet as much as possible until I'm bored.
Okiedokie so I shall tell you of my adventures traveling around Japan~ :D Currently I am attending a small university in Japan so my traveling was on the way there.
Lemme do this in parts~ This'll be part one: Tokyo
So first I flew over to Japan flying on an airplane by myself for the first time. Then when I got there I expected to meet with my friends who were studying abroad with me, but one of them is inept at everything and the other one accidentally booked her flight to land the next day. We had booked a small hostel where the owner would drive us to the hostel from the airport which was nice, but the hostel was super scary and uncomfortable and he didn't tell me what kind of car he was in and the instructions he gave me were basically that if I was waiting in the wrong place then he'd leave.
I didn't know if I was waiting in the right place so I went up and asked some cars after about an hour of waiting and the first person I asked yelled at me 'No! No! No! Go Away!'
But eventually the guy came and asked me if I was the correct person so I did everything right in the end. Then I went to the hostel and he kept giving me strange looks and asking about why my friend wasn't with me and how I said there was going to be two of us and where was the other person.
It was pretty awful. However I coincidentally booked the same hostel as two of the other people studying abroad with me which saved my sanity and the next day I just followed them around.
However, because the adult world is stupid and for some reason people think you know everything that you are supposed to know somehow and I know absolutely nothing about the bank or credit cards or anything 'cause nobody tells me anything and just assumes I know. I didn't know I was supposed to tell my bank about studying abroad and to get my contract changed so I couldn't get any money out of the atm.
So on my second day together with the other two people in my study abroad group we tried to meet up with all the other peeps in our group since everyone was having trouble with transportation and the inept guy can't speak japanese at all so he was completely lost, so we decided to meet at Tokyo Tower and to wait for the girl who I was supposed to be traveling with to come.
We got there in the morning and waited until about 6 pm for her to come so I was there for at least 6 hours. So Tokyo Tower is like my home now! XD
(Here is the section that sells sweets and candies, there was one tent for just Hello Kitty candies. I just took this pic 'cause I was waiting for peeps and the stuff looked cute)
Since I didn't have any money, I couldn't use the public phones, so I had to get my parents to call my bank to get this sorted out, but even if you are the parents you can't do anything to the person's account unless you are the actual person. I had to use facetime to talk to the people over the phone and had to yell into my ipad in a public area so that was an experience.
Luckily I changed my contract and was able to get money! So I got some taiyaki and a ticket to the observation tower and my friend (who turns out is afraid of heights but she still went with us) and looked at Tokyo at night~ It was beautiful and Tokyo Tower was exactly how I had seen in tv shows~ :D
(Here is a glass pane you can walk on to see down Tokyo Tower)
Although I didn't know they had a One Piece thing going on. Tokyo made me have lots of realizations about the importance of anime and manga. In America it's like that quirky thing you might see sometimes in a few select shops whereas in Japan it's EVERYWHERE. All the shrines I visited had Youkai Watch and One Piece merchandise.
We went to Akihabara briefly just to check it out and we went into a SEGA game center which was okay but super tiny without any of the games I wanted to play and it reeked of smoke. But Akihabara was very orderly despite the interiors of the buildings and there was one street that just had people walking on it and no cars.
We stayed at a manga cafe in Shinjuku which was pretteh fab. My biggest worry of all our hotels we were staying at was that we decided to stay at a manga cafe for the night and that just does not sound safe especially since none of us understood how it worked.
But it was probably my most favourite place I stayed at and it's what made me feel more comfortable in Japan. You go through a sliding door and down these stairs with a shiny white floor and glowing pink walls which felt supah funkay and then you get to a desk with peeps in nice slightly punk suits and nice hair (at least the guys did). It was already a strange experience from there.
The manga cafe I stayed at is part of a chain called Manbu. I think most of these cafes would have the same things going on. You can get either a smoking or non smoking single room. However the non smoking rooms only have chairs whereas the smoking rooms have chairs that can turn into beds. You can also get a non smoking vip room for more than 1 person, which is what my friend and I did.
Here's a picture of the vip room
Super dark! It's a small cubicle with a cushiony mat on the floor and bean bag chairs. The walls are all black and there is a dim light above each cubicle. You have your own light as well. I think my biggest complaints about this manga cafe was that it was loud (you could hear all the plumbing going on), it smelled terrible and all our clothes smelled like smoke afterwards, and you couldn't really read manga there. The lighting was too harsh so I had to moved the books all over the place just trying to read a page.
But of all the places we stayed at it had the nicest shower~ :D Immediately hot and nice pressure. Also you could buy a towel and other showering stuff which I needed 'cause I forgot them (especially a towel) and the guys who helped us in the morning all had a visual kei hairstyle which was super cool and comfortable for me. I think most people would not be comfortable if the staff at some place they are staying at have punk hairstyles, but I actually felt more comfortable with this staff than the other places I stayed at with more professional looking staff.
Professional peeps scare the crap outta me.
Then the next day my friend and I could finally do what we planned to do and accidentally woke up too early. But we got to look around Shinjuku and that was fun. Oh this is still super funny and weird but I was telling my friend about how my mom wanted me to wear a business suit in my travels (which would've been hell since it was hot and I was already dying and I was just wearing a tank top and shorts), but she suddenly started telling me this. I thought it was because I told her about how the chinese students at my college called me Snow White 'cause I fit with the chinese pale skin beauty image and that apparently I'd be ideal in China. But when I was telling my friend this I was explaining how it wouldn't work the same in Japan and just after we changed the topic to something else some guy came up to us and asked us where we were from and said we were very beautiful. Which was super awkward but really hilarious after the last conversation we were having! XD
We then ate at Tully's which is a nice chain restaurant with some of the best donuts I've ever had, but the drinks were pretty awful. All the lattes tastes like cheese...>3>
'nyway we decided to venture on our own despite have the weakest knowledge of the subways in Tokyo. We went to Harajuku
Which was quite an experience.
Oh yeah! Security broke my backpack before I even left America so this entire time I was carrying around my backpack a bag of clothes. It was super difficult walking around in Harajuku, with the sun beating down, extremely clothes to all the other shoppers, looking for a backpack. You seriously cannot windowshop here. We tried but you can't see anything since you can barely get into each shop. We eventually just decided to go to random shops and go back to the random shops for air conditioning...
But I did end up buying a backpack, which I don't have a pic of but it's super cute pink with white raindrop pattern on it!
Our experience in Harajuku was super interesting, but recently I have come to wonder what the point of Harajuku was...O.o; I bought the backpack thinking there wasn't anything like it in Japan and that it was special only to go to the mall in this small town in Japan and find the exact same backpack in one of the stores....;orz
Most of the stuff in Harajuku I saw in various other places in Japan so I am very happy we did not spend much in Harajuku.
After Harajuku we went to the Design Festa art museum which was one of the best experiences on my trip next to the manga cafe~
It was super unusual for an art museum 'cause each artist had their own tiny room and the artists were actually present so you could talk to them which was super awesome~ :3 I found some peeps on pixiv who I should be following now but I can't find their business cards...;orz
I bought a pin that was made by one artist which I KNOW is original. I also saw some stockings I should have bought but I thought I'd be spending a lot more in the other places we went to...I wish I did buy it gahh...;orz 'nyway, the place was super nice with art all over the place:
(a corner of a building at Design Festa)
Then after that with some misinformation from the internet we went to Yoyogi park looking for that one freaking blue triangle building. I know you exist in a park in Japan but I still can't find any information on this and when I search google I can't find it but I keep seeing it in random music videos that are shot in Tokyo! ;3; DUN LIE TO ME INTERNET
Because of that we got super lost and also because we didn't know how to use the subways at all.
We walked around I think Ginza completely lost going the opposite direction of every station and getting confused by people's directions. Yes we understand you told us to go straight and take a right at the bridge but what sort of bridge is this??
Also there is very few public benches in Japan, I have learned. However after walking for like 3 hours we finally did find a station and decided to just go to our hotels and forget about our other plans since we were too tired. But the place that we stopped off at that was on the way to our hotel opens up to a big area with none other than BENCHES. So that's where they all were...WHY DOES TOKYO KEEP ITS PUBLIC SEATING IN RANDOM AREAS?! ;M;
So we walked about 30 min to our capsule hotel which was in an interesting part of Shinjuku that is probably famous considering the streets were massive and there were big buildings playing live concerts of some peeps. That was a nice walk even though we were super tired.
The capsule hotel was nice and clean, but it was too professional and scary for me than the manga cafe. Though I felt a lot better when I talked to the other peeps and they were just as confused as I was. I also got to watch some tv FINALLY~ :3 But itte Q was interrupted by our meeting about what we were gonna do tomorrow....>3> Whatever I didn't like Becky anyways...
There were lots of rules at the hotel which was kinda scary and it was really loud, at least for me, but I think I was just unlucky. These two girls (I think they were a couple from the sound of their chatter) were sleeping in the box on top of mine and kept talking the entire time even though there are a like a billion signs saying 'no talking' and several people came to tell them to be quiet they'd only be quiet once they heard that the other people left who told them. Also they had plastic bags of stuff or something 'cause I kept hearing sounds of people rolling around in plastic bags.
I am just assuming from the bits of conversation I could hear over the plastic that they were doing something they didn't want their parents to hear about so maybe they are having a fling or whatever in a hotel they wouldn't hear about or something? I dunno...maybe they weren't a couple but still...they wouldn't shut-up.
'course I can sleep through anything so I still went to sleep but still.
So that's how my trip went in Tokyo~ Not very good except for Tokyo Tower, Harajuku, and Design Festa...so I'm gonna go back for various things: Ikebukuro (my friend wants me to buy her stuff and she already gave me the money for it so it's required), a hair cut, meeting with an editor
I understand the subway system a lot better now so hopefully my second experience there will be okay.
I also don't have classes on fridays so I have 4 day weekends so I can go whenever, but I'm not done with my manga so I won't go into that happens and also my hair grows out. Also there are some holidays on monday so then I'd have a 5 day weekend so maybe I will shoot for a weekend like that.
SUPER LONG POST! BUT SO MUCH TO SAY~ :D I'ma go make some gyudon and then maybe finish the rest of the days of travel unless itte q comes on in that time (which shouldn't matter to most of you guys since I think most of you are probably in the western hemisphere and are asleep around that time or waking up too early)
It's a sketch du~ump~ :D
I was drawing moonlitdream's new character Lafayette and I said I would show her. I didn't realize how much other stuff I had drawn in my sketchbook recently so I will show you some 'o dat stuffs too~ :D
Some new OCs for another mango I am coming up with/working on...?? I am taking notes on. (I have so many ideas and I will work on them continuously as long as I have time so I can switch around and fertilize some ideas and stuff so that I can have more quality stories)
The guy with the hearts is cupid, the girl with the flippy hair is the main character and the guy with the big portrait is...uhh...y'know it's a really simple relationship but it doesn't have a name....I'll just say he's a friend?
LAFAYETTE~ :D He's in the middle. Then on the sides are my characters for a story that I have been working on for years and years that I originally wanted to be a novel but I feel better writing manga...so I'll probably have it as another option for a manga. Thus I tried to flesh out their designs better.
The main character's name is Pabo for now (I have no clue why, it's the first thing that popped into my head). I drew him and his brother at different ages.
I don't like Yukiko's design so I am still working on it a bit but I am not satisfied...I feel the same for Tadao's design ('cause Yukine from Noragami has the same jacket and this bothers me immensely...>3> Noragami, quit stealing my characters)
I was working on my mango and I wanted to do a strange inking style at certain parts so I was practicing how it would look. All the squiggles are just me checking that the ink went into my pen when I dipped it...XD
Some character designs for mah mango. Not much to say...XD
Sorry most of these are so blurry. The lighting in my house is the AWFUL. These are some designs of some new characters. My friend wanted me to make a hipster type character...which doesn't really fit in my manga that much but I tried to make him fit with the feel...And then I think the other drawings are the initial ideas for Cupid.
More Cupid and more mainie character designs~ :D
Here are some more characters for that same story with Cupid. Philia and Love are on the right. In the middle is Sorrow. Then on the left are Philia and Cupid as human school students. I dunno who the other peeps are though...O.o;
And dats all folks~ ;D
The walls have ears
Finally a title with meaning! :D But this post won't have any meaning (as per usual)
I am currently staying at my parent's house which is super small and I am living right above them. You can hold a conversation from every area of the house (except if you're outside and the other person is inside). That means everyone can hear everything at every moment of time!
Not only that but because I am living above them (in the attic) I can't keep the light on since the light comes into their room through the floorboards while they are sleeping.
I have been trying to adjust my sleeping schedule in slow increments so that I can sleep Japan time. Light normally wouldn't be too big of a problem since my laptop has a light but I've been working on a MANGO~ :3
I've opted to saying 'mango' instead of 'manga' now because I am paranoid and have low self confidence about being myself around ignorant people...I feel like if I say manga then people will judge me. That's super weird, isn't it?
This summer I've been given myself as many projects as possible before I go to Japan so I don't have to worry about the fact that I am going to a country that I have dreamed of going to ever since I first learned it existed in 2nd grade. (I think I'm gonna pee my pants) Also I am anticipating a bucket load of tears from myself since I was just watching some videos about Japan and some of the places I am going to so that I can figure out what I would want to do there (since my itinerary is kinda vague) and I almost cried every time I remembered that I will actually physically be there. I dunno how I will handle this....I feel bad for the people traveling with me....;orz
Anyway~ So the first month I did a 30 day challenge where I drew stuff everyday...Even though it's old I think I should post some of those drawings on here. I dunno why I didn't...just too lazy to post in multiple places?
Then the next month (and the month after that 'cause of life frustrations and art blocks and mango takes a long time to draw) I worked on my entry for the Silent Manga Audition. I was gonna do multiple ones but I don't think I'll have time. I still want to do a 24-hour manga and maybe it'd work for the contest but I dunno.
I am super unhappy with what I submitted but I submitted it anyway since I wanted it to be done. I drew it traditionally and scanned it using my school's scanner so I had so many problems. First one being that I have no skills at drawing manga traditionally and second, and probably most important, the scanner at my school is only for text, not drawings, so it gave me some AWFUL scans. Holy crap. Why did I do that?!
So after that experience I decided to....
Work on another manga traditionally~ :D
I was reading the Silent Manga Audition website about editors and how to become a manga editor and they also had stuff about how to become an actual mangaka and what the process is and then they had some FAQs. They might've been too positive, I am not sure, but the impression I got from them is:
1. Go to Japan
2. Contact Manga Magazine from phone number in Manga Magazine
3. Make appointment with editor
4. Meet with editor and show them your manuscript
5. They will give you advice and enter it into the Magazine's contest
6. If you win it gets published and you are a mangaka
I don't think I can do number 6 since that sounds pretty far-fetched for me...but I WILL be in Japan I AM working on a manuscript and I CAN make an appointment with and editor and meet with an editor.
So I'ma do that.
I've been working on this manga more seriously (not that I haven't done that in the future) and since I want to have immediate feedback from the editor, and I also don't know how to show an editor my work if it's on the computer (printing is not an option since printing manga is surprisingly difficult if it's with the wrong printer and uses up a TON of ink), and I don't really have a good program to make manga in except Krita a little bit but screen tones are a pain and any 'manga' effects are a pain.
Yep.
I'ma do it 'cause I can. Why not?
I finished drawing all the pages I have manga paper for. I need to buy some more manga paper when I get to Japan (oh gawd I am so splurging on art supplies *3*) and finish the rest there (a bit of a pain but what can ya do?). But I have almost all the pages drawn except for the first two (the other pages I drew on computer paper).
I have made so many mistakes with the ink, too. I don't know how to do the spiral-y things and and speed lines and all that jazz without smudging! ;m; And then my panels are bad too and guhh...;orz
But I decided to make more detailed backgrounds~ :D They are really good for me who never does backgrounds but I compared it to Noragami's art (which I shouldn't have done since the duo that did that is made up of the person who specializes in drawing characters and the person who specializes in drawing the backgrounds so obviously the backgrounds would be good) and then I lost some confidence...;orz
I'm getting there little by little and if my manga gets rejected or something (however that goes) I'll post it online.
I've been spending all my time on these projects so I haven't had time to do much else online or whatever. I mean I HAVE had time but le guilt...
I have been playing some games and reading mangoes and watching animoos for inspiration and incentives, though.
Recently I watched Wolf Children and I am surprised how much of an effect that had on me. I couldn't sleep after I watched it and I kept crying about the ending. I dunno...just the ending made me feel really depressed...Like it was a bittersweet mainly happy ending but it was really painful...;orz I don't think I want to watch it again even though it was really good.
Maybe eventually I will want to watch it again or something but it's just too painful for me. I don't know why...I prefer my endings to be really sad and I'm okay with sad movies in fact I get attached to them if they made me cry but this one just doesn't sit well with me. Not sure what it is...
I am also watching Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace and HOLY CRAP IS THIS A WEIRD ANIME. I don't understand what's going on and it's way too fast paced and the mysteries are terrible but I can't stop watching it! ;3; The music is cool and I like the short autopsy scenes:
It makes me fired up for some murder mystery! >:D And the main protag is super weird...like they keep drawing his butt really detailed and make him look as cute and feminine as possible but he's a guy and we have to remember that he's a guy...but like....yeahh....Quit with the butt details it's annoying.
Visually it's great whenever they are talking about the murders and stuff and there are a lot of great ideas just really bad execution. Like they are trying to do a lot of things in 20 minutes that they just can't do. It'd be better if they extended the episodes or something.
I really liked Jigoku Shoujo and I feel like they are similar in format where there is a short story every episode with some of the same characters. I think Jigoku Shoujo worked better since it told it's story very traditionally with symbolic characters of death that sometimes showed personality but the focus was on the decisions people were making and why.
I feel futakomori's last few episodes were especially powerful because throughout the series the formula of events is established where we see somebody's story that they want to get revenge and they contact the Hotline to Hell and all the jazz about how it works, then how they end up pulling the string, and then them getting ferried to the gates of hell by Enma Ai. But in the last few episodes it breaks this formula and starts focusing on another character who wasn't super major and we didn't know that much about and we keep learning more about him and then the best scene of them all when Enma Ai stops the ferry was super powerful for me.
I think if they took that route it'd work better where they establish a formula and put more focus on ONE individual character and have a few characters interact with them in a super basic level then I think it'd work better.
Also these mysteries...I am trying to think of a mystery anime or manga that I actually liked. I do like mystery manga but most of the mysteries are super duper obvious and it IRRITATES ME. I want to have fun trying to figure out who did it. But I don't think I've ever had that experience...it's mainly that I know who did it, but I want to know why.
I think that's why I LOVE Himitsu Top Secret since it's all about motive and less about mystery. Well, the mystery is why they did it.
But with Ronpa Kitan it's just like 'Here is a guy who did creepy murders, here is how we caught him, here is his motive, the end' but they TELL YOU.
I can't stand being told things by anime and manga...
I think that's because I've spent so much of my time on Silent Manga. I KNOW you can write a story without telling anybody anything so just DON'T.
I just need to gush about Dragon Head for a little bit. It's the PERFECT example of showing and not telling. NOBODY in the story knows what's going on, which fits with it's theme of fear. It never outright tells you it just SHOWS you some evidence. All the dialogue is built on characters not exposition and if it's exposition it's not reliable. Nobody knows what's going on, even if they think that's how a situation went it might not have been.
I think it might be up there as on of the best mangas I've ever read. It was somehow so succinct in it's story telling. There wasn't a chapter I felt was unnecessary to the overall theme of the manga and it explored all of this without being preachy or telling you what to think of what it even happening.
IT'S SO GORGEOUS~ <333
I highly recommend it from the bottom of my heart!
I still don't know if Ronpa Kitan is any good...like maybe I am missing the point of it...but it feels like it's going in the wrong direction with a lot of it's stuff. I am wondering if it'll end up like Homunculus and being like 'haha! Tricked you into thinking that all stuff you read was actually meaningful' or something like that. By the way, Homunculus it another great manga, though I don't think it's as clean as Dragon Head since there are several scenes/chapters/arcs that I felt were pointless. I love it because it establishes a supernatural world at the beginning and then later makes you question if the world they are in is actually supernatural or is the main character insane.
But yeppp. This post is getting long (as per usual) and it's 5 am....I should probably go to sleep....but wahh...I dun wanna...;m;
OKIEDOKIE! THERE'S AN UPDATE!
ADIOS~
Portraits~ :D
I am...procrastinating so hard on things that I actually want to do...So I did potraits~ :D
I keep drawing moonlitdream's characters when I'm bored....
I think I am getting the hang of Gabe and I think I always draw Stefan looking super yaoi manga glasses guy-esque! XD I think I've drawn Nolan once before but he's just so hard to draw because I don't really know what I am trying to draw...O.o; Like when I think of Gabe I think 'just draw him manly' when I draw Stefan I think 'pointy and suave' but when I don't think of anything when I draw Nolan. Also I am bad at drawing Dare! Every time I draw him he looks like a girl. I don't know why this is...O.o; I think 'cause he has round eyes and hair that I would normally draw for a girl.
I also drew my character Tadao 'cause I wanted to draw a rounded face. Also my new OC Orihiko who is actually really old but I just now named him. Orihiko sounds like a girl's name now that I think about it....It's funny 'cause he wasn't going to be in my story at all but I needed another character for this one scene and then he ended up being a major character. Woops~
I also draw Ametsu the Ninja's Kippon! I couldn't tell if he was wearing a hat or that was his hair though...so I just drew him like she did! XD
Yupppp....
I need to work on my comics...guhh...but...I just have this inferiority complex about it...Like every time I start I'm like 'that looks hideous' but I don't know how I will get better unless I just draw something...blehh
*goes to read other mango for inspiration*
I've been reading like 10 mangos at a time and it's not a good idea. I got so into Homunculus that I'm having a hard time reading other stuff....;orz I want more Homunculus! TT^TT
Okiedokie~ Bye-bye! Gonna actually go read some mangos (probs some shounen I've been ignoring)
ADIOS
