forever on my anime bullshit

Lately I've been stealing little pockets of time to write.

You know those moments when you're just staring into space because your brain decides to play out an entire scene instead of letting you be productive? 😂

Cute scenes. Emotional scenes. One tiny interaction… and suddenly you’re asking yourself, “Okay… but what happened before that? And after that?” XD

Well...

Somehow it turned into a Kaiju No. 8 fanfic on AO3. It's called Standby (Me)

It's a slice-of-life story about OkoHoshi, with slow-burn feelings, plenty of Third Division shenanigans, a certain gremlin Narumi doing what Narumi does best XD

I’m proud to say I’ve received my first AI accusation! These days, everything gets called AI so fast.

I get it tho. Anyway, let’s draw Enjin together yay!

✦　　　.　　. 　 ˚　.　　　　　 . ✦

I don’t really know how to describe this kind of style. I’m not a big fan of the usual way of rendering. I prefer painting a portrait with a complete color palette, using many different colors and tones. The eyes, especially, take me much longer than you can see in this time-lapse. I draw by placing lots of small lines next to each other instead of blending everything. I’ve only recently discovered this style for myself but I will continue it. I also love using strong, vibrant colors. My other Enjin painting shows that more clearly. However, for this one, I wanted to paint this version of Enjin for once. He looks more like a bad guy here yummy.

From now on, I’ll try to include a speed painting every now and then. Perhaps a slightly longer one next time. This one is very fast! :0

we don't talk enough about how rudo asked riyo specifically to kill him if his transformation went wrong

prior to this moment, she was contemplating retreating with the belief that facing mymo in their current state was a lost cause. normally, she's cocky. impulsive. she jumps into situations without any information and comes up with a plan as she goes. this, however, is the new riyo. the one who has learned from her near death experience against the humanoid trash beast during the information broker arc.

but then rudo asks her to revert back into the person she once was, the version of her who likely killed someone that was close to her (see this post for an in-depth breakdown on that).

(that post goes into detail about how whenever riyo is recalling her past, the manga only ever shows half of her face btw, which is something that is consistent here.)

this frame is the only reaction we get of her - the next time we see her is a couple of chapters later in 159 when she comments that felix and gil are missing, so we get no follow up to how she feels about this request.

so, we don't see any follow-up on this (at least not as of chapter 172 part 1). that being said, we do get some idea of how she might be feeling based on the conversation before rudo made his request:

"a human can't quit being human"

the conversation was between rudo and gountess about mymo trying to turn himself into a god, so i find it notable that we get a reaction shot from riyo, of all people, in this panel.

riyo, whose past life as an assassin has likely made her question her own humanity. riyo, who is still human regardless of how many lives she took. riyo, who is watching mymo turn himself into a monster - a being she might relate to in an abstract way - makes this face upon hearing that someone like that is still human.

unless she has some knowledge about gods, which i doubt based on her reaction to the word, i feel it's safe to assume that she's relating this situation to herself.

maybe someone she loved asked her to kill them in the past. maybe she asked someone else to kill her and they didn't. either way, rudo asking this of her clearly struck a nerve.

No because literally Riyo is so detached from her humanity that she doesn't try as hard to keep up the facade?? And other people even notice this about her?? And then Rudo asks her to kill him and she reacts like THAT??

Woah, would you look at that? Yet another reference to Riyo not being human in this arc. Also funny that the only other person who really gets referred to as some kind of "beast" in the series is Rudo (despite Guita's best efforts lmao). And it's interesting that Felix says "fangs and all" about Riyo when Rudo is the one who gets literal fangs by the end of the arc.

Hyo has a notable reaction to the mention of the Cleaners in this panel, so the natural assumption is that she's thinking of Zanka/knows that that's where he went after leaving the Hell Guard academy

BUT there's also the possibility that she knows someone else in the Cleaners - thinking specifically of the theory that she has some connection to Tamsy.

I wanna bring up this artwork of Hyo before she joined the Hell Guard academy and how there's a figure in the background who looks like it could be Tamsy:

It's no secret that they share some visual similarities (very light hair, prominent eye lashes, similar eye color), so I wouldn't be surprised if the theories of them being related were true. (I'm particularly fond of the theory that they're both from the Sileia tribe that Noerde and Mildretta also descend from.)

Meaning that there's a very real possibility that Hyo actually has no idea that Zanka is a part of the Cleaners, which would make sense if Zanka didn't tell any of his classmates where he was going (he didn't seem to have any friends) and if the Nijiku's kept his whereabouts under wraps to save face - those are of course speculations on my part, but they seem reasonable enough given the context of the Nijiku family dynamic.

Okay, so circling back to this post, I think the first panel suggests that Hyo wasn't expecting to see Zanka. This doesn't inherently mean that she didn't know he joined the Cleaners - it could easily mean that she simply wasn't expecting to see him at the Doll Fest/right then and there - but I think this lends to the theory that she might know someone else in the Cleaners and that's why she reacted the way that she did.

I have theorized in the past that Hyo might be the second angel. She's around the right height, she shares visual similarities with Tamsy, she is known to not have a stable job (so no one would miss her if she went missing for a few days), and, if she is related to Tamsy and there's some bloodline factor that allows him to travel to and from the Sphere, then she would be able to cross the boarder as well.

When Tamsy went to the Sphere to kill Regto, he notably didn't have a Watchman series item on him. He could have taken Amo's boots, but he didn't. Zodyl had his coat, Gountess had his necklace, Enjin had the watch, and Rudo's gloves and Regto's notebook are accounted for on the Sphere. Unless Tamsy managed to take one of those items without their owners noticing, there has to be an alternate way to get past the Watchman.

A popular theory is bloodline access, which is the only one that seems plausible at this point in the story, though Kei Urana could easily make up anything lol.

If it is bloodline, though, then Tamsy wouldn't need a Watchman series item to cross the boarder. And if Hyo is related to him, which seems likely based on how similar they look, then neither would she. It might also explain why she has the eyes of a giver despite not having a jinki.

(This is assuming she's not actually a giver - there are theories that she is and either lost her jinki or can't use it for combat, and I do think it's possible, but I'm choosing to believe that she's not until we're told otherwise since an established part of her character is about being a "genius"/a strong non-giver who outclasses givers.)

Hell Guard