Through the looking glass

Live2d sprites for Minajael Tealrajah, for more check the link: Here

Thanks to Mr. Reuben Lack for sharing ^^

Yuuken Enma — Jonathan Ha

Riddle Rosehearts — Paul Castro Jr.

Deuce Spade — Hunter McCoy

Grim — Ben Diskin

Ace Trappola — Max Mittelman

Dire Crowley — J. Michael Tatum

Trey Clover — Johnny Yong Bosch

Cater Diamond — Michael Sinterniklaas

Leona Kingscholar — Major Attaway

Ruggie Bucchi — Kamran Nimhad

Jack Howl — Zeno Robinson

Azul Ashengrotto — Alejandro Saab

Jade Leech — Jonah Dcoty

Floyd Leech — Kellen Goff

Kalim Al-Asim — A.J. Beckles

Jamil Viper — Nazeeh Tarsha

Vil Schoenheit — Nick Monteleone

Rook Hunt — Matthew Mercer

Epel Felmier — Jesse Nowack

Idia Shroud — Khoi Dao

Ortho Shroud — Greg Vinciguerra

Malleus Draconia — Jacob Carlson

Lilia Vanrouge — Crispin Freeman

Silvet — Aleks Le

Something newcomers into the fandom should keep in mind is that you know how the 4Kids versions of YuGiOh, One Piece and other similar anime were dumbed down and censored versions of the original? That's exactly what the official English version of the game is compared to the Japanese fan translations.

Granted, I have a little hope given the fact that the subtitled English trailer called them "dorm leaders" instead of the more stupid name "housewarden". Considering how the the manga and even light novels were translated, I'm not holding my breath either.

Like the Japanese versions of these animes, the original game was targeted to "working aged women", instead of a younger audience. The characters even swore in the JP version. Ones like Leona even say "fuck" at a few points.

What makes this infuriating for me and others who pay attention to the JP version, this caused certain characters and character dynamics to be different across mediums. I want to share the biggest examples of this to bring people up to speed.

The Shitpostification of Cater

This one is more straightforward. In the English version, he's reduced to a walking, talking shit post that spouts out hashtags and weird mix of dated slang from the 2000s and "hip" gen z slang from like five years ago.

In the original, he was a much deeper and interesting character. He talked like a normal, happy go lucky guy. However, this was just a mask to hide his depression and other issues.

If that wasn't bad enough, in the JP version Cater flirts with people regardless of gender. Like this instance where he says that he wants to date Vil...

Or this one during the Playful Land event...

This is scrubbed away in the English version outside of possibly flirting with the prefect.

Vil and Epel Dynamic

This one needs some cultural context.

I don’t speak a lick of Japanese, but according to some others in the fandom that do like YuuRei, westerners are missing out on key context. Japanese is a complex language that relies heavily on the speaker's social and professional relationship with the person they're addressing. Not using polite verb forms and honorifics is seen as super rude.

We learn from the JP Harviston Event that people in Epel's hometown tend to speak in a very casual Tsugaru dialect that is both hard to understand, and lacks any honorifics and polite verb forms. It makes sense why they speak like this. It’s a small town where everybody knows everybody. But when Epel still speaks like this at NRC, it becomes a problem. Speaking like this to people he doesn’t know makes him come across as rude and disrespectful. Others at the school have a hard time understanding what Epel is even saying.

Vil’s stepping in to be Epel's tough-love mentor, being his dorm leader and upperclassman. He's looking out for Epel, trying to protect him from being judged or bullied for insulting the wrong, and helping him get ready for life beyond his small hometown.

But that intent doesn’t carry over. To a Western audience, he comes across as a pretentious snob, who believes that Epel's accent is uncouth and should change it.

(Granted, I think the English version should've handled this FAR differently in general. If something from the original version can’t be adapted without damaging character intent, it should be scrapped in the international one, not shoved in awkwardly just to stay “faithful.” This is one of those times. Or, if they wanted to keep it, have it where Vil is more focused on Epel being polite in his actual accent and correcting his sailor mouth, which would make Vil come across as a caring mentor figure for western audiences and sticks closer to Yana's original intentions. Besides, this whole thing is a plot hole in the original, since it's implied they are speaking in that world's version of English, which wouldn't have any need for that, making Vil's concern about this make even less sense.)

Just know that Vil isn't being a dick in the original. Some things got lost in translation thanks to the translators not localizing things properly.

The Jamil and Kalim Situation

To make a super long story short, their story is super watered down and whitewashed in the ENG version.

In the ENG version, the Vipers are generational employes, because they feel like it. Jamil is rebelling because he doesn't like being held down...I guess. The worst that will happen is his parents nagging at him. This makes Jamil come across wishy washy and like a whiny brat.

In the JP version, their situation is rather tragic and heartbreaking. It's heavily implied that there is a toxic system in the Scalding Sands, the boy's homeland, which is probably either kafala or the caste system, given Yana's body of work. The Vipers are at the bottom while the Asims are at the top, benefitting from this setup. The Viper's can't quit. They are forced to servant the Asims until they drop dead. Jamil is expected to be Kalim's retainer, personal chef, bodyguard and even poison tester, despite being just a teenager.

Jamil is Kalim's servant and is even forced to call Kalim his "master". If he steps out even a hair out of line, well...

Jamil did what he did, because it was his last ditch attempt to break his shackles. Does this justify what he did? Absolutely not. But, at least his actions are understandable.

Plus, it's implied that at least Kalim's father is not as kind as his son. If what Jamil's lines from before along with his parents seeming genuinely afraid for their lives around Kalim aren't enough, it's more clear that the assassination attempts are thanks to Kalim's own family members. The JP version possibly implies that he has multiple wives...

(To be fair, it's not confirmed if that's the case. It could be adoption. Given that some ultra rich folks in the Middle East can have up to 4 wives in the modern day. His father having multiple wives and concubines isn't completely out of the question.)

Either way, it's more clear in this version that Kalim's an unreliable narrator about his family and is just deep in denial, being sheltered by Jamil and the other servants who are forced to.

This is also the reason why I say in all of my fics featuring Jamil that my characterization of him is based on the JP version, NOT the ENG one. I'm not exaggerating when I say that he and Cater come across as two completely different people depending on what version you consume.

(I have plenty of issues how their story was handled. I've talked that plenty of times before, so I'm just leaving that for now.)

Conclusion

Keep all this in mind when you watch the TWST anime. A good rule of thumb is that if it seems like an odd choice and it could be weirdly translated or censored, it probably is. If you want to have a deeper understanding of this franchise, especially if you are writing fics about the characters I've mentioned, I strongly recommend you to watch the English fansubs for this game. Just so that way you can see the original vision more.

💀

Thank you to the person who requested idia to see how I would do his hair. Hope you enjoy😭

I broke down my process on insta too. I halfway regretted my life decision but look what we have here. Feel free to go check it out. Process on Insta

wip 1

After nearly three years of work, I’m really proud to announce the release of Bloom Digital (@bloomdigital )‘s newest game, Disney Villains Cursed Café. I art directed this game, and I’m so excited to get to share the results of all our hard work!

You’ve probably heard me talk about Bloom before – we’re an indie game company, known for our beloved visual novels LongStory and Later Daters. We are a team of people who love telling stories! Getting to put all that energy towards the Disney Villains was a real privilege.

Working with Disney helped all of us hold our work to an even higher standard, and push ourselves as game makers. There’s a real responsibility attached when you get the chance to work with these characters, and it would have been impossible to navigate that nearly as well without the constant guidance and feedback of the team we worked with at Disney. Thanks to everyone there for helping make this game happen!

I have to brag about my coworkers – I don’t think I can imagine a better team than the lineup we have at Bloom. When you have a team that becomes more than the sum of its parts, you get to make games that are also more than the sum of their parts! Huge thanks from me and the artists to Miriam Verburg for steering the ship the whole time, Heather Jackson for making it effortless to bring the narrative into the art every step of the way, Keana Almario for keeping us all accountable to the players experience, JP Stringham for tackling the game design inside and out, and Danielle Russell for facilitating all the communication and oversight necessary to make something like this happen.

It’s important that I tell you how wonderful the art team in particular was! It might be counter-intuitive, but, you’re not going to see a single pixel of my own drawing in this game. As an art director, it was my job to find the best artists possible and then direct them towards bringing this game to life. I had the privilege and responsibility to lead a team of incredible artists towards making this game, and whatever you see in there, I want you to know one of these people made it happen.

Yi Pan was our senior game artist, which means he and I worked together on concepts from the beginning; you can see his brilliant painting and immensely appealing design work up front and center in all our potions, gifts, and in so much of the overall color design of the game. Jey Pawlik (@jeypawlik ) was our character artist and I think it’s impossible to understate how charming they managed to make our modernized villains, no matter their moods! Janiel Lo worked with us across many disciplines, laying out and painting our complex, amazing environments, as well as helping us make sure our beautiful UI felt both integrated into the world and also comfortable and easy to use. Ally Rom Colthoff (@varethane ) made it possible for us to have the environment art of my dreams by coming in and painting the heck out of that cafe! And the game wouldn’t be what it is without Sara Mena‘s concept work, and the contributions of many artists on the Disney side who contributed not only character art, UI, and identity designs, but helped us fine-tune everything that went into the game.

It’s the biggest team I’ve ever had the chance to work with as an art director, and I’m not kidding when I say that these professionals made it easy and fun to come in every day and see what brilliant new artwork awaited me.

Something extra special about this team was how excited the artists were to work with, brainstorm with, and sing the praises of each other. I’m so grateful for this team not just for their ability to make beautiful art but their ability to collaborate with each other, myself, and with the team at Disney. Everybody should be proud of themselves, not only as artists but as game makers.

I want to shout out the narrative team, who made time to be in the art meetings with me and the artists, making it so easy to keep everything absolutely on point narratively throughout the whole development. Heather and Mike took the time to get to know the art team, and made themselves available for quick questions, brainstorming sessions, and pep talks. I think what this did for the game was make it possible for every visual joke and narrative joke to play off each other in ways that could not have possibly happened without that kind of open communication.

To talk a little bit more about the UI process, one of the things that we decided to do early on was make this game’s UI very diegetic, to keep the buttons feeling as magical as everything else that you see and do in the game, and that would not have been possible without Keana’s expertise and dedication to solving complicated UX flow challenges. Her hard work let us get away with so much more by way of magical props, framing devices, and sparkles.

For me, as the art director, I don’t always get the chance to put my own handiwork into a game, and as I mentioned, all of the amazing drawing and painting that you see on screen is thanks to our art team. But what I did get to do, very much thanks to the support of JP, was tackle the majority of the VFX. Getting to be a VFX artist for a chunk of this project was a dream come true, because if there’s one thing this game is full of, it’s magic! Figuring out how to bring life and mystery and humour to all of the magic in this game was an amazing challenge that I am so glad I got to tackle.

As a game dev, launches are always special, but this launch has been outright overwhelming in such a good way. Thank you to everybody who is streaming the game, sharing lets plays, drawing fan art, and just generally yelling about getting to hang out with their faves in our magical Cursed Café! I hope as you play this game it feels like you’ve gotten to visit somewhere magical alongside the villains.

Thanks again to everybody involved for this opportunity. Drop your fav villian in the comments, and stay in touch with me and with Bloom to find out more about what else @bloomdigital has lined up!