art, folklore & megaten

continuing experiments in photoshop

I burned 2 hours to make a handy-dandy (unofficial) Kaneko art style bible

There’s probably lots of mistake in my part. I’m so sorry if that happens. This is just my analysis of Kazuma Kaneko’s stuff (particularly the eyes).

Every composite pics have the same eyebrow and black upper lips except in category 2 where it’s smirking, and 5 have doomguy style cheekbones.

NOTES : *serph is a mix of eye type 1 and 4 *Junpei and Akihi– I mean Jimenez and Roland’s eye shape is a mix between 2B and 3B. …Ignore Angel’s one… it’s a mistake on my part :p Kaya eyes are a mix between 4A and 2B *Heck, Chiaki and Yuko can fit in 2B’s category *SMT 1 hero is a mix between 3A and 4A eye shape * 5A seems to be doomguy exclusive face. I dunno who else to put in 5 category, so I put Mastema and Junk shop manikin to fill the empty spaces… *Kyouji is what happen if eye type 3A doesn’t have enough eyeliner and mascara.

**Zelenin gaga belongs to either type 5 or EXTRA. please see the extra part.

People always say Kaneko’s works beyond persona 2 (the start of those goth mannequin with black upper lips) are completely endemic to his works (and shiraishi’s).

Tbh, Kaneko’s work seemed to be more inspired by popular art style in the eighties, especially Kogawa’s art style and works in mecha anime at that time. It’s easier to parody Kaneko’s style if you learn to draw in 80s (mecha/moe) anime style.

Why is this …important?

well, these days, people thinks that 70s, 80s and 90s anime styles are just Tezuka clones (ain’t that more of 60s?), AESTHETIC SAILOR MOON uwu, or nothing but rumiko takahashi’s style. They kinda forgot mecha and sci fi used to dominate the era (gundam started at wing) So it’s kinda depressing to see the art style goes “extinct” in different way (Misconception and all)

The first decoding of essentially ALL the text in SMTIV's (English localized) script has been released!! (FYI, as it is an M-rated game, do proceed with caution. Spoilers also, but you knew that.)

You can download the .txt files for offline reading OR you can just flip through them in the repository (or download the one BIG one and ctrl + f around). Either way, I hope this provides a good resource for fans of the game, writers/artists, or folks who just love info and want to know more.

Included as well is a program to decode SMTIV's .mbm files into .txt if you'd like to do it yourself.

Full creds to @affinity-for-beans for the programming and decoding- i.e. the important bit. All I did was help with context and write the README. And edit the silly image up top.

It's not perfect, of course, but I hope this text repository keeps the knowledge of this extremely underrated 3DS game alive.

If you go back to Roppongi Hills before reaching the Yamato Perpetual Reactor, you'll trigger a hidden scene for either Jonathan or Walter pondering whether you should release the trafficked children or not interfere at all.

As in typical Megaten dilemma, you'll have to reflect on the pros and cons of each teammate's philosophy.

Anya Mouthwashing