HE cut ME off

the themes i decided to interpret from the lyrics of Year N were 'the passage of time' and how bonds can change between long-lived wizards, but also the feeling of 'flipping through the pages of the sages journal' / akira recalling their journey so far.

the structure of the video verrrryyy loosely became ‘past events’ in the verses and ‘events since the story began’ in the choruses

these 3 were my pick for what felt like ‘significant moments for the sage’ in mainsto1, 1.5, and 2. 1: deciding to go with heathcliff to save faust 1.5: being secluded from everyone during crisis by obisius 2: crying onto sakuchan & being comforted by bradley after the waterway incident.

another option i liked for 1.5 wouldve been murrshard giving them the bouquet, but this was one of the very last sequences i put together, and murr had already gotten a disproportionate amount of appearances throughout the vid!!!! i like this dynamic scene anyways. oz is also supposed to be here, but of course he had already turned himself into a bird and been smacked against the wall. (<excuses to preserve my desired composition)

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in the chorus is another akira-focused sequence of mostly early scenes! murr pulling them out of the tower when they first met, oz throwing them both off the balcony to activate the sages powers, and mithra manhandling them in northfes… hang in there kenjachan…. ---

shylock watching the shore change through the ages was the first thing i thought of and that basically created the rest of the project

murrs blink lines up with the cat in the anime opening...💦

i had fun figuring out how to draw this white-on-black... my sketch was on normal printer paper laid overtop the black paper. i used a hard pencil to trace the sketch so it embossed into the black paper. i was able to refine it a bit with pencil on the black since the shiny graphite is visible, then inked it with white gel pen.. ---

there was a different concept for kitashitei where they were in a gradually decaying picture frame, but somehow i landed on ‘snowhi playfully leading them in a dance together’ and then i thought the staticness of a frame didnt fit with the idea.

either way i wanted to show how their "family" evolved

the only loose connection in the next quick sequence is that it features relationships the wizards have/had outside of each other. though this can be with people, places, their hobbies…. i self-indulgently shoved in a lot of art, so sorry if you have to pause to make sense of it

this ruti is one of my favorite drawings in the vid. cute :)

i almost put owen in the forest with his wolves, but the final concept (of him on the outskirts of the marketplace that is his mana area) just excited me more to draw lol

in this scene where cain is delivering flowers to the fallen sages wizards, the shadow of a bird i added was meant to represent the fate of nicholas. cain somehow you ended up with a really sad one..!!!!!!!!

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i drew this with at least 2 potential readings in mind… the first is ‘faust looking behind his back in betrayal’ - like he became a sacrifice for his and alecs goals in the end. there was a variant where he was surrounded by flames on the battlefield, but it made the image too busy. the 2nd reading is more more plainly ‘faust looking back at The Horrors,’ because this line of his stuck with me:

source

also, i think alec and fau turned out looking somewhat similar, so im sorry if it confused anyone tjhrth

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this is a scene from the end of 4th anni, but the lyric “sometimes goodbyes are necessary” made me think of how akiras goal is ultimately to leave this world too. sorry mithra

the final chorus is all scenes from ms2-onward aka “where the story is at now”. at the time of making this, 4th anni is the most recently fully translated major event, so i dont know what everyone is up to in 5th or 6th lol. i wanted all 22 mcs to appear one last time and i also wanted to show them in more than just title-pairs

this is another of my favorite drawings :)))))

i wanted to try using my scanner to create the blur on these sparks, so i drew them on a separate piece of paper and held it slightly above the scanner bed so it would scan out of focus. they were digitally composited onto mitile.

it worked, but the resulting scan lines kinda hurt my eyes, and all other pieces with blur effects are just done digitally...

while writing this i realized i forgot to draw mitiles crest even though i wanted it to be a focal point AAAAAAAA 😭

i had to make up designs for hwylryn and 4th anni akira even if only a portion was seen, but now i have them for future use

*sprite trace

the post-chorus sequence is dedicated to figaros life. days in the south, his time with faust in the army, conquering the world with oz, snowhi picking him up in the north, and when he lost his village in the avalanche… he wakes up peacefully, but at one point i did think Oops it looks like his life is flashing before his eyes

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i like how most major story parts end with akira going And So The Story Continue