Round 1, Match 23 — Ita vs. Aetherpunk
Ita (痛), meaning "painful" or "cringeworthy" in Japanese, is an aesthetic that refers to the Otaku style of heavily decorating cars, bags, and other types of vehicles with ficticional characters from anime, manga, and video games. It originated in the 2000s, but its roots date back to the 80s. The visuals consist of vehicles, computer cases or bags decorated with anime characters, manga characters or videogame characters. The designs are mainly colorful and have Japanese text on them. Itasha refers to cars, Itachari refers to bicycles, Itansha refers to motorbikes, Itabasu refers to buses, Itatorakku refers to trucks, Itadensha refers to trains and Itabags refers to bags.
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Aetherpunk or Arcanepunk is probably one of the most diverse punk genres. High fantasy magic creates technology more befitting of a sci-fi world, from magical sky-ships to magical powered weapons. Architecture has guiled gold, enchanted lighting, stained glass art, and ancient pagan imagery; think Asgard from the Marvel Franchise. But, most importantly, it is a rather new genre that is similar to Solarpunk as the 'Punk' doesn't come from its dystopian social exploration nature but instead its utopian social elevation nature that looks to help people who are suffering and bring a world that is inherently good. Utopian fiction can still have negative themes such as Adventure Time's Lich which acts as the antagonist and is usually in the form of a Dark Lord like Lord of the Rings. The exact color of the so-called aether may vary between examples. In the Kaladesh Plane from Magic the Gathering, the aether has a distinct neon blue, similar to Arcane's upper-class utopian city Piltover. The Undercity, on the other hand, has a green tinge or as another wiki editor described it "Green everywhere, just green things everywhere." This darker, undercity variety can also be seen in video games like Bioshock. Depending on the universe, aether may be a naturally occurring phenomenon or a scientifically harnessed one, and colors are often used to differentiate this attitude. This juxtaposition can often be used as a key story element for aetherpunk worlds. Conflict can arise between those who are in tune with natural aether, those who harness and exploit aether, and all the questions about who is able and allowed to access this fundamental, world changing resource gives rise to rebellious factions with a variety of motivations. It also commonly uses stone and gold for most structures with the emphasis being on the gold as well as large amounts of pagan imagery.
Which aesthetic do you prefer?
Ita
Aetherpunk
