民国；China 1910s to 40s - Old Shanghai

Aesthetic Request - “The Emperor’s daughter”

video credit: Rob Harcourt

I wanted to take a quick minute to think about that. It’s a great message and not an uncommon message but somehow it’s easy to miss the message, misunderstand the message, or not know how it’s applicable in life. It’s such a common message that it possibly makes us wonder ‘is that really it?’, ‘isn’t there more?’. There has to be something more, right? Because as fans we know that there is something truly special about the OPM story, so what’s in the ‘special sauce’ if the meat of the story is so obvious? 

I think there are at least three things that I can think of at this moment that help make the telling of the idea so special. 

1. The Protagonists

Yes, Saitama, but I’m actually not even going to specifically talk about Saitama here. Every character could be/is a protagonist in their own right. Every character is a whole person with their own hopes and dreams and goals living out their own heroes journeys in their own ways. This allows ONE to explore so many manifestations of the ‘suffering of desire’ all at once, so many struggles of wanting, so many unique and complex people who are full as they are and make themselves empty in their pursuits. That means so many of us fans can see echos of ourselves and our struggles in the characters.

2. Nuance 

“Just be yourself, you’re good enough” is an easy concept to communicate but a very difficult thing for most of us to live out in our lives. Something that’s obvious isn’t always easy. I think by showing us so many different models of people failing this concept we can explore so many of our own hang-ups and struggles. But more importantly (in my opinion) there is a richer nuance to the idea of wholeness that’s difficult to express because every individual is different and must find/make their own path to be themselves. 

I think many people mistake ‘enoughness’ and ‘ambition’ as being dichotomous when they aren’t. 

So, What I’m Trying to say is! 

You’re enough doesn’t mean: 

1. You don’t have places to grow

2. You need to stop trying 

3. You are perfect 

4. You’re not going to change

5. Your hopes and dreams are illusions and distractions. 

One of the things that I’m sensitive about because of my life experience is the idea that ambition necessarily means a person is unfulfilled, greedy, narcissistic, envious, gluttonous, lustful, bastard. That ambition itself is evidence for attachment and suffering subsequently follows. 

I know there is some truth to this because unmediated ambition (Psykos), ambition without self-acceptance (Amai Mask), ambition unguided by principles (Garou), can indeed result in immeasurable suffering. However ambition for self-fulfillment (Saitama), ambition guided by principles, mediated ambition (any number of other heroes). Can be good and an important part of a person’s character.  

Even so! It’s much more complex than ‘good or bad’ Saitama, Genos and many many other heroes both experience different kinds of personal and emotional suffering, they stumble, and they consistently don’t have everything figured out. 

Wanting more doesn’t mean you aren’t grateful for what you have. To what degree is your ambition an unhealthy wanting verses a genuine desire for growth, and how much are you willing to ‘pay’ in your own life, blood, sweat, and suffering, to accomplish what you desire. Are you aware that it can be a trap?  I don’t really have the answers for what this ‘should’ look like. And at the end of the day I think that most people have to find their own balance.

3. Humor and Heart

I’ve been thinking a lot about the structure of OPM and how it’s been changing as we get into the story. I really don’t envy anyone who has the task of adapting OPM for screen, particularly as the story advances.

Something that Shingo Natsume says in his interview with AnimeLab Australia really brought it home for me.  He says that it’s not correct to call the characters around Saitama a ‘supporting cast’ as they all have their unique roles (start around 2:30).  And that got me thinking.

by @dawnfelagund

A quick summary: 

Commenting is a learned skill

Many people avoid commenting not because they didn’t want to comment, but because they didn’t know how to comment. 

Commenting is also a matter of confidence

Even among readers who are authors themselves, many aren’t sure what to say or how their comment will be received. 

A sense of community encourages commenting

People who feel more connected to the community, perhaps because of personal friendships and a sense of community built through other platforms and forms of communication, seem to have a greater desire to comment. After all, one feels less pressure when writing to a friend than an author to whom one feels little or no connection. 

Why People Don’t Comment

The other day, in response to @longlivefeedback‘s initial post about increasing feedback on AO3, I reblogged the post and shared some of my own data and research around the topic. I am a Tolkien fandom historian and own the archive the Silmarillion Writers’ Guild. In 2015, as part of my research, I conducted a survey of Tolkien fanfiction readers and writers. The survey was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the university where I was a grad student at the time, and was administered using Google Forms. There were 1,052 total participants; 642 of them were authors, and 1,047 were readers. As I came out of the survey overwhelmed with data and unsure where to begin, a key area of interest among my fandom friends was commenting, so I have recently been looking closely at the survey items related to commenting, which brought me to @longlivefeedback’s post.

In addition, I am an archive owner myself, contemplating a major software change in the next year or so. Like probably every archive owner ever, I’d like to increase the amount of commenting and interaction that happens on my site. Therefore, I had been considering many of the same questions as @longlivefeedback about AO3 but on a smaller scale for my own archive. They asked me to share some of my research and conclusions from the past several months of crunching data and discussing what it means with other members of the Tolkienfic community.

Under the jump: Commenting as a learned skill, commenting and confidence, the 3Cs, and a case study in the Tolkienfic community.  

if garou had a twitter lol 

Alright, let’s go.

To begin with, keep in mind that the classes I had were focused on freelancer traditional (ink on paper) long works and that’s were my knowledge is set on, so if you preffer to make a different type of comic - because there are so many! -, this may not be what you're looking for.

What story do you wish to tell?

A comic will always tell a story. It may be short, long, not make sense, be incredibly detailed, but it will always tell something.

Let’s say you want to make your very first comic. Commitment is hard and the pressure to make something amazing right away is weighting down on you. (PS: no, you don’t have to make something amazing right away. It’s not a requirement. You’re allowed to not be perfect. The first try is nothing but an experiment and experiments are supposed to be wonky. If there are no mistakes, how will you improve?)

For a first project, I recommend  a 4 pages long oneshot. It’s a good amount of pages that won’t make you overwhelmed with the concerns and troubles that a multichapter project can have on you. You have to tell your story in those 4 pages. You have to set the world and build your characters and have an introduction, a climax and a conclusion, all in those 4 pages. For that, or for anything longer than that, you’ll need to write down a script.

This script is for you only, so don’t worry about typos or double meanings or making it look amazing. You’re not writing a fanfic. A script is, most of the time, boring and plain and right to the point.

You have 4 pages to work with and, if you’re the same nerd detailed type of bastart that I am, you’ll have to find a way to shove everything you want to show in those 4 pages without making it look clogged. Here’s a few tips on how to make everything fit:

First page is for the world building, the genre of your story. Does it happens in a fantasy world? Is it steampunk? Space? Sci-fi? Slice of life? Is it just a living room? Be sure to show that right away. Write down everything that can be used to show that hey, this story is set in x scenario. Try not to break the page into more than 2 panels. If you’re scared of drawing backgrounds, here is the place to go a little bit too far and go wild with detail so you don’t have to make any other background ever through the rest of the story.

Introduce the character(s) in the second page. What are they doing? Are they on a hunt, are they celebrating something, are they simply doing an internal monologue while looking into oblivion? Use and abuse of body language to show the reader your character(s)’s personality.

Third page is to set the character(s)’s drive and motives, the climax of your story. Whatever they are doing, why are they doing it? Is it going well? That inner monologue just reached its peak, how is that going? Leave suspense in the last panel, like a short cliffhanger.

Here comes the conclusion, in the fourth page. Did the character(s) reach their goal? Did it work or not? How are they reacting over the conclusion? Focus on that reaction. You can end it with that.

Seems easy and clean, right?

But how do you write a script?

There are many types of comic script out there for you to pick which you’re more comfortable with. Here’s how I write scripts (Taken from the Alienated project):

Between (...) I describe what is happening visually on said panel. Between [...]  I put thoughts and/or narrator blocks. Always identify which character is talking, or else you can confuse yourself during the adaptation from script to art.

You can write way more than I did. I'm just used to imagining so much that that's all I need to know to make it work.

How many panels should I use per page? (Keeping in mind that the dimensions of a regular page are 2480x3508px, or 300dpiA4)

How many you believe will be necessary to show what you need to show. For a beginner, and even for a few professionals,  the secret of making clean comics is to show only what needs to be shown. Don’t overwhelm yourself, specially if you’re on a deadline. If there is nothing of importance in the background, you can simply not make one. If there is nothing important in showing the full body of your character, just focus on his facial expression. You can make a panel that is only balloons too.

As for the distribution of the panels, it is also up to you and to what is being shown. Going back to the script above, Panel 1 roughly takes half the page, while the rest is distributed through the other half. Panel 4 is tiny. But remember to leave a space for the balloons! Specially if you’re drawing traditionally! It would be awful to make a nice detailed background or item and then have a hard time figuring out where to shove your balloon in the panel without covering that sweet detail you worked so hard on and want to show it off, right?

How detailed is your character?

A lot? Then keep in mind that you’re going to draw that bastard at least 5 times per page. You’ll have to make all of that detail, again and again and again. And if you’re planning a multichapter, boi, you better get ready, because you can easily get bored of that character, which leads to slacking off, which leads to a spiral of concern and stress because oh god I need to finish this oh no-

If you’re up for trying that 4-pages experiment, you can go crazy with detail. Go all out. But for a longer project, it’s best to tone down the amount of detail to avoid getting bored and/or annoyed about drawing all of that over and over again. With time, you can gain confidence and skill to draw faster and better and, who knows, soon enough you’ll be on the same level of detailing as Oda!

That is all you need to know to start your own comic! There are waaaay more stuff to learn, but that comes with time and necessity. Remember to have fun too! It’s your story! Again, don’t worry about getting it perfect on the first go. It’s all about practice and perseverance. I’m sure you can do it!

Child Emperor: Ok, seems logical enough.

Zombieman: Make sure you square your hips and keep your knees bent. Use both hands to support it, have your dominant hand wrapped around the grip, and the other hand supporting it. Don’t try to one hand it, this isn’t an action movie.

Child Emperor: But you one hand it all the time!

Zombieman: Only when I’m dual wielding which is a pain in the a—butt. We’re not trying to look cool here, we’re trying to hit the target. Here, let’s fire a practice shot.

Child Emperor: Okay! *shoots off a round*

*The bullet casing lands on Zombieman’s chest and gets caught under one of his many belts, holding the piping hot casing to his skin*

Child Emperor:

Zombieman: *sizzling a bit*

Child Emperor:

Obviously he’s no Murata (no one is), but he can draw Garou looking calmer here too for example. If jumpaoki’s a fellow dedicated fan (which he’s already shown he is), then I’m sure he also knows there’s more nuanced sides to him than that; he just prefers to draw what he likes (with his own style) and that’s fine, cause all artists do that. Plus the main thing is that he’s JC Staff’s sakuga guy (not the char designer who’d do more still shot corrections like Kubota; that’s not Aoki’s job.) So he specializes in delivering more of the exaggerated, dynamic action shots anyway (rather than the usual/every day footage), which also happens to coincide with many of those extreme feral moments yes (and it’s clear he loves to draw more of that on his own time for fun). That’s no problem cause he’s already got the energy of Garou’s feral bastard ‘mode’ down (so no worries from me about that; he can already do those things well). Not that he couldn’t be in charge of animating Garou’s other moods/behavior too (as I’ve compiled) if he tried or really wanted to, but I’m not gonna discount him or prematurely judge him on footage we haven’t really seen from him yet either (beyond his sakuga action clips and similar twitter art for fun), as that wouldn’t be very fair. :O