Entry #11 - The someone with tentacles is back!

Greetings, everyone!

Things have changed a lot for me between the previous entry and this one. What happened to me and how things have been progressing with my project?

As for me, unless my tentacles do something about it, I have an expiration date. Once more, leaving interpretations under your discretion. I'm here to talk about my project, not sharing my personal life.

As for my project, some aspects have advanced forward, like the script. I might not have had time for drawing but I had written the story more, made revisions, improved the dialogue in various characters... Things that I've had missed when I've written them the first time. Sadly, I wish I've done something more than writing... but you know what happens when RL stands in your way.

I don't have much more to say, except I hope to do things better overall. I hope I provide more than drawings one day. I hope I provide some provocative thoughts about entertainment like I did in previous entries. And surely I hope to draw a better Rem with better drawn clothing.

Until next time!

48Tentacles

Entry #10 - See you in September!

This will be short.

There are recent IRL events that I'm not in liberty to speak that happened to me, and it came to a point where I'm not in a good enough position to continue with the development of my project. Spoiler alert and disclosure alert, I did not consent.

I'll leave the interpretations under your discretion.

On a more positive side, this dark tunnel has a light, and hopefully is not the light of an upcoming train. So I will resume to normal operations in the middle of September of this year 2021.

Please, take note of this date. If this date arrives and I'm not giving signs of life here, well... Let's just hope that there is daylight instead a train, shall we?

To end this entry with positive vibes, I've made a quick drawing of Red Girl for you, I hope you like it. And there's a hopeful message not made by me, but by someone else from a very popular game around in a compilation.

We all go through periods of darkness. Of course, in a world filled with misery and uncertainty it is a great comfort to know that in the end, there is light in the darkness.

Until next time!

48Tentacles

Entry #9 - More Fanart, and why anime appeals to more poeple

Greetings, folks!

Sorry for the wait. While I can't deliver artistic material related to my project, I can say that I'm making various revisions on the script I was working on.

So instead of leaving an empty entry, how about we do a Fanart Showcase Episode 2? Shall we?

Who remembers Joanna Dark?

That game was awesome... the N64 one, I mean

Have you ever played a game named Perfect Dark? It's basically one of the latest hits for Nintendo 64 in 2000. It's a first person shooter where you play as this girl, a secret agent with infiltration and shooting skills with orders to investigate a corporation. There was a prequel for the Xbox 360 named Perfect Dark Zero, and if you look further you'll realize that there were, let's say "beta showcases", where you can see renders of Joanna Dark with a style more related to anime instead what came to the final product, which was... well, let's say that the renders and posters of the next version were better than the Joanna that came in the final product in Xbox 360, with less plastic.

Then another taste for the men of culture. Rem.

She's there for you

So if you happen to know who Rem is, good for you. If you have seen this girl but haven't watch the anime Re:Zero... then I can't say nothing. I'm afraid that anything I could say about her can be interpreted as major spoilers, even as discreet as I'd like to be. I prefer that you watch this anime (if you wish) and make your own conclusion.

What am I going to write today? Ah yes. Why anime appeals to more people in an increasing basis.

I’ve seen various videos titled something like “why anime is better” and they kinda inspired me to write this. And I’m not going into full fanboy saying that “anime is the best because they have mai waifu omgosh”, or anything like that.

I’ve seen reasons such as the girls and women in these works appeal more to the boys/men demographic because they are portrayed as their ideal wife (hence, the term waifus and the concept of dakimakuras if you want to go with an extreme); because they are made more with love than with hate; because they provide much more accessibility in terms of introducing new works and new IPs (in contrast with western superheroes, that you as a new user you need to see this backstory and that other backstory to understand the full story)...

This time I wanna take the opportunity to offer another point of view, which I’m not gonna claim as unique, and I’m sure there are people who had encountered this view before. So if what you’re reading this is similar or coincidental to what you have in mind already feel free to skip this.

Have you ever wondered why there are increasingly more people drawn into anime and manga than western movies, comics, books, etc...? And no, I’m not gonna mention fan-service because that’s a plus, a reward for the viewer for staying with the work for X amount of time (in fact there was one anime that I wanted to keep watching for a few episodes for the fan-service themes but I quit watching it because the poor animation and the insane amount of QUALITY shown turned me off).

It has more to do with things related to actions, why characters have certain goals or motivations, how a hero is seen by others, how you as a spectator even seeing the most usual tropes you can enjoy a scene if it’s done well... So we see new IPs constantly of different genres like Isekai, Fantasy, Action, with characters motivated to be the best in the field they want to succeed, protect their loved ones from a certain danger... and even the ones related to the genre Slice Of Life gain many viewers (like Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu or even Houkago Teibou Nisshi). Even in Comedy works you have characters inspired to do the right thing and dedicate their time to achieve a certain objective, dominate their fears, to help someone else, or to simply have fun.

What do we have in western works, in contrast? We have superheroes that suddenly become antiheroes or villains (by killing innocents and doing evil for example) when 30 or 40 years ago they were the idealistic and perfect examples on what a superhero should be (protect the innocent and defeat evil). Western TV shows that for every episode there’s a lie, then there’s a misunderstanding, then the problems arise, then they apologize... just to end up repeating the cycle in the next episode. And don’t get me started about sequels, prequels, pre-sequels, names that end with a “-ion” like “revolution”, “resurrection”, “sequeletion”.

I’m not saying that every western work is exactly like that. There are exceptions, but these are exceptions which quantity of works doesn’t overcome the number 10 in my experience.

Why is this important to point that out? Because I believe that anime has way more positive messages than western works, even in Isekai stories with war elements with phrases like “It’s not safe to use destructive powers, but we cannot protect what’s important to us without fighting”. That is one small quote that doesn’t inspire negativity, yet instead fuels our desire to protect what we love. So if it’s just one small quote that happens for six seconds in one episode in one anime in one season then imagine what you could find in the rest of the works if you look for yourself. Little things do matter.

There was a Spaniard website that I don’t remember its name anymore but what I do remember is that anyone can submit any image they like, and it’s filled with screenshots of anime characters with quotes that were so inspiring that I can guarantee you that you can find in one of every ten submissions the popular question in the comment section “hey op, what anime?”.

Purpose. Strength. Adversity. Courage. Passion. Bravery. These are elements that you normally find in Isekai and Action genres commonly. But again, these values appear as well in Slices Of Life and Comedy, genres where you assume that there are small inoffensive stories. A lonely girl who was afraid of making her own decisions meets someone who is optimistic that helps her overcome that kind of fear, a husband that despite his scary looks he’s devoted to help his wife and his community, and a tired, depressed man being taken care by a goddess-like for his health and happiness... stories like these can have more positive influence than the usual western sitcom about how roommates screw each other over and over and pretend that nothing bad happened in the next episode.

Positive messages carry positive meaning.

Positive meaning brings positive motivations.

Positive motivations lead to positive actions.

And positive actions deliver positive influence.

Until next time!

48Tentacles