fredart : blogbits

I’ve been mad busy on things for the past month, and over the past few days it’s been a mix of holiday stuff with family, working on the store getting things ready for Christmas, and other projects (none of which seem to include taking care of the leaves in the back yard) Monday is “Cyber Monday” (who comes up with these names?) which is usually the biggest online shopping day of the year, so next week should be busy. It seems that people really do like to give Megatokyo stuff as gifts for christmas, so we’ve done our best to be ready for them.

Of course, i also have tons of comics to do. If i wasn’t up against a deadline, i’d pass over friday’s comic, but i need to get it done to stay on schedule. Book 5 deadlines are starting to loom so i need to get cracking on things. Luckily the rest of this chapter is a lot of fun so it should be fun to draw. Also, still waiting for the go ahead to tell you about that little project i was working on last month. Hopefully, sometime this week.

Just sat down and watched Kanon, episode 8. Spoilers ahead, so don’t read on if you haven’t seen the episode yet.

Obviously, they are diving full into the Makoto storyline now. While it’s true that i’m a card carying Nayuki fanboy, Makoto’s story tugs at some pretty tough heartstrings. It is a story that works the emotive responses to some very difficult things about the world, about being put aside, being forgotten, about being too innocent to understand what is happening to you. It’s touching, painful, and actually hard for me to watch. I suppose it’s just me, but as an animal lover and for personal reasons, Makoto’s story hits home pretty hard. That’s what a good story can do, i guess. Kyoani is doing a wonderful job with the series so far, and i’ve been looking forward to new episodes each week.

Some of the best parts of this episode, of course, are were where Makoto is being ridiculously cute. “We become stupid together” was a delightful comment on how relationships work sometimes. Also, the naming of Piro is always fun, and Akiko’s aside to Yuuichi was hilarious. Akkiko is full of win in this version of Kanon, to be sure

Ok, enough of that. Time to get cracking on “friday’s” comic.

- pirotunes: 生まれたての風 from the album “Kanon ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK”

(this post contains spoilers for Kanon (2006) episode 5

One of the nicest things about the new Kanon is it’s release schedule. It airs on Thursday and usually by mid day Friday there are subs available for download, which means i can sit back and enjoy the latest episode Saturday morning (i am sometimes tempted to watch it raw, but usually im so busy on thursdays and fridays that its just as easy to wait till Saturday to watch them). Man, people don’t know how spoiled they are these days - back in the day of vhs subs, you were lucky to get the first episode subbed by the time the last episode aired This week I didn’t have time to watch it yesterday morning, but i did sit down this morning with a cup of Apple-Cinimmon-Slice herbal tea and watch it.

I’ve been meaning to do a MT rant about the new Kanon, but i’ve been too damn busy… ah well, i’ll be getting to it soon. For now, i will say that i am enjoying the new version of Kanon very much. What i like best about it is it’s subtlety - it’s a subtle take on the original story with much care given to that story as well as lots of little tidbits and treats for long time fans. As with any ren-ai game conversion, the story does seem pretty awkward with the attention the protagonist gives to multiple girls… but the structure of the story and the ways the girls are allowed to interact helps offset this issue somewhat. It also helps that Yuuichi is not a total dick in this version like he was in the Toei version. He IS a bit of a flirt in this one, but i’ll take that over ’self righteous dickwad’

There are some scenes that seem a bit awkward — the timing on the bath scene with Makoto was off, but it still worked, but so far the flow has ben pretty decent. His being somewhat creeped out by Nayuki’s offer of a massage was highly amusing too The main thing i found interesting is how quick they tied Mai and Makoto’s storylines together. That was suprising, and… it worked. I wont give any spoilers about this, in case you don’t know Makoto’s storyline, but it was a very interesting way to tie things together. Makoto’s storyline is, for me, one of the most potent in the story… we’ll see how it pans out in this version.

The real win in the series so far, of course, is Nayuki’s mom Akkiko. She is seriously one of the most underrated characters in manga/gaming/anime. Of course, i’m also quite happy with the Nayuki goodness so far (and they better keep it up, damnit). Kanon is an indulgence for Kanon fans, a chance to dust off a stock favorite on our shelves of ‘keeper’ stories, a chance to reinvest in and re-experience the emotive ride that the stories are. I, for one, am quite happy to devote a half hour each weekend for the next couple of months to it.

- pirotunes : Last regrets (Full Chorus Version) from the album “Kanon ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK” by Key Sounds Label -

It snowed! Wai!

The first snowfall of the year is always fun for me. For some reason, this time of year is usually when i feel the most creative and inspired, and i’m looking forward to the inspiration this kind of weather brings for me. It was really nice watching it slowly fall and gather lightly as i looked out across the top of my new drawing table.

Fort he past 5 or so years i’ve been using a 24″ x 24″ drawing table (it was a 24″ x 36″ table with a 2ft square area that tilted up), which worked fine when working on 8.5 x 11 sheets of paper. With the change to working on 11 x 17 sheets of paper i was finding it awkward to work on this small of a surface. We decided it was time to upgrade to something a little larger.

Last week, my new Mayline Forrester 30″ x 42″ arrived, and after assembling it and getting used to the vast working area, i’ve been enjoying using it. It’s just the right size. The particular pencil ledge i got for it is an Alvin ledge that is adjustable - you can raise and lower it as needed. It’s a really nice feature - i don’t typically install fixed pencil ledges because i lean on them and i get dents in my arms Of course, the problem with NOT using one is that my pencils and papers always end up on the floor. The new setup is nice, and I’ve been enjoying working on it (as you may be able to tell from my more recent comics).

Lots of stuff going on in the next few weeks, gotta get to work on a rant for monday, but first, i have to get out there and take care of some of those leaves before I end up having to deal with them in the spring

- pirotunes: Tricky - Makes Me Wanna Die -