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End of Flash
7 min read
(the annual anime/manga wrap up is on tumblr this time)
Well, this is the last day Flash is supported then huh?
For me there isn't much of a change since I've already quit making dress ups in 2018 (it's not very motivating to put work into something that'll soon stop working) but this is still a good day to look at the situation.
I've received a lot of suggestions on picrew and meiker.io. The main problem with them, however, is how you're restricted to using the tools you're given, while I have a very particular idea on what a dress up UI should look like, or just want to add things like secret characters or pants scrunching into boots. So "you don't need to know coding!" is a flaw and not a feature as far as I'm concerned. However it has been well over two years since I last made a dress up and there are moments when I'd really want to make another one so maybe I'll make something with these programs some day!
(I've also heard of downloadable flash bundles or browser extensions and whatnot, but I'm not really interested in something that would require the user to download anything since that would probably cut the viewerbase a lot)
Another common comment has been the question on how you can continue playing the existing dress ups after browsers drop Flash support. If you have enough energy, one answer is this: Download them to your computer, and find a program that can run swf files (I don't know any by name but something is bound to show up if you google a bit)
While future dress up making prospects are still unclear, it has been a good moment to look back at what I've created. The whole story started with the Nami dress up in January 2008, and I still find it baffling that I 1) included absolutely every outfit I could find, including stuff she wore once in some obscure promo picture or random figurine and 2) after all that nonsense the second dress up I created half a year later was... a second Nami dress up with an equally stupid selection of items. Documenting Nami's wardrobe has been a thing even later, with 2014 being the most recent version. I wish I had made one more for comparison's sake but it's a bit late now.
A comparison gif of the different Namis can be found here
When making the abovementioned gifs, other than the artwork I also had to compare the coding and general presentation. I'm glad I learned how to put items on different pages fast because trying to find anything in the first Nami dress up was an interesting experience and my audience has been very charitable with me for it to have over 400k views. And still it certainly was the start for this need to "collect" the character's outfits, which has continued with many other works too, most notably with the Trinity Blood dress ups.
Next thing that's worthy of note are the Pokemon creators 1 and 2 and the Naruto character maker. I hate the Naruto maker, not because of how much I've grown to dislike Naruto but because I find the art inexcusable awful and I'd like to have it removed from my gallery. But it has stayed on because I know plenty of people find value in it and I think it might even be my most popular work ever. Which is a bit unfortunate but we must live with our past. Meanwhile I have much warmer feelings towards the Pokemon ones and looking back, the Pokemon section of the v2 was quite a feat and if I may say so. Large Pokemon blocking the character is a pretty dumb oversight on my part, but other than that I find the v2 to be quite good and feature complete for its time.
On a less pleasant note the Naruto and Pokemon makers have been the source of most aggravation when people expect me to keep them up to date to the newest developments of the franchise. Not too long ago I got a note with a 15 item list on stuff I should add to the Naruto one (including stuff like "better hair", "more clothes" and "poses" which would require redrawing every item multiple times to suit each new pose), and if there's a good thing about end of Flash it is hopefully that messages like this will cease.
Speaking of character creators, the ill-fated magical girl maker should be mentioned here. Eight attempts, and none of them made it past the starting point. Some of these had some clothing parts finished, while others had multiple different ages to choose from (versions 4-6) or the option to pose the doll (version 7). Version 8 from 2018 never made it to any of the Flash Dumps but please take a look at her here, I think the doll turned out reasonably cute (with lots of tattoo/body paint options it seems). One day I will complete this.
As I said earlier, the need to dabble with outfits hasn't gone anywhere, and so far the energy has been poured into the "chibi magical girls" drawing series on my magical girl tumblr. That is, I draw a chibi in the same pose with the notable outfits of the character. Now for the first time I counted everything I've drawn in the past two years and the result was an alarming over 900. I'm pretty sure this would be a dress up if Flash had been a viable option. I would even have that goddamn magical girl maker by now if I kept adding each character's items to it one by one...
Then let's bring up yet another project that never came to be. A Pokemon Trainer Maker v3... it had actually been in the works! And it would have been huge! I wanted a save button for it, and the thousands of options would have been loaded from different files to prevent the working file from growing unmanageable, and because of them I had to completely start over with a different programming language. At the time I quit working on it it had 90 visor-less hats, 120 visor-compatible hats and 15 visors, and 180 different bangs, and I seem to also have drawn hundreds of Pokemon (including alternate forms like the clone Pokemon from the Mewtwo movie). If I remember correctly the Pokemon section was actually pretty cool, I think I even managed to code a search where you could just type in the Pokemon you want instead of fiddling with menus. But now I can't get it to run anymore and I can't understand what I was doing with the code either so that will remain a mystery.
In the end it has been a fun decade with Flash and it's a shame to see the work become deprecated, but I hope that some new way to create easily accessible interactive online works will show up eventually. But until I find a viable option I'll have to keep just being retrospective. For me this has been mostly a dumb hobby (with a couple of commissions), but sometimes I get messages from people telling how a work from me has been a part of their childhood. I of course have my own internet things that I'm nostalgic for and that are important memories to me, and while it's a bit alarming that my oldest dress ups are almost old enough to have an account on dA without lying about their age, it is also flattering to hear that something I created is a memorable part of someone else growing up. So I'm always happy to get comments like that!
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Before you ask anything about my dress ups, please see if your question has already been answered in the F.A.Q. Thank you.
Previous years: 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018.
Awards given: Worst non-romantic relationship (Awarded for the growing frustration of the Straw Hats barely interacting with each other in a meaningful way)
Awards given: Worst romance, and let's give Worst Boy too since Souma's fall from grace has been so bad.
Awards given: Best girl (Emma is a great protagonist)
Awards given: Best Boy (I still love you Eren!)
Awards given: Best Side Boy (or I guess Touma's one of the main characters but that award already went and I want to give him something)
Awards given: Best character designs (the series has a distinct clothing style, but more specifically this is about paralleling Alice and the White alice and the White Alice's wonderful dress), Best non-romantic relationship (overall the relationship writing was superb)
Awards given: Best ED (The song puts me in a happy mood and I love the little logos for all the girls), Worst Side Girl (the space princess was the only character worse than the magical girl)
Awards given: Worst Girl (almost gave this to Star Twinkle, but I've only seen half of it and really Shamiko is kind of really annoying...)
Awards given: Biggest WTF (a brother-sister love story involving the protagonist in a children's manga??)
Awards given: Best romance (I really like how Hiccup & Astrid's relationship isn't about arguing and misunderstandings)
Awards given: Best Side Girl (because it's fresh on my mind right now: at 6 badges Opal is the best character of the game and her scene with Bede was hilarious)
Awards given: Biggest time waster (I'll keep rewarding this for as long as I keep playing), Worst Side Boy (let's give it to Chip again since nobody else comes to my mind right now)
-Finally watch the Attack on Titan anime. I'm at episode 2 now! Progress from last year's episode 1.
-Finish with the mostly disappointing Digimon Adventure Tri.
-Watching all the Precure seasons is still a project, right now working on Star Twinkle and I'll maybe start with the upcoming Healin' Good.
-More magical girls! Catch up with Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card arc, Pretear, series where the magical girl is a side character (Concrete Revoutio, Samurai Flamenco, re:Creators). Also looking forward to the TMM anniversary celebration mini-series.
-Finally watch Neon Genesis Evangelion (been working on it since 2005) and finish Gurren Lagann
-Finish reading Neuro
-Read Sengoku Youko, NaruTaru and Rozen Maiden
-Weathering With You
...so it's the last year's list copied again, though I did manage to knock a few things off this time. How about I try to clear the entire list in 2020 so I could put something else here for once? That would certainly be a surprise.
Previous years: 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018.
Anime & manga:
One Piece
It's kind of sad considering how long I've been a One Piece fan, but right now my interest is at an all-time low. Too much lore and side characters, and the Straw Hats feel like an afterthought in their own story.Awards given: Worst non-romantic relationship (Awarded for the growing frustration of the Straw Hats barely interacting with each other in a meaningful way)
Shokugeki no Souma
Another depressing tale. I really liked this series when it was new, but the gradual decline with really stupid drama, unlikable main characters, side characters doing nothing and an awful romance with no chemistry I was just waiting for it to end.Awards given: Worst romance, and let's give Worst Boy too since Souma's fall from grace has been so bad.
My Hero Academia
To be entirely honest I can't even remember what has happened with this one in the past year... I read it every week, but I don't feel like I have an emotional connection to anything.The Promised Neverland
Really good character designs and an interesting world, and a good shounen in the female character department. The stuff after the series changes its genre isn't as good as the beginning, but this is still the most interesting Jump series to me right now.Awards given: Best girl (Emma is a great protagonist)
Attack on Titan
Still the number one series. Eren's actions keep getting more and more troubling, but I'll keep stanning my boy till the end! Gabi has also come a long way though I've liked her since the beginning.Awards given: Best Boy (I still love you Eren!)
Ao no Flag
A surprisingly good school drama series for someone who doesn't really care for them. I'm rooting for Touma though I'm not too optimistic...Awards given: Best Side Boy (or I guess Touma's one of the main characters but that award already went and I want to give him something)
One Week Friends
Odorless and forgettable school drama. Characters didn't feel like real people to me.Orange
Got tricked into reading another school drama since the omnibus said something like Complete Collection, but it was only part 1 out of 2. There were some cute expressions, but I struggle to remember the story and it'll still be a while until I get the part 2 that I reserved from the library so I'll probably have forgotten everything by then.Kuragehime
A bit of an uneven package that has some romance, coming-of-an-age, and fashion industry stuff. I really like the art style and the outfits are super cute, and Kuranosuke is Best Boy material. The relationship drama was kinda dumb at times, but I liked how the story actually had something to say about fashion and people's relationship to it.Pandora Hearts
Finally managed to read this one. The plot was so complicated that it took a lot of effort to get past the beginning where everything is confusing, and initially I disliked many of the main characters. But eventually I grew to like them, and the thing that was really good about this series is that the characters had a wide web of meaningful relationships so it wasn't just so that everything revolves around the hero. In the end I couldn't quite follow the plot, but the character writing was strong enough that the manga was still a very enjoyable experience, though it desperately needs a second read.Awards given: Best character designs (the series has a distinct clothing style, but more specifically this is about paralleling Alice and the White alice and the White Alice's wonderful dress), Best non-romantic relationship (overall the relationship writing was superb)
The Ancient Magus' Bride
This has been hyped a lot, and... ehhh, I guess it was ok. The worldbuilding is great, but I don't care so much about how Chise is constantly put into situations she can't handle herself. So it started to feel more patronising rather than heartwarming when other characters constantly showed up to her rescue.Spice & Wolf
I was super into this when I read the first arcs because the main duo's relationship felt so natural. Now I've finished the story, but unfortunately towards the end there was too much talking about political and economic scheming that I just couldn't be bothered to read and memorise everything.The Magical Girl department
Fresh Precure
The Precure of the year. A decent show that didn't anger me in any way, but also doesn't really stand out in any department either. Setsuna had a decent arc.Star Twinkle Precure
I've made it halfway through to the current Precure series, and so far I've been really liking it. Milky is lovely and competes with Hime for Best Cure's spot, and the space theme is used well. However the pacing feels weird and the pink girl is annoying.Invaders of the Rokujouma!?
I thought that an otaku harem where on of the girls is a magical girl would bring something new to the magical girl genre, but unfortunately the show didn't do anything interesting with the usual tropes and the magical girl was one of the worst girls.Awards given: Best ED (The song puts me in a happy mood and I love the little logos for all the girls), Worst Side Girl (the space princess was the only character worse than the magical girl)
Machikado Mazoku
The idea of a show from the point of view of the magical girl's enemy was interesting, but the story REALLY didn't do anything with it and the characters were super tropey. Especially the main character was super annoying in how there wasn't much else to her than being totally incompetent, dumb and whiny.Awards given: Worst Girl (almost gave this to Star Twinkle, but I've only seen half of it and really Shamiko is kind of really annoying...)
Magical Girl Site
This is what I think when other people complain about Madoka "ruining" the magical girl genre. I've been just fine with the other descendants of Madoka, but this one just feels so mean-spirited and cruel.Flying Witch
Feel-good series where nothing happens are my thing, and this is also nice and the fantasy elements create a fun and interesting world.Sakura Hime Kaden
Magical girls in a historical setting is a nice idea, but I still don't care much for Tanemura's works. Too many dramatic plot twists and too much romance drama.Awards given: Biggest WTF (a brother-sister love story involving the protagonist in a children's manga??)
Movies:
Detective Pikachu
Dumb story but at least the Pokemon were done well and the movie had its heart in the right place and hearing the Pokemon theme in the credits made me feel so good. I remember being really annoyed at some scenes though where characters were arguing and talking over each other.How to Train Your Dragon 3
An alright ending to Dreamworks' best trilogy, didn't care for it as much as the other two but it was still enjoyable to see. I've especially liked following the changing character designs of the growing heroes. In this movie the most memorable scene to me was that one girl being so annoying a hostage that the captor let her go.Awards given: Best romance (I really like how Hiccup & Astrid's relationship isn't about arguing and misunderstandings)
The Incredibles 2
What is it with all the sequels this year... As for this one, I can't remember a thing about it.Lego Movie 2
Nothing could come close to the genious that was the first movie, but this one was great as well, with the good writing and humour, and continuing the story in a meaningful way both in the lego world and the real one.Wreck it Ralph 2
I like the concept of the conflict being caused by a main character's behaviour, there were some fun ideas and I always like more Vanellope, but overall this film didn't feel like it needed to exist. And while I can appreciate Disney Princess redesigns (I do have plenty of PokeTrainer Princesses if you still remember) their scene really felt tacked on to me.Toy Story 4
The film nobody wanted that came out alright in the end. There were too many characters so most of them ended up being irrelevant and Buzz was annoyingly sidelined, but at least Woody's story worked and that's what really mattered.Games:
Legend of Zelda : Breath of the Wild
Got myself the Switch and Zelda back in spring. I had never really played a proper 3d game so just existing in the game world was an exciting experience for me. Though the camera is my worst enemy, and everything else is also my worst enemy because I'm really bad at the game. For some reason I haven't played in months (I've only reached the scientist girl-lady) but I intend to get back to this once I'm done with Pokemon.Pokemon Go
Started playing this again after taking a break for a year when I noticed I could put it on my work phone which runs it a lot better. Still surprisingly not insufferably money grubby for a mobile game, and when I got the AR mode working and being able to "walk around" Chikorita supposedly standing in my living room for the first time I felt like a caveman discovering fire.Pokemon Shield
Picked shield because it had Galarian Corsola, which I still haven't even caught. The Dexit controversy doesn't really affect me since I want to use new pokemon anyway, but the gameplay being the same as 20 years ago is getting really stale and some side characters have no presence. And Charizard is seriously trying to challenge the yellow rat as my least favourite Pokemon with how it keeps getting pushed to your face, like it's the only starter pokemon to get a new form, AND is also the champion's main pokemon?Awards given: Best Side Girl (because it's fresh on my mind right now: at 6 badges Opal is the best character of the game and her scene with Bede was hilarious)
Animal Crossing Pocket Camp
This one keeps getting more and more greedy and the monthly subscription was just the cherry on top. I'm eagerly waiting for Animal Crossing on Switch but I kind of worry what kind of monetisation they will include to ruin it.Awards given: Biggest time waster (I'll keep rewarding this for as long as I keep playing), Worst Side Boy (let's give it to Chip again since nobody else comes to my mind right now)
Plans for 2020:
-Animal Crossing Switch-Finally watch the Attack on Titan anime. I'm at episode 2 now! Progress from last year's episode 1.
-Finish with the mostly disappointing Digimon Adventure Tri.
-Watching all the Precure seasons is still a project, right now working on Star Twinkle and I'll maybe start with the upcoming Healin' Good.
-More magical girls! Catch up with Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card arc, Pretear, series where the magical girl is a side character (Concrete Revoutio, Samurai Flamenco, re:Creators). Also looking forward to the TMM anniversary celebration mini-series.
-Finally watch Neon Genesis Evangelion (been working on it since 2005) and finish Gurren Lagann
-Finish reading Neuro
-Read Sengoku Youko, NaruTaru and Rozen Maiden
-Weathering With You
...so it's the last year's list copied again, though I did manage to knock a few things off this time. How about I try to clear the entire list in 2020 so I could put something else here for once? That would certainly be a surprise.
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Hapuriainen's comics and animation 2018
7 min read
Before you ask anything about my dress ups, please see if your question has already been answered in the F.A.Q. Thank you.
Previous years: 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017.
We are already 1/3th into 2019, but if I don't write anything down I'll be annoyed about it later. So here's a quick rundown in no particular order
Attack on Titan
Still the biggest obsession. I see a lot of people criticising the story after the time skip, but I'm still as interested as ever. However waiting for Eren's perspective is pain, and where is Historia!? At least we finally got Zeke's side though.
Awards given: Best Boy (I still love you Eren), Best side boy (I didn't expect to like Zeke this much), Best Romance (I didn't think it's actually mutual but Nicolo/Sasha is cute), Best side girl (everyone hates Gabi but she remains one of my faves), Best ED (I didn't watch the anime but Linked Horizon's music is still amazing)
One Piece
So far the Wano arc hasn't been all that exciting for me, but One Piece is still a constant in my life and I'll be very sad when it ends. That being said none of the new characters are particularly interesting to me and I'm really not looking forward to Momonosuke getting a bigger role, but hopefully we'll learn more about the lore and Best Bunny Carrot will get to do something.
My Hero Academia
Has also been going on a bit of an autopilot and I had to struggle to remember what the last few arcs even were even about. But I did like the training arc with Class B, it's nice to have a low-stakes story with lots of room for the characters to breathe once in a while. Tsuyu remains series best girl.
Shokugeki no Souma
Rereading the earlier chapters makes me sad about what this series has become. Everything about Azami and Asahi has been stupid and that's before we even get to food mafia, cooking with chainsaws and weird fantasy powers, but I could handle that if the characters were as fun as they used to. But everyone has become a boring one trick pony and faded into background, while Souma has lost all charisma I saw in him in the early series. And most of the cooking matches have become just making a random dish with a secret ingredient or cooking method, and there just isn't much memorable or personal side to it. Just end already...
Awards given: Worst Romance (I still dislike Erina and think she has zero romantic chemistry with Souma), and I guess Erina can take Worst Girl as well, Biggest WTF (the series has always had weird stuff in it, but Asahi's copy power is just stupid)
Go! Princess Precure
Favourite Precure so far. Characters range from the upper alright tier to great tier, and the show actually uses the princess/dream theme fairly well. Best Precure henshin. I also started watching Fresh Precure, but that's still in progress.
Awards given: Best Girl (Kirara & Haruka can share this one, I like Kirara more as a personality but Haruka has a better character arc)
Matoi the Sacred Slayer
Finally bothered to finish this one. Found it mostly forgettable and generic and at times poorly directed, but it did have a couple of fun ideas and some of the more epic scenes worked really well. But still wouldn’t recommend unless you’re really into the magical girl genre.
Awards given: Worst side girl (I found Yuma insufferable)
Mary and the Witch's Flower
An alright movie with great animation, but in the end it left very little impression on me. Shame we didn’t spend more time at the magic school.
Houseki no Kuni
A really memorable one with its unique premise and character designs. Too bad I didn't watch it when it was airing because I missed all the fanart... Phos was kind of annoying in the beginning but thankfully got better.
Awards given: Best character designs, Best animation (The shining gem effects were amazing, and the CGI didn't really bother or cause uncanny valley me since the characters aren't human to begin with)
Animegataris
I was hoping this one would have more anime meta jokes (the reason I watched it in the first place was seeing screen caps of the scene where characters were drawn in retro anime style), but unfortunately this was only a thing in the final few episodes. Instead a big chunk of the series was just showcasing different aspects of otaku culture with a fairly boring cast, like an episode where the characters go to a con or make their own mini anime, and 99% of it was stuff I already knew.
Your Name
This was hyped to hell and back so of course it didn't live up to expectations. Animation was great, but high school romance and growing pains is a topic I've gotten very tired of and I found that the twist made things unnecessarily complicated; the body swapping was enough of a fantasy element for me.
A Silent Voice
Another critically acclaimed teen drama that didn't do that much for me, however the angle of disability and bullying was something I hadn't seen in a manga before so at least there was something new to it.
Luck & Logic
I watched this because some of the girls' transformation outfits looked really cute. But otherwise the content turned out to be exactly what I expected: a generic otaku anime adaptation of a mobile game with really hokey writing. I did find the fights well done though, like I didn't particularly care for the plot but the music and directing still managed to make them interesting.
Awards given: Worst boy (MC-kun didn't technically do anything offensively awful, but I found him to be a textbook example of a bland audience stand-in)
Animal Crossing Pocket Camp
The only game (or "game") I really played. I guess I can't complain too much since it's a free game and I haven't paid for anything, but he game pushing microtransactions (or opportunities to use the premium currency to be more precise) in your face at every turn is getting even more annoying.
Awards given: Biggest Time-Waster (but I still keep playing it), Worst side boy (Chip trying to sell the premium fishing rod for the 1000th time despite me rejecting the offer every time)
Also I marathoned the Promised Neverland a few weeks ago and it's been great, but I suppose it belongs to the 2019 list if I ever manage to make one (also Wreck-it-Ralph 2 and Incredibles 2).
Plans for 2019
- I've finally bought a Switch and Breath of the Wild for it so I'll be playing more. After that maybe Super Mario Odyssey, and obviously the new Pokemon and Animal Crossing once they come out.
-Finally watch the Attack on Titan anime
-Finish with the mostly disappointing Digimon Adventure Tri.
-Watching all the Precure seasons is still a project, right now working on Star Twinkle and the aforementioned Fresh.
-More magical girls! Maybe finally check out Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card arc, Pretear, series where the magical girl is a side character (Concrete Revoutio, Samurai Flamenco, re:Creators, Invaders of the Rokujyoma!?)
-Finally watch Neon Genesis Evangelion (been working on it since 2005) and finish Gurren Lagann
-Finish reading Neuro
-Read Sengoku Youko, NaruTaru and Rozen Maiden
(this list was mostly copypasted from the 2018 plans list since I failed to even touch most of them...)
Previous years: 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017.
We are already 1/3th into 2019, but if I don't write anything down I'll be annoyed about it later. So here's a quick rundown in no particular order
Attack on Titan
Still the biggest obsession. I see a lot of people criticising the story after the time skip, but I'm still as interested as ever. However waiting for Eren's perspective is pain, and where is Historia!? At least we finally got Zeke's side though.
Awards given: Best Boy (I still love you Eren), Best side boy (I didn't expect to like Zeke this much), Best Romance (I didn't think it's actually mutual but Nicolo/Sasha is cute), Best side girl (everyone hates Gabi but she remains one of my faves), Best ED (I didn't watch the anime but Linked Horizon's music is still amazing)
One Piece
So far the Wano arc hasn't been all that exciting for me, but One Piece is still a constant in my life and I'll be very sad when it ends. That being said none of the new characters are particularly interesting to me and I'm really not looking forward to Momonosuke getting a bigger role, but hopefully we'll learn more about the lore and Best Bunny Carrot will get to do something.
My Hero Academia
Has also been going on a bit of an autopilot and I had to struggle to remember what the last few arcs even were even about. But I did like the training arc with Class B, it's nice to have a low-stakes story with lots of room for the characters to breathe once in a while. Tsuyu remains series best girl.
Shokugeki no Souma
Rereading the earlier chapters makes me sad about what this series has become. Everything about Azami and Asahi has been stupid and that's before we even get to food mafia, cooking with chainsaws and weird fantasy powers, but I could handle that if the characters were as fun as they used to. But everyone has become a boring one trick pony and faded into background, while Souma has lost all charisma I saw in him in the early series. And most of the cooking matches have become just making a random dish with a secret ingredient or cooking method, and there just isn't much memorable or personal side to it. Just end already...
Awards given: Worst Romance (I still dislike Erina and think she has zero romantic chemistry with Souma), and I guess Erina can take Worst Girl as well, Biggest WTF (the series has always had weird stuff in it, but Asahi's copy power is just stupid)
Go! Princess Precure
Favourite Precure so far. Characters range from the upper alright tier to great tier, and the show actually uses the princess/dream theme fairly well. Best Precure henshin. I also started watching Fresh Precure, but that's still in progress.
Awards given: Best Girl (Kirara & Haruka can share this one, I like Kirara more as a personality but Haruka has a better character arc)
Matoi the Sacred Slayer
Finally bothered to finish this one. Found it mostly forgettable and generic and at times poorly directed, but it did have a couple of fun ideas and some of the more epic scenes worked really well. But still wouldn’t recommend unless you’re really into the magical girl genre.
Awards given: Worst side girl (I found Yuma insufferable)
Mary and the Witch's Flower
An alright movie with great animation, but in the end it left very little impression on me. Shame we didn’t spend more time at the magic school.
Houseki no Kuni
A really memorable one with its unique premise and character designs. Too bad I didn't watch it when it was airing because I missed all the fanart... Phos was kind of annoying in the beginning but thankfully got better.
Awards given: Best character designs, Best animation (The shining gem effects were amazing, and the CGI didn't really bother or cause uncanny valley me since the characters aren't human to begin with)
Animegataris
I was hoping this one would have more anime meta jokes (the reason I watched it in the first place was seeing screen caps of the scene where characters were drawn in retro anime style), but unfortunately this was only a thing in the final few episodes. Instead a big chunk of the series was just showcasing different aspects of otaku culture with a fairly boring cast, like an episode where the characters go to a con or make their own mini anime, and 99% of it was stuff I already knew.
Your Name
This was hyped to hell and back so of course it didn't live up to expectations. Animation was great, but high school romance and growing pains is a topic I've gotten very tired of and I found that the twist made things unnecessarily complicated; the body swapping was enough of a fantasy element for me.
A Silent Voice
Another critically acclaimed teen drama that didn't do that much for me, however the angle of disability and bullying was something I hadn't seen in a manga before so at least there was something new to it.
Luck & Logic
I watched this because some of the girls' transformation outfits looked really cute. But otherwise the content turned out to be exactly what I expected: a generic otaku anime adaptation of a mobile game with really hokey writing. I did find the fights well done though, like I didn't particularly care for the plot but the music and directing still managed to make them interesting.
Awards given: Worst boy (MC-kun didn't technically do anything offensively awful, but I found him to be a textbook example of a bland audience stand-in)
Animal Crossing Pocket Camp
The only game (or "game") I really played. I guess I can't complain too much since it's a free game and I haven't paid for anything, but he game pushing microtransactions (or opportunities to use the premium currency to be more precise) in your face at every turn is getting even more annoying.
Awards given: Biggest Time-Waster (but I still keep playing it), Worst side boy (Chip trying to sell the premium fishing rod for the 1000th time despite me rejecting the offer every time)
Also I marathoned the Promised Neverland a few weeks ago and it's been great, but I suppose it belongs to the 2019 list if I ever manage to make one (also Wreck-it-Ralph 2 and Incredibles 2).
Plans for 2019
- I've finally bought a Switch and Breath of the Wild for it so I'll be playing more. After that maybe Super Mario Odyssey, and obviously the new Pokemon and Animal Crossing once they come out.
-Finally watch the Attack on Titan anime
-Finish with the mostly disappointing Digimon Adventure Tri.
-Watching all the Precure seasons is still a project, right now working on Star Twinkle and the aforementioned Fresh.
-More magical girls! Maybe finally check out Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card arc, Pretear, series where the magical girl is a side character (Concrete Revoutio, Samurai Flamenco, re:Creators, Invaders of the Rokujyoma!?)
-Finally watch Neon Genesis Evangelion (been working on it since 2005) and finish Gurren Lagann
-Finish reading Neuro
-Read Sengoku Youko, NaruTaru and Rozen Maiden
(this list was mostly copypasted from the 2018 plans list since I failed to even touch most of them...)
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Character creator hairstyles
1 min read
Before you ask anything about my dress ups, please see if your question has already been answered in the F.A.Q. Thank you.
I'm working on a new character creator, and as I've done earlier I'm going to reuse the hair section from the previous ones because it saves so much time. But since this is such a lazy approach I feel like I should add some new content too, so if there's a hairstyle you'd like to be included that's not already in the most recent version now is a good time to mention it here! It's a fantasy themed character creator so outlandish hairstyles are welcome (undercuts however do not work with the premade assets and I'm not interested in starting over just for them).
Links or reference pictures are appreciated, though it's not really that hard for me to google a character's name.
I'm working on a new character creator, and as I've done earlier I'm going to reuse the hair section from the previous ones because it saves so much time. But since this is such a lazy approach I feel like I should add some new content too, so if there's a hairstyle you'd like to be included that's not already in the most recent version now is a good time to mention it here! It's a fantasy themed character creator so outlandish hairstyles are welcome (undercuts however do not work with the premade assets and I'm not interested in starting over just for them).
Links or reference pictures are appreciated, though it's not really that hard for me to google a character's name.
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Hapuriainen's animation and comics 2017
9 min read
Before you ask anything about my dress ups, please see if your question has already been answered in the F.A.Q. Thank you.
Previous years: 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016
It is again time for the annual roundup! It feels this was not a particularly good animanga year in terms of amount of series consumed, but when it comes to enthusiasm Attack on Titan has single handedly offered more excitement than anything else in the past... I dunno, 3 or 4 years.
Attack on Titan
Finally ended up giving this a proper chance, mostly by accident, and I'm still in that hole. I'd say that a sizeable amount of my appreciation for this manga comes from how it stands out from all the other action shounen I've read in terms of how it deals with common shounen characters, themes and tropes, but as of late I've learnt to appreciate more how it stands on its own as well. Also as upset as I am that I'm so late to the party at least catching up to happened at a relatively good spot, since I found it was easier for me to get into the new arc without the main cast when I just had gotten some 50 chapters worth of material with my favourites. And with the new developments the wait was definitely worth it, even if I'm as thirsty as everyone else for the rest of the main cast's new designs.
Awards given: Best manga, Best boy (Eren), Best OP that I didn't actually see (didn't watch the anime outside listening to some music), Best friendship (Eren and Historia), Best mentor (Levi)
Made in Abyss
Heard this got a lot of praise so I decided to check it out too, knowing only that it's supposedly pretty grim. At first it seemed like just a "plucky kids go on an adventure" kind of show, even if the darker elements were always there (like how the main characters embarked on their journey fully aware that they won't be coming back). The upper layers of the titular Abyss felt pretty easy for their rumoured danger level, but when things finally went south they did so spectacularly. Very bad things happen to children in this show! Overall I really liked the Abyss as a location, the characters were great and especially the female characters were way above average (as in, pretty much got treated equally with the dudes).
Awards given: Best anime, Best OP I actually saw
Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid
This one I watched just because it looked cute. Which it was I guess, KyoAni's animation is always a pleasure to watch, but I got little else out of it. Kanna teeters between actually cute and manipulative-and-kinda-disgusting.
Awards given: Best cute animation, Best side boy (Fafnir)
Spirit Circle
Finally bothered to get into another manga from one of my favourite authors, and it was definitely worth it. The story revolving around the two protagonists reincarnating in different periods and often ending up killing one another was definitely something more unique than usual, the plot was well thought out, and the character work was just as great as I had learned to expect from the author (plus the female characters don't suck). On top of it all there is the strange calm and positive atmosphere despite sometimes grim subject matter that Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer also had. The art still isn't that amazing and sometimes the space-time talk gets way over my head but otherwise an excellent read.
Awards given: Best girl (Kouko (and iterations)), Best laughs, Best romance
One Piece
Not sure if it's because of the quality of the manga itself or because Attack on Titan dethroned One Piece from the top spot, but my interest in OP has waned a little in the past year. I haven't been able to get into Sanji's family drama, and the stuff with Big Mom has raised some good expectations but so far hasn't quite managed to live up to them. However my interest has only decreased in relation to the series itself, and compared to everything else I've consumed OP still stands tall, and Best Bunny Carrot even got to do something so I'm good I guess?
Awards given: Best side girl (Carrot)
The magical girl corner:
Doki Doki! Precure
I thought this was from last year but apparently no. So here it is, my least favourite magical girl series of all time! Might also be the least favourite anime in general (judgement pending)! Those interested can find a long rant here, but the tl;dr is that the show revolves around glorifying the main character who has no flaws, has no character development since she's amazing from the start, gets all the other characters' personal storylines be about her too, gets the story to bend so that she's always right in the end, and so on. Ugh! Though I must say that at least that in a way the series was interesting in how blindly and confidently it assumes everyone in the audience has the default assumption that the main character is the most amazing thing to ever grace this earth with her presence.
Awards given: Worst anime, Worst girl (Mana), Worst romance (?)(whatever it is when everyone proclaims their 'love' for Mana), Worst friendship (Mana being the center of everyone's universe)
Kira Kira Precure a la Mode
Tried watching an ongoing Precure series this time, and while I'm still some episodes behind it could be a lot worse. Overall a really lackluster season and suffers from the same problems as the other Precure seasons I've seen: generic, unambitious, noncommittal, repetitive... There's very little going on with the plot, and while I do like some of the characters it's hard to care when the show is so adamant at doing nothing interesting with them. However it's still the best out of the Precure seasons I've seen so far properly, which probably says more about the other two's (HapiCha and DokiDoki) quality. And I do have to commend KiraKira for sticking to the sweets theme; at least it's clearly about something.
I've also watched some Go! Princess Precure which blows the other three Precure I've seen out of the water, but I haven't made very far. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it next year.
Yuuki Yuuna is a Hero: Washio Sumi chapter / Hero chapter
Why is it always the dark magical girl shows that try anything new and interesting!? I find that the new YuYuYu stuff has had some really clunky and awkward direction, stock characters, limited animation and ham-fisted drama, but I still appreciate what it's doing with its plot. Also gotta love the veteran magical girl's reaction to the new magic system which allows them to trade defence barriers for +1000% power: "lol back in my day we didn't have any shields in the first place!"
Awards given: Best magical girl outfits
Also finished Flip Flappers (final verdict: cool premise and looks interesting, execution a little uneven but still worth watching), Punchline (an uneven but still interesting little thing with great character designs), Uta Kata (a slow moving dark magical girl show with some nice ideas, good outfit designs, poor animation and awkward fanservice) and Pop in Q (mostly forgettable upbeat magical girl thing; though it did manage to hold interest for its short length).
Awards given: Biggest WTF (Uta Kata's poorly implemented fanservice),
Best character designs (Punchline)
I also watched the second season of Hibike Euphonium, but I can't remember if it was at the end of 2016 but either way I don't have a lot to say about it.
Animal Crossing Pocket Camp
Good old Animal Crossing in mobile form, there's not much else to it and there's very little to do, but I'm a sucker for collecting and the leisurely and friendly atmosphere is worth it. Seeing Tom Nook ask for real money this time was definitely the highlight even if I'd never pay for a mobile game myself.
Awards given: Biggest Time-Waster (but I still keep playing it)
I've also kept playing Pokemon Go but there's not a lot to say about it, like can you add some new gameplay stuff to it please? Also did not get Ultra Sun/Moon. I didn't care too much for Alola and most of the new content seems to be about the Ultra stuff which is unlikable to me by default; I've never been into the legendary/mythical/ultra/save the world from apocalypse aspect of the games, like just let me train my pets to become the very best like no on ever was.
Not a lot of negative awards this year it seems. The bad stuff I read was just forgettable instead of bad in a funny way or so bad it's fun to hate it.
Plans for 2018:
-Finally watch the Attack on Titan anime to catch up with the rest of the fandom and prepare for my favourite arc getting adapted
-Finish with the mostly disappointing Digimon Adventure Tri.
-Watch the newest Precure as it airs, finish Go! Princess and at least one of the earlier seasons
-More magical girls! Maybe finally check out Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card arc, finish Matoi the Sacred Slayer (which has been on my list since 2016...), Pretear, series where the magical girl is a side character (Concrete Revoutio, Samurai Flamenco, re:Creators, Invaders of the Rokujyoma!?)
-Finally watch Neon Genesis Evangelion (been working on it since 2005) and finish Gurren Lagann
-Finish reading Neuro
-Read Sengoku Youko, NaruTaru and Rozen Maiden
-maybe get a Switch and the new Zelda and Mario games for it
Maybe I'll get to at least a fourth of these...?
Previous years: 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016
It is again time for the annual roundup! It feels this was not a particularly good animanga year in terms of amount of series consumed, but when it comes to enthusiasm Attack on Titan has single handedly offered more excitement than anything else in the past... I dunno, 3 or 4 years.
Attack on Titan
Finally ended up giving this a proper chance, mostly by accident, and I'm still in that hole. I'd say that a sizeable amount of my appreciation for this manga comes from how it stands out from all the other action shounen I've read in terms of how it deals with common shounen characters, themes and tropes, but as of late I've learnt to appreciate more how it stands on its own as well. Also as upset as I am that I'm so late to the party at least catching up to happened at a relatively good spot, since I found it was easier for me to get into the new arc without the main cast when I just had gotten some 50 chapters worth of material with my favourites. And with the new developments the wait was definitely worth it, even if I'm as thirsty as everyone else for the rest of the main cast's new designs.
Awards given: Best manga, Best boy (Eren), Best OP that I didn't actually see (didn't watch the anime outside listening to some music), Best friendship (Eren and Historia), Best mentor (Levi)
Made in Abyss
Heard this got a lot of praise so I decided to check it out too, knowing only that it's supposedly pretty grim. At first it seemed like just a "plucky kids go on an adventure" kind of show, even if the darker elements were always there (like how the main characters embarked on their journey fully aware that they won't be coming back). The upper layers of the titular Abyss felt pretty easy for their rumoured danger level, but when things finally went south they did so spectacularly. Very bad things happen to children in this show! Overall I really liked the Abyss as a location, the characters were great and especially the female characters were way above average (as in, pretty much got treated equally with the dudes).
Awards given: Best anime, Best OP I actually saw
Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid
This one I watched just because it looked cute. Which it was I guess, KyoAni's animation is always a pleasure to watch, but I got little else out of it. Kanna teeters between actually cute and manipulative-and-kinda-disgusting.
Awards given: Best cute animation, Best side boy (Fafnir)
Spirit Circle
Finally bothered to get into another manga from one of my favourite authors, and it was definitely worth it. The story revolving around the two protagonists reincarnating in different periods and often ending up killing one another was definitely something more unique than usual, the plot was well thought out, and the character work was just as great as I had learned to expect from the author (plus the female characters don't suck). On top of it all there is the strange calm and positive atmosphere despite sometimes grim subject matter that Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer also had. The art still isn't that amazing and sometimes the space-time talk gets way over my head but otherwise an excellent read.
Awards given: Best girl (Kouko (and iterations)), Best laughs, Best romance
One Piece
Not sure if it's because of the quality of the manga itself or because Attack on Titan dethroned One Piece from the top spot, but my interest in OP has waned a little in the past year. I haven't been able to get into Sanji's family drama, and the stuff with Big Mom has raised some good expectations but so far hasn't quite managed to live up to them. However my interest has only decreased in relation to the series itself, and compared to everything else I've consumed OP still stands tall, and Best Bunny Carrot even got to do something so I'm good I guess?
Awards given: Best side girl (Carrot)
The magical girl corner:
Doki Doki! Precure
I thought this was from last year but apparently no. So here it is, my least favourite magical girl series of all time! Might also be the least favourite anime in general (judgement pending)! Those interested can find a long rant here, but the tl;dr is that the show revolves around glorifying the main character who has no flaws, has no character development since she's amazing from the start, gets all the other characters' personal storylines be about her too, gets the story to bend so that she's always right in the end, and so on. Ugh! Though I must say that at least that in a way the series was interesting in how blindly and confidently it assumes everyone in the audience has the default assumption that the main character is the most amazing thing to ever grace this earth with her presence.
Awards given: Worst anime, Worst girl (Mana), Worst romance (?)(whatever it is when everyone proclaims their 'love' for Mana), Worst friendship (Mana being the center of everyone's universe)
Kira Kira Precure a la Mode
Tried watching an ongoing Precure series this time, and while I'm still some episodes behind it could be a lot worse. Overall a really lackluster season and suffers from the same problems as the other Precure seasons I've seen: generic, unambitious, noncommittal, repetitive... There's very little going on with the plot, and while I do like some of the characters it's hard to care when the show is so adamant at doing nothing interesting with them. However it's still the best out of the Precure seasons I've seen so far properly, which probably says more about the other two's (HapiCha and DokiDoki) quality. And I do have to commend KiraKira for sticking to the sweets theme; at least it's clearly about something.
I've also watched some Go! Princess Precure which blows the other three Precure I've seen out of the water, but I haven't made very far. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it next year.
Yuuki Yuuna is a Hero: Washio Sumi chapter / Hero chapter
Why is it always the dark magical girl shows that try anything new and interesting!? I find that the new YuYuYu stuff has had some really clunky and awkward direction, stock characters, limited animation and ham-fisted drama, but I still appreciate what it's doing with its plot. Also gotta love the veteran magical girl's reaction to the new magic system which allows them to trade defence barriers for +1000% power: "lol back in my day we didn't have any shields in the first place!"
Awards given: Best magical girl outfits
Also finished Flip Flappers (final verdict: cool premise and looks interesting, execution a little uneven but still worth watching), Punchline (an uneven but still interesting little thing with great character designs), Uta Kata (a slow moving dark magical girl show with some nice ideas, good outfit designs, poor animation and awkward fanservice) and Pop in Q (mostly forgettable upbeat magical girl thing; though it did manage to hold interest for its short length).
Awards given: Biggest WTF (Uta Kata's poorly implemented fanservice),
Best character designs (Punchline)
I also watched the second season of Hibike Euphonium, but I can't remember if it was at the end of 2016 but either way I don't have a lot to say about it.
Animal Crossing Pocket Camp
Good old Animal Crossing in mobile form, there's not much else to it and there's very little to do, but I'm a sucker for collecting and the leisurely and friendly atmosphere is worth it. Seeing Tom Nook ask for real money this time was definitely the highlight even if I'd never pay for a mobile game myself.
Awards given: Biggest Time-Waster (but I still keep playing it)
I've also kept playing Pokemon Go but there's not a lot to say about it, like can you add some new gameplay stuff to it please? Also did not get Ultra Sun/Moon. I didn't care too much for Alola and most of the new content seems to be about the Ultra stuff which is unlikable to me by default; I've never been into the legendary/mythical/ultra/save the world from apocalypse aspect of the games, like just let me train my pets to become the very best like no on ever was.
Not a lot of negative awards this year it seems. The bad stuff I read was just forgettable instead of bad in a funny way or so bad it's fun to hate it.
Plans for 2018:
-Finally watch the Attack on Titan anime to catch up with the rest of the fandom and prepare for my favourite arc getting adapted
-Finish with the mostly disappointing Digimon Adventure Tri.
-Watch the newest Precure as it airs, finish Go! Princess and at least one of the earlier seasons
-More magical girls! Maybe finally check out Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card arc, finish Matoi the Sacred Slayer (which has been on my list since 2016...), Pretear, series where the magical girl is a side character (Concrete Revoutio, Samurai Flamenco, re:Creators, Invaders of the Rokujyoma!?)
-Finally watch Neon Genesis Evangelion (been working on it since 2005) and finish Gurren Lagann
-Finish reading Neuro
-Read Sengoku Youko, NaruTaru and Rozen Maiden
-maybe get a Switch and the new Zelda and Mario games for it
Maybe I'll get to at least a fourth of these...?
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