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Sorry for lack of proseka stuff I’m putting a bunch of 2-4 year old sketches under here with commentaryif you want
I have been. Trying to draw this thing for FOUR YEARS this is the second version after I scrapped the first sketches and I’m gonna scratch these too why is this thing so hard to draw for. WHYIS KOHANE SO HARD TO DRAW SHES SO NORMAL.
My favs haven’t really changed at all though. 13 year long rin fan and emu oshi since the game launched. Humiliating. Ichika minori and mizuki are close second favs for their groups though. Sometimes an threatens to overtake kohane but VBS is the only group I don’t really have much investment in their group story so
My valentines wondershows which are so old those outfits I made back then were atrocious I gotta try again. Hearts2hearts wondershow is from when rude released it went triple platinum in my mp3 player. I don’t follow any kpop groups but I just really like the song and dance and wanted to draw the mv outfits LOL I was trying to do lineart And some stupid persoective during finals (not happening
Nenekasa figure skating I drew before I had an au for it I was just reading medalist drawing some of the poses from it and thinking about what ingame outfits would look good as ice costumes. Shoutout that person who rbed that one ask and wrote like a detailed idea for the au that was basically perfect I love you I think about it all the time I’m crazy. Bonus winter tenmas from my secret santa 2024(?) That I never finished to add to the main thing
A little bit of mafuyuuuu Two wips I do want to finish but I just can’t get it right and they’re haunting me. I love mafuemu AUGH EN server ghostemu rerun soon AND ddfl AND emu birthday. I’m gemless from eyelid I’m so fucked. The mafukasa one theyre supposed to be playing chess I kind of don’t like the boring wide angle I want a different composition more close up / tense
Lastly old doodles of me and my best friends cosplay shenanigans. I will draw more of these one day we have a lot of funny pictures
Yes like those twins from The Shining. Ok that’s all Thanks for coming
one detail i really like about the wl3 cards is that the glass in mafuyu’s card isn’t shattered yet. if glass breaking is meant to represent a sort of self-enlightenment, mafuyu clearly hasn’t reached that point yet. however, her glass is nevertheless cracked, underscoring her progress towards. uncovering her true self throughout the pjsk story, which she further does in wl3 by being able to drop her mask in front of the others.
i also think that mafuyu’s card is a pretty neat parallel to her prior archery card!! the event itself, raise your bow in a snow-white world, also highlights shizuku and mafuyu’s relationship and unique connection, which wl3 then builds upon.
the partnership dynamics of these two pairs is very distinct: anhane are about surging ahead of one another and striving to be better, to inspire and fuel the other: rivalry. akitoya's partnership is centered more around pulling each other up and balancing each other out: support (?) the VBS central theme is RESOLVE: resolve to move forward, to surpass rad weekend. so it makes sense that the two partnerships are both urging each other forward, but they're doing it in different ways. essentially: head-to-head (anhn) vs. shoulder-to-shoulder (akty) -- if you want to read more about these ideas, @kiennjio made this amazing post on it, which inspired this one!
akito and toya are blue and orange: complementary colours on the colour wheel, paralleling how they balance each other out. they almost never clash as people; their worst argument was in the vbs main story, during which toya deliberately subverts the foundation of their partnership and attacks akito.
an and kohane are blue and pink: almost complementary, but not quite on opposite sides of the colour wheel. the way that their image colours clash instead of perfectly balancing reflects the head-on rivalry of their partnership! i think that wtwg is the event that naturally illustrates this the best, where an and kohane engage in direct conflict and vow to continually surpass the other.
this definitely leans more rant than analysis but i've been sitting on this post for over five months and i honestly had to just bite the bullet and write it. something something make it exist first
The Elephant in the Room Concerning Project SEKAI's Depiction of the United States: Colorful Palette's Anti-Blackness
Introduction
In a few ways, Project SEKAI's depiction of modern America (in context of Vivid BAD SQUAD's story) indicates that the writers have done research. Vivid BAD SQUAD are shocked to learn just how impossibly high the cost of living is in New York City. They are also faced with microaggressions and racism by the people they come across. Touya5 touches on how many different people live in New York City, and express their cultures through their music— and says it should be celebrated.
Furthermore, the location of America— and New York City, especially— is important for Vivid BAD SQUAD's story. It is the place where hip-hop, the genre that Vivid BAD SQUAD most often performs in, was created by Black Americans.
And yet, the Americans that Colorful Palette has deemed relevant enough to be depicted within the story look like this:
Every single one of these characters is white.
There is absolutely zero excuse for this. The writers have done enough research to know all of these troubling aspects about the United States, but continue to do anything but make a Black character. That is complete willful ignorance, and I think this fandom needs to talk about it more.
Now then, if you are, for some reason, not convinced that this is an issue worth discussing, the rest of this post will be explaining why you should care.
Why (Good) Representation Matters
Beyond the fact that the lack of representation undermines Touya5's message, and that Black Americans deserve to be represented in a story that discusses the music they created while the main characters are in that country, representation matters for a few reasons.
First of all, representation allows for the voices and experiences of marginalized individuals to be expressed. It can be important for people to see people like themselves in the media they enjoy. Furthermore, it invites people who are not marginalized in the same way to empathize with characters unlike themselves, and understand them better. In other words, media has the capacity to bring positivity to the people that are underrepresented, and humanize them to the people who are unaffected by the same issues.
In addition, good representation inherently enhances art. It is more interesting to have characters with a wide range of life experiences than it is not. It adds depth to a story's world and characters.
More Reasons Why You Should Be Critical of Colorful Palette for This (In other words, here's me anticipating bad-faith arguments in advance)
90% of writing is actually just researching for your story, any writer would know this. There is no excuse for ignorance.
There are thousands of resources online for how to draw Black characters, and write them without leaning into stereotypes. They have internet.
Just because other Japanese companies have this issue in their games does not make it less bad. Anti-Blackness in these games should not be normalized in the way it has been. It is something you should be openly critical of.
"Project SEKAI is intended for a Japanese audience" doesn't mean anything when Black people literally live in Japan.
You can still enjoy the story while understanding that this is an issue it has. They're not mutually exclusive.
If anyone wants to contribute any additional thoughts or discussion on this post, it is greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading.
love your figure skating wxs au so much, watching the olympics right now and picturing wxs nonstop—-are there any thoughts/ideas you have for this au? (I know drawing takes time and all that stuff so while they are very amazing gorgeous don’t want to put pressure so yapping is very welcome!!)
This took me so long to answer that the olympics are literally over so here’s wxs at the rink for practice
I have to take every chance to shill the wxs pairs skating fic by hypercatt because it's so good but I’ll ramble under the cut
I'm actually a liar and I drew that months ago so don't worry. I wantnto draw a lot more/animate stuff for the au but I do have to graduate and also my job or whatever. My usual disclaimer of I'm a fraud I don't do ice dance or anything nobody listen to me I'm deeply casual I tried a waltz jump in hockey skates once and almost died
Also I live in my mind palace where gender restrictions on pairs skating don't exist anywhere because why fucking should they. Oh my god it pisses me off so bad. Thank you Skate Canada fuck you Olympics. Ok. And when i say I'm yapping I'm seriously yapping
I sort of have 2... 3 different versions/ideas for the au for different disciplines where they're in singles, one where they do partnered ice dancing or pairs skating, and one where they do ice shows as a group… I like turn around so much bc it combines them in a way I really like. everyone read it. They understood the vision I just think wxs are doing shows in every universe. Phoenix figure skating club is real to me
If you want yapping much kore condensed than this I did do it in the tags of my other skating au posts but well here we are. Before 900 paragraphs of au talk I do have fun headcanons I like that fit everything in general so
• For their costumes, I think shousuke and keisuke try to source insanely prolific designers for emu's costumes on account of all their money but she would rather make them with tsukasa / rhinestone the hell out of them with everyone. Bonding activity of One million sequins and 800 bottles of glue. Before her brothers accept her taking over the rink/skating club, maybe hinata would rhinestone them with her. She does have some really nice ones from when she was younger gifted from her grandpa but she's grown out of them and keeps them as mementos
Rui and nene pre-joining wxs don't have the same sort of money to be buying costumes but Rui is fucking banned from designing them after mizukisaw what he was cooking. Atrocious things happening. Mizuki made simpler ones for him and nene once pre-wxs and accepts written notes and nothing else from him. Her vision is more trustworthy anyways. I wish we knew more about nene's mom to talk about her more but well we just don’t hear from her. When Nene joins wxs and gets to work with a designer for the first time her autism goes full speed and it’s immediately a mermaid themed costume
Tsukasa definitely making his own costumes. In the first place costume design and sewing is right on his character page but god help any designer who would have to work with him. Plus Tenmas are well off but costumes are so expensive tsukasa wouldn’t want to bother his parents with that. When he makes them he gets to name them himself and he shows them to saki like This is mega comet shining☆pegasus it has 5,000 rhinestones. And she genuinely thinks it’s awesome
• I try think about their skating styles too. despite being a fraud. Both for solo programs and how they’d do in pairs
They're all actors at heart so everyone's presentation would be strong for sure, they already know how to express a story and convey it through their movements to reach the audience. But thinking of what elements they would individually specialize in and conversely be weak in is hard. Again because I'm a fraud. But here's my thoughts
Emu canon crazy stamina and acrobatics it's true what can’t she do. For singles she has the stamina to pull off jumps and get good height consistently despite being 1 apple tall, but she isn't great at the more precise elements and her step sequences suffer. In pairs/dance she both lifts and gets lifted, she loves doing both because it’s fun to toss and it’s fun to be tossed. Synergizes well in partners no matter who it’s with and can match the energy / tone of the program but her energetic nature still shows through .. it’s stuff like she'll end up twizzling too fast and end up out of sync because she's always 100% energy. Loves a butterfly jump. Very whimsical / fun and bouncy choreo in general for her, she’s the best at using her while body out of wxs. Can do a cantilever effortlessly and tsukasa gets mad as hell and does it too while visibly looking like he’s about to die
Tsukasa wants to have / acts like he's emu level stamina but he’s on the ground after every program the second he steps off the ice and it’s always his own fault because he is insistent on doing difficult entries and jump variations. He’s terrible at conserving his stamina even though he insists his difficult jumps go at the end of his program. All out for everything which isn’t always great. However he's a perfectionist and his GoE is consistently high bc of it. great with artistic components and expression too again they’re all actors. Has a great spiral and biellmann which pisses nene off. He’s the guy that goes to a public skate and hydroblades.
Tsukasa and emu are usually the ones getting lifted when in pairs since they have the strength to hold their required position most out of everyone, if they’re skating together they switch to match the choreo. Twist lifts together #nightmare. I stand by rui having no core strength forever it’s like when you pick up a cat and they ragdoll Shoutout to him for carrying 3 people on his shoulders in Island Panic though this is why he’s on lift duty. Nene is rocky on doing lifts bc of her past but she warms up to the smaller ones. Let me just talk about nene actually
Nene has fantastic musicality even compared to the rest of wxs, she struggles with stamina still but will make up for it with artistic components. Her skating is the most well rounded but it’s frustrating to be a jack of all trades. She has a hard time holding her spiral above hip height but when she finally gets it everyone basically holds a party and she gets pissed off. Has beautiful spins though (immune to motion sickness from playing fps games for 12 hours straight) her favorite is a haircutter spin just because I think it suits her and that’s it. In the au setting she struggles mentally with doing pairs again in the beginning but is more confident doing elements in-hold thiugh lifts are another thing but she gets more comfortable with doing them with wxs though anything overhead/above waist is a no go. Likes carry lifts because it’s like travelling around on nenerobo. I really like imagining her as a solo figure skater though I loveee nene’s competitive nature We need to put her in Medalist
Rui helps put together everyones programs outside of being a skater, he has the directors soul no matter what. As a skater camel spin is his signature since he's long everyone thinks it looks super impressive every time and he has good balance. His skating is notably graceful. Watch him ina bauer. His flexibility does suck bad though. Can’t do some difficult jumps/has difficulty with hitting a lot of rotations but his timing is fantastic, he knows his strengths and capitalizes on them. He gets good airtime and distance thiugh. On account of being 500 apples tall.
For an actual story in a skating AU.. I do like an au where they're all seperately in singles figure skating and competeing against eachother i think it's really fun, but it's easier to yap about an au where they're doing ice dance / shows together as a group. My thoughts for the basic setting of it work off of wxs main story, just that it's rakunosuke's rink / FSC that's at risk of closing down, though it definitely doesn't make sense for a rink in Shibuya to not get any use/fall into disrepair the same way wonderstage does considering how ludicrous skating is there but maybe it's getting bought out and her brothers say that's more profitable since they're a conglomerate still. Or maybe it's just closing down the FSC. I don't know. The economy is not my business
I liked the idea of rakunosuke bringing emu to the rink a lot as a kid and giving her a love of skating/ice shows and even being the one who started her skating coaching. and present day emu practicing at phoenix rink every day and hosting activities for kids trying to keep it active, which i think works whether the plot is the rink in financial troubles or the FSC itself thinning out. The rink could also just be farther from shibuya to make this make sense too. I'm not a writer so that's as far as my brainpower goes but i think it fits what we know about rakunosuke to build a rink somewhere people without access would benefit from it
The same mainstory beats also apply to tsukasa I just thought the show he and saki saw with their parents when they were kids happened to be an ice show instead. It’s that easy.
Maybe he and saki joined lessons together as kids but saki couldn't continue due to health complications. I fcking hate how vague her situation is written in story by the way saki8 is looking on the horizon But I digress.
I thought he would take lessons throughout middle school when saki was hospitalized / join a club as a singles skater / ice dancer, but since he's independently taking lessons and saki can't attend any of his meets slowly his ambition moves from wanting to be a good performer to make people smile to forgetting what he was there for and his focus becomes stubbornly training to get a gold medal and becoming unable to settle for anything less. When he joins wxs he was at the otori rink maybe for a competition or just lessons but either way he hasn’t made podium once and it pisses him off sooo bad
Of course saki would want to see when he’s skating but their parents wouldn't let her and one of them would go when they can instead. He'd probably tell her not to watch the ones being streamed live so he can watch it together with her later and provide his own obnoxious commentary.
Side note but I love the idea of saki and tsukasa skating together as kids because it's lethally cute and also shizuku shiho honami ichika and touya would go with them sometimes though they would be casual / for fun. I've only been thinking of wxs in this situationso I wasn't considering if the rest of the cast would also somehow be involved in ice sports but idk I don't have the brain power. Leo/need still worldwide.
Nene and rui definitely did do skating / lessons together once nene moved ot the neighbourhood in the same FSC (yumemi? That would be crazy) so their stories would be even more intertwined than in canon.
Nene I think would start out doing pairs because it's what rui's doing but she wants to be brave enough to do single figure skating some day.. Rui wants to do pair dancing/specifically ice shows,I think the reason they wouldn’t be paired together is just bc the aesthetics of the programs they want to do are totally different. Remmeber when rui said nene’s the scariest when angry. It’s true
Rui follows the same progression as canon’s story of Rui's ideas being outlandish or too risky in a program to any partners / coaches and he becomes more alone, eventually switches to singles to keep skating even though he doesn't want it since nobody will partner with him. Everyone wanting to make a career out of skating wouldn’t take big risks in their programs that could lose them points in competition if they mess up, but how’s a high schooler supposed to get any resources or rink time to direct an ice show (Ootori family money looming in the distance)
Nene messes up badly during a program in a during a televised juniors competition, I think her being in a pairs skate for it would make more sense with her story (feeling like she let down her partner to mirror mainsto when she felt she ruined the play for yumemi in middleschool) and is completely shattered by it, maybe she can't recover / even skate the program to completion. Quits the fsc, swears off of skating in front of anybody ever again, she wants to cheer rui on at his performances because she still loves skating and knows he’s having a hard time but he tells her not to force herself. This is miserable but it's literally hilarious to think of mainstory rui showing up to her house years later going "I made a robot that skates for you and I want you to use it to join phoenix figure skating club. Just think of it like playing fifa but for ice sports" and she goes yeah okay sure I'll do that. It actually drives me insane because I seriously love her but trying to think of how nenerobo fits into this and how nene gets back on the ice with her in the equation. did Rui make a robot that can fucking skate. ? Maybe it could get her used to moving alongside another skater again or it could record and anaylze her practices for her so she can skate and improve her elements without the anxiety of disappointing another coach or partner. I'm seriously considering the uses of a robot on ice skates Yes those are my monkeys yes that sure is my circus
That’s all i’ve got for rn. I’d talk about different program music I think they’d use but it’s 1am. Sorry if you actually read all of this because none of it makes sense and I know nothing. THANKS 4 COMING ^_^
someone please force me to stop going on twitter because not only is it just full of Bad Things, but every once in a while i'll see a certified Good Thing that critically damages my pride because WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT.
it should've been me putting those words in that order. pjsk tumblr, i have failed you.
had a dream that there was a law called the “Plingus Act” that banned anime girls with pink hair, and it started a twitter war over whether airi pjsk should be banned bc some people thought her hair was orange
it only ended when some guy drew a shitty picture of airi with orange hair and it became the new official version of airi
with everything that's going on, can we take a step back and appreciate the actual writers on the staff who gave us mizuki's story. it's not my place to say if it's "good representation," but it is a well-written story, and it's clearly intended by the writers to be a trans story, and they clearly put care and respect into telling it. and they did that while working for a company that seems determined to appease the least common conservative denominator.
in fact, this is a pretty common dynamic in any mainstream or non-indie media. as an example that i'm familiar with, think of depictions of same sex romance in western animated shows these past 15-ish years. it's never the Company graciously extending representation to the masses from on high. it's always writers and other creatives who fight to tell the stories they want to tell and push the limits in the process.
i think rui’s mischaracterization in the fandom is something that genuinely baffles me because yes he’s a bit of a freak (aren’t we all) but he’s also just kind. every story that involves him always puts emphasis on how much he loves the world despite the world turning its back on him. how much he loves wxs, how much he loves making people smile, how much he just. loves. i do understand it’s for the funny memes and whatnot but his character i think is just..really important to see. someone with so much pure love in their heart despite everything that has happened
if itou kent had a nickel for every time he's played a well-studied male character who goes to extreme lengths to differentiate himself from the person who hurt him but ends up realizing that he is painfully similar to that person when it comes to what he loves, he would have two nickels, which
dailybridgerton
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