my expectations of myself are astronomical but let's keep going and see what happens [funny q-vier meme.jpg] things people make for me: #save forever - the fanfic writer side of @schwarzkal
I'm in Japan this weekend to watch baseball (for summer2) and catch M29 at the same time. Baseball was good. M29 was also pretty neat, though after watching it twice at two full price tickets + leaving the merch shop, I felt my wallet become lighter when I walked out of the cinema...
Anyway this post is for me to talk about M29 because I have thoughts.
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Well yeah, that was definitely a movie. It's... I finished the first watch of it having nothing to say, which is really wild, like how can a movie be so perfectly neutral that I have no praise or no complaints?
Watch 2 over and I think my favourite part is actually that tiny flicker of uncertainty in Chihaya's expression when she descends the helicopter.
Taking a few steps back...
I was very excited for this movie - Chihaya is the exact kind of action character that would suit the current generation of Conan movies really well and there was sure to be explosions. Lots of explosions. I love detco
As far as other movies, M29 resembles
M4: Ran piecing the events together is like how the cast piece things together here
M6: it's really close but not there, I hesitate to add it, but I list it ultimately because a lot of scattered bits also lean into a "lore" the way M6 leans into the lore of London
M10: probably the closest match imo, I'd say this movie is M10+M4+M15 with a splash of M24.
< List incomplete, I'm in a rush got to go >
An interesting thought is M15 or M21 related. I think the story has a lot of pieces that it doesn't try to assemble into a particular shape. For example the story had all the pieces to talk about how technological advances affect people who have impairments. It also had all the pieces to talk about - if you duplicate the talents of an existing person, what happens to that person? (very similar to M6....)
Another interesting thought I had is that Sera is totally in the action hero impulsive bucket. It's a bit of a shame because imagine if she did her investigations and then *she* reached out to Shinichi instead of us using Agasa's gadgets again. Ran's earphones moment was very clever - some of this cleverness for the scene which sets up the Ran scene would have changed the texture of that. We won't have goons being goons moment.
Interesting thought number 3: Yokomizo bro literally does nothing and gets the girl fall into his arms. What love rival, bro doesn't even take any actions. And I think this is caught up in the whole thing where.. Kanagawa just doesn't have a lot of characters lmao. Where even is his bro?
Hypothetically don't even include his bro. Make Chihaya's junior a young man who can take the role of her wingman and he asks Juuzo a question and Juuzo declares he wants to invite himself to the action. Wow suddenly he made a decision!
The character designs and outfit designs were really good. People who do fashion crimes were doing the right amount of fashion crime. It was great.
I think Genta's eel shirts is just a brand logo and he likes the brand.
Hopefully M30 remembers that Kogorou has some range again, but who knows. Kogorou was the unsung hero for this entire movie fr. He did everything needed of him and didn't get in the way or anything even.
I very like the part where Sera notices Chihaya breaking away from her due to pure horsepower. Also noticed all the attention to detail and consulting they must have had for the motorcycle bits at the start.
There's not a lot of detail here but motorcycle gangs are a thing for sure. One friend of mine working in Japan says he hears them on the highway he lives next to at 2am.
A lot more to say, but I have a flight to catch.
My plans for this year is 1 more update for Agent, 1 more update for Azero, 2 updates Summer2, let's see how it goes.
yeah that break was really useful, I have some new methods for organising things, they're working well on the new piece I am writing. so much more effective too. really I think it might be possible to get azero.... may or june? but let's see because there is so so so much to do 😭
Will be continuing to work on summer2 for a bit. there's something I'm trying to practice and master first before I take the combs and brushes to properly untangling azero
I think I should be back on azero sooner rather than later though. Will see how it goes
it is a bit surreal that my efforts to upskill my writing is finally visible to me
I have big goals for some of these stories and had been spending the past years learning about things I needed to learn in order to be able to make them
as much as there is a brief feeling of accomplishment, the road ahead is still very long. Just the initial feedback is finally there. The rest of the road still needs to be built......
Anyway I have somehow accomplished the writing goal for 2025 (make 3 updates) and while there was "cheating" involved, it's more a lesson for me that I can take some things less seriously if I have to. I am not getting paid or externally panel ranked based on what I am making anyway, I can relax my own standards a little and they'll still be very high. it's all for fun.
next year's goals is going to be big ambitious ones. Easy mode is over.
If I'm smart enough, I think I can find a way to work hard that is also efficient as well.......
Made some interesting / unexpected progress for AZero today.
I've come to understand the kinds of gods we were summoning when we made the outline 5 years ago.
It's still going,
I have decided I prefer to upload this fic as full chapters when I can, so, it will take some time to cook, but when it is done, it should be worth it.
#we are still a ways off from azero. maybe may 2026? hmmmmm #it's probably going to take me 3 or 4 months to sort through the mess of notes #then i need to rework some stuff #then i can finish writing the update chapter
>ok what
ok so there was a bunch of things I had been relying on my cowriter for when it comes to the way I want shinichi to be portrayed but then it is me now so I had to figure out from scratch how to write it
One of these days I would go into more detail but today is not that day. I am tired. i want these fanfics to be updated..............
nobody's asking but yes I am spending incredible amounts of time cross-analysing my old writing from 8 years ago to try and determine what elements are "charming" for the purpose of figuring out how to take that and crank it to the max
suddenly remembered this blog exists. I've gotten around 75% through the next update for summer2. and nearly there with getting back the energy and motivation to detangle the utter mess that is azero
the skateboard action scene in m22 has so much going for it. it's so good looking and blends 2d/3d animation techniques so seamlessly
flying car: 2d ...
...becomes a 3d object.
.
The skateboard goes between 2d and 3d as well:
and there's a lot of weight to how the skateboard moves. they've outdone themselves truly.
that car chase in m20 wishes it could be this. huge dmc5 opening cinematic energy
(They also hired a studio that specialises in lighting, that's why there's so many pretty sunsets in this movie)
.
if you're interested you can watch how the dmc staff used live action to set up the cinematography https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bK8m6PZC-7U (dmc5 was 2019, one year after m22 in 2018. m22 precedes it in release timing by just a smidge)
here's the scene from m22: https://sakugabooru.com/post/show/60383
it gets better every time i watch it and notice even more details. crazy. incredible. just amazing
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