Crab Canon is a TWEWY role-swap AU by me, with the general premise being that each character retains their individual traits with the swaps being more narrative-focused.
Any posts from me regarding Crab Canon will be linked here, I'll edit this as I post more. Thank you all for the support!
Character bios can be found here:
Joshua
Neku
Beat/Rhyme
Shiki/Eri
(the technical term is cancrizans but crab canon is funnier)
hello i finally finished this piece of @pierroettie 's twewy swap au because this image has lived rent free in my mind since i saw them and wanted to do a screencap redraw :) [go check out the bios for neku and josh!!]
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do you have any plans on making NEO designs for the roleswap au too? (e.g., neo hachigang) not trying to pressure you since that would be a big undertaking, just curious :] thank you so much for sharing ur swap au btw!!! its so awesome
Thank you!! I know I keep saying this but im so happy my ideas are resonating with yall!!
For a NEO swap, I don't know, maybe if I'm feeling reeeeally ambitious lol. I just have a hard time thinking of how the events of NEO would fit into the au as a whole. Like considering characters other than Shiba or Kubo being main antagonists, the plot would turn out pretty different since they wouldn't have the same motives. It's pretty easy to do an au like this for the first game since most of the character's arcs parallel or intersect with each other's, especially between Neku and Josh.
Plus there's a lot more characters which means more swaps, I do love designing stuff tho so maybe I'll do some just minus the writing! If I do end up doing something with NEO characters, it'll definitely be later down the road....
it's been too long since I've written the last post I lowkey forgot what I'm doing
Beat Bito (swapped with Shiki)
Beat's entry fee- Rhyme's memory of him- is still the same, but Rhyme is no longer a player. Beat would be a lot more upbeat (no pun intended) since Rhyme is still alive. But under that, Beat would struggle with motivation. Dying after an outburst with his family, and dying alone this time, no longer would Beat have the drive to get through the reaper's game to save Rhyme, since she's perfectly fine. I don't think Beat would be depressed enough to the point of being suicidal and giving up completely, but I do think he'd struggle with knowing what he wants and what his goal even is in the first place. Beat would struggle with more self deprecation but swallow it down, and at the end of week one he'd be able to come to terms with himself and move forward.
Beat would encounter Rhyme in the rg, acting as if she didn't just have her brother up and die. He'd get pretty worked up about it before realizing that her memories are gone. Rhyme would feel as though some huge piece of her was missing. After seeing her express this, Beat would collect the courage to beat the game and repair his relationship with his sister.
Beat and Joshua would be reluctant partners who eventually warm up to each other throughout the week. They're like street smarts and book smarts duo. This au doesn't have any specific ships in it though I will say beatjosh may have been my inspiration for making this in the first place lol... but I also just liked the idea of exploring different character dynamics. I don't think Josh can escape the priss kid nickname regardless of what universe he's in.
Design Notes:
For Beat, if you squint you'll see he's wearing like 3 layers but they're all sleeveless lol. I added some pins on his vest as a reference to Shikis design. I gave him pants and changes his shoes a little. Most of my design work for him was purely cosmetic and not for any particular reason.
For Rhyme, the art may look a little off model but she didn't have any forward facing sprites for me to base her off of but shhhhh it's fine. I have her wearing a school uniform with her iconic necklace & beanie since I think it makes most sense for the scenes for her in the rg to be with friends after school. Her cardigan is a duller version of her original sweater's color just so she still looks like herself. The cardigan is also similarly structured to the jacket I gave Beat.
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That's it for the initial posts! I'm of course planning on making some more content and I'll make another post covering the rest of the swaps for all the reaper's and other background characters so look out for that !! thank you all so much for the support so far!!! love you alll.....
hi hello, your twewy swap au designs (particularly josh and neku because i am a bit biased fbdhsa) have been living rent free in my head since you posted them the other week and i was wondering if it would be okay if i draw them?? i'd of course link back to your works as well, but I wanted to ask and make sure you were comfortable with the idea before dropping it out of no where 😄
ohhhh my god this is awesome yes I'd keel over with joy if you did 😭😭😭!!! I'm so happy to know ppl are liking my ideas :)))
and I promise the Beat post is coming soon... i just got back from spring break so I have a bit of work to catch up on but I promise it's happening!!!
Here's where things start to get interesting; as I've mentioned in the previous posts, the characters entry fees are the same. So in this case, Shiki still looks like Eri. Only this time, Eri (who is swapped with Rhyme) is actually a player and Shiki's game partner in week one- Eri's dreams are her entry fee. Like Beat with Rhyme, Shiki loses Eri who gets turned into noise. Of course, Shiki becomes a reaper as well (both pictured in the art above).
In og TWEWY, Shiki's arc has her able to figure out why her entry fee was what it was, and work through her turmoil and identity struggle through the (kind of) support of Neku and catalyst of Higashizawa. Neither of those things are true for this au. In this case, she has to figure it all out on her own. Initially upon realizing that Eri no longer remembers wanting to be a designer, and upon realizing the nature of her own entry fee, Shiki would feel incredibly guilty. A mix of guilt and determination is what drives her.
og Shiki's bubbly nature is her mimicking Eri, since Eri is actually a player and very much present this time, Shiki would no longer do this. She's still kind, loyal, and occasionally stubborn, she just doesn't play the part of Eri since it would be kind of awkward. She'd be a bit more shy but still eager to work with everyone during the first week. Like Beat, her kindness would prevent her from doing any real harm as a reaper in week two.
Joshua and Shiki don't interact much if at all during the course of the og game. After the first two weeks, Joshua will have opened up and softened up a bit more. In week 3, when the two of them are partners, I think Joshua and Shiki would get along quite well. Shiki no longer has to bear her burdens on her own, and Joshua would appreciate the company. Also it's a plus that they both like shopping this would be like girls week fr.
Design Notes:
For Shiki, I wanted her outfit to be pretty similar to her real appearance in both og TWEWY and NEO, but following a closer silhouette to her outfit as Eri. Mr. Mew is like an oversized plush keychain though honestly that was just cuz I didn't want to draw her holding him lol. Shikis hair is also a little different since its not being held down by a hat and also because I wanted a little more visual distinction between her and Eri, it's a bit shorter and more compact.
For Eri, I just wanted to give her a simple and cute outfit to reflect her interests. I used mostly the same colors from her original design aside from the hat & belt. Her noise form is a cat, and it's based off of Mr. Mew.
Next up will be Beat and Rhyme! Thank you all for the love so far I'm really glad everyone is liking this so far :)))
I don't have a clever name for this if anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears 🙏
ohh yeah... composer neku.... (click 2 read)
Neku Sakuraba (swapped with Joshua)
Remeber how shitty he was in week one? Imagine that but for the whole game. Whatever experiences Neku had before he became composer made him quite cold hearted and self centered. Neku's shibuya is less superficial, he doesn't feel any need to hide the fact that he doesn't care about other people. Only through choosing Joshua as his proxy to play a game out of sheer boredom, does his heart soften a little more. Edgy emo 15 year old but it's so serious now. I'd say he's a bit more grouchy and self centered.
His relationship with Joshua is about the same, but he is disconnected from the others in the hachiko gang since he won't interact with them as much here. Like I mentioned in Josh's post, their character arcs are parallels anyways so there wouldn't be many changes plot wise. The interesting stuff comes from the other characters (I'm cooking I swear just wait for my shiki and beat posts....)
I'm no game dev but I think the mechanics would be pretty different if neku was the composer instead. For one thing, he doesn't care about clothing so why would he let the dead people shop? I'm not really sure how I would do it, but I think the game would be more music-centric to reflect his character.
In this au, Minamimoto plays the role of Hanekoma. In this case, he's Neku's connection (and also an angel). Their dynamic would be like bickering siblings... older bro Minamimoto... kind of similar to his character in NEO. Sometime in the future, I'll probably make a post dedicated to him as well.
Design Notes:
I've read Nomura's notes on Joshua's design, and he said that his design is deliberately simpler than the rest of the cast, with baggier clothes that might not fit him right, to suggest that there may be something more to his character. I wanted to include those elements while still making sure he's readable as Neku, since his color palette and headphones are just too iconic to change. I'm not really sure if I've achieved that at all, but for now I'm fine with it! I'm not gonna stress over it anymore!!! Still wanted him to be in a kind of sportswear loo, and and I wanted his hair to be less sq enix protagonisty so I made it downturned instead. Both my Neku and Josh designs have the two little hair spikes to match each other :)
ain't that cute
anyways i think shiki will be next! stay tuned 4 more.....