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20+ ✧ from ARGONAVIS ✧ Kimisute ✧ Reiji, Shu, & εpsilonΦ ✧ fanart, meta, memes, etc.

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happy birthday!! 💐

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the things i drew are a reference to what reiji received in his last birthday card story! here's what each of them are and who gifted them (sadly, haruka gave his off-screen, so we don't know what it is)

it felt like reiji received quite a lot compared to previous years, and even if not all of them were sincere (looking at you kanata), i still thought it was very sweet. i hope reiji can begin to cherish the life he has now

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happy birthday!! 💐

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i'd like to contribute something to the discussion on bushiroad's new joseimuke ip that appears to have a similar art style to kimisute.

i play fire emblem heroes, a gacha game that commissions a ton of different artists for the artwork of the characters. a few of them reminded me of kimisute's art style, and i became sure when looking closer at this character in particular:

i think the way the hair is drawn is a dead giveaway! especially those ribbon-like strands on the left side and the layered shading. the folds and wrinkles on the girl's sleeves also look really familiar.

this same artist also did this one, with the characteristic non-outlined loose strands of hair that we see in kimisute's style. the shape of the highlights in the hair and the mouth are also quite reminiscent!

the artist for these two characters is nekomichi (that link goes to a fire emblem heroes wiki page collecting all the character artwork that this artist has done).

however, there are more characters by a different artist that also look the part.

argon is a mostly male character artist that first made me start considering that there could be crossover between two disparate games i love.

just look at that guy. the stiff legs, the long bony fingers, the hard shadow under the neck.

now look at another one:

the line weight just looks so familiar. the particular leanness of the body and the way the facial features sit on the face as well.

one more:

this one's not as good of an example but i still see it in the legs and the line weight. mostly i just think he's very cute and wanted to show him off.

so here's the fun part: nekomichi and argon are both credited as part of trys inc (their credits on the character's ingame profile page will be like "argon / Trys Inc.". side note, trys inc was formerly known as exys inc, so some older credits still have that instead).

with brief googling we can see that trys inc is a company that, among other adjacent pursuits, creates artwork for games. i think it is likely that trys inc was contracted to produce the artwork for kimisute, and potentially aaside as well.

however, i'd like to add that i think there's a difference between "who produces the artwork" and "who is 'the' artist" for an ip. i call the latter one the "key artist" upon whom the style is modeled. for argopro, i think that there may have been 2 or 3 over the course of its life.

first is the original character designer for argonavis, hikaru miyoshi. i don't really count them so much, since artwork created using their style (probably also produced by only miyoshi themself) was only for a brief time.

second is the aaside era artist. i hold that the early promotional/celebratory/holiday illustrations were drawn by this "key artist".

it has a buoyant, juicy, and natural quality to it compared to the artwork produced for the game and merchandise. so in my mind, this is "the" artist for aaside, while most other artworks during the aaside era were created following the "style ruleset" established by them.

compare the early white day illustration theoretically drawn by the "key artist" versus tadaomi from the cynicaltic fakestar/sake it love jacket illustration:

(not making any judgements here, just demonstrating a marked difference despite following the same "rules". it's a symptom in many gacha games that attempt to maintain the same style for all its artworks.)

i'm not sure who the third "key artist" is, or if there is one at all, but i feel it is certain that the original aaside "key artist" did not continue their tenure into kimisute.

it could be someone from trys inc, or it could be that trys inc's argo-assigned artists just work together. i see more argon in aaside era and more nekomichi in kimisute era, but as artists whose job it is to follow "style rulesets", it's impossible to say for sure from our perspective out here.

*(of course, there are many more artists in trys inc besides nekomichi and argon. just highlighting the two with the clearest signs of involvement.)

to bring it back to the impetus of this post, i believe that zero rise has a different "style ruleset" and potentially a different "key artist", but we can certainly tell the artwork is still produced by the same artist(s) as kimisute, which i speculate to be trys inc.

since trys inc isn't a singular artist, and because of the potential that there is a distinct "key artist", i wouldn't say that "zero rise has the same artist as kimisute", i would say that "the artwork for zero rise is produced by the same team as kimisute". basically, i'm just using a bit of pedantry as an excuse to share some long-held observations lol.

bonus meme (please remake this with a more suitable kmst artwork. im tired):

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お誕生日おめでとう、れいじくん！君が歩んできた道のりを誇りに思う💛💛💛

Happy birthday Reiji-kun! I'm proud of how far you've come 🥺

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musing on how to simplify kimisute shu outfit while at work....

i nearly love the top half as is; the shape and styling of the jacket over the crop top is very nice already, but i've extended the holo section of the sleeves all the way to the shoulder and dropped the harnesses to the bottom half.

the harnesses replace the overly complex belt arrangement and call back to his aaside outfit's belts. i've also removed his thigh garters as they are extremely difficult to fit when using proportions any shorter than the official art style (in which his legs are very very long), though i wonder if i can work it back in in a later draft... we'll see. i'll need to deal with the white-on-white situation of the garters over the legging too.

i'd also remove the "εpsilonΦ" text plastered all over the harnesses because we have enough text to deal with already. i'd make the shorts a slightly more apparent shade of dark blue so there's not so much black-on-black layering. i like the top part of the shoes but not the bottom... but shoes are my weak area in design so i'll deal with that later lol.

biggest issue with this modification is that the asymmetricity now exists only on the legs, so i'd want to reintroduce asymmetry to the top half in lieu of the incredibly puzzling pink line situation in the original where it only wrapped around the sleeve completely on one arm. maybe i can have just one holo sleeve to emulate his bandmates.... but i really like having both to call back to his aaside jacket's stripes and being able to see both arms.... very tricky. i'll keep thinking on it

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お誕生日おめでとう、しゅうくん！！💖💖💖 今年も、れいじくんと僕が応援し続けるよ！💐

Happy birthday, Shu-kun!! Reiji-kun and I will continue supporting you in the year ahead!

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i want argofandom to collect those cute "[word]shipping" pairing names like the pokemon fandom does.... we can get so silly with it. i made this post because shurei is pinklemonadeshipping. to me

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still glad that kimisute isn't a rhythm game because i definitely have enough wrist pain-inducing hobbies as it is

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putting all the yellow image colors next to each other so i can appreciate how godawful reiji's is, especially next to his own design

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got so frustrated with not being able to see the ui elements on this yellow that i just edited it myself lol. it's not as cheery but i like this kind of palette

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putting all the yellow image colors next to each other so i can appreciate how godawful reiji's is, especially next to his own design

[sr-colle]

REIJI TOWEL

REIJI TOWEL

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i have obtained reiji towel and i have made an important realization. is it not reiji towel's destiny, his purpose, his greatest dream, to be laundered. i can think of no greater bliss in the mind of karasuma reiji

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self care

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i have obtained reiji towel and i have made an important realization. is it not reiji towel's destiny, his purpose, his greatest dream, to be laundered. i can think of no greater bliss in the mind of karasuma reiji

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argopro has my FUCKING number i'll tell you what. i was nervous about them getting new outfits but i am always a fool for not trusting them to do epsi right and more. this is my insanity post so i don't get rate limited on twitter

starting with this bastard. i cannot BELIEVE they went this route. the more i look at it the more there is. he's only got one leg out which is a shame, but i think the covered leg is a nice compromise to convey his slightly matured vibe without taking away the original appeal of shu's character design (leg).

the cropped tank top is insane to me, like i don't think it was ever confirmed that shu's og black shirt was a tank top (ppl started drawing it that way because yuki's live outfit was a tank top, though that's a fairly practical choice considering how sweaty the performers get) but now they've just gone all in and shrank the hell out of it and made sure we know from the get-go that he's got little slivers of shoulder there and a big enough opening in the jacket to expose them entirely if it were to be pulled aside. god bless. and the midriff?????? i just checked and i'm fairly certain the ONLY navel we have ever seen before this was futa's dbes initial 4 star where his shirt is just barely floating up enough to see it. and now it's a permanent fixture in this creature's outfit. insane. insane. i'm not even going to talk about the fucking harness and its positioning

the jacket is immensely perfect; it keeps the key appeal of his old jacket (big chunky sleeves) while trimming up all the unnecessary parts and adding a lot of stylish flair. the holo parts being slightly transparent is super cool!!! and, i'm sure, serves to highlight shu's figure even more 😭 it's crazy how he went from such a loose, bulky, covered top half design to this insane array of bare skin and contours. he's gained confidence!!! and it's hard to tell but i wonder if this jacket still has a hood on it... and my favorite aspect of his old jacket was the "CHECK" text on the sleeves, since i liked to change the word for narrative art purposes, so i wonder if this new jacket's sleeves will still have any words or if it's just the epsi logo that you can see part of on his left sleeve.

his top half is really so perfectly tailored to the way i've liked to exploit/alter shu's original outfit in my art that it's almost suspicious lol. argopro staff secretly follows me!?!? i'm glad they have the same taste at any rate

misc items:

i'm a big fan of the new choker; the dangling epsi logo charm is super cute and cool, i hope they make official merch out of it

i also LOVE those gloves. don't know how to explain how it fits the energy of the new epsi and shu specifically so perfectly

i'll miss his old boots but i won't miss how hard they were to draw LOL, these new shoes look fun!!

thank you for keeping the garters. it's part of his dna. the "reverse" white garter on his right thigh is extremely funny

all the details around and on his shorts are needlessly complex. see the pink lines on his shorts that lead up to the white belt and wrap around it? it becomes black on one side. for whatever reason. just the number of things overlapping the white belt infuriates me lol. the striped belt has the only yellow in his outfit on its inner side and i wish he had more elsewhere. the holo belt... structure(?) with the epsi logo plastered all over is going to be hell and a half to draw. i am probably going to simplify this whole area when i draw it myself lol

the way his shorts are blue-black while the rest are neutral-black kinda bothers me 😭 maybe if they were more of a dark blue (a lighter shade than his other blacks) it might be better.... they're really going for the jrpg chara style of blacks-on-blacks and a million belts huh

THAT WAS A LOT OF COMPLAINTS BUT it all balances out

overall: very cute, very cool, surprisingly handsome, kind of slutty. i support him

skipping to reiji because i have priorities and he is the second member of epsi to ME. and to the dbes file data.

i was initially very surprised with this long coat thing with the segmented coattails(? if they should be called that), as i'm too used to seeing him in his trimmed and slender suit or school uniform... but he does wear long coats/other draping things in his dbes oufits (in the rain and yume no ato come to mind), so it's not out of character! the bright yellow on the inside and the squared sections seemed really familiar to me, and when i asked my brother he was like "isn't it like zhongli?" AND HE'S RIGHT... and it just so happens that zhongli is my favorite genshin character design, largely because of his cool coat, so argopro really did reach into my brain and made something nice for me. it also makes me think of penguins somehow.

most insane piece of this design is easily the chest harness made to look like a tie. whose fucking idea was that. it's so clever and ridiculous at the same time. most importantly it's still just as if not more yankable than his original tie, so shu will have an easier time than ever pulling reiji down to his eye level 🥰 i also like to pretend reiji has nice tits and this harness will help accentuate that if i shorten it up a little.

love the whore gloves. i used to hate these when they started showing up in a million character designs in other franchises but i understand their appeal now and i wholly approve of inflicting them upon reiji. black gloves in general really suit him, they're very cool and have an air of danger. i've also just read a tweet wondering if reiji's got black nail polish under his gloves like tadaomi and i'm super fine & normal with that thought. notably, shu and reiji are the only ones with gloves in this new set!

this is the most insane thing to be insane about but we have once again been denied the skin of reiji's left elbow. listen. we've never seen it. his sakura 3 star trained has his right elbow out. "the 3d outfit," you say. THE SLEEVES GOT ROLLED DOWN IN THE 3D OUTFIT! one time in puchi he rolled up his sleeve past the elbow.... only on the right arm. there's been a number of reiji chibi merch with tshirts but that elbow is always angled away. again and again his left elbow has never been seen in its full extent and this new outfit is the most hilarious iteration of hiding it because his right sleeve has the semi-translucent holo material, giving us screened access to his right elbow, BUT NOT HIS LEFT! regular dark opaque imprisoning fabric there. when i first noticed this phenomenon i joked he might have a scar or something that he prefers not to expose and the evidence only grows that he's hiding something there. just know that if we ever see that stupid elbow in full (and it's surely just a normal elbow) i'm going to get a little crazy on twitter for a bit

misc items:

his eyebrows have a steeper slant than they used to, especially for a fairly neutral expression! it makes him look a bit more like his support drummer, kitamura-san.

i like the coat lapels to preserve some of his suit aesthetic, and the white borders call to mind his handsome uniform blazer. so glad they're standard lapels and not notched or something, i'm not a huge fan of those

he's still got his stupid white dress shirt. good for him. it's going to get ruined but good for him

i am perplexed and very interested by the torn knee. this might be the first time we've even seen reiji's knee (do you like how i keep track of which swaths of reiji's skin we have been privy to) but i'm mostly surprised he'd wear something like that, considering he usually keeps such a refined image. guess he's loosening up a bit and embracing his cooler/rougher side!? thanks to shu i assume... :)

i'll miss his formal shoes but i think the style of these boots are a fairly good compromise in preserving his vibe while also fitting the new epsi aesthetic. they feel fantasy-like somehow. i am in fact dabbling with a medieval fantasy au so i'm glad some of the work's been done for me LOL

the holo-material bracelet on his raised hand is floating of its own accord. it must be minecraft enchanted.... the color even matches

one again reiji's terrible color palette bites him again because he looks incredibly clunky next to his more cohesively colored bandmates. it's the fact that he's got his very dark hair (compared to the rest of epsi) in a unique hue, then his cherry red eyes, then the purpleish holo material and epsi-pink accents, THEN the brightass yellow of his coattails. it's a lot of colors in one design relative to his bandmates. still questioning why he has the worst image color in argopro

there's a lot of miscellaneous detailing on his outfit that i don't really care for and were probably added just to make sure his design had the same density as the others, which is a shame since the others' designs more effortlessly include detail as part of the structure of their outfits (e.g. shu's shirt, harness, and jacket layering together) whereas reiji just has a bunch of accessories tacked on. i wonder if i can fix him

only shu and reiji have matching purplish holo material. what's up with that huh!!!!

overall: good enough! his harness, gloves, and coattails are the highlights for me. the potential of those alone make the drawbacks more negligible

ok back to band order

jacket is Cool As Fuck. great collar and overall silhouette, especially with his pose. i could do without the holo sleeve though, i wish it at least had a wide cuff. would be a nice callback to his og jacket

i want to know everything about his black top. there are clearly cuts at the shoulders but he still has sleeves. are they shoulder cutouts. are the sleeves arm warmers. are they attached to the inside of the jacket. all i can conclude is that the cuts combined with the high fitted collar and his visible collarbones is incredibly sexy. bonus points for that X-shaped thing and the belt, just to accentuate that area even more

he accessorizes yellow much better than the previous two, and the white gradients are a curious touch. gives the yellow less of the "⚠ caution" feeling of his old outfit and leans more towards it just being an eye-catching secondary color

his bottom half feels like a different design LOL. the shoes are kind of an eyesore with how much patterning and detail they have

his guitar is still so hideous and its proportions look even worse somehow. AND IT DOESN'T EVEN MATCH HIS OUTFIT

overall: ok! i think i am looking almost exclusively at his collar area down to his pick hand

CUTE. CUTE CUTE CUTE. this might be the strongest design of the bunch. everything actually matches.

bigass collar: GOOD. his jacket's sleeve situation is a mirror image of haruka's: GOOD. the green perfectly matches his bass's pickguard: GOOD. very successful jacket. again don't like the holo sleeve but i think with both him and haruka i'd like it more if they were a) the same purple holo as shu and reiji or b) just rendered differently. maybe i'll like it better in card art or something

love the wide-necked shirt, that was always his thing. i think the stripes on the lower half are odd somehow, i feel like they should be diagonal instead of horizontal... maybe it's because of it being right next to his spotted bass

his pants are an absolute success in matching his outfit and calling back to his original design

very good yellow accessorizing and i think he pulls it off best because of his pants + his green matching it very well

unfortunate shoe situation again but it's slightly less bad here. also both haruka and kanata have their instrument role + their names printed on the shoes which is funny

overall: chef's kiss. an excellent composition of his old aesthetic with new epsi

somehow manages to fit within the aesthetic perfectly fine while also looking out of place. as expected of tadaomi

all around very solid jacket! i like the holo sleeve windows; you can see where his shirt's sleeves end on his biceps. kinda cute + hot. curiously he's got more sleeve on his left arm so there's another haruka situation here

HIS PAINTED NAILS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! his og design's rings and this design's nails do a good show of highlighting his pianist hands, especially in the absence of his instrument in the visual

the holo strip thing coming off his collar is kinda like a tie lol? so he gets that little splash of formality, or perhaps something vaguely reminiscent of his "prince" image....

i'm curious about those white belts forming a V.... where do they go.... they look nice tho

i wish his shirt was slim fitting like haruka and shu 😔😔😔

his pants and shoes are very pleasing in their detail distribution. nijos take notes

i really like the diagonal striped pattern on the cuffs of his boots; this pattern also appears on other epsi members and brings back that sort of "⚠ caution" feeling i mentioned earlier, since it's like yellow warning tape/signs/etc

it's a shame the beautiful french grey of his hair sticks out so much with epsi's unnatural color palette

very notably, tadaomi doesn't have an ounce of yellow in his outfit. which should mean something or other. probably

i'm really trying to find something to elaborate on and i think that in itself makes a point about how oddly inconspicuous his outfit is

overall: enigmatic but attractive. exactly as he should be

so that's everything for now!! i didn't say everything i could have said but i have said Enough. in the end i'm pretty pleased with these designs even though the original ones will always hold an immutable place in my heart. i hope we get to see more angles of them for drawing reference soon

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HAPPY BIRTHDAYYYYY

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Happy birthday, Miyuki 💪💪💪