#kustas

[merryweathart]

binge read wha i'm not ok

[bardace]

custas and dagda are like if daedalus fell to ensure that icarus stayed aloft

[itsabird-itsaplane-nopejustabird]

...I'm almost done with my Witch Hat Atelier re-read and every line callback hurts so much more than it did the first time

Even noticing how Qifreys' love of dragons started as a kid isn't enough to help

Because then I remember that the reason Olly took him to the spot that the dragons pass through was to look at the stars.

Also this line has broken me every single time I've even thought about it

[ultfreakme]

Being a Coustas stan is like, I cannot wish happiness for him otherwise the Curse will get him, but he among everyone truly deserves to be happy. What do?

[nepocho]

HE IS MY BABY!! GIVE HIM HAPPINESS!!! I just really wanted to draw a moment from the manga... Kustas is my precious little bean.. I just want him to be happy instead of all this...

[ladyloveandjustice]

Anime Expo Final Day: Q & A and Live Draw with Witch Hat Atelier's Kamome Shirahama

Sunday was not as bad as Saturday crowd wise, but still a bit hard to deal with.

I got into the second Witch Hat Atelier panel, which was a live draw with Kamome Shirahama! We weren't allowed to take pics of her of course, and she came in the Iguin cosplay and somehow managed to draw in it, but I did get to take a pic of the brush buddy:

And here's the live drawing she did (Quifrey by audience demand) which we were allowed to photograph.

I was taking notes throughout the panel but then the notes app just decided to stop working and I lost it all. But I did write down everything I remembered immediately after, so here we go:

When asked, Shirahama said her influences were American and French comics in addition to manga. She mentioned Akira and the French comic Mobius, as well as a French comic with "cities" in the title I couldn't catch.

EDIT: (According to gaston26 in the comments: "I think she talked about French comics artist Moebius and the french comics with cities in the title is most likely 'Les Cités obscures'. ;)" That sounds right!)

She says she was inspired by the art style and diversity of American comics. She was also inspired by children’s literature like The Neverending Story.

When asked about the diversity in her story, she quickly said that the diversity was intentional and the fact that its even a question shows that we need more diversity. She said, "Nobody would ask this if it was just a romance between a boy and a girl or something like that, so it shows there needs to be more".

When asked how she feels about Quifrey being so popular, she mentioned that Quifrey was going to be a villain but his design was so good she promoted him to a main character.

She stated that she tries to write a story her younger self would read, but she says she was a “twisted kid” so as a child she’d be saying things like “a Pegasus with those feathers wouldn’t be able to fly!”

When asked about the magic system she said she was still actually trying to learn the magic system herself.

She talked about magic as a metaphor for creativity and said her audience is very creative so she feels they could relate. She always wanted to write a fantasy. She mentioned again that she had a mangaka friend early on and that it really made her appreciate what goes into making art and got her thinking in that direction.

She stated that there are no real villains in her story, just people.

When asked about how she comes up with names, she said she “asks Google”. She wanted names where her character would be the only one that comes up in the google search. Early on, with names like Coco and Agott, she didn’t do this, but it made her mad when other things would come up in the google search. When asked if she was inspired by any sort of ethnicity/culture for characters, she asked to pick one, and was asked about Kustas. She said that was a tough question and eventually said she took inspiration from Rome and also indigenous Japanese cultures for him.

She said she doesn’t use screentone because she’s "lazy" and prefers to work with her ink pen. When asked about her assistants she said they are the best ones at doing speed lines, which she’s "bad" at.

She said Quifrey and Olruggio were partly inspired by people she knows- not in looks, but in personality. She said traits like being strict on the outside and sweet on the inside (I imagine she's referring to Olruggio there) were inspired by those people she used as models.

She also mentioned that she draws very fast!

And that's about all I got down.

After that, the day was kind of rough, as I temporarily lost my wallet but fortunately someone eventually turned it in to lost and found. I went to Little Tokyo and attended the pop up Akiba Maid War café there. I got a Ranko cookie! The maid who served us mentioned the cafe's rivals like the poison the drinks and did the spell thing. We got a singing performance where both our maid and the woman playing Manager danced, with Manager intentionally doing it very badly. It was fun!

And that's all for my con report! Hope there was some interesting info! I'll be posting cosplay I saw and art and merch I got later.

[ultfreakme]

Coustas doodles