Hey everyone! It’s been a few months since I’ve posted…things have been a little quiet blog wise, but super busy personal life wise since this was my last semester of classes! For that, I apologize.
First and most importantly, an update on the project.
We have raised over $300 in sales!!! This is fantastic! The official, net donation will be made in the next few days as I have to say now….we only have one book left! (This will be later changed on the store stock to reflect this change). However, PDFs remain in infinite supply! Since sales have slowed to a near halt, once that one book is sold I will be closing the project for good (unless by some miracle a second season comes along), and this blog will go on a potentially indefinite hiatus.
I DO answer asks privately unless it sparks a new, large analysis, in which case I would post publicly. Unfortunately, I have yet to have an ask do that in a loooong time, hence the seeming lack of activity.
I just want to wrap up this year by thanking everyone for their support in the past year and a half! You guys are AMAZING and so, so supportive. Words cannot even begin to describe the amount of joy this fandom has given me. You guys have continuously been my motivation time and time again, and I can say none of this would’ve been possible with you guys.
I’m not sure if this will be the last post for now or forever, but if this is the last post….
Every single ask and message I’ve received has continued to provide evidence that this fandom is one of the most dedicated, thoughtful, and mature fandoms I have ever been a part of.
So as you go forward into your lives, all I ask is that whatever you do, analyses or otherwise, keep it up.
Your passion.
Your dedication.
Your hope.
Just got some of the posters in today that are part of the bundle/perks from the kickstarter and I must say they look FANTASTIC. The artistic ability of this fandom never ceases to amaze me!
Can you give us photos of how is the book? Like the size the pages? Pleaseeee?
On the store site I have a sample image of a couple pages. Unfortunately I am still waiting for the books to come in, but I'll update with pictures of that when they arrive!Just updated the specs on the book as well! Thanks for pointing that out–it totally slipped my mind in the excitement!
That’s right–in the spirit of the book’s coming release (September 1st–mark your calendars!), here is a giveaway!
The “rules” are pretty straightforward–each like counts as an entry as well as one reblog. One reblog and one like equals two entries–doubling your chances of getting picked! You do not have to follow this blog to be chosen, but you do need to have a physical address I can mail to BECAUSE…..
…..In addition to three winners who will receive a .pdf of the book, one grand prize winner will also receive this one of a kind VON token in the mail! (Measures ~5″ across)
This giveaway will run until 11:59 PM EST on August 31st! Good luck!
Please tell me exactly how I can buy your book??? I´m so excited.=)
Oh my goodness you have no idea how happy I am to hear that! Aaah I am so excited to share this with you guys! But you are about to see very soon how you can purchase it! 10 more minutes!!!
In about a half hour, Art & Analysis will be officially available to the public! I am incredibly excited to show this project that has been a half year in the making! The art is absolutely stunning, and I hope the analyses will be up to the expectation! That being said, I have some FANTASTIC NEWS:
After talking with a couple printing companies, I finally found a company that would be willing to print the book without having to have an order with such a high amount of books! The only draw back would be to cut back a little bit in pages since it gets pretty pricey per book with more pages, but there is still PLENTY of content to read! (Speaking of content, I have received quite a few complaints about having some of the “never before seen” analyses reserved only for the book, as some people cannot afford the book but still want to read the new analyses. The last thing I want to do is keep people away from something like this because of something monetary. Therefore while there IS still new content, the content that was cut due to page restrictions I decided to be some of the “newer” content. Instead, the new content will be released over time on this blog.)
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Final call for reblogging the giveaway! It’ll end right before A&A goes live!
That’s right–in the spirit of the book’s coming release (September 1st–mark your calendars!), here is a giveaway!
The “rules” are pretty straightforward–each like counts as an entry as well as one reblog. One reblog and one like equals two entries–doubling your chances of getting picked! You do not have to follow this blog to be chosen, but you do need to have a physical address I can mail to BECAUSE…..
…..In addition to three winners who will receive a .pdf of the book, one grand prize winner will also receive this one of a kind VON token in the mail! (Measures ~5″ across)
This giveaway will run until 11:59 PM EST on August 31st! Good luck!
That’s right–in the spirit of the book’s coming release (September 1st–mark your calendars!), here is a giveaway!
The “rules” are pretty straightforward–each like counts as an entry as well as one reblog. One reblog and one like equals two entries–doubling your chances of getting picked! You do not have to follow this blog to be chosen, but you do need to have a physical address I can mail to BECAUSE…..
…..In addition to three winners who will receive a .pdf of the book, one grand prize winner will also receive this one of a kind VON token in the mail! (Measures ~5″ across)
This giveaway will run until 11:59 PM EST on August 31st! Good luck!
That’s right--in the spirit of the book’s coming release (September 1st--mark your calendars!), here is a giveaway!
The “rules” are pretty straightforward--each like counts as an entry as well as one reblog. One reblog and one like equals two entries--doubling your chances of getting picked! You do not have to follow this blog to be chosen, but you do need to have a physical address I can mail to BECAUSE.....
.....In addition to three winners who will receive a .pdf of the book, one grand prize winner will also receive this one of a kind VON token in the mail! (Measures ~5″ across)
This giveaway will run until 11:59 PM EST on August 31st! Good luck!
Soo ive noticed you haven't been posting as often! Is everything okay? or are you just busy...?
Everything is okay--thank you for your concern anon! Unfortunately, I have been really REALLY busy. This summer my schedule has literally been:
- wake up at 8:30 AM
- work on my online class work & undergraduate research from 10 AM-4PM
- get ready for work from 4-5 PM
- go to work from 5-11PM
- sleep at 12 AM
I wish I had the amount of free time I had when I first started this blog (which was during my fall semester). In the beginning, despite taking max credits I was fortunate that my classes were staggered so that I had a few hours in between classes to set aside for analyses. Over the spring semester, however, my classes were in a straight line. I guess you can say was good in terms of how long I had to stay on campus...bad because I had activities to do right after classes ended, so it was harder to have time put aside for this.
BUT good news: I took the final for my online class yesterday, so I FINALLY have some time freed back up
Is possible to re-open the campaign for the book? I would like to be a "Detective"... Maybe there are more people that also would like to donate...
I have received a lot of similar asks to this, and I will confirm that I will be opening up the campaign for the book...but in a different way than before. Using a crowdfunder might have not been the right way to go, as it gives us a limited time and is dependent on how many people are willing to purchase the book. Instead, I have been looking at ebook-hosting sites and alternatives so people can purchase a .pdf whenever they’d like, and I can donate the money as people purchase the different tiers.
Also, to be completely transparent: the money will not be donated until the book .pdf and goodies have been sent to the current donators. This way if any of the donators changes their mind, I can reimburse them before that money is donated for good. We are still waiting on some more artists, but like I mentioned in a previous post those artists have until the first week of August to get their artwork in. I’ll be sending out another round of reminders to those artists in the next hour.
Just a heads up to those who have not already sent in your piece that it would be fantastic if you would within the next few weeks! You can either send it through a fan mail (with a link to where I can download it) to this account or message me for an email to send it to! A couple artists already asked for extensions, which is totally fine. However, to have the book in a timely manner, I have extended the deadline to be the end of July/first week of August so the book pdf and goodies can go out to the donators as well as all the other fantastic artists who have contributed! PLEASE send in your art soon so it doesn’t hold this up for those who have been really looking forward to it! Just as a little reminder and so you can see this message, I am tagging all the artists (even if you have already sent in your piece so no one feels like they are being singled out) who have been selected/accepted to be artists for this book. If there are any other accommodations I can do for you/the end-of-July-deadline doesn’t work for you, just message this blog!
null-physical
isnri
tendiademsart
celihime
cntr
lyre-l
highviscosity
villainsbynecessity
meaningofrei
cludosian
nipunii
paintandfury
mellalyss
(hopefully I did not miss anyone!)
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The art that has rolled in so far is looking really good, and I’m so excited to share the finished product! Get pumped guys! We are almost there!
Hi! I know it's a little far-fetched idea, but how do you think the legal process would have went if Twelve and Nine had been captured in ep 11? Like their trial and sentence and how Tokyo coped with the death of all electronics? :)
This is a really interesting question! First, I went a little into about the ramifications involving electronics here. Secondly, I did what I could into looking into Japan’s domestic policy around domestic terrorism, but there is little to be said in specific details. The documents I could find seemed repetitive and discouraging; as I cannot understand Japanese I had to rely on more US-centric/English-written documents, which essentially stated Japan to be unable to create their own domestic security and had no other choice but not only strengthen their alliance with the US but comply with any and all US demands. This is especially highlighted in ZnT, and the creators did an excellent job of subtly revealing to us the difficult position the Japanese government is in. However, I did find a few things that could give us a clue to what we would expect to see.
But first, a VERY brief history of Japan’s recent domestic terrorism policy. Following the events of 9/11, significant efforts were made to improve Japan’s anti-terrorism methods, including creating and establishing a legal framework for domestic issues, anti-terrorism protocols, etc. This all went down starting around October 2001 in direct response to 9/11. In December of 2004, an APPT (“Action Plan for Prevention of Terrorism”) was created in Japan, including a mention of strict control of material potentially useable for terrorist attacks. Ten years later in December of 2014, Japan created their own NSS (National Security Strategy) much similar to the US’s. The NSS served to be more as an “umbrella document”, meaning it was set to be general enough to encompass a variety of situations rather than prepare for certain events. That can be great in dealing with a variety of events, but it leaves a lot of subjectivity and issues for trying to figure out exactly what should result from our particular domestic terrorism case.
Furthermore, Japan does not have a significant history on domestic terrorism. They have had issues of two groups in particular attacking and tampering with nuclear facilities to result in a radiation leak. I won’t go too much into that as, despite having to do with a nuclear facility, there is little relevance to the situation we are trying to analyze. Therefore it is understandable that Japan does not have a solid, incredibly specific framework exactly like the US. But here is what we do know based on a combination of protocols set by the NSS and the APPT:
Assuming Nine and Twelve were caught at the end of episode 11, they would have a plethora of charges against them. First and foremost, cyberterrorism would be at the top of the list for not only utilizing a social media network to “spread public terror” (another charge), but to hack into the classified information of the police. The NSS mentions measures to strengthen cyber security, but when discussing the ramifications for cyberterrorism, instead there is a discussion for an “international partnership” (especially with the US) to handle these affairs. In these documents, Japan is strongly advocating for their role to be “bringers of peace” (hence Rising Peace Academy) contrasting to the US’s mentality of “fighters for peace”. These documents, perhaps due to a heavy bias, continuously put Japan in a position of mercy towards other countries in handling these circumstances.
It’s a little troubling; if this truly is the state of Japan’s domestic–more like foreign–policy on terrorism, then perhaps it becomes a little easier to understand the reasons and bitterness of the top brass of the Japanese government in this series (however, this does not justify their actions, especially concerning the Settlement). The NSS flat-out states the increased influence of US forces/government is necessary in order to combat terrorism–foreign or domestic. If I am to be interpreting this document correctly, then what the NSS states is that Japan must allocate more of their own domestic powers over to their “international partners” in order for their domestic security to be improved. Japan has little say in these matters.
Furthermore, Japan must essentially be completely transparent in all their combatative-terrorism affairs. This explains why the metropolitan police force was put on standby as soon as the issue became more terroristic in nature; with the possibility of Japan developing nuclear weapons behind closed doors, the US had more than enough reason to come in and take control. It would simply complicate things for the US if anything were to go wrong, especially if there was a possibility that the top brass of the Japanese government would utilize their police force to protect their nuclear secret. While ZnT didn’t go into it specifically, the show definitely portrayed this tension and sense of distrust between the US and Japan relatively well.
So back to Nine and Twelve. Even with cyberterrorism alone, they would have their fate sealed. The presence of nuclear bombs was just icing on the cake. Honestly, while at first glance their situation would have been messy, more than likely the two wouldn’t even make it to court, let alone ever see the light of day until their deaths. Both the US and the Japanese government have something to gain from custody of the two. Nine and Twelve have information about the nuclear weaponry and internal affairs of the Japanese government–affairs that the US might be very interested in learning about.The Japanese government needs to silence Nine and Twelve before the US could get to them, yet they would probably want to experiment on them again to determine how they survived that long. With the nuclear weapon development brought to light, there would be more than ample reason for the US to not only take custody of the two, but have an international scandal between the two countries.
Yet it was the US that silenced Nine and Twelve and not the Japanese forces. Why? First and foremost, the Japanese do not have a set of easily mobilized militarized forces in the way that the the US do, not even in their own country. That aside, my theory is that the US was confident that they would be able to divulge whatever information they wanted from the Japanese government; they could simply use the fact that Japan had been developing nuclear weapons as sufficient blackmail. If the Japanese government didn’t give them what they wanted, they could easily paint Japan similarly to how they were viewed by the Allies in WWII, if not worse. Furthermore, Nine and Twelve “knew about the Shuto expressway and airport incidents”. From what we’ve seen, those incidents (and the others) revolved around top brass of the Japanese government, not the American government–so why would they care? Perhaps the US had more involvement than previously anticipated. You could argue, however, that they were trying to cover up for Five’s mistakes/US participation as those incidents were the ones that the US was involved. However, if that was really the case, they wouldn’t really have to worry. After all, the Settlement/Athena Plan was a result of ONLY the Japanese government’s desire to have a more independent country….right? So why would there be any threat from Nine and Twelve to the US government then?
This may be a bit of a long stretch, but after reading Japan’s domestic and foreign policy, it seems more and more likely that this was something a handful of US officials could secretly have part in. More than likely then certain members of the US government, who saw benefit from both an independent Japan (economically) and hyper-intelligent personnel (militaristically), could have first given funding/leadership of the Rising Peace Academy. When the Settlement was officially “discovered” following its failure, those US officials no longer wanted to have any part in the incident. After all, it would be a blow to their image if the US were considered “partners” to child experimentation. Since they took custody of the “sole survivor”, Five, they thought they would have nothing to worry about. With the emergence of Nine and Twelve, however, was the emergence of individuals who could have gone into the Athena Plan records far enough to see the US’s involvement. Even though Nine and Twelve seemed focused on the Japanese government, the US could not take that risk. Therefore even if Nine and Twelve were “caught”, I believe they would soon be silence/taken by the US anyway. It benefitted the US to keep the focus on Japan, which would give them the upper hand in taking more powers away from the Japanese government. While this theory is only only that, a theory…if this was truly the case, then the creators masterfully crafted a sad, hidden truth. In the future, Japan could very well be swallowed by their “alliances” and “international partnerships”. It may only be a matter of time before they lose their own country.
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Usual disclaimer: This is only a theory–we only know for certain that which is confirmed by the creators! Also, I do not have a legal background, and could ascertain only what I could from the these documents as someone who has never had experience in that area before.
