International Saiyuki Week

[telophase]

I'd enver actually made a real International Saiyuki Week post, so this shall have to do. I've finished the inks for the Koumyo pic.









And the winner for Additional Symbolism^TM? Crows Ravens Corvids! I wanted to have something in the front laft corner, but nothing's working out, mostly because I'd have to draw it in perspective and if you'd seen the two Project Blue Rose pages I'd inked today, you'd understand that I am styaing the hell away from perspective for the rest of the evening.

Now to figure out what style in which to color it. (Obviously, the cherry blossoms will go in during the coloring stage - if I attempted to draw them in now,t hat would be one solid mass of lines. Unless ... hm. I may have an idea.)

Comments

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

what style in which to color it

Gankutsuou! *hee hee hee*

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, so pretty!

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Yay, corvids! The trees are very pretty too.

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

You could put smoke from Koumyou's pipe there. If you wanted.

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

Oh, and since I am apparently too lazy to email: how does Kou stand? I remember the whole 'stance' thing you did in your analysis post, and now I'm wondering about Kougaji.

[octopedingenue]

I wonder about Kougaiji, too! Especially since I spent an insane amount of time staring at pictures of Yaone to make icons of her for CFUD, which was the only reason I realized she almost always (when she's not fighting) stands like she does on the left, hunched in on herself and one arm folded across her stomach. (What happened to her to give her such self-esteem issues? Other than the kidnapping and attempted offering as a sex slave, I suppose...)

[telophase.livejournal.com]

She's got a serious professional victim thing going on there - dressed in fanservice sexually provocative clothing, yet standing defensively with her thighs clamped together, one arm across her stomach, one hand guarding her crotch, and that sweet-yet-nervous expression on her face. One can't help but think that if maybe she covered up, she'd feel better about the whole thing. Unlike Doku there, who's got that pants-falling-off-and-proud-of-it thing going on. XD

[octopedingenue]

Yaone does seem a heck of a lot more comfortable in her cheongsams (using apropos of nothing I picture I already had uploaded of Yaone and Kanan being Not!Twins), which she does get to wear when she's not fighting at home at Houtou Castle, unlike the rest of the cast who only get one outfit. (Well, Doku has "casual castle wear", too.) But even then she'll still do the arm thing. She's quite businesslike when she's fighting, and she doesn't cringe or slouch unduly, but I think the first time we see her standing with easy confidence is the scene my icon came from in Reload 3. And even then she's standing sideways.

I keep poking at her body language/design to see what it reveals about her because I think it's an interesting contrast art-wise with her as one of the only prominent female characters in the series, because I RP her, and because she's one of the only ongoing characters about whose past before Kougaiji met her we know nothing and this makes me suspicious. (Most people who are not, like, crazy samurai do not respond to their first defeat by threatening ritual suicide, for one thing. And in the anime, Nii tells Kougaiji offhandedly that Yaone killed her entire family and then it's never brought up again, and I have no idea if the anime made that up as it made up a bunch of WTF stuff or if it's an actual character point Minekura just hasn't used.)

[telophase.livejournal.com]

When she's allowed to forget herself or becomes sure of something, she seems to gain confidence in her stance - the last two you liked are from the scene where she and Doku make up their minds that they're sticking with Kou through hell or high water and what has he done to deserve such loyalty, I ask? Besides exist in a Japanese feudal context, that is? she squares her shoulders, sticks her chest even farther out, and widens her stance. In the castle, though, I'm sure nobody's at ease or comfortable with Nii running around loose, not to mention the crazy!bitch!queen Whatsherface having strange whims, so she probably goes defensive a lot of the time, but especially when she's nervous or indecisive or worrying.

[octopedingenue]

Kougaiji is a hot nice sweet guy who saved Yaone from being raped and eaten, and Yaone is totally in love with him. And will do crazystupid things for love. I don't know what Doku's excuse is, though. (Unless he's in love with him too.)

Hopefully eventually they will figure out that loving Kou means they also need to tell Kou when he's being an idiot. I WOULD KILL FOR a translation of the brief scene they all have together in Reload 6, since it's their first onscreen interaction since they saved Kou with the power of their love and they seem to be having an involved conversation.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Yaone/Kou/Doku = OT3!!1!

[cordialpoison.livejournal.com]

DAMN STRAIGHT.

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

(Yaone's pretty much the only person we don't have angsty backstory for. Other than the sex slave thing. Is it ever clear she was flat-out kidnapped? Maybe her family sold her out....)

[octopedingenue]

(I can't decide whether the reason we don't have background on Yaone is that she's a minor enough character that the surface parallels with Hakkai/Kanan that we've already seen with her are enough for her purpose in the story, or whether it's that she's got nasty oozy skeletons in her closet. If she turns out to be secretly evil/in league with Nii/out to betray Kougaiji/out to destroy the world, I may cry. Even though she would be really hot in evil clothes. I'd be okay with her being angstily blackmailed into evil, though!

Is it ever clear she was flat-out kidnapped? Maybe her family sold her out....
It's not made clear at all, and that's entirely possible. And will excite me if true, because YAY ANGSTY BACKSTORY. But if she did slaughter her entire family after all, I'd like her to have had a good reason (i.e. they were going to sell her into slavery) and not just her being another Saiyuki spree killer).

I wonder what role if any the Kougaijitachi had in the original "Journey to the West" myth.

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

(There are so many!) I think she'll get more background later. I mean, everyone else does.

They are in it! Or at least Kougaji is. But I haven't gotten there yet so I'm not sure where or how.

[octopedingenue]

And just adding because I can't remember if I included it or not that (according to harukami, who told me about the anime), the "Yaone killed her family!" thing is not in the manga that I have seen at all, and is only included in the anime when Nii, in an attempt to make Kou not trust his bodyguards, is like "Dokugakuji slept with and killed his mother, Yaone murdered her own family, and Lirin hates her mother!" And Kou basically tells him to go to hell and it's never brought up again. And the anime makes crack up all the time, so I'm not taking it as gospel truth, but since it's included in a list of Two True Things, I'm not sure for once whether they made it up because they needed something nasty for Nii to say about Yaone or whether it's actual Yaone backstory they knew about from Minekura that she hasn't used yet. In RP terms I'm taking it as not canon enough to effect play but I'm going to avoid directly referencing it or contradicting it as much as I can. (Because if it's true it's both horrible and nifty!)

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's like the 'where did Jeep come from anyway?' thing. AAAAGH ANIME WHY DO YOU LIIIIIIE. (Yes!)

Let's add more last-minute comments!

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

Nii is such a dumbass in the anime. Manga!Nii would never tell Kougaji that Lirin hated her mother: 'Yeah, I do too, what's your point?'

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I'll try to remember when I get home and have some pictures to look at. :D

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Oops, managed to forget until just now. (well, I was inking, and then I had to eat! XD) If you can scare up a few pics, I can attempt to comment more at length, but my immediate impression from the few pics that I've seen is: he's got a stick up his ass. There's just enough sway to the hips to add a bit of life to the pose, but he's very tight, shoulders squared off like he's about to fight someone, and his head is usually tilted a bit down, IIRC. Sanzo keeps his head like that, but he's got more motion in his body. But in Sanzo's case, I'd assume it's more of a "I don't care. Look at me, I don't care. Hey! Can you not SEE how much I DO NOT CARE?!" thing.

Doku, OTOH, has that Gojyo HERE IS MY CROTCH ISN'T IT NICE thing going, although to not quite such an extent as his man-ho little bro. XD

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

Oh, good. I'd speculated as much but I wanted an opinion from someone who, you know, looks at stances more than I do. I'll see if I can scare some pics up.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Front left=bottom left? What about a little sake bottle and cup?

[telophase.livejournal.com]

PERSPECTIVE. NO. AGH.

(anything at all is going to have to be drawn with reagrd to the perspective lines, and since the floorboards and the path are done at slightly different perspectives and scales - honestly, look, see how Koumyo's really about 4-5 foot off the ground if you follow the path to the porch? - it's going to make it even more obvious that I've got them screwed up. There is no easy fix for that short of redrawing a major portion of the image.)

Honestly, I'm tired of fooling with it and unless I get an amazingly good idea, I'm going to leave the lines alone.