(links are carefully selected example images from golden kamuy)
incredibly skilled with the human form; even difficult poses are rendered perfectly. (does he make everyone naked just to show off?)
babies are Not cute. they're ugly with puffy eyes and always look sleepy and disgusted.
clearly hates drawing teeth and the inside of mouths. notably just leaves the inside of mouths white most of the time. sometimes draws rough teeth, sometimes draws detailed teeth, sometimes implies teeth with shading, sometimes fills it in grey— it's not consistent at all. i think i've deduced that what he hates the most is calculating the position of teeth in the mouth.
despite the above point, he seems to always draw sofia's teeth because her tooth gap is an important part of her character design
sometimes zooms in and draws details (especially on hands) then zooms out and you can tell because now the line weight is a little different
3/4 view from behind (1/4 view?) of people's faces where you just see the funny bumps of their lips. and it always works
big round sweat drips that often have Texture and Shading.
incredibly skilled at drawing animals, even notoriously difficult ones like horses. though most of the animals die. especially horses.
amount of sparkle in the eyes is meaningful. more sparkle indicates the lightness of their spirit, and no sparkle indicates coldness or jadedness. best/worst example is reinvigorated tsukishima. asirpa is of course also a critical example. and i think ogata's eyes never have any sparkle his whole life.
he can draw wrinkles in the places where they would normally go on someone's face, and he can do it well. or he can decide to draw Other lines on someone's face, in any spot, and if someone questions it, the answer is that they're just like that, and you have to accept it. i really like this "they're just like that" approach to character design, and there are many examples in golden kamuy (e.g. ariko's square irises and pupils, ushiyama's forehead plate, tsukishima's nose)
really good at drawing the way strands of hair wrap over the top of someone's head. (look at tsurumi, ogata, hijikata)
he'll draw chapped lips that'll make your own lips feel real dry.
mouths are often shaped like that... but it works
eyes are usually black, but sometimes a character's pupils will get really small during moments of high tension and you can see their iris and it's light
this is just a hunch but i think he prefers drawing men over women
judicious use of lines going up from the corners of the mouth
he's not a coward: if a character's chest is exposed and the angle is right, he will draw that character's nipples, and that is right and just. he will apply the same principle to draw a character's butthole, which i don't have such a strong opinion about.
there are lots of men with very close-cut hair (bc it's the military) and that's not distinctive, so he gets creative with the hairlines. i think this is an underrated aspect of character design.
careful use of line weight on the corners of closed mouths has a powerful effect (of cuteness?) (look out for this next time you read the manga. it's everywhere and it's the best.)
consistently skillful use of ink splatter effects for blood; similar splattery effects used for snow
eyebrows and other facial hair are usually drawn as multiple long, thin lines together, and for an eyebrow with emotion, you put a couple of perpendicular lines at one end or both
strands of blood or hair extend and curl around in unrealistic ways for dramatic effect. this effect is omnipresent.
occasional really, really choice faces that were obviously drawn either from photo reference or while looking in a mirror
character design by actually giving everyone different facial features, as opposed to character design by assigning different hair and accessories to uniformly pretty people. the latter is much easier, but he chose the thorny path of his own will! thank you for setting a strong example, noda-sensei!
Inspired by allothi’s lovely work on ao3 you can find here!
Shirin sends them a plush of Elizabeth that Christmas for reasons unknown.
Also, she’s a gentoo penguin. The cuties.
So, in the "Hades" video game (very light spoilers for Elysium) you play as the son of Hades, Zagreus, trying to escape the Underworld. There are different levels and the boss of the Elysium level (the afterlife for heroes) is Theseus PLUS the Minotaur. Apparently, Theseus found the Minotaur in the afterlife and Asterius (the Bull of Minos) now credits Theseus with "saving" him as a person in death. They're best friends forever now and it's kind of cute.
Zagreus receives "boons" from various Olympian gods on his escapes (it is expected that you die MANY times over in this game, it's built into the story) from the Underworld. There is a boon from Aphrodite called "Aphrodite's Aid" which inflicts "Charm" on your enemies, which briefly compels your enemies to fight for you.
I had this boon in the fight against Theseus and Asterius, and the "Charm" heart ended up hitting Theseus. I usually take Asterius down first, so the "Bull of Minos" had really low health. Theseus stabbed Asterius in the back with his spear and this ended up being the DEATH BLOW.
I felt SO BAD. It is the only time so far that I have felt sorry for my actions playing this game, like, "SORRY, BRO, I DIDN'T MEAN TO MAKE YOU KILL YOUR FRIEND AND PROBABLY REIGNITE OLD TRAUMA FOR THE BOTH OF YOU. IT'S IRONIC, REALLY, BUT MY BAD, MAN. MY BAD."
STOP. DON'T SCROLL. READ THIS TO SAVE LIVES IN GAZA. Below are some VETTED campaigns to support Gazans. These people have been experiencing an active genocide for almost a full year. Donate and share widely.
(may 27th)
Save a displaced Gazan Family (@ranibra) - Rania is married with five children, her husband needs medical care. She is now responsible to save her children. Help them evacuate.
Support Fahmi and his family (@fahmiakkila) - Fahmi's life has been turned completely upside down, and he now finds himself responsible to save his parents, sisters, & brothers - 7 members.
Save the Maliha family (@dinamaliha) - Dina wants to save her mother, two sisters, and three brothers. The family lost contact with their father when the genocide started. They desperately need to get to Egypt.
Save Firas' family (@firassalemnewacccount @prosolitudeeee) - Firas is a father of two children, a 10-month-old boy and a two-year-old girl, who are in need of safe haven in Egypt.
Help Husam and his family (@husamthaher) - Husam desperately needs to save himself, his wife, and 3 young children.
Help Nader's family to evacuate from Gaza (@nadershoshaa) - Nader and his family, consisting of six members, are currently displaced in the south; help them evacuate and survive.
The Shamaly family wants to survive (@daee571989) - Help save 15 kids and their family, who are living a horrifying active genocide.
Ahmd needs urgent evacuation (@ahmd-iyd) - Ahmd has lost his livelihood to this genocide, and needs funds to help his family evacuate and rebuild their life.
Help evacuate Hani's family (@skatehani) - A dear friend, and a Palestinian skater trying to evacuate 10 members of his family; he has lost his father to injustice.
Help Iman’s family find safety (@imaneyad) - Iman has a family of 7 who need to find safety.
Help save Youssef's family (@bba3lo @mahmoud7878) - Ahmed Baalousha wants to save his wife, his two sons, his daughter, as well as his parents and siblings.
Support Ruba and Amal's family's urgent evacuation (@rubashaban @amalshabn) - Ruba and Amal's family are lacking the basic necessities of life; they have an elderly father who desperately needs to be evacuated for medical care.
Save little Yusuf and his family (@ahmednabubake) - Yusuf is in an intensive care unit fighting for his life in Gaza; he needs urgent evacuation alongside his family.
Help Omar evacuate (@omarsobhi) - Omar is a 20 year old Palestinian student who wants to save himself and his family from this genocide.
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Do not scroll past this list without contributing. This list makes it easy for you to find a fundraiser to support. Choose at least one. Your contribution will save lives. If you cannot donate, share these campaigns.
FIND MORE CAMPAIGNS HERE
Every day the lack of fanart and fanfic for my current obsession grieves me
SOMEONE ELSE PLEASE READ THE BOOK PROPHET BY SIN BLACHE AND HELEN MACDONALD
thank you and goodbye
you can follow me for the fandom you enjoy but watch out
Ok, also with the Theseus slander.
How? Is it possible? To boil down a Greek hero so much that it’s actually possible to just flat out detest them.
I find it impossible to take the characters personally. Like people seem personally offended characters and I don’t get it. The characters are all so complicated that it’s impossible to just broad stroke psychoanalyse, and THEN proceed to act like the character has personally wronged you due to this diagnosis you have them based on your version preference when reading. Damn.
Yeah fun fact the villain in the story is Minos. The victims are the Athenian youths, the Minotaur. Theseus is the Hero, Ariadne is the Heroine. But Ariadne represents the suffering of the Athenians when she gets on the ship with them, even though she saved them, and Theseus’s dealing with that represents his tendency to make some very bad decisions, something that will haunt his character for the rest of his stories.
Maybe it’s the fact that I base my enjoyment of a character on how interesting they are. But Greek mythology is set up with these extremely complex characterisations alongside this tendency toward a deeply flawed hero. Not necessarily glorifying the fallenness, but using it to explore what happens to exceptional men when they are deeply flawed. That’s Theseus. He’s not a psychopath, not a narcissist. The texts paint him as a youth who began his ventures to find his place, who stepped up to save his kin, but whose chief and detrimental weakness was not thinking, and making bad decisions with big consequences based on just not fucking thinking anything through. He is a gut reaction person, he makes big moves based on where he finds himself in the moment. His character is glorifying the strength of the hero and, as so many men in mythology ARE WRITTEN, a cautionary tale against the flaws that lay a hero low.
Achilles is also one of these. Agamemnon is one of these. Hector, a great guy, but he has some flaws that get him in trouble. Jason too. Odysseus! And Theseus, a monumental figure, is one of these characters that implore men to be strong but to be wise, to think before they act.
The poetic cinema of Kotetsu’s powers timing going down and that actually saving his life.
I’m thinking about this again. How cour 2 is the narrative but a sequel, going into familiar beats and going ‘haha you know what happens, you watched season one you can probably predict how this is gonna go’ and then.
And then actually no, the thing that made Kotetsu ‘not enough’ as a hero, the thing everybody thought is going to be his downfall, him not having the hundered power for five minutes, is actually what saves his life?? (AND BUNNY’S???)
It’s really something something about failure not defining you but also sometimes, sometimes it’s good that your power doesn’t last as much as it used to. That thing you thought might be your downfall actually saving your and your partners life at the last minute.
“One of the most interesting things about Elizabeth Turner was her Kiss of Death. Throughout the trilogy, all of the men she locked lips with has died - including Sao Feng in At World’s End, and (if you want to be petty about it) her father, Weatherby Swann. Usually they would die moments after kissing her for the first time. This excludes Will Turner who has kissed her several times before and beat the odds every time. However, even he succumbed to her kiss and died as well minutes after the two were hastily married by Barbossa. This is most likely a just coincidence and not something that was intentional, but years later it’s still fun to point out to friends and watch a dawn of realization hit their face when they realize that Pirate Queen Elizabeth may have also been the Grim Reaper.”
the strongest