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Hello everyone, it's been a little while.
My last update was back in early July. After pondering it a bit, I guess I was a little busy. The visual novel has been on my mind a lot lately. I was very frustrated at myself this summer because of the lack of progress. Not long ago, a friend of mine who I used to make videos with in high school reached out and now we're in touch again. I think I've been missing a creative person in my life, you know, someone to bounce ideas off of and that also likes to create things. Like, I follow artists online but they don't seem approachable and they're way beyond my level.
Anyway, my friend wrote a script to a short film he wants to work on together with some of his other friends. I had a week or so to read over the script and it reminded me of advice I've been given time and time again: always start small and work your way up.
Part of the reason why I felt so frustrated with the VN was because I want it to be my magnum opus right off the bat. Maybe not my magnum opus, but I really want to pour everything about me into it. Everything I've experienced in this life, all the happiness, all the pain, everything I enjoy, which is why I couldn't really find a central theme that satisfied me.
My friend is hoping the short film opens up opportunities to expand on the world he created. Because of that, I think I decided to take a similar approach to my VN.
Wandering Chrysanthemum
I'm working on a smaller VN named Wandering Chrysanthemum, a prequel to the main story that I want to make. I've described it as a "one-shot" because it's more of an opportunity for me to gather feedback for my writing. On top of that, I have a feeling that not everything in Wandering Chrysanthemum will carry over into the main story.
I think my current worry is this feeling like I'm ripping off from media that I like. For example, in Wandering Chrysanthemum there's a Imperial power that has conquered a lot of modern-day countries, like Mexico and Japan. This world follows a similar timeline to our own, but set 100 years or so in the future. I've also swapped out Japan for Yamato as the country's name. I did this with Mexico as well, in my story it's known as Aztlan.
I took heavy inspiration from Full Metal Daemon: Muramasa. The story is also set in an alternate history with the name of certain countries having been swapped out for reasons I've speculated on. In Full Metal Daemon: Muramasa, Japan is also known as Yamato. I believe this was chosen because Yamato is also the name of the ethnic group that is native to Japan. They're the descendants of the original people who moved to the archipelago.
I've borrowed this idea for Wandering Chrysanthemum expanded it to include Aztlan, or Mexico. This is a bit more difficult to do with Mexico since Central America was home to many different groups of people. Aztlan was the ancestral home of the Aztecs, however many historians debate where it was actually located or whether it physically ever existed at all.
My rule for doing this is to at least do some research before committing to changing a country's name. For example, I'd like to change China into Han, again following the trend of renaming a country to reflect their native people. I really would like to do this with respect, though. I'm actually scared about writing something I know nothing about. The good thing is that I'm okay with reading a lot and immersing myself in research to make sure the details for the scenes I want to write are somewhat accurate.
But yeah, I think that's been my main worry.
I finished writing Wandering Chrysanthemum's first chapter last night. When I completed it, I felt really good and proud of myself because I finally had done "something" for this story brewing in my head.
I mentioned this story is a prequel of sorts. A few months ago I posted about a mentor character that I was inspired to create. Her name is Azuma and I gave her a pretty detailed background. She's supposed to be the mentor of the main character of the story I'm writing and I never really explained how they met. Wandering Chrysanthemum is about my main character maturing into the person I want her to be at the start of the main story. Even though it's not her first time outside her home country, she's still very naive about the world.
I think one of the main themes will be disillusion, which is something I experienced heavily as I came of age. It's not necessarily disappointment, I think it's a stronger feeling than that. It's basically like having your world, everything you've come to expect be turned on its head.
As a brief background to the story, Aztlan has a well-regarded military academy as a university. It's actually based on a real military college in Mexico with an incredible, futuristic looking building. I love it because it's this blend of modern with indigenous pyramid structures found all over the country. Like an homage to our ancestors, somehow.
My character, Amagi, has to complete a year-long mentorship program in order to graduate. She has grown up within the "Empire's" reach her whole life, meaning she has been subjected to its propaganda and views of the outside world. Her critical thinking exists, but she's still relatively young and hasn't have a lot of worldly experience.
Her mentor will make her question what made her decide to fight for her country. Is Amagi doing it for an ulterior motive? Does Amagi understand what she's being prepared for? When her country finally asks her to kill someone she doesn't want to, will she do it? What will she tell herself if she decides to follow through with it?
These are the types of questions I'm looking to ask. I want to learn more about my character and put her through a very difficult experience where she learns a lot about herself and meets someone she can depend on emotionally.
In contrast, I'm having a lot of fun writing Azuma. There's a lot of mystery to her character because of things I have in mind. I've dropped her last name because of those secrets. She's just known as "Azuma" and nothing else.
If I were to describe her, she appears to be a very elegant person with a very playful attitude when things are normal. However, she can get very stern and I would describe her fighting style as being very disciplined yet, has a handful of dirty tricks. With this I'm trying to hint that she came from a place where she had to keep appearances but also exercise authority.
Character Concepts & Drawing
I don't think my drawing has drastically improved, but I am content with the marginal gains I've achieved this year.
I have a general concept for Amagi that I spent about 2-3 weeks designing over my breaks at work and here at home.
This is concept art for my character, Amana Amagi. This would be waaaaay after Wandering Chrysanthemum, we're talking several years later. At this point she would be in her mid-twenties at least. Something I struggled with and still am debating are the animal ears.
Let it be known that I will not bend to any criticism asking me to remove them, I love those ears and I'm trying to make them work and find an explanation for them but I don't think I ever will and that's okay. Let the girl have her ears. I don't even know what animal they're from, I just really fucking love those ears.
Amagi went through many iterations, some that look drastically different to the final result. Here are a few:
This was the start of the the outfit design, short after I decided on the face. I'm a huge fan of tactical fashion and honestly, have a thing for white collared shirts on women. I really wanted a cape of some sorts, so I borrowed the idea of having her jacket be the cape from a character in Girls' Frontline. Honestly, I still REALLY dig this outfit but I don't think it aligned with what I was going for.
This was a few months ago. These features are definitely more feline-like. Again, I'm using the white collared shirt and jacket combo. There's actually a full-body version of this drawing, but I honestly just like the face.
My favorite thing about this version is probably the necklace. There are these 3 alchemic symbols introduced by Paracelus that represents the three "primes". Salt, Sulfur, and Mercury, or, Body, Soul, and Spirit, respectfully.
You can draw parallels to any trinity that represents unity like the holy trinity in Christianity, or aspects of matter, etc. The necklace is a fusion of the three aforementioned elements in order to represent that Amagi is this "complete" trinity. It has to do a lot more with my ideas for my story than anything else, so don't worry if you don't get it.
Oh yeah, another reference to alchemy are her moon-shaped shades. Amagi has a "male" counterpart, an "animus", who is represented as the sun. Amagi here is represented as the moon. Sun = Masculine, Moon = Feminine in alchemy typically. Not necessarily this binary of man and woman, but aspects of it, is how I interpret it.
I used to play this series called Senran Kagura. The series was about these teenage girls who are going through ninja high school and learning about this secret ninja world they're about to be thrown into. It's very silly because there's these GOOD and EVIL ninjas and it's very black and white at first but then they realize they're all just teenagers and try to get along despite being rivals and stuff. The series always had fan service, but eventually it got a little crazy. It's also dead now, but I think it's gacha is still running in Japan.
Anyway, why did I mention all of that? It's because this outfit was based on a costume for one of the Senran Kagura characters, Asuka. I think this outfit was exclusive to the gacha because I had never seen it anywhere else. I thought it was really cool and had a nice mix of tactical, but it had way too much ninja for me. I don't see Amagi as a ninja.
I think this was earlier in the year, around the end of winter. The vibe of the story, the world, and everything else was very light-hearted. You can actually read one of my first blog post about some of those ideas. I think I wanted Amagi to be an android or cyborg from the very beginning. Here, she's actually terminally-ill man who donated his body to science and ended up looking like that. Also, androids/cyborgs like Amagi weren't very common and strictly use for combat and were theatened to be replaced by robots.
I still have the first few pages that I wrote for that scenario. The PMC that Amagi works for in order to keep her/his? new body is doing a joint mission with a Russian PMC using their own androids. Basically everything goes wrong and the conspirators pulling the strings want both PMCs to fight each other so they damage public opinion of androids and sell more robots to security companies.
It was very silly, I had a couple of ideas for characters and the PMC was supposed to be very tightly-knit. I had an "older sister" character planned and this really playful character with pink hair. Also, this older scientist was supposed to act like their mom or something. I started over because it wasn't going anywhere for me.
As for this drawing, I was looking at a lot of pictures of Reisalin Stout, aka Ryza from the Atelier games. My favorite iteration of Ryza is probably in the last game, Ryza 3. Her hair does this wacky thing that I tried to replicate here. It worked, but unfortunately it made the character really cute, too cute, I think.
That's all I really have to share for now. It's like 3 AM and I'm going out to breakfast in the morning with my family so I really need to go to sleep, haha. I'm very excited to work on Wandering Chrysanthemum and I hope I can at least finish writing it by the end of the year.
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Today I spent a lot of time at work thinking about the story. In yesterday's post, I wrote about the general theme and influences but after going to bed I realized I wasn't satisfied with the beginning of the story. When I thought about starting it with a terminally ill man, I was trying to avoid writing about the human Amagi used to be. As soon as I got home, I made an outline for a new prologue.This version is about a pair of war orphans who end up being experimented on. I wanted to take advantage of turning back the clock to hint at how android technology is developed.
The prologue begins with subjects 08 and 09 who are living in a medical facility with other war orphans. The orphans are given shots of a substance and examined regularly. In general, they appear to be in good care until one day an orphan goes missing. The children's caretakers turn a blind eye and ignore the subject. 08 and 09 decide to look for the missing child. I think this prologue is a step in the right direction. I think I'm still unsure of how androids are made in this world, so that might be the next thing I work on. Additionally, I've rewritten a bit of the story after the prologue as well. It's a bit more solid and have added new characters.
One of the new characters is Rita, and I imagine her having twin tails and being on the short side.She's the kind of person who shoots first and asks things later. I think I'll have a fun time writing her character. I've also have the concept for the antagonist and I think it's pretty decent. It definitely changes some of the ideas I've introduced in yesterday's post, but I think it works a lot better. I apologize for being vague but if I went into depth, I'd be writing here all night.
On a side note, I've been listening to breakcore tonight as I write. It's really good and I think some of the music fits the vibe I'm going for.
The music can feel very ethereal, as if you're just wandering your subconscious or something. I hope you enjoy the music, I actually spent 30 minutes wondering why videos wouldn't embed into my post. It turns out Joomla has this weird text filtering thing on in two different places and I had to disable just enough to get videos to work on here.
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WAHOO!
I actually can't believe that I've finally gotten around to creating this website/blog. I've been wanting to make it for a while now and finally downloaded Visual Studio to practice HTML/CSS/JS. Honestly, the progress has been slow since I have too many interests and so little time.
For now, I think my "About Me" does a decent job of introducing myself at a glance. I'm honestly pretty excited and wish I didn't have to go to work tomorrow so I could work on my website all night, LOL. Honestly, though ... it feels a bit liberating to have my own section of the internet. The main reason I decided to start a website is because there's no online platform that satisfies me. Not just in terms of content management, but I don't like thinking of engagement or analytics. Not to mention some of the algorithms are pure rage bait. I don't need that kind of stuff in my life.
The main hurdle I see is in keeping up with projects I'm interested in. There's a few indie creators who's stuff I really enjoy, but they only have a twitter. My thought is to create a page with a feed for those specific accounts that I want to keep following, but I haven't thought of it too hard yet.
And that's my issue with platforms on the internet. It doesn't feel like the World Wide Web anymore. It's just YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok, etc. and the occasional shopping page in between all the ads we're forced to watch. What inspired this project was a website called Nekoweb, it's a hosting service for people who are passionate for the old internet. It features A LOT of creative websites that I want to take inspiration from when I'm working on my own. So many talented people are hosted on there and I recommend taking a look if you're bored or have the time to spare.
Kuleshov Effect
Kuleshov Effect is the working title for my new story. Last time I attempted to write a story was about 8 years ago. I didn't know how to end it, so I rushed and killed the main character off and never worked on it again. I wouldn't say that my writing skills have gotten any better since then, but I think I've been more aware of patterns in storytelling that it can help me navigate through some of the harder parts of the writing process.
I haven't told anyone about what my story is about until now, mainly because my blog is probably the best space for it since I'm not limited by word count.
Kuleshov Effect (name subject to change) is about a man who is given an artificial human body when he's faced with a terminal illness. It is set about 100 years from now (2120), during an ongoing worldwide conflict. Thanks to the advancement of technology and the discovery of a new substance called Prima Materia, capable combat androids have mostly replaced humans to keep casualties to a minimum.
Expecting to die, the ill man volunteers to donate his body for research. On the day of his expected death, he's not only surprised to find himself alive, but completely free of his ailment. However, he quickly realizes that much of him feels different. When he looks at himself in the mirror, he sees the reflection of a gynoid, a female-looking android.
The description above is the tip of the iceberg. A lot the inspiration for the story comes from alchemy and the works of Carl Jung. Currently, I'm reading Man and His Symbols as an introduction to his work. Jung took an approach to psychology that left a lasting impact in the field. However, I think a lot of that also had to do with his research into alchemy as a metaphor for self-enlightenment. It's really a deep rabbit hole if you ever want to look into it.
The Rebis (see above), is the main inspiration for the story I am writing. For many, I think it's common to hear that the goal of alchemy is to turn lead into gold. However, Jung believes that people were doing alchemy as a representation of the journey to becoming a "whole" person. Imagine it as a giant LARP session that spanned centuries with people acting out how to go about self-actualizing through interpretive science. That's my best way to describe it, even though it sounds very lame when I put it like that.
In my story, these alchemic processes are real, but also borrow heavily from Gnosticism and Jewish mysticism along with certain aspects of Catholicism. The man, also known as Amagi, realizes that body psyche has been fractured in many ways. The archetypes of Anima/Animus which Jung describes as an inner, unconscious counterpart to ourselves, play a role here as well. Amagi, now in an (artificial) female body, is struggling with his identity. He begins to doubt if the memories he has from his human life are even real. At the same time, however, this lost inner counterpart of his, where is it? Has it taken over his being?
As mentioned in the caption for The Rebis, the ultimate goal of alchemy was to create the union of opposites. The Rebis can also be subsituted for the fabled Philosopher's Stone or any example of complete wholeness, divinity, and ... Jesus Christ?
I'm not really religious, but I highly respect religious texts from a historical and analytical lens. Whether or not you believe a guy named Yeshua was walking around the middle east 2000 years ago is up to each individual. However, I think having this person as a figure, as a guide or prime example of enlightenment is really cool. Christ surpassed death, not only because of God, but because he devoted his life to being this perfect being, a teacher, and left by taking on the weight and responsibility for humanity's sins. There's a lot of analyze there and it's getting late so I REALLY wanna wrap up, but alchemy in a roundabout way was describing that process. At least, that's what I understand from Carl Jung.
The process of taking the prima materia, the first ingredient to make the philosopher's stone, and turning it into this seemingly unattainable thing is an ongoing process of breaking down unwanted materials (lead, rocks, whatever) and refining them into something desirable (gold, fountain of youth, etc). The constant references to the different aspects of the self, the union of opposites, it's all REALLY overwhelming. The message of both Christ's ascension and alchemy could be boiled down to the goal of self-acceptance and self-actualizing (being the best version of YOU) through the laborous ongoing process of breaking down what's not working in your life and rebuilding it.
However, Amagi won't be going to therapy or reading self-help books. No, Amagi will actually encounter a philosopher stone that was made with millions of dead bodies and fused along with it trigger the second coming of Jesus Christ.
LOL what a first post
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Lately, I've been thinking about mentor characters, like Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid, for example. I still haven't sat down to think what the major theme of the visual novel will be, so I decided to work on a concept for a supporting character that I think would be neat.
This character is named Azuma Muramasa and I'm being very shameless about my inspirations for her.
Beyond sharing her last name with a demon sword of legend, she's Amagi's former sword-fighting instructor. My visual novel is set in a similar world to ours, but 100 years from now. Projectile-based combat is the norm since guns are prevalent. Many androids can instantly learn combat skills through uploaded combat data and running simulations. However, there are some skills that cannot be learned because they have not been documented or they do not seem practical for combat or any other data that would be deemed useful for androids to learn.
Azuma originally married into a family that had a long-standing tradition of passing their swordsmanship style down each generation. Her husband was to inherit the title of "master" of his family's swordsmanship school, but he passed away before that was able to happen.
Traditionally, the title of "master" would be handed down to the oldest son of the previous master. Azuma's late husband was an only child and since the young couple did not have children of their own at the time of his dead, there was no successor available that would honor the tradition.
Azuma, wanting to honor her late husband, asked her father in-law if she could inherit the title instead. Her father in-law was hesitant, but agreed under the condition that she undergo the same training her husband had done. Her husband began to train when he was small boy until his early adulthood when he passed away. Azuma's training was condensed into 5 long years.
Much of her grief became apparent as she trained under her father in-law. She would strike violently with no regards to life whatsoever, as if she was taking out her grief onto the world. Her father in-law nicknamed her "Muramasa" because of the similarities she shared with the folktale that described the qualities of the Muramasa and Masamune blades. The most important lesson that Azuma learned from her father in-law was how to repurpose negative emotions into strength.
Eventually Azuma's father in-law passed away. With no heirs, the bloodline had come to an end. Azuma chose to wander the world and find a new purpose in life.
Her travels took her to North America, where she visited a country that was on the brink of civil war. It was here where she met Amagi, about 10 years prior to the beginning of the Visual Novel's story. Believing her to be a war orphan, Azuma gave Amagi the name she would use for the rest of her life. Amagi did not have the typical traits of a girl her age. It felt as if she was completely devoid of the curiosity and emotions that come with being human.
Azuma was a great help in allowing Amagi to establish her own pysche. After that, the girl began to open up more and was curious about the sheath that Azuma carried on her person. Azuma would begin to train Amagi in the style that she inherited for a little while, then leave to wander, and then come back and check on Amagi a few years later. She repeated this several times until the girl was grown up and left the orphanage. Azuma believes that if her pupil ever needs her, then their paths will eventually cross.
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I think that's most of the backstory I could come up for now. In terms of style, Azuma is very classy. I sketched her with a corset and a jacket. There's a character in Azur Lane that has the same name I really like that outfit, but I wanted something a little more modern. Less noblewoman and more aristocrat turned wandering ronin.
What kind of person is Azuma? Within the story, she's at peace with who she is and what happened to her husband. At this point, her husband has been dead for over 15 years and she's been wandering the world for 10 of those. She's definitely a "world warrior" type of person. Like, if Amagi would video call her, Azuma would be in a different country every time.
As an instructor, she's a bit relentless. She's easygoing with the people she meets, but when it comes to Amagi's training she's a real hardass. It's partly because this style of swordsmanship is very important to her. It's the only "memento" she has of her husband and it's natural that she wants to protect it. For Azuma, Amagi better learn her style perfectly or else it's not worth doing at all. In fact, anything less than perfect is a disgrace and an insult to her late husband, which she will take offense to.
An idea I just had ... since the story has to do with humanity, alchemy, and stuff, it'd be cool if her husband's soul was actually inside the sword or something, so she didn't have to lose him completely. I guess that kind of lessens the impact of everything that comes after, though.
Maybe something to keep in mind?