halfcactus

I thought this was a good one to do, considering how fragmented my internet identity is. XD
snowflake_challenge Challenge #4 (https://snowflake-challenge.dreamwidth.org/70775.html)

IceBreaker Challenge! Tell us about yourself. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I'm A, a walking identity crisis who uses a different handle on pretty much every platform! The ones I identify with the most are decrescendo and grassjelly.

I'm currently fandom-less, but my fandoms are typically Asian media (JRPGs, animanga, and various cdrama), though I've been in book fandom in the past (Les Miserables, Discworld).

My primary medium is graphics, though I've recently shifted to fanvids.

I kind of want to do a image dump of my fanart over the years but I will try to restrain myself!!!! The ones I feel are most representative of my heart are from what I think of as my days of youth: my various Discworld fanwork (2011–2015) and Nirvana in Fire X Persona 5 tarot deck (2018) [process post here], and also this one typographic animation I did for Guardian (2018)...( image-heavy post )

I also eventually learned to GIF. :)

Sign-up form here:
https://forms.gle/jAPpL6rnuhoGq8A67

Tumblr post (with sign-up form and exchange schedule):
https://www.tumblr.com/umichii/732349610752933888/nirvana-in-fire-2023-mini-exchange

(I have no real stake in this, I'm just pitching in with graphics since umichii is taking over the exchange this year.)

Books

Hai Yan, "Nirvana in Fire" (vol.1)
Very slow start, mostly exposition. Highlights: MCS's theatrical moments, Xie Yu's intro, Yujin's scenes. This volume starts with the announcement of the tournament for Nihuang's hand in marriage, and by the end of the volume the tournament hasn't ended...

Read this volume in Chinese, and have switched to English for vol2 because I've been, ahem, distracted.


Keigo Higashino, "The Murder in Kairoutei"
Read the Chinese translation. Thoughts about both the novel and the issues with translating it to Chinese here.

TV

Spy X Family
Got artbaited into starting the anime and was sorely let down. IMO the heteronormativity comes off a lot worse when the setup is found family and the pacing is very slice-of-life. I'm especially dissatisfied with the way Yor is written because it doesn't feel like she has any specific thoughts or emotions? She's more preoccupied with belonging, and not in an interesting way.

The manga pacing is a lot more enjoyable and has some fun shenanigans (I loved the over-the-top tennis arc haha) but the sexism gets worse, unfortunately. Recent chapters have more Yor focus, but she still feels so empty and un-written as a character, and out-of-place among the trio because she has no real relationship or thoughts about either of them. And it's not that I'm not familiar with shounen-typical sexism (no matter how "competent" the FL is, the ML is always better), it's just that I feel it betrays its premise.

I might finish the anime season because it's animated really well and I do think it's pretty fun, but I'm going to be salty about it. XD


The Murder in Kairoutei (cdrama)
A Keigo Higashino adaptation that was filmed in 2020 and mysteriously put on hold for 2 years.

I think the first 4 eps are watchable if you like romance, but the show is just... bad. Literally NONE of the storylines OR characters are compelling. On the whole, it was also just so badly edited it's almost a feat. I think its biggest crime is setting up the FL, Jiang Yuanxing (played by Deng Jiajia), to be a hypercompetent corporate woman and then making her be EXTREMELY INCOMPETENT AND UNPROFESSIONAL throughout the show. FROM EPISODE 1.

I personally believe that some of it was... calculated incompetence? And I do wonder if they erased her storyline during the editing process, because motivations were clearly hinted at, just not acted on.

They also stacked all the major novel storylines on the ML's side (Cheng Cheng, played by Zhang Xincheng--we do not question his name), which is super annoying when they did the FL so dirty.

My one silver lining for this is that I'm really enjoying the extra content! I have a thread here. Deng Jiajia and Zhang Xincheng are so cute together? They both bring such good energies to the interviews, with a surprising amount of intimacy and comfiness with each other. DJJ is particularly charming and personable and her reactions are so cute.

Links

PV for the Yoruneko anime!!!: I'm a huge fan of kyuryuZ's comics about hanging out with their cat at night, and I'm SO excited and delighted to see them animated.

For nirvanainfirefest Challenge #3: DVD Commentary, I'm gonna try to walk through the process of creating the multimedia NiF x Persona 5 fusion that I created for swanfrost for NiF Exchange 2018 [best viewed on carrd]. I've always wanted to document it because it went through so many phases, I just never knew how to begin.

For the prompt: ensemble cast | persona 5 au, feel free to follow the plot of p5 or to use the setting/lore as inspiration! notes: bonus points for character study-esque writing and using the mcs/linshu naming conventions cleverly; happy ending please

At the time I was creating it, I was also doing a lot of tedious work at night, and I was working on NiF Exchange in bits and pieces to give myself a break. I mostly remember the backaches and basically had to avoid being on the computer on my downtime for like 2 years. :)) I have an office chair now, though, and life has been better (and more productive) because of it. Can't believe I waited til 2021 to get one. /o\

tl;dr - summary of the process:

Coming up with the concept (in which I decided I wanted to do a fanvid/lyric vid)

Outlining what I wanted to include in the vid

Initial studies and visual development

Learning to vid and do basic motion effects on AE ajs;afjda;fja;

Tracing selected characters into lines and vector shapes on AI (I just needed 5, enough for the Phantom Thieves deck)

Designing the cards on PS (again, I only needed 5 of each design)

Putting the illustrated and animated elements in the vid

Realizing I could do the rest of the tarot deck, actually???

Presentation: gifs, carrd

WARNING: Mega-long and image-heavy post ahead!
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