monthly recap (july 2024)
i went to japan and completed the release of sideM zine but i'll write about those later. lately i've been doing a lot of blog writing for work so i'm happy about that, but communicating with others is too hard.
nakkyan and kuwachan message board
genbu's voice actor, fukamachi toshinari (nakkyan) went to AX in america. my friend ru held a message board for him and his co-star yuki kuwahara (kuwachan), so i did a doodle for each... making up for not being able to write a letter to nakkyan while i was at 9th. ru's blog post on the topic is a fantastic in-depth read with lovely artwork, so please check that out.
#AnimeExpo2024 2日目！
— 桑原由気（くわはらゆうき） (@yuuki_0624) July 7, 2024
本日はサイン会に出演させて頂きました✨
皆さんそれぞれ #ありふれた への愛を伝えて下さり、私も身振り手振りを駆使しつつ思い切り気持ちを込めてお礼を伝えました！🙌
ファンの皆様からのプレゼントや寄せ書きに感動…！本当に嬉しいです😭✨
Thank you so much！ https://t.co/ehNWxcPIkQ pic.twitter.com/svk32cTYnS
i was surprised that kuwachan posted it on twitter, and i'm really glad for ru that she did! on the other hand, it's embarrassing to realize that she saw my shitty 5 minute doodle of yue. but i'm sooo happy nakkyan saw my genbu fanart!!!
auckland zinefest
i attended zinefest as a viewer, and by attended i mean that i spent 10 minutes at the venue before i got too annoyed by how crowded it was. i'm glad that i was able to get by hands on the second edition of the fresh fruits street style zine by @homepage_anti this time. i got the 1st issue a few years back and loved it, was everything i wanted out of an auckland version of fruits magazine.
genbaro anthology
the secret project that i've been posting about constantly is participating in the genbaro anthology. this time, i drew a 20-ish page comic and a risoprint. i had them printed along with the risoprint pcards from last month!
art log
became a sideM art account again for a good minute. additional GIF i'm too lazy to upload at the moment. i'm trying to be more conscious of graphic design in illustration, realizing that sometimes it is more about framing than just the drawing itself. i'm not sure if i'll continue with it since i like drawing full backgrounds more but sideM doesn't inspire me often when it comes to that.
media log
- arifureta S1: since nakkyan went to AX to promote season 3, i finally decided to watch it. as expected, it was absolute dogshit and borderline illegal but i honestly think it had some potential if you completely rewrote it and removed the part where the main wife looks 12 years old (i basically only listened to the dub without watching the screen, so i can't say anything about how bad the animation supposedly was). it was mindless enough that i could get through the whole thing in one night!
- re:zero S1E1-3: after watching the steaming hot mess that was arifureta, i decided to try some actually watchable isekai anime. re:zero features the type of outgoing NEET otaku who pisses me off the most (think ota from AITSF), but i did really enjoy the intensity of the first two episodes. since there's a mysterious element of "why the main character keeps reviving", i'm excited to keep watching.
- IPW: winter warfare: the battle royale with like 12 guys was awesome!!! i highly enjoyed the conclusion of that match where peter parr seemingly won, but barry burrito ended up stealing the victory after matty short attacked parr off the sidelines lol.
- ice spice - Y2K: i don't think it was as bad as i expected but i did fall asleep halfway through listening to it despite the whole album being only 22 minutes long.
- AI: nirvana initiative - ryuki chapter 1-2: AITSF actually ended up being a game i looked back upon fondly despite complaining about it constantly while playing it. i loved the overall story and mystery and found it really refreshing that uchikoshi finally wrote something that differed from the five other works of his i had read. i'm enjoying AINI so far, and i'm excited to see how he'll continue the story without going back to story elements he's already used in previous games. tama is sooo hot.