momluckysheep

[momluckysheep]

symbolism and significance of clothing/character design in bungou stray dogs

one of the most admirable features of the bungou stray dogs series is the attention to detail in every aspect. i feel that each time i reread or rewatch, i notice new specifics that intrigue me to analyze further. character design, especially the clothes worn by the characters is definitely one of mentioned specifics. in the bungou stray dogs universe, character design does not possess merely an aesthetic function, but it aids in understanding each character - their personality, motivations, the author/work they are inspired by, and what i feel is most notable - their fate (past, present and future) and how it is intertwined with and depends on other characters. this is what i`ll attempt to showcase in the following, on the examples of a few characters.

atsushi nakajima/ryūnosuke akutagawa

naturally, these two are to be analyzed together as their design was, in essence, made to contrast each other - which, just in the start, hints at the momentousness of one to the other. atsushi is the light, akutagawa is the darkness. atsushi's eyes carry vividness and life inside of them, akutagawa's are pure gloom. however, the two are not completely black or white, they are not distinctly "good" or "bad", as they carry parts of each other - which is shown in the hints of black in atsushi`s design (the black streak in his hair, which we were robbed off from in the anime but alright, and in his clothes). the same concept, just vice versa, is seen in akutagawa`s design.

both wear clothes they got from those dear to them, or rather those who gave them a sense of purpose, a reason for living. in atsushi's case, each of the agency members, in akutagawa's case, dazai. the coat is, in a sense, a remnant of akutagawa's experienced trauma, as is atsushi's hairstyle. just from this surface-level description, it can be seen that these two, are in fact, as i`ve written in my other analyses, two sides of the same coin, yin and yang if you will. they`re similar, yet different - they complete each other.

dazai osamu

at first glance, what is most noticeable about dazai`s design are, of course, the bandages wrapped around entirety of his body. i feel that, other than being remnants of previous attempts, these bandages emphasize his seemingly invisible psychological/emotional wounds, protecting him from the real world, and from further pain.

in the dark era, dazai`s left eye is covered by said bandages. at his deathbed, oda takes them off - from that moment on, oda allowed dazai to "see", both "good" and "evil" worlds - as up until now he had only seen a world of evil and suffering, and was blind to what the rest had to offer. thus his other eye was opened.

although, even if he has seen both sides, he still wears the bandages, holding onto them even while imprisoned in mersault. he is still yet to find his reason for living, and is yet to uncover the wounds he`s gotten throughout his life, if ever. this notion of hiding the real self from the world matches well with yozo of no longer human (who i believe was a big inspiration in the making of dazai`s character).

“I have always shook with fright before human beings. Unable as I was to feel the least particle of confidence in my ability to speak and act like a human being, I kept my solitary agonies locked in my breast. I kept my melancholy and my agitation hidden, careful lest any trace should be left exposed. I feigned an innocent optimism; I gradually perfected myself in the role of the farcical eccentric."

this quote also describes the essence of dazai`s character, in simplified terms.

other than that, there exist other obvious contrasts between port mafia and ada dazai - already seen in the usage of colors. in the port mafia era, dazai wears a black coat, given to him by mori. on the other hand, once he joins the ada, dazai wears lighter clothes, symbolizing his turn to the life of good - some black still remains, however. he now wears a bolo tie with a green pendant - many suspect this was a gift from odasaku, which i also believe. dazai holds onto this as a reminder. of his past, and of what he is to do with his future.

sigma

sigma's character stands out in several ways - as he is the only character not inspired by any author, and is a creation of the book. many characters in the series struggle to find a purpose, but in the case of sigma it is even more apparent. that longing for a reason of being becomes the main feature of sigma`s soul, as well as an initiator of his every action.

he is one of the characters with the lightest color palette. i believe that this symbolizes his innocence and divinity as compared to the other characters who have experienced the horrors of the real world all too well. his outfit demonstrates how he initially sees himself - as a manager of the sky casino. it is, at first, the core and essence of his being. the ambiguity of sigma's character and reason of living is also seen with his hairstyle, which is half-and-half, incomplete. uncertain. just like his existence. it`s as if sigma is an unfinished novel.

rest of the characters

the concepts i mentioned beforehand in analyzing character design are also present across other characters in the series. naturally, they embody the works of the authors they are written after, such as kunikida's design. other characters also showcase their fated connections with others, such as chuuya wearing the hat gifted to him by mori. (i could make a separate post about chuuya`s design and how it follows his development through the series, which i might just as well do later because this is already getting too long). the contrast between the past and present self seen in dazai can also be applied to ranpo's attire (the past being before he met fukuzawa - wearing only black clothes, representing the darkness of his mental state. the present being his current look, which embodies what he sees as his main role and reason - a detective). i will touch up more on these certain characters and their designs in upcoming posts.

and...the color purple?

now, i believe this may be a stretch but as i am obsessed with color symbolism and especially purple, i will just get this out.

now, there are a few characters with purple presence in them in bungou stray dogs, as it's a rather rarely used color. i`d noticed that the mentioned characters all had something in common - an uncanny, almost haunting presence at times, as well as experiencing deep psychological distress or disorder. which made me wonder: what could purple mean in character design? and most specifically - purple eyes, which are seen to be rare among the cast?

you can already draw a correlation between fyodor and fukuchi as purple-eyed characters. but once you add yosano and mori into the mix, the reasoning changes. when you think of it, it`s all characters who have power over human lives in a sense more divine than the other characters - fyodor and yosano with their ability, as well as fukuchi with his sword and persona, mori being a doctor.

but then again, we also have sigma who is engulfed in lighter shades of purple, unlike any other character in bungou stray dogs. which makes me wonder about his possible future role.

[momluckysheep]

Character Heights in Omori, But Probably A Bit More Accurate

So I’ve been wanting to check something ever since the image showing the heights of all the omori characters circulated around soon after omocat posted the real world image of all the main characters.  I finally got to doing that, and seeing as this post exists, I guess I found a thing.

That image… might not be accurate to the real-world cast, because I think it only just lined up the characters from the two images without regard to scale.

I will give it that the image is good for the headspace versions of the characters, since Hero’s height is confirmed, and the rest is just in the same image, relative to each other.

So, is there a better way to get the heights of the real-world characters? Yeah!

In the alternate route of the game, we can see omori in the mirror where Sunny is usually, and if we put them next to each other we can see how they compare, then to the rest of the cast.

And there you have it! That easily we get heights, and a decent chunk shorter than the initial image, which has each of the real-world characters 9 cm taller than here. (margin of error probably ~1 cm)

#keeping this bcs I always forget how tall they are

[momluckysheep]

So, last night I read the MikeVictim doc (don't judge me, I like reading lol) and the author admitted at their conclusion that although they believe the MikeVictim theory, they thought it was a stupid idea (I'm assuming as a storybeat) and would have preferred the story that's presented by BullyMike more. I was just wondering if you think something similar to it. Although you're after the truth, do you like the story that's told by following the MikeVictim theory or do you stand by the theory due to the evidence and would have preferred if the potential canon was something different?

Hmm I suppose I prefer what Scott has intended based on how the narrative has been presented to us. If the games told the story differently (For instance, if the Foxy Bully was the main character you play in FNAF 4 instead of the CC) then I would prefer Mike being the bully because it would make more sense for the narrative that's been shown. So with that in mind, I do prefer Michael being the BV because it lines up with other canon aspects very well. For example, something that I've recently thought about is Michael's personal goals: we know for certain he wants to find his father, potentially to find some sort of truth or get revenge. This lines up with him being the BV because he had been manipulated by his father since he was a child (Fredbear plush, FNAF 4 observatory rooms, ect.) If Michael was the older brother, the narrative of "avenging his brother due to guilt" complicates his character arc and doesn't really line up well with Michael's canon goal. However, if the story had been presented differently to line up with the guilt narrative, then I would lean more towards the older brother theory. I personally think the narrative of Michael being driven by personal vengeance due to his father experimenting on him and manipulating him since he was a child gives him a more interesting character. Since Henry already has the role of the main "hero" who wants to save the children, Michael wanting revenge puts him in an interesting anti-hero role out for his own goals. I hope that makes sense! Thanks so much for the question!

[momluckysheep]

I was drawing some stuff for my own comic when I realised the style I use for it could easily be used for the pj kids, so, yeah

[momluckysheep]

I made more art but I actually put effort in this time

#i ship them

[momluckysheep]

i hate that every time i look for color studies and tips to improve my art and make it more dynamic and interesting all that comes up are rudimentary explanations of the color wheel that explain it to me like im in 1st grade and just now discovering my primary colors

[momluckysheep]

actually shocking how little I’ve drawn these two for how often I talk abt them being such siblings ngl

[momluckysheep]

They would be friends, your honor-

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I live, love, laugh for this. It's very good.

Happy International Sibling day! I wanted to draw Michael and his older brother if they actually grew up with a healthy relationship and family conditions

[momluckysheep]

Me meeting a genie: Okay, so my first wish is for 1000 dollars a day, deposited to my bank account without any way of tracing it to anything illegal. I want this money to come from the ten richest people in America (100 dollars each), withdrawn under the guise of nebulous, random purchases and surcharges. It would probably be best to split the money into a myriad of smaller fees, though, to reduce the likelihood of anyone noticing. Got all that?

Genie: um

Me, continuing on without a care: For my SECOND wish, I want you to give me the ability to learn any given phoneme, so that I can learn to pronounce new languages perfectly. If you're willing, it'd be nice if it were a little easier to memorize new languages too, but if that's not cool, I'm perfectly fine doing all the legwork myself I mostly just want to be capable of pronouncing things correctly.

Genie, now staring at me like I'm insane: ......okaaayyy?....

Me: For my third wish. I want to always have great ideas for gifts for people. Every birthday, every holiday, I want to be able to come up with something they'd really like, with enough time to actually get it for them.

Genie, just staring at me

Me: I can provide you with a written document if that would help.

#I'm keeping this in case I meet a genie

[momluckysheep]

IM BACK FROM THE DEAD with odazai bc season 5 came out of nowhere

[momluckysheep]

my heart is crying and it's all your fault.

They're happy tears, don't worry.

Just beast Dazai meeting again with canon Oda

hajshjshs I don't want to live

[momluckysheep]

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY

[momluckysheep]

a sacrifice worth making

[momluckysheep]

[image description: a ten page comic starring saiki kusuo from the disastrous life of saiki k and anya forger from spy x family.

1: a shot of the both of them walking. They are talking with telepathy.

2: anya, telepathically: do all telepaths have pink hair?

saiki, telepathically: no

anya: oh… are you a spy?! (Next to this thought is a drawing of loid forger)

saiki: no.

anya: an assassin?! (next to this thought is a drawing of yor forger)

saiki: hey, aren’t these your parents?

anya hesitates to answer.

3: saiki: I… am a normal high school student.

anya: what?! how?! You have telepathy! your life has to be exciting!

saiki: I prefer when it’s not. I don’t like telling people that I’m an esper.

4: anya think about this for a moment, before going wide eyed.

anya: does that mean you have to kill me?!

saiki: what? no?

5: saiki: why would I have to kill you.

anya: because i know about your telepathy?

saiki: watch other cartoons

anya, looking shocked: How- it’s not from a cartoon. (She is thinking of a cartoon, where someone says “you found out my secret! Die!”)

saiki: you’re replaying the episode in your head right now.

6: saiki: it seems like a better show than cyborg ciderman no. 2 at least.

anya: cyborg ciderman?

saiki: don’t watch that either.

anya: if you don’t like telling people about it (his telepathy)… do some people already know?

7: saiki thinks of his mom, aiura, toritsuka, and akechi.

saiki: a couple classmates, my family. some found out on their own.

Anya: how did it go?

8: saiki: maybe a little too well. they never stop bugging me now.

anya: really?

saiki: really.

anya looks shocked, then says: I haven’t told anyone.

saiki: you don’t have to

anya: i know, but…

9: a shot of both of them walking, this time in silence.

10: saiki: hey, if you haven’t told anyone, did you make your psychic limiters yourself?

anya: what are psychic limiters?

saiki: the cones one your head?

anya: heh. ive fooled you. These are just hair pins!

saiki: why do they look like that.

anya: I don’t know

End ID]

psiprise encounter

[momluckysheep]

#pj masks #pj masks romeo #pj masks amaya #romeo x amaya #amaya x romeo #flossy flash #they are so cute omg #Romeo likes reading Flossy Flash I swear!

[momluckysheep]

Boy, I'm so going to post the Amaya x Romeo fanart I apparently haven't shown here yet

#pj masks