canmom

[canmom]

tricking myself into doing face practice by making it about the fantasy dykes haunting my brain. had a lot of fun with these designs weeee

#illustration #fanart #baru cormorant #tain hu #love seeing new interpretations of the girls!! these are great :o #characters

[canmom]

[drawr] ひじから - 2013-04-19 23:41:10

#illustration #characters #robots and cyborgs #hatsune miku #fanart #those boxes are a really fun interpretation of miku's hair

[canmom]

心靈製造 | Li Flag

#illustration #robots and cyborgs #hatsune miku #fanart #characters #transparent miku!! #i miss when handheld devices were transparent

[canmom]

animation night should be viable this week. might do Serbian animation, since I'm gonna flying to Serbia the day after. so far the only notable thing I'm finding is Technotise, which sounds pretty sick... fingers crossed I can find an encode of it somewhere.

other than that, I think there's been enough new stuff for another indie/web animation night. maybe in combination with technotise if i can't find more to go with it, or maybe I just keep it short...

#'the peasants' also counts - one of the studios that worked on it is serbian - but not sure if that's available outside film festivals yet

[canmom]

speaking of fantasy manga I'd really love to see adapted well? it is definitely too much to hope that the Witch Hat Atelier adaptation, supposedly still in the works, will get something half so tasty. two years without any movement isn't a great sign on the face of it, and the team is apparently the same one that did zom100, a production which apparently kinda collapsed, so that's two worrying signs.

but even without all that, Shirahama's precise and detailed art style, full of flowing hair and cloth, looks incredible in manga form but would be a real nightmare to animate. Kui's designs are inherently simple and relatively animation friendly (obvs Naoki Takeda put a specific Trigger spin on them, and generally made them a bit more angular and dynamic, but the design DNA is still there). for Witch Hat, I don't doubt it could be done - KyoAni probably could pull it off, given Violet Evergarden - but it would be a huge adaptation challenge to capture the feeling of the manga even a bit.

I would very much love to be proven wrong though!

#anime #witch hat atelier

[canmom]

I caught up with the Dungeon Meshi anime while I was at my friend's place. Honestly marathoning it in a couple sessions like that was actually perfect - I could share it with someone who was new to the series (and I knew it would be up her street), and for my part, I could enjoy seeing all the adaptation decisions and crazy animation flexes.

it's honestly doing a really fantastic job of capturing a lot of the strengths of Kui's manga - the grounded attention to setting detail, the rich character dynamics - while mixing in the kind of exaggerated, loose, post-Kanada school animation and creativity with the medium that Trigger is known for. And it ends up a perfect match. Something is always lost in adaptation, but this is an excellent case of how to bring in a new ingredient to make it taste fresh all the same.

I never thought Dunmeshi would get such a labour-of-love adaptation - led by a really dedicated fan of the series, with some of the best animators in the industry. I did think Trigger would do a generally solid job from the day it was announced... but they're really going all-in on this one, way beyond what I thought would be realistic to hope for, and it's so good to see.

It's always a little odd when the fairly niche thing you're into suddenly gets crazy popular with a huge new audience, but I'm honestly really glad that more people are getting this story served up in such a tasty way. And hey, helps wash down the bitter taste of Frieren, as far as non-isekai fantasy anime goes...

#anime #dungeon meshi

[canmom]

As far as I can tell, Frieren is done. What's the final verdict?

6/10 I would say?

Like its good at what its want to be, and I am a peaks over consistency guy. I think its the best-looking anime of the season, Frieren is a solid character with a strong dynamic with Fern+, you watch it and you care about her because its core conceit of playing with time and the attachments that transcend it is a good hook. Also Sein is a goat, should've kept him around.

It just lacks a story worthy of all that. As I mentioned before it essentially should just be an OVA, it has about ~6 episodes of plot in actuality. But its not 1991 so they stretch that out and add a ton of padding instead. They could have made it a slice of life thing where there is no plot intentionally and I think that could have really worked with its tone and lush worldbuilding? But they chose shounen battle academy arcs (worst) and demon army battles (those are okay but wear out their welcome, the demons are boring) instead.

I think I wouldn't recommend it to a non "srs anime" or genre fan. Like most people *don't* want the tradeoff of "intricate animation & layouts but weak story" right? They don't really value the first part that much. But if its your genre, if you are an anime head, hell if you wanna fuck one of the main cast or w/e, then yeah, its good enough to justify watching it if you want a fix of your go-to. Otherwise I think one would be disappointed and feel like they wasted their time.

#anime #sousou no frieren #yeah this is p much my feeling as someone who was indeed disappointed and dropped it x3

[canmom]

Art by Natcha Ngamtweerat

#illustration #environments #i should do some room shots from this kind of perspective it looks fun

[canmom]

hello, trans/nonbinary internet weirdo & shitposter emeritus frog k here. you might know me from my large collection of free fiction, my twitter/tumblr presence for the last few years, possibly my dumb ass tee shirts, etc.

i need help paying for bills, groceries, and meds this month. i've been writing to the best of my ability and i'm really hoping to have something to show for it soon, but cfs/long covid stuff have been hell despite decent results from naltrexone, and having to cold turkey a psych med that was giving me early-stage tardive dyskinesia has had me stumbling around like a drunk for months despite being stone sober the whole time. there's light at the end of the tunnel here, but in the meanwhile i gotta keep the power on and raw ingredients in the fridge.

trying to raise about $500; any help hugely appreciated <3

cashapp - $asimplefrog ko-fi (paypal redirect) - frogk

thank you all!

#signal boost #frog is a treasure and a dear friend pls help her if you can spare a bit!

[canmom]

#illustration #manga #anime #look back #the trailer for this looked hype as hell #edit: whoops this is an official key visual not fanart

[canmom]

Kaiju No.8 #1

Key Animation: Osamu Tanabe

I'm not gonna lie and say I was familiar with Tanabe's work before watching the premier-- Yes. Feel free to boo me-- at the bare minimum I knew he was an Ex-Ghibli... But my knowledge starts and ends there. Still, a standout piece of animation from an opener that was already flexing it's animation muscles. Tanabe's drawings are loose, but the weighty timing is what grounds and humanizes them. Capturing the normalcy of urban life before disaster strikes.

#anime #looks like i've found my anime for the season

[canmom]

colored them

#illustration #fanart #dungeon meshi #laios touden #falin touden #op has so much good dunmeshi art go check it out

[canmom]

I was born hungry

#illustration #fanart #dungeon meshi #laios touden #gr9 composition fuck yeah damn

[canmom]

Been awhile hasn't it

#characters #3dcg #looove the design sensibility here

[canmom]

i finished it, it's not very long

the ending is strange. after being more or less lectured on the futility of resurrecting someone by a washed-up, bitter utnapishtim, there's a last minute pair of swerves: there actually is an immortality plant, and gilgamesh gets it, but within about a page a serpent steals it while he's bathing and then... the story just kinda ends. he returns to uruk, people are already forgetting Enkidu, and moves on, if only for a moment.

in some ways it has the paradoxical feeling of a kind of cynical response to later mythology, even though it predates them. utnapishtim is kind of like a Noah character, but rather than fathering a grand lineage, he is stuck on a remote island grieving all the people he's lost. his boat is created as a panicked response by the people of his city after Ishtar decides to kill everyone (she has a bit of a habit of this).

I really wonder what stories the surviving version of the Epic was responding to, because at least in this presentation, it's far from a heroic story about a great king, and much more a meditation on grief and loss with the hapless Gilgamesh pretty much just there to suffer.

there's some wonderful mythology logic to it though. Shamhat specifically being summoned to have sex with Enkidu so the animals will become ashamed of him... I don't know how that works exactly but it's the kind of episode that feels revealing of something in the worldview of the authors, though I don't really know if I can say what! this version of the flood/ark story has them gathering the 'seed' of the animals to make a kind of floating sperm bank - that raises so many questions, not least who is supposed to give birth after.

the best scenes are of course the immediate aftermath of Enkidu's death. this is observed so simply and so effectively.

given how prominently it features in TFTBN, I was surprised that the flower quest is a very minor episode, almost tacked on at the end!

I'd like to read another translation of the story to get a better sense of what is specific to Mason's version of Gilgamesh. I don't think there's anything wrong with filling in the gaps of something that was once an oral tradition anyway as a literary exercise, but I would like to know a bit more about the original Epic.

I've got to say too, the version of Gilgamesh that appears in Fate feels like it only barely resembles the character in this story. perhaps the version of Gilgamesh before he loses Enkidu, when he's full of life and having sex with half his kingdom. but afterwards... he's a broken man for most of the story.

good stuff, glad I picked this up

reading Herbert Mason's translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh, as you do!

I went with Mason's translation after I saw it quoted here and there and seemed pretty solidly written - but it isn't precisely right to call it a translation, more a retelling of the story as Mason understands it. so it's not a line by line translation, and some major parts of it are presumably interpolations or paraphrases.

i knew the broad outline of the story but it's fascinating to put it in context, and discover parts of the story i hadn't heard about. for example, i didn't realise the concept of droit du seigneur was part of this story - I'd thought that was basically a goofy myth about the medieval period, but here in the oldest surviving written story, it's just a thing the mythological king Gilgamesh does. though the exact translation seems a little contentious - Mason writes:

As king, Gilgamesh was a tyrant to his people.

He demanded, from an old birthright,

The privilege of sleeping with their brides

Before the husbands were permitted

But Wikipedia quotes a different translation by Stephen Mitchell which says:

He is king, he does whatever he wants... takes the girl from her mother and uses her, the warrior's daughter, the young man's bride.

The general thrust is similar in both cases, but the details of the custom are different. I don't have Mitchell's translation so I can't find how he describes the moment Enkidu arrives to interfere with Gilgamesh doing one of these kingly rapes (like let's not beat around the bush here, it's a different social context and whatever but you can't possibly say no to the demigod king).

Moving on...

Viewed with modern eyes, the transition between the first chapter and the second is kind of abrupt. We've got this great establishing story for Gilgamesh and Enkidu having a rather homoerotic fight and becoming best bros, but then we abruptly skip forward to Gilgamesh declaring that they're going to go fight a monster called Humbaba, and Enkidu is all like, no, that guy is way too high level, you'll die! Modern writing advice would hold that you'd want to spend some time building up Gilgamesh and Enkidu's relationship 'on screen' here, and perhaps foreshadow the existence of Humbaba a bit sooner to build up the threat a bit - but then I'm not carving this into stone tablets, I can afford to be a little bit roundabout, and who knows what's been lost? (scholars of the Epic probably have some idea lol)

The word used for Gilgamesh and Enkidu's relationship is 'friend'. This feels like it's probably a bit of a lossy translation to me - would lover/boyfriend be projecting too much? I obviously don't know the nuances of Sumerian that well, so maybe this is the best available word, but their relationship has a lot of physicality and a lot of affection.

The woman who goes to Enkidu in the wild and has a bunch of sex until he becomes civilised is described here as a 'prostitute'. My understanding was that she belongs to a religious role here, harimtu, that's usually translated as 'sacred prostitution' but apparently this identity is contested, and also she has a name, Shamhat? I don't know why Mason doesn't use her name. Shamhat has a pretty big role in changing Enkidu and convincing him to come meet Gilgamesh, but her own motivation isn't really explored.

Still, I don't want to come off as only complaining. Whether they originate in the Epic or with Mason, I'm enjoying a lot of the poetic turns of phrase in this version - the style is just the right level of minimal - simple appropriate words, but effective for that. Mason writes in verse, but doesn't rhyme - I'm not really familiar enough with meter to say more than that. There are a lot of fairly short, declarative sentences, mixed up with an occasional much longer metaphor across multiple lines. I think you could fairly easily delete the line breaks and just have prose, but having them makes it flow in an interesting way, like waves? Poetry is not my bailiwick so I'm probably describing some fairly basic facets of the medium, but it's interesting to observe.

I'll add more when I've read a bit more, I'll be in this train a while...

#epic of gilgamesh #gilgamesh #fiction #mythology

[canmom]

ooh this bit is fascinating

utnapishtim is telling a deluge story here. and that line, 'notice. even her sorrow was possessive'! i really really want to know if that harshly critical comment reflects something in the original epic, it feels so modern. the gods do not come off well in this story, which isn't unusual for mythology, but it feels crazy to have a human character straight-up stand up and say 'that's bullshit behaviour'

reading Herbert Mason's translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh, as you do!

I went with Mason's translation after I saw it quoted here and there and seemed pretty solidly written - but it isn't precisely right to call it a translation, more a retelling of the story as Mason understands it. so it's not a line by line translation, and some major parts of it are presumably interpolations or paraphrases.

i knew the broad outline of the story but it's fascinating to put it in context, and discover parts of the story i hadn't heard about. for example, i didn't realise the concept of droit du seigneur was part of this story - I'd thought that was basically a goofy myth about the medieval period, but here in the oldest surviving written story, it's just a thing the mythological king Gilgamesh does. though the exact translation seems a little contentious - Mason writes:

As king, Gilgamesh was a tyrant to his people.

He demanded, from an old birthright,

The privilege of sleeping with their brides

Before the husbands were permitted

But Wikipedia quotes a different translation by Stephen Mitchell which says:

He is king, he does whatever he wants... takes the girl from her mother and uses her, the warrior's daughter, the young man's bride.

The general thrust is similar in both cases, but the details of the custom are different. I don't have Mitchell's translation so I can't find how he describes the moment Enkidu arrives to interfere with Gilgamesh doing one of these kingly rapes (like let's not beat around the bush here, it's a different social context and whatever but you can't possibly say no to the demigod king).

Moving on...

Viewed with modern eyes, the transition between the first chapter and the second is kind of abrupt. We've got this great establishing story for Gilgamesh and Enkidu having a rather homoerotic fight and becoming best bros, but then we abruptly skip forward to Gilgamesh declaring that they're going to go fight a monster called Humbaba, and Enkidu is all like, no, that guy is way too high level, you'll die! Modern writing advice would hold that you'd want to spend some time building up Gilgamesh and Enkidu's relationship 'on screen' here, and perhaps foreshadow the existence of Humbaba a bit sooner to build up the threat a bit - but then I'm not carving this into stone tablets, I can afford to be a little bit roundabout, and who knows what's been lost? (scholars of the Epic probably have some idea lol)

The word used for Gilgamesh and Enkidu's relationship is 'friend'. This feels like it's probably a bit of a lossy translation to me - would lover/boyfriend be projecting too much? I obviously don't know the nuances of Sumerian that well, so maybe this is the best available word, but their relationship has a lot of physicality and a lot of affection.

The woman who goes to Enkidu in the wild and has a bunch of sex until he becomes civilised is described here as a 'prostitute'. My understanding was that she belongs to a religious role here, harimtu, that's usually translated as 'sacred prostitution' but apparently this identity is contested, and also she has a name, Shamhat? I don't know why Mason doesn't use her name. Shamhat has a pretty big role in changing Enkidu and convincing him to come meet Gilgamesh, but her own motivation isn't really explored.

Still, I don't want to come off as only complaining. Whether they originate in the Epic or with Mason, I'm enjoying a lot of the poetic turns of phrase in this version - the style is just the right level of minimal - simple appropriate words, but effective for that. Mason writes in verse, but doesn't rhyme - I'm not really familiar enough with meter to say more than that. There are a lot of fairly short, declarative sentences, mixed up with an occasional much longer metaphor across multiple lines. I think you could fairly easily delete the line breaks and just have prose, but having them makes it flow in an interesting way, like waves? Poetry is not my bailiwick so I'm probably describing some fairly basic facets of the medium, but it's interesting to observe.

I'll add more when I've read a bit more, I'll be in this train a while...

#epic of gilgamesh

[canmom]

gilgamesh is such a funny man. siduri is like 'there's only one way across the sea of death to reach utnapishtim and you need these stones to find the way' and within two stanzas our boy has such smashed them to bits. he gets to the other side anyway by dint of being gilgamesh and utnapishtim is sitting there trying to figure out why his stones got smashed up. it's a scene full of pathos and grief as gilgamesh struggles with the inevitability of death but it's also like... really funny

reading Herbert Mason's translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh, as you do!

I went with Mason's translation after I saw it quoted here and there and seemed pretty solidly written - but it isn't precisely right to call it a translation, more a retelling of the story as Mason understands it. so it's not a line by line translation, and some major parts of it are presumably interpolations or paraphrases.

i knew the broad outline of the story but it's fascinating to put it in context, and discover parts of the story i hadn't heard about. for example, i didn't realise the concept of droit du seigneur was part of this story - I'd thought that was basically a goofy myth about the medieval period, but here in the oldest surviving written story, it's just a thing the mythological king Gilgamesh does. though the exact translation seems a little contentious - Mason writes:

As king, Gilgamesh was a tyrant to his people.

He demanded, from an old birthright,

The privilege of sleeping with their brides

Before the husbands were permitted

But Wikipedia quotes a different translation by Stephen Mitchell which says:

He is king, he does whatever he wants... takes the girl from her mother and uses her, the warrior's daughter, the young man's bride.

The general thrust is similar in both cases, but the details of the custom are different. I don't have Mitchell's translation so I can't find how he describes the moment Enkidu arrives to interfere with Gilgamesh doing one of these kingly rapes (like let's not beat around the bush here, it's a different social context and whatever but you can't possibly say no to the demigod king).

Moving on...

Viewed with modern eyes, the transition between the first chapter and the second is kind of abrupt. We've got this great establishing story for Gilgamesh and Enkidu having a rather homoerotic fight and becoming best bros, but then we abruptly skip forward to Gilgamesh declaring that they're going to go fight a monster called Humbaba, and Enkidu is all like, no, that guy is way too high level, you'll die! Modern writing advice would hold that you'd want to spend some time building up Gilgamesh and Enkidu's relationship 'on screen' here, and perhaps foreshadow the existence of Humbaba a bit sooner to build up the threat a bit - but then I'm not carving this into stone tablets, I can afford to be a little bit roundabout, and who knows what's been lost? (scholars of the Epic probably have some idea lol)

The word used for Gilgamesh and Enkidu's relationship is 'friend'. This feels like it's probably a bit of a lossy translation to me - would lover/boyfriend be projecting too much? I obviously don't know the nuances of Sumerian that well, so maybe this is the best available word, but their relationship has a lot of physicality and a lot of affection.

The woman who goes to Enkidu in the wild and has a bunch of sex until he becomes civilised is described here as a 'prostitute'. My understanding was that she belongs to a religious role here, harimtu, that's usually translated as 'sacred prostitution' but apparently this identity is contested, and also she has a name, Shamhat? I don't know why Mason doesn't use her name. Shamhat has a pretty big role in changing Enkidu and convincing him to come meet Gilgamesh, but her own motivation isn't really explored.

Still, I don't want to come off as only complaining. Whether they originate in the Epic or with Mason, I'm enjoying a lot of the poetic turns of phrase in this version - the style is just the right level of minimal - simple appropriate words, but effective for that. Mason writes in verse, but doesn't rhyme - I'm not really familiar enough with meter to say more than that. There are a lot of fairly short, declarative sentences, mixed up with an occasional much longer metaphor across multiple lines. I think you could fairly easily delete the line breaks and just have prose, but having them makes it flow in an interesting way, like waves? Poetry is not my bailiwick so I'm probably describing some fairly basic facets of the medium, but it's interesting to observe.

I'll add more when I've read a bit more, I'll be in this train a while...

#epic of gilgamesh