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sapplejack · 3 years

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Bloody Roar concept art

Hi guys, a while back I asked a question about whether there were still any Bloody Roar fans. Now that I’ve logged into my Tumblr again, I’ve seen some ppl chime in to say hello! Thus, to keep this fandom (however small it is lol) active, imma post some cool stuff concerning BR; concept art for the first game. *Note that all this info is from Mitsuakira Tatsuta and Shinsuke Yamakawa’s Twitters with some of my opinions and observations sprinkled in

So, back when the first game was being developed, the character designers had to rack their brains to come up with good zoanthrope designs. Part of the team were Mitsuakira Tatsuta and Shinsuke Yamakawa and they sketched all kinds of beasts at an incredible rate (like, it was a lot). Mr. Tatsuta himself drew about 300 of them and he said there were a bull and kangaroo design he personally liked but those got rejected (we’ll get there).

The image above is an unused koala girl whom he and the other artists found funny and couldn’t stop laughing at how terrible and dumb it looked. Tbh, they were kinda right lol. Given how slow koalas are, the image of a humanoid marsupial with boobs running towards you is fucking hilarious.

Anteater dude. Probably would have played like a mix between Bakuryu and Busuzima. Mr. Yamakawa thought it looked similar to the former. Speaking of which.......

Early design for Bakuryu. Seems like the mole was going to have ears and a tail. Actually, I’ve always wondered why the Bakuryus didn’t have tails when moles irl do have visible ones. Unless there’s a breed of mole that doesn’t, in which case I’m not aware of. The concept of a 2nd Bakuryu was also apparently already thought up at this time (idk if in the form of a clone, brother, student, etc.) even when Mr. Tatsuta wasn’t involved much in the later games so it’s nice to know that Kakeru/Kenji was not merely an afterthought haha.

Here are 2 very early concept art of Alice. In the 1st one, she looks more mature and edgy. The design/aesthetic may have been recycled into Nagi’s in BR4 (especially the tube top). In the 2nd one, she doesn’t have pigtails since her hair is short and instead wears a giant bow to emulate bunny ears. Very shoujo-esque.

This is the rejected bull design Mr. Tatsuta mentioned and next to it an early bat zoanthrope. The artist had already thought up some ideas on how they were going to fit in the game. The bat was of course used as the basis for Jenny’s beast form later on. There is also the bull zoanthrope’s human form. The character would be Native American it looks like. Bull guy here had been shown before in concept art included in the BR1 game.

A black panther woman (literally lol). It looks like she could have been a black character (probably the first and only in the series unless you count Greg). Also, if this character was approved, we’d have gotten even more cats in the roster.

Squirrel girl, elephant man, and goat lady. The first one looks kinda like a monkey girl (which would be super cute), elephant obvs became Ganesha later, and the goat lady looks more like a demon/satyr to me. This would actually be cool and does fit in with the mythos as shown in the games and the “BR: The Fang” manga i.e., fantasy creatures such as mermaids, dragons, and phoenixes.

Kangaroo zoanthrope. Mr. Tatsuta imagined him using the Muay Thai fighting style. Eventually rejected as Roger, another kangaroo fgc, had already appeared in Tekken 1-2 years before.

Something veeeeeryyyy interesting. This is a pretty detailed design for a character that was going to be Alice’s brother. This guy was also included in the concept art feature in the BR1 game but it was not mentioned who he was supposed to be. I actually thought he was a proto-Yugo or something. Well, if he made it this far into the character creation process (past the rough sketches and onto colored concept art), then there must have been a conceptual storyline for him somewhere along the line. Judging from his appearance and fashion sense (heh), he’s definitely related to Alice.

Additionally, the red eyes and rabbit-like face probably means that he too was going to have a rabbit beast form; maybe even a hare. I guess he was scrapped since having 2 bunnies would’ve been redundant. I wonder how Alice’s backstory might’ve been had her brother existed. Would she have been adopted into the Nonomura family? Was there going to be some plot where she would be looking for him, thinking she lost her family? Who knows. One thing I do know however, is that he’d butt heads with Yugo since he wouldn’t be keen on his sister dating a *gasp* predator.

Now, I think it would be awesome if this character is introduced in a potential reboot/new installment! They could say Alice didn’t know he was alive, or that he stayed away to keep her safe, seeing as she was already happy with the Nonomuras and relegated himself to watching over her in the shadows. Seriouslyyyy the potential is enormous and I’m hoping something will be done with scrapped concepts like this. (Plus, this guy reminded me of the genderbend Alice fanart I did so long ago. I guess male Alice wasn’t too far off after all).

And lastly, Alice in her sailor fuku (human and beast form). Mr. Tatsuta said this was how he imagined she looked like in that costume.

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That’s all for now! It’s really interesting to see all this concept art and trace back where some designs carried over into later installments of the series. After going through all of them, I yearn even more for another Bloody Roar game! A reboot would be great and some of the rejected designs could be used too. Or continuation with new characters and a bigger roster; that would be even more amazing. Anyway, I thought I should share these sketches by some of the original Raizing/Eighting staff and keep the interest in BR going. We may get something; in regards to Konami trademarking the brand name last year, we just have to wait and see.

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darwindrawz · 3 years

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✨The first fandom I was ever in: an incredibly emotional infodump by Darwin✨

Ahem,

When I was but a little smol child, like maybe four? My mom took me to see the very first “How To Train Your Dragon” movie in the theatre. Up until that point, I was a hardcore fan of only three movies in this order: Cars, Toy Story, and Finding Nemo. Owen Wilson practically agreed to be my other dad when he decided to voice Lighting McQueen. He raised me. I didn’t want to watch anything else.

My mom wasn’t super sure I was ready for it, since it was rated PG and this was 2010 when five year olds weren’t watching movies like Jumanji or whatever little kids like these days (I sound like such a boomer I know lmao). But she was determined to find other movies to watch with me, because “You’ve Got A Friend In Me” can only be heard so many times before it begins to gnaw away at one’s brain and rip apart their soul.

So one fine sunny day, she loaded me into my (Cars themed) car seat, and drove me to the theatre behind the Sams Club in Cookeville Tennessee. I remember being excited, because I loved dinosaurs (I still do), and my mom had told me and my brother it was a movie about dragons, and they were kind of like dinosaurs I guess.

We got our popcorn, and our overpriced soda, and we seated ourselves in the moist, sticky pit that was the Cookeville AMC. After five hours of ads and trailers, the movie began.

And I was instantly hooked.

I was deathly quiet the whole movie, hanging on every line and every scene. I giggled, I clapped, I adored Toothless and his big puppy face. And when we left the theatre after an hour and a half of the greatest movie I had ever seen in my four years of life, my mother held my hand in the way to the car and asked me what I thought.

I said: “Can we come back tomorrow and see it again?”

And we didn’t. Because movies are fucking expensive and it was the Recession. BUT, she did manage to find it on Blu-ray at Walmart a few months later, and I watched the heck out of the DVD. I learned everything I could about everything. I learned the different dragon’s elements, their behavior, and their habitats. I drew crappy kindergarten fanart of Hiccup and Astrid and the other dragon riders.

I was, in every sense of the word, in the How To Train Your Dragon fandom.

Four years later, when I was eight, the second movie came out. I was ECSTATIC. I begged my mom to take me to see it the day it came out, which meant skipping school that day to go watch a movie about vikings and big scaly monsters. She reluctantly agreed, and I suited up.

And by suited up, I mean I put on my Toothless hat (it is what it sounds like), HTTYD t-shirt, Uggs (to look like a viking, duh), and bootcut jeans.

And once again, I was not disappointed. If anything, the second one only improved upon what the first movie had laid down, building on this intricate and beautiful world like delicately assembled lego set. This time though, I was more able to fully appreciate just how amazing these movies were. Before, it had been more of a “big dragon bois go brrr” type deal, and this time it was more like “these movies are a marvel of modern cinema”.

My involvement in the fandom only grew from there. I didn’t yet have access to the internet, but I participated in any way I could. I read all the books, I owned both special edition dvds, I collected action figures and charts and maps and literally every Berk related thing I could get my grubby little hands on. I talked the head off of anyone who allowed me to speak for more than two seconds.

Off topic, but in case you’re wondering, my favorite dragon is Cloudjumper. This wonderful mans:

So years and years went by. They didn’t release another movie, but I was fine with that. I had all the HTTYD content I needed, and with my newly granted access to google at the age of eleven, I was able to converse with other people who loved the franchise as much as I did, thus sparing my parents and little brother a lot of headaches.

Years went by, and I grew up. I grew up with How To Train Your Dragon. I didn’t think anything of it; it was just sort of always in the background, every present as I grew into the wonderful nerd I am today.

And then one day, as I was scrolling through undoubtedly some top 10 new movies website of some sort, I came across an ad that made me the happiest I had been in years. The happiest I had been since I finished the last movie.

They were making a new How To Train Your Dragon movie.

I ran screaming to my parents, barely able to form English sentences as I tried to convey what had happened to make me harbor the spirit of a rabid raccoon. I remember the looks on their faces. They glanced at each other, clearly amused at my antics. But they had grown used to this dragon-fueled obsession of mine, because it had been the only constant fandom in my life for ten years.

I showed them the article, and I remember seeing a look of confusion pass over my mother’s face as she pointed to a sentence on the screen of my phone. “It’s going to be the last one.” She said.

Honestly, I know it may sound silly and immature, but I think that was one of the saddest moments of my life.

How To Train Your Dragon. My friend. My best friend, even. The two amazing movies that had introduced me to the very concept of a “fandom”. They had always been there for me. When I was sad, I would watch them. When I was happy, I would watch them.

Hell, I watched them after I broke up with my first boyfriend while crying and eating chicken nuggets.

They were... they are... one of the greatest parts of my childhood. They always will be.

So the day finally rolled around that we all geared up and went to the theatre. A nice theatre, this time. I felt it was appropriate we went to a nice theatre, though, because this felt weirdly like a last dinner with a good friend before moving somewhere far, far away. This time, it wasn’t just my mother, my brother, and I. My dad came too. I guess he knew how important it was to me.

My mom loaded me up with snacks and soda. You would think we were going to a freaking LOTR marathon from how geared up we were to see this movie.

I remember distinctly as we sat down, my mom handed me a packet of Kleenex. “Just in case you need it.” She said with a sympathetic smile.

I did need it.

The movie was, as they always were, fantastic. I couldn’t critique it if I wanted to, though I know some sick horrible people have tried to. I enjoyed myself, I really did. It was funny, it was witty, it was action packed and heartwarming. It was... well... it was How To Train Your Dragon.

And then the ending rolled around.

I remember the feeling of dread that washed over me as I realized what was happening. When I realized that Hiccup was going to leave Toothless. I knew it was the right thing to do, but I couldn’t help but project myself into Hiccup, as I so often did while watching those movies. I felt what he felt.

He was leaving an old friend behind. His best friend. And he didn’t know if he could see him again. He could remember him, sure. He could look back on all the fond memories and smile. But he couldn’t make new ones.

And as the movie drew to a close, and I heard people stirring around me as they sensed the imminent end as well, I began to cry.

That was the first time I ever cried in a movie.

I cried and cried and cried, and I kept crying as the movie went off and the credits rolled. My mom hugged me, and my dad said things like “maybe there will be more one day” and “they’ll find a way to milk the franchise”.

I didn’t cry during a movie that much until two years later when I watched Endgame, for reference.

And I know it’s such a silly thing to do, to remember a movie series like it was a person you grew up with. But it really felt like that for me.

And I think that’s what all fandoms should feel like to their fans, whether they stop making content or not.

An old friend.

If you ever hear me talking about How To Train Your Dragon, don’t make fun of me for being as in love with it as some people are with things like Star Wars or Harry Potter. It’s my fandom, my original fandom, my best friend and my constant companion in life.

So yeah. I love How To Train Your Dragon. Always have, always will.

#darwin said something #darwin cries about kids movies #infodump #brain dump #ventish #emotional post #httyd #how to train your dragon #I wrote this because I saw a gif set lol #I cried again while writing it aaa

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nyanja14 · 5 years

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Nabari Appreciation Day 07: Positive Influences

@nabaridays

I’ve been involved in fandom since 2006. Sometimes I’m a lurker. Sometimes I’m a creator. Always, I’m just looking for a good time. Of all the fandoms I’ve been involved, the one that’s had the biggest impact on me was the tiny community of people who happened to be on tumblr circa 2011 (give or take a couple years) and who happened to enjoy the same niche, queer ninja manga.

I brushed a bit with the Nabari fandom back in 2009, when I first read (and watched) the series. I checked out some fanart and fics -- even wrote a little fic! -- browsed some of the LJ comms and talked on some forum threads, etc. (Anyone else here remember the Nyaabari forums?) But eventually something else caught my interest and I moved on.

I came back again in 2011 (because of a college class project, of all things.) At that point, the already small fandom was a lot smaller and it had largely migrated to tumblr. The few folks that I knew from 2009 were nowhere to be found. That was all right though because I wound up meeting new people -- and I wound up making friends.

Nabari 2011+ fandom was the first community where I felt like I was actually getting to know people online -- and that people were getting to know me. It was the first community where I fully felt I could be myself -- the first community where I used my correct pronouns, the first community where I used the nickname that would eventually become my legal name.

It was certainly the first fandom where I made friends that lasted beyond the fandom itself. I didn’t live near any of these people and all we had in common was Nabari no Ou. But it was enough for me to open up to them, get to know them better, and stay friends even as we all moved on to other things.

It’s been something like eight years since then and I still talk to my fellow naberries all the time. Eight years. In that time, other fandoms have risen and fallen. We all graduated college. Tumblr banned sexy stuff. Kamatani started and completed other manga. I transitioned. Some of us met up in person; others have never seen each other face to face.

I’ve never been good at making friends. Even now, it’s not something I feel very confident about. So it feels something like a miracle that I’ve managed to hold on to this great little group of people for as long as I have.

That might just be the magic of Nabari no Ou.

To all the naberries, thank you for being my friend up until now. I hope we can remain friends for much longer.

(and for those that don’t know, the art is an illustration Kamatani drew for the drama CD that came with the Official Guidebook Al Fine)

#this is very long and rather sappy sorry #nabari15 #about me

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