Parties Are For Losers will become a comic!

After about three years of going back and forth on it, I’ve finally made my decision: the PAFL series will be switching mediums.

Please read this statement in full.

Why do this?

1. Format limitations

MVs are a good shorthand for showcasing the main story beats and emotions. They’re also great if you want to make your characters look cool. But condensing a complex story into sparse 3-minute chunks can only work up to a certain point. 

PAFL’s narrative is too heavy on precise story details that just can't be reasonably compressed into MVs. The fact that you need to read pages upon pages of synopses and loredumps to even vaguely understand what’s going on in the main series is completely backwards.

This approach isn’t just inefficient for the kind of story that I want to tell; it also makes it very hard for new people to get into it.

You can say that something like Kagepro is also incomprehensible without supplementary materials. But those supplementary materials aren’t just walls of text - they’re manga, anime and light novels. They’re fully-fledged versions of the narrative that can function on their own. PAFL doesn’t have that.

That’s not even mentioning how amateurish the early installments of the series are, which can be a major turn-off to those who would otherwise be interested in the plot and characters.

If I want to combine visuals and adequate storytelling, comics are a much better medium for that. By now I've got some good experience in making comics on a schedule with the PAFL prequel comic Execution, and the PAFL side story Rough (you can read both of those here if you're interested - mobile recommended). 

What I've realised during their publication is that I've had way more fun making those than I did any of my vocaloid videos. Despite the tight deadlines, I was able to convey what I wanted exactly how I wanted - and that was extremely rewarding!

2. Personal reasons

For the past couple of years, I've really struggled with making music. I've never considered myself a full-on musician - if anything, I'm more of a visual artist. And for a long time, I just used music as a vehicle to tell stories I couldn't otherwise. 

In that sense, the first PAFL episode was only meant to be a small experiment to adapt something less abstract into an MV. I never expected the series to grow in the way that it had. Still, it did - and it's become very dear to my heart over the years. The support I've received for it has been frankly incredible, and I can't overstate how grateful I am to all of you. 

However, as you can probably tell, my constantly growing standards for what an episode should look like and the amount of information it should convey have become unmanageable. In other words, making new episodes all by myself has become very taxing both physically and psychologically. I simply don’t have the technical skill required to make short animated films, at least not within a reasonable timeframe. Hiring a paid team isn’t an option, and I refuse to use volunteer labor for a project I earn money from.

That being said, I don't want to abandon the series and I don't want to drag it out for 10 more years - christ, it's already been 7. PAFL is old enough to go to school. Considering everything, a change of format is necessary for the story to survive.

So what will happen now?

1. Will the next episode be released?

Yes and no.

For the reasons mentioned above, the upcoming PAFL episode has been stuck in production hell for the past two years. And even after all this time, finishing it would cost at least another year. I don’t like that, and at this point I doubt anything good will come of it.

At the same time, I can’t just drop it here. It’s the conclusion to the arc that’s been set up back in episode one. I don’t want to leave all the people waiting for the story’s continuation on this kind of cliffhanger.

So here’s what’s gonna happen:

• The arc finale will be adapted into a comic. This will take a lot less time to complete than the animation (several months vs. a year or more) and feature a lot more story content. 

• The comic will drop all at the same time on Tapas, Webtoon (read online) and Itchio (download in HD). It will not have a pre-release on Patreon to prevent leaks.

• The comic will come with a short promo video (not the original MV).

• The song that was meant for the episode will be released with a simpler video.

• The scrapped MV cuts will later become available on Patreon.

While a fully-animated video would have been awesome, finishing it is just unrealistic at this point. Still, I hope this way you’ll be able to experience the full scope of the arc’s conclusion!

The comic is already in production. Check out the first 7 pages here!

2. What will happen to the series as a whole?

The existing videos and songs won’t be going anywhere and will still be available on my Youtube channel, Spotify, etc. Furthermore, I’m not quitting music or even PAFL songs altogether! I’ll still be happy to release some supplementary songs for the series, but that's all they will be - supplementary.

Here’s my plan for fully transitioning the PAFL series from MVs to comics.

• 2026. KT Rescue Arc finale (simultaneous release on Tapas, Webtoon, Itchio).

• 2026 - possibly early 2027. The conclusion of Rough (weekly page release on Patreon, full release on Tapas, Webtoon, Itchio).

• 2027. The launch of a full comic reboot (weekly page release on Patreon, full chapter releases on Tapas, Webtoon and Itchio).

You see, I want to begin PAFL anew.

We'll retrace our steps and adapt the whole story in a way that will feel more coherent and fleshed out from start to finish. Of course, it will take some time to get where the series is currently at. However, this approach will be much more efficient in the long run. Hopefully, it will also play into my creative strengths a little better!

I understand why this turn of events might be disappointing for some of you. I apologise, and I understand that this new direction for the series won’t be to everybody’s liking. Nevertheless, I deeply appreciate you sticking around up until this point.

I can’t stress it enough how thankful I am to all of you for all the amazing support, kind messages, fanarts, fanfics, fansongs, remixes and even fangames PAFL has received over the years. It’s been an amazing journey, and I know I wouldn’t have gotten this far without all the incredible feedback I’ve received along the way.

I understand why some of you will choose to leave after this point. However, I do hope that the rest will enjoy this new iteration of Parties Are For Losers! 

Thank you all for the 7 incredible years. You're the best fanbase I could ever ask for.

Let's meet again at Molodzyozhny!