MAY 2/2 Update: IWBTWR UPDATE, Character Poll Selection, Animation Progress

Hi! Sorry about the delay to the May update! I was sorting through stuff after the Dragon boat festival was over and wanted to introduce a lot of things.

Lets get started!

Character Poll winner

Yoruichi
I think you guys gave the youtube comments a brain anerysm

IWBTWR

Establishing Zoey's motivations as a character is incredibly hard as she's always been implied to be this mysterious character with ulterior motives. Now that she's in the spotlight, the mystery has to be impactful enough to the story to justify the hype I build around it.

Zoey's story has heavy ties to Chinese colonial history and it's impact on modern social systems our generation currently struggles with. I think it's important to establish why 20+ year olds who feel stuck in life work dead end jobs, and the root cause of all these issues, at least in the asian system.

Zoey's story starts in 1940s Guangzhou, after the Japanese surrender. Featuring someone who looks very similar to her.

Another issue I have is that no one wants to sit in a history lesson disguised as a slice of life drama. So I did a couple of rewrites to spice it up and make it more interesting. Also some elements which fundementally tie Zoey and Jenny's characters together.

Jenny's previous arc has built up foundations I want the story to head in. Her arc also introduces these new concepts: her soul, her struggle with a mysterious blue force.

Zoey's arc captitalizes on these foundations in Jenny's arc and finally pushes them into action.

I hope you guys like the coloring so far! Colored by https://x.com/kaliistic This story is wayy out of my comfort zone and I want it to be as good as possible!

The above story in progress is split into 3 chapters. With some additional slice of life Zoey scenes spliced in between!

Check out Daisy! Her "bestie" and someone she's stuck with forever for some reason lol

IWBWTR Animation

Finally I got some solid stuff on track with some key scenes mapped out

Jenny confronts her own ghost

I wanted to have a rubberhosey typeof animation for her ghost. I think amplifying up her sus nature with playful actions makes it even more unsettling.

• Jump transition

• MTR system map

• Jenny struggling with drowning

Currently looking for additional colorists to lighten the load a bit for the animation

Video editor as well? I'm considering.

Please tell me if you like the current direction of the animation!

Animation show pitch progress

• Settled on a Steel Ball Run meets Hetalia concept

• A new continent has been discovered with a precious resource in the middle.

• Initally the countries do not really know about it

• In the middle of the arc, it flips and it becomes a race to the middle

• Countries compete in different terrain

• More lighthearted than IWBTWR

Originally there was alot of creative disagreements with the direction but I think we've settled on a really good concept in the end. I feel like the old premise of a slice of life with the countries has been used to death. Things like Hetalia, Country Balls, has done the same thing over and over again and a new change of place showcasing countries with a linear objective really would help it.

Other News

I was commissioned by OSU and A-one to make a couple of sprites for an upcoming Suwako mv!

Will be out in August I think?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pySCmK496DI&ab_channel=A-One-Topic

Super hype!

See you guys later this month for another update!!

Also if you got any additional characters for this month's character poll, just let me know in the comments and on the Discord!