Japanese phans are INSANE
Yes they are. They might not be as rabid as the screaming fangirls I know - well, maybe there are some rabid fangirls too - but they sure pay attention on every single tiny detail. Too much attention in fact *shudder*
I'm talking about the phans here, because we're obsessing over the same phandom. I especially focus on the site mods of arabagi.net and mannmaru.com. Lets call them Arabagiya (because that IS his/her penname) and manmaru (after the website).
I swear, they notice every tiny little thing nobody else noticed. First, I'm talking about their drawing style. This is 2004 movie Erik aka Gerik. I know who the actor is but I don't care. Since I'm talking about the character anyway, I will be using the character name I don't know how they pulled it off, but for some reason they managed to pull Erik off in such way that though he's drawn in manga style he still looked so true to the real face of the actor. This is much much better than all the cool artists in DeviantArt. Even though their subject is recognizable, they are still "off". Some are too cartoony, some are too manga. The ones that looked perfectly like the model are the photorealistic ones and they don't really count in the same category. So he looks about almost 100% like the original guy in the movie. The only thing that went off is probably his hair, but I don't care.
Next is the teeny tiny details that most Western phans miss. I pride myself in noticing them too, even before I popped in Arabagiya or Manmaru's galleries, but I digress. The first very noticeable thing is his eye colour. From what I see in most art and phics by the (mostly) western phans, they describe/depict his eyes as grey, green, or blue. What they don't know is that his eyes are actually "hazel". The closest thing to correct is green, and in some phics it's "green with gold speckles" or vice versa (gold with green speckles and this one is stpid). Both are still wrong though. Hazel eyes are basically greenish eyes with a brown rim around the pupils. The green in hazel eyes vary according to the person. Erik's green is grey-green. I have a friend with hazel eyes and her green is more yellow-green but still greyish.
Next is his eye shape. His eyes are more sharply angled than most people's and is slightly pointed, not rounded. I daresay this is what made him work well as a manga character; he already has the features of a manga character. I don't know how the artist did this - I presume they went and stared long and hard at reference photos or something and then draw. What makes a manga character a manga character? The most defining points of manga characters are their hair and eyes. Men's eyes are usually small, sharp, and pointed, much like Erik's eyes. Don't tell me I am seeing things. The reference photo is a close up and it was an official production photo. It was clear and I'm not blind. His hair is basically only slicked back and in manga it still look almost like the real thing. Too bad Arabagiya loves cell shade and Manmaru loves Tegaki/MS Paint. Cell shade is so stiff and Tegaki/MS Paint produces scratchy lines. Had they used detailed smooth shading, they'd look like photos. I'm sure of it.
They really did the pics properly, down to the mask's contours and jaw shape. Most manga phanartists use the typical slender jaw of manga characters, including me. His is square-jawed with a.... stubble? Not sure how to call that cleft on the chin. This is hard for those who aren't used to it. It could make the face look fat. The mask isn't smooth. It has bumps that follow the face's contours, only slightly exaggerated. The groove where the eyebrow meets the nose bridge is more pronounced, and so is the groove that runs down from the nose to the mouth. This gives the mask a scowling face, and that's why he always looked slightly angry when he wears it.
Another thing that most phans miss is the red polkadot lining in the Red death suit. I wonder why they choose RED POLKADOT of all things? Is that supposed to be a joke? I'm not sure if it's visible in the movie or movie screenshots, but it is there. I saw it in the official movie companion book. If it's not visible in any other sources other than the companion book, then I don't blame the other phans for missing it.
Now this last thing is a very incredible feat. Both Manmaru and Arabagiya noticed the oddly shaped crease on his eyelids and that the eye socket area that surrounds the eyes are slightly sunken. I just noticed that when I did the very detailed portrait and had to look at a reference photo. Some people have no eyelid crease, some people have. This guy has HALF. It goes from the middle of the eye down to the end that is closest to the nose. That is something that is not really important, but these two got it right. The eye area of his face are slightly sunken, making the natural shadows under the eyes darker. Also, the "line" that is caused by the edge of the cheekbone meeting the eye socket is deeper. This part is also more pronounced in the mask. This is different from the dark rings that results from lack of sleep. I can tell because I often have those lack-of-sleep dark rings. I can see the difference.
Heck, the only thing where both artists went off is his deformity and his real hair. Arabagiya's deformity is a bit too lumpy. The deformity don't have THAT much bumps. Manmaru couldn't even draw it. (S)He usually put scribbles in place of the face. As for his real hair, Arabagiya's problem is that the hairline. His deformity went way past the normal hairline, pushing the hairline on that side a bit further back and that the hair there is thinner. In Arabagiya's art, the hairline is pushed too far back that he looked half-bald from the front. Manmaru's problem is that the hair is too even. (S)He either forgot that the deformity messed up his hair too or (s)he couldn't do it. That, and the hair is a bit too long.
Arabagiya also messed up the nose. His nose is straight. Manmaru got that right, but Arabagiya gave him a Roman nose, that is slightly hooked. I don't know why (s)he think so. Probably something to do with the fact that quite a lot of European men have Roman noses and that said nose shape is more masculine.
Things I personally notice about the artists:
Arabagiya
Manmaru
OKAY IF YOU'RE A JAPANESE AND ESPECIALLY IF YOU'RE A PHANTOM FAN TOO, PLEASE DON'T BE OFFENDED. I'M JUST ADMIRING HOW YOU GUYS NOTICE EVERY SINGLE TINY DETAIL, EVEN MORE THAN MOST RABID FANS OF OTHER NATIONALITIES.
I'm talking about the phans here, because we're obsessing over the same phandom. I especially focus on the site mods of arabagi.net and mannmaru.com. Lets call them Arabagiya (because that IS his/her penname) and manmaru (after the website).
I swear, they notice every tiny little thing nobody else noticed. First, I'm talking about their drawing style. This is 2004 movie Erik aka Gerik. I know who the actor is but I don't care. Since I'm talking about the character anyway, I will be using the character name I don't know how they pulled it off, but for some reason they managed to pull Erik off in such way that though he's drawn in manga style he still looked so true to the real face of the actor. This is much much better than all the cool artists in DeviantArt. Even though their subject is recognizable, they are still "off". Some are too cartoony, some are too manga. The ones that looked perfectly like the model are the photorealistic ones and they don't really count in the same category. So he looks about almost 100% like the original guy in the movie. The only thing that went off is probably his hair, but I don't care.
Next is the teeny tiny details that most Western phans miss. I pride myself in noticing them too, even before I popped in Arabagiya or Manmaru's galleries, but I digress. The first very noticeable thing is his eye colour. From what I see in most art and phics by the (mostly) western phans, they describe/depict his eyes as grey, green, or blue. What they don't know is that his eyes are actually "hazel". The closest thing to correct is green, and in some phics it's "green with gold speckles" or vice versa (gold with green speckles and this one is stpid). Both are still wrong though. Hazel eyes are basically greenish eyes with a brown rim around the pupils. The green in hazel eyes vary according to the person. Erik's green is grey-green. I have a friend with hazel eyes and her green is more yellow-green but still greyish.
Next is his eye shape. His eyes are more sharply angled than most people's and is slightly pointed, not rounded. I daresay this is what made him work well as a manga character; he already has the features of a manga character. I don't know how the artist did this - I presume they went and stared long and hard at reference photos or something and then draw. What makes a manga character a manga character? The most defining points of manga characters are their hair and eyes. Men's eyes are usually small, sharp, and pointed, much like Erik's eyes. Don't tell me I am seeing things. The reference photo is a close up and it was an official production photo. It was clear and I'm not blind. His hair is basically only slicked back and in manga it still look almost like the real thing. Too bad Arabagiya loves cell shade and Manmaru loves Tegaki/MS Paint. Cell shade is so stiff and Tegaki/MS Paint produces scratchy lines. Had they used detailed smooth shading, they'd look like photos. I'm sure of it.
They really did the pics properly, down to the mask's contours and jaw shape. Most manga phanartists use the typical slender jaw of manga characters, including me. His is square-jawed with a.... stubble? Not sure how to call that cleft on the chin. This is hard for those who aren't used to it. It could make the face look fat. The mask isn't smooth. It has bumps that follow the face's contours, only slightly exaggerated. The groove where the eyebrow meets the nose bridge is more pronounced, and so is the groove that runs down from the nose to the mouth. This gives the mask a scowling face, and that's why he always looked slightly angry when he wears it.
Another thing that most phans miss is the red polkadot lining in the Red death suit. I wonder why they choose RED POLKADOT of all things? Is that supposed to be a joke? I'm not sure if it's visible in the movie or movie screenshots, but it is there. I saw it in the official movie companion book. If it's not visible in any other sources other than the companion book, then I don't blame the other phans for missing it.
Now this last thing is a very incredible feat. Both Manmaru and Arabagiya noticed the oddly shaped crease on his eyelids and that the eye socket area that surrounds the eyes are slightly sunken. I just noticed that when I did the very detailed portrait and had to look at a reference photo. Some people have no eyelid crease, some people have. This guy has HALF. It goes from the middle of the eye down to the end that is closest to the nose. That is something that is not really important, but these two got it right. The eye area of his face are slightly sunken, making the natural shadows under the eyes darker. Also, the "line" that is caused by the edge of the cheekbone meeting the eye socket is deeper. This part is also more pronounced in the mask. This is different from the dark rings that results from lack of sleep. I can tell because I often have those lack-of-sleep dark rings. I can see the difference.
Heck, the only thing where both artists went off is his deformity and his real hair. Arabagiya's deformity is a bit too lumpy. The deformity don't have THAT much bumps. Manmaru couldn't even draw it. (S)He usually put scribbles in place of the face. As for his real hair, Arabagiya's problem is that the hairline. His deformity went way past the normal hairline, pushing the hairline on that side a bit further back and that the hair there is thinner. In Arabagiya's art, the hairline is pushed too far back that he looked half-bald from the front. Manmaru's problem is that the hair is too even. (S)He either forgot that the deformity messed up his hair too or (s)he couldn't do it. That, and the hair is a bit too long.
Arabagiya also messed up the nose. His nose is straight. Manmaru got that right, but Arabagiya gave him a Roman nose, that is slightly hooked. I don't know why (s)he think so. Probably something to do with the fact that quite a lot of European men have Roman noses and that said nose shape is more masculine.
Things I personally notice about the artists:
Arabagiya
- Has the movie companion. (S)He knows about the infamous missed-out dress ripping scene!!!
- Knows how to use English and French properly. And still prefer Japanese since it's his/her real language. That, or (s)he went to a language translator site.
- Only knows about the movie, but knows a bit about the novel. (S)He has a drawing of the daroga in the gallery. Daroga only appears in the novels.
- Is an avid supporter of GE..... And frequently stuffed them in the POTO gallery. Tagnamed Ano hito to ano musume
Manmaru
- Knows more that one version. His/her works feature a lot of Kay's Phantom, Nadir, and Ayesha(?) (S)He also had a picture of Charles Dance's Phantom.
- Doesn't know English too much or too lazy to research. Erik becomes Eric, but that is a matter of research. The katakana "Erikku" can be BOTH Erik and Eric.
OKAY IF YOU'RE A JAPANESE AND ESPECIALLY IF YOU'RE A PHANTOM FAN TOO, PLEASE DON'T BE OFFENDED. I'M JUST ADMIRING HOW YOU GUYS NOTICE EVERY SINGLE TINY DETAIL, EVEN MORE THAN MOST RABID FANS OF OTHER NATIONALITIES.