[ENG] Tagged by
supaserajupiter Comment to this post, and I will list five things I associate with you. They might make sense or they might be totally random. Then post that list, with your commentary, to your LJ (or just add a reply back at me). Other people (including me~) can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself.
Janelle asked me why I liked the five things below, after a week of rewriting and a whole day sketching, here are finally the answers with pictures!
![](http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y22/asiancloud/Livejournal/Fanart-Blame20110820apreview.gif)
1. Blame!
Rare fandom and quite recent, I've been into it for a mere couple of years or so. Cafard and Poussin like the cyberpunk genre and were talking a lot about it so it made me curious. It was released in France a decade ago, I never looked at it before because it was rated as adult -yay, I'm too reasonable for my own good. And I'm happy I waited, I wouldn't have appreciated earlier.
Nihei Tsutomu's universe
You need to "see" it to understand. Nihei's strength is his lines, just like me as a ballpoint pen user. Sketchy lines, hatches, it's kind of tortured. It's not cute, it's not "pretty", it's impressive, expressive, it really has a personality. The art starts to get better from Volume 5. Blame! is more about the world described in it than the characters who are merely travellers, it's really different from anything I've read. And the way Nihei tells his story made me want to know more about it. His narration is very mysterious: the characters barely talk, you look at the pictures more than you read. The scales are ridiculous, they say "It'll take 800 hours" like we'd say "30 minutes" and I don't mention distances or Killy Gravitational Beam Emitter's ability to dig 70-kilometer long holes into the megastructures which resisted a nuclear-like explosion @_@
The characters
Killy x Shibo is a popular pairing in fanworks but I can't see them as a couple at all. On the other hand, I totally ship Pcell x Dhomochevsky <3 These two are the coolest after Killy. Pcell is obviously one of the author's favourite, look at these lashes and this princess attitude! *faints* Dhomochevsky is among my favourites in Blame! because he's probably the most expressive one: firstly, he seems older and there's something rough about his face, secondly he shows emotions and believe me, they rarely do in this manga. Pcell and Dhomo don't have a romantic relationship at all, she's a Silicon creature, he's a Safeguard, they fight each other. But I don't know, they have that kind of Love & Hate relationship, as if fighting -which is all they have- was the normal way they cared for each other. They remind me so much of my original character's relationship with Poussin's that I drew them as Pcell and Dhomo <3
![](http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y22/asiancloud/Livejournal/Fanart-SailorMoon20110221aamiyatenpreview.gif)
2. Ami x Yaten from Sailormoon /!\ Girl x Girl WARNING /!\
Mercury has always been my favourite because she had room for improvement as a teenager and I like Star Healer mostly for her design and colour scheme. I haven't watched the fifth season, only read the manga and I started to get bored with Sailormoon while reading the last season. In my opinion it was kind of rushed, there was very little development to the characters and their relationships, there was something "fake", "flat", I don't know, it didn't make much sense to me. I can't remember why I saw those two paired so hard when I was younger either O_o" It might have something to do with Yaten liking photography and helping Ami to get over her shyness and building her self-confidence.
Now I've grown up, I suppose I don't dislike this pairing because I have my own variations of Manga!Ami and Anime!Yaten, though I haven't watched the fifth season once again; the similarity with Yaten is distant and coincidental whereas it's conscious for Ami. I imagine them older because I need Ami to be more mischevious and I'm convinced she'll be later; if Yaten makes the very first step, Ami will definitely be the one taking the initiatives as their relationship develops. Yaten being the grumpy one, this pairing has some sorts of potential dynamics which makes it interesting. At least to me.
![](http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y22/asiancloud/Livejournal/Fanart-SailorMoon20110129bEternalscale.gif)
3. Sailormoon
Not my first anime but definitely my first manga, it makes me very nostalgic.
The anime and collecting cards
I was 14-15 when it started airing in France, my little sister recorded the show for me when I was at school on Wednesday mornings. The Henshin sequences were SO COOL and pretty, oh my, I love them to bits!!! My favourite is definitely Sailor Moon Cosmic power from the S season, so so so so pretty and smooth *sighs*
I also collected cards, I spent soooooo much in these @_@ And why MERCURY -who happens to be my favourite- was ALWAYS the rarest prism card of ANY sets??? I cried of joy when I completed my Bromide collection for the S season because I decided exactly on that day that it would be my last time buying some and BAM, FOIL MERCURY TT-TT The only other collection I completed was Amada PP14, you know that one which had silver foil cards from the Super S movie in the middle and two sets of prism cards? I have some duplicates and WOW, some are quite pricy on eBay now O_O
It got me started drawing
Yes, I was already 15 and my first drawings were from Sailormoon! My younger sister copied some magazine illustrations and I followed her. My sister stopped soon after whereas I keep going. My style is definitely influenced by Takeuchi Naoko's and I'll probably never know why so many people say my style is CLAMP-like o_O
As a grown up, I have little interest in Sailormoon; I don't dislike it that much, it's only a good memory part of the past for me now c: *still cherishes her collection*
![](http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y22/asiancloud/Tarots/Docu-TarotMagicalforest09-Major-Hermit.jpg)
4. Tarot cards
Scorpios are typically attracted to esoterism and as hard as I don't want to fall into a stereotype... it applies to me.
I think I got interested into tarot cards after seeing people creating their own decks, such as
Stephanie Pui-Mun Law. But in order to create one, you have to learn the theory, that is to say, the symbols. Now that I have a job and earn a living, I can buy BOOKS. When I was a kid, I only bought mangas and magazines jointly with my sister because we were not rich, our house wasn't that big and my Mom not being a reader, culture was not essential at that time ; survive, don't get caught about cheating on your actual salary, pay the rent, pay off debts, buy food first. Buying books is very new to me and... it feels good <3 I'm still learning about tarots. I'm rather knowledgeable about major arcana but I'm still memorizing the minor arcana. The natural curiosity I lost in Middle school is back, it's like I turned back time, it's so exciting >u<
Furthermore, symbols are very mysterious: they're cross-cultural and timeless, isn't it amazing?
![](http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y22/asiancloud/Tarots/Lunatic-03-Major-Empress.jpg)
My first esoteric interest is western astrology and more precisely birth sky analysis. It took me longer to come to tarots because my Virgo side is cartesian and analyzing a birth sky being very mathematic, I like it a lot. Tarot reading requires more than simply being observant and I think I was too immature for it before. At school, I was LAME at Litterature. I would have never imagined I'd write prose and poetry after my twenties and even that I'd be a respected member of a RPG forum. And I think it all comes from maturity. At 28, my Temporae, my original universes and characters have matured enough and I see connections with astrology and tarots, I'm able to go from a concrete character to abstract symbols. Original characters are extensions of their authors and it's very true in my case: if tarots connect to my characters, they connect to me as well.
![](http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y22/asiancloud/Tarots/Swords_2.jpg)
In addition, I relied a lot on astrology to design my original characters at first, then developed a genuine interest for it and not only as a tool for my stories. I don't believe in a higher consciousnesses modelling our lives, I respect animist rites -my Mom is a very typical Cancer on this point, she's super duper superstitious- and I want to think of the world as a whole. Things are the way they are for a reason and I want to believe that not everything is pure coincidence. However, symbols (not only tarots) don't rule my life, I only read tarots for myself once or twice so far. I am self-driven and I firmly believe that if I want something, I can't be passive about it and I have to do something to improve my condition. But sometimes a hint to get me started is welcome.
And I've just purchased my 4th tarot deck, Lisa Hunt's
Fairy tale tarot! The LWB is so THICK, it's so good to have the author's interpretation notes and so on! I'm not that fond of the art -doesn't mean it's not lovely, the composition and colouring are gorgeous- I like this tarot as a whole and for the work involved, Lisa Hunt did a wonderful designing job: some arcana were renamed and the traditional Suit ordering was changed in order to fit better the Fairy tale theme and it totally makes sense. Moreover, the cards are beautiful: they don't have a border, the quality is pretty good and they totally enhance Lisa Hunt's art. Cohesive design and also fantastic as an object, this deck is amazing on all points. I'd love to do something as great although I'm likely not to. It doesn't mean I won't give it my all! <3
![](http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y22/asiancloud/Livejournal/LJSMLBribe-GraphicJanelle06.png)
5. Regular show
This show is crackastic. And I don't even need any subtitles, w00t!!! Cartoon network doesn't allow me to watch the episodes as a non-US resident, hopefully, good souls upload them to Youtube and even HQ \o/ I've thought very hard about this question and I think one reason is that it's the same genre as Video girl Ai and my Temporae: fantastic; I like everyday things, the slice of life genre. The context is contemporary and realistic, Mordecai and Rigby slack off work in a park and though, strange things will happen to them. Out of context, they totally sound absurd but JG Quintel manages to make sense out of it and everything becomes very logical, I'm super admirative.
Basically, Mordecai and Rigby look for a way to entertain themselves while slacking off and will get troubles. And each time, they'll revert to Skips who'll say "I've seen this before" 9 times out of 10 XD The point in each episode is how they'll get it sorted and the solution is often beyond common sense XDDDD
I also like the characters' graphic design, the thick lines and the bodies' elasticity. The characters themselves are hilarious; I don't have a favourite, they're all needed to make it work <3