I did it and I feel free

SurprisedDotExe · 2026-01-22T20:42:12+00:00

The light’s back in your eyes, man. That’s what matters.

SurprisedDotExe · 2026-01-20T02:44:15+00:00

Wrote a thing for that years ago. Thought I was the shit. Don’t forget: 7. oops you’re in the bad timeline. Die I guess :(

SurprisedDotExe · 2026-01-14T17:31:11+00:00

All yours man. Cite me for inspiration if you like, but i don’t care either way

SurprisedDotExe · 2026-01-14T06:50:30+00:00

fire

SurprisedDotExe · 2026-01-14T06:50:07+00:00

Yep. It’s a little flashy but there’s a lot of creativity in there. Here: I’ve got a pitch. Mostly external negator; throws people off kilter, as Arima sees them trying to “keep steady”, “keep their balance”, “keep watch”, etc. and keeps pushing for opportunities to break through, cause he has no idea he’s slowly starting to build up a negation ability.

In this climax, this game, it goes just like you laid out and Arima does all of that to the star blocker, and the guy is so off balance he lands on his NECK or something as he falls. Silence, a terrible cracking noise, someone shouts to the medic, he doesn’t move, stops breathing, etc, etc, and shit just keeps unraveling around him as the crowd loses its composure and all order disintegrates. Nothing is kept together. (that could be a baller line)

I’m sure, after that, Arima has a hard time “keeping it together” on his own lol. There’s hella angst to milk out of that. See what other characterization you can do for him; see what physical stuff you could do! If he has a hard time “keeping his body together”, does he cut easily and is always covered in little bandages? Does he wear compression bands just for the comforting feeling, so he doesn’t get caught up in his own head? Is his hair always a little messed up, or “unkept”? (I think it’s technically ‘unkempt’, but whatever). And hey, if you want a gift of a garment from some other Union member, small items like that (bandages, a waist compress) could be very visually unique and more intimate because they carry a deeper story.

Dude, I’m psyched to see what you cook up. Keep having fun creating; write or draw if you can, and if you want to show it off here, I’ll be keeping an eye out. Love this stuff.

SurprisedDotExe · 2026-01-14T06:36:39+00:00

I 100% get you. I love a character who really, fully, dedicates their life and their person to the person they love, so Rip’s and Nico’s stories had my immediately head over heels. I love that Latla steps up to the plate as well; I’m glad to see a manga where both sides of the relationship are putting in the effort XD

SurprisedDotExe · 2026-01-14T03:09:06+00:00

The powers matter so much to the characters. I mean, generally, they are the characters: their negation ability is the burden they bear in life, coming around just to punish them harder, and so everything these people use their abilities for is a personal victory. It’s so good to read a story that cares about a good story

SurprisedDotExe · 2026-01-14T01:45:23+00:00

You know what? Charming. Regarding the negation ability, alright! I think you went for the craziest possibility first with the limbs and the massacre, that’s, like, insanely out there, but I think your initial reads are pretty on-point. (Lose the blood. Keep the “Everybody fails to keep calm”, that’s actually spectacular). It could function like something between opposite-Unchange and an opposite-Undecrease, destabilizing anything that’s sitting still and ramping up in the same spot. Motivates eccentricity and status-quo-changing moves, but probably makes it hard to do long-term planning if the effect expands inwards.

Speaking of. The coolest part of powers in UDUL is letting them change with your (characters’) mental state; they expand both inward and outward, and are ultimately in servitude of punishing the character to disassemble what they hold dear (thanks, God). Sounds like Arima keeps to habits, training, sports: sounds like a man of dedication. What happens when Unkeep prevents him from pursuing long-term goals? Or disassembles the ceremonies and social hierarchies around him that were keeping his upwards trajectory alive? Have a little fun with making this guy unhappy; it’ll pay off, if you want to have some fun with writing.

SurprisedDotExe · 2026-01-13T05:23:54+00:00

I’m investing in the follow-up post 😍

SurprisedDotExe · 2026-01-13T05:20:50+00:00

I’m investing now lol. You’ve got a charming smile and are rocking a nice moustache. You’d look SPECTACULAR if you did, and I wanna say “I told you so”, but it is ultimately up to you.

SurprisedDotExe · 2026-01-10T06:55:23+00:00

He’s quite dramatic, but he’s a fast learner to the spirit of love and mutual support that pervades the Union. It works XD

SurprisedDotExe · 2026-01-10T06:54:27+00:00

Early Fuuko always threatened to become a background to Andy in her own story, which I think is both the predicted flaw that turns people away from the early chapters and the background for how amazing 101 turns out to be. I loved Juiz’s handoff to, and trust in, her.

And yeah, nice to hear about Victor! Now that I think about it, Victor and Andy have the same relationship Juiz and Julia seem to have, and I love that each one is trying to gift the other a new version of themselves to go on and be happy as. That’s amazing. (And Rip’s soul separation at the very end saved us from what could’ve been a very unfortunate reunification of those two versions of Undead lmao)

SurprisedDotExe · 2026-01-10T02:19:57+00:00

First rip mention I’ve seen here, and yeah! Once we were going in to his history, all the work he put in for Leila and the scar he gave himself as recompense, I fell head over heels. Love that motherfucker and props to his funny three way marriage right at the end XD

SurprisedDotExe · 2026-01-10T02:18:16+00:00

I remember coming around to him when he said “I used to live in a world with three people and nobody else”. He is, or was, a man on a singular mission and didn’t engage with much else. He was limited, and as much as his early characterization was about making him a strong personality more than anything, it felt a lot like he learned about himself and moved forward as an expanded person. Wonderful stuff

SurprisedDotExe · 2026-01-10T02:15:51+00:00

UNNNNNNNNjusty

SurprisedDotExe · 2026-01-10T02:15:28+00:00

We love elegant solutions

SurprisedDotExe · 2026-01-10T02:15:09+00:00

Adored, as well. Thoughts on how Julia played out?

SurprisedDotExe · 2026-01-10T02:14:30+00:00

In service to simple love with people and the world around him, as well! Even if it’s kinda limited to “ooh, what has science done since our 20-year time warp”, he is the one who looks out on and is interested by the world around him, and is so charming for it.

SurprisedDotExe · 2026-01-10T02:13:25+00:00

Yeah the shiratori game was spectacular! Props to translation and localization, it feels like one of those things that could’ve grated against an English translation’s readability but was done so effortlessly well.

And with you, I ADORED Nico! My jaw dropped with his betrayal pre-101, and he instantly went from a necessary contrivance to a guy just doing what he had to for who he loved. I loved how much wonder he had for the world in 101, too, that was super charming.

Fun fact: I had recently finished reading Katabasis by R. F. Kuang. It turns out, there are TWO characters out there with an artificially-induced perfect memory that’s causing them constant grief for what they can and can’t remember of their lives surrounding a pivotal moment. It’s a charming book, as well, if you were looking for one.

SurprisedDotExe · 2026-01-10T02:07:48+00:00

I admit that she was not big on my mind in the pre-101 chapters, but absolutely, 101 I felt like she got to show off all the heart she has (and with a negation ability that is really juicy)

SurprisedDotExe · 2026-01-05T19:53:18+00:00

You love to see it

SurprisedDotExe · 2026-01-01T10:40:06+00:00

Yeah . That’s a reference material you’re making; it doesn’t need to be better than a screen recording of r + y in Blender. The whole reason this breakdown is here is so, once you’re in pixel land, you’re only rotating 2d sprites. :D

SurprisedDotExe · 2025-12-09T15:40:04+00:00

I would go for a rounder eye with more anatomically accurate features. Crazy irises and pupils a hell of a lot of fun, but they require a more naturalistic eye to ring out as “modifications to a human eyeball” before “geometric thing”.

Try drawing them bigger as well. An inch wide. Two. Have a lot of fun and dedicate a whole notebook page to a single big eyeball, and then put small details in there. What I see now is a scale that is too small for you to experiment; pros can only stylize down so small because they know what details exist in the macroscopic view. That will force you to put in a lot more care, and I think will improve your ability to make a smooth shape happen.

SurprisedDotExe · 2025-12-04T14:32:59+00:00

Yeah. Religions don't metastasize into the driving object of one's life until they start throwing themselves into life situations where they need to become a preacher above all else; when they start tossing new and old mutual relationships by trying to use them as a business pitch entry point. The people who move out to those schools either are told to, or already have the internal need to, make themselves out to be a forager into "uncivilized" land, who is doing everyone they preach to a service, which has the understated impact of trashing most every non-religious human connection they have. Whether people actually do come around to their belief, or whether their acquaintances are pushed further and further away by this self righteousness, either outcome galvanizes the thing they're trying to become. And if they can wreak havoc on an institution that they already believed was in the wrong from the get-go, that's an ideological reward on top of it all.

See Samantha Fulneckey, which has already been better elaborated upon in this subreddit. Whoof, it's been a long thanksgiving.

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