Hello everyone, welcome to another blog post. Today I want to talk about a recent animated series that came out, which I think is a great work for 2D and 3D animation as a whole. I want to talk about it in more detail with spoilers later but for now, I will give an overall impression.
As a whole, all the shorts are technically phenomenal; 3D in the shorts give you a cinematic from a video game vibe- and some of them aren't even motion capture (like The Witness) which really shows the level of passion in these projects. 2D ones gave me a lot of hope for the (still-awaited) 2D Revolution. They are very well-made, very stylish in their own right. Story-wise, some of the shorts of could either have a better delivery or maybe got cut all together. Especially some of the endings could've been stronger to really carry the visuals into the next level (like Fish Night) and some stories were tiringly safe with the subject matter (Alternate Histories). Many people I heard didn't enjoy the series either complained about the male-gaze or lack of curation and direction in the series. Male-gaze is a very common topic to talk about these days and I see why people complain about it. There's so much nudity in this series and some of it is not for the faint of heart. With so many different shorts with so many different directions, it is weird to call this series "an anthology" is not the best way to describe it. For them, I would call this a Castlevania Season 1, a testing of waters. To push the borders of what's possible with NSFW, adult animation works. That's why I think the didn't want to put many restrictions in there, and using "anthology" to get it seen on Netflix. Could it be less nudity and gore? Hmmm, most probably. Could it be shorter and more well-curated? Definitely. Now here comes the spoilers part, where I want to talk about my favourite shorts from the bunch, with a non-ordered list. Go watch the series yourself first, it's very worth it! Sonnie's Edge This short is like Pacific Rim and Real Steel had a love-child but that love-child was a Kaiju. And it had a very unexpected twist that changes all the perception of the episode. I think this was the most stylish 3D short out of all. The crazy neon designs on the main team and bold colours really give a strong first look into the series, especially when only the 2D shorts has strong colour usage in them. I think it shows how colourless 3D has become in games especially. The story was simple but very strong with very cool action scenes with giant monsters. As a big lover of mecha anime and Pacific Rim, I was very pleased with those parts. I would definitely watch a seasonal series with these characters or even just the concept, although the sub-story also left me satisfied with the ending. The ending was definitely not what I expected. The lesbian love-making was big lame for me, with the sudden "death" of the character which I was bit angered at first- except when the scene has gone too long. The slight anger turned to discomfort and thrill of "Something is wrong, this is not the end." And it turns out our "main" character was not the main character all along. And there my friends, the series hooked me into a night of binge. Many people were conflicted with the "rape-revenge" plot point (and has a very clear visual allusion into that) but as story progresses, you see how the "main" heroine is bit tired of that cliche herself too, and you see her power is not really due to her trauma. So I think with the final twist, the short becomes a lot tastier dish, especially when the dead people at the end are the dirty rich. The story is a little, self-contained season of a slice-of-life series made into a single well-paced episode. The absurdity of the situation (post-apocalypse with only three robots and bunch of cats left) and the distinct personalities of these robots made this whole short very entertaining. I wish they had the budget to properly render the cat as good as the robots but since our trio is the focus, I see why they decided to not put too much in there. Overall, a light episode of friendly banter and robots. Good Hunting I think this is my favourite 2D short of all. It has been so long since I saw a good steampunk story and the anti-imperialist, Eastern tackle of the genre was very appreciated. The whole arc of main heroine losing her magic, get destroyed by a dirty-rich man (which she later kills brutally- again, satisfying) and rise from her ashes by evolving her magic, with the help of her lover-friend, while mirroring the changes happening in the country, was very powerful. Not to mention the visuals, highly detailed and fluid. I also have to mention the main male character. Such a gentle soul, never once judging the main heroine and helping her every single step and decision she makes. He is definitely the healthy male characterisation we need. Shapeshifters While this was probably one of the weakest of the 3D ones visually, I think the story really saves it. At first I thought it was going to be very pro-army and super patriotic but it was actually a good allusion to racism and the other. I also love how they handled werewolves design-wise. It might be a very small detail, but the fact that the werewolves literally peel the human skin off themselves was a creative twist, especially in the world of 3D where they could just airbrush-morph into one. Zima Blue The perfect animation short. The striking, almost 1920s visual style just hooked me from the beginning, and the whole progression to the end of the story left me spiritually cleansed. Honestly, you simply have to experience this one. You won't be disappointed. Blindspot, Suits, Beyond the Aquila Rift & Sucker of Souls These ones are not as strong as I thought they would be but deserve some honourable mentions. Blindspot was an action-packed heist short with very strong designs and I quite liked the ending despite what other people says. It could've had better characterisations. Suits was the perfect video game concept trailer ever and I wished they did have a MMORPG game like that. The style was beautiful and I liked the characterisations of everyone. And the Texan-farm style robots, so enjoyable! Beyond the Aquila Rift dragged a bit too much but I think it deserved to be viewed for it's ending. Like Sonnie's Edge, it comes without telling you and it haunts you to no end. Sucker of Souls had a decent story with a let-down ending but I liked the visuals, the action and the usage of cats. So there it is guys! Hope you enjoyed my review of Love, Death & Robots. Did you watch it? Which episodes were your favourites? Let me know them in the comments!
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It's been a few days since I released the fully finished version of Yaroslavl to the interwebs. It has been a year since I started to working on this little Juggernaut. It was a big commitment for me, especially for a Year 1 student who previously knew nothing of substance about Animation. It was more of a learning piece but I definitely treated it like an actual short film. I really wanted to push myself to see what I am lacking, what does it look like to produce an Animation piece, and just have that first step in this quite unfamiliar world. I'm still in bit of a shock ("It's done!! And everyone liked it!!") but also, not so empty? I feel very content with it. I am proud of this little guy. It had it's ups and downs, it's not the most perfect thing but hey, I have small short now! How about that? Now, it's time for a bit of reflection. It has been a long and crazy journey, and there are a lot of things to nudge myself with. Maybe you too, dear reader, are also like me. Someone who never committed to such a big thing before and just doesn't know what to do. Hope this little thinking-out-louds would also be helpful. 1) Planning is the key to everything. Starting with the rather obvious parts. For the context, I am a full-time student; I have priorities to take care of as well. This project was a free-time thing, I still can't really afford TVPaint for myself, so it makes everything definitely slower for a (mostly) one-person project, with a long hiatus during summer. As a learning piece, all the production stages (clean-up, colouring, shadows) came almost in a spur, decided on the spot. Not to mention that only thing this project has for pre-production is bunch of loose concept sketches, a loose colour board, two style tries, two (2) style frames and storyboards. My biggest regret is definitely not having a proper, detailed model sheet. It would make turnarounds of the face especially easier, and I could direct my colourist friend much better (although she pulled it off much better than I imagined, give her all the credit for the base of all fur linings and hat). If you have something rather bigger as well, definitely plan it carefully. Don't skip pre-production stages, they are there to make your life much easier. 2) Post-production makes everything more polished. So, you planned everything right. You did your proper model sheets, your storyboards flow good, your colours look amazing. Production was bit rocky but you made it! Now, do you just export it and go? You can definitely do that, nobody will stop you. But, do you think your colours are in good shape? Do you want to have layered objects to give a better feeling of 3D space? Do you have voice overs? Why not having a nice ease in and out of the story with some titles and credits roll? Post-production definitely gives your work a nice final polish and makes everything look more official and surprisingly better. I personally thought I'd just export Yaroslavl from TVPaint and be done with it- until our university work kinda forced us to do some final touches in After Effects. And boy, that tiny touch-up session changed my whole perspective. I really hated that work for some reason, but with some final touches, it looked... much nicer? So I thought, why not do the same for Yaroslavl? So, post-production. Never underestime it. Leave time for it. Give as much attention to it as pre-production and production. I know, the smell of ending is so sweet, yet a tiny bit more work never hurts. Of course, do not use every filter and effect you see but little subtle differences and additions worth the extra work. These little title illustrations made for the post-production, although were quick and had very simple transitions, just made everything much more lively and official. 3) Nothing is done within the time you think it will be done. Animation is not an easy job, period. Even if you plan everything word by word, day by day with a super nice deadline (usually much closer than you think) nothing goes according to plan 20-60% of the time. Either the segment you are working on is more detailed than you think, you have very specific linework you planned for the character, the computer explodes, you go through bit of a rough time, the Universe just says "Nnnnope."- So much things can happen! And it's ok, especially if this is your first work and not something like a commission piece (or a straight up TV production or something.) Of course it's good if you set some daily goals and deadlines but if you are like me, and you work on other big things- give yourself plenty. Use your project to test yourself and learn. See where you need more help. Maybe one of your friends or family would like to help? I am perfectly aware that in professional arena, things do not necessarily work that way. There are many instances were quicker work is favoured over polished works. But, as a student, you have the freedom to do things in your own way. Give yourself plenty time, especially if quality is over quantity. 4) Mute the perfectionist in your mind. In the middle of production of Yaroslavl, there has been a time where I wanted to reanimate the whole first part. I thought everything was wonky, uninteresting. But then, I had the similar experience with a (now on-hiatus) comic project I wanted. I made a few pages then had to stop for school work- then I redrew them because I hated the outdated look. Then I had to stop much sooner and I was trapped in a cycle of self-doubt and perfectionism that almost never ends- until you break it yourself. In sequential art, the first thing you do will always be the worst- and it's okay. You improve on the way, and that's amazing! That final shot of your work, after a few weeks or even years will be the best of yours, until you make better. That's how art and humans work, you just get better as time and practise stacks up. Just sit back, work on it, and enjoy the ride! 5) Do some sneak-peeks. Tell everyone about your short. Be proud of it! During the production, I regularly shared my progress for the week or even for the day. Before the release, I had a few posters and sneak-peaks to hyped up everyone for the real deal. A year is quite a long time for working, which doesn't help with the short attention span of today's world. Although probably not every day, share something once in a while. Take your companions/followers on this journey as well. Have an official day to release and share some things about it the weeks prior to that. It can be concept art, some finished shots (not the absolute bests- keep them as surprises!) talk about the process, make some character posters... Sky is the limit and people love it! Also, don't forget to remind everyone about the dates, at least on a weekly basis. It's your child, and everyone should watch it! Be a proud mom/dad/whatever you prefer, and share your work to the world! 6) Everything starts with a first step. Take it. Start of everything is a bit scary. You want to make everything perfect. But what if you fail and nobody watches?! But you only started to learn, like, two months ago?! These are all legit concerns. Art is already a risky arena. There are many horror stories, of starving artists or now-very famous painters and musicians dying with no fame. But then, why not do what you eventually want to do? Sure, maybe your skills are not enough to do the end goal. I personally would be delighted to make things I have on my list! Thus, do a test run! Have smaller scope, start it small, but as quality and well-made as your dream one. Many things will go wrong, you will be confused at times. But through the challenges, you will rise as a stronger, better creator. So, what's next for this funky Aegean?After the release, many people asked if this thing could become a series.
And I say yes! Just, not for another 5 years minimum lol. Yaroslavl is loosely connected to my main project set in the same historical era, Kompania! The story doesn't follow real historical figures like Hardrada, Porphyrogenitus sisters, Yaroslavl, etc. but rather six misfits from Ladoga, Trebizond, Kiev and Eurasian Steppes coming along despite differences and have tons of fun with music. Although, I do also consider if they should come hand in hand as spin-offs, related works, or come as separate works on their own. I dearly think Kompania! is a story worth telling in the current political climate, but the story of the Last Viking King is an equally fascinating one. Who knows, it all depends of plans, budgets and luck! For nearer goals, I'm taking a small break for now and focus on school for a while. There are some plans which are not set in stone yet so it's bit too early to talk about them. Though surely they will be announced and sneak-peeked accordingly when their time comes. Otherwise, I will probably do some more exercise-like shorts for my characters, mainly for Kompania! I really want you guys to meet with them, I think they are all fun peeps :) Until then, keep creating and rocking y'all. Take care \m/ Hello peeps, how is life going so far? I haven't been writing all that much since... Gods, a long time. Lot has happened. I finished my Year 1 in university and during summer, I had an amazing time going to Gobelins Summer School Animation. I went to Prague and back to my hometown and back to Norwich again. It has been super busy for sometime, with a couple of projects we did with our university and the overall school work. Speaking of animation, I am still working on my Yaroslavl animation! Since I had no means to buy TVPaint at these momens, it had a long hiatus. These days, I am almost at the end of the production stage. With that, I want to give you a bit of the process. What does the production looks like? How hard can making a 26 second animation can be? So first and foremost, the full rough sketch of the whole animation. It was to basically put everything in time, see all the inbetweens, add in all the secondary and overlapping actions, and make sure everything flows together nice and tidy. And later on, the hardest part: Cleaning up. As you see in rough animation, everything is messy. There are many parts were anatomy is inconsistent or out-of-model. Thus I decided to add another stage to make sure everything is tidy before I solidify everything in colour (and make colouring much more of a breeze). And boy, wasn't it labourous. Checking everything hundreds of times before going to next frame was not an easy task to begin with. Only easy part was probably the lining of Harald (the "minor" character in the animation) since he is standing still for the most part, for only pretty smaller scene. So I got to just lineart Harald according to his chosen style, and add his base colours in the mix, before go further with the titular character. For the labourous work that is cleaning up, I decided set a pace. I tend to overwork myself with no rest time, so I set daily goals to finish up and leave it there for the day to avoid crashing and burning in the long run- and try to use my time efficiently on the way. I keep track of those by making checklists on my way, also for the additional fixes that I might've missed or didn't changed during the first rough animation.
So, in the end, where I am at right now? It's only a matter of small shading shenanigans here and there. Then I export it, maaybe do some post-production colour corrections and grading, then... that's all! That's all I have.
Some might say "Ayy Öykü, why are you precious about... this? It's just a random scene for basically nothing!" Well, for one my pride is not allowing me to really, get rid of this. I did thought about "Girl, forget about it! Leave it as it is!" but nooo, I must! Just to feel this ephoria of accomplishing something Animation-related. And history related. Especially something lightly related to my bigger project, Kompania! related. And now that it's coming to a close, why give up? Hello everyone! Finally the veeery overdue review of Summer 2017's Made in Abyss. Now that Crunchroll Anime Awards 2017 has concluded and Made in Abyss got the "Anime of the Year", I though it's a good time to post this review. Made in Abyss is a 13-episode anime made by studio Kinema Citrus and adapted from Akihito Tsukushi's web manga by the same name. We are in an island city called Orth, which was built right at the mouth of the most peculiar place on Earth, the Abyss. It's a deep hole, home to many different ecosystems, creatures and seemingly an ancient civilisation, so deep that nobody really knows where it ends. Another reason why there's so little information about the Abyss, is this notion that is named "Curse of the Abyss". Close to the Diver's Sickness, someone can dive into the Abyss as deep as they want- but if they try to rise up, several negative symptoms arise, ranging from nausea to loss of humanity or death. Our story follows Riko, a young Abyss diver who found a robot boy who she named Reg. One day, a message has arrived from 6th layer of the Abyss (the deepest as anyone has ever gone). This is from Lyza the Annihilator, a legendary Abyss diver and Riko's mother. The message, along with some good informational notes, reads "Meet me at the depth of the Abyss". Riko sees this and we all can guess how the story goes after this incident.
With these out of the way, let's talk about the narrative first. As someone who enjoys worldbuilding and getting into a new environment, this series utilises the Abyss to its advantage. It's a very alien world, and everything about it begs to explore this endless hole. In these type of stories, one worry of everyone must the the "information dumps", where everything we need and don't need is given via a grand speech or monologue, usually sitting around in a boring setting. You can imagine how boring this is, and how quickly it cuts all the pace of the story. Also, do we really need the information about political drama about the country and the surrounding cities when we are literally in a forest with a bunch of friends trying to survive from a monster right in the beginning? Luckily, Made in Abyss doesn't make that mistake and either gives the information where you need it, or shows you the information. This show must be taught at schools for the "Show, don't tell rule", as characters explore their environment and use their skills to survive this cruel environment. Though nothing is without sins. When it comes to pacing, the anime suffers around the middle parts, although not too much to the point it flips tables. While we travel at the first few layers quite fast, we later get stuck at one specific place for around 3 episodes, then move on. Those episodes, although useful information is also recieved, was bit too dragged on and bit pointless given about the characters and the previous pace we went by. Can see the point but could've be different.
TL;DR: Beautiful anime crafted and written carefully, with a unique world and lovely characters. A must-watch for worldbuilding geeks and/or lovers of adventure with a spice of horror. Recommendation: As I said in the beginning, if you are an easily emotional person who can't stand disturbing imagery/ideas, don't touch it. If you aren't any of this and would enjoy a good adventure anime with strong narrative and beautiful art, Made in Abyss got you covered. With same ideas in mind, I'd also recommend the manga. The story that is awaiting us is so good and I simply can't wait for 2nd season to cover it (meanwhile, prepare your souls and guts- because things get real.) I'll just end this review with a piece of music from Episode 1, which play at the best place to be played. Meanwhile, the music in this anime is also phenomenal, just like everything else in this series. Now that Season 2 is announced and hope you will also enjoy it as much I did. I hope you liked this review too. Sorry for being late but better late than never. Also, I was just so happy that it got "Anime of the Year" this year, while being against Boku no Hero Academia, thus decided to power-finish the review. And don't forget to put in the comments; have you watched Made in Abyss? What did you think? (But also give no spoilers- or at least, give them in a concealed way, y'know?) Have a good day and enjoy! Hey everyone, how is it going? New Year has passed, Chios was nice and I'm back to working on school work. You can follow what I do for school in my Uni blog. But today I want to talk about what I do other than school stuff. I kinda consider it my first step to my dream project Kompania!, setting in 1040s Constantinople/Istanbul, and a homage to one of my favourite bands (and the one who started it all) Turisas. So the film is titled Yaroslavl. For some starters info, it's setting in 1040s Kiev, during Yaroslavl the Wise's reign. And yes, that Yaroslavl is the Yaroslavl you see in the film! The specific time frame of 1040s is also not out of random, as the timeframe set for the story is when the "Last Viking King" Harald Sigurdsson/Hardrada was on exile in Kievan Russia, and was travelling to Constantinople to be a Varangian Guard, a special unit in Byzantine Army made out of Vikings, Russians & Baltics, and later Danes, Anglo-Saxons and even Wallachians. This scene was based on the middle part of Turisas' song Five Hundred and One. In my interpretation, this would be the part were Harald finally sets off to the highly-rumoured, legendary Miklagard, aka Constantinople. I thought the lyrics spoken and sung in that part sounded something that Yaroslavl might've said to young Harald. And that's how I came up with the idea! This is basically the end product of what I did in... a month or so (with 2 weeks of break because I was back home for winter break) I know for so many people might say; "Wow Öykü, you work on this for a month and it's so... unfinished? It's all a sketch and even the anatomy is inconsistent!! What happened? You got lazy?" Welp, to this small thought, I answer: Welcome to the land of animation! It's the magical land where something exceeds 10 seconds, can be considered as an instant kudos (and TVPaint starts to get crazy). To see what I mean, let's go through the rabbithole together. This is were it all starts, the planning. It's the usual things; character design, background research and storyboarding. As the animation has sound and music, I also had to time my thing to connect the visuals. That's pretty much how I approached the storyboarding, by calculating the times where the words are sung and fit the visuals accordingly. Once I was happy with it, I basically put them in TVPaint and started to detail the movement with in basic stops and (or in fancy words, "keyframing"). Meanwhile, I did some research on Russian architecture and studies a few wood buildings to come up with the background. While I was doing the keyframes, I worked on my background. And I present thee, dear viewer, my first 3D model ever! As backgrounds and perspective is not my strongest suit, I thought a 3D model would help me to achieve a consistent background. I made the model on Maya and rendered the scenes I wanted. I could add texture and colour in Maya but... It was my first time and it was already herectic to build the model anyway so I decided to add the colour on my trusted Photoshop and repainted on top of the model. Now this not only helped with my first thought, but also cut down the work load significantly! Just tried to imagine how much I'd struggle with the perspective and everything, but here we are. A solid background with proper Kievan Russian look. After rendering the main scenes, the part came to do some challenges: turning cameras. Now, I can't describe the hardships on how I came to approach it but in a nutshell, I basically made a 'keyframed' sequence out of the main scenes then tried to mesh them in TVPaint, to later take screenshots and remake them in Photoshop with the raw renders. Later, I put all of them in TVPaint and boom, an animated background! Now, background is only one aspect. How about the actual juice, the characters?! Of course, they won't stay as keyframes forever. Otherwise the animation would look janky. To see what I mean, here's two clips rendered in a week apart from each other. Now, it's a process we call "inbetweening". Basically, you just add new frames between the keyframes to smooth the movement. How you can approach this, it's up to you, on how you want the movement to be; fast, slow, long, short, list goes on. Meanwhile, I tried to add some secondary action (ex: clothes movement) to enchant the main actions and make the animation more realistic. I wasn't sure on what sort of style I should go with these two. My general idea for Kompania! is that it's a combination of styles depending on where the character comes from, to represent the diverse cast. Yet, it's how it is on paper- on practice, things sometimes don't go so well. Thus, I made some colouring styles and tried them on a screenshot of the film. (I admit, I was inspired by The Banner Saga's style when I was thinking for Harald's lineart look) The shadowing still needs some work but overall, I'm confident about the mesh of different styles. Right now, I'm making size/anatomy checks on the characters before I add any sort of colour in the mix. Hopefully the final product will look good with full on lines and (finally) fully opaque background! Even I am excited for that :D So here it is, Just a peek behind the scenes on what I've been up to in addition to school work. I'm still cleaning up my review for Made in Abyss but it's been slow- while new anime has been coming up. It shall come soon. Soon.
Meanwhile, hope you are doing good everyone! Thank you for reading and let me know what you think so far about Yaroslavl. How is my depiction of such historical figures? Does the style mixing look good? Write all your feelings down in the comments below. Until next time, have a good day and keep rocking! Hello everyone! How is life going? I know, I haven't been writing for a while now. University basically started out crazy: Getting a visa, journey, settling in, meeting people, course, deadlines... It all went so fast! Now that everything is getting cool-off after the first deadline, time to write about what I am doing so far! Overall, I'm really enjoying Norwich. It's a small-yet-big-enough city to live in peacefully, yet never be bored. There's always something to do and something to explore everyday. There are cafes, markets, museums and churches, two nice cinemas (one is more "popular" stuff while the other is more "indie"), bars, pubs, parties (not that I go to, but it's there!) and more! Also, it's a city full of small details. The uni life has been good so far. Quite a bit of work but what can you do if you never done Animation yet become a decent one in around 3 years? Welp, there we go. I'm really enjoying it though, it's really excited to see your drawings literally move! By the way, if you want to check out some of my progress, hop into my Tumblr, specifically for school work! Link is also available on the "Contact" tap on the top: https://oykusubaskinnua.tumblr.com/ On another note, I went to a trip to Cambridge with my friends, done for the international students. It was an enjoyable trip. We went to bunting on Cam River (I got mindblown how Cambridge name came from. English.) then we visited Fitzwilliam Museum, an art museum full of cool stuff (including ceramic art from Bursa and Kütahya of Turkey?!?! Woaah.) And once we came back, we went to Nando's for dinner with my girls- yes, that Nando's. The cheeky Nando's. We hit the goal people. We truly settled in the heart of Imperialism. (But really, it was good chicken but damn, never knew it was this expensive. Urgh.) On the obligatory nerd side of things, not too much. I went to Blade Runner 2049 and Justice League recently. My ideas are "crazy good cinematography but meh, original was better." and "It was OK- wasn't mindblowing but fun and DC really stepped up its game after WW." respectively. I'm reading The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin on paper and Wolf Winter by Cecilia Ekback on my phone- I've been neglecting them due to deadlines, but been slowly picking them up. For anime, I only watched Made in Abyss last season and this season, I'm watching Mahoutsukai no Yome and Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou. I plan to do a review on Made in Abyss, since it was really good in story, art and world-building parts. So, that's all for now folks! I still try my best to keep posting things, at every social media. Recently, I've been picking up my projects after the uni work, so a lot of hoarding sources from our library, draw concepts and picking up drawing again! There's already a new illustration on my "Gallery" at the top and a timelapse of it on my Youtube!
So yeah, thank you for reading everyone, and have a good day! See you soon on another post.
To make an intro, Metro 2034 is the second book from the post-apocalyptic Metro series written by Russian writer, Dmitry Glukhovsky. The series' premise is simple: World War III has happened, nuclear war had destroyed everything and humans are now living underground, usually in metros or subways as some might call it. Our story sets in the Moscow Metro and in the first book, Metro 2033, we are following the story of Artyom, a random Metro dweller and his journey to save his home. I thought the first book was amazing, I still remember how much I fangirled about it (and I still love it, it's a good one!) So naturally, I had some expectations prior to reading the second book, contrary to the first one which I took purely for the lolz and thinking it was just gotta be bland, too-popular-for-its'-quality book (and oh joy, how wrong I was) Too sad that 2033 raised my expectations to high because boy, this one was a hot mess. *** WARNING: I might get into slight spoilers, so be aware when you are reading *** So for the sake of exploration, we are switching to a totally different part of Metro. Story is similar; our characters (Nikolay "Homer" Nikolayevitch, Ahmed and Hunter from the last book) go on an adventure to see what's wrong in a close-by station and seek solutions. Meanwhile, we meet a girl called Sasha and her father, who is in the brink of dying due to radiation and old age. They come together after sometime and plot goes on. The difference with this book from 2033, is that this one is less about action and more about the philosophical ideas and motivational conflicts between vastly different characters. And right here, the Hel breaks loose for us reader. Don't get me wrong, I like stories with philosophical elements and disturbed characters in it, in every media! Even Metro 2033 was pretty solid with inner character conflicts and some thought-provoking lines, although the focus was mostly on the action and the journey of Artyom. Not to mention the minor characters that we meet on the way, which to me was one of the strongest points of the book. We meet so many characters on the way, see them pretty briefly and go on. Yet, they really stay with you, and sometimes with Artyom too. They help Artyom to push through his quest to save his home station and Metro. These aspects made the first book a lot different and better than I realized. In this book, Glukhovsky tries to drive the story more around with conflicts coming from the main three characters' motivations. Yet, the problem starts here- you don't care about any of them. Especially Sasha in particular had so... I don't know how to word it. Her motivation just didn't made any sense and thus, didn't drive the story anywhere (except "explore" a different legend of Moscow Metro? I say "explore" because apparently it was a whole lie all the way) (Speaking of lying, we also meet a character called Leonid and.. he was interesting for a bit, but then you realize how pointless he is. Like.. why we even spent so much time with him??? Why he became so important??? Couldn't he be a simple minor character to go on with???) The rest of the cast just took too much time to realize. Homer takes a lot of time with his past, so many philosophical thoughts and what to do with his craft, while Hunter... I still have doubts on it. I mean, without any spoilers and shortly, Hunter has an inner conflict to the point that he has two characteristics.... what characteristics? Maybe I missed it but I never distinctly realized the difference of characters in it. Also, even with less action and more thinking, the philosophy doesn't add much to the story. As we do not care much for the characters, the thought-provoking lines related to them doesn't hit hard as much as it should. Also, as I mentioned before, I read half of the book with a confusing mind, which didn't help me connecting with the characters. I have no idea why it happened. Was this book just too smart for me? Or was the translation was so bad? Or simply the writing wasn't good? Everything was so confusing unless it was bit more explained- yet then you realize it doesn't make sense! TL;DR: Pretty disappointing sequel to a good post-apocalyptic book. Confusing first half, boring and pointless characters, what is motivation even, sad Uni deciding to give this a 4/10, those points coming from my love from 2033 and some good lines here and there. Recommendation: Skippable, doesn't add much to the story, at least for someone who haven't read Metro 2035 (recently came out in Turkish, shall check it out once I get to read the books in hand atm) And that's all for now, folks! Hope you enjoyed this review. Tell me what you think. Do you think these reviews are good? Have you read Metro 2034 or any Metro books, by Glukhovsky or other authors from the Universium? Waiting for the comments you have :)
Take care and have a good day people \m/ Hello people, your Unistonen here. July is slowly ending, the Smyrnian heat is killing and I've been mostly... sleeping. Or not. Or rather, trying to. I recently started to have a weird version of sleeplessness. I sleep at around 5 am to only be fully awake around 1-3pm, not because I play Assassin's Creed til midnight (actually, I should maybe but I don't) but like laying down and just stay there. Hopefully driving lessons had fixed that to sleeping on 1-3 am, which is better than nothing. And, I mean, it's fine if I was doing something but I AM NOT. Due to this ever-exhausted state fused with still-undergoing artist depression, I seem to not doing much- and this drives me craaaazy QAQ Maybe it shouldn't do that? Maybe I really need a break, before university begins? Or at least month of July meant to be that? But then what, what shall I do with the ever-growing and ever-increasing projects? What shall I be doing? Do I work too much? Am I making things too dramatic than it should?! (Maybe that's the reason why I can't sleep. Overthinking is a bitch) Other than that, I've done my application process and just waiting my sweet student visa. Looks easy yet so tiring. And no, of course paperwork is amazingly fun, who said I hate it, where did that come from? Such lies... Not only that, but I'm also doing lessons to get my driver's licence. It's been pretty exciting (!) for me, between all the cars and trying to not die and such... Uuuuuurgh, we will see. I'll try. The goal is to be able to drive those trucks in international roads. Yes. kill meeee Despite all the insomniac unmotivation, I got to kickstart a project- at least, start working on it. I still not reveal it for a while as I (try to) write the detailed dialogues and draw more pages. Right now, I have a vague outline of 15 chapters, detailed dialogue for the first 3 chapters (4th on the way) and thumbnails for the first 2 chapters- and a finished page!! ... ... which needs some fixes. Just to make myself feel less trash. I also have a cover, which also needs some minor fixes to make it look better. I also make a lot of studies on Turkic-Mongolian art and style tries, which will be more important as comic progresses... If I can ever make it. Other than that, what I've been up to? Well, I actually bought some new games from the Steam Summer sale, two bought and two gifted. The Banner Saga seemed interesting enough with the Viking-inspired strategy game premise with cool art. And of course, Assassin's Creed II. Man, after playing the first one I really wanted that game for so long, especially with my already-read-too-much knowledge on Ezio's story BUT... unmotivation stoke... Oh, and two Metro games as a bundle was gifted by my friend. Thanks bro! And as you know, the new season of anime has started! I finished Attack on Titan's 2nd season (after 4 years, YEAAH) and I really enjoyed it with a better, tense atmosphere and a more polished look. Yet, did we really had to wait 4 years with this much material in the manga? Really? Hopefully season 3 will change that. Two animes I watch this season are Shoukoku no Altair and Made in Abyss. I was pretty excited for Altair since manga was pretty good and, as a history nerd, the Ottoman vibe helped quite a bit.... Yet, now I fear if this is going to be another Arslan Senki incident with an annoying main, blant supports and... extremely predictable at some point? Arslan Senki was pretty boring to the point that I just dropped it, right when a "revelation" part arrived, which (as a watcher for so long now) really made me guess the whole plot after that point... and I was 90% right, with some minor things just to "keep story fresh, jajaja". We shall see if Altair will end up the same. Made in Abyss seems like the 'gem' of this season, more different and not going to be the popular one. The art style is sweet, concept looks interesting yet simple enough for a relaxing summer anime. Good stuff while waiting for Game of Thrones every week *not-so-patient-noises* SPEAKING OF WATCHING GOOD STUFF, I got to watch (and re-watch) the recent Netflix adaptation of Castlevania. And oh boy, wasn't that good.
Not only the art & animation was gorgeous, the characterizations were pretty solid and the underlying themes (corruption of church, loss of loved one, sheepish/ignorant folk, a good amount of gore...) made such a simple story an interesting one. I even started to feel more for the "villian", Dracula! He has the every right to be pissed, man, I'd do the same tbh. Now, of course it's not all perfect but most of the problems I have (little rushed ending and dialogues) ties into one main one: This series is only 4 episodes. And it's basically Netflix testing waters?? Happily, second season is coming with 8 episodes, hopefully be able to flesh out the lore and characters more naturally. Yet, even with 4 episodes it won my heart and recommend it to everyone! Go watch while you are waiting for Game of Thrones, it will only take you 1,5 hours most. No regrets. Gogogo! And that's all folks! Now I go back to my cave to watch Game of Thrones, waiting for my visa and going to Nolan's Dunkirk soon enough. Stay safe and have a good day! \m/ Hey people, your Unistonen here again. The time flew so fast and it's already the end of the month of June! How crazy is this? For me, this month was all about resettling into Turkish life after 10 months of America- only to fly to UK in, what, 1,5 months? I recently received a reply from accommodation, so that's kinda outta way. I have a roof to stay and that's already good news. Now, we are slowly creeping into the more juicier parts- The paperwork. I spent around an hour looking around the mails sent by the school UK Visas & Immigrations site in order to determine what documents are needed, because missing even a small thing can change the course. Or at least I'm paranoid enough to think like that. Other than that... I've been just wandering around the city, seeing my relatives and friends, with all the Ramadan and graduation jazz. Yep, my other exchanger friend and I also had our Turkish graduation... Well, more like a "capless graduation", as apparently we were "already graduated" from our countries of exchange and we suddenly became "guests". Which is understandable, leaving in the senior year and such. Just... it felt weird. We weren't able to throw a cap with these guys. And I felt hollow with the fact that we suddenly got erased from name lists, our names missing from the Graduate Wall... But then, the question is "Well, why did you leave?" and answers just don't sounds socially acceptable. Anyhow, my diploma is finally coming from LA, after getting equivalent lessons and other paperwork, I got accepted to NUA and that's all that matters now. Time to move on.
And that's basically it, folks! Just a snippet from life after exchange. What, you expected something super emotional and phrase everything about America? Wrong blog, friends.
Stay hydrated and rock on \m/ PS: I've been listening too much Turisas & The Prince of Egypt Soundtrack. Now I just wanna rewatch the movie and then go to Istanbul on a ship, running around with a Varangian armour. Do I ask too much? I think not. And no, of course I don't have a mixed music taste, where did that idea came from? Hey people, how is stuff going? To me, it's been pretty good. The summer is here, the wind is blowing nicely, shorts are out and I'm finally done with high school. Yes, I recently graduated from high school- well, partially. I still have to obtain my real diploma from Turkish Ministry of Education, send paperwork to there, vice versa. I also have another graduation party when I get back, hopefully with a real, solid diploma to say "Yeah, this gal is officially out." It's funny how we are so tied to pieces of paper, am I right? Speaking of getting back, this is my final week of USA! I will be back in 14th of June, after 19 hours of flights in the same destination (2 hours less, ey) Doesn't time fly fast?! Meanwhile, I've been just chilling here and there. We recently had a trip to Duluth, MN right next to Lake Superior on Memorial Day. It was a fun, relaxing visit. I really like the town, a real industrial port city. And Lake Superior was literally like a sea, it was crazy. Even our Lake Van is (probably) not that big! :O To be honest, that trip helped me to fuel my energy for a bit, with the nice nature and calm silence. I'm still in the process of healing, at least in the painting field. I still sketch and such but then it comes to bigger pieces, I just feel... discouraged. I don't know why, maybe it was the herectic college app process, the things that I hit or missed, or my muses are betraying me. have no idea, but it's not a time to complain. University is ahead and I need to find myself again to stand up and prepare for the university life ahead, as now I gotta be studying Art (and Animation) there will be a lot of drawing. I have to be ready for the intense arting. I must.
MEANWHILE, I did saw Wonder Woman right before graduation and holy gods, wasn't that a good movie? Like DC made an actually good movie? I was impressed and found myself fangirling half of the time. It was not only badass but also well-written with loads of commentary on humanity and ideologies surrounding it. Totally recommend my dears!
Aaand that's all folks! Have an awesome rest of the week and hopefully... see you back in That-Bridge-Country! Take care \m/ |
"Not all those who wander are lost."
- J.R.R. Tolkien |