More Mistakes in Yuru Yuri.

Sakurako makes a map to her house. Presumably for Chinatsu.

So why does Akari have the map later on? She's been to Sakurako's house before.

On top of that her house is completely different than before.

Now take another look at that map, then look at Sakurako's houses.

Anime Mine: Kureha Tsubaki 1.

Furry Doll Maker: The Foxgirls April and Bonnie.

In what seems my never ending quest to find lost sprite art I come across all sorts of things.
Like the Furry Doll Maker by geN8hedgehog.

    

I finally get to see some of my characters in a form other than sprite. I must admit I have pipe dreamed about getting fan art.

Since I'll never get any, I'll make my own.

Included in that account is the Anime Face Maker.

Toki and Jessica anime style. Wow.

Missed Mistakes in Yuru Yuri.

How did I ever not notice these the first hundred times I watched Yuru Yuri?

In the first screen cap we see that Chitose, Akari, Chinatsu, and Sakurako are wearing old type style school swimsuits. In the amount of time it took to switch cameras they must have ran back to the dressing rooms and changed into new type swim suits.

Did Kyouko take her North Korean Flag wrist band off to dance around? Then put it back on a second later? Why did I miss these so painfully obvious mistakes before? My guess is that I'm reading the subtitles while all this is going on. That's one of the reasons why I prefer dubbed anime. Then again would I want to listen to hours of names being mispronounced? A-kar-ree. Kee-o-ko. Chee-nots. Sa-kur-ra-ko. Hee-ma-war-ree.

Anime Mine: Liz Thompson 2.

Japan is as schizo over censorship as America.

In this video you often here the narrator lament about how Nintendo censors video games coming over from Japan. What is never explained is why North America, more specifically the United States tends to be more conservative than the rest of the world (it seems.)

It goes back to who it was that settled America in the 15 and 1600's. Starting in the 1500's you had the Protestant Reformation. From what I understand is that an ever growing number of people grew tired of the excesses of the Catholic Church and wanted to go back to more simpler ways to worship. Like the Christians 1500 years earlier who were persecuted by the dominant Roman religion and state the newly formed Protestants were also persecuted. Groups of people had had enough of this and decided to make a go of it in the new world.

All these Protestants, Pilgrims, and Puritans came here to America to worship as they saw fit without being too interfered from the homeland. Now keep in mind these are people who were to uptight for even England. They wanted freedom of religion for themselves, not for anybody else that had some different ideas on how to pray to God. They were just as vicious as the Church and the states they fled from. (What was it that Jesus called people like that?)

(One, two, skip a few, 99, 100.)

Now back to the title of this post.

With two screen shots of a very popular anime (and one of my favorites,) Yuru Yuri I shall prove my point. (How popular is it? You can by the soundtracks on the American iTunes.)

Why tuck, fold, and constantly change the length of a skirt if she is wearing shorts underneath?  I do thank the animators of Yuru Yuri for NOT ever giving us a constant stream of panty shots of 13 year old girls.

In an aside, I do know that Yuru Yuri is a satire on the yuri genre, but was it ever really necessary to have a woman wear her sister's underwear on her head?

(One of my favorite voice actresses, too.)

Anime Mine: Kotone Noda 1.

Two Years Ago, or More Precisely...

In 2002 I was visiting one of my favorite stores the Anime Cafe to pick up some manga and ironically enough anime, when one of the clerks told me to look at this:

My introduction to sprite comics made from graphics ripped from games. I had never heard of this but I was immediately hooked. I had to know where these came from. Up to that point all I was doing was fanfiction in the hopes that one day I would get MiSTed. I had always wanted to do comics based on my favorite video games like Mega Man and Final Fantasy. Maybe even mix in my favorite anime like Tenchi Muyo and Sailor Moon.

Sprites opened up a whole new universe for me. I can now do the stories I always wanted to do but couldn't because of my total inability to draw. First I had to find where all these sprites came from. After many an MSN search. (Google wasn't much of a factor then.) Following links and suggestions on forums I found myself here:

Panelmonkey.org, The People's Sprites. I was in heaven. All those game rip and public domain sprites all for my use. They even had the legendary Dr. Wily sprite made by Deccus.

From 2002 to 2009 it was my number one place to go for sprites. 2009. We all know what happened. I don't need to get into it because I know about as much as you do.

I started making a daily pilgrimage to The People's Sprites that soon turned into every other day. Then once a week. Every other week. Once a month. Every other month. To about a couple times a year. Finally when ever I saw a link on someone's site I happen to come across.

In May of 2014 I was raiding the Internet Archive for sprites from dead sites to include in my sprite site, The Sprite Cemetery. I was on The People's Sprites trying to figure out how to mass download all the sprites when it occurred to me, I should check to see if panlemonkey.org is back. It wasn't, but this ad from GoDaddy was there:

(Oh how I despise GoDaddy. That's a story for another time.)

I couldn't resist so I looked into it. You can get a free account. That's a good selling point. It hooked me. To hire a negotiator was $70. There's a lot I could do with seventy dollars. That's a mighty fine couple or pizzas or five gallons of gas. I thought “What the hell, why not? The opportunity is too great to pass up. Think about all those sites still linked to panelmonkey.org. All that SEO could be mine. What's the worse that could happen? The owner says no and I'm out $70.”

After a week or so I get an email from GoDaddy saying there hasn't been a response and they are trying again. A few weeks later with no response I pretty much gave up.

Anime Mine: Liz Thompson 1.

Turn a Video into an Animated Gif.

Programs you must have:

GIMP- GNU Image Manipulation Program

https://www.gimp.org/downloads/

GAP- Gimp Animation Package

http://photocomix-resources.deviantart.com/art/GAP-2-6-for-Gimp-2-6-Windows-135464357

Additional programs you may want:

DVD Ripping software of your choice. (I prefer DVD Shrink.)

Freemake Video Convertor.

Export Layers plugin for GIMP

http://registry.gimp.org/node/28268

A GIF making program you like. Gimp does the job, but I like JASC Animation Shop better.

 

I have been working on the self inflicted wound that is Anime Mine for a couple of years now. I've grown fond of making animated GIFs instead of just posting stills. (They sometimes get a like.) For an upcoming post I want to show case a moving image of Tamami from Angel Tales.

 

Normally I would use VLC and take snapshots every frame. This is exceptionally tedious. Unfortunately I have yet to find a program that can easily make an animated GIF from video, or just extract the frames I need. I have found a process that is long, almost as tedious as VLC, in fact can be very frustrating, but does work.

 

I already have the DVDs ripped. Now to import the episode to Freemake Video Converter to isolate the exact scene that I want. You only want to deal with the frames you need, not the tens of thousands that will be made if you don't edit it down.

Drag and drop the episode into Freemake and click the scissors to the left.

 

 

Now we have the video editor. For expediency I won't go through all the controls. In fact I'll skip to the scene.

 

 

Now to import to GIMP.

Click on Video and then Split Video into Frames. Next click on Extract Videorange.

 

 

 

That will pop out and extended view. Take the slider marked in red and slide it all the way to the right. Then don't touch anything else on the right side. It's buggy and will mess up if you do. Under the slider is a number. That is how many frames are in this clip. You need to input that number in the "To Frame" box. Next check "Create only one multilayer Image." Then click okay.

 

I don't really like the way animated GIFs look when made with GIMP, so I'll export all the layers as separate images. Go to File and Export Layers, click the button oddly named “Export Layers,” take the slider for Compression level to zero and hit export.

 

(Looks like a bad frame, now is a good time to take it out.)

 

Now I will fire up JASC Animation Shop to make the animated GIF, but this has gone on long enough and I'll save that tutorial for another time.

Not so fast.

I guess I still have a few things on my chest. Stay tuned.

The Grand Experiment Finally...

...Comes to an end. You've seen this before. When someone quits doing whatever is they are doing  one of many reasons are given. Mine is a little different, I got it out of my system. I'm all talked out. Sure there are tons of stuff I never got around to saying, but that can keep by me. I've said what I've needed to say, I don't need to say much more.

I'm not abandoning the blog. I will check in once in awhile to see how things are going. Respond to a comment that might come in once, maybe twice a year.

I'm still going to occupy my own little corner way down in the deepest, darkest, dankest, dorkest parts of the internet. Ravy Comics is going nowhere anytime soon. I've begun production on the 2015 run of comics. No idea where that's going to take me.

I did get a couple of things out of this. I think my writing has improved. I think about what is I'm trying to say, what I need to say, what I want to say, think twice and thrice about actually saying it. Search Engine Optimization is the other big lesson I learned. I can talk about whatever I want, but if I want people coming to my sites, well, I think I need to talk more about Rosenkreuzstilette, Rosario Vampire, Zook the Hero Z, and Discworld Noir. Thanks to them for all the inadvertent SEO.

Thank you to all that came here for the reasons that you did. 

Remember: Spill chucks wont cats gamma.

Unofficial Official Ravy Comics Theme Song.

Unofficial Official Ravy Comics Online Blog Theme Song.

(Caution: There's A LOT of cursing in this.)

Penelope: What's With This "We" Crap?

Penelope: LOVEY-DOVIES!

Penelope: For First Time Ever, Character Introductions.

Names are just as needlessly complicated as everything else I do for this comic.
Op (Opus) Stone, Toni (Tanya) Ursela Conner Bell, Steven Paige Stone, Nancy Annabell Stone,
David Allen Bell, Penny (Penelope) Quincy Conner Bell, and Dallas Austin Bell.

Penelope: Attempted Revival of Old Catch Phrases.

When I introduced little Nancy as a character one of her traits was to say "Kinky" when ever she saw an adult doing anything "kinky." That only lasted a couple of comics. As did its revival here.

Penelope: What Has His Attenion?

There is a reason why I'm posting these comics in the order that I am.
When you scroll back through the blog, they'll come up in order.

Penelope: Little Too Competitious.

I have this running gag of Op and Penny getting caught by their spouses in compromising situations.

Penelope: We Don't Need No Stinking Fourth Wall.

The really sad part is I make these things sober.

Veterans Day 2013.

Penelope: Angels Use Quantum Leap Logic?

A friend of mine wrote a long time ago now that if you support furries you support bestiality. I wrote back that it is sad that .000000000000000001% define a whole group. In fact most "furries" are really people that have a little too much affection for their pets. Then again, what if the pets are birds? Featheries? Or how about reptiles? Scalies?

Penelope: Colorful Commentary.

Trust me, it is totally coincidental that this comic I made over a year ago and set up for publication three months ago would show up in the same week that John Cena got wacked repeatedly with a chair. Speaking of which, John Cena has an interesting history concerning the Money in the Bank. He has the most cash ins against him at three, the only guy to cash in and win but not get the title, and the only champion to win the match.

I'll admit that Penny is a fan of wrestling because I am. We both believe that wrestling is real. And that when John Cena wacks Randy Orton with a chair, it was really in the script. In other news: I have an audio clip of Randy Orton talking about "Randy Orton Fanfics." From what he described makes me NOT want to investigate any further. For fear of the dreaded tentacle lemon.

Penelope: Twin Twist.

This is a comic that really could be helped with a sound effect. YouTube would scrunch the comic down and create a giant letterbox all the way around. iDevices and an increasing number number of Android devices don't support Flash. Hell, Adobe is dumping flash. To use HTML5 video I would need to upload three formats to my site and there is always the risk I will forget what the videos was for and delete or move them causing a broken link. That really isn't such a big deal seeing as how only a couple of people will ever see this comic anyway.

Penelope: New Kids Old Tricks.

I know you can't really make that sound through clothing,
but I have to do the best with the debilities I have been given.

Penelope: What You Wish For.

I brought this background out of retirement for this joke because the new one wouldn't have worked.

Penelope: On His Honor.

I've always found it odd that the court clerk is standing in the witness box.

Penelope: Op Stone: Man in Black.

According to Google Translate there are two ways to spell fox in German.
I, of course, go with the more fun one.

Penelope: Fun with German Phonetics.

In Deutsch "chs" makes an "x" sound. I guess. I'm totally reliant on what I get from Google Translate.

Penelope: The Bill Colectors Don't Believe Me When I Tell Them That.

One of the tricks I use to make little Nancy look more like a child is to give her a head that is bigger in proportion to her body. In fact look close, it is the same size as the Angel's.

Patriot Day 2013.

Penelope: I Really HATE That Guy.

I often get the news nuggets for this comic from Bob and Tom. As Kristi Lee reads I am praying that no one in the studio says the jokes that come to my mind. Once in awhile I come up with one they don't.

Penelope: Muddy Bee.

I have pretty much adopted the "Spiritia Rosenberg" look for young Penny.

Penelope: Rare Sock Moment.

Penelope: Age Does NOT Mean Learning Anything.

Something I tried hard to do when I brought both Becky and Toni into the comic as twins was to NOT have them be identically repainted Megamen with boobs. I made subtle design changes from one to another. At first Becky only wore skirts and Toni only wore pants. Then I worked hard on personalities. Becky is such an otaku she dresses up as a Japanese school girl as her normal outfit and Toni wears a sensible ensemble. They have undergone such evolutions that yes they are based off of the same character model, but I have to remind once in a while myself that they are identical twin sisters.

By the way: NEVER call them "Bell Twins." They hate that.

Penelope: DNA Realizations.