Post #201: The Making of Post #200

Making the stop motion version of The World God Only Knows opening is no easy task, but ever since I saw the first episode, I was touched. It's such a great episode and the rest of the show were great too! So I really wanted to do something for it.

The first task was making a replica of the first picture of this post. Getting all of the figma I had wasn't really enough. I tried not to put the same character variation in this picture, but Saber was different enough to be placed twice :P There were even a few figma I haven't even opened yet and opened for the first time. A total of 23 figma were used in this picture. The figma's weren't enough though, so I used a couple of Revoltech Fraulein from Queen's Blade to fill in the empty spots.

This is the print-out I used to put the figmas and Revoltech in the right poses. I had to put the sticky notes to make sure I remember which figure goes in which position ^^;

So then the next part was deciding who would be Elsie. The first choice was a figma with a broom. So that would be Reimu or Marisa, and I have neither. I was going to get a Reimu from Mandarake, but was sold out when I got the order in. So who? Who can I use for Elsie?? And then I realized I have a Yoko Revoltech Fraulein... But why Yoko?

Well, let Yakuri's drawing show you why! And no, I didn't force her to draw this against her will....... Umm... Yeah, I did request this drawing with Elsie and Yoko to show their similarities, but really, I didn't force it on her ^^;; Ok, maybe a little... But anyway, the result looks great! Elsie looks uber cute! And Yoko got her big oppai XD Hehe and Yaku got them pointing at their skull hair accessories! Not only that, but they both have ponytails and each have pink thigh highs. Thank you very much Yaku!

Unfortunately Yoko doesn't have a broom... But she's got big guns! Umm... I mean, a big rifle. Y'know, her big rifle that she uses? Ah never mind, you see it in the picture anyway.

One of the hardest thing to do for me with stop motion would be the spinning part... Thankfully the newly bought Lightning Base I got is able to rotate Yoko in place for the camera!

Speaking of the Lightning Base, I used it as the central piece of the multiple figma picture. The original picture was similar to this, so I bought one. Plus I like blue!

As for Ayumi, Mio, Kanon and Shiori, I used these 4... Haruhi is Ayumi, Kagami is Mio, Cute is Kanon and uhh... Mio is Shiori. Yeah, well, the Mio figma doesn't have twin tails to be the actual Mio, ok? I had to use Cute because she is actually designed by Watanabe Akio, who is also the designer for The World God Only Knows.

Miku is mami'd... Mostly just because I need her hand for the 4 girls' hands. The other ones were Ritsu, waitress Mikuru and Sun Seto.

The next part was to do a rotation of the PSP... This was a challenge because I've put the original KamiNomi opening in the PSP for a reference, especially to see how the PSP rotates in the opening. So I took a few angles of the PSP and compiled it in Photoshop and hopefully I can cheat the rotation and spinning of the original PFP ^^; The end product didn't look too bad, I thought.

I've picked Kyon to replace Keima because... well, he's one of the only male figma I have. He also has similar hairstyles and at least he's wearing a uniform. Oh and this scene I added the Revoltech and figma logo as well. If you've seen the original, this part would say three-dimension and two-dimension in the street signs. I wanted to have that kind of similarities on mine. But for some reason I couldn't center the logos properly ^^;

When I redo this video, I'll replace Kyon with someone else ;)

Other backgrounds in the video includes this really nice front yard of a house in my neighbourhood. I wouldn't have noticed this house if I wasn't looking around to find backgrounds for this project.

This is a park near my house. Not all the trees have their leaves yet since it's still early March and still pretty cold outside.

This is one of my favourite anime/manga stores in Vancouver, SakuraMedia. There was that one part in the opening where a manga/book store was a background, so I asked the manager (whom I knew quite well) if I can take a picture. It's a very generic shot, but I just wanted the bookshelves, so he lets me ^^

Here are some stats for the record:

• About 24 hours of photo editing, if I did it all without stopping, distractions, sleep, work...
• About 2-3 hours of video editing... Easier than I thought.
• 247 individual frames
• The first 35 seconds were from the original opening
• The title at the end is from Windows Live Movie Maker
• Total of 29 figmas, 3 Fraulein Revoltechs, 1 Bandai Lightning Base and 1 PSP were used

And yes, I did mention that I will redo this with different variations. Hopefully an actual stop motion in the beginning instead of using the original clip and improved animation for some of them. Below are the original video and my video if you'd like to see a comparison. Thank you for reading/watching/viewing my 200th & 201st post! A special thank you to Yaku for that Elsie & Yoko art!

Oh, and I apologize for the cryptic 200th post ^^; I was posting the lyrics to the full version of the opening song. The bold text was something I felt when I was making this project.

Yuri Mania 36

Gokigenyou! As some of you may have seen on Figure.FM, this picture drawn by Yakuri_Moe got lots of attention in the 100th Weekly Lily. It's got quite a story behind it actually.


Yaku approached me weeks before it was time for #100 to see if she can contribute any drawing for it. I was ecstatic, but I had no idea at the time what kind of picture I'm looking for. After a few minutes I had an image of Mugi fantasizing about Saber and Haruhi in a yuri relationship where Saber is the top.

Fast forward on the night I was going to post #100, I gave the idea that's in my head to Yaku and she quickly drew, scanned, outlined everything so fast that I wasn't even ready for it. Some days your body just can't be ready for anything... When I opened the picture... I. LAUGHED. SO. HARD! Not only did the image in my mind came to life, but it exceeded my expectation! It's almost like Yaku was reading my mind and traced the image from my head and put her own twist into it xD I just loved all the faces in the art!

So that was about 3-4 weeks ago... And now it's been 2 years since I started Yuri Mania here and Weekly Lily... I must do something special and I knew I was going to bring Yaku's art back in action. I loved it way too much... So now, not only is it the 2nd year anniversary, but it's also... the 50th Melancholy of Saber Lily!

The Melancholy of Saber Lily Part 50

Ah Mugi... Why are you so good at bringing my imagination to life? ^_^ As always, this 4koma has been posted on The Melancholy of Saber Lily site... The title is a bit lame, lol, but it was basically like Inception, except it's a fantasy within a fantasy within a fantasy. It's unfortunate I had to split the 3rd panel in two like that... I just ran out of panels for what I want to do XD

I wanted Mugi to look like she's relaxing while enjoying the picture by Yaku ^^ So that's why one of her legs is raised up.

And of course I gotta put in a bigger picture of the kissing scene! So hard to get the pose I want ^^; In the end, they didn't turn out so bad ;)

Here's a close-up... Also the picture I used in the dream bubble of the 4th panel. I'm so glad that Saber casual had that eyes-closed face ^^

But to be honest... Their face never touched each other ^^;;; But very close!

This was another hard photo to take. I wanted to get everyone's face to be clear in it, but the manual focus and macro option was giving me a bit of a hard time. Finally I was able to get this one before I had to finish the photo session :D

A bit of a short post, I know ^^; It's been quite a busy last few weeks/months for me. Anyway... Here's one last picture, the same 4koma as above, but with a slight change ;)

*cough*forYaku*cough*

Knee Pits

The colloquial term for the back of the knee, or if you'd like to be technical about it, popliteal fossa. It's the area where your knee bends. Since it's similar to where the arm bends at the shoulder, the arm pit, this area is also called the "knee pit".

The above photo of Kanu in cosplay is by Ren of Zark&Ren on Cosplay.com. Look through more of their cosplay at their site!

Please be wary that there may be some picture that are risque and NSFW...

Let MEIKO show you the knee pits (circled in red) that I'm talking about.

Gorgeous China dress... beautiful MEIKO & knee pit.

Knee pits are also visible through knee/thigh high boots.

Misaka's knee pits are very well drawn here!

And why am I talking about this? Well for years, I had thought I liked the body part I liked on an anime character is her thighs. Which is why I liked the thigh highs that anime characters wore... but I realize that the part I look at closely is actually the area where the knee bends. There doesn't seem to be an official name for knee pits in Japanese, like "futamomo" for "thigh". If there is one, then I don't know it.

What the girl, Eimi, doing in the bottom right panel is called "hiza kakkun". "Hiza" means "knee" and "kakkun" is the noise of the knee crumpling from knees hitting the back of the knee. Somewhat related to the knee pit topic, especially from one of my favourite manga, Beauty is the Beast. Closest thing I can find in Japanese for "knee pit"...

Yuji Shiozaki's Ryomou got some of the best knee pits in the business!

But why do I like them? I'm not quite sure why. There must be some thing about the shape of them. The muscle connecting the two joints... The crease that shows where the knee bends... Or the dimples on either side of the muscle in the middle... I don't know, but I know when I see kneepits of an anime character drawn this way, it's definitely the first thing I'll see. The more detailed it's drawn, the more I appreciate the art.

So apparently the reason why I like thigh highs, loose socks, or boots, is because the way they accentuate knee pits...

Not so visible, but for one of my favourite characters, she looks great in those thigh highs!

Loose socks are great, aren't they?

Cammy's one of the first that I remember to show of her knee pits in a victory pose.

Figures are also great works of art that features detailed knee pits. Such as the Maid Saber from Alter. You can see her knee pits covered by the thigh highs. Or the Gothic Lolita Ryomou figure based on the picture previously shown above. The Franco Il Nero pictured below is another great piece.

Tsukino Azusagawa from Yakitate Japan got some great ones too. One of my favourite figures!

Ok, most static figures are pretty good for knee pits... let's take a look at Revoltech Fraulein Haruka Hasegawa from Moyashiman and Figma Yuki Nagato from Haruhi Suzumiya series.

ARRRGH!! Never mind, forget it!

GYAH! I don't need a close up of it >_<

Ah, that's better...

First thing I notice about this picture of Angol Moa? The knee pits of course.

Now, I don't really think this is a fetish because it's not something that I think about sexually. It's something that I look at because it's beautiful... Or is that the same thing? NO! I deny it! It's the appreciation of beauty not something that you think of when you're by yourself and feeling the urge... The beauty of knee pits transcend that of a mere fetish!

Mogudan draws some of the best knee pits... Most of his art is ero doujinshi, so this is one of the cleanest ones I could find...

Umm... sorry, over dramatic. There are a lot of pictures of knee pits that are in ero positions unfortunately... So it can actually be difficult to find something clean to post here. It's also quite rare to have characters drawn from the back and their knee pits being shown. When there are knee pits visible then most likely there will be an upskirt picture as well...

Izurumi also draws knee pits quite well... A lot of his are ero doujinshi too...

It's difficult to find something clean to understand the beauty of knee pits... but when it's there, I don't think I can't take my eyes off of them. So without further words... I present to you, The Knee Pit Gallery.

Rei in a plugsuit sorta shows them off... or is that part of the plug suit?

Cosplay of Rei looks good too ^^

Not so visible under Yui's pantyhose here, but it's not too bad.

Just barely there, but I can see it!

Ikki Tousen seems to be a good source...

Ishikei's art really showcase the knee pits... But again, a lot of his art are ero doujinshi ^^;

That's all folks! If you see great arts of knee pits, show me! :D