Note: This entry will have spoilers, but “major” ones are highlighted in a white text. The highlights does not work for mobile, however. (the last time I checked?)
Happy anniversary to the whole Angel Game! KOKORO project! (Which also happens on Kureha’s birthday~) For this special occasion, of course, I had to write a blog entry for it!
To start off, I’ve been wanting talk about these for a while, and planned to save it for a bigger occasion – like when I finally draw all the characters’ new art and etc…but well, since anniversaries doesn’t come as often, why don’t we just do it here! Well, a summarized read for the most part anyway, just to not make this entry much longer-
I’m 99.9% I’ll probably talk to only myself and not sure if there’s anyone who’s interested in me ramblings about my characters in a long post anyway…but since it’s the most special day; I want to be happy with them all day long!
(Read more under cut, as always.)
Happy anniversary to the whole Angel Game! KOKORO project! (Which also happens on Kureha’s birthday~) For this special occasion, of course, I had to write a blog entry for it!
To start off, I’ve been wanting talk about these for a while, and planned to save it for a bigger occasion – like when I finally draw all the characters’ new art and etc…but well, since anniversaries doesn’t come as often, why don’t we just do it here! Well, a summarized read for the most part anyway, just to not make this entry much longer-
I’m 99.9% I’ll probably talk to only myself and not sure if there’s anyone who’s interested in me ramblings about my characters in a long post anyway…but since it’s the most special day; I want to be happy with them all day long!
(Read more under cut, as always.)
Uh, without further ado…This blog will start with all new updates and celebrations for today and every other recent updates as of this year, and later- the second part being the (summarized) history/development and design notes for AG!K and lastly…the future and future plans for AG!K as a whole project. That’s why the title is "the present, past and the future", ahah. It’s gonna be long and I’m not too sure how to make those HTML thingy where you can jump to various titles/topics, specifically for Weebly blogs but, oh well. Just pretend this is a podcast but in a text form (lol). Oh, if you did read through all the wall of texts, I’m gonna say you’re truly the strongest person out there. (Well, second strongest after Kiyo maybe. Jk.)
(I just love my characters so much, okay….)
(I just love my characters so much, okay….)
0. Intro
Why 25th December?
To start off, AG!K as a whole project, was created literally around 2010- or maybe even as early as 2009? I’m not too sure, ahah but their first finalized design and debut on the internet was around 2010-2011.
My idea of their own “anniversary” date is, of course, something related to their first “appearance” on something. I would love to make the webcomic’s debut as the actual anniversary date, but it’ll take longer and prob not anytime soon…so I decided to went with something silly such as their first appearance in the internet, or any particular sites. I could wait for the webcomic’s debut, and maybe just so I can start with the first anniversary but well- I’m impatient and want a special day for my characters, ahah. That’s why we’re here-
The earliest date I could found for AG!K’s first appearance on the net is around “7 years ago”… on a site called “Fanpop” (aka the first site I ever signed up an acc, ahah.) I even posted their oldest and first profiles there. Here’s an archive of it that I posted on Twitter. (Warning: it's cringy. Don't say I didn't warn ya') The downside of Fanpop is they only mentioned it being uploaded “7 years ago”, but not the actual date or month- making it impossible for me to choose it as the anniversary date.
The other earliest date I can pick is 27th January 2011, which is the first day where I signed up an account on deviantART, as well as posting the first AG!K art there. As much as it’s probably the most accurate date I could’ve pick- I ended up choosing an even later date (but still the same year) which I’ll explain in the next point.
Finally, the last evidence of AG!K’s first appearance on a particular site, is their Weebly site’s creation date—25th December. It took me a while to realize that I actually did create this site on Kureha’s birthday, because I vaguely remember it either being created on 25th or 27th, which turns out to be the former after a lot of (digging old files and uploads in the net) researches. Remember to write down every important dates you want to remember, folks, unlike me.
25th December is actually a perfect date for AG!K’s anniversary—not only it’s a character’s birthday, but it was Kureha’s, and (Spoilers) [Kureha’s birthday plays an important role to the plot. Not to mention, the timeline reset, all of them happened on Kureha’s birthday. It’ll make sense for the whole project to start on this day too.] Another reason is that it’s also the date where AG!K’s first ever digital art was published, making their design even more “finalized”? And lastly, unlike Fanpop and deviantART, I’m still using Weebly as the no.1 resource and information “center” for AG!K, where a lot of stuff are pretty much archived in the Weebly site. That’s why I felt like this date was better for AG!K’s anniversary, rather than the date where I first signed up on dA, ahah.
Welp, I talked too much on the intro but that’s all the reasons why 25th December is AG!K’s anniversary, and why I’m only celebrating the 6th anniv now. (6 is perfect number to start with, still! The story started off with 6 characters, 6 is often associated with 666, or something more close to “unfortunate”…as opposite to “7” being a lucky number. (Spoilers)[Coincidentally, the setting of the current story is centered around the 6th timeline reset.]
…..Now that you’ve seen the entrée for my ramblings, that’s only the beginning. Let’s start with the “main dish”, shall we? :'D
To start off, AG!K as a whole project, was created literally around 2010- or maybe even as early as 2009? I’m not too sure, ahah but their first finalized design and debut on the internet was around 2010-2011.
My idea of their own “anniversary” date is, of course, something related to their first “appearance” on something. I would love to make the webcomic’s debut as the actual anniversary date, but it’ll take longer and prob not anytime soon…so I decided to went with something silly such as their first appearance in the internet, or any particular sites. I could wait for the webcomic’s debut, and maybe just so I can start with the first anniversary but well- I’m impatient and want a special day for my characters, ahah. That’s why we’re here-
The earliest date I could found for AG!K’s first appearance on the net is around “7 years ago”… on a site called “Fanpop” (aka the first site I ever signed up an acc, ahah.) I even posted their oldest and first profiles there. Here’s an archive of it that I posted on Twitter. (Warning: it's cringy. Don't say I didn't warn ya') The downside of Fanpop is they only mentioned it being uploaded “7 years ago”, but not the actual date or month- making it impossible for me to choose it as the anniversary date.
The other earliest date I can pick is 27th January 2011, which is the first day where I signed up an account on deviantART, as well as posting the first AG!K art there. As much as it’s probably the most accurate date I could’ve pick- I ended up choosing an even later date (but still the same year) which I’ll explain in the next point.
Finally, the last evidence of AG!K’s first appearance on a particular site, is their Weebly site’s creation date—25th December. It took me a while to realize that I actually did create this site on Kureha’s birthday, because I vaguely remember it either being created on 25th or 27th, which turns out to be the former after a lot of (digging old files and uploads in the net) researches. Remember to write down every important dates you want to remember, folks, unlike me.
25th December is actually a perfect date for AG!K’s anniversary—not only it’s a character’s birthday, but it was Kureha’s, and (Spoilers) [Kureha’s birthday plays an important role to the plot. Not to mention, the timeline reset, all of them happened on Kureha’s birthday. It’ll make sense for the whole project to start on this day too.] Another reason is that it’s also the date where AG!K’s first ever digital art was published, making their design even more “finalized”? And lastly, unlike Fanpop and deviantART, I’m still using Weebly as the no.1 resource and information “center” for AG!K, where a lot of stuff are pretty much archived in the Weebly site. That’s why I felt like this date was better for AG!K’s anniversary, rather than the date where I first signed up on dA, ahah.
Welp, I talked too much on the intro but that’s all the reasons why 25th December is AG!K’s anniversary, and why I’m only celebrating the 6th anniv now. (6 is perfect number to start with, still! The story started off with 6 characters, 6 is often associated with 666, or something more close to “unfortunate”…as opposite to “7” being a lucky number. (Spoilers)[Coincidentally, the setting of the current story is centered around the 6th timeline reset.]
…..Now that you’ve seen the entrée for my ramblings, that’s only the beginning. Let’s start with the “main dish”, shall we? :'D
1. The present
Celebrations for anniversary
Happy anniversary, again! Of course, for this day that doesn’t come as often, I did try to update with something more special…
Anniversary art
Happy anniversary, again! Of course, for this day that doesn’t come as often, I did try to update with something more special…
Anniversary art
(What else do you expect than a shiny new art)
The most predictable, but still special! (kinda? Ahah) Featuring our double protagonists, of course~ Notice the little stars that represents anyone~?
(Confession: In the sketch, all the other characters are in chibi form but I’m too tired to draw all of them and ended up symbolizing them with stars, welp.)
Realm Phantasia Game! special page
The page is now up!
Realm Phantasia Game! Or RPG!K for short, is a fantasy and RPG alternate universe and side story of AG!K. The story mainly revolves around the idea of “what if Angel Game is a common thing and accepted by the society”, hence, I ended up adapting it into a more RPG-esque setting to differ it from the original story. Note that since this is a side story, it’ll probably be short and not prioritized as much.
All the characters are based of AG!K’s characs, but with new names and slightly altered personality. I’ll only list about 3 charas for now, with no finalized design yet. (I did post draft designs on Twitter, however.)
Angel Game! KOKORO short web-novel series
The most predictable, but still special! (kinda? Ahah) Featuring our double protagonists, of course~ Notice the little stars that represents anyone~?
(Confession: In the sketch, all the other characters are in chibi form but I’m too tired to draw all of them and ended up symbolizing them with stars, welp.)
Realm Phantasia Game! special page
The page is now up!
Realm Phantasia Game! Or RPG!K for short, is a fantasy and RPG alternate universe and side story of AG!K. The story mainly revolves around the idea of “what if Angel Game is a common thing and accepted by the society”, hence, I ended up adapting it into a more RPG-esque setting to differ it from the original story. Note that since this is a side story, it’ll probably be short and not prioritized as much.
All the characters are based of AG!K’s characs, but with new names and slightly altered personality. I’ll only list about 3 charas for now, with no finalized design yet. (I did post draft designs on Twitter, however.)
Angel Game! KOKORO short web-novel series
Chapter 0 is now published on Dreamwidth!
….and probably the “biggest” addition to this project, an ongoing short novel series! I was going to post these on this site’s Weebly blog as well, but then, I guess it’s better to separate them…and I ended up choosing Dreamwidth because I’m not too ready to post them in a public community, since this is actually my first time posting my writings online-
AG!K has been stuck with only the character profiles and short summary of each chapters, and I want to expand them further. The story and characters’ full progresses in the plot are pretty much never written anywhere online for spoilers’ sake, and the webcomic will probably take much longer to be published…as a result, I decided to start somewhere after getting some encouragements, despite never actually post any of my writings online, ahah.
Also, yep- I thought it was a good idea to release the web-novel (I don’t even know if it should be called a web-novel tbh) on this day. Here’s hoping that someday, the webcomic’s release date will happen on 25th December as well~
I don’t think I’ll be able to update it as often, but I’ll try to update the chapters at least once a month? The writing doesn't take too long since I plan to make them short, but I want to include at least one illustration for each chapters...so- it'll take a while but I'll try my best..I guess. (I can’t promise anything, though…)
Overall, this is gonna be one of my task for the future of AG!K- and I’ll be looking forward to it. If you checked out the first prologue chapter, thank you very much!
(Oh, the actual first chapter’s first part is actually in drafts- but still need to be proofread and such. I would love to publish it today, but alas, we only have 24 hours a day-)
…and I guess that concludes the anniversary celebrations! Probably nothing too surprising, however, I’m trying to take a new step into developing this story, especially now I finally started writing it in a short novel form…
(Oh yeah, this blog entry is counted as a part of the celebration too I guess.)
2017 recap?
Funnily enough, I expected this year to be an inactive year for this project…but I’m glad I was wrong.
While nothing too big happened and I did summarized them in previous blog posts from this year, I guess the most notable one is, of course, I did updated every characters (excluding minor ones) with a new “sprite-like” art, it’ll be the most recent official art for now. (While it’s not the same as all the other fullbody arts I’ve done, it’s better than nothing, I guess?)
A new page, like the Special page was also created. I probably spent a lot of time on this page’s content for the rest of this year’s recap, ahah.
Other current plans
…It feels like my work will take forever to be done, not to mention I’m doing like 27635262 plans at once…but well.
I finally started working on each character’s reference sheet, and their new fullbody official art! I don’t think this will be the last time I’ll be drawing all 13 characters again- but while I’m still in my NEET phase, let’s go all out, I guess…?
Of course, there’ll be some random art unrelated to these two plans but my priority is to draw more official art/reference art right now.
....and that's the present for what happening to AG!K (in this year). Again, nothing too big, but there's progresses, at least~
Ahah, now that we talked about the present, let's move along-- to the past, where it all started!
….and probably the “biggest” addition to this project, an ongoing short novel series! I was going to post these on this site’s Weebly blog as well, but then, I guess it’s better to separate them…and I ended up choosing Dreamwidth because I’m not too ready to post them in a public community, since this is actually my first time posting my writings online-
AG!K has been stuck with only the character profiles and short summary of each chapters, and I want to expand them further. The story and characters’ full progresses in the plot are pretty much never written anywhere online for spoilers’ sake, and the webcomic will probably take much longer to be published…as a result, I decided to start somewhere after getting some encouragements, despite never actually post any of my writings online, ahah.
Also, yep- I thought it was a good idea to release the web-novel (I don’t even know if it should be called a web-novel tbh) on this day. Here’s hoping that someday, the webcomic’s release date will happen on 25th December as well~
I don’t think I’ll be able to update it as often, but I’ll try to update the chapters at least once a month? The writing doesn't take too long since I plan to make them short, but I want to include at least one illustration for each chapters...so- it'll take a while but I'll try my best..I guess. (I can’t promise anything, though…)
Overall, this is gonna be one of my task for the future of AG!K- and I’ll be looking forward to it. If you checked out the first prologue chapter, thank you very much!
(Oh, the actual first chapter’s first part is actually in drafts- but still need to be proofread and such. I would love to publish it today, but alas, we only have 24 hours a day-)
…and I guess that concludes the anniversary celebrations! Probably nothing too surprising, however, I’m trying to take a new step into developing this story, especially now I finally started writing it in a short novel form…
(Oh yeah, this blog entry is counted as a part of the celebration too I guess.)
2017 recap?
Funnily enough, I expected this year to be an inactive year for this project…but I’m glad I was wrong.
While nothing too big happened and I did summarized them in previous blog posts from this year, I guess the most notable one is, of course, I did updated every characters (excluding minor ones) with a new “sprite-like” art, it’ll be the most recent official art for now. (While it’s not the same as all the other fullbody arts I’ve done, it’s better than nothing, I guess?)
A new page, like the Special page was also created. I probably spent a lot of time on this page’s content for the rest of this year’s recap, ahah.
Other current plans
…It feels like my work will take forever to be done, not to mention I’m doing like 27635262 plans at once…but well.
I finally started working on each character’s reference sheet, and their new fullbody official art! I don’t think this will be the last time I’ll be drawing all 13 characters again- but while I’m still in my NEET phase, let’s go all out, I guess…?
Of course, there’ll be some random art unrelated to these two plans but my priority is to draw more official art/reference art right now.
....and that's the present for what happening to AG!K (in this year). Again, nothing too big, but there's progresses, at least~
Ahah, now that we talked about the present, let's move along-- to the past, where it all started!
2. The past
History and development
When I was a small wee lad at 12 years old, I’m always inspired to make OCs and original stories that were inspired from my fav animes. Of course, my obsession when creating this story was…shounen anime for kids.
AG!K was supposed to be a shounen spin-off and the third season for the “HearT” series, this series centres around one similar theme: “Angels and hearts”. The HearT series, the original predecessor, were pretty much a shoujo magical girl story where AG!K takes a different turn into something more shounen (as I mentioned.)
Being a spin-off despite in the same “branch”, AG!K took a different concept in angels and heart. In HearT, the “angels” are basically the girls that were chosen as magical girls and “heart” is the pendant they needed in order to transform into an angel. Like any magical girl animes, they hide the fact they’re magical girls and fight monsters without being noticed by anyone.
In the case of AG!K, the heart is literally the soul of the angels’ and “Gamers” are those who were possessed with the angels. Rather than becoming an angel, it’s more of there are angels that are possessing these Gamer’s body, with their unfortunate life being the key to obtain the “Heart”. No transformations and such happened, and Gamers fight each other rather than monsters, and Angel Game is a known thing in the world despite being looked down as a curse.
(If anyone’s interested on my other original stories, especially HearT- I did summarize the plot and characters here, no images and only text for now.)
The development of AG!K wasn’t anything super great, but it didn’t went up and down for some parts.
Now that…we discussed about the history and development, here’s some initial character concept/design notes, summarized: (I’ll probably save the longer notes for another day.)
Initial character concept/design notes
Kokoro: Created with the idea of “typical shounen kids protag, but female”. She’s pretty much the only character that didn’t went through any huge redesign or character rewrite, mainly because I always find Kokoro’s personality is the most fitting for a protag. She’s also in sync with the other two HearT protags, Haruka and Haruko, for being a light element user, cheerful/energetic and brave.
Kureha: Initially (obviously) created to be the opposite of Kokoro, and to follow the trend of the flagship for the “darker angels” like Yami and Ayame in the previous HearT series. As mentioned multiple times, he was supposed to be a girl (just like Ayame and Yami) but later changed after a suggestion from my brother (ahah) and to fit the idea of “Kokoro’s opposite”. Well, after the story rewrite, his role as the rival is not as “dark” compared to his initial self. He turned into a more…pure and innocent boy and considered as the second protagonist, as I rambled on Twitter once. Since the HearT series is technically no longer in development, there’s no rules that I’ll have to follow the trend, right? Ahah.
well, even if the HearT series is still in development, pattern-breakers are good once in a while. Kokoro and Kureha were the only “light and dark angels” in the HearT series that were heavily connected with sun and moon, and the only one where both of them are considered the protagonists of the story. (Spoilers) [Another fact is, Kokoro and Kureha only met each other only in the first arc so far (as of writing this). Their paths were separated for the rest of the story, and did not meet each other until then. Who knows, maybe their goals and story will connect into one huge conclusion…?]
Sakane: Was supposed to be the smart girl that often scolds Kokoro, but later changed into a girl (who’s more closer to Kagami and Kozue) who’s her emotions and self-confidence were affected by her misfortune. Personally, I find Sakane to not stand out much in her initial self, aside from the fact she's friends with the protags- that's why I'm trying to make her personality a bit more relatable or realistic, I guess? To differ her from the other characters, ahah.
Kozue: Japanese-esque character™. Second character who didn’t change as much in terms of personality, but her past and role were changed quite a bit, like how she was initially a brave girl but now changed into an air-headed and sheltered girl, but also happens to be the eldest among the main characters. Y'know what's funny? I like considering Sakane, Kozue and Kagami as the "happy family" trio and they coincidentally have the Pokemon starter elements, which makes the "dynamics" a lot more better (for me) lol.
Kagami: Having her name being “mirror”, of course she had a reflection of herself…which is…another personality she slips into whenever Angel Game is mentioned. She was later changed into a girl that seemed smart and shy, but owns a huge fear that she hides related to her twin. (and also with her typical yandere horror story past).
Reika: Ah, yes, good ol’ Reika. She is pretty much the first character in the HearT series who’s not related to an angel, yet is a part of the main cast. (She’s a borderline main and supporting character now, I guess?) Initially an ojousama who just….joins Kokoro’s adventures for no notable reasons…and plot twist; the fact she’s actually a part of Kureha’s memory, where she was Kureha’s childhood friend before he lost his memory. None of that concept made it when she was redesigned and rewritten, ahah. She’s now Kokoro’s childhood friend, and an idol who does not considers herself as the brightest star. What role does she plays in the story? We shall see~
Kazuki: Was initially an Angel Gamer who controls the wind element, and happens to be a huge nerd for creating and fixing things—like planes etc a̶n̶d̶ ̶s̶h̶e̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶s̶ ̶f̶l̶i̶r̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶b̶o̶y̶s̶. (In other words, Kazuki was a mechanic, ahah.) The fact that she’s wind also follows the trend of previous HearT series, where the wind character is a part of the protagonists’ side. After Kiyo/Saki/Chiito was created, her role changed into a weapon maker (and non-Angel Gamer) who’s also Takuto’s assistant. The another change when St. Angel became a thing, she changes into the seitokai secretary and also a girl who’s aware that she’s talentless. (Isn’t it funny that she initially started off as a mechanic, and later a weapon maker and now a girl who claims herself talentless, ahah.)
Ayumu: The other main casts’ sidekicks along with Kazuki, to fit the number of ~seven~ holy angels. I…don’t remember much of Ayumu’s initial concept other than she’s a girl from a village of snow, where pretty much everything about her is associated with snow….and later, of course, along with Kazuki she’s now a part of the antagonists side, she’s rewritten with the idea of “a girl who finally knew that happy endings never exists”, this concept became much sadder when the concept of “unfortunate life” were a main thing in the story, ahah.
Takuto: Ahhahah Takuto my man. You went through a lot, I’m sorry. First of all, his initial concept was p obvious is you know the past me like?? He got the most powerful element being “galaxy” (as to something bigger than Kokoro/Kureha’s sun and moon) which?? Technically makes no sense as a “Heart” like do you control the gravity or something and shoot out solar beams. It wasn’t until the rewrite in 2013/2014 where I changed his element into “time control”, as well as his backstory to match his element. Also his main role, is centered around Kureha, which is, well………….for being the second male character ever created, and the “main antag is related to the edgy rival” trope, of course. Like. Of. Course. Yeah, he was the main antag at first. Woohoo for lots of spoilers text. (Spoiler)[He wasn’t supposed to be brother with Kureha at first, but adoptive siblings. They literally have the same dramatic™ past of Kureha running away from Takuto after finding out his parents was murdered by Takuto’s dad. But the only difference is, they weren’t brothers, and there was never any time loop. It’s literally similar to the 6th timeline of Kureha and Takuto’s past, but Takuto never even met Kureha before Kureha’s parents was murdered. Oh and, Reika’s addition to Kureha and Takuto’s past was kinda extra, she’s just there to be the witness who knew Kureha before he lost his memories, but it makes….0 sense on why she can’t remember Kureha and Takuto after she got separated with both of them. The biggest reason why I removed her relations with Kureha and Takuto, ahah.] For now…Takuto’s role in the story remains a vague like, is he an antag, or is actually a protag? Maybe soon we shall see~ (Spoilers)[Well, if you do read the spoilers, he is considered as the “hero” and the key to the story, as well as the cause of the time loop. ahah.]
Kiyo: …well, ironically he was initially created to be the character that’s SUPER serious, that you can’t mess up with him. And will kill you if you make him angry. After the rewrite, I made his pompous self as a running gag because I realize a lot of the antagonist characters were super serious, and pretty…bland, so making him funnier adds a bit more flavour to Kiyo’s personality. He may seem like the “Kansai idiot” character, but his arc is the biggest reason of why I love him a lot. Really.
Chiito: Ahaha, well, frankly, I liked the trope of “villain falling in love with the heroine” so there’s it is, and Chiito was designed with the mind of “typical young and naughty boy”. His initial personality wasn’t as….cruel compared to his current self, and he was a lot more playful. I later changed him to fit in the “cold rival” category, replacing Kureha, which gives him a more bigger role as one of the antagonist in the story. (Spoilers)[I’m also trying to make his crush for Kokoro to make a lot more sense to his personality/backstory rather than blindly falling in love with her for no reasons, ahah, which I’ll explain in another day]
Saki: I did plan on changing Sakane into a more rude girl at some point, but couldn’t. All those personalities were all scrapped to Saki. The reason I made him having the same "curse" as Sakane is to take on a different situation too- because, unlike Sakane who was born with the curse, he did have his original high schooler body but later shrunk into a smaller physical. T̶h̶e̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶s̶o̶n̶ ̶ ̶I̶ ̶m̶a̶d̶e̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶ ̶t̶w̶i̶n̶s̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶K̶a̶z̶u̶k̶i̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶s̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶y̶'̶l̶l̶ ̶s̶h̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶a̶m̶e̶ ̶b̶a̶c̶k̶s̶t̶o̶r̶y̶ ̶e̶t̶c̶,̶ ̶a̶l̶s̶o̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶g̶i̶v̶e̶ ̶m̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶r̶o̶l̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶o̶t̶h̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶t̶w̶i̶n̶s̶.̶ ̶A̶h̶a̶h̶.̶ Not much…I could say about the initial Saki since he was the least developed character before, but now, his past is probably one of my favourites and I really, really adore and enjoy his relationship with Kureha...I'm not sure why, but I really do? ww
Yunosuke: Despite started as a minor character, his initial role didn't change much- the vice president of St. Angel and Takuto’s rival. Multiple initial personality/trope were made for Yunosuke, though, as his first idea was supposed to be a megane nerd who just….there to challenge Takuto all the time and never want to lose to him. The second one is he’s a huge narcissistic who often claims he’s better than Takuto, and literally those sparkling bishounen. The last one, is a more playful person who likes gambling and games, and actually treats everything as a game. I ended up going with the third one, still kept his playful and gamer personality but removed his gambling habit. (Maybe it’s not obvious but his design were actually inspired from a casino dealer, ahah.) Of course, I added a little bit more...angst with his huge connection to misfortunes and such. Oh yeah, recently, I personally really enjoy drawing Yunosuke with his Grim Reaper motif...or relate him with spider lillies and such. I'm so sorry, son,
Overall….yeah, all the characters went through a lot of phases, I may left out some things too, but I’ll probably explain that someday in another post. Looking back at this, does make it feel nostalgic, somehow- to see how they developed,,
There are a lot of characters I’d love to add, like more supporting charas on the protags’ side, the teachers, etc but for now, I'm fine with the current cast.
I felt like the reason I'm the most attached with this story's OCs is mainly because I did put efforts into them...a lot of my other OCs feels very inspired and one dimensional? Whereas the characters here do have dynamics between multiple characs, their strengths and flaws, and the moment they improve and went downhill.
I admit, I find HearT II's flow of story/plot to be more organized than AG!K's, but I didn't put much efforts into their character development unlike AG!K, well, neither any of my story is perfect and have their pros/cons, but this time...I want to improve my mistakes that I made with my previous stories and expand it here.
Again, they aren't perfect, and will never be. It's just...they're the characters that I cherish so much, and I want to give the best for them- ahah.
….and p much. That’s enough of AG!K’s past. This wasn’t even the full story, but ain’t nobody got time to hear the full thing.
When I was a small wee lad at 12 years old, I’m always inspired to make OCs and original stories that were inspired from my fav animes. Of course, my obsession when creating this story was…shounen anime for kids.
AG!K was supposed to be a shounen spin-off and the third season for the “HearT” series, this series centres around one similar theme: “Angels and hearts”. The HearT series, the original predecessor, were pretty much a shoujo magical girl story where AG!K takes a different turn into something more shounen (as I mentioned.)
Being a spin-off despite in the same “branch”, AG!K took a different concept in angels and heart. In HearT, the “angels” are basically the girls that were chosen as magical girls and “heart” is the pendant they needed in order to transform into an angel. Like any magical girl animes, they hide the fact they’re magical girls and fight monsters without being noticed by anyone.
In the case of AG!K, the heart is literally the soul of the angels’ and “Gamers” are those who were possessed with the angels. Rather than becoming an angel, it’s more of there are angels that are possessing these Gamer’s body, with their unfortunate life being the key to obtain the “Heart”. No transformations and such happened, and Gamers fight each other rather than monsters, and Angel Game is a known thing in the world despite being looked down as a curse.
(If anyone’s interested on my other original stories, especially HearT- I did summarize the plot and characters here, no images and only text for now.)
The development of AG!K wasn’t anything super great, but it didn’t went up and down for some parts.
- The story started off with a very lighthearted plot, no such things as unfortunate lifes, “Heart” were called “Alchemy” (I can’t remember why I did that, ahah.) and “Angel Gamers” were called “Angelers”. Of course, I ended up changing the terms later to make more sense, as well as to make it in sync(?) with the rest of the HearT series.
- There were six main characters- being Kokoro, Sakane, Reika, Kagami, Kozue and Kureha. I originally planned for six girls like how all the other HearT series have 5 female main characters, but ended up changing it, obviously.
- In the original HearT series, all 5 characters have this occurring theme of having the same element: light, water, fire, nature and wind. All of these were also applied to AG!K’s main characters, with the wind element swapped with a dark element.
- (For reasons, I won’t be mentioning the title here but obviously every 6 characters were heavily inspired, ahah.)
- Not too long after the main 6 were created- in the same year, I did add 3 more characters: Kazuki, Ayumu and Takuto. All these characters were designless for the longest time, and probably the ones that differs a lot for their initial concept vs current concept of their characters-
- Kazuki and Ayumu were actually on the protagonists’ side, with Takuto being the antagonist. I’ll…explain a bit more about their individual roles on another point.
- (If it’s not obvious, Kazuki and Ayumu were technically one of the “seven holy gamers”. Do I even need to mention who’s Takuto initially supposed to be at this point. Ahah. I'm honestly glad they’re the ones that changed the most from their original concept-)
- A year after all the characters were created, a change in the plot and characters were made. Kiyo, Chiito and Saki were created in order to add more male characters and antagonists. Because of the lack of female antagonists, I decided to change Ayumu’s and Kazuki’s side. …and that’s pretty much (technically) the character roles that we’re sticking to, until today.
- Did I mention St. Angel was not a school, but an evil organizations call “Angel Hunters” or something. I changed it to a school to sound more “professional” than an edgy group of dark organizations that p much all shounen kids anime have as their antagonist clique.
- Pretty much all these characters were left designless for years (because, to be frank, it’s mainly because I sucked at drawing boys at this time…)
- After that, AG!K went in a slow and quite phase. Due to certain circumstances, I ended up leaving the story and this site inactive for years, with only little updates such as birthday arts. I was almost at a point of considering this story “cancelled”, like all my other original stories due to this slump and demotivation that I had.
- …That was until the end of 2013 where I decided to rewrite the story. Not 100% fully rewritten, but still taking a new start for the whole story. Most, if not all of the characters’ personalities were changed, some were redesigned/recolored and I finally drawn all the supporting characters’ designs. The concept of “unfortunate life” also became the main idea of the story.
- After debating on adding a new supporting character or not- I decided to go with it anyway. Yunosuke was created as a part of the cast, and plays a somewhat large role to the plot.
- ….and with that, that’s how the whole plot is finalized, the story we know until today. It’s almost a miracle that I decided to keep writing this story, especially all my past stories ended up being cancelled or abandoned halfway.
- AG!K’s development was never perfect, even with characters design and a plot- there’s still some times where I almost felt like giving up and all, and I don’t know for how long will I keep continue focusing on this story. My hope is for as long as possible…but only time will tell.
Now that…we discussed about the history and development, here’s some initial character concept/design notes, summarized: (I’ll probably save the longer notes for another day.)
Initial character concept/design notes
Kokoro: Created with the idea of “typical shounen kids protag, but female”. She’s pretty much the only character that didn’t went through any huge redesign or character rewrite, mainly because I always find Kokoro’s personality is the most fitting for a protag. She’s also in sync with the other two HearT protags, Haruka and Haruko, for being a light element user, cheerful/energetic and brave.
Kureha: Initially (obviously) created to be the opposite of Kokoro, and to follow the trend of the flagship for the “darker angels” like Yami and Ayame in the previous HearT series. As mentioned multiple times, he was supposed to be a girl (just like Ayame and Yami) but later changed after a suggestion from my brother (ahah) and to fit the idea of “Kokoro’s opposite”. Well, after the story rewrite, his role as the rival is not as “dark” compared to his initial self. He turned into a more…pure and innocent boy and considered as the second protagonist, as I rambled on Twitter once. Since the HearT series is technically no longer in development, there’s no rules that I’ll have to follow the trend, right? Ahah.
well, even if the HearT series is still in development, pattern-breakers are good once in a while. Kokoro and Kureha were the only “light and dark angels” in the HearT series that were heavily connected with sun and moon, and the only one where both of them are considered the protagonists of the story. (Spoilers) [Another fact is, Kokoro and Kureha only met each other only in the first arc so far (as of writing this). Their paths were separated for the rest of the story, and did not meet each other until then. Who knows, maybe their goals and story will connect into one huge conclusion…?]
Sakane: Was supposed to be the smart girl that often scolds Kokoro, but later changed into a girl (who’s more closer to Kagami and Kozue) who’s her emotions and self-confidence were affected by her misfortune. Personally, I find Sakane to not stand out much in her initial self, aside from the fact she's friends with the protags- that's why I'm trying to make her personality a bit more relatable or realistic, I guess? To differ her from the other characters, ahah.
Kozue: Japanese-esque character™. Second character who didn’t change as much in terms of personality, but her past and role were changed quite a bit, like how she was initially a brave girl but now changed into an air-headed and sheltered girl, but also happens to be the eldest among the main characters. Y'know what's funny? I like considering Sakane, Kozue and Kagami as the "happy family" trio and they coincidentally have the Pokemon starter elements, which makes the "dynamics" a lot more better (for me) lol.
Kagami: Having her name being “mirror”, of course she had a reflection of herself…which is…another personality she slips into whenever Angel Game is mentioned. She was later changed into a girl that seemed smart and shy, but owns a huge fear that she hides related to her twin. (and also with her typical yandere horror story past).
Reika: Ah, yes, good ol’ Reika. She is pretty much the first character in the HearT series who’s not related to an angel, yet is a part of the main cast. (She’s a borderline main and supporting character now, I guess?) Initially an ojousama who just….joins Kokoro’s adventures for no notable reasons…and plot twist; the fact she’s actually a part of Kureha’s memory, where she was Kureha’s childhood friend before he lost his memory. None of that concept made it when she was redesigned and rewritten, ahah. She’s now Kokoro’s childhood friend, and an idol who does not considers herself as the brightest star. What role does she plays in the story? We shall see~
Kazuki: Was initially an Angel Gamer who controls the wind element, and happens to be a huge nerd for creating and fixing things—like planes etc a̶n̶d̶ ̶s̶h̶e̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶s̶ ̶f̶l̶i̶r̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶b̶o̶y̶s̶. (In other words, Kazuki was a mechanic, ahah.) The fact that she’s wind also follows the trend of previous HearT series, where the wind character is a part of the protagonists’ side. After Kiyo/Saki/Chiito was created, her role changed into a weapon maker (and non-Angel Gamer) who’s also Takuto’s assistant. The another change when St. Angel became a thing, she changes into the seitokai secretary and also a girl who’s aware that she’s talentless. (Isn’t it funny that she initially started off as a mechanic, and later a weapon maker and now a girl who claims herself talentless, ahah.)
Ayumu: The other main casts’ sidekicks along with Kazuki, to fit the number of ~seven~ holy angels. I…don’t remember much of Ayumu’s initial concept other than she’s a girl from a village of snow, where pretty much everything about her is associated with snow….and later, of course, along with Kazuki she’s now a part of the antagonists side, she’s rewritten with the idea of “a girl who finally knew that happy endings never exists”, this concept became much sadder when the concept of “unfortunate life” were a main thing in the story, ahah.
Takuto: Ahhahah Takuto my man. You went through a lot, I’m sorry. First of all, his initial concept was p obvious is you know the past me like?? He got the most powerful element being “galaxy” (as to something bigger than Kokoro/Kureha’s sun and moon) which?? Technically makes no sense as a “Heart” like do you control the gravity or something and shoot out solar beams. It wasn’t until the rewrite in 2013/2014 where I changed his element into “time control”, as well as his backstory to match his element. Also his main role, is centered around Kureha, which is, well………….for being the second male character ever created, and the “main antag is related to the edgy rival” trope, of course. Like. Of. Course. Yeah, he was the main antag at first. Woohoo for lots of spoilers text. (Spoiler)[He wasn’t supposed to be brother with Kureha at first, but adoptive siblings. They literally have the same dramatic™ past of Kureha running away from Takuto after finding out his parents was murdered by Takuto’s dad. But the only difference is, they weren’t brothers, and there was never any time loop. It’s literally similar to the 6th timeline of Kureha and Takuto’s past, but Takuto never even met Kureha before Kureha’s parents was murdered. Oh and, Reika’s addition to Kureha and Takuto’s past was kinda extra, she’s just there to be the witness who knew Kureha before he lost his memories, but it makes….0 sense on why she can’t remember Kureha and Takuto after she got separated with both of them. The biggest reason why I removed her relations with Kureha and Takuto, ahah.] For now…Takuto’s role in the story remains a vague like, is he an antag, or is actually a protag? Maybe soon we shall see~ (Spoilers)[Well, if you do read the spoilers, he is considered as the “hero” and the key to the story, as well as the cause of the time loop. ahah.]
Kiyo: …well, ironically he was initially created to be the character that’s SUPER serious, that you can’t mess up with him. And will kill you if you make him angry. After the rewrite, I made his pompous self as a running gag because I realize a lot of the antagonist characters were super serious, and pretty…bland, so making him funnier adds a bit more flavour to Kiyo’s personality. He may seem like the “Kansai idiot” character, but his arc is the biggest reason of why I love him a lot. Really.
Chiito: Ahaha, well, frankly, I liked the trope of “villain falling in love with the heroine” so there’s it is, and Chiito was designed with the mind of “typical young and naughty boy”. His initial personality wasn’t as….cruel compared to his current self, and he was a lot more playful. I later changed him to fit in the “cold rival” category, replacing Kureha, which gives him a more bigger role as one of the antagonist in the story. (Spoilers)[I’m also trying to make his crush for Kokoro to make a lot more sense to his personality/backstory rather than blindly falling in love with her for no reasons, ahah, which I’ll explain in another day]
Saki: I did plan on changing Sakane into a more rude girl at some point, but couldn’t. All those personalities were all scrapped to Saki. The reason I made him having the same "curse" as Sakane is to take on a different situation too- because, unlike Sakane who was born with the curse, he did have his original high schooler body but later shrunk into a smaller physical. T̶h̶e̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶s̶o̶n̶ ̶ ̶I̶ ̶m̶a̶d̶e̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶ ̶t̶w̶i̶n̶s̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶K̶a̶z̶u̶k̶i̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶s̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶y̶'̶l̶l̶ ̶s̶h̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶a̶m̶e̶ ̶b̶a̶c̶k̶s̶t̶o̶r̶y̶ ̶e̶t̶c̶,̶ ̶a̶l̶s̶o̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶g̶i̶v̶e̶ ̶m̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶r̶o̶l̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶o̶t̶h̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶t̶w̶i̶n̶s̶.̶ ̶A̶h̶a̶h̶.̶ Not much…I could say about the initial Saki since he was the least developed character before, but now, his past is probably one of my favourites and I really, really adore and enjoy his relationship with Kureha...I'm not sure why, but I really do? ww
Yunosuke: Despite started as a minor character, his initial role didn't change much- the vice president of St. Angel and Takuto’s rival. Multiple initial personality/trope were made for Yunosuke, though, as his first idea was supposed to be a megane nerd who just….there to challenge Takuto all the time and never want to lose to him. The second one is he’s a huge narcissistic who often claims he’s better than Takuto, and literally those sparkling bishounen. The last one, is a more playful person who likes gambling and games, and actually treats everything as a game. I ended up going with the third one, still kept his playful and gamer personality but removed his gambling habit. (Maybe it’s not obvious but his design were actually inspired from a casino dealer, ahah.) Of course, I added a little bit more...angst with his huge connection to misfortunes and such. Oh yeah, recently, I personally really enjoy drawing Yunosuke with his Grim Reaper motif...or relate him with spider lillies and such. I'm so sorry, son,
Overall….yeah, all the characters went through a lot of phases, I may left out some things too, but I’ll probably explain that someday in another post. Looking back at this, does make it feel nostalgic, somehow- to see how they developed,,
There are a lot of characters I’d love to add, like more supporting charas on the protags’ side, the teachers, etc but for now, I'm fine with the current cast.
I felt like the reason I'm the most attached with this story's OCs is mainly because I did put efforts into them...a lot of my other OCs feels very inspired and one dimensional? Whereas the characters here do have dynamics between multiple characs, their strengths and flaws, and the moment they improve and went downhill.
I admit, I find HearT II's flow of story/plot to be more organized than AG!K's, but I didn't put much efforts into their character development unlike AG!K, well, neither any of my story is perfect and have their pros/cons, but this time...I want to improve my mistakes that I made with my previous stories and expand it here.
Again, they aren't perfect, and will never be. It's just...they're the characters that I cherish so much, and I want to give the best for them- ahah.
….and p much. That’s enough of AG!K’s past. This wasn’t even the full story, but ain’t nobody got time to hear the full thing.
3. The future, and ending the blog entry.
Plans for the future?
After I’m done with all the official/reference art…I’m not too sure what to do else. I’ll probably draw more random art for the story, I’ll probably draw more official art in future years, and now I started the web-novel series, I should try focusing on that too.
I don’t have an exact imagination or plans for the future of this story/project, but one thing for sure, I want to continue writing and drawing them for as long that I can. Maybe I’ll ever reach to the novel’s ending, maybe I’ll even start it’s webcomic someday- but soon, I’ll be entering the adult life, which no one knows if it’ll affect the future of this story or not.
And, to be frank, I'm fine if it's a personal project that stayed as my OCs posted on the internet. It doesn't need to get actual comic books or animated series and such, I just enjoy writing and sharing them online for the time being (lol).
This story that I created since I was young, until today- I may not be the best creator for them, nor the best artist or writer- but who else would love them this much other than me? That’s why, I want to expand and spread their story (even a little, to be frank, ahah.) and want to give my characters all the better treatment and love.
Happy 6th anniversary, and thank you for being with me until today.
(Thank you for reading my self-excitement filled post as well- Feel free to call me insane or overly imaginative if you want :’) )
(Did I mentioned that this entry has reached almost 5k words. Woohoo.)
After I’m done with all the official/reference art…I’m not too sure what to do else. I’ll probably draw more random art for the story, I’ll probably draw more official art in future years, and now I started the web-novel series, I should try focusing on that too.
I don’t have an exact imagination or plans for the future of this story/project, but one thing for sure, I want to continue writing and drawing them for as long that I can. Maybe I’ll ever reach to the novel’s ending, maybe I’ll even start it’s webcomic someday- but soon, I’ll be entering the adult life, which no one knows if it’ll affect the future of this story or not.
And, to be frank, I'm fine if it's a personal project that stayed as my OCs posted on the internet. It doesn't need to get actual comic books or animated series and such, I just enjoy writing and sharing them online for the time being (lol).
This story that I created since I was young, until today- I may not be the best creator for them, nor the best artist or writer- but who else would love them this much other than me? That’s why, I want to expand and spread their story (even a little, to be frank, ahah.) and want to give my characters all the better treatment and love.
Happy 6th anniversary, and thank you for being with me until today.
(Thank you for reading my self-excitement filled post as well- Feel free to call me insane or overly imaginative if you want :’) )
(Did I mentioned that this entry has reached almost 5k words. Woohoo.)