The works of Sho Shibamoto (The Jackalope, Pandemonium Wizard Village, Flower Knight Dakini)

He still had the circles around his eyes in his cameo at the end of Pandemonium, so he must have fixed his sleep schedule in about 2 years, haha. Then again, that same page he's on has the Unicorn Fox who was supposed to be Prakasha's original design, so maybe Sho didn't plan him showing up again initially.

An artist friend of mine does like the art style change, but hasn't been impressed by most of the character designs so far. That's probably because of the much lower concentration of Rare One characters, aside from Thunder Beasts. He does like Shankha and Higanbana though.

I assume your friend's problem is with the non-Rare One critters being boring to look at. I do get where they're coming from — I found the regular critters' designs more charming under the simpler, more childlike pre-hiatus art style, what with the use of black bead eyes and other elements. The post-hiatus art style, meanwhile, is a lot more pretty and detailed, but also more animesque. Characters looking more animesque and detailed is not a bad thing. In fact, I adore how there's a very realistic-looking bulldog man◊ who sticks out like a sore thumb in chapter 12 of Dakini. But some of the new ones end up looking generic while lacking that "kid's drawing" charm.

I'll admit that I felt the same way as your friend before, but the current style grew on me eventually. That said, you can't deny that Sho is very good at drawing monsters with intricate designs, and their skill at this hasn't diminished in the slightest.

Edited by Unnerving_Posterior on Mar 10th 2024 at 10:45:57 AM

The first part of Chapter 16 has been released.

I don't have the time to run it through my translator app at the moment, but there are some massive confirmations of lore here, including Sakasabane making a cameo.

Sho mentioned that the total page count for this chapter is 151, so this is going to be a beefy lore drop chapter.

Edited by ROTHY on Apr 17th 2024 at 12:21:10 PM

Remember how I brough up NieR a lot? When I posted all those song suggestions for the soundtracks of hypothetical Hiyokoverse adaptations? After giving Chapter 16 a quick look on the Note website, the lore of the Hiyokoverse — humorously enough — is starting to give off some strong vibes similar to the lore and setting of the first NieR game.

Edited by Unnerving_Posterior on Apr 21st 2024 at 8:21:37 AM

The English version of Chapter 14 has been released. There was some issues with the file Sho shared, so that's why I didn't report on it until now.

We've got more insight into Crain and the Sparnin Brigade's deal, as well as getting to see the first confrontation between Dakini and Higanbana.

So "Higanbana" is the name for the Thunder Beast with the threads coming out of her irises after all. Huh.

Quick question. Would you say that Sho wanted to deconstruct the idea of the Laser Guided Tyke Bomb with Dakini and her sisters? A recurring theme I notice is that being bred solely to carry out their mother's vendetta against the Sky Golems is a big source of misery for the Thunder Beasts. Dakini is highly deadly but emotionally fragile, and is affected quite badly by seeing the places she loves be reduced to rubble due to her fixation on killing Golems. Higanbana is aparently obsessed with stealing Dakini's sword to prove she's not a failure. And Damini one day gets a concussion, forgets about her mission as a result, falls in love with a fox man, raises a family together with him, and is genuinely happier because of it.

Edited by Unnerving_Posterior on May 4th 2024 at 1:17:55 AM

Still not yet confirmed what her name is, but you can see why that's been her fan nickname.

I absolutely agree that the Thunder Beasts are not having a good time after being raised like that. Whatever they're implying with Kayoh's ancestry seems to indicate that there's been a long history of regular people and Thunder Beasts interbreeding.