HAPPY NEW YEAR (as of GMT+8)! HAVE SOME JOSUKE FROM DIAMOND IS UNBREAKABLE.

My #FantasyIdolGroup

I forgot to add this to the picture, but Akari Akaza is supposed to be the leader of this group. Also, I put too much effort into this, lol.

Anyways, I saw @GlennAkio create some sort of #FantasyIdolGroup challenge so I've decided to roll with it. I've changed the traits to The iDOLM@STER attributes, hope they don't mind. I've also decided to use characters from franchises that aren't idol anime (I think that's a little cheap, IMO).

I could've probably done better. I pretty much just picked characters from my favourite anime. I think I've gotten a little bit too uncreative on the passion/3rd year section, and their personalities have some overlapping similarities. Sakaki might be one of the more out of place character I picked. Her canonical height is 174 cm. Some of the characters here probably don't have any canonical heights, but I imagine them mostly being below 168 cm (to be fair, The iDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls has Kirari Moroboshi). Still, I've managed to give them the proper iDOLM@STER attributes.

Oh, and if anyone's interested each "tile" is roughly based on a The iDOLM@STER card. I guess it's kind of obvious, though.

Link to the challenge here:
https://twitter.com/GlennAkio/status/1170191645230264320

The Buckethead Zombie's concept art depicted him as a house painter wearing a white coverall with a roller painter covered in red paint. I guess it would have been too "bloody." But damn, I think having that would have given the zombie more personality since the others have notable past occupations as well. And why stop there? I think the Conehead Zombie could have been a traffic enforcer, etc.

What if magical girls had Stands instead of generic magical powers?

I already had this idea before but I've decided to write it already since I was inspired by this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/StardustCrusaders/comments/c0a8it/fanart_if_jolyne_were_the_hero_of_a_different/


Sakura Kinomoto - 「PLATINUM DISCO」 - Ok, this one's pretty interesting. Sakura's powers are derived from the Clow Cards, which if I'm not mistaken, are based on the Tarot. And the Tarot cards have been a major thing in Stardust Crusaders. Since her powers are pretty varied, I think her stand should go through various acts similar to Echoes and Tusk. Platinum Disco ACT1 should be a long ranged and mobile stand and should be capable of flight which corresponds to her The Fly card. Alternatively, it could have The Jump's powers but I think flying works better. ACT2 should either have The Sword's or The Fight's powers, which would make it very similar to Silver Chariot or Star Platinum. And finally, ACT3 should have The Time, which obviously would be similar to The World or Star Platinum: The World. Honestly, you could expand more on this. Maybe it could go up to ACT4 or ACT3 would have The Erase's power instead, making it similar to The Hand or Cream. Her Stand is named Platinum Disco because like Star Platinum, it is very powerful (also time stop). She also has a card that allows creation so that could probably be implemented. JoJo doesn't really go for J-pop songs, but there's a Stand named Chocolate Disco so I think it makes some sense

Tsukino Usagi (Sailor Moon) - 「LIVIN' IN THE MOONLIGHT」 - Sailor Moon has some pretty crazy Deus ex machina in her anime, which usually involves healing and restoring. So I believe her stand should be similar to Crazy Diamond or maybe even Gold Experience. Since it's about healing and giving life, I think her Stand should be really effective against the undead, the darkness, stuff like that, similar to Hamon.

Madoka Kaname - 「AMAZING GRACE」 - Madoka becomes god in her own anime. Some people say that it takes inspiration from Buddhism, while other say it's from Christianity instead. I personally think both makes sense but we're going for a Christian song simply because I think there are more to pick from. Also, Madoka's role in her anime kind of fits Jesus' message of giving grace. Since her Stand is obviously grace inspired, I think it should have the power to save people from despair, saving their souls, stuff like that. Amazing Grace Requiem would receive godlike powers (before that, I feel it's a little too OP despite Madoka being a goddess in her universe).

Hikari Kujou (Shiny Luminous) - 「AMAZING GRACE」 - Personally, I think Amazing Grace fits Hikari a little more. It's hard to find any discussion of connecting Max Heart (the anime she's in) to Christianity or Buddhism since the anime is kind of obscure. I said it fits better because the anime seems to be more loaded with Christian symbolism. Slight spoilers, but Hikari is the multiple alter-egos of the ultimate force of good (essentially god) in her anime. By multiple alter-egos, I meant something similar to Christianity's Trinity concept. And Hikari exactly fits the role of Jesus Christ. Essentially, she's the "reverse" Madoka. The only reason why I've mentioned Madoka first is because her anime is more popular. Otherwise, similar powers to the ones I've written above.

Nozomi Yumehara (Cure Dream) - 「SHOOTING STARS」 - I don't think she has any crazy abilities like the ones above, so I'm basing her Stand on her characterization and her show's theme instead. In her show, she is trying to achieve her dream. So I believe her Stand would have the ability to materializes whatever she "dreams" or thinks of. Of course, with limits so it's not OP. Her name literally means dream wish so the name Shooting Stars for her Stand makes sense, since people used to wish whenever a shooting star appeared.

Misumi Nagisa (Cure Black) - Has a Stand that punches fast, similar to Star Platinum.

Yukishiro Honoka (Cure White) - Although never really noticed it while watching her anime, apparently she grapples her enemies more as opposed to just straight up hitting that. If that's the case then I think her Stand should be similar to Hermit Purple. Also, she's pretty smart so that makes sense as well.

Rei Hino (Sailor Mars) or Akane Hino (Cure Sunny) - 「RING OF FIRE」 - A Stand that has fire powers like Magician's Red, enough said.

Mizuno Ami (Sailor Mercury) - Her Stand should have a water body similar to Geb or Aqua Necklace. Since she's smart and studious, her Stand should have the ability to read information if you touch it similar to Hermit Purple.

Fate Testarossa - Since Stands are a manifestation of a person's fighting spirit and usually involves what the user really wants to achieve, then I think her Stand should be something that would make her mother proud. I don't know specifically how, but I think it should be good in collecting powerful artefacts (her goal when she was first introduced in the anime). Since her magic is lightning-based, I think her Stand might be similar to Red Hot Chili Pepper.

Hayate Yagami - I'm guessing her Stand should be a book that could summon four warriors (which corresponds to the Wolkenritter in her anime). Kind of OP (but she was pretty OP in her anime anyway). I think she could only summon 1 at a time so that it wouldn't be too OP.


So, what do you guys think? I like some of the ideas I had, but some not. And yeah, I know some of them are a little too inspired by already existing Stands (or powers). I don't really know a lot of music that could be fitting as their Stand names, so yeah. I'm sure y'all have some interesting ideas and I'd love to hear them.

Personally, I'd like to see more Stand-esque powers in non-JoJo works. Is it copying JoJo a little too much? Sure. But I mean, Persona also has "Stands" (although I've never played any of those games so I don't know to what extent it is ripping off JoJo). I mean, some magical girl series, especially PreCure, are already kind of a JoJo for younger girls. With those fabulous dresses and poses (and the mild violence for PreCure). Nothing wrong with generic magical powers. In fact, I like it. But the idea of Stands have always piqued my interests.

[Practice] Yuno and Miyako (Hidamari Sketch)

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Yuru Yuri OVA: Studio, Character Design and my Thoughts on it

I've seen the poster posted below a few times. But for one of the times I did, I saw information about who the staff is going to be for the new Yuru Yuri OVA. The thing that piqued my interest is the studio that will animate it, which is "Lay-duce."

Ever since the OVA was announced, I've thought to myself which studio would animated it. The first two seasons were animated by Doga Kobo, then the movie, specials, and the third season after that were done by TYO Animations. While I appreciate most of the Yuru Yuri franchise, I think the character designs used by Doga Kobo fits the atmosphere of the show. I'm not saying that TYO's were "unfitting", I just think Doga Kobo's fit in better with the show's bizarre humour. To be fair, there were some other changes, too. But I'm mostly talking about the character designs. A part of me wanted Doga Kobo to animate Yuru Yuri once more.

Then I've thought to myself, the character design isn't really "bound" to a studio. And by that, I meant that a studio could use more than one character design. So really, TYO or any studio could still animate Yuru Yuri using Doga Kobo's character designs (at least theoretically). Remember the last line in the previous paragraph? Yeah, not really. Returning the anime to Doga Kobo could just mean that the character design would return.

I've decided to do a little research on something that I think contributes more to the character designs than the studios themselves. The character designers. Doga Kobo's and TYO's iteration of Yuru Yuri all had different character designers. And so does Lay-duce's Release the Spyce and Gokumi's Endro. So thinking about it, maybe I wanted Chiaki Nakajima, the character designer of Doga Kobo's iteration of Yuru Yuri, to return? Or at least the new character designer would take inspiration from that.

Since we were on the topic of Namori's Yuru Yuri, why don't we discuss further into her other works I've mentioned? I remember that Release the Spyce was something Namori and her Yuru Yuri fans promoted. I also remember Endro getting the same treatment, but not as heavily promoted (I could be remembering this wrong). However, it should be worth noting that while Namori is the creator of Yuru Yuri, she did not create the others. She is the character designer for the other two.

I haven't really watched that much of both Release the Spyce and Endro, so I can't really judge them that much. However, I think that Release the Spyce's character design works perfect for Yuru Yuri. Or at least I think it fits. Since the same people that worked in Release the Spyce would also be working in the Yuru Yuri OVA, I guess I could be rest assured for a good anime experience. At the end of the day, maybe my opinions in the previous paragraphs aren't really what I've wanted. Again, I appreciate all the animated iterations of Yuru Yuri. So all I could say is that I'm definitely looking forward to the new OVA. Ironically, I haven't consumed all of the animated Yuru Yuri media. It's just so good, I don't want to finish it. I want to save more Yuru Yuri for later.