Wow... That was indeed beautiful. But a world with a lonely Aya Sham-something (Shamameiru?) and a world without her... it is something that I can't imagine...

Aya seems to have sneaked on to my lis of fave characters, along with marisa, patchu, and 9.

I'll admit I don't quite understand what's being expressed. Does she believe that she is strong or that she isn't? I guess not, since she doesn't truly want to fly alone and does want to/is part of a group? I get an immense sense of loneliness out of this piece, but the exact nature of it I'm not sure of. The text in red box on pg 11 also confuses me, can only make sense of it as being about not wanting to be alone, or of wanting to be strong enough to say "that's detestable". Can't say for the sure what the desire is. Also some disconnect between relating being alone and the world being beautiful.

I sort of understand enough to have a feeling of it, but the author's depiction really isn't clear enough to allow for full analysis.

This is still going on my favorites list though, because of the artwork. This is the most beautiful art I've seen from Stripe Pattern so far. The pictures are the best, they look like classical oil paintings. And there's such excellent use of light and shadow, framework composition, and dynamic postures. Full color's absolutely necessary and not wasted. I seriously want to know if they drew references from any particular painting because those snapshots are fucking gorgeous.

Back to analysis, I'm still confused. I've reread all the text five times now. It's a bit confusing because what's being said about her aloneness seems slightly contradictory. I don't know what she truly believes or what she wants to believe. I do get this feeling of her being chained, in one form or another. End feeling is that it's something like Aya wants to participate in the world with others, but she can only through her pictures of people being together and when she says that line to Reimu, it is as part of a claim that she belongs. And then when Reimu beats her and moves on, Aya knows that's what being truly alone (truly free) means, and it is something she can't reach. Sort of trapped between both worlds, both of which are beautiful, but in between, where she is, is nowhere. Ah I see. I think that makes more sense now.

Also it's nice seeing Aya take legitimate pictures of memorable moments, not just embarrassing gossip ones. :p

last edited at Jan 14, 2018 10:52PM