Summer Festival Special – Chapter 8, Act 2, Strip 127

Our heroes’ glorious victory has not only (and apparently) secured liberty and security for Canajapanadan, it also came with added side-benefits.

Chief among them an opportunity to feature a type of stock anime setting that had yet been missing: the summer festival episode. And the timing is just perfect, since it actually is summer! Can’t really claim that I planned it that way, but I’m happy that it worked out so.

And, yeah…putting on that kind of festival immediately after the end of a global monster cataclysm would seem to require a lot of back-bouncability. But then, have you ever heard of anybody accusing the Japanacanadanese of not being unusually resilient? See? Me neither.

The proceedings cover all of the key elements: the wearing of yukata, eating of dango and a romantic scene against the backdrop of fireworks. Fireworks for which Biff doesn’t seem to be responsible for – as hard as that is to believe. ._. I guess that thing must really be some kind of seasonal disorder in Biff’s case, and remain inactive during the summer months.

Although I guess it would have been more effective to limit the fireworks to the fourth panel. >_> Perhaps I was unusually exuberant on the day I drew this. >_> …doesn’t really sound like me, though.

Speaking of things without sound…yeah, panels three and four display the full extent of my ability at writing romance. ._. I literally came up empty, all of my drafts only ending in something that made myself cringe. Either by sounding too overdone, or not overdone enough for the requirements of the scene. Cranking the volume way down avoids the cringe and allows everyone to mentally insert their own preferred dialogue. It’s not like there wasn’t enough those two could be talking about, given everything that happened.

More on Monday.

2 Replies to “Summer Festival Special – Chapter 8, Act 2, Strip 127”

    1. Yeah, summer festival episodes are popular in anime – they can be used to ease up on the pacing and also for character development, especially for (romantic) relationships. But they’re also considered a kind of fanservice, since Japanese people apparently really like seeing their favorite characters wearing yukata…

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