Marion-Kun

when i decided to make amane ambidextrous, the important part wasn’t actually that he could use both hands.

it was deciding which hand belonged to him.

canonically, amane is left-hand dominant, but he has a habit of defaulting to his right hand when he’s stressed or performing. on paper, that’s a tiny detail. most people either won’t notice it or will assume it’s just a consequence of being ambidextrous.

it isn’t.

for me, the distinction ended up reinforcing a much larger pattern in his character.

amane is someone who is constantly adapting himself to his environment. he’s always evaluating situations, adjusting his behavior, deciding what version of himself is safest to present. a lot of his personality revolves around performance—not necessarily in the theatrical sense, but in the sense that he’s very aware of what other people can see.

because of that, i liked the idea that his natural inclination and his performed inclination weren’t quite the same thing.

the left hand is the one that comes naturally. it’s what he writes with, reaches with, gestures with. if nobody is watching him, that’s the hand he tends to use.

the right hand, meanwhile, became associated with function.

performance.

adaptation.

survival.

if he’s on stage, under pressure, or forced into a situation where he has to consciously manage himself, he starts favoring his right hand without really realizing he’s doing it.

the reason i like this detail is because it mirrors the way he approaches almost everything else.

amane rarely commits completely to a single position.

emotionally, he keeps an exit available.

socially, he keeps an exit available.

even when he trusts someone, there is usually some small part of him staying behind, waiting to see if he needs to leave.

he’s someone who functions best when he has options.

when he has alternatives.

when he has another route available if the first one stops being safe.

his ambidexterity ended up becoming a tiny physical manifestation of that mindset.

most people have a dominant hand and rarely think about it.

amane has a dominant hand, but he also has a backup.

and i think that says a lot about him.

he’s an escape artist. not just literally, but psychologically.

he’s spent most of his life learning how to adapt, how to adjust, how to survive situations that weren’t built for him. so when he’s under stress, his instinct isn’t to commit harder to what comes naturally.

it’s to switch.

to compensate.

to find another way.

that’s why i made him left-hand dominant specifically.

because i liked the idea that the version of amane that exists naturally and the version of amane that exists under pressure are not quite the same person.

they’re close.

but not identical.

and i think a lot of his character lives in that gap.

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6 days ago | [YT] | 230

Marion-Kun

when i was deciding on kaoru’s birthday, i chose march 14th very intentionally.

march 14th is white day, a holiday celebrated one month after valentine’s day. while valentine’s day is traditionally associated with giving affection, white day is centered around returning it. reciprocation is the entire point. it’s a holiday built around answering the question: “i know how you feel about me, but how do i feel about you?”

that idea ended up becoming surprisingly important to kaoru’s character.

a lot of people look at kaoru and immediately notice how outgoing he is. he’s loud, affectionate, constantly joking around, always trying to get a reaction out of people. he becomes attached quickly and tends to wear his emotions on his sleeve. on the surface, that can make him seem emotionally confident.

the problem is that most of that behavior is actually driven by insecurity.

one of kaoru’s biggest fears is being abandoned, replaced, or forgotten. he wants to feel important to the people he loves, but he struggles to believe he is. because of that, he constantly seeks reassurance. he wants proof that people enjoy having him around. proof that he’s wanted. proof that the affection he’s giving isn’t one-sided.

that’s where white day comes in.

the symbolism isn’t really about romance. it’s about reciprocation.

kaoru is someone who gives people a lot of himself. his attention, his loyalty, his affection, his trust. but in return, he’s constantly wondering if the people around him feel the same way. he wants certainty in relationships that can never really provide certainty.

this is especially noticeable in his attachment to hajime. kaoru becomes emotionally dependent on him very quickly because hajime makes him feel safe and understood. however, a large part of that attachment is driven by the need for reassurance. he wants to know that he matters just as much to hajime as hajime matters to him.

in a lot of ways, nearly every major relationship in kaoru’s story comes back to the same question:

“is this mutual?”

that’s why i chose white day specifically. not because it sounded nice, but because the central idea behind the holiday mirrors one of the central conflicts in his character. even when he’s surrounded by people, even when he’s loved, kaoru is constantly searching for confirmation that the feelings he has for others are being returned.

i’m always a huge fan of details like this in character writing. a birthday doesn’t usually seem important, but sometimes a single date can reinforce an entire character arc.

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1 week ago | [YT] | 230

Marion-Kun

i love ironic character fears so much. genuinely, they’re one of my favorite character writing tools ever.

one thing i always find interesting is when a character’s greatest strength is directly connected to their greatest fear. not only does it create internal conflict, but it also completely changes the way you view their talent.

that’s actually a huge part of why i chose to write amane the way i did.

he’s the ultimate escape artist, yet his two biggest fears are water and losing physical control over his own body.

which is honestly kind of terrible if you think about it.

when people hear “ultimate escape artist,” they usually imagine someone who’s completely fearless. someone who can stay calm no matter what situation they’re put in. but i think that’s a lot less interesting than someone who’s terrified of the exact things their talent revolves around.

the fear of losing physical control is especially important to me because escape artistry is such a control-based talent. every movement matters. the entire thing relies on being aware of your body and what it’s doing. so naturally, one of the worst fears i could give him was the possibility of losing that control.

water works similarly. it’s one of those situations where even a skilled escape artist can suddenly run out of options. panic becomes a factor. time becomes a factor. your own body becomes a factor.

and that’s exactly why i chose it.

if amane wasn’t afraid of these things, then being good at escaping wouldn’t really say much about him. but because he’s afraid, every successful escape becomes proof that he’s acting in spite of that fear rather than being unaffected by it.

it’s the same reason i love characters like shuichi. there’s something really compelling about a talent constantly forcing someone to confront the exact thing they’d rather avoid.

i don’t know. maybe i’m just obsessed with contradictions in character writing.

[[tap for full pics]]

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1 week ago | [YT] | 256

Marion-Kun

AMANE KINNIE BINGO
Finally finished this!! It’s all fun and games until you realize half the squares are just “avoids vulnerability in increasingly creative ways.”
Feel free to fill it out and tag me if you do!! I genuinely want to see everyone’s results.

Remember: this is just a silly character bingo and NOT a psychological evaluation

…probably.

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 171

Marion-Kun

You ever design a character, spend hours refining them, finalize every detail, post the sprites, and then suddenly realize you’ve created your own worst enemy?

Not because the design is bad. I LOVE my character designs. But then reality sets in.

“Wow, Amane looks so cool with that spiked collar!”

Yeah. The spiked collar that I have to draw. Every. Single. Time.

And the chain.

WHY IS THERE A CHAIN.

Who gave him that.

Why did I give him that.

Spikes are already annoying enough, but drawing them from a front view feels like solving a problem specifically designed to make me miserable. And chains somehow manage to be both simple and impossible at the same time.

Character design is just:

1. Add cool detail.
2. Add another cool detail.
3. “This looks awesome.”
4. Draw the character 500 more times.
5. Suffer.

I don’t hate the design.

I hate the fact that I have to keep drawing it.

Anyway, here’s a cute drawing.

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 400

Marion-Kun

╭─────────────── ☆ ───────────────╮
✦ ART COMP RESULTS ✦
╰─────────────── ☆ ───────────────╯

First of all, thank you SO much to everyone who entered!! ♡

I genuinely had so much fun looking through all of your entries, and choosing winners was way harder than I expected. There were so many pieces I loved, and honestly I was sitting here wishing I could just give everyone a prize 😭

I ended up changing the winner count from 3 to 5. In the original rules, I allowed both traditional and digital art, but I only received 2 traditional entries. Because of that, I felt it would be more fair to judge the traditional and digital submissions separately rather than having them directly compete against each other.

With that said…

╔══════════════╗
✦ DIGITAL ✦
╚══════════════╝

🥉 THIRD PLACE
⊹ ࣪ ˖ ‪@tanauvi‬

🥈 SECOND PLACE
⊹ ࣪ ˖ ‪@Eggydgrp‬

🥇 FIRST PLACE
⊹ ࣪ ˖ ‪@FlyNamedBee‬

☆ Congratulations!! ☆

╔════════════════╗
✦ TRADITIONAL ✦
╚════════════════╝

🥈 SECOND PLACE
⊹ ࣪ ˖ ‪@RainbowJemDR‬

🥇 FIRST PLACE
⊹ ࣪ ˖ ‪@jessiesalerno3545‬

☆ Congratulations!! ☆

────────── ♡ ──────────

Thank you again to everyone who participated! Every entry was amazing, and I seriously appreciate the time and effort that went into them. Even if you didn’t place this time, please know your art was still appreciated and I loved getting to see everyone’s work!!
✦ PARTICIPANTS ✦

A huge thank you to everyone who joined the event and shared their artwork:
‪@Laiaisdebeste‬ ‪@aiseosamuu‬ ‪@m3ee3‬ ‪@TheStarsInTheSkyAreCool‬ ‪@jaylad6197‬ ‪@PinkBrokenTears‬ ‪@DuckyBlossom‬ ‪@Kazu_zu09‬ ‪@RATUUHH‬ ‪@Eggydgrp‬ ‪@CeriseGaleTan‬ ‪@FlyNamedBee‬ ‪@omnipot3nce‬ ‪@tanauvi‬ ‪@RainbowJemDR‬ ‪@jessiesalerno3545‬

Until the next event… ✦
♡ Thank you for joinin

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 151

Marion-Kun

every time i draw amane it’s in a completely different style and i refuse to apologize for it. variety is the spice of life and also my entire art philosophy.

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 316