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It's time for a brief look at this year's Koishi Day! This year features a huge leap in progress, considering you can actually read this on neocities RIGHT NOW! instead of my previous recap I shared on waifu.ist, which was down for approximately half of the year and unresponsive for the other half. So excited!
Here are my favorite art pieces this year! Click on the heart bullet point to read my thoughts on each.
❥"Koishi-chan" by Carbohydrate/炭
yes i like cute maid koishes, I AM HUMAN AND THEREBY SUBJECT TO THE FALLEN NATURE OF MAN!!!
❥"514" by K5_koUkoo
This illustration, as a far as I can tell, is of Idol Koishi! Yes--maybe it's a surprise considering everything, but I actually don't know anything about this Idol Koishi thing going around. But my feelings are very positive! Take a moment to appreciate this artist's rendition of the design, since we'll be returning to Idol Koishi later in this recap. I love the painterly-style of their rendering done here, and it was no shock for me to learn that I'm using the same art program as this particular artist. Besides the amazing color selection and lighting, what I appreciate the most about this piece is the story it's conveying. Sometimes I get a little tired of smile-y anime girl pictures where no other emotion is being conveyed besides sheer positivity, so pieces like this always catch my eye easier.
❥"会えないけどだいすきだよ" (I love you, even if we can never meet!) by ︎︎よ
よ
This is likely my favorite piece released on this year's Koishi day! Out of all of Koishi's appearances throughout the series, the one most close to my heart is her original appearance in Subterranean Animism. That's not to say that I don't appreciate other things about this work, but I have a soft spot for any art that highly resembles her first design. I think this illustration here tells a cute story, with Koishi pouting due to the fact that the player hasn't unlocked her Extra Stage yet (they can't ever meet!) and I really think that such a small detail like that was an amazing idea. I also really love the rendering style this artist has, and overall find their work to be very unqiue and distinctive compared to others!
❥"黒こい" by 赤間
This was another illustration that really impressed me this year! This artist has drawn Koishi clad in a stark black, the piece itself is overwhelmingly dark. What draws me to to it is her pale, expressionless face and her left eye that has been obscured and blotted out by darkness. I think the vague facial expression really lets the viewer come to their own conclusions on the feeling of the painting. And, I'm not sure how to translate the title...I'd guess it's just "Black Koi" as an affectionate nickname for her.
❥"0514 うつつごころ" (waking heart) by 理都
While it's a fairly simple piece, it's another contender for my all-time favorite this year! I absolutely adore this artist and their work, especially the way they portray Koishi. I find the setting Koishi has found herself in very unique, perhaps because of the interesting color selection and motion conveyed through it. One of my favorite aspects is her textured hair and the excellently drawn plants in the background! I love art like this and find it very special and appealing.❥heki-sui-rain's contribution for Koishi Day!
Where to even start? I love the sense of motion and conveyed in this piece through the descending and ascending hearts spiraling around towards Koishi. The amount of variation in texture and hatching in this work is enough that you can admire it for such a long time, appreciating more and more, but never feeling like it's too much! I love the texture used on Koishi's skirt for example, as well as the thoughtful hatching on her third eye. But my favorite part of this piece is the interesting story told within it, as you can see what appears to be another version of Koishi slumped over onto the floor behind her. Any artwork like this--one that focuses moreso on the expression of a creative story--has always been what I'm most attracted to in terms of art, especially compared to the endless slop of "Koishi standing in a white void but she's cute and she's going :DDDD". Not to say that I don't LOVE eating my slop...but even I get tired sometimes...❥toroidcoil's piece
I am simply stunned by the color selection and execution of this piece, I can't help but find it so inspiring! The embryonic egg-like container Koishi appears to be chilling in is utterly fantastic with a range of deep blue, purple, and sunset-like oranges cascading inside of it. I really appreciate the small details of this piece too, such as the little fishes swimming around inside of the egg with her, or the stars sprinkling the pitch black void behind her. Who knows what the cat is doing in there with her!!❥5.14 by infected-red
This is a VERY underappreciated piece that I am upset has gone largely unacknowledged! This artist has an outstanding rendering of Koishi here, especially in the grainy, atmospheric lighting present in this piece. It feels very palpable and real, like you are actually in the room with Koishi, shining a flashlight on her or something along those lines. I think her pose here is very expressive, and it's a valuable take on the more "creepy" or unnerving aspect to her character that I think most artists fail at executing. Koishi has always been a character who's veered more towards the psychological horror aspect of it, being subtly unnerving instead of the whole "OMG NOO!! BLOOD KOISHI KNIFE MURDER KILL!!!!!" mind-virus people have succumbed to for the last 10 years. So I am really happy to still see creative work like this!
Unfortunately, I don't seem to be able to embed any youtube videos...no idea why this is because every single solution hasn't worked!
❥S.S.S by 破滅ミク
This is perhaps my favorite arrangement to come out today, although it's fairly standard in terms of Hartmann arrangements. I was just about to shrug off this song until it transitioned into the climatic melody, and it blew me away! I love the insanely catchy gabber-ish vocals and think this section of the song is very special. While perhaps other portions of the song don't live up to the same level of quality, it's still a very enjoyable, high-energy listen.❥戀 by Lapis lanta Rose
Surprise! While this song doesn't feature Koishi's theme and is mostly about her sister, Satori, it's getting on this list because not only did it come out on Koishi day, but it seems to be about their relationship. If I had to guess, it's about Satori having an obsessional love for Koishi, enough to make an enemy out of the entire world or abandon herself for her sake (isn't paying attention to the lyrics and is watching the pretty pictures). Even more better is the fact that this circle seems to have a high quality translator (or are they doing it themselves?) so by the time you're reading this, the youtube video might already have English subtitles! Regardless, I love the composition and evocative story told in this song, especially the dynamic of their relationship. This isn't the first song I've seen that's twisted their relationship in this way, and I have to admit I enjoy stories like this immensely. I also like how it plays on the formal te-forms of the verbs to resemble their names (Koishi, Satori)!❥Invisible at 3AM by Dreamy Records
Looking at the thumbnail of this song and the wonderful art, I was really excited for it to release, but I'll be honest--I don't really like the vocalist of this song, which is telling since I normally love male vocals. I think there's a real lack of emotion in the singer's voice, and combined with it being a fairly stereotypical EDM song, I just don't feel strongly compelled about this piece compared to others. However, I think the lyrics are pretty interesting and much more sadder than you might assume on first glance of the song's colorful visuals, and so I think the song is deserving of some admiration!❥室内楽のための古明地こいしメドレー(A Chamber Music Melody for Koishi Komeiji) by サフィール
Yes, I had to look up what the term "Chamber Music" meant since I had no clue what that was! This song is an combination of Hartmann and Last Remote, and it's very beautiful and somewhat relaxing piece, despite still retaining the emotional and stimulating melodies of both compositions. Some of the melodies of Hartmann in particular switch from sounding very playful and mischievous, right before shifting into a more somber, sentimental tone. I love the variation present here and just find it delightful to listen to.❥アイドルこいし New EP『無意識カット』 (Idol Koishi New EP "Unconscious Cut") by GAMEPULSE
Once again, I have to admit that I have no clue what's going on. Apparently there's a game developed by GAMEPULSE called Hero of Ice Fairy, where there is a DLC (Rose Idol) prominently featuring Koishi (Who is an idol now btw, the Underworld Rose). I've never played this game or know much about it, but this song is really amazing! It has excellent vocals, an interesting composition, and it comes with a music video! I enjoy the lyrics from what I've seen so far, especially Koishi's endearing and polite dialogue when she asks if Satori can see her. If I had to guess what the song is about, it seems like Koishi and Satori are still having minor relational difficulties even after Koishi's become an idol...listen guys I worked 9 hours on Koishi day and just came over after ELEVEN hours to finish writing this, I'm not working with the best translation ability right now....but more idol koishi please.....
TOHOTOPIA is launching in early access with the Subterranean Animism cast on Koishi Day! Of course, I won't be able to play it likely for a really long time, but I'm floored by what I see so far and can't wait to buy it anyways. The game is inspired by The Battle of Polytopia and Civilization (two games I've also never played before...) and features marvelous re-designs of the Touhou characters, all based on real-world empires.
It's with great joy that I can say that the Komeiji empire is inspired off of the ancient India!! India and Persia are my two favorite civilizations I've read much about so far, and seeing the adorable, creative design of Indian Koishi was an absolute hit for me. I love how her signature attack is named "Maya's Veil" and how it links her with that concept, as well as the cute peacock feathers in her hat. What's more is one of my other favorite characters (Miko) is getting the Persian empire!! The release of this game into early access has made this Koishi Day so much more memorable and exciting and I can't wait to continue to follow the game's progress. Consider the fact that this game so far is only less than FOUR DOLLARS and open your wallet NOW!! And since this might be the only place to make this joke, what if Koishi was Iranian and also into web design? She'd be Ferdowsi's <div> girl. Thank you for tolerating me.
I got quite a lot done this year to celebrate Koishi, but still not as much as I'd like!
Believe it or not, but I wasn't planning on getting this website up so soon. Shortly after finishing my main project for this year, I spent a good month tweaking around with my redesign of the old website--only to go through two different versions, all horrifically unresponsive. When my laptop was on the verge of death, I genuinely thought it wasn't worth it at all to back up any of my css files, saving only my assets and some drafts of future blog posts. I was putting off this website since I knew I wanted to "come back" from my long hiatus of not posting strong with three different translations, and so I'd get those done first before returning to the website...the exact opposite happened!
I'm really happy with the website as-is, although there's still some changes and additions I've been thinking about and I'm feeling rather overwhelmed with the possibilities. Besides tackling the issue of mobile and tablet resolutions, there's the question of whether or not I want my translations to have their own page, as is typical, with an embedded video or something-like-that so you can listen to the music and read along. The "Art" page is pretty lackluster too...Regardless, I'm actually feeling a lot more confident in terms of css now that I understand what the objectively best unit of measurement is! (It's vw/vh). My objective right now is to experiment and at least try to have more of a variety of css styles on this website, although the theme will likely be consistent--I want special pages to "stand out" instead of all being, as you can see right now, all blog.css. The real challenge is going to be balancing these four things: My new work schedule, my translation schedule, my website-updates and improvements, and my (lack of) sanity.
ID:
I went ahead and translated "ID" by ZYTOKINE, one of the more popular Hartmann arrangements--and very deservedly so! There's been a very old, half-finished translation available for many years now, but nobody has ever stepped up to finish translating it....This has always surrpised me, and I never understood why I'd see english speakers sharing the Japanese lyrics without making an effort to supply a translation--maybe it was insecurity? It turns out most people are just plugging the lyrics into AI and are somehow satisfied with that. Well, I'll have more to say about that later, but for now i'll just say I like this song a lot despite the incredibly J-Popy lyrics! I'm getting really sick of hearing 涙, 夜, 恋, in every single Hartmann song...And in regards to the illustration I drew for it, I'm not too happy...I spent a good portion of my time doing some texture studies of clouds to prepare, but I didn't suceed---I think I should've used a soft brush instead, but forgot about this method when it came time to actually draw the background. Likewise, I've been having a problem with Koishi (as you can certainly tell) and her design not being consistent, especially in her face. It's really apparent in this piece. But I suppose it still has the mood, impression, and story I wanted to convey apparent, so I'm glad I executed that at least.
Everlasting Happy:
I translated this song by CielArc for no other real reason, besides the fact that I knew I needed to "get around to it" eventually, and that I wanted to draw a happy Koishi illustration this year. Last year, I drew a picture of Koishi with a heartwarming, precious smile holding a bouqet of roses--this time she's collected all of them in her hat! And the butterflies are being drawn to her, probably because they can't percieve Koishi but do percieve the flowers in her hat. At first these flowers were not going to be roses, but I tried and struggled with the other sorts of flowers for ages before finally giving up...This song is about Koishi wanting to hold onto her lovers' hand, so I drew her extending her arm out towards the viewer. I'm really happy with this piece and the fact that I finally suceeded in a high key painting! Anyways, I'm not the biggest fan of this song in particular, but one line stands out to me: "If I was born over and over again, I'd still just want to be me." This line might seem pretty mudane, but I think it becomes a lot more compelling when you realize it's Koishi of all characters saying it--the character who interalized the hatred of others so much that she rejected her own existence, unable to accept who she was born as.
I won't wake up:
This is for my translation of the song by Tengu no Mai, which keeps getting translated as "Won't wake up" by people and likely language learning models who do not understand Japanese. It's been my favorite song for several years now, but I was only able to piece together some portions of the lyrics due to some of the rather obscure vocabulary (胸騒ぎ, etc) and my horrific old laptop. Ever since I've upgraded to a new laptop, I can finally understand Japanese people and what they are saying!! My audio quality was so bad that I'd hear "カラス" as "グラス" ("Crow" as "Glass"). I'm incredibly thankful towards the person who decided to transcribe this song...I was actually planning on buying the album, but at the last minute, someone else bought it--meaning I'd never get my hands on the lyric booklet. So I spent many months routinely searching the internet, only to one day check Touhouwiki and see the lyrics there!! I'll be honest and say I was crying and shaking uncontrollably, that's how important this song is to me. I'm also just very sensitive...Some private things I've been working on this year include a massive playlist of all available Hartmann arrangements--I've been browsing that huge database and documenting which songs need translations, added to the playlist, or even just uploaded. I absolutely loved my time doing this; I ended up stumbling across so many fantastic Koishi songs I've never heard before, including my new all-time favorite, The Requiem Sung for Fluttering Ghosts. I even managed to find a super rare song that I've been searching for FOREVER!! Not sure when I'll finish drawing the illustration for it, since I want at least two images and it's going to be a little...edgy...Here's a sneak peak. If you're a big fan of Koishi you might recognize it from a few snippets of these lyrics:
(As I stepped forth upon this world,)
(My foreign art revealed it to be a melting pot,
brimming with others' contending emotions)
(As I spoke aloud their true feelings, in my pure infancy,)
(An agonizing, malignant shroud of pure darkness
fell upon me.)
Looking forward now, I'm very excited for my Koishi Day project next year...but also very overwhelmed. I'll have to split my time between updating this website, making assets for this website, playing around with css, translating and drawing more illustrations for the songs, and then deal with my real-world responsiblities and chores...AND then devote time towards this project!! It's going to be a lot of work, especially with some limited portions of (something) I'm fairly unexperienced with, and so I'm feeling intimidated. As a hint for what it is...you've almost certainly seen and heard it before if you've been a huge fan of Koishi for many, many years now like myself. It'll be really nostalgic, a remastered version if you will. I have a lot of emotional attachment to it, and I'm hoping that will keep my motivation running strong. Regardless, you'll see what I end up finishing next year!...and YES...the plan was to orginally upload this recap on the 15th, not the 16th...YOU try working from 5AM to 4PM and not immediately passing out when you get home! I finished the draft version of this post, went upstairs to change, and collapsed into my bed...