Rain
Comic 1401 - Kaminari - In Medias Res
Author Notes:
I really wanted to do the subtitle effect, to give it a more authentic anime feel, but naturally that limited how much dialogue I could contain in each panel. So, to address this and allow myself the space I needed, you might notice that this one page is slightly longer than one normal Rain page. The next couple pages will also be one-pagers, but likewise, they'll be longer ones.
Also, new Kaminari characters! Whenever I thought about Black Wings Kaminari with regards to Rain, I mostly stuck to the title character and her three companions: Aneko, Hokori, and Rei. I didn't actually have an antagonist in mind. So, meet Onajimi (Oh-Nah-Jee-Mee). She's not "the big bad" or anything; just a standard Episode 1 baddie. That said, I like her a lot. Her messy hair and sharp eyebrows were a pain to draw, but I think she looks cool as a result.
We've seen the other man with black wings once before. He's never named in comic, but I tend to call him Genten in my notes (hard G, like great or gold). I figure I'll just share that information to avoid too much confusion if anyone feels the need to talk about him (it's less of a mouthful than saying "that other guy who ruined black wings for everybody" every single time). XD
Finally, panel 10, shows off a tiny Princess Kaminari (age 7 or 8 or so), with her father, the king (never named; I only ever call him the king).
Anyway, a lot of the dialogue on this page is nothing new. I've kinda gone over Kaminari's origin story in way more detail a long time ago. But also, that was about half the story ago, and unless you reread Rain, I wouldn't be surprised if you forgot the details by now. But rather than write that all again in excessive detail, infodumping through the first episode, I opted to skim through the origin real quick, just lightly introducing Kaminari's past while she deals with a different situation in present day. You know, the Fullmetal Alchemist in medias res opening. It felt appropriate. ^_^
That said, if you would like the full recap, you can refresh yourself with this link.
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Rain, all characters and all other aspects of the story are copyright material belonging to me.
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really dig the character designs and composition, it's really got that classic anime feel to it. opting for those yellow subtitles instead of dialogue bubbles is a really nice touch. (also, gotta love that smol Kaminari in panel 10.) can't wait to see where this goes.
ngl I would watch the shit out of this if it were a real anime... make it happen Jocelyn!!
Actually, the title Black Wings Kaminari (no colon), is more a play on other classic anime titles. See stuff like Neon Genesis Evangelion, Sorcerous Stabber Orphen, Martian Successor Nadesico, Serial Experiments Lain, Samurai Deeper Kyo, and the list goes on and on and on. It's really just that three word title structure that I was going for.
But just like in the case of all these examples, people very rarely use the full title (many fans who watch every episode may even be completely unaware of the full titles of a lot of these shows), and it usually gets shortened - usually to the final word, only. And that's what I wanted to do with Kaminari.
Heck, if I can go real deep on nitty gritty, in order to best attain that structure of a mouthful three word title, I specifically wanted Kaminari to have a long name. Black Wings is easy to say, so when I was trying to find a name for the character, I thought it would flow best if her name had four syllables. It was just a stroke of great luck that Kaminari (meaning thunder in Japanese) actually lines up really well thematically with Rain's name.
TL;DR - I'm just a nerd and a weeb. XD
Homosex Queen Rudy
Gavin
Surprise Freshman Ryan
Chimera Maiden Anastacia
Kylie 1/2
Well, I apologize a little for Rudy's. That one dips from stupid into a bit insulting. But strip #314 taught us that homosex is a word now, and no other would capture the Strongwell energy.
To be clear, I don't mean that Rudy would choose to own it by being a slut. There's a lot of ways to be a Queen without fraternizing with the whole kingdom. Queendom? Land? Without fraternizing with the whole land.
But "chimera maiden" sounds like an awesome gig. The sort of job that comes with crimson battle armor.
This is more or less how it opens. The page title, "In medias res", means "in the midst of things". It's often used for longform stories, where the actual beginning might feel a little confusing if the story opens there, or maybe doesn't represent the story as a whole too well.
So, in short, the Kaminari anime is starting a bit later in the story to better represent the overall feel. The idea is that there'd probably be a later episode that goes into Kaminari's origins more in depth.