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Tezuka challenge by technicolorpie
So some of you may know, I am a huge fan of the work of Osamu Tezuka (Astro Boy, Unico, Jungle Emperor Leo (aka Kimba the white lion), Black Jack, a few million other things). One of his unique practices was treating some of his characters like actors - they would appear in multiple different stories, playing different roles. While some often got cast in very similar roles (as villains or heroes), it wasn't unusual for them to be totally different from one series to another (Sharaku was a dangerous villain in The Three Eyed One but an innocent, shy little boy in Black Jack). You can read more in depth about his 'Star System' here: http://tezukainenglish.com/wp/star-system/
It'd be interesting to me to see people take characters of theirs and do something like this with them - put them in another world, another story. The looks and name are the same but the role is different. How different depends on personal inspiration.
I am going to attempt this. I'm giving myself a deadline of December. I've not been good with deadlines this year but I want to try.
Tezuka challenge
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Comments
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I should note Tezuka wasn't above putting sight gags in the middle of even his most serious work.
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While I am unfamiliar with his work for the most part, I did know how he treated his characters. In fact, that's how I treat my characters. As an aside, Astro Boy: Omega Factor for the GBA is amazing and I believe has cameos of all his other characters.
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I have watched Let's Plays of Omega Factor! It is indeed a smorgasbord of Star System characters.
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...Interesting.
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I actually have some characters who do this, are in different stories in different roles depending on how I need them. One of my main characters even skips from her story into my bf's storyline, so their two worlds kinda slip into one another at points. It's a good idea and I'd love to see your guys playing different roles :3
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That's so NEAT!
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I wonder if this was another habit he picked up from Disney and the like; they used to do this all the time with the casts of their shorts. Although what you're describing reminds me more of VeggieTales than anything else, where a character introduced as the villain's henchman in one video might be a lazy wannabe-pirate in another, or the bumbling comic-relief guy could be cast as a corrupt king. Disney was more into keeping their characters essentially the same regardless of who they were playing.
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Yeah he was a huge Disney fanboy but the Star System worked a bit differently.
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That actually sounds like a really cool idea.
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Can't wait to see the outcome.
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Ah yes, I remember this! It's always extra amusing (also awkward, depending on the character/story) when he does this even with his animal characters, with Leo/Kimba and the Phoenix being the two most noteworthy examples of this (Rock Holmes is one of my personal faves).
While this is not quite the same thing, I do have a weird fondness for treating my character Viledove in a similar manner. He started life as a Transformer fan-character who I one day decided to give an "original" design for for easier/less restrictive art purposes. Along the way, though, I also played with the idea of drawing him as if he were created for other universes as well, from Kingdom Hearts to NiGHTs Into Dreams and the game Off so on (I'd share the rest, but they're currently offsite).
This then started to expand in my mind even further with the want to commission other artists to draw their interpretation of the character, be it more snakelike or more birdlike or whatever they so wish (examples are again offsite). They all share his name, sometimes even the same tale, but each one is another look into the same character.
I also have my own "mascot" characters (my own Kompy being but one example) with no single defined story of their own, but aside from the rare cosplay image, I doubt it really counts.
If I have the opportunity, I might give this a try, myself!
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Yeah Pie doesn't have any defined story either!
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If you need ideas, I'd suggest Pie in a sexy 1950s spy setting.
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Oh NEAT! Ugh, I'm a huge Tezuka fan. I gotta look this over carefully, this is pretty cool :3
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Miyazaki does something similar, as I understand it, at least with background characters. I think it's a great idea!
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i actually had an idea to do something like that with some of my characters, but i figured that it'd just confuse the heck out of people x3
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RushEloc
What if you have characters that are bad actors? They'll ruin the piece!