Tag Archives: birthday

La+ Darknesss Birthday 2025 and the Proximity of Fandom

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Laplus Darknesss from hololive posing on stage. She's a short girl with long white hair and large purple horns in a dark dress.

Today is hololive VTuber La+ Darknesss’s birthday, and that has me thinking about her relationship with her fans. In a world that both passively and actively encourages talent and fans alike to fall into obsession, she rarely lets others dictate what directions to go.

I like watching new VTubers debut. Variety is the spice of life, and you never know who’s going to be a pleasant surprise. But I’ve also noticed something when looking at reactions to these reveals: There’s a certain kind of viewer who seems very eager to throw their full support behind someone or something. With just an initial introduction (or even less) to work off of, this type of fan behaves like they’re looking desperately for a conduit for their passion

This can be just another way of engaging with online personalities, albeit one that differs from my more hesitant “wait and see” approach. A forlorn heart might yearn to be recognized and have its intense feelings reciprocated, so having some kind of outlet can be healthy. The fact that this can turn into genuine feelings of attraction and affection can still be okay if there is recognition and understanding of the limits of this relationship. 

Where it starts to get iffy is when someone either projects all their values and fantasies into a figure and fails to at least admit that this is projection, or when the eagerness to find a fandom turns into bitterness. That’s the point at which being parasocial becomes harmful, and I worry about both sides in these scenarios.

Some will play into this dynamic, but La+ has a bit of an unusual relationship with her viewers. She is herself an idol fan, and she has expressed empathy for those who have been hurt by an idol revealing that they have a significant other. She’s also a self-professed doutan kyouhi: a competitive fan who does not want to interact with others who share the same particular fandom. She knows what it’s like to be obsessed with someone…but she doesn’t actively seek to be that object for other people. 

The way the holoX commander prefers to hold her fans at arm’s length has actually at times garnered her haters. They wish she was something she’s not trying to be, and the fact that she doesn’t conform to their desires bothers them. She’ll make connections outside of hololive in big collabs with people regardless of gender or genre. She’ll gush over Mai Shiranui from the Fatal Fury franchise, channeling the energy of fighting game fans who grew up in the 1990s and 2000s despite not being of that era. She’ll ask to be insulted by her colleagues in hololive with mature voices. She’ll even come up with an official name for her fans (Plusmates), but never actually use it. And when others talk about what La+ is like behind the scenes, they’ll mention how hard she works for herself, her peers, and her fans. That’s something I really appreciate about her: She does her own thing and appears to have a good time in the process. 

La+ Darknesss prefers to act as a fellow fan who has the privilege of doing idol-like activities, such as singing and dancing on stage. In this way, seems to look at the fans who might potentially become her most obsessive and parasocial supporters, and says, “I get where you’re coming from, but I can’t be that for you. I can entertain you, though.” That’s just fine by me.

Happy Birthday La+ Darknesss 2024
La+ Darknesss, VTuber Birthdays, and the Ultimate Kayfabe

Megaman = Onizuka, and a Look at Robot Master Sprites

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That is to say, today Megaman is 22 years old. Happy Birthday!

Actually, had I known that his birthday was coming up, I probably would have saved my post about Megaman 10 for this occasion. Still, there’s plenty to talk about regarding Rock and the various mechanical adversaries he faces on a daily basis. One such topic is the art of sprites, and today I’m going to explain one of the interesting trends that occurred as the Megaman series progressed on the NES.


From left to right: Cutsman, Gutsman, Iceman, Bombman, Fireman, Elecman

If you look at the first Megaman game, the Robot Masters had the same basic physical frame as Megaman himself, Gutsman excepted. Over time however, the Robot Master sprites as a whole became larger and more detailed. No doubt this is to some extent due to the improvement of the technology within the NES cartridges, but there was a greater discovery that happened over the course of the series, one artistic in nature.


From left to right: Metalman, Airman, Bubbleman, Quickman, Crashman, Flashman, Heatman, Woodman

What makes larger characters like Airman and Woodman look less chunky than Gutsman? Take a look at their limbs, particularly in the legs. You’ll notice that they’re all colored black, at least before the knees and elbows. Some time in the production of Megaman 2, Inafune and the others working on the game must have discovered that by giving the Robot Master sprites black limbs, it would allow for Robot Masters with larger bodies to have arms and legs that did not look either overly thick or too spindly. It’s also what gives Quickman the ability to bend his knees better for cool poses. By the time Megaman 3 rolled around, every Robot Master had black limbs, and was designed to be larger than Megaman.


From left to right: Needleman, Magnetman, Geminiman, Hardman, Topman, Snakeman, Sparkman, Shadowman

The reason black has such a slimming effect on the limbs (outside of real world settings, I mean) is that the outline of the sprite is already black, and so when a different color is used our eyes tend to focus on that color and use the black as an outline, but when the limbs themselves are entirely black we view the entire leg, outline and all, as a solid block. There are still cases where a Robot Master might have non-black limbs, or cases where the arms aren’t black but the legs are, but you’ll notice in almost every case that it’s from a desire to make one set of limbs look “bigger” than the other.

Let’s use a more recent example, Plugman from Megaman 9, who has black legs and gray arms. I’ve altered his sprite twice, once to show him with black limbs only, and once to show his limbs as gray.

Plugman and Variations

You’ll notice that when I made his legs gray, it altered the perceived angle that his legs are bent at as well as making the outline around those legs more awkward looking, and also that when his arms are black your mind regards them as just a little bit thinner. It’s kind of subtle, but at the same time when it comes to something like an 8-bit sprite, one pixel can mean a lot, as in this case where it comprises about 25% of the width of a single thigh.

So there you have it. To another 22 years of Mega goodness, to another 22 years of smart and effective sprite work.

Belated Happy Birthday to Ogiue

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I am ashamed.

Just as I did last year, I failed to mention in time that last Saturday was the birthday for the great and wonderful Ogiue Chika, who if we go by the dates set in the Genshiken manga is already a productive(?) member of society.

If you recall, Ogiue at the end of Genshiken started to work as a manga artist for Monthly Afternoon. This was in 2005, and so by now she’s had about 4 years to make something of herself. I’d like to believe that in the world of Genshiken, she has worked hard with Sasahara at her side, a wonderful professional manga romance. Sasahara meanwhile is still probably working hard as an editor, possibly losing lots of sleep and wrangling manga artists to get their jobs finished on time. Such a splendid concept, being in a relationship with a person in your field who approaches it just a bit differently from you.

Let us give our goodwill to Ogiue in her future endeavors, and hope for happiness for her in the years to come.