YGKO2: THE EXHIBIT: OUT OF TIME, OUT OF MIND

YGKO

the exhibit

OUT OF TIME OUT OF MIND spring/summer 2023

contents

Dennis P. as Yuji Itadori photographed on film at the Painted Ladies San Francisco, CA cyberpsiko

PART I COSPLAY PART II WRITING PART III ILLUSTRATION

A2 NieR: Automata Carolyn Z.

Mikaela (she/they) as Aki Hayakawa from Chainsaw Man in his present and future forms (present form in front, future form in back). Photography by Mikaela.

Aki Hayakawa: Present and Future

The concept of time is a central part of Aki and other Devil Hunters’ experience in Chainsaw Man. All Devil Hunters risk having their lives cut short when fighting or making contracts with Devils. With these realities in mind, I worked with one theme of this YGKO issue – “out of time” – to focus on the changes Aki endured in his short, eventful life. Aki’s present form resembles the closed off personality he appears to have at the beginning of the series. At first, Aki seems solely focused on eradicating devils. I represent such indifference through my blank expression. Interactions with other characters in the series reveal that he deeply cares about his partners. I referenced this truth by leaning my head against my hand. In my mind, Aki would have done this to cope with the stress brought on by the antics of his partners, Denji and Power.

Presenting Aki’s future form as a far off, somewhat visible figure speaks to another theme in this YGKO issue: “out of mind.” Aki’s fate brings him to a state different from his usually put together appearance. When I first saw this form, I wondered what Aki thought about the past actions that led to his future, ultimate state. The manga offers information about his thoughts about others. Yet, there is little information about how he thinks about himself. I attempt to bring to mind Aki’s future thoughts about himself through an ambiguous, distant form. I believe he approached his past with understanding and some regret.

Whether others agree or think of Aki’s present and future differently is up to them.

In honor of the 2023 Resident Evil 4 remake, theHabeshaHammer combines Leon S. Kennedy’s classic outfit with makeup and style trends dating back to the era of the initial 2005 release.

Photo: Abhi

El

Mercenario

Yor helped discover my femininity!

by Abhi

Femininity, whether gentle or empowering, has always been an alluring energy in my life. During a person’s transition journey, it’s easy to overlook what comes in between the realization and the final presentation. Before I ever attempted cross dressing so aspiringly, I existed in blunt contrast to who I represent today. When I identified as a boy, I would have related to Yor’s younger brother Yuri Briar, since Yuri adores his sister immensely while having a comically intense desire to protect her, I noticed this paralleled how I always found a love/ connection to my inner femininity, wishing to protect it by keeping it a secret from those who could harm it. Yuri also had a secret side to his life, one that he kept hidden even from his sister. As a State Security Servant Officer, he separated his dark/serious personality from the calm/loving personality towards Yor. Beforehand I was, for lack of a healthier word, extremely edgy! I adored several rock/metal bands similar to Linkin Park, Periphery, as well as being obsessively in sync with darker humor while trying to balance that side with love and kindness from a masculine lens. Under the surface I was always a closeted EMO, deeply in tune with my emotional side! Presently, I began to cognitively transition closer to Yor but still felt that I was not quite there. Similar to Yuri, Yor hid her life as an assassin and was protective of her newly formed family with Loid, with a mix of social awkwardness that I painfully related to. Nevertheless, I admired her natural instinct of maternal love and femininity while that never took away from her protective/calculated side that I would attribute to my past as well as Yuri. This cosplay forced me to confront qualities in myself that I wished to leave behind when beginning my transition as a non-binary trans woman. I discovered that the person I was formerly did not have so much as masculine traits as Yuri, but that I could accept them since Yor had them too. To conclude, the beautiful lesson I learned from cosplaying Yor in addition to understanding her brother is that if I’ll ever emulate her femininity, it won’t be that different from who I already am.

Abhi plays a Mark Holcomb signature 6-string PRS SE (Holcomb Burst) electric guitar.

Makeup & Photo: cyberpsiko

The scent of flowers The sparkle in her eyes When she talked about flowers.

The way she held my hand When resting under a tree.

Her dainty smile And infectious laughter.

She was everything I’ve ever wanted.

We shared many secrets together And maybe that was our flaw.

We felt so secure and powerful next to each other, We forgot about the real world, Forgot about social standards, Forgot about who we were, Forgot we were both women.

And so when our lips touched In a brief, subtle moment, Everything was perfect.

Then it broke.

And the warmth And love was all gone.

With a single kiss, I ruined what we had.

I should’ve known I could never be her’s And she could never be mine.

But we both wanted it, and I know it.

Otherwise she wouldn’t have Danced with me under the moonlight, Snuck out to visit me on a Wednesday night, Or looked at me with eyes full of Guilt, sorrow, and want.

We never saw each other again, But I’ll never forget the scent of flowers She had.

And perhaps, In another life, I’ll get to tell you I love you.

A series of poems by Kayley C. on the challenges a queer relationship faces until they are able to meet again in another life.

The flower garden

I found you.

That’s the first thing I thought When I saw her.

With the fields of flowers flowing around her.

Nothing felt more right.

I had never met her before, But something in me made me feel like I had danced with her under the moonlight, Seen her on a Wednesday night, And held her hand under a tree On a wistful summer day.

And so I walked up to her, Took a pause just to look at her one more time Before we both asked, Have we met before?

She looked at me with sparkles in her eyes And laughed.

It was beautiful.

And I think I fell in love with her right at that moment.

I loved spending time with her.

It truly felt like she was the one I was waiting for my whole life.

And as much as I wanted to be ok With just being friends, My feelings wouldn’t subside.

And so one day, I took her back to the flower garden Where we both met.

With a beating heart, and nervous hands I told her I love you.

With the scent of flowers surrounding me, She gave me a light kiss, And told me I love you too.

Inspired by “La Parfum de Fleurs” from Yuri on Ice and “The Flower Garden” from Howl’s Moving Castle.

That Time Ronan the Quick Disappeared One Afternoon by winter

Ronan the Quick was only a child when he became a lord; he had asked his father to shoot an arrow and grant him the length of land he could outrun the arrow. Ronan started from the hills of Windrop and caught the arrow where it met the coast, becoming the land’s lord. Those who witnessed this dubbed him Ronan the Quick.

His swiftness made him an impatient man. One morning, when Ronan left his men behind during a hunt, he saw a wolf attack a young man in gray. His blade was just as swift as he and easily brought down the wolf.

The young man sang him praises. “I would like to repay this favor. Would you honor me with your name?”

“I am Ronan, son of Archer,” Ronan answered. “There is no need for repayment.”

“I must insist! A life debt is a great one to pay,” replied the young man. “Would you be interested in my device? It is a clock! If you ask it, it will be able to tell you the length of time of any event you wish.”

Ronan shrugged and took the clock from the young man.

“Do mind the clock’s hands. If you try to change it, there is no telling what will happen,” warned the young man.

The young man thanked him again, and the two parted ways.

The clock served Ronan well. A farmer came to consult him about the best time for harvest, and the clock answered to the exact time of day. A healer came to consult about gathering herbs, and the clock answered which place would yield the fastest finds.

One day, Ronan dropped the clock, jostling its hands, and without thought, turned the crown of the clock. At once, a strange wind started, quickly becoming a fearsome wind. Without the weight to withstand it, Ronan was flung high into the air.

“You fool!” The clock reprimanded when Ronan landed. “You were told not to change my hands!”

“What manner of magic is this?” Ronan looked around in awe.

Truly, Ronan had never encountered such a sight in his life! There were unfathomably tall towers of stone and glass, the smoothest roads of stone, and beastly blurs that passed the road beside him.

“Your meddling has landed us in a foreign time!” snapped the clock.

Ronan shrugged. “How do I return? I have promised the farmers to scare off the wolves attacking their stock soon.”

“You must contain three objects of time by sunset to open a door back to your time.”

For Ronan, who had come into his lordship as a child, this seemed a mere trifle.

“I shall have it done before the sun touches the treetops. Look at how fast those beastly blurs move, Clock! With their swiftness, they must have the power of time!”

“It will take three days to chase one of those down. Best look somewhere else,” replied the clock.

“Three days!” Ronan said in admiration. “A fruitless endeavor then. A wise man knows not to question magic,” he nodded sagely. Ronan looked around the road and saw a man on a slower device approach. “That device seems to harness a smaller power of time, but I will surely be able to catch it.”

The man came to an halt before him. “What are you doing? This is the bike lane!

Get off!” The man yelled, red in his face.

“It was not my intention to offend you, but I must ask about what you are riding,” replied Ronan.

The man looked at him confused. “Is this a joke? Look, I really need to get to work.” The man attempted to maneuver past him, but he could not escape Ronan. “This isn’t funny, man. I need to get to work. I’m already late!”

“Impatience is a vice I too share,” said Ronan, gripping onto the bike. “But this is a matter of utter importance. I must acquire this device to return back to my home.”

“Let go of my bike!” The man said, face getting redder and redder. He looked at the bracelet on his wrist and looked back at Ronan. “I don’t have time for jokes.

If you don’t let go of my bike, I’ll call the police.”

“I do not know who that is, but if you are in that much of a hurry, I will be thankful for the help of the police.”

The man got down from the device and flung it toward Ronan. “Fine! You win!

You can have the stupid bike!”

Before Ronan could express his thanks, the man pushed him aside. “I had assumed that impatience was his vice, but it must be anger,” Ronan huffed. “But look, clock! I have already acquired the first item we need.”

“Heavens help this man…You’ve just stolen from someone!” the clock said.

“I take offense to this. That man willingly parted with his ‘bike’, no matter how irately,” said Ronan. “We will be able to find the second item soon.”

Ronan mounted his bike. Alas, because he was unused to the bike, he could not get far before he fell, and all of Ronan’s swiftness could not save him from colliding with the beast on the black road.

Ronan awoke upon a snow white bed in a white room.

“Has the sun set?”

“Not yet, but it has been long since you fell. You are lucky you are alive!” replied the clock.

Ronan shrugged. He tugged free from the string around his elbow and left with the clock and bike. The outside was as busy as a marketplace, but soon, he found a child with missing teeth idling with an unfamiliar device in their hand.

“May I inquire about the device you are holding?”

The child did not look up. “My phone?”

Ronan felt this rude, but did not mention it. “What manner of device is it?”

“Uh, it lets you talk to other people that are far away?” the child finally looked up from confusion.

“Quick communication? Surely this harnesses the power of time,” said Ronan to the clock.

The clock ticked. “Please do not steal the child’s phone.”

“I require your device. Would you be willing to part with it? I will owe you a life debt,” Ronan said to the child.

The child looked back down. “Uh, you can borrow the phone from the nurse’s desk over there.”

Ronan nodded in thanks and went to the desk. There was a different device lying on it, but upon seeing someone talk to a similar device next to him, he knew it was a phone. He cut the string on the phone and took it with him.

When Ronan exited the building, he realized the sun would soon set.

Ronan set his items down in the shallow marble pond. “I have yet to find the third item, but this strange pond seems like a good container to serve as a door. Clock, how long will it take to acquire the third item?”

The clock ticked. “Unfortunately, too long. I’m sorry, but at least this time does not seem too bad to live in?”

Ronan shrugged, sitting next to the pond. Now, though Ronan was famed for his swiftness, he also possessed a quick wit. One time, he had played cards with one that the townspeople swore to be the devil and won. “Clock, I may not be able to find a third item in time, but in fact I have had one with me all along!”

“Don’t,” said the clock.

Ronan threw the clock into the water and jumped in. At once, a bright light emerged from the pond, and Ronan found himself at his village well.

The townspeople were shocked, but upon seeing who it was, welcomed him.

Among them was the young man in gray who had given Ronan the clock.

Ronan picked up the clock from the ground and returned it. “The power of time is a useful tool, but I have discovered it breeds impatience, and impatience is an ugly vice to possess.”

“What was that bright light, my lord?” the healer asked.

“Do not pay it mind,” replied Ronan. “Just know that I have become a better man.”

“My lord, can you help us with the wolves now?” asked the farmer.

“Certainly! Come! This time, I will not leave you behind, and we shall conquer the wolves together!” Ronan rallied the townspeople who followed cheerfully at their lord’s improved character.

The young man in gray looked down at the clock.

“Do not speak to me,” the clock said.

This is apparently what happened when Ronan the Quick had disappeared that one afternoon.

My Own Cringe Sailor Time: A Way Too Personal Reading of Sailor Moon

by Rashika / litchilovers Queer temporality, or queer time, is the idea that due to the ways our queerness affects how we travel through expected life stages, queer people experience time differently from non-queer folks.

Experiences such as transitioning and coming out are often like a rebirth for us, a genesis point from which we experience adolescence and growing up all over again, this time armed with the knowledge of who we truly are. And indeed, I’ve also experienced a rebirth in my early twenties, as I’ve grown more comfortable with my bisexuality as well as my nonbinary identity. Now, I am reliving the tumultuous awkwardness of my preteen years as a young adult, figuring out love, relationships, and identity all over again. And during this time, I’ve often found my mind floating towards media my preteen closeted self loved, most notably the 1998 anime adaptation of Naoko Takeuchi’s Sailor Moon, arguably the spark upon which my queer journey began to blaze.

Sailor Moon is a show that I find deeply comforting, and as I rewatched the first season, the love I carried for it blossomed further, as the newfound knowledge of my queerness revealed new shades of meaning in it for me. With this retrospective, my goal is not to judge whether Sailor Moon “holds up” or provide a definitive review on objective quality. Rather, I want to look at this series in regards to how it influenced my own queer journey, and how it allowed me to heal and love my younger self once again.

I first discovered Sailor Moon in elementary school, after consulting numerous “Top 10 Best Anime!” lists, and among all the bloody, action-packed shounen which didn’t quite appeal to my personal sensibilities, this sparkly, crystal-studded show carried an immediate spark for me. Back then I simply thought that the colorful, space-themed Sailor Scouts were just “cool” or “neat” but now, as I watched the elaborate, beautiful transformations, swirling with vibrant color and tinted with jewelry and nail polish, striking red roses announcing the arrival of a mysterious masked figure, and the vogue-esque poses that Sailor Moon strikes before absolutely obliterating her enemies, the sheer camp of the

entire series became blindingly obvious to me. It was no wonder that this series stuck out to me as a child, it is overwhelmingly queer, both in aesthetics and in character. Admittedly, the explicit text of this series is quite straight, each Sailor Scout having a man she is either dating, noncommittally paired off with, or crushing on, and the only explicit queerness in the first season being the very sweet but ultimately tragic love story of Kunzite and Zoisite, a gay MLM couple who serve Queen Beryl, the main enemy of this season. However, the implicit subtext of this series is, to put it plainly, some of the gayest stuff I have ever seen on TV. For example, Makoto Kino, or Sailor Jupiter, is first introduced by beating up some bullies who are threatening Usagi Tsukino, or our protagonist Sailor Moon. She is a knight in shining armor for our resident disaster bisexual, who immediately develops what can only be described as a crush on Makoto, blushing wildly and admiring her beauty, particularly the rose earrings Makoto wears, and taking every opportunity to talk to Makoto and spend time with her all throughout the episode.

As a child, I remember this scene striking a chord with me, and even now, the way that Usagi’s queerness is explored here reminds me a lot of my own experiences, back then and in the present.

Now that time has allowed me a newfound perspective on my journey to where I am now, I recognize that Sailor Moon was one of the first places where I saw girls loving each other separated from the male gaze, in a way that I could relate with. Usagi’s admiration of Makoto’s strength, her style, and how she never openly expresses her feelings, just quietly blushes and fumbles her words around her, felt so indicative of my past and current experiences with queerness and love. Although I’ve known that I was bisexual for a long time, I never really felt comfortable with that part of me until very recently. Dating and queer culture felt so distant to me, and during my teen years, when all my friends, both queer and straight, were figuring out how dating and relationships worked, I was stuck by myself in the closet, too scared to strike out alongside them. Now though, as I am venturing out into dating for the first time, I am experiencing adolescence again as a queer college student, during what is meant to be my first steps towards adulthood. I don’t feel much like an adult though, I feel confused and like everyone around me has it all figured out. In other words, I feel like a teenager. Sailor Moon’s queerness captures this disconnect in my

romantic experience, how compared to my straight and queer peers, I often still feel much like Usagi, a bumbling, confused teenager who has no idea what’s going on, no idea how to talk to anyone I’m interested in, just silently blushing from the sidelines.

Watching this scene with Makoto and Usagi struck a similar chord in me now as it did back then, something I now see as my heart recognizing that budding queerness as something familiar, something I hadn’t experienced yet, but would in the future.

A common feeling associated with looking back on adolescence is cringe. To me, cringe is best described as a relatable embarrassment.

We can only cringe at experiences we are uncomfortably familiar with.

To cringe is an inherently empathetic experience. For queer folks especially, we often look back on our floundering attempts to figure out our identities as cringey. For a long time, I felt this way about my past self as well, who in middle school rambled to anyone who would half-listen about anime, yelled Sailor Moon’s signature catchphrase while flying on the swings at school, and wrote absolutely atrocious fanfiction about “friendships” between the Sailor Scouts. As I grew older, I dismissed that part of my life as cringe, making fun of my younger self in an effort to quell embarrassment, and to feel like I had grown past that. If I had rewatched Sailor Moon even just last year, I would have simply dismissed it as a childish interest. But as I watched these episodes now, I found that I wasn’t cringing, but genuinely enjoying the show the way I did as a child. I felt that same childlike wonder of finding an entirely new medium that I resonated with, and it was such a healing experience for me. I realize now that what I dismissed as “cringe” was my childhood self doing the best with what I had, my grief and pain and passion overflowing into the media I loved. Those memories embarrass me, they make me both happy and sad for that young closeted child who was somehow both far away and incredibly close to who they truly were. I still cringe when I think about that time, but I also appreciate it, because it made me who I am. Before writing this, I still felt far away from who I truly was, but right now, I feel just a little bit closer, both to my true self, and the person I was, all those years ago.

for your sake

by Cas / mousec1ub

rebellion

by Cas / mousec1ub

I wanted... to save Chifuyu

by Voidgearz

Tokyo Revengers, a series about timeleaping, reveals a series of bad futures that must be fixed. This piece is about one bad timeline in which Chifuyu is killed and Kazutora fails to protect him.

by Voidgearz

Riku

Kingdom Hearts is an expansive series in which we see the characters grow up before our eyes. We see Riku, from Kingdom Hearts 1 to 3, grow from a bratty kid to a mature teenager.

Makise Kurisu

by BaguetteGoing

Qiao Ling

by BaguetteGoing

by Baka

Time DisConnect Connect ／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼

I drew this piece because I relate to Homura, wanting to help the person I care about, even if I am no longer significant to them.

／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼ I think it’s sad that when time changes someone, it can cause them to drift apart from those they care about.

／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼ On the bright side, I made a contract with Kyuubey so now I have friends yippee >:0

／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼

an idol’s graduation

by kaiiste

As we age, the fictional characters we love rarely grow older with us. There’s a sort of bittersweet melancholy in reflecting on characters we looked up to years ago, and realizing that we’ve slowly outgrown them–whether it be in physical age, stage of life, or even a certain mindset or worldview. This phenomenon is especially pronounced in works that depict “realistic” settings and storylines, as they are tied to how we experience the world.

When BanG Dream! released in 2017, I was in high school like most of the characters. As the years passed, I aged like any other human, yet throughout the next 5 years, the girls in BanG Dream! would only advance a single year. For fans of some other multimedia franchises, even a single year passing in canon would’ve been noteworthy, rather than staying “perpetually 16.”

However, as I graduated high school and moved on to college in 2020, I began to bitterly assume the first age-up would also be the last. After all, the oldest characters were in their 3rd year in high school, so another year passing would mean... graduation.

Since my “idol” first series was Love Live!, I reserved any hopes; I was too accustomed to the 3rd years graduating high school at the end of the anime, yet somehow being trapped to repeat the same year in the game for over a decade of real time. The characters in both series, especially the newer, younger characters became less and less intriguing for me. High schools were simply the most overdone setting in anime, and without a special hook, idols/bands in high school were a dime-a-dozen.

To my utter (though pleasant) shock, in 2022 BanG Dream! announced that the 6th anniversary would involve the 3rd years’ graduation. Since then, there have been events involving characters undergoing the college admissions process and graduation, college areas being added to the map, and cards featuring the girls’ university life. Undoubtedly, this felt like a fresh breath of air to me, a current college student.

While I used fiction mainly as an escape in high school, I started to find more joy in my real life experiences as I discovered myself throughout college. Now, I feel a strange sense of pride seeing the characters I loved for so many years undergo coming-of-age scenarios I can reminisce about and relate to.

inuyasha: well of time

by johanna l.

Inuyasha inhaled the steam, mouth open, sinuses burnt by the artificial floral scents rising from the bath.

The sweetness seared his tongue, but he swallowed it like gravel down his throat; anything to distract him from the transformation taking place as he watched his hair darken in the gloomy reflection on the bathroom floor. He shifted in the hot water, imagining the liquid eating into his skin, but nothing of that sort was happening.

This was just normal bath water, albeit missing the rough floor and moss-covered rocks he was used to. He traced a finger across the porcelain surface, still fascinated by the way it reflected light unlike anything he’d seen before. Everything here was different. Everything here was safe.

Inhale, exhale.

Tessaiga was propped neatly against the tiled wall, and Inuyasha stared at it with pursed lips. Safe. He was the closest thing to a yōkai here. There was no need to sleep with his mind half awake, back against a tree, ears perked in attention. His form was fully defenseless now, and the familiar tingling of fear ran through his veins. Claws gone, senses dulled. But he was safe; of course, of course.

Inuyasha forced his twitching fingers into the water, frustratedly lowering himself into the heat and holding his breath. Safe, safe, safe.

Fully submerged, the boy closed his eyes.

Human.

The hatred that overcame him was almost habit at this point.

The silence underwater calmed his racing heart. The warmth covered him like an embrace, water caressing his cheeks like the mother in some distant memory. She was human, so human, that Inuyasha could still feel her hand on his, smile providing comfort. Human. Safe. So safe; covered in cloth, playing with her hair, missing her scent when she disappeared into the distance. Mother.

Inuyasha was safe. And when he opened his eyes again, the world was still. The water had stopped dripping from the tap, and Inuyasha inhaled, exhaled. He fluttered his eyes closed again, felt the human circulate in his veins, sink into his bones.

And there, right there, Inuyasha let his spine relax and sank deeper into the water. Yes, yes, human. Small. Weak. So weak. Soft.

Gentle.

Inuyasha could taste the steam.

If only he could stay there. Melt into the water. Stay human a little more; take long baths in white, slippery rooms. Let me stay.

Just a little more time. A little more time. Is that really so much to ask for?

in the shadow of the valley (that i love best)

fate & legacy are undeniably two themes at the core of jjba, and i felt like the parts where araki grappled the most with these ideas in relation to the series as a whole are parts 6 & 7. after the wonderful world of stone ocean took its final bow, steel ball run inherited the jojo legacy as it sought to create a new one. i wanted to represent that journey as relics in a dusty attic, an abstracted representation of how sbr rewrites the joestar story into something that reads both familiar and unexpected. by jay / starrpowered

kikyo by toxicmelon

by lov_lyse

golden morning

“Golden Morning” (title inspired by “Silver Morning”; my favorite track from the Samurai Champloo OST) encapsulates a mixture of time periods, styles, and ideas. The source of inspiration for this piece is Samurai Champloo (2004), one of my favorite anime for its unique aesthetic and playful merging of eras. While the subject matter of this piece isn’t the feudal-era samurai of Japan like in the original series, I still honor my love for the series in my own way.

In this piece, I utilized a Samurai Champloo-inspired art style to instead portray my original character: Fish. I aim to take the essence of what makes Samurai Champloo unique (taking on traditional concepts with an early 2000s hip-hop flair) and blend it with my original character who is derived from my heritage. “Golden Morning” blends traditional Filipino culture (arnis/escrima/eskrima -- a martial art that can be traced back centuries) and its futuristic possibilities through Fish, an eskrimadora living in a distant future and clad in cyberpunk-inspired clothing. Lastly, this is all done in a mixed media style to emulate how Samurai Champloo pays homage to both early 2000s aesthetics and traditional art techniques. Yes, pretty confusing, but I interpreted this issue’s prompt as an opportunity to play around and experiment with my artistic inspirations across many different time periods. On a more personal note, this piece also represents my future aspiration to reconnect with my heritage. Escrima was a central part of my early life, but it was short-lived and forgotten with age. I hope to reconnect with and learn more about this part of my heritage and beyond. However, I recognize this reality is not far-fetched or reserved for the future.

It is a goal I can actively work towards in the present, one step at a time. This piece in itself is a part of my continuing journey.

Atlas / chthonic.Archivist

Phosphophyllite: Landscapes

by Atlas / chthonic.Archivist

These illustrations are based on Monet’s Haystacks, a series of paintings which feature various haystacks in fields, the main difference between pieces being the colors, dictated by the season, day, and weather. Similarly, I have Houseki no Kuni’s Phosphophyllite stood in the open landscapes of the manga, in different times of the day and year, as well as different stages of their own life in the story. I sought to invoke the original impressionist paintings through the composition and subject matter but also the color choice and visible brush strokes, an integral part of Monet’s depiction of light’s effect on our perception. He and other Impressionists used this to explore the interaction between time and our experiences of things, an interaction which to me is also examined in Houseki no Kuni. This theme is well-exemplified in the Haystacks series, since the paintings’ differences are defined only by time and circumstance.

For my illustrations, the settings are, in order, autumn in the morning, winter at midday, and spring at sunset. Phos appears at three major stages of their character in Houseki no Kuni, in chronological order. The order of these images’ seasons suggests renewal, from fading autumn life to the barren winter to lush spring growth, while the order of the times of day suggests a linear growth and demise, from sunrise to sunset, paralleling Phos’s own progression, in my illustrations and the manga. Houseki no Kuni’s gems comment that the rapid change of Earth’s other lifeforms and its seasons strike them as foreign and wondrous, as long-lived beings with no concept of death. However, by the end of the series, we see a very changed Phos as the last of their kind, on an Earth with its plant and animal life continuing in their cycles of renewal. The gems have changed and yet the Earth remains static, a reversal of the paradigm established earlier. The third illustration’s juxtaposition between the archetypal associations of spring and sunset especially calls to mind this irony of the series, and how it plays with the notions of permanence and transience.

additional credits Co-Directors cyberpsiko lov_lyse

Layout Jessica W. Johanna L. kaiiste Madison M. quandrries winter

Advertising Jessica W. Madison M. Mikaela M. toxicmelon

about

Visually emulating a museum display, this season’s zine production centers around time and its profound influence on our lives.

From stories of personal development expressed through creative growth to the more bittersweet goodbyes we’ve had to face in our favorite shows and everything in between, we invite you to dive into the myriad of experiences each and every second has brought us through the lens of our love for anime, manga, games, and more.

The YGKO Collective is a student-run team powered by Gekkou: the Queer and/or Women’s Anime Association at UC Berkeley.

Featuring cosplayers, illustrators, and writers, we aim to elevate fresh perspectives within pop culture by simultaneously bringing forth a celebration of each artist’s unique identity in a manner inspired by the Japanese aesthetic concept of yūgen, a dynamic philosophy that highlights the seen but also, more importantly, an unseen world of potentiality.