2024 Retrospective (Pixiv Fanbox)

Year-End Survey(Optional - no need to take it) - https://forms.gle/oUaiBRWbNuczEJ9x6

It's the end of the year, and as we go into 2025, I figured retrospective post was in order. This one won't be quite like last year where I had a bunch of characters in the St. Louis dress for renders. I will have renders, but I'm feeling exceptionally lazy after Christmas, so I'm taking it easy this time. Nothing fancy in terms of renders, and I don't have anything really started to tease so can't exactly tease what I don't have.

MFW 2024

Now, 2024 was a weird year for me. The first half was awful. Lots of things that could go wrong, went wrong. Felt like a never ending calvicade of problems. But, thankfully, the latter half of the year wasn't too bad for me. It wasn't anything special to make up for the first half, mind you, but I got a lot of random inspirations and motivations when I needed them, which helped a lot. That said, this year did break away from my prior several years of bi-weekly releases. And going forward, I'll probably avoid a strict bi-weekly schedule. If only because the more flexible time-table lets me focus up a bit more on making something really good, instead of just churning out decent animations. That said, I do want to avoid just being a 'once-a-month' sort of guy, so I will still be doing the two polls a month, as well as trying to release some smaller sets in between my bigger ones. Not everything needs to be big and bombastic and all that, but my schedule will be looser. I will be trying to get back to a more rambly schedule, to keep people updated and informed of my progress and the like. Don't want to leave people hanging on when something will release. x)

As for what will be upcoming... there will be a release for New Year proper, replacing the poll animations. It's... something no one will be expecting, I think. Hell, I wasn't expecting to do what I did, but I did it anyway. Beyond that, I haven't really started on anything. I do have a general idea of who I want to do in the next few months, but me and plans like to go awry. I can get randomly inspired to do someone, so we'll see what ends up happening. But generally speaking, what I have in mind for the next couple months is Anabella, Fuuka, Ryza, and maybe something else. Random assortment, but that's who are planned at least. And of course, there's my 7th Anniversary of releasing stuff coming up at the end of February, which will be something special. If you know, you know. Though I can't promise everything will be featured in the final release. Time constraints, and all that. Not to mention I do have plans to finally get my tooth fixed, among other real life things, so that can always throw a wrench in the works. And never know what else life will throw at you, though hopefully nothing like this past year.

Regardless, there's a lot of other characters I'd like to get to. Some of whom I wanted to get to for 2024, but never did for one reason or another. Won't list them all out, but you can make some guesses, lol. There's DOA, FF, Nier, and other stuff I'd like to get to. Just only so much time in a day to work on stuff. Can't get to everyone, sadly. But I'll be trying to get to some stuff I've wanted to for a while, though I'm sure some will fall through the cracks as per usual. I also want to do more trolling in 2025. I was rather lax on the trolling this year. I Hope I'll be able to troll some more, at least.

It will come one day, when you least expect it... ( ͡ ͡° ͜つ ͡͡° )

Anyway, plans for 2025 aside, let's properly retrospect on 2024 and my content. Despite less releases than some previous years, I think I output more this year than some. Barring last year where the Anniversary still firmly keeps the record. But in terms of general output and quality, 2024 was pretty good for me. I at least have better feelings about it than last year. 2023 was a little rough in terms of content, personally. While I don't really have a top 10 for 2023, 2024 is one where it's a little bit rough to make one since there's enough that I like that it makes it hard to pick. But, I've more or less narrowed it down, so let's do a TOP TEN FAVORITE ANIMATIONS OF 2024!!1

#10: The Ghost Video

There's some good, fun stuff here I feel. It's not my best set this year, and I don't even consider it my best ghost video, but I enjoyed what I did. Some fun stuff there.

#9: Momiji Set

Overall, I'm not a super huge fan of this set, but I do quite like how the homage came out. Not really something I do often, but it was pretty good, over all.

#8: DOA Luna Shower

Pretty simple set, but I don't do shower stuff too often, and for whatever reason I really like DOA Luna. She cute. Pyon.

#7: Commander - The Movie

Kinda low, but I didn't end up liking this set as much as I had in my head. One of those cases where the set was more interesting in my mind than what I ended up producing. It's still pretty good, but just not my favorite set. I do love the hacking parts, at least.

#6: Jessie's Mom Christmas

I am separating the Christmas sets, and Jessie's Mom gets sixth place. She was the last one I worked on, and I kinda phoned it in in some spots, which brough it down some. Half of it is really good, half of it is just okay, so she's got the 6th spot.

#5: Aigis Set

I love me some robos, and Aigis is one of the best. I know she's got no penetrative parts, but that's what makes it nice. I honestly haven't done everything I wanted to do with her, so she will return, and next time she will hopefully be even better with some brand new equipment. ( ͡ ͡° ͜つ ͡͡° )

What, you thought I meant a robo-pussy? Hell no. She's gonna jerk you off with her ROCKET PUNCH. ( ͡ ͡° ͜つ ͡͡° )( ͡ ͡° ͜つ ͡͡° )( ͡ ͡° ͜つ ͡͡° )

#4: Yukari Set

I honestly probably like Yukari the least of the main girls in P3, but I really like how her set(s) came out. They're all pretty good, but the winter casual outfit set is probably my favorite. The animations, and that outfit, are just quite nice.

#3: Nyotengu Christmas

Pretty simple stuff, but Nyotengu is just best birb, and I do like how the intro came out. Finally got managed to use her wings in a proper set too, which is something I've always been too lazy to do. Came out pretty well, overall, and it's got a nice atmosphere.

#2: Yuffie Christmas

Part of me wanted to put this at #1, but part of my feelings on these are probably recency bias, so it got put on second place. It's a pretty good set, with good poses, lighting, composition and all that. And it makes up for the first Yuffie set I did back in 2021, which was also around Christmas despite not being Christmas themed and was very rushed since I didn't have a lot of time to work on it. So yeah, I'm quite pleased with the Yuffie set this Christmas.

#1: Y'shtola Set

And the best set overall, I feel, is the Y'shtola set. Not sure what it is about it, but I really like it, and look back on it very positively. It was the first major set I worked on after what happened, and it really helped to get me back into the swing of things overall. Just a nice set for a character I don't really know that well. But you can't go wrong with a dark-skinned cat girl, so yeah. The Y'shtola is my personal pick for best set of 2025. I'm sure it's somewhat contentious for most people what is the best of the year, but yeah - something about it just hits all the right notes for me.

As an aside, that's three characters with a name starting with Y that got top 5. Completely pointless fact, but I find such things amusing. What else, what else... oh, I didn't include the poll animations in the list just because they're not my normal sets, so it felt kinda strange. I will give a shout out to the Shuten animations I did for Halloween. I really like how those came out. The XVI stuff is also pretty decent, though dodgy in some places. I should really get around to a proper set with that Shuten model. Maybe in 2025!

And, as a parting gift, I'll give you a small teaser for what is to come tomorrow with the next poll. First, the characters featured in the poll.

Kas, Nanami, and Lobelia. Should be interesting, even though the winner is probably gonna be Nanami. A repeat of 2023's New Year's poll. ( = ⩊ = )

And secondly, the animation.

An artsy shot of the environment. What could it MEAN? I'm not sure, but you'll find out... tomorrow! And with that, that's about all I've got today. Not much of a year-end review, but I've been feeling lazy so don't have a ton to talk about on the mind. But hopefully you got something out of this post, whatever it may be. x)

Until tomorrow and the New Year!