If I were a JSA engineer I would change the esthetic of the Karakuri after dropping from the state empire, too. Getting rid of everything that reminds of the old suppressive regime makes totally sense. And nothing says the new government is your friend, like slapping a friendly face on the murderous machine, that was originally designed to "control" the people. Even if it still fulfills the same purpose.
A lot people are throwing out the word Geisha, but I don't think that's actually part of the written fluff anywhere is it? The name karakuri comes from a type of mechanical puppet that first gained popularity during the early Edo period. I've always seen them as karakuri puppets first and anything else second, so this style honestly seems better to me. This design seems to lean much more into that aspect of it. Personally, I don't think the old models fit the statblock at all and I'm excited to put these on the table. It's also nice to lean away from the femme fatale stereotype that geisha often have in western pop culture, but we're trading it for wacky Japan bootleg kawaii culture, so that's a tossup, I guess. That's just one Japanese speaker's opinion though!
Using that logic they would change the look of all their units, samurai, hakama, ninja etc. Which makes that argument bad. One of the major appeals for JSA is literally the traditional Japanese theme on at least half its troops. The original design concept was very GitS inspired by their geishabots minus the kimono.
It would be nice to see cultural references in the rest of the sculpts. Idols are part of japan culture, and here we have. They can made another with tradicional hairstyle (yes, like the one normally associated with geishas) A kabuki reference will be curious, as all the performes usually were men. Kemonomimi will also be nice... Maybe a female yokai from the folklore... Any more reference we can put in the murderbots? PS: I also love the old ones. They have that mechanical, puppet look that fit perfectly the name
this is what we wanted this would have been acceptable this is what we got because it would 100% be what we would all vote for if we had a choise right psychoticstorm
Uhhh... I think you're going to have to speak for yourself about wanting miniatures looking like lolita or whatever that falls under
I'm guessing you never saw Unbreakable Machine-Doll or visited any anime con ever Yaya is epic adorable and super strong not to mention the most adult macine-doll i could find XD
References to other franchises are getting increasingly poor in their delivery, the franchise now has 2 hellboys, a guardians of the galaxy box, a suicide squad box and more. I think it's time to take a step back from the contemporary pop culture references. Hell there should have been a moratorium on them after Uprising. They took an derivative but unique character who was riding a bike that could be the bike from Akira wearing the outfit that could be Asuka from Tekken with hair that could be Asuka from evangelion with a Bōsōzoku backstory, which is a very Japenses trope, and brainlessly replaced it with a verbatim copy of a contemporary anime character inspired by European folklore from a show called "Durrrrrrrrrr", which I can only imagine was the sound the entire design team was making from conception to production. Shit is degenerating, I can't be the only one who sees it.
Explanation always needed when posting anime pics... I'll never guess that loli is a robot... (Chi is the only one i know)
Not quite. The rest of the JSA troops weren't built specifically for suppression of their own people (even if they served in this role). They all may have this distinct Japanese flavor. But the human Bushi may be seen as paragons because of the part they played in freeing their country, while the old Karakuri may be tainted by the taste of the state empire.
Sure, but the Infinity take (again, as far as I can tell) never actually references geisha in any other way than indirectly by referencing the GitS version rather opaquely. If we're going to be lifting geisha from Japanese culture or even the GitS take, I would rather it be at least somewhat influenced by those sources rather than just simply taking the name and making something completely different. This take leans more into the Karakuri part of Karakuri. Which box is this? I know the Suicide Squad was the Morlock box, but I don't remember a Guardians reference. I don't like the idea of calling it "degenerating," primarily in this context because: 1) It implies it ever was substantially better, and let's face it, the game has always been packed with this kind of shit. You might not like that the aesthetic is moving out of the late-80s/early-90s influences it started with like GitS, Patlabor, Appleseed, etc. but to imply that this is something new is wrong. The fat Guijia, catgirl Daktari, and Moiras (nuns with guns was a huge trend in anime just a couple years before N1 released -- Black Lagoon was released just six months before N1, and Chrono Crusade just a couple years earlier) have been with us for the whole history of the game, and the weebiest JSA characters as well as Cassandra Kusanagi are all products of Human Sphere. (Even without the sculpt or fluff, Kusanagi is way too uncommon of a Japanese last name for that to be coincidental -- it's ranked 2063rd in order of frequency, with an estimated 7000 Kusanagis in the country of about 125 million.) 2) It implies that there's some kind of progression from "bad" to "good" in something that is ultimately subjective. I don't think CB would be adding more pop culture stuff if people didn't like it/it didn't sell. I think there's a reason that the game has leaned more heavily into characters in the past couple of years especially, and I'm skeptical enough to believe that it has a lot to do with sales. You might dislike it (and I do too!), but I don't think the Karakuri sculpts fit in this trend (and I want to be clear, I didn't read your comment as implying they did, though you are welcome to correct me if I am wrong about that).
I'd kinda prefer JSA to stay the Weebtrash REFERENCE Faction. Don't mind the new Karakuri, all I see is an empty canvas to get creative. Thinking about stuff like this as my own reference to a reference. Spoiler: Reference: Or maaaaybe some UWU emojis or that kind of tongue in cheek good natured trash. Spoiler: Reference: If you feel like you have too many brain cells and some time to lose, read up on the "Denko guy saga" As a non JSA example, I prefer something like the old Asura sleek murder android over the new System Shock Shodan. But at least it's still something I can appreciate either way, no hard feelings. Pokemon Jesse/James Devas are rad though. Straight up loli Spoiler: OR WORSE might be a trap? is it a trap? I don't know, don't wanna know and I curse anyone who wants to tell me fanboy catering tho? PLZNO. Get that away from me.
