Betrayed hopes

JW, I need a neural network to come up with titles for the comic pages. Seriously!

I sure hope that page will give you a lot to interpret and wonder about hah~ I, for one, loved the scenery change. Forest’s lights are beautiful and cool to paint but everything gets boring after a dozen of panels. This was a refreshing change. The vision ends on the next page so it’s a rather short one. And you can probably guess what will happen next and what’s the solution to their “Ada can’t leave the camp but we need more spells” problem. Two next pages are on the Patreon, if you like.

From other news… Well, I’m still working on the secret thing and posting updates only on the Patreon. I feel bad about that, haha, but it’ll soon be done, I hope you have a little more patience left in you. I sure hope it’s going to be a fun surprise! And if you don’t like surprises you can always join Replay’s merry community on Patreon (ノ・∀・)ノ

And I’ve started watching the second season of Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata and I need to say it’s better than I expected! Lots of nonchalant fanservice but it fits the theme so it doesn’t bug me at all and a proper drama that pulls creators’ heartstrings. And it’s funny! Go watch it if you have the time!

There are 3 links to Patreon in this post. I think I’m starting to do better with that marketing thing °◡°

57 comments on “Betrayed hopes”

  1. NiWo21k Reply

    Again one of your best scenes to date 🙂

    Beginning from the scenery change, to the panel where we see Laura only from behind stitting there up to the dialogue – its just a beautiful page.
    Laura just seems so grown up in this page – its just so different then we see her normaly and that is what, at least in my eyes, makes this page even better.

    But still two things that make me wonder abou this page:
    1. Laura and a spear?
    2. Laura and Magic?

    Hey and no need to apologize for doing so much patreon advertisment – you are doing a great job there, and i can only recommend everyone to take a look, it great to see what already uploaded there and what is coming (especially the Secret work) 🙂 i am sad that i am not part of it a the moment 🙁

    • Refugnic Reply

      It’s a vision of the future. (We haven’t had any of those in a while)
      As such, there are a few things that have happened since the ‘now’ situation, where she cheerfully distributed soup to the survivors.

      And things are about to happen…and change.
      And from the looks of it, it’ll be quite a while until these changes will be ‘for the better’.

      • NiWo21k Reply

        I know thats this is a vision (and i have seen the next page).
        But i never thought about Laura as someone who would fight so directly and would try out magic. Of course things change, in such a world there are always changes and they are more heavy then in a normal situation. What i wanted to say is that its great to see this side of her and in combination that Ada is the one who is listening, it just feels fantastic.

        • Klorix Camp dweller Reply

          I agree that seeing her like this is giving her character a lot more depth.

          But why should she not try it, at worst it would be fun to “play” witch and at best we get another magic user.

        • Jindra34 Reply

          The desire to survive makes people do all kinds of things you wouldn’t expect,

  2. Crestlinger Reply

    Be glad nothing Did show up. That’s how freaking Balors come through.

    • Klorix Camp dweller Reply

      Yeah, what did she try to summon and how did she know nothing would show up?

      • JW Reply

        Maybe she tried to summon an invisible pink pony.

        Though, I suppose, you couldn’t quite be sure you didn’t succeed.

        • Klorix Camp dweller Reply

          That’s why she cast the seeing the unseen spell, duh.
          😉

          • JW

            Of course! Now it all makes sense. Thanks for clearing that up, I really should have thought of that.

  3. JW Reply

    You have a neural network to come up with titles, it’s called your brain 😛

    I know google has one for captioning images, but that’s not quite the same thing. At best it’d come up with something like “two girls talking” for this page.
    And it’d be hard to find enough data to retrain it. (Probably hard enough to retrain it to caption drawings at all, let alone think of titles)

    • Klorix Camp dweller Reply

      How about asking your patrons for suggestions, as they can read one or two pages ahead?

      Though even if I were a patron, I’m not sure I’d want to read the pages earlier. I’d be too prone to spoiling content…

      • NotImportant Reply

        I think I’ll start doing that haha, maybe they’ll come up with better titles 😀

        • Speedy Reply

          I was thinking the same thing. You’ve got a bunch of neural networks who would love it if their Patreon pledges bought them the opportunity to help name the pages. No need to explain to them that you’d be using them as slave processes. >:) xD

  4. SKy Reply

    Can I just say how happy I am that you chose an appropriate weapon for Laura? Due to her small frame she is at a reach disadvantage anyway – and that is not even considering some demons’ extra long limbs. So to compensate she needs a weapon with as much reach as possible, like a spear.
    Many authors/designers choose short weapons for short characters which seems to make sense at first glance, but crumbles once you actually imagine a fight scene…

    • NotImportant Reply

      Spear is also easy enough to use effectively without a short training and light! Perfect for a short girl to keep the demons away~ I’m glad that it wasn’t a bad choice haha!

      • SKy Reply

        Yep, simply keep the pointy end between you and the enemy and stay out of their reach. Spears were used – even mass produced – throughout history for a reason after all.
        🙂

      • Klorix Camp dweller Reply

        I was guessing that using a spear effectively might not be that easy… For what it’s worth, I remember an episode of Highlander were the protagonist used a spear and that did not look easy to me.

        One could argue that the demons are not wielding weapons other than their body parts and probably don’t know martial arts, so that pointing the spear in their direction and stabbing them might be a valid strategy, if there are not too many of them.

        Is Laura actually that short? Isn’t she at least as “tall” as Ada, but I thought Laura might still be growing…

        • NotImportant Reply

          Right now she is about as tall as Ada (or slightly taller) but yeah, she still has some growing to do haha~

          And spear can be used in many different ways and some might be elaborate but being generally a pointy stick it’s pretty easy in the basic form of usage. Or so I think.

    • JW Reply

      I think it would depend on the sort of fight you imagine.
      I mean, if reach was the only consideration, everyone should have spears. And while the Greeks conquered half the world with spear-carrying phalanx, a few centuries later the Romans steamrolled everyone with mostly short-swords. (To the best of my knowledge, but I’m not a combat historian so I won’t give any guarantees on those claims :P)

      • SKy Reply

        Of course reach is by far not the only factor, but one of the most important. If you have to pass through an arm long “danger zone” where the enemy can already hit you before you can make contact with your weapon that obviously tips the scales in their favor. Shields or armor is what makes shorter weapons more viable because you can be relatively save while getting in close enough. Plus most weapons with high reach are either not strong enough or too unwieldy to easily use against armor effectively.
        Both shields and armor aren’t something I’d expect to see in this setting though. And they wouldn’t do much against an opponent as strong as the demons anyway. Not getting hit is a better plan there.

        I’m mostly talking about 1on1 combat since that seems to be the most likely situation they would encounter – maybe smaller groups that would split in some 1on1 or 2on1 situations. Army battles are something entirely different. Especially their superior tactics and defense helped the Romans there. But they too used spears – especially in earlier times.

  5. Zenanii Reply

    I’m midly confused by this page. So this is a flash forward to the future/present?

    I have to second previous comments that the scenere looks absolutely beautiful. I’m slightly worried about those summoning circles though, just because you can’t see anything happen doesn’t always mean nothing happend (having flashbacks to “The Prestige” movie).

    • NotImportant Reply

      It’s supposed to be confusing aaaand no one knows yet. Two more pages and Ada will ask the same question ;D

    • NotImportant Reply

      Yeah, those are supposed to be confusing, since they are confusing for the characters as well 😉

  7. Rateus Camp dweller Reply

    ((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((Laura))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

  8. Acnari Reply

    Just wanted to say thanks for your awesome consistency! The story and artwork are incredible-and every Monday, no matter what-there is an update! I love that; a lot of the webcomics I read are really inconsistent in their updating, so it’s nice to have a fantastic high quality webcomic that I can rely on every Monday morning! Cheers.

    • NotImportant Reply

      Ahh my pleasure! Doing my best here, I hope I won’t ruin the record when I get a job haha. Makes me very happy to hear that it makes a difference (°◡°♡)

  9. Dragon Master Reply

    I can tell this is a vision or something like that from the broken glass effect that the panels are laid out in. The clothing also helps. But I have to say at first I didn’t recognize Laura. She seems so much older and more mature, having a greater awareness of the world and the suffering and heartbreak it brings. She is obviously no longer the perky cheerful Miss Ponytails, she is something more. It’s really well done.

    TL;DR
    Amazing work, I love the way Laura is portrayed.

    • NotImportant Reply

      Thank you! Very happy to hear such words, I was afraid I only managed to confuse 90% of the readers haha, this is reassuring. I might manage to suppress the urge to explain everything for a little longer….

  12. Klorix Camp dweller Reply

    So, after my initial befuddlement, here are a few thoughts about this page.

    This page is a really beautiful. I like your broken mirror/glass shard transitions a lot!
    Though the scenery is wonderful it’s also somewhat depressing. Sunset often is… and wasteland mostly too. But you bring it across in a fantastic way. I almost feel like I’m sitting next to Laura.

    In this page you mark a big point about Ada’s redder hair makes for a good contrast with her eyes, especially in the last panel. Her eyes are mesmerizing.

    I like the second and last panels most. Though Laura looks very pretty in the fourth one, too.
    She looks older, not necessarily in a physical but rather in an emotional way. Although she’s always been quite mature since we “met” her. I don’t know how you did it, but you did well!

    There’s just one tiny thing: to me, it looks like Laura’s ear in the last panel is a little bit too far to the back. But I’m not sure if it’s actually intended as neither am I an anatomist nor have I a pet nor can I draw a decent human face. Plus animal’s ears are quite mobile. Laura might as well be holding them at a strange angle.

    Now to the story.
    If this is a vision, which my unperceptiveness did not catch up on as fast as I wrote my first comment, this one seems to be of the future. Interesting. Was their first vision where they caught Adam also of the future? We’ll see.

    So Laura is going to have magical powers. Apparently, she needed to train a bit to make some spells work. But in contrast to a few pages back, Laura will turn out to be a useful disciple. As to her spell of “seeing the unseen”, maybe there just wasn’t anything unseen to be seen? Maybe she didn’t use the spell as it is intended and has no reason to be depressed? She used to be smiling a lot even up to that point. I hope this is just a short drop and that Laura’s going to get over it soon.

    And she’s going to wield a spear. That’s not an easy weapon to use, I guess. Not using Kasper any more? I hope he’s still there though.

    Are they going to plunder a museum or what? That would be a good place for Ada to get some kind of longsword too, maybe a sacred one from the crusades? Or an even older one from the tribal cultures, with magic runes on it.

    Now let’s read other people’s thoughts.

    • NotImportant Reply

      Ah, glad to hear all of this! It’s pretty scary to hear so many confused voices this week, I keep telling myself that it’s fine but eh, eh! I still want to explain everything, somehow.

      I’m not going to confirm your guesses since I don’t want to spoil too much 😉

      • Klorix Camp dweller Reply

        Well it helped that you said the vision will go on until next page 😉

        I’m still to get used to random visions 😉

        • NotImportant Reply

          Haha I can imagine ;D There are pretty rare so it’s easy to forget that they happen from time to time.

      • Rateus Camp dweller Reply

        Sorry. Didn’t meant to be scary! I’d just assumed the it would become clear in subsequent weeks, although I did go back to the start of the chapter and read back through in case I’d be dozy and missed something. Which I enjoyed, so it was a win-win!

    • JW Reply

      And she’s going to wield a spear. That’s not an easy weapon to use, I guess. Not using Kasper any more? I hope he’s still there though.

      Maybe Kasper turns into a spear in the future 😛
      I didn’t see an anime like that once, with people turning into weapons. At least that’s what the description said, since I didn’t watch it.

  13. Dragon Master Reply

    Hey NI, I just thought of something important(?), will all your characters have good vision? If not how will they wear glasses? I think we saw someone w/ glasses in Rob’s flashback to when he quit his job but I’m not sure. I’m also to lazy to go back and check. ;P

    • NotImportant Reply

      Stefen wears glasses but he lost them during the last fight so he’s half blind now hehe. His assistant wore glasses too but she’d dead now so I suppose she doesn’t care. Ada and Filip should be wearing glasses for reading but they are lazy butts. Sofia wore glasses in the past but had her sight laser corrected.

      To be honest glasses are extra annoying to draw and animal ears are a problem lol. I figured the simplest option would be pince-nez (glasses that stay on by pinching the bridge of your nose). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pince-nez

      • JW Reply

        she’d dead now so I suppose she doesn’t care

        Aww, no afterlife?
        I bet she’d look cute as an angel looking out for our merry band of demonslayers.

      • Dragon Master Reply

        Okay cool. I was reading a manga the other day with a cat girl in it and she wore glasses. So one of the characters asked “how do you wear glasses if you have no human ears?” The answer was that the glasses clipped on to the sides of her hair. I thought that was an interesting way to do it, and then wondered how you did it. xD

        • NotImportant Reply

          I see 😀 Having a small chain and clip would be neat, although probably annoying to draw. But I might consider it for Stefen’s next glasses (cause he’s going to need some haha) so thanks for sharing that idea!

      • antrik Reply

        Oh, so the glasses are actually supposed to look like that? I always assumed you just took artistic freedom in how you depicted them…

        • NotImportant Reply

          @antrik That’s another fantastic excuse for not drawing part of the frames!

  14. Blob_Cake Reply

    *impatiently waits for next monday so i dont have to be confused anymore*

    • Klorix Camp dweller Reply

      Considering the number of open questions, I don’t think next Monday will help much 😉

      Which is good, because I want to enjoy this comic a lot longer!

  15. Doom Reply

    I’m hoping the next page has a better view of what Ada’s wearing in this future vision. I like seeing Ada in different outfits!

    • NotImportant Reply

      And I like changing them! It always bugged me in anime that some characters wore the same outfit throughout the whole story. How realistic is that…?

      • JW Reply

        Are they guys or girls 😛

        There’s circumstances where it makes sense not to change clothes throughout an adventure. (Predominantly not having another set of clothes.)
        And of course in high-school anime they’re typically in uniform.
        And then you have some anime acknowledge the absurdity by showing a character picking his clothes for the day from a closet full of identical clothes.

        On the other hand, it facilitates character recognition, and the clothing is hardly ever the point of the story. (No more then showing them go to the toilet. How realistic is it that they never do that? Especially in cases where you really ought to wonder how they would. But maybe I don’t really want to know.)

        • NotImportant Reply

          I only once wondered about the toilet problem and the author didn’t address it. Two characters were sitting in a small cave/enclave, they couldn’t get out, there was barely space for the two of them and they were like this for an extended period of time. Makes you wonder, right?… I was pretty disappointed that the characters didn’t see it as a problem but eh, book was excellent anyhow.

          Clothing is not usually something I pay much attention to but in situation were two characters get wet/dirty and after a moment they are yet again in the same clothes and it just jumps at me as an error (especially if those are not their school uniforms). In other cases it’s just lazy and I don’t care, I’m used to it. I wish I could remember the title but there’s no way… It wasn’t all that important heh.

          I try harder in Replay because I know (and was told) that I’m lazy when it comes to clothes design. And that’s true! I don’t care much in real life and I tend to care even less in the comic ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ And when I write? They could be all running naked and you wouldn’t know. There’s just no mention of the clothing lol.

          • JW

            but in situation were two characters get wet/dirty and after a moment they are yet again in the same clothes and it just jumps at me as an error

            Yeah, you used to see that a lot in movies/tv-series, wet one minute dry the next. I think they’ve gotten a bit better at continuity (I think they even hire people to do continuity checks these days).

            And when I write? They could be all running naked and you wouldn’t know.

            Heh. I’ll keep that in mind next time I read a book that neglects to elaborate on that aspect.
            It’d be funny when a book gets turned into a movie, if at some point in the later stages of planning when costumes come up the author says “Costumes? I never mentioned any clothing in the book, they’re all running around naked”. I hope they pick some good looking actors and actresses 😛

    • antrik Reply

      I’d like to say that they both got quite spiffy outfits here 🙂 Not totally run-of-the-mill; but also none of the ridiculous impractical stuff we see all too often in other fantasy stories…

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