Lowest point

Kind of an epilogue page to that last scene. And see? Robert can cry as well. I’m not going to comment on this more than I already did, thank you for the words of encouragement, this scene was hard for me and I’m glad it worked out and managed to make you feel so many different things!

Life’s good but still busy. But I did manage to go for a long hike today so I’m tired and happy! And it’s hanami, lots of sakura trees blooming, Tokyo is finally becoming warm and spring-like. It’s fantastic, especially since I work near Meguro station where the famous cherry-blossoms river is \(סּںסּَ` )/ Just fantastic.

What else. I’m working hard on Replay (still didn’t manage to recover the buffer after the trip to Singapore…) and on re-drawing the Prologue. I know, I know, there’s no point and everything, but I want to translate it and publish it in Japanese and I’ll be using my friends from work for that and I want it to be absolutely perfect. So I’ll be fixing some things! Still working on the new project with Four Leaf Studios too, so it’s been busy. And also trying to finish the editing of my own novel haha, there’s just too much…

I might add a bit of info about the hike when I’ll copy the photos from my camera, it’s been a fun 20km long route woohoo! My feet hurt! I’m tired! Goodnight!

40 comments on “Lowest point”

    • Refugnic Reply

      Well, to be fair here, he’s not the only one.

      In fact, from as far as we know, Filip (and by extension Nina) are among the few that are actually getting some.

      But then again, we don’t know very much about the private lives of the other characters (yet).
      For all we know, Kasper could well have a charming girlfriend.
      And Sofia wouldn’t have much trouble finding someone as well, if she stops being hung up over Rob…but then again, that wouldn’t be much fun now, would it? 🙂

      • antrik Reply

        If Kasper has a girlfriend, I’m pretty sure we would have seen her by now…

        (Well, unless she’s not in the camp — in which case the proper expression is that he *had* a girlfriend: her chances of surviving in some other place would seem very close to zero…)

      • antrik Reply

        Also, being the smart-ass that I am, I’ll point out that finding “someone” is rarely a problem: finding someone you actually find attractive (and who returns the sentiment), is where things tend to get more tricky 😉

  4. Dragon Master Reply

    Poor Robert, at least you can console yourself with the fact that hopefully your relationship status just hit rock bottom and can’t possibly get any worse. Wait, that’s not actually a good thing is it?

  5. ForlornFoe Reply

    These extremely complicated relationships are kind of rare in comics/light novels (maybe because they are so tough to convey), but you did lay out the scene beautifully week by week. Great work, I am going to be thinking about this for a while.

  6. Crestlinger Reply

    There’s a thought, they haven’t yet come across a demon big enough to eat the whole barrier, landscape and all. Would This qualify?
    Robert is an accurate characterization of someone who either has just woke up from a horrid nightmare of failing a test, or realizing that they Did in reality.

    • antrik Reply

      Well, the barriers give no hint of having an upper/lower bound (otherwise, an attack from above should be easy…) — and if they indeed extend indefinitely, it’s geometrically impossible to swallow them whole, no matter how large the monster is…

      I guess a huge monster could in theory just dig up the ground around the barrier, so the occupants would be stuck… But then again, the monsters could achieve pretty much the same simply by hanging around non-stop.

      (Also, so far it looks like they are only interested in mindless carnage, rather than sophisticated extermination methods…)

      • antrik Reply

        I forgot to add that the monsters do not actually seem to be into swallowing — they prefer just ripping people apart and leaving it at that, from what we’ve seen…

  7. bitflipper Camp dweller Reply

    Remember, NI: perfection is a journey, not a destination. Besides, even though your current art is a beautiful dialog of light and shadow, there is also something very pure in the Prologue as it was originally drawn; in a way, the reader comes to know you, a little bit, in following your improvements in rendering these scenes.

  8. Morgorath Reply

    Noooooooo….
    Why do you do this to us NI?
    Still, I am loving this development. Keeps us readers on our toes..

    • Ktrimbach Reply

      So is Rob now going to start hitting on Sofia and we start having *another* love triangle with them and Kasper?

      • antrik Reply

        I’m not sure “hitting on her” is the right term, when all he’d have to do, is saying “fine, let’s get it on” 😉

        However, going by the chapter cover, it seems quite possible that he *still* won’t take on poor Sofia — instead getting friendly with the mysterious Julia waiting for him at the cabin? 🙂

        BTW, it just struck me that while there has been some discussion in the past whether Ada qualifies as a Tsundere, it might actually be Sofia who fits the trope? She’s deredere most of the time, but gets all tsuntsun when dealing with Kasper… Now if only the theory about Belligerent Sexual Tension between those two turns out to be true, I think she’d be checking all the boxes?

  10. Bret Reply

    Holy Christ that thing is enormous. Makes a lot more sense why the world ended now

  12. Socratease Reply

    I stopped lurking specifically because after this scene I need to call Robert an asshole. So: Robert is an asshole!!! God!!!! >:C

    • Lone Wanderer Reply

      Mind detailing why, exactly? I honestly can’t see a way to fault either of them, and if I be critical about it, based on the information given, Ada maybe the arsehole. Depending on what was said back then, of course.

      There’s too many things we don’t know to say who is in the wrong or not, and making assumptions about someone, when you don’t know everything, never ends well.

      I’d say just wait and see. Seriously, we know almost literally nothing about them, and I’d like to see someone say otherwise.

      Aside from a few clippets of their past, and a few personality quirks, nothing. That’s hardly anything to base judgement on a character with, real life or otherwise.

      Personally, I’d say to withdraw any sort of judgement until the comic reaches at least 1,000 pages. At least then we can get a good idea as to who they are, because of more flashbacks and reveals.

      I don’t know, that’s just me. I’m a more factual person on the subject, not emotional. And I tend to dislike bias, regardless of where I see it. In the end, one character would be more in the wrong than the other, however slight, but we don’t have enough evidence against either side to make a claim.

      • JW Reply

        I see reason enough to find fault with both of them.
        But ever since the part where Robert finally realized that Ada not wanting to lose him didn’t mean she wanted to date him, I found him a bit assholish as well for pressing the issue. “Oh, I didn’t realize that” is usually a good point to stop and sleep on it. But no, he wanted to prove that only his concept of “love” is real and Ada is wrong.
        “Feels” isn’t enough of an excuse. And if it were, well, considering him an ass is a feeling too 😛

      • GhostlyYorick Reply

        JW@ If pressing an issue about love is “assholish” then you can’t live – and you shouldn’t live without being an asshole. That is the simple truth of the matter. And of course by labelling normal behaviour “assholish” you have pretty much destroyed your moral authority. It is crazy that we live in a world were you pretty much have to be able to ignore a significant portion of peoples moral judgement about everyday stuff just to be able to live. It’s like growing up nowadays must encompass ignoring so much BS moralizing from every corner – religious and otherwise

        • JW Reply

          If pressing an issue about love is “assholish” [..]

          In a specific case/context. Please don’t try to make it seem like a general statement.
          I’m not even going to respond to the rest.

      • Socratease Reply

        Because Ada has made it clear, repeatedly, that she doesn’t want to be romantically involved with Robert the way he wants at this time, and instead of respecting his friend’s boundaries Robert throws a goddamn tantrum, he pressures, he blames, he rages.

        This makes Robert an asshole. No amount of crying and pretending this night didn’t happen is going to change what he just did, how he just treated Ada. It’s not Ada’s job to cave to Robert’s demands and bone down with him, it’s Robert’s job to stop burning his bridge and get the hell over it already.

        I’m not saying take him behind the shed and shoot him, I just really hope Robert’s character development includes him realizing what a jackass he’s been in this situation, and moving on with his life. This boy is in need of some serious self-actualization.

        • antrik Reply

          Except Robert clearly said he is willing to accept her boundaries, and his only demand is that she stops giving him false hope… (Well, and that she stops trying to hook him up with others — which is about respecting *his* feelings.)

          I don’t like his tone in this (nor hers, for that matter); and I don’t think his ultimatum is particularly useful or smart — but that only makes him inept, not an arsehole…

  14. DKpsyhog Reply

    That demon though… please tell me that thing in the distance is just a plateau, and not that demon. Otherwise, they’re gonna have a hard time…

  15. antrik Reply

    Let’s hope she is really fast asleep… Wouldn’t want her to hear *that*.

  16. antrik Reply

    @NotImportant are you talking about actual redrawing (as opposed to just fixing up some specific bits)?…

    • NotImportant Reply

      Not sure about the backgrounds but characters – yeah, the style changes too much.

      • antrik Reply

        You think you can pull it off without creating a sudden style change between the end of the redrawn part and the beginning of the pristine one? That would be a rare feat… 🙂

        In my experience, the usually resulting abrupt change tends to be much more jarring than the original, gradual transition. A gradual change — even a very large one — generally doesn’t mar reading pleasure at all; it only feels strange when jumping back to the beginning. A sudden change on the other hand can be pretty traumatic. If anything, I’d say it tends to create more of an unpolished feel…

        (Especially when considering that there is very little need for such changes here IMHO, since the early style mostly wasn’t unpleasant to begin with — just different…)

      • NotImportant Reply

        Haha yeah, I realize that but I still want to try. Even if I end up scrapping the renewed pages, I don’t mind.

  17. Onceller Reply

    I appreciate the massive monster; it fits the mood and is another striking bit of background world building 🙂

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